In March 1941, Operation Claymore, the first large-scale commando raid on Nazi occupied-Europe, was launched against the Lofoten Islands in Norway. The raid was successful and led to further raids, Operation Archery and Operation Anklet, in Norway in December 1941.

The raids convinced Adolf Hitler that the Allies would try a large scale landing in Norway and he sends more German troops to defend the Norwegian coastline. This reinforcement left 300,000 German troops in Norway, doing nothing, at the end of the war in May 1945.

Thanks to:

• William Hakvaag, the founder of the Lofoten War Remembrance Museum in Svolvær, Norway
• Jane Gulliford-Lowes, author, military historian, producer and co-host of the Bomber Command podcast, @nevermind the dambusters Never Mind The Dambusters and who is currently writing a book on the 1941 Lofoten raids.

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New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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On 27 December 1979, Soviet Spetsnaz commandos backed up by operatives from the KGB’s counterterror units Zenit and Grom attacked the Tajbeg Palace, the residence of Afghan President Hafizullah Amin.

After a protracted battle with troops of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and Amin's personal bodyguards, Amin was killed. The exact details of his death are unclear but what is clear is that the attack led to increase Soviet control over Afghanistan's government and a long war saw the deaths of many Afghans and Soviets.

Thanks to:

• Sir Rodric Braithwaite former British diplomat who served as the British ambassador to Russia from 1988 to 1992 and author of 'Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979–89'
• Dr Tor Bukkvoll political scientist and a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and author of 'Spetsnaz: A History of the Soviet and Russian Special Forces.'

You can listen to The War Office on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or The War Office Podcast YouTube Channel.

New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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The Battle of Peleliu grinds on as the Marines of the 1st Marine Division continue to fight the Japanese garrison dug into Bloody Nose Ridge. The fight also extends to Ngesebus Island, where Eugene Sledge fights and later chronicles the clearing of a Japanese bunker in the one of the better known engagements during the battle.

The US Army's 81st Wildcat Division takes over from the 1st Marine Division and brings the bloody fight on Peleliu to a close.

Thanks to:

• Henry Sledge, the author of ‘The Old Breed... the Complete Story Revealed: A Father, a Son, and How WWII in the Pacific Shaped Their Lives:’
• Joseph Wheelan, author of 'Bitter Peleliu: The Forgotten Struggle on the Pacific War's Worst Battlefield'
• Professor John McManus, co-host of the World War II Live podcast and author of ‘Island Infernos: The US Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944’.

You can listen to The War Office on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or The War Office Podcast YouTube Channel.

New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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The Battle of Peleliu enters a new deadlier phase as US Marines cross the airfield and fight into the Urmurbrogol Mountain to take the island of Peleliu.

The dash across the airfield is met with fierce Japanese fire that takes its tolls on the Marines. Once the airfield is taken, the fighting mostly shifts to taking the Urmurbrogol Mountain, or as the Marines come to call it, Bloody Nose Ridge. Major General William Rupertus orders frontal attack after attack into the Urmurbrogol with devastating results, especially for Chesty Puller's 1st Marine Regiment.

Thanks to:

• Henry Sledge, the author of ‘The Old Breed... the Complete Story Revealed: A Father, a Son, and How WWII in the Pacific Shaped Their Lives:’
• Joseph Wheelan, author of 'Bitter Peleliu: The Forgotten Struggle on the Pacific War's Worst Battlefield'
• Professor John McManus, co-host of the World War II Live podcast and author of ‘Island Infernos: The US Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944’.

You can listen to The War Office on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or The War Office Podcast YouTube Channel.

New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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In the early hours of 15 September 1944, the guns of an armada of United States Navy warships open fire on a tan, craggy-looking island in the Pacific. This bombardment is followed by waves of carrier based aircraft dropping napalm and firing rockets on enemy positions. The warships open fire again until the US Marines of the 1st Division, nicknamed the Old Breed, begin their assault on the island of Peleliu.

The landings do not go to plan as the Japanese defenders open fire on the landing craft and the Marines struggle to establish a beachhead on the first day of the brutal Battle of Peleliu, one of the US Marine Corps' most bitter of the Second World War.

Thanks to:

• Henry Sledge, the author of ‘The Old Breed... the Complete Story Revealed: A Father, a Son, and How WWII in the Pacific Shaped Their Lives:’
• Joseph Wheelan, author of 'Bitter Peleliu: The Forgotten Struggle on the Pacific War's Worst Battlefield'
• Professor John McManus, co-host of the World War II Live podcast and author of ‘Island Infernos: The US Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944’.

You can listen to The War Office on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or The War Office Podcast YouTube Channel.

New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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On 27 February 2014, armed and masked men with no insignia or identification begin to appear in Simferopol, the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine. These “little green men,” as they will soon become better known, occupy key intersections and set perimeters around government buildings in the city. This is the official beginning of Russia’s invasion of Crimea, the first action in Russia’s quest to expand its territories into Ukraine.

Thanks to:

• Professor Mark Galeotti, author of ‘Putin Takes Crimea 2014: Grey-zone Warfare Opens the Russia-Ukraine Conflict'
• Jesse Driscoll, Professor of Political Science in the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California San Diego and co-author of ‘Ukraine's Unnamed War: Before the Russian Invasion of 2022’ with Dominique Arel, Chair of Ukrainian studies at the University of Ottawa.

You can listen to The War Office on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or The War Office Podcast YouTube Channel.

New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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After defeats at the Battle of Gazala and the fall of Tobruk, the British 8th Army is in full retreat into Egypt at the end of June 1942. Defensive positions are hastily prepared at the tiny railway station of El Alamein to stop Britain’s nemesis in the desert, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. The British 8th Army is now the only thing in the way of the Axis conquest of Egypt.

Thanks to:

• Dr. Niall Barr - Author of 'Pendulum of War: The Three Battles of El Alamein'
• Richard Doherty - Military historian and author of 'El Alamein 1942: Turning Point in the Desert'
• Dr David Brock Katz - Research fellow at Stellenbosch University and author of 'South Africans versus Rommel: The Untold Story of the Desert War in World War II'

You can listen to The War Office on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or The War Office Podcast YouTube Channel.

New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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On 10th May 1972 and the United States launches Operation Linebacker. The first day of the operation will be conducted against targets in the North Vietnamese port of Haiphong and its capital Hanoi. The response of the Vietnam People's Air Force will lead to the largest air battle of the Vietnam War.

Thanks to:

• Dr. Brian D. Laslie - Author of 'Air Power's Lost Cause: The American Air Wars of Vietnam'
• Marshall L. Michel III - Author of 'Operation Linebacker I 1972'
• Phil Mentesana - F-4 pilot during Operation Linebacker and volunteer at the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum
• The Behind the Wings Podcast

You can listen to The War Office on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or The War Office Podcast YouTube Channel.

New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases.

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