Story Of Operation Cobra In World War II, In Which American Forces Broke Through Normandy And Began Their Push Across Europe. Department Of Defense Pin 30135 Breakout And Pursuit
These programs - The Big Picture - used to be broadcast every Saturday morning in the 50s and were the preference of my brother and myself in lieu of the marvelous Warner Brothers cartoons. I used to dote on Alexander Scourby's narration and took in the history breathlessly. Between this and Victory at Sea what a wonderful time to be a kid!
deke little I'm 64 and also remember watching these shows as a little kid. They came on early Saturday morning and I'd get up, make a huge bowl of ice cream and sit in front of the wall furnace and watch the show. My father, 1924-1993, he went into Normandy on June 22, damn near got killed at the Battle of the Bulge and on VE Day, he was in Kassel, Germany. From the Bulge, he ended up with an 8mm Mauser rifle, mailed it back to his parents on the Arkansas farm and he killed plenty of deer with it. I have that Mauser now and still hunt with it!
Very well presented and for a 12 yo was life changing! I joined the Army in 1960 only to be caught after Basic Training.as I was16. In 1962 joined again and stayed till 1966! The Big Picture was my initial contact at with the Army. At my time of enlistment there were 1,2 million in the Army. It was vast and overwhelming! Never felt lost in all the size! Boy Scouts and the NRA gave a foundation to the services. 80% positive 10% negatives d 10% weird! Two movies helped changed my outlook of the Army “Soldier in the Rain” and latter “Captain Newman, MD”! Both need to be seen!
Why do you want more of this crap(?), are you truly happy to only see/hear such anglophobic bullshit(?), wouldn’t you prefer to get a better picture that isn’t just biased (such as when the USarmy/USAAF fucked up, he only said that the problem was with English aerodromes, when it was the USarmy/USAAF that fucked up, and only they were to blame, not the English as he made it sound, or the fact that he rarely mentioned the British; Polish; Free French or other forces, but was constantly and wrongfully saying american(the Canadians have just as much right to say that they are Americans, especially when they have a bigger country than the US does, and so they have more of North America, and you don’t have the “american army” you only have the US army) this that or the other, and when it’s anyone else, he says allies as if the US troops were there too) bullshit??????
The opening battleships firing in this video make my heart jump. The TEXAS could have been one of them, and today she sits anchored at the San Jacinto battlefield in Houston, not from me...I have visited her many times.
I remember seeing WWII documentaries on TV in the 1950's like Victory at Sea and listening to veterans talking about their WWII experiences. I know that young generations have very little interest in history and like to play video games. I remember seeing my father on PBS marching to a battle in France in 1944. I told my sons about this and they had very little interest.
We honor your father for his sacrifice. Please, keep talking to your sons about the significance of that, and why America must continue to strive to preserve what your father fought for: Democracy and freedom.
It’s a pity that a series like this isn’t available to show today’s “Big Picture” of our world, but even if it was I doubt the younger generations of the present would watch it, and even if they were made to sit and watch it they wouldn’t take it in as their thumbs would be to busy typing “omg” “Lol”,or some other unfathomable part of their private language. I thoroughly enjoy these programmes, they act as a reminder of what my parents,grandparents, and great grandparents fought for, of why I served in my military and why my son also served, and nearly gave his life trying to make our world a better place. One thing that always puzzles me, or rather infuriates me is that when a plan works it always the generals that get the plaudits and the recognition, usually along the lines of “brilliant leadership and planning” or “the success was down to one mans ingenuity and cunning” etc etc etc, but as any military man will, or should, tell you that success or failure is down to the men and women who enact that plan, and that, as with any plan, it’s only viable right up to the point of the first engagement, it’s the fighting men who deserve the plaudits, and recriminations, whereas if a plan goes well it the leaders who are praised and if it goes wrong it’s because the troops failed to execute the plan properly, or didn’t fight hard enough, or the intelligence was wrong, or the weather etc etc etc. Thanks for sharing this with us all. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴
Dj Phantom....Your comment says it to the core. I am in total agreement with you. I could not have expressed your sentiments any better!! Our young today have much to learn about the sacrifices that our forefathers and mothers performed in the name of freedom. To some? This idea of our past is just another video game...No pain, Nor real bloodshed, and more importantly no sense of loss. No sense of the horror of war. No sense of compassion....In essence? No sense of reality. And if this type of mentality keeps up? We as a race will forfeit our identity that has made us who we are today. Our kids are living the good life. On the backs of the brave, and the unselfish. I have to say? I hope some of those young persons will maintain the memories of what their parents fought and died for. We didn't do it on the cheap. Nor do we expect accolades as to the real hero's who've performed their duties assigned. We did our job. The current video games prove that out. Sad to say.
When seeing such bravery shown by ordinary men I find myself thinking how would I be if it were me, and I think I would lack their courage they were heroes.
You are looking at this through the mind of a human being who has all the technology you can consume and social media too , back then you will not have had all this knowledge so you will be a little more niave, so I will say you back then will have done your duty and will have been as brave as these guys
No mention of the British and Canadian armies fighting in Normandy. They ground down and destroyed 2 SS panzers armies in and around Caen, which is why the capture of the town took a month longer than planned. They lost thousands of young men in the fighting which showed how bitter the fighting. Then they closed the gap from the north of Falaise, and by the use of their artillery and air power helped destroy the German 7th army trapped in the valley. The breakout and pursuit wasn't just an American effort, it was an allied effort, as if the British and Canadians hadn't sucked in the SS panzers and Hitler Youth divisions in the battle for Caen these German units would have been in front of the Americans who would have found their breakout very costly in comparison to what they had anyway.
here I've some news for you, right what did the Moderator has spoken, Air-Bombardment was important - reacently the US Army-Soldiers had had no fight moral w/o AF. For instances: Normandy- Village Viellieres-Bocage , wheather bed - Fog, so no US-AF- on the Sky..... SS-Hauptsturmführer Micheal Wittmann (RitterkreuzTräger) with his Tiger-tank: shot down 20-armored vehicles = in exact 21-MINUTES!! as it*s shot down his tracks, he gon with his team.. out of fire - reached 12-miles German -Unit, next morning - maintained new tracks, immediately he follows next attack... Questions ?? -- last theater in Ardennes, Dec. 1944, bad-weather - no AF, Germans captured 22.000 ( 22-THOUSAND) of GI*s in 1/1-2 dayys -while IKE the Hero - celebrates Parties - pre-christmas. Questions ?? what has been in Pacific ?? without Atom-Bombs NO chances - against hardest + dicilined Soldiers. Mr. IKE - a simple man, was welcome for all Institutions / Parties like MR. Morgenthau, casual Jewish ? did see somebody Mr. IKE direct on front ?? never... this Butcher- HERO - ordered - to kill Thousands of German *PW*S on Rheinwiesen... nobody of US-people did say: guilty nobody did hang him. Only *One* Intellectual had had USA, General George S. Patton, Commander 3d-Army (RIP -own US-people killed him; please read the story (historical)
I know i'm a year late, but the video DOES mention them. This is a film about Operation Cobra, not Caen, Hill 112, ect. And god help the Canadians and the Polish, the Poles especially. They don't get mentioned or remembered by anybody.
Okay, good news and bad news. I did visit this museum, but now I have discovered there are several smaller museums and memorials that I missed including a small one about General Patton.
@ 9:18, check out the armored infantrymen from the 2nd Armored Div. wearing camo jackets made famous by the US Marines in the Pacific theater. There is a cool ( yet tragic ) history behind that story.
Fourthly, the Germans had little armour to assist their own ground troops in the south, unlike in Caan where the British were engaged in heavy German armour and infantry. This was Montgomery's plan from the outset and not the Americans as stated in this doc.
