The History Network

Just before his 31st birthday in September 1939, Charles Upham volunteered as a private in the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF). He had been in the Territorials but refused to join at any higher rank. He was soon singled out for his natural leadership qualities and made temporary lance corporal, but refused to attend the Officer Cadet Training Unit since he feared that such training would delay his departure for Europe. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

Simo Häyhä tormented Soviet forces invading his native Finland between December 1939 and March 1940, killing 542 enemy soldiers in only 98 days. In the hostile, minus forty degree conditions of the Finnish winter of 1939-40, a man clad all in white lay with packed snow mounded in front of him as he awaited his enemy. The man was Simo Häyhä and he was armed with only a regulation, bolt action rifle – he preferred the standard sight as it could not fog over or catch the light and was less conspicuous than a telescopic sight. Next to him lay his sub-machinegun and he was no less deadly with that weapon. During the Winter War, Häyhä accurate sniper fire would account for almost an entire battalion of Russian soldiers. Dur: 24mins File: .mp3

A bitter war between legitimate and illegitimate heirs was fought for the throne of fourteenth century Castile. The ensuing conflict pulled in many powers, large and small, including both the kingdoms of England and France. Dur: 17mins File: .mp3

At the battle of Issus, fought in early November 333 BC, Alexander faced the Persian King Darius in person for the first time. Massively outnumbered, the Macedonian army faced the numberless might of the Persian military machine. The outcome would decide the future of both the Persian and the Macedonian empire. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3

The Legion of the United States was America's first attempt to establish a permanent military capable of defending its new borders, from hostile Native Americans, as a reaction to the defeats of the hastily raised regular and militia units during the Harmar Campaign and St. Clair's Defeat. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

In late 1791, during the Battle of the Wabash, also known as St. Clair's Defeat, saw the largest defeat of the American military at the hands of the Native Americans. Out of a force of about 1,000 men, the American suffered a 97% casualty rate: including 632 killed and 264 wounded. In addition, 200 camp followers, women and children included, were also killed against around 60 causalities on the Native American side. In a single morning, almost one quarter of the total United States Army was wiped out and the Western frontier left wide open for further Native American raids. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

On 4 July 1187, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, An-Nasir Yusuf Salah ad-Din ibn Ayyub - better known to us as Saladin - won a tremendous victory, one of the most famous of the Middle Ages. Beneath the Horns of Hattin, the twin peaks of an extinct volcano, his forces destroyed the largest army that the Crusader states ever fielded, killing or capturing the great majority of knights and foot soldiers. Dur: 26mins File: .mp3

We saw in Season 31 Episode 4 and Season 30 Episode 7 that due to the remarkable actions of several civilians who took up arms under military orders during the Indian Mutiny in 1857 and 1858 that the newly instituted Victoria Cross was altered to allow such acts of bravery to be recognised. Although Thomas Henry Kavanagh was recognised as the 'first' civilian Victoria Cross for his action during the relief of Lucknow in November 1857, his actions were not the first. Dur: 22mins File: .mp3

On the death of King Charles IV of France in 1328, Edward III of England was his closest male heir and therefore the legitimate successor to the throne of the childless Charles. This was due to the ancient Salian (or Salic) law which prevented female succession (it had, however, only been enacted in 1316). Despite Edward's legitimate claim, the French crowned Philip, Count of Valois, King Philip VI of France and the slighted Edward refused to pay him homage. In revenge, Philip confiscated Edward's lands in Aquitaine (held as a vasal Duchy to the crown of France). Edward therefore declared war against France and plunged England and France into a war that would last, on and off, for the next one hundred and sixteen years, a war we know as the Hundred Years War. Dur: 18mins  File: .mp3

In the year AD 378, the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens left Antioch to return via Constantinople to deal with the Gothic threat which had been ravaging Thrace and the surrounding provinces since 376. He also sought help from his nephew and the Western Roman Emperor, Gratian. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

