Voices of Victory

February, 1945. Eight months have passed since the D-Day landings, where the Allies gained their critical foothold in north-west Europe. Since then, the British Army has fought near continuously against the desperate German military. Now, they stand ready for their greatest, and final, test: the battle for the German homeland. Drawing on the remarkable sound archive of the Imperial War Museums, this often-overlooked period of the war is brought vividly to life in the voices of British soldiers who were there, from war-weary men who have survived many months of combat to new recruits facing Hitler’s fanatic Panzer divisions for the first time. In their words we experience the fierce fighting in the forests of the Reichswald, and through the streets of the industrial Ruhr Valley. They will launch an amphibious crossing of the Rhine – the most successful Allied airborne operation of the war, and the largest single air drop in history. They will liberate prisoners from the hell of the concentration camps. And then, at last, they will witness the surrender of Nazi Germany, whose war has cost half a million British lives. This is a fresh take on a crucial campaign, weaving together veterans’ testimony to create a powerful, moving and immersive description of war as experienced by the men on the ground.