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.

Hello, welcome to the World War II podcast. I'm Angus Wallace. My guest today is William Hogan,

and we're going to be talking about the remarkable story of his father, Sam Hogan, and the men of Task Force Hogan.

At just 28, Sam was one of the youngest lieutenant colonels in the US Army, commanding a battalion of Sherman tanks in the Normandy campaign only weeks after dayday.

From the hedgerows of France through to the Battle of the Bulgin on into Germany, his unit fought at the sharp end of some of the toughest fighting in North West Europe.

William was written about his father's experiences in Task Force Hogan, the World War II tank battalion that spearheaded the liberation

of Europe. William, thanks for joining me. So let's start with your father, Sam Hogan.

Perhaps we need to investigate his, start with his backgrounds. You know, what's, what's, what's,

he's obviously going to become fairly well known at the time during the war,

but what, you know, the youngest lieutenant colonel,

but what's his background?

Where's he from?

So he was from Texas, a descendant of Scots, Irish immigrants

to the east part of the United States

before the revolution of 1776.

Oh, they're proper old, their original colonists.

Well, it seems they came after the Jacobite Rebellion

on both grandparent, paternal, maternal sides from the Iowa of Sky.

So kind of a very windy road to get there.

And from Virginia, North Carolina, they came to Kentucky and as pioneers settled in Texas when

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