Roland Garros: Tennis, Planes, Prison Breaks, and Machine Guns

Wait... What? Roland Garros wasn’t a tennis player?! 🤯 

If you think the French Open is named after a legendary clay-court champion, prepare to have your mind blown. In this episode, we dive into the wild, daring, and true history of the real Roland Garros. 

Before he became a synonymous with the French Open Tennis Tournament, he was a fearless pioneer of early flight, a daredevil French aviator and a World War I fighter pilot who invented a way to shoot machine guns through spinning propeller blades.

Join us as we unpack:
• Why a massive tennis tournament is named after a guy who preferred planes to rackets (or racquets).
• The terrifying reality of early 20th-century aviation (spoiler: lots of crashes).
• How he became a war hero, ended up in a German POW camp, and promptly escaped.

Hit that follow button, leave us a 5-star review if you like your history with a side of laughs, and let’s find out who this mustachiod icon actually was.

Email honourablementionspod@gmail.com 

Website

honourablementions.buzzsprout.com

Facebook

Honourable Mentions 

Instagram 

honourablementionspod

TikTok 

honourable.mentionspod

Discord

honourablementions

Transcript

Speaker 3 0:04

For two weeks in the early summer of every year, the sporting world turns its attention to Paris, France, and a few clay tennis courts where the best on the planet compete to win the French Open Championship, one of the four annual Grand Slam tennis tournaments. And those hallowed courts of red clay that few get to tread sit within the famous Roland Garros Stadium. But have you ever stopped to wonder who the deuce was Roland Garros? See what I did there? And how come this world famous sporting cathedral bears his name? Be prepared to be surprised as we dive into a tale of adventure, ingenuity, machine guns, and tennis rackets. I'm Steve, he's Neil, and this is Honourable Mentions. Honourable Mentions. Hello, listener. How are you? I hope you are bright and sprightly on this day, because we are going to serve to you a rather magnificent episode. So let's welcome in, shall we? Let's see if we can catch him in our net. There's lots of clues coming out here, listener. Hello, Neil.

Speaker 1 1:34

Bonjour, Stephen.

Speaker 3 1:36

Oh, he's talking French, listener. Have you ever heard of tennis?

Speaker 1 1:42

In the elbow, yes.

Speaker 3 1:44

Oh yes, son of a consider that tennis elbow, of course. That is an affliction. What else do you know about tennis, please?

Speaker 1 1:51

I don't know where the word tennis comes from, but I know that you get it in your elbow.

Speaker 3 1:55

Well, well, Neil. Although for the listener, I have to stress that we do these episodes of honourable dimensions, you may have heard them before. And I will present a story and tell a story, but Neil Hello, Neil. Hello. Neil hasn't really does have no idea until I do the intro of what we're going to be talking about today. And he's rather nicely set up something for us there, without knowing that he did it. Because I've got a question for Neil, a bit of a sports quiz. I know you are a keen sportsman.

Speaker 1 2:32

I don't know as much about the sport. I know I think the sport is something to do with a ball and some stringed bats.

Speaker 3 2:39

It is to do with some balls and some stringed bats, and we will explore it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your permission. Are you ready to be amused and have your tennis strings tickled rather amusingly?

Speaker 1 2:54

If you want to tickle my strings, you can do.

Speaker 3 2:56

Because the name tennis actually comes from a case of hearing something in a foreign language and turning it into a completely new word.

Speaker 1 3:12

Well, what do you mean it's in a foreign language and changing it to an English word?

Speaker 3 3:17

Told you it was amusing.

Speaker 1 3:19

It is moving. It moves Boosh, if you will. Is that like between when you're 30 to 50, that sort of thing?

Speaker 3 3:30

No, because I'd I'd argue you're still fairly young at the age 30. Is it sort of late 30s to 50s? Yeah, something like that, isn't it? But anyway, you're not talking that at all. We're talking over time. So we're talking the twelfth and the thirteenth of your centuries. Eleven and twelve hundreds. The game of tennis was invented in England.

Speaker 1 4:03

Belgium.

Speaker 4 4:04

No. Greece. No China. No.

Speaker 3 4:11

I think you know where, Neil. France. France. It was invented in France. You were just toying with this there.

Speaker 4 4:22

Yep.

Speaker 3 4:24

But of course, because it was invented in France, it had the real downside of being invented by Frenchmen. Yeah, they made a complete hash of it. Do you know what they are? They played indoors. And without equipment, the players hit the ball with the palms of their hands. The French called it Jeux de Palme or , however you were to say that. Which means game of the palm.

Speaker 1 4:58

Now that sounds a bit like a humanism for uh what meant a men pleasuring oneself.

Speaker 3 5:04

It sounds like pure filth, doesn't it?

Speaker 1 5:06

It does, doesn't it? Pure filth.

Speaker 3 5:11

Yeah. You've been in there for ages. What are you doing? Not coming in on playing the game to the palm. Get out soon. That'd be more tissues. Anyway, by the way, when a player was about to serve their ball to the opponent, etiquette required that they shout a warning in case the other chap was occupied trying to twist a seemingly never-ending string of calendar while maintaining his dignity. Which is a problem Frenchman has. Yeah, well kind of, but not quite now. Because what they'd shout was tenaz. T E N E Z or Z. Tenez. Tene, Tenez. Which meant take this, receive or play.

