Podcasts · History · Education
Forgotten Wars
James Barton
82 episodes
Forgotten Wars covers the conflicts overlooked in popular history. Journey to World War One in East Africa with an undefeated German General, trek across Siberia during the Russian Revolution with a lost Czech legion, watch as Britain bombards Chinese forts in service to the Opium trade, and find out if a war actually started because of a football result.
More about the show
Expect bravery, incompetence, fascinating figures and incredible drama.
By James Barton, proud History Nerd
Contact - bartonjames84@proton.me
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes page 1 of 2
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Mussolini's Folly - Disaster in the Alps
Its 1940, Paris fallen to Hitler's army and France faces its darkest hour. Believing his neighbour is already a defeated nation, Benito Mussolini launches his army across the Alps in search of easy conquests. Instead…
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Holy Terror - The Siege of Mecca 1979
1979 was a pivotal year in the Muslim world. Iran plunged into revolution, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and most shocking of all, armed fundamentalists seized control of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s…
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The War over Bird Poop! The Battle for the Chincha Islands
Today we cover one of history’s strangest wars. Find out how islands covered in bird poop and a drunken fight in a tavern, led to Spain fighting a war against most of South America. #peru #chile #history…
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The Kingmakers Last Battle - The Battle of Barnet
England has been torn apart by the epic rivalry between the Houses of York and Lancaster. The humble rose—the emblem of both houses—has become an omen of death and destruction across a ravaged land. On the battlefield…
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Japanese Blitzkrieg - Conquest of the Dutch East Indies
The Empire of the Rising Sun stands on the edge of seizing the main target of its blitzkrieg, the Dutch East Indies. As the Dutch, Americans, Australians and British unite under a single command to resist the Japanese…
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Japanese Blitzkrieg - Singapore Surrenders
Fortress Singapore stands alone as the British and Commonwealth forces are humiliatingly driven out of Malaya. As General Percival continues to make blunder after blunder, General Yamashita is under immense pressure…
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Japanese Blitzkrieg - Collapse in Malaya
It’s the British Empires turn to endure the Japanese Blitzkrieg. Malaya and Singapore are meant to be the strongholds of the empire in the east, but behind the façade alies a highly fragile reality. As Japanese troops…
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Japanese Blitzkrieg - The Fall of the Philippines
December 1941. The world looks on in horror as American ships burn at Pearl Harbour. But Pearl Harbour is only one part of a vast surprise offensive. Its goal: nothing less than the conquest of Southeast Asia.…
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The Plot that Started the Boer War - The Jameson Raid
There’s Gold in Them There Hills! It’s 1896, and the Boer Republic of the Transvaal is awash with gold after the largest gold discovery in human history. Yet even as they celebrate their newfound riches, in the…
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The Miracle that Saved Europe - The Polish Soviet War
It's 1920, and out of the wreckage of the First World War a new, fragile Polish state has emerged. But to the east a storm is coming. The Red Army of Vladmir Lenin is racing across the steppes, determined to spread the…
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Bootleggers VS The Klan - Prohibition Wars
1920s America. A land of jazz, Prohibition, gangsters and prosperity. But in southern Illinois, a war is raging. The local Ku Klux Klan is mobilising to wipe out bootlegging once and for all. There’s just one…
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Rome’s Most Corrupt War - The Jugurthine War
The enemies of Ancient Rome tried many different tactics to defeat them, from the ambushes of Arminius, to the legendary Parthian cavalry archers, who turned the sky black with their arrows. However Jugurtha, King of…
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America's Deadliest Riot - The New York Drafts Riot
What was the worst riot in American History? Watts in 1965? Detroit in 1967? The LA riots in 1992 after the Rodney King beating? These were nothing compared to the mackdaddy of them all, the New York City Draft riots.…
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African Cold War Chaos - The Ogaden War
The Cold War led to many crazy decisions and bizarre alliances, but the Ogaden War is up there with the best of them. As Ethiopia plunged into bloody red revolution, neighbouring Somalia spotted an opportunity to…
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The Bombing of Darwin - Australia's Pearl Harbour
It's 1942 and as the Japanese juggernaut overruns South-east Asia, the eyes of the Empire of the Rising Sun fall on the Australian Port of Darwin. What followed was a devastating air raid, a tale of individual heroism…
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The French & Indian War Part 5 - The Final Showdown
1759 is the year when everything changed, the year of victories for the British and the colonists, the year that the back of French power in North America was finally broken. Wolfe is about to lead an army against the…
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The French & Indian War Part 4 - Louisbourg to Ticonderoga
Britain is at its lowest point in the war, its army’s once again failing to make progress, its dreams for North America seemingly gone up in smoke along with the smouldering ruins of Fort William Henry. But change is…
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The French & Indian War Part 3 - Rogers Rangers
In this episode we take a break from the main narrative to focus on one of the most remarkable units in American history; Rogers Rangers. Like so many innovations, they were born out of dire necessity. Britain was…
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The French & Indian War Part 2 - The French Strike Back!
