June 6, 1944, at the end of a bloody war, the Allies launched the largest landing in history. Over 150,000 men, 6,500 ships. A deluge of fire falls on the Normandy coast to liberate Europe from Nazi barbarism. But without aviation, nothing would have been possible in the hours preceding this maritime landing. A huge flying armada played a decisive role. Could the Allies have won the war without the air force? The answer is no. It was absolutely vital to their strategy. In the middle of the night. More than 4,000 planes and 23,000 paratroopers launch the assault from the air. Never in history have so many aircraft taken off in such a short time. Among them, machines like no other. The secret weapon of the allies? Gliders. During the Second World War, the massive use of gliders was completely unprecedented. It was never done before and it will never be done again. For the first time, we are going to tell you about D-Day from the sky, relive this aerial landing, minute by minute. In this battle of the air, technology plays a decisive role. The Allied troops transform the Normandy bocage into a landing zone. Ingenious systems are put in place to guide the planes. Two experienced strategists wage a ruthless war. the American Dwight Eisenhower and the German Erwin Rommel. Marshal Rommel knows very well that in this final confrontation, air superiority will truly be the key element. In 24 hours, the bombers dropped more than 10,000 tons of bombs on the coastal batteries. The traces of the impacts still testify today to the violence of the attack. Fighter, transport or bomber planes ? What are the decisive devices of this capital night? This film retraces this offensive as you have never seen it. The Landing, seen from the sky. On D-Day, the invasion of Normandy begins by air. Airplanes are the only ones able to cross the German fortifications on the coast. In a few hours, the Allied command coordinated 11,000 flights. This aerial landing is the largest in history. Enough to coordinate all its resources in the service of the greatest operation the world has ever seen. It's an amazing feat. On the night of June 6 , paratroopers and airlifted soldiers launched the first phase of the assault. Sixteen men make up the airborne troops. Their mission secure the coast before the ships arrive. For this, the Allies divide the roles on D-Day. On the one hand, the American airborne forces on the western flank of the 101ᵉ US Airborne and the 82ᵉ. They bring together 17,400 men. On the other, the British and Canadian crews are in charge of consolidating the eastern flank of the offensive. 12,500 men wear the colors of the Sixth British Airborne. An air corridor is left free for the Landing fleet. These soldiers await departure at hundreds of airfields scattered across Great Britain. A generation that will go down in history. June 25, 1944, 8:30 p.m. Do these young Americans know what awaits them in a few hours? They who, for the most part, have never set foot in Europe, are preparing to take the plunge to liberate France. These paratroopers of the 101ᵉ US Airborne must secure the Utah Beach sector before landing. But how will they annihilate the Nazi enemy? Will they succeed in silencing the German coastal defenses before embarking? General Eisenhower, said Ike, pays them a visit. The officer hides his concern 70% of these young people could leave their skin in Normandy and Eisenhower of course has this terrible figure in mind. When he speaks to these young people, he knows that a large number will never return home. It was crucial that morale was high, that troops sent into battle felt they could trust the men in command. The 101ᵉ boys are the Screaming Eagles. In less than 2 hours, they will experience their baptism of fire. Thousands of planes are preparing to take off for Normandy. But, paradoxically, it is underground that part of this gigantic air operation is organized, on the other side of the Channel, in Uxbridge, England. English historian James Hollande enters one of the most strategic and unknown bunkers of this attack. What is incredible with this bunker is that it is deeply buried, protected from bombardments. No one could reach him. It was an absolutely secret place. It was vital to British Air Force Command. It is from here that the Allied forces follow the evolution of their planes. On the night of June 6. The genius of this room was that the command at the top had an overview. He could take in everything that was going on at a glance. You can see all the squads lined up. The command sees what they are doing at every moment. Behind these points, real crews are preparing to live the longest 20 4 hours of their lives to liberate France. It's 9 p.m. Mechanics are busy before takeoff. They paint black and white stripes on the fuselages of planes, these so-called invasion stripes, to save the lives of crews by avoiding errors in the identification of aircraft in flight, reconnaissance and painting. Allied ships and fighters will not mistakenly fire at friendly aircraft in combat. This great aerial landing has been preparing for several months to understand its complexity, we must return to its origin with those who had the fate of the world in their hands. When did they decide to attack? Why did they choose to launch this assault by air? We are on December 1, 1943. