Podcasts about armoured division

Risikoen for at dø i kamp var ganske betydelig, hvis man var en del af de amerikanske kampvognsstyrker under de allieredes fremrykning i Vesteuropa fra sommeren 1944 og frem mod Nazitysklands kapitulation i maj 1945. Det var i denne periode, at den legendariske 3. panserdivision (3rd Armoured Division) vandt sit ry for sit heltemod, idet divisionens M4 Sherman-kampvogne kørte forrest under fremrykningen frem mod Tyskland, og blev kendt som ”Spearhead” (Spydspids). Undervejs blev den udsat for tyskernes formidable kampvogne som Panther V (G) og Tiger og lettere våben mod panser såsom Panzerfaust. Ingen division mistede flere mænd på Vestfronten end netop den 3. panserdivision. Èn kampvogn fra Spearhead-enhederne blev foreviget i en berømt kortfilm, der dokumenterede et mindre panser-slag, og som udspillede sig tæt på Kölns domkirke i marts 1945. Skytten på den nye M26 Pershing-kampvogn ”Eagle”, der ødelagde de to sidste tyske kampvogne i slaget om byen, var den kun 21-årige korporal Clarence Smoyer fra Pennsylvania.  Han skulle vente næsten 75 år på at få tapperhedsmedaljen bronze-stjernen ved 2. verdenskrigsmonumentet i Washington. Det skete formentlig kun, fordi den amerikanske militærhistoriker Adam Makos i 2019 i bogen ”Spearhead” fortalte historien om Smoyer og hans kampvognsbesætnings barske oplevelser fra kampene i Nordfrankrig til det sidste omringelses-slag om Ruhr-distriktet. I programmet medvirker historiker, forfatter og rigsarkivar Steen Andersen, hvor vi taler om bogen og de tyske og amerikanske kampvogne under kampene i Vesteuropa.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

fWotD Episode 2669: 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Karstjäger Welcome to Featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia’s finest articles.The featured article for Sunday, 25 August 2024 is 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Karstjäger.The 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Karstjäger was a German mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the German Nazi Party that served alongside, but was never formally part of, the Wehrmacht during World War II. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, the Waffen-SS was declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Named Karstjäger ("Karst Hunter"), the formation was one of the 38 divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS. Formed on 18 July 1944 from the SS Volunteer Karstwehr Battalion, its nominal strength was never more than theoretical and the division was soon reduced to the Waffen Mountain (Karstjäger) Brigade of the SS. Throughout its existence as a battalion, division and brigade, it was primarily involved in fighting partisans in the Karst Plateau on the frontiers of Yugoslavia, Italy, and Austria; the mountainous terrain required specialised mountain troops and equipment.Founded in 1942 as a company, the unit consisted mainly of Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans/Austrians) from Yugoslavia and the South Tyrol province of Italy. Although focused on anti-partisan operations, it also saw action in the wake of the Italian surrender when it moved to disarm Italian troops in Tarvisio and protect ethnic German communities in Italy. In addition, at the end of the war it successfully fought to keep passes into Austria open, allowing German units to escape the Balkans and surrender to British forces. The remnants of the unit became some of the last Germans to lay down their arms when they surrendered to the British 6th Armoured Division on 9 May 1945. A joint Italian-German study implicated the division in 23 separate war crimes involving the killing of a total of 277 people between the Italian surrender and the end of the war.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:54 UTC on Sunday, 25 August 2024.For the full current version of the article, see 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Karstjäger on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Ruth.

fWotD Episode 2596: Battle of Villers-Bocage Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.The featured article for Thursday, 13 June 2024 is Battle of Villers-Bocage.The Battle of Villers-Bocage took place during the Second World War on 13 June 1944, one week after the Normandy Landings, which had begun the Western Allies' conquest of German-occupied France. The battle was the result of a British attempt to exploit a gap in the German defences west of the city of Caen. After one day of fighting in and around the small town of Villers-Bocage and a second day defending a position outside the town, the British force retreated.The Allies and the Germans regarded control of Caen as vital to the Normandy battle. In the days following the D-Day landings on 6 June, the Germans rapidly dug in north of the city. On 9 June, a two-pronged British attempt to surround and capture Caen was defeated. On the right flank of the British Second Army, the 1st US Infantry Division had forced back the German 352nd Infantry Division and opened a gap in the German front. To bypass the German Panzer-Lehr Division blocking the direct route south in the area of Tilly-sur-Seulles, a mixed force of tanks, infantry and artillery, based on the 22nd Armoured Brigade (Brigadier William "Loony" Hinde) of the 7th Armoured Division, advanced through the gap in a flanking manoeuvre towards Villers-Bocage. British commanders hoped that the appearance of a strong force in their rear would surround the Panzer-Lehr Division or force it to withdraw.The 22nd Armoured Brigade group reached Villers-Bocage without serious incident on the morning of 13 June. The leading elements advanced eastwards from the town on the Caen road to a ridge at Point 213, where they were ambushed by Tiger I tanks of the 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion. In a few minutes, tanks, anti-tank guns and transport vehicles were destroyed, many by SS-Obersturmführer Michael Wittmann. The Germans attacked the town and were repulsed, losing several Tigers and Panzer IVs. After six hours, Hinde ordered a withdrawal to a more defensible position on a knoll west of Villers-Bocage. The next day the Germans attacked the brigade box, arranged for all-round defence, in the Battle of the Island. The British inflicted a costly repulse on the Germans and then retired from the salient. The Battle for Caen continued east of Villers-Bocage, the ruins of which were captured on 4 August, after two raids by strategic bombers of the Royal Air Force.The British conduct of the Battle of Villers-Bocage has been controversial, because their withdrawal marked the end of the post–D-Day "scramble for ground" and the start of an attritional battle for Caen. Some historians have written that the British attack was a failure caused by a lack of conviction among some senior commanders, rather than the fighting power of the German army, while others judge the British force to have been insufficient for the task. The "single-handed" attack by Wittmann early on has excited imaginations, to the extent that some historians and writers conclude that it has dominated the historical record to an unwarranted degree and that while "remarkable", the role of Wittmann in the battle has been exaggerated.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:32 UTC on Thursday, 13 June 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Battle of Villers-Bocage on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Nicole Standard.