Speaker 1 6:02

Yeah, so he's obviously played the game of the palm and then wants his person to receive it.

Speaker 3 6:09

So when English speakers watched the French aristocrats and monks slapping their bones about, they kept hearing the word tenis shouted at the start of every single point. And because the word was repeated constantly, they assumed it was the name of the sport itself. Such as someone may stumble across a game of golf and assume to themselves the name for golf was four.

Speaker 1 6:35

I think that's because one of the blokes went over and they've all went, whoah.

Speaker 3 6:39

That's not right, because it's name. Right, okay.

Speaker 2 6:42

Yeah.

Speaker 3 6:43

Anyway, now by the time it was absorbed into English around the year 1400, tennis had more phonetically into its correct pronunciation and Doddgiffan pronunciation of tennis.

Speaker 1 6:57

Tennis.

Speaker 3 6:58

So we then had to send it back to France. We sought it out for them, cleaned it up, got rid of the fence, give it its proper name, and sent it back over there. Originally, games were played up to 60 points. To keep track of the score on a court, people used a clock face. The clock face. The clock face, well done for repeating that. On the first point, the hand was moved a quarter turn to which position, please?

Speaker 1 7:30

Clockwise.

Speaker 3 7:32

That's the direction. The hand was moved a quarter turn to Oh quarter of a fifteen. Fifteen. On the second point, the hand moved another quarter of a turn until it was pointing at the Is that in the same direction?

Speaker 1 7:55

Yes. Oh it's gonna be thirty then, won't it?

Speaker 3 7:59

Thirty then, won't it? And then on the third point being score, the hand was moved two.

Speaker 1 8:07

Well, on uh assumptions of the sums, I was saying be forty-five.

Speaker 3 8:11

Forty-five.

Speaker 1 8:13

Forty-five.

Speaker 3 8:14

Forty-five. So why do we say forty instead, please, Neil?

Speaker 2 8:19

Because we're awkward.

Speaker 3 8:20

Yes. It's because historical records show that for centuries players actually did say forty-five. Which is forty-five. Quarant. Quarant, is that French? I d my French is a calling. It is Quaron Sank. Quarant, which is French for 45. Over time, that was shortened simply because no one could be bothered. It was easier to shout out and faster to shout out just saying quarant, which means forty.

Speaker 1 8:53

It was laziness.

Speaker 3 8:54

It was laziness.

Speaker 1 8:55

In darts. If someone scored 45 in darts, everyone goes for more, just say forty.

Speaker 3 9:01

It was faster easier just to shout out quarant, which means forty, than it was to shout out the multisyllable quarantine. So people just reduced it to 45. So you're right, Nil, it was, it's just pure laziness.

Speaker 1 9:17

Laziness.

Speaker 3 9:19

Did it build an empire on laziness? I wonder we had one and the French didn't. If the score is tied at 40-40, a player needs to win by two clear points. You'd agree with that. To keep the game within the 60-point hour structure, the clock hand would move to 50 on the first point, which we now call advantage, and then to 60, which would win you the game on the second consecutive point. If the point was lost, then the hand moved back down to 40 and you started again until someone had gone 50-60. Or do I don't know, my French is appalling. Let's go with Da de Je. Means two points to go, and that's where our phrase deuce comes from in tennis.

Speaker 1 10:19

So where does love come from, Stephen?

Speaker 3 10:22

Well, first of all, mummy and a daddy meet each other and love each other very much, Neil.

Speaker 1 10:28

Yeah, love comes from the heart, I know that. But where's the score love come from? Does it come from does their place self-love where the name of the tennis has come from?

Speaker 3 10:38

Oh, you're thinking of the Joy Joy de Palm.

Speaker 1 10:42

Yeah, playing with your palm, what it is, or a happy palm, or yeah.

Speaker 3 10:46

Slapping your balls about with your palm.

Speaker 1 10:48

Slapping your balls about with your own palm. Does that come from there? Because you're loving it, giving yourself a bit of self-love. Is that where love comes from?

Speaker 3 10:54

Uh good theory, but no. So uh rubbish theory. I believe it comes from the shape of an egg, being similar to the shape of a zero, and your egg in France or in French is love, which sounds like love, and it comes from there. That's ridiculous. But I don't care. I don't know.

Speaker 1 11:18

Um oranges look like a zero. Most things in life will look like.

Speaker 3 11:22

Why don't you invent yourself a time machine? Go back and complain. Because I didn't invent the scoring rules of tension.

Speaker 1 11:28

I'd take a hula hoop back there and say, look, there's a shit, there's look like a zero. Why don't you put that on there?

Speaker 3 11:33

Potato based snack or the plastic game hoop.

Speaker 1 11:37

The potato base snack, because then if I get hungry, how's something to eat if I get lost?

Speaker 3 11:41

Yeah, and you can bring those forward by centuries.

Speaker 1 11:44

Exactly. Change the world.

