All language subtitles for greatest.events.of.world.war.ii.in.hd.colour.s01e06.1080p.web.x264-stout-eng

It's the largest invasion
fleet in history.

Defies belief.

Twelve hundred warships,
over 4,000 landing craft.

More than 160,000 Allied troops
cross the Channel

to Nazi occupied France.

Crossing water
to launch a military operation

is a very hard thing to do,
it's hard enough to cross a river

never mind 40, 50 miles of sea.

But landing on the beaches
will be just the beginning.

Beyond the formidable sea defenses,

an army, battle hardened
on the Eastern Front,

lies in wait.

The cost will be high.

He turned to me and he said,
"I don't think I'll see England again."

And, you know, he didn't.

The D-Day invasion…

from the planning to deception,

landings and battles,

is one of the most audacious
events of World War II.

Now, rare footage
from around the world,

expertly restored in full color,

tells the story
as you've never seen it before.

June 1940,

Dunkirk.

The German Blitzkrieg advance
drives the British and French armies

into the sea.

The scars left by defeat
on mainland Europe run deep.

From the moment
that the British were thrown out

of France, they always knew
that if the Germans were ever going

to be defeated by the Western Allies,
that at some point,

a British Army and then, an American Army
had got to go back to the continent.

Regaining a foothold
in Nazi-occupied Europe…

now seems unthinkable.

From the end of 1941,
Hitler orders the fortification

of the entire Atlantic coast,

from the Spanish/French border
to the Arctic in Norway.

Hitler calls it his Atlantic Wall.

The Atlantic Wall was intended
to seal off this vulnerable flank

of the Third Reich.

It was a system of interlocking bunkers
with heavy naval guns, pillboxes,

and you've got all manner
of beach obstacles.

It's not until two years later,

in a desperate bid
to revive Allied morale,

that Churchill feels confident enough
to attempt to regain control

of French territory in the port of Dieppe.

The Allies in '42 are saying,
"Well, if we're gonna go in,

how are we gonna do this?

How are we gonna break in?"

So they say, "Let's raid Dieppe,
let's see if we can land 6,000 troops,

if they can take and hold Dieppe
and beat off any German counterattacks."

But the raid is a complete fiasco.

Over 900 Canadian troops
are killed and almost 2,000 captured.

The Germans seem as invincible as ever.

The Dieppe Raid
taught everybody exactly

how incredibly difficult it was
to land an army on a hostile shore.

One of the big problems
at Dieppe

was the problem getting armor ashore.

I mean, you could get troops ashore
in small landing craft,

but getting armor ashore,
particularly tanks,

was a problem, and at Dieppe,
they're just kind of figuring this out.

And despite the utmost secrecy,

German intelligence seem to have known
the Allied raid was coming.

It's clear that the British and Canadians
can't break through the Atlantic Wall

on their own.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific,

the Americans are taking a fight
to the Japanese at Midway and Guadalcanal.

Then, in 1943, in the East,
Germany's forces suffered

a catastrophic loss
in the Battle of Stalingrad.

For the first time,
the German Army seems vulnerable.

At the Tehran conference
of November 1943,

Joseph Stalin and President Roosevelt

put pressure on Winston Churchill.

Now is the time to commit
to a second front along the Atlantic Wall.

There is a tension
between the Americans and the British

from the very beginning.
The question was when.

It's not clear that Churchill
would ever have agreed

to an invasion on Northern France.

He needed the Americans, their money,
their support, their manpower.

Winston Churchill
had been deeply traumatized

by all the experiences of British
failure and defeat since 1940.

He knew, as the Americans
didn't really understand,

that the Germans were man-for-man
the most formidable fighting force

that the world had ever seen.

He was terrified of a blood bath
in France.

That, once again, we could have
the sort of scenes one had seen

in the First World War.

By 1944, he was reluctantly forced
to face the facts that the Americans

were absolutely determined
that this was gonna happen.

There is an American instinct

to strike for the jugular
as soon as possible.

If we're at war with the Germans,
and it's Germany first,

well, let's go, let's go right now.

The Americans think
we have the capabilities to,

you know, mass an army in England
and land on the Channel Coast

and attack Germany from this way.

But Churchill protests, look,

the German defenses of the Atlantic Wall
are too tough.

They're gonna sniff this thing out,
they're gonna beat us at the water's edge.

