The Danger Zone (DZ)

Paul Fordyce
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  • Updated Weekly

Paul conducts the guided tour at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum, Cairns every Saturday at 10:30 am. Paul’s tour’s like what Carlsberg says about their beer, probably the best tour of an armour and artillery museum in the world. The Trip Advisor reviews of his Tour speak for themselves. This Podcast is like the Tour – only infinitely better. It looks at military history, in incredible detail, the likes of which you’ve never heard before. Never rushed – the topic is exhaustively covered in as many parts as are needed to do the topic full justice.

  1. 4d ago

    DZ Season 064 Part 66. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Americans Had to Say – Beyond the Limits of Individual Human Endurance – Infantry the Endangered Species.

    Private Donald Schoo of the 80th Infantry Division recalled seeing one of his buddies, named Steehhourst, take a hit from an 88 that blew off his right hand. ‘He was crying and running around yelling, Tm going home! Thank you God, I'm going home!' Steehhourst was lucky, at least according to the standards of the men of the Bulge and specifically to Sergeant Richard Wallace of the 90th Division. After one shelling Wallace told his squad, ‘Boys, I'd give my right arm up to here’ — holding it at his elbow — ‘if this war would end right now.’ The shelling resumed. Shrapnel tore into Wallace's face. "’I can't see!" he cried out. ‘I can't see! Oh, my God, I'm blind.’ He never saw again and the war was a long way from over. wrote Stephen Ambrose in The Victors. Keeping soldiers in the line, continuously, something that the American Army had not done in the First World War, for good reason – wasn’t healthy. A study was undertaken after the war into how the mental state of men in combat evolves if they’re not pulled out of the line. What did that find and why was it relevant to the crisis the American Army in the European Theatre of Operations suffering from excessively high levels of mental illness, feigned mental illness, desertion and self-inflicted wounds? Tag words: American Army; European Theatre of Operations; mental illness; feigned mental illness; desertion; self-inflicted wounds; Robert Kershaw; Tank Men; RL Swank; WE Marchand; Combat Neurosis: Development of Combat Exhaustion, Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry; US soldier; GI; Stephen Ambrose; The Victors; World War II; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Julius Caesar; first experience of battle; German army; green units; Battle of the Bulge; Hank H Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; Eisenhower; Bradley; Paul Kennedy; Engineers of Victory; Carlo d’Este; A Genius for War; Malmèdy; 11th Armored Division; Rick Atkinson; Liberation Trilogy; The Guns at Last Light; infantry losses; Red List;

    DZ Season 064 Part 66. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Americans Had to Say – Beyond the Limits of Individual Human Endurance – Infantry the Endangered Species.

  2. 4d ago

    DZ Season 064 Part 59. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Americans Had to Say – Which Four Men Would Fight a Lion.

    Four brave men who do not know each other, wrote Ardant du Picq in his Etudes de Combat, will hesitate to attack a lion; four less brave men, but knowing and trusting each other, will do so resolutely. The point of the tale is this: of all the organizational problems an army has to solve, that of how best to merge replacements into existing units so as to ensure the cohesion of the whole is one of the most crucial, since on it depends the unit's fighting power. The sheer size of the problem may be gauged from the fact that, on the average, three months of intensive combat in World War II cost an American infantry regiment a hundred percent of its personnel in casualties. wrote Martin Creveld in his book Fighting Power, German and U.S. Army Performance 1939-1945. How the US Army handled this in World War II is a study in how not to put replacements into existing units. Tag words: replacement depots; repple depples; repple depple syndrome; Martin Creveld; Fighting Power, German and U.S. Army Performance 1939-1945; US Army; World War II; Training; Enlisted men; NCOs; Army Training Centers; ATCs; Replacement Training Centers; RTCs; Officer Candidate Schools; OCSs; theater depot; MOS; Military Occupation Specialties; Seventy-ninth Infantry Division; 79th Infantry Division; General Ira T Wyche; Stephen Ambrose; The Victors; Eisenhower; Bradley; Patton; ASTPers; Army Specialist Training Program; children's crusade;

    DZ Season 064 Part 59. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Americans Had to Say – Which Four Men Would Fight a Lion.

  3. Sep 23

    DZ Season 064 Part 58. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Brits Had to Say – Not Enough Soldiers to Die.

