The WW2 Podcast

James Bond may have Q Branch supplying him with ingenious gadgets, but during the Second World War the agents of the Special Operations Executive had something just as remarkable — the SOE Camouflage Section.
This secret unit developed ingenious ways to hide weapons, radios, explosives and documents inside everyday objects, from oil cans and firewood to record players and tubes of toothpaste, helping agents operate behind enemy lines under the watchful eyes of the Gestapo.
My guest today is Craig Moore, whose book Exploding Rats and Other Devious Devices of SOE: The Camouflage Section 1941–1945 explores the remarkable work of this little-known wartime unit and the ingenious devices they created to keep agents alive and operational in occupied Europe.
 

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In this episode, I am joined by Ian Buruma to talk about life in Berlin during the Second World War. Rather than focusing on the regime at the top or the battles fought far from the city, we look at how ordinary people experienced daily life as war, repression, bombing, and fear increasingly shaped everything around them.
Our conversation centres on what it meant to survive in wartime Berlin, how behaviour and attitudes changed over time, and how the city moved from uneasy normality to catastrophe after Stalingrad and as the Red Army approached. We also discuss the experience of forced labourers in the city, including Ian's father, who was among the hundreds of thousands trying to stay alive under brutal conditions.
Ian is the author of Stay Alive: Berlin 1939–1945, which looks at life in the German capital from the outbreak of war to its collapse in 1945, focusing on how ordinary people coped as survival gradually became the central concern.
 
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In April 1945, as the Third Reich collapsed around him, Adolf Hitler died in the Führerbunker in Berlin. It is one of the most famous deaths in modern history and yet, in many ways, one of the least securely witnessed. There was no public body, no official announcement at the moment it happened, and no single, uncontested account. What followed was confusion, rumour, investigation, and decades of speculation.
Today I am joined by historian Caroline Sharples to talk about the death of Hitler itself. Why it unfolded as it did, how news of his death was received, how governments and intelligence services tried to verify what had happened, and why uncertainty and myth filled the vacuum almost immediately.
Caroline is the author of 'The Long Death of Adolf Hitler: An Investigative History', a study of the aftermath of April 1945 and the cultural and political consequences of a death that was widely anticipated but never conclusively seen.
 

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Pearl Harbor is often remembered as a stunning Japanese success, a perfectly executed surprise attack that changed the course of the Second World War. But what if that familiar story is wrong?
In this episode, I am joined by now regular of the podcast Mark Stille to rethink one of the most famous events of the war. His book Pearl Harbor: Japan's Greatest Disaster argues that the attack was not a masterstroke at all, but a tactical disappointment, an operational failure, and ultimately a strategic catastrophe for Japan.
Mark's book is also available on Audible and Spotify.
 

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For this episode, I am joined by Philip McCarty to discuss his book Point of Failure: British Army Brigadiers in France and Norway, 1940 .
It is a study of the brigadiers who served in France and Norway in 1940. Rather than focusing on campaign narratives, Philip examines the men who held this rank. Their backgrounds. Their training. The influence of networks, regimental culture and staff college upon their careers. And what happened to them after the defeats in France and Norway?
This is a fresh way to approach the early-war British Army, offering insight into how the institution thought about leadership, promotion, and responsibility at a moment of intense pressure.
 

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