All language subtitles for D-Day.The.Price.Of.Freedom.2006

(solemn orchestral music)

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(waves crashing)

- More than 60 years have
passed since America's

heroic soldiers stood
watch over the sandy dunes

of Omaha Beach on the
Normandy coast of France.

(artillery firing)

D-Day, June 6, 1944, was unlike any day

the world had ever seen.

More than 5,000 ships, 12,000 aircraft,

and over 150,000 Allied troops

crossed a stormy English Channel to attack

Adolph Hitler's Atlantic
wall to begin the liberation

of Nazi-occupied Europe.

It was the largest invasion
force ever assembled.

Since 1939, war had raged
on the European continent

and on the Russian front
with millions killed,

many of them innocent civilians.

(gentle music)

For five years, Germany
had left behind a trail

of death and depression across
the countries of Europe.

It was now time to end Nazi aggression.

Operation Overlord was about to begin.

America entered World
War II after the Japanese

sneak attack on Pearl
Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Four days later, Germany would declare war

on the United States.

American youth signed up for
the fight by the millions.

(patriotic music)

- Americans rallying to the cause.

- We volunteered.

We all had red, white and blue fever.

- And that I will obey the orders

of the President of the United States.

- The men and boys of D-Day
came from all over the world.

They were American, British,
Canadian and French.

They came from different
religious backgrounds.

They left big cities and
small towns to go off to war,

places like Houston, Texas,
Rock Hill, South Carolina

and Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Many were just teenagers and while some

had fought in earlier battles
in North Africa and Italy,

most had never been in combat.

June 6, 1944 would be cataclysmic.

The future of democracy in the free world

was on the line.

But failure was always a real possibility.

- Battles are won really in the hearts

and the minds of the soldiers
who are fighting them.

- Allied Supreme Commander,
General Dwight D. Eisenhower,

was placing the future
of the world squarely

in the hands of soldiers just old enough

to drive a car or take a sip of beer.

But it was that same youth
that had already helped

turn the tide of the war prior to D-Day,

so they too, were handed the assignment

of Operation Overlord.

The invasion of Europe was gargantuan

in its preparation,
scope and implementation.

But for all its planning and practice,

the landings on the coast
of Normandy at low tide

would depend on the individual GI,

how he handled himself in battle,

and whether he would be
able to establish a foothold

on the sandy coastline,

or be driven back into the
English Channel in defeat.

On the coast of France at
6:30 a.m. on June 6, 1944,

the battle could have gone either way.

And for many hours that
day, there was doubt

about whether Operation
Overlord could succeed.

The loss of life was indeed horrific,

especially along the
7,000 yards of Omaha Beach

where the German defenses
on General Erwin Rommel's

so-called impregnable Atlantic
Wall were the strongest.

Men were killed before they
get off their landing craft.

Bodies floated in a
blood-red Channel surf.

Those who did make it onto Omaha Beach

were often cut down as
they tried to find cover

from German gun positions concealed

as high as 170 feet above the bluffs.

For those who were there at Omaha Beach,

exposed in the open,
it was worse than hell.

Over 2,500 Americans were
killed, wounded, or missing

after just half a day of fighting.

All along the Allied landing beaches,

from Sword to Juno, and
Gold to Omaha and Utah,

and inland, where Airborne paratroops

had landed the night before,

the youth of the Allied nations
rose to meet the challenge.

Because of their grit and determination,

the world would be forever changed.

- Their unit cohesion was torn apart

as they landed on the beach.

But they huddled up against
those limestone cliffs,

and eventually that
cohesion came back together

because of the will of the soldiers.

They understood the intent,

they understood what was at stake,

and they got it together.

They fought and they overcame the odds

and they moved inland and they ended up

accomplishing the mission that day.

It was amazing.

- Soldiers, sailors, and air men

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.

We will accept nothing
less than full victory.

Good luck and let us
all beseech the blessing

of Almighty God upon this
great and noble undertaking.

(peaceful piano music)

- The 50-mile stretch of beach

along the coast of
Normandy is peaceful today.

Yet, if you listen to
the wind and the waves,

they still whisper their compelling story.

The footprints of six
decades have come and gone,

with an ever-changing and
surging English Channel tide.

