Wars of The World

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Picture the scene. It is the Eastern Front in 1943 and you are a German soldier on the frontline. In the distance, you can see and hear a line of T-34 tanks trundling and clacking towards your position but more than that, riding on the back of them behind their turrets are swarms of Soviet troops all clutching a small but distinctive weapon. You’ve come to know this weapon very well and with the knowledge of what it can do, you begin firing your MG42 machine gun hoping to kill as many of the Soviet troops as you can before they get in range for once they do, you know hell will be unleashed upon you. 

Every war has its weapon that helps symbolise the struggle of nations and one of the most distinctive of the eastern front where the conflict is remembered as the Great Patriotic War was the PPSh-41 submachine gun. This crude but effective little weapon would be instrumental in turning the tide against the Axis forces attempting to bear down on Moscow and would prove the old Soviet adage that quantity has a quality all of its own. Welcome to Wars of the World.
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We are all familiar with the Nazi practices of sending Jews to concentration camps, carrying out mass executions and instilling fear into German citizens through their paramilitary organisations like the SS. But one practice that tends to go under the radar concerning Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party was their rampant abuse of medicinal substances, which in today’s world, would be considered as illicit drugs. What you need to consider, however, is that at the time, these drugs were seen as the cutting edge of science. With various drugs and medicines being developed to treat a wide variety of ailments, it’s unsurprising that as the second world war broke out, there would be efforts made to develop drugs which aimed to turn an average, green recruit into a fearsome, dedicated fighting machine.
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Looking back through history, it’s often difficult to see passed events that have so shaped our modern world. The story of Japan in World War II for example has often left those in the west with an impression that prior to 1945, Japan was always an enemy of freedom, when in fact while we associate Imperial Japan as Hitler’s ally, just twenty years earlier, Japan fought against the Kaiser and that particular tyrant’s quest for power.

In this episode, we are going to explore Japan’s entry into the First World War and examine its navy’s intriguing if often forgotten role in safeguarding the Mediterranean Sea from the Kaiser’s fleet of U-boats. Welcome to Wars of the World.
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August 1964. US President Lyndon B. Johnson has inherited an ongoing crisis in the south-east Asian nation of Vietnam from his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. The crisis involves the spreading of communism from North Vietnam into the south and potentially beyond, threatening the US position in the region against the Soviet Union in the Cold War. At first, he adopts the policy of training and equipping the South Vietnamese Army to fight the war themselves but when a US warship is attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, he and his government feel the fight now requires more direct involvement. 

The US military complex was unlike any other on the planet in 1964. Large and highly sophisticated, it was believed that it could achieve any objective put before it and yet in Vietnam, this technical marvel was forced to get down in the mud to fight its enemy. This led US leaders to look back at improving the most valuable piece of equipment at their disposal – the US soldier. Science offered the possibility of giving the US trooper greater endurance, strength, aggression against the enemy and protection from the stresses of war. This was the era of the drug-enhanced super soldier but as history would prove it would come at a cost. This is the story of how the Vietnam War would become the Pharmacological War.
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The unseen enemy is always the most feared for how does one engage an enemy if you do not know their location? Throughout history, the art of camouflage has often been the key to success in battle, greatly increasing an enemy force’s response time as they try to locate just who it is that is shooting them. Mother nature has often provided the best camouflage for armies, concealing them away from the prying eyes of an enemy force moving nearby. 

Mother nature has also provided armies with food and water and so for an invading army especially, mother nature can sometimes be seen as an enemy ally. As such, with the advent of the industrial revolution and a greater understanding of biology and chemistry, the most advanced nations have developed weapons to deny their enemies the protection of mother nature. In this episode, we are going to examine the development and use of herbicides and defoliants in the Vietnam War and specifically that of Agent Orange. Welcome to Wars of the World.
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