Original subtitles

Funny sort of feeling marching down to the ships.

We'd done it plenty of times before, of course,

on schemes and that kind of thing.

They didn't tell us this was the big show.

Might have been just another exercise.

Some of the chaps cracked gags. They wasn't very comic, but we laughed.

I think we all guessed. The general feeling was,

"OK, if this is it, let's get in there and get it over with."

Waiting always got on my nerves.

Even waiting for a bus. Never could stand it.

Well, after a bit, our ship found its place in the middle

of all the rest of the stuff. And there we stayed for days.

They tell me there was well over 1,000 ships.

But even so, we thought this was just another exercise.

As we continued on, we felt that we'd be turned around,

go back and try again another day.

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade

toward which we have striven these many months.

The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers

of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.

The invasion of Western Europe has begun.

5:58 in the morning of June 6th,

we dropped the first bombs on Omaha Beach.

The landing craft was ready.

When we did the D-Day landings...

..chaos. Chaos.

..is falling down through the sky...

INDISTINCT CHATTER

I have been asked to be the spokesman

for this Allied Expeditionary Force

in saying a word of introduction to what you're about to see.

It is a story of the Nazi defeat on the Western Front.

So far as possible, the editors have made it an account

of the really important men in this campaign.

I mean the enlisted soldiers, sailors and airmen

that fought through every obstacle to victory.

Of course, to tell the whole story would take years.

But the theme would be the same. Teamwork wins wars.

For a few days, Tehran becomes

the centre and focus of the world.

Soon after the war began,

British and Red Army soldiers

joined hands here in Iran.

It was the only land communication we had. It was fitting that

this first meeting of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin should be here.

Britain's Royal Air Force, Army and Navy were, of course, present

for the staff talks and many other high-ranking staff officers

of all three nations whose business it is to devise the plans

whereby the fighting men may finish the war most quickly.

We are no longer concerned with the question of how to win the war.

The question is how soon?

The declaration by President Roosevelt,

Mr Churchill and Premier Stalin

after last week's Tehran Conferences is published this evening.

Military and diplomatic staffs were there,

and common policy for war and peace was shaped and confirmed.

Complete agreement was reached on the scope and timing of operations

to be undertaken from the east, west and south.

The three leaders approved the plan.

Russian forces advancing from the east

and invasion from the west. And then the date was set.

Now are people bent to the construction of a steel array

and took the builder's hammer in their hands.

It seemed almost as though the sun stood still till our free peoples,

full of rage and power, heaved through the air

the ponderous spear of war.

Of course, we only saw it happening on the wall map.

And yet it was, well, quite real.

When I started there, those markers we used

reminded me of toys out of some children's game.

But soon they became U-boats and ships carrying cargoes,

food and supplies and weapons, and men to use them.

I still remember going down to New Street Station,

to travel down to London

and then on to Colchester,

and I can still remember getting out of the train

and getting into the back of an army vehicle and being taken up

to Gujarat Barracks,

where I done all my training.

Our eyes sought out the place of the assault.

Exits in tidal range marked shallow flushing off.

Sand in the wind cancelled the Belgian coast.

The north Seine beaches were too small

and cliffs barred the approaches.

Cotentin - too narrow.

The Pas-de-Calais heavily defended.

It all resolved on Normandy.

By the dawn's early light,

it assembles for overseas combat.

You're on your way, Joe. This is it.

SHIP'S HORN BLASTS

I remember coming over, the worst thing about the trip

was you didn't know where you were going.

Wherever it was, you'd be a stranger, and nobody likes that.

Ship after ship from the New World brings to Britain fresh thousands

of American soldiers to the springboard for invasion.

These little islands that stood alone three years ago

when the darkness descended upon Europe,

these little islands now become the barracks, the headquarters

and the advanced supply dump for the re-entry of the continent of Europe.

That ship was loaded from stem to stern with sad sacks.

Around the third day out, things got pally.

Like the fella said, "We're all in the same boat."

Huh! The comic.

Finally we got to Liverpool. They had a band to play us in.

An English army band full of chimes.

I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas they played.

To tell you the truth, it was pretty corny, but nobody said anything

because, well, you know, it was a nice gesture.

It was my first trip to London and the Houses of Parliament

and Big Ben, but the thing that amused and entertained our boys

who were stationed all over England was Westminster Abbey.

And there were quite a few Americans who came there to see the sights

and see Westminster Abbey.