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill finally agree on the opening of a second front in western Europe and on the future place of the landing, Normandy, code name of Operation Overlord. These leaders know it, the victory will pass by the control of the sky. To coordinate this double assault by sea and air, the Allies created a unified command. At its head, Dwight Eisenhower, surrounded by an Anglo-American staff. Air Marshall , Leigh Mallory, here left, stands out to lead the air force. 10:15 p.m. The American paratroopers of the 101ᵉ Airborne join their planes At a crazy pace, 443 C-47 transport planes leave the runway. They take off just a few seconds apart. In this aerial battle, this device is deemed reliable and versatile. It is capable of dropping paratroopers, transporting equipment, but also towing gliders. This American Douglas C-47 is 19 meters long. It can carry 28 passengers and reach a cruising speed of 260 kilometers per hour. Its autonomy is an asset. It travels up to 2400 kilometers. This device is also used by the British who then baptize it Dakota. This plane is essential to the Allied strategy. This great landing, the generals of the Third Reich are also preparing for it. An invasion on the west coasts could tip the war, as historian Christophe Prime explains. From the old German battery of Mont Canisy. Hitler will decide in the course of the year 1942 to strengthen the defenses of Western Europe to guard against a possible landing landing which was going to become more and more probable with the entry in war of the United States. This American entry into the war is a turning point. Uncle Sam is a giant who can tip the balance on the ally side. Hitler therefore ordered the construction of immense anti-aircraft and maritime fortifications. This Atlantic wall was built in record time between 1942 and 1944. 4000 kilometers long, it extends from the Norwegian coast in the north to the Franco-Spanish border in the south. Some vestiges still testify today to this German presence on the site of Mount Canisy, overlooking Le Havre. Christophe Prime finds another enthusiast. One of the only ones to be able to access this unique work in Normandy. A gallery located fifteen meters underground. We can clearly see the will of the Germans, from 1943, to harden their works, to bury themselves in order to really protect themselves from the air force. the Air Force made this battery a priority target. The range of these guns was 18 kilometers and it could reach the sector of Sword where the Allied ships anchored. This underground fortress consists of about fifty rooms. The Germans hide men and ammunition. It's amazing. If the scale of the work and the speed with which they were able to build all these concrete infrastructures, it was asked to progress by one meter per day knowing that they were working day and night. And to do this, they appealed to the local population. As early as 1943. The Führer called on a faithful to reinforce this wall, Marshal Rommel, known as the Desert Fox, one of the few to think that the danger would come from the sky. The German officer brings out of the ground 4600 defensive works. This Atlantic wall is home to formidable anti-aircraft weapons, such as these 88 mm artillery pieces. Pilots fear them because of their precision and the infernal rate of their shots. But Rommel does not stop there. Aware that the Allies have mastery of the sky, they set up diabolical traps, like these wooden stakes that bear his name. Rommel's asparagus planted on the ground, they are terrible obstacles for gliders. Another deadly danger awaits paratroopers all along the coastline. Rommel orders the land bordering the beaches to be flooded. These bodies of water make any landing extremely risky. 10:30 p.m., night falls as the first ships leave England and the American paratroopers join their aircraft. Their British brethren in the Sixth Airborne Division rush into battle. These men are at the forefront of the air offensive. Their mission to secure the hinterland of Sword Beach. To do this, they must seize the Bénouville bridge, the only crossing point between Caen and the English Channel, and that of Ranville, located on the Orne. It is essential for future supply. 180 fighters under the orders of Major John Howard are responsible for this first attack. On the British side, to take the Germans by surprise. The Allies use unpowered gliders . They are silent and almost undetectable. These devices can discreetly deposit entire units and equipment behind enemy lines. They play an unprecedented role in the assault. As glider specialist Philippe Esvelin reminds us. When using paratroopers, it takes a longer or shorter time for them to fight. The advantage of the glider is that we will really have this group ready to fight as soon as it hits the ground. Before hitting the ground. Gliders cross the Channel, towed by planes. The pilots try to stay focused. They are in communication with the tug bomber. They exchange information about the time remaining before they can detach from the tow plane. The first three British gliders unhook from their tow plane and descend towards their targets. They weigh seven tons each. A pilot error would put the lives of the troops in danger. The English glider Horsa is the centerpiece of this high-risk mission. 