All language subtitles for Combat.Ships.S01E03.The.Vessels.That.Saved.D-Day.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE_track3_[eng]

[missile roars]

Narrator: For centuries,
an extraordinary war has raged

Across the world's oceans,
above and below the waves.

Man: You could kill hundreds
of people with one broadside.

These were extremely powerful
war machines.

Narrator: Shipbuilders designed
bigger and faster vessels

To outwit and crush
their opponents.

Man: That nation that has the
most powerful battleship fleet

Can destroy the enemy's
battleship fleet

And therefore control the seas,

And if you control the seas,
you control the world.

Narrator: They carried
terrifying weapons.

Man: This was gonna be
the first time

That somebody had fired
a torpedo in anger

Since world war ii.

They needed to get it right.

Narrator: But ships
have also liberated

And rescued thousands.

Man: You could think
of gerda iii

As basically a lifeboat for
persons hunted by the nazis.

Narrator:
And inspired men and women

To acts of incredible bravery.

Man: I will take you there now,
to your cannons,

To your death,
we will sink before surrender.

Narrator: These vessels
and their crews

Have shaped world history.

Man: As the commanding officer
of a missile-carrying submarine,

I was directly responsible

For helping to prevent
world war iii.

[missile roars]

Narrator: This time,

The 6th of June 1944...

D-day.

Man: It was the most complex
naval operation in history.

Man: Every ship
had to leave by the minute,

Be in exact positions
by the minute,

All the way through.

Narrator:
The liberation of europe

Depended on a remarkable
armada of vessels.

Man: The big battleships started
firing over the top of us,

And they were
landing on the beach,

Which was 300 yards
away from us.

Narrator:
Some were experimental.

Some, simply dangerous.

Man: I can't imagine how anybody

Could risk their life
in one of these.

Narrator:
This is the story of the ships

That turned the tide of the war

In one momentous day.

♪

[explosion]

♪

By the start of 1944,

The germans know an invasion
of europe by the allies

Is imminent.

They just don't know where
or when it will happen.

The germans occupy
most of europe,

And those forced to live
under nazi control

Are desperate to be liberated.

Slave labor is enacted
on a monumental scale,

And the number of people
exterminated in auschwitz

Stands at two million
and rising.

By may 1944,

Anne frank wrote from her
secret hideaway in amsterdam

That everyone was talking about
the possible invasion,

"debating, making bets,
and hoping."

In fact, the allies had been
arguing for two years

About where d-day
should take place.

A failed raid
on the port of dieppe

In August 1942

Had shown them
where not to invade.

Andrew gordon: Everyone assumed
that a serious-sized invasion,

Either England or France,

Would need to capture
a working port

So that the back end could be
supplied with more troops,

With ammunition, food,
all the rest of it--

Vehicles.

And so any invasion plan must
include the capture of a port.

Now, from dieppe,

We drew the conclusion
that it can't be done.

The germans drew the conclusion,

This proves what the allies
are going to do.

Narrator: Since dieppe,

The germans had strengthened
their coastal defenses.

The atlantic wall,
as it was known,

Was now stronger than ever
around the french channel ports.

This helped persuade the allies
to look elsewhere.

They identified a 60-mile
stretch of coastline in normandy

As suitable.

It was five hours by boat
from the english coast,

But the beaches were wide,

The sand was firm,

And the german defenses
were weaker.

Eric grove:
The allied plan was to land

Across a relatively broad front

And hopefully advance inland
quite a long way.

Narrator: The invasion was
codenamed operation overlord

And was led by american general
dwight d. Eisenhower.

The invasion's success
relied on the allies landing

Over 150,000 men
in a single day--

D-day.

The critical naval operation
would have its own codename,

Operation neptune,

And would be overseen

By british admiral
sir bertram ramsey.

Gordon:
He was eisenhower's sailor.

He kind of knew what would be
a mistake and what wouldn't.

Narrator: Five invasion forces

Would sail from ports along
England's south coast.

American forces
would head for beaches

Codenamed utah and omaha.

The british and canadians,

For gold, juno, and sword.

From may 1944,

Southern England
became a vast depot.

There were so many trucks,

Local personnel in some towns

Were given an extra
15 minutes for lunch

Just to cross the roads.

Supplies were hidden in woods;

Landing craft hidden up creeks.

Thousands of troops
waited for the order.

