All language subtitles for HITLERS LAST STAND - 1 - Panzer Fury (2018)

Normandy, France.

One month after D-Day.

A Canadian regiment confronts
a notorious SS Panzer unit.

Accused of horrific war crimes.

The Canadians and the 12th
SS Hitler Youth had clashed,

since the 7th of June.

So, the Canadians and the 12th SS

have a very vicious personal war.

For the Germans,

this leaves no room for compromise.

It's only victory or death.

On June 6th, 1944,

allied forces finally
land troops in Normandy

to open the Western Front.

But Nazi fanatics and diehards

continue to fight ruthlessly
for survival.

D-Day was a battle.

The Allies still need
to win the war.

July 8th, 1944.

Outskirts of Caen, France.

The Canadian Regina Rifles
prepare to do their part

to liberate the French city.

They scout the approach to their
objective in the Northwest sector.

And what they saw they didn't like.
It was extremely flat.

There was very little cover.

Lieutenant Colonel Foster Matheson

has brought along
his company commanders:

Acting Major Gordon Brown,

Major Eric Syme,
and Major Stuart Tubb,

to find the best way forward.

And they're driving around
in universal carriers

and at one point they get lost.

The driver takes a wrong turn.

And they find themselves
in the midst of fighting.

The Regina Rifles
quickly come under attack.

One of the drivers
is shot and killed.

The passengers dive for cover.

As the battle rages around them,
the vehicles try to reverse course.

In the confusion,

the carriers start to pull away
leaving the officers behind.

It proves to be yet another setback
in the quest to take Caen.

Only 12 miles from the coast,

allied forces had planned
to take the city on D-Day.

But more than a month later,

the goal has proved
stubbornly elusive.

Both sides understood
that the capture of Caen

was crucial to going through
the rest of the country,

that if you could capture Caen,

you could enter the rest of France.

860,000 allied troops

are bottled up
at the Normandy beachhead.

The Allies need their forces
to break out into France,

then east for Paris.

Caen is a critical road
and rail hub.

The Germans understood,
if you can defend Caen,

you can block the Allies' advance.

These are armored divisions
that had hundreds of tanks.

They needed good roads

and so they were going
to be passing through Caen

to strike at the Allies
who were on the beaches

and who of course
were very vulnerable.

The Regina Rifles
have landed in a battle

between the German
12th SS Panzer Division

and other Canadian forces.

This is not the first time

the Rifles have encountered
the 12th SS.

A month earlier, on D-Day plus one,

the Reginas had seized the town
of Bretteville, not far away.

The Reginas withstood
four counterattacks

from the 12th SS Panzer Division,

inflicting 152 German casualties

and destroying six tanks
to hold the town,

and earned battle honors
for their unit.

At a distinct disadvantage here,

the trucks make a desperate escape.

The officers of the Regina Rifles
are in danger of being left behind.

Go, Go!

They haul themselves
onto the back of a vehicle,

loaded to their surprise
with crates of explosives.

They duck for cover as enemy
fire riddles the vehicle,

and can only hope

that a bullet doesn't ignite
a fatal explosion.

After finally clearing
the battle scene,

the officers take up
their reconnaissance position

in the nearby village of Authie.

Earlier that day,

General Bernard Montgomery
launched Operation Charnwood,

the British second army's
latest attempt to seize Caen.

To support the operation,

the Regina Rifles must
take the Abbaye d'Ardenne,

which guards
the northwest approach.

A high stone wall surrounds
the 12th century church

and its adjoining buildings.

It was a stone fortress.

It had a large tower.

And from the heights of that tower,

they could see
the entire countryside.

And so,
it's a really critical position,

a strong point
that the Germans will use

both to observe the Allies
coming off the beaches

and from where they will launch
their counterattacks.

Flat grain fields surround
the Abbaye on all sides,

providing clear lines of sight
for German snipers.

The Germans occupy the only cover:

a dirt mound
that once held anti-aircraft guns,

partway across the field.

Matheson plans
for Major Syme's B Company

to advance 400 yards
from the village of Authie

and take the mound.