20 meters long, it is made of wood and canvas. It can carry 25 men, in addition to the pilot and co-pilot. 300 horsa are used in Normandy alongside two other models, the British Amilcar and the American Waco. June 6, 1944 12:05 a.m. Will Allied victory come from above? While the airborne troops are in flight, the first British gliders are about to land, other planes come into action. The bombers. They must drop tons of bombs on the formidable batteries of the Atlantic wall. If these guns are not neutralized in the night, they will cause carnage in 6 hours. Thousands of ships will pour troops on the beaches of Normandy to annihilate these installations. Eisenhower notably appealed to the two so-called strategic fleets on the one hand, the British of Bomber Command and their 1,500 heavy bombers. And on the other, the American eighth fleet of the USAAF, which has 2,600 aircraft. In a few hours, some of these bombers dropped 8,000 tons of bombs on the coastal batteries. 25 aircraft are destroyed during this shelling. These bombardments are not the first. As early as 1942, the Allies began to bombard the French coasts. They wanted to deceive the Germans about the future place and date of the landing and also to paralyze the movements of the troops of the Reich by destroying the railway installations. If American and British bombers operate together on the coastline, they take turns attacking. The British will choose to bomb at night. These bombers will be equipped with navigation systems that will allow them, precisely at night, to locate themselves and go to their objective. On the American side, from the start, they will choose a totally opposite tactic. They will operate two days at high altitude using their famous no bombing orders. This state-of-the-art sight collects flight data to guide bombardments by calculating ground speed. This jewel of technology, the allies protect it jealously. The crews, when they had to land in disaster, had an obligation to destroy this tool so that they did not fall into the hands of the German forces. If the Allies knew the future theater of operations so well, it was because they kept a permanent eye on the German positions in Normandy. For months, aerial reconnaissance missions have been providing valuable information to staff. Cameras are installed on fighter planes, like this Spitfire. They fly over the French coast to take shots which are then meticulously analyzed. Looking at the photographs taken by reconnaissance aircraft, intelligence officers visualized exactly all German defenses along the Atlantic Wall, especially in Normandy. Most importantly, they can identify the positions of each machine gun and each bunker. The internal French resistance also played a determining role in this collection of information. They allow the Allies to better know their enemy and their positions. 12:10 a.m. The first men of D-Day go into action. Their mission is vital. Because be careful, so that the planes can drop 23,000 paratroopers in the right places, men must jump before everyone else to prepare the ground. Their names ? The scouts. The Pass Finder in English In one of the planes, the head of the 101ᵉ Pass Finder, Captain Frank Lee. During training, he made himself known with a cigar in his mouth. At 12:16 a.m., the officer was one of the first American scouts to make landfall. Wounded during the fighting, he will later recount his night during an interview with American news. I imagine you have been in tense situations. Captain Yes, that's right. There is a particular moment, the night, when I was touched. I'll still be there if these two comrades right behind me. He hadn't refused to leave this field while we were under enemy fire. This first wave of paratroopers must now help pilots on approach by marking out future jump zones, the drop zones. But how will they guide the parachute drops of their comrades? What innovation reinforces the Allied plans overnight? Pass Finder use state-of-the-art technology to mark drop zones. A radio guidance system called Euréka Rebecca. The device works in two stages. On the ground, the scouts begin by installing the Eureka transmitter. Its antenna sends a continuous signal to the Rebecca receiver installed in the cockpit of the leading plane. This signal can be received by the device within a radius of 20 to 30 kilometers from the aircraft. Rebecca in turn sends a signal that tries to pick up the one emitted by the antenna on the ground. When the two signals are found, the pilot knows where he must go. Scouts then use these lights to mark the drop zone. The installation is risky at all times, German soldiers can attack them. In a few minutes, seven lamps are installed at a distance of ten meters each. The Pass Finder turn them on as soon as they hear the sound of aircraft engines. Seen from the sky, it forms a luminous t which indicates to the pilot the drop zone. A lamp located at the base of the T flashes to indicate the name of the zone in Morse code. An ingenious process which will not however prevent the dispersion of the troops. 