Yet one can still sense
the presence of soldiers

on these beaches.

The echoes of war remain.

The screams, the confusion,
the hail of gunfire.

But one also hears a
resolve to stay alive,

and forge ahead in the
face of overwhelming odds.

The visible scars of war remain

all along the Normandy coast.

German gun emplacements and bunkers

stare out at quiet stretches of coastline,

that once were strewn
with thousands of mines,

miles of barbed wire,

and beach obstacles designed
to destroy invaders.

Bomb craters still pock the landscape

like eerie scenes from the moon.

Monuments to those who gave
their lives are here, too.

Salutes to bravery and valor.

For the men who came to
these shores on June 6, 1944,

the memories remain too vivid and real,

even to this day.

To understand D-Day, one must see beyond

the passage of time,

not only on the shores
of the Normandy coast,

but also in the faces of the survivors

who came here to do what was asked of them

by their country decades ago.

Citizen soldiers from
states like Rhode Island,

where Army combat engineer, Leo Hairu,

Navy Higgins boat driver, Richard Fazio,

U.S. Army truck driver,
Wilson De La Santa,

U.S. Army heavy machine
gunner, Phillip O'Connell,

Navy radio man, Frank Chomka,

and 82nd Airborne
paratrooper, Chris Heizler,

all signed on for the battle.

What they experienced on these beaches

and in the blackness of a Normandy night,

jumping into the battle
ahead of the invasion force,

cannot be properly conveyed or understood

in words or in writings, but perhaps only

in their personal thoughts and nightmares.

The passage of time does
not always heal wounds,

or make things better.

The men of D-Day have indeed aged,

but like the wind, waves and sand

at Normandy's beautiful beaches,

their actions are eternal, and indelible.

They will live on, so
long as the scars of war

remain along a stretch of beautiful beach,

that saw the world change for the better

in one 24-hour period on June 6, 1944.

- People talk about fear.

I guess there was fear,

but mostly it was concern about doing

what you're supposed to be doing,

and doing it right.

- I wasn't as scared as I thought I'd be.

But I had a funny feeling in my stomach.

At that time, I didn't know what it was.

Later on I found out they
call 'em butterflies.

(laughing) I did have
butterflies in my stomach.

- You're scared all the
time you do something.

I was, anyway.

I imagine all the others were, too.

- I honestly never thought
of, oh god, you know?

No, as numb as I was, but I never

witnessed or felt any
fear of going into battle,

or anything like that.

- Well, everybody was scared.

Wait, we were only a bunch of kids.

What, 20, 21, 19?

And nobody knew what the
hell war was at that time,

but now I know.

- We went to see "Saving Private Ryan."

I think that was the
last war picture I saw.

I mean, that picture was,

the landing of the beach that day

was almost like they were there filming.

Exactly like that, and even worse.

- Preparations for D-Day began in 1943,

as the Allies sought to establish

a second front in Western Europe.

The military build-up on
the coast of Great Britain

for D-Day was extraordinary.

With thousands of planes,
ships, vehicles, tanks,

and Allied troops concentrated
on the English coast

anticipating General
Eisenhower's final order to go.

- Something big was coming, that we knew,

when we were told that
we're gonna be leaving,

and to go to Southampton.

I said, Southampton,
that's right on a coast

to go to France.

So we knew we were gonna go to France.

- The whole sky was filled with airplanes.

Just about every way you could look.

And the whole sea as far as you could look

was incoming ships and boats and what not.

- I said, there isn't that
many ships in the world.

There was that many of them there.

There isn't that many ships
in the world, you know?

I saw so many planes.

I actually felt sorry for the Germans

because I didn't see any German planes.

(waves crashing)

Well, I would like to see,

yeah, where I actually was.

You know, where the beachhead really was.

And if we were on a beach,

if we happen to go on a beach,

I would like to see from the German angle.

to see what took place there.

- I'm looking forward to it.

I guess I just want to
be there, that's all.

- For Richard Fazio, Chris
Heizler, Wilson De La Santa,

Phillip O'Connell, Leo
Hairu, and Frank Chomka,

dealing with the aftermath
of D-Day was put aside,

as life went on after the war ended,

as their focus turned to
their families and jobs.

