Ice Cold in Alex Trivia Quiz

Answer: Austin ambulance

Captain Anson, played by John Mills, was the one who dreamed about the "Ice Cold in Alex" and used it to motivate himself. Eventually it becomes the goal of the party.

The Austin K2/Y (known as Katy) military ambulance was only produced during 1939 to 1945. They were built in England by the Austin Motor Company with the bodies supplied by Mann Egerton.

Answer: Diana and Denise

Diana and Denise were played by Sylvia Syms and Diane Clare. The four people were caught in Tobruk in an attack by the Germans and took the ambulance with the intention of delivering it to the British across the desert in Alexandria, the Alex of the title.

Sergeant Major Pugh was played by Harry Andrews.

Elizabeth and Margaret were the British Royal princesses.

Answer: Two bottles of gin

Captain Anson was very close to being an alcoholic. Gin, known as "Mother's ruin", is a very English drink. At that time in history, wine was not as popular in Britain as it became, post-war.

Krugerrand were not produced until 1967, in an effort to aid the economy of South Africa.

Answer: He did not know how to brew tea in the South African Army way.

As Captain van der Poel was actually a German army engineer, he was not a tea drinker or aware that tea was brewed in a can with sand in it. Tom Pugh, the Sergeant Major, was a career soldier and had been active in the desert for some years.

Bobotie is a savoury dish with an egg based sweet topping from South Africa, but of Indonesian origin.

Answer: His backpack

Before the backpack sank forever in quicksand, the Sergeant Major saw a radio antenna. Nothing was said about it to the hitch-hiker.

Answer: Held "Katy" up on his back when the car-jack failed

Captain van der Poel was very strong. Without him the party would not have reached as far as they had. The Englishmen were sure that he had to be a spy, but said nothing. They knew that his radio was destroyed, so watched him and pretended to believe that he was who he claimed to be.

Answer: A nurse

Sister Denise Norton was fatally injured.

Although they were crossing a desert, they did not meet any camels.

The fennec fox is also known as a desert fox, which was the nickname of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, widely considered to be the greatest tactician of desert warfare during WWll.

Answer: Push her up a hill, backwards

"Katy" the ambulance was on her last legs and could not get up a hill due to soft and shifting sand. They had to hand crank her using the starting handle, a few inches at a time, backwards. As they neared the top, Sister Diana Murdoch was left holding the starting handle for the first time, as all three men rushed off to climb the last thirty feet (nine metres) to see the road over the top. She let go.

In a scene that lasts less than ten minutes, the tension and heat build and you see what it cost them to raise the ambulance to the top. You feel their despair as the ambulance buckets off downhill, alone. And I joined in Nurse Murdoch's tears.

Answer: Called the M.P.s to turn in Captain van der Poel

Captain Anson finally got his "Ice Cold in Alex".

Captain Anson had arranged to have "a German Officer" picked up from the bar at 18:30, giving them time to have their celebratory lager first and find out van der Poel's real name. The M.P. was early and due to his kit, proved to be newly commissioned and arrived from Britain. Captain Anson used the knowledge, barked an order at him and the M.P. went outside to wait till 18:30 exactly.

Using the few moments grace, the Englishmen told the German that if he gave his real name, he would not be shot as a spy. They could do no more for the man that they had come to respect and like during the trek across the desert. He was Hauptmann Otto Lutz, and he shook hands with them before he left.

Incidentally, the bar scene was filmed using real lager and was redone several times to get it right. John Mills downed so much lager that he was slurring his words a little. A great scene that had been used in a commercial for Carlsberg Lager.

Answer: It has been an experience. All against the desert, the greater enemy

As he turned to go, Captain van der Poel/Hauptmann Otto Lutz said that he had learned a great deal about the English, so different from all that he had been taught.

As he climbed into the back of the waiting Land Rover, his three English companions moved outside and the final scene of the film is seen, watching his English friends fade out slowly.