Hitler's Last Stand (2018) s04e02 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR: As an American private covers
the retreat of his fellow soldiers,
a blast from a German tank
throws him off his feet.
The explosion destroys his machine gun
and breaks his glasses.
He retrieves a rifle and
continues to hold the line.
On June 6th, 1944 allied forces
finally land troops in Normandy.
To open the western front.
(speaking in native language)
NARRATOR: But Nazi fanatics
and diehards continue
to fight ferociously for survival.
(rapid gunfire)
D-Day was a battle.
They still need to win the war.
NARRATOR: January 9th, 1945.
The Alsace region, France.
American Private First-Class
Glenn Schmidt scrambles through
the snow clutching a
Browning automatic rifle.
Germans ambushed his patrol outside
the French town of Hatten.
In the firefight, Schmidt’s B.A.R.
jammed and he’s shot twice.
One blast knocked off his helmet
and another bloodies his face.
He’s the sole survivor.
JOHN: The patrol Schmidt is
on is extraordinarily unlucky.
They're doing something
that's pretty routine,
and they just happen to be out
there when the Germans are about
to launch their attacks.
NARRATOR: With enemy
soldiers in pursuit,
Schmidt must get word
to a commanding officer.
JOHN: In this case, the information
you've gathered is firsthand information.
Schmitt is kind of lucky
to even get out of there
more or less unscathed
compared to many others.
NARRATOR: The Germans are in the midst of
the Battle of the Bulge.
PETER: As Wacht Am Rhein loses momentum,
Hitler decides to attack at
a weaker part of the front.
This would mean that the American and
the British attention
is drawn away from the northern battles.
NARRATOR: For this operation,
known as Nordwind,
Hitler appoints Heinrich Himmler,
Reichsfuhrer and head of the SS,
in his first military command.
PETER: As the war progresses,
Hitler trusts less and less people.
However, there's one exception, Himmler,
and he knows for sure that Himmler will
always be loyal to him.
NARRATOR: Himmler is eager to impress
and mark Hitler’s anniversary as Fuhrer.
PETER: Himmler's goal is to
recapture Strasbourg and present it to
Hitler as a gift for the
12th anniversary of the seizure
of power on the 30th of January.
NARRATOR: As the
capital of the Alsace region,
Strasbourg had been liberated in
late November by free French troops.
Himmler’s success
PETER: Would
mean a major blow for
the American French alliance.
NARRATOR: 25 miles
northeast of Strasbourg,
outside the village of Hatten,
Private Schmidt races
for the American line.
Suddenly the night erupts in white light.
Schmidt is struck.
His back burns and he rolls over
in the snow to cool the heat.
JOHN: He must have
been frightened out of his wits.
He's wounded in several places.
He's tattered and torn up.
NARRATOR: The new wounds are from
American phosphorus grenades
and mortars fired by U.S. defenders
into the Germans behind him.
Still smoldering, he stumbles toward the
safety of a bunker to join defenses there.
At Pillbox nine, Schmidt reaches a
section of the famous Maginot Line.
STEVEN: The
Maginot Line is a fortified line
that the French army
erected after World War I,
and it covered from
roughly the Swiss border
all the way up to the Belgian frontier.
NARRATOR: It contains massive
reinforced concrete bunkers.
STEVEN: Some of these bunkers
were essentially underground cities.
You'd have large personnel bunkers.
You'd have all sorts of
gun herds that would pop up
on top of the bunkers.
You'd have tunnels that
would go between bunkers.
NARRATOR: The concrete could
be more than 11 feet thick.
So, they could be
bombarded by aircraft bombs,
by artillery, and yet the troops
within would still be protected.
NARRATOR: The problem was
when Germany invaded in 1940,
they just went around it.
STEVEN: So, the Germans never
got through the Maginot Line.
They instead avoided the
Maginot Line and went through
Belgium where the
Maginot Line did not exist.
NARRATOR: American forces now
occupy the bunkers which must
once again protect the French border
against German attackers from the east.
