HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2025-10-06T08:59:00.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: The Stalingrad of Africa: the story of the battle for Tunis
items: D-Day: the spearhead of the invasion
items: British Redcoats: everything you wanted to know
items: The Charge of the Light Brigade: who blundered in the Valley of Death?
items: The forgotten battles of the Zulu War
items: “It was astonishing bravery – and cold-blooded bravery, too”: Saul David on the Special Boat Service
items: Alternate history: what if Britain and France went to war in 1898?
items: The Special Boat Service: WW2’s silent heroes
items: Victoria the warrior queen
items: Did conkers help win the First World War?

The Stalingrad of Africa: the story of the battle for Tunis
type: item
date: 2025-10-03T08:00:29.000Z
creator: Saul David
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Historical events
subject: POWs
description: In 1943, Allied and Axis troops contested one of the most decisive campaigns of the Second World War. Saul David tells the story of the battle for Tunis – as hard-fought as the struggle for the Soviet city
encoded: Early on 8 November 1942, Adolf Hitler’s special train was en route from Berlin to Munich when it was stopped at a small station in the Thuringian Forest to receive an urgent message from the Foreign Office. A day earlier, Hitler’s HQ staff had received a “very disturbing signal” from German agents in Gibraltar, informing them that a large Allied troop convoy had passed heading in an easterly direction. Most on the train assumed the convoy was bound for Libya, a colony of Germany’s ally Italy since 1912. But its true destination was revealed by the Foreign Office communiqué: “A US expeditionary corps is disembarking in Algiers and Oran,” ports in French-controlled Algeria. Hitler was aghast. Aware that French North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, controlled by the collaborationist Vichy regime) was an area of the “greatest political and strategic importance”, he asked his advisors what resources were available to meet the threat. The answer was: none. Farther down the line, Joachim von Ribbentrop boarded the train. So concerned was the German foreign minister about the news coming from the Mediterranean that he urged Hitler to put out peace feelers to Stalin, hoping to free up German men and materials to be rushed to north Africa. The Führer refused: “a moment of weakness is not the proper time to negotiate with an enemy.” Instead, Hitler ordered General Alfred Jodl, chief of operations staff of his high command, to “organise the Wehrmacht for the defence of Tunis”, the capital of French Tunisia, which was a short flight or sea journey from Sicily. By securing Tunisia, Hitler hoped to stymie Allied plans to trap Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel’s Italo-German Panzer Army in Libya between General Bernard Montgomery’s Eighth Army, advancing from Egypt in the east, and the forces just landed in Algeria and Morocco to the west. Such was indeed the Allies’ plan – and the subsequent ‘Race for Tunis’ would set the scene for one of the decisive campaigns of the war. …

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D-Day: the spearhead of the invasion
type: item
date: 2025-06-03T16:03:18.000Z
creator: Saul David
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: Hours before the assault on Normandy’s beaches got under way, British airborne troops launched an attack on targets in the French countryside. At stake, writes Saul David, was the success of the entire D-Day landings.
encoded: The 28 men of D Company, 2nd Ox and Bucks Light Infantry sat in silence. As the huge plywood and steel glider – 67 feet in length and with a wingspan of 88 feet – began its final descent to the target, all that could be heard was air swishing down the fuselage and the co-pilot, John Ainsworth, counting down the seconds on his stopwatch, lit by a small hand-held lamp. Ainsworth then instructed pilot Jim Wallwork to turn 90 degrees to starboard. The second of these turns brought the glider on to a northerly heading. Directly ahead, clearly visible by moonlight, was the familiar outline of the Caen Canal Bridge that the pilots knew so well from the detailed model. Listen to this article, voiced for HistoryExtra Long Reads in partnership with the RNIB The five sappers and 23 officers and men seated behind the pilots were lost in their thoughts, each man contemplating what was to come and those he had left behind. Major John Howard had visions of his wife, Joy, and two children sleeping peacefully in their beds in Oxford. He could feel the small lump in his tunic’s breast pocket where he had placed one of his son’s first pairs of red leather shoes. Out of the open door he could see the river Orne and knew they were on course. With the glider losing height rapidly, and rocking from side to side, Ainsworth yelled: “Hold tight!” It was the signal for the men to adopt the brace position by linking arms and lifting their legs off the floor. Gripping their weapons tightly, the men tensed their bodies for impact. “I gritted my teeth,” recalled Howard, “and tried to pray but all I could think was ‘Please God, please God’ as we came in to land with a terrific crash, a splintering noise and sparks flying past outside the doorway.” Skidding and bouncing twice on the uneven ground, the glider lost its wheels and landed on its metal skids at 80 miles per hour. Howard thought they were under fire, but in fact the flashes were just caused by the skids striking the stony ground. With a …

