1 00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:04,559 I've asked Stagg and the rest to prepare a five-day forecast. 2 00:00:04,738 --> 00:00:07,366 The Prime Minister's bringing de Gaulle... 3 00:00:07,540 --> 00:00:10,566 On the eve of the great assault on Hitler's Europe, 4 00:00:10,744 --> 00:00:16,080 the two men who were to direct the Allied armies in the field met for a last informal dinner. 5 00:00:16,416 --> 00:00:21,479 The commander of the land forces, General Montgomery, was every inch the Englishman, 6 00:00:21,654 --> 00:00:24,885 the supreme commander, General Eisenhower, an American. 7 00:00:25,058 --> 00:00:26,855 That would at least focus... 8 00:00:27,027 --> 00:00:32,659 The evening helped to cement the great alliance between the two men and their countries. 9 00:00:32,832 --> 00:00:35,392 Montgomery had accepted a wager. 10 00:00:35,568 --> 00:00:39,664 Eisenhower had bet him L5 that the war would be over by Christmas, 11 00:00:39,839 --> 00:00:42,069 within just seven months of D-Day. 12 00:00:45,111 --> 00:00:46,908 (GUNFIRE) 13 00:00:48,748 --> 00:00:50,716 (EXPLOSIONS) 14 00:00:54,487 --> 00:00:58,548 But the bright hope with which the Allies began their great crusade 15 00:00:58,725 --> 00:01:00,955 was to fade beyond the D-Day beaches. 16 00:01:04,431 --> 00:01:07,867 (SCOTTISH ACCENT) It was a dreadful experience for young boys, 17 00:01:08,034 --> 00:01:10,764 most of them barely 20 years old. 18 00:01:10,937 --> 00:01:13,804 Day by day, living on borrowed time. 19 00:01:13,973 --> 00:01:17,773 It was a lottery who was going to be the next casualty. 20 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:24,881 (ENGLISH ACCENT) I turned to my mate. I said, ''I can't take much more of this.'' 21 00:01:26,753 --> 00:01:30,712 He said, ''I feel the same way, but we've got to hold it together.'' 22 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:38,788 As Allied soldiers struggled to break the German line, the casualty list lengthened. 23 00:01:38,965 --> 00:01:42,423 Cracks began to appear in the great Atlantic alliance. 24 00:01:43,403 --> 00:01:47,533 (AMERICAN ACCENT) We thought we could do things better than they did, 25 00:01:47,707 --> 00:01:52,076 and we were getting a little impatient, waiting for this British break-out. 26 00:01:53,012 --> 00:01:58,416 It wasn't just the alliance between Britain and America that was to be placed under strain. 27 00:01:58,585 --> 00:02:02,316 It was the relationship between Eisenhower and Montgomery. 28 00:02:02,489 --> 00:02:07,051 This is the story of how two very different men and the armies they led 29 00:02:07,393 --> 00:02:11,022 struggled to defeat the Germans in the summer of 1944. 30 00:02:24,410 --> 00:02:26,537 (SPEAKS GERMAN) 31 00:02:31,651 --> 00:02:33,118 (PHONE RINGS) 32 00:02:33,453 --> 00:02:37,890 The 6th of June was a special day at Field Marshal Rommel's house in Germany. 33 00:02:38,057 --> 00:02:40,821 It was his wife Lucy's 50th birthday. 34 00:02:42,028 --> 00:02:46,829 Rommel wasn't expected back at his headquarters in France for another two days. 35 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:51,937 But at half past six that morning, he received a call from his Chief of Staff. 36 00:02:52,939 --> 00:02:54,497 (SPEAKS GERMAN) 37 00:02:55,742 --> 00:02:58,370 The Allies were landing on the coast of Normandy. 38 00:02:58,545 --> 00:03:02,606 The commander of the German forces in the field was still at home, 39 00:03:02,782 --> 00:03:04,716 500 miles away. 40 00:03:06,352 --> 00:03:07,979 (GUNFIRE) 41 00:03:31,010 --> 00:03:33,911 We kept going in and in and in, 42 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:38,881 and all of a sudden we hear these pings on the steel-hulled landing craft. 43 00:03:39,052 --> 00:03:41,520 A guy said, ''The Germans are firing at us. 44 00:03:41,688 --> 00:03:44,953 ''We can see them in the distance up on top of the cliff.'' 45 00:03:49,829 --> 00:03:53,492 Something landed in the water and concussion hit. 46 00:03:53,666 --> 00:03:58,694 It flipped me over, and I heard somebody yell, ''Keep moving. Keep moving.'' 47 00:03:58,871 --> 00:04:04,002 I reached over and grabbed him by the jacket, pulled him out, 48 00:04:04,344 --> 00:04:07,313 and just then a mortar shell landed behind me, 49 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:09,710 knocked me flat on my face. 50 00:04:09,882 --> 00:04:13,613 And, er... I thought, ''What the hell? I must be dead.'' 51 00:04:22,695 --> 00:04:25,755 There were guys lying on the beach, dead. 52 00:04:25,932 --> 00:04:27,456 Uh... 53 00:04:27,634 --> 00:04:31,536 Shells hitting it. Machine-gun fire ripping across it. 54 00:04:32,672 --> 00:04:35,140 An LST off to our right 55 00:04:35,475 --> 00:04:38,603 got a dead hit as they were unloading. 56 00:04:38,778 --> 00:04:43,511 These guys were coming down. Just blew that sucker right out of the water. 57 00:04:43,683 --> 00:04:45,810 A hell of a sight. Awful. 58 00:04:57,030 --> 00:04:58,998 (MAN SPEAKS GERMAN) 59 00:04:59,165 --> 00:05:01,895 (TRANSLATOR) In the first wave, most of them fell. 60 00:05:02,068 --> 00:05:07,096 We said, ''They keep coming, even though they can see how many have already been killed.'' 61 00:05:13,046 --> 00:05:15,571 There were 37 men in my landing craft. 62 00:05:17,150 --> 00:05:20,881 When I got up on top of the cliff, there were nine men left. 63 00:05:26,125 --> 00:05:31,427 The commander in chief of the German armies knew nothing of the battle in France. 64 00:05:31,597 --> 00:05:34,623 He was 600 miles away in the Bavarian alps. 65 00:05:42,041 --> 00:05:44,441 No one wanted to wake Adolf Hitler. 66 00:05:44,610 --> 00:05:47,078 No one was sure this was the real invasion. 67 00:05:48,014 --> 00:05:51,108 German intelligence suggested it would come soon, 68 00:05:51,451 --> 00:05:53,749 but further up the coast, at Calais. 69 00:05:54,754 --> 00:05:57,552 Hitler had split the command of his forces. 70 00:05:57,724 --> 00:06:00,921 He'd given the direction of his armies in the field to Rommel, 71 00:06:01,094 --> 00:06:07,033 but the best German divisions, the armoured reserves, were under his personal command. 72 00:06:07,367 --> 00:06:12,566 They couldn't advance on the Normandy beaches without a direct order from their Fuhrer. 