Original subtitles

I'm Dan snow and to time with the 80th

anniversary of the D-Day Landings I'm

going to be looking at some of the best

and most memorable depictions of the day

in film and TV the D-Day Landings

codenamed Operation Overlord was the

Allied invasion of Europe on June the

6th

1944 it took years to prepare for it was

the largest amphibious assault in

military history around 4 and a half

thousand Allied soldiers died on that

one day but the invasion was a success

it was the springboard for liberating

France and taking the war to Germany and

toppling the Nazis the following year

this is a deep dive into D-Day

[Music]

movies well the first movie I want to

check out is well it's almost certainly

the most memorable depiction of D-Day in

any movie in fact I think it's probably

the most memorable depiction of warfare

across any movie or TV show it's Saving

Private Ryan the absolute epic Steven

Spielberg 1998 movie it won five Oscars

weird thing about Saving Private Ryan it

didn't actually win best picture it was

beaten by Shakespeare in Love But it is

an iconic movie I think it changed movie

theater it changed the cinemar

experience as we understand it and the

characters are fictional the plot is

fictional but the opening scene is

generally regarded as pretty accurate

they when they went to enormous trouble

to create what it must have looked like

and felt like on Omaha Beach which was

the bloodiest of the five beaches which

were assaulted by Allied troops on

D-Day this scene for me just

encapsulates the sheer horror of what it

must have been like going a short it's

the first what I like is there's a

there's a cal before the storm you see

them going in these landing craft

heavily Laden down U that that people

are being sick a lot of the troops were

sick on dday it was a lot rougher than

people were expecting and then suddenly

that ramp goes down at the front and

German machine gun fire rakes through

that unit now there are units on Omaha

in particular that would have suffered

casualties like this there are units

that were almost wiped out on Omaha in

particular and the other thing you see

here which is pretty accurate is a lot

of those land craft they ended up in the

wrong place there was a lot more drift

along the along the coast than people

were had allowed for in the planning and

and they ended up hitting sandbanks

sandbars obstacles the crew would let

down the the ramp at the front thinking

they're on the beach and they'd actually

the men would jump out into deep water

some would drown they've been weighed

down by their kit you get a sense of

struggling ashore here

you see a lot of the German defense here

the lot of the German Beach obstacles as

these steel three steel guarders welded

together they're called hedgehogs uh you

can see the wooden post that wooden

ramps with mines on top so when you when

a a landing craft came here they might

they might trigger those mines blow a

hole in the side of the the boat or the

ship in it's the hardest thing in

Warfare to make an opposed Beach Landing

you've got to deal with the sea you got

to deal with the weather you've got to

deal with the the difficulty of getting

ashore and the enemy are entrenched

they've got bunkers and barbed wire in

the case of Omaha which we see here the

enemy have got the advantage of of

significant height it's quite a hilly

Place Omaha there are Cliffs and Bluffs

looking down and as you see the Germans

are able to look right down on the beach

you'd have had to fire shorter burst on

that machine gun the mg42 it's an

aircooled machine gun and if you fired

that quickly the whole Barrel would melt

but these things are small quibbles I've

read one account from a um a guy driving

a vehicle up the beach on Omar I managed

to get the vehicle ashore from a a

landing craft but he he couldn't

maneuver on the beach because there was

so many dead and wounded men lying

around on the beach that he felt he'd be

crushing his own wounded comrades he

didn't feel he could do that so he just

it was a bulldozer in fact it just

stayed static on the beach and other men

hid behind it desperately cowering

behind anything that could give some

Shelter From The Vicious fire that was

coming in from the Bluffs above the

defenses

above it's a Haring depiction of warfare

here and at the time it was even more

Haring we hadn't seen movie making

special effects like this in the late

'90s

you see men losing limbs you see men

blown into the air a flamethrower

operator

explodes uh it is it very troubling

indeed and in fact when this movie came

out it was very triggering for a lot of

wobble two veterans that to set up help

lines so so people that had been there

could actually call in and talk to a

