Rommel's Deathtrap - Biggest Bunker in Normandy.
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- The Grand Bunker of the former Command and Fire Direction Post has been completely renovated in order to house a Museum entirely dedicated to the Atlantic Wall in Normandy.
Museum site museegrandbunke...
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Great video thanks. My father attacked the Merville battery and was one of the 65 left after the attack, luckily without a scratch
Thank you for your comment, do you know if your dad actually had any equipment, because a lot of the soldiers attacking the site had no weapons.
@@PanzerPicture he was very lucky in that he landed on DZ V with his equipment/leg bag. He was a rifleman in 12pln C company, Lt Jeffersons pln. He became a mortarman at St Come when they finally had a mortar but not enough men
Say big thx to youre Dad , from 36y old Belgian (flemish) guy
@@stony9974 I wish I could, he passed in 2012 but thank you anyway
@@dougmoodie8713 oh my condolences. You can be very proud! We here need to thank those men/women everyday! Greets
I actually banged my head on the the Grand Bunker's rangefinder during a visit to this Fabulous museum!
We stayed for 2 weeks in Bayeux and toured from east to west, Merville to Sainte-Mère-Église.
A Memorable, if sobering, once in a lifetime trip for me!
My late father landed on Sword, and he told me that it was very straighforward. The training that they'd had in England was far harder than the actual landing and most of the Germans either retreated and reformed to the south or surrendered. There were a few die hards and fanatics but they were easily dealt with. The real trouble started after Bayeux on the push for Caen, that was where my dad got blown up by a near miss from a German 88 and ended up back in Britain for 5 months before rejoining his regiment in Holland on the push for the Rhine. That was where the sh*t really did hit the fan.
'Sword" wasn't armed like Omaha & was commanded by 1 or 2 elder Troop's almost every troop was HJ who retreated before ( the Canadian's Landed) They fought for less than 20 minute's then had tea. The Big Shots were on Vacation. They never thought anyone would invade during the Storm that preceded the attack.
@@akatripclaymore.9679Omaha was the most heavily fortified indeed.
Panzer Picture i am so by impressed with your in depth knowledge of the Normandy D day defences, and your recommended museums videos i am just so eager to visit and experience all these places, along with your atmospheric music it would be an utterly awesome experience as a spectator. But having said that, if was actually there as an allied soldier at that time i would have absolutely messed myself with shock and uncontrollable fear.
Thank you so much for your comment 👍 I glad you found it informative my friend.
A couple of years back, and driving from the South of France, I pretended to get the ferry times wrong, which meant that the family had to stay an extra 4 days in Normandy (a whopping €30 for the mistake, and the next available ferry). Neither the wife nor the kids had any interest in war stuff as we set out to tour the beaches. They do now. 🔥🇮🇪💚☘️
There is much more to lovely Normandy than the war tours and dreadful cemeteries.
@@terencefield3204 I'm well-aware of that, Brother but, this was MY military pilgrimage. The gang had just enjoyed a months R&R lapping up the best of France, then it was 4 days all about me, me me.
Bloody right anall mate
I know, am writing after 2 weeks but I find your videos like this very interesting watching the leftovers of the German bunkers. I'm still eating my fingers for not visiting those places 😩! Anyway an excellent video as always 👍👍
The Germans build formidable fortress defences & the allies had to come up out the sea, I am so glad they overcame these deadly obstacles & find it harder the more I look at what they faced as to how did they achieve this, my condolences to the families of those that made the sacrifices, I thank you all that I have a family that have not had to live or fight like you & they did. I thank & salute you & 🙏🏻 pray that we have overcome the worst in conflicts 💚
Great Video !
Thank you 👍
I enjoyed the video but enjoyed the subtitles even more :).
Another excellent video. The Flak Tower/Bunker Museum looks like a must see if visiting Normandy Beaches.
It sure is.
Flak
I have been to the GRAND BUNKER!
