All language subtitles for World War II Secrets from Above - S01E05 (2022) WEB.eng

December, 1944.
Hitler launches an all-out assault

on the Western Front across
Belgium and Luxembourg.

In small towns,

vastly outnumbered Allied platoons
face off against entire German battalions

in a series of David versus Goliath
attacks that pit superior Nazi weaponry

against American metal.

The Battle of the Bulge.

In this series, we investigate the most
extraordinary events of World War II

from a brand-new perspective,

matching rarely seen archive film,

photography from the front line

and remarkable aerial reconnaissance
images to their original locations.

We reconstruct the crucial battles,

daring bombing raids,

and deadly terror weapons
that changed the course of history.

Soaring over the battlefields,

we reveal the secrets of World War II
from above.

October 1944,
an Allied pilot flies over the North Sea

to map the Nazis' defense network
along the coast of Europe.

Flying over a small Dutch island,
he snaps a series of photos.

They expose a heavily-fortified site
covered with concrete bunkers

that sit side by side in a line
that stretches 16 kilometers long.

It's arguably the most formidable part
of Hitler's infamous Atlantic Wall.

To win the war in Europe,
it's crucial the Allies break through

the most heavily-defended section
of this concrete barrier.

The tide has turned on Nazi Germany.

Following the successful D-Day
landings in Normandy,

Allied forces break out across Europe,

but their rapid advance begins
to overstretch supply lines.

The Allies now need to establish
a new shipping route

through Europe's largest surviving harbor
in Antwerp.

A major obstacle, however, stands between
the Belgian port and the sea.

The Dutch island of Walcheren,
which the Germans have heavily fortified.

Walcheren sits on the mouth
of the River Scheldt

and covers an area of over
180 square kilometers.

The site guards the entrance to Antwerp's
strategically vital deep water port.

Its position is so crucial,
Hitler personally oversees

the planning of its fortifications,
down to the last detail.

Archaeologist Natasha Billson
investigates this largely forgotten

but crucial battleground.

The Nazis are under no illusion
how important this piece of land is.

The island is armed to the teeth.

All along here, on the dunes,
they have coastal gun complexes

with their sights
on the mouth of the River Scheldt.

The coastline is brimming
with heavy artillery positions.

Some of them have mighty
220-millimeter cannons,

with a range of over 22 kilometers,
to obliterate any assault from the sea.

Further inland, a second line of bunkers

protect the coastal guns
from a rear attack.

Each bunker houses a heavy artillery gun,

supplied with a stockpile
of deadly 155-millimeter shells,

with a 10-kilometer range of fire.

Protected by walls up to two meters thick,

these bunkers are lethal obstacles.

A closer look reveals
numerous impact marks.

Looking at the size,
the shape, the depth of them,

they must be 20-millimeter rounds
coming from Allied aircraft

shooting down in this direction.

They're not doing a lot of damage.
They're barely making a dent.

To neutralize the threat
of Walcheren's bunkers,

the Allies could bomb them,

but there are so many, and the pilots
could only destroy them with direct hits.

The Nazi defenses, however,
have an Achilles heel.

Most of the island lies beneath sea level.

Huge embankments called dykes
up to 76 meters wide

and a series of rolling dunes
up to 52 meters high along its coastline

are all that stand
between the islanders and the ocean.

The dunes and dykes of the island
form its rim. Break the rim

and the seawater rushes in, cutting off
numerous inland bunkers from each other,

effectively rendering them useless.

To get supplies through Hitler's
Atlantic Wall to Antwerp,

the Allies plan to blow up
Walcheren's dykes and dunes,

letting seawater gush through
to flood the island.

Third of October, 1944.

At 1:00 p.m., 247 British Lancaster
and Mosquito bombers

conduct a high-precision raid.

The aircraft target the island's dykes.

On the first day,
they drop over 1,000 tons of bombs.

Aerial reconnaissance photos
reveal the devastation.

The explosions breach the sea walls.

Further raids widen the gap,
flooding 80% of the island.

Only the highest villages
and defenses escape the deluge.

Dutch historian Tobias van Gent
investigates the site.

With Walcheren flooded,

British and Canadian forces
launch an amphibious assault

across the heavily-defended estuary.

At 8:20 a.m. on the first of November,
three Allied warships,

together with dozens of landing craft,
fire their cannons on Walcheren.

Under the cover of thick clouds of smoke,

the first waves of
the British No. 4 Commandos

strike the island's west and south shores.

Special tanks equipped with fast-rotating
chains explode buried mines.

This clears a safe passage
along the beaches,

which allows troops to advance
and knock out the Nazi defenses.

After several days of fierce fighting,

the Allies finally take the island
and imprison 41,000 German soldiers.

