Seventy five years ago my father landed on Juno Beach with an RAF Forward Air Control unit attached to the Canadian Army. He drove his Signals Truck off a Landing Craft into six feet of water, praying every second not to stall the engine or he would have had to swim. Not liking the alternative, he kept the engine running and drove up the beach into Normandy and kept on driving until he crossed the Rhine at Wesel and the Elbe river in May 1945, still with the Canadians. My father passed away aged 87 in 2012. RIP dearest Dad. 💕
I believe it was in Sicily that a German general said something along the lines of "operating armor with in range of naval gunfire is not advisable", which seems almost up to British standards of understatement. The amount of naval gunfire available was stunning and the navies would have loved to "relocate" a panzer division or three with 14, 15, and 16 inch shells.. I don't think Rommel's plan would have worked against the forces it would face.
Mark, the quality of your channel is like no other. Love the sound quality in your voice, youre opening tune and video contents. Keep up the hard work!
I agree about the voice quality... Mark almost sounds like a war correspondent of the time, but without the poor sound quality of the time! And the channel is one of my favourites!
Another great video. Something to consider about Rommel's plan. Putting the panzers forward would've place them within range of naval gunfire. Twice during the Italian campaign German armor managed to threaten the beach landings and the panzers were wrecked by naval artillery. Also consider the Allied ground attack aircraft.
God, the Panzer IV (seemingly the H version) looks so sexy in these footage reels. In my opinion, the most humble tank in the whole war, what a legend!
The PzIV.H: the workhorse of the late war panzer divisions. The Western Allies thought that every one they encountered was a Tiger I while the Soviets thoughts the Wehrmacht was disguising them as Tigers. XD ua-cam.com/video/bNjp_4jY8pY/v-deo.html 28:52 ua-cam.com/video/yaLyAjAjoDM/v-deo.html
The PzKmpfW IV was a very good general purpose medium tank, with a very acccurate gun that could defeat any AFV used by the western Allies. Thanks to excellent optics in its gunsight, excellent accuracy of the gun, & advanced ordinance, the PzKmpfW IV crews could kill most Soviet & western Allies' AFVs at medium or long range with their first or second shot, before opposing tanks could close in enough to have a good chance of getting a hit on the PzKmpfW IV. Where the terrain permitted medium & long-range tank engagements, the PzKmpfW IV's 75mm L/48 gun outranged most Allied tank guns, which resulted in knocking out western Ally armour before its main weakness - barely adequate armour protection - became a liability. Consequently, it developed a lofty reputation among Soviet & western Ally tank crews. However, by 1944, its armour protection and its forward speed on anything but roads were becoming inadequate. The PzKmpfW IV was a 1930s design which had reached the end of its evolution, especially in terms of armour & firepower. So it no longer could dominate the battlefield. In the last year of the war, the PzKmpfW IV's effectiveness in offensive operations was much lower than the Panther. However, its very good gun enabled it to remain very effective in a defensive role until the end of the war.
Thank you for posting , every interesting . A small footnote , the resistance was asked to blow up as many phone lines poles as possible . This was to force the Germanys to use their radio net , which the British were monitoring .
Great video! My personal belief is that D-Day would have been a success whatever the germans did. The amount of casualties could of course been different.
Hitler lost the war the day he launched Barbarossa, what followed afterwards was to a degree an inevitability. War-fighting too many powerful opponents, at the same time on too many fronts, rarely works out well. Good film & presentation.
The invasion of the USSR for "lebensraum" is simply false, it was only to retake the rightfully German territory (Danzig etc, etc), as well as preemptively striking them before they did the same. It would have likely been a total route if they had gone straight for Moscow.
Mark thanks again for this amazing account of D day landing This shows in practical how right field marshal Rommel was in keeping panzer units near coast
How could anyone give this a thumbs down, it’s history for heaven sake‘s. Thank you Mark again for an outstanding well thought out video. Every time when when you put one out I truly learned something new.
it's nice that you're unbiased about the OKW's approach to the normandy landings. a lot of people just assume rommel's approach would've been better but with no way of being certain of the allied landing point and due to the threat of receiving naval gunfire it also makes the idea of concentrated armoured forces near the beach heads also a risky proposition.
