Original subtitles

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] June 6th, 1944.

D-Day.

As the Allies are storming the beaches

in the largest amphibious invasion in history,

a group of light infantrymen are

in the midst of a dangerous operation behind enemy lines

that will be critical to the success of D-Day.

The mission?

To capture and defend two bridges

near the Orne River in Northern France.

A crucial point in both the Allies'

and the Nazis' battle plans.

Although small in stature,

these bridges will prove immensely important

in the battle for Northern Europe.

- D-Day is the beginning of the end for the Nazis.

And pretty much hinges on these two small bridges.

- It's got all the elements

of a really cool secret operation,

'cause it is.

- This was a feat of daring do.

It was a specific enemy target

and one, crucially, that had to remain intact.

- [Narrator] But how did they get there?

And how long can they hold out?

[dramatic music]

[suspenseful music]

June 5th, 1944, just before midnight.

Only hours before the planned start of D-Day,

six Horsa gliders, towed by Halifax bombers,

take off from RAF Tarrant Rushton in Dorset, England.

They are embarking on a mission

that could decide the fate of D-Day.

- The weather's bad.

It's overcast.

It's drizzling.

It's windy.

They gotta be able to get behind enemy lines safely

and in a stealthy manner.

- [Narrator] Their mission is to capture

two strategically located bridges,

vital to ensuring an Allied victory.

- If this early mission is detected,

it could undermine the secrecy

and element of surprise for all of D-Day.

- [Narrator] The Allies aim to change the course

of World War II,

beginning with the liberation of France.

[suspenseful music]

With the invasion of Poland in 1939

marking the start of the war,

the Germans are on the offensive.

Hitler has his eye on France.

This strategic location will provide a tactical base

for air and sea attacks against Britain.

In March of 1940,

the Germans begin their campaign against France.

The French army has been weakened by World War I

and France is officially under German control

just two months later.

[suspenseful music]

Amidst German occupation,

an elaborate resistance network is created

by French patriots.

- They're the unsung heroes of World War II.

Men and women, regular people,

now fighting against Nazi occupation,

belonging to organized resistance groups

like the Maquis or Allez Ons.

- [Narrator] These operatives are essential

to inform the Allies of German activity in the area.

- Aerial reconnaissance, at least at that time,

could only go so far because we are about observing things

from thousands of feet away

from very high up.

There were certain details which would be available

only to people on the ground.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] By 1943, the tides of war are changing

for the Germans.

- This is not Germany of 1939.

This is a nation ravaged by war.

Allied bombing has taken a significant toll.

And their resources are seriously depleted.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] After a string of victories throughout 1943,

the Allies regain territories occupied by the Nazis.

- The more successes you have,

the more you believe that you can continue to be successful.

And so you tend to go to bolder and bolder actions.

[suspenseful music] [explosions booming]

- [Narrator] The Allies formulate a plan to liberate France

and bring an end to the war:

Operation Overlord.

339 Allied divisions commit to this battle.

Over 1 million troops in total.

- Resources are coming from virtually everyone

who opposes the Nazis.

So you have Free French soldiers.

You have Canadians, the Americans, the British.

And you have assorted persons

from a variety of occupied countries.

- [Narrator] On June 6th, 156,000 of these men

will attempt to land on the beaches of Normandy

in what would become known as D-Day.

- We're talking about the greatest amphibious operation

in history, and there's no guarantee it's gonna work.

- The resource allocation for D-Day is like nothing else.

There is no precedent for it.

Certainly not on that scale.

It takes years in preparation.

- 156,000 men, 5,000 ships, 11,000 aircraft.

This is gonna change the course of the Second World War.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] Supreme Allied Commander,

General Dwight Eisenhower,

draws up plans to invade five beaches

on the coast of Normandy,

paving the way for an inland advance on the eastern flank.

- You are landing a force

the like of which the world has never seen before.

If you can't get them out

from the beaches upon which they've landed,

you've got a problem.

You need to ensure you have your routes

into mainland France.

So you need to secure bridges out.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] Eight kilometers in from the Normandy coast,

a bridge over the Caen Canal

will allow the invasion force

to quickly move east after landing.

Another bridge just 470 meters east

over the Orne River will provide a continued path inland

from the beaches.

- We have to hold the bridge

so that the thousands and thousands of men and trucks

and supplies can move their way toward Paris

and, ultimately, Berlin.

Secondly, we have to hold the bridges as a choke point

so that the Nazis can't reinforce

their overrun troops at Normandy.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] Major General Richard Gale

of the 6th Airborne Division is tasked

with formulating a plan to complete this critical task.

Gale selects Major John Howard

to lead the operation on the ground.

- Major John Howard is the pinup

of the so-called people's war.

He's the guy who's climbed up through the ranks,

through dint of personal endeavor and military acumen.

And he's a team player.

He looks out for his boys.

He's the man you want at the helm.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] The initial plan was to capture the bridges

using paratroopers, an idea that quickly falls

by the wayside in favor of gliders.

- Transport plane can come in

and drop down hundreds, thousands of men.

But they're like dandelion seeds in the wind.

Where are they gonna end up?

A glider, on the other hand,

you're all landing in the same aircraft in the same place.

You get out together.

You're still one unit.

Not a minute is lost.

- The glider is quiet and it has no engines.

And it will be dropped off by a tug,

that is a bomber pulling it,

a fair distance away from where it's actually gonna get to.

But of course, a bomber makes noise.

And the Allies had a cunning plan.

