The History Network

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2206 Bloody Antietam Apr 09, 2017

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The Battle of Antietam Creek as it was known to the Union, or the Battle of Sharpsburg as it was known to the Confederate States, was fought on the 17th of September 1862 and became the most costly one-day battle of the American Civil War. The battle claimed nearly 23,000 casualties including 6 generals, and in a protracted 4 year civil war would go on to cost over 600,000 lives. While the official death toll for the battle stands at nearly 4,000, in actual fact, the true death toll is closer to 9,000 as many men who were marked down as wounded on the field of battle would later die in hospitals, some even months after the battle. Dur: 25mins File: .mp3

2205 Resistance in the Netherlands Mar 26, 2017

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Germany invaded Poland on September 1st 1939, and England, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany on September 3rd. The Netherlands, which had remained neutral in World War One, continued its policy of neutrality, along with Denmark and Norway. Belgium also decided to remain neutral - unlike the others it had been invaded by Germany in World War One. Dur: 19mins File: .mp3

2204 War Words Mar 13, 2017

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There seems to be a whole plethora of reasons about how and why 'chat' has been associated in modern times with having a casual conversation with others. The term "Having a chat" is most commonly associated militarily with the first world war trenches and soldiers using lulls in the fighting to get together and de-louse each other while having casual conversations. Chat is often ascribed to the Hindi word for a parasite, 'chatt' (with 2 Ts), but is more possibly from an earlier medieval English word for idle gossip, "chateren". There are certainly references to it in 13th century english literature. But certainly Soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars referred to lice as 'chats'. Dur: 19mins File: .mp3

2203 The Battle of Borodino Feb 26, 2017

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The fighting on the 7th of September 1812 would be the bloodiest day of the Napoleonic war. The French victory would open the road to Moscow, but the failure to finally smash the Russian's in the field would ultimately prove fatal for Napoleon's Grand Armee. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3

2202 Clausewitz and Friction Feb 12, 2017

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We've something different for you in this episode. I'm sure many of you are aware Angus does a number of podcasts other this one with Nick, one being Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy. Whilst putting the latest episode together he had a chat with military historian Murray Dahm about Friction. They chatted for 40 min on the topic but only needed 4min for the WSS podcast.

We thought you guys might like to hear the conversation it in full. So what you have here is the unabridged version of Murray and Angus talking Clausewitz and Friction… If you don't like this format for the podcast, don't worry normal service will resume in the next episode.

2201 The Battles of Imphal and Kohima Jan 29, 2017

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The Second World War came to Burma in December, 1941. In quick succession, the American Pacific fleet was devastated at Pearl Harbor, the American Far Eastern air forces destroyed in the Philippines. Hong Kong was threatened and Siam (Thailand) concluded a peace treaty with Tokyo. Burma was exposed. By May, 1942, it would be occupied from China in the north to Rangoon in the south. With amazing speed and minimal forces, Tokyo had cut the Burma Road supplying the Nationalist Chinese, set forces on the threshold of a restive India and added the Burmese oil fields to Japan's Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. Dur: 23mins File: .mp3

Ben-Hur Dec 11, 2016

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We've always promised ourselves we would record some extra podcasts. As we've caught with the magazine release we thought it was time for such an episode… So we decided to look at the Chariot Race in Ben-Hur.

Angus, Josho, Murray, Marc and Mark were joined by David Reinke who ,with Graham Sumner, writes the film articles for Ancient Warfare Magazine… It proved to be a marathon recording, and we were terrible at staying on topic of the Chariot race… I hope you enjoy us wandering round the subject...

2111 Financing War Nov 27, 2016

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Essentially there are 3 main ways in which finances can be raised with which to use for war: Taxation, raising debt, or simply printing and creating new money. The Romans (among others of course) took a taxation route. It was from around 100 BCE that Roman Legions divided into 10 cohorts of around 400-500 men each. That's 4,000 to 5,000 men in a Legion. Let's assume it was the upper 5,000 figure as there were also some legions with 5,500 men, so we'll average at 5000. In 167 BCE there were 8 of these legions, but by 50 BCE this had almost doubled to 15 - a total of around 75,000 men... Dur: 21mins File: .mp3

2110 The Battle of Hattin Nov 13, 2016

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In 1187 Saladin at the head of a huge army crossed the river Jordan. Laying siege to the fortress at Tiberias, inside was the wife of Raymond of Tripoli. Until recently Raymond had been at odds with the new Crusader King Guy of Lusignan. The Crusader army numbered an impressive 20,000, though this was not as large as Saladin's. What it lacked in quantity it made up for however, in quality with heavily armoured knights, horsemen, foot soldiers and crossbow men. When word reached Guy that the siege was underway he decided to relieve the fortress with all haste, taking the shortest route possible straight across the hot arid plains with minimal baggage... The Crusaders had taken Saladin's bate. Dur: 23mins File: .mp3

Wars at the edge of empires Nov 07, 2016

Show notes

"Once people began to live in settled villages, they started to identify themselves not just based on their language and culture, but also on where they lived. Farmers became, to a lesser or larger extent, tied to the soil. As villages grew into cities and cities became the centres of larger city-states, kingdoms, and even empires, it became ever more important to define territories in a visible way, and to defend them whenever necessary."

We're discussing Ancient Warfare Magazine volume X, issue Wars at the edge of empires.

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