Original subtitles

if hide was coming in

the bullets were hitting the water and hitting men

i went down the ram

and i went on

real one

can you tell me about the day itself

my heart talk shouts and lame

To rein this way out

once you are career testing testing one two three testing test

What had they told you beforehand to expect expect hell

They didn't like it was about that

It was sheer nerves

But exhilarating nurse . it was never wor

Your task will not be an easy one

Your enemy is well trained , well equipped

in battle harden he will fight savages

i try together i could get up

i told this story help coming

i uh said goodby to my mother , my wife

As they struggle

somebody pulling out

After months , years really of planning

The allies finally launched their surprise attack on the german forces

Guarding the normandy coast of occupied france

the stakes for those troops on that morning were incredibly high

And in many respects it was it was very much a a a now or never moment

The allies identified five beach landing areas

Those code named utah and omaha were the american beaches

And it was always known that it was necessary to take home aha

Because it sat between the other beaches

The soldiers like harry arriving on the beaches

In these landing craft , it's the reality of war very much in their faces

Really . for the first time that they've encountered something like this

There have been a sense of shock

What they were faced with was far greater than they had been prepared for

At the shoreline on it was allowed wit dead floating had the crawling

I was exhausted crawling over

and magda who was wit who was dead

I would go for money

i could hear

The bullets go into the sand

Now we all sucking tongue and si si si

S the peared in the beach

was talking something of

How i mock the air

Ground

All the water with any paas

Shit on my back

原来跑路

The landings were planned to be based on waves of troops hitting the beaches

The first wave understood that they would take the highest casualties

But they hadn't expected the volume of fire that they were experiencing

With the full force of the german firepower raining down on them

Omaha , from the perspective of the allied invaders

Was the most formidable beach

Because it was surrounded by gum positions on the high ground

Americans were incredibly vulnerable

The germans could just pick off these americans

Stepping off the boats almost at will

I got up at the first layer of jingles of shell rock and laid there

And i get my wind under fire

It was margarsitting along the shore

And see the sand going straight up shingon fire and artili shells were hidden

it was

I lay on my side and i open my fly

And here and it

i guess i was being neat

How soaking wet anyway

didn't matter

Under fire

Sort of crazy i guess

Bally i climbed up to the next slayer shell on a bunch of gi

Is are getting hmounded

We came under an intense fire

And they covered the beach with automatic weapons

Fire seemed like an infernal to expect that

No , we didn't we didn't expect it

This was our first taste of combat

What's with a bit like hell

Well i've never been there

But it's like that i'm saying i don't want to go there

and it's worse i'm sad

See you a friends

people who serve with the years

Floating face down or face up

A lot of the wound drowned

I think i was in shark at the time

At times i was frightened

There wasn't much to think about actually

except the

Soldier

the german soldier on the machine gun

Viva mia for the short one came from me

some lesson in versity shelon haeton on skey and harmony he did a

he come on

because i'm sure once once fresh aapartner feel of water

At omahab the earlier allied naval bombardment was quite ineffective

So the german assistance nests were still intact

Franz scocko . his mission was to sit in his banco

And kill as many allied soldiers as possible

As franz goco looked down onto the beach

He'd seen these heavily laden soldiers

Sometimes drenched from having just got out of the water

So they're not moving particularly fast

There was basically no natural cover at all

There was nothing between them and these guns

Almost nothing to stop the bullets

I'm so shown for him

If you wanting to show something , you all the prize

that's father of our hot from blues

At the time the objective was to get to the cliff across the beach

Then proceived . from there i was wounded

Just as it came off the boat and across the beach

on my stomach

And crawled

it seemed like an eternity almost

Omaha was unusual because there was a huge expanse of sand to cover

In order to get to the cliffs or bluffs

But there's five gaps

Natural gaps in in that elevated grand

The americans key objective is to secure these natural axes

And overpower the german strong points

This was supposed to happen within a couple of hours

He was supposed to land on the beach where the block separated

We came in approximately five hundred to one thousand yards east

We were posed to

We didn't know what to do

What was ahead of this was the bluffs

The blocks arranged anywhere from two to three stories in height

Quite steep

You thought everything was worse

because there were tanks coming over and trocks coming off

