351: Climb Mount Niitaka I

Mark Podcast

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

Mark Podcast

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?

Mark Podcast

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

Mark Podcast

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

Mark Podcast

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

Mark Podcast

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.

345: Operation Barbarossa

Mark Podcast

Semyon Timoshenko and Georgy Zhukov in 1940.

On June 22, 1941, Germany began a surprise invasion of the Soviet Union. It was, and still is, the largest military operation in history.

The attack took the Soviet government by surprise, despite the warning signs, and the first weeks of the invasion saw a collapsing Red Army and a rapid German advance.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Transcendental Étude, No. 8
Composed in 1852 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, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

344: America First

Mark Podcast

This 1941 political cartoon by Dr. Seuss lampoons the America First Committee.

The Dust Bowl becomes one of the worst ecological disasters in history. Charles and Anne Lindbergh endure the kidnapping and murder of their infant son.

Lindbergh became the principal spokesperson for the America First Committee, which opposed any US involvement in the war in Europe. Several of the most visible members of the committee, Lindbergh included, displayed Nazi sympathies.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Livin’ the Dream”
Composed by Stephen Brannan. Public domain.
Performed by Wild Blue Country of the United States Air Force Academy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

“Panama”
Composed in 1912 by William H. Tyers. Public domain.
Performed by the Dixie Players of the United States Air Force Heritage of America 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.

343: The Balkan Detour

Mark Podcast

German paratroopers land on Crete.

Germany invaded and occupied Yugoslavia and Greece with ease, and with a minimum of casualties. The assault on Crete, the largest air operation ever attempted, was successful, but only at great cost.

In the Middle East, the Axis helped encourage an anti-British coup in Iraq and persuaded the Vichy French government to support the Iraqi coup from Syria.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Lil ‘Ashiqi fi-l Hawa Dala’il”
Composed in 1925 by Ahmed al-Musili. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Igre iz Bele krajine
Traditional. 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, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

342: Operation Marita

Mark Podcast

Demonstrators in Belgrade celebrate the coup of March 27, 1941.

Erwin Rommel was sent to North Africa with a German panzer corps to assist the Italians against the British. Germany also planned to intervene and aid Italy in its war against Greece in Spring of 1941.

But when a coup in Yugoslavia installed an anti-Axis government there, Hitler ordered the German military to invade that country as well.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Farewell of Slavianka”
Composed in 1912 by Vasily Agapkin. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Coast Guard 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.