Odin & Aesop
by Bill Redman & Tony Faust
Interested in military history? Please join Join Bill Redman and Tony Faust two retired Marines as they review military history books and provide a unique look at how the book’s contents relate to current trends in military operations. Each episode provides a detailed book discussion along with some recommendations for related reading on the topic.”
Episodes
-
Patton Reconsidered: Interview with James Ellman the book’s author
James Ellman the author of Patton Reconsidered joins the Odin and Aesop podcast to discuss his latest book. James conducted exhaustive research into the General George S Patton as wartime commander. He went back through the primary sources and has tried to correct many of the myths that surround…
more -
Bay of Pigs
Fidel Catro overthrew Fulgencio Batista and assumed power in Cuba in January 1959. Relations between Cuba and the United States soured. Castro's government nationalized American-owned property, implemented land reforms, and established diplomatic and economic ties with the Soviet Union. By 1960,...
-
Midway
By the middle of 1942 Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto sought a reckoning with the United States Navy. The Japanese wanted to neutralize the United States Navy and consolidate their early gains. Yamamoto’s plan was to draw the United States Navy’s aircraft carriers into a decisive battle by...
-
Ghost Wars
This Pulitzer Prize winning book traces the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) involvement in Afghanistan. Starting in 1979, it explains how the CIA funneled arms to the Afghan mujahideen through Pakistan’s intelligence service in conjunction with money from Saudi Arabia. Next, it provides the...
-
Afgantsy
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. It was supposed to be a swift operation to install a loyal communist government. The Soviets were initially successful in gaining control of the cities and major infrastructure but became bogged down and flummoxed fighting against mujahideen...
-
Suez 1956
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nassar announced Egypt was taking control of the British and French owned Suez Canal Company in July 1956. He took this action to fund the Aswan Dam he wanted built. In response to Nassar seizing the canal, Britain, France, and Israel secretly planned a joint...
-
Valleys of Death
Bill Richardson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and enlisted in the Army in 1945. He deployed to Korea when war broke out in 1950 and fought northward up the length of the Korean peninsula as part of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division. On November 5th, 1950, Richardson was captured by the...
-
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Among other things, Thomas Edward Lawrence was an author, archeologist, and British Army officer. During the First World War, he served as a liaison between the British and the Arab tribes fighting Ottoman rule in the western Arabian desert. Lawrence spent approximately two years and covered...
-
How Drones Fight
Within a few short years, drones went from being a niche capability reserved for technically advanced militaries to something ubiquitous on the modern battlefield. According to the Atlantic Council, Ukraine was producing 200,000 first person view drones per month by early 2025. The Ukrainians…
more -
Japanese Destroyer Captain
Tameichi Hara descended from Japan’s samurai class. He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1921 and began a career at sea. When war started with the United States in 1941, Hara was serving as the captain of the destroyer Amatsukaze. He went on to command a destroyer division and...
-
The Siege
On 30 April 1980 six Iranian Arabs seized the Iranian Embassy in the center of London and took 26 people hostage. They demanded the release of prisoners in Iran and safe passage out of the United Kingdom. British authorities managed to get five hostages released in return for minor concessions…
more -
A Shau
The A Shau Valley is in the mountainous northwest corner of what used to be South Vietnam. It is right across the border from Laos. Because of its location, the A Shau formed a natural hub for the North Vietnamese Army to move their units and supplies into South Vietnam and threaten the more...
-
Crete 1941
The island of Crete sits in the Eastern Mediterranean. In 1941 the Germans decided to seize Crete, “As a base for air warfare against Great Britain in the Eastern Mediterranean”. The elite paratroopers of Germany’s 7th Air Division were assigned to lead the attack. They would be reinforced by…
more -
Targeted Beirut
The 24th Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU) landed in Beirut Lebanon on May 29th, 1983, as part of a peacekeeping force during Lebanon’s Civil War. Once ashore, the MAU’s battalion landing team, BLT 1/8, took up positions around Beirut International Airport. Things escalated and the Marines began...
-
Target Tokyo
Japan devastated the United States’ fleet with a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7th, 1941. The Japanese followed up on their Pearl Harbor attack by seizing Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Philippines. The Japanese seemed almost unstoppable while the United...
-
The Rhodesian War
Rhodesia, now called the Republic of Zimbabwe, used to be a self-governing British colony. In November 1965, the Cabinet of Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from Britain in an effort to preserve white minority rule. The Rhodesian Bush War, also known as the Rhodesian Civil War…
more -
Brown Water Black Berets
South Vietnam has a long coastline and lots of waterways, particularly in the Mekong River Delta at the southern tip of the country. In 1968 U.S. Naval Forces Vietnam had roughly 38,000 sailors serving in country. Their main tasks were to prevent supplies from reaching the Viet Cong, stopping…
more -
The Battle Of The Tanks
The Germans launched “Operation Citadel” on July 5th, 1943. They wanted to encircle and destroy Soviet forces in a salient centered on the city of Kursk. The Soviets knew they were coming and had spent months preparing. What followed was the greatest land battle in history. About two million men...