The bombers continue on a slightly separate course

and then drop as if they're on a bombing run.

And this, of course, was completely credible

because that part of the coast was being bombed,

day after day after day, in preparation for D-Day.

- It's a really smart decision by the British

and starts this chain of events

that certainly plays out very famously on the beaches

on the morning of June the 6th.

But a lot was going on

on the ground overnight further inland.

And it really does start

with those 181 guys taking off from Dorset.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] The force is comprised mostly of D Company

of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry:

The Ox and Bucks.

They're reinforced by two platoons from B Company,

plus 20 Royal Engineers and 12 glider pilots.

The gliders will land southeast of Sword Beach,

where the British landing force

is due to arrive hours later.

Once the bridges are seized and ready to be reinforced,

Major Howard will tip off intelligence officers

with the code words, ham and jam.

As they approach their targets,

Major Howard in the lead glider recognizes the area

from reconnaissance photographs

and knows exactly what the German defenses are down below.

At this stage of the war,

the Allies control the skies and take every opportunity

to take aerial photographs of potential invasion sites.

- 17 million photographs.

Every gun emplacement,

every bridge,

every infantryman,

every pole to prevent the landing of a parachute.

Each and everyone was noted.

- And, of course,

we're also getting information from agents on the ground,

from resistance leaders,

all putting together this picture.

- Certain number of ways in which you can attack a bridge.

The Germans set up all the defenses

in order to prevent that.

- They've got relatively formidable defensive positions.

They've got machine gun nests on both bridges.

On one bridge, they've got an anti tank gun.

- [Narrator] Barbed wire and a trench system

are set up around the bridges,

manned by 50 riflemen and machine gunners.

The 736th Grenadier Regiment of the 716th Infantry.

This unit is largely made up of poorly equipped men

from German-occupied nations,

with some older Germans mixed in.

The German soldiers have instructions

to destroy the bridges if necessary

to stop them from ending up in Allied hands.

At seven minutes after midnight on June 6th,

the bombers, towing the British gliders,

cast off their lines in preparation for landing.

- Three gliders are gonna land next to one bridge

and three next to another bridge, 400 meters away.

So it's a relatively tiny strip of land

that they've got to land in.

And they've got to land one after the other

in synchronized order.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] Major Howard instructs

the glider pilots to land

with the nose right against the barbed wire

surrounding their assigned bridges.

- You don't have as much control

of the aircraft as you would with an engine.

So it's a great challenge, particularly to do it at night.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] In order to pinpoint

this exact location in the dark,

the glider pilots must execute the dangerous

and risky task of performing a dive approach

and pulling up at the very last moment,

slamming the glider into the ground as smoothly as possible

and hoping for the best.

But as the glider landings begin,

things don't go to plan.

- And the very first glider with Major John Howard comes in

and sort of crash lands.

The good news is it crash landed right next to the bridge.

- They were going too fast when they came in

and then the final violent stop.

So violent, in fact,

that the two pilots are thrown out of their seats

and up against the windshield.

And yet, despite this,

they land at exactly the right place.

It couldn't have been more perfect.

If you'd written that sequence of events in a novel,

people wouldn't have believed it.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] With the bumpy glider landing,

Major Howard's seatbelt is broken

and he bashes his head on the ceiling,

rendering him unconscious for a few minutes

and with a possible concussion.

- When you're concussed, you're dizzy, headaches.

Sensory information, lights, and sounds can cause pain

that would make it very difficult for him to concentrate

and very difficult to be efficient in his decision making.

- [Narrator] Despite his injury,

Howard leads his platoon out of the glider.

Two other gliders, filled with infantrymen and engineers,

land nearby for the attack,

all within 42 meters of the Caen Canal bridge.

If the Germans attack the gliders now,

the loss of life could be catastrophic

to the success of the mission.

But, luck is on their side.

The German sentries, only meters away,

disregard the sounds of the landing gliders,

assuming they're hearing falling debris

from a crashing bomber.

East of the canal,

the three gliders approaching the Orne River bridge

are not so lucky.

Two of the three gliders land successfully,

but the third glider takes a wrong turn.

- This is the glider

that contains Howard's second in command,

Captain Priday, and this goes completely off beam.

- [Narrator] Although he's missed his target,

fate will hand Captain Priday a different role on D-Day.

[suspenseful music]

Meanwhile, at the Caen Canal,

Major Howard's D Company troops

rush towards the canal bridge.

[suspenseful music] [guns popping]

Leading the charge is Lieutenant Den Brotheridge,

commanding the first platoon across.

- He wants to be first across that bridge.

He knows it's gonna be dangerous,

but he's gonna be the man doing it.

- There are two German sentries.

One of them manages to fire a flare

and then he's shot and killed.

The other one runs.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] As they continue across the bridge,

Brotheridge and his platoon are attacked

by machine gunfire coming from the far side of the canal.

- And one of those bullets sadly goes

through Brotheridge's throat and he's mortally wounded.

- [Narrator] Lieutenant Brotheridge

becomes the first battle casualty of D-Day.

But his men are so dedicated to seizing the bridge

that they don't even notice he's fallen

until minutes later.

Brotheridge's platoon continues across the bridge

to take a defensive position on the west bank

as the Royal Engineers search for explosive charges

on the bridge and cut their fuses.

- It's pretty much standard operating procedure

that if you're assigned a key bridge like that,

if you cannot hold it,

you blow it up.

- The engineers would have to come in

and secure those explosives

so that the Germans could not do that.

