NARRATOR: D-Day, it launches the
Americans' bloodiest fight yet in the hedgerows of Normandy. [sounds of battle] While sidelined,
General George S. Patton battles to win back his command. American tankers and infantry
must improvise or die. [explosion] Patton returns from
exile just in time for the biggest carpet-bombing
mission in military history. [bombs whistling] [gunfire] Can he deliver the death blow? Or will Hitler's army
survive to fight another day? [explosion] General George S. Patton, his
bold attacks are legendary. See the war as he
saw it and ride along with his hard-fighting troops
as they battle their way through World War II. On this 360 degree
battlefield, Patton's enemies could be anywhere
and everywhere. There's nowhere to run
when the war is all around. "Patton 360--
American Blitzkrieg." [sounds of battle] July 24, 1944, Normandy,
France, seven weeks after D-Day. The Allies are still
battling for inches. The only thing that can
dislodge the Germans is a full-blown campaign
of shock and awe. Squadron after squadron of
American bombers and fighter bombers take off from
various airfields in Normandy and England. [music playing] It's day one of Operation
Cobra, the largest single carpet-bombing
mission in military history. In seven weeks, the Allies have
only moved 10 miles inland. Cobra is designed to
provide an opening near the town of Saint-Lo
to break the stalemate. All of these strategic bombers
would fly into an area, a very small strike zone, and they
would obliterate that strike zone with every bomb
they could carry. NARRATOR: Target, German
infantry armor and artillery batteries that have stopped the
Allies cold in the Normandy. Strategy, pulverize
the German positions, then pour through the opening
to break out of Normandy. Tactics, 3,000 bombers
and fighter bombers will destroy a three mile
wide position near Saint-Lo. [music playing] Two Massachusetts tankers,
Tony D'Arpino and Don Knapp from the 712 Tank Battalion,
watched from below as the American air power
crosses the frontlines. TONY D'ARPINO: I
thought it was midnight. There was so many planes up
in the air that it was dark, and the ground was
just actually shaking. And I can remember I
was with my two guys, and-- and all these
bombers coming over. I thought, boy, this
is going be a big. [bomb whistling] [explosion] NARRATOR: Since the D-Day
landings 48 days ago, the Allies are
getting desperate. The Americans have taken over
20,000 casualties in Normandy. [music playing] Anchoring the
armada are squadrons of B-17 heavy bombers. The flying fortress has a
flight range of 1,100 miles when fully loaded, with
6 and 1/2 tons of high explosive and
fragmentation bombs. Its firepower is the
equivalent of 100 howitzers. Just west of Saint-Lo,
the first bombers drop their bombs through
gaps in the heavy clouds. [bombs whistling] [explosions] They were dropping everything
but the kitchen sink. NARRATOR: The Germans respond. [sounds of battle] On the ground, General
Omar Bradley is tense. He commands the American
First Army in France, and this is his
grand plan to jump start the invasion of Europe. Failure is not an option. At his headquarters in Normandy,
a frustrated General George Patton paces like a caged lion. He's been held out of the
war for nearly a year, a disciplinary action
for an incident during the Sicily campaign. And now he's itching to
get back in the fight. Patton is excluded from
the initial Cobra planning. Patton used to be
Bradley's boss, but now the tables have turned. [music playing] Patton almost feels
cheated in Operation Cobra. He sees Omar Bradley showing
up at his headquarters showing him the plan
and asking him advice, and Patton's getting down on his
hands and knees on large maps and making corrections
and giving advice and feels it's
almost his operation. NARRATOR: 1:00 PM. The bombers must have
good visibility in order to hit their target, but the
cloud cover is suffocating. There was no precision
bombing in World War II. You had to see the
target to hit it. NARRATOR: Reluctantly,
Bradley calls off the attack. But one squadron doesn't
get the message in time. The result is tragic. Bombs ripped through the
30th Infantry Division. Men scrambled to take cover,
while an ammo dump erupts in a fireball. [explosions] HR MCMASTER: It's hard to
imagine what the effect of, you know, of being on the receiving
end of that kind of a, you know, bombing effort
and knowing that it's friendly fire. NARRATOR: The friendly fire
kills 29 GIs and wounds another 145. Compounding this
