D-Day: Codename Overlord

It is first light on the 6th of June, 1994, D-Day. On this day, the Allies launched the largest combined land, air and sea operation ever from Souther England to liberate Europe from Hitler and Nazi oppression. Code named Overlord, the entire operation was a tremendous gamble. The element of surprise was paramount and through a tangle of intrigue, the German high command was led to believe the invasion would occur not at Normandy, but at Calais, only twenty miles from England across the narrow strait of Dover. The preparation for the operation was intense and the assault phase of Operation Overlord was a tremendous victory for the Allies. They had broken the vaunted Atlantic wall and established a foothold on the continent. Soon afterwards they were celebrating the liberation of Paris. Between the two events were 80 days of war and its uncertainty. The story of these three phases, the build up, the assault and the breakout are the real story of D-Day, Operation Overlord. This documentary tells the compelling story of the Normandy Invasion and includes rare color footage from the George Stevens Collections at the Library of Congress, coupled with the thoughts of the men and women who actually participated in these historic events. They tell the story of Operation Overlord as it occurred sixty years ago, when the world came together in conflict on the storm swept beaches of Normandy.

English