History of the Second World War

With Tobruk under siege, Rommel presses for a quick victory while exhausted Axis troops push toward the Egyptian frontier. Australian resistance, supply shortages, and friction within the Axis command frustrate repeated assaults. At sea and in the air, British forces work to disrupt the flow of reinforcements and supplies to North Africa, while changes in RAF leadership and cooperation with ground forces begin to shape the campaign.

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Rommel's first offensive in North Africa sends British forces retreating across Cyrenaica, but the rapid Axis advance brings mounting supply problems. This episode follows the race toward Tobruk, the role of Italian logistics and Luftwaffe support, and Wavell's decision to hold the port with an Australian-led garrison supplied by sea. As German attacks meet determined resistance, the prospect of another quick victory gives way to a prolonged siege.

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As German forces arrive in North Africa, the situation inherited from Operation Compass and the terrain of Cyrenaica shape the opening of Erwin Rommel's campaign. This episode examines the overstretched British position, the vital role and limitations of Italian forces, and Rommel's first advance from El Agheila toward Mersa el Brega.

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German forces arrived in North Africa in February 1941 to shore up Italy’s collapsing position, but the limited mission conceived in Berlin soon collided with Erwin Rommel’s far more ambitious plans. This episode examines the creation of the Afrika Korps, the uneasy German-Italian command arrangement, the arrival of German ground and air units in Libya, and the supply problems that would shape every Axis advance across the desert—setting the stage for both Rommel’s legend and the long campaign ahead.

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News of Bismarck's sinking brings celebration in London, but the sailors struggling in the cold Atlantic face a desperate fight for survival. This episode examines the rescue effort, the Royal Navy's reckoning with the loss of Hood, the German leadership's response to the failed operation, and how the destruction of Bismarck helped bring the era of German surface raiding in the Atlantic to an end.

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More strategic bombing discussion, how did merchant shipping work, occupied economies, and more.

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After days of pursuit, King George V and Rodney finally close with the crippled Bismarck in the stormy Atlantic. This episode follows the brutal final battle from the opening salvos through the destruction of Bismarck's guns and superstructure, the British battleships' point-blank bombardment, and Dorsetshire's torpedo attack as Germany's most powerful warship slips beneath the waves.

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With Bismarck crippled and unable to steer after the Ark Royal's torpedo attack, the German battleship's crew struggles through flooding, failed repairs, and growing exhaustion while both German commanders ashore and British forces at sea prepare for the inevitable final encounter. This episode follows the messages that revealed the ship's desperate condition, the nighttime attacks by Captain Vian's destroyers—including Piorun's bold challenge—and the convergence of King George V and Rodney before the battle that would end Operation Rheinübung.

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After Bismarck slips away from her British pursuers, the Royal Navy launches a desperate search before dwindling fuel supplies force the chase to end. This episode follows the intelligence breakthrough that reveals the battleship's course, the Ark Royal Swordfish strike that mistakenly attacks HMS Sheffield, and the second attack that cripples Bismarck's steering and seals her fate.

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Greece, First World War Blockade Breaking, Crete, and WW2 Main Battery shell reliability.

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With Bismarck damaged and making for France, the Royal Navy concentrated an enormous collection of ships to contain and destroy her while Admiral Lütjens worked to release Prinz Eugen and escape his pursuers. This episode follows Bismarck’s clash with the shadowing force, the inexperienced aircrews of HMS Victorious launching their torpedo attack, and the maneuver that finally allowed the German battleship to disappear from British radar.

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The Battle of the Denmark Strait opened with British fire directed at the wrong German ship before Bismarck and Prinz Eugen concentrated their guns on Hood. This episode follows Hood’s catastrophic destruction, Prince of Wales’s withdrawal, the damage inflicted on Bismarck, and Admiral Lütjens’s decision to abandon the commerce-raiding mission and make for France while the Royal Navy remained in pursuit.

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As Hood and Prince of Wales raced toward Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, worsening weather, uncertain contact reports, and the limitations of Hood’s armor shaped Admiral Holland’s plan of attack. This episode follows the tense final hours before the Battle of the Denmark Strait, from preparations aboard all four ships to the identification error that sent the British guns toward the wrong target as the order to open fire was given.

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As Bismarck and Prinz Eugen entered the Denmark Strait, the cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk made contact and began the difficult task of shadowing them through fog, ice, and dangerous proximity to the German guns. This episode follows the first exchanges of the pursuit, the radar limitations confronting both sides, and the Royal Navy’s race to position its forces for the battle ahead.

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As Bismarck and Prinz Eugen departed for the Atlantic, British reconnaissance exposed their presence in Norway and set the Royal Navy’s response in motion. This episode follows the German ships through their final preparations and dash toward the Denmark Strait while examining the severe endurance constraints, aging warships, and untested crews that shaped Britain’s pursuit.

