:00:00. > :00:00.little`known story of the French Resistance's battle to stop a German
:00:00. > :00:08.I vision reaching `` division reaching landing beaches in
:00:09. > :00:14.Normandy. History, like the Atlantic waves has
:00:15. > :00:17.washed the Normandy sand. Just before dawn, we're on our way over
:00:18. > :00:24.to the coast of France... The story of D`Day, the largest ever seaborne
:00:25. > :00:29.landings. The story of lives lost and honour earned. But the D`Day
:00:30. > :00:34.story takes us beyond the landing beaches to a landscape far to the
:00:35. > :00:39.south, where French civilians faced a heavily armed enemy and paid the
:00:40. > :00:44.price. As the Allies clawed their way ashore, French towns and
:00:45. > :00:53.villages were rallying to meet German reinforcements, which might
:00:54. > :00:59.just turn the tide. They showed cold courage. They had no illusions about
:01:00. > :01:05.the risks they were taking. There was not only a war being fought in
:01:06. > :01:08.Normandy, in summer 1944, there was also the war the French Resistance
:01:09. > :01:37.against the German occupier. The call to arms, a nation, which
:01:38. > :01:45.had suffered four years of occupation, stirred into action by
:01:46. > :01:49.the coded messages from London. In Normandy, a storm had broken,
:01:50. > :01:58.carrying news of liberation across France. 400 miles to the south, one
:01:59. > :02:04.of Germany's most powerful military units was about to respond.
:02:05. > :02:11.TRANSLATION: The first time we saw Das Reich was on the day the
:02:12. > :02:14.resistance started. They were a real threat. We were amateurs and they
:02:15. > :02:16.were professionals. They were armed to the teeth and had tanks and
:02:17. > :02:32.armoured vehicles. Das Reich's service in Russia had
:02:33. > :02:34.won it a brutal reputation. Now, its 20,000 men, rolled out of bases near
:02:35. > :02:47.Toulouse on a two`pronged mission. After the larnedings, das ``
:02:48. > :02:52.landings, Das Reich gets the order from the highest authority in the
:02:53. > :03:02.west, from the supreme commoneder, to move towards the Normandy front.
:03:03. > :03:09.On its way, it should also cleanse, under quotation marks, the area that
:03:10. > :03:15.is "infested by bandits". The orders from the commander, Heinz
:03:16. > :03:22.Lammerding, were brutally clear. He suggests that in case of the troops
:03:23. > :03:26.should be attacked, for each German wounded soldier, three French
:03:27. > :03:31.hostages should be killed. In the case of a German soldier being
:03:32. > :03:39.killed, ten hostages should be killed. The resistance teams were
:03:40. > :03:45.fully aware of Das Reich's reputation, but their orders were
:03:46. > :03:49.also very clear ` to delay any reinforcements, which might threaten
:03:50. > :03:56.the landings. They launched their first attacks on the rail network. I
:03:57. > :04:03.think that was probably the single most significant and vital move of
:04:04. > :04:09.all. The attack on the railway lines, the first thing was to
:04:10. > :04:15.destroy the rolling stock and to sabotage,if you like, the
:04:16. > :04:16.locomotives and to tear up and destroy the railway tracks all the
:04:17. > :04:33.way through France. TRANSLATION: We were sent to blow up
:04:34. > :04:38.the railway lines. We travelled at night, using quiet roads, so it took
:04:39. > :04:41.quite a while to get there. When we arrived, we found local guards had
:04:42. > :04:49.been posted to protect the line and warn the authorities.
:04:50. > :04:54.We told them what we were going to do and because they were from that
:04:55. > :05:06.area, they headed home straight away. They didn't want any trouble.
:05:07. > :05:09.So we blew the explosives. We waited a bit longer to check the damage,
:05:10. > :05:28.then left before first light. The plan was already working, tanks
:05:29. > :05:32.are not designed for long journeys. Now they and the truck loads of
:05:33. > :05:40.infantry, would have to lumber north, along country roads. Marcel
:05:41. > :05:44.recalls a narrow escape as he and a friend moved weapons to his
:05:45. > :05:50.resistance group. TRANSLATION: We had hidden the guns
:05:51. > :05:54.in a deserted area south of the town. We took the weapons out of the
:05:55. > :06:04.barn, loaded them onto the fan and took to the road. `` van. We were
:06:05. > :06:08.horrified to find ourselves in the middle of the Das Reich convoy,
:06:09. > :06:12.which was heading for the landing beaches. Our driver played it cool
:06:13. > :06:16.and positioned the van between two tanks. We waved to the Germans and
:06:17. > :06:25.called out to them in a friendly way. They did the same. But we were
:06:26. > :06:28.stuck in the convoy for a while, because the main road had been
:06:29. > :06:32.blocked and they had to avoid the barricades. The detour was only a
:06:33. > :06:42.couple of kilometres, but to us, it felt like a century.