terrible tragedy, Bradley may now have lost
the element of surprise. The breakout is in jeopardy. Since Bradley was Patton's
subordinate in North Africa and Sicily, most assume that
Patton, not Bradley, would command the Normandy invasion. But that was before
Old Blood and Guts made two monumental mistakes. [music playing] Flashback. Sicily, 1943. Riding high in the late stages
of his stunning victories in Sicily, General Patton slaps
two American soldiers suffering from battle fatigue. This is a court martial
offense, what Patton has done, slapping a soldier. And he realizes that he must do
whatever he can to keep himself out of falling into the
backwater of the war. NARRATOR: Under
intense pressure, General Eisenhower relieves
him of his command. [music playing] For months, Patton lives
in isolation on Sicily. KEVIN HYMEL: In his
heart, he kind of wavers. Sometimes he believes he's
still destined for great things. NARRATOR: January 11, 1944. Even without a command, Patton
still likes to visit the front. He's walking along a
ridge line in Italy when he stops to
take a photograph. Suddenly, an incoming
German artillery round explodes close by. [explosion] Spraying shell fragments
in all directions. The general doesn't
receive a scratch. And Patton sees
this as another sign from God or divine province
that he is destined for greater things during World War II. NARRATOR: January 22, 1944. The wait is over. Despite immense pressure from
Washington to demote Patton, Eisenhower needs his
cold-blooded battlefield skills for the invasion of Europe. But when Patton
arrives in Britain, he's ordered to lead part of
a mission called Operation Fortitude. KEVIN HYMEL: Patton is
the commander of what's called the First Army Group. This is a fictitious army that
is going to decoy the Germans into believing the
Americans and the British are going to attack in
Pas-de-Calais further up the coast of France. RICK ATKINSON: Because he
was such a large figure, and because the-- the Germans knew who he was, and
because the Germans feared him, frankly. [gunfire] NARRATOR: The
fortitude deception pays off during the greatest
amphibious landing in history. June 6, 1944, D-Day. Thousands of GIs land on
Utah and Omaha beaches, staining the sand
red with blood. [music playing] Allied casualties exceed
10,000 in a single day, and Patton can do
nothing to help. KEVIN HYMEL: So here you have
Patton, the most experienced amphibious army
commander and a soldier who knows the battlefield, and
he's left out of the planning. It's a big mistake
that the Allies make, failing to utilize Patton's
knowledge and experience. NARRATOR: A warrior's fate
is the subject of his June 16 diary entry. "I have horrible feelings
that the fighting will be over before I get in. But, no, this is not so, as
destiny means me to be in. [music playing] [gunfire] The fighting in
Normandy drags on. The Germans are dug in to
one of the most diabolical natural defenses in the world. In French, the word is
"bocage," meaning hedgerow. Centuries ago, Norman farmers
built steep embankments and grew hedges on top to
mark their fields and fence in cattle. Feel like a jungle. When you got into a hedgerow,
you could see one hedgerow, but you didn't know what
was in the next one. NARRATOR: Field Marshal Erwin
Rommel, Patton's adversary in North Africa, is
the cunning architect of the bocage defenses. [gunfire] Backing him up are
three divisions of 12,000 Fallschirmjager,
or paratroopers. JOHN ANTAL: These were
some of the best soldiers in the German military. The Fallschirmjagers
were considered the best of the best. NARRATOR: The men who will
soon join Patton's army are in a fight to the death to prove
they are better than Hitler's best. June 6, Normandy, France. The Allies pay a
high price on D-Day, but the sacrifices purchase
a crucial toehold in Europe. The Battle of Normandy is on. [gunfire] [music playing] But after one month
of bloody stalemate, the Americans advance
just 10 miles. Something must be done to uproot
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's tenacious defenders. July 6. A plane secretly
lands in Normandy carrying General George Patton. He's preparing to storm
France with his Third Army. His impromptu speech
on the beachhead serves notice that Old Blood
and Guts is back in action. "I'm proud to be here
to fight with you. Now let's cut the guts
out of those crowds and get the hell onto Berlin. And when we get to Berlin." "I'm personally going to shoot
