Downfall of Germany: The Western Front (1/2) | Animated History

as dawn creeps over the horizon a flotilla of landing craft are streaming towards the coast the smell of cordite and diesel hangs like a cloak over the English Channel irritating the nostrils of the men huddled together in the many small boats pitching and rolling in the heavy swell in just a few short hours they will participate in the largest amphibious invasion in history for many this is just another fighter fight but for a select few brave souls it will be the first time they have set foot in Europe since the humiliating evacuation at Dunkirk men nervously clutched their weapons in anticipation and the whole world seems to hold its breath the Second Battle of France is about to begin [Music] before we dive into d-day I'd like to take a minute to talk about today's sponsor call of war is a free online strategy game that allows you to rewrite the history of the Second World War alongside millions of other users in a player-versus-player environment play as different countries join Wars and fight other players in real-time rounds that can last for weeks the game is historically accurate but the players choice determines the outcome however to change the course of history you'll need to build a powerful army and learn the strengths and weaknesses of the many different units at your disposal choose your strategy carefully then destroy your opponents with everything from armoured spearheads to air raids you can even invest in a secret research tree to unlock atomic weapons and other deadly additions to your arsenal fight for world domination conquer provinces and exert control over entire nations forge alliances with other players on both PC and mobile devices and don't forget to sign up for new events each week featuring additional maps scenarios and objectives click the link in the description below within the next thirty days and you'll unlock the amazing new player pack which includes a month of high command and 13,000 gold hi i'm griffin Johnson the armchair historian today we begin the first part of our documentary on the Western Front from the summer of 1944 on the beaches of Normandy to the spring of 1945 in the heart of Germany part two of this video is also available right now so don't forget to open up a new tab so you can pick up the story right where we leave it off today with all that said let's drop in by May of 1944 allied supremacy in the Mediterranean feeder remained frustratingly elusive hopes had been high after the successful campaigns in North Africa and Sicily but were quickly dashed during the invasion of mainland Italy which had been intended to open an easy route straight to Germany's doorstep although initially termed the soft underbelly of Europe by Winston Churchill progress had come to an abrupt halt at the heavily fortified Gustav line and Hitler's veteran troops were showing no signs of her treat or surrender frustrated by this lack of ress allied planners had finally gotten the green light to open their second front after years of careful deliberation the invasion of Normandy codenamed Overlord was finally commencing the allied units involved in the operation consisted of the American 1st Army and the British Second Army under the overall command of Dwight D Eisenhower each army was assigned to one or more of the five Normandy landing sites codenamed Utah Omaha gold sword and Juno over 140,000 men would be involved in the initial attack which was set to hit all beaches simultaneously in the early hours of June 5th however due to poor weather conditions the invasion was launched on June 6 the Commonwealth forces landing at gold Juno and sword beaches were tasked with capturing calm an important rail and road hub as well as the nearby copycat airfield further west the American forces would be faced with a bloody struggle for the possession of beaches Omaha and Utah their objective was to isolate the acutal ton of Peninsula which contained the vital port city of Cherbourg facing every landing army were the formidable defenses of the Atlantic Wall which had thus far proved almost immune to Allied air raids and was manned by roughly 50,000 German soldiers although a naval bombardment two hours prior to the landings had managed to crack open a few of the German bunkers a number of heavy guns remained intact and opened fire on the approaching landing craft the men aboard the landing craft could only grit their teeth as 88-millimeter shells splashed around them the Allies had equipped a number of tanks with canvas skirts so they could be dropped in shallow waters ahead of the infantry but the six foot waves rendered these modifications almost useless their transports ended up having to dash for the shore and dump precious cargo directly onto the sand with several sunk by enemy fire and underwater obstacles in the process despite all these setbacks British soldiers rushed the entrenched German positions equipped with nothing but their small arms even though mg 42s shredded whole platoons as they disembarked the Germans were unable to repel the armored vehicles