In the shadow of Braddock's defeat, Britain's other offensives in 1755 have distinctly mixed results. As the war spreads to Europe and then around the world, Britain and her colonists must now fight for their very…
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The French & Indian War Part 1 - Braddock's Expedition
It is 1754 and for over 60 years the rival superpowers of Britain & France have waged wars, both hot & cold, across the North American continent. Into this ancient feud steps a young Virginian colonial militiaman named…
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Peter Ortiz - American Hero of the French Resistance
Peter Ortiz is almost unknown outside the Marine Corps. Even within the Corps he doesn’t have the recognition he deserves, although his exploits in World War II were almost beyond belief. Already a decorated veteran of…
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Black September - Jordan's Civil War
In 1970 the small Arab nation of Jordan was on the verge of becoming a failed state, its monarchy threatened by the growing strength of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. As the two sides maneuvered for power, a…
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The Invasion of Panama - Nabbing Noreiga
A South American country is being ruled by a despised dictator, dabbling in Voodoo and allied to Cocaine Cartels, until America launches a daring operation to remove him. Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro? No, it’s Panama’s…
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Operation Panzerfaust - Nazi Germany's most daring Commando Mission
Its 1944 and Hungarian leader Admiral Horthy is regretting making a Devil's bargain with Hitler's Germany to regain lost lands at the cost of siding with the Axis. As the Red Army advances into Eastern Europe he tries…
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The First Ashanti War - Don't go Losing your Head Now
It's 1824 and a British army is entering the jungles of the Gold Coast in west Africa to fight the mysterious Ashanti. Find out how slavery, gross incompetence and macaroni lead to a British General being beheaded and…
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Operation Countenance - The Invasion of Iran in WW2
During World War 2 Iran was invaded by Britain and the Soviet Union, an act that is often covered in just a sentence or two in most histories of the war. Yet it would arguably be the turning point of Iran’s modern…
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The Nuku Hiva Campaign - Adventures on Cannibal Island
On the morning of Oct. 25, 1813, the inhabitants of the Pacific island of Nuku Hiva awoke to a startling sight, a fleet of strange ships sailed across the cobalt blue sea and landed at their island. It was an American…
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The Spanish Civil War Part 7 - The Triumph of Franco
Dark times have fallen on the Republic, after the disastrous Teruel offensive the Republican zone is now split in two. The triumph of the Nationalists seems inevitable, but as the Munich Crisis begins the Republicans…
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The Spanish Civil War Part 6 - And Things Fall Apart
The Republic is still recovering from the meat grinders of Brunete and Belchite, while it faces the grim prospect of Franco overrunning what was left of its northern enclave. Desperate for a success to silence the…
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The Spanish Civil War Part 5 - The Failed Offensives
With the Communist's now dominant in Republican Spain after the May Days, they decide to launch two huge offensives. Brunete and Belchite will become disasters for the Republic, inflicting gaping wounds that will never…
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The Spanish Civil War Part 4 - From Guadalajara to Guernica
What a difference 3 months can make. In March 1937 the Republic won its greatest victory of the civil war at Guadalajara, for the first time since the coup it seemed as though they could defeat the Nationalists. Yet by…
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The Spanish Civil War Part 3- The Battle for Madrid
As Franco's forces advance on Madrid everyone believes it will fall easily. General Mola even boasts he will soon drink coffee on the Grand Via. But it will be a much harder fight than anyone suspects, setting the…
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The Spanish Civil War Part 2- Into the Abyss
In July 1936 the army rose up and attempted to seize control of Spain, yet the nation was so polarized that while it was successful in some areas, in others it completely failed. With Spain split in half, Civil War is…
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The Spanish Civil War Part 1- The Centre Cannot Hold
The Spanish Civil War gave the world a tragic vision of the upcoming devastation of World War 2, in many ways it was its prelude. In the first episode of our series we trace the origins of the conflict, the battle…