D-Day was seldom talked about.

But over recent years
that, too, has changed.

Now many veterans have
begun to return to the place

where they saw so many of
their fellow soldiers die.

And where so many of their
personal nightmares originated.

- Well, I was amazed when we landed.

I said, how could they be firing upon us

with all that bombardment-
- Yeah.

- The men of D-Day are now
facing their own mortality.

Greater numbers of World War II veterans

are passing on each day,

taking with them frequently untold stories

about a battle that transformed the world.

Many are making their peace by returning

to places like Omaha Beach,

to finally see a beach at rest,

rather than one exploding in blood.

- See where them guys are?

And two men?

I was over there, down there.

- I was just trying to
get the hell outta here.

(somber music)

- On D-Day, Leo Hairu was
a U.S. amphibious engineer,

who was responsible for helping to

clear obstacles on Omaha Beach,

obstacles that had German General Rommel

convinced would destroy
an Allied invasion force.

As Hairu approached Omaha
Beach on June 6, 1944,

what he saw left him visibly shaken.

- It was awful.

It was very, very...

Blood was all over.

Blood was all over.

And we couldn't, we saw the bodies,

but we couldn't do nothing about that.

- Hairu would survive the invasion

and begin to create his own unique story

on D-Day plus one.

That's when Leo, who spoke French,

was ordered by his commanding officer

to go to a field high above Omaha Beach

to ask a French farmer to move his cows,

who presented an unexpected obstacle.

Leo asked the farmer where he lived,

and invited himself down to the man's farm

in the town of Colleville.

- One night was a special
night, I don't know why.

I went there 'cause I knew my way.

I just knocked on the door, he opened it,

I went in, and I happened
to look up on the stairs.

A girl coming down.

I said, well, I gotta let her come down

because I can't go in.

She's my age, my height.

Then her father introduced me to her.

Ann Marie Brooks.

I said, well, we went into the parlor

and I had some milk, coffee.

- Leo would end up marrying
the farmer's daughter,

and returned to France after the war,

where he would live
for more than 40 years,

teaching at a driving school
in the town of Bayeux.

Hairu eventually returned
to live in Rhode Island.

But a recent return to Normandy

found him back at the farm,

and contemplating D-Day's
impact on his own life.

- Perfect, perfect.

Perfect, perfect.

Yeah!

That's the hill, right down there.

Everything was exactly the same thing.

Nothing has changed except the pat.

They had a pat going down.

But as far as that, nothing has changed.

Everything is exactly the way it is.

And way up on top of that hill,

that's where I met my father-in-law,

and he told me, "You see that house,

"right there in the back of me?

"That's where I live."

I used to come over
here, walk up them steps,

knock on the door, and go in.

- While Leo Hairu's D-Day experience ended

with good memories,

it was the opposite case

for 82nd Airborne First
Lieutenant, Chris Heizler,

who ended up a prisoner of war.

The 28 year old Heizler was
aboard one of the 800 planes

that would carry paratroopers into France

ahead of the main invasion force.

Over 12,000 Airborne
troops jumped into Normandy

in the early hours of June 6th

to secure the roadways and
exits behind Utah Beach,

to prevent German counter-attacks

from jeopardizing the efforts
of the main landing force.

- When we finally got over the shore,

I looked down and saw the beach of France

and I thought, beautiful beach down there.

Before it got very much further,

maybe a minute, maybe five
minutes, I don't know,

I started seeing flak
coming off the plane.

It wasn't very long after that

that somebody said to
me, "Stout has been hit."

I got back there and put
him on the bucket seat,

and laid him down.

At that point, somebody yelled at me,

"The green light is on, Lietenant!"

Now I'd already had the
boys stand up and hook up

because the red light had gone on earlier.

At that point, I turned, I
said, hollered at the group,

"Geronimo, let's go."

And I turned and went out.

- Heizler's C-47 transport plane,

with a mortally wounded
Charles Stout aboard,

eventually crashed in this field

near the small French town of Negreville.

Four additional paratroops
on the plane would also die,

but Chris Heizler would
not be one of them.

- I don't remember anything
until I hit the ground,

and it was the softest landing I ever had.

My feet just touched the
ground as I went down,

and I was just barely,

I was hung up in a tree.

