Hello I'm James Rogers and this is the History Hit World Wars podcast a

podcast dedicated to that turbulent period in history between 1914 and 1945

and in this podcast we're going to focus on the Second World War.

It's difficult to imagine what it would have been like to disembark off the boats during the Normandy

landings, but we can be pretty certain it was traumatic and hellish.

In this podcast, first recorded for Dan Snow's history here,

Dan talks with Giles Milton,

a British war historian and author of D-Day, The Soldiers Story.

Now, Giles has gone through the memoirs and the interviews

with the troops who served on D-Day,

and he explains to Dan how for most soldiers

it really was hell on earth, as under-trained novices were sent in waves

as almost cannon fodder without much cover before the expert soldiers were sent ashore. I wanted to do something a bit different because obviously there's you know hundreds of books on D-Day

written by the Beavers the Hastings and John King. different because obviously there's you know hundreds of books on D-Day

written by the beavers the Hastings the John Keegan etc but they all tend to tell the

story from the top down if you like for the point of view of the commanders the

generals those in charge.

I wanted to just completely turn everything on its head and look at it from the conscripts,

the teenagers, the terrified youngsters who went in on the first wave and did miraculous things really.

Before we talk about those individuals what have you learned from just relentlessly focusing on them from the ground up?

What have you learned that you think is different to the D-D-D-D-D-D? just relentlessly focusing on them from the ground up.

What have you learned that you think is different to the D-Day

...