All language subtitles for World.War.II.with.Tom.Hanks.S01E13.720p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta[EZTVx.to]

[intense music]

- By the late fall of 1943,

the Western Allies
and the Soviet Union

have dealt the Third
Reich multiple blows.

The Allies have
dislodged the Germans

from North Africa and Sicily,

and are fighting their
way up the Italian boot.

While the Red Army,

after victories at
Stalingrad and Kursk,

pushes West towards Germany.

The next step for the Allies

is the long anticipated
invasion of Northern Europe.

[intense music]

- All wars change the world,

but none of them
changed the world like

the Second World War did.

- Japan's on the march.

Germany's on the march.

- No one can imagine
the nightmare

they're about to unleash

the most destructive
war in human history.

- Suddenly the world
is turned upside down

and all hell is let loose.

[intense music]

- The West is stunned by
the speed of the advance.

- You get the Allies
led by The Big Three,

Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin,

men who are dealing with
immensely complicated questions.

- It's the biggest military
operation of human history.

- The Allies
have to come together,

not just militarily,
but industrial scale.

It's a global perspective.

- They have to fight

in every climate from the Arctic

to the jungles of the Pacific,

to the deserts of Africa,

and the depths of the ocean.

[intense music]

- But there was
no certainty of victory.

It was going to be a
horrific bloodbath.

- We see humans
at their absolute worst,

how they treat
other human beings,

and we see them at
their absolute best,

willing to give their lives
that others might live.

- World War II was a struggle

in which there could be
one victor and one vanquished.

[intense music]

[explosion blasting]

[air siren wailing]

[plane engine buzzing]

[intense music]

- [Reporter] Rings over
the mountains by Baghdad

and the Dead Sea.

Three planes from the supreme
headquarters of Britain,

the United States, and the USSR

bring to the capital
of Persia the leaders

of the war against Germany.

This is for the
three-way conference

so long expected,
so often postponed.

[intense music]

- Tehran is a hugely
important conference.

It's the first time The Big
Three get together in person.

You've got Joe Stalin,
leader of the Soviet Union.

You've got Roosevelt,
President of the USA.

And you've got Prime
Minister Winston Churchill,

the warlord of the
British Empire.

This is the central
organizing brain

for the Allied War effort,

and they're gonna establish
at this conference

the roadmap, the blueprint

for how they're
gonna defeat the axis

in the Second World War.

[guns blasting]

- [Tom] Since the
US entry into the war,

American and British
military strategists

have debated the best way
to defeat Nazi Germany.

- The British wanna
prosecute this war

as they have
prosecuted past ones,

mastery of the sea,
control of commerce,

raids around the periphery

until the enemy
simply collapses.

[guns blasting]

- [Tom] The
British advocate

for campaigns in North
Africa and the Mediterranean,

but American military leaders,
along with the Soviets,

want the Allies to
directly attack.

[guns blasting]

- The Red Army's been carrying

the burden of the
land war for years.

[explosion blasting]

Millions, literally millions

of casualties on a
thousand-mile front.

And so to the big
concern for Stalin

is when are you going
to open a second front?

[intense music]

- So the Americans
are looking at the map

and saying, "We can
cross the channel

from Britain, hit France.

Why wouldn't you just do that?"

[intense music]

- For the British Empire,

they could think
of nothing worse.

[intense music]

Churchill's entire generation

of British politicians
either fought in or commanded

in the First World
War and was scarred.

And so the idea of
gambling everything

on a cross channel
invasion into France,

the exact place, by the way,

that so many terrible
things happened

in trench warfare back
in the First World War,

all that mattered was
we don't do that again.

[intense music]

- [Dan S.] Winston Churchill
is thinking,

"Maybe we land in
Greece and Yugoslavia.

Maybe we push up
through Slovenia.

Maybe we land in Norway."

Stalin says, "I don't care
about any of this stuff.

It's nonsense.

Get in some ships, cross
the English Channel,

land in France,

and open up that proper second
front against the Germans."

