3902 Buried Alive: Operation Tracer and the Secret of Gibraltar
The History Network
In the Second World War, the Rock of Gibraltar stood like a sentinel at the gateway to the Mediterranean. Whoever held it could open or close the sea lanes to North Africa and beyond. To Britain it was a vital stronghold, but by 1940 it looked vulnerable. Spain was under Franco's rule, sympathetic to Berlin, and German planners drew up schemes to seize the fortress in one swift move. It was in this climate that a plan was conceived that bordered on the unimaginable. A small group of men would vanish from the surface of the Rock and take up residence in a chamber hollowed out within its...
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3901 Ancient Superpowers Collide: The Peloponnesian War 431-404 BC
The History Network
The Peloponnesian War pitted the two most powerful Ancient Greek states, Athens and Sparta and their respective allies, against each other in an epic struggle for the control of all of Greece. Dur: 22mins File: .mp3
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3810 The (Second) Battle of Mantinea Part2
The History Network
The (second) battle of Mantinea, July 4, 362 BC: the final nail in the coffin of Spartan dominance. At the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, a resurgent Thebes led by its great statesmen and tactician reformers Epaminondas and Pelopidas defeated the army of Sparta. The defeat was one of the greatest shocks Greece had witnessed - not only did the Thebans defeat the Spartans but the Spartans turned and fled from the battlefields - something they had not done before even in the face of defeat. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3
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3809 The (Second) Battle of Mantinea
The History Network
At the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, a resurgent Thebes led by its great statesmen and tactician reformers Epaminondas and Pelopidas defeated the army of Sparta. The defeat was one of the greatest shocks Greece had witnessed - not only did the Thebans defeat the Spartans but the Spartans turned and fled from the battlefields - something they had not done before even in the face of defeat. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3
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3808 The Battles of Hedgeley Moor and Hexham 1464 - Part 2
The History Network
The Final showdown at Hexham, May 15th, 1464 John Neville probably marched along the north bank of the River Tyne along Carrel Gate. This route put Bywell castle under threat, but we do not hear of Henry leaving (although he must have if this was the line of march – and other alternatives still put Bywell under threat). In his march west, Neville probably crossed the Tyne at Corbridge (or perhaps Bywell – both had extant Roman bridges) and so came upon the Lancastrian camp from the east or northeast. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3
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3807 The Battles of Hedgeley Moor and Hexham 1464 - Part 1
The History Network
A combination of two battles fought close together in Northumberland in April and May 1464 brought Lancastrian resistance to the Yorkist king Edward IV to an end during the Wars of the Roses until 1469. These battles are of extreme importance but are confused in the primary sources and often elided in modern accounts into a single battle, the last one fought at Hexham on May 15th (although the date of the battle is also unclear). One of the reasons for this confusion is that the battles were fought close together within a very short space of time, only three weeks apart. Dur: 21mins File: .mp3...
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3806 - The Shingle Street Invasion That Never Was
The History Network
Picture the Suffolk coast on a stormy night in 1940. Waves crash against a bleak shingle bank, the wind howls through the marshes, and blackout shades cover every window in the tiny hamlet of Shingle Street. It was a place where the war felt uncomfortably close. Just across the North Sea lay occupied Europe. German bombers roared overhead almost nightly, and rumours of an imminent invasion travelled faster than the tide. It was here, in this lonely corner of England, that one of the strangest legends of the Second World War was born. Dur: 27mins File: .mp3
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3805 Valour Lost - Part 3
The History Network
In the third of this three part series we conclude our look at the eight recipients of the Victoria Cross who forfeited the award due to their later actions as well as other recipients who fell on hard times, and with particular reference to the case of modern Victoria Cross for Australian recipient Ben-Roberts Smith, accused of murder and war crimes in Afghanistan. Dur: 26mins File: .mp3
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3804 Valour Lost - Part 2
The History Network
In the second of this three part series we continue our look at the eight recipients of the Victoria Cross who forfeited the award due to their later actions as well as other recipients who fell on hard times. Dur: 21mins File: .mp3
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3803 Valour Lost - Part 1
The History Network
In this three part series we look at the eight recipients of the Victoria Cross who forfeited the award due to their later actions as well as other recipients who fell on hard times, and with particular reference to the case of modern Victoria Cross for Australian recipient Ben-Roberts Smith, accused of murder and war crimes in Afghanistan. Dur: 27mins File: .mp3
info_outlineThe Italian invasion of British Somaliland is an often-overlooked action of the Second World War. Although small and a backwater of the British empire, the region would see several significant firsts of the Second World War. The loss of the colony in mid-1940 was the first significant loss of British colonial territory during the war. The loss alongside the few casualties suffered, caused frustration and concern in London. While the unexpected collapse of Italian East Africa less than a year later represented the first significant theaterwide defeat of the Axis powers. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3