12:16 a.m. As the scouts mark the drop zones, the first glider of the sixth Airborne lands violently at more than 110 kilometers per hour. On board, Major John Howard. We landed with a terrible crash. Suddenly, I couldn't see anything. I thought I was blind, but that was just my helmet falling over my eyes. The pilot managed the feat of landing at night, without any markings, 45 meters from the Bénouville bridge. Two other gliders land with the same precision. A few meters away. The capture of this bridge is essential to the crossing of the reinforcements coming from the beaches. Allied tactics are paying off. Thanks to these silent gliders, the surprise effect is total. Until the last moment, the German sentries do not realize anything. The British quickly take control of the bridge. The Germans were taken by surprise. They did not have time to realize that something was happening. Two Germans on deck. One had been killed, the second who was only sixteen. He ran off. He was taken prisoner. He told the English later that day that he had heard the arrival of the illegals. The Germans believed these were pieces of Allied aircraft that had been shot down. The takeover was so quick. The English went to a bunker near the bridge. They woke up the Germans who were still sleeping. It's unbelievable, but in ten minutes it was over. Things get more complicated on the side of the Ranville bridge. The gliders disperse. One of them lands thirteen kilometers from its target. The reason ? An unfortunate navigation error. But as the bridge was not guarded, it was easily taken by the allies, while 6,500 ships were on their way to France. Major Ward transmits the Ham and Jam message indicating the successful completion of the mission. June 6 , 1944 was the largest air deployment in aviation history. In 24 hours, the Allied forces managed to coordinate 11,000 flights. The American and Anglo-Canadian troops are supported by soldiers of a dozen nationalities. But how is an attack of such magnitude organized? Who monitors the evolution of the pilots in their fight for freedom? In the bunker in Oxbridge, England. The Allies closely follow the planes of D-Day. Thanks to feedback from squadron commanders based at the departure aerodromes. They control the evolution of the air forces. To coordinate these 11,000 flights. It was incredibly complex. A large number of different air commands were involved and each had its own center of operations. Once the information was centralized, the pilot was given very clear instructions on what to do. The movements of hundreds of fighter planes and light bombers are tracked. The staffs use advanced technologies such as long-range radars placed on ships. They serve as relays. The trajectory of the planes was followed using information from radars and radios. The radars capture their movements which are transmitted to the control center. Before arriving in this room. Allied and German flights are carefully scrutinized. Here were Royal Air Force fans. They moved these wooden figurines that symbolize squadrons heading south and then across the English Channel. And over there, in the right corner of the. map. It pushes them, more and more towards the French coasts. Flying 4,000 planes on the night of June 6 is a real clockwork to regulate this air traffic. The Allies set up holding patterns over England. They also fly their planes at different altitudes to avoid any risk of collision. 0:20 a.m. The first alerts are issued on the German side. The noose is tightening around the troops of the Third Reich. It is the sway of combat in a dozen coastal batteries. Machine gun bursts of shells are fired from flak units. These anti-aircraft weapons would be blind without the technologies developed by the Reich in this war on innovation. German engineers are ahead. They have developed radars capable of searching the sky in search of the slightest allied aircraft. It is on this land located in the Pas de Calais that was in 1944 a strategic base of the German Air Force. The author, Pierre Antoine Courouble has done a lot of research on this completely forgotten and yet essential site. We are in one of the buildings of this center for listening, transmissions and radio tracking. Four radars were connected to this center which made it possible to observe all the movements of the enemy. Realize that in these buildings, there were between 600 and 800 people working. And they had camouflaged at the level of the roofs by creating 30 cm of grass. From the sky, the buildings were invisible. next to these buildings stood at the time, a giant antenna. We are in front of the base, of one of the four radars which was a huge radar. It was the *** which had a wingspan of 29 meters. A gigantic metal infrastructure that was held by four