Bloody Violent History

Bloody Bites are short podcast episodes which will hopefully answer a few questions thrown up in our general podcast discussions. A kind of  BVH glossary. Let us know if you would like to hear Jamie's take on a particular topic. So It Goes Tom Assheton & James Jackson talk@bloodyviolenthistory.com   See also: YouTube: BloodyViolentHistory https://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/ https://www...

What to do if you are taken hostage (unless you are taken by a death cult such as Islamic State – in which case you fight or die): i.  Prepare for the worst ii. Do not antagonise your captors iii. Maintain faith in yourself iv. Set yourself positive goals v. Be a human, not an object   Extortion, political leverage or chaos & terror 1. History and Definition of Hostage taking.  2. Famous Hostages....

  So It Goes Tom Assheton & James Jackson   Reading Reference: `the Death of Lincoln by Walt Whitman   See also: YouTube: BloodyViolentHistory https://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/ https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.com https://www.tomtom.co.uk   If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 secon...

Tom introduces the second series of BVH, to kick off 2022.  Handing up a few hints as to what listeners can look forward to, in the next few months. And then we throw in a  'Bloody Bite' on Infamous (Notorious?) Castles to keep you in the mood.  Bloody Bites are short podcast episodes which will hopefully answer a few questions thrown up in our general podcast discussions. A kind of  BVH glossary....

Jamie goes solo while we are on our end of series break.  These 'Bloody Bites' are short podcast episodes which will hopefully answer a few questions thrown up in our general podcast discussions. A kind of  BVH glossary. Let us know if you would like to hear Jamie's take on a particular topic.  talk@bloodyviolenthistory.com So It Goes Tom Assheton & James Jackson   See also: YouTube: BloodyViolent...

Jamie goes solo while we are on our end of series break.  These 'Bloody Bites' are short podcast episodes which will hopefully answer a few questions thrown up in our general podcast discussions. A kind of  BVH glossary. Let us know if you would like to hear Jamie's take on a particular topic.  talk@bloodyviolenthistory.com So It Goes Tom Assheton & James Jackson   See also: YouTube: BloodyViolent...

Jamie goes solo while we are on our end of series break.  These 'Bloody Bites' are short podcast episodes which will hopefully answer a few questions thrown up in our general podcast discussions. A kind of  BVH glossary. Let us know if you would like to hear Jamie's take on a particular topic.  talk@bloodyviolenthistory.com So It Goes Tom Assheton & James Jackson   See also: YouTube: BloodyViolent...

Jamie goes solo while we are on our end of series break.  These 'Bloody Bites' are short podcast episodes which will hopefully answer a few questions thrown up in our general podcast discussions. A kind of  BVH glossary. Let us know if you would like to hear Jamie's take on a particular topic.  talk@bloodyviolenthistory.com So It Goes Tom Assheton & James Jackson   See also: YouTube: BloodyViolent...

Jamie goes solo while we are on our end of series break.  These 'Bloody Bites' are short podcast episodes which will hopefully answer a few questions thrown up in our general podcast discussions. A kind of  BVH glossary. Let us know if you would like to hear Jamie's take on a particular topic.  talk@bloodyviolenthistory.com So It Goes Tom Assheton & James Jackson   See also: YouTube: BloodyViolent...

Jamie goes solo while we are on our end of series break.  Despite a resistance to using any new technology (in this case Tom's tape recorder and a set of gaming headphones), Jamie valiantly lays down a track on Submarines.  These 'Bloody Bites' are short podcast episodes which will hopefully answer a few questions thrown up in our general podcast discussions. A kind of  BVH glossary. Let us know i...

Tom and Jamie discuss the BVH episodes they have published in the past 12 months.  Included are some extracts from the Series to remind you of the range of the podcast, and if you haven't listened to them all perhaps take a moment to go back and do just that. We are back in January, although we might publish a few short 'Bloody Bites' to keep you in the mood, between now and then. So It Goes Tom A...

Join our marmalade cult.  Sticky end guaranteed. 1. Cults Ancient & Modern.  2. Types of Cult.  3. Cult Leaders and the Cult of Personality.    ps. The Moonies. Cults have always been with us.  From predatory sex cults, through Cargo cults and on to cults-like terrorist organisations, these strange and remote bodies prey on the weak, the credulous, and the stupid.  Whether Jim Jones or Osama bin L...

A matter of honour or an encounter between fools? 1. Billiard Ball.  2. The Renaissance.  3. Hopton on Duelling, section one.  4. History of the Due.  5. Hopton on Duelling, section two.  6. Decline of the Duel.  ps. The Wild West Whether acting on principal or an example of extreme folly, the duel captured the imagination of European society for at least three centuries.  There was the duel invol...

