World War II with Tom Hanks: Meet the historical experts

Dan Snow is one of the UK’s best-known presenters of history programmes, with those on his CV covering a vast range of historical eras. As longtime listeners of his History Hit podcast will know, he’s delved into many different aspects of World War II.

So, it’s fitting that he also contributes his expert opinion to most episodes of World War II with Tom Hanks. He details how Britain adapted to pressures of the war, such as by rationing out food supplies and harnessing intelligence networks.

The renowned British military historian Sir Antony Beevor is known for writing the books The Second World War and Stalingrad. He even amassed first-hand military experience in his youth, commanding a troop of the British Army’s 11th Hussars in the 1960s.

In World War II with Tom Hanks, Beevor characterises the Eastern Front as modern history’s most ruthless and pitiless military campaign and also zeroes in on the Battle of Stalingrad, seeing it as an especially brutal form of urban warfare.

Scottish historian Dr Tessa Dunlop has been an ever-present on British TV screens for more than two decades. Her broadcasting credits include co-presenting BBC2’s Coast series and debating the British monarchy’s merits on Sky HISTORY’s Two Sides of History.

Tessa has also written books on women’s contribution to the war effort, including The Bletchley Girls and Army Girls. In World War II with Tom Hanks, she highlights how the female staff at Bletchley Park helped crack the Nazis’ Enigma code.

The Welsh-born Saul David has held professorships of Military History at the universities of Hull and Buckingham. He has also written extensively on the Second World War, especially its Pacific theatre.

This experience comes in useful for his appearances on World War II with Tom Hanks, as the writer of Crucible of Hell: Okinawa – The Last Great Battle of the Second World War focuses on this climactic clash.

In the series, David also touches on other, similarly tense stages of the war, including Dunkirk and the North Africa campaign.

Where have you seen Dr James Bulgin before? Perhaps at the Imperial War Museum in London, where he works as the institution’s Head of Public History. In the early 2020s, he also appeared on the BBC productions How the Holocaust Began and D-Day: The Unheard Tapes.

As a globally respected expert on the Holocaust, Bulgin is the right choice to discuss this sensitive subject on World War II with Tom Hanks. On-screen, Bulgin untangles the ideological roots of Hitler’s antisemitism and how it translated into genocidal policy on the ground.

Popular historian Guy Walters is no stranger to Sky HISTORY viewers, having co-starred with Justine Ostrowska in our series The Last Hunt for Nazi Gold. His books include Hunting Evil: The Nazi War Criminals Who Escaped and the Quest to Bring Them to Justice.

In World War II with Tom Hanks, the British scholar highlights how the Allies were able to exploit weaknesses in Germany’s intelligence infrastructure. Operation Mincemeat comes under particular focus. How did the Allies cleverly throw the Axis powers off the scent?

What impact did the Soviet Union have on World War II? It’s far from a simple question, but bestselling author Simon Sebag Montefiore certainly has the answers. The writer of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar has now taken to the screen to reveal how Stalin shaped the war’s trajectory.

In World War II with Tom Hanks, Simon spotlights the fragility of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed between Stalin and Hitler. Simon also shows how the relationship between the two leaders was tarnished by Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of Russia in 1941.

In war, getting hold of your enemy’s correspondence is one thing. However, converting those messages into information you can actually use to gain the upper hand in the war is quite another. This was the experience of the Allied powers determined to decode the encrypted communications they intercepted.

One man with special insight into how they did it is Matthew Hefler, a research fellow at the Stockholm School of Economics. This expert in intelligence history is Project Lead of the AJI Intelligence and Security Programme, Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy.

Fiction writer Max Brooks is known for his zombie stories, including World War Z, which was adapted into a film starring Brad Pitt. However, you might not have realised how his books have led the US military to rethink its approach to handling crisis situations.

Brooks has served as a senior fellow at the Modern War Institute in West Point, New York. He has also been invited to speak at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. In World War II with Tom Hanks, he details how German U-boats put Britain under strain.

As listeners of Dan Carlin’s popular podcast Hardcore History will know, he doesn’t shy away from the most violent moments of human history. The American political commentator (and former radio host) has now been called upon to fill in many of the darkest narratives about World War II.

Dan demonstrates his uncompromising style to full effect in our new docuseries, appearing in most of its episodes. Why did German soldiers see their invasion of Poland as ‘redemption’? How did news of war atrocities filter through to American audiences before the attack on Pearl Harbour brought the US into the war? These are just some matters Dan discusses.

Since graduating from Durham University with a history degree in 1992, British historian James Holland has made his name as a WWII specialist. Novels, non-fiction books, TV and radio documentaries – he’s done it all.

Since 2019, he has also co-hosted the WWII-themed podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk with Sky HISTORY presenter Al Murray. Many of the subjects Holland has covered on the pod, he returns to in World War II with Tom Hanks.

How did the brilliant mathematician Alan Turing break the Enigma code? Who better to answer that question than his own nephew, Sir Dermot Turing, who has written at length on the subject?

His acclaimed books include Prof: Alan Turing Decoded, which looks at how the computer scientist’s personal life informed his pioneering work. Then there’s X, Y and Z, which dives more deeply into the technical side of how the Enigma’s secrets were finally unlocked.

Alexandra Richie is based at Poland’s Collegium Civitas, where she teaches History and International Studies. Her research specialties include Germany and Central and Eastern Europe - expertise that really comes to the fore in World War II with Tom Hanks.

As the author of Warsaw 1844: Hitler, Himmler and the Warsaw Uprising, Alexandra discusses the subject of the uprising and challenges stereotypes about Polish weakness. She also explains how seeds were sown for communist expansion during the Cold War.

As a former speechwriter for Barack Obama, Sarada Peri is more than familiar with American corridors of power. In the docuseries, the political analyst uses this experience to explain the thinking behind US leaders’ momentous decisions during World War II.

For example, we hear how wartime US President Franklin D Roosevelt played the long game, helping to bring D-Day to fruition. We also learn how his White House successor, Harry S Truman, helped to steer the world in its tricky transition from war to peace.

How did the Allies gain air superiority over the Axis? Dr Rebecca Grant addresses the matter in depth during the series. She notes how the Allies’ increasing adoption of long-range fighters like the P-51 Mustang proved crucial to destroying the Luftwaffe.

She also draws attention to Operation Overlord, where the Allies’ advantage in air power paved the way for the Normandy landings. Rebecca certainly has the credentials to know. She serves as the Director of General William Mitchell Institute for Airpower Studies and an active member of the Air Force Association.