Forgotten Wars

1979 was a pivotal year in the Muslim world. Iran plunged into revolution, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and most shocking of all, armed fundamentalists seized control of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. For two weeks they held out against everything the Saudi Kingdom could throw at them. It is a crisis that even today is barely discussed, either in the Muslim world or the...

Today we cover one of history’s strangest wars. Find out how islands covered in bird poop and a drunken fight in a tavern, led to Spain fighting a war against most of South America. #peru #chile #history #militaryhistory Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

England has been torn apart by the epic rivalry between the Houses of York and Lancaster. The humble rose—the emblem of both houses—has become an omen of death and destruction across a ravaged land. On the battlefield of Barnet, two men are locked in a final struggle: Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick—the man history remembers as the Kingmaker—and the very king he helped place upon the throne, Edwa...

The Empire of the Rising Sun stands on the edge of seizing the main target of its blitzkrieg, the Dutch East Indies. As the Dutch, Americans, Australians and British unite under a single command to resist the Japanese juggernaut, Japan will launch arguably its most brilliantly executed campaign of the entire war. #history #historynerd #pacificwar #militaryhistory #worldwar2 Hosted on Acast. See ac...

Fortress Singapore stands alone as the British and Commonwealth forces are humiliatingly driven out of Malaya. As General Percival continues to make blunder after blunder, General Yamashita is under immense pressure himself from Tokyo to win this campaign quickly. The scene is set for an epic battle that will end in Britain's worst ever humiliation. #pacificwar #militaryhistory #history #historyne...

It’s the British Empires turn to endure the Japanese Blitzkrieg. Malaya and Singapore are meant to be the strongholds of the empire in the east, but behind the façade alies a highly fragile reality. As Japanese troops pour into Malaya, Britain is about to face the consequences of two decades of blunders. #history #militaryhistory #worldwar2 # britishempire #historynerd #pacificwar Hosted on Acast....

December 1941. The world looks on in horror as American ships burn at Pearl Harbour. But Pearl Harbour is only one part of a vast surprise offensive. Its goal: nothing less than the conquest of Southeast Asia. Starting with the Philippines, in this new series we’ll follow the Japanese Blitzkrieg as it sweeps across the Pacific, overrunning empires that had taken centuries to build and changing the...

There’s Gold in Them There Hills! It’s 1896, and the Boer Republic of the Transvaal is awash with gold after the largest gold discovery in human history. Yet even as they celebrate their newfound riches, in the shadows a conspiracy is forming to seize control of their entire nation. Cecil Rhodes—arch-imperialist and the richest man in South Africa—is about to launch one of the most daring and disa...

It's 1920, and out of the wreckage of the First World War a new, fragile Polish state has emerged. But to the east a storm is coming. The Red Army of Vladmir Lenin is racing across the steppes, determined to spread the Revolution at the point of a bayonet. Poland stands in their path - the red bridge into the heart of Europe. The future of Poland, and perhaps Europe itself, hangs in the balance. #...

1920s America. A land of jazz, Prohibition, gangsters and prosperity. But in southern Illinois, a war is raging. The local Ku Klux Klan is mobilising to wipe out bootlegging once and for all. There’s just one problem. The bootleggers are going to fight back . #america #gangsters #militaryhistory #history Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The enemies of Ancient Rome tried many different tactics to defeat them, from the ambushes of Arminius, to the legendary Parthian cavalry archers, who turned the sky black with their arrows. However Jugurtha, King of Numidia, had the most unique strategy of all. He tried to bribe every Roman he came into contact with, usually with remarkable success. The Jugurthine War would undermine faith in the...

What was the worst riot in American History? Watts in 1965? Detroit in 1967? The LA riots in 1992 after the Rodney King beating? These were nothing compared to the mackdaddy of them all, the New York City Draft riots. The Big Apple in 1863 was a vast pressure cooker just waiting to blow, riven by racial and class tensions, combined with disillusionment towards the Civil War raging outside. When Ab...

