Ghost Division – Rommel's 7th Panzer Division – Sabaton History 073 [Official]

hello everyone my name is Edwin Rommel yes and I am Irvin Roma's assistant candy and this is seventh on history you asked for it and now you got it ghost division you only the best you got the best ghost division at 5:30 a.m. on May 10th 1940 the great German gamble in the West case elo was about to begin general mayor Elvin Rommel had just a few months earlier been transferred from the Fuhrer a big light battalion to the command of the Germans seven Panzer Division as part of the 15th motorized or make or it would be the mission of his 7th to guard the right flank of Panzer group Kleist which was to drive a fair punked into France his immediate goal was to penetrate the Belgian border defenses and pushed through the densely forested and hilly terrain of the Ardennes Forest as quickly as possible time was essential they only had a short window of three or four days to cross the river Meuse if they did not manage that the whole offensive might fail from the get-go Rommel pushed his division hard vital to his advance were the motorcycle and armored reconnaissance units of Claude Hudson battalion 7 who raced ahead to scout and clear the quickest route for his tanks these ultra mobile units could not only cover a large distance much more quickly than any tank but also could carry enough firepower to tackle obstacles and resistance advancing rapidly the division moved the first day across the river ort and made headway to dine on advancing 90 kilometers in a single day they soon outpaced their neighboring units the 5th Panzer Division to the north and the 23rd Infantry Division to the south and contact was repeatedly lost with the Mews just 35 kilometers away Rommel wanted to rest for a minimal amount of time and be on the move again as quickly as possible looking neither left nor right he raced ahead with his forward units of his tanks keeping close contact only with his reconnaissance units at Dien on they smashed through a strong French force and the 7th got its first real taste of armoured combat by the afternoon of the 12th his forces had already reached the mighty river Meuse now this farm Rommel had enjoyed the blessings of his superior general Herman Haupt who supported the idea of aggressive tank spearheads taking risks was necessary thanks to Rommel the Meuse had been indeed reached in record time but it needed to be crossed Kleist commanding the whole Panzer Corps opted to rest his units for the night after they had reorganized and gotten enough support from the air they would begin the crossing of the muse late afternoon the next day Rommel however thought that air support would be modest at best and instead ordered only a short rest for his division at first light vii went on the attack again it was a hard fight the French would not let them cross without resistance but the hasty attack prevented the French from putting together enough force to stop them personally leading his tanks across the Meuse Rommel remained always close to the fighting from his experience as a stormtrooper in the great war Rommel knew the importance of keeping the initiative speed would be both their sword and their shield the faster they advanced the more likely it was to catch the enemy off guard they had to ensure the battle would be fought on their terms [Music] [Music] while the massive German troops was busy crossing the Meuse all that whole day Rommel did not even think of rest he had to move west ever west it did not take long for strong French and Belgian forces to find them their superior heavy char b1 and som UA tanks threatened his troops with disaster time and time again but Ronald's energetic leadership and improvisation skills gave him the upper hand he was not afraid to take immense risks now as this whole endeavor was one big risk anyway for example one misty morning they were surprised by a French tank attack Rommel went right up to the front ordering his troops to fire their signal pistols at the incoming tanks surprised and confused the French tanks veered off that gave Rommels artillery enough time to find its targets by the night of the 14th the Germans had successfully punched through the last line of defense at the Meuse river the command pursue with all weapons meant that French resistance in that area had been broken the next day Rommel found himself staring down the French Belgian border at mon coeur named as a halt order was imposed on all of Holt's divisions they were standing in front of the extended Maginot Line it was not as well fortified as the Maginot Line to the east and south but still dangerous enough that they were given the direct order to not risk the tanks and leave it to the infantry to break through by late afternoon of the 16th though both gave the cautious order to probe the defenses however he almost immediately clarified that no breakthrough should be attempted but Rommel was long gone by then the 7th division crossed the French border on its own and spotted a whole system of interlocking concrete bunkers with armoured cupola 's tank ditches and other obstacles at first glance it seemed impossible to break through without heavy artillery and air support but as the Sun was fading Rommel decided to attempt something unseen before in military history a surprise armored Knight attack directly against a fortified line wall on the move it was near suicidal but it was also the last thing the French fortress division had anticipated that night the first tanks of Rommels armored wedge smashed through the first defenses before the French were able to react still resistance was formidable vehicles were knocked out left and right by anti-tank