Send us a Text Message.This month on the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, the largest amphibious invasion ever mounted, Col Andy Taylor and Rev Paul Roberts reflect on the role the Herefordshire Light Infantry played in the days after 6th June 1944, including the Regiment's first casualties, among the Carrier Platoon, over the river Odon bridgehead.  They examine the role of the Regiment as part of the 11th Armoured Division, an example of an all-arms force, the extensive training undertaken ahead of the battle and the part the Regiment played in the approach to Hill 112, so important in the battle for Caen.Our pair also discuss the changing nature of remembrance as the number of veterans from the Normandy Campaign dwindle and the British Normandy Memorial, first inaugurated in 2011.  Andy relates a recent hair-raising flypast by the Belgian Air Force at the memorial.There is also some advice shared, given to British servicemen in 1944 who would soon be liberating a ravaged, war-torn and weary France... including some sound advice on strong wines and liquors! Support the Show.If you like what you hear, don't forget to like and subscribe to help us reach a wider audience. Visit our website - Herefordshire Light Infantry Museum; follow us on Facebook Herefordshire Regimental Museum | Facebook or visit our Youtube channel Herefordshire Regimental Museum - YouTube.Support the Museum? Become a Patreon supporter or a Become a FriendTheme Tune - The Lincolnshire Poacher, performed by the outstanding Haverhill Silver Band. This podcast generously supported by the Army Museums Ogilby Trust.

The exploits of the SAS in North Africa in the early years of the Second World War are well known; attacks behind enemy lines, destruction of hundreds of German aircraft on the ground and generally creating mayhem for the Afrika Korps. But little of this would have been possible without the Long Range Desert Group. Experts in desert navigation, the LRDG was formed to carry out deep penetration, covert reconnaissance patrols and intelligence missions behind Axis lines. As the commando tactics of the SAS developed, a reliable mode of transport to and from targets, often across hundreds of miles of desert, was provided by the LRDG to the SAS, using their ubiquitous 30 cwt Chevrolet trucks. Our speaker is Richard Pinches, whose father, Peter Pinches, served in North Africa with the 7th Armoured Division. Richard is a Second World War re-enactor and historian, specialising in the North African campaign and the LRDG. His talk covers the vital but often overlooked role of this uniquely skilled and capable unit of the Desert Rats.

Brigadier Chris Murray enlisted as a Trooper in the Royal Tank Regiment at Catterick in 1974 before completing a Potential Officers' Course and subsequent selection for Sandhurst.  He was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Transport in 1975 and served all over the world.He deployed on Gulf War 1 on Operation GRANBY with HQ 1st Armoured Division with particular responsibility for artillery ammunition logistics.  On promotion to Colonel in November 1998 he was appointed as Commander Royal Logistic Corps Territorial Army at Grantham. He was awarded the CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2002 for being a thoroughly nice bloke. He left the Army in 2010 completing a 15 year virtually unbroken period in senior command, 36 years of great fun service with soldiers and an exhausted liver.We only feature the latest 200 episodes of the podcast on public platforms so to access our podcast LIBRARY with every episode ever made & also get access to every Debrief & Subject Matter expert document shard with us then join our PATREON crew and support the future of the podcast by clicking HERE A big thanks to our partners for supporting this episode.GORE-TEX Professional ClothingHAIX FootwearGRENADERIP INTOLyfe Linez -  Get Functional Hydration FUEL for FIREFIGHTERS, Clean no sugar  for daily hydration. 80% of people live dehydrated and  for firefighters this cost lives, worsens our long term health and reduces cognitive ability.Support the ongoing work of the podcast by clicking HEREPlease subscribe to the podcast on YoutubeEnter our monthly giveaways on the following platformsFacebookInstagramPlease support the podcast and its future by clicking HERE and joining our Patreon Crew