Brown's D Company on the left,

along with Tubb's C Company
on the right,

are to pass the mound

and advance the remaining
700 yards to the Abbaye.

At 1700 hours,

allied artillery begins to shell
the Abbaye d'Ardenne,

in preparation for the assault.

The barrage is meant
to soften up German defenses

and keep German heads down
as the Canadians approach.

The artillery will last
for 30 minutes,

after which the Regina Rifles
will launch their attack.

The Abbaye d'Ardenne

is the headquarters
of the 12th Panzer Division

they had encountered earlier.

Their commanding officer
is Standartenfuhrer Kurt Meyer.

The 33-year old colonel

is one of Germany's youngest
divisional commanders.

Kurt Meyer

is an extremely
courageous and brave officer.

But at the same time,

he's also extremely ruthless.

He's very much determined
to the cause of Nazism

and is also determined

to instill this ideology
into his men.

Meyer's Panzer Division
is made up of former Hitlerjugend.

The infamous
"Hitler Youth" movement

raised a generation
of German children

to believe
in their Aryan superiority.

For the SS leadership,

12th SS Panzer Division
Hitler Youth

is a kind of symbol

for the next generation of Nazism.

Meyer withstands the barrage
inside the Abbaye complex.

The main building, as such,
would be too much exposed

to Allied artillery fire

or Allied air bombardment.

So, he situates his headquarters
in a secondary building,

in the cellar,
so that he's protected.

As the allied shelling
of the Abbaye continues,

Brown and the rest
of the Regina Rifles

try to move into the field
from which they are to attack.

But it proves difficult.

Well the Regina Rifles
are pinned down

because the village of Authie
is not cleared.

This means that the Germans
are also able to bring fire

to bear down on the Rifles.

German counter battery fire
also opens up.

Several allied tanks
position themselves nearby.

But as their jump-off time
approaches,

a hidden German 88
begins to launch shells.

The 88 millimeter gun

is the most effective
artillery piece in the Nazi arsenal,

and feared by allied tankers
everywhere.

In ground combat,

it has a maximum range
of over 16,000 yards.

And a well-trained crew

can fire a round
every three seconds.

The 88 quickly destroys
three Sherman tanks.

As their crews escape,

they draw German machine gun fire
from the nearby mound.

Unwilling to stay exposed
to the German artillery,

the remaining tanks retreat.

The fighting in Normandy
is often envisioned

as a slashing tank assaults,

and almost blitzkrieg like attacks
on the enemy.

But this was combined
arms warfare

and if the tanks got too far
in front of the infantry,

they were easily knocked out
by anti-tank guns

that are very effective
at this point in the war.

With their tank support gone,

all three Regina Rifle companies
are trapped in the open.

The German barrage continues.

The Canadians risk being wiped out

before they can even
leave their lines.

July 8th, 1944.

German artillery targets
the Regina Rifles' position

as they prepare to attack
the Abbaye d'Ardenne,

which blocks access
to the French city of Caen.

The Regina Rifles
are dubbed "Farmer Johns"

by other Canadian units

because they come
from a rural part of Canada.

Obviously, Farmer John's
is meant as a bit of a put down.

But the John's,
they seem to have shortened it,

they got rid of the farmer part
and they proudly, they embraced it.

Pinned down due to enemy fire,

the John's miss the jump-off time
for their attack against the Abbaye.

In the chaos and the confusion,

units are late arriving to the front

and in fact most of the three
attacking Regina companies

get there
after the barrage has gone off.

And so, with communications
broken down,

there's really
a dire situation here.

The Reginas are looking
at attacking this fortress

with almost no artillery support.

The Reginas can only take cover

and wait for the German barrage
to ease.

When it finally does,

Acting Major Gordon Brown
and his fellow officers

hurry to organize their men.

At 1800 hours,

30 minutes
after their jump off time,

the Reginas commence their assault,

with Major Eric Syme's
B Company in the lead.

The Germans have put the time
to good use.

During this pause,

the German defenders
are able to regroup

and sight their machine guns,
sight their anti-tank guns.

And this is the worst-case
scenario for any army.

