The War Office

In 1958, the 2nd Taiwan Strait Crisis broke out between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC). Cold War tensions had increased an already tense situation between the PRC, based on the Chinese mainland, and the ROC, in Taiwan. As the Communists gained the upper hand in the Chinese Civil War, the Chinese Nationalists, often called the Kuomintang, retreated to the i...

On 13 October 1977, Lufthansa Flight 181, heading from Majorca in Spain to Frankfurt, West Germany was hijacked by four militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP. In response to the hijacking, the West German government dispatched GSG-9, Grenzschutzgruppe 9 or Border Guard Group 9 in English, which was created following the tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The P...

On 13 October 1977, Lufthansa Flight 181, heading from Majorca in Spain to Frankfurt, West Germany was hijacked by four militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP. In response to the hijacking, the West German government dispatched GSG-9, Grenzschutzgruppe 9 or Border Guard Group 9 in English, which was created following the tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The P...

On 5 September 5th 1972, eight militants of Black September, a Palestinian militant group with ties to the Fatah faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, burst into one of the apartments of the Israeli delegation to the 1972 Munich Olympics. At gunpoint they take many Israeli hostages. One of the hostages was able to escape and two were killed in the apartment building after attempting...

Operation Overlord was one of the pivotal events of the Second World War. The Germans had been preparing for an Allied landing in Europe for many years. One of their attempts to keep the Allies out was the Atlantic Wall. This was a series of concrete emplacements, guns, barbed wire, and other obstacles located from the Arctic Circle in Norway to the Franco-Spanish border. Pas-de-Calais was heavily...

By the end of June 6, 1944, D-Day, thousands of Allied troops had landed in Normandy, France. They were supported by tanks, artillery, and thousands of tons of supplies. How did the Allies pull off one of the largest military operations in history? In this podcast, we explore how the Allies came together to plan Operation Overlord. The Transportation Plan, in which the bombers of the US Eight...

In this podcast, we pick up from where The September 11th Attacks from the Pentagon's Perspective - Part 1 left off. The North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City have been hit by American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 respectively. The Pentagon, outside Washington DC, was stuck by American Airlines Flight 77 and is on fire. In Part 2, we begin amongst c...

On September 11, 2001, the United States suffered one of the worst terrorist attacks in history. Terrorists hijacked four commercial airlines and targeted the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and were going to attack, it is suspected, other government buildings in Washington DC, potentially the White House or the US Capitol. In Part 1, we follow the stories of the key decision makers, such as mem...

By May 1944, Operation U-Go, the Japanese invasion of India, had run out of steam. The units of the British 14 Army were either stopping Japanese attacks cold or pushing Japanese units back all along the front. At Kohima, the Japanese are pushed off the tennis court by a combined infantry-tank attack down the terraces of Garrison Hill. The fighting at the tennis court has been called one of most b...

The fierce fighting at Imphal and Kohima continued into April 1944, as units of the British 14th Army fell back to these strategic locations in hopes of defeating the Japanese invasion of India. The troops of the Japanese 15th Army began to face supply issues as the plan to capture Allied supplies to sustain their campaign began to fail. In contrast, the Allied units continued to receive lots of s...

In March 1944, the Japanese 15th Army invades British controlled India during Operation U-Go. Japanese commander General Renya Mutaguchi was initially against such an invasion but comes to see it as not only a way in which Japan could win the Second World War but a chance for him to win personal glory on the battlefield. For the Japanese to control the area near the Indian-Burmese border, they nee...

In May of 1941, the Bismarck, a brand-new German battleship, leaves port to begin Operation Rheinübung. Along with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, Bismarck is sent to prey on Allied shipping in the north Atlantic in hopes of crippling Britain in the Second World War by cutting off this vital supply route. The British command is rightly alarmed by the risk that this battleship presents to their war...

In September 1980, border clashes between Iran and Iraq escalated into war. Tensions had been simmering between the two countries for decades. Disputes over control of the Shatt al-Arab river, and thus access to the Persian Gulf for Iraq, had long been a source of contention. Political upheaval in both countries created the conditions for war. Years of back and forth negotiations between the gover...

