D-Day, June 6, 1944 The Allied Invasion of Europe

[Music] good evening and thank you all very much for coming the United States accomplished many extraordinary things in the Second World War but d-day was towards the very top of the list now nothing is more difficult in war than assaulting a fortified beachhead that's why the Marines do it but this is Europe in World War two the Marines who tied up in the Pacific so it's left to the army the Navy the Army Air Corps the Coast Guard so we're gonna find out how they pulled it off who else is trying to invade across the English Channel well the Romans did it in 43 ad they were successful 1066 of course William the Conqueror he did it between 1798 to 1802 Napoleon really wanted to do it because England was a thorn in his side he could never pull it off and as early as as late as 1940 Adolf Hitler on its operations sea lion knocked England out of the war but after losing the battle the Britain he didn't want to have to deal with the RAF and the Royal Navy so that all came to naught now at this time Europe is called Festo Auto Europa fortress Europe Atlantic Wall extends from north to the Spanish border in summer 42 the Germans make it even stronger they add 15 divisions they're building fortifications coastal guns pillboxes mines at sea and on the land they flood areas that they think paratroopers might want to come into now world war ii the key land weapon is the tank so the big question is where do we put our Panzer divisions along 2,000 miles of coast because we know that a common we do we don't know when and we don't know where so that's the big dilemma for Germany now why didn t they happen sooner England's been at war sir 1940 we joined it in 1941 well England remembers Dunkirk that only happened a couple years ago of course the Somme and World War one when hundreds of thousands of British troops died at the hands of the Germans and the UK is more interested in protecting the sea lanes in the Mediterranean including the Suez Canal that's why they get us into North Africa you'll remember that lecture we're tied up in the Pacific we're building armies and armaments and letting the UK really sort of lead the way take the lead in war planning now who's pressing for an earlier d-day well the Russians of course Germans have been in Russia since 1941 and Russia's been on the brink of defeat but by 1944 the Russians are actually pushing the Germans back it's gotten to the point if we don't invade France Russia is not only going to conquer the Germany they're gonna keep going so all of Europe is going to belong to Russia not something we want so we need to get into France now the Russians for years we didn't come to their aid but when we said hey we're gonna do this d-day thing and it's gonna be really dangerous and can you help tie up the German forces the Russians go sure be glad to so when we launched d-day they launched Operation Bagration simultaneously with our efforts the forces involved in that operation are far greater than the forces involved in d-day when you think about it in World War two Russia's a much better lie to us than we are to them leadership you at US and UK of course FDR and Winston Churchill even before Harbor Churchill was lobbying FDR to get in the war or at least supply England with the supplies they need Churchill is very involved with military matters in England Churchill is also primarily responsible for pushing d-day back again and again and again after yars in the loop but he lets his generals and his Admirals plan grand strategy and tactics Churchill actually interferes with the British military and at at one point Eisenhower is forced to stand up to him the good news is on d-day Churchill at FDR pretty much out of loop now Churchill said he was going to be on board British naval vessels during the bombardment of the invasion and Eisenhower tried to talk him out of it he couldn't the King talked to church all and said Winnie if you're going to be on a British battleship when the Germans are trying to shoot us I'll be standing right next to you that's how Churchill decided not to do it Dwight D Eisenhower one of the great men of the twentieth century West Blinn class of 1915 the class the Stars fell on began war two as a brigadier general now that's a general but that's just a one-star chief of staff George Marshall has his eye on Eisenhower so we started to move him up giving him opportunities of course he's the supreme Allied commander for Operation Torch did a good job now he proved in torch that he could sort of keep the kids from fighting about themselves everybody got along under Eisenhower British and Americans and even the French finally everybody got to work together so Eisenhower was a natural for the job his main lieutenants Montgomery defeated Rommel at Alamein easy when you have Rommels entire battle plan which he did Montgomery is very Pasha's unlike Eisenhower he does not play well with others so he's always kind of a thorn in Eisenhower side airman he's British he's Eisenhower's deputy coordinates a litter allied airpower airpower he's decisive as a team player