The History of the Twentieth Century

The Allies invade southern France, close the Falaise pocket, and the German line collapses. Soon the Allies are advancing on Paris.

Transcribed - Published: 24 May 2026

When Patton's Third Army broke through the front line, the Germans had a serious problem.

Transcribed - Published: 17 May 2026

The Polish Home Army makes a last-ditch effort to assert the authority of the government in exile, while Romania successfully switches sides.

Transcribed - Published: 10 May 2026

Hitler exacts retribution for the assassination attempt against him, while in France, the Americans break out of Normandy.

Transcribed - Published: 26 April 2026

Bloody inconclusive fighting in Normandy, and the Democratic Party nominates Roosevelt for a fourth term.

Transcribed - Published: 19 April 2026

There had been grumbling about Hitler in the Army since 1938, but by 1944 a group of officers were determined to get rid of him and overthrow the Nazi government.

Transcribed - Published: 12 April 2026

The Soviet summer offensive of 1944, "Operation Bagration," costs the German Army virtually an entire army group.

Transcribed - Published: 29 March 2026

In 1944, Franklin Roosevelt's health began to fail, while Stalin made good on his pledge to begin a Soviet offensive in June.

Transcribed - Published: 22 March 2026

The China and Burma fronts remained relatively quiet for two years. That changed in 1944.

Transcribed - Published: 15 March 2026

In this episode, we conclude the story of the American occupation of Saipan, while US commanders ponder the question of where to strike next.

Transcribed - Published: 1 March 2026

When the Americans attacked Saipan, the Japanese saw a final opportunity to force that decisive battle they'd been yearning for. 

Transcribed - Published: 22 February 2026

The initial Normandy invasions were moderately successful. Casualties were lighter than feared. But D-Day was not the end; it was only the beginning.

Transcribed - Published: 15 February 2026

We conclude our look at the Normandy invasion by examining events at Sword, Juno, Gold, and especially Omaha Beaches.

Transcribed - Published: 1 February 2026

In this episode we look at the Normandy amphibious landings generally, then focus on the US assault on Utah Beach.

Transcribed - Published: 25 January 2026

The Normandy landings began at dawn on June 6, 1944, but the night before three Allied airborne divisions were dropped into Normandy to help prepare the way for the amphibious landings.

Transcribed - Published: 11 January 2026

The German military was occupying many European countries, which put British and American bomber commanders in the awkward position of bombing nations that were supposedly their allies.

Transcribed - Published: 4 January 2026

In this Christmas bonus episode, I answer listener questions.

Transcribed - Published: 25 December 2025

In May 1944, Allied forces in Italy began an offensive that finally broke the Gustav Line. Soon Americans were marching into Rome. At the same time, Allied forces in Britain were making final preparations for the invasion of France.

Transcribed - Published: 21 December 2025

In this episode, we look at some of the preparations both sides' militaries were making for the coming invasion of France, as well as the tricky problem the Allies faced in keeping Charles de Gaulle on board.

Transcribed - Published: 14 December 2025

As America geared up for war, and then entered the war, African Americans fought to claim a role in the battle against fascism.

Transcribed - Published: 7 December 2025

During the interwar period, African Americans pushed back against the US military's explicit racism.

Transcribed - Published: 30 November 2025

Boogie-woogie went mainstream in America during the war, as evidenced by the music of Glenn Miller and the Andrews Sisters.

Transcribed - Published: 16 November 2025

The Americans were on the offensive in the Southwest Pacific, and after Tarawa, in the Central Pacific. As they advanced, Japanese military leaders scrambled to find a way to stop the Americans.

Transcribed - Published: 9 November 2025

As soon as Allied leaders chose Normandy as the site of the Operation Overlord invasion, British intelligence set to work convincing the Germans that the invasion would be somewhere else.

Transcribed - Published: 2 November 2025

The Allied campaign in Italy stalled, and British and American leaders were searching for a way to break the stalemate on the peninsula. Winston Churchill suggested an amphibious invasion behing enemy lines.

Transcribed - Published: 26 October 2025

The war era (1939-45) saw the beginning of the end of the big band era. Part of this decline was due to two key strikes in the music industry.

