[Music] operation Cobra the American breakout at average on the 25th of July 1944 lifted the lid off the can in which the Germans sought to confine the Allies after the d-day landings in Normandy seven weeks earlier until then the German defense savage hard-fought and extremely costly had managed to hold the line against all Allied attempts to progress very far beyond the beachheads and move on into the rest of France this was accomplished despite critical shortages of men and materiel and the impossible demands of Adolf Hitler whose basic and only strategy was never retreat never surrender and fight to the last man after several failed attempts made at tremendous cost the British and Canadians had at last established control over the Northern Districts by the 10th of July but the Germans were still holding out in the south and southeast an operation Goodwood the attempt to dislodge them had failed disastrously on the 18th of July this failure caused hot controversy within the Allied High Command there was heavy criticism of general Bernard Montgomery the British commander of the 21st Army Group who had initiated Goodwood u.s. General Omar Bradley believed that Montgomery was going to be sacked Montgomery remained but at the height of the arguments operation Cobra completely changed the picture it's success negated all the advantages the Germans still retained in France and made further defense irrelevant for the Germans the imperative now was to escape and preserve what they could have their hard-pressed forces for the defense of the fatherland [Music] the situation after the success of operation Cobra was symptomatic of the axis war effort as a whole neither Germany nor Japan could match the industrial might of the Allies and their losses which the Allies could absorb was slowly strangling their war efforts after five years of a war that had seen their early spectacular victories both Germans and Japanese were on the run fighting desperately to prevent the enemy from closing in on their home territories the Japanese were being chased from one Pacific island to the next and fought with manic desperation often they reacted to defeat by committing seppuku ritual suicide the finishing line for the Americans island hopping campaigns was the islands of Japan themselves which to the Japanese were sacred soil for them the fate of their divine emperor hirohito was also at stake but by mid 1944 the noose was tightening fast as the Americans reached Guam in the Mariana Islands in the West Pacific Guam was about 1100 miles from the nearest Japanese territory the Bonin islands and the Americans had those vital advantages command of the air and of the scenes in Europe the Germans were being assailed in the east and the south as well as the West by 1944 the Russians had advanced beyond their own borders to force the surrender of Germany's Ally Romania and enter the Bulgarian capital Sofia in southern Europe despite the masterly defense put up by Field Marshal Albert Kesselring the Allies had captured Rome Rimini and Florence and were pressurizing the Germans gothic defense line under these immense pressures Hitler's ideas for staving off disaster had turned bizarre his vengeance weapons the v1 pilotless flying bomb and the v2 rocket with a stuff of fantasy science fiction the Vengeance was Hitler's answer to the Allied bombing of Germany but the notion that the VIII weapons might turn the cause of the war in Germany's favour was also present in England the first v1 which was powered by a pulse jet engine and carried a one-ton warhead fell on London on the 13th of June 1944 the throaty roar of its engine then the sudden silence as it cut out and the v1 plunged to earth was a terrifying moment for everyone who heard it the v2 liquid-fueled rocket 46 feet long and weighing 13 tonnes was able to fall out of the sky with only a whisper of sound as a last minute warning that always came too late the sheer craziness of the V weapon campaign doubtless played its part in a plot to kill Hitler that had been brewing since 1942 on the 20th of July 1944 a one-armed veteran Count Klaus shenk von Stauffenberg placed a briefcase containing a time bomb beneath a heavy oak map table in a hut that Hitler's Rastenburg headquarters the bomb blew up at 12:42 hours during a high-level conference but Adolf Hitler was not among the dead he had it seems been saved by the thickness of the tabletop the furies revenge was terrible around 200 people were put on trial and executed some of them have been only on the periphery of the plot but implication was enough several high-ranking suspects were obliged to kill themselves including Irvin Rommel who was in hospital after suffering a fractured skull when his staff car was strafed on the 17th of July general Ludwig Beck formers chief of the General Staff and Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge who took over Rommels command after he was injured crews were sacked within a month for failing to warn Hitler of the bomb plot Hitler had always entertained deep hatred and jealousy of the Prussian officer class to which von Stauffenberg and other high ranked conspirators belonged and came to believe that the entire ver market was riddled with them he wasn't wrong either the German army had been the focus of several plots to assassinate the Fuehrer since before the war army officers for their part had contempt for Hitler and his fanciful ideas of military strategy which had already brought disaster and shame on the German army in Russia fear suspicion and the dread that Hitler's vengeance might fall on anyone at any time was a corrosive factor in the plight of German commanders in France all the more so when their task was to save what they could of their remaining forces and extricate them from the Allied trap that began to close after operation Cobra [Music] US General George Smith Patton jr. was a hot-headed egotistical commander but one whose capacity for aggression made it impossible for General Eisenhower to dismiss him Patton's behavior gave Eisenhower plenty of opportunity the incident in Sicily when he slapped the face of a young soldier suffering from battle fatigue made pattern notorious he did it again a week later though he apologized Patton was relegated and spent almost a year kicking his heels before he was given command of the u.s. Third Army in January 1944 but Patton's Stern wore face and his mask of insensitivity and swaggering self-confidence hid a man of too much emotion and too much self-doubt to justify his own concept of an effective military commander war said Patton is very simple direct and ruthless it takes a simple direct and ruthless man to wage war in this context patterns performance as a hard-nosed bully was impeccable not surprisingly he aroused opposing reactions he was hated and admired in equal measure the contrast between the pugnacious pattern and the self-effacing General Omar Nelson Bradley could hardly have been more complete whereas pattern was always hot news for war correspondents Bradley's understated style of command afforded little copy Bradley failed to distinguish himself at West Point and the first 28 years of his military career were frustrating his assignments kept him at home in the United States and he once remarked that he spent the years between the first and second world wars apologizing for his lack of combat experience but those years were far from wasted as a tutor at West Point Fort Benning and Leavenworth infantry school Bradley developed his tactical skills and his own sympathetic style for the handling of troops in 1943 Bradley transferred to the North African Front where he served as Eisenhower's advisor and at last saw action when he led the second Corps of Patton's 7th army in Sicily the following year in Normandy Bradley commanded the 1st army on d-day and later saw them through the long laborious struggle to overcome German resistance in the Cotentin Peninsula at last the war correspondents had something to write about noting how greatly Bradley was admired by his troops the journalists labeled him the soldiers general Field Marshal Gunther Hansa von Kluge was one of the elder statesmen among German military commanders in the Second World War his career had begun as long ago as nineteen hundred and one later clues was in command of Army Group center which challenged but failed to overcome the Russian defenders of Moscow in the winter of 1941 in July 1944 when Hitler dismissed Field Marshal von Rundstedt Clews replaced him as overall commander of the German forces defending France but by this time Cluj had realized that Hitler's strategy meant the destruction of the army Clews became extremely pessimistic about Germany's chances in the war but he never discovered if his prognosis was correct Hitler suspected that he was implicated in the bomb plot of the 20th of July he was relieved of his command on the 17th of August and ordered back to Germany two days later while on the way Clues killed himself at Metz in northeastern France late in June 1944 Colonel General Paul Hauser was given command of the Seventh Army despite the protests of Irvin Rommel like Cluj Hauser came from a long-established military family he was 64 years old and it convinced not see which Rommel was not Hauser had seen service in the First World War but defeat in 1918 left him anxious for a chance to restore Germany's military reputation houses command of the seventh army was a poisoned chalice it was already in a parlous state after a month of desperate defense in Normandy and in the subsequent retreat through the Falaise our entire gap suffered more losses in men and materiel Hauser was one of those who managed to get away riding to safety on a panther tank but he was badly wounded and had to relinquish his command Hauser who appeared as a witness for the defense at the Nuremberg trials was a long-term survivor of the Second World War he was 92 when he died in 1972 [Music] the strategy of the allies after the breakout from Normandy was complete on the 31st of July 1944 