All language subtitles for HITLERS LAST STAND - 2 - Nazi Fortres (2018)

Western France.

Two months after D-Day.

Trapped on the wrong side
of a burning tank

an allied tank commander
goes on a rampage

to clear the approach
to Fort Montbarey.

Out of ammo and defenseless...

...he turns back
but slides into a crater.

And lands at the doorstep
of German bunker

occupied by enemy soldiers.

It defies any kind
of rational explanation

that 39 guys
were going to surrender

to a guy with a pistol.

They will put his bluff
to the ultimate test.

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.

September 13th, 1944.

Brest, France.

Members of the American
121st Engineers battalion

work to find a route
through an area

occupied by Nazi forces
since 1940.

Captain Sidney Smith
and his men

must clear two paths
across the minefield

to allow allied tanks access
to Fort Montbarey,

which guards the port of Brest.

The Allies siege of Brest
began on August 7th.

As allied forces head North East,

supreme allied commander,
General Dwight D. Eisenhower,

judges the capture of Brest
to be of the highest priority.

There's this spectacular breakout
from the Normandy beachhead.

They're pursuing the German army

and they're running out
of supplies very quickly.

The port situation became critical.

The goal:
to seize the port of Brest

and the U-Boat bunkers
back from the Nazis.

Hitler told the German troops
that were in the ports

to hold at all costs.

There was a, to the last bullet
to the last round to the last life.

These guys were going
hold out until the end.

Capture of the deep-water port

would allow men and materials
to be unloaded directly

to feed the growing allied
war effort.

Fort Montbarey is one of the last
German strongholds outside Brest.

But it is protected
by Nazi minefields.

For the Americans to clear the
mines in daylight could be fatal.

The big advantage
of clearing mines at night

is you're not going to be
as visible to the Germans,

so you will have
that kind of, you know,

concealment under darkness.

But the darkness makes their
mine sweeping more dangerous.

It also makes for a more confusing
situation, it's easier to get lost.

They're using
these metal detectors

and of course the ground
is just inundated

with all this stuff so at night,

how are you really going
to tell the difference?

Metal is metal
is metal down there

and you're going by feel
and touch rather than sight.

Outside the fort's walls,

Smith's men
crawl forward in the dark.

Some fan out into no man's land

to ensure their work is not
disrupted by German raiders.

The others work in groups of three,

armed only with metal detectors,
engineer's tape,

explosives and digging tools.

While one sweeps,
another marks off the safe path.

The unlucky third probes.

The true work of mine clearing

is done on your hands and knees
usually with a bayonet.

Not straight down.

But a sloped angle and very gently

prodding and probing ahead.

As they work, they uncover
300 pound naval shells,

buried as improvised mines
by the Nazis.

Each capable of destroying
a tank and killing its crew.

Yeah the engineers
are not going to try

and diffuse these mines at night

because it's just way
too dangerous.

You have to be able to see
what you're doing

in order to be able
to diffuse them.

They rig each one with
a pound of plastic explosive

to detonate later.

That way there's no chance

that you are going
to be trying to diffuse it

under cover of darkness
and it blows up in your face.

The cleared paths
will allow the tanks

to advance
on the walls of the fort.

The engineers creep back
to their lines.

Their night's work
has already proved costly.

German snipers located
one man despite the darkness.

And another is gravely wounded.

Allied command believed
German troop strength at Brest

to be ten
to twenty thousand men,

and that the city
would fall in a week.

But the Allies have under
estimated the Nazi defenses.

They do not account
for the German soldiers

who retreated
from the American advance,

and provided thousands
of reinforcements.

The troops assigned to Brest
were also among the elite.

Nazi propaganda

often portrays and calls
the Fallschirmjager

as the youngest sons
of the god of war.

German paratroopers

are generally well-trained
and well-equipped

and have got a high motivation.

Including Major General
Herman-Bernhard Ramcke,

commandant of fortress Brest.

Ramcke has served
in all three branches

of the German armed forces.

