Podcasts about christmas day

holiday originating in Christianity, usually celebrated on December 25 (in the Gregorian or Julian calendars)

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    Irish and Celtic Music Podcast
    Ireland's Struggle #697

    Irish and Celtic Music Podcast

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2025 66:45


    Ireland's struggle for freedom on the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast #697 . Subscribe now! Sorcha, Mac and Cheese, Socks in the Frying Pan, David Mitchell, Kyle Carey, Celtic Conundrum, Katie Jane Band, Charlie O'Brien, Joseph Carmichael, Ryan Dunne, Juha  Rossi, Blackwillow Starling, Drumspyder, Hounds of Finn, Santiago Molina GET CELTIC MUSIC NEWS IN YOUR INBOX The Celtic Music Magazine is a quick and easy way to plug yourself into more great Celtic culture. Enjoy seven weekly news items for Celtic music and culture online. Subscribe now and get 34 Celtic MP3s for Free. VOTE IN THE CELTIC TOP 20 FOR 2025 This is our way of finding the best songs and artists each year. You can vote for as many songs and tunes that inspire you in each episode. Your vote helps me create this year's Best Celtic music of 2025 episode. You have just three weeks to vote this year. Vote Now! You can follow our playlist on YouTube to listen to those top voted tracks as they are added every 2 - 3 weeks. THIS WEEK IN CELTIC MUSIC 0:06 - Sorcha "LUX" from Storm the Gate / Lux 3:15 - WELCOME 4:43 - Mac and Cheese "Whiskey Before Breakfast" from Big Fun 7:25 - Socks in the Frying Pan "Ireland's Struggle" from Waiting for Inspiration 11:47 - David Mitchell "Ward's Brae, Holmes' Fancy" from Contours 14:53 - Kyle Carey "Nach Muladach, Muladach Duine Leis Fhèin" from The Last Bough 17:51 - FEEDBACK 21:46 - Marc Gunn “Lord of the Pounce” from Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers 26:06 - Celtic Conundrum "Bean Nighe (Washer Woman)" from Lore 29:52 - Katie Jane Band "Highlands of Scotland / Jenny Dang the Weaver" from Wild One 33:09 - Charlie O'Brien "Donovan's Mount" from The Trackless Wild, Irish Song of the Pampa 36:05 - Joseph Carmichael "The Ghosts of Hilbert's Hotel" from Single 39:03 - Ryan Dunne "Marie's Wedding" from One Day By Your Side 44:31 - THANKS 47:50 - Juha Rossi "Mr O'Connor" from O'Carolan Tunes on Mandolin 50:24 - Blackwillow Starling "Matty Groves" from Blackwillow Starling 54:43 - Drumspyder "Strathspey Drummers" from Oak and Ash 58:48 - Hounds of Finn "Gravity Pulls" from Gravity Pulls 1:02:11 - CLOSING 1:03:25 - Santiago Molina "Pasodoble de Catoira" from single 1:05:59 - CREDITS The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast was produced by Marc Gunn, The Celtfather and our Patrons on Patreon. The show was edited by Mitchell Petersen with Graphics by Miranda Nelson Designs. Visit our website to follow the show. You'll find links to all of the artists played in this episode. Todd Wiley is the editor of the Celtic Music Magazine. Subscribe to get 34 Celtic MP3s for Free. Plus, you'll get 7 weekly news items about what's happening with Celtic music and culture online. Best of all, you will connect with your Celtic heritage. Please tell one friend about this podcast. Word of mouth is the absolute best way to support any creative endeavor. Finally, remember. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and talk with others about climate change. What are you doing to combat climate change? Start a discussion with someone today. Promote Celtic culture through music at http://celticmusicpodcast.com/. WELCOME THE IRISH & CELTIC MUSIC PODCAST * Helping you celebrate Celtic culture through music. I am Marc Gunn. I'm a Celtic musician and host of Folk Songs & Stories. This podcast is for fans of Celtic music. We are here to build a diverse Celtic community and help the incredible artists who so generously share their music with you. If you hear music you love, please email artists to let them know you heard them on the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast. Musicians depend on your generosity to release new music. So please find a way to support them. Buy a CD, Album Pin, Shirt, Digital Download, or join their community on Patreon. You can find a link to all of the artists in the shownotes, along with show times, when you visit our website at celticmusicpodcast.com. Email follow@bestcelticmusic to learn how to subscribe to the podcast and you will get a free music - only episode. If you are a Celtic musician and want your music featured on the show, please submit your band to be played on the podcast. You don't have to send in music or an EPK, and You will get a free eBook called Celtic Musicians Guide to Digital Music. It's 100% free. Just email follow@bestcelticmusic THANK YOU PATRONS OF THE PODCAST! I am in awe of your generosity. You are the heartbeat of this podcast—the reason I bring you fresh, captivating episodes every single week. And you make it all possible. Your support isn't just appreciated—it fuels everything. It covers our brilliant engineer, the talented graphic designer, the dedicated Celtic Music Magazine editor, and the promotion that helps this music reach more ears. Your kindness lets me buy the music you love, and it gives me the time to craft each episode just for you. And as a patron, you don't just support the show—you step into the heart of the music. You get exclusive, ad - free, music - only episodes before anyone else. You shape the Celtic Top 20 with your votes. You unlock free music downloads, sheet music, and your own private feed to listen your way—whether through Patreon or your favorite podcast app. All of this, for as little as $3 a month. Three dollars. That's less than a cup of coffee, yet it keeps the music alive. It keeps this community thriving. And it keeps you at the center of it all. Join us today. Let's make this music last forever. A special thanks to our new and continued Patrons of the Podcast: Richard, Kavan Kucko HERE IS YOUR THREE STEP PLAN TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST Go to our Patreon page. Decide how much you want to pledge every month, $3, $12, $25. Keep listening to the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast to celebrate Celtic culture through music. You can become a generous Patron of the Podcast on Patreon at SongHenge.com. TRAVEL WITH CELTIC INVASION VACATIONS Imagine stepping into a land where time slows down, where the whispers of ancient legends dance on the breeze, and every corner holds a story waiting to be discovered. This is Wexford, Ireland, your gateway to an unforgettable Celtic adventure in 2025. With Celtic Invasion Vacations, you won't rush from site to site like a typical tourist. Instead, you'll immerse yourself in the soul of Ireland, experiencing its music, history, and breathtaking landscapes like a true traveler. Why Wexford? Because it's where the past and present blend in a symphony of hauntingly beautiful coastlines, medieval castles, and hidden gems untouched by time. It's where you'll hear the melodies of Celtic legends come to life, taste the rich flavors of Irish culture, and feel the magic of a land that has enchanted hearts for centuries. Join a select group of like - minded explorers as we venture deep into Wexford's folklore, traditions, and music. Can't travel with us? You can still follow the journey through exclusive podcasts and videos, letting your senses drink in the magic from wherever you are. But don't wait. Spots are limited, and Wexford is calling. Will you answer? Learn more about the invasion at http://celticinvasion.com/ #celticmusic #irishmusic #celticmusicpodcast I WANT YOUR FEEDBACK What are you doing today while listening to the podcast? I'd love to see a  picture of what you're doing while listening. Is there a new Celtic CD or Celtic band that you heard of or saw? Send a picture. Email me at follow@bestcelticmusic. Davida emailed about Patreon: "Hi Marc, I have been a listener of your show for several years and really love it! You do such a fantastic job of bringing us varied and beautiful music, I can't thank you enough. I listen to it while I'm knitting old and new Scottish patterns. I don't think that I have any Irish or Celtic ancestry, but I've felt the music since I was a little girl. I have been supporting you on Patreon, but I just received a notice that they are changing the monthly donation to only one dollar. I remember hearing you say that donations could be made a different way and it would be more beneficial for you, so can you let me know how that would be? It doesn't make sense to me to give you less money! Thank you so much and again please know that you do a fantastic job." Sean Malloy of Band o'Brothers emailed photos from the studio: "Merry Christmas Marc!  And thanks so much for including "Christmas Time Again" in Episode #690, "Light a Candle in the Window." We're honored to have our music played alongside all the wonderful musicians on your podcast. When I saw the title of this week's podcast I thought perhaps you had included our song "On Christmas Day," which begins with the line "We light a candle in the window for weary travelers to find their way."  But I was pleasantly surprised to hear that you also have a tune featuring the Irish Christmas image of a candle in the window.  I find it to be such a lovely symbol of hope, hospitality, and mindfulness of people who are not with us but hold important places in our hearts. We've been spending some time at Bonehead Studio in our hometown of Cheshire, CT lately (pictures attached) and we hope to have our new album ready by February  -  so new music in time for St. Patrick's Day.  You'll be among the first to know when we release it. Thanks again and Merry Christmas," David Tustin had a song request: "Marc, You asked an interesting question. Don was a God loving person, loved his family and encouraged cat and dog rescues. He also enjoyed Scotch Whisky! The best song could be one of your cat drinking songs or maybe you know of something better for your podcast. Taing mhòr!

    Christmas Podding
    Christmas Podding - We reveal the world's favourite holiday. Christmas, Thanksgiving or Valentines Day?

    Christmas Podding

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2025 36:29


    Coming up today on Christmas Podding we ask the question what is the world's favourite holiday. Christmas Day, Thanksgiving or Valentines Day? You may be shocked by the answer. Who ruined Christmas? We have the best of the worst ways Christmas was ruined last year. Sometimes its the smallest thing that makes the biggest mishaps. Plus The celebs who absolutely loathe Christmas. You'll never guess whose been put on this years naughty list, we reveal all. With your hosts Liam Renton and Ness Gibson as we talk Christmas all year round on Christmas Podding.

    End Time Headlines
    The Clock Is Ticking! Imminent Eruption In Santorini

    End Time Headlines

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 12, 2025 41:01


    In tonight’s podcast, we discuss how thousands of residents on the popular island of Santorini have experienced over 8,000 recent earthquakes, and researchers have revealed a new magma chamber growing underneath the Kolumbo volcano. We then discuss a recent discovery of an asteroid with an increased risk of striking the Earth near Christmas Day in […]

    Le Batard & Friends Network
    NPDS - Luka makes his Lakers debut as Mavericks continue dealing with fallout! Alex Rodriguez finally gets his team! Where will Bregman go? (Episode 1217)

    Le Batard & Friends Network

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 11, 2025 53:43


    Today's word of the day is '77' as Luka Doncic as in Lakers as in LeBron James as in Hollywood. Luka Doncic made his debut. He said he was excited. Said he was nervous. He hadn't played since Christmas Day. Now we see where the Lakers go. (12:20) We're bringing back Patrick Dumont. The Mavericks owner was at the Mavs game yesterday and that team still can't help itself. A fan was kicked out for saying Fire Nico on the video board. Woof. (18:55) The Timberwolves look like they'll have a new owner. A saga that started back in 2021 could be wrapped up now. Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez in. Glen Taylor out. (34:45) Review: Avicii - I'm Tim. (39:00) Alex Bregman is still not signed. Is he going back to the Astros? Is he getting 6 years? (45:30) NPPOD. (48:30) We have another A's in Vegas update. This time it's about parking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Nothing Personal with David Samson
    Luka makes his Lakers debut as Mavericks continue dealing with fallout! Alex Rodriguez finally gets his team! Where will Bregman go? (Episode 1217)

    Nothing Personal with David Samson

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 11, 2025 53:43


    Today's word of the day is '77' as Luka Doncic as in Lakers as in LeBron James as in Hollywood. Luka Doncic made his debut. He said he was excited. Said he was nervous. He hadn't played since Christmas Day. Now we see where the Lakers go. (12:20) We're bringing back Patrick Dumont. The Mavericks owner was at the Mavs game yesterday and that team still can't help itself. A fan was kicked out for saying Fire Nico on the video board. Woof. (18:55) The Timberwolves look like they'll have a new owner. A saga that started back in 2021 could be wrapped up now. Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez in. Glen Taylor out. (34:45) Review: Avicii - I'm Tim. (39:00) Alex Bregman is still not signed. Is he going back to the Astros? Is he getting 6 years? (45:30) NPPOD. (48:30) We have another A's in Vegas update. This time it's about parking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    BrainDrain Skateboarding show with Toby Batchelor and Forde Brookfield
    Matthew "Dykie" Ryan's Crayon Skateboards, East Skateboards and Marathons | Brain Drain Show #49

    BrainDrain Skateboarding show with Toby Batchelor and Forde Brookfield

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2025 128:56


    St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Christian Church Lexington, Ma Podcast
    Explaining the Icon of the Presentation of our Lord - Youth Sermon 2/2/25

    St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Christian Church Lexington, Ma Podcast

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 5, 2025 10:40


    Today Feb 2 we celebrate the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple, yes 40 days ago was Christmas Day!  What do we see in Icon of the Feast?  Have we really looked at it?  Who is depicted in it?Listen...

    Wilson County News
    Missing: Patty Vaughan, Pauline Diaz

    Wilson County News

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 4, 2025 5:06


    It's now been 28 years since Patty Vaughan went missing from her Adkins home. And it's been 14 years since Pauline Diaz, who lived north of Floresville, disappeared. Despite law-enforcement agencies following up on leads and searches of properties after receiving tips, neither Wilson County woman has been found. Patty Vaughan Vaughan, 32, was reported missing Dec. 26, 1996, after she failed to drop off her children with a family member and didn't report for work at Quinney Electric. Her husband, Jerry Ray “J.R.,” reported that he and Patty had a heated argument on Christmas Day, and she had left...Article Link

    Wilson County News
    Missing: Patty Vaughan, Pauline Diaz

    Wilson County News

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 4, 2025 5:06


    It's now been 28 years since Patty Vaughan went missing from her Adkins home. And it's been 14 years since Pauline Diaz, who lived north of Floresville, disappeared. Despite law-enforcement agencies following up on leads and searches of properties after receiving tips, neither Wilson County woman has been found. Patty Vaughan Vaughan, 32, was reported missing Dec. 26, 1996, after she failed to drop off her children with a family member and didn't report for work at Quinney Electric. Her husband, Jerry Ray “J.R.,” reported that he and Patty had a heated argument on Christmas Day, and she had left...Article Link

    The Miracle Files
    Car on Fire: Thirty Seconds to Save a Life - Ep.19

    The Miracle Files

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 3, 2025 24:01


    What started as a father-son deer hunt on Christmas Day 2021 took a shocking turn in the Tennessee wilderness. Tim and Brandon Keller's lives changed forever as they rounded a corner and came face to face with a burning, overturned car on the side of the road. As smoke billowed from the vehicle, the Kellers knew they had to act quickly to save the life of the man inside. In another gripping episode of the Miracle Files, hosts Holly and Emily break down every aspect of this amazing story of courage, quick thinking, and God's grace. This episode is LOADED with chilling 9-11 calls, heart-warming testimonials, and powerful "on the ground" footage from the accident scene.Tim and Brandon Keller's decisive action changed the lives of one family forever and we hope that their story will inspire you to praise God for his mercy and glorify Him with your life.

    Obsessed With Death
    The Final Word - Episode 14

    Obsessed With Death

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 3, 2025 43:15


    In this episode, Rob and Greg dive into the importance of making that yearly check-up with your doctor a non-negotiable part of your routine and explore the idea of having open text communication with your doctor—should it really be that accessible? They also uncover a startling and often overlooked trend: death rates spike on Christmas Day, the day after Christmas, and New Year's Day, a phenomenon that still leaves scientists puzzled.

    THE SHY LIFE PODCAST
    THE SHY LIFE PODCAST - 751: SHY YETI'S CHRISTMAS WISH FOR GOOD NEWS!

    THE SHY LIFE PODCAST

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2025 128:54


    Here we are for episode 751! It is Christmas Day and Paul, Cromitty and Yeti John hope for some good news from the hospital concerning Martin; but what will Reginald and Tallulah have to say about his condition? We also have some extra material with Calum W and Harry F.  In our next show - #752 we take time to look back over the episodes of the show that were released during 2024. Do join us! Email us at shyyeti@yahoo.co.uk if you have any comments - you can even send me a sound-file and I'll include it. The music is by Shy Yeti, Muffleyontour, Udio and Luca. Sound effects by Paul C and Soundbible. Logo by Owen O and Shy Yeti. All other content of this episode is Copyright Paul Chandler, 2024. Episode 751 was recorded between the 22nd and the 28th December 2024.

