Battlecast

The Cuban Revolution was one of the most important events in military, diplomatic and political history. Here is the story of the men who tore a revolution from nothing, and sent the world to the very brink of nuclear destruction. It’s all here and it’s all free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its socio-political impact.

This is part two of a two part series. You can find part one here.

Download episode 57 here: download.

Maps and Pictures:

References:

Cuba: the pursuit of freedom by Hugh Thomas (1971)

The Cuban Revolution, 25 years later by Hugh Thomas

Cuba Libre!: Che, Fidel, and the improbable revolution that changed world history by Tony Perrottet

Che: A revolutionary life by Jon Anderson (1997)

Cuba: A new history by Richard Gott

Cuba from Columbus to Castro by Margot Williams and Josephine Mcsweeney

History of Cuba: The challenge of the yoke and the star by Jose Canton

The Cuban Revolution by Robert Goldston 

Fidel Castro speaks by Fidel Castro

Episodes of The Revolutionary War by Ernesto Che Guevara

History will absolve me by Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro speeches by Fidel Castro

Revolutionary struggle 1947-1958 by Fidel Castro

A revolution can only be born through culture and ideas by Fidel Castro

My early years by Fidel Castro

Nothing can stop the course of history by Fidel Castro

Che Guevara and the Cuban revolution: writings and speeches of Ernesto Che Guevara by Ernesto Che Guevara

Venceremos! The speeches and writings of Ernesto Che Guevara by Ernesto Che Guevara

Young Castro: The Making of a Revolutionary by Jonathan Hansen

Raúl castro: un hombre en Revolución by Nikolai Leonov  

The fourth floor: an account of the Castro Communist Revolution by Earl Smith

El jefe del Pelotón Suicida by Larry Morales

Inside the Cuban Revolution by Julia Sweig

During the 1950s, two wealthy brothers named Fidel and Raul Castro, along with their Argentinian medical doctor Che Guevara Lynch, upturned the entire Western hemisphere. Whole industries, where Americans had spent tens of millions of dollars on gambling or prostitution, were suddenly wiped out. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled the advent of Castro’s regime – transforming the political, cultural, and social landscape of Southern Florida forever. Public executions were carried out. The Soviet Union gained a staunch ally ninety miles from the coast of the United States. Untold numbers of Cubans lost everything they owned. A few years later, Castro’s foreign policy very nearly inaugurated World War III. And it all started with a ragtag group of workers led by the sons and daughters of Cuba’s wealthy elite. It wasn’t the poor of Cuba who instigated the Revolution – there were more children of poverty fighting for Batista’s corrupt regime. No, it was the idle children of the rich who upturned a nation – and the entire balance of world foreign relations. This is their story.

It’s all here and it’s all free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact.

http://media.blubrry.com/429895/archive.org/download/bc-56-final/BC56%20final.mp3

Download episode 56 here: download

Maps and Illustrations

References

Cuba: the pursuit of freedom by Hugh Thomas (1971)

The Cuban Revolution, 25 years later by Hugh Thomas

Cuba Libre!: Che, Fidel, and the improbable revolution that changed world history by Tony Perrottet

Che: A revolutionary life by Jon Anderson (1997)

Cuba: A new history by Richard Gott

Cuba from Columbus to Castro by Margot Williams and Josephine Mcsweeney

History of Cuba: The challenge of the yoke and the star by Jose Canton

The Cuban Revolution by Robert Goldston 

Fidel Castro speaks by Fidel Castro

Episodes of the Revolutionary War by Ernesto Che Guevara

History will absolve me by Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro speeches by Fidel Castro

Revolutionary struggle 1947-1958 by Fidel Castro

A revolution can only be born through culture and ideas by Fidel Castro

My early years by Fidel Castro

Nothing can stop the course of history by Fidel Castro

Che Guevara and the Cuban revolution: writings and speeches of Ernesto Che Guevara by Ernesto Che Guevara

Venceremos! The speeches and writings of Ernesto Che Guevara by Ernesto Che Guevara