pillars, the remains of which can be seen here. And it is under these vestiges hidden by the vegetation that hides an abandoned bunker. We are below the large concrete pylons and we can see the pipes that allowed the cables to lower the information from the radar to the operations room. This radar could spot an aircraft within a radius of 300 kilometers. The data was then analyzed in this operating room. A place at the cutting edge of technology. There was in particular an observation table where luminous points moved, allowing the Germans to follow the movements of the apparatuses and of radio, to guide the interventions. The Germans were perhaps very advanced technologically. However, they had not foreseen that he would no longer have the mastery of the sky. And on this site, there will be about fifteen bombardments. These shellings ruin the German technological advance. Before landing, the bombers destroyed 75 of the 94 radar stations on the coast. 1:30 a.m., the first ships prepare to drop anchor 18 kilometers from Utah Beach. The fate of these crews depends on the battle of the skies above them. On the American side, once the drop zones have been marked out by the scouts, a new phase of the assault is launched. Thousands of paratroopers jump on their targets. On one side, 6900 paratroopers of the 101ᵉ secure the Utah area to prevent any German counterattack. In particular, they seized the Barquette lock. It helps to control the water level of flooded marshes. On the other, the bulk of the troops of the 82ᵉ jumped onto the western flank of the landing. 6400 paratroopers must absolutely seize three objectives. The town, Sainte-Mère-Eglise and two bridges. The mayor of Ray, at la Fière and chef du Pont. The pilots are nervous. Often novices, they fly above cloud cover. But problem, at this altitude, the targets are invisible. The paratroopers risk dispersing in the aircraft. The young soldiers wait nervously. We went from one cloud to another until we suddenly left the cloud mass. It was at this moment that we experienced the Flak. The projectiles that struck the aircraft emitted a sound similar to gravel crashing into a sheet metal. Equipped with more than 50 kilos of material. The paras stand ready. They fix this light to green. They throw themselves violently from the device. A jump of 20 to 30 seconds, endless before even touching the ground. Some fall under the violence of German fire. 75% of the troops are parachuted in the wrong place. If they fail to find their objective, the mission will be a failure. The company faces another hazard: the terrible flood tides. Hundreds of paratroopers are missing, drowned under the weight of their equipment. Ironically , as the deadly trap imagined by Rommel closes in on the paratroopers, the marshal is sorely missing. But in Germany, for his wife's birthday, he sleeps and will not be notified. Landing at 6:30 a.m. After violent clashes, the men of the 82ᵉ manage to carry out their mission. They must now hold their positions until the arrival of reinforcements by sea, June 6, 1944. 1:48 am, in the sky of Normandy. the German Herrmann is about to live the longest seconds of his life. The airman was taken by surprise as he was about to land at Saint-André de l'Eure aerodrome. A perilous flight told by Isa Bazin, a passionate aviation pilot of the Second World War. We're here above this German airbase. Where the first German plane of June 6, 44 was shot down. The Luftwaffe fighter was returning from an observation mission on the beaches when he was literally chased. An English fighter came from behind above and shot him. He shot him down the plane, fell, crashed to the ground. Just there. The pilot was seriously injured and his radio operator tragically died in the aircraft fire. The German crew could do nothing against the Mosquito. This device is a real formidable Swiss army knife during raids at low altitude. It can be used as a bomber, as a fighter or as a reconnaissance aircraft. This de Havilland Mosquito is a British ultra-fast combat aircraft with a length of twelve meters. It can reach speeds of 650 kilometers per hour and carry a pilot and his navigator side by side. But what sets this device apart is that it is made of plywood. It is even baptized the wooden terror. This material has the advantage of being easy to find and it also makes it possible to use available labour. The cabinetmakers On the German side, the performance of the Mosquito drove Luftwaffe Commander-in-Chief Hermann Goring mad with rage. The officer orders the construction of a wooden hunter largely inspired by the Mosquito. It will ultimately remain at the prototype stage. This aerodrome of Saint-André de l'Eure is an essential place for the aviation of the Reich. This aerodrome was requisitioned by the Germans who turned it into a huge air base. There were only three in Normandy, with concrete tracks like that, it is of strategic importance. Thanks to these hard runways, very heavy planes such as bombers could take off in all weathers without sinking into the mud, as on a grass runway. This base is continuously bombarded by the Allies, to