A History Teacher Reacts | "D-Day (Part 1)" by Extra Credits

[Music] hey youtube welcome back to another history teacher reacts video of mr. Terry's I continued my search for historical knowledge here on YouTube alright today's video is the winner of this week's patrons pick poll so once a week I put up a poll of videos that are patron subscribers sir members can vote on to get it featured on the channel and this week this one one which is d-day by the folks over at extra history so they do a little short mini series so I believe there are four episodes I want to say on this I gotta double check that but I think four episodes on d-day so that is a popular topic not surprising to me that it had one and I love this series and they're very supportive of our channel so it really I really appreciate it if you go down to the description below and click the link which will be to the original video give them a like and subscribe if you have not already yet because again they're supportive of this channel and I love their stuff so I'm excited to do this so d-day of course the Allied invasion in the West in France in World War two is seen as one of the most famous invasions battles whatever you want to call it in history the largest amphibious invasion in history as well and is a big part of World War two history in general so if you would like to join our patreon a link will be down below memberships or whatever start at as little as a dollar a month which will get you access to polls and be a great support to the channel alright let's go ahead and get started so this is gonna be episodic d-day the Great Crusade let's check it out when the signal is given the whole settle themselves upon the imagine that signal comes today this episode is sponsored by wargaming new players can download World of Tanks and use the code Neptune for free goodies link in the turn d-day June 6 1944 months of efforts have been building up to this day throughout England half a million men have been gathered at staging areas to strike across the channel as soon as the signal is given men from the United States Britain Canada Australia Belgium Czechoslovakia France Greece the Netherlands New Zealand Norway and Poland you know the thing people usually usually people remember you know Britain and the United States but then I think I'm next year people usually know how important Canada was as storming one of the beaches but not a lot people know about all these other nations I think it's pretty fringed they're yet to learn about how many nations were involved again especially United States Britain Canada being a part of d-day in my American I died an American military history class in college and we spent pretty much the whole day on d-day like a whole and it was a long as one of those classes where you meet once a week and it was you know two three hours and the professor wanted to basically just spend a whole day on it which was was cool I'm just going into this there was so much but you know before I'd taken that class and learned that day in school there was way more prep work and deception and stuff into d-day then I had any clue of before like it was incredible how much went into this and it was still something that they were not necessarily confident that it would work on have you ever heard of or we were seeing Eisenhower's general Eisenhower's letter that he had drafted for if d-day had failed it's kind of eerie because he had one plan that if it didn't work you know he was gonna have this public statement so it was one of the most prepared things I've ever heard of in military history but even then they didn't know how successful it would be so I'm excited to learn more and get a refresher because it's been a while since I had that class and learned a lot of the real specifics about d-day so I'm really excited for this little series thanks for voting on that everybody today will be telling the American story as best it can be told in a few short minutes and over the coming weeks thanks to the generous support of wargaming we will tell the story of three of the other major players involved but that story begins with a dinner in Tehran in 1943 for the first time the leaders of the most powerful Allied nations the United States the USSR and the British Empire met in one room man fer was not doing very well by this time he was well it gets elected to four terms doesn't you know finish out the fourth and by this time yeah he was his polio was so bad he was pretty much wheelchair-bound all the time we know some about Franklin Delano Roosevelt he didn't like to be photographed or you know filmed in his wheelchair which is often why you up you won't see him with it and very much specially in his older years we can see in these meetings with these photo ops he doesn't look very good he's and I know just imagine the physical mental turmoil he had gone through with those four but these four terms like the some of the worst parts of American history he inherited the Great Depression and then had to try to stay out of the war and then got into the war and I was fighting it and it's very difficult here it said this in 1943 when fighting is really bad but yeah he doesn't he doesn't live to see the end of this he ends up dying the month that the war in Europe ended there in April of 45 for years Stalin his nation battered by the Nazi invasion and bearing the brunt of the human cost of the war against Germany had pressed the Allies to open up a second front to the war by invading France the British had pushed back arguing for operations in North Africa and then an assault on Italy but now with all the Eastern Front the man's from Stalin became harder to deny and read me I'm snacking as well Joseph Stalin has the most leverage of this meeting he's one that's doing the fighting people that are dying right Americans have no leverage they're not even being attacked Britain fend it off of course the the Blitz right and the German invasion but Stalin is definitely in the position that has the bigger hand the most most to do because I mean he's the one that's that's keeping the the Germans at bay and has done so for years quite successfully for the most mam I mean they're losing incredible and a lot amount of lives but they're also able to push back you know eventually eventually here so yeah they're the biggest position and he has Stalin has the most leverage in this this whole meeting and simultaneously everyone started to think of the post-war settlement if the Allies won why does British and American troll liberating Western Europe how could they stop the USSR from claiming huge swathes of land and perhaps even at least politically dominating the continent remember going into World War two the Western nations feared Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union in communism more than they did Adolf