And is himself
a qualified paratrooper

in the 2nd Fallschirmjager
division.

He was also someone

who was particularly dedicated
to Nazism.

Someone who firmly believed
in the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler.

Ramcke issues an order

saying that
every single U.S. soldier

that is fighting against us
here in Brest

will not fight in Germany
against our home country.

By the morning of September 14th,

the 121st Engineers
have uncovered four naval shells

and rigged them
for simultaneous detonation.

But the explosions reveal
a fifth naval shell

in the tanks' path, still intact.

Private John Nelson
races forward

to place an explosive charge
on the shell.

Though struck by enemy fire,

Nelson succeeds
in setting the charge

then scrambles back to safety.

With a route cleared
through the minefield,

the craters will be filled in
to create two paths,

50 yards apart

and eight yards wide.

Major Tom Dallas
of the 116th Infantry Regiment,

prepares to storm Fort Montbarey.

Major Tom Dallas he was a soldier

with a soldier's fighting heart.

He had kind of ferocity about him

and a single mindedness in terms
of destroying the Germans.

He had an axe
to grind against them

because of the many soldiers
under his command

they had killed on D-Day.

It won't be easy.

An eighteenth century French fort

provides German forces with
a formidable defensive position.

Strong masonry walls

are backed by a massive earthen
embankment forty feet thick.

A moat fifteen feet deep

and forty feet wide
surrounds the fort.

You basically have these forts
that are,

that are created to withstand
almost any weapon

that would have existed
in the 18th Century

and still pretty applicable
to the 20th Century.

In addition
to the existing structures,

German troops have dug
an anti-tank ditch

and placed bunkers and pillboxes
occupied by machine gun crews.

It is just one of a series of forts

that ring Brest to protect its port.

Plus, the forts are sighted

along every
reasonable route of advance.

The Allies had already
ruled out attack from the sea.

This is supposed to be
the easy way in.

Fort Montbarey is just a nut that
you are going to have to crack.

In addition to Sidney Smith's
engineers,

Major Dallas
also commands artillery...

Fire!

...along with American
and British tanks.

Major Dallas
orders a smokescreen

to protect US troops
as they mobilize.

Then sends
the 116th's C Company

to attack German positions
on the fort's right flank.

Dallas must neutralize
the German's forward defenses.

If he fails,
his advance will stall.

September 14th, 1944.

For two days American forces
have attacked Fort Montbarey,

which guards
the port city of Brest,

without breaking through.

Major Tom Dallas
orders C Company

of the 116th Infantry regiment

to clear the pillboxes and trenches
on the right flank of the fort.

You've got to take
these positions first

as a kind of stepping stone
to get physically near the fort.

In the smoky haze, the cratered
landscape proves dangerous.

The infantry moves in
with grenades and bayonets.

C Company is in some
very intense fighting.

Grenade to grenade kind
of fighting. Uh, rifle to rifle.

Bayonet fighting,
which is exceedingly rare.

When you see that
in the reports of the time,

it tells you that it's
an extraordinarily traumatic

kind of combat.

What it meant
was really intimate killing.

While C Company
has this mission:

close with the enemy and destroy
them at that close range.

But by late afternoon C Company
achieves its objective

and the Americans occupy
the West side of the fort.

Dallas can begin
to move in his tanks.

British Churchill MK VII tanks
are known as "crocodiles".

They are armed with a 75mm gun,

and turret-mounted machine guns.

Each Crocodile tows
an armored trailer,

which contains 400 gallons
of petroleum fuel.

That enables the tank
to shoot flames 80 yards,

in 121 second blasts.

Crocodile tank is a fearsome
psychological weapon.

Nobody wants to be burned
to death.

There are a lot of different kinds
of death.

That's probably the worst.

Major Dallas
orders three Crocodiles

to cross the minefields
and approach the fort.

Because the Crocodile Tanks
are heavy,

it's about 40 tonne tank,

they are fairly well suited
to this jagged, cratered terrain.