that paper-hanging God damn son of a bitch like
I would a snake." NARRATOR: One
American present said seeing Patton there was like
watching Babe Ruth striding up to the plate. Patton has held out to
the Battle of Normandy, but his reputation alone
saves untold Allied lives. His command of
operation fortitude, the ruse to keep Hitler thinking
the main Allied invasion is coming at Calais, is
a stunning success. A lot of historians
say that, oh, Hitler slept late for D-Day. Well, Hitler woke
up on time really, but decided for days and weeks
after to keep his 15th Army in Pas-de-Calais waiting
for Payton's invasion. NARRATOR: Even with Hitler's
15th Army stuck in Calais, the Germans in Normandy turn
the diabolical hedgerow country to their advantage. [sounds of battle] It's really becoming
a slaughterhouse for the Americans. NARRATOR: The main
roads are zeroed in with the dreaded German
88-millimeter artillery gun. The 88 is also mounted
on a force of Tiger tanks that lie in wait. This was the most feared
tank on the modern battlefield at that time. You see a Tiger coming, you
get the hell out of the way. NARRATOR: The 88 versus the
Sherman tank 75-millimeter is a mismatch from hell,
as Patton's feature tankers discover. Ours was about that diameter,
and theirs was, yay, like this. And it was bang, zig,
blat, and it's there. [explosion] People would get out that
could, but lots of times you did have time to get out before
the flames got real bad. [music playing] NARRATOR: Tankers who try
to go over the hedges expose the thin underbelly armor
to the German Panzerfaust. [explosion] The handheld Panzerfaust is
triggered with a black powder charge. The 6-pound oversized warhead
contains a shaped charge of explosives that ignites
and burns on contact. But the joke was, don't
try to catch one of them footballs because they come
at you slow and hit the tank and burn its way through. It is the grandfather,
if you will, of the RPG, the Rocket-Propelled Grenade. [sounds of battle] [music playing] NARRATOR: As Patton
waits to enter the fight, the thick hedgerows continue
to frustrate the Americans. But thanks to Curtis Culin, a
recon sergeant from New Jersey, the tankers suddenly
get a new tool. It's called the "Culin Cutter." What if we took
some of the steel that we see from the beaches
that was used by the Germans for beach obstacles, and
let's weld that onto the front of our tanks so that we
can basically force our way through the bocage. And you put it in low gear
and just plow it right through. NARRATOR: Tankers
and infantrymen use the cutter to clean out
the hedgerows one at a time. A Sherman begins by
breaching the hedge. Before German machine guns
can tear into the infantry with a hail of lead, the
tank's gunner immediately pumps high explosive shells
into the opposite corners where the Germans positioned
their machine guns. Then the infantry picks off
anti-tank weapons and enemy rifles, while the Sherman sprays
machine gun rounds in support. [gunfire] For the tankers, the most
effective German weapon is no bigger than
a dinner plate. [explosion] The Teller mine, also called the
"mushroom," is the most common. The small steel case
is easily buried. When a tank rolls over
its flat pressure plate, a fuse detonates
12 pounds of TNT. A Teller mine destroyed
a tank at its weakest spot, from the belly, the
track, the support, roller section of the track,
enough to immobilize that tank. NARRATOR: Tank
driver Tony D'Arpino knows just how dangerous
a Teller mine could be. It was this big field, and
I could see, like, a-- like, a pasture. Looked like grazing grounds. And there was a gate,
and the gate was open. NARRATOR: As D'Arpino
approaches the gate, the hatches on his
tank are closed. This provides protection from
enemy bullets and shrapnel, but also makes mine
blasts more deadly since the concussion can't
escape from the tank interior. The crew doesn't notice a
dead sheep hanging in a tree, the victim of a nearby mine. But D'Arpino's commander
suddenly orders the crew to open all hatches. I think he had a premonition
that there was something there. I think it did really save our
lives because the concussion came in and went out
the open hatches. [explosion] NARRATOR: D'Arpino's
tank is totaled, both his eardrums punctured. But he's alive, and so
is the rest of his crew. [music playing] But tomorrow
promises more bloody fighting in the
deadly bocage country. [sounds of battle] July 14, Normandy. The slow and bloody fighting
rages on field by field. [music playing] The Allies have been unable
