Continuing from the previous episode, we look at important events in August-September 1943.
The most notable of these was the surrender of Italy. Italians hoped this meant the war would be over, at least for them, but the Wehrmacht had other ideas.
- Listen now:
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening War Theme
Overture to La Forza del Destino.
Composed in 1861 by Giuseppe Verdi. Public domain.
Performed by the University of Chicago Orchestra 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, and 2025 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
Interestingly, English was MacLean’s 2nd language. He spoke only Scots Gaelic until he entered elementary school. He was much later quoted as saying he’d rather write in Gaelic and that he didn’t think his English was very good. (Obviously, the market disagreed!)