It would've been extremely dangerous.

When you're working with explosives

that any wrong move could potentially be set off,

or the Germans could just go ahead

and actually blow up the bridge if they were so inclined.

- [Narrator] On the east bank,

Howard's other two platoons clear bunkers and trenches

with grenades and gunfire.

The German defenders are overmatched.

By 21 minutes after midnight,

German resistance on the Caen Canal bridge is over

and Major Howard's D Company,

The Ox and Bucks, have full control

of this critical throughway.

Howard soon gets word that the nearby Orne River Bridge

is also fully captured by his men.

- Fortunately, the defenders to that bridge don't put up

even as much of a fight as they do on the Caen Canal bridge.

And they flee before there's even a shot fired.

- [Narrator] But a lone German soldier manages

to survive the bridge attack

and retreats to headquarters to inform his commander.

Major Howard knows he's in for a tough night

defending these bridges.

The Allied invasion of France is just hours away.

And the Germans haven't got a clue about what's coming.

- It was a nasty night.

They assumed that nobody he was going to land

and boy, did they assume wrong.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] The Germans predict an Allied assault on France

as early as 1942.

But they are unable to predict exactly where

and when it might be.

So they bolster the defenses across the Western Front.

- For the last two years,

one of the great obsessions of Hitler

had been reinforcing this Atlantic Wall.

This extraordinary concrete fortification

that ran from Norway right down

to the Franco-Spanish southern coast.

- That is a massive defensive structure.

Thousands and thousands of landmines,

thousands of machine gun nests,

thousands of artillery.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] In early 1944,

Hitler assigned one of his best men,

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel,

to improve the wall's defenses

in preparation for an Allied attack.

The highly decorated Rommel had earned the nickname

the Desert Fox for his exploits

as commander of the German forces in North Africa.

[suspenseful music]

The Germans suspect the attack will come at Pas de Calais,

350 kilometers east of the actual D-Day landing sites.

- Ideally, you want the shortest crossing.

And that was this crossing from Dover to Pas de Calais.

So it was identified as being the location

where the Allies would hit back

at German occupation in France.

And, of course, we played to that presumption.

- [Narrator] The section of the Atlantic Wall

at Pas de Calais is strengthened

with an enormous amount of concrete and steel.

And the Nazis install three major gun batteries,

pointing their 406-millimeter cannons at Dover, England.

- There were things called hedgehogs wedged down

into the ground with a sharpened spike at the top.

The boats would've been hung up on the hedgehogs,

which would've caused a massive water traffic jam

and prevented the Allies from landing.

- [Narrator] In the months leading up to D-Day,

the Allies launch a massive disinformation campaign

aimed at keeping the Nazis attention on Pas de Calais.

But the actual attack will happen in Normandy.

And the first Allied troops are already on the ground.

[suspenseful music]

30 minutes after the gliders first left

for the coast of Normandy,

the capture of the bridges is complete.

Major Howard sends the magic words back

to British intelligence operations, "ham and jam."

This signifies that reinforcements can begin

to move in to bolster the troops.

But one of the six gliders is still missing.

Major Howard's second in command, Captain Priday,

realizes that they have landed in the wrong place.

The nearby bridge is not the one he's meant to capture.

- First of all, they're let off in the wrong place

by the tug.

And then the pilot of the glide mistakenly identifies

the Dives River as the location where he should be.

Now, this group have now got a problem.

- He's going to be feeling the level of anxiety.

So he's operating in a vacuum

where he doesn't know what's happening

and he bears responsibility as second in command

for making it successful. - He has to make good.

Luckily, he's used to having a bit of military authority.

He's clearly got his wits about him.

And he buckles down and secures a bridgehead

on the Dives River.

- [Narrator] Although this isn't

Priday's original objective,

he decides to capture the bridge anyway.

The Germans put up a fight,

but they're are no match for Captain Priday and his men.

And the bridge is taken.

- This was a job that has actually been assigned

to the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion.

And once they've secured that bridge,

they then begin to move back towards their actual location,

which is Ranville,

and then those two bridges.

- [Narrator] Around the time that Howard and Priday

are securing their bridges,

other Allied missions are beginning,

paving the way for the D-Day landings later that morning.

A 1,200-airplane assault heads to the coast of France

to target the Atlantic Wall.

- Where you send in the bombers

in advance of the land invasion

to compromise as best you can the German defenses.

The more damage that you can inflict from the air,

the more likelihood for success

you have on that beach invasion.

- The bad news is there's terrible weather.

There's a lot of cloud cover,

which makes bombing really tricky at best.

And, of course, you still have anti-aircraft defenses,

which the Germans are manning,

which makes your life a little bit of a nightmare.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, at the Caen Canal

and Orne River bridges,

Major Howard and his men are braced

for a German counter attack.

- They need to hold them long enough

for the 7th Paratroop Battalion

to get there in time to reinforce them.

- [Narrator] At around 50 minutes past midnight,

the 600 paratroopers,

led by Lieutenant Colonel Richard Pine-Coffin,

start to land in their designated drop zones

east of the bridges.

- They're expecting 7th Para to arrive within the hour.

But, of course,

as is the way with parachute troops

who tend to be dropped over a dispersed area

and it takes them a long time to finally all meet up

and then get on the march.

That one hour is gonna string into more like two.

So you've got this crucial period

that can this small group of force hang on

until the paras come to their rescue?

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] While Howard is waiting for the 7th to show up,

he gets a welcome visitor who had parachuted

into Northern France an hour earlier.

