All language subtitles for the.battle.of.normandy-85.days.in.hell.2019.extended.1080p.web.h264-cbfm

GEOFFREY BATEMAN: It was
the turning point of World War Two -

three million soldiers,

hundreds of thousands of ships,
planes and tanks,

a logistical complexity
unprecedented

in a military operation.

This was the Battle of Normandy.

More than 75 years
since the end of the war,

certain details of this
tremendous battle have gone untold.

Very few people could tell you what
happens in June and July and August

and how the battle for Normandy
actually ended.

Now unpublished archives,
20 years of research,

experts from the United States,
the UK and Canada

bring to life
the boots-on-the-ground reality

of Normandy's 85 days of hell.

Liberation has come to Normandy
but so has war.

Three months of savage combat...

If we can destroy
the German army in Normandy,

then the rest of France
will be saved.

..during which, the Allies and
the Germans will fight mercilessly.

It's a battlefield
where they live and they die

and where they fight
and where they kill.

From the average soldier's
point of view,

this just seems to be
a hopeless situation.

It was a very dirty battle.

The "schmutziger Buschkrieg",
a "dirty bush war".

Everyone paid a heck of a price
for this.

D-Day was just the beginning.

Early morning, thousands of boats
embarked from England,

headed to the French coast
of Normandy.

Two years in the making,

it's an Allied operation to
take back France from the Germans.

They call it "Overlord".

Rarely in history will you find
a time where these major powers

are all mobilised, almost to
the full extent of their strength,

to have this confrontation
over what is to happen

with the Normandy invasion.

Allied soldiers
will face a territory

that the Germans have occupied
for four years.

All the great cities of Normandy
are under Nazi control.

The landing zone chosen
is 80km long,

placed under the command
of US General Eisenhower.

The troops will land
on five sectors.

To the west,
the Utah and Omaha beaches

will be taken by the Americans.

To the east,
the Gold, Juno and Sword beaches

by the British and Canadians.

Around 6.30am, the first waves of
Allied soldiers land on French soil.

The Allies suffer heavy losses
from the entrenched German defences

during the first hours
of the landing.

But soldiers and armoured vehicles
continue to land,

putting pressure on the enemy.

The vital part

of any seaborne invasion
like Operation Overlord

was to get ground rapidly

because only then could you start
to push back the enemy

so that they could not keep firing
at the beaches.

After just one day,

thousands of Allied soldiers
have already been killed.

But the wide scope of the landing
has been fatal to the Germans.

The first phase
of Operation Overlord is completed.

Scattered throughout
the landing zones,

the Allies must now regroup
the different units on the ground.

You gotta link up those five beaches
as quickly as you can.

If they're not linked up,
then the Germans can fill the gaps

and can begin attacking the Allies
from any direction they want,

from what military people call
the flanks.

TIM SCOTT:
Eisenhower and his generals

needed to create a buffer zone

to protect against the German
counterattack that would come.

And in fact, they prepared for that.

The day before D-Day,

more than 12,000 paratroopers
embarked from England

aboard 432 aircraft.

On the night of June 5th and 6th,

these thousands of Canadian,
British and American soldiers

were dropped near the landing zone.

At the same time, hundreds
of gliders transporting troops

have also crossed the Channel
in great secrecy.

This joint operation
has already created confusion

within the enemy forces.

In the early morning, when the
first soldiers arrived from the sea,

the next phase could then start...

..a large air operation

to prevent German reinforcements
reaching the five beaches.

The plan for sealing off Normandy
was called Transportation,

and this meant bombing
all of the bridges

over the River Seine to the east

and over the River Loire
to the south

so that the whole of the Norman area
was completely cut off.

But also, it meant smashing houses
and towns and villages

at crucial crossroads and places

to prevent the Germans bringing up
reinforcements and supplies.

The American phrase,
which had been invented in Italy,

was called "putting the city
in the street",

which basically meant
simply blocking the roads

so that traffic
could not get through.

Even before
the fighting starts inland,

Normandy is partially destroyed -

no water, no electricity,
no phone lines.

And now, after taking
the five landing beaches,

the Allies must advance,
whatever the cost,

to push the Germans back
little by little

and occupy enemy territory.

On the east flank of the beachhead,

the first objective
of General Montgomery,

commander of the British
and Canadian forces,

is to seize the city of Caen,

located nearly 20km
from Sword and Juno beaches.

