Hearse corporation newsreel. He created a traveling film and lecture program, the National Archives restored the film together with a recording of his original narration. This is 45 minutes. The one place that intrigued me was my first trip to london, and the house of parliament and big ben. Now these pictures you must remember are more than a quarter of a century old. The thing that amused and entertained our boys who were stationed all over england was westminster abbey, and there were quite a few americans who came there to see the sites and see westminster abbey, and these are the scenes that i wanted to photograph on one sunday afternoon. Another area that intrigued me was marble arch. The marble arch on one sunday afternoon was full of people. You must remember that london was being bombed almost every night in this particular time, and i was photographing these speakers that were addressing the crowds. Every speaker was speaking on a different assumptiosubject, but police stood around and watched, and as long as there was no arguments, nobody was hurt, and the people in the audience were arguing back with the speakers, but these were just typical shots of how we passed the time waiting for dday. Most of the children who lived in england or a great may i should say were sent out of the city, but a lot of them had to remain behind, but in spite of a war, they managed to find entertainment. I was rather surprised to see these children drinking out of Community Drinking cups that were chained to the fountain, and id like to make candid shots of these children so they didnt notice me, but every once in a while they did, but this youngster is taking a cold drink on a beautiful sunday afternoon, and we discovered that the st. Pauls cathedral had been hit several times but not badly damaged, and of course one of the other attractions was Buckingham Palace and the gates, which were protected by british troops, not in the bearskin hats which they wore in peacetime, but in full war uniform, and this is where they paraded up and down. They werent pecrforming for th camera, but they were actually doing their duty. You notice barrage balloons in the background. London had barrage balloons all over the area, and it was said if it wasnt for all the barrage with all the equipment that was being brought into the country, that the islands would sink into the sea but the barrage balloons was holding it up. You must remember, too, that food was pretty scarce in london at this time, and it was being brought in whatever way they could, and being unloaded but it isnt often you get a bright day like this in the spring in london, and this was an opportunity to show what the soldiers were doing while they were waiting for the invasion. This is fleet street, discovered this irish policeman guarding the street, and we saw considerable damage in the area, but soon we were down on the south coast of england where we met some of the other correspondents who were scheduled to cross the channel with us, and youll probably recognize some of the oldtimers who covered the war in that particular time. I was given a shuttle to defend myself and it proved to be a valuable instrument, and here we see larry la seuer from cbs. Jack thompson of the chicago tribu tribune, ernie pyle here and this is a closeup of jack thompson, and this is Larry Oreilly of the soerAssociated Press. And were saying our farewells because we expected to meet again in paris. Here on the left we see clark lee of ins and Bill Stoneman who came are from chicago from the daily news, and several other of the correspondents were being boarded aboard a military truck to be taken to the south coast, and we went through small british towns and life was going on as usual. The people were in the marketplace buying food, and as though nothing was going on, but after 150 mile ride, thats how we felt riding in an army vehicle. We found plymouth was pretty badly damaged. A lot of the buildings were completely destroyed, but this was found all over the area. Soon we were approaching the dock area, and we found these american jeeps ready to be boarded aboard Landing Craft, and you noticed the bars that are attached to their thumpers, and theyre designed to cut wires that the germans had a habit of putting across the road that would sometimes cut off the head of the drivers. We werent allowed to Wander Around the area by ourselves. Each crossroads point was under guard of both an american and a british soldier, and if they wanted to see what you had in your bed roll, you had to show it to them, but this is the care that was taken that the secret of the invasion be kept as long as it could. These are the two men wes carroll of the owi and pete carroll, wes haynes who were with me and we went aboard an lci number 5. Pete carroll here came from boston, and he was a photographer for the Associated Press and we tried to keep our mind off what was coming, and we knew it was going to be a short time before we would be on board. We had our first taste of k rations, which didnt taste bad if you were hungry, and we also were able to see the beautiful countryside in that area and these are the sort of shots i wanted to bring home to show my family and friends. Pete carroll was using some of this film to make a few shots himself, and soon we were down at the docks, and there we found units of the 101st Airborne Division carrying everything they could carry by hand boarding Landing Craft that was so heavily laden, they had to be pushed off the docks by trucks as you see in this manner. And these men were being taken out to larger craft and boarded for the invasion. And here we see several units carrying grenades, baa zbazukas they didnt have an opportunity to load this aboard jeeps that were not fully available at this particular moment. We were aboard a fleet of lcis and here shown with the comma commander of the Invasion Group in the center, and captain on the right, rather the captain of our ship, lieutenant patton was in command of the lci number 5, and we found out that he participated this several invasions in the mediterranean area, and we felt rather confident that he knew what he was doing. But