Holland and Murray continue their Barbarossa series through the lens of Wilhelm Prüller's diary, examining how Nazi propaganda shaped the mindset of ordinary soldiers and what the troops themselves expected from the invasion of the USSR. The ideological dimension is foregrounded here — radicalisation, expectations of a quick victory — but it's grounded in the campaign's operational reality. A strong instalment in what's becoming one of We Have Ways' best long-form efforts.

📜 Read the source: Wilhelm Prüller's diary — used throughout the episode as the primary lens for examining soldier perspectives during Operation Barbarossa

The operational meat of the Barbarossa series: Panzer Group Guderian's advance to the Dnieper, the problem of outrunning your own logistics, and the Wehrmacht's treatment of Soviet partisans and POWs. Holland is particularly good on the paradox of 'suffering from success' — how rapid advances created vulnerabilities that would matter enormously by autumn. More campaign-focused than Part 7, and the stronger episode of the two this week.

Ray Harris Jr. covers the late August–early September 1942 struggle over Guadalcanal — the Japanese Tokyo Express reinforcement runs and the Cactus Air Force's attempts to interdict them. Short at 27 minutes but tightly focused on the operational cat-and-mouse that set the stage for the next major ground battle, and the Japanese logistical strain Harris documents here is exactly the kind of cross-theatre resource problem McManus frames on the strategic level. Harris's chronological approach means you get the day-by-day texture that broader accounts skip.

Tristan Hughes and Professor Edmund Richardson tell the story of Diades, Alexander's military engineer, and his role in the siege of Tyre in 332 BC — the causeway construction, the fire ships, the molten sand, and the engineering ingenuity that made an 'impossible' siege work. At over an hour, this is properly detailed siege warfare with a focus on the technical and tactical problems of reducing an island fortress. One of the better Ancients episodes in recent memory for anyone interested in pre-gunpowder siege craft.

Lions Led By Donkeys covers the Christmas Day 1914 Cuxhaven Raid — the Royal Navy's seaplane attack on German Zeppelin sheds, one of the earliest combined naval-air operations in history. A niche but genuinely interesting episode on the birth of carrier aviation.

🏛 Where to see it: The Imperial War Museum, London, holds official Royal Navy records and photographs documenting the Cuxhaven Raid of December 1914 and early naval aviation operations.

A tribute to Major General Tony Stone, founder of 4/73 (Special OP) Battery — the British Army's long-range surveillance and target acquisition unit, created in 1982 for Cold War stay-behind operations. Ferguson draws on his own service experience to explain the unit's role and doctrine.

John Nichol — former RAF navigator and author of Blitz — joins Dan Snow to cover the Luftwaffe's bombing campaign against Britain's provincial cities: Newcastle's shipyards, Liverpool's docks, Glasgow, Cardiff. Strips back the 'Blitz spirit' narrative to examine the actual human and industrial cost of the air war outside London.

First-person veteran testimony from Robert Balch, turret gunner on an M8 Greyhound with the 94th Recon Squadron, 14th Armored Division — covering his baptism of fire at Gertwiller in November 1944, scouting missions against the Siegfried Line, and the physical toll of winter combat. Raw oral history with real tactical detail about armoured reconnaissance operations.

🏛 Where to see it: The Siegfried Line (Westwall) fortifications near Wissembourg, France, preserve in-situ Dragon's Teeth anti-tank obstacles and bunker complexes accessible to visitors along documented heritage trails.