Fought out the water and sinking

And and and for being hit

now

then you just turned away , you couldn't look

One guy next to me got a slug through his

Alma missed his head because he had socks in this

Ala another guy had part of his backs flown open

We put sofa potter and he was numb shock and he was laughing

I feel like guess

The germans were pinning down the americans to the sea lion

which from their perspective is what they were trying to do

To ensure that these men couldn't even get as far as the cliffs

Casualty rates were incredibly high

And the americans they were starting to get really booked down

In some cases , all of the men stepping off their boats were killed

There was a very real prospect that they might actually lose the beach

How they did you lose you now

The words seventeen on my boat to start with

And only fireworks came off alive

It did harry by me to lose these men

That we trained with some of my grown up web from childhood

I witness so many about people getting killed

I mean this , this kind of difficult

This wa what you saw

I don't know what i can do this night

and

The cam i need to be in another world

And the wondoes it here

So nothing ain the earn vellas nihishaft had not answer come

I had to manage the owner

we shall not stay off so ho

还应该干嘛

alemy meta i dota

i mean you will leave with you out of for all the time

On the edit done by laughing

so string by i'm sporting as nia my income of da that's all dance to train

he not now you deca moly kite or indeal to come out

你都喊不开了

Pockets are men advance across the beach

And make it to the base of the bluffs

Where there are german defenses , mines and obstacles

The bluffs would be the toughest nut to crack

So we're trying to dig in with their bare hands

There were martyr and artili shells landing all over the place

There was one fucking mess

Right would find a dig himself back to deeper

So with the either plan

you just there just there trying to stay alive yeah

While soldiers like harry were trapped at the base of the bluffs

Pinned down and unable to move forward

Another wave of british were about to land on the eastern boundary of the dday beaches

known as sword beach

When we got there it was just a shambles

It was one of the first three meals

He has a clouch on the deck then

And a sort of thing going on and on the beach

So no i don't want to get too dust

Unknown to james , the first wave at sword beach had already suffered terrible casualties

And this is what would have confronted him as he approached the beach

When the commandos came on behind them

some of them described it as being like a sea of kkie that was laid out in front of them

Due to the sheer number of casualties lying in the sand

Our job was to get off the beach as fast as you can have the instructions that we give them

So the initial mission for some of those invading on sword beach

Was to make their way directly to bereuville bridge

Later known as as pegasus bridge

In order to relieve john howard and his men

Who of course seized control of that bridge at the very

Very start of the operation on d day

This bridge was a really important means of either

germany moving troops towards the d day beaches

Or the allies moving troops off the beaches and onwards to gain a foothold in northern france

And they told you help would be coming up from the beach in the form of the commander

yes

We must expect to counterattack any time

Nip is vital that the crossing places beheld

It was rather frightening to realize exactly what was happening

And keeping our fingers crossed for those bug buggers coming in by seed

The german fortifications at salt beach work quite strong

You had mine fields

You had heavy weapons

You had concealed machine gun positions in the houses

So the british forces there had to overcome a lot of challenges

To break through the atlantic wall

As far as we were concerto us young lads

It was an adventure

This was it , you know

There was another champion in charlie hall

Who , uh , came with me

I was a bringer and then

And charlie was my number two

Charlie howl

They like you to have your mate

Because sure that you would work much better than you know you fight better

You know we have the company and a friendship

Another person with you

Weather at the beach to the only one thing in my mind to see it up

Captain powers in charge . he was leading

Followed by me

Followed by chi han

All i i remember is a blind and flashing

My friend charlie hall was down on the deck

And then it was bleeding

At a blood of pump and nice his neck

The white house of this combined oppadge

There was on his shoulder

And the blood corners pump on a house of roplaces

And i'd only just note down

And it was only a mass of sam

Come on yari come on

And this , uh , bush said get gone

You're not supposed to stop , get gone

so i went

get up come on just left

For those men landing at sword

The first challenge is to get off the beach itself

young men like james and waray they were totally vulnerable

Behind them is the english channel so they can't go backwards

the only way to survive here is to do what must have seem to be the most counterintuitive thing

