02x01 - The Lost Battalion

[bunniefuu]

August, 1944.

An American battalion

is completely cut off

and surrounded by n*zi

forces in western France.

Hoping for rescue, lookouts

spot an American vehicle

approaching their

defensive perimeter.

McMANUS: The first thought

has to be, our relief is here!

It must be a reconnaissance

element of some sort

and they've come to save us.

sh**t!

But hope turns to horror as German

soldiers pour out and open fire.

On June 6th, 1944

allied forces finally

land troops in Normandy

to open the western front.

But n*zi fanatics and diehards

continue to fight ruthlessly for survival.

D-day was a battle.

The allies still

need to win the w*r.

August 8th, 1944.

Near St Malo, France.

Members of the 121st

Infantry Regiment

enter the small village

of Pleurtuit.

As they press

to the French coast.

With L Company in the lead,

Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Eyler

orders his men to prepare

to spend the night,

to allow other

battalions to catch up.

After two days of fighting

there is no sign of the enemy.

Everything is still.

McMANUS

By this point in the w*r

the ThirdBattalion has been

through enough combat

to understand that you

don't necessarily want

it to be all that quiet.

Boys they left

us half a bottle here.

SOLDIER Tank!

A German

tank engine roars to life

from a side street.

At the same time,

German machine g*ns

and r*fles open up.

sn*per!

Upper window!

Their fire targets

the American soldiers

from upper windows

and nearby doorways.

Get out

of the streets!

We got

an ambush on our hands!

McMANUS This is

late in the day, and soldiers

may be a little bit tired

but all of a sudden

instant adrenaline.

The result is chaos.

Go, drive, go!

SOLDIER Incoming!

Without armor of

their own, the Americans

are virtually defenseless.

Keep firing!

The American

121st Infantry Regiment

have been assigned

to the 83rd Infantry Division

to help capture

the French port city of St Malo.

Two months after D-day,

the allies have a

supply problem.

Machines, equipment

and supplies they need

to liberate Europe

pile up in Great Britain.

Allied planners

hoped to land 725,000 tons

of w*r material in July

but only 450,000

tons came ashore,

most of it at Omaha

and Utah, the original

D-day beaches.

They need a proper port.

Capturing St Malo would help.

It has been a famous ocean

port for hundreds of years.

Its walls contain a medieval

fortress known as the citadel.

Sitting high with water

on three sides,

the citadel

is perfectly positioned

to rebuff attack

from any direction.

It was further fortified

by the Nazis

after the occupation

of France in 1940.

In February 1944,

Hitler declares a number

of sea ports in France

and in Belgium and in the

Netherlands as fortresses.

So in German, as Festung.

The defense of

Festung St Malo is commanded

by Oberst Andreas Von Aulock.

DR.. LIEB When

a city is declared a Festung,

the commandant of the fortress

gets full power over

all troops garrisoned

in this fortress.

So, he's something

like a little king in

his own little kingdom.

Even for the time, Von Aulock

is an eccentric character.

He wears a monocle,

always gives orders

in a snarling voice.

Von Aulock is a

veteran of the eastern front

where he had

fought the soviets.

DR. LIEB He

had fought in Stalingrad.

He knows what street

to street and house

to house fighting is.

Von Aulock's

skills will be tested.

As the U.S. 83rd

Infantry Division

sets to capture the

strongholds that ring St Malo.

The 121st Infantry Regiment

targets the town of Dinard,

also fortified

to protect St Malo from

across the Rance River.

Less than four miles

from Dinard.

Stay low! Stay low!

In the

village of Pleurtuit,

the advance of the 121st

comes to a dramatic halt.

The Americans report a

German tank firing its g*n.

Enemy soldiers use

the safety of nearby houses

to pick off the lead company.

Lieutenant Colonel Eyler

orders his men to retreat.

Hear me? Double

time it out of here now!

Fall back, fall back!

Two have

already been k*lled

and others wounded.

Eighth let's go!

They withdraw under fire

and the battalion suffers more

casualties as they fall back.

SOLDIER

Get out of the streets!

The Americans

take up a position 400 yards

southeast of town.