- Heizler, and the other 17
paratroopers on his plane,

were supposed to land somewhere near

the small French town
of Sainte-Mere-Eglise

and Amfreville, with the
majority of the 82nd Airborne.

But like most of the paratroopers

in those early morning hours,

he missed his drop zone by miles.

- I had no inkling of where I was.

(bell ringing)

- In the distance, the
bells from the church

in Sainte-Mere-Eglise rang loudly as the

invasion of Normandy began

in the early morning darkness.

Chris Heizler had landed
safely in France on D-Day

and now the enemy was all around him.

- I was all alone.

The only thing I got scared
of, really, right into,

because I avoided roads
and so forth, was cows.

I'd hear, I was sneaking
up on cows (laughing)

because I thought they
might be some of our men.

(artillery firing)

I could hear the guns on the shore,

opening up with the bombardment.

I could hear that all the time.

Every morning, noon, and night.

All during that period.

(artillery firing)

- After making his way towards
the original drop zone.

- I was looking over the
part of the hedgerow,

over the hedgerow,

to see what was going on there.

But as I sat down, a German
walked right in front of me,

that I hadn't seen and he hadn't seen me.

Fortunately, I had my Tommy gun cocked

when he came around the tree.

I've tried to remember whether he had

his gun slung over his shoulder, I think,

so I just stitched him all the way up

with a machine gun.

That was the most difficult period I had

in all my whole career,

because I thought he
was a part of a squad,

and I was sitting there
expecting any minute to get shot.

I was saying to myself, I wonder if I know

when I die, if I'm gonna feel the bullets

before they go in me or anything.

Pretty soon I realized,

well, I gotta get the hell outta here.

So I moved to another hide.

It was at that hide that I was captured.

(gentle music)

- In 1999, Chris Heizler
would begin to return

to Normandy each year,

to honor the memory of
his fallen crew members.

- I know this is emotional-

- A small memorial in
the town of Negreville.

The local French citizens built it.

(man speaking in foreign language)

- To the memory of the crew,
of the plane that fell here,

the C-47, and the parachutists

of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment,

and all of the other soldiers.

All the Americans, the Allies.

We observe a minute of silence please.

(solemn music)

- The same scene is repeated

just a few miles away, in Amfreville.

Local citizens gather at the monument

to the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment,

the unit Heizler was attached to.

The Rhode Island paratrooper,

and the other D-Day veterans from America,

are all honored for
their valor on June 6th.

(corks popping)
(celebrators conversing)

In a scene that is not
uncommon when D-Day veterans

return to Normandy,

the day wraps up with a celebration.

On this night, it's a special dinner

at the community center in Amfreville.

Most of the small town turns out.

Many of them are too
young to remember D-Day,

but the stories have been passed down

from generation to generation,

and now it's their
chance to say thank you.

(celebrators singing)

(laughing)
(cheering)

- I just can't explain or no
words that can describe it,

how much gratitude the
people had for what we did.

The one guy that I really
thought expressed it best,

was he said "I never could
understand why good American men,

"would give up their
families and come over

"and come to France,

"and sacrifice, but I want you to know

"that we really appreciate it."

- For D-Day to be a success,
deception had to play a part.

The Allies had to make the Germans believe

the true invasion was going to come

at the narrowest point
between England and France,

in the Pas de Calais area.

Calais lies 150 miles
northeast of Normandy,

and 20 miles from the coast of England.

Through an elaborate plan, the Germans

bought into the landings in Calais,

positioning their most
battle-hardened troops

away from Normandy.

One key part of the
Allied plan was labeled

Operation Fortitude.

America's most visible
and controversial general,

George Patton, was put
in charge of a fake army.

The first U.S. Army group
that had no real troops,

no real equipment, and no
role in the Normandy Invasion.

Yet, because of the
respect Patton commanded

from the Germans, Hitler gambled

on the landings taking place there.

- The Germans bit, and they devoted,

committed a lot of their
forces to defending

the Pas de Calais and
parts away from Normandy.

Even though the German high command had

this sort of a gut feeling that something

was going to happen at Normandy,

they just had to spread their forces thin.

Just all the little details
of implementing that plan

made the big difference.