As the three Regina companies
start out,

Baker company is to advance
400 yards from the village

and take the mound,

the only cover in the field.

German forces open fire on them
from all directions.

Caen is considered so critical,

General Feldmarschall
Erwin Rommel

has assigned elite units
to defend it.

Overseeing the defense
of Normandy,

Rommel had invested heavily
in the Atlantic wall.

It is a series of bunkers,
block houses, casements,

fortified positions along
the French, Belgian,

Dutch, Danish and Norwegian coast.

It is supposed to ward off
an Allied invasion.

Based on Rommel's experience
with the Allies in North Africa,

he knew German tanks
were vulnerable

to allied air superiority.

Rommel believed the Allies
had to be defeated on the beaches

in the earliest hours
of the invasion.

The German failure
to do so on D-Day,

makes the fighting more desperate.

Germans are still determined
to fight,

because they think
if the Allies win the war,

this would mean the annihilation
of the German people.

This was especially true
of German military leadership,

like Kurt Meyer,

who commands
the 12th SS Panzer Division,

which holds the Abbaye.

How they understand war
is that it must be fought

in the most ruthless way

because it is a struggle
for survival.

Meyer has encountered
Canadian units before.

The Canadians and the 12th
SS Hitler Youth had clashed,

since the 7th of June.

So, really,
the second day of the fighting.

And there had been fierce battles
all over the front.

On June 7th and 8th,

Meyer's unit executed
18 Canadian prisoners of war

at the Abbaye d'Ardenne,

in flagrant violation
of the Geneva convention.

For people like Meyer
or for SS officers,

it's all or nothing.

And there is no way of compromising
with the enemy,

so it's only victory or death.

Now, the 12th SS Hitlerjugend

believed that if they are captured
or surrender to the Canadians,

they will be executed
in retaliation.

And so, the Canadians
and the 12th SS

have a very vicious, personal war.

Regina Rifles B Company
still leads the advance

towards the German occupied
mound partway across the field.

Faced with heavy gunfire,

B Company must run or crawl,
in short bursts,

to avoid being hit.

The Germans open up
with mortar fire, machine gun fire,

sniper fire.

And the Regina Rifles
are being picked off one by one.

As they inch their way forward,

the company suffers
heavy casualties.

There's no easy way
to take out machine guns.

Machine guns firing
500 bullets a minute,

firing on an arc.

You have to sacrifice soldiers
to take that out.

They have no choice
but to keep moving.

Three companies
of the Regina Rifles

commence an assault
against the Abbaye d'Ardenne.

Across more than 1100 yards
of open field,

without tank support,

and one half hour
after their artillery barrage lifts.

B Company leads the way.

Baker Company advances slowly

and using whatever cover
is available.

But there's not a lot of cover.

So, this means you got to stay low.
You got to stay in the grass.

You got to try to stay out of sight
of any sort of German sniper,

German artillery,
or German machine gun.

So, it is a very slow process
and it causes significant casualties

because every time they pop up,
they get shot.

As the casualties mount,

weeks of strain
also take their toll.

The Regina Rifles
were very weak at this point.

They had lost a lot of soldiers

in the fighting
in the first month of Normandy.

As frontline troops
at the sharp end,

they get very little sleep
and endure unimaginable stress.

There's no question
that the lack of sleep

and the continual engagement
with the enemy

that just combined
will wear anyone down.

It has been four weeks
of constant combat.

So as these soldiers are engaged
with the German enemy,

as they're approaching the Abbey,

there are soldiers
that are breaking down,

there are soldiers that are crying,

there are soldiers that are
catatonic and can't even move.

This now includes Baker
Company's commander,

Major Syme,

who succumbs to what is called
battle exhaustion.

Major! Major!

I need a medic!

Though the Canadian division

had undertaken psychiatric
screening prior to deployment,

conditions like battle exhaustion
or battle fatigue

prove unpredictable
and claim many soldiers.

By late July 1944,

battle fatigue makes up 25 percent

of all non-fatal casualties
to the Allies.

After D-Day, the British
and Canadian army group

established front-line centers
to treat battle exhaustion.