was to converge on the Germans as they attempted to escape from France through the gap between argenta and Falaise if the Allies could eliminate the main German armies in France it would serve as a virtual death blow removing them from the scene as the Allies advanced towards the German border and invaded the fatherland itself the Allied forces certainly seemed capable of such a feat by the 1st of August the US Third Army had been unveiled General George Patton commanding the Third Army formed part of the new u.s. 12th Army Group commanded by General Omar Bradley which also included the 1st army led by the taciturn Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges Patton's force took up position on the right of the allied line the British were on the Left comprising the 21st Army Group which had been expanded to include Lieutenant General Henry couriers Canadian 1st army - the Canadians rights was the British Second Army commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Myles Dempsey with military power of these proportions against a critically decimated German army that was talked that the Second World War in Europe could be over before 1944 came to an end the gap between Argenta and Falaise was the obvious exit from France and the German 7th and 5th army formerly panzer group West headed for it hoping to elude the allied pincer movement that was about to build up against them the best the Germans could do now was somehow fight their way through before the Allies closed the gap top German commanders were pessimistic about their prospects but among the lower ranks who probably knew less about their real situation hope was not yet lost some faint hearts had deserted more than 1600 were executed in 1944 but others still had faith in the brilliance of their leaders and their own fighting spirit [Music] it was not impossible either that the Germans could count on further mistakes by the Allies the same mistakes that had already played their assaults on a core Allied strategy around Corps had proved both forty and costly and there was two estranged torpor afflicting some of their units which reduced their battle effectiveness on paper therefore it seemed as if the decimated German defense had little chance on the ground the picture was not quite so dark as this might suggest even before the d-day landings in Normandy on the 6th of June 1944 the Allied commanders had come to believe that wherever Allied forces met the Germans in anything like equal strength the Germans were going to prevail it followed from this that to triumph in Normandy the Allies must create the most favorable conditions possible for their forces these conditions depended in the main on the overwhelming size of the invading armies and the vastly superior numbers of their weapons in this rather nervous scenario the Allies would have to swamp their way to success or not succeed at all however by July 1944 the steady if slow buildup of Allied capability in France was creating the mammoth military strength the scenario required already by the end of June 875 thousand Allied troops a hundred and fifty thousand vehicles and five hundred and seventy thousand tons of stores had arrived in Normandy and replacements exceeded casualties by over seventeen thousand fresh troops there was now no question that the Allies and the Germans would meet on the basis of equality even if allied dominance of the air were not included in the equation [Music] the American Boeing b-17 Flying Fortress wingspan 103 feet was a giant among the Allied aircraft of the Second World War when first introduced in June 1939 the b-17 was the world's most advanced heavy bomber and became the most predominant used by the United States between 1942 and 1945 the 1939 model had to be up gunned several times and fitted with extra armor to become equal to the challenge of the German Luftwaffe this requirement produced the final Flying Fortress variant the b-17 G and eight thousand 630 were delivered to the United States Army Air Force in Europe by April 1945 when production ceased the b-17g flying fortress was manned by between six and ten aircrew powered by four 1200 horsepower writes cyclone engines the bomber could reach a maximum speed of 287 miles an hour and had a ceiling of 35,000 feet with a full bomb load of twelve thousand eight hundred pounds the Flying Fortresses range was 1,100 miles for defense the bomber carried 13 half-inch machineguns some of them sighted in the front turret [Music] the flamethrower was one of the horror weapons of the war capable of engulfing and incinerating an enemy his position and everything else within a range of about 50 yards or more by their very nature flamethrowers rarely inflicted the sort of light injury that would enable an enemy to continue fighting under flamethrower fire the enemy was more likely to be severely disabled by burns and two agonized to fight back initially flamethrowers served different uses for the British and Americans the Germans had already used these weapons in their blitzkrieg campaigns of 1939 and 1940 and the British Expeditionary Force in Western Europe was well aware of their punishing potential the Americans on the other hand realized very early what fanatical enemies the Japanese were in the Pacific always willing to die rather than surrender and fighting in a fashion tantamount to suicide in the Pacific Theater the flamethrower was used against Japanese pillboxes and block houses in this context the flamethrower was less of a direct fighting weapon more of a shortcut to avoid the slaughter that would ensue if the Japanese were allowed to deploy their full strength in more conventional warfare most flamethrowers used in the Second World War were portable one-man weapons their range was of course limited but the recompense was the flamethrowers awesome effectiveness the British 3-inch mortar and the American 81-millimeter mortar were basically the same thing the mortar was a fairly simple three inch caliber weapon requiring a three-man team one to carry the short stubby barrel another to carry the baseplate the third carrying the bipod which was adjustable all in addition to several three round ammunition carriers the mortar which had a characteristic thud when in action was percussion fired and had to be reloaded for each shot [Music] after seven weeks of near suicidal defense German military capability in France was on the brink of collapse by mid July 1944 the Germans had lost over ninety six thousand men but had received only 5,200 to replace them they'd lost two hundred and twenty five tanks with only seventeen received whole regiments had virtually ceased to exist the remnants of four of them made up a battle group within the second parachute Corps whose manpower stood at no more than 3400 riflemen the elite Panzer Lehr division was reduced to 40 tanks and just over two thousand men this paltry strength was weakened still further after 1,500 bombers of the 8th US Army Air Force bombed the Panzer layers positions the raid took place on the 24th of July in bad visibility and several bombs fell on American frontline troops even so the Panzer layer was virtually wiped off the face of the battlefield almost all its remaining tanks were lost and barely 700 of its men survived essentially the German Seventh Army in France had been reduced to scratch formations and all they had to back them up were four battalions of the 270 fifth division all of them weak and hardly capable of holding back the onslaught of the Allies the yaagh Panther tank destroyer was an amalgam of two extremely powerful weapons the mighty pack 43 88 millimeter gun was mounted on the basic chassis of a panther tank complete with its original powertrain and lower hull the yaagh panther which had an mg34 machine gun at the front weighed more than a hundred thousand pounds and was capable of a maximum 28 miles per hour armor was up to four inches thick the yaagh panther was a late development in German weaponry of the Second World War it became available only just in time for the Germans to oppose the d-day landings in June 1944 by that time the German armaments industry was already so hard pressed that it could produce only 382 yaagh Panthers before the war came to an end in 1945 but although comparatively few in number the jagdpanzer had a deadly effect on the Allied armor in north the young Panther could maneuver with ease across most types of terrain though the Normandy Bock harsh with its network of small fields surrounded by thick hedgerows considerably reduced its effectiveness but then that apply to all tanks and self-propelled artillery that ventured in this tortuous maze but in favorable terrain the young Panther could stand off beyond the reach of most allied tank guns firing from close to 1,100 yards distance the young Panther was able to destroy allied tanks virtually at leisure german hand grenades were mainly designed to kill by exploding on or close to their targets unlike allied grenades that was only minimal fragmentation so that hot and deadly fragments were not expelled by the blast when the grenade blew up the style hankerin at 24 the s 24 was a grenade of this type it was primed by unscrewing the base and pulling on the detonation cord attached to a wooden stick it was relatively simple to use and had a particularly effective pin mechanism the s24 measured around 16 inches in length it weighed around 14 ounces and contained just under 6 ounces of explosive this grenade was an adaptation of the stick Hand Grenade 23 called the potato masher by the Allied troops the furtive nature of anti-personnel mines has always made them a much feared weapon and minefields were extensively sewn by the Germans during the Battle of Normandy when the British and Canadians captured northern core they found it was alive with mines and the area remained dangerous for some time before they were cleared away the S mine 35 was one of the Germans smaller mines five inches in height and four inches in diameter within its hidden casing the s 35 concealed