212: The European Theater, 1943

"Wing Ding, you're either crazy as hell or you've got balls." This is the story of the European Theater in 1943. As Allied bombers learn the brutal cost of daylight precision raids over Ploesti and Schweinfurt, Allied armies fight their way onto the Italian mainland at Salerno, and the citizens of Naples rise to liberate themselves. Meanwhile, the U-boat is finally beaten back in the Atlantic, American Lend-Lease reaches a bleeding Soviet Union, and the tide turns in the East. And in occupied France, a fractured Resistance begins to cohere—thanks to the sacrifice of a hero named Jean Moulin—as Charles de Gaulle claims his place at the head of a nation not yet free. We'll meet a tail gunner who flew into hell without his parachute, a colonel who took his burning bomber over the target rather than break his word, a thirteen-year-old who took on a German tank, and an American spy hiding behind a wooden leg and a wheel of cheese. Each is doing their part as the whole Allied world bends toward one looming date on the horizon. Call it the pre-pre-D-Day episode. This is the European Theater, 1943. Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com http://HTDSpodcast.com and go deep into episode bibliographies https://www.htdspodcast.com/bibliography and book recommendations https://www.htdspodcast.com/book-recommendationsjoin discussions in our Facebook community https://www.facebook.com/groups/257926761619618/get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette https://www.htdspodcast.com/newsletters-1 come see a live show https://www.htdspodcast.com/live-showsget HTDS merch https://htds-team-shop.fourthwall.com/or become an HTDS premium https://htds.supercast.com/ member for bonus episodes and other perks. HTDS is part ofAudacy media network. https://www.audacy.com/ Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contacthttps://audacyinc.com/contactAudacyinc.com http://Audacyinc.com

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Greg Jackson?

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• 0:43Greg Jackson?

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• 1:15Greg Jackson?

  It's early in the morning, October 14th, 1943. We're in Nettishol, England, where Eugene T. Carson, or Wingding, as he's known, is seated in the mess hall with fellow servicemen of U.S. Army 8th Air Force's 388th Bombardment Group, choking down what he calls "a usual breakfast of square eggs, Spam, and SOS." That last item is creamed, chipped beef on toast, what the whole U.S. military calls SOS, short for "shit on a shingle." A fair note of disapproval for a discerning, small-town Pennsylvania baker, even if that life is now an ocean and thousands of miles away.

• 1:58Greg Jackson?

  Here in England, he's a tailgunner and staff sergeant, hoping this morning's "crummy" weather gets today's yet-to-be-announced attack pushed off. Suddenly, the curtain dividing the mess from the briefing room is pulled back. So much for a silver lining for today's clouds. And the news gets worse. Today's target is Schweinfurt, Germany. The room explodes with exclamations of shock and trepidation.

• 2:27Speaker 01

  Oh, Jesus. No, not again. Holy mother of God. This is my last mission.

• 2:34Greg Jackson?

  Yes, Schweinfurt, located in the heart of Nazi territory in Bavaria. The town is home to factories producing the ball bearings so essential to German aircraft. When these daring airmen struck the city back in August, they devastated Nazi ball bearing production, which fell from 140 tons per month to 50. But it came at the steep cost of 20% of all participants. 370 airmen, friends to many in this room, did not make it back. With losses like that, statistically, an assignment to the 8th Air Force is a death sentence. And now, these airmen, many survivors of August's raid, are being asked to go back,

• 3:19Greg Jackson?

  to again fly their bombers, largely without escorts, right over Germany. It feels like a death sentence. Yet, the briefing officer doesn't miss a beat. His voice bellows over the room's laments.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  This is a very important mission. Germany's ball bearing works must be destroyed.

• 3:44Greg Jackson?

  It's later that same October 14th morning. Eugene "Wingding" Carson's B-17, nicknamed "Tiger Girl," is soaring over France in a formation of 16 flying fortresses. As they fly, Wingding is at the aircraft's tail turret, or "stinger," checking gear and test firing his guns. Something feels off, and then it hits him. His parachute is missing. Eugene sits at his gun in terrified silence. He knows that if he informs the pilot, Otis Ingubritson, aka "Dingle," he'll turn this flying fortress around.

• 4:23Greg Jackson?

  But between one B-17's takeoff-turned-crash-landing, ironically or wholly appropriately a bird nicknamed "hard luck," and other mechanical failures, their group is already down six bombers. No. Eugene won't be the cause of yet one more American plane not flying today, one fewer to drop bombs and fend off the Luftwaffe. He sits in panic. This is a death sentence. He prays. He... hears a female voice say, "Trust me." What? That's insane. He checks his mask. Is he sure he's getting oxygen? Yes, he is.

• 5:08Greg Jackson?

  Okay, then. With little other thought besides, "Oh, Jesus," he accepts his fate and prepares to engage the enemy. Crossing from Belgium into German air, Eugene watches as their fighter escorts, now at the limit of their range, peel off. And only minutes later, with his group of B-17s still 200 miles from Schweinfurt, the dreaded Nazi air force, the Luftwaffe, arrives. Across hundreds of miles of sky, some 500 aircraft, 229 American bombers, and more than 300 German planes exchange machine gun fire. Worse are the JU-88s.

• 5:51Greg Jackson?

  These powerful, twin-engine fighters launch 21-centimeter rockets from 1,000 yards out, rockets that don't just down bombers but incinerate them in the air. Black funnels fill the sky as wrecked planes fall, as airmen's parachutes open, taking some to safety, but in other cases, bursting into flames, leaving a young airman to fall to his death. To quote Eugene's later recollection, "The scene was one of carnage beyond imagination. It was strangely not frightening. The intensity of the action left no time for longer. However, despite my calmness, I was satisfied the end was near."

• 6:33Greg Jackson?

  Incredibly, Eugene's entire formation, all 16 flying fortresses, reaches Schweinfurt. Here, the fear isn't the Luftwaffe, but the anti-aircraft artillery. It's a deadly exchange. The B-17s drop 1,122 high-explosive bombs, while Schweinfurt's guns answer with shells set to explode as shrapnel-spraying, side-obstering black clouds at the formation's altitude. A shell strikes the B-17 just next to Tiger Girl. Eugene watches in horror as it goes into a spin for a few seconds, then explodes into 1,000 pieces. Not a single man had a chance to parachute out.

• 7:15Greg Jackson?

