"The True Glory" 1945 Allied Victory over Germany - REEL History

[Music] [Music] i have been asked to be the spokesman for this allied expeditionary force in saying a word of introduction to what you're about to see it is a story of the nazi defeat on the western front so far as possible the editors have made it an account of the really important men in this campaign i mean the enlisted soldiers sailors and airmen that fought through every obstacle to victory of course to tell the whole story would take years but the theme would be the same teamwork wins wars i mean teamwork among nations services and men all the way down the line from the gi and the tommy to west brass hats our enemy in this campaign was strong resourceful and cunning but he made a few mistakes his greatest blunder was this he thought he could break up our partnership but we were welded together by fighting for one great cause in one great team a team in which you were an indispensable and working member that spirit of free people working fighting and living together in one great cause has served us well on the western front we in the field pray that that spirit of comradeship will persist forever among the free peoples of the united [Music] nations [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] [Music] to you who now living in love and hope who sense the future in the surrounding air this testament is offered here you may look on the violent fragments of our age and the once thinness of the little thread that made us then the citizens of freedom how dark was europe and the face of man when this begins the nation had gone mad and struck out everywhere the compass knew the eptide of our honor fell away and left its wreckage on a hundred coasts the german cast his fires about the globe his strength drawn from the smoking star and roar lay in our weakness and at last his conquest smouldered behind the barriers of his arms along the channel where the sea strikes france stood the west wall of concrete stone and steel to mock the frail hopes of the petty free wounded hard pressed and wasted on our strength almost like madmen then we plan to breach the wall and smash the german spike but well we searched the coast of europe like fierce eagles between low flashing and deep harvard sherburg our eyes sought out the place of the assault exits and tidal range marked shallow flashing off sand and the wind canceled the belgian coast the north sane beaches were too small and cliffs barred the approaches proton tower too narrow the pader cali heavily defended it all resolved on normandy on their planes could land upon the carpet ground the coast defenses were more light and tides had a good range and men were safe from winds so on five miles of still unblooded sand the fretful course of fate would be a sail by armored nations now our people bent to the construction of a steel array and took the builders hammer in their hands it seemed almost as though the sun stood still till our free peoples full of rage and power heaved through the air the ponderous spear of war this is our people's story in their words [Music] i suppose if the battle of the north atlantic hadn't gone right things might have been considerably different that was an ugly time for all of us merchant ships naval escort air patrol i guess i had my share of bad luck i lost three ships and some good friends i remember reading somewhere that when a seagull comes down on a patch of oil its feathers stick together and it can't get off the water again there must have been a lot of dead seagulls around the north atlantic of course we only saw it happening on the wall map and yet it was well quite real when i started there those markers were used reminded me of toys out of some children's game but soon they became u-boats and ships carrying cargos food and supplies and weapons and men to use them [Music] i remember coming over the worst thing about the trip was you didn't know where you were going wherever it was you'd be a stranger and nobody likes that that ship was loaded from stem to stern with sad sex around the third day out things got pally like the fella said we're all in the same boat the comic finally we got to liverpool they had a band to play us in an english army band full of chimes i'm dreaming of a white christmas they played to tell you the truth it was pretty corny but nobody said anything because well you know it was a nice gesture funny thing on the way over you felt like you were the whole works you couldn't help it but then all over the uk you'd see things that made you begin to realize you were just part of a big proposition all kinds of things um no so i was a pre-med student at johns hopkins in civilian life now i do know a little something about anatomy and i say it is scientifically impossible for the human body to stand up to the training we receive an absolute impossibility muscles and tendons and bone structure was not designed to withstand that battery don't ask me how it happens that we did stand up to it i don't know it has no scientific explanation here listen to this out of one of them army families to a young man soldier in the army of today offers exceptional advantages and opportunities such as physical training foreign travel sport and many other facilities which are normally denied to those engaged in the majority of civilian occupations the majority of occupations in civil life become monotonous to say the least but in the army life is so varied that there is little or no prospect of a monotonous or irksome time so men were girded for their highest hour and while they learned the lethal arts of war in small and secret rooms the planners met to watch their work mature beyond our view the german proud and confident stood calm in deep emplacements on the armored coast the war was not yet one of men and blood the weapons were the factories and the maps and voices speaking in the hidden night season by season all our plans advanced and those few men on whom the mass of war rested with all its weight worked ceaselessly i used to wonder whether the millions of people doing their various jobs realized they were part of it all paving the way for the invasion [Music] we kept bashing away at german targets mostly steel and oil hamburg battle of berlin things were getting tougher every trip more ground defenses more night fighters more crews not coming back we got away early in the morning sometimes we'd see lancaster's coming back a lot of times we'd stoke up the same targets they did we beat up