All language subtitles for Valeriy Chkalov (1941) eng

June 6th, 1944.

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the Allies launch the largest invasion in world history.

Almost 7,000 ships with 195,000 men set out for Europe

to liberate it from the Nazi rule.

A deluge of fire falls upon the Normandy coastline.

Yet the operation can not succeed without aviation.

In the hours preceeding the naval landings,

a massive flying armada was to play a key role.

Could the Allies have won the war without aviation?

Simple answer is no.

It was absolutely crucial to their entire strategy.

In the middle of the night

over 4,000 airplanes with 23,000 paratroopers take off

for an invasion that has never been seen before.

Never before have so many aircraft taken off

in such a short time.

The Allies' secret weapon, whole wings of special aircraft

called gliders.

For the first time, the events on D-Day are told

from a bird's eye view as an exact chronology

of the giant air operation.

In this battle, technology plays a decisive role.

The Allies turn the Normandy countryside

into a landing ground.

Ingenious systems are installed to guide the aircraft.

On the day that should decide the outcome of the war,

two experienced strategists face each other,

the American Dwight Eisenhower,

and the German field marshal, Erwin Rommel.

Over 24 hours, the Allied bombers dropped

over 10,000 tons of bombs over the coastal batteries.

They hit the ground and they detonate immediately,

and they blast a great area.

The marks of the attacks are still visible

in the landscape today.

Fighters, transport aircraft, or bombers?

What are the key aircraft of this decisive night?

The events of D-Day have been told many times,

but for the first time, a new perspective is taken.

The D-Day aerial battle over Normandy.

On D-Day, the Allied operation Neptune starts in the air.

Airplanes are the only ones that can get past

the German coastal defenses.

In the following hours, the Allied commandment

coordinates 15,000 takeoffs.

The operation of the largest air invasion

of all times is authorized.

To coordinate that altogether in the largest

amphibious invasion the world has ever seen,

is just such an astonishing achievement.

Phase one.

During the night, parachutists and pioneers

are dropped behind the German lines.

These are men of the airborne troops.

Their mission, securing the coast

before the arrival of the ships.

They face a highly uncertain future.

The Allies divided this mission with large units.

The American 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions

formed the western flank.

Together, they make up 17,400 men.

British and Canadian troops

are to reinforce the front from the east.

12,500 men from the 6th British Airborne Division.

An air corridor is cleared for the landing forces on water.

Troops are waiting for departure in hundreds of airfields

scattered around Great Britain.

The generation of those who are now preparing

for the mission will go down in history.

(clock ticking)

June 5th, 1944, 8:30.

Do these young Americans have any idea

what awaits them in a few hours?

Most of them have European ancestors,

but have never set foot on European ground before.

Soon, their step into the unknown

will come to liberate France.

They are paratroopers of the 101st U.S. Airborne Division.

They must secure the Utah beachhead before the landings.

Will a surprise attack succeed to neutralize

the Wehrmacht units who have been preparing

against an upcoming invasion?

This is the question of those who are waiting

for five German divisions, coastal mines,

bunkers, and tanks.

Shortly before the landings,

General Eisenhower pays them a visit.

He notices the men's concerns.

They know that high losses are to be expected,

and Eisenhower is aware that he has to expose them

to the immediate danger of death within a few hours.

He knows that when he's talking to these men,

many of them might never come home again.

It was absolutely crucial that morale was high,

that the troops being sent into battle

felt that they could trust their commanders,

that the commanders were doing the best possible job.

The soldiers of the 101st U.S Airborne Division

are called the Screaming Eagles.

In less than two hours,

they will be going through a baptism of fire.

Thousands of aircraft are now waiting for takeoff.

Paradoxically, this gigantic air operation

is prepared underground, northwest of London in Uxbridge.

(ominous music)

The historian James Holland visits

one of the most important and secret bunkers of D-Day.

The beauty of this bunker is that, as you can see,

there's a lot of steps.