Speaker 3 11:48

Another theory about the scoring was about positioning on the court. So in your early French court, when they were still slapping their balls about, the server would win a point and physically move forward by 15 feet. If he only scored another point, he moved forward another 15 feet. And 15 plus 15 equals two points. Mathematically. And then if they scored another point, a third point, if you will. They were too close to the net, so I can only move forward another ten feet, which brings them to Closer to the net. Uh yes, it brings them closer to the net. But how many feet, Neil, please?

Speaker 1 12:36

Oh, I don't know, 30, 30, or top 40.

Speaker 3 12:39

Forty. Forty feet. And then they couldn't go any closer to the net. So once they won the next point after that, they'd win the game. But whatever the truth, today, tennis is one of the biggest sports on the planet, and largely defined by its four annual Grand Slam of tournaments. Which, listener, Nilia Holt is going to list for us now. Please don't.

Speaker 1 13:05

Yes, there well, I didn't mention this place because you'll go, ooh, I've been there. Um, but it was I've sort of be Australia.

Speaker 3 13:12

Australia is correct.

Speaker 1 13:13

Because I've heard of a lot of open Australians. Um there'll be one in France, obviously, because um you're talking about this chap's stadium, so in France. That's correct. Um there's one in London, which is Wimbledon, which is um is all on grass, and I do watch that sometimes in the summer. And how many left is there, please? One more. One more. It's gotta be well, it has to be in oh America, US of A. USA!

Speaker 3 13:45

Yeah, woo, woo, yeah, woo, woo, USA. Took a while to get going in the USA because every time someone served, someone in this in the audience would shoot the ball. Woo, yeah, woo! And they were also upset that the American Open was just the American Open that could call it the world champions. So, Neil, you mentioned.

Speaker 2 14:05

Yes.

Speaker 3 14:06

You mentioned there, I believe, the French Open Tennis Championship, which is played every year at Euroland Garros, which is a stadium in Paris.

Speaker 2 14:19

Right. Yeah.

Speaker 3 14:20

But who was Roland Garros players, and why was the stadium named after him?

Speaker 1 14:25

What do I know about Roland Garros? Absolutely nothing. And why was the stadium named after him, uh, because he financed it?

Speaker 3 14:34

Well, Crett in the first answer. And Rao in the second answer.

Speaker 1 14:41

Was he part of the Thunderbird's undercover system?

Speaker 3 14:47

Toss.

Speaker 1 14:48

Yes.

Speaker 3 14:49

No.

Speaker 1 14:50

Oh.

Speaker 3 14:51

Don't have French people in Thunderbirds. It was the French person in Thunderbirds. He didn't have French people. He's been all over the world.

Speaker 1 15:00

You mad Thunderbirds knew about things. Just grow up a bit and just realise, see the big picture.

Speaker 3 15:06

Anyway, Neil, you may be surprised to know that Roland Garros was a real person and that he was a man.

Speaker 1 15:16

From Iran?

Speaker 3 15:18

No, he was a man, as he's not a leader. He had a moustache. A moustache? Yeah.

unknown 15:28

Right.

Speaker 3 15:28

He founded out all sorts of facts here. Yeah, don't you? And he had a goldfish named Jonathan Gibbons.

Speaker 1 15:34

He had a goldfish called Jonathan Gibbons.

Speaker 3 15:38

There's an echo. Echo, echo, echo. Yes, he had a goldfish called Jonathan Gibbons.

Speaker 1 15:44

And is that written down in the factual area or is that written down in your heed?

Speaker 3 15:48

No, that's research. I've carried out plenty of research. I've traced the family tree of Jonathan Gibbons the goldfish and can confirm that he was in the presence of Roland Garros through much of his story.

Speaker 1 16:05

So you have researched celebrity goldfish?

Speaker 3 16:09

Yes.

Speaker 4 16:10

Okay.

Speaker 1 16:11

Well, I wasn't gonna say to that, really, is it?

Speaker 3 16:13

No buttons new, I cry. Why did you cry butt? Because neither Roland Garros or Jonathan Gibbons were tennis players. Neither did Roland Garros or Jonathan Gibbons have anything to do with tennis.

Speaker 2 16:30

Right.

Speaker 3 16:31

So why is the French national tennis stadium named after Roland Gross then, please, Neil?

Speaker 1 16:39

Did he invent the ball?

Speaker 3 16:40

No, that was Johnny Ball.

Speaker 1 16:43

Was it? Yeah.

Speaker 3 16:45

Ah.

Speaker 1 16:46

Did he invent ice?

Speaker 3 16:48

Why would it be important to have invented ice, please?

Speaker 1 16:51

Because you put ice in your drinks. And they have a big pot of ice next to tennis players, don't they, which they have their bananas and juice and stuff in it.

Speaker 3 16:58

I say exclusively only tennis players consume ice. Yes. You're correct. No, it's a good guess, Neil, but you're not right.

Speaker 2 17:08

Okay.

Speaker 3 17:09

Shall we move on and investigate? Yes, we have to. Roland was born to Georges and Clara Garros, a couple of musicians, on the 6th of October, 1888.