Show notes and Transcript Godfrey Bloom is well known for his time as a UKIP MEP in the European Parliament where he served 3 terms, but he joins Hearts of Oak today to discuss all things finance.  Godfrey's career was in the military, financial economics and he spent many years as an investment banker.  He has written many books including 'The Magic Of Banking: The Coming Collapse'.  Godfrey discusses how he has managed to fuse together a life in the army, in politics and in finance.  He then then delves into the shadowy financial institutions which control all our lives and have pushed every government into a spiral of debt that will sooner or later collapse the global financial system.  We finish by looking at gold and why Godfrey believes it is the perfect store of wealth. Godfrey Bloom is a libertarian author with six books published on both military history & Austrian School Economics. He worked in the City of London where he won an international prize for fund management (fixed interest) with Mercury Asset Management. Bloom finished his city career as General Manager of a life assurance company. He represented Yorkshire & Lincolnshire in the European Parliament & was a staunch campaigner for Brexit for twenty five years. During his term of office he attracted over sixty million views on his chamber speeches exposing State bank & tax malpractice on Facebook & You Tube. Thought to be an all time record. He brought experience if not influence to the mainly lay EU Parliamentary Monetary & Economic Affairs Committee, putting both members & European Central Bank President under unaccustomed pressure. Godfrey Bloom passed out of Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1976 & served as logistics liaison officer to 4th Armed Division in Germany. He is an Associate Member of the Royal College of Defence Studies & has presented papers & lectures to The RCDS, Joint Services Staff College, National Defence University Washington & too many universities to list. His speciality is procurement & geo political military strategy. Godfrey Bloom is holder of the Territorial Decoration & bar, Sovereign's Medal, Armed Forces Parliamentary Medal & European Parliamentary silver medal.  Connect with Godfrey... WEBSITE:     https://godfreybloom.uk/ X:                  https://x.com/goddersbloom?s=20 SUBSTACK: https://godfreybloom.substack.com/ Interview recorded 19.9.23 *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and Twitter https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  To sign up for our weekly email, find our social media, podcasts, video, livestreaming platforms and more... https://heartsofoak.org/connect/ Support Hearts of Oak by purchasing one of our fancy T-Shirts.... https://heartsofoak.org/shop/ Please subscribe, like and share! Transcript (Hearts of Oak) Godfrey Bloom, it is wonderful to have you with us today. Thank you so much for your time. (Godfrey Bloom) A pleasure to be here.  Great to have you and people can follow you @GoddersBloom on Twitter. Godfreybloom.uk is the website and godfreybloom.substack.com. On the website you can get about gold and your wealth, the great reset, climate and green energy, COVID, military, all topics that I know our viewers and listeners will be interested in. But for our viewers who may not have come across Godfrey Bloom, he has a long and varied career encompassing financial services, army, politics. It was the politics where I first came across you serving two terms, I think for UKIP in the European Parliament. And one of Godfrey's books, all available on the website, but is The Magic of Banking, the coming collapse paperback. Now Godfrey, how did you manage to fuse together finance, military and politics? It's an interesting mix. Well, of course, it's the only advantage of being very old is that you get lots of opportunities to do lots of stuff. So it's not because I'm particularly clever, it's because I'm particularly old. So just to bear in mind my background in the 1960s, I went into the city with a very prestigious Broking House in the 1960s, about 1966-67, in those days. Now, in those days, if you were going to get anywhere in the city, it was, first of all, you had to wear a bowler hat. You had to have a bowler hat, and it seems a long time ago now, but you didn't have to wear it, you just had to make sure you had it on the hat stand. I still got it. And the other thing, a couple of things, all the senior directors were wartime officers. All the middle management were National Service officers. So you had to have some kind of military connection. Shore Service Commission, Territorial Army Commission, perhaps with a prestigious regiment. And so on and so forth, and you had to play rugger, as we called it in those days. I ticked every box in a fairly modest kind of way. That all fused together. As you go through life, something pops up. My main life was an investment fund manager, a pension investment fund manager, specializing in fixed interest with a view to pension investment. Dull, very un-prestigious. The equity boys were the glamour boys. It was a bit like the difference between a fighter pilot in the war and coastal command. I was more coastal command. So that's what you had to do. And then I was in a territorial regiment and I was then attached, I did a short service with regular back to the territorial army, so on and so forth. Started in life armoured reconnaissance with 4th Armoured Division in Germany. Where we had the sort of stuff that you see now in old black-and-white movies was actually state-of-the-art stuff when I was soldiering. It was all a very long time ago. Then, when I worked for a very prestigious investment house in the city, I was asked to investigate the implications of becoming the common currency, as it was called then in the late 80s and early 90s, what did it entail, so on and so forth. I had a very good team of statisticians and people. I looked at that and I saw the implications. I dug deeper into the implications of our membership of the European Union. And the deeper I dug, the smellier the whole thing got. And that drew me into politics in 2004, where I resigned from the board of financial service companies and went into politics, which was an eye-opening experience. So that's why I came to do all these things. You couldn't do that now, I don't think, because the world has changed and everything is really too focused on micromanagement and micro career patterns and so on and so forth. So I was very lucky to be born when I was, you could have a really holistic kind of career pattern, which gave me my army and politics and business. So I had all three. I don't think you could do that now.  Very true. And I think that connection with the military and our politics public service has gone as well. And I think that's a shame for our country. But let me talk to you. Many people think they are free to vote for what they want. They're free to go where they want. They're free to use their money as they want. But it's that financial freedom or maybe lack of it. I want to talk to you about. There are financial institutions that can operate in the shadows that control our lives. And I know you've written about this, you've done videos about this. Do you want to kind of touch on that and maybe pull the veil slightly back on that? Well, I think it was Jacob Rothschild who actually got it dead right, for better or for worse, and I would suggest worse. And that was, he said, it doesn't matter who you vote for, it's who controls the money. And of course it's been the Rothschilds being part of the cabal that controls money. Since I don't know, probably 120, 130 years at least, not just in this country, in Europe as well. So he who controls the money. And of course, as we become a more secular society, money becomes the primary goal. It is the religion. It is the religion of Western Europe, it's the religion of North America. It's how much money. In a secular society, of course, you lose any form of moral compass. If indeed, perhaps there was any moral compass, I don't know, but I'm sure there was more moral compass in yesteryear than there is now. So the deal is, and which means you can buy any journalist and you can buy any politician. And almost every single journalist and every single politician is bought. There are very few exceptions. It isn't always overt, but you've only got to look at certain responses from journalists. And I'll give you one very easy example of that. In Syria, for example, when the CIA and the Washington neo-cons are trying to destabilize Syria in order to get their pipeline coming from Qatar, it's all about money, it's all about money and influence, and this is what was happening. Then of course you would find the CIA would put out a press release saying Assad has dropped poison gas on his own people and he's a very bad guy. That would be a CIA press release. Now, people like Andrew Neil on BBC TV would read that out within hours of it being circulated. There was no possible question of us checking whether it was true or not. And Andrew Neil, who was a sort of dwyan of supposedly independent broadcasting, joke, joke, would read that out with a straight face, which meant everybody watching BBC would believe that to be true. And of course, subsequently, we find out that it wasn't true at all. It was CIA propaganda. Or indeed, I have to say, sadly, MI6 or MI5 propaganda. So you're getting a constant stream of lies from legacy broadcasting, and people believe that it was the same in the fake pandemic. 80% of people in this country will believe it if it's on the BBC, and psychologically, I did a course with the Smithsonian Institute on trying to get to the bottom of this psychologically. 80% of the people, I don't think it's just true of Britain, I think it's 80% of most of the Western industrialized countries, will believe anything they're told, and people do. The people who push back against it are kicked out or de-platformed. I mean I'm de-platformed. I used to be a regular speaker at Cambridge University and various other universities. I can't get on now. I haven't been interviewed by the BBC now for years. Dissent is verboten. So there's no concept of dissent. But if you do an audit trail of all of it and you if you go right back and find out why is this. You will find it's about money or political power. There are no exceptions and there are no good guys left in politics. Well obviously in finance we've seen, I mean Nigel Farage just talked about his issues with banking, it's happened to many many others and it seems as though banks can punish people for whatever reason and I think that's a world away from the traditional view of the bank being someone who kind of looks after your money, it's safe, it's cared for, it's maybe invested well, and I think what we've seen in the last few months has been a completely different side from the banks. Yes, but of course the banks have been politicized as well, have they not? You're looking at concepts of ESG, so your ratings for stock holdings by BlackRock and Vanguard, who are the biggest investors in the world, together they own the world, basically. They actually own each other, but that's another long story. So you have Larry Fink and people of this Vanguard, of course, and people you don't even know who voted, because it's not publicly quoted, so you don't even quite know who really owns it. So, it's highly politicized. And, of course, the situation with Nigel Farage was interesting, because NatWest and Coutts are 38% owned by the government. So, you couldn't get more to be more of a political bank than NatWest. It is a government bank. And the chief executive was put there because she was a government appointee. She has no knowledge of anything, finance, whatever. I mean, laughable. I mean, when I was the director of a main investment bank years ago, I wouldn't have employed her to clean the cars. She's utterly hopeless. She's a political agitator with a clean, squeaky-clean record, common purpose, WEF, the whole tutti-frutti. Of course. Expertise went out, and so did discretion and confidentiality. She had to go because she broke confidentiality, which is at the basis of banking, and Coutts in particular, where I also used to be a client when I had enough money to be a client of Coutts Bank. So you have all these problems. Of course, it's interesting enough, she's gone. She went with £2.3 million payoff. And I bet you anything you like, in two or three months, she'll pop up somewhere else in a very senior, very highly paid appointment. That's how the game plan works, all right? So, it's all about money and so on and so forth, but of course, I have to say... This has been going for some time. They did the same thing to Tommy Robinson, they did the same thing to Britain First, they did the same thing with the political platform of For Britain. They were debanked, which means it's very difficult to function in modern society if you have no form of bank. You can't collect subscriptions, you can't do anything. Interesting though, I have to say, this has been going on for some time. But when it happened to Nigel? That's a different game, is it? Oh, that's a much different game. It happened to Nigel. Nigel wasn't bothered about this until it happened to him. It's the old theory, isn't it, of Winston Churchill. You placate the crocodile on the basis that you hope he will eat you last. No, it's true. I thought exactly the same, although I was thankful for a high-profile figure to highlight the injustice. But you're right, it's happened to most individuals don't have the ability to have a nationally out program or a newspaper column to talk about this injustice. So at least it is being aired. But as you pointed out, the madness of a bank being partially government owned and the government said, it's not our fault. And you wonder, well, whose fault is this? And they were blaming past regulation. You mentioned some of those companies, BlackRock and Vanguard, and these are shadowy companies. They own parts of many companies. They're very large shareholders of many institutions. Kind of how has it got to that? Should that worry people? Is this just how