Dr Felton's videos are everything I used to wish the History Channel could be when I was a kid. I had absolutely no idea the Germans had naval commandos during WW2! Absolutely amazing.
My great grandfather was the "German Comindant" and my Grandfather was the "German Soilder" in that film. Albert Lieven and Andrew Lieven. My grandfather was asked to write his own lines because no one knew how to speak German haha. It was the scene where everything was exploding and I think he said "everyone get out now" or something.
Thanks for this little known WW2 story. My family recently visited Normandy. The German guns and bunkers at the Longues-sur-Mer battery are remarkably intact and I highly recommend a visit.
Just been reading the other wonderful comments posted ..... you should be very proud. Not only are your videos seamless, their content has taught me something new on many occasions. Keep rocking Mark
No wonder we never heard about this raid. Not recognizing the battery’s tactical value and allowing it to be so easily destroyed was a huge mistake. The victors write the history.
@@harpoonhunter1683 Glorious Kazakhstan! leader in Potassium! You very nice place. Kazakhstan, greatest country in the world, all other countries run by little girls, all other countries have inferior Potassium, Kazakhstan friend of all except Uzbekistan, they very nosy people, with bone in their brain
Like Dr. Felton, The Guns of Navarone is one of my favorite movies set in WW2. Not only for the top notch cast and acting, but also for the soundtrack. Better theme songs are few and far between. Thanks Dr. Felton. Cheers from the States 🍻🍻.
I so love your vids. Mi Dad was 19 when he signed up just before war broke out, so he could choose a trade he said. RAF Roles Royce fitter. Above a mechanic as fitters literally rebuilt everything. North Africa. As a kid me n mates played war lol. And football if course. He would have so enjoyed your channel Thank you for keeping history alive and expanding the knowledge
Once again I am seeing an upload that I didn't know I wanted to see but were excellent to see the equivalent raid 👍 Thank you Mark, you still don't fail to provide interesting and lesser known subjects or instances from the days gone by
Wow. Thanks, Mr. Felton. So well done. I wish I had your vids to watch when I was in service. Not just historical, but educational. Thanks from a vet. Cco 2/75th Rgrs.
Love the focusing on the real story behind a movie! Would love to see more of the classic war movies like A Bridge Too Far, Bridge over the River Kwai, Das Boot, and many others.
You never disappoint! I knew the Germans had special operations units, but had never heard of this operation, nor the actual name of the naval units doing sneaky things. I learn something from every single one of your videos!
In the day and age of great UA-cam channels like The History Underground, WW2 Wayfinder, Walking the Ground etc why anyone would be daft enough to waste their time with Felton and his rehashing of wartime footage is beyond me. So many better channels out there who go to these places and explore them and bring the stories to life.
@ nope from research and reading and following actual historians. Felton skims a lot of his info from the WW2 Talk forum, then claims he discovered it.
Doctor how sir and where do you come up with these unknown subjects I would for the life of me enjoy sitting at your feet and be amazed at your history lessons.
A darn good story about the operation to take out a captured coastal battery. It was quite riveting. Thank you, Dr. Felton, for sharing it. Though the Commander of the operation got the Gold War Cross, did any of the men who did the operation get any recognition other than from their Commander?
My randy girlfriend entered my room excitedly just as the intro music to this video was booming; she groaned in despair and slammed the door behind her, understanding that she had no chance against a new Mark Felton episode. All she said was that she hoped it was a short video.
A Bridge too Far (1977), Soldaat van Oranje (1977, Paul Verhoeven), Het meisje met het rode haar (1981), De Aanslag (1986), e and one about our biggest trailer: Riphagen (2016). De IJssalon (1985). These are are thrilling Dutch war movies. Soldaat van Oranje is really our "national" war movie. It is 2h 45m long. All these stories in these movies have really happened. Soldaat van Oranje ( the real living one) became our highest medal: Militaire Willemsorde. Look the movies. They are or in English or English subtitled.
I have visited Honfleur many times on trips to Normandy and gone in a number of bunkers along the coastal road between Trouville and Honfleur but never knew anything about the Vasouy battery.
Two of the 15cm guns were in concrete casemates, the 3rd still in its kettle style circular pit, ready for 360 degree fire. Schiffer Publishing: Gun Emplacements on the Normandy Beaches.
Oh I actually visited normandy in 2013 and saw point du hoc and all those guns, one of the bunkers is collapsed but other ones you can walk into the guns and its quite a sight. Especially to see the massive shell craters all over.
