Thank you for listening to We Have Ways of Making You Talk.

Sign up to our Patreon to receive bonus content, live streams and our weekly newsletter with money off books and museum visits as well.

Plus early access to all live show tickets. That's patreon.com slash we have ways.

Say hello to the next generation of Zendesk AI agents built to deliver resolutions for everyone.

Loved by over 10,000 companies, Zendesk AI agents easily deploy in minutes to resolve 30% of

interactions instantly. That's the Zendesk AI effect. Find out more at Zendesk.com.

Danger, chat, danger.

Welcome to We Have Ways of Making You Talk with me,

Al Murray and James Holland, and our very special Best in the West General series teeing you up to We Have Ways Fest at the 12th, the 14th, September. What we thought we'd do for you is a series of episodes where, in a completely fair and unbiased and impartial manner, is lay out for you who we think the best generals in the West are amongst. First of all, we're going to do in this episode. We'll be doing Duke General, so Dominions UK Empire. We're doing two episodes on this. And we're doing two episodes on our American friends. And then, of course, two episodes on the other side of the hill. But what about the Italians and the French?

Well, which side of the French on in this instance, Jim? Because let's not, let's not forget. They did bat for both teams, so to speak. When I was doing some notes, I put down Axis. And I suddenly thought, well, you know, that's interesting, isn't it? You know, he's like, Darlane. I mean, you know, oh no, he's an admiral, so he's off.

So just to keep it simple, this is Duke American German. We're not bothering with General Messe. Who's the only one who could sort of reasonably be considered, I think? Yeah, and what we've got is we've got a load of names for you in each of these three pairs. We're going to sort of kick the ball around talking about the people concerned and look

at them and there'll be one or two, one or two names you will have definitely heard, especially if you're a regular listener to We have ways to make you talk. And there'll be one or two names that maybe, maybe I haven't thought about considering them in the pantheon of khaki grates. Yeah. So it's khaki grates, then it's olive drab grates, and then it's the old felt grow grates. And obviously there might be a lot of booing and hissing doing the German generals, but there might be quite a lot of booing and hissing during some of this, because, after all, this is one of those topics that is contentious is the wrong word. Devisive. Yeah, not Nicola Sturgeon divisive.

It's a thing people like to argue about, isn't it?

Right?

Yeah, they really do. They do like to argue about it. And often the historiography, sort of flow of the argument, comes from post-war national ideas, and a lot of, but also during the war. Yes, and it also definitely comes from post-war,

where, you know, and the narrative of the war,

the historiography of the war,

you know, there becomes narrative of the war,

the historiography of the war, you know, there becomes trends on someone's in, someone's out. Yeah. You know, but obviously we're completely impartial. And that's the most important thing. And also, if someone's not on the list, that is a judgment in itself. But the great thing about this is we want you to take part. So we're going to have these six episodes where we talk about this Fest and the West idea.

And this is basically northwest Europe, North Africa, the Mediterranean theatres we're talking about here. It's not the Far East. It's not the Eastern Front. No. It's not the Pacific. No, no, no. You know, so for example, Frank Messervy, he's not in this, but were we to do best in the east, best in the Pacific, then obviously he would be on that,

even though he was briefly in, he was in the West, but he was sacked, so it makes it kind of hard to justify him being the best. That was the first of his headquarters that were overrun during the war. Anyway, once is unfortunate, twice old boy, might seem like carelessness. The best thing, the most important thing about this is we want you to take part.

So on our Patreon, we have ways of making you talk Patreon, is your opportunity to vote on the runners and riders in Best on the West,

...