The Gothic leader Fritigern (possibly based on the Gothic Frithugairns) is, perhaps, one of the most under-appreciated commanders in the ancient world. At the head of a complex confederation of Gothic tribes, he imposed a devastating defeat on the forces of the Western Roman empire at the battle of Adrianople (or Hadrianople) on August 9th, AD 378. Dur: 21mins  File: .mp3

The Allied landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944 were the largest amphibious operation ever undertaken in military history. Across five separate beaches, over 150,000 men made up the landing forces from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. To protect the men on the beaches, a massive bombardment of naval gunfire and aerial bombs struck German fortified defences, troop concentrations, and artillery positions. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

At the end of the Seven Years War, the Proclamation of 1763 was issued by the British, which granted any lands west of the Appalachian Mountains in the Ohio Valley of North America to the Native Americans. American colonists could not settle any of these lands and would be forcibly removed by British forces if necessary. Dur: 18mins File: mp3

In his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, Raphael Lemkin says that "genocide is composite and manifold, and that it signifies a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of the essential foundations of life of a [specific] group." Collective dispossession, including plunder and spoliation, is only one of the many crimes that accompany and even fortify genocidal policies—or perhaps better said, expropriation and pillaging are important aspects of the political economy of genocide. Dur: 15mins File: .mp3

Agitation from the Armenian community for political reform and autonomy, brewing since the 1870s, was further intensified by large-scale massacres that occurred across the empire in 1894–1897 and in Cilicia in 1909; additionally, the more seemingly benign expressions of oppression and discrimination faced by Armenians, which had increased throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, also contributed to growing discontent. Though they had already suffered grave injustices, the previous misfortunes of the Ottoman Armenians paled in comparison to the genocide of 1915–1916. As Bloxham notes, the massacres of the 1890s and genocide of 1915 differ in significant ways—notably in their motivations as well as in participation by centralized versus localized actors—but share a common time frame at the twilight of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, the massacres of 1894–1897 themselves charted the course of what was to come, conditioning the mentality of both perpetrators and victims. This episode was written by Ümit Kurt. Ümit Kurt is a historian of the Modern Middle East with a particular focus on the transformations of the imperial structures and their role in constituting the republican regime. Kurt is Polonsky Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He is the author of several books in Turkish and English, including “The Spirit of the Laws: The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide.” His recent book is, The Armenians of Aintab: The Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province, published by Harvard University Press, May 2021. He is currently teaching in the Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Kurt is the winner of the Discovery Early Career Research Award of 2021, given by Australian Research Council. Dur: 25mins File: .mp3

The battle of Königgrätz (also known as the battle of Sadowa or the battle of Chlum) was the most decisive clash between the armies of Prussia and those of Austria and her allies during the short, seven-week long, Austro-Prussian War in 1866. The war itself is also known under several different titles. Königgrätz was also one of the largest battles of the age with almost half a million men fighting on the field. Dur: 26mins File: .mp3

At the end of the 19th century tensions had been high between the United States and Spain - the point of friction being Spanish colonial rule specifically in Cuba. When the USS Maine mysteriously exploded in Havana harbour, it pushed the American President McKinley into war with Spain. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3

When the Indian Mutiny broke out in May 1857, members of the Honourable East India Company became involved. Soon, several outstandingly brave deeds by them and other volunteer civilians were reported back in England but there was no official way to recognise civilian valour in times of armed conflict. Dur: 26mins File: .mp3

At the end of the First World War France and Italy had wanted the German High Seas Fleet divided between them, Britain and the USA wanted it scuttled, which Germany did anyway without permission. The resulting Treaty of Versailles imposed strict limits on size and number of warships the newly constituted German government was allowed to build and maintain. This nullified the threat of Germany at sea. Dur: 14mins File: .mp3

The Athenian army moved into position for the coming struggle. The right wing was commanded by Callimachus – for it was the regular practice at that time in Athens that the polemarch should lead the right wing; then followed the tribes, in order of their numbers; and, finally, on the left wing, were the Plataeans. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3