-
On The Border With Crook
John G. Bourke won the Medal of Honor during the American Civil War. He stayed in the army and graduated from West Point in 1869. Between 1869 and 1883, Bourke served on the frontier with much of that time spent as an aide to General George Crook. Bourke saw action in the Apache Wars and Great...
-
Victory At High Tide
The Korean peninsula was split into two countries after the Second World War. The Soviet backed North and the U.S. backed South. North Korea tried to unify the two by invading South Korea in June 1950. Initially North Korea had great success. It pushed South Korea's small military aside and…
more -
The Burma Road
Japan captured and occupied China’s sea ports at the onset of World War Two. That lead to hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers building a road through Burma to get supplies to China. That road got blocked when Burma fell to the Japanese. Next, American engineers began building another road...
-
The Boer War
In 1899, the British went to war with the Boer Republics. This was when the British Empire was close to its blazing zenith and unquestionably the ranking world power. Any war against the somewhat backward Boers on a remote border of the empire in southern Africa would surely be quick and…
more -
Blind Man’s Bluff
The United States and Soviet Union stood on opposite sides of the Cold War. Both tried to project strength and both possessed immense arsenals of nuclear weapons. A fundamental problem for both superpowers was figuring out what the other side was doing. What were they capable of? What were they...
-
Conduct Under Fire
The Japanese attacked the Philippines almost simultaneous with their December 7th, 1941 attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor. Following Japanese air attacks, the Japanese 14th Army landed in the Philippines on December 8th. By January 1942, the Japanese had U.S. and Filipino forces bottled up...
-
The Winter Fortress
NAZI scientists relied on heavy water to produce the right uranium isotope for an atomic weapon. They produced most of their heavy water at a hydroelectric in occupied Norway called Vemork. In February 1943, a small group of Norwegian commandos slipped into Vemork, blew it up, and made their...
-
Not A Good Day To Die
In October 2001, the United States began aerial bombing of Afghanistan in response to the terrorist group Al Queda’s attacks of September 11th. Special Forces followed up by teaming with the Taliban’s opponents – the Northern Alliance – and by late November / early December 2001 the Taliban had...
-
Goodbye Darkness
William Manchester served in the Marine Corps during the Second World War. He was wounded during the Battle of Okinawa. After the war, Manchester established himself as a journalist in Baltimore, an adjunct professor at Wesleyan University, and an author. In 1978, he returned to the Pacific and...
-
First Force Recon Company
Bill Peters was commissioned in the Marine Corps via Officer Candidate School. After completing the Basic School at Quantico, Virginia, he was assigned to Vietnam as a platoon commander in First Force Reconnaissance Company in 1969. Peters conducted twenty-three long-range patrols in...
-
A Savage War of Peace
The Algerian War of Independence lasted from 1954 to 1962. It carried heavy costs for both sides. Estimates vary but upwards of a million Muslim Algerians died; roughly a million Pied Noir (settlers of European descent) were driven into exile; and France was driven to the brink of civil war....
-
Soldat
Siegfried Knappe served in the German Army from 1936 until 1949. He was a member of the German General Staff. Knappe was wounded multiple times and saw action in France as well as the Eastern and Italian fronts. He ended the war in and out of Hitler’s bunker during the Battle of Berlin before...
-
With Their Bare Hands
The United States entered World War One on April 6th, 1917. Going to war in Europe meant the United States had to greatly expand its Army. It had enlist, train, organize, equip, and deploy hundreds of thousands of young men. One of the units that was part of this expansion was the 79th Infantry...
-
Band of Brothers
Company E, 506th Regiment was part of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. It was formed in 1942 and comprised of young volunteers that were generally new to the army. Company E received its baptism by fire in June 1944 when it jumped into NAZI occupied France. It went on to jump into Holland...
-
Operation Barras
Sierra Leone’s civil war lasted from 1991 until 2002. It was marked by exceptional levels of cruelty and suffering. During this civil war the United Nations, neighboring West African states, and the United Kingdom launched military interventions into Sierra Leone. The United Kingdom’s…
more -
Hell In A Very Small Place
On November 20th, 1953 thousands of French paratroopers dropped into a place called Dien Bien Phu. Dien Bien Phu is a small valley in the northern part of Vietnam close to Laos. The French plan was to establish a base at Dien Bien Phu, keep it resupplied by air, and then use it as a place to…
more -
A Bridge Too Far
The First Allied Airborne Army launched an attack into the German occupied Netherlands on September 17, 1944. Eventually over the 41,000 troops went in by parachute and glider. The idea was for this huge airborne force to seize nine bridges stretched across 64 miles of the Netherlands. Seizing...