    The Christ Church, Waco Podcast
    Christmas Day, December 25th, 2024

    The Christ Church, Waco Podcast

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2025 10:49


    Christmas Day, December 25th, 2024 by Sermons and Catechesis from Christ Church, Waco

    ExplicitNovels
    Jenna Goes To Church: Part 2

    ExplicitNovels

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 30, 2025


    The Curate loses his virginity.A series in 17 parts, By Blacksheep. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. At this Sunday's service, there was much talk of the upcoming harvest festival. Members of the congregation were encouraged to donate fruit and vegetables, along with non-perishable items for the local food bank.Jenna had made an effort and brought along a bag of apples. She placed the bag on the side table in the church hall."I don't know how a brazen hussy like you has the cheek to set foot in a church."Jenna remained calm, as she turned to face Mrs. Norris. "Well I'm a Christian, the same as you.""Huh! Christian my foot. I saw what you and the organist were getting up to and I think it's disgusting! In the church of all places! And he's old enough to be your father!""Well if you clutch those pearls of yours any tighter they'll crumble to dust. And Gordon and I happen to be consenting adults. Single consenting adults. So there.""Why you, you, .horrid little slag!" Mrs. Norris fumed, lip quivering. She stormed off.Jenna exhaled and rolled her eyes."Coffee or tea?" a friendlier voice asked. It was Debbie, the Sunday school teacher, who was volunteering to do today's hot drinks rota in the hall."Tea please," Jenna replied."You ok?""Yeah. I don't think I'll be on her Christmas card list.""Don't let that old bag get to you. She's a nasty one. She's horribly ageist. Not to mention xenophobic too. I overheard her mocking Yulia's English skills last week. I can't stand her. Her husband's not that bad, he's a tedious fusspot, but there's no malice in him. But her, she's poison.""I heard her hubby spreads gossip on Facebook." Jenna said."More likely that's her doing." Debbie replied. "I'd be surprised if John Norris even knows how to switch on a laptop."A brief chill ran through Jenna. What if Mrs. Norris were to post some bile about her online? "I don't use social media anymore," she said. "Briefly poked my nose into Twitter as a teen, but didn't like the pile-ons.""Wise. I'm on Facebook, but only to keep up with church stuff. I never post anything about my private life. I imagine Mrs. Norris would have a stroke if she knew I was dating a woman. A married woman at that. Keep it to yourself. I'm not ready to come out yet.""Don't worry, I won't say a word."Jenna sipped her tea quietly as she observed the other members of the congregation file into the hall. She was hoping Reverend Morris would soon arrive, but after fifteen minutes, there was still no sign of him. Then there was Gordon; he never came into the hall after a service, and he'd sent her that amusing text message on Friday, about Charles Wesley and his "bulging hymn book."She headed out of the hall, in search of Gordon, when Josh the curate came staggering in, carrying a massive pile of hymn books. He almost collided with Jenna and dropped a couple of books."Oh! I'm so sorry!" Josh stammered. "How clumsy of me."Jenna bent down and picked up the books. "You're loaded up like a pack horse. Let me give you a hand. Where are you taking all these?""Um. So kind!" His pale cheeks went pink. "The storeroom at the far end of the hall. These are spare hymn books.""Ok. Lead the way. By the way, you haven't seen the vicar have you?"""Oh, he and the organist are in a meeting. One of the organ pipes has just been repaired.""Damn," Jenna muttered under her breath. "Oh dear. How sad. I guess he'll miss his tea and biscuits."She followed Josh down to the storeroom. She'd never paid much attention to the curate before, but looking at him now, she realized that he was rather cute. Mid-twenties, tall and stocky with fair hair and a chubby face. There was an endearing innocence about him. Reverend Morris had said he was hoping to complete his ordination next year and become a fully-fledged vicar. He'd been impressed by his devotion to the church - but he needed to come out of his shell a bit and interact more with worshippers. Josh was a shy man and lacking in self-confidence. Remembering this information made Jenna smile.I think this innocent curate needs some other kind of help,The storeroom was vast, and crammed from floor to ceiling with box files, books, old furniture and plastic crates."Holy sh,, I didn't know this room existed. And what a lot of stuff for one small church!" Jenna exclaimed."Heh, yeah." Josh said, putting the books down. "It's not just for St Michael's. We share it with St John's and the Methodist church on Oakwood Road."Jenna began putting the books on the shelf."Um you don't need to do that,”"Jenna."Josh blushed again. "Jenna. It's kind of you to do that but,”"Oh I don't mind. Why should you have to do all the donkey work? This room is a tip. Besides, a good Christian should help others, right? Especially the vicar's right-hand man. That's what a curate is, yes?"Josh relaxed a bit. "Pretty much, yeah. Like Batman and Robin.""Have you always wanted to be a curate?"Josh sat down on a stool. "In truth, no way. I wasn't religious at all when I was a kid. I suffered from crippling shyness. I used to dread being asked to read in front of the class. When I was ten, my dad walked out, and that affected me a lot. Haven't seen him since. Mum turned to drink, I relied on my grandad for support. He became a father figure to me. He used to be a vicar. Thanks to him I survived my teens and passed my exams. I was eighteen when he died. That's when I decided I wanted to follow in his footsteps. Without him - and God, I fear, well I may have gone down a dark path. Got in with a bad crowd. Taken drugs, self-harmed, maybe ended up in jail.""Wow." Jenna replied, realizing how cosseted and safe her upbringing had been. "Well I'm so glad your grandad was there for you.""There are still days when I doubt myself and I'm in a bad place. I feel useless.""Don't put yourself down," Jenna said, walking towards him. "You're an amazing role model, especially for younger people."Josh blinked. "You, think so?""I do. Plus, you're really cute. Has a girl ever told you that before?"Josh blushed. "Err, no-one except my Nan. I don't think she counts.""Women round here must be blind," Jenna added, making him squirm with embarrassment. She leant forward and planted a kiss on his lips. He trembled, cheeks turning redder."J-Jenna, don't,”"It's alright Josh. You're not committing a sin or anything. We're not inside the church, if that's you're worried about.""N-no, it's not that. I, um,” The curate sighed. "I, I'm just scared of, I don't know if I can, do this."She already knew he was single and straight, but decided to question him. "Do you have a girlfriend?""No, but, um, that's the problem really. I'd like one, but I wouldn't know how to tell her,”Jenna stroked his arm. "Tell her what?""I worry she'd laugh at me.""Josh. Whatever it is, I promise I would never laugh at you. And I will understand."He looked down. "Shit. I'm twenty-five. And I'm still a virgin! I've never gone beyond kissing a girl."She kissed his cheek again. "Oh Josh. That's nothing to feel awkward about. In fact I admire you. In this age when we're bombarded with over-sexualized imagery 24/7 both online and offline, finding someone who's chosen to wait is pretty awesome in my opinion. I lost mine just days after reaching the age of consent. I couldn't wait to lose it. But that's just me,”"Yeah but, I, um,”She pulled him to his feet and gently coaxed the truth out of him. "You want to lose your virginity, yes?""More than anything. But, dating today is scary. It's a minefield. Especially after Me Too. I'm afraid. I don't want to say the wrong thing and come across as some horny creep,”Jenna held back a chuckle. Mrs. Norris probably thinks of me as a horny creep. She thought."I get that. But trust me. I don't think a sweet, kind-hearted man of God like you could ever be a creep. Horny yes, nothing wrong with that of course." She winked at him and he gulped. "How about it? I think you're ready right now."His eyes widened. "W-what? Here?""Why not? It's nice and private, And you're a really sexy curate!" Her face was just inches from his own, hovering there. Then her lips were on his, dancing there softly for a moment before pulling away."Jenna,” He was already rock hard, and hoped his cassock had disguised this fact."Shush. You're very special." She whispered, barely audible. "You're warm, caring, You're strong. You deserve to be experience the joys of the flesh." She kissed him again. It's okay to feel nervous. First time is always a bit nerve-racking. But just relax. You'll be just fine,”What an adorable lamb to the slaughter, Jenna thought to herself. He's so scared and unsure. I've never seduced a virgin before, so I'd better not go too hard on him. I do love a challenge. With a bit of encouragement, this sweet guy could have real potential.The touch of her lips sent a fire through his body, a jolt that brought a tingle to every micron of his skin. "Oh, Jenna!""Shhh." Her lips caressed his own, then his nose, his ear. "Don't talk just now, okay?""Mmm?"She kissed him again, gently caressing his upper lip between her own. At last, he responded."Josh." Jenna smiled cheekily. "You're a pretty good kisser, you know that?""Really?"Just relax. I'm not going anywhere, there's no rush. All we have to do is discover each other. There's no hurry. No-one's going to come in here. I imagine the vicar will be busy for ages."Jenna ran her hand down the front of his black cassock. "Oh my, you're more than ready. "Let's get these buttons unfastened." She knelt before him, opening the cassock and revealing the black trousers underneath. And another straining crotch bulge."I'm going to worship you," she whispered, unbuckling his belt and unzipping his trousers. Josh was wearing plain black briefs underneath. It was fun seeing the different types of undies men wore. First there was Reverend Morris with his "holy boxers," then Gordon and his sensible white y-fronts, now Josh with smart black tight-fitting briefs."Everything will be fine. I promise. Close your eyes if it makes you feel better, okay?"The curate hesitated still, but Jenna's smile was reassuring and gentle. "I promise you'll like it." With a shudder, Josh squeezed his eyes tight as his trousers and underwear were lowered, and he could feel the cool air of the room, then Jenna's warm breath on his manhood."There we are."He couldn't resist a peek, through half-closed eyes. He was painfully stiff, of course, harder than he'd ever been in his life, but he didn't need his eyes to tell him that. He shivered as Jenna ran her hand through his pubes and stooped to kiss him there. He gasped as her smooth palm encircled him."Oh my God!""Mmm. So beautiful. Truly God's gift to women. Just relax, don't fight the feeling. Isn't it nice?" Jenna kissed the very tip of his member, and he gasped and moaned, his muscles tensing. "Don't fight it now Josh, just let the feelings come. Relax and let it take you. You don't have to hold it back, just let it come." With that, she closed her lips around his head, tasted him with her tongue."Uh! Oh Jesus!" The curate groaned. The crescendo was boiling in him now, wonderful and frightening and exhilarating. Nothing could have prepared him for the warm embrace of a woman's mouth, the slight roughness of her tongue as she rolled it up and down his length. No porn, no fantasy could have approached the sensation of her lips gently drawing on his cock, coaxing him towards a peak of indescribable pleasure. The fire was in him and around him, consuming him and his thoughts until all that he was became the connection with her, his flesh and her mouth. Her hands cradled his cock gently as he built towards climax, his breathing becoming rapid and shallow."Oh,”"Let it come."Josh sighed deeply in relief as Jenna enveloped him again, shuddered as he felt himself swell between her lips, as he released himself to her, surrendered to her, spurting his cum. She lingered over his manhood, slowly coaxing him down from the heights of his ecstasy. She gently licked his shaft and kissed a drop of his essence from the tip, and smiled up at him."That wasn't so bad, was it?" She said, standing up. "Did you enjoy your first blowjob?""Jenna. Fucking hell!""I'll take that as a yes?""Yes!" he gasped."Oh good. Because we're not done yet. You don't get off that easily you know!" Jenna began unfastening her skirt, letting it fall to the floor. Josh's eyes widened. She wasn't wearing any panties.An old, battered table was in the middle of the storeroom. Jenna cleared it and reclined on it, spreading her legs and unfastening her blouse. No bra!"Your turn."Josh crossed himself."Just trust your instincts." She whispered, lowering herself onto her back. Josh stared at her for a second, dumbstruck by her beauty and timid as a deer. Her gently smiling face and the flowing red hair that framed it, the round fullness of her breasts, her long legs, and the tantalizing lure of her wet womanhood between,Finding his courage at last, Josh moved close. With a shaky hand he reached out and tentatively cupped her left breast. Tracing the nipple with his thumb, ever so gently."Mmm nice, Josh. Keep going!"Encouraged, Josh lowered his mouth to her other breast, the memory of the delightful sensations she'd given him earlier fresh in his mind. He felt her run her fingers through his short blonde hair as he tasted her with his tongue, heard her sigh as he closed his lips around her nipple."Gently now.""Sorry!"The curate feasted on her breasts for a bit longer, before moving down to her abdomen, planting more kisses, then he paused for a moment. Jenna said nothing, silently urging him to carry on, and he did. Tentatively, he kissed the inside of her thighs, tracing a finger through the trimmed hair above her slit.Josh continued to lovingly kiss her thighs, his nerves beginning to fade. The heady scent of her was overpowering, emboldening him to trail a finger between her cunt lips. The wetness he felt there surprised him, and he glanced up."You're doing great, Josh." Jenna answered in a throaty whisper. "Please don't stop."He ran a finger over her clit, causing her to let out a moan. Lowering his head, he caressed her softly with his mouth, tasting her."Oh Josh,” He suckled gently on her clit and she let out a scream."Jenna?" He pulled away from her, his fear returning. "Did I hurt you?""No Josh. It was incredible, that's all. When you licked me down there, wow. You sure know how to thrill a woman. You learn quick! But don't make me cum just yet. Because I want you inside me when it happens."Josh's heart leapt into his throat. "Oh,”"Are you ready?""Um, but protection, I-I don't have a condom,”"It's okay, you don't need to worry. I'm on the Pill.""Oh, right. Good,”"Think of this as doing God's work," Jenna purred, urging him to get on with it. She was eager to feel that virgin cock inside her.Slowly he positioned himself above her on the creaking table. Jenna took his cock in her hand, guiding him. He felt the head of his organ nestle inside her."Lord in Heaven!" It was such exquisite torture, fighting the urge to cum as fast as he could. The feel of her cunt as it sheathed him was beyond even the joys he'd felt already.At first, he slipped in and out of her slowly. He buried his face in her neck."Umm, oh God Josh. Yes! Go harder!"Jenna slowly relaxed her control, allowing him to work his cock in and out of her more forcefully. He thrust in deep, as far as he could, and gasped, savoring the sensation."Oh Josh, that's so good!"He speeded up, as she wrapped her legs round him. Soon he was pounding her like a pro."Jenna!" He could feel his climax coming now, a mighty force of almost Biblical proportions. Just as Jesus drove out many devils, Josh drove out his virginity, casting it aside forever. He'd been freed."Ugh!" With a roar of release the curate came, filling Jenna's womanhood with his seed. Josh wasn't sure how long his orgasm lasted. But he knew that it was wonderful, an epiphany of sensation, and that Jenna writhed and gasped in the throes of her own climax in perfect harmony with his.When they'd both calmed down, Jenna held him close and kissed him. "Are you okay? You were amazing, Josh, do you know that? How are you feeling?""Just fantastic, absolutely fantastic! I, wow. That was, incredible. Um, do you mind if I say a quick prayer for both of us?""Not at all. You go ahead."When he'd finished, he opened his eyes and looked at Jenna, who was smiling broadly. "You are going to become a bloody amazing vicar!" She said.An Erotic Dream & an organ lesson.T'was the Year of Our Lord 1739, and on a road bound for London, weary preacher and hymn writer Charles Wesley had just arrived at a tavern."Innkeeper! I hath been riding all day and my poor horse be in the great need of water and rest. As am I." Charles said."Fear thee not, good fellow, I'll tend to thine horse!" The innkeeper replied. "If it's a room for the night you're looking for, then ye hath come to the right place. Here at the Lamb Inn, there's always a warm greeting for a weary traveler. I'll leave ye in the capable hands of my fine wench Jen, who is adept at making gentlemen feel welcome,”"Greetings to you sir!" Jen said, and Charles was a little taken aback by this stunning redheaded wench. "If you'd like to follow me, I'll lead you to your bedchamber." She picked up a candle and gave him a seductive smirk."Gladly, Miss!" Charles replied, following her up the creaking wooden staircase. In the main room, sounds of merriment filled the air as many men supped ale and enjoyed the company of willing wenches."I see you're a man of faith, sir," said Jen as she reached the top of the stairs. "Have you travelled far?""Aye, all the way from Bristol. I write many hymns. I'm going to visit my older brother John, who's in London. He's a preacher too. In fact he,”"Oh gosh, of course! Your brother must be John Wesley, founder of that Methodist movement I keep hearin' about!""That's right! I'm Charles Wesley."Jen entered the bedchamber. "Here we are, Mr. Wesley. I trust the room is to your liking? This happens to be a new room - never been used before. Bed never slept in, chair never sat on, chamber pot never,”"Ah, glorious!" Charles interrupted her. "It looks most excellent. I am indeed blessed to have been afforded such kindness. God is good!""Mmm, thanks be to God," Jen replied, eyeing up Charles. He was young and rather attractive for a man of the cloth. Most of the clergy she'd encountered in her life had been very old men."There be a fresh jug of water on the table for you, Mr. Wesley. We're lucky here. The Lamb has a deep well which provides safe, clean water to drink. That's why we get so many visitors desperate to quench their thirst without worry of getting the flux."Charles nodded as he put his bag down on the chair and removed his black robe. That four poster bed looked so inviting."Why don't you sit on the bed, Mr. Wesley? I cannot help but wonder, after all that riding, do you not grow a little stiff?""Um, I am a little stiff, yes.""Then come over here and sit beside me." Jen said, patting the bed. "I'd be interested to hear about your hymn writing."Charles bashfully did as she asked. "Well right now, I am working on a "Hymn for Christmas Day." But I confess I have only written the first verse."Perchance could I hear this first verse?" Jen replied.Charles nodded."Hark how all the Welkin ringsGlory to the King of Kings,Peace on Earth, and Mercy mild,God and Sinners reconciled!""I'd say that's a marvelous first verse," said Jen. "Very stirring, very uplifting. It makes one, rise to the occasion." Her hand had somehow ended up on his thigh."Oh do you think so? That pleases me greatly, Miss! Now if only I could complete it."Jen removed her mobcap, revealing long, tumbling red locks. Charles gazed, mesmerized. "By all the saints, you're a pretty woman, Miss,”"Jen, Mr. Wesley, perhaps I can be of some help to you." She blew out the candle. "Oh my! Now we're in the dark. How careless of me! We'll just have to,”"Oh Miss Jen!" Charles gasped as her hand groped him in an intimate place."I think you've risen to the occasion Mr. Wesley!"A few moments later and the good wench had relieved the dear Mr. Wesley of his breeches and cast off the rest of his apparel, including a periwig. The preacher produced naked, stiff, and erect, a wonderful maypole. Jen put her hands to this fine example of maleness and her actions had the desired effect."Ah! I think my inspiration is returning!""I'm filled with joy, Mr. Wesley! Tis an honor to help you!""Joyful all ye Nations rise,Join the Triumph of the Skies,Universal Nature say"Christ the Lord is born to Day!""That's a wonderful second verse!" Jen ran her tongue round the preacher's erect member, before taking his entire length into her mouth."Oh Lord in Heaven, I have given in to sin, but if the sin results in a completed hymn, will thou look upon me with mercy?" Charles gasped, as the pleasure overwhelmed him.Jen withdrew. "The Lord will indeed pardon you, Mr. Wesley. Now please relax and enjoy my help!""Ah, oh my God, thine tongue is divine, it feels so good!"Jen sucked, licked and teased Charles' cock until he could take no more."Miss Jen! I'm going to spend! Oh, yes!""Ahh, I have been anointed by your holy essence, Mr. Wesley!" Jen giggled as she eagerly gobbled up his seed.Charles' face bore an expression of utter bliss and satisfaction. "Oh Miss Jen. I am so grateful God delivered me to this inn. What sweet pleasures you have afforded me this evening!"A furious knocking on the bedchamber door disturbed the blissful ambience."Jen! Jen! You need to get up!" a woman shouted."Is that, the innkeeper's wife?" Charles wondered, still dazed after his powerful orgasm.Jen licked the remaining cum off the preacher's softening cock. "Mm, sounds like Mother. But wait, Mother died of smallpox ten years ago, so how, ?"Everything seemed to fade away in a strange haze."Jen! You're going to be late for work! Wake up!"Jenna finally awoke. "Huh? What?""Are you alright?" Her mum shouted. "Answer me or I'm coming in.""Um yeah. I'm fine Mum!" She rolled over and reached for her smartphone. Squinting, she looked at the clock."Shit! I overslept!"Breakfast was a rushed affair, with Jenna barely able to drink half a cup of coffee and a piece of toast."For goodness cake, slow down before you choke on that," her mum said."Can't believe I overslept. I set my phone. I've never done that before." Jenna said."Hey, we all do it sometimes. Though your exertions at church no doubt kept you up late. Your dad and I noticed how much time you've been spending at St. Michael's. Now feel free to tell me to mind my own business, but what's with the sudden obsession with church? You've never been interested before. You used to laugh at Gran for being in the Mother's Union.""I guess the pandemic made me think about things differently," Jenna lied, trying to think up a good excuse. "I know I never attended church much before, but I never stopped being a believer.""That's great, Jen. I'm glad it makes you happy. I just hope you're not spending all your time with old people, though. It's good to mix with people your own age.""Oh there's a good mix of different ages at St Michael's. They're not all boomers, Mum. The curate, Yulia and Debbie aren't much different to me. And Reverend Morris, .he's amazing.""I'm sure he is," her mum replied, with a wry grin. "You out tonight?""Yes. Choir practice." Jenna grabbed her bag and car keys."By the way, who's Charles Wesley?""Um, what?""You were yelling his name over and over in your sleep. You must've been dreaming.""Oh. Well he's a guy who wrote a lot of great hymns. He lived in the 18th century. He wrote that famous carol "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", although the original words were different. Gotta go. Love you. Bye!"Jenna's mum shook her head. "Charles Wesley? When I was growing up, I used to dream about Brad Pitt.""I have got to get a place of my own," Jenna muttered to herself as she headed to the car. "That was cringe."Jenna had prepared herself for her evening "choir practice" with Gordon, by wearing her best lingerie and a sexy dress that perfectly highlighted her curves and cleavage. The organist himself had also made an effort, by wearing his best suit and tie. With his black robe unfastened, he resembled an old-fashioned headmaster."Hello there!" Gordon said, grinning from ear to ear. Whoa, she looked drop-dead gorgeous. He was practically drooling like a dog in heat."Not so bad yourself, Gordon!" Jenna replied. "Love the suit. Now all you need is a cane.""A cane?""To punish me with. You see, I've been a naughty girl. I forgot to practice that piece of music you mentioned.""Oh dearie me," Gordon said, walking over to her. "Whatever am I to do with such a naughty girl? Never mind. I'm sure you can make it up to me some way,”He sat down on the organ stool. "Come sit in my lap, Jenna. We're going to play a little tune together. I'm sure you can do it.""Why Gordon, I'm not sure I can play this. It's a bit of a step up from the piano.""Just give it a try. I'm sure you'll learn quick!" He winked. "Try the third manual," he added, indicating one of the keyboards.Jenna bit her lip and slid onto Gordon's lap. She deliberated wiggled about a bit, causing him to let out a groan. "This seat is a little, hard!"Jenna began playing the first few notes. "You're right, Kings and Queens does sound fantastic on a pipe organ. I'd have never guessed you were an Ava Max fan, Gordon.""Hah, I'm not. Can't stand modern pop music. But the younger members of the choir are always begging for this song. You're great at this!"As Jenna continued to play, Gordon began massaging her breasts and kissing her exposed neck."Oh Gordon," Jenna sighed."There's a part-time job available,” he continued, between kisses. "An assistant choirmaster and pianist at the Sunday school. Three days a week. The school isn't just open on Sundays anymore. There's a crèche and breakfast club on Wednesdays. They do after-school sessions for kids who have special needs. It's not bad money. I know you've got all the relevant qualifications. If you're interested, I could easily pull a few strings and get you in."Jenna suddenly halted her playing. "Wow, are you serious?""Of course I am. Look, the young 'uns think I'm some kind of ogre. And they're probably right. But you, you'd be such an asset to the school. And tell me honestly, do you truly enjoy working in a call center?""I hate it. The pay is shit and I hate my boss. Now she's a real-life ogre.""Exactly. Your talents are wasted in a dead-end job like that, Jenna. It's up to you of course, but please give it some thought."She turned round to face him. Kissing him hard the lips, she slipped her arms round his shoulders. "I've given it thought. I accept! Now why don't you let me thank you properly, Gordon?"Jenna hiked up her dress, and unfastened Gordon's belt. She unzipped his trousers, pushed down his underpants, and his rock hard erection sprang free from its encumbrance. Unable to contain himself any longer, Gordon pulled aside the crotch of her damp panties, positioned himself to her entrance, and pushed himself into her. The soft lips between her legs parted, and she threw her head back in sudden ecstasy as the organist began thrusting himself in and out of her warm body, slowly at first, then building in speed.Outside, a black 4 by 4 had just pulled up in the church car park. John Norris got out of the driver's side and furiously slammed the door shut."John please, don't do this!" his wife pleaded. "Not in the church!""Look Patricia, I want to get to the bottom of this. First Gordon angrily accuses me of spreading lies on Facebook. He called me "the biggest shit-stirrer in this church" to my face! Now the chaps at the Rotary Club have frozen me out. They said I've been making sexist jokes and racist comments about Ukrainians! I ask you, when have I ever made a racist comment? I haven't a racist bone in my body! And I've never signed up to Facebook either. Someone is trying to smear my name. If you ask me, Gordon's the one behind it all! Well, we'll see what he has to say, man-to-man."A look of horror swept Mrs. Norris' face. "You can't go in there! I can hear the organ - the choir are in there!""I don't care if the whole bloody town is in there!" John yelled, a display of anger that was most unlike him. "This has gone too far. I can't believe Gordon could be so vindictive. He'd a bad-tempered sod, but I never thought he'd do this. Libel is a serious offence."He stormed into the church and marched down the aisle, his panicking wife rushing after him."Alright alright, it wasn't Gordon. It was me!" She grabbed his arm. He halted."What?""I did it."John shook his head. "Why are you trying to protect him? Do you fancy him or something? Is there more to this?""No! No of course I don't! Look, I signed up to Facebook so I could access the church page but I used your name. I know I shouldn't have but, well surely you must know how members of this church treat me? I'd have been blocked immediately!"John's face had gone through several shades of red and was now the color of raw steak."You, Did what? You've been spreading lies and racist comments using an account with my name? What the hell am I married to?" He walked round the side of the organ. "Bloody hell!"Mrs. Norris shoved him aside, wondering what had shocked him. "That's her! She's the one who's caused all this! The little tart! She's bringing filth and depravity to this church!"John glared at his wife. "I'd say your own venom has done that already, Patricia." He turned and stormed off. "I'm going home. To pack a few things. I'm going to stay at my brother's for a bit. And you, well you can go to Hell.""Gordon, do you hear somebody shouting?" Jenna sighed as she felt his warm cum fill her."Probably just a bit of rowdy teen behavior outside," Gordon replied with a smirk.To be continued.By Blacksheep, for Literotica.