  With the bombs dropped, the bombers turn around to again face the same hundreds of miles Luftwaffe gauntlet between them and relatively safe air. As they fly, Eugene sits in concentrated silence, letting his 50-cal machine gun ring. As he'll later recall, "I had nothing to say. My tailguns were doing my talking in short, nasty bursts." Then, suddenly, the attack ends. The sounds of battle fade, leaving only the roar of Tiger Girl's four engines. Eugene leans forward, rests his head against the window, as he physically shakes and sobs, barely catching his breath enough to mutter, "Thank you, God."

• 8:00Greg Jackson?

  It's now 6:30 PM. Tiger Girl has just landed safe and sound back at their base in England. As they clamor out, ground crew chief Paul Ireland hollers for all to hear. Wingding forgot his parachute. The pilot, Dingle, turns to Eugene and asks if he knew. Eugene answers. Yes, sir. In a mix of dismay and respect, Dingle replies.

• 8:26Speaker 01

  Now I know why they call you Wingding.

• 8:29Greg Jackson?

  The cruise engineer Chuck Allred chimes in, too.

• 8:33Speaker 01

  Wingding, you're either crazy as hell, or you've got balls.

• 8:52Greg Jackson?

  Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story.

• 9:13Greg Jackson?

  This second Schweinfurt bombing raid cut Germany's ball bearing production by forty percent. Unfortunately, it cost seventy-seven B-17s, sixty lost, seventeen no longer airworthy, and over six hundred American casualties. Meanwhile, Germany's ball bearing production quickly recovers. Hence, the date of this bombing, October fourteenth, nineteen forty-three, will be known as Black Thursday. Yikes. Maybe these daytime air raids without escorts aren't worth the risk. Well, we'll get to that. Today, we leave the Pacific and return to the other side of the world to catch up on the European theater of nineteen forty-three.

• 9:56Greg Jackson?

  Well, most of the year, we're putting Allied boots on the boot of Italy. We'll learn more about these bombing raids in Europe, why they aren't escorted, and why Americans believe the precision of their northern bombing sites makes daylight raids worth it. We'll see the Nazis' submarine, or U-boat domination in the Atlantic, come to its demise, thereby enabling crucial lend-lease goods to make it to the USSR, goods that the Soviets desperately need as they battle at great sacrifice in the East. And then, we'll return to France, to find a growing resistance maturing. A resistance that, thanks to Jean-Moulin's bravery, is coordinating just enough for Charles de Gaulle to assert his leadership in exile.

• 10:41Greg Jackson?

  And with Allied secret agents parachuting in, it's a France preparing for its liberation, for Operation Overlord's D-Day. Which is what we're really pointing to. In fact, you could say this is the pre-Pre-D-Day episode. So, when we do still skip a few important events from this year, like the Tehran Conference, don't worry, just know that we're saving those for next time, for the Pre-D-Day episode. And with that, let's pick up where we left off with Europe in episode two oh one, with fascist Italy signing an armistice. Rewind. On September eighth, nineteen forty-three, the world learns that fascist Italy has signed

• 11:26Greg Jackson?

  an armistice with the Allies. Allied Supreme Commander in the Mediterranean, Dwight D. Eisenhower, personally announces the news that evening via Radio Algiers. And truly, Italy had no choice. The Allied invasion of Italy's great Mediterranean island of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a complete success. Such a success, that British and Canadian troops have already made the mere two-to-three mile skip from the Italian island to the "toe" of the Italian mainland, an action known as Operation Baytown. The writing's on the wall: fascist Italy is done for. Even its tepid king, Victory Emmanuel III, can see that.

• 12:08Greg Jackson?

  Ah, but that's not how the Nazis see it. From their perspective, Italy isn't folding with a losing hand, it's throwing in the towel as a traitor to their pact of steel. Hence, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel writes: "Italy's treachery is official." And hence, Germany has no intention of simply walking away from the Italian boot without a fight, particularly when its vast armies are already spread across so much of its fascism-founding former Allies' territory. Thus, even if Italy won't fight the Allies any longer, the nation will nonetheless become

• 12:48Greg Jackson?

  a major battleground, as the Wehrmacht stands against the advancing Allies. That gets us back to where we left off at the end of episode two oh one. It also gives us the background and context needed to continue following the Allies' imminent invasion of mainland Italy via two more operations. The British-executed and all but unopposed seizure of the southern Italian port of Taranto, and an American-led, heavily-opposed, more northern amphibious landing: Operation Avalanche. Given its American flavor and far more significant action, we'll follow the latter. Thrown together in haste as the Allies secured Sicily in August, Operation Avalanche will

• 13:30Greg Jackson?

  land troops significantly farther north, up Italy's western coast than where the Brits and Canucks have already planted the flag. The Yanks are heading to Salerno, a coastal town just thirty miles southeast of Naples. Now, Naples is the real goal. Its massive port is just what the Allies need to punch into the heart of Italy. The problem, however, is that it's just out of reach of the Spitfires currently calling Sicily "home," and invading Allied ground troops will need those single-engine monoplane fires' air support to make any amphibious landing successful. Otherwise, well, just cast your mind back to this episode's opening with Eugene "Ween" Dean Carson.

• 14:11Greg Jackson?

  Yeah, we saw all too well how terrifying it is to attack without fireplane escorts these days. So, sitting just south enough of Naples, to be at the northern edge of these Spitfires' range, for an attack window of twenty minutes or so before having to turn around, Salerno is the obvious choice for Operation Avalanche. Of course, that's also the problem: it's so obvious. The Wehrmacht sees it too. Even before Ike took to the radio and made Italy's "treachery" known, the Germans had sent the Sixteenth Panzer Division into the Salerno Plain and prepared defenses along the coast, including machine guns and their deadly eighty-eight-millimeter artillery pieces.

• 14:56Greg Jackson?

  So there will be no element of surprise here. At least, not for the Germans, but the Allied troops, specifically the British Tenth Corps and the US Sixth Corps, both commanded by US General Mark Clark as part of his Fifth Army, might be in for a surprise. Shipping out, as Ike announces Italy signing the armistice, on the evening of September eighth, the infantrymen aren't grasping that just because Italians are no longer fighting, doesn't mean that the Germans are no longer fighting. To quote maritime historian Samuel Elliott Morrison's summation of the average Allied soldier's thinking: "We were landing in Italy, and the Italians had quit, hadn't they?"

• 15:40Greg Jackson?

  Senior officers on the ships transporting these soldiers across the Mediterranean take to the loudspeakers to set them straight, to shout at them, literally, that they'll meet stiff resistance from German troops. Even still, the message doesn't sink in, but the bullets will. It's three-thirty in the still-dark morning, September ninth, nineteen forty-three. A mere nine hours since General Dwight D. Eisenhower announced an armistice with Italy. And about one-third of the way up Italy's west coast, several landing craft are cutting through the freshly mine-swept waters of the Gulf of Salerno.

