As you can see, there are some similarities with Tarantino's film. The rectangular shaped obverse reads: "Waffen-SS" in black ink on a yellow backing. When Georg Weber was born about 1506, in Mollis, Glarus, Switzerland, his father, Franz Weber, was 33 and his mother, Weber, was 33. They Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish Spies Behind the Lines by Patrick K. ODonnell. Tune in for a conversation about the men of X Troop, who were the realInglorious Basterds: a secret commando unit of young Jewish refugees who were trained in counterintelligence and advanced combat to deliver decisive blows against the Nazis. Zrich Airport. Its Like the First World WarIf We kill them, theyre just replaced, The Russo-Ukraine war: Implications for UK Defence, SMS Seeadler: A First World War Sailing Warship, Rishi Sunak to end asylum claims from small boat arrivals, Prince Harry: I always felt different to rest of family, Ocean treaty: Historic agreement reached after decade of talks, Kuenssberg: Sunak can't escape past Tory horrors, Chris Rock talks about Will Smith's Oscars slap in a live Netflix show, Rail fares go up in England and Wales by 5.9%, Everything Everywhere sweeps Independent Spirit Awards, King's Coronation: Pubs to stay open longer in England and Wales, UK Weather: Snow and ice expected in Scotland and north of England, Ukraine war: The Moldovan enclave surrounded by pro-Russian forces. Not wanting to mess with a Wehrmacht officer, the inspector moved on. For the next several months, Mayer and his best friend Hans Winberg went about planning Operation Greenup. STIWOT, 1999-2023. His books that capture Mayers story are They Dared Return and The Brenner Assignment. Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class Infantry Assault Badge Close Combat Clasp Panzer Badge "25" s/d "100" on 20 September 1944 as Obergefreiter in the 4./Panzer Regiment 35 Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 28 October 1944 as Obergefreiter in the 8./Jger-Regiment 28 The team found a German POW named Franz Weber. Mayer was given command of Operation Greenup charged with finding out how weapons were making it into Italy, then an Axis power. Works at Arbeitete bei der Stadt Luzern. In fact, Mayer was taken to Hofers home, met Hofers wife, and ate with them. It wasn;t until they brought in the informant that Mayer finally admitted he was an American agent, but insisted that he worked alone. All results for Franz Weber. Webers sister was a nurse who helped Mayer disguise himself as a German officer in uniform and bandaged up from a head wound. Hofer got Mayer to help him arrange the surrender. Out jumped a bruised and battered Mayer, who offered the formal surrender of the entire regions German Army. With a man on each side of the rifle, they lifted his naked, rolled-up body and suspended the human ball between two tables, like a piece of meat on a skewer. So convincing was his performance that the agent turned away from the team and started checking the papers of the other passengers. In scene straight from Inglourious Basterds, Mayer sat at the bar with a bandage on his head, swilled beer, and listened to the stories of other recovering German officers. The two men needed a third teammate who spoke German and knew the areaand was willing to risk certain death if captured. Then the Nazis came to power. They showed him a picture of Mayers ruined face, but Matull was a world-class hustler before the war. A couple of excellent books on the subject are : This Grim And Savage Game: The Oss And U.s. Covert Operations In World War II by Tom Moon and. info@nationalww2museum.org The third soldier was the Austrian Franz Weber, a Nazi officer who had deserted the army. Though they managed to retrieve most of their supplies, their skis were another matter entirely, forcing them to climb down in waist-deep snow. People Projects Discussions Surnames Franz Weber remains very active in numerous alpine skiing events and competes on the popular Legends/Champions Tour. A native Austrian, Weber fought on the Eastern Front but was convinced that Austria needed to be free of Hitler and the Nazis. Posing as a recovering German officer, Mayer befriended an Engineer Officer who worked on the Fuhrer Bunker in Berlin. The mission that began with vengeance ended with forgiveness. There was also the issue of competition: other great directors were also doing World War II epics in the late '90s, notably Steven Spielberg with "Saving Private Ryan" and Terrence Malick with "The Thin Red Line." 1 was here. A long-time resident of Lake Tahoe, Weber and his wife, Janet, founded Franz Weber Inc., a Reno-based sports management and consulting company, in 1984.Today, the company represents world-class . Around the beginning of October 1944, the 8./Jger Regiment 28 received the order to recapture the Hill 1587 (which had recently been