News Thrills – Invasion

in the early dawn of d-day june 6 1944 the largest battle armada in history heads across 80 miles of rough channel water from england to the northern coast of france barrage balloons and a massive concentration of air and surface guns protect the 4 000 warships transports barges crafts of every kind in the invasion convoy here is the major striking force of the greatest military undertaking the world has yet known here after years of building equipping training after months of my nude intense tactical planning here is the decisive trust at hitler's europe for weeks preceding thousands of allied bombers have carried out crushing almost non-stop attacks dropping more than a third of a billion pounds of bombs in 60 days now through heavy flack on invasion day they smash at enemy transport centers and defense installations on the sherbrooke peninsula explosives fall on the railroad yard at our branch all allied planes were the new zebra stripes of the invasion command the strategic england town of silo is left crazy the city of cannes directly in front of our approaching armies 115 miles from paris is hit marauder and havoc fighter bombers smash nazi barges planes and railway trains so allied naval guns dueling with the enemy's wanted coastal artillery blow up in placements on the shore among the warships pouring ton upon ton of steel into nazi defenses is a mighty veteran uss nevada back from the grave at pearl harbor again the bombers they strike at the widely publicized atlantic wall and help smash into pieces now just offshore the convoy unloads heavily armed troops swarm into barges to head for shore and the assault on france a signal called camera slate tells the story went in d-day 8-hour plus 30 minutes here on the right wing of the attack yanks go ashore under fire this is it navy shells drop in the background the beach is loaded with mines swept by enemy bullets in the center of the screen two americans fall in this assault wave a tiny beach head seized americans huddle in the cover of a cliff whose heights the enemy still controls digging in to await the mounting of the next attack medical corpsmen attend our wounded the first allied casualties were back in england again by evening of d-day german wounded are cared for too three german prisoners look basically across the channel here on a beach in france lie american dead the battle goes on as quickly as possible the infantry must move on in to re-establish contact both load with boatload and to join with allied troops who landed behind the lines by parachute glider and transport simultaneously on the left flank british commonwealth troops drive shorewood in the vicinity of santorban automatic cameras in the invasion branches record the determined tenseness of this first moment of battle heavy equipment comes in essential for the battle against the nazi reserves the great race begins to defeat marshall rommel in the all-important race for surprise german soldiers once guardians of the west wall are now prisoners of the canadians an allied destroyer flying eisenhower's four-star flag brings allied leaders to france admiral sir bertram ramsey and general dwight eisenhower general montgomery comes aboard lieutenant general omar bradley center chief of u.s ground forces montgomery goes ashore to take personal command of british troops pressing forward toward the capture of bizini and karantog americans are welcomed and helped by the normandy french this is a glorious and fateful day for france german prisoners part of a total hall which now exceeds ten thousand they are interviewed by us soldiers just a few hours ago they were apparently permanently safe behind the great west wall now they have given up the fight and now we have taken the most decisive step of the war invasion of western europe in winston churchill's words the commanders report that everything is proceeding according to plan and what a plan you