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

a Cassus Belly project. Before beginning this episode, I have a few announcements to make.

First, I'd like to thank listener Scott for his generous contribution to the Patreon,

and congratulate him for repeatedly mopping the floor with me and access and allies online.

I think Scott might be a ringer.

Second, the creator of In Tony's Footsteps wanted me to let you all know that the documentary is now available on YouTube,

so if you'd like to, you can go check that out.

And lastly, the show will be going on a semi-hiatus for about a year.

As you all should know by now, I am a National Guardsman, and I will be deploying to the

Middle East this summer.

My mobilization begins May 1st, so my work on the podcast will slow down substantially.

I will try to keep the show going while I'm over there, but I will be pretty busy so the pace will likely be significantly reduced.

I know for certain I won't be able to release anything again until at least August when I ship my equipment to myself.

Now, don't worry about me, I'm on division staff, so no Audie Murphy action is in my future.

I will give you this, though. There is an appendix I've been working on for a little while that I've been holding on to that I will publish before I go. I realize that even though

we have been talking about an epic battle against fascism, I never really defined what fascism

actually is. So I wrote an appendix explaining as best as I can what I think fascism. I never really defined what fascism actually is. So I wrote an appendix explaining as

best as I can what I think fascism is as a political movement or ideology.

Okay, enough with the front matter. Let's get to the show. As I mentioned in episode 39,

I wanted to go back and recap the two big campaigns running parallel to the major

Eurocentric ground campaigns, the Allied bombing campaign, and the Battle of the Atlantic.

I did begin a discussion of the U-boat War way back in episode 8, but that was very much a preliminary

...