World War 2: Both Sides of the Wire is the podcast that takes you beyond the familiar and dives deep into the untold stories and surprising truths of the Second World War from the Allied and Axis perspectives. Join us as we lift the lid on one of the most pivotal periods in human history, busting myths and unraveling the complexities of a conflict that still shapes our world today. Host: Prof. Matthias Strohn & Jesse Alexander More about Matthias & Jesse: https://battleguide.co.uk/bsow#host ...
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Episode 36: Prisoners of War: Germans in western Allied hands
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1:07:14n this episode, we’ll round off our in depth discussion of the experience of prisoners of war - and this time, we’ll turn to Germans in western Allied hands, who might be sent to the vast and remote forests of Canada or end up living for weeks in dirt holes in open fields. Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! S…
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Episode 35: Prisoners of War in Western Europe
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57:34In today’s episode, we will continue our exploration of the fate of prisoners of war. We’ll touch on the years of forced labour and drudgery, death marches in the final days, and war crimes: and this not the Eastern Front, but Western Europe. Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Support the Show via Patreon: ht…
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Episode 34: World War 2 Films - Part 2
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1:02:12In today’s episode, we face the bright lights of Hollywood again as we continue our cinematographic journey through Second World War movies…the good the bad and the ulgy Join our community! The steps are simple: Visit: https://both-sides-of-the-wire.com/ Select your rank – (Captain comes with one month free) Fill in your details and use promo code:…
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In today’s episode, we’ll pick up our theme of Prisoners of War - and this time we’ll focus on the Asia-Pacific theatre. As in Eastern Europe, similar harrowing themes defined the experience of men in enemy hands: a punishing climate, disregard for human life, forced labour, and even a ten-year-wait before seeing home. Join our community! The steps…
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Episode 32: Prisoners of War in East Europe
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1:06:51In today’s episode, we’re going behind the lines to consider the oft-overlooked fates of the millions of soldiers on the Eastern Front who fell into enemy hands and became prisoners of war. Millions were killed or died in camps from Germany to Siberia, and many did not make it home until the 1950s. This is their story. Join our community! The steps…
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Episode 31: The “Champagne Campaign”’s Missed Opportunity: Operation Dragoon Part 2
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59:58In today’s episode, we continue the story of what has been called the Champagne Campaign: the Allies’ blitz landings in southern France in summer 1944, and their role in the course of the war on the western front. Join our community! The steps are simple: Visit: https://both-sides-of-the-wire.com/ Select your rank – (Captain comes with one month fr…
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Episode 30: The OTHER D-Day in France: Operation Dragoon Part 1
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46:44In today’s episode, we’ll take a trip to the sunny coast of southern France! But don’t worry, dear listeners, we’re not going to talk about nude beaches and champagne - we’re going to talk about another D-Day in France: Operation Dragoon and the invasion of southern France in August 1944. Join our community! The steps are simple: Visit: https://bot…
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In today`s episode, it gets personal. We`re headed for the bright lights of Hollywood and the big screen! We`ll play the role of film buff and film critic, and share our opinions on the best - or at least our favourite - WW2 films Join our community! The steps are simple: Visit: https://both-sides-of-the-wire.com/ Select your rank – (Captain comes …
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Episode 28: Dieppe - The Disaster Unfolds
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1:15:15In today’s episode, we continue the story of the disastrous raid on Dieppe in 1942. How and why did the Allied plan go wrong, what happened on the beaches, and what did the Germans think of the whole affair? Join our community! The steps are simple: Visit: https://both-sides-of-the-wire.com/ Select your rank – (Captain comes with one month free) Fi…
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In today’s episode, we’ll make a stop on the French coast at the port town of Dieppe - the site of a raid-gone-wrong in 1942, the source of a Canadian tragedy, and the cause of heated debates about why this ill-fated battle even happened at all. Join our community! The steps are simple: Visit: https://both-sides-of-the-wire.com/ Select your rank – …
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Episode 26: Pearl Harbor - Lack of Oil or Chinese Quagmire?