:06:43. > :06:49.Every mile that the Das Reich division travelled north towards
:06:50. > :06:52.Normandy took them closer to the resistance groups, aiming to delay
:06:53. > :06:56.their progress. When you look at this landscape, you can see the
:06:57. > :07:01.advantage those groups had, narrow roads, steep valleys and thick
:07:02. > :07:09.forests ` perfect, in fact, for guerrilla warfare.
:07:10. > :07:13.Alongside them, were the men and women of the Special Operations
:07:14. > :07:19.Executive, secret agents dropped in dead of night from their base in
:07:20. > :07:24.Bedfordshire. This is the film they made after the war. Let's check you
:07:25. > :07:38.over. Have you anything in your pockets? Don't think so. O h. French
:07:39. > :07:44.or British? Thank you very much. We were driven to the plane in the
:07:45. > :07:48.dark. We were carried into the plane by the crew and then later on it
:07:49. > :07:55.took off. We didn't see anything at all.
:07:56. > :08:03.They gave you your parachute and your weapon, your pistol and your
:08:04. > :08:07.smock. Below, scattered across farmland, the resistance waited with
:08:08. > :08:13.their torches. They would have little time to move agents and
:08:14. > :08:16.supply containers to safety. The SOE teams were three people. There was
:08:17. > :08:21.the chief, would was in charge of the operation. There was the
:08:22. > :08:29.sabotage expert. These were usually two men. And the third was very
:08:30. > :08:37.often a woman. She was the communications wireless operator.
:08:38. > :08:47.With every ambush and every bridge blowing and every fuel dump
:08:48. > :08:51.destroyed, every minute built up, every minute counted. The incredible
:08:52. > :08:57.thought that literally every minute added to the delay. This created a
:08:58. > :09:10.tremendous frustration and loss of morale in the German forces.
:09:11. > :09:18.TRANSLATION: The SOE were really important. My mother used to visit
:09:19. > :09:21.my father in the camp. She came back to `` back to tell us there would be
:09:22. > :09:25.a parachute drop that night. It was vital because that's how they got
:09:26. > :09:27.their weapons and other supplies. When my father took over the unit,
:09:28. > :09:45.they had no weapons. TRANSLATION: The men hid all the
:09:46. > :09:49.canisters. There were a lot of them. We had a big house and garden. Our
:09:50. > :09:54.neighbours hid fuel supplies there, among our trees, in a nearby house,
:09:55. > :10:08.in our cellars. Looking back, I realise how risky it was.
:10:09. > :10:17.But the secret agents faced another challenge, a surge of patriotism was
:10:18. > :10:20.sweeping the region and they were desperate to go beyond their orders
:10:21. > :10:29.and seize territory from the occupiers. The museum in the quiet
:10:30. > :10:38.hillside town reflects an uprising which was to have horrific
:10:39. > :10:44.consequences. I think it was something like 1200 forces, and the
:10:45. > :10:50.resistance overcame them. It was obviously a very powerful unit. And
:10:51. > :10:58.a highly successful one, but having done that, they thought they'd won
:10:59. > :11:00.the day and they failed to post lookouts, so they didn't know anyone
:11:01. > :11:11.was coming. A failure which allowed the troops
:11:12. > :11:15.of Das Reich to roll up this road into the town without opposition.
:11:16. > :11:20.Alongside the road today and you have to look hard to find it, is
:11:21. > :11:23.this memorial to one of the worst day's in the town's history, a
:11:24. > :11:33.massacre of civilians which served as a warning of what was to come.
:11:34. > :11:42.TRANSLATION: As the day went on, there was more and more noise, as
:11:43. > :11:51.the tanks moved in. When they came into town, people tried to run away,
:11:52. > :12:03.but they killed them. The general's orders were put into effect, 120 men
:12:04. > :12:09.were condemned to death by hanging. On the bridge where the troops began
:12:10. > :12:14.their grim tank, I men Jacques and his friend, now 100. Around us, the
:12:15. > :12:22.lampposts and balconies, which became sights of execution.
:12:23. > :12:27.TRANSLATION: I was one of the last people to be arrested at 1. 1. 30pm.