Therapy is simple:
sedation and sleep.

You want to treat them quickly,
you want to treat them effectively

and then you want them back
in the front line.

As Major Syme
is carried from the field,

the remainder of B Company
continues to press to the mound.

As they are making those hard yards,

riflemen would lay down fire,

Bren machine gunners
would lay down heavier fire.

The way they knocked out
those machine guns

was to use grenades
for the most part.

And those grenades explode

and they send shrapnel, of course,

and that's how, ultimately,
they knock out the mound.

The Germans are forced to retreat
back towards the Abbaye.

To achieve the objective,
Baker Company is gutted.

61 out of 100 men
become casualties.

With the mound
finally in Canadian hands,

C Company and D Company
now continue the advance

and pass through the remains
of B Company.

From that position,

Baker Company
can then provide covering fire

for the other two companies.

You have Dog Company on the left,
Charlie Company on the right.

And Baker Company will provide
very important covering fire,

which will allow the other troops
to move up slowly.

So, the idea simply here is
what we call fire and movement.

Someone's shooting.
Someone's moving.

To prevent his men
from meeting B Company's fate,

Major Stu Tubb,
the commander of C Company,

orders high explosive mortars
against the Abbaye complex.

He hopes the distraction

will provide his men
much needed coverage.

But Tubb receives word

that the Reginas have no high
explosive mortars available,

and he is offered smoke instead.

This works for a while,
until the wind comes up.

They're now wide open

and exposed completely
to German fire.

All hell breaks loose.

Facing heavy enemy fire,

C and D companies
of the Canadian Regina Rifles

must attack the Abbaye d'Ardenne

across 700 yards of open field.

They have just learned

that they've run out
of high explosive mortars

to subdue the German counter fire.

Such shortages have proved
a problem across the allied front.

Just three weeks before,

a major storm
struck the Normandy coast.

Eight hundred ships and vessels
were stranded,

damaged or destroyed
on June 19th,

to further cripple allied
supply lines,

already hindered
by a lack of a deep-water port.

All units were having to make do.

Advancing in the open
would be suicidal.

So, the Reginas fire smoke
to cover their advance.

Once more,

Acting Major Gordon Brown
and D Company

press forward on the left flank.

But with the men still 500 yards
short of the Abbaye,

wind clears the smoke.

With the companies now exposed...

...the Germans have clear shots.

In the chaos,

C Company's 13th platoon
stumbles into a minefield.

You don't know where to step,

and they are set up
for a number of reasons.

One is to cause casualties,
of course.

But secondly to slow an advance.

The minefield creates
a shooting gallery.

Riflemen and snipers
and machine gunners

will turn upon
those isolated soldiers

who are stuck in the middle,
unsure of where is safe.

As their losses mount,

Major Stu Tubb enters the minefield
to help extract his men.

Tubb falls to German
machine gun fire.

His second-in-command
moves forward to help,

and is killed.

C Company's third in command
is wounded moments later.

Wiping out the enemy's leadership

is a time honored military strategy.

And that is a technique that
the Allies and the Germans use,

that snipers would aim
for those NCOs

or those lieutenants
or those captains

to try to, in effect,
decapitate the unit.

Without leadership,
C Company retreats to the mound.

They have lost 85 out of 106 men.

General Bernard Montgomery's
stated goal at Caen

was to draw in German troops
to kill, wound or capture

as many as possible.

A war of attrition.

But the campaign to capture Caen
proves costly to everyone involved.

Allied aerial bombing
to support Operation Charnwood

began the night before, on July 7th.

More than 460 aircraft

dropped 6000 bombs on the city.

While the bombing improved
the morale of allied soldiers...

...the strategic impact
on German troops was minimal.

The rubble created hinders
the allied advance

and retreat by German forces.

It also has got an impact
on French civilian population,

because French civilians perished

and this had a negative influence

on the attitude of the French
population towards the Allies.

Now, to the northwest of the city,

the remaining 15 able-bodied
members of C Company

retreat to Authie

to bring back stretchers
for their wounded.

