I had a choice, didn't I? Give up or go on.
Could you face your friends?
Could you have people point at you and say, He gave up? No.
So I decided to go.
And we went.
We divide into groups, run like hell and hope for the best?
More or less.
Listen up, everyone. This is it.
This is what we've all been waiting to do.
There aren't many of us, but that won't matter. The fact is, you're all bloody good men, the best.
In, get in!
(GUNFIRE, SHOUTING)
(SHOUTS IN GERMAN)
(TRANSLATION) At 4.30 a.m., Sergeant Buskotte says on the line,
Paratroopers are in the battery! Were in hand-to-hand fighting!
(SWEARS IN GERMAN)
Move it!
(TELEPHONE RINGS)
Then the attackers put phosphor grenades into the ventilation shafts.
I heard Buskotte say, We are suffocating.
I heard some were praying, the lords Prayer, and others were cursing.
I was hearing them suffocating and wrestling with death.
Suddenly I heard myself saying, I'm going to get you out of this.
I thought, How the hell am I going to do that?
Sort that bloody machine-gun out!
Go on, Jefferson!
And then I felt something whipping me and I went down.
And I couldn't get up with left arm and left leg both hit.
Get the bastards!
And I watched my soldiers going in... and I was immensely proud of them.
Clear!
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
Move!
Hallo? Hallo?
Sir! Battery taken, sir!
- Guns taken out? - I think so.
- Bloody well go back and make sure! - Sir!
Move it, Dowling!
Let's go!
Go! Watch out!
Mike Dowling and I knew that one of us wouldn't be coming back.
Shells incoming!
Last time I ever saw him.
(TELEPHONE RINGS)
Rommel.
Hang on.
I said, Hang on? I can't move!
He said, "Just a minute. Keep still. I'll put you in my picture."
What does he mean, hang on?
He was the war artist, Albert Richards.
- What the hell are you doing here? - Morning, Alan.
I'll put you in the official picture, call it "The Wounded Soldier".
What are you doing, you bloody fool?
It could be booby-trapped!
Don't call your commanding officer a "bloody fool"!
I did a count of the men on their feet,
and of the 150 with which wed attacked, we had 65.
We have done what we were sent to do. Those guns will not fire on the beaches.
Those men on the beaches will come through without the appalling casualties.
We were rather pleased with ourselves.
- Bring it out! - Yes, sir!
(TRANSLATION) Then I saw the ships. It was a wall above the water.
It looked like a compact mass coming towards you.
And then it started.
(EXPLOSION)
(SPEAKS GERMAN)
(BBC RADIO) And first of all, the cruisers started,
opening fire on the beach which we could see quite plainly in the dim morning light.
And soon the air grew heavy with the smell of cordite,
and looking along the beach we could see the explosions of our artillery
creating a great cloud and fog of smoke.
Coming down!
And as the light broke and we really could see around us,
we began to become aware of the formidable character
of this invasion fleet of which we were a part.
(INAUDIBlE)
Hey, you better get back, Myers.
You still owe me 20 bucks from that game.
You give me a very warm feeling inside, Capa. I'll give you that!
Hey, lieutenant! You don't look so good!
Hey, listen, Collins!
Collins! You think that thing's gonna save your life? It could kill you just as quick.
You jump in the water with that strap so tight, your helmet'll fill up and snap your neck off.
One of the first beaches troops are due to land on is Omaha.
Among the men, the US First Infantry Division.
Piloting them ashore is 15-year-old survivor of Exercise Tiger, Eddie McCann.
I was assigned the first wave.
I wasn't really prepared for what came about.
There's a certain smell...
to hot blood.
Believe me, I smelled it that day.
(TRANSLATION) The average age of the Americans was 20 or 21.
I was 17 years old.
I turned 18 in Normandy.
The first wave on Omaha suffered 90% casualties.
Robert Capa will go ashore just two minutes after the landings begin.
(CONSTANT GUNFIRE)
The gunfire was intense, terrifying. I wanted shelter but I knew I had a job to do.
I had to talk to remind myself I was still alive.
I remembered an old line from the Spanish Civil War.
Es una cosa muy seria.
This is a very serious business.
What can you see? Tell me.
- You don't wanna know, Capa. - Tell me.
It's Ma.
She's sitting on the front porch and she's waving my insurance policy.
The men of the 21st Panzers, now aware of the beach landings,
have still received no orders.
