PODCAST · history
The Danger Zone (DZ)
by Paul Fordyce
Paul conducts the guided tour at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum, Cairns every Saturday at 10:30 am. Paul’s tour’s like what Carlsberg says about their beer, probably the best tour of an armour and artillery museum in the world. The Trip Advisor reviews of his Tour speak for themselves. This Podcast is like the Tour – only infinitely better. It looks at military history, in incredible detail, the likes of which you’ve never heard before. Never rushed – the topic is exhaustively covered in as many parts as are needed to do the topic full justice.
Episodes
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DZ Season 064 Part 63. The American Way of War – What the Americans Had to Say – Officers – Less Than Mediocre?
Martin Creveld, in his study, Fighting Power, seeking to evaluate the performance of the German Army by comparing it with the US Army, gave his report on the conclusions he reached about the American Army. What were his conclusions about the United States Army, and why? He wrote: If it is indeed...
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DZ Season 064 Part 62. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Americans Had to Say – Officers – An American War Fought by the Tired, the Poor, the Huddled Masses.
To deploy all resources as well as possible, to put every man and screw in their proper place, a highly centralized organization and vast amounts of detailed information were needed. Information being superabundant, mechanical means to process it were needed. Business machines being available…
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DZ Season 064 Part 61. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Americans Had to Say – Officers – And Gentlemen.
According to Martin Creveld, in his book Fighting Power, comparing the fighting performance of Americans in the European Theatre of Operations with the Germans he wrote: The time has now come to examine a constituent of fighting power that, perhaps more than any other, decides the outcome of…
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DZ Season 064 Part 66. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Americans Had to Say – Beyond the Limits of Individual Human Endurance – Infantry the Endangered Species.
Private Donald Schoo of the 80th Infantry Division recalled seeing one of his buddies, named Steehhourst, take a hit from an 88 that blew off his right hand. ‘He was crying and running around yelling, Tm going home! Thank you God, I'm going home!' Steehhourst was lucky, at least according to the...
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DZ Season 064 Part 59. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Americans Had to Say – Which Four Men Would Fight a Lion.
Four brave men who do not know each other, wrote Ardant du Picq in his Etudes de Combat, will hesitate to attack a lion; four less brave men, but knowing and trusting each other, will do so resolutely. The point of the tale is this: of all the organizational problems an army has to solve, that of...
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DZ Season 064 Part 58. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Brits Had to Say – Not Enough Soldiers to Die.
In his book, The War Between the Generals, David Irving wrote about an important meeting, that few people know about, at the time that the Battle of the Bulge was at its height in December 1944/ January 1945: In Washington, after lunch on December 27, Stimson walked back to the War Department and...
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DZ Season 064 Part 57. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Brits Had to Say – Was Like a Hollywood Movie.
British observers of the US Army in action in North Africa, Italy and North-West Europe sometimes had the impression that they were watching a Hollywood production of `A Triumph of the Will'. They could never be certain what had been achieved and was real and what was a stage set, a Potemkin...
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DZ Season 064 Part 56. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Brits Had to Say – An American General Like a Social Media Influencer.
Patton, typically, once exclaimed that intelligence and possible enemy intentions never worried him: it was what he was about to do to the enemy that mattered. wrote Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell in Coalitions, Politicians and Generals. Did this sum up the way the Americans conducted the…
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DZ Season 064 Part 55. End the War in 44 – The American Way of War – What the Brits Had to Say.
The Americans did not give a great deal of thought to morale, in the sense of fighting spirit. Generals in all armies as a matter of faith and national pride believe that their soldiers are naturally endowed with courage. The younger American soldier was buoyed up by his national self-confidence,...
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DZ Season 064 Part 54. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 16 – Black and White.
Four brave men who do not know each other, wrote Ardant du Picq in his Etudes de Combat, will hesitate to attack a lion; four less brave men, but knowing and trusting each other, will do so resolutely. The point of the tale is this: of all the organizational problems an army has to solve, that of...
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DZ Season 064 Part 53. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 15 – Running on Empty – His Finest Moment.
Bradley's distaste for Lee, which he expressed frequently, was never explained. Bradley left behind two autobiographies, one co-written with Clay Blair. In neither does he mention Lee by name. wrote Hank H Cox in his biography of General JCH Lee, The General Who Wore Six Stars. Without naming…
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DZ Season 064 Part 52. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 14 – Running on Empty.
On 24 December Bradley gave a press briefing in which he announced that he had foreseen the possibility of the enemy's attack in the Ardennes six weeks before the battle, and that for this reason had sited no American dumps of ammunition or petrol east of the Meuse! wrote Nigel Hamilton in his…
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DZ Season 064 Part 51. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 13 – Told You So – Miracle on the Meuse.