Brigadier Nigel Poett is on a mission

to set up a base in the small French village of Ranville.

He was accompanied in his jump by a pathfinder unit,

a small advanced force of paratroopers

tasked with setting up the drop zones for the 7th.

As Poett confers with Howard,

they can hear the sounds of German vehicles

in the nearby villages of Bénouville and Le Port.

If reinforcement don't arrive soon,

they will lose their hold on their bridge.

- What they're concerned with is what's gonna happen

if the 21st Panzer Division comes into play.

[suspenseful music]

- The Germans build some impressive tanks:

The Panzer, The Tiger, The Leopard.

These tanks are larger and much more powerful

than what the Allies have.

There were multiple battles

where it would take two, three, four, five Sherman tanks

to neutralize one of these massive German tanks.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] The commander of the German 716th Infantry

is informed at 1:20 that the British are in control

of the Orne River and the Caen Canal bridges,

which are fully intact.

To stop the allies from encroaching,

the commander attempts to order the 21st Panzer Division

to defend the bridge landing areas.

- Now, if he could have counterattacked,

they could have probably reclaimed them.

But they couldn't

because of this very complex command chain

going right back to Berlin.

- One person has insisted no Panzer divisions

will be moved without his order.

And that, of course,

is the dictator Adolf Hitler.

He's asleep and no one has the courage to wake him up.

- We know that this person had bouts of anger

and would lash out sometimes at the bringers of bad news.

So understandably, his staff was a bit concerned

about waking him up.

- Hitler's unwillingness to allow other people

to make decisions speaks to a couple things.

One, his just total ego

that he would not allow anybody else to do that.

His also distrust

of a lot of the people who were around him.

Therefore, he had to be the one who made all the decisions.

And ultimately, that was to the detriment

of the German forces,

because that is not a sustainable model

for military decision making.

- [Narrator] Although the Germans are aware

that the Allies may attack Northern France anytime,

they have no idea that June 6th is D-Day.

And as the weather has taken a turn

for the worst in early June,

they're led into a false sense of security.

They were so unconcerned that Nazi commander Erwin Rommel,

in charge of the forces in Normandy,

is not even in France at the time.

- He pops back to Germany to give his wife a pair of shoes

for her 50th birthday,

because he thinks that the weather simply isn't going

to invite this unprecedented amphibious attack.

And he gets it very wrong.

- [Narrator] The German forces are left in the hands

of lower ranked officials.

- If Rommel had been there,

he may have ignored the fact

that Hitler wasn't able to give an order

or no one was prepared to wake him up.

But he wasn't there

and his more junior commanders were not prepared

to take that risk.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] Although the German commanders

are not permitted to order the Panzers to move,

they are able to move the support units assigned to them.

And so begins the German counter offensive

to recapture the bridges.

The 125th Panzergrenadier's is ordered to assemble

just to the east of the Orne River

to wait for further instructions.

The 192nd Panzergrenadier's is ordered to move in

from the west, recapture the bridges,

and attack the parachute landing zones.

These troops don't have any heavy armor or tanks.

So they are reinforced here by two other units,

the First Panzerjäger Company

and parts of the 989th Heavy Artillery Battalion

from the north.

- And they do have some armor, actually.

And they eventually put together a small column of tanks.

- [Narrator] The Germans head towards the bridges.

But having had a few hours to dig in,

Howard's men are ready for an attack.

And they got a good bit of luck.

One of the weapons at Howard's disposal is the PIAT,

a handheld anti-tank gun.

As the first tank comes into view,

one of the troops from D Company fires.

- And incredibly, this charge explodes inside the tank

and it blows up the ammunition.

So there's an enormous explosion.

And this so terrifies the Germans

that not only does the rest of that column back up,

they're now convinced that there's a much stronger force

at the bridge

with really effective six-pounder anti-tank guns,

which they don't have.

And this gives the airborne troops crucial breathing space.

- [Narrator] The 192nd heads back

to headquarters in Bénouville to regroup.

The German commander needs to assess the situation

before attacking again.

But the 192nd will return to the bridges.

Having fought back the first attack,

Howard and his men are relieved

to see the first group of paratroopers

from the 7th Battalion finally arriving at the bridge.

- That's the moment where the squaddies,

the ordinary soldiers on the bridge,

can breathe the first sigh of relief.

Because most of the defensive heavy lifting

from this point is gonna be carried out

by the 7th Parachute Battalion.

- [Narrator] Sometime later, the regiment commander,

Lieutenant Colonel Pine-Coffin arrives with more men

for a total of 200 men in three companies,

fewer than 50% of the men expected.

- Ultimately, a lot of those missing guys

do trudge in later on.

But it's all about getting the maximum amount of force

into the right place at the right time

so that they can take up positions

and defend it against the counter attack.

- The 7th A and C companies are positioned

just outside of Bénouville,

facing south towards the city of Caen.

And B Company in Le Port, facing Ouistreham

to the north near Sword Beach

where the British troops will soon be landing.

Howard's D Company is pulled back as reserved

to hold the area between the two bridges.

The 7th will bear the brunt of German counterattacks

on the west side of the Caen Canal throughout the whole day.

- You've got 200 paratroopers,

so they don't have any big guns.

All they've got are handheld anti-tank weapons,

and Gammon grenades to stop an armored attack.

But you've got a potential force

of thousands bearing down on you.

- [Narrator] While the men at the bridge

are busy holding off the Germans,

eight kilometers away at Sword Beach,

the British begin their aerial and naval assault,

targeting the German artillery and coastal defenses

in preparation for the beach landings.

