In September 1939, during the German invasion of Poland, American photographer and film-maker Julien Bryan became the only foreign journalist to remain inside Warsaw during the Nazi siege. While other correspondents fled, Bryan stayed in the city, documenting the Siege of Warsaw from the streets, hospitals and civilian shelters as German bombs fell.

Bryan's photographs and film captured the impact of the Second World War on civilians, showing wounded men, women and children, devastated neighbourhoods, and the resilience of ordinary Polish people under attack. His footage became some of the first uncensored images of Nazi aggression shown in the United States and Western Europe, shaping how the war in Poland was understood abroad.

In this episode of the WW2 Podcast, I am joined by historian Pete Zablocki, host of the History Shorts Podcast and author of a recent article on Julien Bryan for WWII History Magazine. We explore why Bryan chose to stay in Warsaw, how he worked under constant danger, how his photographs and film escaped occupied Poland, and why his record of the 1939 Siege of Warsaw remains historically vital today.

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Today, we are heading back to the Burma campaign, but through a slightly different lens. Rather than focusing on a single battle or operation, we examine three men who shaped how the war in Burma was fought and ultimately won.

When people think of British commanders in the Far East, one name usually stands out: Bill Slim. His leadership of the Fourteenth Army and the victories at Imphal, Kohima and the advance into Burma rightly secure his place among Britain's most successful wartime commanders. Claude Auchinleck is also well known, though more often for the Middle East than for his crucial role in India during the later war years.

But there is a third figure who is far less familiar, Reginald Savory. He was not a battlefield commander in the popular sense, but his influence on training, doctrine and the transformation of the Indian Army was profound. Without the changes he helped drive, the victories of 1944 and 1945 would have looked very different.

Today, I am joined by Alan Jefferys and Raymond Callahan, authors of Churchill's Forgotten Generals: Victors in Burma. In the book, they bring these three careers together, showing how Auchinleck, Slim and Savory were shaped by the Indian Army, how they learned from early defeat, and how their combined efforts turned Burma from disaster into success.

What makes this story so compelling is that it is not just about command at the front. It is about institutions, training, morale and the hard work of learning how to fight a modern jungle war.

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This episode looks at a very different side of the Second World War. Not the battlefield, but captivity. It focuses on the experiences of Allied prisoners of war held in German camps and how they tried to survive, adapt, and maintain a sense of purpose behind barbed wire.

I am joined by Midge Gillies, author of The Barbed Wire University. A newly revised edition was released in 2025. Her book explores the lives Allied POWs led in captivity, from the routines and hardships of camp life to the ways prisoners supported one another and resisted the effects of long-term imprisonment. Education forms part of this story, but it sits alongside a wider picture of how men coped with boredom, uncertainty, hunger, and the psychological strain of captivity.

Together, we discuss how prisoners organised themselves, how knowledge and skills were shared, and what these improvised communities reveal about resilience and identity under extreme conditions.

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In this episode, I talk with Erik Kreps about a remarkable family mystery. Erik's grandfather, Colonel Kenneth Ray Kreps, served in the Second World War, and after returning home, he sealed his wartime belongings in a chest with the instruction that it was not to be opened until after his death. For decades, the chest remained closed, and no one in the family knew what it contained.

After Colonel Kreps died, the chest was put into storage and almost forgotten. At one point, it was nearly auctioned off, which could have meant the contents were lost forever. Instead, it was saved, and when it was eventually opened, it revealed letters, photographs, medals, and documents that reshaped Erik's understanding of his grandfather and the life he lived during the war.

You can find Erik on X at @Veiled_Valor where he shares updates about the discoveries along with occasional posts about others connected to the story. Here is a link to a set of slides featuring images of the chest contents and further material on Colonel Kreps.

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RAF Liberator bombing operations in India, Burma, and Thailand remain one of the least explored air campaigns of the Second World War. Flying long-range missions from Bengal, RAF crews attacked Japanese targets across Southeast Asia, including the infamous Thailand-Burma Railway, under demanding and often dangerous conditions.

In this episode of the WW2 Podcast, I am talking to historian Matt Poole, author of Far East RAF Liberators: Attacking the Japanese: Roy Andrews and 215 Squadron. Together, we explore this campaign through the experiences of Roy Andrews, a Royal Australian Air Force wireless operator and air gunner who flew with RAF 215 Squadron on B-24 Liberator bombers during the final months of the war.

Between October 1944 and April 1945, Roy Andrews flew bombing, strafing, and air-sea rescue missions over Burma and Thailand. By viewing the wider RAF air war through the lens of one airman, this episode examines long-range Liberator operations, low-level attacks, and daily life on a forward airfield in India, offering a personal perspective on an often overlooked chapter of the Second World War.

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For this episode of the podcast, we are doing something a little different. Rather than focusing on a single subject, we open the floor to your questions.

Over the past few weeks, podcast patrons were invited to submit questions they had always wanted to ask about the Second World War. These range from strategy and leadership to memory, myth and the smaller details that continue to provoke curiosity today.

To help answer those questions, I am joined by two returning guests.

John McManus is a military historian specialising in the United States Army in the Second World War. He is the author of numerous books and is known for combining operational history with the lived experience of soldiers on the ground.

Also joining the discussion is Kevin Hymel. Kevin is a historian and biographer of General George S Patton, with the third volume of his trilogy due for publication in 2026. He is also an experienced battlefield tour guide.

John and Kevin are the hosts of the podcast WW2 Live, which features a regular segment called 'Stump the Chumps' in which listeners submit challenging or unusual questions. That format inspired this episode.

Together they take on a wide range of listener questions, offering thoughtful and often surprising insights into how the Second World War was fought, remembered and understood.

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Charles de Gaulle remains one of the most distinctive figures to emerge from the Second World War. Soldier, writer, leader in exile, and later the creator of the Fifth Republic, he played a central role in reshaping modern France. His relationship with Winston Churchill, their shared struggle during the war, and the influence both men continued to wield long after the fighting ended make him a fascinating subject.

In this episode, I speak with historian Richard Vinen, author of Last of the Titans: Churchill and de Gaulle. His book explores the lives of de Gaulle and Churchill and sets their wartime partnership within a wider story of national identity, political power, and the long shadow of past greatness. Richard guides us through de Gaulle's early years, his outlook as a soldier, his time in London, and the reasons he became such a commanding presence in French public life.

Last of the Titans: Churchill and de Gaulle is also available as an audiobook on Audible.

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The fighting in Burma during the Second World War was among the most demanding of the entire conflict. Soldiers faced dense jungle, monsoon rains, disease, and a determined enemy — conditions that made the campaign both brutal and complex.

Yet for decades, Burma remained one of the least remembered theatres of the war. The men who fought there — British, Indian, African, and Burmese — became known as the "Forgotten Armies."

A new exhibition at the National Army Museum in London, Beyond Burma: Forgotten Armies, seeks to change that. It explores not only the campaign itself but also the wider human and political stories that emerged from the fighting in Southeast Asia.

In this episode of the WW2 Podcast, I visit the museum to speak with Dr Alan Jeffreys, Head of Equipment and lead curator of Beyond Burma. We discuss the exhibition, its themes, and the challenge of bringing this complex history to life.

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