aircraft factors too it was a d-luc service day and night 24 hours a day we dropped agents over france it must be awful to risk your neck and have to keep it secret one man submarines torpedo boats commandos we use them all to bring back cups full of sand from the beaches for analysis it had to be quick drying with a solid clay foundation it would have to support 30 ton tanks i must have photographed nearly every field in france real job of course was the car area but i didn't know that naughty jerry we dropped stuff to the mackie arms ammunition sabotage materials and so on then went over ourselves and taught them how to use it we built it to specification but we had now the least idea what kind of a gadget it was the only name it had was malbury it was vital to know all about the same bay and the and we trained the men to negotiate those tides and landing craft wearing down german sea power in preparation for the day special study of the weather along the normandy coast miles of wire netting to the beaches seven to two hundred tons of petrol per day with an underwater pipeline to carry it to france a white star is the emblem of liberation triple inoculation for all personnel new ships pouring from the stocks old ships adapted listening to the german radio output for fresh intelligence that was just part of the pre-invasion work by december 43 the plan itself was set and we took it to tehran for final discussion the three leaders approved the plan our russian forces advancing from the east and invasion from the west and then the date was set i assume command is shafe with the best all-round team for which a man could ask some had already been working for months in england others i brought with me from the mediterranean we adopted first a master plan and then had to coordinate every last detail of the ground sea and airplanes while this was going on we led off with an air show designed to make the landing points as soft as possible to batter the german communications and to make certain we'd have control of the air it was quite a show those airmen did a magnificent job [Music] we had polish friends checks all sorts in our outfit they'd never away in the mess about what they've been up to the only word you could ever make out was marshalling yards us bombardiers seem to do nothing but look down on french bridges those days we used to ask each other have you cut any good bridges lately well finally there was only one whole railway bridge left over the same between paris and the sea [Music] down in the late spring through the wounded towns of england move the mass made by our patients two precious years of plans were put away the offices were empty all the maps were rolled up on the walls what had been paper at last had come alive across the channel aware of our resolve with coal contempt alerted germans stood beside their guns and reinforcements rumbled from the rhine their generals were prepared their might was poised they looked across the heaving sea and grinned they would reap harvest of us on the beaches and even death himself would stand amazed yet faint across the groaning of the sea came the thin thunder of a massive power drawn from the great free peoples of the earth it gathered in the ancient ports of england to crowd upon the steel encumbered ships [Music] okay [Music] it was a funny sort of feeling marching down to the ships we've done it plenty of times before of course on schemes and that kind of thing they didn't tell us this was the big show might have been just another exercise some of the chaps cracked gags they wasn't very comic but we laughed i think we all guessed the general feeling was okay if this is it let's get in there and get it over with waiting always got on my nose even waiting for a bus never could stand it well after a bit our ship found its place in the middle of all the rest of the stuff and there we stayed for days [Music] hmm [Music] they gave us the final briefing then we knew what to do and how they told us where and when that's a briefing i listened every word wrote it down my head like a record and it get playing over and over again a piece of beach in the morning ever since i became a soldier they were getting me ready for this before there'd been time in front of me protecting me now the time had worn away and there were only a few hours left the morning i'd have to face it i tried to imagine how much fear i would have you know it would keep me from doing my job i suppose everybody else was wondering the same thing [Music] nobody said anything official but all of a sudden the ship got much busier and over the amplifier the chaplain said he'd be seeing mass at 18 30 hours funny i don't think i ever believed even after the final briefing that the invasion was going to come off and a voice in the loudspeaker said man who wished to take the randy seasick pill should take the first one now [Music] ah [Music] [Music] i was tugging a glider the way we always practiced it except that i've never been in the air with a whole army before three airborne divisions is sixth british and eighty-second and hundred and first american just before the glia pilot cast off over a landing good luck over the radio it seemed a sort of inadequate thing to say as supreme commander let me break in at this point to say just a word about the navy from the moment of embarkation to that of landing the full burden fell upon the navy and our merchant fleets they had to sweep the mines bombard the coastal batteries marshal and protect the transports along the coastline preparatory to landing and finally man the small boats that carried the soldiers to the beach on that day there were more than eight thousand ships and landing craft on the shores of normandy it was a most intricate task and a vital one for the success of our planets the courage fidelity and skill of the royal and american navies have no brighter page in their histories than that of june 6 1944 [Music] [Music] [Music] go [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Music] [Music] back in london only a few people knew it was a well-kept secret around daybreak we correspondents were called and told to be at the ministry of information at eight then they told so [Music] they called our beach omaha don't ask me why i've never been to my mother in nebraska i mean it's anything like omaha france you can have it i understand omaha was the roughest spot you lost some good men took a few prisoners it was a lousy trade we've been told what to expect so it wasn't like a surprise