NR | 48 mins | Documentary, Drama, History War | USA
The Normandy invasion: Filmed by U.S. Coast Guard cameramen showing the planning and execution of the most famous battle in modern history. The victory: A focus on the final year of WWII on both fronts, including the liberation of Rome, Paris, and the Philippines.
Writer: Stanley M Ulanoff
The Normandy invasion: Filmed by U.S. Coast Guard cameramen showing the planning and execution of the most famous battle in modern history. The victory: A focus on the final year of WWII on both fronts, including the liberation of Rome, Paris, and the Philippines.
Writer: Stanley M Ulanoff
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00♪♪
00:06♪♪
00:36♪♪
00:47June 9th, 1944.
00:50Allied troops in Normandy have moved inland.
00:54The work of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard
00:56and the combined Allied Sea Forces has been done.
01:00Work not without a price in men and materiel.
01:03♪♪
01:28It all began many months earlier.
01:31In Chesapeake Bay and other sections of the American coast,
01:34untested sailors and soldiers learned the task
01:37of getting from ship to shore.
01:39But that time, the shore was a friendly one.
01:43♪♪
02:01Then with part of their training finished,
02:03they left the United States.
02:05♪♪
02:10Late in the winter and all through the spring,
02:12the great convoys moved eastward across the Atlantic.
02:17Aboard all the transports, life was the same.
02:20The troops relaxed and waited for the voyage to end.
02:24♪♪
02:44♪♪
02:57All along the coasts of Great Britain that spring,
03:00the training went on.
03:02Navy and Coast Guard landing barges
03:04practiced landing operations day and night.
03:07♪♪
03:26Meanwhile, the larger landing craft, LSTs and LCIs,
03:30carried on their maneuvers,
03:32learning to land at a given spot at a certain time.
03:36♪♪
04:00Through all the days of preparation,
04:03the light planes, thousands of them,
04:05continued to soften enemy defenses
04:07and communications in daily raids.
04:09♪♪
04:28Off the southern coast of England,
04:30thousands of ships from all allied nations
04:33are preparing for the invasion signal.
04:35♪♪
04:45Navy and Coast Guard crews make last-minute preparations.
04:48♪♪
05:03When the K-rations come aboard,
05:05everyone knows that D-Day is drawing near.
05:09♪♪
05:22Somewhere in southern England,
05:24troops embark on LCVPs to be ferried
05:26to the waiting transports offshore.
05:29♪♪
05:54♪♪
06:22June 5th.
06:24The LCIs are loaded.
06:26The next time these men step ashore
06:28will be on an enemy beach.
06:31There's only a little time left to relax.
06:34♪♪
06:44And the bombing attacks of the Air Force are intensified.
06:47Now the raids are continuous.
06:50♪♪
07:01At ports of embarkation,
07:03the troops prepare themselves for their greatest battle.
07:06♪♪
07:30♪♪
07:34The Coast Guard officer briefs his men.
07:37And all along the coast,
07:38sailors receive their final instructions.
07:41♪♪
07:46At last, the ships leave the coastal waters
07:49and move out into the channel.
07:51The slow LSTs loaded with heavy equipment.
07:54The transports loaded with men.
07:58♪♪
08:16Fast warships screen the mighty invasion fleet from enemy raiders.
08:20♪♪
08:25At 1530, a Coast Guard flotilla of LCIs leaves.
08:29Loaded with engineers, medical corpsmen, and infantry.
08:32♪♪
08:40Day-day approaches.
08:42And the ships are in their assigned positions.
08:46♪♪
08:57For some of them, like the Coast Guard manned transport chase,
09:01it is the fourth invasion in European waters.
09:05♪♪
09:14♪♪
09:23The only planes overhead are friendly.
09:27♪♪
09:34From the 83-foot Coast Guard rescue boats
09:37to the Navy's powerful battle wagons,
09:40the invasion fleet is moving towards France.
09:43♪♪
09:53And below decks, officers study the maps
09:56to mark the invasion beachheads on the coast of Normandy.
09:59♪♪
10:07♪♪
10:17♪♪
10:27♪♪
10:37♪♪
10:47♪♪
10:57♪♪
11:07♪♪
11:17♪♪
11:27♪♪
11:37♪♪
11:47♪♪
11:57♪♪
12:11Some of the landing barges are stopped by concrete obstacles
12:14built far out in the water by the enemy.
12:17♪♪
12:25Offshore, the larger landing craft approach the beachhead slowly.
