Normandy: the Airborne Invasion of Fortress Europe (1944)
New for January 2026
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52m
This was an American Air Forces film of 1947, largely based on an in-service film DZ Normandy from 1944. Intended as it was for active servicemen, it goes into considerable detail as to the methods and strategies employed in the initial stages of the invasion of Normandy, employing over 500 gliders and 13,000 paratroopers in an intricate operation to get behind the enemy’s lines and break them out from inside as much as possible as the main invasion force hit the beaches.
The plan determined that the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions would have to gain control of numerous towns and intersections at the base of the Cotentin Peninsula and secure the causeways leading off of Utah Beach — a whole warren of villages, hedgerows, and small rivers. This would prevent the Germans from threatening the American western flank and reinforcing beach defenses, thus setting the conditions for an American breakout.
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