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The night before the dawn amphibious landings at Normandy, three Allied airborne divisions landed at the invasion site to prepare the way.

These landings were dangerous, and combat between Allied paratroopers and German garrison forces was vicious.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Piano Sonata No. 14, “Moonlight”
Composed in 1801 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Performed by Paul Pitman. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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The fact of German occupation of France and other members of the United Nations alliance made it inevitable that British and American air forces would be bombing their own allies and killing civilians they were supposed to be “liberating.”

This forced Allied commanders to make some hard decisions.

• Listen now:

Transcript.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Miroirs
Composed in 1905 by Maurice Ravel. Public domain.
Performed by Robert Ewen Birchall and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license. Source.

Closing War Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.