The 12 Best D Day Podcasts (2026)

Paul McGann narrates this gripping 15-episode series from Noiser that follows the real people behind the Normandy Landings. Each episode runs between 30 and 64 minutes, reconstructing the preparation and execution of D-Day through multiple perspectives — soldiers storming the beaches, French resistance fighters, weather forecasters making impossible calls, and commanders wrestling with life-or-death decisions. The production quality is outstanding, with original music by Dorry Macaulay and Oliver Baines layered under McGann's distinctive voice. Producers Duncan Barrett and Miriam Baines clearly spent serious time in the archives, because the details here go well beyond the usual Omaha Beach narrative. You get intelligence operations, the paratroopers' chaos behind enemy lines, and civilian stories that most D-Day accounts skip entirely. Apple Podcasts named it one of their Favourites of 2024, and the 4.9-star rating from 353 reviews backs that up. It plays more like a high-end audio documentary than a typical history podcast — think of it as a BBC drama meets a rigorous historical account. The serial format means you really should start from episode one and work through in order. At just 15 episodes, it is a contained, satisfying listen you can finish in a long weekend. If you want one podcast that captures the full scope of June 6, 1944, from the planning rooms to the sand, this is the one to start with.

Comedian Al Murray and historian James Holland have been talking about World War II together for over 960 episodes now, and somehow they still have not run out of things to say. That is because this show thrives on tangents, forgotten tales, and the kind of granular detail that only a genuine obsession produces. James brings the scholarly chops — he has written extensively on the Mediterranean campaign, the Battle of Britain, and Allied strategy — while Al brings a comedian's instinct for the absurd and a surprisingly deep knowledge of military hardware. Their chemistry is the real engine here. One minute they are dissecting Rommel's supply problems in North Africa, the next Al is riffing on some obscure piece of tank trivia. The Goalhanger production keeps things tight despite the conversational format, and they regularly bring on guest historians and authors for deeper explorations of specific topics. D-Day and the Normandy campaign come up frequently, often with fresh angles you will not find in standard accounts. They release episodes twice a week, so the backlog is enormous — but that is actually a plus if you want company on a long commute or road trip. The Patreon membership adds livestreams, bonus content, and ad-free listening. With 1,134 ratings and a 4.7-star average on Apple Podcasts, this is one of the most popular WWII shows running, and for good reason.

Angus Wallace is a one-person operation. He researches, records, and edits every episode himself, and that personal investment shows in the nearly 300 episodes he has put together since launching the show. The format is straightforward: Angus picks a topic — a campaign, a weapon system, a political decision, a personality — and works through it methodically, often bringing in historians and authors for extended interviews. Episodes drop roughly twice a month and run anywhere from 36 minutes to well over an hour, so the pacing is unhurried and thorough. Recent topics have covered the Burma campaign, Operation Barbarossa, Charles de Gaulle, and various pieces of military equipment, which gives you a sense of the range. The D-Day and Normandy episodes sit within a much broader examination of the entire war, so you get the invasion in full context rather than isolation. His interview style is conversational and patient — he lets his guests talk, which some listeners love and others find a bit unstructured. With 1,180 ratings and a 4.6-star average on Apple Podcasts, it has clearly built a loyal following over the years. The explicit goal of documenting the war as it slips from living memory gives the whole project a sense of purpose beyond entertainment. This is a solid pick for anyone who wants to go deep on WWII history without flashy production getting in the way.

This is the official podcast of the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, which gives it a credibility that most history podcasts have to earn the hard way. Host Dr. John C. McManus is a prolific military historian — he has written over a dozen books on American combat experience — and his expertise is front and center in every episode. The format is interview-driven: McManus sits down with fellow historians, authors, and occasionally veterans' family members to talk through specific aspects of the Second World War. D-Day and the broader Normandy campaign are naturally central to the show's identity, but he ranges across the full war, from the Pacific theater to the Italian campaign at Cassino. With 97 episodes releasing roughly twice a month, it is a manageable catalog that does not feel overwhelming. McManus has a professorial but accessible style — he asks sharp questions and knows when to let his guests carry the conversation. The connection to the National D-Day Memorial means the show occasionally features content tied to museum events, commemorations, and new exhibits, which adds a dimension you simply cannot get elsewhere. At 4.7 stars on Apple Podcasts, the audience is small but dedicated. If you care specifically about D-Day history and want it delivered by someone who has literally written the book on American infantry combat, this podcast belongs on your list.

