Wars of The World
Episodes
130 episodes
When 39 Soviet Soldiers Took on 250 Afghan Mujahideen...
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 ag...
Battle of Huế: Vietnam’s Longest and Bloodiest Battle...
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 espe...
The MOST Feared Concentration Camp Commander of WWII...
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 Expres...
The Brno March: WWII's Most Evil Death March...
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 subjec...
When France Fell to Nazi Germany...
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 ba...
Tiger Tank: The Germany Tank That Almost Won WWII...
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 battle...
The Cod Wars: When Iceland & The UK Fought Over North Atlantic Fishing Rights
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...
The Deadliest Weapons of The First World War...
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-lat...
The PPSh-41: The Mass-Produced Soviet Submachine Gun of WWII...
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 ...
The Drugs That Built Super Nazi Soldiers in WW2...
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 un...
When The Japanese Navy Safeguarded The Med in WWI...
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 alway...
Secret Stimulants of the Vietnam War: How Drugs Forged an Unstoppable Soldier...
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 po...
The UNSPEAKABLE Chemical Used in The Vietnam War...
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 t...
The Sinking of The Lusitania
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 w...
The Insanely Powerful Soviet Aircraft Carrier Program...
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 saile...
Hitler's Dogs...
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 ...
Bernard Montgomery: The Unstoppable WWII Commander...
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’...
Verdun: The Longest & Most Horrific Battle of WWI...
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 ...
The Haunted UB-65 of World War I...
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 ...
Terror in The Sky: The Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters of WWII...
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 com...
Life Inside The Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler’s Paranoid Final Few Days...
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 t...
The Hanoi Hilton: The Brutal Vietnam Prison American Soldiers Feared…
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 Southea...
The Odessa Massacre: A Forgotten Holocaust of WWII
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 al...
E Squadron: The Most Secretive Special Forces Unit in The World?
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...
Why Were Tiger Tanks so Feared in The Second World War?
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 t...