Category: Uncategorized
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3905 – James Douglas: The Black Douglas, part 1
‘In the nurseries of northern England, mothers would hush their crying children with a simple rhyme: “Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye, the Black Douglas will not get ye.” But this was no fairy tale monster – this was a real man, a Scottish knight whose name became a legend of terror across the…
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319 – The Alexandra Hospital Massacre: The Fall of Singapore
In February 1942, as Japanese forces closed in on Singapore, Alexandra Hospital found itself caught in the final days of the British defence of the island. The hospital was still treating wounded soldiers and civilians when Japanese troops entered the grounds. What followed was a massacre in which patients, medical staff and others were killed,…
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318 – Transport Pilots of WWII
The C-47 Dakota, or Skytrain as it was known in American service, was one of the most important aircraft of the Second World War. It carried paratroopers into battle, towed gliders packed with men and equipment, flew vital supplies to surrounded troops, and crossed some of the most inhospitable terrain on Earth. Yet the crews…
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3903 – The blame game – sources for the battle of Agincourt
‘One of the first things to note about our surviving sources for the battle of Agincourt (or Azincourt), fought on October 25th, 1415, is just how many of them there are. In a way, this is unsurprising since it was (and is) one of the most celebrated (and unexpected) victories in English history. And yet,…
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315 – The Thin Khaki Line
The British Army in the Second World War is often judged through the lens of manpower shortages and a sense of being overstretched. Critics point to a force spread across too many theatres and suggest that this inevitably limited its effectiveness. But is that a fair assessment of an army that expanded from a few…
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314 – The Nazi Ghost Train
In early September 1944, as Allied forces raced across France and Belgium, the German occupation of Brussels was beginning to collapse. On 2 September, around 1,500 prisoners, including members of the Belgian Resistance, Allied airmen, SOE agents, and political prisoners, were taken from Brussels prisons and loaded onto a train bound for Germany. For many,…
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313 – 1942: Hitler’s Gamble for Victory
1942 was a year of extraordinary contrasts for Nazi Germany. As the year began, Hitler’s armies appeared unstoppable. German forces dominated much of Europe, Rommel was advancing across North Africa, and a new offensive in the Soviet Union promised the prospect of victory in the East. Yet by the end of the year, Germany’s fortunes…
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3902 – Buried Alive: Operation Tracer and the Secret of Gibraltar
“In the Second World War, the Rock of Gibraltar stood like a sentinel at the gateway to the Mediterranean. Whoever held it could open or close the sea lanes to North Africa and beyond. To Britain it was a vital stronghold, but by 1940 it looked vulnerable. Spain was under Franco’s rule, sympathetic to Berlin,…
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3901 – Ancient Superpowers Collide: The Peloponnesian War, 431-404 BC
‘The Peloponnesian War pitted the two most powerful Ancient Greek states, Athens and Sparta and their respective allies, against each other in an epic struggle for the control of all of Greece.’ This episode was written by Murray Dahm. Murray is an ancient and medieval military historian from New Zealand, living in Australia. He has…
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307 – Percy Herbert: From POW to Hollywood
Before he became a familiar face on screen, appearing in over 70 films like ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’, ‘The Cockleshell Heroes’, ‘The Guns of Navarone’ and ‘The Wild Geese’, Percy Herbert survived one of the most brutal chapters of the Second World War. Captured during the fall of Singapore in 1942, he endured life as a prisoner…