or anything just well one really happens it's different for a while they were pinned down but the lucky thing the other beaches were going better so we got a little more now share the old teamwork maybe come in the air guys and finally we got moving good now you hear a lot about how long it takes to make battle-hardened soldiers out of green troops listen i got to be a veteran in one day that day and so they paved the beaches without blood and nurtured across the dunes and reached the roads the german parried fiercely in the depths of which green pastured normandy the three airborne divisions first of all to land fought lion-like against most grievous odds and loud across the cratered face of france came german reinforcements from berlin a voice cried out the allies must be hurled into the sea before another day had burned its hole in history locked in battle the armies clashed our first objective then was to merge all the beachheads into one and 50 miles of men drive on together beyond the red sands through the broken wall [Music] where i was it wasn't too bad getting ashore enough to let it started let it fight for every bloody field that was the same each time you crawl on your belly keeping your backside down like you'd been told chucking a few hand grenades then rush them sometimes they killed us but we were killing more of them the trickiest part was the farms they were regular little jerry fortresses if we couldn't manage them on our own then we'd have to wait while the company commander called back for artillery support the navy was still with us too chucking in the shells ahead of us in three days we advanced seven miles then we were told to stand fast and dig in next morning we heard the news we got it from the bbc sounded great we joined up all along the bridgehead there was a solid line 45 miles of it we've got a foothold we were in [Music] we didn't have to do much navigating to get there you just followed the convoys i was doing close support we waited around and then the ground troops would whistle us out and told us about some target they wanted removed and then in we go we were like texas on a cab ring [Music] there's something nice about a beach any beach you think of a beach chances are you'll remember something nice like a party or a picnic pals from the old days girls and bathing suits but the one i worked utah looked more like a freight yard once we got going for quite a while we brought more supplies right over the open beach like we practiced it and like we made up as we went along we worked a 24-hour shift ducks lights rats robots all sorts of rube goldberg the stuff just kept pouring in tanks trucks food ammo guys millions of things we didn't think we'd spend 15 days in the same field outside khan with the wood behind us and the germs in another wood half a mile in front of us and a little empty valley in between each side mortaring each other all the time yes man you had to live in a slit trench you got into a routine you know stand through from our past four hour past five and two hours wait for breakfast came up fairly hot tin baiting sausage tea of course biscuits we've been living on compo food since d-day he's good food but well you know you got tired of it i'd have given a lot for a slice of fresh bread and butter or a couple fresh tea 15 days is a long time to stay in one place and be morted you get so you think everyone's coming straight for you [Music] [Music] i can remember every case we ever had especially the first one the ambulance brought him in late one afternoon i came over to where he was lying and he looked up and grinned i asked him how he felt he said something about the the german with a machine pistol using him for a dart board he was quiet and patient and a little bewildered he'd never been hurt before he asked how the fighting was going then he passed out the doctor came over and looked at his wounds and swore said he had no business to be alive we put him on the operating table and did what we could the doctor kept swearing all the time he was operating we couldn't stop the bleeding i remember the radio news that night they said the casualties had been surprisingly light they said the whole thing was dear old winston's idea a collapsible pre-fabricated harbour with everything on it except a nappy well i wouldn't put it past him it sort of ideally would have worked in the end mulberry they called it well i felt pretty good about it because i watched it grow right from the sinking of the first ships for the out of breakwater and further along to the west the yanks have brought one over too then on d plus 13 i think it was an onshore wind started up not much at first but it got worse unloading onto the open beaches got very tricky we heard it over on the yank section the other harbor had been put right out of action and when the wind dropped old mulberry looked pretty sick and up to that time it was the only bleeding harbour we had at the green tip of normandy the town of scherberg made a harbor for supplies our need for ports was vital as our breath the german you are lack and swiftly drew his forces into tight defensive groups so to contest the issue all our plans turned upon sherbert all our strategy waited upon his empty docks and fears so the americans sent all across normandy to the coast swung toward the north impatient for the pot through hedge and field they carved their heavy way [Applause] you remember back now when it seems like we took share book a couple of days after we hit the beach actually it took 19 days to cover 30 miles 30 miles and about 92 000 hedgerows and a battle at every hedgerow otherwise it was nice country like connecticut pretty trees and orchards lots of cows and nice little farmhouses the apples were too green to eat i remember we hit it all fine with the people farmers nice people it got tough when we pulled up on the outskirts of sherwood they had great defenses and the artillery really carried the ball for three days we sucked the tour sometimes we were pouring in at point-blank range over open sights finally old von schlieben the german commander tossed in the sponge that's after telling his men to fight to the dead we took cherbourg on june 25th everything was rosy except the harbor we comfort the jerry's had really smeared that harbor but right away our guys went to work cleaning up and the way they tore into it you could see that pretty soon and be working for us fine then well we fought our way up the peninsula now we'd have to fight our way out of it and