Unknown WarriorsAn Understanding History podcast

WW2 posts

Essays by Michael Baker on the Second World War seen globally: the Eastern Front, China, the Holocaust, occupation and resistance, and the war’s endgame.

De Gaulle leads the Paris victory parade down the Champs Elysee on 26 August, 1944.The General Who Was FranceLatest · WW2Two new French films revisit De Gaulle’s wartime leadership. How did a junior general with no army come to embody France itself?Michael Baker · 17 Sep 2026 · 5 min read
General Andrei Vlasov, while commander of the ROA and head of KONR, 1944-45 (cdn.britannica.com).WW2 · 2 Sep 2026 · 7 minTraitors 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 minAnne 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.Turkish soldiers with bayonets fixed escort Armenian men from the town of Kharpert (or Harput) to their execution.WW2 · 27 Jan 2026 · 2 minWhose Holocaust?The term ‘The Holocaust’ only entered public discourse in the 1970s and ’80s. Why that matters for how we remember.American troops make landfall in Algeria in Operation Torch (http://inspiredpencil.com).WW2 · 11 Nov 2025 · 3 minCarrying The TorchNovember 1942: the first joint Anglo-American landings of the war came not in Europe but in Vichy French North Africa.United We Stand, Divided We...WW2 · 25 Sep 2025 · 3 minUnited We Stand, Divided We...Eighty years after its founding in 1945, the United Nations assembles amid signs of deep division.AK fighters man a barricade during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 (rarehistoricalphotos.com)WW2 · 15 Aug 2025 · 3 minApocalypse On The VistulaAugust 1944: the tragedy of the Warsaw Uprising, played out on the banks of the Vistula.Tokyo Endgame: 'No Surrender But...'WW2 · 5 Aug 2025 · 3 minTokyo Endgame: 'No Surrender But...'As VJ Day turns 80, the manner of, and motive for, Japan’s surrender is still debated.Lt-General Joseph Stilwell, US chief of staff to General Chiang Kai Shek, presents his boss with the Legion of Merit in 1943. The two men did not get on.WW2 · 30 May 2025 · 2 minChina SyndromeGiven China’s prominence today, its early history at the United Nations comes as a surprise.VE Day: Third Time LuckyWW2 · 10 May 2025 · 3 minVE Day: Third Time LuckyWhy does Moscow mark VE Day on 9 May? The answer lies in Germany’s not-quite-single surrender.Carry ON Up The ElbeWW2 · 25 Apr 2025 · 2 minCarry On Up The Elbe25 April 1945: American and Red Army soldiers meet for the first time on the banks of the Elbe.Holocaust Home TruthsWW2 · 24 Jan 2025 · 3 minHolocaust Home TruthsAs we approach Holocaust Day and the 80th anniversary of the Red Army's liberation of the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a few thoughts come to mind about this subject, which is at once hugely…New Year ResolutionsWW2 · 6 Jan 2025 · 2 minNew Year ResolutionsTraditionally, New Year marks a moment when fresh resolutions are made that anticipate a better tomorrow.Hindsight's A Fine Thing But...WW2 · 2 Dec 2024 · 1 minHindsight's A Fine Thing But...It's clear that the Allies did eventually defeat the Axis powers in WW2, but how and why this came about is still debated - and too often simplified.Lambs To The Slaughter?WW2 · 1 Nov 2024 · 1 minLambs To The Slaughter?The charge was made, during WW2 and afterwards, that the Jews put up only passive resistance to their fate, going like lambs to the slaughter.Bombers Not FightersWW2 · 14 Oct 2024 · 2 minBombers Not FightersBy mid-October 1940 (84 years ago now), the so-called Battle of Britain had long morphed into what we have come to call the Blitz, a prolonged period lasting until May 1941 during which German…The Great EscapeWW2 · 8 Oct 2024 · 2 minThe Great EscapeIt was at the beginning of October 1943 that a drama played out in Denmark which had no parallel in any other German-occupied country in western Europe.Death by NumbersWW2 · 13 Sep 2024 · 2 minDeath by NumbersIt's impossible to consider the Second World War without reaching for statistics. There are a multitude to choose from and the scale of the figures is often awesome and appalling in equal measure.The Big Killer of WW2: StarvationWW2 · 16 Aug 2024 · 2 minThe Big Killer of WW2: StarvationOne of the more startling statistics to come out of the Pacific War of 1941-45 is this: of the 1.7 million Japanese soldiers recorded as dying in combat, it's estimated that some 60% of them died of…The Double V CampaignWW2 · 26 Jul 2024 · 1 minThe Double V CampaignOn this day in 1948 US President Harry Truman signed off Executive Order 9981, directing the American armed services to desegregate by offering 'equality of treatment and opportunity' in the…Did a Japanese defeat lead to US entry into WW2?WW2 · 16 Jul 2024 · 1 minDid a Japanese defeat lead to US entry into WW2?Over the summer months of 1939, a Soviet army commanded by General Zhukov (famous later for becoming the captor of Berlin in 1945) fought a critical campaign against the Kwantung Army, the crack…Was Britain Really 'Alone' in WW2?WW2 · 14 Jun 2024 · 1 minWas Britain Really 'Alone' in WW2?Britain was on the winning side in both world wars. Yet it remembers them very differently.WW2's Violent AftermathWW2 · 5 Jun 2024 · 1 minWW2's Violent AftermathIn the immediate post-war years, people desperately wanted to return to some kind of normality.America's 'Good War'WW2 · 3 Jun 2024 · 1 minAmerica's 'Good War'In the 1990s, at roughly the 50th anniversary point, American perceptions of the Second World War became highly nostalgic and sentimental: the US contribution was not just virtuous, it was claimed,…China's Forgotten WW2WW2 · 28 May 2024 · 1 minChina's Forgotten WW2Present-day China is unthinkable without the Second World War. In 1937, the Communists led by Mao Tse Tung were confined to an area in northern China and controlled less than 0.3% of the Chinese…The Soviet-German WarWW2 · 23 May 2024 · 1 minThe Soviet-German WarToday marks the 83rd anniversary of the launch of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.War In The Pacific 1941-45WW2 · 21 May 2024 · 1 minWar In The Pacific 1941-45Exactly 80 years ago today, during June and July 1944, while the Allies in Europe struggled to take back Normandy after D-Day, American ground forces invaded Saipan, one of the Mariana islands in the…ResistanceWW2 · 17 May 2024 · 1 minResistanceWhat we might call the 'underground war' - secret agents, resistance cells and partisan activity - has always been a popular field to write about within the Second World War.The Real HolocaustWW2 · 16 May 2024 · 1 minThe Real HolocaustToday the Holocaust is misunderstood. At worst, it is simply equated with the death camp at Auschwitz, which actually killed only 1 in 6 Jews during the war, and became active, from the spring of…The Hunger PlanWW2 · 14 May 2024 · 1 minThe Hunger PlanIt's now abundantly clear that more people died of starvation and malnutrition in the Second World War than perished in battle.WW2: A World at WarWW2 · 9 May 2024 · 1 minWW2: A World at WarIt's obvious that the Second World War was a global conflict, even more so than WW1, yet we still tend to look at it from a national perspective, which creates false assumptions and skewed…Revisiting World War Two (WW2)WW2 · 8 May 2024 · 1 minRevisiting World War Two (WW2)VE Day (Victory in Europe) falls on 8 May, the date on which the Nazi regime formally and unconditionally surrendered to the Allies in Berlin in 1945.

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