Flying Facists Freight Fowl with Food
I read this little oddity in The Battle for Spain, by Anthony Beevor*.
The Nationalist army faced the problem of how to supply a besieged outpost. "Nationalist pilots devised an original method of dropping fragile supplies. They attached them to live turkeys which descended flapping their wings, thus serving as parachutes which could also be eaten by the defenders."
*an excellent book on the Spanish Civil War
posted by Clemens @ 11:45 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Brilliant!
--Joey
This will become one of those pieces of trivia I never forget. My family will be hearing this at every thanksgiving from now on.
All I can think of is the famous WKRP Turkey Drop episode and Les's narration: "It's a helicopter, and it's coming this way. It's flying something behind it, I can't quite make it out, it's a large banner and it says, uh - Happy... Thaaaaanksss... giving! ... From ... W ... K ... R... P!! No parachutes yet. Can't be skydivers... I can't tell just yet what they are, but - Oh my God, Johnny, they're turkeys!! Johnny, can you get this? Oh, they're plunging to the earth right in front of our eyes! One just went through the windshield of a parked car! Oh, the humanity! The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement! Not since the Hindenberg tragedy has there been anything like this!”
Thank God I'm not the only Les Nessman fan left! That is absolutely the first thing I thought of as well.
Ok. So now I know what gets your attention.
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