• 16:22Greg Jackson?

  Those toward the Gulf's northern edge are filled with British boys who'll move on the town of Salerno itself. But eight miles down, the white sand shore, in the shadows of twenty-four-hundred-year-old Greek temples, yes, Greek ruins even older than ancient Rome, these landing craft carry American boys from the Sixth Corps' Thirty-Sixth Infantry Division. Originally a Texas National Guard unit, they're a well-trained bunch, but green. And that gate drops, this will be their first battle, and the intention is that, striking in the almost still-dark with no naval bombardment, they'll have the element of surprise.

• 17:03Greg Jackson?

  But that doesn't seem likely, not with German flares flying in the sky. Do the Germans know they're coming? As dozens of landing craft bow ramps drop across four separate beaches, a German loudspeaker blares at the disembarking Americans, and in English no less:

• 17:20Speaker 01

  "Come on in, and jump! Go cover!"

• 17:24Greg Jackson?

  Oh God. Not a moment later, well-prepared German machine gunners unload on the landing craft. Some soldiers drop dead before they can even take a first step, others lie wounded, writhing in pain, and the Gulf's saltwater. Those who make it onto the beaches must contend with mortars, eighty-eight-millimeter cannons, and the strafing fire of the Luftwaffe, all while trying to cut through barbed wire and advance. But as the sun rises on what will be an endless day of battle, as Allied landing craft navigate around remaining mines to land more troops, rocket launchers, howitzers, and ammo, and as fighter aircraft provide air support, the Americans manage to move forward, even if at great risk and sacrifice.

• 18:08Greg Jackson?

  As General Mark Clark will later recall, James M. Logan killed three Germans who rushed at him, firing rifles from a wall, shooting nearby machine gunners, and turned the weapon on the rest of the gun crew as they fled. Lieutenant Clare F. Carpenter and Corporal Edgar L. Blackburn, manning his seventy-five-millimeter self-propelled howitzer in a defile swept by enemy fire from both flanks, knocked out a machine gun nest and a tank before they were cut down by a heavy burst of fire. There were countless other acts of heroism.

• 18:43Greg Jackson?

  While Sergeant James Logan will later receive the Medal of Honor for turning one of the Germans' own machine guns back on them, September 9th's landing at Salerno hardly ends as envisioned. The British and American forces have failed to connect, each holding a beachhead only. Worse still, the Germans receive reinforcements over the next two days, and on the 13th, mount a counterattack that all but drives the Allies back into the sea. General Mark Clark won't have it. While criticism will yet come his way for Day 1's landing, he's committed to the operation, and according to his later recollection, he rallies the beleaguered men while speaking from his jeep: "We don't give another inch. This is it. Don't yield anything. We're here to stay."

• 19:27Greg Jackson?

  Inspiring, but let's be frank. It's Admiral Henry Hewitt's naval guns, those Sicily-based Spitfires, and the parachuting 82nd Airborne that turned things around. And the threat of Britain's General Bernard Montgomery advancing from the south with his 8th Army doesn't hurt. By September 16th, some 150,000 Allied troops are on shore. Operation Avalanche is a success.

• 19:57Greg Jackson?

  So, the Allies are progressing up Italy's boot, but not nearly as fast nor as easily as one might expect after an armistice due to ongoing German resistance. Well, perhaps we should say mostly German resistance. Benito Mussolini's role in this war isn't over just yet. I know, we witnessed the fallen Duce's arrest on July 25th, 1943, back in Episode 201. We heard the excited celebrations of Italians on the cobblestone streets of Rome the very next evening. And now, the Italians keep their former fascist leader on the move as an extra precaution. But the watchful Nazis are on a manhunt for Benito. They track his whereabouts to a remote and distant imprisonment,

• 20:40Greg Jackson?

  high up among the peaks of the Gran Sasso d'Italia, at the Hotel Campo Imperatore. And on the afternoon of September 12th, as General Mark Clark's army is gasping for life on the beaches of Salerno, 12 DFS 230 gliders, essentially small, engineless airplanes that, once launched, can silently approach their target and land with incredible precision on difficult terrain, carry a small force of Nazi paratroopers and SS men to this secluded mountain. They surround the hotel. Then, after bluffing the 200-strong Italian guard into standing down, SS Officer Otto Scorsini greets Benito, allegedly saying: "Duce, the Fuhrer has sent me as a token of his loyalty and friendship."

• 21:26Greg Jackson?

  With that, the Germans take Il Duce to a tiny monoplane and whisk him off to safety. Or is it captivity? Well, a rescue, a kidnapping, whatever you want to call it. The Italians have lost their fascist former leader to their fascist former ally. Wow. Sounds like a scene right out of a James Bond movie. That's partially true. It's also partially propaganda. Otto Scorsini, the SS officer whose comment above felt like a movie script, most likely wasn't the leader he and the fiendishly clever Dr. Joseph Goebbels make him out to be on this mountain raid. Historians will later conclude Luftwaffe Major Otto Harald Moers is probably the brains behind this operation.

• 22:12Greg Jackson?

  In fact, propaganda won't only lead us to question the myth built around the Nazis' absconding, Il Duce, but largely explains why Adolf Hitler ordered the maneuver. See, inept as Benito and his regime have proven militarily, the Nazi regime nonetheless needs to take the wind out of the Allies' recent armistice sails. And nothing says "doldrums" like propping up their fallen ally anew. Thus, by September 23rd, Benito is in Italy's German-occupied north, in Salo, puppet-leading the Italian Social Republic, or the Salo Republic. That's right, we have two Italiens now: a fascist rump government in the north

• 22:56Greg Jackson?

  and an armistice-abiding kingdom in the south. But by no means are all Italians standing by as German forces impose this new reality, particularly in the up-for-grab center of the contested country. And sometimes, the most courageous are the youngest.

• 23:17Greg Jackson?

  It's September 28th, 1943, Day 2 of open warfare between the citizens of Naples, Italy, and the city's occupying German forces. And I don't say "warfare" lightly. While things have been tense here since the signing of the armistice, perhaps especially since the Allies fought their way onto the beaches just south of here, at Salerno, the Nazis' recent decision to disarm Italian soldiers and send local Neapolitans to labor camps pushed the city to full-on rebellion yesterday. And now, with word that some rebels got their hands on a machine gun and took out two Germans, one by the name of Herman, this tank crew is seeking revenge. They've just fired on a store off of Via Nardone's.

• 24:03Greg Jackson?

