Hitler's Last Stand (2018) s03e04 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR:
August 1944.
Normandy, France.
When a German machine-gun team
tries to carve an escape route
for soldiers fleeing the Falaise pocket
(gunfire)
a Canadian officer calls for someone
to take out the MG 42.
I need a volunteer!
No one volunteers.
O'KEEFE: He knows that he could order
his men to do it,
but that's not gonna play well.
(gunfire)
So he decides he's gonna do the job
himself.
(explosion)
On June 6, 1944, Allied forces
finally land troops in Normandy
to open the Western Front.
♪♪
(shouting in German)
But Nazi fanatics and diehards continue
to fight ferociously for survival.
♪♪
D-Day was a battle.
♪♪
They still need to win the war.
♪♪
♪♪
August 18, 1944.
Normandy, France.
♪♪
Canadian tanks
of the South Alberta Regiment
rumble toward the small French village
of Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives.
♪♪
C Squadron, led by Major David Currie,
cautiously approaches the outskirts
of the village
♪♪
♪♪
when an armor-piercing round hits
his lead tank.
(man screaming)
♪♪
But before he can locate the source
(gunfire)
gunfire also peppers
the Canadian tank convoy from above.
(engines humming)
Not far behind,
at regimental headquarters,
Currie's commander,
Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Wotherspoon,
also comes under fire
from similar forces --
Spitfires of the British Royal Air Force.
(engines humming)
(gunfire)
♪♪
♪♪
Wotherspoon's men hurry to display
the army's signal for friendly forces --
Yellow smoke.
O'KEEFE:
The use of smoke on the battlefield
was done to denote friend from foe
for Allied fliers that were whipping by
at hundreds of miles an hour.
Undeterred by the yellow smoke,
the Spitfires circle back
to strafe the convoy again.
(gunfire)
The men dive for cover.
O'KEEFE:
But it doesn't seem like the left hand
knew what the right hand was doing,
and they chose the same color.
This meant that every time
they fired the smoke,
Wotherspoon was actually calling down fire
on his own positions
and he didn't realize it.
(dramatic music plays)
(gunfire)
The regiment is now under attack
by friendly planes
- for the second time in four days.
- Get the .50 caliber!
O'KEEFE: Wotherspoon's anger
completely boils over at this point.
In this case, you open fire
on anything that is trying to kill you.
However, it's a bit of a vicious Catch-22
because the more you fire,
the more they believe you are the enemy.
But before Wotherspoon gives the order
to fire,
a subordinate disrupts his plan.
(engines humming)
O'KEEFE:
The regimental padre, Albert Silcox,
grabs a Union Jack -- the same one
that he used for burial services --
And then makes his way out into the field
while the planes are diving.
♪♪
He stands in the open
with only a flag for protection.
♪♪
♪♪
In mid-August 1944,
the Allies enjoy near complete control
of the skies over Normandy.
(gunfire, explosions)
♪♪
On the ground, as they push in
from Brittany and the beaches,
Allied forces begin to squeeze
the remnants of the German 7th Army
and the 5th Panzer Army --
About 100,000 enemy soldiers,
their tanks, and weapons.
(dramatic music plays)
BORYS:
You have the British and the Canadians
coming down from the north and northwest,
and you have the Americans sweeping
underneath the Germans
from the west and the south.
And effectively, that creates a pocket
that begins to close
on the German army group.
♪♪
Allied aircraft launch constant strikes
against the trapped Germans.
♪♪
But sometimes, the Allied pilots mistake
friendly ground troops for the enemy.
♪♪
The regimental chaplain hopes to show
the British airmen
they are on the same side.
♪♪
The Spitfires start their dive.
(gunfire)
But he is too late.
The first plane fires
into the convoy again.
The padre holds his ground.
♪♪
His bravery pays off.
♪♪
O'KEEFE: As the leader of
the second flight coming in for his run
realizes the error and pulls off,
looking for other prey.
