Photo, above: The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova (Russian: Автомат Калашникова). It is also known as Kalashnikov, AK or, in Russian slang, Kalash.

The contemporary Kalashnikov, in Cyrillic Калашников, is a sandhi [from Sanskrit: a kind of sound-joining] alteration of the earlier Калачников [pron: kalatchnikov], which literally means "belonging to (usually "son of" or "place of") a man who made a type of traditional Slavic bread called kalatch," i.e., "kalatch-maker's son." The name originates from the Old Slavonic word kolo (коло) meaning "circle," "wheel,"

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW 

Hour One

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block A: Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II by John Geoghegan (1 of 4)  John Geoghegan recalls the failed Japanese mission to attack New York City and Washington, D.C. following Pearl Harbor.  The author reports that the Japanese had planned to utilize submarines that were designed as underwater air-craft carriers.  The Sen-Toku or I-400 Class, was built to transport three heavily armed planes and was to travel from Japan to America's east coast, where it would surface and launch a surprise offensive.

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block B: Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II by John Geoghegan (2 of 4) In 1941, the architects of Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor planned a bold follow-up: a potentially devastating air raid—this time against New York City and Washington, DC. The classified Japanese program required developing a squadron of top secret submarines—the Sen-toku or I-400 class—which were the largest and among the most deadly subs of World War II. Incredibly, the subs were designed as underwater aircraft carriers, each equipped with three Aichi M6A1 attack planes painted to look like US aircraft. Called Seiran, the planes were concealed in a huge, watertight deck hangar and meant to appear suddenly over American cities as their Japanese name suggests: like a “storm from a clear sky.”

This operation remained unknowns to the Allies despite U.S. intelligence having broken the Japanese naval codes. Even more amazing is how close the Japanese came to pulling off their mission. In spite of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, including Allied air raids, mine-laden waters, fuel shortages, and a catastrophic depth-charge attack, the Sen-toku squadron was determined to complete their mission no matter what. But when the captain of an American combat sub inadvertently crossed paths with the squadron’s flagship, what promised to be a routine sub patrol soon threatened to rekindle World War II with untold consequences for Japan’s surrender ceremony only five days away.

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block C: Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II by John Geoghegan (3 of 4) 

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block D: Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II by John Geoghegan (4 of 4) 

Hour Two

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block A: Voices of the Pacific: Untold Stories from the Marine Heroes of World War II by Adam Makos and Marcus Brotherton (1 of 4) 

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block B: Voices of the Pacific: Untold Stories from the Marine Heroes of World War II by Adam Makos and Marcus Brotherton (2 of 4) 

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block C: Voices of the Pacific: Untold Stories from the Marine Heroes of World War II by Adam Makos and Marcus Brotherton (3 of 4) 

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block D: Voices of the Pacific: Untold Stories from the Marine Heroes of World War II by Adam Makos and Marcus Brotherton (4 of 4) 

Hour Three

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block A: Leyte, 1944: The Soldiers' Battle by Nathan Prefer  (1 of 4) The Battle of Leyte in the Pacific campaign of World War II was the amphibious invasion of the Gulf of Leyte in the Philippines byAmerican and Filipino guerrilla forces under the command of GeneralDouglas MacArthur, who fought against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita from 20 October - 31 December 1944. The operation code named King Two[4] launched the Philippines campaign of 1944–45 for the recapture and liberation of the entire Philippine Archipelago and to end almost three years of Japanese occupation.  This was also the first battle in which the Japanese used kamikaze pilots.

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block B: Leyte, 1944: The Soldiers' Battle by Nathan Prefer  (2 of 4)

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block C: Leyte, 1944: The Soldiers' Battle by Nathan Prefer  (3 of 4)

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block D: Leyte, 1944: The Soldiers' Battle by Nathan Prefer  (4 of 4)

Hour Four

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block A: Nomonhan, 1939: The Red Army's Victory That Shaped World War II by Stuart D. Goldman   (1 of 2) The Battles of Khalkhyn Gol (Mongolian: Халхын голын байлдаан;  Russian: бои на реке Халхин-Гол; Chinese: 诺门坎事件; pinyin: Nuò mén kǎn shìjiàn) constituted the decisive engagement of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts fought among the Soviet Union, Mongolia and the Empire of Japan in 1939. The conflict was named after the river Khalkhyn Gol, which passes through the battlefield. In Japan, the decisive battle of the conflict is known as the Nomonhan Incident (ノモンハン事件 Nomonhan jiken) after a nearby village on the border between Mongolia and Manchuria. The battles resulted in the defeat of the Japanese Sixth Army.

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block B: Nomonhan, 1939: The Red Army's Victory That Shaped World War II by Stuart D. Goldman   (2 of 2)

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block C: The Gun by C. J. Chivers  (1 of 2)    AK47 assault rifle designer Mikhail Kalashnikov dies at 94     The inventor of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, Mikhail Kalashnikov, has died aged 94, Russian officials say. The automatic rifle he designed became one of the world's most familiar and widely used weapons. Its comparative simplicity made it cheap to manufacture, as well as reliable and easy to maintain.

Although honoured by the state, Kalashnikov made little money from his gun. He once said he would have been better off designing a lawn mower. Kalashnikov was admitted to hospital with internal bleeding in November. Mikhail Kalashnikov's 1947 design became the standard equipment of the Soviet and Warsaw pact armies. Versions were manufactured in several other countries, including China. With its distinctive curved magazine, the Kalashnikov became a revolutionary icon in the hands of militants and insurgents around the globe. When I met him in Paris, he proudly wore the insignia of a Hero of Socialist Labour on his jacket. He seemed perplexed at the extraordinary changes that had engulfed his country.

He was sensitive to any criticism that his gun had caused countless casualties around the world.  He told me he had simply designed the rifle to defend the Soviet Union. The uses to which it had been put elsewhere were nothing to do with him, he said.

The Kalashnikov - which is still widely used today - will go down in history. If the name of Samuel Colt and his revolver is associated with the 19th Century, then the gun of the 20th Century is undoubtedly the Kalashnikov. He died on Monday in Izhevsk, the city where he lived 600 miles east of Moscow, an official there said.

Matching the Germans    Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was born on 10 November 1919 in western Siberia, one of 18 children. In 1938, he was called up by the Red Army and his design skills were used to improve the effectiveness of weapons and equipment used by Soviet tank regiments. He designed the machine gun after being asked by a fellow soldier why the Russians could not come up with a gun that would match the ones used by the Germans. Work on the AK47 was completed in 1947, and two years later the gun was adopted by the Soviet army.

Kalashnikov continued working into his late 80s as chief designer at the Izhevsk firm that first built the AK-47. He received many state honours, including the Order of Lenin and the Hero of Socialist Labour. Kalashnikov refused to accept responsibility for the many people killed by his weapon, blaming the policies of other countries that acquired it. However, pride in his invention was tempered with sadness at its use by criminals and child soldiers. "It is painful for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon," Kalashnikov said in 2008.

Monday  23 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block D: The Gun by C. J. Chivers  (2 of 2)

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