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A tiny speck of inhospitable black sand turns into hell on earth as tens of thousands of men slaughter one another over caves, bunkers, and mountains. Armed with explosives, flame throwers, napalm, and more naval gunfire than the Japanese had ever seen, US Marines struggle through one of the most horrific battles of the Pacific Campaign of WWII.
Part 1/3
SOURCES:
Toll, Ian W. Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944–1945
Allen, Robert E. The First Battalion of the 28th Marines on Iwo Jima: A Day-by-Day History from Personal Accounts and Official Reports, with Complete Muster Rolls.
Burrell, Robert S. "Breaking the Cycle of Iwo Jima Mythology: A Strategic Study of Operation Detachment"
Toland, John. The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945
Leckie, Robert. The Battle for Iwo Jima
Kakehashi, Kumiko. So Sad to Fall in Battle: An Account of War Based on General Tadamichi Kuribayashi's Letters from Iwo Jima
Wheeler, Richard. Iwo Jima.
Tatum, Chuck. Red Blood, Black Sand: With John Basilone on Iwo Jima
4 May 2026, 4:40 am
1 hour 19 minutes
Episode 411 - The Battle of Rocroi
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The Spanish see the crowning of a French child king as an opportunity to invade. They deploy the Army of Flanders. Once mighty, but now reduced to being commanded by idiots and one man who was so old and sick that he had to be dragged around the battlefield in a chair.
SOURCES:
Ribas, Alberto Raúl Esteban. The Battle of Rocroi 1643: Clash of Seventeenth Century Superpowers.
Sanchez, Juan. "Paul Bernard de Fontaine (1576 – 1643), señor de Fougerolles, Conde del S.R.I."
Stephane Thion. Rocroi 1643: The Victory of Youth.
Welsh, William. Spanish Disaster at Rocroi. Late Winter 2012. Vol 13, No. 4
Jeremy Black, European Warfare, 1494-1660
27 April 2026, 6:03 am
1 hour 26 minutes
Episode 410 - The Death of PQ-17
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Once upon a time there was a supply convoy called PQ-17, loaded down with tons of supplies and heading to the Soviet Union. Over the course of several days the convoy was destroyed by a combination of terrible intelligence, fear of confrontation with the German Surface Fleet, and a commander with a brain tumor.
SOURCES:
Beesly, Patrick. Convoy PQ 17: A Study of Intelligence and Decision-Making
Bunker, John. Liberty Ships: The Ugly Ducklings of WWII
Hague, Arnold. The Allied Convoy System, 1939–1945: Its Organization, Defence and Operation.
Milton, Keith. Convoy PQ 17: A Story of Unprecedented Arctic Disaster. Military Heritage. June 2001. Volume 2, no. 6
Lippman, David. 'Convoy is to Scatter.' : Arctic Convoy Disaster. WWII History. Winter 2012. Volume 11, No. 1
20 April 2026, 2:28 pm
9 minutes 59 seconds
*PREVIEW* The Mutiny of the USS Somers
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15 April 2026, 3:52 pm
1 hour 37 minutes
Episode 409 - The Anglo-Satsuma War
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Joe is joined by AJ, Brian, and Josh from the Worst of All Possible Worlds to talk about the time a British trader got murdered by Samurai for being an asshole and sparked a war between the British and the Satsuma Domain.
SOURCES:
De Lange, William. The Namamugi Incident: The Murder that Sparked a War
Totman, Conrad. The collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1862–1868
Satow, Ernest. A Diplomat in Japan
Rennie, David Field. The British Arms in North China and Japan
13 April 2026, 5:06 am
10 minutes 26 seconds
*PREVIEW* Lions Led By Robots 26: FLCL: Part 2 ft. Lucy Valentine
This is a preview. for the whole episode subscribe to the show on Patreon:
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8 April 2026, 12:25 pm
1 hour 16 minutes
Episode 408 - The Fenian Ram
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A half-blind Irish immigrant to the US freelance develops the first modern submarine with funds from the Fenian Brotherhood. This leads to a lot of arguments and a late-night submarine jacking.
SOURCES:
Davies, R. Nautilus: The Story of Man Under the Sea
Lyons, Chuck. The Holland Submarine. Military Heritage. August 2008. Vol 10, no. 1
Devoy Tells Story of First Submarine: Holland Warship Purchased for Clan-na-Gael, The Original Owners, by Harry Cunningham”, The Gaelic American, New York, 09 July 1927
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1935/august/fenian-ram
https://www.millrivertrail.com/learn/famous-stolen-submarine
https://web.archive.org/web/20121021174106/http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_19/holland2.htm
6 April 2026, 6:30 am
9 minutes 56 seconds
*PREVIEW* The Battle of Fort Eben Emael
For the full episode go here:
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1 April 2026, 8:25 am
1 hour 19 minutes
Episode 407 - The Battle of Ramree Island
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The Battle of Ramree Island has gone down in history for being known for one thing: a massive crocodile attack that apparently destroyed the Japanese as they attempted to retreat. But, what if we told you that that popular story was completely made up by one guy who wasn't even there at the time?
Sources:
Allen, Louis. Burma: The Longest War
McLynn, Frank. The Burma Campaign: Disaster into Triumph, 1942–45
Wright, B. S. (1962). Wildlife Sketches: Near and Far.
Wright, B. S. (1968). The Frogmen of Burma
Platt, Steven. Man eating by Estuarine Crocodiles: the Ramree Island massacre revisited
Lyons, Chuck. The Mystery at the Battle of Ramree Island. WWII History. Vol. 25. No. 1
Frazier, George. A Man's Worst Friend. The Boston Globe Archive. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/438950677/
https://the-avocado.org/2019/03/02/things-that-are-not-the-horrors-of-ramree-island/
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/history/article/crocodile-massacre-of-troops-debunked-as-wartime-myth-k6vxhdfsq
30 March 2026, 6:20 am
1 hour 10 minutes
Episode 406 - Project Habakkuk ft. Josh Boerman
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Josh Boerman, of the Worst of All Possible Worlds and Ill Conceived, joins Joe in the studio to talk about the time that an absolute madman attempted to build the largest aircraft carrier in the world out of ice.
sources:
Perutz, M. F. "A Description of the Iceberg Aircraft Carrier and the Bearing of the Mechanical Properties of Frozen Wood Pulp upon Some Problems of Glacier Flow". The Journal of Glaciology.
Lutz, Stephen. Project Habakkuk’s Iceberg Aircraft Carrier. WWII History. Vol 10, No. 8
Hemming, Henry. Churchill's Iceman: The True Story of Geoffrey Pyke: Genius, Fugitive, Spy.
Gold, L W. The Canadian Habbakuk Project: a Project of the National Research Council of Canada. Cambridge, UK
Cross, L D. Habbakuk: A Secret Ship Made of Ice.
23 March 2026, 6:32 am
10 minutes 8 seconds
*PREVIEW* Lions Led By Robots 25: FLCL: Part 1 ft. Lucy Valentine
FOR THE WHOLE EPISODE GO HERE:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/153325099
Tom and Joe are joined by Lucy Valentine of the podcasts Boonta Vista and Savant Garde to talk about...whatever FLCL is. Is it about growing up? Puberty? Changing oneself for the better? Trauma? We have no idea but man is it fun.