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Dmitri Shostakovich, the Soviet composer, was one of the most prominent artists the USSR ever produced.

While his home town of Leningrad was under siege, Shostakovich was composing a symphony.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Symphony No. 5 in E minor.
Composed in 1888 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

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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.

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When the Germans first invaded the USSR, the war seemed remote to the citizens of Leningrad.

But by early September, the Germans had cut off Leningrad from the rest of the country and laid siege to the city, the longest siege of modern times.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Symphony No. 5 in E minor.
Composed in 1888 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

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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.

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Twentieth Century-Fox was created by a 1935 merger and quickly became the third-biggest Hollywood film studio. It signed such rising stars as Henry Fonda, Tyrone Power, and Shirley Temple.

Director John Ford was one of the top directors of the time, while British film director Alfred Hitchcock was lured to Hollywood, where he became an even greater success.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” from The Nutcracker.
Composed in 1892 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Public domain.
Performed by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license. Source.

Closing War Theme

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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.

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Not all resistance to the Nazis was in the form of armed bands in the forests with clandestine radio transmitters.

Resistance could also take the form of simply refusing to obey.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Der er et yndigt land” (The national anthem of Denmark.)
Composed in 1835 by Hans Ernst Krøyer. Lyrics by Adam Oehlenschläger. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Navy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

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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.

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Many resistance groups in Europe operated under the direction of their nations’ governments-in-exile and the British Special Operations Executive (SOE).

This arrangement produced some notable successes and at least one notable failure.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Ja, vi elsker dette landet” (The national anthem of Norway.)
Composed in 1864 by Rikard Nordraak and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Navy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

“μνος εἰς τὴν Ἐλευθερίαν” (The national anthem of Greece.)
Composed in 1865 by Nikolaos Chalikiopoulos Mantzaros and Dionysios Solomos. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Navy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

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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.

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Armed resistance to the German occupations began in Poland, almost as soon as that country was occupied.

Poland was the first, and in some ways the model, but resistance groups would appear in every Axis-occupied country.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“La Marseillaise” (The national anthem of France.)
Composed in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Navy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

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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.

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At the beginning of 1943, the German U-boats were sinking Allied merchant ships faster than Allied shipyards could build new ones.

But by June, Allied technological superiority in radar, electronics, and ASW aircraft definitively turned the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Prelude No. 24, “The Storm.”
Composed in 1839 by Frédéric Chopin. Public domain.
Performed by Ivan Ilic and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC-BY-3.0 license. Source.

Closing War Theme

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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.

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The RAF bombing campaign against German cities, and in particular the devastating raid on Hamburg, forced Germany to change its air defense strategies.

Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt met in Québec to confer on war strategy, including a deal that would fold the British atom bomb project, codenamed Tube Alloys, into the American Manhattan Project.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Le vent dans la plaine”
Composed in 1910 by Claude Debussy. Public domain.
Public domain recording.

Closing War Theme

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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.

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After two years of effort, RAF Bomber Command developed the techniques to inflict huge losses on an enemy city by means of a massive bombing attack and the creation of a firestorm. In late July, Bomber Command attacked Hamburg, Germany’s second-largest city, and devastated it.

This photograph of a residential neighborhood in Hamburg was taken from an RAF bomber shortly after the war ended. Most of the gutted shells you see were once multi-story apartment buildings. (You can tell this photo was taken after the war, because the streets have been cleared of rubble.)

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“British Grenadiers”
Traditional. Public domain.
Performed by the Regimental Band of the Royal Regiment of Canada. Public domain recording.

Closing War Theme

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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.

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As the fortunes of war turned against Japan, the Japanese began an effort to recruit allies from among the occupied nations of East Asia. As part of this effort, they permitted Burma and the Philippines to declare independence.

Among the Western Allies, US President Franklin Roosevelt pushed for China to be granted equal status with the US, UK, and USSR as one of the “Big Four,” the principal allies in the war against the Axis.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Mo Li Hua”
Traditional. Public domain.

Closing War Theme

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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.