Hitler's Last Stand (2018) s02e01 Episode Script

August, 1944.
An American battalion
is completely cut off
and surrounded by Nazi
forces in western France.
Hoping for rescue, lookouts
spot an American vehicle
approaching their
defensive perimeter.
McMANUS: The first thought
has to be, our relief is here!
It must be a reconnaissance
element of some sort
and they've come to save us.
Shoot!
But hope turns to horror as German
soldiers pour out and open fire.
On June 6th, 1944
allied forces finally
land troops in Normandy
to open the western front.
But Nazi fanatics and diehards
continue to fight ruthlessly for survival.
D-day was a battle.
The allies still
need to win the war.
August 8th, 1944.
Near St Malo, France.
Members of the 121st
Infantry Regiment
enter the small village
of Pleurtuit.
As they press
to the French coast.
With L Company in the lead,
Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Eyler
orders his men to prepare
to spend the night,
to allow other
battalions to catch up.
After two days of fighting
there is no sign of the enemy.
Everything is still.
McMANUS
By this point in the war
the ThirdBattalion has been
through enough combat
to understand that you
don't necessarily want
it to be all that quiet.
Boys they left
us half a bottle here.
SOLDIER Tank!
A German
tank engine roars to life
from a side street.
At the same time,
German machine guns
and rifles open up.
Sniper!
Upper window!
Their fire targets
the American soldiers
from upper windows
and nearby doorways.
Get out
of the streets!
We got
an ambush on our hands!
McMANUS This is
late in the day, and soldiers
may be a little bit tired
but all of a sudden
instant adrenaline.
The result is chaos.
Go, drive, go!
SOLDIER Incoming!
Without armor of
their own, the Americans
are virtually defenseless.
Keep firing!
The American
121st Infantry Regiment
have been assigned
to the 83rd Infantry Division
to help capture
the French port city of St Malo.
Two months after D-day,
the allies have a
supply problem.
Machines, equipment
and supplies they need
to liberate Europe
pile up in Great Britain.
Allied planners
hoped to land 725,000 tons
of war material in July
but only 450,000
tons came ashore,
most of it at Omaha
and Utah, the original
D-day beaches.
They need a proper port.
Capturing St Malo would help.
It has been a famous ocean
port for hundreds of years.
Its walls contain a medieval
fortress known as the citadel.
Sitting high with water
on three sides,
the citadel
is perfectly positioned
to rebuff attack
from any direction.
It was further fortified
by the Nazis
after the occupation
of France in 1940.
In February 1944,
Hitler declares a number
of sea ports in France
and in Belgium and in the
Netherlands as fortresses.
So in German, as Festung.
The defense of
Festung St Malo is commanded
by Oberst Andreas Von Aulock.
DR.. LIEB When
a city is declared a Festung,
the commandant of the fortress
gets full power over
all troops garrisoned
in this fortress.
So, he's something
like a little king in
his own little kingdom.
Even for the time, Von Aulock
is an eccentric character.
He wears a monocle,
always gives orders
in a snarling voice.
Von Aulock is a
veteran of the eastern front
where he had
fought the soviets.
DR. LIEB He
had fought in Stalingrad.
He knows what street
to street and house
to house fighting is.
Von Aulock's
skills will be tested.
As the U.S. 83rd
Infantry Division
sets to capture the
strongholds that ring St Malo.
The 121st Infantry Regiment
targets the town of Dinard,
also fortified
to protect St Malo from
across the Rance River.
Less than four miles
from Dinard.
Stay low! Stay low!
In the
village of Pleurtuit,
the advance of the 121st
comes to a dramatic halt.
The Americans report a
German tank firing its gun.
Enemy soldiers use
the safety of nearby houses
to pick off the lead company.
Lieutenant Colonel Eyler
orders his men to retreat.
Hear me? Double
time it out of here now!
Fall back, fall back!
Two have
already been killed
and others wounded.
Eighth let's go!
They withdraw under fire
and the battalion suffers more
casualties as they fall back.
SOLDIER
Get out of the streets!
The Americans
take up a position 400 yards
southeast of town.
