The Danger Zone (DZ)

By the 1800s and 1900s the Promised Land was neglected and run down. The prophetic description of what would happen to the God forsaken Promised Land by the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, in Chapter 33 verse 9 had well and truly been realised. “The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.” The Jews...

Israel. It’s hardly ever out of the news. It’s either always doing something bad, or accused of doing something bad. Whatever is happening it’s always painted as the villain. In 1948 the modern state of Israel was carved out of the lands that had been part of the Ottoman Empire. The Arabs, and their sympathisers (of whom there are many) today say that that wasn’t fair because the United Nations ga...

I grew up in the 1950s and the 1960s. I remember when I was high school seeing the headlines in the newspapers in 1967 as the Arab nations united to go to war against Israel without Israel having done anything to provoke it, other than to exist. Graphics were shown, like I’m used to seeing in the military books I read all of the time. The balance of forces. The Israeli aircraft, tanks and men, com...

In this Danger Zone programme I’m going to talk about a cavalryman who was shot down – what was he doing? Riding a flying horse? Two planes that shot each other down. About what happened when those crews who shot each other down met on the ground after they’d each crashed? Did they become good friends and laugh about it? Or did the ones that had the guns kill the ones that didn’t have any? Why did...

You’ve probably heard of the Darwin Awards – a made up thing with stories about people who meet their deaths through their own unbelievable stupidity – Darwin – survival of the fittest etc. Well this Danger Zone programme is about the opposite. People, who in spite of everything, should have died – but didn’t. I tried to see if there was a name for the opposite of the Darwin Awards but there isn’t...

Have you ever been conned? I remember someone told me that they’d never met a conman they didn’t like. If you have been you probably felt all sorts of regrets that you should have seen it coming. That you shouldn’t have been so stupid. But you know something, it meant that you were a normal human being. In September and October 1938 the Prime Minister of England was conned when he met Adolf Hitler...

Yesterday, upon the stair,I met a man who wasn't thereHe wasn't there again todayI wish, I wish he'd go away... That poem was inspired by the real story of a haunting by a ghost supposedly seen on the stairs of a house in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. In 1899 American poet, Hughes Mearns wrote that poem, the words I just read to you. It ended up in a song and then a play. In the 1930’s it was g...

Slim Dusty’s famous song tells of one of the greatest fears that faced many an undoubtedly brave fighting man. The prospect of no grog. In the Pub with No Beer Slim says: Oh it’s a lonesome away from your kindred and all By the campfire at night we’ll hear the wild dingoes call But there’s-a nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer. This programme is goin...

Have you ever been to hell? Would you go there deliberately? Well some brave, or perhaps stupid, might be a better description, Greek heroes did. One who did was Theseus, helping his friend Pirithous. Both young men, after accomplishing their many amazing feats, decided they should take new wives for themselves. They decided they would help each other in finding their wives. They didn’t choose a p...

During a visit to Cape Canaveral, to inspect the Space Shuttle, Prince Philip was introduced to a young thirteen year old boy, Andrew Adams. Andrew told Prince Philip that it was his ambition to be an astronaut. Prince Philip looked him up and down and said to him:  “Well, you’ll never fly in it; you’re too fat to be an astronaut … You could do with losing a bit of weight.” Just the sort of remark...

On 9 April 2021, Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest serving royal consort in British history, passed away at the age of 99. He was born on 10 June 1921 – so he very nearly reached the age of 100, which he had said he would rather not. He had undertaken his last official engagement on Tuesday 2 August 2017. For a man who had longed to pursue a military career this last ce...

In the Bible Jesus gave us this quote that is often used today, even by unbelievers –  John 15:13: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Will I think today’s story tops that. Stay tuned and tell me what you think? Am I right? Tag words: Greater love has no one than this to lay down one’s life for one’s friends; 30th US Infantry Division; Frau von Reventlow; S...

On 20 December 1943, so close to Christmas, two men met – in mid-air, in two different aircraft. About 304 metres above the ground. One was a German by the name of Oberleutenant Fritz Stigler, fighter ace, flying a German, an Me-109G fighter, flying for Hitler’s Third Reich and the other was an American, 2nd Lieutenant Charles (Charlie) Brown, flying an American B-17 four engine bomber, well just...

