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In late 2004, the Second Battle of Fallujah commenced. It was an American-led offensive during the Iraq War, with the operation involving the efforts of the United States, United Kingdom and Iraqi Interim Government in what is considered the war’s first major engagement against the Iraqi insurgency, as opposed to its military forces. The conflict resulted in as many as 2000
insurgent deaths and has been described as the single bloodiest battle of the entire war. This is the story of the Second Battle of Fallujah. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Referred to by Vanity Fair as Hitler’s Doomed Angel, Geli Raubal was the fuhrer’s niece, whose demise at the age of 23 was swept under the carpet almost as quickly as it had come. Over the years, the pair’s relationship has come under intense scrutiny with rumours flying about what kind of relationship, exactly, the pair had and what circumstances led to her death. This is the story of Hitler’s strange fascination with his Niece, Geli Raubal.

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The First World War was the culmination of the age of empires meeting the industrial revolution of the late 19th century. The battlefield had become a machine of death, crushing out life from thousands of soldiers with an efficiency never before witnessed in recorded Human history. In this episode, we are going to examine how the Allies snatched victory from the German clutches and then began a one hundred day march towards defeating the forces of the Kaiser. This is the story of the 100 Days Offensive. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The Second Boer War, also known as the Anglo-Boer War, raged between October 1899 and May 1902. Involved in the conflict were the British and the Boer residents in the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, both regions established in South Africa in the 1850s. This 31-month clash led to the deaths of almost 100,000 people, while more than 75,000 Brits were wounded and 24,000 Boer troops were captured and sent overseas. 

The war also led many, including the British public, to question the morality of the oppressive British Empire. Join us for this documentary as we examine the Second Boer War: Britain vs South Africa.. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The Second Battle of Ramadi, fought in 2006 during the Iraq War, saw the US military and Iraqi Security Forces come together to drive insurgent groups out of the city of Ramadi. In a tense and difficult battle, coalition forces sought to capture key areas of the city, allowing them to take control. 

This 8-month conflict is considered one of the most decisive battles in the overarching Iraq War and many in the military believe it led to the formation of the Anbar Awakening, which saw Iraqi tribal groups reject al-Qaeda and cooperate with US forces. Join us for this documentary as we examine the Second Battle of Ramadi. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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September 1999. On the small south-east Asian island of Timor, demands for independence from Indonesia which had ruled over the population there since annexing it in 1976 had grown to such an extent as to spark open violence between those who wished to remain Indonesian and those who wanted the island to take control of its own future. This forced the United Nations to intervene, creating a peacekeeping force predominantly led by Australian defence forces to intervene and secure an open and fair referendum on independence. 

To assist with this difficult task, the Australian government turned to its two longest and most natural allies namely New Zealand and the United Kingdom for assistance. Dubbed the International Force for East Timor or INTERFET, it included a special operations detachment which arrived in theatre aboard a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 Hercules transport flying out of Darwin, Australia. Disembarking from the aircraft in their specially modified Land Rover Defenders was the small British contingent of around 20 troops who were captured briefly on camera by a news crew. 

For the British civilian population back home, this was one of the first real glimpses they’d had of arguably their country’s most secretive special forces units – the Special Boat Squadron or SBS. In this episode, we are going to examine the often-overlooked origins of the SBS and cast some light on this most shadowy of groups. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The Great War – the First World War – had its own stories of Foo Fighters, again set against the paranoid backdrop of technology advancing seemingly out of control. The Airship Scare or Scareship phenomenon became a very real menace to the Allied powers in the years leading up to and during the First World War as the fear of German airship technology conjured up images of cities destroyed from the air, Allied defences being powerless to stop them.

Was this just mass hysteria as is generally accepted?  As we celebrate the month of October, in association with our UFO-themed sister channel Destination Declassified, we are going to examine how a world gripped with fear, began seeing mysterious airships and aircraft in the sky whether they were really there or not and how one of Britain’s most celebrated figures, was left egg-faced to explain them.  Welcome to Wars of the World.

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On the afternoon of May 14th, 1940, beleaguered citizens in the Dutch city of Rotterdam looked skyward as they heard the approaching drone of German bombers; through the thick, noxious smoke drifting upward from burning buildings, they could just make out the massed formations of Heinkel HE-111’s, the infamous black balkenkreuz insignia stark against their white undercarriages. For the next quarter of an hour, over a thousand high explosive bombs would smash the Dutch into submission, murdering over 700 civilians and devastating an entire city, callously shattering its short-lived defiance in the face of Nazi tyranny. When the dust had settled, questions arose about how this atrocity - which German field commanders claimed was accidental - happened? Worse, were the theories that it was a deliberate act intended to force Dutch capitulation...

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Jonathan Glazer's 2023 critically acclaimed film The Zone of Interest follows the life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoss and his family as they go about their daily lives, right next to the infamous concentration camp. It shows the unsettling juxtaposition between the comfort felt by the well off Hoss family, and the atrocities committed just over the other side of the wall. 

In reality, this was very much the case: Nazi officials of all ranks simply went about their comfortable day to day lives whilst huge populations of people were being systematically murdered,  in some cases literally, on their doorstep. It can be argued that Adolf Hitler experienced this comfort more than most, as we will explore in today's video. When Hitler wasn't actively taking part in political action, he spent much of his time at the Berghof - a picturesque holiday home in the Bavarian Alps. In fact, with the exception of his headquarters in East Prussia, he spent more time at the Berghof than he would any other location during the course of his time as Fuhrer. Today, we will be exploring the history of the Berghof in detail, discovering how it was used, how the land it sat on came under the possession of one of History's most reprehensible figures.

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“I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.” These are the words of an extraordinary young girl whose words have provided light in one of the darkest chapters of Human history. These are the words of Annelies Marie Frank, more commonly known as Anne and her life has become one of those most in recent history as she recorded the events surrounding her family and their ultimately doomed effort to escape the persecution of the Nazis as they cast their shadow over Europe during the first half of the 1940s. It is a story of youthful hope, the ordinary struggles of everyday adolescent life against a far from ordinary backdrop of fear and persecution and of surviving those extraordinary events not just physically but mentally. This is the tragic tale of Anne Frank.

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How The "Tet" Began the End of The Vietnam War...

In early 1968, while the battle for US outpost Khe Sanh raged on, General Vo Nguyen Giap of the People’s Army of Vietnam, or the PAVN, orchestrated a series of coordinated assaults on over 100 South Vietnamese cities and towns. Considered a major escalation, the Tet Offensive was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, resulting in the deaths of over 14,000 civilians, around 5,000 South Vietnamese soldiers and approximately 45,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. In this episode, we will explore the offensive strategy, launched by the Communist North Vietnamese forces, during what should have been a brief respite of peace. These are the events which made up the Tet Offensive.

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The Battle of Khe Sanh was a brutal conflict during the Vietnam War... 

The Khe Sanh Combat Base was located in the Khe Sanh area of northwestern Quảng Trị Province, a coastal province of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In late January 1968, the People’s Army of North Vietnam orchestrated a brutal bombardment on the US base, leading the US Marines stationed there to fight back. What ensued was one of the most gruesome battles of the Vietnam War. Welcome to Wars of the World...

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The Soviet-Afghan War raged for nine years and is considered a major part of the overarching Cold War between the US and its allies, and the Soviet Union. A major faction was the Afghan Mujahideen - the Islamist resistance groups that fought against the Soviets and the Republic of Afghanistan - backed by the US, UK, China, Iran and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, all of whom had waged war against the communist Afghanistan government after it had seized power in 1978 on the back of a coup. The Soviet-Afghan War led to the deaths of around three million Afghans, while refugees fled to Pakistan and Iran. As much as 11.5% of Afghanistan’s population was killed during the conflict, sometimes referred to as “The Soviet Union’s Vietnam.” In this episode, we will explore the Battle for Hill 3234, which took place just over one year before the end of the Soviet-Afghan war, in January of 1988. It saw members of the Soviet Union, supported by the Republic of Afghanistan, attacked by over 200 Mujahideen rebels and Pakistani mercenaries. The resulting conflict would see over 200 Mujahideen dead in a single day. Welcome to Wars of the World...

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During the 1980s, the United States was still struggling to come to grips with its involvement in the Vietnam War and as part of that effort, Hollywood churned out a number of movies with the conflict as its backdrop. For younger audiences especially, they provided an insight into what their fathers or older siblings may have experienced during their tours of duty in the jungles of southeast Asia. One of the most seminal pieces produced in this period was 1987’s Full Metal Jacket directed by legendary director Stanley Kubrick. 

The film demonstrates the process of turning ordinary young men into weapons to be used in war and how that impacts them when they get to the battlefield. Thus, the movie starts in a US Marine boot camp and then transitions to the battlefield of Vietnam just as the Tet Offensive gets underway, the main characters fighting in the streets of a city called Hue. For countless young people at the time, this may have been the first time they would have heard of Hue or been made aware of the battle that was waged there but for the veterans who fought in its streets in early 1968, its name is as engrained on their memories as Iwo Jima or Inchon was to the generations that came prior. In this episode, we are going to look at the origins of the battle, chart some of the key events and discuss its aftermath. This is the story of the Battle of Hue. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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British Army Sergeant Norman Midgley must have thought he had seen it all by April 1945. Even before the war started, he had seen his fair share of both the best and worst of humanity in his vocation as a staff photographer for the Daily Express newspaper based in Manchester, England. When the war started the British Army therefore had a specific task for him in mind given his experience and expertise; specifically as a member of the Army Film and Photographic Unit. 

It was his job to record in pictures the events experienced by British and Commonwealth forces in the fight against the Axis, he and his compatriots being embedded inside frontline British combat units. It was a role no less dangerous than any other soldier on the battlefield and in fact statistically, it was even more so with Midgeley’s unit alone suffering an appalling 1-in-4 casualty rate. 

By the time he found himself travelling in a jeep to a remote location being held by the British 11th Armoured Division in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen on April 18th 1945, much of the fighting had begun to die down and instead he found himself with a new task; recording evidence of Nazi crimes. In that regard, he was told he was being taken to something particularly ghastly and inhuman.

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In this episode, we are going to examine the events leading up to and surrounding the tragedy of the Brno Death March as thousands of ethnic Germans were rounded up in Czechoslovakia and marched to the Austrian border all the while being subjected to the vilest abuse and mistreatment. Many would not make it in this genocide largely forgotten by history for it concerned those labelled as the enemy. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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November 1918 and the war to end all wars comes to its conclusion as the guns on the western front fall silent. For four years prior, the army of German Kaiser Wilhelm II had shot and shelled its way into France and Belgium but had been held back from total victory behind a line of trenches and barbed wire. France had survived but its lands were scarred, and its people felt loss like never before. Thus, when war loomed once again, the French swore they would be ready for it. Using the time given to them by the so-called Phoney War, the period following the invasion of Poland and Hitler striking west, they along with their British allies built up their defences and prepared to keep the German eagle east of their shared border. And yet despite this preparation, it would take the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler less than two months to force the French to sue for peace. In this episode we are going to examine the events leading up to the invasion of France, examine the strategies of both sides and chart the fall of France under the Nazi jagdboot. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Many of history’s greatest armoured fighting vehicles emerged during the Second World War. These vehicles have not only come to symbolise the struggle of their respective armies in that titanic clash but, furthermore have transcended the battlefield to become ongoing symbols of their nation’s grit and determination in the face of the enemy. But while we may admire the classic lines of the M4 Sherman or the revolutionary shape of the armour of a T-34, in terms of instilling fear in its enemy, one tank stands head and shoulders above the rest – the German Tiger. 

