303 - The Link Trainer

Before the Second World War, learning to fly by instruments was one of the most difficult and dangerous skills a pilot had to master. Training had to be done in real aircraft, often in poor weather, and accidents were common. In the late 1920s, an American inventor named Edwin Albert Link came up with an ingenious solution. His Link Trainer, sometimes called the "Blue Box," allowed pilots to practise instrument flying safely on the ground using a mechanical flight simulator. By the time the war began, these machines had become an essential part of pilot training, and hundreds of thousands of Allied airmen first learned instrument flying inside one. To explore the story of the Link Trainer, I am joined by Robby Houben from the Belgian Royal Military Museum, which holds several examples of these remarkable machines. Robby also has an excellent video on his youtube channel - Two Dudes Talking Tanks - which looks at the Link Trainer in the museum.   patreon.com/ww2podcast  

My guest today is William Hogan, and we are going to be talking about the remarkable story of his father, Sam Hogan, and the men of Task Force Hogan. At just twenty-eight, Sam was one of the youngest lieutenant colonels in the US Army, commanding a battalion of Sherman tanks in the Normandy Campaign only weeks after D-Day. From the hedgerows of France through to the Battle of the Bulge and on into Germany, his unit fought at the sharp end of some of the toughest fighting in north-west Europe. William has written about his father's experiences in 'Task Force Hogan: The World War II Tank Battalion That Spearheaded the Liberation of Europe'.   patreon.com/ww2podcast  

How does a Canadian end up fighting in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War? My guest today is Scott Bury, and we're going to tell the remarkable story of his relative, Maurice Bury — a Canadian citizen who found himself caught in Eastern Europe when war broke out. Drafted into the Red Army in 1941, he fought against the German invasion, survived a brutal POW camp, escaped, joined the resistance in Nazi-occupied Ukraine, and was later forced back into the Soviet army for the final push into Germany. It's a story that takes us through some of the most complex and brutal parts of the Eastern Front. Scott has explored Maurice's experiences in three books: Army of Worn Soles, Under the Nazi Heel, and Walking Out of War. He's also the host of the podcast Beyond Barbarossa, which looks at the history of the Eastern Front in the Second World War.   patreon.com/ww2podcast  

James Bond may have Q Branch supplying him with ingenious gadgets, but during the Second World War the agents of the Special Operations Executive had something just as remarkable — the SOE Camouflage Section. This secret unit developed ingenious ways to hide weapons, radios, explosives and documents inside everyday objects, from oil cans and firewood to record players and tubes of toothpaste, helping agents operate behind enemy lines under the watchful eyes of the Gestapo. My guest today is Craig Moore, whose book Exploding Rats and Other Devious Devices of SOE: The Camouflage Section 1941–1945 explores the remarkable work of this little-known wartime unit and the ingenious devices they created to keep agents alive and operational in occupied Europe.   patreon.com/ww2podcast  

In this episode, I am joined by Ian Buruma to talk about life in Berlin during the Second World War. Rather than focusing on the regime at the top or the battles fought far from the city, we look at how ordinary people experienced daily life as war, repression, bombing, and fear increasingly shaped everything around them. Our conversation centres on what it meant to survive in wartime Berlin, how behaviour and attitudes changed over time, and how the city moved from uneasy normality to catastrophe after Stalingrad and as the Red Army approached. We also discuss the experience of forced labourers in the city, including Ian's father, who was among the hundreds of thousands trying to stay alive under brutal conditions. Ian is the author of Stay Alive: Berlin 1939–1945, which looks at life in the German capital from the outbreak of war to its collapse in 1945, focusing on how ordinary people coped as survival gradually became the central concern.   patreon.com/ww2podcast  

