Battlecast is the world’s foremost podcast about war and it’s sociopolitical impact. Each month Dr. Luke Wolf works to bring you an unfiltered understanding of the most important battles and wars of mankind’s history. The official motto of the show: “not left, not right: above,” provides a fresh look at the conventional understandings found in history books. So pull up a chair, grab a beer, and join the conversation.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and the 2012 Benghazi Attack /// 51
Mar 26, 2021
Show notes
The 2012 Benghazi Attack on two isolated American diplomatic and intelligence compounds is a well-known story to millions of film-viewers across the world. In tonight’s show, a few Americans will battle for their lives against overwhelming odds. It’s a case study of static defense warfare in the modern setting: cut off and alone – hundreds of miles away from reinforcements, a few American security operators faced down hundreds of onrushing attackers. It’s thirteen hours of pain distilled into 70 minutes of podcast. It’s all here and it’s all free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact.
Rogers, Mike & Ruppersberger, Dutch. Investigative report on the terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, September 11-12, 2012. November 21, 2014.
Vandewall, Dirk. A history of modern Libya. 2nd edition.
Wehrey, Frederick. The burning shores: Inside the battle for New Libya.
Zuckoff, Mitchell. (2014). 13 hours: The inside account of what really happened in Benghazi.
Leslie Bull Allen: Australian Hero /// 50
Feb 26, 2021
Show notes
Leslie Bull Allen: orphan, pig farmer, day laborer, hero.
Seventeen: that’s how many wounded and helpless men were saved from direct modern combat by Bull Allen – a man beyond measure. Bull braved dangers that actually drove him insane. The thing is: he didn’t have to do it. He volunteered to do the impossible. There are those who say heroes aren’t real; they never really existed. But today’s show proves them all wrong. Leslie Bull Allen is a real hero. Hundreds of Americans and Australians are alive today because of his actions. We can say with Faramir: “Australia must be a truly great realm where pig farmers are held in high honor.” Here is a man who braved machine gun fire and Bushido ethics to save the lives of Americans he never met before. Here is a man who bit his tongue and did his duty no matter the cost. Here is a hero.
It’s all here and it’s all for free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact.
Today’s episode is a partial sequel to episode 16 on the battle of Kokoda. You can find it here.
After the war, Bull Allen worked as a day laborer and farmerBull Allen’s Silver StarThe area around Wau saw heavy fightingAs did the area around Mount Tambu
References
The New Guinea offensives by David Dexter. See especially volume VI.
Hell’s battlefield: the Australians in New Guinea in World War II by Phillip Bradley
All the King’s enemies: a history of the 2/5th Australian Infantry Battalion by S. Trigellis-Smith
New Guinea: The Allied jungle campaign in World War II by Jon Diamond
The Encyclopaedia of Australia’s Battles: “Battle of Wau.” by Dudley McCarthy. Edited by Chris Clark.
The Ghost Mountain boys: Their epic march and the terrifying battle for New Guinea by James Campbell
War at the end of the world: Douglas MacArthur and the forgotten fight for New Guinea, 1942-1945 by James Duffy.
A military history of Australia by Jeffrey Grey
A concise history of Australia by Stuart Macintyre
The Cambridge history of Japan by Peter Duus
Hirohito’s war: The Pacific War, 1941–1945 by Francis Pike
A bastard of a place: The Australians in Papua by Peter Brune
Operations of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in the Papua New Guinea theater during World War II by Kengoro Tanaka
The rising sun: The decline and fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 by John Toland
The Siege of Jerusalem /// 49
Jan 27, 2021
Show notes
The Siege of Jerusalem is one of the most important battles in human history. The siege has a direct and lasting impact on millions of Jews and Christians across the globe. It’s a story of hundreds of thousands of deaths, forced enslavement, and barbaric mass destruction. It’s the fall of the temple that could not fall. It’s a massive city burned at 1400 degrees Fahrenheit. Tonight’s story is a tale of mass suicide – a suicide that inspires Jews even until this day. It’s all here and it’s all for free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact.
This is part 2 of a two part series. You can find episode one here: episode 48
The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World by Peter Schafer
Jews in the Greco-Roman World by Martin Goodman
The First Jewish Revolt: Archaeology, History and Ideology by Andrea Berlin and J. Andrew Overman
The Histories by Tacitus
A History of the Jewish War: A.D. 66–74 by Steve Mason
Rome and Jerusalem by Martin Goodman
The Jewish Revolt AD 66–74 by Si Shepperd
Between Rome and Jerusalem: 300 years of Roman-Judean Relations by Martin Sicker
Jewish Reactions to the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. by Kenneth Jones
Jerusalem’s traitor: Josephus, Masada, and the fall of Judea by Desmond Seward
City of Ruins by Derek Daschke
Great World Religions: Judaism. 12-part video series by Isaiah Gafni
A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson
A History of the Jewish People by Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson et al.
