Podcasts about Fletcher Pratt

Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Battle of Hong kong. Japan's rise as a threat to British interests accelerated through the 1920s and intensified after invading China. Britain's response remained contradictory—diplomatically conciliatory yet militarily apprehensive. While Singapore and Malaya received substantial reinforcements, Hong Kong was acknowledged indefensible, yet the 1936 Defence Scheme attempted to fortify it as an island fortress. Governor Northcote urgently advocated evacuation, recognizing the futility of defense. London rejected this, fearing it would demoralize China and forfeit sovereignty claims. Reinforcement requests from commanders like Grasett fell on deaf ears until Grasett independently lobbied Canadian leaders. This persistence finally convinced Churchill to dispatch two additional battalions. On December 8, 1941, Japanese forces attacked across three fronts with overwhelming force. Within hours, the RAF was destroyed on the ground, demolitions proved ineffective, and British units rapidly retreated toward the Gin Drinkers Line, facing an enemy that outnumbered and outmaneuvered them from the opening moments.   #217 The Battle of Hong Kong Part 2: the Island Aflame Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, 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 the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia 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 where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Around 1500 hours on 9 December, Colonel Doi of the 228th Regiment arrived at Needle Hill, just north of the Gin Drinkers Line, ahead of his main force. For two hours he studied the British defensive positions through binoculars, noting trenches and bunkers—and to his surprise, washing lines fluttering with white clothes. The sight spoke volumes about the 2 Royal Scots' lax discipline. Then fog descended, reducing visibility to barely twenty meters, and heavy rain obscured the landscape. Doi sensed a fleeting advantage but lost radio contact with his battalions. Worse still, the Shing Mun Redoubt lay outside his regimental boundary, making an unauthorized attack a serious breach of protocol. When his units finally arrived, supporting artillery remained unavailable, held up by demolished roads. Doi chose to attack anyway. Doi ordered the 2nd Battalion to scout the eastern approach while the 3rd Battalion spearheaded the main assault. Major Nishiyana commanded the 3rd, sending Lieutenant Wakabayashi and Kasugai with 150 volunteers to lead. The Shing Mun Redoubt itself comprised five concrete pillboxes and an artillery observation post, connected by underground tunnels named after London landmarks—Piccadilly, Haymarket, and others. The whole complex sat on small rises above Jubilee Dam, then the British Empire's tallest. Defending the redoubt was A Company, 2 Royal Scots, under Captain Jones—just three officers and 39 men. One platoon of 25 soldiers under 2nd Lieutenant Thompson held the forward positions. Against this stood 150 Japanese attackers, with another 1,500 troops in reserve. Battalion orders forbade using the concrete works as fighting positions; they were meant for the Vickers machine-gun team and artillery protection. No mines could spare the redoubt's perimeter. On the night of the 9th, roughly half the defenders sheltered in the observation post while the remainder manned pillboxes 401b and 402. At 2000 hours, Thompson led a nine-man patrol northward to check Needle Hill and Shing Mun Valley. Despite two and a half hours in the field, the patrol returned at 2220 hours without detecting the Japanese force massing just 500 meters away. By that time, Lieutenant Kasugai's assault group had crossed Jubilee Dam undetected, bypassed unmanned Post X, and assembled below Pillbox 401b. At 2200 hours, Japanese sappers cut through two lines of wire. At 2300—H-Hour—Lance Corporal Laird heard movement in the bushes and opened fire. The Japanese answered with grenades and rushed the pillbox lines. One team entered the tunnel system; another hurled grenades through the air vents. Corporal Campbell swung his Vickers toward Pillbox 401, catching Japanese headquarters personnel in the open. Sergeant Robb mustered a counter-attack force of thirteen men. Five fell as casualties—Laird, Basnett, Coyle, Casey, and Jardine. Casey was killed; only Jardine escaped. The alert triggered gunfire from the observation post's defenders, and Forward Observer Wilcox called down 4.5-inch and 6-inch artillery fire. Without strong reinforcement and leadership, four Royal Scots and an Indian sentry abandoned the northern positions and withdrew to the observation post. Captain Jones received orders from Brigade to counter-attack, but delegated the task to Thompson. As Thompson attempted to leave the observation post, he found the gate locked from outside. This calamity had a backstory: just before the attack, Thompson had admitted a civilian at the request of Force 163 (SOE's sabotage unit in Singapore). Private Wylie had taken the observation post key from Lance Naik Kishan Singh and, upon exit, locked the gate behind him. The three officers were now literally locked out of the battle. Second Lieutenant Mochizuki and his platoon infiltrated through open trenches and began attacking the observation post from above, attempting to breach the hatches. The defenders held for three hours before Japanese sappers forced explosives down the air vents. At 0230 hours, the blast killed two Indian signallers inside. Thompson sustained a severe eye wound from grenade shrapnel; Jones and Warrant Officer Mead were both wounded. The remaining fifteen defenders surrendered; eleven became casualties. Meanwhile, a Rajput patrol engaging Japanese forces in the river valley managed to drive them back toward the redoubt. One final pillbox endured for another eleven hours before suffering the same sapper treatment. By 0400 hours on 10 December, the entire redoubt was lost. For just two killed, the Japanese had achieved a decisive victory—the breakthrough that would shift the entire campaign's trajectory. By dawn, a Japanese flag flew triumphantly from Point 255.   Major-General Maltby's assessment was stark: "This was calamitous, for Shing Mun was the key to the whole of the left position." Yet the Japanese perspective differed sharply. Having achieved a breakthrough, Colonel Doi received astonishing orders to withdraw—his success had transgressed into the 230th Regiment's sector and violated the meticulously prepared war plan. Doi refused. After heated confrontation with Major-General Ito and Lieutenant-General Sakai, his insubordination was later censured, though a divisional staff officer, Oyadomani, bore the scapegoat's burden of rebuke for failing to restrain Doi's initiative. With Shing Mun secured, Doi methodically fed reinforcements into the position. Throughout December 10th, the Japanese remained uncertain of their advantage and adopted a cautious strategy, probing British lines to exploit the evident disorder. Brigadier Wallis ordered the Royal Scots to mount an immediate dawn counterattack supported by the Rajputs and artillery. Lieutenant-Colonel White demurred; his battalion lacked any reasonable prospect of success. The resulting counterattack proved half-hearted at best. At first light on December 11th, the Japanese pressed Golden Hill forcefully, only to be repulsed by Captain Newton's Rajputs and gunfire from HMS Cicala. White positioned D Company in shallow shell scrapes and rusted wire—inadequate defenses against Japanese assault. Captain Pinkerton led a desperate bayonet charge that morning, temporarily clearing the Japanese and enabling the evacuation of wounded. Yet B, C, and D Companies absorbed devastating losses; Captains Rose and Richardson fell commanding their positions. With the Royal Scots collapsing, X Company of the Winnipeg Grenadiers and armored support rushed westward to seal the widening gap along Castle Peak Road. Meanwhile, Maltby grappled with alarming reports: Japanese landings on Lantau Island southwest of Hong Kong. Heavy artillery drove them back. A second probe at Aberdeen, where Special Naval Landing Forces approached within 300 yards of the naval base, was repelled by Canadian machine-gun fire. In hindsight, these were mere feints—never intended as the primary thrust. The stratagem succeeded. Maltby retained his island reserves—the Middlesex and two Canadian battalions—precisely where they would be needed. Had Wallis executed a forceful counterattack on December 10th with the Royal Scots and brigade reserves, the Rajputs might have retaken Shing Mun while the Japanese remained disorganized. Instead, Colonel Doi faced a furious Sakai, who had flown down from 38th Division headquarters at Taipo for what amounted to a pre-court-martial examination. The moment passed. After only 48 hours of combat, Maltby concluded the mainland was indefensible. The three battalions would withdraw intact to Hong Kong Island to assume their fortress defense roles. The naval commodore objected—demolitions, supply transfers, and troop ferrying required more time. The evacuation order was deferred 24 hours until noon on December 11th. At that hour, the decision was finalized: the mainland would be abandoned under cover of darkness. Further demolitions followed—the China Light and Power Station, the cement works on Tsing Yi Island, the docks. Yet Brigadier Wallis believed this merely a precautionary measure; he anticipated holding the mainland for at least another week. The withdrawal avoided Kowloon's congested streets, where street fighting and fifth columnists might have entrapped the British—a calculation that proved prescient, as an IJA advance column of 350 men from the 3/230th infiltrated Kowloon on the morning of December 12th to cut off the retreating garrison. The Royal Scots and Canadians retired south to Shamshuipo Barracks and Jordan Road Pier in western Kowloon; the Rajputs and supporting gunners withdrew eastward to Ma Lau Tong, which anchored the fortified Devil's Peak Peninsula. Maltby intended to hold this commanding position permanently—it was easily supplied across the narrow Lyemun Strait. The evacuation proceeded largely as planned. The Canadians and Royal Scots embarked on the afternoon and evening of December 11th under Punjabi covering fire. The Punjabis faced a harder journey—a moonlit scramble along steep Kowloon hills laden with supplies but critically short of mules. One group lost its way at a crucial junction, splitting into two columns. One proceeded toward Devil's Peak as planned; Battalion Headquarters descended into Kai Tak Airport, threaded through Kowloon City, and was evacuated by Star Ferry at Tsim Sha Tsui, fighting until the final moment as the last man boarded. The Rajputs' commander, unable to reach his Punjabi counterpart, abandoned Ma Lau Tong for the closer Hai Wan line near Devil's Peak. By 0400 hours on December 12th, the Punjabis and one Rajput company, accompanied by the gunners of the 25th Medium Battery, crossed Lyemun Strait to Hong Kong Island. Morning evacuations continued with minimal Japanese interference—a surprising restraint. Naval support proved crucial. The withdrawal completed by the morning of December 13th, though 170 mules were lost to the desertion of Chinese laborers—a deprivation that would haunt the subsequent campaign. During this passage, the IJN attempted shore bombardment. The Japanese cruiser and supporting vessels found themselves outranged by the defenders' 9.2-inch guns. The damage inflicted proved sufficient to discourage future naval adventures; for the remainder of the battle, the IJN maintained a cautious distance and played only a peripheral role. The speed and execution of the withdrawal apparently caught the Japanese unprepared. Their most probable expectation had been a full-scale assault on Devil's Peak accompanied by heavy bombardment—a day earlier, an assault without artillery preparation had been driven back with severe losses. The British appeared stronger than anticipated. The defense of the mainland had lasted only five days. With the mainland secured, the Japanese pivoted toward Hong Kong Island. The first move was diplomatic rather than military. At 0900 hours on December 13th, a small boat bearing a white flag crossed the harbor. It carried Colonel Toda, Lieutenant Mizuno, Mr. Othsu Dak, and two European women—the prominent and heavily pregnant Mrs. Macdonald and Mrs. C. R. Lee, wife of the Governor's secretary, accompanied by her two dachshunds. The surrender terms were flatly rejected. Major Boxer delivered the written refusal personally. Mrs. Macdonald remained in Hong Kong to give birth; Mrs. Lee and her dogs returned to Kowloon. The Japanese commenced systematic shelling of selected targets. On December 13th, a 9.2-inch gun on Mt. Davis was silenced; Belcher's Fort sustained damage. The following day, a 3-inch mount on Mt. Davis was hit, killing Chinese gunners and triggering morale collapse; some deserted. On December 15th, the barrage shifted to the northern shoreline, deliberately targeting pillboxes. At 2100 hours that night, approximately three Japanese companies attempted crossing the harbor in rubber rafts toward Pakshawan but were driven off by machine-gun fire. Fifth columnists intensified their operations—signaling with mirrors, sniping from concealed positions, spreading propaganda to encourage Chinese desertion. Their impact might have been catastrophic had not Rear-Admiral Chan and Colonel Yee, armed with tommy guns and grenades, systematically eliminated many of these saboteurs. By December 16th, half the pillboxes between the racecourse and Lyemun Strait lay destroyed. The intended crossing site was unmistakable. On December 17th, the Japanese dispatched a second peace mission—Colonel Toda's team now accompanied by Mrs. Lee with her dachshunds and a pregnant Russian woman. Again, the overtures were rebuffed. On December 18th, the bombardment reached new intensity. Oil storage tanks ignited, sending dense black smoke cascading across the northeast corner of the island—perfect concealment for what was to come. All signs pointed to imminent assault.  