The Danger Zone (DZ)

A truly fearsome and courageous Greek hoplite and also one of the greatest philosopher’s of all time, was described in a song as a lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he’s pissed? Who was he?

Tag words: Greek hoplite; phalanx; Anthony Kellett; Combat Motivation: The Behaviour of Soldiers in Battle; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Xenophon; pike; Alexander the Great; Imperial Roman legions; Agincourt; Thucydides; othismos aspidon; the push of shields; Spartans; Swiss pikemen; rout; The Philosopher’s Song – Monty Python

Which ancient battle, between Greek hoplites, was won by wrestling, and which city-state was it that won because of their wrestling skill?

Tag words: Greek hoplites; phalanx; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; sowing disorder; Spartans; Thucydides; Diodorus; Battle of Mantineia; Battle of Plataea; Thermopylae; Plutarch; Battle of Leuktra; Xenophon;

What caused the sudden collapse of the attack by the French armoured knights, on foot, at Agincourt?

Tag words: French knights; Battle of Agincourt; John Keegan; The Face of Battle; killing zone; wall of dead;

At the Battle of Agincourt, the French knights were reluctant to fight the English longbowmen. Were the longbowmen such amazing soldiers? For a modern reader the reason, when I tell you later in this programme, might be hard to understand?

Tag words: Battle of Agincourt; English  longbowmen; Battle of Plataea; Greeks, Persians; John Keegan; The Face of Battle; Richard Cohen; Making History; Sandhurst Military Academy; Max Hastings; French knights; English knights; Victor Davis Hanson;

Only 15% of American soldiers in World War II, when being attacked by Japanese troops in a suicidal banzai charge, actually fired their weapons at the enemy. True or false?

Tag words: banzai charge; phalanx; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; John Keegan; Greeks; hoplites; SLA Marshall; Men Against Fire; Professor Roger Spiller; Vasily Grossman; A Writer at War; blood up; German Landsknecht; Swiss pikemen; Battle of Agincourt; charge;

As the two heavily armed and armoured phalanxes of Greeks finally collided to begin the decisive struggle to determine the victor, the sound made by that collision wasn’t the sound you would have expected. Very far from it. More of that later in the programme.

Tag words: Phalanx; charge; hoplite army; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Plutarch; Corinthian helmet; trot; Spartans; Thebans; Thucydides; History of the Peloponnesian War; Xenophon; Battle of Plataea; Persian troops; wicker shields; javelins; bows; slings; Tyrtaios;

Herodotus tells us that no Greek could hear even the word Persian without terror. But then Greece found itself in a battle for survival against this power. How was it possible for the Greeks to face and defeat this all powerful empire?

Tag words: Persians; hoplites; Herodotus; Histories; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Spartans; skirmishers; cavalry; Greek warfare; phalanx; Thucydides; History of the Peloponnesian Wars; Battle of Mantineia; Battle of Leuktra;

Fill in the blank: Had it not been for the SOMETHING I do not think that we should have won the war. I’ll give you the answer later in the programme.

Victor Davis Hanson. Les Carylon. William Manchester. Larry Siedentop. John Keegan.

Tag words: CS Lewis; chronological snobbery; Greek phalanx; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Les Carylon; The Great War; William Manchester; Goodbye to Darkness; Larry Siedentop; Inventing the Individual; Persian empire; Australian Imperial Force; Prime Minister Billy Hughes; General Monash; Pompey Elliott; Kenneth Macksey; Panzer Division; Onasander; Plutarch; John Keegan; The Face of Battle; Homer; The Iliad; Xenophon; Battle of Leuktra; Spartans;

Who issued this legendary order: All privates will retreat, all commanders will cover their withdrawal.

Victor Davis Hanson

Tag words: Phalanx; Persians; Aemilius Paulus; Battle of Pydna; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Spartans; Battle of Plataea; Thucididyes; History of the Peloponnesian War; hoplites; Aratos; Aristophanies; god Phobos; god Pan; Nelson Mandela; Guderian; Rommel; Israeli Defence Force; IDF; The Israeli Army; Edward Luttwak; Dan Horowitz; Palmach; operation Nachson; Harel Brigade; Corinthian helmet; 

True or false? You could grab a Greek’s spear and break its head off with your bare hands.

Victor Davis Hanson.

Tag words: Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; hoplite; thrusting spear; Persians; Aeschylus; The Persians; Marathon; Salamis; Plataea; Darius; Battle of Thermopylae Pass; Homer;