Transcribed - Published: 12 October 2025

The Holocaust should not be viewed as strictly a Nazi project or even a German project. Millions of people across Europe share responsibility for those crimes.

Transcribed - Published: 5 October 2025

When Hitler learned that the Hungarian government was attempting to make a separate peace with the Allies, he ordered the German military to occupy Hungary, which was also the home of the largest surviving Jewish community in Axis-occupied Europe.

Transcribed - Published: 28 September 2025

The US tries out a new strategy against Japan, but the American public is shocked by the cost. 

Transcribed - Published: 21 September 2025

A look at some prominent blues singers, plus Judy Garland and her most famous role, as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz.

Transcribed - Published: 7 September 2025

The Allies hoped their invasion of the Italian mainland would lead to a rapid occupation of Italy, but the Germans put up a defense that slowed their advance to a crawl.

Transcribed - Published: 31 August 2025

The German Army continued to retreat westward over the winter of 1943-44, abandoning most of Ukraine. Red Army pressure was relentless, not giving the Germans any opportunity to establish a strong defensive line.

Transcribed - Published: 24 August 2025

The Big Three--Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill--met and conferred together for the first time in November 1943. It was the most important meeting of world leaders since the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.

Transcribed - Published: 17 August 2025

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, created in 1924 by the merger of three film production companies, quickly rose to become the most successful studio of the era. The record box office for the 1939 film Gone with the Wind represents the studio at its height.

Transcribed - Published: 3 August 2025

The Japanese "Zero" fighter plane played an important role in Japan's amazing victories early in the Pacific war. But by 1943, the Zero (and its pilots) were falling behind their Allied counterparts.

Transcribed - Published: 27 July 2025

Continuing from the previous episode, we examine events in multiple theaters in August-September 1943

Transcribed - Published: 20 July 2025

An eventful period in July-August 1943, when there were major developments on the Eastern Front, in the Mediterranean, and in the Pacific.

Transcribed - Published: 13 July 2025

The history of Paramount Pictures, one of the oldest and most prominent film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Transcribed - Published: 29 June 2025

The end of the Battle of Kursk did not mean the end of the Red Army advance. The Germans withdrew, but the Red Army just kept coming.

Transcribed - Published: 22 June 2025

Hundreds of thousands died in Leningrad during the winter of 1941-42, but with spring came new hope. Composer Dmitri Shostakovich's latest symphony became a patriotic anthem, and not only in the USSR.

Transcribed - Published: 15 June 2025

As war raged around the globe, the city of Leningrad suffered under a German siege that lasted 872 days.

Transcribed - Published: 8 June 2025

In this episode, we look at Twentieth Century-Fox, John Ford, Shirley Temple, John Wayne, and Alfred Hitchcock.

Transcribed - Published: 25 May 2025

Resistance against the Nazis could take many forms.

Transcribed - Published: 18 May 2025

Some of the biggest successes (and biggest failures) of European resistance movements and their guides in Britain.

Transcribed - Published: 11 May 2025

In the occupied countries of Europe and Asia, resistance movements developed to oppose Axis occupations. In most cases, the resistance movements were divided between Communist and non-Communist.

Transcribed - Published: 4 May 2025

The U-boat war was going quite well for the Germans at the beginning of 1943, but by mid-year, the German Navy was on the verge of abandoning the effort.

Transcribed - Published: 20 April 2025

The Hamburg bombing forced the German government to rethink its defense policies. In Québec, Churchill and Roosevelt cut a deal on atom bomb research.

Transcribed - Published: 6 April 2025

After two years of trying, RAF Bomber Command at last perfected the techniques to inflict mass casualties and devastation on an enemy city. Meanwhile, the US Eighth Air Force struggled to develop their own strategies.

Transcribed - Published: 30 March 2025

As the war turned against them, the Japanese attempted to create allies among the nations it occupied, declaring the independence of Burma and the Philippines, while the US embraced China as a peer of the main Allied powers, alongside the US, UK, and USSR.

Transcribed - Published: 16 March 2025

The Japanese come to the reluctant conclusion that they have to abandon Guadalcanal and northeastern New Guinea. US submarine warfare begins to take a toll, and Admiral Yamamoto is killed.

Transcribed - Published: 2 March 2025