Then, on the night of June 5th,

2,700 ships

Carrying the largest invasion
force the world had ever known

Converged on an area
south of the isle of wight

Nicknamed "piccadilly circus."

For those who witnessed it,
it was an impressive sight.

Man: Close under the headland

I looked down
on the landing craft.

I could see the troops
in battle dress on board.

Beyond them,

Line after line
of tank landing craft,

Side by side,
escorted by motor launches.

Out to sea, destroyers and
frigates took up their stations.

On the horizon, battleships
and heavy cruisers waited.

I said to my wife, "a lot of men
are going to die tonight.

We should pray for them."

Narrator: There was plenty
that could go wrong.

One of eisenhower's team wrote
in his diary that night:

"I'm very uneasy
about the whole operation.

It may be the most ghastly
disaster of the whole war."

The success of d-day

And the ultimate
liberation of europe

Relied on the remarkable
collection of vessels

That gathered that night
at piccadilly circus.

♪

As June 6th arrived, however,

There were a few d-day vessels

That were nowhere near
the isle of wight.

30 feet underwater,
off the coast of normandy,

Ten men are existing on a diet
of baked beans and tea.

They are the crews
of two mini-submarines

Known as x-craft.

♪

The men in submarines
x-20 and x-23

Had been waiting for two days.

Their job was to erect
a telescopic mast

Fitted with green lights
and a radio beacon

That would guide
the first invasion vessels

Heading to juno
and sword beaches.

Gordon: They were there to
provide the precise navigation

That a landing craft
emerging out of the darkness

Towards a beach

Couldn't expect
to have on its own.

They were there
as navigational markers.

Narrator: The x-craft had each
been towed across the channel

By an armed trawler.

Now, utterly on their own,

They were powered by a diesel
engine from a london bus

When on the surface,

And by battery when submerged.

A hatch gave the crew
access to the deck,

And a "wet and dry" hatch
allowed a diver in and out.

4-ton explosive charges
could be fitted and released

From the control room.

The explosives
weren't needed on d-day,

But had been useful

In carrying out the x-craft's
original purpose:

To find and sink
german warships.

Alexandra geary: The need for
smaller submarines came about

With the large german
battleships like the tirpitz

Hiding in norwegian fjords.

So essentially, really far away
from open sea,

And the british ships
couldn't get to them.

And they protected the harbors

With huge anti-torpedo
and anti-submarine nets.

The x-craft
also had the capability

Of cutting through those nets.

So by developing
a smaller submarine,

That allowed us access
to the ships

That could potentially
cripple our navy.

Narrator:
The x-craft had managed

To drop explosive charges
under the tirpitz

And damage her.

But many submarine crews
had been lost in the process.

The men waiting silently
off the normandy coast

In early June 1944

Were well aware of the dangers.

Earlier that year,

They had trained
in total secrecy in scotland,

Until the time came
to move south.

Jim booth was
a crew member of x-23.

Jim booth: We stopped
at a pub, I think,

To have lunch or something,

And a chap said, "what have
you got on that lorry, say?

Looks like a mini x-craft,
doesn't it?"

I said, "well, it does a bit,
doesn't it?"

Narrator: As early
as the afternoon of June 4th,

Jim and his fellow crew members
had been in position

A quarter of a mile
from the normandy shore.

They were so close,

They could watch german soldiers
playing with beach balls.

Inside the x-craft,

They were dressed as french
taxi drivers and workmen.

If they drowned
and their bodies were found,

No one would think they were
british submariners.

That night,

Expecting operation neptune
to be taking place at dawn,

The two x-craft surfaced

To pick up a vital
coded radio message.

It would be part of the bbc's
10 o'clock news bulletin.

Booth: There were two signals,

And one of them was being

That the operation's
not on tomorrow,

And the other one was
that it was--simple as that.

Planned language.

They came, something like,

"mrs. Huntington's cat had
three kittens in littlehampton,"

Or something like that, you see.

Narrator:
But eisenhower had decided

The weather was too bad
for a channel crossing.

D-day was delayed for 24 hours.

Booth: Everybody's saying,
oh, god, you know.

Down we go again.

Gordon: When d-day
was postponed for a day,

These poor men had to live
in this tiny tin can,

In disgusting conditions,

For a whole 24 hours more.

Geary: To be inside an x-craft,

The only way I can think
to describe it

Is almost like living
in a broom cupboard.