Oberstleutnant Karl Proll and his 35th
Panzergrenadier Regiment
spearhead the assault into Hatten.
PETER: Karl Proll is a former
NCO who commissioned later.
He gets promoted very quickly
due to his command performance
on the eastern front.
And he's the holder of some of the highest
German military decorations.
NARRATOR: From the woods,
the Panzergrenadiers cross
a large field toward the pillboxes.
PETER: The Germans believe
that the bunkers are unmanned,
but suddenly, they run
into a fierce resistance.
NARRATOR: The lead elements come
under fire from American mortar,
machine guns and artillery.
(rapid gunfire)
They suffer very heavy casualties in
the frontal attack.
The survivors retreat back to the trees.
PETER: Proll, who is a
veteran from the eastern front,
knows he must be flexible now and
change his tactics and pivot.
NARRATOR: Proll’s men and
tanks must find a path between
the American bunkers to
attack Hatten directly.
Pillbox nine is one of a
series of fortifications which
extend out up to a mile from
the eastern edge of Hatten.
From a command post in the village,
A Company commander
captain William Corson,
coordinates the defenses.
Pillbox five, come in.
NARRATOR: They’re connected through
telephone lines with radio back up.
Word trickles in from across the
front about the German attacks.
JOHN: Corson is doing what any
commander wants to do in this
kind of circumstance,
which is to gather as much
relevant information as he can.
And to do that, you have to stay in touch.
NARRATOR: His unit from
the 242nd Infantry Regiment,
of the 42nd Division, only
recently arrived in Europe.
American command sent
them to the Alsace to finish
their training in what
should’ve been a quiet sector.
JOHN: The 42nd Division has
these kind of strengths
and weaknesses in that respect.
The weakness is the inexperience,
the kind of lack of organization,
maybe the lack of confidence.
But I think the strength is the,
the newness of it might create a
level of enthusiasm for fighting
that may not be present in,
in more hard-bitten units.
NARRATOR: In response to the attacks,
headquarters staff of the 242nd prepare
improvised defenses in the village.
Personnel lay mines to prevent
German vehicles from passing through.
Their minefield
blocks the road in front of
the first battalion command post
just across from the church.
Above the minefield, soldiers
with bazookas take up position
in the church steeple.
They join an American artillery observer
who has been there all morning.
To direct fire
in support of the Pillboxes.
The Artillery Observer,
besides maybe the Commander,
is arguably the most important person in
a, in a World War II fight.
The Artillery Observer
is the person controlling
the most important firepower,
the deadliest firepower,
especially on the American side,
where the artillery is
just a fearsome weapon.
NARRATOR: Back at Pillbox nine,
Sergeant Alvin Cahoon,
of A Company, had
thrown back the first waves of
the German assault against
third Platoon’s position
MAN: Fire!
NARRATOR: With help from
artillery and mortar fire.
But to the south, he observes a
dangerous development.
German tanks and infantry break through
between Pillboxes four and five.
NARRATOR: As the German tanks roll up,
they have a chance to flank the bunkers,
and make a straight shot into Hatten.
But suddenly, American bazooka
rounds blast into their armor
from high in the village church.
JOHN: It’s the best
place to see any German units
that are on the move.
German commander
would certainly grasp that,
appreciate it, and would
fixate immediately on that
church steeple as the, as the
likely spot for an observer.
NARRATOR: The
Germans return fire,
and destroy the tower.
The shots eliminate the bazooka teams
and the U.S. Artillery
observer posted there.
This means the Americans
can no longer count on
accurate artillery support.
The losses weaken their
defenses in the village.
Below the steeple, personnel at
the first Battalion Command Post
take up positions to
actively defend Hatten.
Private First-Class Vito Bertoldo is
one of the guards.
JOHN: He has bad eyesight,
which obviously can be an issue
and yet he wants to be there.
So, he had volunteered.
He had tried very hard
to get into the Army.
Initially, they turned him away.
Of course, as the war unfolds
the standards get a little lower
and they need more people,
so he gets in on that basis,
but he becomes a cook.
