The secret footage showing North Devon's role in training for D-Day

By ksmith

Secret footage of American soldiers training in North Devon during the Second World War has been discovered by a Bideford man.

Tony Koorlander is the first person in 65 years to have seen the captivating films which have lain undiscovered in a Baltimore archive since the end of the war.

Prominent North Devon landscapes are clearly visible in the many 10 minute reels which also feature wartime leaders Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower.

Tony describes the films as "mind blowing" and said it is an extraordinary story that keeps getting better.

Born and bred in Bideford, Tony used to work for TV news at the BBC. As a technical coordinator he has covered everything from a Royal wedding to the first man on the moon and Ronald Reagan's first visit to the UK.

He went on to branch out into music, working with the likes of Blondie and Genesis before returning to Bideford and founding his own company — Musicom Ltd — which has worked with organisations from Disney to St Paul's Cathedral.

Needless to say, his vast experience has proved invaluable to his latest project where he has been able to transform reels of historic film into high definition footage using a state-of-the-art Hollywood-style digital film format.

His quest to find hidden films from the Second World War began with the Bideford 500 project which is aiming to bring the town's history to life through a series of different projects.

Tony worked with actor Joss Ackland on a promotion video for the project when the team suggested he looked into Second World War connections with North Devon.

Initial enquiries drew a blank, but one evening while watching a war film with his son, Tony recognised the background scenes as North Devon. Credits rolling at the end led him to a London-based archive supplier. From there he started to check out the Imperial War Museum in the capital and after a day trawling the archives, discovered film showing Second World War footage of amphibious trials involving US and British troops.

Tony said: "I couldn't believe it. They laughed at us when I said I wanted to go through 60 reels of film in a day but I didn't expect to find what we did.

"I then went to the head of archive there to try and find out where there might be anything else and he said there was probably a lot of film in Washington."

Just before Christmas, Tony found himself on a transatlantic flight destined for the National Archive in Baltimore where he found 38 reels of completely different film revealing US wartime activity at Braunton Burrows, Saunton Sands and Woolacombe beach.

Thanks to a grant from the Bideford Bridge Trust, Tony was able to transfer the reels into high definition onto a computer drive which he already had.

He said: "The head of the archive said I was the first person to see any of this film and they had not been seen since they were shot."

As well as looking for film, Tony started to research contacts and through links with the military academy in New York, he was put in touch with Wes Ross, a 146 Engineer Combat Battalion soldier in the US, who trained at Woolacombe.

Wes has written a book of his experiences, "putting the history books right", and Tony is hoping that 88-year-old Wes will work with him on putting together a DVD of the film he has discovered.

In pictures featured in Wes' book, there is a photo of a man filming a presentation of the Distinguished Service Order in Woolacombe on July 8, 1944. Incredibly, this is the first film Tony viewed in Washington.

He said: "It is extraordinary, and the story gets better. It has been an express train of discovery — it is a voluntary project that has just escalated."

Tony believes he has the original film of footage that inspired Steven Spielberg's Band of Brothers — he doesn't know if the world famous director ever saw it — but believes the captivating reels of film he has found are certainly worthy of a new film.

His clips feature Churchill and Eisenhower visiting the 101st Airborne which was stationed in North Devon.

There is also film footage of Russians at Putsborough beach. They can be seen with the US Army believed to be looking at plans for the Omaha landing during the Soviet military mission to observe western training.

There are test firings in the Torridge estuary among Tony's 20 hours of footage, some which he describes as "hilarious" and some which are "quite sobering".

He has 42 American reels, there are another 40 to 50 in the Imperial War Museum, and it is hoped as many as possible will be brought to North Devon as a local community resource.

He said: "I was born and bred here and spent most of my childhood here so I have been able to easily identify the landscapes.

"I want us to have a local archive in North Devon. The Appledore Maritime Museum is interested in having it for research and I would like to see it in Braunton as that is where a lot of it was filmed. I think a visitor centre with multi-media facility for education and visitors is needed for Braunton.

"This is a hugely important chunk of history. Over 100,000 US troops trained here in one year. US forces lost people in trials in Instow, Woolacombe and Braunton Burrows and there were real tragedies here in North Devon.

"If it wasn't for the training at Braunton Burrows, we wouldn't have won D-Day. The whole thing has to be encapsulated in an archive because it is such an important part of history. There are a lot of people who live locally who have amazing stories to tell and I want to bring to life everything that has been lost. People need to have a pride in their communities for their contribution to the war effort.

"Each picture and film has an amazing story to tell — I never dreamt it would be this big — it is like going back and living the experience. These people were unseen heroes and it has all been kept top secret for too long."

Tony hopes to have film and photos available to buy within the next few weeks.

He said the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty team, which has helped meet some of the cost of converting the film to DVDs, will be making them available in both standard and HiDef BluRay from the Braunton Tourist Information Centre.

There will be copies available, as well as research facilities, at the Appledore Maritime Museum, and large photo prints will be available from Getsetdesign in Mill Street, Bideford.

All proceeds from sales will go towards extending the project for the recovery of the 80 or so reels of film still to be acquired at a cost of about £40,000 just for the transfers.

Tony said: "I would like to thank Joss Ackland, Peter Christie, who sponsored my initial application to the Bideford Bridge Trust, Dave Edgcombe of the AONB and Katie James, all who share my enthusiasm for these incredibly exciting discoveries."