The History Network

Julius Caesar waged campaigns of strategic boldness and tactical prudence. He fused himself into both head of state and military commander and in the chaos of the late republic, where it became nearly impossible to distinguish war as politics by other means, Caesar waged both war and politics. In his success was sown the seeds of his demise and that of the republic he served. Dur: 22mins File: .mp...

Mikhail Petrovic Devyataev was the 13th child of a Moldovian blacksmith who provided one of the most extraordinary stories of World War 2. The Soviet pilot, captured by the Germans in July 1944, made an incredible escape from Usedom, an island on the Baltic coast, where Hitler's V rockets were being made to return home, eventually becoming a Hero of the Soviet Union. Dur: 13mins File: .mp3

In the year 1754, twenty two year old George Washington was on a mission from the Governor of Virginia to enforce the colony's land claim on the area of western Pennsylvania. The French forces had just built Fort Duquesne (modern day Pittsburgh) as a means to solidify their claim to the land. At this time both England and France had started to develop the area. Dur: 15mins File: .mp3

Something a little different for you with this episode, we were offered the opportunity to speak to Anthony McCarten the scriptwriter of the new film about Winston Churchill in 1940, 'Darkest Hour'.

One of the key issues with the Japanese conscript army was that it had primarily been established to counter an invasion from the continent. As such it had been modelled along the same lines as the enemy forces that the Japanese had assumed they would have to confront. While this army may have initially been quite professional, its potential as a fighting force had dwindled over time. This was in...

The term samurai is a word that is almost universally recognized around the world. This is somewhat unusual for a historically based word, particularly for one that traces its origins back to a culture as unique as 10th century Japan. The image conjured by the term samurai for most people is that of a fierce, sword wielding warrior, and while somewhat cliché, is not entirely incorrect. And yet for...

The battle of the Medak Pocket in the autumn of 1993 was, up to that point, the biggest military engagement participated in by Canadian soldiers since the Korean War. Though it was an almost day-long battle against Croatian forces bent on ethnic cleansing it was covered up by the Canadian government and still remains one of the least known episodes in Canadian military history. Dur: 17mins File: ....

The Limburg War of Succession began in 1283, and ended with the Battle of Worringen on June 5, 1288, fought fifteen kilometers north of Cologne. On this day, Duke Jean Ier of Brabant fought Count Henry VI of Luxembourg for the rights to the Duchy of Limburg. The specifics of the battle come to us from a single source—Jan van Heelu's epic verse, Rymkronyk. A member of the Teutonic Order, he witness...

The Limburg War of Succession began in 1283, and ended with the Battle of Worringen on June 5, 1288, fought fifteen kilometers north of Cologne. On this day, Duke Jean I of Brabant fought Count Henry VI of Luxembourg for the rights to the Duchy of Limburg. Dur: 15mins File: .mp3

Operation Frankton, which took place from 7th to 12th December 1942, had the intention of sending a handful of Royal Marines paddling 70 miles up the River Gironde during the hours of darkness with the goal of laying limpet mines on enemy shipping to disrupt German operations out of the port of Bordeaux. Dur: 14mins File: .mp3

It's easy to take for granted how artillery was used in the First World War. Artillery acquired a target, usually out of direct line of sight and fired. But if the target is out of sight how did they know it was there? How did they know if the shell had landed in the correct location? So much of the technology we are now familiar with telephones, airplanes and even consistent manufacturing quality...

This week we re-run a classic episode from Season 2 (due to a scheduling error and not having a script quite ready!). We didn't want to put out anything rushed, so we hope you enjoy this re-run of one of episodes from the archives. Dur: 13mins  File: .mp3  

Fort Duquesne, a French outpost fort in present day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was strategically placed where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers merge into the Ohio River. The Ohio then flows into the Mississippi River producing an important waterway linking Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Dur: 17mins File: .mp3

On December 14, 1944 an unusual order rang across the Imphal plain: "Lieutenant Generals, by the left flank; march." So ended the investiture ceremony in which William Slim and his three corps commanders - Geoffrey Scoones, Philip Christison and Montague Stopford - had been knighted by the Viceroy of India Archibald Wavell. The laurels were well earned. In the 1943-44 campaign season Slim's 14th A...