Ever wondered why all those hard working Nazi scientists and doctors in the death camps never won a single Nobel Prize for medicine or science among the lot of them. They did so much hard work into all sorts of problems concerning the human body suffering battle injuries and terrible diseases. They were helped by Jews, Russians and all of the other unwilling prisoners who had their lives taken fro...

In April 1933, Annmarie Kohler, a doctor in the town of Pirna wrote about how ‘fanatical’ the staff at her hospital had become. Kohler said ‘They sit around the radio and when the “Horst Wessel Song” is played … they all stand up and perform the raised-arm Nazi salute.’ That salute became a part of every day life for many German families during the time Hitler was the leader. A letter was sent to...

On 17 February 1864, as the American Civil War was nearing its end, the USS Housatonic, a sloop of war, was sunk. The Housatonic was on station as part of the Union naval blockade of Charleston harbour, South Carolina – stopping Rhett Butler blockade running. It’s sinking gave it a place forever in military history. The first ship ever sunk by a submarine - the Confederate submarine –the H. L. Hun...

In this Danger Zone - I'm going to introduce you to the man who was James Bond, Captain Jack Aubrey, Rambo and Winston Churchill all rolled Into one. You know his name, but you almost certainly don't know who he really was. Tag words: James Bond; Captain Jack Aubrey; Rambo; Winston Churchill; Captain Arthur Phillip; Royal Navy; American Revolution; Botany Bay; Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen; Lou...

Over the past decade terrorists have killed an average of 21,000 people around the world each year. Global deaths from terrorism over the past decade have ranged from 8,000 in 2010 to a high of 44,000 in 2014. In 2017 terrorism was responsible for 0.05% of global deaths. 95% of terrorist deaths in 2017 were in the Middle East, Africa or South East Asia. In most Western countries terrorism is the c...

So who was the man, or men, who were the true life inspirations for Ian Fleming’s James Bond? Ian Fleming denied that it was him. The head of British spying operations in the United States, a man known by the code name Intrepid – William Stephenson – said that when Ian Fleming was sent to boot camp he hesitated when he was ordered to kill – so not the stuff of a 00 agent licensed to kill.  Bond’s...

Ian Fleming had seen a lot of behind the scenes of the intelligence organisations of England and the Americans. He’d seen how they operated at the very top. He’d played a key role in helping the Americans to get their intelligence organisation up and running, but now he was going to do his first work in the field. Then he had to go to the spy training school where secret agents are taught how to k...

Where, in the recesses of the mind of Ian Fleming, did James Bond come from? In my last programme I talked about Ian Flemings early days. How he grew up, unsettled, but finally found his niche in intelligence. In this programme I’ll tell you about Ian Fleming’s wartime experiences. The people he worked with including Roald Dahl (the author of children and adult novels), the famous British singer N...

He was 38 years old when he was born in 1953. He never ages. He never loses. Like Dr. Who he’s continuously being reborn – in body and mind as he moves effortlessly through the passing decades since the movie Dr No was released in 1963. Was this fictional character modelled on a real person. Is that even possible? Perhaps he’s a composite of more than one person. Or is he just pure fiction? Let’s...

This programme is a true story that you probably have never heard before. And what a story it is! In 1940, after Hitler had invaded Poland and England and France had declared war on Germany, England and France were about to enter into a war with Russia. Given that there was no differences that matter between how evil Nazi Germany was, and how evil Communist Russia was, this would have made a lot o...

Shock & awe – words we came to know in March 2003 with Operation Desert Fox. A revolutionary new military tactic using revolutionary new weapons. But were the shock & awe tactics new or had they been around for a long time. Let me illustrate my point from long long ago – about 480BC. The great Chinese military strategist, Sun Tzu, found one technique for achieving this which he recommended to his...

Who, or what, was responsible for killing more Nazi officers than died in active combat? This is a fascinating and incredible story. It involves Adolf Hitler, who avoided the death that so many German officers suffered from this cold-blooded killer even though he was a number of times in its sites. Ferdinand Porsche comes into this story too amongst others. Stay tuned because you won’t want to mis...