General Omar Bradley he was a good guy solid commander takes care of his troops he's in charge of u.s. infantry ship Nazi Germany bad guys it off Hitler number one bad guy of all time this point of the war a Hitler is the greatest resource as the Allies have he keeps messing up he's responsible for things like Stalingrad Germany was doing really well until Hitler decided he had to be a general didn't work out very well he thinks if the Germans can decisively beat the Allies on d-day we will never try again and he can take all the German forces in the West 45 divisions moved them to Russia and then he'll win the war that's what's at stake for Nazi Germany Hitler Bose I'm the greatest builder of fortifications of all time Field Marshal GERD punter instead he is in charge of German forces in the West cannot cover 2,000 miles to coast with tanks he wants to keep the tank divisions the Panzer divisions in reserve northwest of Paris and send them when the invasion comes he has no experience fighting against opposing forces that have the quantity and quality of US and UK airpower Field Marshal Erwin Rommel the desert fox he's in charge of defending the beaches but he works for von Rundstedt he did fight against the u.s. in the UK and had to deal with their airpower and realized you can't deal with our airpower that largely led to his defeat in North Africa Rommel wants to position the Panzer divisions at the beaches so he knows if he can't destroy the invasion on the beaches if we land our armies Germany's doomed German solution defending France as per Ramos mission the German infantry forces are scattered to the beaches as per runstats wishes the Panzer divisions are held in reserve away from the beaches however the Panzer divisions can only be released on Hitler's orders so this solution is the worst possible solution that could happen one of the great things about d-day for every good decision we made Germany made three bad ones German intelligence expectations the area of France called the Calais is right across the English Channel from England so obviously that's where the landings going to be the Germans are convinced of that if the landing if the landings happen in the pas de Calais that's also closest to Germany so if we land in the pas de Calais less distance across the channel and once we're there stretch on into Germany German leadership is predisposed that we are going to land in the pas de Calais well what are the Allies intelligence plans because we know the Germans think it's the pas de Calais we do everything convey they're right we have a map of this disinformation campaign called Operation bodyguard to help convince the Germans we're going to the pas-de-calais an entire fictitious American army the first u.s. army group is created and stationed at Kent why Kent Kent is right across the channel from the pas-de-calais this group is commanded by George Patton the German see ham is our best attacking general now Patton is still recovering from slopping soldiers in Italy and Sicily so you know what better use than to put them in charge of a fictitious army the Army has false radio traffic inflatable tanks fake track marks w aircraft fake landing craft on the coast even when backup troops arrive in England put him in the fictitious army for the Germans to see marching around this ruse helps the German continue to believe it's the pas de Calais an example of tanks belonging to the the fictitious army story of Garbo the Spanish spy I didn't even put down anything for you to read because I I know the story I just wanted to share it with you Garbo was a Spanish spy who desperately wanted to spy in World War two it didn't care who he spied for so the Germans thought he was spying for them but he's spying for us and the Germans really think he's the best spy we helped convince them of this because we feed him true information that won't hurt us you know with we're gonna bomb some silly place on Thursday and you know we let them know but you know it's out of range of their fighters or whatever so it's like wow Garbo is really coming through for us he's telling us the truth again and again and again well we're setting Garbo up for the ultimate roofs very early on the morning of d-day Garbo contacts the Germans and he says the Allies are coming they're invading Normandy well Germans can look out with their binoculars and see oh there's 5,000 tips out there I think the Allies are coming so once again glarb o's come through but it isn't stop there he tells the Germans it's a ruse they want you to think they're going to Normandy but they're really going to the pas-de-calais so once again making the Germans believe what wanna believe now of course when we never showed up at the pas-de-calais his days as a spy were over but who cares because he immobilized German Panzer divisions in the vicinity of the pas de Calais because he helped convince the Germans that's where the attack is coming 8th Air Force bombing campaign two months before d-day Ike wants to choose the targets for the 8th Air Force to hit to disrupt transportation infrastructure to hinder