    In his book, The War Between the Generals, David Irving wrote about an important meeting, that few people know about, at the time that the Battle of the Bulge was at its height in December 1944/ January 1945: In Washington, after lunch on December 27, Stimson walked back to the War Department and slipped into Marshall's office for a long private talk about an unthinkable possibility: what if the Germans pulled this gamble off? Marshall had been thinking the same thought. Rain and sleet lashed the office windows as they talked. Basic to both men's worries was the fear that they had created an army too small for the job — and that in consequence the infantry was becoming battle-fatigued. The German armies facing the Allies still equaled them in divisions. Should the United States begin raising new divisions now, for autumn 1945?…. the people of the United States [were going to have to] decide whether they wanted to go on with the war enough to raise the new armies which would be necessary to do it. . .  Men – the GI’s – that was the topic that Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell next turned to in considering the American Way of War in their book Coalitions, Politicians and Generals. Tag words: GI; The War Between the Generals; David Irvin; Battle of the Bulge; Henry , Stimson; Secretary of War; General George C Marshall; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Montgomery; US Army; manpower; George Patton; General Dwight DEisenhower; General Bradley; General Hodges; General Simpson; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; cross-Channel invasion; US Army; Eastern Front;

    DZ Season 064 Part 58. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Brits Had to Say – Not Enough Soldiers to Die.

  4. Sep 16

    DZ Season 064 Part 57. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Brits Had to Say – Was Like a Hollywood Movie.

    British observers of the US Army in action in North Africa, Italy and North-West Europe sometimes had the impression that they were watching a Hollywood production of `A Triumph of the Will'. They could never be certain what had been achieved and was real and what was a stage set, a Potemkin village for the benefit of `American Public Opinion'. The press made George Patton into a character from a Hemingway novel, and he played the romantic lead to the hilt. War had to be good drama which required red-blooded American heroes. Even if American performance was not perfect it must appear to be so. This could lead to deception and disillusionment if taken seriously.  wrote Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell in their book Coalitions, Politicians and Generals. Tag words: George Patton; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Eisenhower; General Lloyd D Fredendall; General Alexander; General Lewis G Brereton; General Pershing; General George Marshall; Field Marshall Montgomery; General Omar N Bradley; General George Patton; General Simpson; General Hodges;

    DZ Season 064 Part 57. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Brits Had to Say – Was Like a Hollywood Movie.

  5. Sep 9

    DZ Season 064 Part 56. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Brits Had to Say – An American General Like a Social Media Influencer.

    Patton, typically, once exclaimed that intelligence and possible enemy intentions never worried him: it was what he was about to do to the enemy that mattered. wrote Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell in Coalitions, Politicians and Generals. Did this sum up the way the Americans conducted the war in Europe? What had brought about this way of waging war? If Patton literally meant it, did it reflect the American attitude to the war on the ground in France and Germany in 1944/45? Tag words: Patton; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Joint Chiefs of Staff; President Roosevelt; General George Marshall; Sir John Dill; American Revolution; War of Independence; Dwight D Eisenhower; US infantry; Rommel; Kasserine Pass; . James Gavin;General Lloyd C Fredenhall; Lieutenant-General FAM Browning; Russell Weigley; Ridgway; what David Irving; The War Between the Generals; General Alexander; Churchill; Montgomery; Falaise Gap; Sicily;

    DZ Season 064 Part 56. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Brits Had to Say – An American General Like a Social Media Influencer.

  6. Sep 2

    DZ Season 064 Part 55. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Brits Had to Say.

    The Americans did not give a great deal of thought to morale, in the sense of fighting spirit. Generals in all armies as a matter of faith and national pride believe that their soldiers are naturally endowed with courage. The younger American soldier was buoyed up by his national self-confidence, and the older by the memories of a war which for them had ended quickly in a glorious victory for American arms, or so it was perceived. Unlike the British, there was no folk-memory of the murderous attrition of 1916 and 1917: the AEF had emerged from the war in 1918 with its belief in unlimited objectives and aggression unshaken. wrote Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell in their book Coalitions, Politicians and Generals. And then there was the American politicisation of their generals. These were a potent mix that would drive the American war effort – but where did it drive it? Tag words: General John Pershing ; AEF ; American Expeditionary Force; World War I; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Battle of Amiens; General John Monash; Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Blamey; Brent D Taylor; Chief of the United States Army; General George Catlett Marshall; Field-Marshal Sir John Dill; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; CIGS; Churchill; American Constitution; Roosevelt; Congress; Alan Brooke; Alanbrooke;

    DZ Season 064 Part 55. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Brits Had to Say.

