Omaha Beach: War Films From The Normandy Landings | Battlezone | War Stories

[Music] uh [Music] 1944 for two long years europe has waited for liberation hitler still occupies the entire continent but everywhere he's on the defensive the german armies are retreating in russia the allies have invaded italy and are marching on rome they're certain to land in the west this year hitler has built his atlantic wall which extends from norway to the pyrenees passing through powder cali and the beaches of normandy hitler has ordered that it be made an impregnable fortress field marshall ronald the desert fox is now commander-in-chief of army group b an inspector general of the coasts of holland belgium and france a 900-mile front for rommel the battle will be fought here on the beaches he will throw the british and american forces straight back into the sea this will be the longest day he warns rommel is not happy from the moment he sets foot on the shore why are these beaches so utterly devoid of obstructions wooden stakes and concrete piles at high tide they'll be hidden below the surface and on landing will pierce the allies to avoid them the enemy will have to disembark at low tide then they'll be in gunsight for a long time with no cover he sells millions of mines on the shore and in the sea he's going to flood all the lowlands from holland to the canton town from incident what ronald doesn't know is that the french resistance has procured the complete plans of the atlantic wall and succeeded in getting them to london the allies know the position of each pillbox the caliber of every gun the strength of each infantry unit at the casablanca conference roosevelt and churchill have agreed to continue the war until the unconditional surrender of germany churchill wants to attack in the south through the balkans with a political motive for reaching berlin before the russians but at the tehran conference roosevelt and stalin insist that the landing should be from the west the second front that stalin had wanted for the last two years will start on the atlantic coast somewhere in france general marshall chief of general staff is the leading planner of the american army he wants to command the operation on the western front himself but roosevelt considering the war in the pacific and japan as well is against it marshall offers roosevelt one of his personal staff eisenhower on christmas day 1943 eisenhower becomes commander-in-chief of the allied expeditionary forces in europe in effect the stage is being set for the beginning of the great and crucial test all over the world i have complete confidence that the soldiers sailors and airmen and all the civil populations of the united nations will demonstrate once and for all that an aroused democracy is the most formidable fighting machine that can be devised eisenhower has installed his general staff at southwick house on the english coast four are english and three american february 1944 the air force has already begun to prepare the ground the french pilots of the group lauren take part in these tactical bombing [Music] missions in four months six thousand planes make 22 000 sorties and drops 76 000 tons of bombs on occupied fronts between the seine and the loire all crossroads railway stations and bridges are being systematically destroyed this will prove fatal to the movement of german honor in the battles to come may 1944 all units are camped in the south of england and the assembly points are out of bonds to civilians and severely controlled the hour approaches [Music] rations are distributed and occupation money in france so the landing is going to be somewhere in france but where the soldiers will now depend on their training and their weapons to see them through both will have to be as sharp as possible to defeat the experienced german soldiers waiting on the other side of the water there's plenty of time to write long letters to parents in sussex or oklahoma the last perhaps censorship for several days even ambassadors are unable to communicate with their governments england is cut off from the world [Music] at last the landing plans are studied on the meticulously accurate scale models every single tree is there but the place names are fictitious is it brittany normandy or powder cali general george patton christened old blooded guts by the gi's in italy has positioned his troops just outside dover opposite pardo county [Music] but this turns out to be just another maneuver to deceive the enemy it completely misleads the germans it is exactly here in the pada kelly that they are waiting for the allied attack this is the most fortified spot on the atlantic coast rommel nervous and tired decides to leave a journey it's his wife's birthday he's also arranged a meeting with hitler to ask for more reinforcements the weather report is bad so it sets off the following morning at dawn after reassuring his troops meanwhile in the english ports the troops have embarked loaded like pack horses they've been issued with all equipment in triplicate the soldiers crowd together in the holes of the ships and wait but one day two days three days why the sun is still shining brightly the most difficult thing to bear is inaction fighting men who fret gradually lose the fine age of morale that has taken so long to prepare card games are no substitute for the release of tension everything depends on