Ed Helms

And I think that that part's actually relatable.

Like if you're expecting to have a freezing cold battle in tundra swamps and then all of a sudden you just have a bunch of free time and some empty jeeps like you're going to blow off some steam.

Right.

You're kids.

You're right.

These are kids.

Exactly.

So what became of Freddie's fighters, the first special service force after they shook off all this fog?

Well, after their unglamorous start, they were sent to Europe and became one of the most effective allied units.

They were sent to attack the Italian fascists in southern Europe.

And during the D-Day landings in Normandy, Freddie's fighters were knocking the Nazis out of Rome.

As for Robert Frederick himself, he was eventually promoted to brigadier general.

He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross twice and got a full eight Purple Hearts for being wounded in combat, which is wild.

Well done, Freddie.

Yeah.

Supposedly, Churchill called him the greatest fighting general of all time, which is that's that's serious.

And he said that if the allies had a dozen more generals like Robert Frederick, Hitler would have been beaten in 1942.

That's our story, Kelly Corrigan.

God bless Fred.

I just love having walked through this with you and feeling it is so easy to kind of take a kind of highfalutin, scornful approach to some of these terrible mistakes.