- If you think about
Allied leadership,

it looks as if
it's The Big Three,

but what Roosevelt understands,

what Stalin understands,

and what Churchill,
to his great anguish,

is coming to understand

is that there's only room
for two people at the summit

and that the fate of his nation

was to be somewhat in eclipse.

[intense music]

- [Robert] At Tehran, the
Americans and the Soviets

finally get their way,

a big American-dominated
invasion

of Western Europe,
Operation Overlord.

[intense music]

- [Tom] Operation Overlord

will be a massive
coordinated invasion

by air, land, and sea

scheduled to launch
in May, 1944,

a mere six months away.

[intense music]

If it succeeds, the Western
Allies and the Red Army

will be able to advance on
Germany from two fronts.

But who is to command
this enormous effort?

- The obvious choice
is George Marshall.

George Marshall is the
army chief of staff

and he is unquestionably the
most respected military man,

certainly in the United States
and maybe even the world.

- [Sarada] And so everybody
assumes that he's gonna get it.

What becomes clear, though,

is that Roosevelt realizes

that he can't have
Marshall out of Washington.

He needs him too much to be sort

of running the
entire war effort.

And so then the
question is, "Who?"

- [Dan S.] Montgomery,
Churchill's star general,

is absolutely certain

that there is one
man perfectly suited

to be supreme commander
of the Allied effort,

and that is Montgomery himself.

[intense music]

- [Tom] But with
the American contribution

in men and material about to
dominate the Allied effort,

it's clear that an American
must be placed in command.

[intense music]

President Roosevelt selects
General Dwight Eisenhower,

a protege of George Marshall

and the successful commander

of the campaigns in
North Africa and Sicily.

[intense music]

- [Michel] Roosevelt sees
in Eisenhower

the kind of political skill

and savvy that's
going to be necessary

to keep the alliance together

and to pull off
what is going to be

one of the most high-risk
military operations

in all of human history.

[intense music]

- [Dan S.] At the same time,

Eisenhower did not have a
huge CV of combat experience.

He hadn't served in France
during the First World War,

and so, many of his competitors
looking around going,

"How did this guy get the job?"

[intense music]

- [Sarada] British General
Montgomery maybe encapsulates

the criticism of
Eisenhower when he says,

"Nice chap, no soldier."

[intense music]

- [Tom] Hitler
and his high command

know the Western Allies are
going to invade Northern Europe,

but they don't know when
and they don't know where.

[intense music]

- [Robert] Hitler is not
surprised

that an invasion is coming.

He said so at the end of 1943.

"They'll be here next year.

We have to be ready
to meet them."

- In his own mind,

he was willing this
cross channel invasion

because he said, "You
know, whenever they come

and wherever they come,
we're gonna beat them."

[intense music]

- An amphibious Landing is
a very demanding operation,

and so he thinks he will
throw his reserves to the west

and push the Allies
back into the sea.

- [Geoffrey] He'd then be
able to win the war

by turning everything he has

against the Soviet Union
in the east.

[intense music]

- [Tom] Under the direction

of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel

the Germans accelerate
the construction

of the Atlantic Wall,

[timber cracking]

a network of bunkers,
minefields, and beach obstacles

stretching several thousand
miles from France to Norway.

Much of the work is performed
by conscripted French labor.

[intense music]

- [Robert] Rommel is already
a known commodity.

He's beloved by
the German people.

He's young, he's
unorthodox, he's energetic.

He's a man very much
to the Fuhrer's taste.

He wakes up early.

He works hard all day.

He gets the job done.

And choosing Rommel
tells the West,

"You've got your work
cut out for you."

[intense music]

- [Tom] By January,
Operation Overlord,

the joint British American plan

to invade Northwest Europe,

has been largely mapped out.

[intense music]

The coast of Normandy is
chosen as the landing site

because of its long, flat
beaches, numerous access roads,

and proximity to the deep
water port of Cherbourg.

When Eisenhower and his staff
take control of Overlord,

they look to expand the scale

and scope of the
entire operation.

- [Craig] From the very
beginning,

it was clear to Eisenhower

that a three-division
invasion in northern France

would not be adequate.

The Allies use six
divisions to invade Sicily.