Despite a somewhat inauspicious start, when the heavyweight Tiger made its presence known on the battlefield, it sent shockwaves amongst the Allies, who quickly began to fear the prospect of facing off against waves of nothing but these powerful and resilient tanks which for a time appeared almost unstoppable. In this episode, we are going to examine the origins of this tank, explore its impact on the war, assess its drawbacks and look at its legacy in the annals of military history. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The humble fish and chips. It’s still not entirely clear how or even when this quaint but filling little meal became the official dish of the people of the British Isles but what is known is that during the first half of the 20th century it had become as quintessentially British as cricket and the Royal family. One of the most common types of fish to be included in the meal was cod from the North Sea and British fishing trawlers scoured the region between Scotland and Iceland in pursuit of this seemingly unlimited resource of the sea. However, by the middle of the 20th century it would be the pursuit of this innocuous fish that would lead to a series of diplomatic crises and at times confrontations on the stormy, strategically important northern waters that if weren’t managed properly, threatened to escalate out of control and possibly even drag in the superpowers. 

It is a David and Goliath story where a small fleet of Icelandic Coast Guard patrol boats squared up to the mighty Royal Navy who found their hands tied by regulations and changing attitudes and laws that proved that sometimes the pen really is mightier than the sword. It was a series of phoney wars where pride, principle, the rule of law and yes fish resulted in piracy, deliberate ramming of ships and even the firing of guns at one another. And all this was taking place in a strategically vital part of the world caught up in the nuclear brinksmanship of the Cold War. Today, we are going to examine the Cod Wars between Iceland and the United Kingdom and examine how they impacted the nations involved and beyond. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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For hundreds of years prior to the 20th century, war had changed very little with the improvements in weapon technology that did arise being incremental and slow to establish themselves. However, with the industrial revolution of the mid-to-late 19th century and the meteoric advances in science and technology that came with it, in the span of a few decades, warfare was changed beyond recognition. New weapons that were once the stuff of science fiction from the likes of Jules Vernes or H.G. Wells such as submarines and aircraft were now being realised and with them, the number of ways to kill in war skyrocketed resulting in the brutal death factories that were the frontlines of the Great War between 1914 and 1918. In this episode, we are going to examine the development and use of just five of the myriads of deadly weapons to emerge during the First World War. Welcome to wars of the World.

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Picture the scene. It is the Eastern Front in 1943 and you are a German soldier on the frontline. In the distance, you can see and hear a line of T-34 tanks trundling and clacking towards your position but more than that, riding on the back of them behind their turrets are swarms of Soviet troops all clutching a small but distinctive weapon. You’ve come to know this weapon very well and with the knowledge of what it can do, you begin firing your MG42 machine gun hoping to kill as many of the Soviet troops as you can before they get in range for once they do, you know hell will be unleashed upon you. 

Every war has its weapon that helps symbolise the struggle of nations and one of the most distinctive of the eastern front where the conflict is remembered as the Great Patriotic War was the PPSh-41 submachine gun. This crude but effective little weapon would be instrumental in turning the tide against the Axis forces attempting to bear down on Moscow and would prove the old Soviet adage that quantity has a quality all of its own. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Looking back through history, it’s often difficult to see passed events that have so shaped our modern world. The story of Japan in World War II for example has often left those in the west with an impression that prior to 1945, Japan was always an enemy of freedom, when in fact while we associate Imperial Japan as Hitler’s ally, just twenty years earlier, Japan fought against the Kaiser and that particular tyrant’s quest for power.

In this episode, we are going to explore Japan’s entry into the First World War and examine its navy’s intriguing if often forgotten role in safeguarding the Mediterranean Sea from the Kaiser’s fleet of U-boats. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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We are all familiar with the Nazi practices of sending Jews to concentration camps, carrying out mass executions and instilling fear into German citizens through their paramilitary organisations like the SS. But one practice that tends to go under the radar concerning Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party was their rampant abuse of medicinal substances, which in today’s world, would be considered as illicit drugs. What you need to consider, however, is that at the time, these drugs were seen as the cutting edge of science. With various drugs and medicines being developed to treat a wide variety of ailments, it’s unsurprising that as the second world war broke out, there would be efforts made to develop drugs which aimed to turn an average, green recruit into a fearsome, dedicated fighting machine.

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August 1964. US President Lyndon B. Johnson has inherited an ongoing crisis in the south-east Asian nation of Vietnam from his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. The crisis involves the spreading of communism from North Vietnam into the south and potentially beyond, threatening the US position in the region against the Soviet Union in the Cold War. At first, he adopts the policy of training and equipping the South Vietnamese Army to fight the war themselves but when a US warship is attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, he and his government feel the fight now requires more direct involvement. 

The US military complex was unlike any other on the planet in 1964. Large and highly sophisticated, it was believed that it could achieve any objective put before it and yet in Vietnam, this technical marvel was forced to get down in the mud to fight its enemy. This led US leaders to look back at improving the most valuable piece of equipment at their disposal – the US soldier. Science offered the possibility of giving the US trooper greater endurance, strength, aggression against the enemy and protection from the stresses of war. This was the era of the drug-enhanced super soldier but as history would prove it would come at a cost. This is the story of how the Vietnam War would become the Pharmacological War.

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The unseen enemy is always the most feared for how does one engage an enemy if you do not know their location? Throughout history, the art of camouflage has often been the key to success in battle, greatly increasing an enemy force’s response time as they try to locate just who it is that is shooting them. Mother nature has often provided the best camouflage for armies, concealing them away from the prying eyes of an enemy force moving nearby. 

Mother nature has also provided armies with food and water and so for an invading army especially, mother nature can sometimes be seen as an enemy ally. As such, with the advent of the industrial revolution and a greater understanding of biology and chemistry, the most advanced nations have developed weapons to deny their enemies the protection of mother nature. In this episode, we are going to examine the development and use of herbicides and defoliants in the Vietnam War and specifically that of Agent Orange. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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In this documentary, we are going to examine the events surrounding probably the most significant sinking of a ship by a U-boat during the entire conflict. It is an event that would have far reaching consequences for the war, and beyond which wouldn’t be fully realised until a generation later. This is the story of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania and how it lit the path to war for the United States of America. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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On October 15th 2016, the 43,000 ton Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuzentsov slipped out of the Kola Bay fjord in the Barents Sea. Escorted by a small flotilla of warships including the powerful Pyotr Velikiy battlecruiser, the carrier sailed through the North Sea and down the English Channel in to the Atlantic before rounding the Iberian Peninsula and entering the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. 

A month after leaving Kola Bay, aircraft of the Kuznetsov began operations against Islamic State and Al-Nusra terrorist groups in Syria in support of the Assad government. It was the first time a Russian carrier group had undertaken a combat deployment and was the end of a long, complex and at times troubled road undertaken by Moscow to produce a carrier force which was hoped would one day challenge the dominance of the United States Navy; a dream that offered great promise but as of 2023 sees one solitary carrier rusting and leaking in a Russian shipyard waiting for the government to release funds to finish repairs to make it operational again. This is the story of the Soviet Navy’s carrier program, it’s origins, it’s highs, it’s lows and the fruits it bore for Russia and others in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Given the horror that Hitler unleashed on the world, it seems unfathomable that he could show any kind of warmth and affection to any living thing. Yet quite the contrary for he was an avid lover of dogs, but this love only serves to remind us of his evil for he could treat animals infinitely better than he treated many people. In this episode, we are going to examine the Fuhrer’s love for dogs, examine the role they played in the Fuhrer’s day-to-day life and how they were even an influence in his ideas for a racially pure world. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Throughout history, war has often been characterised as being an elaborate game of chess played by the Generals commanding the armies on the chessboard that is the battlefield. This characterisation has led to the perception of many of history’s great duels being between two key, opposing players and in 1942 on the deserts of North Africa – a land described as being ideal for the game of war – there seemed no greater player than German Field Marshall Erwin Rommell. 

Commanding the German Afrika Korps, it seemed like the man who history remembers as the Desert Fox could not be stopped. The British Empire forces opposing him changed leaders several times until finally one man stood up to the plate who could match him in both genius and charisma. His name was General Bernard Montgomery who history would know simply as Monty. But Monty’s story extends beyond this one battlefield and in this episode, we are going to explore more of the man who heralded the turning point in the fight against Nazi tyranny. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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For every nation, there are battles whose names for one reason or another mean more to their people than most. For Americans, its Gettysburg. For Australians and New Zealanders, its Gallipoli. For the British and Canadians, it’s the Somme. For France, perhaps one of the most important battles in its recent history was the Battle of Verdun. Fought almost throughout the entirety of 1916, the battle was instigated by the German Army in an effort to destroy France and achieve victory on the Western Front. Instead, the battle demonstrated France’s determination to resist and fight back over the span of 303 days of fighting – one of the longest battles not just of the Great War but in recorded history. This is the story of the Battle of Verdun. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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In this, episode, we are going to take a look at the real wartime service of UB-65 and then investigate the legend to establish if there is any truth in the story of the supposedly haunted U-boat or whether it was as some believe the result of an elaborate plan by the Allies to combat the underwater menace. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The opening of the air war over the Pacific was brutal. Allied pilots found themselves facing an enemy whose fighters appeared to be able to run rings around their own. The most notable of these Japanese fighters was the Mitsubishi A6M more commonly known to Allied pilots as the Zero. Designed by a team headed by Jiro Honkoshi, the A6M was designed for the Imperial Japanese Navy and as such could be operated from carriers. At the time, most carrier-based fighters had to sacrifice some aspect of its performance to make it suitable for the rigours of carrier operations but what made the Zero so feared was that for the first time, this aircraft had performance that could match most of its land-based adversaries; something almost completely lost on Allied intelligence prior to December 1941.

The Zero was a fast slasher, being capable of high speed and great agility. By contrast most Allied fighters such as the US Navy’s Grumman F4F Wildcat were much heavier designs as they incorporated greater protection; something the Zero sacrificed to achieve its stellar performance. Therefore, it was quickly realised that what was needed was a more powerful fighter that could match the Zero’s performance without sacrificing the protection and firepower afforded the US pilots and this lead to the development of one of the greatest fighters of World War II – the Grumman F6F Hellcat. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The streets of Berlin were devastated beyond recognition in some areas as 33-year-old photographer William Vandivert was led to the location of the former German chancellery buildings. Just days before, these streets had been the subject of a two-week long bloody and bitter battle between the Soviet Union’s Red Army and the last of the German Wehrmacht whose numbers had been propped up by old men and young boys recruited from the city’s population. Now that battle was over and red flags upon which was emblazoned the hammer and sickle emblem of the Soviet Union hung from the ruined buildings, replacing the swastika of the Third Reich which was no more. Vandivert later reported in Life magazine that almost every famous building in the German capital was a shambles and one could walk for blocks and see no living thing, hear nothing but the stillness of death and smell nothing but its putrid stench. Vandivert arrived at what remained of the Reich chancellery and was then guided to an entrance that went down beneath it. 

