Battlefield | Battle of Falaise | Part 1 | Battle For Caen

[@thomasrichard890]

The red maple leaf flag was not adopted in Canada until 1965.......The Canadian flag in WWII was the Canadian Ensign.......for accuracy.....

[@alflat885]

Whaaaoooo...... I'm still in shock, 1965??!!!! You learn something new every single day.... Thank you for that fascinating piece of information. ....

[@gazza2933]

Well stated Thomas. I'm all for flag protocol. 👍 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@onewaynestreet]

Good point

[@jimeagle3213]

Its Canada no one cares

[@fumblerooskie]

@@jimeagle3213 Except for 40 million Canadians, and the families of the 50,000 casualties of the war. I dare say Churchill and Monty also cared, since that's Lt. General Guy Simonds on the left at 8:49.

[@billballbuster7186]

This is a very good narrative of the battle for Caen, and destroys American criticism for not taking Caen on the first day . Caen became a battle of attrition as the Germans concentrated the bulk of their forces, including Army Group B around the town. Monty destroyed the Germans in set-piece battles around the town. The assessment of Monty voiced here is contradictory, but his personal traits never blunted his effectiveness. His so called failures can be traced to the Americans who were loosing more men for few gains. The "Broad Front" strategy was a disaster as it gave Germans the time to re-group and inflict heavier casualties on the allies. Though Monty was wrong about Caen, his prediction of the Victory in Normandy was two weeks less than he thought.

[@chadrowe8452]

The sound is too messed up for me to watch

[@lawrencemyers3623]

Sorry, but this was sloppy. 1) When discussing the Churchill tank, a Cromwell is shown, 2) most Shermans in Normandy were equipped with 75mm, not 76mm 3 ) little mention is made of the Pzkw IV, which made up the majority of German armor in Normandy 4) Canadian I Corps was still in Italy in June '44, (and wouldn't arrive in Western Europe until the following January) while II Canadian Corps wouldn't be activated til early July. 5) 12 SS Panzer wasn't withdrawn as they were still fighting around Falaise in mid August. I've watched a number of episodes from this series and it appears that over time the quality has dropped way off. Too bad.

[@PitbullTerror88]

i seen plenty of documentaries that were clearly video edited together by ppl who barely (i think) have any knowledge or studied history, very often showing footages from other battles, campaigns, units or year it was actually representing. So i agree with you, such a shame

[@08jag81]

and no mention of the Sherman Firefly in the documentary.

[@davidarchibald50]

Yes, the "plan" was to take Caen on D1, but it was a vastly optimistic objective and presumed no significant German resistance. the reason for it being an objective is that any plan has to have them and Monty had a rather loose plan timetable. Experience at El Alamein had taught him that a battle is fought by adapting and responding to challenges. The problem for Monty was his political detractors were watching for such tiny openings to bad mouth him. It was his plan to take the Port of Cherbourg quickly too, but that too was given to the defender problem. I notice this foul character assassination of Monty continues to this day. This is a very poor history and I have reported it

[@thekameleon9785]

See the generals honor.. its about how monty blames sosabowski for market garden. You are badly informed...

[@thevillaaston7811]

@@thekameleon9785 Montgomery did not blame Sosabowski for the outcome at Arnhem.

[@arnoldhills5815]

You need to get your Churchill Tank pictures sorted out from your Cromwellls!

[@mikekelly6023]

Once again the Canadians get the hardest task in battle and this went on till Germanys surrender, you should see how Canada 🇨🇦 beat the Germans in Holland wow

[@johnnywilson7799]

The hardest?

[@thekameleon9785]

See how the Dutch honor Canada every year.

[@mikekelly6023]

@@johnnywilson7799 ya can you read Johnny ? The hardest by far and they persevered

[@johnnywilson7799]

@@mikekelly6023 you can you read?

[@tomster1414]

Brilliant , thank you ! One of the best narrators 👍

[@audimetallica]

Our dear Tim Piggot Smith😎🙏🌍

[@marewanmahmod1190]

✍️📻 Perfekt Media saund🎶🎶🎶 and Prufs 🏅 WW2 memory and Difikelt Times for Wehrmacht after Over Lord 🎯 thanks and Respekt 💚💕🌹

[@Tomeohara]

2nd Canadian Corps was in Normandy. 1st was still in Italy.