taken by the Soviets) in order to reopen the Rodna Pass Road, an important German supply route. They had to walk down the glacier, sometimes waist deep in snow. During WWII, some Jews really did volunteer to go into Nazi-occupied Europe to engage in espionage and sabotage. By then it was April of 1945 and the Germans knew they were done. During these discussions, it was agreed that the Germans under Hofer should surrender to Mayer, as the representative of the US military. The five-man team consisted of George Gerbner (Hungary), Alfred Rosenthal (Germany), Bernd Steinitz (Germany) and Hans Wynberg (Netherlands). He then worked for Mayer till the Gestapo caught him. Franz was the only son of this couple to survive into adulthood. Waffen-SS Armband. Despite the agents bullish strength, the SS men brutally manhandled him, shoving him to the floor. Heinrich Weber (1799-1848) married Susanna Fritz (1807-aft 1861) a. Franz Weber (this Franz Weber) b. Anna Maria Miller c. Elizabeth Herrman Provided by Trecil. I'd have a 100-page script and no end in sight. High winds buffeted the plane making them lose 6000 feet of altitude in just 18 seconds. The tables turned, the Gestapo man shaking, told Mayer to do with him as he would, but to please leave his family alone. Waltz had only acted in German films before, and "Inglourious Basterds" was a huge breakout for his international career. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. He infiltrated it by obtaining work as an electrician, using a French translation of his own name,discovering that supply problems with parts meant that no aircraft were being completed. Welcome to Franz Weber Inc., and thank you for visiting our website. Go to the front lines of World War II in this war documentary, chronicling a group of Jewish agents for the American OSS who infiltrated Nazi territories, many of them German Jews returning to avenge Hitler's sinister acts. Many historians have written about the famous Buffalo Soldiers of the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division, who fought with distinction during World War II. Feigning the role of a captured German POW, Fred entered a camp and networked within its gates. Tags:quentin tarantino world war ii world history. one of four skiers who broke a world record by skiing sixteen Colorado ski resorts in one day. : an American History (Eric Foner) Business Law: Text and Cases (Kenneth W. Clarkson; Roger LeRoy Miller; Frank B. Design, construction and validation of a computer controlled system for functional loading of soft tissue. He volunteered for the US Army but was denied service because he was considered an enemy alien. OSS immediately saw his potential and recruited him into their ranks. The OSS went to the only available source of that nearly impossible combination: an Allied prisoner of war camp. This was worn by civilians in the employment of the Waffen SS. He has written eight books, including his most recent (insrt embedded link to Amazon) Dog Company: The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Rangers Who Accomplished D-Days Toughest Mission and Led the Way Across Europe. These are the untold truths of the making of "Inglourious Basterds.". The OG group shared a unique bond. They were joined byFranz Weber, an ex-Wehrmacht officer turned freedom fighter comparable to the Basterds' Hugo Stiglitz. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. A former German commando and officer, Weber had fought on the Eastern Front but now was convinced that it was his duty to defeat the Third Reich for the sake of his country, Austria. World War II was not only the greatest military conflict in history, it was also America's most important twentieth-century war. Download the TracesOfWar app directly on, Australia (1901-present, Federal Monarchy), Belgium (1830-present, Constitutional Monarchy), Canada (1931-present, Constitutional Monarchy), Soviet Union (1922-1991, People's Republic), FELLGIEBEL, W.P., Elite of theThird Reich, Helion & Company Limited, Solihull, 2003, HU, JRGEN & SONDERMANN, HEINZ-WERNER, Ritterkreuztrger im Mannschaftsstand 1941-1945, VDM Heinz Nickel, Zweibrcken, 2009, Privacy statement, cookies, disclaimer and copyright. During World War II, he led one of the greatest missions of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Box 378 Red Hook, New York 12571 United States. But they all wanted some payback for the German government that forced so much suffering on them. He described these men: A more eclectic group of desperados could not be found: former Luftwaffe pilots, Jewish escapees from German death camps, Polish deserters, world-class athletes, and even a former convict. One recruit referred to the group as the craziest people he ever met. There were some contributions from historians, mainly to set things in context, and some re-enactments in the absence of