that had started to make it ashore it was one of these vehicles that finally silenced the deadly 88 millimeter gun that had been firing all morning between the two British sites was Juno Beach where the Canadians would have a chance to prove they were more than just America's plight neighbor shallow reefs and minefields made landing difficult and the nearby coastal villages were heavily fortified however while sustaining heavy casualties the brave men of the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division broke through the German defenses and secured Juno by mid-afternoon having achieved to their initial objective the third division linked up with British forces from Gold Beach and pushed inland further fracturing the disorganized German line US forces meanwhile or not having as much love from the very moment their landings began at 6:30 things started to go wrong the amphibious tanks that were sent along with the first wave of infantry could not handle the heavy seas and only two out of 29 even made it to the beaches a lack of heavy armament meant the infantry could not easily advance and many were slaughtered as they attempted to cross the barren stretch of sand between the shore and the enemy bunkers Omaha Beach was the largest to be stormed on d-day and the poor weather conditions meant that men often waded ashore only to find themselves in the completely wrong landing zone with nowhere to hide these confused soldiers were forced to form ad hoc units and simply press forwards toward the nearest source of enemy fire their greater objectives forgotten in the chaos of the moment looming over of the American landing zones was La Puente du Hoc a 100 foot or 30 meter tall promontory that housed a network of German bunkers and as many as six massive 155-millimeter case mated guns while men crawled through the sand below soldiers of the 2nd and 5th Army Ranger battalions conducted a valiant assault on the enemy stronghold the first Rangers reached the cliffs at 7:10 a.m. and began to scale them using the remaining ladders and craft no launchers the resistance was fierce but the Rangers persevered systematically clearing the bunkers until they reached the huge casemates where the 155 millimeter guns were located only then did they discover the futility of their operation both guns were missing removed days earlier after they proved to be a magnet for Allied bombing runs in total the 225 man assault force left nearly half of their number lying dead or wounded their heavy casualties as much the fault of Allied intelligence as anything else at 8:30 a.m. the first German counter-attack struck Omaha now the most heavily contested of the five landing zones several more would follow throughout the day with the most successful occurring around 4:00 p.m. when the 21st Panzer Division the only armored unit in the range of the coast line at the time rocketed through the vulnerable corridor between Juno and sword this was without any exaggeration the worst-case scenario no matter how many troops the Allies had landed they still lacked the firepower to deal with this new threat unfortunately for the Germans this counter attack would be foiled by various factors which the Allies had been manipulating in anticipation of d-day before we continue to the action pull back a bit and explore a few of these roses in April 1944 Allied planes began an intense bombing campaign against German positions in France with the Luftwaffe occupied in the East allied aircraft outnumbered their axis counterparts by more than thirty to one Allied aviators successfully damaged coastal artillery emplacements and airfields as well as rail bridge and road networks frequently used by the ver moshed however the Allied bombing campaign was as much about misdirection as it was about destruction operation fortitude was designed to convince the Germans that the Allies would land in northeastern France as part of the even larger operation bodyguard fortitude involved false diplomatic communications false news stories and a manipulation of known double agents the Allies even constructed an entire decoy army near Dover known as the first United States Army Group this fictional formation was led by none other than General George I slapped the PTSD out of my soldiers Patton as a result the axis wasted valuable time and resources fortifying positions near the pod Calais and even as far away as the coast of Norway men of the 21st Panzers found themselves standing alone and unsupported as the singular Armored Division available during d-day German Field Marshal Ivan Rommel had foreseen this possibility and had argued that all 10 Panzer divisions in France be stationed as close to the coastline as possible ultimately the divisions were split up all over France but deception alone wasn't enough for the Allies troops needed to be inserted behind enemy lines just prior to the landings in order to further disrupt the German response the only way to do this was via air drops despite the risk one British and two American airborne were scheduled to drop on the morning of the invasion as they