I found myself watching Saving Private Ryan last night:
No film can ever hope to truly re-create the horrors of D-Day, but I feel that the start of Saving Private Ryan does at least give you a basic idea: men would have been emotional, men would have been vomiting, the first men “out” of the landing crafts would have been almost guaranteed to be “shot down” straight away. Its also true that the guy “next to you” could have been horribly blown away whilst you survived unscathed (and vice versa). I remember reading an account of a soldier that just “walked up the beach” and every 3rd or 4th step “skipped” because “they always missed”: although that same soldier later changed his approach after a “very near miss”. The film does make clear one point about amphibious warfare: its the only type of battleground where its safer to keep “moving forward” than to retreat (owing to the arcs of fire from fixed place gun installations). There’s a part where the film lets itself down though! As the film, does not highlight the fact that Battleships were also made use of during D-Day: where battleships such as HMS Warspite and HMS Rodney used their large calibre 15 inch, and 16 inch naval guns to pound the invasion beaches (at close range – during “Operation Neptune“). The craters formed from such large shells exploding were of great use to many soldiers: as it provided them with cover (which the Allied Air Forces generally failed at – bombing too far in-land: for fear of hitting their own men). The film also has an attempt at suggesting the shear amount of men and equipment that was unloaded “during and after” D-Day. My favourite character has to be that sniper guy (Private Jackson), which the film seems to go to great lengths to build up as being somewhat invincible: right up until the point that he gets “blown away” in the tower (towards the end). Overall: one of my most favourite war films to sit down and watch. Does anyone know if the story line (about saving the fourth brother) is true though?
Cool World War Two Links 