The Danger Zone (DZ)

By Paul Fordyce

Paul conducts the guided tour at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum, Cairns every Saturday at 10:30 am. Paul’s tour’s like what Carlsberg says about their beer, probably the best tour of an ar... more

· History

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FAQs about The Danger Zone (DZ):

How many episodes does The Danger Zone (DZ) have?

The podcast currently has 270 episodes available.

The Danger Zone (DZ) episodes:

June 26, 2023 DZ Season 054 Part 01. How a Dead Man Tricked the Germans and Conquered Sicily for the Allies. First and Final Part.
Yesterday, upon the stair,I met a man who wasn't thereHe wasn't there again todayI wish, I wish he'd go away...
That poem was inspired by the real story of a haunting by a ghost supposedly seen on the stairs of a house in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada.
In 1899 American poet, Hughes Mearns wrote that poem, the words I just read to you. It ended up in a song and then a play. In the 1930’s it was given a make-over and became a popular song. It’s appropriate for this programme because I’m going to tell you about a man who wasn’t there, and he made a huge contribution to the victory over Hitler. Unusually this hero was dead before he did what he did. But he wasn’t a ghost, he was a cadaver.
Tag words: Hughes Mearns; Adolf Hitler; cadaver; Captain (Acting Major) William Martin; Royal Marines; Ian Fleming; James Bond; 007; World War II; Rear Admiral John Godfrey; Royal Naval Intelligence Division; Trout Memo; A Suggestion (not a very nice one); corpse; Winston Churchill; Operation Mincemeat; Operation Barclay; John Glyndwyr; Michael Glydwyr; John Melville; HMS Dasher; Lieutenant Commander Mark Hill; rat poison; DNA; Charles Chalmondeley; Ewen Montagu; MI5; Jean Leslie; Ronnie Reed; Lloyd’s Bank; “Jock” Horsfall; Aston Martins; HMS Seraph; Huelva; Lieutenant Commander (future Admiral) Jewell; Psalm 39; Mae West life jacket; Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Nye; General Sir Harold Alexander; Adolf Clauss; German spy; General Franco; Nazis; Karl-Erich Kühlenthal; Abwehr; Operation Husky; CIGS; Chief of the Imperial General Staff; Operation Brimstone; Bletchley Park; Führer; The Man Who Never Was; starring Clifton Webb; Gloria Graham; Stephen Boyd; Operation Mincemeat; Colin Firth; Matthew McFadyen; Kelly Macdonald;
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18min
June 25, 2023 DZ Season 053 Part 01. A Sailor's Dream Come True - A Floating Brewery. First and Final Part.
Slim Dusty’s famous song tells of one of the greatest fears that faced many an undoubtedly brave fighting man. The prospect of no grog.
In the Pub with No Beer Slim says:
Oh it’s a lonesome away from your kindred and all
By the campfire at night we’ll hear the wild dingoes call
But there’s-a nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear
Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer.
This programme is going to cover some amazing, and some of the world’s greatest characters of legend. Including Helen of Troy, the Trojan Horse. Then the story becomes much more mundane – but only for a while – until Adolf Hitler marches into Poland and World War II begins. Then the Japanese attack Pearl Harbour – bringing America into the war. Fighting the Battle of Atlantic against the Nazi U-Boat menace. Finally the story takes on a surreal atmosphere. It becomes the story of a man, any man, in a part of the world, at a time in history, when he could stand on one spot and turn through 360o and not see a beer anywhere for thousands and thousands of miles. This Danger Zone programme’s all about – one of the greatest untold stories of World War II. Well for some people it definitely is. For others, not so much.
Tag words: Slim Dusty; Pub with No Beer; Adolf Hitler; Battle of Atlantic; Nazis; U-Boat; World War II; King Menetheus; Theseus; Zeus; Leda; Helen of Troy; Castor; Pollux; Spartan army; Oath of Tyndareus; siege of Troy; Trojans; Ocean Steamship Company; Govan; Winston Churchill; Bessie Braddock; Skunked beer; Davey Jones Bar; George Brown; Truman’s Brewery; Royal Navy; floating brewery; Royal Navy; Josephus Daniels; Jack Daniels; Prohibition; Acting Captain Nash;