The Germans do not pursue.

Let's go!

Eyler commands 121st Infantry

Regiment's Third Battalion,

made up of about 800 men.

The second and

third battalions both

set off the day before.

But encountered

strong resistance.

The Germans

try everything to slow

down the Allied advance.

So they set up roadblocks

so that every road is

an obstacle to the Americans.

SOLDIER I need men

on the left and on the right.

Move.

The German

defensive positions are

organized as kampfgruppe,

or battle group, Bacherer.

Named for

its commanding officer

Oberst Rudolf Bacherer.

DR. LIEB Bacherer

is a cavalry officer from the

First World w*r,

becomes a civvie

in the interwar years,

and then is called

up for service again

in the Second World w*r

as a reserve officer.

He seems to be a very

competent and brave commander.

With loads of battle

experience from

the Eastern front.

Then in '44 he's

fighting in Normandy as

a regimental commander.

And takes over command of

77th Division, when the actual

division commander dies.

Bacherer must now make

the capture of St Malo

as expensive as possible

for the Americans.

SOLDIER Down!

SOLDIER Get down.

SOLDIER Incoming!

SOLDIER

Get to cover now!

SOLDIER Move! Move!

Earlier that day, Eyler

had managed to break through

one of Bacherer's roadblocks

on the left flank

and pulled ahead

of 2nd Battalion.

But after being

pushed out of Pleurtuit

by Bacherer's men,

they will wait for the

other battalions to catch up.

Then capture Pleurtuit

together in the morning.

As they dig in, Eyler

sends word to bring

forward the aid station

and battalion surgeon

to treat the wounded.

Early the next morning,

Private First-Class

Albert Mixon,

and Corporal Ben Graves

head back towards the roadblock

behind the American position.

They must replenish

supplies to prepare

for the coming attack.

In the darkness,

Mixon spots what he

believes are other members

of his battalion

near the roadblock.

SOLDIER Americans!

He realizes

his mistake when they

fire on his jeep.

SOLDIER

Stay low, stay low!

Mixon flees

back to the American line.

As he reports to

his platoon sergeant,

the Germans open fire.

Striking three American

jeeps and blowing up

two loads of ammunition.

Mixon and the

others hold off the attack,

to hook up with the

rest of third battalion.

McMANUS

The troubling thing

about this attack,

it's coming from behind

and of course you

never want that.

Lieutenant Colonel

Eyler sends out a patrol

and confirms that the

roadblock is now heavily

defended by enemy soldiers.

Eyler and his men cannot

advance into Pleurtuit

without reinforcement

and now cannot retreat.

They are trapped.

I just got a

message from HQ

When he reaches headquarters,

Eyler receives his orders.

The battalion

is to hold at all costs.

August, 1944.

Western France.

German forces recapture

a roadblock behind

an American unit.

DR. LIEB Bacherer

surrounds the US battalion

and encircles it.

It's very typical for

German doctrine in

the Second World w*r.

If there is a chance,

try to regain the initiative

as soon as possible.

Counter attack at

the soonest opportunity.

And this is a

classical example of that.

I want ten men out

by the field there

Lieutenant Colonel Eyler

has been ordered

to hold their tenuous

position at all costs.

McMANUS He's going

to do what most any battalion

commander in the US Army

would do which is to begin

to fan out his companies

and create a perimeter,

to maximize his fire power.

In his perimeter

defense, I Company sits

on the right of the road,

across from L Company.

With K Company to the rear.

Eyler sets up a command

post at the center,

in a one-story farmhouse.

Eyler is fortunate that the

regiment's anti-tank g*ns kept

pace with them the day before.

They are now positioned with

L Company to guard the road

to the village of Pleurtuit

which had been their objective.

Now n*zi forces

surround them on all sides.

The American attack

will have to wait.

At around 0930,

men from I Company

spot something strange.

About 15 German soldiers,

crawl along a ditch beside

the road from Pleurtuit.

Grey blankets on their

backs as crude camouflage.

Over on the

hill there's definitely

Germans over there.

Stay down!

SOLDIER

Krauts over there!

400 yards.

Hold fire.

