All language subtitles for d-day.secrets.of.the.frontline.heroes.2024.1080p.web.h264-cbfm

This programme contains footage
some viewers may find distressing

June 6th 1944, 6am,

off the coast of Normandy.

More than 120,000 soldiers
are about to land on the beaches

to take back France
from the Germans.

Among them, a handful of cameramen
and photographers assigned

to the 5,000 boats approaching
the French coast.

Their role will be to ensure
that the world can witness

how the fate of Europe
will be decided.

The cameras are ubiquitous,
everywhere.

Every single shot you see

was shot by someone
who put himself in danger.

How did these men in the shadows,

amid the confusion and intensity
of the fighting,

capture these thousands of photos

and hundreds of hours of footage,

some of which have become legendary?

He's cold, he's scared,

and all he can do is film.

He is capturing in real time action
as it happens, and whatever he does

in that moment will be for ever.

Among those who took part, cameras
in hand, in the D-Day landings,

we have chosen four men whose
work has not only captured

but changed history.

John Ford, renowned Hollywood
director, in charge of filming

as much D-Day footage as possible
for the OSS,

forerunner of the CIA.

George Stevens,
American film director,

head of a special film unit under
the command of General Eisenhower.

Richard Taylor,
military cameraman

with the 165th Signal
Photographic Company.

And Jack Lieb, press reporter
for News Of The Day.

Alongside them, and through
exceptional archive footage,

you'll experience the candid,
unvarnished events of June 6th

1944, and understand
how these images played

such an important role.

If the Supreme Commander had decided
that cameras should not be there,

there are all sorts of things
we wouldn't know today

about what happened.

Come witness D-Day
and the forgotten heroes

who risked their lives to film
these 24 hours of fighting...

..that led to the liberation of
France and the whole of Europe.

SHIP HORN BLARES

Southern England, spring 1944.

Thousands of American, British
and Canadian soldiers prepare

for one of the biggest military
operations in history...

..to retake control of France
from the Germans.

After more than four years
of conflict,

Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany still
controls a large part of Europe,

but its military
situation is critical.

In the south, the Allies
have retaken North Africa

and gained a foothold in Italy.

In the east, Third Reich troops
are suffering heavy losses

at the hands of the Soviets.

To win the war
and keep the Germans at bay,

the Allied command must open
a new front in the west.

The solution - land troops
on the French coast to reconquer

enemy-occupied territory.

For this operation, they choose
Normandy, 80km of sandy beaches,

ideal for soldiers
to infiltrate from the sea.

But the operation would prove
extremely risky.

The coast has been fortified.

The Nazi high command
describes it as impregnable.

At the head of the Alliance
against Nazi Germany

are Franklin Roosevelt, the American
President,

Winston Churchill,
the British Prime Minister,

and Joseph Stalin, the Soviet ruler.

All three leaders know that
the outcome of the Second World War

would be decided on the shores
of Normandy.

Among the thousands of men arriving
in England from the United States

are soldiers like no others.

They're not here to fight the war...

..but to film it.

Faced with a military and political
stakes of the landings,

the American command includes
photographers and cameramen

with the invading troops.

In World War II,

on the Western Allied side,
there is a commitment to documenting

the war, to making sure that we
have the footage, making sure

that we have the photographs, making
sure that we're using, you know,

sort of camera technology,
which was very advanced by the 1940s

to document this war for the people
on the home front so they can see

what they're paying for,
what they're sacrificing for.

To co-ordinate the use of cameras
in battle,

Franklin Roosevelt selects
William Donovan, head of the OSS,

the American intelligence service
at the time, forerunner of the CIA.

Within the OSS,

the Field Photographic Branch
is given a separate assignment.

A task force has been granted
permission

to film clandestine operations.

At its head is Hollywood legend
John Ford, with over 100 films

and three Oscars to his credit.