financing capitalism works or is there a darker side to this? No, one has to just remind everybody, certainly the younger generation, the difference between mercantilism and capitalism. Capitalism is laissez-faire. It means that you invest, you pretty well do what you damn well like, and the only demonstration of true capitalism post-war, of course, was Hong Kong under John Cooperthwaite, where his view was, it's my job to make sure the drains work and the police aren't corrupt, nothing else is my business. That's capitalism and of course that produced one of the most successful territories on the face of the planet in a very short period of time with no natural resources. Hong Kong has no natural resources. What we have now is mercantilism, which is sometimes referred to as crony capitalism, but it's got nothing to do with capitalism. Now, in a nutshell, how these sort of things work, I used to work for a company called Mercury Asset Management, which was part of the Warburg Empire. It was the biggest pension fund manager in Europe. I was the representative of the National Association of Pension Funds, the institution there, as well as being a fund manager. I wasn't on the main board, incidentally. I was on a junior board, but believe me, I knew how the game worked. Now, when you're doing that, Merck Asset Management then owned 4% of the European stock market. That's a very significant number. It doesn't sound like much, but 4% of the stock market is big. Then they were acquired by Merrill Lynch, a big American investment house, and then Merrill Lynch were acquired by BlackRock, and so it goes on, and so it gets bigger and bigger, almost like a sort of an astrophysicist would talk to you about a black hole. It becomes bigger and bigger, and the gravity pull is beyond human imagination. And then of course the oligarchs are part of that, and they're rich beyond most of our dreams. I mean the George Soros's of this world, the Bill Gates of this world, the Mark Zuckerberg's of this world, all these people are wealthy beyond imagination. And so you'd have to go back to the Rockefellers, to find people who were that rich in comparison. And what is interesting then, they would produce organizations, institutions, like the Bill and Melinda Gates and so on and so forth, and the Rockefeller Foundation. And these also get hijacked politically, and you can go back to the Quaker side in this country, to Roundtrees, for example. Quaker, and they were very good to their employees, and they had an ethos, a Quaker ethos. And now there's a very wealthy Roundtree Foundation, which is hijacked, politically, completely. It's woke. The National Trust is woke. Everything has become woke. And woke is really just part of the World Economic Forum's game plan. And this grows and grows in power. So you end up now with a prime minister who is World Economic Forum, no shame about it. No conspiracy theory yet. You know, somebody's always conspiring. That's absolute nonsense. Look at their website. It's perfectly up front. They boast about this. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the opposition, Starmer, when asked, do you think Parliament or Davos, which was the most important, he said, Davos. The King who gives royal assent to our laws now is World Economic Forum agent. In fact, as far as I understand, he could be the top man. I'm never quite sure whether Klaus Schwab reports to him or vice versa but the principle is the same. So now, of course, they control everything, and Bill Gates is the biggest farmer in the United States. He owns more land in the United States than anybody else. It's very difficult for ordinary people to fight against this, and they certainly can't fight against it with a vote. Vote is totally meaningless, and so you have these huge power blocs, and our elected politicians, are simply stooges. Penny Mordaunt, for example, is a stooge to Bill Gates. He wrote a forward for her book. She's an advocate of Bill Gates. All these people are paid, and we have a CIA, who, with a huge budget, an unaudited budget, they could pay you to interview certain people or not interview certain people in a Swiss bank account. Very significant amount of money. And most people have a price. Most people can be bought. And those who can't be bought are people like Neil Oliver, on a much smaller scale, me. You can't buy me, but I'm few. I'm one of the very few, and you can't buy me because money is not my God. I don't know whether you could buy me with other things. I can't imagine what they would be. So some people are incorruptible, but that's a tiny minority, and that certainly doesn't work in politics. How have you seen, looking back at the industry, how finance works, kind of, how have you seen a change? Has part of it been more scrutiny? Has part of it been the internet opens up the ability to question, with the public going direct? I mean, Neil Oliver, obviously on GB News, but having a huge reach on social media. Kind of, how have you seen a change? and how has social media affected the people's awareness of maybe what is happening? Well, social media is a wonderful thing. You know, it's a wonderful thing that you can get a significant footprint on that. But again, most people, it's still sadly legacy TV. It's still the BBC or ITV or whatever it happens to be that calls the shots. People who follow social media of course are the most informed but then if you look at my whole, just let's take me, my whole footprint is probably, I probably in total have overall something like 160,000 subscribers. That really isn't very many. Obviously, Neil Oliver is much bigger, and I'm glad of that because he's, in my view, a great man, a great historian, and a great leader of thought. So I'm a huge supporter of his. But there's still most people, most people go with the flow, they half watch BBC, they half watch ITV, doing something else, putting a shelf up, doing the ironing, whatever it is. So most people accept what they're told. Most people, of course, when it comes to things like pandemics or so-called pandemics, listen to their doctor. People have this divine faith in the National Health Service, which is, of course, ludicrous if you dig down into it, but most people do.  Again, it's a legacy thing, and it goes back to people being brought up on Doctor in the House, black and white, Ealing movies, funny enough, where you are now. Wonderful things when it worked and when it was incorrupt. Now, of course, that's all gone. The Bank of England, central banks are now political appointees. You have your head of your central bank, Carney is a classic example, brought in as a Canadian, ex-Goldman Sachs, most of them are ex-Goldman Sachs, which is known as the vampire squid in the city. Even hard-nosed investment bankers like mine used to regard them as beyond the pale. These are the sort of Vlad the Impaler of the investment banking world, but they're all political appointees, so Carney was a political appointee. So that this nonsense of the Bank of England being independent. So it doesn't work like that and they go on to other political appointments with the UN or the International Monetary Fund or the Bank of International Settlements which of course nobody ever told us about, which is the most powerful institution in the world. So all these things come together to thwart the ordinary guy. In my experience in Britain, and I don't know what your experience is Peter, but my experience is the true guy who questions anything of this nature is what we used to call the artisan class. You're sparky, you're bricky, you're joiner. People who actually do real stuff for a living, they actually put kitchens in, shelves in, drive a cab. People who actually do a real job for a living are very much more highly critical and much better informed. So for example, my window cleaner is simply miles more informed than my friends who read history or law at Oxford. You know, the dinner party set, your English middle class are so gullible and naive. It's unbelievable. A working man having a pint in the pub who's a sparky or a chippy, he's not so gullible because he does a real job and sees stuff every day. So the divide, you have this divide. And people make a big mistake if they think, and people do, that the divide is somehow between class, particularly, or skin colour, or wealth. Well, it isn't. I can tell you. And 10 years in politics showed me this campaigning for Brexit, for example. The people who really understood these matters were the artisan class, but your divide in society is between those in the wealth-creating sector and those in the public sector. Your public sector, your civil servant, your man at the town hall, anybody who works for the government is protected. They have index-linked pension funds, which have long since gone from the private sector. These people are virtually unsackable, the Quangos. All these people are entitled and have the arrogance of office. There's your divide. It's not old or young or black and white. It's who works for the government in some form and who doesn't. There's your divide. Of course, in the last five years, we've seen over 100,000 new civil servants. One might imagine that they won't be happy until everyone is a civil servant and therefore everybody can be controlled. If only we had a conservative government, but I see the same difference in conversations with friends, with colleagues, and I echo what you said. Everything we knew about finance seems to have gone out the window, gone out of fashion. I mean, saving money, don't spend more than you earn, invest wisely, make sure your repayments are manageable, have cash in hand for a rainy day. Now every government worldwide seems to be in a rush to see who can run the biggest deficit, who can get the biggest debt. And governments, maybe at one time, would have been common sense. It's this rush to spend much more than any other government. What are your thoughts on kind of how we have got to that state of financial madness? Well, the problem we've had is Keynesianism. That's from the 1930s, where personal savings were regarded as a bad thing. Public spending and private spending and consumption was regarded as a good thing, and debt doesn't matter. This is your Keynesian theory which has been taught now to generations of people in universities and schools and they don't teach alternatives, they don't teach Austrian school economics, they don't mention some of the great names of yesteryear like you know some of the great French economic philosophers. So they don't talk about this. Debt doesn't matter. They can print money. Of course, in 1971 when America came off the gold standard, the dollar came off the gold standard, which was the reserve currency in 1971, Nixon closed the gold window, which was the technicality of the problem. You see the spending power of the United States dollar from 1971. That 1971dollar now would buy you six cents worth of services and goods, a complete collapse of paper currency. And of course, sterling's worse, and so on and so forth. So it's the degradation of money and it's the unseen tax inflation. So who does inflation hurt? It holds people on fixed income, old-age pensioners. Mainstream society suffers from inflation, but not your public sector. For example, if you're in the public sector, and certainly if you're a pensioner, I have a small pension for the Ministry of Justice, because I worked for them for a while. I won't go into the details there. It's very small. But last year I got an 8.5 percent increase, and I'll get another 8.5 percent, so I'm protected. I live in a small village, but we have retired civil servants in the village, totally protected. Always got new cars, expensive holidays, and extensions to their cottages or houses. Money is no object to them because they're protected. But if you're on fixed income, you're stuck. And it gets back to what I say, there's this divide in society, some people who are affected by inflation and some who are not. So when you consider debt doesn't matter, and of course, to keep up, try and give a modern veneer to it, they've taken away the term Keynesianism by calling it modern monetary theory. There's nothing modern about it. And that somehow, and this is the great key, and I tried to explain this to undergraduates when I was allowed to speak at universities. And the faculties who don't understand it, believe me, the faculties at universities have absolutely no more idea about the economic supply to the moon. So they have these thoughts that debt doesn't matter, that somehow an individual like you or me or a small businessman. Debt doesn't matter. Debt matters. You can't get into debt because debt will catch up with you and your business will go out or you'll go bankrupt. They'll come and take away your furniture, etc. That's for us. Somehow a government doesn't have this problem. Apparently, governments go on spending and spending more money, and borrowing and printing more money with no great effect. It really doesn't matter. Of course, it does matter as we're beginning to see because actually now in the United States, servicing the national debt is exactly the same amount of money as their military budget, which is $1 trillion a year. They're spending $2 trillion in the United States a year, to no purpose, $2 trillion. And then mainstream media, which of course is bought and paid for by the state, the BBC in particular, if you don't pay the BBC you go to prison and that's a government-sponsored idea. Nobody challenges it. For example, you get to the chancellor of the exchequer interviewed. We now have the highest tax regime that we've had basically since the war. Nobody ever suggests, in either political party or in mainstream media, nobody ever suggests that they cut government spending. It never happens. Nobody stands on the platform of cutting government spending. So you have high-speed rail, 100 billion. You have OECD, which incidentally is unaudited, 1 billion pounds a month. Five billion pounds to the Ukraine. God alone knows where that goes. And so on and so forth. So we spend quangos, probably 600 or 700 billion pounds a year in all these things. They could halve income tax. They could standardize income tax. They could halve VAT if they stopped spending. But stopping spending doesn't happen. It doesn't occur to them to stop spending. So when they say, oh, more money for the national health, we need more money for the national health because it's crumbling and breaking down. They don't need any more money. The national health system is rolling in money. Their problem is that out of the 1.2 million employees that they have, half of those aren't medics of any sort. They're not radiographers, physiotherapists, nurses, doctors, surgeons. Goodness knows what they all do. Yes, you need some administrators, you need some sparkies, you need bits and pieces, but do you need 600,000? Procurement. Procurement. My sister used to work for the Norwich Infirmary. She said, I can buy mattresses online, exactly the same, for a third of the price that we spend on them, because nobody's in charge of procurement. Nobody cares about public money, because it's not their money. We have waste on an unprecedented scale. The concept has gone of the public purse. If you went back to before the Great War, if you were a councillor, first of all, you'd be unpaid, there'd be no expenses, and there was a very serious concern about the public purse, taken very seriously from a moral dynamic. Nobody cares about the public purse now. Nobody cares. Does debt matter? Well, yes, it does matter, and we are going to see in the next few years, we're going to see a collapse of the banking system, and we're going to see a collapse of fiat currency. It's paper. It's intrinsically worthless. Then the people who survive that will be the people who have the foresight to buy gold, gold coins.  