Vandivert was about to become the first journalist from a western Allied nation to see the fuhrerbunker where Adolf Hitler directed the German war effort in those final days before he like the Nazi dream itself ended in blood; in the Fuhrer’s case at his own hand in one last act of defiance. As if symbolising the dark nature of the world he was stepping into, Vandivert later recounted that there was almost no light in the bunker and that the Red Army guards who escorted him around lit the way with candles before the flash of his camera exposed the scenes below; his pictures giving the people of the US and beyond their first glimpse into where the Fuhrer – perhaps the epitome of evil – died. Since that day, the world has been fascinated with the story of Hitler’s final days. Prior to 1945, it appeared as though Hitler and his Fascist war machine was unstoppable as it dominated the battlefield. Even his enemies began to view him some kind of invincible monarch and so it was quite perplexing that the man who had enamoured audiences of thousands at the spectacular Nuremberg rallies would die in a dark hole in the ground like a rat returning to its nest after consuming poison. 

This is the story of the creation of the Fuhrerbunker and those hellish last days of the man who dreamed of total conquest.

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Hỏa Lò Prison was first built during the French Colonial era between 1886 and 1901 in the French Quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital city. During this time, Vietnam was part of French Indochina, a group of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia which was eventually dissolved in the 1950s. As well as various Vietnamese regions, French Indochina consisted of Cambodia, Laos and Guangzhouwan. The city of Hanoi remained the area’s capital between 1902 and 1945.

Upon first being built, Hỏa Lò Prison was dubbed ‘Maison Centrale’ or ‘Central House’, and was established to hold Vietnamese revolutionaries and political dissidents, particularly those campaigning for Vietnamese independence. The prison had a grisly reputation from the start: prisoners were known to be subject to torture and brutal interrogation tactics, before finally facing execution. The name ‘Hỏa Lò’ emerged some time afterwards, roughly translating to ‘stove’, ‘fire kiln’ or ‘fiery furnace’, and came from the fact that the surrounding neighbourhood was filled with stores selling wood and coal-fire stoves.

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When discussing the Axis powers of World War II, history tends to focus on Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Mussolini’s Italy however this is only part of the story. Fascism and antisemitism were by no means limited to Hitler and his closest allies in Tokyo and Rome. Indeed, far-right extremist ideologies had taken hold in several European countries that made them potential allies for Berlin particularly with the natural hostility such policies attracted from the communist superpower of the Soviet Union.

One such nation that found itself seduced by the same Fascist ideals as Germany was Romania. Surrounded by potential enemies who viewed its lands with jealousy including the Soviet Union, historic antisemitism combined with a fear of a communism led Romania down a dark path as it found itself working alongside Hitler’s Germany on what the leaders of both countries saw as nothing short of a holy crusade against those who they believed conspired against them, stifling them and holding them back from achieving their true destiny of greatness in the world.

But working with the devil comes at a terrible price. In this episode we are going to examine the involvement of Romanian soldiers in one of the most brutal chapters of the Holocaust where hatred manifested itself in its purest forms against those who had no way of fighting back. This is the story of the 1941 Odessa Massacre.

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In one specific section of his book, Tomlinson details that to qualify for the Increment, a certain amount of time must be served with MI6: “...SAS and SBS personnel must have served for at least five years and have reached the rank of sergeant. They are security vetted by MI6 and given a short induction course into the function and objectives of the service. If they have not already learnt surveillance skills, they take a three-week course at the Fort. Back at their bases in Hereford and Poole, their already substantial military skills are fine-tuned. They learn how to use improvised explosives and sabotage techniques, as well as advanced VIP protection skills, study guerilla warfare organisation and practise advanced insertion techniques - for example, high-altitude parachuting from commercial aircraft or covert landings from submarines. 

Advanced civilian qualifications are acquired: several of the SBS Increment have commercial ship's skipper’s tickets in their alias name, enabling them legally to hire, say, a fishing trawler.” Recruiters for E Squadron are also known to choose a wide variety of individuals to fill their vacancies, hiring from countries such as Fiji, Malta and Jamaica, as well as British citizens of India, Yemen and Nigeria, to name a few. Additionally, women are also regularly recruited in these positions, with hired individuals needing to be able to fit in anywhere, easily, with one source telling The Sun, “Women are often the best at this sort of work. If a group of blokes turns up, it always looks suspicious. We haven’t had a female Bond in the films, but there are already lots in real life.” Welcome to Wars of the World....

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In this episode, we are going to examine the evolution of the Panzer series from the humble Panzer I up to the excellent Panzer IV before German armoured doctrine switched to newer, often heavier and more powerful tanks to help compensate for their increasing numerical inferiority in the face of the Allied armies.

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The SAS operation known as Bravo Two Zero left three men killed and four men captured to be tortured by Iraqi soldiers during the 1990s. This horrific and deadly exercise is infamous today, having been discussed in various books - some of which were written by the operation’s survivors - and is even the subject of a film starring Sean Bean. But certain accounts of the Bravo Two Zero operation have also come under scrutiny in the last three decades, leading it to become one of the most controversial SAS missions in history.

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1942. Nazi tyranny has engulfed Europe, the western Soviet Union and North Africa. Against this backdrop, there seems to be only one force who can take the fight to the heart of Hitler’s Third Reich – RAF Bomber Command. But results have been poor, and the cost has been high. As a new commander takes charge, he brings with him a bold new plan that he believes will be the first knock out blow of the war, and to deliver it, he plans to send over 1000 bombers to hit a single German city. This is the story of Operation Millenium – the first 1,000 bomber raid. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The Battle of Britain was one of the most unique and decisive battles in history. Fought almost entirely in the air, the defeat of Britain’s Royal Air Force would have opened the door to an invasion of Britain and the total subjugation of western Europe under the Swastika. Fortunately, the British defenders prevailed in what is remembered as their finest hour but while much is discussed about the battle for the skies, less is known about the efforts made to actually carry out the invasion had the German Luftwaffe won the Battle of Britain. This is the story of the trials and tribulations of the German preparations for Operation Sea Lion; the invasion of Britain. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Few cities in the world can claim the same level of fame, of culture and possessing the level of prestige in the art world as Paris. It became known as ‘La Ville-Lumière’ or the City of Lights and it was one of the first true international cities, heavily influencing both European and world history for hundreds of years. Tyrants both ruled it and coveted it for themselves. During the early stages of the Great War, Kaiser Wilhelm II came frighteningly close to marching triumphantly through its streets, so much so that he would spend the next four years dreaming lecherously of standing atop the famous Eiffel Tower, looking down at the city below now draped in the German flag. 

It would be a dream he would not realise but one he would share with a young Austrian-born corporal serving in his Army in the trenches of the Western front. In this episode, we will look at how Adolf Hitler would, nearly twenty-two years later, achieve in just a few weeks what the Kaiser failed to do in four years and turn out the city of lights. This is the story of the fall of Paris. Welcome to Wars of the World. 

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Smartly pressed and immaculately presented, the Nazis loved their uniforms. For the Nazi mindset, the uniform demonstrated discipline and status and was used as part of the propaganda effort to give their dream of a new, super-Germany a sense of fashion and style. Some embraced this more than others with perhaps the most notable connoisseur of fine clothing being Hermann Goering, the head of the Luftwaffe who was known to have specially tailored, flamboyant uniforms made for himself, but fashion played more of a role in Nazi culture than one might first believe. In this episode we are going to explore the importance and some of the history behind the Nazi obsession with uniforms. Welcome to Wars of the World. 

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Early October 1993, as Americans went about their daily business, many were stunned to hear of the dramatic events that had taken place thousands of miles away in the impoverished, war-torn country of Somalia involving their own troops in a city few of them had ever heard of. Fought on the streets of the Somali capital, the Battle of Mogadishu, as American history books refer to it, took place on the afternoon of October 3rd 1993, through the night and into the next morning. For American forces, it would prove one of the most intense urban battles since the Vietnam War two decades earlier. Consequently, they suffered more dead and wounded in a matter of hours than in recent years of operations combined, culminating in the shootdown of two US Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters. 

Yet, despite these factors, the battle itself is considered a tactical success for the US forces involved, for despite daunting odds, political restrictions in the planning stage, and unforeseen mishaps, a force of less than 100 US troops held off more than 10 times their own number of heavily armed hostiles who poured streams of bullets and rocket-propelled grenades at their positions in an intense, coordinated ambush. In today’s episode, we will examine the events leading up to the battle, the battle itself and the fallout from the whole affair, known around the world as the Black Hawk Down Incident.

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War Thunder is a highly detailed vehicle combat game containing over 2000 playable tanks, aircrafts and ships spanning over 100 years of development. Immerse yourself completely in dynamic battles with unparalleled realism and approachability.

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By 1942, the war was no longer another great European conflict. It was now a firmly global affair enveloping all of the world’s great powers as the Allies squared off against the tyranny and aggression of the Axis nations. Against such colossal forces, no one country could stand alone and events that affected one combatant would ultimately have consequences for the other further down the road.

To that end, while the western Allies and the Soviet Union were effectively fighting separate wars against the same enemy, there needed to be cooperation between the two fronts in order to squeeze the life out of Nazi Germany and insure victory against Fascism. However, the relationship was often a strained one as both Allied power blocks were suspicious of the other’s intentions once the war was over. 

Thus, we come to the subject of today’s episode and a story of the war that is still the subject of much debate today. It was an operation with no specific military objective other than to experiment with conducting division-sized amphibious landings against a fortified beach and as a gesture to the Soviet Union who were starting to feel abandoned by their Allies. It is an operation that has become seared into the hearts and minds of the Canadian people for the sacrifice they were asked to make for it.

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The Wounded Knee Massacre was a massacre of nearly three hundred Lakota people by soldiers of the United States Army. This is their story.

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As the drive for equality between the sexes gathered unprecedented momentum in the 1950s and 60s, historians began to reassess the importance women have played in many of the most pivotal events. Who were some of the most important women alongside the men responsible for some of the most heinous acts recorded within the pages of the Human story? In the case of Nazi Germany, Eva Braun is often cited as being equivalent to the wives of Allied leaders and rightly so for she stood by Hitler until the very last moment of his life. However, she was by no means the only woman to occupy a significant place beside the Fuhrer. In this episode, we are going to look at the story of Magda Goebbels, wife of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, close and personal friend of the Fuhrer and the woman who was once labelled as the First Lady of the Third Reich.