everywhere inside france we men of the mackie were fighting too i was in the north myself we got telephone and telegraph and high tension lines and eventually when the allies landed we fought in the open in the savoir mountains our friends held up german converts well it was a little easier in the mountains bush reinforcements were delayed for many days factories and bridges would frequently disappear but the price we paid for it was frightful in the village of auradur alone the germans slaughtered 1100 out of the 1200 population and the place was completely burned they were accused to have ambushed german troops every house was destroyed women and children died in flames in the church where they had been locked yes the price we paid was very great but our job was done core is a town through which the easy on ripples its slow way to the waiting sea capital of normandy and here the british struck a stone wall of germans this was no sherberg advance a knife thrust through the fields but rather was the grinding of a drill inch by inch forward here it was the german feared a quick breakthrough to the reverse same and here it was he masters army's best ten of the twelve divisions of his armor paratroops ss men the young the cruel against the veterans of alameda we wanted him to fight here and to hold the battered ground because the future plans depended on him standing where he was at call the dust was diamonds every foot of ground was priceless for by mid-most summer core was to be the pivot of the wall [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Music] wow khan was the first decent-sized town we had taken but there wasn't any celebration because we knew nothing had been settled jerry was as strong as ever one of the men said god are we going to have to go right across the world doing this to beat them because most of khan was dust just plain dust i wondered what hamilton back home in canada would look like after a beating like that well anyway our tanks and the british started massing and moved south out of the city we knew there was a big dude coming in [Music] the show for us began south of kong where the poles joined up with us when we began moving forward i heard a lot of the lads say rommel's on the run but i'd been at alameda i knew he wasn't on the run and there was riot there was nothing lovely about the battle south at cone no pincer movements no outflanking no nothing like that just in our bitter bloody slogging match we had to stay there and give as good as we got even if we couldn't get better [Music] [Music] beyond the rubble in the dust of claw the empire troops kept up their endless pressure the german did not dare to disengage but fought with all his cunning and his strength still unaware of what we planned for him west bison low the base of his defense americans were poised and bent to fire an armored arrow that would satellite the flame of freedom through the whole of france but dilsent low was seized the arrow waited [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] one minute is quiet with the birds singing the next men they call them sherman tights coming around the corner going wide open my buddy says where those tanks come from so i asked the tanker he yells down near the third army taking off been waiting for three weeks prepared somebody let the rabbit out of the hat man yeah what a rabbit with pearl handle revolvers [Music] when i think back to the breakthrough i don't seem to be able to remember anything but the french people people beside the road kids we couldn't stop to give candy to ffi boys bringing in the crowds from the fields and farm workers waving as we went by it was easier to look them in the face and smile and wave back at them and you hadn't had to smash their homes to pieces first [Music] the morning we got into ren boy that really was liberation [Music] me [Music] at ren american armor planned to drive east and northeast and thus surround and take the german car divisions in the rear the foley plans to stop the arrow dead by cutting its supply route at the point where it stretched narrowest along the coast so a great force exploded toward mortal hoping at avrosh to achieve the sea and drag our hopes down to the smoking ground there's a lot of places i'd rather talk about than more team that's where i got hit we've been going great up to there some of the guys that even been singing harmonizing and then that first german artillery caught us pretty accurate too an hour late i was short 18 men well we hold in and we hit back with everything we had they weren't just trying to stop us see they want to come right through and then me i get a belt in the face left side and i keel the last thing i remember is looking up and seeing those raf typhoons when i heard them screaming up ahead i thought geez i'm glad they're on my side [Music] i was sitting in front of the intelligence office doing a bit of sunbathing when headquarters came through saying the area northwestern more time was packed with german armor heading west well that started it for six hours the wing kept it up absolutely non-stop take off attack land refuel rearm and take off again it was the same on every airfield in normandy the only briefing i gave the chaps was well you know where they are and the only interrogation when they got back was well how many did you get [Music] three days it lasted every kind of soldier was in there and every weapon for me it was just eating and smoking and loading at 105. no sleeping then things quieted down and the word came back we stopped them cold everybody felt like celebrating but that was a tough order out there i tried drinking a whole bottle of cough medicine it worked fine i got stiffer in a plank [Music] the counter attack which took us by surprise still did not hinder our deceptive plans for downtrend core the foe had drawn a force and left his north flank weakened now the stage was set toward valley swept the empire troops together with the poles the german herd behind his back american armor churned toward argento out generaled and out fought he found himself within a closing trap [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so i've covered them with a gun down to the clearing stations thousands of them and all kinds the tough ones with the smile froze stiff on their faces by shell fire and the plain joes have had too much and ready to tell you that and their poker poker-faced officers had never lost the poker face look the ss the parachute troops the old soldiers off the russian front