The WW2 Podcast

A history podcast looking at all aspects of WWII, military history, social history, the battles, the campaigns, tanks, gun and other equipment, the politics and those who ran the war. I look at it all. With WW2 slipping from living memory I aim to look at different historical aspects of the Second World War. In each episode of the WWII Podcast I interview an expert on a subject. No topics are out of bounds (as yet), and I cover the military history side of the war as well as looking the home front. Hopefully the format allows for close examination of a topic, and makes for absorbing listening.

100 - Left For Dead At Nijmegen 09/15/2019

100 - Left For Dead At Nijmegen On the 17th September 1944 Gene Metcalfe, of the 82 Airbourne, parachuted in to Holland as part of Operation Market Garden. Approaching the bridge they were to capture Gene is injured in a firefight and left for dead. He would spend the rest of the war as a POW. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/10829366

99 - George Mergenthaler - MERG 09/10/2019

99 - George Mergenthaler - MERG George Mergenthaler, heir to the Mergenhaler Linotype Company. In 1944 he was a translator attached to a recon unit in the Ardennes when the Germans launched their offensive. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/11070839

98 - Operation Market Garden 09/01/2019

98 - Operation Market Garden 2019 is the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, the allied attempt to create a sixty mile corridor, and secure a crossing over the Rhine. The plan was to use the newly formed First Allied Airborne Army to seize and hold nine key bridges until relieved by the British Army’s XXX Corp. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/10760831

97 - Japanese POW: Ray Fitchett 08/15/2019

97 - Japanese POW: Ray Fitchett In this episode Ray Fitchett recounts his time on HMS Exeter, and it’s sinking at the second battle of the Java Sea, he was rescued by the Japanese and sent to a POW camp. Ray would eventually sent to work in Japan at the fukuoka camp near Nagasaki, where he would witness the atomic bomb going off. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/10684670

96 - Bridge Busters: The Dortmund-Ems Canal Raid 08/01/2019

96 - Bridge Busters: The Dortmund-Ems Canal Raid In this episode we’re looking at an RAF raid in 1940 against the Dortmund-Ems canal. It was very much a WWII proto-dambusters raid. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/10404230

95 - Jimmy Stewart 07/15/2019

95 - Jimmy Stewart For a long time I’ve been fascinated by movie stars who chose to join the military and saw combat in World War Two. One star in particular has always interested me, Jimmy Stewart. A star in the 1930’s, in 1940 he would win the Oscar for best man in 'The Philadelphia Story’. When WWII came he joined the USAAF flying combat missions over Europe. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/10255733

94 - 1941 07/01/2019

94 - 1941 The usual narrative for WWII is that turning points of the war are in victories of 1942. While these are unquestionably major victories that signalled the ‘end of the beginning’, as Churchill would put it, Andrew Nagorski has suggested that actually 1941 was the pivotal year of the war. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/10048277

93 - D-Day: The British Beach Landings 06/15/2019

93 - D-Day: The British Beach Landings In the last episode we looked at the American experience of D-Day at Omaha beach, this time it’s the turn of the British and Canadians at Sword, Juno and Gold on the 6th June 1944.I’m joined by John Sadler. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/9685505

92 - D-Day: Omaha 06/01/2019

92 - D-Day: Omaha ‘Before the war, Normandy’s Plage d’Or coast was best known for its sleepy villages and holiday destinations. Early in 1944, Field Marshal Rommel took one look at the gentle, sloping sands and announced ‘They will come here!’ He was referring to Omaha Beach ‒ the primary American D-Day landing site..’ /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/8671082

91 - USS Arizona: Brothers Down 05/15/2019

91 - USS Arizona: Brothers Down In this episode I’m joined by Walter Borneman, if you cast your mind back I talked to him in episode 25 about General Macarthur. That was nearly three years ago! How time flies! /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/9594137

90 - Storm On Our Shores 05/01/2019

90 - Storm On Our Shores On the 6th of June 1942 Japanese troops invaded the island of Attu which is part of Alaska, it was the first time since 1812 that continental America had been invaded. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/9354701

89 - Cork Wars 04/15/2019

89 - Cork Wars A few months ago I got email from David Taylor asking if I’d ever considered looking at the cork industry in WWII? I'm sure like you, it had never crossed my mind. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/9221099

88 - Division Leclerc 04/01/2019

88 - Division Leclerc In this episode we’re going to be looking at the Free French and the Division Leclerc, commanded by Philippe de Hauteclocque. Raised in the French Colonies of Africa, they fought with distinction in the deserts of Libya and with the British 8th Army. They also took part in the fighting in North West Europe after D-Day, being one of the units that liberated Paris in 1944. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/9118244

87 - Hitler's Death 03/15/2019

87 - Hitler's Death We all know the story of how Adolf Hitler committed suicide and the body was destroyed at the end of WWII. How much of that story do we actually know? /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/8949227

86 - The SAS in Italy, 1943-45 03/01/2019

86 - The SAS in Italy, 1943-45 The SAS made their name in the North African desert, but less well known is after that they continued to fight in the mediterranean theatre. They carried out raiding missions in advance of the invasion of Sicily, Operation Husky, and then operating behind enemy lines during the Italian Campaign. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/8542430