Concentrating units in the face of overwhelming naval artillery and air power would have meant a break-out from Normandy much faster than otherwise. Note the effect of naval artillery at Anzio. They would also need to know where to concentrate. Note also, the German leader was not alone in his so-called meddling. He was in most cases supported by some commanders, eg. Rundstedt in this case. Finally, the Germans had less room for mistakes, so their mistakes are noted and discussed much more. They were blinded by the loss of radar and agents, by jamming, fooled by intelligence tricks and without an effective logistical network. This resulted in a very low probability of countering the invasion pressure which the allies could shift the location of as they had the intel. The Germans could not surprise the US-Commonwealth forces.
first:), As a point of interest I spoke to a British veteran of D Day many years ago who went ashore in a Sherman equipped with a 25 pounder instead of the standard gun. He told me that the 17 pounder was so overpowered for the Firefly that it would sometimes blow it's own track off when firing!
I would guess you mean the Sexton that was built on the M4 derived chassis. Wasn’t really a Sherman though, much different beast. I still don’t think the 17 pounder Sherman was the best of ideas either. Jolly good try though. I mean, doesn’t everyone want a big ass gun in their tank?
I worked with a Sherman Tank drive many years ago. I told him I'd seen tanks in action in Italy(ww11) on tv, he asked "was there one with a brass bed on the back of it? "If so that was me". He had the bed all the way through Italy and was told many times to remove it because he was making himself a target, but he never did.
Therein lies the problems of taking veterans words as gospel. So many myths have been spread by veterans over the years its amazing if there is any truth left to tell. Like some of the P-47 pilots saying they would shoot theyre cannons (despite not being equipped with cannons) at the road underneath tanks so that the 'cannon' shells would ricochet off the road and up into the tank throught the thinner underneath armor.... There are so many ridiculous stories that people still believe.
@@ledavalon7118 Not only did it have penetrating power to deal with German armour at medium & short range (typical for warfare in western Europe), but its reputation among the Panzer crews resulted in the Germans being more cautious about risking their precious armour in offensive operations.
Truly informative video. Great show Mark. Had not heard there was an anti-invasion drill going at Omaha beach during D-Day for many years, in coverage of events. The detail of the German response is top notch.
The armour floating in the channel would have easily dealt with anything the krauts could have thrown at the beachheads. It would not have been pretty but Salerno taught us the valley of naval guns.
Good information and video! I believe the 21st Panzer experience shows that even a forward deployed armored force would have had little success against allied tanks, anti-tank guns, air power, and even naval gun fire support. Close to the beach is always a weak point until the beachhead is established. But by mid-1944, the allies had enough men and materials to push through even Rommel’s planned defense. No battle outcome is certain but the allies planned and executed well. Germany was already “on the ropes” logistically and her power reduced by 1944.
I was searching for something totally unrelated to this subject and sort of fell in the rabbit hole here, so I had to watch and I'm glad I did. Great content, Great narration, Awesome quality and Amazing file footage. You earned yourself a new sub, keep up the amazing work....
Anybody who thinks D-Day was a foregone conclusion is deluding themselves. It was a mixture of tremendous luck and more importantly, incredible effort on the part of the Allies that such a massive operation into such a dangerous situation did not turn into a disaster, from intelligence and logistics to the training, valour and individual initiative of the forces on the ground. It's one thing to reject the notions of German supremacy held by some "fans" (as it were), another entirely to dismiss the immense efforts of the Allies both in the West and the East.
My German neighbor was captured at Normandy after having a finger shot off...they sent him to a Texas POW Camp....My American grandfather was severely wounded on Dday, shot through the hand and into the stomach while parachuting into France with the 101st Airborne...At the same time, my German grandfather was an Infanterie Unteroffizier on the Eastern Front, fighting Russians...
Excellent presentation. Germans were overwhelmed in all areas so I doubt anything could be done. Rommels panzers would not have lasted if they were closer.
this was just a single panzer division the thing is Rommel told that main landings will be around Normandy not Calais most of the response divisons was either in central france or around Calais during landings and they didn't even manage to get to Normandy in time because of constant allies bombardments of railways, roads and even elements on the road which Rommel for seen this because he experienced it during Africa campaign a year ago it was impossible to move the divisons without taking losses to somewhere else while allies had complete air supremacy things might have gone seriously badly for allies but the course of war wouldn't change
It also goes to show, that wars are not won by men, guns and machines alone; behind the scene subderfuge and misdirection play such a crucial part in any campaign, that one might almost believe a battle is won or lost before it even begins. Clearly the western allies played their hand better, than the Germans prior to and during those first days in June 1944. In the Netherlands we have an expression, that I believe applies to the Germans mid 1944: law of the inhibiting lead (wet van de remmende voorsprong). The Germans successfully pioneered and/or perfected aspects of modern warfare that gave them an advantage, that were then turned against them both in the West and the East.
