Category: Podcasts
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3210 – The White Death: Finnish marksman Simo Häyhä
Simo Häyhä tormented Soviet forces invading his native Finland between December 1939 and March 1940, killing 542 enemy soldiers in only 98 days. In the hostile, minus forty-degree conditions of the Finnish winter of 1939-40, a man clad all in white lay with packed snow mounded in front of him as he awaited his enemy.…
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3209 – The Castilian Civil War, 1350-1369
‘A bitter war between legitimate and illegitimate heirs was fought for the throne of fourteenth century Castile. The ensuing conflict pulled in many powers, large and small, including both the kingdoms of England and France. On March 26th, 1350, Alfonso XI King of Castile, León and Galicia died during yet another siege (the fifth) of…
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The German Battle of the Bulge
In December 1944 the Germans launched the battle of the Bulge, their last major offensive in the west. Commencing in the depths of winter, with the hope that the weather would neutralise allied air superiority, three German armies attacked through the Ardennes. Angus has looked at part of the Ardennes offensive before but from the…
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WSS65 – Campaigning
Set in France in 1940, Guy and Chris are playing a large ongoing campaign at their club. They explain to Jasper and Angus how they planned it and how it worked and offer some tips for running your own campaign games. >>Download<< Links Hold Fast! Black Sea Lion Rampant Wargaming Campaigns Pendraken
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AW207 – Hadrian’s Wall
It is the 1,900th anniversary of the building of Hadrian’s Wall, that is if it was begun in AD 122 and not AD 119. Not only is there doubt over the year construction was started on the wall, but we also are not completely sure what its function was. As such, a good topic for…
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3208 – Alexander faces the Great King: The Battle of Issus
‘At the battle of Issus, fought in early November 333 BC, Alexander faced the Persian King Darius in person for the first time. Massively outnumbered, the Macedonian army faced the numberless might of the Persian military machine. The outcome would decide the future of both the Persian and the Macedonian empire.’ This episode was written…
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The U-Boat War
The usual historical narrative of the U-boats during WWII usually revolves around the ‘Battle of the Atlantic’, and the struggle over the convoys bringing vital supplies to Britain. But the story of the U-boat war is much more complex, they went into action on the first day of hostilities with Britain and France and operated…
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3207 – The Northwest Indian War (part 2)
“At last, the rule of the tomahawk and musket, which for more than twenty years had made the forests, the rivers, and the plains beyond the Alleghenies a torture chamber and a burial ground… had reached its end”. – historian Thomas Boyd This episode was written by Christopher Waters Christopher Waters is an armchair historian…
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Operation Foxley
Operation Foxley was the name of the secret plan supported by Winston Churchill to assassinate Hitler in 1944-45. Different methods of assassination were considered, such as a sharpshooter or poisoning, through to a more elaborate plan that included hypnotism. Angus is joined by Eric Lee. Eric has been with us before, in episode 130, to…
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AW203 – Wargaming Ancient Battles
In this episode of the Ancient Warfare Magazine podcast Jasper, Murray and Myke talk to games designer Mark Backhouse about his new game Strength & Honour. The game allows you to recreate battles from the start of the Marian reforms in Rome around 105BC, when the professional Roman legionaries organised in cohorts replaced the older…