Classic Montgomery spin for his failure to take Caen, even though it was a D+1 objective. So he said after the fact and with hindsight, see, I've been drawing all those German troops to me so you can break out. I simply wish Bradley had the foresight to turn East toward Germany and simply bottle up the Germans in Brittany" rather than waste resources capturing a useless port city (Cherbourg) that the Americans would find no use for for several months after its capture. Eisenhower called Bradley a "limited objective General". Correctly so.
@@michaelswami Tom Thumb is correct in that the British DID face the majority of the German armour and it was just as well that they did, for if it had been the US on the receiving end of it, they would have taken a pasting as they didn't have anything in their arsenal to go head to head with the bigger German tanks - at least the British had the foresight to take their 17pdr equipped Fireflies and not leave them behind in England, like the US commanders elected to do with their 76mm equipped M4s. Also, whilst Montgomery did say that Caen was a D-Day+1 objective, it was also well known that the British would have to face the German armour somewhere between the beaches and Paris, so it was better to force the issue at Caen, which gave the US forces the chance to break out. Yes, Montgomery failed to take Caen in the timeframe promised, but what is the US excuse for not taking St Lo against almost no significant opposition? Don't use the bocage as an excuse, as the whole Normandy region was noted for it (even in the sectors that the British and Canadians were in - Villers Bocage is named that way for a reason!)
@No Se Nada Yeah Operation Bagration was impressive, but to be fair Normandy was no small feat, it gutted Panzer Army West, Seventh army and 15th Army as fighting formations. The equivalent of 35 to 40 German divisions, including 2,300 tanks.
I agree, but you need to put President Roosevelt with Eisenhower. Yes, the brakes were put on Patton's advance but a lot of the reason was that any territory taken from the German's would have to be turned over to the Red Army after VE day. Roosevelt had agreed to let Stalin keep Eastern Europe within the sphere of Soviet influence at Yalta and Tehran. Roosevelt was senile enough to believe Stalin would allow free elections for all. Patton was not a nice man, but a great general.
They did fight in Normandy just as well or better in some cases as the Americans. However the video series is about the history of the American army, So to leave out their brave contribution is not out of disrespect, but to limit the content to the history of the American efforts.
The show is "The Big Picture" an officially made series about the U.S. Army. I was in the U.S. Army for 21 years 87-08 and I never knew this show existed until I saw it on u-tube. I do find the fake "live" interview with General Bradley humorous.
@@Bombaysapphire1978 My apology, yes I should have mentioned them as well, it's just frustrating to read and watch videos about these battles and there is little or no reference to the rest of the allies contribution apart from the Americans
@rebel son What's with the aggressive nature of your reply? It's a little uncalled for as My point is; I saw the title of the video "Breakout and Pursuit" and assumed wrongly of course, that it included all the allies who fought in Normandy. I had two relatives who fought in the battles, especially in and around Caen, so I settled down to watch a video showing everyone's contributions to the Normandy battles and discovered it only showed the American contribution, which was amazing as shown in the video. If the title had mentioned it was solely illustrating the American contribution I would have understood but it did not. As the other replies to this video show there were other nationalities who fought hard to break out from the Normandy bocage countryside and there were not mentioned either, so the video was one sided. My two uncles told of the thousands of young British and Canadian men who died in the Fighting around Caen before the breakout, mainly against two SS panzer and Hitler youth armies, so I was hoping the video would show some of their action, hence my comment about the video.
I read the US Army's Breakout and Pursuit. That's the real deal. The original source material, like the holy bible for WWII-Normandy-through-France scholarly information which all other novelty books reference.
Well, this was actually General Montgomery's plan. The overall strategy of Cobra was to draw enemy attention away from the First Army to the British and Canadian sector. It's well worth reading up the campaign to get a balanced view of what went on.
@Chris Longski Monty was no beached whale and was, in fact, Bradley's boss during the Normandy campaign. Both sides realised that Caen was the key to the Normandy campaign so the Germans threw all they could into it. Montgomery realised early on that by keeping the pressure on the Germans, it would free up the US forces to break out. If the battle for Caen had not taken place like it did, then the Germans would have been in a position to do a blocking force elsewhere and had they faced off against the US forces instead, the US armour would not have had a chance against the 21st Panzer group, as they lacked any ability to duel with the German tanks - at least the British had the foresight to equip each tank troop with at least one Firefly, so that they could at fight back! The US commanders had elected to leave their 76mm equipped M4s in England.
I want to go one step further, Roosevelt agreements with Joseph Stalin were the greatest American foreign policy mistakes of all time. My country owes all of Eastern Europe under Soviet dominance an official apology for a generation lost. Never forget the Czechoslavakian Revolution 1968. I make a point to go after naive younger Russians who actually believe that the Red Army's defeat of the German Army equated to liberation of Eastern Europe. Replacing Nazi's with Communists is not liberation
The greatest foreign policy mistake in American history was the invasion of Iraq in 2003. ( That is for another time. ) Also FDR was a realist, an area was governed by the army that occupied the land. Hence Eastern Europe by the Red Army and Western Europe by the UK, Canada and the USA. Even Churchill realized that the Red Army dominating E. Europe was more desirable then a Nazi dominated Europe.
It wasn't just Roosevelt. Winston Churchill also agreed to the Soviets being allowed to occupy eastern European nations & the eastern portion of Germany. Realistically, Stalin knew that he could defeat Germany on his own & there was no way the the western Allies could capture & occupy those eastern European nations themselves. Stalin also knew that there was no way that the western Allies' citizens would tolerate the massive casualties the Soviets were sacrificing to defeat Germany. So, in many ways, Stalin had Roosevelt & Churchill by the balls. However, by negotiating with Stalin & giving him what he wanted, Roosevelt & Churcchill were able to get Stalin to agree to some things that helped the U.S.A. occupy all of Japan & gain a major strategic presence in the East, plus other things that helped Great Britain & the U.S.A. rebuild some very important democracies.
"General Omar Bradley’s plan, Operation: Cobra, sought to capitalize on the German concentration of forces around Caen and the village of St. Lo by saturation bombing the line between the two positions and then driving U.S. forces through the gap created by the air campaign." Approved by the leading commander of Normandy Operations, Field Marshal Montgomery. Thank you for the info about St. Lo. 13 yrs since I toured Normandy, I went to St. Lo but not sure if I saw this site, will check.
@@rampking1 I was talking about the bombing of Caen and St. Lo. Can’t really say how St Lo folks feel about Americans, but my British host in Normandy made the comment that she knows a lot of people in Caen were not and still not happy with the British; leaflets not withstanding. I know the leaflets dropped on St. Lo got scattered and few if any citizens saw any. I also know a huge number of people in Caen had nowhere to really go (and for all I know the Germans did not or would not let them leave; have to research). I must say that the people in Normandy have not forgotten the gratitude overall but to be cynical maybe tourism underlies it….
@@your_royal_highness I get you. The Germans had the Brits stopped cold at Caen, and St. Lo the Germans were organizing a counter-attack . The Allies couldn't stop the Germans on the ground, so they withdrew bombers from the bombing campaign on German cities and carpet-bombed Caen and made St. Lo basically a moonscape. Did it break the backs of the Germans? Yes, but the bombing killed everything within the bombing grid regardless of Civilian casualties. Re; leaflet warning and the Germans allowing them to leave, anybody and anything caught in the open on a road was targeted, strafing aircraft not looking for uniforms....my point was there was no exit for civilians.
"Tear down this wall!" was the challenge issued by United States President Ronald Reagan to Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy the Berlin Wall, in a speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall on THIS DAY...June 12, 1987.
the traitor was Kennedy - his deal with Chrustschow, in case of Cuba - gave up Berlin... Genius man was Reagon (RIP) - declared *Space-war* = under this circumstandes did know the Sowjets... never would have financing possibilities. That it was... poker face Reagon, Sowjets believed his Strategy. so starts the Begin of end Sowjet ära... Thank you Mr Ronald Reagon, You are the real Hero, for all Germans, never we forget you and your wife.......