-
Stalingrad
On June 1942, Germany’s Army Group South started an offensive called Case Blue or Plan Blue. The idea was to sprint out off eastern Ukraine, across the Russian steppe, and into the Caucasus to capture the oil fields there. As part of this big effort, the German Sixth Army attempted to capture the...
-
Operation Thunderbolt Raid on Entebbe
On June 27, 1976, an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was hijacked by a group of Arab and German terrorists. They demanded the release of 53 terrorists and diverted the plane to Entebbe, Uganda. On July 4th, Israeli commandos disguised as Ugandan soldiers flew over 2,000 miles, assaulted...
-
Gallipoli
By the end of 1914, World War One has stagnated into an industrial age nightmare. The British and French sat opposite the Germans in trenches running through France from the coast to the Alps. Things weren’t much different in the East where the early Russian advance had been defeated. The British...
-
SOG
Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was established in January 1964 to conduct unconventional warfare operations. These included reconnoitering and disrupting North Vietnamese activities in Laos and Cambodia. Given the sensitive nature of MACV-SOG’s...
-
Bloodlands
Adolf Hitler ruled Germany from 1933 until he committed suicide in 1945. Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. Between 1933 and 1945 these two brutal dictators oversaw the killing of 14 million noncombatants in the region comprised of the Baltic states, Belarus,...
-
Brothers in Arms
The Sherwood Rangers were a British tank regiment during the Second World War. They served in North Africa where they fought in the battles of Alam El Hafa and Second El Alamein and helped drive Germany’s Afrika Corps out of Tunisia. Next, the Sherwood Rangers landed in Normandy on D-Day. They…
more -
Operation Corporate
Argentina seized the Falkland Islands on April 2nd, 1982. The British government deployed a naval task force on April 5th to take them back. As the force steadily converged from 8,000 miles away, the rest of the world wondered if the two countries would really fight over the remote and sparsely...
-
Ambush Valley
The Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, was created between North Vietnam and South Vietnam in 1954. The DMZ was supposed to be a temporary buffer zone that would keep previously hostile forces away from each other. When the planned unification of North Vietnam and South Vietnam stalled out, the DMZ…
more -
My Reminiscences of East Africa
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck commanded Imperial German military forces throughout the East Africa campaign during World War One. His mostly African army of about 14,000 attacked, checked, and evaded much larger Allied forces for over four years. When the war ended, Lettow-Vorbeck surrendered and...
-
The Conquering Tide
By the middle of 1942 the United States had recovered from the shock of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and the early defeats of Japan expanding into the Pacific. Now it started parallel offensives north and south of the equator. By the middle of 1944 the United States had retaken the Marianas...
-
Bravo Two Zero
Eight soldiers from the Britain’s Special Air Service flew deep into northwestern Iraq on the night of January 22nd, 1991. Their callsign was Bravo Two Zero. Their mission was to destroy the SCUD missiles Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was using against Israel. A young goat herder stumbled across...
-
We Were Soldiers Once and Young
In November 1965, roughly 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry flew by helicopter into Vietnam’s Ia Drang Valley. They were attacked by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers almost immediately. Three days later, one of their sister battalions was unexpectedly attacked a short distance away. The…
more -
Storm Of Steel
Ernst Junger was an infantry officer in the German army throughout World War One. He served in the trenches for close to four years, was wounded fourteen times, and was the youngest recipient of Germany’s highest award, Pour le Mérite. Somehow, he lived. Storm of Steel is his memoir. It was first...
-
No True Glory
After the United States invaded Iraq and removed Saddam Hussein from power in spring 2003, the city of Fallujah became a hotbed of unrest. In March 2004, four American contractors were brutally murdered and mutilated there. President Bush ordered an attack to subdue the city. This attack was…
more -
The German Raider Atlantis
The German navy refitted the merchant ship Atlantis with weapons hidden in phony deckhouses and side structures. Using its disguise as a freighter, the Atlantis stalked the ocean for over 600 days in 1940 and 1941. She captured or sank 22 ships until cornered and sunk by the British. Bernhard…
more
About this show
Interested in military history? Please join Join Bill Redman and Tony Faust two retired Marines as they review military history books and provide a unique look at how the book’s contents relate to current trends in military operations. Each episode provides a detailed book discussion along with some recommendations for related reading on the topic.”
Hosted by
Bill Redman & Tony Faust