Month: January 2026

433: The Longest Day II

Mark Podcast
African-American soldiers guarding German POWs in a barbed-wire enclosure on Utah Beach.

The Normandy landings took place on five designated beaches—three for British and Canadian forces and two for the Americans.

The American landings on Utah Beach went relatively smoothly, although the rough seas caused hundreds of deaths before the force made it ashore.

  • Listen now:

Transcript.

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Symphony No. 94 in G, “Surprise”
Composed in 1791 by Franz Josef Haydn. 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, 2025, and 2026 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

432: The Longest Day I

Mark Podcast
Gliders (on the ground) arrive in Normandy with airborne reinforcements the evening of June 6, 1944. Overhead are the planes that towed them, returning to their bases.

The night before the dawn amphibious landings at Normandy, three Allied airborne divisions landed at the invasion site to prepare the way.

These landings were dangerous, and combat between Allied paratroopers and German garrison forces was vicious.

  • Listen now:

Transcript.

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Piano Sonata No. 14, “Moonlight”
Composed in 1801 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Performed by Paul Pitman. 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, 2025, and 2026 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

431: Bombing Your Allies

Mark Podcast
A group of B-17s takes flight.

The fact of German occupation of France and other members of the United Nations alliance made it inevitable that British and American air forces would be bombing their own allies and killing civilians they were supposed to be “liberating.”

This forced Allied commanders to make some hard decisions.

  • Listen now:

Transcript.

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Miroirs
Composed in 1905 by Maurice Ravel. Public domain.
Performed by Robert Ewen Birchall and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license. 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, 2025, and 2026 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.