(engines humming in distance)
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
A Canadian regiment, the South Albertas,
have been assigned a key role
in the elimination of the Falaise pocket.
BORYS:
As the pocket continues to shrink,
more and more Germans are rushing out
eastwards.
And it's the job of the Poles
and the Canadians to shut that gap,
to close it down for good.
As the Poles move to take Chambois,
the South Alberta Regiment moves
to capture Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives,
where two sturdy bridges remain able
to support the weight of enemy armor.
This would completely trap German tanks
and tens of thousands of German infantry
inside the pocket.
As the men of the South Alberta Regiment
regroup and darkness falls
♪♪
Canadian Major David Currie
enters the German-occupied village
of Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives alone.
A German 88-millimeter gun attacked them
from within the village
earlier in the day.
Currie hopes to find a way around it
with his tanks.
O'KEEFE: Traditionally,
a unit commander does not take point
or carry out reconnaissance himself.
But given the fluid situation,
Currie decides he was the man for the job.
He's now operating as a human trip wire.
It's better that one man light up
the enemy defenses and expose a trap
than to risk losing all of the men
following him behind.
But as he walks the length
of the small village,
he discovers that the Dives River
to the south limits his options.
♪♪
With things mostly quiet
in Saint-Lambert, he returns to base
and asks his commander,
Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Wotherspoon,
for permission to launch
a nighttime attack,
with most of his men on foot.
At the South Alberta Regiment
headquarters,
Wotherspoon decides that Currie should
wait until morning to take the village.
You wait until morning. Hold tight.
Hold position.
- Yes, sir.
- BORYS: Closing the gap at night
is a very difficult maneuver,
and there is fear that Currie
and his men will suffer from friendly fire
if they move too quickly.
This delay, at this crucial moment
when the Allies need to close the gap,
keeps the back door open for the Germans.
♪♪
As the Falaise pocket was forming
in early August,
Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge,
commander in chief in the west,
recognizes the danger.
Von Kluge believes the best way
to protect Germany's fighting capacity
is to withdraw the remnants of his armies
to the east side of the river Seine
in order to escape from this pocket.
Hitler disagrees.
He insists they counterattack
to break out of the pocket
and make it back to the beaches.
LIEB: Suddenly, the effect
that the armored formations
are in the west part
not only being encircled
but also that their best troops
are totally at the wrong spot.
By August 16th,
without permission from Berlin,
von Kluge orders the withdrawal to begin.
On August 17th, von Kluge is replaced
with the more fanatical
Feldmarschall Walter Model.
LIEB: Model, he had saved the
Eastern Front several times from collapse.
Model is considered to be
the big crisis manager
in the later parts
of the Second World War.
But by then, even Hitler acknowledges
that the remainder of the 100,000-man
German 7th Army
must withdraw or be wiped out.
(gunfire)
For two days, Germans have coordinated
a fighting retreat out of the pocket.
(dramatic music plays)
(gunfire, bullet thuds)
♪♪
(explosions)
But as the Allies squeeze,
the only escape route is a gap.
BORYS: The gap is about one to two miles
wide, but it's shrinking by the minute.
And as it shrinks,
the Germans are becoming
more and more desperate to escape.
The next morning, Currie prepares
a new attack on Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives.
In addition to the tanks
of the South Alberta Regiment,
he is joined by 55 infantry soldiers
from the Canadian Argyll
and Sutherland Regiment,
led by acting Major Ivan Martin.
As they enter the village,
Currie leads the Argylls on foot
to scout the German defenses.
♪♪
A solo Canadian tank creeps behind them.
♪♪
But not more than 300 yards
into Saint-Lambert,
a German gun opens fire.
♪♪
♪♪
August 19, 1944.
As the Allies try to close
the infamous Falaise pocket,
Canadian troops move
into the German-held town
of Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives, France.
♪♪
The lead tank,
which accompanies infantry troops
led by Major David Currie,
is struck by enemy fire.