[@markwilliams2620]

A rebroadcast of something I watched 30 years ago.

[@DannyPepprs]

Excellent documentary !

[@DannyE5240]

No sound. Couldn't find an earlier upload

[@yisroelkatz-xj6pq]

There is no sound! What happened to the sound?

[@mrspin3315]

Could not understand the audio!!!

[@Jahwobbly]

Someone needs to reassess the success of Montgomery with while considering the intelligence he received from Ultra. Elalamain would not have succeeded as dramatically without Bletchley Park. And Market Garden was a disaster.

[@johndawes9337]

MG was not Monty..you need to look at Brereton,Browning and Williams for the planning and Gavin of the 82nd for cocking it up.

[@bigwoody4704]

John Boy ring the nurses station your pants are full and you are realizing hallucinations again MONTY GARDEN,US generals blamed him Britsh Officers blamed him,hell ev en your voices blamed him - then he admitted it

[@cuthbertjolly4859]

If Montgomery was a Russian general what would have happened to him?

[@elimhousesteve]

Is it just me or is the volume very low on this documentary

[@13BGunBunny]

Me too

[@eliech7112]

Great video thanks

[@greggriffin1]

audio very bad, could not hear this

[@randylahey1822]

just go back to his earlier upload of the episode, it works fine lol

[@oim7392]

Bad? Made under water 🙃🤧

[@stevewheatley243]

No CC either. Unwatchable.

[@LeveretteJamesClifford1955]

In General Omar Bradley's account of the war in book form, A Soldier's Story he confirmed that the plan before Normandy was invaded was for Montgomery to take on the weight of the German panzer forces while the Americans took on the Bocage while capturing the port of Cherbourg and then moved to Sl.Lo to stage the breakout. The only thing that didn't work out was just before the breakout, American troops were bombed two days straight by their own Army Air Corps with bombs meant for Panzer Lehr. Still, that all but wiped out Panzer Lehr as well, and the US had so much power that it continued on and Patton took over the 3rd Army, branching out to both the east, the Britany Peninsula and Falaise., One serious flaw in this video is the when talking about the Churchill tank it shows the Comet, a seriously flawed tank.

[@neilphipp6905]

I think you mean a Cromwell. They mix it up with a Churchill

[@yancowles]

Out of curiosity, what was seriously flawed about the Comet? I've been led to believe they were reasonably decent AFVs.

[@LeveretteJamesClifford1955]

@@yancowles The British already knew that sloped armor increases the thickness that the armor piercing round has to go through from testing German Panthers and Tiger Bs. They Comet was designed before they knew this but well after the tests on the German tanks had taken place. So they went ahead and produced the Comet in relatively small numbers while they were designing what was essentially a Comet with sloped armor and called it the Challenger, but it was released after the war and saw service in Korea. So the flaw was that the Oak 40 antitank gun, the Panzer 4 and everything with a big velocity 75 like the Panther and of course the Tigers with their 88s, could easily destroy a Comet.

[@mylesba1]

Audio not working for me..

[@yancowles]

The airports back in 1944 were obviously ahead of their time in terms of passenger plane design.

[@allandavis8201]