therapist remember this is only 50 55

years after the landings themselves so

there's a lot of guys still alive they'd

be in their 70s who would have

experience these these Beach Landings

and and other Landings like them what I

like about this astonishing scene is you

really get a sense of what made the

difference on Omaha it wasn't the plan

went out the window the tanks didn't

arrive and Tom Hanks actually talks

about the the swimming tanks most of

them founded in the choppy Seas they

sank to the bottom and and sadly they're

still there to this day and what it came

down to an Omaha were just small units

liut tenants captains sergeants

relatively Junior ranks making key

decisions leading just small groups of

men forward smelling out sniffing out

weak points in enemy defenses and slowly

just chipping away and working their way

through that that German defensive

system and you get a great sense of that

here you see Tom Hanks as a captain he's

leading his men he's looking for

opportunities and eventually they just

find a bit of cover they find that seaw

wall they're able to regroup they're

able to use the so-call Bangalore

torpedo that's a long

explosive device that will that will

blast holes and barbed wire and by by

small groups of highly motivated skilled

and prepared men like this they were

able to get into and through the German

[Music]

defenses and and Omaha through the

morning on Omar despite appalling

casualties groups of men are able to get

onto those Bluffs onto those Cliffs and

eventually up to the cliff tops a couple

of hours after

landing you see the powerful German

defenses here the concrete pill boxes

the barbed wire the trench lines what

this shows as well is that when you

manage to infiltrate around and behind

those defenses they're quite vulnerable

it was a strong defensive line but it

was a brittle one and once you punch

through it you can come around behind

and the Germans are in big trouble

because they they're not that these

defensive positions aren't really

designed to be defended from around the

back and the sides so it's easier to to

kill to neutralize to capture the German

Defenders when you've infiltrated around

the

flanks sugar can sugar Charlie three say

again dog one is open send in the do I'm

waiting here to tie in my flanks

open

what what I'm sorry I can't

this shows quite realistically the

Americans taking no prisoners talking to

Veterans I have been told that there are

certain situations in which it's quite

difficult for the other side to

surrender if it's very close quars

fighting it's very very amped up like it

is here uh then it is quite hard to slow

down and allow surrenders to take place

because the men are just so pumped you

don't take any chances so if you're a

machine gun operator if you've just

given someone a belt of machine gun

rounds Point Blank Range it's going to

be quite hard for you then to put your

hands up go by the way I

Surrender that's quite a

view yes it

is quite a view

[Music]

and we see the corpse with Ryan marked

on his kit now in Saving Private Ryan

the Ryan family are made up but it's

based on the true story of the nyand

family two of them were killed on and

around dday another one was killed in in

Southeast Asia and a a final family

member was was brought home and

protected so as Not to cause even more

trauma to the family Saving Private Ry

is certainly one of the the most

extraordinary war movies ever made at

the time it was first released I don't

think any of us had seen special effects

we'd never seen War like that on our

screens it takes on that first scene

that takes on Omaha is Iconic it's

completely extraordinary and I've talked

to many veterans on the beach of

Normandy and I've said to them what was

it like and they say just go and watch

safe Private

[Music]

Ryan next up want to have a look at Band

of Brothers it was created a couple

years after Saving Private Ryan in 2001

by the Spiel bug Tom Hanks Dream Team

following their collaboration on Saving

Private Ryan it's based on a non-fiction

book by the historian the writer Steven

Ambrose now the Band of Brothers is a is

a Shakespearean expression but it refers

to this small unit who saw a huge huge

amount of action uh in the second world

war

1944-45 their Easy Company of the second

Battalion the 56th parachute Infantry

Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division

now they're the Screaming Eagles they're

one of the most famous iconic uh

Airborne divisions in history in the

history of warfare and it just turns out

this company they're very well-led very

high caliber excellent training uh and

their experience meant that they just

happened to be in several key pinch

points of the campaign to liberate

Northwest

[Music]