  7. Aug 26

    DZ Season 064 Part 54. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 16 – Black and White.

    Four brave men who do not know each other, wrote Ardant du Picq in his Etudes de Combat, will hesitate to attack a lion; four less brave men, but knowing and trusting each other, will do so resolutely. The point of the tale is this: of all the organizational problems an army has to solve, that of how best to merge replacements into existing units so as to ensure the cohesion of the whole is one of the most crucial, since on it depends the unit's fighting power. The sheer size of the problem may be gauged from the fact that, on the average, three months of intensive combat in World War II cost an American infantry regiment a hundred percent of its personnel in casualties. wrote Martin Creveld in his book Fighting Power. German and U.S. Army Performance, 1939-1945. Tag words: unit's fighting power; World War II; American infantry regiment; Martin Creveld; Fighting Power German and US Army Performance, 1939-1945; American Army; replacements; Replacement Training Center; repple depples; repple depple syndrome; Seventy-ninth Infantry Division; General Ira T Wyche; Stephen Ambrose; The Victors; Eisenhower; Bradley; Patton; ETO; GIs; ComZ; General JCH Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Ground Forces Reinforcement System; GFRS; 761st Tank Battalion; Terry Allen; 104th Division; Black Timberwolves; General Benjamin Davis; General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell; Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower A Soldier’s Life; The Service Reminiscences of Lt Gen John C H Lee; American Way of War; Field Marshal Montgomery;

    DZ Season 064 Part 54. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 16 – Black and White.

  8. Aug 19

    DZ Season 064 Part 53. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 15 – Running on Empty – His Finest Moment.

    Bradley's distaste for Lee, which he expressed frequently, was never explained. Bradley left behind two autobiographies, one co-written with Clay Blair. In neither does he mention Lee by name. wrote Hank H Cox in his biography of General JCH Lee, The General Who Wore Six Stars. Without naming names Bradley had praised to the heavens what Lee had accomplished in the Battle of the Bulge, not naming him, of course. But Antony Beevor in his book Ardennes 1944, referred to this remark that Bradley had made in the presence of his chief of staff, Chet Hansen, and presumably others: Bradley had boasted with justification on Christmas Eve that `no other army in the world could possibly have shifted forces as expertly and quickly as we have'. On the second day of the offensive, First Army moved 60,000 troops into the Ardennes in just twenty-four hours. The despised Com Z of General Lee had achieved miracles. It also managed to transport 85 per cent of ordnance stocks out of German reach. Between 17 and 26 December, 50,000 trucks and 248,000 men from quartermaster units shifted 2.8 million gallons of gasoline so that panzer spearheads could not refuel from captured dumps. By not naming General Lee as being the man who successfully commanded this operation, Bradley was, in effect, claiming credit for General Lee’s remarkable achievement for himself. One of many times Bradley engaged in such conduct in respect of important milestones. Tag words: General Omar N Bradley; Hank H Cox; General JCH Lee; The General Who Wore Six Stars; Battle of the Bulge; Antony Beevor; Ardennes 1944; Chet Hansen; Com Z; Eisenhower; John Kennedy Ohl; Supplying the Troops; General Somervell; Marshall; Stimson; Major General Mark Clark; A Soldier’s Story; Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life; Rundstedt; Charles Darwin; Origin of Species; The Descent of Man; Richard Weikart; Darwinian Racism; General Clarence E McKnight Jr; African Americans; General Benjamin O Davis; FDR; President Roosevelt; Geoffrey Perret; Beetle Smith;

    DZ Season 064 Part 53. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 15 – Running on Empty – His Finest Moment.
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About

Paul conducts the guided tour at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum, Cairns every Saturday at 10:30 am. Paul’s tour’s like what Carlsberg says about their beer, probably the best tour of an armour and artillery museum in the world. The Trip Advisor reviews of his Tour speak for themselves. This Podcast is like the Tour – only infinitely better. It looks at military history, in incredible detail, the likes of which you’ve never heard before. Never rushed – the topic is exhaustively covered in as many parts as are needed to do the topic full justice.

Information

  • Creator
    Paul Fordyce
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    344
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Paul Fordyce
  • Show Website
    The Danger Zone (DZ)