The Germans do not pursue.
Let's go!
Eyler commands 121st Infantry
Regiment's Third Battalion,
made up of about 800 men.
The second and
third battalions both
set off the day before.
But encountered
strong resistance.
The Germans
try everything to slow
down the Allied advance.
So they set up roadblocks
so that every road is
an obstacle to the Americans.
SOLDIER I need men
on the left and on the right.
Move.
The German
defensive positions are
organized as kampfgruppe,
or battle group, Bacherer.
Named for
its commanding officer
Oberst Rudolf Bacherer.
DR. LIEB Bacherer
is a cavalry officer from the
First World War,
becomes a civvie
in the interwar years,
and then is called
up for service again
in the Second World War
as a reserve officer.
He seems to be a very
competent and brave commander.
With loads of battle
experience from
the Eastern front.
Then in '44 he's
fighting in Normandy as
a regimental commander.
And takes over command of
77th Division, when the actual
division commander dies.
Bacherer must now make
the capture of St Malo
as expensive as possible
for the Americans.
SOLDIER Down!
SOLDIER Get down.
SOLDIER Incoming!
SOLDIER
Get to cover now!
SOLDIER Move! Move!
Earlier that day, Eyler
had managed to break through
one of Bacherer's roadblocks
on the left flank
and pulled ahead
of 2nd Battalion.
But after being
pushed out of Pleurtuit
by Bacherer's men,
they will wait for the
other battalions to catch up.
Then capture Pleurtuit
together in the morning.
As they dig in, Eyler
sends word to bring
forward the aid station
and battalion surgeon
to treat the wounded.
Early the next morning,
Private First-Class
Albert Mixon,
and Corporal Ben Graves
head back towards the roadblock
behind the American position.
They must replenish
supplies to prepare
for the coming attack.
In the darkness,
Mixon spots what he
believes are other members
of his battalion
near the roadblock.
SOLDIER Americans!
He realizes
his mistake when they
fire on his jeep.
SOLDIER
Stay low, stay low!
Mixon flees
back to the American line.
As he reports to
his platoon sergeant,
the Germans open fire.
Striking three American
jeeps and blowing up
two loads of ammunition.
Mixon and the
others hold off the attack,
to hook up with the
rest of third battalion.
McMANUS
The troubling thing
about this attack,
it's coming from behind
and of course you
never want that.
Lieutenant Colonel
Eyler sends out a patrol
and confirms that the
roadblock is now heavily
defended by enemy soldiers.
Eyler and his men cannot
advance into Pleurtuit
without reinforcement
and now cannot retreat.
They are trapped.
I just got a
message from HQ
When he reaches headquarters,
Eyler receives his orders.
The battalion
is to hold at all costs.
August, 1944.
Western France.
German forces recapture
a roadblock behind
an American unit.
DR. LIEB Bacherer
surrounds the US battalion
and encircles it.
It's very typical for
German doctrine in
the Second World War.
If there is a chance,
try to regain the initiative
as soon as possible.
Counter attack at
the soonest opportunity.
And this is a
classical example of that.
I want ten men out
by the field there
Lieutenant Colonel Eyler
has been ordered
to hold their tenuous
position at all costs.
McMANUS He's going
to do what most any battalion
commander in the US Army
would do which is to begin
to fan out his companies
and create a perimeter,
to maximize his fire power.
In his perimeter
defense, I Company sits
on the right of the road,
across from L Company.
With K Company to the rear.
Eyler sets up a command
post at the center,
in a one-story farmhouse.
Eyler is fortunate that the
regiment's anti-tank guns kept
pace with them the day before.
They are now positioned with
L Company to guard the road
to the village of Pleurtuit
which had been their objective.
Now Nazi forces
surround them on all sides.
The American attack
will have to wait.
At around 0930,
men from I Company
spot something strange.
About 15 German soldiers,
crawl along a ditch beside
the road from Pleurtuit.
Grey blankets on their
backs as crude camouflage.
Over on the
hill there's definitely
Germans over there.
Stay down!
SOLDIER
Krauts over there!
400 yards.