12:29♪♪
12:39♪♪
12:49♪♪
13:03Aboard the L.C.I.s, the troops prepare to land.
13:06The beach is still empty,
13:08and the crossfire of German guns still rakes the shore.
13:12♪♪
13:29Out of enemy firing range,
13:31the L.S.T.s wait to move in until the beaches are clear.
13:35♪♪
13:42The arrival of motorized equipment marks the end of the first phase of the landing.
13:46♪♪
13:51The L.C.I.s, their first loads of men now on the beaches,
13:54go out to the transports to ferry more troops inshore.
13:58♪♪
14:12Still waiting beyond gun range,
14:14the L.S.T.s unload supplies on smaller L.C.T.s.
14:19♪♪
14:22Heavier equipment is transferred to giant rhino ferries,
14:26flat-bottomed barges that will land at ashore.
14:29And reinforcements arrive, thousands of men.
14:34♪♪
14:58Defeated and disarmed,
15:00the first German soldiers captured in France
15:03wait until someone has time to evacuate them.
15:06♪♪
15:13Out in the channel, the rescue boats of the Coast Guard
15:16are looking for survivors and aiding damaged vessels.
15:20♪♪
15:31And the hospital ships are waiting for the wounded.
15:35♪♪
15:45From a damaged Coast Guard L.C.I.,
15:48a wounded man is transferred to another ship.
15:51The life-saving blood plasma goes with him.
15:54♪♪
15:59Another Coast Guard manned L.C.I., badly crippled,
16:03could not reach the shore, and its wounded are removed.
16:07♪♪
16:37♪♪
16:44The beach is firmly in allied hands now,
16:47and the vast extent of the operation is visible.
16:50Silent evidence of the fierce battle is apparent everywhere.
16:54♪♪
17:07Within a few days, many of the damaged ships will be afloat again.
17:11♪♪
17:26Now more and more troops move inland to push the enemy back.
17:30♪♪
17:39And the LSTs land their cargoes on the beach.
17:43♪♪
18:03Barges built especially for the Normandy operations
18:06are left on the shore to be unloaded.
18:09♪♪
18:21During the daytime, there are only allied planes in the air,
18:25but at night, German bombers harass the beachhead
18:28and drop mines offshore.
18:30♪♪
18:44Out of sunken block ships, artificial harbors have been built.
18:49Until a port is won from the enemy,
18:51these must handle all allied shipping.
18:55Bad weather came after the fighting on the beaches was over.
18:59♪♪
19:22The heavy storm left a trail of damaged ships.
19:25♪♪
19:31Once again, the landing barges moved out into the channel,
19:34this time loaded with German prisoners.
19:38♪♪
19:46In England, prisoners board a Coast Guard transport.
19:50♪♪
19:55And ships which have carried thousands of American soldiers overseas
19:59now return westward with a different cargo,
20:03with men who were beaten and captured in Normandy.
20:07♪♪
20:17♪♪
20:28♪♪
20:33There is an ancient saying that all roads lead to Rome.
20:38If that is true, the United States Army
20:41had taken the longest and toughest road.
20:44♪♪
20:47Arriving on the 4th of June, 1944,
20:50two years and six months after Pearl Harbor
20:53and America's entrance into the war.
20:56♪♪
21:02Two days after General Mark Clark's 5th Army
21:05captured the Eternal City,
21:07General Dwight D. Eisenhower's invasion forces
21:10hit the Normandy beaches in a massive amphibious assault.
21:14♪♪
21:21Despite bitter German resistance,
21:23we built up an enormous beachhead and finally broke through.
21:27♪♪
21:32Our 7th Army, commanded by General Alexander Patch,
21:36landed in southern France
21:38and pushed northward along the Rhone River Valley.
21:41♪♪
21:45Ten days later, Paris was liberated.
21:49♪♪
21:54♪♪
21:59♪♪
22:05In Italy, the 5th Army crossed the Arno River
22:09and swept on toward Bologna.
22:13In the Pacific, General MacArthur's forces
22:16invaded Morotai Island in a giant amphibious leap
22:20that put them within 300 miles of the Philippines.
22:24♪♪
22:30General Stilwell was making progress in Burma
22:34with his mixed command of hand-picked American infantrymen,
22:37Merrill's marauders, and British and Chinese units.
22:41♪♪
22:55The tide of war was turning against the aggressors
22:59with a vengeance.
23:01♪♪
23:11Just 97 days after the 5th Corps of 1st Army
23:15had led the assault on Omaha Beach,
23:18it had driven 500 miles inland and crossed the German border.