John Ford could have stayed in
Hollywood and made a lot of money,

but he wanted to serve his country,
and as early as 1934, he was already

in the Naval Reserve, and he was
working as a kind of a spy

in his time between films.

He loved the excitement
and the travel and seeing the world.

Since the creation of his unit,

Ford has used his cover
as a Hollywood director

with a passion for navigation

to film over 87 movies
for the OSS.

Ford also made propaganda
films about Pearl Harbor

and the Battle of Midway.

Ford was not in the greatest
physical shape,

and he had to get an exemption to be
in the Navy because he had bad eyes.

But he was eager to join
the service,

and he was the perfect kind of guy
to run an operation filming.

ARCHIVE: Somewhere in England,

Army Signal Corps cameramen await
the order to go into action

with General Eisenhower's forces
of...

In addition to John Ford's cameramen
and the OSS, another team

is assembled,
this time under the direction

of the Supreme Allied Commander
in Europe,

who leads the entire invasion force,

General Dwight Eisenhower.

He wants his own film crew,

and selects another great American

director to lead it, George Stevens.

My father, before World War II,

had become one of the most prominent

directors in Hollywood,
making a variety of films.

He was well beyond draft age.

He was 37 years old.

And I think out of a sense
of patriotism and a feeling

that his skills could make
a difference, he went away

for three years.

It was a personal awareness
of his own.

That's where he belonged.

George Stevens will select the best
civilian and military cameramen,

some of whom have already worked
alongside him on his feature films,

to create a team called
the Special Coverage Unit.

Their job was to film 35mm
black and white coverage,

which they did,
these excellent cameramen.

But my father had a 16mm Bell
and Howell camera, which he took

behind-the-scenes shots,

and he took these pictures
in colour.

And he, and others in his unit,

would pass that camera
around and shoot in colour.

And it's one of the
best-quality films ever made.

While General Eisenhower
has his own film crew,

other US Army divisions
can also count

on specially trained military
photographers and cameramen

embedded with the combat troops.

They are part of the Army
Signal Corps that manages

all telecommunications between
the American land forces.

For the landing,

the 165th and the 166th
companies are mobilised.

In addition to the military
apparatus, the Allied command

authorises several reporters and war
correspondents to embark alongside

the troops. Hand-picked
for their reliability and skills,

several arrive in England and wait,
like the soldiers, for the mission

to be launched.

Among the reporters on site
is Jack Lieb, a renowned cameraman

and reporter sent
by News Of The Day,

a company that produces newsreels,
which, at the time,

were shown in cinemas
across the USA.

My grandfather was an adventurer.

He travelled through Africa
for many years.

He had gone to Nicaragua,

so he had already been a world
traveller at this point.

And his films were quite
respected by management.

On June 1st 1944,

after several weeks of waiting,
the war correspondents finally

receive the order
to leave their base camp.

Their destination is Plymouth,

over 300km from London.

We were being boarded onto
military trucks

to be taken to the south coast,

and we went through small
British towns,

and life was going on as usual.

Each crosspoint was under guard
of both an American

and a British soldier.

If they wanted to see
what you had in your bedroll,

you showed it to them.

This is the care that was taken -
that the secret of the invasion

be kept as long as it could.

We tried to keep our mind
off of what was coming, and we knew

it was going to be a short time
before we would be on board.

While the soldiers and cameramen
don't know when the mission

will be launched, or where
they're going, they're boarding

the boats that will take them
to the French coast.

The barges that will land

the soldiers on the beaches are
so heavily laden that trucks must

push them so they can be under way
and attached to the boats

that will cross the Channel.

The men aboard can do nothing
but wait patiently

for the operation to begin.

On the evening of June 5th,

the Special Coverage Unit cameras
are with General Eisenhower

at Greenham Common airbase, south
of the small town of Newbury.

The film crews and photographers
had been summoned at the request

of the Supreme Allied leader
himself, but Eisenhower is worried.

After having to postpone
the landings due to bad weather,

he has just given the go-ahead
for the operation that would change

the course of history.