Almost three hours
after commencing their attack

on the Abbaye d'Ardenne,

Gordon Brown's D Company

remain the only Regina Rifles
left in the fight.

Still hundreds of yards
from their objective,

the covering smoke has also
just cleared on their position

and leaves them dangerously
exposed to enemy fire.

The 12th SS quickly pin down
Brown and his men again.

Several of the Reginas are hit.

To limit the company's casualties,

Brown and his men push
forward in short bursts,

often gaining
just a few feet at a time.

German troops at the Abbaye
have the ideal weapon

to prevent Brown
from achieving his objective.

The MG-42

is arguably the best machine gun
of World War II.

At 1200 rounds per minute,

its rate of fire outpaces
comparable allied machine guns.

Light, reliable and easy to deploy,

the MG-42 has a range
of nearly 1,100 yards.

To avoid the German machine guns,

D Company's number 16 platoon

makes a flanking move
to the left of the Abbaye.

The remaining Regina Rifles
continue their frontal assault.

But at 2100 hours,

his runner reports
to Acting Major Gordon Brown

that number 16 platoon
has vanished.

July 8th, 1944.

As darkness falls,

the Regina Rifles continue their
assault on the Abbaye d'Ardenne.

A fortified position that controls
access to the French city of Caen.

With reports that some
of his men are missing

and knowing he needs them all
to seize the Abbaye,

Acting Major Gordon Brown
goes in search of his 16th platoon.

Searching the battlefield,
he makes a disturbing discovery.

And he stumbles
into a small ditch area,

which is a scene of a nightmare.

There are wounded soldiers
bleeding, dying, crying out,

and he thinks
that's his lost platoon. It's not.

It's a group of the Can Scots,

who have stumbled
into the battle somehow,

and there are many wounded there.

Brown tries to help.

He bandages some
of the more seriously wounded.

And he's not sure what to do,

of course human instinct
is to care for them,

but that's not the role
of a company commander.

And so, he rightly gives them
his water.

He must have been parched.

Unable to do any more for them...

...Brown turns back to rejoin
the rest of his company.

He did the right thing.
He did what he had to do.

He did what a soldier had to do,

was to keep pushing
on to the final objective.

When he returns,

Brown finds D Company
in the thick of battle.

D Company is spread out
over the battlefield.

They're facing a stone fortress,

the Germans
are firing at them non-stop.

I'm amazed at how they could
have pushed their way forward.

They make a daring charge
for the Abbaye walls.

They do call in some smoke,
and the smoke is quite effective.

It obscures the front
for precious minutes.

The men shoot
and throw grenades on the run.

Their bold initiative pays off.

At 2200 hours,

D Company reaches
the Abbaye walls.

With the Regina Rifles closing in,

Colonel Kurt Meyer has made plans
to protect his fighting strength

and asks for permission to retreat.

He gets the answer, no.
There is no way to retreat.

The reason for that,

in the mindset
of the German leadership,

is where does our retreat end?

But Meyer withdraws anyway.

He would later claim that he
knew Caen could not be held.

Hitler's order to hold the city
to the last bullet

would mean the needless
and futile sacrifice of his men.

Thus, the desperate
fighting on July 8th

was to bide time for the evacuation
of Meyer's wounded soldiers

under the cover of darkness.

They devise a plan to delay
the capture of the Abbaye,

and make it as costly
as possible for the Canadians.

The Regina Rifles
encounter the German soldiers

left to cover the withdrawal.

They launch one final assault

and they find a way through
and around those walls

and drive the Germans out.

Some of the Canadians begin
to push into the Abbaye courtyard.

Captain Brown
calls the soldiers back

and he tells them to dig in
outside of the walls.

Having fought the Germans
for a month now,

Brown knows they are not safe yet.

The Germans will have
pre-ranged their guns.

One of the nice things
about occupying a position

when you're on the defense

is you have it perfectly placed
on your map,

which means your artillery
knows exactly where to hit it.

Learning that allied troops
have reached the walls,

Meyer orders an artillery barrage
against the Abbaye.

Brown's shrewd orders prevent
further casualties amongst his men.