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Dive into the gripping story of the Battle of Midway, a pivotal moment in World War II that changed the course of history. In this video, we'll explore the strategies, key players, and decisive moments that led to the stunning victory of the United States against the Japanese Empire. Witness how the bravery and determination of the Allied forces turned the tide of the war in the Pacific, and learn about the lasting impact of this monumental battle on the outcome of World War II. Join us here on 'Wars of The World' as we uncover the secrets, sacrifices, and heroism of the Battle of Midway. 

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It was a place few expected to be fighting in when war broke out in 1939. It was a conflict Hitler never wanted. It was a fight on terrain that at times was as hostile as the enemy. It was a battlefield that relied on chariots of steel and wings of vengeance and one that could only be won through cunning, ruthlessness and above all – an effective supply chain. For many, the battle for control of North Africa is seen as something of a side show to the war in Europe but this conceals the truth that if North Africa had fallen to the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy then the whole course of the war could have been completely changed. In this episode, we are going to explore the events surrounding the most pivotal battles for control of North Africa – the battles for El Alamein in Egypt – and examine the cost of both success and failure to both sides. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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It would be too simplified an explanation for the motivation of Adolf Hitler to merely state that he desired conquest and power. Nazi Germany, including the lands to which its power reached, was to be a society unlike any other. Purged of those with attributes deemed undesirable in his new order, the new German people would be pure and united in their goal of achieving their country’s destiny; to become the greatest nation on Earth. Technologically. Militarily. Scientifically. Germany was to be the envy of all, untouchable by the old foreign powers who would squabble for the scraps left in its wake as Hitler’s hand as leader - the Fuhrer - stretched across the globe to every continent. At the heart of this new Germany would be its capital. 

Berlin, which was to be renamed Germania, would become the most developed and prosperous city not just in the world but in all of history, its magnificence leaving the famed capitals of empires of old such as Rome and Athens a mere shadow in comparison. And dominating this new supercity would be the immense Grand Hall or Hall of the People. Conceived of by Hitler and designed by Albert Speer, this immense, domed structure would dwarf any that was in existence at that time, aptly demonstrating Nazi Germany’s power and capability. Being able to seat 180,000 Nazi German citizens, it would be 16 times larger than St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome whose design it aped and would be filled with devoted followers all of whom would come to see the Fuhrer in person and hear him speak of the bright future for the Third Reich, a reich which Hitler promised would last a thousand years. 

And yet just twelve years after Hitler came to power, that dream of the greatest city in history was smashed under the tracks of Soviet T-34 tanks, the Nazi leadership having to recruit children and the elderly to try and stave off the Red Army that had encircled the city which already had been battered by Allied bombing raids for five years, looking to deliver the death blow to the Nazi tyranny. 

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No war – won or lost – is ever waged without sacrifice. Those sacrifices can be material in the loss of equipment or infrastructure, monetary in the cost to a nation’s economy of waging a war but always it is in blood. Death is at the very nature of war and while armies going back to antiquity have sought to limit their own casualties whenever they could, the threat of death is forever present. However, death is not always a matter of the unfortunate circumstance a combatant may find themselves in during their final moments. Throughout history, there are those who have engaged the enemy knowing that while they will almost certainly die, their sacrifice may have meaning for their comrades for as it is written in the Holy Bible in John Chapter 15 verse 13, “No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.” Often the decision to make such sacrifices are made in the heat of battle however as the Second World War entered its final phase, the demand for sacrifice in order to help turn the tide against an increasingly hopeless situation led to an almost industrial scale undertaking to throw Human lives at the enemy in the hope of deflecting the inevitable. This is the story of the Divine Wind, Japan’s Kamikazes. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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In 1916, France was a nation cut in two by a string of trenches cut into the Earth running from north to south, separating two vast opposing military forces who fielded weapons that seemed the stuff of science fiction just a generation earlier. So confident in these weapons were both sides that they expected the fighting to be a short and sharp affair, both expecting victory but, in the end, it was nothing more than bloody, senseless stalemate.

Britain had gone to war in honour of a treaty it had signed with Belgium which German Kaiser Wilhelm II disregarded when his troops invaded the small neutral country, looking to bypass the main French line. At the time the British Empire was the most powerful in history, but that strength largely lay in its navy. On the continent, professional troops used to putting down uprisings by tribesmen in remote parts of the Empire, struggled to get to grips with the realities of modern warfare. The result was a bloodbath and would eventually lead to the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The Vietnam War would see the realisation of the Vietnamese dream of a single unified, independent country taking its place in the world free of outside oppression and rule. It is the type of story that has been told throughout history and had it occurred at any other point in history then it would have likely been largely forgotten outside of the small South East Asian country as so many wars of independence are. But because of events elsewhere in the world, the battlefields of Vietnam became one of the most important in the world at that time for it was here that two ideological superpowers, the democratic west and the communist east, would throw their weight in. Not being able to fight one another directly because they would destroy themselves in a nuclear fire, they instead fought through the Vietnamese people. This is the story of the Vietnam War. 

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On the morning of August 9th 1945, air raid sirens began to ring out in the Japanese city of Nagasaki. However, a short while later the sirens rang out again indicating that there was no danger and people began to climb out of their shelters to carry on about their daily business. Japanese spotters had only identified two United States Army Air Force B-29 bombers and they had previously flown to the city of Kokura without dropping any weapons so Japanese authorities presumed they were merely on a reconnaissance mission. 

Six days after the attack, Japan surrendered to the Allies bringing to a close the most destructive conflict in recorded history that ended with the first two – and so far, only - nuclear attacks in history. It was the Second World War. In this, the first of a two-part special, we are going to examine some of the key elements and incidents of what is probably the single most influential conflict in the course of Human history. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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With the onset of Spring 1942, the war in the east was ready to begin again but the problem of supplies particularly of oil was forever a worry for the German High Command and so they planned for an offensive that if successful would not only alleviate their fuel shortage but also deny the Soviets their own fuel stocks. Part of that plan involved a city on the edge of the Volga River in eastern Ukraine. This city formerly known as Volgagrad had since been bestowed with the name of the Soviet leader himself and while few people before the war knew it even existed, in the decades since its name has adorned almost every history book as an example of what occurs when two powerful forces clash and refuse to submit to the other. This is the story of the Battle for Stalingrad. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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In part 2 of our Battle of Britain documentary, we explored how after Germany had swept over continental Europe, Britain under Prime Minister Winston Churchill refused to give in to Hitler’s will but while the British have spirit to spare, fighters and pilots to fly them were becoming increasingly scarce and unless things changed dramatically, Fighter Command would be whittled down into defeat. It was just a matter of time. In this episode we are going to explore the climax of the Battle of Britain and how Fighter Command was able to bounce back seemingly from the dead to achieve victory. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Fuelled by the euphoria of his successes thus far, Hitler was certain that the recently appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill would have no choice but to sue for peace. He was wrong. Churchill made it abundantly clear that Great Britain would never surrender to the Nazi tyranny. That Hitler’s troops were going to have to fight for every square inch of the British Isles for in Churchill’s mind and the free world itself, surrender was simply not an option. In this, the first of a two-part special we are going to examine the story of the Battle of Britain.

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"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time" So remarked the British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey, as the European continent geared up for war in the summer of 1914. Although at first glance his words appear somewhat fatalistic the fact is that what would transpire over the following four years would so dramatically change the world that the consequences of which would not be fully resolved until the end of the century when all the key figures involved had long died including Grey. Even today the consequences of that summer are still being felt in some way and we all live in the shadow of the aptly named Great War. The First World War. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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At 8:46am on September 11th, 2001 - the world changed forever...

A hijacked airliner was flown deliberately into the north tower of the World Trade Center followed seventeen minutes later by another plane which hit the south tower. A third airliner was flown into the Pentagon from where the US directed its global military operations while a fourth was brought down by courageous passengers who wrestled for control of the aircraft with the hijackers.

For decades, the US had believed that it existed behind an armoured shield comprised of its enormous military might. That belief was now shattered. With so many people killed not just from the United States but from across the globe, it was truly an attack on the free world and the cry went out for justice. For revenge.

Very quickly, it was concluded that the attack was authorized by Osama Bin Laden, the head of the al-Qaeda terrorist network who had long dreamed of a spectacular attack on the US mainland. Known to be hiding out in Afghanistan under the umbrella of the ideologically driven Taliban regime, the US and its Allies geared up for war. On September 10th, only a small proportion of Americans knew where Afghanistan was on a map. On September 12th, nearly the entire population were focused on this rural, landlocked country as the hunt for the most wanted man on Earth began.

In this, the second episode of a two-part special on the violent history of Afghanistan, we are going to examine the American-led invasion of Afghanistan; America’s longest war.

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The United States of America was born out of the yearning of the many people who had traveled there from the old world of Europe to be free of the imperial powers that had dominated them for centuries. To have democracy, liberty, justice for all and to take command of their own destiny. 

The birth of the American nation was a painful one, first by having to fight against the forces of the British and then against the indigenous people of North America, within and from outside of the new borders they had declared. In between the many conflicts, the new nation had to establish its own laws, political system and even its own culture none of which developed overnight. 

Obviously, there would not always be a consensus. Over the century after 1776 when the United States of America was born, while growing under a political union of the states that it was composed of, it also saw the widening of a cultural divide between the industrious northern states and the agricultural southern states. Perhaps more than anything else, the two sides of this divide found themselves at odds over the question of slavery.

The ethics of owning a person as property became a legal battle between those in support of the practice and those opposed in American courts and halls of power. Eventually, the dispute of course became a real battlefield. More Americans died in the American Civil War that raged on the North American continent between 1861 and 1865 than in any other war in which Americans have fought throughout its history.

And while the battles have long ended, the ramifications of the civil war continue to be felt to this very day in America over issues such as culture and of course race. So, let us delve into the history of this dark chapter of American history.

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On a sleepy Sunday morning in 1941, the Hawaiian island of Oahu couldn’t have looked anymore idyllic. Even with the fairly recent arrival of the United States Pacific Fleet which had deployed to the island from San Diego to their new main base at Pearl Harbor only seemed to harbinger nothing more than a display of US naval prestige. Arranged off Ford Island in a line were seven of America’s mightiest battleships. This part of the harbor had become known appropriately as Battleship Row and the sight of these seemingly invulnerable battlewagons must have convinced all that America’s might was unquestionable.

And yet the sun was rising literally and figuratively, shining a spotlight on a vast fleet of aircraft that buzzed through the morning sky and into history. This is the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Welcome to Wars of the World. 

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On Sunday 15th August 2021, after an almost 20 year-long absence, the Taliban recaptured the Afghan capital city of Kabul. As the US-led coalition withdrew, the Taliban regrouped and began expanding outward once again. Facing little opposition from the Afghan National Army that had been trained and equipped by western forces, they only grew bolder and began an almost Blitzkrieg-style campaign to retake villages, towns, cities and then entire provinces until they were once again in near-total control of a land that has seemingly only known bloodshed for the better part of fifty years.