NARRATOR: Bertoldo wasn’t really
happy in this supporting role.
JOHN: Bertoldo has already
been something of a problem child
for his Mess Sergeant.
If you have a soldier
you perceive as a problem or
not that good, you’re going to
want to put him where you think
he’s going to do the least harm.
NARRATOR: After
arriving in Europe,
Bertoldo’s senior officer,
Captain William Corson,
transfers him to guard duty in Hatten.
JOHN: The transfer is
not a promotion at all.
It’s kind of a sidelining in a way.
NARRATOR: But for Bertoldo,
as a guard he’s one step closer
to fighting Germans.
JOHN: Bertoldo has been
bragging to his buddies
about how, you know, if he gets
a crack at the Germans, man,
what a hero he’s going to be.
There’s so many stories like that,
and the end of that story is
almost always this guy talked
a big game, but when the bullets flew,
he was, you know, in a ditch.
NARRATOR: The former cook
now sets up a machine gun in
the doorway and waits.
As German rounds pepper
the Battalion Command Post
Sergeant!
NARRATOR: Enemy artillery knocks
out the communication system.
Before the attack,
Captain Corson had direct lines
to each of the Pillboxes.
Now he’s cut off.
The Commander always has to decide where
to place himself on the battlefield.
So, where is it appropriate for him to be?
NARRATOR: Corson
leaves the command post.
He sets out to re-connect with his
forward troops in the Pillboxes.
As American artillery falters,
Oberstleutnant Karl Proll’s men
renew their attacks
on the northern bunkers.
(rapid gunfire)
Pillbox nine holds out,
but other U.S.
positions give way.
Further south
The Jagdtiger was
the largest, most powerful
armored vehicle of World War II.
The basic chassis was the same
as the Royal Tiger heavy tank,
except that instead of having a turret
with an 88-millimeter gun,
it had a fixed superstructure
with even thicker armor and
an even more powerful 128-millimeter gun.
NARRATOR: Used to
attack and kill enemy tanks,
the 128-millimeter gun
weighs five and a half tons
and can penetrate seven and a half feet
of concrete at a range
of over half a mile.
STEVEN: During the
time of the fighting in Alsace,
the German troops started to run into
the old Maginot Line bunkers for defense.
Adolf Hitler heard
about this, and he said,
"Ah-ha, I have the ideal weapon.
Send some Jagdtigers down and
have these powerful Jagdtigers
blast away at the bunkers."
NARRATOR: As tanks and
Panzergrenadiers attack
along the line, the
American Pillboxes fall.
Captain William Corson
speeds toward Pillbox nine,
hoping to re-establish communications.
As he nears the bunker
(rapid gunfire)
The jeep comes under fire.
They bail out and find refuge
in an empty mortar position.
(rapid gunfire)
Corson decides to
make a run for the Pillbox.
JOHN: This
incident is a classic example of
something you see in ground combat.
Simple things become really difficult.
He gets pinned down; he
doesn’t know what’s going on.
The communications are spotty.
Now, the simplest things become
extraordinarily difficult and deadly.
NARRATOR: He leaves a
walkie-talkie with one of
his men at the jeep, to act
as a relay for messages back
to first Battalion in Hatten.
With the Americans at the Pillboxes in a
fight for their lives,
German tanks and Panzergrenadiers
press further into the village.
JOHN: This is supposed
to be in a rear area.
I mean, technically, okay?
So, here’s the first
thing that’s gone wrong,
all of a sudden, the Germans
are there at this command post,
a place where they
were never supposed to be.
(speaking in native language)
NARRATOR: Fortunately, the
makeshift minefield outside
the U.S. 242nd
Infantry Regiment,
first battalion command post
halts the German advance.
Oberstleutnant Karl Proll’s
Panzergrenadiers move out front
to clear the mines.
Private First-Class
Vito Bertoldo doesn’t have
a clear shot from the
command post doorway.
He decides to find a better angle.
They take the machine gun into the
middle of the street and set it up.
MAN: Here!