:12:28. > :12:34.They'd been rounding people up since 6am, young people, older people. I
:12:35. > :12:38.was married. I had a ten`month`old child. We were taken to the arms
:12:39. > :12:43.factory. I gave them my papers and at that moment, a soldier arrived
:12:44. > :12:44.and in the confusion, I managed to disappear in the crowd. We were
:12:45. > :12:57.saved. It was a miracle. TRANSLATION: We saw them pass by,
:12:58. > :13:01.groups of ten people. It was terrible to see one of your friends
:13:02. > :13:05.chosen. You knew they were going to be hanged. It could have been a
:13:06. > :13:25.family member or a close friend. It was terrible.
:13:26. > :13:35.Reich called a halt. One of the officers is thought to have sketched
:13:36. > :13:39.this scene on the main street. The first ten were hanged from balconies
:13:40. > :13:42.and they went to get the next group. Four of them were on the bridge,
:13:43. > :13:48.including a rugby player, a tough guy. When they went to hang him he
:13:49. > :13:51.kicked out at the nearest SS man, knocking him over. He jumped over a
:13:52. > :13:55.wall into the river and they killed him with Dalits and grenades. ``
:13:56. > :14:08.bullets. Nowadays, when I see kids whose
:14:09. > :14:14.parents I know were hanged, I can see their parents in them and it is
:14:15. > :14:25.very hard. When I'm on my own I can see those ropes hanging down.
:14:26. > :14:30.like a shock wave through the resistance movement, but far from
:14:31. > :14:33.dead herring the attacks it stiffened their resolve to fight on.
:14:34. > :14:49.`` ditto `` deterring. 34 miles north, in the rolling
:14:50. > :15:14.countryside, lies this tiny village. In June 1944, young men and sued the
:15:15. > :15:18.call to arms `` replied to the call to arms and became heroes. Today,
:15:19. > :15:32.their graves had tended with honour in the hilltop cemetery. 25`year`old
:15:33. > :15:39.Rene had been a pilot. He was leading a resistance group. They are
:15:40. > :15:47.hit and run tactics mirrored the campaign throughout this region. We
:15:48. > :15:53.liberated this town. We were told the Germans were on their way. There
:15:54. > :15:59.were only a dozen of them. We had practically no weapons but we did
:16:00. > :16:03.have a bazooka. The first one missed the convoy but the second destroyed
:16:04. > :16:13.two trucks. We fought all day until the Germans left.
:16:14. > :16:22.There was a group of eight or nine people. We would lie down along the
:16:23. > :16:33.road at night, the machine gunner, the grenades... When you hear the
:16:34. > :16:44.first motorbike you look for the trucks. As soon as they fire back
:16:45. > :16:54.you would run away because you will not fight against the veterans.
:16:55. > :17:08.Family members faced a constant risk of informers or night`time raids by
:17:09. > :17:14.the Gestapo. It was full, `` it was terrifying, the Germans were coming,
:17:15. > :17:21.we were terrified they would torture us. We all left to hide in the
:17:22. > :17:28.woods. They wrecked our house looking for us. It was horrible, but
:17:29. > :17:30.the hardest part was the children. You do worry when the children are
:17:31. > :17:41.asleep next door and you don't know what's going to happen. As a
:17:42. > :17:50.teenager, this woman carried messages between members of the
:17:51. > :18:00.group. Soon after the Normandy landings, I was taking a message to
:18:01. > :18:05.a village. It was some way off and whilst I was pedalling I became
:18:06. > :18:10.convinced somebody was following me. I got really frightened. I thought I
:18:11. > :18:15.was in trouble, so as I coasted downhill I took the little tube of
:18:16. > :18:20.paper from inside the handlebars of my bike and I swallowed it. When I
:18:21. > :18:21.met the contact I had to apologise and tell him I had eaten the secret
:18:22. > :18:38.message. The German troops were everywhere
:18:39. > :18:43.and they came at us in a clean`up operation. We could hear them firing
:18:44. > :18:50.and thought someone else was in trouble, but they were after us and
:18:51. > :18:55.they attacked around 9pm when it was still daylight. They were better
:18:56. > :19:00.equipped and better armed. Two of us used a bazooka to stop the tanks.
:19:01. > :19:05.They got shots off before we destroy them. Even now my stomach tightens
:19:06. > :19:16.when I talk about it. We were fighting into the night but we had
:19:17. > :19:22.lost ten men out of 50. By now, the Das Reich division had faced four
:19:23. > :19:26.days of constant attacks. 60% of the tanks had broken down and the
:19:27. > :19:30.anti`terrorist occupation had spread troops across hundreds of miles.
