BATTLE FOR THE BEACHES

[Music] [Applause] the cliffs of Dover overlooking the beaches of England June 1940 in this bleak hour the people of Britain are rallied to defend their Island home by their Prime Minister we shall fight on beaches infusing streets and on the hills we shall never surrender [Music] 1944 across the channel the coast of France today nearly four years later here under the Nazi lash the captive people of Europe fortify the beaches against the tempest of attack gathering across the way in England now the Nazis themselves keep a nervous vigil along this beach the tide of history is turning because on dozens of other features and distance seas men have fought and died sands of Africa the islands of the Pacific on the once green coasts of Italy my job as a war correspondent has taken me along with the men who fought some of these campaigns and I have spoken with many of them did you get any trouble colonel no we didn't have much trouble today find the target all right you bet we did you did it yeah we really plan when sculptors carved memorials to the heroes of this war my guess is they will show a man dashing from a landing craft and hitting the beach just as the Doughboy went over the top from a trench in the last war this war were ever we have gone into action we have first fought for a strip of Beach we are fighting an amphibious war a battle for the beaches four years ago our allies lost the last corner of Europe the beach at Dunkirk the contra rolled his armies to the channel only 20 miles of water lay between the mighty Hitler and final victory 20 miles an American girl named Gertrude Ederle once swam in 15 hours surely then the Great Dictator could cross this ditch and crush England forever a channel port see rounded up a collection of barges fishing Smacks ferries boats of every kind his big guns shell ding one the people of Britain braced themselves they must do their few guns to guard the beaches the Royal Navy stood resolute watch in the North Sea while the fighter pilots of the RAF were writing their page of glory over England their bomber pilots made daily runs against the invasion coast of Nazi France [Music] the peculiar hazards of amphibious operations baffled the masters of Europe they decided not to wade out beyond their depth they wheeled their legions to the east to tackle the Russian bear for any fight on land seemed a better gamble than fighting from the water but the seafaring people of breathe my commando raids daring jabs at bugs so in the Lofoten island rehearsals portents of the mass invasions to come across the earth the other enemy Japan no longer held in check after Pearl Harbor carried out its plan of Empire ran amok among the islands pillaged the Pacific down to the very coasts of Australia [Music] as America's squared off for the fight our Navy faced a challenge to carry armies across the seas and disembark them not in some protected Harbor but directly upon the beaches of the enemy under fire we must move a strong force from ship to shore against fortifications between dark and dawn armored divisions must be beached against opposition what will it take what will it take it took 20 new weapons landing craft since 1936 some of these craft had been developed by the Navy others were the result of British secrets learned from commando experience the builders took over the blueprints the workers rolled up their sleeves and pledged themselves to lay it on the line pronto materials and parts and motors flowed together from every corner of the land by new methods keels and frames were assembled made sturdy enough to withstand the shock of hitting the beach but always before had meant shipwreck to Mariners at Prairie plants and coastal yards the ugly ducklings began to hatch ready to carry invasion men - were getting ready to hit the beach from landing craft soldiers our land fighter but many now learn to fight from the surf a man worth is Freight to the beach must be a specialist must do his own particular job on the fighting team every branch of every service is welded into the cutting edge of an m2 be a striking force at the same time in the Pacific our fleet was scoring triumph at Midway until the gold the Coral Sea and Cape Esperance whittled down the enemy and tore openings for the great amphibious assault to come when an amphibious operation starts from a base the transports are combat loaded every man every weapon is logged aboard according to fighting plan set to come off the ship and go into action in the order needed on the combat shore the invasion fleet is screened by escort vessels an aircraft carrier shields them with an umbrella of plane as the convoy approaches the theater of operations a sharp lookout is kept for enemy planes our fighter planes take off to bring down an enemy Snooper detected trailing the convoy and out of range of our gun the [ __ ] plane is caught tries to crash our carrier deck [Music] [Music] when they reached the rendezvous area the task force commander and the Shah fighting general analyse condition adjust their plans and freeze them they pass the word down the line rendezvous at oh three five Oh keep your boats well closed up till you quote Salina be part of 4,000 yards offshore you've got the cross that line at old 5:12 naval barrage and the carry has launched their planes to cover the operation [Music] assault troops get themselves ready the small landing craft the LC peas are lowered away to circle until they take aboard the Raider parties which will hit the beach first the naval barrage begins softening up enemy shore installation as a Guadalcanal at Bougainville in November 1943 and at Tarawa a few weeks later on the air are flying guns destroyed [ __ ] planes on the ground and knocked them out of the sky [Music] [Music] [Music] meantime our first wave of landing craft is proceeding full speed towards the shore as they come within range they begin to run the gauntlet of enemy fire there are no foxholes offshore this old wave hits the beach crosses the