to make much progress since the D-Day landings
more than a month earlier. [music playing] KEVIN HYMEL: The Germans
have been settled here for quite a while, and they
know the layout of the ground. They've zeroed in all the
territory for artillery, for mortars. The Americans are
approaching new territory. They are green troops,
and they are catching fire for every yard that they take. NARRATOR: The days
are also dragging on in agony for General Patton as
he helplessly waits for the go order from General Bradley. Patton's diary steams
with resentment. "Brad says he will put me in as
soon as he can," Patton writes. "He could do it now with
much benefit to himself if he had any backbone. Of course, Monty
does not want me, as he fears I will steal
the show, which I will." [music playing] The key to the breakout
from Normandy for Patton and the men who will
soon be under his command is the town of Saint-Lo
less than 20 miles inland. The Germans realize that if
the Americans can break out of the Saint-Lo area, they're
going to have open field running. NARRATOR: But before
Saint-Lo can be taken, fortified positions to the
northwest must be clear. And the key to
securing the flank for the attack on Saint-Lo
is Mont-Castre, also known as Hill 122. It's the anchor along the
fortified front the Germans call the "Mahlmann
line," and a regiment of the 5th Fallschirmjager
defends it with orders to hold at any cost. The Krauts had
that, and they could see everything we were doing. We got to get them off of there
because their observers were up there. NARRATOR: The fight
begins on July 3. Units from the 90th
Infantry Division soon to be under Patton's
command arrive near the base of Hill 122 under
constant mortar and artillery fire. 26-year-old Major Orwin
Talbot, a college graduate who committed to an Army career
long before Pearl Harbor, commands a battalion
of the 359th Regiment. We got up to [inaudible]. Our company was all
by itself for a while. We were counterattacked
rather heavily by the Germans, but we held our position. NARRATOR: By July
6, Talbot's unit fights its way up the hill. But then they and
another battalion get cut off by a fierce
German counterattack. And they were out of
ammunition, out of water, out of everything. NARRATOR: Four tanks from A
Company 712th Tank Battalion, soon to fight under
General Patton, attempt to reach the
cut-off battalion. They got the
supplies all right, and then they got ambushed. [gunfire] [explosion] Lieutenant Flowers's tank
was hit, and one of his feet are blown off. He didn't know it till he
tried to get out of the tank and he fell down on the inside. When they finally got
out, the tank was on fire. The ones that did get
out were badly burnt. [music playing] NARRATOR: All four tanks and
nine men of A Company are lost. Just north of A Company,
the fight for Hill 122 rages on in the
town of Beaucoudray. [sounds of battle] The 357th Regiment
attacks the enemy. They fire 6,000 rounds
of 81-millimeter mortars in two days, fending off 14
different counterattacks. The battalion of Beaucoudray
fought for five days. The Germans refused to
give up, and there was a lot of hand-to-hand fighting. NARRATOR: On the western
flank, the surrounding units have been fighting off attacks
for more than 24 hours. The Germans demand
that they surrender, but the GIs aren't
giving up the great view. JAMES SNYDER: There's no way
the Americans are giving up Hill 122. I mean, you want
to take Normandy, you got to control
the high ground. [sounds of battle] ORWIN TALBOT: We repaid the
attack up there for a while and held-- held our position,
with, again, more casualties. NARRATOR: After 30 hours,
Talbot and the surrounding units are finally relieved by
their fellow battalions in the 90th Infantry Division. In the 10-day battle, the
90th takes 7,000 casualties. [music playing] Just a few days
later on July 17, Field Marshal Erwin
Rommel, Patton's adversary from North Africa, is gravely
injured after an Allied fighter straits his staff car. He's evacuated to Germany,
leaving the German 7th Army in chaos. Then on July 20, the day the
Americans capture the town of Saint-Lo, German
conspirators attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. JOHN ANTAL: He narrowly
missed being killed. After that, he was
paranoid even more. He didn't trust almost
any of his officers, and anyone in the Wermacht
he looked at with suspicion. NARRATOR: He takes full command
of battlefield operations in France, and
