1944 and on the Eastern Front Hitler’s forces were being pushed back towards the German border but Germany was about to face a

new threat in the west Allied Forces had been preparing for months to open a new front in Northwest [Music] France training for it was well underway but it was an attack Hitler had long been expecting his problem was knowing when and above all where it would come the stage was set for one of the greatest battles of World War II dday the Allied Landings along the Normandy coast of France [Music] since the early years of the war Britain’s prime minister Winston Churchill had always been certain that at some point an Allied invasion of

Northern Europe would be necessary the only questions were when where and how to test the waters British forces had already mounted a number of practice operations in December 1941 British Commandos raided the Vago islands off the coast of Nazi occupied [Music] [Music] Norway it was an attempt to probe German defenses and tie down hit troops in the north the fish oil factory and Coastal defenses were blown up before the Commandos withdrew 8 months later Canadian and

British troops were sent in to mount a more ambitious raid on the French Port of [Music] De it too was designed time to test the defenses and also to provide combat experience for the Canadians but this time it was a catastrophe as landing craft approached the main Beach they were met by withering fire those troops that made it ashore were immediately pinned down behind them the supporting tanks became bogged down in the shingle few managed to scale the sea [Music]

wall over 3,000 Allied soldiers were killed or or taken prisoner Britain had learned an important lesson never attempt to direct assault on a German occupied [Music] Port equally importantly the Deep disaster reinforced the British view that an invasion of Europe could not be rushed Churchill understood it would require careful planning eventually in April 1943 at an Allied conference in Washington Churchill and the US President Franklin Roosevelt agreed upon a [Music] date D-Day or Operation Overlord as a cbor invasion of France was formerly

called would take place in the summer of 1944 but by now the Germans were preparing for it in Earnest since the winter of 1941 they had been building an Atlantic War it was a massive series of fortifications running along the European Coast from Denmark to the Spanish border gun imp placements had been been constructed at likely Landing sites beaches had been mined and covered in barbed wire obstacles have been placed in strategic places to block landing craft Hitler had boasted I am the greatest builder of fortifications of

all time in the summer of 1942 in the wake of the deep attack work on the Atlantic Wall had been stepped up Hitler had also ordered an increase in troop numbers in the region the German overall commander in the West Field Marshal G Von runed had been given 15 further divisions but the Western European Coast stretched for some 2,000 miles he didn’t have the numbers to manly entire [Music] length F runet faced a difficult decision where should he position his overstretched forces to maximize their effect the question led to Bitter

arguments inside the German leadership Fon runet proposed holding a large force of panzas in reserve Northwest of Paris he could then send it in against an invasion once he knew where it was happening but the hugely respected Field Marshal Irvin RL commander of the troops covering the sector from Holland along the French Coast to the lir had a different View [Music] rl’s concern was Allied air power he’d seen it firsthand when he’ fought the British in North Africa and it had left a profound impression he feared that any

Counterattack would be broken up by Allied aircraft long before it could go into action rml had also inspected Hitler’s Atlantic Wall and found much of it wanting it had forced him to the conclusion that the best place to position the panzas was as close as possible to the most likely Landing sites that way an invasion could be immediately pushed back before it got a foothold hit Hitler compromised runet was given a small Force he could hold in reserve though Hitler himself would have the final say as to when it could be

used the rest of the additional troops were scattered along the entire Atlantic Seaboard in accordance with rl’s wishes it would turn out to be the worst of all the solutions there were neither enough reserves nor enough tanks near the coast but in the Autumn of 1943 none of this was clear in Britain the Allied planners were also grappling with the problem of location where was the best place to land their Chief planner General frck Morgan quickly realized there were two principal options the padal and Normandy the padak Cal was clearly the

favorite it offered the shortest sea Crossing and it offered the shortest and most direct way to Germany but it was also the most obvious route and Morgan was sure the Germans were expecting it so he decided to wrong foot them Morgan would land in Normandy it was the beginning of a huge gamble on which the fate of hundreds of thousands of soldiers would depend discover the past with exclusive military history documentaries and adree podcast presented by world-renowned historians all on History hit watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your

mobile device download the app now to watch everything from the gripping story of the Band of Brothers to operation Barbarosa and D-Day immerse yourself in the dramatic stories of this remarkable era by signing up via the link in the [Music] description in the Autumn of 1943 Allied photo reconnaissance aircraft swept over the beach of northern France it was part of a huge planning operation for the Seaborn invasion of Europe the fortifications of the Atlantic Wall were monitored by the French Resistance men crept ashore to collect

sand samples to test whether armored vehicles could be landed [Music] northern France became the most reconed Coastline in the history of warfare it soon became clear any Landing would need some kind of Port [Music] facilities but the disaster at Deep had shown that it was too dangerous to attempt to direct assault on a German occupied port [Music] Britain’s planners were forced to come up with an ingenious alternative giant Hollow concrete boxes were constructed in Britain that could later be towed to the French

