Recap / Young Indiana Jones And The Trenches Of Hell

Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land.

Two episodes from the second season of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles ("Somme, Early August 1916" and "Germany, Mid-August 1916", first broadcast respectively on 28th September and 5th October 1992), later re-edited into a single feature-length episode entitled Trenches of Hell which (in chronological terms) is the eighth instalment of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones.

August 1916. After experiencing heavy fighting in Flanders, Indy — serving in the Belgian Army as "Henri Defense" — is left in command of his unit after all of the officers and sergeants are killed. The unit is assigned to a French company and thrown into the thick of the Battle of the Somme, being ordered to attack a heavily-defended German position. During a brief leave, Indy meets two soldier-poets whose words encapsulate the plight of the soldier in World War I. Back at the frontline, Indy is captured by the Germans — after which he quickly gains a reputation as an escape artist, resulting in him being sent to a maximum-security prison where he encounters a future French leader.

This episode contains examples of:

• Americans Are Cowboys: A variant; although Indy isn't dressed as a cowboy in any way, Yuri and Leonid assume that as he's American, he must have some knowledge of how to be one — specifically, that he can use a lasso to help with their escape attempt using a home-made rope.
• Bloodless Carnage: The battle scenes are brutal, but not particularly bloody.
• The Bully: Jacques, one of the Belgian soldiers, seems to enjoy intimidating younger, less experienced soldiers and goading those who he cannot inimidate. He tries to turn his fellow-soldiers against Indy, and is also suspected of having killed at least one of his unit's officers in Flanders.
• Call-Forward: This isn't the last time Indy escapes from a German castle and gets chased by Germans on motorbikes.
• Cannon Fodder: Not stated, but presumably the reason why the Belgians are picked to be at the forefront of the assault on La Maisonette, the heavily-defended chateau — the capture of which is key to the French attack.
• Chekhov's Gun: Chekhov's string, in this case; Yuri and Leonid are collecting bits of string in order to make a rope, which they use in an (ultimately doomed) escape attempt.
• Dead Person Impersonation: After they are taken prisoner, Indy and Emile pretend to be officers as they figure that as prisoners of war, officers get treated better than enlisted men. Emile sources the uniforms (and identity papers) of two dead French officers, and the pair assume the identities of those officers — Lieutenant Pierre Blanc (Indy) and Captain Francois Toussant (Emile). This presents Indy with a problem, as it turns out that Blanc had a reputation for being a somewhat difficult prisoner ... a reputation Indy is quick to live up to. The disguise seems to fool the French officers in the first camp (and even the Germans, who refuse to believe Indy when he claims not to be Blanc), but later on, a certain Captain de Gaulle is less than convinced.
• Defiant Captive: Charles de Gaulle, and Indy himself.
• The Determinator: De Gaulle, even at 25. Truth in Television, as he made five escape attempts during his time in captivity, only to be recaptured every time.
  Indy: Now what shall we do?
  De Gaulle: What we always do. Keep trying.
  Indy: It's no use.
  De Gaulle: Don't say that! Never give up.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Indy's despairing comment about how the only way out of Dusterstadt is "in a coffin" is what gives him and de Gaulle the idea for their escape.
• Fictional Counterpart: Dusterstadt, the high-security prison located in a castle overlooking the Danube, is evidently based on the castle at Ingolstadt, which also overlooks the Danube ... and where Charles de Gaulle was imprisoned in Real Life during World War I.
• Foregone Conclusion: Given that the Verdun episode which follows this one chronologically had already been broadcast prior to the Germany part oh this one, viewers of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in its original Anachronic Order would have been well aware that Indy would somehow make it back to the Allied lines. Viewers of this episode who have seen some of the (chronologically subsequent) wartime episodes will also be aware that Indy will succeed. Those acquainted with the life of Charles de Gaulle would also be aware that he will be recaptured.
• Foreshadowing: At the first POW camp, Emile comments that "at least it's not Dusterstadt" — referring to a (fictional) high-security prison located in a castle overlooking the Danube. Guess where Indy ends up...
• Great Escape: After being taken prisoner, Indy gets involved in more than one prison break. The first, involving a tunnel, sees him recaptured and sent to a maximum-security prison — from which he plans to escape, and eventually succeeds (by hiding in a coffin).
• Historical Domain Character: The two British officers who Indy and Emile play tennis against are Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, who served as officers in the same regiment. Later on, Indy is incarcerated alongside Charles de Gaulle.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: When the Belgians get a couple of days leave after the counter-attack, the nearest bar (the Café du Mioi) is everyone's first port of call after getting cleaned up.
• I Surrender, Suckers: The Germans pull this trick on the Belgians, resulting in the death of Sergeant Giscard.
• Manly Tears: Moreau sheds these after Giscard is killed.
• Mistaken for Spy: Upon arrival in Dusterstadt, Indy is quickly exposed by the other prisoners as not being the French officer he's been posing as. Their first thought is that he's been sent to spy on them by the commandant — but de Gaulle is quick to deduce that Indy is actually American, not German.
• Mood Whiplash: With their broken English and bonkers escape plans, Yuri and Leonid (the Russian officers in Dusterstadt) appear to be the comic relief — until their attempt to escape results in their deaths.
• Mr. Fanservice: Indy takes his shirt off during the German inspection, presumably to disguise the fact that his shirt is covered in dirt from the tunnel he's been digging.
