16 - The De Havilland Mosquito

04/01/16 • 56 min

In today’s episode we’re looking at the De Havilland Mosquito. It was fast, extremely versatile and made from wood, affectionately referred to as the “Mossie”. Over 7,000 were built, yet only two remain flying today.

I’m joined by John Lilly, Ross Sharp and Nick Horrox. They are from the People’s Mosquito, a project aiming to get another "Mossie" flying.

John is the Chairman and Managing Director, Ross is Director of Engineering and Nick is communications.

I’m joined by John Lilly, Ross Sharp and Nick Horrox. They are from the People’s Mosquito, a project aiming to get another "Mossie" flying.

John is the Chairman and Managing Director, Ross is Director of Engineering and Nick is communications.

Previous Episode

15 - The British Resistance: Auxiliary Units

By the end of June 1940 the Battle of France was over, the British Army had been plucked from the Beaches of Dunkirk, but much of its heavy equipment had been abandoned in France.

It looked like Britain would be the next target for the Nazi war machine... Having witnessed the debacle in France a betting man might have put his money on the Germans when it came to invading England.

On the 14th of May 1940 Anthony Eden had called on men between 17 and 65 in Britain who were not in military service but wished to defend their country to enrol in the Local Defence Volunteers. By July over 1.5million Britons has volunteered...

Another group was also created, a clandestine army that in the event of invasion would be called upon. Britain would be the first nation to have a pre-planed resistance network, the went under the unassuming name of Auxiliary, or Aux Units.

I’m joined by Tom Sykes from the ColesHill Auxiliary Research Team.

Next Episode

17 - Shooting Up: Drug use in WWII

It’s a little known fact that during the second world war drugs were issued to those men on active service on a monumental scale, hundreds of millions of pills were produced.

The drug of choice was amphetamines, stimulants used to help push troops beyond there not made endurance and keeping pilots alert on long missions.

In this episode of the show I’m talking to Lukasz Kamienski. Lukasz is Associate Professor at the Faculty of International and Political Studies, at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland

His new book “shooting up” investigates the long history of intoxicants and drug use within the military.