Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to the saga of World War II, a Cassus Belly project,

the podcast with the nearly insurmountable goal of covering the entire Second World War from

its first shots right through to its final bombs.

For the first episode, we'll start from what seems to be the most logical place, the beginning.

The when did World War II begin exactly. Did it begin on December 7th,

1941 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor? For America, sure, but it's not called a World War for nothing.

So did it begin in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland and prompted France and the United Kingdom to go to war?

Many people count this state as the official start of the Second World War, but simply jumping in then wouldn't make for a very complete podcast.

So we have to go back even further.

Before Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, before Japan conquered Manchuria, all the way back to the ending of the First World War.

Though we could, no doubt, go back further to the rise of nationalism and to industrialization,

but this podcast is going to be long enough as it is.

So let's just start in 1919.

Music Frankly and definitely there is danger ahead.

Danger against which we must prepare.

We shall defend our island, whatever the cross may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds.

We shall fight in the fields and in the streets.

We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.

For four years, the roar of guns and the haze of smoke dominated the fields of France and Belgium.

Death had visited upon Europe atoll a harser than it had ever seen before. Ten million men had died,

and the flower of Europe was gone.

In the lyrics of Willie McBride, a whole generation

...