And soon, we were down at the docks and
there we found units of the hundred and first Airborne Division carrying
everything they could carry by hand, boarding landing craft that was so
heavily laden they had to be pushed off the docks
by trucks, as you see in this manner. And these men would being taken out to
larger craft and board t it before the invasion. And here we see several units
carrying grenades, bazookas. They didn't have a an opportunity to blow this.
Aboard. Jeeps that were not fully available at this particular moment. We
were aboard a fleet of LCIS [Landing Craft Infantry] and here shown with the commander of the
invasion group in the center and the captain on the right rather the captain
of our ship. Lieutenant Patton was in command of the
LCI number 5 and we found out that he participated in several invasions in the
Mediterranean area and we felt rather confident that he knew what he was doing,
but we stayed aboard this ship for almost five days. This is the commander
of the squadron. I remember lieutenant Patton's name well
because we were with him for so long. What Haynes was trying to get ready for
the trip into Paris. I think he was premature. And these are units of the
hundred and first Airborne Division aboard our landing craft amusing
themselves and I don't have to tell you who this man is imitating. He was a Notre
Dame football player at one time and I was told later on that he was killed in
the action. Of course every ship had a mascot and ours was no different but the
boys provided for their mascots' welfare. With the making of a life preserver just
like the ones that they wore themselves. And then, one afternoon lieutenant Patton
briefed the crew and told him that we would be sailing that afternoon.
And they let out a cheer because this is the job we're waiting for, they wanted to
get it done and go home. And here we see the LCI number four with the commander
moving out into the channel. And this was a tremendous sight to see ships from one
end of the horizon to the other. Ships of all kinds. They tell me there was well
over a thousand ships. But even so we thought this was just another exercise
as we continued on. We felt that we'd be turned around go back and try again
another day. But when we continued on into the night, we knew it was the real
thing. At one time we had a bit of a scare: They said there was a submarine in
the area and one of the "DE" boats threw some bombs into the channel and they
exploded but we never saw any attack at all. Here are some scenes actually taken
close to the beach where the ships made a right angle turn and headed for the
area where we were to land. That is a "DE" boat in the distance. And of course we
were on the alert for any kind of attack, even aeroplane attacks.
Fortunately, our Air Force did their job well and at no time that I know of a
German attack, except after we had landed, two planes attempted to strafe the beach.
And I happened to be in the area. Now these are some scenes that I took with
my camera that was reduced to 16 millimeter. This particular scene of
these men going to shore was taken by an automatic camera aboard a British
landing craft. And they were the first men to land. The reason that was taken
by an automatic camera was because they wanted to have a record of what happened
should the landing fail. At least they might have a record if they were able to
recover the film of what happened and how to avoid it if they had to try
another attack. But here are some scenes, landing on the Utah Beach. And this is
the way we went to shore. This is again as at the British beach, but you notice
the men didn't dash ashore after being aboard a landing craft for five solid
days, they just walked slowly and cautiously, fearful of bombs and mines
that were sown in the area. You notice they have their rifles wrapped in
cellophane. But this is the way we had to go ashore and I needn't tell you that a
lot of the boys didn't make it. Here is one of the famous scenes, taken from
black-and-white film of two men being shot down right before your eyes. Here is
Pete Carroll and Wes Haines carrying our own equipment and the ship is grounded
on the beach. The section of the beach we were on was being attacked by enemy fire
and in the previous shot you could see a bomb actually land not too far from
where we were. There it is again. The bulldozers were trying to clear roads to
let our deep sand tanks move forward. And even though it was June, the area was quite
cold, as it usually is in that part of Normandy. Of course, the men dug their
foxholes a little deeper and we had the good fortune of finding the concrete wall,
which helped serve as protection but even now we're taking some of our
wounded back to the beach so they can be transferred back to England. But when the
tide went out, the ships could not come in close or those that went aground had
a wait a foot height had to be re-floated. if they weren't hit. We'll stayed on the
beach the first night and lived in a foxhole. And soon we showed some of the
first prisoners taken in the area late the first day who were captured close to
the beach and were sent back to England, because there was no room to keep them
there. This is our first command post where general Collins on the left is
talking to some of his officers and we were able to get some of the first hot
food at this place and I didn't realize how hungry I was
until I saw these pictures. There's Larry Lazure(?) again and Bob Landry on the right.
