Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

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Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Company of Makers

64 episodes

9 months ago

James Glancy is “of the 9/11 era. There is a big difference in the experience of Serving in the Royal Marines or the military in the 90s to the post 2001 era…I was in Afghanistan within two months of passing out…I did three Troop Commands on combat operations on the ground. It was an amazing 10 years.”When he left “I missed the intensity of operations so much, it’s without doubt one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life and I just loved being at war, it sounds a strange thing to say bu...

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Society & Culture,

News Commentary

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James Glancy is “of the 9/11 era. There is a big difference in the experience of Serving in the Royal Marines or the military in the 90s to the post 2001 era…I was in Afghanistan within two months of passing out…I did three Troop Commands on combat operations on the ground. It was an amazing 10 years.”When he left “I missed the intensity of operations so much, it’s without doubt one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life and I just loved being at war, it sounds a strange thing to say bu...

Show more...

Society & Culture,

News Commentary

Episodes (20/64)

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Afghanistan: James Glancy, Royal Marines - Very few people got to actually understand the Afghan people, the real structure of how the tribes work and who they were.

James Glancy is “of the 9/11 era. There is a big difference in the experience of Serving in the Royal Marines or the military in the 90s to the post 2001 era…I was in Afghanistan within two months of passing out…I did three Troop Commands on combat operations on the ground. It was an amazing 10 years.”When he left “I missed the intensity of operations so much, it’s without doubt one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life and I just loved being at war, it sounds a strange thing to say bu...

12 months ago

1 hour 11 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Afghanistan: Sir Laurie Bristow, UK Ambassador to Afghanistan - There were moments where we didn’t know if we would get out alive.

Sir Laurie Bristow was central to the military withdrawal in 2021, there’s nobody better placed to give us the inside story than the last British ambassador in Afghanistan. He takes us through the days and hours counting down, “15th August we started the day with President Ghani behind his desk broadcasting to the nation…roughly 2.30pm” He’s “left the country…a few hours later you’ve got the Taliban behind that desk…taking their selfies.”Laurie shares his views on the Doha Agreement and tries...

12 months ago

1 hour 2 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Afghanistan: Oliver Lee, Royal Marines - Moral Courage, above all, it’s about doing the right thing

Oliver Lee resigned over the Marine A controversy and epitomises moral courage. He took over command of 45 Commando in 2009 as it came back from Afghanistan. Knowing they’d return in 2011 and to fulfil his vision of “Less violence, more engagement with people and culture… It’s about Afghans before anybody else” he ensured that the entire unit “all played a part in the production of the plan…What I was trying to do was to persuade young hard charging Royal Marines, whose last experience was Sa...

12 months ago

1 hour 30 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Afghanistan: Bronwyn Royce, Mother - If We Can Reach One Person Who Needed to Hear this Story, That’s What it’s All About, To Give Somebody Hope.

Cayle Royce was severely injured in action. His difficult yet inspirational story is told from his mother, Bronwyn’s perspective. Cayle lost both legs above the knee and part of his hand as well as further blast injuries after stepping on an IED.“It is a very challenging story, but lots of positives to be taken…From where we were…To where we are now. The hospital, to adventures across the world. My child has come a long way…18 months after injury, Cayle rowed the Atlantic for the first time.”...

12 months ago

1 hour 14 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Afghanistan: Frank Ledwidge, Civilian Advisor - In Order to Put Things Right, You Have to Understand Where You Went Wrong.

Frank Ledwidge is angry. His hard-hitting, bleak and perhaps controversial perspective is born out of his work in Afghanistan and personal investigation, “I wanted to know what the human cost was…The image we had of ourselves was, we are here to help” but “We were seen as…invaders…That came as something of a shock to me.”Frank’s background was as a lawyer and a Reservist, “I joined one of the more discrete units of the Navy, a Joint-Service unit with the Army and Air Force…Got called up...

1 year ago

1 hour 17 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Afghanistan: James Malone, Royal Marines - The Only Thing You Have For Company Is Those Experiences and They’re All Horrific.

