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Week of Oct 09, 2026 · 9 episodes · 7h 42m total listening

World War II dominates the board — Ortona, Graignes, Guadalcanal, Yamato, and a wild SpyCast deception op — but the Pick goes to Holland and Murray's Ortona finale on We Have Ways, a surgical dissection of street-by-street fighting that brings the Italian campaign's brutal reality into sharp focus.

🎯 This Week's Pick
We Have Ways of Making You Talk artwork
Stalingrad Of The Adriatic: The Town (Part 4)
We Have Ways of Making You Talk · 42:36 · Oct 05
James Holland — WWII historian, author of Italy's Sorrow and The Savage Storm; Al Murray
World War IITactics & BattlesFortification & Siege

Holland and Murray close out the battle for Ortona — Christmas 1943 in the rubble, the Canadian Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment fighting room by room, and the grim tactical reality of urban warfare in the Italian campaign. Holland is excellent on the specific mechanics: mouse-holing through walls, the compressed engagement ranges, and why Ortona became a prestige fight neither side could walk away from. In a week where the Second World War crowds out nearly everything else on the schedule, this is the episode that earns top billing — the kind of granular, theatre-specific operational history that the Italian campaign rarely gets in podcast form, and the series format means the context is already built.

📎 Catching up? Part 1: The Sangro · Part 2: Death On The Moro · Part 3: The Gully

🔴 Essential

Bow & Blade
Q&A #15 - Decisive Battles of the Middle Ages
Bow & Blade · 1h10m · Oct 05
Kelly DeVries — Emeritus Professor, Loyola; Honorary Historical Consultant, Royal Armouries; Michael Livingston — Professor, The Citadel
MedievalTactics & BattlesLeadership & Command

Recorded live at the 2026 International Medieval Congress in Leeds, Kelly DeVries and Michael Livingston field audience questions on whether Agincourt was truly decisive, which medieval battles best illustrate tactical principles for teaching, and who deserves the title of most effective general of the period. Two proper medievalist military historians sparring over contested rankings — DeVries's expertise on siege warfare and Livingston's work on battlefield archaeology give the answers real weight. The live format keeps the energy up without sacrificing substance.

SpyCast
A Plan to Be Captured: How Three American Commandos Deceived Their Nazi Captors Before D-Day
SpyCast · 43:26 · Oct 06
Dr Andrew Hammond — historian, International Spy Museum
World War IIIntelligence & Espionage

A genuinely strange covert operation: three American commandos parachute into Hungary in spring 1944 intending to be captured, hoping to flip Hungary to the Allied side. Germany's preemptive invasion upends the plan, and the men instead use their interrogation to feed Hitler disinformation about Allied invasion plans. SpyCast handles this with proper operational detail — the deception logic, the timing relative to Overlord, and why the mission mattered even after it failed on its primary objective.

Lions Led By Donkeys
The Battle of Graignes
Lions Led By Donkeys · 1h23m · Oct 05
Joe & Nate — Lions Led By Donkeys; sourcing Martin K.A. Morgan's Down to Earth
World War IITactics & Battles

Joe and Nate cover one of Normandy's best small-unit stories: a scratch force from the 507th PIR's HQ Company, misdropped into the village of Graignes, holds off elements of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division for days with help from local French civilians. The episode works through the chaotic airborne insertion, the improvised defensive position, and the brutal German reprisal after the village fell. Lions Led By Donkeys at its best — specific, well-sourced, and focused on the kind of action that gets lost in broader D-Day narratives, one more reason the 1939–45 war owns the board this week.

Unauthorized History of the Pacific War
Yamato: The Ship, The Myth, The Legend with Alex Wooley
Unauthorized History of the Pacific War · 1h41m · Oct 06
Alex Wooley — author of a new book on Yamato; Seth Paridon — former chief historian, National WWII Museum; Jon Parshall — co-author of Shattered Sword
World War IINavalWeapons & Technology

Seth Paridon and Jon Parshall bring on author Alex Wooley to cover the Yamato from keel-laying to destruction — the secretive construction programme, the ship's thin combat record, and her suicidal final sortie toward Okinawa, adding the Pacific naval dimension to a week already saturated with Second World War episodes. What lifts this above a standard warship episode is the cultural dimension: how Yamato became a national symbol in postwar Japan, representing both militarist nostalgia and peace. Parshall's operational knowledge of the IJN keeps the naval detail honest throughout.

The History of WWII Podcast
Playthings of the Gods
The History of WWII Podcast · 28:45 · Oct 08
Ray Harris Jr. — independent historian covering WWII chronologically
World War IITactics & BattlesLogistics & Supply

Ray Harris Jr. picks up the Japanese side of the final Guadalcanal offensive — the logistical delays, the ominous signs within Japanese command, and how each postponement allowed Henderson Field's defenders to strengthen. At under 30 minutes this is tight and focused, covering the operational reality of a force running out of time against an enemy consolidating its position. Harris's chronological approach means the granular detail here builds on months of context, but the episode stands well enough on its own for anyone following the campaign.

🟡 Selections

Witness History
The Peruvian pilots who secretly delivered fighter jets during the Falklands War
Witness History · 10:52 · Oct 05
Rubén Mimbela — Peruvian Air Force pilot, first-person testimony; BBC World Service
Cold WarAir WarfareMemoir & Personal Account

A Peruvian pilot tells the story of a covert 1982 mission to ferry fighter jets to Argentina during the Falklands War — a little-known episode of Latin American solidarity that stayed secret for 25 years. Short at 11 minutes but packed with first-hand detail on the risks and the geopolitical context.

Ancient Warfare Podcast
Stratagems
Ancient Warfare Podcast · 46:06 · Oct 09
Murray Dahm — editor, Ancient Warfare Magazine; Myke Cole & panel
AncientTactics & BattlesIntelligence & Espionage

The Ancient Warfare Magazine panel trade favourite ancient stratagems — ruses, deceptions, and tactical tricks from the classical and Hellenistic worlds. Good fun and well-informed, though the roundtable format means breadth over depth on any single episode.

The Warrior Next Door
Episode 1/5 Specialist Don Muntz - Vietnam 14th Combat Engineer - Mine Sweeper, Purple Heart
The Warrior Next Door · 33:22 · Oct 05
Tony Lupo & Ryan Fairfield — Library of Congress veteran-history interviewers; Specialist Don Muntz
Cold WarMemoir & Personal Account

First instalment of a veteran oral-history series: Don Muntz's draft, training, and deployment to Vietnam with the 14th Combat Engineers near the DMZ in 1968. A personal-account opener — the combat detail is promised for later episodes.

📚 Reading List

Ortona — Mark Zuehlke

If Holland and Murray's four-part series on the 'Stalingrad of the Adriatic' has you hooked, Zuehlke's account is the standard work on the brutal street fighting the Canadians endured in Ortona over Christmas 1943. Deeply researched and told largely from the infantry's perspective.

📖 Amazon

🗓 This Week in Military History

Oct 10, 732 — Charles Martel defeated the Umayyad army at the Battle of Tours.
Oct 14, 1066 — William of Normandy defeated King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings.
Oct 14, 1943 — USAAF suffered heavy losses in the second Schweinfurt bombing raid over Germany.
Oct 16, 1813 — The Battle of Leipzig began, the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars.

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