the weather in fact and also on the tide and the moon in spite of appearances the weather forecast is bad they want to land on june the 5th but have to turn back the storm is too fierce in the channel the sixth of june is still all right the seventh is also possible but the eighth will be too late [Music] eisenhower sees the effect this waiting is having on the army's morale but what can he do he hasn't arranged this blasted weather on sunday at nine o'clock in the evening the chief meteorological officer group captain jm stag forecasts are clearing for tuesday the sixth everyone turns to ike i thought it was just the best of the a bad bargain so i possibly sat silently just reviewing these things maybe why say 35 or 45 seconds now it's been reported by some of the people present for example my own chief staff says that five minutes well i know that when but five minutes and such conditions sound like a year actually i think after 30 45 seconds something that i just got said okay we'll go and uh ever this room was emptied in two seconds along 20 miles of front the most formidable armada of all time sails towards france making the journey in reverse of william the conqueror nine centuries earlier 5 000 ships protected by 700 naval vessels watched over by 13 000 planes and carrying 140 000 [Music] troops out in the channel the storm hasn't died down yet the weathermen have been mistaken about that at last battle orders can be up no it's not powder carry it's normandy meanwhile on the english airfields twenty thousand paratroopers prepare for the big jump two american divisions the hundred and first under general maxwell taylor and the 82nd under general ridgeway and general gavin and one british division under general gale eisenhower has a heavy responsibility it's been predicted that he could lose 80 percent of these men they've never seen action and believe for a few hours only that they're going to play cowboys and indians that the whole thing is a big game the fighters have stage fright even worse than the paratroopers between them they have only a few dozen flying hours they've been told all you have to do is follow the plane in front of you don't worry about anything else on the container peninsula the wind has blown them off their route the pilots look for their drop zone and the flares go go go shout out and everyone jumps a little wildly scattered over 24 miles every man falls where he can in a tree in a garden in the marshes where he drives by morning a regiment of the 82nd has succeeded in regrouping and taking its objective santa maria glees a third of the paratroopers have fallen in the little village square right in the middle of the germans the objective is the region between the veer valley and the valley of the orange security has been secured by two paratroop drops one around santiaguis to american divisions and the other to the west of khan a british parachute division since dawn the planes and battleships have been pounding the beaches [Music] [Music] the landing itself will take place on five code-named beaches sword in front of oystrom a british beach juneau in front of corsur a canadian beach gold in front of aramash another british beach and two american beaches omaha and utah the first near veerville and the second in front of santa maria dumont together nine allied divisions with about two hundred thousand men opposite them nine german divisions at about the same strength the allies hadn't therefore got superiority on the ground nevertheless on utah beach everything is going well the first assault wave is commanded by general teddy roosevelt 57 years old cousin of the president the air force has leveled the atlantic war some german land troops stunned by the bombardment surrender without a real fight and the americans advance immediately inland to rendezvous with the paratroops at santa mariglise [Applause] wow [Music] the fascinated normans can hardly believe their eyes while the children stare open now that these soldiers from the skies for the moment it's a military walk-in so where are the germans they're there crouching in ambush a battalion of the sixth regiment under colonel van der heigt specially trained for anti-air landing operations waking for the americans on the road to karen town the german soldiers are well trained and still confident of defeating the untried allied soldiers who are thrown ashore in what appears to be a desperate campbell there are a few commanding officers however who understand more of the task facing them colonel van der height who commands the anti-parachute operations around karan town had installed his command post in the village of santa maria dumont when he climbed into the church tower to look out towards the coast he saw a site that was enough to dishearten the bravest soldier the allied invasion fleet lay offshore his soldiers hidden in the bushes waiting for the first wave of american troops were wise to skulk and hide in ambush the tide of military power coming in was awesome the first american prisoners confirm it yes it really is the landing but they seem to be thinking to themselves wait and see what's in store for you [Music] on the omaha beach or hell is netflix [Music] the allied air force has missed its time the german defenses are intact [Music] the first assault wave is stuck in the mud but the others are already following the second third and fourth