Europe the Estuary of the DU river

divides two Beach heads code named Utah

here and Omaha here Seaborn infantry

will hit these beaches in Force at a

date and time to be specified H hour

dday airborne objective gentlemen is to

take the town of kantan or kantan thus

linking Utah and Omaha into a single

continuous Beach Oma and Utah into one

continuous Beach head each Trooper will

learn this operation by heart and know

his and every other outfit's mission to

the detail Lieutenant me yes dukeman sir

are we dropping tonight when it's time

for you to know we'll let you know in

the meantime study these sand tables

maps and reconnaissance photos until you

can draw a map of the the area by memory

and we will drop behind this Atlantic

Wall 5 hours before the fourth infantry

lands at Utah now between our assembly

area and the battalion's objective there

is a German Garrison right here in this

area Sam Marie deont easy company will

destroy that Garrison and in this

opening scene we get a pretty good

history lesson on on what was going to

happen on D-Day you get a description of

the five beaches over which the Allies

were hoping to land uh discussion of

German defenses artillery machine gun

nests rifle pits uh that the Allies were

going to be meeting as they tried to

storm up those beaches so the

paratroopers were going to land a few

hours before the Beach Landings they

were going to roam around the

countryside and try and clear the way

for those Beach Landings to take place

[Music]

we then see them in the c47 transport

aircraft it's called a Sky Train uh in

the American

Military they are flying in low there's

lots of turbulence and there's lots of

anti-aircraft fire which is just rocking

those planes those those aircraft they

had to have a lot of guts those those

Pilots you're flying low and straight

you've got to drop the airborne troops

exactly where they're supposed to be

dropped you can't swerve you can't take

diversion reaction otherwise the sticks

of paratroopers will end up all over the

[Music]

countryside

equipment sh for

equipment 9

okay okay 6 okay okay okay okay 2 okay

one

[Music]

okay there's a Hing scene in the

aircraft they're taking phone I've

talked to veterans who say part of them

wanted to get out of the aircraft they

felt it was drawing enemy fire but they

knew that once they jumped out it be out

of the frying pan into the fire so you

sort of you're in two minds whether you

wanted to be in that plane or or be in

the air floating down to the

ground Jesus go let's

go

go as as the signal came they stand up

on the aircraft they clip in into a wire

and they jump out the side of that

aircraft there's a static line that

automatically opens the parachute down

you go you're heavily Laden you've got

ammunition you've got food you've got

all your kits and then you hit the

ground it's pretty unnerving to be a

paratrooper cuz you know you're Landing

Behind Enemy lines You Are by definition

surrounded you're by definition

outnumbered uh you're going to be you'll

be thrown out the back of an aircraft

you might be separated from the rest of

your unit the parachutes are going to

Glide down in different places you're

going to land in enemy territory and you

might be completely by yourself and it's

the middle of the night

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

who's that of winners is that you

any weapons no sir and the key thing

then is then coalescing on the ground

working out where you are hoping you're

you've been dropped where you thought

you're going to be dropped because

you've been through the maps you've been

through training over and over again and

then you try and meet up with your

comrades as they as they've done here

they've found enough of them they've

concentrated together they've got enough

of them to try and carry out some of

their tasks theyve got to work out where

they are they've got to work out where

in this case a German artillery big big

gun basically where that might be

because they want to neutralize that gun

before the troops start landing on the

[Applause]