:19:31. > :19:35.With Allied troops fighting onshore in Normandy, the darkest chapter in
:19:36. > :19:41.the story of Das Reich's journey north was about to unfold. It began
:19:42. > :19:46.with a chance encounter between a German officer who was travelling
:19:47. > :19:54.down that road and a group of men returning to their base after
:19:55. > :19:56.blowing up a bridge. The major was a popular battalion commander. He was
:19:57. > :20:06.never seen again. His disappearance in fury to his
:20:07. > :20:16.fellow officers and led one SS unit to an unsuspecting community nearly
:20:17. > :20:29.30 miles to the west. Until June ten, 1944, this was an unknown
:20:30. > :20:33.country town. At two p.m., and SS Major led his men at the Main
:20:34. > :20:39.Street. They rounded up the 600 inhabitants. Men were taken to
:20:40. > :20:49.garages and Warnes, woman and children to the church. `` barns. We
:20:50. > :20:53.were sitting on the straw in the barn because it was so hot that day.
:20:54. > :20:58.No shots had been fired. There was no sign of what was to come. It was
:20:59. > :21:03.quiet. One soldier told us to stand up. There was an explosion outside
:21:04. > :21:09.and the shooting started. The closest men got hit first. Then I
:21:10. > :21:21.got hit in the leg. I fell over. I was protected by the other bodies.
:21:22. > :21:29.People fell on top of each other. I could smell blood and dust. After,
:21:30. > :21:34.they covered us with straw and anything else that would burn and
:21:35. > :21:38.they set fire to us. A lot of men were burned alive but before the
:21:39. > :21:39.flames reached me I escaped from underneath the bodies and I got
:21:40. > :22:00.away. 642 people were massacred. 400 of
:22:01. > :22:04.them were women and children. My dad told me my mother and sisters had
:22:05. > :22:10.died in the church. That was the saddest moment, not what I went
:22:11. > :22:14.through. The saddest thing was when I was told my mother and sisters had
:22:15. > :22:27.disappeared like that and nothing was left of them.
:22:28. > :22:35.The tone had no connection with the resistance. In the decades since the
:22:36. > :22:41.massacre, it has become clear that this was a deliberate act of
:22:42. > :22:51.revenge. Being fully indoctrinated with Nathalie ideology `` Nazi
:22:52. > :22:56.ideology, they proceed to the most dramatic measures. In many
:22:57. > :23:02.instances, when they killed women and children, it was not to that
:23:03. > :23:11.extent that an entire village is wiped out. The village marked a
:23:12. > :23:18.turning point in this story. A shocked resistance movement ended
:23:19. > :23:27.all major attacks and as right was soon `` Das Reich was soon out of
:23:28. > :23:42.the region. Among the casualties was Adolph Deichmann. Behind them, the
:23:43. > :23:52.tide of liberation swept through towns and cities. Communities which
:23:53. > :24:01.still celebrate the courage of those which faced Das Reich, but at a
:24:02. > :24:08.terrible cost... Over 2000 lives were lost, many of them just in the
:24:09. > :24:15.wrong place at the wrong time. Das Reich lost less than 50 men.
:24:16. > :24:21.Militarily it was not worth it. Politically, this was necessary to
:24:22. > :24:27.show that there was a different France, not only the France that
:24:28. > :24:33.waits until the end of the war, there is a France that actively
:24:34. > :24:42.fights the German occupiers. By the time the Das Reich division trickled
:24:43. > :24:51.into combat, it was one week late. Behind them, feel of damage and
:24:52. > :24:57.broken down tanks. `` a trail of damage. It reminded them of the
:24:58. > :25:08.pride that still runs deep along the roads to Normandy.
:25:09. > :25:13.I had never seen a dead person and then suddenly you would see guys you
:25:14. > :25:20.had spoken to one hour earlier at dead on the floor. That leaves a
:25:21. > :25:35.sky. I see it now like it was yesterday. `` that leaves a mark. We
:25:36. > :25:39.did what we had to do. It was our duty and I'm very proud of it. We
:25:40. > :25:46.are ordinary people, simple folk, that is why we have not right about
:25:47. > :25:53.the things we did. We kept them in our hearts. I've kept the French
:25:54. > :26:03.flag we carried and when the time comes I hope that flag can be buried
:26:04. > :26:44.with me. That is all I ask. We have just taken a wicket at the
:26:45. > :26:51.Test match but it remains cloudy at Lord's. There are some sharp showers
:26:52. > :26:59.across southern counties, but most of us having a dry end to the day.
:27:00. > :27:00.Perhaps a touch on the cold side. " Dominate overnight. `` the cloud