the point that the Germans will set up an infernal plan, hide their planes in this forest to make them invisible from the air. 1:50 a.m. The sirens of the Pointe du Hoc battery signal the presence of bombers. Will the Atlantic wall resist this air assault? Threatening shadows glide through the night. They are those of the British Avro Lancaster, 21 meters long, loaded, it can reach a speed of 450 kilometers per hour. This four-engined aircraft carries seven crew members and up to ten tons of bombs, an invaluable asset for the allies. In England, the RAF treasures one of these bombers. The pilot presents this model with Sebastian Cox, historian within the Royal Air Force. It's a historic D-Day device. Its conservation proves how special it is because each of these bombs represents a mission. On average, how many trips did it make before being damaged? Between 20 and 30 missions in general. So it's very special, because this one has done more than 130 missions. That's over 130 balloons on this plane. Imposing. The Lancaster is a priority target for Luftwaffe fighters. Its powerful machine guns allow it to defend itself. Once, let's go to the back. We see this tail turret, equipped with four machine guns. Its role is to protect the rear of the bomber from German night fighters . But what makes the Lancaster a unique bomber is its gigantic punching power. He can carry this huge 3600 kilo bomb, called Blockbuster and capable of wiping out an entire block of houses in a fraction of a second. And what are these little propellers for? They
belong to the trigger mechanism of the bomb. When it is released, these propellers begin to spin. What will arm the bomb This device avoids having an armed bomb in the hold during the flight. It would be a shame if a bomb went off by accident. The other bombs are designed to penetrate the ground. This one is made to explode as soon as it hits the ground. And creates a huge area of devastation. 2:35 a.m. The air assault continues in Normandy. Thousands of planes, gliders and bombers take turns in the sky while the American paratroopers take care of the western flank of the landing, in the east, the British Sixth Airborne Division attacks the battery of Merville. The troops only have 4 hours left before the ships arrive. They
must absolutely neutralize this bastion. But when it came time to regroup, only 150 out of 750 paras answered the call. Many landed far from their target due to bad weather. Others drowned in the swamps. The battery eventually fell into Anglo-Canadian hands. The troops destroy its cannons before continuing on to other targets. If the Germans were taken by surprise on June 6, it was because they did not believe in an assault in Normandy. In this air war, the Allies managed to fool the Germans on the date and place of the landing. Code name of this Fortitude operation. For months, bombers attacked the German defenses of Nord-Pas-de-Calais to make it look like a landing. Further north, where the distance is the shortest between England and France at 3 h. The trickery continues in the Pas de Calais to leave the field open to the troops in Normandy. Planes fly at low altitude to be spotted by German radars. The allies, there too, it is metal strip called Windows which will deceive the radio operators of the enemy. They saw large compact masses appear on their screen which made them think that there was a large air formation heading towards them. Another stratagem is the dropping of these funny burlap dummies, baptized Rupes. They are dropped at the same time as real units to fool the Germans on the number of paratroopers, 500 Reaper land behind enemy lines on four areas away from combat. These dolls had their self-destruct systems which produced flames in particular and which finally added to the realism, that is to say that we were almost in the middle of a battle. At 4 a.m. The first soldiers board the barges for Omaha as the bombers attack the coastline. A hundred gliders loaded with men drop reinforcements for the paratroopers already in the area. But with the bad visibility, very many gliders crash against hedges. The losses are catastrophic. Gliders land around 80 to 90 kilometers h. The problem is that they are overloaded. The grass is wet, so it lengthens the braking distances and a lot of gliders will get stuck in the hedges. Allied intelligence had not anticipated that the fields would be so narrow. When you have one, two or three gliders that are already in a field and there are still three, four or five that want to land in the same place. This inevitably creates problems, collisions and there will be many injuries and many deaths. This American Waco glider can carry thirteen men or equipment, in addition to the pilot and his co-pilot. Its articulated nose lifts up to load and unload vehicles. During the war, sixteen American companies built Wacos, some with very surprising profiles. We will call on companies that know how to work with metal and wood, and therefore in particular coffin manufacturers. This is why American gliders will quickly be nicknamed flying coffins. Handy but fragile flying coffins, which