The men from L

and I Companies wait patiently

until the Germans

close within 200 yards.

Then open fire.

Fire!

Three Germans

are k*lled and several wounded.

The remainder withdraw

back to the village.

Keep up

the line of fire!

McMANUS

The purpose is probably

to probe the perimeter

to get a sense of

what kind of strength

they're facing on

the opposite side.

It's a little bit

of a clumsy probe um,

but probably just that.

Fire!

But only 30 minutes

later, explosions erupt.

German a*tillery and mortar

fire start to fall within the

American defensive perimeter.

And in quick succession

the command post is

struck by two direct hits.

SOLDIER Reloading!

Two officers are k*lled

and two NCO's are injured.

DR. LIEB

This 10:00 counter attack

clearly shows that the Germans

are not defeated.

That the Germans are able

to launch a counter attack

and that the Germans

are still able to inflict

heavy casualties

upon the Americans.

It's very shocking

to see officers at that

level k*lled so quickly.

This was a bad situation.

It creates a sense of fear

and crisis among any soldier.

As the rescue

and first aid efforts continue,

the men hear the

worst possible sound.

Tank!

A stug three, a

German self-propelled as*ault

g*n built on a panzer chassis.

McMANUS To a

typical American infantry man

enemy armor's terrifying.

It doesn't really matter

the particulars of what

it is and what it isn't,

what does matter is it

does create a, a kind of a

tendency towards fear

and panic that a tank

can basically wreck

and destroy your world.

The stug three

approaches from the northeast

followed closely by infantry.

When it gets within

500 yards, its g*n opens fire.

Keep firing!

Come on!

In the panic, it

appears that the command post

may be completely wiped out.

We need

reinforcements!

The stug three

closes in to about 300 yards.

Suddenly, assistance from

a completely unexpected place.

A young private,

Francis Gardner, takes

matters into his own hands.

He aims with a bazooka.

A bazooka was

one of the standard US

Army anti-tank weapons

and it basically

looks like a pipe.

It's about three feet long

and it's held over the shoulder

and it fires a rocket

that has a special anti-tank

warhead called a shape charge,

so even though the rocket is

quite small it can penetrate

a great deal of armor.

The three

and a half pound rocket can

be launched up to 600 yards,

through as much as five

inches of armor plate.

Gardener's first shot misses.

Load one eighteen.

But the

American anti-tank g*ns

open up at the same time.

Up.

Fire!

A shot hits

and disables the stug three.

As the crew tries to escape

the flames, Gardner lines up

a second shot.

SOLDIER

Keep firing! Let 'em have it!

This time he does not miss.

His shot strikes and

kills the fleeing crew.

Americans love

these underdog stories of the,

the bespectacled

soldier who takes out the

German tank, kind of thing.

What is unusual in this

instance is yes of course

it's very customary

for troops to fire at uh,

a retreating tank crew as

they get out of the tank,

but not usually

with a bazooka.

The bazooka is not really

designed to be that kind

of anti-personnel weapon,

that according to

the accounts you know

it kills the tank crew.

So it must've been

a really accurate shot

and they must've been in

the exact wrong place at

the wrong time.

The German infantry

soldiers join the battle,

and press

forward into the fray.

Covering fire!

But the

Americans hold the line.

After 20 minutes,

the Germans fall back

towards the village

of Pleurtuit.

SOLDIER

Move out, move out, move!

Within the

American perimeter the

battalion is in disarray.

SOLDIER

Medic! Need a medic!

After three

attacks in rapid succession,

along with the

attack the day before,

there are more

and more wounded.

The battalion surgeon

had not made it through

the roadblock

the night before.

There is no doctor.

All they have are the

limited medical supplies

of an advancing battalion.

McMANUS

A lot of bandages.

Pressure bandages,

tourniquets,

morphine ampules,

you would have

self-thalidomide,

what they

called sulpha powder,

which was to combat

infection in a wound.

You might have some

blood plasma here and there.

Care is provided

by soldiers called medics.

McMANUS

A 19 or 20-year-old kid,

who's been basically

given two months or so

of rudimentary first aid

medical oriented training.