approached their drop zones the c-47 Dakota transport planes of the American hundred and first and 82nd Airborne Division's found themselves subject to unexpectedly heavy anti-aircraft fire thanks to this flak many paratroopers ended up scattered across Normandy however enough men landed in their intended zones to prevent the arrival of German reinforcements british paratroopers were responsible for capturing two heavily defended bridges which they held against repeated attacks from German tanks and artillery one location was later renamed Pegasus bridge after the shoulder emblem of the british paratroopers who captured it and held it during d-day members of the hundred 1st and 82nd divisions also destroyed or captured several other bridges in the Normandy area further delaying the German response as d-day drew to its bloody close thousands of Allied soldiers lay dead with precious little to show for their sacrifices although they had pushed several miles inland only gold and Juno beaches had linked up successfully the other beaches especially Omaha were still very exposed optimistic allied planners had assumed that by now several towns would be under siege and the Cotentin Peninsula would be on the verge of isolation the reality was that the Allies had failed to achieve any of these objectives and could not hope to hold the beaches against a determined assault the counter-attack by the 21st Panzer Division had been particularly devastating as it prevented forces from sword Juno beaches from linking up boarding the Allied thrust towards halt but as we mentioned before several factors foiled this assault the primary one being Allied air superiority which annihilate German armored columns forcing them back from the beaches after a week spent surrounding up men and materiel British forces attempted an armored assault on the small town of villers-bocage but were driven back to make matters worse resupply efforts were hampered by storms that prevented the deployment of artificial harbors two weeks later British reinforcements launched Operation Epsom with the aim of finally capturing calm which was now being defended by a full eighth Panzer divisions including two battalions of deadly tiger tanks thanks to this massive concentration of German armor the British were repulsed on June 30th after achieving only modest gains these repeated failures caused tension at allied headquarters especially surrounding Bernard Montgomery who conceived of Epsom this wouldn't be his last blunder on the Western Front at this point the Germans were also suffering from their own supply shortages with the war in the East taking priority above all else many of the 60 or so divisions of Army Group B stationed in northern France were severely under strength and lacked heavy equipment any attempts to mask the Panzers into a decisive force were foiled by Allied bombardment and sabotage by the French Resistance meant that German communications were unreliable at best the Americans in particular benefited from this situation and spent the rest of the month besieging the port city of Cherbourg capturing it on June 29th unfortunately the German garrison had sabotaged the port and filled the harbour with mines rendering it unusable until late August meaning that the Allies still didn't have a functioning port to bring in adequate reinforcements and supplies over in the east the Canadians finally captured the copy-cat airfield on July 9th however the British were unable to capitalize on this success and spent most of July banging their heads again the defenses of calm to no avail while progress was slow on the eastern side of Normandy over in the West the Americans began to work their way west taking the solo heights just a day after the desert foxes unlucky brush with a fighter plane though the combat was brutal the Americans ultimately prevailed and their success set the stage for the final breakout from Normandy Operation Cobra on July 25th Allied air support began performing danger-close missions against four to five German positions outside Cherbourg although highly controversial the results spoke for themselves and the German left flank swiftly began to withdraw the ensuing Allied advance was slow due to the American forces having to push through fields sewed with a bountiful crop of German land mines just waiting for the tread of an allied Phu by this point in the invasion hedgerow warfare was becoming a fact of life Normandy was covered by thick dense hedges that served mostly to divide up sections of farmland often over five metres or 16 feet tall they provided excellent cover for German infantry disrupting lines of fire and turning simple fields into miniature fortresses that had to be clean one by one at great cost to the attackers but despite the nightmare that was the French countryside the Americans pushed south and reached of Walsh by July 30th with Allied forces moving into Brittany the Germans still defending call were in danger of encirclement but before they could retreat the infamous July plot occurred this plot was an attempt by several top ranking German officers