Speaker 4 17:26

1888.

Speaker 3 17:28

In Sandany de la Réunion.

Speaker 1 17:32

Oh yeah, yeah, that's nice. That's very well pronounced as well, Stephen. Well played.

Speaker 3 17:35

I thought so. Better than my other stabs at French, which is a little island and a French colony just off Madagascar, which is just off the east coast of Africa, which is just off the Atlantic Ocean.

Speaker 1 17:47

Well, I'd like to go to Madagascar and see the um talk to them animals.

Speaker 3 17:51

Which animals? Oh, those animals.

Speaker 1 17:54

In a documentary, yeah, it's on TV.

Speaker 3 17:57

Okay. And when you get there, will you just be talking or would you like to move it, move it?

Speaker 1 18:03

I'm not going to do the dancing, but I'd like to see that airplane they lived in and things like that. I'd like to see all that.

Speaker 3 18:08

Would you? Hmm. Why don't you ask our listener to start a um a giraffe?

Speaker 1 18:16

Go fund me. Go fund me. Yeah. Go fund me. Get me to Madagascar so I can see the animals and talk to them.

Speaker 3 18:22

Yeah.

Speaker 1 18:24

Specifically like to talk to the giraffe.

Speaker 3 18:26

Yeah. I think your reaction when you get there might be quite interesting. Why? I'm not going to say anything because it'll upset you. You carry that dream. You can achieve your dreams.

Speaker 1 18:37

I will do. I will do, thank you.

Speaker 3 18:39

Going back to Roland and what most of us would call reality, he spent his early childhood in Saint-Denis de la Rouillunion.

Speaker 1 18:50

Sondonis de la Rouillon, yeah.

Speaker 3 18:53

Until moving to Vietnam when he was aged four. With his parents. He was there, man. He didn't just go on his own. He knows what it was like, man. Now Vietnam at the time, of course, was called Vietnam. No.

Speaker 1 19:11

Oh. Um, Vietnam won.

Speaker 3 19:15

Ooh. No, French Indochina.

Speaker 1 19:18

Oh, that was gonna be one of my guesses later on down the line, but yeah.

Speaker 3 19:22

Once you got to Vietnam, 999,999, then I'd have gone somewhere else. So, yes, it was called French Indochina. And they remained there until he was 12 and they relocated back to mainland Française. Well, he probably caught a serious case of pneumonia and was sent to school in Cannes.

Speaker 1 19:46

Because he got pneumonia.

Speaker 3 19:50

Oh no, don't make me go my way. We're gonna can, okay.

Speaker 1 19:52

Yeah, I'll put pneumonia. Dugger off to school in in Cannes.

Speaker 3 19:56

He was sent there to recover, because it's notoriously warm, isn't it? So that they thought the l the warm air would do his lungs good, you see.

Speaker 1 20:05

Well there's lots of films that go on there, isn't there?

Speaker 3 20:07

Well, uh yes, I don't think there were really around the year 1892 or whatever it was, 1890s. Actually, no, he was born in 1888, so do your math, Stephen. So if he got to Cannes when he was 12 and he was born in 1888, we're talking, what, 1967? Something like that.

Speaker 1 20:26

Yeah, so there would have been films.

Speaker 3 20:28

You're right. Anyway, so there he was in Cannes, sent by the doctors, recovering in the heat and the sunshine from his pneumonia. And doctors recommended sports to rebuild his respiratory health. So like all Frenchmen kneel.

Speaker 1 20:44

Yeah.

Speaker 3 20:44

He took up cycling.

Speaker 1 20:47

Well, French that's not really just taking up sports, that's how he was just getting around everywhere, wouldn't it? With the onions around the neck and the black and white stripy jumpers. And the baret? Yeah, and the bread in the front basket.

Speaker 3 20:58

In the wicker basket.

Speaker 1 21:00

Yeah.

Speaker 3 21:01

Do you want to be a bit stereotypical?

Speaker 1 21:05

That's just telling to to get on a bike and deliver things.

Speaker 3 21:09

Yeah, I suppose so. It's like coming over here and seeing all the gentlemen walking around in their very expensive pressed pinstripe suits and bowl hats with an umbrella and a copy of the Times under their arm.

Speaker 1 21:21

Yes, under their arm. Hello!

Speaker 3 21:24

That's how we dress. Hello there! Yeah. Yeah, we're in jolly old England. But anyway, there he was. Not at all stereotypical French absolute shaw. So there he was. And he proved to be really rather jolly good at cycling now, winning an interschool cycling championship. And then Haddy Shoff. He only went and become a French cycling champion in nineteen oh six. And on top of that he did. And on top of that, he was also an outstanding footballer and player of your rugby union.

Speaker 1 22:00

Oh, okay. Well I can relate to him now then.

Speaker 3 22:02

Eventually Roland stopped all this gadding about and moved to Paris to finish his schooling, going on to graduate from a prestigious HEC in Paris at the business school in nineteen oh eight.

Speaker 4 22:21

That's interesting. Thank you.

Speaker 1 22:23

It's ten past seven.