archival footage, but the story was told largely in Mayer and Wijnbergs own words. Channel 5 in the UK broadcast a documentary called The Nazi Killers on Friday 22 November. I couldn't stop writing. Frederick Mayer (28 October 1921, Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden, Germany - 15 April 2016, Charles Town, Jefferson County, West Virginia) was a German-born Jew who became an American spy as an OSS agent for the United States during World War II.He negotiated the surrender of the German Army in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1945 after he was captured in "Operation Greenup". Will King Charles IIIs Reign See the End of the Commonwealth. ORCID provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. It's aged well, winning IndieWire's critics' poll for the best Tarantino movie a decade after its release. Mayer parachuted onto an Alpine glacier, infiltrated enemy lines, and posed as a German officer to ascertain crucial intelligence. In fact, I think I have an idea for a film. Franz Weber. He acted as the breadwinner while working as a mechanic at companies such as General Motors and Ford. Mayer, who is Jewish, and his family fled Germany at the onset of the war, barely escaping the holocaust. The trio had supplies packages dropped with them, but unfortunately were unable to locate the packet containing their skis. Franz Weber. Do you want to create your own battlefield tour to sights of wars from the past? Hofer was later judged in absentia and sentenced to death in Austria in 1949. Once at the bottom of the mountain, the men boarded an Innsbruck-bound train infested with Gestapo. Exhausted, they finally sledded their way down, something Mayer later claimed was the scariest part of the mission. Weber bluffed his way past a team of agents that had been searching the train. But Tarantino smartly decided that the multilingual role was best suited for a native German speaker and ultimately cast Christoph Waltz in the part that would eventually win him an Oscar. . Hes already seen the movie. . Cookies help us deliver our Services. This enabled him to pick upinformation from other German officers, which Wijnberg relayed back to the OSS. Barrett products are used by civilians, sport shooters, law enforcement agencies, the United States military, and more than 75 State Department-approved countries around the world. . Dulles cabled OSS HQs in Italy, Fred Mayer reports he is in Gestapo hands but cabled Dont worry about me, Im really not bad off a remarkable message considering that it was coming from a Jew. As reported in The New York Times, Tarantino had intended his follow-up to "Jackie Brown" to be a World War II epic then titled "Inglorious Bastards" (with proper spelling). It was hard to find a pilot to volunteer to fly in the difficult winter conditions over the glacier, but eventually, Billings stepped up, saying,If they are crazy enough to jump there, I will be crazy enough to take them there.. Beck's name is among the more than 72,000 Americans from World War II listed as unaccounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. 1501 1501. The Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) in the European Theater was one of Americas bloodiest campaigns. Trembling, he stammered, Do anything you want to me, but dont hurt my family.. In May 2011, the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) completed construction of its new facility in St. Louis, Mo. At one point, the writer-director feared it would be too long for a movie and that the epic story would be better suited for a TV miniseries. On February 25, 1945, Mayer flew from his base in Italy and arrived in the Austrian mountains by parachuting with his team in the dead of night onto the ridge of a glacier. Tarantino knew there was something special about Waltz's acting early on, and went to great lengths to keep many aspects of the actor's performance a surprise to his co-stars. It turns out she was not Quentin Tarantino's first choice for the part in fact, he initially wasn't interested in casting her at all, due to disliking a movie she had starred in (Kruger did not state which movie this was). But unlike other refugees, Mayer decided to return to German-occupied Europe to strike back at the very individuals who imprisoned some of his family members in concentration camps. But at the radio station, Mayer persuaded the Nazi to declare Innsbruck an open city, and place himself under his arrest, effectively surrendering the city and his forces to Mayer. Franz Josef Huber ran the Gestapo secret police in Vienna. Mayer eventually headed back into Nazi-occupied territory in Europe serving as U.S. spy. Learn More. They didn't end up killing Hitler, but they were able to negotiate the surrender of the German Army in Austria. Contributor. He says Waltz was also instructed to not show up to rehearsals