WW1: Unusual Tales from The Great War.

As the German fleet headed west, the SMS Emden sailed to the Indian Ocean and created havoc amongst allied naval and commercial shipping. When beaten by HMAS Sydney, a great Australian victory, an abandoned landing party create their own heroic history to return home.

In August 1914, under Admiral von Spee, the German Navy crossed the Pacific to inflict a terrible defeat on the British at the Battle of Coronel. A few months later their fate was sealed at the Battle of the Falklands.

With a fake Swiss passport obtained in New York, Pluschow took an Italian ship across the Atlantic. Document checks in Gibraltar by the British got him caught. He planned his escape soon after arrival at a camp in Leicestershire. He then became the only German to escape from Britain and get back to Germany.... in both World Wars.

Gunther Pluschow, the German pilot escaped from Tsingtao before the Japanese took the port. Desperate to get back to Germany to continue his war he used guile and subterfuge to travel across the world to get home. The first part takes him from his wrecked plane in China to a Swiss passport in New York.

The German port territory of Tsingtao, was taken by Japan with the aid of a small British contribution in the autumn of 1914. An early allied victory that few people know about. It created a number of firsts; Germans fighting and British supporting Japan, seaborne aircraft attacks, night aircraft bombing raids. 5,000 PoWs were sent to Japan leaving a lasting music legacy.

From 1850 Japan emerged from centuries of near isolation to become a global power by 1914. Here I explore that journey. How the Russo-Japanese war of 1905 changed everything, not just for Japan, but the other Asian nations and their attitude to Western colonial powers.

At the same time, China, an ancient and dominant empire was being exploited by the west to gain trading favours and territorial rights. Their role in the war diminished by internal revolts and punitive foreign reparations and debt.

Germany was late to European Empire building. But it had only become a recognisable nation state after 1871. This first episode explores why this was. How its Empire of Pacific Islands grew through trading merchants to financial acquisition, and what it meant for Britain and her Navy.

What was the impact of the 1918 Allied Intervention on the United States and British Socialism; at the time and today?

I also consider what it means for Putin and the Russian's view of the west today.

In April 1919 Churchill called for volunteers to go to North Russia. After the years of war, why did so many demobilised men volunteer? Was it the pay, food and uniform? Altruism? Honour or possibly guilt?

He held a VC, was an exceptionally brave man always leading from the front yet was accused of failing to follow orders. In a very public row with Churchill he was Court Martialled in London. But what is the real story? Was Lt. Col. John Sherwood Kelly really a mutineer?