i've seen them all the hitler youth babies looking like they walked out of lincoln high expert killers smart alec with their talker rights under the geneva convention and asking when we go to america and the other guy who crawled out of a hole with his hands up all through and talking too much ready to swear he hated hitler all the time the kids that knew how a machine gun worked and nothing else grinning like they were still on top so he could hardly hold that trigger finger still the middle aged guys wanting to tell you about the wife and kids you'd let them and they were through killing when i saw and through getting killed too some of them thought they were lucky and others didn't and some didn't give it [Music] i covered them down to the rear where it was somebody's job to find out what made them tick but it wasn't my job to figure them out i just kept them covered and brother i never gave her more than the geneva convention and that was all american tanks drowned on into the east toward paris and the upper seine before them the germans helter-skelter fled away and saw retreat or stood with hands upraised by roads all littered without smoldering gear and still the tanks ground on beyond the smoke into the unscarred country a good solid map well delineated is an absolute must for a modern mechanized army traveling at high speed in our division the issuing of maps was my job when we broke out of the sherburg peninsula my department had this situation well in hand then for us everything went mad stark raving mad one morning i woke up and the army had gone right off the map absolutely right off the map so we rushed through an order for 500 000 maps of the orleans region they arrived in due time to our horror the army progressed far beyond the orleans region was off the map again this was a period of acute crisis for me i gave the highest priority to a fresh order of maps of the paris area we refused to be licked by this situation the final blow came when it became evident that we were going to bypass paris that almost finished us eventually we had to drop 10 tons of maps to them by parachute it was a very humiliating experience i'll be glad when i get back to the library of congress where maps have some permanent value [Music] while the allies were fighting near paris we french soldiers of the leclair division were fighting in the normandy fields and suddenly an order came go to paris it said and take it the allies after having equipped our division with tanks guns rifles lorries and jeeps that knight decided to give us paris too so at 4 o'clock in the morning the division starts rushing on the roads and in the sky on the right on the left everywhere the american air force protects our trip what a trip 250 kilometers in one day i think i'll tell it all the time to my grandchildren and bore with it until i die [Applause] at the beginning of august we in paris were seized by rumors what could be confirmed was towards the middle of the month the germans started to leave the city yes those were the same germans who had signed 25-year leases on their apartments then on the 14th our police went on strike the next day the gestapo that was the day too when a police car opened fire on a german detachment on the plaza la concorde and began the battle for the city after that it seemed the french flag was hanging from every window all the flags were made of curtains all dices rags everything it didn't matter four days later we heard shouting coming from the hotel de ville we started hunting me my husband everyone in our house as we ran people were screaming the french army had arrived when we got to the plaza hotel we saw it was through i kissed my husband because he was kind it's funnier we began to realize how unhappy we had been for four years and how lucky we were to be alive on this august evening [Music] the great pursuit was on that last the battle of france was ending when all suddenly another d-day stunned the shake and flow two armies struck american and french along the broad beached southern coast of france then north the two new armies rolled like waves to join the forces moving on the right beyond the same where from a hundred sites the germans launched their flying bombs and brought death and destruction on the english towns our valiant armies went about the task long since assigned them toward the right frontiers americans advanced against the ports hugging the channel garrisoned enforced by desperate foes canadians were sent and in a thunderous sweep the british armor surged to order waiting brussels [Applause] [Music] the people of brussels laughed and cried and threw flowers in the tank and said goodbye tommy when they meant to say hello man they were happy i suppose you were no longer afraid but i remember wondering then how the first german civilians would react to us i remember one day we were coming across a big flat field didn't look like nothing special i hopped a bar by a fence and a guy says to me guess what so i says what so he says you're in germany there's a sign over there says and like a dope i thought well it won't be long now i want to quit over the fall of paris and tim bob and brussels i had a fiver on it being over by october the first i remember the point system for getting out of the army came out about this time i began to think of that grey chalk stripe double-breasted suit in the mothball i was in the seventh army coming up from the south of france one day a lieutenant said take a ride with me i got some prisoners for you the guard how many isis about 20 000 he said a whole german division had surrendered we canadians were advancing in the north and one day we came across a thing i'd never seen before i guess it's a flying bomb site the officer says well that really made me feel good the prisoner told us the newest jerry gag if an aircraft shows up white it's american if it shows up dark it's british and if it never shows up it's the loofah every time they sent me along to set up a forward switchboard and i got my earphones on i found out that the rear switchboard had leapfrog five miles ahead i wrote to the old man in st louis he owns a men's store i told him he better cut prices on gi neckties and socks if he didn't want to be stuck with a lot of military apparel someone asked the sergeant major what he thought the chances were for a spot of leave don't you worry about leave lads he says we've got the japs to finish here regular soldier of course keen it was a terrific feeling crossing the german border we were