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The BBC's flagship history series, from Gladiators to Genghis Khan, Bog bodies to Bloody Omaha, find out more in Timewatch.

Researcher Georgina Leslie's diary on the making of the Timewatch programme Bloody Omaha.

9 July

We are in Washington to interviews our veterans. Frank Kennard and Jack Burke are lively story tellers – and when it comes to Ray, he gives a very frank, candid and emotional interview indeed. He talks about the men from his platoon that were killed and it is incredibly moving especially as afterwards we sit down together to look through a line-up photo of A company from 1942, and he picks out each of these men for me. Perhaps the most moving part of the interview is when he tells us about the moment he was wounded. He says that all he could think was he felt bad just lying there, that he was letting let his mates down – “I hadn’t done anything” – he is close to tears. I feel deeply privileged to be here in this room with this man, hearing his story first hand.