Forgotten Wars

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 the French Foreign Legion and a Hollywood technical advisor, when World War 2 came, he joined the Marines and parachuted into Nazi occupied France. Fighting alongside the Maquis of the French Resistance, he became a huge thorn in the side of Hitler’s armies, and one of the most hunted men in occupied Europe. #militaryhistory #war #historynerd #worldwar2 #america #ww2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 civil war was coming that would birth modern international terrorism, and change the history of both the Palestinians and the region forever. #War #militaryhistory #middleeast #israelpalestine #historynerd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Manuel Noriega! Noriega was very much a creation of the US and its Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union. A brutal thug, he had been supported by the CIA as a useful asset against Communism. But now he had turned on his former masters. Cocaine was flooding into the US through Panama, their civilians and soldiers were being threatened and harassed, while he did deal with America’s enemies. A reckoning was now coming for the sins of the past. #history #militaryhistory #america #Panama Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 to escape the fatal hold of Germany on his country, but he has not reckoned with Hitlers favourite commando, the most dangerous man in Europe, Otto Skorzeny. #history #historynerd #war #militaryhistory #ww2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 his skull used as cup. #History #Britishempire #Historynerd #War #Militaryhistory Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 history, setting up the domino's for the Iranian Revolution, the fall of the Shah and the rise of an aggressive theocracy. #war #history #militaryhistory #iran #worldwar2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 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 fleet, trying to escape the British during the war of 1812. So began the most bizarre US military campaign in history, a riproaring yarn involving fights with cannibals, mutinying sailors and a soon to be scandalous amount of fornication with local women. #war #militaryhistory #history #america Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 plot one last great offensive to turn the tide. The Battle of the Ebro will decided the fate of Spain and bring about the triumph of Franco. #war #worldwar2 #spain #history #historynerd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 doubters, the Communists will take the biggest gamble of the whole war. After the Battle of Teurel, nothing will ever be the same again. #war #militaryhistory #historynerd #history #worldwar2 #spain Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 heal. Meanwhile Mussolini embarks on a career as a Mediterranean pirate. #history #historynerd #spain #war #worldwar2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 May Franco's forces were on the verge of victory in the north, after destroying the town of Guernica with the help of the German Condor Legion. Meanwhile a civil war within a civil war raged behind the Republican lines, as the anarchists and Communists battled for dominance in Barcelona. #history #historynerd #war #worldwar2 #spain Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 scene is set for an epic contest that will leave the Nationalists frustrated, and guarantee that this will be a long drawn out war. #war #militaryhistory #historynerd #history #worldwar2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 the only way to victory. Meanwhile in Berlin, Rome and Moscow plots are made that will soon internationalise the conflict. #Militaryhistory #War #History #Historynerd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 between the two Spain's, as the Centre collapses and the army launches a coup. #worldwar2 #Spain #History #militaryhistory Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 master Great Britain will send one of the worst army's in history to finally put down the Mahdi, setting the stage for an epic defeat that drag Britain into multiple wars and change the history of Sudan forever. #History #Britain #MilitaryHistory #War Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 of Charles De Gaulle and the collaborationist Vichy regime of Marshall Petain. With the Battle of the Atlantic just beginning, Britain and the Free French cook up a scheme to seize the Vichy held West African port of Dakar. It was meant to be an easy, bloodless success, instead it would become an example of what not to do when planning an amphibious assault. #WorldWar2 #France #Britain, #History Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 would turn into one of the most tragic, hilarious and flawed operations ever launched by the US military. #History #USA #MilitaryHistory #War Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Legations, the foreigners desperately try to hold on as the Chinese go all out to crush them. #History, #militaryhistory #war #china Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Beijing Legations desperately fight for their very survival as the siege rages on. #History #War #China Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 in Beijing and Tientsin, the Western and Japanese communities are soon desperately fighting for their very lives. Meanwhile one of the strangest alliances in history is being formed, as all the great powers join forces to rescue their citizens. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 history. A defeat so terrible it would change the American army forever. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, France invades the Ruhr, and hyperinflation devastates the land. With Germany in chaos and the Republic gravelly weakened, Hitler and his Freikorps allies will launch the Munich Putsch. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 terror that would shake Germany to its very foundations. #Germany #WorldWar2 #Nazis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 collapsed. Despising the new German Republic, they would band together to crush Communist revolts and even invade the Baltic states, leaving death and destruction everywhere they went. All the while they waited to turn on the Republic itself. They would become Germany's Terminators.#War #Germany #WorldWar1 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 launch a commando mission that was as ambitious and daring, as it was badly implemented and dogged by bad luck. Its mission was simple, to 'Get Rommel.'