According to the book Operation Sea Lion. A General in 1940 UK wanted tanks and troops away from the beaches in the UK. They would be used to counterattack where ever German forces landed. He was General Montgomery later Field Marshall.
At this stage of the war there were no troops of Sherman Fireflies. There was one Firefly per troop the rest being standard Shermans. This was due to the limited number of conversions that could be carried out in Britain. I think Mark meant to say "Firefly equipped troops of Shermans".
@Gappie Al Kebabi: He does in fact have a PhD in history from the University of Essex...this makes him Dr. Felton in American usage; I don't know if British usage differs.
One reason (amongst many others) why the Americans suffered on Omaha Beach is that Rommel looked at it and thought "This reminds me of Salerno" and beefed up defences accordingly
Panzer Lehr’s CO described his unit’s 80 mile odyssey to the French Coast during June of 1944 as “a fighter-bomber race course”. It wasn’t so much the tank attrition that bled him dry: his unit lost 84 armored personnel vehicles and 130 supply trucks.
A modern tank unit has about equal numbers of tanks and support vehicles. The support vehicles are carrying fuel ammunition, spare parts, mechanics, recovery vehicles, field kitchens ambulances, command posts, etc. Without access to these resources a tank unit will be functional for less than 24 hours. I assume it was the same then. A tank needs regular refueling and in heavy combat will blast through all its ammo in a few hours, then while in contact with the enemy it has to refuel and "bomb up" from "soft skinned" vehicles.
The color slide on the webpage shows a Pz IV Ausf. H (No.521) of 5./Pz.Rgt 130 (Panzer-Lehr-Div) in March, 1944 in Budapest, Hungary (not Normandy). One of the many color slides taken of the same column.
This is a great quote for all of History's What If's. “To understand history most fully, it is necessary to forget the results that we know, but that the participants did not.”
Very true; what we know 75 years after the fact was not a given at the time. That's why Eisenhower had written out a press release taking responsibility for the failure of the Normandy landings--he couldn't know at the time that they would be a success.
History never reveals it's alternatives, but I still can't imagine Overlord failing given the massive air superiority of the allies and ability to massively reinforce any beachhead at anytime. So...
2:22 - 2:35... " The American force at Omaha Beach, where they suffered more due to their attack co-inciding with a German Anti-invasion exercise"...... never knew this.... excellent reporting Mark.
Man this makes me want to load up company of heroes on my laptop and roll out a bunch of stugs and panzer 4s. What an amazing game, and what an amazing bunch of info. Tyvm for all your videos. You are simply amazing, and have to be the best WW2 channel out there. Cheers
Yes, but the panzers being distributed all along the Channel would have left them spread out, thinned, unable to concentrate to the battle at the beaches. "Penny packet" panzers!
You can't make everyone happy, especially with videos on history that just present facts rather than assuring everybody how awful one side or the other was every two minutes. But as I understand the UA-cam algorithms, it doesn't matter--likes and dislikes are counted exactly the same.
Nice work, but one minor quibble. There were no troops of Fireflies. In the British/Canadian armoured battalions the Fireflies were allocated on the basis of one per tank troop (platoon) with regular 75mm-armed Shermans as the other three tanks of the troop.
Like every Felton I have seen, this one is full of both significant facts and minor details I had not known about, or remembered, from the huge volume of D-day docu. Man, we need detailed vids of each division's combat on the afternoon of DD as well as the evening and the whole week. Of course we love the Wood (Good & Charnel, et al) of course the Cobra, and all about Caen, Bayeux, Caranten, St. Lo, Carpiquet, et al, (little tired of Omaha, the cliff, and even Breacourt, but of course, God bless all of em, of course (if He (She) exists)). Any details of 1st and 2nd day combat with the 21st is GOLD. But of course, I do recognize the quality here and they cannot be rushed. But can't believe the beach film clips here I haven't seen. Alright, I'll get of to PATREON, as soon as I finish this cup of decaf Earl Grey, and a quick puff on this roach. I live on 1000 usd a month, but will do what I can. Many Thanks!!!
too good video.. I am happy that I found this channel.. (pls continue being like this, there are not much quality channels left in UA-cam now-a-days)..