It'll be a great humiliation,
it'll demoralize the US Army,

the British Army, the Allies in general,
it'll make Stalin more likely

to sue for a separate peace.

Let's fight in areas we know we can win,
like North Africa, like Italy.

The problem is the Germans
trap the Allies in Italy,

there's no progress being made there,

so this then strengthens
the American hand.

Churchill finally concedes,
and Operation Overlord,

the Allied invasion of France,
is given the green light.

Working in utter secrecy,

the British and American planners
start to search for the weakest points

in the Atlantic Wall.

As they learnt at Dieppe,

if an invading army
has any chance of success,

it must be a complete surprise.

Spring 1944,

the Nazis have lost vast swathes
of territory to the Soviets in the East.

They now suspect an Allied offensive,
conducted from Britain,

somewhere along the 3,000 miles
of the Atlantic Wall.

Critically, German intelligence
is reporting a build-up of Allied troops

opposite the Pas-de-Calais.

It's the most obvious point
for an invasion,

as it offers the shortest crossing.

For that reason, German defenses
are strongest at Calais.

However, Hitler has taken no chances
and has already assigned his best general,

Erwin Rommel, to take charge
of the Atlantic Wall.

Rommel is the most
popular German general.

So sending him to the West
sends a strong message

to the soldiers
and the German public alike.

It gives them confidence, it tells them,
look, our best general

is now in the West,
and he will throw the Allies

back into the sea.

But when Rommel sees
the coastal defenses for the first time,

he realizes they are far
from impenetrable.

He orders more fortifications.

Beaches are laid with millions of mines,

thousands of miles of barbed wire,

and new obstacles
capable of withstanding an invading army.

But the Allied planning
goes ahead.

Allied spy planes take aerial photos
of Rommel's new defenses.

And the French Resistance
sends back precise information

on the troops manning
each fortified position.

Meanwhile, British commandos swim
from midget submarines

to take samples of the sand
on the French beaches.

Back in Britain, engineers invent
elaborate vehicles and weapons

capable of overcoming
Rommel's obstacles.

There's a particular eccentric
British designer called Percy Hobart,

and he had ideas
for different kinds of tanks.

One of them was a flame thrower.

One was a swimming tank.

On the face of it,
if you see photos of these

modified tanks, they're ridiculous.

I mean, they look silly,

to the point that they were nicknamed
"Hobart's Funnies."

But every single one of them
had a purpose.

The Americans believe
you've just got to get in there

and fight the enemy,
and they're always rather suspicious

of British dodges and wheezes,
as they see it.

The only bits the Americans took
were the least successful bits,

which were amphibious tanks.

And the British were right,
that if you were gonna overcome

one of the most difficult challenges
in the history of war,

then you needed completely new toys
and tools with which to do it.

There is a tendency, I think,
to say, "Oh, how clever we were

to come up with these devices,"

and a few of them did prove
to be quite clever.

Among them were flail tanks,

the sort of tank with arms
out in front of it

with chains attached to a rotating drum

that would flail the ground
in front of it,

detonate the mines.

There was even a tank built
in the shape of a doorstop,

with a ramp that would run itself up
against a sea wall

so that other thanks could drive
over the top of it.

On a grander scale,
engineers are making sure

that an Allied invasion
will be properly supported.

They secretly install
an oil pipeline under the Channel

to provide fuel for the invasion vehicles.

They construct gigantic
floating ports, or Mulberry harbors.

These ready-made ports
will be towed across the Channel,

to allow the planned armada
of supply vessels to unload.

If you haven't got a port
then, build two ports

the size of Dover
and float them across the Channel.

I mean, it's absolutely extraordinary.

The scale of D-Day
defies belief.

You're talking about 1,200 warships,

over 4,000 landing craft, 12,000 aircraft.

I mean, it is absolutely huge.

The D-Day invasion
brings together the Allied Navy,

Army, and Air Forces
in a centralized command structure.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower
is made Supreme Allied Commander

of the operation.

In charge of the land forces

and masterminding
much of the invasion planning

is British General Bernard Montgomery.

The Allies believe
they have kept the invasion site

a tightly guarded secret,

but there's no hiding the date.

The French tides dictate the invasion
will be on the fifth of June,

when they will be at their lowest.

Now they have to hope for good weather.

Rough seas
would make landings difficult,

if not impossible.