It's probably midday on June 5th
when he has to make his call,

according to how the timetable
is going to unfold.

He's arguably the most powerful
person in the history of the planet,

with all this military means
at his disposal.

Once he gives the decision to go,
it's kind of all out of his hands.

It's in everybody else's
hands by then.

It begins with paratroopers

from the American 101st
Airborne Division,

about to take off for France.

They will land behind enemy lines
during the night to prepare

the ground for the invading forces.

It's 8:30pm, and General
Eisenhower is eager to greet his men

as the cameras roll.

He knows that many of them
will not return alive.

His airborne commander,
Air Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory,

had warned him that between
50 and 70% of his airborne

and glider forces
would be eviscerated.

This is a terrible number.

You get up into those kinds
of numbers and the operation

is a failure.

But he did a strategic analysis,
realising that he absolutely

had to use airborne forces,
because they had to clear

the causeways off the beaches
so that the troops that were landing

on the beaches could actually
make progress,

get off those beaches
in a timely way.

So it was a very, very courageous
decision.

I think it's even more courageous
to go look people in the eye

after you've made a decision
that you know

is going to be potentially
devastating to those individuals.

Hand in his pocket
and a smile on his face,

the most powerful man on the planet
becomes the equal of his soldiers.

As captured in this legendary
image of a conversation

between the General and Lieutenant
Wallace Strobel, then aged 22.

Paratrooper number 23,

in that iconic picture,
survived the war.

What they were talking about was
fly fishing.

If you look carefully at his hand
gesture, you can see

that he's casting his line.

He wanted to actually give
these young men a sense of home,

a sense of life, of what
they're going to come back to,

because he knew that they were
probably very, very frightened.

The last thing he wanted to do
was to frighten them more with a pep

talk, but to be casual with them
and to be approachable and to let

them know that he had their backs.

Dwight Eisenhower understood
the power of photography

and sending messages.

There's no doubt that he wanted
it photographed.

It was as important to send
a message to the troops

as it was to their families at home.

Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied
Commander, standing side by side

with the men who were going
to carry out this mission.

From that moment, as the planes and
gliders take off from the English

base, the die is cast.

It's down to the minute,
the culmination of months and months

and months of minute, careful
orchestration and planning.

By the evening of June 5th, most
of the boats have sailed.

They're on their way to France.

It's generally about a six-hour
journey, roughly, for a lot of them

to get across. And, of course,
there's a timing and schedule

as to when they're supposed to get
there and where they go

and which sea lane.

As the first Americans parachute
onto French soil

around midnight, the land invasion
forces set sail for France.

Destroyers, battleships,
barges, and transport barges.

In all, more than 5,000 ships,
carrying 123,000 soldiers

and over 20,000 vehicles.

Along with the soldiers, a few dozen
military cameramen and war

correspondents are distributed
among these ships.

The cameras are ubiquitous.

You have that kind of visual
documentation right there and set

up to go - everywhere.

All those cameras are documenting
the faces, the reality

of what this looked like,
what people were wearing,

what the expressions were
on their faces, how they were moving

around, what the vehicles
looked like.

This is the most documented
event in human history,

up to this moment in time.

George Stevens, head of
the Special Coverage Unit,

is aboard HMS Belfast, heading
for Juno Beach.

Jack Lieb, the war reporter,
is on LCI-5.

Destination - Utah Beach.

John Ford, in charge of filming
operations for the OSS,

is aboard USS Plunket,
a US Navy destroyer.

His crews will film the soldiers
landing on Omaha Beach

from the ships.

And among all the cameramen
aboard the invasion fleet, one man

will capture the first moments
of battle as no-one ever had.

Aboard the British ship
HMS Empire Anvil,

Sergeant Richard Taylor
is a member of the 165th

Signal Photographic Company.

Along with seven other members of
Detachment L, he has been assigned

to a battalion of the 16th
Infantry Regiment of the fifth

US Army Corps.

