This week on History Happy Hour: Sir Richard Dannatt, former commander of the British Army & Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archives Center, have teamed up to write a book capturing emotional turmoil and epic decision-making before, during, and after the world-defining action of D-Day.

Chris and Rick welcome them to discuss that book, Churchill’s D-Day. The invasion of Normandy - as the British Bulldog experienced it himself.

General Sir Richard Dannatt became Chief of the General Staff in 2006, leading the British Army as it fought two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He handed over his position forty years to the day from when he first joined the Army. In 2009, Her Majesty The Queen appointed him Constable of the Tower of Land, and in 2010, he was appointed as Crossbencher to the House of Lords. Sir Richard Dannatt is also Chairman of Trustees of the British Normandy Memorial.

 

Allen Packwood is the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He was awarded an OBE for services to archives and scholarship in the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honors. His book How Churchill Waged War was published in 2018, and he has since edited the Cambridge University Press Companion to Winston Churchill and coedited Letters for the Ages: The Private and Personal Letters of Sir Winston Churchill.