Next week, between Friday 11 and Sunday 13 September, the brilliant We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast will be holding its annual We Have Ways Fest. Once again, the UK's largest festival dedicated to the Second World War will be returning to amaze, educate, and entertain.
Bringing its unique blend of banter and expertise to the excellent Blackpit Brewery, situated just a stone's throw away from the Silverstone circuit, it will come with an array of attractions, including over fifty speakers, impressive displays of contemporary military hardware, and entertainments ranging from living history to live music - as well as enough alcohol to sink the entire British Naval Fleet (a suitable analogy with this year's concentration on all things naval)!
With so many things on offer, it will be difficult to choose what to do, so here's our list of the must-sees of the festival. For further information, visit the website here. Tickets can be purchased here.
Friday, 11 September
Stephen Fisher and Will Iredale, Spitfires of the Sea
This is quite the small-boat double team! Known as an expert on Operation Neptune, Stephen's book Sword Beach was the first to explore this overlooked part of the D-Day landings and challenged some of the oft-repeated myths about the fighting there. He also wrote a book about the smaller - but no less significant - MGB 81, a 1942 motor gun boat that still sails today. Will's first two books - The Kamikaze Hunters and The Pathfinders - were both Sunday Times top ten bestsellers. His latest book, Churchill's Pirates, tells the extraordinary true story of the Royal Naval Patrol Service - the 70,000-strong force of fishermen, amateur volunteers and landlubbers who manned over six thousand small boats in every theatre of the Second World War. Between them, expect a fascinating talk looking at the lesser-known roles of Britain's maritime navy, from Motor Topedo Boats to deep sea trawlers - and just as importantly some of the key characters involved.
Clare Mulley, The Women Who Flew for Hitler: Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg
Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg were talented, courageous and strikingly attractive women who fought convention to make their names in the male-dominated field of flight in 1930s Germany. With the war, both became pioneering test pilots and both were awarded the Iron Cross for service to the Third Reich. But they could not have been more different and neither woman had a good word to say for the other. Acclaimed biographer Clare Mulley gets under the skin of these two distinctive and unconventional women, giving a full - and as yet largely unknown - account of their contrasting yet strangely parallel lives, against a changing backdrop of the 1936 Olympics, the Eastern Front, the Berlin Air Club, and Hitler's bunker.
Al Murray, James Holland and Special Guests, Friday Night Live: Super Gehern
Join quiz masters Jim Holland and Al Murray as they grill historians on their specialist subjects and general knowledge - which isn’t just knowledge about generals. The aim: victory. The prize: glory. At stake: humiliation.
Alex Richie and Waitman Beorn, Everything Nuremberg Got Wrong
The star-studded movie Nuremberg brought the story of the post-war trials to the cinema, but like every Second World War movie before and since, it got plenty wrong. While Russell Crowe's film-stealing turn as Hermann Göring might have gripped Al Murray - who was sat next to Penny Mordaunt RN at the premiere - Alex and Waitman take on the not-unhappy task of scrutinising the moral blockbuster.
Saturday, 12 September
Katja Hoyer, Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe
Katja Hoyer is a long-time friend of We Have Ways, and is always a festival favourite with her powerful stories of Germany during the twentieth century. This year, Katja is regaling us with stories of Weimar Germany, that tumultuous time sandwiched between Imperial Germany and The Third Reich, and the doom that was about to befall ordinary Germans of the interwar years. Drawing on a wealth of new archival research, Katja takes us from 1919 to 1939 as she tells the stories of the men and women who lived through the new republic and Hitler's regime. We encounter a vividly drawn cast of characters, from bookbinder Carl Weirich and hotel owners Rosa and Arthur Schmidt, to Friedrich Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth. Here are fascists and socialists, artists and workers, politicians and citizens, who, as the events of history swept them up, became witnesses, perpetrators, victims and bystanders. An unforgettable picture of lives and choices in extraordinary circumstances, Weimar takes us deep into the heart of the storm: to the town that dreamt of a better world, and woke up to tyranny.
Al Murray, James Holland and Special Guests, The ENSA Show
The ENSA Show is only in its third year but is already one of staples of the festival weekend: the annual Saturday night entertainment. There will be songs, there will be dancing. There’ll be sketches and jokes. And a host of guest appearances from around the world. This is the show that will be putting the fun back into fünf!
Antonia Senior and Gordon Corera, Totally Spies: Wartime Intelligence
The Second World War is often presented as a triumph for British intelligence, with Bletchley Park and SOE being the jewels in the British intelligence crown. But disaster stalked every turn, with German ruthlessness, American indifference and Soviet-inspired treachery lurking throughout. Join Antonia Senior, whose new book, Stalin's Apostles provides a gripping new take on the Cambridge Five spy ring, and author, former-BBC Security Correspondent and The Rest is Classified co-host Gordon Corera, as they dissect the highs - and lows- of wartime intelligence.
Ben Willbond and John Orloff, Company of Heroes: Writing Band of Brothers
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of the seminal series Band of Brothers is upon us, and who better than the acclaimed screenwriter of both Band of Brothers and Masters of the Air John Orloff to tell you everything you needed to know about its creation? And who better to interview him than the BBC's Ghosts The Captain, Ben Willbond?
Sunday, 13 September
John McManus and Saul David, To Hell and Back: US Ground Forces in the Pacific
Join two titans of the We Have Ways scene - John McManus, one of America's leading military historians, author of fifteen books, and regular television and podcast commentator, and bestselling historian and broadcaster Saul David - as they pool their collective knowledge of the US Army and the US Marine Corps in the Pacific, and discuss the horrendous fight the US Ground Forces had to endure against a fanatical foe.
Roger Moorhouse, U-Boats
Winston Churchill described German U-boats as the most frightening threat of the Second World War, responsible for sinking nearly three thousand Allied ships. While often portrayed as a deadly, unseen menace to Allied sailors, less attention has been given to the harsh realities faced by U-boat crews themselves. These submariners endured extreme danger, claustrophobic conditions, and the highest casualty rate of any German force, with over 75 per cent killed. In this fascinating talk, which draws on the testimony of Hitler's submariners, Roger Moorhouse gives the U-boatmen back their voice and traces their journey from early optimism to eventual defeat, highlighting not only courage but also fear, suffering, and ultimate failure.
You can read our interview with Roger Moorhouse here. To read our review of his new book on the U-boat war, Wolfpack, click here.
Molly Wilson, Secret Submarine Missions and the Nazi-Japanese Relationship: The Story of Operation Kaiser
It’s winter 1944, and the axis powers are dreaming up increasingly far fetched ideas to turn the tide of the war. Out of this comes Operation Kaiser, a bizarre plan to convey Nazi military technology to the Japanese by submarine. Although this wasn’t the first attempt at Hitler’s hairbrained idea, its fate was of particular interest to the Allies, for what happened when the U-864 submarine was engaged by the British Navy was nothing short of extraordinary. Join freelance historian and researcher Molly Wilson as she discusses the stunning finds of her latest research.
For further information, visit the website here. Tickets can be purchased here.
Images © We Have Ways Fest.