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British Redcoats: everything you wanted to know
type: item
date: 2024-07-15T10:00:31.000Z
creator: Saul David
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Saul David answers listener questions on the evolution of the British Army from the Civil War to the Victorian era
encoded: Was the Duke of Marlborough Britain's greatest ever military commander? How did Britain face down the challenge of an expansionist France? And did soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars feel that they were living in the shadow of the Royal Navy? Military historian Saul David talks to Spencer Mizen about the evolution of the British Army between the 17th and 19th centuries. View Green Video on the source website

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The Charge of the Light Brigade: who blundered in the Valley of Death?
type: item
date: 2023-02-23T10:00:27.000Z
creator: Saul David
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: The British Empire
description: The Charge of the Light Brigade is one of the most notorious fiascos in British military history. But who should shoulder the blame for this suicidal assault on Russian guns? Saul David considers the evidence...
encoded: “By Jove,” shouted an eagle-eyed member of Lord Raglan’s staff. “They’re going to take away the guns!” It was 10.40am on 25 October 1854. Three hours earlier Lord Raglan, the British commander in the Crimea, had watched helplessly from his vantage point on the Sapouné Ridge as a huge force of Russian infantry overwhelmed three of the Turkish-held redoubts (earthwork forts) on the Causeway Heights, a low east-west range of hillocks that divided the plain below him into a north and south valley. The loss of these redoubts had left the British supply port of Balaklava, situated below the south valley, at the mercy of the Russians. But much to Raglan’s relief, two subsequent attempts by Russian cavalry to take the port had been gloriously repulsed by a ‘Thin Red Line’ of Highlanders and an uphill charge by the Heavy Brigade of British horse. At 10am, keen to follow up these successes, Raglan had ordered his cavalry “to advance and take any opportunity to recover the [Causeway] Heights”, and to use the support of infantry who were en route. But Lord Lucan, the cavalry commander, chose not to move until the infantry arrived. Read more | Your ultimate guide to the Crimean War As Raglan fumed at Lucan’s inactivity, a staff officer alerted him to activity in the redoubts. Peering through his naval telescope – specially modified so he could use it with his one remaining hand (he had lost his right arm at the battle of Waterloo) – Raglan could see the Russians bringing forward horses and lasso tackle to remove the British 12-pounder naval guns that had been sited in the earthworks. He assumed the Russians were about to withdraw and take the captured guns with them. His mentor the Duke of Wellington had never lost a gun, and Raglan was anxious to retain the same proud record. Turning to his senior staff officer, he dictated the following momentous order: “Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front – follow the enemy and try to prevent the enemy from carrying…

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The forgotten battles of the Zulu War
type: item
date: 2021-10-26T05:48:01.000Z
creator: Saul David
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
description: There were eight battles in the Zulu War. So why do we only remember Rorke's Drift and Isandlwana? Saul David argues that the British commander's 'spin' – and Hollywood – are to blame
encoded: At ten in the morning of Sunday, 28 March 1879, Colonel Redvers Buller was just about to order his small force off the summit of Hlobane Mountain in northern Zululand when the scouts drew his attention to activity in the valley below: marching in five great columns towards the base of the mountain were 20,000 heavily-armed Zulu warriors. “We were 30 miles from [Kambula] camp,” recalled Buller. “Our horses had been under saddle since 3am. I saw that we had not a chance of getting back the way we had come.” Three hours earlier Buller’s small force of 350 horsemen and 300 African auxiliaries had easily captured Hlobane, the mountain stronghold of the abaQulusi tribe of Zulus, and begun rounding up cattle. But the abaQulusi had since regrouped and the sudden arrival of the main Zulu army meant that Buller’s only hope of escape was down the Devil’s Pass, an almost perpendicular descent of rocks and boulders on the far side of the mountain. He gave the necessary orders, but when his hard-pressed men arrived at the head of the pass, closely followed by the abaQulusi, they discovered that the covering force on the plateau below had departed. Buller later wrote: “We had to get down under a constant and ever increasing fire, but we should have done tolerably and safely I believe had not my stupid rearguard ceased firing, mistaking Zulus for friends. In a moment the Zulus were among us in the rocks”. Captain Cecil D’Arcy of the Frontier Light Horse was halfway down the terrifying descent when a rock “the size of a small piano” struck his horse on the rear leg, “cutting it right off”. As he struggled to release its saddle he heard a scream. “I looked up,” he recorded, “and saw the Zulus right in among the white men, stabbing horses and men. I made a jump and got down somehow or other”. Others were not so lucky, and the casualties would surely have been greater than the 17 men killed if Buller had not organised a stand at the base of the cliff. Even so, many lost their horses an…