Speaker 4 22:25

Really, isn't it?

Speaker 1 22:26

Yeah, I do that because you were taking that joke. When I do it, it's funny.

Speaker 3 22:30

I reckon you did at business school.

Speaker 1 22:32

Well, I think he did a business school. I think he learnt the art of origami.

Speaker 3 22:36

Mm-hmm. That's a good guess. I'm gonna say business.

Speaker 1 22:40

Did he did he uh open up a crep store?

Speaker 3 22:43

That's a very good guess as well, because French, of course, are notorious for their pastries and their ballet. What he did, Neil, despite Georges and Clara pushing for him to pursue a career as a concert pianist, because that was something else he excelled at.

Speaker 1 23:01

Yeah.

Speaker 3 23:02

And of course, he famously attached a grand piano to the handlebars of his pushbike and composed, goodness gracious, great balls of fire while going downhill with some cobblestones. As you would. Oh, I bet it did. And I remained of the same stuff on the side of match boxes it struck a match against as well. So you were a bit oh, no wonder he had great balls of fire. When he was but twenty one, Roland founded his own company. Did he? So I told you he was doing business. Or was he doing origami in this company, shall we see?

Speaker 1 23:39

Let's find out, please.

Speaker 3 23:41

It was a car dealership.

Speaker 1 23:45

Ooh. Where'd he get his money from for this? I don't know. I have I have an idea. Do you? I think it came from his mum. Why? Because they travel they travelled a lot, and there was a character in Pigeon Street called long distance Clara, so that's perhaps who his mum is, and she used her royalties to live give him the money to open up a car dealership. Oh.

Speaker 3 24:09

There's some thought gone into that, isn't there?

Speaker 1 24:12

Absolutely. There you go. So this money has come from long-distance Clara.

Speaker 3 24:16

Well, I don't, yes, I'm not going to argue with that because I can't. I've got no proof either way. There you go. This this car dealership, which probably was a car dealership with a pâtisserie, because it was in France. Yeah, it's in France, isn't it? It was a car dealership specialising in sports and touring cars, not far from it, off de Triomp, in the heart of Gay Paris.

Speaker 1 24:44

Was it gay back then or was it uh not? Oh, it was. Yeah, but were they allowed but then well it's not as open as it is these days, is it? So I imagine it couldn't have been called Gay Paris.

Speaker 3 24:53

Although in France it was rampant.

Speaker 1 24:56

Still in the closet Paris.

Speaker 3 24:58

No, no, no, no, no, no. God bless you. No. Okay. No, it was rampant. But he wasn't there long, Neil, before his life took a brand new twist, and in August of 1909, he was invited to the Champagne region by a friend.

Speaker 1 25:16

Well, there's a plang coming here, Steve.

Speaker 3 25:18

Oh, there's a clang?

Speaker 1 25:20

Yeah. I have been to the Champagne region of France. Thank you.

Speaker 3 25:24

Clang it then. Clang. And what did you do in the Champagne region of France, please, Neil?

Speaker 1 25:32

Well, actually, I was there on a rugby tour. I can't think I think was it Epinay we went to a place called Epine, I think it was Epic. I think it wasn't there. I can't remember. Let's go to be honest. I can't remember what it was called, but yes, we played a few games of Videgby and we went round the champagne caves and um generally got drunk. The champagne caves. Yes, they have caves underneath the ground.

Speaker 3 25:54

Did they have to mulch? I didn't realise they mined this.

Speaker 1 25:56

Yeah, that's how they make it. That's how they make champagne. And they have to dig land lower down, and it's all gets like all the minerals and things like that gets a bit fizzy after a while and it comes out fizzy at the bottom, they just drip it into bottles.

Speaker 3 26:07

Well, I never did. Did you, listener? Did you dit? How fascinating. And while you were there, Neil, did you attend an air show, perchance?

Speaker 1 26:16

An air show?

Speaker 3 26:18

Yes.

Speaker 1 26:19

No. Because Roland did. Did he?

Speaker 3 26:24

Gazing up with a slack jaw at those magnificent men in their flying machines, he fell completely in love with the swooping, buzzing exhilaration of manned flight. Roland was an all or nothing kind of chap, and he immediately sold his Xbox and purchased a plane and then taught himself to fly before obtaining his pilot's license.

Speaker 1 26:46

Ooh, that's clever. Perhaps he had a game on his Xbox that could fly.

Speaker 3 26:51

Well, as we all know, he wouldn't have injured himself or written off the plane. Because back then planes only crashed by flying through the open doors of a wooden bar before emerging on the other side covered in straw and behind some panic chickens.

Speaker 1 27:04

Yeah, lots of chickens flying off the side of it, yeah.

Speaker 3 27:06

Yeah. So he wouldn't have done any damage. He was quite safe.

Speaker 1 27:10

No, no.

Speaker 3 27:11

On the 6th of September 1911, just two years after he decided to take to the skies in the first place, Roland broke his own altitude record reaching 3,910 meters, just under 13,000 feet, and became quite the distinguished luminary.

Speaker 1 27:32

But have um back in M Day, Steve, did they have measuring tools to go that height or distance or radar to track things in the sky?