up to 18 ounces of TNT with a firing load of 360 steel balls it could be activated in several ways either by a pressure trigger or by trip wires or by firing it electrically before blowing up the s 35 would jump between 3 and 5 feet into the air by means of a propellant charge in order to render the s 35 harmless the trip wires had to be cut and the igniters neutralized then the plugs were removed so that the mind could be disarmed by removing the detonator [Music] [Music] on the 15th of July 1944 Erwin Rommel warned Hitler that the moment was fast approaching when the hard-pressed German defenses would crack the moment arrived 10 days later on the 25th of July delayed by rain low cloud and bad visibility Operation Cobra at last got off the ground although it stuttered rather than lept into life with a preliminary raid that hit the American forward positions over a hundred GIS were killed and nearly 500 others were injured nevertheless the prestigious Panzer Lehr division was all but destroyed and the way was open for a full-scale Allied advance the raid provoked the customary blaze of artillery from the German defenders who gave their performance more credit than it was due when the friendly fire from their own air force made the Americans hastily vacate their positions the Germans presumed that they were withdrawing in the face of their guns meanwhile there had been another distraction another attack was launched on the 25th of July operations spring a British and Canadian effort against the German forces south of coure the Germans responded quickly and forcefully the first and ninth SS Panzer divisions hit back so hard that within 24 hours the attack had to be called off operation spring was of course a sideshow but the Germans got the impression that it was the main Allied onslaught this was not surprising considering the parlous state of their intelligence and their poor communications but while the Germans were occupied with spring Kobra gained unexpected time to get going before they realised their mistake the delay proved invaluable clearing the ground of appreciable opposition on the 25th of July the u.s. seventh corps had pushed more than two miles into the German positions on the 26th u.s. 8th corps had joined in and the Germans were pushed back a further four miles these successes set up the conditions for the u.s. 2nd Armored Division known as the Hell on Wheels division to break through into open country on the 27th of July the next day the u.s. 7th corps reached kutis by then the Germans had at last realized what was happening and switched the 2nd and 17th SS divisions to pose a threat to the Americans flank but it was too late the Germans succeeded in blocking the way into Putin's for a few hours but by the evening they'd been driven off and the Americans were in possession on the 30th of July General Patton's Third Army seized the important road junction at a vranitch and the southern extent of the Cotentin Peninsula by this time Allied forces had advanced 37 miles covering more ground in six days than in the whole of the previous seven weeks the Normandy countryside that now lay before the Americans was a very welcome sight at last they were out of the Bokashi that obstructive maze where even their Rhino tanks tanks equipped with blades for cutting through the hedgerows had managed only minimal progress by the 2nd of August the Americans were also present in with a sweep of open country five miles wide at a Virage where a gap was being held open for them by Allied air forces and Armour four divisions of Patton's Third Army passed through a Virage on the 3rd of August cleared the Bocage and emerged onto the plains of Normandy they encountered no serious resistance the German defenses had broken just as Rommel predicted they would more than that the Seventh Army was disintegrating into small scattered battle groups some no bigger than battalion size columns of men were wandering the countryside looking for a way out most of the Germans were short of ammunition especially for their anti-tank guns tanks ran out of fuel and were abandoned by the roadside the Germans were constantly hammered from the air and sustained enormous casualties by the 6th of August 1944 they'd lost more than a hundred and forty-four thousand men and replacements when they managed to get through numbered less than 20,000 it was a scene of chaos and despair but as so often happened with the Germans it was not the whole story where they were able to regroup and mount a defense even where they could mobilize only a few tanks they could still impede the Allied advance it seemed impossible that they could turn it back and the Allies tended to take that for granted but it was unwise just as it was four months later in the our den when the Americans were surprised by a last-ditch armoured offensive the Fuhrer still hope to transform German fortunes in Normandy with a brilliant last-minute strike and however pessimistic their own views his commanders were still duty-bound to try to make Hitler's dreams come true on the 3rd of August Hitler ordered a counter-attack operation Lutie to take place at average three days later the purpose of looting was to isolate the u.s. Third Army turned north and crushed the Normandy beachhead this was of course unduly even criminally ambitious the Germans had to scrape together the required forces from what remained of five Panzer divisions [Music] between them they had only a hundred eighty-five tanks and their mobile armored attack would inevitably attract attention from Allied planes Irvin Rommel who knew about such things would never have approved but at the time he was out of action and out of failure he was under suspicion for complicity in the July bomb plot to kill Adolf Hitler Hitler's acquaintance with military realities had always been shaky and no one else seriously believed in the success of the counter-attack but it was dangerous to gainsay the Fuhrer Lutie went ahead the German assault would begin at Malton which had been captured by the u.s. seventh corps and the positions to be targeted with those of the 30th US division Hitler's purpose was to split the American forces in to seize control of the road network around mortar and then drive onto the coast however the ultra code breakers were intercepting the German radio transmissions and warmed the Allied commanders of the German plans the Panzers managed to capture Malta but it was of no use to them without control of the road junctions to the north which were blocked by the Americans at La babe large the strategic Hill 3 1/4 sighted on the high ground east of mortar also eluded the Germans the hill remained in the hands of the u.s. 30th division who used it to plaster the Germans with artillery fire but the Germans were undeterred by difficulties that kept on attacking Hill 3 1 4 and at one point an SS officer presented the Americans with a surrender ultimatum the Americans declined to accept this refusal was answered by even more vigorous attacks in which several American foxholes were overrun in the bitter fighting that followed the Americans on Hill 3 104 had to call on their artillery for rescue but the sound and fury of the German assaults were Hollow and their successes were short-lived the Americans sent out tanks to hunt down their infantry and early on the 7th of August allied fighter bombers arrived and pounded them so heavily that half their tanks were destroyed next a five mile advanced by the Panzers into the American lines came to an ignominy as end when they ran out of fuel the German army took so much punishment they had only eight of their 88 millimeter tank guns left Field Marshal Cluj and Colonel general hauzer was so appalled the wastage that they dared to protest when Hitler ordered the Panzers to remain in position on the 9th of August as usual protests proved useless Hitler issued orders for a further attack on the 11th of August in the direction of average 20 miles west of more town for this purpose all available German armor was to be concentrated on a new formation panzer group Ababa general Hans Arabic commanding the new group comprised the scratchings of those forces that had been able to survive but the German attack at Malta had valuable uses for the Allies the doomed German attack at mortar fitted very neatly into general Montgomery's plan to envelop and trap the enemy between argent her and Falaise the Germans have been ordered not to retreat from mortar and this placed them just where Montgomery wanted them on the 6th of August Montgomery issued a directive that required the Canadian 1st army to attack towards Falaise and then turn east towards the River Seine meanwhile the British second army would move towards Ajanta and also turn east the American 12th army was ordered to continue its Eastwood advance and then head for Paris the German counter-attack at Morton and their subsequent failure to retreat while there was still time meant that the whole of their army Group B the remnants of the force assigned to defend Normandy stood between the jaws of Montgomery's trap the encirclement was amended on the 8th of August when Patton's 15th Corps was ordered to Eleni on to cover the southern sector of the trap three days later the Canadians received new orders to capture both Falaise and Argento while the 12th US Army Group completed the entrapment by advancing to ha gentle on paper it all appeared straightforward but as so often happened with the Germans the reality on the ground was different instead of enclosing and mopping up a depleted and dispirited enemy the Allies found themselves fiercely resisted one of the Germans great strengths was their ability to switch armored guns and men from one place in immediate danger to the next and to do it quickly this strategy has succeeded several times already and now it was going to succeed again Operation totalize the Canadian advance on Falaise began on the 7th of August but became bogged down four days later the Canadians reserves and the 1st polish armoured division