It was an extremely
cramped space.

They had one small bunk,
and that was it.

They had to take turns
in sleeping.

Booth: Well, of course,
you couldn't stand up anywhere

Except in the periscope well.

Most of the time I was
sitting down, I suppose,

I sat down by the wheel.

And then everything was,
you know, it was wet and damp

And that sort of thing,

So it was pretty,
pretty horrible.

And we were young.

You don't complain then, do you,
when you're young?

Narrator:
On the night of June 5th,

The crews surfaced once more.

They received the signal
they wanted.

D-day was on.

By 4:30 the following morning,
the subs were in position.

The masts were raised
and radio beacons activated.

♪

Booth: Then there was
this rather pregnant pause.

We wondered
what was happening

When there we were
sitting there, you know,

Like bloody fools off the beach.

You know,
rather frightening, really.

Narrator:
But while the x-craft waited,

Out in the channel,

Operation neptune
was already underway.

Specialized boats
were gathering,

Ready to guide
the invasion force

Through a massive field
of floating german mines.

In the summer of 1944,

The fate of europe
depended on the allied plan

To land over 150,000 troops
in just 24 hours

On the beaches of normandy.

June 6th was d-day.

A key part of the invasion was
the cross-channel operation,

Codenamed neptune.

Hundreds of vessels--
some untested--

Would transport the troops
and guide them safely to shore.

But deadly german minefields,

Beach defenses,
and shore batteries

Meant that success
was far from certain.

Out in the channel,
in the early hours of d-day,

Was a tiny flotilla of vessels--

Some of the unsung heroes
of operation neptune.

These were the harbor defense
motor launches, or hdmls--

Built to guard british ports

Against the threat
of german submarines.

Today, one hdml is preserved
and still seaworthy--

Hms medusa.

♪

Medusa was designed

To evade submarines

Using two engines

That could be
independently operated

For extra turning power.

Alan watson: There's
no other vessel in these days

That is maneuvered
like this one.

If you put one engine ahead,
one engine astern,

And the helm over,

You can actually spin the ship
on a sixpence.

It's a bit like driving
a high-performance car

On a skid pan in heavy rain
and maybe fog as well.

On the bridge here,

We don't have direct control
of the engines.

I've got two
brass telegraphs here,

And there's a chap below my feet
down in the engine room

Watching the dials,

And he has to have
his wits about him as well.

Narrator: The hdmls
had one unique attribute

That was foremost in the minds
of the d-day planners.

The boats were made of wood,

Undetectable by radar.

To make up for the lack
of armor plating,

Hdmls like medusa boasted
some serious firepower.

Watson: The main armament
on this vessel

Is a 20-millimeter oerlikon.

A good team on there
can shift 400 rounds

Of high-explosive shells
in a minute.

On the bridge wing behind me,

There's two light-caliber
machine guns on each side,

And these vessels were expected

To get up close and personal
with the opposition as well.

On the bridge, there's
two buckets of hand grenades.

So you went up
to the other chap

And chucked one
through the window.

Narrator: The men
who took their chances

On a vessel designed for such
close-quarters fighting

Were nicknamed
churchill's pirates.

Doug withey: We were never
dressed properly, you know.

The navy didn't like us,

And we weren't really
fond of the navy, either.

Narrator: Churchill's pirates

Would have a special task
on d-day.

A german minefield stretched

Almost the entire length
of the channel.

The invasion fleet

Could only pass through this
seemingly impenetrable barrier

Once designated routes
had been cleared

By a fleet of minesweepers.

Watson: So the plan was

For each of the d-day beaches
to have two narrow channels cut,

Only about
a quarter of a mile wide.

But of course
that could only be done

Right at the very last moment

Because otherwise
it gave the game away

As to where the invasion
was going to take place.

So it could only be done
in the night before.

Narrator: Medusa and other hdmls
would station themselves

At the entrances
to these vital channels

So that the landing craft
and larger ships

Would see the safe route in.

Watson: I have here
one of the charts

From the instruction pack
for medusa for her d-day role,

And this is the german
minefield that was laid.

Medusa was at position four,
right at the entrance there,

And ml1383, sister ship,
at number three channel.

Narrator: For this operation,

Medusa would be
outfitted with equipment

Like no other vessel before her.

