D-Day: The Unheard Tapes (ePub)

'Vital testimony for those who wish to understand the stark reality of running up a beach with the Wehrmacht trying to kill you ****' The Telegraph

Based on over 150 audio interviews with those who fought, this is a moving and powerful oral history that marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings and battle for Normandy. Published alongside a groundbreaking BBC2 documentary series D-Day: The Unheard Tapes.

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

Drawing primarily on the extraordinary archives of the Imperial War Museums and National World War II Museum, this immersive book 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.

Here is 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. Their words reach across the decades as they share their experiences with us.

In D-Day The Unheard Tapes Geraint Jones, author of Brothers in Arms and a former infantry soldier, 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.