the German Army is about to pay for it in blood. [sounds of battle] July 25, 1944, Normandy. Day one of the failed
Operation Cobra bombings caused 174 American casualties. But today, the weather is
clear, and General Omar Bradley unleashes the air attack again. [bombs whistling] The ground shook all day long. The ground vibrated with the
bombs that were being dropped. [explosions] More than 4,700 tons of
bombs fall in two hours. Into the firestorm,
P-47 fighter bombers deliver a cruel
new weapon, napalm. [explosion] Napalm bombs contain
different types of acids that mix with aviation gasoline
to produce an incendiary jelly. On impact, the napalm
ignites and spreads out, clinging to and burning
everything it touches. [engines humming] Then as German
positions are battered, a tragic mistake repeats. [music playing] These guys came in kind
of lower and very intimate. And I was thinking, boy, I hope
they don't have any shorts. [bombs whistling] NARRATOR: The shorts
are misplaced bombs, and they, again, rock some of
the same 30th Infantry Division units that were hit
the previous day. Shocked GIs and even
high-ranking officers are killed, including Lieutenant
General Leslie McNair. He is later identified only by
the three stars on his lapel. The miscommunication during
the second Cobra bombings kills 111 Americans. Another 490 are wounded. But the attack must continue. We had the feeling, wow, we're
finally going to get going. You know, it's finally
going to happen. [music playing] NARRATOR: As Patton
is forced to stand by, it's up to Omar Bradley
to seize the moment. 11:15 AM. Two infantry regiments
are ordered to attack. But what they find
is a complete shock. [gunfire] July 25, 1944, Normandy,
France, 11:15 AM. The Operation Cobra
carpet-bombing unloads more than
9 million pounds of bombs on German positions
near the town of Saint-Lo. [music playing] [sounds of battle] And as the Americans advance,
the Germans open up on them. At first, Operation Cobra
is considered a failure. The American infantrymen
begin advancing. They encounter resistance. What they don't realize is
this resistance has no backup. This was a hollow shell of
a German army that is down to its last men. NARRATOR: After weeks
of battling for inches, American tanks are
finally rolling through liberated French towns. The nice part of the war, it-- going through small towns,
and they're sprinkling flowers and-- and girls climbing on
your tank with bottles of wine. And I thought, this is
better than the hedgerows. [music playing] NARRATOR: July 28, 1944. The wait is over for
General George S. Patton. He gets the green light to
leapfrog Bradley's First Army with his fast-moving
armored divisions. For the first time in almost a
year, he's back in the fight. [sounds of battle] When the Third
Army was activated, it was like a
breath of fresh air. Patton was back. Nothing was going
to stop him now. NARRATOR: Old Blood and Guts is
ordered to capture the Brittany ports of Saint-Malo,
Brest, and Lorient. Patton, being Patton, disagrees
with Bradley and Eisenhower's plan. He believes attacking
the ports to the west is pointless when the unglued
German army to the east is ripe for a slaughter. KEVIN HYMEL: Patton, just
balled up inside as he is about this decision,
does not open his mouth. He's been in the
doghouse for too long. He is not going to risk his
career on what, to him, seems like an elementary
military maneuver. NARRATOR: Instead,
he sucks it up and turns lose his
pit bull on Brittany. General John Wood commands
the 4th Armored Division. He is so aggressive, his
men call him Tiger Jack. Some say he can
out-Patton Patton. One of Wood's boys is B Company
Commander 37th Tank Battalion Captain Jimmy Leach. He will soon help lead the 4th
Armored's charge across France. He referred to us as
"my boys," and he'd-- not unusual for him
to hug his troops. He was a big man himself,
and he would just grab a guy like me, 5 foot 7
or 8, you know, and hug us. And, hell, our chests-- our head is on his chest. You know, he's that big. NARRATOR: Wood immediately
leads the charge. Like Patton, he disagrees
with the order to attack west. But unlike Patton, he
doesn't fear for his job. Patton's August 4 diary refers
to his hard-charging division leader. "Wood got bullheaded,"
Patton writes, "and turned east
after passing Rennes, and we had to turn him back
on his objectives, which are Vannes and Lorient. But his overenthusiasm
wasted a day." [music playing] As Patton's men
speed around Rennes, Leach's B Company tanks run
