D-Day The Shortest Day - Operation Overlord
The true scale of the D-Day landings. Some 156,000 Allied troops landed
on five beaches along the Normandy coast. Photo - Imperial War Museum
Synopsis:
Life, said the survivors, was never quite the same again, after June 6th 1944. With testimony from the UK, the US, the Commonwealth and Germany, THE SHORTEST DAY documents the meticulous planning leading up to the world's biggest amphibious invasion, the terror and triumph of the landings and the bitterness of the fighting in the days that followed.
It also records one of the campaign's worst atrocities that cost the lives of 20 Canadian troops -- and the impact on the men who unearthed the war crime. Crucial to the success of the D-Day landings was one of the greatest feats of deception in history. Decoy troop activity was centered on Kent, to fool the Germans into thinking that the Normandy landings were a feint, to be followed by a main thrust across the short-sea route from Kent to Calais. The Germans were convinced and kept vital forces in the Pas de Calais, miles away from Normandy where the vital battles were being won and lost.
The build up had taken three years and the full moon on June 5th presented the ideal date for the invasion of occupied France. The weaponry and vehicles were loaded, the troops had embarked, when the halt was called due to foul weather. A day's delay and a tense decision by General Eisenhower in the early hours of June 5th gave D-Day June 6th, 1944, its place in history.
The ingenuity of the Allied plan, included purpose-built harbours, devised to land the troops on the shallow beaches. Sections of the harbours were brought from all around the country where they had been manufactured in separate parts, unrecognisable as to their end purpose, and transported in great secrecy to the vessels for assembly on the Normandy coast. A fuel pipeline, codenamed Pluto, was laid on the sea bed in order to supply the vehicles.
All this is told in vivid anecdote and ingenious use of archive film. This is a human document of an historic event which changed the face of the world.
It also records one of the campaign's worst atrocities that cost the lives of 20 Canadian troops -- and the impact on the men who unearthed the war crime. Crucial to the success of the D-Day landings was one of the greatest feats of deception in history. Decoy troop activity was centered on Kent, to fool the Germans into thinking that the Normandy landings were a feint, to be followed by a main thrust across the short-sea route from Kent to Calais. The Germans were convinced and kept vital forces in the Pas de Calais, miles away from Normandy where the vital battles were being won and lost.
The build up had taken three years and the full moon on June 5th presented the ideal date for the invasion of occupied France. The weaponry and vehicles were loaded, the troops had embarked, when the halt was called due to foul weather. A day's delay and a tense decision by General Eisenhower in the early hours of June 5th gave D-Day June 6th, 1944, its place in history.
The ingenuity of the Allied plan, included purpose-built harbours, devised to land the troops on the shallow beaches. Sections of the harbours were brought from all around the country where they had been manufactured in separate parts, unrecognisable as to their end purpose, and transported in great secrecy to the vessels for assembly on the Normandy coast. A fuel pipeline, codenamed Pluto, was laid on the sea bed in order to supply the vehicles.
All this is told in vivid anecdote and ingenious use of archive film. This is a human document of an historic event which changed the face of the world.
Link: D-Day The Shortest Day
As well, please link to Video: "Victory at Sea" - Sicily and Italy
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