the tide rises thousands of men are crowded together between the sea and the cliff the amphibian tanks have been put into the sea too soon their foundry one after the other [Music] general cutter pulls himself up and drags along a handful of men to mount an assault on the blockhouse the omaha landing succeeds but at a terrible price two thousand dead wounded or misses at hot point the 225 rangers of colonel ruder scale the clips with grappling irons and rope lamps mission to neutralize a long-range battery when they take possession of it colonel ruder has lost half his men and he sees that the guns aren't there they've been moved inland for 48 hours the resistance had been trying to inform london [Music] from the english coast all night and all morning gliders dropped six thousand paratroops onto the banks of the own somehow or other more by luck than judgment [Music] [Applause] the mission of the british paratroops is to secure the bridge of benoville on the own on the british beaches codenamed gold and sword the tummies remind themselves of lord ashley's prayer before the battle my god in a few moments i'm going to be very busy i shall surely forget you but don't you forget me the first commander brigade lands in front of us colonel dawson chief of general staff orders the two landing craft carrying general kiefer's commanders to go in at the price of heavy losses keepers commando take the block house the germans had built in the square of the casino de river bella now they can carry on towards the bridge at bennerville where the paratroops are waiting at the head of the commanders is the youngest general in the british army already a veteran of narvik and dieff 30 years old as scottish peer general lord with lord lovett was bill millen his personal private [Music] thirty years later bill millen returns to the bridge of benneville to play blue bonnets over the border as he had in 1944 when he marched alone over the bridge to pike his defiance [Music] [Music] at four o'clock in the afternoon ten hours after the landing rommel's only armored division the 21st panzers launch a counter-attack [Music] the germans discovering their turn the attractions of the allied equipment the jeep which they enthusiastically adopt [Music] at the end of the day the 21st panzers reach the beach at new only germans ever deduce it rommel was right it was here that the battle should have been forced it was too late now the germans fall back to their previous positions rommel returns from germany the same evening june the 6th he inspects the front and interrogates general meindell's paratroops himself then he goes to saint germain to see old marshall von runstep commander-in-chief in the west rommel is furious he wants armored troops armor at any price he must shorten the front and counter attack quickly but hitler absolutely keeps the panzer ss in reserve the fuhrer will listen to nothing he has no confidence in anyone what if this landing is a trick he said [Music] to all appearances he lives in a dream a dream of secret weapons the v-1 the flying bombs with which he has decided to destroy london in 15 days 2 000 v1s are launched on england causing considerable happening [Music] [Applause] but the british have experienced similar horrors before it takes more than the buzz bombs to change the course of the war at last hitler believes the invasion from all corners of europe from russia from germany and above all from france german reinforcements make for normandy [Music] repeats the bbc that's the signal the french resistance joins in the battle [Music] all over france thirty thousand makizad armed only with tommy guns and explosives had us the german convoys slowing down their progress towards the front it's called operation tortoise their action said eisenhower saved us five divisions revenge is swift and savage and the germans find frenchman donald's minister to help them kill and torture other frenchmen [Music] the ss division does reich which is coming up from toulouse is held back by four days exasperated the ss leave terror in their wake at they shut all the people in the church and set it alight a tool they hang hostages from the balconies the nearer they approach the battlefield the more their pace slows down goebbels propaganda tries to build up the morale of the troops and insists eisenhower hasn't surprised us propaganda is of little comfort to the german soldier and he undergoes all the shattering effects of the american fighter bomber attacks [Music] the german fighters are nowhere to be seen and the allied fans can carry out their strikes unopposed the luftwaffe has been pushed right back into germany by the allied fighter sweeps and the shortage of fuel and pilots has eliminated the one-sphere german air power [Music] [Music] on the evening of june the sixth the allies haven't attained all their objectives in the west the link has been made between utah beach and the paratroops verville omaha beach is closely surrounded by the germans and the british forces themselves are divided by the german counter-attack at least sumir above all khan the principal objective of d-day is still in german hands the americans go up to town peninsula following a road marked by ruined villages for the normans liberation has two faces war and friendship in advance of their other countrymen they learn several american words gi jeep okay after the hard