Photo of the Day

It is 1964,

the twentieth anniversary of the D-Day landings.

The Ford interview in the American Legion magazine’s June 1964 issue.

Legendary Hollywood film director John Ford is giving his first interview

about his experience on D-Day.

Ford’s Navy ID

During the war, Ford was in charge of the photographic services department

of the US Office of Strategic Services, the precursor agency of the CIA.

The OSS had given Ford camera equipment and a Coast Guard work crew

and told him to film the war, including anything and everything he saw.

And that is what he did.

Still from Ford's 1940 classic, "The Grapes of Wrath," starring Henry Fonda. [IMDB photo]

On D-Day, Ford and his Coast Guard crew had come ashore

in the second wave to hit Omaha Beach.

OSS 'Jedburgh' team of French and American troops prepares to parachute into France prior to the D-Day landings.

Ford began his interview by describing the troops’ long wait in England

as all signs indicated the invasion was soon to come;

Coast guard landing craft approach the Normandy beach as US Navy heavy guns batter the shoreline from behind.

the rough seas in the Channel and the sea-sick troops;

the German obstacles low in the water

Erwin Rommel and other German officers inspect Normandy beach barricades, Spring 1944.

as the landing craft approached the coastline,

and the troops using their helmets to bail water;

Still from Ford's D-Day film.

the bodies floating at the shoreline;

the explosions as some landing craft hit mines;

Robert Capa photo.

the machine gun fire coming from the bluffs;

and the steady, determined wading ashore of troops

who had been onboard ships for almost 48 hours.

But Ford said what he remembered most vividly about the day

American troops move inland.

was a small church and its priest

which he had encountered on the first road inland off the beach.

From Ford’s interview:

“Off to the right there was a little church.

Its little priest stood about five-feet-four.

He had a little American flag in one hand and a big jug of calvados in the other.

To us, that’s apple brandy.

As our troops went by he dipped into it for them.

Then he’d pour out another drink.

When he ran out of brandy he gave them red wine.

After that, he served cider, then last, water.

The water was appreciated as much as the brandy.

As our guys streamed by and saw this little priest and his American flag,

a lot of them asked his blessing and took a drink.

German prisoners being taken away atop a cliff at Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, June 8, 1944.

My memory of that little man with his white hair

is burned on the inside of my skull.

He’d been saving that flag for a long, long time.”

Liberated Bayeux, June 1944.

Back then, on D-Day, having faith in America was a good bet.

I don’t know how to calculate the cost of squandering this legacy.

I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda