The Finest Half Hour

22/02/2021

Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto predicted that he would win victory after victory for the first six months or so of the war. In June 1942, he decides to force one more major engagement. The battle would take place on the tiny atoll of Midway… but little does he know the Americans have intercepted his plan.

Join us for the last episode of season one as Yamamoto rolls the dice one last time at: The Battle of Midway.

Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto predicted that he would win victory after victory for the first six months or so of the war, but beyond that he had 'no expectation of success.' In June 1942, he decided to force one more major engagement, which he hoped would decide the course of....

16/02/2021

Episode 23 is now live! Allied fortunes in the Pacific are at their lowest ebb. They’ve been beaten on every front. Their colonies have been overrun. No Allied capital ships are left in the region to hold off the Japanese fleet. Then the battle of the Java Sea happens. A ragtag fleet is scraped together to face off against the Imperial Armada of Japan. Will the Allies prevail?

Allied fortunes in the Pacific are at their lowest ebb. They’ve been beaten on every front. Their colonies have been overrun. A ragtag fleet is scraped together to face off against the Imperial Armada of Japan. Will the Allies prevail?

09/02/2021

In this week's episode, the British assumed that it would be impossible for tanks to operate in the rainforest, rice fields and rubber plantations of the Malayan peninsula. The Japanese armored attacks thus caught them off-guard and forced the British to retreat from Northern Malaya and ultimately Singapore.

The Tank Museum, Bovington has one of only two operational Type 95 Ha-Go tanks in the world. This light tank was used by the Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War, against Soviet forces at the Battle at Khalkhin Gol (covered in episode 19), and during the invasion of Thailand, Burma, the Malayan peninsula, and the Philippines.

The Imperial Japanese Army's Type 95 Ha-Go light tank was designed in 1933 and produced between 1935 and 1943. Approximately 2,300 were built. It was meant to replace the heavier and slower type 89 tank. It had a crew of three: a commander/gunner, a hull machine gunner and a driver. The tank weighed 7.4 tons, with armor between 6 mm and 16 mm. It had a 37 mm type 98 gun and two 7.7 mm type 97 machine guns. It was powered by a Mitsubishi A6120VDe air-cooled inline 6-cylinder 14.4 L diesel engine and produced 120 hp. It had a maximum road speed of 28 mph and a range of 155 miles.

09/02/2021

Episode 22 is now live! The hammer falls on the British. An outnumbered Japanese force rips through the jungles of South East Asia, taking the colonial troops there by surprise. The British retreat down the Malayan Peninsula continuously harried by the Japanese troops. Soon retreat turns into a rout, but will the Japanese be able to take the Gibraltar of the East, the fortress once thought impregnable: the great redoubt of Singapore?

The hammer falls on the British. Soon retreat turns into a rout, but will the Japanese be able to take the Gibraltar of the East, the fortress once thought impregnable: the great redoubt of Singapore?

02/02/2021

Episode 21 of The Finest Half Hour is now live! Things look grim for the United States. The Pacific fleet is in tatters. The army is small and unprepared for war … And now their strongest redoubt in the Pacific, the Philippines is under attack. For the first time one of the great powers will face the Japanese on land. The assumption by many Americans was that the Japanese would stand no chance. Often they were dismissed as a “backwards” “Asiatic” nation that could never hold their own against a western power. But those who espoused such beliefs were about to find out just where such biases would leave them.

Things look grim for the United States. Many of the Pacific fleet's battleships have been damaged or destroyed at Pearl Harbor. The U.S. army is small and unprepared for war … And now their strongest redoubt in the Pacific, the Philippines is under attack.

26/01/2021

Episode 20 is now live! December 7th, 1941. A day that will live in infamy. A day that shaped the American character and forever changed the American outlook on the war. The attack on Pearl Harbor. Join us as we look not only at the surprise attack itself, but the events that led up to it, the planning behind it, and why the Japanese thought that such a strike might be there only chance to win the war.

https://anchor.fm/thefinesthalfhour/episodes/Pearl-Harbor-epe9ob

A day that will live in infamy. A day that shaped the American character and forever changed the American outlook on the war. December 7th, 1942. The attack on Pearl Harbor.