Given the number of british casualities at sword beach, those bunkers didint do a Great Job..
The British had tanks.
@@PanzerPicture eitheir way, they didint go to far, for the Next 2 months.
I was a few weeks ago in Den Haag and Hoek van Holland. they dinged up some bunkers and they looked like they were build a few weeks ago.
Den Haag and the Zeeland area, those a great job in restoring, but also demolished a lot the last few years, it's wierd that way.
My dad landed there, on that beach, on 6th june, early in the day. An 88 was ranged onto the beach, firing all but horizontally. The narrative here is very limiuted in cover. The 88 destroyed most of dad's platoon and he lost many of his friends on the beach. Smaller English pieces of artillery were brought to the beach to deal with it and other enemy installations. The 88 destroyed them, time after time. Yet the brave British sodiers brought their replacement guns on to the beach to replace the destroyed guns. Such bravery from a constript army. Finally the 88 was silenced. I see that at the bunker there is an 88 on display. I think of dad's dead pals whenever I pass that gun, which is often, since we live near there now. Surviving he war, dad ended in Berlin, at Spandau, then home. He never forgot the beach landing though. And now more slaughter in Europe.
was it silenced by the brits or the french resistance or cause they ran out of ammunition?
@@amossutandi The British small artillery destroyed the 88, after some attempts by other small artillery pieces brought up on the beach and destroyed by the 88. What resistance. The real resistance there was the communist resistance, and it was fully engaged in slowing the armoured divisions - SS and regular army, from moving north to intercept the beach-heads. When success seemed probable, the resistance expanded as if by magic. As happened in Holland and elsewhere. See what Bernard Haitink ha to say about it!
I visited the Grand Bunker in 2004 - it remains off the most impressive museums in Normandy. To actually stand in the observation level and look through the Range Finder was draw dropping. Thank you for the view, and looking forward to watching the complete video in the future
Damn; I missed that beach section having made my way to Pegasus bridge for my photos last month.
Definitely need to revisit. Amazing how much there is to see not including all the museums.
One could argue that with so much on Utube to view, no need to see everything for yourself.
Certainly a most enjoyable video tour of parts of the Normandy bunkers defenses. Watching these videos has certainly been enlightening regarding the construction of the German defenses and what the various allied forces had to deal with when coming ashore. Some things were completely different from what I expected especially as to how things were portrayed in the movie "The Longest Day". I really would like to see the museum's and the fortifications that are still intact but your videos are the next best thing to being there and I hope to see more.
The Longest Day was childishly simple, rather silly, and VERY unbloody. Ridiculous but good family film stuff at the time.
Appreciated you illustrated the defense line and the layers of range finder bunker.
Excellent video! I always enjoy your interesting content that is presented.
Thank you Rick.
Were the black & white movie scenes really from "The Longest Day"? I do not remember those scenes being in there?
They are indeed and seems that many people forget about this part of the movie, but I remember it the most, just like the Airborne Church tower scenes.
@@PanzerPicture I am going to watch it again! A good excuse! = )
Great episode. What a knowledge and skill, the many drawings are very clear. Came across your channel by chance, which is quite strange because I myself also have a channel about bunkers and have been searching a lot on UA-cam for similar channels but only now come across, I subscribed right away. I'm really looking forward to your next episode.
Thank you for the comment and sub, I will have a look at your channel tomorrow because it looks interesting and UA-cam is totally broken with searching for stuff, so you never really find what you want to see.
Echt ik ben zo super blij met mede nerds zoals jij! Jou kaartjes maken het eindeloze puzzel met nieuwe / oude kaarten overbodig en is super satisfying om in een oogopslag een hele WN voor je te hebben in het huidige terrein. Echt massive respect.
De maps maken is ook een van de leukste dingen om te doen, blij dat iemand er net zo enthousiast over is als ik zelf.
@@PanzerPicture cool man. Waar maak je de kaarten mee in je videos?