Hold fire.
The men from L
and I Companies wait patiently
until the Germans
close within 200 yards.
Then open fire.
Fire!
Three Germans
are killed and several wounded.
The remainder withdraw
back to the village.
Keep up
the line of fire!
McMANUS
The purpose is probably
to probe the perimeter
to get a sense of
what kind of strength
they're facing on
the opposite side.
It's a little bit
of a clumsy probe um,
but probably just that.
Fire!
But only 30 minutes
later, explosions erupt.
German artillery and mortar
fire start to fall within the
American defensive perimeter.
And in quick succession
the command post is
struck by two direct hits.
SOLDIER Reloading!
Two officers are killed
and two NCO's are injured.
DR. LIEB
This 10:00 counter attack
clearly shows that the Germans
are not defeated.
That the Germans are able
to launch a counter attack
and that the Germans
are still able to inflict
heavy casualties
upon the Americans.
It's very shocking
to see officers at that
level killed so quickly.
This was a bad situation.
It creates a sense of fear
and crisis among any soldier.
As the rescue
and first aid efforts continue,
the men hear the
worst possible sound.
Tank!
A stug three, a
German self-propelled assault
gun built on a panzer chassis.
McMANUS To a
typical American infantry man
enemy armor's terrifying.
It doesn't really matter
the particulars of what
it is and what it isn't,
what does matter is it
does create a, a kind of a
tendency towards fear
and panic that a tank
can basically wreck
and destroy your world.
The stug three
approaches from the northeast
followed closely by infantry.
When it gets within
500 yards, its gun opens fire.
Keep firing!
Come on!
In the panic, it
appears that the command post
may be completely wiped out.
We need
reinforcements!
The stug three
closes in to about 300 yards.
Suddenly, assistance from
a completely unexpected place.
A young private,
Francis Gardner, takes
matters into his own hands.
He aims with a bazooka.
A bazooka was
one of the standard US
Army anti-tank weapons
and it basically
looks like a pipe.
It's about three feet long
and it's held over the shoulder
and it fires a rocket
that has a special anti-tank
warhead called a shape charge,
so even though the rocket is
quite small it can penetrate
a great deal of armor.
The three
and a half pound rocket can
be launched up to 600 yards,
through as much as five
inches of armor plate.
Gardener's first shot misses.
Load one eighteen.
But the
American anti-tank guns
open up at the same time.
Up.
Fire!
A shot hits
and disables the stug three.
As the crew tries to escape
the flames, Gardner lines up
a second shot.
SOLDIER
Keep firing! Let 'em have it!
This time he does not miss.
His shot strikes and
kills the fleeing crew.
Americans love
these underdog stories of the,
the bespectacled
soldier who takes out the
German tank, kind of thing.
What is unusual in this
instance is yes of course
it's very customary
for troops to fire at uh,
a retreating tank crew as
they get out of the tank,
but not usually
with a bazooka.
The bazooka is not really
designed to be that kind
of anti-personnel weapon,
that according to
the accounts you know
it kills the tank crew.
So it must've been
a really accurate shot
and they must've been in
the exact wrong place at
the wrong time.
The German infantry
soldiers join the battle,
and press
forward into the fray.
Covering fire!
But the
Americans hold the line.
After 20 minutes,
the Germans fall back
towards the village
of Pleurtuit.
SOLDIER
Move out, move out, move!
Within the
American perimeter the
battalion is in disarray.
SOLDIER
Medic! Need a medic!
After three
attacks in rapid succession,
along with the
attack the day before,
there are more
and more wounded.
The battalion surgeon
had not made it through
the roadblock
the night before.
There is no doctor.
All they have are the
limited medical supplies
of an advancing battalion.
McMANUS
A lot of bandages.
Pressure bandages,
tourniquets,
morphine ampules,
you would have
self-thalidomide,
what they
called sulpha powder,
which was to combat
infection in a wound.
You might have some
blood plasma here and there.
Care is provided
by soldiers called medics.
McMANUS
A 19 or 20-year-old kid,
who's been basically
given two months or so
of rudimentary first aid
medical oriented training.
