Reconstructing the D-Day Gliders

  • By Anna Rothschild
  • Posted 05.22.14
  • NOVA

While planning for D-Day, the Allies realized that they would need to get soldiers on the ground before the invasion to capture bridges and other strategic locations. Otherwise, they could get trapped on the beaches. So, they came up with a plan to send men behind enemy lines using silent gliders. Here, this extremely dangerous operation is brought to life for the first time in 70 years by a team at Dassault Systí¨mes, a French company that built a highly detailed digital model of this WWII-era plane.

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Running Time: 03:51

Credits

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Original Footage
© WGBH Educational Foundation 2014/MC4

MEDIA CREDITS

Additional Media
Dassault Systèmes - Passion for Innovation Institute
National Archives and Records
National Crash Analysis Center at George Washington University
Music: The Descent; Bass Walker; Constance
Incompetech/Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 3.0)

IMAGE

(main image: glider)
© WGBH Educational Foundation 2014

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