Henri Giraud (3:38)

Daily.

Lindsey Graham (3:55)

History is made every day on this podcast. Every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is April 17, 1942, Henri Giraud's second prison break. It's August 30, 1914, in northern France, 28 years before Henri Giraud's escape from Konigstein Fortress. The young Giraud is just a captain in the French fifth Army. He stands at the head of his regiment of light infantry and surveys the battlefield ahead. The earth trembles as shells land all around. Fires dot the horizon, sending pillars of smoke into the summer sky. It's the early days of World War I. German armies are advancing across the countryside of northern France and now threaten to encircle the French forces. A runner approaches and hands Captain Giraud his orders, salutes, then leaves. Giraud's face grows grim as he reads the note. The 5th army is struggling to hold its ground, and Giraud's regiment has been tasked with launching a counterattack. Giraud shouts out instructions and joins his men as they prepare for battle. With their guns ready and bayonets fixed, they emerge from their defensive positions and march steadily toward the German line. It's not long before they're spotted. Machine guns open fire, ripping into Giraud's men, but they press on. Captain Giraud leads from the front, and with a hoarse voice, he urges the infantry forward. But then he too is hit. He collapses onto the bloodied earth all around him. Giraud's men fight on, unaware their captain has fallen. But it's a hopeless assault. The French infantry are ultimately forced to retreat. And Giraud is among the dead and wounded and left behind. He fades in and out of consciousness before finally waking to see a German officer leaning over him, prodding him with the butt of a rifle. Captain Giraud is transferred to a prisoner of war camp in German occupied Belgium. There, he slowly recovers from his wounds. But now he walks with a limp. But that doesn't dent his determination to escape and rejoin the fight against the Germans. Giraud's opportunity comes by chance in late October 1914. One day, a traveling circus passes by the camp. For a moment, prisoners and guards alike stop to watch the brightly covered wagons roll past the fence. But realizing he can take advantage of this distraction, Captain Giraud manages to get through the gate and conceal himself among the crowd of circus workers. Once he's clear of the camp, Giraud asks for directions to a Red Cross clinic that he's heard helps wounded allied soldiers find their way home. He's told it's in the German occupied city of Brussels. With his limp, it takes Captain Giraud a week to walk there. He doesn't stop for very long, barely even daring to sleep, convinced that the Germans are pursuing him. But finally, he makes it to Brussels. And when he knocks on the door of the Red Cross clinic, he's at the point of collapse. He's brought inside by the English nurse Edith Cavell. As part of the Red Cross, Edith treats wounded soldiers from both sides of the war. But secretly, she's part of an underground network that smuggles French and British troops away from the Germans. So while Giraud recovers from his ordeal, Edith's first job is to verify that he is who he claims to be. Edith knows that the Germans have suspicions about her. She's had to turn away several of them posing as escapees, trying to uncover her network. If they find out what she's doing, she faces arrest and possibly even death. But despite these risks, Edith has continued her work. And soon she receives confirmation that her latest patient, Henri Giraud, is a genuine captain in the French army. So once Giraud is strong enough, he is armed with forged papers and new clothes. Then he is guided by Edith's contacts through Belgium via back alleys and safe houses until he finally crosses the border into the Netherlands. Now he is in neutral territory. Giraud is free to make his way home to France. In recognition of his battlefield bravery and daring escape, Captain Giraud is made a knight of the Legion of Honor, one of the most prestigious awards bestowed by the French government. Then he resumes his fight against the Germans. But the woman who helped his escape is not so fortunate. In August 1915, Edith Cavell's network is exposed and she is arrested and then executed by the Germans. Her death sparks international outrage, and when Henri Giraud hears about her fate, it only deepens his hatred of the enemy and his commitment to the French army. Even when world war ends and peace comes, Giraud will remain with the army. He'll be steadily promoted through the ranks, and by the time war with Germany comes again in 1939, Giraud will be a general. But once again he will taste defeat on the battlefield and become a prisoner of war. This time, though, it will take far more than a passing circus for Henri Giraud to find freedom.

