The Overlord plan called for the use of airborne troops to secure the flanks of the D Day landing and to form a buffer to keep the German counter-attacks away, thus allowing 3rd Division to advance from Sword Beach to seize Caen. 6th Airborne Division was given this task. It was later to be joined by Lord Lovat's Commando Brigade..These tasks included seizing Pegasus Bridge and Merville Battery by 9 Para, whose guns were thought to dominate Sword Beach.Meanwhile, the remainder of the 3 and 5 Parachute Brigades were to secure key objectives. In the event they were widely scattered and facing counter-attack by 21st Panzer Division. Despite this the men of 6th Airborne heroically achieved their mission.
Presenter
Presenter
Presenter
Presenter
The Overlord plan called for the use of airborne troops to secure the flanks of the D Day landing and to form a buffer to keep the German counter-attacks away, thus allowing 3rd Division to advance from Sword Beach to seize Caen. 6th Airborne Division was given this task. It was later to be joined by Lord Lovat's Commando Brigade..These tasks included seizing Pegasus Bridge and Merville Battery by 9 Para, whose guns were thought to dominate Sword Beach.Meanwhile, the remainder of the 3 and 5 Parachute Brigades were to secure key objectives. In the event they were widely scattered and facing counter-attack by 21st Panzer Division. Despite this the men of 6th Airborne heroically achieved their mission.
2013-09-02
0
The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"
In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.
Film on the recording of Peter Doherty's and Frédéric Lo's 2021 album "The Fantasy Life of Poetry and Crime" in Doherty's Normandy home.
The story of British officer T.E. Lawrence's mission to aid the Arab tribes in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Lawrence becomes a flamboyant, messianic figure in the cause of Arab unity but his psychological instability threatens to undermine his achievements.
A new batch of Army recruits, from diverse backgrounds and with varying degrees of commitment, is shaped into an efficient fighting unit.
Eighty years on, the BBC has been gathering first-hand accounts from the UK's D-Day veterans – some now more than 100 years of age. Rachel Burden traces their stories in Normandy and hears memories of the massive beach invasion and the battles that led to the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War in Europe.
In 1920s Ireland young doctor Damien O'Donovan prepares to depart for a new job in a London hospital. As he says his goodbyes at a friend's farm, British Black and Tans arrive, and a young man is killed. Damien joins his brother Teddy in the Irish Republican Army, but political events are soon set in motion that tear the brothers apart.
May 1944, a group of French servicewomen and resistance fighters are enlisted into the British Special Operations Executive commando group under the command of Louise Desfontaines and her brother Pierre. Their mission, to rescue a British army geologist caught reconnoitering the beaches at Normandy.
First transmitted in 1977, this documentary follows three months in the life of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Green Jackets (also known as the Black Mafia) as they move from their Dover barracks for a tour of duty at the Tower of London. The Royal Green Jackets are light infantry, trained to move fast. Above all they are riflemen and take pride in their reputation of being thinking fighting soldiers.
Live from Southsea Common in Portsmouth, Huw Edwards introduces coverage of the National Commemorative Event taking place to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
A partly dramatised account of the lives of four Allied servicemen ahead of D-Day, the programme told their story through their final letters home before the assault.
With 2 Para isolated at the Arnhem Bridge and both 1 and 4 Para Brigades thwarted in their attempts to fight their way into Arnhem and falling back, what became the Oosterbeek Perimeter started to form around Divisional HQ at the Hartenstein Hotel. Beaten but not defeated, the remnants of 1st Airborne Division fought a grim battle with the SS supported by reinforcements and armour rushed to Oosterbeek from all over the West. Veterans and experienced battlefield guides vividly relate their experiences and take the viewer to the scene of the action. The seven days of grim and bloody fighting in the Oosterbeek Perimeter was amongst the hardest fought of all the battles in the West. It was one that the SS veterans of the Eastern Front in the Hohenstaufen Division christened the Hexenkessel or “Witches Cauldron”. All the while the the airborne soldiers were waiting for XXX Corps to arrive from the south, with the enemy pressing ever closer.
An actuality and reportage film. This film captures Lord Frederick Roberts (British Army rank Field Marshal) departing England for South Africa on 23rd December 1899, where he commanded British forces for a year in the Second Boer War. The ship in this film is the RMS Dunottar Castle. Going with Roberts is his chief of staff, Lord Kitchener, whose future role as Secretary Of State for War during World War One awaits him. This film was produced and distributed by the Warwick Trading Company, a London based company at its peak at this time, involved in the majority of British films.The Warwick Trading Company specialised in travel, reportage and actuality films and had substantial catalogues. Charles Urban had taken over as managing director in 1897 and was in that role when this film was produced. According to the BFI programme entry, the company had a large amount of resources already in South Africa. This meant they could capture historic moments as part of its Boer War coverage.
The dramatised story of the Irish civil rights protest march on January 30 1972 which ended in a massacre by British troops.
An Irish rogue uses his cunning and wit to work his way up the social classes of 18th century England, transforming himself from the humble Redmond Barry into the noble Barry Lyndon.
Bored with the limited and tedious nature of provincial life in 19th-century France, the fierce and sensual Emma Bovary finds herself in calamitous debt and pursues scandalous sexual liaisons with absolute abandon. However, when her volatile lifestyle catches up to her, the lives of everyone around her are endangered.
In Montauban in 1944, Julien Dandieu in a surgeon in the local hospital. Frightened by the German army entering Montauban, he asks his friend Francois to drive his wife and his daughter in the back country village where Julien has an old castle. One week later, Julien decided to meet then for the week end, but the Germans are already occupying the village.
The Second World War is experienced through the journey of Private Cole, a dramatic study of the contrasting nature between the innocence of childhood and the reality of war, and the emotional struggle that accompanies it.
Spectators on the quayside at Southampton wave farewell as the crowded troopship Roslin Castle moves away to the right of the picture. Large numbers of troops on board wave back to loved ones and the crowd including thr 2nd Battaliion West Yorkshires. Date: 20th October 1899.