The Cold War led to many crazy decisions and bizarre alliances, but the Ogaden War is up there with the best of them. As Ethiopia plunged into bloody red revolution, neighbouring Somalia spotted an opportunity to conquer the disputed Ogaden region. As the fighting raged, America and the Soviet Union swapped sides mid war, while Castro’s Cuba even got involved. It would all end with a destabilised...

It's 1942 and as the Japanese juggernaut overruns South-east Asia, the eyes of the Empire of the Rising Sun fall on the Australian Port of Darwin. What followed was a devastating air raid, a tale of individual heroism and massive official incompetence. Most of all it is a story of the unthinkable happening, and a whole city having to live with the consequences that World War 2 had finally reached...

1759 is the year when everything changed, the year of victories for the British and the colonists, the year that the back of French power in North America was finally broken. Wolfe is about to lead an army against the fortress city of Quebec, the beating heart of New France. Awaiting him is the legendary warlord Montcalm, undefeated so far in this conflict. The two best Generals Britain and France...

Britain is at its lowest point in the war, its army’s once again failing to make progress, its dreams for North America seemingly gone up in smoke along with the smouldering ruins of Fort William Henry. But change is in the air, new leadership is on the way, and soon fresh armies will be heading to the new world. Soon the British and the colonists will go from the ecstasy of triumph at Louisbourg,...

In this episode we take a break from the main narrative to focus on one of the most remarkable units in American history; Rogers Rangers. Like so many innovations, they were born out of dire necessity. Britain was suffering defeat after defeat trying to use conventional tactics on the wild frontier. What worked on the plains of Europe, instead caused massacres when applied to the endless forests a...

In the shadow of Braddock's defeat, Britain's other offensives in 1755 have distinctly mixed results. As the war spreads to Europe and then around the world, Britain and her colonists must now fight for their very lives, as the French go all out for total victory. It will all end with France's greatest victory of the war at Fort William Henry, and also the wars most infamous atrocity. #britishempi...

It is 1754 and for over 60 years the rival superpowers of Britain & France have waged wars, both hot & cold, across the North American continent. Into this ancient feud steps a young Virginian colonial militiaman named George Washington. His actions will ignite a war on the American frontier that will spread across the world and lead to one Britain's worst defeats, the truly terrible failu...

Peter Ortiz is almost unknown outside the Marine Corps. Even within the Corps he doesn’t have the recognition he deserves, although his exploits in World War II were almost beyond belief. Already a decorated veteran of the French Foreign Legion and a Hollywood technical advisor, when World War 2 came, he joined the Marines and parachuted into Nazi occupied France. Fighting alongside the Maquis of...

In 1970 the small Arab nation of Jordan was on the verge of becoming a failed state, its monarchy threatened by the growing strength of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. As the two sides maneuvered for power, a civil war was coming that would birth modern international terrorism, and change the history of both the Palestinians and the region forever. #War #militaryhistory #middleeast #...

A South American country is being ruled by a despised dictator, dabbling in Voodoo and allied to Cocaine Cartels, until America launches a daring operation to remove him. Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro? No, it’s Panama’s Manuel Noriega! Noriega was very much a creation of the US and its Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union. A brutal thug, he had been supported by the CIA as a useful asset against C...

Its 1944 and Hungarian leader Admiral Horthy is regretting making a Devil's bargain with Hitler's Germany to regain lost lands at the cost of siding with the Axis. As the Red Army advances into Eastern Europe he tries to escape the fatal hold of Germany on his country, but he has not reckoned with Hitlers favourite commando, the most dangerous man in Europe, Otto Skorzeny. #history #historynerd #w...

It's 1824 and a British army is entering the jungles of the Gold Coast in west Africa to fight the mysterious Ashanti. Find out how slavery, gross incompetence and macaroni lead to a British General being beheaded and his skull used as cup. #History #Britishempire #Historynerd #War #Militaryhistory Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During World War 2 Iran was invaded by Britain and the Soviet Union, an act that is often covered in just a sentence or two in most histories of the war. Yet it would arguably be the turning point of Iran’s modern history, setting up the domino's for the Iranian Revolution, the fall of the Shah and the rise of an aggressive theocracy. #war #history #militaryhistory #iran #worldwar2 Hosted on Acast...