Episode 68 - Zambia’s astronauts and the Battle for Castle Itter

This week’s episode is a corker. Harrison delves into the post-colonial world of the Zambian Afronauts. That’s right, whilst the Cold War was raging and both the Americans and Soviets were throwing everything, including the kitchen sink at getting a man on the moon, the possibly most unlikely nation on earth decided to throw its hat into the ring. Well, more specifically, Edward Mukuka Nkoloso wanted to put Zambians on the moon and Mars! It’s a crazy story that involves the budding afronauts being pushed down hills in oil barrels and swung from trees in tyres to simulate the lack of gravity on the celestial bodies. You have to listen to believe it. Chris meanwhile relays the story of the only documented time that the Americans fought side-by-side with the Germans during World War II to defend a number of high-profile French VIPs from certain death at the hands of the SS. If the story of the Battle for Castle Itter wasn’t true, it could easily have been thought up by a budding Hollywood screenwriter, it’s so strange. In the dying days of World War II, a German Wehrmacht unit of roughly 20 men and just seven Americans battled through the night to save the VIPs. A possibly stranger tale doesn’t exist from World War II!