On September 10th 490 BC, hoplites from the Greek city of Athens faced an invasion force sent from the enormous and powerful Persian Empire to the east on the field at Marathon, a bay 26.2 miles (42.195 kilometres) northeast of Athens. The Athenians were outnumbered but the result would not be what anyone expected. Dur: 21 mins File: .mp3

In his account of Xerxes' invasion of Greece, the historian Herodotus goes out of his way to give an account of Artemisia, female tyrant of Halicarnassus, before, during and in the aftermath of the battle Salamis in 480 BC. This account, and Artemisia herself, are remarkable for a variety of reasons but the idea of a woman commander, one as clever as a man, had a great impact on the ancient world. Dur: 24mins File: .mp3

England and the Netherlands were natural allies when they both became Protestant, which finally happened in England in 1558 when Elizabeth I was crowned queen. In 1585 the queen sent Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester with 5,000 to 6,000 troops to the Netherlands to help in their revolt against the Spanish rulers of the Netherlands. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3

For centuries naval warfare consisted of vessels in relative close proximity to one, another fighting it out. This combat might take the form of ships in the ancient world ramming, or with the development of gunpowder vessels would launch broadsides at short range into the opposition. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3

The Residency complex at Lucknow was under siege. It had been since late June 1857. It was now October. A small relief force had broken through from Cawnpore but it was then too weak to enable the combined garrison to break out. Dur: 23 mins File: .mp3

Throughout the Indian Mutiny of 1857-1858, a total of 182 Victoria Crosses were awarded; more than one third of those were awarded for actions in in the city of Lucknow. It is a place with which anyone who studies the history of military bravery should be intimately familiar. One of the most remarkable actions during that part of the conflict was the relief of Lucknow on November 16th, 1857. Dur: 28mins File: .mp3

In this second episode of the life of Charles V Holy Roman Emperor we continue the story of his reign and of the conflicts in the first half of the 16th Century that shaped Europe and the world. The ruler of an empire is forever in the saddle and so it was with Charles. Conflict began in the year of the Diet of Worms when the French under Francis 1 invaded Lombardy in Italy. Dur: 17mins File: .mp3

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor also known as Carlos was born in 1500 and he lived for 58 years, dying in the Spanish monastery of Yuste of malaria. As we list his titles, King of Spain, King of the Netherlands, Flanders and Belgium, Emperor of Austria and Hungary, ruler of much of Italy including Milan, Sicily, Sardinia and Naples and Emperor of the Americas, the listener is apt to think that his realm encompassed much of the known world, as indeed it did, but this does not take account of the periphery. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

The Byzantines, the subjects of the Eastern Roman Empire, were great survivors. They outlasted their cousins in the west by a thousand years, withstanding the great waves of barbarian invasions and even managing to flourish amidst the chaos. Less than a century after the last western emperor was deposed in 476, the Eastern Romans under Justinian reconquered Italy and North Africa, and seemed on their way to restoring the entire Mediterranean to Roman rule. Dur: 30mins File: .mp3

On May 18, 1863, Major General Ulysses S. Grant achieved the objective he had sought for months. Union troops surrounded Vicksburg on three sides, and on its west side, Admiral David Porter's warships controlled the waters of the Mississippi. For three months Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton had watched as Grant flailed about in the floodplain on various unsuccessful bayou expeditions. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

On May 18, 1863, Major General Ulysses S. Grant achieved the objective he had sought for months. Union troops surrounded Vicksburg on three sides, and on its west side, Admiral David Porter's warships controlled the waters of the Mississippi. For three months Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton had watched as Grant flailed about in the floodplain on various unsuccessful bayou expeditions. Dur: 30mins  File: .mp3

At the Battle of Cannae, 2 August, 216 B.C., Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca administered one of Rome's most crushing military defeats. Depending upon the ancient source, Roman losses on the Apulian battlefield numbered anywhere from roughly 50,000, as Livy relates, to around 70,000, as Polybius insists. Hannibal had enacted a double envelopment of the Roman army, a maneuver widely considered to be a tactical masterpiece that is to this day studied in war colleges around the world. Dur: 25mins File: .mp3