On day two, Montgomery is convinced

that he will succeed
in rapidly capturing Caen.

But facing him
is General Erwin Rommel,

known for his feats in Africa
and nicknamed "the Desert Fox".

Rommel mobilises
his most powerful armoured divisions

to meet the British-Canadian forces
advancing towards Caen

and block Montgomery's
Allied offensive.

When the British and the Canadians
begin to fight around Caen,

they are doing
massive tank assaults.

They're trying to steamroll
over the Germans.

They have more tanks.

They have more troops.
They have air power.

But the Germans were fighting
on the defensive.

And if Normandy had shown anything,
is it's fighting on the defensive -

in dug-in positions,
with anti-tank guns,

with mortars and mines...

..and a single 88 gun,

that tears apart 15 Sherman tanks,
will stop a column of troops.

The first days of fighting
north of Caen are devastating.

The perfectly organised
German defences invariably repel

all English and Canadian attempts.

Facing the German Mark IV,
Mark V and Tiger tanks,

the American Sherman tanks
used by the Allies

are just not up to the mark.

JOHN: What we have to remember is
every American Sherman tank

has to be shipped
to the battlefield.

So it means
you have to produce something

that's reasonably light enough
to be able to ship

and small enough
that you can get it on the ship.

It's a reasonably good tank,

but you don't want to be
in a toe-to-toe battle

with a German tank head-on.

33 tonnes for the Sherman,
over 43 tonnes for the German tanks,

more robust with armour superior
to the Americans

and delivering
devastating cannon power.

The muzzle velocity of those tanks
meant that if it hit you,

that shell was gonna penetrate
your armour, probably, you know,

especially along the sides,
and either go straight through,

or worse,
rattle around inside and explode.

While the British and the Canadians
are defeated on the east flank,

the Americans start advancing
on the other side.

General Bradley commands the troops.

Their first objective
is 17km from the coast -

the small town of Carentan and
its network of roads and railways.

Carentan is really the key
to seal off the Cotentin Peninsula

and then capture Cherbourg,

which is, you know,
the greatest harbour in Normandy.

But also, in tandem with that,

you're gonna start moving southward
towards the town of Saint-Lo.

The 101st American Airborne Division
surround Carentan on June 9th, 1944.

The fighting, ruthless and savage,

would last four days
and four nights.

On June 12th,
Carentan falls into American hands

with heavy losses on both sides.

But the Allies
have achieved their goal.

Six days after the landings,

all the coalition forces
are finally linked up.

The troops occupy
a beachhead 80km long,

reaching at certain points
ten to 30km deep.

While on the west side,

the Americans advance
towards Cherbourg and Saint-Lo,

on the east side,

the British and Canadians
still clashed with the Germans,

who maintained their positions
around Caen.

These repeated defeats
put Montgomery

in a difficult position
with the US command.

He's desperate to win
the first irrefutable victory

on the battlefield.

On June 12th, he attempts
an encirclement manoeuvre

by skirting Caen from the west
to trap the German divisions.

The 7th British Armoured Division

is sent to the small town
of Villers-Bocage.

But the Germans anticipate the move
and ambush the British

with a Tiger tank battalion
commanded by Michael Wittmann,

the most impressive tank commander
of World War Two.

One by one,
the British tanks are destroyed.

ANTONY BEEVOR: The failure
to capture Villers-Bocage

by the 7th Armoured Division
and XXX Corps

did impact badly on morale.

They just realised that it was
going to be a far tougher job

than they had thought about
or imagined when they set sail.

The operation designed by the Allies
for two years

is not going as planned.

Even worse, a terrible storm
falls on Normandy for three days.

The two artificial harbours

installed to unload troops
and equipment are badly affected.

The one on Omaha Beach
is totally destroyed.

The supply of soldiers
is considerably slowed down.

In these conditions,
taking the port of Cherbourg

becomes an absolute priority
for the Allies.

After capturing Carentan,

the Americans take ten days
to travel 50km and reach Cherbourg.

The 4th, 9th and 79th US Divisions

finally reached the city
on June 21st.

They launched the attack
the following day.

Three US divisions are all just
advancing north towards Cherbourg

and trying to get into the town
as quickly as they can.

The city is defended by
30,000 troops trapped by the Allies.

They're doomed
because the Allied navy,

from the seaward side,
compound them.

And then the American Army
coming from the landward side

can kind of just catch them
in a vice.