sure nothing could stop us [Applause] [Music] every line must somewhere have an end in southeast holland nothing lay between the british army and the german plane except two rivers and a town and so we made our plans to send an airborne army down to seize eindhoven and the bridges at nijmegen and arnhem then to hold them for the force that would sweep up like thunder from the south thus where no line existed would the rhine at last be crossed in force i used to jump lasted on him so i sat right forward by the window i could see nothing but blue skies and the coates with the fighters up top side like midges one of the boys was reading a newspaper he showed me a funny piece in it i couldn't laugh the coast of holland came along before i was ready for it someone yelled running up now we got to action stations i remember thinking what a bloody bit of bad luck to be bumped off now when the war's nearly over [Music] so the limey's dropping on him and we come down and go to a place called eindhoven holland she goes good we get right dig in set up a defense perimeter and wait for the british army to come up and we join them and head out for an eye making [Music] the bridge at night make an already had a mark on it we crossed the river and started out for our name but we didn't get far the han knew as well as we did that we've got to get through and he put in everything you've got that was the worst i ever struck knowing our men were there waiting at our name and we couldn't get to him at arnhem we got ourselves well dug in us and some of the post we were short of ammo and food that was our main worry i'll never forget those supply dropping missions the way jerry let loose at the moment the way they just came straight on into it towards the end we knew the situation was bad we knew we were hemmed in we knew it was possible we wouldn't get out more than anything i remember the way everyone behaved when you knew as the toughest fighters became gentle kind and considerate to each other i knew a lot more about men after arnhem the guns died out in arnhem then we knew the greatest gallantry was not enough to cross the final bridge and now no choice remain to us direct assault against the siegfried line would be the only way to carve our corridors into the reich but first a port was needed for supplies and work we had but thundering german guns controlled the 30 cold miles of the shelter from antwerp to the sea the darks were still the winches silent all the ports lay dead a useless city severed from the sea it would stay dead until we cut away through the grey short so the battle formed to free the estuary for our ships i covered that battle for the associated press i only wish i could have written the story with the greatness of the men who fought it it was vicious and fierce and fighting all the way the canadians and the poles clearing the south bank of the river the royal navy and marines and norwegians charging knee-deep in blood and water into the mouths of the nine-inch shore guns at west capel it was the kind of fighting that makes legends and the mind-sweeping of the scout afterwards due to the greatest operation of its kind in history the cost of that first ship into antwerp was the lives of thousands of our bravest men i reported it as well as i could but their memory deserves more than words [Applause] [Music] i was holding on the first convoy out of android when i got to the front i saw more empty supply dumps than i'd like to see boys wanted to know where this stuff was you can't fight without stuff anybody knows that i made lots of trips i don't know how many driving all day all night singing swords to keep away songs like uh milkman keep those bottles [Music] quiet my job was uh to see to it that they had a new toothbrush and a cot maybe a book to read when they came over from the east bank to the west bank of the moselle for a little rest we brought them over one company at a time because that was all a regiment could spare from the line at any one time somebody had tapped him on the shoulder and said all right boy you're going back across the river for 24 hours rest and here they were where they could rest they just couldn't believe it here they were for just 24 hours without war everything was down to essentials counted out like dollar bills through a teller's window one night's sleep one day's hot meals one clean change of underwear one clean pair of pants one shave one hot shower one movie i used to wonder what was the best of that day was it a transformer a ride home a hot shower or that long legged girl on the screen whatever it was all of it was over by morning they were going back with their one clean suit of underwear the hot shower the clean shave and the good night's sleep back across the mozel are there holes in the ground by that time we knew we were going to see a winter campaign there was no way out of it the germans were dug in and they were tough and it was plain that until we got a lot stronger we weren't going anyplace the squadron was operating whenever it could there wasn't a lot of flying we were iced up and fed up suppose you're having a swell time in paris my cousin wrote me with all that perfume and silk stockings and that champagne they called our end of the line south we were in the voge mountains with the american seventh army but it was very little warmth in this south i recalled with pleasure the mediterranean where we had landed in august ah but memories do not keep one war before i joined the army i'd have thought it was certain death to dig a hole in my back garden and live in it for the winter but that's what we did the sergeant said well squirrels do it every year yes i thought but they don't man machine guns as well there was no heating in our brussels office i put on so much under my uniform they called me the bundle from britain i never smoked before but pretty soon i found myself smoking as high as a pack a day i worry about that old law of percentages my company was melting away you'd look up one day and be fighting alongside a stranger it was an awesome feeling our hook of the lion was the yard den pretty quiet a lot of outfits had gone up north let's start a million latrina grounds about to wear in one of our offensive then one day i'm standing guard and these shells died i thought for a minute this was it till i realized these shells weren't outgoings brother they were in cummings next thing i knew german tanks was an offensive all right but it was going the wrong way [Applause] the offensive we were