    Sexy Marriage Radio
    Men’s Health Is Vital | Dean Pohlman #713

    Sexy Marriage Radio

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 29, 2025 38:40


    In this conversation, Dean Pohlman of Man Flow Yoga joins me again as we discuss the importance of self-care for men, particularly through yoga and exercise. We explore the resistance many men face in prioritizing their health, the significance of consistency in fitness routines, and how adapting exercise as we age is crucial. We also touch on the mental wellness aspect of creating space in our lives and the ripple effect personal growth can have on those around us. To learn more about Dean check out https://manflowyoga.com/ Takeaways Men often resist self-care due to responsibilities to others. Taking care of oneself is essential for being able to care for others. Exercise can lead to a cascade of positive lifestyle changes. Sticking with an exercise program is challenging due to societal pressures. Setting short-term goals, like 28-day challenges, can help maintain motivation. As we age, we need to adapt our fitness routines to include flexibility and mobility work. Just because something is normal doesn't mean it's acceptable. Enjoy the show! On the Xtended version … Let's pick up the conversation from Christmas Day episode of is sex an acceptable gift to give? There are two sides to this ... let's explore them both. Sponsors … Factor Meals: Eat smart with Factor. Get started at https://factormeals.com/passion50off to get 50% off your first box! Academy: Join the Academy and go deeper. https://smr.fm/academy The post Men's Health Is Vital | Dean Pohlman #713 first appeared on Sexy Marriage Radio.

    Multiverse News
    Brave New World Misinformation, Supergirl First Look, and Oscar Nominations Hits and Misses

    Multiverse News

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 29, 2025 89:38


    Welcome to Multiverse News, Your source for Information about all your favorite fictional universes The topic of Captain America reshoots is one we've discussed a lot and recently Cap himself Anthony Mackie addressed reshoot and poor test screening rumors head on, telling Empire “It wasn't retooled at all, every Marvel movie I've done has done reshoots, so it's not retooling or remaking. You basically get the movie and the story you want, you edit it together, then go back and shoot a few more scenes." Since last week, The Hollywood Reporter has also finally revealed that the total budget of the film is significantly less than previously thought - coming in at around $180 million dollars. Switching to the Sorcerer Supreme himself, Benedict Cumberbatch made some headlines after revealing in an interview with Variety that Doctor Strange will not be in Avengers: Doomsday. Cumberbatch cited the reason being Strange's character “not aligning with this part of the story,” and also let loose that the Master of the Mystic Arts will be in “a lot” of Avengers: Secret Wars. In typical James Gunn fashion, the director and DC Studios co-chair gave us a first look at Milly Alcock's Supergirl in a still photo he released on social media last week. The post also confirmed filming recently began. The weekend's NFL division championships provided space for a new-ish Superman trailer, with mostly the same footage, but a different look at Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luther. And in our final DC news nugget, actor Ulrich Thomson was cast as villain Sinestro for the upcoming Lanterns series. Thomsen is a Danish actor who was seen in The Blacklist here in the states. In comics, Sinestro is Hal Jordan's mentor. The Oscar nominations were unveiled last week after a brief delay caused by the devastating and ongoing fires in California. Leading the pack this year is Emilia Pérez, earning an impressive 13 nominations despite ongoing controversy surrounding the film's portrayal of cultural identity, which has sparked heated debates online. Close behind are The Brutalist and Wicked, tied with 10 nominations each and A Complete Unknown and Conclave earned eight nods apiece. On the studio front, Netflix emerged as the frontrunner with 16 total nominations, followed by A24 with 14, Universal with 13, Focus Features with 12, and Searchlight with 10. However, the announcement wasn't without its surprises—or disappointments—as some fan-favorite films, including Challengers, Furiosa, and Civil War, were notably snubbed. Warner Bros unveiled a new official trailer for SINNERS from director Ryan Coogler and frequent collaborator and star Michael B. Jordan, the film will hit theatres April 18. David Leitch — the stuntman turned director behind John Wick and The Fall Guy — is in talks to direct Ocean's 14. The film is expected to return original Ocean's 11 cast members George Clooney and Brad Pitt, among others. Neon has released the first trailer for horror film Hell of a Summer, starring Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard, who is also making his directorial debut. The film debuts in theaters on April 18. HBO has renewed anthology series The White Lotus for a fourth season. The third season will begin streaming on February 16. Focus Features, Universal's art house division which released and financed Nosferatu, is reteaming with Robert Eggers for his next film titled Werwulf, currently set for release on Christmas Day 2026. While details are scarce, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the story is set in 13th century England. George Nolfi, known for his screenplay work on movies such as The Bourne Ultimatum and Ocean's 12, has been tapped to write New Jedi Order, the Daisy Ridley-centric Star Wars movie. The move to Nolfi makes the third writer change for the project.

    The Pacific War - week by week
    - 167 - Pacific War Podcast - the Return to Bataan - January 28 - February 4 - , 1945