In World War I, one of the great miracles happened on 24th August 1914, just weeks after the war began, to save the British Army from disaster – the Angels of Mons. Judging from Dunkirk, the British Army frequently needed a lot of divine intervention to save it. The Historic UK website gives this...
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DZ Season 064 Part 50. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 12 – Trial By Combat.
In November, Major General Harold R. Bull, Eisenhower's G-3, had traveled to Washington at the head of a special mission to present the European Theater's emergency appeal for action to ease the persistent ammunition shortage. … Though Washington had remained consistently skeptical of…
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DZ Season 064 Part 49. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 11 – Told You So - Major-General Henry Aurand.
Montgomery would have been staggered had he listened in at Lutes' final interview with Bedell Smith, who told him: `No one can say supply has failed. At the front it is OK.' Wrote Graham Dominick and Shelford Bidwell in their book Coalitions, Politicians and Generals. The Americans were…
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DZ Season 064 Part 48. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 10 – Kill that Supply Story – There’s a Presidential Election to be Won.
Bradley, Patton and Hodges had rattled the cages of Somervell’s command in Washington about what they said were failures by General Lee’s ComZ to issue their armies with adequate supplies of ammunition. This was now blowing up in the press in the United States, and was getting dangerously close…
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DZ Season 064 Part 47. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 9 – Shoot the Messenger.
On 9 March 1942 the US Army underwent its greatest organisational change. It implemented the wishes of General Marshall, the Army’s Chief of Staff. It was to give order to and clean up and simplify the command structure of the American Army at the very top. Only 3 men would report directly to...
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DZ Season 064 Part 46. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 8 – Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition – What Ammunition?
… if it became known that American logistics and American strategy had been instrumental in bringing the autumn campaign to a standstill and, what was more, prolonging the war, a political row would ensue just at the time of the presidential elections. … Back in Washington, when [Marshall] had…
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DZ Season 064 Part 45. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 7 – Cancelling General JCH Lee.
The Normandy invasion was without doubt the most ambitious amphibious operation in military history, involving thousands of ships ferrying hundreds of thousands of men across a treacherous water passage against a hostile shore. There were serious concerns that it would be a disaster, and the...
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DZ Season 064 Part 44. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 6 – At Least Mussolini Got the Trains to Run on Time.
After Aurand [Colonel Henry S Aurand – a consultant to the US Army world logistic supply supremo, General Brehon Somervell] had delivered his report and taken command of the Normandy Base Section in December, he recorded that he despatched a train of PX (Post Exchange) goods for the front. A...
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DZ Season 064 Part 43. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 5 – Paris - And the Red Bull Express.
Carlo d’Este, in his biography of Eisenhower wrote: The only air plan that existed for Overlord in January 1944 vaguely proposed minimal measures for air support during a two-to-three-week period before D-Day in order to knock out coastal defenses and soften the way for the invasion force. When...
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DZ Season 064 Part 42. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 4 – Lee Always Had Paris.
In 1944/1945 General JCH Lee, was the Supremo of supply in the European Theatre of Operations under both Eisenhower, as the theatre commander, and under the great overlord of American logistics, General Brehon Somervell, who sat directly, alongside the Army commander and the Army Air Force...
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DZ Season 064 Part 41. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 5 – Lee and His Train.
Logistics is the ball and chain of armoured warfare said General Heinz Guderian – and that was definitely a topic that he was qualified to speak on. Tag words: Logistics; General Heinz Guderian; Somervell; John Kennedy Ohl; Supplying the Troops; General Brehon Somervell; ETO; European Theater of...
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DZ Season 064 Part 40. 0393 DZ WHOLE End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 4 – Lee and The Battle of the Atlantic - Part 40
The formidable Nazi war machine was powerless to stop the build up in Britain of Allied troops shipped from the USA and Canada. But in early 1943 Doenitz was winning the Battle of the Atlantic against that other, essential, component that those troops needed, being transported in very vulnerable...
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DZ Season 064 Part 39. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 3 – For the Overlord Supply Build Up Somervell Needed His Best Man.
To manage the buildup and subsequent supply of the American troops being shipped to Europe for the planned invasion of Hitler’s Festung Europa, Fortress Europe, Hank H Cox, in his biography of General JCH Lee, The General Who Wore Six Stars, wrote: The Allied governments had determined that…
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DZ Season 064 Part 38. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 2 – The Biggest Jerk in the European Theater of Operations
For the most part the popular historians have been even harder on [General JCH Lee than the men who served with him]. Stephen E. Ambrose wrote in Citizen Soldiers that Lee was "the biggest jerk" in the European theater of operations. Hank H Cox, in his biography of Lee, The General Who Wore Six...
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DZ Season 064 Part 37. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 1 – Eisenhower Only Had 5 Stars – Who Had 6?