The lead Crocodile
is under the command

of British Lieutenant
Hubert Anthony Ward.

But as the second Crocodile
cuts across the minefield

it sets off another
undetected naval shell.

The tank is immobilized.

The explosion kills one man

and badly wounds
the four other tankers.

Major Tom Dallas' troops rush in
to deal with the wreckage.

Worse still,
it holds up the other tanks.

They stand by to cross
the minefield

to provide covering fire,

but their path is now blocked.

The remaining tanks
are bottle necked.

Ward is basically up there,
cut off, on his own

and those five tanks
are of really no use to him.

So American Captain Sidney
Smith's combat engineers

spring into action,

to clear a new path around
the dead crocodile.

These aren't just guys
that build stuff.

They're fighting engineers.

These men have to maneuver,

position charges,

blow things up
and then continue to fight

and then in some cases
hold things,

against all odds.

His men must now locate
the mines in broad daylight,

making them easy targets
for German snipers.

This setback is yet more proof

that German troops intend to fight
for every inch of ground.

Now nearly three weeks
into their siege,

the Americans still have not
reached the city walls of Brest.

Nazi propaganda minister,
Joseph Goebbels,

makes a big story out
of the defense of Brest.

He portrays
the German Fallschirmjager

and General Ramcke as heroes

fighting against all odds
against the Americans.

So, Brest is seen

as something
like the peak of the fighting

in the fortresses in the West.

Fort Montbarey itself is held by
a unit of Fallschirmjagers,

commanded
by Oberleutnant Floter.

German paratroopers
or Falschirmjagers

were an elite unit,
battle hardened.

They had all
the mental toughness.

They had the best weapons

and they were going
to fight to the death.

Near the fort's walls,

Ward's Crocodile Tank
remains a sitting duck.

Alone on the battlefield,

vulnerable to one of the most
feared Nazi weapons,

the Panzerfaust.

The, the Panzerfaust
is the leading

individual soldiers' anti-tank
weapon of that time.

In that kind of cratered
landscape around Montbarey

these guys
could be hiding anywhere.

If he's within thirty or forty yards

he's got this thing at his side
and he can fire it.

A one shot deal and there's
a very good chance

that thing is going
to penetrate your armour

and possibly lead
to a catastrophic explosion.

Lieutenant Ward
decides to take action.

He targets the German defensive
positions on the left flank.

Dallas sends the
116th's B Company forward

to support the tank's charge.

The Panzerfaust
is just one example

of why combined arms
become so important.

The tankers don't often have
the visibility to deal with them

and they're looking
for the heavier weapons.

With clear lines of sight
and maneuverability,

the infantry are the best weapon
against a Panzerfaust gunner.

With bursts of flame, Ward starts
to clear the German forces

from the outlying pillboxes.

Then adds both his guns
to the hail of fire.

The flames do much of the work.

The defenders quickly surrender.

B Company rounds up more
than 70 German soldiers.

Ward presses onward
with guns and flames.

He clears the treeline to the North
and then East of Fort Montbarey.

Ward attacks so aggressively

he runs out of fuel
for his flame thrower

and shells and bullets,
for his guns.

He has also outrun his support.

It's just Ward and his crew.

Uh, he has no infantry men
with him.

It's this lone tank,

basically behind the fort,

deep in enemy country.

Now defenseless, Ward
turns back towards his lines.

He navigates the bomb blasted,
cratered area, around the fort,

but stops suddenly when
his 40 ton tank slips sideways

into a deep depression.

His timing couldn't be worse.

The tank comes to rest facing
a bunker of German soldiers.

As the American
29th Infantry Division

tries to seize Fort Montbarey,

Lieutenant Tony Ward's British
Crocodile Tank

crashes into a bunker

containing 39 German soldiers.

Ward has been roaming
around there firing off,

every, all these weapons
he's definitely has an effect.

He has demonstrated the
exact right personality you want

in someone who,
who has that kind of weapon,

that kind of tank
in that kind of situation.

He's done precisely
what you should do.

