- 5/17/2025
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00:00The
00:24tide was coming in. The bullets were hitting the water and hitting men. I went down the
00:47ramp. And I went under. Completely under.
01:06Real one. Can you tell me about the D-Day itself?
01:27They were trained beforehand. They fought until the very end.
01:34They did try to save their lives. And that's why they fought.
01:38What had they told you beforehand to expect? Expect hell. They didn't lie to us about that.
01:57They were sheer nerds. Exhilarating nerds if you know what I mean.
02:11Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.
02:26Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.
02:57I tried to get up. I couldn't get up. I know there's no help coming. I said goodbye to my mother, my wife.
03:11As I struggled, somebody pulled me out.
03:19After months, years really, of planning, the Allies finally launched their surprise attack on the German forces guarding the Normandy coast of occupied France.
03:47The stakes for those troops on that morning were incredibly high. And in many respects, it was very much a now or never moment.
03:55The Allies identified five beach landing areas. Those codenamed Utah and Omaha were the American beaches.
04:13And it was always known that it was necessary to take Omaha because it sat between the other beaches.
04:20The soldiers like Harry arriving on the beaches in these landing craft, it's the reality of war very much in their faces really for the first time that they've encountered something like this.
04:31There had been a sense of shock. What they were faced with was far greater than they had been prepared for.
04:39At the shoreline, there was a lot of wounded, dead floating. I had to crawl in. I was exhausted. Crawling over them, I didn't know who was wounded, who was dead.
04:55I was in the wrong place, really. I could hear the bullets going into the sand. I heard a little sucking sound. It appeared that the beach was sucking something up.
05:21Now I'm up there, half drowned, full of water, with 80 pounds of shit on my back. And I'm alone.
05:39The landings were planned to be based on waves of troops hitting the beaches.
05:45The first wave understood that they would take the highest casualties.
05:51But they hadn't expected the volume of fire that they were experiencing with the full force of the German firepower raining down on them.
05:59Omaha, from the perspective of the Allied invaders, was the most formidable beach because it was surrounded by gun positions on the high ground.
06:15The Americans were incredibly vulnerable. The Germans could just pick off these Americans stepping off the boats almost at will.
06:29I got up to the first layer of shingles of shale, rock, and laid there. Then I'd get my wind under fire. There was mortars hitting along the shore. I could see the sand going straight up.
06:48The shingles were firing. Artillery shells were hitting.
07:00I lay on my side and I opened my fly and urinated. I guess I was being neat. Anyhow, I was soaking wet anyway. It didn't matter. Under fire was sort of crazy, I guess.
07:18Eventually, I climbed up to the next layer of shale. There was a bunch of GIs there getting hit and wounded.
07:30We came under intense fire and they covered the beach with automatic weapons fire. It seemed like an inferno.
07:44Did you expect that?
07:46No, we didn't. We didn't expect it. This was our first taste of combat.
08:00It must have been a bit like hell.
08:03Well, I've never been there, but if it's like that, I'm certain I don't want to go there. And it's worse, I'm certain.
08:17I'd see your friends, people you'd served with for years, floating face down or face up. A lot of the wounded drowned. I think I was in shock at the time. At times I was frightened.
08:39There wasn't much to think about, actually. Except the German soldier on the machine gun.
09:09We were trained to fight to the end. You had to hold your ground. We didn't think about retreating.
09:21There were unimaginable amounts of boats for us. It was very shocking to see.
09:49At Omaha, the earlier Allied naval bombardment was quite ineffective, so the German assistance nests were still intact.
09:59Franz Gockel, his mission was to sit in his bunker and kill as many Allied soldiers as possible.
10:07As Franz Gockel looked down onto the beach, he'd have seen these heavily laden soldiers, sometimes drenched from having just got out of the water, to them not moving particularly fast.
10:18There was basically no natural cover at all. There was nothing between them and these guns. Almost nothing to stop the bullets.
10:36The shooting was automatic. The water was red from the blood.
11:07I was wounded just as I came off the boat. And it crossed the beach on my stomach. And it crawled. It seemed like an eternity, almost.
11:27Omaha was unusual because there was a huge expanse of sand to cover in order to get to the cliffs or bluffs.
11:36But there's five gaps, natural gaps, in that elevated ground.
11:41The Americans' key objective is to secure these natural exits and overpower the German strong points.
11:49This was all supposed to happen within a couple of hours.
