Today in History: 1944 – The Great Escape
Just after 5:00 a.m. on March 25, 1944, a German soldier patrolling around the Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war camp in Żagań, Poland, noticed slushy tracks in the snow outside the camp.
As he got closer, he noticed a prisoner crawling through the snow. Realizing an escape was underway, the soldier fired his weapon in the air and called for help. Alarms went off all around the camp, floodlights were turned on, and four prisoners were captured at the mouth of a tunnel.
In the hours that followed, the Germans realized the full extent of the escape: 76 men had made it out in the largest escape attempt of the war. Almost all of them, however, wouldn’t make it to freedom.
Read the fascinating full story here and here and here
Also on this day:
1603 Scottish King James VI son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I of England in succession to Elizabeth I, thus joining the English and Scottish crowns
1882 German scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus which causes tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), and establishes germ theory
1944 RAF rear gunner Nicholas Alkemade survives a jump from his Lancaster bomber 18,000 feet over Germany without a parachute; his fall broken by pine trees and soft snow, suffers only a sprained leg
1958 Elvis Presley joins the army (serial number 53310761)
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1935 Mary Berry - English food writer and TV presenter (The Great British Bake Off)
1930 Steve McQueen - American actor called “The King of Cool” during the 1960s (The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape)
1911 Joseph Barbera - American animator (Hanna-Barbera - Tom and Jerry)
1909 Thomas “Tommy” Trinder - British radio comedian and actor (Save a Little Sunshine, Phoenix)
1909 Clyde Barrow - American bank robber (of Bonnie & Clyde fame)
1874 Harry Houdini [Erich Weiss] - Austro-Hungarian magician and escape artist
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2016 Johan Cruyff - Dutch footballer and coach (Ajax/Barcelona)
2008 Richard Widmark - American actor (Madigan, Murder on the Orient Express, Judgement at Nuremberg)
1976 Bernard Montgomery (Monty), 1st Viscount Alamein - British WWII Field Marshal (African campaign, D-Day) and WWI officer
1905 Jules Verne - French writer known as the “Father of Science Fiction” (Around the World in 80 Days)
1603 Elizabeth I Tudor - Queen of England and Ireland (1558-1603) and daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
1471 Thomas Malory - author (Le Morte d’Arthur)
The Funnies:
On the Menu Today – Punjabi mutton and potato curry
After a really nice and warm weekend here, it’s gotten a bit cold, so I’ve gone for a nice warming curry! This one won’t take your head off – if you want it warmer, just add more chillies. If you don’t like the heat, don’t put any in. Personally, I can’t handle chillies, so I get my heat from adding more garlic and ginger.
Here’s the recipe, courtesy of Sumayya Usmani in the https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/jan/25/20-best-curry-recipes-sumayya-usmani-punjabi-mutton-and… Grauniad .
Ingredients
- vegetable oil 50ml
- red onion 1 large, finely chopped
- ginger 1cm piece, peeled and grated
- garlic 2 cloves, minced
- mutton 1kg with bone, cut into 5-6cm chunks
- salt 1-2 tsp
- ground turmeric ½ tsp
- paprika 1 tsp (not smoked)
- red chilli powder 1 tsp
- water 250-450ml
- vegetable oil 3-4 tbsp
- tomatoes 2 medium, finely chopped
- coriander seeds 1 tsp, dry-roasted and ground
- maris piper potatoes 500g, peeled and quartered
To garnish
-
garam masala 1 tsp
-
coriander leaves 2 tbsp, chopped
-
green chillies 2, finely chopped
To serve
-
plain basmati rice or naan bread
Method
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan with a lid over a medium heat. When hot, add the onions, ginger and garlic and cook for 7-8 minutes until the onions are light brown. Add the mutton pieces, salt, turmeric, paprika and red chilli powder then add 150ml water and reduce the heat to medium low. Cover the pan with the lid and cook for about 15-20 minutes until the mutton is tender and the curry is reddish brown, checking the water has not dried up – if it does add about 4 teaspoons of water to ensure that the mutton is just covered.
- Increase the heat to medium high, add the vegetable oil, tomatoes and ground coriander seeds. Stir-fry to allow the oil in the pan to cook through the tomatoes and create a thick red sauce with oil separating and rising to the surface of the curry.
- Add the potatoes and 200-300ml water, depending on how watery you prefer the curry (traditionally it is quite watery), then reduce the heat to medium low and continue to cook for 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are tender. The curry should be red, with oil rising to the surface, but watery. If this has not happened yet, keep the saucepan on a very low heat for a further 5-10 minutes, but make sure not to overcook the potatoes.
- Turn off the heat, cover with the lid and let the curry simmer in its own heat for about 10 minutes before serving. When ready to serve, transfer to a serving dish and garnish with garam masala, chopped coriander and chopped green chillies. This is best served with plain basmati rice or naan bread.
Quote of the Day:
Seagoon: London, 1901. That was a good year for England. Well, we’d have looked silly without it, wouldn’t we?
The White Box of Great Bardfield (Goon Show) ― Spike Milligan
Comic of the Day:
Mouseover: "The month names are the same, except that the fourth month only has the name ‘April’ in even-numbered years, and is otherwise unnamed.”
Image Credit: xkcd: EST
Explain XKCD: 1061: EST - explain xkcd
Inspirobot Always Controversial, Occasionally Inspirational Quote of the Day:
Read @jimender2 's OK Spark! from yesterday here
