Is this the lost D Day film?

in an earlier post, I discussed John Ford's iconic film about the Battle of Midway. In that post I mentioned that he also was on the beach on D Day and filmed there, but the film was lost: supposedly Ford explained in a 1964 interview that the US Government was "afraid to show so many American casualties on the screen" so put the film into storage, and the film was never seen again.

which brings to mind this iconic scene from Indiana Jones:

one of the things about storing stuff is that, often years later someone manages to find it.

Which is probably what happened to the D Day Film.

From National Archives (Sept 2014 article):

In a recent search for combat moving image footage to complement the Eisenhower Library’s commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the D-day landings, I identified four reels of a documentary on the landings prepared by the “SHAEF [Supreme Headquarter Allied Expeditionary Forces] Public Relations Division.”

..

the filming included many different viewpoints suggesting several photographers were involved in the filming.

The production, with no ambient sound, music or effects, includes a single monotone narrator and gives the impression of a military briefing set to film. This film is probably the first film documentary of the events of the first four days of the D-day assault, created within days of the invasion.

the article goes on to note that a letter in Ford's OSS file mentions Ford did not shoot the entire film, but edited the work of several photographers to make a coherent film.

“The returning film was assembled under his directions, and an overall D-Day report, complete with sound, was competed on D plus 5, and was shown to Mr. Winston Churchill. Copies were also flown to President Roosevelt and Mr. Stalin.”

Is this Ford's lost film? probably.

But Ford was not the only famous film director in the area: George Stevens also was there.

Then 37, Stevens was already a famous American director who had made Hollywood classics like “Gunga Din” and “Swing Time.”... felt compelled to enlist in the U.S. military after seeing the power of Nazi propaganda films including Leni Riefenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will.”

“The next day he started calling up to find out how he could get into the service. He couldn’t sit on the sidelines in Hollywood, and wanted to make his contribution,” his son said. General Dwight Eisenhower assigned Stevens to head up the combat motion-picture coverage. From D-Day on, Stevens and his team stormed through France and across Europe following U.S. forces.

years later, his son discovered, edited and combined the films his father took and released it as: George Stevens D Day to Berlin