Designed basically

to save lives quickly,

patch 'em up and then get

'em back to somewhere else

where they're going to get

more substantial medical care.

Unable to

evacuate his wounded

Eyler establishes

an aid station with

medics from each platoon.

They set up in another

farm house just behind

the command post.

It is primitive.

But it is all they've got.

As German a*tillery

continues to target

the battalion's position.

The medics

and the wounded face

a new kind of fight.

August 9th, 1944.

The American 83rd

Infantry Division

has orders to capture

the French port of St Malo.

Allied forces fight street

by street to capture the city.

Its defenders are defiant.

When called to give up,

Oberst Andreas Von Aulock

allegedly replies,

"I am German.

Germans never surrender."

SOLDIER

Come on let's go!

Meanwhile, the

U.S. 121st Infantry Regiment

is supposed to take out the

German g*ns in nearby Dinard.

SOLDIER

Keep firing! Let em have it!

However,

two battalions have

gotten bogged down

and the German defenders

close the gap behind the

third battalion.

Cutting them

off from the others.

Word of the 'lost battalion'

makes it up the 83rd Infantry

Division's chain of command

to General Robert Macon.

McMANUS

General Robert Macon

had you know a lot of

combat in this w*r.

He had been a regimental

commander in the

invasion of North Africa.

When the 83rd had fought

in Normandy he had fought

quite successfully

given the circumstances

and the terrain and the

difficulties.

Macon is a mission first

kind of guy and he's

someone you can rely on.

But Macon is

not impressed with the 121st

Regiment assigned to him.

If I'm a platoon

leader and I think the Third

Platoon uh isn't any good

because I'm the first platoon

leader and these are my guys.

Well this can be true

all the way up the line

to a division commander

who will trust his

guys in the 83rd Infantry

and his three regiments.

He doesn't know

the 121st Infantry.

Macon finds

the slow progress of

the 121st suspicious.

Having an entire battalion of

800 men encircled by the enemy

further undermines

his confidence.

But before he can turn

his attention to rescuing

the third battalion,

Macon's 83rd Infantry

Division must capture

St Joseph's Hill on the

east side of the Rance River.

There was a gigantic

granite outcropping

that the Germans had fortified

with a number of bunkers

and also with

400, 55-millimeter g*ns.

So, until they could

eliminate that defense post

they really couldn't conduct

the campaign

to reduce the rest of the

St Malo fortifications.

The lost

battalion will have to wait.

On the west side

of the Rance,

within the vulnerable

defensive perimeter

of the third battalion,

the medics do their best to

keep the wounded men alive.

Many however, have

lost a lot of blood.

Surrounded by the enemy

on the ground, the only

hope comes from above.

A plan develops to have two

planes from the 56th Field

a*tillery drop blood plasma.

All goes smoothly,

with the crates landing within

a few feet of the drop zone.

But triumph fades fast,

as the battalion members

watch the planes lock wings

and tumble to the ground.

Members of K Company crawl

toward the burning wreckage.

It is too late.

There is nothing

they can do to help.

All four airmen are

k*lled in the crash.

But the blood plasma

gives the gift of life.

By the end of August 9th,

Macon's 83rd Infantry Division

captures St Joseph's Hill.

He reorganizes his forces,

and assigns his 331st Infantry

Regiment to liberate

the lost battalion and then

together capture Dinard.

Macon takes personal command,

to make sure they do.

As the Third Battalion

awaits rescue,

the men remain surrounded

by the enemy and on high alert.

Just after midnight,

a lookout spots an American

vehicle emerging from the fog

south east of the perimeter.

Help may finally have arrived.

August, 1944.

A battalion of American

soldiers fighting to liberate

the French city of St Malo

have become encircled by

German forces commanded by

Colonel Rudolf Bacherer.

Bacherer has ordered a series

of attacks against the GI's.

Late one night, an

American vehicle approaches

the U.S. defensive perimeter.

McMANUS

The first thought has to be,

"Oh my gosh, our

relief is here.

It must be a reconnaissance

element of some sort and

they've come to save us."

It almost

seems miraculous,

until shots ring out from

the darkness at the Americans.

