The History Network
The military history podcast specialists, looking at all aspects of war through the ages.

After World War Two, former New Zealand prisoner of war Gunner Jim Henderson wrote "We used to say after the war the Red Cross should take over the world and run it. They'd shown what they could do in a world mad with war." Most people know about the Red Cross: during the War of Italian Unification between imperial Austria and the Franco-Sardinian alliance, Swiss businessman Henri Dunant visited the northern Italian battlefield of Solferino in 1859. Deeply affected by the 40,000 mostly unattended casualties on the battlefield, Dunant wrote A Memory of Solferino, founded the relief society that became the Red Cross and was the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. Dur: 36mins File: .mp3

Direct download: 1808_Parcels_From_Home.mp3
Category:military -- posted at: 9:00am UTC

In this episode we look at Ancient Warfare Magazine VIII.3 "Swift as the wind across the plains". Angus is joined by Josho Brouwers, Murray Dahm, Lindsay Powell, Mark McCaffery and Owen Rees.

"Cimmerians. Sarmatians. Scythians. Horsemen of the steppes. They emerged from the fog of prehistory around the eighth century BC. Semi-nomadic, they dominated the Pontic Steppes for a millennium. Over centuries, pressure from one steppe people against another kicked off great migratory patterns. The mobile, agile and ferocious horsemen became a scourge upon their more civilized neighbours to the south. Other migrations took them west into Central and Western Europe and east as far as Mongolia."

Direct download: AW-VIII_3_-Horsemen_of_the_Steppes.mp3
Category:Ancient Warfare Magazine -- posted at: 7:00pm UTC

Gas was one of the most feared weapons of world war one. Proportionally though, there were few casualties from gas throughout the war. The British kept accurate figures from 1916, of those casualties only 3% were fatal and 70% would be back on the front line in weeks. Gas was the "bogeyman", it was not a bullet to be dodged or something you could hide from. Initially protection was rudimentary from a cotton pad covered in urine to a chemically infused bag to place over your head with plastic eye slits. Dur: 25mins File:.mp3

Direct download: 1807_Gas_Warfare_in_WW1.mp3
Category:military -- posted at: 9:00am UTC