Hello everyone, and thank you once again for listening to the saga of World War II,

a Cassus Belly project. Sorry it's been so long since our last episode. I've started working

again and have found myself a little pressed for time. I've been working on this one for a couple

months now, but it's about one of my favorite campaigns of the Second World War, North Africa.

Not only are the place names fun to say, Tobruk, C.D. Burani,

Benghazi, but for some reason, I don't know why, it's fascinating to me. Maybe it's because it

involves players in geography that we don't talk about much in America, especially the early

campaign, with names like O'Connor, Wavl, and Graziani, that would be eclipsed by the war's end,

but who were instrumental in these early days.

Perhaps that's because the largest land campaign in history, Operation Barbarossa,

began just after this, or maybe it's because men like Rommel and Montgomery would cut

their teeth in the later North Africa campaigns.

Regardless, I'm very excited to bring you episode 9, Fox Killed in the Open.

Frankly and definitely, there is danger ahead. Danger against which we must prepare. The We shall defend our island, whatever the cross may be.

We'll 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.

As October of 1940 was drawing to a close, the war was going well for Hitler, but deeply embedded structural flaws were beginning to show themselves.

Like a tower built on a poor foundation, Hitler's empire was not sustainable.

First off, the Battle of Britain was a failure.

The British were not defeated and remained as indignant as ever. Hitler being a man preoccupied

with decisive battle seemed to have lost interest in defeating the British, for now. For whatever

reason, a retracted war of attrition did not interest him, so he turned his gaze away from

...