The car had been

captured by the Germans.

They are using it

to penetrate the

American lines.

DR. LIEB Captured

enemy kit was quite useful in

the w*r for both sides.

And at this stage of the w*r,

an American reconnaissance

car comes in quite handy.

So instead

of a rescue force, the

car is a Trojan horse.

Staff Sergeant

Clyde Webster,

responds quickly

and grabs a B.A.R.

ready to fight back.

B.A.R.

is the abbreviation for

Browning Automatic r*fle

and it's the squad

automatic r*fle in a

U.S. Army infantry squad.

It is classified

as a light machine

g*n with a 20 round clip.

ZALOGA

It offers automatic fire,

meaning that when the

gunner starts firing it,

it's just round after

round after round.

Unlike a r*fle

which is semi-automatic

which means that you

have to fire

a round at a time.

You have to keep

squeezing the trigger.

Easily operated by a single

soldier it is considered

one of the most reliable weapons

of the Second World w*r.

American r*fle

fire ignites the car.

The crew within, try to

escape the burning vehicle.

SOLDIER

Let 'em have it!

Webster picks

them off one by one.

Then continues his attack

against other German soldiers

advancing in support.

SOLDIER

Keep firing!

The fighting

continues intermittently

until 0330

when the surviving German troops

melt back into the night.

SOLDIER Fire!

The steady

stream of attacks

continue to draw down

the battalion's

limited supplies.

An infantry unit

when it goes into combat

usually will only carry

a small amount of ammunition

and a small amount of food.

As combat

unit, there is no kitchen

facility or mess hall.

The men have only K rations.

A package which weighs

a little over two pounds

and contains dehydrated

and canned food.

They can be carried by

individual soldiers, and some

were transported by vehicle.

The men of the lost battalion

enter their fourth day since

leaving the security

of the American lines.

Still without a doctor,

regular GI's called medics,

care for men with their

limited medical supplies

at the Purple Heart Hotel.

McMANUS

Purple Heart Hotel as the

Americans colorfully called it

was just a make

shift aid station,

right there where the wounded

are gathering and where you see,

I think it's fair to say,

the worst of the suffering

at the Battalion.

There is no way

to protect the injured from

the incoming German a*tillery.

Despite the shortages, some

of their patients are German.

McMANUS

Even a situation like this

where they're surrounded,

they cared for them.

Almost always.

And in many cases,

the medics prioritized

based on the severity of the

wound rather than nationality.

That wasn't always true,

but in this case, it was.

Ah, because there were some

pretty badly hurt Germans.

The American

position is tenuous.

McMANUS Think

about it. We're surrounded.

We don't know the

size of the German force.

It's very possible that

all of us will become POW's

tomorrow or the next day.

So, it might behoove us

to treat the Germans well

if we hope to be treated

well in captivity, too.

On August 10th,

General Macon arrives at

121st Regiment's headquarters

to assume command of the

mission to locate the third

battalion and capture Dinard.

By 20:00 hours,

the men of Macon's

331st Infantry Regiment

jump off and advance.

Throughout the night,

flares and colored

smoke are used

to signal and locate

the lost battalion.

Despite their efforts,

no contact is made.

Macon's men return to

action the next morning,

jumping off at 08:30.

Their progress is slow as they

encounter the same roadblocks

and resistance that

delayed the 121st.

SOLDIER Stay low!

SOLDIER Keep

firing!

McMANUS

Now that Macon is seeing

the level of German opposition

that they're facing

he begins to realize exactly

what these guys from the other

regiment have been up against.

Move out!

Fall out!

It is

not until 21:30,

Macon's men break through a

particularly tough roadblock.

Before they even

consolidate their position,

they come under

immediate counter attack

by Bacherer's men.

SOLDIER Fire!

Incoming!

So that evening

Macon finds himself

defending his position,

and his lack of progress

to his commander.

McMANUS

That happened all the time.

Ah, you know, regimental

commander justifying

a division commander.

Division to corps.

Corps to army.

And so, Macon wants to make

sure Middleton understands,

very clearly,

hey the, you know, the

resistance is tougher

than we had thought.