Designed basically
to save lives quickly,
patch 'em up and then get
'em back to somewhere else
where they're going to get
more substantial medical care.
Unable to
evacuate his wounded
Eyler establishes
an aid station with
medics from each platoon.
They set up in another
farm house just behind
the command post.
It is primitive.
But it is all they've got.
As German artillery
continues to target
the battalion's position.
The medics
and the wounded face
a new kind of fight.
August 9th, 1944.
The American 83rd
Infantry Division
has orders to capture
the French port of St Malo.
Allied forces fight street
by street to capture the city.
Its defenders are defiant.
When called to give up,
Oberst Andreas Von Aulock
allegedly replies,
"I am German.
Germans never surrender."
SOLDIER
Come on let's go!
Meanwhile, the
U.S. 121st Infantry Regiment
is supposed to take out the
German guns in nearby Dinard.
SOLDIER
Keep firing! Let em have it!
However,
two battalions have
gotten bogged down
and the German defenders
close the gap behind the
third battalion.
Cutting them
off from the others.
Word of the 'lost battalion'
makes it up the 83rd Infantry
Division's chain of command
to General Robert Macon.
McMANUS
General Robert Macon
had you know a lot of
combat in this war.
He had been a regimental
commander in the
invasion of North Africa.
When the 83rd had fought
in Normandy he had fought
quite successfully
given the circumstances
and the terrain and the
difficulties.
Macon is a mission first
kind of guy and he's
someone you can rely on.
But Macon is
not impressed with the 121st
Regiment assigned to him.
If I'm a platoon
leader and I think the Third
Platoon uh isn't any good
because I'm the first platoon
leader and these are my guys.
Well this can be true
all the way up the line
to a division commander
who will trust his
guys in the 83rd Infantry
and his three regiments.
He doesn't know
the 121st Infantry.
Macon finds
the slow progress of
the 121st suspicious.
Having an entire battalion of
800 men encircled by the enemy
further undermines
his confidence.
But before he can turn
his attention to rescuing
the third battalion,
Macon's 83rd Infantry
Division must capture
St Joseph's Hill on the
east side of the Rance River.
There was a gigantic
granite outcropping
that the Germans had fortified
with a number of bunkers
and also with
400, 55-millimeter guns.
So, until they could
eliminate that defense post
they really couldn't conduct
the campaign
to reduce the rest of the
St Malo fortifications.
The lost
battalion will have to wait.
On the west side
of the Rance,
within the vulnerable
defensive perimeter
of the third battalion,
the medics do their best to
keep the wounded men alive.
Many however, have
lost a lot of blood.
Surrounded by the enemy
on the ground, the only
hope comes from above.
A plan develops to have two
planes from the 56th Field
Artillery drop blood plasma.
All goes smoothly,
with the crates landing within
a few feet of the drop zone.
But triumph fades fast,
as the battalion members
watch the planes lock wings
and tumble to the ground.
Members of K Company crawl
toward the burning wreckage.
It is too late.
There is nothing
they can do to help.
All four airmen are
killed in the crash.
But the blood plasma
gives the gift of life.
By the end of August 9th,
Macon's 83rd Infantry Division
captures St Joseph's Hill.
He reorganizes his forces,
and assigns his 331st Infantry
Regiment to liberate
the lost battalion and then
together capture Dinard.
Macon takes personal command,
to make sure they do.
As the Third Battalion
awaits rescue,
the men remain surrounded
by the enemy and on high alert.
Just after midnight,
a lookout spots an American
vehicle emerging from the fog
south east of the perimeter.
Help may finally have arrived.
August, 1944.
A battalion of American
soldiers fighting to liberate
the French city of St Malo
have become encircled by
German forces commanded by
Colonel Rudolf Bacherer.
Bacherer has ordered a series
of attacks against the GI's.
Late one night, an
American vehicle approaches
the U.S. defensive perimeter.
McMANUS
The first thought has to be,
"Oh my gosh, our
relief is here.
It must be a reconnaissance
element of some sort and
they've come to save us."
It almost
seems miraculous,
until shots ring out from
the darkness at the Americans.
