What happens
Sergeant John Kenneth Smith, a Royal West Kent soldier with explosives experience, volunteers for a secret, dangerous job and is sent to the Combined Operations training center. There he meets fellow recruits including Scotty, a bagpiper, and the Irish-American Murphy, and endures hard physical training under a demanding sergeant major. The men learn to handle satchel charges and other weapons and are told they must solve their own problems. Their training is preparing them for a commando raid on the Nazi-held port of San Nazaire. The series is Words at War, first broadcast on June 24, 1943, and based on Hilary St. George Sanders' book Combined Operations, with Les Damon as Sergeant Smith and Jackson Beck as the Sergeant Major.
Britain, a British commando training center, and the Atlantic coast of occupied France at the port of San Nazaire
Characters: Sergeant John Kenneth Smith, Scotty, Murphy, Timmons, Sergeant Major, Lieutenant Colonel Newman, Piggy O'Donnell
Listen for: The rigorous commando training sequences and Smith's introduction to the men and the secret raid
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.