- [Dan S.] Eisenhower realizes
if you've got one shot at this,

you've gotta cross this
brutal stretch of water

and land on a heavily
defended coastline

manned by one of the
best armies in history,

you need to bring
overwhelming force.

You go for the king,
you best not miss.

[intense music]

- [Geoffrey] But he has to
somehow get the Brits

to come around and agree.

His act of genius is
to name Montgomery

commander of the ground
forces in the invasions.

He says, "Monty,
will you do this?"

Monty says, "Yes."

And then Eisenhower says,

"But I think three
divisions is a bit small.

Shouldn't it be bigger?"

Monty says, "Oh,
should be much bigger."

It's a perfect example of
Eisenhower's leadership style.

He gets buy-in from people

and then get whatever
he wants done, done.

[intense music]

- [Tom] Overlord
increases to five beaches

and six divisions,

which delays the
operation for a month.

[intense music]

- [Robert] Eisenhower knows that
in delaying Overlord,

he's running a risk,

and the risk is he's gonna use

that extra month
for preparation.

But, of course, so
is his adversary.

[boots clomping]

With each passing day,

German defenses are
going to get stronger.

[intense music]

[intense music]

- [Tom] Field
Marshall Erwin Rommel

believes the first 24 hours

of the invasion
will be decisive.

He will say to an aide,

"The fate of Germany
depends on the outcome.

For the Allies as well as
Germany,

it will be the longest day."

- [Geoffrey] Rommel thinks that
you have to defeat

the Allied invasion

when it comes at the
water's edge.

[intense music]

But the thing is,
there's so many points

that the Allies can invade.

[intense music]

They've scattered
fortifications everywhere.

So he's like,

"How do I take this
incomplete Atlantic wall

and fill in the gaps?"

And the way you do it

is you do it with things
that are relatively cheap,

like tank obstacles, like mines.

[explosion blasting]

[intense music]

- [Tom] Rommel's
strategy is to stop the Allies

on the beaches.

He can then bring in his
panzers where necessary.

- [Robert] Rommel has a lot of
experience

fighting the Western powers.

He knows this isn't gonna
be easy.

Every minute he prepares,

he believes is a minute
closer to a German victory.

[intense music]

- [Tom] In Britain,
the Allies amass resources

for Operation Overlord.

The United States sends
soldiers, tanks, aircraft,

and large amounts of supplies.

- [Geoffrey] You have to
coordinate

this massive Allied coalition,

which by now is entirely
dominated by the Americans,

you know, on the
supply side, right?

Gotta ship over all the
oil, all the material,

all the vehicles.

[intense music]

- The scale of Operation
Overlord is just enormous.

You are talking about nearly
7,000 vessels involved.

You are talking about tens of
thousands of artillery pieces.

You are talking about
hundreds of thousands of men.

But what that means
is that Britain,

for the last two
and a half years,

has just been turning into one
huge great big military camp.

[intense music]

- [Tom] To deceive the Germans,

the Allies devise and
execute a deception plan.

Operation Fortitude is a
false army operation created

to trick the Germans
into thinking the Allies

will land at Pas-de-Calais,

which is the shortest root
across the English Channel.

- [Dan C.] The elements
that were involved

in trying to
convince the Germans

that the attack was
coming in another place,

another direction, another
location, it's massive.

[intense music]

- False radio traffic.

The creation of false armies.

They used dummy vehicles,

balloons, and rubber
tanks, and aircraft.

- [Geoffrey] This is all part of
the deception campaign

to keep the Germans guessing
until the last second.

[intense music]

- [Tom] Eisenhower
hopes Fortitude

will prompt the Germans

to concentrate their
forces near Calais

rather than Normandy.

[intense music]

- [Michel] The Germans have
about

three quarters of a million men

who are poised to
be able to mobilize

to wherever the Allies
invade in northern Europe.

And so he knows that this
is going to be a race.

It's going to be the
Allies over water

and the Germans over land,

and the Germans are always going

to have an advantage
in moving over land.

And so Eisenhower needs
to slow them down.

The only tool that Eisenhower
has at his disposal

are the bombers.