beach we're about 7 km away from our

objective 4 hours away from when we need

to have it secured so we got a lot of

walking ahead of us you might will stick

with us until we find your

let's go Harry carry on oh easy

company it's good to see you dick yeah

you to BU what's the situation H not

good 90% of the men are still onac

accounted

for me no one seen them or anyone from

this plane you know if he is missing

wouldn't that put you in line to be the

next commander of

e there an important moment we had the

commanding officers missing an action as

so many people were it later turns out

he was actually killed and so liutenant

Richard Winters is asked take command of

easy company's assault and that's the

beginning of an extraordinary command

career for him heading to the right

about what 300 yard up through those

Gardens now they're right between us and

cosway number two firing onto the boys

landing at Utah think he he can handle

it yes sir my guess is they're doing

some terrible damage there

this shows the extraordinary detail that

went to the planning for D-Day there are

small units of men who have specific

jobs to attack individual German

positions this is what they're

discussing here and it's a reminder that

D-Day was this gigantic operation but it

was made up it was the sum of the of

these tiny tiny Parts which collectively

delivered the huge success of D-Day

let's move

what these paratroopers do you see them

wrecking here they've got they can't

just go in guns blazing they're working

out what's happening uh they they

they're working out they're checking

whether the intelligence they've

received before they jumped is actually

correct inevitably things will have

changed things will be different so

they're conducting a a Reon and then

they go in come on

[Music]

it's an astonishing example of this kind

of small unit action and it's still

studied it's still studied in military

acmis it's called the break or Manor

assault and it's it's a classic example

of a small unit assault on a on a on a

fixed position I was actually I've been

on an archaeological dig at break or

Mana but sadly we didn't find anything

at all just an example of just very

highly trained well prepared elite

soldiers moving in and taking an enemy

position and neutralizing the troops

they find there some of the TR some of

the men putting down covering fire

others moving fast so speed aggression

fire all of these things are really

important the men of got rifles they've

got some machine

guns

grenade toy let's go get out of there

get you see one here accidentally

dropping a grenade and that shows just

how dangerous the battlefield was it's

bad enough the enemy trying to kill you

but it's very easy to hurt yourself uh

with your own weapons and those of your

comrades there's the second guy grenades

first then keep going go right

I

okay stay down stay

down C J all right cover for

[Applause]

cover must be doing something right look

God I'm so confused at firing on the

third

we better blow this thing before they

figure out what the hell's happened I'm

going to go and see what's keeping Li

right you see the Germans firing at each

other here this is interesting cuz

battles are inherently confusing there's

lots of noise you sometimes can't see

where the the smokeless cartridge people

using you can't see where the fire is

coming from it's often the case that in

confusion of battle you can end up

sustaining Friendly Fire casualties Blue

on Blue

casualties ready sir I don't have any

way to set it off sir

you see them using the Germans own

grenades here the famous stick grenades

that to destroy the the German artillery

pieces just stick a stick a grenade

right down the barrel uh and that will

be do enough damage to make sure the

artillery piece can't be used the these

are heavy guns these have the ability to

rain down fire shrapnel High explosives

on the beaches it was vital take out

these guns if the Beach Landings were to

have a chance of

success running a little on ammo sir how

about you Maly

okay think you got enough to take the

third gut we'll soon find out dick Maly

let's go toy

cover okay fire in the hole

this is one of the great scenes I think

in in television history they've gone to

enormous lengths to make sure it's

pretty accurate they've put the cast

through the kind of training uh the

Tactical training that these men would

have gone through uh the sound design

the weapons are accurate they fired

World War II weapons to create an

accurate soundscape and it shows the

importance of small units of

well-trained well-led men each playing

their part on D-Day and it's the SU

total of all of those small actions that

meant that D-Day was a success and the

Allies suffered less casualties than

they'd feared when they hit those

beaches okay back to Battalion go go

[Applause]

[Music]

[Music]