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In May 1941, the German battleship Bismarck prepared for its first and only wartime cruise into the Atlantic. This episode examines the strategic pressures behind Operation Rheinübung, the compromises that left Bismarck and Prinz Eugen without the support originally envisioned, and Admiral Günther Lütjens’s growing concern that the mission placed Germany’s most powerful warship at unacceptable risk.

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Geography, German Success in Russia, Economies, and much more in this listener question episodes.

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This episode follows the Battle of the Atlantic through the costly weeks of March 1941, when Germany lost three of its most celebrated U-boat commanders: Günther Prien, Joachim Schepke, and Otto Kretschmer. It examines the expanding British convoy-escort system, the battle surrounding convoy HX-112, and the decisions that pushed Dönitz to disperse his boats farther west and toward West Africa. Those losses marked the end of one phase of the U-boat war, even as rising German production and the approaching entry of the United States pointed toward an even larger struggle ahead.

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This episode shifts the focus of the naval war from German surface raiders to the U-boats, tracing why they became the central German weapon in the Battle of the Atlantic and why there were still too few of them in late 1940 and early 1941. It covers the effect of French Atlantic bases, the construction of U-boat pens, cooperation with Fw-200 Condors, early combined attacks on convoys, and the contrasting struggles of British Coastal Command. The episode ends with the return of celebrated U-boat commanders like Günther Prien and Otto Kretschmer as the campaign enters a dangerous new phase.

Operation Berlin reaches its conclusion as Scharnhorst and Gneisenau continue their Atlantic cruise, repeatedly finding merchant shipping but also repeatedly being checked by the presence of British battleships. This episode follows Lütjens through further searches, missed opportunities, encounters with Malaya and Rodney, and the final run into Brest, before turning to the RAF attacks that badly damaged Gneisenau and disrupted the Kriegsmarine's plans for an even larger surface-raiding operation. The result is a look at both the promise and the fragility of Germany's surface-raider strategy in the spring of 1941.

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In early 1941, the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau set out on Operation Berlin, an attempt to break into the Atlantic and strike at Britain's convoy lifeline. This episode follows Admiral Günther Lütjens as he weighs weather, fuel, British patrols, and strict orders against the promise of a major commerce-raiding success, while also examining how the absence of German carrier aviation limited what the surface fleet could accomplish. When the two battleships finally found convoy HX-106, the presence of the aging battleship Ramillies revealed the central tension of the operation: Germany's most powerful raiders could threaten the Atlantic, bu...

Start off this one with a few quick hitters, then a question that takes 15 minutes to answer. Allied invasion of France in 1942? That Churchill guy you may have heard of? How did occupied economies work?

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This episode examines Germany's auxiliary cruisers and the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper as they carried the commerce war into distant shipping lanes during 1940 and early 1941. It follows the disguised merchant raiders that forced the Royal Navy to disperse its strength around the globe, then traces the Hipper's design limitations, encounters with convoys WS-5A and SLS-64, and repeated mechanical setbacks. Together, their operations reveal both the reach and the limitations of Germany's surface-raiding strategy before the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau entered the Atlantic.

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This episode begins a new look at the German surface raiding campaign of late 1940 and early 1941, when the Kriegsmarine tried to use cruisers and battleships to threaten Britain's Atlantic lifelines. We trace how the fall of France transformed Germany's naval options, why ports like Brest and St. Nazaire mattered, how intelligence shaped the hunt on both sides, and how the Admiral Scheer's attack on Convoy HX-84 forced the Royal Navy to rethink convoy protection just before the campaign reached its most dramatic phase.

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The evacuation from Crete reaches its final stage as British, Commonwealth, and Greek forces try to escape through Sphakia while others are left behind at Rethymno and across the island. This episode follows the difficult choices made by commanders and naval crews, the losses suffered by the Royal Navy, the surrender and occupation that followed, and the way the defeat shaped later judgments of Freyberg, Churchill, and the battle itself.

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The battle for Crete shifts toward evacuation as the Royal Navy absorbs severe losses while trying to prevent German reinforcements from reaching the island by sea. This episode follows the aftermath of the disastrous naval fighting around May 22, Cunningham's determination to keep supporting the army, the final British naval operations around Crete, and the beginning of the withdrawal toward Sphakia and Heraklion under relentless Luftwaffe pressure.

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The Royal Navy's success in turning back the German invasion convoys in the waters north of Crete on the night of May 21st removed the threat of a seaborne landing, but it could not undo the damage done by Commander Freyberg's obsession with that very threat. This episode examines how Freyberg's misreading of Ultra intelligence about the 5th Mountain Division led him to hoard troops along the coast and withhold artillery from targets plainly visible in front of them, all while the Germans steadily expanded their grip on Maleme airfield. The doomed Allied counter-attack of May 22nd — delayed until da...

War Aims and Strategic Bombing

History of the Second World War is part of the Airwave Media podcast network.

