Stay ConnectedWDF examines how wars broke out, how they were concluded, and their consequences. Expect juicy diplomacy, sneaky intrigue, fascinating characters, and incredible drama. By Dr Zack Twamley, qualified history nerd.
Current Series: The July Crisis
Patreon Series: The Age of Bismarck
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Those crazy folks over at Wondery have a podcast called American History Tellers, which you can find and subscribe to here.
In this teaser, you can get a preview of what AHT has coming - namely, a six part series examining the American Revolution from several different perspectives. For an exploration of this pivotal event in world history which you won't get anywhere else, make sure you check out American History Tellers.
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Apologies for the birdsongs in advance...
We've got a real treat for you in the latest episode of the Korean War guys, as niche diplomacy and underrated tales become our prime focus. Here we examine the tales of Turkey and New Zealand, and their journey towards intervention in the Korean War...
Episode 27: Avengers Assemble tackles two fascinating case studies in the allied intervention in the Korean War. We ask here why did Turkey and New Zealand, two states well removed from the events going on in Korea, determine that it was within their national interests to become involved. The answers are as fascinating as they are important, because they remind us that Korea was not merely an isolated conflict, but was a part of the Cold War world.
The interests of these two states, leagues apart in terms of historical and governmental legacies, were tied by surprisingly similar values. While it had been New Zealand soldiers that had once stormed the beaches of Turkey in 1915, now the two states were intertwined in this new game, and it was this new game that the United States, as much as the United Nations, played a pivotal role in.
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Music used:
"Galway Bay" by Bing Crosby, released in 1949. Lovely Bing visits us for a few musical gems in a few episodes, and we're very happy indeed to have him with us! Check out a great deal of his early stuff for free here: https://archive.org/details/78_galway-bay_bing-crosby-victor-young_gbia0019249a
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Our series on 17th century warfare continues with a look at how French armies were constituted, and how their attitudes towards certain tactics changed. We begin with an examination of the massive increases of European armies across the board, but we soon refine our focus, and examine the machinations of King Henry IV of France (r. 1594-1610), who made the most of new theories in infantry and cavalry tactics. The story is by no means a straightforward one of consistent, sensible progression. Instead, it is a tale of hard knocks and tough lessons, which inculcated within the French military thinkers a respect for new methods of making war, and a willingness to experiment and take ideas they appreciated from their Dutch and Swedish neighbours.
Such developments say a great deal about the spread of new military theories in the West, as much as they provide a clear example of the interconnectedness of Europeans, who served in each other’s armies and swapped drill manuals in military institutions. It’s a story which I’m sure you’ll find fascinating, so come and join me for this latest instalment of 17th century warfare! Thanksss!
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1) Pre-order our book on the Thirty Years War 2) Are you TeamFerdinand or TeamFrederick ? It's time to pick a side, and a t-shirt! 3)Don't forget of course to support WDF on Patreon to access ad-free episodes with the scripts attached, as well an hour of extra content every month, and so much more! - $1, $2 & $5 memberships available! 4) Of course, make sure you also follow us on Twitter, visit our website and sign up to our Newsletter
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Within this episode we continue to surge ahead with our narrative of the Korean War through the lens of that body. We look at how it coped with the progress of the North Koreans throughout the summer, and how its members were eventually persuaded to pass a few important resolutions, and to send armed delegations of their own. In this episode, we see collective security come to life, and it is a fascinating sight to behold.
We also touch on several things that we'll investigate in more detail in the future, such as MacArthur's meeting with Truman on Wake Island on 15th October, MacArthur's insistence on pushing forward to the Yalu in spite of the warnings, and MacArthur's shock at the situation changing so completely upon the Chinese intervention. All of these are points which we will tackle later on, but to demonstrate in a neat little bundle how the UN came to have such an impact on the Korean War, either through its Security Council or, following the return of the Soviets to that body in August, the publication of critical debates in the General Assembly.
It would be the General Assembly that took the most active role in discussing and developing a negotiated end to the conflict, but in the last half of 1950, this first phase of the conflict was far too back and forth for anyone to guess where it would end. For now, those members of the United Nations that pledged troops did so for their own reasons, safe in the knowledge that such an act would endear their interests to the Americans, as much as it would validate the hopes of the UN and prove that collective security COULD work, so long as all involved could remain united and stand together in the face of aggression.
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Music used:
"It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo" by the International Novelty Orchestra in 1926. Available: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/International_Novelty_Orchestra/Antique_Phonograph_Music_Program_04282015/It_Aint_Gonna_Rain_No_Mo_-_International_Novelty_Orchestra
SPONSORS
1) Use the code WDF15 to get 15% off your stylish new pair of headphones/earphones/listening things
2) To access some fascinating books, nerd out with like minded enthusiasts, further your knowledge of some classical works, get 25% off your first three months AND help the show, head on over to onlinegreatbooks.com!