And Churchill knows
that no matter how well planned,

an invasion launched across
the unpredictable English Channel,

in the face of formidable
shoreline defenses could so easily end

in a blood bath.

Most important thing
about an amphibious invasion

is that it doesn't get kicked
back into the sea, that it doesn't fail.

There's still quite
a lot of jeopardy involved.

Will the Germans know?
Will they be prepared?

Even when the Allies completely
control the waters,

even when they completely control
the skies,

and even when they've mastered
the intelligent picture,

there's still lots of doubt and concerns
and anxieties.

The groundwork
for the D-Day landings

begins when Allied bombers attack
German radar stations

along the entire northern French coast.

The bombers also target
German supply routes further inland.

The transport plan sees
these massive heavy bomber fleets

destroying railways,
canals, resupply centers,

supply depots, oil storage.

The aim is to cripple the ability
of the German Army

to move forces around quickly

and keep them supplied.

Behind the scenes,
the decision to bomb infrastructure

is hotly contested.

There was a big debate
within Allied circles

about how to employ Allied air power.

It was Eisenhower who insisted
on a transportation strategy.

And that is to hit the bridges,
the railroad hubs,

the transportation networks
that would allow the Germans

to bring their reinforcements
to the targeted beaches.

The push-back
came from the British,

who said it would cause
an unacceptable number

of French casualties.

But Eisenhower insisted it was essential.

There is now no hiding
that an invasion is imminent.

And when the Germans intercept
Allied radio,

it confirms the landing site
will be Calais.

In Britain,
over two million Allied troops,

3,000 tanks,

and 12,000 aircraft are primed
for the biggest invasion in history.

June the fifth, 1944,
on the eve of D-Day,

an armada of 6,500 vessels set sail.

But they don't get very far.

Bad weather halts the invasion.

The weather and the phases
of the moon and the tides

is vitally important to this operation.

It was absolutely critical
that the weather had to be clear

so they could take advantage
of the air superiority.

The naval vessels would come in
and fire these accurate short bombardments

and, most importantly, that they could
launch these landing craft,

which aren't very seaworthy.

Thousands of infantry troops
are trapped on rough seas

off the English coast, getting seasick.

Twenty-one-year-old
driver and mechanic, Joe Cattini,

is on one of the landing craft,

stuck off the coast of the Isle of Wight.

A lot of the infantry lads,
they were only young lads, most of them,

they were seasick as a dog.

They were really, really crying
for their moms.

They wanted to go back home.

When the green light
eventually comes,

the soldiers receive a morale-boosting
speech from Eisenhower.

You are about to embark
upon the great crusade,

toward which we have striven
these many months.

The eyes of the world are upon you.

Your task will not be an easy one.

Then many of the troops
are completely taken by surprise.

We thought the landing was going to be
at the Pas-de-Calais.

When we left The Needles,
instead of turning left,

we carried more to the right,

towards Cherbourg.

Unbeknown to many on board,

the Allies are not heading
for Calais at all,

but for Normandy.

Hitler and Rommel
have been played for fools

in the greatest military deception
since the Trojan Horse.

They have been duped
into believing the Allies

have assembled a massive invading army
in the southeast of England,

directly opposite the Pas-de-Calais.

A phantom army headed
by US General, George Patton.

Germans fear Patton
more than any other general.

And they build barracks, they build
out all the facilities for an army,

they have dummy artillery,
dummy tanks, dummy vehicles of all sorts.

Inflatable jeeps,
planes, and tanks

deceived German reconnaissance
that General Patton's

fictitious first army was real.

Even Hitler's trusted spy network
were not what they seemed.

The Germans had no spies
in Britain.

They thought they had spies in Britain,
but every spy they had

had actually been turned
and was working as a double agent.

The best thing they could be used for
is strategic deception.

Build up a story over time,

through this double agent,

pretend that it's building up

in southeast England
where it's threatening the Pas-de-Calais.

While the Germans prepared
for the phantom army

in southeastern England,

over a million flesh and blood American,
Canadian, and British soldiers

were amassing further along the coast,

opposite the wide
open beaches of Normandy.

The best break
that the Allies had before D-Day

was their overwhelming air superiority
meant they were able to keep

German air reconnaissance
away from the south coast.

If the Germans had been able
to see aerial photographs

of what was going on in the south coast,

they would have had to see
this must be Normandy,

it can't be the Pas-de-Calais.

It is remarkable
that it remained a secret.