guns and artillery firing from the bunkers nevertheless enough German tanks were already within the perimeter to silence the forward bunkers with direct hits in that low the 7th combat engineers moved into action throwing themselves with satchel charges and flamethrowers against the fieldworks firing on the move to all sides the Panzers sped on quickly followed by the agile motorcycle companies the only way to escape now was forward at top speed they raced towards the French artillery never stopping at 11:00 at night they had finally punched through the second line and suddenly saw only open terrain in front of them Rommel wrote this in his diary we were through the Maginot Line it was hardly conceivable 22 years before we had stood for four and a half long years before those self-same enemy and had won victory after victory but yet finally lost the war and now we had broken through the renowned Maginot Line and were driving deep into enemy territory it was not just a beautiful dream it was reality but even this unimaginable success would be only temporary if not exploited instead of stopping Rommel drove his armored spearhead onward speeding at night over the French roads toward the city of event they suddenly crashed right into the French 5th motorized infantry division which had neatly parked its tanks and vehicles on the roadside before going to sleep now they awoke to the sound of grinding metal and the fire of heavy guns paralyzed by the sudden violent appearance that the surviving French scattered in all directions throwing down their weapons in panic Rommel was gone as quickly as he had arrived all along the road to event the French were caught by surprise and soon the night was illuminated by burning tanks and trucks by 6 a.m. Rommel stood at the Samba river but as the Sun rose he came to the grim realization that he was in a seriously dangerous situation he'd been so busy advancing almost 50 km murders over the night that he had not noticed that only the few tanks of his spearhead and a handful of motorcycle platoons had been able to keep up with his ludicrous speed in fact much of the main body was still at the Maginot Line and on Belgian territory ammunition and fuel were low so Rommel ordered his battered and exhausted tank crews to guard the bridge while he himself would establish contact with the rest of his forces it must have dawned on him that his daring exploit had left his forces isolated in the midst of enemy territory so pedal to the metal the crew of his armoured command vehicle raced back along the same road back to the east news spread fast French soldiers spoke of a German breakthrough causing further chaos and confusion French High Command tried to make sense of the reports which seemingly multiplied the advancing forces by the hour no one knew where this German division was or what it had planned so this operation earned the 7th Panzer Division the French nickname that division phantom the ghost division on his way back Rommel encountered whole columns of confused directionless French soldiers whose officers did not know how to react to the news it could not have helped that suddenly a German armored vehicle was racing towards them from the other direction firing wildly and scattering them off the road Rommel ordered his driver not to stop for anything but suddenly they were behind a large column of trucks moving towards the front now bear with me here the convoy of 40 trucks was guarded with machine guns and Rommel drove up and passed it then he stopped the lead vehicle told the French officer to stand down and then ordered the crew of 40 trucks to get out and disperse and he basically did this with his commanding tone and his German generals uniform alone and this is not the only occasion he did something like that and such was the chaos that French soldiers actually came up to his vehicle hopefully asking Anglais but it was a ghost division for German command as well Rommel had presented them with a fait accompli the French lines were breached but on such a narrow front that many believed it was a trap set by the French to lure them in nonetheless the success of his unauthorized push had not only saved countless German lives but also decisively sped up the whole campaign by days or even weeks the French second corps had dissolved in panic the first French armoured division was more or less wiped out and many other French divisions were disorganized or badly mauled Rommels attack was an extreme version of German operational warfare but its strongest effect was psychological anything short of a breakthrough would have seen Rommel court-martialed but his success earned him the Knight's Cross instead Adolf Hitler himself congratulated Rommel after the campaign but also scolded him with the words your raid has cost me a sleepless night Hitler was certainly not the only one [Music] now ghost division is one of the most if not the most requested songs of this entire Sabbath on history series and we haven't specifically saved it to starve people of what they want to see but we wanted to space out like your hits and your most popular songs and stuff okay so now we're here at ghost division what's the first thing that leaps to your mind when you think of not the fans not the popularity of the song but the song oh good question so much I mean it was new for us that style being so hard-hitting and direct but also so many memories I mean yeah some of the strongest memories we can have from a concert is the first couple of seconds on stage sometimes we I mean we might have been on the stage soundchecking if we usually have rarely see in the crowd and for us I mean imagine some of the strongest memories I have is