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.

⚖ The debate: Was the Battle of Agincourt truly decisive in ending the Hundred Years' War, or has its strategic significance been overstated by popular memory? DeVries emphasises the tactical and psychological impact on English dominance in the conflict; Livingston and others stress that the war continued for decades after 1415, questioning whether any single engagement can be called 'decisive' in strategic terms.

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.

🎙 Veterans' accounts: The Library of Congress Veterans History Project holds interviews with World War II veterans and operatives — searchable at loc.gov/vets.

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.

🏛 Where to see it: The village of Graignes itself maintains a memorial and heritage markers documenting the battle site where HQ Company, 507th PIR held defensive positions against the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division in June 1944, accessible to visitors. The National WWII Museum in New Orleans holds primary documents and oral histories from 507th Regiment veterans related to the Normandy campaign and small-unit actions.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.