  They're looking intently at the wreckage, hoping to see suffering or death. The tank commander comments: "Not bad, isn't it? Two degrees to the left and let them have the other. And let's hope we have better luck. Herman was my friend." Another structure, this time a private home, explodes in flames. As it does, the tank commander gets what he wanted. He hears suffering inside. The street's empty. Everyone is hiding. Every man, every woman. Then, a door elsewhere on Via Nardone's opens. A 13-year-old boy steps out. His name is Filippo Illuminato. This is his street.

• 24:48Greg Jackson?

  He's known and loved by all, both his schoolmates and the rough-and-tumble "scunizzi", that is, the Neapolitan's word for "street urchins". And Filippo is not about to watch this German tank systematically destroy his street and kill his neighbors. He starts walking forward with his hand kind of back, exactly as the scunizzi taught him. Mounted on a nearby armored car, a German machine gunner fires a warning shot. But Filippo continues forward. The gunner doesn't like that. Another spray of warning shots. Meanwhile, the tank is taking aim at another building on the street. Filippo won't allow it. Suddenly, a small arm emerges from behind him, flinging an object toward the armored car.

• 25:34Greg Jackson?

  The gunner is blinded by the smoke and flame, but recovers quickly and fires. Filippo is struck in the side, even as he throws his second grenade. But he'll never see if it hits his mark. The gunner unloads on him. He sprays the Italian team with bullets, disfiguring, dismembering even. "Silly little devil", the commander mutters. "What did he have to do that for?" The tank and armored car take off. Leaving, Via Nardone's young defender, lying lifelessly in a pool of his own blood. But not for long. Neighbors, the men who've watched him grow,

• 26:18Greg Jackson?

  and other boys who once played with him on this very street, form a circle around Filippo in an effort to give him cover and dignity in death.

• 26:29Greg Jackson?

  The four days of Naples, as this uprising against the Nazis will be known, is a success. By the time the Allies manage to reach Naples, this city, they've bombed for the last three years. The Germans have completely withdrawn. The Neapolitans have liberated themselves from their nation's former ally. Nonetheless, posthumous medals, like that awarded to little Filippo Illuminato, can't hide the hard truth that the armistice won't spare Italy from the war. The Germans will make the Allies pay for every inch of the boot they liberate. This "soft underbelly of the Axis", as Winston Churchill once called the Mediterranean approach via Italy, has become a backbone.

• 27:14Greg Jackson?

  But we have to save the last long and arduous northern push of the Italian campaign for another day. Right now, in 1943, Americans are striking the Nazi war machine from the other side of the continent as well, and with dangerous precision. Or perhaps, I should say, running dangerous risks to achieve precision. It's time we turn our attention back to American daylight precision bombings.

• 27:46Greg Jackson?

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• 28:29Greg Jackson?

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• 29:14Greg Jackson?

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• 30:21Greg Jackson?

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• 31:05Greg Jackson?

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• 31:43Greg Jackson?

  In sharp contrast to the Allied advance up Italy in the summer of 1943, the ground in northwestern Europe is at a standstill. The reason? The formidable English Channel. Neither side has sent an army across since the miraculous evacuation of Dunkirk amid the fall of France. Hence why we haven't heard much about the region for the past 20 or so episodes. But again, that's the ground. The air is a different story. Let me catch you up. While I trust you recall the intense exchange of bombs and strafing fire of the Battle of Britain back in episode 188, Britain's Royal Air Force and Germany's Luftwaffe never stopped clashing in northwestern Europe's skies.

• 32:25Greg Jackson?

  But tactics changed as it became clear that this war would be a marathon, not a sprint. And as painful losses added up, one lesson the RAF took to heart was that while bombers could strike with greater accuracy by day, that greater accuracy was negligible, and the losses were too great, especially with limited resources making the island nation reliant on lend-lease from the United States the Brits took to striking at night. But the US Army Air Forces disagrees. Joining the Britain-based aerial fight against the Axis in the summer of 1942, Major General Carl A. Spotts and his Eighth Air Force arrived with some concern that night bombings would

• 33:07Greg Jackson?

  accidentally strike civilians, and with great confidence that their B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators could fly so high and so fast that the Luftwaffe would struggle to catch them. And besides, how could they bomb at night when it would mean not using the Norden Bomb Site? This brilliant analog computer enables American bombers to strike with unparalleled precision, provided the bombardier can see through its powerful magnifying crosshair telescope. And that isn't happening without daylight. While the Brits see American arrogance, the Americans can't help but see that their technology puts their daytime strikes in a different light.

• 33:48Greg Jackson?

  Yes, pun intended, but more to the point, be it arrogance or confidence, the Americans in 1943 genuinely believed they can fly into the heart of Axis territory, drop bombs, and get out. It's with that confidence that they undertake a raid deep in Europe's Axis-controlled Balkans. It's August 1, 1943, and 36-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Addison Baker is seated at the controls of his heavy, four-engine bomber, a B-24 Liberator, affectionately known as Hell's Wench, soaring over the Romanian countryside.

• 34:27Greg Jackson?

  Beneath him are sunflowers, wheat, cornfields, farmers whose seemingly idyllic life defies the reality of a continent seized in war. And Addison can see it all since his bomber and all the others are flying low to avoid Axis radar. One can only wonder what the farmers think, looking up to see 177 B-24s overhead. But Addison has no time to wonder about that. He's focused on his mission, Operation Title Wave. Broadly conceived early this year at the Casablanca Conference, then refined, and finally practiced in the deserts of North Africa, the plan is for this massive aerial armada of American

• 35:09Greg Jackson?

  bombers to strike the oil refineries of Ploiește, Romania, thereby devastatingly disrupting the source of one-third of the Nazi war machine's oil. Five bomber groups are undertaking this mission, two from the Ninth Air Force, and three that came down to North Africa from the England-based Eighth Air Force. That includes the 93rd, or Ted's Traveling Circus, as the group's better known, and a nod to Colonel Edward "Ted" Timberlake. Though it isn't Ted leading them today, Addison Baker is. And he's the right man for the job. A lot of guys are nervous. Can they really believe the brass who claim the Nazis' anti-aircraft guns won't see them coming because they're flying too low for radar?

• 35:54Greg Jackson?

  That the German defenders won't know what hit them and will be overwhelmed by the falling bombs? Well, whatever the truth, at least they know Addison is with them. Amid an impromptu devotional, driven by these pilots' shared fear that this is a suicide mission, he swore to them, "I intend to go over the target. If I go over it in flames, I'm going over it." Well, it's about time to turn toward Ploiește. So here we go. Wait, that's the wrong way! The lead bomber, piloted by Colonel Keith Compton, just turned toward Bucharest, not Ploiește. Various pilots break radio silence.

