When in a combat situation, soldiers will speak their minds. I had, during Desert Storm, a 2nd Looie say " F**k you!" to me. I replied, "What's that, sir? I don't believe that I heard you CORRECTLY!" He then said, "F**k you, Specialist!" I replied, "That's better, sir." Cool guy.
@@user-xt9kl1vm3z Good spotting on your part! The thing is there weren't any flying ME 109's around in 1960 when they made the film but 108's were close enough and had to do. At least they didn't paint Luftwaffe markings on AT-6's or P-51's.
The movie is great but there are several inaccuracies. For exemple the German Air force made 300 sorties on D-Day not one with thwo meager fighter planes@@Frankie-O
My favourite funny bit is when they take the Orne River bridge. "What the devil are you doing over there? That's the German side!" "Anyone can make a mistake."
Read up on Josef "Pip" Priller. The Man was incredible! Full of "beans and vinegar"! He had no problem mouthing off to superiors when he believed them wrong. Finished the war with 101 kills, all Western Front. 90 were fighters and 11 were 4 engine bombers.
I visited Normandy for the 65th anniversary in 2009, then rewatched it with my great Uncle in 2011. Showed him an invasion map, and he pointed to the spot and said, “Omaha, Easy Red 13, first wave, attached with the 29th ID.” He never talked about with anyone before. I was honored. ❤️🇺🇸❤️
The Messerschmitts attacking the beaches are Bf 108's, unarmed 4-seaters. In reality Priller and Wodarcyk used Focke Wulf 190's, but the movie company could naturally not find any flying planes of the type. Both pilots survived the attack.
Fw 190 A-8's. They gun sounds are all off. The A-8 had two 13mm (.50cal) MGs and 4 20mm cannon (or sometimes 2 20mm/2 30mm. The 13mm would sound much heavier and you didn't even hear autoconnon.
I was just thinking that. I worked for a recently-retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. He said nobody could handle fighter pilots except another fighter pilot or a former fighter pilot. Fighter pilots were insubordinate from the moment air combat was invented, in 1915. Neither Eddie Rickenbacker nor "Red Baron" von Richthofen were known for being amenable to orders. Chuck Yeager blatantly disregarded orders during a test flight of the X-1, when instead of landing he switched his engines back on and went straight up, reaching Mach .8 before he glided in. Waiting for him was a written order from his colonel demanding an explanation. The colonel was said to be a very scary dude.
@@thomasthomas2418 Right! I remember now. Another story is about Yeager being with him when they had to present their credentials to a guard because of a no-exceptions rule. The guy was quaking in his boots when he saw Boyd's face, but he still had to ask for credentials, and Boyd willingly handed them over. After Yeager's mad-dog stunt with the X-1 and his written explanation, Boyd said to him privately that he understood how Yeager felt, but dammit, don't jeopardize our participation in the program!
I still love the scene a little later with Flanagan and his friend complaining about the bagpipes: "there he goes again! have you heard such a bleedin' racket in all you're life?" "aye it takes an Irishman to play the pipes!". then they put cotton wool in their ears.. 😁
I've often thought, how much extra did they have to pay Sean Connery, the most well-known Scotsman of our time, to say that line? Although my Belfast mom reminded me, "Connery is an Irish name."
I've read Ryan's book many times. It's never failed to amaze and amuse me how, on one of the most serious and vicious days in history, moments of actual comedy managed to bubble up to the surface.
I like the way the book ends actually with Rommel making it back to France, unsure if they can push the Allies back, just as the clock strikes midnight, reminding the reader that yes everything you just read took place in one day. Makes me wish that scene had made it into the film.
@@neweddard9358 "The guy who mistook the sound a bolt action rifle makes for the clicker was morbidly funny." The problem with that scene was, the German fired two, quick shots. A bolt action wouldn't do that.
I had a friend, many years back, who was in the Luftwaffe, at the time. He said that they had hundreds, maybe thousands of planes but they had no fuel to get them into the air. Attacking Germany's fuels supplies was one of the master strokes in winning.
@@gwine9087 In June, 1944, The fighter groups attached to the two 'Channel Wings' were nowhere near Normandy; JG26s had 2 groups in Eastern France trying to oppose USAF bomber raids and one In the south of France resting and refitting. JG2 had one group in the Paris area but the other two were being rebuilt in Germany--so by day's end on June 6 at least two groups managed to make it to the Paris area airfields. In addition all the known German airfields on or near the French coast were getting the hell bombed out of them day and night so whatever fighter aircraft assigned to those fields had to relocate as well.
“Where is everybody?” “What?” “I said where is everybody?!” “I can’t here ya. It’s dem bells. I’ve had em in my ears for ten hours...*DING DONG DING DONG* “
@Joseph Papilson I gave Dunkirk 3 views. As a huge Nolan fan, I cannot understand how anyone enjoyed that movie. 0 characters, subpar action sequences, and it didn't even show the most important and dreadful parts of the battle...
The most 2024 thing ever would be their descendents being tracked down somehow and someone owning some on a pigeon farm, then suing RU-vid for a Cease and Desist and damages due to slander, it actually getting taken up in court, and this video forced to be made private.