Professor Felton, another masterpiece from yourself. As I’ve said to you before, I’m a fan of the fictitious The Eagle Has landed film starring Michael Caine. This particular video you’ve done resonates again. I cannot believe the Germans didn’t get here a la the film, these marines with specialist skills could surely have got commandos here again a la film. I would love you to find something like this, I know when you’ve covered failed attempts but I’m just flabbergasted that the Germans didn’t get here at all! There must be a suppressed file from Mr Churchills archives or govt ones where the fictitious becomes reality. Surely this has crossed your fantastic mind. Thankyou Professor. Ben ❤🚌
@BenMarshall ---> Hello. I suggest that you read the book "The Eagle Has Landed". Very good story. [Casting very English Michael Caine to play a Nazi special unit officer in the movie was not "right".... akin to casting Twiggy as "Miss Marple".
@ yes I agree regards mr Caine but the concept , or rather the idea that the British coastline was totally covered by our own defence forces becomes ridiculous for 2 reasons, 1. Marks video and 2. The daily news regarding refugees and “the busiest shipping lane in the world “ Comparing it I suppose with mr trumps farcical border wall, where people have only just come over the Mexico /US border in recent times! When in fact numbers of migrants haven’t increased at all since 2005 contrary to Trumps propaganda, akin to immigrants eating domestic pets in one city (during the election campaign). As I said I bet there are official papers regards a German Commando Force akin to Caine and his men confirming they did land here. Best wishes. Ben
@@BenMarshall-co3uu How much airplane glue have you been huffing (sniffing)? The U.S./ Mexico Southern Border wall is NOT a farce. It is a real structure. The Biden Administration made up of open borders communists & extreme socialists opened up the wall and allowed people (terrorists and criminals) to enter without a Passport or a Visa. No sane nation in the world should do such a suicidal thing. England, Scotland and Wales are on a large Island thus the German Nazi invaders needed some watercraft to get to Britain or aircraft & parachutes.
In current german monthly weapons magazin (?)/ Waffenzeitschrift , Deutsches Waffenjournal ' there is an article about Winston Churchill, his private weapons and his bodyguard Thompson. The writer of those article also knows the movie about the assassination attempt, but doesn' t know, if such a plan ever existed.
@@brittakriep2938as I’ve said in the other replies and my initial question this video sort of confirms the ridiculous plot of the film, but then adds a dose of reality.’ Jack Higgins was a superb writer. Were the shallows where Steiner lands really shallow? And if they were why weren’t they defended?? Regardless of all that I cannot see why a German assault a la the film couldn’t be “feasible” to use one of the films lines! It baffles me how these immigrants make it across the channel (albeit we are not at war) in rubber boats yet as we now know the Germans had the technology why didn’t they come and did they ? And the info has been suppressed? It’s also worth noting Higgins did a sequel where Steiner was wounded , recovered and turned as a spy!
Mark, you never cease to amaze me with all the things you learn of. You add to my already extensive knowledge of WW2. Have you ever found out who bought the Frankentiger? When that came out I tried to find out with no success, but I think, and I stress "think" that it was someone who lived close to New York City, maybe New Jersey. I would love to find out. Imagine being rich enough to buy a Tiger Tank.
Guns is still one of my favorite War movies, bar none. Not to get too into the weeds, but I think much of the film's quality is likely due to it's original director, the very talented and inimitable, Alexander Mackendrick. He was such a perfectionist he never even got to production, but I have a feeling his preparation for the movie helped. I also tend to think this because, with apologies to J. Lee Thompson, I don't think the director, Thompson, ever made something close to this magnificent again, Cape Fear included. I will note that 1958's "Ice Cold in Alex" is a very well done 'Brits in North Africa' WW2 picture - beautiful black and white, some nice action and character moments etc.
Force 10 was a great movie too. Thank you Sir for another wonderful video on WWII history. Any chance you have some great (obscure) Naval videos brewing? Cheers!
This was great! I look forward excitedly to future exploits of these German ‘Commandos’! The derring do of Otto Skorzeny and his band of tricksters have heretofore taken center stage when talking of special ops of the Germans that it’s a wonderful surprise to find out about other special units. I wonder why, in my years of studying WWII I’ve not heard of this group? This is a perfect example of why Dr. Felton has over 2 Million subscribers thus leaving other wonderful WWII Historians in the dust!