@@d.v.2688 Joe Stalin also promised FDR at Yalta he would allow free elections in Soviet controlled Eastern Europe after VE day. Never happened ...... No need for me to Google or be a Wikipedia player. I'm not into trusting communist leaders, especially the Chinese.
@@rampking1, the USA and UK promised free elections in France and Italy after the war until both countries saw that the Communists were going to win in the two worn torn nations. In which case they installed their own leaders. Sound familiar?
@@d.v.2688 Re: installed their own leaders. Hahaha, the first time I've heard someone refer France's leader Charles de Gaulle as "our leader" . It was a joke right? Now if you are talking about Greece after the war you got something to chew on. This is like a tennis match, go ahead and lob another one my way. Btw, I didn't know Italy and France were locked down like Eastern Europe after the war. Come on, I think it is your serve ! Hahahahaha ( See, quick answer, no Wiki or Google)
The breakout didn't happen til a "hillbilly" called "Tennessee" Robert's said "Why don't we put sawteeth on those tanks n cut rite thru?" Everybody laughed except the officers. They tried it n it worked.
4:21 - famous footage of men crossing the beach and two being shot - i thought it was real, but then i notice there is a man in the foreground walking very calmly, not a man under fire.
What's scarier is the much overlooked footage at 4:16 The water is spouting up all around those men wading out! Imagine if something like Picket's charge or Chamberlain's right-wheel sweep were captured to this degree. Mind blowing footage of men walking into death. Nothing makes me feel more patriotic than that kind of image
I can't understand why they people who are in charge of pointing out who were heroes in WWII continue to say that the general's were the heroes but what happened to the soldiers who were doing the actual fighting and the general's were in the back and far away from the front lines, and this includes Patton as well. He rode in a jeep and never was in a tank when it engaged in combat. At least that's what my uncle told me and he was a tank commander under Patton. And my father who was 101st Airborne said they never saw anyone who was in charge until after the battles were over.
To be totally honest,u.s. troops had no training in urban combat either. Also, all out training was soley focused on seizing the beaches, no one seems to have asked the French what the terrain fetures were like beyond the beaches,go figure.
Proud to be an American,,,grandfathers and Uncles fought and were wounded in WW2,,,,,but to be honest,,,,Germany stood virtually alone,,,their weak allies ,,3 or 4 of those who sided with them,Romania ,Italy etc,,,were in for half the fight and were little help,,,Germany almost won the war against 20 different countries,,,all the super powers and almost one,,,,Not one of the allies or soviet countries could have beaten Germany back then in a one on one fight
Yes, basically Germany was on its own (although the Italians, Hungarians, and Romanians deserve more respect than they got). However, keep in mind that Germany had a highly educated & skilled populace, a long tradition of sophisticated warfare, it by far the most militarized nation in the world, and it had a considerable head start in designing up-to-date, technically advanced military equipment, recruiting & training soldiers, and developing modern tactics. So, for half the war, Germany held some crucially important advantages. Regarding your final statement, consider this: Between June 1941 & May 1945, the Soviets inflicted between 80% and 90% of the casualties the German suffered during WWII. The same percentages apply to the amount of German equipment destroyed/captured on the Eastern Front. That should give you an idea of how much more massive the Axis-Soviet war was compared to the war on the Western & Italian Fronts, plus the air war over Europe & the Battle of the Atlantic. So, the Soviets contributed most to the defeat of Germany, although it must be stated that the western Allies contributed in some key ways, especially from 1943 on. Also, it needs to be recognized that the total amount of equipment & raw materials provided by the Lend Lease Act was only 4% of what the Soviets produced, and virtually none of it arrived at the front lines before the Red Army's crucial victory when they stopped the Germans at the gates of Moscow (1941) then the Red Army's decisive victory at Stalingrad at the end of 1942/beginning of 1943. (which many historians consider the turning point in the war). The greatest impact of the Lend Lease materials was to increase the speed with which the Soviets advanced westward, after the German defeat in Operation Citadelle. So, I think it's fair to say that if the U.S.A., Great Britain, Canada, Australia, France, and other western allies had not gone to war with Germany, it is quite likely that the Soviets would have defeated Germany on its own (although it would have taken much longer & Soviet casualties would have been much much higher). IMHO, although Stalin & the Soviet Union went from beiing an ally to a cold war enemy, and we in the west need to praise our militaries & contributions during WWII, the truth is that we also should give the Soviets all the credit they rightfully deserve.
the Russians suffered 10 million casualties ;the Germans a like amount.Had the Russian surrendered those German troops would not have died and would have been available for the western front So what? hindsight in war is worthless!
@@jesjoking did you see the picture of it yourself? Really couldn't see a lot of the weapon just the tail end of the barrel. Sure did look like a 45 though, interesting. So you're saying the Germans had a weapon that was similar in looks?
Jakal9712 Saw enough to see it wasn’t a 1911A. The Browning FN alternative looks very similar but there are some distinct differences; the hammer, the slide, the back strap safety. Small but definite differences. Both pistols were strongly “influenced” by Mr. Browning.
He's not Gary Merrill, he's Alexander Scourby. He had that famous voice, and was very active in movies television and the spoken word books. Born November 13th 1913, and passed away on February 22nd, 1985. Check out his life on IMDb and search for Alexander Scourby. 👌👌📽📽
@@incrediblesimilarity5858 I believe Mr. Scourby was the voice of the first Holy Bible tapes. All those difficult Hebrew names rolled off his tongue in perfect pronunciations. Amazing.
@@carolyndathompson9141 Hello Carolynda. You are absolutely correct, Scourby did read the entire Bible that originally came out on long-playing records back in the early 1950s. If you go to Wikipedia and look up Alexander Scourby you'll see a lot of information about his professional life. Scroll down to audio and you'll find a whole interesting story about his involvement with the reading of the Bible. I think you'll find this information Illuminating. Stay well an PEACE ! 🌞🌞✌✌
I saw this film on B&W TV in the early '50s. They made WW II seem like fun.....I was looking to see both my uncles............The music with Victory at Sea was better.......joe
They don't really talk about the fact they pushed it up 1 day or that the men were given a huge steak and beans dinner with beer the night before. They were hung over, sea sick, and pooping on them from the beans. Way to go home, dead. 😔
My Dad was one in Patton's 3rd army. Amazed me to listen to vast numbers of WWI and WWII veterans talking on Sunday afternoons visiting grandparents. My grandfathers grandfathers fought in the Civil War and had lots of stories to tell. I am so thankful I listened to every word (sometimes I was ran out in the yard...lol) but when I was older my mother would tell me why. OMG!!! The jokes the allies and Nazi's pulled on each other. I don't know who was nuttier. The Yanks or the Germans..
@@carolyndathompson9141 It meant so much to us to beat the nazis and japanese fascists. It meant so much to all that was saved in the koncentration camps, then and in the future. They would have starved every "unwanted" person. I admire your forefathers. Many americans died at 19 without a family of their own. Bless them forever.
@@rawstarmusic My Dad's unit liberated a small concentration camp of foreign soldiers in early 1945. He stated they walked right up to the Commandant of the camp and one of his officers who were boiling huge pots of what looked like water with bits of something (roots of some kind) floating around. The rest of the camp guards were in the woods foraging for food. The G.I.'s were so PO'd when their CO told them they had to go find the guards...lol Dad said the Germans uniforms hung on their bodies like the POWs. They did not run away like the other camp guards did. They stayed and fed the prisoners as best they could. They took these Germans as prisoners instead of shooting them on site....um..I probably should not have said that.....
@@carolyndathompson9141 Yes, it should also be remembered that, if hunger (for inmates and guardians) were suffered in concentration camps, the situation was not much better neither among the soldiers nor among the civilians in Germany. This apart, it would be interesting to check the reports of the Red Cross international commissions in the Nazi camps, and compare them with those in the Allied camps (please leave aside those for collaborationist prisoners). Then, we could talk calmly about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo on another occasion ...