Hitler and what was going on in Germany and so this alliance that that's here is only in place because you have a common enemy they don't trust Stalin I mean they barely trust him even to fight with them there but they're especially fearful of a post-world War two Soviet Union right so they yeah it's it's a scary situation but a lot of people maybe don't realize that they don't really like the Soviet Union there do there they're a lying with them kind of a common necessity but want to make sure every deal everything they make has something where they can keep an eye on this the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union can exploit the alliance in the relationship and so an agreement was made out in the deserts of Iran the Western powers would open up a second front by invading France in May of 1944 plans were drawn up an amphibious of this size had never been tried men and material would have to be drawn back stuff around the world new technologies would have to be invented engineering feats previously only discussed in conference rooms would have to be put to the test under wartime conditions but the first decision that had to be made was where to land there were two possible targets Calais the closest point in Europe to England or Normandy one of the farthest on the channel coast the famous thing is that up there in the the upper red X famous thing I'm sure they're going to get into is that is where Hitler thought it would be and move what like a million troops I believe to Calais and you know there's still a lot of troops and Normandy and stuff but centralizing it there it's the shortest point between the English Channel and also I will see if they get into it but there was a lot of deception made up here in this part of Britain right across from Calais where you get things like patents inflatable army and some of that stuff where they were trying to make a decoy army here to make the Germans and make Hitler think that Calais is going to be the point of entry we'll see if they get into that but that's just another interesting stories they wanted it to wanted the the Allies wanted them to think it'd be a Calais point in Europe to England or Normandy one of the farthest on the channel Coast Calais was the same sensible place to land but it had two notable disadvantages first terrain in which you could easily get bogged down and second the fact that it was the same sensible place to land reviewing the battle plan Eisenhower and Montgomery were in agreement they wanted the element of surprise with the possibility of being able to rush off the beaches so the decision was made Normandy it would be but this would require one of the greatest counterintelligence operations ever attempted to keep the secret safe not to mention the equipment and the manpower on an even greater scale entire harbours had to be fabricated which could be shipped over from England more landing craft needed time to roll off the factory lines so the operation was delayed until June finally the day arrives June 4th 1944 planes prep final drills are run through tens thousands of men board ships for the invasion and then the rain starts to roll in soon it becomes a storm ferocious waves sweep the tension clouds completely blocked the sky high winds Buffett any craft that ventures on sea land and especially air Eisenhower is forced to make the decision the attack must be delayed rain continues to pour the next day a Council of Allied commanders is called if they delay again they won't be able to launch until July they need to do the channel crossing at night they need to do commando raids and minesweeping when the unsuspecting Germans will have the fewest patrols out but for a crossing of this magnitude they need nearly full moon visibility even if they did decide to brave a launch without the full moon tidal conditions wouldn't be right for another two weeks what do they do they've got thousands of men already holed up on boats getting seasick and nervous and just plain stir-crazy you know they they they also kept the date because I mean they were made to be pretty open about when the date was but they were not like that the soldiers did not know when this day was gonna be they basically had to be be ready at a minutes notice now that a lot of that was intentional it's a massive army that's being established here in southern England right and the biggest armies ever assembled and they had to try to keep it as secret as possible I mean it's a you can't hide like a million two million troops that are amassing but try to keep it there so they intentionally kind of left the soldiers a little bit in the dark about when exactly it would be and again so that so information wouldn't get out another thing that was interesting is they stopped allowing the troops to send letters home for a while because they didn't want even any information like that to get out about where they are exactly in placements so there was a basically an information lockdown that for a lot of the information going into the troops but information going out as well they've already started moving equipment and forces into staging areas which can clearly only be targeting one place Normandy and they've had to alert enough people up and down the chain as to the nature of the operation that with each passing day the odds of keeping their landing location a secret plummet but to cross in this weather that would be madness then mr. Dinh he's an RAF meteorologist and he is about to make what may well be the most consequential weather report of all time he says he believes it's going to be clear on the 6th Eisenhower nods the operation is a go 6,000 ships begin to steam across the channel minesweepers fan out ahead of them clearing a path of fright weeks the Allied forces have bombed the German air force in the region nearly to oblivion no enemy interceptors exist to spot the waves of gliders and transport planes carrying 17,000 airborne troops the ships won't reach the beaches until dawn but the airborne infantry has night work to do first in our the Pathfinders the men whose job it is to light the drop zones for all the other parachute infantry machen hasaki that job is you're the first ones in you got to sneak in and find the paths right you're the first line yikes of the four planes carrying these pathfinders one overshoots their target another has to bail before ever getting to France and the remaining two kept most of their signalling gear in the ditched plane leaving them desperately trying to signal the paratroopers by waving flashlights at the passing airplanes the paratrooper drop goes even worse scattered by enemy anti-aircraft fire and blinded by low clouds paratroopers jump from altitudes that are either too high leaving them drifting slowly unable to do anything but watch as enemy guns spit shrapnel up at