Monday and Tuesday 24 and 25 May, 9pm
Repeated as one programme on Saturday 29 May, 7pm

This is the story of the ten days leading up to D-Day and the day itself, told through the eyes of ten ordinary people whose actions shaped extraordinary events.

6 June 1944 saw the most ambitious and significant military operation in history occur on the coast of northern France. To mark the 60th anniversary, this two-part documentary dramatisation of David Stafford's book examines the crucial period that determined whether the invasion would stand or fall.

This was when…

• bad weather forced Eisenhower to cancel the first planned assault
• Rommel went home for his wife's birthday
• the French Resistance prepared for the invasion
• ordinary German soldiers wrote home, apparently without a care in the world
• British and American paratroopers and commandos learned their targets in Normandy
• double agent 'Garbo' sent his most vital messages of deception to Germany.

The filmmakers flew many of the surviving D-Day veterans whose stories are featured back to northern France to retrace their steps over those ten crucial days. Their accounts link the dramatic recreations of the crucial events.

Be sure to bookmark this website. When Ten Days to D-Day is broadcast, here you will find a substantial extract from the book by David Stafford that inspired the documentary, plus an extensive 'Beginner's guide to D-Day' through which you can take your interest in these amazing events further.

In the meantime, explore the subject of WW2 in more depth at these Channel 4 history websites:

Winston Churchill: A beginner's guide
A selection of the best sites about the 'Greatest Briton'.

The Battle of Britain: A beginner's guide
Sources of information that you can use to find out about – and get some idea of the experience of – the battle won by ‘the Few’.

Soldier Poets
Two poets - Alun Lewis and Keith Douglas - who served and died young in World War II are rescued from oblivion.

Great Escapes
Thousands of prisoners of war escaped from Allied and Axis prison camps during World War II. Here is a selection of their stories.

The Last Days of War
A chronology of 1945 plus information on the capture of the German submarine U-234, on the fate of the USS Indianapolis and on the endless allure of 'Nazi gold' and 'Yamashita's gold'.