German here: In case of german intelligence services Abwehr, Fremde Heere Ost/ Fremde Heere West of Wehrmacht and Gestapo of NSDAP are rather wellknown. But Propaganda Minister Goebbels (or was it Göring ?) as far as i know also had a small intelligence unit ,Reichspost Forschungsstelle '.
What a great lesson in vigilance! I can imagine those British sentries were a bit slack because "Jerry's on the other side of the river, nothing's going to happen around here!" Oh brother. The moral of the story is NEVER assume anything while the "Bad Guys" are still out there, somewhere. Great story Doctor Felton! Thanks for posting!
Magnificent raid I think the Linsen is a craft that many people now know about thanks to you Mark you have brought it out of obscurity truck is a Ford V3000S nowadays one of the rarest to my knowledge there only one in the UK that started in the BBC SAS drama and last time I saw it in 2019 it had a 20mm flack gun in the back and was waring Norman camouflage.
Thank you for another great video. As a former US Marine, I would be interested in seeing videos about different marines/naval infantry from the different combatants in WWII.
I watched Guns of Navarone in 1994 when it was broadcast in Indian State broadcaster Doordarshan(they had a pact with Columbia pictures Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare will remain my top Alistair Maclean book adaptations into movies. There is another movie called ' Seawolves ' based on a real life attack on German ships anchored in Portuguese Goa during WW2. The catch was the soldiers were retired British Indian army men as regular troops couldn't be sent to a neutral country's territory. Hope Dr. Felton makes a video on that as well as on the Japanese aerial attacks on Indian cities like Kolkata, Madras and Visakhapatnam( they sent a aircraft carrier into Bay of Bengal for attacking Vizag ) during World War 2.
Hi Mark, At the start of the video at about 1:15 you have a photograph of a gun emplacement and captioned it as Merville Battery. I just need to point out that this particular battery did not have the casemate pictured. Merville had R611 and R669 casemates not M272 type (as pictured). I visited the site twice.
I remember watching this as a young lad with my father. I was really into army even back then. Rewatched it last year aswell. Movies from those times have a cool feeling to them. Good times
In my swabian region of Germany, there is an old joke about HRE era. The town militia of a small Imperial ( Free) Town did one of their rare exercises, because a war could begin, and also used their only field Cannon outside of town. At lunch time the small unit went into town, and the commander ordered a single soldier to guard the Cannon over lunch time. When commander and other men came back, the guard was gone. The angry commander searched the guard, and asked the man: Why did you leave the Cannon? The man's answer: A singe enemy can' t steal the Cannon , but when more than one enemies come, i can' t stop them alone.
🌏 Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months extra ➼ nordvpn.com/markfelton It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! ✌
Doc, you're spoiling us with all these uploads.
We love it!
Amazing to think the Italians led the way in covert submarine warfare!
This rag tag squad had more adventures? Oh then Please make a deticated playlist about them.
I kiss you picture Mark ♥️👍
Another not well publicized military operation from WWII brought to us by the indomitable Dr Felton. Much appreciated.
he truly is a historical force of nature
❤
Dr Felton's videos are everything I used to wish the History Channel could be when I was a kid.
I had absolutely no idea the Germans had naval commandos during WW2!
Absolutely amazing.
Felton plays the "deep cuts". Learned more from him than anything on the "history " channel
@@jerryjeromehawkins1712
Well said.
It's insane just how much happened on any given day during WW2. And yet another story I've never heard about, thanks to Mr Felton
It’s Dr. Felton Ph.d. But I’m sure you meant no disrespect. He is the only kosher historian on UA-cam.
@mtkoslowski I don't think Mark is worried
@@Vuk_Stajic
I am certain that he is not. However I recognize scholars and don’t diminish their work or their qualifications.
you have once again demonstrated to me how WW2 is one of those topics that one can study for a long time and new things will still keep coming!
The Guns of Navarone was and still is one of my favourite movies.
Me too!
My own favorite remains
“Bridge On The River Kwai”
Another obscure piece of history well documented from the tumultuous times of the Normandy invasions. Thank you, Doctor Felton.
As a kid, we watched "Guns of Navarone" at a drive-in theater - thanks for the memories and adding a new one!
You actually watched the movie at a drive in?
So did I. Why?