I want to note something here, you sometimes hear about how race played a role in the Pacific War and indeed it did. Racist attitudes were found on both the western and Japanese side of the war. There is a fantastic book dedicated to this by the way called, War without Mercy by John Dower, highly recommend it. What is interesting is how these racial attitudes actually affected decision making during the war. Take General Sakai's night amphibious assault for example. Western soldiers such as the Canadians in Hong Kong reported they were told by their commanders that quote "Don't worry about the Japanese, they can't see at night, they all wear glasses" another Canadian soldier wrote in a diary "They don't see well, especially at night we knew this as a matter of fact." Indeed the week before the outbreak of the battle of Hong Kong, Canadian officers attending a briefing by a British officer were informed that "Japan's aircraft were mostly obsolete, its air force had little practice in night flying, and its pilots were myopic and thus unable to carry out dive-bombing attacks". You might be asking yourself, why did they think the Japanese were myopic? The scientific explanation of the day was this "That the Japanese suffered widespread inner-ear damage. What caused this? Japanese motherhood, the practice of strapping babies to their mothers backs, it was explained caused their heads to bounce about, like when they harvested rice and permanently impaired their sense of balance". I particularly love this quote, one of my professors dedicated an entire class to the bizarre racial attitudes before and after the pacific war. There was a belief the Japanese could not see well at night, many western air force commanders actually believed there were times of day like at dawn or dusk where Japanese pilots would not operate because of this hindrance. American military commentator Fletcher Pratt in 1939 analyzed Japan's military strengths and explained it had four major weaknesses. The first was scarcity of resources such as iron, and steel. The second was that the Japanese "can neither make good airplanes nor fly them well" as a result of " the Japanese as a race have defects of the tubes of the inner ear, just as they are generally myopic. This gives them a defective sense of balance, the one physical sense in which an aviator is not permitted to be deficient.". The third was that the Japanese were short-tempered and were inclined to waste men unnecessarily when operations did not go well. The fourth was that the Japanese would simply never date to provoke a war with the US. Again Mr Pratt was an American military commentator whose information came from multiple accounts given by high ranking military officials! The British military maintained that the Japanese avoided night operations on land because they were simply incapable of caring them out well, while they avoided nighttime aerial attacks, as well as dive-bombing for the same reasons Pratt said quote "their pilots were poor and their aircraft inferior.". So take this all to mind when I talk about how certain ranking officers go about making their decisions. By the evening of 14 December, evacuated mainland units had regrouped on Hong Kong Island. The defensive structure was restructured into two brigades: Brigadier Wallis commanded the East Brigade from Taitam Gap, while Brigadier Lawson headed the West Brigade from Wongneichong Gap. This reorganization placed the 5/7 Rajputs across the north-east perimeter, defending over 3,500 metres of coastline with B Company positioned on the hills behind Taikoo Docks. The Royal Rifles of Canada held the north-east corner from Stanley to points south, with reserve positions at Lyemun. Two HKVDC companies supported from Taitam Valley and Pottinger Gap, while the veteran Hughsiliers manned the North Point power station. British and Canadian artillery provided fire support across the northern approaches. The West Brigade held the north-western and south-western shores. The 2/14 Punjab stretched from Causeway Bay to Belcher's Point, protecting Government House and General Maltby's headquarters, with battalion headquarters at Mid-Level. The Winnipeg Grenadiers covered the south-west from Wanchai Gap, with one company detached to the brigade headquarters at Wongneichong Gap. The 2 Royal Scots, severely mauled at Shing Mun, were held in reserve with fresh replacements from the HKVDC. The Middlesex Regiment's companies were dispersed along 72 pillboxes encircling the entire shoreline, while an improvised Z Company of clerks, musicians and cooks defended battalion headquarters at Leighton Hill. Supporting artillery included 9.2-inch and 6-inch guns on Mt Davis and 4.7-inch guns at Belcher's Point. As darkness fell on 17 December, Japanese reconnaissance swimmers reached Taikoo, confirming the crossing site despite detection. Reinforcements arrived: 18 additional heavy bombers from Guangzhou and 26 fighters from Taiwan joined the aerial assault. The crescendo of artillery fire on the 18th, combined with masses of small craft gathering across the harbour, signalled the imminent invasion. Japanese divisional headquarters shifted to Ma Tau Wei near Kai Tak Airport; the 23rd Army moved to Taipo. The invasion force disposed itself with the right flank embarking from east and west of Kai Tak, the left from Devil's Hill area. At 1800 hours, the invasion order was issued; by 1930 hours Sakai himself arrived in Kowloon to oversee the crossing. At precisely 2000 hours, the 2/228th Regiment silently paddled their collapsible craft toward Taikoo Docks and the nearby sugar factory as artillery support commenced. Colonel Doi embarked with 80 headquarters personnel aboard a large barge, leading the second wave. The conditions favoured the invaders—a moonless night, sporadic showers, and thick black smoke from burning oil tanks obscured their movement. They reached the midpoint undetected before searchlights and machine-gun fire scattered the small boats, separating commanders from their units. Despite this chaos, the assault pressed forward. At 2140 hours the artillery shifted to deeper targets; at 2145 hours the first wave of 3/230th landed at North Point, followed minutes later by 2/228th and then 2/229th. Three red flares signalled a successful landing. All six Japanese battalions were ashore by midnight, though wire fencing delayed their advance and Bren carriers added to the confusion on the beach. General Sano arrived at Taikoo one hour later. The 5/7 Rajputs bore the initial brunt of the assault. Despite days of preliminary shelling, the Rajputs mounted a stubborn defence; Japanese casualties mounted rapidly. The anti-tank company suffered so grievously that only a single gun remained operational. The Japanese plan was tactical rather than frontal—bypass isolated positions for later elimination and push rapidly toward high ground. Overwhelmed by numerical superiority and losing most of their officers, Rajput resistance gradually crumbled. Contradicting all evidence, Maltby remained convinced the main Japanese assault would strike directly at Victoria from Kowloon. He therefore withheld the counter-attack, instead dispatching a platoon of Middlesex troops, Royal Marines, naval personnel, and the Rajputs' reserve company—supported by artillery—to establish a defensive line blocking the Japanese advance toward Central District. Three HKVDC armoured cars were sent to protect East Brigade headquarters; two more reinforced the Middlesex battalion headquarters. It was manifestly inadequate against six Japanese battalions. In post-war dispatches, Maltby conceded his grave miscalculation: he believed he faced at most two battalions, not a full division. As the 3/230th broke through D Company of the 5/7 Rajputs, the 2/230th came ashore nearby and wheeled westward toward Victoria. Their advance halted abruptly at the North Point power station, held by an extraordinary force: four officers and 36 men of the HKVDC Hughsiliers Platoon—alongside 39 civilian volunteers from China Light & Power and Hong Kong Electric, including the station manager Vincent Sorby—plus eight Free French soldiers commanded by Captain Jacques Egal, a Shanghai businessman turned soldier. Without exception, these men were World War I veterans, many aged 55 or older. Some had fought in the Boer War. Major J. J. Patterson, the Hughsiliers' commander, had served with Allenby's Camel Corps and been mentioned in dispatches six times; he was chairman of Jardine Matheson and a legislative councillor. Private Sir Edward Des Voeux, 8th Baronet, a millionaire bullion trader and secretary of the Hong Kong Club, had enlisted as a private when deemed too old for mobilization. Private T. A. Pearce, 67 years old, was chairman of J. D. Hutchison & Company and secretary of the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Captain Bruch, the second-in-command, aged 60, chaired a major trading house. The list extended through Hong Kong's business elite, each choosing to fight rather than flee. These old men held an entire regiment at bay. When Patterson called for aid, Maltby dispatched an HKVDC armoured car with a platoon from Z Company, 1 Middlesex, but the reinforcement was ambushed before reaching the station; only nine soldiers, including 2nd Lieutenant Caruthers, broke through. Unable to dislodge the defenders by assault, the Japanese resorted to bombardment. By 0145 hours on 19 December, surrounded and ammunition exhausted, the defenders withdrew to King's Road behind a disabled bus. The Japanese deployed three machine guns, killing or mortally wounding all but Private Geoghan. A Japanese officer, believing all dead, cautiously approached—only to have Geoghan, despite his wounds, surge from cover and charge. He killed the officer and four soldiers before collapsing from wounds. Somehow Geoghan survived. Those old men—civilians and reservists, businessmen and veterans—held the entire western Japanese advance for 18 hours, buying Maltby precious time to withdraw forces and establish a new defensive line. Their stand at North Point became one of the campaign's most improbable acts of defiance. As the 2/229th Regiment advanced southward toward Mt Parker, the 3/229th landed at Aldrich Bay and turned eastward toward Lyemun, where they seized an HKVDC 6-inch gun. Major Bishop of the Royal Rifles of Canada, unaware of the landings, dispatched 15 Platoon under Lieutenant Scott to check on A Company of the Rajputs. Unexpectedly, they encountered armed men in civilian clothes at Lyemun's gate—the first indication of the Japanese presence on the island. Yet senior officers dismissed initial reports of landings and lost positions as exaggerated, a critical miscalculation that proved catastrophic. At Lyemun Fort, the 5th Anti-aircraft Battery of the HKVDC was caught completely unaware and surrendered after minimal resistance. The Japanese then committed one of many atrocities that would characterize the battle, bayoneting 29 survivors. Alerted by 15 Platoon's report, Bishop attempted a counter-attack with two platoons to retake the fort, but the defenders could not scale the six-meter wall and withdrew with nine men killed. As the 2/229th pressed southward toward Mt Parker, they overran the Salesian Mission, which had been converted into an Advance Dressing Station. No. 8 Company of the 2/229th systematized a massacre of medical personnel and the wounded—an atrocity that would later become pivotal evidence at Colonel Tanaka's war crimes trial. Yet amid the chaos, several medical staff and wounded survived to testify: Gunners Y. K. Chan and Martin H. C. Tso of the 5th Battery, Captain Osler Thomas of the HKVDC, Captain Martin Banfill of the Royal Canadian Medical Corps, and Corporal Norman Leath of the Royal Army Medical Corps. C Company of the Royal Rifles, reinforced with captured Japanese machine guns abandoned by fleeing Rajputs, inflicted heavy casualties on the attackers, with one Japanese company suffering over 65 percent losses. Yet overwhelmed by superior numbers and suffering nearly two platoons worth of casualties themselves, the Canadians were forced to withdraw, leaving only a reinforcement platoon under Lieutenant Blaver on Mt Parker. When Captain Clerke arrived at dawn with 16 Platoon to reinforce the position, he found over 100 Japanese already entrenched. With no artillery support and only two platoons available, Clerke had no choice but to withdraw, abandoning Mt Parker to the enemy. By dawn on the 19th, the East Brigade faced catastrophe. Infantry strength had been halved, and losses of artillery were equally devastating. A series of misunderstandings and misinterpreted orders led coastal gun crews at Capes D'Aguilar and Collinson to destroy their own guns in confusion or lose them to the advancing Japanese. Of the entire artillery complement, only one 18-pounder and two 3.7-inch field guns remained operational. Wongneichong—literally "yellow muddy creek" in Chinese—occupies the center of Hong Kong Island, a valley separating the eastern hills (Mt Parker, Mt Butler, Jardine's Lookout) from the western massif (Mt Nicholson, Mt Cameron, Victoria Peak). This narrow gap formed the critical artery linking northern and southern Hong Kong, making Brigadier Lawson's decision to place West Brigade Headquarters there strategically sound yet tactically vulnerable. Recognizing the exposed position after the landings, Major Lyndon had located an alternative site south of Mt Nicholson, scheduled to open the following day. In response to the Japanese landings, Lawson dispatched three platoons of Winnipeg Grenadiers to block the advance. Lieutenant C. D. French took 18 Platoon to Mt Butler, Lieutenant G. A. Birkett's 17 Platoon moved to Jardine's Lookout, and Lieutenant L. B. Corrigan's platoon took the north-west approach to the Gap. As on Mt Parker, both French and Birkett were killed almost immediately, their small forces overwhelmed by battalion-strength enemy forces with artillery support. By morning on the 19th, two battalions each of the 230th and 228th Regiments were pushing for the high ground. The 2/230th rapidly occupied Jardine's Lookout while the 3/230th moved to Mt Nicholson and the 2/228th advanced toward the Gap itself. No. 3 Company of the HKVDC under Major E. Stewart held pillboxes around Jardine's Lookout, while No. 1 Company under Captain Penn defended Taitam Valley with forward positions at Quarry Gap. The pillboxes, despite heavy bombardment, held longer than anticipated—some for as long as 24 hours. Stewart maintained his company headquarters until the 22nd, four days of continuous fighting without adequate ammunition, food, or water. No. 3 Company suffered 80 percent casualties and ceased to exist as a cohesive unit. Realizing that the enemy had penetrated to Mt Butler, Brigadier Lawson decided counter-attack was essential. Major A. B. Gresham of A Company, Winnipeg Grenadiers, was ordered to retake Mt Butler and clear Jardine's Lookout. The Canadians initially succeeded, with Warrant Officer 2 J. R. Osborne leading a bayonet charge, but a strong counter-attack by three Japanese companies drove them back by 2200 hours. The Canadians held firm until 1500 hours, when Gresham attempted surrender despite waving a white flag—the Japanese shot him regardless. In the chaos that followed, a Canadian killed a Japanese officer in response, triggering a grenade barrage. Warrant Officer Osborne caught the grenades and hurled them back as fast as they came, but one landed in an impossible position. Without hesitation, Osborne threw himself on the grenade to save his comrades. This act of supreme self-sacrifice earned him a Victoria Cross—the first Canadian VC of World War II. At dawn on the 19th, Maltby dispatched A Company of the 2 Royal Scots under Captain K. J. Campbell to reinforce the Gap, but they lost all their officers with only 15 men reaching Lawson's headquarters. A group of sailors under Commander A. L. Pears came from the south, but were ambushed en route; only a few reached the Postbridge—a house just south of the Gap—which became an isolated strongpoint. The 3/230th captured the police station perched on a mound at the southern point of the Gap, then swept eastward to seize the anti-aircraft guns of 7th Battery (barely 250 meters from brigade headquarters) and continued uphill toward Taitam Hill to capture additional 6-inch and 3.7-inch guns. Maltby's response was to call down final protective fire from the HKSRA in Happy Valley, inflicting massive casualties on the 3/230th. At 1000 hours on the 19th, Lawson reported that his headquarters was surrounded and he was about to "go outside and shoot it out." Captain H. A. Bush provided covering fire as Lawson and his entire staff, including Middlesex signallers, were cut down by machine-gun fire across the Gap. Lawson's body was discovered two days later halfway up the hill behind his headquarters, dead from a gunshot wound to the thigh. Lieutenant Kerfoot of the 2/14 Punjab with his three Bren carriers arrived minutes too late to save him. IJA who saw the fight made a note stating "he died heroically". At 1330 hours on the 19th, Maltby issued "Operation Order No. 6" calling for a massive counter-attack to commence 90 minutes later. The plan was ambitious: A and D Companies of