[intense music]

[plane engines buzzing]

- Eisenhower knows from
previous experience

he can't pull off an amphibious
invasion and keep it ashore

without dominance in the air.

Unless Allied air power
is there for Eisenhower,

this landing is
never gonna happen.

[intense music]

- [Tom] Starting in 1944,

Allied Air Force strategy

focuses on destroying
the Luftwaffe

so that troops can land
in Normandy without fear

of German air attacks.

[plane engines buzzing]

But Eisenhower also
wants to hit railways

and transportation
hubs throughout France.

[intense music]

- [Dan S.] Eisenhower wants
the roads destroyed.

He wants the bridges destroyed.

He wants the railway
yards destroyed.

He does not want one German unit

moving two miles down the road

without him having to
build another bridge.

And so Eisenhower says,

"Those very valuable
bomber formations

need to be working to my plan."

[plane engines buzzing]

Now, the bomber
commander is like,

"No, we've got our own
way of winning this war."

- [Dr.Grant] Everybody wants
to support

the landings in Normandy,

but the Allied Air Forces argue

that the best way to do that

is to continue with more
heavy attacks on Germany.

[intense music]

- [Michel] This becomes a
knockdown drag out fight.

So Eisenhower, you know,
basically threatens to resign,

if he's not given control
over all the air forces.

He's fighting day in and day out

with the British,
with the French,

with his own bosses
back in Washington

on every little
detail of the war.

And everyone is throwing up
nothing but obstructions,

and he just doesn't have
time for this anymore, right?

He is at his wits end.

- [Dan S.] He needs overwhelming
strength to guarantee success

because you know what?

You've got one of history's
most effective armies,

Hitlers panzers,
who will be hurled

at those Allied landing forces

so they can chop you
down in the shallows

and turn the waters
red with your blood.

[intense music]

[intense music]

[horn blaring]

- [Tom] Early spring 1944.

Supreme Allied Commander
Dwight Eisenhower

has now been given full command
of all Allied air forces.

- [Dr. Grant] In the end, he's
got the air power weapon

he needs to attack the
French transportation system.

That's roads,
railways, and bridges

that the Germans will
use to move forces

to oppose the landings.

[intense music]

- [Geoffrey] And so he wins, and
we take that for granted,

but it wasn't easy, you know?

He had to like wrestle

with all these powerful
figures and powerful egos,

not only within the US military,

but the British military
as well.

It's another example

of Eisenhower's real
quality as a leader.

[plane engines buzzing]

And so for 90 days before D-Day,

you've got thousands of sorties.

- [Pilot] Bombs away.

[intense music]

[explosion blasting]

By P-47 and B-26 marauders

that are flying behind
the German lines

in the Pas-de-Calais in Normandy

is just absolutely punishing
the road and rail network.

[explosion blasting]

[intense music]

[explosion blasting]

[intense music]

- [Tom] Defending
multiple fronts,

the resources of Hitler

and his Third Reich
are stretched thin.

[intense music]

- [Dr. Lieb] For the Germans
in 1944,

their last big trump
card are the tanks.

[gun blasting]

[intense music]

[gun blasting]

Rommel's plan is to
deploy them as close

as possible to the beaches.

The advantage is that
you can bring them in

much quicker as reinforcements,

but this idea runs against
traditional German doctrine.

It's totally the opposite.

[tank motor buzzing]

- [Robert] The orthodox approach
amongst German commanders

is to group your tank divisions
into a concentrated mass,

let the Allies land,

and then, as they stumble
into the French interior,

hit them at a time and
place of your choosing.

[gun blasting]

- [Geoffrey] But Rommel says,

"Look, realistically we
can't maneuver against them

when they come inland

because they have
total air superiority."

- [Dr. Lieb] The only person

who can decide which option
will be the better one

is Hitler himself.

But Hitler never wants to give
too much power into one hand.

- [Tom] Suspecting
that the Allies

will land near Calais,

Hitler spreads his panzers
along Northwestern France,

but he reserves operational
control for himself.

- [Robert] They can only be
released into combat

by Hitler's express order,

which is probably the
Achilles' heel of that plan.