The last pitched battles on English soil were Sedgemoor in 1685 and Preston in 1715. But after that the army still needed to train and practice. The first land on Salisbury Plain was not bought for army training until 1897 and Catterick Camp was opened after the outbreak of WW1. So from 1853 when there was a renewed invasion scare, to 1914, there were many large scale army exercises or 'manoeuvres' all across the countryside of southern England. Dur: 26mins File: .mp3

When the first actions were gazetted in The London Gazette on February 24th, 1857, the first name to appear was that of Cecil Buckley. The action for his award was performed in May 1855 while he was a lieutenant but he had been promoted Commander soon after and so was the highest ranking naval officer gazetted in that initial list. Dur: 16 mins  File: .mp3

The First Victoria Cross – Charles Davis Lucas, Cecil William Buckley, or Henry James Raby. During the Crimean War (March 1854-February 1856), the movement to recognise the valour of the ordinary fighting man of the various branches of the British armed forces gained immense momentum. The Crimean War was the first conflict where newspaper reporters were with the troops (today we'd use the term ‘embedded') and wrote back to their publications with the details of the heroism of the rank and file. Dur: 16mins. File: .mp3

Ask most people about the Battle of Britain, and they will think of the Spitfires and Hurricanes of RAF fighter command in combat with the German Luftwaffe over southern England in 1940. History books will often also mention Bomber Command carrying out raids on the French and Belgian ports where the Germans were assembling the fleet of barges and small craft to be used to transport German troops across the Channel in Operation Sealion. Dur: 19 mins File: .mp3

The machinery of war which Charlemagne inherited from his father. Pepin the Short, and grandfather (Charles Martel, 'the hammer') was singularly well tuned to wage war. All of Charlemagne's vassals were expected to serve militarily and all free men were expected to serve if needed. This service included bishops, abbots and abbesses; they too could be called upon to provide armed men or other provisions of war according to the wealth of their estates. Dur: 17mins. File: .mp3

Charles the Great, known as Charlemagne and the father of Europe, created an empire which would last 1,000 years. To secure it he fought continuously, on multiple fronts, throughout his long reign. Charlemagne came to power at a time when Europe was made up of many small kingdoms and principalities. Since the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, it had also faced invasion from various peoples who had established kingdoms of their own, such as the Visigoths and Muslims in Spain. Dur: 19mins File: .mp3

Thermopylae and Artemisium were never intended to be decisive stands even though the defeat of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae has gone down in history as just such a stand. There were also 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans at that defeat but their sacrifice has been all but been ignored. (indeed the historian Herodotus goes out of his way to show the Thebans to be perfidious traitors). The other cities' soldiers had already withdrawn, and fierce debate ensued to keep the alliance together. Dur: 23mins. File: .mp3

The year 2020 represents the 2,500th anniversary of three battles which played a major part in shaping the future of the western Mediterranean world: the battles of Thermopylae, Artemisum, and Salamis. Dur: 19mins. File: .mp3

The American West contains many epic tales and stories, perhaps the most astounding is the story of Lewis and Clark and the Corp of Discovery. Over the course of seventeen months a group of over forty individuals traveled seven thousand miles through hostile native tribes from the middle of America through previously unexplored mountain ranges to the Pacific Ocean and returned healthy and well with only one casualty. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

July 15th 1779. The night was dark, the soldiers were ordered to fix bayonets and unload their rifles. Men exhausted, a 14 mile road march in the dead of summer that started at noon got them to this point. Anxiety filled the air as Washington's men set to take back Stony Point. What took 20 minutes left the southern and western and northern flanks of the point covered in blood. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3

The greatest mercenary commander of the 14th century, inspiration for historians, poets, novelists and playwrights, John Hawkwood is a name everyone should know. 14th century Europe was a plagued with incessant warfare. The Hundred Years' War began between France and England in 1337 and would last until the middle of the next century. Other conflicts engulfed various parts of Europe as well, especially in Italy where Sir John Hawkwood would make and maintain his name. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3