The Germans clearly knew
an invasion was in the offing.

They knew something was coming.

What they didn't know was when
and they didn't know where.

On the night before
the invasion fleet lands,

an airborne operation begins.

Eight thousand British
and 13,000 US paratroopers

are transported in planes

to be airdropped
behind the Nazi coastal defenses,

ahead of the seaborne landings.

Suddenly, there was this roar in the air,
and we looked up

and there were all
these aircraft going over.

You couldn't see the sky,
it was so black.

But the operation starts badly.

Heavy cloud cover means paratroopers
miss designated landing sites.

And the Germans
have deliberately flooded fields

to bog down Allied parachutists.

One of the key features
of D-Day as it unfolded

was that the weather was extremely
marginal for this sort of operation.

The vast majority of the troop drops,

particularly the American
airborne divisions,

were scattered over a very wide area.

Large number of them parachuted
into the flooded fields and drowned.

The paratroopers' mission
is to regroup,

stall any Germany counterattack
and then join the naval landing forces.

And create chaos among the only German
Panzer division near Normandy.

Sixth Airborne Division
jumped into the assembly area

of German 21st Armored Division.

So, 21st Armored Division
was supposed to launch

a counter offensive against the beaches,

but with the Airborne Division sitting
in the middle of their assembly area,

the Germans didn't know
who to attack first.

So, in the end,
the Germans split up their forces.

And this created confusion.

Artillery
and small armored vehicles

are brought in by gliders
to support the paratroopers.

They, too, suffer heavy casualties.

A third of all the D-Day Glider troops
are killed,

wounded or taken prisoner.

The losses were horrific.

The Germans had put bollards
in some of the fields

that wrecked some of them on landing.
Others crash landed.

But enough land safely
and prove instrumental

in seizing key hubs
behind the German front line.

British airborne
and Glider Divisions

were able to land incredibly close
to the bridges

that they needed to capture
across the canals,

particularly around Pegasus Bridge.

This was a crucial factor in actually
delaying the German reinforcements

coming in.

But it is the German
Panzer divisions

that pose the most immediate threat.

Yet the Germans aren't sure
whether the Allied troop drop

in Normandy is real
or just a diversion.

For the Germans,
everything hinges on the speed

with which they can get reserves in there,

and they've got many Panzer divisions
clustered near the beaches,

but they're waiting to find out
will the main thrust

be in the Pas-de-Calais
or will it be in Normandy?

To compound the confusion,
four Panzer divisions can't move

without Hitler's direct orders

and the Führer is still asleep.

Even though alarms of the attack
are coming in,

nobody wants to wake the Führer.

So those four Panzer divisions
that are under his exclusive control

can't be deployed swiftly to the scene.

Worse still,
in these critical hours,

not even Rommel is there to take control.

Two key personalities
are missing or unable to react;

Rommel and Hitler.

Hitler is asleep.

Rommel always considered
the first 24 or 48 hours crucial

for this battle,

and where was he?

He was away in Germany
celebrating his wife's birthday.

He had believed too much
in the German weather forecast,

which had said on the sixth of June,
it will be poor weather.

And then, the weather shifts
in the Allies' favor.

In the early hours of the sixth of June,

a window of opportunity opens
for Eisenhower.

And the invasion fleet
poised off the French coast.

As dawn breaks,
it's the German soldiers in Normandy,

not Calais, who witness the enormity
of the Allied invasion fleet

for the first time.

For the Germans
sitting in their bunkers in Normandy,

the sight of the Allied armada
must have been terrifying.

A sea full of metal.

Witnesses recall just absolute
stunned disbelief.

This was the greatest armada assembled
in world history,

and this thing suddenly appears
out of the darkness

off the coast of Normandy.

The massed armada
of 6,500 vessels

prepare for five beach landings
in Normandy.

Each one is given a different code name.

The Americans are landing
at Utah and Omaha beaches,

securing the western flank,

and attempt to seize the major port
of Cherbourg

to facilitate further Allied landings.

The British are landing at Gold
and Sword beaches further east,

with the Canadians between them at Juno.

Once ashore,
they will attempt to drive on

and seize the key city of Caen
on the same day.

Two miles off Gold beach,

20-year-old operations post assistant,
Denys Hunter,

is about to glimpse first light

of what Rommel will call,
"the longest day."

When it got daylight,
we were surrounded by ships,

absolutely surrounded by ships,
hundreds of them.