I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU MARK YOUR VIDEOS ALWAYS TELL THINGS THAT PEOPLE NEVER HEAR IN NORMAL WAR DOCUMENTARIES. YOU SAY THINGS IVE NEVER HEARD BEFORE. WELL DONE KIND SIR... KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK IT IS A PLEASURE BEING A SUBSCRIBER TO YOUR CHANNEL. TOM REGINA CANADA
Why is it seemingly always stressed Hitler was incompetent? I am sure if anyone would sit with Hitler to talk about his strategies and plans it would seem convincing. It seems this time a lot of generals sided with Hitler on this partake. Post-war analysis, interviews, or memorials criticizing Hitler's plans are not always disinterested. Hitler was not more incompetent than any of his generals.
I really like your videos. Great stuff. But it is a misunderstanding that 21.Pz.Div. was "...ordered to move away from the beaches..." (3:15). Before the landings, 21.Pz.Div. had units placed both west and east of the Orne, and both north and south of Caen. In fact both its tank regiment, Pz.Rgt.22, and its recce Btn., Pz.Aukl.Abtl.21, were placed 30-40 km south of Caen.
A little known aspect of the battle was that the Germans were unable to move a large portion of their armor by rail, because British special forces and French volunteers had put corundum into the grease of the rail cars wheel bearing grease, causing them the lock up. So the tanks had to move by road...
Funny fact, the beaches and the area behind them are also vulnerable to attack from the air and more so than moving columns of vehicles in an way bigger area. Add to this the naval guns, assembly in an area where the enemy is already and handling the Allies your battle plan and you got an idea that is hailed as brilliant even 75 years after.
Mark - have you considered a video on the implications if Eisenhower hadn't gone with the 6th June, what the future landing windows were, what the weather was like, what different dispositions the Germans may have had. Keep up the good work.
Seventy five years ago my father landed on Juno Beach with an RAF Forward Air Control unit attached to the Canadian Army. He drove his Signals Truck off a Landing Craft into six feet of water, praying every second not to stall the engine or he would have had to swim. Not liking the alternative, he kept the engine running and drove up the beach into Normandy and kept on driving until he crossed the Rhine at Wesel and the Elbe river in May 1945, still with the Canadians. My father passed away aged 87 in 2012. RIP dearest Dad. 💕
I believe it was in Sicily that a German general said something along the lines of "operating armor with in range of naval gunfire is not advisable", which seems almost up to British standards of understatement. The amount of naval gunfire available was stunning and the navies would have loved to "relocate" a panzer division or three with 14, 15, and 16 inch shells.. I don't think Rommel's plan would have worked against the forces it would face.
"And we would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for that meddling Fürher!"
Another fascinating and well-constructed breakdown, thank you.
Rifleman Moore standard
Mark, the quality of your channel is like no other. Love the sound quality in your voice, youre opening tune and video contents. Keep up the hard work!
in a few months he'll be spamming us about sqaurespace and ten thousand ads, plz dont sell out. good quality videos tend to get tainted by greed
I agree about the voice quality... Mark almost sounds like a war correspondent of the time, but without the poor sound quality of the time! And the channel is one of my favourites!
Another great video. Something to consider about Rommel's plan. Putting the panzers forward would've place them within range of naval gunfire. Twice during the Italian campaign German armor managed to threaten the beach landings and the panzers were wrecked by naval artillery. Also consider the Allied ground attack aircraft.
A Panzer Battlegroup is the last thing you want to see of the flank of your opposed amphibious landing.
History could indeed have been very different.
I love how all your videos are on little covered points and most have events that I never heard of. Great job again 👍😃
God, the Panzer IV (seemingly the H version) looks so sexy in these footage reels. In my opinion, the most humble tank in the whole war, what a legend!
The PzIV.H: the workhorse of the late war panzer divisions. The Western Allies thought that every one they encountered was a Tiger I while the Soviets thoughts the Wehrmacht was disguising them as Tigers. XD
ua-cam.com/video/bNjp_4jY8pY/v-deo.html 28:52
ua-cam.com/video/yaLyAjAjoDM/v-deo.html
The PzKmpfW IV was a very good general purpose medium tank, with a very acccurate gun that could defeat any AFV used by the western Allies. Thanks to excellent optics in its gunsight, excellent accuracy of the gun, & advanced ordinance, the PzKmpfW IV crews could kill most Soviet & western Allies' AFVs at medium or long range with their first or second shot, before opposing tanks could close in enough to have a good chance of getting a hit on the PzKmpfW IV. Where the terrain permitted medium & long-range tank engagements, the PzKmpfW IV's 75mm L/48 gun outranged most Allied tank guns, which resulted in knocking out western Ally armour before its main weakness - barely adequate armour protection - became a liability. Consequently, it developed a lofty reputation among Soviet & western Ally tank crews.