I’m sorry to say that in my opinion there are to many inconsistencies in this documentary, for instance it was stated that General/field Marshal “Monty” Montgomery had to be handled with Kidd gloves by General Eisenhower, but what was not mentioned was the extent that General de Gaule was even worse, he was uncooperative, Arrogant and self serving, not to mention General Patton who, according to most documentary films and historians was lucky that he was allowed to command a United States Army due to his violent conduct towards his junior ranks, disobeying a direct order and even not being as tight lipped as he should have been, and the only two facts that kept him in Europe was his popularity with his men (even though he was a very stern leader who was willing to sacrifice his men’s guts for his glory), and his personal relationship with General Eisenhower, from West Point (roommates) to the end of the war they were joined with a very long umbilical cord, if it wasn’t for Ike Patton would have been sacked and sent home to fly a desk. Field Marshal Rommel was not in command of the whole invasion front, he was in charge of the Atlantic Wall defences, even though he had more battlefield success than any other German senior officers, and if I am correct Rommel was sent to command in North Africa because the Italian military was getting their arses handed to them on a plate and Hitler had to show solidarity with Mussolini, Hitler didn’t want to withdraw from the theatre of operations, it was Rommel who persuaded Hitler to allow him to withdraw. The battle for Caan could have been a lot shorter if the French citizens had abandoned the city as they were asked to do, if they had the panzer and other defensive formations would have been held up in the throng of refugees leaving the British and Canadians to take Caan far more easily and quickly (I honestly think de Gaule told the resistance to tell the inhabitants to stay put because he had not suggested or ordered it). The battle of the Bocage was a horrendous ordeal for any forces that fought in the region, I heard that sometimes opposing forces were only separated by the hedgerows, thank goodness some ingenious United States Army engineer came up with the attachment to the front of Sherman Tanks, otherwise the death toll could have been very much worse. I think 💭 that had Hitler not been a Richard Cranium*, not trusting his field commanders, being inflexible with battle strategy and planning (especially on the Russian front), thinking that he was a brilliant military strategist and been a drug addict the Germans might, just might have been able to win the war or at least negotiate a peace treaty that redressed the inequities of the Versailles Treaty, he pulled the German nation from the brink of the abyss and turned the country back into a superpower, but his economic abilities didn’t equate to military guile and experience, but because he was the Fuhrer nobody, until it was to late, dared stand up to him completely, they did to a certain extent but knew how far to go before they withdrew from the argument, and that, alongside my other points was crucial to allied success, just as much as the fighting spirit, determination, courage and commitment of all the allied forces, including all the resistance networks, SOE operatives, and all who played a part in the allied success we will be forever grateful and proud of them. Lest We Forget. RIP. Just to be perfectly clear, my comments are my personal opinion, an opinion formed having seen hundreds of documentary films and books read, and I stand behind them 100%, Rightly or Wrongly, and if anyone wishes to engage in a discussion about my opinion or the documentary itself please feel free to comment, however, if all you want to do is engage in argument and use foul language then………..DILLIGAF. * Richard = Dick & Cranium = Head, put the two together and you have the word. DILLIGAF YOU have to work out the hard way.

[@billXJR9]

Well said. You've a thorough understanding of these matters.

[@allandavis8201]

@@billXJR9 I like to think I do but I can honestly say that sometimes I am completely wrong and have to eat humble pie 🥧, which I don’t mind if I am learning something from others who have far more in depth knowledge than I. As I said most of my comments are my opinion as much as information gained from my viewing experience and reading books.

[@Vankel83]

Fantastic video.

[@hiddentruth1982]

One thing they got incorrect is the sherman started out with a 75mm low velocity cannon and the 76 came later. This made it difficult for the sherman to face the panzer 4.

[@bozboz4414]

Well this looks like a good documentary if the audio wasn't broken...can't hear the narrator

[@fumblerooskie]

That's an excellent shot of Simonds, Churchill, and Monty at 8:49. Anybody know if that's Dempsey in the rear?

[@Bullet-Tooth-Tony-]

Yeah its dempsey.

[@13BGunBunny]

The narration is at a very low volume for me but other than that the video is fine.

[@msack669]

Sound is messed up

[@deeppurple883]

Sound inaudible

[@buzaldrin8086]

I have no problem with the audio (MacBook). Audio from both sides.

[@edwinsalau150]

Audio?????? What’s the story?

[@katana258]

britts '' why take the tanks '' ' .. one more lets go after tea time ..

[@johndransfield1265]

You ought to write more history books like this one.

[@yancowles]

Colonel Montgomery, also known as the Dessert Fox, was a brilliant tactician out of off of the wrenchmark or german army men army often carrying the deadly 88 equipped crusader tank as his sidearm to shoot down the rocket powered typhoon fighters which had the hitting power of a sideboard from a big fighty ship.

