Ike: Countdown to D-Day

2004 American television film directed by Robert Harmon

Ike: Countdown to D Day is a 2004 American made for television historical war drama film originally aired on the American television channel A&E, directed by Robert Harmon and written by Lionel Chetwynd. Countdown to D Day was filmed entirely in New Zealand with the roles of British characters played by New Zealanders; the American roles were played by Americans.

The story centers on the inner workings of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force leading up to the successful D Day invasion of World War II. General Dwight D. Eisenhower contemplates and implements difficult decisions leading up to D Day. He frequently deals with the varied personalities of his subordinates, including his Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, and subordinate commanders Lieutenant Generals Omar N. Bradley and George S. Patton, British General Bernard Montgomery, and Free French General Charles de Gaulle. Eisenhower's relationship with his driver, Kay Summersby, is not mentioned, though she appears briefly in a scene where the general officers are viewing movie reels. She is also portrayed as his driver when he visits US paratroopers on the eve of D Day.

Churchill incorrectly refers to the Combined Bomber Offensive as "saturation bombing", an anachronistic term that can only be accurately applied to RAF Bomber Command. The period term was "area bombing". The opening scene suggests that Great Britain and the United States had not seriously considered the possibility of a supreme allied commander prior to planning the D Day invasion. In fact, appointing supreme commanders for the various theaters was seen as a given as it had proved beneficial in the last days of World War I with the appointment of Ferdinand Foch in 1918 over the Allied forces in Western Europe. The reason Eisenhower's appointment took some negotiation was the fact that the original supreme commander for the European Theater of Operations, Frank Maxwell Andrews, was killed in an airplane crash. The scene at the end of the film showing the visit to the 101st airborne troops is presented to the viewer as being on June 6, 1944. This particular gathering took place on the eve of D Day on June 5, 1944, prior to the take off to France. The airborne phase of Overlord began late in the evening of June 5 and into the early hours of June 6. Thus by daylight on June 6 Allied airborne troops were already on the ground in France. The film incorrectly talks about "DD" – "duplex drive" landing craft. No landing craft had DD drive. The "DD's" actually were Sherman tanks modified with a waterproof underbody and displacement skirt, allowing the tank to float in calm water, and a propeller to propel the tank from LCT launching craft to shore. On Omaha, most of them sank in rough seas, meaning the troops on the beach had no armored support. The raid by German torpedo boats on a large practice landing did happen, but did not involve DD (duplex drive craft) and was extensively "hushed up". Contrary to the film, LST's (landing ship tank) were not used on the initial hours of D Day; they came in after the beaches were secured. General Montgomery's "dagger like thrust" into Berlin was not presented to Eisenhower before D Day, it was part of his plan for operations following the breakout of Normandy and was presented during the first week of September. In fact the landings were enlarged from three beaches to five by Montgomery. In the film, Churchill said "no one in Britain lives more than 150 miles from the sea". In fact, it is 65 miles. They are watching Olivier's Henry V which was released in London on 22 November 1944.

In the opening scene which Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Eisenhower are discussing potential commanders for the top overall Normandy invasion command, Ike incorrectly refers to United States Army Air Forces General Carl Spaatz, nicknamed "Tooey", as 'Jimmy Spaatz'. The movie accurately depicts the incident in which Henry J. F. Miller, a temporary major general and West Point classmate of Eisenhower, who was serving as chief of the USAFE's Materiel Command, blurted out the general time and place of Overlord while drunk at a restaurant. A lieutenant of the 101st Airborne overheard this and reported it up the chain of command. Miller was sent back to the United States at his permanent rank of lieutenant colonel. The film accurately depicts the message Eisenhower composed for dissemination in the event of an unsuccessful invasion. In it, Eisenhower praised the troops who attempted the landings and took sole blame for the failure. The shortage of Higgins boats (LCVP) depicted in the film was real. The movie accurately references the role of the Canadian First Army (Juno Beach) instead of simply rolling it into a generic reference to the "British".