D-Day: The Unheard Tapes

A powerful, immersive account published for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings and battle for Normandy, accompanying a groundbreaking BBC2 documentary series D-Day: The Unheard Tapes.

D-Day was a critical turning point in the Second World War, and a master stroke in planning and logistics, but for the tens of thousands of young men who took part in the amphibious assault, D-Day was bloody, chaotic, and frequently terrifying. For those who survived the beaches, months of bitter fighting lay ahead, often against some of Germany’s most elite and fanatical divisions.

Using audio interviews from the archives of the Imperial War Museums and National World War II Museum, this immersive oral history describes what it was actually like to take part in the landings on 6 June 1944 and the weeks of ferocious fighting in Normandy that followed. British, American, Canadian and German veterans, as well as French civilians, speak of experiences they could never forget.

Stories include the forward observer hiding alone on Omaha beach, thinking of his wife as he waits for the invasion to begin. The commando racing to the besieged airborne forces at Pegasus Bridge. The Typhoon pilot about to be executed by the SS when he is saved by a Luftwaffe officer. The teenage GI surrounded and under fire for six days. The German soldier haunted by the memory of abandoning his dying friend.

In D-Day The Unheard Tapes, Geraint Jones has skilfully brought the battle for Normandy to life in a vivid narrative that allows the voices of those who fought to shine through, authentic and unforgettable.