Remember to BEFIT!
B is for blog
E is for email wdfpodcast@hotmail.com
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1) Pre-order our book on the Thirty Years War 2) Are you TeamFerdinand or TeamFrederick ? It's time to pick a side, and a t-shirt! 3)Don't forget of course to support WDF on
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Paul Kendrick's Korean War Podcast
This is in some sense a two-pronged episode, where we look first of all at the days between 27-30 June 1950, and explain how the Truman administration managed to manipulate the strategic situation on the Han River to its own ends. Then, once we bring our story up to 30 June, we deliver a kind of overview, where we examine the conflict between late June and September.
This episode will give you a handy introduction to what course the war took, and for those unfamiliar with its sometimes confusing pace, hopefully here you'll have a few things cleared up. Expect lots of MacArthur, sneaking stuff and American soldiers being dropped right in the thick of it!
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Music:
I'll See You In Cuba by Jack Kaufman, released in 1920. Available: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jack_Kaufman/Antique_Phonograph_Music_Program_04282015/Ill_See_You_in_C-U-B-A_-_Jack_Kaufman
SPONSORS
1) Use the code WDF15 to get 15% off your stylish new pair of headphones/earphones/listening things
2) To access some fascinating books, nerd out with like minded enthusiasts, further your knowledge of some classical works, get 25% off your first three months AND help the show, head on over to onlinegreatbooks.com!
Remember to BEFIT!
B is for blog
E is for email wdfpodcast@hotmail.com
F is for Facebook, the Page and the Group
I is for iTunes, please rate, review and subscribe
T is for TELL ANYONE!
1) Pre-order our book on the Thirty Years War 2) Are you TeamFerdinand or TeamFrederick ? It's time to pick a side, and a t-shirt! 3)Don't forget of course to support WDF on Patreon to access ad-free episodes with the scripts attached, as well an hour of extra content every month, and so much more! - $1, $2 & $5 memberships available! 4) Of course, make sure you also follow us on Twitter, visit our website and sign up to our Newsletter
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
UNprecedented - get it, because UN = United Nations, and it's unprecedented because it's never happened before?! I'm a genius!
Episode 24: UNprecedented looks at the role of the United Nations, which the US used, for a variety of reasons, to frame its intervention in Korea. Here we look at the key moments in the history of UN, and we chart its development over the late 1940s as it became more heavily involved in the issues of the post-war world. Many nations placed their faith and trust in this new order; it was eagerly hoped that it would not go the way of the League of Nations, and that the UN at least would not cower in the face of armed aggression. So it was that the UN, by summer 1950, had built upon a history of peaceful intervention, foreign debate and great expectations even before Washington determined to appeal through the UN for the act in Korea that was desired.
Although it couldn't be known at this early stage what way the Korean War would go, it was believed that the best way to legitimise the American act would be to operate through this new body, for a variety of reasons. The two resolutions on 25th and 27th June will be here examined and placed in their proper context, as will the strange absence of the Soviet Union from the UN Security Council. With no Soviet veto, everything could proceed as planned, and in this episode we return the point of Stalin's end goal - that of uniting the West against communism in Korea, and then against the Chinese. These goals were possible thanks to the UN, and thus it has to be said, as it did before, Washington again made Stalin's job much easier than it would have been had he been forced to go it alone.
As we'll note though, the US wasn't doing anything especially extraordinary by asking the UN to weigh in on the Korean issue. After all there had been Korean commissions sponsored and supported by the UN since after 1945, so it seemed only logical to many within the UN's many Korea bodies to approve of the defence of the South Korean regime, and to condemn the North in the strongest possible terms. Such condemnation, in time, would be used to justify still greater actions, and from these protocols would the several armed delegations from 16 different states emerge. All such developments were instigated here.
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Music used:
"Bring Back My Blushing Rose", by John Steel, published in 1921. Available:http://freemusicarchive.org/…/A…/Bring_Back_My_Blushing_Rose
Korean War section of the website
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Are you TeamFerdinand or
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In our latest episode of 17th Century Warfare, we put the Military Revolution to the test, by applying a key aspect of it - the trace italienne system - to 17th century France! Expect talk of fortresses, historian John A Lynn and lots of talk about context....
So...get ready to lay siege! In this episode we use the case study of French fortifications to examine the trace italienne, the name given to the modernisation of European fortifications along the Italian model. These forts had low, thick walls buttressed by large earthworks and supported by bastions which boasted interlocking fields of fire. The new developments in technology meant that the defenders could lay down a punishing amount of fire of their own, while the attacker would be forced to withstand this bombardment, and conduct his siege in the meantime. Developments in mining, in trench digging and in the size of armies necessary to police these trenches followed, and these issues will occupy much of our attention in this episode.