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1:00:02In this episode, we continue our investigation of the Japanese decision to attack Pearl Harbour. Today we pick up the story in 1937, when Japan took the fateful decision to launch a full-scale invasion of China, a crucial step on the road to December 7, 1941. Join our new platform today! The steps are simple: Visit: https://both-sides-of-the-wire.c…
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Episode 25: Pearl Harbor - Japan and the China Problem
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43:14In today’s episode, we’re going to put a new twist on an old favourite that is shrouded in its share of WW2 mythology: why did Japan decide to attack the United States at Pearl Harbor in 1941? Was it really only the oil embargo that tipped the balance, or is the story more complex? Join our new platform today! The steps are simple: Visit: https://b…
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Episode 24: D-Day, Deception, Deceit: Operation Fortitude
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53:39In today’s episode we’re going to go behind the scenes to unpack what might have been the most important deception Operation of the Second World War: Operation Fortitude. Was it all just smoke and mirrors or did Allied lies win the Normandy campaign? Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Join Our Community: http…
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Episode 23: End Game in Africa -Tunisgrad 1943
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1:07:02In today’s episode, we’re off to North Africa to dissect the Desert Fox’s last battle in the field and the US Army’s baptism of fire against the Wehrmacht. A campaign that sealed the fate of the Axis in Africa and that some have controversially nicknamed Tunisgrad. Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Join Our …
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In today’s episode, we’ll get our feet wet in what Winston Churchill once called the most critical battle of the war: the Battle of the Atlantic. And of course the main part of this struggle for mastery of the seas was waged on the German side by submarines - the famous U-Boats, who did their utmost to strangle Britain and win the war for Germany. …
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Episode 21: Memory Part 2 - The Legacy of WW2 in Russia, USA and UK
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1:14:51In today’s episode we’re going to revisit a hot topic - a political topic even! That is the memory of the Second World War. Today we’re going to look at the legacy of how WW2 is remembered, commemorated, used and abused, and even enlisted on the political battlefield in the Allied Big Three - the USSR, US and UK. Do you like our podcast? Then pleas…
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In today’s episode we are going to visit a global battlefield of the Second World War. But this battlefield is not an operational campaign in Europe or in the Pacific – its the controversial and political battle of our collective memory of World War Two. 80 years after the war ended, what does the war mean to us and why, and how is it made to serve…
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Episode 19: What-ifs of World War Two: the Invasion that Never Was
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1:10:43In this episode, we’ll venture into the fascinating but treacherous realm of the counterfactual, the what-ifs of the Second World War. There are endless topics among these might-have-beens, but today we’ll dig into the invasion that never was: Operation Sea Lion, the German Plan to invade Britain in 1940. Do you like our podcast? Then please leave …
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Episode 18: The Greatest Allied Victory of the War?
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1:05:39In this episode we’re going to talk about the biggest operational military defeat that Germany has ever suffered in its history, a campaign that completely destroyed an entire German Army group in a matter of weeks. Despite the massive scale of the damage inflicted and the immense operational achievement it represents, this operation gets nearly no…
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Episode 17: The Forgotten Rhine Crossing. - Fuel waste or epic airborne operation?
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1:07:25In today’s episode, we are crossing the Rhine and push into the heartland of Germany. However, this is not the Rhine crossing you might have heard of, but the one that included the largest one-day airborne drop in history. Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Join Our Community: https://both-sides-of-the-wire.c…
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Episode 16: The Road to the Rhine - a Forgotten Victory?
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1:14:02In today’s episode, we are crossing the Rhine and push into the heartland of Germany. However, this is not the Rhine crossing you might have heard of, but the one that included the largest one-day airborne drop in history. Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Join Our Community: https://both-sides-of-the-wire.c…
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Episode 15: Monte Cassino - Allied perseverance or bloody blunder?
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1:22:35In this episode we will tackle some of the bitterest and, from the Allied side, most controversial actions of the Italian campaign and indeed of the entire war: the four battles of Monte Cassino, also known as the “Battle for Rome”. Why did the Allies struggle so much, did they commit a massive war crime, and was the campaign worth it in the first …
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In this episode, we are moving into a new field intelligence and covert operations. Did they influence the outcome of the war, or were they merely a sideshow? There's no shortage of examples and today we are concentrating on what is arguably the most famous and perhaps also the most successful, Operation Mincemeat. Do you like our podcast? Then ple…
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In this episode, we are heading to the far North and are going to look at a war within the Second World war that had a profound impact on how the wider conflict would develop and end. I am talking about the 1939-40 Soviet- Finnish War, also known as the Winter War. Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Join Our …
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Episode 12: Barbarossa - General Winter’s greatest victory or German mistake?