When we consider the bayonet (off the rifle), its history is the history of all direct combat warfare. In modern times, if you are in personal combat where your last device is your bayonet, it means a lot of things have gone wrong for you to be in that situation. Do you have what it takes to survive? The next two minutes will tell. Dur: 24mins  File: .mp3

Many of you will be aware we have other military history podcasts, Angus's WW2 Podcats and the Ancient Warfare Podcast. Well we have a new one for you: Medieval Warfare hosted the Peter Konieczny. For those who have not already had a listen here is the first episode where Peter discusses why we should study Medieval Warfare. Dur: 40mins File: .mp3

In the early hours of the 9th of August, 1976, 84 Selous Scouts disguised as local soldiers crept across the Mozambique border into a terrorist training camp on the Nyadzonya River. In the few hours that followed, four Selous Scouts were lightly wounded, however, over 1,000 ZANLA recruits lay dead and twice as many were estimated as wounded. This raid was to go down in history as a textbook exampl...

The Battle of Antietam Creek as it was known to the Union, or the Battle of Sharpsburg as it was known to the Confederate States, was fought on the 17th of September 1862 and became the most costly one-day battle of the American Civil War. The battle claimed nearly 23,000 casualties including 6 generals, and in a protracted 4 year civil war would go on to cost over 600,000 lives. While the officia...

Germany invaded Poland on September 1st 1939, and England, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany on September 3rd. The Netherlands, which had remained neutral in World War One, continued its policy of neutrality, along with Denmark and Norway. Belgium also decided to remain neutral - unlike the others it had been invaded by Germany in World War One. Dur: 19mins File: .mp3

There seems to be a whole plethora of reasons about how and why 'chat' has been associated in modern times with having a casual conversation with others. The term "Having a chat" is most commonly associated militarily with the first world war trenches and soldiers using lulls in the fighting to get together and de-louse each other while having casual conversations. Chat is often ascribed to the Hi...

The fighting on the 7th of September 1812 would be the bloodiest day of the Napoleonic war. The French victory would open the road to Moscow, but the failure to finally smash the Russian's in the field would ultimately prove fatal for Napoleon's Grand Armee. Dur: 20mins  File: .mp3

We've something different for you in this episode. I'm sure many of you are aware Angus does a number of podcasts other this one with Nick, one being Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy. Whilst putting the latest episode together he had a chat with military historian Murray Dahm about Friction. They chatted for 40 min on the topic but only needed 4min for the WSS podcast. We thought you guys might lik...

The Second World War came to Burma in December, 1941. In quick succession, the American Pacific fleet was devastated at Pearl Harbor, the American Far Eastern air forces destroyed in the Philippines. Hong Kong was threatened and Siam (Thailand) concluded a peace treaty with Tokyo. Burma was exposed. By May, 1942, it would be occupied from China in the north to Rangoon in the south. With amazing sp...

We've always promised ourselves we would record some extra podcasts. As we've caught with the magazine release we thought it was time for such an episode… So we decided to look at the Chariot Race in Ben-Hur. Angus, Josho, Murray, Marc and Mark were joined by David Reinke who ,with Graham Sumner, writes the film articles for  Ancient Warfare Magazine …   It proved to be a marathon recording, and w...

Essentially there are 3 main ways in which finances can be raised with which to use for war: Taxation, raising debt, or simply printing and creating new money. The Romans (among others of course) took a taxation route. It was from around 100 BCE that Roman Legions divided into 10 cohorts of around 400-500 men each. That's 4,000 to 5,000 men in a Legion. Let's assume it was the upper 5,000 figure a...