the 2/14 Punjab were to attack east from Victoria to North Point to relieve the Hughsiliers, while HQ Company of the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the 2 Royal Scots were to attack the Gap and Jardine's Lookout. Eight field guns were promised but never materialized. There was no reconnaissance, no proper orders, and minimal coordination. The Canadians were to rendezvous with the 2 Royal Scots at Middle Gap at 1530 hours, but the Scots were late; the Canadians advanced without them. Captain Pinkerton of D Company, 2 Royal Scots, was ordered at the last minute to attack up Wongneichong Gap Road—the same route A Company had taken only seven hours earlier and been decimated—because it was reported as "lightly held." Captain A. M. S. Slater-Brown led the advance with three Bren carriers and attached engineers, followed by D Company of the Winnipeg Grenadiers. Just as the carriers reached the burnt-out trucks of A Company, they too were ambushed. Mortars and machine-gun fire rained down from Jardine's Lookout, where the Japanese occupied captured HKVDC pillboxes. Slater-Brown and 2nd Lieutenant Bell, the battalion intelligence officer, were killed instantly. The Royal Scots waited in the roadside ditches until 0200 hours before launching an attack on the police station, reaching the steps before Pinkerton was severely wounded. Captain Ford's composite company attack at 0300 hours also failed. Simultaneously, C Company under Lieutenant F. L. Stanier attacked Jardine's Lookout—also unsuccessfully. This series of piecemeal assaults cost the Royal Scots eight officers and 68 soldiers. Growing increasingly desperate, Maltby ordered Major Hodkinson, Officer Commanding HQ Company of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, to attack the Gap and proceed to Mt Parker. Requesting reinforcements from A Company and the Royal Scots, Hodkinson launched his assault with covering fire from Lieutenant Corrigan on Mt Nicholson. The Grenadiers managed to reach Mt Nicholson with only five unwounded men, though Corrigan's group advanced to within 300 meters of the Gap road. Then came an unexpected stroke of fortune: while skirting Mt Nicholson, Hodkinson's group stumbled upon approximately 500 Japanese—probably from the 3/230th—eating lunch without posting sentries. The Winnipeg Grenadiers unleashed devastating fire, inflicting heavy casualties. By 1745 hours, Hodkinson's force was only 100 meters from Repulse Bay Road. With four men and a 2-inch mortar, Hodkinson worked his way to the abandoned brigade headquarters, bringing 20 walking wounded with him. He established a foothold at the Gap, receiving orders to attack the police station at 2200 hours. Two HKVDC armoured cars with Vickers machine guns came in support, but accurate enemy fire disabled both. Like Pinkerton before him, Hodkinson reached near his objective before being severely wounded. For this action of determination and courage, Hodkinson was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. By the morning of the 20th, the Japanese had consolidated control of the Gap, but elements of D Company, Winnipeg Grenadiers, still held various pillboxes north of the position. Initially, 17 and 18 Platoons occupied forward positions with Company Headquarters and 16 Platoon in reserve, positioned across Wongneichong Road almost directly opposite brigade headquarters. Forward positions were rapidly overrun and cut off from the company. They fought without officers until withdrawal to battalion headquarters became necessary. With Captain A. S. Bowman killed and Captain R. W. Philips wounded, command fell to Lieutenant T. A. Blackwood. An attempt by B Company to relieve D Company on the evening of the 20th failed catastrophically, killing all officers and 29 men. With fewer than 50 men remaining—all wounded—Lieutenant Blackwood continued inflicting heavy casualties on the Japanese until 22 December, when exhaustion and the complete absence of ammunition, food, and water forced surrender. D Company killed over 200 Japanese soldiers. Post-war Japanese reports refused to believe that a single company had held the Gap for so long. For their stubborn defense, Philips and Blackwood were awarded the Military Cross, and three enlisted men received the Military Medal. The battle of Wongneichong Gap was characterized by fragmented planning and poor coordination. On the night of the 19th-20th, no fewer than three separate companies attacked the police station, with another company assaulting Jardine's Lookout—all within five hours, all independently organized by local commanders. Had these disparate actions been coordinated into a single simultaneous assault, fortress headquarters' objectives might well have been achieved. By the end of the 20th, the British had lost the vital ground of Wongneichong, though Postbridge House remained as an isolated holdout. For the Japanese, Wongneichong became the single costliest engagement since the invasion began, with over 800 casualties and the regimental commander of the 3/230th seriously wounded. 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.   Japanese landings on 18-19 December overwhelmed the East Brigade. Brigadier Lawson died defending the vital Gap. Desperate, uncoordinated counter-attacks by British and Canadian troops failed to dislodge the enemy. D Company Winnipeg Grenadiers held the position for four days against overwhelming odds before surrendering. The Japanese suffered 800 casualties but secured this critical strategic ground.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. This brings us to a look at some of Arthur C. Clarke's other stories, A Time Odyssey (1951), Tales From the White Hart (1957), The Nine Billion Names of God (1954), The Star (1955), Dolphin Island (1964), and A Meeting With Medusa (1971. These stories will wrap up our look at Clarke's Science Fiction and we have seen a lot of good stuff here. And as a final note, we cover CLarke's Three Laws. Arthur C. Clarke: Other Works, A Time Odyssey A collaboration between two of science fiction's best authors: what could possibly go wrong? Well, something went wrong. This series is not bad, but I hesitate to describe it as good. This series was described by Clarke as neither a prequel nor a sequel, but an “orthoquel”, a name coined from “orthogonal”, which means something roughly like “at right angles”, though it is also used in statistics to denote events that are independent and do not influence each other. And in relativity theory Time is orthogonal to Space. And in multi-dimensional geometry we can talk about axes in each dimension as orthogonal to all of the others. It is something I can't picture, being pretty much limited to three dimensions, but it can be described mathematically. It is sort of like the 2001 series, but not really. It has globes instead of monoliths. And the spheres have a circumference and volume that is related to their radius not by the usual pi, but by exactly three. Just what this means I am not sure, other than they are not sphere's in any usual sense of the word. In this story these spheres seem to be gathering people from various eras and bringing them to some other planet which gets christened “Mir”, though not in any way to the Russian Space Station. It is a Russian word that can mean “peace”, “world”, or “village”. I have seen it used a lot to refer to a village in my studies of Russian history. Anyway, the inhabitants include two hominids, a mother and daughter, a group of British Redcoats, Mongols from the Genghis Khan era, a UN Peacekeeper helicopter, a Russian space capsule, an unknown Rudyard Kipling, the army of Alexander The Great… Well at least they have lots of characters to throw around. They end up taking sides and fighting each other. In the end several of the people are returned to Earth in their own time. But the joke is on them. The beings behind the spheres are call themselves The Firstborn because they were the first to achieve sentience. They figure that best way for them to remain safe is to wipe out any other race that achieves sentience, making them to polar opposite of the beings behind the monoliths in 2001, for whom the mind is sacred. Anyway, the Firstborn have arranged for a massive solar flare that will wipe out all life on Earth and completely sterilize the planet, but conveniently it will happen in 5 years, leaving time for plot development. Of course the people of Earth will try to protect themselves. Then in the third book of the series an ominous object enters the solar system. This is of course a callback to the Rama object. It is like they wanted to take everything from the Rama series and twist it. While I love a lot of Clarke's work and some of Baxter's as well, I think this is eminently skippable. The two of them also collaborated on the final White Hart story, which isn't bad Other Works Tales from the White Hart This collection of short stories has a unity of the setting, a pub called White Hart, where a character tells outrageous stories. Other characters are thinly disguised science fiction authors, including Clarke himself. Clarke mentions that he was inspired to do this by the Jorkens stories of Lord Dunsany, which are also outrageous tall tales, but lacking the science fictions aspects of Clarke's stories. Of course this type of story has a long history, in which we would do well to mention the stories of Baron Munchausen, and of course the stories of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt as found in Tales from Gavagan's Bar. And Spider Robinson would take this basic idea and turn it into a series of books about Callahan's Place. Stories of this type are at least as much Fantasy as anything, but quite enjoyable, and I think I can recommend all of these as worth the time to while away a cold winter's evening while sitting by a warm fire with a beverage of choice. The Nine Billion Names of God This short story won a retrospective Hugo in 2004 as being the best short story of 1954. The idea is that a group of Tibetan monks believe that the purpose of the universe is to identify the nine billion names of God, and once that has been done the universe will no longer have a purpose and will cease to exist. They have been identifying candidates and writing them down, but the work is very slow, so they decide that maybe with a little automation they can speed it up. So they get a computer (and in 1954, you should be picturing a room-sized mainframe), and then hire some Western programmers to develop the program to do this. The programmers don't believe the monks are on to anything here, but a paycheck is a paycheck. They finish the program and start it running, but decide they don't want to be there when the monks discover their theory doesn't work, so they take off early without telling anyone, and head down the mountain. But on the way, they see the stars go out, one by one. The Star This classic short story won the Hugo for Best Short Story in 1956. The story opens with the return of an interstellar expedition that has been studying a system where the star went nova millennia ago. But the expedition's astrophysicist, a Jesuit Priest, seems to be in a crisis of faith. And if you think it implausible that a Jesuit Priest could also be an astrophysicist, I would suggest you look into the case of the Belgian priest Georges Lemaître, who first developed the theory of the Big Bang. Anyway, in the story, they learn that this system had a planet much like Earth, and it had intelligent beings much like Earth, who were peaceful, but in a tragic turn of events they knew that their star was going to explode, but they had no capability of interstellar travel. So they created a repository on the outermost planet of the system that would survive the explosion, and left records of their civilization. And when the Jesuit astrophysicist calculated the time of the explosion and the travel time for light, he is shaken: “[O]h God, there were so many stars you could have used. What was the need to give these people to the fire, that the symbol of their passing might shine above Bethlehem?” Dolphin Island This is a good Young Adult novel about the People of the Sea, who are dolphins. They save a young boy who had stowed away on a hovership that subsequently had crashed, and because no one knew about him he was left among the wreckage when the crew takes off in the life boats. And from here it is the typical Bildungsroman you find in most Young Adult novels. The dolphins bring him to an island, where he becomes involved with a research community led by a professor who is trying to communicate with dolphins. He learns various skills there, survives dangers, and in the end has to risk his life to save the people on the island. If you have a 13 year old in your house, this is worth looking for. A Meeting With Medusa This won the 1972 Nebula Award for Best Novella. It concerns one Howard Falcon, who early in the story has an accident involving a helium-filled airship, is badly injured, and requires time and prosthetics to heal. But then he promotes an expedition to Jupiter that uses similar technology, a Hot-Hydrogen balloon-supported aircraft. This is to explore the upper reaches of Jupiter's atmosphere, which is the only feasible way to explore given the intense gravity of this giant planet. Attempting to land on the solid surface would mean being crushed by the gravity and air pressure, so that is not possible. The expedition finds there is life in the upper clouds of Jupiter. Some of it is microscopic, like a kind of “air plankton” which is bio-luminescent. But there are large creatures as well, one of which is like jellyfish, but about a mile across. This is the Medusa of the title. Another is Manta-like creature, about 100 yards across, that preys on the Medusa. But when the Medusa starts to take an interest on Falcon's craft, he decides to get out quick for safety's sake. And we learn that because of the various prosthetics implanted after the airship accident Falcon is really a cyborg with much faster reactions than ordinary humans. As we have discussed previously, Clarke loved the sea, and in this novella he is using what he knows in that realm to imagine a plausible ecology in the atmosphere of Jupiter. Of course when he wrote this novella no one knew about the truly frightening level of radiation around Jupiter, but then a clever science fiction writer could come up with a way to work around that. Clarke's Three Laws Finally, no discussion of Arthur C. Clarke can omit his famous Three Laws. Asimov had his Three Laws of Robotics, and Clarke had his Three Laws of Technology. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This concludes our look at Arthur C. Clarke, the second of the Big Three of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. And that means we are ready to tackle the Dean of Science Fiction, Robert A. Heinlein. Links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Time_Odyssey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_the_White_Hart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jorkens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Munchausen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_Gavagan%27s_Bar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callahan%27s_Crosstime_Saloon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Billion_Names_of_God https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_(Clarke_short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_Island_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Meeting_with_Medusa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws https://www.palain.com/science-fiction/the-golden-age/arthur-c-clarke/arthur-c-clarke-other-works/ Provide feedback on this episode.

