Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, June 6, 1944, 24,000 soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy in Northern France. What followed was the largest seaborne invasion in history. Their mission: to liberate Europe and defeat Germany. Who were these soldiers? And who worked secretly to plan the operation and ensure its success?
In this episode of On the Record, Chloe Lee speaks to colleagues Sophie Stewart and Alice Bell about the people who contributed to this operation, whose stories we may not be familiar with: a tank driver on the front line, one of the first black women in the Royal Air Force, and a femme fatale whose coded telegram saved many lives on D-Day.
Download the full episode transcript here.
Documents from The National Archives used in this episode: WO 171/995, KV 2/2098.
For more information about the records covered in this episode, look at our research guides to British Army soldiers of the Second World War and Intelligence and security services. Read our blog, The double agent who hid D-Day from the Nazis: Elvira Chaudoir. For help navigating our catalogue, you can watch our top-level tips on using Discovery.
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