were fighting their first battle and they proved unequal to the task of either capturing Falaise or driving through to argent on to meet up with the Americans by the 11th of August when the Canadians came to a halt they were only halfway to Falaise after an advance of 9 miles the American 15th Corps which included the second French Armored Division had little difficulty in reaching argent on where they waited impatiently for the Canadians to catch up the Canadians next attempt operation tractable went in on the morning of the 14th of August and this time they managed to break through two filets to take up positions 12 miles north of the Americans however valuable time had been lost now a huge pocket was formed with the Germans Seventh Army the 5th Panzer army and Panzer group ever back inside it the only exit was at fillets and on the 13th of August in a typically aggressive gesture General Patton had tried to persuade general Bradley to let him close the gap by driving his 15th Corps north of Argentan Bradley refused the allied line was too thinly stretched for him to risk a German strike against both ends Bradley preferred to wait until troops of the 1st US army arrived at Argentan to take over the position of the 15th Corps [Music] Bradley was not alone in his caution most of the Allied commanders except for the fiery pattern were somewhat awed by German military tactics which were admittedly superior this was particularly true when their skills were likely to be exercised in as tight a corner as the Falaise gap the Allies also went in dread of inflicting an unacceptable casualty rate on their own forces add to that a lack of experience in conducting a large encirclement and these inhibitions were going to limit the success the Allies were able to achieve at Falaise there was of course no question that the Germans were going to hold the Falaise pocket the point was how much of their decimated exhausted army and remaining Armour would be able to escape all the Germans could do before the inevitable collapse was to hold on to every yard of ground [Music] on the 15th of August a German tank screen brought in advance by Canadian Armour to a halt the 3rd Canadian division was forced to withdraw from the village of Solanki by a spirited German counter-attack the 2nd Canadian division had better luck near Falaise the Germans pulled back allowing them to reach positions about a mile away from there the Canadians drove into the town with a last ditch style of the German defense was once again typify by a handful of Hitler youth from the 12th SS Panzer Hitlerjugend division outside there were about a hundred men of the Mount Royal Fusiliers with anti-tank guns mortars and Bren carriers [Music] at the end the Fusiliers took only four prisoners the rest were all dead fillets itself was a sea of ruin and rubble so extensive that it was impossible to make out where the streets had been bulldozers set to work clearing up the mess several hours passed before bulldozers were able to clear paths for the Canadian vehicles the previous day Field Marshal von Kluge informed army headquarters that holding the gap at fillets was impossible this time and at long last Adolf Hitler saw sense and agreed to a retreat but he dismissed von Kluge whom he suspected not only of complicity in the July bomb plot but of negotiating with the Allies behind his back von Kluge was replaced by field marshal Volta modal who found himself in charge not of an army but of a rabble avid to get away from the killing fields of Normandy [Music] time for escape was now running very short on the 17th of August the second Canadian Corps and the US v Corps made advances that reduced the exit from the Falaise pocket to just a few thousand yards the Germans fought desperately to prevent it's shrinking further at the village of Salim bear on the 19th of August Canadian infantry dueled all morning with the German defenders who forced them to dig in the Germans mounted successive counter-attacks so the Canadians would not prevent them keeping open the route for their escape eastwards the Germans were being helped from an unusual quarter elsewhere the advance by Canadian and Polish troops was agonizingly inexplicably slow despite frantic urgings from Montgomery and lieutenant general guy Simmons commander of the Canadian second Corps the Allied air forces hammered the German infantry and tanks now pouring through the still open gap Allied fighter bombers flew up to 3,000 sorties a day and the slaughter and destruction were immense but still the Falaise gap remained open and still the fleeing Germans surged through despite the deadly gauntlet they had to run the polls had seized the high ground at Mont or mal and set up machine gun positions from which they blasted down fire on the Germans passing below they caught up artillery to pound columns of German vehicles as they drove by the Canadians meanwhile fired at every group of Germans they could see the Germans were scattered running in ones and twos from the shelter of one wood to the next some were picked off quickly some fell to the ground but managed to run on some lay injured unable to continue some simply gave up and hoisted white flags but by then the ground was littered with corpses and the hulks of smoking ruined tanks and vehicles the gap between Argentina and fillets was finally closed on the 21st of August when the Canadians and the poles linked up at CUDA the third and fourth Canadian division managed to capture some number of the two days of ferocious combat and the u.s. 90th Division secured Shinhwa four days later Paris was liberated by the second French armored division all of it should have happened earlier and the reasons why it didn't have been subject to dispute ever since [Music] the nature of the fighting in Normandy between the 25th of July and the 21st of August 1944 seemed inexplicable the German forces were in a state of collapse they were outnumbered and outgunned they had no air cover and were constantly hammered by the Allied air forces their intelligence was poor and their communications were faulty Adolf Hitler their supreme commander issued orders no responsible military man would ever have contemplated by rights the Allies should have been able to flick away their resistance and surged on into Germany with little or no difficulty yet it did not happen how was this possible the depressing fact was that in all the essentials of war the German forces were superior when it came to tactics German commanders were more skilled and more adept at making the most of their resources their men were better motivated better led better trained much more determined and far more willing to sacrifice themselves for their cause among the Allied forces only the Russians displayed the same urge to fight to the death by the time the battle for Normandy ended at fillets the Germans were being hunted down all over France the remnants of the German Seventh Army were in full retreat heading for the bridges across the River Seine following the invasion of southern France on the 15th of August the German 9th army was withdrawing in disorder up the valley of the river Rhone in a bold pattern style initiative troops of the American 6th Corps under general Lucien Truscott managed to overtake the Germans and trap them at montélimar on the east bank of the rhône on the 22nd of August but Truscott was thwarted 6 days later the 2nd Panzers counter attacked and did better than their counterparts at Falaise they kept the escape route open long enough for most of the German forces to get away however they did leave behind 15,000 prisoners and some 4,000 of their tanks and other vehicles were destroyed this though was not an escape to safety the French Resistance avid for revenge after four years of brutal occupation sought and savored every opportunity to kill torture or mutilate all the Bosch they could find whole units of German soldiers wandered around looking for Allied troops to whom they could surrender only the haven of captivity could protect them from the fury of the French meanwhile in the West far from any chances of getting out of France isolated German Garrison's held out at Brest Lorien son Isaiah La Rochelle and in the estuary of the gironde Brest surrendered after a long siege on the 18th of September 1944 and the rest a few months later except for Laurie on which remained in German hands until the end of the war the Garrison's had stayed in place on Hitler's orders but it was a futile gesture they were nothing but specks left over from a once mighty force that had overrun and occupied France since 1940 and the zest of that triumph had long since faded the major pursuit of course was in northeastern France where the Allies were chasing their quarry towards the west wall the fortifications popularly known as the Siegfried line that protected the western border of Germany the British and Americans were still in pursuit well into September but this was creating its own problems the further the Allied forces were from the Normandy coast the longer their supply lines became and a fresh campaign would be needed to shift the Germans from more convenient ports on the Belgian coast meanwhile the German forces that managed to elude the Allies clutches had a chance to dig themselves in behind the west wall the fortifications popularly known as the Siegfried line were three miles deep and have been built after 1938 to protect the western border of Germany in 1944 reserves were rushed to the west wall as the survivors of Normandy dug themselves in they were in a similar state to the wall itself battered dilapidated feeble but their discipline and their will to fight was still intact and their leadership headed by Field Marshal von Rundstedt was of high quality if Normandy were anything to go by the Allies were in for yet another costly struggle and the war was still a long way from its end [Music] in early September 1944 when the Allied forces were approaching the west wall 14 weeks have passed since the d-day landings in Normandy