One historic day, hundreds of unforgettable stories. Told in a minute-by-minute chronological style, this fascinating account vividly details the authentic stories of ordinary people caught up in the historical events of World War II’s D-Day.

June 6, 1944 was a truly historic day in World War II, but it was also a day where people found themselves in extraordinary situations...

Lieutenant Norman Poole jumped from a bomber surrounded by two hundred decoy dummy parachutists. French baker Pierre Cardron led British paratroopers to his local church, where he knew two German soldiers were hiding in the confessional. Southampton telegram boy Tom Hiett delivered his first “death message” by midday. At the sound of Allied aircraft, Werner Kortenhaus of the twenty-first Panzer Division ran to collect his still damp washing from a French laundrywoman. And injured soldiers wept in their beds in a New York hospital, knowing that their buddies lay dying on the Normandy beaches.

Drawing on memoirs, diaries, letters, and oral accounts, D-Day is a purely chronological narrative, concerned less with the military strategies and more with what people were thinking and doing as D-Day unfolded, minute-by-minute. Moving seamlessly from various perspectives and stories, D-Day sets us in the midst of it all, compelling readers to relive this momentous day in world history.

Jonathan Mayo joined the BBC in 1987, first working in radio and then television, where he won awards for his documentaries. In 2011 he became a freelance producer, director, and writer. He is the author of The JFK Assassination: Minute by Minute (Short Books, 2013). He lives in Surrey with his wife and son.