Words at War — 1943
29 episodes broadcast in 1943.
The premiere traces how the British Commandos came to be and the raids leading to their 1942 assault on the great dry dock at St. Nazaire, from the official account of the raiders.
July 1, 1943
One World
An adaptation of Wendell Willkie's global-unity bestseller; the 1940 presidential candidate narrated three passages himself, with Thomas Chalmers playing the role of Willkie in the drama.
War correspondent Clark Lee's first-hand account of the early Pacific war, from the fall of the Philippines to the fighting island by island.
A stark account of the eight-month Nazi siege and destruction of the Crimean seaport, defended to the last by the Soviets amid heavy civilian loss, told through a Pravda reporter determined to get the story out.
C. S. Forester's novel following a single Royal Navy light cruiser and its crew through a decisive Mediterranean convoy action.
Correspondent Robert St. John's memoir of reporting from the Balkans and his harrowing escape ahead of the German advance through Yugoslavia and Greece.
Journalist Gwen Dew's account of being captured at Hong Kong and held as a civilian prisoner of the Japanese before repatriation.
A lighter, comic look at U.S. Navy flight training, following raw cadets through the trials of learning to fly for the war.
A repeat of the Sevastopol siege drama, chosen to open the new Thursday fall series as it overlapped the end of the summer run.
The story of Canadian fighter ace George Beurling and the Spitfire pilots who defended the besieged island of Malta against relentless Axis air attack.
August 28, 1943
Burma Surgeon
The work of missionary surgeon Dr. Gordon Seagrave, who ran field hospitals along the Burma front and retreated with Stilwell's forces into India.
Fred Herman's true account of an American torpedoed in Arctic waters, pulled aboard a British warship, then crowded into its darkened hold with other survivors as German planes press the attack overhead.
September 9, 1943
Falange
Alan Chase's expose of the Spanish Falange and Axis efforts to spread fascist influence and intrigue through Latin America.
A home-front portrait in letters, following an American family coping with absence, rationing and worry while their men are away at war.
Artist Jean Helion's account of his capture as a French soldier and his escape from a German prison camp.
Agnes Smedley's eyewitness chronicle of China's long resistance to Japanese invasion and the people and armies carrying the fight.
The endurance tale of a merchant seaman adrift for eighty-three days after his ship was sunk, clinging to a raft until rescue.
American Etta Shiber's own account of hiding downed Allied fliers in occupied Paris and running them toward freedom under the eyes of the Gestapo; she steps to the microphone herself to close the story.
A dramatization arguing the strategic case for the Aleutian route to Japan, built around the northern Pacific campaign.
A dramatization of the narrative war poem by Frederick Watt, a lieutenant commander in the Royal Canadian Navy, on men facing death at sea.
Ernie Pyle's dispatches from the North African campaign, told from the mud and foxholes of the ordinary GI; Santos Ortega narrated the correspondent's words.
Lt. John Mason Brown's account of the invasion of Sicily as seen from a Navy command ship, dramatized with the author taking part.
November 16, 1943
Skyways to Berlin
The operations of the American Eighth Air Force flying from bases in Britain against targets in occupied Europe.
Correspondent Michael Padev's flight out of the Balkans as the Axis closed in on the region.
A portrait of Mussolini's rise and fall, drawn together from three best-selling books on the Italian dictator.
A Pearl Harbor Day program built from soldiers' and families' wartime letters, giving voice to the war in the words of those living it.
Col. Carlos Romulo of the Philippine army makes the case for the bond between the Philippines and the United States and the fight to reclaim the islands.
A salute to the merchant marine through the log of British seaman Frank Laskier, who kept sailing the convoys after losing a leg to a German raider.
Historian Hendrik van Loon narrates his own book, framing the war as the newest chapter in humanity's long struggle against intolerance and the lie.
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