- Back in Woonsocket, Rhode Island,

16 year old Therese
Ricard was living the life

of a typical teenager.

Hanging out with friends,

helping her mother around the house,

and going to high school.

But Ricard was also contributing

to the Allies' plan of
deception against the Nazis.

Every day after school,
from three to seven p.m.,

Ricard would walk down to the
U.S. Rubber plant in town,

and paint what the workers
only knew as targets.

- Only thing I knew was targets.

Which they were, apparently, from the air.

- Those targets turned
out to be imitation tanks,

made out of rubber, that appeared
real to German airplanes,

desperately searching for any sign

of where the invasion
of Europe would come.

- They told us that was
in place of real tanks.

But that didn't register,
what it was, you know?

We painted the camouflage, that was black.

(energetic music)

- Workers for victory!

It's the assembly line that interests

Uncle Sam's daughters now.

- Ricard earned 49 cents an hour

for work that wasn't
very meaningful to her.

Nobody at the rubber
company ever talked about

what they were doing.

She never heard the words, top secret.

It was only recently
that Therese found out

what she did as a 16 year old,

at the U.S. Rubber plant contributed

in a small way to saving the lives

of thousands of Allied troops.

- Great, because I
mean, if it saved lives,

I saved lives.

You didn't want the boys to
go over there and get killed.

A lot of 'em did.

- Woonsocket's contribution to the war

didn't end with rubber tanks.

The U.S. Rubber plant also produced

barrage balloons.

The famous low-flying dirigibles
with long steel cables

helped to keep German aircraft

from flying low over
London during the blitz,

and later, from coming in too close

to the Allied ships on D-Day.

- In fact, the first time
I seen it I was surprised.

Like Wally Laughton, he's from Cumberland,

I said, "Wally, look at this
in Woonsocket, Rhode Island."

After that, every time we seen one

we used to look for
it, made in Woonsocket.

- But barrage balloons
and fake rubber tanks

wouldn't help the Allies get
ashore the invasion beaches

on D-Day itself.

Only the individual Army Infantry men,

or Navy boat driver, could do that.

And nowhere was the struggle
to survive more intense,

than on Omaha Beach.

(waves crashing)

- If this beach could only talk.

- I could see the back on
this higher ground, you know?

- We must a hit at high tide.

6:30 in the morning and
this is in high tide.

- For Richard Fazio,
returning to Omaha Beach

was something he never thought
would happen in his lifetime.

Or perhaps, didn't want to occur.

- God, it's amazing how I made it.

I think it was the hand
of God that did it.

You know?

(somber music)

Unbelievable.

- Fazio enlisted in the Navy at age 17.

This kid from Woonsocket,

who had never been on a ship before,

was assigned to be a Higgins boat driver,

steering one of the boats
that would lead the way

on the first wave of D-Day.

Fazio's landing boat, full
of 35 infantry troops,

was pointed at the Easy
Red sector of Omaha Beach,

the place where the well-trained German

352nd Division would provide
the toughest resistance.

It was H-hour, 6:30 a.m., on June 6, 1944,

and Rhode Islander, Richard
Fazio, was about to pass

through the gates of hell.

- We headed into the beach.

It was still dark, but
then as we headed in

to the beach, all the ships
and everything start firing

and it was one awesome sight.

All of a sudden, bullets were hitting

on the side of the ship and the water.

I looked into the well of the boat

and it was 35 soldiers in there,

and I don't think there
was an atheist in there,

because every one of us was making

the sign of the cross as we were going in.

And I happened to look.

(crying)

I looked to the right,
and I seen a boat get hit.

Then I realized what we were going into.

As I hit the beach, Wally
Laughton lowered the ramp,

and the soldiers start pouring out.

And I seen 'em drop, I
seen 'em getting shot.

(crying) I seen 'em get faces blown off.

God, it was an awful sight.

(crying) It's a sight I'll never forget.

It's been in my mind since.

And this is the first time
I ever talked about it.

I hope it's my last.

As they were going off,
there was one soldier there

didn't wanna leave.

I guess he froze.

He seen what happened in front of him.

We were instructed not
to take anybody back

unless they were wounded or dead.

As I lifted up my arm
to tell him to get off,

I was shot, over here
and it came out my back.

