RARE video footage of soldiers preparing for D-Day in Weymouth and Portland has been unearthed by the US Army.

The haunting, grainy eight-minute film shows thousands of troops on the harbourside, marching aboard boats in readiness for the Normandy landings.

It also features commentary from American soldiers who survived to tell their tales.

Harold Baumgarten, of the 29th Infantry Division, says: "We left with full battle equipment - about a hundred pounds per man.

"The harbour of Weymouth was crowded with ships of every size, shape and description, most of them flying the stars and stripes.

"On the evening of June 5 the harbour came alive. I could see one ship signalling to the other that this was it.

"We would hit the beach the next morning at 6.30am, June 6th 1944, to be called D-Day."

The major part of Force O - Omaha - left from Weymouth and Portland, with men from the US 5th Corps comprising the 1st, 2nd and 29th infantry divisions.

By the end of D-Day between 130,000 and 160,000 men and their equipment and assorted vehicles had landed on the beaches of Normandy.

It is estimated that around 9,000 were injured or died in the fierce Normandy fighting.

Mr Baumgarten remembers: "I saw the beach, with a huge sea wall, at the foot of a massive 150-foot bluff.

"An 88 millimetre shell landed right in the middle of the LCA on the side of us, and splinters of the boat, equipment and bodies were thrown into the air.

"The ramp was lowered and the unit door was opened and a German machine gun trained on the opening and took a heavy toll of lives.

"I waded through the waist-deep water watching many of my buddies fall alongside of me.

"I expected a bullet to rip through me at any moment, from the right.

"I reached the stone wall. I looked down and being washed around by the incoming water.

"I saw the bodies of my buddies who had tried in vain to clear the beach."