Bringing D-D to life

Bringing D-Day to life

Today war is something everybody sees. Images of fighting on the streets of Baghdad and tortured Iraqi prisoners are beamed into living rooms on a daily basis.

60 years ago, it wasn't quite like that. Surviving images from the second World War often show smiling troops, marching to the tune of "God Save the Queen." At least, those were the pictures that came to mind when we were asked to produce a report on the D-Day landings for Sky News.

Sky wanted a piece that would link the anniversary with young people today. At first, we found it difficult to connect those distant faces with our lives. We had to think hard about why and even if, what happened in Normandy in 1944 was relevant to us.

A special D-Day exhibition opened at the Imperial War Museum in London not long after we began our research, so it seemed like an obvious starting point. We enjoyed the exhibition - it was factual and some of the pieces were very moving but to be honest we came away none the wiser. A lot of what we read and saw that day, we'd already learnt in history lessons or seen in television documentaries.

As part of our story we knew we'd be interviewing veterans who had actually fought in D-Day but couldn't help but wonder what they could teach us that we didn't already know. Of course we knew that the interviews would be important but looking back now, we underestimated how important they would be in shaping the story we were going to tell.

Before the interviews, we were both quite apprehensive about the interviews. We didn't know exactly what the ex-servicemen would make of us - two teenager reporters, one Muslim and the other part Jewish, questioning why they'd fought for their country all those years ago and why young people in the 21st Century should be interested.

As it happened, the men we met that day at the Royal British Legion in Dagenham were only too happy to talk to us and taught us something we could not have learnt from books and artefacts.

They spoke openly about what it felt like to go to war at such an early age and when one of the men spoke of war as a "dirty, filthy business" it dawned on us what they'd been through. We realised that war then was no less brutal than it is now.

For us D-Day had been about history, comparable with the Russian Revolution or the Wall Street Crash - just another topic in another history lesson. But when we they told us of the friends they'd lost and the atrocities they'd witnessed it became a lot more real.

It might have been 60 years ago but for these men it could have been yesterday. D-Day isn't just a page in a history book; it's a chapter in someone's life.

The sacrifice they were prepared to make for us in Normandy is no less real today and surely, no less relevant.

Conflicts may end and years may pass, but the people who were caught up in them don't find it so easy to forget. That's why it's important that we remember D-Day this month. It's important that people, and that includes young people our age, remember those who died and honour those who survive.

The nature of warfare doesn't change but people and attitudes can. And if we do our best not to forget the conflicts of the past, perhaps we can avoid making the same mistakes in the future - our future.

About the team

This story was produced by Rachel Schon, 17 and Samir Pasha, 14. It was published by Sky News Website.