[intense music]

[horn blaring]

- [Tom] In
the spring of 1944,

there are over two and
a half million troops

from multiple Allied nations

crowded into Southeast England.

[intense music]

- The invasion would send
ashore combat experienced troops

who had participated
in landings previously

as well as troops who
had never done it before.

[intense music]

- [Michel] So the way you
prepare is you have exercises.

You have rehearsals
just like in a play.

So a series of
exercises are undertaken

to include something
called Exercise Tiger.

[intense music]

Exercise Tiger is
going to invade a beach

called Slapton Sands.

And Slapton Sands is
a British resort town

that remarkably looks exactly

like parts of the
Normandy coast.

- [Tom] Secrecy is vital
for this training mission.

3,000 British citizens are
evacuated from the area.

- Operational security
is absolutely paramount.

The Allies have to
have tactical surprise

on the morning of D-Day,

so the Germans must be
completely blindsided.

[guns blasting]

- [Tom] It's a
practice run for D-Day,

but from the start,
things go horribly wrong.

Because of a breakdown
in communication,

the navy fires on its own men.

- [Martin] As if that tragedy
wasn't bad enough,

the next day something
even worse happens.

[intense music]

- [Michel] In the middle of
the night, the LSTs,

these large ships that have
personnel and tanks in them,

are preparing to do their
part in Exercise Tiger

and circling about to do
the second landing wave.

And then, all of a sudden,

a pack of German fast
boats, or E-boats,

stumbles upon these LSTs.

- [Craig] And the Germans began
firing,

and tracer bullets are
flying across the ships,

and some of the men
on board thought,

"Wow, this is a pretty
realistic exercise."

And it wasn't really
until the torpedoes began

to explode against
the sides of the LSTs

that they realize this is
not a realistic exercise.

This is an attack.

[intense music]

- [Geoffrey] They sink
three LSTs,

which are really
precious by this point.

They need every one.

- [Craig] More than 700 men were
killed in Exercise Tiger.

So this was a very
costly loss of life.

- [Michel] If a, you know,
well-controlled, dress rehearsal

goes this badly under the
best of possible conditions,

what's going to happen

when they can't just stroll
ashore on a British resort town,

but are being fired
at by German guns?

[intense music]

- [Tom] Operation
Overlord has been planned down

to the closest detail,

but there's one crucial
element no one can anticipate,

the weather.

[intense music]

- [Michel] They have a
three-day window,

June 5th to June 7th.

If they delay the
invasion past that window,

the moon is no longer
going to be right

for the airborne operation,

the tides are no longer
going to be right

for the landing forces,

and this delicate ballet of
air, ground, and naval forces

won't have the necessary
weather conditions

to coordinate and hit the
beach with full force.

[intense music]

- [Tom] Eisenhower
and his staff

rely on Group
Captain James Stagg

and his team of meteorologists

to provide the most
accurate advice possible.

[boat motor buzzing]

- [Michel] The weather leading
up to the original D-Day

is gorgeous,

and it's so good that it
almost feels like an omen.

It's two days
before the invasion.

They're gearing up to launch
on June 5th as scheduled,

and James Martin Stagg
comes to Eisenhower

as part of the
command conference

and says, "There's been
a turn in the weather.

A storm is a-brewin'."

[intense music]

- [Paul] It's just frankly
terrible news.

15-foot waves in the
channel, high winds,

unpredictable seas,
rolling fronts

coming in from all directions,

and it's just the last thing
they can possibly deal with.

[intense music]

- [Dan S.] Amphibious operations
are a total nightmare,

and on top of that,
the English Channel

is a rough stretch of water.

You get winds that
howl up that channel,

that kick up a swell, that
make it impossible to operate,

you know, ships
near the coastline.

- [Craig] Eisenhower had to
consider what that meant.

And he said, "Well, we'll
postpone making a decision

until four o'clock in the
morning when you'll know more."

[intense music]

Four o'clock in the
morning on the 4th.

Stagg came in looking not happy

and said "It's gonna be worse.

We'll have to postpone
until the 6th of June."

