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 1940 Anthony Eden had called on men between 17 and 65 in Britain who were not in military service but wished to defend their country to enrol in the Local Defence Volunteers. By July over 1.5million Britons has volunteered… Another group was also created, a clandestine army that in the event of invasion would be called upon. Britain would be the first nation to have a pre-planed resistance network, the went under the unassuming name of Auxiliary, or Aux Units. I'm joined by Tom Sykes from the ColesHill Auxiliary Research Team.

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, struggling to hit back with any useful resistance in the first major sea battles of the war in the Pacific.

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-tank role. The StuG would be produced throughout the war. The bombing of the factory in 1943 forced a change in design to a Panzer IV Chassis as production was moved to a different facility. To deal with the better armour that the Germans were now facing it was found the StuG with its larger crew compartment could accommodate the 75mm Pak40 allowing it to pack enough punch to knock out the new Soviet T34s. The StuG became the most produced armoured fighting vehicle of the war! In this episode I'm talking to John Phillips and we're talking StuG, Jon owns one and currently in the process of restoring it.

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 ensured they got through. In this episode I'm joined by Mark Webster. Mark has written two books on the subject from the perspective of New Zealand, a country who had 1 in 200 of its population held as PoWs. As a result New Zealand would pack, by hand one parcel for every 1.7 of its population and ship them halfway round the world mainly to European camps. Parcels From Home and Parcels From Home: Trainspotter Edition by Mark Webster and Paul Luker are available from the Apple iBook Store.

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 Philippines in World War II tells the story of four American women who avoided being captured by the Japanese in Manila and were part of a little-known resistance movement.

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 fall of Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and France. We examine how the public mood changed and Churchill's rise to Prime Minister. John is the author of "Never Surrender'.

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 by Alexander Fitzgerald-Black. Alex gained his MA at the University of New Brunswick. His thesis "Eagles over Husky: The Allied Air Forces and the Sicilian Campaign" investigates the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.

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 twenty years as a Washington correspondent he has covered the Pentagon, Congress, the State Department, the White House and the CIA. He has written two books looking at the American Office of Strategic Services, the OSS, which was America's Intelligence service during WWII. His first book on the subject "Wild" Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage is a biography of William Donovan who ran the organisation up until it was disbanded in 1945. His new book Disciples: The World War II Missions of the CIA Directors Who Fought for Wild Bill Donovan takes a closer look at the activities of the OSS, through the careers of four future CIA directors who were active during the war.