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The US Navy sent two aircraft carriers to the Southwest Pacific to harry the Japanese Navy as it moved into the Solomon Islands. The Imperial Japanese Navy sent two of its own carriers to counter them.

The four carriers clashed at the Battle of the Coral Sea. This was the first battle in naval history in which the opposing fleets never came within sight of each other.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Pacific Waters

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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President Roosevelt wanted the US military to find a way to strike back at the Japanese Home Islands, in revenge for Pearl Harbor.

It was a tall order, but the US Army and Navy found a way.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

String Quartet No. 19 in C Major
Composed in 1785 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Public domain.
Performed by the Musopen String Quartet. 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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By May of 1942, the Japanese Army in Burma had reached the Indian border. Suddenly, the war was no longer a distant thing. India itself was threatened.

Indian nationalists hoped to leverage the war to aid the cause of independence, but at the same time, two and a half million Indians volunteered to serve in the British-led Indian Army.

• Listen now:

• Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Something Stirring”

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 above editorial cartoon, drawn in 1942 by Dr. Seuss, visualizes the fear many white Americans had that the Japanese-American community on the Pacific Coast of the United States represented a “fifth column” of saboteurs. It also gives a sense of the racism of the time.

Though there was zero evidence that Japanese-Americans, either citizens or residents, posed any kind of threat, the Roosevelt Administration ordered their removal from the West Coast and imprisonment in what were concentration camps in all but name.

• Listen now:

• Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

The Old Bachelor
Composed in 1691 by Henry Purcell. Public domain.
Performed by A Far Cry and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 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, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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In January 1942, a group of German government officials from various ministries and offices, met at a house on the Wannsee, a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. There they laid the plans for the mass murder of the Jewish population of Europe.

The letter above is from Reinhard Heydrich to Foreign Office undersecretary Martin Luther, informing him that the meeting, originally scheduled for December 1941, would be held on 20 January 1942. The letter is dated 8 January and was sent from Prague, where Heydrich had been installed in his new job as Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.

• 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.

String Quartet No. 2
Composed in 1908 by Arnold Schoenberg. Public domain.
Performed by the Carmel String Quartet, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 Deed. 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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As the German Army suffered through a record-setting Russian winter, Soviet army formations no German knew existed began a counterattack. Hitler refused to permit his army to retreat.

In North Africa, the British began Operation Crusader, which relieved the besieged garrison in Tobruk and pushed Rommel’s Afrika Korps all the way back to El Agheila—the place where he had begun his own offensive almost a year earlier.

• Listen now:

• Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Prelude from Parsifal
Composed in 1882 by Richard Wagner. 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, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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After the sinking of Bismarck, German naval strategy switched from an emphasis on surface ships to an emphasis on submarine warfare.

Losses of British merchant ships became alarming, while the British sought countermeasures.

• Listen now:

• Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Dance to the Spirits of Fire,” from The Perfect Fool
Composed in 1922 by Gustav Holst. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Air Force Academy 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, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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The German invasion of the USSR ended the German bombing campaign against Britain, as the Luftwaffe was transferred to the Eastern Front.

This opened the way for the RAF to attempt to do to Germany what the Luftwaffe had failed to do to Britain: force a capitulation through strategic bombing.

• Listen now:

• Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Uranus, the Magician,” fromThe Planets
Composed in 1916 by Gustav Holst. 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, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Japanese forces captured Singapore in February 1942, a disastrous turn of events for Britain.

Soon afterward, Dutch forces in the East Indies and American forces in the Philippines also surrendered.

• Listen now:

• Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

The Pines of Rome
Composed in 1924 by Ottorino Respighi. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Army 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, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor mooted the political division between interventionists and isolationists in the United States. America was now united like never before.

In the Pacific, the Japanese offensive pressed on.

• Listen now:

• Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Symphony No. 4 in F minor
Composed in 1878 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. 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, and 2024 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.