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The Story of The British 'Band of Brothers'

WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk

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WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk
Listen: linktr.ee/wehaveways

Join Al Murray and James Holland for this engaging new episode on the men and tanks of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, one of the most hard-fighting British units of WW2.

What did a British tank squadron look like in The Second World War? Why were weather conditions so important for the Allies on D-Day? How was fighting in the Normandy Bocage dangerous for Allied forces after D-Day? How did British armoured units use specialised tanks like Fireflies and Churchill AVREs? What did Allied forces do when encountering elite SS tank units of Panther and Tiger tanks? What was an average day like for British soldiers in Normandy after D-Day in June 1944?

0:00 - Introducing the Sherwood Rangers: Britain’s Band of Brothers
06:58 - From cavalry horses to Sherman tanks
14:05 - Preparing for D-Day and saying goodbye to England
20:47 - The strange floating tanks of D-Day
24:08 - Schoolfriends, luck charms and the men inside the tanks
32:15 - The final crossing to Normandy
37:40 - Lost at sea and the invasion begins to go wrong
45:12 - The ramp drops: DD tanks launched 700 yards from shore
52:04 - Gold Beach, German strongpoints and the landing chaos
1:01:24 - Congestion on the beach and the Padre under fire
1:09:23 - Knocking out the gun at La Hamel
1:20:00 - The Sherwood Rangers fight their way inland
1:35:00 - Normandy closes in: villages, lanes and bocage
1:51:06 - The advance towards Point 103
2:05:00 - D-Day plus: the battle beyond the beaches
2:19:10 - Clearing Saint-Pierre and fighting through the village
2:24:42 - Stalemate, losses and the shock of command deaths
2:31:04 - Replacements arrive in Normandy and face the reality of war
2:39:00 - The Sherwood Rangers regroup after their losses
2:48:21 - Christopherson takes command and changes the tone
2:50:35 - Operation Martlet begins
2:53:37 - The fight for the Rauray ridge
2:54:10 - B Squadron battles through Fontenay
3:01:26 - Simpkin faces a Tiger tank
3:03:52 - Why experience and rate of fire mattered
3:10:12 - George Ding, Panthers and Tigers at Rauray
3:11:44 - The Sherwood Rangers knock out 13 tanks
3:12:12 - “He who shoots first”
3:17:00 - The cost of Normandy and what comes next

Produced by James Regan
Editor: Charlie Rodwell
Assistant Producer: Alfie Norris
Social Producer: Harry Balden
Chief Digital Officer: Sam Oakley
Exec Producer: Tony Pastor

20 Comments

@wehaveways Creator 3 weeks ago Pinned

The 6th annual WE HAVE WAYS FESTIVAL is THIS WEEKEND!

We have some incredible speakers including JAMES MAY, DAMIEN LEWIS, KATJA HOYER, SAUL DAVID, ROWLAND WHITE, GORDON CORERA, and many, many more across four stages in Britain's BIGGEST Second World War history festival!

Tickets: https://wehavewaysfest.co.uk/whwf26-tickets/

@chibbyranjo 3 months ago

The stories about knocking out Panzers, Panthers and Tigers pre-Epsom are incredible. Everybody loves an ACE, but this Sherwood outfit seems like a real team-effort. It’s so good hearing about them, when pop culture would have you thinking they were doomed in sub-standard kit and every engagement with “superior” enemy machines were acts of desperation and luck rather than skill and experience. Heroes, the lot of them.

@bsastarfire250 2 months ago (edited)

I visited the D-Day beaches with my father, who had been in the navy in the Mediterrainean during WW2. It was our last trip together , he passed away less than a year later aged 63 , in 1985 .

@j3errym 9 days ago (edited)

My uncle volunteered in December 1939 , a mechanic, on the beach at Dunkirk keeping the AA guns running, 8ne of the last of the beach, strafed by Stukas a canon shell took out his spleen. As a REME he was needed and back in service by 1942, he was assigned to US 10th Infantry and landed with them on D-Day, lightly wounded on the 9th June but continued with them through to Remegan and wasn't allowed to demob after VE day. Sent to Berlin and demobbed in 1946.
Absolutely amazing how many were badly injured but went back for more, he developed diabetes after Dunkirk and died in 1974.

@stevemanifold9524 3 months ago

My grandad was in the Sherwoods in ww2 from when they were cavalry. I till have his belt with the other tank regiment badges on it. He hardly spoke of his experiences.

@richparry2898 1 month ago

Ex-forces.. Love this soooooo much.. Can't thing of any other medium that puts themselves into the minds of combatants.

@WestCountryClegg 3 months ago (edited)

I was in 266 Battery Royal Artillery, an independent TA battery based in Bristol. During my time there, it re-roled to support 7 Para RHA. Then, a few years later, it also took on a role supporting 29 Commando Regiment RA at the same time.

Looking back, it must have been one of the most unusual TA units in the country. One weekend you could be training in the airborne artillery role alongside 7 Para RHA. The next you could be involved with the Commando artillery world supporting 29 Commando Regiment RA.

Most soldiers spend their careers identifying with either the airborne or commando community, but 266 Battery somehow ended up with links to both. It's hard to think of many other TA units that could claim connections to both at the same time.

@stellanorris6371 1 month ago

My mum was commanding an ack ack gun around Netley during the D-Day and she said every road, field, village was packed with men and equipment waiting to go and she said she could see how the Germans wouldn’t know they were coming.

@darrendoingdarrenthings 3 months ago

Never get tired of hearing about this extraordinary unit

@chibbyranjo 3 months ago

In many ways what separates the two world wars from other conflicts is the presence of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. My maternal grandfather was RMP during the war, but what he really was, was a cabinet maker. He probably could have had a pick of the jobs at home repairing Hurricanes and Spitfires, but he joined up all the same. His claim to fame was being an outrider on Churchill’s security motorcade for parts of the war, especially during the visits in North Africa. What he really wanted to be doing was his woodworking though. Shame industrial solvents shortened his life through lung cancer, I would have loved to have known him.

@The_Bookman 3 months ago (edited)

Keith Douglas' "Alamein to Zem Zem" is one of the very best works of war literature I have ever read.

@WillardFoxton 1 month ago

Making a TV show I wanted the only surviving DD tank - a Valentine - to drive into a pool to show off how they work. The owner of the tank said we could do it but he wouldn't be willing to be aboard when it went into the water:)

@weenedonpetrol 3 months ago

This is absolutely brilliant. For the last 30 years I’ve studied the Peninsular War and First World War. I’m now planning a trip over to Normandy in my new camper van and with James’ book to follow this route and study the area differently.

@neilwilson5785 3 months ago

'Does the seasick tablet work on mortal nerves' Pure poetry.

@coolbananas-w2f 2 months ago

interesting point (at least to me) is that my father and grandmother escaped Hong Kong but my Grandfather was interned in Stanley Camp Hong Kong and might very well have known Hills Parents ..My grandfather was one of the 7 internees executed by the Japanese having been caught with radio components. The original execution list is in a museum in Australia. Given it involves civilians, maybe you guys might like to look into that..one of a million under reported heroic events during WW2

@MarkFriswell-o2d 1 month ago (edited)

I have been to Normandy and shed a tear at the British graves but this podcast really adds gravity to the human aspect. Love your work together. If you need any Artwork give me a message. Mark Herefordshire

@davidhouston4810 1 month ago

I've read so much about WW2, and in particular the Normandy landings and after, yet Al and Jim have so much access to individual accounts, that makes it all so much more personal, thank you gentlemen for filling in the gaps, putting names to the deeds.