Holland and Murray reach the final countdown to 22 June 1941 — Hitler's shift from conquest to extermination as the operational aim, the intelligence warnings Stalin received and ignored, and the sheer scale of panzer mobilisation for the invasion. Holland is particularly good on how the ideological radicalisation of Barbarossa's war aims reshaped the operational planning, and Murray keeps pushing on the logistics and mechanisation gaps that would haunt the Wehrmacht within weeks. Part 4 of a series that's building into one of We Have Ways' strongest runs, methodically reconstructing the kind of week-by-week operational buildup that most Barbarossa treatments compress into a chapter.

Lions Led By Donkeys takes on Athens' catastrophic Sicilian Expedition of 415–413 BC — the hubris-driven decision to attack Syracuse, the political manipulation that got Athens into it, and the operational disaster that followed. The show's signature irreverence works well here because the Sicilian Expedition is genuinely one of history's great military blunders, and the command failures (Nicias above all) are tailor-made for the format. At 80 minutes, it has room to cover both the strategic folly and the campaign's grim conclusion.

McManus and Hymel dig into the German strategic debate after Salerno — Rommel's preference for a northern defence line versus Kesselring's aggressive forward defence in the mountainous south. The episode gets into why the Italian campaign became such a grinding attritional slog and whether the German approach was actually more coherent than the Allied one. McManus is one of the best working historians on the US Army in WWII, and the hour-long format lets him operate at the level of operational detail this 1943–44 command rivalry deserves but rarely receives.

Holland and Murray on the German high command's catastrophic underestimation of Soviet capacity — low mechanisation rates, logistical planning failures, and Stalin's diplomatic manoeuvring with Japan to secure his eastern flank. The discussion of how Germany's own industrial weaknesses were papered over in the planning process is the strongest section. Essential context for Part 4, and strong on its own terms.

Angus Wallace covers Operation Martlet — the 49th (West Riding) Division's fight to secure Rauray Spur and protect the western flank before Epsom could launch. The episode gets into the tactical problem of attacking well-sited German positions on commanding ground, the role of 12th SS Panzer Division in the defence, and why this overlooked preliminary operation mattered for the broader breakout from Normandy. A properly done battle episode on a fight that usually gets a paragraph in the Epsom narrative.

Colonel Ichiki's reckless assault on the Marine perimeter at Guadalcanal, with Harris covering the Japanese reinforcement, the intelligence warning from local scouts, and the battle itself. Pairs naturally with episode 636; together they give a decent account of the engagement.

Ray Harris Jr. covers the aftermath of Alligator Creek on Guadalcanal — the Marines learning to deal with Japanese soldiers feigning death and the brutal close-quarters reality that followed. Short at 19 minutes but squarely tactical.

A brisk 40-minute treatment of the Able Archer 83 crisis — from the KAL 007 shootdown through Petrov's near-launch to the NATO exercise that Moscow may have read as a genuine first-strike prelude. Covers the key beats without breaking new ground, but it's a well-structured introduction to an event that remains under-known relative to its stakes.