German ability to reinforce the beaches Churchill says no way because we're gonna wind up killing Frenchmen and the French are gonna hate us and he's got to live with the French after the war and they may not let us go to Paris I finally get to the point we press to resign if this isn't gonna happen so who do we bring in but Charles de Gaulle and we say general if we have a bombing campaign to help us invade France and take the Germans out of there even if we lose a few French but along the way is that okay and des glows like heck yeah so the campaign takes place and of course we're bombing lots of targets in France but guess where we drop most of our bombs if you said the pas de calais again this whole campaign disinformation I was gonna say fake but it wasn't that news perforce trouble was well did I put that one in the right spot I may not have we'll get back to that image we want to assault a port city because we've got so many men supplies equipment it's tough to bring all that onto a beach but when we conduct rate at Dieppe who the disaster because all the port cities are heavily fortified so what did we do this was a month at the list of things that we just created because we knew we needed them mulberry concrete platforms that are towed across the channel artificial harbors this is this is the mulberries each of these that's an individual piece so the pieces are towed across the English Channel and then when we get to Normandy they're connected and it worked artificial harbors basic plan of invasion the airborne two American Airborne Division's the a protect in the 100 first can be dropped behind enemy lines early in the morning before beach landings now why are we doing that what's their purpose destroy some bridges capture others disrupt communications we know where the Germans have artillery placed take out the artillery because the artillery is going to be firing on the beaches prevent German reinforcements from coming to the beaches generally disrupt the Germans every which way we can Eisenhower visits the hundred airborne just before d-day just before these guys who getting on the planes to go get dropped behind enemy lines in France he visits them intentionally because he's been told these troops are going to suffer seventy percent casualties basic plan of invasion Rangers 2nd Ranger Battalion scared destroyed German heavy artillery 5th Ranger Battalion lands on Omaha Beach with the 29th division to support the landings Engineers led with the infantry clear mines and beach obstacle and then clear pathways through the German Bob wire obstacles other impediments again create pathways if we land on the beach if we got 10,000 guys on a beach and they're trapped because they can't get through all of the barbed wire and fortifications everything Germans have created they're done for basic plan infantry well this is much more basic seize the fortified beaches take out the German defensive positions eliminate their resistance break through the defenses in order to expand beachhead for reinforcements to get ashore and create a breakout from the beaches we can't just take the beaches we land on the beach but then we've got to get through the German defenses or we're gonna be slaughtered the British come up with what are called funnies dd duplex Drive or Donald Duck Sherman tanks were fitted with a flotation screen that allowed the tanks to float so when they out of the landing craft they would float they would have two propellers fitted they were attached to the tap they would float and they would drive through the water in addition to the tanks the funnies were flail tanks that would destroy mines armored ramps for getting over sea walls fast scene carriers for crossing dishes and bridging tanks though the British were great at coming up with all this stuff that we were going to need now this is the plan this is the big for all reason I chose this map as it also included the airborne first airborne gonna be dropped here let me let me start with the beaches Utah Beach American between Utah and that the Rangers are going to take a lot of big artillery has been up there Omaha American gold British Juneau Canadian sword British British Airborne Division 6th Airborne Division dropped behind British lines not too far drop behind Utah hundred and first also dropped behind Utah and scattered German resistance along the way note that the differences or the distances between Utah and Omaha and between Omaha and gold five thousand American chips heavy bombers have have hit the sites naval gunfire a lot of stuff going on 5 June is the date of the invasion comes weather's horrible so the troops have already been loaded up invasion is underway when it's determined we can't go in order to invade we have to have good enough weather and calm enough sees that the Seabourn people can go for the paratroopers we need just the right moonlight for the paratroopers to function so we had to cancel June 5th now the weather is looking like it's going to be bad for a while and if we miss this opportunity we don't get it again for a while so one of the weather gurus promises