D-Day 1: The Great Crusade | WW2 | Extra History — Transcript

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1. 0:00When the signal is given,
2. 0:02the whole circle of avenging nations
3. 0:05will hurl themselves upon the foe
4. 0:08and batter out the life of the cruelest tyranny
5. 0:12which has ever sought to bar the progress of mankind.
6. 0:17That signal comes today.
7. 0:25This episode is sponsored by Wargaming.
8. 0:28New players can download World of Tanks and use the code: NEPTUNE
9. 0:31for free goodies. Link in the description.
10. 0:34D-Day. June 6th, 1944.
11. 0:37Months of effort have been building up to this day.
12. 0:40Throughout England, half a million men have been gathered at staging areas
13. 0:44to strike across the channel as soon as the signal is given;
14. 0:47men from The United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Belgium,
15. 0:52Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands,
16. 0:55New Zealand, Norway and Poland.
17. 0:58Today we'll be telling the American story,
18. 1:00as best as it can be told in a few short minutes,
19. 1:02and over the coming weeks, thanks to the generous support of Wargaming,
20. 1:06we'll tell the story of three of the other major players involved.
21. 1:09But that story begins with a dinner in Tehran in 1943.
22. 1:13For the first time, the leaders of the most powerful allied nations,
23. 1:17The United States, The USSR and the British Empire, met in one room.
24. 1:22For years, Stalin, his nation battered by the Nazi invasion
25. 1:26and bearing the brunt of the human cost of the war against Germany, had
26. 1:29pressed the allies to open up a second front to the war by invading France.
27. 1:34The British had pushed back, arguing for operations in North Africa,
28. 1:37and then an assault on Italy.
29. 1:39But now, with the USSR winning on the Eastern Front,
30. 1:42the demands from Stalin became harder to deny.
31. 1:45And simultaneously everyone started to think of the post war settlement.
32. 1:49If the Allies won without British and American troops
33. 1:53liberating Western Europe, how could they stop the USSR
34. 1:56from claiming huge swaths of land
35. 1:58and perhaps even, at least politically, dominating the continent?
36. 2:01And so, an agreement was made out in the deserts of Iran:
37. 2:05the western powers would open up a second front
38. 2:07by invading France in May of 1944.
39. 2:11Plans were drawn up.
40. 2:12An amphibious operation of this size had never been tried.
41. 2:16Men and material would have to be drawn back from around the world,
42. 2:19new technologies would have to be invented,
43. 2:22engineering feats previously only discussed in conference rooms
44. 2:25would have to be put to the test under wartime conditions.
45. 2:29But the first decision that had be to made was where to land.
46. 2:33There were two possible targets: Calais, the closest point in Europe to England,
47. 2:37or Normandy, one of the farthest on the Channel coast.
48. 2:41Calais was the sane, sensible place to land,
49. 2:44but it had two notable disadvantages:
50. 2:46first, terrain in which you could easily get bogged down, and second,
51. 2:50the fact that it was the sane, sensible place to land.
52. 2:53Reviewing the battle plan, Eisenhower and Montgomery were in agreement:
53. 2:57they wanted the element of surprise
54. 2:59with the possibility of being able to rush off the beaches.
55. 3:02So the decision was made. Normandy it would be.
56. 3:06But this would require one of the greatest counter intelligence operations
57. 3:10ever attempted to keep the secret safe,
58. 3:12not to mention equipment and manpower on an even greater scale.
59. 3:15Entire harbours had to be fabricated
60. 3:18which could be shipped over from England, more landing craft
61. 3:21needed time to roll off the factory lines. The operation was delayed until June.
62. 3:26Finally, the day arrives: June 4th, 1944.
63. 3:30Planes prep, final drills are run through,
64. 3:33tens of thousands of men board ships for the invasion,
65. 3:37and then the rain starts to roll in.
66. 3:39Soon it becomes a storm.
67. 3:41Ferocious waves sweep the channel, clouds completely block the sky,
68. 3:46high winds buffet any craft that ventures on sea, land and especially air.
69. 3:51Eisenhower is forced to make the decision: the attack must be delayed.
70. 3:55Rain continues to pour the next day.
71. 3:58A council of allied commanders is called.
72. 4:00If they delay again, they won't be able to launch until July.
73. 4:04They need to do the channel crossing at night,
74. 4:06they need to do commando raids and mine sweeping
75. 4:09when the unsuspecting Germans will have the fewest patrols out.
76. 4:12But for a crossing of this magnitude, they need nearly full moon visibility.
77. 4:17Even if they did decide to brave a launch without the full moon,
78. 4:20tidal conditions wouldn't be right for another two weeks. What do they do?
79. 4:24They've got thousands of men already holed up on boats,
80. 4:27getting seasick and nervous and just plain stir crazy.
81. 4:31They've already started moving equipment and forces into staging areas
82. 4:35which can clearly only be targeting one place: Normandy.
83. 4:38And they've had to alert enough people up and down the chain
84. 4:41as to the nature of the operation that, with each passing day,
85. 4:44the odds of keeping their landing location a secret plummet.
86. 4:48But to cross in this weather, that would be madness.
87. 4:51Then a captain is ushered in.
88. 4:53He's an RAF meteorologist, and he's about to make what may well be
89. 4:57the most consequential weather report of all time.
90. 5:01He says he believes it's going to be clear on the 6th.
91. 5:04Eisenhower nods. The operation is a go.
92. 5:076,000 ships begin to steam across the channel.
93. 5:11Minesweepers fan out ahead of them, clearing a path.
