Someone Talked!

Eight decades after giving their lives in the cause of freedom, the National D-Day Memorial's necrology research team identified fifteen men who fell on D-Day. These additions and other updates bring the the number of names on the Memorial's wall to 4,426 - the most complete accounting of D-Day fallen in the world.  Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-Day Mem...

Our hosts reflect on the 80th anniversary of D-Day commemorations in both Normandy, France and Bedford, Virginia. Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-Day Memorial, plan your visit, and learn about upcoming events at dday.org .

Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-Day Memorial, plan your visit, and learn about upcoming events at dday.org .

We wrap up our 80th anniversary commemoration month episodes with the return of  Sand and Steel author Peter Caddick-Adams. Caddick–Adams was born in London in 1960 and educated at Shrewsbury School, Sandhurst and Wolverhampton University, where he gained First Class Honours in War Studies; he received his PhD from Cranfield University. He worked in the House of Commons, then taught at Oxford and...

On the eve of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, our hosts are joined by renowned military historian Peter Caddick-Adams to discuss his 2019 book  Sand and Steel. Caddick–Adams was born in London in 1960 and educated at Shrewsbury School, Sandhurst and Wolverhampton University, where he gained First Class Honours in War Studies; he received his PhD from Cranfield University. He worked in the House of...

Broadcasting live from Bedford, Virginia, and Normandy, France, the National D-Day Memorial presents Someone Talked! featuring special guest Paul Woodadge. Recorded LIVE on May 17, 2024.  Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-Day Memorial, plan your visit, and learn about upcoming events at dday.org .

The Paratrooper Generals author Mitch Yockelson returns with more on Matthew Ridgway and Maxwell Taylor. The 2020 book is the first book to explore in depth the significant role these two division commanders played on D-Day, describing the extraordinary courage and leadership they demonstrated throughout the most important American campaign of World War II. Yockelson is the author of 6 books and a...

Author Mitch Yockelson joins us with insights from his latest work, The Paratrooper Generals: Matthew Ridgway, Maxwell Taylor, and the American Airborne from D-Day through Normandy. Generals during World War II usually stayed to the rear, but not Matthew Ridgway and Maxwell Taylor. During D-Day and the Normandy campaign, these commanders of the 82nd “All-American” and the 101st “Screaming Eagle” A...

We pick up our conversation on Italy in WWII with renowned historian James Holland, author of The Savage Storm: The Battle for Italy 1943. Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-Day Memorial, plan your visit, and learn about upcoming events at dday.org .

Acclaimed WWII historian James Holland returns to Someone Talked! to discuss his latest book The Savage Storm: The Battle for Italy 1943, in which he narrates and reframes the controversial first months of the Italian Campaign. Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-Day Memorial, plan your visit, and learn about upcoming events at dday.org .

Mari K. Eder, retired U.S. Army Major General, returns with more stories of extraordinary women who stepped out of line and into history during WWII, forever altering the world's landscape. A renowned speaker and author, and a thought leader on strategic communication and leadership, General Eder is the former Commanding General of the U.S. Army Reserve Joint and Special Troops Support Command, fo...

This Women's History Month, Mari K. Eder, retired U.S. Army Major General, discusses her book, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line: Untold Stories of the Women Who Changed the Course of WWII. This page-turning narrative, crafted with meticulous historical accuracy, provides a fresh perspective on the integral roles that women played during WWII. A renowned speaker and author, and a thought leader on...

Matthew F. Delmont's Half American: The Heroic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad was named Book of the Year by TIME and Publishers Weekly and is a New York Times Notable Book. This Black History Month, Delmont returns to discuss the more than one million Black soldiers who helped win World War II abroad but came home to face widespread racism. Email the Someone Ta...

This Black History Month author Matthew F. Delmont joins the program to discuss Half American, his definitive history of World War II from the African American perspective. Delmont is the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College, a Guggenheim Fellow and expert on African American history and the history of civil rights. Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dda...

Multi-award-winning-author Rich Frank further discusses his research on the often-overlooked Asia-Pacific War and the forthcoming volumes in his narrative history trilogy. Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-Day Memorial, plan your visit, and learn about upcoming events at dday.org .

In this episode, James Holland and twin brothers walk into a pub… The author shares that and other tales of memorable veterans who inspired his work. In “We Salute You” Rudolph Arthur was there for the capture of a German U-Boat on the high seas, just days before D-Day. Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-Day Memorial, plan your visit, and learn about upcomin...

In this episode, Brothers in Arms author James Holland recounts the harrowing tails of the Sherwood Rangers, the legendary tank unit that would receive the most battle honors of any unit ever in the British army. Both a combat story and a human story, we discuss memorable characters and how scarred ground reveals where history took place. A special tribute to Hershel “Woody” Williams, the longest...

Richard B. Frank is a graduate of the University of Missouri and Georgetown University Law Center. He served in the Vietnam War with the 101st Airborne Divisions as an aero rifle platoon leader. Frank is an independent scholar specializing in the Asia-Pacific War and served as a consultant for the HBO miniseries The Pacific. He joins the program to discuss Tower of Skulls, the first volume of his...

Self-proclaimed "groupie for the 1st Division" Gregory Fontenot returns to further discuss his divisional history of The Big Red One. In "We Salute You," as a child Charles Chibitty was sent to a school to erase his native tongue. Ironically, the U.S. government would later rely on Chibitty's indigenous language on D-Day. Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-D...

Col. Gregory Fontenot joins the podcast to discuss his latest book, No Sacrifice Too Great: The 1st Infantry Division in World War II. As a soldier in a graves registration company, Robert Berry cared for D-Day's fallen and later helped the National D-Day Memorial develop the world's most complete account of those lost that day. His legacy of service in "We Salute You." Email the Someone Talked! t...

2023 National Infantry Association Order of St. Maurice recipient Joe Balkoski rejoins the podcast. As research moves from veteran accounts to archeology, we discuss the future of D-Day scholarship. Blinded while in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, Thomas Gagnet would later testify in the war crimes trials in Japan, with the hope that just punishment would help prevent another war. We honor his se...

Named "top living D-Day historian" by USA Today , author Joe Balkoski takes us back to Utah Beach. In "We Salute You," we honor Peter Monsma, a Dutch native who would return to the Netherlands while serving his adopted home as a U.S. Army chaplain. Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-Day Memorial, plan your visit, and learn about upcoming events at dday.org .

Our hosts jump right into the airborne experience in Normandy in this discussion of paratroopers and gliders. In "We Salute You," we honor, Herman Addleson, a paratrooper who was so eager to serve but lost his life in the early hours of D-Day. Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-Day Memorial, plan your visit, and learn about upcoming events at dday.org .

Peggy Noonan wasn't alive when Rangers scaled the cliffs but was tasked with writing President Reagan's speech to be delivered at Pointe du Hoc. In the audience - the veterans who saved the world. No pressure! As an army photographer, Kegham Nigohosian was supposed to capture the history Noonan would write about at Pointe du Hoc. We honor his service in out "We Salute You" segment. Email the Someo...

Someone Talked! is the official podcast of the National D-Day Memorial. Paratrooper-turned-historian James M. Fenelon re-joins our hosts to discuss the 11 th Airborne Division’s Pacific campaigns, narrated in his latest book Angels Against the Sun. English at birth and American by wartime, Charles Rippon returned to England to train but never made it home to Pennsylvania after D-Day. The story of...