The D Day landings were 70 years ago today. The major invasion to crush the Third Reich and liberate Europe began on the beaches of Normandy and would end eleven months later when Berlin fell and the Nazis surrendered.
The really isn’t as much news footage as you would expect, almost none. The reason for that is that the duffle bag containing most of the film was dropped while being lifted onto the transport and lost forever. What footage wasn’t lost was stored away for years and some of it no doubt remains somewhere waiting to be found.
Some of that footage was found in the early 1990s when George Stevens Jr. found film that his father had taken during World War II. In 1994, he produced “George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin”. In addition to the D Day footage there is film of other battles and the discovery of the Nazi death camps.
Until this article was published a couple of weeks ago, I’d never heard of this documentary. I’ve heard of it now and I’ve ordered it from Amazon.
You should too.
Meanwhile let’s not forget the heroism and sacrifice of the generation that came before us and saved the world. Most are gone and with them, their stories. We shouldn’t forget their actions which shaped much of the world through the second half of the 2oth century and still affect us every day.
While you’re at it, don’t forget the other story of the day from 1944. The story, had the invasion not happened, would have been THE story of the day. Rome fell to the Allies on the same day that the Allies were invading Normandy. The handwriting was on the wall for the Third Reich, but there was still almost another year of fighting before it was over.