The story of the Taliban is the story of Afghanistan in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Cloaked in Islamic ideology that even many of the most prominent Muslim countries have largely moved on from, Afghanistan under the Taliban was always a land that resisted the influence of outsiders with tenacity, ferocity and always in blood. The attempts by the great powers of the world to bring Afghanistan more in-line culturally with the wider world perspective particularly concerning the treatment of women and the application of science and technology has presented an arena where the tools of the modern world have waged battles with the determination of the old. Yet almost every foreign power that has gotten involved with Afghanistan has ultimately failed in its mission there hence, Afghanistan becoming known as the graveyard of empires.

In this the first part of a two-part special, we are going to examine the modern history of Afghanistan, investigate the origins and ideology of the Taliban and chart their rise and fall and then return to power. This is the Taliban’s Story. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The end of the Second World War was met with riotous jubilation at the victory over the Axis powers and with the establishment of the United Nations there was the dream of a new world order of freedom, prosperity and above all peace. Even the advent of the Atom Bomb, the decisive weapon that ended the war was celebrated for it was believed it was so powerful it would render warfare obsolete.

And yet even before the guns fell silent, concerned whispers were being shared in the halls of power regarding the capitalist Allies of the west and the communists in the east who hitherto had been united against Fascism. With there no longer being a common enemy to unite them, age-old rivalries and fears began to re-emerge. 

The western Allies of America, Britain, Canada and France had not forgotten that the Soviet leader Stalin had worked with the Nazis to carve up eastern Europe before Germany invaded Poland in 1939. They were also concerned about Stalin’s refusal to surrender his grip on territories in eastern Europe which the Red Army had liberated and his land grab in Asia during his last-minute intervention in the Pacific theatre against Japan.

Stalin himself, as paranoid as ever, was convinced that the western allies deliberately delayed the D-Day landings in order to bleed the Soviet Union of its people in an effort to weaken the vast country. The fact that American soldiers had fought in the Russian Civil War against the Communists in 1919 only helped fuel his belief that after Napoleon and Hitler, the next leader to take a massive army into the Soviet Union would be American.

With both America and the Soviet Union having suffered devastating surprise attacks in the war, they were both determined that it would never happen again. They readied their armies to fight what would prove to be one of the most abstract conflicts in history – the Cold War.

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Between 1939 and 1941, the forces of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany blazed a path of destruction, oppression and murder across the map of Europe and beyond and it seemed his ambition could never be satisfied. The world was his goal. Death was his tool. Only a badly beaten and barely holding-on Britain managed to hold back the tide long enough to guarantee that all of Europe wouldn’t be draped in a flag bearing the Swastika. And yet within three years Britain, Canada and the United States along with survivors from the fallen nations would amalgamate into a single force and in one swift move, drive a dagger into the side of Hitler’s dreams of total, European and ultimately global supremacy. That dagger was driven in on the beaches of Normandy in June 1944 and it would be twisted into a wound that would never close. This is the story of Operation Overlord. This is the story of D-Day…

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War! The Human race never seems to fail in finding reasons for which to wage war upon itself. When we look back at the history of war and try to understand why they have broken out, we tend to see some causes appear over and over again as if we as a species are determined to repeat past mistakes rather than learn from them. Resources. Religion. Ideology. Border disputes. A hunger for power and conquest or simply good old-fashioned hatred of another. These are the reasons we have come to expect but if we examine history more closely, there are numerous conflicts that seemed to have been sparked by less obvious causes. In this episode, we are going to examine five wars sparked for reasons that perhaps you wouldn’t expect to see written in a history book. So, from a case of a stolen bucket to a war started over a game of football, here are five unlikely causes of real wars throughout history. Welcome to Wars of the World.

🎶🎶 All music from CO.AG
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Narrated by: William Earl
Written & Researched by: Tony Wilkins

History Should Never Be Forgotten...

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The cost of war can be measured in many ways. Financially, materially, politically or of course in blood. However, there is a fifth cost that often gets overlooked in the history books and yet is arguably even more painful for the families back home, for it leaves them with no body to bury, no grave to visit and only questions that seem to never go answered as the world moves on. This is the cost of war for the families of those who disappear in the chaos of armed conflict. In this episode, we are going to look at three cases surrounding the US involvement in the war in southeast Asia where entire groups of Americans vanished. Here are three cases of mass disappearances of American service personnel and civilians related to the struggle for Vietnam. Welcome to Wars of the World. 

🎶🎶 All music from CO.AG
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcav...​

Narrated by: William Earl
Written & Researched by: Tony Wilkins

History Should Never Be Forgotten...

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The modern supercarriers of the US Navy. More than 80,000 tons of moving American foreign policy. Each one of these incredible ships carries more firepower than most nations on Earth and are thus the ultimate expression of US military might. It is said that whenever there has been a crisis anywhere in the world in the last 80 years, the first question the sitting US President has asked is, “Where is the nearest carrier?” The first true supercarrier was the USS Kitty Hawk CV-63 commissioned into US service on April 29th 1961 at a time when a large number of World War II-era carriers were still serving in the fleet. During the later stages of the war there was one carrier in service, albeit briefly, that in terms of scale at least could be considered a direct forerunner to the revolutionary 1961 ship. In this episode we are going to look at the background, conception and ultimately the fate of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Shinano, World War II’s ill-fated supercarrier.

🎶🎶 All music from CO.AG
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcav...​

Narrated by: William Earl
Written & Researched by: Tony Wilkins

History Should Never Be Forgotten...

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The battle for the skies over war torn Europe was one of, if not the most crucial theatre of the war against Nazi Germany. The strategic bombing campaign carried out by the Allies grew in strength with every passing year until literally thousands of  four-engined heavy bombers like the American B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator blotted out the sun at day while at night an British and Canadian planes turned the black of night into an orange glow of flame as their bombs ignited below. However, an often-overlooked part of this story is the small but intriguing contribution of the Soviet Union in the story of the overall bombing campaign. Not possessing a vast armada of four engined heavy bombers with which to hit cities like Berlin, the Soviet story is instead one of symbolic retribution, for as Germany’s armies seemed unstoppable in the opening months of Operation Barbarossa, Soviet aircraft battled the odds to prove to their people that the Fascists were not invincible. This is the story of Stalin’s dramatic 1941 bombing campaign against the Nazi capital as his own capital was increasingly under threat from being overrun by German troops. Welcome to Wars of the World.  

🎶🎶 All music from CO.AG
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcav...​

Narrated by: William Earl
Written & Researched by: Tony Wilkins

History Should Never Be Forgotten...

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The story of the Lancaster actually begins with the downfall of an earlier Avro aircraft that failed to live up to the high expectations that birthed it. Even in aviation circles, the Avro Manchester is an almost forgotten aircraft, making such a relatively small impact on the war it is completely overshadowed by its younger brother’s many accomplishments. And yet without the Manchester there would have been no Lancaster and one can only speculate how differently the Allied war effort would have been conducted without the Lancaster’s special abilities. In today’s episode  we are going to look at one of those truly great, forgotten aircraft whose real contribution to history was to provide a step-up for the legend that was to come. This is the story of the Avro Manchester. Welcome to Wars of the World. 

🎶🎶 All music from CO.AG
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Narrated by: William Earl
Written & Researched by: Tony Wilkins

History Should Never Be Forgotten...

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 On May 11th 2020, an important historical discovery concerning the United States’ military history was announced that went largely unnoticed by the wider public because of the Covid-19 pandemic that is wreaking havoc across the globe. SEARCH Inc, the largest underwater and terrestrial archaeology firm in the United States working in collaboration with underwater robotics company Ocean Infinity, announced the discovery of the wreck of the American battleship USS Nevada BB-36 almost 72 years after the warship was sunk as a target. However, no one should mistake such an inglorious end to the ship’s life as a reflection on its time in service with the US Navy. On the contrary, few ships can claim to have had such a glorious career rising to the challenges put before it and playing an instrumental role in helping the US Navy modernise to meet the challenges of 20th century naval combat. This is the story of the legend of the ship the enemy simply could not sink.

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An often overlooked part of the ME 262's story is that like many weapons from World War II, the Stormbird’s life didn’t end with the death of Hitler and the surrender of Nazi Germany on May 7th 1945. In this episode we are going to look at the Me262’s life in the post-war period and how it impacted the victorious Allies moving forward as they turned on one another in the early days of the Cold War. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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 Like any shooting war, a bloodless war can take on many forms and is not always declared by one side or the other. It simply comes into being as two sides with two opposing views clash often regarding territory and resources. Often, bloodless wars are seen as an alternative to actual shooting wars and are conducted as such with either side engaging in acts of vandalism or in some way inhibiting the affairs of the other short of firing weapons. Some bloodless wars are predominantly fought by countries and states at the negotiating table while backed up with some show of force designed to warn an opponent that they are prepared to defend themselves. In this episode we are going to examine three bloodless conflicts throughout history, explore their origins and examine how they were conducted and prevented from escalating further for it is true to say that every war in history was bloodless until the first shot was fired. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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In this episode, we are going to examine just a handful of peculiar Allied prototype planes that bucked the trend of warplane design in the early 1940s and while we may not remember them in the same breath as the Spitfire, Mustang, Bf109 or the Zero, they have nonetheless carved themselves a niche place in the annals of military aviation history. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The famous Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands was preceded and arguably inspired by a dramatic and largely forgotten event that took place almost 20 years earlier, when the sleepy Falkland Islanders awoke to the news that armed Argentinians had landed on their islands claiming them for Buenos Aires. This is the story of the 1966 Condor Operation.
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Throughout the history of naval warfare, it has been common practice to absorb captured enemy vessels into one’s own fleet, bolstering numbers and replacing losses. A common occurrence in the days of great sailing vessels firing cannonballs at one another, with the invention of high explosive shells, often captured enemy vessels became too damaged during a fight to be of use to anyone however there have of course been many exceptions.
In this episode, we are going to examine the story of how a German U-boat, the terror of the Allied convoys, found itself hoisting the white ensign of the Royal Navy and joining in the campaign against Nazi ambitions at sea. This is the story of the Royal Navy’s U-boat.
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The Soviet Union was probably the most enthusiastic of the Allies when it came to heavy tanks, not just from a tactical standpoint but from a psychological perspective also. In today’s episode, we are going to look at the tanks that bore the name of the Soviet leader Josef Stalin, known to his followers as the Man of Steel. This is the story of the Stalin heavy tanks and how they helped the Soviets blunt German armoured superiority and push the Fascists back to final defeat. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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It has long been a tradition amongst fighter pilots to display their prowess in the air with markings on their aircraft denoting their victories over enemy planes. Often these markings have taken the form of flags representing the country of which their defeated opponent hailed from. A prime example of this would be a North American P-51D Mustang flown by 1st Lieutenant Curdes. Having served in both theatres of the war where he proved himself supremely skilled in the art of air warfare, Curdes’ aircraft displayed seven German Swastikas, a single Italian roundel, a Japanese Hinomaru and strangely, one US flag. This is the incredible true story of how one US pilot deliberately shot down an American C-47 Skytrain transport in order to save the lives of all of those onboard. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The conflict in Vietnam seemed to encompass all aspects of modern combat in the 1960s and 70s. From guerrilla fighting to armoured warfare. From technologically advanced air power to small four-man boats with machine guns. There seemed no end of dangerous assignments for the forces of the United States committed to repelling the communist Viet Cong insurgents from South Vietnam and their supporters in the north. However, some jobs will always stand out a little more than others when it comes to the risk involved. In this episode, we are going to look at just three of some of the most dangerous jobs undertaken in the Vietnam War – one each involving the US Army, Navy and Air Force. Welcome to Wars of the World. 