11:56We were supposed to land on the beach where the bluffs separated.
12:02We came in approximately 500 to 1,000 yards east of where we were supposed to.
12:08We didn't know what to do.
12:10What was ahead of us was the bluffs.
12:14The bluffs ranged anywhere from two to three stories in height. Quite steep.
12:26You thought everything was lost because there were tanks coming off and trucks coming off, falling out in the water and sinking and were being hit down.
12:39You just turned away. You couldn't look.
12:57One guy next to me got a slug through his helmet. He missed his head because he had socks in his helmet.
13:03Another guy had part of his buttocks blown open.
13:08We put sulfur powder on him. He was numb from shock and he was laughing.
13:14Couldn't feel it, I guess.
13:26The Germans were pinning down the Americans to the sea line, which from their perspective is what they were trained to do to ensure that these men couldn't even get as far as the cliffs.
13:36Casualty rates were incredibly high and the Americans, they were starting to get really bogged down.
13:43In some cases, all of the men stepping off their boats were killed.
13:49There was a very real prospect that they might actually lose the beach.
13:55How many did you lose, do you know?
13:58There were 17 on my boat to start with and only five of us came off the line.
14:09It did horrify me to lose these men that we'd trained with, some of them I'd grown up with from childhood.
14:17And I witnessed so many of our people getting killed.
14:26I mean, it's kind of difficult.
14:28I just want to watch you, sir.
14:31I don't know whether I can do this or not.
14:33It's peck-a-can.
15:03I don't know whether I can do this or not.
15:09One thought was, why do they keep coming back?
15:13They see how many are already lying on the beach.
15:18Every two meters, a dead man.
15:28But when I think about how many were wounded,
15:33and how they couldn't avoid stepping on dead soldiers while running to the beach.
15:44They used every little opportunity to get to cover.
15:54Poor guys.
16:04Pockets of men advance across the beach and make it to the base of the bluffs where there are German defences, mines and obstacles.
16:20The bluffs would be the toughest nut to crack.
16:25Some were trying to dig in with their bare hands.
16:30There were mortar and artillery shells landing all over the place.
16:37There was one fucking mess.
16:40Guys were trying to dig themselves back to deeper.
16:46So, if you're in a clan, you're just there.
16:50Just there, trying to stay alive.
16:52Yeah.
16:59While soldiers like Harry were trapped at the base of the bluffs, pinned down and unable to move forward,
17:04another wave of British were about to land on the eastern boundary of the D-Day beaches, known as Sword Beach.
17:12Sword Beach
17:26When we got there, it was just a shambles.
17:30It was one of the first three meadows.
17:32You got to crouch on the deck then.
17:34I saw the thing going on there on the beach.
17:36I thought, how the hell are we going to get through that?
17:41Sword Beach
17:46Unknown to James, the first wave at Sword Beach had already suffered terrible casualties
17:51and this is what would have confronted him as he approached the beach.
17:55When the commandos came on behind them, some of them described it as being like a sea of khaki that was laid out in front of them
18:02due to the sheer number of casualties lying in the sand.
18:05Sword Beach
18:09Our job was to get off the beach as fast as you can.
18:14That was the instructions that we were given.
18:18So the initial mission for some of those invading on Sword Beach was to make their way directly to Bonneville Bridge,
18:25later known as Pegasus Bridge, in order to relieve John Howard and his men,
18:30who had of course seized control of that bridge at the very, very start of the operation on D-Day.
18:38This bridge was a really important means of either Germany moving troops towards the D-Day beaches
18:47or the Allies moving troops off the beaches and onwards to gain a foothold in northern France.
18:55And they told you help would be coming up from the beach in the form of the commandos?
18:59Yes.
19:04We must expect a counter-attack any time and it was vital that the crossing places be held.
19:13It was rather frightening to realise exactly what was happening
19:18and give me now fingers crossed for those poor buggers coming in by sea.
19:32The German fortifications at Sword Beach were quite strong.
19:36You had minefields, you had heavy weapons, you had concealed machine gun positions,
19:42you had minefields, you had heavy weapons, you had concealed machine gun positions in the houses.
19:48So the British forces there had to overcome a lot of challenges to break through the Atlantic wall.
19:58As far as we were concerned, to us young lads, it was an adventure.
20:03This was it.
20:13There was another chap, a fellow named Charlie Hall, who came with me.
