This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns. Operation Jubilee, the Deep raid and the coast of France, was a disaster in 1942.

However, it did highlight the need for more reconnaissance before any other amphibious operations were mounted.

In London, a small group of eccentric researchers experimenting on themselves from inside pressure tanks

in the middle of the Blitz explored the deadly science needed to enable the critical

reconnaissance vehicles and underwater breathing apparatus that would enable the Allies future

amphibious landings, specifically D-Day.

I'm Angus Wallace and welcome to another episode of the World War II podcast.

Joining me today is Rachel Lance.

Rachel is an assistant consulting professor at Duke University where she conducts research out of their

hyperbaric medicine facility. She's also the author of chamber divers the untold story of the D-Day scientists who changed

special operations forever.

Thanks for joining me, so I think it is easy to think of scuba gear as we know it today, as having

been around for ages, but what was it like in 1939? Were there problems that needed to be overcome?

We can breathe underwater, but it's very clunky.

So Jacques Cousteau is actually working on Scuba.

He invented the first free diving regulators during World War II.

So at the same time as the story, Jacques Cousteau is over there in Nazi occupied France tinkering

in his garage or wherever.

I like to think of it as a garage.

But building the first devices

...