23:23The battle for France was nearing its end.
23:26The battle for Germany was about to begin.
23:30The Nazi Reich was soon to reap full measure
23:34of the dragon's teeth it had sown.
23:38The immensity of global war,
23:41as it occurred at the height of World War II,
23:44staggers the imagination.
23:47On the ground, in jungles and swamps,
23:50in mountains and forests, and on the plains,
23:54millions of men scattered around the entire world
23:58locked in combat.
24:00In the air, thousands of others
24:02with their bombing and fighting aircraft.
24:05On the seas and beneath,
24:07other thousands with their surface ships and submarines.
24:11Incredibly long supply lines
24:14with mountains of materiel to transport.
24:17Vast communication networks stretching around the earth.
24:21It was the greatest concerted organization
24:24of military might in the history of the world.
24:28It was as if the scriptural concept
24:30of the Battle of Armageddon
24:32was being realized in its greatest magnitude.
24:37In Europe, by the end of September 1944,
24:41the United States had five great armies battling the Nazis.
24:46The 5th Army in Italy.
24:49The 1st Army with elements already on German soil.
24:53The 9th, the 3rd, and the 7th.
24:57All fighting beside British and Free French
25:00and other Allied forces.
25:03In the Pacific, the 6th Army and other elements.
25:08In Burma, General Joseph Stilwell's command
25:12of American, British, and Chinese jungle fighters
25:15were driving back the Japanese,
25:18opening the way for completion of the Lido Road,
25:21which our army engineers were building
25:24as a land supply route to the embattled Chinese
25:27by way of India.
25:29In Russia,
25:32German armies were in retreat
25:34before massive Soviet counterattacks.
25:38To use an old army expression,
25:41we were clobbering the enemy on all fronts.
25:45But it was no grand march,
25:47no sudden sweep to victory.
25:50For as the aggressors were driven back,
25:53their resistance increased along with mounting desperation.
25:57We paid a price for every mile we took.
26:02The battle for Germany was on.
26:05For the Germans, their Goethe Dammerung,
26:08the twilight of the gods, had come.
26:11♪♪
26:18Our armies were battering at the gates of the Nazi homeland.
26:22General Hodge's 1st Army drove through the vaunted Siegfried Line,
26:26mile upon mile of concrete fortifications
26:29and anti-tank emplacements through the city of Aachen.
26:33♪♪
26:39♪♪
26:45Two years and seven months after General MacArthur
26:48had left the Philippines,
26:50he kept his promise to return.
26:53♪♪
27:03On the 20th of October, 1944,
27:06his forces invaded the island of Leyte.
27:09♪♪
27:16♪♪
27:23♪♪
27:27This, too, was to be no easy parade to victory.
27:31Our soldiers were to face an enemy who would fight
27:34as their leaders ordered them to fight to the death.
27:37They wanted it that way.
27:39They were to get what they asked for.
27:41♪♪
27:47Seven days after MacArthur landed on Leyte,
27:50the United States 3rd and 7th Fleets
27:52dealt the Japanese Navy its death blow
27:55in the battle for the Leyte Gulf.
27:57♪♪
28:04♪♪
28:09♪♪
28:16♪♪
28:23♪♪
28:32♪♪
28:36The curtain was rising on the last fast-moving act
28:39of the drama of World War II.
28:41General Patton's 3rd Army took Metz.
28:44Ahead was the nearby Saar Basin,
28:47Germany's second most important industrial district.
28:51♪♪
28:59On the other side of the world,
29:02Army B-29 bombers from new bases on Saipan
29:06showered bombs on Tokyo.
29:08A fiery rain from the heavens to avenge Pearl Harbor.
29:12♪♪
29:16The campaign on Leyte was going well
29:18as our forces moved on,
29:20capturing the Japanese base at Ormoc along the west coast.
29:24♪♪
29:27Other forces landed on Mindoro Island with no losses.
29:31♪♪
29:36While General MacArthur's forces were driving forward
29:39in the Philippines, Patton's 3rd Army penetrated the Saar
29:43and drove on across the Saar River.
29:46♪♪
29:51A record-breaking fleet of 1,600 United States heavy bombers
29:55blasted Frankfurt and other German cities.
29:58♪♪
30:04♪♪
30:14♪♪
30:24♪♪
30:30The Nazis were reaping a bitter and devastating harvest
30:34from the seeds they had once sown from the air.
30:37Now the very perpetrators of aerial blitzkrieg
30:40saw their own cities reduced to rubble.