Ike you've got a window of opportunity if you go in on June 6 so several of his generals are telling I don't do it don't do it Ike says let's go we're going huge benefits of the bad weather Rommel sees the weather report he goes home to Germany to visit his family he's gone his next in command general friedrich Dallman was a hundred miles behind the law with the rest of the German leadership engaged in military wargames we don't need to be at the front they can't invade the weather's too bad so on d-day senior German leadership from the landing sites is essentially gone this is Eisenhower's message to the Troops spread it over to two lines two slides just look at the soldiers sailors airmen of the Allied expeditionary force the Great Crusade not just another battle the Great Crusade hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere March with you the disruption of the German war machine elimination of Nazi tyranny freeing the oppressed peoples of the world and providing security for ourselves in a free world your enemies pretty bad news but the good news is this is 1944 Germany's been losing good time for us to go then and he talks about what has happened to make things make this doable make this in the realm of the possible air offensive our weapons and ammunition great reserves of trained fighting men the tide has turned the free men of the world are marching together in victory and then just like a dad I feel confidence your courage devotion to duty and skill in battle we will accept nothing less than full victory good luck and let us all beseech the blessings of an Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking so we've been training for two years we all know exactly what we're doing plans are in place ships are on their way tough sod here's the airborne going in it the airborne assault 82nd and 100 first there should be one out first not 100 second airborne fly behind enemy lines the early hours of d-day due to flak that's German anti-aircraft fire weather and pilot errors the pilots when they're getting shot at don't always follow the course don't release let the guys out when they're supposed to if they're supposed to fly another five minutes they sometimes didn't because they're getting shot at so the airborne troops are scattered all over the place and they're mixed up so that instead of organized units squads platoons companies regiments rallying together to accomplish their objectives you've got twos and guys by the twos and threes one of the guys talked about the fact that he got into a fight with one of the one of his fellow paratroopers and the guy said I hate you you son of a god I'm gonna kill you one of these days and when he lands he can't find anybody and he's going through the countryside he hears a click and you know he clicks and it's the guy and they hugged each other like long-lost brothers and continued the fight everyone continued despite casualties enemy resistance and commands being mixed officers and NCOs gather whatever men and equipment they have and go out to accomplish the missions blow up bridges cut communication lines seize key locations attack German soldiers the good news is because they're spread out all over the place the Germans think there's a lot more of them than they are so it actually worked to our advantage in that way now the bombardment assault the massive bombing by the 8th Air Force heavy and medium bombers on beat strong points does little in fact part of the problem was when you're trying to bomb a cliff and you're in a bomber that's so many thousand feet up in the air that's pretty tough plus they didn't want to hit the troops coming so if anything they aired on the the part of bombing later so behind the German lines was plastered but the actual guns and everything was not now we had battleships out there Arkansas Texas Nevada sunk at Pearl Harbor refloated plus HMS true Millie's and a French battleship Lorraine they unleashed hundreds of twelve fourteen and sixteen inch shells on German positions but not for long and they did know exactly what they were shooting at first assaults like in the movie not according to plan Higgins boats and other landing craft had a tough time rough seas smoke smoke mines obstacles and German artillery fire many of the landing craft were lost with the troops were discharged too far out or in the wrong place most of the troops were horribly seasick General Teddy Roosevelt jr. President Roosevelt's Teddy Roosevelt's son not FDR's the earlier President he walked with a cane he was in his fifties had a heart condition had to really lobby to go in with the first wave gets to the beach and they're checking location you know taking an azimuth compass and everything looking at the the landmarks and they said we're in the wrong we're not even close to where we're supposed to be and Roosevelt said we'll start the war from right here almost all of the floating tanks didn't float because when the seas were even a little bit rough they swamped so most of the tanks not a couple most of the tanks didn't make it it's what it looked like from the from the landing