NARRATOR: In full sight
of attacking enemy soldiers,
American Private First-Class Vito Bertoldo
opens fire with his machine gun.
(rapid gunfire)
He targets the German panzer
units who attempt to clear
a minefield that blocks
the advance of their tanks.
Bertoldo forces their retreat.
He and his assistant pick up
the machine gun to relocate.
Bertoldo, has been
trained like any other soldier,
that a, an effective
machine gunner displaces.
Because of course, a machine gun is the
target for the enemy.
It's a deadly weapon.
NARRATOR: Outside Hatten,
Captain William Corson breaks
through the German fire
and arrives at Pillbox nine.
He finds Sergeant Alvin Cahoon and
other members of A Company,
of the 242nd Infantry Regiment.
But they’re low on ammunition and
have many wounded who need evacuation.
By this time, most of
the American defenses along
their sector of the
Maginot Line have crumbled,
but Pillbox nine in the
north continues to resist.
Corson relays the regimental orders;
to continue to hold at all costs.
We are requesting artillery support.
Copy.
NARRATOR: He also tries
to contact his relay man at
the jeep but can’t get through.
He decides to wait until dark and
then return to Hatten to get help.
If the Pillbox falls
and Hatten can be flanked from
the north, it makes the Alsace region
and its newly liberated
capital Strasbourg, vulnerable.
In the early part of operation Nordwind,
Supreme commander
Dwight D. Eisenhower
was ready to yield territory here,
including Strasbourg.
ALEXANDRA: Eisenhower is
really focused on attacking Germany from
the north and the
Alsace region is too far south
he doesn't consider it to be
particularly important and so
for Eisenhower it would
actually make more sense just
to simply withdraw from
that front all together,
and really put the focus
on the rush to Berlin.
NARRATOR: The proposal nearly causes a
mutiny amongst French forces.
ALEXANDRA: The Alsace region,
it's been going back and forth
between the French and
the Germans for centuries,
but what's so very important
about it in this period is that
the free French have liberated
Strasbourg and so of course it's
emotionally very, very
important and a potent symbol
for the French and they're damned if
they're going to give it up again.
NARRATOR: In Hatten,
German infantry and tanks
launch a fresh attack against the
first Battalion headquarters.
Under covering fire,
Panzergrenadier troops once again move
forward to clear the minefield.
Which anchors the
American defenses in the sector.
JOHN: The minefield is how
you're going to restrict German mobility,
it's how you're going to buy time.
And that's a big part
of the battle of Hatten,
is to, to buy time, to get reinforcements.
NARRATOR: And it
could be better.
JOHN: What you hope,
from the American standpoint,
is that a tank comes
in and blows off a mine,
blows a tread, is immobilized,
and now becomes a kind
of a nice roadblock there.
NARRATOR: In a house from which
they can monitor the approach to
the command post and the minefield,
Private First-Class Vito Bertoldo and
his assistant set up their machine gun.
STEVEN: The gunner's assistant
does a number of things.
The most obvious is that he
helps feed the ammunition into
the machine gun, but he has
a secondary role of defending
the machine gun against
approaching enemy troops.
NARRATOR: They secure
the weapon to a table.
STEVEN: A light machine gun
is usually mounted on a tripod.
It has little feet on the end
of it to dig into the ground.
So, by strapping it to the table,
he could keep the machine gun stable
and therefore, fire more accurately.
(rapid gunfire)
NARRATOR: Bertoldo opens up
with his tabletop machine gun.
Once more, his fierce fire forces
the German troops to pull back.
But this time, the enemy tank
pinpoints Bertoldo’s position.
And from 75 yards,
fires directly at his window.
MAN: Fire!
NARRATOR: The tank round
punches through the room.
As the dust settles,
Private First-Class Vito Bertoldo and
his assistant are thrown back,
but amazingly, remain unhurt.
JOHN: He gets a little lucky
because the tank is firing
an armor piercing round.
It's not pleasant when a shell
comes into your room like that.
Uh, the concussive effect is, is terrific.
But it's not as deadly
as it would be if it were
a high explosive round.
