Warfare

This year marks 80 years since one of the more ferocious clashes of the Second World War: the Battle of Kursk. With a combined 8,000 tanks between the German Wehrmacht and the Soviet Red Army, it beca...

A Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician, Robert Mugabe served as the country's Prime Minister and later as its President for 37 years. His legacy remains a contentious topic, marked by controversy, ...

As over a year passes since the Bucha Massacre, new information and intelligence on Russian war crimes continues to emerge from the conflict. With evidence suggesting a systematic and intentional atte...

This episode contains references to highly offensive racist language and events.In February 1945, with the war in Europe still raging, millions of pieces of mail intended for US troops were languishin...

On June 6th 1944, Allied forces launched a massive amphibious invasion of Normandy, France - the operation involved over 150,000 troops from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and other Allied...

80 years ago, in the late hours of May 16th 1943, Wing Commander Guy Gibson fearlessly commanded the 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force to execute a daring bombing mission. Their aim - to destroy thr...

This year marks 30 years since the 1993 siege at Waco. Lasting 51 days, it took the lives of 76 people, including 25 children and has gone down as one of the most controversial and tragic incidents in...

Before America officially entered the Second World War in December 1941, it offered the allies significant support in terms of military supplies and funds. A well oiled and efficient machine, American...

Known today as one of the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the world - the Federal Bureau of Investigation, more colloquially known as the FBI, didn't always have such a great reputation. Onc...

Abraham Lincoln is a name that's been immortalised throughout history - the 16th President who led the country through the infamous American Civil War, and ultimately abolished slavery. But who i...

Napoleon, Alexander the Great, and Boudicca. These are the names that normally top the list when it comes to the greatest military leaders in history, but today’s guest is taking a slightly different ...

An accusation that has dogged the Qatar World Cup throughout the tournament is that of ‘sportswashing’. You’ve probably seen it in an article, or heard it in a news report. But what does ‘sportwashing...

Here’s a special episode of Cautionary Tales, a podcast from our friends at Pushkin Industries.On Cautionary Tales, bestselling author Tim Harford shares stories of human error, natural disasters, and...

The resistance fighters of the Moro, an indigenous Muslim population of the Philippines, have been described as most the most successful and least-known guerrillas of World War II's Pacific Theatre.Th...

Their attacks of September 11 2001 sparked a War on Terror which has a legacy that very much lasts to this day, but where did Al-Qaeda come from, how did their ideologies form and what role do they pl...

In 1970, the deadliest storm in modern history ripped Pakistan in two, leading the world to the brink of nuclear war after American and Soviet forces converged in the Bay of Bengal.Over the course of ...

Millions dead. A higher proportion of civilian casualties than in World War Two. America, Britain, Russia & China all involved in a conflict that—technically—remains active to this day. So why is the ...

It's easy to forget there was a time before the special relationship, when the United States might never have gotten involved in the First World War.Three figures, two presidents and a social reformer...

The D-Day landings of June 6 1944 were the largest amphibious landing in the history of warfare, and are famed as a major turning point towards Allied victory. But they weren’t without planning and pr...

On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Wright Brothers changed history when they took the world's first engine-powered flight. It didn't take long for countries around the ...

We’re shaking things up today and sharing a preview from Car Show!, a new podcast from our friends at Pushkin Industries. Longtime Car and Driver editor Eddie Alterman tells the stories of t...

Whether talking about shell shock, war neurosis, combat trauma or PTSD; the impacts of war zones on those who fight in them or encounter them have long been discussed. With increasing understanding, h...

Enrique ‘Ric’ Prado found himself in his first firefight at age seven. The son of a middle-class Cuban family caught in the midst of the Castro Revolution, his family fled Cuba and their home for the ...

As the Cold War came to an end, US President George H.W. Bush defined his 1992 election bid in terms of the War on Drugs. It was said that there was no longer a Soviet foe to grapple with and that, in...

Did build up to World War Two only begin in the 20th century, or was the century of violent imperial expansion before 1939 the ultimate cause of one of the deadliest conflicts marked in modern history...

The conflict we know today as the Vietnam War–involving the United States and the Viet Cong–was actually the second of the Indochina Wars, the first having been fought shortly after WW2 between France...

Boko Haram is one of the largest Islamist militant groups in Africa, with Nigeria’s ongoing battle with insurgent groups and government corruption threatening the stability and political integrity of ...

By law, gay men and women were banned from serving in the British military until the year 2000. Until that year, over 250 service personnel were thrown out of the military each year because of their s...

Ukraine has been invaded by Russia. But why? What is NATO’s purpose, and why does it bother Vladimir Putin so much? In this episode of Warfare, we’re joined by Jamie Shea, the Former Deputy Assistant ...

Join James this week for a special episode of Warfare, chatting to the writer and cast of the new film 'Munich - the Edge of War'. Set in 1938, the movie follows Chamberlain's attempts to appease Hitl...

In the early hours of 30 October 1961, a bomber took off from an airstrip in northern Russia and began its flight through cloudy skies over the frigid Russian Arctic. Hanging below this Soviet pl...

Betty Webb was heavily involved with the work going on at Bletchley Park. While she was not part of the code-breaking team, her work was invaluable to the success of Bletchley. In this episode from th...

The Battle of Prokhorovka was one of the largest tank battles in military history. Taking place on the Eastern Front, it was fought on 12 July 1943 as part of the wider Battle of Kursk. Two elite SS d...

You might know Raj Bisram best as a TV antiques expert, but he actually started his career by joining the military in the 70s. From becoming an expert skier, to navigating racism, and later becoming a...

In August 1928, signatories from France, the United States and Germany signed a treaty outlawing war. This so-called Kellogg-Briand Pact was soon signed by almost every state. Yet, in the century sinc...

Lyn Macdonald is revered as the great chronicler of the human experience of the Western Front. She recorded interviews with more veterans of the First World War than any other. In this talk at Chalke ...

With battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, and then defeat and public criticism for the United States in 1975, the Vietnam War became the Western world’s most divisive modern conflict. In t...

Dr. Jamie Wood and Professor Niall Mackay at the University of York are mathematicians who love history. They released a paper which sent the rest of the history world into a meltdown when they tried ...

In 15 September 1940, the Luftwaffe made a gigantic aerial assault on London in the belief that the Royal Air Force was down to its last few fighters. They had hoped to finish the RAF and force Britai...

Over one hundred years after the end of the First World War, Dr Priya Atwal and George Morton-Jackare working to shed new light on the vital role that the Indian Army held during the combat. In t...

The crucible of our modern world is commonly thought to be the 1960s, but Charles Emmerson thinks that it could be argued to have been the tumultuous years at the end of the First World War and those ...

Walking around Second World War fortifications, Patrick Bury is able to draw on his time in the infantry to tell the stories of the battles that occured over them. During his time working on Nazi Mega...

In many countries, including Britain, women were banned from taking part in active combat operations during the Second World War. In the Soviet Union, however, declarations of equality meant that as w...

Although the use of chemicals as weapons can be traced much further back in history, their use became widespread after the First World War, when the French threw tear gas grenades and then the Germans...