30:43To the millions of Nazi war victims,
30:46here at last was a measure of retribution
30:49against their merciless executioners.
30:52♪♪
31:00♪♪
31:05But on the ground, some of the bitterest fighting of the war
31:08took place on the Cologne Plain.
31:11Our push toward the industrial roar was resisted
31:14every step of the way.
31:16♪♪
31:21Then, on the 16th of December, 1944,
31:24the German counteroffensive struck.
31:27♪♪
31:32German Field Marshal von Rundstedt
31:34suddenly sent a dozen elite divisions
31:36smashing into the Ardennes sector.
31:39♪♪
32:05Von Rundstedt had cast the dice for high stakes.
32:08Crossing the Meuse River, driving toward Liège,
32:11and trying to cut the Allied communication lines
32:14from Antwerp to the front lines.
32:17If our lines of communication could be cut,
32:20the fate of our armies might be in the balance.
32:23This was the Battle of the Bulge.
32:26♪♪
32:36Combat and non-combat troops were suddenly
32:39and necessarily fighting side by side
32:42in worsening winter weather.
32:44Grabbing their weapons, they dug in and responded
32:47to the old military axiom of hanging on to buy time
32:50until reinforcements would come.
32:53♪♪
32:59General Eisenhower took immediate action
33:01to meet the crisis.
33:04He put the 1st and 9th Armies north of the Bulge
33:07under command of Field Marshal Montgomery's
33:0921st Army Group with orders to attack from the north.
33:13♪♪
33:22Patton's 3rd Army was to attack from the south.
33:26♪♪
33:31Two airborne divisions were rushed in.
33:34The 101st was ordered to hold
33:36the vital communication center at Bastogne.
33:40♪♪
33:43It was during this action in besieged Bastogne
33:46that General McAuliffe, who was then commanding the 101st,
33:50made his famous reply to the German demand
33:53that he surrender.
33:55That reply was reportedly one word long,
33:58nuts.
34:00If the enemy did not immediately understand
34:02the meaning of McAuliffe's typical American reply,
34:05the action which followed undoubtedly convinced him
34:08that it meant that the Americans
34:10had no intention of surrendering.
34:13♪♪
34:23Just six days after von Rundstedt
34:25had launched his counteroffensive,
34:27elements of Patton's 3rd Army, racing up from the south,
34:30struck the German on his southern flank.
34:33The pressure was off the 101st Air Force.
34:36♪♪
34:45The 1st American Army attacked from the north.
34:48♪♪
34:58After the British struck the bulge on the west,
35:01the 3rd Army smashed on north to link up with the 1st Army.
35:05♪♪
35:13Then the weather cleared and our planes took to the air,
35:17blasting von Rundstedt's forces.
35:20♪♪
35:30♪♪
35:40♪♪
35:50♪♪
35:59The battle of the bulge was soon over.
36:04The enemy was retreating.
36:06♪♪
36:09The Germans had thrown their last big Sunday punch of the war.
36:13♪♪
36:22♪♪
36:31While the battle of the bulge was going on in Europe,
36:34the 8th Army, commanded by General Robert L. Eichelberger,
36:38was battling stiff Japanese resistance on Leyte in the vicinity.
36:42♪♪
36:56The fight for Leyte would continue for months
36:59until nearly 50,000 fanatical Japanese would be annihilated.
37:03♪♪
37:08Our forces were spreading out in the Philippines.
37:116th Army troops landed on Luzon in the Lingayen Gulf
37:14and swept southward to capture Tarlac,
37:17only 65 miles from Manila.
37:20♪♪
37:29Fifteen days later, men of the 1st Cavalry Division
37:32fought their way into Manila.
37:35♪♪
37:51The capture of Manila included the Santo Tomas prison camp.
37:55Along with the Filipino people,
37:57these prisoners had waited in long and quiet agony
38:00for this moment of liberation.
38:03♪♪
38:06Of all the liberated peoples in the world,
38:09none showed more gratitude than did the Filipinos.
38:12They well knew we had come not for conquest,
38:15but to keep a solemn promise to return and destroy the aggressor
38:19who had taken over their homeland in a war of conquest.
38:23Less than two years later,
38:25the Philippines would be given complete independence
38:27as a sovereign nation by the United States.
38:30♪♪
38:39Thirteen days after the fall of Manila,
38:41our airborne troops landed on Corregidor,
38:44two years and nine months after the Japanese
38:47had hauled down our flag.