#worldwar2 #history /#rommel Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Washington, spies for Spain, tries to assassinate the explorers Lewis and Clark, and plots to split up the United States with Aaron Burr. In between he finds the time to cause the worst peace time disaster in the history of the American army and botches an invasion of Canada. He's the founding father everyone wants to forget about. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Lioness of Brittany. #war # history #france #pirates Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 their doom as the Battle of Stalingrad unfolds. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Egypt, a genius British general will launch one of the greatest forgotten offensives of the whole war. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today Canada is most famous for its politeness, maple syrup and ice hockey, but during World War 1 they were the most feared and brutal soldiers on the Western Front. Join me for a tale of heroism, raids on enemy trenches and a force that became the Stormtroopers of the British Empire. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On a remote Island in the Pacific a grumpy farmer shoots a pig gouging on his potatoes. Little does he know that he will almost start a war between America and Britain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Find out how Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon, escaped to Bolivia after working for US intelligence. Here he would ally with drug lords such as Pablo Escobar to build a cocaine empire that would seize control of Bolivia and almost build a Fourth Reich in the Andes. #History #WorldWar2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After suffering devastating defeats at Laings Nek and Ingogo, the British start negotiating with the Boers. But an increasingly erratic General Colley, desperate for redemption, seizes Majuba Hill. What follows is one of the most devastating defeats in British History. #Britishempire #Boers #History #Britain Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Britain's war against the Boers continues to be a bloody fiasco after defeats at Laings Nek and Ingogo. Meanwhile the British garrisons in the Transvaal struggle to hold on with no support. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Its South Africa in 1880 and Britain is about to drift into a war with the local Boer farmers, a war so disastrous that they won't win a single battle. Join me for tale of incompetence, arrogance, diamonds and a commander who couldn't tell the difference between cows and armed Boers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we enter the murky world of mercenaries in Cold War Africa. 'Mad Mike' Hoare became a global celebrity as he led his famous 5th Commando against the Simba rebellion in the Congo, and then tried to overthrow the government of the Seychelles in possibly the worst coup in history. Yet behind the glamour there was a dark side of ex-Nazis, war crimes and rampant looting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the end of the Cold War coups, cartels and cocaine have left Haiti in chaos, leading to yet another American occupation. Join me for a tale of a Voodoo priest president waging a spirit war on Bill Clinton, an anti-American militia leader who was a CIA agent, and how not to rebuild a shattered nation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As World War One rages in Europe, America invades the small Caribbean nation of Haiti. Join me a for tale where the US Marines commit one of the largest bank robberies in history and battle Voodoo priests, all in the name of Wall Street. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Saladin sets a trap for King Guy, but will he fall for it? Join for me for a battle that will decided the fate of the Holy Land Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Its 1187 and the Crusader States face the gravest threat in their history, Saladin. Join me for a tale of bravery, treachery, nobility and stupidity as the countdown to the Battle of Hattin begins. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pancho Villa - Bandit, revolutionary hero, general, war lord. Down on his luck in the civil wars of the Mexican Revolution, he launches a devastating attack on America, the 9/11 of its day. Soon American troops will be hunting Pancho across a war torn Mexico in the last days of the old west. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As World War One rages in Europe, Mexico has plunged into revolution. Soon America will be plotting regime change and invading the Mexican port of Veracruz, all in the name of democracy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The allies thought the war was over, they were wrong. After a disastrous defeat at the Taku Forts, France and Britain will send new armies to march on Beijing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We return to the South China Seas where war is once again brewing in the name of the Poppy. Find out how a pirate ship and a slap started a whole new conflict between the Britain, France and China. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Its 1983; Big shoulder pads are cool, Return of the Jedi is in the cinema's, the Cold War is still raging and America is about to invade the small Caribbean Island of Grenada. Join me for a tale of voodoo, UFO's, revolution and Cold War intrigue. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Its 1896 and Italy is determined to build a new Roman Empire at the expense of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia. The scene is set for an epic contest that will change both nations forever. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The First Opium War enters its final stages as the British fight their way towards Nanking. Join me for a tale of attack monkeys, corruption on an epic scale and a good candidate for the worst general in Chinese history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imperial forces launch a huge surprise attack on British forces as the sides battle for Canton. Out of this inferno a Chinese legend will born and British views will harden as they decide to strike at the very heart of the Middle Kingdom Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After being driven from Canton and taking refuge on the barren island of Hong Kong, Britain declares war on China in the name of the poppy. Soon both governments are struggling to wage a conflict neither wanted, but that is now taking on a life of its own, as British forces approach the very gates of Canton itself. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.