Charles de Gaulle (8:55)

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Lindsey Graham (9:37)

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It's April 17, 1942 at Koenigstein Fortress in Nazi Germany, 24 years after the end of World War I General Henri Giraud picks himself up from the cliff base beneath the prison. He checks the nearby bushes where a British agent has left him new clothes, cash, and a fake passport. Giraud then shaves his mustache and dons an Alpine hat, fake spectacles, a trench coat and a briefcase. He straightens his coat and heads for the nearest road. Giraud then walks like he belongs here, just another German businessman going about his day. Eventually, he comes to a train station. It's packed with travelers, families, tourists and soldiers. General Giraud looks at his false passport. The picture inside doesn't look much like him, but hopefully he won't need to use it. A whistle blows and a train starts moving. Giraud blunders toward it, waving his hands. Pretending to be frazzled, he elbows past a station employee and leaps aboard the train as it lumbers out of the station. He then settles into a window seat and greets his fellow passengers in a passable German accent. As the train picks up speed, Giraud rests his head against the window and is soon fast asleep. But an hour or so later, General Giraud is woken by a light but persistent tap on his shoulder. It's the train conductor asking to see his ticket. Giraud confesses that he forgot to buy one at the station, but would be happy to pay now. The conductor says that's fine, but then asks to see Giraud's papers. Giraud's heart hammers in his chest as he hands over his false passport. But the conductor only takes a brief glance at it before taking Giraud's money, handing him a ticket and moving on. Giraud is relieved, but he still switches trains at the next station. He doesn't know or care what direction it's headed. He just wants to confuse anyone trying to pursue him. He will change trains several times in this way before he finally reaches the border with Switzerland. But that is where his luck seems to run out. The border guards have been alerted to his escape, and trains heading out of Nazi Germany and into Switzerland are being searched. But with all eyes on the trains, Giraud sees that other ways across the border have been left poorly guarded. So he sets off on foot, up a mountain track and into the Alps. But General Giraud did not plan for this. He has no food and no equipment suitable for a hike through the mountains. The trek is arduous, and he is soon exhausted and starving. Eventually, he decides he has no choice but to give himself up. He approaches a campsite where a group of soldiers huddle over A fire, passing around bowls of stew. At the sound of Giraud's boots crunching in the snow, they swivel, leveling their guns at him and ordering him to surrender. But Giraud just smiles. Their dialect is Swiss, not German. He has crossed the border and he is safe. The men offer him some of their stew and let him rest in their camp. Then they take General Giraud down the mountain to the city of Basel. From there, Giraud makes his way home. But France has changed. In the years General Giraud was in captivity, half the country is now occupied by the Nazis. The other half is still independent. But Vichy France, as it's known, is ruled by collaborators. So General Giraud returns home, hoping to convince his countrymen to stop cooperating with their oppressors and join Britain, America and the Soviet Union in the fight against Nazi Germany. As a celebrated general, it's not hard for Giraud to secure a meeting with the French government. Giraud makes an impassioned argument that Germany is on a course to lose the war and that France should be on the right side of history. But the Vichy government rejects his pleas. Desperate to placate the Nazis, they instead urge him to give himself up and return to Germany. Frustrated, Giraud decides to leave France and join other French exiles who oppose the Vichy regime and are fighting the Germans alongside the Allies. Following secret negotiations with the American General Dwight Eisenhower, Giraud heads for the French territories in North Africa. The Allies hope he can convince French troops stationed there to abandon their Vichy commanders and join the fight against the Nazis. As a decorated general who has now twice escaped German captivity, Henri Giraud expects to be hailed as a new leader of the anti Vichy French forces. But his ambitions will soon clash with those of another French general, a brilliant but egotistical man who's convinced it is his destiny to save France. Charles de Gaulle History Daily is sponsored by atRuby. Lately you may have been hearing about a serious but rare heart condition called attr, Cardiac amyloidosis, or ATTR cm. Because symptoms can be similar to other heart conditions, it may take time to be diagnosed. 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Sarah Gibson Tuttle (16:15)

