Fighting In The Normandy Bocage (WW2 Documentary)

General Dwight de Eisenhower once said the battle for France was decided amongst the bloody Orchards and hedge RS of Normandy he wasn't wrong in this video we'll follow the story of just one unit on one day as they battled through the infamous bokage outside the city of Sano this is the story of the Hell in the Hedge R despite the initial successes of the Allied Landings along normand's Coastline on D-Day in 194 4 by early July the advance was slowing down the cenam peninsula and the port of Shor had been secured by US forces but the Germans were defending fiercely holding the Americans north of the city of San low and repelling British and Canadian advances as they fought to capture KH the front line had reached a precarious stability setting the stage for a meticulously planned offensive in early July in hopes of breaking the deadlock by the start of that second month of combat the Allies had one major Ace to play Manpower ever since D-Day troops and Equipment have been flooding into Normandy to join the fight stretching the severely limited Germans ever thinner by the 5th of July right here on the now peaceful Omaha Beach men of the US 35th Division National Guardsmen hailing from the state of Kansas were heading ashore to begin their war in Europe led by the hundred 34th Infantry Regiment under their Commander 34-year-old Colonel Butler miltenberger they quickly organized and March off to their assembly area some 7 mil in land at colier their task was to reinforce the front line and link up with the 29th and 30th infantry divisions as they began the grueling assault on the city of San low facing them across the battlefields would be these men elements of the formidable 17th SS Panzer Grenadier division Camp group heints and remnants of the 352nd who had held Omaha Beach on D-Day these battle hardened Defenders stretched as they were also had an ace to play the terrain but just why was the bage so deadly and how did the Defenders use it to their advantage the entire region around s low was crisscrossed by an intricate network of massive ancient hedge rows dividing the land into a patch work of small Fields these hedge RS consisting of substantial Banks of Earth and rock covered in thick vegetation proed to be formidable obstacles for armor and infantry alike at the base they could be as much as 5 ft in depth and some over 7 ft tall providing an impassible obstacle for men and machines with minimal effort each hedro could be turned into its own miniature Fortress providing cover from all but the heaviest of shell fire and an ideal position from which to Ambush advancing troops as we see here bage still survives in the area around San low today but less so than it did in 1944 with a little over onethird having been lost since that time by early July those US units who'd been on the front line for some time had finally after many costly lessons begun to learn just how to defeat a determined enemy in bokage country let's take a look firstly from a Defender point of view bokage was ideal every field offered its own opportunity typically the Germans would site machine guns at the Far Corners of each field with arcs of fire set to cross in the center often particularly targeting the single field entrance as a natural direction of approach the lanes around each field were also perfect for moving men from location to location in relative safety and when backed up with snipers Riflemen Panzer and mortar teams every patch of ground became a true defensive Killing Zone The Americans had learned this the hard way throughout June but by July had devised new tactics instead of entering fields from the existing approaches tanks including adapted Shermans known as Rhino tanks with welded tusk-like steel prongs would be used to either gouge out an opening in a hedro bank at an unexpected location or to create a space into which explosives could be placed then under cover of smoke to Blind The Defenders mortar and machine gun fire aimed at the field Corners a breach would be made through which armor and infantry would knock out the remaining enemy Defenders it was costly and terrifying for an attacker who had no idea if a position was occupied until gunfire erupted from the Hedge RS and with as many as 20 such fields to every single mile it was also utterly exhausting it was then at 8:30 p.m. on the 13th of July the orders came for the the 35th to move up to the front lines in preparation for an attack that was scheduled to commence at 5:15 in 2 days time moving into this area throughout the night of the 13th and into the early hours of the following day they replaced a regiment of the exhausted 29th division in the line the Handover included an ominous warning from an intelligence officer of the 115th Infantry Regiment now keep your heads down the Germans are behind that next hedge R further adding that they had attacked towards the Germans on three separate occasions and always always ended up back at their original jump off point settling down into newly vacated foxholes the men of the 134th Infantry Regiment quickly learned of their objective the first they had been issued in the second world war it was brutal in its Simplicity obliterate enemy forces North of San low and capture the vital Hill 122 overlooking the city the overall plan to capture s low had actually been launched on the 11th of July on a three divisional front with the second division tasked to capture the strongly held Hill 192 and approached Sano from the East the men of the 29th division were to assault in the center via the village of s Andre and along the vital maranville Ridge and the 35th to their right who would attack through Lao and up to Hill 122 A prominent Plateau overlooking