The WW2 Podcast

By the end of June 1940 the Battle of France was over, the British Army had been plucked from the Beaches of Dunkirk, but much of its heavy equipment had been abandoned in France. It looked like Britain would be the next target for the Nazi war machine… Having witnessed the debacle in France a betting man might have put his money on the Germans when it came to invading England. On the 14th of May...

In this episode we're looking at the Java Sea Campaign, with Jeffrey Cox. Jeff's book Rising Sun, Falling Skies: The disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II from Osprey publishing, examines the events following Pearl Harbor. In their own lighting offensive the Japanese attacked Singapore, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies. The Allies reeled against the well planned assaults, strugglin...

In this episode I'm looking at the use of Gliders during the war and I'm joined by Matt Yates. Matt is a member of  Chalk  a living history group in the north of England who specialise in the British Glider Regiment and its activities from 1942 to 1945.

The StuG started development before the war and was in full production by 1940. Designated an Assault Gun it was designed round a Panzer III chassis but no turret, this gave it an extremely low profile. It's role was to support infantry as they followed close behind the panzer assaults. But the Assault gun soon proved to be very versatile, in Russia they were often called upon to provide an anti-t...

At a time when Britain stood alone there was one shining light in North Africa. Richard O'Conner's Operation Compass was on the cusp of capturing the whole of North Africa, before his troops were diverted to Greece. His stunning victories in 1940/41 are now rarely remembered. Mark Buehner and I discuss O'Conner's career.

Parcels delivered by the International Red Cross proved to be a lifeline for many Prisoners of War. These were guaranteed by the Geneva Convention of 1929 providing PoWs with tobacco, food and some hygiene products. For many they supplemented the meagre rations provided by their captors. Remarkably these parcels were shipped all round the world, they crossed war zones and a complex operation that...

In this episode I'm joined by Professor Theresa Kaminski. We look at the Japanese occupation of the Philippines and the extraordinary stories of those women who escaped internment and help American POWs and those interned. Theresa's speciality is American women's history at the University of Wisconsin. Her new book  Angels of the Underground: The American Women who Resisted the Japanese in the Phi...

By the end of 1940 Britain defiantly stood alone against Nazi tyranny. Appeasement of the late 1930s was a reaction against the slaughter of the First World War, even after the fall of France some in power advocated a peace with Germany. In this episode of the podcast I talk to John Kelly. We discuss why Britain chose to fight with the odds stacked against her following the fiasco in Norway, the f...

The invasion of Sicily would be the largest Allied amphibious landing at that time undertaken. After just 38 days of bitter fighting the Allies conquered the Island, but thousands of Germans had escaped capture, evacuated over the Straits of Messina. The Allied Air force had a crucial role to play, but it wasn't just over Sicily they operated in support of the operation… In this episode I'm joined...

In this episode I talk to Douglas Waller about the Office of Strategic Services, the OSS. The US entered the Second World War with no foreign intelligence service. Roosevelt selected William Donovan, WW1 Medal of Honor recipient, to create an agency based on the British MI6 and SOE. A task he did with gusto. Douglas is a veteran journalist and has work for  Time Magazine  and  Newsweek.  For twent...

  In this episode I talk to Canadian historian Mark Zuehlke, and we look at Operation Jubilee, the Raid on Dieppe.   In August of 1942 a force of 6,000, predominantly Canadians, including the Calgary Tank Regiment, mounted a raid on the French port of Dieppe, now occupied by the Germans.   This would be the largest allied raid yet launched.   Almost all the objectives of the main raid failed to be...

In this episode I talk to Andrew Panton of the  Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage centre . Andrew is lucky enough to be one of the pilots for their Lancaster Bomber " Just Jane ". The Lancaster is arguably, one of the most well known planes designed and built in Britain during the Second World War. When it went into production it quickly became the mainstay of Bomber Command, with 7,377 being made, o...

Omar Bradley commanded more Americans in combat than any other General before or since, at its peak his 12th Army Group numbered 1.7 million men! In the pantheon of World War II leaders he is over shadowed by bigger characters such as Patton or MacArthur. Yet in 1943 Patton was his commander, but by 1944 he commanded Patton. The war reported  Ernie Pyle  dubbed him the "GI's General" and wrote: "I...

The  USS Neosho  was a fleet oiler during WW2. She was delivering fuel at Pearl Harbour when it was attacked in December 1941. Laiden with fuel, if hit she would have caused and an enormous explosion.  The quick thinking Captain saved her on that day. Dispatched with Task Force 17 to the Coral Sea, she was the only big oil tanker serving the fleet until the battle began, when she was ordered to le...

In this first episode of the WW2 podcast Angus talks to Paul Hilditch, of the Northern WW2 Association, about the iconic German halftrack, the Sd. Kfz 251.