Rex Bahr We can back President Trump in what he is doing with the trade war. Just give him time, no other President, besides Reagan, has even attempted this. We are pulling in BILLIONS with the tariffs, we understand he is giving a lot of that to the farmers and others being affected by the Chinese tariffs.
@dwiggins01 it's not bad for me because the low, I think it's only lower now. I benifit from the lower price. Presently the consumer in america is accustom to foreign or chinese prices and it would be a shock to pay $50 to $70 for work pant if made in America shdn they are now available for $11 to $20. But I guess we can get use to it over time. Stimulus money as far as I'm concern benifits mostly spanish speaking residence because they have taken over the construction trades in The Washingtin DC area where I live. Even back in the good old days. The days of unions, few people had Union jobs that I knew of in North Carolina of course I was still a minor then and feel that government incentives to " bring jobs back won't improve the economy enough for Joe six pack and their spending power will be, more than likely diminished due to high prices. Even considering that inexpensive foreign goods will still come into the market. Tariffs need to be at a ratio to up the price of a pair of blue jeans from $20 to at minumn $50 that's 150% not the measly 20 or 30% they currently are. And another thing. American Manufacturing was the end all do all its touted to be . I well remember when american tools where not so great excluding those made by Snap on and for Sears. The chinese since 1985 has been making quality tools for the do it your seller Welders is a good example back in the old days the 1970 let's say. COLD CHISELS made in America were like $20 back in the 1980s and they would shatter where as the chinese tools held their edges and the cutting end didnt shatter . I'm referring to Baltimore tool company chisels mad ed in Baltimore . And cars ! Holy mackeral the Pinto and the Vega. Get real.
I don't trust your link. You owe your life to the americans, just as you owe it to the brits and the russians, Without any one of them, you wouldn't exist, so stop your sniveling
The Krauts seriously wanted to look sharp you can see by the portrait pictures they had taken . Proud and wanting to show off even low level soldiers would get their duds tailored. (Uber Boss!) usually Not after 1944 and it depended where they were stationed especially France and Italy the tailor’s prices were very reasonable. The same with many officers , as we can see the officers getting their service pics staged in different ways some used The Prussian tradition most often sitting with their rank and medals displayed many of the officers opted for non traditional portraits showing profile shots or frontal but not looking straight at the camera also with smiling or serious expression. Many look like they were pulled out of central casting in Hollywood as what a Nazi should look like .
Think how much harderthe allies would have had to fight had the Wehrmacht and SchutzStaffel not had another issue in the east and OKH not had a syohilitic drug addict in command of a still very well armed and dangerous army.
the french were mad we liberated St. Lo to death , The Big Picture failed to mention the Air Force short dropped on US positions during operation Cobra and Killed Lt General McNair and 100 soldiers and wounded 500 more
We don’t think that general Bradley was a great general! He was about as good as MacArthur! He wasted a lot of men’s lives on stupid decisions. He should have waited after this original bombing campaign was forgotten. General Bradley was not a top-notch general too many men died under his command, which didn’t have to die.
As he mentions in his talk, there was a lot he didn't know at the time of the battle. Lining up that many bombers for another massive strike later may not have been possible, since they had other things to do and other people besides Omar Bradley made those decisions. You use what you have when you have it. The generals he was facing wasted even more lives, and lost.
@@JuergenGDB In the context of WW2, talking about a strong germany again, smacks of neo-nazi perversion. I don't think too highly of my own country, but I'm glad we never murdered tens of millions of innocent people because they were the wrong color.
@Wagner Probably more. Be careful of spewing nazi propaganda. CZcams doesn't tolerate it any more, nor should they. You show an SS symbol? Keep your evil lies to yourself.
With more than 10,000 plans cover on the sky in Normandy, and the Soviet launched operation Bagatron destroying more than 600,000 german troops, the U.S. and its western allied still couldn't destroy 400,000 german troop. And let the german escape back to Germany. This shown how poor performance troops and generals the U.S., British, etc. were.
These programs - The Big Picture - used to be broadcast every Saturday morning in the 50s and were the preference of my brother and myself in lieu of the marvelous Warner Brothers cartoons. I used to dote on Alexander Scourby's narration and took in the history breathlessly. Between this and Victory at Sea what a wonderful time to be a kid!
I was born in 1950 so I lived that time also....
Never dreamed I'd live to see the god awful mess America
is in today........
@@garyschultz883 nor I. Maybe The Lord will straighten this mess up.
Did u have to pay a separate price to see these films? Or did they come free with the movie that u paid for?? 🤔
@@tinklvsme they were usually Saturday morning TV government propaganda.
This old-school videos are much better at explaining wars. They are simple and straight to the point.
1eee4ao
I wish the army would produce a picture
Ike the Big Picture
@@davidcraig3164 , I don't think they can anymore since most instructional videos now are full of fancy CGI but low on quality.
The Big Picture--I'm 67 now and loved this show of history as a kid.. Especially ww1 & ww2. Hope to see more.
deke little I'm 63 and my father and I also watch this. sometimes he would comment. not often.
deke little
I'm 64 and also remember watching these shows as a little kid. They came on early Saturday morning and I'd get up, make a huge bowl of ice cream and sit in front of the wall furnace and watch the show. My father, 1924-1993, he went into Normandy on June 22, damn near got killed at the Battle of the Bulge and on VE Day, he was in Kassel, Germany. From the Bulge, he ended up with an 8mm Mauser rifle, mailed it back to his parents on the Arkansas farm and he killed plenty of deer with it. I have that Mauser now and still hunt with it!
@@herodlowery9923 Hey Harold THX. Big picture makes us feel young again. Be Blessed.
Very well presented and for a 12 yo was life changing! I joined the Army in 1960 only to be caught after Basic Training.as I was16. In 1962 joined again and stayed till 1966! The Big Picture was my initial contact at with the Army. At my time of enlistment there were 1,2 million in the Army. It was vast and overwhelming! Never felt lost in all the size! Boy Scouts and the NRA gave a foundation to the services. 80% positive 10% negatives d 10% weird! Two movies helped changed my outlook of the Army “Soldier in the Rain” and latter “Captain Newman, MD”! Both need to be seen!
@@nicholaspoplawski3713 who is this
THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO!
These classics are amazing! More Please!
Why do you want more of this crap(?), are you truly happy to only see/hear such anglophobic bullshit(?), wouldn’t you prefer to get a better picture that isn’t just biased
(such as when the USarmy/USAAF fucked up, he only said that the problem was with English aerodromes, when it was the USarmy/USAAF that fucked up, and only they were to blame, not the English as he made it sound, or the fact that he rarely mentioned the British; Polish; Free French or other forces, but was constantly and wrongfully saying american(the Canadians have just as much right to say that they are Americans, especially when they have a bigger country than the US does, and so they have more of North America, and you don’t have the “american army” you only have the US army) this that or the other, and when it’s anyone else, he says allies as if the US troops were there too)
bullshit??????
The high-definition history record. I ever see in The Big Picture.
The opening battleships firing in this video make my heart jump. The TEXAS could have been one of them, and today she sits anchored at the San Jacinto battlefield in Houston, not from me...I have visited her many times.
I could listen to his voice all day! It wouldn’t even matter what he was narrating.
I remember seeing WWII documentaries on TV in the 1950's like Victory at Sea and listening to veterans talking about their WWII experiences. I know that young generations have very little interest in history and like to play video games. I remember seeing my father on PBS marching to a battle in France in 1944. I told my sons about this and they had very little interest.
We honor your father for his sacrifice. Please, keep talking to your sons about the significance of that, and why America must continue to strive to preserve what your father fought for: Democracy and freedom.
