Category: WW2 Podcast

In this episode, Angus discusses one of the most remarkable soldiers of the British Army, Adrian Carton de Wiart. Belgium by birth, he would fight in the Boer War, lose an eye in the Somaliland Campaign, win a VC and lose a hand in First World War, command the British troops during the Norwegian Campaign…

The Waffen-SS was one of the most formidable German military formations of the Second World War. Feared for its tenacity and ruthlessness in battle, notorious for the atrocities it committed. As a distinct fighting force derived from the Nazi Party’s SS organization, it stood apart from the other units of the German army. Its origins,…

The Parachute Regiment was formed in June 1940 and eventually raised 17 battalions. It would see service in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy, Arnhem and would cross the Rhine as part of the largest airborne assault ever undertaken. To discuss the formation of the regiment and its history through WWII, Angus is joined by historian…

During WWII, the whole of Britain’s coastline was involved in the struggle against the Nazis. In 1940-41 invasion was the main threat. Many towns and cities around the coast, such as Plymouth, Portsmouth, Hull and Great Yarmouth, were the targets of devastating air raids. The East Coast was pivotal to North Sea operations against enemy…

In this episode, we’re going to be looking at US Navy combat divers. The Combat Demolition Unit would land on D-Day with the first wave of troops. It was their job to clear coastal defences that might get in the way of landing craft. In the Pacific, Underwater Demolition Teams were carrying out similar tasks…

In late 1944, as a precursor to the invasion of the Philippines, U.S. military analysts decided to seize the small island of Peleliu to ensure that the Japanese airfield could not threaten the invasion forces. It was estimated that the island would fall in a week or so. In fact, the fighting on Peleliu would…

After the failure to take Moscow in the autumn of 1941, the Germans were left with a large salient bulging into the Russian lines, extending to the town of Rzhev. The battles around Rzhev were some of the bloodiest battles of the war for the Russians. Though millions of men would fight and die in…

We seem to have had a good run of episodes this year looking at operations from the German perspective. In this episode, we are off to the Pacific to look at the Japanese perspective of the war. Angus is joined by Peter Williams. Peter lived in Japan for four years. Whilst he was there, he interviewed…

At the outbreak of WWII, the ancient gothic castle of Colditz was converted into a prisoner-of-war camp. Its location on a rocky spur overlooking a river made it the ideal location for a high-security prison, or so the Germans thought. Sent to Colditz were some of the most difficult allied prisoners-of-war. Made famous after the…

The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk in 1940 is one of the iconic moments of the Second World War. The miracle of the ‘little ships’ plucking soldiers off the beaches is regularly played out in the popular media, including the 1958 and 2017 films ‘Dunkirk’. But, this is very much the British…