    The Pacific War - week by week

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2025 46:02


    Last time we spoke about the Mandalay Offensive. In the midst of intense warfare, General Krueger positioned his troops strategically to bolster the assault at Rosario. As the American forces repelled counterattacks and advanced, they faced fierce Japanese resistance, particularly at Binalonan and Hill 600. Despite heavy casualties, the Americans gradually gained ground, clearing key areas and preparing for further offensives. Meanwhile, Japanese defenses were fortified but weakened by shortages. As battles raged, both sides braced for decisive confrontations in the ongoing struggle for control of Luzon. In a fierce battle across the hills of Luzon, the 103rd Regiment aimed to secure key positions but faced heavy resistance, capturing Hill 800 by nightfall. The 172nd Regiment achieved surprise at Hill 900, while other regiments advanced under relentless fire. Meanwhile, in Burma, the British-Indian forces captured Shwebo, pushing deeper against Japanese defenses. The Mars Task Force disrupted supply lines, leading to a Japanese retreat. Amidst the chaos, both sides suffered heavy losses, marking a pivotal moment in the campaign. This episode is the Return to Bataan Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  By the end of January, as previously noted on Luzon, the 43rd Division had secured most of the Rosario region and Route 3 from Pozorrubio to the crucial junction with Route 11. The 25th Division had successfully eliminated the Shigemi Detachment at San Manuel, while the 6th Division had cleared the Cabaruan Hills and established outposts between Balungao and Guimba. Meanwhile, the 14th Corps had advanced to Clark Field, where it was engaged in a fierce battle with the Kembu Group. By January 27, the 40th Division had breached General Tsukada's northern defensive line, and the 37th Division had fortified Mabalacat, Angeles, and Runway No. 1 in preparation for the final push toward Manila. On that same day, General Krueger received significant reinforcements, with the arrival of the 1st Cavalry Division, the 32nd Division, and the 112th Cavalry Regiment at Lingayen Gulf. He planned to gather the cavalry division at Guimba to launch a coordinated advance toward the capital along the eastern side of the Central Plains via Route 5. After returning the reserve 35th Regiment to General Mullins, Krueger intended to deploy the 32nd Division, minus the 126th Regiment in Army Reserve, to the San Manuel-Asingan area. This would allow the 25th and 6th Divisions to narrow their fronts and continue south and southeast toward the Licab-Lupao line with reduced risk of exposing the 1st Corps' flank. Additionally, this strategy would enable the 37th Division to resume its advance toward Manila. However, General Griswold wanted to push Tsukada's forces further into the Zambales Mountains first, directing General Beightler to assault the enemy's southern defensive line centered around Fort Stotsenburg, while only the 148th Regiment and the 37th Reconnaissance Troop moved south along Route 3 to San Fernando. On January 28, the attack commenced as planned, with the 129th Regiment advancing westward through Runway No. 2, but it was quickly halted by the formidable forward defenses of the Eguchi Detachment. Meanwhile, with the assistance of Filipino guerrillas, reconnaissance units from the 37th Division successfully secured the San Fernando bridges intact. To the north of the Bamban River, the 160th Regiment faced unexpectedly light resistance as it moved along its ridge line to capture open-crested Hill 620, although it would later encounter stronger opposition when it reached the main defenses of the Takaya Detachment. At the same time, General Patrick began gathering the 1st and 20th Regiments at Guimba and Victoria, while the 6th Reconnaissance Troop advanced toward Cabanatuan, where they identified a significant Japanese concentration. Further north, the 35th Regiment advanced unopposed to barrio Gonzales, while the 27th Regiment moved overland and successfully dislodged a Japanese outpost from barrio Pemienta. Meanwhile, MacArthur was planning a secondary landing on the Zambales coast of Luzon, assigning Major-General Charles Hall's 11th Corps, which included the 38th Division and the 34th Regiment, to land at San Antonio and quickly advance across the base of Bataan to prevent any significant Japanese retreat into the peninsula. He also aimed to divert the Kembu Group's attention to relieve some pressure on the 14th Corps. However, General Yamashita had no intention of retreating to Bataan and had only dispatched Colonel Nagayoshi Sanenobu's 39th Regiment to defend the peninsula and the Kembu Group's right flank. On January 26, Hall's 11th Corps had departed Leyte Island aboard vessels from Admiral Struble's Task Group 78.3, heading directly to Luzon for the San Antonio landing, codenamed Operation Mike 7. The convoy reached its destination on the morning of January 29. After receiving reports from Filipino guerrillas indicating that there were no Japanese forces in the landing area, Struble decided to cancel the planned pre-assault bombardment. Instead, he ordered Hall's four regiments to land simultaneously across a nearly six-mile stretch of coastline from San Antonio. Upon landing, the 151st Regiment secured San Felipe and San Antonio, while the 149th Regiment quickly moved inland to capture the San Marcelino Airstrip. However, they discovered that guerrillas led by Captain Ramon Magsaysay had already taken control of the airstrip three days prior. Before nightfall, the 34th Regiment and the 24th Reconnaissance Troop advanced south along Route 7 to the northern shore of Subic Bay. To the east, the 160th Regiment made significant progress, advancing nearly two miles southwest and breaching a stronghold at the center of the Takaya Detachment. The 129th Regiment also managed to penetrate enemy defenses into Fort Stotsenburg but was halted at barrio Tacondo by six tanks from the Yanagimoto Detachment. Despite this setback, the inability of the Japanese counterattacks to reclaim lost territory compelled Tsukada to order the Eguchi and Yanagimoto Detachments to retreat to their main line of resistance. Meanwhile, further north, units from the 1st and 20th Regiments successfully captured Licab and Talavera, cutting off the road between Cabanatuan and Muñoz. The 27th Regiment engaged a small tank-artillery force from the 2nd Tank Division that had become trapped along the highway between Gonzales and Pemienta.  With the rapid advances of the 6th and 25th Divisions, the 2nd Tank Division main strength in the Tayug-Triangle Hill area was in danger of being cut off from its sole remaining escape route into the northern bastion via San Jose and Highway 5. To meet the new situation, General Iwanaka was directed to pull back all remaining division strength from the Tayug-Umingan and Triangle Hill sectors with the exception of small outpost forces to be left at Gonzales and Umingan to delay an enemy advance from the northwest. The division was instead to concentrate the bulk of its forces in a triangular-shaped area bounded by Lupao, Muñoz and Rizal. These new dispositions had barely been effected when enemy elements swept around the outpost force at Gonzales and cut its withdrawal route to Umingan, forcing the detachment to withdraw through the hills after destroying most of its tanks and all of its mechanized artillery. From 20:00 on the 29th until 04:30 the next morning the force tried unsuccessfully to break through the Pemienta perimeter, against a sharp enemy. By the time the action had ended the 27th Regiment had killed 125 Japanese and had destroyed 8 tanks, 8 artillery prime movers, 4 tractors, 8 105-mm howitzers and 5 trucks, while only losing about 15 men killed and 45 wounded. Only four tanks succeeded in breaking through the enemy encirclement and escaped along the highway to Umingan. The next day, the 27th Regiment began positioning itself to attack Umingan from the north and northwest, while the 35th Regiment started preparations for a holding attack from the west and southwest. In an effort to avert the mass execution of prisoners of war at Cabanatuan, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Mucci led a contingent of approximately 233 men, composed of Filipino guerrillas, soldiers from the Alamo Scouts, and Mucci's 6th Ranger Battalion. They traversed 30 miles cross-country between January 28 and 30 to liberate 522 weakened prisoners during the night. Most of the prisoners had vacated the camp by 2010 hours. Rangers and guerrillas had to carry most, piggy-backing them or making hasty litters from rifles and shirts. It was 2 miles to the Pampanga River, where carts waited to take them to Platero to be treated, fed, and organized. Many were still in shock and had not yet fully understood that they were free. At 2040 hours, Capt Prince was at the Pampanga River supervising the loading of stumbling prisoners into 25 carts as Rangers and prisoners trickled in. The rest of the Scouts established an ambush at the crossing site. At 2045 hours, one hour after the raid was launched, Prince fired the third red flare and departed for Balangkare. The loaded carabao carts were ordered on their way to Balangkare at 2145 hours.  Meanwhile Major Robert Lapham's guerrilla forces provided cover for their escape, successfully returning them to Allied lines on January 31. During this operation, around 270 Japanese soldiers were killed at the camp, with an additional 900 casualties along the Cabu River. Over 270 Japanese lay dead or dying in the smoldering camp; most of the wounded dying by dawn as no aid was forthcoming. Japanese bodies were literally stacked at the Cabu bridge and scores more littered the riverside woods. The 359th Battalion had ceased to exist. In the morning, battalion commander Capt Oyanu was still alive, but most of his officers were dead. Only 255 men of 1,200 survived and most were wounded.   In contrast, the Americans suffered only 2 fatalities and 7 wounded, along with 12 wounded Filipinos and 2 dead prisoners. Fortunately, the anticipated retaliation against the Filipino population did not occur, as the Japanese retreated from the area within a day of the raid, while the 20th Regiment secured the road junction barrio of Baloc and began advancing toward Muñoz. On January 30, Griswold continued his vigorous offensive against Clark Field; the 129th Regiment cleared the hills near Dolores and took control of the abandoned Fort Stotsenburg area, while the 160th Regiment made only 500 yards of progress against the determined Takaya Detachment. The 108th Regiment finally captured Hill 5 and Thrall Hill. Further south, patrols from the 37th Division reached within a mile of Calumpit and the Pampanga River, and on Bataan, the 34th Regiment took Olongapo after a fierce skirmish, while the 2nd Battalion of the 151st Regiment captured Grande Island at the entrance to Subic Bay. At the same time, MacArthur was strategizing another secondary landing on Luzon, this time utilizing General Swing's 11th Airborne Division to assault Nasugbu, located 45 miles southwest of Manila. With this operation, MacArthur aimed to initiate a southern advance toward Manila while simultaneously hindering Japanese forces in southern Luzon from moving north to challenge Krueger's main offensive. General Eichelberger intended to deploy the 187th and 188th Glider Regiments and advance them approximately twenty miles along Route 17 to Tagaytay Ridge. There, the 511th Parachute Regiment would conduct an airdrop to secure the ridge for the ground troops and capture adjacent sections of Route 17 before the Japanese could regroup to defend the highway. In opposition, General Yokoyama had assigned only the Fuji Force to defend the area south of Manila. This force, centered around Colonel Fujishige Masatoshi's reinforced 17th Regiment, had only deployed the 3rd Battalion of the 31st Regiment in the Tagaytay Ridge region, with a small outpost at Nasugbu and its main defenses positioned on Mounts Cariliao and Batulao. At this stage, Yokoyama was nearing completion of the organization of the diverse Shimbu Group forces east of Manila into a cohesive combat task force. To the north, near Ipo, he had stationed the Kawashima Force, which was composed of the 82nd Brigade and the 31st Regiment. To the south, the main contingent of the former Manila Defense Force had been relocated from the Philippine capital and renamed the Kobayashi Force, guarding the Wawa-Montalban area. However, the departure of General Tsuda's 105th Division to the northern stronghold had created a significant gap in the Shimbu Group's defenses. Although Yokoyama intended to address this vulnerability with the Noguchi Detachment, Major-General Noguchi Susumu's troops were still in the midst of a lengthy march from the Bicol Peninsula by the end of January. As a temporary solution, the Okita Detachment, a composite force consisting of five battalions centered around the 186th Independent Battalion, and the Kuromiya Detachment, a three-battalion unit based on the 181st Independent Battalion, were deployed in the Bosoboso-Antipolo region. Meanwhile, the Kogure Detachment, organized around the 1st Surface Raiding Base Force, was stationed at Lamon Bay. Manila was entrusted to Rear-Admiral Iwabuchi Sanji's Manila Naval Defense Force, which included approximately 13,700 naval personnel from the 31st Special Base Force responsible for defending the islands of Manila Bay and the capital, along with some Army reinforcements. On January 27, Swing's 11th Airborne Division departed from Leyte Island aboard ships from Admiral Fechteler's Task Group 78.2, heading directly to Nasugbu Bay to carry out Operation Mike 6. Following an uneventful journey and a brief preliminary bombardment on January 31, the 188th Glider Regiment successfully landed with minimal resistance and quickly advanced inland toward the Palico River, aiming for the section of Route 17 that leads to Tagaytay Ridge. Pleased with the initial landing, Swing subsequently deployed the 187th Glider Regiment and the division artillery, which began to relieve the rear elements of the 188th by midday. At the same time, the majority of the 188th secured the Palico bridge and crossed the river to reach Route 17. Further north, under pressure from MacArthur and Krueger, the 148th Regiment successfully crossed the Pampanga River and captured Calumpit, just as Beightler was dispatching the 145th Regiment along Route 3 to assist in the advance toward Manila. At Clark Field, the 108th Regiment was patrolling forward, while the 160th Regiment faced challenges in breaking through enemy defenses. Meanwhile, the 129th Regiment launched an attack on the main positions of the Eguchi Detachment at Top of the World hill, successfully securing its steep, grassy southern and southeastern slopes. On Bataan, General Jones sent the 152nd Regiment to travel through Olongapo and advance east along Route 7, while the 149th Regiment moved east toward Dinalupihan via a challenging trail located about 1,200 yards north of the highway. By the end of January, the 32nd Division had successfully taken control of the recently vacated Tayug area. The 6th and 25th Divisions reorganized in preparation for their final push towards San Jose, and the 1st Cavalry Division gathered at Guimba. The World War II brigade structure of Maj. Gen. Verne D. Mudge's dismounted 1st Cavalry Division differed greatly from that of the triangular infantry division of the period. Instead of three infantry regiments the 1st Cavalry Division had four cavalry regiments--the 5th and 12th in the 1st Cavalry Brigade, the 7th and 8th in the 2d Cavalry Brigade. Each regiment had two cavalry squadrons, each smaller than an infantry battalion, as opposed to the three battalions of an infantry regiment. Each cavalry regiment contained a weapons troop armed with 81-mm. mortars, .30-caliber and .50-caliber machine guns, and bazookas, but there was no heavy weapons troop within each squadron. The cavalry regiments lacked the antitank and cannon companies of an infantry regiment. 1st Cavalry Division Artillery was composed of one 75-mm. howitzer battalion, three 105-mm. howitzer battalions, and, for obvious reasons, an attached 155-mm. howitzer battalion. Reinforcing combat and service attachments brought the division's strength up to nearly 15,000 men, somewhat less than the strength of the reinforced 37th Division at the same time. On paper, each of the four cavalry regiments numbered 1,750 men--in contrast to the 3,000-odd of an infantry regiment--but none of the 1st Cavalry Division's regiments was up to strength. The division had received few replacements since entering combat on Leyte in October, and it had come to Luzon after very little rest from its arduous campaign through Leyte's mountains. The 1st Cavalry division was ready to advance towards Cabanatuan as General Mudge dispatched two reinforced motorized squadrons. On February 1, the Flying Columns, led by General Chase, crossed the Pampanga River and began their southern march with minimal resistance. As a result, Cabanatuan and Gapan were quickly captured, although some opposition was encountered south of the Peñaranda River. Meanwhile, the 188th Glider Regiment continued its advance towards Tagaytay Ridge, facing heavy enemy fire from Mount Cariliao but still managing to secure the important Mount Aiming. The 148th Regiment swiftly moved down Route 3 and captured Malolos with little resistance. However, the 152nd Regiment faced increasingly strong resistance at ZigZag Pass. While more rugged terrain than the ZigZag Pass area is to be found on Luzon, few pieces of ground combine to the same degree both roughness and dense jungle. Route 7 twists violently through the pass, following a line of least terrain resistance that wild pigs must originally have established. The jungle flora in the region is so thick that one can step 5 yards off the highway and not be able to see the road. The Japanese had honeycombed every hill and knoll at the ZigZag with foxholes linked by tunnels or trenches; at particularly advantageous points they had constructed strongpoints centered on log and dirt pillboxes. All the defenses were well camouflaged, for rich jungle foliage covered most positions, indicating that many had been prepared with great care and had been constructed well before Colonel Nagayoshi's 39th Regiment had reached the area in December. Colonel Nagayoshi had plenty of food and ammunition for a prolonged stand, and he also possessed numerous mortars and machine-guns. His artillery, however, was inadequate for the task at hand and he lacked certain types of medical supplies, especially malaria preventatives and cures. He had so scattered his mortars and artillery in order to protect them against American artillery and air strikes that his troops would often have difficulty massing their fires. Finally, his defensive line was scarcely 2000 yards wide northwest to southeast, thus rendering his whole position susceptible to vigorous outflanking maneuvers. On the other hand, he had good troops, well-prepared positions, and excellent defensive terrain. The 129th Regiment secured the summit of Top of the World hill, effectively ensuring Clark Field's protection from all but long-range artillery fire. The 20th Regiment launched its initial attack on Muñoz, which was thwarted by Colonel Ida Kumpei's tanks fortified as pillboxes. Additionally, the 27th Regiment attempted to advance towards Umingan but was unable to break through, while elements of the 35th Regiment bypassed this area and occupied barrio San Roque. February 2 mirrored the previous day in the San Jose sector, as the 20th and 27th Regiments continued their battle against the determined Japanese defenders. Meanwhile, Mullins dispatched the 35th Regiment in a two-pronged maneuver towards Umingan, successfully clearing most of the town by noon. In an effort to recover lost time, Mullins then directed the 35th toward Lupao in the afternoon, but its leading battalion was ultimately halted by intense Japanese artillery, mortar, and machine-gun fire. With their forward units stalled at Muñoz and Lupao, Patrick and Mullins resorted to flanking tactics. Accordingly, Patrick sent the 1st Regiment along the Talavera River to attack San Jose from the southeast, while the 63rd