This week on History Happy Hour: To mark the 82nd Anniversary of D-Day, we will bring you a ninety-minute special edition of History Happy Hour looking back on the Normandy landings. Two of our favorite historians will join us to take your questions about D-Day – its planning, execution and aftermath.

Joe Balkoski wrote the book Beyond the Beachhead about the 29th Division, which landed on the Western half of Omaha Beach. John McManus wrote The Dead and Those About to Die on the First Division, which landed on the eastern half. But we won’t just be talking about Omaha Beach – we’ll take questions on all aspects of D-Day and its special place in WWII lore.

Don’t forget to send us questions in advance to [email protected]. And join us Sunday, at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.

John McManus is a military historian, author, and professor of military history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He also served as a visiting professor at the U.S. Naval Academy. McManus has published thirteen critically acclaimed books on numerous American military history topics.

This week on History Happy Hour: September 1943, the people of Denmark banded together to rescue nearly all of their Jewish citizens from a NAZI roundup by ferrying them to sanctuary in Sweden. Why were the Danes able to do what no other country could?

In this encore episode, we discuss this little-known, true story with guest Tim Brady, author of A Light in the Northern Sea: Denmark’s Incredible Rescue of Their Jewish Citizens During WWII. The riveting accounts of ordinary Danes, who used their modest resources, wiles, remarkable courage, and camaraderie to quietly orchestrate their escape.

This week on History Happy Hour: Chris and Rick are in Berchtesgaden to present an encore episode about The Hispanos of frontier New Mexico after the war with Mexico in 1848.  Make sense?  Probably not, but that’s the way it goes!

We’ll present our conversation with James Mills, author of In the Days of Billy the Kid. Mills dives into the lives of four men little known to history, who played a big part in the events of those days.

Join us Sunday at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.

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This week on History Happy Hour: Chris and Rick explore the story of two B-24 navigators from the same Illinois town, who find themselves in a famous bombing raid over Ploesti - and the woman who connects them.  

Our guest is Jan Cress Dondi, author of The Navigator’s Letter: The Story of Two WWII Airmen, a Doomed Mission, and the Woman who Bound Them Together. Drawing on family letters and firsthand accounts, the book combines military history with and a story of courage, loss, and survival.

Join us Sunday at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.

As an Amazon Associate, HHH earns from qualifying purchases.

This week on History Happy Hour: Chris and Rick welcome Robert Edsel, author of the book “Monuments Men,” to talk about his latest book “Remember Us: American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II.”

We’ll talk about the occupation and liberation of the Netherlands, as well as the extraordinary, 80-year commitment of Dutch citizens to adopt and maintain the graves of American soldiers.

This week on History Happy Hour: The shocking untold story of the British royal family’s centuries-long investment in slavery and continued profiting off its legacy—from Elizabeth I to the present. Acclaimed historian Dr. Brooke Newman reveals the true story of the enslavers who were supported by members of the royal family in her new book The Crown’s Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas.

This week on History Happy Hour: What drove the thinking of Hitler and his followers? How did ordinary Germans come to embrace an ideology of hate and destruction?

In this encore episode, Chris and Rick talk with Laurence Rees, award-winning historian and author of the new book The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings from History. Drawing on decades of research and previously unpublished interviews, Rees examines the twisted ideas at the heart of the Third Reich and what they reveal about human behavior.

As an Amazon Associate, HHH earns from qualifying purchases.

WE HAD A SCHEDULING ISSUE WITH THIS WEEK'S GUEST AND HE DID NOT APPEAR.  WE WILL TRY TO RESCHEDULE. This week on History Happy Hour: President Truman’s choice to drop the atomic bomb is the most debated decision in the 20th Century. But what if he, himself, did not fully understand the decisions being made until after the atomic bomb was used.

Chris and Rick will talk to historian Alex Wellerstein about his highly regarded new book The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age.

Alex Wellerstein is an Associate Professor of Science and Technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He is also a visiting researcher at the Nuclear Knowledges program, Center for International Studies, Sciences Po, Paris. He is the author of Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States, and he has written for The New Yorker, Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, and many other venues. He is perhaps best known as the creator of the NUKEMAP, the world’s most popular online nuclear weapons effects simulator. He is also the author of the Doomsday Machines blog, and he has taught at Harvard, MIT, and Georgetown University.

This week on History Happy Hour:  The little-known story of FBI agents who went undercover to hunt down U.S. traitors on foreign soil during World War II. The goal: to identify and capture U.S. citizens plotting against their own country in the shadows of war-torn Europe. To accomplish this, a small group of federal agents assumed new identities to infiltrate underground networks, interrogate key suspects, and conduct a secret manhunt as harrowing as any Hollywood cliff-hanger.  

We’ll talk to Stephen Harding, author of G.I. G-Men: The Untold Story of the FBI's Search for American Traitors, Collaborators, and Spies in World War II Europe. HHH Alum Andrew Roberts says “Stephen Harding, America’s leading commentator on the extraordinary scenes that define the finale of World War II, has done it again."

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Stephen Harding is the author of ten previous books, including the New York Times bestseller The Last Battle and Last to Die. He is a longtime journalist specializing in military affairs. For nearly two decades he was on the staff of Soldiers, the official magazine of the US Army, reporting from Northern Ireland, Israel, Egypt, New Zealand, Bosnia, Kuwait, and Iraq. Currently he is editor-in-chief of Military History magazine.  

This week on History Happy Hour: We travel back to the six critical months before Adolf Hitler seized power, when the Nazi leader teetered between triumph and ruin. As financial backers withdrew, the Nazi Party threatened to fracture. Hitler talked of suicide. The New York Times declared he was finished. Yet somehow, in a few brief weeks, he was chancellor of Germany.

As an Amazon Associate, HHH earns from qualifying purchases.

Timothy Ryback has written on history and politics for more than three decades. He is the author of Hitler’s Private Library, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and The Last Survivor, a New York Times Notable Book. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and the Financial Times. He is cofounder and director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague.