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Week of Jun 19, 2026 · 9 episodes · 8h 36m total listening

Wall-to-wall World War II this week, with the Pick going to McManus on *Unauthorized History* for a granular, deeply satisfying hour on the Luzon landings most treatments skip past entirely. Holland and Murray's Narvik finale is the other must-hear — fjord chaos rendered with typical precision.

🎯 This Week's Pick
Unauthorized History of the Pacific War artwork
Japanese Landings on Luzon-December 1941 with John McManus
Unauthorized History of the Pacific War · 1h10m · Jun 16
John McManus — professor of US military history, Missouri S&T; with Seth Paridon — former chief historian, National WWII Museum & Jon Parshall
World War IITactics & BattlesLeadership & Command

Seth Paridon and Jon Parshall bring John McManus on to walk through the December 1941 Japanese landings on Luzon — Aparri, Vigan, Legaspi, and the main event at Lingayen Gulf — plus the panic in Manila after Clark Field and MacArthur's halting response. The episode benefits from McManus's deep knowledge of the US Army in the Pacific, and the trio get into the operational detail of why the Philippine defence collapsed so quickly. Over an hour of three knowledgeable voices reconstructing a campaign that most accounts compress into a paragraph before Bataan takes over, delivering the kind of granular operational coverage that turns a footnote into a fully realized battle narrative.

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🔴 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.

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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.

📎 Catching up? Part 1: Plans & Schemes
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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.

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🟡 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.

🔗 Pairs well with: Japanese Landings on Luzon-December 1941 with John McManus - Episode 604 (Unauthorized History of the Pacific War)
More from World War 2 LIVE →
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.

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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.

🔗 Pairs well with: 310 - Great Escapism at Stalag Luft III (The WW2 Podcast)
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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.

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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.

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📚 Reading List

The Great Escapism: The Theatrical Entertainers of Stalag Luft III — David McCormack

The 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.

Via: Great Escapism at Stalag Luft III, The WW2 Podcast
📖 Amazon
Tank: The 10 War Machines That Changed the World and the Remarkable Men Behind Them — Mark Urban

Mark 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.

Via: The Origins of the Tank, Dan Snow's History Hit
📖 Amazon
Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941–1943 — John C. McManus

McManus 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.

Via: Japanese Landings on Luzon, Unauthorized History of the Pacific War
📖 Amazon
Narvik: The Struggle of Battle Group Dietl in the Spring of 1940 — Alex Buchner

Holland 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.

Via: Naval Battle of Narvik series, We Have Ways of Making You Talk
📖 Amazon

🗓 This Week in Military History

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