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16min
June 23, 2023 DZ Season 052 Part 03. HRH Prince Philip. What a Mouth! What a Mouth! What a North and South! 'It was as near murder as anything could be in wartime.' Final Part.
Have you ever been to hell? Would you go there deliberately? Well some brave, or perhaps stupid, might be a better description, Greek heroes did.
One who did was Theseus, helping his friend Pirithous. Both young men, after accomplishing their many amazing feats, decided they should take new wives for themselves. They decided they would help each other in finding their wives. They didn’t choose a partner who was going to be easy to get. Some nice girl next door who you could just marry and settle down with. No they couldn’t possibly have found more difficult partners. Heroes didn’t woe the women they desired, they took them. Theseus chose the beautiful wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. A young girl known by the name of Helen. That is a massive whole story in itself. So we’ll leave the dramas of the Trojan Wars for another time.
Pirithous, the other hero, decided that the girl that he wanted to take to wife was the legendary beauty Persephone. Menelaus may have been a fearsome warrior and the king of Sparta a nation of the fiercest warriors, but Persephone’s husband was something else. I’m sure you know his name, even if you don’t know anything else about mythology. His name was Hades – the king of the underground. Hell. Get the picture!
To get to hell you had to travel to a place on the southern tip of the Peloponnesian Peninsula known then as Tainaron. Today it’s better known as Cape Matapan. From 27 to 29 March, 1941, the Royal Navy fought a vital battle off the coast of Cape Matapan against the Italian Navy. Prince Philip too, like Theseus and Pirithous crossed into the gates of hell.
Tag words: Prince Philip; Duke of Edinburgh; Royal Consort; Princess Elizabeth; Queen Elizabeth II; Queen of England; Theseus; Pirithous; King Menelaus of Sparta; Helen of Troy; Trojan Wars; Persephone; Hades; Hell; Peloponnesian Peninsula; Tainaron; Cape Matapan; Royal Navy; Admiral Cunningham; HMS Valiant; HMS Barham; HMS Warspite; Greek War Cross of Valour; VJ Day; VP Day; victory over Japan in the Pacific; Victory in the Pacific; American Civil War; William Tecumseh Sherman; HMS Wallace; Harry Hargreaves; HMSWhelp; Japanese Navy; Battle of Leyte Gulf; kamikaze; Tokyo Bay; Margaret Thatcher; The Jam; Just Who is the Five O’Clock Hero; Aircraft Research Association;
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19min
June 22, 2023 DZ Season 052 Part 02. HRH Prince Philip. What a Mouth! What a Mouth! What a North and South! Elizabeth meets a Young Naval Cadet at Dartmouth College.
During a visit to Cape Canaveral, to inspect the Space Shuttle, Prince Philip was introduced to a young thirteen year old boy, Andrew Adams. Andrew told Prince Philip that it was his ambition to be an astronaut. Prince Philip looked him up and down and said to him:
“Well, you’ll never fly in it; you’re too fat to be an astronaut … You could do with losing a bit of weight.”
Just the sort of remark that got a lot of people, who couldn’t laugh, upset.
But you know, you really do just have to laugh at some of the outrageous things that Philip said.
Prince Philip started carrying out engagements as the Royal Consort, after Her Majesty, Elizabeth, became the Queen. That was back on 2 March 1948 when he was 37 years old. He performed his last solo engagement on 2nd August 2017 – 69 years later. Over those years Prince Philip carried out 22,219 solo engagements. I don’t know how many he carried out with Queen Elizabeth or other royals, but the number would have to be staggering. Even in his retirement year, when he was 96 years old, he was still one of the most active members of the royal family rendering public service.
So, in my book, Prince Philip can say anything he damn well likes, and unless you’ve given as much service to the public as he has, I don’t care what you think about him.