craft organized chaos can't even imagine nothing more complicated nothing more devastating than a beachhead with an enemy a determined enemy on the shore throwing everything they have at you success in victory four out of five beaches Utah Beach even with some difficulties within two hours they're moving off the beach and they're linking up with the paratroopers who had ended behind enemy lines Gold Beach British despite savage fire from the Germans the funnies all those strange vehicles they all worked and the troops were soon moving inland Juno Beach Canadian also intense fire but they had British funnies too they were soon off the beaches Sword Beach UK very light resistance within hours linked up with the glider-borne troops at the Conn Canal so so far so good four out of five not so much on Omaha that's where we really stepped in it geography steep cliffs German resistance by far the worst at Omaha the troops begin landing at Oh 6:30 many machine gun before they even get off the landing craft the depiction and Saving Private Ryan accurate almost all the swimming tanks failed to swim at Pointe du Hoc where the Rangers are going to climb the cliffs 220 Rangers began the climb by nightfall only 80 were left in action one of the problems was their ropes were so soaked by the surf and the water coming over the boats try climbing up a wet rope that was a real problem for them at zero 830 the guys and the ship's the commander's they've got their telescopes and by nose and they were looking at what's going on and they said we can't send anybody else because the beach is so clogged the guys on the beach we're either gonna have to win it or or not but we can't we can't even help them how did we turn that into victory small unit leadership junior NCOs officers gathered whatever meant and resources just like the paratroopers are available and begin to advance through German fire to clear exit ways off the beaches Saving Private Ryan Hank's really shows what that was like just gathering whatever he had gets to a point was trying to take out a German machine-gun he sends two soldiers to try to get in position they get killed two more they get killed two more they get killed but they kept doing it they kept going doing everything they could to destroy Germans and create exit ways off of the beaches despite the casualties lack of tank support our citizen soldiers prevailed over the veterans as men and equipment moved off the beaches omaha's reinforced now something happened that wasn't anticipated the destroyers they're seeing what's going on now they don't have the draft of a battleship so they can get closer to the beaches these destroyers got so close some of them started to beach themselves and had to pull away but they were running up and down the beaches with all their 5-inch guns firing and what are they firing at well if I'm on the beach and I'm shooting at a German position the destroyers can see the impact of my bullets so they follow that with five-inch shells a German observer was on one of the cliffs with by nose calling in artillery fire hit him with a five-inch shell destroyers fired hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of five-inch shells so effective some of the German troops tried to surrender to the destroyers they're using semaphores and we hip up stop descending 5-inch shells and the Destroyers semaphore back go down to the beaches and surrender destroyers are supposed to keep enough and ammunition in case the German Navy shows up they didn't they fired every single round they had now what happened at Omaha bad Intel we thought the defenses were manned by Polish and Russian troops low morale and only one battalion it was three battalions of cracked German troops cloud cover caused the Bombers to miss their targets battleship cruiser bombardment was too brief and like I said most of the troops by the time they got on shore were seasick and confused so many tanks sank there was almost no tank support one one German machine gunner fired sixty-two thousand rounds before he was taken out think about that how many Americans did he get one guy now because of confused landings the Americans were bunched up so the Germans couldn't concentrate their fire we weren't spread out the way they would have liked a lot of the American troops that were offloaded too far from shore and you saw it in the in the film I can swim but you put a hundred pounds of equipment on me and put me in water over my head I'm gonna drown that's what they did end to the longest day around 2200 8 p.m. we stopped unloading the beaches around a hundred and seventy-five thousand Americans British and Canadians are ashore the invasion front covers 90 kilometers there's gaps 18 kilometers between Utah and Omaha 11 between Omaha and gold but the Germans are so on the run by this point they couldn't even exploit that we endured about 4900 allied casualties German spent four years in massive manpower and material to build the Atlantic Wall at Utah the Atlantic Wall held up the u.s. 4th division for less than an hour at gold Juno and sword the British and Canadians were