It's very, very deep, and it's completely bomb-proof.

No one can touch it.

Needless to say, it's a completely secret installation.

No one, apart from those who need to know, know it's here.

It's absolutely vital for Britain's air control and command.

This is where the Allies followed

and coordinated their air forces during the night

of June 6th, 1944.

The genius of these operation rooms was that the commander

up there could look out over this entire room

and get a complete map of what's going on.

(people chattering)

Here you can see all the squadrons lined up,

and you can see what 605 squadron, or 501 squadron,

or any of the squadrons involved are doing at any one time.

Behind these markers are real crew members

set to live the longest 24 hours of their lives.

Will this enormous undertaking to liberate Europe succeed?

The details of this complex air operation

have been planned for months.

Why it is prepared this way and what is at stake

can be seen by looking back at the course of the war.

In whose hands lies the fate of the world?

When was the invasion of Normandy decided?

It was decided with the airborne attack.

December 1st, 1943.

The leaders of America, Britain,

and the Soviet Union had met Tehran.

Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill

finally agree to open a second front in Western Europe

and decide that the upcoming invasion

will take place in Normandy.

Code word for the operation: Overlord.

For the three leaders,

victory will be assured by air supremacy.

In order to coordinate the double attack by sea and air,

the Allies formed a joint command

of their so-called expeditionary forces.

At its head is Dwight Eisenhower

with the help of an Anglo-American general staff.

Air Marshall Leigh-Mallory is, of course,

nominated commander and chief of the Allied air force.

10:15 PM on June 5th.

American paratroopers from the 101st Airborne

get into their aircraft.

(engines rumbling)

These are the first ships to take off

in the airborne invasion, a fortress (indistinct).

443 C-47 planes take off at an insane rate

and fly in formation towards Normandy.

This aircraft is considered to be particularly

reliable and versatile.

Suited for parachute drops

and cargo transport,

it can also be used to tow gliders.

The Douglas C-47 is 19 meters long.

It can carry 28 passengers, and reach a cruising speed

of 260 kilometers per hour.

Its endurance is an asset.

It can travel up to 2,400 kilometers.

This aircraft is also used by the Royal Air Force

under the name Dakota.

These aircraft are there for the backbone

of the Allied strategy.

13,000 of these aircraft are built.

(dramatic music)

But the fact that the Allies

were preparing for an invasion was not hidden

from the generals of the Third Reich.

The American entry into the war may been

the decisive turning point in the war.

However, the German occupiers of France

and Northern Europe are not unprepared.

They begin to build massive flack and coastal positions,

the so-called Atlantic Wall,

with the use of forced laborers

in the short period between 1942 and 1944,

an over a length of 4,000 kilometers

from Norway to the Spanish French border.

In France, work's already well-progressed.

(intense music)

At the end of 1943,

Hitler commissioned one of his highly-decorated confidants

to extend and monitor the Atlantic Wall,

General Field Marshal Rommel.

Rommel also has the potential danger from the air in mind.

Under high pressure, he has bunkers, gun emplacements,

and anti-tank obstacles erected, and minefields laid out.

(man speaking foreign language)

The Atlantic Wall also includes heavy coastal flack power

in 88 millimeters artillery.

(cannons booming)

They are feared by pilots because of their accuracy

and their deadly rate of fire.

However, Rommel recognizes that the coastal fortifications

are not deep enough, and has them extended further.

For example, with tree trunks rammed into the ground

named Rommel's Asparagus.

Planted in the ground,

they become treacherous obstacles for gliders.

Another deadly danger awaits the parachutists.

All along the coast, Rommel gives the order

to flood inland marshes.

When soldiers with parachutes land there,

they drown with the heavy equipment.

(clock ticking)

10:30 p.m.

Night falls over the deployment areas.

The first ships are on their way,

as are the American airborne units.

Their British Allies of the 6th Airborne Division

are also going into battle.

At airfields scattered throughout

the English countryside, paratroopers and airborne infantry

emerged from final briefings.