But for security,

Most of her crew
were kept in the dark

About exactly what
that equipment did.

Withey: We had all this
secret stuff on the boat.

We didn't know what it was.

I think their idea was
that if we did get caught,

We couldn't tell them anything
'cause we didn't know anyway.

Narrator: Another problem
for the d-day planners

Was that the germans
had learned how to jam

Royal navy navigation devices,

Known as the gee system.

But by d-day, a new piece
of gear had been devised

That the germans
didn't know about.

It was called decca radar

And was switched on
for the first time

On June 6th.

Watson: This ship was the first
to use decca operationally,

And at the time of d-day,

There were only
20 sets available.

Narrator: The decca system
used a network of transmitters

To emit signals.

By comparing the time it took

For the signals
to reach the receiver,

You could accurately plot
your position on a map.

But operating ahead
of the main fleet,

Medusa was caught in the storm

That had postponed d-day
by 24 hours.

Designed to operate
in calmer waters,

The hdmls
struggled in high seas.

Withey: We found we had to
fight our way across

Because, uh,
you couldn't steer a course.

The ship wouldn't allow it.

It was horrific.

I thought we weren't
going to get through this.

This is going to be
curtains, like.

Narrator: Having found
her assigned position

At the head of the safe channel,

Medusa struggled not to drift
from that vital spot.

Watson: The idea of her staying
on the station 30 hours,

Which she did,

In foul weather,
in the middle of the channel,

It really doesn't
bear thinking about.

Narrator: Then finally,

As the d-day invasion fleet
drew near,

The moment came for medusa
and the other hdmls

To activate
the untested decca radar.

Withey: After 30 hours, uh,

A message comes through,

And the officers
switched on the equipment.

Narrator: It worked.

But with very few
decca sets in operation,

The ships had to improvise
and play "follow the leader."

Withey: So many ships
had the equipment on

To pick the beam up,

And they had one ship,
which was a lead ship,

And about 10 or 12 boats
behind, all following it.

Watson: The whole d-day fleet
consisted of 6,000 vessels,

And they were dependent
on perhaps 20 of these.

Narrator: Medusa's crew
now had a ringside seat

As the invasion fleet
passed them by.

She had successfully
carried out her vital role.

Responsibility
for the operation's success

Now rested with
the biggest ships of d-day.

To take the five
invasion beaches,

The allies would have to deal
with the deadly menace

Of the atlantic wall.

A string of formidable
german defenses

Would need to be
put out of action

Before the vast number
of troops could land.

This vital task was given
to the allied warships.

At dawn on the morning
of June 6th,

Scores of warships
were in position

Six miles off
the normandy coast.

At 5:27,
the bombardment began.

[guns booming]

For the x-craft crews,

Waiting just offshore

With their navigation lights
and beacons switched on,

This was their first glimpse
of the true scale of d-day.

[booming]

Booth: The big battleships

Started firing
over the top of us,

And that was a spectacular
sound and noise.

I mean, it did
literally whistle.

And they were landing
on the beach, you know,

Which was
300 yards away from us.

[explosions]

Narrator: One of the first ships
to open fire

Is now in more peaceful
surroundings.

This is the royal navy's
light cruiser hms belfast.

♪

Included in belfast's armament

Were 12 6-inch guns

Used to target gun batteries
above gold and juno beaches.

The blast of these guns
was a reassuring sound

For the nervous troops
now heading for the shore.

To the west, the most heavily
defended of the five beaches,

Omaha,

Was being bombarded by a veteran
of the first world war--

The battleship uss texas.

Andy smith: Texas is one
of the last remaining ships

In the world

That served in both world war I

And world war ii.

There's a handful,

But she's really the biggest,
baddest one.

♪

Narrator: The texas is armed
with 10 14-inch guns,

Capable of sending
1,500-pound shells

Up to 12 miles.

Smith: The process
of firing this gun

Involved getting
one of the rounds, per gun,

And four powder bags
up and loaded.

The powder bags
are 105 pounds apiece.

They were manhandled
by sailors.

So, get the round up through
this elevator right here.

And then it rolls
into a little tray,

And then they have a powder ram

That pushes that round
all the way into the breech.

Next comes the four powder bags,
and they're pushed in.

They actually used
the old ramming sticks

That you'll see from
18th-century cannons.

Once that was done,
they would close the breech

And be ready to fire.