This week on The Shiver Show, co-hosts Mary Labrie and Greg Flynn invite you to go undercover with a wonderfully unsettling X-Minus One classic, Doctor Grimshaw's Sanitorium (1955).Written by Fletcher Pratt in 1934, and adapted for radio by George Lefferts, this tale is in the style of a found manuscript, penned by private detective John Doherty, a man who is now missing. As the story unfolds, Doherty suspects that something sinister is going on behind the locked doors of Doctor Grimshaw's exclusive sanitorium. Patients disappear. Deaths are whispered away. And the treatments? Let's just say they're… experimental.Like any sensible hard-boiled detective, Doherty does the only logical thing—he checks himself into the sanitorium under the pretext of needing treatment for his alcoholism. It's a decision that proves both brave and catastrophically unwise. Once inside, reality begins to warp, paranoia sets in, and all hell breaks loose.What makes “Doctor Grimshaw's Sanitorium” such a standout is its fearless genre-blending. It's science fiction, horror, and noir crime all rolled into one. Mary and Greg explore what makes this old time radio drama so creepy, and why it still sends shivers.  So slip into a drafty hospital gown (yes, those ones that open up at the back), and prepare to be part of the mad experiment that is Doctor Grimshaw's Sanitorium. Thank you for listening! If you like the show, please share us with your friends and family AND give us a review! If you have a suggestion for a show or a question, please drop it in the comments! Watch us on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@shivershowpodcastFollow The Shiver Show https://www.facebook.com/theshivershowor check out our website at https://www.timewarpstudios.com Other podcast platforms: https://linktr.ee/theshivershow