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1:34:38In this episode we take a closer look at Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. It was the largest campaign in the history of warfare, and the one that, arguably, turned the tide and decided the outcome of the Second World War.Why did the Germans decide to invade, what were the Soviets plans, and how did this campaig…
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In this episode, we are returning to the core theme of this podcast series, and this is busting myths and taking a closer look at overly convenient truths - those that are too good and too fantastic to be true. The list of these myths is endless, which is a good thing, because it means we can continue with the podcast series for a long time. Of cou…
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Episode 10: Stalingrad - the battle and the myths
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1:27:53In this episode, we’re diving into the Battle of Stalingrad – often seen as THE turning point of World War Two and the culmination point of Nazi Germany’s total war in the East. It’s perhaps the bitterest and bloodiest example of urban warfare, and like most big battles, it has given rise to myths that deserve a critical look. Do you like our podca…
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Episode 9: How the Allies Won – More Than Numbers
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1:14:26In this episode we’ll get to grips with what might seem like a simple question – why and how did the Allies win the Second World War. The usual answer is that it was superior numbers. These matter, but we think that the answers go far beyond the statistic, in order to get to grips with all of this, we have to lift some of the fog of war. Do you lik…
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Episode 8: Blitzkrieg - unstoppable German strategy or myth?
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1:02:07In this episode we’ll investigate the idea of Blitzkrieg - were the stunning victories of German arms from 1939 to 1941 the result of a brilliant, a new military concept? Is the Blitzkrieg label a myth echoing Nazi propaganda? And what are the military roots of this Blitzkrieg and the associated doctrine? Do you like our podcast? Then please leave …
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Episode 7: Kursk - the Battle and the Myths
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1:07:01Today we’ll visit what might be the biggest single battle in history, the Battle of Kursk. The titanic clash in summer of 1943 showed how far the tide had turned in the east, and has given rise to heated debates and longstanding myths. So did the battle see the largest tank battle in history and did it break the neck of the Wehrmacht in the East, a…
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Episode 6: US Entry - The role of China, France, and the Myth of Pearl Harbor
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1:02:28In this episode, we peel back the layers on what seems to be a straightforward question - US entry into WW2. The story leads beyond Pearl Harbor, into a web of international tensions, persistent mythology - and even to France and China. Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Join Our Community: https://both-sides…
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In this episode, we’re going to take a stab at a controversial question muddied by myths and propaganda - that is, was the Waffen SS elite? Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Join Our Community: https://both-sides-of-the-wire.com Become a Supporter: https://both-sides-of-the-wire.com/supporters/pricing Suppor…
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Episode 4: The Greatest Victory of All Time?
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1:01:42In this episode, we will tackle the German victory in the West and in particular over France in 1940. Even though it’s been partly overshadowed by later events in the war, at the time it was rightly seen as one of the greatest military victories of all time. It was a short but decisive campaign and it is still the source of all sorts of misundersta…
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Episode 3: Origins: More Than Just Hitler
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1:05:27In this episode we’ll go back to the roots: we’ll get into how and why the 2 World War began - which is a story about Adolf Hitler but not only about Hitler - there were a lot of messy things going on in the 1920s and 1930s that plunged the world into total war. Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Join Our Com…
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In this episode, we will explore one of the biggest battles of the second world war, the Battle of Berlin – the dramatic culmination of four years of war on the eastern front which ended the Third Reich and set the stage for the Cold War in Europe. Books: A Woman in Berlin, by Marta Hillers Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it…
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Episode 1: Myths of the Second World War
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1:04:19In this first episode of Both Sides of the Wire, our hosts Matthias and Jesse unravel a web of Second World War myths by exploring the enduring falsehoods surrounding this defining conflict. They investigate the origins and consequences of these misconceptions and how they still impact our understanding today. Do you like our podcast? Then please l…
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Podcast Teaser: WW2 - Both Sides of The Wire
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1:06World War 2: Both Sides of the Wire is the podcast that takes you beyond the familiar and dives deep into the untold stories and surprising truths of the Second World War from the Allied and Axis perspectives. Join us as we lift the lid on one of the most pivotal periods in human history, busting myths and unravelling the complexities of a conflict…
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