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At noon today we raised anchor and we were ready to go. | :00:09. | :00:11. | |
On the deck and in the hold the soldiers were waiting. | :00:12. | :00:14. | |
The assault on the beaches will begin. | :00:15. | :00:19. | |
We are over the enemy curtain now and the run`in has started. | :00:20. | :00:22. | |
One minute and 30 seconds, red light, green light, get out, | :00:23. | :00:25. | |
This is the day and this is the hour. | :00:26. | :00:35. | |
The sky is lightning over the coast of Europe as we go in. | :00:36. | :00:41. | |
The sea crowded, infested with craft of every kind. | :00:42. | :00:48. | |
On the horizon, flesh upon flesh, from the guns | :00:49. | :00:52. | |
They are being attacked pretty hostily, as you will hear. | :00:53. | :01:12. | |
It is only 70 summers since this area was a battle ground. For many | :01:13. | :01:47. | |
of us it is a moment of his day but for many veterans it was the | :01:48. | :01:50. | |
defining moment of their lives. Welcome to a special edition live | :01:51. | :01:57. | |
from Normandy. We pay tribute to those who took part in the D`Day | :01:58. | :02:07. | |
invasion 70 years ago. We are here at a German gun placement and it was | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
absolutely crucial that these guns here were designed in the early | :02:12. | :02:12. | |
hours of D`Day. The Merville Battery was armed with | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
four big German guns in thick concrete emplacements. | :02:19. | :02:21. | |
From here they could fire on British and French troops landing on | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
Sword Beach next to Gold and Juno. This was the right`hand side | :02:26. | :02:27. | |
of the Allies' invasion zone. The guns had to be taken out | :02:28. | :02:30. | |
the night before the landings or they would cause | :02:31. | :02:32. | |
heavy casualties on the beach. X hundred men from the ninth Italian | :02:33. | :02:44. | |
of The Parachute Regiment on Salisbury Plain were tasked with the | :02:45. | :02:53. | |
mission of flying in in a Dakota, an aeroplane very similar to the one | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
you see behind me, setting off from places like Arias Brize Norton `` | :02:58. | :03:06. | |
RAF. In a sense aeroplanes are a bit | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
like people, some The Dakota | :03:12. | :03:14. | |
does just that. Built largely by women | :03:15. | :03:17. | |
in the factories. It would have been one | :03:18. | :03:19. | |
like this that brought Pilot and co`pilot`pilot navigate | :03:20. | :03:22. | |
a radio operator and back here you would have had our 25 paratroopers | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
hooked on and sitting They would have had parachutes on, | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
they would have had their kit bags, their weaponry, very heavy, | :03:30. | :03:36. | |
all squeezed in here, anxious, I bet not a word was said | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
because they were waiting for one thing, the green light | :03:41. | :03:47. | |
telling them to jump. As one Private recalls, the jump | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
was more luck than judgement. The plane reared up | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
and I was thrown out the door. My head hit the tailplane | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
and it took my helmet off. Hundreds of men found themselves | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
scattered across a 20 mile area. Magazine and grenades and a | :04:05. | :04:15. | |
fighting knife, that is all I had. Luckily within 200 yards we were | :04:16. | :04:18. | |
at the rendezvous, which was amazing considering | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
the green light had not come on. Of the 600 men, hundreds of them | :04:23. | :04:37. | |
drowned in an area you can see just behind me. Because the Germans had | :04:38. | :04:44. | |
flooded that area around the river. Only 150 men had landed in the right | :04:45. | :04:49. | |
area. The commander had to decide whether to give up or to go on. They | :04:50. | :04:56. | |
continued on, but this was no easy task because across here just beyond | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
those hedges was a massive minefield. They had to cut through | :05:01. | :05:07. | |
barbed wire and five foot thick wire and then they had to face the | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
Germans with machine guns. This footage gives you an idea of what it | :05:13. | :05:23. | |
might have been like on that night. Get in! The four gun emplacements | :05:24. | :05:34. | |
were heavily guarded, built by the Germans over four years. It was the | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
RAF bombings in the area that caused all sorts of problems for the | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
paratroopers. Because of the bombings the area behind me had huge | :05:44. | :05:50. | |
craters that the paratroopers had to get up and over and up again on the | :05:51. | :05:57. | |
other side. This is where spread remembered `` this man remembered. | :05:58. | :06:02. | |
