wwii

The former MI5 double agent, Anthony Blunt, was unmasked as a Soviet mole in 1979 but the full extent of what he did isn’t known. Could he have been more dangerous than we thought? A new book has uncovered how he may have helped Hitler during the Second World War. 

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.co.uk/thestory

Guest: Robert Verkaik, Author of The Traitor of Arnhem. 

Host: Luke Jones. 

Clips: Channel 4, UK Parliament/Hansard, Netflix/The Crown Season 3, AP Archive.  

Get in touch: thestory@thetimes.co.uk 

Find out more about our bonus series for Times subscribers: 'Inside the newsroom'

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René Carmille is considered one of the first hackers. Today, we’d call him a hacktivist, or someone who sabotages a computer for ethical reasons. Carmille sabotaged the Nazi census of France during World War II. He saved many thousands of Jewish people by hacking Hollerith machines during the war.

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Created, Produced & Hosted by Keith Korneluk

Written & Researched by Jim Rowley

Edited, Mixed & Mastered by Greg Bernhard

Theme Song You Are Digital by Computerbandit

On this episode: Part 2 of our series on Alan Turning and Enigma: the end of World War II, the beginning of computers, and the downfall of one of the world’s greatest scientists.

Listen to Part 1

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Created, Produced & Hosted by Keith Korneluk

Written & Researched by Jim Rowley

Edited, Mixed & Mastered by Greg Bernhard

Theme Song “You Are Digital” by Computerbandit

Show Transcript

Join us for adventure with Ben Macintyre, author of Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison!

What We Discuss with Ben Macintyre:

• How Germany's Colditz Castle — around in some form or another since 1046 — came to serve as a Nazi POW camp for high-ranking officers of the Western Allies during World War II.
• How concentrating Allied officers who had previously escaped from other camps — or were deemed to be a high-security risk — into one place turned Colditz into a highly competitive "escape university."
• Why the hodgepodge layout of Colditz (known as Oflag IV-C during the war) made it a terribly inefficient prison — from which more than 30 successful escape attempts were made between 1939 and 1945.
• Plans for more than 300 escape attempts made over the years involved everything from clever disguises to hand-dug tunnels to a glider made from bedsteads, floorboards, cotton sheets, and porridge.
• What happened to Colditz and its prisoners after the war?
• And much more...

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/935

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The Battle of the Bulge commenced on the morning of December 16, 1944. The Allies were ill-prepared for this last, desperate offensive from the Germans, and the campaign might have succeeded if a few things hadn’t gotten in their way, including a single, green, 18-man platoon who refused to give up their ground to the Nazis.

Alex Kershaw shares the story of these men in his book, The Longest Winter, and with us today on the show. He first explains the background of the Battle of the Bulge and how an Intelligence and Reconnaissance unit that had never seen combat ended up in the thick of it. And he describes the platoon’s 20-year-old leader, Lyle Bouk, who was determined to carry out his orders and hold their position despite being massively outmanned and outgunned, and how his men fought until they were down to their last rounds. Alex then shares how what Bouk thought was a total failure — being captured as POWs after just a day of combat — turned out to have been an effort that significantly influenced the outcome of the Battle of the Bulge, and how an unlikely platoon of heroes who initially went unrecognized for their valor became the most decorated American platoon of WWII. You’ll find such an inspiring lesson in this show about living up to your duty and holding the line.

Resources Related to the Podcast

• Alex’s previous appearances on the AoM Podcast:
  • #361: The Untold Story of WWII’s 45th Infantry Division
  • #514: Remembering D-Day 75 Years Later
  • #806: The Humble Heroics of Four of WWII’s Most Decorated Soldiers
• The Bedord Boys by Alex Kershaw 
• The Bitter Woods: The Battle of the Bulge by John S.D. Eisenhower
• AoM Article: NUTS! Why Remembering Christmas 1944 Can Change Your Life
• Lyle Bouck

Watching a holiday movie is a great way to get into the spirit of the season and has become an annual tradition for many families. But what exactly makes a Christmas movie, a Christmas movie, what are some of the best ones ever made, and what makes these gems so classic?

Here to answer these questions and take us on a tour of the highlights of the holiday movie canon is Jeremy Arnold, a film historian and the author of Christmas in the Movies: 35 Classics to Celebrate the Season. Today on the show, we talk about what defines a Christmas movie, why we enjoy them so much, and why so many classics in the genre were released during the 1940s. Jeremy offers his take on the best version of A Chirstmas Carol, whether Holiday Inn or White Christmas is a better movie, why he thinks Die Hard is, in fact, a Christmas movie, what accounts for the staying power of Elf, and much more. At the end of the show, Jeremy offers several suggestions for lesser-known Christmas movies to check out when you’re tired of watching A Christmas Story for the fiftieth time.

Movies Mentioned in the Show

• Santa Claus (1898)
• Scrooge (1901)
• Scrooge (1935)
• Miracle on Main Street (1939)
• Remember the Night (1940)
• The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
• Holiday Inn (1942)
• The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
• Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
• It’s a Wonderful Life (1947)
• Scrooge/Christmas Carol (1951)
• We’re No Angels (1955)
• Cash on Demand (1961)
• Die Hard (1988)
• Home Alone (1990)
• Home Alone 2 (1992)
• The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
• Elf (2003)

Chuck and Josh turn into the Hardy Boys for one of the great unsolved mysteries of WWII, a work of art worth a king’s ransom that went missing in 1945.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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After President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, General John DeWitt issued over a hundred exclusion orders in quick succession, and demanded that all Japanese Americans–even those with as little as one-sixteenth ancestry–prepare themselves to be sent to incarceration camps. They had under two weeks to pack up–to give up everything they owned, everything they treasured–and prepare for the unknown.

