In 1940 3rd Division were unceremoniously evacuated from Dunkirk but four years later they were to return to France in the D Day assault force. Their task was to break through Hitler?s Atlantic Wall on a stretch of Normandy beach codenamed SWORD. With the assistance of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force they would blast their way through the concrete and steel defences that lined the beach.

Once ashore their problems were only just beginning. Tasked with the capture of the city of Caen, 3rd Division faced a German force who were deployed in greater depth and strength than the Allies assumed. With bitter fighting in the villages and open ridges around Caen the two sides fought a desperate battle.

This film charts the operations on D Day from the build up and embarkation of the force through the crossing and subsequent assault landing. Once ashore, the programme follows the advance of 3rd Division inland to the Perriers Ridge. Here the exhausted soldiers repulsed the attack of 21st Panzer Division. Meanwhile, the Suffolk Regiment were struggling to subdue the major German HQ bunker complex codenamed Hillman, while Lord Lovat?s Commandos struck off to the flanks to Pegasus Bridge and the airborne troops.