In this programme I’m going to explore more of the fascinating life of Prince Philip.
Tag words: Prince Philip; Duke of Edinburgh; Royal Consort; Princess Elizabeth; Queen Elizabeth II; Queen of England; Cape Canaveral; Space Shuttle; Andrew Adams; King Edward VIII; Wallis Simpson; Duke and Duchess of York; King George VI; Lilibet; Winston Churchill; Clementine; Prince David; King George V; Stanley Baldwin; Fat Scottish cook; Joachim von Ribbentrop; Nazi; Royal Air Force; Dickie Mountbatten; Lady Edwina Ashley; Princess Margaret; Adolf Hitler; Reich Chancellor; World War II; Communist Russia; Communist China; HMS Ramillies; Vice-Admiral Harold Tom Baillie-Grohman; Thomson M1928 submachine gun; Tommy Gun; Luftwaffe; the Blitz; Buckingham Palace; Hatfield Campus; University of Hertfordshire; Joseph Goebbels; Soviet Union; Helmut Kohl;
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21min
June 21, 2023 DZ Season 052 Part 01. HRH Prince Philip - What a Mouth! What a Mouth! What a North and South! Princess Alice; Sister Cecile; Gordonstoun.
On 9 April 2021, Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest serving royal consort in British history, passed away at the age of 99. He was born on 10 June 1921 – so he very nearly reached the age of 100, which he had said he would rather not.
He had undertaken his last official engagement on Tuesday 2 August 2017. For a man who had longed to pursue a military career this last ceremony was at a parade of the Royal Marines celebrating the men who had undertaken the Global Challenge Trek of 2,678 kilometres to raise money and awareness about the Royal Marines Challenge.
Tag words: Prince Philip; Duke of Edinburgh; Princess Elizabeth; Queen Elizabeth II; Queen of England; Royal Marines; Global Challenge Trek; Royal Marines Challenge; World War II; Royal Navy; HMS Calypso; Joe Kerr; Gill Hicks; Greek Orthodox; Princess Victoria; Professor Wilmanns; Bellevue Sanitorium; George Mountbatten; Donald MacJanner; Adolf Hitler; Nazi; Mussolini; Book of Ecclesiastes; Ecclesiastes 1:9; So there’s nothing new under the sun; Dr Kurt Hahn; Salem school; Royal Variety Show; Tom Jones; You Can Leave Your Hat On; Night of the Long Knives; Ernst Rohm; Gordonstoun; Marchioness of Milford Haven; Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark; Prince George; Duke of Kent; Great Depression; Great War; Ernest Simpson; Wallis Simpson; Cecilie; Junkers 52; Princess Johanna;
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21min
June 20, 2023 DZ Season 051 Part 02. Humanity in War. A Greater Love - To Give Your Life for Your Enemy. Final Part.
In the Bible Jesus gave us this quote that is often used today, even by unbelievers –
John 15:13: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.Will I think today’s story tops that. Stay tuned and tell me what you think? Am I right?
Tag words: Greater love has no one than this to lay down one’s life for one’s friends; 30th US Infantry Division; Frau von Reventlow; Stephen Ambrose; Band of Brothers; The Victors. The Men of World War II; Werner Kleeman; Dachau concentration camp; JD Salinger; The Catcher in the Rye; Ernest Hemingway; General Eisenhower; Hürtgen Forest; Battle of Agincourt; Shakespeare; Henry V; 275th Infantry Division; 116th Panzer Division; Russell Weigley; General Courntey Hodges; Friedrich Lengfeld; Wilde Sau; Wild Boar;
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18min
June 19, 2023 DZ Season 051 Part 01. Humanity in War Me 109 with an easy kill of a B17 Flying Fortress Bomber - Will He Take the Shot?
On 20 December 1943, so close to Christmas, two men met – in mid-air, in two different aircraft. About 304 metres above the ground. One was a German by the name of Oberleutenant Fritz Stigler, fighter ace, flying a German, an Me-109G fighter, flying for Hitler’s Third Reich and the other was an American, 2nd Lieutenant Charles (Charlie) Brown, flying an American B-17 four engine bomber, well just enough of it left to let you call it a B-17 bomber, with only one engine still working, and most of the crew severely wounded or dead. Charlie Brown’s plane was a sitting duck. With this German fighter next to him there was nothing he could do that could save him or his crew from being blasted out of the sky. What happened next was unbelievable.