A massive naval bombardment
of the German defensive positions begins.

The noise
was absolutely horrendous.

We didn't have any ear protectors
or anything like that in those days,

so we just had to do the best we could.

After all the years
of planning and deception,

now came the hard part.

Landing on beaches where the troops
are most vulnerable.

Crossing water to launch
a military operation

is a very hard thing to do.

It's hard enough to cross a river,
never mind 40, 50 miles of sea.

At Utah beach, the sea is calm.

6.30 a.m. is H-hour on D-Day.

The first American troops land.

Only 100 Germans
man the beach defenses.

The US reports 197 casualties,

far less than expected.

But it's a very different story
for the Americans on Omaha Beach.

The preparations for D-Day
were overwhelming.

The operational plans
were feet thick of paper,

and detailed down to almost
every imaginable scenario.

But there's an old saying
among military practitioners,

and that is that no plan survives
contact with the enemy.

Unknown to Allied Intelligence,
a thousand battle hardened

Wehrmacht soldiers await the Americans.

Allied landing craft snag
on sandbanks.

And most of the submersible tanks
are launched too early, and sink.

American troops caught
between the sea

and experienced Wehrmacht fighters

are sitting ducks.

Omaha Beach is a disaster.

Everything that could go wrong
for the Americans on Omaha did.

I mean, the plan failed miserably.

You just ended up
with thousands of men trapped

under German machine gun fire
on the beach.

Many US troops die
in the first hail of bullets,

with over 3,000 casualties
throughout the day.

The British land an hour later,
at 7:25 a.m. on Sword Beach.

Sappers and flail tanks
clear beach mines,

and it's a successful landing.

In calmer seas,
the submersible tanks are able

to swim to the shoreline.

But there are major fortified positions
in this section of the Atlantic Wall.

One of these strong points,
code named Hillman,

which is an absolute labyrinth
of gun positions,

and just bogs down the British advance.

At Juno,
the first Canadian landing craft

hit the beach at 7:49 a.m.

The Canadians are keen to avenge
the loss of their comrades at Dieppe

two years earlier.

But they also suffer heavy losses.

Twenty of twenty-four landing craft
are sunk,

as a fast-incoming tide

pushes them towards Nazi mines
and beach obstacles.

At Gold Beach, the first British
landing craft have arrived.

When I landed,
water came up above my knees

as I was sitting in the craft.

All we wanted to do
was get off that boat,

get off that beach
and go up to hard ground.

One or two other trucks hit bomb holes,
they just sank.

One silly fool in front decided
that he wasn't gonna wait in the queue.

He blew up, and that put
the wind up the lot of us.

When I got within sight
of the beach,

we could see explosions, a lot of smoke,
a lot of machine gun fire

and then we were down the ramp
and into the water.

And the water came up to my waist.

I was carrying a lot of equipment
and I thought,

"If I go down here,
I'll never get up."

Hunter's commanding officer
is Major Kenneth Swan.

Major Swan said, "That wall by the track,
make for there now,

don't look, don't stop for anything."

He said, "If you stop, you're dead."

When we got past the wall
onto the open field,

there was a sniper shooting at us.

Major Swan, he turned to me and he said,

"I don't think I'll see England again."

And, you know, he didn't.

It isn't until nine o'clock
in the morning,

far away in the Alps,

that Hitler finally wakes
and assesses the news.

He is briefed
that there are two massive fleets

bearing down on Calais.

Normandy is no more
than an elaborate diversion.

Calais is the real target.

Hitler is being duped
by another elaborate British deception.

Window is tin foil
that's dropped from an airplane

and then is reflected
by the enemy's radar.

So it looked, to German radar,

as though this was a fleet
approaching very slowly,

and that clearly was coming
in the Pas-de-Calais.

Inland, more chaos ensues.

As German troops rush to intercept
Allied paratroopers,

they discover many are miniature
decoys known as Ruperts.

Ruperts are dropped
further inland in order

to create a bigger chaos
amongst the German defenders.

If these come down,
they go and rush,

they find one of these Ruperts
on the ground.

Then, when the real parachute troops
come down later,

they'll think it's going to be
the same thing.

Despite around
10,000 casualties in total,

the sheer weight of numbers of Allied men
and machinery landing on D-Day,

eventually overwhelm
most of the German defensive positions.

In total, almost 160,000 Allied troops

cross the Channel on D-Day.