The car had been
captured by the Germans.
They are using it
to penetrate the
American lines.
DR. LIEB Captured
enemy kit was quite useful in
the war for both sides.
And at this stage of the war,
an American reconnaissance
car comes in quite handy.
So instead
of a rescue force, the
car is a Trojan horse.
Staff Sergeant
Clyde Webster,
responds quickly
and grabs a B.A.R.
ready to fight back.
B.A.R.
is the abbreviation for
Browning Automatic Rifle
and it's the squad
automatic rifle in a
U.S. Army infantry squad.
It is classified
as a light machine
gun with a 20 round clip.
ZALOGA
It offers automatic fire,
meaning that when the
gunner starts firing it,
it's just round after
round after round.
Unlike a rifle
which is semi-automatic
which means that you
have to fire
a round at a time.
You have to keep
squeezing the trigger.
Easily operated by a single
soldier it is considered
one of the most reliable weapons
of the Second World War.
American rifle
fire ignites the car.
The crew within, try to
escape the burning vehicle.
SOLDIER
Let 'em have it!
Webster picks
them off one by one.
Then continues his attack
against other German soldiers
advancing in support.
SOLDIER
Keep firing!
The fighting
continues intermittently
until 0330
when the surviving German troops
melt back into the night.
SOLDIER Fire!
The steady
stream of attacks
continue to draw down
the battalion's
limited supplies.
An infantry unit
when it goes into combat
usually will only carry
a small amount of ammunition
and a small amount of food.
As combat
unit, there is no kitchen
facility or mess hall.
The men have only K rations.
A package which weighs
a little over two pounds
and contains dehydrated
and canned food.
They can be carried by
individual soldiers, and some
were transported by vehicle.
The men of the lost battalion
enter their fourth day since
leaving the security
of the American lines.
Still without a doctor,
regular GI's called medics,
care for men with their
limited medical supplies
at the Purple Heart Hotel.
McMANUS
Purple Heart Hotel as the
Americans colorfully called it
was just a make
shift aid station,
right there where the wounded
are gathering and where you see,
I think it's fair to say,
the worst of the suffering
at the Battalion.
There is no way
to protect the injured from
the incoming German artillery.
Despite the shortages, some
of their patients are German.
McMANUS
Even a situation like this
where they're surrounded,
they cared for them.
Almost always.
And in many cases,
the medics prioritized
based on the severity of the
wound rather than nationality.
That wasn't always true,
but in this case, it was.
Ah, because there were some
pretty badly hurt Germans.
The American
position is tenuous.
McMANUS Think
about it. We're surrounded.
We don't know the
size of the German force.
It's very possible that
all of us will become POW's
tomorrow or the next day.
So, it might behoove us
to treat the Germans well
if we hope to be treated
well in captivity, too.
On August 10th,
General Macon arrives at
121st Regiment's headquarters
to assume command of the
mission to locate the third
battalion and capture Dinard.
By 20:00 hours,
the men of Macon's
331st Infantry Regiment
jump off and advance.
Throughout the night,
flares and colored
smoke are used
to signal and locate
the lost battalion.
Despite their efforts,
no contact is made.
Macon's men return to
action the next morning,
jumping off at 08:30.
Their progress is slow as they
encounter the same roadblocks
and resistance that
delayed the 121st.
SOLDIER Stay low!
SOLDIER Keep
firing!
McMANUS
Now that Macon is seeing
the level of German opposition
that they're facing
he begins to realize exactly
what these guys from the other
regiment have been up against.
Move out!
Fall out!
It is
not until 21:30,
Macon's men break through a
particularly tough roadblock.
Before they even
consolidate their position,
they come under
immediate counter attack
by Bacherer's men.
SOLDIER Fire!
Incoming!
So that evening
Macon finds himself
defending his position,
and his lack of progress
to his commander.
McMANUS
That happened all the time.
Ah, you know, regimental
commander justifying
a division commander.
Division to corps.
Corps to army.
And so, Macon wants to make
sure Middleton understands,
very clearly,
hey the, you know, the
resistance is tougher
than we had thought.
