Part 1: “Invasion for Freedom” on June 5th at 10:50 p.m. on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – June 6, 1944. Western Allied forces storm the coast of Normandy to liberate Europe from Nazi rule. It is the beginning of the end of the German terror regime. The two-part documentary “D-Day” by Robin Bicknell by Jamie Kastner (ORF editing: Sabine Aßmann), which shows “Universum History” around the 80th anniversary of the great invasion, allows people to have their say about that day have experienced fierce and loss-making battles: as soldiers, medics, resistance fighters or children in occupied France. The first part – “Invasion for Freedom” focuses on the start of the fighting on Wednesday, June 5, 2024 at 10:50 p.m. on ORF 2. Part 2 – “Decision in Normandy” – will follow on Friday, June 7th at 11:10 p.m. on ORF 2.
In the early morning hours of June 6, 80 years ago, more than 150,000 soldiers from the USA, Canada and Great Britain landed on various stretches of beach on the French coast. A dramatic battle begins. This crucial military operation of the Second World War goes down in collective memory as D-Day. At this point, Nazi Germany controls a large part of Europe – the invasion of Normandy is said to be the turning point. But Germany has prepared and fortified the coasts along the Atlantic and the North Sea. The so-called “Atlantic Wall” stretches over more than 2,000 kilometers of coastline. Obstacles made of wood, concrete and steel are intended to stop enemy landing craft. German troops are waiting behind them. The people who experienced the oppressive tension up to the start of the invasion have their say in the documentary. Paul Golz is stationed in Normandy in 1944 as a young infantryman in the German Wehrmacht. He is “on post” in the early hours of the morning and witnesses the descent of thousands of Allied paratroopers. The sky glittered as if there were Christmas trees there, is how he describes the image in his memory. “We weren’t happy, but we said: Thank God it’s finally starting.” Charlie Beddoe accompanies the invasion as a cameraman for the Royal Canadian Navy. “It was exciting,” he says, describing the start of the fighting. “The moment we were all waiting for.”
To prepare for the invasion, 13,000 American paratroopers drop behind enemy lines. They are supposed to secure the advance of the Allied infantry units in the hinterland. One of these paratroopers is the American Jim Martin. “The sky was full of tracer bullets,” he says in the documentary. “Planes exploded around us, flak shook the plane, bullets penetrated the ground.” He reached the ground in less than a minute – and was afraid every minute there. The French resistance fighter Marie Krebs-Chammings, who smuggled Resistance messages past German posts in occupied France, also talks about the fear.
The memories of these last eyewitnesses are the mosaic pieces from which the course of the invasion of Normandy is retold. The first part of the two-part documentary focuses on the beginning of the fighting. The personal retrospectives are accompanied by numerous original recordings. The archive material is supplemented by meticulously and detailed recreated game scenes that intensively bring to life the personal experiences of Marie Krebs-Chamming’s, Charlie Beddoe, Paul Golz and the other protagonists of the documentary.