But they have yet to completely
achieve their objective:

to occupy the Abbaye itself.

Heavy German shelling prevents
acting Major Gordon Brown

and the rest of the Regina Rifles'
D Company

from fully capturing
the Abbaye d'Ardenne.

As the men endure the barrage,

their lost platoon
finally reappears.

During their absence,
16th platoon has been busy.

16th Platoon is able to achieve
something pretty remarkable.

They have knocked out
a battery of German 88 guns.

This means that any Sherman
tanks coming up behind them

are now free to move
in the open countryside.

The platoon's reappearance

brings the company's strength
to 70 soldiers.

But Brown knows
he needs more men,

if he's going to take
and hold the Abbaye.

They've fought
for five and a half hours.

They've lost about 200 soldiers
killed and wounded.

Many of them left strewn
over the battlefield.

And now in the dark,
crying out for help.

But there's no communication
from front to rear.

There's no wireless.
There's no telephones.

Brown and a lieutenant

return to the village of Authie
on foot

to request reinforcements

and inform headquarters
of their progress.

But on their way,

the two men are caught
in a sustained mortar attack.

They endure the 80-round
bombardment.

The shelling is another phase
of Colonel Kurt Meyer's plan

to cover the German retreat
of the 12th SS from Caen.

Meyer's withdrawal proves sensible

to protect the unit's
fighting strength.

By the second week of July,

German battle casualties
in Western Europe

totaled more than 100,000 men.

Yet German command
had managed to replace

only nine percent
of their manpower losses.

Late into the night,

Brown returns to the Abbaye
walls with reinforcements,

the Regina Rifle's A Company,

which had been held in reserve.

In the early morning hours
of July 9th,

the German shelling stops.

It's an eerie calm.

I couldn't imagine what
it'd be like to look around

and not hear bullets
whizzing by your face

and not hear artillery rounds
exploding around you.

And suddenly realize
that for a brief period,

there's some calm.
You've done it.

At first light,

the Regina Rifles A and D
Companies

advance cautiously
into the courtyard.

So, when Meyer retreats,

he tries to delay the enemy's
advance by leaving snipers.

This gives his own troops time

to withdraw in good order.

With snipers and booby traps,

the enemy doesn't feel secure.

He doesn't know where the enemy is,
where he's coming from,

so he must be very cautious
when he advances.

It takes them until mid-afternoon

to clear the Abbaye
of German snipers.

Inside the Abbaye, they discover
the headquarters in the cellar.

Brown, who himself
is beyond exhaustion,

he later talks about almost
being delirious, hallucinating.

An exhausted Gordon Brown
pours a drink...

...climbs into the bed...

...and falls asleep.

The western half of Caen
to the Orne River

would fall to the Allies
by the end of July 9th.

During Operation Charnwood,

the Regina Rifles
suffer 216 casualties,

including 36 men killed.

In terms of the casualties
on that day,

something like 50 percent

of the combat soldiers were killed,
wounded or taken prisoner.

The casualties were so severe

for Charlie company
and Baker company

that after this combat
on the 8th and 9th of July,

they were non-operational.

French civilians
are also deeply affected.

Up to 75 percent of Caen
lay in ruins

and hundreds were killed.

After the war,

Colonel Kurt Meyer
faces trial for war crimes

for his part in the execution
of Canadian prisoners of war

at the Abbaye d'Ardenne.

Meyer would be sentenced to death,
later commuted to life imprisonment.

He serves nine years
before being released.

The two Canadian
company commanders,

Majors Stuart Tubb and Eric Symes,

recover and survive the war.

Major Tubb is later awarded
the distinguished service order

for his leadership and coolness
in the face of enemy fire.

Gordon Brown continues
to serve throughout the war,

and would earn
the distinguished service order

for personal valor
and devotion to duty.

While ultimately successful,

the capture of Caen

confirms that allied gains
could be slow

and sometimes measured
only in yards.

It is clear to the Allies

the road to Berlin
is not a simple walkover.

It will be a costly
and bloody campaign.

And the war in Europe

would continue
for another ten months.