On 3rd October 1993, amid the ongoing Somali Civil War, American forces of Task Force Ranger received a tipoff on the location of a meeting of Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s Somali National Alliance in Mogadishu, Somalia. The Americans hoped to capture two of Aidid's advisors to get closer to capturing Aidid himself.

Due to an earlier attack on and rescue of US Marines in another part of Mogadishu, Aidid's forces are put on alert and they were prepared to protect the meeting with small arms and RPGs.

The shooting begins as soon as the US helicopters arrived outside the building where the meeting was taking place. Things quickly go wrong for the troops of Task Force Ranger and these American forces engaged in their largest sustained firefight they have fought in since the Vietnam War.

Thanks to:

• Dr. Jonathan Carroll, Associate Professor of Military History and Modern War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the author of Beyond Black Hawk Down: Intervention, Nation-building and Insurgency in Somalia, 1992-1995.

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On the 7th of August 2008, Georgian military forces moved into breakaway region of South Ossetia, hoping to capture its capital of Tskhinvali. Under the orders of President Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia launches an offensive to reclaim what it believes is its rightful sovereign territory.

They will have to go through South Ossetia’s small military but a larger threat looms to the north: Russia. The ensuing Russian counterattack in South Ossetia and into Georgia itself will lead to Europe’s first large-scale conflict of the 21st Century and the dawn of a new age of Russian expansionism.

Thanks to:

• Professor Stephen Jones the founding director of the Program on Georgian Studies at Harvard University and the author of ‘Georgia: A Political History Since Independence

• Professor Ronald Grigor Suny, Professor Emeritus of History and Political Science at the Universities of Michigan and Chicago and author of ‘Forging the Nation: The Making and Faking of Nationalisms’.

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New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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The Korean War saw significant changes in military aviation in a short period. In June 1950, the aerial war began with piston-driven aircraft of the Second World War such as the Yak-11 and IL-10s battling F-82 Twin Mustangs and F-80 Shooting Star jet fighters over Kimpo Air Base near Seoul. By April 1951, MiG-15s were dueling with F-86 Sabres as B-29s were bombing railways connecting North Korea with China in an effort to slow the Chinese offensive overrunning United Nations forces. In December 1951 Australian Gloster Meteors are heavily outclassed by MiG-15s forcing changes in UN aerial tactics.

The lessons learned in these battles will shape the next half-century of aerial warfare from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf and beyond.

Thanks to:

• Dr. Conrad Crane, military historian, retired United States Army officer, former professor at the United States Army War College and at West Point and the author of American Airpower Strategy in Korea, 1950-1953
• Dr. Andrew Wackerfuss, historian at the United States Air Force history office. Dr. Wackerfuss' views in this podcast represent his own analysis and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. government.

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New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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In March 1941, Operation Claymore, the first large-scale commando raid on Nazi occupied-Europe, was launched against the Lofoten Islands in Norway. The raid was successful and led to further raids, Operation Archery and Operation Anklet, in Norway in December 1941.

The raids convinced Adolf Hitler that the Allies would try a large scale landing in Norway and he sends more German troops to defend the Norwegian coastline. This reinforcement left 300,000 German troops in Norway, doing nothing, at the end of the war in May 1945.

Thanks to:

• William Hakvaag, the founder of the Lofoten War Remembrance Museum in Svolvær, Norway
• Jane Gulliford-Lowes, author, military historian, producer and co-host of the Bomber Command podcast, @nevermind the dambusters Never Mind The Dambusters and who is currently writing a book on the 1941 Lofoten raids.

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On 27 December 1979, Soviet Spetsnaz commandos backed up by operatives from the KGB’s counterterror units Zenit and Grom attacked the Tajbeg Palace, the residence of Afghan President Hafizullah Amin.

After a protracted battle with troops of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and Amin's personal bodyguards, Amin was killed. The exact details of his death are unclear but what is clear is that the attack led to increase Soviet control over Afghanistan's government and a long war saw the deaths of many Afghans and Soviets.

Thanks to:

• Sir Rodric Braithwaite former British diplomat who served as the British ambassador to Russia from 1988 to 1992 and author of 'Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979–89'
• Dr Tor Bukkvoll political scientist and a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and author of 'Spetsnaz: A History of the Soviet and Russian Special Forces.'

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The Battle of Peleliu grinds on as the Marines of the 1st Marine Division continue to fight the Japanese garrison dug into Bloody Nose Ridge. The fight also extends to Ngesebus Island, where Eugene Sledge fights and later chronicles the clearing of a Japanese bunker in the one of the better known engagements during the battle.

The US Army's 81st Wildcat Division takes over from the 1st Marine Division and brings the bloody fight on Peleliu to a close.

Thanks to:

• Henry Sledge, the author of ‘The Old Breed... the Complete Story Revealed: A Father, a Son, and How WWII in the Pacific Shaped Their Lives:’
• Joseph Wheelan, author of 'Bitter Peleliu: The Forgotten Struggle on the Pacific War's Worst Battlefield'
• Professor John McManus, co-host of the World War II Live podcast and author of ‘Island Infernos: The US Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944’.

You can listen to The War Office on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or The War Office Podcast YouTube Channel.

New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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The Battle of Peleliu enters a new deadlier phase as US Marines cross the airfield and fight into the Urmurbrogol Mountain to take the island of Peleliu.

The dash across the airfield is met with fierce Japanese fire that takes its tolls on the Marines. Once the airfield is taken, the fighting mostly shifts to taking the Urmurbrogol Mountain, or as the Marines come to call it, Bloody Nose Ridge. Major General William Rupertus orders frontal attack after attack into the Urmurbrogol with devastating results, especially for Chesty Puller's 1st Marine Regiment.

Thanks to:

• Henry Sledge, the author of ‘The Old Breed... the Complete Story Revealed: A Father, a Son, and How WWII in the Pacific Shaped Their Lives:’
• Joseph Wheelan, author of 'Bitter Peleliu: The Forgotten Struggle on the Pacific War's Worst Battlefield'
• Professor John McManus, co-host of the World War II Live podcast and author of ‘Island Infernos: The US Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944’.

You can listen to The War Office on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or The War Office Podcast YouTube Channel.

New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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In the early hours of 15 September 1944, the guns of an armada of United States Navy warships open fire on a tan, craggy-looking island in the Pacific. This bombardment is followed by waves of carrier based aircraft dropping napalm and firing rockets on enemy positions. The warships open fire again until the US Marines of the 1st Division, nicknamed the Old Breed, begin their assault on the island of Peleliu.

The landings do not go to plan as the Japanese defenders open fire on the landing craft and the Marines struggle to establish a beachhead on the first day of the brutal Battle of Peleliu, one of the US Marine Corps' most bitter of the Second World War.

Thanks to:

• Henry Sledge, the author of ‘The Old Breed... the Complete Story Revealed: A Father, a Son, and How WWII in the Pacific Shaped Their Lives:’
• Joseph Wheelan, author of 'Bitter Peleliu: The Forgotten Struggle on the Pacific War's Worst Battlefield'
• Professor John McManus, co-host of the World War II Live podcast and author of ‘Island Infernos: The US Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944’.

You can listen to The War Office on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or The War Office Podcast YouTube Channel.

New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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