So the whole thing
kind of just devolves

into this sort of
block-by-block fight.

It will take a few days
before the American soldiers

drive out all pockets of resistance
in the city.

GEOFFREY BATEMAN:
On June 26th, the Germans surrender.

Thousands of soldiers
are taken prisoner.

After four long years of occupation,

Cherbourg finally tastes freedom
once again.

Cherbourg is certainly
the biggest city at that point

that is liberated.

There is this larger
German surrender,

and the Allies then have it.

As an average soldier, that still
wasn't necessarily your typical day.

So those who were there, say,
at Cherbourg

tended to remember that.

Despite this first victory
in Cherbourg,

the total casualties after
three weeks of fighting is immense.

Thousands of soldiers
have already been killed or wounded.

On the battlefield,

the medical teams try to intervene
as quickly as possible.

Transporting blood, field hospitals,

a complex organisation is set up

to follow the troops
as they advance.

But in spite of the losses,
the Allies keep moving forward

day after day after day.

After the Americans take Cherbourg,
they head south.

The next Allied target

is less than 90km away,

the city of Saint-Lo.

But the American soldiers face
one of the most dangerous regions

for infantry and tanks -
the Normandy Bocage.

The Bocage -

cultivated fields separated
by ditches and embankments,

canopied by hedgerows
several metres high.

It's basically a maze
of these hedgerows,

most of which
are about 8ft- to 13ft-high.

That thick Norman soil,
clay-like soil,

packed around fences and stones

that, certainly, individual soldiers
can't get through.

So the hedgerow opening
becomes a kill zone.

The Germans had four years
to prepare their defence.

Heavy machine guns were positioned
in the corners of each field.

Mortars target every spot
the Allies might cross.

And mines hide in their pathways.

With a visibility
no more than a couple of metres,

the Americans advance blindly.

You had no idea
when you were suddenly

gonna get brewed up
by a German soldier

with a Panzerfaust shoulder-fired,
rocket-propelled grenade...

..or an 88-millimetre gun,
maybe a whole mile away.

Up against the Germans,

several dozen Allied soldiers die
taking back a mere meadow...

..or a single hedge.

The US Army finds itself in Normandy

in the middle of a bloodbath,
absolute bloodbath,

day by day, hedgerow by hedgerow,

choke-point town
by choke-point town.

Every one of them where you fight,
they're gonna suffer casualties.

From the average soldier's
point of view,

this just seems to be
a hopeless situation.

You just know that this seems to be

kind of the road to nowhere
in Normandy.

As the Americans try to navigate
the Normandy hedgerows,

the British and Canadians
are still attempting

to break the German stronghold
around the city of Caen.

The British General Montgomery
decides to change his offensive.

He launches Operation Charnwood.

On July 7th,

467 Allied planes dropped
more than 2,500 tonnes of bombs

on enemy-occupied areas around Caen.

After having already been
heavily bombed on June 6th,

the city of Caen is decimated.

On July 9th,
the British and Canadian soldiers

finally enter the city
from the north.

As the Canadians and British fought
into Caen through the rubble,

they saw French civilians
who had survived the bombing

but whose family members
had been killed.

They talked
about hearing the screams

of the French civilians
who were trapped.

The scene was a real nightmare,
a scene of devastation.

Many of the ancient buildings
had been smashed to pieces.

There was complete clouds of dust
in all directions.

It was impossible even
to find your way through the city

because, obviously, there were
no street signs or anything left.

In fact, it was hard to tell
where the streets were,

the destruction had been so great.

Under these conditions,
even after four years of occupation,

it's difficult
for residents to appreciate

the long-awaited liberation
of their city.

I think
some of those French civilians

understood the cost of battle.

They understood the nature
of the fighting.

But at the same time,
they were watching their friends,

their family members being killed
in this liberation.

But for the Allied command,

the annihilation of Caen and
the thousands of civilians killed

under the American and British bombs
was a necessary evil,

the price to pay
in winning the battle.

It's always hard
talking about ends and means

and what justifies what in warfare.

A moral decision would be
that the killing of civilians is,

almost by definition, a war crime.

But you're not gonna be able
to avoid it in reality.

The priority was we've got
to defeat the Germans because,

in a way, we accept that Normandy
is going to be, really,

the sacrificial lamb
for the whole of France.

If we can destroy
the German Army in Normandy,

then the rest of France
will be saved.