will not be used after the Second World War. The day dawns on the day of June 6. It is 5:55 a.m. American bombers are heading towards the Omaha beach sector To avoid being spotted, the aircraft are flying at very high altitude. Problem they have no visibility. Clouds hide the coast. With this weather, pilots risk bombing Allied ships positioned near the coast by mistake. At 1500 meters altitude, dropping too early or too late can be disastrous. There is one place where this will have quite a significant impact, and that is on Omaha, where the pilots will eventually delay their bomb drops by a few seconds. A few seconds will be enough for the bombs to fall several hundred meters to the rear and miss the German defenses in particular. The mission is a total failure. The German defenses will be intact and will be able to oppose the American landing very effectively. The boats in turn pull towards Omaha beach. Buried in a bunker Wehrmacht machine gunners suffered this helpless deluge. One of them will describe in a letter to his family this terrifying night. You could hear the whistle of the bombs all the time and soon there was not a square meter where a bomb came to strike. I was still buried under the rubble. For us began a fight without outcome. For the German soldier who pulls through, it's more like a miracle. It often takes several minutes for fighters to recover from their shock and be able to be operational again and return to combat. Others weren't so lucky. On Omaha Beach, 2,500 American soldiers died in a bloodbath on June 6. A real disaster. The sand is strewn with bodies. The water has turned red, blood red, which will earn this beach the sad nickname of Omaha. The bloody one. 6:05 a.m. at Utah Beach. The Allies adopt a strategy radically different from that of Omaha. They bombard their objectives lengthwise, parallel to the beach. If a third of the projectiles fell into the sea, others hit the German defenses head-on. But this success has a price. Two crews are killed in a collision. 6:30 a.m. The first barges pour thousands of men onto the beach under enemy fire. So, how to prevent the Germans from realizing too quickly the extent of the attack? How to hide this immense fleet from them? One of the secrets of the American Eisenhower is the smokescreen operation. It consists of deploying a gigantic curtain of smoke at sea level to hide the boats. The maneuver is ultra risky, the planes only fly fifteen meters above the water. The operation is repeated every ten minutes. To disperse these smoke bombs, the allies find a D system. They use an extremely versatile and fast bomber which it transforms for this mission. The gunsmiths replaced the bombs of the device with tanks of smoke. But who are these men who carry out this mission of smoke? Well, they are French pilots. These young people eager to fight and win. And who will bear the iron. And the fire on the routed columns the invincible Marshal Rommel. These young people from our region were the pioneers of resurgent French aviation. These are the crews. They responded to General de Gaulle's call and joined the Lorraine group in England, before being attached to the Royal Air Force. If the French crews succeed in their mission, three comrades are missing. They are among the first to fall as heroes. It's 8 o'clock. Alone against all, two Luftwaffe pilots attempt the impossible. They take off for the landing beaches. Their mission is almost suicidal. A desperate strafing raid over Omaha Beach, within range of an overarmed Allied fleet. How could these two devices compete against these ships on board one of the planes? Joseph Thriller, one of the Luftwaffe's most feared pilots. It is the nightmare of allied crews. This German ace is ruthless. He became known for winning countless dogfights. Joseph orders the JG 26 base from Lesquin to Lille. Five months earlier, in January 1944, Rommel reviews the pilots of this unit alongside him. Taken shows them his famous fighter plane. It's in the station still exists. It is a few hundred meters from Lille airport. Pierre Antoine knows the smallest secrets. This is exactly where Joseph Hiller's airplane was, the Focke-Wulf 190, which always carried the lucky number thirteen for him. And there was the ace of hearts with the first name of his fiancée UTA. Thriller was a charismatic, energetic personality, highly esteemed by these men. He had conducted more than 1300 missions. He survived all the resignations. It wasn't recognition. And he will win 101 wins, a record that will make him one of the brightest aces in the Luftwaffe. During the landing. Thriller is not at Lesquin airfield. To escape the bombardments, it is about ten kilometers away, in Bondues. On June 6 in the morning, receives a phone call to ask him to take off for the beaches of Normandy. He goes into anger, a rage to express his dissatisfaction. They had taken his whole squadron away from him. These 100 devices are in the south of France. There are only two of them left and he is going to tell his teammate that they were probably going to take off for their last mission. Still, priller and his