- The landing on Sword Beach,

as far as the Pegasus Operation is concerned,

is absolutely crucial because this is where

the relief is going to come.

They don't know quite how long it's gonna take

for them to get through those defenses.

So although they estimate they might be able

to relieve the bridges by midday,

possibly a few hours later,

they don't know for sure.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] The first beach landings in Normandy

are only a few hours away.

To ensure that the Germans have no idea

where the actual planned invasion will occur,

the Allies create one of the biggest deceptions

ever carried out in military history.

- I think one of the keys to the success of D-Day

is actually this incredibly sophisticated

and ultimately very successful subterfuge operation

known as Operation Fortitude.

- [Narrator] Operation Fortitude is a component

of a massive disinformation campaign

called Operation Bodyguard.

- In order to secure the truth

that the Allies are planning

this massive assault for Normandy,

they have to go through an elaborate series of lies

to convince the Germans that the attack is coming at Calais.

And it requires significant moving parts,

a lot of details,

double agents working for the British

who have cover stories,

and then all of those military assets.

- [Narrator] To create the illusion

of troops building up near Southeast England,

a phantom fighting force is created,

led by American General George Patton.

- We had intercepted a German communication saying,

Patton is the most gifted general,

the one they're most afraid of.

So they knew Patton was gonna be the tip of the spear.

The point that led the invasion.

And Patton's fake army,

it was inflatable tanks, balloons, wooden structures.

It was like a Hollywood movie set.

- [Narrator] In the months leading up to D-Day,

decoy fleets of landing craft,

simply painted canvases covering steel frames,

are placed around the River Thames

and other important waterways.

Inflatable Sherman tanks are deployed

and moved to different locations at night.

Rollers are used to simulate tire tracks

to keep up the pretense.

To further ramp up the disinformation campaign,

the Allies increase aerial attacks on Pas de Calais.

They also hire an Australian actor,

Lieutenant M.E. Clifton James,

to pose as General Bernard Montgomery,

the commander of all Allied ground forces.

Dressed in one of Montgomery's uniforms,

Lieutenant James, who bears a striking resemblance

to the general, flies to Gibraltar and then Algiers,

where he's sure to be spotted by German intelligence.

It's hoped that the Germans will think Montgomery

is in Africa.

They won't be expecting the Allies

to attack mainland Europe without him.

- And we knew from our extraordinary levels of intelligence

that, in fact,

the Germans had fallen for our plan, hook, line, and sinker.

And those cannon, the Panzer reinforcements,

the big guns, literally, on Germany's Western Front

were pointing in the wrong direction, in the wrong place.

- There were multiple divisions redeployed to Calais.

If they had been deployed at Normandy,

that could have changed the whole nature

of the D-Day landing.

- [Narrator] But ultimately, the success of D-Day

could be significantly set back

if the bridges come back under enemy control.

This is now a strong possibility as, just after 03:00 hours,

the Germans launch another attack.

The newly arrived 7th Paratroopers are facing an onslaught

from a well-armed battalion

of the 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment.

As the battle rages, the 7th holds their own.

But it's only a matter of time

before the Germans receive permission

to mobilize their Panzers.

And there's no way the 7th can defeat them.

- Every time they rebuff a German incursion,

it depends on the toll it takes on them.

As long as the toll is light,

then you're going to continue to feel a series of successes.

And it's going to strengthen your resolve

and make you feel like this is doable.

On the other hand,

they're also in a hyper-alert state

that is going to wear on them.

This leads to what's called operational fatigue.

The longer you're on,

the more likely you are to make mistakes.

- [Narrator] As the battle for the bridges continues,

French families in the dwellings

dotted around the canal and river

take cover in their houses.

One such home on the west bank of the canal is Café Gondrée,

which is about to earn its place in history.

- It's a cafe which has served as a bit of a refuge

for this German sentries who go in there

to take break from their sentry duty.

- [Narrator] As soon as the fighting started,

the cafe's owners, Georges and Thérèse Gondrée,

took shelter in the cellar with their two young children.

- Monsieur and Madame Gondrée are actually sympathizers.

They are in touch with the resistance

and they've been handing over

a certain amount of information.

- The information that would be gathered

in these types of cafes

would be through the conversations

that were taking place between the German soldiers.

They were excellent sources of intelligence.

And this intelligence would then be carried

to the French resistance,

who could utilize it themselves

or transmit it across the Channel to the Allies.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] Not knowing who's prevailing outside,

they're apprehensive when they hear a knock at their door.

They're relieved to see three British soldiers.

The Gondrées are eager to help the British liberators

in any way they can.

And the cafe is converted into an aid station

as casualties are brought inside,

away from enemy fire.

Café Gondrée becomes the first house in France

to be liberated by the Allies as the beach landings begin.

At 6:26, the Americans land on Omaha and Utah beaches.

Their main objectives are to secure

an eight-kilometer beachhead between Port-en-Bessin

and the Vire River,

and to take the Cotentin Peninsula to the west.

The force at Omaha is expected

to battle a single German regiment.

But instead, they're up against the entire 352nd Division

and suffer the most casualties of all the beach landings.

- The way the German defenses were organized,

one regiment would be in charge

of this part of the Normandy coast,

another regimen in this part and so forth.

Right where the Allies came ashore at Omaha,

it constituted the division between two different regiments.

So instead of fighting one, they ended up fighting two.

