Please login or sign up to post and edit reviews.
27/05/24 The D-Day farms
Podcast |
Farming Today
Publisher |
BBC
Media Type |
audio
Categories Via RSS |
Science
Publication Date |
May 27, 2024
Episode Duration |
00:12:02

To mark the 80th anniversary of Vernon Harwood tells the story of Britain's D-Day farms.

As dawn broke on the morning of the 6th June 1944 thousands of Allied ships and landing craft carrying more than 150,000 troops approached the beaches of Normandy in Northern France as the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare got underway. Meanwhile the airborne assault involved more than 11,000 aircraft making it the single largest aerial operation ever seen. D-Day had arrived. Code-named Operation Overlord, it would eventually result in the liberation of Western Europe, the defeat of Hitler’s Germany and the end of the Second World War. But what part did the fields, farms and country estates of England have in the success of the Allied invasion?

Landowners, farmers and their families played a vital role in the crucial months leading up to D-Day. Large parts of rural England were taken over by the military and transformed in the process.

The journey starts at The D-Day Story in Portsmouth where the museum archives and exhibits help reveal the background to this complex strategic and logistical exercise. At Chavenage House in Gloucestershire, the Lowsley-Williams family moved out of their home to make way for an American unit working on ‘ultra-secret’ maps. The Hampshire village of Southwick hosted General Dwight D. Eisenhower while U.S. troops helped with the haymaking and in Dorset an historic farm at Tarrant Rushton was flattened in favour of an airfield. Produced and presented by Vernon Harwood.

This episode currently has no reviews.

Submit Review
This episode could use a review!

This episode could use a review! Have anything to say about it? Share your thoughts using the button below.

Submit Review