♪♪
♪♪
The crew in it bails out.
But before the drivers can escape
they are struck by a second round.
♪♪
O'KEEFE: Currie now realizes
the potentially perilous situation
and continues down the road on foot
only to find a Mark IV and a Tiger tank
laying in wait at the southern end
of the village.
But he has advanced on foot
without a radio.
Currie has no way to communicate
with his reserve units
of the South Alberta Regiment.
Fortunately, Captain John Redden,
Currie's second in command,
monitors the situation as the battle
unfurls in the village below.
Redden leaves behind his tank
and commandeers Currie's lead Sherman.
As they roll towards town,
he sees a German tank
turning onto the road in front of him.
(man speaking German)
O'KEEFE: The gunner only has
a high-explosive round loaded.
So they fire it anyway
(dramatic music plays)
hoping to startle the crew
or blow off the tracks.
The German tank is damaged
but forges ahead.
Redden continues his attack.
O'KEEFE: It gives them time to get off
six unanswered armored-piercing shots
at the Panzer.
The last one strikes home
(explosion, man shouts)
and brews it up immediately.
♪♪
With one Panzer now neutralized,
the Argylls go into action.
The idea is that the infantry
are now gonna cooperate with the tanks
to clear the flanks
and clear the lane of advance
so there are no nasty surprises.
(dramatic music plays)
Move up!
Move up!
(gunfire)
As they make their way,
Lieutenant Gil Armour
discovers a German Panther tank
hiding in an alley.
He asks for volunteers to provide cover
while he climbs up with a grenade.
(man speaking German)
But before he can drop it
into an open hatch,
a German officer emerges with a pistol.
♪♪
(gunfire)
The two men wrestle
♪♪
until Armour throws the German
to the ground
where the fight continues.
♪♪
♪♪
(gunshot)
Finally, the German is wounded
by one of Armour's men.
Armour climbs up again to drop in
a grenade to immobilize the tank.
(explosion)
And a piat is brought forward
to finish the job.
♪♪
♪♪
O'KEEFE:
At this point, a news-camera team
from the Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit
have actually caught up
with the South Albertans,
as they mistakenly heard that the gap
has been closed around Chambois.
The Argyll and Sutherlands continue
to spread through the village.
O'KEEFE: They start clearing buildings
on both sides of the streets
to root out German infantry.
You have to go from room to room
and house to house.
Currie himself gets into the action.
He personally accepts the weapons
of surrendering Germans
and escorts them to the collection point.
♪♪
By mid-morning,
Currie can report to Wotherspoon
that the village is clear
of German defenders.
Wotherspoon instructs him to dig in.
BORYS: Miscommunication during the final
phase of the battle is a major problem.
There are reports
of friendly-fire incidences.
There are reports that the gap
has been closed.
So Wotherspoon does not
send Currie forward.
Instead, he has him secure Saint-Lambert,
short of closing the gap.
♪♪
In the meantime,
Currie and his men continue to intercept
a stream of German soldiers
trying to escape
through Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives.
There are a few big captures.
But many are scruffy soldiers
happy to be out of the war
♪♪
with at least a few who appear to have
been captured on the Eastern Front
and transported to France as workers.
♪♪
There are literally hundreds
of German soldiers
surrendering to a few dozen Canadians.
♪♪
Currie has barely enough manpower
to properly hold the village,
let alone guard the prisoners of war.
(engine idling)
When Captain John Redden emerges
from his tank
to oversee the surrender
of yet another group
(dramatic music plays)
♪♪
he is shot.
♪♪
Redden survives the attack
but has to be replaced.
It reduces Currie's supply of officers
just as the action in Saint-Lambert
increases.
(gunfire)
German artillery begins to land
on the Canadian positions.
♪♪
The Germans inside the village
target the Canadian tanks.
(gunfire)
One bold soldier takes matters
into his own hands
and fires an armor-piercing round
at a Canadian Sherman
(explosion)
which puts it out of action.