Regiment attempted to bypass Muñoz to the east and rejoin Route 5 north of the town. In turn, Mullins ordered the 161st Regiment to move cross-country to positions on Route 99 south of Lupao, then advance to Route 8 between San Isidro and San Jose while the 35th surrounded and cleared Lupao. However, on this day, the 105th Division successfully evacuated San Jose along with its stockpiled ammunition, regrouping north at Puncan and rendering the entire San Jose offensive ineffective. Simultaneously, Chase's Flying Columns passed through Gapan and entered Sabang, fording the Angat River to launch two simultaneous advances to the south and east. The 148th Regiment secured Plaridel after a brief but fierce skirmish, while the 152nd Regiment faced setbacks in the ZigZag Pass due to nighttime Japanese counterattacks and artillery fire. The 149th Regiment became disoriented and had to return to Olongapo, and the 188th Glider Regiment managed to break through to barrio Aga amidst heavy resistance, while the 1st Battalion of the 187th Glider Regiment moved forward to begin the assault toward Tagaytay. On February 3, Swing's glider infantry launched an assault on the western end of Tagaytay, while paratroopers from the 511th Parachute Regiment began to drop along the ridge in a rather scattered manner. The first echelon of the 511th, about 915 in all, had come to Tagaytay Ridge aboard 48 C-47 aircraft of the 317th Troop Carrier Group. The planes had flown north from Mindoro to approach Tagaytay Ridge from the northeast in order to avoid fire from Japanese anti-aircraft weapons west of the drop zone. The first 18 planes, carrying about 345 troops, dropped over the assigned area. At this juncture, planes from succeeding flights were nearly 6 miles and 3 minutes behind the lead aircraft. About 08:20 one of these later planes dumped out a couple of bundles of supplies. Taking this as a signal that they were over the proper drop zone, 'troopers of the succeeding 30 planes began jumping. Aircraft pilots, realizing they had not yet reached the proper point, attempted to halt the jumping, but the 511th's jump-masters continued sending the paratroopers out. Most of them landed almost 5 miles east-northeast of the assigned drop zone. A second group of 51 C-47s began approaching the drop area about 12:10. Some 80 men from the first 5 aircraft of this group landed in the proper place. The rest started out of their planes when they saw on the ground the collapsed chutes of the first misplaced jump. In the end, only 425 men landed on the assigned drop zone; the others, about 1325 in all, made scattered landings 4.5 to 6 miles to the east and northeast. The 11th Airborne Division, blaming the 317th Troop Carrier Group for the premature dropping, reported that the "true reason was the refusal of the Air Force to cooperate in a combined training program for Airborne and Air Force troops." In any event, it appears that some lack of jump discipline within the 511th contributed to the scattered, premature jumping. Fortunately for them, they encountered minimal resistance as they secured the unoccupied ridge. To the north, the 148th Regiment continued its advance southward, facing delays at several tidal streams that were unbridged and unfordable, but managed to reach a point two miles south of Marilao by day's end. At the same time, the 5th Cavalry's Flying Column destroyed a Japanese outpost at Angat and moved through the guerrilla-held Norzagaray before crossing the Santa Maria River to join the 8th Cavalry's Flying Column, which had already progressed to Talipapa and was nearing the outskirts of Manila. Meanwhile, the 27th Regiment successfully eliminated the remaining enemy pockets at Umingan; the 3rd Battalion of the 35th Regiment, advancing over elevated terrain northeast of Lupao, established a position on Route 8 approximately 1500 yards southeast of Lupao, while the rest of the regiment continued to launch unsuccessful frontal assaults on the town. The 20th Regiment managed to overrun a few Japanese strongholds at Muñoz but was unable to break through. On 3 February the 2d Battalion, 20th Infantry, moved in on the northwest, but could not reach Route 99 in its sector. The 3d Battalion pushed across that road at the southwest corner of Muñoz, but gained only half a block into the main section of the town. The 1st Battalion, on the south side of Muñoz, made negligible progress. By dusk, the 20th Infantry had overrun a few Japanese strongpoints, but in order to hold its gains had had to destroy completely and physically occupy every position it had reached so far. Muñoz, General Patrick had begun to realize, was going to be a costly, hard, and time-consuming nut to crack. The 20th Infantry had not yet closed with the main Japanese defenses, but had spent most of the last three days pinned down by Japanese artillery, tank, and machine gun fire. Only by hugging the ground and taking advantage of the little cover even shattered tree stumps afforded had the regiment kept its casualties down to 15 men killed and 90 wounded. Meanwhile the 63rd Regiment successfully bypassed Muñoz and advanced up Route 5 toward Caanawan; and the 1st Regiment similarly advanced along the San Jose-Rizal road, assembling at two points 1000 yards south and 1500 yards east of San Jose. Now, however, it is time to leave Luzon and head toward the Central Pacific. Following the successful capture of the Marianas and the establishment of B-29 Superfortress air bases on these islands, the Allies were finally able to conclude Operation Matterhorn and cease using bases in China and India for conducting raids on the Japanese mainland and other targets in East Asia. Between June 5, 1944, and January 17, 1945, General LeMay's 20th Bomber Command executed a total of 29 combat missions, inflicting significant damage on key military installations in southern Japan, Manchuria, Formosa, and Indochina, with a total loss of 73 B-29s. Meanwhile, General Hansell's 21st Bomber Command, reinforced by the 313th Bombardment Wing, struggled to achieve similar outcomes in both daylight precision bombing and area incendiary bombing, with the first three missions of January yielding the same disappointing results as those in December and November.  On January 3rd, Norstad's incendiary test mission was run on 3 January, when ninety-seven B-29's got off for Nagoya. Each plane carried a mixed load of bombs -14 x 350-pound M18 IB clusters fuzed to open at 8,000 feet and one 420-pound fragmentation cluster fuzed to open 1,000 feet below releasing altitude. What with aborts and planes straying from course, only fifty-seven bombed the urban area designated as primary target, most of them releasing visually though cloud cover was rated as 6/10. Some fires were started but there was no holocaust. Smoke rising to 20,000 feet combined with cloud to make observation of results impossible for the attackers. As a test, then, the mission was inconclusive. To the citizens of Nagoya, who were better informed than intelligence officers of 21st Bomber Command, the damage seemed slight. On January 9th, having satisfied Norstad's requirement, the command returned to its program of precision bombing against aircraft factories. Performance for the most part was of a piece with what had gone before. On 9 January 1945 seventy-two B-29's were sent against Musashino near Tokyo. High winds broke up the formations so that only eighteen planes were able to bomb the target; twenty-four bombs, widely scattered in the plant area, destroyed one warehouse and damaged two others-a slight return for the effort expended and the six B-29's lost. On January 14th, at the Mitsubishi Aircraft Works at Nagoya on the 14th, precision bombing was again less than precise. Seventy-three B-29's were airborne and forty bombed, getting four GP's-one ton-into the No. 5 Works area and damaging three buildings. Frustrated by this, Hansell increasingly blamed his crews for the unsatisfactory outcomes. Remarkably, he would only achieve his first fully successful B-29 attack on his final mission of the war. The target for the January 19 strike was virgin, a plant of the Kawasaki Aircraft Industries Company located 2 miles northwest of Akashi, a village on the Inland Sea some 12 miles west of Kobe. The Akashi works housed Kawasaki's general headquarters and one of the company's two large production units, which built the twin-engine fighters Nick and Randy and engines for Tony, Oscar and Frank fighters. Smaller than Nakajima and Mitsubishi, Kawasaki in 1944 delivered 17% of Japan's combat airframes and 12% of its combat engines. Against Akashi, Hansell sent 77 B-29s, plus 3 others in a diversionary strike. With good weather, 62 bulled it through to the Kawasaki factory, dumped 155 tons of GPs, and then returned with no losses. Interpreting strike photos, intelligence officers estimated that 38% of the roofed area showed major damage. This was an understatement. Every important building in both the engine and airframe branches had been hit and production was cut by 90%. Indeed, the Kawasaki Company liquidated the combined plant and dispersed the machine tools, which had suffered only slightly, to other sites. The Akashi shops were given temporary repairs at the cost of 226 tons of critical materials and over 9000000 yen, but the installation was used thereafter only for limited assembly jobs. It is a pity that the full results of this mission could not have been known to Hansell. His first completely successful B-29 attack, Akashi seemed to epitomize the doctrines of precision bombardment he had championed-and it was his last strike of the war. Unaware of this success, Hansell was replaced the following day as head of the 21st Bomber Command by the determined LeMay, who immediately suggested a shift to firebombing Japan's major cities at low altitude during nighttime, marking a stark departure from Hansell's previous strategies. However, the only obstacle in the flight path was Iwo Jima, which could alert the Japanese to an impending raid and still had operational airfields capable of launching intercepting fighters. These airfields had also been used for sporadic air assaults on the Marianas, although few attacks were actually carried out in January. Capturing Iwo Jima would resolve these issues, and Admiral Nimitz aimed to establish emergency landing facilities for B-29s based in Saipan, as well as a base for their fighter escorts targeting Japan. Consequently, he decided to proceed with the invasion, codenamed Operation Detachment. After this operation, Nimitz planned to invade Okinawa to secure and develop a robust air and naval base for the assault on the Japanese home islands, which we will discuss further later. For the Iwo Jima operation, Admiral Spruance was once again given overall command of the "big blue fleet," which was re-designated as the 5th Fleet. Under his command, Vice-Admiral Richmond Turner led Task Force 51, the Joint Expeditionary Force, responsible for landing Lieutenant-General Holland Smith's Expeditionary Troops. Turner was supported by Rear-Admiral William Blandy's Task Force 52, the Amphibious Support Force, which included ten escort carriers; Rear-Admiral Harry Hill's Task Force 53, comprising all transports and landing craft; Rear-Admiral Bertram Rodgers' Task Force 54, which had six battleships and five cruisers for shore bombardment; and Vice-Admiral Marc Mitscher's Task Force 58, the Fast Carrier Force. For the amphibious invasion, Major-General Harry Schmidt's 5th Amphibious Corps would deploy the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions, planning to land the 4th and 5th Divisions side by side with two regiments each along the two-mile stretch of beach between Mount Suribachi and the East Boat Basin on the island's southeast coast. Smith and Schmidt also decided to limit corps artillery to two battalions of 155mm howitzers, organized as the 1st Provisional Field Artillery Group, due to the limited space available for emplacements on the island. After landing, Major-General Clifton Cates' 4th Marine Division would take control of the Motoyama Plateau and its airfields, while also capturing the O-1 Line on the corps' right flank. Meanwhile, Major-General Keller Rockey's 5th Marine Division would secure the Mount Suribachi region before advancing northeast to capture the O-1 Line on the corps' left flank. They would then push forward across the island until Iwo Jima was fully secured. At the same time, Major-General Graves Erskine's 3rd Marine Division would remain in reserve, with only its 21st Marine Regiment deployed as the corps reserve. To aid in this effort, the 7th Air Force, under Generals Harmon and Hale, had been consistently targeting Iwo Jima's facilities since August 1944. Following intense attacks in December, which included bombardments by Rear-Admiral Allan Smith's 5th Cruiser Division against Iwo Jima, Haha Jima, and Chichi Jima were again struck on January 5, but the next bombardment wouldn't occur until January 25.  A fighter sweep by 28 P-38s opened the attack at 0945; 62 B-29s bombed at 1100 and 102 B-24s at noon; Crudiv 5 (Rear Admiral Allan E. Smith), comprising heavy cruisers Chester, Pensecola and Salt Lake City with six destroyers, arrived off Iwo at 1330 and opened bombardment at 1347. "Hoke" Smith approached the island from the west, rounded Mount Suribachi and then reversed track in a half-circle. Unfortunately the sky was so heavily overcast as to force the planes to bomb by radar and to hamper ships' spotting. Surface visibility was good enough to enable the island to be well covered by a naval bombardment, which lasted for 70 minutes and expended 1500 rounds of 8-inch and 5334 rounds of 5-inch shell. The bombers dropped 814 tons of bombs. Photographs, taken three days later, showed that both airfields on Iwo were wholly or in part operational, but no more enemy air raids hit the Marianas until Christmas Day. The job of keeping Iwo airfields neutralized was now turned over to B-24s of VII A.A.F. Between 8 December 1944 and 15 February 1945 they flew at least one strike daily over the island. The day before Christmas, Rear Admiral Smith's heavy cruisers, together with five destroyers, delivered a second bombardment, coordinated with a B-24 strike. This strike was slightly more eventful than the initial one in December, but even less effective. The bombardment, which expended 1500 rounds of 8-inch, provoked return fire from a 6-inch coast defense battery (designated "Kitty" on the target maps) in the northeast part of the island, but "Kitty's" claws managed to strike no closer than 200 yards. As proof of the slight damage inflicted by this bombardment, the Japanese were able to pay a vicious return visit to Saipan on Christmas Eve, a raid of 25 planes which destroyed one B-29 and damaged three more beyond repair. Crudiv 5 returned 27 December for a repeat performance, lighter than the others; and a fourth bombardment was set up for 5 January 1945. While fighter planes and B-24s hit Iwo Jima the same cruisers and six destroyers bombarded Chichi Jima, 145 northward, and the slightly nearer Haha Jima. Their hope was to catch a convoy bringing Japanese supplies to these islands, whence they were forwarded to Iwo by small craft at night. Destroyer Fanning, steaming ahead of the group as radar picket, encountered at 0206 a surface target, later identified as LSV-102, which she sank. At 0700 Admiral Smith's group opened a one hour and 49 minutes' bombardment of Chichi Jima. During it, destroyer David W. Taylor suffered an underwater explosion, probably from a mine, which flooded her forward magazine. The Haha Jima bombardment by Salt Lake City and two destroyers lasted for an hour. Crudiv 5 then pounded Iwo Jima for another hour and three quarters. The reply was negligible, and a few aircraft which made passes at the cruisers were easily driven off. Starting on the last day of January and continuing for two weeks, 7th Air Force aircraft bombed the island day and night, occasionally joined by LeMay's Superfortresses. For ten weeks, Iwo Jima faced near-daily bombardments from land-based aircraft, with nearly 6,800 tons of bombs dropped. Additionally, there were five naval bombardments that fired 203 rounds of 16-inch shells, 6,472 rounds of 8-inch shells, and 15,251 rounds of 5-inch shells. Under normal circumstances, such a heavy and sustained bombardment would have been more than enough to devastate an island of that size. However, the Japanese managed to restore the airfields on Iwo Jima just hours after each attack and continued to strengthen their defenses on the island. Following the fall of Saipan, the Japanese appointed Lieutenant-General Kuribayashi Tadamichi to oversee the defenses of the Bonin Islands, renaming the Ogasawara District Group as the 109th Division. Kuribayashi stationed Major-General Tachibana Yoshio's 1st Mixed Brigade and most of Colonel Iida Yusuke's 17th Independent Mixed Regiment on Chichi Jima, along with several other units across the islands. He accurately predicted that Iwo Jima would be the target for an Allied landing and took measures to make it virtually indestructible. To this end, he coordinated with Major-General Senda Sadasue's 2nd Mixed Brigade, Colonel Ikeda Masuo's 145th Regiment, and Lieutenant-Colonel Baron Nishi Takeishi's severely weakened 26th Tank Regiment, which had sustained heavy losses from American submarines at sea. Additionally, Major Fujiwara Tamachi's 3rd Battalion of the 17th Independent Mixed Regiment and a robust artillery unit led by Colonel Kaido Chosaku were included in the defense. Rear-Admiral Ichimaru Toshinosuke also provided a significant naval garrison on the island, centered around the 27th Air Flotilla, bringing Kuribayashi's total forces to approximately 21,060 men, far exceeding the American estimate of 13,000. Aware that the beaches would be vulnerable to enemy naval and air assaults, Kuribayashi opted to strengthen the Mount Suribachi and Motoyama Plateau areas. The Mount Suribachi area was made a semi-independent defense sector, its heavily fortified positions bristling with weapons of all types, ranging from casemated coast-defense guns and artillery to automatic weapons emplaced in mutually supporting pillboxes. The narrow isthmus connecting Suribachi to the rest of the island was lightly held by infantry, but heavily defended by enfilade fire from artillery, rockets, and mortars emplaced on both the high ground in the south (Suribachi area) and the northern portion of the island. The main defense line was a belt of mutually supporting positions organized in depth, running generally northwest-southeast across the island. It stretched from the cliffs north of the western beaches south to include Airfield Number 2; then, turning eastward through Minami, terminated at the rugged coast north of the eastern beaches. Pillboxes, blockhouses, bunkers, and dug-in tanks strengthened the defenses in the naturally formidable terrain everywhere throughout this belt. The second defense line generally bisected the remaining area in the northern portion of the island. It began several hundred yards below Kitano Point on the northwest coast, cut through Airfield Number 3 and the Motoyama area in the center, and terminated between Tachiiwa Point and the East Boat Basin on the eastern coast. Man-made emplacements were not as numerous in this second line, but natural caves and other covered positions afforded by the fantastically rugged terrain were skillfully organized for the defense. The beaches would be lightly defended but would receive fire support from the elevated positions. A substantial reserve force, including tanks, was also prepared to counterattack and push the Americans back into the sea if they managed to establish a foothold. In a shift from traditional Japanese defensive strategies, Kuribayashi moved away from full-scale counterattacks and suicidal banzai charges, instead instructing his troops to hold their mutually supportive positions to the last and to carry out small unit counterattacks at cutoff points. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Allied forces continued their advance through Luzon, battling Japanese defenses, liberating prisoners, and securing key locations, paving the way for a final push toward Manila. Meanwhile, on Iwo Jima, General Kuribayashi was preparing for a final stand, hoping beyond hope to make the Americans pay so dearly they might end the war.