Produced by the National WWII Museum in New Orleans — arguably the premier World War II institution in the United States — this podcast brings genuine academic weight to every episode. The format rotates between historian conversations, author interviews, discussions of new films and exhibits, and special series on focused topics. Their 80th Anniversary of D-Day special series is particularly relevant here, offering multiple episodes that break down the invasion from operational, personal, and strategic angles. Historians like Rob Citino and Bradley Hart appear regularly, and the quality of the guests reflects the museum's deep network of scholars and researchers. At 42 episodes updated weekly, it is still building its catalog, but the institutional backing means each episode gets real editorial attention. A special season on J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project shows the range goes beyond the battlefield. The "Veteran Voices" series features firsthand accounts that carry real emotional weight. Listeners praise the show for offering "different lenses on events and people" rather than rehashing the same old narratives. With 71 ratings and a 4.7-star average, it is growing steadily. The production is clean and professional without being overproduced. If you want WWII history from people who spend their entire careers studying it, backed by one of the world's great war museums, this is a strong choice.

The Honor Project has been recording veterans' stories since 1991, and this podcast — a collaboration with Evergreen Podcasts — puts those archival recordings front and center. The concept is powerful: wrap contextual narration around actual audio of veterans describing their experiences, from World War I through modern conflicts. The WWII episodes are especially compelling, featuring soldiers recounting D-Day landings, Pacific island assaults, and European campaigns in their own voices, sometimes decades after the events. The production team adds music and narration that frames each story without overwhelming it — think Band of Brothers in audio form. With 257 episodes and a weekly release schedule, the archive is substantial. The show carries an explicit rating because these are unsanitized accounts of combat, and the veterans do not hold back. That rawness is actually the show's greatest strength. You hear the tremor in an old man's voice as he describes losing friends on a beach, and no amount of polished narration can replicate that. The 4.7-star rating from 637 reviews on Apple Podcasts speaks to how deeply this format resonates with listeners. Not every episode focuses on WWII — coverage spans from WWI to Afghanistan — but the D-Day and Normandy episodes are among the most affecting in the entire catalog. This is oral history at its best, preserved and presented with real care.

Paul Cheall started this podcast because of his father Bill, a WWII veteran who fought from Dunkirk to Hamburg and wrote a memoir about it. That personal connection runs through every episode, and you can hear it in the care Paul takes with each story. The show started back in 2013, making it one of the longer-running WWII podcasts out there, with 126 episodes covering Dunkirk, D-Day, North Africa, Sicily, the Italian campaign, bomber crews, POW experiences, and home front stories. The format mixes memoir readings — including a serialized version of Bill Cheall's own book starting around episode 107 — with interviews of veterans and their families from Britain, the US, Australia, and Canada. Paul has no editorial restrictions on whose story gets told: men, women, children, any nationality, any branch of service. Episodes release monthly, so each one feels considered rather than rushed. The production is modest — this is clearly a labor of love rather than a big-budget operation — but that actually suits the intimate, personal nature of the content. The D-Day coverage benefits from Paul's deep knowledge of the British experience at Normandy, which often gets overshadowed by American accounts in other podcasts. With a 4.7-star rating and over 500 five-star reviews across platforms, the audience clearly appreciates the authenticity. If you want WWII stories told with genuine family connection and heart, Paul Cheall delivers.

Pod Hour's WWII show covers lesser-known battles, daring missions, and personal accounts from across the entire conflict. With 126 episodes releasing weekly since March 2023, the catalog has grown quickly, touching on topics like Operation Varsity, Operation Halyard, the Laconia Incident, the Battle of Brody, and stories of African soldiers in the war. Episodes average around 38 minutes, which makes them a good fit for a commute or workout. The subject selection is genuinely interesting — the show gravitates toward operations and stories that other podcasts tend to skip. However, there is an important caveat: multiple Apple Podcasts reviewers have flagged that the narration appears to be AI-generated. Listeners have noted mispronunciations of place names and military terms, a flat vocal delivery, and factual errors in some episodes. The 3.2-star rating from 103 reviews on Apple Podcasts reflects this mixed reception. The underlying research and story selection show real effort, but the presentation layer has frustrated a significant portion of the audience. If you can look past the narration style and treat this more as background listening, there is worthwhile WWII content here, including episodes that touch on Normandy and the broader Allied invasion of France. Just go in with calibrated expectations about the production quality.

