Landing In A Courtyard Full Of German example essay topic

'The Longest Day' was a mammoth project dramatizing D-day, the Allied invasion of France. It was nearly three hours in length and with an enormous ensemble cast, all playing supporting roles. The production was very conscientious about realism, the actors were always of the same nationality as their characters, and spoke in their native languages, leading to a lot of subtitles translating French and German dialogue. Although the movie was historically correct, it was also meant to be a blockbuster by starring John Wane, Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery and Henry Fonda. But The American role in the invasion is not exaggerated, and the German soldiers and officers are not portrayed as brutal stereotypes. The date for invasion was decided in Washington in May 1943, but due to some difficulties it had been postponed till June 5.

June 5th was the unalterable date for the invasion to take place. The troops and the officers had been stationed in barracks for month and they were getting quite anxious to get the invasion over with. On June 5th due to bed weather the invasion had been postponed again, some ships were already on the way and had-to be recalled. The film shows the meeting that General Eisenhower (Supreme commander of the Allied forces who was in charge of the operation Overlord) held to decide to whether of not go on with the invasion.

They came up with a decision to delay the invasion for twenty- four hours. The solders and the officers got quite excited when they heard that the invasion was delayed for only 24-hours, they were worried, if the invasion would be delayed any longer they would have to wait for two more month for the tide to be back. The allies took a lot of thought in fooling the German intelligence. Allies had air supremacy so German recon planes were very unsuccessful. The allies used that to their advantage, they had set up fake landing crafts and purposely allowed German planes in those arias.

Germans had also underestimated the Allies. They didn't believe that allies would ever gather up a navy big enough to attack the French coast but on June 6th a fleet of more then 5'000 ships took off for the French beaches. Prior to the landing of the Allied troops there were several pr invasion bombings, which had very little effect on German fortifications. The movie did a very good job in portraying the feeling you would have landing on the beach and dodging the bullets and running through artillery fire and land mines, it was focused on three or four people and the atmosphere wasn't as depressing as it probably would be in real life. Given consideration that the film was made in early sixties these things are easily forgiven. The movie did a very good job in focusing on Omaha beach where the allies had encountered most resistance.

It was the most restricted and heavily defended of all beaches. The Allies had assigned one veteran division to this beach. Germans were fighting furiously to defend the beach, and the invasion of Omaha was very close to failure, but due to grate leadership, the Allis were able to get inland. There were 2 400 casualties in the fist 2 hours. The movie also showed the other four beaches but it didn't focus on them as much as Omaha beach, and the air drop. 12000 aircraft supported the land invasion force, the plan was to divide the German forces, to ease the landing on the beaches.

The paratroops were suppose to be dropped off in a small aria between the city, which was occupied by Germans, and the swamp aria, which was purposely flooded by the Germans, and flank them. The movie did an amazing job in reproducing this event. Due to the bad weather the man got scattered all over the place, people fell into wells, landed in trees, fell through the roofs, and many had drowned in the swamp. One part of the movie shows an English solder landing in a courtyard full of German solders. He was immediately apprehended and taken to German superiors. When the Germans asked him who he was and where did he come from, he very calmly replied "I just simply missed my drop zone that all" At this point the Germans started to panic.

They had realized that the invasion is under way. Although the air troops were scattered some as far as 40 miles from the original drop zone, and suffered heavy casualties they had managed to complete their mission objective. On the other flank, an extremely well planed glider assault on the bridge at Benouville was under way. An assault team was ordered to take the bridge across Orne canal, to immobilize the guns of the Melville Battery, sever possible routes of German counterattack, and secure the left flank of the invasion. All of these objectives were achieved. The man had-to operate quite fast so the Germans wouldn't have time to blow up the bridge, because of this gliders were used to provide the allies with stealth.

The producer did an excellent job in capturing the atmosphere and the setting of this part of the film. The attack on the casino was very well port aid too. The other objective of the paratroopers was to take down a German stronghold, which was in a casino in the heart of the city. This was proven to be very difficult, the Germans had heavy guns, anti tank cannons and heavy machine guns. The allied troops were desperately waiting for their heavy tanks to get through the narrow streets of the French city.

Without the heavy machinery the Allies would stand no chance against the German guns. The movie shows how relieved the troops were when they saw one of their tanks squeezing through the narrow streets". Everything proceeding according to plan. And what a plan! This vast and complicated operation involves winds, waves, visibility and the combined employment of land, air, and sea forces in the highest degree of intimacy".

Winston Churchill, June 6th 1944 This Quote couldn't be more true. All three parts of the invasion were so intimately connected, that if one had failed the others would have almost no chance to succeed. The movie had also focused on an aspect which is not mentioned in most of the books, the French underground resistance. They played a small but extremely significant role for the D-Day invasion. They were marking the sites for the paratroopers, they had disabled some German communications and had sabotaged the railroads. The producer did a very good job in researching this aspect of the Longest Day.

The "The Longest Day" was an extremely well done film that reenacted the events, which happened on June 6th 1944. Although the movie was historically correct. This has been one of the best American war movies I've seen.

Bibliography

D-Day, Warren Tute, Collier Books, 1974 Red Berets '44, Official Publication of the Airborne Forces Pegasus Bridge - June 6th 1944, Stephen E.
Ambrose, 1985.