The British Army relied heavily on public school boys for its officer class at the start of the war but was forced to abandon its class prejudice as the conflict took its toll. Al Murray and James Holland explore the way in which the war forced a more egalitarian approach to army recruitment.
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James Holland meets leading US historian Rob Citino to talk about the German approach to war.
Brigadier George Chatterton’s memoirs, read by Al Murray, tell the extraordinary story of his time as a soldier for the British Army who then went on to become the Commander of the Glider Pilot Regiment during the Second World War.
Today’s family stories include the desert experiences of an Eighth Army medic, the Sicilian adventures of a dispatch rider and how wooden sheep helped fool the Luftwaffe.
Chapter 8: The Cauldron, by Zeno In September, 1944, the British 1st Airborne Division found itself in a fierce battle for the Dutch city of Arnhem. Al Murray reads the story of a single platoon trapped in the smoking ruins