Wars of The World

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History should never be forgotten...

  1. 3D AGO

    Bernard Montgomery: The Unstoppable WWII Commander...

    Send a text Throughout history, war has often been characterised as being an elaborate game of chess played by the Generals commanding the armies on the chessboard that is the battlefield. This characterisation has led to the perception of many of history’s great duels being between two key, opposing players and in 1942 on the deserts of North Africa – a land described as being ideal for the game of war – there seemed no greater player than German Field Marshall Erwin Rommell.  Commanding the German Afrika Korps, it seemed like the man who history remembers as the Desert Fox could not be stopped. The British Empire forces opposing him changed leaders several times until finally one man stood up to the plate who could match him in both genius and charisma. His name was General Bernard Montgomery who history would know simply as Monty. But Monty’s story extends beyond this one battlefield and in this episode, we are going to explore more of the man who heralded the turning point in the fight against Nazi tyranny. Welcome to Wars of the World. Support the show

    21 min

  2. 5D AGO

    Verdun: The Longest & Most Horrific Battle of WWI...

    Send a text For every nation, there are battles whose names for one reason or another mean more to their people than most. For Americans, its Gettysburg. For Australians and New Zealanders, its Gallipoli. For the British and Canadians, it’s the Somme. For France, perhaps one of the most important battles in its recent history was the Battle of Verdun. Fought almost throughout the entirety of 1916, the battle was instigated by the German Army in an effort to destroy France and achieve victory on the Western Front. Instead, the battle demonstrated France’s determination to resist and fight back over the span of 303 days of fighting – one of the longest battles not just of the Great War but in recorded history. This is the story of the Battle of Verdun. Welcome to Wars of the World. Support the show

    22 min

  3. MAR 4

    The Haunted UB-65 of World War I...

    Send a text In this, episode, we are going to take a look at the real wartime service of UB-65 and then investigate the legend to establish if there is any truth in the story of the supposedly haunted U-boat or whether it was as some believe the result of an elaborate plan by the Allies to combat the underwater menace. Welcome to Wars of the World. Support the show

    22 min

  4. MAR 2

    Terror in The Sky: The Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters of WWII...

    Send a text The opening of the air war over the Pacific was brutal. Allied pilots found themselves facing an enemy whose fighters appeared to be able to run rings around their own. The most notable of these Japanese fighters was the Mitsubishi A6M more commonly known to Allied pilots as the Zero. Designed by a team headed by Jiro Honkoshi, the A6M was designed for the Imperial Japanese Navy and as such could be operated from carriers. At the time, most carrier-based fighters had to sacrifice some aspect of its performance to make it suitable for the rigours of carrier operations but what made the Zero so feared was that for the first time, this aircraft had performance that could match most of its land-based adversaries; something almost completely lost on Allied intelligence prior to December 1941. The Zero was a fast slasher, being capable of high speed and great agility. By contrast most Allied fighters such as the US Navy’s Grumman F4F Wildcat were much heavier designs as they incorporated greater protection; something the Zero sacrificed to achieve its stellar performance. Therefore, it was quickly realised that what was needed was a more powerful fighter that could match the Zero’s performance without sacrificing the protection and firepower afforded the US pilots and this lead to the development of one of the greatest fighters of World War II – the Grumman F6F Hellcat. Welcome to Wars of the World. Support the show

    19 min

  5. FEB 25

    Life Inside The Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler’s Paranoid Final Few Days...

    Send a text The streets of Berlin were devastated beyond recognition in some areas as 33-year-old photographer William Vandivert was led to the location of the former German chancellery buildings. Just days before, these streets had been the subject of a two-week long bloody and bitter battle between the Soviet Union’s Red Army and the last of the German Wehrmacht whose numbers had been propped up by old men and young boys recruited from the city’s population. Now that battle was over and red flags upon which was emblazoned the hammer and sickle emblem of the Soviet Union hung from the ruined buildings, replacing the swastika of the Third Reich which was no more. Vandivert later reported in Life magazine that almost every famous building in the German capital was a shambles and one could walk for blocks and see no living thing, hear nothing but the stillness of death and smell nothing but its putrid stench. Vandivert arrived at what remained of the Reich chancellery and was then guided to an entrance that went down beneath it.  Vandivert was about to become the first journalist from a western Allied nation to see the fuhrerbunker where Adolf Hitler directed the German war effort in those final days before he like the Nazi dream itself ended in blood; in the Fuhrer’s case at his own hand in one last act of defiance. As if symbolising the dark nature of the world he was stepping into, Vandivert later recounted that there was almost no light in the bunker and that the Red Army guards who escorted him around lit the way with candles before the flash of his camera exposed the scenes below; his pictures giving the people of the US and beyond their first glimpse into where the Fuhrer – perhaps the epitome of evil – died. Since that day, the world has been fascinated with the story of Hitler’s final days. Prior to 1945, it appeared as though Hitler and his Fascist war machine was unstoppable as it dominated the battlefield. Even his enemies began to view him some kind of invincible monarch and so it was quite perplexing that the man who had enamoured audiences of thousands at the spectacular Nuremberg rallies would die in a dark hole in the ground like a rat returning to its nest after consuming poison.  This is the story of the creation of the Fuhrerbunker and those hellish last days of the man who dreamed of total conquest. Support the show