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“It was astonishing bravery – and cold-blooded bravery, too”: Saul David on the Special Boat Service
type: item
date: 2021-10-19T11:54:14.000Z
creator: Saul David
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: Saul David speaks to Rob Attar about his new authorised history of the Special Boat Service in the Second World War, explaining how the secretive maritime operations unit played a pivotal role in Allied victory
encoded: Rob Attar: Could we begin by discussing the genesis of this book? The story of how it came about is a little unusual. Saul David: It’s very unusual. A couple of years ago I was contacted by my agent, who asked me if I would be interested in writing the authorised history of the Special Boat Service (SBS). And of course my initial reaction was: who wouldn’t? But the reason my agent asked me is that they also happened to represent Paddy Ashdown, who was a former member of the SBS and had been commissioned to write the book. Very sadly, Paddy died rather suddenly towards the end of 2018, before the book was finished. So the question was: what happens next? Does someone finish Paddy’s text or write a new version? My agent approached me with both possibilities, and sent me the manuscript. It was very good but it was not what I would have written. Paddy came from the perspective of a practitioner – he was very close to the unit. His writing was very emotive, whereas I’ve always tried to keep an objective distance, as any historian does. Having read his early chapters, I decided it would make more sense to start from scratch. So we agreed that I would write the book in my own way, but would give due acknowledgement to Paddy in terms of the genesis. This is an authorised history of a secretive organisation. How much access did you get? Were any aspects off limits? They weren’t, actually. If there was a problem at all it was that the archives could have been fuller. One thing about a secret organisation is that it doesn’t encourage its members to keep first-hand accounts – certainly not at the time. Writing diaries and even letters during operations is considered a bit of a no-no. But, as far as the unit was concerned, and in terms of access to its archives down in Poole, I was given carte blanche to see everything. The other important thing is that I decided what to put in the book. There was no “You can’t put that in” from the SBS’s perspective. Even so, I did get good acc…

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Alternate history: what if Britain and France went to war in 1898?
type: item
date: 2021-09-29T06:55:10.000Z
creator: Saul David
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
description: A territorial dispute in 1898 may have been a small-scale confrontation over an unimportant patch of land in Africa, but it could have had "huge consequences" for the course of the 20th century. Jonny Wilkes talks to historian, novelist and broadcaster Saul David about the Fashoda Incident, and how it could have led to a very different looking World War I
encoded: Each month BBC History Revealed asks a historical expert for their take on what might have happened if a key moment in the past had turned out differently. This time, Jonny Wilkes talks to Saul David about what might have happened had the Fashoda Incident of 1898 escalated into war… On 4 November 1898, the old adversaries of Britain and France stepped back from an escalating situation that threatened to add another bloody chapter to their long history of warfare. The so-called Fashoda Incident may have seemed like a small-scale territorial dispute over an unimportant patch of land in modern-day South Sudan, but it caused fear and warmongering back in Europe. If fighting did break out, it would have had “huge consequences for international relations and the course of the 20th century,” says historian and author Saul David. Africa in the late-19th century was being carved up, claimed and colonised by European powers in what is often referred to as the ‘Scramble for Africa’. Britain and France had footholds across the continent, and wished to connect their colonial acquisitions. Britain was ambitiously planning a railroad from South Africa to Egypt; France was looking to establish a line of control from east to west. And right in the middle, where their respective ambitions intersected, was a small town called Fashoda. The French were determined to get there first. In 1896, an expedition set out from Gabon made up of around 150 men – including 11 French officers and a large number of Senegalese troops – under the command of Captain Jean-Baptiste Marchand. Following a gruelling trek across Central Africa, in which they kept getting lost and had to drag their boat across hundreds of miles of land, they reached Fashoda on 10 July 1898. Although comprising little more than an abandoned fort in ruins, the strategic town was now in the hands of Marchand and his men. Fashoda would strengthen France’s trade route from West Africa to its outpost in Djibouti, and act as a base f…

