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WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk

Heritage Heroes: Rabbi Rob's Tanks and War Stories

WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk

Goalhanger Podcasts

History, Education, Society & Culture

4.85.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the next installment of our Heritage Heroes series James joins former naval corpsman Rabbi Rob Thomas in Ohio to discuss his remarkably diverse collection of tanks and heavy armour - one of the most extensive in the US! They delve into the impact of the Second World War upon Rob's own family history, the importance of educating the public about military weaponry, and debunk myths about the war. Rob’s connection to the war is a personal one; his wife’s grandfather, as a native Yiddish speaker, acted as translator at some of the first liberated concentration camps in Germany, which is why Rob believes in the continuing value of education about the conflict.  Hear how his collection started with a couple of machine guns and a jeep on which to mount them, before escalating to Shermans and a warehouse.  See his collection for yourself at ww2armor.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Music

0:10.9

Acting, acting. Welcome to We Have Ways of Making You Tell with me, James Holland, and with

0:15.2

Rabbi Robert O. Thomas, better known to a lot of people over here in the United States as

0:20.8

Rabbi Rob. And we're recording this in... What is this, Rob? This is the Armament's truck.

0:27.6

Armament's in storage. It's one of our many transport vehicles for getting us to and from events.

0:32.4

Yes. So we're on the shores of Lake Erie in the state of Ohio, near the town of Cognit,

0:39.5

town of Cognit, which is about 75 miles due east of Cleveland, where I flew into yesterday.

0:48.4

And it's blowing again outside, which is why we're here. So it's kind of... It's D-Day

0:53.0

Weber, because the... Yes, it is. Very accurate. The breakers on Lake Erie are kind of crashing

0:57.9

in seven foot high. What's amazing is that the landing craft have been stood down. Yes.

1:05.5

They canceled war on... That's kind of ridiculous. You know, we're trying to get

1:08.4

ferrisomilitude here. You know, they should be in there puking up and... Well, they have a history

1:13.4

of that, which is why they canceled. But anyway, I mean, Rob, this is part of a... This is part of

1:19.4

what we call our heritage heroes, Syrians. So this is people who are keeping the heritage of the

1:25.2

Second World War alive. And you are really doing that. I mean, it's amazing the collection you've

1:30.7

got up here. And you brought them in convoy all the way from just north of... Just north of

1:36.7

Orlando, Florida. That's correct. Just amazing. So that... What is that? 1200 miles or something?

1:41.4

Yeah, about like that. Yes. Yes. It's a long way. It takes a long way. It takes three days in

1:46.1

low loaders. Yes. Yes. With the inevitable delays, we usually blow a few tires on the way.

1:52.1

Due to the heat of the road, the weight, and going up now mountains. This year, we had a very

1:56.9

different delay. We did blow some tires, but we'd counted for that. A woman driving past was so

2:03.0

an effort of the armor that she pulled out her phone while driving and promptly drove into a ditch.

...

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