masters of the air is a very recent it's

a very good depiction of the experiences

of a group of bombers and air crew

through the second world war I'm glad to

say it does cover D-Day briefly and it's

a really valuable contribution to how

D-Day is portrayed on film and TV it

really adds to our our dramatic picture

of D-Day it's really important to

remember that D-Day wasn't just a naval

op operation even though 7,000 ships and

boats biggest flotilla of all time

biggest Naval operation of all time it

wasn't just an astonishing ground

assault as those soldiers charge up the

beach and into the into the the fields

Beyond it's also a hugely important

moment aviation history the skies above

were absolutely filled with aircraft it

was the biggest day of Aviation activity

of the war to that point in fact in

human history to that point over 10,000

sorties of bombers of interceptors of

fighter bombers and you do get a sense

in master of the air of the massive

amounts of planning that go into that

and it's based on a book by Donald

Miller it follows the H 100th bomber

group they flew flying fortresses now B7

flying fortresses were flying during the

day at this stage the the RAF the

British RAF with their Lancaster bombers

their heavy bombers flew at night the

Americans were trying to fly during the

day they were taking terrible casualties

in doing so but they thought it

increased their likelihood of actually

hitting their intended targets

[Music]

556 to 557 a.m. on June 3rd

1944 3 Days To

D-Day the last minute of sleep I'll get

for 72 hours our job was to bomb the

German defenses in Normandy only minutes

before the landing craft hit the beaches

and then spend the day hitting German

Bridges railroads and communic a lines

further

Inland about 200 missions in total all

needing flight plans and Maps we see one

of the main characters here is a

navigator called Harry Crosby and he's

preparing for D-Day by plotting all the

different bombing routes that the b7s

would take there are pretty heavy

bombers they're focused on destroying

the railroads the bridges what they want

to do was stop the Germans rushing

reinforcements to those D-Day beaches

and this one of the most successful

bomber offenses of the war was just

smashing uh this infrastructure in

France you need to sleep Cy yeah when

the mission's over the planners don't

tend to be the ones who we remember uh

they don't tend to be the ones who we

celebrate their heroism they didn't

necessarily charge up the beach and and

take German positions at Bayonet Point

but without that planning without that

gigantic meticulous preparation D-Day

wouldn't have been

possible just as I'd finished mapping

the route for one Mission operations

handed down five more all high priority

targets

the lack of sleep the coffee the uppers

the stress the fear the

disconnect that's a drug in itself he

stays up we see him staying up three

straight days to plot the roots and and

he actually has to abuse medication to

keep awake this is not unrealistic I've

I've talked to people who who would take

what primitive amphetamin and things to

stay awake to to boost their awareness

of the military situation it just shows

the hard work the dedication the

sacrifice that even the planners put in

as they're preparing for one of the uh

well the largest amphibious invasion in

military history to that

point you have to go to sleep no no no

no no I'm fine I just got to the brief

go to bed cross that's an order now I

can't do it Jack crossby I'm fine truly

just a couple more things I got to get

going

I was wondering if you'd ever wake

up what time is it

7:30

7:30 [ __ ] it's still time there still

Time come on God damn

it 7:30 Saturday morning

CR huh you've been out of it for 3 Days

having done on the plan he passes out

he's exhausted he comes around after

D-Day and he's told how it went CR you

missed so much I did three sorties but I

couldn't see any anything for the first

two and then the clouds

parted

and you've never seen anything like

it hundreds of ships thousands of men

for the third time that day we hit

Bridges Rail Yards communication centers

so the Germans weren't able to bring up

any reinforcements and the best part

there wasn't a single lwfa fighter in

the air and the pilot Robert rosenal

accurately you know says there were

virtually no lar for aircraft at D-Day

there's you know there's I think

something like 11,000 Allied planes in

aircraft D-Day there were low hundreds

of lfar for aircraft and this wonderful

scene here you see the scale of the

invasion you see bombers going overhead

you see Fighters moving in small groups

in between you see ships and boats

crowding the beaches uh you see men and

Munitions and vehicles going ashore that

was that is a wonderful depiction D I

talked to one Australian veteran who

flew a Spitfire up and down the beaches

twice once at dawn once at sunset on

D-Day and I bet that's what he would

have

[Music]