@@mudiagaofuoku3806 My father wrote a called Silent Warriors which documents 442nd Fox Company's WWII exploits.
Victory At Sea was an awesome series. Remember the theme music ?
It’s a pity that a series like this isn’t available to show today’s “Big Picture” of our world, but even if it was I doubt the younger generations of the present would watch it, and even if they were made to sit and watch it they wouldn’t take it in as their thumbs would be to busy typing “omg” “Lol”,or some other unfathomable part of their private language. I thoroughly enjoy these programmes, they act as a reminder of what my parents,grandparents, and great grandparents fought for, of why I served in my military and why my son also served, and nearly gave his life trying to make our world a better place. One thing that always puzzles me, or rather infuriates me is that when a plan works it always the generals that get the plaudits and the recognition, usually along the lines of “brilliant leadership and planning” or “the success was down to one mans ingenuity and cunning” etc etc etc, but as any military man will, or should, tell you that success or failure is down to the men and women who enact that plan, and that, as with any plan, it’s only viable right up to the point of the first engagement, it’s the fighting men who deserve the plaudits, and recriminations, whereas if a plan goes well it the leaders who are praised and if it goes wrong it’s because the troops failed to execute the plan properly, or didn’t fight hard enough, or the intelligence was wrong, or the weather etc etc etc.
Thanks for sharing this with us all. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴
Dj Phantom....Your comment says it to the core. I am in total agreement with you. I could not have expressed your sentiments any better!! Our young today have much to learn about the sacrifices that our forefathers and mothers performed in the name of freedom. To some? This idea of our past is just another video game...No pain, Nor real bloodshed, and more importantly no sense of loss. No sense of the horror of war. No sense of compassion....In essence? No sense of reality. And if this type of mentality keeps up? We as a race will forfeit our identity that has made us who we are today. Our kids are living the good life. On the backs of the brave, and the unselfish. I have to say? I hope some of those young persons will maintain the memories of what their parents fought and died for. We didn't do it on the cheap. Nor do we expect accolades as to the real hero's who've performed their duties assigned. We did our job. The current video games prove that out. Sad to say.
When seeing such bravery shown by ordinary men I find myself thinking how would I be if it were me, and I think I would lack their courage they were heroes.
You are looking at this through the mind of a human being who has all the technology you can consume and social media too , back then you will not have had all this knowledge so you will be a little more niave, so I will say you back then will have done your duty and will have been as brave as these guys
If you were there you too would be the same as it's question of survival not killing enemy.
Alexander Scorsby..voice magnificent
No mention of the British and Canadian armies fighting in Normandy. They ground down and destroyed 2 SS panzers armies in and around Caen, which is why the capture of the town took a month longer than planned. They lost thousands of young men in the fighting which showed how bitter the fighting. Then they closed the gap from the north of Falaise, and by the use of their artillery and air power helped destroy the German 7th army trapped in the valley. The breakout and pursuit wasn't just an American effort, it was an allied effort, as if the British and Canadians hadn't sucked in the SS panzers and Hitler Youth divisions in the battle for Caen these German units would have been in front of the Americans who would have found their breakout very costly in comparison to what they had anyway.
here I've some news for you, right what did the Moderator has spoken, Air-Bombardment was important - reacently the US Army-Soldiers had had no fight moral w/o AF. For instances:
Normandy- Village Viellieres-Bocage , wheather bed - Fog, so no US-AF- on the Sky..... SS-Hauptsturmführer Micheal Wittmann (RitterkreuzTräger) with his Tiger-tank: shot down
20-armored vehicles = in exact 21-MINUTES!! as it*s shot down his tracks, he gon with his team.. out of fire - reached
12-miles German -Unit, next morning - maintained new tracks,
immediately he follows next attack... Questions ??
-- last theater in Ardennes, Dec. 1944, bad-weather - no AF,
Germans captured 22.000 ( 22-THOUSAND) of GI*s in 1/1-2 dayys
-while IKE the Hero - celebrates Parties - pre-christmas.
Questions ?? what has been in Pacific ?? without Atom-Bombs NO chances - against hardest + dicilined Soldiers.
Mr. IKE - a simple man, was welcome for all Institutions / Parties like MR. Morgenthau, casual Jewish ?
did see somebody Mr. IKE direct on front ?? never...
this Butcher- HERO - ordered - to kill Thousands of German *PW*S on Rheinwiesen... nobody of US-people did say: guilty
nobody did hang him. Only *One* Intellectual had had USA,
General George S. Patton, Commander 3d-Army (RIP
-own US-people killed him; please read the story (historical)
I know i'm a year late, but the video DOES mention them.
This is a film about Operation Cobra, not Caen, Hill 112, ect.
And god help the Canadians and the Polish, the Poles especially. They don't get mentioned or remembered by anybody.
Okay, good news and bad news. I did visit this museum, but now I have discovered there are several smaller museums and memorials that I missed including a small one about General Patton.
@ 9:18, check out the armored infantrymen from the 2nd Armored Div. wearing camo jackets made famous by the US Marines in the Pacific theater. There is a cool ( yet tragic ) history behind that story.
The American camouflage on the uniforms was similar to the German SS camouflage, which resulted in some friendly fire cases among the US Army.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget/ 2020 and beyond @.
Keep showing theses old films .their history
Alexander Korby looks just like Dean Wormer from Animal House.
Gonna have to put you on 'double secret probation...'
Fourthly, the Germans had little armour to assist their own ground troops in the south, unlike in Caan where the British were engaged in heavy German armour and infantry. This was Montgomery's plan from the outset and not the Americans as stated in this doc.
Classic Montgomery spin for his failure to take Caen, even though it was a D+1 objective. So he said after the fact and with hindsight, see, I've been drawing all those German troops to me so you can break out. I simply wish Bradley had the foresight to turn East toward Germany and simply bottle up the Germans in Brittany" rather than waste resources capturing a useless port city (Cherbourg) that the Americans would find no use for for several months after its capture. Eisenhower called Bradley a "limited objective General". Correctly so.
@@michaelswami Tom Thumb is correct in that the British DID face the majority of the German armour and it was just as well that they did, for if it had been the US on the receiving end of it, they would have taken a pasting as they didn't have anything in their arsenal to go head to head with the bigger German tanks - at least the British had the foresight to take their 17pdr equipped Fireflies and not leave them behind in England, like the US commanders elected to do with their 76mm equipped M4s. Also, whilst Montgomery did say that Caen was a D-Day+1 objective, it was also well known that the British would have to face the German armour somewhere between the beaches and Paris, so it was better to force the issue at Caen, which gave the US forces the chance to break out. Yes, Montgomery failed to take Caen in the timeframe promised, but what is the US excuse for not taking St Lo against almost no significant opposition? Don't use the bocage as an excuse, as the whole Normandy region was noted for it (even in the sectors that the British and Canadians were in - Villers Bocage is named that way for a reason!)
@No Se Nada no argument from me on anything you've said :)
@No Se Nada Yeah Operation Bagration was impressive, but to be fair Normandy was no small feat, it gutted Panzer Army West, Seventh army and 15th Army as fighting formations. The equivalent of 35 to 40 German divisions, including 2,300 tanks.
Which side did Monty fight on?
THIS WERE THE STRONGEST UNIT THAT I KNOW OF. THAY BROTHER ALOT MEDAL OF HONORS. HISTORY. RESPECT TO THIS MAN. SOME WERE AIRBORNE.
THIS MAN BROUGHT MORE MEDALS OF HONOR THAN ANYONE.
THE BOOMS OPENED THE DOOR FOR OUR SOLDIERS.
THIS TOWN'S WERE VERY HARD CORE .BUT MY FATHER AND HIS TEAM FOUGHT THAM .
THAY USED A LOT OF 90 TH RECOILS. THIS MAN THE TANK WAS NAMED AFTER HIM.
A GREAT MAN.