to assassinate Hitler and sue for peace with the Allies Alvin Rommel had supposedly sympathized with some of the plotters and his involvement was revealed when it collapsed on July 20th as a result he was forced to take his own life deeply mistrustful of his remaining generals Hitler took charge of the situation in Normandy himself and demanded an immediate counter-attack by this time the American spearhead was being led by the newly arrived Third Army George Patton now in charge of real soldiers captured Brittany in the first week of August at this time the Germans were busy putting together a heavy assault force consisting of two regular and two SS Panzer divisions these were intended to cut a swath through u.s. forces behind the spearhead splitting up the leading elements and allowing the Third Reich to achieve a good old-fashioned encirclement have the ver moshed successfully hidden this force they might have actually pulled it off but few access plans stayed secret in 1944 when the Panzers attacked on August 7th they were met with a devastating ambush by allied anti-tank units seizing the opportunity to meet up with patins forces Montgomery's forces in Normandy began a new offensive to the west of calm in just a few short days the tables had turned and the forces initially meant to encircle the Allies now found themselves the victim of an identical maneuver despite his best efforts to throw the Allies back into the channel Hitler slowly began to accept the situation in France and finally approved of a retreat as the Allied forces converged it became clear that the only chance for the survival of the two German armies in Normandy was an escape through fillets held by a single polish armoured division outnumbered the Polish fought valiantly and although they failed to stop the full German retreat they successfully contained nearly 50,000 German prisoners and forced the Germans to abandon most of their heavy equipment this was a decisive moment there was no longer any question of Allied superiority in northern France Normandy had fallen and the road to Paris lay open but before we discuss Paris let's not let Operation Overlord completely overshadow another massive battle that was brewing on the Western Front the invasion of southern France also known as operation Dragoon this had originally been meant to coincide with Overlord and both were topics of discussion during the Teheran conference of 1943 attended by all three Allied leaders Churchill Stalin and Roosevelt Stalin had been enthusiastic about these plans while Churchill fervently believed that allied resources would be put to better use invading the Balkans to link up with Soviet forces and prevent a communist monopoly in Eastern Europe ultimately the discussion was settled when Franklin D Roosevelt agreed with Stalin that the time had come for a cross-channel Operation Overlord was subsequently Greenland but dragoon would be shelved for the time being due to logistical concerns however the plan was revisited after storms destroyed the artificial harbor at Omaha Beach which combined with the sabotage of share Bowl created a mass backlog in allied shipping as a result the capture of such ports as Marseilles and too long suddenly became the clearest solution to the logistical crisis in the north although Churchill remained vehemently opposed to the idea General Charles de Gaulle threw his support behind it this operation would require a large scale and fibia CIN vision involving over a half a million men and would later be reinforced by the Free French by contrast German forces occupying southern France consisted of just 11 divisions under Army Group G the three beaches chosen for the initial landings were designated Alpha Delta and camel before the invasion began the southern branch of the French Resistance began a large-scale campaign of sabotage and guerrilla warfare unlike the scattered opposition it had been during the early stages of the occupation the resistance in 1944 was now operating as a paramilitary force officially recognized as the French forces of the Interior or FFI with the help from Allied commandos an SFI blew up bridges cut power lines jammed communications and attacked isolated German units three French commanders were also tasked with silencing the artillery perched atop the daunting 107 meter or 350 foot high cliffs on the mainland known as operation Romeo this raid involved 800 men the attack was a major success with the commandos killing or capturing about a thousand enemy soldiers while sustaining only a few dozen casualties themselves this was all merely a prelude to the landings themselves which took place on August 15th [Music] German soldiers were jolted from their bunks by the sudden scream of air-raid sirens as they scrambled for their gear the first bombs began to drop shaking the ground and shattering their hardened concrete bunkers there was no escape thousands of bombers clogged the skies their pilots relishing in the near-complete air superiority possessed by the Allies a full-scale naval bombardment followed with artillery shells up to 14 inches