How can a new nation establish itself amidst the networks and intrigues of a very old part of the world, while at the same time trying to be different from everyone else? Are these inherently contradictory aims? And how can either–or none–of these objectives be achieved by civil servants who are engaging in, at best, on the job training?  These are some of the questions that are prompted by studying the First Barbary War, fought by the young United States from 1801 to 1805 along the coast of North Africa. Far from being a story simply of simple and straightforward naval derring-do, it is one of strategic ambiguity, diplomatic finesse, and the ideological aspirations of a new nation set against the backdrop of world war and millennia old customs.  With me to discuss the First Barbary War is Abby Mullen, Assistant Professor of History at the United States Naval Academy. She is also the impresario of not one but two podcasts: Consultation Prize, a limited run series about US diplomacy from the ground-eye viewpoint of American consuls, and Big If True, a podcast for kids which is co-hosted with her daughter. But today we are (mostly) talking about her new book To Fix a National Character: The United States in the First Barbary War, 1800–1805. For Further Information William Eaton is the subject of the portrait above; for a little something about the "Burr Conspiracy", in which Eaton may have participated and against which he then gave evidence, see Episode 344  As mentioned in the podcast, Daniel Herschenzohn in Episode 95 explained the complex economy in the Mediterranean that centered on the redemption of prisoners. But the only time that consuls have shown up was very recently, in Episode 359.  Here's a link to Abby Mullen's Consolation Prize, a limited series podcast "about the history of the United States in the world through the eyes of its consuls." And one to Big If True,  "a podcast for kids exploring the truth about big things" co-hosted with her daughter, but which is now alas lapsed into a podcast doze. For on the American wars on the Barbary coast, see Frank Lambert's The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World; for a now very old book full of swashbuckling derring-do, and not very many strategic complications, see Fletcher Pratt, Preble's Boys: Commodore Preble and the Birth of American Sea Power. 

From The Files of Ellis H. ParkerEpisode 267 is adapted from a first-person article in True Detective Mysteries, December 1928, written from the perspective of Detective Ellis H. Parker of Mount Holly, New Jersey, who during his career was known as “America's Sherlock Holmes.”  He solved 288 of the 300 major crimes he worked on during his career, obtaining signed confessions in more than half of them. His most high-profile case was the Lindbergh kidnapping. Stories of his cases were collected in a book by Fletcher Pratt titled “The Cunning Mulatto” in 1935.AD-FREE EditionBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

The Blue Star

Tonight Robert had the conversation of a lifetime as he got to get down and Nerdy with Retired English, Journalism, and Creative Writing Professor, Frank Coffman. Finally, Frank answered Robert's burning questions about Fletcher Pratt and the Trap Door Spiders and their link to Kolchak. We also learned Frank has formally studied the type of mathematical literary criticism of creative writing that helped identify the Unabomber, and has written and edited many works of poetry, is one of the foremost authorities of Conan The Barbarian, while also rocking a wicked Kolsplay costume in the making. Last but not least, off the air, Robert learned Frank has something in common with one of Bradley's favorite Astonishing Legends guests and Robert is cooking up a special crossover episode where Frank will join us again for a conversation with that guest and about that topic. Listen in and be ready for Frank's post Stoker Con Kolchak 50 Years Panel and we'll dive even deeper into Frank's academic perspective of Kolchak.

Ginny Loveday joins us to discuss Fletcher Pratt's "Invaders from Rigel", small books with even smaller fonts, colonialism, space travellers who don't understand combustibles, goofily over-capable heroes, interesting adversaries, home play vs organized play, overly replying on combat to handle challenges, separating the art from the artist, and much more!

Based on a story by Fletcher Pratt; written for radio by Laurie R Vasquez The strangest invasion of Earth ever. Disguised Pink Elephants are a walking nightmare not an hallucinogenic dream. 