Bob Landry was covering the war for time in life. And although it kept me
very busy for eight solid days, I used up all the film I had and decided to go
back to France to get some more and probably to get a bath. I hadn't had my
clothes off during that entire time. And my landing at England took place at a
place near Bournemouth. It almost looks like the cliffs of Dover that everyone
is familiar with. But it was a beautiful sight to see the coast of England and
know that I could get some rest after a while. But [I] didn't realize it at
that time but the "Buzz Bombs" would start coming over and here we see some of them,
flying over the English coastline. And these "Buzz Bombs" were a terror weapon.
They didn't know where they would land but the British were quick to set up
machine guns and anti-aircraft fire to knock them out of the sky. And they've
managed to shoot down quite a few. They even sent planes up into the sky to
knock them out of the air and of course sometimes they did get through and where
they fell they caused considerable damage. But you must have missed that
pretty good shooting. There's one actually coming down and it landed in
the London area and wherever they landed they caused considerable damage. My
second crossing of the channel was made on an LST ["Landing Ship, Tank" or "tank landing ship"] and this time with units of
the 3rd Armored Division that was sorely needed because they were bringing over
more tanks and vehicles to carry us in the direction of Cherbourg. because we
needed a port badly. The LST was manned by a British crew. That's the captain in
the British uniform. But we were in a long convoy of many of them. Everyone
loaded to the gills with equipment that was sorely needed. But here you'll get an
idea of what the beach looked like and these ships are actually waiting for the
tide to recede, so they could send their equipment
ashore without going through deep water. On D-Day, they had to go through the deep
water. And at this particular moment, they're waiting for the ramps to be
rebuilt after a severe storm so they could go ashore without damage. Now you
can see the problems they had on D-Day because when the landing crafts hit the
sandbars, the men started wading ashore and found
deeper water ahead and those that had their life preservers too low around
their waist turned turtle and many were drowned. But these are units of the Third
Army, heading in, crossing the deep spot just ahead of them and headed toward
Cherbourg itself. This was a remarkable sight and the ships were lined up as far
as the eye could see, bringing supplies ashore. We needed Cherbourg badly because
we thought we could use it as a port. But we found that Cherbourg, shown here, was
pretty badly destroyed by the Germans themselves. They destroyed the docks
which we thought we could use and it took them, if I recall, almost two months
before we could bring a ship in. They set up mines and destroyed the famous
Cherbourg docks where the transatlantic liners used to land. They not only destroyed the docks but
also the inland bridges that crushed the rivers that entered the Cherbourg area, the
canals. This is one of them destroyed by the Germans. Soon, the French people came
back into the city and gave us a warm welcome. And soon we found the prisoners
and I think they took something like sixteen or eighteen thousand men out of
the Cherbourg area and they're still holding their personal belongings,
marching toward the beaches because they had to be transported to England and
some eventually to the States, to be held in prisoner of war camps. And even at
this time, those that could talk to us or would talk to us, said we'd be pushed
back into the channel in less than a week.
Amazing first hand account, neutral and in the moment
Gives me chills. Thanks to them, I literally cannot fathom that kind of fear.
At 1:08 Dude looks like Brad Pitt.
Brian Williams does a great job.
Fantastic film--I watched the entire thing
It really humanizes D-Day
What were all those zeppelins doing at 8:50? Attacking the beach? Or just observing?
great to see color footage shot from back then, but it had to think, how many of those guys made it home, and how many did not?
The first sentence doesn't make any sense. "members of the 101st airborne division boarding small boats..." Pretty sure those guys we in planes....
Doesn't look like Saving Private Ryan. The soldiers are just slowly walking on the beach.