Speaker 3 27:40

Yes. Yes or no?

unknown 27:42

Yes? Yep.

Speaker 1 27:43

They did.

Speaker 3 27:43

They had two fellows, one called Pierre, the other called Thierry. And what they had was some wooden ladders.

Speaker 1 27:50

Yeah.

Speaker 3 27:51

And Thierry would stand on the ground holding the ladder. Pierre would go up to the top with his tape measure, and then every time he needed a new ladder, Thierry would hand him the new ladder, which Pierre would hammer into the top of the old one, and they'd build that ladder upright with the tape measure until they were right up there at 13th, then they just shouted to Roland.

Speaker 1 28:13

When they got to about 100 metres, who came up or who went down to pick the next ladder up then, please?

Speaker 3 28:19

Thierry was taking them up when he's climbing the ladders.

Speaker 1 28:21

So who was holding the bottom of the ladder then?

Speaker 3 28:23

Oh, you don't need that. Let's say South and Say to come mad. They don't have that then. Okay.

Speaker 1 28:29

Alright, okay, we'll go with that.

Speaker 3 28:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2 28:31

I'm trying to help you, Roland.

Speaker 3 28:34

Anyway, Roland became quite the luminary.

Speaker 1 28:39

Yeah, lit up, lit the world up.

Speaker 3 28:41

He appeared in I Am a Distinguished Luminarian, Get Me Out of Here, where he finished third behind Tower Zan and the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Oh, okay. He also took part in a series of air shows and races with hundreds of thousands of people from across Europe and South America crowding to witness his daring do.

Speaker 1 29:06

Yeah but what is a daring do? Is that trying to do one in public without being noticed?

Speaker 3 29:13

No, that's a daring poo.

Speaker 1 29:15

Oh, say the same thing, isn't it?

Speaker 3 29:17

A daring do is a feat of bravery. Or bravado.

Speaker 1 29:23

Oh, feat of bravery.

Speaker 3 29:25

Yes. So having done all that in just a couple of years, Neil, hello, Neil.

Speaker 1 29:31

Hello, Stephen.

Speaker 3 29:32

Young Roland set himself a new challenge. No one had ever flown across the Mediterranean, so he thought we'd have a pop at that.

Speaker 1 29:41

Yeah, why not?

Speaker 3 29:43

And so it came to pass that on the twenty third of September nineteen thirteen, Roland took you like September, didn't he?

Speaker 2 29:51

Yeah.

Speaker 3 29:52

Roland took a long run up and flew his monoplane for eight hours straight all the way from the French Riviera, which is in France.

Speaker 2 30:01

Yeah.

Speaker 3 30:01

To Tunisia, which is in Tunisia. Roland was carrying two hundred litres of fill and sixty litres of castor oil.

Speaker 1 30:11

Right, was he gonna have a fright when he got the other end?

Speaker 3 30:13

In case he needed to win favour with a bunch of terracotta potters in Tunisia who were suffering with constipation.

Speaker 1 30:19

Ah good idea.

Speaker 3 30:21

Roland managed to fix two engine failures mid-flight and touched down in Tunisia after flying seven hundred and eighty kilometres of four hundred and eighty-five miles. And they know that because Pierre and Thierry were in a rowing boat beneath and with a tape measure that was stuck to the side of France. Then they took it all the way out to see where it got as far as it got in Tunisia.

Speaker 1 30:46

And they perhaps learned from not stacking ladders on top of each other to use a tape measure, which would have been a lot safer in the third place, yeah?

Speaker 3 30:55

They were there. And when he landed, when he landed, this is a this is a bit of a bit of an amusing anecdote he used to use after dinners, when he landed, he only had five litres of fill left in the tank. This little jaunt made him even more famous than what it was before he went and jaunted it. But then, Neil, what went and happened? What went and bobbed on his chips?

Speaker 1 31:27

Was it the Great War of World War One?

Speaker 3 31:30

World War One, well done, Neil.

Speaker 1 31:33

Yes. Thank you.

Speaker 3 31:35

It only went happened, didn't it? And Dashing Roland Gunners signed up immediately.

Speaker 1 31:40

Immediately?

Speaker 3 31:43

At the time, planes were equipped with very little weaponry. All they had was a megaphone, so the pilot could shout hurtful words at the damned Fritz pilots.

unknown 31:52

Yeah.

Speaker 2 31:53

Fritz pin, yes, get away with shoo.

Speaker 3 31:56

Shoo. Shoo.

Speaker 2 31:57

Be away with you.

Speaker 3 31:59

And then the Germans in turn had those pointy helmets for opening tins. They dive bomb the enemy. So while Roland had Thierry and Pierre, the German pilots, had Boris in the back there, and they'd just turn the plane upside down, he'd fall out straight through the other plane with his pointed helmet. But he went out himself because he'd stick in the ground. Just all going, and then they come and get him.

Speaker 2 32:25

Yeah, good idea, wasn't it?

Speaker 3 32:26

Yeah. But luckily now, Roland wasn't about to have any of that nonsense, so he invented the world's first single centre fighter plane equipped with an onboard machine gun that fired through the propeller.