Young Castro: The Making of a Revolutionary by Jonathan Hansen

Raúl castro: un hombre en Revolución by Nikolai Leonov  

The fourth floor: an account of the Castro Communist Revolution by Earl Smith

El jefe del Pelotón Suicida by Larry Morales

Inside the Cuban Revolution by Julia Sweig

The Rhodesian Bush War was just the start of modern Zimbabwe’s tragedy. In today’s special double episode we pick up where we left off: in the middle of the bloody Rhodesian Bush War. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives in the conflict. Hundreds of thousands more lost everything they owned in the struggle. Then came independence and Robert Mugabe took control of the nation.

One year after the Bush War, high-level espionage destroyed key Zimbabwean infrastructure. Two years later, Mugabe unleashed his Korean-trained Fifth Brigade on the Ndebele people: thousands of African nationalist kung-fu masters rampaged the Ndebele homeland, massacring thousands and intimidating hundreds of thousands. It was ethnic persecution, some authors say genocide, on a massive scale. The persecution was called Gukurahundi – the rain that washes away the trash.

Then Mugabe turned his attention toward the European minority beginning in 1990. Fifteen years later less than a few thousand Europeans remained in the country, down from 250,000 twenty years before – yet another massive population shift in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe’s long history of ethnic conflict.

Finally, Mugabe’s attention turned inward: wiping out all African opposition to his rule with yet more naked intimidation, disappearances, torture, and mass propaganda. The result is Zimbabwe today, a nation filled with homeless, where more people flee the country than graduate from university. Millions of Zimbabweans have fled their homeland. Their story is rarely told. Imagine all of these refugees and mistreated people gathered into a massive city – millions of them. See the women’s haggard, wrinkled faces, the children’s begging eyes pleading for help that doesn’t come – a city of people living on the margins, without even the hope of hope, so hungry they don’t even feel it anymore.

Here is their story.

Today’s special double episode is part four of a four part series. You can find part 3: here, part 2: here, and part 1: here.

http://media.blubrry.com/429895/archive.org/download/bc-55/BC55.mp3

Download episode 55: here

Maps and Illustrations

References

Collapse of Rhodesia by Josiah Brownwell

Portugal’s Guerrilla Wars in Africa: Lisbon’s Three Wars in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea 1961-74 by Al Venter. 

“Mugabe’s Misrule and How it will Hold Zimbabwe Back.” by Martin Meredith. Foreign Affairs. March/April 2018. 

The Struggle Continues: 50 Years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe by David Coltart

Bitter Harvest by Ian Smith 

Mugabe by Martin Meredith (2007)

A Martyr Speaks by John Coey

Rhodes and Rhodesia: The White Conquest of Zimbabwe 1884-1902 by Arthur Keppel-Jones

A Short History of Mozambique by Malyn Newitt

Operation Dingo by J.R.T. Wood

Black Fire: Accounts of the guerilla war in Rhodesia by Michael Raeburn

Dingo Firestorm (2014) by Ian Pringle

Years of Renewal by Henry Kissinger

From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe by Lawrence Vambe

White Liberals Moderates and Radicals in Rhodesia, 1953-1980 by Ian Hancock

The Rhodesian Front War by H. Ellert (1989)

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire by Lawrence James

Cry Zimbabwe: Independence 20 Years on by Peter Stiff

Mugabe: Power And Plunder In Zimbabwe by Martin Meredith 

The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith

The Rhodesian War: A Military History by Paul Moorecraft and Peter McLaughlin

Bush War Operator: Memoirs of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, Selous Scouts and Beyond  by Andrew Balaam

Fire Force: A Trooper’s War in the Rhodesian Light Infantry by Chris Cocks

Survival Course: Rhodesian Denouement and the War of Self by Chris Cocks

The Saints: The Rhodesian Light Infantry edited by Chris Cocks, Craig Bone, and authored by Alexandre Binda  

Masodja: The History of the Rhodesian African Rifles and its Forerunner, The Rhodesia Native Regiment by John Wynne Hopkins, Brig David Heppenstal, and Alexandre Binda

Pamwe Chete: The Legend of the Selous Scouts by Ron Ried-Daly

Rhodesia: Last Outpost of the British Empire 1890 – 1980 by Peter Baxter

A History of Rhodesia by Robert Blake (1978).