With their uniforms still wet,
the British and Canadian infantry

begin moving towards
their next strategic target,

the city of Caen.

And Caen is absolutely vital
for the Allied landings

'cause it's this big road hub
that radiates out in all directions

from Normandy to the north,
to the east, to the south.

So they have to take it in order
to expand out of the beach head.

Only at 3:00 p.m.,
when most of the Allied beaches

have been secured,
does Hitler realize

he has been completely fooled.

Finally, he releases
the 12th SS Panzer Division,

manned by fanatical members
of Hitler Youth,

to join the 21st Panzer Division at Caen.

Their combined forces can still push
the Allies back into the sea.

The commander of 12th SS Division

is SS Standartenführer, Kurt Meyer,

a skillful Panzer commander
but also a ruthless Nazi,

and he makes his men believe

fighting in France is the same
as fighting at home.

The Hitler Youth division
fought ferociously

and very often fought
to the last cartridge.

Some of the British troops
have fighting experience

in Italy and North Africa,

but most have never come across a foe
as deadly as an SS Panzer Division.

But, critically,
some of the 12th Division

are sent to respond to another
Allied paratrooper landing near Lisieux.

In reality,
they are heading to intercept

yet more Ruperts.

The Allied deception
gains them crucial time.

But the remaining half
of the battle-hardened

SS Panzer Division do reach Caen,

and they are prepared to defend it
to the death.

The Germans built up
a stiff defense line around Caen.

After the landing, Allied troops
are physically exhausted.

And this allows the Germans
to regroup their defenses.

So instead of a quick walk
through Normandy,

the ensuing battle is a war of attrition.

In overall command
of the Allied ground forces

attempting to seize Caen…

is controversial Field Marshal,
Bernard Montgomery.

Montgomery
is a very self-centered character.

He might well be mildly autistic.

He didn't seem to have
a great deal of empathy.

He started to think of himself
not so much as just a leader of troops,

but as actually a figurehead,

and there was a hell of a fight on here.

This wasn't about Montgomery,
this was about trying to get,

ultimately, to Germany.

And Monty doesn't exactly
endear himself

to his American counterparts.

Whereas some other
British Generals understood

the vital importance of getting along
with the Americans

and being civil to them,

Montgomery was absolutely consistent
throughout the war

in insulting the Americans at every turn.

Despite the strength
and ferocity of the Panzer defenses,

if Monty can break through at Caen,

the Allies can make swift progress
into France

and, ultimately, Germany itself.

Monty's mission is critical.

The terrain beyond Caen
is perfect tank country.

If he can take Caen and its vital roads,
he can then facilitate the break-up.

A week after D-Day,
in the town of Villers-Bocage,

German tank commander,
Michael Wittmann,

ambushes and destroys
more than ten British tanks

in an audacious 15-minute attack.

Even though it's only
quite a minor tactical victory

for the Germans,

German propaganda portrays this
as a huge victory over the Allies.

Michael Wittmann himself
becomes a hero of Nazi propaganda.

We came to Villers-Bocage.

The Germans had placed Tiger tanks

in some of the houses.

We had the order to shell these houses.

There wasn't a single house
standing in that village.

We'd not only killed Germans,
we killed civilians.

We were quite cut up about it.
We were really, really distraught.

While Monty
is making little progress in Caen,

the Americans in the west
are also finding that breaking out

from their beach heads is no easy matter.

From the American side of the beaches
you're crossing bocage country.

These famous French hedgerows,
which were built to divide the fields.

And they were perfect to shelter crops
from the wind.

They also provide perfect cover
for the Germans,

and the Germans use them.

So they've got men behind
and even inside the hedgerows

under perfect concealment,
fire at these Allies

trying to break out of the beach heads.

The tall hedgerows
of the Normandy bocage

are insurmountable
for some of the Allies' Sherman tanks.

Some are fitted with hedge cutting teeth
at the front,

to be able to get through them.

But these Allied tanks are a poor match
for the heavy German Panther tank.

Sherman tanks quickly catch fire.

The Germans call them Tommy cookers.

And the Germans have turned
an anti-aircraft gun

into an anti-tank gun,

for which the Allies have little answer.

Our artillery was far superior
to the Germans',

except for one gun that the Germans had.

That was the 88 millimeter.

It was a very deadly gun.

They could fire on our tanks
before our tanks were near enough

to use their ammunition.

