Sat, 30 March 2013
By 1840 Harry Smith was a veteran soldier of the British Empire, he had joined the Army in 1805 and had seen active service in South America, the Peninsular Campaign where under the Duke of Wellington, he witnessed the burning of the Capitol in Washington, was a Brigade Major at Waterloo and in South Africa had commanded a division in the Xhosa wars before being appointed Governor of the Province of Queen Adelaide. Dur: 37mins File: .mp3 |
Sat, 16 March 2013
By mid 1940 of the European powers and Britain and her Empire stood alone against Germany. The situation looked dire. Though the miracle of Dunkirk had managed to save thousands of British troops much of their equipment had been lost, Britain needed to replace this and her own industry was not up to providing in numbers the goods required. Though the United States was officially neutral it would supply goods on a "cash and carry" basis, and millions of pounds was flowing out of Britain to the US, in the form of gold, to pay for vital war materiel. But this could not go on, Britain had only so many assets it could liquidate. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3 |
Sat, 2 March 2013
When Neville Chamberlain delivered his speech on September 3rd 1939 to declare that Britain was at War with Germany, western focus was fixed on that and the hearts and minds of Britain's population braced themselves for another World War as did the hearts and minds of much of Europe. Many events would shape the outcome of World War II, but one set of battles even before it began - some three months earlier, The Battle of Khalkhin Gol between Russia and the Japanese on the Mongolian Border - might have played their own big part in the eventual outcome of the second world war. Dur: 23mins File: .mp3 |