into a deadly roadblock. As we approached into the
edge of Rennes down this road, there was a huge anti-aircraft
dirt mound that the Germans had built and had actual
88s on the top of it. NARRATOR: The 4th
is moving so fast, the Germans are caught napping. But four deadly 88 guns
are locked and loaded. [gunfire] JAMES LEACH: So we just fired
at these guys as we drove by. Well, in the meantime,
these Germans are running like hell to
climb up on this gun position to man their guns. [music playing] NARRATOR: Then the trailing
35th Tank Battalion tries to take the gun
emplacement head-on. But the 88s have the
high ground and take out nine Shermans in no time flat. [explosions] New 4th Armored units
arrive, and the German guns are overwhelmed with a barrage
of 75-millimeter shells. As Patton's troops move
toward the port of Lorient, the defenses stiffen. The ports throughout Brittany
are heavily defended. Patton won't tolerate a loser,
as he reveals in an August 5 letter to his wife, Beatrice. "Now we are in the biggest
battle I have ever fought, and it is going fine,
except at one town we have failed to take. I am going there in a minute
to kick someone's ass." [sounds of battle] August 6. Field Marshal Gunther
von Kluge commands what's left of the
German army in France. von Kluge is a steady
level-headed commander and realizes the troops
are in poor condition. The situation is desperate,
and he wants to withdraw. But Hitler runs the show now. He orders von Kluge to attack. Hitler comes up with a plan. He's going to strike Avranches. This is the key point. This is where the American
forces are flooding into the continent. [music playing] NARRATOR: With the German
15th Army still falling for the fortitude
ruse in Calais, the limping 7th Army must
pull off a Hail Mary. The plan is to strike Avranches
through the town of Mortain. Just 12 miles to the west,
four Panzer divisions attack from the east,
surrounding a high ridge. The Americans call it Hill 314. They take the town. There's still a small handful of
Americans at this very top peak looking down on the valley as
the German armored forces move forward. The Americans on this peak
do not even have bazookas. They don't even have artillery. They are simply riflemen. But what they have is a radio. NARRATOR: The radio belongs
to forward artillery observer Lieutenant Robert Weiss attached
to the 2nd Battalion 120th Infantry Regiment. [gunfire] He uses it to call in
constant artillery strikes on the advancing
German divisions. Lieutenant Weiss's
men were basically just stuffing the Germans
counterattack and delaying. NARRATOR: Four miles from
the German attackers, the 230th Field
Artillery Battalion unleashes a fiery hailstorm. [gunfire] Supplies are running low
for the 2nd Battalion. Even the radio
batteries are dying. And the German fire
just keeps coming. I can't imagine a man being
in the position he was in and being anything but a hero. NARRATOR: 10 miles to the
east, Sergeant Fred Cottriel, 737th Tank Battalion,
is speeding south through Avranches when
it's ordered off the road. General Patton plans a rescue
attempt for the Lost Battalion on Hill 314. Our orders were to get there
and do it at whatever cost. NARRATOR: German anti-tank guns
are ready for the 737th tanks. At the line of departure,
the first tank to move out got hit immediately. [explosion] We were told, if the tank
in front of you gets hit, you don't stop. Push it out of the
way, if you have to. I guess the hardest
thing about it was-- was to pass your
friends up with-- with the tanks on fire and not
being able to stop and help them. We were not allowed to stop. NARRATOR: If the Lost
Battalion is going to survive, every second counts. [sounds of battle] General Patton's Third Army is
fighting in three directions, and the German army in
Northern France is shredded. But Hitler refuses
to cut and run. August 10, 1944, day four of
the fighting at Mortain, France. Field Marshal von Kluge's
four Panzer divisions are attempting to retake
the town of Avranches from the American First Army and
eventually cut Patton's Third Army in two. High above the town of Mortain
on Hill 314, Lieutenant Robert Weiss is directing artillery
fire on the Germans with the Lost Battalion. But his situation is critical. This handful of
soldiers on top of Mortain are desperate for
water, for food, for anything they can
get their hands on. In an effort to resupply
them, the Americans started putting plasma and
supplies in artillery shells and firing it at the mountain. This actually
