Today in History: Bombs, Battles and Caves

Some of you wrote to me asking me to do another one, and it just so happens that tonight I'm going to the movies to watch a movie called Yesterday about this musician who lives in a world where nobody remembers the Beatles and the opportunities that this situation presents for him. So I'll watch that and I'll do a movie review for the next episode. Okay, no more intros. Let's start the show. You are listening to the twenty-eighth episode of English with Dane. Hit it.com and read a few headlines.

The first headline is about an event that took place or happened in the year 1985, so 34 years ago. It says, A bomb sinks the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace's flagship vessel. So we need to do a quick vocabulary check. The verb to sink means to go below the surface, to become submerged. A vessel is a ship or a large boat. And flagship means the best or most important thing owned or produced by a particular organization.

Flagship is used in business contexts like this is the company's flagship product. It's the best phone on the market, or something like that. So here's the headline again. A bomb sinks the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace's flagship vessel. It continues and says, In Auckland Harbor in New Zealand, Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior sinks after French agents in diving gear plant a bomb on the hull of the vessel. The hull, spelled H-U-L-L, is the main body of the ship.

One person, Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira, was killed. The Rainbow Warrior, which was the flagship of International Conservation Group, Greenpeace, had been preparing for a protest voyage to a French nuclear test site in the South Pacific. Two days after the incident, French authorities denied responsibility in the bombing and continued to do so even after New Zealand police arrested two French Secret Service agents in Auckland.

Under pressure from New Zealand authorities, the French government formed an inquiry to investigate the incident and after several weeks concluded that the French agents were only spying on Greenpeace. Later in the year, however, a British newspaper uncovered Destapo, evidence of the French president's authorization of the bombing plan, and this led to several top-level resignations in the cabinet and an admission by French Prime Minister that the agents had sunk the vessel under orders.

So they denied it at first, but ended up confessing.

Then it says, and on July 10th, 120 German bombers and fighters struck a British shipping convoy in the Channel, while 70 more bombers attacked installations in South Wales. Although, a pesar de que Britain had far fewer fighters than the Germans, they had a few advantages, such as an effective radar system, which made surprise attacks by the Germans unlikely. Britain also produced superior quality aircraft.

Its Spitfires, that's the name of the plane, could turn faster than Germany's planes, making it easier to escape and maneuver. The British also had planes with bigger engines, while the Germans' single-engine fighters had limited flight radius.

Then there's an extra little part about the Battle of Britain that says, Did you know, the battle received its name from a speech Winston Churchill delivered to the British House of Commons on June 18, 1940, in which he stated in El Cual Dijo, The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Okay, we have one more headline. For this one, we go back to the year 2018, so last year. And the headline reads Last of Thai's soccer team rescued from cave.

On this day, in a search and rescue effort that captured the world's attention for more than two weeks, the last of the twelve Thai youth soccer players and their coach are safely rescued and transported to a local hospital. Let's make it feel a little bit like a cave for this one. Let's put on some reverb and some water sounds to set the stage. That's better.

On June 23rd, 2018, Ekkopol Chantawong, who was 25 years old, and his players, who ranged in age from 11 to 16, set out to explore the Tamlwang Cave Network in what was intended to be a fun hour-long after-practice adventure, when they were trapped underground as monsoon rains flooded the cave's entrance. On July 9th, four more boys were rescued, and finally on July 10th, the remaining four boys and the coach were rescued after spending 17 days in the cave.

The boys were sedated with the drug ketamine during the rescue and wore wetsuits and full face masks to provide oxygen. They were all released from the hospital one week later. The event resulted in one fatality. A volunteer diver and former Thai Navy SEAL, Saman Kunan, who was aged 38, died on July 6th when he ran out of oxygen underwater while trying to give oxygen tanks to the boys. Here's a clip about the rescue.

Tonight we have new reporting on this final rescue, the medication given to the boys to keep them from panicking on their way out. And what we've just learned, what happened in that cave, right after the boys were rescued. ABC's James Longman leading us off tonight from the scene.

Then, one by one, we saw convoys moving down the mountain to the helicopters standing by. Volunteers rejoicing at the news. The coach, weaker than all those boys, evacuated. Just behind me, they are the flashing lights. That is the police escort waiting for the last ambulance. This rescue faster than the others. This morning we made a promise to get nine people out, the governor saying, and we did it. These Navy SEAL divers and medic waiting to leave until everyone was safe.

Giving a thumbs up tonight. They stayed with boys in the cave since they were found over a week ago.