the west wall the fortifications protecting germany's western border lay three hundred miles inland from the normandy beaches but that was not the only way the distance could be calculated it was also measured in slog and slaughter hardship and destruction trauma and exhaustion [Music] after the d-day landings in Normandy hundreds of thousands of men had been killed on both sides scores of them at a time to gain then often lose just a few yards of ground thousands of acres of countryside were laid waste and littered with the burned-out wrecks of Tanks guns and vehicles towns and villages were left a mess of smoking ruins [Music] eventually German forces fleeing from the Battle of Normandy had been trapped in the Falaise our entire pocket those who managed to escape were pursued all the way to the German border the Germans fled in disarray often in panic but anyone who believed that they were finished was very much mistaken once they reached the safety of the west wall the Germans took on a new guise no longer an exhausted enemy on the run but defenders encased in fortifications of concrete and steel which they believed to be impregnable [Music] originally the west wall the gun in 1938 had been Germany's answer to the Maginot Line which protected eastern France from attack across the Rhine the two fortifications faced each other across a short stretch of territory in the Saar region of Southwest Germany but the value of the west wall at that time was diplomatic rather than military Adolphe Hitler found it very useful as a frightening the west wall later known to the Allies as the Siegfried line helped the Fuhrer scare the governments of Britain and France into making concessions so feeding their policy of appeasement [Music] it was March 1939 when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia before the British and the French had last woke up to reality by then the Second World War was only six months away after the German conquest of France in 1940 the west wall became irrelevant it's machine guns and cannon were removed and sent to the Atlantic Wall and the fortifications fell into disrepair even the d-day landings in June 1944 failed to prompt the Germans to make efforts of getting the wall into better shape it was not until the following August when they'd already lost the Battle of Normandy that the Germans began to think the unthinkable the fatherland itself might soon be invaded the potential of the west war could no longer be ignored on Hitler's orders some 360,000 civilians and boys from the Hitler Youth were set to work repairing and rearming the dilapidated defense line considering the short time available this scratch workforce achieved wonders when they'd finished some parts of the west wall remained weak but others had been greatly strengthened and even in this state the wall was still a formidable barrier the fortifications formed a band of natural and artificial defenses up to five miles deep stretching some four hundred miles in the southwest corner of the Netherlands to the Swiss border [Music] the west wall featured around 22,000 pillboxes troop shelters and command posts all interlinked and all mutually supportive in some places such as the rivers Rhine roar and keel the terrain provided natural obstacles to invasion where the lie of the land failed to oblige concrete pyramids called dragon's teeth were planted in parallel rows to obstruct attackers Nazi propaganda of course touted the west wall as impregnable its real purpose was not to repulse assaults but to hold up the enemy long enough for mobile reserves to arrive and staged counter-attacks even so for the Allies in 1944 the difference was academic the reality of the west wall matched the propaganda for a very long time [Music] only about 12% of the German seventh army or rather it's decimated remnants had managed to escape from the Falaise argent our gap in August 1944 but before long these remnants had formed up along the west wall and was soon being joined by reinforcements the German High Command had given the western defences priority and units were transferred from the Italian front and the Garrison's in Norway and Denmark they were also removed from the Eastern Front even though the Russians were fast approaching the Prussian border and were about to break into Germany nothing underlined the emergency at the west war more than this for the Germans the Russians were the most terrifying of all enemies and civilians awaited their arrival with dread nevertheless the defence against them in the east was salted for manpower which was rushed across Germany to face the imminent danger in the West when all were in place the west wall in its adjacent areas were being defended as far as the River Mersey by Army Group B under Field Marshal Valtor mudal and as far as Karlsruhe by Army Group G under general Hermann bulk the rest of the fortifications down to the border with Switzerland was defended by SS troops under their chief Heinrich Himmler [Music] the enormous losses the Germans had already suffered by 1944 meant that they were unable to build up the west wall garrison to the size its designers had envisaged however the problems facing the Allies gave them the chance to make the best of what they had exhaustion after the long chase from Falaise was only one of these problems the Allies other difficulties were much more fundamental [Music] the Allied forces were suffering the usual fate of modern mechanized armies that advance too fast and too far for their support elements to keep pace with them their lines of supply were over stretched and petrol and ammunition were running low the Allied air forces and other support units were unable to extend their activities with the same speed the Americans had no prior experience of assaulting heavy fortifications and the lessons learned in military training proved to be of little practical use the terrain had changed too unlike the plains of Normandy the hills and valleys of the lorraine area around the west wall had few roads for tanks and armored vehicles and in places featured dense woodland that was hard to penetrate and very difficult to fight in the most immediate problem however was the shortage of fuel it was so serious that General Patton's Third Army was brought to a halt with empty fuel tanks at the River Mersey on the 30th of August Patton wanted to move on he was convinced that his forces could be through the wall and at large inside Germany within 10 days but to Patton's fury General Eisenhower allocated what little fuel the was to his hated rival Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery for an advance into Belgium and the Netherlands by the British 21st Army Group [Music] this offensive had to prime purposes first to facilitate the capture of Antwerp a much nearer port than those in Normandy so the Allies would be able to shorten their critically extended supply line secondly if Germany could be invaded from the north through the Low Countries it might shorten the war and save millions of casualties this in fact had been the Allies chosen strategy when the invasion of Germany was being planned before d-day [Music] Montgomerys offensive proved to be a tragic disaster Antwerp was captured on the 4th of September but German resistance was very much stronger than expected the Germans blocked the Scheldt estuary making Antwerp useless for Allied purposes [Music] by the 26th of September the Allied air drops at Arnhem had failed at a cost of 7,000 killed wounded or captured General Eisenhower had assumed direct command of ground operations from a very resentful Montgomery on the 3rd of September and now he was back to square one after Arnhem the German defenses were still intact and assaulting the west wall the hard way head-on was the only remaining option it was not a welcomed prospect autumn was fast approaching and with it the chance of torrential rains mud cold overcast skies and all their attendant miseries the Allies were in for a very long haul [Music] field marshal von Rundstedt a Prussian aristocrat of the traditional military school was not entirely trusted by Hitler who hated his caste out of hand run stead for his part had contempt for both the Fuhrer and the Nazi Creed despite this mutual disdain vomer instead kept well away from the plots to murder Hitler that occupied his fellow officers Hitler for his part realized that he could not afford to waste on lunch Ted's experience and professionalism especially after several leading officers had been removed for their involvement in the bomb plot designed to kill the Fuhrer in July 1944 [Music] von Rundstedt had fought in the First World War where he distinguished himself in the Alsace campaign and later on both the eastern and the Western Front in the Second World War he directed operations in France in 1940 and in Russia the following year and was supreme commander of the German forces in Normandy at the time of the d-day landings dismissed for daring to suggest that Hitler make peace the third time in his career had been removed from duty Vanar instead was recalled two months later on the 5th of September 1944 to leave the German Defense of the west wall he remained on active service for the next six months until Germany was on the brink of defeat and retired on the 13th of March 1945 just as the Battle of the West war was coming to its end after the Germans surrender the was told that von Rundstedt should be put on trial at Nuremberg but he was regarded more as a professional soldier who had done his duty rather than a war criminal who had abused his position GERD von Rundstedt had died in 1953 at the age of 78 Field Marshal Valtor model was the complete opposite of unregistered modal shared Hitler's dislike of the Prussian military caste to which von Rundstedt belonged and his loyalty to the Fuhrer never wavered in 1944 after Hitler survived the bomb plot to kill him modal was the first commander on the Eastern Front to send him a telegram reaffirming his allegiance ruff aggressive and outspoken modles loyalty