Taming the Land Mine by Peter Stiff

Black Fire: Accounts of the Guerilla War in Rhodesia by Michael Raeburn

Rhodes: The Race for Africa by Antony Thomas

The Founder by Robert Rotberg

A Handful of Hard Men: The SAS and the Battle for Rhodesia by Hannes Wessels

Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia by Frederick Selous

Selous Scouts: Rhodesian Counter-Insurgency Specialists by Peter Baxter.

Rhodesian Light Infantryman 1961–80 by Neil Grant

White Liberals, Moderates, and Radicals in Rhodesia, 1953-1980 by Ian Hancock

The Iron Lady : Margaret Thatcher, from Grocer’s Daughter to Prime Minister by John Campbell and David Freeman

The Struggle for Zimbabwe: Battle in the Bush by Lewis Gann

The Struggle for Zimbabwe: The Chimurenga War by David Martin and Phyllis Johnson

Origins of Rhodesia by Stanlake Samkange

At the Going Down of the Sun by Charlie Warren

NATIVE POLICY IN SOUTHERN RHODESIA, 1890-1923 (sic). By DUIGNAN, PETER JAMES. Stanford University Doctoral Dissertation. 1961.

‘“It was Difficult in Zimbabwe”: A History of Imprisonment, Detention and Confinement during Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle, 1960-1980’ by Munyaradzi Bryn Munochiveyi. University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation. 2008.

History of Africa by Kevin Shillington

Cecil Rhodes: Flawed Colossus by Brian Roberts

The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power by Robert Rotberg

“After Two Decades of Rot, Zimbabwe Is Coming Apart at the Seams” by Antony Sguazzin, Ray Ndlovu, and Brian Latham. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-14/after-two-decades-of-rot-zimbabwe-is-coming-apart-at-the-seams 

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. 36 Lectures by Patrick  Allitt. Produced by the Great Courses.

All our yesterdays, 1890-1970: a pictorial review of Rhodesia’s story from the best of ‘illustrated life Rhodesia’ by Various. 

End of Empire: Rhodesia. (1985). Produced by Grenada Television. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DuNhsLR9y0

The Rhodesian Bush War was one of the bloodiest conflicts since the Second World War. Tens of thousands were killed. Tens of thousands more were wounded. Hundreds of thousands of African civilians were moved from their ancestral homes and concentrated in “protective villages” – a massive movement of population that in itself demonstrates the tremendous coercive power of the modern state; the story of that massive shift of humanity alone is worth ten podcasts. Today’s show is cross border raids and disintegrating bodies; it’s human flesh melting under a blistering waterfall of cascading white phosphorus; it’s guerillas and European intellectuals bombing coffee shops while oscillating helicopters, as organized as a flock of intuitive ducks, rain .50 caliber death on scattering insurgents, splashing wine-red blood across the tan bush of rural Zimbabwe. Cruel fate. Cruel pain. Cruel world. It’s the opposite of the typical posts on Instagram – it’s the Rhodesian Bush War. 

Today’s show is part three of a three part series. You can find part one here and part two here.

http://media.blubrry.com/429895/archive.org/download/bc-54final/BC54final.mp3

You can download episode 54: here

Maps and Illustrations:

References:

Collapse of Rhodesia by Josiah Brownwell

Portugal’s Guerrilla Wars in Africa: Lisbon’s Three Wars in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea 1961-74 by Al Venter. 

“Mugabe’s Misrule and How it will Hold Zimbabwe Back.” by Martin Meredith. Foreign Affairs. March/April 2018. 

