D-Day As It Happens
Was anyone else following Channel 4's D-Day As It Happens project today? The aim of the project was to use twitter and other social media to relay the events of Operation Overlord in real time through the eyes of seven people who took part in the D-Day landings, 69 years ago today. The words of each of each individual are based as closely as possible on their own testimony, interviews with their families, and contemporary maps, reports and archive documents. You can find out more about the project and the seven individuals here: Meet the D-Day 7. I've followed several "real time" historical reconstructions on twitter over the last few years but this was definitely one of the most moving and effective ones I've seen. Here are some of the highlights:
George Honour is Captain of the X-23, a midget submarine...
Des O'Neill, No. 5 Army Film Unit...
Huston Sears Riley, from Mercer Island, Washington State, was part of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion 16th Infantry Regiment, and therefore in the first wave of assaults to hit Omaha beach...
Frenchman Maurice Chauvet grew up in the town of Le Gâvre, he enlisted in the Free French Navy when he made it to Britain on 6th June 1943...
Portsmouth-born Mary Verrier joined the junior section of the British Red Cross at the tender age of eight. When the war broke out, she was called up on the same day that she received her full Red Cross uniform as a present from her brother...
RAF Signals Carrier Pigeon NPS.42.31066. Real Pigeon, tweets not his actual words...
George Honour is Captain of the X-23, a midget submarine...
Des O'Neill, No. 5 Army Film Unit...
Huston Sears Riley, from Mercer Island, Washington State, was part of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion 16th Infantry Regiment, and therefore in the first wave of assaults to hit Omaha beach...
Frenchman Maurice Chauvet grew up in the town of Le Gâvre, he enlisted in the Free French Navy when he made it to Britain on 6th June 1943...
Portsmouth-born Mary Verrier joined the junior section of the British Red Cross at the tender age of eight. When the war broke out, she was called up on the same day that she received her full Red Cross uniform as a present from her brother...
RAF Signals Carrier Pigeon NPS.42.31066. Real Pigeon, tweets not his actual words...