His mission is to land on Omaha
Beach alongside the very first

waves of soldiers.

In a letter he wrote to his
sister-in-law,

Taylor recounts the restless hours
he spent off the coast of England

before departing for the French
beaches.

Between 11 and 12 o'clock, the night
of June 5th, I was tossing

and turning in my
bunk, knowing that by 3am.

we'd be in little boats
headed for Normandy Beach.

I just couldn't sleep.

Thinking of my family...

..the fun and good times we all
spent together.

Yes, and even the rough times.

Read my Bible, but couldn't
concentrate as you and family

would bob up in my mind.

Wonder if anyone back there thought
that in the next six or seven hours,

hell would break loose.

Kind of a goodbye letter.

I think a lot of things are running
in his head that night.

Is this going to be it?
Is this going to be my last time

I'm going to see everybody?

He was pretty nervous.

He knew that he was going to be part
of something really big.

There was that kind of that
excitement, kind of mixed

in with the fear of what was going
to happen and who was going to die,

and he knew there was going
to be death, but he just didn't know

what to expect.

In the early hours of the morning,
Allied aircraft and ships begin

bombing enemy defences along
the coast.

The invasion troops on the ships
have just been ordered

to climb aboard the barges
that will take them to the beaches.

The H-Hour, the time at which
the first wave of soldiers will set

foot on French soil, has been set
for 6:30am.

The photographers, they're right
in there with these guys.

You're aboard the boat,
you're supposed to hit the beach,

you're supposed to secure
the beaches.

It's a straight, linear kind
of operation aboard those boats.

I think you get a sense
of how confining they are,

where people are standing
and how uncomfortable they look.

It's just a kind of sensory
overload.

The mist, the bobbing around, the
sea spray, the seasickness,

maybe, of somebody near you.

The sounds, the overwhelming sounds,
because there's a lot of ordnance.

The shelling from warships,
the rocket boats, the noise,

the noise of the engines.

The smell of the fumes,
the engine fumes.

It's right there.

In addition to that salty brine of
the sea, the stink of wet uniforms.

A kind of overwhelming
of the senses of sound, sight

and smell, in addition to whatever
kind of nerves you would have had,

whether it's a rifleman
or a commander or a photographer.

Sergeant Taylor is aboard an LTA,
a small barge that carries

around 30 soldiers.

He has just loaded his first roll
of film and turned on his camera.

For a few seconds, the images
are blurred.

We can only make out the other
barges advancing towards the beaches

on either side of the boat.

Think of the incredible motion
of the landing craft, the jostling

from the soldiers, the danger
of the gunfire.

So he's, in a very real sense,

getting, finding his feet on the
boat

as the film begins.

And in a way, that kind of mirrors
what the soldiers were probably

feeling, is like, there's
initial confusion.

You can smell the fear right
in the air, but then you get close

to the beach, and then things
stabilise

and things become more clear.

Some of that out-of-focus work
is just him getting ready to make

sure that everything is ready
for him to go, that as soon

as he hits the beach,
he's going to be shooting.

There was a big expectation placed
on him and the other photographers

to do this, and he knew that.

So he was going to make sure
it was going to be good,

in his eyes. He was always a
perfectionist, always.

He was ready to start.

He had a job and he was going to do
it and do the best job he could.

Richard Taylor is seated in the back
of the LCA boat that he was in

because the combat soldiers needed
to be up front, they were the ones

who were going to jump out,
and his job was to film from behind.

Then any land that's in front
of you, that's a hostile presence.

There are Germans there.
You're in your boat.

You want to get off that boat,
but where are you going to go?

Land. Land controlled by your
enemies.

The glimpses start to come
in of that coastline,

through the mist, the smoke
and dust and disorientation,

the bobbing around.

You're seeing those obstacles.

Whether the log obstacles, the
hedgehogs, and wondering, probably

constantly, are we going
to hit mines in our boat?

