In 1940, France was invaded and subdued by Hitler's armies. Winston Churchill told the french public "to sleep and rest up for the morning." Four years later, that "morning" came as the most famous and talked about amphibious invasion in history was put into action. This episode of World at War is all about D-day, the planning behind it, and its immediately aftermath. It starts by talking about the raid on Dieppe in northern france. It was a disaster as British and Canadian soldiers essentially walked right into extremely heavy German defenses. It was a disturbing reminder of what would happen to the Allies if they tried to assault Hitler's Festung Europa (Fortress Europe) in the future. Eventually, the allies have to make a decision between two possible landing spots: the Pas de Calais, the part of france closest to England, or Normandy. The Nazis had long since been expecting an attack and put their heaviest defenses at the Channel's narrowest point, since that is the easiest landing spot. However, allied high command eventually decides to invade france at normandy. Normandy was farther from england and therefore more difficult to attack, but the beaches there were wider and clay in the sand would be able to bear the weight of armored vehicles supporting ground troops more effectively. The operation, now named Overlord, began to pick up pace as the number of American soldiers in england approached 1 and a half million. General Eisenhower was chosen as the allied supreme commander for Overlord, and his task was not an easy one as he had to command a countless amount of multinational soldiers. The allies came up with a large amount of devices and vehicles to try and bring down the anticipated german defenses, part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall, a huge defensive barrier stretching all the way from Denmark to the Spanish border. Meanwhile, german commanders were bickering among themselves when it came to how they would push the allies back and prevent them from gaining a beachhead. Some commanders favored keeping a tank division back several miles to prevent the americans from getting any further, while Rommel, the infamous Desert Fox of the war in North Africa, preferred to drive the americans back into the sea as soon as possible. Royal Air Force Marshal "Bomber" Harris, the man who relentlessly bombed german city after city, was told to attack their roads in order to disrupt communications. Right before the operation commenced, the weather took a turn for the worst, but the plan couldn't wait any longer. In the last hours of June 5th, 1944, the airborne troops took off for normandy. Tasked with dropping behind the german lines, it was expected 70% would die. Early the next day, allied ships off normandy begin pounding the german defenses. Waves of landing craft full of riflemen head towards 5 designated beaches on the normandy coast. From left to right they are: Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword. The last 3 were to be attacked by british and canadian forces, while Omaha and Utah were for the americans. The ones assigned to the british and canadians varied in difficulty. On Gold, some troops battered away at a german position for 8 hours while another group was off the beach in 40 minutes. On Omaha beach specifically, things were nightmarishly difficult. The beach was a defender's dream, with high cliffs, bunkers bristling with machine guns, and few ways inland. Many troops were killed immediately and didn't even have a chance to step off the landing boats. It took the americans the entire day to gain a beachhead a mile deep. Eventually, footholds on all 5 beaches are established. A week later, so many allied vehicles are on the beaches that traffic jams sometimes stretch over 10 miles. As the allies move deeper into france, they run into more problems. Ancient french countrysides full of hedgerows (known as the Bocage) prove to be frustrating environments for tanks to fight in, since there's so many places for infantry waiting with missile launchers and anti-tank guns to hide and ambush them. Among the chaos, Charles de Gaulle finally returns to france for the first time since 1940. Across the frontline from Cherbourg, a french peninsula the americans had cut off and surrounded, was the town of Caen. British and canadian forces attacked it with the help of the most intense bombing campaign in support of ground forces ever attempted. The town is eventually liberated, but at an enormous price. After cherbourg, american forces head west and fan out to take the towns of Avranches, then sweep north in order to capture Argentan. Concurrently, british and canadian forces stationed in the north swing down towards Falaise in order to close the gap threatening to cut off scores of german forces caught in the middle. There was carnage. Eisenhower later visited the battlefield and said it was literally possible to walk for miles in any direction stepping on nothing but corpses. Falaise was one of germany's biggest losses since Stalingrad. Underground resistance fighters in Paris, sensing liberation was right around the corner, came out into the open for the first time in 4 years to take vengeance on the retreating nazi invaders. After 4 long years, france was back. Just like every other episode of World at War, this one ranks among some of the finest war documentaries ever shown on television. D-day was arguably the most important operation of the whole war, as it marked the turning point when the allies were able to bounce back and make landfall in europe. 4 years earlier, Hitler winning looked to be a real possibility as england and england alone stood against him and his conquest of europe. By working together, the allies were able to succeed at normandy despite thousands of men being killed. Now having a grasp on continental europe, american and british forces would continue to push the germans back to achieve ultimate victory.
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