My great grandfather was the "German Comindant" and my Grandfather was the "German Soilder" in that film. Albert Lieven and Andrew Lieven. My grandfather was asked to write his own lines because no one knew how to speak German haha. It was the scene where everything was exploding and I think he said "everyone get out now" or something.
i think my grandfather was an electrician in the german army, i found his old helmet in the attic, it had two lightening bolts on it.
@@GavTatu😂😂😂😂
@@GavTatu was he perchance a 'shock trooper'? lol
Silly Sausage 😅
K
I saw this movie as a young lad (10 or 11 years old ) in Madras India, with my Grandpa.
Now i'm 62 years old, but the movie never gets old.
Same to me the same time my parents took me to Cinema to watch this movie 😮😅👍💯
Same i made a sten out of card bored tubes used watch this film with my nan
I have heard this movie from a child days
Have it on dvd
Watched it at boarding school in Bloemfontein in South Africa!
Thanks for this little known WW2 story. My family recently visited Normandy. The German guns and bunkers at the Longues-sur-Mer battery are remarkably intact and I highly recommend a visit.
I remember the Guns of Navarone movie as a kid, maybe 10,and began my obsession with the history of WW2.
Just been reading the other wonderful comments posted ..... you should be very proud. Not only are your videos seamless, their content has taught me something new on many occasions.
Keep rocking Mark
Exzellente Ausgabe! Wie immer, herzlichen Dank Dr. Felton. Regards from SSW, 🇿🇦
Many thanks for sharing this Unknown WWII incident as it has not been mentioned anywhere till now
No wonder we never heard about this raid. Not recognizing the battery’s tactical value and allowing it to be so easily destroyed was a huge mistake. The victors write the history.
I had to be embarassing as hell, no doubt.
Your favorite fan from Zimbabwe checking in.
Your videos are exeptional!!!!
Me too! In Kazakhstan great fan. Great video here always. 👏👍
I salute you and kiss you picture Mark, sir.
😘😁
@@harpoonhunter1683 Glorious Kazakhstan! leader in Potassium! You very nice place. Kazakhstan, greatest country in the world, all other countries run by little girls, all other countries have inferior Potassium, Kazakhstan friend of all except Uzbekistan, they very nosy people, with bone in their brain
@@fredgarv79 My sister is number one in glorious Kazakhstan!
Like Dr. Felton, The Guns of Navarone is one of my favorite movies set in WW2. Not only for the top notch cast and acting, but also for the soundtrack. Better theme songs are few and far between. Thanks Dr. Felton. Cheers from the States 🍻🍻.
I so love your vids.
Mi Dad was 19 when he signed up just before war broke out, so he could choose a trade he said. RAF Roles Royce fitter. Above a mechanic as fitters literally rebuilt everything. North Africa. As a kid me n mates played war lol. And football if course.
He would have so enjoyed your channel
Thank you for keeping history alive and expanding the knowledge
Ok thanks here for you sharing this. I salute your dad many times. Also salute Mark and many times kiss his picture. 😘😁
Dear foreigner. What is "war lol"? We had war Spitfires in the UK.
Once again I am seeing an upload that I didn't know I wanted to see but were excellent to see the equivalent raid 👍
Thank you Mark, you still don't fail to provide interesting and lesser known subjects or instances from the days gone by
Interesting factoid - the scenes in Guns of Navarone where the guns are prepared to fire inspired the Death Star firing scenes in Star Wars.
Han Solo was in the sequel to Guns of Navarone too.
Wow. Thanks, Mr. Felton. So well done. I wish I had your vids to watch when I was in service. Not just historical, but educational. Thanks from a vet. Cco 2/75th Rgrs.
Love the focusing on the real story behind a movie! Would love to see more of the classic war movies like A Bridge Too Far, Bridge over the River Kwai, Das Boot, and many others.
I did not know anything about this story. Very fascinating as always. Great work Mark.
You never disappoint! I knew the Germans had special operations units, but had never heard of this operation, nor the actual name of the naval units doing sneaky things. I learn something from every single one of your videos!
The British didn’t think of
using the guns against the nazi
positions on the other side of the
Seine estuary, & left them idle.
Germans are sneaky with eyes too close, yours, Captain Mainwaring.