73 00:06:16,142 --> 00:06:18,372 By the time Hitler was awake, 74 00:06:18,544 --> 00:06:22,844 the world knew Allied forces were landing on the coast of Normandy. 75 00:06:24,417 --> 00:06:26,817 Fighting had been fiercest on Omaha Beach, 76 00:06:26,986 --> 00:06:31,320 but by midday the Americans were beginning to cut a foothold on the coast. 77 00:06:31,491 --> 00:06:36,121 The second assault wave was already landing on the other four Allied beaches. 78 00:06:36,529 --> 00:06:39,930 I can remember talking to a fellow company commander 79 00:06:40,099 --> 00:06:45,435 and reckoning that our chances of getting across the beach alive were pretty small. 80 00:06:45,605 --> 00:06:50,668 But, in fact, everything by that time had quietened down 81 00:06:50,843 --> 00:06:53,607 and we weren't under fire of any sort. 82 00:06:53,780 --> 00:06:56,908 It was one of those very rare occasions in war 83 00:06:57,083 --> 00:07:00,814 when the plan goes absolutely according to plan. 84 00:07:01,721 --> 00:07:06,954 Mostly, the coastal defences had been manned by the weakest troops in the German army, 85 00:07:07,126 --> 00:07:09,856 the very young, the old and the lame. 86 00:07:10,029 --> 00:07:15,023 Allied casualties were much lower than expected, 10,000 dead and wounded. 87 00:07:16,903 --> 00:07:20,361 The battle for the beaches was over in a matter of hours. 88 00:07:20,540 --> 00:07:23,338 Although many books don't venture beyond them, 89 00:07:23,509 --> 00:07:28,003 Operation Overlord, the struggle for the liberation of Europe, was just beginning. 90 00:07:33,119 --> 00:07:37,419 The reports that trickled into Eisenhower's headquarters in England 91 00:07:37,590 --> 00:07:42,459 suggested most of Rommel's divisions were still camped 170 miles to the north. 92 00:07:45,631 --> 00:07:49,533 The chief architect of the Overlord plan was General Montgomery, 93 00:07:49,735 --> 00:07:53,535 the man who'd beaten Rommel in North Africa the year before. 94 00:07:53,706 --> 00:07:59,508 He'd agreed the priorities for the campaign with General Eisenhower, his supreme commander. 95 00:08:06,319 --> 00:08:09,880 Monty's plan was to unite the two American beaches in the west 96 00:08:10,056 --> 00:08:15,517 with the three British and Canadian in the east, then to break out into the rest of France. 97 00:08:15,695 --> 00:08:20,997 If all went to plan, Allied forces would reach the river Seine near Paris on D plus 90, 98 00:08:21,334 --> 00:08:23,359 three months after D-Day. 99 00:08:26,906 --> 00:08:30,967 Monty had been confident his soldiers would fight their way ashore, 100 00:08:31,143 --> 00:08:37,446 so confident he'd made the capture of Caen, ten miles away, a key D-Day objective. 101 00:08:42,955 --> 00:08:46,584 But the British advance was held three miles short of Caen. 102 00:08:46,759 --> 00:08:48,727 (SHOUTING) 103 00:08:48,895 --> 00:08:50,795 (GUNFIRE) 104 00:08:52,365 --> 00:08:57,564 The failure to take the city on D-Day would cast a shadow over the campaign in Normandy. 105 00:09:11,117 --> 00:09:13,677 It was not until half past nine in the evening 106 00:09:13,853 --> 00:09:18,381 that Field Marshal Rommel finally reached his headquarters in France. 107 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:26,320 The Field Marshal was tense. I remember him punching one gloved fist into another. 108 00:09:28,367 --> 00:09:32,667 I said to him, ''Sir, do you think we'll be able to hold them back?'' 109 00:09:32,838 --> 00:09:35,966 He replied, ''Lang, I hope we can. 110 00:09:36,142 --> 00:09:38,667 ''I've always succeeded up to now.'' 111 00:09:40,947 --> 00:09:45,850 The staff at Army Group B were still expecting a second Allied invasion at Calais. 112 00:09:46,018 --> 00:09:49,920 An entire army would be left to guard the beaches to the north. 113 00:09:54,527 --> 00:09:58,987 Rommel had hoped he could counter-attack in the first hours of the invasion, 114 00:09:59,165 --> 00:10:04,467 but the armoured reserves he needed had only been released by Hitler that afternoon. 115 00:10:04,637 --> 00:10:07,105 (SPEAKS GERMAN) 116 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:11,570 Rommel was determined to throw these Panzer divisions into the battle 117 00:10:11,744 --> 00:10:14,372 as soon as they arrived in Normandy. 118 00:10:16,649 --> 00:10:18,617 (MAN SPEAKS GERMAN) 119 00:10:18,784 --> 00:10:23,585 (TRANSLATOR) We were optimistic, especially as our division, the Panzer Lehr, 120 00:10:23,756 --> 00:10:29,956 was very well equipped, and we all believed we would be able to make quite an impact. 121 00:10:30,129 --> 00:10:32,597 (GERMAN MARCHING SONG) 122 00:10:37,470 --> 00:10:41,930 The Panzer divisions held in reserve began taking up positions around Caen 123 00:10:42,108 --> 00:10:44,508 in the early hours of June 7th. 124 00:10:48,648 --> 00:10:51,446 The 12th SS, the Hitler Youth Division, 125 00:10:51,617 --> 00:10:54,745 would be joined by five more SS Panzer divisions. 126 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:59,380 This fanatical elite would be at the core of Hitler's forces in Normandy. 127 00:11:00,760 --> 00:11:05,823 The SS were very different soldiers from those the Allies had faced on the beaches. 128 00:11:06,966 --> 00:11:08,934 (MAN SPEAKS GERMAN) 129 00:11:10,770 --> 00:11:15,901 (TRANSLATOR) We only took volunteers, and so you could expect much more of our unit. 130 00:11:16,075 --> 00:11:20,705 Our ability to fight, our moral will to fight, was greater. 131 00:11:26,485 --> 00:11:30,615 Rommel began to concentrate his Panzer divisions in the British sector. 132 00:11:30,790 --> 00:11:34,521 Beyond the city of Caen, open country, tank country, 133 00:11:34,694 --> 00:11:38,494 stretched northward towards the river Seine and Paris. 134 00:11:38,664 --> 00:11:42,828 It was here Rommel expected the Allies to attempt a break-out. 135 00:11:49,141 --> 00:11:51,109 The Allied campaign in Normandy 136 00:11:51,444 --> 00:11:57,076 would be directed from a spartan collection of tents and caravans just behind the front line. 137 00:12:05,024 --> 00:12:07,322 Although Caen was yet to fall, 138 00:12:07,493 --> 00:12:12,863 there was every prospect, Monty told his staff, of checkmating Rommel in just a few days. 139 00:12:13,032 --> 00:12:17,628 More than 160,000 Allied soldiers had already come ashore. 