That shot in the movie The Longest Day where the British. . .

Factual Questions
1

are trying to take the town with the bridge and the casino. How’d they do that?
It looks like one long take. It starts out on one soldier running from house to house and slowly pans out to show other houses, then a street, then the street turns out to be on the water front with the troops trying to run across a small bridge. The camera keeps pulling out and out until we are hoovering over the buildings.

How does the camera go from a close up of someone’s face to flying over buildings in one continuous shot? Is there an expert edit that I can’t see?

BTW, I love this scene. It’s breathtaking.

2

Well, technically, it’s supposed to be the Free French. I’m almost certain it’s a helicopter shot, zoomed in while the chopper is on the ground, then panning back as it lifts off. I believe at one point near the end of the scene you can see the wash from the rotors blowing up dust. I’ll check again tonight.

3

I think a good portion of it was a huge crane. I vaguely remember when they were making the movie they showed the crane which was used because it was so big.

But I agree with Sofa King, I remember some prop wash too.