01x03 - The battle of Normandy

[bunniefuu]

[somber music plays]

♪ The bright horses have broken free
From the fields ♪

♪ They are horses of love
Their manes full of fire ♪

♪ They are parting the cities
Those bright burning horses ♪

♪ And everyone is hiding
And no one makes a sound ♪

♪ And I'm by your side
And I'm holding your hand ♪

[male reader 1]
"How to k*ll" by Keith Douglas.

"Under the parabola of a ball,
a child turning into a man,

I looked into the air too long.

The ball fell in my hand.
It sang in the closed fist.

Open. Open.
Behold a gift designed to k*ll.

Now in my dial of glass
appears the soldier who is going to die.

He smiles and moves about in ways
his mother knows, habits of his.

The wires touch his face.

I cry now.

Death, like a familiar, hears and look,

has made a man of dust of a man of flesh.

This sorcery I do.

Being damned, I am amused
to see the center of love diffused

and the wave of love travel into vacancy.

How easy it is to make a ghost.

The weightless mosquito touches
her tiny shadow on the stone.

And with how like,

how infinite a lightness,
man and shadow meet.

They fuse.

A shadow is a man when
the mosquito death approaches."

[Julie, in French] English poet Keith
Douglas died on June 9, 1944,

here, in Bayeux, in this small town which,
two days earlier,

was the first liberated French city,

briefly becoming
the capital of Free France.

My name is Julie Gayet.
I am an actor and producer.

My grandfather, Alain Gayet,
joined the resistance at 17 years old.

He was still a high school student
in Brest when he decided

to take a boat to London
and join Free France.

He took part in the African campaign

and became officer before passing
his exams in Cairo in 1943.

Then he joined the second armored
division of General Leclerc in Morocco,

and on August 1, 1944,
he participated in the landing

and the liberation of France
until Royan in 1945.

[piano music plays]

[Julie] Barely after landing in France,
two Americans,

a nurse and a stretcher-bearer,
Kenneth Moore and Bob Wright,

set up a field hospital in this church.

They start healing everyone on both sides.

The only rule: leave all weapons outside.

[narrator] The Angoville-au-Plain battle
raged for days by the church.

At one point, the German soldiers
succeeded in forcing their way in.

But when they realized that the medics
were also treating the wounded Germans,

they left them in peace and hung
a Red Cross flag on the Church door.

[male reader 2] Kenneth Moore
described that first evening:

"By the evening we had 75 of them.

Our own folk had come to tell us
that they could not stay any longer,

so we were left with the wounded.

A German officer soon arrived

and asked if I could tend
to his wounded too.

We accepted.

During the night, the churchyard
was a scene of another battle.

Two of our casualties died.

But among those, I could tend,
none lost their lives.

I tended all sorts of wounds.

Some were skin deep,

but others were more serious
abdominal cases."

[water running]

[somber music plays]

[in French] In the afternoon of June 6,
more than 400 spare parts

for a weight total of more
than 1.5 million tons,

were towed to France for the assembly
of the two Mulberry ports.

These two prefabricated ports,
designed in the UK.

Around 45,000 people and 300
engineering companies worked there.

It will only take 12 days
to assemble the two ports

and they will be functional
from June 18th.

[narrator] Mulberry Harbors
were the biggest technical gamble

launched during World w*r II.

They were, in fact, a continuation
of an early idea

for temporary harbors sketched
by Winston Churchill in 1915.

Seventeen ships were sunk,
together with 115 concrete caissons,

to create a gigantic breakwater
to keep the currents under control.

Mulberry Harbor A for 'American'
on Omaha Beach was for American troops,

and Mulberry Harbor B for 'British'
on Gold Beach was for the British troops.

One day after it was assembled
and ready to be put into use,

a powerful storm destroyed Mulberry A,

making Mulberry B
the only Allied artificial harbor

throughout the Battle of Normandy.

It was used for ten months
after its first employment.

Over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles

and 4 million tons of supplies
were landed through it.

[somber music plays]

[man, in German]
Letter from Franz Mössner to his parents.

June 30th, 1944.

"Dear parents,

what happens in the west,
you both know

and since we're positioned not far
from Caen, we're right in the middle.

Our batallion already endured a lot,

but so far I've been lucky
and one might call that divine destiny.

Greetings, your son Franz."

-[explosions]
-[ominous music plays]

[machine g*n fire]

[airplane engine roaring]

[in French] On June 8,
during the attack on Carpiquet airport,

eighteen Canadian soldiers
are taken prisoner

by the 12th SS Hitlerjugend Division.

[narrator] The objective
of the Anglo-Canadian front

was the city of Caen.

Kurt Meyer, commander of the 25th regiment

of the 12th SS Hitler jugend division,

interrogates the Canadians
and then orders them to be ex*cuted

in the gardens
of the Ardenne Abbey in Caen.

These murders will later
be considered as w*r crimes.

In December 1945,
the Canadian Military Court

charged Kurt Meyer with ordering
the execution of prisoners of w*r.

