"The Longest Day" Very Good D-Day Movie

"The Longest Day" is a  star-studded movie* from the early 1960s available on DVD. The movie is "based" on a historical book of the same name by Irish historian Cornelius Ryan.** Rather than go with a straightforward retelling of the D-Day operation, Ryan chose to use the individual stories of some of the real people involved, on both sides, to tell the overall story of the great invasion of June 6, 1944. The movie was filmed in black and white, although I'm not really certain if that was a money saving measure for the expensive film, or if it was purposely done to give the movie a sort of newsreel feel or to make it more in line with films of the World War Two era, when color films were still pretty rare.

"The Longest Day" was filmed in the manner of the book, with individual stories used to paint a bigger picture. Remember, this is not truly a documentary, although there is most certainly a basis in fact to many of the scenes, but as with all such movies, scriptwriters consolidate real historical events into more limited numbers of scenes to get their point across. Several military participants from the real D-Day battle, both Allied and German, were consulted about the movie's filming.*** The movie only deals with the build up to the D-Day landings, including Eisenhower's decision to go ahead with the invasion, and then the landings themselves on that first day, including the glider landings and paratroop drops made in the overnight hours by the Allies. Scenes go back and forth from action scenes to scenes at German defensive positions and German headquarters, to show how the German commanders reacted to the initial reports of Allied actions.**** All in all, it is a pretty impressive film and well worth seeing.

* The cast includes for example: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Eddie Albert, Peter Lawford, Sal Mineo, Kenneth More, Robert Ryan, Gert Fröbe, Curd Jürgens and many, many more, including a number of French actors/actresses, and several German actors, known for their war movie roles, although not likely known to the general world public by name. NOTE: German actor Gert Fröbe became internationally known for his role in the James Bond movie, "Goldfinger." Fröbe's acting career was controversial for a time, as he had been a member of the Nazi Party during much of the 1930s, although he then seemingly halted participation in party activities before the war. A Jewish family praised him for his help in saving them from the clutches of the Gestapo. German actor Curd Jürgens was locked up by the Nazis during the war for his anti-Nazi views. For more on Fröbe, see: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/08/the-james-bond-movie-goldfinger-was-once-banned-in-israel/

** The title came from a quote by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who, about six weeks prior to the Allied invasion, had told his aide that the decisive battle would be "the longest day" for the Allies and for Germany ("Für die Alliierten und für Deutschland wird es der längste Tag sein").

*** There were still criticisms of the movie; for instance, one being that the dummy paratroops dropped to distract the Germans were too sophisticated in the movie as compared to the real dummies used by the Allies. Also, the movie strongly "suggests" that the Germans only used two aircraft to attack the Allies on D-Day, which was untrue, but the fact was, the Luftwaffe was limited in its use during the invasion. The most stinging criticism has been that Canadian forces are not even shown in the movie!

**** For those learning German or wanting to test their German skills, the German scenes are all realistically done in German (never fear, there are English subtitles), with these German scenes directed by Austrian actor-director Bernhard Wicki, who was imprisoned for a time by the Nazis in Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. There are also some French language scenes, also with subtitles.

WORD HISTORY:
Two (Twain)-This common word goes back to Indo European "dwoh/dwah/duwo," which meant "two." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "twaina," with the same meaning. This gave Old English "twegan," which was an old form (masculine, in grammar terms) of "two." This later became "tweyne" (the "e" blended with the "g" to produce the "ai" sound), before the modern version "twain." "Twegan's" feminine and neuter forms (again, feminine and neuter in grammar) was "twa," which then became "two" (the "w" was pronounced), where it has remained for many centuries, although the pronunciation later changed to "too/tu."  Low German, Dutch and Frisian once had "twene," Old High German had "zwene," and Old Norse had "tveir," all corresponding to English "twain." Low German and Dutch have "twee," German has "zwei" and "zwo," West Frisian has "twa," Saterland Frisian (a surviving form of East Frisian in northern Germany) has "two," Danish and Norwegian have "to," Icelandic has "tvö," and Swedish has "twå," all corresponding to English "two."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty

Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Four/A
"The End Draws Near"

While Germany was under heavy aerial bombardment and its military was in retreat in much of Russia by mid 1944,* the fact is, Hitler still controlled much of Europe, but that was about to change. The Allies captured Rome on June 4, 1944 and the Germans retreated to northern Italy where they again dug in and held the Allies back until near the end of the war.**