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On July 27th 1929, many of the world’s powers signed an agreement in Geneva that dictated the treatment of enemy soldiers captured during wartime. The Geneva Convention was seen as a revolution in international law, putting the world on a more civilised path for the future in the wake of the horrors of the First World War. However, as Shakespeare put it, “The Devil can cite scripture for his purpose,” and while the promise of Humane treatment at the hands of his captors might encourage a soldier with no hope of escape to surrender rather than die needlessly, the convention is also little more than ink on a piece of paper if the enemy decides not to abide by it, as was tragically proven time and time again during the fight against the Axis powers. In todays episode, we are going to examine three notorious prisoner of war camps that demonstrate just what imprisonment by the enemy can bring and the lengths some will go to in order to escape and get back into the fight against tyranny. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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War is a complex business. It only takes one simple error to be made for total disaster, even the killing of one’s own troops and allies. Known today as “friendly fire”, these tragic and fatal mistakes go all back to the dawn of history and despite advancements in technology still occur today. In today’s episode, we are going to examine five cases of “friendly fire” during one of the most devastating periods of history – the Second World War. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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In today’s episode, we are going to look at three cases where US nukes have not only been declared as Broken Arrows but in part or in whole remain missing to this very day. Nuclear Weapons unaccounted for. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Given the immense amount of shipping sunk by submarines during the Second World War, it is incredible to remind ourselves that as of mid-2021 only three ships have been sunk in combat by a submarine since 1945. Meanwhile, numerous old vessels have been expended as targets to help hone the skills of submarine crews should they ever be called upon to wage their undersea war for real ever again. However, between the modern history training and actual combat sits an unusual event that occurred in 1967 when a British submarine was ordered to remove a rather unexpected threat to ships out in the Atlantic Ocean using weapons that were designed for war. This is the story of the torpedoing of the tanker Essberger Chemist when the Royal Navy sank half a ship. Welcome to Wars of the World.  

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The Battle of Lissa is seldom remembered outside of naval circles or even amongst the peoples of the respective combatants involved but it was an engagement that seemed to show that traditional naval warfare was being turned on its head thanks to new technologies that somewhat ironically, forced naval commanders to revert to the ancient tactic of ramming enemy ships. In this episode of Wars of the World, we will examine this influential battle and study the impact it had on warship design and operational doctrine. This is the story of the Battle of Lissa and the legacy it left which can still be seen to a degree to this very day.

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SOE agents could expect merciless treatment if captured and thus the psychological strain of being constantly on their guard meant only the strongest and toughest of people would do. Because they needed the very best of the best, the SOE didn’t have room to discriminate based on gender. What mattered most to them was that any prospective agent was intelligent, resourceful, tenacious, courageous and above all dedicated to eradicating Nazism. In today’s episode, we are going to look at three of the incredible women who served with the SOE, working to, as Churchill instructed, set Europe ablaze.

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The narrative of the air campaign during World War II centres around huge formations of bombers dropping hundreds – sometimes thousands – of tons of bombs on the ground below in an effort to pummel the enemy into oblivion. Despite the best efforts of the crews involved, dropping bombs from around 15,000ft meant that a great number of them missed their intended targets meaning they were fighting and dying often for nothing. Military commanders got around this by instead targeting entire cities but when it came to targeting ships, it was nigh-on impossible to achieve success in this manner. However, a brilliant young engineer in Germany looked to take away control of the bomb from fate and give Germany a weapon of great power and unprecedented precision all the while keeping the valuable aircrew at a safe distance where enemy guns could not reach them. This is the story of the sinking of the battleship Roma and the birth of precision guided weapons, known more commonly today as smart bombs. Welcome to Wars of the World.  

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As Germany found its forces split to fight the British Commonwealth in North Africa and Greece and the vast Soviet front in 1941, the Luftwaffe found that even with its proven fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf109 and the Focke Wulf 190, they simply didn’t have enough to meet all the requirements Hitler asked of them effectively.

What they needed was a new weapon which would leap-frog German fighter technology far beyond what the Allies possessed. A weapon that was not only deadly but simply unstoppable. They needed a Wunderwaffen and they believed they had one on the drawing board already. The Messerschmitt Me262. The first operational jet fighter in the world. With a level speed of 560mph, an altitude ceiling of 37,750ft and a rate of climb recorded at 3,900ft a minute, the Allies simply had nothing like it in their inventory. It could blast through fighter escorts and wreak havoc on Allied bombers with its four cannons mounted in its nose that could almost saw their way through a bomber’s fuselage. But despite the promise, one fact has remained undeniable throughout the history of warfare and that is that any weapon ever fielded has only been as good as the person using it. Therefore, in this episode we are going to examine some of Germany’s top jet fighter aces of World War II. The first jet aces. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The 1930s and 40s were time a of great pain for the Chinese people. Exploited by nearly all of the great foreign powers for decades, its vast population were largely impoverished and with the  collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 which had ruled the country since the mid-17th century, political instability broke the country up into factions. Then of course came the second world war, the Japanese occupation of China saw acts of brutality against the Chinese population that would be considered barbaric even by the standards of the dark ages. Then came Civil War, ending in 1949 when Mao Zedong emerged victorious and communism ruled the country. The newly founded People’s Republic of China found itself in a precarious position, however. Sapped by years of warfare and strife, the country was now at odds with an increasingly hostile United States that was dominated by an anti-communist mania. Remembering how the US defeated their great enemy Japan with atom bombs, Chairman Mao and the communists knew they needed an answer to America’s superweapons which were soon coming not just from the air but under the sea. In today’s episode of Wars of the World, we are going to look at the history of China’s efforts to develop the ultimate weapon. This is the story of China’s undersea dragons; its pursuit force of nuclear armed ballistic missile submarines or SSBNs. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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In the 1930s, with the black clouds of war gathering over the skies of Europe once more, the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin pushed to demonstrate its technical prowess to the rest of the world, particularly in the air, where the Soviets established a number of endurance records for aircraft. To demonstrate how far the Soviet Union had come culturally, a number of these record-breaking efforts included female pilots and aircrew, and none were more famous than Marina Raskova. Often credited as the Soviet Union’s Amelia Earhart, Raskova was the first woman to qualify as a navigator in the Soviet Air Force in 1933 and was part of a record-breaking attempt for female aviators that saw her crew fly over 4,000 miles in a converted DB-2 long range bomber. This earned her celebrity status in the Soviet Union and crucially, influence over Stalin himself. For when war would finally break out between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, Raskova would come to Stalin with a plan for women to join the men in the fight against fascist tyranny. This plan would result in one of the most famous flying units of World War II – the Night Witches. Welcome to Wars of the World. 

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If the trenches were the defining combat element of the First World War, then surely air power was the defining element in Second. Previously, air power primarily served to support the army and navy, but now it was of vital importance to the war effort in its own right. The battle for the skies was bloody and brutal where no quarter was ever given for to own the skies was to command the battlefield below. Between 1939 and 1945, the primary combatants built an estimated 810,000 aircraft of varying types and roles and with such large numbers of aircraft in action, there were bound to be stories that emerged which we still don’t know the whole truth of, as all the facts get blurred in the fog of war. From missing pilots to a phantom bomber to the mystery of the luminous objects seen by crews across the world, here we are going to examine four aviation mysteries of World War II. Welcome to Wars of the World. 

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As opposed to the fighting in North Africa or the brutal Eastern Front, prior to 1944 the German soldiers stationed in the west enjoyed good food, wine and the company of the local women. All the while they were unaware that they were often being lured in by those brave men and women who refused to submit to Hitler’s tyranny. In Holland, three young women would wage a secret war against their occupiers using their innocent and youthful looks to lower their enemy’s guard before they struck out like a deadly Black Widow spider. They did not embrace leading their lives this way. They had no blood lust, rather they simply did what had to be done in the cause of freedom. This is their story. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Few nations in history garner as much interest as Nazi Germany. When looking at this Fascist superpower we are left asking ourselves many, many questions with the most common beginning with the word “Why?” The reality is there are still endless questions surrounding the Nazis we do not, and may never know the answers to. In today’s episode we will explore some of these Mysteries of Nazi Germany. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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When we tell the stories of the grand military campaigns throughout history, they are dominated by operations to charge through the enemy’s main lines, pushing the enemy back, and driving them to ultimate defeat. However, another form of attack has long been a staple of military campaigns, but it doesn’t seek to hold territory it captures. Instead, a raid aims to achieve an objective such as destroying vital supplies or an enemy’s headquarters before retreating back to friendly lines. A raiding force often has to be aggressive, well-equipped to be able to defend itself for often they lack support from other units and above all have to be mobile in order to reach their objectives and then escape. It is without question, a terrifyingly risky endeavour and, as a result, there are many that ended in tragedy, and disaster.

In today’s episode, we are going to look at three of the raids from World War II that for a variety of reasons went horribly wrong. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Be they trundling through the mud of Western Europe, kicking up dust on the plains of North Africa or forging a path through the snow of the Eastern Front; the tank defined the war on land between 1939 and 1945.  When the war ended and all sides began to disarm they found themselves with literally tens of thousands of now-surplus tanks in their inventories. Many of these war machines inevitably found themselves on the business end of a scrapper’s torch as they were broken up, melted down and remade in to the trinkets of peacetime but equally, huge numbers of these proven, modern and widely available machines were now being eyed by other armies around the world as a way of quickly and relatively cheaply modernising their own tank units. As a result, for many of these tanks, combat was far from over. This is the story of how two of the most iconic tanks of World War II went back into the fray with owners old and new, time and time again, long after they should have been confined to the history books. They were the American M-4 Sherman and the Soviet Union’s T-34, and this is their incredible story. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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When the Wright Brothers made their historic first flight in 1903, they couldn’t have possibly imagined how far the aircraft would progress in the following one hundred years alone. The Wright Flyer as it was known could be cruelly described as little more than a powered kite but it would initiate a technical evolution that would shrink the world allowing global travel in hours as opposed to months by sea. It would also, of course, bring unimaginable destruction from the sky as the aircraft was tooled for warfare. This evolution from something of a curiosity to practical air power could only be achieved through experimentation but for every experiment that would succeed there were those that failed. The big dreams of military planners worldwide, that just fell short. These are their stories. Welcome to Wars of the World. 

