Episodes

  • Murder in WWII London: Guest: Amy Helen Bell

    Murder in WWII London: Guest: Amy Helen Bell
    Jun 22 2025

    This week on History Happy Hour: It sounds like an episode of “Foyle’s War” come to life: murder and violence in wartime London, carried out under the cover of the wartime blackout imposed to protect against Nazi bombings.

    Chris and Rick tackle the real story of murders carried out as Nazi bombs blew the city apart with our guest, Amy Helen Bell, author of “Under Cover of Darkness: Murders in Blackout London.” How war exposed people to violence not only from the enemy.

    Sunday at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.

    Amy Helen Bell is professor of history at Huron University College, University of Western Ontario. Her research focuses on the social and cultural history of twentieth-century Britain, particularly London. She is the author of Murder Capital, London Was Ours, and Life Sentence.
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    56 mins
  • Capture of the U-505: Guest: Alexander Rose

    Capture of the U-505: Guest: Alexander Rose
    Jun 15 2025

    This week on History Happy Hour: In June, 1944, sailors from the mysterious 10th fleet boarded an enemy warship at sea for the first time since the War of 1812. What’s more, it was a submarine: The U-505.

    Chris and Rick have visited the sub together. Now we bring you the swashbuckling tale of its capture with our guest Alexander Rose, author of Phantom Fleet: The Hunt for Nazi Submarine U-505 and World War II’s Most Daring Heist.

    Sunday at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.

    Alexander Rose is a journalist and author of numerous history books including Empires of the Sky, The Lion and the Fox, and Washington Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring. The latter was adapted into the AMC drama series, Turn: Washington Spies, for which he served as writer/producer. He has a doctorate from Cambridge, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Born in the United States, raised in Australia and educated in Britain, Alexander currently resides in New York.
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • The Women of Ravensbrück: Guest: Lynne Olson

    The Women of Ravensbrück: Guest: Lynne Olson
    Jun 8 2025

    This week on History Happy Hour: Decades after the end of World War II, the name Ravensbrück, the all-women’s concentration camp, still evokes horror. Among the prisoners were a tight-knit group of women who had been active in the French Resistance. They banded together not only to survive, but to make sure the story was never forgotten.

    We’ll be talking about this with HHH alum Lynne Olson, author of The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück, back for her third time on the show.

    Lynne Olson is a New York Times bestselling author of nine books of history, many of which deal in some way with World War II. Titles include Empress of the Nile, Madame Fourcade’s Secret War, Citizens of London, Last Hope Island, and Those Angry Days. She has been a consultant for the National World War II Museum in New Orleans and the United States Holocaust Memorial in Washington D.C.
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    1 hr
  • Eyewitness to D-Day: Guest: Garrett M. Graff

    Eyewitness to D-Day: Guest: Garrett M. Graff
    Jun 1 2025

    This week on History Happy Hour: The invasion of Normandy was one of history’s greatest military triumphs. As we approach the 81st Anniversary of D-Day, Chris and Rick explore the stirring events of June 6th with Garrett M. Graff, author of When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day.

    It’s a book built that looks at D-Day through the eyes of those who experienced it—from soldiers, nurses, pilots, children, neighbors, sailors, politicians, volunteers, photographers, reporters and so many more.

    Garrett M. Graff is a journalist, historian, producer, and speaker. He taught at Georgetown University for seven years, including courses on journalism and technology, and his writing and commentary has appeared in publications like the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, New York, Bloomberg. His book Watergate: A New History was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is also the author of The Only Plane in the Sky an oral history of 9/11. He lives in Montpelier, Vermont.
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    59 mins
  • The Boats That Hit the Beaches: Guest: Andrew Whitmarsh

    The Boats That Hit the Beaches: Guest: Andrew Whitmarsh
    May 25 2025

    This week on History Happy Hour: On June 6, 1944, 4126 specially designed landing craft carried 132,000 Allied troops to the D-Day Beaches. In this episode, we take a deep dive into why so many different types of landing craft were, how they were built, and how well they did in the hour of crisis.

    Chris and Rick welcome Andrew Whitmarsh, author of D-Day Landing Craft.

    Andrew Whitmarsh has been the curator of the D-Day Story Museum in Portsmouth for more than twenty years. That museum is home to the last surviving intact ‘Landing Craft, Tank’ that took part in the Normandy Landings: LCT 7074 He is also the author of "Portsmouth at War" and "D-Day in Photographs". He frequently writes and lectures about D-Day.

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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Churchill's D-Day: Guests: General Sir Richard Dannatt & Allen Packwood

    Churchill's D-Day: Guests: General Sir Richard Dannatt & Allen Packwood
    May 18 2025

    This week on History Happy Hour: Sir Richard Dannatt, former commander of the British Army & Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archives Center, have teamed up to write a book capturing emotional turmoil and epic decision-making before, during, and after the world-defining action of D-Day.

    Chris and Rick welcome them to discuss that book, Churchill’s D-Day. The invasion of Normandy - as the British Bulldog experienced it himself.

    General Sir Richard Dannatt became Chief of the General Staff in 2006, leading the British Army as it fought two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He handed over his position forty years to the day from when he first joined the Army. In 2009, Her Majesty The Queen appointed him Constable of the Tower of Land, and in 2010, he was appointed as Crossbencher to the House of Lords. Sir Richard Dannatt is also Chairman of Trustees of the British Normandy Memorial.

    Allen Packwood is the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He was awarded an OBE for services to archives and scholarship in the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honors. His book How Churchill Waged War was published in 2018, and he has since edited the Cambridge University Press Companion to Winston Churchill and coedited Letters for the Ages: The Private and Personal Letters of Sir Winston Churchill.
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    1 hr
  • Belle Starr: Guest: Dane Huckelbridge

    Belle Starr: Guest: Dane Huckelbridge
    May 12 2025

    This week on History Happy Hour: She led a gang of horse thieves. She participated in stickups and robberies across Texas and Oklahoma. She was romantically involved with two of the west’s most feared outlaws. Many considered this extraordinary woman the most dangerous female in the west.

    Chris and Rick explore her fascinating story with Dane Hucklebridge, author of a new bio on Belle Starr, Queen of All Mayhem: The Blood-Soaked Life and Mysterious Death of Belle Starr, the Most Dangerous Woman in the West.

    Dane Huckelbridge was born in the Midwest and went to Princeton. His fiction and essays have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The New Republic and elsewhere. His debut novel Castle of Water was published in 2017, and his book No Beast so Fierce was published by HarperCollins in 2019. He currently lives in Paris, France, although he goes back to New York whenever he can.
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • U.S. Army in The Pacific: Guest: John McManus

    U.S. Army in The Pacific: Guest: John McManus
    May 4 2025

    This week on History Happy Hour: When people think of fighting in the Pacific, they often think of the epic battles involving the Navy and the Marines. But it was the Army that did most of the fighting and dying in the war against Japan.

    Chris and Rick welcome acclaimed historian John McManus to dig into this three volume series on The U.S. Army the Pacific in World War II. Volume One, Fire and Fortitude, covers the first two years of the war, where the Army had to slowly learn how to come to grips with the Japanese.

    John McManus is Curators’ Distinguished Professor of U.S. military history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. As one of the nation’s leading military historians, and the author of fifteen well received books on the topic, he is in frequent demand as a speaker and expert commentator. In addition to dozens of local and national radio programs, he has appeared on Cnn.com, Fox News, C-Span, the Military Channel, the Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel, Netflix, the Smithsonian Network, the History Channel and PBS, among others.
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    1 hr and 1 min