We are the children of heroes.

These are the stories of seven men whose courage, determination skill are so remarkable that it is nearly impossible to credit them as true. But the stories are true. These men were real. These things actually happened.

Writer and series host Bill Whittle peels away the history, the colorless and drab recitation of dates and events, to reveal the actual human beings beneath the legend. Many of these men were national celebrities in their day, although a few of them never got the recognition that they deserved, in their own time. The one thing that all seven have in common is the tragic fact that almost no one today can even recognize their names, let alone tell you anything about the actions that made those names worth remembering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On July 3, 1863, Union forces easily took up a defensive line along a small rise call Cemetery Ridge in the peaceful Pennsylvania crossroad village called Gettysburg. But the extreme far left of the Union line was, in the parlance of the time, “in the air” — meaning it was not anchored to a river or forest or other natural barrier. Defense of the extreme let of the Federal line fell to the 20th Maine Infantry regiment, commanded by a Professor of Rhetoric named Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Standing on the crest of a small hill known as Little Round Top, Chamberlain immediately realized that to lose this position would mean that Confederate Artillery would be able to enfilade the entire Union line. The loss of Little Round Top meant the loss of the Battle of Gettysburg, and the loss of Gettysburg would mean the loss of the Pennsylvania capitol at Harrisburg. After the endless series of catastrophes suffered by the Army of the Potomac, the loss of a northern state capital might have been enough to bring Great Britain into war on the side of the Confederacy. Astonishingly, Chamberlain saw all of this very plainly. Robert E. Lee wanted Little Round Top, and launched wave after wave of attacks up the thickly forested hill. By the time of the penultimate charge, Chamberlains men were out of ammunition and reduced to throwing rocks. As his exhausted, bloodied and battered men faced yet another Confederate charge, Chamberlain, acting on instinct, personally led Union bayonets in a counter-charge that saved the position, the battle, and possibly the war.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the morning of December 8th, 1941, the vaunted US Pacific fleet lay deep in the mud at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Americans were stunned, but this was just the beginning, as the Japanese rampaged throughout the Pacific, seemingly unstoppable. The six aircraft carriers used on the attack at Pearl Harbor had been training for years, and their pilots were the best in the world flying bible Zero’s that flew circles around the lumbering US fighters, knocking them down in droves. America needed a victory — any victory, but ideally a bombing raid on the Japanese capital of Tokyo. But Tokyo was well out of range of Army Bombers, and the short range of Navy planes meant risking America’s few precious remaining aircraft carriers. But Franklin Roosevelt wanted to hit Japan, and so the project was handed over to the great celebrity aviator of the day, a 5’4” human dynamo named James Doolittle. Jimmy Doolittle had a history of effortlessly winning every air race he appeared in, and prior to the outbreak of the war he had been the first man to take off, fly, and land exclusive on instruments… instruments he had helped design. There was no better combination of brains, skill and courage in the world, and when he called for volunteers he was absolutely inundated, despite being able to tell the men anything about the mission other than that it would be exceedingly dangerous. After a great many modifications and a great deal of training, Doolittle did what everyone had assumed was impossible: he put huge Army bombers onto an aircraft carrier, and sailed them across the Pacific in the worst weather anyone had ever seen. The plan was to bomb Japan and then land in China, behind the Japanese troops that had been fighting and massacring the Chinese for four years before the attack on Pearl Harbor. When the raid was detected by Japanese ships they were still hundreds of miles short of their launch points, meaning that while they could still hit Japan, none of the aircraft would have the range to make it to safety. Doolittle’s crew of five Americans, and 15 other aircraft, lurched off the deck and staggerer into the air. The raid would prove so embarrassing to the Japanese Navy that they rushed into their crushing defeat at Midway, and the hardships endured by the volunteers on the Doolittle Raid beggars the imagination.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices