Tag: normandy

Today we’re continuing our memory visit to Normandy’s Omaha Beach and specifically, the promontory at Pointe du Hoc. If you read our previous post, you know that the coastal artillery battery sited on this high ground was a primary objective for June 6^th, the first day of the D-Day assault.

This battery sat atop a 100 foot high cliff and loomed large in Allied planning. The Ranger groups training in the United Kingdom spent months preparing for numerous cliff assault scenarios. The objective was assigned to the 2^nd Ranger battalion. Thanks to their training and expert naval gunfire, they achieved their objectives. On reaching the summit, they discovered that a few weeks before D-Day, the captured French artillery making up this battery had been relocated to a nearby orchard. The Rangers found these large guns and disabled them with thermite grenades.

The “featured film” today, from the US Navy motion picture film material at the National Archives and Records Administration, is perhaps the earliest film of the aftermath of the Rangers’ assault. WARNING! This film shows dead casualties of the assault.

The film (identified by my sharp-eyed colleague, Thomas Hogan) opens with a scene of wounded being ferried back to the ships in the English Channel. The action quickly moves to a landing party that appears to be surveying the battlefield. Shell holes and abandoned equipment are all around the tide line. The camera quickly pans the high cliffs from below and settles on a precarious rope ladder. The landing party climbs the ladder, and the following shot scans a scene of desolation. The German strong points have all been demolished, if not by the Rangers, then by naval gunfire support. The party then climbs down the rope ladder, as the camera pans down, recording that the naval gunfire (falling short) had effectively pock marked the tidal zone with large craters. The following shots are heavily overexposed, and depicts a USO show taking place on the USS Texas.

The only available written description for these film is this (from the National Archives catalog): “This unedited film shows coastal gun batteries, dead German soldiers, and wounded US military personnel as they were moved from landing craft to the USS Texas (BB-35).” The film unmistakably depicts the scaling ladder used by the Rangers at Pointe du Hoc. The inadequate description, combined with the unremarkable title given: “Coastal Gun Batteries: Dead Germans” suggests that the initial catalogers may have not had access to any of the written documentation that should have accompanied the film. The film may have been taken by a Chief Photographer or Photographer’s mate from the USS Texas as part of the landing party. The state of the battlefield, with bodies un-recovered, suggest this may have been only a day or two after the Rangers’ assault. Because the invasion was planned for mid-tide, with an incoming tide, the fact that in the film the tide was low, suggests that this could have been shot on the afternoon of June 6^th at the earliest.

Inadequately described film materials are “par for the course” in government film archives and in many other contexts. The practiced, critical eye of a professional media researcher can ensure that your production, article or publication has the content you need to make a high-impact presentation.