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The Hicks Expedition - Don't Mess with a Mahdi
It's 1883 and troubling news is coming out of the Sudan. Tales of a revolt in the name of God, a mysterious figure called the Mahdi who is winning victory after victory against Egyptian forces. Soon Cairo and its new…
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Operation Menace - De Gaulle's Debacle at Dakar
For our first episode of 2026 we cover one of World War 2's least known failures. Its 1940 and Britain stands alone against the might of Nazi Germany, while a battle for the soul of France rages between the Free French…
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The Mayaguez Incident - The Last Battle of the Vietnam War
It's 1975 and the United States is still reeling from the Watergate scandal and the fall of Saigon, when Communist Cambodians seize an American ship on the high seas. What sounds like the start of an 80's action flick…
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The Boxer Rebellion Part 3 - The Fall of Beijing
In the final part of our series on the Boxer Rebellion, the allied army fights its way to the gates of Beijing, all the while dealing with the terrible heat and squabbling among themselves. Meanwhile in the besieged…
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The Boxer Rebellion Part 2 - The Empires Strike Back
The Boxer Rebellion is in full swing as Northern China descends into chaos. While one of the strangest army's ever assembled, combining troops from all the Great Powers, assaults Tientsin, the foreigners trapped in the…
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The Boxer Rebellion Part 1 - Kill the Barbarians!
Get ready for a tale of one the strangest wars in history. China explodes into the blood chaos of the Boxer Rebellion, as rebels who believe their martial arts make them invincible to bullets go on the rampage. Trapped…
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St Clair's Defeat - Washington's Worst Disaster
Today the US army is the most formidable in the world, but in the young nations early years it was a very different story. Amateurish, badly led and underfunded, it stumbled into the worst military defeat in American…
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Freikorps Part 3 - Terminators of the Third Reich
In the last episode Adolf Hitler takes central stage in the story of the Freikorps. On the backfoot after the assassination of Walter Rathenau, the Freikorps stage a comeback as Poland threatens Germany's boarders,…
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Freikorps Part 2 - Terminate the Republic
After rampaging through Germany and invading the Baltic States, the Freikorps still thirsted for combat and blood. Turning on the very Republic that had been paying and supplying them, they would bring a reign of…
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Freikorps Part 1 - Germany's Terminators
What does a society do when it has trained killing machines that it can't turn off? That is the situation Germany faced after World War 1, as its elite Storm Troopers returned home to a country where the old order had…
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Operation Flipper - The Failed Attempt to 'Get Rommel'
In 1941 World War 2 isn't going well for Britain. In North Africa a new German General called Erwin Rommel is running rings around them, turning the desert into this own playground. Desperate to turn the tide they…
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James Wilkinson - America's Worst Traitor
Who is the worst traitor in American history? The man with the best claim to that dubious title is James Wilkinson! Join me for an epic tale of espionage, corruption, wine and woman, as Wilkinson undermines George…
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Jeanne de Clisson - The Bloody Lioness
After her husband is falsely accused of treason and executed by the King of France, Jeanne de Clisson embarks on an epic rampage of revenge. Taking to the high seas, she became a pirate, earning the nickname the Bloody…
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Mussolini's War - Invading the USSR
After disasters in North Africa and Greece, the last thing Fascist Italy needs is another front to fight on. Yet Mussolini will launch his soldiers into the Russian snows, where despite early successes, they will meet…
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Mussolini's War - A Greek Tragedy
Not content with a disaster in North Africa, Mussolini decides to invade Greece to show Hitler whose boss in the Balkans. What he claimed would be a walkover turns into his most humiliating mistake. Hosted on Acast.…
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Mussolini's War - Operation Compass
In a 3 part series we delve into why Italy's campaigns in World War 2 turned into humiliating defeats, starting with the beginning of the duel in the desert. As Mussolini tries to build a new Roman Empire by invading…
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