He is quoted often, correctly and incorrectly, but few have actually read his works in full - and even fewer know much about the man himself, Major General Carl von Clausewitz, Kingdom of Prussia.Out guest for the full hour will be Donald Stoker, author of the new book, Clausewitz: His Life and Work. Stoker is a Professor of Strategy and Policy for the U.S. Naval War College's program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.His previous book, The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War, won the distinguished Fletcher Pratt award for the best non-fiction Civil War book of 2010. Past winners include Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote.

Un invito alla lettura, da parte del CylonProf Massimo De Santo, di Apprendisti Stregoni di L. Sprague De Camp e Fletcher Pratt e Opzioni di Robert Sheckley. Leggi di più su Fantascientificast.com - Pubblicazione amatoriale. Non si intende infrangere alcun copyright, i cui diritti appartengono ai rispettivi detentori - Autorizzazione SIAE 5612/I/5359.

Episodio 370. Un invito alla lettura, da parte di Massimo De Santo, di Apprendisti Stregoni (1941) di L. Sprague De Camp e Fletcher Pratt e Opzioni (1975) di Robert Sheckley. Per l'immagine di copertina: © Aventi diritto. All rights reserved.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/fantascienticast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hoi and Jeff discuss liminal spaces, war, peace, and fear of masculine vulnerability in Fletcher Pratt's "The Well of the Unicorn" with special guest Strix Beltrán!

DVN005 Limited Edition of 100 Mastered by: Eric Trude released December 29, 2018 C24

Originally aired under Dimension X in 1950, it was replayed in JUL-1955 under X minus 1.Written by Fletcher Pratt, this short story takes us on a crazy journey into the sanitariums of the late 1940s. Based on the intro, this tale claims to be a true story - what do you think?Check out www.oldtimefuturefunhour.com for more details, and to get the full episode yourself.

In which we have a martini, read a scroll, and practice magic.Episode 237, No Forwarding Address(download or listen via this link)Book InformationStory rating: G for tall tales in tavernsNo Forwarding Address by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt is under copyright. This story is shared under the Fair Use Act as an illustration of this duo's writing. Views to the contrary, please contact me (my email is in the sidebar).Podcast HighlightJourney IntoSeeing Ear Theater

'Limited War' is one of the terms making a frequent appearance in the strategic studies, international relations, and military history realms over the last 70 years. What does 'Limited War' mean? When do we know we are in one? What unique problems arise when waging one? What are the problems with ending them? And what should states do to secure a lasting peace? Distinguished Vienna Diplomatic Academy Fulbright Professor Donald Stoker discusses these issues and others by drawing upon what he has learned researching the subject for his forthcoming book from Cambridge University Press. Donald Stoker, PhD, was Professor of Strategy and Policy for the US Naval War College's Monterey Program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, from 1999 until 2017. The author or editor of eight books, his Carl von Clausewitz: His Life and Work (Oxford University Press, 2014), is on the British Army professional reading list. His The Grand Design: Strategy and the US Civil War, 1861-1865 (Oxford University Press, 2010), won the prestigious Fletcher Pratt award, was a Main Selection of the History Book Club, and is on the US Army Chief of Staff's reading list. In 2016, he was a Fellow of the Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford's Pembroke College. He is currently writing a book on limited war for Cambridge University Press and is the Fulbright Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, Austria. This event was part-sponsored by the US-UK Fulbright Commission

'Limited War' is one of the terms making a frequent appearance in the strategic studies, international relations, and military history realms over the last 70 years. What does 'Limited War' mean? When do we know we are in one? What unique problems arise when waging one? What are the problems with ending them? And what should states do to secure a lasting peace? Distinguished Vienna Diplomatic Academy Fulbright Professor Donald Stoker discusses these issues and others by drawing upon what he has learned researching the subject for his forthcoming book from Cambridge University Press. Donald Stoker, PhD, was Professor of Strategy and Policy for the US Naval War College’s Monterey Program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, from 1999 until 2017. The author or editor of eight books, his Carl von Clausewitz: His Life and Work (Oxford University Press, 2014), is on the British Army professional reading list. His The Grand Design: Strategy and the US Civil War, 1861-1865 (Oxford University Press, 2010), won the prestigious Fletcher Pratt award, was a Main Selection of the History Book Club, and is on the US Army Chief of Staff’s reading list. In 2016, he was a Fellow of the Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford’s Pembroke College. He is currently writing a book on limited war for Cambridge University Press and is the Fulbright Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, Austria. This event was part-sponsored by the US-UK Fulbright Commission

Michael Moorcock’s first five Elric of Melniboné stories appeared in the British magazine Science Fantasy in 1962 and were collected in hardcover the next year as The Stealer of Souls, followed by a U.S. paperback edition from Lancer Books in 1967. Savage and sardonic, the Elric stories must have seemed like a fantasy off-shoot of Great Britain’s “Angry Young Man” movement of that era. At first glance, Elric of Melniboné appears to be the very antithesis of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Cimmerian: a physically weak sorcerer, addicted to drugs, symbiotically linked to the malignant black sword Stormbringer, and the rightful emperor of a cruel and decadent pre-human civilization. Moorcock and Elric are often characterized as a negation or rejection of Howardian swords & sorcery, but that’s a drastic oversimplification of Moorcock’s relationship to pulp fantasy. Moorcock was precocious fantasy talent, creating fanzines as a schoolboy and becoming editor of the professional magazine Tarzan Adventures by the age 17 in 1957. Moorcock was a notable contributor to AMRA, a fanzine that was a hotbed of discussion about fantasy fiction and counted among its many notable correspondents Poul Anderson, L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, and Roger Zelazny. As mentioned here, the term “swords and sorcery” was coined by Fritz Leiber in dialogue with Moorcock, although Moorcock has always preferred the term “epic fantasy”. Moorcock has at times minimized but never totally denied his appreciation for Howard, most likely hoping to let the Elric saga stand on its own two feet. He’s also held up his deep regard for the works of Leigh Brackett, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fritz Leiber, and Fletcher Pratt among others and was later a founding member of the Swordsmen and Sorceror's Guild of America, none of which indicates someone contemptuous or indifferent to fantasy fiction. Moorcock continued to write Elric stories in the late 1960s and the 1970s that were set prior to the events of Stormbringer. DAW Books republished the Elric Saga in 1977, arranging the stories by internal chronology, splitting the stories from The Stealer of Souls between The Weird of the White Wolf and The Bane of the Black Sword, the third and fifth books of Elric’s saga respectively. With Moorcock’s approval, Del Rey/Ballantine began publishing the “definitive” version of Elric’s saga in 2008, once again collecting the stories in publication order. Elric’s saga clearly had an impact on Gary Gygax as he specifically mentions Elric as a playable figure in the “Fantasy Supplement” to Chainmail (1971). The Law vs. Chaos alignment system in Chainmail and original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) may have originated with Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions, but there’s a distinct Moorcockian flavor in practice, although that would obviously vary from gaming group to gaming group. Rob Kuntz and James Ward wrote up Elric and the Melnibonéan mythos in the fourth Dungeons & Dragons supplement, Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes (1976). Four years later, Kuntz and Ward would detail the Melnibonéan mythos for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in Deities & Demigods (1980). Although TSR had permission from Moorcock to use Elric for D&D, their West Coast rivals Chaosium secured the official Elric license in 1981, leading TSR to remove the Melnibonéan section (and Cthulhu Mythos section) from the third printing onwards of Deities & Demigods. As a result, the first two printings of Deities & Demigods are now highly sought after collector’s items. In the meantime, Elric’s gaming presence has remained tightly bound up in the RuneQuest/Basic Role-Playing system for over 25 years, with the exception of Chaosium’s D20 System adaptation Dragon Lords of Melniboné (2001). There is currently no gaming license for any of Michael Moorcock’s works, so it remains to be seen if Elric will ever make an official reappearance at the gaming table….

He is quoted often, correctly and incorrectly, but few have actually read his works in full - and even fewer know much about the man himself, Major General Carl von Clausewitz, Kingdom of Prussia.Out guest for the full hour will be Donald Stoker, author of the new book, Clausewitz: His Life and Work. Stoker is a  Professor of Strategy and Policy for the U.S. Naval War College's program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.His previous book, The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War, won the distinguished Fletcher Pratt award for the best non-fiction Civil War book of 2010. Past winners include Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote.Episode first broadcast in DEC14.