And these are the scenes that I wanted to photograph

on one Sunday afternoon.

Another area that intrigued me was Marble Arch.

Marble Arch on one Sunday afternoon was full of people.

Already you felt like you were the whole works. You couldn't help it.

But then all over the UK, you'd see things that made you

begin to realise you were just part of a big proposition.

All kinds of things.

In the south west of England, several thousand people have had to

evacuate their homes because the area has been handed over

to the United States Army for the

purpose of invasion rehearsals

and general battle training.

I remember seeing men in uniform,

soldiers for the first time,

and in the village there were soldiers billeted,

and some of them had their families here

and the children went to the village school.

We as kids thought they were great because sweets was rationed.

We hadn't had any sweets worth talking about for ages,

and they were keeping us supplied

with candy and all the rest of it,

and cigarettes at the same time.

I mean, the first thing we knew about it was when the parents

got a letter to say that, um,

we had to leave within six weeks,

and, um, we had to find ourselves somewhere to live.

I mean, we thought it was great going somewhere else.

We thought it was a holiday, I think. Went down to Beeston,

went to stay with an aunt and cousin down there on the farm.

Um, and that was right on the edge of the evacuated area.

A lot of removal lorries and people moving their furniture

and things like that.

The Army were coming in and taking a photograph of us.

They said it was to, uh...

They told me that it was to send back home to show people

what we were doing for them back home.

It is, of course, a real hardship for the people concerned,

but the contribution they're making is equally real.

Everyone has taken it in very good part, though they wouldn't be human

if they didn't feel it pretty tough to be uprooted after years

of residence in their village homes.

I was a pre-med student at Johns Hopkins in civilian life.

Now, I do know a little something about anatomy,

and I say it is scientifically impossible for the human body

to stand up to the training we received. An absolute impossibility.

Muscles and tendons and bone structure was not designed

to withstand that battering.

Don't ask me how it happens that we did stand up to it.

One-man submarines, torpedo boats, Commandos.

We used them all to bring back cups full of sand

from the beaches for analysis.

It had to be quick drying with a solid clay foundation.

It would have to support 30-ton tanks.

I must have photographed nearly every field in France.

Real job, of course, was the Caen area

but I didn't know that, nor did Jerry.

For Britain, this is the 227th week of the war.

We've had some amazing demonstrations of Allied air power,

continuance of the nonstop air offensive

that has now run for nine days and eight nights.

We've had the return with a great deal of publicity

of General Montgomery, something which the average Briton

takes as an unmistakeably clear indication of impending action.

We've also had new statements and new evidence about the final

and extensive preparations now under way for the invasion

of Western Europe. We just didn't realise the seriousness

of what this whole thing was all about.

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade,

toward which we have striven these many months.

The eyes of the world are upon you.

Well, all they said

at that particular time

is that we were going to do

camouflage work.

All the details of how they were gonna use this and everything else

was never explained to us.

So we learned how to camouflage equipment,

how to make fake equipment, guns, tanks, trucks.

We made it out of wood and we covered it with burlap

and then painted it in camouflage colours.

# What a perfect chance to park

# And there's no moon at all... #

Remember those aggressor tanks that our friend the Lieutenant

told us had just moved into position? They have been known

to fool an observer from as little as 50 yards away.

Such equipment, combined with a few real tanks, gives the aggressor

the appearance of a strong armoured force

at a fraction of the cost in men, material and time.

Light and compact, this equipment

can be shipped around the country

to where it's needed

with a minimum of effort.

We simulated two divisions, two infantry divisions.

We had fake patches on our arms and we pulled into the town,

and what we had with us was radio equipment that broadcast the sounds

of truck movement, trucks and tanks and everything.

So the people didn't know, they couldn't see us,

but they heard all this and they thought, "Oh, my gosh,

"there are a lot of soldiers coming into town."

With the progress of the war,

changes in tactics and technique

have called for changes

and improvement in equipment.

The best loudspeakers for the military requirements

have been developed. Under ideal conditions - over water -

they were found capable of projecting sound for 15 miles.

My parents never knew where I was.

I mean, we weren't able to tell them our location, what we did.

My parents used to say,

"Well, what do you do in this camouflage division?"

And my answer was, "Well, we do camouflage work."

Every day was D-Day for the Air Force.

From dawn to dawn, the sound of aeroplane engines filled the air.

