For over 50 days the Allies had been bottled up in their bridgeheads at Normandy. And then, suddenly, they weren’t. The road to Germany was open. All they had to do was drive into the Third Reich, seize Berlin, and bring about the downfall of Adolf Hitler and his gang – and all of this in 1944 – or so it seemed. What was the feeling at the top when the entirely unexpected breakout happened in July when Operation Cobra burst out of the bridgehead?Tag words: Normandy; Third Reich; Adolf Hitler; Operation Cobra; Mortain; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; CIGS; Sir Alan Brooke; War Between the Generals; David Irving; Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life; Eisenhower; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Nigel Hamilton; Monty: The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; General Devers; General Bradley; Major General Kenneth Strong; SHAEF; Patton; Colonel Oscar Koch; Westwall; Siegfried Line; Churchill; Lieutenant General Brehon Somervell; Robert P. Patterson; General Marshall; General Bedell Smith;
World War 2 in Europe ended with the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Western Allies on 7 May 1945 and to the Soviet Union on 8 May 1945. In the last year of the war, 1945, about 2.6 million military personnel died in Europe. The number of civilian casualties were also considerable. After the Allied breakout from Normandy in August 1944 there seemed to have been a chance to end the war in Europe before Christmas – that often heard refrain in World War I and World War II, although after the war this one isn’t brought to mind as much as it should be. Was there any truth to that rumour about World War II in Europe ending in 1944? I’m going to explore that in this series of programmes.Tag words: World War 2; Nazi Germany; Normandy; Lieutenant-General JCH Lee; General Eisenhower; General Montgomery; Field Marshall Montgomery; General Omar N Bradley; General George S Patton Jr; 21st Army Group; 12th Army Group; 3rd US Army; Shellburst; Anvil; General Marshall; D-Day; Nigel Hamilton; Monty – The Battles of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; Operation Cobra; Carlo d’Este; Overlord; US Army; Flavius Renatus Vegetius; De Re Militari; Scipio; golden bridge; Argentan; Falaise Gap; Hitler; Mortain; Seventh Army; Fifth Panzer Army; Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower: Decision in Normandy; 12th SS Panzer Division; Martin Blumenson; Breakout and Pursuit;
Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all inhabitants thereof – what was it that made the West great and enriched the entire world as a consequence? It was freedom. Out of the failed attempt by the mighty Persian Empire, to conquer the impoverished farming land of Greece, the Greeks gave the world a lasting gift. The abstract idea of freedom – which a successful Persian invasion of Greece would have crushed.A quarter million of Xerxes' troops perished in his vain attempt to take away this mysterious abstract thing called freedom which was enjoyed uniquely in all of the world by this tiny Balkan country of less than 130,000 square kilometres.Tag words: Persian Empire; Xerxes; Persians; Achaemenid; Persian Wars; God; Hebrews; Pharoah; Herodotus; The Histories; Victor Davis Hanson; Carnage and Culture; Freedom; hoplite; landowners; Demaratus; Divine Salamis; the rise of the West; Aeschylus; Hellenic civilization; Themistocles; Eurybiades; Athenians; free citizens; Marathon; Battle of Plataea; free men; Athens; Thermopylae; Spartans; Georg Hegel; democracy; Aristotle; Plato; Alexander the Great; Abraham Lincoln; Gettysburg Address; decisive battles of the Western world;
All the Spartans acknowledged that he was the most courageous Spartan who fought at the Battle of Plataea, but he was unanimously disqualified by them from receiving any honours. Why?Tag words: Spartans; Battle of Plataea; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Persians; Greek phalanx; Plutarch; Herodotus; The Histories; Lacedaemonians; Pausanias; Mardonius; Athenians; Tegeans; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; Boeotians; Richard Nelson; Armies of the Greek and Persian Wars; Artabazus; Aeschylus;
The Persian pursuit of the retreating Spartans looked as if it might be very promising. It was the main weight of the Persian army that was brought to bear against the Spartans. It looked likely to break them with their overwhelming missile fire. Well that was until Mardonius made his big mistake.Tag words: Persians; Spartans; Herodotus; The Histories; The Battle of Plataea; Pausanias; Lacedaemonians; Mardonius; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; Richard Nelson; Armies of the Greek and Persian Wars;
From what was happening on the Greek side it was apparent to Mardonius that the legendary Spartans weren’t the fearless battlefield warriors that everyone believed. In the face of the Persians they were quire cowardly – knowing what I’m about to tell you, you are bound to agree. Right?Tag words: Mardonius; Spartans; Persians; Battle of Plataea; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; Herodotus; The Histories; Artabazus; Asopus River; Alexander of Macedon; Pausanias; Boeotians; Peloponnesian Wars; Athenians;
One of the important figures in the Persian Army had found himself in a life threatening situation. Cunningly he had cut part of his foot off with a knife. Saved his life, and was now standing beside Mardonius influencing the course of the battle for the Persians. What was his name?Tag words: Persians; Mardonius; Boetians; Athenians; Spartans; Lacedaemonians; Masistius; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; Richard Nelson; Armies of the Greek and Persian Wars; Tegeans; Pausanius; Herodotus; The Histories; Plataea; Medes;