19/01/2021

Episode 19 is now live! At last we turn our focus to the Pacific! The war here begins long before the war in Europe, as Japan looks to build a colonial empire to rival that of any European power. It starts in China. Rogue elements of the Japanese military seize Manchuria and plan to use it as a jumping off point to conquer the mainland. A brutal campaign ensues. But will Japan truly be able to hold such might prize?https://anchor.fm/thefinesthalfhour/episodes/The-Invasion-of-China-ep47lm

At last we turn our focus to the Pacific! The war here begins long before the war in Europe, as Japan looks to build a colonial empire to rival that of any European power. It starts in China. Rogue elements of the Japanese military seize Manchuria and plan to use it as a jumping off point to conquer...

12/01/2021

In graduate school, I was a teaching assistant for a course on biomedical ethics for pre-med students. One of the readings that really stuck with me over the years described how the pre-war medical community in Germany helped legitimize N**i racial ideas. Doctors sworn to do no harm advocating sterilizing those they deemed inferior and euthanizing people with disabilities. Their expertiments with special chambers in hospitals and mobile gas vans were the precursors of the death camps. This week's episode is a reminder of man's inhumanity to man - and our duty to never forget. https://anchor.fm/thefinesthalfhour/episodes/Never-Forget-eos15d

05/01/2021

Stalingrad - the 17th episode of "The Finest Half Hour" - is now live!

By the autumn of 1942, German fortunes are at high tide. Rommel is driving on El Alamein in Egypt and von Paulus has reached the banks of the Volga river deep in southern Russia. It is here, in the city that bears Stalin’s name, the fate of the war will be decided in one of the bloodiest battles of WW2: Stalingrad.

https://anchor.fm/thefinesthalfhour/episodes/Stalingrad-eohcs8

We’ve now featured all the major German and Soviet tanks of 1941-42 in the Tank Museum, Bovington’s collection – so this week we’ll showcase a different kind of vehicle that helped turn the tide at Stalingrad: the Katyusha! The Katyusha multiple rocket launcher is a rocket artillery system (mounted on a truck) that can deliver a salvo of rockets packed with high explosives. Each truck had 14 to 48 launchers, which were racks of parallel rails on which the rockets were mounted. Like the T-34 tank, the Katyusha soon came to be feared by German troops. The Katyusha could fire a salvo of rockets, bombard a large area, and move before the Germans could retaliate.

29/12/2020

Episode 16 is now live! German armies are within striking distance of Moscow – but Winter is coming. The plan is to encircle the Soviet capital and knock Russia out of the war. German forces fight their way closer and closer to the city. But amidst blizzards and freezing temperatures, the Red army has brought in troops from Siberia and the Far East, in preparation for a counterattack. Will German forces capture the capital or suffer the same fate as Napoleon’s Grande Armée?

https://anchor.fm/thefinesthalfhour/episodes/Gates-of-Moscow-eo9o80

The Wehrmacht is within striking distance of Moscow – but Winter is coming. Will German forces capture the Soviet capital or suffer the same fate as Napoleon’s Grande Armée?

25/12/2020

Christmas, 1942. Santa (Sgt. Prouty of 175th infantry) arrives by M3 Tank to visit British children in Perham Downs, England. [Photo: Center of Military History, U.S. Army]

22/12/2020

Episode 15 of our WW2 podcast series - "The Finest Half Hour" – is now live! The Soviet Union is on the verge of collapse. N**is are on the doorstep of Moscow. A few short miles and the Soviet capital will fall. This cannot happen. Moscow must be held at all cost. Stalin makes a fateful decision. He will stay. He will not abandon the capital. Will the Wehrmacht break through or will it be too much for them to fight the winter and the Red Army at the same time?

The Soviet Union is on the verge of collapse. N**is are on the doorstep of Moscow. A few short miles and the Soviet capital will fall. This cannot happen. Moscow must be held at all cost.