There are five beaches designated for the landings on D-Day.
Utah and Omaha are American.
Gold and Juno, British and Canadian.
And Sword Beach, where the teenage conscripts from the Kings Shropshire light Infantry
are waiting for their turn to land.
(BBC RADIO) Its 25 minutes before H-Hour for our force,
and overhead the thunderous roar
of Fortresses and liberators going in to blast the coast.
On the horizon, flash after flash from the guns of the bombarding ships,
firing their 15- and 16-inch guns against shore targets.
You could see ships from horizon to horizon.
I mean, it was thick with ships, the Channel was.
I think a lot of the lads were very subdued. We said, "Well, this is it."
"There's probably some of us who haven't got very long to go." And we knew that.
(MONTGOMERY) To us is given the honour of striking a blow for freedom
which will live in history,
and in the better days that lie ahead, men will speak with pride of our doings.
Let us pray that the lord, mighty in battle,
will go forth with our armies.
Let us recall the words of a famous soldier,
spoken many years ago.
He either fears his fate too much or his deserts are small,
who dare not put it to the touch,
to win or lose it all.
On Sword Beach, the men of the First Special Service Commando Brigade,
led by lord lovatt and his piper, Bill Millin, march ashore under heavy fire,
inspiring the young soldiers facing battle for the first time.
(BAGPIPE MUSIC)
I think we were frightened when we landed.
I don't think there was a man that wasn't frightened. I don't think so.
You still had to go on because everybody else had to go, so you had to go.
I've been through many battles, but I was never as excited as when my time came to go ashore,
for this was France and the beginning of the end.
The rough, swirling tide carried our assault craft over the obstacles,
and we jumped into more water than we expected, six feet of it,
so I had to swim a yard or two with my pack before I could wade to shore.
Then the struggle across the soft sand, five minutes that will always be vivid in my mind.
(EXPLOSION)
Come on, move your bloody arses!
- Come on, Bill! - Take cover!
- Where's Gisser? - God knows!
Someone from "Y" Company said we wouldn't get across the beach!
- What does he know? - He was in Dunkirk.
This is gonna be different. Come on!
- Jesus! - Here you go, lads!
- Where did you get them from? - (MUMBLES)
- What do we do next? - Keep our heads down!
Get a move on! You won't win the war lying down!
Come on!
(TELEPHONE RINGS)
(SPEAKS GERMAN)
(CAPA) They say you should never stop in the heat of battle.
If you do, all you will see is your own death. And I did.
Time stood still. I was totally alone.
I saw only bodies around me.
Young men who just a few hours earlier had been happy, human... and alive.
Without even thinking about it, I did the only thing I could.
It seemed to take forever.
I felt the current dragging me back towards the beach,
and it was as if I was wading against fate.
But I knew I had to get to the boat. I had to get out of there.
What I couldn't admit to myself was what I knew to be the truth.
I was scared. And I was running away.
All of a sudden, there was a bang and I had no idea what was happening.
For a crazy moment, I thought I was on a farm.
Then I remembered, lifejackets are lined with feathers.
That's what happens when a shell hits you.
There were body parts everywhere
and grown men weeping at the tragedy unfolding around them.
Keeps you on your toes, getting shot at. last time I'm going to the seaside!
I knew it was gonna be bad, but not that bad.
- I'm knackered. - Bloody starved, I am.
- left half me breakfast in the Channel. - And the other half on me!
Moving out in ten minutes. Seven miles to go. We've got to be there by nightfall.
- Where's this place we're going? - Town called Caen.
- We'll check out the local talent. - Our job's to liberate the town.
- What about the tanks? - Can't get them off the beach.
Probably unloading some general's cigars!
How do we liberate Caen without tanks?
- Beats me. - We're going seven miles on foot?
Yep. No tanks, no lift.
No tanks, no bloody protection!
As the British infantry advance south towards Caen,
to the east of the city and on the other side of the River Orne is the 21st Panzer Division.
(SPEAKS GERMAN)
Why? Why no response? Have they not received it?
They have to know we warned them about the invasion.
In London, fears are growing that the deception plan has failed.
They still don't know that the Germans have believed Garbos radio message
warning of the Normandy invasion.
- I will send them another message. - One of your specials?
I will scream. I will rant. I will remind them how helpful I am, how useful I am.
I will make them believe I sent it. I have received no acknowledgement.
