War Stories

War Stories is a narrative show that takes the broad arcs of warfare and shares the stories behind crucial points their development. In each season, the show revolves around a single topic and traces a path from before its invention to the modern-day with a focus on the people who made it happen.

A Most Unlikely Race 06/23/2021

A Most Unlikely Race Hey listeners, did you know we're not just trying and failing to come up with new podcast ideas every week? Staffer and Adin have been away working on books. Adin's is out next week; Staffer interviewed him about it. Sprinting Through No Man's Land tells the story of the first Tour de France race after World War I, arguably its most grueling iteration. In telling this story, Adin also looks at that first moment after a war ends, when people are trying to figure out what their new world will look like. Sprinting is available at , , or wherever local you buy your books. www.warstoriescast.com /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/19223159

The 82nd's Almost Mission to Rome 11/12/2020

The 82nd's Almost Mission to Rome There were a lot of crazy ideas in World War II. But possibly none more than dropping the 82nd Airborne Division on Rome in order to seize it after Italy capitulated. In this episode, Angry Staff Officer follows two US officers on their secret mission to Rome to negotiate with Italian leadership, and the result this would have for the airborne operation. www.warstoriescast.com /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/16786346

Bats! The Musical 05/21/2020

Bats! The Musical Nearly every one of our episodes focused on humans' interactions with a particular type of inanimate object on the battlefield, sometimes the way in which the object is wielded by others, sometimes the actions those humans have to take in order to survive the ordeal. It's not just inanimate objects, though, that have found their way into militaries, but animals besides humans that have been used for most everything from hauling weapons to carrying troops to serving as weapons themselves. In this episode, Staffer and Adin are joined by Hannah Palsa, a PhD student at Kansas State University studying WWII's Dogs for Defense program. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/14514317

A Very Special Lexington and Concord Reading 04/12/2020

A Very Special Lexington and Concord Reading Hello! We've missed you during our extended hiatus. As both Staffer and Adin have been holed up in their respective bunkers and finishing up their book projects, they found some extra time to talk to one another. After hearing from listeners on Twitter, one topic was requested more than all the others... /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/13947119

Loose Rounds #9 - AUSA Live Show 12/02/2018

Loose Rounds #9 - AUSA Live Show To wrap up the season of Loose Rounds, Adin and Angry Staff Officer ventured to Washington, DC and the Association of the United States Army's annual conference. There, they held a live show, brought together by Nammo, which covers everything from what a trade show might've looked like before the Battle of Crecy to how the podcast came into being. www.warstoriescast.com/loose-rounds /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/7769240

Loose Rounds #8 - Wheels 09/16/2018

Loose Rounds #8 - Wheels What's the simplest item that's changed the shape of warfare? The bullet? The boot? How about the humble wheel? In this episode of Loose Rounds, Adin and Angry Staff Officer trace the development of the wheel throughout history, and how it's shaped how wars are fought on and off the battlefield. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/7051569

Loose Rounds #7 - Ship Design 08/21/2018

Loose Rounds #7 - Ship Design For nearly as long as people have been fighting, they've had ships to take them to the fight, or to use as weapons of war themselves. From the coracle to the trireme to the battleship, has there been an overall arc toward the perfect naval vessel? /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/6951964

Loose Rounds #6 - Cartography 07/16/2018

Loose Rounds #6 - Cartography Before compasses, sextants, and the telescope, there was the map. They were simple things to begin with. Then they became essential, allowing explorers and conquerors to leave their home lands for far off destinations. Then they became something even more. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/6810974

Loose Rounds #5 - Field Rations 06/14/2018

Loose Rounds #5 - Field Rations Members of the military oftentimes talk about how little they need to get by. Without the creature comforts the everyday person may come to expect. But there's one thing they've needed from the first days we fought wars. Food. In this episode of Loose Rounds, Angry Staff Officer and Adin take a look at the history of eating in the field and whether there's a higher purpose to field rations than jamming it full of calories, protein, and vitamins. www.warstoriescast.com /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/6704802