20:18I was a brain gunner then and Charlie was my number two.
20:23Charlie Hall.
20:25They liked you to have your mates because two of you would work much better, you know, you'd fight better.
20:32You'd always have the company and the friendship under the person with you.
20:37The weather at the beach, there was only one thing on my mind, it was to get up.
20:44Captain Powell was in charge, he was leading, followed by me, followed by Charlie Hall.
20:59All I remember is a blinding flash and...
21:01My friend, Charlie Hall, was down on the deck and he was bleeding.
21:08The blood was pumping out of his neck.
21:11Right out of his combine lock badge that was on his shoulder,
21:14and the blood was pouring out, it was pumping out of both places.
21:19And I'd only just got down and it was only a matter of saying to him,
21:23come on Charlie, come on.
21:25And this voice said, get going, you're not supposed to stop, get going.
21:30So I went.
21:37Get up!
21:39Get up!
21:41Get up!
21:43Get up!
21:45Get up!
21:46Get up!
21:47Get up, come on, move!
21:50Just left.
22:00For those men landing at Sword, the first challenge is to get off the beach itself.
22:06Young men like James and Warwick, they were totally vulnerable.
22:10Behind them is the English Channel, so they can't go backwards.
22:14The only way to survive here is to do what must have seemed to be the most counterintuitive thing,
22:20which is to run towards the fire coming from the gun positions above the beach.
22:29I had two young marines as a signal unit.
22:40We got ashore, one line not killed incidentally.
22:47And we got on the beach which was covered in bodies, tanks and smoke.
23:09Once we got into the smoke, the whole thing seemed so unreal.
23:18I got my camera and I started taking pictures of the troops coming ashore.
23:40And we started coming across bodies, British bodies.
23:45And I remember the first one I saw was an infantryman.
23:48And what fascinated me was he had no head.
23:51He was just lying there with no head, there was no sign of his head.
24:09What happened next?
24:11We grouped for about ten minutes on the beach, until the beachmaster came along.
24:19The most calm man I'd ever met in my life.
24:23He came along swinging a cane.
24:29And he was just standing there.
24:31He was just standing there.
24:32He came along swinging a cane.
24:38And he was just standing there shouting,
24:40Over here! Keep over there!
24:43And it's half a cover.
24:55How long he lasted, I don't know.
24:57But it didn't stop.
25:02People are falling and being killed and wounded.
25:06And this guy's walking through it.
25:11And we were off the beach.
25:25I suddenly spotted two very tiny infantrymen
25:28marching along with a very tall German soldier
25:31who was absolutely terrified.
25:33He had a bandage around his face.
25:35And there were these two rather cheerful cockneys on either side of them.
25:39I said, just a minute.
25:41And they posed as though they might be posing in Piccadilly Circus for their picture
25:44with this German in between them.
25:46And took the classic picture.
25:50Which you're always told to look out for.
25:53Captured prisoners, very good for the morale and all the rest of it.
25:59You were saying there were lots of dead British soldiers lying around.
26:03There's lots of dead bodies lying in the little sand hills
26:08just below the promenade.
26:10Did you not think that these were worth filming?
26:13No.
26:15They would not use pictures of dead bodies.
26:18Use pictures of dead Germans.
26:20But not pictures of dead British.
26:29The objective of all marine commandos, such as James Kelly,
26:33was to attack and take the village of Lyons-sur-Mer.
26:38One of the interesting things about D-Day
26:41was, I guess, the disorientation for the troops.
26:44They're coming off these packed beaches
26:47and finding themselves in the countryside
26:50trying to get their bearings.
26:52And perhaps more importantly,
26:53to find their rendezvous points with the rest of their troops.
27:00I got off and I found the road.
27:03And the curious thing about that
27:06was you couldn't have stood around
27:09and not had a conversation without any danger
27:12on the corner by the church.
27:14And it's, like, Sunday afternoon.
27:16Nothing. Nothing happening.
27:18And I'm sitting there,
27:19and it's, like, Sunday afternoon.
27:21Nothing. Nothing happening.
27:23And there's a fella getting murdered
27:26a couple of hundred yards further back,
27:29down on the beach.
27:44The invading British go from fighting on a beach
27:46to fighting in an urban environment,
27:49in a street fight.
27:51That at any point,
27:53there could be hidden German forces
27:56training their guns upon them.
27:58They don't know where the threat is.
28:01So it's a completely different proposition.
