00:13Along the eastern shoulder of the Cherbourg peninsula, the beaches of Normandy are strung.
00:19The chilly waters of the channel reach quietly up the sand, which is today as it should be.
00:28A place where people go to spend a holiday afternoon with a cool sea breeze.
00:33There are lasting reminders, however, of a time when these beaches were not so hospitable.
00:38While the neck of the peninsula joins the Normandy coast lie the beaches American soldiers remember.
00:44Utah, the westernmost one was called.
00:48And the other, Omaha.
00:50Further east, the beachheads the British soldiers can never forget.
00:55Gold, Juno, and sword.
00:59Today, history whispers and echoes through empty bunkers.
01:03And in the imperceptible inroads of rust flaking from ruined and abandoned implements of war.
01:09To climb the dunes of Utah or Omaha today is quite literally child's play.
01:15It was not so in June of 1944.
01:30After its conquest by the Nazis, France becomes one of the most heavily fortified areas in history.
01:36But early in the war, plans are made to launch an invasion of this fortress across the English Channel.
01:42It is given the code name, Operation Overlord.
01:47For thousands of American soldiers, the immediate effect of this decision is assignment to Great Britain.
01:53To participate in the training and build up of forces to be used in the invasion.
01:58Not for all will the transfer be so direct.
02:01Some will study invasion on the beaches of North Africa and Sicily and Italy before they ever set foot on
02:07French soil.
02:08But throughout the winter and spring of 1944, great convoys churn across the Atlantic to British ports.
02:21Into Britain they come by the thousands and tens of thousands.
02:25England in wartime is the land of blood, sweat, and tears.
02:29A nation blackened and battered by the fury of the Nazi Luftwaffe.
02:33But it's still England.
02:35And for young Americans on their way to war, there is much to see.
02:41Wartime Britain is a place supercharged with excitement.
02:45Literally the crossroads of the world.
02:46Filled with uniforms from all the nations united in the war against the Axis.
02:56But there is work to be done here, and hard work.
02:59The grueling days and weeks and months are devoted to it.
03:10The training has one specialized objective.
03:12How to assault a hostile, fortified coast.
03:18The American, British, and Canadian troops who train on England's landing beaches
03:22come to know well what it is they are getting ready for.
03:27The equipment they will use is ready too.
03:30Thousands upon thousands of vehicles, weapons, supplies of every conceivable sort.
03:37On the other side of the channel, the Nazis also know what the Allied forces are preparing for.
03:44And they are making preparations of their own.
03:47Along the coastline they have built an Atlantic wall,
03:50which Otto Hitler says will make Europe an impregnable fortress.
03:54The beaches and waters off them are heavily mined and booby-trapped,
03:58and strung with obstacles.
04:10Behind them, heavy guns are embedded in steel and concrete,
04:14positioned to train on any invasion fleet which might appear in the channel waters.
04:20By the spring of 1944, the Nazis know that an Allied invasion is imminent,
04:25but they cannot tell when it will come or where.
04:29They think the attack most likely will strike where the distance across the channel is narrowest, at Calais.
04:35Consequently, their strongest forces and fortifications are concentrated here.
04:39The actual target is one of the best-kept secrets of the war.
04:44The attack will come along a 50-mile stretch of coastline in the province of Normandy,
04:48sweeping west from the Orne River to a beach on the Cotantin Peninsula,
04:53dominated by the vital port of Cherbourg.
04:56The assault is first scheduled for May, when weather conditions are expected to be at their best.
05:04Allied leaders planning Overlord are aware of Nazi estimates that the invasion will strike at Calais.
05:10They further this deception by ordering heavy bombing in the Calais area, as well as in Normandy.
05:30In the months preceding the invasion, the tempo of air attacks steadily increases.
05:46Air fleets, with their cargoes of destruction,
05:48thunder out of British bases to pound at oil centers and industrial plants and air fields.
06:16In these months, the mighty Nazi air force is reduced to a ghost of its former power,
06:21and allied superiority in the skies above France is one.
06:30Destruction of transportation centers and rail lines is an important part of the invasion plan,
06:35in order to isolate the battle area in Normandy
06:38and hinder the enemy's efforts to bring up men and supplies.
06:41It becomes clear that additional time will give the air force a better opportunity
06:45to accomplish this critical objective.
06:52It also has decided to expand the original invasion plan,
06:55which called for an attack along a three-division front,
06:58into one along a five-division front.
