300 - Exploding Rats and the Devices of SOE

The British Army in the Second World War is often judged through the lens of manpower shortages and a sense of being overstretched. Critics point to a force spread across too many theatres and suggest...

1 Aug 1h 12min

In early September 1944, as Allied forces raced across France and Belgium, the German occupation of Brussels was beginning to collapse. On 2 September, around 1,500 prisoners, including members of the...

20 Jul 46min

1942 was a year of extraordinary contrasts for Nazi Germany. As the year began, Hitler's armies appeared unstoppable. German forces dominated much of Europe, Rommel was advancing across North Africa, ...

15 Jul 59min

In June 1944, as the Allied armies fought to break out from the Normandy beachhead, attention turned to a series of heavily defended German positions west of Caen. Among them was Rauray Spur, a vital ...

1 Jul 46min

In this episode, we turn our attention to the final months of the war in Europe and one of the Allied armies' most famous and controversial commanders, General George S. Patton. At the start of 1945, ...

22 Jun 45min

When we think of Allied prisoners of war in German camps, we often picture barbed wire, watchtowers, tunnels, and the constant urge to escape. Stalag Luft III is remembered above all for the Great Esc...

15 Jun 48min

When people think about the secret war in occupied Europe, they often picture agents, resistance fighters, and acts of sabotage carried out behind enemy lines. But those networks depended on a hidden ...

8 Jun 45min

In the summer of 1940, Britain stood alone. France had fallen, invasion seemed possible, and Winston Churchill faced a grave question: what should be done about the powerful French fleet? Fearing it m...

1 Jun 43min