• Noodle Incident: We don't actually see the events in Flanders which resulted in the deaths of all of the Belgian unit's officers and sergeants; Jacques may have had a hand in this, as Indy says that he saw him near the body of one of the officers who was stabbed in the back with a bayonet. This would have been covered in an episode of the unproduced third series.
• Playing Possum: A variant; Indy and de Gaulle escape from Dusterstadt by removing the bodies of Yuri and Leonid from their coffins and taking their places. Which works, until the Germans decide that rather than bury them (a job usually left to the British orderlies, who are of course in on the plan), they're going to cremate them instead. Fortunately, Indy and de Gaulle overhear the Germans discussing this, and are able to get out of the coffins before the truck arrives at the incinerator.
• Prison Escape Artist. Lieutenant Blanc, the dead French officer whose identity Indy assumes after being captured, was one of these. Indy is quick to live up to his reputation. In Dusterstadt, he teams up with de Gaulle — a Real Life example, given that he made five unsuccessful attempts to escape after being taken prisoner by the Germans in World War I.
• Rank Up: With the French unable to spare any of their own officers to command the Belgians, they promote a French sergeant, Moreau, to lieutenant so that he can lead them.
• Secret Test of Character: Before introducing themselves, Sassoon and Graves ask Indy what they think of the latter's poetry (which they've just asked him to read out). It's only after he has said he likes it (despite having been given an obvious cue to voice a negative opinion) that they introduce themselves and befriend him.
  Graves: If you ask me, it's the silliest rubbish I've ever heard.
  Sassoon: What do you think, corporal?
  Indy: I think it's quite good. I really do.
  Graves: Congratulations. You've passed the test, corporal. Lieutenant Robert Graves. [shakes Indy's hand]
• Sergeant Rock: Moreau appears to have been one of these prior to his promotion to lieutenant. In battle, he takes the initiative and is visibly in the thick of the action. Giscard is one of these as well.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Graves is presented as this, Sassoon explaining his behaviour as being the result of "a nervous breakdown about a month ago". See the entry for Understatement below for more.
• Shout-Out: The first POW camp, and the attempt by the prisoners to tunnel out, may put viewers in mind of The Great Escape, while Dusterstadt may remind viewers of Colditz . Although POW camps in World War II are more familiar to modern viewers than the ones from World War I, the former were very much modelled on the latter (from which various escape attempts were made). In Australia, this episode was actually broadcast under the title Young Indiana Jones and the Great Escape.
• Shout-Out to Shakespeare: After the tennis match, Indy and the British officers bond after he recognises that they are quoting the Bard.
  Sassoon: A Belgian corporal who speaks good English with a mastery of Shakespeare. I don't believe it!
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Yuri and Leonid's escape attempt involves using a home-made rope to lasso a spike atop a parapet on the other side of the river and then using it to cross over said river from over a hundred feet up. Rather than use the rope to cross one after the other, they insist on crossing together ... leading to their deaths when the rope breaks because it can't support their combined weight.
• Those Two Guys: Yuri and Leonid. Even their corpses are shown together after their deaths, which came about after they refused to use the rope one at a time to cross to the other side of the river.
• Translation Convention: Done for simplicity's sake in most of the wartime episodes, but it really stands out in this one; the actors are all speaking English, but most of the dialogue is clearly meant to be in French or German. When Indy meets Charles de Gaulle, the Frenchman initially suspects him of being a German spy because he doesn't speak French well enough to be a native speaker.
• Understatement: What Sassoon describes as Graves's "nervous breakdown" consisted of him getting so badly wounded by a shell-fragment through the lung that he was not only expected to die, he was actually reported as having died of his wounds.
• War Is Hell: The depictions of the fighting on the Western Front — in which Belgian soldiers attack a well-defended German position and are then subject to a counter-attack — are unflinchingly brutal, with hand-to-hand fighting, a gas attack and the use of flamethrowers.
• Warrior Poet: Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves. Indy reads out the former's poem "Dreamers" over a montage of French and Belgian soldiers on leave and in the trenches.
• We ARE Struggling Together: It's made clear that the French, Belgian and British soldiers don't much care for each other, even though they're on the same side.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Emile, the Belgian soldier who is taken prisoner with Indy and who comes up with the idea of the pair disguising themselves as French officers, is shot and killed while trying to escape from the first POW camp.
  • The same goes for Yuri and Leonid, the Russians in Dusterstadt, who die attempting to escape shortly after their introduction.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Remy evidently managed to evade capture when the Germans overran the Belgians' position, although we only know this because he's in the next episode. How he managed to get back to the Allied lines, and whether any of the other Belgian soldiers also managed to do so (Indy and Emile being the only ones to be taken prisoner), is not stated.
• You Are in Command Now: With all of his unit's officers and sergeants dead, Indy — a corporal — is its most senior surviving solider. The officers of the French company to which they get assigned are not impressed (partly, it must be said, because they didn't want a Belgian unit assigned to them in the first place).
• Young Future Famous People: Among Indy's fellow-prisoners in Dunderstadt is a 25 year-old French officer, Captain Charles de Gaulle. As a POW, he was known for his patriotic fervour and repeated escape attempts, although (to his frustration) he remained in captivity until the war ended.