The joke among German soldiers back then was that if the planes passing overhead were white, they were American, if they were black, they were British, but if nothing was overhead, that was Luftwaffe.
Yes, but the flak and the JG shooted down 4500 allied aircrafts during the Normandy Battle! The Luftwaffe loosed 3000 aircrafts.. The aerial battles were gigantic. This film is just propaganda..
The one shot scene battle for Caen in The Longest Day is so cool to watch, one of the best battle scenes in a film. This entire movie is epic and great.
The Reauters reporter who calls the homimg pigeons "Damned traitors!" Was actually Canadian journalist Charlie Lynch. He even wrote about it in his memoir "You Can't Print That!"
As a small kid my jaw dropped seeing this spectacular movie & seeing (wide eyed) those hundreds of soldiers on the wide screen makie it more realistic'
Back in the 1980's, one of the men at the machine shop where I swept up, had the same laugh. He complained that he did not get, November 11th off as a holiday. One of the other men added that, Fritz, you lost that war!!
IKR? I wish these translations were a little more accurate. I think English translators followed word for word, instead of putting down an English equivalent of German slang. (German slang is treacherous, especially Swabian dialect.)
The part where Pluskat goes down to the beach bunker with his German Shepherd to watch for ships coming in. Moments before Pluskat finally sees the invasion fleet there is a clip of the dog sneaking out of the bunker.
I have this on dvd and there are some funny sequences: >German switchboard operator frustrated as the Underground is cutting off the transmission lines >The reply a cheeky English paratrooper gives when brought before a high ranking German official:” Awfully sorry; old man. Simply landed here by accident” >The comment a US soldier says when seeing Ponte du Hoc for the first time: You ask me, four grandmas with brooms could sweep us off that side faster than flies off a sugarcane” Humor aside; this is a riveting film. It gave a good sense of the conflict all across northern France.
The priest in the paras who dropped i his musette bag in the water and was diving to get it out with an incredulous nco trying to get him to get going. once he found his bag 'Let us go about Gods work this night' Quite mad.
The Chaplains are often quite committed men. I was reading the memoirs of a British tank officer who landed at Normandy and he spoke glowingly of his chaplain. This chaplain would go to destroyed & crippled tanks and recover the bodies. He refused to take anybody with him from the tank regiment because, as he put it, the men constantly worried about death so he didn't want them to be exposed to death or reminded of what sort of horrible things could happen to a man in a tank that gets knocked out. He would vomit from the stench and horror of it all, but then he'd record the coordinates of where the remains were buried so they could be recovered and properly interred.
They changed the Nationality of the Priest for the movie. This actually happened to Fr. Sampson of the American 101st Airborne. He was later captured and was about to be shot when a German Sgt who was Catholic stopped it. Later he was freed by advancing US forces. He again was captured at Bastogne and spent the rest of the war as a POW.
That is in Four Stars in Hell the history of the 101. It was his Mass kit. He realized after he found it that every time he dived in he was saying Grace before meals.
You left out the followi g scene where the French guy rides up on his bicycle, wearing his Franco-Prussian War tin helmet, with the champagne. "If you ask me, Flanagan, there's a lot of very peculiar blokes on this beach".
French Fireman's Helmet. He was I believe the Mayor, and also head of the volunteer fire Brigade. Several scenes earlier in the movie. BTW the French "Adrian" helmet was used in WWI, and in 1940 too.
"Okay, we have 5,000 extras running across the beach, explosions are rigged, we've got the planes ready...ACTION!" (When the scene is over) "WOW! Amazing scene, good work every..." CAMERAMAN: "Um, I think I left the lens cap on. Can we do it again?"
The Bundeswehr was pretty cool when I served in the late 80's-early 90's in Germany. At that time, it was the West German Army. Oh, am I showing my age!
@@jusnuts1443 Every time I hear a Elvis song it's takes me back to Ray Barracks.Put it this way he had a better time there than I had! But at least we can always say "Elvis have left the building!"
@@jusnuts1443 Yes I believe you! We know how screwed up The Army in West Germany was especially in the 1970's!They did not called it Junky Germany for nothing.
I wish there had been a moment in the scene where Lt Col Priller and his men, in two planes, are firing at the landing Allied machine gunners, and the German soldiers fighting the defensive battle on the beach would cheer. Ich hätte mir gewünscht, dass in der Szene, in der Oberstleutnant Priller und seine Männer in zwei Flugzeugen auf die landenden alliierten Maschinengewehrschützen schießen, die deutschen Soldaten, die sich am Strand zur Wehr setzen, jubeln würden.
thousands of ships come down and see for yourself you fool shelling starts Pluskat Pluskat what's that noise and the old French guy waving the flag out the window in pure joy while nearly getting blown of his feet gets me every time love this movie
One of my favorite scenes is at the Bridge the British paratroopers have taken and in the confusion they're missing their unit's doctor and he ends up coming over from the German side of the Bridge to which he tells their commander "Sir anyone can make a mistake."