Meyer was found guilty
and sentenced to death by sh**ting.

But the ill*gal execution
of prisoners of w*r

took place on both sides.

The Allies,
and in particular the Canadians,

carried out executions
of German prisoners of w*r.

They had a de facto 'license to k*ll'.

They were allegedly ordered
not to take prisoners

who might slow down their advance.

With rumors of atrocities committed
by the 12th SS Armored Division,

many Canadian units were ruthless
with the German soldiers.

For example,
after the Operation Totalize attack

south of Caen in early August,

the 2nd Canadian Corps claimed
to have taken only eight prisoners

from the 12th SS Armored Division.

Some historians say it was a response

to the disastrous Dieppe offensive.

[in French] Excerpt from the diary
of Michèle Oudinet, child, June 8, 1944.

"It was on June 8th
that we left our dear House

to go to the shelter of
the German street Isidor Pierre,

but we were fired because
the staff of the castle was settled here.

Not knowing where to go, we found
a faculty where we stayed for eight days.

Then after these eight days,
everything burned down

and the city was a heap of ashes.

But we didn't stay long between its ruins,

because one morning, Monsieur Maurot
told us that everything was burnt.

So Dad went to get the car,
which he put away in the Fleury quarries.

We were walled up, we couldn't see much,
we slept on the damp straw

and that's where
my poor mother was k*lled."

[male reading 3]
Letter by David K. Webster to his brother.

"Dear John, By now the dead Germans
were getting thicker.

k*lled by paratroopers during the night,

they looked like wax figures
you see in a museum.

I felt no emotion towards them.

They were lying about
in the little villages

our boys had seized during the night.

But the French paid no more attention
to them than we did,

although they were a little afraid
of the black-faced,

wild-eyed paratroopers
who k*lled their rulers."

[somber music plays]

[Julie, in French] Right here,
in this small village of Graignes,

on the night of June 6th,

nearly 150 American soldiers from
the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division

are mistakenly
parachuted into this sector.

The villagers will hide them
for four days.

On June 10th, a first German attack,

aimed at dislodging the Americans,
is pushed back,

but on the next morning, during
the misfortune in the village church,

the 17th SS Division
launches the as*ault on the village.

[narrator] The village was surrounded.

Some Americans managed to escape
through the marshes towards Carentan.

Others were trapped
and forced to surrender

after putting up
fierce resistance all day.

More than 100 paratroopers
were k*lled or wounded.

In the evening
after the American withdrawal,

the Germans engaged in a series
of massacres against their prisoners.

Seven wounded paratroopers were ex*cuted,

and the next day, in retaliation
for the villagers' help to the Allies,

the Germans shot four people,
including the priest.

By June 9th, the 101st Airborne
managed to cross the flooded Douve River

using a few causeways passing
through the flooded fields.

Their objective was now Carantan.

Commander Field Marshall Erwin Rommel,

ordered Lieutenant Colonel
Friedrich von der Heydte

to defend the town to the last man.

It was an all-day hard fought
house-to-house battle

against German troops
embedded in strongly prepared positions.

The captured town by the Allies
gave them a continuous front

joining Omaha Beach to Utah Beach

and the three other beaches
to the east of Omaha.

Possession of the town was maintained

despite a German armored
counter-offensive,

known as the Battle of Bloody Gulch
on the 13th, just southwest of the town.

The losses suffered by the 3rd Battalion


earned this part of the N-13 road,
from Carentan to Sainte-Mère-Église,

the nickname 'Purple Heart Lane'.

[Julie, in French] The SS "Das Reich"
division goes back to Normandy and does,

during its advance, two atrocious stops.

The first here in Tulle, the day
after a successful Resistance attack,

which forces the guerrillas
to fall back hastily.

When they entered the city,
to take revenge on the losses

that the resistance fighters
caused them to suffer,

the SS soldiers round up all the men

and choose 99 of them
to hang on the balconies

and candelabras from all over the city.




-[b*mb explosions]
-[somber music plays]

[Julie, in French] Adolf Diekmann,
husband, father and commander

of a battalion
of the "Das Reich" Division,

orders on June 10th the m*ssacre of
all the inhabitants of Oradour-Sur-Glane.

In one afternoon, women and children
are burned alive in the church,

while the men are slaughtered
and burned in the barns outside.

A total of 643 victims.

The route taken by
the SS Das Reich division

towards Normandy, which would be
later called "the bloody road".

[woman, in French]
Survivor Marguerite Rouffanche,

the only survivor of the church fire.

Her testimony
from the 1953 trial in Bordeaux.

"We were taken to the church,

always being followed
by the submachine g*n and there,

we were locked up.

After a long wait, they brought a crate

which they placed on two chairs,
in front of the Holy Table.

From this box, emerged white cords.

I can't tell what device it was,

and after a short time, the crate burst,

a very dull knock and a smoke rose
which suffocated us

and we no longer saw
each other in the church.

At that moment, people went
up and down on each other,

with 250 school children,
not counting the babies

the mothers carried on their arms.

