The WW2 Podcast

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, over 125,000 Japanese Americans living in the continental United States were incarcerated in prison camps. The majority of these were born in America and US citizens. This was authorised by an Executive Order from President Roosevelt.

The Japanese Americans complied and spent years in the camps. Even though incarcerated, they remained loyal Americans. When the call came for volunteers for the Army first the 100th Infantry Battalion was formed and then the 442 Regimental Combat Team - in which thousands of Japanese Americans volunteered to serve. These two units were awarded over 4,000 Purple Hearts, and 21 men received the Medal of Honor.

In post-war America, the narrative of the treatment of Japanese Americans shifted. In 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, which officially apologised for the incarceration on behalf of the U.S. government.

Joining me today is Mitchell Maki.

Mitchell is the President and CEO of the Go For Broke National Education Center, a non-profit organisation dedicated to preserving the legacy and lessons of the Nisei World War II veterans. And he is the author of Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress.

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Few wives of prominent men are more than a footnote in many histories, but they were often central to their husbands' lives. The classic well-known example is the relationship between the wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine (see episode 116).

For months I've been sitting on Stefanie van Steelandt's biography of Mrs Patton, Lady of the Army: The Life of Mrs George S Patton. Following my look at George Patton in the last episode, I thought it was the opportune time to look at his wife Beatrice.

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If you cast your memory back to episode 157, Kevin Hymel joined me. We discussed General Patton from the campaigns in Mediteranean in 1942 to just before his activation as commander of third army in 1944.

Kevin is back. This time we will discuss Patton's arrival in France through to the Battle of the Bulge.

Kevin has worked as a historian for the US Army and is currently doing work for the Arlington National Cemetery. He is also a tour guide for Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours. He is the author of Patton's Photographs: War as He Saw It, and his second book in what is to be a trilogy, is Patton's War: An American General's Combat Leadership, Volume II: August to December 1944.

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In episode 144, I chatted to Andrew Sangster about Alanbrooke. Earlier this year, I noticed Andrew had a new book, Flawed Commanders and Strategy in the Battle for Italy, 1943-45. With his co-author Pier Paolo Battistelli, the book looks at Montgomery, Mark Clark, Patton, Harold Alexander, Albert Kesselring and the fighting in Sicily and Italy. There is too much to cover in a single episode of the podcast, but I've asked Andrew back to discuss the fighting in the Mediterranean from the perspective of Kesselring.

Andrew Sangster has six degrees, in Law, Theology and four in history including his doctorate. An ordained priest, he has trespassed away from the Church to teaching and the study of history. He has taught in grammar schools and at Eton College, was a headmaster for some nine years and has assisted post-graduate students of history. He has some twenty published history books to his credit both in the United Kingdom and overseas with some co-authored with Pier Paolo Battistelli, the well-known Italian historian. When not called for Church duties he studies the lesser-known aspects of modern history and plays chess for relaxation.

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Fought between 8 March and 18 July 1944, the battles of Imphal and Kohima were the turning point of one of the most gruelling campaigns of the Second World War (1939-45). The decisive Japanese defeat in north-east India became the springboard for the Fourteenth Army's subsequent re-conquest of Burma.

Joining me for this episode is Robert Lyman, author of the excellent A War of Empires; Japan, India, Burma and Britain 1941-45.

The book covers the defeat of the British and Indian armies in 1941-42, the change of commanders, the restructuring, training of the army and new tactics, and the extraordinary victories culminating in Mandalay in May 1945 and the collapse of all Japanese forces in Burma.

But that is a big topic to cover. So I thought we would focus on the battle of Kohima and, to some extent, Imphal. In 2013, a British National Army Museum poll voted the Battles of Kohima and Imphal as 'Britain's Greatest Battle'.

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In public life, Canadian Dr Winthrop Bell was a Harvard philosophy professor and wealthy businessman. As MI6 secret agent A12, he evaded gunfire and shook off pursuers to break open the emerging Nazi conspiracy in 1919 Berlin. His reports provided the first warnings of right-wing conspiracies in the German establishment, eventually leading to Hitler and the National Socialists.

In the 1930s, after reading Hitler's speeches and books, Bell was warning of the Holocaust. But his warnings fell on deaf ears until the outbreak of war.

For this episode, I am joined by Jason Bell.

Jason is a professor of philosophy at the University of New Brunswick. He has served as a Fulbright Professor in Germany and was the first scholar granted exclusive access to Winthrop Bell's classified espionage papers. Jason is also the author of Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Canada's Greatest Spy, which recounts Bell's story.

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With the Second World War slipping from living memory, the University of Oxford has launched Their Finest Hour. The project aims to empower local communities to digitally preserve these stories and objects before they are lost to posterity.

For this episode, I am joined by Dr Joseph Quinn to explain how the project works and how you can get involved.

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The battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest naval battle of WWII, it consisted of four separate actions near the Philippines between the US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy.

The Japanese plan was to disrupt the American landings on the island of Leyte. In one respect, the plan was a success, the Japanese did draw off Admiral Halsey's 3rd Fleet. But ultimately, it was a disaster for the Japanese Imperial Navy, which suffered one of the most decisive defeats of the war.

Joining me is Mark Stille. Mark was last with us discussing Pearl Harbor in episode 155. He has a new book published by Osprey titled - Leyte Gulf: A New History of the World's Largest Sea Battle.

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As attacks on London by the Luftwaffe became a reality in the summer of 1940, Londoners needed somewhere to shelter from the air raids. And so during the Blitz and through to the end of the war, deep-level Tube stations of London underground were utilised, sheltering thousands every night.

But the role of the underground is much more complicated, in 1939, the station platforms were never expected to see civilians sleeping there, but rather they were to be kept clear for emergency transportation use.

In this episode I am joined by Niall Devitt.

Niall is the author of Underground Railway: A New History, which is due to be published by Pen & Sword.

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When we think of airborne operations in WWII, the historiography is dominated by operations in the European Theatre. Parachute drops on Sicily, the Normandy coast for D-Day and into the Netherlands for Market Garden.

But, in the Pacific, Joseph Swing's 11th Airborne Division - nicknamed the Angels - were making combat drops. They fought in some of the war's most dramatic campaigns, from bloody skirmishes in Leyte's unforgiving rainforests to the ferocious battles on Luzon, including the hellish urban combat of Manila.

Joining me is James Fenelon.

Long-time listeners might remember I chatted with James about the US 17th Airborne Division during Operation Varsity, the crossing of the Rhine. This time we are discussing James' new book Angels Against the Sun: A WWII Saga of Grunts, Grit, and Brotherhood.

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