21/12/2020

While the encirclement and destruction of Soviet forces near Kiev in August-September 1941 was a major defeat for the Soviet Union, the diversion of Army Group Center's Panzers meant that the drive on Moscow could not resume until the beginning of October. The operation (codenamed Typhoon) called for Guderian’s Panzers to push through the Soviet line in the south as other armored divisions did so from the north. They would drive east and link up behind the Soviet capital, cutting it off and forcing its surrender. [Map showing battles in October 1941 on the approach to Moscow, Wikicommons]

18/12/2020

By July, the Red Army had established a new defensive line around the city of Smolensk, with five armies under the command of Field Marshal Timoshenko. From July 10 to September 1941, the Germans fought to capture the city and destroy the defenders. The battle made clear that Soviet resistance was stiffening and the drive to capture Moscow before Winter would be difficult. Moreover, the fighting opened a rift between Hi**er – who wanted to seize the Ukraine – and his commanders like Hoth and Guderian, who argued the Ostheer needed to capture Moscow first. [Map: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0]

17/12/2020

On July 14, 1941, on the approach to Smolensk, Army Group Center encountered a new, unknown Soviet weapon system: the Katyusha. The Katyusha multiple rocket launcher is a rocket artillery system (mounted on a truck) that can deliver a salvo of rockets armed with high explosives. Each truck had 14 to 48 launchers, which were racks of parallel rails on which the rockets were mounted. Like the T-34 tank, the Katyusha soon came to be feared by German troops. The Katyusha could fire a salvo of rockets, bombard a large area, and move before the Germans could fire counter-attacking artillery. [Photo: A battery of Katyusha launchers fires at German forces during the Battle of Stalingrad, 6 October 1942. By RIA Novosti archive CC-BY-SA 3.0]

16/12/2020

This week we return to Army Group Center, which as we saw in the Barbarossa episode broke through the Soviet frontier defenses and began the drive towards Minsk and Smolensk. On June 28th Panzer Groups 2 and 3 under Guderian and Hoth captured Minsk – two hundred miles inside the Soviet Union. By July 9th, Army Group Center had reduced the Minsk pocket and captured Vitebsk. The Germans took 290,000 Russian soldiers prisoner. The battle cost the Soviets 2,500 tanks and 1,500 artillery pieces. The mood at German High Command soared. Hadler – Chief of the Army – confidently predicted that the Russian campaign would be over in a matter of weeks. [Map: The Break of the Hoth's 3rd Panzer Group toward Minsk, June 24-28, 1941. Wikicommons / Public Domain]

15/12/2020

Episode 14 is now live! Leningrad, the deadliest siege in the history of the world. It’s a story of terror and heroism, privation and hope. How much can one city endure? Find out today as we talk about a city cut off from the rest of the world, surviving on the thin lifeline of supplies and munitions brought over a frozen lake. Listen as Leningrad tries to hold out against the N**i menace and the still struggling Red Army tries to relieve the city.
https://anchor.fm/thefinesthalfhour/episodes/Siege-of-Leningrad-enpfd5

Leningrad, the deadliest siege in the history of the world. It’s a story of terror and heroism, privation and hope. How much can one city endure?

15/12/2020

This week we're highlighting the Panzer IV, in collaboration with our partners at The Tank Museum, Bovington. The Panzer IV was originally designed as a close-support tank for infantry divisions, while the Panzer III would take on enemy tanks. In the Winter of 1941-1942, the Panzer IV was upgraded after encountering the Soviet T-34. The Panzer IV had a larger turret ring than the Panzer III, which enabled it to be fitted with the longer, more powerful 75 KwK 40 gun. The Panzer IV thus took over the anti-tank role of the Panzer III. The Panzer IV was eventually succeeded by the Panther, but it continued as a significant part of German armored forces until the end of the war.