England, now a green and pleasant, unsinkable aircraft carrier,

launched immense fleets of planes to scourge the enemy in Europe,

blow down his factories, tear up his railroads,

explode his ammunition dumps, fight his air force out of the sky,

kill his troops wherever they were to be found.

The 492nd Bomb Group, the Eighth Air Force,

and the OSS Packing Station, under the direction of Shaef,

worked in close cooperation with similar British services

to deliver thousands of tonnes of vital supplies

to enemy occupied countries,

successfully arming, controlling and coordinating the activities

of 350,000 resistance members.

The 492nd Bomb Group alone flew over 3,000 sorties.

Known as the Carpetbagger Group,

they operated from an isolated aerodrome at Harrington,

where a fleet of B-24s took to the air about 15 nights a month,

delivering their cargo of supplies and humans

only during the moon period...

The arsenal of democracy at flood tide as an avalanche of supplies

pours into England, and fateful invasion day nears.

Along the bombed roads of Britain,

the star, now worn not only by American but by all Allied vehicles,

became as familiar as the advertisement for Bass's Ale.

On rubber and steel, the goods of war

roll to dispersal and distribution points throughout Great Britain.

There to be stored against the day of need.

Countless man hours,

tremendous feats of energy and organisation

went into the job of supplying the greatest invasion force

in history. From Allied factories flowed the weapons of freedom.

The vast potential of the American industry was being realised

and added to the output of Great Britain.

Night and day, the vast business of assembly went on

in preparation for the coming attack.

And to carry all this - locomotives,

freight cars for the railway lines on the Continent.

The RAF. Avengers of Warsaw,

Rotterdam, Coventry, London

penetrated night after night

through the dark weather over Europe

to pound the strategic factories

and concentration points

of Hitler's empire -

the aircraft factories, the munition works, the truck assembly plants,

the power plants. Munich, Hamburg,

Cologne, Nuremberg, Brunswick,

Frankfurt, Hanover, Essen, Berlin...

We had Polish, French, Czechs, all sorts in our outfit.

They'd natter away in the mess about what they'd been up to.

The only word you could ever make out was "marshalling yards".

The disruption of the German supply line is a major factor

in the defeat of the enemy.

Pictures show Allied strafing planes in action,

choking last minute efforts by the Germans to bring supplies

and reinforcements into the battle area.

Gunsight aiming point cameras record fighter activity over Europe,

trains, railroad marshalling yards, motor transport and inland waterways

in France...

Us bombardiers seemed to do nothing but look down on French bridges

those days. We used to ask each other,

"Have you cut any good bridges lately?" Well, finally there was

only one whole railway bridge left

over the Seine between Paris and the sea.

Each week at this time,

the National Broadcasting Company

presents War Telescope,

a weekly report on the war

as seen by NBC's reporter

John MacVane in London.

A little while ago, one of the many invasion exercises

was taking place on the coast of Britain.

Everything had been carefully planned.

The three services - Army, Navy and Air Force -

of two nations were involved.

The larger landing craft, LSTs and LCIs,

carried out their manoeuvres,

learning to land at a given spot at a certain time.

Just as a group of landing craft approached the shore,

the weather changed, the sun disappeared,

and one of those quick sea fogs enveloped the landing craft

and the beaches,

the troops making the mock attack, and the troops guarding the shore.

In one invasion craft some soldiers,

weird figures in their Mae West life belts, were huddled together,

waiting for the moment that the boat touched shore.

Endlessly, manoeuvres and training are turning the English countryside

into a stage for the greatest military dress rehearsal in history.

We were sent into a staging area which was sealed off.

We were in a double barbed wire enclosure,

which only a few people with necessity could get in or out.

We weren't allowed to wander around the area by ourselves.

Each crossroad point was under guard

of both an American and a British soldier, and if they wanted to see

what you had in your bedroll, you had to show it to them.

But this is the care that was taken

that the secret of the invasion be kept as long as it could.

Sherman DD, shown here entering the water,

is a standard US medium tank,

modified to enable it to float

and manoeuvre about in any depth of water.

On reaching shore, the canvas side walls can be dropped

and the main armament of the tank brought into immediate action.

The canvas side walls are raised by means of compressed air,

which enters rubber tubes

spaced equally about the inner side canvas walls.

Through all the days of preparation,

Allied planes, thousands of them,

continued to soften enemy defences and communications in daily raids.

As the hour drew nearer,

the Air Force stepped up its attack.