Or when I get ashore, am
I going to touch off a mine?

In the soldier's mind, all right,
we're here.

Now we know what to do.

Now we're not simply helpless
people bobbing about.

We've got a mission

we know how to execute,
and they go forward.

With Sergeant Taylor's barge still a
few hundred yards from shore...

..John Ford and the OSS teams
aboard USS Plunket lead the convoy.

They land at Omaha Beach.

Some of these destroyers are getting
as close to the beach as possible,

nearly running aground to provide
covering fire.

So John Ford, from his vantage point
on a destroyer, it is close enough

that you can actually see
the action.

I'll never forget how rough
that sea was.

The destroyers rolled terribly.

How anyone on the smaller landing
craft had enough guts left to get

out and fight, I'll never
understand.

The Plunket dropped anchor close
inshore off Omaha Beach

about 6am.

Things began to happen fast.

It was extreme low tide,
and all the underwater obstacles put

there by the Germans stuck out
crazily like giant kid's jack straws

with mines and shells wired
all over them.

As the first landing craft started
past the Plunket, I could see

the troops bailing
with their helmets, stopping

to heave their guts out
every few throws.

Unhappily, when our bombs
missed their troops opposing us,

they finally opened
up with firepower.

It was tragic what they did to us.

Troops were jumping over the side
into the water so they wouldn't

have to wade through streams
of machinegun fire

when the bow ramp dropped.

Before the cameramen's eyes,
the soldiers fall in battle.

The first of many to lose
their lives on this day.

A few minutes after the first wave
of soldiers arrives, the barge

carrying Sergeant Richard Taylor
reaches Omaha Beach...

..and the area known as Fox Red,
on the eastern edge of the beach.

Richard Taylor was the first camera
guy on the ground on Omaha Beach

in that sector.

He did not know what he was going
to experience.

He knew his role was to film
his soldiers that he came

with as they were going
against the fire and into the enemy

territory on the beach.

As they jump out of the boat,
he has to jump out of the boat

as well, into the water.

He jumps out, and 30 seconds later
he's hit in the left arm.

So he is trying to stay alive
himself and keep his camera dry

and run for his life.

And he's got 300 yards to get
across the beach.

And he sees the cliffs on Fox Red.

It's the only part of Omaha Beach
that has these cliffs.

It's very distinguishable.
SOLDIER: Over there!

You can tell that they were
in the right place.

Everyone was running for those
cliffs because that was shelter.

Above the cliff,

that's where the Germans are, on
WN60, shooting down on them.

There's WN60, 61 and 62.

62 is over to your right.

61 is the middle.

And they're running straight
towards the Germans at the nest

of number 60.

Below the nest is this cliff,
and everybody's running

towards it to try to save
themselves.

Sergeant Taylor and the few soldiers
he has landed with manage

to reach the cliff.

They are finally protected
from enemy fire directly overhead.

It's around 7am,

and despite his wounded arm,

Sergeant Taylor
turns his camera back on.

Sergeant Taylor
was lucky to be alive

at that point, to begin with.

He's been in the water.

He's cold.

He's scared.

It's sandy,
it's early in the morning,

and all he can do is film.

This is when the cameraman filmed
these images of Omaha Beach.

12 seconds of film that
would resonate for generations.

Before his lens, two soldiers
are mowed down as they run.

Neither would recover.

It was fortunate
that he landed there,

that he was able
to get to a position

where he was then able to turn

his focus back to the beach.

And his tracking shot reveals

his understanding of the needs
of the moment -

that in order for the people
back home to understand

the scale of this thing,

that he needed to do
the sort of the panorama -

like start with the American
officers in the foreground

and then do a pan across
so you can see the bigger picture.

He is capturing in real time
action as it happens.

It was not planned.

As far as he knew,

the next bullet was going for him,

and yet he keeps his focus.

He recognises the importance
of the moment,

and whatever he does
in that moment will be for ever.