Thank you for sharing this story and the security for computers looks good
great video as always mark thank you
Fantastic and unique commentary on events not published elsewhere.....great job Mark
Mark Felton Time 🤩🤩🤩🤩
Fascinating stuff. I particularly enjoy the small boat actions/naval special forces operations of ww2
In the day and age of great UA-cam channels like The History Underground, WW2 Wayfinder, Walking the Ground etc why anyone would be daft enough to waste their time with Felton and his rehashing of wartime footage is beyond me. So many better channels out there who go to these places and explore them and bring the stories to life.
Obviously you’re such an expert on ww2 that you knew all this already, from Hollywood by the sounds of it
@ nope from research and reading and following actual historians. Felton skims a lot of his info from the WW2 Talk forum, then claims he discovered it.
Thank you.
Awesome adventure tale Mark. And its real, thanks!
I read all of Alistair MacLean growing up (He wrote "The Guns Of Navarone".). It's why I like Mark Felton so much these days. A fascinating story.
Who needs sleep when you have obscure history facts?
😂
What do you mean obscure bro we are talking about big ww2 gun
Ah yes, a very early Good Morning to everyone! 🙃
WW2 is Obscure? 😅
For me the narrators voice has to be a good one for the sleep effect.. Marks is a good one.
just when you thought you had heard it all about Normandy and Navarone , Dr Mark Felton comes up with another interesting war story
Had the Navarone play set when I was a kid, so the coastal gun batteries were always of interest to me.
Doctor how sir and where do you come up with these unknown subjects I would for the life of me enjoy sitting at your feet and be amazed at your history lessons.
A darn good story about the operation to take out a captured coastal battery. It was quite riveting. Thank you, Dr. Felton, for sharing it. Though the Commander of the operation got the Gold War Cross, did any of the men who did the operation get any recognition other than from their Commander?
My randy girlfriend entered my room excitedly just as the intro music to this video was booming; she groaned in despair and slammed the door behind her, understanding that she had no chance against a new Mark Felton episode. All she said was that she hoped it was a short video.
Lol
Sucks to be you 😂😂😂
The old films are the best! The list is endless... The Great Escape, The Longest Day, Von Ryan's Express. Whisky Galore, Etc etc etc.
All made by the generation that lived it. Certainly they had an insight that is lacking nowadays.
@@wayneantoniazzi2706Battle of the Bulge, the Bridge at Remagen, the Blue Max...
@@julioalbertoherrera1339 The Blue Max!! Excellent!
@@julioalbertoherrera1339 Them too!
A Bridge too Far (1977), Soldaat van Oranje (1977, Paul Verhoeven), Het meisje met het rode haar (1981), De Aanslag (1986), e
and one about our biggest trailer: Riphagen (2016). De IJssalon (1985). These are are thrilling Dutch war movies. Soldaat van Oranje is really our "national" war movie. It is 2h 45m long. All these stories in these movies have really happened. Soldaat van Oranje ( the real living one) became our highest medal: Militaire Willemsorde. Look the movies. They are or in English or English subtitled.
I have visited Honfleur many times on trips to Normandy and gone in a number of bunkers along the coastal road between Trouville and Honfleur but never knew anything about the Vasouy battery.
Thank you for sharing this story Mr. Felton. Cheers from 🇩🇪
I had not heard of this fascinating operation. Thank you.
Mr. Felton, I commend you are your honesty in history.
Two of the 15cm guns were in concrete casemates, the 3rd still in its kettle style circular pit, ready for 360 degree fire. Schiffer Publishing: Gun Emplacements on the Normandy Beaches.
Another fascinating snippet of history, thanks!
The German Cross in Gold is more prestigious than the Iron Cross First Class and just below the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross.
Bravo Professor, well researched and presented.
Battles can be won but until the enemy surrenders unconditionally, you can't underestimate your enemy...
Fascinating story
Another unheard of story.. interesting stories keep on rolling even till today and in the future for sure..many thanks Mr. Felton ..enjoy it very much
Another superb history lesson. Ty Dr Felton!
went and visited these bunkers last month! Was an amazing experience
Oh I actually visited normandy in 2013 and saw point du hoc and all those guns, one of the bunkers is collapsed but other ones you can walk into the guns and its quite a sight. Especially to see the massive shell craters all over.
Thanks Mark!
Professor Felton, another masterpiece from yourself.
As I’ve said to you before, I’m a fan of the fictitious The Eagle Has landed film starring Michael Caine.
This particular video you’ve done resonates again.
I cannot believe the Germans didn’t get here a la the film, these marines with specialist skills could surely have got commandos here again a la film.