which is to run towards the fire coming from the the gum positions above the beach

i had two young marines as a signal unit

We got a show one will not kill

incidentally u

And we got on the beach

Which was covered in buddies

tanks and smoke

once we got into the smoke

The whole thing seemed so unreal

I got my um camera and i started taking pictures

of the troops coming ashore

We studied coming across bodies , british bodies

And then the first one i saw was an infantry man

And what fascinating was he had no head

Is just like there was no head

Was no son of his head

加油加油

Get open what happened next

We grouped for about ten minutes on the beach

Until the beach master came along

The most calm man i've ever met in my life

came along swinging a cane

and he was just standing there ， sountain all over here

Keep over there

let's have a cup

快点让开

how long it lasted i don't know i didn't stop

People are falling

Them being killed and wounded

and this guy is walking through it

and we were off the beach

I suddenly spotted two very tiny infantry men

Marching along a very tall german soldier

Who was absolutely terrified at the bandage round his face

And it is too rather the cheerful promi

On another other side of them

I said just a minute

And they opposed as all they might be

Posing imickearly circus for their picture with this germany in between them

and um took the classic picture

Which george told to look out for captured prisoners

Very good for the morale and all the rest of it

you were saying there were lots of dead british soldiers lying around there's lots of dead bodies

Lying in the yeah little sand hills just below the promenade

Did you not think that these were worth filming

No , they wouldn't not use pictures of her dead bodies

These patient dead german

But not pare dead british

The objective of raw marine commandos such as james kelly

Was to attack and take the village of leon sumar

One of the interesting things about dday was

I guess the disorientation for the troops

They're coming off these packed beaches

And finding themselves in the countryside

Trying to get their bearings

And perhaps more importantly to find their rendezvous points with the rest of their troops

I've got off and i found the role

And the curious thing about that

Was that you couldn't have stood around

That man didn't know have a conversation without any danger

On on the corner by the church

And it likes on the afternoon nothing , nothing happened

And this flicate

And murdered it a couple of hundred yards

For the back down on the beach

The invading british go from fighting on a beach

to fighting in an urban environment in a street fight

That at any point that could be hidden

German forces training their guns upon them

They don't know where the threat is

So it's a completely different proposition

The success of the landings was still in the balance

For people on those shores

There's a sentiment of disbelief

Families peering out of windows

Wondering what is happening

They see these shadows coming up and onto the shores

And here you start to realize visis actually it

The sense of disbelief was transforming into a growing fear

that maybe they were going to die

If they were in that line of fire

This real memalik for jin ya live

if he is so mad people pos have so did but too don't cry so i don't

want only but i don't ja

i create one out of the debut don't worry

He said she likes

Said he is on blade

He came a monosity

i like shakespeare cake said the long run 站长你讲呀

That's the only the fdation

it could you suder no it is finally cause it to

mainly with tablet the shaka lak is a very very good for all of opulation

For jacqueline and her family

Dj was like being in a trance

People would have been so excited

Thrilled that this could actually be the moment

Where we see the beginning of the end of the nazi grip on europe

But it's also a day where no one knows what's going to happen next

And you're seeing dead bodies all around you

As the morning progresses

Things weren't going anywhere near as well on omaha

As they were on the other beaches

Progress was really slow as the tide moved in

The amount of ground that was available for the troops

There was diminishing and diminishing and diminishing

And that represents a huge threat

Four hours after they landed

The battle was still raging

Omaha beach was still in german hands

Some of the resistance nests had already been taken by the americans

But largely the germans still had their positions

Originally , all resistance nests had enough ammunition to fight a prolonged fight