[@keithjones8424]

😂

[@davidthecobra2853]

Uh, Rommel was known as the Desert Fox

[@mikekelly6023]

WW1 Canada got the hardest missions and Won and no different in WW2 watch Vimy you’ll see what I mean

[@thatonecousin]

I don't know about world war 2 Russians did the heavy lifting during that war... of course with american help

[@peghead]

Many comments regarding the audio, I've experienced no issues, it sounded fine. I've heard decades ago that the units assigned to take Caen took a lengthy break after the initial D-Day landings giving the Germans time to solidify defenses in the area, any thoughts out there?

[@steveworthington930]

Montgomery should have been sacked for the Caen debacle. Pretending everything was going to plan to allow Patton to break out. Absolute bollocks.

[@Bullet-Tooth-Tony-]

@@steveworthington930 It did go to plan, the Germans were forced to divert 8 armoured divisions and 3 heavy panzer battalions to the British/Canadian sector, allowing US forces to advance to Cherbourg without fear of German counter attacks. Even American general Omar Bradley acknowledges this. Quote *"The British and Canadian armies were to decoy the enemy reserves and draw them to their front on the extreme eastern edge of the Allied beachhead. Thus, while Monty taunted the enemy at Caen, we [the Americans] were to make our break on the long roundabout road to Paris. When reckoned in terms of national pride, this British decoy mission became a sacrificial one, for while we tramped around the outside flank, the British were to sit in place and pin down the Germans. Yet strategically it fitted into a logical division of labors, for it was towards Caen that the enemy reserves would race once the alarm was sounded"*

[@steveworthington930]

Fair comment but Caen was to be taken D Day +2/3. If Caen had been taken, same result but further east.

[@johnkidd1226]

The Canadians reached their objective on D-Day and were within sight of Caen. They felt it was lightly defended and could have been taken but were held back to wait for the British. As it turned out, they were right but it was reinforced by German troops and tanks within days and held out for six weeks.

[@Bullet-Tooth-Tony-]

@@johnkidd1226 Even if they had took it the German reinforcements arriving in the form of 2nd and 1st SS Panzer Corps would have retook the city, the idea of capturing it on d-day was too optimistic given the number of German armour that would arrive in the battle.

[@christophersheridan8364]

Terrible looks like such a great documentary and yet I can’t hear a thing smh

[@richarddainty2855]

I love this stuff

[@carlrichards5207]

Sound?

[@mikeaguilar5764]

The Sherman's turret was fully "traversible" not "transversable."

[@4OHz]

10:59 A great myth of the war is Hitler’s lack of understanding of strategic withdrawals, that is a myth of memoirs written by generals at the behest of the Americans. There are numerous instances of Germans doing this; Hitler’s acquiesce to his generals to do just that.

[@edt8535]

Hitler did the No retreat Thing repeatedly on the Eastern Front-Manstein had it out with him over this. I believe he got his way but got sacked for it. Just sayin‘…

[@britishpatriot7386]

No sound

[@ChemoNero63]

Sherman Tank the most abundant tank ever known. Only if you have never heard of a T34.👎

[@hofmannlaurent2773]

Its a pity that there is no mention on how much the civilians suffered in Caen after the aerial bombardment. Its still a big topic of discussion today. Otherwise a good documentary.

[@EuroScot2023]

Being deaf, I cannot comment on the audio quality but, the lack of subtitling makes the material useless to those like myself. I cannot therefore make any remarks as to the content accuracy.

[@mobelue]

Did Monte’s failure with “Market Garden,” slip your mind?

[@johndawes9337]

why should it? MG was planned by Brereton,Browning and Williams not Monty

[@michaelkenny8540]

Did your 'Monte' bring his peaches with him?

[@bigwoody4704]

Monty Garden

[@reginaldmcnab3265]

3:11 the Battle of Britain was a draw, the German Air Force were transferred East for the invasion of Russia and so the priority had shifted to the East.

[@Bullet-Tooth-Tony-]

It wasn't a draw. German losses in air crew and air power were higher than the RAF losses.