The target was the invasion coast and the country just beyond it.

Mustangs flown by the Poles who fought in the Battle of Britain.

Medium bombers flown by the Lorraine Squadron of the Free French

revisiting their native land daily.

Mitchells flown by men of the British Commonwealth.

Marauders flown by Americans

who'd fought against Rommel's Air Force in Libya.

Darting in low over the Channel to rock the German Army

back on its heels before it could set itself for the final assault.

They were going to have a rehearsal for the D-Day landing.

The officers told us that we could never say anything about it

because it was all simulated.

I was put on an LST to land with them.

And an LST is a 300-foot-long, flat-bottom boat

that we were sailing down the coast at night.

They didn't have enough guards out

and some German E-boats

saw a target of opportunity.

They blew up one LST that I knew about.

I was close enough that the concussion almost knocked me down.

Well, we landed on Slapton Sands,

and it was a mess like you never saw.

Everything was going the wrong way.

Many of the people that were supposed to be on the beach

directing traffic and that were already killed.

There were 1,500 people killed in that ambush.

They buried them all in a mass grave - it just didn't happen.

It took 40 years before the Army admitted it happened,

and it was 60 years before they ever really published.

The time had come for the final rehearsal.

The men who climb onto the beaches of the continent

and fall upon the entrenched enemy

are rehearsed, practised and trained to the last detail.

These men who have come from so many countries and speak so many tongues,

gathered together in Great Britain to form this vast allied army

and trained alongside their British comrades

from the hills and woods of Devon to the Highlands of Scotland.

These men have learned how to make a bed the army way,

how to clean a rifle, how to read a map and fire a mortar,

how to drive a tank or a mule.

Some of these men had fought the German in Africa.

And some of them had left their friends in graves

at Alamein, Kasserine, Mareth and outside Bizerte.

And now they learn how to crack the wall of German Europe.

England. June 1944.

The men of the armies march toward the southern ports.

Equipment rolled down the road.

Men and machines took their places

in the waiting ships.

Down in the late spring, through the wounded towns of England

moved the mass made by our patience.

Two precious years of plans were put away. The offices were empty.

All the maps were rolled up on the walls.

What had been paper at last had come alive.

Across the Channel, aware of our resolve with cold contempt,

the Germans stood beside their guns

and reinforcements rumbled from the Rhine.

Their generals were prepared. Their might was poised.

They looked across the heaving sea and grinned.

They would reap harvest of us on the beaches.

And even death himself would stand amazed.

Yet faint across the groaning of the sea came the thin thunder

of a massive power. Drawn from the great free peoples of the Earth,

it gathered in the ancient ports of England

to crowd upon the steel encumbered ships.

It was a funny sort of feeling, marching down to the ships.

We'd done it plenty of times before, of course, on schemes

and that kind of thing. They didn't tell us this was the big show.

Might have been just another exercise.

Some of the chaps cracked gags. They wasn't very comic, but we laughed.

I think we all guessed.

We all marched up to the landing craft.

They gave us the final briefing then. We knew what to do and how.

They told us where and when. That's a briefing.

I listened to every word, wrote it down in my head like a record

that kept playing over and over again.

Piece of beach in the morning.

Ever since I became a soldier, they were getting me ready for this.

Before, there had been time in front of me, protecting me.

Now that time had worn away,

I tried to imagine how much fear I would have, you know,

to keep me from doing my job.

I suppose everybody else was wondering the same thing.

The general feeling was,

"OK, if this is it, let's get in there and get it over with."

Waiting always got on my nerves.

Even waiting for a bus. Never could stand it.

Well, after a bit, our ship found its place in the middle

of all the rest of the stuff. And there we stayed for days.

Then a voice on the loudspeaker said,

"Men who wish to take their anti seasick pills

"should take the first one now." That did it.

The picture we're about to see

is as important a film document

that was ever made by the Air Force.

In graphic detail it reveals the operation...

"What's your name, soldier?" He says. "Where's your hometown?

"Who's the toughest man in the outfit?"

We told him we'd give him the answer to that last one when we got back.

He inspected a few of the boys who really have to be tough.

The Pathfinders.

They go in ahead of all of us

and plant signal markers so we can find a way.

They live on a steady diet of danger.

When I got through with this, we were all keyed up, raring to go.

And then it was time.

At dusk, Pathfinder teams board the ships

that will show the way into enemy territory.