This isn't because

any deficiency on my

part or my division.

From within

the lost battalion's

defensive perimeter,

Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Eyler

sends out regular patrols

to connect with relief forces.

But they have not

had any success.

So, on August 12th, rescue

may seem unlikely for the

patrol from K Company,

when they leave the

battalion's defensive

perimeter at 11:00 hours.

They move to the left flank

in the hopes of locating

members of 331st.

When they notice

movement up ahead.

Get down.

A patrol of

American soldiers from

the Third Battalion,

121st Infantry Regiment

creeps forward,

hoping to make contact

with the American 331st.

The battalion has been

encircled and cut off for

four days by n*zi forces,

in their bid to liberate

St Malo , France.

As they try to avoid

the surrounding Germans,

the patrol drops to the ground

when they spot movement ahead.

They have been

discovered by Americans.

McMANUS

It's a great moment.

You know, when the patrol

realizes that these guys

come from another unit,

to try and relieve

them and that this might

mean help is on the way.

It's such an American notion,

here we are embattled

and now the cavalry

is here to help us.

The two patrols

connecting is the first step.

The 331st will still have

to have fight their way

in through the

surrounding Germans.

McMANUS All of

this takes many, many hours

to develop, of course.

So the, the patrol contact

is just tip of the iceberg

of what you're eventually

going to need to do.

August 14th, 1944.

The final breakthroughs puts all

three battalions of the 121st

in addition to the

331st Regiment

in position to capture

the town of Dinard

and knock out the g*ns defending

the citadel at St Malo.

The Americans continue

to encounter stiff

German resistance.

Under the command

of Rudolph Bacherer.

Covering fire!

McMANUS Bacherer

strikes me as a professional.

Not like a n*zi fanatic.

He strikes me as

more of a military

professional of the sort

who are really the backbone

of the German armed forces

and makes such

formidable enemies.

He's going to use a lot

of the architecture

which is very well suited to

defensive warfare,

on a heavy stone

buildings and all that.

SOLDIER

Go! Go, go, go!

Four soldiers from

Company G volunteer to attack

a subterranean fortification

surrounded by a high

stone wall, and topped

by a steel fence.

Sergeant William Vaughn uses

a bazooka to break through.

With little effect.

Vaughn eventually

locates a tunnel through

which he leads his group.

The tunnel takes them inside,

and they capture the position

rounding up 200 German P.O.W.s.

Okay, can

you make it happen?

SOLDIER

Yes sir. I can.

Good.

Thank you sir.

At the same time,

German defensive mortars

try to halt the advance.

While American g*ns

target the n*zi strongholds.

As night falls, fires burn.

Dinard is in flames.

Despite the fact

the Americans make it

all the way to the coast,

they have yet to locate and

capture Rudolph Bacherer,

the defiant

commander of Dinard.

Early the next day, the phone

in Bacherer's bunker rings.

The voice on the

other end of the line

introduces himself as

American General,

Robert Macon.

Macon's able to call

because the, the Americans had

captured a, a German pillbox

that had a phone line that

basically went to Bacherer.

So, a very logical way, pick

up the phone and call the guy.

If you want him to

surrender, ask him yourself.

Through an

interpreter, Macon explains

that the Americans have

captured all the German

strong points in Dinard

and asks Bacherer to surrender.

DR. LIEB

Bacherer refuses to surrender.

For him the terms are

not honorable enough.

But at the same time

he asks Macon to take

care of his wounded.

Macon agrees.

Macon says, "Well

sure we'll, we'll take care

of your wounded. Absolutely."

A short cease

fire is organized.

German wounded are

transferred into American

care as prisoners of w*r.

Within minutes, the peace

is once again shattered.

With the goal of driving the

Germans into final surrender.

Bacherer's position

is targeted with white

phosphorus,

when an incoming shell

strikes an ammunition dump,

it sets off a

massive expl*si*n.

Fires spread.

The straw bedding in the

dormitories speeds the flames.

Bacherer's men pour out

to escape the smoke.

Bacherer sees that further

resistance is impossible.

He and 350 men surrender.