There were whole families.

We took refuge,
with my daughters, in the sacristy.

This room gave us a little air,
it allowed us to breathe.

But a certain flame has arrived,

at that moment,
I came out of the sacristy,

I thought of hiding behind the altar,

but I found a stepladder which allowed me
to go through the glass window.

During my climbing,
I was followed and injured

and Madame Hyvernaud
followed me with her baby.

I fled, and while I was fleeing,
I was machine-gunned.

I was wounded by five b*ll*ts and
was found only on Sunday evening."

[piano music plays]

[in French] Normandy is the land
of hedges, long hedges, high hedges,

behind which we find
most of the time paths.

But during the Second World w*r,

we were more likely to find
a German with a g*n,

hidden in a foxhole, leaning on
his machine g*n and watching.

Allied soldiers were easy targets
as they crossed fields and hedgerows.

So they had a lot of losses.

[narrator] One day Sergeant Curtis Culin

had an idea on how to overcome the bocage.

A Tennessee farmer named Robert suggested:

"Why don't we get some tooth saws,
put them on the front of the tank

and cut down these hedges?"

Culin recognized the potential
of the idea and made a prototype,

which would later be called
the Rhino Tank.

They used the steel pipes
from the Czech hedgehogs from Rommel

and welded the metal
at the bottom of the tanks.

These "teeth" cut through the hedges
as if they weren't there,

leaving a large hole
for the soldiers to pass safely.

Sergeant Culin became an American hero.

[male reader 3] Speech,
Dwight David Eisenhower.

"There was a little Sergeant,
his name was Culin and he had an idea.

And his idea was that we could
fasten knives,

great big steel knives,
in front of these tanks.

And as they came along,

they would cut off these banks
right at ground level.

They would go through on the level keel,

would carry with themselves
a little bit of camouflage for a while.

And this idea was brought to the captain,

to the major, to the colonel.

And it got high enough that somebody
did something about it.

And that was General Bradley,
and he did it very quickly."

[in German] Letter from SS-officer
Richard Peters to his brother.

France, June 10th, 1944

"Dear Reinhold,

so far I'm good
and I hope you're okay as well.

The Tommy's are here but we're driving
them right back into the sea.

Three days ago we fought hard
with the Canadians at Village A.

I was there, at the front.

It wasn't exactly easy,

but the Canadians were not very smart
and their heart wasn't into it.

That's why they took their frustrations
out on their POW's.

We saw with our own eyes
what happens if you'd fall in their hands.

We have found six bodies
all with a fatal headshot

We took our revenge
right after our attack.

An eye for an eye, that's it."

[in German] Field Marshal Rommel
to his wife Lu, June 13th.

"The telephone connection was terrible
yesterday, but it's better than nothing.

The w*r isn't going well for us,
especially in the sky

and because of the heavy marine
employment from the enemy.

In the sky it's 300 to 500 from us
against 27.000 of them.

I informed the Führer yesterday.

Rundstedt is doing the same.

Is this the moment to bring in politics?

We expect even heavier attacks on us
within just a few days, from every angle.

The long-awaited strength
of two world-powers emerges.

All will be decided very soon now."

[narrator] Michael Wittmann
was a tank commander for the Waffen SS

and he remains one of the best known

and most decorated soldiers
of the Wehrmacht

and the German armored forces of his time.

The exact number of his kills
remains a matter of dispute,

but recent critical assessments
and analyses suggest

that he disabled 138 enemy tanks
and 132 anti-tank g*ns.

He was the 'poster boy' of the Waffen-SS

and he had a powerful protegee
named Sepp Dietrich.

He's a prime example of the kind of
favoritism within the Waffen-SS.

Around the 13th of June,
at the end of a busy day of fighting,

he was interviewed by Herbert Reinecker,
an SS propaganda officer.

After the w*r, the same Herbert Reinecker
became a renowned author and screenwriter.

Today, he's best known as the author
of the TV series Derrick.

[radio, in German]
Conversation with Oberstürmführer Wittmann

who fired 138 panzer missiles today,

hitting 21 enemy vehicles
within 20 minutes.

One Tiger
against an entire British panzer regiment.

This must have been the hardest
battle you ever fought.

Yes, I have to admit that I found it
very, very hard to take the decision,

and never before have I been so impressed

by the numerical strength
of a column of tanks rolling past

But I knew it had to be done

and I decided
to attack the enemy nonetheless.

[narrator] There are many theories
about Wittmann's death.

According to source,

there was a British bounty on his head
after the battle of Villers-Bocage,

but the British Army has denied this.

Wittmann died in action
on August 8th, 1944,

when his Tiger tank, number 007,
was destroyed in an ambush

near the French town
of Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil.

[expl*si*n]

The SS sought to portray
his death as heroic

and to spread the rumor
that he'd been k*lled in an RAF raid

where he was defenseless

in order to make the point
that the Allies were cowards.

But evidence showed
that Wittmann was in fact

the victim of British Gunner Joe Ekins,
driving a Sherman Firefly tank.

