The Danger Zone (DZ)
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.
Episodes
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 ...
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 millio...
What was the secret ingredient that made the Greeks so formidable a foe that the greatest empire in the world failed to come even close to defeating them?
Tag words: Herodotus; The Histories; Battle of Plataea; Greeks; Pausanias; Xerxes; Mardonius; Sparta; Leonidas; Thermopylae; Vassily Grossman; A Writer at War; Great Patriotic War; Krasnaya Zvezda; Red Star; John Gould; Richard Cohen; Making History; Victor Davis Hanson; Carnage a...
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 Worl...
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; Decisiv...
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; ...
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 Nel...
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 Leukt...
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; ot...
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; ...
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 Aginco...
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 Pelopon...
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;...
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 ...
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 Israel...
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;
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