85 - Alarmstart East 02/15/2019

85 - Alarmstart East Last year I discussed the experiences of German Luftwaffe pilots fighting in the West, against the Allies, I was joined by Patrick Eriksson. Patrick has completed the second book in his trilogy looking at the Luftwaffe - Alarmstart East- this time tracking the pilots on the Eastern Front from 1941 though to the end of the war in 1945. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/8472704

84 - Shot Down 02/01/2019

84 - Shot Down In this episode we’re going to be looking at the story of Howard Snyder, a B-17 ‘Flying Fortress’ pilot, flying with the US 8th air force from Britain during WWII. Through letters Howard wrote to his family, and exhaustive research, his son Steve Snyder has pieced together the remarkable story of his father, and what happened after he was shot down in Belgium. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/8317475

83 - Operation Crossbow 01/15/2019

83 - Operation Crossbow In 1943 allied surveillance picked up the construction of V1 and V2 rocket sites in France. Without quite knowing the extent of the threat allied planners decided to embark upon a pre-emptive campaign to deny the Germans the use of these sites, the code name was Operation Crossbow. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/8101562

82 US Navy vs IJN Fleet Submarine, 1941-42 01/01/2019

82 US Navy vs IJN Fleet Submarine, 1941-42 In this episode we’re going to be looking a Japanese submarine operations in the Pacific in the early part of the war. While I’m sure we’re all familiar with the Imperial Japanese surface fleets actions during 1941-42, especially if you’ve listened to my discussions with Jeff Cox, but there seems to be very little mention of submarines. Which is interesting because if we look at the Battle for the North Atlantic it was all about the German U-Boats. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/7961396

81 - Britain's Blockade of Europe & the response of the ICRC 12/15/2018

81 - Britain's Blockade of Europe & the response of the ICRC During WWII Britain put into motion the strategy of blockading Germany, to deprive her of essential goods. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/7800191

80 - The Italian Army In North Africa 12/01/2018

80 - The Italian Army In North Africa Long standing listeners will have heard me chat to Walter Zapotoczny before, in episode 57 we looked at Ardennes offensive, and in episode 63 we looked at German penal battalions. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/7557221

Last Man Standing: Geoffrey Rothwell 11/26/2018

Last Man Standing: Geoffrey Rothwell In #53 I talked to Gabrielle McDonald-Rothwell about the SOE agent Diana Rowden. Afterward Gabrielle told me about her husband Geoffrey Rothwell, was the last surviving pilot for SOE during the war. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/7396826

79 - The Forgotten Dead: Exercise Tiger 11/15/2018

79 - The Forgotten Dead: Exercise Tiger ‘On a dark night in 1944, a beautiful stretch of the Devon coast became the scene of desperate horror. Tales began to leak out of night-time explosions and seaborne activity. This was practice for Exercise Tiger, the main rehearsal for the Utah Beach landings…’ /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/7396727

78 - Bones of My Grandfather 11/01/2018

78 - Bones of My Grandfather US Marine, Lt Alexander Bonnymanlanded on Tarawa in December 1942. He was mortally wounded leading an assault on a Japanese bunker, which was key to defense of the island, and act for which he would posthumously receive the Medal of Honor. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/7119827

Hitler's Vikings 10/15/2018

Hitler's Vikings We're looking at 'Hitler's Viking's', those Waffen SS units that were comprised of volunteers from Scandinavia in the latest the podcast. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/7054356

76 - RAF Flight Engineers 10/01/2018

76 - RAF Flight Engineers Way back in episode four of the podcast, I talked to Andrew Panton about the Lancaster Bomber; Andrew is the pilot of Lancaster ‘Just Jane’ here in the UK. Whilst chatting the role of flight engineer came up, I had no clue what they actually did, I wasn’t aware they worked in tandem with the pilot to fly the plane. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/7000040

75 - The Rise of Hitler and National Socialism 09/15/2018

75 - The Rise of Hitler and National Socialism September 2018 marks the 80th anniversary of the Munich agreement, where Neville Chamberlain flew to Germany to meet Hitler. He famously returned with an agreement which he believed would deliver ‘peace in our time’. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/6820705

74 - The M3 'Grant' Tank 09/01/2018

74 - The M3 'Grant' Tank The American built M3 tank was one of the first tanks purchased and supplied in large numbers to the British army in WWII, where it was known as the 'Grant' or the 'Lee'. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/6931439

73 - Ghost Riders: Operation Cowboy 08/15/2018

73 - Ghost Riders: Operation Cowboy Mark Felton is back, with another cracking story he’s managed to turn up in the archives, that of Operation Cowboy; the book is Ghost Riders. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/6897086

72 - Mediterranean Strategy 08/01/2018

72 - Mediterranean Strategy Back in episode 7, I talked to Alexander Fitzgerald-Black about his MA thesis which focused on the allied air campaign in support of Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. /episode/index/show/ww2podcast/id/6770787

The WW2 Podcast

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