07:01This makes the acquisition of more landing craft essential.
07:04For these reasons, D-Day is postponed from early May until early June.
07:09The men who will launch the attack continue their training through the cold early English spring.
07:19And then, inevitably, comes the day when all the training and rehearsals are over.
07:24It is time now for the curtain to lift on the real thing.
07:29Throughout May, the roads of England are clogged with convoys,
07:33as men and supplies begin to move down to the ports and the loading areas.
07:39The English people cheer them on and pray for them as they pass.
07:55By the end of May, virtually all of southern England is one vast staging area.
08:08The realities of life now are small ones.
08:11For the individual man who will be called upon to execute the plan
08:15for the greatest assault ever proposed in the history of warfare,
08:18that plan comes alive now in a myriad of final details.
08:22dozens of items to be issued and checked.
08:25Dover night.
08:27cars
08:28Dover night.
08:38Dover night.
08:54Big fast.
08:58Aboard the ships go the hardware of war, cargo which will be indispensable to the fighting
09:02man if he is able to secure a tow hold on the hostile beach and expand it into a lodgment
09:07area, vehicles and the fuel to run them, rations and fresh water to drink, medicine, weapons
09:13and ammunition, bulldozers and bridges, the long invisible line of equipment which stands
09:18behind every statistic of victory. Finally, the very heart of the striking force completes
09:27the movement. The men who will spearhead the invasion board the ships which will carry them
09:31to their long-awaited hour of decision. In file after file they come in all the ports where
09:36the invasion fleet lies at anchor, moving up the gangplanks in a long, solemn shuffle whose
09:43cadence becomes the heartbeat of history.
10:05The extensive movement from shore to ship, swiftly and effectively executed, is a masterpiece
10:11of logistical operation. But with the mechanics of logistics done, the eye of destiny is now
10:17on these men, who board their vessels, bringing only what they can carry on their backs and
10:22in their hearts.
10:43The faithful hours that lie beyond the darkness ahead belong to them, to do with as they can, while the
10:49world waits in wonder and hope.
10:52They may not see themselves as the sword bearers of a crusade, but they know well enough what depends on
10:58their effort.
10:59And the ultimate preparation is for each man to make himself.
11:15Now begins a new period of waiting for the one final word. An invasion ship is a lonely ship, writes
11:22a correspondent who is there.
11:23It is a strange and suspended world, but heavy with memories of the more familiar world left behind.
11:52Unknown to the men and the tense atmosphere of the invasion fleet, tension is also high at Supreme Headquarters.
11:58Overlord, scheduled for June 5th, has been postponed 24 hours because of the worst channel storm in 20 years.
12:05Now, weather conditions predicted for the 6th are far from ideal.
12:09But another postponement will mean a wait of at least two weeks for the right conditions of moon, tide and
12:15weather.
12:16The possible consequences of delay are staggering, loss of secrecy, drop in morale, strengthening of enemy defenses.
12:22One man must make the decision. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander.
12:28He makes it. The invasion will go as scheduled on the 6th.
12:56The Great Armada begins its ponderous move into the channel waters.
13:20The men who will actually be the first into France are still back on English soil.
13:25Paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and the British 6th Airborne Division are to jump behind
13:32enemy lines to secure the flanks of the invasion area.
13:35On the eve of the invasion, the Supreme Commander visits some of them.
13:39I found them in fine fettle General Eisenhower's to write later, admonishing me that I had nothing to worry about.
14:01Theirs is to be the biggest airborne invasion ever attempted to this time.
14:05The crucial hours of darkness ahead will make almost superhuman demands on them.
14:11Bad weather and anti-aircraft fire will scatter many of them over a much wider distance than is planned.
14:16They will be forced to fight the enemy as they find him in the night in small groups and on
14:21unfamiliar terrain.
14:23But dawn will find the flanks at either end of the Normandy battlefield held by these first invaders.
14:29None of this, of course, can they know as they board their planes in the late hours before D-Day.
15:01The Great Ghost Fleet
15:03lifts from its British bases.
15:06The carriers with the Airborne Warriors.
15:11The griders carrying weapons and heavy communications equipment.
15:40The FLORINI People
15:43Pinheadcia
15:43Of course, we'll get things
15:43The Lierk
16:11The midnight skies over Normandy are suddenly alive
16:15with the dark shapes of men who will bring the first fires of D-Day to fortress Europe.