It was automatic.

It had been rehearsed this way a hundred times before.

They are the vanguard of the air offensive,

and should secure the area at Sword Beach,

the easternmost landing section.

They must control the Benouville Bridge,

the only crossing between Caen and the English Channel;

and the Ranville Bridge over the Orne,

over which supplies will later roll.

Both objectives are of strategic importance.

In charge of the success of this mission,

an attack division made up of 180 men

under the orders of Major John Howard.

In order to take the Germans by surprise,

the Allies use gliders.

With no engine, they are silent and virtually undetectable.

These gliders are to drop many soldiers and materiel

behind enemy lines.

Such a massive use of gliders had never happened

before D-Day as historian Philippe Esvelin explains.

(Philippe speaking foreign language)

Paratroopers need a certain amount of time

until they're ready to fight together after landing.

With the gliders, they could fight as a group

immediately after landing.

(gunfire rattling)

(engines droning)

The gliders are carried

across the English Channel by airplanes.

The pilots are fully concentrated

and are in contact with the transport aircraft,

So they know exactly when they can detach

from the tow plane.

(Philippe speaking foreign language)

The three first British gliders

detach from their tow plane and descend

towards their target.

Each one of them weigh seven tons.

One pilot error and the whole company is wiped out.

The AS 51 Horsa glider is the main type.

It is 20 meters long

and completely built of wood and canvas.

Up to 25 men can fit on board

in addition to the pilot and navigator.

300 Horsa gliders are used in Normandy

alongside the Hamilcar and the Waco.

June 6, 1944 has dawned.

It is 0500 a.m.

Will the Allies be able to fulfill its tasks?

While the paratroopers are still on their way,

the first gliders are preparing to land,

and other aircraft are springing into action: the bombers.

(ominous music)

Their goal: to massively bomb the fortifications

of the Atlantic Wall.

(cannons booming)

If not much of the artillery on the coast can be eliminated,

it will hit the landing troops hard,

because at 6:00 a.m., thousands of ships

are supposed to deposit troops on the Normandy beaches.

In order to destroy these installations,

Eisenhower is relying on two so-called

Strategic Air Force fleets.

On the one hand, the British Bomber Command,

with 1,500 heavy bombers.

On the other, the 8th U.S. Air Force with 2,600 aircraft.

In a few hours, some of them will drop 8,000 tons of bombs

over the batteries along the coast.

(engines droning)

25 Allied aircraft are shot down during the mission.

(bombs exploding)

However, these were not the first massive bombings.

Since 1942, the Allies have repeatedly bombed

the French coast,

but this time they want to fool the German occupiers

as long as possible about the real targets

and the exact date of the invasion.

In addition, they want to paralyze the movements

of German troops by destroying the railway network.

(bombs whistling and exploding)

The Allies know the operational areas quite well

because they systematically watch

the German positions in Normandy.

The air reconnaissance supplies the headquarters

with photos for months.

They are taken with cameras like these

mounted on Spitfire jets.

They fly over the French coastline

and bring back photos that are then painstakingly analyzed.

Looking at these photographs taken by photo reconnaissance

from commanders and intelligence officers

could look at that information and work out

exactly how German defenses all along the Atlantic Wall,

but particularly for them in Normandy,

how they were progressing.

But they could tell virtually every single gun position

and bunker all across the Normandy coastline.

Further information is provided by members

of the French interior resistance.

Troop strengths and movements of the Wehrmacht

are transmitted by radio.

(eerie music)
(clock ticking)

10 minutes past midnight,

the first Allied soldiers leap into action.

Their mission is crucial.

In order to drop 20,000 paratroopers

at the right spots later,

some scouts have to search and mark the spots.

Their name: pathfinders.

Among them, with his 101st Company,

is Captain Frank Lillyman,

his trademark, the cigar.

He smokes it even when he jumps.

He lands at 016.

Injured in action, he talks about his night mission

during an American newsreel interview.

