May 8th saw the final surrender of Nazi Germany, marking the end of the Second World War in Europe. Eighty years on, we're taking a look at the final months of fighting in 1945. What were the experiences of US troops like on the ground? And what motivated the strategies of its political leaders?Don's guest is James Holland, co-host of the podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk. His new book, Victory ‘45: The End of the War in Eight Surrenders, is out on April 24th.Edited and produced by Tom Delargy. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.
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Hey, it's Don here, jumping in to tell you that there are some descriptions of mass murder and violence that some listeners may find very unpleasant. It's January 16th, 1945, in the Ardennes forest in Belgium. It's blisteringly cold, below freezing. A thick layer of snow covers the ground, muffling all sounds and bringing an eerie quiet.
And yet, just weeks earlier, these forests were the scene of a ferocious battle. The Germans, having been on the defensive for months, had launched a surprise attack when the Allies least expected it. Panzer tanks punched through the American positions, aiming to split the Allied front line in two.
This, the Germans hoped, would give them enough momentum to push their enemies back off the continent and turn the war around. But this was not to be. Despite initially pushing the Allies back, the Germans met tough defenses. American troops in key positions like Bastogne held out under vicious sieges. Now it's the Allies' turn to attack.
Now it's General Patton's tanks advancing through war-torn villages. And now the Germans' retreat has begun. Disorderly. Desperate. Doomed. The Battle of the Bulge marks the last major German offensive on the Western Front. It's now only a matter of time before the Allies reach Germany. The end of the war is in sight. This is American History Hit. Hello out there. I'm Don Wildman.
Glad you're here. May 8th, 2025 will mark 80 years since the end of the war in Europe, what is called VE Day, Victory in Europe, when the Nazis unconditionally surrendered after six brutal years of total war.
We're going to be taking a look at America's experience of those final months of the war from the beginning of 1945 to the German capitulation in May, touching on the experiences of troops on the ground, as well as the movements and calculations of political leaders in charge and how Americans generally took it all in back home.
James Holland is the esteemed British World War II historian, someone I've followed closely for years, both in print and visual media. He has a new book coming out on April 24th, co-authored by Al Murray, with whom James also hosts the podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk. Greetings, James Holland. It is a great honor to have you. Oh, Don, thank you for having me on.
I think many Americans are left confused by the endgame of World War II, right? We surely know how it starts. Poland, the Blitzkrieg, Dunkirk, all the big events, D-Day, the bombing of Dresden, the Battle of the Bulge. It all happened in a great rush of events in those last months. There are tremendous losses of life.
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