Gaelic take on The Great Escape
Story of Highland soldiers who used native tongue to outwit Nazis to be made into film
THE exploits of a quickthinking trio of Scottish soldiers who escaped the clutches of Nazi forces by speaking Gaelic are to be made into a feature film.
Private William Kemp, Corporal Sandy MacDonald and Lance Corporal James “Ginger” Wilson engineered the daring escape across war-torn Europe in June 1940, weeks after their Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders regiment had surrendered to enemy forces following five days of bombardment from trench mortars and field guns.
The story of the soldiers’ journey already holds legendary status in their native Highland village of Ballachulish but is now set to win a massive audience as it is used as the basis for Second World War drama In The Darkest Hour.
After initially escaping and managing to ditch their military uniforms for civilian clothes, the trio were captured by the Germans again at a checkpoint and taken to a prisoner of war camp.
Facing down the barrel of a German commander’s gun, the soldiers thought their days were numbered.
But, as Private Kemp recalled in his memoir about the escape, the use of their native Gaelic confused the Germans and the Scots were able to convince their captors they were actually from the Soviet Union, which at the time was not yet at war with the Nazis.
He said: “In the morning we were brought before the German commander, whose first action was to point his revolver at each of us in turn.
“We took this to be a warning to speak the truth or take the consequences.
“A French officer, acting as an interpreter, asked us to state our nationality.
“I replied in Gaelic: ‘I do not know’. When he asked what country we were from, I then said: ‘Ardnamurchan’.”
Baffled by what they were hearing, the soldiers were joined by several other men in the room and questioned in seven other languages.
Their questions were met with more Gaelic responses and, once an atlas was produced, the soldiers pointed to Ukraine.
A few more officers came in to consult about what they were being told and, shortly after, the Scots were free to go.
Tired, hungry and penniless, the brave soldiers made their way through occupied France to Spain, where they discovered a British consulate and boarded a vessel under cover of darkness.
Once out of Spanish territorial waters, they transferred to a British warship and returned to Scotland.
News of the soldiers’ escape spread and German forces, angered by being made to look stupid by the Scots, were said to have sent any Gaelic speakers straight to labour camps as punishment.
All three soldiers have now passed away but Private Kemp’s niece, Susan Kemp, still lives in Ballachulish and said her family were proud of her uncle’s story.
“It’s always something I thought would make a great film,” she said. “I understand the film will be loosely based on my uncle’s story but I have only just heard about it.
“As children we were aware of it but, as was often the case with that generation, they didn’t make a big deal of it.
“They must have had nerves of steel.
They must have had nerves of steel. They just don’t make them like that any more