This trooper will drop his British leg pack

loaded with demolition supplies just before he lands.

We must have had a good 120 to 40 or 50 pounds

of extra equipment on us.

But, of course, a lot of that was the parachute,

which was handy to have

in as much as we were going to jump out of the aeroplane.

This is London calling with the European News Service

of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Here are some messages for our friends in occupied countries.

The Trojan war will not be held.

John is growing a very long beard this week.

The long sobs of the violins of autumn...

TRANSMISSION CONTINUES IN FRENCH

Joel Crouch, our commanding colonel,

took off around 9:30, 10:00

on the 5th of June.

While we have been here, we have just seen one of the strangest

and most remarkable sights of this invasion so far.

Two great fleets of over 100 gliders have gone overhead,

towed by C-47 transports

who are certainly proving the workhorses of this invasion.

Dropped his paratroopers right after midnight.

I dropped my paratroopers

at 14 minutes after one o'clock in the morning.

We're over the enemy coast now, and the running has started.

1 minute 30 seconds. Red light, green light, and out.

Out! Get out, get out, get out! Out fast into the cool night.

Out, out into the air over France.

Full moon night,

you can identify things on the ground really pretty easily.

It was about two o'clock in the morning

when we hit landfall.

We knew when we hit landfall, it wasn't going to be very long

until we got the green light to jump.

Other planes flying all over.

The Germans had searchlights up,

so the planes that were flying there

were silhouetted so that the German anti-aircraft

had good targets. At one time I saw four planes going down.

The unit landed squarely

on the German 91st Infantry Division

and other enemy troops.

These enemy units were on manoeuvres and were already occupying

their assigned defensive positions.

Surprise was gained only by the leading parachute unit,

and subsequent serials found themselves under practically

continuous ground and anti-aircraft fire while crossing the peninsula

and upon landing.

821 aeroplane loads,

13,000 paratroops were delivered into DZs in less than two hours.

PBS World News Bob...speaking.

And again, we bring you the available report,

all of them from German sources,

on what the Berlin radio calls the invasion.

There is still no Allied confirmation from any source.

Correspondents who rushed to the War Department in Washington

soon after the first German broadcast was heard,

were told that our War Department had no information

on the German report. There's been no announcement of any sort

from Allied headquarters in London.

The first news of the German announcement reached this country

at 12:37am Eastern War Time.

I'll tell you, you never seen so many young blokes like ourselves,

Newcastle, Scots people, Welsh people.

Most of us were anxious.

We had 1,200 troops aboard my ship. I was scared.

I was scared because I knew

there was going to be a lot of casualties on the beach.

They had volunteered

to go someplace first

and they were... They were ready to go.

Training, training, training...

They all got seasick. Every one of them.

The chu-chug of the engine

cruising in the black and silence.

No thoughts.

And someone said, "Gies a fag."

The droning of the planes above you.

A glimmer of light from the dawn.

All night long, bulletins have been pouring in from Berlin

claiming that D-Day is here.

Soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade

toward which we have striven these many months.

The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers

of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.

I've never seen so many ships in my life.

And right in front of me was a tug.

Right at the stern was a red light.

At 5:58

in the morning of June 6th,

we dropped the first bombs on Omaha Beach.

The landing craft was ready.

When we did the D-Day landings...

..chaos. Chaos.

We just didn't realise

the seriousness

of what this whole thing

was all about.

The report, unconfirmed by Allied sources, of course,

says that heavy fighting is taking place between

the Germans and invasion forces on the Normandy peninsula,

about 31 miles southwest of Le Havre.

These boys are apparently having a pretty tough time

in here on the beaches. It's not very pleasant. It's exposed.

I landed on Utah Beach.

The unfortunate part about it,

the night before we tried, the weather was too rough.

So they were waiting for us on the second day that we came in.

Another bulletin, also from Berlin radio and unconfirmed,

says that British-American landing operations

against the western coast of Europe, from the sea and from the air,

are stretching over the entire area between Cherbourg and Le Havre,

a distance of about 60 miles.

I repeat, there is no confirmation.

The sky was black with aeroplanes,

you might say.

Well, I was stepping over bodies.

Either their boat got stuck

and they couldn't come to the beach and they got into water

and they were carrying heavy packs and they couldn't swim.

I went in and there were bodies floating beside me.

You didn't even look at it. You wiped it from your mind.

You had a job to do. I went in and did my job and...