with any of his co-stars, with the one exception ofDenis Mnochet (who played the dairy farmer Perrier LaPadite and shares the film's suspenseful opening scene with Waltz). He was 94 years old. He died in Switzerland. Hofer could see the end coming and had little desire to be tried as a war criminal. Top Image:L-R Franz Weber, Hans Wijnberg, and Fred Mayer courtesy of theUS National Archives. Nonetheless, this story has made some people uncomfortable. A pilot called Billings volunteered to drop them on a glacier. I dont stay up late anymore.. The third soldier was the Austrian Franz Weber, a Nazi officer who had deserted the army. They found that Germans were using movable bridges on the Brenner railway that they hid in tunnels by day and used only at night. It could be a way to distinguish the film from Enzo G. Castellari's 1979 film "The Inglorious Bastards," which Tarantino's film is loosely inspired by but is decidedly not a remake of. What hotels are near Franz Carl Weber Geneva? Compared to dozens of other cities and towns, defended till the last shell and cartridge by German forces, then pulverized by US air power and artillery, Innsbruck survived the war nearly unscathed. One of the most popular genres of WWII literature is espionage, the spy novel, the thriller. Books abound on the topic, dealing with undercover operatives, double agents, and breathless derring-do. This is a horrible place where the Nazis tortured and killed members of the Belgium resistance. The Swiss environmentalist Franz Weber has died at the age of 91. His current life is fairly peacefulhe still chops wood nearly every day and volunteers with Meals on Wheels. Mayer was assigned to the German Operational Group before heading out. They were sent to enemy lines to sabotage Nazi activities. There was only one problemthey got dropped off at the wrong port. Born in Rohleder (Raskaty) Russia to Heinrich Weber (1799 - 1848) and Susanna Fritz (1807-after 1861). After completing their training in Allied territories, the three soldiers were dropped off in Tirol on February 26, 1945. Edit your search or learn more. It could be a way around the MPAA's sensitivity about profanity in movie titles. They jumped in on February 26, 1945. Not surprising to those who know him, Fred Mayer may not attend the Congressional reception and the screening of the movie chronicling his feats. Reaching the glaciers foot, they holed up for three days at the Amberger hut (their original target) as they went over their plans. Later, West learned that Mayer was a sergeant. Mayer, Wijnberg, and Weber were parachuted with their supplies into Austria on 26 February 1945 in total darkness which was why they ended up on the crest of the Sulztaler glacier some 9,000 feet up a mountain. Over 40.000 pages on the officers, the boats, technology and the Allied efforts to counter the U-boat threat. The team would infiltrate using a blacked out B-24 bomber. He would later on return to Germany to start over. Historian K. ODonnell published a volume called They Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish Spies Behind the Lines in Nazi Germany. All rights reserved. The Real Inglorious Bastards. They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 8 daughters. Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE. Weber stayed with his family, his fiances mother took Mayer in, and Wijnberg stayed at a neighbors house. 2023 The SOFREP Media Group. This button displays the currently selected search type. Operation FORTITUDE involved a group of double agents feeding disinformation to the Germans but the group was an odd collection of criminals, playboys, party girls, and a woman obsessed with her dog. In an interview, Mr. Mayer stated that he had a good combination of hatred and love: a hatred of the Nazis and a love for America. His father fought valiantly in World War I, and Mayer had seen his family forced from their homeland by an evil regime that later murdered 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust. He died on August 10, 1962 in West Berlin, West Germany. Mayer was asked to dine with Hofer, his wife and the German Ambassador to Italy, Rudolph Rahn. As the Germans surrendered, the Gestapo officer who had savagely beaten Mayer was taken to the very cell where he tortured him. April 1812 in Mannheim) war ein deutscher Musiker, Kapellmeister und Theaterdirektor. It was difficult to find a suitable drop point, as the obvious places were all occupied by the enemy. Tarantino will never tell us the full logic behind misspelling the title, though in various interviews he's offered partial explanations. See Photos. Without making specific promises, he offered salvation. She paid for her own plane ticket to Germany for the audition, which thankfully worked out for the best. The head of SI was a LT. Alfred Ulmer. Consider an Allied espionage operation