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Gunter Halm, youngest memebr of the Afrika Korps to be awarded the Knight's Cross for bravery, speaking at Chalke Valley HIstory Festival in summer 2017.

Hear the experiences of Huge Broch, Luftwaffe ace on the Eastern front during the Second World War, at the Chalke Valley History Festival 2017. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio edit: Pete Dennis

Karl Leuffert was a German paratrooper, who served in Normandy and beyond. Here to talks to Al Murray about his experiences during the Second World War. For more exclusive history interviews and documentaries, subscribe to HistoryHit.TV. To subscribe click here. Producer: Natt Tapley Theme Tune: Pete Dennis

Matt Frei is an award-winning broadcaster and author. He was the BBC’s Washington correspondent 2002 -2011 and anchored the BBC World News America Bulletin. From 2011 he reported for Channel 4 News from the Americas on everything from business and culture to US foreign policy and its view of the world. He is currently Europe Editor and Presenter at Channel 4 News. His most recent book is Only In America. www.cvhf.org.uk

Bettany Hughes is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster. Her previous books – Helen Of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore And The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and The Search For The Good Life – were published to great critical acclaim and worldwide success. She is a Research Fellow of King’s College London, a Tutor at Cambridge University’s Institute for Continuing Education and a Visiting Professor of History at the New College of the Humanities and has been honoured with numerous awards including the prestigious Norton Medlicott Medal for History. She has made a number of documentaries on history, culture and philosophy for the BBC, Channel 4, PBS, National Geographic, Discovery and The History Channel, including ‘Byzantium Unearthed’ and a recent series for Radio 4 ‘Ancient Ways’ where she tracked the old Roman Road, the Via Egnatia, from Albania to Istanbul. www.cvhf.org.uk

Professor Catherine Merridale is an award-winning writer and historian, known for her acclaimed and pioneering books on Russian history. Her latest book, Lenin on the Train, is out now. She is also the author of Red Fortress: The Secret Heart of Russia’s History, which won the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize and the Wolfson History Prize in 2014. Her work has been translated into more than sixteen languages, and previous books have been shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and have also won the Royal Society of Literature’s Heinemann Prize. She also broadcasts about Russian politics, culture and current affairs. She is a Fellow of the British Academy. www.cvhf.org.uk

In a formal Act of Submission to Queen Victoria in 1849, the ten-year-old Maharajah of Punjab presented the British East India Company with an object of immense value: the celebrated Koh-i Noor diamond. Internationally acclaimed historians Anita Anand and William Dalrymple challenge the accepted version of the history of this jewel to tell a tale of greed, murder and colonialism. www.cvhf.org.uk

Katrin Himmler is a German author and political scientist. Her great-uncle was Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, and one of the principle architects of the Holocaust. Katrin has confronted her family legacy with a book, Die Brüder Himmler, translated into English as ‘The Himmler Brothers. A German Family History’. She has also edited, together with the historian Michael Wildt, private letters from Himmler that had been only recently discovered in Israel. The Private Heinrich Himmler: Letters of a Mass Murderer was published in the UK last year. In conversation with James Holland, she discusses Himmler, his brothers, and reveal the burden of this Nazi family legacy. www.cvhf.org.uk

In the early days of World War II, London became the base of operations for the exiled leaders of occupied Europe. In their struggles against the mightiest military force in history, Britain become known as 'Last Hope Island’. In this episode, acclaimed historian Lynne Olson discusses her book and describes how the British and their European guests joined forces to restore order to a broken continent. www.cvhf.org.uk

Lyn Macdonald remains revered as the great chronicler of the human experience of the Western Front and has recorded interviews with more veterans of the First World War than any other. In this talk she will return to the subject of her first book, the Battle of Passchendaele, fought a hundred years ago in 1917, bringing rare insights and perspectives to this bloody, muddy and brutal battle. www.cvhf.org.uk

Al Murray brought his immense knowledge to bear in defence of Field Marshal Montgomery of Alamein, discussing the life, career, great victories and controversies of Britain’s most famous wartime general. www.cvhf.org.uk

Sarah Gristwood has written bestselling biographies of Arbella Stuart, and Elizabeth and Leicester. Blood Sisters was a dramatic portrait of the women whose dynastic ambitions and rivalries fuelled the Wars of the Roses and her latest book is Game of Queens: the Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe. www.cvhf.org.uk

We live in troubling times and with people comparing the Age of Trump with some of the most disturbing periods in history, an understanding of the past has never been more relevant. In this closing festival talk, Dan Snow brought his deep passion for the subject and wide-ranging knowledge together in a polemic on the importance of history and why we should all study the extraordinary story of our past. www.cvhf.org.uk

Britain’s favourite gardener, renowned writer and television presenter, Monty Don talks about the evolving history of British gardens from 1600 to the present day and in particular how technology, sometimes of an unexpected kind, has influenced and shaped our landscapes and back gardens and how we use them. www.cvhf.org.uk

Andrew Marr is one of our most popular and respected political journalists. www.cvhf.org.uk

James looks at one of the most iconic moments in Britain’s history. He examines the background to the German attack on the West in May 1940, challenging many of our deeply held perceptions, and explains why the British evacuation of Dunkirk was, and remains, such a significant event. www.cvhf.org.uk

Günter Halm was an anti-tank gunner who served in North Africa under Rommel and later in Normandy, and received his Knight’s Cross for destroying nine British tanks at Alamein in July 1942. He was awarded his medal by Field Marshal Rommel in person. www.cvhf.org.uk

The fifteenth century saw the crown change hands seven times as the great Plantagenet families fought to the death for power, majesty and the right to rule. Dan Jones breathes life into some of the greatest heroes and villains in English history, who tore themselves apart and enabled the Tudors to snatch the throne. www.cvhf.org.uk

James Heneage is a founder of the Chalke Valley History Festival and was founder of the Ottakar’s chain of bookshops which was sold to Waterstones in 2006. He is a former Chairman of the Cheltenham Literary Festival and a Booker Prize judge. www.cvhf.org.uk

Michael Wood tells the incredible story of King Alfred’s Battle for Wessex. After defeat at Chippenham, Alfred’s kingdom was reduced to a postage stamp of marshland in Somerset, yet he survived and built his army again, leading them to victory at Ethandun. It is unquestionably one of the great moments in English history. www.cvhf.org.uk