..I was fortunate.

I went in at 7:00am.

The bodies were drowned

and been killed while they were still in the water.

We went in way, way too early.

Because they had not taken as much of the beach

as they thought they would.

So when we got there, we actually became infantry.

We were not maintenance, we was infantry.

Until the silver bullet hit some of our friends

and they encountered mines,

they were hit by artillery shrapnel,

these guys...these guys were being hit, uh, became casualties

and the medics had to take care of them as best they could.

But these were men that I had trained with, uh,

some back in the States and then through the period in England.

During that period of time, you become close to your men and, uh,

almost like family.

And, uh, you know, it hurts when you see a man get, uh, uh,

get wounded or killed and, uh, you feel, uh, partially responsible.

When we hit the beaches

on the morning of the 6th of June,

the weather was still rough.

But most ships managed to

close in fairly close to the beach.

There were mines there. We did lose some shipping from the minefields.

Now, having stepped out of the sea onto the beach,

we were confronted again with minefields.

You don't stop.

If somebody falls, you don't stop to help.

Your job is to get ashore and do what you're trained to do.

It's one of the tough parts, I think, of an assault.

But you're trained to do something and you do it.

One doesn't really want to dwell on.

It is rather a sickening thing to think of.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, you may listen to this network

with assurance that all sources of news will be properly labelled,

and that we will interrupt programmes only with news

of exceptional importance, and will bring you frequent summaries

of all information available.

We wasn't expecting

what did face us.

They got German machine guns that we knew nothing about.

We'd never been told this.

I can't recollect ever being told

they got a dreaded

Spandau machinegun,

which fired 1,200 rounds a minute.

We landed on what they called Jig Sector.

J-I-G. Jig Sector, which was marshy ground.

And I can recollect wading ashore, worrying about my cigarettes

in my small pack that had got soaked through.

Not knowing what was getting thrown at us.

Jump into the water, it's deeper than I thought.

I started to swim. Eventually made the sea wall.

Just as we get alongside the tank,

we thought we were pretty good then,

a Jerry 88mm gun hit our tank and blew us the hell out of it.

"So far," said Winston Churchill,

"The commanders who are engaged

"report that everything is proceeding according to plan."

And then Mr Churchill,

who knows well the history of that phrase,

said to the House of Commons, "And what a plan."

Time didn't mean anything to us then, that morning.

It was 10:30 when they landed, about 7:30.

And when you ask people "What was the date of D-Day?"

A lot of people will say the 6th of June.

Well, one has to ask them, as I remember, "What day was it?"

And it was a Tuesday morning, which one will never forget.

Then Mr Churchill said the vast operation was undoubtedly

the most complicated and the most difficult which has ever been made.

We're standing here,

it's an absolutely incredible

and fantastic sight.

I don't know whether it's possible to describe it to you or not.

The sea is choppy and the beach is lined with men and materials...

Lots of people don't realise what, uh...

What you go through. I go to bed at night, sometimes I can't sleep.

You know, and things come back in... in my mind, you know?

..and, uh, guns, trucks, vehicles of all kinds, uh, on either side

of us, there are pillars of smoke, perhaps a mile, two miles away,

which is rising from enemy shelling.

And further back we can see the smoke

and results of our own shelling.

All we can see of the vast invasion fleet which is assembled for us

are the silhouettes of the big four ships, the, uh, battleships

and cruisers which have been putting, uh, a steady bombardment

against the enemy positions all day.

A bulletin. London. A naval officer just returned

to Supreme Allied Headquarters from the French invasion beaches

reports that all main points have been gained

and that reinforcements are pouring across the Channel

in an unprecedented stream.

The Atlantic Wall has been penetrated.

There, after the first assault,

the allies clung precariously to a few beaches,

but now they have a solid foothold on Fortress Europa.

Men and material have poured on to the newly won beachheads

with every favourable tide,

and on some unfavourable ones. The Allied command has announced

that the battle of the beaches is complete.

The tremendous offensive was bitterly contested.

The Nazis knew that each passing hour diminished their chances

of throwing the Allies back into the sea.

But the American, British and Canadian troops

pressed forward firmly onto the soil of France

and made contact with the French people.

The bulldozers were trying to clear roads

to let our jeeps and tanks move forward,

and even though it was June, the area was quite cold,

as it usually is in that part of Normandy.

We're getting stuff ashore despite this break.

