Witness History: World War Two Podcast
1) The Death of General Patton
In December 1945, one of America's most famous miltary commanders, General George S Patton, died from injuries sustained in a car crash, just months after the end of the Second World War. Witness talk...Show More
2) Surviving Pearl Harbor
On 7 December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. Thousands of American servicemen died in a raid which brought their country into World War Two. Form...Show More
3) The Bari Raid 1943
How a devastating air raid on the Italian port of Bari during World War Two led to the deadly release of mustard gas. Winston Churchill ordered the incident to be kept secret for years. We hear from P...Show More
4) Surviving Ravensbruck
In November 1938, the SS commander Heinrich Himmler ordered the construction in Nazi Germany of the only concentration camp built specifically for women. It would be called Ravensbruck. Selma van der ...Show More
5) The Battle of El Alamein
In October and November 1942, the Allies fought a famous battle against German and Italian troops close to the small Egyptian village of El Alamein. General Bernard Montgomery, the British commander,...Show More
6) The Leningrad Symphony
In an act of defiance during World War Two, starving musicians in the besieged city of Leningrad performed Shostakovich's new Seventh Symphony. The piece was composed especially for the city, which ha...Show More
7) The Auschwitz Cellist
In 1943, the cellist, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. She expected to be killed in the gas chambers, but survived because she was recruited to play in an orchestr...Show More
8) The Dieppe Raid
In the early hours of 19th August 1942, a convoy of Allied ships approached the port of Dieppe carrying more than 6,000 troops. The mainly Canadian force was supposed to carry out a hit and run raid t...Show More
9) Scouts in the Warsaw Uprising
On 1 August 1944, the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation of Poland began. Hundreds of thousands of people died during the fighting and Poland's capital was almost completely destroyed. Among ...Show More
10) German Re-Armament
In the 1930s Hitler began to rebuild Germany's armed forces. When WW1 ended Germany had been banned from having an air force under the Treaty of Versailles. Hear from Eric 'Winkle' Brown who as a ver...Show More