War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Music host, James Early. Hello and welcome to a very special bonus episode of Key Battles of American History.

I'm your host, James Early, as always.

Fall 1944, Paris has been liberated, saved from destruction, but this diversion on the road

to Berlin has given the Germans time to regroup.

The American and British armies press on from the west, facing the enemy, time and again,

in the Hirken Forest.

During the Market Garden invasion, at the Battle of the Bulge, all while American General

George Patton and British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery vie for supremacy as the Allies' top

battlefield commander. Meanwhile, the Soviets begin to squeeze Hitler's crumbling Reich from the east.

Led by generals Georgi Zukhov and Ivan Konyev, the Red Army launches millions of soldiers, backed by tanks,

artillery and warplanes, against the Germans, leaving death and scorched earth in their wake,

pushing the Vermacht back toward their fatherland. As both the Anglo-American Alliance and the Soviets

set their sights on claiming the capital city of Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill seeks

to ensure Britain's place in a new world, divided by Franklin Roosevelt's America and Joseph

Stalin's Soviet Union. To discuss this, I have with me best-selling New York Times author

Martin Degard, and he's written many books. He has co-authored the killing series with Bill O'Reilly,

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