    North Harbor Community Church
    12/29/24 - 1st Sunday after Christmas Day

    North Harbor Community Church

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2025


    1ST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS DAY Colossians 3: 12-2712 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

    Rosanne Welch, PhD
    Meet Beulah Marie Dix: Award-Winning Scholar and Anti-War Novelist Turned Screenwriter – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, January 2025

    Rosanne Welch, PhD

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2025


    Born on Christmas Day in 1876 in Massachusetts, Dix and her family lived in various cities around the historic state until she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to study English and History at Radcliffe College. There she became the first female to be granted the Sohier Literary Prize, for the best thesis of a Harvard or … Continue reading "Meet Beulah Marie Dix: Award-Winning Scholar and Anti-War Novelist Turned Screenwriter – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, January 2025" Related posts: From Silents to Talkies to TV Lenore J. Coffee Did It All – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, November 2023 Between Broadway and Hollywood: The Screenwriting Career of Ketty Frings – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, January 2024 So Much More than Merely Her Chocolate Cake Recipe – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, February 2024

    Great Bible Truths with Dr David Petts
    290 My Story Talk 3 Home, Family, Christmas & Holidays (1947-1953)

    Great Bible Truths with Dr David Petts

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 24, 2025 15:47


    My Story  Talk 3  Home, Family, Christmas & Holidays (1947-1953) Welcome to Talk 3 in our series where I'm reflecting on the goodness of God throughout my life. From what I've said so far it's clear that after the war my life in the 1940s was largely comprised of school and church. I suppose that was true of most Christian children in those days and continues to be so today. And what was true of my years at primary school and Sunday school was also true of the years that followed. Most of my activity was to be centred on school and church. But before I move on to those things in the next talk, I need to say more about my family, because without a doubt our family is by far the strongest influence in the formation of our character, our behaviour, and our outlook on life. And life is not just about our education or work or church. It's about relationships, people, recreation, having fun, and healthy enjoyment of the things God has so graciously lavished upon us. So this talk is about my home, my family, Christmas and holidays.   Home For the first 23 years of my life I lived with my parents in the home in Hornchurch where I was born. It was a fairly standard three bedroomed semidetached house, but it benefited from a rather large garden which backed onto the railway. We weren't disturbed by the noise of the trains because the garden was some 200 feet – about 60 metres – long, but by walking to the end of the garden and looking down the railway embankment we could watch electric trains on the District Line and the steam locomotives on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. My parents were both keen gardeners and had chosen the house because of the size of the garden. They planted several apple trees, two pear trees, two plum trees, a greengage tree, as well as strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants. My grandfather had also planted for me an ash tree at the very end of the garden and, by looking at Google Earth, it looks as though it's still there today. Sadly, the large fishpond which I helped my father build when I was about ten seems to have gone.   Family and Friends One of the advantages of having a large garden was that there was a big enough lawn for my father to teach me to play cricket and football. So, although I was an only child, I was never a lonely child. There were always plenty of friends who liked to come and play. I also enjoyed playing board games with my grandad, my mother's father, who lived with us for about five years, and later with my grandmother, my father's mother, who came later to live with us for six years and who died at the age of 86 when I was 16. Having elderly parents living with us for eleven years was not easy for my mother, but she seldom if ever complained, and her example taught me the real meaning of love, a commitment to serving others despite the cost to ourselves. I also got some idea of what it's like to be in your eighties!   Family at Christmas I saw relatively little of other family members as my uncles, aunts and ten cousins all lived too far away for frequent visits. But we did see most of them at Christmas and sometimes during the other school holidays. Because, with one exception, all my cousins were older than I was, Christmas was usually spent with my Auntie Addie – Adelaide actually, but I never heard anyone actually call her that! She was a year or two younger than my mother and had two sons, Brian who was a year older than me, and Geoffrey who was born shortly after the war when Uncle Bert returned from years away fighting in Burma (now known as Myanmar).   We usually alternated where we would spend Christmas, either at our house in Hornchurch or at their prefab in Woodford Green near Walthamstow. Prefabs were prefabricated bungalows introduced after the war to provide housing that could be erected more quickly than by using the usual methods of construction. Originally they were intended to last for, I think, only ten years, but in practice most of them lasted for decades. One of the exciting things about them was that they were all provided with a fridge with a small freezer compartment, so we could have ice-cream whenever we liked. Fridges were a luxury in those days and it was many years later that we ourselves had one. Eileen and I had our first fridge in 1968, six years after we were married. Brian and I had to share a bed every Christmas and I have vivid memories of waking up in the early hours of the morning to see what Santa had left in our ‘stockings' – which were actually pillowcases, as stockings weren't large enough to accommodate the vast number of presents we each received. I don't remember how old I was when I realised that Santa wasn't real, but it must have been well before I left primary school. I do know that some Christians, quite understandably, believe it's wrong to tell their children something which isn't true, fearing especially that, when they finally understand that the whole Santa thing is a myth, they will conclude the Christmas story found in the Bible is a legend too. That's a view that I understand and fully respect, but I can only say that it was never a problem for me, or, as far as I know, for my children and grandchildren for that matter. If we teach our children that what is in the Bible is true, they will soon discover that Father Christmas is nowhere to be found in the Bible, but is just a nice story that, although it isn't true, gave them a lot of fun when they were too young to understand otherwise. But each of us must follow our own conscience in this matter, as we always must when confronted with issues over which Christians disagree. Christmas dinner, as I remember it, was very similar to what most people have today, with one notable exception. I can't remember when we first had turkey, but for several years our celebratory meal was roast chicken. Unlike today, chicken was then very expensive, and Christmas was the only time we had it. At other times our regular Sunday roast was lamb, which, also unlike today, was the cheapest meat you could get. Our typical weekly menu was roast lamb on Sundays, cold lamb on Mondays, minced lamb in the form of shepherd's pie on Tuesdays, and lamb stew with dumplings on Wednesdays. So chicken at Christmas was a real treat! Apart from eating, we spent most of Christmas Day and Boxing Day playing with the games we had received as presents. These were always very competitive and included subuteo football, a form of cricket you could also play on the table, table tennis, darts, and a bagatelle pin board. We also enjoyed heading a balloon to one another and counting how many times we could keep it up. When we later tried it outside with a football we found it was much harder! Another good thing about staying at Auntie Addie's house was that we were able to visit other family members, as three of my aunts lived quite near to her. There was always quite a crowd in the evenings when we all joined together for a party, when we played traditional party games like musical chairs and pass the parcel. Years later I was to discover that some people's idea of a party was a time when you did little more than sit around and drink too much. This shocked me because our parties had never been like that. My parents were both teetotallers and, although most of the rest of the family were not, they respected their wishes and rarely drank in the presence of children and teenagers. Of course, the consumption of alcohol is another of those matters where Christians disagree, but hopefully all would at least agree that abstinence is the best policy in the presence of those who might become addicted. I personally think of myself as an abstainer, but not a total abstainer.  And I'm grateful that, because of the example set by my family, I have always been cautious in these matters and am happy to say that I have never been drunk, something which even some Christians find hard to believe.   Family and Holidays But Christmas was not the only time when I met other family members. There were the summer holidays too. Hotels were too expensive, and we usually spent a couple of weeks away from home staying with family. During my primary school years we went several times to Cowes on the Isle of Wight where my father's sister, Auntie Lil, had a flat overlooking the sea. Her husband, Uncle Ernie, was a lighthouse keeper on the Needles, an impressive rock formation just offshore at the western end of the island. His job required him to live on the lighthouse for several weeks at a time, so sometimes we never saw him at all during the weeks we were on holiday with Auntie Lil. But when he was able to be with us, I remember that he was very generous. We usually had to travel everywhere by bus, but on one occasion he paid for a taxi to take us on a tour of the whole island. Another time, when I was eight, he paid for my father and me to go on a ‘joy-ride', a five minute trip on an aeroplane, an Auster light aircraft with just enough room for Dad and me to sit behind the pilot. I realise that this might not sound very exciting to young people today. Plane travel is so common, and many families take flights abroad for their holidays. But in those days it really was something exceptional. No one in my class at school had ever been in a plane, and my teacher got me to tell them all what it was like. We had only gone up to 1000 feet, but the experience of flying was exhilarating as we looked down on houses that now looked no bigger than a matchbox and were able to see so far into the distance, across to the southern coast of England and beyond. I'm so grateful to Uncle Ernie for making that experience possible for me. (It cost him seven shillings and sixpence which was a lot of money in those days, but which in today's decimal currency equates to 37.5p). Due to his kindness and Auntie Lil's hospitality we always enjoyed our holidays on the Isle of Wight. Another favourite holiday destination, particularly during my early teens, was Canterbury where my mother's sister, another Auntie Lil, lived with her husband Will and her daughter Doreen who was an English teacher in a Grammar School. I remember listening to her discussions with my dad about the nature of language, something I was particularly interested in because by then I was already studying French, Latin, and Greek at school. But more of that later. While in Canterbury we enjoyed visiting its wonderful cathedral and other places of historical interest like the Westgate Tower and the ducking stool where in less enlightened centuries women who scolded their husbands were ducked in the river to teach them a lesson!  We also took advantage of the beautiful countryside around Canterbury and particularly enjoyed walking across the golf course which immediately overlooked my aunt's back garden. Other days were spent taking bus trips to the coastal resorts that lay within easy reach of Canterbury – places like Herne Bay, Margate, and Ramsgate, all lovely places, but nothing of course to compare with the beauty of Devon where I now live! My first holiday in Devon was when I was fifteen – but that's something I'll come back to next time when I talk about my teenage years at church and my life at Brentwood School where I was privileged by God's grace to receive a first-class education.   But finally, I'm conscious that in this talk I've made little mention of God, but I'm reminded that in the book of Esther God isn't mentioned either, yet it's very clear as we read it that he was at work in every detail of the story. So it is with us. His purpose for each of us is different, but he is at work in the ordinary everyday things in our lives, not just in any miracles he may perform for us. So I thank God for the home I grew up in, the family I was part of, and the fun we had together at Christmas and on holiday. These things, I believe, played an important part in my childhood and teenage years enabling me to grow into adulthood, confident to face the future, knowing that God loved me and had a purpose for my life.

    Wife of Crime
    January SSTN - "I feel like I don't do a lot of thinking..."

    Wife of Crime

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2025 69:26


    This month on SSTN we are talking about a thief in NYC who haggles with his victims, the homeless man who was pestered on the train and decided to take matters into his own hands, a Florida woman who pretended to know sign language and signed for a police press conference, a 75 year old woman who was mauled to death by farm pigs on Christmas Day, the death row inmates who's sentences were commuted to life before Joe Biden left the office and the Tik Tok ban that lasted a day! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Scouting for Growth
    Carolina Klint: Unveiling Key 2025 WEF Risk Insights

    Scouting for Growth

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2025 43:25


    On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Carolina Klint, Managing Director and chief commercial officer for Continental Europe at Marsh McLennan, who shares her views on the latest WEF report and its implications for businesses and insurers worldwide. KEY TAKEAWAYS My goal with speaking about and promoting the Report is where the topics of risk and resilience belong, which is on the agenda of world leaders, decision makers, executives, board members. The business world is so complex and difficult to navigate and we have an environment now where risks are not only interconnected but they are also layered. So, the Global Risk Report is a great place to start trying to make sense of this. When a company looks at the risks that have the potential to impact or execute on strategies it’s so difficult to get it right: You’re going to go through your risks and scenario planning to pull together an ambitious risk register. Most companies have good processes for this, but in the current environment it’s very rare to pick and prepare for the risks that are going to be the ones that will hit you. Aby working on a culture of risk awareness and resilience, by working on taking a holistic view, connection the dots between people, risk and strategy, companies that do that have a much better opportunity to deal with whatever ends up hitting them. If you have a culture and awareness, and if you empower your leaders and employees to manage through when something hits, it’s going to become a much better outcome for you regards of the risks. We need to not just look at what’s in front of us, but look at the long term perspective. Human beings are wired to focus on what’s in front of us and it’s easy to forget the long-term horizon. This is where the Global Risk Report is so helpful because it looks at the perception of current risks, the 2-year and 10-year risk horizons. BEST MOMENTS ‘We look at how we can bring more value and become more relevant to our clients by connecting people, risk, and strategy – and the WEF Global Risk Report speaks directly to that.’ ‘The business environment is very difficult to navigate, and it’s only through collaboration and looking at the business holistically that you can achieve a long term sustainable business model.’ ‘For anyone in risk and resilience, when the Global Risk Report comes out it’s like Christmas Day as a 5-year-old!’ ‘Everyone’s got a plan until you get punched in the face – that’s exactly the way it is in the current environment.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Carolina Klint is a recognized expert in global risk management and a key contributor to thought leadership initiatives, including the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report. As a Managing Director and Risk Management Leader for Continental Europe at Marsh, she works with clients across industries to anticipate, quantify, and navigate emerging threats—ranging from geopolitical and environmental disruptions to the rapid evolution of technology. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook TikTok Email Website

    Near Death Experience
    He DIED on CHRISTMAS DAY! Lost FEAR OF DEATH & could see in both eyes again! (NDE)

    Near Death Experience

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2025 30:51


    He DIED on CHRISTMAS DAY! Lost FEAR OF DEATH & could see in both eyes again! (NDE)

    The Overnightscape Underground
    Into Your Head – Show 838: An Insom Maniacal Christmas (12/25/24)

    The Overnightscape Underground

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2025 38:32


    38:32 — In a Christmas Day episode not for younger ears, Neal discusses identifying insects by smell, tag teaming citrus fruits, declaring dead weight at Customs, why ripping out entrails is a non violent act, what you Australians demand of Santa, watching Star Trek: The Next Generation in black and white, margarine related TV repair […]