Fletcher Pratt’s The Blue Star first saw print in the hardcover anthology Witches Three (Twayne Publishers, 1952), which also included Fritz Leiber’s Conjure Wife and James Blish’s “There Shall be No Darkness”. Pratt himself was the uncredited editor of the Witches Three, which ended up being the second and final volume in the short-lived “Twayne Triplets” series of themed hardcover fantastic fiction anthologies. Witches Three and The Blue Star in particular were positively reviewed at the time by The New York Times and The Washington Post among others. The Blue Star was not republished for the mass market however and soon slipped into obscurity, perhaps partly as a result of Pratt’s death in 1956. The Blue Star would likely remain forgotten to this day had Lin Carter not picked it to be the inaugural work in 1969 of the now seminal Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series (BAFS) was launched largely to follow up on the massive success of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works for Ballantine Books. Carter was tasked with bringing “fantasy novels of adult calibre” to the mass market paperback format, from original works to reprinting many rare or unjustly obscure “fantastic romances of adventure and ideas”. Although Carter did call The Blue Star “thoughtfully conceived and brilliantly accomplished”, it’s still a bit of a mystery why he thought this rather dense and allusive book was a particularly good choice to launch the series. It is worth noting that one of Carter’s literary mentors and frequent collaborators was L. Sprague de Camp, who was also Fletcher Pratt’s most frequent fiction writing partner. The BAFS edition of The Blue Star features a striking and psychedelic wraparound cover by Ron Walotsky which has almost no bearing on the story contents. After the cancellation of the BAF series The Blue Star remained sufficiently popular to be reprinted twice more by Ballantine Books in 1975 and 1981, although now with a more mundane (if accurate to the text) cover by Darrell K. Sweet. It’s hard to map any direct textual influence from The Blue Star to Dungeons and Dragons, especially given the overall passivity of The Blue Star’s protagonists Lalette Asterhax and Rodvard Bergelin. The Blue Star’s magic system, societies, religions and mores are quite well-developed though and may have appealed to the worldbuilder in Gary Gygax. Gygax the history buff and wargamer may also have felt a special affinity for Fletcher Pratt, who was even more well known during his lifetime as a popular military and naval historian (and naval wargame creator!) than as a writer of fantastic fiction.

Special guest Gavin Norman (author of The Complete Vivimancer and Theorems & Thaumaturgy) joins us to discuss Jack Vance‘s The Dying Earth! Jack Vance originally wrote the loosely connected stories that comprise The Dying Earth while serving in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II. Vance’s fiction had started appearing in pulp magazines as early as 1945, and The Dying Earth marked his first book publication when it was released in digest-sized paperback in 1950 by Hillman Periodicals, best known as a comic book and magazine publisher. The Dying Earth appears not to have been particularly successful at first, as it was not reprinted even as Vance’s career went on an upswing in the late 1950s & early 1960s. Hillman ceased publishing in 1961 and Lancer Books snapped up The Dying Earth, reprinting it in paperback in 1962 with a cover by the ever-versatile Ed Emshwiller depicting the denouement of the story “Ulan Dhor”. The Dying Earth did well enough that Lancer kept it in print until they went bankrupt in 1973, by which time its reputation was such that it has remained in print to this day through a series of different publishers. No doubt the continued success of The Dying Earth led Jack Vance to revisit the setting starting in the mid 1960s. These new stories that would eventually be published as The Eyes of the Overworld (1966), followed by the post-Appendix N books Cugel’s Saga (1983) and Rhialto the Marvellous (1984). Gary Gygax wrote in issue 2 of The Excellent Prismatic Spray (2001) that he first became a fan of Jack Vance after reading The Big Planet (1957) in the pulps in the early 1950s and then was “absolutely enthralled...as no work of fantasy had done for a long time” with the publication of The Eyes of the Overworld in 1966. The Dying Earth further cemented Gygax’s love of the setting. When it came time to devise a magic system for Dungeons & Dragons, Gygax felt that a “Vancian” system of memorized spells that are expended when cast and that then must be re-learned before casting again was the best way to provide flavor and balance the magic-user against other classes. The Enchanter series by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt would provide the situational pre-conditions for spellcasting in D&D, but these spell components were often glossed-over, as Gygax laments as early as 1976 in issue 6 of The Strategic Review, the predecessor to Dragon magazine. Oddly, D&D’s publisher TSR appears never to have tried to license the Dying Earth setting even though Gary Gygax remained a huge fan of Jack Vance and actually had significant contact with him after Dungeons & Dragons took the world by storm. The first time gamers would get to officially adventure in the Dying Earth was with the publication of Pelgrane Press’ The Dying Earth Roleplaying Game in 2001. Goodman Games has since licensed the Dying Earth setting for its Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, with a target release date of late 2017.

The Compleat Enchanter by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt is a compilation of the first three novellas in the Harold Shea/Enchanter series, “The Roaring Trumpet” (1940), “The Mathematics of Magic” (1940), and “The Castle of Iron” (1941, revised 1950). The Compleat Enchanter was first published as a Nelson Doubleday/Science Fiction Book Club hardcover in 1975 before being released as a Del Rey paperback in 1976, featuring a charming Brothers Hildebrandt cover painting. The three adventures in this book take place in the worlds of Norse Mythology, Edmund Spenser’s epic poem The Faerie Queene, and Ludovico Ariosto’s epic poem Orlando Furioso. De Camp and Pratt would later team up for two more Harold Shea stories, “The Wall of Serpents” (1953), and “The Green Magician” (1954). These stories fall outside of the Appendix N Book Club reading list since they were not collected in paperback until 1979, but Gary Gygax and Tim Kask must have been big fans since “The Green Magician” made its first reappearance in print since 1960 in issues 15 and 16 of The Dragon (1978)! In any case, the Harold Shea series undoubtedly left its mark on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, most obviously in the magical spell component requirements in The Players Handbook and the Against the Giants series of modules.

The Appendix N Podcast - Episode 42 - The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt     Thanks to our sponsor: Easy Roller Dice   Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59)   Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92)   “The Carnelian Cube” (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1948 (paperback) Lancer Books, 1967   Guests: Louis Brenton twitter - @revlouisbrenton website - louisbrenton.com   Jeremiah McCoy websites - http://jeremiahmccoy.com & http://thebasicsofthegame.wordpress.com   Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com twitter - @jeff_wik   Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn   Geoffrey Winngdwinn@comcast.net        

The Appendix N Podcast - Episode 42 - The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt     Thanks to our sponsor: Easy Roller Dice   Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59)   Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92)   “The Carnelian Cube” (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1948 (paperback) Lancer Books, 1967   Guests: Louis Brenton twitter - @revlouisbrenton website - louisbrenton.com   Jeremiah McCoy websites - http://jeremiahmccoy.com & http://thebasicsofthegame.wordpress.com   Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com twitter - @jeff_wik   Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn   Geoffrey Winngdwinn@comcast.net        

The Appendix N Podcast - Episode 42 - The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt     Thanks to our sponsor: Easy Roller Dice   Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59)   Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92)   “The Carnelian Cube” (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1948 (paperback) Lancer Books, 1967   Guests: Louis Brenton twitter - @revlouisbrenton website - louisbrenton.com   Jeremiah McCoy websites - http://jeremiahmccoy.com & http://thebasicsofthegame.wordpress.com   Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com twitter - @jeff_wik   Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn   Geoffrey Winngdwinn@comcast.net        

The Appendix N Podcast - Episode 42 - The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt     Thanks to our sponsor: Easy Roller Dice   Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59)   Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92)   “The Carnelian Cube” (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1948 (paperback) Lancer Books, 1967   Guests: Louis Brenton twitter - @revlouisbrenton website - louisbrenton.com   Jeremiah McCoy websites - http://jeremiahmccoy.com & http://thebasicsofthegame.wordpress.com   Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com twitter - @jeff_wik   Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn   Geoffrey Winngdwinn@comcast.net        

staticnosis, Haha Mart, Cabo Boing, Acid Fountain, Long Distance Poison, Nonhorse, Lisa, Orthodox, Olson and Billington, Sam Gas Can, Rangers, Skyjelly, Fletcher Pratt, Convivial Cannibal, eelxb, dschulez, [klsr], and Lester, Nowhere.

staticnosis, Haha Mart, Cabo Boing, Acid Fountain, Long Distance Poison, Nonhorse, Lisa, Orthodox, Olson and Billington, Sam Gas Can, Rangers, Skyjelly, Fletcher Pratt, Convivial Cannibal, eelxb, dschulez, [klsr], and Lester, Nowhere.

staticnosis, Haha Mart, Cabo Boing, Acid Fountain, Long Distance Poison, Nonhorse, Lisa, Orthodox, Olson and Billington, Sam Gas Can, Rangers, Skyjelly, Fletcher Pratt, Convivial Cannibal, eelxb, dschulez, [klsr], and Lester, Nowhere.