This makes me question your seriousness and sense of responsibility.
I therefore demand a clarification immediately as to what has happened.
(MAN SPEAKS FRENCH)
(EISENHOWER) People of Western Europe.
A landing was made this morning on the coast of France
by troops of the Allied Expeditionary Force.
This landing is part of a United Nations plan for the liberation of Europe,
made in conjunction with our great Russian allies.
In the course of this campaign for the defeat of the enemy,
you may sustain further loss and damage.
Tragic though they may be, they are part of the price of victory.
I know I can count on your steadfastness now, no less than in the past.
The heroic deeds of Frenchmen who have continued to struggle against the Nazis
have been an example and an inspiration to all of us.
Keep your faith staunch.
At half past one, I was at home, and a bombing took place not far from us,
and the blast caused the door at the back of our cellar
to be blown open.
(EXPLOSION)
Immediately I rushed to the improvised hospital where the Red Cross was
to help to save the citizens who were wounded.
(MAN SPEAKS FRENCH)
(SPEAK FRENCH)
(ROAR OF AIRCRAFT ENGINE)
If you are reading this document,
you are in the immediate vicinity of key troop movements and supplies.
These will shortly be subject to repeated Allied attack.
You and your family must evacuate the target area immediately.
Do not obstruct any roads.
Withdraw from the city. Disperse over as wide an area as possible.
On Omaha Beach, in seven and a half hours of fighting,
Franz Gockel has fired over 10,000 rounds at the incoming American troops.
Go, go!
(TRANSLATION) We couldn't understand how in this rain of fire,
despite the heavy casualties,
the Americans just kept coming and coming.
At 3 p.m., the battle for Omaha Beach is over.
(BBC RADIO) War report number one.
Throughout the day, the BBC has been telling the world
that Allied forces have crossed the Channel into France.
General de Gaulle spoke particularly to the people of France
on whose soil the first battles for the liberation of Europe are being fought.
(MAN SPEAKS FRENCH)
(TRANSLATION) A vast machinery of attack, for us the means of liberation,
has been set in motion from the shores of England.
Not long ago, it was on this last bastion of Western Europe
that the tide of German oppression spent itself.
Today, it is the base from which liberty's offensive is being launched.
France, overwhelmed for four years but never conquered,
is on her feet to take part in the fight.
In the French nation, in our empire, in the armies, there is one will, one hope.
(SCREAMS OF PAIN)
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us...
In London, Garbo is still waiting to unleash the big lie.
At last, an acknowledgement.
They'd received the message, but hadn't bothered to respond.
And your tantrum did the trick. They swallowed the truth.
Now let's see if they'll swallow the big lie.
I will tell them I was summoned to the Ministry this morning.
A new directive has been issued, top secret.
No mention is to be made of forthcoming assaults in other areas of France.
And that will suggest that what they are seeing in Normandy is just a diversion?
Despite driving all day,
Rommel is still 150 miles from his headquarters at la Roche Guyon.
(SPEAKS GERMAN)
(SINGING IN FRENCH)
In Caen prison,
captured French Resistance workers have been listening to the Allied bombing
and with the sound has come hope.
The youngest of them is 15-year-old Jacques Collard,
and in the next cell, artist, teacher and mapmaker, Robert Douin.
(DISTANT EXPLOSIONS)
leconte!
(SPEAKS GERMAN)
lamoureux!
(SPEAKS FRENCH)
The only chance of liberation now lies with the British troops
who are just three miles away in the area of the lebisey Woods.
(NEWS REPORT) British, Canadian and American troops
who landed on the coast of France north of Caen in broad daylight this morning
are already several miles inland
and covered by an ever-changing but ever-present umbrella of fighters.
Its too early yet, much too early, to start giving any reasons
for the comparative lack of resistance put up by the Germans to our landing.
It is proper to report
that the first phase of the attack on Western Europe has gone corking well!
"Shoot them before they shoot you." That's what my dad said before I left.
My dad took me to the top of a hill and told me about the Great War.
"That's what we're fighting for," he said. "That's what we're fighting for."
He said, "This is what it's all about.
"It's you or the Jerries and we don't want them here, do we?"
(SPEAKS GERMAN)
(SHOUTS IN GERMAN)
(FAINT THUD)
(SWEARS IN GERMAN)
(SPEAKS GERMAN)
Come on!