battles for vorlone and mondeborg the americans approach shebo the germans have entrenched themselves there hitler has cabled even if the worst comes to the worst sherberg must be defended to the last man all germany is watching for a whole week the town has had to be cleaned up house by house [Music] [Applause] the town is full but general von schlieben and admiral reinika have locked themselves in the fortress with the rest of the galaxy german soldiers surrender this is your last chance the lord speakers of the psychological warfare unit join the bombardment before surrendering the germans blow up all the port installations by june the 30th it's over with 800 survivors general von schlieben surrenders to general carter [Music] hitler has a fit of hysterics and publicly called schlieben a coward [Music] sherborg is taken of which nothing remains in 19 days record time american engineering know-how helped by french weapon put the fort in working order in two weeks the allies already built two artificial ports the mulberry harbors now the point of those enormous structures made in secret in england which followed the landing fleet across the channel becomes obvious dozens of boats have been brought over to form breakwaters old merchant ships are filled with cement and sunk they are 200 feet long and weigh six thousand tons finally 11 miles of jetties are constructed with hundreds of floating [Music] pontoons the english dock has been constructed at aramanch and christened winston in honor of churchill who had the idea of trying this giant meccano set the second the american port has been installed in front of san lorenz on june the 19th a storm blew up the most violent that had ever been experienced for that time of year eventually the american dock had to be abandoned but the british winston held in two months two million men and five hundred thousand vehicles had disembarked at aromas the extent of the allies preparations continues to stagger the germans [Music] [Applause] one week after the landing the americans have constructed 45 landing strips in metallic mesh they are erected in a few hours from now on fighter cover is immediately available lost on a deserted beach in the south of england this strange ice cream powder is really a secret pumping station to keep the expeditionary force supplied with fuel churchill has the idea for a pipeline codenamed pluto whose enormous reels unroll and lie along the bottom of the channel this pipeline will follow the allied divisions right into germany [Music] for four years churchill has waited for this moment for four years he'd said to parliament you ask me what is my goal i reply to you with one word victory now he had it he wanted to land with the british troops himself but when the king heard the news he decreed very well if my prime minister is going there i shall go too it was the only way of preventing the old british lion from going to war at 70 years of age [Music] king george vi congratulates montgomery in his turn for eisenhower the diplomatist general there is now a grave political problem that of free france roosevelt refuses to recognize the provisional government of general to go and wants to install an american military administration in france amgot until the end of the war churchill is in a difficult position because he has always supported the free french and realizes their importance to the allied cause the girl has been keeping to himself in algiers away from the allied planners resentful of roosevelt's hostility to his viewpoint and achievements in rallying the french nation he cannot admit that the americans would control occupied france in his place it's a political crisis of the worst sort if the goal does not cooperate and the americans do not accept his leadership the allied invasion will face unknown complications in the end the girl makes his point eisenhower holds a long conference with him on the eve of the normandy landings the two men understand each other when he sets foot on the courser beach on june the 14th this gesture has a symbolic value too political as well as military for him the only legitimate france is that which like himself refuses to accept defeat montgomery who marks time in front of khan for three weeks decides on june 26 to launch a big offensive operation epsilon but the weather is overcast and the allied planes are unable to take off to support the advance of the sherman tanks five armored ss divisions are waiting for the british attack they are equipped with tiger 48-ton tanks armed with the famous 88 gun [Music] [Music] the tigers savage the allied tanks one single crew destroys 16 shermans in one hour operation epsom is halted in its traps [Applause] the young recruits turned into fanatics by hitler can still love but the weather is clearing allied planes are airborne they attack the aerodrome of copycat in the suburbs of khan which is held by the 12th ss panzer division rocket firing typhoons pulverize the german position [Applause] [Music] montgomery wants to make an end and decides to wipe out the german defenses on july the 7th he loses 467 heavy bombers on khan before attacking the town from the front [Music] on july the 8th a month after the landing canadian tanks rumble into the town after 10 days of fighting in the streets the british achieved the capture of khan [Music] montgomery criticized from london for the slowness