Tag words: Oberleutenant Fritz Stigler; fighter ace; Me-109G fighter; Adolf Hitler; Third Reich; 2nd Lieutenant Charles (Charlie) Brown; American B-17 Flying Fortess bomber; Great War; Lufthansa; Luftwaffe; Gerhard Barkhorn; Richard Bong; Messerschmitt Me 109F; Afrika Korps; North Africa; Jadgeschwader 27; Leutnant Gustav Roedel; Caterpillar Club; 379thBombardment Group; Ken Burns; The War; Focke-Wulf; Ye Olde Pub; Jagdverband 44; Me-262; Knight’s Cross; West Virginia Wesleyan College; Purple Heart; Gathering of the Eagles;
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28min
June 18, 2023 DZ Season 050 Part 01. Should Dr Mengele (the Angel of Death at Auschwitz) Have Been Honoured with the Nobel Prize for Medicine? First and Final Part.
Ever wondered why all those hard working Nazi scientists and doctors in the death camps never won a single Nobel Prize for medicine or science among the lot of them. They did so much hard work into all sorts of problems concerning the human body suffering battle injuries and terrible diseases. They were helped by Jews, Russians and all of the other unwilling prisoners who had their lives taken from them for science? You think I’m joking? Well you know that old saying (maybe you don’t) that many a truth is said in jest. If you have a curious mind you won’t want to miss this Danger Zone programme. Stick around.
Tag words: Nazi scientists; Nobel Prize; Adolf Hitler; Hadamar; Michelle Williams; Golden Globe Award; First World War; Rhineland Bastards; Aryan race; Eugen Fischer; Human Hereditary and Race Hygiene; Mein Kampf; Third Reich; Doctor Sigmund Rascher; Dachau; Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler; Dr Bickenbach; Dr Josef Mengele; Hitlerjugend; Bullenhuser Damm; SS; Keio University in Tokyo; Unit 731; Lieutenant-General Ishii Shiro; Maruta; Bill Bryson; The Body: a Guide for Occupants; Dr Carl Clauberg; Auschwitz; Block 10; German Chamber of Medicine; The Medical Questions in Marine & Winter Emergencies; Dr Karl Gebhart; Dr Fritz Fischer; American Environmental Protection Agency; EPA; Todd Thorslund;
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26min
June 16, 2023 DZ Season 049 Part 01. What is the name of the Nazi Warship in Service with the US Coast Guard today? First and Final Part.
In April 1933, Annmarie Kohler, a doctor in the town of Pirna wrote about how ‘fanatical’ the staff at her hospital had become. Kohler said ‘They sit around the radio and when the “Horst Wessel Song” is played … they all stand up and perform the raised-arm Nazi salute.’ That salute became a part of every day life for many German families during the time Hitler was the leader. A letter was sent to the ‘honourable Führer’ from a family in Mannheim in March 1933 which read: ‘Our little Rita would like to send her regards to the Führer with a Heil Hitler! For that reason, we have taken the liberty of enclosing a photo of her performing the German salute. She is ten months old and is the youngest of five. Whenever we show her a picture of Uncle Adolf, she immediately salutes.’
In this programme I’m going to tell you who Horst Wessel was, and how the US Coast Guard comes to be still operating this very Nazi tall ship today. Stay tuned. So you’ll know the music, called the Horst Wessel.
Tag words: Annmarie Kohler; Horst Wessel Song; Nazi Party; National Socialism; Adolf Hitler; Rudolf Hess; Horst Wessel; Communist; Red Front; SA; Sturm Abteilung; Sturm Abteilung; Joseph Goebbels; Heinz Neumann; Erna Jaenicke; Ali Höhler; Erwin Rückert; Der Angriff; Horst Wessel Lied; Third Reich; World War 2; Blohm und Voss Shipyard; Bismarck; Parteiadler; Gorch Fock Class; Kaiserliche Marine; Tido Holtkamp; B-17 bombers; Bei Mir Bistu Shein; St Louis Blues; Billi Holliday; Albert Leo Schlageter; swastika; US Coast Guard; Eagle; President Truman; President Nixon; President Kennedy
