The History Network

In the early morning of 18th July 1972 nine British SAS soldiers stationed at a fort outside the coastal town of Mirbat in Southern Oman saw approaching in the distance what they believed to be the local troops returning from night watch. That was until they opened fire - they were in fact up to 300 Adoo Communist rebels...For six hours the SAS and a handful of local soldiers held out. Dur: 17mins...

In David Thomas's The importance of Commando Operations in Modern Warfare 1939-82 he states: "Commando operations in the sense of self-contained acts of war mounted by forces operating within enemy territory are as old as warfare itself. However, before the second world war, the types of missions that later would become known as 'commando operations', were regarded in western military thought as b...

By 1840 Harry Smith was a veteran soldier of the British Empire, he had joined the Army in 1805 and had seen active service in South America, the Peninsular Campaign where under the Duke of Wellington, he witnessed the burning of the Capitol in Washington, was a Brigade Major at Waterloo and in South Africa had commanded a division in the Xhosa wars before being appointed Governor of the Province...

By mid 1940 of the European powers and Britain and her Empire stood alone against Germany. The situation looked dire. Though the miracle of Dunkirk had managed to save thousands of British troops much of their equipment had been lost, Britain needed to replace this and her own industry was not up to providing in numbers the goods required. Though the United States was officially neutral it would s...

When Neville Chamberlain delivered his speech on September 3rd 1939 to declare that Britain was at War with Germany, western focus was fixed on that and the hearts and minds of Britain's population braced themselves for another World War as did the hearts and minds of much of Europe. Many events would shape the outcome of World War II, but one set of battles even before it began - some three month...

Of the Battle of Valmy, military historian J.F.C Fuller, wrote, "The Cannonade of Valmy was more than a military event; it drew a line between the form war had taken since 1648 and the form it was to assume after 1792." The events leading up to the Battle of Valmy are a good representation of such changes in political and military situations in both Revolutionary France, and the rest of Europe at...

True cavalry with men mounted on horse back started to appear from the 9th century BC, as chariots were slowly replaced. Imposing they were used in shock charges, their rapid movement made them ideal for reconnoissance, screening an army and for chasing down the enemy. Though despite there usefulness they only remained a small part of a Mediterranean army, comprising of perhaps only some 10% of th...

Mata Hari is one of the "best known" spies of World War One. While she may not have been a "saint" by any stretch of the imagination - it is said that she "drew every man's lustful admiration and every woman's envy" - there's plenty of speculation as to whether she was really guilty of the espionage for which she was accused and for which she paid the ultimate price...execution by firing squad on...

The military performance of an army is not just dependant on numbers:- the men need to be fed, equipped, quartered, transported (the list goes on). If you can deprive your opponent of these elements you can degrade his fighting ability. The policy of Scorched Earth denies your opponent of anything useful in the area they are passing through (either in attack or retreat), this can include burning o...

The  Dacians  lived in modern day Romania, they had long been a threat along the borders of the Roman Empire. In 101AD  Trajan  launched the first of two campaigns against Dacia, eventually it would become a Roman province. Though poorly documented the conflict is celebrated on  Trajans column  in the centre of Rome, providing a spiralling view of the campaign, and at  Adamclisi  (in modern day Ro...

In 53 B.C. a Roman army confronted a force one quarter its strength yet suffered Rome's bloodiest defeat in more than a hundred years. The Battle of Carrhae pitted 40,000 Roman soldiers against an army of a mere 10,000 of the Parthian Empire on the sands of Mesopotamia. The humiliating loss rippled through Rome and crumbled the fragile foundation of the Republic; from this rubble rose the Roman Em...

The origins of the Great Northern War can be traced back to the Swedish involvement in the Thirty Years War and later in the the First Northern War of 1655-60 between Sweden and Poland. Outcomes of these conflicts made the Baltic Sweden's "internal sea". This antagonised Sweden's neighbours. Russian interests were greatly affected as the access to the Baltic Sea and its trade routes were now under...