June 6, 1944. Happy Birthday to the wife of field marshal Erwin Rommel. Field marshal Rommel was not at his post, he was in Berlin celebrating with his wife on her birthday.
I mean who wouldn't argue with their Commanding Officer when you and another pilot are the only Fighter Planes available to counter the Invasion of Normandy. The Luftwaffe never had many planes stationed in Western Europe, a lot of them were redeployed to the Eastern Front.
My uncle landed on Juno but I do not know if it was on D-Day ( I never asked). Went up through the Netherlands into Germany and managed to survive the war. A lot of his friends did not.
The Luftwaffe only had about 50 aircraft (likely less) available, with half trained pilots and simply didn't make a show. They were hammered on the ground by allied aircraft and not available.
The Germans did put up more planes than the "two fighters" and sank a few ships. The 'German planes' used in this picture were civilian Messerschmitt 108s which looked like Me/Bf 109s from some angles.
You left out the part where the beach master bashes the jeep that won't start and takes his dog Winston for a walk! And what about the part with the nuns walking through the gunfire at the harbor to treat the wounded?
It was a mix. The shot of the Germans in their planes wasn't very good, but the hundreds of men running on the beach and the explosions were damn good.
Spain had a sizable fleet of them, you can see them in Battle of Britain. Czechs also made a few after the war (sold some to Israel too the irony!), but that's on the other end of the Iron Curtain.
Since Priller and his wingman in reality flew Focke Wulf 190's, it might have looked better to use NAA Texans instead. Preferably with modified cockpits...
German actor Heinz Reincke plays "Pips" Priller in this movie. Too bad directors could not find real Focke-Wulf 190A8's, relics,for the background scenes. Does anyone know what planes are in the background? Trainers?
@balanb312 Outside the window at the base? They were a big painting with Nord 1000 Penguins. (Frenchbuilt Bf 108 Taifuns) .The same type used in the flying scenes.
Strange, I watched the film on Netflix two years ago and I could have sworn the Germans spoke English, everybody including people who were not Americans, British, or Canadian, spoke English. Now people are telling me that I’m wrong, and that the version I watched never existed. I’m just experiencing a Mandela effect? I remember clearly that the Germans spoke English, I remember the actor saying “Straight towards me!” In English, not German like all the other clips on RU-vid are.
There actually was a version where the German actors spoke english, scenes from this version were used in the trailers at the time of the films release.
Charlie Theanteater there were 2 scenes filmed for the movie,,,mostly what is shown is the subtitle version...much better to hear their native language
@@smgri I watched this movie a bazzillion years ago on ABC TV for an evening broadcast and yes, even the Germans were dubbed into English. However since then, TLD has been a staple of the cable channels and has been the 'everyone speaks their own language' version.
The original Movie was a multilanguage movie. I have the DVD where you can select the original dub, where the french speaking french, the germans german and the brits/scots/americans speak english. It is pretty immersive if people speak their native languages instead of dubbing everything.
Interesting how Priller’s mount is not only the incorrect Messerschmitt single seater, but the incorrect fighter plane manufacturer entirely, as well as an incorrect paint scheme and incorrect fuselage markings/livery.
One can nitpick the camouflage scheme and all, but what are the chances of the film crew finding two intact BF 109E/F/Gs for filming at that point in time? Obviously they had to make due with what they found/had. The only ones available then that are close enough are probably the Spanish Ha-112s, and even then I'd assume it would be nitpicked all the same.
@@UXB1000 I realize that obviously. What I’m suggesting is that as long as the aircraft looks nothing like a Focke Wulf FW190 A-8, which what Priller flew in 1944, the least they could do was not represent a camo scheme from JG27 as it appeared in Libya in 1942.
I love the fact that the film is done in German, French, and English, as opposed to Ralph Fiennes speaking English with a fake German accent and the only German word he says is Ja.
Poor pigeons they weren´t traitors,they must have been too frighteined in the middle of all that confusion and noise too.And the germans didn´t died there as one of them said before going to Normandy.
Since the translation is a bit rudimentary, here is the exact wording of the phone scene: Priller: Yes. On the line. What's going on now? Officer: Now listen carefully, Pips. The invasion has begun. Yes, the invasion... You have to deploy immediately. Priller: What the hell do you expect? What should I do with just 2 machines? Where are the groups you took from me, you idiots? Officer: Priller. Official order. Get ready to go immediately. Immediately. Understood? Priller: Wait, damn it, if it's not too much trouble for you, maybe be so kind as to at least tell me where this invasion is taking place? What, Normandy? Normandy. That's very gratifying. I would like to thank you very much, my dear Hans, then we are finally screwed.
Before CGI . . . all those men on the beach, waiting for the camera airplane to fly over, triggering the strafffing movie squib explosions, all running up the beach. . . . . .all the uniforms, all the real landing craft. . . .a moving camera, so you know it's not shot thru a glass painting of a background.
Priller did the right thing. Discretion the better part of valour. Nothing else a pilot could do but put in a brief appearance against overwhelming odds.....
![The Longest Day [the funny bits]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