Go to the Normandy military museum in Caen, France and see if you can find any reference to Operation Cobra...good luck.
Just a little bit disturbing.
A very impressive display of the white flags flown by the French military
I was listening for "Patton" and never heard it. Oh well... c'est la vie.
I agree, but you need to put President Roosevelt with Eisenhower.
Yes, the brakes were put on Patton's advance but a lot of the reason was that any territory taken from the German's would have to be turned over to the Red Army after VE day.
Roosevelt had agreed to let Stalin keep Eastern Europe within the sphere of Soviet influence at Yalta and Tehran. Roosevelt was senile enough to believe Stalin would allow free elections for all.
Patton was not a nice man, but a great general.
Eastern Europe was divided by Stalin and Churchill at the Moscow Conference in October 1944. Google it, I'll wait.
indeed
Could have sworn that the British, Canadians and French also fought in Normandy
They did fight in Normandy just as well or better in some cases as the Americans. However the video series is about the history of the American army, So to leave out their brave contribution is not out of disrespect, but to limit the content to the history of the American efforts.
The show is "The Big Picture" an officially made series about the U.S. Army. I was in the U.S. Army for 21 years 87-08 and I never knew this show existed until I saw it on u-tube. I do find the fake "live" interview with General Bradley humorous.
and Australians/New Zealanders/South Africans...
@@Bombaysapphire1978 My apology, yes I should have mentioned them as well, it's just frustrating to read and watch videos about these battles and there is little or no reference to the rest of the allies contribution apart from the Americans
@rebel son What's with the aggressive nature of your reply? It's a little uncalled for as My point is; I saw the title of the video "Breakout and Pursuit" and assumed wrongly of course, that it included all the allies who fought in Normandy. I had two relatives who fought in the battles, especially in and around Caen, so I settled down to watch a video showing everyone's contributions to the Normandy battles and discovered it only showed the American contribution, which was amazing as shown in the video. If the title had mentioned it was solely illustrating the American contribution I would have understood but it did not. As the other replies to this video show there were other nationalities who fought hard to break out from the Normandy bocage countryside and there were not mentioned either, so the video was one sided. My two uncles told of the thousands of young British and Canadian men who died in the Fighting around Caen before the breakout, mainly against two SS panzer and Hitler youth armies, so I was hoping the video would show some of their action, hence my comment about the video.
💥🔥🔥🔥🔥💔
I read the US Army's Breakout and Pursuit. That's the real deal. The original source material, like the holy bible for WWII-Normandy-through-France scholarly information which all other novelty books reference.
Well, this was actually General Montgomery's plan. The overall strategy of Cobra was to draw enemy attention away from the First Army to the British and Canadian sector. It's well worth reading up the campaign to get a balanced view of what went on.
@Chris Longski Monty was no beached whale and was, in fact, Bradley's boss during the Normandy campaign. Both sides realised that Caen was the key to the Normandy campaign so the Germans threw all they could into it. Montgomery realised early on that by keeping the pressure on the Germans, it would free up the US forces to break out. If the battle for Caen had not taken place like it did, then the Germans would have been in a position to do a blocking force elsewhere and had they faced off against the US forces instead, the US armour would not have had a chance against the 21st Panzer group, as they lacked any ability to duel with the German tanks - at least the British had the foresight to equip each tank troop with at least one Firefly, so that they could at fight back! The US commanders had elected to leave their 76mm equipped M4s in England.
Wow I did not know they had FaceTime or Skype back then when they did the General Bradley Interview.
hahaha! Yeah that's a lot like the war itself. It's all faked using lots of imagination.
It was alien technology, secretly donated for the victory of democracies ... Flash Gordon against Emperor Ming's III Reich
I want to go one step further, Roosevelt agreements with Joseph Stalin were the greatest American foreign policy mistakes of all time. My country owes all of Eastern Europe under Soviet dominance an official apology for a generation lost.
Never forget the Czechoslavakian Revolution 1968.
I make a point to go after naive younger Russians who actually believe that the Red Army's defeat of the German Army equated to liberation of Eastern Europe.
Replacing Nazi's with Communists is not liberation
The greatest foreign policy mistake in American history was the invasion of Iraq in 2003. ( That is for another time. ) Also FDR was a realist, an area was governed by the army that occupied the land. Hence Eastern Europe by the Red Army and Western Europe by the UK, Canada and the USA. Even Churchill realized that the Red Army dominating E. Europe was more desirable then a Nazi dominated Europe.
As a practical matter Stalin wasnt leaving any of those countries. It doesnt matter what Roosevelt agreed to.
Bobay Fett
Mega upvotes !!!!!
It wasn't just Roosevelt. Winston Churchill also agreed to the Soviets being allowed to occupy eastern European nations & the eastern portion of Germany. Realistically, Stalin knew that he could defeat Germany on his own & there was no way the the western Allies could capture & occupy those eastern European nations themselves. Stalin also knew that there was no way that the western Allies' citizens would tolerate the massive casualties the Soviets were sacrificing to defeat Germany. So, in many ways, Stalin had Roosevelt & Churchill by the balls. However, by negotiating with Stalin & giving him what he wanted, Roosevelt & Churcchill were able to get Stalin to agree to some things that helped the U.S.A. occupy all of Japan & gain a major strategic presence in the East, plus other things that helped Great Britain & the U.S.A. rebuild some very important democracies.
and the Hungarian Revolution of 56(?).
"General Omar Bradley’s plan, Operation: Cobra, sought to capitalize on the German concentration of forces around Caen and the village of St. Lo by saturation bombing the line between the two positions and then driving U.S. forces through the gap created by the air campaign."
Approved by the leading commander of Normandy Operations, Field Marshal Montgomery.
Thank you for the info about St. Lo.
13 yrs since I toured Normandy, I went to St. Lo but not sure if I saw this site, will check.
Lot of folks in those two towns are still not happy with getting pulverized
@@your_royal_highness basically anything moving caught in the open was a target
@@rampking1 I was talking about the bombing of Caen and St. Lo. Can’t really say how St Lo folks feel about Americans, but my British host in Normandy made the comment that she knows a lot of people in Caen were not and still not happy with the British; leaflets not withstanding. I know the leaflets dropped on St. Lo got scattered and few if any citizens saw any. I also know a huge number of people in Caen had nowhere to really go (and for all I know the Germans did not or would not let them leave; have to research). I must say that the people in Normandy have not forgotten the gratitude overall but to be cynical maybe tourism underlies it….
@@your_royal_highness I get you. The Germans had the Brits stopped cold at Caen, and St. Lo the Germans were organizing a counter-attack . The Allies couldn't stop the Germans on the ground, so they withdrew bombers from the bombing campaign on German cities and carpet-bombed Caen and made St. Lo basically a moonscape. Did it break the backs of the Germans? Yes, but the bombing killed everything within the bombing grid regardless of Civilian casualties. Re; leaflet warning and the Germans allowing them to leave, anybody and anything caught in the open on a road was targeted, strafing aircraft not looking for uniforms....my point was there was no exit for civilians.
@@your_royal_highness You've probably seen, but this was St. Lo. czcams.com/video/QsVcCZMSBCI/video.html
I love you América!
"Tear down this wall!" was the challenge issued by United States President Ronald Reagan to Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy the Berlin Wall, in a speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall on THIS DAY...June 12, 1987.
the traitor was Kennedy - his deal with Chrustschow, in
case of Cuba - gave up Berlin... Genius man was Reagon (RIP) - declared *Space-war* = under this circumstandes
did know the Sowjets... never would have financing possibilities. That it was... poker face Reagon, Sowjets
believed his Strategy. so starts the Begin of end Sowjet
ära... Thank you Mr Ronald Reagon, You are the real
Hero, for all Germans, never we forget you and your wife.......
You do realize Soviet leader Gorbachev told the US that he was going to open up the country. Google it, I'll wait.