them or too low breaking bones on landing as their parachutes don't have enough time to slow their fall they're scattered all over many of them landing miles from their drop zones some landing in marshes or rivers others being slaughtered as they drop right into the middle of the enemy it was a harrowing and confusing night of chaotic firefights and desperate small unit actions but the more veteran of the American airborne troops groups like the Screaming Eagles and the 5o v managed to pull together to capture crucial road junctions communication points and bridges and even destroyed some of the artillery batteries that would imperil the land Normandie and they would hold fast delaying or preventing any counter attack that might sweep the impending invasion back into the sea then there's the initial bombardment Allied bombing runs go astray causing massive damage to the civilian centers in Normandy but doing little to weaken the dug in German positions as dawn breaks though the Allied Gunners can finally see their targets and the bombardment becomes far more effective softening up the beat for the initial assault but there's little time remaining it amazing with with how much work they did in the scouting areas and trying to soften up the areas how difficult the landing is still gonna be because they I mean do they do they went to exhaustive efforts of kind of paratroop people and behind enemy lines and bomb some of the supply lines and some of the first offenses but even that didn't do much to keep it that safe because this I mean they'll get to it obviously but those first days the first hours were doing incredible high casualties until the troops scheduled landing at 6:30 a.m. on June 6th 1944 the Klaxons sound and the assault craft are released they plow through the chop men huddled in their tin shells as German fire pours down sinking entire landing crafts at the bottom of the sea just off the Normandy coast then the assault atomic hit the beach ramps drop and Men charge out but on Utah Beach things have already gone horribly the men look around them and the terrains all wrong they've landed on the wrong Beach luckily for the Americans the oldest man in the invasion and the only general to actually join these ground troops Teddy Roosevelt jr. happens to have landed with them the local commanders ask him what they should do and living up to his namesake he simply responds we'll start the war from right here he correctly assessed that the beach that they'd landed on was actually a better more easily take of a landing point than the one that the senior staff had assigned them in a miracle of heroism and logistical coordination he managed to reroute the entire Utah Beach invasion force to his location direct the battle and continuously rally the men as he walked the beach with his cane waving his pissed his new utabaji would be the first Beach successfully overrun and for his actions there he would be awarded the Medal of Honor Omaha though was a different story here's a pre-landing bombard this is the one you often see in the movies of any d-day movie or any d-day game as the is the Omaha Beach for help just insanely bloody it was go back five seconds honor Omaha though was a different story here the pre landing bombardment had been even less effective the seas were choppy the landing craft took on water and men tried to bail with their helmets some of the landing craft sank and those that landed were filled with retching seasick men much of the armored support that was supposed to follow them foundered in the waves or simply got picked off as they hit the shore soon the men were all pinned down against a small shingle of land that provided what little cover there was to be found on the beach many of the units had taken heavy casualties and much of the command staff was dead with units getting moving chaos because it would've been no command structure with with so many randomly random people dying they're both both high level and low level we've been chaos there to have any kind of structure and direction there I mean they have they have their orders and stuff like that but more specifically it'd be hard you wouldn't know who's in who's in who what you know you'd have to know the chain of command because one person goes down and someone's got to fill that and that would've been very hard to navigate during the chaos of this fighting which again for a lot of these soldiers is the first combat they've ever seen in their life and it's some of that some of the scariest and most challenging that you can have in general to shore in the wrong places or scattered in the desperate scramble to try to get to the small ridge of sand that served as cover the assault had become hopelessly disorganized the second wave met with much the same fate hopelessly bogged down withdrawal from Omaha Beach was considered but it was the vital linking point between the British and American forces as the day wore on a number of Ranger units began to rally and scaled the bluffs finally managing to assault German positions on the heights at the same time several of the naval ships came dangerously close to the beach to provide more effective support fire just as the German ammunition began to run out even after all of this Omaha Beach wasn't truly cleared by the end of the sixth but as the Sun began to set on those bloodied beaches it was clear that the American forces were there to stay join us next time as we joined the British for their covert efforts to keep the biggest invasion in history a secret cool cool I'm very good to very interested in that I love the the deceptive stuff about of d-day like I was saying earlier in the beginning of the video some of the coolest things I learned in my American history class was the deception used at d-day so I'm excited to learn more that in video 2 but that'll be next time everybody feel like the video again go down to the description head over there be sure you give it a like and subscribe over to the extra history people they are awesome very supportive of this channel this video was chosen by the patreon pledgers like I said beginning in the beginning of the video if you like to join link down below as well if you like to be part of our history community iDisk or there's also a link down below love to have you a aboard as well if you have not sub to my channel I'd love to have you around be part of the little community of history lovers and people wanting to learn more about history and hope you're enjoying the reactions the commentary that I give and hope to see you again many times here in the future alright we'll see you next time bye [Music] [Music]

Channel: Mr. Terry History

Views: 53,109

Keywords: react, history, d-day, world war 2

Id: gtfm_WxvFc4

Length: 21min 30sec (1290 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 24 2019