code-named GREENUP, which in some ways is even more improbable than a Hollywood pot-boiler. In one of the most incredible scenes from World War II, Frederick Mayer approached the American lines and informed the advancing 103rd division that the Germans had surrendered Innsbruck to him, saving potentially thousands of German and American lives in the process. Hoffer, who had already anticipated the fall of Nazi Germany, met Mayer to discuss the possibility of a German rendition, and naturally, his own protection. He called in air strikes, destroying dozens of them. Just dont hurt my family., Mayer was disgusted, What the hell do you think we are? Franz Weber. The campaign in North Africa began with a daring Anglo-American commando raid code-named Operation RESERVIST. They made their way to Webers family and then Mayer actually stayed in the Officers barracks in Innsbruck for several weeks, gleaming as much intelligence as he could and then relaying it to Wynberg (the radio operator) who would then relay it to OSS HQs. In 1996, Franz was After three months, Mayer changed his cover to that of a French electrician who was fleeing the Soviets. By Mark Weber. Allies suspected the Germans were plotting to make their final stand in the war there. Those who survived the initial onslaught and did not manage to flee, had to eke out a living on a battleground ravaged by incessant bombardment and street fighting. Quentin Tarantinos 2009 warfilmwas partly based on a real story. On 7 December 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, forcing America to enter the war. He dominated the sport of speed skiing from 1980 to 1985, winning over eighty percent of the races he entered. The two men are Brooklyn to the core, and they even overlay a map of their New York borough onto that of Tyrol, to have a whole set of code names for various Tyrolean locales that would utterly baffle the Nazis. Franz Weller (5 December 1901 - 14 August 1994) was a highly decorated Oberst in the Wehrmacht during World War II. IndieWire reported that Tarantino wanted the movie edited on a much tighter schedule that his previous productions, both as a reaction to spending too much time "overfiddling" with "Death Proof" and so the film would be ready to screen at Cannes. Mayer was then ordered to investigate a nearby underground factory that was building Me 262 jet fighters. Sent to Italy, he was teamed up with Hans Wijnberg another Jewish-American whose family was thrown intoAuschwitz. So I was trying to keep taming it, and I couldn't My idea at the time, because it was just so big and so unwieldy, was to do it as a miniseries, and that really was what I was planning on doing." They tortured him brutally, but he didnt break. 8001 Zrich. One recruit summed up the band of desperadoes: The whole bunch were the craziest people I ever met in my entire life.. Their mission was to infiltrate the area around Innsbruck, Austria and monitor the reports of the Nazis stockpiling arms and ammunition there, the Alpine Redoubt. And that was after they had tortured him. Mr. Mayer was recommended for a medal of honor in 1945 by a superior officer. On May 7, an invitation-only screening of the film will open the GI Film Festival with a Congressional Reception at the U.S. Capitol Building to honor the veterans of the mission, including Mayer. Frederick Mayer was a man described by some as fearless. It was April 1945, and Germany was finished. His parents and younger brotherwere all murdered in the Holocaust. Franz Carl Weber is a lovely toy store spread across four large floors. His undercover work led to valuable intelligence and a network of informants that helped identify the location and dimensions of Hitlers Fhrerbunker in Berlin, the condition of Nazi war plants and movement of enemy freight and troops through the Brenner Pass. TracesOfWar.com tells you more! Talking on the podcast "The Moment with Brian Koppelman,"the director said, "I told [Waltz], 'I'm not doing this to be perverse game playing everybody is so curious about who is playing Hans Landa. He continued to work with producer Harvey Weinstein even though, he admitted to The New York Times, "I knew enough to do more than I did" about Weinstein's serious sexual misconduct. As the troops approached the city, they saw a car with a large white bed sheet attached to a pole racing toward them. Mayers incredible story provided the basis for my book They Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish Spies Behind the Lines in Nazi Germany. Bursting through the door and into the room, a dozen Gestapo agents, armed with MP-40 machine pistols, quickly surrounded and apprehended Mayer. Now, though Hofer had the connections and supplies to resist an invasion by the Allies, its known that it was thanks to his conversations with Mayer that he decided to surrender. Looking for reliable information or