seen next up I want to check out the

longest day the

1962 epic a gig gantic movie it's one of

the longest movies as well and it's

based on a a wonderful non-fiction book

by Cornelius Ryan that I remember

reading as a as a as a young student

it's all about D-Day and they go to

Great Lengths to make sure that all the

different contributions to D-Day are

recognized the movie depicts D-Day from

All Sorts different perspectives from

the point of view of the Brits from the

point of view of the the Germans from

the the Americans the French civilians

the French Resistance it's it's all

included in that you also get the

experience of the men on the front line

and also the decision makers the people

in high command it was also quite daring

in that it showed people speaking their

their their native language their actual

languages so the Germans speak German

the French speak French the Brits speak

British and the Americans certainly

speak American it paid off it won two

Oscar I think it was and became the

highest grossing black and white film uh

at that

time

this is

rert I like this scene here because it

shows a D day that's easy to forget the

importance of deception they had to

trick the Germans they did not want the

Germans to realize where they're going

to land because then they could

reinforce those beaches and make it very

difficult dangerous to land there were

all sorts of different ways in which

they encouraged the Germans to believe

that the landings would happen largely

in Cal which is to the north of Normandy

they created a massive entirely fake

Army group in southeast England to

convince the Germans they were going to

attack from dova to Cal they used double

agents to feed their German handlers

with all sorts of misinformation and on

the night itself they used dummies parad

dummies which were known as rets some of

them had sort of firecrackers on them

and they threw these rets out all over

SES of Northwest France to try and just

confuse the Germans to to leave them

guessing where the actual Landings were

going to take place and to divert their

forces so there they are dropping their

rets my

do your duty for god king and your

country you can see the canopies look

like real paratroopers are coming down

um you've got the firecrackers going off

it's easy to see why they were so

successful actually in decoying the

Germans and they

did there accounts during the night of

German units charging off in completely

the wrong direction so it worked

beautifully alongside all the other

deception campaigns that took place so

German High command through the night

through the early hours of June the 6th

they're getting reports from a great s

of Northwest France talking about

parachute Landings it's impossible to

know which ones are real which ones

weren't it was very

distracting well you're as ready as we

can make

you this 5cent

toy it wasn't issue do you for Laughs

May save your life now this is a really

interesting scene you see the real

Airborne the real paratroopers here this

point they're being briefed about a very

simple piece of kit that they're going

to be issued with it's like a a kid's

toy it's a it's like a piece of metal

that just gives a click it's a little

clicker one click is to be answered by

two

clicks you can still buy them today my

kids drive me crazy with them and they

help you identify yourself to anyone

else you meet on the ground they're

going to be landing on the ground

they'll have jumped out of an aircraft

they're going to be a bit dazed they're

going to be bewildered there could be

enemy fire you're going to be spread out

across the French Countryside and hedges

and streams and Woodland and with the

clicker you can identify who is a fellow

American paratrooper and so these were

really important rather than shouting

out and identifying your position and

bringing down enemy fire on yourself you

would just click and if you received a

click in return you knew there was a

friendly paratrooper there you can meet

up with them and start to carry out your

mission

together and you can see here now this

paratrooper is on the ground he's

clicking

he clicks once two clicks back big smile

on his face he knows he's found a

friend two clicks I heard two

clicks on this occasion as you can see

gets it wrong because the sound of the

German operating that

bolt is the same as as a

clicker now we get a depiction of one of

the most famous one of the most

celebrated actions on D-Day it's just

after midnight these will be the first

Boots the first Allied boots to touch

the ground on the 6th of June on D-Day

itself it's an Airborne assault these

are airborne troops soldiers and

Engineers carried in gliders so not

parachuting but carried in gliders that

as you can see are being towed they're

being towed by those bombers that cable

will be cut at one point and they will

Glide in to land hopefully right next to

key bridges over the Kong canal and the

river or which link the city of K with

the sea now those that canal and river

system will be the Eastern flank of

Allied Landings at D-Day you need to

make sure that you've seized any bridges

over those rivers and canals because

otherwise the Germans could use them so

by seizing those bridges you're securing

Your Flank and this unit of the

Oxfordshire and buckinghamshire like

infantry are heading in on those gliders

to do just that here you can see the

gliders Crossing the French coast and

then the bombers release the cable and

the gliders are are flying themselves

and this is one of the most outstanding

acts of piloting at any point of the

second world

[Music]

