Fallen and wounded covered the beach.
The tide brought more and more bodies and wounded.
The bodies did not lie alone but stacked on top of each other.
It was a horrible sight.
D-DAY: THE SOLDIERS' STORY 4/4
Waffen―SS―unit discussing near the front line.
Tanks and assault guns are advancing.
The vehicles are skillfully camouflaged against air threat.
Rocket launchers are being prepared at the edge of the forest.
The German soldier is also exemplary in jungle conditions.
There was great difficulty in using the armor on the western front.
Some of the tanks belonged to the Armed Forces, some to General Staff Reserve.
The latter was under Hitler's personal command.
It resulted in the first hours and days, -
and throughout the Battle of Normandy, -
that unclear commands -
severely slowed down Germany's response.
Logistics and reinforcements only trickled to Normandy.
Sometimes there was a division, sometimes a regiment.
The troops were not properly concentrated all the time, -
and could not be used immediately for counterattack.
In Normandy, the battle is fought both in the open and out of sight.
Opponents are often widespread and hidden in the hedgerows.
German soldier with good new weapons, -
together with anti-tank defence is a nightmare of enemy tanks.
Heavy cannons and rocket launchers prepare for counterattack.
Infantry launches an attack.
The German and Anglo-American armor are coming together brutally.
Sherman―tanks break through -
to the village defended by infantry and paratroopers.
The first is already through.
Paratroopers follow the tank to stop it.
Panzerschrek and Panzerfaust are used.
Another Sherman is nearby, and that too will be destroyed soon.
Also Goliath excels, -
and blow up another tank in the sky.
The rest of the American tanks retreat.
The Allies had planned, -
that the Normandy hedgerow would be cleared within a week, -
and the front would be moved deeper into France.
As we know, the reality was quite different.
The Allies were stuck in the Normandy bocage, -
and towns like Caen.
The British in particular operate very cautiously.
It was feared that big losses -
would affect negatively to the home front.
Every Allied attack, -
was preceded by a lengthy preparation bombardment by artillery and air forces.
Often troops approached German lines cautiously, -
and withdrew easily.
The German lines were gradually exhausted until broken through.
Some days we were in labor service.
So we're looking for food,
we milked cows in meadow outside Caen, -
or we helped people out of the ruins of their houses.
We took care of the wounded.
It was exciting, -
and at the same time, we understood why our service was important.
I learned to know human nature as it is:
Some are brave, others are afraid.
Some will freeze, -
and others are cowards and don't care about others.
The French militia has excelled in its actions against terrorists.
Interrogation of resistance members.
After the ambush on the highway, -
Military police inspect passers-by and vehicles.
A nearby farm had provided a refuge for terrorists.
The building is on fire.
False French money spread by Americans.
The civilian population of Normandy suffered greatly during the fighting.
2,000 civilians died in the Caen bombing alone.
There were about 12,000 civilian casualties throughout Normandy.
Civilians were stranded on the front lines in Normandy.
Each side used heavy weapons, that is artillery, -
and especially the Allies air power.
It was unclear to the Germans even before the landing, -
what to do to civilians.
Do they have to be evacuated or left in their place?
No evacuations were made for humanitarian reasons.
It was feared that civilians would give information to the Allies, -
or act as spies.
So throughout the Normandy battles, -
the Germans lacked a clear line regarding civilians.
The Allies succeeded in Normandy mainly because -
they had better material.
It applies to tanks, airplanes,
as well as so-called human material.
The Allies were able to make up for their losses.
The Germans couldn't.
When 100,000 men were lost, only 10,000 were replaced.
It is a clear root cause, but there are other reasons.
The Allies, and especially the Americans, -
learn quickly how to fight in Normandy terrain.
From a purely tactical point of view, -
especially at company level and battalion level, -
the Germans were superior by their eastern front experience.
The Allies had a clear material superiority.
Hitler and his commanders tried to change the balance of power by declaring:
"Germany's willpower defeats enemy material."
That's not what happened.
Arrival in Paris convinced us, -
that when the French center was again independent, -
we would regain our autonomy and liberate France as a whole.
Liberation took place under exceptional military circumstances.
We went at night in the middle of the Germans, -
to arrive at the time of the uprising, -
to join the Paris resistance.
It was a mythical, extraordinary battle.
By mid-1944 the war had already been settled on the eastern front.
It was already clear that Germany would lose. There are still two points to consider.
The contemporary would have seen it differently.
On both the German and Allied sides, -
the landing was declared in advance as a decisive battle.
So the German soldiers on the Atlantic Wall, -
like allies approaching them on landing crafts, -
they thought the war would be settled here and now.
Second, D―day resolved the post-war political map of Europe.
This is an important point for Germany in particular.
The Allied invasion meant, ―
that Soviet Union did not march to Germany alone.
If Germany had succeeded through some miracle -
to push the Allies back into the sea, -
it would have meant the whole of Germany ending up under Soviet control.