• 36:37Speaker 01

  Not here. Mistake, mistake!

• 36:39Greg Jackson?

  And yet, the Colonel continues on the wrong path, causing others to follow. But not all. Not Yurokli Don, not Brewery Wagon, not Utah Man. And Addison Baker and his Hell's Wench won't either. Risking court martial by breaking ranks, this leader of the 93rd likewise goes rogue by holding to the mission and his oath. He leans 90 degrees to the left toward Ploiește, and as he does, his group follows. 88-millimeter cannons, machine guns, howitzers, you name it. The German defenders unload all of the above as the 93rd's B-24s scream past at 245 miles

• 37:24Greg Jackson?

  per hour and a mere 50 feet off the ground. The bombers return fire while expecting death. As the copilot of Little Lady will later recall, "All hell was breaking loose. You could hear the swish and feel the shells go by us. My God, we're sitting ducks." As Brewery Wagon crashes, Addison Baker pulls his bomber to the front, making Hell's Wench the tip of this aerial attacking spear. His left wing is hit. A shell explodes on the bomber's nose. Flames leap from the cockpit, yet still Addison holds course and drops bombs. Following closely in Utah Man, Utah native Lieutenant Walter Stewart tries to signal

• 38:08Greg Jackson?

  Addison to pull out, to land, but the group leader won't. Walter can only watch as Hell's Wench holds its course, showing the whole 93rd the way toward the refinery stacks, even as two of its engines explode in flames. Finally, Hell's Wench starts to climb. A few men jump out, the bodies ablaze. Then, the plane, now little more than a fireball, drops from the sky.

• 38:40Greg Jackson?

  177 B-24s flew from Libya to Romania in Operation Tidal Wave. Eighty-eight returned. More than 200 airmen are wounded or captured while another 310 are killed outright. Five are awarded the Medal of Honor. Three posthumously. Among those three are Lieutenant Colonel Addison Baker and his co-pilot, Major John Jurstad. Meanwhile, Nazi ground forces suffer far fewer losses, a rare outcome for a WWII airstrike. And the damage was not just repaired, but exceeded. Within weeks, Koryt is refining more oil than before the raid. In fact, the town will increase its oil output, eventually providing some 60% of the Nazis' crude oil.

• 39:25Greg Jackson?

  That's a hard butcher's bill. Only a little over two weeks later, on August 17th, the England-based US Eighth Air Force launches its first raid on Schweinfurt's ball-bearing factories. Yes, we referenced the raid in this episode's opening, and that day actually had a second target: an aircraft factory in Regensburg, which also saw severe losses. And of course, we already know about the second raid on Schweinfurt on October 14th. We accompanied Eugene "Wing Dean" Carson on it. And now that we have the full background on how badly these raids go, his terror at forgetting his parachute only hits harder. And, with every airman required to fly 25 missions before being able to go home, these

• 40:10Greg Jackson?

  losses are so steep, it means that the odds are stacked against everyone. Statistically, to be a US airman flying out of England is to be as good as dead. And that's why Wing Dean's Day of Terror, the second Schweinfurt raid, is a breaking point. Now, the US Eighth doesn't stop flying, nor stop flying by day when it can use the Norden Bomb Site. But these long-range attacks in which bombers fly without escorts, that is ending. Long-range attacks will come back next year with the advent of a newer, sleeker P-51 Mustang that can hang with these bombers all the way out and back, and even turn the tables, making the Luftwaffe hunters become the hunted.

• 40:53Greg Jackson?

  But the story of these yet-to-be birds, and the pilots who will fly them, including the Tuskegee Airmen, is a story for another day. Unforgiving as American flyboys find Europe's skies in 1943, Allied sailors are seeing more success in the Atlantic. Yes, the Battle of the Atlantic, which we started back in episode 199, is still going, and we won't finish it today either. This battle is a slow burn that effectively runs the length of the entire European theater. But as we return to it, here's a quick refresher for you. In 1942, German Vice Admiral Karl Dönitz U-boats, that is submarines, were seeing so much success

• 41:37Greg Jackson?

  forming so-called "Wolf Packs" and ganging up on Allied vessels, that they took to calling this phase of the Battle of the Atlantic "the Second Happy Time," or more mockingly, "the American Turkey Shoot." Meanwhile, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations, or Kommissar CNO Ernest King, whose temper womanizing drinking, but also military brilliance, as we've come to know amid our episodes in the Pacific, was organizing convoys to better protect Allied ships. But he didn't seem too focused on it, was a bit slow, and convoys were still struggling. These U-boats were sinking so many ships that only 60% of the UK's peacetime cargo equivalent made it to British ports.

• 42:22Greg Jackson?

  Worse still then for Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who, like British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, was lend-lease reliant on the high-output United States for war materiel, but was the next link in the chain. While goods shipped southward around Africa and across the Persian Corridor are doing all right, far too few US goods traveling via the British-run Arctic convoys are making it to his Arctic northern shores. But this changes in 1943, not because Karl Dönitz, who's now the Großadmiral, or Grand Admiral, and Commander-in-Chief of Nazi Germany's entire Kriegsmarine, or Navy, has let up,

• 43:05Greg Jackson?

  but because of new tactics and technology. The Allies realize that the U-boat Wolf Packs are limited on how many ships they can take out. So, the larger a convoy, the higher percentage of merchant ships make it across the Atlantic with their goods. The Allies are also learning the value of air power against the U-boats. Coastal Command launches B-24s, aircraft carriers join convoys, add to this a new airborne radar and searchlight combo, the Leadlight. Finally, back in the waters, Allied ships are firing a new 24-bomb salvo that explodes like a shotgun blast, the Hedgehog. And between all of this, well, let's just say the Battle of the Atlantic isn't the same

• 43:50Greg Jackson?

  Battle of the Atlantic. This becomes apparent in early May, as the US-bound British convoy, ONS-5, does the unthinkable. Though losing 12 merchant ships itself, the convoy's escorts take out seven U-boats, nine if we include two more that crash into each other that night. That May, the Allies still lose 34 ships, but Germany loses 43 U-boats. That's 20% of its entire submarine fleet. The happy time is over, and the Germans know it. Dubbing the month "Black May," the Kriegsmarine mourns the loss of men, subs, and supremacy

• 44:33Greg Jackson?

  in the Atlantic, as Admiral Karl Dönitz has no choice but to withdraw his once-bold U-boats. Thus, by mid-1943, Britain is breathing easier, and the Soviets are breathing easier. Because of course a safer Atlantic and a lend-lease making it to Britain means more British convoys successfully relay those same "Made in USA" goods to the USSR, which the Soviets cannot do without. Now, I don't want to understate Soviet performance. In the two years since Adolf Hitler betrayed his non-aggression pact with the USSR by launching Operation Barbarossa, which we covered in episode 189, Stalin's troops have stood admirely against the Nazis.