mounting to the north was suddenly forestalled and set aside as through the rugged thinly held our den for roonstead's truck he cut a fiery path through the american lines and sent his tanks desperately driving toward the river mers a night of fug and pale december frost saw the beginning none foresaw the end he aimed for antwerp's harbor through liege and all our plans held fire while we bent our strength to curb the germans in the bulge [Music] [Music] so [Music] one night i was a replacement in england playing chef hey penny in a pub the next day they shoved me in an aeroplane and that night i was fighting germans and being kicked around i don't know about the other outfits but mine was being cut to ribbons they were dropping all around me the thing that still sticks in my head is the medics the only weapon they had was a needle but they were around right where it was the hottest they'd hear that yellow medic medic they'd always be there [Music] our whole division got a presidential citation for what happened up at bastogne even me just a cook i never forget that old lieutenant running into the field kitchen and hollering at me if and i had any idea how to operate a bazooka i said no and he said well you're going to learn now son i did and hope the dog gone there from the first shot out to battle i didn't get me a jerry tank got interviewed later by stars and stripes they said it was a cracker jack story i tell it at the drop of a hat we've been up north where things were a bit static so we were quite glad to be moved down to the top side of this bulb coming down through belgium we notice how scared some of the civilians look natural i suppose we were held in reserve for a week and then they sent us into action on account of the fog we couldn't get any air coordination you sure miss it bad when you gotten used to it all the way since d-day and then on december 24th like a christmas present that sun come up and after a while we was giving him the old one two again we stopped them dead finally it cost us plenty of men but we stopped them and we started moving ahead again the rest of us [Music] wrench did reel back on a recoiling spring his great attempt was over and his armies that had devoured such a wealth of blood sagged sodden towards the rhine at yalta then while dire explosions shook the german fronts the three great architects of freedom met to fix the final blow and plot the peace and even as they met we move to act upon our strategy we wish the foe to stand and fight upon the western bank of the grey rhine for there we could destroy him outside his fortress open unprotected by any bridgeless river down we cast the gauntlet challenging him stand and fight [Music] do [Music] we were attacking the north of the canadians around about the reistval forest in the dutch frontier area it was wet and filthy they nicknamed our army commander admiral well anyway the enemy put out some very stiff opposition but actually this was just what we'd hoped for it showed that jerry's emotions about fighting for every foot of his beloved fatherland were getting the better of his sense of strategy and every german kill on our side of the rhine was to make it easier for us on the further bank and a lot of the bosch were killed i can tell you rice fall was the bloodiest show i've seen in this war it was one of the push the captain told me eight divisions he usually knows he follows things like that i was with the outfit that took munching gladbach i think you say it there weren't many civilians in the streets and even the ones that were there we weren't supposed to talk to unless we had to there was a 65 rack for fractionalization i wonder how they happen to figure out that number i mean why 65 we could see the cologne cathedral a long time before we got there that tower was our objective it was on the rhine river we went fast and by the time we got in the town there wasn't too much fight left in them cologne was mangled alright but there were still a few buildings standing i was sorry i thought of those front cities flattened anyway we got our objective now we had to cross that river i thought they must be very short of men when they put a sailors at a battle dress lugged the assault boats on the trucks and sent us across belgium by road we talked about silent service i'd never been sick at sea but i was sick as a dog on the road when we reached our destination i was feeling lousy longing for a breath of sea air i found the whole bloody landscape under a stinking smoke screen like london it was the next day we got up to the rhine it was good to get a glimpse of the water again our air force has given the old lumps on the east bank of orion but i was still nervous the germans had blown the bridges and we knew the crossing at bm feb when i'm nervous i get off my feet for two days before that crossing i couldn't eat nothing but a couple of milky way bars it was gonna be d-day all over again dangerous america there it was sitting there big and black i'm no architect but to me that ramon bridge was the most beautiful bridge in the world in the army when things go as per plan that's wonderful but when they go better than planned then you figure the chaplain's working overtime it was a breakup in that bridge and we cashed in on it and the first guys over the river were over in style the watch on the rhine was finished washed up what a coin or phrase could put hey [Music] [Applause] me [Music] um we got across okay and everything was going fine but suddenly i gets detailed to guard some german prisoners i'll never forget their faces when their airborne blinks started to come over they just stood there looking up at them and then after about half an hour one of them looks at me looks over the sky and says [Music] propaganda [Music] [Applause] the rear pocket was the first big objective across the rhine we in the heavies sealed it off then the ground forces wrapped it up after that they exploded in all directions cut the jerry armies up in pockets then take them one by one that was the program the third wreck was being carved up like a christmas turkey chasing the bosch was getting a little bit monotonous i hardly ever saw him only burning houses a few shells an occasional sniper's rifle shot it was a silly kind of defines i thought then one day the routine was broken we came across a prisoner of war camp other ranks yanks mostly they went mad when they saw us screech red indian war cries pummeled one another and asked what the news was it seemed ashamed to tell them when