D-Day 6.6.1944 Page #2

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because he was going on holiday.

I didn't want to shoot,

so I was trained as a surveyor.

I was 22 years old.

Four concrete casemates, six feet thick,

steel doors front and rear.

15 to 20 gun pits,

four to five machine guns in each.

Two six-foot barbed-wire perimeter fences,

anti-tank ditches and a minefield.

The daunting challenge of putting the

Merville battery out of action on D-Day

has been given to

the 9th Parachute Battalion,

under the command

of Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway.

The battery was sighted

to fire along the length of Sword Beach,

across which the British Third

Infantry Division was going to land.

Everybody emphasised to me personally

what would happen if we failed.

Thousands of men killed on the beach.

Each casemate has a howitzer

with a seven-mile range.

They can hit incoming battleships

and the beach

where 30,000 Allied troops will land.

They can do a lot of damage.

Any questions?

- What is our mission, sir?

- To take it.

We have four hours to destroy the battery

before the landings begin.

B Company and "C" Company

will mount the main assault here.

A diversion party will attack

the main gate here.

A Company will arrive in gliders

immediately prior to the initial assault.

At night, sir?

Of course.

- Where will they land, sir?

On top of it.

We knew it was going

to be big and important

and that we would be up at the front

of it. But it seemed so... impossible.

If we fail, the entire Allied left flank

could be decimated.

This mission is dangerous,

but it's crucial.

The imminent invasion

is the world's biggest story

and a magnet for the world's

biggest storytellers.

London felt like

the capital of the whole world.

It was the place to be,

especially if you were a journalist.

Everyone looked to Capa to be

the big-shot photographer for the invasion

because he had been covering war

ever since the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

Gotcha!

Bob had a sense of his own destiny,

which was tragic, in a way,

because his destiny was to...

to cover the world at its worst.

- I can't believe you're back.

- Of course I'm back.

I told the office

I hadn't seen my gal in seven months.

Well course I'm back.

You're a terrible liar.

OK, but I want to be with the boys

when they liberate my Paris.

I won't miss that.

Let's not talk about the war.

That's not what we're here for.

Pinky was not terribly serious,

except about lovemaking.

She was madly in love with Capa.

I thought you weren't wasting film.

Those guys are counting on me

to get the pictures of the big day.

Robert Capa,

humanitarian and war photographer.

I'm a gambler, not a humanitarian.

Humanitarians believe in humanity.

For me, it's just a matter

of drawing the right cards.

While Capa relaxes in London,

Rommel inspects the beach

the Allies have already codenamed "Omaha".

He is battling to reinforce

the Normandy beach defences

and place armoured divisions close inland.

After Rommel was here, we started

to think, "This is getting serious. "

Before that,

we were quite relaxed about it,

but suddenly there was Rommel saying,

"They'll come here. "

Move!

Bang! Let's go!

Come on, let's go!

Move! Move!

We had nine rehearsals by night and day.

They had to do it time and time again

until they were perfect.

Too slow! Too late!

If you hesitate, you could be shot.

And they understood that.

Come in from the right!

Where's that bloody flamethrower?

Idle bastards,

get in here!

The last time we did it, it was for real.

We had a tremendous

kind of gung-ho feeling.

OK, stop!

Back to the start!

It was different.

We're good. We're bloody good!

Not bloody good enough. Let's go!

Did you ask Washington

about landing craft?

They're thinking about it.

Perhaps we could tell them not to think,

just to do it.

Amongst the many problems

Eisenhower must solve

is the risk of taking a vast armada across

100 miles of heavily patrolled water.

What about the rehearsals

for the landings?

Exercise Tiger is due

to take place

Yeah.

- off the south coast on April 28th, sir.

Half of them have never

even tasted battle before.

The least we can do

is prepare them for it.

Exercise Tiger

is a major rehearsal for D-Day.

Not just the beach landings,

but also the complex naval operations.

The seas between here and Normandy

are rife with danger.

We will take troops by night

across open water

to designated target beaches

on the south coast.

This is a training exercise, but for

everyone involved, it's the real thing.

It was getting us ready for Normandy

is what it was doing.

It was such a beautiful morning

for such a tragedy to happen.

I'm in one.

Pair of queens.

Naval wins.

- How old are you, kid?

- 15.

What are you doing here?

Best small-boat handler in the US Navy.

Eddie McCann is

a landing-craft helmsman on LSC515.

In command of the ship

is Lieutenant John Doyle.

Full ahead both.

420, full ahead both. Aye, sir.

The men seem pretty happy, sir.

I don't want them to be happy.

I want 'em to be ready.

In overall command of the operation,

Commander Bernard Skahill.

There are eight vessels in the convoy.

Each one is carrying

over 400 American troops,

many of them teenagers

with no combat experience.

Life preservers!

Life preservers!

Anyone know what we do with these?

You gonna show us how to put 'em on?

Figure it out!

Radio.

Message Azalea. Contact surface.

Three targets bearing 275-280.

- What's going on?

- Three vessels approaching from the stern.

- That could be support.

- Maybe.

- No response from Azalea, skipper.

- Keep trying.

On one of his regular forays

into the English Channel,

German E-boat Captain Hans Schirren

has stumbled upon Exercise Tiger.

Fast, elusive and heavily armed,

E- boats are a fearsome adversary.

We wanted to sink ships, not kill people.

But war is war, and in war, people die.

You just can't avoid that.

We saw the convoy, if you like, marching

by us. We saw the boats and fired.

- Damn! They're in trouble.

- E-boats?

- Could be. Could be subs.

- Bridge, Signals.

Bridge.

Mayday. 531, 507. Both hit.

We're under attack.

Make to their location. Urgent.

- Sound general quarters.

- Doyle?

Sound general quarters.

Let's go! Let's go!

OK, green 90!

They're firing at us!

Hold your fire! Stop firing!

You don't know who you're aiming at!

They could be ours!

It so happened I picked my headphones up

and I could hear the bridge talking.

And they're fighting,

almost coming to blows.

Orders are to return to port.

They do not take account

of our being attacked.

We cannot afford to lose

more men or boats.

Follow orders and return to port!

Two ships are going down.

There are men in the water!

You will obey these orders, Doyle!

- Stand by to pick up survivors!

- Stand by to pick up survivors.

McCann to Bridge, McCann to Bridge!

They'll freeze to death in that water.

Support'll pick 'em up.

We don't even know if we have any support.

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