s low if that could happen one of the key German defensive positions in the entire region would fall zooming into the map now we can see that by the 14th of July the men of the 134th who had been in reserve when the main assault was launched on the 11th were now moving up to take their place in the line the section of line assigned to the regiment was right here running from just south of the village of VI fosa across this strip of bage Countryside up to the top of hill 122 some 2,500 yards away with the first and second battalions in position side by side and the third in reserve let's take a closer look at the First with two companies in the lead a on the left and C on the right with b and d further back in support they would leave this exact hedge row under cover of artillery fire at 5:15 a.m. on the 15th of July and begin their Advance moving some 500 yards down a gentle slope towards a small stream they would take HED R after hedge row before beginning the climb through the Hamlet of Emily and onto the slopes of their objective Hill 122 a very tough proposition especially for a completely raw unit by 7:00 p.m. on the 14th Battalion commanders gathered for a critical meeting here they received detailed information about the coming artillery barage with both 105 and 155 mm pieces due to saturate the enemy position immediately in front of the main line of Advance this barrage coupled with mortars creating a massive smoke scrid was hoped to cover the attackers in their assault for those meant to be leading the way it was an incredibly nervous time moving up to their departure line in the early hours of the 15th the first Battalion men settled down in the quiet before the storm many men in the preceding hours had given their personal effects to friends behind the line now they waited checked their weapons and ammunition over and over again wrote a quick few words in a letter they hoped to send home or some simply prayed at exactly 5:15 a.m. a distant Rumble quickly escalated into the thunderous Roar of high explosive shell as the plan bar slammed into the enemy front line some 300 yards ahead under that cover each man Rose gripped his weapon and began to advance towards the enemy line just moments later the leading platoon of Captain m company a came under heavy mortar and artillery fire accompanied by the sounds of enemy machine guns as the Defenders opened up to considerable surprise German soldiers were seen emerging from their own hedge Ro and advancing over open ground towards them it seemed the enemy were launching their own attack at exactly the same time and the two formations smashed into each other exchanging fire at incredibly short range in a fight that lasted only minutes the Americans held their ground and the surviving Germans scramble back over the hedg r to return to the defensive as the men of a andc company struggled to their feet leaving many comrades in the meadow unable to rise they began to advance once again crashing into the nearest hedge row they cleared the remaining Enemy at the point of the ban in vicious hand-to-hand fighting with rifles pistols grenades and even knives being used in the fight momentum was everything pushing on all the time and under an increasing enemy barrage they cleared hedro after hedro crossing the stream ahead of them driving the enemy before their Advance it was extremely hard on the nerves of the men as one American officer recalled the area was merely a succession of small enclosed pastures with a few Orchards likewise enclosed by hedr seldom could one see clearly between the confine of the field it was difficult to keep physical contact with adjacent squads platoon or larger units it was difficult to determine exactly where one was unlike conditions in Open Country planks could not be protected by fields of fire all these contributed to the difficulties of control and caused a feeling of isolation on the parts of small units all this meant that the Frontline troops through their neighbors were nowhere around they could not see them they were not in the adjacent field often this feeling of being out on a limb would cause the leading elements to Halt and wait for the flank units to come up and sometimes these were actually ahead nevertheless by 6:30 a.m. the men of company C had reached this hedgeline and finally Drew breath with none of company a in sight to the left they assessed their losses in a little over an hour company C had crossed some 800 yards of bage losing 60% of their men in the process back at Battalion headquarters by now the first wounded were coming in but no real information could be gained all communication lines having been severed by the enemy bombardment and so major wood the first Battalion EXO was sent forward to ascertain the situation finding Captain Davis and the 52 survivors of company C reorganizing just here he arranged for Company B to come up and take over the assault on the right company C though weren't the only men to have suffered badly the mortar and machine gun Crews had been heavily hit too with one machine gun team down to a a single private Soldier finally at 7:30 company a on the left were located some 200 ydd behind and to the left of the sea company line with heavy resistance to their front Captain McGaw had put in a request for tank support to breached the Hedge RS ahead within a short time a platoon of Shermans came up and Company a now seeing an opportunity instead began to move left in an attempt to outflank the enemy advancing along this hedg line they were in position by 9:00 a.m. about the same time that Company B arrived to take over from The Battered company cement just a few minutes later with company a launching their unexpected attack from the left the advance restarted driving