World War II Unwound
Little known or forgotten stories from World War II. The spies, heroes, decision-makers and the moments that changed everything. Hosted by U.S. Navy Veteran and World War II historian Alan Best
Episodes
13 episodes
The Desert Fox's Last Argument - Rommel, The Atlantic Wall, and The Decision That Wasn't Made
Episode Title: The Desert Fox's Last Argument — Rommel, The Atlantic Wall, and The Decision That Wasn't MadeSeason 2, Episode 5 — The Decision MakersHe was right.Erwin Rommel — the Desert Fox, the most celeb...
Not One Step Back - Stalin, Zhukov, and The Battle That Turned the War
Episode Title: Not One Step Back — Stalin, Zhukov, and The Battle That Turned The WarSeason 2, Episode 4 — The Decision MakersTwo million.Two million people died in and around the city of Stalingrad between ...
The Order That Made No Sense - Hitler, Dunkirk, and The Decision Nobody Can Fully Explain
Season 2, Episode 3 — The Decision MakersIn May 1940, Adolf Hitler had the British Expeditionary Force cornered on the beaches of Dunkirk.His Panzers were within striking distance. His generals were urging him to finish i...
The Sleeping Giant - Yamamoto, Pearl Harbor, and The Decision He Knew Was Wrong
Episode Title: The Sleeping Giant — Yamamoto, Pearl Harbor, and The Decision He Knew Was WrongSeason 2, Episode 2 — The Decision MakersHe attended Harvard. He drove across the American South and watched the oil fie...
We Go - Eisenhower, The Weather, and the Decision That Changed Everything
We Go — Eisenhower, The Weather, and The Decision That Changed EverythingSeason 2, Episode 1 — The Decision MakersIt's four in the morning at Southwick House, England, June 5th, 1944. A North Atlantic storm is battering t...
The Catcher Was a Spy - Moe Berg and the Lecture Hall in Zurich
Episode Title: The Catcher Was a Spy — Moe Berg and the Lecture Hall in ZurichSeason 1, Episode 8 — The Spies & Secret Wars — SEASON FINALEHe was a backup catcher with a .243 batting average.He was also ...
The Cambridge Five - Five Men, One Betrayal, Thirty Years
Episode Title: The Cambridge Five — Five Men, One Betrayal, Thirty YearsSeason 1, Episode 7 — The Spies & Secret WarsEvery story this season has been about deception aimed outward — at Nazi Germany. This one is...
Operation Mincemeat - The Spy Who Never Lived
Episode Title: Operation Mincemeat — The Spy Who Never LivedSeason 1, Episode 6 — The Spies & Secret WarsHe had a fiancée. A bank manager who was annoyed with him. Theater ticket stubs from a night out in Londo...
The Limping Lady - Virginia Hall and the Resistance the Gestapo Could Not Catch.
Episode Title: The Limping Lady — Virginia Hall and the Resistance the Gestapo Could Not CatchSeason 1, Episode 5 — The Spies & Secret WarsThe Gestapo in Lyon called her the most dangerous of all Allied spies. ...
The Architects of Deception- The Men Who Planned D-Day
Episode Title: The Architects of Deception — The Men Who Planned D-DaySeason 1, Episode 4 — The Spies & Secret WarsIn the spring of 1943, a small planning staff in London was handed the largest problem in milit...
The Secret That Won The War — Bletchley Park, The Enigma Code, and The Man Britain Forgot To Thank
The Germans believed it was mathematically impossible to break. The number of possible configurations ran into the hundreds of quintillions. No human being could check them all. No process known to exist could narrow them down fast enough.<...
The Zigzag Spy — The Bravado of Eddie Chapman
Episode Title: The Zigzag Spy — The Bravado of Eddie ChapmanSeason 1, Episode 2 — The Spies & Secret WarsHe was a safecracker. A criminal. A man who had escaped custody twice before the war even started. When G...
The Man Nobody Wanted - How Juan Pujol Garcia Fooled Hitler and Saved D-Day
The Man Nobody Wanted — How Juan Pujol Garcia Fooled Hitler and Saved D-DaySeason 1, Episode 1 — The Spies & Secret WarsHe had no military background. No intelligence training. No government connections. Brit...