news facts about WW2? His website is http://www.patrickkodonnell.com/. I was really training for it.". Eventually, they transferred to Italy and once again continued to sit out the war. Wijnberg and Weber had to flee, whilst Mayer was tortured by the Gestapo. TracesOfWar.com tells you more! Shes Not Madeleine: Scotland Yard Refutes Julias Allegations of Being Madeleine McCann. The Americans will slaughter everyone who did this!. On the outskirts of a sleepy West Virginia town lives 92-year-old Frederick Mayer. Mayer donned Webers old uniform and took on the cover story of a recovering German officer at the local hospital where Webers sister was a nurse. Starring Brad Pitt, Mlanie Laurent, and Christoph Waltz, in this uchronic story, a group of soldiers manages to kill the most important characters of the Nazi party, including its leader, Adolf Hitler. It is constructed out of a dyed yellow cotton base with black ink print. They eventually made contact with Webers family. Mayer and his five teammates were all European Jews and were languishing in Italy waiting for a mission. They didnt embark on any sort of killing spree, but they did succeed in their mission. In 1998, he won the National SG Masters Championships, and his Masters record includes winning all but two of the more than In March 1945 these three men nearly died being inserting into Nazi controlled Austria as they ended up parachuting onto a . He retired as World Champion in 1985 but returned to the sport of speed skiing seven years later to compete in the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville, France where he clocked his fastest personal time of 138.112 mph/222.222 kph (average speed). Speaking in an interview(via Screenrant) with fellow filmmaker Robert Rodriguez for an episode of "Director's Chair" on El Rey Network, Tarantino said, "People thought I was going through writer's block, you know, I was going through the opposite. Mollis,Glarus,,Switzerland . He married Katharina Haechlinger about 1550. According to The Washington Post, Tarantino thought Christoph Waltz couldn't perform the scene convincingly enough and choked actress Diane Kruger himself. Franz Weber, Actor: Figaros Hochzeit. Then good fortune stepped in. The top and bottom have been folded over and stitched together. Or are you interested in war medals and their recipients? Friedrich Fred Mayers father was a decorated war veteran for his distinguished service to the German Empire in WWI. So how did the title of Tarantino's WWII revenge flick go from "Inglorious Bastards" to "Inglourious Basterds"? Air Force, The only area to infiltrate was a small lake frozen over in the winter between the mountains. Franz Carl Weber. Franz Weber. As the company approached along the relatively featureless terrain, it came under violent MG . The Methodology of the Social Sciences (Max Weber) Give Me Liberty! Thanks to the work of these three man, many Allied troops accomplished several effective bombings, destroying Nazi supplies and, naturally, messing with their plans. In 2005, he and five others were honored by Austrian Chancellor Dr. Wolfgang Schssel for their athletic achievements and economic contributions to Austria. They were the parents of at least 5 sons and 1 daughter. The Gestapo burst in and arrested Mayer and took him to their HQs. OSS was the forerunner to both the Special Operations Command of the military, OSS Jedburgh and Operation Groups were the units that became the US Army Special Forces and Navy SEALs owe part of their legacy to OSS Maritime Group operatives, where one of them invented the US version of SCUBA. Kruger went on to earn aSAG Awards nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for the performance. And 15 Other Iconic Lines From Tarantino's FilmsThe Real-Life Django Who Rebelled Against Slavery And No One Talks About Enough10 Lessons We Learned From The Bad-Ass Women In Tarantino's Universe. They therefore had to walk in deep snowto Oberperfuss, Webers home village. Webers sister, Louise, was a nurse who gave Mayer the uniform and documents of a recently-deceased German officer. Inform us! When he is not skiing, Weber's schedule is filled with promotional and personal appearances for sponsors, celebrity sports events, speaking engagements and charity events. Log In. Fred Mayer and his five Jewish cohorts, who had become best friends during the training, had had enough. In an amazing turnabout, Mayer received an opportunity for revenge. September 1734 in Zell im Wiesental; 16. fifty races he entered. The largest of the ghettos where Eastern European Jews were first confined and, later, deported to extermination camps by the Nazis was set up in Warsaw, Poland. His mother, however, demanded that the family flee to the U.S. Young Fitz (Mayers nickname) was captivated by cowboy stories of the American West, and so looked forward to the journey.