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The Special Boat Service: WW2’s silent heroes
type: item
date: 2021-09-04T12:02:05.000Z
creator: Saul David
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Second World War
subject: Period
description: Saul David discusses his new history of the Special Boat Service – a daring maritime unit that played a crucial role in Allied victory in WW2
encoded: Historian Saul David discusses SBS – Silent Warriors, his new authorised history of the Special Boat Service in the Second World War. He explains how this daring maritime unit played a crucial role in Allied victory and highlights some of its most spectacular operations. Saul David is the author of SBS - Silent Warriors: The Authorised Wartime History (HarperCollins, 2021) Buy now on Bookshop.org Buy now on Amazon Buy now on Waterstones

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Victoria the warrior queen
type: item
date: 2021-01-18T06:06:00.000Z
creator: Saul David
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
description: Queen Victoria's reign witnessed a massive expansion of the British empire. Saul David explains how such huge growth was accompanied by a constant series of wars of conquest
encoded: Kensington Palace, London, six in the morning. Princess Victoria is woken by her mother and told that two men are there to see her. She rises quickly, throws a dressing-gown over her nightdress and, with her fair hair still loose about her shoulders, receives the two visitors in her sitting-room. She recognises them as Lord Conyngham, the portly lord chamberlain, and Dr William Howley, the septuagenarian archbishop of Canterbury. They have come from Windsor Castle and their presence can only mean one thing: her uncle, King William IV, is dead. The king “had expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning”, she records later in her journal, “and consequently I am Queen”. Victoria was just 18 when she became Queen on 20 June 1837. At the time, Britain was the world’s leading industrial power with apparently limitless supplies of coal and iron and a virtual monopoly of steam power. London was not only the largest city in the world, but its principal financial exchange. Victoria’s navy was recognised as the ultimate arbiter of world affairs, while her army basked in the reputation it had won at Waterloo. Yet the British Empire was, if anything, in decline. The American Revolution had helped to sour the notion of empire and powerful commercial interests were arguing for free trade and against the protectionism of the 18th-century imperial system. In 1837 the empire consisted of a jumbled collection of territories acquired in bits and pieces over the generations, administered partly by government and partly by chartered companies. It is hard to believe, then, that during the period known as the Dual Monarchy, from Victoria’s accession to the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1861, the British Empire almost quintupled in size thanks to territorial acquisitions in Asia, Africa, the South Sea and the Far East. By the end of the 19th century it had become the greatest empire the world has ever known, covering a quarter of the earth’s surface and a quarter of its population. Wha…

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Did conkers help win the First World War?
type: item
date: 2020-11-23T13:36:43.000Z
creator: Saul David
subject: 20th Century
subject: First World War
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: When Britain's war effort was threatened by a shortage of shells, the government exhorted schoolchildren across the country to go on the hunt for horse chestnuts. Historian and broadcaster Saul David explains why...
encoded: In the autumn of 1917, a notice appeared on the walls of classrooms and scout huts across Britain: “Groups of scholars and boy scouts are being organised to collect conkers… This collection is invaluable war work and is very urgent. Please encourage it.” It was never explained to schoolchildren exactly how conkers could help the war effort. Nor did they care. They were more interested in the War Office’s bounty of 7s 6d (37.5p) for every hundred weight they handed in, and for weeks they scoured woods and lanes for the shiny brown objects they usually destroyed in the playground game. The children’s efforts were so successful that they collected more conkers than there were trains to transport them, and piles were seen rotting at railway stations. But a total of 3,000 tonnes of conkers did reach their destination – the Synthetic Products Company at King’s Lynn – where they were used to make acetone, a vital component of the smokeless propellant for shells and bullets known as cordite. Cordite had been used by the British military since 1889, when it first replaced black gunpowder. It consisted chiefly of the high-explosives nitroglycerine and nitrocellulose (gun-cotton), with acetone playing the key role of solvent in the manufacturing process. Prior to the First World War, the acetone used in British munitions was made almost entirely from the dry distillation (pyrolysis) of wood. As it required almost a hundred tonnes of birch, beech or maple to produce a tonne of acetone, the great timber-growing countries were the biggest producers of this vital commodity, and Britain was forced to import the vast majority of its acetone from the United States. An attempt to produce our own acetone was made in 1913 when a modern factory was built in the Forest of Dean. But by the outbreak of war in 1914, the stocks for military use were just 3,200 tonnes, and it was soon obvious that an alternative domestic supply would be needed. This became even more pressing during the spring …

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