16:31In the waters of the English Channel, dawn lights up the invasion fleet plowing steadily
16:36toward the Normandy coast.
16:37With almost 5,000 seagoing vessels, the historic Armada is the greatest ever assembled.
16:56The sea is incredibly rough, for many of the warriors aboard the vessels pitching helplessly
17:01on the rolling water.
17:02Seasickness is a cruel enemy to be fought before the Germans are ever faced.
17:28An hour before the first troops are scheduled to hit the shore, a naval bombardment opens
17:33up on the enemy's coastal defenses.
17:41The End
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18:28The Nazis are at first confused about the Allied invasion.
18:32The End
18:33They are not aware of full scale assault is in the making.
18:39They are not aware of full scale assault is in the making.
19:04Allied air forces which have been protecting the assault convoy throughout its trip join the attack
19:09on enemy targets.
19:17The End
19:18In wave after wave they roar overhead above the armada.
19:21In the ships of the invasion fleet the men can hear the steady pounding of their fire on the enemy's
19:26positions and they wonder hopefully if anything can be left alive on shore.
19:31The End
19:32The End
19:36The End
20:07In a world of nausea and fear and tension, the trip to the beaches begins.
20:13At the spear tip of this historic seaborne attack are some 3,000 men, American, British
20:19and Canadian troops, who will hit in the first wave.
20:28Behind them, the main body of ground forces will land in succeeding waves.
20:48Let's go.
21:19Let's go.
21:45Let's go.
22:15Let's go.
22:21The British and Canadians are to take the three eastern beaches.
22:25The Americans are to secure the two on the west.
22:28Exposed to fire from an enemy they cannot yet see, they rock toward land.
23:01The Americans are to secure the two on the west.
23:10The Americans are to secure the two on the west.
23:35On beaches called Utah and Omaha and Sword and Gold and Juneau, they come ashore.
23:58On the murderous sands of Normandy and its rim of watery hell, they push against the gates
24:04of fortress Europe, and the fates of war and freedom await their performance.
24:08The Americans are to secure the three residents of Victoria, and the wicked and aniase.
24:10The Americans are to secure the two on the west and on the west.
24:27The Americans do notize the two on the west side to the tuber before theinas.
24:31The Americans do notize the other on the west side to the ships of the Puerto Rico.
24:36Enemy resistance varies in degree from beach to beach.
24:50But for every man there, the new world of Normandy is a world of private agony and chaos.
24:55And no man can see the broad design beyond it, on a scale so epic that words written long ago
25:01by William Shakespeare
25:02could have been composed for the 6th of June, 1944.
25:06He that outlives this day and comes safe home will stand a tiptoe when this day is named.
25:13Three hours after the invasion begins, it is clear that the Allies have their foothold, however precarious.
25:22The electrifying announcement is made in London.
25:27It is night across the United States.
25:29Swing ship workers in war plants are the first to hear the news.
25:33Under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces,
25:39began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France, unquote.
25:43This is the only word we have at this time.
25:46There is no indication yet of exactly where the invasion took place or how many men were involved.
25:57The news comes to America on this June day of 1944, bringing a swell of hope and pride, and anxiety
26:05too.
26:06For great victories in war must always be bought dearly.
26:20And the price paid this day for the Allied hold on the beaches of Normandy is not cheap.
26:33But although the cost is steep, the results are incalculable to the plan of battle.
26:39The beachhead soon expands from foothold to lodgment.
26:42Men and weapons and equipment pour ashore.
26:46Within 12 days, almost 600,000 men and 90,000 vehicles are on the beaches, massed for the drive inland.
27:01Ten months of war still lie ahead in Europe.
27:04Bitter fighting through the hedgerow country of the lodgment area.
27:17Hard grinding combat in the cities that lead from Normandy to the banks of the Elbe.
27:22Many men yet will fall.
27:24Many reverses will be suffered.
27:27Many triumphs recorded.
27:42But in the main, the progress of battle will follow the bold plan conceived in Allied Councils
27:47and brought to flaming life by the men who stormed the Normandy beaches on a day which will forever be
27:53known as D-Day.
27:55Who unlocked the gates of Fortress Europe so that a monstrous evil could be pursued and destroyed.
28:05The End.
28:07The End.
28:13The End.
28:18The End.
28:20The End.
28:22The End.
28:26The End.
28:31The End.
28:32You
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