De Maps maak ik in photoshop.
If you want to see German fortifications and other buildings go to the channel islands the only piece of the UK that was occupied in the war.
Thank you for sharing. I definitely want to visit this site and museum, after seeing your well presented highlights of it. I look forward to digging deeper into your videos to learn more about the Normandy defenses. Hollywood tends to misrepresent many facts of D-Day, because their primary motivation is for entertainment. Unfortunately many folks tend to believe it for the literal truth, including myself. Which makes channels like your more appreciated discerning facts from fiction. Cheers!
Thank you for the comment 👍 and I'm glad you enjoyed watching the video.
Didn’t visit this area in May but certainly will do so next year. You can see quite a lot of what you mention
from the deck of the Brittany ferry. Very interesting explanation. Thanks M (Malvern UK)
Thank you Maurice.
I found a part of British Binoculars in the sand dunes here in about the year 2000. I still have it and i had no idea the extent of the defenses here!
Outside this bunker there is a landing craft, used in the movie saving private Ryan.
Thank you very much for that great video I can't tell you how I enjoyed it And how well it was made great job keep up the good video
Thank you Alex, I'm glad you enjoy watching the video.
I’ve just visited Normandy for the June celebrations, my grandad landed at Sword beach the Grand bunker museum is fantastic. Very humbling experience
Who was your grandfather with - which regiment?
So you made a fideo? Good for you. But what is a fideo?🤣😅
Very impressive I will suscribe for more
I have a question....It regards bazooka's [and PIATs] in the first wave.
Just like I will never know why Destroyer 5" & 4.7" fire was not used against clearly visible German emplacements on the Cliffs and particularly Bunkers once it was obvious the Allied Bombing of beach emplacements had failed.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me Allied Planners dropped the Ball with regards to, tried and proven weapons that, were at the perfect range from the initial tide line at which the 1st wave landed [I'm especially thinking of Omaha Beach].....to enable Assault Teams a chance against fire from the hilltop emplacements.
The planners must have imagined enormous casualties from the first and second waves, so why then, weren't active Bazooka Teams, employed by plan, at the tide line, behind rommel's Belgian Gates and Hedgehogs of crossed steel beams, allowing a Bazooka Gunner to set His weapon with a ready made tripod, from which to take aimed fire at Bunker slits spitting fire onto the beach.
Also, what murderous arsehole couldn't bomb along a beach from 5,000 feet....and WHO was designated Fire Effect Officer at 6AM 20 mins before the first wave touched down to observe conditions on the Beach? What about British Pathfinder A/c, where were their bomb aiming candles, being dropped along the coastline in the areas of the hard assaults?
Why weren't 14 inch guns brought to bear on the still exposed beachs, in the crucial sectors BEFORE the Landing craft arrived, once, such observations of a needed 2nd strike along the sand at the front of the beach, to create foxholes for cover, and blow mines for the Assault Wave [while Bazooka teams hit the emplacements]?
20/20 hindsight perhaps...
or just no thought to anything other than pitting meat against mortars, machine guns, mines and barbwire at the pointy end of the Assault. Great.
Should read - hindsight bias , Wikipedia -
also Rocket J Squirrel quote “military intelligence , a contradiction of terms”
Believe the plan was , the Germans would run out of ammunition
My understanding of history IS that the reason Normandy succeeded was because of the Destroyers pushing close to the coastline and used their 5" guns to give fire support to the landings .
Hindsight does cloud things. While we now know what fortifications were where, on D-Day itself, they didn't, & you wouldn't always know which were manned, or had the most dangerous weapons in.
Naval support was used. There are recorded instances of concrete bunkers being destroyed by them, but they would be tiny targets to guns & sights designed to hit a large ship from far away. The most known is when the US destroyers supported at Omaha, when they had to almost ground to get close enough. At other places, cliffs were destroyed by naval gunfire so that men could scramble up them. You may also have an issue with trajectory of high velocity shells, compared to your location out at sea. In one instance, a British battleship did kill a whole German platoon with a single shell (they were moving up to reinforce the beach defences), so it did work.
