History Channel - Ten Days to D-Day (2004)
Based on the book Ten Days to D-Day by David Stafford, this program unfolds day-by-day, revealing through the letters and diaries of ten people the momentous ten days that led to the Allied invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944. Follow 10 characters through the dramatic 10-day countdown to D-Day and the beginning of the end of World War II. D-Day on June 6, 1944 is the day of the most ambitious military operation in history. The aim to liberate Europe from Nazi rule. However it is the dramatic 10 days leading up to the Allied invasion of Europe that have been described as the 10 most important days of the 20th century. Ten Days To D-Day uses remarkable archival footage, realistic recreations, insightful interviews, and the unpublished letters and diaries from a Canadian infantryman, Australian naval officer, a French resistance fighter, a German soldier, generals, admirals, double agents and meteorologists whose fate dictated Europe's fate. Based on a book by highly respected British historian, David Stafford, Ten Days To D-Day revisits the dramatic week and a half when bad weather forced U.S. General Eisenhower to cancel the first planned assault; when German General Rommel went home to celebrate his wife's birthday; when French resistance fighters prepared for the great invasion; when ordinary German soldiers wrote home apparently without a care in the world; when British and American paratroopers and commandoes learnt their targets in Normandy; when double agent 'Garbo' sent his last messages of deception to Germany and when an Australian gunnery officer directed his ship's guns on to the fortified German defences. With a subtle combination of dramatic content and archival documentary footage Ten Days To D-Day is a timely commemoration of ordinary people whose actions shaped extraordinary events. Through the reconstruction of pivotal scenes, the program also details the stories of the three key titans at the top Churchill, Eisenhower and Rommel. Woven among the profiles of these larger figures are the narratives of ten individuals poised on the brink of the impending invasion. With each diary entry, interview, archive segment and substantial reconstruction, the program is propelled forward, closer and closer to the beaches and flak-filled skies of D-Day.
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