NARRATOR: Bertoldo
crawls back to the table.
The tank still sits
just beyond the minefield.
When he reaches the machine gun,
he opens fire again.
JOHN: Firing a
machine gun at a tank,
there's a level of insanity to that.
You are not going to penetrate the tank.
You're going to give away your position.
NARRATOR: A German Tank Commander emerges
from the hatch to get a better look.
Bertoldo grabs a rifle.
At a range of 75 yards, he takes a shot
(gunshot)
And kills the German officer.
Bertoldo continues his
defense of the minefield to
hold the German armor at bay.
JOHN: How the battle
is going to turn out,
that's really still up
in the air at this stage.
A lot’s going to depend on
what happens next with Bertoldo,
whether he's able to, to stop
any kind of German push deeper
into Hatten and whether there's
going to be any reinforcements
in a reasonable amount of time.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile
at Pillbox nine,
Captain William Corson waits for
dark to sneak back into Hatten.
He moves to an aperture to
observe the German assault and
gauge the status of the nearby Pillboxes.
He hopes when he gets back to the village,
with access to a radio,
he can call in artillery positions,
send ammunition,
and alleviate the pressure on the Pillbox.
Without warning, an artillery blast
hits the turret and sends Corson flying.
As the sun sets,
German Panzergrenadiers
close in on Pillbox nine.
As an elite infantry unit,
Oberstleutnant Karl Proll’s
troops fill the gaps between
tanks and other armor with their weapons
and respond quickly as the battle evolves.
PETER: Armor is rarely effective
in fighting directly against bunkers.
Much better, suited are armored infantry,
or Panzergrenadiers, because
when they fought dismounted,
they can recognize better the
weak spot in the defense system
and also protect tanks in the flanks.
NARRATOR: With
Captain Corson wounded,
Sergeant Alvin Cahoon
faces difficult choices.
The intensity of the
German fire increases.
With the men outside
running out of ammunition
and the wounded piling up,
Cahoon orders them to return to
the relative safety of the bunker.
JOHN: We tend to think
of these bunkers
and Pillboxes in World War II
as these incredible,
impervious fortifications.
But I think it's important to
kind of step back and remember,
there's just scared
groups of men in there.
And their view of the world is really
limited to the small apertures they got.
(thudding)
NARRATOR: In the darkness, Cahoon
and his men hear sounds around,
and on the roof of their bunker.
(thudding)
Trapped inside the Pillbox, they
listen as German engineers stuff
explosives down the ventilation tubes.
STEVEN: Between the time
they were built in the 1930s
and the time they saw
combat in 1945, in many cases,
the German army had come in and stripped
out a lot of the steel work
to be put into the Atlantic wall
along the Normandy coast.
And so, they suddenly
became vulnerable to attacks
from unusual directions.
On some of these bunkers, the ventilation
shafts could be an Achilles heel.
NARRATOR: Cahoon has
no way to fight back.
If the explosives detonate,
they won’t survive.
JOHN: He's run out of ammo,
he's not in communication with
larger units that he knows
are going to come and help him.
He can't get his people out of there.
NARRATOR: He consults with
his Captain William Corson,
who’s injured, but alive.
JOHN: The Germans
are basically everywhere,
and he feels there's no purpose in,
you know, just dying there and
destroying the lives of his men.
And so, he decides to surrender.
NARRATOR: Corson agrees.
Cahoon shouts to the Germans on the roof.
The remains of A Company
file out of Pillbox nine with
their wounded comrades and commander.
As the last of the Maginot Line
defenders in the sector,
they’re captured as prisoners of war.
With the American resistance eliminated
outside of the village,
the Germans can
sweep into Hatten unopposed.
NARRATOR: On the
night of January 9th, 1945,
in northeastern France,
the new main line of
resistance for U.S. forces
in the region becomes
the village of Hatten itself.
After the fall of Pillbox nine,
command posts of
the first and second Battalions,
242nd Infantry Regiment,
still hold the line in
the eastern part of town.
But they need reinforcements.