• 45:17Greg Jackson?

  But they're suffering losses that are nothing short of catastrophic. By some accounts, 1941-42's Battle of Moscow and 1942-43's Battle of Stalingrad see more than a million Soviet casualties each. And due to a shortage of war materiel, some Soviets are literally on the battlefield without a rifle, eyeing the dead to find one. Two truths about WWII's Eastern Front that later generations of Americans will forget or never even learn about are these. One, without the sacrifice of Soviet blood, a death toll that, including civilians, will

• 45:57Greg Jackson?

  reach 25 million or more by the time this war is through, Allied victory would have been far less likely, perhaps impossible. And two, Joseph Stalin might be the man of steel, but he couldn't hold back the Nazis without American steel. His forces would have failed without FDR's lend-lease program sending what? By the end of the war, will amount to 13,000 tanks, 14,000 aircraft, 400,000 vehicles, to say nothing of the 4.5 million tons of food staving off famine. To quote Stalin himself, "Without the machines we received through lend-lease, we would have lost the war." Huh.

• 46:40Greg Jackson?

  You know, a communist regime sure makes an odd bedfellow for democracy-loving America and Britain, but the fact is that all three of the big three need each other. Defeating the Nazis is a team effort. In short, the Atlantic's U-boat tide turning in 1943 isn't just a nice touch. It takes a massive kink out of the lifesaving lend-lease supply chain, without which, well, the alternative is a frightening thought. And as the summer of 1943 brings yet another unfathomably deadly battle to the Eastern Front, the largest tank-driven battle in human history, the Battle of Kursk, to say nothing

• 47:22Greg Jackson?

  of the fighting at Nipper and Kiev, American-built tanks number among the thousands of Soviet tanks rolling west. And so, with the Nazis now fighting, a reinvigorated, American-supplied Soviet Army in the East, with Allied troops pushing north through Italy toward Germany itself, and, though costly, air raids coming out of England that damage and distract enough for Germany's Minister of Armaments and War Production, Albert Speer, to call these bombers a "third front" for the Third Reich. The fueler has gone from offense to defense. And it's about to get all the more troubling for Adolf, especially as resistance against Nazi occupation and the Vichy regime mounts in France.

• 48:13Greg Jackson?

  HTDS is sponsored by Quince. Getting dressed in the morning should be simple, and Quince makes it happen by crafting versatile, high-end wardrobe staples that last. Their ultimate commuter pants and the 100% European linen relaxed, long-sleeved shirt have been my go-to choice at the end of summer. And now that we're heading into fall, I'm going to pull out the cardigan sweater I got from Quince last year. It's not a stuffy professor's cardigan, it's a stylish, update. Quince also has cashmere sweaters that begin at only $60, and as the weather chills, their warmed-down jackets and wool outerwear offer effortless layering options. By cutting out traditional retail markups and shipping straight from ethical factories, Quince keeps prices 50% to 80% lower than high-end brands.

• 48:56Greg Jackson?

  They even offer the same incredible quality in bath essentials, bedding, and home furnishings. Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns, now available in Canada and the UK, too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know that it was History That Doesn't Suck. It's the best way to support the show. History That Doesn't Suck is supported by Indeed. I'm not afraid to say this: As HTDS has grown, the business requires skills I know I don't naturally possess. If I need to hire, I think this is a job for Sponsored Jobs. When you sponsor your job on Indeed, you'll find the candidates with the skills you're looking for.

• 49:41Greg Jackson?

  Indeed is genuinely all you need to find quality talent. Instead of putting a post out there and praying the right people see it, Indeed Sponsored Jobs proactively connects you with candidates who match your precise criteria, whether that's location, software experience, or industry experience. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com/podcast. Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com/podcast. Need to hire?

• 50:26Greg Jackson?

  This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. At this point, we've followed the American and British up Italy, deadly Allied bomber raids on Axis Europe, the U-Boats' demise in the Atlantic, improved lend-lease deliveries, and seen Soviet wins in the East. All of this, broadly speaking, happening near or during the summer of 1943. A busy summer, but we're not done. That same August, between the 17th and 24th, American, British, and Canadian leaders gather

• 51:10Greg Jackson?

  for the Quebec Conference, or, to use its codename, the Quadrant Conference. Yes, the same conference we caught a glimpse of during the tale of Merrill's Marauders in episode 210, but their genesis here is, with no disrespect, a conference side quest. The real matter at Quebec is what to do about the long-disgust and delayed amphibious assault on Nazi-occupied France via the English Channel. As always, US Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall pushes hard for it, but the British brass still want to see more advancement in Italy. Keep in mind that, in August, Operation Husky might be wrapping on Sicily but the armistice is yet to be signed, and Italy's boot remains untouched.

• 51:55Greg Jackson?

  But after a lot of frustration and arguing, George finally gets what he's wanted for years. And English-Channel-crossing amphibious assault, codenamed "Overlord," is named, and I quote, "the primary US-British ground-and-air effort against the Axis in Europe." The current target for this attack, and "current" is the key word, will be May 1, 1944. Meanwhile, the Allies will keep unremitting pressure on German forces in northern Italy to keep the Nazis from reinforcing northern France. And speaking of that fallen ally, there's talk here in Quebec of how a resurging France

• 52:37Greg Jackson?

  will help to prep the way for its own liberation. La France. We've detailed its fall and current state thoroughly between episodes 188, 189, and 200, and even 206 in a way, as we watched the film Casablanca. But to refresh your memory on the broadest of strokes, the Third Republic fell in May 1940, then, through a harsh armistice, the Nazis imposed occupation in the North and along the Atlantic coast while permitting the creation of a French regime, a collaborationist regime, that's set up in the spa town of Vichy to administer the south of France and France's global empire.

• 53:19Greg Jackson?

  Since then, we've seen the Allies wrest French North Africa from Vichy and the Desert Fox, Germany's Erwin Rommel, and FDR and Winston Churchill accept that, though the man can be stubborn and hard to work with, General Charles de Gaulle, or Charles de Gaulle to the English ear, is emerging as France's leader in his London-based exile. Well, it's him or Henri Giro, but probably Charles. Feeling caught up? Excellent. Let's get to the trouble now brewing for both the occupying Third Reich and collaborationist Vichy-France, and it's a brew of the two regimes' own-making.