For about forty eight hours

It was moving a dead ched of guys

Nobody could move

They were terrorized

We didn't know where we were

We had no organes

My captain was killed on the beach

Given the chaos in omaha

Much came down to the individual initiative and courage of soldiers like chuck and harry

The germans had placed in a wire entanglements , mines

Tank traps and of course these had to be knocked out with demolition teams

But nine ten o'clock

When it was closed back

They were going to blaa wire

It was about four or five guys rowing up the block ahead of me

What's remarkable about omaha beach is that despite the fact of many of these specialist teams were disrupted or dead

That soldiers like chuck vantaged to assemble demolitions

Bang lord repedoes to blow up wire entanglements

Now we got banglord torpedoes

That's uh , long tubes of tnt screwed together

And we put that on under the wire

find a little wire and just splashed

we started one at a time in between machine gun fire

Jumping over the wire

Or i ran for trip to tell in it

but crawl through all right

And i could hear the explosion in the bank of of the people do

Yeah , i cl quarter the wind

And i found out of order then

Well that's shit with their blower

And another guy in turned together

both the lakes were all

And they have twenty kits around the lakes

And i had to keep gone

Actually we got to tap the hill

i looked down on beach and was a real mess

Though we were up there

maybe thirty guys in our area

And we could have been swept off there

With brooms that the germans knew were so few of us

It's just a mark

Get up the hill when they started screaming back from me

Back down at the beach , come on down

They wanted to shell the hill

So i just came down and say the block was like

I just saw the block was two and a half stories high

I came down so b one story of sea level

I was a stupid thing to do

And the us has archor open fire

By late morning the situation at omaha seemed quite desperate

At one point the allied commanders thought that they would have to pull out

And end the attempt to take omaha beach

The allies brought up naval gunfire

Just try and knock out the german defenses

To pave the way for the american infantry to get off the beach

I can see at the giant show were bing the hell apart

They come all over my head

Jerfront row and all the looking up at the screen

That's the way it loo

you and for you you i'll be finished on your comeon

Not also beaten

And the will also beating and meme up safishfree

and the eineland stores could be a

If all tivity and no no more

he will liam

Up in the north

And mentia we knew it

see any house comes

oh darry no longer are mentioned after an expersian on survise neman beto bi

Then i'll be said

i know spoken and bk the ppear old school of a canon smart

Hu

And the white traffist time looks like

Come on nether of which i am

and i only you believe in comfortable

Both of beat work on to desert debuden miere

The comin the main nation on the army

The number of german soldiers deployed at omaha beach in these resistance nests

Was astonishingly low

So we were only talking about several hundred soldiers

Even though they killed hundreds of enemy soldiers

It was still no entry it

Because the americans of the british were pumping men and material into the beach hats