The Battle of Hamburger Hill is one of the most controversial battles in American military history. The hill itself is known as Dong Ap Bia, mountain of the crouching beast, to the Katuic people and as Hill 937 to the Americans during the fighting. It became known as Hamburger Hill after the fighting had ended.  The paratroopers of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airbo...

On 3rd October 1993, amid the ongoing Somali Civil War, American forces of Task Force Ranger received a tipoff on the location of a meeting of Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s Somali National Alliance in Mogadishu, Somalia. The Americans hoped to capture two of Aidid's advisors to get closer to capturing Aidid himself. Due to an earlier attack on and rescue of US Marines in another part of Mogadishu, Aidid'...

On the 7th of August 2008, Georgian military forces moved into breakaway region of South Ossetia, hoping to capture its capital of Tskhinvali. Under the orders of President Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia launches an offensive to reclaim what it believes is its rightful sovereign territory.  They will have to go through South Ossetia’s small military but a larger threat looms to the north: Russi...

The Korean War saw significant changes in military aviation in a short period. In June 1950, the aerial war began with piston-driven aircraft of the Second World War such as the Yak-11 and IL-10s battling F-82 Twin Mustangs and F-80 Shooting Star jet fighters over Kimpo Air Base near Seoul. By April 1951, MiG-15s were dueling with F-86 Sabres as B-29s were bombing railways connecting North Korea w...

In March 1941, Operation Claymore, the first large-scale commando raid on Nazi occupied-Europe, was launched against the Lofoten Islands in Norway. The raid was successful and led to further raids, Operation Archery and Operation Anklet, in Norway in December 1941.  The raids convinced Adolf Hitler that the Allies would try a large scale landing in Norway and he sends more German troops to de...

On 27 December 1979, Soviet Spetsnaz commandos backed up by operatives from the KGB’s counterterror units Zenit and Grom attacked the Tajbeg Palace, the residence of Afghan President Hafizullah Amin.  After a protracted battle with troops of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and Amin's personal bodyguards, Amin was killed. The exact details of his death are unclear but what is clear is t...

The Battle of Peleliu grinds on as the Marines of the 1st Marine Division continue to fight the Japanese garrison dug into Bloody Nose Ridge. The fight also extends to Ngesebus Island, where Eugene Sledge fights and later chronicles the clearing of a Japanese bunker in the one of the better known engagements during the battle.    The US Army's 81st Wildcat Division takes over from t...

The Battle of Peleliu enters a new deadlier phase as US Marines cross the airfield and fight into the Urmurbrogol Mountain to take the island of Peleliu.  The dash across the airfield is met with fierce Japanese fire that takes its tolls on the Marines. Once the airfield is taken, the fighting mostly shifts to taking the Urmurbrogol Mountain, or as the Marines come to call it, Bloody Nose Rid...

In the early hours of 15 September 1944, the guns of an armada of United States Navy warships open fire on a tan, craggy-looking island in the Pacific. This bombardment is followed by waves of carrier based aircraft dropping napalm and firing rockets on enemy positions. The warships open fire again until the US Marines of the 1st Division, nicknamed the Old Breed, begin their assault on the island...

On 27 February 2014, armed and masked men with no insignia or identification begin to appear in Simferopol, the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine. These “little green men,” as they will soon become better known, occupy key intersections and set perimeters around government buildings in the city. This is the official beginning of Russia’s invasion of Crimea, the first act...

After defeats at the Battle of Gazala and the fall of Tobruk, the British 8th Army is in full retreat into Egypt at the end of June 1942. Defensive positions are hastily prepared at the tiny railway station of El Alamein to stop Britain’s nemesis in the desert, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. The British 8th Army is now the only thing in the way of the Axis conquest of Egypt. Thanks to: Dr. Niall Barr...

On 10th May 1972 and the United States launches Operation Linebacker. The first day of the operation will be conducted against targets in the North Vietnamese port of Haiphong and its capital Hanoi. The response of the Vietnam People's Air Force will lead to the largest air battle of the Vietnam War. Thanks to: Dr. Brian D. Laslie - Author of ' Air Power's Lost Cause: The American Air Wars of Viet...