different dday accounts

[Markus s]

those who are interested in world war 2 will know what im talking about. factual documentarys on dday portray is differently to those on films. like on this dday documentary i watched the beaches (omaha and utah) looked much larger than the omaha beach on saving private ryan. also factual documentarys say there were small bunkers all around the beach with german machine guns in whereas saving private ryan only shows gunfire coming from the towers. which accounts do i believe the most?

[Sproutstick]

I've been to Omaha beach Markus, and there are a number of large and small bunkers at the top of the beach.  As for the size of the beach itself, I couldn't really say - I think it looked smaller on 'Saving PR' than in real life to be honest.

[Lindy Loo]

I'd believe what is shown on factual documentaries because they are er...factual and often include 'news reel' or archive footage of the actual events, together with interviews of survivers.

 

What you see a film is restricted by the budget and the locations available for filming.

Also bear in mind the number of purpose built sets that are used for filming and the use of 'poetic licence'  to create the dramatic effects.

[airbolt]

Were the British at D-Day? Its so hard to tell from Hollywood films! (Sarcasm Alert )

[Octavius]

It is very unlikely that Hollywood would change the facts of history to sell a film....... dur!

[Hippy]

During the beach action in Ryan there is a long shot from a plane flying along the length of the "beach" and at the close of the shot as the plane banks, you can see that they "ran out" of beach, in other words you can for an instant see the limit of the set, which I believe was in Ireland. Much other action was shot on the old DeHaviland aerodrome in Hatfield.

 

The American beaches were much larger than shown in Ryan, and there was stiff resistance from the Germans. As well as wire and spikes on the beach there were machine gun posts between the towers.

 

Further east round the coast the defences were not as strong, as the German Commander of the area had discounted the possibility of an imminent attack due to the weather and had taken time off, furthermore, Hitler had denied him the additional forces for which he had previously asked so their defence was not concentrated around Caen as they thought that we would not have the temerity to invade there. From west to east the beaches are:

 

• Omaha Beach stretches from Pointe du Hoc 4Km east of Grandcamp Maisy to Port en Bessin 9Km north of Bayeux, a distance of about 18Km.

 

• Gold Beach runs from Port en Bessin to just west of Coursuilles-sur-Mer, a distance of 20Km.

 

• Juno Beach runs from Coursuilles-sur-Mer to just east of Luc-sur-Mer a distance of 9Km.

 

• Sword Beach Continued from Luc-sur-Mer to just beyond the eastern edge of the Orne estuary to include Merville Franceville (15Km north east of Caen), a beach of 12 Km.

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[Hippy]

I missed out the most westerly beach, Utah. Whoops, sorry. This runs from St. Vast-la-Hougue to Pointe du Hoc, to take in the Douve and Vire estuary. The beaches were further subdivided as follows:

• Utah: Tare Green, Uncle Red, Victor.
• Omaha: Charlie, Dog Green, Dog White, Dog Red,Easy Green, Easy Red,Fox Green, Fox Red.
• Gold: How, Item, Jig, King.
• Juno: Love, Mike, Nan.
• Sword:Oboe, Peter, Queen, Roger.

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