And the german soldiers didn't get the expected reinforcements

So whilst at first it might have felt like they had this huge advantage

By sheer weight of numbers and effort and tenacity

The americans start to turn the tide of battle in their favor

One by one they overrm resistance nests

And the german soldiers above omahal were either killed

Captured or like france cockle , they retreated

The allies had succeeded in securing the other four beaches

For the infantry having advanced

What they might have thought was the worst experience was behind them

But the real battles and the real slugging matches were about to begin

The germans were mobilizing thousands of troops from across occupied france

but the full force of the german tank divisions hadn't yet been unleashed

You came to howard male

But i'm aften fewer not of ten montwenty and bringly born

we've got to our peller on

That the angarnet oppodium muzo and ganghai a fashion becoming

And they have ever knock his arnie vant

And then happily mark . so i see this

who will respect the sai that connect that city zing at me of di

The panel layer division is a german elite division

So it is one of the big trump carts in the german defense

But for young soldier i have admire

The problem is many of the tanks can only activate it on hitler's personal order

And as he is not convinced that this is the big landing

They are released only in the afternoon of the sixth tune

So crucial hours are lost for the germans

Nazi propaganda had told these young men

Your task is to throw the allies back into the sea

And then we have still a chance to win the war

So now for the americans and for the germans

There are only two options

Killed or be killed

By early afternoon commander troops have got past the germans on sore beach

And james kelly and his unit were on the outskirts so of leon sumir

So they were just there

This pocket of men

Not knowing where the enemy was

And of course that renders you've very vulnerable

Because it means that the threat could come from any direction

And what happened

Can you take me through a step by a state

Errit and i didn't think that javas were really choosing us this

until i turned around

and i found myself by myself

and you know a little panic crept in

I got the sea cabin par

And then i , i possibly land on the ground

And ron , you know

So i said , come on , let's get out of here

He had multiple wounds on a are just trying to help him

I was sure of , uh

Giggling and laughing and crying

You like , uh , like a , uh

I don't know like a frightened charlish book

They are the things that has amazed me

You know , about war

You know , they can be so dramatic , intense

And then you can have these very

very strange things that happening in it

Within seconds where it came from

I don't know they are deeps

Which we are converted into like sort of , uh

Fragile type of ambulance

And that was the last i saw of captain power

when that deep drove away

uh , the loneliness that i felt

Standing there by myself

but death

And i realized just how

How immature that i must be

You know , young green what i call it what you like

I just cried my eyes

oh yeah , yeah , i just stood there it cry , i did

British commandos like james were tasked with the objective

Advancing and taking and seizing german strategic positions

And one key objective for some of them was to get to benneville bridge

Where major john howard and his glider troops had landed the night before

from time of our onwards we've been expecting to seeing here the commander

They went on very very very wearing , very wearing indeed

you could feel movement out there and close the contact coming

We were to play a view we call

once we saw them coming down from the beaches

We had a bule plane

we heard this beautiful was quite like listen

And everybody cheer

that's what we was playing for

The commander completely what we really needed

A squadron atti don't forget

So it closweet went platly didn't we

Uh

A lot of joking went on between our troops and

And their asking about the bloody hell they've been

You know , and all that sort of business

We opened up the cafe gandre re alongside the bridge

The pattron was george gdre

And the first thing george gdre did bless him

Went down into his garden

And dug up nearly a hundred bottles of champagne

That he'd buried away in the garden

Away from the germans

And all sudden you should gone

Gree came out with a bottle of champagne

in a couple of glasses

On up to go

and i said yes , he

对啊

Oh , it's that good

I don't know it when it was sham pain not out for shampoe

It could have been sider

It could have been anything

But oh boy , did it go down well

It really went down well

And of course that's what you want to do in battle is to

To give vent to to to your feelings of ten up your si

Jected to all this pressure

And to get a good shell releases it all

For john howard and the whole of d company

It was a moment really kind of qualified happiness

Because they knew that this was really just the beginning

There was so much more to do

The scale of the task that was ahead of them

And they must have known

And all of them would live to see the end of all the days ahead

Getting across the beaches and taking the coastal towns

Was just the beginning of the invasion

The key objected for the british commanders on d day was to take con

The idea had been that the troops would get across the beaches

And get inland and take the city

But trying to get eight miles to come on the first day is is hugely ambitious

Taking con was crucial because of course