The Struggle Continues: 50 Years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe by David Coltart

Bitter Harvest by Ian Smith 

Mugabe by Martin Meredith

A Martyr Speaks by John Coey

Rhodes and Rhodesia: The White Conquest of Zimbabwe 1884-1902 by Arthur Keppel-Jones

A Short History of Mozambique by Malyn Newitt

Operation Dingo by J.R.T. Wood

Black Fire: Accounts of the guerilla war in Rhodesia by Michael Raeburn

Dingo Firestorm (2014) by Ian Pringle

Years of Renewal by Henry Kissinger

From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe by Lawrence Vambe

White Liberals Moderates and Radicals in Rhodesia, 1953-1980 by Ian Hancock

The Rhodesian Front War by H. Ellert

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire by Lawrence James

Cry Zimbabwe: Independence 20 Years on by Peter Stiff

Mugabe: Power And Plunder In Zimbabwe by Martin Meredith 

The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith

The Rhodesian War: A Military History by Paul Moorecraft and Peter McLaughlin

Bush War Operator: Memoirs of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, Selous Scouts and Beyond  by Andrew Balaam

Fire Force: A Trooper’s War in the Rhodesian Light Infantry by Chris Cocks

Survival Course: Rhodesian Denouement and the War of Self by Chris Cocks

The Saints: The Rhodesian Light Infantry edited by Chris Cocks, Craig Bone, and authored by Alexandre Binda  

Masodja: The History of the Rhodesian African Rifles and its Forerunner, The Rhodesia Native Regiment by John Wynne Hopkins, Brig David Heppenstal, and Alexandre Binda

Pamwe Chete: The Legend of the Selous Scouts by Ron Ried-Daly

Rhodesia: Last Outpost of the British Empire 1890 – 1980 by Peter Baxter

A History of Rhodesia by Robert Blake (1978).

Taming the Land Mine by Peter Stiff

Black Fire: Accounts of the Guerilla War in Rhodesia by Michael Raeburn

Rhodes: The Race for Africa by Antony Thomas

The Founder by Robert Rotberg

A Handful of Hard Men: The SAS and the Battle for Rhodesia by Hannes Wessels

Dingo Firestorm: The Greatest Battle of the Rhodesian Bush War by Ian Pringle

Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia by Frederick Selous

Selous Scouts: Rhodesian Counter-Insurgency Specialists by Peter Baxter (1896).

Rhodesian Light Infantryman 1961–80 by Neil Grant

White Liberals, Moderates, and Radicals in Rhodesia, 1953-1980 by Ian Hancock

The Iron Lady : Margaret Thatcher, from Grocer’s Daughter to Prime Minister by John Campbell and David Freeman

The Struggle for Zimbabwe: Battle in the Bush by Lewis Gann

The Struggle for Zimbabwe: The Chimurenga War by David Martin and Phyllis Johnson

Origins of Rhodesia by Stanlake Samkange

At the Going Down of the Sun by Charlie Warren

NATIVE POLICY IN SOUTHERN RHODESIA, 1890-1923 (sic). By DUIGNAN, PETER JAMES. Stanford University Doctoral Dissertation. 1961.

‘“It was Difficult in Zimbabwe”: A History of Imprisonment, Detention and Confinement during Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle, 1960-1980’ by Munyaradzi Bryn Munochiveyi. University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation. 2008.

History of Africa by Kevin Shillington

Cecil Rhodes: Flawed Colossus by Brian Roberts

The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power by Robert Rotberg

“After Two Decades of Rot, Zimbabwe Is Coming Apart at the Seams” by Antony Sguazzin, Ray Ndlovu, and Brian Latham. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-14/after-two-decades-of-rot-zimbabwe-is-coming-apart-at-the-seams 

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. 36 Lectures by Patrick  Allitt. Produced by the Great Courses.

All our yesterdays, 1890-1970: a pictorial review of Rhodesia’s story from the best of ‘illustrated life Rhodesia’ by Various. 

A Martyr Speaks by John Coey

The First Chimurenga was a near simultaneous uprising by the veteran warriors of the Ndebele tribe and their former serfs of the Shona tribe against the few thousand settlers who had colonized Rhodesia during the first decade of its existence. Tens of thousands of people died – including many women and children – no one knows the exact number. At the time of the uprising there were only 48 regular police in Rhodesia and the initial onslaught nearly succeeded in driving the European population out of the country. The two tribes were united in the cult of the spirit-mediums, an unwritten religion wherein spirits entered into the the cult priests and whose prophecies were fuel for the rebellion. Here, in authoritative detail, is the story of that rebellion: the story of cults and massacres, of legions of horse hooves pounding the brown dust of Zimbabwe’s valleys, enveloping and shattering the traditional Zulu battle lines of the Ndebele; it’s witchcraft and machine guns; it’s bombs and murder – it’s the First Chimurenga. 

This is part two of a ongoing series. You can find part one here: First Matabele War.

http://media.blubrry.com/429895/archive.org/download/bc-53/BC53.mp3

Download episode 53 here: download

Maps and Illustrations:

References:

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire by Lawrence James

Cry Zimbabwe: Independence 20 Years on by Peter Stiff

Mugabe: Power And Plunder In Zimbabwe by Martin Meredith 

The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith

The Rhodesian War: A Military History by Paul Moorecraft and Peter McLaughlin

Bush War Operator: Memoirs of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, Selous Scouts and Beyond  by Andrew Balaam

Fire Force: A Trooper’s War in the Rhodesian Light Infantry by Chris Cocks

Survival Course: Rhodesian Denouement and the War of Self by Chris Cocks

The Saints: The Rhodesian Light Infantry edited by Chris Cocks, Craig Bone, and authored by Alexandre Binda  

Masodja: The History of the Rhodesian African Rifles and its Forerunner, The Rhodesia Native Regiment by John Wynne Hopkins, Brig David Heppenstal, and Alexandre Binda

Pamwe Chete: The Legend of the Selous Scouts by Ron Ried-Daly

Rhodesia: Last Outpost of the British Empire 1890 – 1980 by Peter Baxter

A History of Rhodesia by Robert Blake (1978).

Taming the Land Mine by Peter Stiff

Black Fire: Accounts of the Guerilla War in Rhodesia by Michael Raeburn

Rhodes: The Race for Africa by Antony Thomas

The Founder by Robert Rotberg

A Handful of Hard Men: The SAS and the Battle for Rhodesia by Hannes Wessels

Dingo Firestorm: The Greatest Battle of the Rhodesian Bush War by Ian Pringle

Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia by Frederick Selous

Selous Scouts: Rhodesian Counter-Insurgency Specialists by Peter Baxter (1896).

Rhodesian Light Infantryman 1961–80 by Neil Grant

White Liberals, Moderates, and Radicals in Rhodesia, 1953-1980 by Ian Hancock

The Iron Lady : Margaret Thatcher, from Grocer’s Daughter to Prime Minister by John Campbell and David Freeman

The Struggle for Zimbabwe: Battle in the Bush by Lewis Gann

The Struggle for Zimbabwe: The Chimurenga War by David Martin and Phyllis Johnson

Origins of Rhodesia by Stanlake Samkange

At the Going Down of the Sun by Charlie Warren

NATIVE POLICY IN SOUTHERN RHODESIA, 1890-1923 (sic). By DUIGNAN, PETER JAMES. Stanford University Doctoral Dissertation. 1961.

‘“It was Difficult in Zimbabwe”: A History of Imprisonment, Detention and Confinement during Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle, 1960-1980’ by Munyaradzi Bryn Munochiveyi. University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation. 2008.

History of Africa by Kevin Shillington

Cecil Rhodes: Flawed Colossus by Brian Roberts

The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power by Robert Rotberg

“After Two Decades of Rot, Zimbabwe Is Coming Apart at the Seams” by Antony Sguazzin, Ray Ndlovu, and Brian Latham. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-14/after-two-decades-of-rot-zimbabwe-is-coming-apart-at-the-seams 

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. 36 Lectures by Patrick  Allitt. Produced by the Great Courses.

All our yesterdays, 1890-1970: a pictorial review of Rhodesia’s story from the best of ‘illustrated life Rhodesia’ by Various. 