[explosions]

[in French]
It is here that General de Gaulle

once again treads the soil of his country,

June 14th at around 1:30 p.m.

De Gaulle,
the first fighter of Free France.

He had traveled a long way to
arrive in his native France.

[narrator] Roosevelt went so far
as to order that De Gaulle

not be involved
in the preparations for D-Day.

The reason was that the free French
were working with an outdated code system

that had been cracked
by German intelligence services

and said anything
that you read at Bletchley Park,

the Germans could read as well.

Nevertheless, Churchill insisted
that De Gaulle needed to be informed

just before the invasion of Normandy.

And this happened
on the night of June 4th.

Churchill and De Gaulle
had a very hostile conversation

about the liberation
on the train in Portsmouth.

It was in this meeting that Churchill said
that if a choice had to be made,

Britain would always choose America.

But what was the real problem?

Why did they want to avoid De Gaulle's
participation in the invasion?

The main reason was Roosevelt
had a plan to divide Europe

between the British, Americans,
and Russians after the victory.

A new country, a buffer state,

would be created between Germany
and France,

including Alsace, Champagne,
Lorraine and Wallonia.

The name of this new country
was to be Wallonia.

Belgium would cease
to exist as a country.

De Gaulle then attempted to gamble.

He knew that the Allies
needed his liaison officers

as they were the ones who spoke French
and would have to establish contacts

with the liberated population
after the invasion.

[in French] De Gaulle allowed us
to save and keep Europe intact.

[narrator] De Gaulle gave his first speech

in liberated territory
in front of a large audience,

and for the first time, the Normans
could put a face to a name and a voice.

Even Hollywood saw great potential
in the character of General de Gaulle

and asked William Faulkner
to write a screenplay about him.

[male reader 4] " I thought you were dead.
What brought you back to life?

France, General.

Someone whispered De Gaulle in his ear.

Does that raise the dead in France?

It will do better than that now.
It will raise the living."

[in French] During the night of June 5
to 6, the guerrillas of Beaucoudray,

led by Ernest Pruvost,
cut the telephone cables

to obstruct the communications
of the German occupier.

[narrator] On June 14th, at 10:30 a.m.,

just as General De Gaulle
set foot in France,

the Germans stormed a farm
in the village of Le Bois

and they arrested
several resistance fighters.

Ernest Pruvost and some others
managed to escape,

but 11 prisoners were transferred
to the hamlet of La Réauté,

where they were tortured.

[In french] They were ex*cuted
on June 15th at 4:30 a.m. in a field.

Their bodies were buried in
two common graves and the youngest,

André Patin, was only 18 years old.

[somber music plays]

[in French]
The sun is shining on June 15, 1944

on the Place de la République in Carentan.

This is the first ceremony since D-Day.

The commanders of the regiments
engaged in the battle of Carentan,

John Michaels, Jumpy Johnson,
Bob Sink and Bud Harper

receive the Silver Star
from General Taylor.

We can see the joy on their faces.

[narrator] At the same moment

that the townspeople were cheering
on the American heroes,

the German Army carried out
an a*tillery attack.

Fifty civilians and soldiers
were wounded by shrapnel.

A three-year-old girl, Danielle Laisney,

who was attending the ceremony
with her family,

died within minutes of being hit.

[male reader 5]
A letter from David K. Webster

to his parents on June 16th.

"Dear mother and father,
It's hard to believe that I'm still alive,

but this is just a note
to let you in on the fact

and to tell you that I'm back in England
for a few more days.

Having a tiny sliver of shrapnel
taken out of my arm.

A mortar shell landed right behind me,
knocked me flat on my face,

took off my helmet
and cut me in just one spot.

Since the battalion aid station
was only around the corner,

I dropped in for repairs.

They passed me on and on
and out of France on an LST.

I have to go back soon,

for I owe the Germans several b*ll*ts
and as many hand grenades as I can throw.

Until we jumped on France,
I had thought the German a clean fighter.

Now I know better.

They caught some of our boys
and their harnesses, cut their throats,

hung them, bayonetted them,
stripped them and shot them.

They wiped out an aid station.

They didn't even give us a chance.

We do not intend to show them mercy."

[narrator] For Operation Overlord
to succeed,

the harbor of Cherbourg
was vital for transport and logistics.

Since the allies
had lost Mulberry Harbor A.

General von Schlieben
understood this all too well.

On Hitler's orders, the Germans
destroyed the port's facilities

and resisted until the last man
was standing.

[machine g*n fire]

[explosions]

[Julie, in French] After the violent
bombardments of June 22th,

American troops returned to the city
of Cherbourg on the evening of June 26th.

Fort du Roule, the key to
the German defensive system, fell.



are made prisoners
in the fortress of Cherbourg.

But in the meantime, the Germans
sabotaged the port of Cherbourg.

It is impossible to
put it into service directly.

[ominous tones]

Minesweepers, divers,
workers, German prisoners,

everyone will be put
to work day and night,

to rebuild the port of Cherbourg.

