History Cafe

1 July 1916. Had British Corps commanders understood machine gun warfare they would not have sent British infantrymen across No Man’s Land unprotected from the German machine gun crews. In fact we explain why the British army need never have been in the position it was in on the Somme, scrabbling about at the bottom of hills, peering up at German fortifications in all the strategic locations. We look at its refusal to take trench warfare seriously even though it had been around for 60 years.

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Hogmanay Special.Synopsis: In 1983 Professor Hugh Trevor Roper wrote a famous paper that claimed that Scottishness had been invented. Actually, what the Professor meant by ‘Scottishness’ was mainly just Scottish highland dress – tartan kilts. We enjoyably demolish Trevor Roper’s theory and reveal that the commercialisation of romantic Scottishness in the nineteenth century had far deeper and darker roots than the manufacture of tartan and romantic fiction.

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Rereleasing series on why Britain went to war in 1914 ahead of new series in New Year on the Battle of the Somme 1916. On first day 57,000 casualties. We have a new story to tell.Synopsis: One day after Britain goes to war - ‘at sea’ - on 4 August 1914 the first War Council unceremoniously throws out the army’s secret plan to send a few divisions to meet the Germans head on and win quick, painless glory fighting alongside the French. Only then do the four men who had single-handedly thrown away the chance of avoiding a general European war, understand what Britain’s most prestigious soldier, Kitchener, has been warning since 1911. That a war with Germany would last at least 3 years and it would come down to ‘the last million men’ Britain could send.

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Rereleasing why we went to war in 1914, ahead of new series in New Year on The Battle of the Somme, 1916. Extraordinary stories to tell.Synopsis: A right-wing anti-German contingent call their campaign for war, the weekend of 31 July-2 August 1914 a ‘pogrom’. All talks of peace are, in their words, a German-Jewish plot to keep Britain out of the war for financial reasons. They have the support of the Conservative party, the British and French military, the politician in charge of the Royal Navy, and the press. But how on earth does Grey persuade the anti-war Liberal Cabinet and Parliament? And WHY?

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Rereleasing ahead of new series in New Year on The Battle of the Somme. New story to tell.Synopsis: 8pm German time the Kaiser orders champagne, halts the German advance towards Belgium, and sends a telegram of congratulations to his cousin George V at Buckingham Palace. The Liberal British Cabinet had voted to remain neutral on 31 July. Earlier on 1 August Foreign Secretary Grey met the German ambassador Prince Lichnowsky (one of a string of meetings that week) to tell him that France might also remain neutral. A few hours later they met again and Grey added that even if France went to war Britain would not. So what went so catastrophically wrong in the next 72 hours?

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Rerelease of this series, ahead of new series on The Battle of the Somme, 1916, to be released in the New Year. NEW story to tell.Synopsis:In 1912 a deal between War Secretary Haldane and the German chancellor Bethmann-Holweg to allow Britain to retain naval supremacy if they both remained neutral (if neither side had started the war), was rudely sabotaged. It involved lying to Cabinet that the Germans were demanding a full-scale Anglo-German alliance, which they weren’t. It meant throwing away what the majority of the Cabinet saw as the best chance to contain Russian expansion, by making common cause with Germany. Russia, allied to the French, could now call all the shots.

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Rerelease ahead of new series on The Battle of the Somme 1 July 1916 after New Year. A new story to tell...Synopsis: How did what friendly chats between British and French generals since 1905 turn into a commitment to send a small British Expeditionary Force to France at the start of a war with Germany? A commitment that had not been agreed by Cabinet, Parliament or the Navy?

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Rereleasing why we got into the First World War ahead of our new series on the Battle of the Somme to be released in New Year - losses on the first day 1 July 1916 were largest in British history. We have a new story to tell.Synopsis: We look at anti-German hysteria in Britain 1906-1909. The British publishing phenomena of 1906 was The Invasion of 1910 (by Germans), serialised in the Daily Mail and marketed by men walking around London in Prussian uniforms. This chimed perfectly with the anti-German clique at the foreign office.

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Rereleasing ahead of our New Year series on the Battle of the Somme, and for those whose podcast platforms don't show our playlists per series.Synopsis: Britain’s main problem by 1910 was Russian expansion towards its Persian oil and India, the jewel in Britain’s crown. So why did Britain go to war to SUPPORT Russia and AGAINST Germany which was its closest European friend and trading partner?

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Rereleasing series with greatest international following: Final stand-alone epSynopsis: Within days of 28 October 1962 two journalists publish the official but untruthful White House account, as instructed and edited by the President. They also call-out a political enemy for daring to consider a humiliating missile swap with the Soviets. But we show how the Kennedys had already suggested this very missile swap to Khrushchev via private backchannels, on condition he kept it secret. Which he did.

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