Frank, I imagine you got into

some rather tight places, didn't you, Captain?

I'll say we did.

There's one in particular.

Got shot that night.

I got shot up.

I'd still be out there in the field

if it hadn't been for Roland here, and Park.

Those two refused to get out of there until they got me

off that field where I was exposed to enemy fire.

This first wave now marks the landing areas,

or drop zones, for the pilots of the following aircraft.

A new technology has also been developed for this.

The pathfinders use radio paths that instruct the aircraft,

the airborne direction finding equipment, Eureka/Rebecca.

This works in two steps.

First, the pathfinders on the ground

set up the Eureka transmitters.

Its aerial sends a continuous signal

to the Rebecca receptor installed in the leading aircraft.

The signal can be picked up by the instrument

at a distance of 20 to 30 kilometers.

Signals are also transmitted from the aircraft.

Once the location is picked up,

the pilot has an exact course.

The pathfinders then use these lamps to mark the drop zone.

This is risky, however, because they can easily

be discovered by German soldiers.

Within a few minutes, seven lamps are set up

about 10 meters apart.

The pathfinders light them up

when they hear the aircraft approaching.

They form a T.

The lamp at the base of the T flashes to indicate

the name of the drop zone in Morse code.

Nevertheless, not all parachutists succeed

in landing close to the spot.

016 a.m.

The first British glider makes a hard landing.

(glider thudding)

On board is John Howard.

We landed with a loud bang.

Suddenly, I couldn't see anything.

I thought I was blind, but actually it was only my helmet

that had slipped over my eyes.

The pilot had managed to land without any ground markings

only 50 yards from the Benouville Bridge.

Two other gliders land with precision a few yards away.

The capture of the so-called Pegasus Bridge

is crucial for the advancement of the troops

that will land on the coast.

The plan works.

The soldiers have the element of surprise on their side.

Only at the last moments do the German guards realize

what is happening to them.

British forces take control of the bridge in a few minutes.

(intense music)

Meanwhile, almost 7,000 ships

are on their way across the English Channel.

Major Howard sends the message "Ham and jam,"

indicating the success of the mission.

(dramatic music)

June 6th, 1944 sees the biggest air operation

in history, ever.

Over 24 hours, the Allied forces managed to coordinate

15,000 sorties.

The American and Anglo-American troops are reinforced

by men from a dozen other nationalities.

How is such a massive operation coordinated?

In the bunker in Uxbridge, England,

all the strings are pulled.

It is from here that the huge air fleet is directed

on D-Day on the basis of information received

from the squadron commanders on their way to France.

To coordinate the Allied sorties,

this 11,000 aircraft that took part,

was incredibly complex.

and involve a number of different air forces.

They all have their different control centers.

And as that information is filtered down,

so the individual wings and squadrons

are given very clear instructions

about what they're expected to do.

(engine droning)

The operations of the fighter aircraft,

fighter bombers, and light bombers

are closely monitored from here.

To this end, the general staff uses advanced technology

such as long range raiders whose signals are transmitted

via ships in the English Channel.

Aircraft were tracked from this room by a combination

of radar and radio.

So the radar would pick up their movement,

and that will be transmitted back to the control center,

to the filter room,

which would be then passed to this room here.

(people chattering)

Allied flights, but also those of German planes

are monitored from here.

(plane exploding)

Red leader to lamp post (speech drowned out).

The squadrons have numbers

and each of them is marked in the control center.

Spitfire.

(engines roaring)
(cannons rattling)

And what you would then have is WAAFs,

female members of the Royal Air Force,

and they would be moving the squadrons down across.

So you'd have them moving across down here

in the right area on this map board,

and pushing them further and further

towards the coast of France.

(people chattering)

4,000 launches during the night from June 5th

to 6th require maximum precision.

In order to regulate movement after the launch,

the Allies set up waiting zones over England.

In addition, they also have groups of airplanes

fly at different altitudes to avoid collisions.