However, by 1944, its armour protection and its forward speed on anything but roads were becoming inadequate. The PzKmpfW IV was a 1930s design which had reached the end of its evolution, especially in terms of armour & firepower. So it no longer could dominate the battlefield. In the last year of the war, the PzKmpfW IV's effectiveness in offensive operations was much lower than the Panther. However, its very good gun enabled it to remain very effective in a defensive role until the end of the war.
I love listening to Mark's videos in the night like a grandpa telling me war stories to make me calm.
*Grandpa:* And that how my co-pilot got his legs torn off.
*Me:* Zzzzz..
I guess the airborne guys accomplished their mission: distract the germans long enough to allow the beach head to develope enough to be unremovable.
Mark. You are a diamond on in a rough rough youtube. I always look forward to your videos.
The history channel has fallen... But a hero shall rise and save the history of our forefathers and give it back to the people... Long live Mark!
Thank you for posting , every interesting . A small footnote , the resistance was asked to blow up as many phone lines poles as possible . This was to force the Germanys to use their radio net , which the British were monitoring .
Great video! My personal belief is that D-Day would have been a success whatever the germans did. The amount of casualties could of course been different.
Jens Nimike agree.numeric superiority
If germany didnt start a war with russia and had theyr entire army there then usa would lose
Love your videos Mark. Thanks for sharing!
The Felton Fanatics thank you for another excellent video!
It's an addiction, we confess.....
Hitler lost the war the day he launched Barbarossa, what followed afterwards was to a degree an inevitability. War-fighting too many powerful opponents, at the same time on too many fronts, rarely works out well. Good film & presentation.
barbarossa was the war, the ultimate goal of Nazi ideology was always to invade the soviet union for "living space"
The invasion of the USSR for "lebensraum" is simply false, it was only to retake the rightfully German territory (Danzig etc, etc), as well as preemptively striking them before they did the same. It would have likely been a total route if they had gone straight for Moscow.
Best 8 1/2 minutes of my day, guaranteed...
Mark thanks again for this amazing account of D day landing
This shows in practical how right field marshal Rommel was in keeping panzer units near coast
How could anyone give this a thumbs down, it’s history for heaven sake‘s. Thank you Mark again for an outstanding well thought out video. Every time when when you put one out I truly learned something new.
it's nice that you're unbiased about the OKW's approach to the normandy landings. a lot of people just assume rommel's approach would've been better but with no way of being certain of the allied landing point and due to the threat of receiving naval gunfire it also makes the idea of concentrated armoured forces near the beach heads also a risky proposition.
Hermann's Stukas will pound them back under the waves!
Concentrating units in the face of overwhelming naval artillery and air power would have meant a break-out from Normandy much faster than otherwise. Note the effect of naval artillery at Anzio. They would also need to know where to concentrate. Note also, the German leader was not alone in his so-called meddling. He was in most cases supported by some commanders, eg. Rundstedt in this case. Finally, the Germans had less room for mistakes, so their mistakes are noted and discussed much more. They were blinded by the loss of radar and agents, by jamming, fooled by intelligence tricks and without an effective logistical network. This resulted in a very low probability of countering the invasion pressure which the allies could shift the location of as they had the intel. The Germans could not surprise the US-Commonwealth forces.
first:), As a point of interest I spoke to a British veteran of D Day many years ago who went ashore in a Sherman equipped with a 25 pounder instead of the standard gun. He told me that the 17 pounder was so overpowered for the Firefly that it would sometimes blow it's own track off when firing!
I would guess you mean the Sexton that was built on the M4 derived chassis. Wasn’t really a Sherman though, much different beast. I still don’t think the 17 pounder Sherman was the best of ideas either. Jolly good try though. I mean, doesn’t everyone want a big ass gun in their tank?
I worked with a Sherman Tank drive many years ago. I told him I'd seen tanks in action in Italy(ww11) on tv, he asked "was there one with a brass bed on the back of it? "If so that was me". He had the bed all the way through Italy and was told many times to remove it because he was making himself a target, but he never did.
Therein lies the problems of taking veterans words as gospel. So many myths have been spread by veterans over the years its amazing if there is any truth left to tell. Like some of the P-47 pilots saying they would shoot theyre cannons (despite not being equipped with cannons) at the road underneath tanks so that the 'cannon' shells would ricochet off the road and up into the tank throught the thinner underneath armor....
There are so many ridiculous stories that people still believe.
