The WW2 Grognard
ROD INOJOSA
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About This Podcast
The WW2 Grognard is a documentary podcast for people who already know the war — and know that most of what they've been told about it is incomplete.
Each episode is narrated by Charles Mercer, a voice that doesn't perform history. It inhabits it. The research is deep, the judgments are earned, and the stories chosen are the ones that don't fit cleanly into the standard narrative: the commanders history celebrated without asking what they cost, the decisions that won battles and killed men for the wrong reasons, the figures on both sides who understood exactly what was happening and went forward anyway.
This is not a podcast about dates and campaigns. It is a podcast about character under extreme pressure — about what war does to the people who fight it, command it, survive it, and can't survive it. About the gap between the monument and the man. About the price of the photograph.
The host is not a journalist or an entertainer. He is someone who has read the primary sources, argued with the historians, and come to conclusions he is willing to defend. He is grumpy about myth. He is careful about facts. He is not interested in heroes.
If you've ever watched a WW2 documentary and felt it was telling you what to think instead of showing you what happened — this is the antidote.
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Recent Episodes
FDR Rejected Japan's Peace Offer in 1942. Was He Right?
Cordell Hull rejected Japan's peace offer 10 days before Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt said no at Casablanca. Truman had proof Japan would surrender — and stayed silent. Six days later: Hiroshima.Four…
After Pearl Harbor: How the Perfect Attack Destroyed Japan
Pearl Harbor 1941: Japan's perfect attack destroyed the Pacific Fleet — and destroyed Japan. Here's how a masterpiece became a catastrophe.In December 1941, Japan executed a tactically flawless…
Burke’s Doctrine: The Night Attacks That Won the Pacific War
Arleigh Burke sank more Japanese destroyers than any officer in the Pacific War. The Navy named 74 ships after him. Almost no one knows what he did.He arrived in the Solomon Islands in October 1943…
Ōnishi: He Created the Kamikaze. Then Left a Note Asking the Survivors Not to Follow Him.
He invented the kamikaze. He sent four thousand young men to die in it. And on the night the second world war ended, he sat alone in a room, refused help, and chose a death that lasted fifteen…
Halsey Got the Fifth Star. Spruance Won the War. The Admiral America Forgot.
Admiral Raymond Spruance won the Battle of Midway, commanded the Fifth Fleet, and refused to be a hero. While Halsey got the fifth star and the headlines, Spruance got Pebble Beach, a garden, and a…
The Unknown Hero Who Charged a Battleship With a Destroyer — and Saluted by the Enemy
The unknown captain who charged a Japanese battleship fleet with a single American destroyer. Ernest E. Evans, USS Johnston, Battle off Samar, October 25, 1944 — and the enemy salute that ended his…
Leyte: He Declared Victory While His Men Were Still Dying — The Ground War
MacArthur declared victory on December 26th, 1944.His men were still dying in those mountains five months later.Three men. One island. A battle history buried under the naval legend.The general who…
Leyte: The Largest Naval Battle in History — And the Decision Nobody Can Explain
Leyte Gulf - The largest naval battle in history was decided not by firepower — but by a single decision no one can fully explain.October 1944. Four Japanese fleets are converging on the Philippines…
Fuchida: He Cried "Tora! Tora! Tora!" at Pearl Harbor. 15 Years Later, He Was Preaching Jesus in Kentucky.
Pearl Harbor pilot Mitsuo Fuchida launched the attack that started WWII in the Pacific. He survived Midway, Hiroshima — and found forgiveness in America.This is the most extraordinary life I've…
Iwo Jima: Three of the Six Men Who Raised the Flag on Iwo Jima Died in The Next 12 Days
The Battle of Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest battles of World War II in the Pacific, is remembered through Joe Rosenthal's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of six men raising the American flag on…
Pearl Harbor From the Japanese Side: The Admiral Who Planned It Knew It Was a Mistake
The Attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) was the most successful surprise naval strike in history. In less than two hours, Japan crippled the U.S. Pacific Fleet — 21 ships damaged or destroyed,…
Chester Nimitz: The Man Who Won the Pacific War Never Left His Desk
Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz commanded the largest naval force in history during World War II. From Pearl Harbor (1941) to the Japanese surrender (1945), he led the U.S. Pacific Fleet across the…
Midway 1942: How Was the Largest Fleet in the Pacific Destroyed in 5 Minutes? | Full Documentary
Japan sent the most powerful carrier fleet ever assembled in the Pacific to Midway in June 1942. By sunset, four of its carriers were burning. This is the full story of the Battle of Midway — told…
Yamamoto: He Lost Two Fingers at Tsushima. He Studied at Harvard. Then He Planned Pearl Harbor
He spent years living among Americans — studying at Harvard University from 1919 to 1921, playing poker with oil executives in New York, driving through the American South, reading Hemingway. Isoroku…
Göring Was 265 Pounds When Captured. He Lost 75 in Prison. Then He Beat the Hangman.
He was Hitler's designated successor — the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany. He built the Gestapo, commanded the Luftwaffe, and signed the authorization that set the Holocaust in motion. He…
Nuremberg Psychiatrist: The Man Who Searched for Evil — And Found Something Worse
In 1945, the U.S. Army sent a young psychiatrist into a prison in Nuremberg with one mission: determine whether 22 of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany were sane enough to stand trial. What Dr.…
Tirpitz: Hitler’s Last Battleship [A Cinematic WWII Documentary]
Tirpitz: Hitler’s Last Battleship is a cinematic World War II documentary about one of the most powerful battleships of WWII, the German Navy’s greatest threat in the Battle of the Atlantic.In the…
PQ-17 The Arctic Hell [A Cinematic WWII Documentary]
In 1942, Convoy PQ-17 sailed through the Arctic carrying vital Allied supplies to the Soviet Union. After a controversial order to scatter, the convoy was left exposed to U-boats, Luftwaffe attacks,…
The Hunted - Fall of the U-Boats (1943-45) | Cinematic WWII Documentary
At the height of World War II, the tide beneath the Atlantic began to turn.The Hunted tells the story of the dramatic shift in the Battle of the Atlantic — when the once-dominant U-boat fleet found…
The Hunters — Rise of the U-Boats (1939–43) | Cinematic WWII Documentary
At the dawn of World War II, a silent threat emerged beneath the Atlantic waves.The Hunters tells the story of the early years of the U-boat campaign — when Germany’s submarine fleet transformed…
Frequently Asked Questions
The WW2 Grognard has published 16 episodes since April 2026, covering topics in Documentary, History.
The WW2 Grognard is currently moderate with new episodes hourly. Average episode length is 36m.
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