Initially surprised,

the Germans may have been
ready to surrender,

but they quickly
realize the tank is helpless.

The tank's steep angle

causes gasoline fumes
to fill its interior.

And worse,
a fire extinguisher discharges

and fills the tank with toxic gas.

Ward's crew starts to suffocate.

He seizes his pistol
and pops the hatch.

Lieutenant Ward
does not plan to surrender.

He begins a bold bluff

and orders the Germans
"hande hoch!" or "hands up!".

Not convinced by his pistol,
the Germans don't move.

The Germans look at him
and are kind of sizing it up.

Thinking of surrendering.
But thinking, wait a minute,

these guys look a little wobbly.
This guy only has a pistol.

One of the tank crew passes Ward
a loaded Bren gun

and he blasts out a series
of warning shots.

Remarkably,
the Germans surrender.

It defies any kind
of rational explanation

that 39 guys were going to
surrender to a guy with a pistol,

if the flames
or these other weapons

are not some kind
of factor in that.

Despite Ward's success,

the day's fighting has cost
Major Tom Dallas two tanks.

And his troops have yet
to directly attack

the walls of Fort Montbarey.

Dallas hopes he can get some help
from the 115th Infantry Regiment.

They will manoeuver
to sever the fort's last lifeline,

by capturing the road from
Fort Montbarey back to Brest.

If the 115th succeeds,

Oberleutnant Floter
will be cut off from supplies,

reinforcement and escape.

Meanwhile, Dallas prepares for
another assault on the fort itself.

To do so, he must use
the Crocodile Tanks

to full tactical
and psychological advantage.

Dallas still thinks he's going
to need the tanks.

The engineers then have
to make sure to,

to create some sort
of smooth surface.

Captain Sidney Smith
and his 121st Engineers

venture back onto the battlefield,

to fill in the moat and level out
the approach to Fort Montbarey.

They use everything
at their disposal,

from bulldozers to explosives

to picks and shovels
to accomplish the task.

Captain Smith, he is the brains
of this operation.

If this were a peacetime civilian
job he would be the architect,

he would be the uh, foreman,
the supervisor all in one.

You've got a clear path over here!

As they perform this work,
Smith and his men

must also detect mines
and avoid enemy fire.

Smith himself directs
a bulldozer operator's work.

So, here he is lying
on the ground,

under some level of cover,
but certainly in danger.

I think Captain Smith is a major,
major player and character

in this whole push toward
Fort Montbarey.

Without him I don't know it's
going to proceed the same way.

U.S. riflemen provide coverage
throughout the operation.

Their protection is so complete,

only one member of the engineers
is struck by German counterfire.

On September 16th,

Major Dallas launches yet another
assault on Fort Montbarey.

Smith's engineers
have done their job well.

Three Crocodile Tanks
advance across the approach

and open up at point blank range.

Each creates a wall of fire,
on the fort's North side,

but with their fuel trailers empty,
the flames burn out.

The blaze has no impact
on the stone.

The thick walls continue
to protect the defenders inside.

Dallas will need another plan
to deliver the flames

right into Fort Montbarey.

September, 1944.

American forces
continue their siege

to liberate the French
port city of Brest.

Three flame throwing
Crocodile Tanks

fail to break through
the walls of Fort Montbarey.

American Major Tom Dallas
must find a way

to deliver the fire
into the fort directly,

to force the Nazis holdout
to surrender.

He realizes
the easiest way through

might be the main gate.

Dallas orders
an M-10 tank destroyer

to fire 50 rounds at the entrance.

While surely shaking the walls
to their foundations,

the gate holds.

Six more Crocodile Tanks
expend their fuel,

sending fire up the walls on the
North and East sides of the fort.

Though they push the Nazi troops
back from the walls,

the flames still have no effect
on the structure.

Flame tanks at this point
are not effective.

You're asking them
to do something

they're not really designed to do,

which is shoot jets of flame

at very well fortified masonry.

I don't think flames
are going to overcome that.