Well, I want to finish off on gold, but let me just pick up on the move away from fiat, the restrictions on using cash, often in shops and businesses. It's coming more and more, closing of ATMs, closing of bank branches, and this move towards central bank digital currencies, this move towards a new government control. I mean, how have you viewed this? Give us a little bit more of your thoughts on where it's going. Well, the key, of course, to central bank digitalization, which we have to an extent already, of course, nobody, De La Rue do not print notes anymore. It's created electronically. And, of course, I explain this in my book. If you go in and want to borrow £60,000 for an extension, or you want to buy 20,000 pounds of gold, the bank clerk, if you're a good customer, and they know you, they will simply create that electronically by tapping it out and crediting your account. That's digital money. That's electronic money. It doesn't really exist. Of course, then you send it to somewhere else, the person who's sending you a car, so on and so forth. If you look at the international regulation Basel III, for example, and you have to keep 10% reserves. If you put your money, if you put 100,000 pounds into the bank, they only have to keep. 10,000 pounds of that back as a reserve. They can lend it on. Of course, it doesn't matter to whom they lend it. This is one of the problems that we have. It isn't good lending. It's not sound lending. For example, the Euro bond buying process, when I was there and I was trying to look at what they were actually buying, oh, well, it's Asset Bank. Sell them. No, Mr. Bloom, these are asset-backed bonds. Well, they're not. You get BMW or VW Finance, for example. What you're actually buying is a bond and the asset is an aging BMW or Volkswagen. It's not asset-backed at all. We found this out in 2007, did we not, where people thought they were buying a mortgage from a doctor in Washington with a nice big house at Springpool in Arlington. They weren't, they're buying trailer trash in South Chicago. I didn't fall for it. I was in the game at the time, but I knew what I was doing, because I'm an old man. The children that run the city and run pension funds in some of these councils, they fell for it because they simply didn't do their homework. You can't avoid homework. You have all this degradation of everything, bonds, stocks, deposits, not backed, not guaranteed. You have all these problems. The only way it can go is to destroy itself, to collapse. We saw this in 2007 and 2008, but did we change anything? We didn't change anything. Nothing changed. It's the same thing. They've just printed more and more money and borrowed and spent more and more money. Now we're in a situation where it simply must collapse. They want digital currencies so they can control it. They can program it, and for those of subscribers who aren't familiar with the concept, I'm sure they are, otherwise they wouldn't be watching this program, but let's just take it from there. It's programmable. The World Economic Forum, in line with the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of International Settlement will not want you to spend money on travel or petrol or meat. Are all these things that they think are bad under the cover of saving the planet, which of course we all know is absolute nonsense, its fake, its fake science. But they've got to frighten people to comply with it. The planet will boil if you don't do this. And of course most people don't have the benefit of traditional education. So they're being conned by people because a, they can't be bothered to do the homework, and b, they've probably in the main gone to a state school, this generation or the generation before, where they haven't really had an education at all. They're not educated at all. I mean, I speak at universities. Nice kids. Like a beer, play rugby, play cricket. I love going there. Educated? They're not educated at all. They don't even pretend to be. So these are the problems. You have an uneducated workforce. Programmable. So when you go in and it's programmable and the state can control it, the bank can control it, they will say you've had your ration of petrol this month. Just like the war, you've had your ration of meat this month. You've had your holiday, Mr. Bloom. You've had your holiday. You can't go on another holiday. Think of the planet, you nasty man. Of course, you look around and you see the King flying around in his private jet, the Royal Air, and all of them, Candy, all these people, Soros, Bill Gates...  Sadiq Khan, who's just done a transatlantic flight with his entourage to talk about climate change.  Exactly, so, everybody sees this, the question is what can you do? Now in London they reap what they sow. I have very little sympathy for Londoners. It's the second time this man's been elected. So whose fault is it? Well, did you vote against him? The answer is, you clearly didn't. That's why he's there, it's the same as Mark Drakeford, isn't it? In Wales, beautiful country, just got back there, hosted walking. I love Wales. Wales is a wonderful, wonderful country and they've got an idiot running. Well, why is he there? Who put him there? Well, the Welsh voted for him, didn't they? So it's as simple as that. And they've got a Muppet in Scotland. And who voted for him? The Scots voted for him. So stop whinging. Voting doesn't do much good, but it might because you can make more of an effort for whom you vote. And so it's programmable and we know it's going to be programmable, don't we? Because that's the whole point of it. And if you look at the World Economic Forum's spokesman on banking, they say it will be programmable. We'll know exactly how you spend it and what you can and cannot spend it on and they'll cancel it so you can't save because they are modern monetary theorists they will want for you to consume they will want you to consume so if you've got a hundred thousand pounds worth of savings or fifty thousand they say if you don't spend it by the end of the year it will disappear so that will encourage spending which they think is a good thing not saving but if you look at countries with the most successful systems over the years and over generations. It's savings. We built the biggest empire the world's ever seen and led the industrial revolution from about 1815 to 1913. The British led it, but it was based on sound money. And savings and interest rates, which outpaced inflation, although there wasn't hardly any inflation in those days. Savings made a point. Saving money made a point. There's no point in you saving money now. There's no point in you saving money in the traditional sense of saving money because you know if you were saving money for a car, which costs £30,000 today, it'll be £40,000 next year. You might as well buy it now. That, of course, degrades your entire financial system.  I want to finish off on gold. On your website, one of your tabs is gold. People can find it forward slash gold on godfreybloom.uk. It's intriguing, the more control that is being pushed upon us, the more people have talked about gold, also about crypto looking forward, but gold looking at that traditional store of wealth. Tell us why you believe that gold is an important store of wealth and why people should be taking advantage of that personally. Well, gold is a store of wealth. It's not an investment and it's not get rich quick. And as I always say to my undergraduates at universities, I always hold up a sovereign coin. The date on it is 1905. The date isn't really relevant, but it happens to be 1905. I explained that a gold sovereign in 1905 would buy you bed and breakfast in quite a good hotel in Paris, London, New York, or Berlin. It will today, because a sovereign is worth just under 400 pounds, so it will today, and it will in 100 years' time. Then we went back on to the gold standard after the Napoleonic Wars in 1860 and 1817. The Gold Sovereign became money. That was money. That was a preservation of wealth. That was a medium of exchange, which is what money is. I say, I try to explain money in the book. Most people don't know what money really is. They think they do, but they don't. Now let's just take your staple commodity in the 19th century. Let's go from 1816 or 1817 to 1913, a loaf of bread was the same price in 1817 as it was in 1913. You can't have inflation because if politicians and bankers can't print money, you can't print gold. That's the beauty of gold, but it's not an investment, it's not get-rich-quick. It's where you protect your wealth and you have to squirrel it away to protect your family because nobody can bugger it for you. They can't degrade it. Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin has some of the same attributes. It's significantly more volatile and there are all sorts of, situations where that might not do what you want it to do. But I'm not going to go down that route because there are bigger experts than me on Bitcoin, but gold, it's free of VAT. There's no capital gains tax on it because it's coin of the realm. If, let's say, for example, you are 60 years old, you're retired, you're coming up to retirement, something like that, you've worked hard all your life. Let's say you've got about £100,000 worth of saving or £50,000 worth of saving. It doesn't quite matter what it is. You don't need it at the moment. You've got a bit of a pension. You've got a bit of this, you've got a bit of that. You're perfectly okay. What you're worried about is what happens when you get to my age and you're dribbling down your cardigan and you can't recognize your in-laws and you're deaf as a post and all the rest of it, you've got all these things, then you're going to need care, you're going to need private medical care, you can't drive anymore so you're going to need a cab if you're going to go anywhere, so on and so forth. What you want with that £100,000 or £50,000 when you're 60 is the same purchasing power when you're 75. Only gold will do that for you. Only gold, and it's been proven to do that for you, for 5,000 years. If you dig up a Roman gold coin today, or a Saxon gold coin today, it'll buy you just what it bought when it was buried in the ground or sank in the boat. That's your key. And that's where gold comes in, as it has done for 5,000. There really isn't anything else, to be brutally frank. Some people argue for silver, but it's an industrial metal, some for Bitcoin if you can cope with the volatility, so on and so forth. But that's why I'm a gold bug and I've been a gold bug since Gordon Brown sold our gold at something like 270 pounds an ounce to buy Euros. He's still sometimes brought on TV as an elder statement. The man is a buffoon. He's a buffoon. It's £1,600 an ounce now. And he got rid of our reserves. That's your reserves and my reserves. And anybody watching this clip who's British. That was our gold. So, he got rid of it and, of course, now if you look across the world, BRICS nations, Russia and China, are beginning to view perhaps gold as being the medium of exchange for countries and trade. Not buying a newspaper, not buying a pound of sausages, you'll use whatever the currency of the day is for that, of course, that will continue. For us in smaller gauge, it used to be coppers, copper pennies, silver pennies, all that. Yeah, that won't change. But for big deals, for big deals, for individuals, an exchange of trade and goods, it will be done in gold because that's the way it's been done for 5,000 years and nothing's going to change that. Certainly not Muppets like Jeremy Hunt. There's no bigger Muppet than Hunt. We will end on that. Godfrey, I appreciate you coming on and people can follow you on Twitter godfreybloom.uk on the website and godfreybloom.substack.com Are those the best places to find you? Yeah, absolutely. Yes, you can find me and I just, if I may just put a word in quickly here. It is a not-for-profit website. Everything I do is not-for-profit. I do not turn a buck on anything that I do recommending. Even my books are virtually at cost because I don't need to make any money. Now another advantage perhaps of being an old knacker is that I've got nothing to spend my money on except beer at the rugby club. Well thank you, I've looked at the website and your Twitter and thoroughly enjoy them both for the information they provide. So thanks so much for coming on and sharing your thoughts on finance. Great, Peter. Thank you for inviting me.