Landing troops would be supposed to have had various fire support, most noticeably tanks, SPGs & artillery. In close would be their various MGs, grenades, mortars, flamethrowers & satchel charges. Inaccurate Bazookas & PIATS could also be used, but they were designed for very close range only while remaining concealed. Setting up a tripod mount isn't what they're designed for (recoilless guns used on jeeps etc came later). Obviously, due to the bad weather/release point of DD tanks at Omaha, the first waves had very little armoured support. British troops had all manner of 'funny' tanks. The US were offered these specialised support tanks, but declined them, just going for DD tanks & SPGs.
Troops did get a lot of support, D-Day took years to prepare for, & it did actually work.
Bombing isn't as easy as you make it, especially against small camouflaged bunkers, when you're flying at a couple of hundred miles an hour, in bad weather, with the German defences firing at you. Small errors in the plane can throw bombs way off course, & you don't want big holes on the beach.. Burning targets would also reduce visibility. They should have practiced more, but the planes were already being used daily for standard softening up of key locations along the Atlantic wall, so didn't.
Allied bombing coordination could have been a lot better. On tactical strikes it was good, but when using medium & heavy bombers, from different commands, they just hadn't developed this enough, as they hadn't used it much before.
14" guns would make massive holes in a beach. You actually need the beach to be undisturbed to allow tanks & vehicles to cross. There are reports of tanks falling into shell holes on the beach & getting stuck. Once the bombers had dropped their loads, you would have a lot must dust & fires making visibility far more difficult. Smokescreens & burning items would be drifting across the beaches to.
Were these bunkers standardized in their construction or were they built however the constructors thought would be best?
These were build by a plan, they had specialized names, but they could be modified to the landscape.
I just looked up Commando Philippe Kieffer's bio on Wikipedia.
He was already 40 in 1939, being born in Haïti.
Worked at a bank in the USA, was fluent in English and took part in various commando raids prior to and following the D-Day landings.
Tragically, while he was one of the first Free French to enter Paris, his son was killed by the Germans at around the same time.
He died in November 1962 after a long illness, ages 62.
you create an incredible work and video i love your work i subscrive now..top channel
Thank you for the comment and sub, I'm glad you enjoy watching the video.
Everything about world war II and how it played out has me punching air. I mean it really just is strange and it doesn't make sense. Unless time travelers came back to help the allies I don't see how the hell they were always just one tiny little step ahead of the Germans.
The Allies literally attacked the one day Rommel wasn't at Normandy and to me such a coincidence just doesn't make sense.
On top of that the main people that we were over there to help turn around and become exactly what they hate and we facilitated it...
*Seinfeld music intensifies*
The allies had broken the german engima codes in 1941. So yeah they knew about a lot of stuff before it happened.
Whilst the Axis could have won WW2, in the West, the Germans (as the main country) had a lot of problems not usually discussed;-
- It's economy was in ruins in late 1939. They looked strong, but were actually bankrupt (they had spent everything on building up the armed forces & war economy), & couldn't get certain products. Only by putting their national debt onto conquered countries could they continue.
- The Axis had a massive shortfall in oil/fuel for it's war machine (this had never happened before when coal & horse fodder had been the most important for centuries). Hitler understood this, & knew Germany needed Soviet oil. Germany had to attack in 1940 before it's prewar stocks ran out, & only got as far as it did in in 1941 due to taking all the conquered countries strategic fuel reserves. Germany & Rumania couldn't produce enough for themselves, but also had to provide for Italy as well. You'll see a massive fall in territory taken between 1941-42-43 as the Axis didn't have the fuel to traverse vast distances, even when they did have the attacking initiative.