This isn't because
any deficiency on my
part or my division.
From within
the lost battalion's
defensive perimeter,
Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Eyler
sends out regular patrols
to connect with relief forces.
But they have not
had any success.
So, on August 12th, rescue
may seem unlikely for the
patrol from K Company,
when they leave the
battalion's defensive
perimeter at 11:00 hours.
They move to the left flank
in the hopes of locating
members of 331st.
When they notice
movement up ahead.
Get down.
A patrol of
American soldiers from
the Third Battalion,
121st Infantry Regiment
creeps forward,
hoping to make contact
with the American 331st.
The battalion has been
encircled and cut off for
four days by Nazi forces,
in their bid to liberate
St Malo , France.
As they try to avoid
the surrounding Germans,
the patrol drops to the ground
when they spot movement ahead.
They have been
discovered by Americans.
McMANUS
It's a great moment.
You know, when the patrol
realizes that these guys
come from another unit,
to try and relieve
them and that this might
mean help is on the way.
It's such an American notion,
here we are embattled
and now the cavalry
is here to help us.
The two patrols
connecting is the first step.
The 331st will still have
to have fight their way
in through the
surrounding Germans.
McMANUS All of
this takes many, many hours
to develop, of course.
So the, the patrol contact
is just tip of the iceberg
of what you're eventually
going to need to do.
August 14th, 1944.
The final breakthroughs puts all
three battalions of the 121st
in addition to the
331st Regiment
in position to capture
the town of Dinard
and knock out the guns defending
the citadel at St Malo.
The Americans continue
to encounter stiff
German resistance.
Under the command
of Rudolph Bacherer.
Covering fire!
McMANUS Bacherer
strikes me as a professional.
Not like a Nazi fanatic.
He strikes me as
more of a military
professional of the sort
who are really the backbone
of the German armed forces
and makes such
formidable enemies.
He's going to use a lot
of the architecture
which is very well suited to
defensive warfare,
on a heavy stone
buildings and all that.
SOLDIER
Go! Go, go, go!
Four soldiers from
Company G volunteer to attack
a subterranean fortification
surrounded by a high
stone wall, and topped
by a steel fence.
Sergeant William Vaughn uses
a bazooka to break through.
With little effect.
Vaughn eventually
locates a tunnel through
which he leads his group.
The tunnel takes them inside,
and they capture the position
rounding up 200 German P.O.W.s.
Okay, can
you make it happen?
SOLDIER
Yes sir. I can.
Good.
Thank you sir.
At the same time,
German defensive mortars
try to halt the advance.
While American guns
target the Nazi strongholds.
As night falls, fires burn.
Dinard is in flames.
Despite the fact
the Americans make it
all the way to the coast,
they have yet to locate and
capture Rudolph Bacherer,
the defiant
commander of Dinard.
Early the next day, the phone
in Bacherer's bunker rings.
The voice on the
other end of the line
introduces himself as
American General,
Robert Macon.
Macon's able to call
because the, the Americans had
captured a, a German pillbox
that had a phone line that
basically went to Bacherer.
So, a very logical way, pick
up the phone and call the guy.
If you want him to
surrender, ask him yourself.
Through an
interpreter, Macon explains
that the Americans have
captured all the German
strong points in Dinard
and asks Bacherer to surrender.
DR. LIEB
Bacherer refuses to surrender.
For him the terms are
not honorable enough.
But at the same time
he asks Macon to take
care of his wounded.
Macon agrees.
Macon says, "Well
sure we'll, we'll take care
of your wounded. Absolutely."
A short cease
fire is organized.
German wounded are
transferred into American
care as prisoners of war.
Within minutes, the peace
is once again shattered.
With the goal of driving the
Germans into final surrender.
Bacherer's position
is targeted with white
phosphorus,
when an incoming shell
strikes an ammunition dump,
it sets off a
massive explosion.
Fires spread.
The straw bedding in the
dormitories speeds the flames.
Bacherer's men pour out
to escape the smoke.
Bacherer sees that further
resistance is impossible.
He and 350 men surrender.
