The improbable alliance that defeated Hitler

History Extra podcast

Immediate Media

History

4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

To what extent does the course of history turn on the force of individual personalities? It’s a question that looms large when examining the unlikely alliance forged between Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union that ultimately triumphed over the Axis powers in the Second World War. Danny Bird speaks with author Tim Bouverie to explore the complex, often uneasy rapport between Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt and Josef Stalin. Tim delves into the secrets, suspicions and towering ambitions that defined this remarkable chapter in wartime diplomacy, revealing how the fragile unity among these three leaders not only shaped the path to victory but also laid the uneasy foundations of the postwar world order. (Ad) Tim Bouverie is the author of Allies at War: The Politics of Defeating Hitler (Bodley Head, 2025). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Allies-War-Struggles-Between-Allied/dp/0593138368/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This History Extra podcast is sponsored by Guide Dogs. Training dogs to support people with sight loss
0:05.7	goes back almost 100 years when they were used to help German veterans in the First World War.
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0:17.7	helps people with sight loss live the lives they choose.
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0:27.9	Not a lot of people realise that there's so much more to guide dogs than the dogs themselves.
0:32.6	Of course, those furry life changes are incredible, but the charity also helps people with
0:37.3	sight loss in so many ways,
0:39.2	giving them the tools and confidence to fulfill their ambitions, from the everyday to the extraordinary.
0:44.8	Because you don't just have to manage with sight loss, you can thrive with it.
0:48.7	Anyone can help by getting involved, by donating, volunteering or sponsoring a puppy.
0:55.6	Find out more about guide dogs' life-changing services or how you can support their incredible work at guidedogs.org.uk.
1:02.3	This History Extra podcast is sponsored by Ancestry. Every Remembrance Day, people honour and reflect on
1:08.4	their family's contribution to conflicts throughout history,
1:11.9	including the First and Second World Wars.
1:14.4	And this year, Ancestry is marking remembrance by offering UK users free access
1:19.5	to its global wartime records until Wednesday the 12th of November.
1:24.0	Spanning the front line to the Home Front,
1:26.2	the collections include billions of records from around the
1:28.8	world relating to both World Wars and other historical conflicts. From military documents detailing
1:34.7	army service to archive photographs and civilian records of how people supported the war effort,
	...

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