held up for about an hour at Omaha the u.s. 1st and 29th of visions were held up for less than a day think of the resources that the Germans spent on the Atlantic Wall and think of how quickly we got through it it it really was the German Maginot Line on d-day Hitler slept till midday they wouldn't wake him up we can't wake up the Fuhrer so the Panzer divisions couldn't even begin to move towards the beaches Rommel was right allied airpower hampered reinforcements by the time German Armour closed with Allied armies they were too weak they were too beat up to attack specific example SS Panzer Division Das Reich took two weeks to reach the coast it should have been three days that's what air power will do for you German tiger tank grey tank doesn't do you any good if you can't get it into battle let's compare the English Channel to the French countryside Napoleon Hitler they couldn't cross the English Channel we crossed it with ease because we were unopposed by the Luftwaffe or the kriegsmarine the German Navy it was harder for the Germans to move metamaterial and tanks across the French countryside than it was for us to cross the English Channel again because we owned the air one of the things that made Eisenhower such a great man he wrote this out before the invasion if the invasion had failed this is what it would have said our landings in the shurberg harv area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I withdrawn the troops my decision to attack at this time in place was based on the best information available the troops the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do if any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone leadership results of the day our armies are ashore in less than a year the war is going to be over if we didn't land the Russian armies are going to wind up in Western Europe we're not going to meet them in Germany we're gonna meet them in in France now operation Bagration total combined casualties for that operation oh I'm sorry for Overlord was 130,000 killed that's from 6 June to 21 July that's both sides hundred thirty thousand people well boo Gration that operation both science lost four hundred and fifty thousand men put that into perspective and I just have to share this I found this out during my research for every German soldier lost in every campaign that Germany fought in World War two Poland Low Countries France Battle of Britain North Africa Italy d-day Battle of France battled the Bulge all of those campaigns compared to what Russia lost in what Germany lost in Russia was 1 to 5 German lost five times as many soldiers just fighting in Russia as every other campaign of World War two Russia is where the German army went to die Admiral Ramsey Royal Navy we've yet to establish ourselves online the Navy has done its part well news considered satisfactory throughout the day from the British beaches and food progress was made pretty little news was received from the colonists and anxiety persists us two positions on shore still on the whole we have very much to thank God for this day gotta love these guys Major John Howard he was involved with the paratroopers the oxen box is what they're called they captured the Pegasus Bridge a very key objective when they handed the bridge over to the Warwickshire regiment because when they infantry got in from the beaches one of Howard's men said he found it hard to leave you see we had been there full day and night we rather felt this was a bit of our territory a little bit longer Sergeant John Ellery 16th Regiment 1st division easy red sector Omaha Beach this is guy who went through some nasty stuff spent the night in the ditch wrapped in a in a hedgerow wrapped in a damp Shelter half thoroughly exhausted but I felt elated I'd been through the greatest experience of my life I was ten feet tall no matter what happened I had made it off the beach and reached the high ground I was king of the hill at least in my own mind for a moment my contribution to the heroic tradition of the United States Army might have been the smallest achievement in the history of courage but at least for a time I had walked in the company of very brave men you all see Band of Brothers on HBO a few years ago that's Lieutenant dick winners in the middle there that's their c-47 getting ready for the night of nights basically midnight the morning of d-day winners is on a c-47 heading behind enemy lines and praying that he get makes it through the day of course he wins the Distinguished Service Cross in the morning at midnight he gets on his knees thanks God for getting him through the day made a promise to himself if he survived the war he would find a quiet farm and spend the rest of his life in peace and quiet and he kept his promise thank you [Applause]

Channel: Foundation of Wayne Community College

Views: 5,263

Keywords: Wayne Community College, The Foundation of Wayne Community College, Arts and Humanities, D-Day, June 6 1944, The Allied Invation of Europe, Roy Heidicker

Id: hURcjjt778g

Length: 40min 48sec (2448 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 28 2019