🔴 Essential

Naval Battle of Narvik: Annihilation (Part 3)
We Have Ways of Making You Talk · 1h00m · Jun 17
James Holland & Al Murray
World War IINavalTactics & Battles
Holland and Murray wrap up their Narvik naval series with the destruction of the remaining German destroyers, the role of Swordfish torpedo bombers, and Warburton-Lee's posthumous VC. Holland is characteristically good on the Royal Navy's tactical execution and the sheer chaos of fighting inside narrow fjords — the kind of operational terrain that demands precise narration and rarely gets it. A proper conclusion to a strong series — if you haven't started from Part 1, go back.

Naval Battle Of Narvik: Confusion (Part 2)
We Have Ways of Making You Talk · 51:52 · Jun 15
James Holland & Al Murray
World War IINavalTactics & Battles
Part 2 covers the Admiralty's missed window to strike the Kriegsmarine, HMS Glowworm's opening engagement, and the Polish submarine Orzel's contribution to the Norwegian campaign. Holland is strong on the command-level confusion that let the Germans consolidate, and the episode moves briskly through the early naval clashes. Essential context for Part 3 above.

Operation Aphrodite
Lions Led By Donkeys · 1h02m · Jun 15
Peter Crean & Luke Robinson
World War IIAir WarfareWeapons & Technology
Lions Led By Donkeys covers Operation Aphrodite, the USAAF's harebrained 1944 scheme to use radio-controlled B-17s packed with explosives against V-weapon sites — the programme that killed Joe Kennedy Jr. Classic LLBD territory: a genuinely dangerous idea, questionable command decisions, and a body count that outweighed any results.
🟡 Selections

WWII Hot Takes: Should the Allies Have Raced for Berlin?
World War 2 LIVE · 1h01m · Jun 19
Dr John C. McManus — professor of US military history, Missouri S&T & Kevin Hymel — military historian
World War IIStrategy & Grand StrategyCounterfactual
McManus and Hymel launch a counterfactual series by tackling the perennial broad-front vs. Berlin question, weighing Eisenhower's logistical constraints against the political cost of ceding the capital to the Soviets.

The Origins of the Tank
Dan Snow's History Hit · 51:38 · Jun 15
Mark Urban — defence journalist and historian; hosted by Dan Snow
World War IWeapons & Technology
Dan Snow and Mark Urban trace the tank from its WWI landship origins through WWII heavyweights to the modern question of whether armour has a future in the drone age. Urban's defence-journalism background gives the contemporary relevance section more weight than the usual podcast treatment.

Holland's Hidden Heroes: Dutch Resistance & Allied Airman In The Polders
The Unconventional Soldier · 53:39 · Jun 15
Lilian van Mourik — Dutch wartime heritage researcher; hosted by Colin Ferguson — British Army veteran
World War IIHome Front & Society
Lilian van Mourik discusses her work preserving the stories of Allied airmen downed in the Dutch polders and the resistance networks that sheltered them. More heritage-preservation and local history than operational detail, but the resistance angle keeps it relevant.

Great Escapism at Stalag Luft III
The WW2 Podcast · 48:08 · Jun 15
Angus Wallace — independent military historian
World War IIHome Front & SocietyMemoir & Personal Account
Angus Wallace looks at the cultural life inside Stalag Luft III — theatre, music, and morale — rather than the escape tunnels themselves. Interesting on the psychology of captivity, but the military content is secondary to the social history of POW life.

Boudica and the Iceni
The Ancients · 56:32 · Jun 18
Elodie Harper — novelist and historian; hosted by Dr Tristan Hughes
AncientCivil War & Rebellion
Tristan Hughes and novelist Elodie Harper discuss Boudica's revolt against Rome in 60 AD — the sack of Camulodunum, Londinium, and Verulamium, and the Roman response. The conversation leans toward cultural legacy and the literary afterlife of Boudica more than the military campaign itself.
📚 Reading List
The Great Escapism: The Theatrical Entertainers of Stalag Luft III — David McCormackThe guest's own book, covering the overlooked theatrical life inside Stalag Luft III — plays, concerts, and performances that gave POWs purpose beyond tunnel-digging. A genuinely different angle on one of the most familiar camps of the war.
📖 Amazon Tank: The 10 War Machines That Changed the World and the Remarkable Men Behind Them — Mark UrbanMark Urban traces the tank's evolution from First World War agricultural-tractor experiments through to the modern battlefield and asks whether armour still matters in the age of drones. The book behind his conversation with Dan Snow.
📖 Amazon Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941–1943 — John C. McManusMcManus is the guest on the Luzon landings episode and the host of the Berlin Hot Takes discussion — this is his detailed account of the early Pacific ground war, including the very Philippine disaster they're walking through. If you want the full picture of what went wrong on Luzon, start here.
📖 Amazon Narvik: The Struggle of Battle Group Dietl in the Spring of 1940 — Alex BuchnerHolland and Murray's three-part Narvik series covers the naval side in vivid detail; Buchner's account fills in the German land perspective, tracking Dietl's isolated mountain troops fighting to hold the port. A good complement to the podcast's Royal Navy focus.
📖 Amazon 🗓 This Week in Military History
Jun 22, 1941 — Nazi Germany launches Operation Barbarossa, invading the Soviet Union.
Jun 25, 1876 — Lakota and Cheyenne warriors defeat Custer's 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Jun 25, 1950 — North Korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War.
Jun 21, 1813 — Wellington defeats the French at the Battle of Vitoria, effectively ending Napoleonic rule in Spain.