Coast there they would be sunk to form an artificial they were known by their code name mures the mbre would be supplied with fuel by a pipeline Unwound from giant reels and dropped on the seabed it would run for 100 miles [Music] the pumping station on the aisle of white was disguised as an ice cream parlor but the raid on De had also revealed a second problem how to get the first wave of troops off the beaches and through the German fortifications the man told to solve that question was General Percy Hobart one of the pioneers of armored

Warfare Hobart came up with a series of ingenious devices the troops called them the funnies they included such extraordinary machines as flamethrowers and floating tanks flail tanks for clearing mines the bobin for laying firm paths across sand or [Music] shingle an armored ramp for climbing sea [Music] walls the fine carrier for tackling [Music] ditches and the bridging tank for wider obstacles [Music] that left just one problem how to stop the Germans rushing in overwhelming

reinforcements before the Allies had established a [Music] foothold the answer was to keep them guessing until the very last moment as to where the invasion would take place operation bodyguard was a massive and complex deception campaign German double agents in Britain now began sending back to Germany huge amounts of carefully coordinated false information this emphasized that the main Landings would be in the pakal although a faint attack might be launched in Normandy to muddy the waters still further the allied military created a

fictitious army unit the so-call first US Army group or fusac it was stationed very obviously in K bang opposite theak the man in charge of it was the pistol toting us General George Patton who’d been removed from action in Sicily after slapping Shell Shocked soldiers Patton was rated by the Germans as the Allies best attacking general just the man they expected to command the invasion of Western Europe Basher 52 this is Basher 11 on Alpha Radio Transmissions mimic the wireless traffic of an army for the benefit of any LTV

reconnaissance aircraft flying over Britain the fields of Kent were filled with inflatable tanks and carefully faked track [Music] marks there were dummy aircraft made of wood and canvas Harbors along the Kent Coast were filled with dummy Landing [Music] CFT the were even troops though these were in reality backup units in late 1943 the Allies appointed US general Dwight Eisenhower the Supreme Allied Commander for the invasion of Europe British General Bernard Montgomery would be an overall command of the initial assault

troops DJ was fixed for June the 5th [Music] 1944 two months before the landing Eisenhower launched an elaborate air offensive to disrupt German links to the [Music] coast once again it was carefully planned to give the impression the Allies Target was the padal region as the date of the invasion approached Allied troop numbers in England reached over 2 million they were supported by more than 3,000 taxs and 12,000 [Music] aircraft the Germans were well aware where an invasion was

imminent but they had been completely taken in by the Allies phony preparations in Kent and were convinced the most likely landing spot was the padal everything seemed to be going the Allies way the troops were briefed then the weather turned against rain lashed down visibility was poor and the channel was [Music] stormy nevertheless on June the 4th 1944 the assault troops boarded their Landing ships and the Armada of more than 5,000 vessels set sail but the rain continued to lash down and

later that day The Invasion had to be postponed the ships returned to port and the assault troops faced a nerve shredding [Music] weight early the next morning the military leadership met again the naval commanders were Keen to go ahead but the air chiefs were doubtful they worried the visibility would still be too poor to provide effective air support after a long silence Eisenhower looked up let’s go he said Operation Overlord the greatest Seaborn Invasion ever was underway D-Day had

begun at 1:15 in the morning of June the 6th 1944 British aircraft Towing gliders arrived over the coast of northern [Music] France then the gliders were released and plunged down to capture vital bridges over the Kong canal in eastern Normandy the Allies had launched their great gamble to invade Hitler’s Empire in Western [Music] Europe 50 m to the West us paratroops came down around the village of s there was a fierce firefight but 3 hours later the village was in US HS one of the most crucial battles of

World War II was [Music] underway an hour later horrified German sentries along the Normandy Coast saw a vast Armada appear out of the Mist they had had no warning the Allied Fleet had sailed under under cover of Darkness moreover Allied countermeasures had confused the German radar into believing the main weight of the attack was approaching the French Coast further east at the P Cal Allied warships off the Normandy Coast now began pounding the German defensive positions [Music] wave after wave of aircraft swept