But they somehow managed to come ashore and take the beach.

- [Narrator] Having failed to recapture the bridges,

the Germans try a new tactic.

- The main hazard they had through the morning

was from sniper fire.

- [Narrator] But D Company fights back.

Ironically, using a German weapon against them.

- They bring the anti-tank gun into action

and actually manage to knock out a water tower

that they're convinced the sniper is hiding in.

- [Narrator] D Company does their best

to take cover from the snipers and maintain their positions.

But they do suffer casualties

and the wounded are taken to Café Gondrée.

Thérèse Gondrée is a trained nurse

and works with the troop doctor to treat the wounded.

- And you see this actually throughout France

during the liberation.

There's an excitement to help in whatever way they can.

And certainly this is a great example of that.

Where she's there,

she wants to assist,

use her skills as a nurse.

- [Narrator] But Café Gondrée isn't the only thing

to be liberated.

Outside, Georges Gondrée is digging up his yard,

unearthing 90 bottles of champagne,

buried since the German occupation began in 1940.

- We know from accounts of German occupation

that they had a tendency to appropriate,

basically steal, luxury goods.

They certainly did not want the average French person

to enjoy such luxuries.

- If you're a French nationalist,

what has happened from the time the Germans came in,

that's not France.

That's not French culture.

That's not French life.

And once the Germans are out,

bring up the champagne.

And it's sort of a symbolic acknowledgement

that this is France again.

- [Narrator] But for Major Howard,

there's no time for celebration.

He's worried about his second in command, Captain Priday,

and the other men who he now must report

as missing in action.

- The position of Priday and the missing platoon

is very hazardous

because they're behind enemy lines, basically.

You never know whether Germans are gonna pop up.

- [Narrator] After securing the bridge

across the Dives River,

some 10 kilometers east of their intended destination,

Captain Priday and his men continue moving,

constantly checking their surroundings for the enemy,

as they head towards Allied headquarters in Ranville.

As they push forward,

they face enemy fire from the woods.

To keep his men safe from the Germans,

Captain Priday leads them off the road.

- It's water logged.

They're coming through dykes and ditches.

So it takes Priday an awful long time

to slowly but surely work his way to the bridges.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] An hour after the Americans land

on Omaha and Utah beaches,

the British and Canadian forces are faced with choppy seas.

At Gold Beach,

the British 50th Infantry Division decides

that instead of using tank landing crafts 500 meters out,

they will run their tanks to the beach directly.

The British secure a beachhead

and take out the big guns in the area

with relatively light casualties.

But the Canadians due to land at Juno Beach

will be delayed until 07:45.

In the meantime,

the British and Free French forces

are starting to land at Sword Beach.

The British 3rd Infantry Division

is tasked with the assault.

Fortunately, German fortifications at Sword Beach

are lighter than the other landing sites.

- The Allies were expecting barbed wire

and an array of anti-tank defenses,

which is consistent with the Atlantic Wall.

Well, turns out the Germans don't do very much here,

but their fortifications need to be cleared and secured.

- [Narrator] Two squadrons of Royal Engineers worked

to clear the beach,

allowing the troops to penetrate the coastline.

Facing moderate fire from German machine gun nests,

the troops advanced to capture the beachfront villas

and resorts with little difficulty.

- Fortunately, Sword Beach is the beach

where some of the fewest casualties

are taken by the Allied landing forces.

- [Narrator] Success at Sword Beach is critical

to Major Howard and his team,

who are waiting for these troops to relieve them.

The men at the bridgehead are able

to hear the landing action from their positions,

just eight kilometers away from Sword Beach.

- Can you imagine it's a sort of festival of noise.

And you're sitting there,

bedded in in a gun pit under a bridge.

Knowing that you're outnumbered by the enemy,

hearing your own guys at sea, in the air overhead,

doing what they need to do

to try and make sure your gains are gonna be held onto.

- [Narrator] Amidst the activity,

two Spitfires fly over the bridges.

- And they amazingly drop the morning's newspapers,

which, of course, announced D-Day.

It's extraordinary to think, isn't it,

as they're making history,

the news of that history is actually dropping down

on their location.

- [Narrator] With the quick victory at Sword Beach,

the British troops begin their advance towards

the Orne River and Caen Canal bridges.

While the British are taking Sword,

the delayed Canadians finally land at Juno.

During the first hour of fighting,

the Canadians face heavy resistance

from the German 716th Division.

Suffering, a 50% casualty rate,

comparable to their American counterparts on Omaha Beach.

- That stands out to me when I think about that day.

Whose story ended on that beach

for no other reason than they just happened

to be at that place, at that time?

And the person who was maybe a foot two to the right

or the left, their story continued.

- [Narrator] Once the beach is secured,

the Canadian forces will move inland

to capture the nearby seaside towns

before pushing south into Normandy.

At the time of the D-Day beach landings,

Hitler is still asleep.

None of his generals dare

to reposition the Fuhrer's troops without his permission.

Vital hours are lost

as the German Supreme Commander slumbers.

The exhausted 6th Airborne Division

has been holding the bridges for hours amidst enemy fire.

At 09:00 hours, Brigadier Poett

returns from Allied HQ in Ranville,

along with Major General Gale,

who had arrived in Normandy by glider just after 3:00 AM.

They brought with them the news that reinforcements

are on their way,

though it would be a few hours yet.

[suspenseful music]

Although cheered by the news,

the troops defending the bridges suddenly have an unexpected

and dangerous visitor.

