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Goalhanger Podcasts

Wars That Shaped The World, the stories of conflicts that defined history.

From the air and amphibious assaults of the D-Day landings, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait bringing about the first Gulf War, to the split of Korea… these stories of war are brought to life via epic storytelling based on real life accounts.

Wars That Shaped The World

Wars That Shaped The World, the stories of conflicts that defined history.

﻿From the air and amphibious assaults of the D-Day landings, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait bringing about the first Gulf War, to the split of Korea… these stories of war are brought to life via epic storytelling based on real life accounts.
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Wars That Shaped The World - Coming Wednesday 8th November

Tuesday, 6 June 1944 was barely an hour old when Major John Howard and the men of D Company, Ox and Bucks Light Infantry, hurtled out of the night sky above Normandy. Behind them the largest invasion force ever to set sail was approaching the French coast. After four long and brutal years of Nazi occupation, the liberation of mainland Europe was underway – D-Day had begun.

Narrated by Paul Waggott
Written by Robin Scott Elliot
Production and Sound Design by Holy Smokes Audio
Executive Producers Tony Pastor + Neil Fearn
A Goalhanger Podcasts Production

Cast;
Mike Lyons
Timothy Knutsen
Micky Vee
Thomas Mitchells
Lukas Weschler
Alex Figueiredo
Carolyn Saint Pe
Alexander Pinault
Mustafa Bouanani
Morrison James
Karim Kronfli
Darcey Ferguson
Alex Magliaro
Joel Emery
Adam Jarrell
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1 - Eisenhower’s masterplan and the Airborne assault

”I was sitting in on the greatest show ever staged!” As the brave men and women of the Resistance hurried through the pre-dawn darkness, risking lives to sabotage the Germans, off the Normandy coast the first landing craft were ferrying Captain Moose Schroeder and his men towards Utah Beach – the Americans were coming. And just in time for their airborne compatriots, fighting desperately to survive inland.

Narrated by Paul Waggott
Written by Robin Scott Elliot
Production and Sound Design by Holy Smokes Audio
Executive Producers Tony Pastor + Neil Fearn
A Goalhanger Podcasts Production

Cast;
Mike Lyons
Timothy Knutsen
Micky Vee
Thomas Mitchells
Lukas Weschler
Alex Figueiredo
Carolyn Saint Pe
Alexander Pinault
Mustafa Bouanani
Morrison James
Karim Kronfli
Darcey Ferguson
Alex Magliaro
Joel Emery
Adam Jarrell
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2 - The first landings and the Airborne hang on

“As our boat touched sand and the ramp went down, I became a visitor to hell.” Death was coming to Omaha beach, only few on the Allied side expected it to be directed their way with such devastating consequences. The Americans presumed they’d brush aside meagre German defences; instead they found themselves plunged into hell and history.

Narrated by Paul Waggott
Written by Robin Scott Elliot
Production and Sound Design by Holy Smokes Audio
Executive Producers Tony Pastor + Neil Fearn
A Goalhanger Podcasts Production

Cast;
Mike Lyons
Timothy Knutsen
Micky Vee
Thomas Mitchells
Lukas Weschler
Alex Figueiredo
Carolyn Saint Pe
Alexander Pinault
Mustafa Bouanani
Morrison James
Karim Kronfli
Darcey Ferguson
Alex Magliaro
Joel Emery
Adam Jarrell
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3 - Bloody Omaha

“I know the longest day and all that stuff, but this really was a hell of a long day.” The first 24 hours of D-Day were make or break – on Gold, Juno and Sword beaches the British and Canadian forces had to get inland and dig in before the panzers arrived. Fail and they faced being thrown back into the sea. 

Narrated by Paul Waggott
Written by Robin Scott Elliot
Production and Sound Design by Holy Smokes Audio
Executive Producers Tony Pastor + Neil Fearn
A Goalhanger Podcasts Production

Cast;
Mike Lyons
Timothy Knutsen
Micky Vee
Thomas Mitchells
Lukas Weschler
Alex Figueiredo
Carolyn Saint Pe
Alexander Pinault
Mustafa Bouanani
Morrison James
Karim Kronfli
Darcey Ferguson
Alex Magliaro
Joel Emery
Adam Jarrell
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

4 - Back with a vengeance

August 2, 1990. They came out of the darkness… tanks, column after column of the Republican Guard, Iraq’s feared and battle-hardened elite. Kuwait’s small and under-prepared army had no answer - within hours their country was under the brutal control of Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s feared dictator, and his army. How would the world respond?

