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Saturday
27Jun2009

Films about Allied Soldiers in France Summer of 1944?

I am going through my list of war movies (+TV series) and trying to recall all the films with scenes even remotely trying to depict Allied characters fighting in France from June to September 1944.

My list so far -
They Were Not Divided (1950)
The Tanks Are Coming (1951)
D-Day the Sixth of June (1956)
The Longest Day (1962)
Combat! (1962 TV series) [1962-1967]
The Victors (1963)
Patton (1970)
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
The Big Red One (1980)
War and Remembrance (1988 TV mini-series)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Band of Brothers (2001)

I really hope this list is not complete because its depressing to think that Oddball's crew in "Kelly's Heroes" is the best film depiction of American tankers in France during the summer of 1944. My list is even more depressing if there is only one film that tells a story about British soldiers after D-Day. "They Were Not Divided" was great film for 1950, but Operation Goodwood is basically covered in a single tank charge scene. No offense to the Welsh Guards, but should they have to stand in for every non-American Allied ground combat unit in Normandy? Are there any stories about Canadians or the Poles? Someone please tell me I am wrong, and that the BBC did a dramatic 12+ series on blokes from unit X fighting in...

As a side note...
I know most people don't have a clue about what happened in Normandy between June 7th and final closing of the Falaise pocket on 21 August (Operations Perch, Epsom, Charnwood, Goodwood, Goodwood, Spring, Bluecoat, Cobra, Totalise, and Tractable). But anyone that has read the unit histories and had the good fortune of knowing veterans, knows there where some great stories with incredible characters that are not figments of anyone in Hollywood's imagination. There has to be a way to find a paying audience...

 

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