(explosion booming)

(bells clanging)

Meanwhile, it is 1:30 a.m.

The first ships are getting ready to anchor

21 kilometers of Utah beach and bombard the coast.

The fate of their crew depends on the air battle

going on above them.

After the landing zones are marked

and the planes arrive there,

thousands of paratroopers jump off.

6,900 from the 101st U.S. Airborne Division

are to secure the Utah sector of the coast.

This includes the capture of the La Barquette lock.

This enables them to regulate water levels

in the flooded lowlands.

At the same time,

the units of the 82nd U.S. Airborne Division

attack from the western flank.

Three targets are given to the 6,400 paratroopers

which must be captured: the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise,

and the two bridges at la Fiere and Chef-du-Pont.

The pilots are nervous,

and not all of them have much experience.

They fly above the clouds, but there's a problem.

The targets are not visible,

and the paratroopers could end up

scattered across the countryside.

There is great tension on board.

A young sergeant notes, "One cloud after the other

"and suddenly we break through the cloud cover.

"At that moment, we experienced the flak fire.

"When they hit the planes, it sounded like gravel

"hitting metal sheets."

Seven okay!

Six okay!

Five okay!

Each paratrooper has

50 kilograms of equipment with him.

They are ready for the jump.

They focus on the signal lights.

When it turns green, they jump out of the aircraft.

Go!

A free fall of 20 to 30 seconds follows.

Before even touching the ground,

some are taken by the fierce German fire.

(guns booming)

3/4 of the paratroopers do not land in the intended places.

If they do not find their way back to their targets,

the whole operation fails.

Now the German obstacles come into play,

especially the flooded lowlands.

Hundreds of paratroopers will be declared missing in action,

drowning under the weight of their equipment.

Many parachutists fall victim to the obstacles

Rommel devised, while Rommel himself does not even notice.

He's on vacation at home to celebrate his wife's birthday.

He's not informed of the invasion until hours later.

After some fierce fighting, the men of the 82nd,

the All-Americans, successfully complete their mission.

They must now hold their position

until the arrival of reinforcements from the sea.

(clock ticking)

1:50 a.m.

(sirens wailing)

Sirens are going off at the Pont du Hoc,

signaling the presence of bombers.

Now it remains to be seen

whether the Atlantic Wall can be overcome.

(engines droning)

Menacing shadows slip by in the night.

They are British Avro Lancasters.

They are 21 meters long,

and reach speeds of up to 450 kilometers per hour.

Seven crew members are on board.

The bomb freight is up to 10 tons,

a very valuable asset for the Allies.

(engines droning)

In England, one of these bombers is being preserved

with great care by the Royal Air Force.

Pilot Iza Bassant gives details of the plane

with Sebastian Cox,

head of the Air Historical Branch of the Royal Air Force.

It's an historical D-Day aircraft, and this tells a lot,

because every bomb is one bombing mission.

And the average number of bombing mission

was twenty before being damaged-

Before being shot down, between 20 and 30, usually.

So this is very special

'cause it did more than 130 missions.

So there's more than 130 bomb symbols on the aircraft.

The imposing Lancaster is a priority target

for the Luftwaffe fighter pilots.

The crew can defend themselves against the attacks

with their powerful machine guns.

So once you get to the back of the aircraft,

and you have the rear turret,

the rear turret has a gunner,

he has four machine guns.

His job is to protect the back of the bomber

from the German night fighters.

The special thing about the Avro Lancaster

is its colossal bombing power.

Among other things, it transported enormous 8,000 pounds.

They were nicknamed Blockbusters

because they could wipe out

an entire block of flats within seconds.

What's all these propellers for?

This is part of the fusing mechanism for the bomb.

So when it drops out of the bomb bay,

these start to turn,

and they're part of the mechanism that makes the bomb live,

that makes it armed.

Because if you can avoid the bomb being live and armed

when it's flying to the target,

you don't want it to go off by accident.

Other bombs are designed to penetrate the ground.

