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00:00December 1944. Hitler's most infamous fighters, the Waffen-SS, leads a massive armoured attack
00:11against American forces along the Belgian-German border.
00:15And it started in one fell swoop, and we chased away the Americans.
00:21They are skilled, ruthless veterans, and in command of the biggest and best tanks in the German army.
00:28They had better tanks than we did.
00:32I counted seven rounds to bounce off that tiger. He just turned that turret, and boom.
00:41The Americans are outnumbered, outgunned, and caught in a fight for survival.
00:46I think there were only suicide candidates against the Panther.
00:51This is the Sixth Panzer Army, Hitler's specially crafted war machine at the Battle of the Bugs.
00:57One of history's greatest tank battles.
01:27The Ardennes, December 16, 1944. Over 1,700 German tanks and 200,000 infantry attack U.S. forces along a 140-kilometer front.
01:42The Battle of the Bulge has begun.
01:44The Battle of the Bulge has begun.
01:45The Battle of the Bulge has begun.
01:49Spearheading the attack is the newly formed Sixth Panzer Army, made up of Hitler's most trusted and ruthless killers, the Waffen-SS.
02:01Their role is to punch through the thinly defended American line with 60,000 infantry, followed by two elite Panzer divisions that will drive west and secure bridges over the Meuse River.
02:16A third SS division will then advance northwest and capture Antwerp.
02:33By seizing this key Allied port, Hitler hopes he can stop the relentless Allied advance that has been routing his forces for the past six months.
02:45We already found out about the American army during the invasion.
02:52We were impressed by the high number of people and the amount of material. We couldn't keep up with that.
03:02You could be as brave as you wanted, but no soldier can endure that.
03:12They were simply overwhelmed by the vast amount of material. At that point, a fight was basically already useless.
03:25The German high command cannot sustain a lengthy offensive against the well-supplied allies.
03:31They must take them by surprise, striking quickly with heavy armor.
03:40And the Sixth Panzer Army is the best equipped armored force in the Ardennes.
03:47With more than 600 tanks, including 160 Panzer IVs,
03:52215 Mark Vs, or Panther tanks, and nearly 100 Tiger tanks.
04:01At 57 tons, the Tiger I easily outmatches the American Sherman tank.
04:06It's protected in places by up to 100 millimeters of steel plate, and is one of the heaviest tanks on the battlefield.
04:13But its real edge is its powerful 88 millimeter main cannon.
04:17With the enormous penetrating power of the 88, we were able to effectively fight the American tanks.
04:30Some of them we destroyed completely.
04:40We were able to let the enemy come fairly close.
04:45First of all, because of our own armor, and because of the strength and the impact of the 88 gun.
04:51They had better tanks than we did.
05:01We had small guns on our big tanks.
05:0476 millimeter was not strong enough for most of those German tanks.
05:07The Sherman was an easy opponent for us.
05:15They could fire at us, but it wouldn't penetrate our tanks.
05:20They had to come close, within a few hundred meters, to have a chance.
05:24The Sherman is relatively light and fast, but carries a low velocity 75 millimeter main gun
05:32that cannot penetrate a Tiger's frontal armor.
05:36Its own frontal armor is just 51 millimeters thick, making it highly vulnerable to the firepower of a Tiger.
05:45The Americans are outgunned, and heavily outnumbered.
05:51All they have to stop the 6th Panzer Army are less than 60 Sherman tanks.
05:55180 anti-tank guns, and only 35,000 infantry.
06:05And most of them are new arrivals, who have never been in combat.
06:09During that time, the Americans received a steady stream of reinforcements
06:14that had just completed their training, but had not seen active combat yet.
06:18That's why all these troops here that batted down on the night from December 15 to 16,
06:24were totally caught by surprise.
06:30And it started in one fell swoop, and we chased away the Americans.
06:39The Americans dropped everything.
06:41The bad Germans are coming. Let's run.
06:48That's kind of what it looked like.
06:52The Americans are caught by surprise,
06:55and the Germans quickly punch through their defenses all along the line.
07:01Desperate U.S. commanders order all available forces to the front.
07:05Primarily, during the Battle of the Bulge, they would just move us to wherever there was a hole to fill.
07:16And we, with our M16, half-tracks, 50-caliber machine guns,
07:24we were anti-aircraft and anti-personnel.
07:28And our job was to protect the tanks.
07:33We were moving down a fire lane.
07:36The two Shermans were over to my left, probably 50 yards.
07:41And coming over the horizon and towards the Sherman was a Tiger tank.
07:49A big Tiger tank.
07:51Square front, reinforced barrel, and he just laid the trees down as he went.