Elsewhere, German soldiers get in
so close,
they begin to swarm the tanks
(dramatic music plays)
climbing up to sabotage
the Canadian armor.
O'KEEFE: The reason that you have infantry
operating with tanks
is because when you get into
close quarters,
kind of like what you have
in the town here,
tanks become extremely vulnerable
to enemy infantry,
particularly tank-hunting teams.
(man shouting in German, gun clanging)
In this case, the few soldiers Currie has
are occupied elsewhere.
The tankers have to deal with this threat
on their own.
♪♪
Let's shake these guys off.
Initially, the Canadians speed up
to shake them off.
♪♪
♪♪
That does not work.
O'KEEFE: In a frantic attempt to get
the German infantry off the tanks,
one Canadian tank enters
into what they call delousing
(gunfire)
in other words, turning its machine
guns on the other Canadian tanks,
basically trying to pick off
the German infantry
as if they were lice on clothing.
(gunfire, bullets ricocheting)
With his men and tanks nearly overrun
(dramatic music plays)
(gunfire)
Major David Currie must take action.
♪♪
August 19, 1944.
In Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives, France,
hundreds of German soldiers stumble
into the defensive line
of Canadian Major David Currie.
(dramatic music plays)
The Germans are trying to escape
an Allied encirclement
known as the Falaise pocket.
♪♪
O'KEEFE: It's quite clear to Currie
that his men are about to be overrun,
so he takes the most drastic step
and calls down fire
from the supporting 25-pounder guns,
right onto his own position.
Currie calls for his own men
to take cover.
(gunfire)
♪♪
O'KEEFE: To his terror,
it's not shrapnel shells that arrive --
These will do little damage
to his tanks --
But rather the high-explosive shells
from a medium regiment
that can take out a tank
with one direct hit.
(bomb whistling, explosion)
Rounds land close by
but do not strike the Canadians.
♪♪
The bombardment does take
a very heavy toll
on all the Germans caught out in the open.
The enemy advance is halted, which
buys Currie and his men time to regroup.
(down-tempo music plays)
Despite the lull,
at regimental headquarters,
Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Wotherspoon
anticipates further attacks.
As the gap closes,
more and more Germans flood into the area
to attempt to escape the pocket.
The stone bridge that can bear the weight
of heavy armor
proves irresistible.
Wotherspoon contacts his brigade commander
to request more troops
to defend their thinly held line.
Brigade command offers
only a small reinforcement.
Many of the senior officers
are already looking past the battle.
Generals like Montgomery, Crear,
even Guy Simonds,
they're thinking about tomorrow.
They're thinking about
beyond the Falaise pocket.
On August 18th, Montgomery radios London
with claims the pocket is sealed
and that no German can escape.
BORYS: And this creates a lot of problems
with command and control,
with bringing the appropriate
reinforcements into the area.
Wotherspoon must make do.
♪♪
He sends two companies of infantry
from his headquarters
down to defend Saint-Lambert.
He also dispatches trucks
to make sure Currie and his armor
have everything they need
for the coming fight.
♪♪
It is a tense time.
BORYS: It is extremely risky
to refill tanks while in battle.
They're no longer moving.
They're completely exposed to enemy fire.
Trucks and sometimes tanks deliver
hundreds of jerricans to the front.
They are handed up one at a time
during the 20 minutes it takes to refuel.
Sherman fuel tanks hold
an impressive 140 gallons of gasoline
to feed five Chrysler engines.
It is a race against time.
BORYS: On top of that, as you bring more
and more of that fuel up,
that becomes a hazard
in case any spark should set it off,
causing some sort of explosion.
You are extremely vulnerable
when you are sitting there
refilling your tank,
preparing for the next move.
(down-tempo music plays)
Fueled up and supplied with ammunition,
Currie positions his meager troops
strategically throughout the village
to defend the tanks after dark.
♪♪
(insects chirping)
As the waves of German forces threw
themselves against the Canadian line,
some were captured.
