Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor also known as Carlos was born in 1500 and he lived for 58 years, dying in the Spanish monastery of Yuste of malaria. As we list his titles, King of Spain, King of the Netherlands, Flanders and Belgium, Emperor of Austria and Hungary, ruler of much of Italy including Milan, Sicily, Sardinia and Naples and Emperor of the Americas, the listener is apt to think that his realm encompassed much of the known world, as indeed it did, but this does not take account of the periphery. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

The Byzantines, the subjects of the Eastern Roman Empire, were great survivors. They outlasted their cousins in the west by a thousand years, withstanding the great waves of barbarian invasions and even managing to flourish amidst the chaos. Less than a century after the last western emperor was deposed in 476, the Eastern Romans under Justinian reconquered Italy and North Africa, and seemed on their way to restoring the entire Mediterranean to Roman rule. Dur: 30mins File: .mp3

On May 18, 1863, Major General Ulysses S. Grant achieved the objective he had sought for months. Union troops surrounded Vicksburg on three sides, and on its west side, Admiral David Porter's warships controlled the waters of the Mississippi. For three months Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton had watched as Grant flailed about in the floodplain on various unsuccessful bayou expeditions. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

On May 18, 1863, Major General Ulysses S. Grant achieved the objective he had sought for months. Union troops surrounded Vicksburg on three sides, and on its west side, Admiral David Porter's warships controlled the waters of the Mississippi. For three months Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton had watched as Grant flailed about in the floodplain on various unsuccessful bayou expeditions. Dur: 30mins File: .mp3

At the Battle of Cannae, 2 August, 216 B.C., Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca administered one of Rome's most crushing military defeats. Depending upon the ancient source, Roman losses on the Apulian battlefield numbered anywhere from roughly 50,000, as Livy relates, to around 70,000, as Polybius insists. Hannibal had enacted a double envelopment of the Roman army, a maneuver widely considered to be a tactical masterpiece that is to this day studied in war colleges around the world. Dur: 25mins File: .mp3

The last pitched battles on English soil were Sedgemoor in 1685 and Preston in 1715. But after that the army still needed to train and practice. The first land on Salisbury Plain was not bought for army training until 1897 and Catterick Camp was opened after the outbreak of WW1. So from 1853 when there was a renewed invasion scare, to 1914, there were many large scale army exercises or 'manoeuvres' all across the countryside of southern England. Dur: 26mins File: .mp3

When the first actions were gazetted in The London Gazette on February 24th, 1857, the first name to appear was that of Cecil Buckley. The action for his award was performed in May 1855 while he was a lieutenant but he had been promoted Commander soon after and so was the highest ranking naval officer gazetted in that initial list. Dur: 16 mins File: .mp3

The First Victoria Cross – Charles Davis Lucas, Cecil William Buckley, or Henry James Raby. During the Crimean War (March 1854-February 1856), the movement to recognise the valour of the ordinary fighting man of the various branches of the British armed forces gained immense momentum. The Crimean War was the first conflict where newspaper reporters were with the troops (today we'd use the term 'embedded') and wrote back to their publications with the details of the heroism of the rank and file. Dur: 16mins. File: .mp3

Ask most people about the Battle of Britain, and they will think of the Spitfires and Hurricanes of RAF fighter command in combat with the German Luftwaffe over southern England in 1940. History books will often also mention Bomber Command carrying out raids on the French and Belgian ports where the Germans were assembling the fleet of barges and small craft to be used to transport German troops across the Channel in Operation Sealion. Dur: 19 mins File: .mp3

The machinery of war which Charlemagne inherited from his father. Pepin the Short, and grandfather (Charles Martel, 'the hammer') was singularly well tuned to wage war. All of Charlemagne's vassals were expected to serve militarily and all free men were expected to serve if needed. This service included bishops, abbots and abbesses; they too could be called upon to provide armed men or other provisions of war according to the wealth of their estates. Dur: 17mins. File: .mp3