A WW1 & WW2 history podcast · 20 episodes · 20 historians

If you think you know the world wars, think again.

Unknown Warriors is a First and Second World War history podcast by historian Michael Baker. Across two ten-part series, leading historians explain how modern scholarship has overturned the myths we still tell about 1914–18 and 1939–45.

▶︎ Start with Episode 1 WW1 series WW2 series

British soldiers silhouetted against the sky on the Western Front, 1917 — British soldiers in silhouette, Western Front, 1917 · IWM Q2978

20In-depth episodes

20Leading historians

50+Countries listening

UKPopular with university history students

Outdated narratives

The world wars we remember are not the wars historians now know.

The First World War is still remembered as a pointless slaughter, the Second as a heroic triumph of freedom over tyranny. Both narratives were set in the decades after each war and reinforced at every anniversary.

Since then, historians have opened closed archives, found fresh sources and moved from national to global perspectives, revealing how much the standard story ignored, overplayed or simply got wrong.

WW1A futile slaughter, lions led by donkeys.A war that had to be fought and won. The Allies learned under unprecedented conditions and inflicted a decisive defeat on Germany.Gary Sheffield · WW1 Episode 02: The Western Front →WW1It ended on 11 November 1918.Across much of Europe, violence continued well into the 1920s as new nation-states emerged from collapsed empires.Robert Gerwarth · WW1 Episode 08: War Without End →WW1A white, European war.1.5 million Indians volunteered to fight for Britain, a story too often ignored or misunderstood.George Morton-Jack · WW1 Episode 06: The Indian Experience →WW2Britain stood alone in 1940.Britain was Europe’s richest nation, at the centre of a global empire, with a thriving military-industrial-scientific base.David Edgerton · WW2 Episode 01: Britain Alone? →WW2The war was won in the West.The Eastern Front was the decisive battlefield, where the Red Army imposed a crushing defeat on the Wehrmacht.Geoffrey Roberts · WW2 Episode 08: The Soviet-German War →WW2The Pacific was an army-led war.The decisive victories over Japan were won at sea and in the air.Ian W. Toll · WW2 Episode 03: The Pacific War →

Two series. Twenty conversations.

Detail from C.R.W. Nevinson, La Mitrailleuse, 1915

Series one · 1914–1918

The Real First World War

Ten episodes challenging the narrative of futile slaughter, from the Western Front and shell shock to the Indian experience and the war’s violent aftermath.

Explore the WW1 series

Series two · 1937–1945

Revisiting The Second World War

Ten episodes looking beyond the ‘Good War’, from Britain’s imperial strength and China’s war to the Eastern Front and the savage aftermath.

Explore the WW2 series

Timeline · 1914–1945

Thirty-one years, two world wars.

The historians

Access to the latest scholarship.

All 20 historians →

Heather JonesWW1 · Episode 01 · 100 Years On

Jonathan BoffWW1 · Episode 03 · Through German Eyes

George Morton-JackWW1 · Episode 06 · The Indian Experience

Robert GerwarthWW1 · Episode 08 · War Without End

David EdgertonWW2 · Episode 01 · Britain Alone?

Ian W. TollWW2 · Episode 03 · The Pacific War

Hans van de VenWW2 · Episode 06 · China's War

Geoffrey RobertsWW2 · Episode 08 · The Soviet-German War

From the blog

The past, read against the present.

All posts →

De Gaulle leads the Paris victory parade down the Champs Elysee on 26 August, 1944.

WW2 · 17 Sep 2026 · 5 min readThe General Who Was FranceTwo new French films revisit De Gaulle’s wartime leadership. How did a junior general with no army come to embody France itself?

General Andrei Vlasov, while commander of the ROA and head of KONR, 1944-45 (cdn.britannica.com).

WW2 · 2 Sep 2026 · 7 min readTraitors or Patriots?Both world wars were fought by empires, not nation states: conflicts fuelled as much by ethnic and ideological civil strife as by great-power rivalry.

Dutch Jewish deportees board trains at the transit camp at Westerbork in north-eastern Holland.

WW2 · 7 Jul 2026 · 3 min readAnne Frank, The Dutch And The JewsOn 6 July 1942 the Frank family went into hiding in Amsterdam. What triggered it, and what it reveals about the Dutch and the deportations.

What listeners say

“Brilliant, simply brilliant. Takes such a well-researched area of history and gives it a whole new look... Michael Baker has a method of getting information across in a perfectly paced and expressed manner to create an enticing podcast. An intellectual insight, something rare these days. Excellent.”
6aa History Lachlan

“Hugely insightful and well produced! Touches on many issues that aren’t covered in other, more traditional historical narratives about the two world wars. Well worth a listen.”
Leo Caspar

“Thank you very much for an extraordinarily interesting and thoughtful series of podcasts (about WW1). It was good to have some attention devoted to subjects like the Indian experience or shell shock, which usually get little attention or are dealt with in an utterly simplistic manner.”
Richard Hatfield

“An excellent eye-opening series, broadening the focus so that we get to understand the global nature of WW2. For me, it showed up the narrowness of most education on the topic. Very good choice of interviewees...”
TS Dragon

“Thought-provoking and enjoyable. Stimulating contributions from eminent historians, with excellent intros and link passages from Michael Baker. If you are interested in WW2, and indeed contemporary politics, you should listen!”
Innes DK

Questions

Frequently asked.

What is the Unknown Warriors podcast?

Unknown Warriors is a history podcast by Michael Baker in two ten-part series, one on the First World War and one on the Second. In each episode a leading historian explains how recent scholarship has changed our understanding of the conflict.

Was the First World War really a pointless slaughter?

Most professional historians now reject that view. Popularised by the war poets and dominant in Britain from the 1960s, it overlooks how the Allies learned to fight in unprecedented conditions and defeated Germany decisively in 1918. Episode 2 and Episode 7 explore this.

Was the Second World War really the ‘Good War’?

Not in the simple sense the phrase suggests. The ‘Good War’ and ‘Britain Alone’ narratives take little account of the global war, its complexity, or the very different experiences of occupied and free nations, winners and losers.

Who presents Unknown Warriors?

Michael Baker, an Oxford-educated historian, award-winning screenwriter and former history teacher who spent 25 years in TV and film. More about Michael.

Which historians are interviewed?

20 leading historians, including Richard Overy, Gary Sheffield, Heather Jones, David Edgerton, Ian W. Toll, Robert Gerwarth and Keith Lowe. See all 20.

Are there transcripts?

Yes. Every episode has a full transcript on its page, beneath the player.

Created by

Michael Baker

Oxford-educated historian, award-winning screenwriter and teacher. His Understanding History podcasts reintroduce nuance and complexity to narratives of the past that have become oversimplified and misleading.

In production: a new Understanding History series on the Cold War.

About Michael