Narrator:
Unlike artillery on land,

Warships had to contend
with the rolling ocean.

Accuracy was difficult.

But texas had the technology
to deal with that problem.

Smith: No matter what
you figured out to fire,

You had to basically wait
until the ship was level.

So, when they would pull
the triggers to fire,

There was one little switch that
waited until the ship got level,

And that would close the circuit
and fire the guns.

That way you weren't firing
into the water or too high.

[gun fires]

Narrator: In 1944,

The ship's bombardment
of the coast

Lay the ground for the invasion
of omaha beach.

Man: As dawn began to break,

We received the signal
and headed into shore.

I remember the battleship texas

Firing broadside after broadside
inland when we were close by.

It was god-awful,
terrible explosions,

Muzzle blasts in our ears
when they fired.

The smoke ring passed us by,

And it was like
the funnel of a tornado,

Growing larger and larger
and finally dissipating.

We actually felt
the muzzle blast.

[guns firing]

Narrator:
In the early morning of d-day,

A fleet of warships anchored
off the normandy coast

Bombarded the german defenses
known as the atlantic wall.

[boom]

A successful bombardment
would save hundreds of lives

When the troops
later scrambled ashore.

But did the ships achieve
their vital aim?

The clues can still be found

Behind beaches
like utah and omaha.

The maisy battery
still bears the scars of d-day.

Gary sterne: On d-day, it was
three separate gun batteries,

And their sole purpose

Was to repel any invasion forces
coming towards the coast.

So you have a long-range battery
which could hit the ships,

And a smaller-range battery
which could hit the beach.

It was designed
to fire at ships

To stop them supporting
the infantry landing,

And it did a very good job
for three days.

Narrator: The maisy battery
was designed to withstand

Everything the allies
could throw at it,

From a bomb-proof
personnel building

To a reinforced
concrete headquarters.

Sterne: The serious size of
the concrete and the structure--

It was a combat building.

It was designed
to protect the occupants

During the combat situation,

And d-day was just that.

♪

So here you have a solid
concrete construction,

3 or 4 meters thick,

And then they've coated it here
with a black bitumen

To waterproof it.

This is 70-odd years old,

And it's still as good
as the day it was made,

Because it really, really is
impervious to bombardment.

Narrator: The complexity
of the battery

Made it a difficult target for
the allied ships to destroy.

Not only did
the battery survive,

It turned the tables
on the invasion fleet.

Sterne:
In one particular instance

There's a naval report saying,
from the u.S. Navy,

That we are being fired upon
by the batteries at maisy,

We're gonna have to reverse out
and go further out to sea

To get out of its range.

Narrator: The allies'
initial naval bombardment

Was only a partial success,

And many german
gun batteries survived.

Despite this,
hundreds of landing craft

Carrying tens of thousands
of soldiers

Continued to make their way
towards the shore.

Just ahead of them, though,

The allies were about to reveal
their biggest surprise.

At 6:25 a.M. On d-day,

Vessels emerged from the water

That were unlike anything ever
used in the history of warfare.

These were duplex drives--

Tanks that swam.

♪

This is one of
the very few duplex drives

To survive the second world war.

This strange tank was developed
after a national humiliation

Two years earlier.

The 1942 allied raid on dieppe
had been a costly failure,

Partly due to a lack
of supporting firepower.

The strategy at d-day
would be very different.

John pearson: The idea was

That you would have tanks
coming up the beach

Along with the very first
wave of infantry,

Which meant of course
that the tanks themselves

Had to be amphibious.

Narrator: It took
considerable ingenuity

To come up with a tank that
could make its own way ashore.

An inventor named
nicholas straussler

Believed he had the answer.

His company built
both collapsible boats

And armored vehicles.

Straussler built a prototype
by adapting a valentine tank,

The workhorse of the british
north africa campaign.

His creation was given the name
duplex drive--dd for short--

Because it could be powered
by the dual methods

Of propellers or tracks.

The tank had to fit
on a landing craft,

So any flotation device
had to be compact.

Straussler came up
with an ingenious screen.

Pearson: The screen
is attached to the hull,

And below the screen,
the hull is made waterproof

With various
mastic-type materials.

It's inflated
with compressed air,

These become rigid,
lift the frames,

And the canvas acts
as a barrier to the water,

And the machine floats,

With the top of the turret

Just about level
with the water surface.

