Witness History: World War Two

About Witness History: World War Two

D Day, traitors and evacuees

Publisher

BBC World Service

Category

history · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

3 Dec 2010

Latest episode

18 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 122 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   18 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   The battle of Mandalay in WW2

   Tim O’Callaghan presents an interview with BBC Archives, detailing the British Fourteenth Army's advance on Mandalay during World War Two.

2. 

   3 Sept 2025

   The Chindits

   During World War Two, an unconventional special force was formed. Known as the Chindits, they fought behind enemy lines in Burma, now Myanmar during 1943 and 1944 in the war against Japan. Their leader was the charismatic Orde Wingate, a British Army officer. This programme is made in collaboration with BBC Archives. It contains outdated and offensive language. Produced and presented by Gill Kearsley. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages. This programme has been updated since the original broadcast. (Photo: The Chindits in 1944. Credit: Getty Images)

3. 

   4 Aug 2025

   Nagasaki bomb

   On 9 August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing at least 74,000 people. It led to the end of World War Two in Asia, with Japan surrendering to the Allies six days later. The Nagasaki bomb, alongside the Hiroshima bomb on 6 August, remain the only times nuclear weapons have been used in a war. In an interview he gave to the BBC in 1980, British prisoner of war Geoff Sherring describes how he survived the explosion. Produced and presented by Rachel Naylor. This programme was made in collaboration with BBC Archives. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages. (Photo: The Nagasaki bomb on 9 August 1945. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Inside a recent episode

The battle of Mandalay in WW2

Published 18 Aug 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] Mandalay was the second largest city in the country. It was strategically important and the British believed that if they captured it, they would be able to liberate the capital city Yangon, then known as Rangoon, before monsoon season in May. We all expected that Mandalay might fall within the next 24 hours. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.3 / 5

244 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

121 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 38 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

37

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

97

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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