Loose Rounds #4 - Communications 05/17/2018

Loose Rounds #4 - Communications Until someone invents a solution to time travel, distance on the battlefield will define how wars are fought. Communications have attempted to solve for this problem since wars first began: first with runners, up to the present day with radio communications. But how much have things really changed over those thousands of years? Angry Staff Officer and Adin take a look. www.warstoriescast.com /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/6605843

Loose Rounds #3 - Logistics 04/16/2018

Loose Rounds #3 - Logistics Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics. Right? In the third episode of the series, Adin and Staffer discuss the incorporation of logistics into professional militaries and how, in some ways, logistics helped bring about an international trading system. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/6480877

2.9 - The Once and Future Sniper 04/09/2018

2.9 - The Once and Future Sniper What's the quality that defines a sniper? Is it the pulling of the trigger? The skilled stalking of their target in the hours or days prior to making a shot? The mathematical and physics-based knowledge that prevents them from making an error? In our season finale, we look at the future of the sniper and whether the mythos they've cultivated over the centuries can withstand scopes that aim for them, guns that can fire thousands of yards, and robots that do what they do, only better. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/6456836

Loose Rounds #2 - Blood Transfusions 03/19/2018

Loose Rounds #2 - Blood Transfusions For something so central to our lives, the role of blood wasn't something we could explain for much of our history. We knew it was important, and when someone was bleeding out on the battlefield, you needed to fix them, but just how you would go about doing that was a source of constant trial and error. In the second Loose Rounds discussion, Adin and Angry Staff Officer look at how blood transfusions came into being on the battlefield and how it changed how wars were fought. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/6377676

2.8 - The White Feather 03/05/2018

2.8 - The White Feather In the Vietnam War, snipers returned to some of their earliest environmental roots while simultaneously reaching the pinnacle of their development: taking part in long missions, independently, where high value targets were taken out. Carlos Hathcock, a Marine from Arkansas, would grow to become one of the best of them. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/6326120

Loose Rounds #1 - Mortars 02/19/2018

Loose Rounds #1 - Mortars In our first episode of Loose Rounds, a mini-series produced in partnership with Nammo, we discuss the humble mortar. You know, the tubes that fire grenade-looking munitions into the air? It turns out they have a far deeper and wider history than you might've expected. We trace that path and all the ingenious things people have done with them in the meantime. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/6272211

Loose Rounds Trailer 02/12/2018

Loose Rounds Trailer On War Stories, we often focus on what’s happening at the proverbial tip of the spear: the latest and greatest, at least for the time, weapons platforms, how militaries shifted their fighting styles to accommodate these technologies, and what it felt like to use these on the frontlines of the battlefield. After all, those weapons are what gets top billing when we talk about the most interesting parts of warfare. What we sometimes miss are all the bits and pieces that make those weapons effective: camouflage patterns in clothing that allow soldiers to hide in their environments, infrared glint tape that helps designate friend from foe to aircraft up above a battlefield, shipping containers that changed the way militaries could move, to only name a few. In each episode of Loose Rounds, the War Stories team takes a look at one of these underrated technologies and traces its importance throughout history. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/6247496

2.7 - A Soviet Sniper's American Journey 02/04/2018

2.7 - A Soviet Sniper's American Journey By the time Lyudmila Pavlichenko joined the rest of her peers at the International Student Assembly at American University in Washington, DC, much of the country knew her name. As well as the Nazis who despised her for the deadly aim she took with her rifle. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/6222119

2.6 - The White Death 01/08/2018

2.6 - The White Death When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in late 1939—the action that kicked off the Winter War—they expected an easy fight, if there was one at all. Instead, they found a military with an intimate knowledge of Finland's terrain, and one that was willing to fight. Among them was a man who very nearly became one with the freezing environment in an effort to take a stand against the invading nation. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/6123164