Others made it past.
♪♪
Generalleutnant Eugen Meindl,
commander of the 2nd Parachute Corps
has been watching from the safety
of some nearby woods.
LIEB: General Eugen Meindl is a
personality we don't know too much about.
He's a brave and quite competent
military commander,
but we don't know anything
about his political beliefs
or his attitude towards
national socialism.
It is for certain that many
of the senior paratrooper commanders
are convinced and ardent Nazis.
Whether this was the case also for Meindl,
we just don't know it.
Meindl's elite troops have been fighting
rear-guard actions
within the Falaise pocket.
They must now escape.
Meindl is joined
by Oberstgruppenführer Paul Hausser,
commander of the 7th Army.
LIEB:
Hausser and Meindl meet at Saint-Lambert
in order to discuss how to save
the rest of their army.
How can they escape from this pocket?
Meindl points out the weak points he
has observed in the Canadian positions.
Hausser agrees,
and under cover of darkness,
the leader of an entire army
prepares to crawl alongside his men
toward enemy lines.
♪♪
Just after midnight on August 20, 1944,
two German generals,
Oberstgruppenführer Paul Hausser
of the German 7th Army
and Generalleutnant Eugen Meindl,
creep low
near Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives, France.
LIEB:
The fact that Meindl and Hausser
are both crawling through the mud
and through the bushes
shows in what a critical situation
the Germans are.
Normally, you would expect German generals
to travel by staff cars.
But now, they have to act
like ordinary soldiers.
The generals have a bold plan.
Two thousand paratroopers,
some of the best troops
of the German 7th Army,
will ford the Dives River
near Saint-Lambert
and sneak past the Allied defenders
in the darkness,
then link up with the 2nd SS Panzer Corps
near Coudehard.
LIEB:
The second part is to turn around
and attack the Allied positions
from the outside
in order to keep the gap open
so that the rest of the German army
can escape.
The plan will require stealth,
as the two generals lead their men
across the Dives River
as silently as possible.
♪♪
♪♪
A small group of Canadians occupy
the village to cut off any escape.
Major David Currie
of the South Alberta Regiment
has stationed his 12 remaining tanks
at key intersections
to thwart any further penetration
through Saint-Lambert.
It will be difficult.
Despite their heft, the tanks
are not an effective weapon in the dark
because of their small field of view,
and Currie has fewer than 200 soldiers
to defend them.
(dramatic music plays)
♪♪
♪♪
Meindl and his men manage to outflank
the first Canadian tanks.
But as they make their way past,
they discover a fourth, which opens fire.
♪♪
The shots pass over the heads
of the Germans
(gunfire)
but they are pinned.
(gunfire stops)
♪♪
Even as they inch forward
♪♪
they are forced to the ground again
as the Canadians launch star shells
to improve visibility.
♪♪
A key destination for the German forces
is the stone bridge
at the south end of the village.
LIEB:
The Dives River is quite shallow,
so it's not a major obstacle
for individual soldiers to escape,
but it's a major barrier for any tank.
This bridge is crucial
for any German tanks and armored vehicles
to escape from the pocket.
Currie has positioned a tank here,
at the nearest intersection.
During the night,
its Canadian crew hears sounds outside.
♪♪
(gunfire, bullets ricocheting)
♪♪
The tank commander fires high-explosive
rounds into the darkness
- Fire!
- (explosion)
hoping to find a target
and manage a direct hit.
A massive explosion illuminates
the nearby field
and exposes the German troops
in the darkness.
In response, other Canadian tanks turn
their fire toward the burning vehicle.
♪♪
The original tank commander
calls for his weapon.
(gunfire, explosion in distance)
He emerges from his hatch and begins
to fire, adding to the cacophony.
♪♪
With a rash of gunfire and explosions
from around the village
(gunfire in distance)
Meindl seizes the distraction
and waves for his men to move
as quickly as possible.
