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After two years of effort, RAF Bomber Command developed the techniques to inflict huge losses on an enemy city by means of a massive bombing attack and the creation of a firestorm. In late July, Bomber Command attacked Hamburg, Germany’s second-largest city, and devastated it.

This photograph of a residential neighborhood in Hamburg was taken from an RAF bomber shortly after the war ended. Most of the gutted shells you see were once multi-story apartment buildings. (You can tell this photo was taken after the war, because the streets have been cleared of rubble.)

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Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“British Grenadiers”
Traditional. Public domain.
Performed by the Regimental Band of the Royal Regiment of Canada. Public domain recording.

Closing War Theme

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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.

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As the fortunes of war turned against Japan, the Japanese began an effort to recruit allies from among the occupied nations of East Asia. As part of this effort, they permitted Burma and the Philippines to declare independence.

Among the Western Allies, US President Franklin Roosevelt pushed for China to be granted equal status with the US, UK, and USSR as one of the “Big Four,” the principal allies in the war against the Axis.

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Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Mo Li Hua”
Traditional. Public domain.

Closing War Theme

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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.

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The Japanese military reluctantly came to the conclusion that they could not hold Guadalcanal and eastern New Guinea.

After the many problems with the Mark 14 torpedo were sorted out, the American campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare finally began to hurt Japanese shipping. In killing Admiral Yamamoto, the Americans exacted a measure of revenge for his attack on Pearl Harbor.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Pop Goes the Weasel”
Traditional. Public domain.
Arranged and performed by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0 license. Source.

Closing War Theme

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Spy Music.”
Composed by Vincible17. Source.

Closing War Theme

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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.