- Germany's main power source was coal, which meant when German Army got away from railway locations, it didn't have enough fuel or lorries. A lot of lorries in Barbarossa were ex British captured at Dunkirk, or from occupied countries. They wore out, broke down & couldn't be replaced.
- The Allies controlled world trade & access to markets for a lot of the important materials.
- German industry, planning & reserves was dedicated to winning by Autumn 1942 at the latest. The fuel supply actually ran out the first time in August 1941 (when the German Army head of Supply said it would, but no one listened to him).When this plan failed, they didn't really have a 'Plan B', except hope that the future 'wonder weapons' & Allies suing for peace after high casualties would save them.
- The Axis 'Intelligence' departments completely underestimated both the strength of the Allied armies & industrial power, & the abilities this would give them.
- The Allies had far better weather reports & military intelligence. The soviets from late 1942 kept tricking the Germans into where they would attack, & the forces involved, & the Allies managed this to, in the Mediterranean & French invasion location.
- Germans had very advanced technology (like the V weapons & Jets), but the Allies also had their own, like penicillin, sonar/asdic, homing torpedoes, mulberry harbours, DD & other specialised armoured vehicles, code breakers, beach surveyors, 4 engine bombers, landing ships, radar, latest manufacturing techniques allowing quickest builds, PLUTO, medical services, specialist aircraft bombs, atomic weapons etc.
In June 1944, the Germans believed the bad weather front over the channel meant an invasion wouldn't happen, which is why a lot of their commanders (not just Rommel), weren't at their commands (at least one went off to see his mistress). The Allies didn't attack earlier, as they felt they weren't ready & the German defences and infrastructure hadn't been reduced enough. The Allies knew they had to win the race to get supplies/divisions to the new front. The Allies actually cancelled the invasion on the 5th June due to the bad weather (so it was weather, not Rommel), & afterwards, the rough seas still sunk most of the Omaha DD tanks & some on other beaches.
These type of documentaries let me think of a quote from a Pastor at the funeral for fallen soldiers. "One day they the fallen, will have the right to ask from all of you: What have you done with that what we died for?"
Looking at the world today and strictly based on Facts, I can not see what those brave men died for.
😅😅😅
The Karole Bunker in France, Charente-Maritime, Ile de Ré, Ars-en-Re is the highest one.
IMPRESSIVE WORK MERCI !
is it a death trap for the people inside or for the attackers? or both?
#panzerPicture
Danke für die video spelen. Very historic.
#WW2 #Bunker #History
Maybe try text to speech, good video
I thought sea levels were rising.
And the rain is acid and the these spray cains are dangerous and the Ozone Layer is going away and the globe is warming and the sea is rising and the climat is changing, I wonder what it will be in 10 years 😂
@@PanzerPicture none of that has stopped
Your ignorance is absolutely pathetic
Please tell me from which movies you have taken the clips. Thank You
Most of the clips were from 'The Longest Day.'
Het is zeker een mooi museum 👍🏻
Inderdaad.
Top video 👌🏻
Thanks 👍
The accent sounds Dutch👍
Omaha gets all the attention because of the USA being the attacking force. Historians seem to overlook the Canadian and UK beaches of Gold, Juno and Sword.
The Americans were also slaughtered and people love the underdog story.
Maybe 🤔 more men died on Utah and Omaha then all the other allied beaches combined. I find Britts having an inferiority complex when it comes to World War II.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
E
At Min 8:15 we see the Sickbay in the La Grand Bunker...
Did you know, that through most [if not all] of WWII, the German Medical Corps had no mobile [bottled] Plasma, they did do transfusions but, only via a live donor who was present with the correct blood type and, was a volunteer to give Blood direct to the Paitent......
a rather haphazard way of doing business, when the Allies could transport 1 tonne or more of plasma to the front at any given time [almost]
Yours Aye
Erwin rommel the most highly decorated war tactician
very nice video and explanation, love the Dutch accent :)
Thank you 👍
Ja, Ja, Ja!