396: The Battle of Kursk

February 16, 2025 Mark Podcast

Georgy Zhukov (right) confers with Ivan Konev, commander of the Steppe Front (center) during the Battle of Kursk.

After the German offensive fizzled out, the Soviets began theirs. The Battle of Kursk was and still is, by some measures, the biggest armored battle in history.

Although the Soviet side suffered far greater losses, it is regarded as their victory, as the USSR had much greater reserves of personnel and industrial capacity, while Germany was about at the end of its rope.

Listen now:

Transcript.

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Coro di zingari (“Anvil Chorus”) from Il trovatore
Composed in 1853 by Giuseppe Verdi. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

395: A Definitive Mistake

February 2, 2025January 29, 2025 Mark Podcast

One major problem with Operation Citadel was how predictable were the points in the line where the Germans would attack.

Adolf Hitler insisted on a German offensive on the Eastern Front in 1943, even though he himself admitted the thought of it gave him butterflies in the stomach.

The oft-postponed attack finally began on July 5. It was called off a week later, after the Western Allies landed troops in Sicily and the USSR began an offensive of their own.

Listen now:

Transcript.

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Symphony No. 5 in C minor
Composed in 1808 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Performed by The Davis High School Symphony Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

394: The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of

January 19, 2025January 18, 2025 Mark Podcast

The Warner Brothers studio was in fact founded by four brothers named Warner. The youngest of them, Jack L. Warner ran the studio for over forty years.

The studio released the first all-talking picture, The Jazz Singer, in 1927, and this technological breakthrough made it into one of the majors. In the Thirties, it was known primarily for its crime dramas. In the early Forties, the studio released two of the greatest American films ever made: The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca.

Listen now:

Transcript.

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald” (“Tales from the Vienna Woods”)
Composed in 1868 by Johann Strauss II. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Air Force Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

393: Everything Is Going to Be Fine

January 5, 2025 Mark Podcast

The above image, taken from a Japanese propaganda booklet of the period, depicts the Japanese occupation of East Asia as the Japanese wanted it to be perceived: The Japanese Army and Navy give Allied soldiers and ships a good thumping, while also performing acts of kindness and generosity for the happy peoples they liberated, while a glum Winston Churchill and a distraught Franklin Roosevelt look on.

The reality of the occupation was quite different. It was remarkably brutal and remains a sore spot in relations between these countries and Japan to this day.

Listen now:

Transcript.

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Miroirs
Composed in 1905 by Maurice Ravel. Public domain.
Performed by Olena Havyuk-Sheremet. Public domain. Source.

Closing War Theme

392: Warsaw and Katyn

December 29, 2024December 24, 2024 Mark Podcast

This famous photograph shows women and children forced out of a bunker by the SS after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising was crushed. They were all sent away to be murdered, probably at Treblinka.

As the SS gradually emptied the Warsaw Ghetto, those who remained well understood they would be next. Many decided it would be preferable to go down fighting.

Meanwhile, 800 kilometers away, in Katyn Forest, the German Army uncovered a mass grave containing the bodies of more than 4,000 Polish Army officers murdered by the NKVD.

Listen now:

Transcript.

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Adagio in G minor
Composed in 1958 by Remo Giazotto.
Performed by the Modena Chamber Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

391: The Manhattan Project

December 25, 2024December 24, 2024 Mark Podcast

The reactor pile built at the Oak Ridge plant to produce plutonium.

The US atom bomb project was little more than a research project until the US entered the war.

Then it shifted into high gear. The US government invested in multiple plants built to isolate fissile material, while the scientists puzzled over the problem of how to build an atomic bomb.

Listen now:

Transcript.

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Prelude in B♭ major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I.
Composed in 1722 by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Performed by Kamiko Ishizaka. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

390: Benito è finito

December 22, 2024 Mark Podcast

The Western Allies invaded Sicily, though there was no small amount of friction between General Patton and the British commanders.

The invasion persuaded the top civil and military leaders in Italy that Benito Mussolini had gotten their country into serious trouble and had no idea how to get out of it. Therefore, he had to go.

Listen now:

Transcript.

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Spy Music.”
Composed by Vincible17. Source.

Closing War Theme

389: On the Defensive

December 22, 2024 Mark Podcast

Adolf Hitler greets Benito Mussolini upon his arrival at Salzburg station in April 1943.

Despite all the effort and sacrifice the Wehrmacht gave in 1942, the Eastern Front in 1943 was barely any different. Adolf Hitler initiated planning for the German 1943 offensive, but even he had doubts as to whether the German Army was strong enough to seize the initiative yet again.

The crushing defeat at Stalingrad created doubts about Hitler’s leadership of the war. Germany’s Axis partners in Europe were looking for ways to distance themselves from Germany. Hitler held a series of summit meetings in Salzburg with leaders of the other Axis nations in an effort to shore up the alliance.

Listen now:

Transcript.

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Symphony No. 6 in B minor, “Pathétique.”
Composed in 1893 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Public domain.
Performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

388: Woman of the Year

December 1, 2024 Mark Podcast

RKO Radio Pictures, the smallest of the “Big Five” major studios, was a latecomer to Hollywood, and it developed a reputation for releasing second-rate pictures.

Despite that reputation, in the 1930s RKO introduced some of the biggest film stars of the time, including Fred Astaire and Katharine Hepburn, and produced two of the most famous movies of the time: King Kong and Citizen Kane.