Posts Tagged ‘world war II’
Gustav Stresmann – Man Crush Monday!
Professor Philip Nash explains his man-crush on Gustav Stresemann, the important German politician during the Weimar period. What do Stresemann’s career and his hopes for Germany tell us about the strengths that can be found in nationalism? And we engage in some “what if Stresemann had lived” speculation. Would we have seen the rise of…
Read MoreGeorgian Texel Uprising and Hitler’s Revenge, April-May 1945
In the final days of World War II in Europe, Georgians serving in the Wehrmacht on Texel island off the Dutch coast rose up and slaughtered their German masters. Hitler ordered the island to be retaken and fighting continued for weeks, well after the war’s end. The uprising had its origins in the bloody history…
Read MoreAlbert Battel: From Nazi Officer to Righteous Among Nations
Your favorite Professor, Philip Nash, tells about Albert Battel, a German Army lieutenant and lawyer recognized for his resistance during World War II to the Nazi plans for the 1942 liquidation of a Jewish ghetto in Poland. Battel was posthumously recognized by the State of Israel as “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1981. Listen to…
Read MoreChurchill’s Shadow Raiders: the Race to Develop Radar During World War II
Operation Biting was a daring RAF raid to capture important German radar technology in France during World War II. Award-winning military historian, Damien Lewis explains the planning and execution of this overlooked incident in the war. More importantly, he shows us how complex and fraught with danger the whole operation was. The full context of…
Read MoreLevi and Catherine Coffin: the Underground Railroad
In 1876, an elderly man decided to write his memoirs. As we’ll see during this show, he and his wife were very important in 19th century America. They helped a great many people achieve freedom, but very few people have heard of them. As he was writing his autobiography, this old man wanted to stress…
Read MoreGeorge Patton Conquers the World!
We hear this all the time in the US: “George Patton should have been unleashed and taken care of the Soviets in 1945 when we had the chance.” And from the movie, Patton: “We’re gonna have to fight them sooner or later anyway. Why not do it now, when we got the army here to…
Read MoreWinston Churchill: “An empty taxi pulled up and out stepped Clement Attlee” Quote or No Quote?
As many of you know, Lady Buzzkill can’t stand me. Sometimes I can’t blame her, though. Imagine what it must be like watching a history-based movie or TV series with me. I go ballistic at every false historical reference, and start yelling at the TV. Even I admit that it must get annoying. But I…
Read MorePoland and World War II
Myths about Poland during World War II are everywhere. Professor Philip Nash and I destroy some of the biggest ones in this episode. They include: Polish cavalry going up against Nazi tanks, and the story that Poland fell quickly and easily. Not only that, the overall Polish contribution to Allied victory in Europe is generally…
Read MoreWWII in the Pacific: the Defeat of Japan, 1944-45
Japan’s defensive perimeter kept shrinking during 1944 and 1945, yet the war dragged on. The battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa were as bloody and horrific as any others during the Pacific war. Strategic bombing of Japan increased, both from the Asian mainland, and from the Pacific side. Japan eventually surrendered in 1945, but we…
Read MoreWWII in the Pacific: Guadalcanal to the Philippines, 1942-44
The brutality of World War II in the Pacific continued from Guadalcanal to the Aleutians, from China to the Solomon Islands, and was also a propaganda war at home in Japan and in Allied countries. Professor Nash comes back to tell us about these middle years in the Pacific War, and explain how the power…
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