@@c1ph3rpunk the 17 pounder was definitely not best suited for crew comfort but it did its job remarkably well
@@ledavalon7118 Not only did it have penetrating power to deal with German armour at medium & short range (typical for warfare in western Europe), but its reputation among the Panzer crews resulted in the Germans being more cautious about risking their precious armour in offensive operations.
Truly informative video. Great show Mark.
Had not heard there was an anti-invasion drill going at Omaha beach during D-Day for many years, in coverage of events. The detail of the German response is top notch.
When the British halted the move to reinforce Caen it really cost.
The armour floating in the channel would have easily dealt with anything the krauts could have thrown at the beachheads. It would not have been pretty but Salerno taught us the valley of naval guns.
Good information and video! I believe the 21st Panzer experience shows that even a forward deployed armored force would have had little success against allied tanks, anti-tank guns, air power, and even naval gun fire support. Close to the beach is always a weak point until the beachhead is established. But by mid-1944, the allies had enough men and materials to push through even Rommel’s planned defense. No battle outcome is certain but the allies planned and executed well. Germany was already “on the ropes” logistically and her power reduced by 1944.
I was searching for something totally unrelated to this subject and sort of fell in the rabbit hole here, so I had to watch and I'm glad I did. Great content, Great narration, Awesome quality and Amazing file footage. You earned yourself a new sub, keep up the amazing work....
Anybody who thinks D-Day was a foregone conclusion is deluding themselves. It was a mixture of tremendous luck and more importantly, incredible effort on the part of the Allies that such a massive operation into such a dangerous situation did not turn into a disaster, from intelligence and logistics to the training, valour and individual initiative of the forces on the ground. It's one thing to reject the notions of German supremacy held by some "fans" (as it were), another entirely to dismiss the immense efforts of the Allies both in the West and the East.
My German neighbor was captured at Normandy after having a finger shot off...they sent him to a Texas POW Camp....My American grandfather was severely wounded on Dday, shot through the hand and into the stomach while parachuting into France with the 101st Airborne...At the same time, my German grandfather was an Infanterie Unteroffizier on the Eastern Front, fighting Russians...
Excellent presentation. Germans were overwhelmed in all areas so I doubt anything could be done. Rommels panzers would not have lasted if they were closer.
Did you not watch the whole video?
this was just a single panzer division
the thing is Rommel told that main landings will be around Normandy not Calais
most of the response divisons was either in central france or around Calais during landings
and they didn't even manage to get to Normandy in time because of constant allies bombardments of railways, roads and even elements on the road
which Rommel for seen this because he experienced it during Africa campaign a year ago
it was impossible to move the divisons without taking losses to somewhere else while allies had complete air supremacy
things might have gone seriously badly for allies but the course of war wouldn't change
I can only imagine what these men went through during D-Day. No video games, movies, books, etc, will ever make me experience those times.
Let me echo all the laudatory comments below. Great WWII material with a true historian's touch. Bravo!
It also goes to show, that wars are not won by men, guns and machines alone; behind the scene subderfuge and misdirection play such a crucial part in any campaign, that one might almost believe a battle is won or lost before it even begins. Clearly the western allies played their hand better, than the Germans prior to and during those first days in June 1944.
In the Netherlands we have an expression, that I believe applies to the Germans mid 1944: law of the inhibiting lead (wet van de remmende voorsprong). The Germans successfully pioneered and/or perfected aspects of modern warfare that gave them an advantage, that were then turned against them both in the West and the East.
According to the book Operation Sea Lion. A General in 1940 UK wanted tanks and troops away from the beaches in the UK. They would be used to counterattack where ever German forces landed. He was General Montgomery later Field Marshall.
Notification squad. Love this channel.
Another great video Mr. Felton! I hope you do a long version of this one day. Maybe an hour long video or something? Everybody would love it!
At this stage of the war there were no troops of Sherman Fireflies. There was one Firefly per troop the rest being standard Shermans. This was due to the limited number of conversions that could be carried out in Britain. I think Mark meant to say "Firefly equipped troops of Shermans".
Yes we made lots of mistakes but they made more
Interesting comment
Mmmmmm...good comment.
75 years ago today Grandpa Started his fight in Caen on to Holland
12 SS panzer divisions reconnaissance battalion had also reached the coast aswell.
That's good going, considering the division were held 120km away awaiting orders to move.
@@markrussell4449 Thank you :)
I never heard of an anti invasion exercise on Omaha beach, I heard many German senior staff were meeting or on leave like Rommel.
You should consider a tactical overview map, when talking about those perspectives. Like at 2:57.