Dallas tries his luck

with a bigger gun
against the main entrance.

They position a 105mm Howitzer,

armed with
white phosphorus shells

just 20 meters from the gate.

While white phosphorus
was used for smokescreens,

Dallas now uses it as an
incendiary to set the fort on fire.

They shoot off
one hundred and fifty rounds.

The shells are too small,

the explosive charges
are not strong enough.

You don't have the kind of
penetration factor that you need.

I mean they're just going
to bounce off those walls.

So, the shells
are not at all effective.

The barrage devastates
the inside of the fort,

but Oberleutnant Floter and his
paratroopers remain entrenched.

Though the weapons
are not always that effective

for doing exactly
what Dallas would hope,

it is I think contributing to
the kind of lowering of a morale

of the German Garrison.

Meanwhile, Smith and his men
locate a passageway

which runs to a tunnel
on the outside of the moat.

The engineers determine

that the if the main gate
cannot be breached,

they might use the passage

to bring down the walls
to capture Fort Montbarey.

So when the Americans
find the passageway

it now creates
a new option for Dallas

beyond just standing there
and battering the gate.

An M-10 tank destroyer
is positioned.

The impact blows a hole

at the top of the passageway's
masonry wall.

Just big enough for a man
to crawl through.

Before anyone could be sent in,

three wounded German soldiers
emerge carrying a white flag.

Through a translator they explain

the constant shelling and flames

were taking a toll
on the defenders inside.

That the constant bombing
has driven them crazy.

So they are psychologically,
totally down.

The artillery fire,
the air bombardment

have heavily impacted
on their psyche.

Armed with this information,

Major Dallas decides
to offer Oberleutnant Floter

a chance to surrender.

He uses an English-speaking
German prisoner-of-war

to deliver his message.

Dallas demands Floter's
surrender by saying,

"If you don't surrender you're
going to get a lot worse than this."

Minutes later,
Dallas receives Floter's reply.

Floter's response

to Major Dallas' message
is rather cheeky.

Floter says,

"If this is all you've got,
we'll hold out for a little while."

The siege of Fort Montbarey
will continue.

The 29th Infantry division

has attacked the German
stronghold of Fort Montbarey

for five consecutive days.

Despite walls of flames and
countless rounds of ordnance,

the obstinate German lieutenant

rejects the opportunity
to surrender.

So, it's kind of a taunt
to the Americans

and Dallas is not the kind of guy
you mess around with.

Major Dallas decides
on a new approach.

He orders five tons
of TNT explosive.

That much explosive
is not available,

but Dallas hopes two tons
will bring down the wall,

like a medieval castle siege.

Dallas also has ladders
at the ready to scale the wall,

should the TNT's effects
prove inadequate.

But getting hundreds of pounds
of dynamite into position

proves difficult.

Once again,

Dallas calls on the 121st
engineers, Company B,

led by Captain Sidney Smith.

With the Crocodile Tanks and
infantry providing covering fire,

Smith's men move into the moat
and unload the crates of dynamite.

It would've been enormously
stressful and tense,

because you don't necessarily
know what's going to happen

from one minute to the next.

For all you know the Germans
may be massing their people.

So, before they begin work inside,
they must secure their location.

Smith's men
enter the passageway,

fire their guns down its length

and lob in hand grenades.

Satisfied it is clear,

Company B works quickly to
bring in the crates of explosives.

When the last man emerges,

Smith sends him back
for a final sweep.

With the all clear and the
dynamite rigged for detonation

another German POW
approaches Dallas

and asks him to offer Floter
one more chance to surrender.

Dallas brushes the POW's
request aside.

Dallas hears these sort of vague

illusions to the fact that perhaps,

the Germans may want
to surrender

and he is in no mood
to hear that

and so the explosion
is going to go forward.

I won't tell you what he actually
said, but it was colorful.

Dallas orders his men
to blow the TNT.

But before the detonation,
Dallas reconsiders his position.

