From Napoleonic battles to Cold War confrontations, the Normandy landings to 9/11, this podcast opens up fascinating new perspectives on how wars have shaped and changed our modern world. Each week, twice a week, war historian, writer, and broadcaster, James Rogers, teams up with fellow historians, veterans, and experts to reveal astonishing new histories of inspirational leadership, breakthrough technologies, and era defining battles. Together they highlight the stark realities and consequences of global warfare. Join us on the front line of military history.
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The First Gulf War was the combat debut for the RAF Tornado, and also for many of the aircrew who would fly one. John Nichol served as a navigator in the RAF for 15 years, even returning to service after being shot down in 1991. In this conversation with James, John shares his own experiences of ...
The year is 1942; American citizens are still recovering from the surprise military strike on Pearl Harbor, which had intensely impacted morale across the country and brought them into the Second World War. Fear and division ran deep within the American people, and democracy was under pressure. J...
‘One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind’: in July 1969 the United States successfully landed a man on the moon. It was part of a race into space which continues to this week and Jeff Bezos’ short voyage. But how was the American space race aided by Nazi Scientists and their barbaric...
In August 1928, signatories from France, the United States and Germany signed a treaty outlawing war. This so-called Kellogg-Briand Pact was soon signed by almost every state. Yet, in the century since, countless wars have been started ... and not all of them finished. To find out whether the pac...
Besieging a city is often thought to be an antiquated strategy, lost to technological advances and the complexity of modern conflict. In this episode, however, Major Amos C. Fox tells us about the modern continuation of siege warfare, their similarities and differences, and where the reluctance t...
Starting off as a novice photographer with strong political motivations, Gerda Taro became well known during the Spanish Civil War, only to sadly become the first woman photojournalist to have died covering the frontline of a war, aged 26. In this episode, Jane Rogoyska joins James to talk us thr...
With every new technological breakthrough the battlefield of the future changes, often beyond recognition. Named as one of the United States’ 100 leading innovators by the Smithsonian, one of the 100 most influential people in defense issues by Defense News, and as an official “Mad Scientist” for...
81 years after the beginning of the Battle of Britain, we are looking at the people behind one of the iconic machines which helped the Allies towards victory. It is known that the average age of a pilot flying a Spitfire in the Battle of Britain was 20 years old, but many of those involved in des...
In the shadows of Montgomery, Alexander and Eisenhower, Field Marshal Alan Brooke’s extraordinary contributions as a strategist and leader have been largely forgotten over time. His experiences stretching across the First and Second World War, he held an incredible list of accolades and was one o...
158 years ago, the Unionist and Confederate armies were on their second day of fighting at the town of Gettysburg. The battle was arguably the tipping point for the American Civil War and involved an artillery bombardment which may have been the loudest man-made event until the detonation of the ...
After 6 years of war, countries around the world were in a state of ruin in 1945, not least the losing side. The people of Germany had been under the rule of the Nazi party since 1933, and now they sought a way forward under the watchful eyes of the Allies. In this episode, hear Harald Jähner exp...
War! Something so ruinous has the power to both bring communities together whilst conversely ripping them apart. Many have taken place, but why are some remembered more than others? From The Battle of Culloden to The Second World War, we examine the legacies and myths that fire our understanding ...
Beginning with his birth in 1915 in Sierra Leone, the life of John Henry Smythe OBE MBE is almost unbelievable. From becoming a navigator in the RAF during the Second World War, to being held captive in a German POW camp, to being the Senior Officer making key decisions about the futures of the p...
After 12 years of battles against the French Republic’s various neighbours, this was Napoleon’s final stand. Although many associate its name with a Eurovision winning hit from 1974, the Battle of Waterloo was in fact devastating to the Republic and its Allied opposition. 24 thousand French and 1...
In the spring of 1945, the Allies liberated territory from Axis occupation. Whilst the British advanced into most of Denmark, Stalin’s Soviet forces occupied the small island of Bornholm. They remained there for 11 months, but then withdrew with little fanfare. Caroline Kennedy-Pipe is a professo...
In 1941, Nazi Germany turned on its former ally, the Soviet Union. One of the strategic objectives of this operation, Barbarossa, was to conquer Leningrad. To discuss the German turn on the Soviet Union and perhaps the most brutal siege of the Second World War, James Rogers is joined by Chris Bel...
When studying the outbreak of war it is common to be distracted by actions, but in many cases, including the World Wars, a study of the history of ideas is just as enlightening. In this episode, James spoke to inter-disciplinary scholar Dr. Pablo de Orellana about ethnonationalism and its role in...
In this episode, Dr. Shama Ams places the Black Lives Matter movement and the killing of George Floyd into the historical context of the treatment of African American soldiers during and after WW2. In conversation with James, he also explores links with the Civil Rights movement. Shama Ams comple...
In amongst the ranks of the heroic female wartime nurses Florence Nightingale and Edith Cavell is a lesserknown Danish woman, Valborg Hjorth. When Dr Jakob Seerup - author, researcher and curator of Modern History - discovered a photograph of an elderly woman adorned with medals in the archive at...
Born in Budapest in July 1944, Agnes Grunwald-Spier resided in the Ghetto with her mother from November 1944 to January 1945. Having gained degrees in History & Politics and Holocaust Studies, Agnes spoke to James about her family's experiences during the Holocaust. This personal history includes...
In August 1944, when the Warsaw Uprising occurred, Axis troops were ordered to raze the Wola suburb to the ground and kill all of its inhabitants, regardless of whether they were fighting. James was joined for this episode by Alina Nowobilska, who gives an in depth account of the massacre, drawin...
Walking around Second World War fortifications, Patrick Bury is able to draw on his time in the infantry to tell the stories of the battles that occured over them. During his time working on Nazi Megastructures, Paddy accessed the lived history of the important structures built to protect and str...
An Avro Lancaster Bomber was one of the most dangerous places to be during the Second World War. The planes had a 46% combat attrition rate, and yet all of those who flew them were volunteers. Among them was John Henry Meller, who left a reserve occupation to sign up aged 18. In this episode, Joh...
The traditional view of the Second World War focusses on mainland Europe between 1939 and 1945. Germany is the aggressor drawing its closest neighbours into war and prompting a chain of reactions which ends in worldwide turmoil. Thomas Bottelier is an historian of twentieth century international ...