Along the coast of western Europe the Germans awaited the Allied invasion. In early June, terrible weather conditions stretching from Britain and into northwestern France convinced German leaders that the Allies could not launch an invasion at that moment. In a daring decision during a respite in the bad weather, General Eisenhower, the overall head of Allied military forces, gave the order for the invasion to proceed. On June 6, 1944 Allied forces landed in the Normandy area of France. Field Marshal Rommel, the German commander in that area, away in Germany for his wife's birthday, a decision taken because of the bad weather, rushed back to France to lead the German defense, but any chance of preventing the Allies from gaining a major foothold had already been lost, and the Germans shifted plans to trying to contain the Allied invasion. After nearly two months of bloody fighting, the Allied armies broke out of Normandy and headed for the German and Belgian borders. Paris fell to the Allies in late August. Meanwhile in southern France, the Allies carried out a second landing and, facing much less determined resistance than in Normandy, advanced northward toward Germany.

In Russia, just a couple of weeks after the Allied invasion of France, the Soviets launched a massive offensive against German forces located primarily in White Russia (Belorussia, now largely Belarus). The Soviets overwhelmed the badly outnumbered Germans and raced for Poland. By the time the offensive halted, the Red Army stood just outside of Warsaw, and the Germans had suffered somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 killed, wounded or captured. In Warsaw, Polish freedom fighters rose against the German occupation, expecting help from the nearby Red Army, but the Soviets did nothing, and the Germans ruthlessly crushed the uprising.***

Further, the Red Army broke into Rumania (also spelled "Romania"), a German ally, and that country surrendered in August, and then declared war on Germany. Finland, another German ally, signed an armistice in September. Bulgaria, another German ally, also declared war on Germany under Soviet pressure.****

Back in western Europe, the Allied drive toward Germany began to sputter, as supply lines lengthened and German resistance stiffened. In an attempt to bring the war to a conclusion before winter, the Allies tried a daring operation in mid September. They carried out large paratroop operations in the Netherlands (still German occupied), dropping thousands of paratroops behind German lines near the Dutch-German border. A ground offensive was launched in conjunction with these airborne operations in the hope of gaining a quick and easier route into Germany's Ruhr industrial region. The idea was, with the Ruhr captured, the German war machine could not function effectively. The operation failed, as the Germans reacted quickly and decisively, and the Allies suffered thousands of casualties. While fighting elsewhere along the German border areas continued, there was a bit of a lull as winter approached. That would soon change, as Hitler had plans.

Next... "German Heroes: The Plot Against Hitler"

* The siege of Leningrad had been broken by Soviet forces in January, 1944.

** After his rescue by the Germans in September 1943, Mussolini was put in charge of the German occupied part of Italy, which was called "The Italian Social Republic." He raised his own military forces, used primarily to combat a tough Italian resistance movement that had developed in the mountainous north. Essentially Italy was in civil war.

*** Stalin, every bit as plotting as Hitler, preferred not to have Polish forces outside of his control, as the forces in Warsaw were; thus he let the Germans destroy these "free" Polish forces. Stalin had his own plans for post-war Poland, with the Soviet Union taking much of eastern Poland, and with the remainder of Poland being pro-Soviet.

**** Bulgaria is an interesting case. Although an Axis ally, Bulgaria had never declared war on the Soviet Union. When the Soviet armies approached the country in early September 1944, the Soviets simply declared war on Bulgaria and entered the country. The Bulgarians then declared war on Germany. 

WORD HISTORY:
Stalag-This word for a German prisoner-of-war camp was borrowed into English during the World War Two era. It is really a contraction of "Stammlager," a compound, with both parts having closely related words in English: For "stem" see:

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/05/making-choice-part-one.html

For "lager/lair" see: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/02/german-question-part-eighty-one.html

Gestapo-Another word borrowed into English during the Nazi era, it is a contraction of "Geheime Staatspolizei;" that is, "Secret State Police." (Note: The German adjective "geheim" is a word derived from "Heim," a close relative of English "home." Interestingly, German "geheim" (the noun for "a secret" is "(das) Geheimnis") didn't become common with the meaning "secret" until the 1600s!^ The idea behind the meaning goes to your home being private and personal; thus, eventually, the word developed the meaning "something kept private;" thus, "secretive." English "homely" is a word closely related to German "heimlich," another adjective meaning "secretive, having to do with things done in private." While the word "homely" originally meant "of the home, personal, familiar," it also later developed a meaning of "plain, unattractive," and even "ugly," that meaning is now used more in American English (Canadian?), but like its German cousin "heimlich," it also meant "private, personal."  

^ German "geheim" also was borrowed by Dutch, and seemingly also West Frisian, as both languages have "geheim," while Low German has "geheem," but whether this "may" be an original development that simply took the "secret" meaning.