@@d.v.2688 Joe Stalin also promised FDR at Yalta he would allow free elections in Soviet controlled Eastern Europe after VE day. Never happened ...... No need for me to Google or be a Wikipedia player. I'm not into trusting communist leaders, especially the Chinese.
@@rampking1, the USA and UK promised free elections in France and Italy after the war until both countries saw that the Communists were going to win in the two worn torn nations. In which case they installed their own leaders. Sound familiar?
@@d.v.2688 Re: installed their own leaders. Hahaha, the first time I've heard someone refer France's leader Charles de Gaulle as "our leader" . It was a joke right? Now if you are talking about Greece after the war you got something to chew on. This is like a tennis match, go ahead and lob another one my way.
Btw, I didn't know Italy and France were locked down like Eastern Europe after the war. Come on, I think it is your serve ! Hahahahaha
( See, quick answer, no Wiki or Google)
Sangat menghibur
Richard Basehart?
👍💯
Tampilan asli tanpa rekayasa sejarah.
Whoever produced the map of the UK should have gone to Specsavers, what the feck happened to cornwall?
the real story has yet to be told
Who is the narrator?
26:30 An American Churchill Crocodile!
The best historical exhibits and memorials are kept at 2 rue des Alleux
50570 MARIGNY. Not far from St Lo.
Cheers.
The breakout didn't happen til a "hillbilly" called "Tennessee" Robert's said "Why don't we put sawteeth on those tanks n cut rite thru?" Everybody laughed except the officers. They tried it n it worked.
4:21 - famous footage of men crossing the beach and two being shot - i thought it was real, but then i notice there is a man in the foreground walking very calmly, not a man under fire.
you are already dead so why run ?
Interesting!!
What's scarier is the much overlooked footage at 4:16 The water is spouting up all around those men wading out! Imagine if something like Picket's charge or Chamberlain's right-wheel sweep were captured to this degree. Mind blowing footage of men walking into death. Nothing makes me feel more patriotic than that kind of image
Anyone have difficulty with the sound?
No the sound is good
@@robertbrawley5048 thanks. Speakers in my mas kaput. headset no problem
The greatest Generation
I can't understand why they people who are in charge of pointing out who were heroes in WWII continue to say that the general's were the heroes but what happened to the soldiers who were doing the actual fighting and the general's were in the back and far away from the front lines, and this includes Patton as well.
He rode in a jeep and never was in a tank when it engaged in combat.
At least that's what my uncle told me and he was a tank commander under Patton.
And my father who was 101st Airborne said they never saw anyone who was in charge until after the battles were over.
I love all the criticism from armchair generals 75 years later. The people at the time didn’t have info we now have.
They didn't?
No they didn’t. Instant info between units and different branches didn’t exist.
Armchair + remote control because they are too lazy to get off their arse
To be totally honest,u.s. troops had no training in urban combat either. Also, all out training was soley focused on seizing the beaches, no one seems to have asked the French what the terrain fetures were like beyond the beaches,go figure.
Armchair generals with field reports of hindsight and google, gotta love them.
Proud to be an American,,,grandfathers and Uncles fought and were wounded in WW2,,,,,but to be honest,,,,Germany stood virtually alone,,,their weak allies ,,3 or 4 of those who sided with them,Romania ,Italy etc,,,were in for half the fight and were little help,,,Germany almost won the war against 20 different countries,,,all the super powers and almost one,,,,Not one of the allies or soviet countries could have beaten Germany back then in a one on one fight
Yes, basically Germany was on its own (although the Italians, Hungarians, and Romanians deserve more respect than they got). However, keep in mind that Germany had a highly educated & skilled populace, a long tradition of sophisticated warfare, it by far the most militarized nation in the world, and it had a considerable head start in designing up-to-date, technically advanced military equipment, recruiting & training soldiers, and developing modern tactics. So, for half the war, Germany held some crucially important advantages.
Regarding your final statement, consider this: Between June 1941 & May 1945, the Soviets inflicted between 80% and 90% of the casualties the German suffered during WWII. The same percentages apply to the amount of German equipment destroyed/captured on the Eastern Front. That should give you an idea of how much more massive the Axis-Soviet war was compared to the war on the Western & Italian Fronts, plus the air war over Europe & the Battle of the Atlantic. So, the Soviets contributed most to the defeat of Germany, although it must be stated that the western Allies contributed in some key ways, especially from 1943 on.
Also, it needs to be recognized that the total amount of equipment & raw materials provided by the Lend Lease Act was only 4% of what the Soviets produced, and virtually none of it arrived at the front lines before the Red Army's crucial victory when they stopped the Germans at the gates of Moscow (1941) then the Red Army's decisive victory at Stalingrad at the end of 1942/beginning of 1943. (which many historians consider the turning point in the war). The greatest impact of the Lend Lease materials was to increase the speed with which the Soviets advanced westward, after the German defeat in Operation Citadelle.
So, I think it's fair to say that if the U.S.A., Great Britain, Canada, Australia, France, and other western allies had not gone to war with Germany, it is quite likely that the Soviets would have defeated Germany on its own (although it would have taken much longer & Soviet casualties would have been much much higher).
IMHO, although Stalin & the Soviet Union went from beiing an ally to a cold war enemy, and we in the west need to praise our militaries & contributions during WWII, the truth is that we also should give the Soviets all the credit they rightfully deserve.
the Russians suffered 10 million casualties ;the Germans a like amount.Had the Russian surrendered those German troops would not have died and would have been available for the western front So what? hindsight in war is worthless!
... but a large part of U.S. forces were is the Pacific Theatre. We had a large division of troops.
Did anybody else see the German paratrooper with the GI 45?
Think it's likely a Wehrmacht mfg Belgium FN Browning Hi-Power after Germany occupied Belgium and took over control of the FN factory.
@@jesjoking did you see the picture of it yourself? Really couldn't see a lot of the weapon just the tail end of the barrel. Sure did look like a 45 though, interesting. So you're saying the Germans had a weapon that was similar in looks?
Jakal9712 Saw enough to see it wasn’t a 1911A. The Browning FN alternative looks very similar but there are some distinct differences; the hammer, the slide, the back strap safety. Small but definite differences. Both pistols were strongly “influenced” by Mr. Browning.
Battlefield pickup,pretty common,if you can find enemy ammo.
We like George. He was the man. Wanted to liberate Czechoslovakia, but that motherfucker I.K.O refused it. God bless Pattons soul
Молодцы второй фронт...!!!
Oleg!
Hahaha hahaha
Da! Ochen Pravda!
전쟁이인간의영혼까지앗아버리는참혹한영상을보고있자니..
Yes! That is super relevant! Especially since I don't even understand Korean 😂
the narrator is I think gary merrilll,he also was narrator for the tv pgm, the churchill years,,,,,,,, sponsored by metrecal
He's not Gary Merrill, he's Alexander Scourby. He had that famous voice, and was very active in movies television and the spoken word books. Born November 13th 1913, and passed away on February 22nd, 1985.
Check out his life on IMDb and search for Alexander Scourby. 👌👌📽📽
@@incrediblesimilarity5858 I believe Mr. Scourby was the voice of the first Holy Bible tapes. All those difficult Hebrew names rolled off his tongue in perfect pronunciations. Amazing.
@@carolyndathompson9141 Hello Carolynda. You are absolutely correct, Scourby did read the entire Bible that originally came out on long-playing records back in the early 1950s.
If you go to Wikipedia and look up Alexander Scourby you'll see a lot of information about his professional life. Scroll down to audio and you'll find a whole interesting story about his involvement with the reading of the Bible. I think you'll find this information Illuminating.
Stay well an PEACE !
🌞🌞✌✌
80 days?