(waves crashing)

- In England, just prior to the invasion,

Fazio spent time getting
familiar with Omaha Beach.

- Two days before Normandy,
all coxswains and captains

of the ships, we had a meeting.

What they called is a pavilion.

It was an airplane hangar.

That hangar must have been
about a half a mile long.

It was wide, anyway, and
they had the whole replica

of the Normandy beachhead there.

Exactly like it was.

My position was I had to head
right straight for a church.

Gotta watch for the church,

and head right straight for that church.

That day, they assigned us our boats.

The boat number and the wave.

I won the lottery.

I was first wave, fifth boat.

(somber music)

- Over 60 years later,
Fazio drove past that church

in the town of Colleville he was told

to aim for on D-Day.

- You do remember this church?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Huh?
- Yeah.

- You remember it.

- Definitely.

That's the steeple I was supposed to watch

coming in and landing.

And that was where my point of debarkation

for the troops.

They told me it may not
be there when I land,

but it was there.

Is all I kept my eye on that

until I couldn't see it anymore

and that's when I hit the beach.

- Returning to Omaha Beach
more than six decades

after the invasion,

gives these veterans a
chance to see a beach

that is now at peace.

A beach where, in the summertime,

children and families now play.

It also gives the veterans a chance

to touch the sand again.

To make a connection to history

and to their own past.

For Richard Fazio, it
also provides the chance

to look up into the
bluffs high above Omaha

and see the German gun emplacements

that more than likely
killed most of his men

on June 6, 1944.

But this time, those guns are silent.

- I can remember the soldiers telling me,

"Go all the way in, I don't wanna get wet,

"I don't wanna get wet," you know?

They didn't get wet, they got killed.

(somber music)

- For Navy radio man, Frank Chomka,

D-Day's wake up call came very early.

- I can remember it was kinda stormy.

Of course, there's no
lights anywhere showing.

We're all in the darkness,

and the only thing ahead of me

was another tug, pulling
another big monstrosity.

- Aboard a naval tugboat,
Chomka and his crew

arrived in the early
morning hours of June 6th

off a quiet Normandy coast.

The tug's mission was
one of the most important

and unique of the invasion.

To tow across the 90
miles of English Channel

huge concrete blocks that
would eventually make up

the famed Mulberry harbors,

the artificial ports that would supply

the American and British invasion beaches

until the Allies could capture the French

deep water port of Cherbourg.

- I kind of figured it
had something to do with

the coming events that
were gonna take place.

- The sheer size of the 150 caissons

Chomka's boat and the other tugs towed

over to Normandy, prevented a fast trip.

The tug's top towing speed towards France

was just five miles an hour.

Each concrete block was 200 feet long,

by 60 feet wide, and 60 feet high,

and weighed as much as 6,000 tons.

The remains of the Mulberry harbors

can still be seen today.

Especially off the
British landing beaches.

A giant section of the artificial harbor

also still rests on Omaha Beach.

- I never thought that it was gonna be

a makeshift breakwater,
or whatever, you know?

(somber music)

- We all landed here.

Jesus, all you could see was all boats

and everything else.

People landing and (mumbles).

It's amazing.

- Wilson De Le Santa knows
Omaha Beach better than most.

On D-Day, De Le Santa
was supposed to bring

ashore an Army truck loaded with supplies.

But like everything else on that day,

his plans would change as he
approached the Normandy coast.

- The tide was coming in so fast

that people were holding hands.

I guess a lot of 'em couldn't swim.

But they were holding hands

til they got out of the boat.

You'd have these half
tracks that would go on up.

They were popping 'em off like crazy.

Even the people they were all together,

a lot of 'em get hit.

You could see 'em going over.

(artillery firing)

The bodies all over the place.

The arms and legs, and
the water was pretty red.

You felt real bad when
you see one of your own,

dead, it's pretty hard to take.

(somber music)

- Like most of the troops on the beach,

De Le Santa would be pinned down on Omaha

for most of D-Day.

German mortars and gunfire
had soldiers searching

for any cover they could find.

Out in the open, the troops on Omaha

were sitting ducks.

It was the longest day
of De Le Santa's life.

- I never said much about it,

because I don't wanna keep remembering it.