In April 1945, as the Third Reich collapsed around him, Adolf Hitler died in the Führerbunker in Berlin. It is one of the most famous deaths in modern history and yet, in many ways, one of the least securely witnessed. There was no public body, no official announcement at the moment it happened, and no single, uncontested account. What followed was confusion, rumour, investigation, and decades of speculation. Today I am joined by historian Caroline Sharples to talk about the death of Hitler itself. Why it unfolded as it did, how news of his death was received, how governments and intelligence services tried to verify what had happened, and why uncertainty and myth filled the vacuum almost immediately. Caroline is the author of 'The Long Death of Adolf Hitler: An Investigative History', a study of the aftermath of April 1945 and the cultural and political consequences of a death that was widely anticipated but never conclusively seen.   patreon.com/ww2podcast  

Pearl Harbor is often remembered as a stunning Japanese success, a perfectly executed surprise attack that changed the course of the Second World War. But what if that familiar story is wrong? In this episode, I am joined by now regular of the podcast Mark Stille to rethink one of the most famous events of the war. His book Pearl Harbor: Japan's Greatest Disaster argues that the attack was not a masterstroke at all, but a tactical disappointment, an operational failure, and ultimately a strategic catastrophe for Japan. Mark's book is also available on Audible and Spotify.   patreon.com/ww2podcast  

For this episode, I am joined by Philip McCarty to discuss his book Point of Failure: British Army Brigadiers in France and Norway, 1940 . It is a study of the brigadiers who served in France and Norway in 1940. Rather than focusing on campaign narratives, Philip examines the men who held this rank. Their backgrounds. Their training. The influence of networks, regimental culture and staff college upon their careers. And what happened to them after the defeats in France and Norway? This is a fresh way to approach the early-war British Army, offering insight into how the institution thought about leadership, promotion, and responsibility at a moment of intense pressure.   patreon.com/ww2podcast  

In September 1939, during the German invasion of Poland, American photographer and film-maker Julien Bryan became the only foreign journalist to remain inside Warsaw during the Nazi siege. While other correspondents fled, Bryan stayed in the city, documenting the Siege of Warsaw from the streets, hospitals and civilian shelters as German bombs fell. Bryan's photographs and film captured the impact of the Second World War on civilians, showing wounded men, women and children, devastated neighbourhoods, and the resilience of ordinary Polish people under attack. His footage became some of the first uncensored images of Nazi aggression shown in the United States and Western Europe, shaping how the war in Poland was understood abroad. In this episode of the WW2 Podcast, I am joined by historian Pete Zablocki, host of the History Shorts Podcast and author of a recent article on Julien Bryan for WWII History Magazine. We explore why Bryan chose to stay in Warsaw, how he worked under constant danger, how his photographs and film escaped occupied Poland, and why his record of the 1939 Siege of Warsaw remains historically vital today.   patreon.com/ww2podcast  

Today, we are heading back to the Burma campaign, but through a slightly different lens. Rather than focusing on a single battle or operation, we examine three men who shaped how the war in Burma was fought and ultimately won. When people think of British commanders in the Far East, one name usually stands out: Bill Slim. His leadership of the Fourteenth Army and the victories at Imphal, Kohima and the advance into Burma rightly secure his place among Britain's most successful wartime commanders. Claude Auchinleck is also well known, though more often for the Middle East than for his crucial role in India during the later war years. But there is a third figure who is far less familiar, Reginald Savory. He was not a battlefield commander in the popular sense, but his influence on training, doctrine and the transformation of the Indian Army was profound. Without the changes he helped drive, the victories of 1944 and 1945 would have looked very different. Today, I am joined by Alan Jefferys and Raymond Callahan, authors of Churchill's Forgotten Generals: Victors in Burma. In the book, they bring these three careers together, showing how Auchinleck, Slim and Savory were shaped by the Indian Army, how they learned from early defeat, and how their combined efforts turned Burma from disaster into success. What makes this story so compelling is that it is not just about command at the front. It is about institutions, training, morale and the hard work of learning how to fight a modern jungle war.   patreon.com/ww2podcast