While the British
and Canadian troops

gradually liberate
the city of Caen,

the Americans continue to struggle

against a strong German resistance
on their way to Saint-Lo.

Thousands of soldiers are trapped
in the Normandy Bocage.

The incessant rain and mud
slow their progress even more.

To escape this fatal labyrinth,

the Allies try
an ingenious strategy.

We've got to create a new opening
through the hedgerows

because the main one,
the Germans have covered,

and they're gonna kill everybody
who moves through there.

So they begin to weld,
ironically enough,

the remnants of German
beach obstacles, the metal,

onto the front of tanks
with prongs...

..and begin to use the tanks then

to punch a new opening
through the hedgerow.

With these so-called "Rhino tanks",

the Allies take the Germans
by surprise.

But for every hedge crossed,

they remain at the mercy
of the enemy soldiers.

As the Germans have in the ditches
beyond the hedgerow

a lot of Panzerfaust gunners,

it's a one-time, one-shot
kind of anti-tank weapon

that could blow up your tank.

So the infantrymen
have to move very close to the tank

and basically,
what the military calls,

"clean out" the Germans
and the ditches.

That basically means kill them,
and very close,

face to face quite often.

And then the tankers will lay down
what's called white phosphorus fire.

And white phosphorus
is a terrible weapon.

It's basically a chemical
that will just burn through you

as long as it has oxygen.

It was a very dirty battle.

I mean, the Germans themselves

described it as a "schmutziger
Buschkrieg", a "dirty bush war".

And General Collins,

who'd been fighting in the Far East,
said this was worse than the jungle.

The town of La Haye-du-Puits,
liberated on July 9th,

will remain the symbol of this
battle of unimaginable violence.

Within the area,

the fighting will cost the lives
of 10,000 American soldiers

while advancing the front only 12km.

GEOFFREY BATEMAN: On July 18th,

after three weeks
of relentless fighting

since the capturing of Cherbourg,

the Allied soldiers finally enter
the city of Saint-Lo.

But upon arrival, not much remains.

The soldiers have to advance
extremely slowly

as the Germans mined
the entire city.

A few civilians emerge
from their shelters

to search the rubble
for objects that might have survived

the onslaught of Allied bombs.

After Cherbourg,

Saint-Lo is the second great victory
for the Allied command.

But the state of the city,

which is later nicknamed
"Capital of the Ruins",

exemplifies the high price
of liberating Normandy.

After a month and a half
of fighting,

the troops' morale
is at an all-time low.

Every foot gained
against the Germans

comes at the cost
of intense and merciless combat.

There's the stress of not knowing

when the next German shell
is gonna come in

and whether it's gonna hit
near you or not.

They see a very limited battlefield.

It's a battlefield
where they live and they die

and where they fight
and where they kill.

By mid-July, tens of thousands
of Americans, Brits and Canadians

have already died in combat.

Soldiers still fighting
on the ground

no longer have illusions
about what awaits them.

Eventually, the day comes

when there aren't that many people
you know in your unit any more

and you're a fugitive
from the law of averages.

And over time,
the mindset changes to,

"If I'm here long enough,
this is gonna happen to me."

Between combat, life is monotonous.

Soldiers constantly check
and clean their weapons

to keep them from jamming.

Meals are usually cold.

Hygiene is bad, and the wait
for orders seems endless.

Very soon,
they were crawling with lice.

They were always short of water.

They developed various forms
of stomach bugs.

In effect, everyone had diarrhoea.

And all of this strain is happening

in an environment
of death and destruction.

For the soldiers,
the warm welcome of the locals

reminds them why they came here
to risk their lives.

A little alcohol, cigarettes,

simple gifts that lift the men's
spirits before the next advancement,

the next mortar fire, the next dead.

Over time, many of them realise

that the only way out
was to be killed or wounded,

even as reinforcements
came behind them.

Their world became very small.

Battle stress became a tremendous
problem in the fighting in Normandy.

And in July and in August,
as the strain continued,

between about 20 and 30% of
the casualties were combat stress.

They had gone weeks and weeks
without proper sleep,

terrible food,
all of these conditions.

The strain had been too much,
and it broke them.

To compensate for losses,

reinforcements land daily
on the Normandy beaches

and are immediately sent
to the front line.

After a month and a half
of intense fighting,

the main cities of Normandy had been
taken from the hands of the Germans.

But the battle is far from over.

To pierce the German defences
and accelerate the troops' movement,

the Allied command
launches Operation Cobra.