If you ever wondered how the fortifications of early modern Europe kept up with the advancements in gunpowder technology and the increasing calibre of cannons, then this episode is for you! If you were curious about the technological race between the defender and the attacker, then this episode is for you too! If you were simply curious about how defensive works were garrisoned or effectively employed against an invading army – the mission of any state which faced war with another during this period – then yes, this episode is for YOU! I hope you’ll join me as we look through the French lens to better explain why siege warfare developed as it did. Thanksss!
Remember to BEFIT!
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E is for email wdfpodcast@hotmail.com
F is for Facebook, the Page and the Group
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Visit the Thirty Years War section of the website.
Pre-order our book on the Thirty Years War
Are you TeamFerdinand or TeamFrederick ? It's time to pick a side, and a t-shirt!
Don't forget of course to support WDF on Patreon to access ad-free episodes with the scripts attached, as well an hour of extra content every month, and so much more! - $1, $2 & $5 memberships available!
Of course, make sure you also follow us on Twitter, visit our website and sign up to our Newsletter
SPONSORS
1) Use the code WDF15 to get 15% off your stylish new pair of headphones/earphones/listening things
2) To access some fascinating books, nerd out with like minded enthusiasts, further your knowledge of some classical works, get 25% off your first three months AND help the show, head on over to
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Time to get a bit technical, but I promise it'll be anything BUT boring!
Get your thinking caps on history friends, because in this episode we’re going to assess the most important element of the historiography of the 17th century – the Military Revolution theory. The Military Revolution idea states that Europe underwent fundamental – you might even say ‘revolutionary’ changes during the late 1500s and 1600s. These changes were affected by improvements in military technology, and the adoption of weapons like the musket, the usage of proper infantry musket drills, and the creation of a new fortification system the trace italienne, which made the ballooning of armies essential if these modernised fortresses were to be effectively besieged.
There is of course more to the Military Revolution thesis than that, and contradictions abound which we will absolutely be sinking our teeth into in the episodes to come. If you were sceptical or simply curious though, then this episode will give us a great grounding in the mechanics of the Military Revolution, so please don’t feel intimidated or put off by our mention of it! I promise it is a fascinating story which I genuinely got real enjoyment researching, so hopefully this will come across in the episode. Come and join me and see for yourself, as we pick our way through 17th century warfare!
Remember to BEFIT!
B is for blog
E is for email wdfpodcast@hotmail.com
F is for Facebook, the Page and the Group
I is for iTunes, please rate, review and subscribe
T is for TELL ANYONE!
Visit the Thirty Years War section of the website.
Pre-order our book on the Thirty Years War
Are you TeamFerdinand or TeamFrederick ? It's time to pick a side, and a t-shirt!
Don't forget of course to support WDF on Patreon to access ad-free episodes with the scripts attached, as well an hour of extra content every month, and so much more! - $1, $2 & $5 memberships available!
Of course, make sure you also follow us on Twitter, visit our website and sign up to our Newsletter
SPONSORS
1) Use the code WDF15 to get 15% off your stylish new pair of headphones/earphones/listening things
2) To access some fascinating books, nerd out with like minded enthusiasts, further your knowledge of some classical works, get 25% off your first three months AND help the show, head on over to onlinegreatbooks.com!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In my time my poor father was as diligent to teach me to shoot, as to learn me any other thing; and so I think other men did their children: he taught me how to draw, how to lay my body in my bow, and not to draw from strength of the body: I had my bows bought me, according to my age and strength; as I increased in them, so my bows were made bigger and bigger; for men shall never shoot well, except they be brought up in it…But now, we have taken up whoring in towns, instead of shooting in fields.
These were the words of Hugh Lattimer when talking of the decline of English training standards with the longbow - an important theme in this episode. Trust me history friends, this is a good one! Herein we ask that important question - why did England swap its longbows for muskets over the 16th to 17th centuries, what did this process look like, and why did it take so flaming long?
We trace the longbow’s dominance of English military thinking, and ask how it was that England swapped the longbow for the musket, when the musket was less reliable, more expensive and overall less effective. Did you know that longbows were only fully removed from English armies in 1595? Factoids such as these abound in this fascinating installment of our 17th century warfare series. It’s a long episode for sure, but I don’t doubt that you will enjoy every minute of it if even the idea of English longbowmen interests you.
Remember to BEFIT!
B is for blog
E is for email wdfpodcast@hotmail.com
F is for Facebook, the Page and the Group
I is for iTunes, please rate, review and subscribe
T is for TELL ANYONE!
Visit the Thirty Years War section of the website.
Pre-order our book on the Thirty Years War
Are you TeamFerdinand or TeamFrederick ? It's time to pick a side, and a t-shirt!
Don't forget of course to support WDF on Patreon, follow us on Twitter, visit our website and sign up to our Newsletter
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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