earned him an advantage not given to many other officers in the veer Mart he was able to ignore the Fury's more impossible orders act first and received permission afterwards and voiced some very unpalatable truths when myrdal took over from the disgraced hands Gunther von Kluge as commander of Army Group B in Normandy the first thing he did was tell Hitler that defeat in France was inevitable other high-ranking officers had been dismissed for less Myrtle's fighting experience in the war was considerable he served in Poland and commanded the 3rd Panzer Division in Russia as well as taking charge in Normandy in August 1944 he became known as Hitler's fireman for his skill in shoring up broken fighting fronts his luck inevitably ran out at the west wall myrdal directed a ferocious defense of a Moselle section assigned to his Army Group B but in the end he was forced to yield to the massive Allied onslaught in April 1945 Myrtle's Army Group B was surrounded in the Ruhr pocket rather than accept defeat he dissolved his forces and gave them the choice of going home fighting on with other units or surrendering modal had always despised Field Marshal von Paulus for capitulating at Stalingrad in 1943 and had no intention of emulating him instead he shot himself on the 21st of April 1945 because he had said a field marshal did not surrender what is there left he once asked to a commander in defeat lieutenant-general Courtney Hodges was taciturn and uncommunicative he shunned the limelight to such an extent the general eisenhower despaired of obtaining for him the recognition he deserved as commander of the u.s. first Army it was possibly part of a campaign by Eisenhower to heighten Hodges profile that his troops became the first of the Allied forces to cross the Rhine in 1945 during the interwar years Hodges was spotted as a promising prospect by General George C Marshall future chief of staff in the Second World War who brought him to Washington as chief of infantry early in 1944 Hodges was in England as deputy to General Omar Bradley during the planning of the d-day landings on the 1st of August Hodges inherited Bradley's command as leader of the 1st army Hodges retired soon after the war as a four-star general and he died in 1966 with his understated manner and aversion to publicity Hodges was one of the quiet men of the American High Command rarely raising his voice to get things done unfortunately he struck the lower ranks as cold and colorless and had nothing like the flamboyant Patton's popular appeal Bradley however appreciated Hodges qualities especially his insistence on detailed planning and once said that he had implicit faith in hodges judgment skill and restraint [Music] during the Second World War u.s. infantry units received close fit support from mortars which they called pocket artillery the largest mortar renews at this time was the 4.2 inch chemical mortar which weighed 330 pounds and could fire up to 20 rounds per minute though only for short periods initially the function of the chemical mortar was to provide smoke gas toxic agents or incendiaries in support of infantry operations then late in 1942 the 4.2 inch mortar was fitted with a high explosive capability which greatly increased its uses for the 18 battalions that used it in the European theater experiments to lengthen the range of the 4.2 inch mortar were overtaken by the end of the war in Europe but a month later in June 1945 tests showed that the weapon was now able to fire over distances of up to five thousand six hundred yards development continued until 1951 at which time the chemical mortar and one its Spurs as a legitimate infantry weapon [Music] the pillboxes of the west wall were strong points Arsenal's and underground shelters combined the reinforced concrete rules were up to seven and a half feet thick and the walls were more than six and a half feet thick the roof rested on steel beams up to a foot thick and there were two 1.1 inch steel doors [Music] the regular pillboxes of the west wall were interspersed with larger multi-story structures like the cat's head armored fort near the village of L in the South FL a student of music because she heard stop nagging [Music] it's foundations were dug to a depth of 118 feet and the fort contained three stories with reversible turret camp automatic flamethrowers and machine guns the rooms were air-conditioned providing plenty of comfort for its 84 man crew who could remain at the cat's head for six weeks at a time [Music] the typical west wall pillbox was more compact there were two entrances with a large gas proof chamber between them on the right a short staircase led up to the arms room with an ammunition bunker attached and another 37 feet square beyond that a second arms room nearly ninety nine feet square was sighted at the rear [Music] the approaches to the pillbox were protected by minefields booby traps and barbed wire the remainder of the accommodation consisted of truth' quarters the first of them was 190 feet square and the second measuring 81 feet square had a locker attached these pillboxes were like miniature fortresses in their own right and in March 1945 one of them managed to hold up a division 15,000 strong for several hours explosive charges laid against the steel door blew a few holes but the door failed to yield it was only when grenades were tossed inside through the holes in the door that the stubborn strong point was finally overcome Colonel Charles buck Lanham was commander of the 22nd Regiment the fourth Division of General Patton's Third Army stationed in the EFL plateau region of western Germany on the 13th of September 1944 Lanham informed his battalion officers of a plan for assaulting the west wall that was simple straightforward and he felt confident was going to work three battalions would attack the west wall pillboxes sited on the black man the heights above the hamlet of Boucher then move on to the pillboxes at the small village of bran she'd the third battalion was to go in first break through the wall and open the way for to further battalions to follow and complete the attack after that the entire fourth division could surge through the wall and head for the Rhine the third battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel T advanced towards the black man heights carefully using the terrain to keep out of sight of the west wall defenders some of the Americans were carrying flamethrowers meanwhile American artillery was blasting the German positions at first there was no reaction from the West war the Germans were evidently waiting for the right moment when it came it was devastating mortar fire plunged down third battalion and the Germans mg 42s began to clatter out streams of bullets Americans keeled over one after the other until they lay in a pattern of on the hillside before long the wounded were being dragged down the hill and back to the regiment's positions all around the cry went up for the medics at length colonel Lanham realized that his men were on the brink of losing the battle he drew his pistol and fired a couple of shots in the air yelling at his reserves to get up and go eventually they went picking their way around the bodies still lying on the slopes Lana's plan proceeded despite the ferocity of the German fight back the third battalion moved south to branch sheet but it was no sleepy little village unknown to Lana Moore Teague the place was spiked all around with pill boxes a tough German battle kampfgruppe hakuna was there together with SS troops to dismiss the American efforts with a fury of fire Teague decided to dig in and try again the next day the third battalion went on trying for another two weeks but they got nowhere the 22nd Regiment meanwhile attempted another approach reducing the German bunkers one by one this was no small enterprise and at first the Americans tried to get the Germans to surrender when they refused tank destroyers were driven up to the steel doors and blasted them in at point-blank range it was a dangerous maneuver for the attackers but it worked the survivors emerged most of them badly injured the dead were piled up inside before long American casualties had mounted to 800 men some of them killed when the Germans launched a counter-attack out of their pillboxes half of the 1st battalion were killed or injured and only two of their officers survived many casualties were physically uninjured but developed combat fatigue eventually Colonel Lanham was forced to call off the attack as the weather worsened and the German defenses showed no signs of lessen nothing had been gained and the vital roads leading out of the fl region to the Rhine remained under German control the wall remained intact [Music] the next attempt at the west wall was made from the Duchy of Luxembourg by the US 28th infantry bloody bucket division belonging to Courtenay Hajis first army the divisions reputation for record casualties was furthered at the west wall where they were facing a crack force the 2nd SS division as the Americans advanced across the minefields the Germans saturated the battlefield with mortar and machine gun fire within a week American casualties had reached 1500 killed and injured one entire company F company disappeared so completely that no trace was ever found of them despite this fearsome defense the bloody bucket division pushed forward on a narrow front and captured several high points but these were of little use to them when the second SS division still held the low ground even so on the 16th of September the bloody bucket scored a notable first in what the official history described as a pencil like penetration they had breached the west wall in practical terms it meant little the disappearance of F company had taken the heart out of the Americans efforts and they were ordered to wind up operations a further attempt at the west wall made soon afterwards by the fifth armored victory division managed to get through the fortifications to a position six miles inside German territory but this initiative led to