[Depicted in Trenches of Hell, the 8th episode from the Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, produced by George Lucas - released in 1999 - it’s original edit is from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles; Episode: Germany, Mid August 1916 - released in 1992]
As a ‘Prisoner of War’ Indiana meets another soldier named Emile who had confiscated the uniforms of two deceased French soldiers, thus Indy and the man change their wardrobes and assume their new identities.
During an Allied interference Indiana and Emile make an effort to escape, yet to their misfortune they jump into a German foxhole, and are recaptured and sent to a POW camp.
At the camp they meet another prisoner named Captain Jean Benet who takes them to a secret meeting of other French officers planning an escape. Their plan has been to dig an underground tunnel, and with Indy & Emile’s help they complete the task.
As the men prepare to escape they are impeded by a surprise inspection, so Benet causes a distraction to allow Indiana & company to continue as planned. For his trouble Benet is thrown into isolation, and it’s all for naught as the men are found by German guards outside the tunnel, leaving Emile shot and Indiana recaptured.
By now the Germans had been convinced that Indiana was indeed Lt. Pierre Blanc, the French lieutenant he presented himself as, whom Indy was unaware had a history of escapes and was a wanted man. For his reputation, Indiana was sent to an inescapable prison known as Dusterstadst (Landfestung Ingolstadt), which was an old castle on a rocky island in the middle of the Danube river.
At the maximum security prison Indiana befriends another prisoner named Captain Charles de Gaulle, who accepts him into his ranks once he learns how he’d stolen Blanc’s identity.
He also meets two Russian prisoners who are planning an escape, in which they would need Indy to lasso like an American cowboy. Sceptical of their plan Indiana decides to give it a try, and he does lasso as needed yet the plan still falls through, as the weight of the Russian men send them plunging to their deaths. The next morning the German commanders put their bodies on display for all to see.
Indy & de Gaulle then hatch a plan to escape in the Russian’s coffins, where they’d be buried by the shore in a shallow grave with help from other inside men. All goes according to plan until they realize that they are scheduled to be burned and not buried, thus en route to the crematorium they jump out of the coffins and set off on foot across the countryside.
Indy & de Gaulle make it to a village by dawn where they steal two bicycles, yet are spotted by two motorcycled Germans who give chase. They split up and though de Gaulle is recaptured, Indiana escapes by dodging in front of a moving train.
Later Indiana mistakenly gets mixed up with another workforce of POW’s scheduled to be sent to Berlin, though caught in a roll call he convinces the German officers that he’s actually a secret double agent.
Thus as a POW Indiana conspires with:
Charles de Gaulle - French general, statesman, and writer who would later become the first President under the French Fifth Republic of which he founded. He held that office for 11 years until his resignation, and in that time he was the dominant figure of France during the early stages of the Cold War era. Over a half century prior, however, he was a POW in Germany for a duration of 32 months, where he made five escape attempts that all proved to be futile. He was released on behalf of the Armistice of 1918, and as a tribute to his later accomplishments and service (mainly for actively resisting German occupation during WWII) he would eventually be remembered as the ‘Le Plus Grand Français de tous les temps’ which translates to ‘the Greatest Frenchman of All Time.’
Key locations in this adventure are:
Landfestung Ingolstadt - translated to Ingolstadt Fortress - a medieval fortress initially used by the Bavarian Army and later as German prison camp in WWI.
Danube - Europe’s second largest river (after the Volga river), that flows through 10 countries which is more than any other river in the world. The Danube originates in Germany and then travels through Central and Eastern Europe before it empties into the Black Sea. The Danube basin was the site of some of the earliest human civilizations, and was also once the long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire.
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