Joining us today is Professor Lorraine Bannai.

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On today’s episode in our series, Resilience, we talk about what happened immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the death of over 2,400 American servicemen. How did the US government respond and how quickly did they mobilize? What, exactly, became the plan, and how did they carry it out?

Joining us for part of the episode is Professor Lorraine Bannai.

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“We were young citizen-soldiers, terribly naive and gullible about what we would be confronted with in the air war over Europe and the profound effect it would have upon every fiber of our being for the rest of our lives. We were all afraid, but it was beyond our power to quit. We volunteered for the service and, once trained and overseas, felt we had no choice but to fulfill the mission assigned. My hope is that this book honors the men with whom I served by telling the truth about what it took to climb into the cold blue and fight for our lives over and over again.”

So writes the 100-year-old World War II veteran John “Lucky” Luckadoo in the new book he co-authored with Kevin Maurer: Damn Lucky: One Man’s Courage During the Bloodiest Military Campaign in Aviation History. Kevin is my guest today, and will share Lucky’s story, and with it, the story of WWII’s famous B-17 bomber.

During the war, airmen in the 100th Bomb Group could finish their combat service and return home after flying 25 missions. Yet with a 1 in 10 chance of becoming a casualty, few were able to reach this milestone. Lucky was one of the, well, lucky few who did, and Kevin traces how he got there, from trying to join the Royal Canadian Air Force as a teenager, to learning to fly the B-17 on the job, to his harrowing daylight bombing missions over Germany, to the life he made for himself after the war. Along the way, Kevin describes the brutal conditions inside a B-17 and the bomber’s role in winning the war.

Resources Related to the Podcast

• The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell
• Memphis Belle
• Norden bombsight
• Video tour of B-17 G model

Connect with Kevin Maurer

• Kevin’s Website

In a podcast episode with award-winning author and screenwriter Norman Ohler, Dr. Puder and Dr. Borecky discussed Ohler’s recent book, Blitzed, about how the Third Reich used drugs to optimize performance during World War II and how it may have changed the course of history.

Link to Blog.

Link to Resource Library. 

0:00:00 - Opening

0:02:51 - Jake Larsen

2:06:35 - How to stay on THE PATH.

2:40:34 - Closing Gratitude

A little Holiday show for everyone. On 20 December 1943, Franz met the B-17 bomber named "Ye Olde Pub" and its pilot Charles "Charlie" Brown for the first time. Franz had shot down two B-17s earlier that day and he soon caught up to a wounded B-17 flown by Charles Brown.

Lining up to finish the bomber and shoot it down, he noticed the tail gunner never moved the guns. Upon further inspection of the airplane, he saw through large holes in the fuselage a frantic crew trying to save the lives of their fellow airmen.

Franz is quoted as saying "and for me it would have been the same as shooting at a parachute", in reference to a statement by his commander and mentor Gustav Rödel; "If I hear of one of you shooting a man in a parachute, I'll shoot you myself!". Stigler motioned to Brown to land his airplane in neutral Sweden because of the extensive damage. However, Brown didn't understand, and decided to keep flying towards England. Stigler escorted the B-17 and its crew to the North Sea coast, protecting it from German anti-aircraft gunners.

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Seventy-six years years after the end of World War II, that singular event continues to capture our interest and fascination. There's a reason for that; the war combined two greatly compelling things — the epic, historic sweep of large-scale battles and the personal stories of the individual young men who fought in them with determined resolve and humble heroism.

My guest has written a book that deftly combines both of these elements into a thoroughly memorable tale. His name is James Sullivan and he's the author of Unsinkable: Five Men and the Indomitable Run of the U.S.S. Plunkett. Today on the show, Jim shares the story of the Plunkett — the only Navy ship to participate in every Allied invasion in the European theatre — as well as the stories of a group of men who served on this destroyer. We begin with the personal connection Jim has to the Plunkett, and how he got interested in learning more about the ship. Jim then explains the role the Navy's destroyers played during WWII, before getting into the backstories of some of the men who served aboard the Plunkett. From there we delve into the escorting and landing operations the Plunkett was involved in leading up to its arrival along the Italian coast at Anzio, where a dozen German bombers bore down on the ship in one of the most savage attacks of the war, and how the ship yet lived to fight another day. We end our conversation with what happened to the men Jim profiled, how the war affected their lives, and how their lives affected Jim.

Get the show notes at aom.is/unsinkable.

Today, it's hard to go very long without hearing about special operations forces like the Army's Green Berets and the Navy's SEALs. But before special operators became an ingrained part of the military's strategy and established a prominent presence in the public eye, they existed as experimental, now largely forgotten units that were launched during the Second World War.

One of the primary predecessors of today's commandos was the 1st Special Service Force, which was known simply as the Force, and is described in a book of the same name by military historian Saul David. Today on the show, Saul explains how he came across the little known story of the Force and traces its origins to an idea formulated by a British civilian scientist and championed by Winston Churchill which envisioned a unit that could accompany a fleet of snow tanks into enemy territory. Saul details how the Force was composed of men from both America and Canada, how members were recruited from the rough-and-ready ranks of explorers, miners, lumberjacks, and hunters who were physically strong and used to cold temperatures and rugged terrain, and the rigorous training that turned these recruits into what was arguably the military's fittest and best disciplined fighting force -- a unit which would become known as the "Devil's Brigade." We then turn to the action these elite commandos saw during the war, which included scaling the sheer cliffs of a mountain to secure a Nazi stronghold. We end our conversation with why the unit was disbanded before the war was even over and how its legacy continues to live on in the special forces of today.

Get the show notes at aom.is/theforce.