The WW2 Podcast

In episode 57 I talked to Walter Zapotoczny about Ardennes Offensive, chatting with him it told me had had a new book out in 2018 looking at German Penal Battalions. That sounded like a topic right up my street so I got him back to talk with us. When war broke out in 1939, Hitler created `Strafbattalion' (Penal Battalion) units to deal with incarcerated members of the Wehrmacht as well as `subvers...

In this episode we're going to be discussing the plight of 168 Allied Airmen who found themselves imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp. It's something that even to this day governments seem unwilling to admit to. "As we got close to the camp and saw what was inside... a terrible, terrible fear and horror entered our hearts. We thought, what is this? Where are we going? Why are we here? And...

If Slim's 14th army was the 'Forgotten Army' the RAF bombing campaign in the Far East is even more forgotten! In this episode I'm talking to Matt Poole. Matt's mother is from Liverpool, her first husband was in the RAF serving in Burma when he was shot down over Rangoon. In trying to find out what happened that night Matt was introduced to Bill Kirkness who served in the same squadron. Bill had wr...

When I plan the podcast episodes I don't usually sit down and look at the subject and how it relates to those episodes around it, hence we've often found ourselves in the pacific in quick succession. In this instance it seems serendipitous that we're going from looking at the fall of France, in the last episode, to looking at the experiences of German fighter pilots in Europe. The two topics compl...

In this episode I'm looking at 'Case Red' the German attack on France post Dunkirk. Often when we talk about the Battle of France the history seems to stop at Dunkirk, in actual fact the fight carried on for a few more weeks. There was still British 100,000+ troops in France, Churchill was keen to keep the French fighting… Joining in me is Robert Forczyk, if you recall last year we discussed Opera...

In this episode we'll be looking at two British soldiers in occupied Burma. Major Hugh Seagrim operated for two years behind the Japanese lines, organising Karen resistance before he was eventually forced to surrender. Seagrim crosses paths with Roy Pagani, trying to make his way back to British army in India, after escaping as a POW working on the Burma railway. Pagani is a remarkable man he had...

This episode is being released on the 15th of December, the eve of the Battle of the Bulge. It was the 16th of December 1944 that Hitler launched Operation Watch on the Rhine , the last great offensive in the West. Joining me today is Walter Zapotoczny, author of The 110th Hold In The Ardennes: The Blunting of Hitler's Last Gamble and the Invasion of the Reich . The 110th Infantry Regiment were pa...

In the classic narrative, the second world war starts with the invasion of Poland in 1939, though for the Chinese it started with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. I notice wikipedia solves the start date by stating 'relate conflicts started earlier', and that is what we'll be looking at today the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and those foreigners who volunteered to fight for Hail...

I've been promising you an extra episode since September...  Well it never came off, I was all prepared to discuss the end of the war in the Pacific but I struggled to pin down the guest so I gave up! But good things come to those that wait! I was asked if I might be interested in having a chat with the writer of the new WW2 film Darkest Hour , Anthony McCarten. How could I say no? If you would li...

Within a year of Belgium falling to the Germans in 1940, Belgian citizens were volunteering to join the Waffen SS to fight communism on the newly formed Eastern Front. Thousands volunteered, and the suffered heavy casualties.  I'm joined by Jonathan Trigg author of Voices of the Flemish Waffen SS. He has been gathering the stories of these men and women. What remarkable stories they are, I devoure...

We've spent quite a bit of time in the Pacific this year, I didn't intend to but as its a theatre of the war I'm not very familiar with I've been happy to be pulled down that route.  One topic we've skirted round in a number of episodes is the Bataan Death March , its been a topic I've been keen to look at as we've mentioned it a few times. Plus it's seems like an obvious gap in my knowledge I nee...

Last year I talked to Greg Lewis about the female agents in the British Special Operations Executive , SOE, who Churchill had tasked with "setting Europe ablaze". In this episode we'll be looking specifically at Diana Rowden who was flown into France in 1943. Diana spent her early years in the South of France before being sent to Public School in England. At the outbreak of war Diana was living in...

Between 1943-45  Fernaufklärungsgruppe 5 " Atlantik " would fly missions of up to 18 hours at a time over the Atlantic. They acted as the eyes for the U-Boats. Equipped with big, four-engined Junkers Ju 290s fitted out with advanced search radar and other maritime 'ELINT' (electronic intelligence) devices, Fernaufklärungsgruppe (FAGr) 5 'Atlantik' undertook a distant, isolated campaign far out int...

