On Sunday 22nd of August, 1642, Charles I of England unfurled his standard at Nottingham, it would signal the start of the English Civil war; a struggle which pitted regal power against Parliament. The war had ebbed and flowed for two years with varied success when in April of 1644 a Parliamentarian force laid siege to York, which was considere ...…

Following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, Japanese forces simultaneously invaded British Malaya, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Japanese troops took just 70 days to crush the British Empire forces in Malaya and Singapore, which was surrendered on 15 February 1942. Dur: 30mins File: .mp3…

On May 7, the Royal Flying Corps suffered one of their greatest losses when the great Albert Ball was shot down near Annoeullin, France. Ball had just scored his 44th victory and was pursuing another plane when he disappeared into a cloud. When he reappeared, his plane was falling from the sky and his propeller was motionless. Ball fell from th ...…

Just ten years after the Wright brothers successfully flew the world's first powered airplane, the First World War erupted across Europe and with it came the first air war. Airplanes of wood, metal, and canvas took to the skies to act as observers and engage in combat with enemy planes. The best pilots became known as "aces" and were celebrated ...…

It is a cliche that wars seldom go according to plan, but perhaps none has gone astray as dramatically as the First World War. The vast German sweep through the Low Countries succeeded only in branding the Kaiser's Reich a nation of butchers and bringing the United Kingdom into the war. Field commanders were unable to achieve the clock-work pre ...…

If one were to travel through the modern day US state Louisiana, you would quickly be transported to what seems like another world. French language signs adorn the streets as the sounds of Zydeco or Louisiana French folk music fills the air. Most would cite the menagerie of foods combining french peasant recipes with African and native addition ...…

Although a good amount of time was allowed to prepare for the operation, the campaign itself was poorly planned. Inexplicably, the 13,000 men Napoleon led across the Sinai desert towards Syria in January 1799 were not properly equipped for the desert conditions. Dur: 29mins File: .mp3

The French invasion of Egypt in the summer of 1798 was the first great seaborne invasion of the modern era. With 335 ships and almost 40,000 men, it was the largest seaborne force ever launched in the Western world – at least since Xerxes' vast fleet attacked Athens at the Battle of Salamis in 480BC. It remained the largest ever seaborne invasi ...…

On the morning of 16 December 1914, at around 8am, the German battlecruisers SMS Von der Tann and Derfflinger opened fire on the British coastal resort of Scarborough. For the town's inhabitants the shelling seemed indiscriminate, the prominent Grand Hotel was hit a number of times, as was the medieval castle overlooking the bay and residential ...…

In 1753, the Governor of the colony of Virginia sent George Washington, who was a twenty one year old major in the Virginia militia, to the French Fort LeBoeuf near Lake Erie in the Ohio Valley, to demand the French leave the area. This ultimatum was rejected and Washington returned to deliver the message. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3…

A battle at Dorking, that never happened, and German spies that never existed were a cause of great anguish to the British in the early part of the twentieth century. The result would be the creation a secret service, the rounding up of foreign nationals and an explosion in the popularity of the spy genre; which would manifest itself with class ...…

We all know that Britain was last successfully invaded in 1066, when William the Conqueror defeated the Saxon King Harold at Hastings, but, that does not mean the shores of Albion have not since been attacked. In 1797 the French landed a small force near Fishguard, in Wales, and were ignominiously forced to surrender. In 1914 a German naval squ ...…

The Duke of Wellington, late in life, was asked what was his most difficult battle during all his years of soldiering, after a short pause he replied with just one word, Assaye; his great victory against the Marathas in 1803. A hard fought battle, he would lose a third of his men, the Indian Marathas troops were well equipped and drilled in mod ...…

Long time listeners might know after ten years of producing the podcast, last year Angus took the decision to return to university to study a Masters Degree in History. More by chance than design his niche turned out to be the First World War. During his studies he came across a new book titled ‘Led By Lions’ written by Neil Thornton, which loo ...…

As some of you might be aware Angus hosts the Ancient Warfare podcast, a monthly round table discussion about war in the ancient world. Last year we launched a patreon page for the podcast. Historians aren’t the best paid lot, and everyone is essentially doing the podcast for free. We thought it might be a good way to help cover costs, and if y ...…

British soldiers in Boston were furious. They were pent up in the city by a bunch of farmers and merchants while their commander seemingly did nothing. April turned to May. The militia forces grew stronger as more companies joined the siege. By now, four colonies were represented at Boston: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hamp ...…

On June 17, 1775, over one thousand New England militia stood on a hill overlooking Charlestown, Massachusetts and Boston Harbor. Arrayed in front of them in their scarlet and white uniforms, brushed clean for the occasion, were regiments of the British Army. Their goal was to take this hill from the erstwhile colonists-turned-rebels and fortif ...…

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 ...…

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 He ...…

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 ...…

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 ...…

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 s ...…

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 epis ...…

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, ...…

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 telephone ...…

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 wel ...…

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 ...…

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. Th ...…

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 wou ...…

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 ...…

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 ...…

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 4 ...…

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 ...…

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 Mag ...…

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 ...…

In 1187 Saladin at the head of a huge army crossed the river Jordan. Laying siege to the fortress at Tiberias, inside was the wife of Raymond of Tripoli. Until recently Raymond had been at odds with the new Crusader King Guy of Lusignan. The Crusader army numbered an impressive 20,000, though this was not as large as Saladin's. What it lacked i ...…

"Once people began to live in settled villages, they started to identify themselves not just based on their language and culture, but also on where they lived. Farmers became, to a lesser or larger extent, tied to the soil. As villages grew into cities and cities became the centres of larger city-states, kingdoms, and even empires, it became ev ...…

The 12th Armoured Division set off from New York for the European theatre of war on September 20th 1944. They would spend November and December surging across northern France encountering the enemy in Alsace and at the Maginot Line, liberating parts of France as they went. They were one of only two US Armoured Divisions to have african american ...…

On the 3rd of December 1940 the German Auxiliary Cruiser Kormoran slipped out of Gotenhafen. She was the largest of the new wave of Merchant Raiders, which had proved so successful in the first world war. Captained by Theodor Detmers, at just 38 he was the youngest of the Auxiliary cruiser captains. In his own opinion too young. Officially he d ...…

In the latest podcast we focus on terrain, or more specifically terrain boards and mats. Which is better? What do people prefer? With expert comment provided by Mel "the terrain tutor", Eric Lauterbach from the WWPD Network and from Cigar Box Battle Mats Cory Ring and Chris Ward. As usual Guy, Jasper and Angus are joined by the berserkers from ...…

Around the 12th Century, German regionalism was very strong with the northern lowlands having their own distinct languages of Saxon and Frisian. Efforts by Imperial central government to unify provincial and legal frameworks, while attempting to impose Middle High German as the official language, failed. The importance of towns within this regi ...…

Northern Sudan had always been under the control of the Ottoman administered Egypt, though from the early part of the 19th century the now almost autonomous Egypt extended her rule South. Muhammad Ali, the self declared Khedive of Egypt, garrisoned troops throughout the region at outposts such as Khartoum. Soon the busy garrison town was a thri ...…

In this episode we’re looking at Volume 10, issue 3: Rome vs Poisonous Pontus: The Mithridatic Wars, 88BC - 63 BC Don’t forget if you missed the issue you can pick up your copy from ancient-warfare.com. Better still why not subscribe! That way you’ll be fully versed in the subject before you listen to the podcast! I’m joined by stalwarts of the ...…