08:03And came right on through.
08:08Those Shermans, I counted seven rounds to bounce off that Tiger.
08:15And it didn't bother him any more than fleas on a dog.
08:24He just kind of shook them off.
08:30And he just turned that turret ever so slowly, and boom, out went one of the Shermans.
08:40And then he turned a little more.
08:45So we got out of there as fast as we could.
08:59We usually end up on a short stick.
09:02We have the light tank, and if one of M88 shells hits that tank, it just blows it apart.
09:11They burn up, and you always have casualties.
09:16Body parts, dead ones, fire, and everything else.
09:25It's a sad thing. It really is.
09:27You stop and think, how many guys, thousands of them, GIs, laying in the gutters, laying along the roads, all mangled up, torn apart, and everything else.
09:43Everything else.
09:53By the evening of December 17th, lead elements of the 6th Panzer Army have advanced more than 65 kilometers into Belgium.
10:00At the spearhead is an elite battle group of the 1st SS Panzer Division, led by Lieutenant Colonel Jochen Piper.
10:09Piper is a veteran of the Eastern Front, a winner of the Iron Cross, and a former staff member of Heinrich Himmler, the infamous overseer of the Gestapo and the Nazi death camps.
10:20He is a ruthless leader, and his Kampfgruppe, Piper, with 120 tanks and 150 armored vehicles, is the most powerful armored formation in the Ardennes.
10:30By the 18th of December, they are only 68 kilometers from their primary objective, the Meuse River bridges near Hui.
10:41But they must first take a bridge across the Amblev River, in the small Belgian town of Stavalo.
10:46The Allies are determined to stall the German offensive, long enough to allow reinforcements to join the battle.
10:53And 250 Americans make their stand at the bridge in Stavalo.
11:00We were on the, on the half tracks, traveling at night, for a long period of time, and it was cold, it was very, very cold.
11:13And all the while, there were red tracer bullets all over the sky, it looked like all kinds of red stars running around.
11:22And I think that started a little bit of fear in me, and yet, uh, I won't say that I was brave about it, but I kind of got numb, I think, to the whole thing.
11:35We pulled over on the side of the road.
11:40Now there was a river running across, and then there was a bridge at the end. That much I knew.
11:47Lieutenant Daugherty and Sergeant Lowe said they were gonna take Sergeant Armstrong and Sergeant Whaley's vehicles with them over the bridge,
11:56and that they wanted us to get our guns ready for firing.
12:05The object was to hold them as long as possible, hold them six hours if possible.
12:12We knew which way they were coming.
12:15There had been some previous intelligence that said that they were gonna be coming down that hill road.
12:19It began to become light, and you could hear clanking, a lot of clanking, which was a sign that there were tanks nearby.
12:32The ominous clanking is the sound of Kampfgruppe Piper advancing straight into the heart of Stathalow.
12:39Forty of the biggest tanks in the German army, and the only thing standing in their way are 250 men and a few anti-tank guns.
12:49The Ardennes, a remote collection of fields, forests, and villages along the German-Belgian border.
13:05At first glance, this place seems untouched by the modern world.
13:09But closer inspection reveals grim evidence of a dark and violent past.
13:14It was here, in the winter of 1944, that Hitler launched his great Ardennes offensive, forever remembered as the Battle of the Bulge.
13:22December 16th.
13:32In an effort to change the course of the war on the Western Front, three German armies launch a surprise attack on American forces in the Ardennes.
13:40On the northern front, the 6th Panzer Army breaks through thinly defended American lines.
13:48At the spearhead of the attack is the elite SS Kampfgruppe Piper.
13:53Now only 68 kilometers from their primary objective, the bridge is along the Meuse River.
13:58But first, the Germans must capture the strategically important town of Stavolo.
14:03Defending Stavolo are 250 men, including a few dozen from the 825th Anti-Tank Battalion.
14:11Among them is gunner Lou Celentano.
14:14It began to become light.
14:17And you could hear clanking, a lot of clanking, which was a sign that there were tanks nearby.
14:23And when they finally did appear on the hill in front of us, they looked like tigers to me.
14:36They were between buildings.
14:39So, in order to get a good shot at them, we had to destroy the buildings first.
14:44A job that our guns could do quite, quite easily.
14:47We took bead on the houses first.
14:52We have a .50 caliber on the tracks too.
14:56A .50 caliber is quite a gun.
15:06And now the four tanks were within our sight.
15:08The three inch M5 anti-tank gun has a muzzle velocity of almost 800 meters per second.
15:22Enabling it to penetrate 92 millimeters of armor at ranges of over 900 meters.
