My grandfather tells a story that he heard from one of his RAF OTU (Operational Training Unit) trainers. After hearing this story he thought that it was obviously not true, and didn’t believe him. In March 1945 however, he was in a waiting room and looked in a back issue of the Illustrated London News and there was the story with photographs! The story goes a little like this (I’m not a story teller, so please excuse its brevity) ;
Its getting close to Christmas, and this gentleman gets on the radio and asks if anyone has any food for a Christmas dinner. He gets a reply from a fellow in Malta saying that he has some turkeys, so he flies over there only to discover that the Turkeys are still alive and need to be rounded up. After a while he has chased down all of the birds, killed them and has them hanging in the bombays. On the flight back to Alexandria they run into some German fighter planes and eventually get shot down. Thankfully they reach the African shoreline, but unfortunately their navigator had been killed and they have no idea where they are. They start walking and come across a group of Italian soldiers, who immediately surrender, saying that they want to be their prisoner, as the Germans are crazy! After taking in this group of Italians, they resume their journey and they come across a group of Germans. They are quite worried, thinking that they will be killed for sure! As it turns out the Germans say they want to be taken prisoner as the Bedouins are crazy! The British say that they are trying to make their way to Tobruk, and the Germans are confused by this – we thought that we controlled Tobruk? They then quiz each other about how recent their information is, and come to an agreement. If they arrive in Tobruk and it is held by the Germans, the British will be their prisoners, and if it is in British hands, then the Germans will be their prisoners. Eventually they arrive in Tobruk to find it in British hands. The trainer said that when they got back to Alexandria or Cairo after this, they sold their story to the papers along with the photographs, and had the best furlough and spent every single penny they had!
Could this story be true, or is this just a tall tale?
Has anyone else heard of this story, and if so, would there be a way of tracking down the exact issue/article? (I have looked at all the March 1945 issues of the paper, and can’t see anything about this. This only leaves me 119 other issues to look through)
No, bedouins were not a threat to any armed force in Africa, German Nazis always shoot prisoners they can't support, Italian soldiers weren't "surrender monkeys" in Africa. The battle for North Africa was essentially over in 1943, Tobruk fell to the Brits in 1942.
It's always possible that some version of it is true. We're hearing it third hand, here--someone told a magazine, your grandfather read it, and then 70 years later, you're telling us about it. Stories can get mangled through retellings. And if you study urban legends at all (check out snopes.com), you'll find that many urban legends that have been proven to be untrue, were nevertheless written about in newspapers, for various reasons. So even if you find it in the Illustrated London News, it still might not be true. Though if there are pictures, that might back it up a bit. If you find the article, please post it here, it would be interesting.