beach digs in and hold this boy and his rifle are at this moment the spear point of America only through the inches and yards of beach these men wind can we funnel more men and equipment to expand the attack offshore under fire the transports are unloading guns and howitzers to be carried in the next attack wave by the middleweight landing craft they hit the beach along with the amphibious craft which the boys call the alligator the duck and the water buffalo the enemy is pressed back further burned out of his caves and pillboxes now we hold the strip of beach and can organize it to past supplies inland to the firing line the bulldozer comes ashore to handle heavy utility work Seabees and engineers lay a wire road for wheeled vehicles ahead the assault waves a devouring ammunition the area we control is now mopped up and prisoners are brought in the team has tied together by communication the beachmaster relays the requirements of the shore commander to the waiting ship's tank light has dropped their ramps and hope grows the heavy stuff the bow of a tank landing ship the LST opens wide like Jonah's good whale in the steel shapes of war ride into battle to deliver the heavyweight wallop which will win the objective we took the Aleutians he took the islands of the Pacific from Guadalcanal to the Marshalls by fighting with sheer heart we blasted the enemy crumbled his walls and we have many new airfield thus as we grow stronger and weapons for this new kind of war we will land on other island and on other shores the shrine on Tarawa is still tonight The Silence of the [ __ ] dead warns the masters of Nippon that American fighters ride the sea to battle for the beaches of Japan [Music] wherever the waves break on an axis beach the enemy has come to fear our power to invade the attack against Germany began when we took a continent Africa because our landings were on a scale beyond anything the Axis powers themselves could match over water from our great African base we attacked Sicily our bombs ruined the harbors bottled up the ships cut off supplies from the mainland our airborne troops floated down to block the road a great fleet of invasion craft many of them infantry landing craft LC eyes shuttled across the Mediterranean and landed their men the tracked divisions which defended the island collapse with Sicily in our hands we landed large forces on the heel and toe of Italy amphibious fleet headed up the coast by passing miles of enemy coastline and struck at Salerno deep in enemy territory as I stood on the beach at Solano I marveled at the individual efforts of so many soldiers and sailors to be organized and woven into a pattern of war effective enough to push through that curtain of hellfire the entrenched enemy was sending against us but Italy itself was no mere island like Sicily to be taken in one blow for the first time we had met the enemy on his own home base wherever we landed we had to battle our way ashore [Music] his planes took off from the back lots of maples and wrong [Music] but even though we paid the attackers price we were able to bring to bear from the sea enough strength to dislodge the enemy we forced him northward of the Italian peninsula while the enemy is engaged on the land front our amphibious force can be used against the coasts can leapfrog behind him and surprise him as we did later Aetna to know when we freed the Italian people and demonstrated our ability to land on enemy coasts and greater and greater strength we came to a turning point in the war at Cairo we resolved to hurl our amphibious power against barbarous Japan at Turan we determined to destroy the German armies to do so we must first invade that coasts of Europe the Nazi armies reel backward under the blows of our Soviet allies the Bombers of America in England are writing the prologue to Germany's eventual destruction the hour strikes when Germany may be knocked out by invading fortress Europe the curtain rises now it is our turn to stand on an English Beach poised for invasion we have no illusions about the perils and costs of such an undertaking we remember the ship loaded with urgent cargo going up in fireworks at Salerno the precious gasoline nursed halfway around the world only to burn in a jungle at Bougainville and the sad the bitter cost in life the wounded floating from Tarawa the man newly blinded its Salim our and those who fell forever everywhere I am the resurrection and the life that the Lord he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live these German made pictures on a Nazi version of the raid against Dieppe France in August 1942 they are shown to Americans for the first time as a measuring stick of the cost of amphibious war he says the German troops right there guarding the coast were enough to take on the English and Americans and they smashed them without extra help here you can see the aftermath of the fighting I watched at dawn from a British destroyer standing by offshore although important objectives were achieved a critical loss was an landing craft cost of the raid and casualties was high these brave men of hours are now prisoners of the Nazis [Music] this heavy investment at Dieppe tourist lessons that will make our coming attack pay off a thousandfold leave me yet it's like this one v- speed-up you design no matter food he says the Nazis mean to keep the abnormal they mean to keep us from returning to Dieppe or any place in their fortress Europe on the rim of the continent they have piled up fortifications concealing giant guns these we must storm behind them our railroads and highways to rush supplies wherever we may breach the fortress wall [Music] to storm the enemy's beaches we need many things we must build a tremendous array of landing craft enough to carry an invasion greater by far than any we have ever staged [Music] this then is our challenge to build a bridge of landing craft to reach the beaches of the enemy wherever he may be for across that bridge lies our victory [Music] [Applause] [Music]