28:05The success of the landings was still in the balance.
28:09For people on those shores,
28:12there's a sentiment of disbelief.
28:15Families peering out of windows,
28:18wondering, what is happening?
28:21They see these shadows coming up
28:24and onto the shores.
28:26And here you start to realize,
28:28this is actually it.
28:31The sense of disbelief was transformed
28:34into a sense of hope.
28:36The sense of disbelief was transforming
28:39into a growing fear
28:41that maybe they were going to die
28:44if they were in that line of fire.
29:07When we got there, I said,
29:09there's nothing to do.
29:11There's the factory,
29:13so I said, are you crazy?
29:15I tried to go there.
29:17I went a hundred yards,
29:19and it was jumping everywhere.
29:21When I got home,
29:23we went into the garden,
29:25under an iron table,
29:27and we were stuck,
29:29my mother, my brother and me,
29:31all the way from the depot.
29:33We heard footsteps in the street.
29:36We saw men passing by,
29:39and I got closer,
29:41and I asked,
29:43and I saw they were Englishmen,
29:45and they asked me where they were.
29:48So I explained that it was the hangar.
29:51It didn't mean anything to them.
29:53And I was even more scared
29:55because I really had the impression
29:57that it was just us who were landing.
29:59It brought me back to my senses.
30:01Someone from the town hall
30:03came to ask us to dig graves.
30:05Let's do it for a month,
30:07because we were still young,
30:09and there were dead soldiers,
30:11and we had to dig graves.
30:19We put two young Englishmen there.
30:21It was a very difficult situation,
30:23because we didn't know
30:25what to do.
30:27We didn't know what to do.
30:29It was very moving,
30:31because they were buried
30:33as they were,
30:35with all their clothes,
30:37even the chocolate bars
30:39they had for the population.
30:53For Jacqueline and family,
30:56Didier was like being
30:58in a trance.
31:00People would have been
31:02so excited, thrilled,
31:04that this could actually be
31:06the moment where we see
31:08the beginning of the end
31:10of the Nazi grip on Europe.
31:12But it's also a day
31:14where no one knows
31:16what's going to happen next,
31:18and you're seeing dead bodies
31:20all around you.
31:28As the surrounding progresses,
31:30things weren't going anywhere
31:32near as well on Omaha
31:34as they were on the other beaches.
31:36Progress was really slow.
31:38As the tide moved in,
31:40the amount of ground
31:42that was available
31:44for the troops there
31:46was diminishing and diminishing
31:48and diminishing,
31:50and that represented
31:52a huge threat.
31:55Four hours after they landed,
31:56the Germans were still raging.
31:58Omaha Beach was still
32:00in German hands.
32:02Some of the resistance nests
32:04had already been taken
32:06by the Americans,
32:08but largely the Germans
32:10still held their positions.
32:12Originally, all resistance nests
32:14had enough ammunition
32:16to fight a prolonged fight
32:18for about 48 hours.
32:21They were wounded and dead
32:23and chopped up guys,
32:24nobody could move,
32:26they were terrorized.
32:28We didn't know where we were.
32:30We had no officers.
32:32My captain was killed on the beach.
32:34Given the chaos in Omaha,
32:36much came down
32:38to the individual initiative
32:40and courage of soldiers
32:42like Chuck and Harry.
32:44The Germans had placed
32:46wire entanglements, mines,
32:48tank traps,
32:50and of course these had to be
32:52knocked out with demolition teams.
32:54I had five guys
32:56blowing up the block ahead of me.
32:58What's remarkable about Omaha Beach
33:00is that despite the fact
33:02that many of these specialist teams
33:04were disrupted or dead,
33:06that soldiers like Chuck
33:08managed to assemble demolitions,
33:10Bangalore torpedoes
33:12to blow up wire entanglements.
33:19We got Bangalore torpedoes,
33:21that's long tubes of TNT
33:22screwed together
33:24and we put that under the wire.
33:35Finally blew the wire.
33:37It just collapsed.
33:45We started one at a time
33:47in between machine gun fire
33:50jumping over the wire
33:52and I ran for it,
33:54tripped, fell in it,
33:56but crawled through alright.
34:02I could hear the explosion
34:04of the Bangalore torpedoes.
34:06I crawled quarter of the way
34:08and then I found out
34:10a wall had been blown up.
