I am pleased to announce that I have donated this entire collection to the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford Virginia on September 30, 2019. It's been my honor to have been the custodian of these priceless items and I am proud to pass this job on to the National D-Day Memorial.
Thank you!
Here are the links to the Washington Post Article on the donation and the NPR All Things Considered radio interview. Copy & Paste in your browser.
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/11/778343782/reporters-audio-recordings-of-d-day-discovered-after-75-years
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/10/01/antique-audiotape-was-mystery-then-researcher-got-it-play-it-was-dispatch-d-day/
Original Recordgraph Amertapes FROM D-DAY, June 6th, 1944
A very special thanks goes out to Rob Taglianetti, formerly of the Marine Corps Audio History Division in Quantico VA for his invaluable expertise in professionally cataloging the Collection and creating a Finding Aid in order to organize all of the different materials that are here.
Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank and acknowledge the world's foremost expert in antique audio restoration and machinery engineering, Mr Adrian Tuddenham of Poppy Records in Bristol England. Through his expert technical abilities over many weeks of painstaking precision, Mr Tuddenham played and digitally archived all 16 Amertapes in this Collection. Mr Tuddeham to my knowlegde, has the only working model of a Recordgraph machine in the world that he fabricated himself under commission from the English government in order to play the original Amertapes from the Nuremburg Criminal War Trials. Now he has played the Amertapes from the D-Day Invasion as well. Thank you Adrian.
The D-Day Invasion Original Recordgraph Amertapes
I would like to thank my wife the most for supporting me on this journey and always being there even though sometimes my pursuit of the history of the D-Day Tapes may have seemed a bit excessive, bordering on obsession. Thank you Maureen!!!!
After sitting in storage for over 70 years the historical material you will be viewing on this website has finally come to light. The missing link in audio history, the Amertape recordings from the D-Day Invasion made on a Recordgraph Machine, have been restored, played, digitized, and cataloged here through many years of research and investigation. These 16 tapes comprise the original, masters, and copies from the D-Day Invasion and the authorized releases to the Red & Blue Radio Networks on their original media, the Amertape. Among these fascinating recordings is George Hicks famous battleship account of a German plane attacking their ship and the pounding ack-ack guns response. Hearing this directly from the Amertape and not from an engraved record copy or a magnetic tape duplicate is in a word, inspiring.
Ironically this short lived hybrid recording format, engraving sound on a type of cellulose film, came at a time to be able to record the most precipitous battle in the history of mankind. The Record Graph Machine and these 16 Amertapes, through the hard work of many men in different companies, captured the events leading up to, during and after, the D-Day Invasion. All of the original literature, Amertapes, technical and sales publications on this website are from the few short years of its use by Albert Stern of the Fredrick Hart Co. and the Navy's Bureau of Ships.
I've taken a lot of pictures of the collection and I'm posting them here on this website to share with everyone who is interested in the history of World War 2, the D-Day Invasion, and the history of audio recordings. Through the years I have been asked a number of times to donate this collection to The Library of Congress or The Imperial War Museum, etc etc. Now it's time. Thank you for all who've found this website and learned something from it. It's been my pleasure and honor to share these historical items. Take care!