True or false: the ancients had some knowledge of treating pleurisy and collapsed lungs using syringes and bladders?Tag words: Pleurisy; collapsed lungs; breastplates; Roman commander Lucullus; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Alexander the Great; Spartans; dog tags; hoplites; Herodotus; antibiotics; James Jones; The Thin Red Line; Battle of Cannae; hemorrhaging; edema;
The ground ran red with blood. At the Battle of Pydna, in 168 BC, how much blood was spilled on the battlefield? 15,000 litres?30,000 litres?45,000 litres?Tag words: Battle of Pydna; Leo Tolstoy; War and Peace; Napoleon; Xerxes; Ten Thousand; Theban Sacred Band; Battle of Leuktra; Thermopylae; Plataea;
One great general was reported as coming off the field of battle "covered with the blood" of his enemies, "carried away by the pleasure"…. ; the commander had nearly become "blood drunk" from the killing Who was the general?Tag words: Phalanx; panic flight; Socrates; Clive James; Keith Douglas; Anthony Kellett; Combat Motivation: The Behaviour of Soldiers in Battle; Victor Davis Hanson; Battle of Leuktra; king Kleombrotos; Epameinondas; Xenophon; S. L. A. Marshall; Men Against Fire; Battle of Cannae; Hannibal;
A truly fearsome and courageous Greek hoplite and also one of the greatest philosopher’s of all time, was described in a song as a lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he’s pissed? Who was he?Tag words: Greek hoplite; phalanx; Anthony Kellett; Combat Motivation: The Behaviour of Soldiers in Battle; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Xenophon; pike; Alexander the Great; Imperial Roman legions; Agincourt; Thucydides; othismos aspidon; the push of shields; Spartans; Swiss pikemen; rout; The Philosopher’s Song – Monty Python
Which ancient battle, between Greek hoplites, was won by wrestling, and which city-state was it that won because of their wrestling skill?Tag words: Greek hoplites; phalanx; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; sowing disorder; Spartans; Thucydides; Diodorus; Battle of Mantineia; Battle of Plataea; Thermopylae; Plutarch; Battle of Leuktra; Xenophon;
What caused the sudden collapse of the attack by the French armoured knights, on foot, at Agincourt?Tag words: French knights; Battle of Agincourt; John Keegan; The Face of Battle; killing zone; wall of dead;
At the Battle of Agincourt, the French knights were reluctant to fight the English longbowmen. Were the longbowmen such amazing soldiers? For a modern reader the reason, when I tell you later in this programme, might be hard to understand?Tag words: Battle of Agincourt; English longbowmen; Battle of Plataea; Greeks, Persians; John Keegan; The Face of Battle; Richard Cohen; Making History; Sandhurst Military Academy; Max Hastings; French knights; English knights; Victor Davis Hanson;
Only 15% of American soldiers in World War II, when being attacked by Japanese troops in a suicidal banzai charge, actually fired their weapons at the enemy. True or false?Tag words: banzai charge; phalanx; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; John Keegan; Greeks; hoplites; SLA Marshall; Men Against Fire; Professor Roger Spiller; Vasily Grossman; A Writer at War; blood up; German Landsknecht; Swiss pikemen; Battle of Agincourt; charge;
As the two heavily armed and armoured phalanxes of Greeks finally collided to begin the decisive struggle to determine the victor, the sound made by that collision wasn’t the sound you would have expected. Very far from it. More of that later in the programme.Tag words: Phalanx; charge; hoplite army; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Plutarch; Corinthian helmet; trot; Spartans; Thebans; Thucydides; History of the Peloponnesian War; Xenophon; Battle of Plataea; Persian troops; wicker shields; javelins; bows; slings; Tyrtaios;
Herodotus tells us that no Greek could hear even the word Persian without terror. But then Greece found itself in a battle for survival against this power. How was it possible for the Greeks to face and defeat this all powerful empire?Tag words: Persians; hoplites; Herodotus; Histories; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Spartans; skirmishers; cavalry; Greek warfare; phalanx; Thucydides; History of the Peloponnesian Wars; Battle of Mantineia; Battle of Leuktra;
Fill in the blank: Had it not been for the SOMETHING I do not think that we should have won the war. I’ll give you the answer later in the programme. Victor Davis Hanson. Les Carylon. William Manchester. Larry Siedentop. John Keegan. Tag words: CS Lewis; chronological snobbery; Greek phalanx; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Les Carylon; The Great War; William Manchester; Goodbye to Darkness; Larry Siedentop; Inventing the Individual; Persian empire; Australian Imperial Force; Prime Minister Billy Hughes; General Monash; Pompey Elliott; Kenneth Macksey; Panzer Division; Onasander; Plutarch; John Keegan; The Face of Battle; Homer; The Iliad; Xenophon; Battle of Leuktra; Spartans;
Who issued this legendary order: All privates will retreat, all commanders will cover their withdrawal. Victor Davis Hanson Tag words: Phalanx; Persians; Aemilius Paulus; Battle of Pydna; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Spartans; Battle of Plataea; Thucididyes; History of the Peloponnesian War; hoplites; Aratos; Aristophanies; god Phobos; god Pan; Nelson Mandela; Guderian; Rommel; Israeli Defence Force; IDF; The Israeli Army; Edward Luttwak; Dan Horowitz; Palmach; operation Nachson; Harel Brigade; Corinthian helmet;
True or false? You could grab a Greek’s spear and break its head off with your bare hands. Victor Davis Hanson. Tag words: Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; hoplite; thrusting spear; Persians; Aeschylus; The Persians; Marathon; Salamis; Plataea; Darius; Battle of Thermopylae Pass; Homer;