The Tank Museum’s Panzer IV was completed as an Ausf D, with 30mm extra armour on the superstructure front and 20mm armour on the hull and superstructure sides before it even left the factory. In 1943 additional armour was put on the front and the original 75mm KwK L/24 replaced with the KwK 40 L/43 and this may well have been as part of the development of these various changes. It was used as a driving instruction vehicle. [Photos courtesy Tank Museum, Bovington]

14/12/2020

Today, Krondstadt naval base on the island of Kotlin stands guard on the seaward approaches to St. Petersburg (Leningrad). With the loss of the naval base at Tallinn in August 1941, Krondstadt became the main base for the Baltic fleet, whose ships and submarines would disrupt German naval operations throughout the campaign. The Luftwaffe bombed the island non-stop from August 1941, but they were unable to destroy the island’s powerful artillery batteries. When the Gulf of Finland froze over in late November 1941, the Germans tried to take the island by infantry and Panzer assault across the ice – but they were repelled. On the mainland, Baltic fleet sailors joined in the land defense of the city, as did the fourteen 152 mm guns of the Cruiser Aurora, which were removed and positioned on the front line. [Photo: 10inch gun at Krondstadt, public domain]

13/12/2020

By early September 1941, supplies could only reach Leningrad, with its 3 million inhabitants, by the water route across Lake Lagoda. The challenge of supply was made far worse by Luftwaffe bombing attacks on September 8-10th which destroyed warehouses containing thousands of tons of flour. People began to go hungry. But German forces were not able to break through the ring of anti-tank ditches, barbed wire entanglements, and strong points that Leningrad’s civilians had constructed in August, under Zhukov’s leadership. German forces – bombarded day and night by mortars, heavy artillery, and air support – lacked the strength to take the city. Hi**er turned his attention back to Moscow. [Photo: artillery in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral. Public Domain]

12/12/2020

By mid-August 1941, Army Group North captured Novgorod and resumed the drive on Leningrad. By the end of August, German forces were a mere 30 miles from the city. Meanwhile, the Finns launched an attack on both sides of Lake Lagoda, pushing the Soviets back to the old Finn-Soviet border. The Germans reached Shlisselburg on September 7th, cutting off the last land route to Leningrad. With Finnish assistance, they cut the Murmansk rail line the next day. Leningrad was now surrounded. The siege would last for more than two years. [Photo: Soviet soldiers prepare to defend Leningrad. RIA Novosti Archive]

11/12/2020

By the first week of July 1941, Army Group North had broken through the Stalin Line and captured the city of Pskov. But the pace of advance began to slow in the face of stiffening Soviet resistance, so German high command decided to wait for the 16th and 18th army to move up from Estonia and Latvia before continuing the drive on Leningrad. The offensive resumed on August 8th. Not until August 24th did the Germans succeed in pushing the Soviets out of Luga. The delays gave the Soviets precious time to strengthen the defense of Leningrad and train new units. [Photo: civilians working on defenses of Luga, summer 1941, Wikicommons image]

10/12/2020

On June 22, 1941, Army Group North began its attack against the Soviet Northwestern Front. It's ultimate objective was the city of Leningrad. The 8th, 11th, and 27th Soviet Armies defended the approaches, but they were pushed back by the speed and weight of the German attacks. Soviet forces tried to make a stand on the Dvina River, but the Germans reached the river first, forcing the Russians to withdraw to the Stalin Line – a series of defensive fortifications similar to the Maginot Line. [Photo: Part of the Stalin Line: an anti-tank gun west of Minsk. Wikicommons].

09/12/2020

In next week's episode, we turn our attention to Army Group North. As part of Operation Barbarossa, Army Group North was tasked with seizing the Baltic states, securing the flank of Army Group Center, and capturing the city of Leningrad. While the main objectives were achieved, despite stiff resistance by the Soviets, Army Group North was unable to capture the city. Instead, they surrounded the city and placed it under a siege that would last 872 days. [Map copyright Brian Taylor 2003, Barbarossa to Berlin]

08/12/2020

The latest episode of our WW2 podcast series is now live!

The war in the east begins! Join us for the largest invasion ever mounted. The fate of nations, and of the whole world, may well rest on what happens here. If the Soviet Union falls, so falls the last opposition to fascism in continental Europe. But things look grim. Everywhere the Soviets are begin driven back. Stalin can’t come to grips with what’s happening. The Red Army looks on the verge of collapse. Will they be able to hold the line? https://anchor.fm/thefinesthalfhour/episodes/Barbarossa-enfi37

The war in the east begins! Join us for the largest invasion ever mounted. The fate of nations, and of the whole world, may well rest on what happens here. If the Soviet Union falls, so falls the last opposition to fascism in continental Europe.