You know, the less I talk about it,

the better it is.

- Like Richard Fazio, Wilson De Le Santa

will take a piece of Omaha
Beach back to Rhode Island.

- I'm amazed to see the
way everything is today.

You know?

Because like I said,
when we all landed here,

Jesus, all you could see was
all boats and everything else.

- Waiting aboard a ship in the waters

off Omaha Beach on D-Day,

U.S. Army heavy machine
gunner, Phillip O'Connell,

must have had the luck
of the Irish with him.

- I always had the feeling
somebody's looking after me.

- O'Connell was scheduled
to land on Omaha Beach,

but the call that was going
to come at any time never did.

And O'Connell and his fellow GIs

had a front row seat to one of

the greatest moments in
the history of the world.

- I'd watch the assault
boats, or the Higgins boats,

disappear into the smoke.

As it got closer ashore,
it'd be a lotta smoke.

We were waiting, waiting.

We didn't know when we were supposed

to join them, or go ashore.

Well, I was young then,

and I was disappointed, you know?

I wanted to be among the...

I'm glad I wasn't among
the first or second

because most of the people
that landed before I did

laid there on the beach, they were dead.

- It was on D-Day plus
one when Phillip O'Connell

would finally board a transport ship

and set foot on Omaha Beach.

What he saw there has remained with him

for over six decades.

- I was surprised how many
dead people there were.

And they're all young.

The sad thing when I think about it now,

at the time, you feel sorry for them,

but you're glad it's not you.

That's how I felt.

I feel sorry for these people,

but I'm glad it's not me, you know?

I think everybody felt that way.

(inspiring music)

- High above the cliffs
overlooking Omaha Beach,

near where Phillip O'Connell, Leo Hairu,

and Wilson De Le Santa landed,

and where Richard Fazio's men

aboard the Higgins boat were killed,

is perhaps the most
beautiful and yet painful

reminder of the cost of freedom on D-Day.

(inspiring music)

For the five D-Day
veterans from Rhode Island,

the American Cemetery in Normandy

is a place to come to say hello

to old friends who never made it home.

- Look out there.

Isn't that amazing?

- Or to just give thanks
for what the over 9,300

soldiers who are buried
under these white crosses

sacrificed for their nation.

For Richard Fazio, it's
a chance to look down

over Omaha Beach and see the exact spot

where his landing craft
approached the Normandy coast.

(waves crashing)

- So peaceful. (cries)

The price that was paid.

- I can't understand how this place

was bombed so much and
it looks like this today.

I mean, it looks like
God put His hand here

and straightened it out.

Unbelievable.

Now I want to see it this way.

I'm gonna remember it this
way, not the way it was.

This is real beautiful, peaceful.

I wish my crew were here to see it.

- It's right in this area here someplace.

- For paratrooper Chris
Heizler, coming back

to the American cemetery
where all the white crosses

point west towards
America, gives him a chance

to say hello to that fellow soldier

who was aboard his plane on D-Day,

but never got the chance
to parachute into Normandy.

- He was shot in a plane,
went down with the plane.

(orchestral music)

Oh my God, there it is.

I wasn't too far off, was I?

He went down with the plane.

Some more guys out there,
about seven of them

were on my plane and
the captain were killed

within the first couple of days.

I used to put a coin on the
top of each one of those graves

of me, if there friends or
neighbors came to see that coin

and know someone cared enough.

These guys all gave
their life for democracy.

That's what the French remember.

(somber music)

- One of the white crosses belongs

to Maurice Gautier of Woonsocket.

Maurice landed here on Utah Beach on D-Day

as part of the American
90th Infantry Division.

The fighting on Utah wasn't
as fierce as Omaha Beach,

but still bloody enough.

Maurice would survive D-Day,
only to be killed in action

a little more than a month later,

in the Battle for Saint-Lo.

Gautier's mother back in Rhode Island

got a telegram from the War Department

notifying her of her son's death.

Gautier's sister, Jackie,
remembers that day.

- They informed us of what had happened

and I think like the rest of
the family, it was difficult

to accept, because we
hadn't been with him.

It was just a piece of
paper that said that he had

been killed in action and it
took a while for it to set in

and we really realized that
once some of the letters

that we had written came back undelivered.