07:18 the expression of a fool
I saw this film on B&W TV in the early '50s. They made WW II seem like fun.....I was looking to see both my uncles............The music with Victory at Sea was better.......joe
George George paging George
They don't really talk about the fact they pushed it up 1 day or that the men were given a huge steak and beans dinner with beer the night before. They were hung over, sea sick, and pooping on them from the beans. Way to go home, dead. 😔
He is General Omar Bradley
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Hopefully the American troop had better map than this guy. I have never seen French coast drawn like this.
Fantastic american men.
My Dad was one in Patton's 3rd army. Amazed me to listen to vast numbers of WWI and WWII veterans talking on Sunday afternoons visiting grandparents. My grandfathers grandfathers fought in the Civil War and had lots of stories to tell. I am so thankful I listened to every word (sometimes I was ran out in the yard...lol) but when I was older my mother would tell me why. OMG!!! The jokes the allies and Nazi's pulled on each other. I don't know who was nuttier. The Yanks or the Germans..
@@carolyndathompson9141 It meant so much to us to beat the nazis and japanese fascists. It meant so much to all that was saved in the koncentration camps, then and in the future. They would have starved every "unwanted" person. I admire your forefathers. Many americans died at 19 without a family of their own. Bless them forever.
@@rawstarmusic My Dad's unit liberated a small concentration camp of foreign soldiers in early 1945. He stated they walked right up to the Commandant of the camp and one of his officers who were boiling huge pots of what looked like water with bits of something (roots of some kind) floating around. The rest of the camp guards were in the woods foraging for food. The G.I.'s were so PO'd when their CO told them they had to go find the guards...lol Dad said the Germans uniforms hung on their bodies like the POWs. They did not run away like the other camp guards did. They stayed and fed the prisoners as best they could. They took these Germans as prisoners instead of shooting them on site....um..I probably should not have said that.....
@@carolyndathompson9141 Yes, it should also be remembered that, if hunger (for inmates and guardians) were suffered in concentration camps, the situation was not much better neither among the soldiers nor among the civilians in Germany. This apart, it would be interesting to check the reports of the Red Cross international commissions in the Nazi camps, and compare them with those in the Allied camps (please leave aside those for collaborationist prisoners). Then, we could talk calmly about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo on another occasion ...
What can we do about Nippon and China taking over the USA economy?
move to vietnam
Rex Bahr We can back President Trump in what he is doing with the trade war. Just give him time, no other President, besides Reagan, has even attempted this. We are pulling in BILLIONS with the tariffs, we understand he is giving a lot of that to the farmers and others being affected by the Chinese tariffs.
Buy Americsn if you can . I'm not sure if America makes anything to buy
@dwiggins01 it's not bad for me because the low, I think it's only lower now. I benifit from the lower price. Presently the consumer in america is accustom to foreign or chinese prices and it would be a shock to pay $50 to $70 for work pant if made in America shdn they are now available for $11 to $20. But I guess we can get use to it over time.
Stimulus money as far as I'm concern benifits mostly spanish speaking residence because they have taken over the construction trades in The Washingtin DC area where I live. Even back in the good old days. The days of unions, few people had Union jobs that I knew of in North Carolina of course I was still a minor then and feel that government incentives to " bring jobs back won't improve the economy enough for Joe six pack and their spending power will be, more than likely diminished due to high prices. Even considering that inexpensive foreign goods will still come into the market.
Tariffs need to be at a ratio to up the price of a pair of blue jeans from $20 to at minumn $50 that's 150% not the measly 20 or 30% they currently are. And another thing. American Manufacturing was the end all do all its touted to be . I well remember when american tools where not so great excluding those made by Snap on and for Sears. The chinese since 1985 has been making quality tools for the do it your seller Welders is a good example back in the old days the 1970 let's say. COLD CHISELS made in America were like $20 back in the 1980s and they would shatter where as the chinese tools held their edges and the cutting end didnt shatter . I'm referring to Baltimore tool company chisels mad ed in Baltimore . And cars ! Holy mackeral the Pinto and the Vega. Get real.
Dean Wormer
強いね米軍。
19:37 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FB_Vis
czcams.com/video/PABPv1FnHog/video.html
czcams.com/video/6QeiQh2SjQ4/video.html
I don't trust your link. You owe your life to the americans, just as you owe it to the brits and the russians, Without any one of them, you wouldn't exist, so stop your sniveling
czcams.com/video/2-dIUr-l0Dc/video.html
eu asisto tudo dez que nao seja de pastor o deio igreja evangelia
They didnt say anything about the american army they bombed into destruction (friendly fire).
I personally don't believe women would be capable of EQUALITY in this combat situation!!
Gen. Bradley always looks like he's got that bottom lip stuffed with a big dip of Copenhagen.
I love America.
NO MORE BROTHER WARS
americans looked like jc penny......Germans.....Uniforms by BOSS....
The Krauts seriously wanted to look sharp you can see by the portrait pictures they had taken . Proud and wanting to show off even low level soldiers would get their duds tailored. (Uber Boss!) usually Not after 1944 and it depended where they were stationed especially France and Italy the tailor’s prices were very reasonable. The same with many officers , as we can see the officers getting their service pics staged in different ways some used The Prussian tradition most often sitting with their rank and medals displayed many of the officers opted for non traditional portraits showing profile shots or frontal but not looking straight at the camera also with smiling or serious expression. Many look like they were pulled out of central casting in Hollywood as what a Nazi should look like .
How can you look at these blood soaked events, and think about fashion. Have you got no sense in your head?
The ones that wore those uniforms best were POWS and dead. 😈😈😈
@@incrediblesimilarity5858 They looked great in those situations. Just excellent.
Think how much harderthe allies would have had to fight had the Wehrmacht and SchutzStaffel not had another issue in the east and OKH not had a syohilitic drug addict in command of a still very well armed and dangerous army.
the french were mad we liberated St. Lo to death , The Big Picture failed to mention the Air Force short dropped on US positions during operation Cobra and Killed Lt General McNair and 100 soldiers and wounded 500 more
A friend of mine was one of the US troops who got wounded by the US bombs. He spent 6 years in the hospital.
I also thought the failure to mention the short drop was strange.
Russian and China we want peace
Allied Army make the end WW II.
19:10 holy shit...
So far 207 Nazi's dislike this video.
We don’t think that general Bradley was a great general! He was about as good as MacArthur! He wasted a lot of men’s lives on stupid decisions. He should have waited after this original bombing campaign was forgotten. General Bradley was not a top-notch general too many men died under his command, which didn’t have to die.
As he mentions in his talk, there was a lot he didn't know at the time of the battle. Lining up that many bombers for another massive strike later may not have been possible, since they had other things to do and other people besides Omar Bradley made those decisions. You use what you have when you have it.
The generals he was facing wasted even more lives, and lost.
The hurtgen forest debacle almost got him n hodges fired.
'Free tools' ad is a fake
make Germany great again!!
@@dougrobbins5367 Whats wrong with a Strong Germany? He said nothing of Nazi Germany. People like you think to highly of your own country.
@@JuergenGDB In the context of WW2, talking about a strong germany again, smacks of neo-nazi perversion.
I don't think too highly of my own country, but I'm glad we never murdered tens of millions of innocent people because they were the wrong color.
@@dougrobbins5367 If your from America your dead wrong
@@brandonmarks7993The nazis caused the deaths of 60 million. Who did the Americans kill?
@Wagner Probably more. Be careful of spewing nazi propaganda. CZcams doesn't tolerate it any more, nor should they.
You show an SS symbol? Keep your evil lies to yourself.
E T call home.🌏🗽🌎🎁🤔.
After training , the war takes place in the Ukraine .
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
With more than 10,000 plans cover on the sky in Normandy, and the Soviet launched operation Bagatron destroying more than 600,000 german troops, the U.S. and its western allied still couldn't destroy 400,000 german troop. And let the german escape back to Germany.
This shown how poor performance troops and generals the U.S., British, etc. were.