Plowing up the river from the Normandy coast,

they spot two powerful German gunboats.

All the victories and sacrifices that had been achieved

could be wiped out in a matter of moments.

- They don't have long-range weapons.

They have hand grenades and they have STEN machine guns,

which have an effective range of only about 100 meters.

So they can't hit the boat, until it's close.

- [Narrator] The lead boat gets dangerously close,

but a weapon that had been successfully employed earlier

is again put to good use.

- And they open up on it, not with the anti-tank gun,

which they can't swivel around to get into position

to fire up the canal.

But with a PIAT, this handheld anti-tank weapon.

And it's a brilliant shot.

Goes straight through the wheelhouse.

Explodes, knocks the boat out.

The boat kinda slews around onto the coast.

And they capture the occupants of the boat.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] As the Germans are marched off to captivity,

the second boat turns around and heads back to the coast.

The bridges and beaches remain in Allied control.

[suspenseful music]

But German opposition is ramping up.

- If you're the Allies,

you're thinking that you're in a very good spot.

The Germans do have people in the area

who weren't on the beach,

who can certainly attack the beach

or retreat and head inland and go to the bridges.

- [Narrator] Just to the east,

there are over 2,000 German troops waiting for permission

from Hitler to attack.

Other German threats are less than a day's march away.

The 12th SS Panzer Division in the Lisieux

and the Panzer Lehr Division in Chartres.

At 10:00 hours, the D Company men

on the canal bridge face another challenge.

- After holding the bridges all night long,

turning away tanks, turning away infantry,

dealing with snipers.

In the sky, a lone German bomber appears.

They have no weapons that can deal with this.

And the bomber flies directly overhead and releases a bomb.

And that bomb sails directly down and strikes the bridge.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] This is a rare bombing

on a day in which the Luftwaffe was mostly absent.

- The head of the air force, Hermann Göring,

grotesquely mismanaged the Luftwaffe in all aspects.

And he fell out of favor with Hitler as a result.

- The whole Luftwaffe,

which was the pride and joy of the German Armed Forces

at the beginning of the war

has been really eroded and depleted.

The Germans just don't have the capacity

to churn out airplanes like they did

in the early stages of the war.

And they also don't have the pilots.

- With a thousand ships at anchor off the coast.

And thousands of men on a beach,

had the Luftwaffe come in with bombs

and strafing with machine guns,

D-Day would've been a bloodbath.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] But bombs are still dropped.

D Company and reinforcements at the bridge

do their best to take cover from the incoming bombs.

- Can imagine their hearts must have been in their throats.

You know, all that work for nothing.

And then that is gone.

Piff, paff, poof.

- But with incredible good fortune,

it hits, doesn't detonate,

and bounces off into the waters.

- So now you've got a number of very lucky events.

So it's gonna be a big morale boost,

but you still have a job to do.

But now you start thinking that you're lucky

that you're gonna succeed no matter what,

that you can beat the odds.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] Even while the Allies

are attacking in Normandy,

they continue their mission to convince the Germans

that an even bigger assault is imminent at Pas de Calais

to the east.

To reinforce this subterfuge,

Allied aircraft drops hundreds

of dummy paratroops in the area.

- We had what were called Ruperts.

Like a crash test, dummy.

They would fly over a part of Europe in a bomber,

put parachutes on these Ruperts,

and throw 'em out the window.

- And when they hit the ground,

they would trigger off gunfire and crackers.

They even landed special operations troops

to play phonograph records,

to make it seem like you could hear their voices.

Incredibly sophisticated.

And this, of course, happened well away

from the Normandy landings.

- The Germans had spotters literally

from Norway down to Spain.

And they would see and radio back, it's here.

I imagine the Germans charging out into the field

and holding up these little dummies with parachutes on.

And being duped time and time again by it.

- [Narrator] Around 10:00 AM,

Hitler finally emerges from his slumber,

greeted with the news of the Allies' amphibious assault.

He's excited by this news,

believing Germany can achieve an easy victory.

- I think this is the success of Operation Fortitude.

He's still not entirely convinced this is the main landing.

So although he does give the go ahead

for some counter attacks,

he doesn't order all the other Panzer divisions

located further north in the Pas de Calais

to move towards the Normandy beachhead.

And this, of course, is another mistake.

- [Narrator] But unfortunately

for Major Howard and his troops,

around midday, the Germans mobilized 17 tanks

towards the town of Bénouville.

- Imagine being out on the road to try to meet them.

And seeing these multiple ton gigantic tanks

with very thick armor

and guns the size of a telephone pole headed toward you.

- [Narrator] After hours of staving off attacks

to hold their positions,

the British 6th Airborne Division

is exhausted and depleted.

- Physically and emotionally, mentally,

they would've been absolutely spent.

And then you have 17 German tanks roll in.

Must have been a very intimidating sight.

- [Narrator] But although exhausted,

the troops resolve to keep the Germans

from retaking the bridges hold strong.

As the tanks bear down on them,

they manage, against all odds,

to destroy the lead tank using an improvised grenade

called a Gammon bomb.

- A Gammon bomb kind of looks like an oversized gourd.

It's like a bottle, basically.

And it is a hand grenade, at the end of the day.

The difference is that it can be adapted

to have an explosion that's small, medium, or large,

basically speaking.

For things like tanks, of course,

you're gonna pack it full of explosives

and it can do sizeable damage.

And it does the trick.

- [Narrator] The other tank gets stuck in a traffic jam

behind the destroyed tank,

giving the men the opportunity they need to attack the rest.