a mammoth German counter-attack overseen by Field Marshal von Rundstedt himself outnumbered assaulted on both flanks by German infantry and armor denied air cover when the weather turned nasty the victory division began to falter on the 19th and 20th of September they were ordered to pull back pencil-thin penetrations would have no interest to General George Patton commander of the Third Army as he told newspaper reporters I'm gonna go through the wall like [ __ ] through a goose by the 5th of September patterns enforced halt at the river MERS came to an end as supplies of fuel to the Third Army began to flow again Patton ordered the 12th and 20th Corps to seize the city of Nancy the capital of Lorraine as a prelude to breaking through the west wall and crossing the Rhine Patton envisaged no serious difficulty the section of the west wall immediately facing the Third Army was manned by seven weak infantry divisions and a Panzer brigade of the German 1st army also in the vicinity was 7 under-strength divisions of the german 19th army hardly an impressive opposition however even with this poor showing this was one of the best defended parts of the West War and Field Marshal myrdal Hitler's fireman was in overall charge elements of the Third Army set out for the Mosel River close to Nancy on the 11th of September the Americans crossed the river and though there were some heavy German resistance it did not seriously impede their progress Nancy was duly occupied on the 15th of September at this juncture the Americans had to hold for four days through lack of supplies and provisions and the onset of bad weather the delay gave the Germans the opportunity to regroup and concentrate reserves from their first army at Chateau sulla where they blocked one of the main routes to the ride this meant the Americans had lost the initiative and the fifth Panzer Army hit them with a series of major strikes at Patton's 4th armored division the contest continued for ten days and took on a regular pattern the Germans attacked under cover of fog and fought a series of vigorous engagements with the Americans the Americans who were aided weather permitting by aircraft of the 18th Tactical Air Command outmaneuvered the Panzers and forced them to withdraw finally wrecked Panzers littered the battle area and the Germans were down to only 25 tanks wisely they withdrew in all they'd lost around 280 tanks and suffered 3,000 casualties with the same number taken prisoner American losses were fewer 626 casualties but almost non-stop fighting over the past two months had exhausted they were retired from the lorraine area on the 12th of october to rest and recoup and refit the west war remained untouched nine days later to his sure Graham Patton lost the honor of making the first permanent breach in the fortifications it happened at Arkin a historic city on the German border with Belgium and the Netherlands Arkin was fortified but it's defences were not unusually strong and though it formed part of the west wall its position was of no strategic significance nevertheless the capture of Arkin the first appreciable city the Allies had encountered on German soil could prove an important boost to morale dealing with Arkin fell to Cortney Hodges first army Hodges plan was to break through the west wall north and south of the city surround and neutralize it while the bulk of his forces pushed on eastwards towards the Rhine however German resistance was so ferocious that it became impossible for the first army to perform these two tasks at once Hodges had to choose and he chose to assault Arkin the unit's originally intended for the Rhine were to play a backup role and prevent the Germans from relieving the city Adolf Hitler fully realized the importance of Aachen and issued his usual orders to the five thousand Germans defendant fight to the last man never retreat and die if necessary the casualties that resulted from such fanatical defense had already proved so high that Hodges attempted to cut short the proceedings he issued a surrender ultimatum on the 10th of October as he no doubt expected it was refused Hajis now ordered his forces to attack they were to demarcate the battle area by artillery and mortar fire dominate the main thoroughfares and intersections with machine guns and move infantry tanks and tank destroyers along the side streets all the while they would maintain maximum fire to ensure that no German could escape while the defenders were being held in thrall in this fashion buildings would be collapsing all around them and it would bury them in the ruins the initial bombardment of arkin was delivered by twelve artillery battalions which plastered the city with 10,000 rounds in two days meanwhile fighter-bombers of the ninth tactical artillery command dropped over a hundred and sixty tons of bombs on the target in the same period by noon heavy fighting was taking place inside our nevertheless by the end of the day the Americans were ready to blast their way through to the city center it was not that easy for the next week Arkansas a ferocious struggle as the American tanks and tank destroyers hammered away with heavy caliber fire using the powerful 155 millimeter artillery pieces to blow entire buildings apart the 155 millimeter worked on the Germans like a terror weapon later the German commander in arkin Colonel Gerhardt milk condemned it as barbarous and called for it to be banned Lieutenant Colonel Darrell Daniel commander of the 2nd battalion had quite another description for the 155 millimeter quite spectacular and satisfying by the afternoon of the 21st of October Daniels second battalion had secured the business areas of Arkin and were pushing westwards when they learned the fight was over contrary to Hitler's orders the garrison of Aachen had surrendered the Americans captured a thousand prisoners according to their own reports the Germans had suffered around 5,000 casualties quite probably a lot more men were killed the Americans lost around a tenth of that number most of them among the assault troops after the battle only around 20% of our concealed ins were left standing even before the capture of Aachen the 9th Infantry Division of Hajis 1st army was ordered into the hurtin forest southeast of the city to clear it as security for the right flank of another effort against the west war a major assault across open country aimed at penetrating the fortifications [Music] the hurtin was a man-made forest around 200 square miles there were few roads it was difficult fighting country certainly for tanks and armored vehicles and the Americans expected only light resistance they were wrong although the German Seventh Army was not well prepared to defend the forest once the Americans entered they fought with their customary ferocity to keep them back by October the 9th Airborne Division had suffered four and a half thousand casualties for an advance of less than two miles the battle in the forest now took on the proportions of a major struggle and one in which the Germans always seemed to be one jump ahead [Music] in November Hodges ordered the 28th bloody bucket infantry division to advance through the forest to seize the high ground at Schmidt Schmidt lay north of the important dams on the river Ruhr [Music] rain and fog intervened to cause delays giving the Germans time to target the invasion during the subsequent fighting the Americans lost six thousand casualties in one of the most costly actions of any they fought in the war an action initially intended to be an easy ride had quickly turned into a nightmare the forest floor was thickly sewn with anti-personnel mines shells bursting high in the treetops fell down in showers of deadly metal fragments on two soldiers picking their way through a mess of broken branches and slippery leaves as the Winter War on there was rain mud sleet and snow it was all too easy to get lost in the tangle of trees and stumble into ambushes the German defense ferocious as always had an extra specific purpose the top-secret watch on the Rhine the deliberately miss named offensive due to take place in the our den in December could have been jeopardized if the Americans managed to cross the river roar which ran through the forest the roar itself was of great importance to the Germans if the Americans crossed the river now or in the future they could be isolated by floods caused by opening the Ruhr dams ideally the flooding might prevent them crossing at all the cost on both sides was very high by mid October the Germans had lost around 2,000 killed and injured and 1200 taken prisoners American losses were even greater four and a half thousand men killed Reuben or missing November 1944 went on as September and October had begun massive American assaults accompanied by fighter bomber attacks did nothing to break down the German resistance which was so powerful that the bloody bucket division lost 40 percent of its strength in seven days on the 15th of November 1200 Flying Fortresses of the US Army 8th Air Force flew from the Netherlands to soften up the enemy for the u.s. 84th division at guilin kif north of Arkan but the result was the same a fearful battle of attrition in which the infantry suffered so many losses they were unable to continue [Music] by December 1944 the Americans had been dashing themselves against the west war for three months and despite the victory at arkin they were getting nowhere the hurtin forest became a microcosm of this failure after the bloody bucket division was withdrawn another Armored Division and four more infantry divisions were sent in only to be shredded in their turn none of them lasted more than two weeks before they were replaced by the next the ultimate responsibility for breaking this unpassed lay with General Eisenhower after such a long time so many losses and so many failures he might well have felt that his job was on the line even worse the outcome of the war could be in the balance inside their defenses the Germans had proved too strong to shift instead Eisenhower sought