When I went in I had a strange feeling of being outside myself. | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
Trying to keep their feet up off the minefield. | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
Once we got to the coast, that passed and that was it. | :06:13. | :06:24. | |
As well as the Dakotas, the red three gliders bringing in more men | :06:25. | :06:31. | |
and a lot of the explosives that would be used for the guns. They did | :06:32. | :06:40. | |
not arrive. The paratroopers were at the door. What happened next? I will | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
tell you later. The last few days we have been focusing on the veterans | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
who have returned your time and time again to be alongside their | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
colleagues again and to remember comrades from 70 years ago. | :06:56. | :07:04. | |
70 years ago they came here to the Normandy beaches to fight. This | :07:05. | :07:08. | |
afternoon they came back to remember. I cannot forget. I cannot | :07:09. | :07:20. | |
push it away. Veterans from the south of England joined hundreds of | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
others a around the world at Sword beach to pay tribute to colleagues | :07:26. | :07:34. | |
who were killed. Along with the bigger events, veterans have | :07:35. | :07:37. | |
attended many smaller ceremonies in the towns and villages they helped | :07:38. | :07:49. | |
in the summer of 1944. It is lovely to see you. Members of one | :07:50. | :07:58. | |
association were in a village on top of a strategically important hill | :07:59. | :08:04. | |
just outside one town. The fighting here was particularly fierce. One | :08:05. | :08:08. | |
soldier said you could go through a hedgerow and find a group of German | :08:09. | :08:11. | |
soldiers heading in the opposite direction. This man was amongst | :08:12. | :08:19. | |
those who battle to drive out the Germans. It was tough and we are | :08:20. | :08:25. | |
thankful we survived. We are the lucky ones. The heroes are the men | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
who line the cemeteries. coming from your leg, I said no, he | :08:31. | :09:19. | |
said yes, get off to the dressing station, and that was my war over. | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
They have been many moving scenes. They have been many moving scenes. | :09:24. | :11:06. | |
should never be forgotten. To see the French people gathered here, | :11:07. | :11:12. | |
they love us to bits and we were pounding them with bombs, we | :11:13. | :11:19. | |
destroyed our farms and yet they love us because we got them liberty. | :11:20. | :11:25. | |
This story patties from one generation to another. `` patties. A | :11:26. | :11:34. | |
moment of gratitude as the people of this French community ensure that | :11:35. | :11:38. | |
the sacrifice of these men will never fade away. It is important to | :11:39. | :12:06. | |
come back, isn't it? I realised it time and time again. I am pleased I | :12:07. | :12:15. | |
have come back. Will you return? If possible, yes. I would like to keep | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
this up. Our numbers are getting fewer and fewer. If I am able I | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
would like to return until I can no longer do it. They have the most | :12:25. | :12:35. | |
wonderful spirit, even 70 years on, they all have amazing stories to | :12:36. | :12:39. | |
tell of what happened. Every person I meet always very humble. We are | :12:40. | :12:51. | |
here at a museum and the director of the museum is with us. Thank you for | :12:52. | :13:00. | |
letting us be here because I know you have a big event this evening. | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
Over the years, you have met so many of the veterans who come back time | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
and time again. They must feel like family. Yes. It is family for all of | :13:11. | :13:20. | |
the people and it is my family with my heart. We have contact with the | :13:21. | :13:33. | |
French and British grandsons. It almost goes through the family. That | :13:34. | :13:42. | |
Israeli important. `` is really. Why are you so passionate about what you | :13:43. | :13:49. | |
have achieved? I was ten years old when my family, we went to | :13:50. | :14:01. | |
Arromanches to the museum and I visited and afterwards I said to my | :14:02. | :14:11. | |
father, I know where I will work. I will work, I have worked here for 25 | :14:12. | :14:19. | |
years and every year after my work with the volunteers... Your father | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
was involved in this. The first time I worked here my father came here | :14:26. | :14:36. | |
and he said, I worked for the Germans. The Germans forced your | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
father to build part of that. That must have been a strange feeling. | :14:41. | :14:50. | |
Yes. He said, I built your job. Good luck tonight. The weather has been | :14:51. | :15:01. | |
fantastic. Thank you. We can return to the story of what | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
happened here 70 years ago. A handful of paratroopers had made it | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
