The Danger Zone (DZ)

What was so remarkable about General Omar N. Bradley’s exhortation on Christmas Day to Field Marshal Montgomery to immediately attack the north side of the German salient created during the Battle of the Bulge? Would you support what Bradely recommended? Tag words: General Omar N. Bradley; Field Marshal Montgomery; Battle of the Bulge; Eisenhower; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; Alan Brooke;...

As General Bradley travelled to a meeting with Montgomery, in the thick of the Battle of the Bulge, he was puzzled to see the Hollanders, Bradley’s description of them, walking on the sidewalk in holiday dress. How strange was that? The Nazis had just launched a massive attack. There was a real chance that these people would again have their Nazi masters return, but here they were, all dressed up....

Which general was it, who called Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery a tired little fart? Was it Eisenhower? Perhaps General Omar N. Bradley? Or was it General George S Paton Junior? Tag words: Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery; Eisenhower; General Omar N. Bradley; General George S Paton Jr; Normandy bridgehead; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; General Somervell; LeRoy Lutes; 12th A...

Someone said of Monty’s arrival at US First Army’s headquarters in December 1944 that it was like "Christ come to cleanse the temple." Do you know who said that and why? What does it even mean? Tag words: Monty; Montgomery; Christ come to cleanse the temple; Matthew 21:12-13; Battle of the Bulge; Adolf Hitler; Eisenhower; Bradley; Patton; narrow front; broad front; Nigel Hamilton; The Ba...

True or false. Montgomery penned a pamphlet called  Notes on High Command in War  which he provided to King George VI, General Marshall as well as to leaders and commanders all over the world, often accompanied with a photograph of himself, and a request for a return photograph of the recipient. Tag words: Montgomery; Monty; Bedell Smith; Eisenhower; Bradley; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of...

To some it was a stupid thing that Monty did. But by God did it inspire the men he lead? Tag words: Monty; Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; Betty Carver; Major General Sir Percy Hobart; 79th Armoured Division; Hobart’s Funnies; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; 8th Army; Basil Liddell Hart; German Army; Bedell Smith; 9th Australian Division; Denis Johnson; Battle of...

The very first time Monty came across the name Eisenhower was in circumstances that caused him to doubt that man’s suitability as a commander-in-chief. Tag words: Montgomery; Monty; Dwight D. Eisenhower; Bedell Smith; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Alan Brooke; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; CIGS; Bradley; Patton; Mons; Distinguished Service Order; Field Mars...

Your imagination is far better than anything that Hollywood can throw up on the screen. Steven Spielberg created the terror of the insane semi driver who harassed the driver in his first movie  Duel . In Jaws the greatest terror from the shark came when you didn’t see it. So what imaginary thing paralysed the Allied High Command during the Battle of the Bulge. Tag words: Bradley; Montgomery; Gener...

There have been some great teams of commanders. A great team makes all the difference. Take Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia with Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet, and JEB Stuart. Or Napoleon and his Marshalls, Ney, Murat, Davout. So how did Generals Eisenhower, Montgomery, Bradley and Patton get along once the Battle for France became fluid after the totally unexpected Operation Cobra breako...

Do you remember Tubthumping? It was a popular song by Chumbawamba released in 1997. If you can’t remember it, let me give you the chorus, then I’m sure you’ll remember the song –  I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never going to keep me down . I think Eisenhower and his lieutenants were about to find out that that song was the song for Hitler’s Germany of 1944 in the West. And then so...

For over 50 days the Allies had been bottled up in their bridgeheads at Normandy. And then, suddenly, they weren’t. The road to Germany was open. All they had to do was drive into the Third Reich, seize Berlin, and bring about the downfall of Adolf Hitler and his gang – and all of this in 1944 – or so it seemed. What was the feeling at the top when the entirely unexpected breakout happened in July...

World War 2 in Europe ended with the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Western Allies on 7 May 1945 and to the Soviet Union on 8 May 1945. In the last year of the war, 1945, about 2.6 million military personnel died in Europe. The number of civilian casualties were also considerable. After the Allied breakout from Normandy in August 1944 there seemed to have been a chance to end the war in Europe b...

Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all inhabitants thereof – what was it that made the West great and enriched the entire world as a consequence? It was freedom. Out of the failed attempt by the mighty Persian Empire, to conquer the impoverished farming land of Greece, the Greeks gave the world a lasting gift. The abstract idea of freedom – which a successful Persian invasion of Greece...