Professor Matthias Strohn and Jesse Alexander bring genuinely complementary expertise to this show. Strohn heads historical analysis at the Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research, the British Army's strategic think-tank, while Alexander has two decades of experience in public history spanning film, battlefield guiding, museums, and university teaching across institutions like the Vimy Memorial, Juno Beach Centre, and the Canadian War Museum. Together they examine WWII from both Allied and Axis perspectives — and that dual lens is what sets the podcast apart. They are not afraid to dismantle myths or challenge conventional wisdom about campaigns, commanders, and strategic decisions. The 82 episodes so far, released weekly, cover everything from well-known operations to corners of the war that rarely get airtime. Their D-Day and Normandy content benefits enormously from Jesse's battlefield guiding background — he knows the terrain, the sightlines, the physical reality of the places where these events happened. Listeners consistently praise the chemistry between the two hosts, noting how their conversations naturally wander into fascinating tangents before circling back to the main thread. Linus Klassen handles production and editing, keeping the audio clean and professional. The 4.9-star rating from 112 reviews on Apple Podcasts is remarkable for a show this relatively young. If you want WWII history that respects both sides of the story and comes from people with serious academic and practical credentials, this one punches well above its weight.

Matt Dixon has spent 30 years researching military history, and this podcast is his love letter to the Great War — World War I, specifically, not World War II. That is an important distinction for a D-Day category, but here is why it still earns a spot: understanding the Normandy invasion in full context means understanding what came before it, and Dixon's meticulous coverage of WWI battles, commanders, and the political decisions that shaped the interwar period provides exactly that foundation. With 189 episodes and a weekly release schedule, the archive is deep. Dixon works as a battlefield researcher and guide, so his episodes carry the authority of someone who has walked the ground he describes. He covers French air aces, the Chinese Labour Corps, German East Africa, the Unknown Warrior burial, and dozens of other topics that rarely appear in mainstream military history podcasts. The production is straightforward — one knowledgeable host working through well-researched material — and listeners clearly appreciate the approach, giving it a 4.9-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Episodes vary in length and format, mixing solo narration with occasional guest conversations. Note that this podcast focuses exclusively on WWI, so it is best suited as a companion listen for D-Day enthusiasts who want the deeper historical backdrop rather than direct Normandy coverage.

This is not a traditional podcast but rather an audiobook adaptation of Clayton Knight's classic children's historical novel, originally part of the "We Were There" book series. The story follows Andre Gagnon, a young French boy living in Normandy during the German occupation, as he aids the French Resistance, helps rescue a downed British pilot, and assists American soldiers during the D-Day invasion. All 20 episodes were released at once in February 2025, with individual chapters running between 4 and 17 minutes each. The total listen is relatively short — you could finish the whole thing in a few hours. Knight wrote and illustrated several books in the "We Were There" series, which used fictional child protagonists to make historical events accessible to younger readers. The text is now in the public domain via Project Gutenberg, which is likely how this podcast version came to exist. It has no ratings or reviews on Apple Podcasts yet, so the audience is essentially nonexistent at this point. As a D-Day resource, it works best for younger listeners or anyone looking for a lighter, narrative-driven introduction to the invasion rather than rigorous historical analysis. The fictional framing means you get the emotional experience of D-Day through a child's eyes rather than strategic or military detail. It is a niche entry, but for families interested in introducing kids to the topic, it fills a gap that most serious history podcasts leave open.

Important note up front: this podcast is entirely in French. If that works for you, it offers a perspective on D-Day that English-language podcasts almost never provide. Host Nicolas Terrien produced this 12-episode series for SWEET FM to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, and the approach is distinctly journalistic — field reporting from significant D-Day locations, interviews with local historians, and stories rooted in the Norman communities where the invasion actually happened. One standout episode explores how the Pentagon republished the 1939 Michelin Guide in 1944 to help Allied soldiers navigate France during liberation. Another features resistance fighters from the Surcouf group, organized around Robert Leblanc, a grocer from Saint-Etienne-l'Allier, and the village priest — exactly the kind of local, human-scale story that gets lost in the grand strategic narratives. A later episode visits the Museum of Montormel in Orne with director Stephane Jonot, overlooking the site of the Falaise Pocket. The series wrapped in mid-2024, so all 12 episodes are available now as a complete listen. There are no ratings or reviews on Apple Podcasts, and the audience is understandably niche given the language. But for French speakers or students learning the language who want D-Day history told from the ground where it happened, by the people who still live there, this series delivers something genuinely unique.