• 53:59Greg Jackson?

  See, while there was some resistance in France from day one of the occupation, it really was small. Mostly graffiti, then newspapers, and a few truly brave souls who risked their lives to help crash-landed Allied airmen back to Britain. This was because as long as you didn't fight the occupation or Vichy and weren't Jewish, life pretty much carried on. Jean-Paul Sartre finished writing his existential magnum opus, Being and Nothingness, and French cinema even had a little renaissance. But to pick up where we left off with François Dallon in episode 200, when the Vichy admiral

• 54:40Greg Jackson?

  made a deal with the Allies in French North Africa in November 1942, the Nazis responded by occupying Vichy-France. And that didn't change when a pied noir man killed him. All of mainland France was now occupied. And life in France grew considerably worse early this year, 1943. In January, Vichy created a new paramilitary force, la Milice, which cruelly strives to outdo the Nazis at rounding up French Jews and crushing resistance fighters. Only a month later, February 1943, came le service du travail obligatoire, a law conscripting young men in their early twenties to labor in Germany.

• 55:24Greg Jackson?

  The goal here was to shore up Germany's growing casualties by forcing 1.5 million Frenchmen to carry the Reich's war economy, thereby freeing up more German men to fight at the front. And lest the point be lost, Vichy, not the occupying Nazis, created la Milice and le STO. Vichy did Adolf's dirty work. And that is how Vichy's leader, the man we first met so long ago as a hero in our World War I episodes, the Lion of Verdun, Philippe Pétain, falls from his position as France's son of the morning to his own personal perdition. But Philippe's final tale is far ahead.

• 56:09Greg Jackson?

  Right now, le service du travail obligatoire has caused tens of thousands of young men to disappear into France's dense forests and expansive mountains. And not just to get away, but to fight back. Known as le maquis, the word for the dense Mediterranean scrubland or Corsican outlaws once banished from the law, these young men, as well as women, take to France's forests and mountains as they turn to guerrilla warfare in their fight to liberate France from within. While it's exciting to see the French, or at least a sizable minority of the French, reclaim their will to fight, let us be clear: The resistance is a far cry from an organized army.

• 56:51Greg Jackson?

  From the predominantly communist-led Frontières et Partisans, to the Jewish and Zionist Armées Juives, the countless bands of mountain-dwelling maquis, and so many other resistance organizations, coordination is on par with herding cats. Yet, as the emerging leader of France in the eyes of the Allies, Charles de Gaulle wants to bring them into his fold. Needs to, in fact, if he's going to join FDR, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin at the big boys' table and completely edge out his remaining competitor, Henri Giro. But how does one convince the independently-minded, politically-divided French people, a reality that Charles himself will allegedly quip about decades from now by asking, "How can

• 57:34Greg Jackson?

  you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?" To pull together now, well, the general has a lot of help, most memorably from Jean Moulin.

• 57:50Greg Jackson?

  Born and raised not far from southern France's Mediterranean coast, handsome and talented Jean Moulin was a likeable, if lackadaisical, student who grew up to become an effective civil servant, serving as France's youngest prefect in history. He was serving in this influential and connective position in Chartres when the Nazis arrived in 1940, and immediately, his resolve as a French official was put to the test. The Germans wanted him to sign a protocol condemning colonial troops for massacres and atrocities, but Jean knew they weren't guilty, that these brave tirailleurs were guilty of nothing save defending the Third Republic.

• 58:30Greg Jackson?

  Jean was locked in a room with a dismembered corpse, a woman's corpse, he believed. Seeing just how far Nazi cruelty could go, he feared that he would crack under the pressure and sign, so, to protect these tirailleurs endigènes, he slit his own throat. The Germans found Jean, they medically intervened and saved his life, but also realized this man wouldn't cave. Jean was free to go, and took to wearing a scarf to hide his scar. Pushed out of his role as a prefect by Vichy, Jean left for London via Portugal in September 1941 to talk to Charles de Gaulle. The traditional conservative general and the leftist, suspected communist ex-p prefect

• 59:15Greg Jackson?

  could hardly have been more different, but they believed in each other. In January 1942, Jean parachuted back into France, ready to put his connections and interpersonal skills to use, coordinating resistance groups and orienting them toward Charles de Gaulle. And over the next year, as Vichy was occupied, created the Mélisse, and made le Estio, the Law of the Land, Jean, now working under the pseudonyms of Rex or Max, saw success. Indeed, returning to our present of 1943, Jean sees perhaps his greatest achievement. On May 27th, Black May to German sailors in the Atlantic, our scarf-wearing resistance

• 59:58Greg Jackson?

  leader meets with the leaders of various resistance groups at 48 Rue du Fure in Paris to create le Conseil National de la Resistance, the National Council of the Resistance. This is real coordination. The French Resistance is starting to coalesce. But only a month later, in June, Jean and other resistance fighters are arrested in Lyon. The head of Lyon's Gestapo, Klaus Barbie, learns Jean's true identity, that here he has the closest thing the French Resistance has to a leader in the entire country. Klaus tortures Jean. Suffice it to say that the Nazi lives up to his moniker as "The Butcher of Lyon in the

• 1:00:43Greg Jackson?

  Process." Meanwhile, Jean proves that he was wrong about one thing: he didn't need to worry that he might have betrayed those tirailleurs endigènes back in 1940. The former prefect never cracks, not even in a semi-conscious state. He's transferred to Paris and from there, sent to Germany for further interrogation, but the resistance leader never makes it. Succumbing to the effects of Klaus's brutality that left him unrecognizable, Jean dies in transit on July 8th, 1943, destined to, in the decades following, be immortally remembered among France's greatest heroes in the pantheon.

• 1:01:24Greg Jackson?

  Just before Jean was arrested, on June 3rd, 1943, a French provisional government organized. It's called le Comité Français de Libération Nationale, the French Committee of National Liberation. The committee will fight for French liberty from a colonial capital, establishing itself in Algiers, French Algeria. The provisional government is also recognized by the Allies and under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud. Henry is more likeable, FDR would certainly prefer to work with him, but Charles is the one that our late resistance hero's National Council recognizes as the leader of France.

• 1:02:07Greg Jackson?