140 00:12:18,437 --> 00:12:21,838 2nd Army is cleaning up centres of resistance around... 141 00:12:22,007 --> 00:12:26,467 Monty had first outlined the plan for Overlord many weeks before. 142 00:12:26,645 --> 00:12:28,772 It was a clever deception. 143 00:12:28,948 --> 00:12:32,349 The British were to keep pressing forward in the east 144 00:12:32,518 --> 00:12:35,817 to draw the Panzer divisions into battle around Caen. 145 00:12:35,988 --> 00:12:40,948 The Americans would then be able to break out through a thin German line in the west. 146 00:12:42,495 --> 00:12:44,122 The 51st must push on... 147 00:12:44,463 --> 00:12:47,762 The plan had met with Eisenhower's whole-hearted approval, 148 00:12:47,933 --> 00:12:51,733 but in the judgement of his staff, it soon started to go wrong. 149 00:12:51,904 --> 00:12:54,134 OK, can you see to this? 150 00:12:54,473 --> 00:12:59,433 It's clear that the Germans are doing everything they can to hold on to Caen. 151 00:12:59,612 --> 00:13:03,844 I've decided not to risk a lot of casualties butting against it, 152 00:13:04,016 --> 00:13:07,110 but 2nd Army must keep up the pressure there, 153 00:13:07,453 --> 00:13:12,447 and then make its main effort here, towards Villers-Bocage. 154 00:13:12,625 --> 00:13:14,422 And from there... 155 00:13:14,593 --> 00:13:19,326 Within a week of D-Day, military intelligence reported a gap in the German line 156 00:13:19,498 --> 00:13:21,363 to the west of Caen. 157 00:13:24,036 --> 00:13:27,130 Monty turned to his old 8th Army desert units. 158 00:13:27,473 --> 00:13:32,433 On June 12th, British armour began to push toward the town of Villers-Bocage. 159 00:13:34,847 --> 00:13:39,841 We were told it was what's called close country, but we didn't realise how close it was. 160 00:13:40,019 --> 00:13:42,749 The hedges were as high as the turret tops. 161 00:13:48,928 --> 00:13:51,829 It was this bocage country 162 00:13:51,997 --> 00:13:55,728 of small fields surrounded by high banks, 163 00:13:55,901 --> 00:13:58,699 on the top of which were thick hedgerows. 164 00:13:58,871 --> 00:14:00,805 (NEW SPEAKER) Very attractive, 165 00:14:00,973 --> 00:14:06,434 except if you're fighting through it, and then there are lots of dead bodies. 166 00:14:08,781 --> 00:14:13,582 On the morning of D plus 7, the 7th Armoured Division, Monty's Desert Rats, 167 00:14:13,752 --> 00:14:17,381 reached Villers-Bocage, the western gateway to Caen. 168 00:14:18,424 --> 00:14:22,383 There was no sign of the enemy, and so, at a little before nine o'clock, 169 00:14:22,561 --> 00:14:26,019 an armoured column began to advance toward the city. 170 00:14:29,969 --> 00:14:34,770 Under cover, just outside the town, was a small unit of German Tiger tanks. 171 00:14:34,940 --> 00:14:38,341 Their commander was Obersturmfuhrer Michael Wittmann, 172 00:14:38,510 --> 00:14:41,638 the most celebrated tank ace in the German army. 173 00:14:41,814 --> 00:14:43,782 (SPEAKS GERMAN) 174 00:14:47,887 --> 00:14:52,847 Wittmann's tank was equipped with a formidable weapon, the 88-millimetre gun. 175 00:14:53,926 --> 00:14:59,831 You only had to mention to a tank commander, ''There's an 88 out there somewhere,'' 176 00:14:59,999 --> 00:15:03,901 and you could put the fear of God into our own people. 177 00:15:05,437 --> 00:15:09,601 I first knocked out two tanks from the right of the column, then one from the left. 178 00:15:09,775 --> 00:15:15,543 I knocked out every tank that came towards me. The enemy was thrown into total confusion. 179 00:15:15,714 --> 00:15:19,980 (ENGLISH ACCENT) My troop sergeant was leaning over to the driver, 180 00:15:20,152 --> 00:15:22,120 and so it missed his head. 181 00:15:22,454 --> 00:15:27,323 I felt the tingling as the shot went between my legs, landed up in the engine. 182 00:15:27,493 --> 00:15:30,360 And then a sheet of flame came over the top. 183 00:15:32,831 --> 00:15:34,958 It was an unwholesome way to die. 184 00:15:35,134 --> 00:15:38,433 If you're injured, you can't get out of a tank turret. 185 00:15:38,604 --> 00:15:40,572 It's too narrow. 186 00:15:40,739 --> 00:15:45,608 And if the turret has traversed at all, so that you're firing that way, 187 00:15:45,778 --> 00:15:51,717 it stopped the driver's door from opening and he couldn't get out, so it was frightening. 188 00:15:54,586 --> 00:15:56,554 (WITTMANN) I drove into the town of Villers, 189 00:15:56,722 --> 00:16:01,785 and immediately began firing at and destroying everything around me that I could see. 190 00:16:02,828 --> 00:16:05,296 In a devastating ten-minute attack, 191 00:16:05,464 --> 00:16:09,992 Wittmann destroyed 12 tanks and 13 other armoured vehicles, 192 00:16:10,336 --> 00:16:13,794 and brought the British advance to a grinding halt. 193 00:16:13,973 --> 00:16:18,433 He'd cruelly demonstrated that Allied tanks, the Sherman and the Cromwell, 194 00:16:18,610 --> 00:16:21,636 were no match for a German Tiger. 195 00:16:27,753 --> 00:16:32,486 Monty's desert veterans were forced to withdraw, battered and dispirited. 196 00:16:34,493 --> 00:16:39,795 Monty was concerned about a sickness that seemed to hold Allied tank crews in its grip, 197 00:16:39,965 --> 00:16:41,762 Tiger fever. 198 00:16:41,934 --> 00:16:45,893 I have had to stamp very heavily on reports that began to circulate 199 00:16:46,071 --> 00:16:50,804 about the inadequacy of our tanks and equipment as compared with the Germans. 200 00:16:50,976 --> 00:16:54,104 Such reports are likely to cause a lowering of morale 201 00:16:54,446 --> 00:16:57,415 and a lack of confidence among the troops. 202 00:17:00,119 --> 00:17:03,850 And on the day the British advance at Villers-Bocage was broken, 203 00:17:04,023 --> 00:17:06,287 a report reached Monty from London 204 00:17:06,458 --> 00:17:11,555 that would increase the pressure for a rapid break-out from the Allied bridgehead. 205 00:17:15,701 --> 00:17:20,798 London was under attack from Hitler's vengeance weapon, the V-1 flying bomb. 206 00:17:20,973 --> 00:17:24,773 The Germans were launching them from the coast of France. 207 00:17:31,383 --> 00:17:35,513 Most flying bombs that made it through were falling in the south of the city, 208 00:17:35,687 --> 00:17:39,418 close to the quarters of the supreme Allied commander. 