38:50It had been a long and bloody road,
38:52but we had returned.
38:54♪♪
39:08Who and where were those who once had said
39:11the American was no soldier, that he would not fight?
39:15♪♪
39:22♪♪
39:25All around the world,
39:27climactic events were swiftly gaining momentum.
39:30Our Ninth Army under General Simpson
39:32crossed the Rhine on the 2nd of March.
39:35♪♪
39:38Four days later, General Hodge's First Army occupied Cologne.
39:43♪♪
39:46Four days after that,
39:48300 of our superfortresses blasted Tokyo.
39:51♪♪
40:02By the 17th of the same month,
40:04General Patton's Third Army had taken Koblenz.
40:08♪♪
40:11The next day, and half a world away,
40:14our troops invaded Panay Island in the central Philippines.
40:18♪♪
40:21Three days after that, Patton's Third Army crossed the Rhine.
40:25♪♪
40:29Four days later, General Eichelberger's Eighth Army
40:32was landing on Cebu in the Philippines.
40:35♪♪
40:38♪♪
40:44Less than a week after that, on the 1st of April, 1945,
40:48the United States Tenth Army under General Simon Buckner
40:52invaded Okinawa.
40:54♪♪
40:57On the 11th of the same month,
40:59the 2nd Armored Division of the Ninth Army reached the Elbe,
41:03only 63 miles from Berlin.
41:05♪♪
41:08The 3rd captured Coburg.
41:10♪♪
41:26On the 12th of April, death took the Commander-in-Chief,
41:30President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
41:33He had lived to see the triumphant advances of American arms,
41:37but fate had denied him the satisfaction
41:40that final victory would bring.
41:42♪♪
41:47Less than a month after President Roosevelt's death,
41:50Germany surrendered.
41:54Hitler was dead by his own hand.
41:58Only a few days before,
42:00Mussolini had been killed by Italian partisans.
42:03♪♪
42:10To his home shores, General Eisenhower returned in triumph.
42:15But in the Pacific, a war was still going on,
42:19a big and bitterly fought war,
42:21with the end not yet in sight.
42:24Okinawa was a bloody battleground,
42:26as our 10th Army was finding out.
42:30But in the Pacific, a war was still going on,
42:33a big and bitterly fought war,
42:35with the end not yet in sight.
42:38Okinawa was a bloody battleground,
42:40as our 10th Army was finding out.
42:43♪♪
42:53♪♪
43:03♪♪
43:13It took us 82 days of continuous fighting to take Okinawa.
43:19♪♪
43:28The Nazi attacks on our Navy took a heavy toll,
43:31but we fought back, never letting up.
43:34♪♪
43:44♪♪
43:54♪♪
44:04♪♪
44:14♪♪
44:24♪♪
44:34♪♪
44:45♪♪
44:47All the military might of the United States
44:49would now be concentrated on the Japanese homeland.
44:53A tough job lay ahead,
44:55a job that would take men and equipment.
44:58Our entire military strength was now aimed
45:00at the one remaining Axis partner.
45:03♪♪
45:12Our military planners estimated
45:14that in an all-out assault upon Japan itself,
45:17our invasion forces would probably suffer
45:20a million and a half casualties.
45:23♪♪
45:30♪♪
45:38But a new and terrifying force had come into the world,
45:42which was to prevent those million and a half casualties,
45:46the atomic bomb.
45:48Two of these awesome weapons dropped on Hiroshima
45:51and Nagasaki brought Japan to her knees.
45:55♪♪
46:06On the 2nd of September, 1945,
46:09Japanese officials signed the Articles of Formal Surrender
46:13on the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
46:17♪♪
46:31The formal surrender by the Japanese
46:34on the 2nd of September, 1945,
46:37marked the end of the shooting in World War II.
46:40It was a momentous historic event.
46:44But there was one other that followed,
46:47which might not have been as historic to the world at large,
46:50but it was probably the most rewarding moment
46:53in the life of a fine old soldier.
46:56General Jonathan Wainwright,
46:58who had been forced to surrender Corregidor,
47:01had been rescued by U.S. Army paratroopers
47:04from a prisoner of war camp in Manchuria
47:08and flown back to be present at the formal surrender
47:11on the battleship Missouri.
47:15A day or two after that,
47:17he was present at the surrender of General Yamashita
47:20and the remnants of the Japanese Army in the Philippines.
47:26It must have been a great day
47:29for Jonathan Mayhew Skinny Wainwright,
47:33West Point, Class of 1906, American soldier.