34:12And another guy
34:14had thrown together
34:16bolts of ice were off
34:18and trying to catch them
34:20on the spikes
34:23on the beach.
34:27After we got to the top of the hill
34:29I looked down on the beach
34:31and it was a real mess.
34:33So we were up there
34:35maybe 30 guys in our area
34:37and we could have been swept off there
34:39with brooms if the Germans knew
34:41there were so few of us.
34:47Just about to get up the hill
34:49when they started screaming back for me
34:50on the beach come on down
34:52we're going to shell the hill.
34:55I just came down
34:57to say the block was like
34:59let's assume the block was
35:01two and a half stories high.
35:03I came down to about
35:05one story off sea level.
35:07That was a stupid thing to do
35:09and the USS Arkansas opened fire.
35:20By late morning
35:22the situation at Omaha
35:24seemed quite desperate.
35:26At one point the Allied commanders
35:28thought that they would have to
35:30pull out and end the attempt
35:32to take Omaha Beach.
35:34The Allies brought up
35:36naval gunfire to try and
35:38knock out the German defenses
35:40to pave the way for the American
35:42infantry to get off the beach.
35:45I could see
35:47these giant shells were
35:48falling apart.
35:50They were coming over my head.
35:52They were sitting in the
35:54front row of the building
35:56looking up at the screen.
35:58That's the way it looked.
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43:24Speaking in German.
43:26Speaking in German.
43:28Speaking in German.
43:30Speaking in German.
43:32Speaking in German.
43:34Speaking in German.
43:36Speaking in German.
43:38Speaking in German.
43:40Speaking in German.
43:42Speaking in German.
43:44Speaking in German.
43:46Speaking in German.
43:48From 12 o'clock onwards, we'd been expecting to see and hear the commandos.
44:02It went on very, very, very wearing. Very wearing indeed. All the time, you could feel
44:13movement out there and closer contact coming. We were to blow a bugle call once we saw them
44:23coming down from the beaches. We heard a bugle playing. We heard this bugle. It was quite
44:34nice. And everybody cheered. That's what we were waiting for. The commandos, completely
44:50what we really needed, a squadron of tanks. I don't forget the sight. Of course, we went
44:56bloody, didn't we? A lot of joking went on between our troops and theirs, asking about
45:02how they'd been and all that sort of business. We opened up the Café Gondray alongside
45:14the bridge. The patron was George Gondray. And the first thing George Gondray did, bless
45:21him, went down into his garden and dug up nearly 100 bottles of champagne that he'd
45:26buried away in the garden, away from the Germans. And all of a sudden, Mr. Gondray came out
45:33with a bottle of champagne and a couple of glasses. I looked at Gondray and I said, yes,
45:38we did it. Oh, dear. Oh, it's that good. I don't know when it was champagne, not after
45:46champagne. It could have been cider, it could have been anything, but oh boy, did it go
45:50down well. It really went down well. And of course, that's what you want to do in battle,
45:57is to give vent to your feelings. A pent-up, subjected to all this pressure and to have
46:05a good shout releases it all. For John Howard and the whole of D Company, it was a moment
46:18of really kind of qualified happiness, because they knew that this was really just the beginning.
46:26There was so much more to do. The scale of the task that was ahead of them, and they
46:33must have known that not all of them would live to see the end of all the days ahead.
46:48Getting across the beaches and taking the coastal towns was just the beginning of the invasion.
47:00The key objective for the British commanders on D-Day was to take Caen.
47:06The idea had been that the troops would get across the beaches and get inland and take the city,
47:12but trying to get eight miles to Caen on the first day is hugely ambitious.
47:19Taking Caen was crucial because, of course, they understand that they are in a race with the Germans.
47:26Caen is a hub of communications, of roads, rail, canals, and it's how you access the rest of France
47:33beyond. So they are going to pound Caen in order to disrupt and destroy the German defenders.
47:48And after lunch, we heard the planes coming in at 9 o'clock.
48:04What surprised me at first was that when these bombs hit, they didn't go down like a passing
48:10storm, but they went up in a whirlwind and in a bad balance.
48:16And then, after being hit by a kind of whistling that became more and more frightening,
48:22you would think that you are trapped on a railroad track and that the train would
48:30launch at full speed and that you could not escape.
48:40The city became engulfed in flames. Nobody would have anticipated that they would have caused
48:54so much death, dust, flames, and terror. French civilians hadn't had time to evacuate,
49:06and all of a sudden they were trapped.