It's a devastating blow for Hitler.

The assault on Walcheren
allows the Allies to secure

the crucial supply lines through Antwerp.

Soon they can offload
19,000 tons of supplies every day.

To reignite the Allied advance
across Nazi-occupied Europe,

125 kilometers east of Antwerp,
on the German border with Belgium,

the Allies face their next major obstacle.

Aerial reconnaissance images captured
near the city of Aachen in Germany

reveal a menacing concrete structure
that stretches as far as the eye can see.

Viewed from above, strange geometric lines
crisscross the undulating landscape.

A closer look reveals the lines are made
up of concrete blocks arranged in rows.

Each block resembles a pyramid,
standing up to two meters tall.

The concrete pyramids
are spaced just over one meter apart

and form part of an immense network
of Nazi fortifications

called the Siegfried Line.

The Siegfried Line
is a wall of concrete and steel.

More than 22,000 bunkers and pillboxes

are evenly spaced to create
interlocking fields of fire.

Stretching up to 30 kilometers deep
and over 600 kilometers long

down Germany's western border,

the Siegfried Line is
an extraordinary feat of Nazi engineering.

Retired soldier Henri Mignon investigates
the rows of concrete pyramids,

known as dragon's teeth.

They're designed to trap tanks.

The steel bars tie the dragon's
teeth to a thick concrete foundation

to create a single impenetrable unit.

By early November 1944,

U.S., British, French and Canadian forces
reach the Siegfried Line.

They urgently need a way
to break through this deadly barrier.

The teeth are devastating
obstacles for tanks.

Rolling over them exposes
the tanks' poorly-armored underside.

A welcome target
for German anti-tank weapons.

The Germans leave deliberate
weak points in the line

to lure Allied tanks into kill zones,

where they can be picked off one by one.

Hitler knows Allied supply lines
are now at breaking point.

In a last-ditch attempt
to reverse the course of the war,

he plots a massive offensive.

He orders a surprise attack
on Allied lines

in Belgium and Luxembourg,
where they are most vulnerable.

His plan is to seize
the bridges over the River Meuse

and then recapture Antwerp
in just a few days.

Hitler hopes this will drive a wedge
between the Allied forces,

cut off their supply lines
and force them to surrender.

The German offensive is given
the code word Operation Wacht am Rhein.

"Watch on the Rhine."

Sixteenth of December, 1944.
80,000 American soldiers

stationed in the Ardennes
sleep on frozen ground.

Hidden in the dense forest,

they're completely unaware
that a massive German strike force

with over 2,000 tanks and assault guns
is closing in on their position.

At 5:30 a.m.,
the Germans launch a massive assault

with 1,900 artillery pieces
and rocket launchers

against the unsuspecting Americans.

22-year-old scout Louis Kalil
is part of an intelligence

and reconnaissance platoon who faces
the brunt of the German onslaught.

You think the end of the world
is coming. I did.

I thought, "Well, one of these is going
to land right on top of us, and that's it.

"We'll never know."

Shells explode in the trees,

sending lethal shards
of metal and wood through the air.

It's a terrible feeling.

You know, it's just a constant
one after another for two hours.

Dazed and disorientated,
many soldiers drop everything and scatter.

Hitler's ambush has literally
caught the Allies napping.

His offensive could repel the invasion

and turn the tide of the war
in Germany's favor.

On day one of Hitler's counter-offensive,

the Allies are blindsided
in a blitzkrieg attack.

In the Ardennes, the American front line
is held by no more than six divisions,

with just over 100,000 men.

They now face one of
the biggest concentrations of firepower

since the war began.

Eighteen German divisions
with over 400 tanks,

and more than 300,000 German fighters,
but this isn't just a numbers game.

Among their ranks
are elite units of the Waffen-SS,

the combat branch of the Nazi Party's
paramilitary organization.

Commanding its most fearsome armored unit,

Kampfgruppe Peiper,
is SS officer Joachim Peiper.

Peiper is the youngest
commander of the Waffen-SS.

He is a fanatical Nazi,

who has been marked out
for success by the Führer himself.

He has the best equipment at his disposal,
including the ultimate tank,

the King Tiger.

Marie-France Gregoire is a custodian
of one of the last surviving King Tigers.

I suppose it was a terrifying
experience for the American soldiers to be

in front of those ugly beasts.

Very big beast.
And don't forget the noise.

The noise was terrible.

Thousand like that.
Yes, it's terrible.

The King Tiger is a 70-ton steel beast

with 18 centimeters of sloping armor
that protects its front.

The tank is equipped
with a rotating turret

and an 88-millimeter anti-tank cannon

that can smash through
14 centimeters of armor

from over two kilometers away.