and had to disarm the guns, but what was it like for the Germans inside | :15:11. | :15:17. | |
the bunkers? This is what the paratroopers would | :15:18. | :15:21. | |
not have seen, inside the gun in the. Four of these. Inside, you have | :15:22. | :15:27. | |
the Germans who are living, sleeping, eating on sentry duty, | :15:28. | :15:34. | |
probably around about nine or ten of them and the museum has depicted | :15:35. | :15:40. | |
life inside including one German using a Paris court to see what is | :15:41. | :15:45. | |
happening out there it. They were surrounded and entombed in this | :15:46. | :15:51. | |
concrete. Over there is the gun. Nothing had gone right for the | :15:52. | :15:55. | |
paratroopers up until this point. They had a stroke of luck. These | :15:56. | :16:03. | |
would have been thick steel doors, the hall entrance, this is where the | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
paratroopers had to get in, and the Germans had left them open. All they | :16:09. | :16:14. | |
needed was the explosives, which they had lost. There were people | :16:15. | :16:21. | |
outside lien on the ground, Germans and our chaps, when I got there. I | :16:22. | :16:29. | |
was told to go in and see if it was clear and I went in and there was | :16:30. | :16:37. | |
movement in one room. It was dark. The Sergeant came along and I gave | :16:38. | :16:46. | |
him the bombs and he said, get out, and I got out, and that was it. They | :16:47. | :16:54. | |
blew the guns but did not manage to disable them completely. They had | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
killed so many Germans the guns would not operate fully. Even though | :16:59. | :17:04. | |
this mission was a huge success it came at a massive cost, will because | :17:05. | :17:10. | |
of 150 men who attacked here, half of them were killed and winded. This | :17:11. | :17:15. | |
mission was to save lives on the Normandy beaches `` injured. The | :17:16. | :17:27. | |
next story involves a double agent and a little bit of cunning. | :17:28. | :17:38. | |
It was then these humble hearts that the codebreakers of Bletchley Park | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
decrypted and sorted messages. Some of the information gleaned help | :17:45. | :17:50. | |
staff plot the movement of enemy shipping as well as Allied forces in | :17:51. | :17:53. | |
the English Channel in the run`up to D`Day. It was very exciting. We knew | :17:54. | :18:03. | |
about all of the bits of hardware that were going across. The German | :18:04. | :18:12. | |
boats would have been a great deal of trouble to us. There was a | :18:13. | :18:15. | |
tremendous amount of activity going on. There was so much work that | :18:16. | :18:22. | |
sometimes you could not go warm at the end of your shift. Quite a lot | :18:23. | :18:29. | |
of pressure. We felt very responsible because we felt that if | :18:30. | :18:34. | |
we did not keep things up`to`date it could mean people being killed. | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
Together those landing on the beaches of Normandy the best | :18:40. | :18:42. | |
possible chance, a decoy D`Day operation had been planned. A double | :18:43. | :18:49. | |
agent was one of a network of spies feeding the Germans both information | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
that the invasion would be at Calais. We were intercepting the | :18:54. | :19:00. | |
German transmissions and by decrypting them could see whether or | :19:01. | :19:04. | |
not the Germans had swallowed the bait which we were giving them. They | :19:05. | :19:11. | |
did. The message is behind us tell us that the elaborate decoy was a | :19:12. | :19:18. | |
success. It allowed British intelligence to monitor what was | :19:19. | :19:20. | |
being said to ensure that the lies that were being fed was being | :19:21. | :19:25. | |
believed. It kept the Germans sitting in Cali right up until | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
August when we actually attacked them, they were still waiting for | :19:31. | :19:34. | |
the invasion across the sea that never happened. Everybody was | :19:35. | :19:41. | |
working flat out to try to end the war. We really desperately wanted | :19:42. | :19:48. | |
the end because we had had enough. Such was the secrecy that even when | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
the end did come, it was another 30 years before they were able to tell | :19:53. | :19:58. | |
that family exactly what they bid in the war. `` did. | :19:59. | :20:09. | |
As you travel around this area, there are many cemeteries to visit, | :20:10. | :20:15. | |
many of them `` all of them well kept. We wanted to tell the story of | :20:16. | :20:19. | |
one soldier so we chose a gravestone at random near Gold beach. | :20:20. | :20:27. | |
This story starts with a grave. The inscription tells us that Charles | :20:28. | :20:34. | |
Martin was from Dorset. He died on D`Day, but who was he? Born on | :20:35. | :20:40. | |
Boxing Day 1916 he was one of the Mack children growing up in Dorset. | :20:41. | :20:45. | |
It was a fun time as his younger brother recalls. We were being | :20:46. | :20:56. | |
looked after by our great and. They wonderful people. It was a large | :20:57. | :21:02. | |
estate. My family owned the village. We got up to all sorts of nonsense. | :21:03. | :21:09. | |