Sixty days later, it will become
the largest port in the world,

with twice the capacity of
the New York Harbor at the time.

[ominous music plays]

[narrator] The theater, the Omnia,

reopened its doors on July 4th,
America's Independence day.

The 1st movie they showed
was a documentary

about the 8th army called Desert Victory.

By the end of the week,
they'd sold 6000 tickets.

[in French] The Germans were well informed
on who sympathized with the Resistance

or who actively supported it.

And the reason

is that they had a large network
of well-paid collaborators.

They were called "collabos".

Since D-Day,
the hunt for fighters and leaders

of the resistance was one of
the priorities of the Germans.

One of these resistance fighters
is named Jean-Renaud Dandicolle.

He was the leader of the
maquisards of Saint-Clair.

[narrator] On the evening of July 7th,
he moved to the Grosclaude farm,

headquarters of the Maquis
of Saint-Claire,

from where he directed operations
behind the German lines,

accompanied by his radio agent,
Captain Maurice Larcher,

Jean Foucu, from the local resistance

and a Canadian pilot named
Harry John Cleary.

In the early hours of July 8th,

when they were about to take off
for Mayenne

to continue their mission,
two SS men burst into the farm.

Foucu has a staff card in his pocket,

and when Jean-Renaud Dandicolle
was going to get his papers,

he took his sil*ncer p*stol
and shot both German officers.

Cleary and Larcher managed to flee,

but were caught at a place
called La Boissaye and k*lled on the spot.

Eugénie and Georges Grosclaude
were arrested and tortured

while Jean Foucu managed to escape.

Jean-Renaud Dandicolle
was finally captured after a long chase.

His body has never been found.

[man, in French] Journal of Philippe
Bauduin, 14 years old, resident of Caen.

July 9, 1944.

"This morning,
the English are 500 meters from us.

We hear machine g*ns.

At 11 o'clock, the English, or rather
the Scots, arrive in the hospital.

They were well received.

I had my picture taken
with the lieutenant.

There are many of them in the shelter.

The smell of blond tobacco
goes to your head.

Chocolate was distributed.

We hear the departures
of English batteries.

The youngest of them is 19 years old."

[man, in German] Letter from
Helmut Richter to his wife, July 11th.

"I think that it was in Hungary
that I already wrote you about

how Orlowski walked around
with his g*n, aiming to sh**t himself.

This time he actually did it.

He had an drunken argument
with our commander and he was punished.

Feldwebel Schuppe had led him
to the vehicle

where he wanted to get
his blankets and food.

For just one moment
he stood there on his own

and then he took his g*n
and shot himself."

[somber music plays]

[in French]
The 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion

was the first African-American
unit to land on D-Day.

I don't know if you remember
these images of balloons, like zeppelins

that flew above the allied ships,
or on the beach after landing.

They were flying 60 meters high to protect
from the attacks of the German planes.


resting above Omaha Beach.

[male reader 6] James Hugo Madison wrote:

"In the early morning of June 16,
one pilot came down the strafe.

Before he could get his g*ns going,
he hooked a wing on a flying cable.

He realized his error too late
and headed out to sea

in an apparent effort to avoid
other cables in front of him.

His whole plane was visible for an instant

when the b*mb on the cable crashed
against his wing.

Then the plane disappeared

in the turbulent waters
of the English Channel."

[somber music plays]

[in French] Who shot Rommel?

On July 17th, Marshal Rommel's car
was strafed by two planes.

[narrator] His driver, Sergeant Daniel,

was hit in the left shoulder and left arm
and lost control of the car.

The car swerved and hit a tree stump on
the right-hand side of the road

and ended up in a ditch
a little further on.

Rommel looked back and held onto the door

and was thrown out of the car
as it flipped.

He suffered a severe head injury,
rendering him immediately unconscious.

His face was cut deeply
by the shards of glass.

He lay helpless 20 yards behind the car.

Captain Lang managed to jump
from the rear door

as soon as the attack began.

Major Neuhaus suffered a fractured pelvis

from shell fragments hitting
the holster of his revolver,

and Sergeant Holke was unhurt.

After the second strafing pass,

Captain Lang and Sergeant Holke
left their shelter to rescue Rommel

and took him to a small cottage
on the side of the road.

It was the home of a farmer, Rémy Miche.

[in French] Several theories came up
about the identity of the pilot.

Initial reports are of a P47,
piloted by US Lieutenant Ralph Jenkins.

Then we talked about
different Spitfire pilots.

There were also talks of a British Typhoon
piloted by John Baldwin,

or even a Frenchman, Jacques Remlinger,
perhaps on the other plane.

Most weren't where Rommel was attacked.

Seventy years later,
Ed Prizer's flight log was found,

in which it was written that
he was Charlie Fox's wing man,

when Charlie shot Rommel's black car.

[narrator] A while after
the beach landing,

Caen was still in German hands.

The goal of Operation Goodwood
was to complete the liberation of the city

and to breakthrough
to the south towards Falaise.

