They weren't that bad...for when they'd been designed. The problem with them was that they never got around to modernizing because a.) most of the steel was going to the navy and b.) they were perfectly adequate against their main land-based opponent, China. So they kept rolling with 1920s designs because that was all they had and because SOME tank beats NO tank 9 times out of 10.

So thay, A-Teamed them selfs an armoured corps.

I hear your Bob Semple and raise you a Tsar tank. Designed in 1914 it stood more than twice as tall as the Bob Semple, weighed almost as much as a King Tiger with 220 HP less and looked like a tricycle fucked a ferris wheel

The British feed hundreds of Canadian soldiers into a wood chipper for no reason. 

Support the show:
https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys

Sources:
Fowler, Will. Allies at Dieppe.

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/operation-jubilee-dieppe-raid-1942

https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/battles-and-stages/battle-of-dieppe

https://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/newspapers/operations/dieppe_e.html

https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/military-war/dieppe-a-colossal-blunder

Episode 216 - The Dieppe Raid

During WWI the british navy thought of one of the most pointless battle plans of the entire war. They had to find someone equally worthless to command it. 

Support the show:
https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys

Sources:

Giles Foden. Mimi and Toutou Go Forth 

Edward Paice. Tip and Run. The Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa

Episode 220 - The Battle of Lake Tanganyika Part 1: The Worst Officer in the British Navy

The US Marines feed thousands of marines into a Japanese meat grinder for no tactical reason before trying to ignore help from the Army to save their pride. 

Support the show:
https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys

Sources:
Sledge, Eugene B. (1990). With the Old Breed: At Peleliu And Okinawa

Leckie, Robert, Helmet For My Pillow

Anderson, Charles R. Western Pacific. The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/unnecessary-hell-the-battle-of-peleliu/

Episode 231 - The Battle Of Peleliu

Otto Skorzeny was Hitler's favorite Commando during WWII, he was also a total loser. 

Support the show:
https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys


Sources: 

Stuart Smith. Otto Skorzeny: The Devil’s Disciple

Dr Robert Forczk. Rescuing Mussolini: Gran Sasso 1943

Otto Skorzeny. Hitler’s Commando

Episode 233 - Otto Skorzeny Part 1: The STEM Lord, Sword Fighting Enthusiast

Skorzeny launches the mission to rescue Benito Mussolini from a ski resort, it does not go well. 

Support the show:
https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys

Sources:
Stuart Smith. Otto Skorzeny: The Devil’s Disciple

Dr Robert Forczk. Rescuing Mussolini: Gran Sasso 1943

Otto Skorzeny. Hitler’s Commando

Episode 234 - Otto Skorzeny Part 2: Otto the Hype Man

Things get weird in the conclusion to the Otto Skorzeny story. 

Support the show:
https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys

Episode 235- Otto Skorzeny Part 3: Otto Skorzeny, Mossad Assassin

Once upon a time New Zealand made their own tank. It did not go well. 

Support the show:
https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys

sources:
https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/NewZealand/Bob_Semple_Tank.php
The Semple Tank, J.Plowman, Classic Military Vehicle Magazine
National Library of New Zealand

Episode 236 - The Bob Semple Tank

the Empire of Japan built the largest battleship the world had ever seen and then decided to use it in the dumbest way possible. 

Support the show:
https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys

Sources:
Russel Spurr. A Glorious Way to Die

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/supership/last-nf.html

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/yamato-was-hell-sink%E2%80%94and-it-went-out-bang-nuclear-blast-192257

Episode 237 - The Dumb Life and Dumber Death of the Battleship Yamato

The little known story of the most apocalyptic war in American History.  Part 1/3

Support the show:
https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys

Sources:
Lisa Brooks. Our Beloved Kin
James Drake. King Philip’s War: Civil War in New England
Kyle Zelner. Rabble in Arms, Massachusetts Towns and Militiamen During King Philip’s War

Episode 238 - King Phillip's War Part 1: That Isn't How Dead Bodies Work

The war finally starts and the colonial authorities immediately make everything much worse. 

Support the show:
https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys

Buy Joe's books:
https://www.amazon.com/Frontier-Corps-Military-Sci-Fi-Forlorn-ebook/dp/B0B5YJD7J2/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=0F9hR&content-id=amzn1.sym.e4bd6ac6-9035-4a04-92a6-fc4ad60e09ad&pf_rd_p=e4bd6ac6-9035-4a04-92a6-fc4ad60e09ad&pf_rd_r=BJFJ8DMEE9M0Y60XFEVE&pd_rd_wg=HG18o&pd_rd_r=03aa9132-cb25-484a-a41e-dd419379f0a4&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m

Sources:

Lisa Brooks. Our Beloved Kin
James Drake. King Philip’s War: Civil War in New England
Kyle Zelner. Rabble in Arms, Massachusetts Towns and Militiamen During King Philip’s War

Episode 239 - King Philips War Part 2: A Pocket Full of Grapes

A sex worker turned pirate queen builds a more powerful navy than the entire navy of China.

Support the show!
https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys

Sources:
Murray, Dian H. Pirates of the South China Coast, 1790-1810

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ching-shih-chinese-female-pirate

Episode 254 - Zheng Yi Sao, The Pirate Queen of China

The Lions Led By Donkeys podcast is a military history podcast for laughing at the worst military failures, inept commanders, and crazy stories from throughout the history of human conflict.

Our podcast will always be free, but if you think what we do is worth a buck you can throw us one here:
https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys

Episode 236 - The Bob Semple Tank

Lions Led By Donkeys

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