Speaker 1 32:39

Well, I'd never did.

Speaker 3 32:41

Well he did. You did. No, you never did.

Speaker 1 32:45

I never did.

Speaker 3 32:46

He did. On April the first.

Speaker 1 32:50

Yeah.

Speaker 3 32:52

On April the first.

Speaker 1 32:55

April the first. Oh, there we go. April the first. Your birthday.

Speaker 3 33:00

Well is it? Oh, sorry, I didn't realize. Um, if a listener wants to take a little moment just to write that down, you can contact us at honourablelenchpod at gmail.com or on a Discord these days. Or you can get us on Spotify or anything like that, just in case you wanted to, no particular reason. Anyway, back to the story. On April the first. On April the first, in nineteen fifteen, Roland shocked the entire German nation by flying directly at one of their observation planes and blasting it out of the air through his own propeller.

Speaker 1 33:40

Wow. Vive la France. Vive la France Be Per Vivre.

Speaker 3 33:46

Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho bylteenth, the entire French Air Force had managed to down a total of five German planes.

unknown 33:57

Yeah.

Speaker 3 33:58

Roland accounted for three of them. Wow. Never before had a lone pilot hunted other men through the air.

Speaker 1 34:06

Could have been a mischievous superhero back then, flying around.

Speaker 3 34:10

Oh, look at this man. Super super super. Do you think so? Yeah. Is that your superhero?

Speaker 1 34:17

Impression. That's what he says. That was his that was his speech, yeah. Super super super.

Speaker 3 34:22

That's very good.

unknown 34:23

Thank you.

Speaker 3 34:24

And what's the name of this superhero?

Speaker 1 34:27

He was called Fiddler.

Speaker 3 34:28

The Fiddler. Just a fiddler, for the purposes of being able to stay on air.

Speaker 2 34:35

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 34:36

Roland, Roland Garros, who was none of those things, of course. Had become one of the world's very first fighter aces. Ooh, fighter ace. But oh no, Neil.

Speaker 1 34:52

What? What happened, please?

Speaker 3 34:54

Oh no. What? On that very day, what I just said, April the eighteenth.

Speaker 2 35:01

Yes.

Speaker 3 35:02

Roland was hit by a pesky German anti-aircraft defences somewhere over Belgium.

Speaker 1 35:08

No, he wasn't.

Speaker 3 35:09

He was.

Speaker 1 35:10

Well. Well, well, that was a good shot, wasn't it?

Speaker 3 35:13

Forced to land, he was taken prisoner.

Speaker 1 35:17

Was he? Yeah.

Speaker 3 35:18

And in Belgium, too, of all places. Well, this is the thing, because he was very upset to find that he'd been taken captive in Belgium, but then he realised about the chocolate and the fact that. And the ruffles. And the ruffles, and it wasn't Northampton, whereas it could have been. It could have been a lot worse.

Speaker 1 35:34

Can you imagine that? Landing in Northampton, he's just ended up with tricking George or something, and or bloody I don't know.

Speaker 3 35:41

People with six fingers really about. The thing is, Neil.

Speaker 1 35:45

Go on.

Speaker 3 35:45

Roland was forced to land and taken prisoner, as we've said. And all this was before he had a chance to destroy his plane.

Speaker 1 35:54

Oh no.

Speaker 3 35:55

And do you know what?

Speaker 1 35:57

What? I can say I've got a feeling.

Speaker 3 36:00

Well, rather than give it back, which would have been a gentlemanly thing to do.

Speaker 1 36:04

It would have been a nice thing to do, yes. I think this is yours, gentlemen.

Speaker 3 36:07

Those slippery underhand Germans stole gallant and brave Roland's brilliantly technical, savage and brutally murderous in a venge.

Speaker 2 36:16

Yeah.

Speaker 3 36:17

And copied it like it was their own homework, without so much as a buy nor leave.

Speaker 1 36:22

That's not a bad thing, because we've all copied someone else's homework, surely. Have we? Well I did.