running out in front of hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands and in a few cases a hundred hundreds of thousands of people with the words fastest the wind the invasion has begun that those are powerful memories my friends that is Wow yeah it's got a real play in my head I wish I wish I could show you what's going on in my head right now this is a weird one actually I remember it very clearly it's how we're standing on stage this is in Athens 2008-2009 okay well while ago yeah and we're playing the song ghost division and all of a sudden everything goes I'm still singing this but everything goes into slow motion mode or you know maybe moving at a higher this is incredibly hippy and I know drugs involved in this experience anyway I remember totally like Oh Here I am in Greece having a great time on stage great crowd and I haven't had any other job in over a year I guess I'm a professional musician that's how I realized okay that's a great ending that I really wondered where you were going in your life it was and I mean I I wasn't you know I always loved music I always wanted to play music but for me to have that as my main profession it was it wasn't a huge life goal my life did not depend or my happiness did not depend on that happening okay I love playing music I was gonna do it as long as I could but I always thought I'd do something else on the side I'd be are I trained for radio stuff music production stuff like that so a good studio guy like even you like to sit around and twiddle by yourself you know I do so I mean I thought I'd be related to its you know in the industry somehow but for me to just realize that BAM on stage this is over 10 years ago now I remember that so clearly I have a very important question and I'm not asking for me I'm asking for all of the people what was your last job before you didn't have to have another job the very last one you don't just say what which McDonald's it was how do you know no it was force one of Sweden's larger telecommunications companies everything from helping customers on the phone to what also well if somebody was a technician patching a phone line and they needed to know which patch to go into to connect the new phone service oh is this done only by phone or internet I asked because of your hair no I was on the phone all the time I would basically be on on a computer terminal looking at oh yeah no you can't use patched be fine because it's busy there you'll have to go in through that one or install a new one this is it okay this is but this is a proper professional job this is a white-collar job yep and how do you not be famous you could see yourself doing specifically that for the next 40 years something else no no no really when I did that I would only get like contracts for a couple of months and I remember clearly that I wanted to ask them for leave yeah well before we did the 2006 tour with Ed guy in Dragon Force we went on tour there I asked for leave for like two months and can I come back and they told me like no I couldn't so there is no tour like like that's that's that was the first big tour we did with Knight liners and everything so for us it wasn't no easy deal for me it's a notice I mean actually to be honest there are a lot of people that would say no to that and this is shame yep because because okay I understand let's say okay you if you have a pregnant girlfriend or a pregnant boyfriend and you have to take care of I'm trying to be generous yeah take care yeah I can understand no I've got a do respond but you know it's just you yeah it was just me and it's you know also I totally understand everybody chooses a different path in life and I am lucky in that way that I didn't have a super good employer and I'm lucky that yeah yeah I mean in a way for me it was an easy choice yeah so I mean in many cases I know several really good musicians myself and myself that orange musicians because they it's not only about their choices it's you know where are you in your life when you have the opportunity to do something with your music have you spent years on another career do you have a good employer do you have a kid on the way all of these things so I mean I gotta say we are pretty damn lucky there's so many so many good musicians out there that that didn't do it and I'll tell you what just decided okay you know how this episode's gonna end I want you to Photoshop it so it looks like he's flipping burgers alright and then I want you to play really uplifting music like you know heartbreaking like yeah no it's not gonna be doesn't have to it just just a still picture okay something they're probably showing actually us talking about this but I want it should say something and I like to all those great musicians unsung thank you from Sabbath on history to all those musicians who sacrifice their musical lives for for duty for family for honor for fear for complacency or for even a better life ten points [Music] all right everyone thank you very much for watching and thank you so much for the support with the community all the Patriots everyone who's helping sharing this we really love doing this and thanks to you we can't keep on doing it so keep on doing what you do and we will keep on doing what we do thank you [Music]

Channel: Sabaton History

Views: 676,923

Keywords: Sabaton, Sabaton History, TimeGhost, Indy Neidell, World War Two, Documentary, Historian, History, War, Powermetal, Band, Pär Sundstrom, Joakim Broden, Erwin Rommel, Rommel, 7th Panzer Division, Ghost Division, Gespenster Division, France 1940, Maginot Line, German tanks, Panzer Division

Id: uGd1h6pchzM

Length: 20min 36sec (1236 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 25 2020