209 00:17:42,895 --> 00:17:47,696 Night after night, Eisenhower and his staff were driven into their air-raid shelter. 210 00:17:47,866 --> 00:17:49,663 I don't know what's worse... 211 00:17:49,835 --> 00:17:52,565 The V-1 attacks were making everyone jittery 212 00:17:52,738 --> 00:17:56,868 and impatient for a rapid break-out into the rest of France. 213 00:17:57,042 --> 00:18:01,775 But Eisenhower had already begun to lose faith in Monty's strategy. 214 00:18:01,947 --> 00:18:05,075 We thought we were more aggressive than the Brits. 215 00:18:05,417 --> 00:18:11,378 We used to think, ''Well, they've been through this for so many years now, so long a time. 216 00:18:11,557 --> 00:18:14,685 ''They've taken so many beatings in so many places 217 00:18:14,860 --> 00:18:18,990 ''that they're less... less likely to take chances, 218 00:18:19,331 --> 00:18:22,630 ''less likely to take risks than we are.'' 219 00:18:25,871 --> 00:18:31,639 At the end of June, British officers began preparing their men for a new attack on Caen, 220 00:18:31,810 --> 00:18:33,778 Operation Epsom. 221 00:18:36,482 --> 00:18:39,610 ..over the canal here. We're going to be after... 222 00:18:40,652 --> 00:18:44,782 The plan was to punch through the German line to the south of Caen. 223 00:18:44,957 --> 00:18:49,417 It was a risky operation. The front was strongly held by the SS. 224 00:18:49,595 --> 00:18:55,033 But Monty knew Eisenhower was growing more impatient for success every day. 225 00:18:57,369 --> 00:19:01,829 Hello, BBC. This is Frank Gillard here, recording just outside Tilly 226 00:19:02,007 --> 00:19:06,671 during a barrage which is being laid down to prepare the way for an infantry attack... 227 00:19:06,845 --> 00:19:10,804 British soldiers began to push forward behind the artillery barrage, 228 00:19:10,983 --> 00:19:14,612 just as their fathers had done during the First World War. 229 00:19:17,556 --> 00:19:21,788 The Germans had dug in deep, as they, too, had done 30 years before. 230 00:19:24,329 --> 00:19:28,891 And as the barrage lifted, they prepared to meet the British advance. 231 00:19:31,970 --> 00:19:37,374 It's no good saying we weren't. Anyone says he wasn't scared was a bloody liar. 232 00:19:38,510 --> 00:19:41,570 (NEW SPEAKER) It was a firm principle 233 00:19:41,747 --> 00:19:44,545 that no rifleman stopped 234 00:19:44,716 --> 00:19:48,015 if his next companion was dropped. 235 00:19:49,922 --> 00:19:53,915 (NEW SPEAKER) You couldn't see where you were going, what you were walking on, 236 00:19:54,092 --> 00:19:59,621 and, unfortunately, we trod on lads that had dropped, either dead or wounded. 237 00:20:10,442 --> 00:20:14,742 When you get a man that's had a leg blown off... 238 00:20:14,913 --> 00:20:18,747 and he crawls back in the corn in case the Germans counter-attack, 239 00:20:18,917 --> 00:20:22,648 and his dead body was found a fortnight afterwards... 240 00:20:22,821 --> 00:20:25,756 I mean, what a death that man must have had. 241 00:20:31,163 --> 00:20:34,690 Casualties were desperately high on both sides. 242 00:20:34,866 --> 00:20:38,768 The British slogged forward just five miles in three days. 243 00:20:38,937 --> 00:20:41,405 But the German line held. 244 00:20:47,679 --> 00:20:52,639 By the end of June, more than 60,000 Allied soldiers were listed as dead or wounded. 245 00:20:52,818 --> 00:20:55,616 Normandy was becoming a killing ground. 246 00:21:00,726 --> 00:21:04,685 We, of course, the poor, wretched people on the ground 247 00:21:04,863 --> 00:21:07,354 had no idea of the great Monty plan. 248 00:21:08,100 --> 00:21:14,061 Every day, a battalion from each brigade would launch an attack 249 00:21:14,406 --> 00:21:17,933 to capture another couple of hedgerows. 250 00:21:18,110 --> 00:21:22,740 They would probably lose something like 200 to 300 men in the process. 251 00:21:22,914 --> 00:21:26,782 And it all seemed to us on the ground totally pointless. 252 00:21:26,952 --> 00:21:32,515 Why did we have to spend all these lives capturing the hedgerow in front? 253 00:21:34,526 --> 00:21:38,485 This is Larry LeSueur speaking from the Normandy battlefront. 254 00:21:38,664 --> 00:21:41,394 It's warm and humid in Normandy this morning, 255 00:21:41,566 --> 00:21:46,026 and the sun is trying valiantly to break through the impenetrable clouds. 256 00:21:46,204 --> 00:21:51,506 The war is going slowly. Recently it resembles the trench warfare of a quarter century ago - 257 00:21:51,677 --> 00:21:54,942 the Germans hard on one side of the hedge-enclosed field, 258 00:21:55,113 --> 00:22:00,073 and the open space in front gives them a field of fire for 100 yards or more. 259 00:22:01,620 --> 00:22:04,919 The battle was being fought in perfect defensive country 260 00:22:05,090 --> 00:22:09,049 that sheltered the Germans from the full weight of the Allied assault. 261 00:22:09,394 --> 00:22:11,862 The hedgerow was deadly in combat. 262 00:22:12,030 --> 00:22:15,488 It's like playing hide-and-go-seek when you're a kid. 263 00:22:15,667 --> 00:22:18,568 They can hide on you, but we can't find them. 264 00:22:31,583 --> 00:22:33,551 Tanks would come along, 265 00:22:33,719 --> 00:22:38,816 and there were dead soldiers in their paths between the hedgerows. 266 00:22:38,990 --> 00:22:44,951 The tanks would just come along and roll over half a body or one part or another of a body. 267 00:22:45,130 --> 00:22:46,893 It was a terrible sight. 268 00:22:54,106 --> 00:22:56,631 There was this awful stench of battle. 269 00:22:56,808 --> 00:23:02,337 Quite apart from the human casualties, Germans, British, people killed in the battle, 270 00:23:02,514 --> 00:23:07,918 there were these dead horses, dead cattle, lying around and beginning, after a day or so, 271 00:23:08,086 --> 00:23:13,023 because it was June, hot weather, stinking to high heaven. 272 00:23:34,179 --> 00:23:38,582 I turned to my mate. I said, ''I can't take much more of this.'' 273 00:23:38,750 --> 00:23:43,483 He said, ''I feel the same way, but we've got... we've got to hold it together.'' 274 00:23:43,655 --> 00:23:45,885 But that's...that's the way you get. 275 00:23:46,057 --> 00:23:50,926 You know, you're...you're scared that the next time it's going to be you. 276 00:23:51,096 --> 00:23:53,826 Because every time they send over a salvo, 277 00:23:53,999 --> 00:23:55,967 they get somebody. 