we stayed aboard this ship almost five days. This is the commander of the squadr squadron. I remember lieutenant pattons name well because we were with him for so long. We haynes was trying to get ready for the trip into paris. These were units of the 101st Airborne Division amusing themselves, and i dont have to tell you who this man is imitating. Hae he was a notre dame Football Player at one time, and i was told later on that he was killed in the action. Of course every ship had a mascot, and ours was no different, but the boys provided for their mascots welfare with the making of a life preserver just like the ones that they wore themselves. And then one afternoon lieutenant patton briefed the crew and told them that we would be sailing that afternoon, and they let out a cheer because this is the job theyre waiting for. They wanted to get it done and go home, and here we see the lci number 4 with the Commander Moving out into the channel, and this was a tremendous sight to see ships from one end of the horizon to the other, ships of all kinds. Hay tell me there was well over a thousand ships, but even so, we thought this was just another exercise as we continued on we felt that wed be turned around, go back and try again another day, but when we continued on into the night, we knew it was the real thing. At one time we had a bit of a scare. They said there was a submarine in the area and one of the d. E. Boats threw some bombs into the channel, and they exploded, but we never saw any attack at all. Here are some scenes actually taken close to the beach where the ships made a right angle turn and headed for the area where we were to land. That is a d. E. Boat in the distance, and of course we were on the alert for any kind of attack, even airplane attacks. Fortunately our air force did their job well, and at no time did i know the german attack except after we had landed two planes attempted to straight the beach and i happened to be in the area. These are some scenes that i took with my camera that was reduced to 16 millimeter. This particular scene of these men going to shore was taken by an automatic camera aboard a british Landing Craft, and they were the first men to land. The reason it was taken by an automatic camera was because they wanted to have a record of what happened should the landing fail, at least they might have a record if they were able to recover the film of what happened and how to avoid it if they had to try another attack. But here are some scenes landing on the utah beach, and this is the way we went ashore. This is the british beach, but you notice the men didnt dash ashore after being aboard a Landing Craft for five solid days. They just walked slowly and cautiously fearful of bombs and mines that were sown in the area. You notice they had their rifles wrapped in cellophane, but this is the way we had to go ashore, and i neednt tell you that a lot of the boys didnt make it. And heres one of the famous scenes taken from black and white film of two men being shot down right before your eyes. Here is pete carroll and wes haynes carrying our own equipment, and the ship is grounded on the beach. The section of the beach we were on was being attacked by enemy fire, and in the previous shot you could see a bomb actually land not too far from where we were. There it is again. And the bulldozers were trying to clear roads to let our jeeps and tanks move forward, and even though it was june, the area was quite cold as it usually is in that part of normandy. Of course the men dug their fox holes a little deeper and we had the good fortune of finding a concrete wall, which helped serve as protection, but even now were taking some of our wounded back to the beach so they can be transferred back to england. But when the tide went out, the ships could not come in close or those that went aground had to wait for high tide to be refloated if they werent hit. We stayed on the beach the first night and lived in a fox hole, and soon we showed some of the first prisoners taken in the area late the first day who were captured close to the beach and were sent back to england because there was no room to keep them there. This is our first command post where general collins on the left is talking to some of his officers and we were able to get some of the first hot food at this place, and i didnt realize how hungry i was until i saw these pictures. Theres larry la seuer and bob landry on the right. Bob landry was covering the war for time and life, and although it kept me very busy for eight solid days i used up all the film i had and decided to go back to france and get some more and probably to get a bath. I hadnt had my clothes off during that entire time, and my landing at england took place at a place near bonnmouth, it almost looks like the cliffs of dover that everyone is familiar with, but it was a beautiful sight to see the coast of england and know that i could get some rest. But didnt realize it at that time, but here we see some of them flying over the english coastline, and these buzz bombs were a terror weapon. They didnt know where they would land, but the british were quick to set up machine guns and antiaircraft fire to noknock tm out of the sky, and they managed to shoot down quite a few. They even sent planes up into the sky to knock them out of the air and of course sometimes they did get through and where they fell they caused considerable dama damage. But you must have missed that pretty good shooting. Theres one actually coming down and it landed in the london area, and wherever they landed they caused considerable damage. My Second Crossing of the channel was made on an lst, and this time with units of the Third Armored Division that was needed because they were bringing over more tanks and vehicles to carry us in the direction of the sherberg because we needed a port badly. The lst was manned by a british crew. Thats the captain in the british uniform, but we were in a long convoy of many, everyone loaded to the gills with equipment that was sorely needed. But here youll get an idea of what the beach looked like, and these ships are actually waiting for the tide to recede so they could