♪♪
The German troops creep within a few feet
of the Canadian position
and can hear English voices,
but they continue on.
LIEB: Meindl's plan is not to attack
the Canadian tanks.
Meindl's plan is to bypass them
and to escape.
So any noise must be avoided by all means.
And the tanks prove to be
the final obstacle.
♪♪
Meindl and his men approach the riverbank,
where they need to attempt
a second crossing to make their getaway.
♪♪
Now they must prepare to launch
their counterattack
against the Falaise pocket --
From the outside.
After the long night, day finally breaks.
Visibility remains poor, as a misty fog
hangs over the countryside.
Canadian Lieutenant Gil Armour
and his 10th Platoon
of the Argyll and Sutherland Regiment
remain on high alert.
♪♪
At around 0800 hours,
a clanking, rumbling noise builds.
(tank rumbling)
(men shouting in distance)
Suddenly, a mass of screaming
German soldiers run into view.
(dramatic music plays)
(gunfire)
And behind them, a Tiger tank.
♪♪
Lieutenant Armour and his soldiers
are in their way.
August 20, 1944.
Hordes of Nazi soldiers run screaming
toward a tiny village in Normandy, France.
It is part of an epic plan
to extract them from the Falaise pocket.
(dramatic music plays)
German Panzer troops outside the pocket
launch an attack simultaneously
to keep a tiny gap in the Allied line open
and allow tens of thousands more
of their countrymen to escape.
In Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives,
a German Tiger tank follows the soldiers
and rolls onto the only bridge
in the village
which can safely bear the weight of armor
and equipment.
It is determined to break through
the Allied line
that tries to hold the soldiers in.
♪♪
Until now, the bridge has been held
and protected
by a small group of Canadians
(gunfire)
including infantry
from the Argyll and Sutherland Regiment.
(man speaking German)
♪♪
- Get down!
- MAN: Fire!
The tank fires armor-piercing
and high-explosive rounds
into the house that contains
the platoon's headquarters.
As the Argylls flee
the burning building
(explosion)
they fire into the charging mass
of German soldiers.
♪♪
O'KEEFE:
One of Currie's Shermans responds
and makes a courageous attempt
to take the Tiger on head-to-head.
Unfortunately, the Tiger fires first.
The Canadian tank bursts into flames.
(explosions)
With the Germans now in control
of the bridge,
Major David Currie
of the South Alberta Regiment
dispatches the last of his men
and five tanks.
♪♪
Quickly, two more are knocked out
of action.
They begin a desperate fight
to hold the rest of the village.
(gunfire)
O'KEEFE: Even though the Canadians
are mowing down Germans in bunches,
they are spread so thin
that it's impossible
to completely stem this tidal wave.
The Germans are coming from
what seems like every direction,
trying desperately to get out
of the closing gap.
Right flank!
Currie instructs his men
to focus their fire
on the German vehicles and tanks
headed for the bridge.
O'KEEFE:
Currie is trying to create the conditions
where he can actually effectively hold
Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives.
But he's thoroughly undermanned,
so he's trying to make the best out of
what really is a horrible situation.
At his headquarters
overlooking the fighting,
Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Wotherspoon,
Currie's commander,
orders tank and machine-gun fire
into the approaching Germans
from his vantage point on the hill.
♪♪
(gunfire)
It is not enough.
He can see that Currie and his men
could soon be overrun
and his own position captured.
Wotherspoon calls again for reinforcement.
O'KEEFE:
At higher headquarters,
they already have their sights set firmly
on the next phase of this battle,
and they don't really realize
that Currie's chapter in Saint-Lambert
is still being written.
The South Albertans are on their own.
O'KEEFE:
Some reinforcements don't get off in time.
Some never move,
and others take the wrong road
and get lost en route.
♪♪
In the village, Currie watches as his men
are forced back, alley by alley,
towards his headquarters
in the northwest corner.
They occupy nearby houses
to provide covering fire.