They were made to intimidate the enemy.

So the size of this tank
was absolutely huge.

If you stand before it,
you think, "Oh, my God."

And the armor was very thick.

It was almost impossible to pierce it.

The Nazis' King Tiger
has no equal on the battlefield,

but it does have one major drawback.

It devours fuel at a phenomenal rate.

As part of his mission, Peiper must
capture fuel depots at key towns

to push his counter-offensive forward.

On the 17th of December, Peiper begins
his blitzkrieg through Belgium,

but his progress is slower than he'd like.

The roads he must take are so narrow
that they squeeze his battle group

into a huge armored column
25 kilometers long.

In the early morning light,

Peiper's battle group steamrolls
into the small town of Honsfeld.

They capture 19 American soldiers
and brutally gun them down in cold blood.

The Germans seize the Allied vehicles,
and even steal the boots of the dead.

In response to the German offensive,
the Allies reorganize their forces.

15 kilometers west of Honsfeld,

a U.S. truck convoy of 30 vehicles

heads east towards
the small village of Baugnez.

The Allied convoy is completely unaware

that they are on a collision course
with Kampfgruppe Peiper.

Ted Paluch is part of Battery B

of the 285th
Artillery Observation Battalion.

We took a road going north.

And the Germans would take
the same road coming south.

I didn't realize it then, but they could
see our whole convoy where they were at.

The German tanks don't hesitate.

They fire explosive shells
into the American vehicles,

crippling the convoy and forcing
Ted's entire unit to surrender.

Nazi forces group 113 prisoners together
and take them to this nearby field,

where they're shot with machine guns.

If someone took a shot, as soon
as that shot was fired, I went down.

And I think it was something like 96 tanks
and half-tracks passed,

and each one would fire into the group.

Most prisoners are
immediately killed. Others panic and flee.

Anybody found still alive receives
a gunshot point blank to the head.

Ted's best chance of survival
is to play dead.

I was shot in the hand,
and they come up and looked.

I guess he saw blood
and he thought he got me.

Over 40 soldiers, including Ted,

manage to escape the bloodbath
and report the massacre.

News of the atrocity
spreads fast across American lines.

But rather than demoralizing the troops,

they're now more determined than ever
to hold the German advance.

Day three of Hitler's Ardennes offensive.

The armored German forces in the north,

who were meant to have made
significant progress,

have penetrated only a few dozen
kilometers into Allied territory.

But further south, another German division

is threatening to take
an important strategic asset

that the Allies must move
to protect at all costs.

The ancient town
of Clervaux in Luxembourg.

Clervaux lies in a deep, narrow valley

and is surrounded by
high, forested mountains.

With a station
on the north/south railway line

and several sturdy bridges,
the town is a major transportation hub.

Here, hundreds of American soldiers

resting from the front lines of battle
are quickly called into action.

They transform the town's hotels
and private homes into barracks

and turn Clervaux's huge medieval castle
into a stronghold for American forces.

Tom Scholtes investigates
this key battleground.

On the 17th of December at 9:30 a.m.,

the Germans launch their ground assault.

Thirty armored vehicles
and tanks descend into Clervaux,

but the Americans have
set up traps on the main road.

Allied tanks hide behind
three hairpin bends,

ready to ambush the German advance.

They disable one Nazi tank,

but they're no match for the combined
firepower of the invading army.

The Germans' high velocity shells

tear through the thin armor
of the American tanks.

By the time the smoke clears,

the wrecks of several tanks
block Clervaux's streets.

With no way out of Clervaux,

over 100 soldiers become trapped
in the town's castle,

surrounded by a sea of German forces.

It looks like it's game over
for the American defenders.

The tanks come right up to the gates.

But the castle's 12th-century walls
prove a formidable obstacle.

Just as the Americans think they're safe,

the Germans turn to
a devastating chemical weapon.

White phosphorus.

The Germans fire more than
1,000 incendiary shells

and bullets at the castle.

Streams of liquid fire as hot as lava
seep into every crack,

turning the seemingly safe haven
into a raging inferno.

On the 18th of December,
with just 62 men still alive,

the American defenders
raise the white flag and surrender.

Clervaux has fallen.

The German attack
turns the picturesque town

into a post-apocalyptic landscape.

The Americans suffer a devastating defeat.

But their heroic last stand
has severely disrupted

Hitler's carefully-planned timetable.

Now the Germans need
to make up for lost time.

On day four of Hitler's
desperate Ardennes offensive,

the Allies have blocked the progress
of German forces in the north.

The success of Hitler's advance
now rests in the south

on a crucial tactical position
that provides an express route

to the River Meuse and beyond to Antwerp.

The Belgian town of Bastogne.