08/12/2020

To tell this week's story, we’ve partnered up with The Tank Museum, Bovington to showcase the Soviet KV-1 heavy tank. The KV-1 presented a serious danger to German divisions. Shells from Panzer mark III and IV tanks just bounced off these new Russian heavyweight monsters. The only way the Germans could knock out a KV-1 tank in 1941 and 1942 was from a well-aimed 88 mm anti-aircraft gun, artillery bombardment, Luftwaffe bombing, or climbing on top of the tank and pouring petrol over the engine hatches! Not until the introduction of the Tiger and Panther tanks were the KV-1s finally outclassed.

The Tank Museum’s KV-1 was supplied to Britain by the Soviets in the summer of 1942 along with a T-34 tank, so the allies could assess its capabilities. It was manufactured in Chelyabinsk (Tankograd) in the Urals, but the first KV-1s were built at the Kirovisky Works in Leningrad. The letters KV stand for Klim Voroshilov, one of the Five Marshals of the Soviet Union. The tank had a combat weight of 47 tons, a five-man crew and was armed with a 76.2mm cannon and three 7.62mm machine guns. The tanks engines could produce 600 hp which gave a maximum road speed of 34 km/h (21 mph). The Russian inscription reads “From the women of Leningrad to the front!” [Photos courtesy of Tank Museum, Bovington]

07/12/2020

As the battle for Moscow raged in December 1941 (stay tuned for episode 16), another attack took place on the other side of the world. It was on this date, 79 years ago, that Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor (tune in for episode 20!), bringing the United States into the War. Had Hi**er not declared war on the U.S. four days later, on December 11, 1941, the United States might very well have turned its attention to the Pacific (what do you think?). But Hi**er believed that American industry wouldn’t be able to build up sufficient forces to invade Europe for at least two years, leaving him plenty of time to finish the conquest of the Soviet Union and meet any Anglo-American attack in the West. [New York Times, December 11 1941]

07/12/2020

Hi**er’s decision to send the 2nd Panzer Group south in August 1941, rather than continue the drive on Moscow, would lead to the encirclement and capture of some 665,000 Soviet soldiers in the Kiev region in late September. But the operation cost critical weeks that allowed the Soviets to create fresh new formations and to transfer experienced divisions from the Far East. It was not until early October that Army Group Center resumed its drive on Moscow, leaving little time to capture the capital before the onset of winter. [Map Brian Taylor, Barbarossa to Berlin 2003]

06/12/2020

For Operation Barbarossa to succeed, it needed to do so quickly, since the German military and economy were not prepared for a long war of attrition. Could the fighting power of the Soviets best be overcome by driving straight on Moscow, as Hadler and OKH argued in July 1941? Or should Army Group Center’s Panzers drive south to link up with Army Group South, to encircle Soviet forces near Kiev? In the end, Hi**er ordered the Panzers diverted from the Moscow front to help with the advance on Leningrad and Kiev. Guderian tried to entangle his forces to make disengaging impossible. It almost worked, as Hi**er changed his mind and postponed the diversion, only to change his mind again soon after. The indecision and changes of plan led to what historians call the ‘nineteen-day interregnum’, which did much to dash the Ostheer’s chance for victory. [Photo: Bildesarchiv, German Panzer IV near Vitebsk, 1941]

05/12/2020

The German offensive of June 1941 consisted of a three-pronged attack, with Army Group North, Centre, and South aimed at Leningrad, Moscow, and Kiev respectively. In defiance of conventional military wisdom, Stalin had crowded his forces into a narrow front along the post-1939 frontier, rather than organize a defense in depth with armored, counter-attacking reserves. Moreover, his purge of army leadership in 1937-1939 left few commanders willing to order fighting retreats in the face of encirclement by German armor and mechanized units. By the end of August, German armies had destroyed dozens of Soviet divisions, advanced through the Baltic states to the outskirts of Leningrad, captured Minsk and surrounded the city of Smolensk on the route to Moscow, and seized much of the rich agricultural land of the Ukraine. Despite these initial successes, however, German commanders soon realized that they had vastly underestimated Russian strength. [Operation Barbarossa, June-August 1941. Wikicommons / Public Domain].