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Lindsey Graham (17:24)

It's January 1941, at a hotel in Casablanca, Morocco, nine months after General Henri Giraud escaped from German captivity. General Giraud paces through the hotel garden. Across the lawn, he can see the towering figure of Charles de Gaulle, deep in conversation with his aides. Spotting Giraud, the men turn away. Giraud and de Gaulle are both French generals, but they are also rivals. Inside the hotel, some of the most powerful politicians on the planet are meeting to discuss the course of World War II. U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt is here, as is the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. While they hold private talks, Giraud and de Gaulle wait outside. This conference is not just about Allied military strategy. It's also going to decide who will be recognized as the leader of the Free French, the anti Vichy politicians and troops who claim to be the legitimate government of France. Churchill thinks de Gaulle is the only man the French Resistance forces will accept he's been leading them ever since the fall of France in 1940. But Roosevelt is suspicious of de Gaulle, so he has thrown his backing behind General Giraud. Eventually, the two French generals are summoned inside and following tense negotiations, a compromise is agreed. Co leadership. Neither Giraud nor de Gaulle are happy with the outcome. Roosevelt himself describes it as a shotgun wedding. But he encourages Giraud and de Gaulle to put on a united front for the cameras. But their relationship reluctant handshake is so fast that the photographer doesn't have a chance to take his picture. So the two generals are told to repeat the gesture more slowly. Giraud and de Gaulle begrudgingly comply, and this time the photographer gets his shot. It's a shaky start for their co presidency. And for General Giraud, it only gets worse. His experience on the battlefield does not make him an effective politician. De Gaulle runs rings around him in the world of deal making and diplomacy. Soon it's clear to all the Allies that the partnership between the two French generals can't continue. In November 1943, de Gaulle forces Giraud out as co president. Giraud is still officially Commander in Chief of Free French Forces and he tries to maintain his influence. But when de Gaulle discovers that Giraud has been running his own personal intelligence network outside the chain of command, de Gaulle dismisses him. Giraud is offered a face saving position as Inspector General of the army, but he refuses and chooses retirement instead. After decades of serving his country, Giraud will play no role in the liberation of France or the final Allied victory over Nazi Germany. And while his old rival Charles de Gaulle will go on to reshape France after the war, Giraud will die of cancer in 1949, still consumed by Benares over the way he was sidelined. But despite the disappointment of his final years, Henri Giraud will be remembered for his dedication to his country and his personal bravery that compelled him to risk his life for France on countless occasions, never more famously than when he escaped from Konigstein Fortress in the heart of Nazi Germany on April 17, 1942. Next on History Daily. April 18, 1906. The city of San Francisco is almost wiped out by a devastating earthquake from noiser and airship. This is History Daily hosted, edited and executive produced by me, Lindsey Graham Audio editing by Mohammed Shazi Sound design by Molly Bach Supervising Sound Designer Matthew Filler Music by Thrum the Sepulchre episode is written and researched by Joe Godley Edited by William Simpson Managing Producer Emily Burke Executive producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.

Henri Giraud (21:16)

Everyone has that friend who seems kind of perfect for Patty. That friend was Tessie Ray. Until one day I texted her and.

Sarah Gibson Tuttle (21:26)

She was not getting the text. So I went to Instagram. She has no Instagram anymore. And Facebook. No Facebook anymore.

Henri Giraud (21:33)

Desiree was gone. And there was one person who knew the answer.

Lindsey Graham (21:37)

I am a spiritual person, a magical.

Henri Giraud (21:40)

Person, a witch, a gorgeous Brazilian influencer called Kat Torres, but who was hiding a secret from Wondery. Based on my smash hit podcast from Brazil comes a new series, Don't Cross Cat, about a search that led me to a mystery in a Texas suburb. I'm calling to check on the two.

Lindsey Graham (22:01)

Missing Brazilian girls, maybe get some undercover crew there. The family are freaking out. They are lost.

Henri Giraud (22:07)

I'm Chico Felitti. You can listen to Don't Cross Cat on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.