I would love you to find something like this, I know when you’ve covered failed attempts but I’m just flabbergasted that the Germans didn’t get here at all!
There must be a suppressed file from Mr Churchills archives or govt ones where the fictitious becomes reality.
Surely this has crossed your fantastic mind.
Thankyou Professor.
Ben ❤🚌
@BenMarshall ---> Hello. I suggest that you read the book "The Eagle Has Landed". Very good story. [Casting very English Michael Caine to play a Nazi special unit officer in the movie was not "right".... akin to casting Twiggy as "Miss Marple".
@ yes I agree regards mr Caine but the concept , or rather the idea that the British coastline was totally covered by our own defence forces becomes ridiculous for 2 reasons, 1. Marks video and 2. The daily news regarding refugees and “the busiest shipping lane in the world “
Comparing it I suppose with mr trumps farcical border wall, where people have only just come over the Mexico /US border in recent times! When in fact numbers of migrants haven’t increased at all since 2005 contrary to Trumps propaganda, akin to immigrants eating domestic pets in one city (during the election campaign). As I said I bet there are official papers regards a German Commando Force akin to Caine and his men confirming they did land here. Best wishes. Ben
@@BenMarshall-co3uu How much airplane glue have you been huffing (sniffing)? The U.S./ Mexico Southern Border wall is NOT a farce. It is a real structure. The Biden Administration made up of open borders communists & extreme socialists opened up the wall and allowed people (terrorists and criminals) to enter without a Passport or a Visa. No sane nation in the world should do such a suicidal thing.
England, Scotland and Wales are on a large Island thus the German Nazi invaders needed some watercraft to get to Britain or aircraft & parachutes.
In current german monthly weapons magazin (?)/ Waffenzeitschrift , Deutsches Waffenjournal ' there is an article about Winston Churchill, his private weapons and his bodyguard Thompson. The writer of those article also knows the movie about the assassination attempt, but doesn' t know, if such a plan ever existed.
@@brittakriep2938as I’ve said in the other replies and my initial question this video sort of confirms the ridiculous plot of the film, but then adds a dose of reality.’
Jack Higgins was a superb writer. Were the shallows where Steiner lands really shallow? And if they were why weren’t they defended??
Regardless of all that I cannot see why a German assault a la the film couldn’t be “feasible” to use one of the films lines!
It baffles me how these immigrants make it across the channel (albeit we are not at war) in rubber boats yet as we now know the Germans had the technology why didn’t they come and did they ? And the info has been suppressed?
It’s also worth noting Higgins did a sequel where Steiner was wounded , recovered and turned as a spy!
Another excellent video! I love these video on commando/kommando operations!
Thank you for researching this and bringing it to your channel Dr. Felton.
Mark, you never cease to amaze me with all the things you learn of. You add to my already extensive knowledge of WW2. Have you ever found out who bought the Frankentiger? When that came out I tried to find out with no success, but I think, and I stress "think" that it was someone who lived close to New York City, maybe New Jersey. I would love to find out. Imagine being rich enough to buy a Tiger Tank.
Another amazing story. Thanks Mark
I enjoyed this episode as usual but I was blown away at 4:01 to see my father’s seemingly twin. My dad was commander of a PT boat in Hawaii during ww2
Another *epic* Mark Felton production!
Thank you for the lesson.
Great story. Thank you.
Another great story from her Dr..Felton...
A superb video on a topic a I never knew. Thank you.
Guns is still one of my favorite War movies, bar none. Not to get too into the weeds, but I think much of the film's quality is likely due to it's original director, the very talented and inimitable, Alexander Mackendrick. He was such a perfectionist he never even got to production, but I have a feeling his preparation for the movie helped. I also tend to think this because, with apologies to J. Lee Thompson, I don't think the director, Thompson, ever made something close to this magnificent again, Cape Fear included. I will note that 1958's "Ice Cold in Alex" is a very well done 'Brits in North Africa' WW2 picture - beautiful black and white, some nice action and character moments etc.
Classic film. Love Edward Fox's role.
The Guns of Navarone is a favorite movie for me also!!!
Amazing how you found archival b/w footage of two Linsen Boats being towed, superb research as always Mr Felton 👍👍👍👍
German word Linsen can mean both optical lens or food lentils.
Wow, another exciting episode! Great footage!
Greetings from East Tennessee 🤠
Thank you, from New Jersey
Visited Normandy and walked around the gun positions, unbelievable places
thank you for researching and producing these videos ; they are very interesting !
