D-Day: Secrets of the Frontline Heroes brings together 30-years’ worth of material gathered at the National Archives and Records Administration

Operation Overlord brought together unprecedented land, air, and sea forces in northwestern France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

With three million soldiers and hundreds of thousands of ships, planes and armoured vehicles involved over the preceding weeks, it was a military operation of remarkable scale and logistic complexity, which was over a year in the planning.

Although the Allies actually failed to accomplish their objectives during the first day, they did gain a tenuous foothold in France that they gradually expanded before the Liberation of Paris on August 25 and the retreat of German forces east across the Seine five days later.

Thousands of men lost their lives during the Normandy landings, with countless photos and hundreds of hours of film recording the fierce fighting and the soldiers’ remarkable bravery on that fateful day and in the weeks that followed.

Nevertheless, little is known about the photographers, filmmakers, producers, and simple civilians who risked their lives to capture those images that have since made history.

Some died during their mission, others would live to tell the tale, but for 80 years, their remarkable personal stories were overshadowed by the dramatic events they managed to capture.

Documentary D-Day: Secrets of the Frontline Heroes brings together 30-years’ worth of material gathered at the National Archives and Records Administration and from personal family archives to tell the incredible story of those forgotten heroes.

Among them, the accounts of George Stevens, Jack Lieb, John Ford and Richard Taylor are seen through the personal diaries, letters and films they left behind.

The film asks several question: how did the filmmakers on the frontline survive those terrifying weeks? Were they willing to submit to the hell of combat? How did they manage, technically, to capture the events in film and photography and, above all, to get the footage from the battlefield to the rest of the world?

And finally, why were these images of such vital importance to the army and the intelligence services?

Featuring analysis of these exceptional archive images and a wealth of interviews with experts, the hour-long film invites us to experience the Battle of Normandy, first-hand, and to discover the unfolding events of that fateful summer through the literal lens of the forgotten heroes of Operation Overlord.

Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning drama Saving Private Ryan, which features a gut-wrenching re-creation of the D-Day landings on Omaha Beach, follows on Channel 4 at 9.05pm.

Meanwhile, on Bank Holiday Monday (May 27) at 9pm, BBC Two has D-Day: We Were There, in which the UK’s veterans – some now more than 100 years of age – provide first-hand accounts of the momentous day.

And, on the same evening over on the National Geographic Channel, Erased: WWII Heroes of Colour, which is executive produced by Idris Elba, tells the stories of three men of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion who landed in Normandy on D-Day.