A Martyr Speaks by John Coey

Rhodes and Rhodesia: The White Conquest of Zimbabwe 1884-1902 by Arthur Keppel-Jones

In 1890, the country of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe did not exist. What did exist were two regions dominated by the Ndebele tribe, a tribe who broke off from the battle-hardened Zulu. The area of modern-day Zimbabwe was called Matabeleland and Mashonaland. The Ndebele ruled over the Shona like Spartans over Helots. In the early 1890s, British settlers infiltrated Mashonaland and a bloody conflict erupted – a conflict that would ultimately last more than a hundred years.

This is the story of that conflict.

http://media.blubrry.com/429895/archive.org/download/battlecast-52-final/Battlecast%2052%20final.mp3

Download episode 52 here: Download

Maps:

References:

The Rise and fall of the British Empire by Lawrence James

Cry Zimbabwe: Independence 20 years on by Peter Stiff

Mugabe: Power and plunder in Zimbabwe by Martin Meredith 

The fate of Africa by Martin Meredith

The Rhodesian War: A military history by Paul Moorecraft and Peter McLaughlin

Bush War operator: Memoirs of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, Selous Scouts and beyond by Andrew Balaam

Fire Force: A trooper’s war In The Rhodesian Light Infantry by Chris Cocks

Survival course: Rhodesian denouement and the war of self by Chris Cocks

The Saints: The Rhodesian Light Infantry edited by Chris Cocks, Craig Bone, and authored by Alexandre Binda  

Masodja: The history of the Rhodesian African Rifles and its forerunner, The Rhodesia Native Regiment by John Wynne Hopkins, Brig David Heppenstal, and Alexandre Binda

Pamwe Chete: The Legend of the Selous Scouts by Ron Ried-Daly

Rhodesia: Last outpost of the British Empire 1890-1980 by Peter Baxter

A history of Rhodesia by Robert Blake

Taming the land mine by Peter Stiff

Black fire: accounts of the guerilla war in Rhodesia by Michael Raeburn

Rhodes: the race for Africa by Antony Thomas

A Handful of hard men: The SAS and the battle for Rhodesia by Hannes Wessels

Dingo firestorm: The greatest battle of the Rhodesian Bush War by Ian Pringle

Sunshine and storm in Rhodesia by Frederick Selous

Selous scouts: Rhodesian counter-insurgency specialists by Peter Baxter

Rhodesian light infantryman 1961–80 by Neil Grant

White liberals, moderates, and radicals in Rhodesia, 1953-1980 by Ian Hancock

The iron lady : Margaret Thatcher, from grocer’s daughter to prime minister by John Campbell and David Freeman

The struggle for Zimbabwe: Battle in the Bush by Lewis Gann

The struggle for Zimbabwe : The Chimurenga war by David Martin and Phyllis Johnson

A history of Zimbabwe, 1890-2000 by Chengetai Zvobgo

From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe by Lawrence Vambe

Origins of Rhodesia by Stanlake Samkange

The Zulu aftermath by J.D. Omer-Cooper

The washing of the spears by Donald Morris

At the going down of the sun by Charlie Warren

“Billionaire Soros Funds Local Prosecutor Races.” Wall-Street Journal. November 3, 2016. https://www.wsj.com/articles/billionaire-soros-funds-local-prosecutor-races-1478194109 

Native policy in Southern Rhodesia, 1890-1923. By DUIGNAN, PETER JAMES. Stanford University Doctoral Dissertation. 1961.

‘“It was Difficult in Zimbabwe”: A History of Imprisonment, Detention and Confinement during Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle, 1960-1980’ by Munyaradzi Bryn Munochiveyi. University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation. 2008.

History of Africa by Kevin Shillington

Cecil Rhodes: Flawed colossus by Brian Roberts

The founder: Cecil Rhodes and the pursuit of power by Robert Rotberg

“After Two Decades of Rot, Zimbabwe Is Coming Apart at the Seams” by Antony Sguazzin, Ray Ndlovu, and Brian Latham. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-14/after-two-decades-of-rot-zimbabwe-is-coming-apart-at-the-seams 

The rise and fall of the British Empire. 36 Lectures by Patrick Allitt. Produced by the Great Courses.