Great stuff Mark!
Thank you for the video.From Greece
Very informative video! Please continue with your history of WWII I am very interested in your excellent work on this topic!
Force 10 was a great movie too. Thank you Sir for another wonderful video on WWII history. Any chance you have some great (obscure) Naval videos brewing? Cheers!
Thanks.
Who knew? Now I do thanks to Dr. Felton.
I’ve been to these guns in real life! So awesome that you can share this history about them that I never knew.
I appreciate Mark's excellent video. I checked with a few WWII Vets who were in the D day operation). Non of them (Allied WWII ) heard of this.
Very interesting. Thank you!
This was great! I look forward excitedly to future exploits of these German ‘Commandos’! The derring do of Otto Skorzeny and his band of tricksters have heretofore taken center stage when talking of special ops of the Germans that it’s a wonderful surprise to find out about other special units. I wonder why, in my years of studying WWII I’ve not heard of this group? This is a perfect example of why Dr. Felton has over 2 Million subscribers thus leaving other wonderful WWII Historians in the dust!
German here: In case of german intelligence services Abwehr, Fremde Heere Ost/ Fremde Heere West of Wehrmacht and Gestapo of NSDAP are rather wellknown. But Propaganda Minister Goebbels (or was it Göring ?) as far as i know also had a small intelligence unit ,Reichspost Forschungsstelle '.
I liked Force 10 from Navarrone the follow up to the Guns of Navarrone 😃
Han Solo was in that.
I’m not a kid anymore but The Guns Of Navarone is still one of my favourite war movies.
A large set of balls to do that operation. Wow!
I always think of the Germans in Normandy in defence mode.
Mark Felton dispels that.
Fab story!
What a great lesson in vigilance! I can imagine those British sentries were a bit slack because "Jerry's on the other side of the river, nothing's going to happen around here!" Oh brother.
The moral of the story is NEVER assume anything while the "Bad Guys" are still out there, somewhere.
Great story Doctor Felton! Thanks for posting!
The British Empire was the bad guys.
Magnificent raid I think the Linsen is a craft that many people now know about thanks to you Mark you have brought it out of obscurity truck is a Ford V3000S nowadays one of the rarest to my knowledge there only one in the UK that started in the BBC SAS drama and last time I saw it in 2019 it had a 20mm flack gun in the back and was waring Norman camouflage.
Great video!
Thank you for another great video. As a former US Marine, I would be interested in seeing videos about different marines/naval infantry from the different combatants in WWII.
Great video and story too
I have a vague memory that the Guns used in the film were just two models of the Schwerer Gustav rail guns.
I watched Guns of Navarone in 1994 when it was broadcast in Indian State broadcaster Doordarshan(they had a pact with Columbia pictures Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare will remain my top Alistair Maclean book adaptations into movies. There is another movie called ' Seawolves ' based on a real life attack on German ships anchored in Portuguese Goa during WW2. The catch was the soldiers were retired British Indian army men as regular troops couldn't be sent to a neutral country's territory.
Hope Dr. Felton makes a video on that as well as on the Japanese aerial attacks on Indian cities like Kolkata, Madras and Visakhapatnam( they sent a aircraft carrier into Bay of Bengal for attacking Vizag ) during World War 2.
Hi Mark, At the start of the video at about 1:15 you have a photograph of a gun emplacement and captioned it as Merville Battery. I just need to point out that this particular battery did not have the casemate pictured. Merville had R611 and R669 casemates not M272 type (as pictured). I visited the site twice.
I remember watching this as a young lad with my father. I was really into army even back then. Rewatched it last year aswell. Movies from those times have a cool feeling to them. Good times
Good video Mark , always good to hear the "other side of the coin"
Amazing that the guns were not guarded at all
In my swabian region of Germany, there is an old joke about HRE era. The town militia of a small Imperial ( Free) Town did one of their rare exercises, because a war could begin, and also used their only field Cannon outside of town. At lunch time the small unit went into town, and the commander ordered a single soldier to guard the Cannon over lunch time. When commander and other men came back, the guard was gone. The angry commander searched the guard, and asked the man: Why did you leave the Cannon? The man's answer: A singe enemy can' t steal the Cannon , but when more than one enemies come, i can' t stop them alone.
Very cool, didn't even know about this.
Cool thanks man I'll check that movie out I love old war films