Minutes later,
when calm had returned,

Sergeant Taylor took
the time to film the men

he had landed with.

Some are wounded,

others are digging foxholes
to protect themselves.

But most are stunned

by what they've just experienced.

Taylor - he's wounded himself,

and he's there
with all the wounded guys.

And as a photographer,

he's trying to get
the human experience as well -

at the same time, scared to death

and witnessing something

that he never thought
he would witness.

He understands

and he can relate to these guys.

And that's maybe why this footage
is so powerful -

because he's one of them.

He just happens to be holding
the camera.

And he was going around
and filming these guys.

I mean, maybe there is a little bit
of laugh or a smile,

but, you know, they survived.

After filming his last images

and taking a few snapshots
with his camera,

Richard Taylor returns to England

to have his wounded arm treated.

Five days later,
from his hospital bed,

he writes these words to his family.

"You've wondered why
I haven't written lately.

"Couldn't say then, but can now,
I guess.

"I got in quite early
on one of the landings,

"but was winged slightly
in left arm.

"Don't worry, as it's not bad.

"It was somewhat rough
on the others, though.

"I'm in a beautiful section
of England now,

"in a lovely and clean hospital,

"resting and taking life easy.

"Managed to get
some fairly good photos

"before returning from France."

He wasn't one to brag about himself,

but it's historical.

He didn't know that he was taking
history at the time.

He did not know.

But he was a professional, so
he said, "I took some good shots."

Taylor's roll three, taken there,

Omaha Beach,

is the first motion picture footage

taken by an American
combat photographer

of the Normandy invasion.

All of its ugliness,

all of its chaos and confusion,

this is just a little bit of reality

of the war that he's capturing.

And yet it gets us closer

to the reality of that event

than anything else
that we probably did.

As Sergeant Taylor made his way
to England,

John Ford and his cameraman
land on Omaha Beach.

"When our outfit hit the beach,
we ran for cover.

"Then we made for the hills,

"pausing to expose film footage

"here and there.

"I don't think I ever saw
more than a dozen men at a time

"on that beach.

"That's all my eye could take in.

"It is the extreme example
of the narrow view

"of the participants,

"because my staff and I had the job

"of seeing the whole invasion
for the world,

"but all anyone of us saw

"was his own little area."

What you're seeing is mainly

just sort of the guys around you,

and the whole plane
of your existence

is those people

right there at that place in time.

You're in your own little world

with you and six, seven, eight,
ten other guys.

That is your world. You have
no sense of the larger expanse.

On that day,

the only people able to capture
the scope

of this extraordinary
military operation

are the photographers
from the US Air Force.

Aboard American aircraft,

they are the first to fly
over the 80km of landing beaches,

taking thousands of photos.

These images bear witness

to the morning of June 6th 1944

when the Allies land on French soil.

You're going to have
this combined arms assault -

tanks, infantry, engineers

all coming in,
like at the same time,

to overwhelm the German defences

and the German defenders,
all doing their own job.

As the hours unfold,

the invasion is ongoing,

which means just constant new waves

of people and equipment and vehicles

and weaponry coming ashore.

And that's the key
to the Allied victory...

..just that kind of constant
overwhelming of the German defences.

As the waves of soldiers
and vehicles

continue to pour onto Omaha Beach,

other Allied divisions descend

upon the other four landing beaches.

Some 30km east of Omaha,

George Stevens and the Special
Coverage Unit cameramen

are aboard HMS Belfast,

facing Juno Beach and the small
commune of Bernieres-sur-Mer,

where the Canadian units will land.

In the images filmed
aboard the ship,

we see the director
among the soldiers,

shots in black and white,
and others in colour,

taken with his personal camera,

capture the atmosphere aboard
the ship off the French coast.

This was an armada.

This was the greatest
seaborne invasion in history.

You see barrage balloons in the sky

and you see ships beyond it.

And around a corner of the ship -

walks into the frame - is my
38-year-old father in combat gear.