war the ox and bux light infantry

trained and trained and trained till the

men were sick of it their Commander maor

John Howard really drove them hard he

wanted everyone to know exactly the

layout of the terrain they were trying

to seize the layout of the bridges the

German defensive positions so that when

they landed it just be like muscle

memory they they would be doing it

almost on remote control and and the

result was an enormous success you see

the glider coming in to land there you

see the bridge actually through the

cockpit Windows they land just a couple

of meters away from their targets it's

one of the most text bit of Airborne

operation in history you don't give the

German Defenders any time to repair

because you land right on top of them

when within seconds the airborne troops

were on the bridge benville bridge which

is uh which was code named Pegasus

bridge for this Mission uh and they've

managed to drive back the German

Defenders the first Allied Soldier

killed on D-Day Den BRD is killed on

that bridge minutes after midnight on

June the 6th

1944 you can see them removing the

charges they didn't want the Germans to

blow up that bridge so they remove the

charges from the bridge as quickly as

they can so the so the Allied troops are

able to use it the movie does a really

good job you can still go to that cafe

on the far side of the bridge and the

owner of that Cafe was actually feeding

intelligence back to the British to make

sure that attack went as well as it did

Sir all the demolition charges have been

removed it's all clear good Coral Smith

huh send out the success code wordss

keep sending un

acknowledged here

Bri

here the

inv

yeah so this is an interesting scene

suddenly you're away from the front line

the mud and the grit of the battlefield

and you're in a beautiful French shatow

this is where the German headquarters

would have been various Shadows dotted

around northern France and you see them

wrestling with exactly what is going on

here is this the invasion is this a

diversion is it a

you see this German general saying we

believe the attack is coming at the pad

Cal that's up in Cal further to the

north where where the English Channel is

narrowest it makes sense the attack

would come across the channel there

there's only 22 25 miles of sea there

but instead they

attack this gets us to the Nu this is

one of the big moments of D-Day Hitler

had demanded that only he

was able to release the reserves he had

to give specific permission for these

Elite German armored units particularly

these tank Panza units to move towards

any Allied

Landings he says to himself an invasion

of Normandy would be against all

military logic it's further from Paris

it's further from Britain and the supply

depos in Britain but that's exactly why

the Allies decided to go to Normandy

there's an old saying in amphibious

Warfare always go where your enemy

aren't and although there were German

defense in Normandy they weren't as

extensive as the defenses Elsewhere on

the French coast and so the Allies even

though it was much harder logistically

much more challenging they went to

Normandy because they stood a greater

chance of success and they tricked the

Germans

General yodel one of the most senior

figures in the German High command he

says the fur has taken a sedative we now

know years later that Adolf Hitler was

heavily dependent on drugs to sleep to

get up uh and so his personal habits

were now having a major impact on the

course of the war because he'd gone to

bed very late he'd taken a sedative and

no everyone was too scared to wake him

up they were very nervous this was a

raid it was a diversionary attack if

they sent the panzas to the coast then

perhaps the Allies would land somewhere

else they should have immediately

realized this was the main assault the

Allies were never going to launch

something on this scale as a

diversion

that's and these are senior officers

much Clos to the front line in France

itself who know that they cannot

Counterattack until the fur has woken up

he says we're going to lose the war

because the F has taken as sleeping

people I think that slightly exaggerates

it but it certainly didn't help the

German response that their High command

was so immobilized in these key hours

admittedly when the panzas did get

rolling when the German armor did get

rolling they were then smashed by Allied

Aviation so the the fear of being asleep

wasn't the only problem that the Germans

faced at this

point I enjoyed this scene here we're on

the beach The Landings have been had

enjoyed some success um there's armor

there are troops moving up trying to get

in land and they're using carrier

pigeons here they're using messenger

pigeons which is fun going the wrong way

not God Germans you idiots the other way

the other way damn traitors they call

them traitors they're flying the wrong

way but it is a really important