Rhodes and Rhodesia: the white conquest of Zimbabwe 1884-1902 by A. Keppel-Jones

End of Empire. (1985). Documentary film series. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DuNhsLR9y0

The 2012 Benghazi Attack on two isolated American diplomatic and intelligence compounds is a well-known story to millions of film-viewers across the world. In tonight’s show, a few Americans will battle for their lives against overwhelming odds. It’s a case study of static defense warfare in the modern setting: cut off and alone – hundreds of miles away from reinforcements, a few American security operators faced down hundreds of onrushing attackers. It’s thirteen hours of pain distilled into 70 minutes of podcast. It’s all here and it’s all free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact.

http://media.blubrry.com/429895/archive.org/download/bc-51/BC51.mp3

Download episode 51 here: download

Maps and Pictures:

Music Notes:

“Hendyamps Studios & Aimee Norris”: www.hendyamps.com; https://youtube.com/c/HendyampsStudios

References:

Ambrose, Stephen and Brinkley, Douglas. Rise to globalism: American foreign policy since 1938.

Burton, Fred and Katz, Samuel. Under fire: The untold story of the attack in Benghazi.

Magdy, Samy. August 20, 2020. UN expresses concern over ‘dramatic turn’ in Libya crisis. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/un-expresses-concern-over-dramatic-turn-in-libya-crisis/2020/08/29/6a008b4c-e9ec-11ea-bf44-0d31c85838a5_story.html 

Rogers, Mike & Ruppersberger, Dutch. Investigative report on the terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, September 11-12, 2012. November 21, 2014. 

Vandewall, Dirk. A history of modern Libya. 2nd edition. 

Wehrey, Frederick. The burning shores: Inside the battle for New Libya. 

Zuckoff, Mitchell. (2014). 13 hours: The inside account of what really happened in Benghazi.

Leslie Bull Allen: orphan, pig farmer, day laborer, hero.

Seventeen: that’s how many wounded and helpless men were saved from direct modern combat by Bull Allen – a man beyond measure. Bull braved dangers that actually drove him insane. The thing is: he didn’t have to do it. He volunteered to do the impossible. There are those who say heroes aren’t real; they never really existed. But today’s show proves them all wrong. Leslie Bull Allen is a real hero. Hundreds of Americans and Australians are alive today because of his actions. We can say with Faramir: “Australia must be a truly great realm where pig farmers are held in high honor.” Here is a man who braved machine gun fire and Bushido ethics to save the lives of Americans he never met before. Here is a man who bit his tongue and did his duty no matter the cost. Here is a hero.

It’s all here and it’s all for free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact.

Today’s episode is a partial sequel to episode 16 on the battle of Kokoda. You can find it here.

http://media.blubrry.com/429895/archive.org/download/bc-50final/BC50final.mp3

Download episode 50: here.

Pictures/Maps

References

The New Guinea offensives by David Dexter. See especially volume VI.

Hell’s battlefield: the Australians in New Guinea in World War II by Phillip Bradley

All the King’s enemies: a history of the 2/5th Australian Infantry Battalion by S. Trigellis-Smith

New Guinea: The Allied jungle campaign in World War II by Jon Diamond

The Encyclopaedia of Australia’s Battles: “Battle of Wau.” by Dudley McCarthy. Edited by Chris Clark. 

The Ghost Mountain boys: Their epic march and the terrifying battle for New Guinea by James Campbell

War at the end of the world: Douglas MacArthur and the forgotten fight for New Guinea, 1942-1945 by James Duffy. 