When the weather does turn fine,

everybody will breathe easier except the Germans.

Our commanders know where we're going and the Germans don't.

They must scatter their defence. And Rommel cannot be at all certain

that this Normandy landing is the real Allied blow.

Of course, the men dug their foxholes a little deeper,

and we had the good fortune of finding a concrete wall

which helped serve as protection.

But even now we're taking some of our wounded back to the beach

so they can be transferred back to England.

So, head doctor came in to examine me and he said,

"You can you can go home on a hospital ship."

And I said, "No, I want to go back to my unit."

Sent me back to my unit. And, uh...

And then we went in.

Now some invasion impressions from various observers at the front.

One of the biggest groups of American casualties

and German prisoners of war came into a British port early Saturday

invasion time.

Many of those injured were Airborne troops with broken legs.

Most of the prisoners are described as a sorry looking lot.

The Berlin radio tonight says Marshal Rommel

looks as if he has been losing sleep.

Well, that's one German report it's a pleasure to believe.

None of it was easy. When you jumped off that damn landing barge,

you didn't know whether you'd be alive for a second or ten seconds

or ten hours, because every part of it was under fire.

And the guys that jumped out and got ashore

and set up on the beachhead

and pushed the Germans back and got that beachhead opened up,

they... I gave them more damn credit than anybody because,

I mean, that took a lot of guts.

Soon we brought in some of our big armament,

and they were set up in a field and firing at German positions.

But even though the guns were firing, the French people

were bringing in the crops as though nothing was happening.

This surprised me,

and I couldn't help but wanting to make a picture of it.

Of course, these heavy guns caused terrific concussion.

Among those witnessing the beachhead operation

was the Supreme Allied Commander, General Eisenhower.

Here he meets with Admiral Ramsay, Chief of Naval Operations,

and with Britain's great soldier, General Montgomery.

The Supreme Commander is on hand to learn first hand

how the offensive is going. What he learned was good indeed.

The meeting of these brilliant leaders symbolises the unity

of the united nations forces they represent.

The creation of the artificial harbours in Normandy.

The strange contraptions which you see here

made possible our entire operation in France,

and to supply our armies

when the Germans wrecked the French ports.

These huge hollow blocks of reinforced concrete

are called Phoenixes.

Each Phoenix is 200ft long, 60ft high, 40ft thick,

and weighs 8,000 tons.

The first tows began arriving at Omaha on the afternoon of D-Day.

You couldn't see the sky. It was black with planes.

When we towed you over,

we came back to England and got another one

and towed that over as well.

But luckily for us, we weren't hit by any shells or anything, you know.

Neither of us felt any fear at all.

We were there to do a job

like everyone else was,

and we were lucky that we got away with everything.

Out of sunken blockships,

artificial harbours have been built.

Until a port is won from the enemy,

these must handle all Allied shipping.

Now, more and more troops move inland to push the enemy back.

Back in the English Channel, great convoys of troops

and reinforcements continued to move toward the beaches of Normandy.

The beachhead already had expanded to 50 miles, and they put ashore

the complete equipment of a highly mechanised army.

There is much hard fighting ahead, but the Germans are now faced

with a three-front war -

in the northern reaches of Russia, in the mountains of Italy, and here,

against this most tremendous military operation in history.

Heavy fighting in all areas, particularly around Caen,

where the Germans are making a frantic effort to stop the advance

of the British and Canadians.

Both sides are using more and more armour.

So far, the Germans haven't been able to match ours.

A good many of the German strongpoints

that had to be bypassed have now been eliminated.

# We'll meet again

# Don't know where

# Don't know when

# But I know we'll meet again

# Some sunny day.... # To me...

And I often think about this.

I think about all the

18-year old, 19-year-old, 20-year-old guys that I saw,

and I think they never got to have a life.

After gallant France had been struck down,

we from this island and from our united empire,

maintained the struggle

single-handed for a whole year,

until we were joined by the overwhelming power and resources

of the United States of America.

Finally, almost the whole world would combine against the evildoers

who are now prostrate before us.

Our gratitude to our splendid allies

goes forth from all our hearts in this island

and throughout the British Empire.

But let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead.

We must now devote all our strength and resources

to the completion of our task, both at home and abroad.

Advance, Britannia!

Long live the cause of freedom! God save the king!

# But I know we'll meet again

# Some sunny day

# Keep smiling through

# Just like you always do

# Till the blue skies... #

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