reminder of how difficult it was to

communicate on D-Day or indeed any

battle in this period but D-Day in

particular a lot of the radio sets were

damaged by salt water on their way to

the shore uh it was just radio itself

was in its infancy so so communication

was hard and there were various ways

that the troops on Shore were trying to

used to communicate with troops further

out to sea or with uh naval ships that

were firing gunfire and support for

example they were flashing lights they

were using wireless radio sets they were

sending pigeons nowadays we assume that

everyone could talk to everyone all the

time it's all very networked but back

then it was very very difficult to

communicate we see a really important

and celebrated part of the D-Day story

here we see the assault on point to Hawk

uh it was carried out by the second

ranger battalion they were taken there

in British landing craft and their job

was to scale these really steep Cliffs

precipitous Cliffs and capture big

German guns which they thought were on

top which were capable of firing right

the way along the coast and bring Omaha

for example Under Fire so they thought

that they had to scale these Cliffs they

had to take this position you see from

this realistic portrayal of the

landscape it is we're talking real

Cliffs here and they use grappling hooks

fired from rocket launchers and they

also borrowed or took 100 foot long

ladders from the London fire brigade to

get up these Cliffs and it was

astonishing astonishing operation from

an particularly Elite

unit uh these Rangers managed to make it

up they scaled The Cliffs now when they

got to the top they discovered that the

big German artillery the big guns

actually been moved it's

empty the Air Force and navy really

plasted this baby yeah but I don't

get the

guns there ain't no mount

they never even been in

store you can see them now moving into

these bunkers where the big guns were

supposed to be they had been moved it

was thought they were just too

vulnerable I think on that Headland they

would move further in land but the

Rangers persisted moved in land and and

carried did important work that

day first thing we got to do is bow hold

through that wre with the bangal

now we've got Omaha Beach you see

American troops struggling here at Omaha

Beach the bloodiest of the D-Day beaches

really importantly they they bring

forward the Bangalore torpedo this was

such an important weapon on D-Day it

allowed it was a explosive device that

that that detonated along the length of

this this tube uh it meant that you

could clear barbed

wire and you see them here kind of using

the landscape using folds in the ground

finding dead ground pushing forward off

the beach using bangalor to to break

into German uh

defenses and then undermining German

bunkers using explosives blowing up

strong points doing anything they can to

try and get their way off that Beach

for me the big lesson from the longest

day is that filmmakers want to emphasize

the collaboration that was required on

D-Day now bear in mind this movie is

made less than 20 years after D-Day

takes place that is less time than

between us and 9/11 so there would have

been people in the audience there have

been people involved in the production

process who knew a lot about D-Day who'

experienced D-Day and as a result they

they wanted to emphasize that this was a

job in which lots and lots of different

people doing lots of different tasks

work together and overcame the massive

massive challenge of Landing in

Northwest Europe you you see

paratroopers you see planners you see

infantrymen you see people in

Communications uh you see uh people

storming the beaches and it's all of

those small little pictures that

combined give us the giant dramatic

image of what happened on

[Applause]

D-Day I think these films all do a

really good job at portraying the

terrible reality of D-Day the violence

the terror and the death I think they

also do a very good job at showing off

the massive amount of preparation that

went into it all and the various

different contributions from all sorts

of different people we've seen a huge

number of different individuals all

seemingly acting within little bubbles

playing individual roles probably not

even aware of the overall scale of the

day what was going on and yet each and

every one of them was crucial to d-day's

success a terrifying part of Band of

Brothers longest day masters of the air

is that a huge number of the characters

the majority of the characters are

actually real people they existed they

give a

representation of what it was actually

like on D-Day for the individuals whose

stories they're telling and I think that

proves that often times reality the

historical truth can be just as

terrifying and brutal but also as

engaging for audiences as any fiction

thank you so much for watching Remember

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