Cobra is conceived
around the idea of,

"Gosh, we have
all these great bombers,

"all this airpower we've been using
to pummel German cities.

"What if we carpet-bombed a part of
the German lines in these hedgerows

"to punch a hole and have
an opening now for our armour

"and all of our other troops
to get through here very quickly?"

It makes a great deal of sense
on paper.

It's in the implementation that
it creates some serious problems.

Why? Because the bombers
are not that accurate.

You're asking them to do something

they're not really capable of doing,
which is to bomb close -

within about 1,000 to 2,000m
of their own ground troops.

They're lucky to hit a target
within three miles or so.

For two days, thousands of bombs hit
the front line west of Saint-Lo.

Over the course of two days,
July 24th and 25th, 1944,

the heavy bombers come over
from England

and they bomb in front
of the US Assault Division.

They bomb short, and they kill
several hundred Americans.

This is, I believe,

the greatest friendly fire incident
in the history of the United States.

But also, the good news is it does
tremendous damage, of course,

to the Panzer-Lehr-Division,

the Germans
who are on the wrong side of this.

And so Cobra does
what it's designed for.

The Panzer-Lehr-Division
of the German divisions

were so badly thrown
by the heavy bombing

that they were in
a completely dazed state

when the Americans got to them.

Within two days, the real
breakthrough had been achieved.

In just a few days, thousands
of Germans are taken prisoner.

The Reich forces have suffered
one of their heaviest defeats

since the beginning of the war.

Despite the collateral damage,

the military success
of Operation Cobra

brings the Battle of Normandy
into a new phase.

GEOFFREY BATEMAN: On July 28th,

the town of Coutances is captured
by the Allies.

The same day, a new commander
arrives, General Patton.

Famous for his feats
in North Africa and Sicily,

Patton has just taken the lead
of the Third US Army.

His mission - make a breakthrough
to the south of Normandy.

The Germans feared Patton
more than any other Allied general.

Patton's new job, which
he was extremely excited about,

was the prospect of taking over,
having his own army,

whence the break-out came
from Normandy.

In just four days, Patton's troops
will retake the cities

between Coutances and Avranches

and advance more than 50km
to the south

at a pace not yet seen
in this battle.

As they progress, thousands of
German soldiers are taken captive.

This really took the Americans
all the way through,

down past Avranches
and out of Normandy,

even into northern Brittany.

It was a spectacular smashing
of the German armies in Normandy.

This was definitely the start
of taking the fight

right the way through into France.

On July 31st,

Patton and his troops reclaimed
the Pontaubault Bridge

that crosses the Selune River.

They gained direct access to
the west of France and to Brittany.

The following day, the Americans
arrive at Mont Saint-Michel,

completely abandoned by the enemy.

Patton's breakthrough is a serious
setback for the German Army.

The Germans are in an existential
situation in Normandy.

And the logical thing to do

would be to simply retreat eastward
and get out of there

and fight somewhere else.

We're not talking about logic

when we're talking
about someone like Adolf Hitler.

Instead of ordering his troops
to retreat,

Hitler decides to counterattack.

His plan sent his tanks
to the town of Mortain,

close to where several
American units have joined up.

The goal is to create a breach

in the Allied configuration
meant to reach Avranches

by cutting the American army in two
and regaining control of the area.

Reluctantly,
the German generals on the ground

prepare the counteroffensive.

They had these firm orders
from Hitler,

even though most of the commanders
of the German Panzer units

were dubious
about this particular operation.

But they had no option,
but they had to go ahead and attack.

On August 7th, 1944, the Germans
launch a counterattack in Mortain.

Codename, Operation Luttich.

Columns of Panzers attack
the 30th US Infantry Division

with full force.

The GIs resist
the powerful German tanks

and manage to slow down
the Nazi troops' progress,

giving time
for reinforcements to arrive.

Within a few days,
the massive influx of Allied forces

pushes back
the German counteroffensive.

Hitler's Operation Luttich
is a total failure.

The Germans suffer
at least 50% casualties,

particularly along the roads

that kind of envelop
on either side of Mortain.

It's really a disaster
for the Germans.

By mid-August,
the German forces are defeated.

On August 15th, 1944,
Hitler throws in the towel

and orders his troops
to flee Normandy.

The German Operation Luttich
was a desperate gamble,

and it looked like that this German
force was ripe to be annihilated.