    Skip the Queue
    Marketing Strategies for regional attractions

    Skip the Queue

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 22, 2025 52:31


    Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is Paul Marden.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website SkiptheQueue.fm.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter  or Bluesky for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcast.Competition ends on 5th February 2025. The winner will be contacted via Bluesky.  Show references: Website: https://www.agility-marketing.co.uk/https://www.agility-marketing.co.uk/service/digital-advertising-survey/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-dimes-agility/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anitaagility/ Liz Dimes is a Digital Marketing Director for visitor attraction specialist, Agility Marketing and the lead behind their digital advertising and conversion optimisation strategies. She boasts over a decade of experience in delivering tangible results. With a relentless drive for results she has steered impressive returns for clients across the attraction industry. Anita Waddell is MD and founder of Agility Marketing, visitor attraction marketing specialists.  Anita has been a Visit England judge, currently sits on the BALPPA Management  Committee and looked after the National Farm Attraction Network during Covid.Anita fell in love with the sector during her first ever marketing role at London Zoo.   Having always worked in the attraction sector, she founded Agility at the start of the millennium.  In total, across her career she has worked with over 70 attractions.With a passion for digital and data driven marketing, she adores seeing clients get results and enjoys mentoring her team to deliver winning campaigns. Transcription:  Paul Marden: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in and working with visitor attractions. I'm your host, Paul Marden. For many regional attractions, the Head of Marketing is a one person marketing machine expected to be all over digital, email, social and out of home advertising. In today's episode we're joined by Anita Waddell and Liz Dimes from Agility Marketing who'll be sharing insights from their attraction marketing academy to help power up your marketing in 2025. After starting her career in attractions marketing at London Zoo, Anita has run Agility Marketing for over years, working with clients like Camel Creek and Blackgang Chine. Liz is the expert behind Agility Marketing's digital advertising and conversion optimization strategies, having found her love for visitor attractions when joining Agility in 2017. Paul Marden: Liz, Anita, welcome. Skip the Queue. Anita Waddell: Thank you. Liz Dimes: Great to be here. Paul Marden: So this is not our first episode of the new year, but it's the first episode we're recording in the new year. And as I was saying before we started, my rule is that I can still say Happy New Year up until the end of January as long as it's the first time I've said Happy New Year to somebody. So Happy New Year to both of you. Liz Dimes: Happy New Year to you. Anita Waddell: Happy New Year. Paul Marden: As you know, we always get started with an icebreaker question. So I've got a couple of little icebreakers for you and they are topical, relevant to where we are right now. So I'm going to go with Liz. Which is better, Christmas Day or New Year's Day? Liz Dimes: Christmas Day. Although I must admit I prefer the run up to Christmas than the actual day. Paul Marden: Oh, okay. So it's the excitement of going out and doing all the prep and the present wrapping and yeah.Liz Dimes: Christmas trees, pretty lights, shiny things. Excitement. But yes, I think I'd definitely choose Christmas Day over New Year's Day. Paul Marden: It's funny, isn't it? Because we'll split. I'm definitely Christmas. Much more Christmas than New Year's. I'm quite happy on New Year's to be sat watching hootenanny on telly while I'm going out and doing a big go out and party with lots of people. Liz Dimes: But absolutely, I agree.Paul Marden: my age, but there we go. Anita, do you chuckle the Christmas decorations and the lights into a box and throw it into the loft or are you Ms. Neat and everything is neatly folded and packaged away ready for future Anita to thank you and be able to do everything easily next week? Anita Waddell: I would love to say I was the latter, but having done that on Sunday, I think it's more about getting them away in a box and deal with the problem next year. So, yes, so, yeah, I aspire to be the neat queen, but unfortunately it is just, yeah, time takes its toll and it's a matter of getting the job done. Paul Marden: There's a real spread in our house. Mrs. Marden is tidy it away as fast as you can. I will sit there literally for hours straightening all of the out and making sure that it's right. And then next year you can figure out who was responsible for the packing away because you could just see it straight in front of you. Liz Dimes: I saw a recommendation the other day, actually, that you should put sort of £20 or something in with your Christmas decorations so when you get them out next year, you can buy yourself a takeaway while you're sorting them out from last year's. You. I didn't do it, but I thought that was a brilliant idea. Paul Marden: So I came back to work on Monday and I went. All the stuff from the office was all packed away and I went to put it in the storage locker and we share our storage with the building owners and I just found the Christmas tree stuck in the cupboard fully decorated and I think, is that really putting the decorations? Is that really taking it down? Have you broken the rules or is ihat really a cunning plan?Anita Waddell: That's one way of doing with it, isn't it? Definitely. Paul Marden: Exactly. Look, we have got lots to talk about, but first tell me about yourselves and tell me about your background. Anita, tell me a little bit about you. Anita Waddell: I suppose visitor attractions has always been my thing, ever since my first marketing job, which was at London Zoo many years ago, I caught the bug really. But I suppose I was at London Zoo. I was very. They weren't in the strong financial situation, so there was actually a recruitment ban. So I was a young aspiring marketeer who joined the company. And as everybody who was experienced and worried about their own career path left, I just absorbed their role. So over the spate of three years I had a huge amount of experience and from there then left to become a marketing manager of a much smaller attraction. Anita Waddell: And having doubled their numbers from, you know, up to over 200, 000 over a year, I suddenly thought, hold on a minute, I actually, this is really fun industry and something that's actually, I can do okay. So from there I went on and ended up working for an agency myself who were specialists in visitor attractions. And then 20 years ago I thought, “Well, hold on a minute, maybe I should try this for myself. Maybe I can have my own agency.” I thought, “What's the worst that can happen?” I just have to go back and do the day job again. So over those years more people have joined me. I've got three cracking directors, really good senior leadership team and Agility now is a visitor attraction marketing agency. Paul Marden: Amazing. How about you, Liz, how did you get into this industry? Liz Dimes: Well, I started in a very different interest. I did an automotive and I started doing more PR than marketing definitely, but it just wasn't. I enjoyed it a lot and I learned a lot about cars but it wasn't really my passion so I sort of left and thought I'm going to try something else. I was more interested in learning about the digital marketing as that was really starting to kick off in the world at that point. So I got a digital marketing role at a business school which was near to where I live, which is very different. And I really started to get the bug for the digital marketing aspect and just in general enjoyed learning more and more and more about that. Liz Dimes: But the whole sort of B2B business school side, little bit dull for me if I'm totally honest. So. And actually that business all got sold to another one so I was made redundant at that point. So it gave me a little bit of a chance to sort of sit back and go, right, what do I actually want to do? And digital marketing was definitely the thing, particularly sort of paid advertising for me. And that's when I found Anita and Agility Marketing and they happened to have the perfect role for me and that was in 2017 and then just loved the industry very quickly from joining and sort of have no intention of ever leaving it, to be honest. Paul Marden: It's super fun, isn't it? It's fun doing the marketing thing that we do in this particular space because it's all about helping people to enjoy themselves. Liz Dimes: So what could be more fun and families and I have a, I've got a five year old so I really in that moment at the moment, I'm my own target audience at the moment, which is always nice. Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things that Agility has recently done is set up the Attraction Marketing academy and I think today we're going to talk, not talk about that, but we're going to talk about some of the stuff that you cover in that academy. So why don't we just start by telling listeners a little bit potted understanding of what the Academy actually is so. Anita Waddell: I mean the Academy is what it says on the ting. It's a marketing academy for visitor attractions and it actually, the re. Where it came from was out of COVID Some obviously don't want to go back to Covid ever again. But during that time everyone was in survival mode and they really shared, they collaborated, they did everything they could to work with each other and once life got back to normal a bit more, that collaboration stopped. There wasn't the need for it but we really enjoyed sharing all of our knowledge and expertise during that time. So the Academy was really has really been born to allow us to continue to do that. So it is a visitor attraction masterclass I suppose. So we have pre recorded content, we have fresh content through live sessions monthly. Anita Waddell: We have ask me anything clinics so people can, our members can jump on board and say, look, you know, actually we had a brilliant ask me anything clinic in December where they were, were talking about events for one particular member for the forthcoming year and there were loads of fresh ideas that came out of that for her. So it is really providing that mentoring but also that detailed knowledge and expertise which all attractions, if you're a one man band, you don't necessarily have, you're having, you know, you have to be jack of all trades. So. So we're a helping hand really. Paul Marden: Yeah. I think it's really interesting, isn't it, that many of the attractions that we deal with are massively well known brands but actually when you look at the team behind it, they are more like a small business or small to medium sized business. They often don't have massive teams even though they're brands has massive recognition and you can often be quite surprised, can't you, that it is this kind of one person marketing machine at the centre of what is a really well known brand. It's quite surprising sometimes and I think the more we can do to support those people the better really. So why don't we delve a little bit into some of the stuff that the Academy covers and then we can talk a little bit about some of the ways that marketers can help improve their outcomes for this year ahead. Paul Marden: So one place to start is always about benchmarking. This is something that at Rubber Cheese we find really interesting and we care a lot about with our Rubber Cheese survey. But I think benchmarking and understanding where you are against the competition is not competition against the rest of the sector. I should say is really important because you can understand what good and bad is can't you? And this is something that you guys care quite a lot about as well, isn't it? Liz Dimes: Absolutely. It's really at the heart of everything we do for our clients. We benchmark with the industry. That's the brilliance really for us of working solely in the visitor attraction industry. We can really see what's the good, bad and ugly of all things marketing within that industry. So we recommend that you'd benchmark everything really. But obviously it depends on what you're doing. So you'd benchmark your socials, your emails, your website performance, your reviews, your paid advertising results, just anything you, anything that you collect data on for you. If you don't know whether that's good or bad, how do you know what you're looking at really with your data? Liz Dimes: So  you might see that this year you were 2% up on your last year's results and think, great, but if everyone else is 10% up, then actually maybe there's something key in there that you're missing that would really be a quick fix for you to do. And without knowing that it's impossible to do that, it really, I mean, the majority of the benchmarking we do is digital advertising because that's, it's 70% of our work for our clients. But as say we do benchmark across everything and by benchmarking we know that we can ensure that we're optimising well to make sure that we're achieving the best results possible for all our clients. And at the end of the day that's what we're here for and that's what we all do. Liz Dimes: I'm going to push this over to Anita a little bit, but it's because benchmarking is such a key thing for us. We've actually got a new initiative we're announcing now in January. So I'm going to let Anita do that. Paul Marden: Oh, come on then. Drum roll, Anita. Anita Waddell: Okay, so this spoilers. The inspiration of this came from Rubber Cheese and your website benchmarking for the visitor attraction sector. And we benchmark all the time. But actually we know that we work with 15 to 20 attractions across the year. But you know, the attraction sector is so much bigger. And what we wanted to do was launch an industry wide survey on digital advertising so people can identify how big their budget should actually be for digital advertising. What performance, what click through rate, what cost per acquisition, what cost per click is actually good and average across all of the platforms. For example, we know in our business a lot of our clients will use the Google search, Google performance match, Meta, TikTok. Anita Waddell: But we also know that when we start working with some attractions, they're only using Meta or they're only using Facebook. And so it's really just taking a broad brush of the sector to actually understand what is happening out there across whether it be theme parks, whether it be a heritage attraction, whether they're a zoo. Just a broad brush to really give something back to the sector. Like you've done with Rubber Cheese. Really. Paul Marden: I think it's so important, isn't it? Because paid advertising can be a bit scary for some people because it feels a little bit like you're gambling or it feels like a fruit machine. But I always think that it's a fruit machine where you can figure out the odds. And once you figure out the odds, you just have to decide how much money you can pump into the top of it and magically at the bottom money comes out in relation to the odds that you've calculated. But if you can across the sector. Anita Waddell: Yeah, exactly. I mean, the beauty of digital advertising is that it is, you know, there is a system and a process to it. So you know that you've got to get people to your website. You know you've got from the website, you need to get into your landing page at every stage of the journey. Coming back to benchmark working, you can identify what is working well and what actually can be tweaked to optimise it even further. And we've got clients now after Covid, there was with that when we focused purely on. Well, actually to be honest, during COVID there wasn't a lot of marketing going on at all because people were so desperate to get out the organic, social and email marketing could just cope with it. Anita Waddell: But then people came back and they started to do a lot more out of home. But now we're finding clients are actually saying this year in particular with the increased costs in the budget. Sure. We know we get a lot of, we know we get a lot from digital advertising. Shall we actually reduce our home budget and put more into digital advertising because it's more measurable and that confidence can be given. Paul Marden: We've all only got limited budgets and it's all about deciding where the best place to spend your money is. So, yeah, we'll come back to this benchmarking point a little bit later, I think, because I think is really important. But let's dive into some of the channels that marketers can use and talk about some tips and tricks across each of the channels. Maybe should we start with social? Is it important top attractions? I think you've already answered that. But how important? Liz Dimes: I guess I think it's very important. I think we all know that's where people spend their time at the moment. Depending on who you're. Because in general as a sort of blanket, a lot of the target audience for all attractions is very similar. But depending on where you are you a tourist destination, are you more of a regional destination, are you a heritage site, are you a zoo? It will depend. So. But most of those audiences are spending a lot of their time on socials. But because of that and because everyone knows that their concentration is much less, your competition is much higher. But you see, but you got to be there. If you're not there, you're not in with a chance. So it is, it's incredibly important and I think it's about what should your focus be. Liz Dimes: So actually if you are a one man band and you have a certain amount of hours in the day to do it, what are you going to focus on? Maybe pick two or three. So if you are going to pick two or three, I think at the moment you would pick Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, still. I know we all think Facebook is disappearing, but the grandparents take their grandchildren on these days out. Paul Marden: Exactly. And that landscape of the different social platforms was stable for a very long time, wasn't it? But it's changing quite a lot. So should you be on Twitter? Is it a scary place to be now? Should you be on Bluesky? But, but in you're saying TikTok still, Facebook, Instagram, those are the key places that you should be focusing attention. Probably. Liz Dimes: Absolutely. I think if you've got extra time, if you have extra resource, then absolutely test those extra platforms out and see where you've got. But actually if you're, if your time is limited, then focus on doing the best for the top platforms of where your audience are. And at the moment we believe, and all the data believes for that for our audiences it's Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Paul Marden: Yeah. And, and what are the basics that you've got to be covering there? What should they be posting about? To be able to kind of meet the bar. Anita Waddell: I feel the key with social media is that you know you can, it's got to convey a message that is going to provide overall reason to visit. So you need to get your planning right. And so yes, you want to have different formats and you want to make the posts are not wallpaper posts and you want to make sure that the post you're saying are said. You know, the same message is said in three or four different ways but ultimately you know, you're trying to stimulate an action and whether that's just engagement at this stage, you know, people aren't necessarily going to visit immediately after seeing a post but if they engage then see more posts and over time when they do want, they do want that day out, you'll be in their, in their top of mind. Anita Waddell: So I think the key we always say is like no, make sure you get your planning right. Your, your commercial messages in January are going to be totally different to your commercial messages in Summer or Easter when you know, in January you might be thinking about we've got, we need a value, a volume driver promotion because people haven't got any money. We want you Season passes are always sold in the first few months of the year. So you want to make sure you've got some promotion, you've got your season pass messaging out there. So it is, you know, make sure you've got your planning and messages right and from there you can then be creative as you like. But you've got to make sure that you're saying the right thing. Paul Marden: Let's follow that thought. What are the special little sprinkles that people could do this year to really energise their social media? What is it that they can do to inject that creativity? Anita Waddell: I think different formats, I think, you know, you can say the same thing, overlook different formats to really make them zing. Liz Dimes: One of the things we're really seeing good trends on and again this does depend on who you have in your team. But if you've got a member in your team who is willing to be on camera and is entertaining, is witty, can be a bit different. There's, there's a few attractions that are doing this really well already. But if there's something about. So we all talk about user generated content and absolutely you should be sharing user generated content. You should be making your most of your micro influences and your. All that kind of thing. But actually there's sort of EGC which is Employee Generated Content as well. And I think a bit of behind the scenes is still works well. Liz Dimes: A bit of witty content from someone and if you' the right person who's willing to do it and has the great personality and is happy to be on screen, then please take advantage of that person. Really, please use it. Because also they'll probably really enjoy it. I mean, there's a number of attractions where I know because we've spoken to them, where they're sort of bit famous. So yeah, people go round, go and they spot them and they want to go and say hi to that person and that. And if it's the right person who's comfortable with that, they really enjoy that. Yeah, so if you've got that person, go for it. That's a real, it's a real trend at the moment that's working well. Paul Marden: Okay, let's move channels then. Let's talk about email marketing because interestingly, in the Rubber Cheese survey this year, the data that we had showed that this was the weakest source of leads for attractions. Now, as I always say when I talk about our data, you know, there's statistics involved and you know, what we know is about the data set that is in front of us. It's not always completely reflective of the entire sector. So is that illustrative of what you guys see as well or is it more effective than that for you? Anita Waddell: I think I would say that we measure our email marketing. We put UTM codes on all of our links so we can actually track effectively. I would probably say they're not seeing it either because they're not tracking it effectively and UTM codes are so easy to set up these days or they're not. You know, the end of the day, the emails is a channel of communication. So if your email says exactly the same thing every single month, you just need to, with your, with your programming. And I think programming is going to be such a big thing, continue to be such a big thing this year. You need to really stimulate that repeat business. Really stimulate, give people a reason to revisit it. Your email marketing needs to be saying something different every single time. Anita Waddell: Otherwise people will just get bored with it. So I would say it's those two things. Paul Marden: Yeah. So it's all about keeping the faith. It is a valuable channel. You should focus on it. But you need to be able to have all of the tracking in place so that you can attribute the leads to that source and then a decent story to tell that's going to engage people. Anita Waddell: The only other thing I would say is that, and I don't. I think most people have got their heads around this now. But GDPR, when it came out, everyone was terrified of not getting, you know, you can only email people if you get an opt in. Well that's correct. That's one method of consent. But with legitimate interest, if they visited you already then you've got a reason to remarket to them as long as your Privacy Policy is correct and you've your, your everything else. So I think that's why some people go out. Some people are, we're amazed when we start conversations that they still are asking people to opt in and not using legitimate interest. So that could be another reason why in your survey results they were a bit skewed. Liz Dimes: I think there's quite a bit of scaremongering out there a little bit with email marketing at the moment because Apple are, they have updated their privacy settings a while ago which means that effectively when you're looking at your email results anything that's gone into an Apple mail will be marked as open even if it's not. So effectively your open rates are a little bit pointless since that update. So what's important to look at is your Click Through Rates because then you know those people have opened it and then how many have clicked through. Which is why the UTM codes are particularly useful because that helps with that. The other thing that Apple are doing at the moment is they're suggesting they're going to start the sort of promotions tab. I can't remember what their terminology is. Liz Dimes: Like you have in your Gmail when you log on your laptop, on your desktop as opposed to in your phone. So that will affect, that absolutely will affect email marketing. But what it will affect is email marketing that isn't tested, updated, optimised and tried and best. So if you do just keep doing what you're doing. Absolutely. Your email marketing is gonna, you're gonna lose on that. Paul Marden: So good email marketing is a worthwhile thing to do. Liz Dimes: Absolutely. And it is about testing because actually one of the things that