A military history of Australia by Jeffrey Grey

A concise history of Australia by Stuart Macintyre

The Cambridge history of Japan by Peter Duus

Hirohito’s war: The Pacific War, 1941–1945 by Francis Pike

A bastard of a place: The Australians in Papua by Peter Brune

Operations of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in the Papua New Guinea theater during World War II by Kengoro Tanaka

The rising sun: The decline and fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 by John Toland

Into the rising sun by Patrick K. O’donnell

To Salamaua by Phillip Bradley

John Moremon, ‘Allen, Leslie Charles (Clarence) (1916–1982)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/allen-leslie-charles-clarence-12130/text21731, published first in hardcopy 2007.

The Herald Sun. “Obituaries: Jean Elizabeth Allen.” April 16, 2008.

“Bull Allen” https://cv.vic.gov.au/stories/a-diverse-state/bull-allen/ 

The Siege of Jerusalem is one of the most important battles in human history. The siege has a direct and lasting impact on millions of Jews and Christians across the globe. It’s a story of hundreds of thousands of deaths, forced enslavement, and barbaric mass destruction. It’s the fall of the temple that could not fall. It’s a massive city burned at 1400 degrees Fahrenheit. Tonight’s story is a tale of mass suicide – a suicide that inspires Jews even until this day. It’s all here and it’s all for free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact.

This is part 2 of a two part series. You can find episode one here: episode 48

Download episode 49 here: download

Maps:

References:

The Jewish War by Josephus

The Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus

The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World by Peter Schafer

Jews in the Greco-Roman World by Martin Goodman

The First Jewish Revolt: Archaeology, History and Ideology by Andrea Berlin and J. Andrew Overman

The Histories by Tacitus

A History of the Jewish War: A.D. 66–74 by Steve Mason

Rome and Jerusalem by Martin Goodman

The Jewish Revolt AD 66–74 by Si Shepperd 

Between Rome and Jerusalem: 300 years of Roman-Judean Relations by Martin Sicker

Jewish Reactions to the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. by Kenneth Jones

Jerusalem’s traitor: Josephus, Masada, and the fall of Judea by Desmond Seward 

City of Ruins by Derek Daschke 

Great World Religions: Judaism. 12-part video series by Isaiah Gafni

A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson

A History of the Jewish People by Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson et al.

It’s a war that goes by many names: The First Jewish-Roman War, The Great Revolt, The Jewish War; but whatever name you prefer, The Great Revolt was a war that influences untold millions today. The Revolt directly altered the entire calendar of the Western World – moving the sacred day of rest (and your primary day off from work) from Saturday to Sunday. It influences millions of Christians today who either see it as a direct fulfillment of a key prophecy of Jesus Christ or argue against the position that the war is a fulfillment of divine revelation. Regardless of their positions, Christian scholars pour over this war the way bankers calculate changing interest rates: zealous devotion. Moreover, this war has directly impacted the English language – forcing diligent students in Korea and China to look up the etymology of words like zealous and zealot. Here is a war that is more than battles and blood, a horrible tale of whole cities reduced to sex slavery and death; this is a war that fundamentally altered Judaism – changing it from a religion of the temple to a religion of the synagogue. 

And how many of you know anything about it? What a fine education we give our children in the Western World. We speak a language whose foundations are lost. We take days off and don’t know why. Here is the story of prophecy, pain, and forced prostitution: The Great Revolt. 

It’s all here and it’s all for free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its socio-political impact. 

Download episode 48 here: download link

Maps:

References:

The Jewish War by Josephus

The Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus

The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World by Peter Schafer

Jews in the Greco-Roman World by Martin Goodman

The First Jewish Revolt: Archaeology, History and Ideology by Andrea Berlin and J. Andrew Overman

The Histories by Tacitus

A History of the Jewish War: A.D. 66–74 by Steve Mason

Rome and Jerusalem by Martin Goodman

The Jewish Revolt AD 66–74 by Si Shepperd 

Between Rome and Jerusalem: 300 years of Roman-Judean Relations by Martin Sicker

Jewish Reactions to the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. by Kenneth Jones

Jerusalem’s traitor: Josephus, Masada, and the fall of Judea by Desmond Seward 

City of Ruins by Derek Daschke 

Great World Religions: Judaism. 12-part video series by Isaiah Gafni

A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson

A History of the Jewish People by Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson et al.