The Great Revolt: The First Jewish-Roman War /// 48
Dec 27, 2020
Show notes
It’s a war that goes by many names: The First Jewish-Roman War, The Great Revolt, The Jewish War; but whatever name you prefer, The Great Revolt was a war that influences untold millions today. The Revolt directly altered the entire calendar of the Western World – moving the sacred day of rest (and your primary day off from work) from Saturday to Sunday. It influences millions of Christians today who either see it as a direct fulfillment of a key prophecy of Jesus Christ or argue against the position that the war is a fulfillment of divine revelation. Regardless of their positions, Christian scholars pour over this war the way bankers calculate changing interest rates: zealous devotion. Moreover, this war has directly impacted the English language – forcing diligent students in Korea and China to look up the etymology of words like zealous and zealot. Here is a war that is more than battles and blood, a horrible tale of whole cities reduced to sex slavery and death; this is a war that fundamentally altered Judaism – changing it from a religion of the temple to a religion of the synagogue.
And how many of you know anything about it? What a fine education we give our children in the Western World. We speak a language whose foundations are lost. We take days off and don’t know why. Here is the story of prophecy, pain, and forced prostitution: The Great Revolt.
It’s all here and it’s all for free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its socio-political impact.
The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World by Peter Schafer
Jews in the Greco-Roman World by Martin Goodman
The First Jewish Revolt: Archaeology, History and Ideology by Andrea Berlin and J. Andrew Overman
The Histories by Tacitus
A History of the Jewish War: A.D. 66–74 by Steve Mason
Rome and Jerusalem by Martin Goodman
The Jewish Revolt AD 66–74 by Si Shepperd
Between Rome and Jerusalem: 300 years of Roman-Judean Relations by Martin Sicker
Jewish Reactions to the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. by Kenneth Jones
Jerusalem’s traitor: Josephus, Masada, and the fall of Judea by Desmond Seward
City of Ruins by Derek Daschke
Great World Religions: Judaism. 12-part video series by Isaiah Gafni
A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson
A History of the Jewish People by Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson et al.
A Military History of Modern Israel: The Yom Kippur War /// 47
Nov 27, 2020
Show notes
This is part four of a four part series on the military history of modern Israel. You can find the other three parts here: part three, part two, and part one.
It’s all here and it’s all for free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its socio-political impact.
Great World Religions: Judaism. Twelve-part video series by Isaiah Gafni
Great World Religions: Islam. Twelve-part video series by John Esposito
Likud leaders: the lives and careers of Menahem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ariel Sharon by Thomas Mitchell
Netanyahu and Likud’s leaders: the Israeli prince by Gil Samsonov
Israel’s wars: a history since 1947 by Ahron Bregman
The evolution of operational art: from Napoleon to the present by Martin Van Creveld and John Andreas Olsen
The land of blood and honey: the rise of modern Israel by Martin van Creveld
Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education by Nurit Peled-Elhanan
Brother against brother : violence and extremism in Israeli politics from Altalena to the Rabin assassination by Ehud Sprinzak
Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics by Yaacov Yadgar
Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel by Anita Shapira
The Palestine Arab Minority in Israel, 1948-2000 by As’ad Ghanem
Israel and Palestine: The Complete History by Ian Carroll
A Military History of Modern Israel: The Six-Day War
Oct 27, 2020
Show notes
In the Six-Day War, Israel once again faced much of the combined might of the Soviet-equipped Arab world. Once again, Israel stunned the world in her elegant defense of her borders and conquest of hundreds of square miles of territory. Tens of thousands of men were either killed, wounded, or taken prisoner – over a period of six days. It’s a battle that’s often studied in military academies across the world and it’s all free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its socio-political impact.
This is episode 3 of a three part series. You can find episode two here and episode one here.