  And with that recognition coming from the inner workings of occupied France and serving as the closest thing to a democratically recognized leader, what choice do the Allies have? In the months to come, Henri Giraud is fully sidelined. By the end of 1943, Charles is the undisputed leader of the Free France provisional government. And with French and colonial troops in North Africa raid across the Mediterranean and the swelling ranks of the Resistance ready to coordinate from within, well, aux armes citoyens is far more than a patriotic lyric. The French will do their part and coordinate with the Allies in preparation for Operation Overlord. And that brings us full circle, because the Allies are actually working directly with

• 1:02:51Greg Jackson?

  the French Resistance. British and American operatives from the two nations' brand-new espionage organizations, the United Kingdom's Special Operations Executive and the United States' Office of Strategic Services, created in 1940 and 1942 respectively, are parachuting into France, bringing arms, radios, and other needed supplies to the Maquis to help them harass the Germans from behind the lines, weakening the occupation and preparing the fallen Republic to rise anew and fight the moment that the Allies take those daring and deadly first steps on Normandy's beaches. Roughly one-third of OSS agents are women, and one in particular will go to extreme lengths in service to her country.

• 1:03:35Greg Jackson?

  That includes facing the most dangerous of circumstances. It's a beautiful spring day, 1944, and an elderly woman, Madame Marcelle, is limping through the fields of the Lopina Farm in the Department of Creuse in central France, but she doesn't seem focused on her cows or her cheese-making today. Instead, Madame Marcelle ducks into her cottage, then, minding her prosthetic leg, ascends to the loft. And here, she radios her latest intel to London. Here's the deal: Madame Marcelle isn't actually old or a French peasant. She isn't even Madame Marcelle.

• 1:04:20Greg Jackson?

  The truth is that she's a late 30-something American named Virginia Hall, passing for a much older woman than reality thanks to the handiwork of the British Special Operations Executive. They taught her how to wrinkle her appearance with makeup, and they even filed down her teeth to match the aesthetic of a "born-in-the-last-century" peasant's dental care. Talk about committing to the bit. The only thing real about her appearance is the wooden leg, the result of a hunting accident 11 years back. Not that it slowed her down. When her first stint of wartime espionage as an SOE agent ended in her needing to high-tail it across the Pyrenees and into Spain, Virginia did it, hobbling her way over the mountains.

• 1:05:03Greg Jackson?

  Now she's back in France as an operative of her own nation's even newer OSS. As for the cows and the cheese, look, Virginia's a fine farmhand, but it's all an excuse to scope out fields as potential parachute zones, to sell delectable dairy products to Nazi soldiers while eavesdropping with her perfect German to help the Maquis, and finally, to radio her intel back to London in preparation for Operation Overlord. But Virginia has to be careful. The Germans haven't forgotten about the "limping lady," as they know her, who eluded them in 1942. And one of her fellow OSS agents, codenamed Aramis, ugh, well, he just keeps visiting

• 1:05:47Greg Jackson?

  unnecessarily from distant Paris and seems a little loose-lipped. So much could go wrong there. But hey, it looks like Virginia's finishing up her transmission, so enough background, let's return to her story. Carefully packing up her radio in the loft, Virginia hears a truck approaching her cottage. It must be Aramis. Irritated, she shuffles to the door, but it's far worse. It's a group of German soldiers. One of them, an officer, demands, "What are you doing alone in the cottage?" Virginia doesn't miss a beat. She answers with a partial truth: she's been cooking and tending cows for her employer,

• 1:06:30Greg Jackson?

  the farmer Eugene Lopina. But the officer isn't going to let her off the hook that easily. Keeping Virginia out on the porch, he sends three soldiers inside to tear the place apart for anything illicit. Virginia's heart races. She knows she can't run, not on one leg. But what if they find her radio? She'll be in the Gestapo's hands in no time. Casually, she tries to get ahead of it, mentioning that she has no idea what is in the loft. She's too old to climb up there. The soldiers soon emerge, and they have something all right. But it's not her radio, it's her cheese. Brie, camembert, saunecaval, perhaps a blue?

• 1:07:14Greg Jackson?

  Ugh, so many possibilities, but alas, we don't have those details. Thinking with their stomachs, the Germans toss a few coins at the supposed peasant woman and return to the truck. And as their vehicle rumbles into the distance, Virginia's racing heart starts to slow. But she knows she's on borrowed time at the Lopina Farm, a fact that will be confirmed but a week from now when the Nazis kill four villagers suspected of working with the Resistance and leave their bodies to rot for all to see impaled at the neck on a spiked iron fence. She'll soon move on to assist the Maquis elsewhere as Operation Overlord looms.

• 1:07:57Greg Jackson?

  And after the very busy, southern Italy-taking, bomber-raiding, U-boat-defeating, lend-lease-delivering, Soviet-advancing, Allied-conferencing, and French Resistance-growing year of 1943, Operation Overlord, or D-Day as most of us will know it, looms for us too. And next time, we'll be with the brass, planning this daunting crossing of the English Channel in earnest. History that Doesn't Suck is created and hosted by me, Greg Jackson. Episode written by Greg Jackson. Research by Greg Jackson and executive editor Riley Newbal.

• 1:08:42Greg Jackson?

  Production by Airship. Audio editing by Mohamed Shazad. Sound design by Molly Bach. Theme music composed by Greg Jackson. Arrangement and additional composition by Lindsay Grandlet Airship. For bibliography of all primary and secondary sources consulted in writing this episode, visit htdspodcast.com.

• 1:09:10Greg Jackson?

  HTDS is supported by fans at htdspodcast.com/membership. My gratitude to you kind souls providing funding to help us keep going. Thank you. And a special thanks to our patrons whose monthly gift puts them at producer status. Adam Goran, Ahmed Chapman, Amy and Ross Hensman, Andrew Nissen, Andrew Sherwin, Anna M. Huta, Art Lang, Baby Nico, Bob Stinnan, Bonnie Brooks, Brian Gavigan, Brian Boils, Brian Goodson, Bruce Hibbert, Kayden Howitz, Charles Clendenin, Charles Starkey, Charlie Majes, Christopher Merchant, Christopher Lyle, Christopher Pullman, Christopher Young, Cody Brown, Colleen Martin, Colin Ferris Pennington, Connor Hogan, Craig Burrhost, Dan G., Daniel Beacham, Daniel Lucana, Darren Chambers, Farrell the Kid Lovell, David Rifkin,

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• 1:10:37Greg Jackson?

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• 1:11:21Greg Jackson?

  Sarah Turner, Todd Curran, Tom Bestafka, Travis Cox, Walter M. Ames, Wesley McKee, William Durham, William Curry, William Thompson, and Zach Jackson. Join me in two weeks, or I'd like to tell you a story.