[Music] overhead under cover of the bombardment assault troops headed for the shore [Music] but as they closed in German artillery and machine guns opened fire a number of the landing craft were hit others fell foul of underwater obstructions but at 6:30 in the morning the first waves of troops hit the [Music] beaches at the Far Western end the US

fourth infantry division came ashore near at what they called Utah Beach within two hours it was linking up with the US paratroopers who’ landed at San mer next door at Omaha Beach it was more difficult the beach was a defender’s dream with high Cliffs and few ways in land as the US first Infantry Division waited a to shore they were moan down by German machine guns to make matters worse the Americans amphibious tanks were [Music] swamped the troops were trapped on the beach disaster was looming

but finally a few of the soldiers managed to scale the [Music] clips against all the odds the Americans hung on to the beach head further East in the center of the landing area Britain’s 50th Infantry Division came ashore at Gold [Music] Beach they too met Savage F but now the British deployed their funnies [Music] the troops were soon moving in L at the adjoining landing spot Juno

Beach the Canadian third infantry division faced a similar [Music] situation here too Britain’s funnies were vital in helping the troops off the beach [Music] finally on the far left flank at sword Beach the British third infantry division met only patchy [Music] resistance within hours its Commandos had linked up with the glider born troops at the corn Canal by early afternoon the Allies had successfully established all of the beach heads the timing of the invasion had caught the Germans completely by

surprise they’d expected the Allies to wait until the weather had cleared roml the operational German Commander for the whole of the Northwest French Coast had taken the opportunity of bad weather to visit his family in Germany [Music] his immediate subordinate in Normandy and Britany General Friedrich dolman was over a 100 miles away taking part in a war game [Music] exercise only the overall German Commander for the whole of Western Europe field Marshall G Fon runet was at his [Music] HQ but he needed Hitler’s permission to

move his paner reserves to the battlefield however Hitler was asleep and his AIDS wouldn’t wake him it wasn’t until midday that the fura finally leared about the invasion but he didn’t take it seriously he was still convinced the main attack would come in the padal Normandy he believed was just a fit [Music] finally in the late afternoon when the scale of the invasion was becoming all too clear Hitler Unleashed his reserves but they were too far away to provide immediate support [Music] despite stubborn German resistance the

beach heads around Utah gold and Juno and sword were secure only at Omaha was a situation more [Music] precarious here German resistance had prevented the US troops moving more than a mile in land [Music] by Nightfall on June the 6th over a 100,000 Allied troops had been landed in [Music] Normandy it had been an extraordinary feat of planning Ingenuity and courage the first day of the Allies great gamble had paid off but it was just the beginning now

they had to build up break out and push on into [Music] Europe as the second day dawned on the greatest Seaborn Invasion ever attempted thousands of Allied troops had broken out of their Beach heads and were moving Inland but they found the Normandy Countryside Hardo the patchwork of Woodland and small Fields provided ideal terrain for German tanks and machine guns the Allies suffered heavy [Music]

casualties Allied air power provided crucial support when Von Run’s Panza reinforcements arrived they’d been so depleted by the air attacks that they were unable to mount a major Counterattack the German reinforcements were also hampered by French Resistance Fighters operating behind German lines they ambushed troop convoys and blew up Bridges as a result the dasra SS Panza division took over over 2 weeks to make a journey which should have lasted a mere 3 days its troops took out their fury on the French civilian

population the village of oror sulan and its 642 inhabitants were wiped out after 4 days of fighting all the Allied Beach heads were finally able to link up but they’d still only managed to penetrate 10 miles in [Music] land eventually 6 days after the landing the British commander General Montgomery launched a major assault on the strategically important town of Kong the British seventh armor division The Desert Rats Advanced but its spearhead ran into four

German Tiger tacks the Allies Sherman tanks were completely outlasted their guns were out ranged and their shells unable to penetrate the German armor they were particularly vulnerable because many ran on petrol Fuel and were liable to burst into flames when hit the Germans nicknamed the Sherman the Ronson after the cigarette lighter or more maily the Tommy cooker in less than 5 minutes more than 10 British tanks were [Music] destroyed the attack on Kong storm outmatched by the German tanks the Allies relied on air power and artillery

[Music] but it wasn’t enough The Desert Rats retreated K remained in German hands meanwhile further west US forces Advanced on the equally important port of sherbo it would take them nearly 10 days to get close to they weren’t helped by the weather during the first week of the invasion it had been relatively calm and supplies and reinforcements had poured in through the mury artificial

Harbors but now the weather turned Gail swept the English [Music] Channel the US mury Harbor at Omaha was destroyed the other mulbury in the British sector was badly damaged and put out of action for several days the flow of reinforcements slowed it meant the port of cherborg was an even more vital [Music] objective as the US forces now approached it the German Garrison resisted there was fierce house- toh house fighting it would take the Allies a week to secure the

city but the port had been Trashed by the fleeing Germans it would take a further month before it could be brought back into service meanwhile Montgomery launched another assault on K but the storms had turned the fields into a sea of mud low Cloud meant air support was impossible to make matters worse the newly arrived Elite German second SS panacor was thrown into the defense of the city after 4 days the British were again forced to