Arriving from the west,

the Americans advance at full speed
towards Argentan

to join forces
with the British and Canadians.

Village after village, one by one,
they occupy enemy positions.

They annihilate the areas
of German resistance.

The small village of Ranes,

tirelessly held by the Wehrmacht
and an SS unit,

is reduced to rubble.

Dozens of civilians are killed.

But now is the time to expel

every last standing German soldier
in Normandy.

Bradley and Montgomery coordinate
the Allied troops' movement.

In the west, the Americans advance
towards the Seine.

In the north,
the British and Canadians

increase their pressure on Falaise.

In the south, the French armoured
division of General Leclerc,

along with the Americans,
head back up to Argentan.

Between the cities
of Falaise and Chambois,

a pocket starts to form,

trapping nearly 100,000
German soldiers.

If the Allies managed
to close the gap on the east side,

they will cut off any chance
for escape.

Bradley boasted to visitors,
to headquarters,

"Never does a general
get an opportunity

"like we have now to close this gap
and basically to seal them off."

The Battle of Normandy
had been fought

over hundreds of square miles,

but it seemed to funnel
at the Falaise gap.

And this enormous battlefield
of hundreds of miles

gets focused down
to a very small, deadly place.

To weaken
the enemy's final defences,

the Allied Air Forces
hammer the German positions.

On the ground,
the fighting is unprecedented.

The Canadians take Falaise
on August 17th, Trun the 18th.

Little by little,
the vice tightens on the Germans,

who have a corridor
of no more than 7km wide

to flee to the east.

It becomes known as "Death Row".

The massacre inside
the pocket at Falaise was horrific.

The fighter bombers
kept on coming in.

All of the German transport horses,

dragging field hospitals
or guns or whatever,

were just simply machine-gunned
in their traces.

The smell, the stench of corpses

for weeks afterwards
was simply appalling.

It was a turkey shoot, as
the Americans would have called it.

On August 21st,

the Falaise pocket is closed
once and for all in Chambois.

Tens of thousands
of Germans are taken prisoner,

and thousands lay dead.

The battle will later be known
as the Stalingrad of Normandy.

You have thousands of dead bodies,
animals and humans,

that are in that area.

Eisenhower will later walk it,
famously,

and say it was possible to walk
from one side of a field to another

without ever stepping
on anything but dead flesh.

I think that is something
to try to imagine today -

that Falaise gap filled with corpses
and wounded, screaming men...

..and that was the price of victory.

In the city of Argentan,

liberated the day before
by the 80th US Infantry Division,

cameras immortalise the meeting

between the soldiers
and the city's mayor.

In the middle of the rubble,

some civilians finally dare
to emerge from their shelters.

The Falaise-Chambois battle
will be the last one

in these three months of fighting
in Normandy.

On the Allied side, 220,000 soldiers
were killed or wounded

and 20,000 civilians killed.

On the German side, the Reich Army
lost more than 200,000 men

and 200,000 were taken prisoner.

On average, a battalion and a half
were being ground down or destroyed

roughly every single week.

In many cases, a division would last
no longer than, say, two weeks.

Well, this gives one an idea
of how much Normandy contributed,

I think,
to the overall Allied victory,

just purely in the case of the
destruction of German formations.

By the end of August,

hordes of soldiers and vehicles
land at Cherbourg

and head east to eradicate
the rest of the Nazi army.

While the final great battles
of World War Two

will take place in Belgium,
the Netherlands and Germany,

Normandy must start to rebuild.

Normandy really becomes
the first place in Western Europe

in which a lot
of the future policies,

the new Allied governments,
the de Gaulle government,

will eventually come to fruition.

What about reconstruction?

Who's gonna pay for it,
and how are we gonna do it?

Normandy kind of sets the tone
for so many other places,

not just in France
but in Western Europe,

that the armies
are gonna have to rebuild.

Everybody knows about the landings
on the 6th of June.

Very few people could tell you what
happens in June and July and August

and how the battle for Normandy
actually ended.

And I think, to this day,
we are still dealing

with those battles, that war,

trying to come to grips with it,
trying to make sense of it,

trying to understand
the ruins of Normandy 75 years ago.

As few as 50 cameramen
tirelessly shot each day

of this historic battle.

They left behind hundreds of hours
of footage,

some of which only surfaced
decades later.

For future generations,

these images will remain
the final witnesses

of Normandy's 85 days of hell.