By 1944, a German defeat seemed inevitable. In August, Romania defected from the Axis and joined the Allies. Within weeks, Bulgaria followed suit, while Finland agreed to an armistice with the USSR.
This left Hungary as Germany’s sole remaining ally in Europe, and Hungary only stayed loyal because of German military intervention.
- Listen now:
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening War Theme
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 8 in F# Minor
Composed in 1847 by Franz Liszt. Public domain.
Performed by Shuwen Zhang, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 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.