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In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, civilian governments struggled to establish law and order and in many cars failed to prevent a wave of vigilante violence against those suspected of collaboration. The complicity in Nazi crimes and the everyday experience of occupation created huge divisions in societies of western and eastern Europe and a deep suspicion on the police, who had often been used by the Nazis and collaborationist governments Explaining History helps you understand
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The Battle of Midway was the first major victory of the US Navy in the Second World War, resulting in the loss of four out of Japan’s six carriers. This devastating defeat was not the end of Japan’s war in the Pacific, but it signalled the start of a downward trajectory from which Japan would not deviate, despite the ability to inflict losses on America until the end of the war. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We con
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As French power and influence declined in Vietnam from 1953 onwards, the conflict started to become a proxy for the wider cold war and not simply an anti colonial struggle. The enormous French miscalculation at Dien Bien Phu, where the garrison was surrounded in a north Vietnamese valley by DRV armies came just as France prepared peace talks at Geneva with the government of Ho Chi Minh. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews.
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Despair and defeatism defined the French political class’s response to the worsening situation in Vietnam following the French defeat at Cao Bang in 1950. This lack of hope led to a gradual decline in the necessary resources to defeat the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. At the same time the DRV was becoming an increasingly professional and organised fighting force. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past
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In the half decade after the Second World War, a stream of wanted Nazi war criminals, including Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele fled from Germany and escaped via Italy to Argentina and Brazil. They lived relatively openly in the established German communities in both countries and only a handful were ever brought to justice. In this special edition of the Explaining History podcast, we hear from Guy Walters, whose book, Hunting Evil examines the hidden history of this often mythologised chapter
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The German airforce was designed to support its army on the battlefield and act as a tool for rapid military operations or ‘blitzkrieg’. Unlike British and American air fleets that pursued a policy of strategic bombing away from the battlefield, lighter German aircraft were focused on ground support. Their role in the terror bombing of the defended city of Warsaw was to force capitulation of the army and other defenders, but this came at a deliberate massive civilian cost. Explaining History hel
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By 1950 the French political establishment was in a state of despair about its prospects in Vietnam. The newly reorganised army of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam had inflicted defeats on France in 1950 ad Cao Bang on the Vietnam/China border. The involvement of the USA in the war brought badly needed military and financial aid, but placed an intolerable burden on French national pride. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert intervie
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In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the popularity of international, multilateral organisations such as the UN and the Bretton Woods institutions in America was high. Wartime cooperation was looked upon favourably by most Americans, even though there was a considerable minority who favoured a return to isolationism. The Republican Party and right wing journalists and thinkers saw international cooperation, sympathies towards Britain and wartime cooperation with the USSR as ideal
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America’s war in the Pacific had begun with Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbour and within six months the US Navy inflicted a devastating defeat on Japan at the Battle of Midway. American admirals and aviators learned the rules of naval warfare quickly, despite the fact that Japan initially outclassed America in naval warfare and aviation. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you
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In the 1930s the deteriorating world situation presented all major political parties in Britain with profound dilemmas, whether to back pacifism, collective security or appeasement. The peripheral British Union of Fascists advocated peace with Nazi Germany in order to allow Hitler to wage his war against Europe’s Jews. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please su