BBC Timewatch (1 Viewer)

[Rob]

Did anyone else in the UK see this on Sunday night.Presented by Richard Hammond it was an excellant documentary on Omaha beach and the disaster that unfolded that day.It explained the vital role the Rangers played on that day in clearing the bluffs from where the Germans were pouring fire down on the beach,a very brave action indeed.It also featured interviews with an American expert on the 29th Inf div who now believes (after years of investigations)that casualty figures on Omaha that day were closer to five thousand(!).One of the most interesting parts of the doc for me was the unearthing of the large gun battery and support system recently found at Maisy some six miles from Omaha.It had a large network of tunnels and bunkers and i will definetly be visiting it next time i return to Normandy.

All in all an excellant prog with some very moving testaments from the young men of the US who had to either climb the cliffs at Point Du Hoc or make there way up the killing ground of that god awful beach.And as with many docs on WW2 it made me realise once again just what a terrible price was paid so i can live in freedom.God bless every American who had to step foot on that beach all those years ago.Your sacrafice will not be forgotten.

Rob

 

[Louis Badolato]

5,000 Casualties! My God!! The price of freedom is indeed quite high.

 

[Rob]

Staggering isn't it.When you stand at one end of Omaha and look at both the curve of the coast and up at the Bluffs above,its easy to see how the Germans could hardly miss.The long flat sandy beach the GI's had to run up is completely open and without cover.One vet said how so many were being mown down as the ramps went down that they were all hurling themselves over the sides of their craft to escape the MG's.

No cover,no armour support,MG's, mines,Artillery fire,rifle fire,its a miracle anyone got off that beach alive.I would not have wanted to face the rangers when they did make it up onto the Bluffs,i can imagine the fate of some German gunners trying to surrender.

Rob

 

[Louis Badolato]

Staggering isn't it.When you stand at one end of Omaha and look at both the curve of the coast and up at the Bluffs above,its easy to see how the Germans could hardly miss.The long flat sandy beach the GI's had to run up is completely open and without cover.One vet said how so many were being mown down as the ramps went down that they were all hurling themselves over the sides of their craft to escape the MG's.

No cover,no armour support,MG's, mines,Artillery fire,rifle fire,its a miracle anyone got off that beach alive.I would not have wanted to face the rangers when they did make it up onto the Bluffs,i can imagine the fate of some German gunners trying to surrender.

Rob

I was watching a show on D-Day on the History Channel the other night, and they said that only two German machine gunners were taken alive on Omaha Beach. How those two were taken alive is beyond me . . . admittedly I have never heard a shot fired in anger, but I don't think I would have been in the mood to acept the surrender of a guy who had just spent a few hours mowing down my buddies. Its the same with concentration camp guards . . . when the G.I.'s liberated those camps, and saw the living skeletons and piles of the dead, I think I would have shot any officer that told me to take prisoners. For those men to have obeyed the orders not to shoot them out of hand is a testament to the trust and respect they had to have had for their officers.

 

[Rob]

Absolutely Louis,incredible self control under extreme provacation.I understand one of the machine gunners managed to surrender later in the day and eventually went to live in the US.Of course he could never tell anyone about what he did on D Day,and it has affected him badly.I understand they think he was responsible for killing more allied troops than any other single soldier in the whole of the war.A very very sad human experience,i can't imagine the sights that go through his head every night.

Rob

 

[Louis Badolato]

Absolutely Louis,incredible self control under extreme provacation.I understand one of the machine gunners managed to surrender later in the day and eventually went to live in the US.Of course he could never tell anyone about what he did on D Day,and it has affected him badly.I understand they think he was responsible for killing more allied troops than any other single soldier in the whole of the war.A very very sad human experience,i can't imagine the sights that go through his head every night.

Rob

They intereviewed that machine gunner during the program I was watching. He said that the entire time he was praying, and when later in life he became friends with a G.I. who survived Omaha, the G.I. said the same thing. I imagine just about everybody on that beach on either side was praying, but more than 5,000 of the prayers weren't answered . . .

 

[Rob]

When i was there last summer there was a US vet with his wife looking out to see.We'd heard him talking to friends about his landing,i wanted to go up and shake his hand and say thanks,but he was so upset that i didn't want to intrude. Did i do right do you think Louis?


Rob

 

[Louis Badolato]

Rob,

You couldn't do worng under those circumstances. Leaving him his privacy to remember was right, and interrupting just to thank him for what he and his generation did for us is also right.

 

[Rob]

Thank you Louis,i wanted to thank him but he was just so upset.

Rob

 

[Louis Badolato]

Then you did right leaving him to his memories.

 

[Tony Neville]

I saw it Rob

Not sure if you know Simon Trew was at the Toy Soldier London December 06 and he had his books with him. We have the whole range of his books signed here. They are really good as they show the then and now pictures, battle maps, and also view points from both sides.

He is a great bloke

Tony

 

[Rob]

Hi mate,

Yes i was lucky enough to meet him that night,so when the prog was on i was saying to the wife 'I've met him'!.I have so far seven of his books from that series,took some to Normandy with me.Really excellant series of books arn't they,hoping he might do more.

Rob