The man behind only footage of brave men on Omaha Beach

Most readers will know of the horrors of Omaha Beach on D-Day, if only from the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan. The reality was just as bad, and the only film footage we have that was taken on the day was the work of an American serviceman who landed after an idyllic spell in the West Country.

- Oliver Davey tells his story.

As we mark the 81st anniversary of D-Day, the television schedules will be awash with documentaries about the Allied invasion of Normandy in the Second World War. Most of them will feature a clip you may well be familiar with: black & white footage of American soldiers advancing up Omaha Beach before two are hit and fall to the ground.

Behind the lens was Sgt Richard Taylor of the 165th Signal Photographic Company. What you may not know is that his D-Day preparation had a strong connection to Chipping Sodbury and Bristol.

Richard Taylor was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1907 but grew up in Florida. In adulthood, Taylor moved to New York where he worked at the Vandamm Studios taking headshots of theatre actors and photographed dress rehearsals.

On the first anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, which brought the USA into WW2, Taylor enlisted into the US Army at Grand Central Station. Intensive infantry training followed after which he undertook specialised war photography training.

With the rest of the 165th Signal Photographic Company, he sailed from New York to Liverpool arriving in December 1943. He described the voyage in a subsequent letter: "Trip was rough over. Ship crowded of course. Wouldn't take a thousand for it nor give them pence for another."

After boarding a troop train down to Yate, US Army trucks ferried them to their new home, Chipping Sodbury. As a picturesque market town, it was an attractive destination for the American visitors, particularly Taylor: "Have seen a typical English town & enjoyed it very much. Natives are very nice & friendly to us. We have good billets & chow now. Country is cold, wet & foggy. Much evidence that the British have & can take it. We Americans are very well off in comparison."