This one is designed to explode as soon

as it hits the ground, to create a big area of devastation.

(explosion booming)

During the Second World War,

a total of 7,000 Lancasters were in use.

The German troops were taken by surprise on June 6th

because the Wehrmacht was preparing

for the invasion elsewhere.

It is true that Hitler had long suspected an Allied landing

in Northern France,

but there was a trap meticulously prepared by the Allies.

It is called Operation Fortitude.

(intense music)

(engines droning)

For months, Allied bombers had bombed the fortifications

in the Port du Calais

at the narrowest point of the English Channel.

Even German spies in London were deliberately supplied

with false data.

This was to give the impression

that the invasion would take place near Calais.

(clock ticking)

At 3:00 a.m. the deception continues in Port du Calais

in order to keep as many Wehrmacht troops as possible

further north.

British planes fly at low altitude in this area

to be detected by radar.

They also drop many such metal strips

to deceive the radar operators.

(Philippe speaking foreign language)

A cloud of such strips look like a formation

of approaching aircraft on the enemy radar.

Another deception were such burlap dummies

on parachutes, nicknamed Rupert.

They were dropped, along with real paratroopers,

to give the impression of a large number of landing troops.

500 Ruperts land in four sectors

far from the actual battleground

in the hinterland of Normandy.

(clock ticking)

5:55 a.m. at dawn on June 6th.

American bombers fly towards Omaha Beach.

To remain undiscovered, they fly at high altitude.

However, they have no view of the ground,

because a thick cloud cover hides the coastline.

The pilots are flying blind.

They risk the worst case scenario:

accidentally bombing the Allied ships

a few kilometers off the coast.

At an altitude of about 2,000 meters,

dropping the bombs too early or too late

can have serious consequences.

In this case, many bombs are dropped a little too late

and miss the German defenses.

The mission is a complete failure,

and the infantrymen run into German barrage fire.

On June 6, 1944,

2,500 soldiers were killed on the Omaha Beach section alone.

The beach is littered with corpses.

The shallow water is blood-red

giving the beach its sorry nickname, Bloody Omaha.

6:05.

At Utah Beach the Allies adopt

a radically different strategy from the one in Omaha.

They bomb their target lengthways, along the seashore.

(engines droning)

Even though some bombs fall into the water,

others hit the German fortifications with full force

Unfortunately, there are Allied losses here as well.

Two planes collide and crash.

(clock ticking)

6:30 a.m.

On Utah Beach, the first landing crafts

unload thousands of men under enemy fire.

But how can the Wehrmacht still be deceived

about the true extent of the operation even now?

Eisenhower has the next secret weapon deployed:

smoke screen.

Chemicals are used by aircraft to create these screens.

Even though these flights are risky just above the water,

and have to be repeated every 10 minutes.

In order to spread the fog,

mobile fast bombers are modified.

The bombs and the shaft are replaced by smoke tanks.

(engine sputtering)

These flights are carried out by French pilots.

When the planes return, three men are missing.

They are among the first fallen heroes of D-Day.

There is no big resistance from the German air force.

They fly 319 sorties compared to over 11,000 for the Allies.

The Anglo-American air supremacy is overwhelming.

What is the reason for this lack of air force activity?

For months, the German air force

has had its back to the wall.

Although this unit continued to play a major role

in the Wehrmacht, it had already suffered many losses.

The commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Goering,

is conspicuously absent.

There are only 600 aircraft left to defend the Western Front

scattered all across France.

(engine droning)

Many planes are needed

to defend against Allied bombing raids on German territory.

Therefore, the German air defense on D-Day

is in bad shape in terms of numbers.

Most of the Luftwaffe is back in the Reich.

It's not here in Northern France and Northwest France.

And so there's not much they can do.

And if they do take off, well, the odds are so against them.

They're just going to be hammered.

The bombing of the German Reich

started in 1943.

The Allies give the German no despite.

The goal of the Allies is crush the enemy,

and destroy its war industry.