JOHN: When the Germans
launched one of these local attacks,
the Americans then react
and then they come back
with more stuff,
more firepower, more people.
So, it's a
very uncomplicated, unambiguous.
Go back in, take the town and just sort of
reverse the situation.
NARRATOR: In the meantime,
first Battalion relocates its
command post away from the church to a
more secure position.
Private First-Class
Vito Bertoldo volunteers to
remain on guard duty through
the night to cover the move.
JOHN: Why does he do it?
I would doubt that he does
it because he has a death wish.
But I think that he’s ready to embrace
death if that’s what it takes.
And that is a really
amazing thing to consider.
NARRATOR: Just after dawn,
the Germans are first off
the mark and launch their own
attack before the Americans get started.
PETER: The Germans are eager
to push the Americans out of Hatten
and advance further towards Strasbourg.
It has got a very high symbolical value.
The capital of Alsace
should remain German,
this is the way the Nazis think.
(rapid gunfire)
NARRATOR: Arriving American reinforcements
block the German advance,
but can’t push far
enough into Hatten to relieve
Bertoldo and the command posts.
As the day wears on, Bertoldo remains in
his position in front of the minefield.
German troops try repeatedly
to clear the mines which block
the road and hold back the tanks.
Bertoldo uses bursts from his
machine gun to drive them off.
(rapid gunfire)
The German soldiers
scatter and the tank backs away.
Bertoldo and his assistant gunner
reload and wait for the next assault.
JOHN: Bertoldo and his buddy are,
you know, chalking on the
wall or writing on the wall,
to keep track of the damage
they think they've inflicted.
If that helped pass the time,
if that helped keep the, the mind,
you know, all good, great.
NARRATOR: All of a sudden,
the lull is shattered,
and the room ripped apart.
A blast knocks Bertoldo down.
After the explosion he crawls over to aid
his assistant gunner,
despite being injured himself.
JOHN: His buddy is
pretty badly wounded, and so,
he helps patch him
up and get him out of there,
all of which had to be very difficult.
NARRATOR: With his assistant out of harm’s
way and the dust clearing,
Bertoldo looks out and sees the
barrel of an enemy tank
which had crept up a side road.
Before he can act, the
tank bursts into flames.
An American bazooka
team on the second floor
scores a direct hit.
Blazing, the panzer kicks into reverse.
Bertoldo opens up with his machine gun.
(rapid gunfire)
JOHN: There's
an anger side to what he does.
It's time to inflict damage
on the Germans because of what
they had done to his buddy.
The battle's just become
personal for Bertoldo.
NARRATOR: Holding them
responsible for the wounds
suffered by his assistant gunner,
Private First-Class Vito Bertoldo targets
the German soldiers
who flee the burning tank.
By 2300 hours on January 10th,
orders come down for the remains of the
242nd Infantry Regiment
to retreat from Hatten to the
safety of another village to the west.
The depleted battalions
have held out since the attack
started early the day before.
They come back in small groups.
They're, one person covering another,
filtering through the buildings,
going through the shadows.
Take it out with a grenade.
However you can escape,
you are going to do it.
MAN: Move! Move! Move!
NARRATOR: To add
to the confusion,
replacement units fight their
way forward at the same time.
(rapid gunfire)
Bertoldo, now without his assistant,
once more volunteers to provide covering
fire for the retreating troops.
JOHN: The looming question for anybody
who's covering withdrawal is,
you know, when the time comes,
am I myself going to be able to get away?
NARRATOR: In the dark,
German soldiers reach
the battalion command post and
advance beneath Bertoldo’s line of fire.
From this position, he doesn’t have a
shot with his machine gun.
Instead, he reaches for
some phosphorus grenades.
Weapons containing the
element phosphorus are often
used to create
smokescreens for concealment.
When phosphorus comes into
contact with oxygen in the air,
it ignites spontaneously
and burns at temperatures over
1,400 degrees Fahrenheit
to create thick smoke.
Phosphorus grenades and
artillery rounds can also be
used as an incendiary
to set targets on fire.
