The History Network

Germanicus Caesar is a famous name in the annals of Roman military history yet his life story is known to remarkably few. It is a Boy's Own tale of adventure, courage and derring-do, but it is also the chronicle of the man who was intended to be the third emperor of Rome, but never was. Dur: 41mins File: .mp3

We have all seen it - on coins, stamps, postcards, t-shirts, billboards, and classroom walls. In 1851 Emanuel Gottlieb Luetze painted "Washington Crossing the Delaware", an iconic image of the General's attack on Trenton during a bitter December night in 1776. Lost in all of the painting's fame, however, is the irony that the German-born artist was glamorizing the defeat of German auxiliary forces as the turning point in the American Revolution. Dur: 46mins File: .mp3

Kublai Khan, the Grandson of Genghis Khan, became emperor of Mongolia in 1260. Northern China was already under his control and Korea gave him access to the sea, with Japan just 100 miles away. Five times, between 1266 and 1274, Kublai Khan sent emissaries to the Emperor of Japan, addressing him as "the ruler of a small country", demanding he pay tribute and become a vassal state. Five times the emissaries returned empty-handed. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

Turning points are sometimes controversial but it is generally accepted that the Battle of Gettysburg was the major turning point of the American Civil War. It marked the high point of Confederate arms in that it was their last venture into the north and the furthest they reached. After Gettysburg the South was essentially permanently on the defensive and never regained the capability of significant offensive action against the North. Dur: 27mins File: .mp3

With only 8 moving parts, the AK-47 assault rifle is simple to maintain and its simplicity of use and durability are legendary. It can fire 600 rounds a minute and every single bullet is potentially still lethal at distances of more than a kilometre or two-thirds of a mile. 70+ Million have been produced (over 100 million if you count its variants). Its initial design was submitted as a competition entry after the Soviet Army asked for designs for a reliable weapon capable of withstanding all that the then Russian front could throw at a weapon. Dur: 23mins File: .mp3

Jasper, Josho and Michael are joined by Jason Klazmer to look at the the armies of Diocletian (Ancient Warfare Magazine VI-5)

"When Emperor Alexander Severus was assassinated in AD 235, the Roman Empire fell into an abyss that it would only crawl out of after almost fifty years. Roman armies clashed in struggles for the throne, with generals proclaimed emperor by their troops and then meeting violent ends a few months later – often at the hands of those same troops. Besides this internal power struggle, the Empire was also plagued by attacks from without."

Dur: 40min 49sec

The origins of the Zulu War of 1879 can be traced to the first decade of the 19th century. It was then, that a rather minor clan of the Bantu people begun to grow into a formidable military force united under a single warrior chief. Zulu were always united in their ways by kinship. Dur: 28mins File: .mp3

Contrary to the 2010 film version of Robin Hood there was no medieval landing craft version of the "Saving Private Ryan" ilk. Before the Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (the LCVP), boats needed to be beached and their occupants jump over the side into water. Vital time was lost. Dur: 23mins File: .mp3

From early in 1754 the Seven Year war started to bubble into full scale global conflict. In North America French and British colonists clashed over trade and disputed territory. In May 1756 the first naval action took place at Minorca in the Mediterranean where the British were forced to withdraw, opening up hostilities in Europe. In India the French and British East India Companies vied for influence over the region in a series for proxy conflicts as each would support local rulers against one another. At Plassey Robert Clive won a victory that would help secure the close relationship between Britain and India for the next 200 years. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3

The history of Cyber-warfare can be traced back to the advent of the telegraph communications in the first half of the 19th century. During the First World War the importance of codes and wired communications came of age with such famed episodes as the intercepting by the British Intelligence of the Zimmerman Telegram dispatched by the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann, to the German ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt. Dur: 19mins File: .mp3