forwards from this location Company B now took the lead methodically clearing the Enemy Lines as they practiced just days ago with machine guns in each corner of a field they would fire at the opposite corner whil mortars dropped on the far hedge R under that fire the Infantry squads would advance along each side often at a crawl towards the enemy positions amongst those Leading Men was Nebraska native Sergeant Freddy senson who single-handedly silenced a German machine gun with a well-placed grenade he was one of many men who wouldn't live to see Nightfall with tanks now providing close support to company a on the left communication with tanks became a real problem with no radio contact it was down to men to jump on a tank bang on the hatch until it opened and then point out targets often only a handful of yards away but the company a attack was working as they continued onwards at a slight oblique they managed to work behind the Germans still firing on Company B and appearing through a hedge behind the Defenders took 38 prisoners in short succession with their front now clear Captain Francis Mason's Company B could also push on it was now that those men encountered another Menace on the battlefield one which played GIS throughout the entire War mines with this sunken Lane in the company B sector running directly through the landscape and towards Hill 122 it was tempting for the green soldiers to use it as an easy and fast route of Advance before long it was realized that the Germans too had considered this and bursts of fire were seen whipping along the lane rushing for cover men left the central part and moved closer to the banks only to be deafened by nearby explosions as men left and right were badly wounded or killed the enemy had seeded the banks with anti-personnel mines knowing that the fire would drive the Americans to exactly that spot unable to locate those mines in the thick undergrowth and losing men all the time the advance slowed to a craw and the lane was eventually abandoned in favor of the equally deadly assault through the Hedge RS eventually though progress was made with Captain Mason's men joining up with company a to form a continuous front for the first time that morning just short of the village of Emily here the men paused reorganized and prepared to launch one final push towards their main objective some 600 yd away that assault came at 1250 by now according to surviving records the shock of battle for new soldiers had worn off and leaders sometimes officers sometimes sergeants and sometimes privates were coming to the for the fear of the Hedge R much talked about in the days before the attack had also now lost its hold and men were beginning to work together as they systematically Advanced each pocket of resistance encountered was outflanked or suppressed and destroyed with men taking the ammunition from their fallen comrades on the field to continue the advance despite the mounting losses one two or more every time the men emerged from one HED R to assault another the attack went on by now though all units had lost consider able numbers amongst the machine gun and mortar men 70% lay dead or wounded company D nominally in reserve but fed into the fight peace meal throughout the morning had lost six of its eight officers but still the attack went on by 1: p.m. the collection of shattered houses which had once been the village of Emily was captured and Company B advancing ahead climbed the slopes of Hill 122 only to be thrown back by heavy machine gun fire just yards short of its Summit low on numbers exhausted and with their heavy weapon support decimated the men of the first Battalion finally formed a defensive position between Emily and the crest of Hill 122 to await the inevitable Counterattack it came in several waves that afternoon with men in foxholes hedge RS and behind trees pouring fire into the advancing enemy finally repulsing them at the point of the bayonet at 9:50 p.m. with the last of their strength Company B moved forward once more again they approached the crest and again they were pushed back leaving many of their friends strewn across the lower slopes of Hill 122 the Final Act of an utterly exhausting fight for a battalion which had gone from green to veteran in a single day was to take place at 11:05 p.m. when a andb companies Rose one more time and advanced to the crest of Hill 122 clearing the enemy along the way the men dug in as best they could they'd far out stripped their comrades in the second and third battalions advancing Against All Odds some 2,300 yard through some of the toughest terrain of the entire second world war Dawn the next morning brought unwelcome news the crest which the day before seemed to have been reached was still partially in German hands and that vital view down into San low still belongs to the enemy it would take three more bloody days of fighting before the Germans were pushed from the summit and the men of the 134th could finally look down on the city whose capture had cost so many lives but those losses were not in vain eventually Sano did fall and in the coming days weeks and months the fight would move on eventually ending with the liberation of Normandy France and the end of World War II in Europe thanks for watching if you enjoyed this video why to check out our other documentaries right here on YouTube covering well-known actions of the 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Channel: Battle Guide

Views: 278,043

Keywords: ww2, normandy, d-day, bocage, 134th Infantry, US Infantry, US WW2, history, documentary, war, second world war, conflict, D-Day, France, ww2 documentary, documentary ww2

Id: sBc7iU4sZpw

Length: 18min 54sec (1134 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 12 2024