James Malone remembers leaving Lympstone, “In every fibre of being, I felt like I could do anything…You just wanna get stuck in.”His tour was “Something that definitely changed the course of my life. War does that…to everyone who experiences combat…the first major casualty…was sobering…we had fairly regular contact, gunfights, rocket attacks, IED strikes…I was a Point Man, barma-ing, trying to stop people standing on IEDs…first into most situations, whether clearing a compound to set-up for o...

1 year ago

1 hour 10 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Afghanistan: Tom Corrigan, Army Air Corps - Have You Got Your Big Boy Pants On? It’s All Kicking Off!

Tom Corrigan wanted to be an Apache pilot... “I thought, ‘Yeah Apache, that looks pretty awesome, up for a bit of that’. It’s something I’d wanted to do since I was a pretty young lad, I just thought, ‘that looks pretty epic.’”Tom’s first tour was in 2009, “You were just chomping at the bit to get out there really…We all thought it was going to be fairly quiet…we’re here as a peace-keeping force…It was not like that, it was full on…intense...We were up 10 minutes and…‘Troops in contact reques...

1 year ago

1 hour 7 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Afghanistan: Nick Denning, Royal Anglian Regiment - You want to feel worn-in and seasoned and up-to-speed as quickly as you can

Nick Denning gives us an insight into his life and responsibilities as a very new Platoon Commander in Helmand Province.“It was all a very rapid, flash-to-bang experience getting there…You want to feel worn-in and seasoned and up-to-speed as quickly as you can…You wait for your first patrol, your first contact with the enemy, your first engagement with the local nationals…There was just this huge sense of ‘This is it’…I knew from the start I had a very strong command team…We spent the first t...

1 year ago

1 hour 24 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Afghanistan: Liz McConaghy, Royal Air Force - There at the Beginning of Op Herrick and There Until the Very End

Liz McConaghy “amassed 10 Op Herricks”, deployed three months at a time as part of the Chinook Force...“We were there at the beginning of Op Herrick…when Camp Bastion didn’t even exist… and we were there, pretty much at the end, when we turned the lights off and walked away. Because of that, we saw the whole campaign grow and develop. Lots of mixed emotions throughout the entire journey.”Liz joined the military to, “...have a purpose and do a job and it’s fair to say, Afghanistan gave me that...

1 year ago

1 hour 12 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Battle of the Atlantic: Sailing in Convoys through 'No Man's Land'

Ken Benbow Served in the 7th Escort Group in the Atlantic convoys. With no torpedoes, just guns and depth charges to protect Allied merchant ships from U-Boats, they sailed back and forth through ‘No Man’s Land’, 1,500 miles of ocean with no air cover, being “attacked every hour by the Germans”. Age 17, Ken went from working on a farm to Serving in the Royal Navy and his story is at the very heart of The Battle of The Atlantic.This podcast is supported by the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Char...

2 years ago

1 hour 3 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Battle of the Atlantic: Hurricanes Launched by Catapults and Rockets

Catapult-Armed Merchant “CAM” ship pilots flew highly secretive one-way missions. David Wright was one of only a handful and their stories are little known.Using rockets and catapults mounted on merchant ships, Hurricane fighter planes were launched to shoot down German planes. With no flight deck to land on, pilots had to bail out seconds before the planes sank into the Atlantic. We’ll hear two war time stories, Norma Wright’s, who joined the National Fire Service; and David’s, her late...

2 years ago

51 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Battle of the Atlantic: The Worst Journey in the World

Atlantic and Arctic Convoy Veteran, Ron Syson, gives us a gritty account of life as a Merchant Seaman. Very early on, he sailed to Iceland, Greenland and New York, and was alongside when the Normandy caught fire and capsized. He was only 15. As well as transporting vital supplies across the Atlantic to Britain, Ron braved the Arctic seas in what Churchill described as, “the worst journey in the world.” Added to the Nazi threat were sub-zero temperatures, weeks of constant darkness in win...