Over 800 resistance fighters died before the Free French 2nd Armoured Division led by Captain Raymond Dronne arrived just before midnight on 24 August. On 25 August the US 4th Infantry Division entered the ...

The last 9 months has seen a vicious war of attrition unfold in towns like Ugledar, Soledar and Bakhmut. But this should not be interpreted as a stalemate, as those struggles seems to have degraded the quantity of functional Russian equipment and depleted their fighting potential. Will Ukraine's much-vaunted counter offensive finally bring an end to Russia's genocidal and pointless war? And how fragile would Russia's autocratic, vertical system be after a major battlefield defeat? Mark Hertling is a former United States Army officer, who served as the Commanding General of the United States Army Europe and the Seventh Army. Hertling served in Armor, Cavalry, planning, operations, and training positions, and commanded every organization from Platoon to Field Army. He commanded the 1st Armoured Division and Task Force Iron/Multinational Division-North in Iraq during the troop surge of 2007 to 2008. ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ LINKS: https://twitter.com/MarkHertling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hertling https://edition.cnn.com/profiles/mark-hertling-profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-hertling-dba-57987066/ https://www.ausa.org/people/lieutenant-general-retired-mark-hertling ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~

 In this episode, we sit down with Jaycob Underwood, Army combat medic and current recruiter.Jaycob shares his military journey, from his first duty station in Schofield Barracks, HI, to his deployment in Afghanistan with the 1st Armoured Division. He also talks about his experiences as an instructor at Fort Hood Air Assault School and his work on a COVID mission in New York City.During the conversation, Jaycob opens up about his personal struggles with mental health and the importance of seeking therapy. He also touches on the topic of lying and how it can affect personal and professional relationships.The conversation takes a lighter turn as Jaycob talks about his love for fitness and how he incorporates it into his daily routine. He also shares some personal stories from his time in the military, including a memorable encounter with a wild animal during a training exercise.So sit back, relax, and join us for this insightful and entertaining conversation with Jaycob Underwood.   This Episode was Sponsored by:Are you facing challenges in your life? Look no further than MJwest Solutions. Our founder and CEO, MJ West, has turned life's toughest challenges into strengths. After being adopted at a young age and facing personal struggles, MJ went on to have a successful 23-year career in the Army, earning numerous awards and accolades. At MJwest Solutions, we believe that challenges can be turned into strengths, and we're here to help you do just that. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you transform your life. Visit us at https://mjwest.solutions/. Are you tired of drinkware that can't keep up with your smooth moves? Upgrade to Smooth Boar Drinkware. Our mission is to provide the smoothest drinking experience possible, using only the highest quality materials and cutting-edge technology. Our drinkware is designed to enhance the flavor and provide maximum durability, so you can enjoy your favorite beverages with ease. We stand behind our products and are committed to delivering exceptional customer service. Upgrade your drinking game with Smooth Boar Drinkware and experience the smoothest, most durable drinkware on the market. Order now at https://smoothboardrinkware.com/.  Support the show