On December 16, 1944, there was a wedding at Eisenhower's headquarters in Paris for a young staff officer and a Red Cross nurse. …. The day before the wedding President Roosevelt had nominated Eisenhower to the five-star rank of General of the Army, along with Marshall, Douglas MacArthur in the...
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DZ Season 064 Part 36. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Patton 7 – Patton Hated Being on the Defensive at All.
The reality is that Patton accepted the inevitability of death in combat but strove mightily to save the lives of his men. so wrote Carlo d’Este in his biography of Patton – A Genius for War. Patton’s preferred nickname for himself, “Blood and Guts”, would seem to bely this assessment. Carlo…
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DZ Season 064 Part 35. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Patton 6 – Was Patton a Cowboy.
Grudging admiration of Patton was even expressed by Adolf Hitler, who referred to him as "that crazy cowboy general." wrote Carlo d’Este in his biography of Patton, A Genius for War. I don’t think it was grudging admiration from Adolf Hitler. I think it was a genuine compliment. Let me explain…
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DZ Season 064 Part 34. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Patton 5 – Why Patton Was Right to Slap Those Two Soldiers.
One of the fellows under me was Orde Wingate!’ …. Rank-and-file British soldiers trained kibbutzniks in military tactics. The British militarised the Yishuv and the 'Jewish warrior — as a cultural and social model and as a fact of life — emerged during the Arab Rebellion.’ …. Wingate slapped and...
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DZ Season 064 Part 33. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Patton 4 – Once a Powerful Friend Transformed into a Powerful Enemy.
The Times 6th December 1943 edition covered a piece written by The Quaker muckraker Drew Pearson, apparently tipped off by an OSS source, broadcast a garbled but uncensored version of the incidents during his weekly radio show as Rick Atkinson recounted in his book The Day of Battle. The Times...
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DZ Season 064 Part 32. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Patton 3 – Managing a Crisis.
Cowards. Cowardice. Fear. An army has to have soldiers who are afraid. If it didn’t it would be a disastrous army. Just enough fear is what is wanted, but if there’s too much fear then that spells disaster. To understand what I’m talking about you really have to get your head around this. Tag...
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DZ Season 064 Part 31. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Patton 2 – The Slap That Killed Millions.
In the space of a week, 3 and 10 August 1943, two incidents occurred that could have resulted in the sacking of Patton. He he’d slapped and otherwise abused two different men in Evacuation Hospitals calling them both cowards and apparently threatening to shoot one of them. The story had reached…
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DZ Season 064 Part 30. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Patton 1 – Salute to a Rebel.
Patton. I stand on shaky ground speaking about this American legend if I’m going to say anything negative about him. Luckily for me all of the men who served in his Third Army are now dead so I’m unlikely to get punched in the face for what I am going to say over the next few parts of this series...
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DZ Season 064 Part 29. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 14 – Saving General Bradley.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Learn from the mistakes of others … You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself!” It was almost a pity, which would have been of world altering consequences, that General Omar Bradley didn’t live by these words of wisdom. He chose instead to make the...
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DZ Season 064 Part 28. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 13 – The American Armies Are Exhausted.
Hitler’s seemingly insane gamble in the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge, wasn’t perhaps as crazy and desperate as it seemed or has been represented. Consider this. In Washington, after lunch on 27 December, 1944 Henry Stimson, the Secretary for War, walked over to the War Department. He went…
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DZ Season 064 Part 27. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 12 – Don't come in George, if you're not bringing good news.
Just a few weeks before the Germans launched their massive and unexpected offensive in the Ardennes on 16 December 1944, Major General Pete Quesada, the commander of IX Tactical Air Command, reported a conference he had had with General Hodges, commander of the First US Army: "He went on and on...
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DZ Season 064 Part 26. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 11 – Would You Follow a General Who Hid From the Enemy.
20th December 1944 proved a momentous day for Eisenhower, Bradley and Mongomery. Bradley’s ego was shattered by his best and most trusted friend. Montgomery was about to have greatness thrust upon him. The lives of the top Allied generals were reported to be in danger from Otto Skorzeny’s...
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DZ Season 064 Part 25. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 10 – The Truth Was That Bradley Himself Had Nothing Under Control.
… on December 20, during Eisenhower's morning staff conference, Ike telephoned Bradley and emphatically stated, "Where is the line you can hold the best and the cheapest? I don't care how far back it is." Bradley was in no position to supply Eisenhower with answers. What had convinced Smith that…
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DZ Season 064 Part 24. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 9 – Germany was achieving near-miracles in fighter production.
On 19 October 1944, Spaatz flew on to Luxembourg to visit Bradley. Bradley told him he planned to start his big offensive toward the Rhine on November 10. Spaatz wanted it sooner than that. Hitler's jet fighters were appearing in growing force, and they threatened to drive Spaatz's daylight…
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DZ Season 064 Part 23. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 8 – where in hell has this son of a bitch gotten all his strength.