in diameter raining down on the stunt Germans although the barrage eased as the transports neared their landing zones few defenders were willing to take advantage of the reprieve alpha and Delta beaches fell with minimal resistance but Camel Beach held out stubbornly it was the most heavily defended Beach and throughout repeated shelling and bombing one section remained defiant successfully resisting Allied landings until it could be flanked by troops from other zones many hard lessons had been learned after the 10,000 casualties on d-day and ultimately the Allies would pay a toll of only 700 dead or wounded for their passage across the Mediterranean despite this initial success the invasion had only just begun on the morning after the landings for German battalions staged a two-pronged counter-attack although there was fierce fighting the offensive was doomed by low morale bad communication and a chronic shortage of heavy equipment the scattered remnants of the German forces were eventually forced to retreat leaving the Allies free to pore assure German commanders now accepted that their positions were unsalvageable after consultation with the Fuhrer a withdraw order was given for Army Group G but all defensible locations within French territory were to remain manned and resist as long as possible this uncharacteristic retreat caught the Allies by surprise in response the ad-hoc taskforce Butler was thrown together and doggedly pursued Army Group G hundreds of miles inland in an ironic twist of fate Allied armor now sped ahead of the main advance just as the Panzers had during the invasion of France less than five years prior back in the north a similar event was taking place as German Field Marshal vulture Mordo orchestrated the withdrawal of Army Group B modal had already proved himself a skilled defensive strategist on the Eastern Front and his rearguard actions in France would enable some 240,000 soldiers to escape into Belgium thanks to this most of Army Group G withdrew in good order resuming in southern France the Allies continued to advance and beseech the few fortified pockets of access resistance left in the region on August 18th they surrounded the headquarters of the German 62nd fort after days of constant harassment by the French forces of the interior the exhausted German soldiers surrendered but not before a single breakout attempt meanwhile French forces assaulted Marseille and Toulon held by just two German divisions as the French were besieging the cities in the south the Allied forces in the north were faced with the dilemma Paris was just over the horizon but it was still held by a German garrison as Allied forces inched their way towards the city if French people rose up in a large-scale uprising on at first german military governor dietrich von choltitz attempted to quell the unrest and keep the city open for resisting german forces nope he accomplished the former it was clear that his time was up when the Free French 2nd Armored Division arrived 5 days later Hitler then ordered poll tips to raise the city instead he surrendered it to the Allies soon after General Charles de Gaulle led a massive three-day long parade throughout the city the provisional government of France was finally back on home soil and French military affairs would now be run directly from the capital within another month almost all of France would be liberated with German resistance contained to just a few tiny pockets along the coastline however the German Reich was far from capitulation fueled marshal modal's efforts had paid off and hundreds of thousands of battle-hardened German troops now patiently awaited the next major advance at the Aziz freed line this vast defensive work would be the equal of the Atlantic Wall with some sections resisting the Allies right up to the collapse of the Nazi regime in 1945 thus far we've covered both Operation Overlord and operation Dragoon and followed the liberation of France all the way up to the fall of Paris we've seen how the Allies have dealt with the obstacle of the Atlantic Wall and how fighting in France raged up to the final German retreat but things are just getting started make sure to click on the link in the description below to head straight over to the part 2 where we'll cover Britain and Canada's struggle to liberate the Netherlands the axis counter-attack in the Battle of the Bulge and the arduous Allied push into the German fatherland [Music] you you

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Keywords: The Western Front, Second World War, Yalta Conference, Battle for Normandy, Invasion of Normandy, D-Day, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, War Documentary, History Video, WW2, WWII, Falaise Pocket, Liberation of Paris, Operation Dragoon, Operation Overlord, Liberation of France, Battle of Caen, Battle of Carentan, 101st Airborne, Wehrmacht, Battle for France, World War, Great War, Omaha Beach, Canadians in WW2, Americans in WW2, D-day from the german perspective

Id: m1ZsVOh5e4U

Length: 28min 7sec (1687 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 26 2020