[intense music]

- [Paul] The pressure's
really there now to,

well, we really want to try and
get this done in this window

or they've gotta wait again

for all the situations
to coalesce,

the weather, and the
tides, and the moon.

It might be a few weeks.

It might be months.

And the problem is

you've got all these hundreds
of thousands of men in camps

who've been sharpened to
this edge of ready to go in

and get their job.

Then, you've gotta say to them,
"Actually, no, sorry lads.

We're gonna back down again."

[intense music]

- [Tom] Even the
Germans think the conditions

are unsuitable for an invasion.

- [Dr. Lieb] Rommel gets his
weather report

on the 4th of June,

and doesn't look very good,

and he thinks there
will be no opportunities

for the Allies to land
for the coming days,

and so he decides
to go to Germany

and celebrate his
wife's birthday.

The problem, though, is

that the Germans don't have
meteorological stations

in the Atlantic, in
contrast to the Allies.

And where does the weather
in Europe mostly come from?

From the Atlantic.

[intense music]

- [Tom] Late in
the evening on June 4th,

the Allies receive a report

from a weather
station in Ireland.

[intense music]

- [Martin] Captain Stagg is
gonna come in and go,

"Alright, the weather conditions

look like they're
going to improve,

such that in the afternoon
on Tuesday, June 6th,

you might be able
to pull it off."

[intense music]

- [Tom] Eisenhower
polls his commanders.

[intense music]

But the final
decision is his alone.

- [Martin] Eisenhower will
ultimately reflect on this

20 years afterward,

and he'll say that he felt
like the loneliest man

in all of England.

And what must have run
through that man's mind

was, "Well, the gliders
are not gonna do well

in winds that are this high.

The paratroopers are all
gonna be blown off course."

[intense music]

He had to recognize
all of the things

that are going to go wrong,

not things that might go wrong,

but definitely gonna go wrong.

[intense music]

"But at the same time, I
can't come back next month.

I can't come back in August.

It's now or never."

[intense music]

- [Michel] And he is sitting
there

listening to the
wind howling around,

and he says, "Okay, let's go."

[intense music]

- [Tom] Operation
Overlord, D-Day,

is the largest amphibious
invasion in history,

and it's being attempted by
a coalition of many nations,

some of which have lived
under the Nazi yoke for years.

The whole world
awaits the outcome.

- [Dr. Grant] As the invasion
got closer,

Eisenhower got more tense.

He's smoking four packs
of cigarettes a day.

He's barely sleeping.

- [Michel] He has
nothing left to do,

but wait to hear whether or not

he made the right call

in the middle of the
night, sleep deprived.

[intense music]

But the most important
thing though, I think,

he does in that period,

is he goes out and
personally visits

the 101st Airborne.

[intense music]

- [Tom] The 101st Airborne,

along with the 82nd Airborne,

and the British 6th Division

will be the first to
land behind enemy lines.

The job of the Airborne
is to seize the causeways

and cover the flanks
of the landing troops.

They will be the first soldiers

to fight the
Germans in Normandy.

- [Michel] Eisenhower with no
fanfare,

just walks among
all these young men,

all of whom are no older,
really, than his own son,

and he makes a point

of looking each one
of them in the eye

as he shakes their hand.

[somber music]

He gets an estimate
that about 50%

of the paratroopers
are gonna be killed.

And so as he's shaking hands,

every other soldier is someone
who he has every reason

to believe he has
sent to their death.

[somber music]

The most important thing
he could do in that moment

was just be there for them.

[men laughing]

And he spends all
night doing that,

goes up to the roof nearby,

watches the whole
thing take off.

[somber music]

That's how he begins D-Day.

[intense music]

- [Tom] Under a full moon

paratroopers, including
The 101st Airborne,

start dropping
behind enemy lines.

[plane engines buzzing]

[intense music]

Before dawn landing crafts
are lowered into the water,

and troops start to board.

[intense music]

At sunrise, a fleet of warships
launch a naval barrage.

[guns blasting]

- [Dan S.] Ultimately, the
ground troops

are gonna land on five beaches,

two American beaches,
Omaha and Utah,

a Canadian beach, Juno,

and then Gold and Sword,
the British beaches.

