Family Stories:
We regularly receive fantastic Second World War stories direct from our listeners’ family archives.
Daring do in Burma, letters from the Battle of the Bulge, and heartfelt memories of love and loss on the home front.
In our Family Stories podcast series, Al and James read out your correspondence, reminding us of the human impact of the Second World War.
If you have a family story which you think is worth telling, email us at wehavewayspodcast@gmail.com, make sure your subject line is ‘Family Stories’.
Ep 396: Family Stories – Series 2, Episode 2
In today’s Family Stories we hear about a young Englishwoman who found herself in Germany in 1936 and went to hear Hitler speak. Plus stories from South Africa, Australia and the Scottish Isles. Read by Al Murray and James Holland, these extraordinary stories of normal people’s wartime adventures were sent in by you, our listeners.
Ep 393: Family Stories – Series 2, Episode 1
A new series of Family Stories, the podcast written by you, our listeners. Each week Al Murray and James Holland read out the stories you send us describing the war experiences of your relatives.
Ep 322: Family Stories – Episode 20
More of your wartime Family Stories, including a timely tale from the Battle of Crete.
With thanks to Luke Brannigan, Robert Blood, Betty Dullaghan and Christopher Szymanski,
Ep 319: Family Stories – Ep 19
This week we hear more of your war time family stories. Including the incredible details of an Australian soldier’s experiences in a Japanese POW camp and the Sandakan death marches, hiding an illegal printing press as part of the Danish resistance; and scavenger hunts in the desert minefields of North Africa.
With thanks to Alyssa Braithwaite, Tom Campbell, Jan Johansson, Patrick Lees and Mark Wrycraft for sharing their stories.
Ep 315: Family Stories – Ep 18
This week on our Family Stories episode we hear more wide-ranging tales including how a priest joined the Belgian resistance and was ultimately captured; a first-hand account of the first nocturnal “kill” made by a Spitfire; and the sad story of a fatal accident in a Tiger Moth.
With thanks to Robin Braysher, Jack Ruffhead, Peter Smith, Richard Veys and Richard Walker for sharing their stories.
Ep 309: Family Stories – Ep 16
This is the show written by our listeners. It includes five remarkable war time stories of hidden airmen in Holland, Germans on the Eastern Front, and the horrors of a U-boat attack in the mid Atlantic.
With thanks to Andrew Gerrard, Peter McGrath, Alex Aitchison, Rianne Heida, Oliver Clixby and Ben Ross.
Ep 312: Family Stories – Ep 17
This week we hear more of your war time family stories. Including how a Belgian family survived in the basement of a bakery; a sailor who survived the Arctic Convoys and a fair few scuffles; and a ‘Tail End Charlie’ celebrating his 100th birthday.
With thanks to Pete Coutts, Bram De Man, Guy Ferguson, Michael Hallinger and Oliver Nichols for sharing their stories.
Ep 302: Family Stories – Ep 14
This week we hear more of your war time family stories. Including the story of an alarming experience in a London hospital’s labour ward during an air raid; how a prisoner in a labour camp in Nagasaki didn’t even notice the atom bomb falling; and how numerous close escapes eventually led to being reunited with her family for one Polish lady.
With thanks to Tyler Anderson, Mark Dagenais, Konrad “Radders” H, Bruce Mair, Clare Meachin and John Nye for sharing their stories.
Ep 299: Family Stories – ep 13
Al Murray and James Holland read family stories sent in by listeners to We Have Ways of Making You Talk.
These wartime experiences took place in the seas off Norway, in the skies over Bremen and on the airfields of both northern and southern Africa.
With thanks to Richard Garnett, Colin Tait, Sam Crowley, Stuart Burbridge, Dominic Butler and Michael Milner-Watt for sharing their stories.
Ep 295: Family Stories – Ep 12
The Second World War touched everyone’s lives, with many of our listeners’ families witnessing extraordinary events.
In this edition of We Have Ways of Making You Talk we hear of an escape from Singapore, a mysterious woman on a crashed bomber, and a chance encounter in France.
With thanks to Nick Griffiths, James Valimont, Finlay Coutts-Britton, Rob Good, John Nye, Gary Bircher and Chris Hudson for sharing their stories.