What was the secret ingredient that made the Greeks so formidable a foe that the greatest empire in the world failed to come even close to defeating them? Tag words: Herodotus; The Histories; Battle of Plataea; Greeks; Pausanias; Xerxes; Mardonius; Sparta; Leonidas; Thermopylae; Vassily Grossman; A Writer at War; Great Patriotic War; Krasnaya Zvezda; Red Star; John Gould; Richard Cohen; Making His...

All the Spartans acknowledged that he was the most courageous Spartan who fought at the Battle of Plataea, but he was unanimously disqualified by them from receiving any honours. Why? Tag words: Spartans; Battle of Plataea; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Persians; Greek phalanx; Plutarch; Herodotus; The Histories; Lacedaemonians; Pausanias; Mardonius; Athenians; Tegeans; JFC Fuller;...

The Persian pursuit of the retreating Spartans looked as if it might be very promising. It was the main weight of the Persian army that was brought to bear against the Spartans. It looked likely to break them with their overwhelming missile fire. Well that was until Mardonius made his big mistake. Tag words: Persians; Spartans; Herodotus; The Histories; The Battle of Plataea; Pausanias; Lacedaemon...

From what was happening on the Greek side it was apparent to Mardonius that the legendary Spartans weren’t the fearless battlefield warriors that everyone believed. In the face of the Persians they were quire cowardly – knowing what I’m about to tell you, you are bound to agree. Right? Tag words: Mardonius; Spartans; Persians; Battle of Plataea; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; H...

One of the important figures in the Persian Army had found himself in a life threatening situation. Cunningly he had cut part of his foot off with a knife. Saved his life, and was now standing beside Mardonius influencing the course of the battle for the Persians. What was his name? Tag words: Persians; Mardonius; Boetians; Athenians; Spartans; Lacedaemonians; Masistius; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battl...

True or false: the ancients had some knowledge of treating pleurisy and collapsed lungs using syringes and bladders? Tag words: Pleurisy; collapsed lungs; breastplates; Roman commander Lucullus; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Alexander the Great; Spartans; dog tags; hoplites; Herodotus; antibiotics; James Jones; The Thin Red Line; Battle of Cannae; hemorrhaging; edema;

The ground ran red with blood. At the Battle of Pydna, in 168 BC, how much blood was spilled on  the battlefield?  15,000 litres? 30,000 litres? 45,000 litres? Tag words: Battle of Pydna; Leo Tolstoy; War and Peace; Napoleon; Xerxes; Ten Thousand; Theban Sacred Band; Battle of Leuktra; Thermopylae; Plataea;

One great general was reported as coming off the field of battle "covered with the blood" of his enemies, "carried away by the pleasure"…. ; the commander had nearly become "blood drunk" from the killing Who was the general? Tag words: Phalanx; panic flight; Socrates; Clive James; Keith Douglas; Anthony Kellett; Combat Motivation: The Behaviour of Soldiers in Battle; ...

A truly fearsome and courageous Greek hoplite and also one of the greatest philosopher’s of all time, was described in a song as  a lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he’s pissed?  Who was he? Tag words: Greek hoplite; phalanx; Anthony Kellett; Combat Motivation: The Behaviour of Soldiers in Battle; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Xenophon; pike; Alexander the Great; Imperial Ro...

Which ancient battle, between Greek hoplites, was won by wrestling, and which city-state was it that won because of their wrestling skill? Tag words: Greek hoplites; phalanx; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; sowing disorder; Spartans; Thucydides; Diodorus; Battle of Mantineia; Battle of Plataea; Thermopylae; Plutarch; Battle of Leuktra; Xenophon;

What caused the sudden collapse of the attack by the French armoured knights, on foot, at Agincourt? Tag words: French knights; Battle of Agincourt; John Keegan; The Face of Battle; killing zone; wall of dead;

At the Battle of Agincourt, the French knights were reluctant to fight the English longbowmen. Were the longbowmen such amazing soldiers? For a modern reader the reason, when I tell you later in this programme, might be hard to understand? Tag words: Battle of Agincourt ;  English  longbowmen; Battle of Plataea; Greeks, Persians; John Keegan; The Face of Battle; Richard Cohen; Making History; Sand...