Let's go back 310 years to the plains of southern Ukraine, fresh of a winter so cold birds fell frozen out of the air. Charles XII of Sweden put his kingdom on the line outside a city called Poltava.

After the collapse of the Teutonic knights, the Baltic region and Eastern Europe was in disarray. A power vacuum was left by the old order of crusading knights, but for some time no power emerged preeminent. Out of the madness and horrible violence of the 30 Years​ War emerged a Lion. Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was one of the great commanders in history and clawed out an empire. Seemingly overnight France, England, Spain, and the Netherlands had to acknowledge a new member to their elite club. After Gustavus glorious death on the field, Sweden was set up well for the future. Large swaths of Denmark and Germany, as well as most of the Baltic region and east end of the Gulf of Finland, were under Swedish control. When Charles the 11th died the army he left behind was lithe, sinewy, and ready to be put through its paces. In the hands of a genius tactician, this army would be most formidable…

Alright, this is the quick and dirty episode for July! Full of information on Japan, China, and the very first shots of the Second World War. From the mid-1800s to the 1930s, Japan was moving faster and faster towards superpower in the East status. By the early '30s, Japan had finally arrived on the big stage. China, on the other hand, was unraveling and had in the 20s only recently started to put itself back together. A series of sometimes bloody sometimes innocuous sometimes staged "Incidents" happened from 1931 straight through to 1937. Then the most incident like incident of them all happened near a beautiful old bridge. A missing private, a confusing firefight, and an insulting truce led to the fall of Northern China and the Second Sino Japanese War.

Here it is, the most significant episode yet, which is fitting considering the topic! We have Dreadnoughts, the Royal Navy, German technical ability, and pretty much anything you'd want to cover on the battle of Jutland. This titanic fistfight between to two most dominant navies of the first half f the 20th century is full of wild little facts and fascinating tales. We also dive a little bit into the reasons the battle happened at all and why it might not have needed to taken place at all. If you like your WWI with a side of the sea and a twist of broadsides, give this a listen!

The fighting was intense on Dong Ap Bia (the mountain of the crouching beast), but according to U.S. command, the hill was crucial to the overall success of Operation Apache Snow. Apache Snow’s goal was to clear the A Shau Valley of the enemy. The “crouching beast” moniker was appropriate as the Communist forces were well dug in and ready for a fight. For ten days the two sides smashed and sliced through each other, the U.S. forces finally taking the hill in the 20th. A few short days later, the position that was paid for in blood was abandoned by the U.S. generals backing up the idea that the war's strategy was senseless and pointless. The​​ battle became so violent that one young sergeant was quoted about the fight, “Have you ever been inside a hamburger machine? We just got cut to pieces by extremely accurate machine-gun fire.” The battle was known from then on as Hamburger Hill, and due to the extensive media coverage, it became a symbol for the anti-war community.

The 100 Years War was a seesaw clash between the French and English thrones. The first third of the war saw great victories won by the English, at Sluys and Crecy the English forces smashed their continental enemies. After a one-sided peace treaty was declared, the Channel separated foes settled into an uneasy Cold War. With the advent of the Black Death, both sides suffered massive losses to their populations and a shift in the makeup of society. Farmers and land workers tried to find safety and work in the cities of Europe, changing the power structure of the feudal system dynamically and ushering in a new world. The Black Death also brought about an even more ardent Christianity, as people sought for reasons and hope in a world seemingly devoid of both. With the death of Henry V, the hero of Agincourt, the political waters became very murky. For the next few years, both the French and the English claimed the throne of France, but only one side had the power to back their claim. The weak and vacillating Charles VII was forced to be a bystander in his own land as he watched Henry VI’s regent, the Duke of Bedford, assert control over most of France. With the help of the Duchy of Burgundy, the destabilizing Black Plague, and a lack of inspired leadership, the English could claim most of France north of the Loire river and seemed to be on their way to a win in the 100 Years War. The English certainly could not have planned for a young girl to hear the voices of former queens and current Saints Margaret and Catherine.

Thapsus was a rare battle in that it showed Caesar not as the consummate warlord but as a general that at times had no control over his own army. The action was joined after one of his wings charged the enemy of their own volition and unable to call his men back, Caesar was forced to order an all-out attack. Again at the end of the battle, we see another instance of Caesar having no power over his men when the enemy army collapsed a large number attempted to surrender. In many cases, the Caesarian soldiers ignored the attempted surrender and proceeded to slaughter the defenseless victims. In one case the blood rush was such that a group of Caesar’s officers was mistaken for the enemy and butchered before the confusion could be put to rights. Between Thapsus and Munda, the final battles of the Civil War were not Caesar the General’s most exceptional performances.

The war in the Pacific had decidedly turned in favor of the Allies by the fall of 1944. The Battle of Leyte Gulf had effectively destroyed the fighting power of the Japanese Navy and had forced Japan into an impossible tight defensive stance. As the Allied bombing of the Japanese home islands became more and more intense more and more airfields needed to be taken and held. The Allied High Command knew that the desolate lunar Volcano Islands would be a tough nut to crack, but the location would put the mighty B-29 even closer to the enemy. If Iwo Jima were taken the Allies would have a secure base to land damaged bombers on the return run from Japan, launch bombers at half the distance, and swarm the enemy air forces with fighters. Iwo Jima would give the Allies an excellent base to prepare the planned final act of the war, Operation Downfall. It would also be a preview of the horrors to come with Downfall, the invasion of the Japanese home islands.​

This episode was a lot of fun to research and dive into, my lack of knowledge of the Inca and the conquistadores as a whole made the dive in really interesting. By the 1530's the conquest of the so-called new world and the age of discovery were both well underway. The wave upon wave of Spanish and Portuguese adventurers that had been crossing the Atlantic in search of wealth and fame had for decades brought the Christian god and death to the people of Central and South America. From the islands of the Caribbean to the cenotes of the Yucatan, Spanish steel and smallpox had destroyed the unprotected populations of entire cities. In the region of South America of modern Peru, a desperate struggle was being fought out between two wildly different ways of life. With the rise of Fransisco Pizarro and his deadly brothers, the Inca found themselves fighting for their freedom and their very lives. Not a meek culture by any means the Inca went down with a roar striking out at their antagonizers, forcing the Spanish into survival mode. The final battle was fierce and would be fought high in the Andes mountains through the streets of the city of Cusco at the very feet of one of the magnificent forts of the Old or the New World. Fort Sacsayhuaman and the Inca way of war were all new to me and are fascinating! There is no ancient alien talk in this episode, but I'm always up for the conversation so if that's your jam shoot me a message. Enjoy!

In this battlecast I dive into one of World War Two's most debated controversies. In the last days of the war, an Allied bombing run hit the city of Dresden and caused massive damage. The fires that raged consumed large portions of the city and destroyed much of Dresden's cultural history. The strategic value of the attack and the number of dead is to this day, still hotly contested. Without passing judgment​ (because I'd be a real arrogant ass to think I was qualified to do so!) I try to wade through the murky business and find out what really happened.

In 1704 a combined French/Native American raid on the village of Deerfield Massachusetts set the colonial world on edge. The surprise attack in the predawn light was vicious and violent. People and livestock murdered or taken. Homes looted and torched. Lives ruined or ended. For many, the Deerfield Raid was the end, for those taken it was only the beginning. The saga of the captives and the "Redeemed" became the viral story of its day.