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Theirs was a land untamed. A vast wilderness rich in natural resources and wildlife but stretched out over a continent with terrain that varied from the cold, rocky climates in the north to the tempered lands further south, which ultimately gave way to dry, arid desert. This was the home of the First Americans, the Native tribes of North America. In every war there are those whose names for good or ill enjoy greater notoriety than others be it for their cunning in combat or for their exploits against the enemy. In this episode we are going to examine some of the most notable Native American war leaders, examine their exploits during the many wars they fought for survival and examine their cultural impact on the modern-day United States of America. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The 2007 Hollywood film ‘300’, shows off a dramatized version of the Battle of the Thermopylae. In the film, the Spartan myth is shown in all its bare-chested glory. 300 Spartan warriors, led by their defiant king, Leonidas, face off against a horde of Persians 300,000 strong. Utilising a narrow mountain path, they hold their ground for three whole days against overwhelming odds, fighting to the bitter end and leaving mountains of slain enemies before them. Such battle-trained, chiselled warriors were just born. They had to be built. The Spartans had a system to create warriors, one that started a childhood. It used extreme violence, ritual starvation and strict social control to create self-sufficient, loyal, and battle-ready warriors. It wasn’t really education, and it wasn’t really military training. That’s because this wasn’t school; this wasn’t the army. This is Sparta. In today's episode of Wars of the World, we look at how Spatan's turned boys into warriors.

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The German war machine of World War Two earned a terrifying reputation as a brutally efficient and devastating engine of destruction, and death. Well, you won’t see any evidence of that in this video! The Nazi designed “Wunderwaffe” literally meaning “Miracle Weapons” include some of the most bonkers, insane, stupid and ridiculous weapon designs ever put to paper.  Most of these Wunderwaffe, as you are about to see, were as useless as they were nuts. Too impractical to build, let alone make it to mass production, most Wunderwaffe never even became prototypes. Absorbing huge amounts of money and technical experience, these exotic devices used up huge amounts of German resources, while producing very little tactical or strategic advantage in return.  In this episode, we’re going to take a deep dive into the weird and wacky world of the Nazi Wunderwaffe, focusing on the craziest of those projects, some of the maddest daydreams of military minds ever put into prototype. Welcome, to Wars of the World. 

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Every nation has a story that is retold with the words – it was the darkest time in our history. For the United States, that time was the American Civil War. A conflict as much a battle for the soul of America as it was one of politics, economics and ideology, it was centred around the concept of identity, what it meant to be an American and of course all tied up in the tragic story of slavery. There are countless stories of those who fought in that monstrous conflict, and in today’s episode, we are going to examine three stories of combatants who became revered by their respective sides and hated and feared by their opponents. 

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You might have never heard of it. Be grateful for that fact. A project started by the German ministry of Aviation, the Amerikabomber was a proposed class of long-range strategic bomber then would have been capable of striking the United-States from bases in Germany. Its failure, and the failure of the German war effort generally, spared the cities of America the same destruction seen across Europe, devastation that still scars the continent to this day. In today's episode of Wars of the World, we are going to look at the designs that would have made it all possible, and then consider at the awful goals these marvellous machines might have been used to achieve, the burning of the East Coast and the decimation of New York city.

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World War 2 is probably the most studied, analysed and widely known catastrophe in human history. This is partly because of just how big the thing was, and partly due to the technology available at the time. We have photos, video, audio recordings, newsreels, newspapers, all documenting every detail, every day, every moment. However, despite these incredible tools, and years of study by the greatest historical investigative efforts in the world, there’s still plenty of mysterious things that occurred we simply do not know the answers too. In today’s episode, we are going to examine some of the more mysterious elements of the Second World War, tales where the truth is clouded or obscured. From accusations of espionage to conspiracy theories of murder, here are four enduring mysteries of the Allies in World War II.

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It is often said that history is more than just words on the written page. For various reasons, many parts of our past have become lost or confused over time and World War I was no different. In this episode we are going to take a look at six mysteries from the war to end all wars. Welcome to Wars of the World.    

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Few nations in history garner as much interest as Nazi Germany. When looking at this Fascist superpower we are left asking ourselves many, many questions with the most common beginning with the word “Why?” The reality is there are still endless questions surrounding the Nazis we do not, and may never know the answers to. In today’s episode we will explore some of these Mysteries of Nazi Germany. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Tanks became a vital part of every major operation in No Man's Land and the exploits of these armoured goliaths would become legend. One story in particular highlights both the great advantages of armoured warfare and the potential dangers. It is a story of heroism, dedication and sacrifice but above all it is a story of the perseverance of the Human spirit in the face of seemingly impossible odds. This is the story of one tank crew’s fight to survive as they found themselves trapped in their vehicle in no-man’s land. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Narrated by: William Earl
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On June 8th 1991 in Washington DC, 8,000 US troops marched in triumph through the streets of their nation’s capital having returned from the Persian Gulf where they had just ousted Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Army from Kuwait in one of the most spectacular military operations in history. Of those 8,000 men marching that day, statistically around 2,600 of them will have fallen extremely ill as a result of their time in the Persian Gulf, their lives marred by disease and pain. In this episode, we will be examining these mysterious cases of illness suffered by veterans, investigate the possible causes of the terrible affliction and chart the battle for authorities to accept that even those without wounds did not leave the warzone entirely unscathed. This is the mystery of Gulf War Syndrome. Welcome to Wars of the World.  

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An innovative new way of fighting in the air developed in the 1930s, where fighter planes were equipped with a rotating hydraulic turret rather than front facing guns. Instead of battling to get on the tail of an enemy plane to fire your guns, these new fighters were capable of firing on an enemy aircraft behind, to the side, or even below them. On paper, these new war planes were super weapons capable of tearing apart enemy fighters and changing air warfare forever. In Part 1 we looked at their conception and their promise, but here in Part 2 we look at their downfall. This is the tale of death, destruction and failure. 

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Sleek, agile, powerful and possessing a multitude of guns on the nose and wings – the fighters of World War II have etched themselves a position in history akin to the greatest knights of the medieval world.  It is little wonder why, since the image of dogfighting a warplane with an enemy aircraft so captures our imaginations. However, less than ten years before the outbreak of WW2, a small number of aircraft appeared in Britain that offered a whole new way of engaging an enemy aircraft. Instead of battling to get on the tail of an enemy plane to fire their guns, these new fighters would be capable of firing on an enemy plane behind them, to the side, or even below them, for instead of carrying their weapons in the wings or nose, they instead adopted a rotating gun turret behind the pilot.

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Hitler was, by any accounts, a highly unusual man. From humble backgrounds, Hitler’s dystopic visions and feverish energy catapulted him right to the top. In this position, he pushed Europe into oblivion. But what made the man tick?  Some historians claim that Adolf Hitler was psychologically disturbed. The theory goes that, Hitler’s logic, or lack thereof, can be explained partially through reference to his mental health. To some, insanity is the only way to explain Hitler’s insane policies, how else could you? So, let’s look at three shocking revelations about Adolf Hitler, revelations that might have shaped the man, and moulded him into a monster. They range from the bizarre to the disturbing, including one theory that focuses on Hitler’s testicles, a rare subject matter when studying history. But here however, you’ve been lucky enough to come across one such instance: Adolf Hitler and the state of his family jewels. 

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In this episode of Wars of the World, we are going to take a glimpse into the realm of a General on the eve of probably the single most important military operation in history. D-Day. For you are now a General. In the course of this episode, we will break down some of the factors you would have to consider on June 4th 1944, less than 48 hours before your men storm the beaches of Normandy. This is your last chance to alter any of your plans for your unit to give your troops the best chance of achieving their objective at Normandy and helping the Allies establish their beachhead.

For the next twenty minutes, the weight of responsibility for not just your own men but possibly the success of the entire Allied offensive itself if your men fail under your leadership is resting squarely on your shoulders.

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Pirate ships could come in all shapes and sizes. There were big ones and small ones, sail ships and rowing boats. Some were bristling with cannons; others made do with scary fellas wielding cutlasses and grappling hooks. But what type of vessels were most popular among pirates, and how were they used? Let’s find out!

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They were a race forged in both fire and ice. Their prowess as warriors is legendary as is their brutality towards their enemies. They are remembered as raiders but they were equally capable explorers and colonists with their legacy living on until this very day. They were the Vikings and at the height of their power they were a military, political and economic superpower akin to the most powerful nations today. Yet while legend has kept their memories alive as the centuries have driven on, legend has also served to cloud the truth of this fascinating race.

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The early morning sun is already arching its way into the sky as you step across the field in northern France which has been made damp by the morning dew, leaving your boots squeaking underfoot as you walk with your observer out to your plane. You have been assigned to fly the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2. the mainstay of the Royal Flying Corps, the air arm of the British Army in August 1914. In today's episode of Wars of the World, we put you in the shoes of a British pilot during WW1. 

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When you think of pirates, the first place you think of probably isn’t Southern China. A region with a long a fascinating history, China’s South maintains its own unique identity, social, cultural, historical and otherwise, distinct and separate from the North. Two Southern Chinese stereotypes are their international, outward-facing attitude and the independence of their women. Perhaps in no one figure are these two ideas better symbolised then in Shih Yang, a prostitute turned pirate with a truly incredible story. Riding the wave, if you’ll pardon the pun, of an expanding pirate presence in the region, Shih Yang became so much more then a pirate captain, acting as an admiral, governor, legislator, and key player in international politics. Let’s travel to South China and look at the incredible life of Shih Yang, the pirate queen of the south, in this episode on our series on pirates.

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When we think of other icons of the past, people who lived lives of violence and adventure, be them Medieval Knights in armour of masked and cloaked highway robbers, they are almost always men. Why the exception with pirates? Well, most of that is down to two incredible women, Anne Bonny and Mary Reed. Anne and Mary lived fascinating lives, breaking boundaries and overcoming expectations. Littered with incredible similarities, these two women’s fates aligned, joining them together across vast distances and joining them together as crew members, close friends, and, perhaps, even as lovers. In a story that still makes them famous to this day, Anne Bonny and Mary Reed overcame setback after setback, before ultimately meeting a tragic end. Today, we look into the lives of the two greatest female pirates to ever exist.

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Pirate captains and their crews were violent, even ruthless. Part of this was a necessity. But some captains went beyond the normal, creating an art out of atrocity. Captain Blackbeard and Charles Vane, both household names to this day, were such captains, employing cruelty in a calculated, systematic way. Both men prospered and perished, living and dying by the jolly-roger.  But who were Blackbeard and Charles Vane, and how did they end up capturing hearts and minds alongside ships and silver? We will answer these questions, and more, in this video, our first episode looking at the lucrative, violent and, often, tragic, lives of pirates through history.

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This video is part two of a two part series on War Trains. If you want to get the full history of these titanic engines of war through the Civil War times to the end of World War One you can check that out in the link below. But if you don’t mind about all that stuff and you want to jump right into WW2, that’s fine too. Because this is where our story really gets explosive. This is the moment in history where the power of these armoured trains reaches super-weapon status. This is the story of the greatest battle engines ever run on rails. The story of a Nazi super-weapon, and ultimately, the trains armed with the nuclear power to decimate entire countries. This is Armageddon on Rails. This is Wars of the World.