278 00:23:58,537 --> 00:24:03,497 War does things to you, makes you so hard, you feel you lose your emotions. 279 00:24:03,675 --> 00:24:06,872 I'd see guys with their legs blown off, 280 00:24:07,045 --> 00:24:09,809 or chest wounds, head wounds... 281 00:24:09,981 --> 00:24:13,610 Ted getting killed. My brother getting killed. 282 00:24:13,785 --> 00:24:18,017 And I've said to myself, ''Why didn't I cry?'' 283 00:24:20,759 --> 00:24:23,387 The pattern of the grim struggle in the bocage 284 00:24:23,562 --> 00:24:27,054 was not being set by the Allies, but by the enemy. 285 00:24:29,901 --> 00:24:33,029 Mein Fuhrer. 286 00:24:33,371 --> 00:24:35,669 On the last day of the Epsom offensive, 287 00:24:35,841 --> 00:24:41,143 Field Marshal Rommel visited his Fuhrer to discuss the progress of the battle in Normandy. 288 00:24:42,747 --> 00:24:45,648 (SPEAKS GERMAN) 289 00:24:48,053 --> 00:24:52,683 Rommel wanted to win Hitler's permission for a new, more flexible front. 290 00:24:52,858 --> 00:24:58,490 Hitler would hear nothing of it. The German line would stay precisely where it was. 291 00:25:00,732 --> 00:25:06,693 More than a million men were locked in a battle of attrition along a front just 50 miles long. 292 00:25:06,872 --> 00:25:09,340 The battle seemed close to stalemate. 293 00:25:18,416 --> 00:25:21,783 If Rommel was having problems with his supreme commander, 294 00:25:21,953 --> 00:25:23,921 so, too, was Montgomery. 295 00:25:24,089 --> 00:25:28,822 Eisenhower made a rare visit to Monty's headquarters on July 2nd. 296 00:25:28,994 --> 00:25:34,626 Although there was the usual outward show of warmth, Eisenhower was far from satisfied. 297 00:25:34,799 --> 00:25:38,758 He thought he'd been promised a British break-out. 298 00:25:38,937 --> 00:25:44,466 Nor did it help that Monty showed little respect for his supreme commander's judgement. 299 00:25:45,744 --> 00:25:48,110 General Montgomery's sense of humour... 300 00:25:48,446 --> 00:25:50,880 (ENGLISH ACCENT) He liked Eisenhower. 301 00:25:51,049 --> 00:25:54,849 No one could fail not to like him. He was an easy fellow. 302 00:25:55,020 --> 00:25:57,386 But from Monty's point of view, 303 00:25:57,556 --> 00:25:59,683 he wasn't a proper soldier. 304 00:25:59,858 --> 00:26:04,921 Eisenhower had not been in action before. He hadn't the experience. 305 00:26:05,096 --> 00:26:08,964 I've called him Rommel. He's quite something, isn't he? 306 00:26:09,134 --> 00:26:11,932 The strategy, Monty explained, was the same. 307 00:26:12,103 --> 00:26:16,062 The British were drawing the best of Rommel's soldiers into battle around Caen 308 00:26:16,408 --> 00:26:19,707 so the Americans could break out further west. 309 00:26:19,878 --> 00:26:23,405 I've asked Major Reynolds to take us over... 310 00:26:23,582 --> 00:26:28,918 But Montgomery was becoming a victim of the expectations he'd created. 311 00:26:30,622 --> 00:26:34,820 Eisenhower wanted the Allies to press forward along the entire front. 312 00:26:34,993 --> 00:26:37,461 He wanted Monty to break through at Caen. 313 00:26:40,432 --> 00:26:42,696 Gentlemen, please be seated. 314 00:26:42,867 --> 00:26:48,499 General Montgomery was very precise in everything that he did. He was a legend. 315 00:26:50,041 --> 00:26:53,340 And, uh...somewhat intimidating. 316 00:26:53,511 --> 00:26:57,538 At the table, he dominated much of the conversation. 317 00:26:58,984 --> 00:27:02,784 We were a little deferential to Monty at the beginning. 318 00:27:03,855 --> 00:27:09,521 But...we were getting a little impatient, waiting for this British break-out. 319 00:27:09,694 --> 00:27:12,492 And he's even been prepared to put L5 on it. 320 00:27:14,366 --> 00:27:17,995 British soldiers had tried and failed to take Caen three times. 321 00:27:18,336 --> 00:27:24,434 Monty believed it would take a blow of overwhelming force to crack German resistance. 322 00:27:24,609 --> 00:27:28,773 But there was one theatre of combat in which the Germans could be beaten. 323 00:27:33,351 --> 00:27:37,981 Allied aircraft roamed the skies above the battlefield almost unchallenged. 324 00:27:45,597 --> 00:27:51,058 It was the Jabos, the Allied fighter bombers, that German soldiers feared above all. 325 00:27:55,774 --> 00:27:57,742 (MAN SPEAKS GERMAN) 326 00:27:57,909 --> 00:28:02,505 (TRANSLATOR) Often you couldn't advance more than 200 metres in an hour. 327 00:28:02,681 --> 00:28:05,309 You were constantly having to take cover. 328 00:28:07,118 --> 00:28:09,086 That was very depressing. 329 00:28:09,421 --> 00:28:16,020 We'd really believed that our fighter planes would arrive, and that would sort them out. 330 00:28:17,796 --> 00:28:21,994 Allied aircraft were proving the greatest threat to German operations. 331 00:28:22,333 --> 00:28:25,700 Rommel was struggling to direct his forces in the field. 332 00:28:26,771 --> 00:28:32,607 My staff and I have repeatedly experienced the total command the enemy has of the air. 333 00:28:34,145 --> 00:28:38,582 The movement of our troops is almost completely paralysed, 334 00:28:38,750 --> 00:28:43,380 and it is very difficult to get essential supplies and ammunition up to them. 335 00:28:45,690 --> 00:28:51,094 More worrying still for the Germans, the Allies seemed to know where to direct their fire. 336 00:29:01,606 --> 00:29:07,567 In the first week of the battle, Allied aircraft destroyed the headquarters of a Panzer group. 337 00:29:07,746 --> 00:29:10,078 Almost the entire staff was wiped out. 338 00:29:11,616 --> 00:29:16,019 Rommel had visited the headquarters just a few hours before the attack. 339 00:29:21,059 --> 00:29:23,687 It was more than a coincidence. 340 00:29:23,862 --> 00:29:27,662 The Allies knew the whereabouts not just of this Panzer group, 341 00:29:27,832 --> 00:29:30,426 but of all the German divisions in France. 342 00:29:37,075 --> 00:29:39,043 Thousands of German signals 343 00:29:39,377 --> 00:29:44,371 were being intercepted by a network of listening stations in Britain. 