Siege is hell. 1. It's total war.  2. AD 70 Siege of Jerusalem.  3. 1453 Constantinople.  4. 1565 Great Siege of Malta.  5. 1870 The Siege of Paris and the Commune.  6. Colonial Sieges.  7. Leningrad.  8. Battle of the Atlantic.  9. Balkans and the Middle East Siege involves not just the military, but entire civilian populations trapped within walls invested by the enemy and clinging on for surviv...

1.  Inertia & Escape 2.  The Wild, the Wacky and the Simple Plan 3.  Organisation 4.  Equipment 5.  Killing Time 6.  Technique 7.  The Camps 8.  Other escapes ps - Lucky Escapes Great Escapes have captured the imagination for generations.  From the simplest adoption of disguise to the longest tunnels, both successful and failed attempts have entered the realm of legend.  Everyone knows the WW2 tal...

In this episode we present a talk Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris gave to the Bomber Command Association in 1977.  In it he gives a full and detailed account of how the Bombing campaign of WW2 led, in great part, to the defeat of Nazi Germany on land, in the air and at sea. So it Goes Tom Assheton & James Jackson   Ref. Audio clip - Sir Arthur Harris broadcast 1942 Audio clip - Sir Arthur Harris at the...

The Great War - Birth of Aerial Bombing Never again - Between the Wars World War 2 - Strategic Bombing Post War/cold War The modern era - Shock and Awe Shock and Awe has entered the modern lexicon as a description of the effectiveness and efficiency of modern air power.  Yet the employment of air assets took a century to evolve.  In the earliest days over the Western Front during the Great War, ri...

William Hogarth's painting 'O the Roast Beef of Old England' Holbein and the Tudors Queen Elizabeth I Cult of Personality English Civil war Napoleonic Wars World War I World War II Nazi & the Third Reich Soviet Propaganda Allied Propaganda The Modern Day In both peace and war, propaganda plays its part.  It is the mood music, the manipulation of information, the nudging of a population in a certai...

A.  Introduction: Human Intelligence, Capability and Intention B.  Counter Measures: Influence, Deception and Disruption Operations C.  James Bond D.  Why the Brits Spy E.  British Secret Intelligence Today Espionage, like religion and prostitution, is one of the world’s oldest pastimes.  To know your enemy is to have advanced warning of potential threats and to have the facility to counter them. ...

1.  Evolution and Adaptation of Special Forces.   2. Strategic, not Tactical Assets.   3. Rogers Rangers - the beginning?   4. Sea Bourne - Admiral of the Red Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald.   5. Desert.   6. Small Scale & the formation of the SAS.  7. Post War and Counter Terrorism.  8. Disasters.  9. The Future Special Forces have a long history and the British in particular have shown a rea...

Imperturbability and indefatigability have long been bywords for the British character. Sometimes it has been mythologized or exaggerated but at its core it captures something that is very real.  Every nation possesses recognisable characteristics and traits and, for the British, understatement and the fear of embarrassment or letting the side down have long been part of our nature. Examples range...

Tyranny and lack of taste tend to go together.  From Putin’s Black Sea playground to the palaces of the Ottomans, from Idi Amin’s amphibious car to the Sultan of Morocco’s chariot pulled by wives and eunuchs, bling and bluster are often the order of the day.  Marcos had psychics and seers, Castro had a turtle farm, and the Columbian drugs baron Escobar had his own private bullring and go-kart tack...

A byword for tenacity and courage, the famous last stand has studded history with legendary exploits that define conflict and empire.  From Thermopylae to the Alamo, from Custer’s last stand to Okinawa, they represent individual heroism and sometimes crass military miscalculation.  The result is always the same, the wiping out of a small group of die-hard defenders. The odds might be crazy, and ca...

Regardless of colour or creed, slavery has been a curse on humanity for millennia. Often, it is African slavery that has dominated the debate.  Yet in this episode, Bloody Violent History seeks to cast the net wider and demonstrate how every corner of the globe has been affected.  From ancient Rome to the Soviet gulag, from the Viking slave markets of Dublin to the victims of Corsair piracy sold i...

Jack the Ripper has dominated the consciousness of the British public and crime fiction since the Victorian era.  In late 1888, 5 gruesome murders occurred in London’s Whitechapel and the legend of the Ripper was born.  The man on his trail was the surgeon and pathologist Thomas Bond, an expert in forensics and the medical detective who wrote the world’s first criminal profile.  Mary Ann Nichols (...