Show Notes
In the dead of night, two British commandos carry out a daring intelligence gathering mission… right under German noses. President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill set the date for the largest seaborne invasion in history. The Allies hatch an elaborate plan to throw Hitler off the scent - building fake tanks, fake planes, even an entire fake army. And as D-Day approaches, an eccentric double agent sends the most important secret message of his life… A Noiser production, written by Duncan Barrett. As featured on D-Day: The Tide Turns. For ad-free listening, join Noiser+. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started with a 7-day free trial. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More from Adolf Hitler: Rise and Downfall
We conclude our D-Day story. What happened after the sixth of June? Three months of bitter fighting across Normandy. Hundreds of thousands of casualties. And, as Operation Overlord draws to a close, the fate of Paris hangs in the balance…
Thousands of nurses begin landing in France, some of them never to return. Codebreakers at Bletchley Park decrypt German communications, feeding vital intel to the front lines. Female pilots dodge German fighters in the skies above Britain. And on a sinking hospital ship in the Channel, an extraordinary act of sacrifice unfolds…
Allied journalists parachute into France and land on the beaches with the invasion force. Legendary reporter Martha Gellhorn stows away on a ship, determined to beat her estranged husband, Ernest Hemingway, to the D-Day scoop. And a homing pigeon known as Gustav brings the first news of D-Day to Britain…
D-Day from the German perspective. Star general, Erwin Rommel, celebrates his wife’s birthday… 500 miles from Normandy. A dinner party at his vacant headquarters is interrupted by alarming news, as the first Allied troops arrive in France. But as the Nazi top brass scramble to respond, Hitler quite literally snoozes. Will anyone dare to wake him before the Longest Day is over?
In this episode, a very personal D-Day story - the story of our host’s own father. Paul is joined on the podcast by his brother, Stephen, to explore how D-Day impacted the McGann family. On June 6th 1944 a British commando fights his way up Gold Beach. What happens to him in the next few minutes will change his life and reverberate down through the generations.