344 00:29:49,954 --> 00:29:54,584 The signals were sent to the government's code-breakers at Bletchley Park. 345 00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:58,991 They offered an insight into German intentions 346 00:29:59,164 --> 00:30:02,327 and a long list of targets for Allied aircraft. 347 00:30:09,774 --> 00:30:11,742 On the night of July 7th, 348 00:30:11,910 --> 00:30:16,711 German forces around Caen were hit with all the power Monty could muster. 349 00:30:20,485 --> 00:30:25,718 450 heavy bombers were used for the first time to support the Allied advance. 350 00:30:28,893 --> 00:30:32,021 The attack was pressed home without respite. 351 00:30:32,197 --> 00:30:34,825 After two days of fierce fighting, 352 00:30:34,999 --> 00:30:39,936 British and Canadian soldiers captured the ruins of a once beautiful city. 353 00:30:41,973 --> 00:30:47,434 (ENGLISH ACCENT) It looked like a city that had been...murdered, massacred. 354 00:30:47,612 --> 00:30:52,072 (SCOTTISH ACCENT) You couldn't recognise anything. Buildings were blown to bits. 355 00:30:52,417 --> 00:30:56,478 Even the French people themselves would never have known it. 356 00:30:56,654 --> 00:31:02,991 (CANADIAN ACCENT) The most memory I have was the smell...of dust... 357 00:31:03,161 --> 00:31:04,890 and death. 358 00:31:19,544 --> 00:31:23,446 Eisenhower expected to see Montgomery break out at last, 359 00:31:23,615 --> 00:31:28,917 and a week later, 750 British tanks began to roll out of the new Caen bridgehead. 360 00:31:32,023 --> 00:31:37,655 But from the first, there was confusion about just what the attack was supposed to achieve. 361 00:31:39,497 --> 00:31:43,957 Eisenhower had written to Montgomery expressing confidence in the new advance, 362 00:31:44,135 --> 00:31:46,103 Operation Goodwood. 363 00:31:46,437 --> 00:31:50,897 It would, he was sure, be a decisive plunge into the vitals of the enemy. 364 00:31:57,415 --> 00:31:59,815 Monty saw it in an altogether different way. 365 00:32:01,586 --> 00:32:06,489 Monty's plan was to attack the German Panzer divisions on the outskirts of the city, 366 00:32:06,658 --> 00:32:12,790 and to keep them fighting long enough for the Americans to break out at St Lo in the west. 367 00:32:13,965 --> 00:32:16,092 But to ensure support for the operation, 368 00:32:16,434 --> 00:32:21,462 he'd raised not just the expectations of Eisenhower, but of his own men as well. 369 00:32:31,716 --> 00:32:37,586 We were all very excited when we were told that we were going to go down to the plains of Caen, 370 00:32:37,755 --> 00:32:42,988 because for the first time we'd be out of this awful hedging and that sort of stuff. 371 00:32:43,161 --> 00:32:45,857 We thought it might be the end of the campaign. 372 00:32:46,030 --> 00:32:48,555 (NEW SPEAKER) It was a very beautiful day. 373 00:32:48,733 --> 00:32:53,534 The early morning was...exquisite weather. 374 00:32:53,705 --> 00:32:55,502 Very, very clear. 375 00:32:55,673 --> 00:32:58,141 And, of course, it was exciting. 376 00:32:58,476 --> 00:33:00,910 This was a great adventure. 377 00:33:01,079 --> 00:33:04,947 And certainly we thought at the time 378 00:33:05,116 --> 00:33:08,085 that this was going to be a big break-out. 379 00:33:09,087 --> 00:33:13,387 I have just authorised the following communique, gentlemen. 380 00:33:14,559 --> 00:33:19,019 ''Early this morning, British and Canadian troops of the 2nd Army 381 00:33:19,364 --> 00:33:24,893 ''attacked and broke through into the area east of the Orne and south-east of Caen.'' 382 00:33:25,069 --> 00:33:30,029 Progress on the first morning was good. The newspapers were full of Monty's victory. 383 00:33:30,375 --> 00:33:32,969 ..total success. Well... 384 00:33:33,144 --> 00:33:36,477 But his optimism was to prove sorely misplaced. 385 00:33:36,848 --> 00:33:38,816 (BOMBARDMENT) 386 00:33:44,922 --> 00:33:47,083 The British were expected. 387 00:33:50,828 --> 00:33:55,822 Rommel had deployed his armour and artillery in carefully camouflaged positions, 388 00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,628 a defensive zone ten miles deep. 389 00:34:00,505 --> 00:34:05,340 The leading tanks had caught it pretty badly. 390 00:34:05,510 --> 00:34:07,774 One was very conscious 391 00:34:07,945 --> 00:34:11,745 of British tanks bursting into flames. 392 00:34:11,916 --> 00:34:14,942 Being brewed up. That's what we called it. 393 00:34:19,490 --> 00:34:24,757 (NEW SPEAKER) I could see three tanks ahead of me. I pulled my troop into a dip. 394 00:34:24,929 --> 00:34:29,593 I got up onto the tank and tapped the chap on the shoulder. He fell. He was dead. 395 00:34:29,767 --> 00:34:33,669 They were three Canadian tanks. All the crews were dead there. 396 00:34:35,073 --> 00:34:38,565 On one ridge there were over 40 British tanks knocked out. 397 00:34:38,743 --> 00:34:41,507 They were knocking them out as if it was a shooting range. 398 00:34:46,751 --> 00:34:50,380 The news that 400 tanks had been destroyed in the operation 399 00:34:50,555 --> 00:34:55,356 was greeted with disbelief by the staff at Supreme Allied Headquarters in England. 400 00:34:58,930 --> 00:35:03,833 Montgomery was forced to call off the Goodwood attack after only three days. 401 00:35:08,506 --> 00:35:13,637 Senior members of Eisenhower's staff began to openly discuss who would replace him. 402 00:35:13,811 --> 00:35:15,438 I'm telling you, no. 403 00:35:15,613 --> 00:35:19,572 And doctors were concerned about Eisenhower's blood pressure. 404 00:35:20,651 --> 00:35:23,119 Ike hasn't been feeling so hot. 405 00:35:23,454 --> 00:35:28,448 The slowness of the battle. The desire to be more active in it himself. 406 00:35:28,626 --> 00:35:34,531 His inward, but generally unspoken, criticism of Monty. All these pump up his system. 407 00:35:34,699 --> 00:35:36,496 It ain't good. 408 00:35:41,372 --> 00:35:46,605 Eisenhower began to grumble to the one man with the authority to remove Montgomery. 409 00:35:49,413 --> 00:35:55,374 The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, visited Montgomery on the day after Goodwood ended. 410 00:35:57,955 --> 00:36:03,518 There were whispers that Churchill was there to sack him, but Monty was as confident as ever. 411 00:36:03,694 --> 00:36:07,596 He convinced Churchill that a break-out was only days away. 412 00:36:08,733 --> 00:36:10,894 While the two men were together, 413 00:36:11,068 --> 00:36:14,367 news reached them of an extraordinary event in the east 414 00:36:14,539 --> 00:36:17,337 that offered hope of a total German collapse. 