- Going back to Normandy
to see her brother's grave

was a journey that took Jackie
Eau Claire nearly 50 years.

- It was something that I
had always wanted to do,

but I wasn't, I didn't think I'd ever get

to go to his grave in Normandy

and it was quite an
emotional experience for me.

To be there at his grave after,

I think it was nearly 50 years.

It was like a connection, I would say,

a reunion of souls maybe.

I've often wondered what life
would have been like for him.

(somber music)

- Their souls may have
been committed to God,

but their names still echo
across this hallowed ground.

(soldiers reading names simultaneously)

In the American Cemetery,
these veterans find some solace

among those who rest here eternally.

It also provides a setting for them to ask

why they survived this
invasion and this war

while so many here did not.

- Why are you here?

- The period of reflection
doesn't last long,

as the silence is broken by
the sound of young voices.

French schoolchildren on a field trip

surround these aging men of D-Day

to hear their stories
and to say thank you.

- The French kiss like
this, then like this.

- These French people
agree, I'm tellin you,

everywhere we went we
got hugged and kissed

and thank yous and everything
else, unbelievable.

It's the younger generations, besides.

- I've got 7 or 8 men buried here

that I go visit their graves.

- That's why we did it. For them.

- It's been more than 60
years since American GIs

fought in the French countryside,

and waged a fierce battle
for a foothold in Europe.

In France, they remember
the sacrifice of the Allies

like it was only yesterday.

Time may have passed, but the echoes

of American soldiers on the move remain.

- I'm sure there's older
French men and women

still feel when they think back on it,

I'm sure the tears still
well up in their eyes

when they think of the
horrors of German occupation

and the great feeling of liberation

that came from D-Day and its aftermath.

- D-Day's history is still
taught in the schools.

It is talked about at
the dinner table at home.

It is memorialized on
stained glass windows

in a church in Sainte-Mere-Eglise,

and preserved in museums across Normandy.

For the French, D-Day is
part of their culture.

These veterans realize
now that what they did

as young men in this foreign country

will never be forgotten.

(children singing)

All veterans of this war are reluctant

to call themselves heroes.

But to the French people,

and especially the
schoolchildren of Normandy,

that is indeed what they are.

Nowhere is this more evident

than in the small town of Montbard,

which was liberated by the Allies

after fierce resistance from the Germans.

- The men in my unit couldn't
have won all their objectives

without help from your
grandparents, I guess,

maybe great-grandparents.

So thank you, thank you for
your grandmothers and fathers

that helped us win the war.

(gentle piano music)

(children chattering)

- These kids see through the graying hair

and past the cane that helps stabilize

an 89 year old former paratrooper.

They see young American soldiers,

who traveled a great distance decades ago,

to free a country from Nazi oppression.

These scenes are repeated
all over Normandy

any time D-Day veterans return.

The walls of a restaurant
adjacent to Utah Beach

are filled with autographs.

(cork pops)
Bottles of wine are offered,

and there are toasts.

The French have not forgotten D-Day,

nor will they will ever.

Long after these veterans have passed on,

these children, who will then be adults,

will tell their own kids about the day

the soldiers visited their school

and talked about freedom and sacrifice.

They will also tell their kids

that these soldiers told
them that they aren't

the heroes of D-Day.

That the real heroes are
buried just a few miles away

in a cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach.

A 7,000 yard stretch of golden brown sand

that is so beautiful today,

yet still whispers to all who visit,

never forget the price that
was paid here for freedom.

(gently lapping waves)

- I was actually proud of bein part of it.

- I'm not the hero, I'm not
the hero. I'm just a survivor.

- I always felt bad, and I do today,

about all the servicemen
that got killed in action.

I think about it all the time.

- I remember that day after I got wounded,

the 4 of us was there
and we were all crying.

- Anybody would have done
what I did, let's be real.

So I didn't think of it as
being a great hero about it, no.

It had to be done and
everybody did what they had to.

- A hero, what does it mean,
a hero? Can you tell me?

Just because he did something
which is very important

but he had a job to do,
and that's what I did.

I had a job to do and I
did it, but I'm not a hero.

I won't call myself a hero.

(peaceful piano music)

(peaceful piano music continues)