The HMS Belfast
was the flagship of the fleet,

and Belfast would fire the first
shot to the French shoreline

at 5:30 on the morning of D-Day.

And later, George Stevens talked
to the admiral commanding the ship

and got permission to go ashore
on a DUKW onto Juno Beach.

And they were able to go to shore

and be part of that on D-Day.

George Stevens climbs aboard
an amphibious vehicle

heading for Bernieres-sur-Mer.

Earlier in the morning,

soldiers from
the North Shore Regiment,

an infantry regiment
of the Canadian Army,

landed on the beaches
opposite the village.

Three of the barges had been fitted
with automatic cameras.

Each camera was loaded

with one minute of film.

But it would be enough.

The first on-board cameras
in history.

The images
filmed by these three cameras,

with their lenses facing Juno Beach
on D-Day,

will become legendary.

They allow us to experience
from the inside

the anguish of the first assault
wave of soldiers

seconds before they hit the beach.

These are the only images
to document the fateful moment when,

having arrived at the French coast,

the barges open their doors

and tens of thousands of soldiers

pour into the water.

For some of these soldiers,
exposed to enemy fire,

it could be the last thing they do.

At the end of the footage,

shot by camera number 27,

when the barge has almost emptied
of its occupants,

one of the last soldiers can be seen

giving his comrade
a friendly pat on the shoulder.

The soldier would later be
identified as Private George Baker,

21 at the time...

..bestowing a token of
encouragement and humanity...

..in the horror of war.

Of the 37 members
of young George Baker's platoon,

nine would be killed
within minutes of landing.

ARCHIVE: Canadians meet
considerable fire on the beaches

as they work their way
into the defences.

There is stiff hand-to-hand fighting
in the little coast town.

But the citizen soldiers
of yesterday are now a hardened mass

of professional killers.

It takes several hours
of fierce fighting

before Canadian troops recapture

the small town of Bernieres-sur-Mer

from the Germans.

After disembarking
with their equipment,

George Stevens and the
Special Coverage Unit cameramen

crisscrossed the town's streets

to immortalise
the day of liberation.

The unblinking eyes of the cameras

record the stigmata of battle

left on the buildings.

But the Hollywood director knows
that, despite the losses suffered

by the troops,

the images his men are capturing

would prove that the Allied landings
in Normandy are a success.

So he stages this shot
in front of the train station.

A powerful symbol for the world
at Bernieres-sur-Mer -

the flag of France
once again flies freely.

After the hours of anguish
involved in crossing the Channel

and arriving on the beaches,

the cameramen are finally able
to take a few minutes to breathe.

This is an opportunity for them

to label the rolls shot

during the landings -

moments of respite

before filming the remaining
operations in the field.

As George Stevens and his crew

prepare their camp

outside Bernieres-sur-Mer,

Jack Lieb, the News Of The Day
reporter,

has just landed on Utah Beach.

Of the five beachheads,
Utah is the furthest west.

When he finally got to the beaches
of Normandy,

he had to make several trips
back and forth

through the water

just to bring his camera equipment

onto the beaches.

Soldiers are being shot

left and right,

and he's carrying
his camera equipment.

He's got to survive.

He's got to make his way
to the beaches.

I don't think he worried
about dying,

in the sense that...
he would focus on what he needed.

Dying could happen,

but that wasn't a reality for him.

His reality was,
"I've got to get the shot."

"The section of the beach we were on

"was being attacked
by enemy fire.

"The bulldozers were trying
to clear roads

"to let our tanks move forward.

"Even though it was June,

"the area was quite cold.

"The men dug their foxholes
a little deeper.

"Later that day, we filmed
some of the first German prisoners

"taken in the area,

"who were captured
close to the beach."

While the reporters on Utah Beach

prepare to spend their first night
on French soil,

reinforcements continue to arrive
from the sea -

a continuous parade of men
and vehicles

that will last through the summer
of 1944.