415 00:36:24,749 --> 00:36:30,119 On July 20th, a bomb had exploded at Hitler's headquarters on the Eastern front. 416 00:36:31,022 --> 00:36:32,990 (MAN SPEAKS GERMAN) 417 00:36:33,157 --> 00:36:36,126 (TRANSLATOR) German High Command announced 418 00:36:36,460 --> 00:36:42,092 that there had been an assassination attempt on Hitler's life at the Wolf's Lair, Rastenburg, 419 00:36:42,433 --> 00:36:44,560 and that Hitler was dead. 420 00:36:44,735 --> 00:36:47,465 I was relieved. Truly relieved. 421 00:36:52,677 --> 00:36:55,805 Two hours later there was another call 422 00:36:55,980 --> 00:36:59,746 telling us that Hitler was alive and just slightly injured. 423 00:37:01,586 --> 00:37:05,420 If only I could have crawled into a hole somewhere. 424 00:37:05,590 --> 00:37:09,390 It was one of the worst messages I could imagine. 425 00:37:15,466 --> 00:37:20,597 The attempt on Hitler's life had been made by some of his most senior army officers. 426 00:37:21,973 --> 00:37:26,535 In its wake, everyone was desperate to prove their loyalty to their Fuhrer. 427 00:37:27,778 --> 00:37:32,943 His purge of the army was to claim the lives of some of Germany's most capable soldiers, 428 00:37:33,117 --> 00:37:37,918 among them Field Marshal Rommel, who was forced to take his own life. 429 00:37:44,161 --> 00:37:47,790 Rommel was replaced in France by Field Marshal von Kluge, 430 00:37:47,965 --> 00:37:50,433 a tough veteran of the Eastern front. 431 00:37:58,075 --> 00:38:01,636 By the end of July, von Kluge had begun to share Rommel's view 432 00:38:01,812 --> 00:38:05,441 that resistance for every foot of France was too costly. 433 00:38:06,584 --> 00:38:10,315 But it was dangerous now to question Hitler's judgement. 434 00:38:11,522 --> 00:38:15,322 Von Kluge's failure to press the case for a new defensive line 435 00:38:15,493 --> 00:38:19,554 would have huge consequences for the German army in France. 436 00:38:26,771 --> 00:38:31,902 Five days after the attempt on Hitler's life, the Americans launched Operation Cobra. 437 00:38:32,076 --> 00:38:36,445 It was the great push in the west that Monty had been promising for so long. 438 00:38:43,354 --> 00:38:46,846 3,000 aircraft were to lay a carpet of high explosives 439 00:38:47,024 --> 00:38:49,424 in a corridor just five miles wide. 440 00:39:04,442 --> 00:39:09,641 We actually got out of the foxhole and stood there and looked up, 441 00:39:09,814 --> 00:39:14,615 and they just kept coming over and over and over. 442 00:39:14,785 --> 00:39:18,312 Every plane in the United States Air Force. 443 00:39:24,428 --> 00:39:26,555 The full weight of the American blow 444 00:39:26,731 --> 00:39:31,862 fell on a line defended by barely 50 tanks, 1,700 men. 445 00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:39,671 (SPEAKS GERMAN) 446 00:39:40,611 --> 00:39:45,571 The first reports of the bombing began to arrive at the headquarters of the Panzer Lehr Division 447 00:39:45,750 --> 00:39:47,718 at a little after nine o'clock. 448 00:39:49,754 --> 00:39:52,882 I knew this must be the opening of the American attack 449 00:39:53,057 --> 00:39:55,855 and that I must contact my forward positions. 450 00:39:56,026 --> 00:40:00,429 By half past nine I had no radio contact left with anybody in the division. 451 00:40:00,598 --> 00:40:05,399 My anti-aircraft batteries had barely begun to fire when they were silenced. 452 00:40:10,674 --> 00:40:15,805 The American 1st Army pressed forward along the corridor blasted in the German line. 453 00:40:15,980 --> 00:40:17,948 (GUNFIRE) 454 00:40:23,387 --> 00:40:26,515 (TRANSLATOR) Suddenly, much to my surprise, 455 00:40:26,690 --> 00:40:29,420 I noticed Americans were walking past us. 456 00:40:29,593 --> 00:40:31,891 They were totally carefree. 457 00:40:35,599 --> 00:40:38,966 They'd broken through because our Panzer grenadiers 458 00:40:39,136 --> 00:40:41,764 just weren't there any more, 459 00:40:41,939 --> 00:40:45,739 and our tanks were completely buried in the mud. 460 00:40:54,752 --> 00:40:59,052 By the first week of August, the American 3rd Army under General Patton 461 00:40:59,223 --> 00:41:01,657 was galloping unchecked across France. 462 00:41:09,366 --> 00:41:14,929 American forces entered Avranches on July 30th and turned west into Brittany. 463 00:41:15,105 --> 00:41:17,733 Then Patton's 3rd Army swung to the east, 464 00:41:17,908 --> 00:41:22,004 where the British were pressing toward the town of Falaise. 465 00:41:25,382 --> 00:41:29,409 The Germans were just helter-skelter to the rear. 466 00:41:29,587 --> 00:41:32,055 They were surrendering right and left. 467 00:41:35,493 --> 00:41:37,961 Everybody never expected a... 468 00:41:38,128 --> 00:41:42,462 a catastrophe of that size happening. 469 00:41:45,069 --> 00:41:50,507 The German soldier was being ground down by the full weight of the Allied war machine. 470 00:41:50,674 --> 00:41:52,938 (SPEAKS GERMAN) 471 00:41:53,110 --> 00:41:58,412 (TRANSLATOR) We made jokes that we had to fetch our shells by bicycle or in a rucksack. 472 00:41:58,582 --> 00:42:02,518 We were able to fire three shots, and that was it. 473 00:42:02,686 --> 00:42:05,985 We were always under orders to save ammunition. 474 00:42:11,128 --> 00:42:15,565 (TRANSLATOR) Some days there was nothing to eat. 475 00:42:15,733 --> 00:42:20,693 They'd announce that there would be a meal, and we might get a bit of bread and some soup. 476 00:42:20,871 --> 00:42:25,001 Then the field kitchen would be hit, and there'd be nothing again. 477 00:42:41,859 --> 00:42:47,820 By the middle of July, the German army in Normandy had suffered 100,000 casualties. 478 00:42:47,998 --> 00:42:51,058 Those that survived faced a stark new reality. 479 00:42:52,169 --> 00:42:54,137 (MAN SPEAKS GERMAN) 480 00:42:58,976 --> 00:43:03,037 (TRANSLATOR) We felt that we were in a fortress. Fortress Germany. 481 00:43:03,380 --> 00:43:05,507 Greater Germany. 