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Rail power has been the engine that built and toppled entire empires. Like so many an invention throughout history, it has been turned into a tool of warfare. In this episode, we are going to examine some of the roles that trains have played in military campaigns since the invention of the first steam powered tram locomotive pulled 10-ton loads on a stretch of track in South Wales in 1804. It is a story of humble beginnings, tragedy, terror and eventually the great war itself. This is the history of War Trains. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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Worryingly, the skies look set to offer terrorists even more opportunities to wage their campaigns as drone technology especially becomes increasingly inexpensive and easy to acquire. In this episode, we are going to explore the history of terrorist aviation, examine some key incidents where aircraft have served a use for terrorist groups and look at the potential threats security services may face in the coming decade. This is Terrorist Air Power. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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The First World War could have happened very differently: not in 1914, but 1896. Here, an industrial war of unprecedented scale would have been fought by the British against the French. In the swamps of the Upper Nile, among the half-ruined, half-forgotten outpost known as Fashoda, a confrontation between a small group of French and British soldiers nearly engulfed Europe in flames. This momentous encounter… was the Fashoda Incident. 

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Just 11 years after the Wright Brothers took flight in a powered aircraft for the first time, primitive aircraft were being taken to the frontlines as Europe exploded into the Great War in August 1914. Control of the skies over the battlefield went from being something of an afterthought to being of one of the highest priorities. And when the next war came, the pilots of fighter planes would at times hold the fate of their own country in their hands.

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The First World War could have happened very differently: not in 1914, but 1896. Here, an industrial war of unprecedented scale would have been fought by the British against the French. In the swamps of the Upper Nile, among the half-ruined, half-forgotten outpost known as Fashoda, a confrontation between a small group of French and British soldiers nearly engulfed Europe in flames. This momentous encounter… was the Fashoda Incident.

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Narrated by: William Earl
Written & Researched by: Harry Palmer

History Should Never Be Forgotten...

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The brutality of modern warfare coupled with advancements in medical science, such as the discovery of penicillin, meant more soldiers could survive life-threatening wounds. After initial recovery, many patients realised an even longer road to regaining what they had physically lost awaited them. As a result of months or even years of reconstructive surgery, many went on to salvage some of what the ‘Great War’ had taken from them. 

Let’s look back and appreciate the medical advancements which grew out of a desperate need to rebuild the lives affected by the horrors of conflict. And let’s look into key examples of the brilliant work of medical professionals who pioneered the surgical revolution!

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Here are three stories of bravery from soldiers of the first world war that we found particularly incredible. Each show a very different account of the war, and also bravery itself. May they act as a reminder of the folly of war, a tribute to those courageous men and women who died in the war.

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On the 1st of September 1939, Nazi Germany declared war on Poland. The Second World War had begun and Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, finally had the chance to realise his dystopian vision. But he didn’t risk demonstrating blatant aggression. Instead, an entire fake Polish attack was staged on the night of the 31st of August, complete with murdered prisoners dressed as Polish soldiers.​

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Life at sea during the Age of Sail had its ups and downs. The steady rhythm of the sea alone was enough to reduce many men to a chronic state of seasickness. But it wasn’t just the tumultuous oceans that could make it hard to keep down food…

The horrifying punishments used onboard military vessels created a sickness of another kind: one of rigid hierarchy and brutal, even tortuous discipline. Whatever the crime, punishment in the Europe’s naval forces was likely to be swift and harsh.

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A selection of the most feared Hungarian, Romanian & Bulgarian soldiers who took part in the second world war.​

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In this episode of wars of the world, we look at the deadliest Italian and Finnish soldiers during WWII.

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As the tide turned and the Soviets recaptured lost territory, they saw what the German troops had done to their countrymen and swore revenge. To that end, there were Soviet soldiers, sailors and airmen enraged by their enemy’s conduct who used their skills to exact retribution on the Germans and their Allies becoming some of the most feared combatants on the Eastern Front. In this episode of Wars of the World’s Deadliest Combatants, we look at four Soviet fighters that instilled abject terror on the Germans.

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In this episode of Wars of the World Deadliest Combatants we take a look at some of the most proficient and feared warriors of the Empire of Japan. These are the Deadliest Japanese of World War II. 

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During the First World War it took four hours for the armistice to come into effect, and then
over 12 hours for troops on the Western Front to actually stop fighting. The sad result of this
tardiness? Some 11,000 casualties on the Allied side alone. In history, as today, things often took a long time to happen. And war is no exception. Well while some ponderous wars were still being fought hours after they’d finished, the foot-light Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1869 managed to be started, prosecuted, and wrapped up, all within the hour! From beginning to end it lasted only 38 minutes. Yes, you heard me. Not 38 years, not 38 weeks, not even 38 hours. In fact, this 38-minute war happens to be the shortest in all recorded human history.

The brief Anglo-Zanzibar War represents a fascinating outlier in warfare, not just because it was unbelievably short, but also because of the unusual events that occurred within it. For those 38 minutes, family intrigue and betrayal met the no-nonsense might of Victorian Britain. The result: an unexpected, point-blank costal artillery barrage of pretty insane proportions. This is the story of the Anglo-Zanzibar War.

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In August 1945, World War II was brought to its chilling climax in two brilliant, white flashes in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but while one chapter of history ended, another began. That of the threat of nuclear-armed conflict. Nuclear weapons changed the rules of global confrontation forever.

The first atomic bombs were huge weapons for the aircraft to carry being around 10,000lbs but it was not simply enough to just carry them aloft. The bomber still had to fly high enough and fast enough to escape the blast and the shockwave it produced which could shake an aircraft apart. As the bombs became more and more powerful, the requirements for the performance of the bombers also increased.

The era of the super bombers had arrived....

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In this latest instalment of Wars of the World’s Deadliest Combatants series, we are going to look at four Americans who not only went above and beyond in the service of their country but earned the respect of their comrades and the fear of their enemy. These are the four deadliest Americans of World War 2.

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As the 1980s drew on and the Cold War between east and west entered its final and perhaps most dangerous phase, the navy of the Soviet Union concocted a plan to conduct the ultimate test of their SSBNs. The launching of a full salvo of missiles. This is the story of Operation Behemoth.

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Constantinople. The City of the World’s Desire. The largest city in Christendom for nearly a thousand years. Surprisingly few remember this grand city, capital of two of history’s greatest empires: the Christian Roman Empire, and the Islamic Ottoman Empire.

This is the story of Constantinople’s fall, how Europe’s richest city fell to the Turks and became known as Istanbul: the story of the Great Siege of 1453.
When histories greatest fortification was stormed, and Europe’s largest cathedral was transformed into a mosque, the Empire formed by Romulus and Remus on the seven hills had finally come to an end. Europe shuddered. It had done nothing to help the ancient city. Now, it would suffer a renewed Islamic onslaught, not seen since the days of the great caliphs. The
shockwaves caused by the fall of the city of Constantinople would echo through history, changing world history forever.

A big thank you to Mattia Bosello and Rosie for proving the Italian narration.

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In the years leading up to the start of the Second World War, Britain’s empire extended to every continent on Earth. As such, British forces fought in every theatre of the conflict alongside troops raised from the nations that made up the Empire and allied powers such as the United States, France and the Soviet Union. The end of the war sparked the end of the Empire which transformed into the Commonwealth as it is known today where the British monarchy serves only a ceremonial role in the governing of member states and thus the second World War was essentially the swan song for British imperial power.

While Britain had the weapons and technology with which its forces could utilise against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan, as with any weapon it was only as good as those operating it. Like all combatants in the war, Britain had its share of gifted warriors and tacticians and many of them developed a formidable reputation for destroying the enemy. Here we look at four highly skilled British military personnel the Axis forces learned to respect and even fear.

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We all know the stories of the horror of trench warfare in the First World War. Waves of soldiers clambering out of their trenches into a hail of gunfire and nests of barbed wire strewn across no-man’s land. Artillery shells exploding all around them as they advanced while aeroplanes buzzed overhead firing machine guns down upon them. Often the enemy trench was only yards away yet in that time, hundreds if not thousands of men could be left dead or dying in the mud.

It was a man-made hell on Earth.

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We all know the stories of the horror of trench warfare in the First World War. Waves of soldiers clambering out of their trenches into a hail of gunfire and nests of barbed wire strewn across no-man’s land. Artillery shells exploding all around them as they advanced while aeroplanes buzzed overhead firing machine guns down upon them. Often the enemy trench was only yards away yet in that time, hundreds if not thousands of men could be left dead or dying in the mud.

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Narrated by: Top5s
Written & Researched by: Tony Wilkins

History Should Never Be Forgotten...

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For much of the world in the early 1940s, the face of Adolf Hitler came to personify true evil itself. Looking into Nazi Germany from the outside perspective, it seemed as though Adolf Hitler had an almost hypnotic grip on his people in every level of German society and yet the closest he ever game to being assassinated was not part of some Allied plot but instead came from men who as serving soldiers in the German Army had pledged their unconditional support to him. This is the story of operation Valkyrie – the plot by the German army to kill Hitler with a bomb. A plot that very nearly succeeded...

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Troops of the Third Reich fought all over Europe, North Africa, the Atlantic Ocean and the Middle East during the Second World War. They earned a formidable reputation as being professional and proficient soldiers regardless of the reasons why they fought. Here we look at soldiers who fought under the swastika and whose combat effectiveness earned them the begrudging respect and of course fear of the enemies they faced. These are some of the deadliest German soldiers of World War Two...

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Narrated by: Andrew Lahr
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It comes as little surprise that the dream of many a warlord or government has been to harness disease as a weapon with which to destroy one’s enemies. If used effectively, a weaponised virus could devastate an enemy’s population by tying up resources, disrupting economic progress and of course killing off the people who would fight in any military campaign with one’s own forces. Weaponised diseases have the theoretical potential to eradicate an enemy while leaving all their riches in place for plundering later and one disease more than any other has been the focus of the efforts to develop such bioweaponry – bubonic plague.

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In Frampol, a small town in Poland, town planning created a uniquely beautiful space for its residents to live in. What its designers could never have known was that it would create chaos and destruction, consigning the entire town to destruction centuries late. With its unique grid-pattern radiating from the market square, Frampol resembled a large bullseye when viewed from the air. Though without any military value whatsoever, that alone sealed the towns fate. When The Second World War broke out and fighting swept over the country, that planned town centre made the defenceless town the perfect experiment for Luftwaffe bombers looking to test their deadly technology.

This is the story of a small and unsuspecting town meeting ultimate destruction at the hands of an uncaring, calculating, Nazi War Machine.

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This podcast will discuss some examples of the most fearsome booby traps ever made in history of warfare. Designed to trap, maim, and kill those who stumbled into them, they represent the worst product of the human imagination turned to engineering. All of them were used in one of the bloodiest wars in modern history: The Vietnam War.

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In this episode of Wars of the World, we explore just a few terrifying weapons from the Second World War and examine their impact on the battlefield and the war as a whole.

🎶🎶All music from CO.AG
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcav...

Narrated by: Top5s
Written & Researched by: Tony Wilkins

History Should Never Be Forgotten...

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