of his advance wants to push on at once on the road to paris he inaugurates operation goodwood of july the 18th with a formidable bombardment of the steelworks of conor bell to the north of the own where the germans are entrenched [Music] the cromwell tanks set themselves in motion at 5 30 in the morning on july the 18th the tigers having been knocked out by the bombardment the british divisions follow the railway line from kanye and advance freely onto the plane unexpectedly they're shattered by the anti-aircraft batteries of the german 88 millimeter cannons the germans use new anti-tank weapons like the guided goliath and the rocket launchers imitations of stalin's weapons more than a hundred british tanks are destroyed operation goodwood is halted in the west general bradley's americans whose objective is sound low are also held up it's impossible to press forward in this maze of hedgerows where there are snipers and paratroops and ss units of the german seventh army [Music] only the little piper cubs the eyes of the artillery can help to clean up the area one hedgerow after another [Music] even the tanks are caught up in the temple 12 divisions take 17 days to advance six miles [Music] an american handyman sergeant cunning then invents a new monster the rhinoceros using rommel's iron stakes from the beach defenses he prepares spurs which are welded to the front of the tanks thanks to him the armored troops break free of the figgis and go forward again on july the 18th the americans at last seize sandow the first jeep to enter the town carries a coffin on its foot draped with the stars and strikers it's the body of major howie he had sworn to be the first to enter saando his men have respected his wish [Music] [Music] general hodge's tanks have broken through patton's army sweeps across the breach and the advance of the armies through the liberated towns begins to take on an air of triumph [Music] meanwhile hitler proudly holding out his bandaged hand is smiling why the bandage on july the 20th he miraculously escaped from an assassination attempt [Music] in the command post at rustenburg colonel von starpenberg chief of the plotters had put a bomb under the heavy conference table its very thickness saved the fuhrer's life hitler's faithful supporters congratulate him it's truly a miracle god is with me the fuhrer declares on the radio on july the 17th rommel seriously wounded by allied planes is replaced by marshall von kluger for the germans the situation is becoming very dangerous they have no defense to offer against patton's army which spreads through britain on the other flank montgomery tries to reach fares from khan an encirclement seems to be the allied plan five panzer divisions travel all night to avoid air attacks and hope to surprise the american forces but at daybreak they are spotted by ten squadrons of british typhoon fighters armed with rockets the result is catastrophic for the german high command [Music] 163 german tanks are destroyed the panzer ss are crippled for the first time in military history a powerful ground offensive has been stopped by planes alone on the normally beaches allied reinforcements continue to flow in [Music] on the first of august the french second armored division lands at utah beach three years after general leclair leaving africa had sworn not to lay down arms until the french flag is flying over paris and strasbourg 16 000 men 410 tanks and 650 french guns join the american armies in a vast turning movement towards the south by a stroke of genius general bradley has the idea of encircling the remains of the three german armies which were tweaking towards the same the british closed the pincers in the north on august the 14th covered by 1 000 bombers and 720 guns 900 tanks launched an armored attack in the direction of pallas [Applause] on the morning of the 16th the canadians take thales and the castle of william the conqueror montgomery telephones bradley we will meet at chambois and on august the 19th the allies make their rendezvous in this little village on the deep german divisions are caught in the trap on our doormat general naziek's pose guard the entry to the valley's pocket montgomery has told them you are the cork in the bottle hold it well the pole stood firm and sealed the fate of the trapped german forces it was a second stalling drag [Music] [Music] in two days two german armies dissolved in the cauldron of the thales in two days hitler lost his best regiments the crack paratroops and the redoubtable ss panzer divisions he had hesitated too long before throwing them into battle [Music] two hundred thousand dead wounded or taken prisoner the battle of normandy had lasted two months and 15 days it was the end of the road for the germans in the west you

Channel: War Stories

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Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, normandy landings, d-day, churchill, hitler, stalin, eisenhower, Patton, Rommel, ww2, World War Two, normandy invasion documentary, normandy invasion d day, ww2 d day invasion of normandy, omaha beach d day, omaha beach documentary, archive footage, ww2 documentary, archive footage youtube, juno beach d-day, utah beach d-day, utah beach footage, sword beach d day, gold beach d-day

Id: o0T1-iMEiEg

Length: 49min 10sec (2950 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 10 2021