D-Day 6.6.1944 Page #7

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Seven miles to go.

We've got to be there by nightfall.

- Where's this place we're going?

- Town called Caen.

- What we are going for?

- We'll check out the local talent.

Our job's to liberate the town.

- What about the tanks?

- Can't get them off the beach.

Probably unloading some general's cigars!

How do we liberate Caen without tanks?

- Beats me.

- We're going seven miles on foot?

Yep. No tanks, no lift.

No tanks, no bloody protection!

As the British infantry

advance south towards Caen,

to the east of the city

and on the other side

of the River Orne

is the 21st Panzer Division.

Why, why no response?

Have they not received it?

They have to know

we warned them about the invasion.

In London, fears are growing

that the deception plan has failed.

They still don't know that the Germans

have believed Garbo's radio message

warning of the Normandy invasion.

- I will send them another message.

- One of your specials?

I will scream. I will rant.

I will remind them

how helpful I am, how useful I am.

I will make them believe I sent it.

I have received no acknowledgement.

This makes me question your

seriousness and sense of responsibility.

I therefore demand a clarification

immediately as to what has happened.

People of Western Europe.

A landing was made this morning

on the coast of France

by troops of

the Allied Expeditionary Force.

This landing is part of a United Nations

plan for the liberation of Europe,

made in conjunction

with our great Russian allies.

In the course of this campaign

for the defeat of the enemy,

you may sustain further loss and damage.

Tragic though they may be,

they are part of the price of victory.

I know I can count

on your steadfastness now,

no less than in the past.

The heroic deeds of Frenchmen who have

continued to struggle against the Nazis

have been an example

and an inspiration to all of us.

Keep your faith staunch.

At half past one, I was at home,

and a bombing took place not far from us,

and the blast caused the door at

the back of our cellar to be blown open.

Immediately I rushed to the improvised

hospital where the Red Cross was

to help to save the citizens

who were wounded.

If you are reading this document,

'you are in the immediate vicinity

of key troop movements and supplies.

These will shortly be subject

to repeated Allied attack.

You and your family must evacuate

the target area immediately.

Do not obstruct any roads.

Withdraw from the city.

Disperse over as wide an area as possible.

Leave immediately.

You do not have a minute to lose.

On Omaha Beach,

in seven and a half hours of fighting,

Franz Gockel has fired over 10,000 rounds

at the incoming American troops.

We couldn't understand

how in this rain of fire,

despite the heavy casualties,

the Americans just kept coming and coming.

At 3 p. m, the battle for

Omaha Beach is over.

War report number one.

Throughout the day,

the BBC has been telling the world

that Allied forces

have crossed the Channel into France.

General de Gaulle spoke particularly

to the people of France

on whose soil the first battles

for the liberation of Europe

are being fought.

A vast machinery of attack,

for us the means of liberation,

has been set in motion

from the shores of England.

Not long ago, it was

on this last bastion of Western Europe

that the tide of German

oppression spent itself.

Today, it is the base from which

liberty's offensive is being launched.

France, overwhelmed for four years

but never conquered,

is on her feet to take part in the fight.

In the French nation, in our empire, in

the armies, there is one will, one hope.

In London, Garbo is still waiting

to unleash the big lie.

At last, an acknowledgement.

They'd received the message,

but hadn't bothered to respond.

And your tantrum did the trick.

They swallowed the truth.

Now let's see

if they'll swallow the big lie.

I will tell them I was summoned

to the Ministry this morning.

A new directive has been issued,

top secret.

No mention is to be made of forthcoming

assaults in other areas of France.

And that will suggest that what they are

seeing in Normandy is just a diversion?

Despite driving all day,

Rommel is still 150 miles from

his headquarters at La Roche Guyon.

What is this here,

they should not be here.

The 21st Panzers should be here, not here!

In Caen prison,

captured French Resistance workers

have been listening to the Allied bombing

and with the sound has come hope.

The youngest of them

is 15-year-old Jacques Collard,

and in the next cell, artist,

teacher and mapmaker, Robert Douin.

The only chance of liberation

now lies with the British troops

who are just three miles away

in the area of the Lebisey Woods.

British, Canadian and American troops

who landed on the coast of France north

of Caen in broad daylight this morning

are already several miles inland

and covered by an ever-changing

but ever-present umbrella of fighters.

It's too early yet, much too early,

to start giving any reasons

for the comparative lack of resistance

put up by the Germans to our landing.

It is proper to report

that the first phase of the attack

on Western Europe has gone corking well.

Shoot them before they shoot you.

That's what my dad said before I left.

My dad took me to the top of a hill

and told me about the Great War.

That's what we're fighting for, he said.

That's what we're fighting for.

He said, "This is what it's all about.

It's you or the Jerries

and we don't want them here, do we?

Fire!

Fire!

Dig, Gisser, dig!

They only called him Gisser 'cause

he was always scrounging a cigarette.

Gisser tuppence for a cup of tea

or "gisser fag".

Dig, dig, dig!

Dig? You can't cut a ruddy

blancmange with this!

I might come back here

for my summer hols next year!

Make for cover!

You sort of wondered

when it was your turn.

But you just hoped it wouldn't be.

- What about Gisser?

- Move out!

Robert Douin

and 86 other French Resistance fighters

were executed by the Germans

at Caen prison on D-Day.

The Allied troops

who might have liberated them

were locked in a stalemate

with the 21st Panzer Division.

Shermans!

Shermans, f***ing great!

Let's fire!

At 9 p. m. on June 6th, 1944,

the 6th Air Landing Brigade,

consisting of over 250 gliders

and 2,000 men, crossed into France.

All those who saw

this overwhelming force come into land

knew that the Allies had won the day.

In 24 hours they had landed 156,000 troops

and 20,000 vehicles on French soil.

They had not made the inroads

they had hoped for,

but the Allies had gained

a foothold in France.

The day had come

at great cost on all sides.

12,000 Allied casualties, 7,000 Germans

and over 20,000 French civilians

killed by Allied bombing.

Yet by nightfall,

the Allied bridgehead remained vulnerable.

The Germans could still mobilise powerful

forces and strangle the incursion.

But they had to judge

whether Normandy was the real thing

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