Paridon and Jon Parshall dig into the Japanese attacks on the Abucay Line in January 1942, where General Parker's II Corps — outgunned, undersupplied, and running on sheer operational tenacity — fought Homma's forces to a standstill. The episode is excellent on Homma's overconfidence and the sharp tactical engagements that proved the Fil-American defenders were far more capable than Japanese intelligence had assessed. At 97 minutes with Parshall contributing, this is the Pacific War podcast at its best — granular, well-sourced, and focused on a campaign phase that most treatments of the Philippines rush past.

Kelly DeVries and Michael Livingston break down the Battle of Formigny, the 1450 engagement that effectively ended English control of Normandy and brought the Hundred Years' War to its close. The episode traces the campaign leading up to the battle — the French reconquest of Normandy, the English defensive posture, and the tactical details of the fight itself, where French artillery and a flanking force destroyed an English army that had initially held its ground. DeVries and Livingston bring genuine academic weight to a battle that rarely gets this level of attention.

Angus Wallace surveys 1942 as the year Germany's strategic position pivoted from apparent dominance to irreversible decline — Rommel's advance and retreat in North Africa, the summer offensive toward Stalingrad, and the accumulating failures that turned a year of opportunity into one of catastrophe. The episode works well as a strategic overview, connecting the Eastern Front, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic into a coherent picture of why 1942 was the war's hinge year. Just under an hour and tightly structured.

The conclusion of Holland and Murray's series on the Oudna disaster follows John Frost and 2 Para's desperate march back to British lines across Axis-held Tunisia, a withdrawal that survived on nothing but grit and Frost's refusal to let the unit disintegrate. The episode gets into what happened to captured paratroopers and whether the catastrophe at Oudna nearly killed airborne operations before they matured. Holland is particularly good on the operational context — why the mission was misconceived and how Frost's leadership held the survivors together during the withdrawal.

McManus and Hymel use Ernie Pyle's famous column about Captain Waskow's death at San Pietro to examine combat leadership in the 36th Infantry Division's brutal Italian campaign. More about the human cost of command than tactical detail, but the San Pietro fighting provides real operational context.

Lions Led By Donkeys covers the Confederate recapture of Galveston Island in January 1863 — a combined naval and land assault featuring cotton-clad steamers and some spectacularly ill-conceived Union defensive arrangements. The show's signature tone of gleeful disbelief at command incompetence fits this one perfectly.

Thomas Smith walks through the Fifth Crusade's campaign to conquer Egypt — the siege of Damietta, the strategic logic of targeting Egypt's breadbasket, and the roles of the Hungarian and Austrian contingents alongside the military orders. A proper campaign history of one of the less-covered Crusades, with Yale UP pedigree behind it.

In Our Time's panel traces the Delian League from its post-Persian War origins through Athens's transformation of a defensive alliance into an imperial instrument. The Greco-Persian Wars and Athenian naval power provide genuine military substance, though the discussion inevitably tilts toward political and economic dimensions.