Your video is like watching alive, what happened a decade ago, thanks Mark for bringing alive the events remarkable video.
"Not for the first time, Hitler's meddling assisted the Allies to Victory": ideal summation in historicity: hard to better.
Love your videos Dr. Mark Felton!
@Gappie Al Kebabi: He does in fact have a PhD in history from the University of Essex...this makes him Dr. Felton in American usage; I don't know if British usage differs.
One reason (amongst many others) why the Americans suffered on Omaha Beach is that Rommel looked at it and thought "This reminds me of Salerno" and beefed up defences accordingly
Thank you for keeping this history alive. Such fascinating content
Another great vid , especially liked the footage 👌👌👌
Well done. this is better than reading about it in The Longest Day.
Panzer Lehr’s CO described his unit’s 80 mile odyssey to the French Coast during June of 1944 as “a fighter-bomber race course”. It wasn’t so much the tank attrition that bled him dry: his unit lost 84 armored personnel vehicles and 130 supply trucks.
A modern tank unit has about equal numbers of tanks and support vehicles. The support vehicles are carrying fuel ammunition, spare parts, mechanics, recovery vehicles, field kitchens ambulances, command posts, etc. Without access to these resources a tank unit will be functional for less than 24 hours. I assume it was the same then. A tank needs regular refueling and in heavy combat will blast through all its ammo in a few hours, then while in contact with the enemy it has to refuel and "bomb up" from "soft skinned" vehicles.
Absolutely critical for anyone trying to understand the Normandy landings and the German response.
The color slide on the webpage shows a Pz IV Ausf. H (No.521) of 5./Pz.Rgt 130 (Panzer-Lehr-Div) in March, 1944 in Budapest, Hungary (not Normandy). One of the many color slides taken of the same column.
This is a great quote for all of History's What If's.
“To understand history most fully, it is necessary to forget the results that we know, but that the participants did not.”
Very true; what we know 75 years after the fact was not a given at the time. That's why Eisenhower had written out a press release taking responsibility for the failure of the Normandy landings--he couldn't know at the time that they would be a success.
@@richbarr5959 Nor did Hitler know the Normandy was the real invasion. If it had been a diversion, than Hitler looks like a genius.
Thanks Mark for the video.
History is a graveyard of "ifs" and "buts" accompanied by remorse and rejoice.
These are the documentaries we need!
Its a pity they got away, a whole battlegroup being annihilated on the beach would have made Caen easier to take.
History never reveals it's alternatives, but I still can't imagine Overlord failing given the massive air superiority of the allies and ability to massively reinforce any beachhead at anytime. So...
This is fast becoming one of my favourite YT channels.
Amazing video, very detailed. I will stay on your channel looking for more.
Ah, so this is why the map inside the cover in Max Hastings book shows a stretch of beach not in Brit/Canuk hands, at midnight, 6June.
BLACK CAT
I Just love your vídeos. Greetings from Brazil
Great content as usual, Greetings from Syria
2:22 - 2:35... " The American force at Omaha Beach, where they suffered more due to their attack co-inciding with a German Anti-invasion exercise"...... never knew this.... excellent reporting Mark.
Man this makes me want to load up company of heroes on my laptop and roll out a bunch of stugs and panzer 4s.
What an amazing game, and what an amazing bunch of info. Tyvm for all your videos.
You are simply amazing, and have to be the best WW2 channel out there.
Cheers
Men of War Assault Squad 2 - you'd like it. I promise.
The advantage of the allies is they control the air and the sea. There's nothing the german can do to turn off the tide. Thanks for the video.
thank you so much for posting your excellent videos. i enjoy them a huge amount.
Yes, but the panzers being distributed all along the Channel would have left them spread out, thinned, unable to concentrate to the battle at the beaches. "Penny packet" panzers!
Great Video. I don't understand how anyone could give you a "Thumbs Down".
People sometimes give it just for the sake of it, when they see lots of thumbs ups. At least that's my theory.
You can't make everyone happy, especially with videos on history that just present facts rather than assuring everybody how awful one side or the other was every two minutes. But as I understand the UA-cam algorithms, it doesn't matter--likes and dislikes are counted exactly the same.
From Nazi zombies. 💀😛
Vee are ze masters now!
From the losing side lol
Nice work, but one minor quibble. There were no troops of Fireflies. In the British/Canadian armoured battalions the Fireflies were allocated on the basis of one per tank troop (platoon) with regular 75mm-armed Shermans as the other three tanks of the troop.