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30min
June 15, 2023 DZ Season 048 Part 01. Submarine Stories That You Will Not Believe. First and Final Part.
On 17 February 1864, as the American Civil War was nearing its end, the USS Housatonic, a sloop of war, was sunk. The Housatonic was on station as part of the Union naval blockade of Charleston harbour, South Carolina – stopping Rhett Butler blockade running. It’s sinking gave it a place forever in military history. The first ship ever sunk by a submarine - the Confederate submarine –the H. L. Hunley, named after its inventor. Unfortunately for the crew, all 8 of them perished. But how? Well the submarine was found in 2000 – about 300 metres from where the Housatonic had gone down.
When it was recovered the eight man crew were found sitting (their skeletons) at their stations as if nothing had happened. Initially, the discovery of the submarine only deepened the mystery. The crew were seated at their stations along a hand-crank that drove the cigar-shaped craft. They hadn’t attempted to escape when their submarine began to sink. One historian said: “If anyone had survived, they may have tried to release the keel ballast weights, set the bilge pumps to pump water, or tried to get out the hatches, but none of these actions were taken.”
The crew had suffered no visible injuries, no broken bones and the air hatches were closed. Except for a hole in the conning tower and a small window that may have been broken, the sub was remarkably intact. Speculation about their deaths had included suffocation and drowning but if that had happened they wouldn’t have been found at their posts would they
In 2017 Dr Rachel Lance and her team, after three years of experiments, at Duke University finally found out how the crew had died. The weapon that this early submarine carried was a copper keg containing about 6kg of gunpowder, which in those days they called a torpedo (same name but very different today) The torpedo was at the end of a 6 metre pole at the front of the submarine. The weapon was delivered by ramming the submarine into the hull of the target ship. The powder charge in the keg would then explode, sinking the ship, as had happened.
The blast from this explosive barrel created a shock wave great enough to instantly rupture the blood vessels in the lungs and the brains of all of the crew. Dr Lance said: “This is the characteristic trauma of blast victims, they call it ‘blast lung’. You have an instant fatality that leaves no marks on the skeletal remains. Unfortunately, the soft tissues that would show us what happened have decomposed in the past hundred years.”
So yes they had a submarine in the American Civil War – just the one. Warfare had now taken its first faltering steps to going under the waves.
In this programme I’m going to talk about submarines, sea monsters, a submarine that was so full of shit that it sank, and how a submarine taught Vladimir Putin how to rule – forever – well until death do him part.
Tag words: American Civil War; USS Housatonic; Rhett Butler; H. L. Hunley; Dr Rachel Lance; Duke University; Vladimir Putin; sea monster; World War I; Loch Ness monster; Daily Mail; Robert Wilson; Smithsonian Museum of Natural History; HMS Coreopsis; U-Boat; UB-85; Kapitan Günther Krech; Gary Campbell; Thomas Crapper; Sir John Haringon; Queen Elizabeth I; Alexander Cummins; crap; Type VII U-Boat; U-1206; Kapitan Karl-Adolf Schlitt; Kursk; Stalingrad; K-141; Oscar II Class nuclear powered cruise missile carrying submarine; Vladimir Putin; Edward Snowden; Lt. Captain Dimitri Kolesnikov; Mammoet; Northern Fleet; apparatchnik; Communist; George Orwell; Larry King; Nadezhda Tylik; Sergeant Sergei Tylik; Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov; The Intercept; KGB;

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30min

FAQs about The Danger Zone (DZ):

How many episodes does The Danger Zone (DZ) have?

The podcast currently has 270 episodes available.