They're then gonna try and
link up those different beaches

and then push inland
to take on and destroy

the might of the
German army in France.

[intense music]

- [Paul] The morning of
during the trip,

the weather patterns
are still chopping about

and the wind is still blowing.

It's not an ideal situation

to start plowing these boats
towards the coast there.

- [Geoffrey] Right from the
jump,

the weather's a huge issue.

I mean, there's a six
foot swell on D-Day.

[intense music]

- [Paul] The waves are
swamping over the sides.

You're standing in
freezing cold water.

You are there with
30 other guys.

If one vomits, you all vomit.

Sea spray is lashing
into your face there.

You can't see.

Your eyes are stinging.

[somber music]

The longer that goes on,

the more you are
thinking to yourself,

"What is gonna happen
when that ramp goes down?"

[intense music]

[plane engine buzzing]

- [Tom] Omaha is the
largest of the beaches,

a strip of the Normandy
coast six miles wide.

- [Geoffrey] It's different from
all the other beaches

in that it's almost
like an amphitheater.

You know, you've got
these high bluffs

overlooking the beach,

almost like a extended bowl.

[intense music]

You'd be coming in, gray
skies, smoke, noise.

Ramp would drop,

and then there's this just
absolute massive fire.

[ramp thuds]

[guns blasting]

- [Col. Douds] 85 machine guns
laying down

100,000 rounds a minute.

[guns blasting]

[somber music]

People start getting
shot and killed.

You see dead people
floating in the water.

[somber music]

You're soaking wet.

You don't run up the beach.

You stagger up the beach.

Guys are trying to
clear obstacles.

You're trying to move ahead.

[plane engine buzzing]

Your senses are overwhelmed

with all the things
going around you.

[intense music]

- [Paul] That first wave is
getting mowed down

in great numbers.

It's roughly 85%
killed or wounded

in the assault waves on Omaha.

[intense music]

- [Craig] Eisenhower is
receiving only

intermittent reports,

except, of course,
that on Omaha Beach,

it's not going as planned.

While he tried to project
a confident demeanor,

you know that inside him

he's just roiling with concern.

[intense music]

- [Dan C.] Failure is another
Dunkirk.

Failure's the loss of
all your equipment.

Failure is your troops being
marched off into captivity.

If everything goes wrong,

it means a longer war.

- [Tom] The day
before the landings

General Eisenhower,
knowing the risks

and understanding
the responsibility,

penned a brief note.

"My decision to attack

was based upon the best
information available.

The troops did all that bravery

and devotion to duty could do.

If any blame or fault is
attached to the attempt,

If any blame or fault is
attached to the attempt,

it is mine alone."

[guns blasting]

[plane engine buzzing]

[intense music]

[plane engine buzzing]

[guns blasting]

- [Tom] On the morning of the
Normandy invasion,

the first wave of American
troops at Utah Beach

land almost a mile
south of their target,

but quickly regroup and
manage to take the beach

and push inland.

[men chattering]

The British landings at
Gold and Sword beaches

go better than expected.

But at Juno Beach,

the first wave of
Canadian troops

meets tough German resistance.

[guns blasting]

And at Omaha Beach, rough
seas and intense German fire

wreak havoc on the
first American troops.

[intense music]

[gun blasting]

But more men are on their way.

[intense music]

- [Geoffrey] The German
defenders on the Atlantic wall,

they look out that morning,

and they're stunned
by what they see.

I mean, they see

the biggest fleet ever
gathered for an invasion.

The Germans all talked about

how they were so densely packed.

It looked like you could
just walk from ship to ship.

[guns blasting]

- [Dr, Lieb] For the average
German soldier on D-Day,

the experience is
something totally new.

[gun blasting]

This naval bombardment-

[gun blasting]

It really shakes up the
psyche of the German soldiers.

[intense music]

[guns blasting]

[plane engine buzzing]

[guns blasting]

- [Robert] There are two crucial
German command failures.

One is that Rommel isn't there.

He's back in Germany
celebrating his wife's birthday.