The greatest mercenary commander of the 14th century, inspiration for historians, poets, novelists and playwrights, John Hawkwood is a name everyone should know. 14th century Europe was a plagued with incessant warfare. The Hundred Years' War began between France and England in 1337 and would last until the middle of the next century. Other conflicts engulfed various parts of Europe as well, especially in Italy where Sir John Hawkwood would make and maintain his name. Dur 18mins File: .mp3

By the beginning of September 1066, King Harold II was in a quandary. Expecting Duke William of Normandy to invade, he had summoned the fyrd (what passed for the army in Anglo-Saxon times; made up of a proportion of the freemen of each shire who were required to perform military service in defence of the land) back in April and they had long since passed the usual two to three months' service. And now they were starting to grumble... Dur: 17mins File: .mp3

The Seven Years War, fought from 1756 to 1763, pitted the alliance of France, Austria, Sweden, Saxony, Russia and Spain; against Great Britain, Prussia and Hanover. The first truly world war, campaigns in the war were fought in Europe, India, North America, and on the oceans throughout the world. Dur: 27mins File: .mp3

One thing to note in regard to Cretans is that when they are mentioned in our sources they are always referred to as Cretan archers or just ‘Cretans' or, occasionally just archers and we must work out from the context that they were Cretan. Dur: 25mins. File. mp3

When a contingent of archers is mentioned in the context of Greek and Roman armies, more often than not the culture associated with them is that of Crete. Indeed, when we just have archers mentioned in an army without a specified origin, Cretan archers are commonly assumed to be meant, so ubiquitous with archery and groups of mercenary archers were the Cretans. The Cretans are the most famous, but certainly not the only ‘nation' associated with a particular fighting style (Rhodian slingers and Thracian peltasts leap to mind but there are others too). The long history of Cretan archers can be seen in the sources – according to some stretching from the First Messenian War right down to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Even in the reliable historical record we find Cretan archer units from the Peloponnesian War well into the Roman period. Dur: 14mins File: .mp3

Bougainville is a 9000 sq. km pacific island and was first subject to European contact in 1768 when Louis Antoine De Bougainville landed there and, in an act of typical vainglory, named it for himself. People had been on Bougainville for 28,000 years but it was the Austronesian people who 4,000 years ago established pigs, chickens, dogs and cultivation with obsidian tools.  The Comte De Bougainville was every bit the equal of James Cook and it was he who established the Falkland Islands, circumnavigated the globe and fought as a captain of dragoons in the what was effectively the first world war, the 7 years' war between England and France. As an Admiral he sailed south from Tahiti and nearly discovered the Great Barrier Reef then in 1768 encountered Bougainville, east of Papua New Guinea. The wonderful variegated coloured flower, Bougainvillea, is named for him. The island is a natural wonder and historical treasure. This episode was written by Lt Col Chris Alroe. Chris was an Australian Army Officer and specialist medical practitioner who spent twenty-one years full and part time in the Australian Defence Forces. He was at one time SMO 11 BDE and later appointed SMO 3 BDE, retiring from the army before taking up the appointment. During Operation Bel Isi commenced 1999, the UN Peace Keeping Mission to the Island of Bougainville after the civil war there, he was appointed Officer Commanding the Combined Health Element for the mission. He was commended by the Brigadier of the Mission for his survey of New Guinea Health services which he conducted as part of the plan to complete the Mission.

The year 1776 began joyously for the American rebels. After the Battle of Bunker Hill and the subsequent siege of Boston, the rebel army, now formally organized into the Continental Army commanded by George Washington, successfully forced the British army under William Howe to withdraw from Boston and sail for Halifax, Nova Scotia. There Howe licked his wounds and awaited reinforcements. Dur: 28mins File: .mp3

The year 1776 began joyously for the American rebels. After the Battle of Bunker Hill and the subsequent siege of Boston, the rebel army, now formally organized into the Continental Army commanded by George Washington, successfully forced the British army under William Howe to withdraw from Boston and sail for Halifax, Nova Scotia. There Howe licked his wounds and awaited reinforcements. Dur: 33mins File: .mp3