#dday70

Throwback Thursday to D-Day's 70th Anniversary on Utah Beach

Black Canadians in Uniform - Profiles of Courage (Second World War): The Carty Brothers

Military service was in the Carty family blood. Five brothers from the Saint John, New Brunswick family served during the Second World War. They came by this dedication to duty honestly—their father Albert Carty had served with the No. 2 Construction Battalion during the First World War.

At a time when recruiting regulations restricted the ability of Black people to serve in the Royal Canadian Air Force, all five overcame the odds and became airmen. Four of the five served at military bases in Canada during the war. Flight Sergeant Adolphus Carty, the eldest, was an airframe mechanic. His brother, Flight Sergeant William Carty, was an aeronautical inspector. Leading Aircraftman Clyde Carty was a firefighter. And Aircraftman (Second Class) Donald Carty was an equipment assistant.

Gerald Carty enlisted at age 18 and became one of the youngest commissioned officers in the Royal Canadian Air Force a year later. He served as a wireless air gunner in more than 35 bomber missions over occupied Europe and was wounded in action.

In keeping with the family tradition, the two younger Carty brothers still at home during the war years, Robert and Malcolm, were members of the Army and Air Cadets.

Storming Omaha beach

"Sur le camp [reconstitué de Carentan], on m'appelle Justin Bridoux. A cause de mon déguisement. Mais j'ai gagné un prix du meilleur costume ! D'une revue de militaria. Je ne m'y attendais pas...

Je suis venu exprès d'Alsace, avec un copain, pour le 70ème. On est tout le temps habillé comme ça, on fait nos courses dans cette tenue, on va aux douches situées à 3 km d'ici dans cette tenue ! Au début, les gens nous ont regardés bizarrement. Mais à force, on est tellement nombreux à être comme ça que c'est devenu normal pour la population.

The First D-Day Documentary

D-Day to D plus 3 Series : Moving Images Relating to Military Activities, compiled 1947 - 1964. Record Group 111: Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 1860 - 1985 (Compiled from multiple items)

Despite being cataloged, described, and housed at the National Archives for decades, the films created by the U.S. Military during World War II still hold unexpected surprises.

In a recent search for combat moving image footage to complement the Eisenhower Library’s commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the D-day landings, Steve Greene, the Special Media Holdings Coordinator for the Presidential Libraries System, identified four reels of a documentary on the landings prepared by the “SHAEF [Supreme Headquarter Allied Expeditionary Forces] Public Relations Division.”

These reels were assigned separate, nonsequential identifying numbers in the Army Signal Corps Film catalog, suggesting that the Army did not recognize them to be parts of single production. Rather than offering the perspective of a single combat photographer, the reels shifted perspective from the sea, to the air, to the beaches, suggesting careful editing to provide an overview. The 33 minutes of film were described on a shot card as “a compilation of some of the action that took place from D Day to Day Plus 3, 6-9 June 1944.” The production, with no ambient sound, music or effects, includes a single monotone narrator and gives the impression of a military briefing set to film.

This film is probably the first film documentary of the events of the first four days of the D-day assault, created within days of the invasion…