Like every Felton I have seen, this one is full of both significant facts and minor details I had not known about, or remembered, from the huge volume of D-day docu. Man, we need detailed vids of each division's combat on the afternoon of DD as well as the evening and the whole week. Of course we love the Wood (Good & Charnel, et al) of course the Cobra, and all about Caen, Bayeux, Caranten, St. Lo, Carpiquet, et al, (little tired of Omaha, the cliff, and even Breacourt, but of course, God bless all of em, of course (if He (She) exists)). Any details of 1st and 2nd day combat with the 21st is GOLD. But of course, I do recognize the quality here and they cannot be rushed. But can't believe the beach film clips here I haven't seen. Alright, I'll get of to PATREON, as soon as I finish this cup of decaf Earl Grey, and a quick puff on this roach. I live on 1000 usd a month, but will do what I can. Many Thanks!!!
Excellent content. Thank you.
too good video.. I am happy that I found this channel.. (pls continue being like this, there are not much quality channels left in UA-cam now-a-days)..
Never heard about this before,that’s going to change fast.In school I don’t think this area was even mentioned.
Incredible footage, thanks for posting....
Phenomenal. Lots of detail. Thanks
Another very informative and great video Dr Felton!!
M8 your channel is the best on you tube no agenda just true history you my freind are fantastic keep up yhe great work .
Isnt it always that way. You have a good plan going, then your boss comes along and meddles.
"Prolific" barely describes you, Mark. Pumping the minisodes out like an MG42. Yet another fascinating slice of WW2 history.
once again outstanding video Mark,thank you
Love the formula ... superb job Mark - so many intriguing things of which I'd never heard
I enjoy your short but very informative videos thank you for doing this
you keep coming up with great sections of the little known battles !! this is the best on line !
Incredible pictures and videos of Panzer IVs and other tanks. Tanks in Normandy are my favorite to study and look at, the info was great too.
Petition to fund this man and to get him a studio mic
Imagine being that commander driving into combat: "If you fail this, the war is lost." "Ah, so no pressure, then, sir. Roger."
Mark, Good report.
Better than anything I have seen on this theme.
This is always been one of my favorite stories about D-Day, the one counter-attack the Germans out in day-of.
I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU MARK YOUR VIDEOS ALWAYS TELL THINGS THAT PEOPLE NEVER HEAR IN NORMAL WAR DOCUMENTARIES. YOU SAY THINGS IVE NEVER HEARD BEFORE. WELL DONE KIND SIR... KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK IT IS A PLEASURE BEING A SUBSCRIBER TO YOUR CHANNEL. TOM REGINA CANADA
Why is it seemingly always stressed Hitler was incompetent? I am sure if anyone would sit with Hitler to talk about his strategies and plans it would seem convincing. It seems this time a lot of generals sided with Hitler on this partake. Post-war analysis, interviews, or memorials criticizing Hitler's plans are not always disinterested. Hitler was not more incompetent than any of his generals.
I really like your videos. Great stuff. But it is a misunderstanding that 21.Pz.Div. was "...ordered to move away from the beaches..." (3:15). Before the landings, 21.Pz.Div. had units placed both west and east of the Orne, and both north and south of Caen. In fact both its tank regiment, Pz.Rgt.22, and its recce Btn., Pz.Aukl.Abtl.21, were placed 30-40 km south of Caen.
A little known aspect of the battle was that the Germans were unable to move a large portion of their armor by rail, because British special forces and French volunteers had put corundum into the grease of the rail cars wheel bearing grease, causing them the lock up. So the tanks had to move by road...
Love this video Mark!
Any chance you can do some videos on British tanks? Like the Cromwell etc
He's uploaded a video about cromwells in the Korean war, although the video is mainly about Centurion.
You should check the Bovington Tank Museum UA-cam Channel, and their "Tank Chats" videos.
@@bastienmichel3097 Thanks I'll check it out!
With his commentary and excellent video choices, Mark really draws you into the situation till you just want more haha
thank god we have mark.............
Funny fact, the beaches and the area behind them are also vulnerable to attack from the air and more so than moving columns of vehicles in an way bigger area. Add to this the naval guns, assembly in an area where the enemy is already and handling the Allies your battle plan and you got an idea that is hailed as brilliant even 75 years after.
i love all your vids! thank you for your effort.
Mark - have you considered a video on the implications if Eisenhower hadn't gone with the 6th June, what the future landing windows were, what the weather was like, what different dispositions the Germans may have had. Keep up the good work.
Very concise as always! Cheers!🍻
As your period Panzer films show, the Germans may have lost the war, but they won the contest of cool!