they were so happy well there's nothing for it i told him president roosevelt died yesterday afternoon was it you should have heard them quieten down for once in this campaign they all felt as though they had suffered a major defeat i'd like to stay there talking to them trying to cheer him up but with no time to lose jerry only had a few hundred square miles of earth left to scorch our job as either to hurry him up or scorch it for him we were in the home stretch cutting deeper all the time when we ran into these displaced persons slave workers they were sick hungry from all over europe the roads were jammed with them but they kept out of the way and didn't give us any trouble like a fella said there's a lot more than town's gonna have to be reconstructed i wondered what was up when all our amc personnel in our locked down the stretch of bed as we urgently call for i soon found out we've taken the bilson concentration camp well i'm not squeamish i've seen amputations operations deaths long before i went the army in 41. i was a warden i lost count of all the arms and legs i pulled out the wreckage down in croydon and got quite used to it this was different very different i i don't know any words big enough to make you understand what we all felt all i can say and i'm proud of this is it i had to fall out and be quickly sick in the courtyard because i say um i'm not squeamish but well i'm human and thank god for it the government sent a few of us congressmen over to see those camps and if there's anybody left who wonders if this war was worth fighting well i wish they could have been along there it was right in front of us fascism and what it's bound to lead to wherever it crops up i talked to some of the prisoners the ones that had the strength to talk their offenses were the usual nazi crimes you know wrong religion or wrong race belonging to a union or the wrong political party in germany it led to over 400 camps like the ones i saw it was the worst thing i ever saw in my life and i wouldn't have missed it for anything when an army gets to moving in a hurry that's where air transport comes in we've been flying in the stuff along with the british transport command since d-day towards the end they seem to be moving faster on the ground than we were in the air as pocket after pocket of the flow fell our hopes rose higher than the soaring flames that mark the broken towns of germany in italy a million prisoners came in as with a single sudden blow the german power was smashed then our tanks drove through the southern mountains where the foe had hoped to make his furious final stand the russians took berlin and cut the heart from hitler's empire and he himself who planned to rule the earth from pole to pole vanished like smoke among the falling walls upon the green banks of the river elb we waited for the east and west to meet [Music] we linked up with the ruskies at the yell river i hung around for a couple of days with a tommy gunner named uh connie cobb he didn't know any english so i taught him to say my ache and back and he taught me tavares that means comrade we drank toast to len lease and had a million laughs then all kanika found an interpreter and gives a toast to the great american soldier that stopped me we did all right but i don't like to think we would have been without them we were going towards the danish frontier bravenfeld in hamburg the rot was sitting in a million and a half surrendered in the north the fighting was nearly over and our job was beginning we've been training a long time for the administration of germany and we were prepared for plenty of trouble sabotage passive resistance or perhaps something more violent you know werewolves and sheep's clothing but as it turned out most of them were those silent did what they were told they seemed healthy well fed their disease was in their minds the german woman looking at what was left of her town said to me if only you'd given up in 1940 none of this need to happened [Music] [Music] at one minute after midnight may the 9th 1945 the gun stopped d plus 337 now it starts all the arguments about who won the war well here's what i say that no country on earth could have won it alone so what does that mean that anybody who wants to take a bow by himself is not only boasting but nuts i spent four years in the infantry and i saw my share during that time i only met three men that liked to fight and they were a little cracked but it had to be done now that it's over i feel good except for one thing all this talk about world war three these big pessimists that talked so easy about another war just didn't see this one or enough of it we watched them bringing in some high up prisoners quite ready to be friendly some of them i was thinking fellas i'd known who bought it crashed shot down missing right through from the battle of britain i remember their faces or some joke that played off maybe just the way they laughed or something [Music] seemed to be such a lot of them i remember so the victor belongs the spoils that's what they say well what are the spoils only this a chance to build a free world better than before maybe the last chance remember that now the time has come to put our victory to the tests of peace in company with men of many lands to sift from ashes what the struggle taught in the rebuilding of a broken earth may we keep in our hearts this ancient prayer o lord god may now give this to thy servants to endeavor any great matter grant to us also to know that it is not the beginning but the continuing of the same until it thoroughly finished which yielded the true glory [Music] [Applause] thanks for watching if you'd like to help us produce more compelling historical content like this please like comment below and share this video with fellow history buffs and of course be sure to subscribe to help keep history happening

Channel: LionHeart FilmWorks

Views: 1,072,698

Rating: 4.6728759 out of 5

Keywords: 1944, allied invasion, american soldier, army, battle, battlefields, combat, d-day, france, germans, highest honor, history, honor, invasion, june 6, man and the moment, medal of honor, military, military history, nazis, normandy, normandy invasion, second world war, soldiers, u.s. history, united states, valor, world war 2, ww2, true glory, eisenhower, 1945, general patton, world war two, third reich, allied victory, british army, churchill, western front, eto, berlin, gi joe, allied forces

Id: CSBSHU9ZLpY

Length: 81min 48sec (4908 seconds)

Published: Thu May 07 2020