94. 5:14For weeks, the allied forces have bombed
95. 5:17the German airforce in the region nearly to oblivion.
96. 5:19No enemy interceptors exist to spot the waves of gliders and transport planes
97. 5:25carrying 17,000 airborne troops.
98. 5:27The ships won't reach the beaches until dawn,
99. 5:30but the airborne infantry has night work to do.
100. 5:32First in are the pathfinders, the men whose job it is to light the drop zones
101. 5:37for all the other parachute infantry.
102. 5:38Of the four planes carrying these pathfinders
103. 5:41one overshoots their target, another has to bail before ever getting to France,
104. 5:46and the remaining two kept most of their signaling gear in the ditched plane,
105. 5:50leaving them desperately trying to signal the paratroopers
106. 5:53by waving flashlights at the passing airplanes.
107. 5:55The paratrooper drop goes even worse:
108. 5:57scattered by enemy anti-aircraft fire and blinded by low clouds,
109. 6:01paratroopers jump from altitudes that are either too high,
110. 6:05leaving them drifting slowly, unable to do anything but watch
111. 6:08as enemy guns spit shrapnel up at them,
112. 6:10or too low, breaking bones on landing
113. 6:13as their parachutes don't have enough time to slow their fall.
114. 6:16They are scattered all over, many landing miles from their drop zones,
115. 6:20some landing in marshes or rivers, others being slaughtered
116. 6:24as they drop right into the middle of the enemy.
117. 6:26It was a harrowing and confusing night of chaotic firefights
118. 6:30and desperate small unit actions.
119. 6:32But the more veteran of the American airborne troops,
120. 6:34groups like the Screaming Eagles and the 505th,
121. 6:37managed to pull together to capture
122. 6:39crucial road junctions, communication points and bridges,
123. 6:42and even destroyed some of the artillery batteries
124. 6:45that would imperil the landing at Normandy.
125. 6:47And they would hold fast, delaying or preventing
126. 6:50any counter-attack that might sweep the impending invasion back into the sea.
127. 6:54Then there's the initial bombardment. Allied bombing runs go astray,
128. 6:58causing massive damage to the civilian centres in Normandy,
129. 7:01but doing little to weaken the dug-in German positions.
130. 7:04As dawn breaks, though, the Allied gunners can finally see their targets,
131. 7:08and the bombardment becomes far more effective,
132. 7:11softening up the beach for the initial assault,
133. 7:13but there's little time remaining until the troops' scheduled landing.
134. 7:16At 6:30 AM on June 6th, 1944, the klaxons sound,
135. 7:22and the assault craft are released.
136. 7:24They plow through the chop, men huddled in their tin shells,
137. 7:28as German fire pours down,
138. 7:30sinking entire landing craft to the bottom of the sea just off the Normandy coast.
139. 7:35Then the assault craft hit the beach, ramps drop and men charge out.
140. 7:39But on Utah Beach, things have already gone horribly.
141. 7:42The men look around them, and the terrain's all wrong.
142. 7:46They've landed on the wrong beach.
143. 7:48Luckily for the Americans, the oldest man in the invasion,
144. 7:51and the only general to actually join these ground troops,
145. 7:54Teddy Roosevelt Jr., happens to have landed with them.
146. 7:57The local commanders ask him what they should do,
147. 7:59and living up to his namesake, he simply responds:
148. 8:02"We'll start the war from right here."
149. 8:04He correctly assessed that the beach they had landed on
150. 8:07was actually a better, more easily takeable landing point
151. 8:11than the one the senior staff had assigned them.
152. 8:13In a miracle of heroism and logistical coordination,
153. 8:16he managed to reroute the entire Utah Beach invasion force to his location,
154. 8:20direct the battle and continuously rally the men as he walked the beach
155. 8:24with his cane, waving his pistol.
156. 8:26His new "Utah Beach" would be the first beach successfully overrun,
157. 8:31and for his actions there he would be awarded the medal of honour.
158. 8:34Omaha, though, was a different story.
159. 8:37Here, the pre-landing bombardment had been even less effective.
160. 8:40The seas were choppy, landing craft took on water
161. 8:43and men tried to bail with their helmets.
162. 8:46Some of the landing craft sank.
163. 8:48Those that landed were filled with wretching seasick men.
164. 8:51Much of the armoured support that was supposed to follow them
165. 8:54foundered in the waves or simply got picked off as they hit the shore.
166. 8:57Soon, the men were all pinned down against a small shingle of land
167. 9:01that provided what little cover there was to be found on the beach.
168. 9:05Many of the units had taken heavy casualties,
169. 9:07and much of the command staff was dead.
170. 9:09With units getting washed ashore in the wrong places
171. 9:12or scattered in the desperate scramble to try to get to the small ridge of sand
172. 9:16that served as cover, the assault had become hopelessly disorganised.
173. 9:19The second wave met with much the same fate.
174. 9:23Hopelessly bogged down, withdrawal from Omaha Beach was considered,
175. 9:27but it was the vital linking point between the British and American forces.
176. 9:31As the day wore on, a number of ranger units began to rally and scaled the bluffs,
177. 9:36finally managing to assault German positions on the heights.
178. 9:39At the same time, several of the naval ships came dangerously close
179. 9:42to the beach to provide more effective support fire
180. 9:45just as the German ammunition began to run out.
181. 9:48Even after all this, Omaha Beach wasn't truly cleared by the end of the 6th.
182. 9:53But as the sun began to set on those bloodied beaches,
183. 9:56it was clear that the American forces were there to stay.
184. 10:00Join us next time as we join the British
185. 10:02for their covert efforts to keep the biggest invasion in history a secret.