- They somehow managed to neutralize 13 of the 17 tanks.

So, yet again, they managed to hold the bridges.

It's a one in a million situation, but they did it.

- And it's at this point that Howard is asked

by the commander of the 7th Parachute Battalion

if he will send some of his men and back across the bridge

to help bolster the defense on the west side

of the Caen Canal bridge.

- [Narrator] While Howard's men are covering the bridges,

the 7th push forward to the town of Bénouville

and engage in house-to-house fighting

to clear the lurking Germans occupying houses.

- There were frontline soldiers who were billeted

in French homes.

That's what occupying forces do.

The Germans used those towns as defensive networks.

And also to rig them, to line them up with explosives

so that you hinder the enemy's advance.

So these towns become really critical.

- Just after midday,

the German 21st Panzer Division finally receives permission

to attack the Allied forces advancing

from the Normandy beach landings.

- The Germans are slow off the mark.

If they'd been allowed off the leash sooner,

they would've had a chance to drive all the way

into Sword Beach and possibly beyond.

- The 125th Panzergrenadiers are ordered

toward the Orne River and Caen Canal bridges.

But they are easily spotted by British troops

To keep morale high at the bridges,

Georges Gondrée has a plan.

- In a very French style,

the cafe owner brings out the secret store of champagne

to celebrate the Allied invasion.

- [Narrator] Gondrée hands out the champagne

to the British troops.

This gesture is well received

and many of Major Howard's men find excuses

to get their free drink at various points during D-Day,

amidst constant enemy fire.

- Probably quite warm, you'd imagine.

Been sitting in the June soil.

But anyway, any tipple, I guess, is welcome

once you've been through a night

like the 5th and 6th of June.

- [Narrator] Major Howard and his men have been holding on

for over 12 hours.

But Captain Priday is still missing.

Priday and his men continue onwards to Ranville,

the location of Allied headquarters.

On their route,

they encounter elements

of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion

and are invited to join their attack

on the German-held town of Bavent.

But Priday declines in favor of bringing his men

to the bridges as strong as possible

and completing his mission,

although somewhat late.

After swift success on Sword Beach,

the British push further into France,

dealing with pockets of German resistance as they meet them.

The troops are now free to head towards the Caen Canal

and Orne River bridges and the anxiously waiting soldiers.

Their arrival at 13:30 is announced

by the sound of bagpipes,

played by piper Bill Millin

of the 1st Special Service Brigade,

who had played his pipes constantly

since arriving at Sword Beach.

- I'm sure it was a very sweet sound for all those

who were at the bridge to hear that

and to have that signal that reinforcements were coming.

But it also is a sign that what was happening

at the beach had gone according to plan.

- It's a bit of a taunt,

saying, we can do this because we're in control.

We're gonna keep these bridges.

We're gonna take back France.

This is just the start of a whole series of dominoes,

and everybody's gonna be in a huge positive morale

and a lot of happiness.

- [Narrator] But the Germans still haven't given up.

At 15:00 hours, yet another gunboat approaches.

This time from Caen in the south.

- And they attack this with the anti-tank gun,

because that can swivel into a position

that it can engage the boat coming up.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] They miss their first shot,

but the second round hits from over 200 meters away.

- It knocks out this boat, forces it to turn around.

But it just goes to show how vital the capture

and therefore the counter destruction of the bridges was

for the Germans.

They realized they needed to knock out those bridges.

[suspenseful music]

- [Narrator] Through the late afternoon and early evening,

German attacks on the bridgehead taper off.

Just after 21:00 hours,

as hundreds of British airplanes and gliders

are flying overhead, dropping men and supplies,

the Second Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment

of the 150th Infantry Brigade marches in from Sword Beach.

Howard hands over the bridges, intact and secure.

- They're finally relieved completely.

And this is the moment where they can relinquish

all responsibility for those two bridges

and go into reserve in the town of Ranville.

- [Narrator] And after briefing the new commander,

Major Howard and his exhausted men are finally able

to depart for battalion headquarters,

a full day after taking off from England.

When they reach Ranville,

Major Howard is pleasantly surprised

to see his second in command,

Captain Priday, who has just arrived after a waterlogged

and woodsy trek from Varaville.

- D-Day's an overwhelming success.

There are objectives which aren't achieved

on the initial day, that's for sure.

And there are mistakes that are made.

But it is the beginning of the end

for the Nazis in the Western Europe.

- [Narrator] Over 150,000 troops arrive on D-Day.

And by June 17th, over 500,000 soldiers are on the ground

to push the Germans out of France

and move inland to liberate Europe.

[solemn music]

A month after D-Day,

the two bridges are renamed to honor the British

who held them strong throughout the long battle.

- The bridge at the Orne is renamed for the gliders.

And the bridge over the Caen Canal is renamed Pegasus

for the logo on the airborne uniforms.

And the road leading to them

is now named for Major John Howard.

- [Narrator] For his leadership

during the capture of the bridges,

Major Howard is nominated

for the Distinguished Service Order

and presented with a medal

by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery on July 16th, 1944.

The Gondrées continued to run their cafe,

renamed Pegasus Cafe to this day.

Paraphernalia from the battle is displayed on their walls,

including Major Howard's beret.

- Pegasus Bridge is not as well known

as many of the other stories of the Second World War.

And yet it should be better known.

The course of the Second World War hinged

on the success and the incredible professionalism

and determination of that small force

of soldiers in capturing and holding that bridge.

[dramatic music]