Photo: Soviet tankmen of the 6th Armoured Division drive through the streets of Tebriz, 1941 @Batchelorshow #Londinium90AD: The might of Rome contrasted with the pleadings of the US.  Michael Vlahos. #FriendsofHistoryDebatingSociety https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-to-talk-with-putin-as-u-s-warns-of-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-11644659540?mod=hp_lead_pos1

Frank Baldwin was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1979 and served for ten years, rising to the rank of Major. The first battlefield study he planned was in 1989 for HQ 4th Armoured Division. Since then, he has been a guide or historian for over 200 realities of war tours, battlefield studies and staff rides. Frank reels off lots of great anecdotes as he takes us through the initial years of the BAOR and the British Army's plans for the defence of West Germany. He talks about the evolution of doctrines, on both the Soviet and NATO sides including their nuclear war-fighting techniques.Frank also describes working with Warsaw Pact observers of NATO military exercises and the British view of the effectiveness of other NATO armies as well as the armies of the Warsaw Pact.Maps and material to accompany this episode are here https://www.staffrideservices.com/?p=461Now if you are enjoying these podcasts I'm asking for you to support my work with a small monthly donation. Your donations enable me to continue to capture these incredible stories and make them available for free to others. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ for more details.Do join our Facebook discussion group where the cold war conversation continues between episodes. Just search Cold War Conversations on Facebook.I am delighted to welcome Frank Baldwin to our Cold War conversation…Battlefield tour websiteStory of a BAOR Cold war tourMaps and material on BAOR and the Cold war. Cold war background materialFrank Baldwin's blog The Observation PostThank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated.Ever wanted to ask a nuclear missile submarine commander some questions? This Sunday 13th February at 8 pm GMT I'm speaking live on YouTube with Rob Forsyth a former Commander of HMS Repulse. Viewers will be able to ask questions online in this unique interactive interview. Set a reminder or view the interview here https://youtu.be/01YkC5ha58o Have a look at our store and find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your life? Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/Support the show (https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/)