Narrated by Paul Waggott
Written by Robin Scott Elliot
Production and Sound Design by Holy Smokes Audio
Executive Producers Tony Pastor + Neil Fearn
A Goalhanger Podcasts Production

Cast;
Amal El-hawrani
Nezar Alderazi
Terry Silverthorne
Kasper Michaels
Cherise Silvestri
Amina-Rose Jameel
Yusef Jameel
Ali Al-Saffu
Tim Skinner
Thomas Mitchells
Abdelrahman Alhato
Qutaiba F. Abdelhaq
Tony E. Walker
Dorien Jaye
Ahmad Al Al Ketbi
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1 - The Invasion

Welcome to the first 24-hour news war. Saddam called it the ‘mother of all battles’. American jets, he proclaimed, would be blasted from Iraqi skies. The world was glued to rolling news channels as a very different conflict unfolded. Missiles and smart bombs rained down on Baghdad. In response Saddam launched Scud missiles at Israel, trying to explode the conflict into a Middle East-wide war. The world watched, and held its breath. 

Narrated by Paul Waggott
Written by Robin Scott Elliot
Production and Sound Design by Holy Smokes Audio
Executive Producers Tony Pastor + Neil Fearn
A Goalhanger Podcasts Production
Cast;
Amal El-hawrani
Nezar Alderazi
Terry Silverthorne
Kasper Michaels
Cherise Silvestri
Amina-Rose Jameel
Yusef Jameel
Ali Al-Saffu
Tim Skinner
Thomas Mitchells
Abdelrahman Alhato
Qutaiba F. Abdelhaq
Tony E. Walker
Dorien Jaye
Ahmad Al Al Ketbi
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2 - The Air War

In the early hours of Sunday, 24 February, 1991, the still of the desert night was disturbed by the sound of helicopters, packed with paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division, rising into the dark. The land war to free Kuwait from the Iraqi invaders had begun. It was to last a matter of days, but for the men who fought it Operation Desert Storm would stay with them for the rest of theirs.

Narrated by Paul Waggott
Written by Robin Scott Elliot
Production and Sound Design by Holy Smokes Audio
Executive Producers Tony Pastor + Neil Fearn
A Goalhanger Podcasts Production
Cast;
Amal El-hawrani
Nezar Alderazi
Terry Silverthorne
Kasper Michaels
Cherise Silvestri
Amina-Rose Jameel
Yusef Jameel
Ali Al-Saffu
Tim Skinner
Thomas Mitchells
Abdelrahman Alhato
Qutaiba F. Abdelhaq
Tony E. Walker
Dorien Jaye
Ahmad Al Al Ketbi
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3 - The Attack

‘It looked like what you’d always imagine hell would.’ General Norman Schwarzkopf masterminded the US-led coalition’s crushing victory. Afterwards Stormin Norman flew along the Highway of Death, the road out of Kuwait, looking down on what his troops had done. Schwarzkopf’s men freed Kuwait and shattered the Iraqi army, its charred remains littering the highway – but did the outcome make further conflict inevitable?

Narrated by Paul Waggott
Written by Robin Scott Elliot
Production and Sound Design by Holy Smokes Audio
Executive Producers Tony Pastor + Neil Fearn
A Goalhanger Podcasts Production
Cast;
Amal El-hawrani
Nezar Alderazi
Terry Silverthorne
Kasper Michaels
Cherise Silvestri
Amina-Rose Jameel
Yusef Jameel
Ali Al-Saffu
Tim Skinner
Thomas Mitchells
Abdelrahman Alhato
Qutaiba F. Abdelhaq
Tony E. Walker
Dorien Jaye
Ahmad Al Al Ketbi
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4 - The Aftermath

At 4am on June 25th, 1950, the Land of the Morning Calm was shattered by the sound of artillery firing across the 38th parallel dividing Korea into north and south. Soon the growl of tank engines, Soviet-made T-34s, confirmed what was coming. Invasion. North Korea’s surprise attack on their ill-prepared southern neighbours began the first major conflict of the Cold War, a war of sweeping advance and hurried retreat whose consequence is still felt today.

Narrated by Paul Waggott
Written by Robin Scott Elliot
Production and Sound Design by Holy Smokes Audio
Executive Producers Tony Pastor + Neil Fearn
A Goalhanger Podcasts Production

Cast;
William Roberts as General Douglas MacArthur
Lance Fuller as General Stratemayer
Julian Alexander as Bulldog Walker
Tim Licata
Zhang Hongtao
Wang Hui
Boyoung Jo
WK C
Thomas Mitchells
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1 - Red alert: the Communists are coming

The Crimean War began in 1854 and changed the course of European history. This gruelling conflict, with the British and French alarmed by the rising threat of Russia, marked the changing face of war – the beginning of the end of the cavalry, the beginning of trench warfare and the development of lethal weaponry and technologies that would forever alter how wars would be fought – and how their stories would be told. 

Narrated by Paul Waggott
Written by Robin Scott Elliot
Production and Sound Design by Holy Smokes Audio
Executive Producers Tony Pastor + Neil Fearn
A Goalhanger Podcasts Production

Cast list:

John Brannoch
Marta Da Silva
Karim Kronfli
Maksim Avedeev
Zhenya Leverett
Thomas Mitchells
Gennady Alasheev
John Walker

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1 - The rise of the Russian bear

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