Ep 299: Family Stories – ep 13

Al Murray and James Holland read family stories sent in by listeners to We Have Ways of Making You Talk.

These wartime experiences took place in the seas off Norway, in the skies over Bremen and on the airfields of both northern and southern Africa.

With thanks to Richard Garnett, Colin Tait, Sam Crowley, Stuart Burbridge, Dominic Butler and Michael Milner-Watt for sharing their stories.

Ep 298: Small Arms

What makes the best gun and how complicated is the development of small arms? Al Murray and James Holland are joined by Dr Matthew Ford from the University of Sussex to talk about the small arms used during the Second World War.

Ep 297: Lack of Moral Fibre

You could volunteer to fly but you couldn’t volunteer to stop.

Dr Dan Ellin, of the International Bomber Command Centre, talks to Al and James about the way in which men were judged and treated as they faced the trauma of war.

Ep 296: Jewish Resistance: Selma van de Perre, Part 2

Part two of our extraordinary interview with Selma van de Perre, a Dutch resistance fighter who was 17 years old when the Second World War began.

Using an alias and fake ID she risked her life travelling across the Netherlands, delivering Allied newspapers and helping Jews evade the Nazis.

In July 1944 Selma’s luck ran out. She was captured and transported to Ravensbrück as a political prisoner, where she remained until her liberation in 1945.

James Holland interviews Selma about her war time story.

Ep 295: Family Stories – Ep 12

The Second World War touched everyone’s lives, with many of our listeners’ families witnessing extraordinary events.

In this edition of We Have Ways of Making You Talk we hear of an escape from Singapore, a mysterious woman on a crashed bomber, and a chance encounter in France.

With thanks to Nick Griffiths, James Valimont, Finlay Coutts-Britton, Rob Good, John Nye, Gary Bircher and Chris Hudson for sharing their stories.

Ep 294: Jewish Resistance: Selma van de Perre, Part 1

Selma van de Perre was a Dutch resistance fighter who was just 17 years old when the Second World War began.

Using an alias and fake ID she risked her life travelling across the Netherlands, delivering Allied newspapers and helping Jews evade the Nazis.

In July 1944 Selma’s luck ran out. She was captured and transported to Ravensbrück as a political prisoner, where she remained until her liberation in 1945.

James Holland interviews Selma about her extraordinary war time story.

This is part one of a two part series with Selma van de Perre.

Ep 293: Mutiny

A listener’s recent discovery that his uncle may have been one of the 258 British soldiers accused of mutiny in Malaya sends the podcast down an intriguing rabbit hole.

James Holland gives Al Murray a final update on his research into the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry as his book heads to the publisher. 

Ep 292: Family Stories – Ep 11

Listeners to We Have Ways of Making You Talk write the scripts for our Sunday morning podcasts, as Al Murray and James Holland read out their family stories from the Second World War.

This week we hear of a challenging parachute jump, a swim from the beach at Dunkirk, some remarkable wine and a date with the daughter of an Egyptian brewery.

With thanks to Mark Reynier, Zach Pease, Steve Wren, Jane Gulliford Lowes, Peter Miles, Neil Yorke-Wade and Michael Thomson for sharing their stories.

Ep 291: Irish Fighters

Although Ireland remained neutral during the war it didn’t stop Irish men joining the British Armed Forces.

Joseph Quinn joins Al Murray and James Holland to discuss why so many Irish men joined the British Army and the damage this could do to their reputation back home. Joseph also tells the story of the IRA members who fought for the Nazis in Europe.

Ep 290: Veritable, Trombones and The Chindits

James Holland and Al Murray get their hands on the post-operation report of Veritable, review the success of the Chindits and dig deeper into the extraordinary story of some missing brass instruments.