Dinard has now fallen.
But the citadel and the city
of St Malo still hold out.
Colonel Andreas Von
Aulock remains defiant.
With supporting
guns from the west silenced,
General Macon must now
capture the final prize.
August, 1944.
As two American
regiments liberate
the nearby town of Dinard,
other units commanded by
General Robert Macon close in
on the walled city of St Malo.
Located on the French
coast, the allies have
been desperate to capture it
to help move men and
materials into France
to liberate Europe.
The citadel
of the city is held by
Colonel Andreas Von Aulock,
who is known
as the mad Colonel.
The Germans also
call him the mad Colonel.
But not, not necessarily
in a negative way, yeah?
So, Von Aulock was
respected by his men, yeah.
'Cause he was, he was a
character, he was eccentric.
But still, his men
followed him, yeah.
American general Macon knows
the job must be completed.
They cannot leave pockets of
German resistance behind them
as they advance
further into Brittany.
The citadel must fall.
SOLDIER
Forward! Forward!
Two eight-inch guns
with a range up to ten miles
are brought within
1,500 yards of the fort.
They are less efficient
against the solid stone walls,
but can target portholes
and vents with direct fire.
In addition, Macon
positions companies
with 4.2 inch mortars.
Load up.
The 4.2 inch
mortar crews would use a
mixture of high explosive
and white phosphorus
smoke rounds.
The high explosives would
blow open the buildings.
Then they would follow up
with the smoke round
because the white phosphorus
had incendiary effects.
The white phosphorus
smoke shells would start
the building on fire.
To further soften
up the fortifications
in the final drive,
Macon relies on near constant
aerial bombardment.
They drop a new kind
of incendiary into the
battle jellied gasoline.
Jellied gasoline
is probably better known
as napalm
and it originally started its
combat use during World War II.
It contains an
additive to make it sticky.
Meaning that if
you drop a big tank of
this stuff from an aircraft
onto a target, instead of the
liquid simply spreading out
the jellied gasoline somewhat
sticks to the material
and it stays there and burns.
Lieutenant Colonel Seth McKee
prepares to take
off in his P-38,
with 165 gallon tanks
filled with napalm.
As McKee flies over,
he releases the tanks,
which contain phosphorous
grenades to ignite the napalm.
Amazingly, it lands
in a ventilation
shaft of the citadel.
It brings to mind
obviously Luke Skywalker's
perfect shot against the
Death Star in Star Wars.
But it is somewhat
that dramatic in,
in terms of its effect.
The jellied
gasoline is not used
to burn the occupants.
ZALOGA When
the jellied gasoline hits
the top of a bunker,
it starts sucking out all of the
oxygen that's inside the bunker
and so it destroys
a heavily defended
bunker by suffocating
the crews inside.
When McKee looks
back, he sees the Germans
have raised the white flag.
He calls off his men
and they drop the rest
of their incendiaries
on another target.
Soon after, Von Aulock
and 550 of his men surrender,
despite the promise to hold out.
DR. LIEB It's
always quite difficult to tell
whether these orders of fighting
to the last cartridge,
fighting to the last man,
whether they really
mean it for real.
Quite often they just give
these orders in order
to show to Hitler
their will to resist.
Because they are summoned
to fight to the last cartridge,
and if they don't do this job,
it will have consequences
against their family.
It takes
two weeks to capture the
fortifications of St Malo,
occupied by the
Nazis for four years.
General Macon's
troops are persistent.
His 83rd Infantry Division
capture nearly 10,000
German prisoners of war.
The lost American battalion
of the 121st weathered
its four days of isolation.
After the series
of constant attacks,
they report 31 killed,
106 wounded and 16 missing.
Unfortunately, Von Aulock
had ordered the port facilities
destroyed on August 7th,
to ensure that they provide
no assistance to allied forces.
So, while the fall of
the French port cities
proves inevitable,
Nazi holdouts tie up
allied forces for many weeks.
This allows time
for others to retreat and
secure the German border,
and set the stage for a
series of desperate battles.
The war in Europe would
continue for another
eight and a half months.
Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.