We got on very well with people. He had girlfriends and so forth. A | :21:10. | :21:15. | |
career in the army beckoned. After training at Sandhurst rejoined the | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
Dorset Regiment at the north`west Frontier. Then came war. In 1943 he | :21:20. | :21:29. | |
led the Cicely invasion. In a hazardous red he stormed a German | :21:30. | :21:37. | |
gun possession single`handedly. It was surely the beginning of him | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
winning a reputation for himself that the fighting soldier. He seemed | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
to know instinctively what a lot of soldiers take time to learn and that | :21:46. | :21:49. | |
is that in an assault landing you need to keep going. You cannot hang | :21:50. | :21:56. | |
about on the beach. On returning to Britain has talent at the soldier | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
and leader were recognised and he was promoted to the Hampshire | :22:01. | :22:04. | |
Regiment as second`in`command of the 1st Battalion appealing for | :22:05. | :22:08. | |
Normandy. His experience was not quite unique but it would have been | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
very rare. He had won Mackey reputation by then for being very | :22:14. | :22:16. | |
swift and brave and effective in action. On the 6th of June the first | :22:17. | :22:23. | |
wave of landing craft carrying the Regiment arrived here. Little went | :22:24. | :22:32. | |
as planned. RAF bombs overshot their targets and the German defences | :22:33. | :22:34. | |
which should have been cleared were still in place. Wet, cold and | :22:35. | :22:40. | |
seasick, 600 men from the Regiment poured onto the beach. Unemployed | :22:41. | :22:47. | |
stands including this one poured relentless fire on the troops `` gun | :22:48. | :23:00. | |
emplacements. The commanding officer was injured. Charles to command. It | :23:01. | :23:06. | |
was not to be. Shortly after stepping from the landing craft onto | :23:07. | :23:10. | |
French soil, he was shot by a sniper and died on the beach. He was 27. I | :23:11. | :23:19. | |
think about him a tremendous amount because I have a very good | :23:20. | :23:35. | |
photograph of him on my desk. Each one of these graves tells its own | :23:36. | :23:39. | |
story of courage and selflessness. This one is about a teenager from | :23:40. | :23:45. | |
Dorset who was swept up in war. Many lost their lives, but their | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
sacrifices secured the peace and freedom which was so nearly lost. | :23:51. | :24:01. | |
We have almost reached the end of the programme. We have a special | :24:02. | :24:09. | |
programme tomorrow. The veterans will keep returning to France to | :24:10. | :24:15. | |
remember what happened 70 years ago. Memories of friendships forged in | :24:16. | :24:18. | |
the days of war as they stand together again. D`Day was a success | :24:19. | :24:24. | |
but came at a huge cost. The families left behind and other men | :24:25. | :24:29. | |
who did not come home. The families have put their own inscription. They | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
remain a moving testament to all the men who never returned. We will | :24:35. | :24:38. | |
leave you with some of them tonight. After a lovely day today with blue | :24:39. | :25:39. | |
skies overhead, tomorrow will be very different. Tonight we are | :25:40. | :25:42. | |
looking at every boundary rain moving up from France and that could | :25:43. | :25:48. | |
have some hail as well as lightning over the course of the day tomorrow. | :25:49. | :25:55. | |
The Met Office have issued a yellow weather warning. Thunderstorms after | :25:56. | :26:01. | |
a dry start to the night will start drifting up from the south. There | :26:02. | :26:04. | |
could be heavy torrential downpours at times and there will be gusty | :26:05. | :26:10. | |
winds at times. Temperatures staying mild overnight. 15`17 Celsius. A | :26:11. | :26:17. | |
damp start to the day tomorrow for some. The thunderstorms will rattle | :26:18. | :26:22. | |
through during the morning. Clearing during the mid morning and early | :26:23. | :26:25. | |
afternoon from the south coast but taking their time to move | :26:26. | :26:30. | |
northwards. We should have drier conditions during the afternoon with | :26:31. | :26:36. | |
sunny spells. Today we reached 23 Celsius, tomorrow will be 21 | :26:37. | :26:43. | |
Celsius. Tomorrow night it turns quiet. We may have a shower tomorrow | :26:44. | :26:47. | |
evening but the showers will generally clear and temperatures | :26:48. | :26:58. | |
will fall away. 12`14 Celsius. A mild, mist the start to the day on | :26:59. | :27:03. | |
Sunday and Sunday will be a much better day than Saturday. I pressure | :27:04. | :27:07. | |
in charge until the evening when we will start to see another weather | :27:08. | :27:14. | |
front which could potentially during Sunday night into Monday morning | :27:15. | :27:18. | |
produce more thunderstorms. As we head through the rest of the week we | :27:19. | :27:23. | |
have the Met Office warning for tomorrow for thunderstorms in a few | :27:24. | :27:26. | |
places, the rain could be heavy and torrential, a much better | :27:27. | :27:30. |