to lure them out of their fortifications so the Americans could meet them on open ground where they had a better chance to prevail Eisenhower laid a trap the so-called ghost front in the our den where the American defenses were thin and the Germans might fancy their chances of success in fact Eisenhower had 14 armored divisions waiting in the wings to fall on them once they emerged in the meantime the frontal attacks on the wall continued there was no major breakthrough but there were some gains the Americans captured the important crossroads leading to the defenses in the hood and forest and the valley shite crossroads north of Mon Chou the west wall itself was penetrated to a depth of 1,200 yards on the 16th of December 1944 the Germans appeared to fall for Eisenhower's trap they came out of their fortifications but not to assault the Americans with their under-strength manpower in one of the worst cases of bad luck coincidence in military history Eisenhower's trap was preempted by the Ardenne offensive the last gasp initiative by 24 German divisions to throw back the Allies and possibly win the war the Allies never imagined that at this late stage in the war the Germans were capable of mustering such a force but the Ardenne offensive did not last long after initial successes fuel supplies ran out and in early January 1945 it was all over on the 16th of January 1945 eight days after the end of the Ardenne offensive British forces under Bernard Montgomery now a Field Marshal took their turn at cracking the west wall their target was the Hinesburg salient around 20 miles long which was defended by three lines of fortifications continuous trenches and weapons pits covered by barbed wire and liberally sewn with mines the Germans had two infantry divisions in the salient with a hundred and fifty six guns and 18 assault guns all of them spread over muddy terrain that was difficult and dangerous to traverse Montgomery's forces consisted of two infantry divisions the 43rd and the 52nd lowland division and the very tough very hardy first commando brigade US General Patton was not at all happy about the prospect of Montgomery his hated rival gaining the honour of being the first to reach the Rhine at the end of January 1945 Patton with help from general Bradley persuaded Eisenhower to agree to an armoured reconnaissance in the eful region that would take his forces across the rivers or and sour to close in on the west war the term armored reconnaissance was somewhat vague and Patton preferred it that way for him it was a means to an end Patton wasn't planning a reconnaissance at all he aimed to get his Third Army so committed to the battle at the west wall that Eisenhower would have to agree to their participation the guns of Patton's Third Army opened up on the morning of the 29th of January 1945 and began pounding the fortifications the weather was foul it began to snow as the assault battalion of the 4th infantry began to advance they slid across the frozen or river and then blasted their way through branch sheet with artillery tank fire and flamethrowers the Germans fought back but in the ferocious hand-to-hand fighting that ensued they were pushed back although they managed to win back the village of bran she'd had been a partial breakthrough of the west wall near the town of prune by this time patton had expected confirmation from eisenhower to proceed towards mosul when contact was eventually made Patton was infuriated to be told that the Third Army must stay put there on the defensive and await further orders orders when they came through were not as much comfort to pattern the hated Montgomery had received sanction for fourteen British divisions to begin a fresh attack against the Mormon positions on the west wall starting on the 10th of February all Patton was allowed to do was continue operations in the eful region until that date after Montgomery's attack went in Patton turned to making preparations for a separate assault by his Third Army on the center of the west wall but attempts at preserving the element of surprise suffered setbacks the Germans suspected that something big was afoot and they were certain of it when the 3rd army suddenly imposed radio silence at Oh 100 hours on the 7th of February 1945 Patton's artillery including 155 millimeter guns began roaring out shells towards the German positions across the river Sauer under cover of this bombardment men of the 3rd Army's 12th set out across the river in 36 rubber boats formerly belonging to the German Luftwaffe they ran into a massive blast of German fire which only one of the boats survived but a sufficient number of Americans managed to reach the other side of the river to form up and mount attacks on the west wall pillboxes this time the Americans attacked them from the rear the only way of tackling them that offered a real chance of success the result was a series of blackened blasted back doors and crews so shocked the suddenness of the onslaught that many of them panicked and surrendered for the next week the Americans continued destroying pillboxes 40 of them to each square mile but the breaching of the west wall in the eful region was only a local success the fortifications running from tree air on the Mosel down to the Swiss border were still intact patent unwilling to lose the momentum wanted to continue his attack cross the river muzzle and assault tree air then drive on through to the Rhine the Third Army did in fact capture tree air on the 1st of march after a very stiff fight lasting three days but the rest of Patton's plan did not accord with official strategy Montgomery's assault in the Wrightsville forest still had priority unfortunately his campaign had degenerated into a grim slogging match although his british and canadian forces had succeeded in breaking through the west wall to the north more than 15,000 600 men had been lost and the end of february arrived before the struggle showed signs of ending if eventually Montgomery's forces were to attack across the Rhine into the industrial region of the Ruhr it would have to be on a narrow front this enabled General Omar Bradley whose interests were much the same as patterns to propose a back up position for the American forces the first and third armies would advance to the Rhine before Montgomery made his attempt at a crossing what Bradley was really doing was seeing to it that American troops were in a position to be first across the Rhine and first to spill out into the rest of Germany [Music] during the assault on the river sour the 4th Armored Division of Patton's Third Army advanced on Bitburg which they meant to use as a springboard for their own drive to the Rhine by the 5th of March the Allied assaults on the west wall during the previous few days had opened the way for them they left Bitburg and two days later on the 7th of March the divisions lead tanks reached the Rhine the same morning the u.s. 9th Armored Division of Hodges 1st army arrived at the Ludendorff railway bridge at Remagen just as German engineers were preparing to blow it up the Germans exploded some of their charges but the bridge survived long enough for American infantry to cross the Rhine and establish the first allied bridgehead on the other side 10 days later the bridge at Remagen collapsed into the river although much of the west wall remained in German hands it had failed in its prime purpose to keep the Allies out of Germany the Allied drive to the Rhine had effectively bypassed the fortifications and made them redundant once again on the 20th of March the 9th armored division made a final assault on the west wall [Music] the Americans approached warily expecting the pillboxes to explode with fire there was none the pillboxes were empty most of the defenders had gone some remained at their posts and surrendered others flared under cover of darkness a few ransacked the ruins of houses for clothes assumed civilian guise and kept on running once the Allied forces were across the Rhine it was only a matter of time before the Third Reich collapsed this did not prevent the Germans from fighting on and another two months passed after the crossing of the Rhine at Remagen before their surrender on the 7th of May 1945 by then the west wall had played its part in deciding the new shape of Europe and the nature of post-war politics for the way in which it was finally overcome did not arise from purely military considerations the Low Countries and northern Germany had come under Montgomery's overall command so the taking this route to invade the Third Reich as envisaged before d-day would have brought American forces under British control however the American generals were too chauvinistic to stand for that this applied particularly to General Patton whose name for Montgomery was unprintable and to a lesser extent to general Bradley after Patton the idea that his hated rival might be the first to reach the Rhine was an Athena as for general Bradley he had his own secret agenda in February 1945 when he suggested that Hajis first Army and Patton's 3rd army should mass at the Rhine to cover Montgomery's narrow front thrust across the river this was important insurance against the Germans staging another Ardennes style offensive but it was no coincidence that it also made sure that the Rhine crossing would be an all-american enterprise General Patton had made his own contribution to this state of affairs by turning his aggressive defense at the west wall into an aggressive offense he drew the focus of American operations southwards this was the wrong position for a speedy drive to Berlin I mean while the Russians gained the time to move in from the east and reach the German capital first subsequently this enabled them to claim for communism a larger share of Europe than the British and the Americans meant them to have and for the next forty five years until communism collapsed in Europe and the Cold War came to an end the world had to live with the consequences [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music]