06:58 - Julia Bloop – "I Gotta Get Outta This Place" – Roland Throop 09:10 - Ylangylang – "How Thin is the Skin of the Soul" – Life Without Structure 14:15 -The Cyclist – "Bending Brass" – Bending Brass 17:18 - Luxury Elite – "Crystal" – World Class 19:25 - Ratkiller – "Sympathy (feat. Benzokai)" - Odor Orienting 23:15 - Fletcher Pratt – "Screwed up Raga" – Dub Sessions vol. 3 Talk Break 29:10 - Hillboggle – "Up the Country (excerpt)" – Up the Country with Hillboggle 32:10 - Shocking Pinks – "Lovehate (Abstract Mutation Remix)" – Wake up Children 36:35 - Al Lover – "Drug Attic" - Interference Patterns Talk Break 42:15 - Pressed And – "Blue Noun" - Imbue Up 44:12 - Luurel Varas – "Yodayoga" – Luurel Varas 47:30 - Pregnant – "Mount in Me" – John Raw 50:40 - Don Gero – "Wyvern" – Wizarding Talk Break 55:55 - Nate Henricks – "Sometimes I Die" – Neon for No One 59:21 - Matt “MV” Valentine & Sun Hoods – "Shoot Him Again, His Soul's Still Dancing" - Matt “MV” Valentine & Sun Hoods

Harold Shea sets off an another enchanted adventure, this time to the world of the Orlando Furioso. Will he be reunited with his lost love, or will bad poetry be his undoing?   www.nobleknight.com   Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92)   Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59)   “The Castle of Iron” Unknown, April 1941 (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1950 (paperback) Pyramid Books, 1962   My guest: Peter Foxhoven website - http://www.cromcountthedead.com   Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com   Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn   Email us with your comments!   thetomeshow@gmail.com Thetomeshow.com Patreon.com/thetomeshow    

Harold Shea sets off an another enchanted adventure, this time to the world of the Orlando Furioso. Will he be reunited with his lost love, or will bad poetry be his undoing?   www.nobleknight.com   Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92)   Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59)   “The Castle of Iron” Unknown, April 1941 (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1950 (paperback) Pyramid Books, 1962   My guest: Peter Foxhoven website - http://www.cromcountthedead.com   Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com   Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn   Email us with your comments!   thetomeshow@gmail.com Thetomeshow.com Patreon.com/thetomeshow    

Harold Shea sets off an another enchanted adventure, this time to the world of the Orlando Furioso. Will he be reunited with his lost love, or will bad poetry be his undoing?   www.nobleknight.com   Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92)   Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59)   “The Castle of Iron” Unknown, April 1941 (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1950 (paperback) Pyramid Books, 1962   My guest: Peter Foxhoven website - http://www.cromcountthedead.com   Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com   Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn   Email us with your comments!   thetomeshow@gmail.com Thetomeshow.com Patreon.com/thetomeshow    

Harold Shea sets off an another enchanted adventure, this time to the world of the Orlando Furioso. Will he be reunited with his lost love, or will bad poetry be his undoing?   www.nobleknight.com   Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92)   Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59)   “The Castle of Iron” Unknown, April 1941 (hardcover) Gnome Press, 1950 (paperback) Pyramid Books, 1962   My guest: Peter Foxhoven website - http://www.cromcountthedead.com   Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com   Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn   Email us with your comments!   thetomeshow@gmail.com Thetomeshow.com Patreon.com/thetomeshow    

Follow along with the amazing adventures of Harold Shea, spellcasting psychologist! Travel from the world of Norse mythology to the romantic fantasy of Spencer's Faerie Queene. How will Harold best the Blatant Beast? Find out, as you listen to our thrilling discussion!   www.nobleknight.com   Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92)   Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history Best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War, and for collaborations on fiction with L. Sprague de Camp Attended Hobart College and wrote for various magazines “The Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game” — a set of rules for naval wargaming, involving tiny wooden ships, published prior to WW2   “The Roaring Trumpet” Unknown, May 1940   Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Thjalfi Utgardaloki Snogg “The plotline of the story is based on the myths of Thor's expedition to Jotunhem as told in the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, and the Völva's prophecy regarding Ragnarok in the poem Völuspá, preserved in the Poetic Edda.”   “The Mathematics of Magic” Unknown, August 1940   Spencer's Faerie Queen Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Lady Britomart Lady Florimel Belphebe   Both stories first appeared in book form in The Incomplete Enchanter, 1941, Henry Holt and Company   My guest: Chris Constantin Dark Revelations the Roleplaying Game - http://drevrpg.com   Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com   Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn   Email us with your comments!   http://www.thetomeshow.com thetomeshow@gmail.com      

Follow along with the amazing adventures of Harold Shea, spellcasting psychologist! Travel from the world of Norse mythology to the romantic fantasy of Spencer’s Faerie Queene. How will Harold best the Blatant Beast? Find out, as you listen to our thrilling discussion!   www.nobleknight.com   Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92)   Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history Best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War, and for collaborations on fiction with L. Sprague de Camp Attended Hobart College and wrote for various magazines “The Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game” — a set of rules for naval wargaming, involving tiny wooden ships, published prior to WW2   “The Roaring Trumpet” Unknown, May 1940   Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Thjalfi Utgardaloki Snogg “The plotline of the story is based on the myths of Thor's expedition to Jotunhem as told in the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, and the Völva's prophecy regarding Ragnarok in the poem Völuspá, preserved in the Poetic Edda.”   “The Mathematics of Magic” Unknown, August 1940   Spencer’s Faerie Queen Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Lady Britomart Lady Florimel Belphebe   Both stories first appeared in book form in The Incomplete Enchanter, 1941, Henry Holt and Company   My guest: Chris Constantin Dark Revelations the Roleplaying Game - http://drevrpg.com   Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com   Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn   Email us with your comments!   http://www.thetomeshow.com thetomeshow@gmail.com      

Follow along with the amazing adventures of Harold Shea, spellcasting psychologist! Travel from the world of Norse mythology to the romantic fantasy of Spencer’s Faerie Queene. How will Harold best the Blatant Beast? Find out, as you listen to our thrilling discussion!   www.nobleknight.com   Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92)   Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history Best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War, and for collaborations on fiction with L. Sprague de Camp Attended Hobart College and wrote for various magazines “The Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game” — a set of rules for naval wargaming, involving tiny wooden ships, published prior to WW2   “The Roaring Trumpet” Unknown, May 1940   Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Thjalfi Utgardaloki Snogg “The plotline of the story is based on the myths of Thor's expedition to Jotunhem as told in the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, and the Völva's prophecy regarding Ragnarok in the poem Völuspá, preserved in the Poetic Edda.”   “The Mathematics of Magic” Unknown, August 1940   Spencer’s Faerie Queen Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Lady Britomart Lady Florimel Belphebe   Both stories first appeared in book form in The Incomplete Enchanter, 1941, Henry Holt and Company   My guest: Chris Constantin Dark Revelations the Roleplaying Game - http://drevrpg.com   Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com   Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn   Email us with your comments!   http://www.thetomeshow.com thetomeshow@gmail.com      

Follow along with the amazing adventures of Harold Shea, spellcasting psychologist! Travel from the world of Norse mythology to the romantic fantasy of Spencer’s Faerie Queene. How will Harold best the Blatant Beast? Find out, as you listen to our thrilling discussion!   www.nobleknight.com   Lyon Sprague de Camp November 27, 1907 - November 6, 2000 (age 92)   Murray Fletcher Pratt April 25, 1897 (Buffalo, NY) - June 10, 1956 (age 59) American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history Best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War, and for collaborations on fiction with L. Sprague de Camp Attended Hobart College and wrote for various magazines “The Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game” — a set of rules for naval wargaming, involving tiny wooden ships, published prior to WW2   “The Roaring Trumpet” Unknown, May 1940   Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Thjalfi Utgardaloki Snogg “The plotline of the story is based on the myths of Thor's expedition to Jotunhem as told in the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, and the Völva's prophecy regarding Ragnarok in the poem Völuspá, preserved in the Poetic Edda.”   “The Mathematics of Magic” Unknown, August 1940   Spencer’s Faerie Queen Harold Shea Reed Chalmers Lady Britomart Lady Florimel Belphebe   Both stories first appeared in book form in The Incomplete Enchanter, 1941, Henry Holt and Company   My guest: Chris Constantin Dark Revelations the Roleplaying Game - http://drevrpg.com   Co-hosts: Jeffrey Wikstrom website - jeffwik.com email - jeffwik@gmail.com   Geoffrey Winn twitter - @geoffreydwinn   Email us with your comments!   http://www.thetomeshow.com thetomeshow@gmail.com      

Kevin and Steve get their nerd on and ask, “Of all the fantasy/sci-fi novel settings you’ve read about, where would you want to live?” Part I of this episode is a boy’s club (Part II will feature women authors), though they go over some classics, from Tolkien’s Middle Earth, to Lewis’ Narnia, Zelazny’s Amber, Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain, Moorcock’s multiverse, and they venture into more obscure works by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, among others. Scintillating!

He is quoted often, correctly and incorrectly, but few have actually read his works in full - and even fewer know much about the man himself, Major General Carl von Clausewitz, Kingdom of Prussia.Out guest for the full hour will be Donald Stoker, author of the new book, Clausewitz: His Life and Work. Stoker is a  Professor of Strategy and Policy for the U.S. Naval War College's program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.His previous book, The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War, won the distinguished Fletcher Pratt award for the best non-fiction Civil War book of 2010. Past winners include Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote.

New Age Hillbilly, Pak, Dsic, Fletcher Pratt, Jason E. Anderson, Matt Carlson, Plankton Wat, Lake Mary, Jeremy Kelly, Kosmonaut, Emuul, Dinner Music, The Marshmallow Staircase, and Parashi

New Age Hillbilly, Pak, Dsic, Fletcher Pratt, Jason E. Anderson, Matt Carlson, Plankton Wat, Lake Mary, Jeremy Kelly, Kosmonaut, Emuul, Dinner Music, The Marshmallow Staircase, and Parashi

New Age Hillbilly, Pak, Dsic, Fletcher Pratt, Jason E. Anderson, Matt Carlson, Plankton Wat, Lake Mary, Jeremy Kelly, Kosmonaut, Emuul, Dinner Music, The Marshmallow Staircase, and Parashi