Speaker 3 36:29

Oh I hope Mum's not listening to this. She'll be grabbing you by the top of your ear and making you do your homework again. And do you know what Rowland and his little engineering team have done? On the back of each wooden propeller blade, right where the line of fire crossed the propeller's a hack, Rowland had his engineers' bolt steel triangles, which deflected the bullets he was firing. When he pulled the trigger via a mechanical wire loop from the cockpit, the gun fired at his normal rate. Statistically, about 93% of the bullets flew cleanly between the spinning blades. The remaining 7% of them smashed directly into the back of the propeller and were deflected away by the plates. The surfaces of which featured metal grooves designed to catch a bullet and sling it outwards instead of just batting it back at the pilot. Now those German sheets they only went and handed Rollover's modified propeller and standard machine gun over to a Dutch engineer who said there is a better way of doing this. And that Dutch engineer's name was Anthony Fokker. Anthony Fokker of the famous Fokker airplanes. Fokker used the inspiration to create the synchronizer gear. A mechanical linkage actually paused the machine gun's firing pin the exact millisecond a propeller blade passed in front of the barrel. He was a biddy big bollocks, weren't he? He was a show off. But where's his tennis stadium? Eh? Anyway, it only took Rowland three years to escape from that heavily fortified prisoner of war capitalist ducking in. So stick that up, you bratverst. He didn't dig a tunnel. He didn't scale a wall in the dead of night or in the daytime. And he definitely didn't jump a motorbike out of a fence. He just marched right out the front gate. When a fellow French pilot called Anselme Marchal Hover many months they smuggled and secretly altered bits of clothing to piece together convincing German military uniforms and went for the tried and tested fake moustache routine to match the styling of the camps guards and officers. All in all, this was a much better plan than their previous idea of disguising themselves as a travelling mariachi band, especially as Anselm spake fluent German. So on the evening of february fourteenth, nineteen eighteen, in dim light and dressed in their makeshift uniforms, complete with fake mustaches, Anselm and Rowland walked out into the camp courtyard as the guards were changing their shifts. When they reached the checkpoint gates, Anselm gave the guards a mouthful because he was French and couldn't help himself. The guards, intimidated by what they assumed were superior officers, saluted and opened the gates, allowing the two Frenchmen to walk right out into the night, the little tinkers. The duo decided to travel at night and hide during the day to avoid search parties. They made a treacherous journey of many days northwest towards the neutral Netherlands. From there they were given passage on a boat bound for London. If Netherlands was neutral, what was Anthony Fokapleiner sided with the Jerriys? Here, you start to lose a bit of sympathy for our gallant heroes because they arrived in London and then they left London with a smug and jelly deals and music halls and pearly kings and queens and went all the way back to France. Why? Why would anybody do that? Rowland's health had seriously deteriorated during his captivity. He had become severely short sighted and had to make himself pairs of glasses in secret. So there was Roland Garros severely short sighted. So what's the first thing he does when he gets back to France? He goes back to flying life threatening missions in a plane made of crape paper and old molly sticks. Although he won one more of his duels, Roland Garros was shot down and killed on the 5th of October 1918 over the Ardennes region of France. That's just over a month. Just over a month before the end of the war. So if it'd have hung on another few weeks, he'd have survived the whole ballet shooting match. But no, he didn't. Or if he'd have stayed in London, not a sensible person, he'd have been safe. The very ones, anyway, first world war hero, an inventor, and a trailblazer of aviation. Then ten years after his death in 1928, this is the 1928 was ten years after, because he died in 1918. Let's not get confused here. A tennis stadium that had been built for France to defend their Davis Cup title was named after Roland Garros at the request of Emile Lechieux. He was president of the Stade France and a friend of Roland, and Roland had supported Le Sieux's campaign to become the chair and president. So Roland Garros may not have been linked with the tennis world, but very few sport stadiums anywhere carry the name of a person whose courage, cunning, skill and fervour raculately reflects the attributes of anyone who hopes to reign supreme within its walls. Napoleon said Victory belongs to the most persevering. And Rowland liked that and had it inscribed onto all of his plane's propellers, right up until he was shot down because he couldn't see further than his joystick. So victory didn't belong to the most persevering, did it? Because both the Balbian and Roland Garros came like a couple of croppers. But that is the fascinating story of Roland Garros, for whom the National French tennis stadium and the French Open Tennis Stadium is named after. Well, listener, what did you think to that little episode? There was anything you'd like to ask us about tennis. We are quite experts. Thank you, listener. Do be sure to look us up on all your social medias. And the most importantly of all, please subscribe. If you've got any suggestions of a subject we should cover, or anyone in your family that you think would be a decent subject for us to cover, or anything like that, or if you just want to send a message to say you parahutter pillars, just stop, then anything like that would be very much appreciated. And the most importantly of all, remember subscribe to the podcasts, which really, really, really does help us find new listeners. And if you can share as well, then do that. Share, whether it be one of our posts, posts on social media, or whether it be just share the podcast with your friends, uh, whatever. Well, thank you, listener. It's been an absolute pleasure. I hope you've learned something new about not just about. Roland Garros, but about tennis and about the absolute vacuum that is near's brain. So we will see you again next week. Bye.

Speaker 44:13

Bonjour mon ami. It is I, Roland Garros. I am here to thank you for listening to Honorable Mention, Hilarious History, all about me. How about that? How much did you know about my dashing adventures and complete lack of tennis? This whole episode was researched by my good friend Stephen Webb, and he was an Uncover Brothers production. If you could support the podcast by sharing and subscribing to make sure you do not miss a future episode, GC Rai Reconnaissance. Merci. Now, when I was flying the Loop to Loop and Shooting General German Foe, I always walk my Sony Walkman listening to the greatest hits of Pepe and the Bandits, and it is they who wrote and performed the theme tune to honorable mentions. So please go and listen to them wherever you stream your music. Until next time, my petit tortue sexuelle, Aurivoir. Oh, before I leave you, I must apologize for the complete loss of nail during that podcast episode. If anyone has a rudimentary grasp of basic IT, please do get in contact with him. But you will need some crayons and a lot of patience. Bon chance, Bonami.