[@reginaldmcnab3265]

@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- true but but many British planes that were damaged could be recovered and repaired while many German planes that were damaged were unable to make it back to base Also German planes had a maximum of from 15 minutes to 20 my minutes over Britain depending on how far they the target was. But it is not my opinion it was the opinion of Goring and Winkle Brown seems to agree with him. It was a conversation they had

[@Alan-pv2bi]

💪🇨🇦🙏

[@dwrs92026]

Very bad audio... garbled. Please check.

[@dmitryshusterman9494]

Did you even bother to check audio after the trouble of making this

[@andreray2784]

Bad audio lasted long? Didn't notice

[@rascalferret]

surprisingly constant misidentification of ...

[@rascalferret]

everything

[@jayo3074]

Yeah Audio is nad sorry

[@randylahey1822]

just go back to his earlier upload of the episode, it works fine lol

[@jayo3074]

@@randylahey1822 thats effort on my end lol why can't they just fix this

[@williamwilson2270]

Montgomery's excuse that his high casualties amongst the Canadian a d Scots 51st Highland division was not simply to relieve the enemy attacks upon the Americans around the left of Caen. it did indeed become a humiliating failure for Monty's bad planning, but as usual, it was the Canadians and the gun fodder of the Scots 51ST highlanders who bore the brunt of his stupid obsession with taking Caen without sufficient planning. the casualties were appalling as usual and many Highlanders and Canadians dreaded being under his callous command. I once heard a Scot in Glasgow who was in that battle who swore that he'd put a bullet in Montgomery rather than attempt another massacre trying to follow Monty's inept strategies to take the town.

[@Bullet-Tooth-Tony-]

@williamwilson2270 The plan stated was to hold off the German armour to help support a US breakout to the West. Having just recently read through the Normandy portion of the Official History of the Canadian Army, Colonel Stacey provides evidence demonstrating a holding action in the Caen sector was always part of Montgomery's plan. Quote " *Our aim during this period should be to contain the maximum enemy forces facing the Eastern flank of the bridgehead, and to thrust rapidly toward Rennes.* " " *If, at this time, the enemy weakens his Eastern force to oppose us North of Redon, a strong attack should be launched toward the Seine.* "

[@thevillaaston7811]

Rubbish.

[@cuthbertjolly4859]

If Montgomery was a Russian general what would Stalin have done?

[@thevillaaston7811]

@@cuthbertjolly4859 Who can say? Perhaps he would have given him the Russian 'Order of Victory' Decoration?

[@davidholder3207]

@davidholder3207 0 seconds ago The script of this video is written from a German point of view.

[@edge7387]

This a shame

[@edge7387]

This is the worst I haven't lost respect but wow you put this out?? Why

[@randylahey1822]

just go back to his earlier upload of the episode, it works fine lol

[@Titus-as-the-Roman]

UN-watchable, the narrator is garbled and non-understandable.

[@randylahey1822]

just go back to his earlier upload of the episode, it works fine lol

[@Redrobinjohn]

Unwatchable

[@2serveand2protect]

Imagine if the "Tyhoons" and "Thunderbolts" in 1944 had the capacity of coordinating their attacks on enemy targets, guided by the infantry and artillery observers directly from the ground, instead of having to rely only on what they could see from the air OR orders from the base. Instead of relying on air observers or orders issued before take-off, they could have stayed in the air and be called to a pinpoint attack by radio, directly from the first-line units, engaged already in combat - directing all their firepower WHERE IT TRULY MATTERED. That kind of sophisticated integration of armour, infantry, artillery and (most of all) air-firepower did not come to fruition until the Vietnam War (as far as I know) and even then it wasn't as effective as it could have been. PS. Not saying that the Allied "Jabos" or "fighter-bombers" did not play their role - de facto they stopped all the possibility of resupplying the German divisions in the West, SQUEEZING their supply-flow to a "trickle", but none the less they still could not engage well hidden German units in "ambush-mode" that were causing havoc on the advancing Allies. PS. ANYWAY! EXCELLENT documentary! Big thanks for uploading! ;) :)

[@2serveand2protect]

Hausser?? Wasn't he responsible for the overall training of the Waffen-SS ??

[@meht43-BringitBadger]

If you are going spend time doing a documentary, at least do some decent research and get you facts and imagery correct…JFC it doesn’t take a genius