German forces occupy the church,
with its tower at the south end of town,
to cover the bridge and protect the flow
of Nazi tanks and soldiers.
As more Germans move into the village,
a sniper gets in too close.
(gunshot)
Currie uses the hatch of his command tank
as a platform
to snipe the sniper with his rifle.
O'KEEFE: By this time, Currie's force
has dwindled down dramatically.
He does have Major Ivan Martin
from the Argylls
and some of his platoon officers,
but he has little more.
He's lost a lot of his own officers
and his NCOs.
As a result,
he decides to take personal command
and visits each one
of the depleted platoons.
That's exactly the type
of steady leadership you need
when everything is hitting the fan.
Soon, though, a German machine-gun crew
sneaks into the Canadian lines
and sets up a short distance
from Major Martin's men.
(dramatic music plays)
They open up fire
on the Canadian defenders.
(gunfire, bullets ricocheting)
With his Argylls in danger,
Martin asks for a volunteer
to eliminate the enemy machine-gun nest.
No one offers.
♪♪
O'KEEFE:
Martin is in a very difficult position,
because he knows that he could order
his men to do it,
but that's not gonna play well.
So he decides he's gonna do the job
himself.
Armed with a Sten gun, Martin heads off.
♪♪
(gunfire)
♪♪
His men hear, rather than see,
what happens next.
♪♪
(gunfire continues)
♪♪
Minutes later,
Martin returns with a trophy --
A German MG 42.
♪♪
The constant Allied attacks
against the Germans in the Falaise pocket
continue to take their toll
on the fleeing soldiers.
And by the afternoon, there are countless
enemy wounded who need care.
A German medical officer
approaches Currie and Martin
to request assistance for his countrymen.
They discuss terms with the German doctor
using one of Martin's lieutenants
as a translator.
O'KEEFE:
As they're working out this deal,
Currie gets a call from Wotherspoon
and steps away from the discussion.
As Currie gets into his tank,
there is a massive explosion.
(explosion)
August 20, 1944,
at Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives, France.
As Canadian officers negotiate
the surrender
and care of wounded German soldiers,
a high-explosive shell lands nearby.
(explosion, debris falling)
(down-tempo music plays)
It kills one officer
and mortally wounds another --
Acting Major Ivan Martin.
♪♪
It is yet another blow to the mission
to hold the village,
in the face of thousands
of German soldiers
frantic to escape capture
in the Falaise pocket.
(gunfire)
The South Alberta Regiment commander
of Squadron C, Major David Currie,
who had stepped away to take a call,
escapes injury.
O'KEEFE: There's no doubt that Currie
is one hell of a leader,
but he is also successful because he has
good officers and NCOs around him.
They're slowly slipping away, though,
and he's lost all his tank commanders.
And now Martin, who's helped him
hold together the Argylls, is killed.
The losses take a toll on Currie.
Still under heavy fire
and unsure if he can hold,
Currie calls his commander,
Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Wotherspoon,
and requests permission to withdraw.
O'KEEFE: Wotherspoon knows
it must have been really bad in the town
for him to ask to withdraw.
But orders are orders,
and you have to fulfill your objective.
So quite reluctantly, there's no doubt,
that Wotherspoon has to turn him down.
♪♪
Currie moves about the buildings
to visit the dwindling group of defenders
around their headquarters.
O'KEEFE:
This message was extremely sobering,
because now Currie realized
that there was no way out.
This was essentially
a hold-at-all-costs order,
which meant he had to fight to the finish.
And now it's up to him to prepare his men
for that final chapter.
All the while, German forces push closer
to the Canadian positions.
They set up another machine-gun nest
in a nearby house.
(gunfire, explosion)
♪♪
♪♪
Then, unexpectedly, help arrives.
Lieutenant J.R. Flowers and members
of the Canadian 6th Anti-Tank Regiment
have taken a wrong turn and stumble
into Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives by mistake.
(gunfire in distance)
Flowers' men immediately get to work
setting up eight anti-tank guns
at critical locations.
