355: Reap the Whirlwind


The German city of Lübeck, on the morning following the RAF bombing raid of March 28, 1942.

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:


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



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.

354: The Fall of Singapore


Japanese soldiers marching through the streets of Singapore following its surrender.

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.

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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



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.

353: A Date Which Will Live in Infamy


World War II American propaganda poster.

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:


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



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.

352: Climb Mount Niitaka II


Photograph taken by a Japanese pilot during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Ford Island, in the center, is in the middle of the harbor. You can make out the four pairs of ships moored on Battleship Row on the far side of the island. The spout of water was made by a torpedo striking USS West Virginia.

The US Army and Navy installations in and around Pearl Harbor were caught completely off guard by the Japanese attack.

This attack was only one in a series of attacks on Malaya, the Philippines, and several US-controlled Pacific Islands.

  • Listen now:



Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Symphony No. 3 in E♭ Major
Composed in 1804 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. 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, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

351: Climb Mount Niitaka I


Japanese sailors on the deck of an aircraft carrier, saluting the pilots as they take off on December 7, 1941

The Japanese government lost patience with the negotiations with the Americans, who stubbornly insisted that a withdrawal from China be part of any peace agreement.

The Japanese continued the talks anyway, because they provided useful cover as the Imperial Navy planned its attack on Pearl Harbor.

  • Listen now:



Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Symphony No. 5 in C minor
Composed in 1808 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. 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, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

350: The Land of Abundant Wildlife


This 1934 photo illustrates the segregation that existed in the Panama Canal Zone at the time. The sign reads: “Farfán Beach is reserved for the use of white employees of the Panama Canal Railway Company, their families, and their guests.”

The name “Panama” is believed to have come from an indigenous language and to mean something like “abundance.”

The two fundamental facts about the nation of Panama are its abundance of wildlife, and that it is located where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans come closest together.

  • Listen now:



Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Himno Istmeño” [The national anthem of Panama.]
Composed in 1903 by Santos Jorge. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Navy Band. 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, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

349: Why Do the Winds and Waves Rage So Turbulently?


The Great Wave off Kanagawa, 1831 print by Hokusai. It is the first in his famous series, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.

Japan was bogged down in an endless war with China and, in the view of its political and military leaders, surrounded by hostile nations in an increasingly unsafe and unstable world.

The Japanese signed a non-aggression agreement with the USSR, but increasingly believed the survival of the Empire required that it seize the resources of the Southwest Pacific, which would mean war with the UK, the Netherlands, and especially, the United States.

  • Listen now:



Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Matsurika
Traditional. Public domain.

Closing War Theme



Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

348: Five Minutes to Midnight


Women digging defensive trenches outside Moscow in late 1941.

The rasputitsa, the mud season, forced a pause in the 1941 German offensive. Afterward came a narrow window of opportunity, when the capture of Moscow might have been possible.

But despite the string of defeats it faced in the previous five months, the Red Army of December 1941 was a much more effective force than it had been in June 1941.

  • Listen now:



Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean
Composed ca. 1843. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Navy Band. 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, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

347: The Green Folder


In this photo, taken March 20, 1941, you can see some of the architects of Generalplan Ost: from left to right, Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler, Philip Bouhler, Fritz Todt, Reinhard Heydrich, and on the far right, Konrad Meyer.

The Nazi government in Berlin had a plan in place for the administration of occupied Russia (and the other Soviet states) before Operation Barbarossa had even begun.

The plan called for the starvation, relocation, and mass murder of the current inhabitants of the region. They were to be replaced with Germans.

  • Listen now:



Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Elegy No. 2
Composed in 1877 by Franz Liszt. Public domain.
Performed by Mauro Tortorelli and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0 Deed license. Source.

Closing War Theme



Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

346: The Battle of Smolensk


German soldiers assemble in occupied Smolensk, 1941.

In a couple of weeks, the German Army had advanced through eastern Poland, the Baltic States and Belarus and was entering Russia.

Army Group Center reached Smolensk, halfway to Moscow, in early July, but it took a month to take the city. The Red Army, despite its huge losses, was not collapsing as expected, but rather growing stronger, and it was becoming increasingly doubtful that the USSR could be defeated by winter.

  • Listen now:



Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Night on Bald Mountain
Composed in 1867 by Modest Mussorgsky. Public domain.
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. 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, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.