(engines purring)

To achieve this, Anglo-American forces fly over the Reich

24 hours a day.

The British Bomber Command takes over the bombing at night.

The 8th U.S. Air Force drop their bombs during the day.

The bombings are not only aimed at Nazi industry.

Large towns in the Reich, such as Berlin, Hamburg,

Cologne, and Hanover are also targeted.

They will damage the industrial facilities within the city

but they will also affect the morale of the population.

(artillery booming)

The controversial area bombings of German cities

were conceived by one man, Air Chief Marshall Arthur Harris,

with his thousand-bomber system.

Harris becomes the commander of Bomber Command

in February, 1942.

He's been given that job in order to try

and make the bombing effective.

The strategy of punishment and demoralization

of the German civilian population originated with him.

Who say that bombing can never win a war.

Well, my answer to that is that is has never been tried yet.

(bombs whistling)

Up to 600,000 civilians die in World War II

on the German side due to bomb attacks.

This form of air warfare would not have been possible

without manufacturing tens of thousands of aircraft.

Also on the German side.

(hammer clanging)

Despite the bombings,

the Germans keep up the pace of production,

but they can no longer compete

with the volume of Allied aircraft construction.

To put this into some perspective,

in 1943 alone, United States aircraft factories

produced 83,000 aircraft.

So that is more than a soccer stadium.

I mean, it's absolutely huge.

Since aircraft factories in England

were also repeatedly attacked by the Luftwaffe,

the decision was made early on to hide the factories

and move them underground.

Just like in these tunnels, which are still preserved

in their 1944 condition.

Sid Robinson is the curator of the tunnels of Drakelow.

It was a shadow factory,

so in case one of the major factories got damaged

or blown to pieces,

then they could carry on production from here.

Aircraft parts were manufactured

in these tunnels.

And they also provided compensation for the workers

who did not see the sun for a long time.

Again, they had the tunnel system,

so they were given regular updates on the war.

They were told what the weather was like.

So there was music played.

So anything to keep them sort of in reality.

The Drakelow tunnel system was opened in 1942

and covered six acres, with numbered streets and corridors.

600 workers contributed to the war effort here.

The people who worked down here,

they obviously understood the gravity of the situation.

And I'd imagine they felt very, very proud

to be contributing to the war effort in any way they could.

The manufacturing of parts

continued until the end of the war.

(clock ticking)
(eerie music)

Back to the morning of June 6th, 1944.

The returning Allied pilots are sent back into action.

(engine roaring)

Fighter aircraft take on the task of protecting the boats

moored off the five beaches where the landings take place.

They hunt down any enemy aircraft that tried to close in.

An American reporter, who is on one of the ships,

describes the air battles,

and also the involvement of the Naval artillery.

There they go again,

another plane's come over.

Something burning is falling down through the sky

and circling down.

May be a hit plane.

On this day, the German air force

loses around 40 aircraft in Normandy,

but the Allies do not stop at the coast

after the successful landing.

They push inland towards the German armies.

The Battle of Normandy has begun.

On this historic day, the Allies succeed

in a gigantic surprise attack.

Thanks to Operation Overlord, the Allies open a new front

to the west of Europe.

Without aviation, none of this would have been possible.

Over the course of a few hours, the fate of the landings

hung on the actions of these thousands of men and aircraft.

The one thing that's important to remember about aviation

on D-Day is just the enormity and complexity of it.

You know, you're talking about 11,000 aircraft.

That it was so successful is really testimony

to the levels of cooperation, the levels of preparation,

and just how vast Allied air power was by 1944.

The air forces play a decisive role,

but they also pay a heavy price.

On D-Day, 127 Allied aircraft are destroyed,

and the crews lose their lives.

In the ranks of the American

and British airborne divisions alone,

casualties are estimated at over 3,700.

Even today, the 75-year-old scars of this offensive

are still visible in Normandy.

The victims of the liberators are highly honored.

(elegant orchestral music)