On 18th April, 1947, British forces set off the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. The target was a small island in the North Sea, thirty miles off the German coast, which for generations had stood as a symbol of Anglo-German conflict - Heligoland. Jan Rueger is Professor of History as Birkbeck, University of London. His latest book 'Heligoland: Britain, Germany, and the Struggle for the North Sea' is a microhistory of the Anglo-German relationship as it unfolded from the Napoleonic Wars to the Cold War. It takes the North Sea island of Heligoland as a prism through which to view rivalry, conflict and, eventually, reconciliation between the two nations.
Dan talks to Hirata San, a survivor of the Hiroshima attacks, and one of the few remaining survivors who speak English, about the Hiroshima bombing.
The Christmas Truce was one of the most miraculous episodes in the history of warfare, and History Hit have a major new podcast and film dropping next week. Watch this space…
Tristan Donovan joined me on the podcast to talk about the history of gaming.