Humans are often caught up in the flames.
JOHN: It's
a terrifying weapon too,
because it doesn't take
much to cause some damage.
The white phosphorous grenade
has a pretty decent radius of,
you know, 20 or so yards in
which the shards could come
and get on you and start to
burn through your skin.
NARRATOR: While water
puts the flames out,
phosphorus will
reignite when it evaporates.
(explosions)
Soldiers scatter from Bertoldo’s salvo.
The Germans must eliminate the
American opposition which still
holds up their advance.
And once more,
Bertoldo’s thrown from his feet.
JOHN: It's
possible that maybe there is,
on the German side, somebody directing the
fire of the tank to where he is.
Especially after the
white phosphorous grenades
have come into play, and this creates
perhaps more urgency to get the guy.
NARRATOR: A German tank
has locked on to his window.
JOHN: Concussion
again had to be terrific.
I don't know what it
meant on an auditory level,
but it couldn't have done anything
good for his ears and his hearing.
But of course, more immediate, for him,
is it destroys his glasses.
NARRATOR: And renders
his machine gun inoperable.
Bertoldo refuses to concede.
He switches to a rifle and continues
to target German soldiers in the street.
Bertoldo has
fought with everything he has.
He's used some nice, innovative thinking.
He's brought plenty
of courage to the table.
NARRATOR: Finally, after
defending the minefield for
two days, Bertoldo is
told to withdraw himself.
Bertoldo and members of
the 242nd Infantry Regiment,
prevent the Germans from
sweeping through Hatten.
The grueling battle continues in
the village for ten more days.
The delay thwarts the
march to recapture Strasbourg.
ALEXANDRA: Fighting throughout January
in 1945 is absolutely vicious.
There's bitter street to street,
house to house fighting.
And of course not only is
this terribly destructive for
the population, but also for the
infrastructure of these beautiful towns.
Some of them are completely destroyed.
NARRATOR: Himmler’s
plan ultimately fails,
and he can’t deliver Strasbourg
to the Fuhrer to commemorate
the 12th anniversary of the third Reich.
PETER: This doesn't hinder
Hitler from promoting Himmler
again to take over command of army
group Weichsel on the eastern front.
So, Himmler pursues his
military career despite the fact
that he has utterly
failed in his first job.
NARRATOR: Captain
William Corson,
Sergeant Alvin Cahoon, Private First-Class
Glenn Schmidt
and the other Americans captured at
Pillbox nine serve out the war
in prisoner of war camps.
First Battalion of the 242nd
earns a distinguished unit
citation for their
staunch defense of Hatten,
to acknowledge the casualties of
more than 500 men and officers,
nearly 70% of the
rookie battalion’s strength.
Oberstleutnant Karl Proll continues
the attack into Hatten until January 19th.
His first Battalion is also devastated,
with only 100 survivors.
He earns the Iron Cross with
oak leaves for the operation
and the citation reports he
repelled 35 American attacks.
They announce the honor
before the end of January.
PETER: There can
be various reasons for that.
First, one might be that his
performance was so outstanding
that it was clear cut that he must be
awarded with this higher decoration.
Or quite often, it’s the contrary.
The Germans just want to conceal, um,
an actual defeat, but award
someone with a higher medal
so that it looks like a heroic defeat.
NARRATOR: Private
First-Class Vito Bertoldo earns
the highest award; the
Congressional Medal of Honor
for his tenacity and bravery.
His commanding officer,
Captain William Corson learns of
the award from the newspapers,
when he returns stateside.
His ne’er-do-well cook had proved
himself a formidable soldier.
JOHN: It had to be a
bit of a head spinner.
"How did I, get
this guy so wrong?”
NARRATOR: Hitler’s operations;
Wacht am Rhein and Nordwind
continue into January of 1945,
but they don’t deal the decisive blow
Hitler had hoped for.
Instead they’re forced back to
the German border to prepare
and make the Allies pay heavily for
every advance onto German soil.
The war in Europe will still rage f
or another three and a half months.