We were advancing
along a main road.

The roads were very dry,
so the vehicles threw up a lot of dust.

What we didn't realize,
that a German 88

had pinpointed this road.

Germans saw it,

sent over shell.

Bang, right in the middle
of the truck it landed.

He was full of petrol
and, well, there was nothing left.

And I couldn't move.

I was so shocked, I couldn't move.

On the 18th of July,
in an effort to break

the deadlock around Caen,

Operation Goodwood sees heavy bombers

hit the German front-line
with over 7,000 tons of bombs.

The tank battle that follows
is one of the largest

the British Army ever fights.

A week later,
American bombers hit the Germans

near Saint-Lô, with Operation Cobra.

After seven weeks, the battle for Caen,
predicted by Monty to last one day,

reaches its end game.

The British and Canadians
flush out German positions

in brutal house-to-house fighting.

A relentless Allied bombing campaign
leaves Caen flattened.

Thousands of French
are caught in the crossfire.

There was a lot
of civilian casualties in Caen.

When we went through,
it was a terrible sight really.

It was a ruined people, yeah,
it was absolutely bad, very bad.

German resistance weakens
as they run low on ammunition,

food, and equipment.

Allied aerial supremacy sees
Nazi supply lines bombed mercilessly.

The Seventh Army tell Hitler
they need 4,500 tons of supplies

every day to fight the Allies.

But little more than a quarter
of this amount is getting through.

With no petrol or spare parts,

many German tanks are left abandoned.

The Germans are getting chewed up.
They're being ground down.

When a Tiger tank fails mechanically,

it's gone forever,
there's no repair network.

When a Sherman tank fails,
there's a whole host of mobile workshops.

The Germans are forced to rely
on horse drawn transport

to resupply their battered troops.

Thing at that point
that really surprised me was

how many horses
the Germans had been using.

There was dozens of horses lying about.

We were understood
that it was a modern mechanized army.

Because everybody looks
at all the news reels of Panzers,

they forget that the German Army
was still overwhelmingly

a horse drawn army.

Americans and British
were totally mechanized,

and the Germans still were not.

The Germans are bombed
into submission

as their front line collapses
throughout Normandy.

As the Americans approach
from the south and west,

and British and Canadians
from the north and east,

100,000 German soldiers
find themselves trapped

in the Falaise Pocket.

With the Americans and us,
we encircled the Falaise area

and gradually moved in,
tightened the cordon all the way round.

The animals suffered most of all.

And the stench from dead animals
and dead bodies was tremendous.

We had a job trying
not to be sick ourselves

as we drove through there
because of the stench of death.

Ten thousand soldiers are killed

and 40,000 taken prisoner.

This means the end
of a German Army in France.

With the collapse of the Eastern Front,
it meant that in the summer of 1944,

Germany had suffered
two devastating defeats.

The Germans suffered on average
about 6,000 to 6,500 casualties per day.

The German Army
is beaten in France,

but not finished, far from it.

Fifty thousand escape Falaise,

including almost all the senior officers.

Two or three weeks later,
that same wrecked army,

an amazing number of those formations
were able to fight again

and to keep the war going until May 1945.

On the 25th of August 1944,
Paris is finally liberated.

But losses on both sides
make victory for the Allies bittersweet.

There are more than half-a-million
Allied and German casualties in Normandy.

A further 20,000 French civilians
are killed in the crossfire.

The overall casualty rate
per day is higher in number,

proportionally, than it was
at the Somme or Verdun

and Passchendaele in the First World War.

The Germans kept on fighting

when we thought that they shouldn't do.

We just wanted to get in
and get it over with, finish it.

I must have had
a good guardian angel for that day,

Same as I had for several other occasions
that I can remember.

A corner
in the battle for Europe has been turned.

The Normandy landings,
there's no question

they're a resounding success.

They are a real feat of arms,
a real feat of technology,

a real feat of American, British,
Canadian courage.

To have the Americans in place
to defend Europe

against Soviet domination
was absolutely critical,

and that's facilitated
by the landings in Normandy.

Dunkirk and the defeat
of France has been avenged.

Churchill said
he'd fight them on the beaches,

and with help from the Allies,
has been true to his word.

The war is not yet over,

but D-Day and the battle for Normandy

mark the beginning of the end.

Re-sync & redact: BLU DUAINE
blu.duaine@protonmail.com