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As the first day of the German invasion of Crete drew to a close on May 20th, 1941, neither side held the clear advantage they had hoped for — the Germans had failed to secure their primary objectives, while the British commander General Freyberg struggled with poor communications and an overriding fear of a seaborne invasion that would shape his decisions in the days ahead. This episode examines the Royal Navy's critical role in the battle for Crete, exploring both the strengths and significant weaknesses of Admiral Cunningham's fleet — including the limitations of their anti-aircraft systems against the Luftwaffe — and the aggres...

The first day of the German airborne invasion of Crete, May 20th, 1941, saw paratroopers drop not only around the critical airfield at Maleme but across three other sectors of the island. Near Chania, German forces landing in Prison Valley were held in check by New Zealand and Greek troops under Colonel Kippenberger, while the poorly armed 8th Greek Regiment stopped their attackers and then re-equipped itself with captured German weapons. The people of Crete themselves joined the resistance from the opening hours, with priests and civilians taking up arms in a fierce defense that shattered German assumptions that the...

At dawn on May 20, 1941, the German airborne assault on Crete began — the largest parachute operation in history to that point. This episode covers the opening day of the battle at Maleme, where a combination of German intelligence failures and disastrous British command decisions would set the course of the entire campaign. Despite heavy losses among the German paratroopers — many cut down in mid-air or the moment they landed — those who came down near the Tavronitis river were able to organize and push against the Maleme airfield and the critical Hill 107. The New Zealand defenders fought well, but Colonel Andrew, the co...

Following the Allied defeat on the Greek mainland, thousands of British, Australian, and New Zealand troops were evacuated to the island of Crete in late April 1941, many arriving without their heavy weapons and with morale badly shaken. This episode examines the Allied defense of Crete under General Bernard Freyberg, who despite possessing Ultra intelligence pointing clearly to a German airborne assault, fatally misread the threat and positioned his forces to repel a seaborne invasion instead. We explore how a rapid succession of British commanders, chronic shortages of aircraft and artillery, and Freyberg's misplaced confidence in the Royal Navy shaped...

Just ten days after Germany launched Operation Marita, the decision was made to evacuate all British forces from Greece — and this episode covers the chaotic final weeks of the campaign as that decision unfolded. Greek military commander Papagos had largely given up hope by mid-April, the Greek government and royal family fled to Crete, and the 200,000-strong Greek force in Albania surrendered to the Germans on April 20th in a quiet deal that deliberately excluded the Italians. The RAF fought its last battles over Athens before withdrawing, and the Royal Navy scrambled to organize a night-only evacuation using destroyers an...

On April 6th, 1941, Germany launched Operation Marita, the invasion of Greece, with the 12th Army under General List striking primarily through the newly conquered territory of Yugoslavia to outflank the well-prepared Greek Metaxas Line. The opening days of the attack were harder than the Germans expected — the Greeks defended stubbornly along the Metaxas Line, particularly at the Rupel Pass, but flanking movements soon made those positions untenable, and the vital port of Salonika fell after just three days of fighting. Meanwhile, the British were dealt a serious blow when a Luftwaffe raid on the port of Piraeus set off an...

Spanish Civil War Guerillas, the impact of Yugoslavia's transportation infrastructure, and evaluating British generals across the world wars.

History of the Second World War is part of the Airwave Media podcast network.

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While the land campaign in Greece was grinding forward, the Mediterranean was the scene of an equally consequential struggle at sea. This episode tells the story of the Battle of Cape Matapan, one of the most decisive British naval victories of the entire war. When the Italian fleet sortied to intercept a British convoy carrying New Zealand troops to Greece, the Royal Navy was waiting — thanks in no small part to the codebreakers at Bletchley Park, where a young woman named Mavis Lever had cracked the Italian Enigma by exploiting a careless operator's mistake. What followed was a night ac...

As the spring of 1941 approaches, the war in Greece enters a critical new phase. The Italians launch a major offensive in Albania, staking everything on capturing the heavily defended Hill 731, only to suffer over 12,000 casualties and gain essentially nothing after weeks of futile assaults. Meanwhile, Bulgaria's decision to join the Tripartite Pact and allow German troops to cross its territory fundamentally changes the strategic picture, opening vast stretches of border to a potential German invasion. On the Allied side, the British and Greeks struggle to agree on where to make their stand, ultimately settling on the shorter Aliákmon L...

The Italo-Greek War, which began as a purely regional conflict in October 1940, would transform into a broader European confrontation as both Germany and Britain made the fateful decision to intervene in Greece. For the Germans, concerns about protecting vital Romanian oil fields from potential British air attacks, combined with fears of Italian collapse, drove the planning of Operation Marita, an invasion designed to secure the Balkans before the launch of Barbarossa. Meanwhile, Churchill and the British leadership saw Greece as an opportunity to distract Axis forces, demonstrate support for smaller nations, and potentially build a Balkan alliance with Yugoslavia...

For this interview I was joined by Timothy Manion to discuss his upcoming book Why Barbarossa Failed: Germany and Russia in the Second World War which released March 5, 2026.

https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/why-barbarossa-failed-germany-and-russia-in-the-second-world-war.php

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History of the Second World War is part of the Airwave Media podcast network.

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