D-Day 6.6.1944 Page #5

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it's 'cause you're not close enough.

Thank you.

Then, just 24 hours before the invasion

is due, a sudden and violent storm breaks.

So we have to keep the ships

where they are?

Yes, sir.

And wait how long?

The tide won't be right again

for two weeks.

Then it has to improve

in the next 24 hours.

Yes, sir, but...

- This might continue?

- Indeed.

It's June, for Christ's sake!

Do you guys get a summer?

- We might have to postpone!

- When's the next window?

The 20th.

- Too late?

- Out of the question.

The troops can't sit

in those ships for two more weeks!

You plan the greatest force in history

and it ends up depending on something

you just can't control.

Get!

Now we sail steadily

nearer to the coastline of France.

Across the water we can hear the jazz

from a minesweeper's gramophone.

There's a tenseness in the air

as every man aboard waits for the moment

to which everything has been bent

in these last days.

Operation postponed.

Repeat, operation postponed.

Vessels to remain at sea. All servicemen

to await further instructions.

Oh, bloody hell, that's great!

A glimmer of hope?

What kind of glimmer are we talking here?

The situation will change little,

but we predict a slight improvement

on the night of the 5th,

increased visibility,

low chance of rain, less cloud cover,

light winds.

But for how long?

To answer that question would make me

a guesser, sir, not a meteorologist.

So do we take the risk and go?

Or do we bring them all back?

All right.

Let's go.

I heard the dice are on the carpet order

for destroying trains and railway lines.

For the first time in my life

I knew for sure the future.

Dear Iris, boys and Molly...

Dear Mother and Father,

thank you for your letter...

Remember that I'm doing all right...

I can hear the rain, but nothing will

dampen our resolve to get the job done.

I got the packet of gifts

and I was mighty grateful...

I hope this letter

finds you safe and well...

Look after yourselves and tell Mary...

.. get the job done

and get home as soon as possible.

Much love, Daddy.

- Do you mind?

- You want to take a photo?

- He wants to take a photo.

- Joe, come here, man!

Look at that dirt!

What's happened to you over there?

Soldiers, sailors and airmen

of the Allied Expeditionary Force,

you are about to embark

upon the great crusade

toward which we have striven

these many months.

The eyes of the world are upon you.

The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving

people everywhere march with you.

Our landings in the

Cherbourg Le Havre area

have failed to gain

a satisfactory foothold

and I have withdrawn the troops.

My decision to attack

at this time and place

was based upon

the best information available.

If any blame or fault attaches

to the attempt, it is mine alone.

Just in case.

Just in case.

Agent 4 broke out of his sealed camp

yesterday with two Americans

from 926 Signal Corps.

He has reported to me that soldiers

of the Canadian Third Division

have been issued

with vomit bags and cold rations.

I believe a major invasion

will be coming tonight.

We were given

a gramophone and some records.

And sometimes if there was good weather,

we'd sit outside the bunker and sing.

My dear parents,

I hope you are well

and not worrying about me.

The invasion is coming,

we don't know where.

Every night they bomb inland...

- Coffee?

- No, thanks!

As long as the weather is bad,

they can't land on the beaches.

They were very good.

Average age 20. Youngest 18.

So it shows how many young men

there were,

many really young men.

One of the things I said to them was,

"Some of us are not going to come back.

You must all realise that.

It may be you, it may be me.

They all knew that.

It was drizzle and pretty bad

weather for an invasion,

with quite a lot of fog.

I was just daydreaming, really.

I was very confident

that it'd be all right.

But it was kind of the feeling

of being balanced on the head of a pin.

Stand up! Stand up for equipment check!

- Stand up for equipment check!

- Stand up for equipment check!

- Six OK!

- Five OK!

- Four OK!

- Three OK!

- Two OK!

- One OK!

Come on!

Go! Go!

Punch!

- Punch!

- Judy!

- Seen any of the others?

- No, sir.

Come on. This way.

Just a few miles away,

the armada of over 5,000 ships

has arrived completely undetected.

The British, who will land on Sword Beach,

wait for the signal that Otway's men

have destroyed the guns at Merville.

He has just three hours

before the landings begin.

- How many men have we got?

- Less than 100.

30 from the diversion party,

30 from "B" Company,

10 from "C" Company.

Find out if the engineers have arrived.

They never made it, sir.

No sign of the mortar party either.

We have nothing to signal the gliders in.

I saw Colonel Otway looking...

I can only describe it as looking as if

he'd been taken out of a deep freeze.

He was stiff and white

and obviously very uncomfortable.

- Any weapons canisters?

- No, sir.

80/ of my men and half my equipment

have landed in the wrong bloody place!

Shall we wait, sir?

No time to wait!

And he said, "Get over there, Alan!

That's "C" Company. "

And "C" Company was about three men,

which struck me as being

a rather limited force.

Ten miles inland,

the 21st Panzer Division,

the enemy force that could wreak havoc on

the beaches, are, as usual, on stand-by.

Sir, still fewer than a quarter of the men

have turned up.

And the mine clearers

didn't get their equipment.

They've cleared by hand

and left boot tracks.

What are we going to do, sir?

Do? Attack it, of course.

Martin's men will carry out the diversion.

Dowling, you will breach the perimeter

and attack casemate two.

Jefferson, attack casemate one.

Russ and Long will attack three and four.

- What about demolition charges, sir?

- Improvise.

Sir.

We attack... in five minutes.

Prepare your men.

Gentlemen,

a lot of people are relying on us.

And I'm relying on you.

I had a choice, didn't I?

Give up or go on.

Could you face your friends?

Could you have people point at you

and say, "He gave up"?

No.

So I decided to go.

And we went.

We divide into groups,

run like hell and hope for the best?

More or less.

Listen up, everyone. This is it.

This is what we've all been waiting to do.

There aren't many of us,

but that won't matter.

The fact is,

you're all bloody good men, the best.

In, get in! Get in!

At 4.30 a. m, Sergeant

Buskotte says on the line,

Paratroopers are in the battery.

We're in hand-to-hand fighting.

Then the attackers put phosphor grenades

into the ventilation shafts.

I heard Buskotte say,

"We are suffocating. "

I heard some were praying,

the Lord's Prayer,

and others were cursing.

I was hearing them suffocating

and wrestling with death.

Suddenly I heard myself saying,

"I'm going to get you out of this. "

I thought,

"How the hell am I going to do that?"

Sort that bloody machine-gun out!

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