Hi... anybody watch the Normandy eastenders which was great. It really was a good thought and well put together...e.g when the ghost is standing on the beach. I thought it was great... what are your opinions????? Dan...Kirkyboy2
Any publicity is better than none - at least the BBC tried to bring the sacrifices of previous generations to the attention of this one. In today's episode, Alfie took his Nan to visit the grave of his grandfather killed on D-day+6. For the non-Brits reading this - East-Enders is a TV soap; you're not missing much, but we have to switch our brains off sometimes and its one of the few things my wife and I still do together (one of two things and East Enders is a lot more frequent). So for the nit-picking: there was a flash-back to the landings, and they showed shell-bursts in the sky above the landing-craft. Am I right in assuming this was totally spurious and just the BBCs way of showing a bit of combat on the cheap? Did the Germans respond to the landings with artillery fire at all (I thought most of the casualties were caused by machine-gun fire), and if they did use artillery would there have been airbursts? Was it supposed to be Anti-Aircraft fire - and if so was this reality? Clearly there was plenty of air cover for the landings, but was it at a height and location where AA shell bursts would be seen above the beach? The occasional low-level recce flight passed over, but did the Germans engage any of this with AA on the day? Adrian
I do not normally watch East Enders - or to put it another way, I have not seen a complete episode since before Den Watts died the first time - but I did catch some of it last night. As a cameo piece, I think it stood up very well as a mini-drama. Very tasteful and moving in my opinion. My nit to pick is that Private Moon, whose headstone said he was killed on 12 June 1944, was shown wearing 50th (Northumbrian) Division patches and Essex Regiment flashes. No battalions of the Essex Regiment were in 50th Div at that time. On the other hand, 2/Essex was in the independent 56 Brigade at the time, which, it has been pointed out on another forum, operated with 50th Div. Does anyone know if 56 Brigade wore "TT" patches?
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Personally, I think well done BBC. They showed what that generation went through. Okay it was only small but it is a soap and they didn’t have to do it did they? Showing how sad it is to lose your life’s love at 21 years of age and never have another. Unfortunately the idiotic simpleton that I live with said “I don’t want to watch this **** I want to watch the Mitchell brothers” says a lot me thinks. p.s I m at uni so have no choice as to who I live with.
(Ali Hollington @ Nov 14 2005, 12:40 PM) [post=41524]I'm married and so also have little choice who I live with. Ali [/b] images/smilies/default/biggrin.gif
Sorry to say I missed the episode you are all talking about. Not wtached Eastenders since the second time Den Watts died (Very funny). I see someone was asking about the ack ack fire. It's possible it was from our own ships. I know this because the ship my home town adopted in the war (HMS Woolston) was sent to Normandy a week after the landings to provide air cover for the troops and Mulberry's. So it is probable that the Geshwader were still playing merry hell with our landings. Hope this helps.
(mosquito617 @ Nov 15 2005, 08:37 AM) [post=41559]It's possible it was from our own ships. [/b] There is some evidence that nervous gunners fired on allied planes on D-day.