When you're afloat...

You have that extension pipe,

Which blows the smoke
out from the screen.

There's a drain here.

It runs down
to the rear of the tank,

And any water that
comes inside the screen

Eventually goes down,

Goes to the rear,
where there's a bilge pump.

The driver is the one who
really needs to be courageous,

Because he's down
inside the hull,

Under the water surface.

He's the one who's gonna go down
in the vehicle if it sinks.

Narrator: There was additional
danger for the driver.

If the tank made it to shore,
the screen blocked his view.

Again, the designers
had a solution.

Pearson: There's a small
but vital fitting here,

Which has got
a rubber bulb on the inside,

Which the driver can see.

And when this is in water,

That bulb is inflated
like a balloon.

When the water level
drops below there,

The bulb deflates

And the driver knows that he's
then sufficiently on dry land

To drop the screen.

Narrator: At first,

Tank crews practiced on
the calm water of inland lakes.

Then they moved to the solent,

A 20-mile strait
off the isle of wight.

Pearson: Sometimes the crews
arrived on the beach

With the driver
up to his chest in water,

The thing just about afloat.

Narrator: Several crews
were not so lucky.

At least 10 dd tanks

Are known to have sunk
off the british coast

During training exercises.

Pearson:
I can't imagine how anybody

Could risk their life
in one of these.

You're actually hanging below
the water surface in a steel box

Which is supported
only on canvas.

Narrator: By June 1944,

Most duplex drives were now
modified american sherman tanks.

The normandy invasion

Would see them used in battle
for the first time.

The night before d-day,

Tank landing ships, or lsts,

Carried 290 dds
across the channel

And close to the normandy coast.

The final few thousand yards

Would be up to
the tanks themselves.

Craig symonds:
It was a good idea

Because it could
get tanks ashore

Before you had to risk
the big lsts

Under the artillery
of german shore batteries.

Narrator: At 5:50
the following morning,

The first 29 dd tanks
were launched by the americans

Off omaha beach.

Pearson: Gunfire, shots,
casualties, bombing...

It would be
a terrifying experience.

[explosion]

Narrator: Then terror
turned to disaster.

The tanks had been launched
almost three miles out,

And the sea was rough.

Waves off omaha
reached 6 feet in height.

27 of those first 29 tanks
sank like stones.

Symonds: The problem was
the weather was such

That they could not function.

They were fine in the tests
in still water,

But this was not still water,

And most of them
went straight to the bottom

With their crews inside

And never made it to shore.

Narrator: On the british
and canadian beaches,

There was greater success.

Pearson: The british brought
them much closer inshore,

And they lost ones and twos,

And, um, they were successful

In the sense that
the troops had heavy support

With their initial contact
with the germans.

Man: On the beach I gave orders
to deflate the canvas skirt,

And what happened next

Will always remain vivid
in my memory.

The german machine gunners
in the dunes

Were absolutely stupefied to see
a tank emerging from the sea.

Some of them ran away,

Some just stood and stared,
unable to believe their eyes.

We mowed them down like
they were corn on the cobs.

Narrator:
Racing towards the coastline,

Tens of thousands
of allied soldiers

Prepared to storm the beaches.

On the morning of June 6, 1944,

Nearly 3,000 vessels
were getting into position

Off the normandy beaches.

The d-day invasion
was about to begin.

And until french soil
was reached,

The fate of thousands of men

Rested with their landing craft
vehicle and personnel--

The hundreds of boats
known as lcvps.

The most famous
of the d-day vessels

Was also among the smallest.

And its origins
lay 5,000 miles away,

In the wetlands of louisiana.

The lcvp was designed
by andrew higgins.

By 1944, it was said
his ships were so important,

Adolf hitler called him
"the new noah."

Higgins supposedly had
an armed guard

Outside his new orleans home

To protect him
from german assassins.

Symonds:
Andrew jackson higgins

Was an interesting personality.

He had created
shallow-draft boats,

Which he called eureka boats,

For trappers who worked
in the louisiana bayous.

And the u.S. Marines
saw these and said,

Oh, these would be interesting,

And ordered a bunch of them.

Originally, they were
simply plywood boxes

With an external motor,
36-feet long,

They could hold
36 soldiers at a time,

Who would climb out
over the thwarts

And then run ashore.

Narrator: By 1943,

The design featured a more
sophisticated exit strategy.

For the gis, they were known
simply as higgins boats.

♪

The lcvp was designed
to push up onto beaches,

Protecting its occupants with
its bullet-proof front ramp,

Until the time came
for it to drop.

[thud]

But it wasn't designed

For the rough seas
of the english channel.

Most of the invasion troops
were in bad shape

As they approached the shore.

Gordon: Some of these boys
had been in their landing craft

For many, many, many hours.

Some of them would now be
beyond seasick--

Some of them
probably to the point,

They were so sick, actually,
they'd almost given up caring.

Man: Loaded down
like pack mules,

We were bounced around
and thrown about

While throwing up everything
we'd eaten for days.

Scared as hell
and sicker than the devil,

We were drenched with saltwater

With every dip and bob
of the landing boat.

Narrator: The lcvp wasn't the
only higgins design at d-day.

The u.S. Navy had asked him
to produce a similar vessel,

Which would give
direct beach access

To a standard tank.

This time,

Higgins took his inspiration
from a river barge.

His men pulled it apart,

Gave it a ramp,

And only three days later,

Demonstrated
its prototype to the navy.

The result was
the landing craft tank.

The navy was so impressed
with the lct

That more and more
were demanded.

So higgins took over
the streets around his factory.

Landing craft were
even built on the pavement.

But higgins' relationship
with the u.S. Navy

Could be fickle.

He was a man who was used to
getting what he wanted.

Symonds: He often
feuded with the navy,

Which he thought closed-minded
and not, not very innovative.

It wouldn't accept
many of his ideas.

But, nevertheless, they managed
to get along enough

So that he could produce
5,000 or 10,000

Of these higgins boats
for the various invasions,

Not only at normandy and d-day,

But the many invasions on the
islands in the pacific as well.

Narrator:
Alongside the lcvps and lcts

Were many different types
of landing craft.

Some carried
120,000 tons of cargo,

Some carried more than one tank,

And some, over 200 soldiers.

And for two days, these vessels
waited for the x-craft crews

To guide them safely

To the british
and canadian beaches.

Booth: We realized
that it was so easy

For all those tank landing craft
to have hit the wrong beach,

Having come across the channel.

It's a very strong tide
up and down, east and west,

And they had to cross
north and south, of all things,

And they had no navigation
equipment to speak of.

Just hit the wrong beach,
and it would have been...

I mean, they would probably have
won in the end, got ashore,

But it would have been certainly
a lot more casualties.

Narrator: The higgins boats
were successful

In bringing troops to the beach.

But they offered
only limited protection.

The men who landed
at omaha beach

At 6:30 a.M. On d-day

Faced danger on all sides.

Gordon: Once the ramp goes down,
you're faced with surf,

And the landing craft
is still moving forward.

Um, one missed step,
it could run over you.

There's water spouting
with machine-gun bullets.

You have a backpack
which is weighing you down.

You stagger into the surf,

You've got to get across
that beach,

And you've got to do it
in the machine-gun fire.

[gunfire]

But you can imagine
the casualties

And the drownings.

And even some of those
who were there, I guess,

Spent the rest of their lives

Just amazed that they did it
and survived.

I think it's quite
extraordinary.

Quite extraordinary.

Narrator:
Despite the casualties,

D-day was a success.

Beachheads were secured
along the 50-mile front.

By midnight,

Operation neptune
had brought 150,000 men,

9,000 vehicles,

And 2,000 tons
of supplies to France.

It was the critical start needed

That would set up
operation overlord

And the liberation of europe.

Symonds: The key to having
maritime power, naval power,

Is not that you can deposit
100, 150,000, 200,000 men

On a defended beach

And seize that beach.

You then have to supply them.

You have to bring them
ammunition and food

And water and sustenance,

And you have to reinforce them

And bring in
another 100,000, 200,000,

500,000, a million,
a million and a half,

And you have to do it
on a constant basis,

Back and forth
across the english channel,

Day after day, week after week,
month after month,

And it's that capability
that is really stunning.

Narrator:
D-day is rightly remembered

For the brave troops

Who battled for a foothold
on the normandy beaches.

But their heroism
would not have been possible

Without the years
of planning and preparation

That brought them there.

The diverse
and ingenious vessels

That bravely crossed
the channel on June 6th

Changed the course of the war.

D-day remains an event
unparalleled in history.