It was the largest battle fought
in Normandy.

Two thousand two hundred bombers,


An intense phase of bombardments
hit the German positions hard.

The villages of Mondeville, Colombelles,
Sannerville, Touffréville, and Giberville

were reduced to ashes.

The Allied advance was halted
after three days

at the foot of the first slopes
of the Bourguébus ridge,

where the Germans were entrenched.

Operation Goodwood was a failure.

The British and Canadians lost 400 tanks,

four times as many as the Germans,
and nearly 6000 men

for an advance of only 11 km.

[in French] Caen finally falls,
but a month later than expected,

July 19 instead of June 6, 1944.

[woman, in French] Excerpt from Georgette
Boutrais' diary of July 18, 1944.

"Waking up this morning.

Planes, more planes and more planes,

flak bombs, a real roar and non-stop.

We get up in our shirts,
watching the attack from a window,

looking at each other
and finally looking outside.

An airplane is hit
and by a sublime maneuver,

the paratrooper comes out of the device.

Will he make it out alive?

Further to the right, we see what
we had already seen several evenings

since we were here, the phosphorus bombs."

[narrator] On July 20th,
Operation Valkyrie is a fact,

but the attempt
to assassinate Hitler failed.

[man, in German]
Radio speech by Hitler.

"My fellow German countrymen and women.

I'm not sure how many
assassination attempts

have actually been tried on my life.

But with this speech today,
I'll prove two things.

First: by hearing my voice, you'll
know that I'm unharmed and healthy.

Second: that you will know
the details about this crime

unparalleled in our German history.

A small group of ruthless criminals

most of them stupid officers,
plotted against me

in order to destroy a large part
of the Wehrmacht leaders.

The b*mb, laid there by Von Stauffenberg,

exploded nearby on my right side

It wounded some of my most loyal officers
and one of them actually died."

[narrator] The protagonists
of the uprising against Hitler

were arrested and sentenced to death.

Rommel, who was still
in the hospital at the time,

was also discredited
because he knew about the attempt.

[man, in German]
Rommel to his wife Lu, July 24th.

"My left eye is still swollen,
but the doctors say it will be alright.

At night my head really hurts,
but during the day I feel much better.

I was deeply shocked
by the attack on the Führer.

Thank God that it all ended well for him.

I gave my views on w*r matters
just before it happened."

[in French] That day, General Rommel
received a telegram from the Führer,

when the latter has already decided
on the death of his general.

[in German]
Telegram from Hitler to Rommel.

"We wish you, Herr Field Marshal,
all the best and a speedy recovery.

Yours truly, Adolf Hitler."

[piano music plays]

[man, in German]
Fieldpost from private H.R., July 26th.

Wednesday.

"The officers responsible for the attack
on the Führer know exactly

that a change of government was needed,

since the w*r is now hopeless.

It would be great for Europe

if Hitler, Göring and Goebbels would go.

Then the w*r would end,
and all the people need peace.

Everything else is a lie."

[narrator] After Cherbourg,

the American troops
had great difficulty advancing.

General Bradley led more than


but the terrain
was completely unfavorable to him.

The roads were bad,
the sectors were flooded, marshy valleys.

For the Germans, the thick hedges,
embankments and ditches

were a perfect defense system.

Even if the Rhino Tanks could break
through these natural obstacles

and create breaches for the infantry,

they were unable to stem the heavy losses
they suffered for four weeks.

Twelve thousand dead.

[explosions]

[somber music plays]

[male reader 7] "At a w*r Grave"
by John Jarmain.

"No grave is rich:
the dust that herein lies,

beneath this white cross mixing
with the sand,

was vital once, with skill of eye
and hand and speed of brain.

These will not re-arise,
these riches, nor will they be replaced.

They are lost in nothing now,

and here is left only a worthless corpse
of sense bereft.

Symbol of death and sacrifice and waste."

[Julie, in French]
John Jarmain wrote this poem in 1942

and died on June 26, 1944.

He rests here in Ranville.

[somber music plays]

[male reader 8] Part of a Letter
from William Palmer, June 17th, 1944.

"The French people, in this part anyway,

seem far from starving
as we have been led to believe,

and some of them don't seem so hot
on this liberation stunt,

however, I was given flowers,
bread and butter

in the middle of a battle
with b*ll*ts flying all around.

That does say something for them anyway.

It is only when one sees papers out here
that one realizes what tosh they write.

Vast pincer movements to places
which we are nowhere near.

Their facts wrong
and a lot of callous rot.

They calmly speak of a passing tank
brewed up or a dead soldier,

trying to glorify w*r.

Little do they know of the tragedy
and suffering

that lies behind one dead man
or behind a burnt-out crust of a tank."

[narrator] As commander of the nonexistent
ghost army Fortitude South,

General Patton was extremely unhappy.

When he finally landed in Normandy
at the end of July,

leading the Third American Army,

he was impatient to take part
in the action.

He officially entered the scene
on August 1st, 1944.