Tony Iveson learnt to fly before the outbreak of the Second World War. Flying the famous Spitfire throughout the Battle of Britain he survived a ditching in the sea after he ran out of fuel chasing a Junkers JU88. After a spell as an instructor at the training school in Rhodesia he converted to bombers, flying that other great plane of the war the Avro Lancaster. Joining 617 Squadron "the Dam Bust...

Jasper and the team are joined by Josho Brouwers to discus warfare in archaic Greece. After Michael's summary of the period we go on to look at the phalanx, how it might function, the equipment the men carried, the suitability of the geography for this type of fighting and what that meant for the numbers of men deployed in the field. Also touched upon is why the cities fought one another, was it j...

Jasper and the team discuss Ancient Warfare I.4 , The Roman Conquest of Spain. It took over 200 years for Rome to pacify Spain, why did it take them so long? Did local fragmentation politically make it difficult for an all out victory that was so often achieved in the East? We look at issues of leadership in the Roman army, and recruitment. Was Spain Rome's Vietnam?  Dur: 41min

Jasper, Murray and Lindsay are joined by Michael Park to look at Elite units of the Hellenistic Era, the discussion revolves round what is elite and how do you define elite, which proved more troublesome that one may expect. Dont forget if you want more information on the magazine you can find their website at www.ancient-warfare.com Dur: 51min File: MP3

In the usual wide ranging discussion Jasper, Michael, Lindsay and special guest Jesse Obert look at the Roman Navy. Questioning the received view of the fleets being used in anti piracy duties, and were the fleets even standing forces or more of an adhoc thing brought together when needs must? And the fleets what kind of shipping did they comprise of, and how did they make war?

In this episode we look at the Assyrians, 930BC to 630BC, their empire stretched from Egypt to Babylon, it was the first great iron age empire with resources to fund a standing army equipped with iron weapons. They excelled at siege warfare, something very difficult to successfully achieve in the ancient world. We delve into all these aspects plus look at the putting down of internal descent, prop...

The Sassanid Empire would prove to be the last of the Persian middle-eastern empires, and would also be the last great ‘civilised’ rival of Rome. The Great Achaemenid Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great, had displaced the Babylonians in the Middle-East. Ultimately, it sprawled from the Mediterranean to northern India. This empire, the largest in the world, had been overthrown by the meteori...

Jasper, Murray, Mike and Lindsay take a trip down memory lane and revisit Ancient Warfare magazine I.III " Protect thyself. Shields, helmets and armor."  Starting with why we need armour we take a trip through the ancient world covering arms and armour from the Greeks to the late Roman Empire. Dur: 51min

Jasper, Lindsay, Murray and Mike discuss the use of bodyguards from Alexanders men having to prevent him from getting into harm through to being a symbol of power in Rome, and of course a long look at the Pretorian guard.

The team discuss the daily routine of troops in the ancient world when garrisoned. Through examples found at Vindolanda we investigate sickness rates of soldiers, the freedom they had whilst not on duty and what would happen to them if they could no longer serve. Dur: 40min File: .mp3

In 1940 18 year old trainee navigator, Frank Stone, was shot down on his second bombing mission. He eventually ended up in Sagan StalagLuft III - the camp made renowned in the classic war movie "The Great Escape". One of the infamous three tunnels, Tom, Dick and Harry, was dug from the hut in which Frank was billeted. For the past thirty years Frank has been sharing his experiences of the camp, ex...

In 1940 18 year old trainee navigator, Frank Stone, was shot down on his second bombing mission. He eventually ended up in Sagan StalagLuft III - the camp made renowned in the classic war movie "The Great Escape". One of the infamous three tunnels, Tom, Dick and Harry, was dug from the hut in which Frank was billeted. For the past thirty years Frank has been sharing his experiences of the camp, ex...

In 1940 18 year old trainee navigator, Frank Stone, was shot down on his second bombing mission. He eventually ended up in Sagan StalagLuft III - the camp made renowned in the classic war movie "The Great Escape". One of the infamous three tunnels, Tom, Dick and Harry, was dug from the hut in which Frank was billeted. For the past thirty years Frank has been sharing his experiences of the camp, ex...