By the evening of June 6th,

fighting has ceased
on the five landing beaches

recaptured from the Germans.

The toll of this day -

one of the most important
in history -

amounted to over 10,000 dead,
wounded or missing

on the Allied side,

nearly half of them
on Omaha Beach alone,

which would later be nicknamed

Bloody Omaha.

On the German side,

losses amounted to almost
6,000 soldiers killed.

Several thousand
were taken prisoner.

The thousands of images
and miles of footage

shot by photographers and cameramen
during the D-Day invasion

are gathered together
and rushed to England.

The Allies have a huge publishing
capability in London.

They can actually
be coming out very quickly,

but using some of the early teletype

and telegraphic transfer
information,

almost like a fax machine for 1944.

So it's not going to be
the highest quality.

But for a newspaper,
it's perfectly fine.

They are creating

a much more rapid turnaround
of information,

but for the public.

As early as June 7th,

the world's press
shows the first photos

of the Allies' arrival
on the beaches of Normandy.

ARCHIVE:
Today, just as in these scenes,

the armies of the United Nations
have made their first landings

on the soil of Western Europe.

There was a lot of concern
that the invasion would fail,

so given the scope of the sacrifice,

this was going to give the public

a morale boost,

because the war has been going on
for several years now.

And by finally kicking in the door
of Europe,

people could see
there could be an end in sight.

We are now moving towards a point

where we could
actually win this war.

In London,

John Ford and the OSS teams
are tasked with editing a film

in less than 48 hours.

They would compile 33 minutes

of the day's most powerful shots,

to be shown to Roosevelt, Churchill
and Stalin,

demonstrating
the success of the Allied landings

on June 6th 1944,

the day that changed
the fate of Europe.

So much was riding on the invasion.

This was opening a second front.

The Soviets had been demanding

that the Allies do this
for a long time now,

so it was vital

for Churchill and Roosevelt
to show Stalin

that this was a success.

So the OSS special effort

to document and turn it
into a quick turnaround film

for senior leaders

was a very important diplomatic tool

that would help keep
the alliance together.

And this is part of the reason

why it was so critical to get
the footage on the beach

and get it back

as quickly as possible.

On the ground,

soldiers, cameramen
and photographers

prepare to spend their first night
on French soil...

..relieved that they had survived
the first day of the operation.

For all they know, the days, weeks
and months to come

will also be filled with fighting,
wounded and dead.

On the evening of June 6th 1944,

the battle for the liberation
of Europe has only begun.

News Of The Day reporter Jack Lieb

and Special Coverage Unit chief
George Stevens

will document the entire
Battle of Normandy

and will be the first to enter Paris

on August 25th 1944 -

the only ones to shoot
colour footage

of the liberation
of the French capital.

For his role as chief cameraman
of the OSS,

film legend John Ford was awarded

the Purple Heart
and the Legion of Merit.

One of the most prestigious
military decorations,

it is bestowed for exceptional
conduct during wartime.

As for Sergeant Richard Taylor

of the 165th Signal
Photographic Company,

he returned to France after
injuring his arm during D-Day

and continued his mission
as a cameraman

alongside Allied troops in Europe.

On his return home,
he was awarded the Silver Star,

the third-highest
military decoration

in the US Armed Forces,

for gallantry in action.

At the time,
his name and photo appeared

in several press articles
and news stories,

praising his courage

for being the only cameraman
to shoot footage on the beach

at Bloody Omaha.

After the war,

the images and photos that
documented the D-Day landings

would spread around the world,

and the names of the men
behind the lens

would gradually be forgotten.

The photographers were anonymous.

They weren't doing it for fame.

They were doing it for the mission.

Nobody knows them.

And how would we know about anything
that happened

if they weren't the ones filming it?

Every single shot you see,

every single foot of footage,

was shot by someone

who put himself in danger.

The war correspondents,
the photographers -

I think they are heroes.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media