proves ineffective. NARRATOR: Sergeant Fred
Cottriel commands a tank from the 737th Tank Battalion. His mission, rescue the
Lost Battalion on Hill 314. 54 tanks with supporting
infantry attack near Mortain. [explosions] But 11 Shermans are knocked
out in the first hour. We traded tank
for anti-tank gun. The anti-tank gun
would get the one tank, and then the next tank
would get the anti-tank gun. [explosions] NARRATOR: By day's
end, Patton's men reached the base of Hill 314. The next morning, the tanks
and infantry charge up. FRED COTTRIEL: We were able
to get the anti-tank guns and the pillbox
with the machine gun so that the infantry could move. They were a very special unit. NARRATOR: After six days, the
320th Infantry finally breaks through to the Lost Battalion. Lieutenant Weiss called
in 193 fire missions while trapped on Hill 314,
stopping the Germans cold at Mortain. August 8. While the battle for Hill 314
rages on, east of Mortain, General Patton's 15th Corps is
attacking the town of Le Mans. [sounds of battle] Racing toward Le Mans
is Tony D'Arpino. He survived Normandy and
will serve under Patton until the end. Today, he's driving
the lead tank for the 712th near a crossroads,
when all hell breaks loose. You could see coming
down a whole German column. And the first
vehicle in the column was a German motorcycle
with a sidecar, and he had a couple of
branches sticking out. And Lombardi said, "Run
the son of a bitch over! Turn right and run the
son of a bitch over!" NARRATOR: Foot soldiers
riding on D'Arpino's tanks take out the motorcycle. A dip in the road
prevents the Germans from targeting D'Arpino's tank. I can still see that
motorcycle upside down, the wheels going
a mile a minute. And Klapkowski, our gunner,
knocked out every vehicle that he could see. And then he took a chance
that the road was straight, and he'd raise the gunner
here and fire a round. Raise another here,
fire another round. [gunfire] [explosion] [gunfire] NARRATOR: The tactic starts a
chain reaction of destruction. DONALD KNAPP: Flames
all over the place. Ammunition going off. And then I heard that Klapkowski
ran out of something on one tank, and he jumped on the other
and was shooting a .50 caliber at-- at all the
troops he could see. He was that kind of a nut. NARRATOR: Then in
the skies overhead, P-47s joined the fight. Fighter bombers annihilate
the rest of the column. For taking out more
than 30 German vehicles, D'Arpino received the Bronze
Star, Corporal Stanley Klapkowski the Silver Star. [music playing] Le Mans easily falls to Patton,
but much of his Third Army is still stuck in Brittany,
while most of the enemy is back to the east. [sounds of battle] Patton finally convinces
Bradley to relieve his hard-charging
armored divisions and get them in the
fight to the east. KEVIN HYMEL: Patton is
running amok in France. These armored divisions are
just flanking the German army and going at will
through French towns. NARRATOR: In a letter,
Patton confides with his wife on the prospect of
imminent victory. He writes, "I am the
only one who realizes how little the enemy can do. He is finished. We may end this in 10 days." Patton's optimism is
centered on a narrow valley between the towns of
Argentan and Falaise. This valley is the only route of
escape for the German 7th Army. KEVIN HYMEL: You have an entire
German army almost surrounded. And if you can cut it
off and destroy it, you've basically won the war. NARRATOR: While Patton's
Third Army is swinging north to Alencon, the
British and Canadians are attacking south
toward Falaise. As Patton races to close the
gap and annihilate the Germans, General Bradley
orders him to halt. He gets cold feet just as the
opportunity presents itself. Patton thinks this
is ridiculous. There's an open flank in the
German army that can be closed. NARRATOR: Omar Bradley wants
to prevent friendly fire casualties between
the two armies. Privately, he thinks Patton's
forces could be destroyed in a counterattack. Patton's August 15 diary
entry captures his outrage at Bradley's decision. "His motto seems to be
'in case of doubt, halt.' I am complying with his order. And by tomorrow, I can probably
persuade him to let me advance. I wish I was supreme commander." Despite his frustration,
Patton decides not to challenge Bradley. He doesn't intend to lose
his command a second time. Even so, Patton wonders if the
glorious destiny he envisions for himself is disappearing
in the dust of the escaping German's 7th Army.