♪♪
They open fire with the 17-pounders
and begin to push back
the German counterattacks.
♪♪
Their targets include a German Tiger
menacing the village.
♪♪
They begin with an armor-piercing round,
which penetrates the tank.
♪♪
The next shot is a high-explosive,
or H.E., round into the same spot,
which creates a two-foot-wide hole
through the Tiger.
With Flowers' guns,
the tide begins to turn.
O'KEEFE:
This twist of fate is a huge gift,
pretty much deliverance for Currie.
A wrong turn had led Flowers
into the right place.
Sometimes when it all comes down to it,
you just need to have luck on your side.
Once again, large numbers of German troops
begin to turn themselves over
to the Canadians.
But Nazi diehards recoil
at the thought of surrender.
(man speaking German, gunshots echoing)
LIEB: There are some instances
in the Normandy battle and also at Falaise
where German SS officers
shoot their own men
if they make any signs of retreating
or surrendering.
The fact that some German SS officers
shoot their own men
shows how fanatical they are.
(gunfire)
Despite their heroic efforts
over the past three days,
the Argyll and Sutherlands
and C Squadron of the South Albertas
are not immediately relieved
and stay in the line,
accepting the surrender of prisoners
and harassing the Germans
who continue to try and escape.
♪♪
♪♪
O'KEEFE: The exhaustion by this point
is overwhelming,
and Currie actually falls asleep
standing up
while he debriefs his relieving officer.
Luckily, one of the boys catches him.
He has been running with no sleep
for at least three days.
♪♪
Currie and Wotherspoon
have held their ground,
but many Germans flee
through the crack in the line.
Misunderstanding and miscommunication
allow them to regroup further north.
LIEB: There are varying numbers, how many
Germans were actually in this pocket
and how many escaped.
So my estimate is that there are
100,000 soldiers in the pocket
and about half of them escape.
And Hitler's pride also proves costly.
LIEB: They have to leave the armored
vehicles and their tanks behind.
80 percent were still intact
or destroyed by the Germans themselves
because they ran out of gas.
The carnage along the Dives River
is nearly incomprehensible.
BORYS: There were thousands of vehicles
and thousands of corpses
crammed into the very few roads left
for the Germans to escape.
Canadian pilots talked about how,
flying over the region,
they could smell the stench of death.
Military authorities have to truck
drinking water into the area
as all of the bodies contaminate
the water supply.
♪♪
Generalleutnant Eugen Meindl succeeds
in breaking out of the pocket
and turns back to attack the Allies
from the outside.
Afterwards
LIEB: Meindl is able to escape
to the Netherlands for refit and regroup,
and he survives the war.
He's been taken prisoner in 1945
by the British.
Oberstgruppenführer Paul Hausser
suffers further wounds
during his escape from the Falaise pocket.
LIEB: But later, he's given command again
of Army Group Upper Rhine in early 1945
and serves until the end of the war.
Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Wotherspoon
retains command of the South Alberta
Regiment until the war's end.
He earns the Distinguished Service Order
and returns to Canada to practice law.
Major David Currie remains commander
of C Squadron.
On November 30, 1944,
he is abruptly flown to London.
The king of England presents him
with the Victoria Cross
for his bravery at the Falaise gap.
Footage from that time
would prove unprecedented.
O'KEEFE: From what we understand,
this is the only film footage
of anyone ever actively earning
the Victoria Cross.
It is the highest honor
of the British Empire.
Currie humbly claims it belongs
to all the men serving alongside him
at Saint-Lambert.
Currie returns to Canada
and is later named sergeant at arms
of the Canadian parliament
by the prime minister,
a post he holds for 17 years.
The fight for Normandy is finished.
The Allies now push towards Paris
while the German army regroups
on the opposite banks of the Seine
and Marne rivers.
But Berlin is the ultimate goal,
and the war in Europe will continue
for another eight and a half months.
Captioned by VITAC