He took advantage
of the breakthrough of Avranches

to launch his armored vehicles
to attack Brittany

while marching towards
Laval, Le Mans and Chartres.

In only a few weeks, he would lead his
divisions to the East of France

and then to the borders of Germany.

The landing of the Leclerc division
took place over five days,

from the 1st to August 5th, 1944,
on Utah Beach.

From August 6th, the 16,000 men strong
French division set off southwards,

passing through Périers, Coutances,
Gavray, Avranches,

Ducey and Saint-James.

After deadly fighting
in the Sarthe department,

General Leclerc moved northwards
toward Alençon

and seized the town during the night,

with the help of the 19-year-old
resistance fighter Raymond Ciroux,

Ciroux confirmed to Leclerc
that the Germans had left the town

and after finding out
that the bridges weren't mined,

Leclerc decides to check out
the town personally.

Guided by Ciroux,
they set off in the night.

Thanks to this,
the town of Alençon was liberated

in the middle of the night
without a single shot being fired,

and it became the symbol
of the first French metropolitan city

to be liberated by a unit
under French command.

[ominous music plays]

[Julie, in French] Operation Lüttich
was ordered by Adolf Hitler

to cut American forces in two
in the Cotentin region.

And undo the advances made by the 1st
American army by preventing its supply.

This counter-attack was
imposed on the German officers

and his command was given
to Rommel's successor:

General von Kluge,

which has already assembled
its troops on August 2.

[narrator] The German commanders
had warned Hitler in vain.

There was little chance of success

and the concentration
of their armored reserves

at the western end of the front
in Normandy soon led to disaster.

The Germans were outflanked in the south,

the eastern front collapsed
and many German units in Normandy

were consequently trapped
in the Falaise pocket.

[man, in French] Diary of René Langlois,


"On Monday, we wanted to get out quick

and ask for a little more to the convoys
we heard passing.

But when we got to the first hedge,

we realized they were German tanks
coming up the road.

The local policeman's wife
had been k*lled.

He stayed behind to watch
over his wife's body

during the counterattack
and was reported missing.

No trace of her or him
has ever been found."

[narrator] On August 7th, 1944,
the day of the last German offensive,

about 700 American soldiers

were surrounded and isolated
for several days, on Hill 314,

which dominated the east of Mortain.

One single forward observer, Robert Weiss,

was important for stopping
the German counterattack.

With only one radio and dying batteries,

he managed to radio 193 fire missions
in six days,

which is about one every 45 minutes.

"My binoculars became a g*n site",
he said.

[man in audiofile] " Crow, Crow, Crow,
here Crow, Baker 3.

Fire mission, enemy vehicles,
tanks, strong enemy force.

Crow, here, Crow…"

[narrator] Planes tried to parachute
in supplies, but less than half made it.

French farmers risked their lives
to get food to the Americans.

Of the 700 men, only 300 survived.

[man, in Polish] w*r diary
of cavalry captain Kazimierz Duda,

August 1 to 7, 1944.

"Attitude of the French population
to the Allied Forces.

After interviewing citizens,
it can be concluded,

the attitude of the civilian population
is unfavorable.

They hate the English,
they are indifferent to the Poles.

The population states that the Germans
treated the peaceful people gently.

But also, the people were fed
and the relations were even friendly.

Repressions were applied
to uncertain elements, English agents.

There is a better attitude
towards Canadians.

It is not known what
life in the American section looks like,

because we do not have contact
with these units.

It is interesting that the Germans
massively married French women,

and each couple received significant help
from the German authorities.

The German's wife got everything
she needed to live.

House, furniture, food,
light work, good earnings."

[narrator] From August 1st,
the First Polish Armored Division

arrived in France and started fighting
for the capture of Falaise.

The German operation on Mortain

gave General Montgomery the chance
to take Falaise easily and quickly,

but also expose the German armies

to the possibility of encirclement
by the Allies.

On August 10th, 1944, Eisenhower
decided to encircle the German troops

in a pincer movement,
with the British in the north

and the Americans in the south.

This was known as the Falaise Pocket.

One day later, the Falaise pocket
was reduced to 25 km².

[piano music plays]

[in French] The first mission
of the first Polish armoured unit

was to seize Mount Ormel.

On August 16, Hitler ordered the troops
to withdraw, but it was too late.

Allies completely surround Group B

of the German troops
in the Falaise pocket.

The only way out for the Germans,
on the evening of August 19th,

is to force the passage,
across the Polish troops on Hill 262.


against 2,500 Poles,

this peaceful country road was
now to be called "death row".

[man, in German]
Lieutenant Höller.

"For our tired and weary regiment
the nightly retreat was almost superhuman.

The nearer we got to our breakthrough,
the more ghostlike our views became.

Two or three demolished
and burnt-out vehicles blocked the road.

We heard explosions everywhere,
saw burning tanks,

and desperate horses, just lying there,
waiting to be relieved of their pain."

[in Polish] w*r diary of cavalry captain
Kazimierz Duda,



"The most critical day is on August 21.

