The title of this episode comes from the following George Orwell quote: “Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard for all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting." This is meant to be a fun episode on the similarities between football, chess, and war. Please take each analogy with a grain of salt.

Football (two armies fighting to reach the opposing camp/end zone):

• Kick-off Team: Skirmishers
• Quarterback: Tactical Commander
• Head Coach: Strategic Commander
• Halfback: Light Infantry Reserves
• Fullback: Heavy Infantry Reserves
• Tight End: Heavy Cavalry
• Linemen (offensive and defensive): Heavy Infantry
• Wide Receivers: Light Cavalry
• Cornerbacks: Light Cavalry
• Linebackers: Light Infantry
• Safeties: Heavy Cavalry
• Kicker: Artillery

Chess (two armies fighting to defeat the opposing commander):

• Pawns: Heavy Infantry
• Rooks: Artillery
• Knights: Light Cavalry
• Bishops: Light Infantry
• Queen: Heavy Cavalry
• King: Tactical Commander

Military History Podcast is sponsored by Armchair General Magazine

This episode is written by Russell Holman of Merrimack, New Hampshire.  If you would like to submit a script to Military History Podcast, please send me an email at militaryhistorypodcast@gmail.com

The mighty American military during WWII would have been nothing without its surprisingly-important rationing system.  Food kept the United States going, so therefore, it is well worth studying.  Throughout WWII and the years beyond, the US entered/exited several "eras" of rations:

• A Rations
• B Rations
• K Rations
• C Rations
• LRRP Rations
• MREs

For more information, read:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/mre.htm
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_rations.php
http://nsc.natick.army.mil/media/print/OP_Rations.pdf

Military History Podcast is sponsored by Armchair General Magazine

Aircraft Carriers are the ultimate tool of modern power projection.  They are symbols of both naval strength and air superiority.  This episode covers their history and their future:

• 1840s: Balloon Carriers are invented
• 1900s: Seaplane Carriers are invented
• 1910s: Modern aircraft carriers are invented
• 1930s-1940s: WWII (five major carrier battles)
  
• Pearl Harbor: Japan's six carriers surprise the United States Navy
• Coral Sea: Japan's three carriers engage America's two carriers (both lose one carrier)
• Midway: America's three carriers engage Japan's four carriers and sink all four, with the help of codebreakers and reconnaissance.  Considered a turning point in the Pacific War
• Philippine Sea: America's sixteen carriers destroy or disable all but 35 of the 500 Japanese carrier-based aircraft
• Leyte Gulf: America's seventeen carriers decisively defeat the Imperial Japanese Navy in the largest naval battle in history
• WWII-present: US Carrier Strike Groups control the seas

For more information, read:
http://www.sandcastlevi.com/sea/carriers/cvchap1a.htm
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/ships/carriers/cv-list.asp
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/carriers.htm
http://science.howstuffworks.com/aircraft-carrier.htm
http://www.combatreform2.com/submarineaircraftcarriers.htm
The Pacific War Companion by Daniel Marston
Jane’s Warship Recognition Guide
Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Carriers (1921-1945) by Mark Stille
US Navy Bluejacket’s Manual

Military History Podcast is sponsored by Armchair General Magazine

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavian countries began to divide along ethnic lines.  Of the five states (Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia), three of them began waging war:

• Serbia (Orthodox Christians) under Slobodan Milosevic
• Bosnia (Muslims) under Alija Izetbegovic
• Croatia (Roman Catholics) under Franjo Tudjman

Initially, both Croatia and Serbia desired to take land from Bosnia.  However, as the war progressed, Croatia took the side of Bosnia in order to push Serbia out of the region.  Ethnic cleansing (especially by the Serbs) was commonplace, and it wasn't until Croatian intervention (on the ground with Operation Storm) and NATO intervention (in the air with Operation Deliberate Resolve) that the war slowed down.  Eventually, after a four-year long siege of Sarajevo (the Bosnian capital), the Dayton Accords were signed.

However, the ethnic cleansing continued, most notably at Kosovo.  After another NATO intervention led by General Wesley Clark, peace was restored again.

For more information, read:
My Life by Bill Clinton
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1280328.stm
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/bosnia.htm
The Statesman's Yearbook 2006

Military History Podcast is sponsored by Armchair General Magazine