When he hears that the
landing has happened,

he says something
along the lines of,

"How could I have been
so stupid?"

Even more important is Hitler.

[intense music]

- [Col. Douds] The morning of
the invasion, June 6th, 1944,

Adolf Hitler is asleep,

but nobody will
dare wake him up,

even though word has come in
about this invasion starting.

- [Robert] So in the crucial
five or six or seven hours

when the Germans
might have landed

some quick blow
against the Allies,

those Panzer divisions
in the central reserve

that can only be
released into combat

by Hitler's express order

are pretty much
without a commander.

- [Dr. Lieb] As a consequence,
the German's reactions on D-Day

end up a big mess.

[intense music]

- [Tom] By midday,
the troops at Gold, Sword,

Juno, and Utah have
started to push inland,

and momentum finally
shifts at Omaha Beach.

The sheer scale of the
invasion helps turn the tide,

but it also comes down to
individual acts of bravery.

[intense music]

At Pointe du Hoc

US Army Rangers scale
100-foot cliffs under fire.

[intense music]

At Utah Beach, Brigadier
General Teddy Roosevelt Jr,

the son of former president
Theodore Roosevelt,

leads a division that
lands south of the target.

- [James] They came ashore and
he suddenly realized

that they were in
completely the wrong bit.

And he said, "To hell with it.

The war starts here."

- [Tom] Roosevelt's son,
Captain Quentin Roosevelt II,

is in the first
landing wave at Omaha.

They're the only father son duo

who will land on the
beaches that day.

[intense music]

Corporal Waverly Woodson,

a medic with the 320th
Barrage Balloon Battalion

is wounded before he
even hits the beach.

- [Col. Douds] But he will treat
almost 200 members

of the US Army, Navy,
and British Navy

as they come ashore
on Omaha Beach,

all the while under intense
mortar and machine gun fire.

[gulls squawking]

[somber music]

- [Tom] By the end
of the day on June 6th,

the Allies have secured
all five beaches

and have pushed inland.

[somber music]

In the coming days,

they will link up with
the airborne forces

to create a continuous,
connected front along the coast.

- [Dan S.] It was Eisenhower who
meshed

all of the different
nationalities.

He brought 'em together,

and Eisenhower deserves
a lot of credit.

- [Col. Douds] He's accountable.

He's responsible.

That's what leaders do
in good times and bad.

Right man for the job.

- [Michel] Eisenhower
understands,

probably better than anyone,

now the real hard fighting
on the continent of Europe

is about to begin.

And at the same time,
there's a ray of hope.

Allied victory is increasingly
going to become possible.

The US theory of
how you can wage war

has now been proven correct.

You can have a
multinational alliance

pull off the most complex
military operation

the world had ever seen.

- [Col. Douds] It's not just the
infantry.

It's all the airmen
that set the conditions.

It's all the Coast Guardsmen

and the sailors
that drew the ships.

It's all the people
who manufactured

all the stuff back in Detroit.

It's a global effort
to make D-Day work.

[somber music]

- [President Roosevelt]
My fellow Americans,

in this poignant hour,

I ask you to join
with me in prayer.

Almighty God, our sons,
pride of our nation,

this day have set upon
a mighty endeavor,

a struggle to preserve our
republic, our religion,

and our civilization,

and to set free a
suffering humanity.

[intense music]

- [Jon] President Roosevelt
says in his D-Day prayer,

"Our forces will be thrown back.

Their road will
be long and hard."

- [Roosevelt] But we shall
return again and again.

And we know that by thy grace

and by the righteousness
of our cause,

our sons will triumph.

- [Tom] On D-Day, the 101st
Airborne,

just hours after being
addressed by General Eisenhower,

parachuted into occupied France.

Despite being scattered
across enemy territory,

these men clear the
path for American forces

to emerge off Utah Beach and
begin the advance on Germany.

A second front is
firmly established

on the continent of Europe.

In the Pacific war, the
boundaries are enormous,

ranging through Asia and
into numerous remote islands

across the ocean.

Attacking this new
front will require

the most advanced
aircraft ever built.