On this day thirty years ago a ceasefire was declared bringing ground operations in the first Gulf War to an end. An overwhelmingly powerful coalition force had stormed across the desert driving Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait and concluding the ground campaign after only 100 hours of fighting. To commemorate this anniversary I am joined on the podcast by General Sir Rupert Smith who commanded the UK 1st Armoured Division during the conflict. We talk about his role during the war, the challenges of command and what we should understand about the changing nature of combat in the modern world.General Sir Rupert Smith joined the army in the 1960s and served on deployments across the world including Africa, Arabia, the Caribbean, Europe, Malaysia and Northern Ireland where he was decorated for gallantry. In October 1990 he was promoted to Major-General and assumed commanded of the 1st Armoured Division as it was being deployed to the Gulf in anticipation of the war. This was the largest British armoured force deployed in action since the Second World War. After the Gulf War Sir Rupert went on to serve with distinction in Bosnia and wrote a book called The Utility of Force which remains essential reading in military circles. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day thirty years ago a ceasefire was declared bringing ground operations in the first Gulf War to an end. An overwhelmingly powerful coalition force had stormed across the desert driving Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait and concluding the ground campaign after only 100 hours of fighting. To commemorate this anniversary I am joined on the podcast by General Sir Rupert Smith who commanded the UK 1st Armoured Division during the conflict. We talk about his role during the war, the challenges of command and what we should understand about the changing nature of combat in the modern world.General Sir Rupert Smith joined the army in the 1960s and served on deployments across the world including Africa, Arabia, the Caribbean, Europe, Malaysia and Northern Ireland where he was decorated for gallantry. In October 1990 he was promoted to Major-General and assumed commanded of the 1st Armoured Division as it was being deployed to the Gulf in anticipation of the war. This was the largest British armoured force deployed in action since the Second World War. After the Gulf War Sir Rupert went on to serve with distinction in Bosnia and wrote a book called The Utility of Force which remains essential reading in military circles. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Cyril joins the British Liberation Army as a Corporal, beginning the trek from Normandy across Belgium and Holland en route to Germany. The pace of his unit means that his letters become less frequent as he moves from “C” Squadron, 42nd Royal Tank Regiment of the 11th Armoured Division, 23rd Hussars to the newly formed “A” squadron. Leave a review to Letters of Love in WW2 on your favourite podcast app or get in touch on social media using #LettersOfLoveInWW2.Sponsored by Ancestry, Sky HISTORY's Letters of Love in WW2 is written and produced by Anna Priestland, edited by Joel Porter and produced and directed by Sam Pearson. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode we’re going to be looking at the Free French and the Division Leclerc, commanded by Philippe de Hauteclocque. Raised in the French Colonies of Africa, they fought with distinction in the deserts of Libya and with the British 8th Army. They also took part in the fighting in North West Europe after D-Day, being one of the units that liberated Paris in 1944. This is not just a story of a unit, but is very much the story of the growth of the Free French. For this episode I’m joined by M.P. Robinson. Robinson is author of a number of book, the latest published by Osprey being‘Division Leclerc: The Leclerc Column and Free French 2nd Armoured Division, 1940-46’

The 9th Armoured Brigade, part of Germany’s 1st Armoured Division, under the operational control of 1 German-Netherlands Corps, use M3 amphibious rigs to transport armoured vehicles across the Weser River near Eystrup, Germany. Germany will lead NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) in 2019, and will be responsible for its quick deployment anywhere that NATO may need it. This exercise was a warm-up for that role. The VJTF is NATO’s quick reaction force, made up of over 5,000 troops ready to move within two to five days. The ability to move forces and equipment across borders is a big priority for NATO. The Alliance works on this with its members, as well as with the European Union. Footage includes various shots of the equipment and process used to cross the river.

The story of Brian Asquith, who was a Rifleman in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps and was captured at Dunkirk in 1940, WWII. A dangerous but heart-warming adventure in war-time Poland. Learn how the Polish people and the human race come out on top despite deadly dealings by the Nazis. "Suddenly through the haze we saw a flight of 20 large planes in arrow formation at about 10,000 feet. As they came nearer we realised they were American Fortresses". "We found a courtyard with steps leading to a cellar and decided this would be our hiding place, but we’d only been there for about half an hour when we heard footsteps in the yard and heard a loud voice say 'Englander, Aus'." More great unpublished history - of the Second World War. Links - Not supported by all podcast players: Facebook page Link to feedback/reviews at Apple Podcasts - Thank you. Full show notes and photos at www.FightingThroughPodcast.co.uk Please note that photos below may or may not display depending on which listening platform you’re using.   Brian Asquith, author of POW memoir Long Time No WC.   This 13 yr old German boy was one of 60 members of the Hitler Youth captured by the 14th Armoured Division, 3rd US Army, in the vicinity of Martinszell-Waltenhofen, Germany on April 29, 1945. The group of youngsters ranged in age from 13-17 yrs old. US Army Signal Corps photo - PFC Joseph W. Lapine Colourised by: Colour by RJM  Best podcast for World War 2 history and the second world war

Sam and Barry dig deep into the story of how Anglo-Canadian forces enacted the breakout from the eastern end of the Normandy beachhead. We discuss important units involved in the conflict, such as the 7th Armoured Division, 21st Panzer and the 12th SS Hitlerjugend, as well as focusing in detail on a number of important … Continue reading Episode 43 – Normandy: The Battle for Caen →

The 12th Armoured Division set off from New York for the European theatre of war on September 20th 1944. They would spend November and December surging across northern France encountering the enemy in Alsace and at the Maginot Line, liberating parts of France as they went. They were one of only two US Armoured Divisions to have african american combat companies integrated into the division. They adopted the nickname "Hellcats" symbolising their toughness and readiness for combat. They would meet their toughest opposition against German Forces at Herrlisheim - part of Hitler's Operation North wind.  Dur: 20mins  File: .mp3

In March of 1943 the 79th Armoured Division was due to be disbanded. A manpower shortage called for the bulk of the force to be redeployed, to make up shortfalls in other units. But the disastrous raid on Dieppe the previous year had proved that any invasion of mainland Europe would need to be supported by Armour, and this would need to be modified for an amphibious assault. So it was that Alan Brooke (Chief of the Imperial General Staff), had his "happy brainwave" and asked Major General Percy Hobart if he would oversee the conversion of the unit to a Specialised armoured unit, concentrating on developing vehicles that could overcome the German Defences. The strange vehicles that were developed and operated became known as "Hobart's Funnies". Dur: 19mins File: .mp3

D-Day the invasion of Europe was to take place at low tide, this minimised the risk of landing craft hitting mines and other submerged obstacles. But this created problems for the troops being landed. It was going to be a long dash over a sandy beach which may have been mined, supporting vehicles could quickly become bogged down in the soft sand then once over the beach the man-made defences had to be breached. To achieve this the 79th Armoured Division was formed, commanded by the maverick, Major General Percy Hobart, he oversaw the development of a number of unusually modified tanks to overcome problems the invaders would face, these would become known as “Hobart's Funnies”. Dur: 23mins File: .mp3