Before the Second World War, learning to fly by instruments was one of the most difficult and dangerous skills a pilot had to master. Training had to be done in real aircraft, often in poor weather, and accidents were common.

In the late 1920s, an American inventor named Edwin Albert Link came up with an ingenious solution. His Link Trainer, sometimes called the "Blue Box," allowed pilots to practise instrument flying safely on the ground using a mechanical flight simulator.

By the time the war began, these machines had become an essential part of pilot training, and hundreds of thousands of Allied airmen first learned instrument flying inside one.

To explore the story of the Link Trainer, I am joined by Robby Houben from the Belgian Royal Military Museum, which holds several examples of these remarkable machines. Robby also has an excellent video on his youtube channel - Two Dudes Talking Tanks - which looks at the Link Trainer in the museum.

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My guest today is William Hogan, and we are going to be talking about the remarkable story of his father, Sam Hogan, and the men of Task Force Hogan.

At just twenty-eight, Sam was one of the youngest lieutenant colonels in the US Army, commanding a battalion of Sherman tanks in the Normandy Campaign only weeks after D-Day. From the hedgerows of France through to the Battle of the Bulge and on into Germany, his unit fought at the sharp end of some of the toughest fighting in north-west Europe.

William has written about his father's experiences in 'Task Force Hogan: The World War II Tank Battalion That Spearheaded the Liberation of Europe'.

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How does a Canadian end up fighting in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War?

My guest today is Scott Bury, and we're going to tell the remarkable story of his relative, Maurice Bury — a Canadian citizen who found himself caught in Eastern Europe when war broke out. Drafted into the Red Army in 1941, he fought against the German invasion, survived a brutal POW camp, escaped, joined the resistance in Nazi-occupied Ukraine, and was later forced back into the Soviet army for the final push into Germany.

It's a story that takes us through some of the most complex and brutal parts of the Eastern Front.

Scott has explored Maurice's experiences in three books: Army of Worn Soles, Under the Nazi Heel, and Walking Out of War. He's also the host of the podcast Beyond Barbarossa, which looks at the history of the Eastern Front in the Second World War.

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