Warfare

In 1939, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholsterer in Vienna, was arrested by the Nazis. Along with his sixteen-year-old son Fritz, he was sent to Buchenwald in Germany, where a new concentration camp was being built. What followed is a remarkable story of horror, love and the impossible survival of a father and his son. In this episode from the archive, Dan Snow and historian Jeremy Dronfield explore Gustav's secret diary, Fritz' accounts and other eyewitness testimony, and build a picture of this extraordinary father and son team.

With the nuclear submarine TV series, Vigil, coming out last night, the UK’s leading expert on Trident, Dr Nick Ritchie from the University of York, joins James on Warfare.Dr Nick gives us a step-by-step history on the multilayered missile system, which is said to act as a deterrence posture.Earlier this year, Boris Johnson’s government agreed to increase the amount of nuclear weapons in the UK by around 40%, and it’s still unknown where the warheads would be stored if Scotland secure a second referendum and vote to leave the union.Hear why the UK first got nuclear weapons, whether they actually work as a deterrence, and find out the many challenges which lie ahead.Dr Nick’s book, A Nuclear Weapons-Free World?: Britain, Trident and the Challenges Ahead, is available now.

Their attacks of 11 September 2001 sparked a War on Terror which echoes loudly to this day, but where did Al Qaeda come from, how did their ideologies form and what role do they play in the world today? For this episode James spoke to Dr Afzal Ashraf, an expert in Al Qaeda's ideology and violent religious extremism. Dr Ashraf spent over 30 years in the UK Armed Forces as a senior officer and is a Senior Government Advisor.© Shutterstock/Everett Collection

It's one of the great stories of American military history; The Doolittle Raid. In 1942 after the humiliation assault on Pearl Harbour and determined to show that America still had offensive capabilities the charismatic figure of James Doolittle came to President Rosevelt with the proposal to fly army bombers off aircraft carriers and attack Tokyo the capital of the Japanese Empire. Michel Paradis, the author of Last Mission to Tokyo, joined Dan to discuss the mission itself and also the fascinating story of the fight for justice for the Doolittle crews captured, tortured and killed by the Japanese.

As the international community moved from World War to Cold War in the second half of the 20th century, the defence requirements of the United States also evolved. But what did this mean for arms manufacturers, and how did it affect their relationship with politics? In this episode, Mike Brenes from Yale University explores the changes which took place as the Cold War developed, and where the power in defence spending lies. Mike’s new book, For Might and Right: Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy (Culture and Politics in the Cold War and Beyond), is available here: https://www.umasspress.com/9781625345219/for-might-and-right/Image Credit: CC/Pentagon Archives

On 19 August 1745, the Jacobites engaged in the final of their five uprisings, stretching back to 1689. In this episode, Kelsey Ellington examines the Jacobite’s uprisings, their supporters and their opposition. Kelsey explains how Bonnie Prince Charlie Stuart and his supporters were hampered by difficult terrain, an exhausted army and division among the ranks; how the uprisings were and are depicted in art; and how the Jacobite conflicts may not be cut so clearly along the national lines that they are often thought to have been.Image Credit: CC/Hungarian National Gallery/Tate

In 2014, Dr Mike Martin famously critiqued the Ministry of Defence with a book based on a series of conversations Martin had with the Afghan locals, as one of the few within the military who could speak pashto. The MOD tried to prevent the publication of this book but in this episode, Dan talks to Mike about his problems with the way that the military is run, and how the conflict in Afghanistan may change in years to come.

Major-General Eugene Vincent Michael Strickland, known to many as Strick - was a tankman and war hero of France, Italy, and North Africa during World War II. He played a vital role in the Battle of Arras in 1940 and aided in the breach of the Hitler Line in 1944. James is joined by archaeologist and historian Tim Strickland, son of Michael Strickland, to take us through the life, adventures, and achievements of his father.Tim is the author of 'Strick: Tank Hero of Arras': https://www.casematepublishing.co.uk/strick

The current withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan raises a lot of questions about the conflict. Why are they withdrawing now? Was there a better time for this? How might the assistance of Western countries have been more successful? In this episode, Rory Stewart OBE, former Secretary of State for International Development in the UK and now a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, shares his thoughts on the war in Afghanistan. Rory completed a solo walk across Afghanistan in 2002, and his experiences of the people and the country have informed his political, academic and non-profit work, including his 2006 New York Times Bestseller,  ‘The Places in Between’.

Sandwiched between the Second World War and the conflict in Vietnam, the Korean War has often been termed 'The Forgotten War' in the United States. In this episode, Dan Snow spoke to H. W. Brands, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of 30 books on American history. H.W. takes Dan through the remarkable course of events which saw an immense civilian death toll and the destruction of virtually all of Korea's major cities. Why are commemorations of this bloodbath somewhat overlooked, and how did it lay the groundwork for the politics we see today?