Dig, Gisser, dig!
Dig! Come on!
They only called him Gisser 'cause he was always scrounging a cigarette.
"Gisser tuppence for a cup of tea" or "gisser fag".
Dig, dig, dig!
Dig? You can't cut a ruddy blancmange with this!
Hey! You know what?
I might come back here for my summer hols next year!
Make for cover!
You sort of wondered when it was your turn.
But you just hoped it wouldn't be.
- What about Gisser? - Move out!
Douin!
Robert Douin and 86 other French Resistance fighters
were executed by the Germans at Caen prison on D-Day.
The Allied troops who might have liberated them
were locked in a stalemate with the 21st Panzer Division.
(SHOUTS IN GERMAN)
- Shermans! Shermans! - Fucking great!
(SPEAKS GERMAN)
(GASPS FOR BREATH)
(SHOUTS IN GERMAN)
(AIRCRAFT ROAR Overhead)
(SWEARS IN GERMAN)
At 9 p.m. On June 6th, 1944, the 6th Air landing Brigade,
consisting of over 250 gliders and 2,000 men, crossed into France.
All those who saw this overwhelming force come into land
knew that the Allies had won the day.
In 24 hours they had landed 156,000 troops
and 20,000 vehicles on French soil.
They had not made the inroads they had hoped for,
but the Allies had gained a foothold in France.
The day had come at great cost on all sides.
12,000 Allied casualties, 7,000 Germans
and over 20,000 French civilians killed by Allied bombing.
Yet by nightfall, the Allied bridgehead remained vulnerable.
The Germans could still mobilise powerful forces
and strangle the incursion.
But they had to judge whether Normandy was the real thing
or whether a second, much larger invasion was still to come.
(FRONT DOOR OPENS)
We intercepted a German intelligence message sent to all senior staff.
They bought every word you said.
The German High Command was still expecting an invasion at Pas-de-Calais
until September 1944.
The double agent Juan Pujol, codenamed Garbo,
worked for British Intelligence until the end of the war.
In 1949, he faked his own death and went to live in Venezuela.
In July 1944, Rommel was implicated in a plot to assassinate Hitler.
He was threatened with a trial for treason and forced to take his own life.
Hans Speidel escaped implication in the plot.
He went on to become Commander-in-Chief of Allied land forces for NATO in 1957.
General Eisenhower returned to the United States in 1945
where he became Army Chief of Staff.
He went on to become twice President of the United States.
Of the men of the 9th Parachute Battalion who landed with lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway,
50 were lost in the capture of the battery at Merville.
Another 190 remain unaccounted for to this day.
(MAN SPEAKS FRENCH)
Frequently I think about the men.
They knew it was possible that they'd have to sacrifice their lives
for the men coming across the beach.
I knew very well that those men would not let me down.
(MAN SPEAKS FRENCH)
The men of the Kings Shropshire light Infantry
were engaged in bitter fighting at lebisey Ridge for 30 days.
The Allies finally succeeded in liberating the city of Caen on July 19th.
Those of us survived are pretty selfish.
It's a dirty, filthy game, war.
You miss your colleagues. There's no question about that. Yeah, it is sad. It is sad.
As the days went on, we thought to ourselves, a few days ago, you were just lads.
You hadn't been out of school very long.
And now you've become a man when you've gone through all this nightmare.
It is a nightmare, of course. Absolute nightmare.
18-year-old Franz Gockel was one of only two men in his platoon
who survived the fighting on Omaha Beach.
(TRANSLATION) I've told people I was praying a lot during the attack.
And one of the Americans I'm now friends with today said, We were also praying.
We were praying and killing each other at the same time.
Robert Capas photographs were published in life magazine on June 19th, 1944.
He had already returned to the beaches of Normandy.
He was killed by a landmine ten years later whilst on assignment in Vietnam.
The red cross made by Andre Heintz outside the city hospital of Caen
was spotted by Allied aircraft.
The hospital and the cathedral were the only two large buildings that escaped destruction.
When Caen was cleared,
they came across a cellar
where they found a man who had died of suffocation
because he had been trapped there and nobody had ever realised that he was there.
And with a candle he had managed to write a few notes,
and the last thing he had written was,
"It's terrible to know that I am going to die
"because I have been expecting the liberation for so long,
"but since I know that because of my death other people will be liberated..."
And he ended, "Long Live France! Long Live the Allies!"