wingman miraculously pull through. They strafed the beach at low altitude and thus escaped the Allied fighters who were patrolling much higher in the sky. The two airmen managed to carry out one of the few German air attacks on the morning of June 6. On D-Day, the Luftwaffe is therefore almost absent from the Norman sky. It only counts 319 sorties against more than 11,000 for the Allies. The mastery of the Anglo-American skies is overwhelming. But how to explain this weak presence? Why are the German pilots taking so long to react? For several months, the German Air Force has been up against the wall. Its commander-in-chief, Goering, is an absent subscriber. There are only 600 aircraft left scattered all over France to defend the west coast. If the Reich fighters are so few in number, it is because they have been recalled to Germany to fight against the Allied bombings. Consequence on June 6, the French coasts are defenceless, or almost. The majority of German aircraft had returned to Germany. They were no longer in the north and west of France. They couldn't do much more. The situation was so critical that they would have been crushed if they had attacked. These bombings began in 1943. Since then, the Allies have given the Germans no respite. Objective crush the enemy and destroy his war industry. For this, Anglo-American bombers fly over the Reich 24 hours a day, while British heavy bombers from Bomber Command pound Germany at night. Those of the USAAF's US Eighth Fleet drop their daylight bombs. The bombings were not aimed only at Nazi industries. The big cities of the Reich like Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne or Hanover are also targeted. These controversial bombings over cities are the work of an unnamed man, Arthur Harris, nicknamed Harris the Bomber. He implemented this strategy to undermine civilian morale. Many people say that bombing does not win a war. Well, my answer is that it has never been attempted. During the Second World War, these bombings claimed hundreds of thousands of victims. This battle in the sky would not have been possible without the manufacture of all these planes. Both sides set up a game of chess to produce ever more. Despite the bombardments, the Germans kept up their pace while the Allies took advantage of their gigantic production capacity. Realize. In 1943 alone, American factories produced 83,000 aircraft. That's more than the number of seats in a large football stadium. It is enormous. In England, the Anglo-American forces were not spared from the bombardments. Very quickly, it decided to hide or bury their industry, which had remained in its original state since 1944. This former underground factory of closed cloth still conceals many vestiges. If Robinson is today the only one to hold the keys. It was a secret factory. If one of the main sites were damaged or reduced to dust, he could continue production here. These tunnels serve as shelters for underground aircraft parts workshops . A clever system allows the workers not to lose track of time. Loudspeakers broadcast the latest information from the Front, but also weather reports, music, everything so that the workers keep one foot in reality. A huge complex of 26,000 square meters, with its numbered streets and avenues. 600 workers take part in the war effort here. The people who worked here understood very well the gravity of the situation and I imagine they felt very, very proud to contribute to the war effort in any way possible. Parts manufacturing continued in this closed cloth factory until the end of the war. Back to the morning of June 6, 1944. The Allies once again called on their pilots. Fighter planes take care of protecting the boats stationed off the five landing beaches. They chase down any enemy aircraft that tries to approach. An American correspondent embarked on one of these ships, recounts the fierce fighting between the Luftwaffe, the ships and the Allied aircraft. Almost 40 m and with full. The German Air Force lost around forty aircraft on D-Day. But the Allied offensive did not stop there. It will continue in heaven and on Earth. This is the start of the Battle of Normandy. On that historic night, the Allies took the occupier by surprise in a daring air assault. Operation Overlord enabled Anglo-American forces to open a new front in western Europe. For a few hours, the future of the Landing was suspended from the action of these thousands of men and aircraft. The thing to remember about D-Day aviation is the enormity and complexity of the operation. We are talking about 11,000 flights. And this success proves the incredible level of cooperation and preparation. The allies really had the supremacy of the air, in 1944. If the air forces played a decisive role. They also paid a heavy price on D-Day. 127 Allied aircraft were destroyed, resulting in the death of their crew. In the ranks of the American and British airborne divisions. The losses amounted to more than three,700 men. Between the wounded, the dead and the missing. Still today, Normandy bears the scars of this offensive and homage to the sacrifice of its liberators.
