Time Team Specials

On the morning of 6 June 1944 Allied troops landed in France to attack Hitler's 'Fortress Europe' and begin the liberation of the continent.

Tony Robinson and Time Team travel to Normandy to uncover the experiences of one group of soldiers on that extraordinary day. The 1st Dorset Regiment were part of the first attacking wave, landing on Gold Beach at 7.25am. Once off the beach, their objectives were two well-defended points of higher ground inland, known as Point 54 and Herod's Well, and finally an artillery battery even further from the coast.

Sixty years on remnants of some of the fortifications they encountered are still in place, yet no conclusive account of what happened to the regiment that day exists. Through three separate excavations and the testimony of Michael Brennan, a veteran of the 1st Dorsets, Time Team re-constructs this small but significant part of the biggest invasion in history.