They understand that they are in a race with the germans

Khan is a hub of communications , of roads

Rail canals and it's how you access the rest of france beyond

So they are going to pound con

In order to dito disrupt and destroy the german defenders

uh ， apple deja will not only days of your guide there almost

Schematon the diversity of ebon shavia

can the disser ka therapacy

the out out to n wo a a a oh no is a cutable

well ， why at door

The city became engulfed in flames

nobody would have anticipated that they would have cost

So much death

Dust

Flames and terror

French civilians hadn't had time to evacuate

And all of a sudden they were trapped

I learned soul light it turmosque called upon the night cover

say to west the creative familia dubu to

It's captiply tragic securrideo don't only major

I mean you have a day blessing

It's a new behzel the kardas on police

because i'm gonna say well it could be blestick of it to feteribon so bad

Uh , it is soviet , the sukka

The bombing of khan was one of those moments

Where warfare came to the city

it came to the people

There's hundreds of civilian casualties

And they destroy some of their targets

But the allies still have a huge way to go

We didn't know where we were

We had no orges

we were hungry and tired and and scared

i worked my way to go in land

To a house bout house

just a walls were up

There

I located some of my buddies and my company

But i didn't have riposter

just walking around in the days

This origin for my company ran up to path

Yelling down there was full of mines

my best study from chicago named david

Look on his glasses and said now i can see them

Ten minutes later he was killed

Child sick about it

Once the allies get further inland

They um dragged into a street fighting

And some of the villages

And the germans in this part of normandy

have could also some fortified positions inland

The german soldiers have been told again and again

This is a battle we have to win

this is a battle we will win

The rest of the day was spent like a butch sh guerilla

tide is

Just the jumble of of fright

and and running and firing and

Disappearing

a hiding panic and corners

And the guys were so trigger happy

That if we were suspicious about arm out of time

we do the amgrenade

i think we go

French farmers , uh

There were resistant people or or innocent people

Or that work for the germans

but we had no time

By early evening on d day they had taken the five beaches

The front line has moved to a few miles inland

Not particularly far at this stage

And the germans respond

There is no doubt now that this is the big allied invasion

And they've got to pull out all the stops

still one of our best sinkiana s

Herbert myers unit didn't get on their way until early evening

From the base one hundred miles south of the coast

When they are ordered to march through the normandy front

They want to be as quickly as possible on the beaches

So they planned to travel through the night

Pvd they resume the invitous and siller home for the man

We had the invitas an unmarch me dianna do better

or spy oped off the decanson tano oed off

you said i loved in at the victor

and poison those from jk bomb banger one

So all not a funger come

You need to bear in mind from the gyms perspective

Everything is on the line as well

For them

There was this sense that it should still have been possible to drive the allies back back into the water

The allies who got this foothold

But the battle for normandy has , has barely begun

The allies didn't waste any time bringing in more ships with supplies for their troops

Without enough food , ammunition and replacements of of weapons and equipment

They would be vulnerable to german counterattacks

On the evening of d day

The troops are exhausted

I mean physically , they had not slept

They have not eaten , they have not had anything to drink

They are , i think , mentally and physically at the end

I got in a ditch in your road and was getting dark

And my apple and was left to from breakfast

try to get some sleep doors in the ditch

That night

A few garmin fes come when we start boming

And so we didn't get pa lot sleep

Now lay ahead the long hard slog to liberate france

And many winds survived the next few days

Let alone weeks

From then on

Things got significantly harder

Because it stopped being about speed of attack based on surprise

Both sides from this point onwards

But become locked in this brutal battle of wills and barbarity

We decided to get into the middle of this field

so we can see that someone was creeping up on us

And we decided to be a fax hall

You were exhaust that tired and blank of watch

Quite a dig that sergeant said to me after u , uh

Pocket parley let's just sit down here

And if they come for us

We take as many as we can

And that's the way i spent

the night we sat back to back

Lady

it was something to come and get us

But all the susan and not knowing where we were going for began to rip us

I was scared of hell

I couldn't imagine what was going on ahead

I witness to a number of

What i would call instance is a butchery

Where we did capture jerman and at all

We were well in austrimmed with a very dangerous situation

And we had a few flas kill every time somebody to go up a hill

Somebody's not coming back

And just hope that you make it

The open university has produced a free booklet

Highlighting key moments of dday

To order your free copy marking the eightieth anniversary

call o three hundred three o three o five five two

Or go to bbc dot code dr uk forward slash dday tapes

And follow the links to the open university