2.5 - A Duel in the Trenches 12/04/2017

2.5 - A Duel in the Trenches We know World War I for a number of things: trenches, poison gas, the ever-present thrum of artillery. But it also served as the birthplace of the sniper. And one of the best couldn't be found on the Western, or even Eastern Front. Instead, Billy Sing fought on the shores of Gallipoli. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/5997116

2.4 - The Fighters of the Black Snake's Den 10/31/2017

2.4 - The Fighters of the Black Snake's Den On a scraggly hill in Pennsylvania, a unit of sharpshooters took part in some of the most fierce, if not frequently discussed, fighting of Gettysburg. Many only know them from the accessories riding atop their heads: bucktails. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/5894895

2.3 - Individualism Comes to Warfare 10/01/2017

2.3 - Individualism Comes to Warfare While Napoleon swept through Europe, the rifle took up a central location on the battlefield with the 95th Rifles of the British Army. The impact of their weapon would reach far and wide beyond technological platforms. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/5795820

2.2 - Morgan's Lucky (or Unlucky) Riflemen 09/04/2017

2.2 - Morgan's Lucky (or Unlucky) Riflemen From the time of the French and Indian War, Daniel Morgan had a bone to pick with the British Army. Over the following decades, he and the riflemen he led would do their best to even the score. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/5704790

Bonus Episode - The U.S.S. Indianapolis 08/20/2017

Bonus Episode - The U.S.S. Indianapolis After hearing the news about the discovery of the Indianapolis wreck, we thought we should unlock this Patreon episode that we recorded over the course of the summer. Make sure you sign up if you'd like more of them hitting your download queue in the future! /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/5659118

2.1 - Edward Braddock Walks into a Bullet 08/07/2017

2.1 - Edward Braddock Walks into a Bullet What is it that makes a good marksman? Is it their training? Their weapon? Maybe they’re just born that way, or raised with a rifle in their hands. In our Season Two premiere, we take a look at the shift to the modern rifle and the individuals who sometimes had the power to change the course of an entire battle with their weapon. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/5613811

Season Two Trailer 07/31/2017

Season Two Trailer Next week, Season Two of War Stories launches, but for those of you who can't wait to figure out the subject we're covering, we've got a shot trailer for you. Enjoy. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/5591682

Interseason #3 - World War III, Almost 07/17/2017

Interseason #3 - World War III, Almost While the world watched Cuba as it became a potential nuclear missile launch site, another threat lay off the east coast in the Sargasso Sea. Four Soviet submarines waited for the outbreak of hostilities, and each carried the power to start World War III. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/5544630

Interseason #2 - Armor from a Long Time Ago... 04/24/2017

Interseason #2 - Armor from a Long Time Ago... In our second interseason episode, Angry Staff Officer and Adin look at the tragic decline of armor in the Star Wars universe and explore why it might have occurred. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/5290684

Interseason #1 - Operation Vengeance 04/03/2017

Interseason #1 - Operation Vengeance In the first of our interseason episodes, Adin tells the story of the encrypted messages received by the United States on the 13th and 14th of April 1943 and arguably the most important decapitation mission of history that followed. /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/5221784

1.8 - Where Do We Go From Here? 03/13/2017

1.8 - Where Do We Go From Here? Over the past seven episodes, we've traced the development of armored warfare through the end of traditional, horse-driven cavalry to the armored warfare of Desert Storm. But as military planners and politicians face asymmetric threats and limited conflicts around the globe, how should we look at the role of tanks? /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/5161872

1.7 - A (Desert) Storm is Brewing 02/20/2017

1.7 - A (Desert) Storm is Brewing The battles of 73 Easting, Medina Ridge, and Norfolk. Were they the pinnacle of the near century of tank warfare we've covered in season one, or the last gasp? /episode/index/show/warstoriescast/id/5100433

War Stories

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