The Germans had launched their massive Ardennes offensive on the morning of 16th December. Bradley had brushed it off as a spoiling attack. … by Sunday afternoon, December 17, Bradley had conceded misjudgment in his previous evening's modest estimate of the enemy effort. "This is Rundstedt's...
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DZ Season 064 Part 22. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 7 – Winter Unpreparedness – History Repeats Itself - Part 22
In his book Retreat from Moscow, David Stahel relates: If the German troops retained a general measure of faith in their commanders, this is not to say it came without qualifications. The most common complaint was the absence of winter clothing, which by early December 1941 was a criticism that…
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DZ Season 064 Part 21. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 6 – He’s Really a Moron – Who Said That and About Whom
“He was really a moron”. Which of Eisenhower’s generals said that, and who was he referring to. Stick around and I’ll tell you. Tag words: Eisenhower; Rick Atkinson; The Guns at Last Light; Bradley; Carlo d’Este; US 12th Army Group; Lt. Gen. Courtney Hicks Hodges; Bedell Smith; Forrest Poague;...
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DZ Season 064 Part 20. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 5 – Bradley Couldn’t See the Woods for the Trees.
If you’ve ever read the Grimms Brothers fairy stories of Hansel and Gretel or Snow White, then you’ll already have a really good feel for the dark, sinister Hürtgen Forest that Omar Bradley’s First Army entered in September 1944. Journalist, William Walton, of Time/Life magazines told its story…
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DZ Season 065 Part 19. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 4 – Bradley vs The James Bond Villain.
In this part your going to meet the man who defied Bradley and Patton in Brittany. A man as described by David Irving as literally having a mouthful of steel. Tag words: Bradley; Patton; Brittany; Brest; David Irving; Troy Middleton; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Carlo d’Este; A…
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DZ Season 064 Part 18. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 3 – I don't care if we get Brest tomorrow or ten days later.
It was Omar Bradley who, during the campaign by Patton’s Third Army in Brittany who said to Troy Middleton, the commander of the VIII Corp who was fretting over Patton’s orders to take Brest as quickly as possible: Some people are more concerned with the headlines and the news they'll make than…
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DZ Season 064 Part 17. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 2 – Bradley Attacks in Exactly the Wrong Direction.
From 27 July 1944, as the Americans began to achieve a surprisingly spectacular breakout, beyond everyone’s wildest dreams as Operation Cobra gained a good head of steam, Monty perceived that the situation that had been planned for before the D-Day invasion had now totally changed. He told...
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DZ Season 064 Part 16. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Bradley 1 – Marshall’s Choice for D-Day American Land Forces Commander.
Nigel Hamilton, in his book The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery, wrote about Montgomery’s concerns of the hopeless preparations being undertaken for the cross channel invasion. His concern was that no overall ground force commander had been appointed. Nigel Hamilton wrote what Monty’s…
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DZ Season 064 Part 15. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Monty 9 – How a Nazi Fake BBC Broadcast Almost Shattered the American British Alliance.
Was there fake media in January 1945? Was it Montgomery that said what sent the Americans into a blind rage, or was it Nazi disinformation (and so long ago)? What Monty really said, did it cause the Americans to meltdown because it was false, or because it was true? Is it harder to get along when...
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DZ Season 064 Part 14. End the War in 44 – Only Human – Monty 8 – Monty’s Letter Too Far.
A good commander surrounds himself with the most talented people to make it easier to achieve his mission. The goals that Eisenhower and Monty wanted to achieve were very different and are reflected in the men they chose to surround themselves with. Monty’s Chief of Staff was "Freddie" de…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Paul conducts the guided tour at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum, Cairns every Saturday at 10:30 am. Paul’s tour’s like what Carlsberg says about their beer, probably the best tour of an armour and artillery museum in the world. The Trip Advisor reviews of his Tour speak for themselves. This Podcast is like the Tour – only infinitely better. It looks at military history, in incredible detail, the likes of which you’ve never heard before. Never rushed – the topic is exhaustively covered in as many parts as are needed to do the topic full justice.
HOSTED BY
Paul Fordyce
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Danger Zone (DZ) have?
The Danger Zone (DZ) currently has 346 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Danger Zone (DZ) about?
Paul conducts the guided tour at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum, Cairns every Saturday at 10:30 am. Paul’s tour’s like what Carlsberg says about their beer, probably the best tour of an armour and artillery museum in the world. The Trip Advisor reviews of his Tour speak for themselves....
How often does The Danger Zone (DZ) release new episodes?
The Danger Zone (DZ) publishes regularly with 346 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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You can listen to The Danger Zone (DZ) on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Danger Zone (DZ)?
The Danger Zone (DZ) is created and hosted by Paul Fordyce.
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