The Allies realize the imminent threat,

and order two U.S. divisions directly
into the line of the German attack.

Two days after the launch
of the German offensive,

the first reinforcements reach Bastogne.

Quick on their heels,

11,000 troops from the renowned
101st Airborne Division arrive.

While they set up defenses in town,

additional units receive orders
to create roadblocks

on all the major roads
leading to Bastogne.

Their mission, to delay
the German advance, whatever it takes.

For retired soldier Henri Mignon,

the army that controls Bastogne
controls the whole of the Ardennes.

Six kilometers north of
Bastogne, a team of American soldiers

defend one of its major roads
at the small hamlet of Noville.

Their leader, Major William Desobry,
commands just 400 men and 15 tanks.

He faces a daunting challenge.

Barreling towards him
are 16,000 German soldiers

with more than 120 tanks and assault guns.

Nineteenth of December.

In the early hours of the morning,
a thick fog falls over Noville.

The haze hides the Nazi advance
from the American soldiers.

Knowing the Germans are about to attack,

Desobry's team
duck behind any cover they can find.

But at 10:00 a.m.,
the fog suddenly clears,

to expose a line of German tanks
on the northern ridge.

The Americans don't hesitate
and destroy nearly all of them.

But their success is short-lived.

After 48 hours of vicious fighting,

the Germans overwhelm the Americans
and force them to withdraw to Bastogne.

The cost of holding
Noville is high, but the sacrifice made

by Desobry's team give the Allies
the precious time they need to regroup

and protect the crucial
crossroads at Bastogne.

On the 22nd of December, 1944,

seven days
into Hitler's Ardennes offensive,

54,000 German soldiers
have encircled Bastogne,

outnumbering the American defenders.

Inside the Belgian town's
Allied headquarters,

thousands of U.S. troops prepare
for the incoming German assault.

But snowfall and fog
reduce visibility close to zero,

which conceals German positions

and prevents the Allies from deploying
their superior air force for support.

General Anthony McAuliffe is acting
commander in charge of defending Bastogne.

He receives a message from the Germans
requesting his surrender.

He sends back a one-word response.

"Nuts."

An all-out assault
could overwhelm the defenders.

Instead, the Nazis probe for weaknesses
in the line around Bastogne.

General McAuliffe takes advantage
of this crucial mistake

and moves his limited armored forces
to resist each attack as it occurs.

The vastly outnumbered American soldiers

manage to hold the town
and a defensive perimeter.

But the defenders will soon run
out of food, fuel and ammunition.

Twenty-third of December, 1944.

The morning brings a welcome sight
for Bastogne's beleaguered soldiers.

Blue skies.

Allied planes from France and England
take flight over the Ardennes,

the first time since the battle began.

The following day,
the air force conduct over 2,000 missions.

They deliver over
144,000 kilos of supplies

to revitalize the stranded troops.

It's a devastating blow
to Hitler's great offensive.

Two days later,
General Patton's Third U.S. Army

pierces through the 5th Panzer Division
and breaks the encirclement.

A flood of Allied men and supplies
soon pour into Bastogne's high street.

The siege has come to an end.

But the battle is far from over.

With the skies now clear,
the Allies are ready to strike back.

New Year's Day, 1945.

Hitler's offensive has ground to a halt.

His 17 days of concentrated
advances through the Ardennes

gives rise to the name
the Battle of the Bulge.

The Allies now organize a counterattack.

Their plan is to isolate German troops
and cut off their escape.

Henri Mignon was a young boy at the time
and remembers the counter-offensive.

Thousands of Allied planes

fly missions day and night
to destroy enemy supply lines.

They soar over Belgian towns
captured by the Germans

and drop more than 10,000 tons
of bombs every 24 hours

to create an earthshaking bombardment.

Aerial reconnaissance photos
reveal the complete devastation.

Snowy fields are turned into moonscapes
riddled with impact craters.

Entire towns are razed to the ground.

By the end of January,

the bulge created along
the Western Front has been flattened.

Hitler's great offensive has failed.

The attack lasted just four weeks.

It is one of World War II's
deadliest battles,

with an estimated 100,000 Germans
killed, wounded or captured,

and 75,000 U.S. casualties.

Many of the fallen are buried here,

80 kilometers north of Bastogne
at Henri-Chapelle Cemetery.

Covering 57 acres,

row after row of headstones mark
the graves of 7,900 military servicemen,

including 22 of the prisoners
massacred by the German SS at Malmedy.

In the face of overwhelming odds,
their heroic sacrifices

have crushed Hitler's hopes
of turning the tide of war in his favor.

The Battle of the Bulge is over,

and the collapse of Nazi Germany
is now only a matter of time.