Dinard has now fallen.

But the citadel and the city

of St Malo still hold out.

Colonel Andreas Von

Aulock remains defiant.

With supporting

g*ns from the west silenced,

General Macon must now

capture the final prize.

August, 1944.

As two American

regiments liberate

the nearby town of Dinard,

other units commanded by

General Robert Macon close in

on the walled city of St Malo.

Located on the French

coast, the allies have

been desperate to capture it

to help move men and

materials into France

to liberate Europe.

The citadel

of the city is held by

Colonel Andreas Von Aulock,

who is known

as the mad Colonel.

The Germans also

call him the mad Colonel.

But not, not necessarily

in a negative way, yeah?

So, Von Aulock was

respected by his men, yeah.

'Cause he was, he was a

character, he was eccentric.

But still, his men

followed him, yeah.

American general Macon knows

the job must be completed.

They cannot leave pockets of

German resistance behind them

as they advance

further into Brittany.

The citadel must fall.

SOLDIER

Forward! Forward!

Two eight-inch g*ns

with a range up to ten miles

are brought within

1,500 yards of the fort.

They are less efficient

against the solid stone walls,

but can target portholes

and vents with direct fire.

In addition, Macon

positions companies

with 4.2 inch mortars.

Load up.

The 4.2 inch

mortar crews would use a

mixture of high expl*sive

and white phosphorus

smoke rounds.

The high expl*sives would

blow open the buildings.

Then they would follow up

with the smoke round

because the white phosphorus

had incendiary effects.

The white phosphorus

smoke shells would start

the building on fire.

To further soften

up the fortifications

in the final drive,

Macon relies on near constant

aerial bombardment.

They drop a new kind

of incendiary into the

battle jellied gasoline.

Jellied gasoline

is probably better known

as napalm

and it originally started its

combat use during World w*r II.

It contains an

additive to make it sticky.

Meaning that if

you drop a big tank of

this stuff from an aircraft

onto a target, instead of the

liquid simply spreading out

the jellied gasoline somewhat

sticks to the material

and it stays there and burns.

Lieutenant Colonel Seth McKee

prepares to take

off in his P-38,

with 165 gallon tanks

filled with napalm.

As McKee flies over,

he releases the tanks,

which contain phosphorous

grenades to ignite the napalm.

Amazingly, it lands

in a ventilation

shaft of the citadel.

It brings to mind

obviously Luke Skywalker's

perfect shot against the

Death Star in Star Wars.

But it is somewhat

that dramatic in,

in terms of its effect.

The jellied

gasoline is not used

to burn the occupants.

ZALOGA When

the jellied gasoline hits

the top of a bunker,

it starts sucking out all of the

oxygen that's inside the bunker

and so it destroys

a heavily defended

bunker by suffocating

the crews inside.

When McKee looks

back, he sees the Germans

have raised the white flag.

He calls off his men

and they drop the rest

of their incendiaries

on another target.

Soon after, Von Aulock

and 550 of his men surrender,

despite the promise to hold out.

DR. LIEB It's

always quite difficult to tell

whether these orders of fighting

to the last cartridge,

fighting to the last man,

whether they really

mean it for real.

Quite often they just give

these orders in order

to show to Hitler

their will to resist.

Because they are summoned

to fight to the last cartridge,

and if they don't do this job,

it will have consequences

against their family.

It takes

two weeks to capture the

fortifications of St Malo,

occupied by the

Nazis for four years.

General Macon's

troops are persistent.

His 83rd Infantry Division

capture nearly 10,000

German prisoners of w*r.

The lost American battalion

of the 121st weathered

its four days of isolation.

After the series

of constant attacks,

they report 31 k*lled,

106 wounded and 16 missing.

Unfortunately, Von Aulock

had ordered the port facilities

destroyed on August 7th,

to ensure that they provide

no assistance to allied forces.

So, while the fall of

the French port cities

proves inevitable,

n*zi holdouts tie up

allied forces for many weeks.

This allows time

for others to retreat and

secure the German border,

and set the stage for a

series of desperate battles.

The w*r in Europe would

continue for another

eight and a half months.