World War Two as you have never seen it: extremely rare colour footage of D-Day invasion released

The Telegraph UK ^ | May 29, 2014 | APTN

[SuperSonic]

The only known Allied colour footage of World War Two was uncovered in the attic of a Hollywood director by his son.

When the warship HMS Belfast fired the shot that launched the D-Day landings, it was carrying an unlikely passenger - Hollywood film director George Stevens.

With Allied forces set to storm the Normandy beaches of Nazi-occupied France, Stevens was on-board making a unique 16 millimetre colour film journal.

[SuperSonic]

If I remember correctly, there was lots of footage taken at D-Day. When someone was taking the reels back to the ship, he accidentally dropped the duffel bag with the film overboard and it was lost.

What a shame!

[Joe 6-pack]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYGwxf1gCC4

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

That’s a fascinating story. Maybe you should write a book about it.

My dad's friends used to say that to him. But his was a common story for Europeans of his generation.

He had a lot of Polish and Hungarian friends who had similar stories. As a kid, I was amazed by the fact that people could live through war and go on to lead normal lives.

To add one more funny story. One of my English uncles was one of the kids shipped out of London to live on a farm during the blitz. He hated the family that he was staying with. He said he especially hated the food. So at age five or six, he decided to walk home, following the train tracks home. He was about 100 miles from London. Somebody found him, my grandmother found out about it, and had him come home.

I talked to him recently, and he said that at his age, he was more afraid of my mother, who was about 18, than the Germans. 8-)

[SuperSonic]

BUMP