I was reading the British Journal for Military History and an article caught my eye titled The Psychological Impact of Airborne Warfare & the British Response to the Airborne Threat by Dr Tim Jenkins. In 1940 the Germans achieved stunning successes with the use of airborne troops, the  Fallschirmjäger.   The first recorded attack by parachutists was in Denmark against the fortress at  Masnedø. The...

In this episode I'm looking at Operation Tonga, the British airborne element that led the way during the D-Day landings in 1944. I'm joined by Stephen Wright. Stephen is keenly interested in the operation, an operation his uncle was killed taking part in. For the last twenty years he's been researching the airborne, and particularly the use of Gliders during the closing years of the war. His book,...

In this episode we're looking at high ranking British POWs held by the Italians and their attempts at escape. The middle east was considered an Italian theatre, rather than prisoners be shipped to Germany high ranking officers such as Generals Richard O'Connor , Phillip Neame , Adrian Carton de Wiart or Air Marshal Owen Boyd were placed into Italian custody as POWs. Neither rank or age deterred th...

In this episode I'm looking at the giant soviet T-35 tank with Francis Pulham. As you will discover the T-35 was a peculiar vehicle with five turrets, very few were ever produced and almost all were knocked out very early in the war. Francis is the author of Fallen Giants, The Combat Debut of the T-35a tank . "The T-35 was a Soviet multi-turreted heavy tank of the interwar period and early Second...

In this episode we're in the Western Desert in 1940-41 looking at the air campaign fought by Raymond Collishaw and his RAF crews. Collishaw was a WW1 fighter ace. When the war broke out in 1939 now Air Commodore Collishaw he commanded an RAF Group in Egypt. The fighting in the western desert in 1940 and early 41 is often overlooked yet with his army counterpart, Richard O'Connor they scored some s...

As many of you know I bang on about supporting me via Patreon at the start of each episode. These small donations pay for hosting, software and help me to find the time to dedicate to the show. After two years of plugging away I've finally reached my first funding goal on Patreon, $250 per month! Now I've reached this goal I'm going to upgrade my hosting package allowing me to potentially post mor...

In this episode we're going to be discussing Bill Cheall. Bill joined the Green Howard's in 1939, a regiment in the British army, and fought throughout the whole war. He was evacuated through Dunkirk, fought in the Desert, took part in the invasion of Sicily and in 1944 landed on Gold beach on D-Day… Bill wrote his memoirs which have been edited by his son Paul and publish as "Fighting Through fro...

In this episode we're looking at three brothers all in the US Navy at the start of the war, and their remarkable story. Today I'm joined by Sally Mott Freeman, her book " The Jersey Brothers: A Missing Naval Officer in the Pacific and His Family's Quest to Bring Him Home " follows her father and his two brothers through the war. Bill Mott would start the war in FDR's Whitehouse Map room, his broth...

Last year I talked to Irish Historian Bernard Kelly about his book " Military Internees, Prisoners of War and the Irish State during the Second World War ", thats episode 23 for those who haven't listened. We discussed how the Republic of Ireland walked the tightrope of neutrality and how it treated troops of belligerent nations who found themselves within its borders.. Chatting with Bernard after...

The role of the International Committee of the Red Cross during WWII is complicated. Closely bound to Switzerland the ICRC tried to remain neutral whilst at the same time operating with in the boundaries of the Geneva Conventions. Criticised for its failure to speak out during the holocaust as the war came to a close it went into overdrive to remain relevant in a post war world. I'm joined by Gera...

In January I had an email from Bob Drury, if that name sounds familiar it's because I chatted to Bob in episode 30 talking about Old 666 . He wondered what I had planned for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea . As it happens I'd not actually thought about the Battle of the Coral Sea! Bob suggested that he and his writing partner of Lucky 666 Tom Calvin come on the podcast and have...

We're looking at amphibious operations during the war in this episode. Until I started researching I hadn't realised how many there were. We're all pretty familiar with the handful in the European Theatre but in the Pacific the list is long…  In this episode I'm talking to Mike Walling. Mikes is the author of Bloodstained Sands, US amphibious operations in WWII , he is a veteran of the US navy coa...