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Hello and welcome to another podcast.

Hello and welcome to another podcast I'm Angus Wallace. In this episode we're in the Pacific in 1942 looking at the exploits of Lieutenant Hugh Miller.

I don't want to give too much away in the preamble,

needless to say, it's a remarkable story of survival

and one man's war against the Japanese. I'm joined by Stephen Harding. Stephen is a

longtime journalist specialising military affairs. He's written a number of books

including the New York Times bestseller The Last Battle.

His latest book, The Castaways War, tells the story of Hugh Miller and the subsequent events

after the sinking of the U.S.S. strong.

Thanks for joining me. Let's start at the beginning.

Who was Hugh Miller and how did he end up in the Navy?

Hugh Miller is what we might call a member of the Southern aristocracy.

He was the son of a very well-known lawyer and one-time politician. He grew up splitting his time between the city

and this plantation that his family owned. It was on the plantation that he learned to ride, to shoot, to track through the woods at the hands of a family retainer that he referred to his Uncle Jim.

Jim taught him pretty much everything there was to know about how to get along in the

back woods. So he wrote it grew up, ended up going to the University of

Alabama in the 30s and he played on the what's called a Crimson Tide that's

the University of Alabama's football team. He played with the team when they played in the Rose Bowl in California

which is a big college matchup and he was well established as an attorney as World War II was coming on in terms of the United States.

...