Great World Religions: Judaism. Twelve-part video series by Isaiah Gafni
Great World Religions: Islam. Twelve-part video series by John Esposito
Likud leaders: the lives and careers of Menahem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ariel Sharon by Thomas Mitchell
Netanyahu and Likud’s leaders: the Israeli prince by Gil Samsonov
Israel’s wars: a history since 1947 by Ahron Bregman
The evolution of operational art: from Napoleon to the present by Martin Van Creveld and John Andreas Olsen
The land of blood and honey: the rise of modern Israel by Martin van Creveld
Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education by Nurit Peled-Elhanan
Brother against brother : violence and extremism in Israeli politics from Altalena to the Rabin assassination by Ehud Sprinzak
Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics by Yaacov Yadgar
Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel by Anita Shapira
The Palestine Arab Minority in Israel, 1948-2000 by As’ad Ghanem
Israel and Palestine: The Complete History by Ian Carroll
A Military History of Modern Israel: The Suez Crisis /// 45
Sep 25, 2020
Show notes
In 1956 the world held it’s breath. Israel invaded Egypt, penetrating to within ten miles of the Suez Canal – a key choke point for the world economy. The Egyptians struggled to stem the Israeli tide of shrapnel-spewing steel. The British and French threatened to intervene. The United Nations fell into an uproar. The Soviet Union crushed a Hungarian rebellion against Communist rule. We covered the Hungarian rebellion in episode 26: here. The Middle East was exploding and all eyes were fixed on this one spot – the Canal, the irreplaceable, vital Canal. It’s war. It’s diplomacy. It’s Battlecast.
This is part two of a multiple part series. You can find the first episode in this series here: episode 44
Great World Religions: Judaism. Twelve-part video series by Isaiah Gafni
Great World Religions: Islam. Twelve-part video series by John Esposito
Likud leaders: the lives and careers of Menahem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ariel Sharon by Thomas Mitchell
Netanyahu and Likud’s leaders: the Israeli prince by Gil Samsonov
Israel’s wars: a history since 1947 by Ahron Bregman
The evolution of operational art: from Napoleon to the present by Martin Van Creveld and John Andreas Olsen
The land of blood and honey: the rise of modern Israel by Martin van Creveld
Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education by Nurit Peled-Elhanan
Brother against brother : violence and extremism in Israeli politics from Altalena to the Rabin assassination by Ehud Sprinzak
Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics by Yaacov Yadgar
Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel by Anita Shapira
The Palestine Arab Minority in Israel, 1948-2000 by As’ad Ghanem
Israel and Palestine: The Complete History by Ian Carroll
A Military History of Modern Israel: The First Arab-Israeli War /// 44
Aug 23, 2020
Show notes
100,000 British soldiers – a massive army in the annals of human history; that’s how many soldiers The United Kingdom sent to Palestine in order to quell the budding revolt of the Israeli nation. It didn’t work. Thousands died. Tens of thousands of Arab and Israeli soldiers clashed. Hundreds of thousands of people lost everything they owned – reduced to nothing – an illustration for the dictionary entry on “penury.” This is their story. It’s a story that tells of the hopes of hundreds of generations suddenly, unbelievably, finding fruition. And it’s also the story of a nation sinking low. As always: there’s blood, there’s pain, there’s insights for all of us – insights about politics, international law, man qua wolf and man qua angel. The truth is man is neither an angel or a wolf. He is both. And this is the story of his heavenly dirge, his dismal symphony. And it’s yours, too.
It’s all for free and it’s all on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its socio-political impact. This show is dedicated to Ricky from Omaha – who gave so that we could enjoy this show. I’m very thankful for Ricky and I’m thankful for you who are reading this.
Burn Ward 13: Modern Military Medicine /// 43
Jul 24, 2020
Show notes
Today’s show is the story of modern military medicine. It’s burns. It’s amputations. It’s disfigurement. It’s the story of medical staff and wounded in war zones – the horror, the deaths, the exhaustion. It’s a brief history of pain and it’s all for free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and it’s sociopolitical impact.
Hiroshima diary : the journal of a Japanese physician, August 6-September 30, 1945 by Michiko Hachiya
This republic of suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust
Emergency war surgery by Borden Institute US Army Medical Department Center and School Health Readiness Center of Excellence Fort Sam Houston, Texas, 5th edition.
Tactical combat casualty care: Lessons and best practices by United States Army
Practical pathology of gunshot wounds by J. Scott Denton, Adrienne Segovia, and James Filkins in Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Volume 130(9), (Sep 2006): pages 1283-1289
May 1968: The Month France Exploded /// 42
Jun 23, 2020
Show notes
In May 1968 the nation of France came apart at the seams. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators flooded into the streets. Strikes across the nation brought production to a standstill. Veteran politicians fled the country. Protestors met police in the streets: club versus bat, stone versus grenade. This is the story of the month France turned the corner and rushed headlong into post-modernity. It’s all here and it’s all for free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