49:36What was more tragic was that, of course, there were injured people in the ruins.
49:42I will never forget the courage of a police officer that I did not know, who was injured,
49:48who had suffered terribly from his arm. He wanted us to take care of him last,
49:54after he was sure that all the people had been saved from this neighborhood.
50:06The bombing of Caen was one of those moments where warfare came to the city, it came to the people.
50:14There's hundreds of civilian casualties, and they destroy some of the targets,
50:20but the Allies still have a huge way to go.
50:37We didn't know where we were. We had no witnesses. We were hungry and tired and scared.
50:46I worked my way to go inland to a house, a bombed out house, just the walls were up.
51:06There I located some of my buddies from my company. A lot of them didn't even have rifles.
51:14I was walking around in a daze.
51:18A sergeant from my company ran up the path, yelling down to his full of mines.
51:25My best buddy from Chicago named David looked on his glasses and said,
51:32Now I can see him. Ten minutes later he was killed. I felt sick about it.
51:45Once the Allies get further inland, they are dragged into street fighting in some of the villages,
51:53and the Germans in this part of Normandy have got also some fortified positions inland.
52:03The German soldiers have been told again and again,
52:07This is a battle we have to win, this is a battle we will win.
52:17The rest of the day was spent like a bunch of guerrilla fighters.
52:24Just a jumble of fright and running and firing and disappearing and hiding, panic and coldness.
52:39And the guys were so trigger happy that if we were suspicious about a bomb out of something, we threw the hand grenade.
52:53I think we killed French farmers that were resistance people or innocent people or that worked for the Germans,
53:07but we had no time.
53:16By early evening on D-Day, they had taken the five beaches.
53:20The front line has moved to a few miles inland, not particularly far at this stage, and the Germans respond.
53:30They are in no doubt now that this is the big Allied invasion and they have got to pull out all the stops.
53:50Herbert Meyer's unit didn't get on their way until early evening from their base 100 miles south of the coast.
53:58When they are ordered to march to the Normandy front, they want to be as quickly as possible on the beaches.
54:03So they plan to travel through the night.
54:28You need to bear in mind from the Germans' perspective, everything is on the line as well for them.
54:33There was this sense that it should still have been possible to drive the Allies back, back into the water.
54:46The Allies had got this foothold, but the battle for Normandy has barely begun.
54:53The Allies didn't waste any time bringing in more ships with supplies for their troops.
54:58Without enough food, ammunition and replacements of weapons and equipment, they would be vulnerable to German counter-attacks.
55:07On the evening of D-Day, the troops are exhausted.
55:11I mean, physically, they have not slept, they have not eaten, they have not had anything to drink.
55:17They are, I think, mentally and physically at the end.
55:29I got in a ditch near a road and it was getting dark.
55:32I had my apple that was left over from breakfast.
55:35Tried to get some sleep. I was in the ditch.
55:39That night a few German planes came over and started bombing us so we didn't get quite a lot of sleep.
55:52Now lay ahead the long, hard slog to liberate France.
55:57And many wouldn't survive the next few days, let alone weeks.
56:01From then on, things got significantly harder because it stopped being about speed of attack based on surprise.
56:09Both sides, from this point onwards, would become locked in this brutal battle of wills and barbarity.
56:20We decided to get into the middle of this field so we could see if someone was creeping up on us.
56:26And we decided to dig a foxhole.
56:29We were exhausted, dead tired and blank of thoughts.
56:34We tried to dig and the sergeant said to me,
56:39And that's the way I spent the night. We sat back to back waiting for someone to come and get us.
56:45Well, fuck it Polly, let's just sit down here and if they come for us we take as many as we can.
56:59And that's the way I spent the night. We sat back to back waiting for someone to come and get us.
57:15And that's the way I spent the night. We sat back to back waiting for someone to come and get us.
57:21With all the succeeding and not knowing where we were going, fear began to grip us.
57:26I was scared as hell, I couldn't imagine what was going on ahead.
57:30I was witness to a number of what I would call instances of butchery where we did capture a German at all.
57:39We were well below strength. It was a very dangerous situation.
57:44And we had a few fellas killed.
57:47Every time somebody go up a hill, somebody's not coming back.
57:51And you just hope that you make it.
58:09Go to bbc.co.uk forward slash ddaytapes and follow the links to The Open University.
58:39www.theopenuniversity.edu.au
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