2 years ago

1 hour 28 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Battle of the Atlantic: The U-Boat Peril

Winston Churchill once wrote, “... the only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-Boat peril”. If The Allies had lost, Britain would have been starved into surrender. 99-year-old John Roberts gives us a fantastic insight into The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest running campaign of WWII.John left the Royal Navy as a Rear Admiral, having joined-up aged 17 in 1938. When he first went to sea in 1941, The Allies were suffering terrible losses. John explains how the...

2 years ago

1 hour 6 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Op Telic: And Then The Nightmare Began

Paula’s story is about the loss of her husband, Paul Harding, who Served in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Green Jackets. He joined-up at 18 and was killed in action aged 47, in Basra 2007.We hear about being under attack, fatality and bereavement. If you feel that you might be sensitive to this, you may prefer not to listen.This emotional, difficult story “shows the tenacity and bravery of my two sons, and how we've recovered from the loss of their wonderful father.”“Paul told me ‘...this is...

2 years ago

1 hour 21 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Op Telic: The First Casualties

Tip Cullen, former Royal Marines Commando tells us about losing 8 of his friends in the very first operation of Op Telic 1.He’s telling this story “...to keep their memory alive” and “...for the families that had to deal with the consequences…” also for “...people to empathise with their sacrifice, or their will to protect what we call freedom…Those people were legends…”“We deployed as a Brigade Recce Force...mostly Royal Marines Commandos, main disciplines Mountain Leaders or specialists in ...

2 years ago

47 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Op Telic: The Real Sinister Element Reared its Head

Kirk Bowett Served in The Cheshire Regiment and his deployment to the Middle East began during Op Telic 4, 2004.We hear about his personal experiences of the realities of war, which includes details of injury and loss of limb. If you feel that you might find this challenging, you may prefer not to listen.“I was part of the recce element…in Basra City…the infrastructure had failed, no sanitation…We were initially met with open arms…”They tried to help “...hearts and minds…” But there were prob...

2 years ago

1 hour 29 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Op Telic: From 'Ops Junky' to 'Combat Intelligence'

Piers Stacey, aged 17, joined The Corps, “…six days after the Twin Towers were hit…”Joining 42 Commando late 2002, “...we all went into pre-deployment training for the build-up..it was pretty intense, pretty rapid for a fresh faced 18 year old…”In Kuwait, “...we landed in the desert…nothing there…over time, defences went up, sandbag walls…” and acclimatisation training, “...we kept our phys up and exercised out in the heat so we could condition ourselves to be able to fight in that way…”“As w...

2 years ago

1 hour 15 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Op Telic: The Heat Smacked You In The Face

Neville Johnson left South Africa and joined the British Army in 2003.After basic training, he joined the 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers on a cease-fire tour in Belfast, “Those first couple of weeks were a big eye opener for me, definitely paved the way for future operations…”Neville deployed to Basra in 2005 and 2006, duties including night and daytime patrols, working with special forces units or the parachute regiment during raids, apprehending personnel of interest, long hours...

2 years ago

1 hour 2 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Op Telic: You Don't Know How Good Your Unit Is Until You Go To War

We meet Sarah Davis, Army Air Corps Ground Crew, one of the pioneering women deployed to the frontline during Op Telic 1.Having joined-up in 1999, a time when the Armed Forces was going through changes - evolving in terms of equality and a time that would mark the start of several years of military campaigns.We hear about getting ready to go, “I was kind of craving…doing my bit for Queen and Country…”As well as operational duties in a combat zone, refuelling and rearming attack helicopters an...

2 years ago

1 hour 18 minutes

Land, Sea & Air - Stories from the Armed Forces

Op Telic: Flying at 100 Feet, 120 Miles an Hour Across the Desert

This is Pat Patterson’s story. A Royal Marine Aircrewman with 845 Naval Air Squadron flying Sea King helicopters aka ‘Junglies’, and his wife also served during the war.Having looked back through his helicopter logbook, he shares with us his experiences of Op Telic 1, as well as his subsequent tours.We hear about the scale of the operation as well as operational complexities specific to helicopter crews that fly into particularly challenging environments,“It was a bit more dangerous going the...

2 years ago

1 hour 24 minutes