The War Office

In March 1944, the Japanese 15th Army invades British controlled India during Operation U-Go. Japanese commander General Renya Mutaguchi was initially against such an invasion but comes to see it as not only a way in which Japan could win the Second World War but a chance for him to win personal glory on the battlefield.For the Japanese to control the area near the Indian-Burmese border, they need to capture crucial Allied supply hubs in northeast India to sustain their advance as they have limited supplies. The Allied forces must hold important hubs such as Imphal and Kohima to stop the Japanese advance into India. If the Japanese take these supply hubs, it could have massive strategic consequences for not only the Second World War but for British control of India itself.The fighting will be fierce as British, Indian, and Gurkha units face off against the Japanese at places that will become famous such as the Tennis Court, the Bungalow, and Scraggy Hill.Thanks to:Robert Lyman, retired British Army officer, historian, and author of Japan’s Last Bid for Victory: The Invasion of India, 1944; and Kohima 1944: The battle that saved India. He is the co-host, along with Jack Bowsher, of The Forgotten War Podcast about the Burma Campaign of World War 2.Jack Bowsher, historian and author of Thunder Run: Meiktila 1945 and Forgotten Armour: Tank Warfare in Burma. He is the other co-host of The Forgotten War Podcast.Listen to The Forgotten War Podcast: Burma Campaign WW2 here: https://open.spotify.com/show/638ufiXTIRidEheXE1ELfu?si=f0f0a2b888fd43b8

In May of 1941, the Bismarck, a brand-new German battleship, leaves port to begin Operation Rheinübung. Along with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, Bismarck is sent to prey on Allied shipping in the north Atlantic in hopes of crippling Britain in the Second World War by cutting off this vital supply route. The British command is rightly alarmed by the risk that this battleship presents to their war effort and launches a massive effort to stop it.Once out to sea, Bismarck clashes with the mighty Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy and British Empire. The massive German battleship also faced off against Swordfish aircraft, a seemingly outdated fabric-covered biplane torpedo bomber, launched from aircraft carriers amid the harsh conditions of the north Atlantic. One of the greatest pursuits in naval history ends when the Bismarck is sunk by a combined effort of British destroyers, aircraft, cruisers, and battleships.Thanks to:Alex Pocklington, creator of the naval history YouTube channel, Drachinifel. He also contributed to a book on HMS Hood by Key Publishing and is the author of HMS Belfast: Naval History Special Editions for the U.S. Navy Institute Press.

In September 1980, border clashes between Iran and Iraq escalated into war. Tensions had been simmering between the two countries for decades. Disputes over control of the Shatt al-Arab river, and thus access to the Persian Gulf for Iraq, had long been a source of contention.Political upheaval in both countries created the conditions for war. Years of back and forth negotiations between the governments of the Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the military controlled government of Iraq had done little to calm tensions. The rise of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the 1979 Iranian Revolution led to a more hostile relations especially since foreign influence in the region had decreased. Saddam Hussein had hoped that the upheavals of the Iranian revolution had weakened his neighbour and that a war with limited objectives would be over quickly. Despite early Iraqi success, the Iran–Iraq War devolved into one of the longest and most destructive conflicts of the late 20th century.Thanks to:Professor Annie Tracy Samuel, associate professor of history at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the author of The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War: Faith, Firepower, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards, for appearing on this episode.

The Battle of Hamburger Hill is one of the most controversial battles in American military history. The hill itself is known as Dong Ap Bia, mountain of the crouching beast, to the Katuic people and as Hill 937 to the Americans during the fighting. It became known as Hamburger Hill after the fighting had ended. The paratroopers of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division launched attack after attack at positions held by the troops of the the 7th and 8th Battalions of the 29th NVA Regiment along the various ridges and the summit of the mountain. It took multiple attacks from multiple regiments of the 101st to finally capture the mountain.The cost of the battle and the reaction to it was used as justification for the shift in American policy towards Vietnamization, where the primary responsibility for the fighting will be handed over to the South Vietnamese as American forces withdrew from Vietnam. Thanks to: Dr. James H. Willbanks Professor Emeritus of Military History at the United States Army Command and General Staff College, retired United States Army officer, veteran of the Vietnam War, and the author Hamburger Hill 1969 Operation Apache Snow in the A Shau Valley, The Tet Offensive: A Concise History, and A Raid Too Far: Operation Lam Son 719 and Vietnamization in Laos.

On the 7th of August 2008, Georgian military forces moved into breakaway region of South Ossetia, hoping to capture its capital of Tskhinvali. Under the orders of President Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia launches an offensive to reclaim what it believes is its rightful sovereign territory. They will have to go through South Ossetia’s small military but a larger threat looms to the north: Russia. The ensuing Russian counterattack in South Ossetia and into Georgia itself will lead to Europe’s first large-scale conflict of the 21st Century and the dawn of a new age of Russian expansionism. Thanks to:Professor Stephen Jones the founding director of the Program on Georgian Studies at Harvard University and the author of ‘Georgia: A Political History Since Independence Professor Ronald Grigor Suny, Professor Emeritus of History and Political Science at the Universities of Michigan and Chicago and author of ‘Forging the Nation: The Making and Faking of Nationalisms’. 

The Korean War saw significant changes in military aviation in a short period. In June 1950, the aerial war began with piston-driven aircraft of the Second World War such as the Yak-11 and IL-10s battling F-82 Twin Mustangs and F-80 Shooting Star jet fighters over Kimpo Air Base near Seoul. By April 1951, MiG-15s were dueling with F-86 Sabres as B-29s were bombing railways connecting North Korea with China in an effort to slow the Chinese offensive overrunning United Nations forces. In December 1951 Australian Gloster Meteors are heavily outclassed by MiG-15s forcing changes in UN aerial tactics.The lessons learned in these battles will shape the next half-century of aerial warfare from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf and beyond.Thanks to:Dr. Conrad Crane, military historian, retired United States Army officer, former professor at the United States Army War College and at West Point and the author of American Airpower Strategy in Korea, 1950-1953Dr. Andrew Wackerfuss, historian at the United States Air Force history office. Dr. Wackerfuss' views in this podcast represent his own analysis and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. government.

In March 1941, Operation Claymore, the first large-scale commando raid on Nazi occupied-Europe, was launched against the Lofoten Islands in Norway. The raid was successful and led to further raids, Operation Archery and Operation Anklet, in Norway in December 1941. The raids convinced Adolf Hitler that the Allies would try a large scale landing in Norway and he sends more German troops to defend the Norwegian coastline. This reinforcement left 300,000 German troops in Norway, doing nothing, at the end of the war in May 1945.Thanks to: William Hakvaag, the founder of the Lofoten War Remembrance Museum in Svolvær, Norway Jane Gulliford-Lowes, author, military historian, producer and co-host of the Bomber Command podcast, @nevermind the dambusters Never Mind The Dambusters and who is currently writing a book on the 1941 Lofoten raids. 

On 27 December 1979, Soviet Spetsnaz commandos backed up by operatives from the KGB’s counterterror units Zenit and Grom attacked the Tajbeg Palace, the residence of Afghan President Hafizullah Amin. After a protracted battle with troops of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and Amin's personal bodyguards, Amin was killed. The exact details of his death are unclear but what is clear is that the attack led to increase Soviet control over Afghanistan's government and a long war saw the deaths of many Afghans and Soviets. Thanks to: Sir Rodric Braithwaite former British diplomat who served as the British ambassador to Russia from 1988 to 1992 and author of 'Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979–89'Dr Tor Bukkvoll political scientist and a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and author of 'Spetsnaz: A History of the Soviet and Russian Special Forces.'