[Music] Halt then as the clouds cleared nearly 500 Allied bombers devastated k [Music] British troops fought their way into the north suburbs but the ruins made ideal defensive positions for the Germans [Music] Allied casualties [Music] mounted after 48 Hours the attack was yet again called [Music] off 3 weeks later Montgomery tried for a fourth

time the plan was to capture the remaining German strongholds and then push on South deeper into [Music] France after two more days of fighting the city was finally won the way now seemed open for the British tanks to move South deeper into France [Music] but the Germans were waiting with a large force of [Music] panzas the British Advance stopped [Music] again the Americans in the west however were having an easier time the fighting around Kong had sucked in the majority

ity of the German Defenders as the American forces prepared to thrust further into France they faced only scattered opposition the scene was set for the Allied Forces to break out at [Music] last at 9:30 in the morning of July the 25th 1944 over 1,800 Allied aircraft carpet bombed a 4M stretch of the German Front Line south of sherbo it was the beginning of operation Cobra the US breakout into France the German Defenders were stunned by the size of the [Music] assault and so too were some of the US Soldiers the plan had been for the

bombers to fly in from the East parallel to the US front line to minimize the risk of bombing American [Music] troops but most of the aircraft came in over the top of the US lines bombs fell short over a 100 US troops were hit and killed [Music] yet despite the ferocity of the bombardment when the US forces later picked themselves up and moved forward they found to their astonishment substantial numbers of German troops had [Music] survived the survivors mounted a stubborn resistance as fighting raged it looked as though

the Americans would fail to break through the German [Music] lines but then the German defenses crumbled the next morning US tanks broke through and moved forward into Open Country there was now almost no German resistance left and the Americans quickly pushed deeper into France the Hilltown of couton fell then the crossroads town of AV as the Allies pressed forward they were helped by change and confusion in the German High

command at the beginning of July 3 weeks after the D-Day Landings Hitler dismissed the German Commander in Chief Field Marshal G Fon runet for defeatism Fon runet had made little attempt to hide his belief that Germany faced an unwinable struggle he was replaced by Field Marshal gon kuger fresh from the Eastern front but with little knowledge of Northwestern France two weeks later roml the second most senior German officer on the front was severely injured when his staff car was strafed by a British fighter [Music]

then with a Nazi command already in confusion there was an assassination attempt on Hitler’s life on July the 20th 1944 a disillusioned aristocratic war hero Colonel Claus shank graph Von Stenberg planted a bomb in the planning Hut at Hitler’s headquarters in East [Music] Prussia four officers were killed but Hitler was sheltered by a heavy solid oak conference table and escaped with only minor [Music] injuries the plot was swiftly and brutally put down F staenberg was shot and his principal collaborators put on

trial they would later be hanged Hitler put a brave face on it and visited some of the Wounded in hospital but it hardened still further his distrust of his senior officers he would despite his many earlier misjudgments demand even greater control over events on the battlefield back in France General George Patton back in charge of a real fighting force ordered his troops to Fan out they took Ren mayen and headed for Lamar they were now moving round behind the German forces still battling it out with the British and Canadians near k

[Music] with the Americans to their South and the British to their North it seemed the German forces in Normandy would be surrounded Hitler issued his usual order that there should be no retreat but as the Allies squeezed in on them the Germans began to flee they were remorselessly harried by Allied aircraft and [Music] artillery the casualties were [Music] appalling finally on August the 20th 1944 the Allied Forces moving in from both the North and South met up the so-called phes Gap named after

the nearby French Village had been [Music] closed large numbers of Germans were [Music] trapped over 10,000 more Germans caught in the Allied Piner died a further 50,000 were taken [Music] prisoner the German Army in Western Europe was in chaos meanwhile far to the south on the French Mediterranean Coast near can there was a second Allied Seaborn [Music]

Invasion US troops came ashore virtually unopposed they were helped by paratroopers from the free French army men who had escaped from German occupied French territory in Europe and North Africa The Landing had always been opposed by the British who regarded it as a [Music] diversion but the United States had long regarded it as an essential part of clearing the Germans out of [Applause] France the troops were greeted by an exstatic civilian population [Music] it was soon advancing rapidly up the rone [Music] valley Leon was liberated on September

the 3rd [Applause] 1944 10 days later they reached d and made contact with Patton’s forces advancing from Western [Applause] France German units stationed across the region [Music] fled in barely 3 weeks of headlong Advance the Allied invasion of Europe had liberated most of France that left Paris where French Resistance Fighters now rose up against the German occupation there seemed little to prevent the Allied onrush from continuing to the German border [Music] e

1944 and on the Eastern Front Hitler’s forces were being pushed back towards the German border but Germany was about to face a

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