we don't know yet because it's not happened yet but one of the things that might work is by making sure, rather make sure you're not sending from a no reply or admin at or an info at send it from a person's email that's less likely to be marked as spam or promotions. So all these things are as these updates come through test if suddenly you see a massive drop off in your click through rate, something's happened. Try something different on the next go. Paul Marden: Yeah. Liz Dimes: So I think, I imagine people are worried about whether Email marketing is going to continue to work and there probably will come a time when it doesn't. But at the moment I think it's still an important part of the mix. Absolutely. Anita Waddell: I think for Life Stage as well, it's worth taking it into account because there's some real hard data that's come back which suggests that the younger audiences are not using email marketing anymore. And I think that's really, that's quite true. But that is that Life Stage or is that young people? And I think that will play out because when people get into the office world, the world of work, they start using email a lot more and they become more familiar with it. So I don't know if it's Life Stage or if it's actually happening. We work with Tullis and Tully's obviously run a lot of brands which are aimed at sort of a 20 to 30 year old market and one of their biggest drivers is still email marketing. Anita Waddell: So I think, yeah, I think, but I think as Liz said, measure, optimise, test, do all of that and it should still deliver. Paul Marden: Good. Let's cut to the web. What are the problems with websites that you're seeing for regional attractions at the moment? Liz Dimes: One of the things we see quite a bit is that people who look at their own website as them, not as their customer. So they'll look at their website on their laptop. Their customers are not looking at their website on their laptop. They will look at it as someone who already knows the product, who. And even if you think you're not, your unconsciousness does know. So I mean, the average for visitor attraction websites is that nearly 90% of your sessions are happening on a mobile. So if you are ever looking at your own website, please look at it on your mobile. It's so easy to go, “Oh, I'm on my laptop because I'm doing my admin work right now and my admin work includes. I'm going to have a quick look at our website.”Liz Dimes: If you are going to do it on your laptop, press F12 please, because if you press F12 on your PC, you'll be able to look at it as a mobile. It won't be quite exactly what it is in as a mobile, but it's a good go. Not everyone knows about F12, so hopefully that helps a few people. But I think that is a real, it's a real key thing that we do find that some people tend to look at their own website not as a customer. So really think about it. Liz Dimes: If you are, say your key audience is a 35 year old mother of two, one has a toddler and one is a school child, put yourself in that place or ask do you know someone, one of your friends, that audience, ask them to go through your website blind and is your customer journey working? Do they immediately understand what you are? Can they quickly find out your opening times? Can they quickly find. If you have parking, can they quickly book? Is the booking, is the. Is the push through to booking which at the end of the day is the ultimate goal for pretty much everyone. Really, really think about it as your customer. And I think sometimes that's really difficult to do when you're so ingrained in your own attraction. Paul Marden: I can't stop myself grinning like a loon. You're talking about my life. This is the conversation I have over and over again. User testing. That's one of the questions in the survey that always blows my mind. How few people do user testing and how few people do user testing on a mobile and putting themselves into the shoes of their customers. I don't care if you like your website or not. I care whether your customers can do what they want to do. That's the only thing I care about. That's a bit untrue. I'm playing to the audience a little bit. Liz Dimes: But no but it is so true. And I think there are. If you can't, there's ways you can look at it from a more sort of data perspective. If you're a data person in your. I know people are still getting their heads around GA4 and to be honest, so am I. Even though I'm in it all the time because they change it every five minutes, hate it and you have to build a lot of it yourself. But there are a lot of positives of GA4 as well. You can see relatively simply how many people are going from your homepage or your landing page or your event page, whichever page you want to look at. Liz Dimes: If you want them to go to your ticketing site because most people use external platform ticketing sites, what percentage are landing on that page and going where you want them to go. Now it will be a low percentage always, even if you've got a really good system because they will want to find out more on different things and in lots of ways you want them to. But actually if you've got a return visit on your website, really that's when they should be booking. They've had a look, they found out where you are, they've talked to their friends on WhatsApp. Yes, that is one of the key options. Can they really quickly get to your booking site and book have a look at that data? If you can. Liz Dimes: And if it's really low, maybe you haven't got the right call to action buttons on your page or they're not as obvious as you think they are because maybe you're looking at it on a desktop rather than a mobile. Paul Marden: Amen. Liz Dimes: Good. Oh, I'm pleased because you're the number one expert in the website, so I'm glad you agree with me. But there's. Yeah, there's lots of things, there's lots of quick wins by just having a look. Paul Marden: Right, let's just very quickly touch on some of those then. So what are the quick wins that people can do with their websites right now that is going to turn it into a lead generating machine for them? Liz Dimes: What is your load speed? Are people bouncing off because you're not loading quickly? If it is low, do something about it. What are your call to actions? Are they obvious? Are they clear? Have you chosen one key call to action per page? Don't confuse your customer. Their attention span is really low. Does it show off what you want it to show off? Those are the top three things I would say look at. Anita Waddell: The other thing I would probably add to that is look at your home page. Make sure you're updating it regularly and giving those people the reasons to visit. I'm often quite surprised how they update the rest of the website but then they don't update the homepage on what is coming and what's next and what's on and also what's on now. So I think, yeah, I would say look at the homepage. Think of the homepage as really a signpost page. Once they live there, you want, they want to go, they've got to find something on there that's going to interest them and so that would be my recommendation to add to that. Paul Marden: Good. So those are all great things to do once they hit your website, but you've got to get into the website in the first place. So let's talk about paid advertising because that's something that you guys do a lot of, isn't it? Yeah. And that's the thing that can drive reliable traffic to your website. So it's hugely important. Liz Dimes: Absolutely. Paul Marden: I bet there's some real howlers that you see when you're first engaged by a client and you come and look at what they're doing in paid advertising. What are those real gotchas that you see? Anita Waddell: God, it's like opening your. Yeah, go on, Liz. You can reveal some secrets of what people are doing. Paul Marden: This is therapy session. This is a friendly, safe space. Just unburden yourselves. Liz Dimes: Yes, we won't name any names, don't worry. Well, while we're talking about website, I think one of the things with paid advertising that people really don't, they forget to think about or forget how important it is what web page are you sending that traffic to? Because absolutely, it might be your homepage, if your homepage is the right page, but equally it probably isn't your homepage. It needs to relate to the ad you are placing. So I think sometimes it's the last thought. It's, “Oh, we want to do an ad, we want to do an ad, do it.” And then, “Oh, don't even think about where we're going to send it. Send it to the homepage.” So I would say that's a really key thing that people sometimes forget. Liz Dimes: And actually, if you think about again, always come back to what will the customer think? Would it annoy you if you clicked on an advert for red shoes and the ad opened a page for trousers? It would annoy you. So why would your customers not be annoyed if you click on an ad about summer and it opens a homepage and there's not a really quick call to action to get to that summer information? So again, always think about the customer. One of the other things. Well, the other thing that is incredibly important in our industry is your location. Who are you targeting, location wise? And we have regularly taken on clients who have done it themselves or had previous agencies or whatever, doesn't matter where it happened. Liz Dimes: And they're targeting the whole of the uk, maybe they're in Cornwall and they're targeting Scotland as well for a term time visit. Paul Marden: Right. Liz Dimes: Someone in Scotland is not going to drive seven hours to come to you for a day out. Look at where your customers come from, map them. If you can really find that, you've got that data. If you're taking online booking, you have got the data of where the people live who come to you, find out where those people live and use that information for where you're going to generate the best results for your targeting for your adverts. I think that's incredibly important in this industry.Anita Waddell: And I think it goes, that goes beyond just radius targeting. Oh, absolutely. You really do need to map your audience to find out where they're coming from because, you know, like road systems will change the direct. No, change the layout of where people come from. Competitors will change, will give your some areas higher propensities to convert those visitors than others. So it really is worth investing in some mapping geo mapping tools and time to get it right. Paul Marden: I bet this is probably. How long is a piece of string quite type question, but broadly is the paid advertising for attractions? You know, there were terms, there are search terms that people are going to be searching on that you're going to want to sponsor or you're going to be sponsoring things in social platforms. There are some spaces that are, you know, fantastically competitive and hugely expensive. I'm thinking car insurance. You know, it will, you know, the cost per click of that is going to be phenomenal, but the return on investment for them is great. Yeah. Is this space a competitive and expensive space or is it remarkably reasonably priced? Liz Dimes: That really is. How long's a piece of string, I'm afraid, when it comes to search. So if we're just going from a search perspective. So if you're using Google Search Ads, absolutely. It depends what the keyword you are using is, how expensive that cost per click is going to be and really. Or you can help it by having an amazing ad, having an amazing landing page and being really relevant and your location targeting being right for that place. So you can be the low, you can get yourself to the lowest in the range that's possible for that keyword, but you're never going to get a keyword that cost £2 to cost 10p. What you can do, and what I would always suggest you do is use more longer tail keywords, which is the correct terminology, longer tail. Liz Dimes: But so if you're, if you're using, rather than maybe using day out, use day out in Yorkshire, family day out in Yorkshire. So you're extending the, the detail of it. Yeah. And the more detail you have, the less competition there will be within Google. You can do some really good keyword planning and get an idea of what your, what the type of cost will be for the type of keyword you're going for. If we stick on the Google search point. Actually, one of the other real howlers we regularly see is people actively targeting or not realising they're actively targeting their own brand name and therefore. And Google's algorithm, if you're doing a list of keywords you're going for, will always do what works best. Liz Dimes: So if you have either on purpose or accidentally put your brand name in there, all your budget is going to go on your brand name. Now, as long there are occasions when you might do that. If your SEO is terrible and you're coming up on page three for your brand name, go for your brand name. Absolutely do it in a separate campaign. So you're spending only a certain amount of money. But in general I'm yet to find attraction that isn't coming up on the map, on the Google map or on the top of the search results for their own brand name. So you are effectively paying Google for website visitors, clicks, conversions that you would have got for free. Don't do that. Please don't do that. And we see that relatively regularly.Paul Marden: You differentiated between paid advertising for search and paid advertising in social platforms. So we've got the tooling in Google to be able to estimate how much things cost. Go for those long tail search terms because they're probably going to better value for you, probably have better landing pages. And be really clear, if you've got a nice long tail search, you know that person is looking for something very specific. So serve them a really specific landing page to arrive at on the other side. That speaks to them and they'll love it, won't they? They'll be much more likely to engage. So you get that return on investment even further. What about in social, what. How are you planning out? You know what the cost is likely to be and where you should focus your energy. Liz Dimes: So because we are doing this all the time, we have a good idea of what that. So in social you'll look, you want to look at the cost per thousand impressions, what's called the CPM as opposed to the cost per cl. That's the, that's the bit in social that you can't affect. Meta, for example, are going to. If the cost per thousand for the target audience you are going for in the location you are going for is £4, it is £4, there's nothing you can do to change that. £3, it's £4. And unfortunately it is depending on where you are. For some people it's lovely. If their location's less, that's great. But if your location is more expensive. You've got to just deal with that. Liz Dimes: Unfortunately, in the last few years the cost per thousands have gone up around 12% and they're estimating this year it will be around 4%. So to get the same number of impressions in 2025 that you got in 2024, you're going to need to spend 4% more. Unfortunately, it is what it is. I hate saying that, but it's true. You can't. We can try and lobby meta all we like. The cost is what the cost is. It's a demand and supply thing. Paul Marden: Exactly. Liz Dimes: But what you can do is be realistic. You are going to have to get the same number of impressions. You need to spend 4% more. However, if your budget has to remain the same, how can you improve your click through rate one? Well, 0.2% to get. So although you'll get less impressions, you'll try and aim to get the same number of web visits and clicks from that. Can you then improve your conversion rate on your website? 0.2% and therefore you actually, for the same budget, you may get more conversions. So although you have to understand as we all do, that costs of everything are going up and impressions are one of those things. Liz Dimes: Actually, can you optimise and improve your ads because minimal improvements in your click through rate, minimal improvements in your conversion rate on your website are going to result in more revenue at the end of the day for potentially the same budget or a minimal increase. Paul Marden: And what are those? Again, this is such a sweeping, broad question, but what are those things that people could do to improve the engagement in the ads themselves? Liz Dimes: I'd say the number one thing to look at is your targeting correct? Paul Marden: Yeah. Liz Dimes: Is your location targeting correct? Is your audience type targeting correct? And then are you tailoring your ads to your audience? So if you're doing a target and you're targeting grandparents, for example, maybe your ad needs to be slightly different if you're targeting the parents or maybe your ad needs. And then your ad again will need to be. If you're, if you're remarketing and you're going to your sort of what we would call a hot audience that needs a very different ad to prospecting, a cold audience. So really focus on your targeting and focus on speaking. Again, think about the customer. Who are you speaking to with that ad? Anita Waddell: I think the other thing to mention and add to that is also the number of ads you're putting out because you never know exactly how your audience is going to react. So we actually do a lot of testing for a campaign. We would put a lot of ads out and it could be marginal differences in an ad because that's what, that's really what you want. So is it a bold heading? Is it not a Bold heading is it use the word say to save or best prices or you know and each of these will result in say that we're looking for that marginal gain because over time all those marginal gains will add up on the creative and the messaging and you'll get the best result. But it's time, energy and to get there completely. Paul Marden: Look, this has been really interesting but I want to just leave people with two or three things that they ought to prioritise to get 2025 off to a great start because last year was rubbish for so many people, wasn't it? So let's what can we all do to help get the show on the way for the attractions this year? Anita Waddell: I think the key thing is giving that people a reason to visit. It's getting the programming right. What people should be doing is looking at the last two years, breaking down the visitor numbers throughout the year, ascertain where there's opportunity for growth. We know people is much easier to build those peaks when, during the school holidays when people are actively looking. If you still, if you're not reaching capacity in those periods, that would be our, you know, build the peaks rather than the troughs. If however you've got to the stage where you think on your, you're creaking a bit at the seams and actually you want to build the term time campaigns, consider that as a secondary but again giving them that reason to visit now rather than waiting to a different time. Anita Waddell: And then once you've done that, you can plan your marketing budget around those opportunities. If you know that you've got more capacity in the summer, give more budget to the summer or if you know you've got more capacity in the October half term, give more budget to the October half term. So it's all going to start of where you want to get those extra people from and to and where. And then as some, as Liz mentioned later, postcode mapping, making sure that whatever advertising and marketing you're doing, you're hitting the people in the right areas who are going to have the biggest propensity to convert. And I've only got one other last thing to add is it's looking and learning from last year. Anita Waddell: Looking back at the data points, look at your benchmarks, your email, but email open rates, your landing pages, your digital advertising, try and get that margin of 1% improvement. If you can improve all of your marketing just by 1%, that's a lot of 1%. Paul Marden: That's a lot of people, isn't it? At the end of the day coming through the door. Liz Dimes: Absolutely. Anita Waddell: Yeah. So, so that would be sort of my kind of, you know what I would do. And Liz, has you got anything else you want to add to that? Liz Dimes: No, I think that's all of it. I think as say for, from the digital advertising side, postcode map if you can and absolutely look back and then test based off that and then test again. Paul Marden: Well, there's some homework for everybody. We always finish with a book recommendation and that book recommendation can be fiction or non fiction and I've got two guests so there's got to be two books. So Anita, what's your book recommendation for our listeners? Anita Waddell: This, this was a really tough question actually because one of my new year objectives is to read more. But I looked back and thought, “Okay, over the last five years, what books have I read and what's, what can, what's really resonated and what still I feel I can remember really”. So, so the one, I think it's Who Moved My Cheese by Dr Spencer Johnson. I don't know if how regularly it's mentioned on, on this podcast, but it's not a new book but it all talks about how you got, you know, you've got two stories about two little mice and two people and they, and the two little mice go off and they find cheese in this maze every single day. Anita Waddell: Whereas the two people found their cheese, they're happy with their cheese, they really like this certain cheese. Why would they look elsewhere? And then that cheese and then ultimately that cheese supply from the two people runs out and it's talking about having to innovate and change to survive. And I, and it's done in a really easy reading and fun way. And so yeah, I think that would be my recommendation to anybody. Paul Marden: Right Liz, what about you? What's your recommendation? Liz Dimes: Well, this was actually recommended to me because I thought about it. Okay, what have I been recommended that I've read? And actually it was recommended by a member of my team, Miles. So this comes from him. It's Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, who I don't know whether you've read this book, but he was an FBI negotiator and he has since written this book and it's actually written in a really easy to take in way. I just found it really interesting and just started reading it and read it basically which I don't do nearly as much reading as I used to before I had a child. So if I've managed to do that, you know, it's a good one. Liz Dimes: But my key sort of takeaways from it was how if you first think about negotiation skills, you probably think, “Well, what would I say?” And actually, that's not what you should be thinking, it's what are they saying? Your key negotiation skills is actively linked listening. And if you're actively listening, then you can follow the other key skills which are mirroring what they're saying, repeating the last of their three words, things like that. I just found it really interesting and it has made me rethink how I engage with people. So I would recommend it as a good read. Paul Marden: You got me thinking about my. What I was going to say now. Thinking about what were the last three words that you said? Oh, patting your head and rubbing your tummy part to this. Isn't there as thinking about the conversation and having it? Liz Dimes: Exactly. I think that's what he says. He says, while you're having a conversation, there's two of you. You're half listening, but actually the majority of you is thinking about what you're going to say next. If you're thinking about what you're going to say next, you are not listening, so you are not taking in what that person is saying in the way that you should be. And actually, if you can switch that bit off and really listen, what you say next will be the right thing. It's really hard. It's really hard to do, but I have actively tried to do that. When I think about it sounds. Paul Marden: A little bit like interviewing on the podcast, because this is a skill I've had to learn. This does not come naturally to me and it. It felt like a hostage negotiation at the beginning and it did feel a little bit like I had to negotiate my way out of the podcast episode. But with time and with practise, these things become easier and you can focus on the conversation whilst you're doing figuring out where the conversation is going to go. But, yeah, I've heard reviews of that book. I've not read it myself, so you've got me thinking I need to go and get that. Liz Dimes: It's worth a read. Paul Marden: Dear listeners, as always, if you would like a copy of either Anita or Liz's book recommendation, then the trendy thing to do is to go over to Bluesky now, not Twitter. Who wants to go onto Twitter? It's full of megalomaniacs. So go over to Bluesky and retweet the show message and say I want Anita or Liz's book. And the first person to do that will get a copy sent to them and I will be generous. It can be the first person for each book will get a copy. I'm not getting bankrupted this time with loads of book recommendations. I just want to leave people with one last thought. We know that benchmarking is important to you guys and this is something you're going to be doing a lot over the next few months. Paul Marden: So if people want to get involved with working on the benchmarking project for digital advertising that you guys are doing, what do they need to do? Anita Waddell: They need to go to our website where there'll be more information about it, and that's agility-marketing.co.uk.Paul Marden: And hopefully it will be in the show notes as well. So you can jump over to the show notes and follow the link there. But agility-marketing.co.uk and people will find all they need to know about the benchmarking that you're currently doing and how they can get involved in it. Brilliant. Ladies, this has been a wonderful conversation. Thank you very much. Liz Dimes: Thank you for having us. Paul Marden: We will catch up again soon. Paul Marden: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip The Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, SkiptheQueue.fm. The 2024 Visitor Attraction Website Survey is now LIVE! Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsDownload the 2024 Rubber Cheese Visitor Attraction Website Survey Report