It's the common recollection of French efforts to repel German invasion. But with 100,000 troops lost in the Battle of France, how true is the depiction of the French surrendering without a fight? How else might their contribution to, and experience of, the Second World War be remembered? Were the French a weak link, willing collaborators with the Nazis, brave resistance fighters or the Allied sacrifice to continuing the fight? Olivier Schmitt is a Professor of Political Science at the Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark. He joined James to talk through the many complex narratives of this section of the war, and how the predominant theories have developed over time.
Maximization of damage. That’s the purpose of the cluster bomb. These weapons, which can be traced back to the First World War, when the Kaiser would not give permission for their use, are still being dropped today. Not only that, but duds, unexploded during their deployment during the Second Wor...
Espionage. The word brings to mind the Cold War - Stasi informants and surveillance bugging in East Berlin. Or today’s media promoted anxieties about Chinese infiltration. But for this episode, Calder Walton came onto the World Wars podcasts to talk about spying during the Second World War. Calde...
On 23 August 1939, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov signed a pact in Moscow. This pact was perplexing to many at the time, and remains the subject of much discussion, mainly for the fact that it consolidated a partnership between the co...