482 00:43:05,683 --> 00:43:08,811 We thought as long as the front in the east holds, 483 00:43:08,986 --> 00:43:13,047 we have to hold on in the west to protect our families at home. 484 00:43:20,798 --> 00:43:22,766 (MAN SPEAKS GERMAN) 485 00:43:23,934 --> 00:43:28,735 (TRANSLATOR) If you looked at the broad picture, it was impossible to win. 486 00:43:28,906 --> 00:43:31,374 But we couldn't think like that. 487 00:43:31,542 --> 00:43:35,376 We were there to defend. Duty. Honour. Obedience. 488 00:43:35,546 --> 00:43:38,640 Comradeship. And that was it. 489 00:43:43,554 --> 00:43:45,749 There wasn't a German general in France 490 00:43:45,923 --> 00:43:49,723 who now believed the Allied advance could be held in Normandy. 491 00:43:49,893 --> 00:43:52,123 But no one dared to tell Hitler so. 492 00:43:53,631 --> 00:43:56,429 On August 3rd, Hitler instructed von Kluge 493 00:43:56,600 --> 00:44:00,434 to launch a counter-attack to split the advancing Allied armies. 494 00:44:02,506 --> 00:44:04,974 There would be no turning back. 495 00:44:05,142 --> 00:44:09,545 To the protests of his generals, von Kluge could only answer, 496 00:44:09,713 --> 00:44:11,772 ''It is the Fuhrer's order. '' 497 00:44:11,949 --> 00:44:16,079 (SPEAKS GERMAN) 498 00:44:19,823 --> 00:44:23,953 The orders were given for a German counter-attack on August 7th. 499 00:44:31,669 --> 00:44:36,629 The same orders were intercepted and read by the code-breakers at Bletchley Park. 500 00:44:36,807 --> 00:44:38,707 The Allies were waiting. 501 00:44:49,787 --> 00:44:54,383 The Germans had prayed for bad weather. Their prayers went unanswered. 502 00:44:57,461 --> 00:45:02,524 Allied fighter bombers began to swarm above the advancing Panzer divisions. 503 00:45:02,700 --> 00:45:08,002 Hitler's insistence on a counter-attack presented Monty with an extraordinary opportunity. 504 00:45:13,410 --> 00:45:17,073 The remnants of two German armies, 100,000 men, 505 00:45:17,414 --> 00:45:23,011 risked being trapped at Falaise in the jaws of the advancing British and American armies. 506 00:45:27,024 --> 00:45:32,656 Field Marshal von Kluge decided to issue orders for a retreat before it was too late. 507 00:45:33,797 --> 00:45:37,699 Hitler was furious, and von Kluge was relieved of his command. 508 00:45:38,702 --> 00:45:40,670 But the retreat went ahead. 509 00:45:51,048 --> 00:45:53,539 It had become a race against time. 510 00:45:58,655 --> 00:46:02,523 Actually witnessing it was awesome. 511 00:46:02,693 --> 00:46:05,719 Long Toms. 8-inch howitzers. 512 00:46:05,896 --> 00:46:08,626 105-millimetre howitzers. 513 00:46:08,799 --> 00:46:11,597 155-millimetre howitzers. 514 00:46:11,769 --> 00:46:16,968 All pouring death and destruction onto this German 7th Army 515 00:46:17,141 --> 00:46:21,669 trying to escape the noose that's been drawn around their necks. 516 00:46:24,047 --> 00:46:27,505 It was such an indescribable mess. 517 00:46:27,684 --> 00:46:32,986 It's something that...that one could never, ever dream of, let alone witness. 518 00:46:40,097 --> 00:46:43,396 It was the final act in the unforgiving battle of attrition 519 00:46:43,567 --> 00:46:47,594 that had swept through the wheat fields and hedgerows of Normandy. 520 00:46:51,441 --> 00:46:55,901 The battle had been won by the overwhelming weight of Allied war materials, 521 00:46:56,079 --> 00:46:58,047 artillery and armour, 522 00:46:58,382 --> 00:47:00,543 above all, Allied aircraft. 523 00:47:13,096 --> 00:47:17,430 There were roads absolutely choked with dead and dying. 524 00:47:23,841 --> 00:47:30,303 The ground, you couldn't walk over without stepping on a dead horse or a dead man 525 00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:33,608 or some piece of arm or a leg. 526 00:47:33,784 --> 00:47:38,812 It was the most hideous sight that one could imagine. 527 00:47:45,395 --> 00:47:49,559 Some of the sights we'd seen, one couldn't help feeling sorry 528 00:47:49,733 --> 00:47:53,362 for what had to be inflicted on them. 529 00:47:56,874 --> 00:47:59,866 The German army was disintegrating. 530 00:48:00,043 --> 00:48:04,810 We were quite clear that we'd won the tournament. 531 00:48:04,982 --> 00:48:07,849 It was just going to be a question of time. 532 00:48:12,689 --> 00:48:18,093 Field Marshal von Kluge didn't witness the final destruction of the armies he'd commanded. 533 00:48:18,428 --> 00:48:20,726 He'd been summoned home in disgrace. 534 00:48:20,898 --> 00:48:23,093 But von Kluge didn't reach Berlin. 535 00:48:30,741 --> 00:48:33,301 By August 21st, it was all over. 536 00:48:33,477 --> 00:48:39,507 More than 40 German divisions had been destroyed in Normandy, 450,000 men. 537 00:48:39,683 --> 00:48:42,117 Half of them had been killed or wounded. 538 00:48:47,624 --> 00:48:51,355 Montgomery was the architect of the victory in Normandy. 539 00:48:52,596 --> 00:48:57,966 But Monty's unflinching confidence in himself and his strategy had won him few friends. 540 00:48:59,436 --> 00:49:03,338 As the final prisoners were being rounded up in the Falaise pocket, 541 00:49:03,507 --> 00:49:09,309 Eisenhower announced that he would be taking over command of the Allied armies in France. 542 00:49:09,479 --> 00:49:13,882 Ike said the change was long planned, but Monty wrote bitterly in his diary 543 00:49:14,051 --> 00:49:18,852 that Eisenhower was stepping in to scoop the credit for a victory he'd won. 544 00:49:20,457 --> 00:49:22,857 (JAUNTY MUSIC: ''ALOUETTE'') 545 00:49:25,862 --> 00:49:30,663 The long weeks of attrition had cost the Allies 200,000 casualties, 546 00:49:30,834 --> 00:49:32,665 but they were over. 547 00:49:34,404 --> 00:49:36,634 Monty had predicted before D-Day 548 00:49:36,807 --> 00:49:42,439 that his strategy for Overlord would take the Allies to the Seine near Paris by D plus 90. 549 00:49:43,847 --> 00:49:48,580 The first American troops reached the river nine days ahead of his schedule. 550 00:49:48,752 --> 00:49:49,980 # Et la tete! # Et le bec 551 00:49:50,153 --> 00:49:53,054 # Et le bec! # Et la bouche! # 552 00:49:53,390 --> 00:49:58,327 Eisenhower thought he'd win his bet. The war would be over by Christmas. 553 00:49:58,495 --> 00:50:00,588 # Oh, alouette... # 554 00:50:00,764 --> 00:50:03,062 He couldn't have been more wrong. 555 00:50:03,400 --> 00:50:06,563 # Alouette, je te plumerai 556 00:50:06,737 --> 00:50:08,705 # Alouette! # Alouette! 557 00:50:08,872 --> 00:50:10,635 # Alouette! # Alouette! 558 00:50:10,807 --> 00:50:13,970 # Alouette... #