send their equipment ashore without going through deep water. On dday they had to go through the deep water, and at this particular moment, theyre waiting for the ramps to be rebuilt after a severe storm so they could go ashore without damage. Now, you can see the problems they had on dday because when the Landing Craft hit the sand bars, the men started wading ashore and found deeper water ahead, and those that had their life preservers too low around their waist turned turtle and many were drowned. But these are units of the thursday army heading in crossing the deep spot just ahead of them and headed toward sherberg itself. This was a remarkable sight. The ships were lined up as far as the eye could sebrie, bringi supplies ashore. We thought we could use it as a port, but we found it was pretty badly destroyed by the germans themselves. They destroyed the docks, which we thought we could use, and it took them, if i recall, almost two months before we could bring a ship in. They set up mines and destroyed the famous docks where the transatlantic liners used to land. They not only destroyed the docks but also the inland bridges that crossed the rivers that ended the sherberg area, the canals. This is one of them that was destroyed by the germans. Soon the french people came back into the city and gave us a warm welcome, and soon we found the prisoners and i think they took Something Like 16 or 18,000 men out of the sherberg area, and theyre stilled holding their personal belongings marching towards the beaches because they had to be transported to england and some eventually to the states to be held in prisoner of war camps and even at this time, those who could talk to us or would talk to us sailed we would be pushed back into the channel in less than a week. Of course at every headquarters area we found that the germans had a picture of hitler, and our boys are using it as a pin board but the americans had a way of amusing themselves. Here is the First Official ceremony held in france when general collins presented the flag made out of parachute clothe to the may i dont have of cherbourg holding the microphone. Our boys were given clean uniforms for the occasion, and soon the people that came back to cherbourg after the fighting stopped came to visit us. Here we see ernie pyle in the center and talking to a colonel of the signal car and this is burt brandt who we saw earlier shooting for ap, cecil cons and john maglency and here is, oh, gosh, 25 years has done a lot to my memory, but the troops began to move in the opposite direction to attack the enemy on the line, and we were passing through the city of valone and of course it was completely destroyed. I was there several times since the war and its been rebuilt beautifully, but the germans tried to make a stand here and wherever they did try to make a stand we had to knock them out and in so doing destroyed the city. A little later on, i had an opportunity to see the construction that was built by slave labor, and all along the beach, especially in the normandy area as well as other areas they built these triangles, many of them had mines attached to them so that if a boat touched them they would explode, and i was told after taking this walk that i should be very careful not to step where the ground is soft. This is a church in bar fleur that was a pretty little town that the germans evacuated because the commander liked the city so much, the little town so much that he didnt want to see it destroyed, and just actually withdrew rather than let it be destroyed. It was a little fishing village, and i had the good fortune of coming back several times because the hotel was still intact and serving very excellent french food. A little further down the coast we found these fortifications built by slave labor, and even these metal fences just to keep us from landing in the area, and these heavy fortifications that were many feet thick, and these correspondents were looking it over. In some areas the germans saw to it that they were destroyed, blowing them up so that we couldnt use them against them if they tried to take them back. They even destroyed their own weapons, but we noticed that the walls and fortifications were very thick and very trostrong. The area was taken over by the navy and there was an observation post right on the this is near a town called grandville, and there is a light house at the point that sort of separated normandy from brittany. Thats the observation post the germans used, and its under the command of our naval officers to use as an observation post. Soon we brought in some of our big armaments and they were set up in a field. Even though the guns were firing, the french people were bringing in the crops as though nothing was happening. This surprised me and i couldnt help but wanting to make a picture of it. Of course these heavy guns caused terrific concussion, and it was difficult to hold a handheld camera that long. One of the first things that the americans did was to build an airstrip in the st. Mary gliese area not far from the coast and they used a strip that was supported by metal wire to keep the planes from sinking into the ground, and they were using it also as a place to take off from with 500 pound bombs under each wing, but the strip was so rough that frequently the bombs would break loose, and even though they were armed, they had to be disarmed and taken off the runway. These were p47s they were using here. Theres one carrying a bomb under each wing to attack the enemy deep behind the lines. You notice these two planes taking off at once raising considerable dust, but managing to get off a very short runway. Here you notice a plane, you notice the buckle under the wheels. This sometimes caused the mesh wire to break and come up and hit the planes propeller causing it to crash before it left the ground, and heres an unfortunate accident, two of our planes. Here we see some pictures made by automatic cameras that were installed in the fighter planes because when a pilot reported that he had shot down an enemy plane, he wasnt given credit unless his pictures proved that the plane was shot down, and these automatic cameras wou