    21 min

  6. FEB 23

    The Hanoi Hilton: The Brutal Vietnam Prison American Soldiers Feared…

    Send a text Hỏa Lò Prison was first built during the French Colonial era between 1886 and 1901 in the French Quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital city. During this time, Vietnam was part of French Indochina, a group of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia which was eventually dissolved in the 1950s. As well as various Vietnamese regions, French Indochina consisted of Cambodia, Laos and Guangzhouwan. The city of Hanoi remained the area’s capital between 1902 and 1945. Upon first being built, Hỏa Lò Prison was dubbed ‘Maison Centrale’ or ‘Central House’, and was established to hold Vietnamese revolutionaries and political dissidents, particularly those campaigning for Vietnamese independence. The prison had a grisly reputation from the start: prisoners were known to be subject to torture and brutal interrogation tactics, before finally facing execution. The name ‘Hỏa Lò’ emerged some time afterwards, roughly translating to ‘stove’, ‘fire kiln’ or ‘fiery furnace’, and came from the fact that the surrounding neighbourhood was filled with stores selling wood and coal-fire stoves. Support the show

    19 min

  7. FEB 18

    The Odessa Massacre: A Forgotten Holocaust of WWII

    Send a text When discussing the Axis powers of World War II, history tends to focus on Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Mussolini’s Italy however this is only part of the story. Fascism and antisemitism were by no means limited to Hitler and his closest allies in Tokyo and Rome. Indeed, far-right extremist ideologies had taken hold in several European countries that made them potential allies for Berlin particularly with the natural hostility such policies attracted from the communist superpower of the Soviet Union. One such nation that found itself seduced by the same Fascist ideals as Germany was Romania. Surrounded by potential enemies who viewed its lands with jealousy including the Soviet Union, historic antisemitism combined with a fear of a communism led Romania down a dark path as it found itself working alongside Hitler’s Germany on what the leaders of both countries saw as nothing short of a holy crusade against those who they believed conspired against them, stifling them and holding them back from achieving their true destiny of greatness in the world. But working with the devil comes at a terrible price. In this episode we are going to examine the involvement of Romanian soldiers in one of the most brutal chapters of the Holocaust where hatred manifested itself in its purest forms against those who had no way of fighting back. This is the story of the 1941 Odessa Massacre. Support the show

    32 min

  8. FEB 16

    E Squadron: The Most Secretive Special Forces Unit in The World?

    Send a text In one specific section of his book, Tomlinson details that to qualify for the Increment, a certain amount of time must be served with MI6: “...SAS and SBS personnel must have served for at least five years and have reached the rank of sergeant. They are security vetted by MI6 and given a short induction course into the function and objectives of the service. If they have not already learnt surveillance skills, they take a three-week course at the Fort. Back at their bases in Hereford and Poole, their already substantial military skills are fine-tuned. They learn how to use improvised explosives and sabotage techniques, as well as advanced VIP protection skills, study guerilla warfare organisation and practise advanced insertion techniques - for example, high-altitude parachuting from commercial aircraft or covert landings from submarines.  Advanced civilian qualifications are acquired: several of the SBS Increment have commercial ship's skipper’s tickets in their alias name, enabling them legally to hire, say, a fishing trawler.” Recruiters for E Squadron are also known to choose a wide variety of individuals to fill their vacancies, hiring from countries such as Fiji, Malta and Jamaica, as well as British citizens of India, Yemen and Nigeria, to name a few. Additionally, women are also regularly recruited in these positions, with hired individuals needing to be able to fit in anywhere, easily, with one source telling The Sun, “Women are often the best at this sort of work. If a group of blokes turns up, it always looks suspicious. We haven’t had a female Bond in the films, but there are already lots in real life.” Welcome to Wars of the World.... Support the show

    13 min
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4.8
out of 5
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About

History should never be forgotten...

Information

  • Creator
    Hit The Lights
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    114
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Wars of The World
  • Show Website
    Wars of The World

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