"The Thirteenth Truck" is a suspenseful World War II story set in North Africa and it rates as one of Escape's all around best episodes.
The story is narrated by Captain Paul Brown, the only American in an Allied group of six desert commandos who specialize in sabotage. His job is to lead them on a mission across Nazi lines to find and then destroy a hidden airbase.
They start out from their headquarters at El Kabrit, Libya, circle Tobruk and head into Nazi territory with a truckfull of dynamite. Their plan is to wait for a convoy of Nazi trucks to come along so they can join in and follow them into the hidden airbase.
"The Thirteenth Truck" was adapted for radio by Gus Bayz, from the story of Captain Douglas M. Smith, as told to Cecil Carnes. A story called "We Dynamite a Nazi Airfield" by Smith appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1943, and he is the author of American Guerilla Fighting Behind Enemy Lines (1943). Smith is also one of the authors listed in the book Combat: European Theater, World War II (1958). This broadcast starred Hy Averback as Captain Brown and Richard Peel as the seargent. Alistair Duncan, Charlie Lung, Alec Harford and Jack Kruschen also appeared.
Escape presented this episode on August 16, 1953.
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