On 27th February 2022, three days after the Russians invaded Ukraine, President Zelensky sent out the call for volunteers from abroad to join the Ukrainians in resisting Putin’s so called special military operation. Over 20,000 expressed interest, but for those that made it out onto the front lines, combat proved far more difficult, and less romantic, than it had first appeared.

Joining today is Colin Freeman, author of The Mad and the Brave, the thrilling account of life in the Foreign Legion for those volunteers fighting Russia. We discuss the struggles, motivations and courage of these extraordinary men.

Episode Links

The Mad & the Brave: The Untold Story of Ukraine's Foreign Legion

Want to join up? Join the Brave

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This month’s film club is the Terrence Malick 1998 masterpiece The Thin Red Line starring Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Jim Caviezel, John Cusack, John Travolta and Woody Harrelson, among many others. We talk the Adrien Brody cut, the military elements, comparisons with Saving Private Ryan and much more. It’s me, historian Roger Moorhouse and filmmaker Tim Hewitt talking The Thin Red Line.

Links

Adrien Brody on his being cut from The Thin Red Line.

Christopher Plummer & George Clooney on Terrence Malick.

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Tim on X

Roger on X

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In 1795 the Admiralty established the Royal Navy’s Hydrography office, which became the world leader in charting the waters of the globe, as ships of the line sailed the oceans, pursuing their traditional enemy, the French. Treacherous waters were navigated with a skill that is quite breathtaking, and laid the groundwork, along with Trafalgar, for a century of domination of the waves.

Joining today is historian and Royal Navy veteran Michael Barritt, author of Nelson’s Pathfinders, himself a hydrographer, as he explains the growth of the discipline, and how it was used to help the great admirals of the navy including Collingwood and Nelson.

Episode Links

Nelson's Pathfinders: A Forgotten Story in the Triumph of British Sea Power

Michael Barritt on The Battle of Trafalgar

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On 13 June of this year, one month ago, Israeli forces launched aerial and drone attacks on Iran thus beginning what is now called the Twelve Day War or the Iran-Israel War. The coverage here in the West has focussed on whether the bombing has been successful, but is there a strategic goal in place that takes into account Iran’s strategy?

Perhaps, but my guest today is Vali Nasr who has written a new book, Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History, which is both timely, and unusual in that it seeks to examine Iran’s Islamic regime from its own point of view, and so not through our Western lens. We discuss the events that have moulded the Iran at loggerheads with Israel and the US today.

Vali Nasr Links

Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History

Vali Nasr - Wikipedia

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This week three writers join to talk summer reading recommendations from the world of history and historical fiction.

Books

The Spy in the Archive

Sceptred Isle

Rain of Ruin

Test Cricket: A History

The Pretender

Korea

The CIA Book Club

Lest We Forget

1945 The Reckoning

On Democracy & Death Cults

Last Days of Budapest

The Sorrow & the Loss

These Wicked Devices

March Violets - Bernie Gunther

The Good Soldier Svejk

A Good Man in Africa

 Guests

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Antonia Senior - Historical Fiction Reviewer The Times

Roger Moorhouse - Historian

Richard Foreman - Author and Publisher

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On 6 August 1945 the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, approached Hiroshima and opened up its bomb doors. Once its payload dropped, the city was engulfed with blinding light and a huge explosion produced a giant mushroom cloud. When the attack was over and after the Enola Gay had returned to its airbase on the North Mariana islands, around 100,000 Japanese residents of Hiroshima were killed, and humanity had entered a new phase of warfare.

Joining today is Iain MacGregor, author of The Hiroshima Men as we discuss the people involved and the thinking that led to this moment.

Iain MacGregor Links

The Hiroshima Men

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Horace, born Quintus Horatius Flaccus in 65 BCE in Venusia, was one of ancient Rome’s most celebrated lyric poets. He lived through the turbulent transition from Republic to Empire and became closely associated with Emperor Augustus’s regime. Though he once fought on the losing side at the Battle of Philippi against Caesar, he later gained favour through the patronage of Maecenas, a key advisor to Augustus.

Horace is best known for his Odes, Satires, Epistles, and the Ars Poetica—works that blend wit, philosophical reflection, and poetic elegance, and so naturally he is a perfect subject for Peter Stothard, historian and author.

Looking for something to do at the end of June? You could do worse than head to the Chalke History Festival.

Peter Stothard Links

Horace: Poet on a Volcano

Chalke

Chalke History Festival

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Latest film club is the Maya epic from Mel Gibson. With a cast of unknowns, it put the civilisation overshadowed by the Aztecs back on the map.

Links

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Roger on X

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The accepted story of the Home Front during the Second World War is one of cooperation and teamwork as people across Britain linked arms to provide support for the war effort, right? Wrong. Crime rates actually increased during the war years.

Think foreign gangs roaming through London is a recent phenomenon? Think again as Maltese and Italians cornered the organised crime world. And what about the Black Market? Well, business was booming.

As gangster Mad ‘Frankie’ Fraser later said, ‘I’ll never forgive Hitler for surrendering, we were making so much money!’

And what about the Americans? Healthy appetites, charm, good looks and money were not the only thing they brought with them. Also racial segregation and a veritable army of criminals.Bestselling crime novelist Mark Ellis, author of the DCI Frank Merlin series, is interviewed about the criminal underworld during World War Two.

Mark Ellis is a thriller writer from Swansea and a former barrister and entrepreneur. He is the creator of DCI Frank Merlin, an Anglo-Spanish police detective operating in World War 2 London.

⁠Boom Time: True Crime in WW2 London⁠

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The accepted story of the Home Front during the Second World War is one of cooperation and teamwork as people across Britain linked arms to provide support for the war effort, right? Wrong.

Crime rates actually increased during the war years.Think foreign gangs roaming through London is a recent phenomenon? Think again as Maltese and Italians cornered the organised crime world.

And what about the Black Market? Well, business was booming. As gangster Mad ‘Frankie’ Fraser later said, ‘I’ll never forgive Hitler for surrendering, we were making so much money!’

And what about the Americans? Healthy appetites, charm, good looks and money were not the only thing they brought with them. Also racial segregation and a veritable army of criminals.

Bestselling crime novelist Mark Ellis, author of the DCI Frank Merlin series, is interviewed about the criminal underworld during World War Two.Boom Time, a short book to open the eyes of anyone interested in the reality of the Second World War Homefront in the capital.

Mark Ellis is a thriller writer from Swansea and a former barrister and entrepreneur. He is the creator of DCI Frank Merlin, an Anglo-Spanish police detective operating in World War 2 London.

⁠Boom Time: True Crime in WW2 London⁠

Aspects of History Links

⁠Latest Issue out - Annual Subscription to Aspects of History Magazine only $9.99/£9.99⁠

⁠Ollie on X⁠

⁠Aspects of History on Instagram⁠

Get in touch: [email protected]

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