Voices of Victory. Geraint Jones

From the bestselling author of D-Day: The Unheard Tapes comes a revealing new history of the final bloody battles against Nazi Germany. Published for the 80th anniversary of VE Day and based on over 150 audio interviews with those who fought their way to victory, this is a compelling and immersive account of a crucial period in the Second World War.

February, 1945. Eight months have passed since the D-Day landings, when the Allies gained their foothold in North-West Europe. Since then the British Army has fought near continuously against the German military. Now, they stand ready for their greatest test: the battle for the German homeland.

Drawing on the sound archive of the Imperial War Museums, this often-overlooked period of the war is brought vividly to life in the words of British soldiers who were there, from war-weary men who have survived many months of combat to new recruits facing Hitler's fanatic Panzer divisions for the first time. German soldiers and civilians add their own perspective on events.

In Voices of Victory we experience the fierce fighting in the forests of the Reichswald and through the streets of the industrial Ruhr Valley.

The book describes the amphibious crossing of the Rhine (the most successful Allied airborne operation of the war), the liberation of prisoners from the concentration camps and the final surrender of Germany, whose war has cost half a million British lives.