The Island that Exploded and The Real GI Joe Francis Currey

For the main story, we're charting a course straight into one of the loudest, deadliest, and most colorful disasters in human history: the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait of modern Indonesea. For our true hero segment, we are going to examine one of the most amazing heroes of the European theater in World War II. Defying orders, he held a key bridge during the Battle of the Bulge. Had he failed, his entire division could have been wiped out.

But before we look at the cold blustery night in the Ardennes forest, we first must travel to the Dutch East Indies. So close your eyes and picture this—a sleepy volcanic island sandwiched between the bustling islands of Java and Sumatra in what's now Indonesia, part of the Dutch East Indies back then. It's the 1880s, the height of colonial empire-building, steamships puffing across oceans, telegraphs buzzing with news from London to Batavia (that's old-school Jakarta). But beneath the waves, hell's kitchen is heating up. This wasn't just a volcano blowing its top; it was a global gut-punch that turned sunsets blood-red, skies eerie green, and the world a little colder for years. Over 36,000 souls lost, tsunamis tall as cathedrals, and a boom heard 3,000 miles away. Yeah, we're going there. Grab your hiking boots—as we explore this island of volcanic fury.