It seemed that all Polish troops
in these hills would be destroyed.

In addition, there was a shortage
of ammunition, food and sanitary care."

[in German]
Unterscharführer Leo Freund wrote:

"Sturmbahnführer Olboeter thought
the moment had come to press through.

Standing on a Panther,
he gave us the sign to follow him

and his vehicle approached
the burning Panzer of the enemy.

He didn't get very far.

His Panther got a direct hit.

Much to our surprise, Olboeter appeared,
seemingly unharmed,

and ran back to the other tanks
in a wooded area."

[narrator]
The Polish First Armored Division

destroyed or captured
more than 300 vehicles

and had taken more than 5000 prisoners.

Polish losses amounted to 325 dead,


[man, in German]
Oberscharführer Willy Kretzschmar wrote:

"The Panzer and Panzerjäger followed us,
and at some distance behind them

soldiers from our division
and those who refused to be captured.

We were followed by 2,000 to 3,000 men.

It was rather a dark night.

With lightsignals we guided the tanks
in the right direction.

Then we were hit by heavy fire, since
we found ourselves at the enemy lines.

Our tanks fired back
at their positions

and they broke through
the enemy lines with high speed."

[narrator] Ten thousand German soldiers
were k*lled,

fifty thousand German fighters managed

to flee and another 50,000
were taken prisoner.

This battle marked the end
of the Normandy campaign.

On the same day, General Model,

Commander-in-Chief in the west
after the ousting of von Kluge,

received the order
for a general withdrawal

of the German troops towards the Seine.

[male reader 9] Sapper Dillon,
a letter to his brother Frank.

"I expect you would like
to know what happened,

so I will start from the beginning.

I was on the first British crossing
of the Seine.

We parked our trucks
about 2 miles from the river.

Then we walked the rest of the way.

Then we unloaded storm boats,
that is a boat for the as*ault crossing.

They hold about twelve men,
but we put more than that on.

I might add that this was done by night

and the infantry gave us
covering fire while we unloaded.

And believe me,
we worked damned fast and hard.

We got the boats lined up
on the home side with the engines running.

Then it was one mad rush
to the other side.

Fortunately, I wasn't one of the crew.

However, the as*ault went very well

and they got enough ground
for us to get cracking with the bridge.

We had no small arms fire
after that and very few shells fell.

All went well until daylight came.

Then the fire began."

[in Polish] w*r diary of cavalry captain
Kazimierz Duda,



"As for the German army, it consists,

especially of infantry,
of various nationalities.

A large percentage of Poles
from western provinces,

but also from central Poland.

There are a lot of Russians,
Mongols, Caucasian, Turkmen,

Kyrgyz and God knows what types."

[narrator] On August 19th,
news circulated in Vernon

that the Americans were close to the city.

By this time,
the German forces had fled Vernon

and the fighters
of the French forces of the interior

were convinced that freedom
was right there.

Under the leadership of Georges André,
they rose up and liberated the city.

But their action was premature

because the town was assigned
to the British,

who were still 160 km away.

André thought it was too late
for the FFI to back down

and decided to hold the city
until the British arrived.

[in French] Story told
by a 14 year-old boy, Guy Dugrès.

"We found a terrified German
hiding at the bottom of a well.

I had a machine g*n, but she didn't have
a breech mechanism and could not fire.

However,
by using it to threaten the soldier,

we managed to get him out of the well

and we proudly escorted him
to Vernon by the rue de Bizy.

A frightened enemy soldier

with his hands on his head
and followed by a group of kids,

it was a memorable sight."

[in French] From August 19,

the resistants and the inhabitants
of Vernon hold the city.

On August 22, they depose the municipality
and ask the mayor to go home.

In a way, they will have
liberated their city

while waiting for
the arrival of the Americans.

It is finally the British
who arrive on August 25th.

[narrator] On the same day,
General Leclerc,

who had participated
with his armored division

in the closing of the Falaise Pocket,
sent 250 men towards Paris.

He had heard that the citizens
had risen up

and had built over 600 barricades
in the streets of the city.

After the Battle of Normandy,

the Allies bombed Le Havre
for ten consecutive days.

More than 90% of Le Havre was wiped out
and more than 5000 civilians died.

Le Havre was officially liberated
on September 12.

But at what price?

[somber music plays]

[man, in French]
Letter from Denis Lefèvre-Tousaint

to a friend in September '44.

"Why has this beautiful house collapsed,

when this filthy slum remained intact?

Why is my friend François dead
and not Bernard who is a jerk?

Why does luck decides it all? Why?

We have no choice,
we suffer, it's a kind of fatality,

we realize that nothing is controllable.

We no longer have confidence, we lose
confidence in the established order.

The order is not established.

The order has disappeared, it's all gone.

We went from a dead point to a dead point.

A city is standing and there,
you could see a sprawling city,

those holes, it's terrible,
it's not a city anymore, it's nothing.

It's obscene, a dead, m*rder*d city.
It's obscene."

[instrumental music plays]