Recorded November 8, 2025

We took Someone Talked! on the road to the Richmond, Virginia area for the 6th annual World War II Conference by America’s History, LLC – capturing a series of interviews with authors, historians, and enthusiasts.

In this episode, hear conversations with Jonathan Parshall and Charles Neimeyer.

Special thanks to Bruce Venter, president of America’s History, LLC. Visit americashistoryllc.com for information on future events.

Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-Day Memorial, plan your visit, and learn about upcoming events at dday.org.

In this bonus episode, Dr. John C. McManus presents "Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers Who Made the Defense of Bastogne Possible." This presentation was recorded live at the 6th annual World War II Conference in the Richmond, Virginia area on November 8, 2025.
Special thanks to Bruce Venter, president of America’s History, LLC. Visit americashistoryllc.com for information on future events.

Email the Someone Talked! team at podcast@dday.org. Explore the National D-Day Memorial, plan your visit, and learn about upcoming events at dday.org.

Call them "ugly and unorthodox," but Allied landing craft were there to win a war, not a beauty pageant. We explore their design, production, and use on all five D-Day beaches with curator and author Andrew Whitmarsh.

A look at Robert Capa's D-Day photos through the critical eye of historian and photographic analyst Chuck Herrick. 

Watch this episode. 

Our co-hosts attempt to "stump the chumps," as host John C. McManus and guest Kevin Hymel discuss their new interactive podcast.

We pack Four Hours of Fury into one with James Fenelon. The paratrooper turned author shares the untold story of World War II's largest airborne invasion, one that dropped 17,000 Allied paratroopers deep into Nazi Germany.

This episosde is even better with video! Check it out on our YouTube channel @NationalDDayMemorial
https://www.dday.org/digital-library/burden-of-command-with-luke-hughes/

It's game on as we continue our conversation with Luke Hughes, creator of Burden of Command, the role-playing game inspired by host John C. McManus' American Courage, American Carnage. 

This episosde is even better with video! Check it out on our YouTube channel @NationalDDayMemorial
https://www.dday.org/digital-library/burden-of-command-with-luke-hughes/

Do you have what it takes to lead? You're a company Captain in the tactical leadership role-playing game Burden of Command, based on host John C. McManus' book American Courage, American Carnage. Game designer Luke Hughes joins the podcast. 

During WWII, the U.S. government declared, “final disposition of our soldiers’ remains, in accordance with the wishes of their loved ones, is an inherent obligation of the Government as the final gesture of a grateful country to those who paid the supreme sacrifice.” In this episode, our hosts discuss the keeping of that promise, from the war-era “Return of the Dead Program” to the efforts that continue to bring home our fallen more than 80 years later

With 80 years now passed since Japan signed the formal surrender documents aboard the USS Missouri, our hosts explore the end of WWII in the Pacific and Asia

We continue our discussion of the 24 deadliest hours for U.S. service members during World War II with Rona Simmons, author of No Average Day.

October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, or on any other single day of the war. In No Average Day, author Rona Simmons takes us hour by hour and incident by incident

"James Holland is now our foremost authority on the Italian campaign."

Find out why our host, John C. McManus, says that as Holland returns to Someone Talked! with part 2 of our discussion of Cassino '44. Holland follows a rich cast of characters from both sides to create this compelling and often heart-breaking narrative, told in the moment, as the events played out, and from the perspective of those who lived, fought, and died there.   t

There is no such thing as an easy victory in war but after triumph in Tunisia, the sweeping success of the Sicilian invasion, and with the Italian surrender, the Allies were confident that they would be in Rome before Christmas 1943. And yet it didn't happen. Hitler ordered his forces to dig in and fight for every yard, thus setting the stage for one of the grimmest and most attritional campaigns of the Second World War. James Holland tells the definitive account of this brutal battle in Cassino '44.

Hailed as the most important book ever written about the conduct of the Catholic Church in WWII, we have more of The Pope at War with author David Kertzer.

With Pius XII's archives finally opened, David Kertzer paints a new, dramatic portrait of what the pope did and did not do as war enveloped Europe from 1939 to 1945.

With his book tour underway for Remember Us, we continue our conversation with #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert M. Edsel.

This episode begins with a look back at The Monuments Men, Robert M. Edsel's bestseller—which served as the basis for Academy Award recipient George Clooney’s 2014 film. Then our hosts delve into Edsel's highly anticipated, newly released book, Remember Us: American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II.

Podcast regular Chris Kolakowski returns with more from the mind of General Simon Buckner in his latest work Tenth Army Commander.

General Simon Buckner's chief of staff thought his daily notes were the makings of a post-war memoir, but the papers ended up scattered after the general's death. Buckner's diary is now fully published in the book Tenth Army Commander, edited by Chris Kolakowski.