As the men
worked near the walls

they realize the body of Second
Lieutenant Durwood Settles

lies nearby.

He had been killed
in earlier fighting,

near the wall they hoped
to bring down.

Dallas is reluctant
to blow the charges

before the body
can be recovered.

The demolition would likely
crush his remains,

an idea which disturbs everyone.

A lieutenant from the graves
registration unit,

volunteers to attempt
recovery of settles' body.

Dallas agrees to the delay.

It's going to be better
for your fighting morale

because of course, inevitable,

you're going to think
what if it were me?

And no one wants
to think about, you know,

their remains getting exploded
into atoms like that.

Lieutenant Kelton braves
enemy fire to cross the moat.

He retrieves the body

and carries it out himself.

At 5 p.m. on September 16th,

Dallas finally gives the order
to detonate the TNT.

He can only hope
that it is enough

to finally conquer
Fort Montbarey.

September 16th, 1944,

more than three months
after D-Day,

American forces try to bring down
the walls of Fort Montbarey,

a Nazi holdout guarding
the deep-water port of Brest.

Major Tom Dallas hopes two tons
of TNT will bring down the walls.

The explosion succeeds

and causes the collapse
of the central section

of the fort's North wall.

Once more, the 121st combat
engineers enter the fray.

With British and American tanks
providing covering fire,

Captain Sidney Smith's
B Company

attacks the breach
in the fort's wall.

Let's move out!

And climbs over the rubble.

It's a storm of artillery
and machine gun fire.

The onslaught is so intense

that Smith's men do not realize

the Germans
are finally surrendering.

When they catch on,

they pound on the tanks' hulls
to stop the barrage.

It's a chaotic moment
the 29th Division soldiers

eventually have to take their,
uh, rifle butts

and pound on the, on the tanks

to get the attention
of the tank crew men

so that they could tell them
to stop firing.

And it's not just a matter
of humanity to the Germans,

but also the fact that you got
American soldiers

who are now within that fort

and who might be in danger
from the tank fire.

Dazed German soldiers
pour out of the fort.

As the 29th Division

starts rounding up German
prisoners above ground,

Smith's men realize

that some may be holding out
in tunnels beneath the fort.

As they creep down
the passageway

they hear voices
speaking German.

The engineers fire their
Tommy Guns down the tunnel

to announce their presence.

Two men surrender.

The engineers have captured
the garrison commander:

Oberleutnant Floter.

Floter is delivered
to Major Tom Dallas

and demands
to be treated as an officer.

But after five days
of intense fighting,

Dallas is not in a receptive mood.

He roars that Floter
is a prisoner of war

and to get his hands
above his head.

Dallas insists that Floter
to return to the fort

and identify all of the mines
set by the Germans.

With Fort Montbarey
finally in allied hands,

the 29th Division is ready
for the final assault on the city.

Two days later,
on September 18th, 1944,

the 29th, along
with two other divisions

of the U.S. 8th Army Corps,

take Brest and its port.

Major General Ramcke
is captured a day later,

having fled across
the harbor by boat.

Captain Sidney Smith's daring
leadership at Fort Montbarey

earns him a Silver Star.

A Silver Star would also be
awarded to Private John Nelson,

who single handedly wired up

one of the naval shells
in broad daylight.

British Lieutenant Tony Ward's
exceptional courage

in the lead Crocodile Tank

merited a Silver Star as well,

a significant tribute to a member
of a foreign army.

During the siege of Brest,
the 29th Division

suffers over three thousand,
three hundred casualties,

including nearly 700 men killed.

The American Eighth Army Corps

captures nearly 40,000
German POW's at Brest.

Twice the number of defenders
estimated by Allied command.

But throughout the 27-day siege,

Ramcke's troops sabotage
the port so thoroughly

that no allied ships
would dock there

for the remainder of the war.

By late September 1944,

the Allies' push the Western Front
towards Germany,

to capture Berlin
as soon as possible.

But in the coming weeks
Nazi resistance would stiffen

and the war in Europe
will continue

for another eight months.