65 Lt Col William Edwin Dyess
The WW2 Podcast
Angus Wallace
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2018
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode, is released just after the 75th anniversary of the escape of ten American prisoners of war, and two Filipino convicts, from the Davao Penal Colony. The following year when the story broke, the US War Department would call it the 'greatest story of the war'. The man made famous at the time for escaping, and recounting the story, was Lt. Col. William Edwin Dyess. A fighter pilot who not only fought in the air, but during the defence of Bataan led and amphibious assault as an infantryman.
Joining me to tell us the story of 'Ed Dyess' is John Lukacs, who is fighting to get Dyess awarded the Medal of Honor; and keeping his memory alive with the website 4-4-43.com.
If you remember back in episode 45, I discussed the Barton Brothers with Sally Mott Freeman, Dyess's story intersects with that as Barton was at the Davao Penal Colony and his brother Bill was in Washington aware of Dyess's escape.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to another World War II podcast. |
| 0:03.2 | This episode is released just after the 75th anniversary of the escape of 10 American prisoners of war and two Filipino convicts from the Darvo penal |
| 0:15.7 | colony. The following year when the story broke the US War Department would call |
| 0:21.1 | it the greatest story of the war. |
| 0:26.0 | The man made famous at the time for escaping and recounting the story was Lieutenant Colonel William Edwin Diess, a fighter pilot who not only fought in the |
| 0:37.8 | air but in the defense of Bhutan led an amphibious assault as an infantryman. |
| 0:43.0 | His story is now largely forgotten, eclipsed by other events in the war. |
| 0:48.0 | But joining me to tell the story of Eddai is John Lucas who is fighting to get Dias awarded the Medal of |
| 0:57.5 | Honor and is keeping his memory alive. |
| 1:01.1 | But just before we get to the war in the Pacific, I'd like to say hello to all the new patrons who supported the show in March. I had a great month and it's nice to see so many helping me put the show together. You can find out |
| 1:16.7 | more about becoming a patron at patreon.com slash W-W-2 podcast. |
| 1:23.8 | Once a patron of the show you get your own custom RSS link which you could put into your |
| 1:29.4 | podcast software and choice and all the little extras that I do will automatically |
| 1:34.9 | download when they are released. Alternatively if you sign up at W.W.2 |
| 1:41.0 | podcast.com slash Donate. |
| 1:44.0 | I'll put you on the mailing list and I'll send you a link to all the exclusive material |
| 1:49.4 | as it is released. So let's get cracking, John. |
| 1:55.0 | So I mean our starting point has to be, you know, |
| 1:58.0 | William Ed Dius, where does he come from? |
| 2:01.0 | What's his background pre-military his story |
| 2:05.6 | starts not unlike you know a lot of the other American foot soldiers or you know the |
| 2:10.6 | British Tommy's you know or you know even the you know the regular |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Angus Wallace, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Angus Wallace and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.