15:28But even that is not enough to penetrate the 100 millimeter frontal armor of Piper's Tiger tanks.
15:34The tactics were supposed to be, fire at all the vulnerable spots.
15:40Which means, you don't fire right in the belly because in the belly is where he's got all this armor.
15:46Part of our luck was that the roads were extremely slippery.
15:53They were so sliding from side to side that they may not have given us the attention really that they would have given in dry weather.
16:04Of course, I was worried about the distance.
16:09And I remember giving the order of 900 yards.
16:14That really sticks out in my mind, that 900 yards.
16:17As we were taught, we cross-fired.
16:24I fired on the first tank and Sergeant Hauser's gun fired on the last tank.
16:32And as luck would have it, we hit the first and last tanks immediately.
16:37I said 900 yards and I think I hit it right on the nose because to hit them on first shots like we did, there may be a lot of talent involved, but I think we were, it was 50% luck.
16:55Because we really hit them hard right off the bat.
17:03We hit the tracks on both of those tanks.
17:06That was pure, unadulterated luck.
17:10Once his track is broken, now you gotta go for his turret because he still can move that turret.
17:16They were disabled on the two ends and the two guys in the middle got caught.
17:22They couldn't move, they couldn't move forward, couldn't move backward.
17:25And we kept fired.
17:26Everything fell into place, that the training really paid.
17:39But in war, I guess, luck is an unknown quantity.
17:45But it sure counts.
17:47The Americans destroy four tanks and slow Piper's advance.
17:56But it is not enough to stop him and his tankers advance into the center of Stavalo.
18:01This is the Amblev River that runs through Stavalo.
18:18Now, on the morning of the 18th, Piper attacked onto this bridge.
18:31Piper had mobile armor here on both sides of the bridge, coming down from the north,
18:41that had time a few hours before then to zero the whole location in.
18:45So he could actually throw shells down here.
18:52This armored battery who was supporting the engineers found themselves having to pull back away from the bridge
18:57and they actually had to allow Piper onto the bridge at that time.
19:05A Tiger Royal, a big Tiger Royal, swept over the hill, come down to the bridge area,
19:13and he caught Sergeant Armstrong's half-track before they had even a chance to get out of their vehicle.
19:20We took a couple of rounds from this Tiger Royal tank and they were completely destroyed.
19:36We knew that that big Tiger Royal tank was coming.
19:41We could hear it coming.
19:42And we know we're next.
19:46There's nothing on earth we can do.
20:01December 18th, 1944, day three of the Battle of the Bulge.
20:06Hitler's 6th Panzer Army has advanced more than 65 kilometers into Belgium.
20:16Leading the attack is Kampfgruppe Piper.
20:20This powerful armored column from the elite 1st SS Panzer Division seems unstoppable.
20:25Their objective? The bridges across the Meuse River.
20:34Taking them will open the way to the Allied seaport at Antwerp.
20:38By the morning of the 18th, Piper and his tanks are only 68 kilometers from the Meuse.
20:44Nothing stands in their way but a handful of Americans defending the bridge in the village of Stavalo.
20:49A big Tiger Royal swept over the hill, come down to the bridge area and he caught Sergeant Armstrong's half-track before they had even a chance to get out of their vehicle.
21:08We knew that that big Tiger Royal tank was coming.
21:14They're bigger than most buildings for God's sake.
21:15We could hear it coming.
21:19The Tiger Royal, or King Tiger, is a battlefield monster.
21:24It weighs 70 tons, more than twice as much as a Sherman, and is plated with armor that is in places 180 millimeters thick.
21:32Its long-barreled 88 millimeter main gun can penetrate even the heaviest Allied armor at ranges of over 3,000 meters, making the King Tiger the biggest and most powerful tank on the World War II battlefield.
21:46This is one of Kampff Group Piper's Tigers.
21:51This is a King Tiger II.
21:53This was the war horse of Kampff Group Piper's unit.
21:57After looking at a Sherman, and then you see this, and you see what a tank is.
22:02They were firing 25-pounder shells from close range into this Tiger.
22:09And we can see here where they've glanced off the front armor, which is around 186 millimeters thick.
22:16And this here is a shell that actually went in to this Tiger and exploded out.
22:21Wouldn't have stopped it at 25 yards.
22:26That's how powerful this thing is.
22:28It's sporting an 88 cannon.
22:30It's one of the best cannons the Germans had in the field.
22:33If you'd have been on the naughty end of this, you could forget it.
22:36Your war was over if you're hit by one of these things.
22:38We knew that that big Tiger Royal tank was coming, and Lieutenant Daugherty had already started ahead.
22:55He and Sugar, his driver, jumped out of the vehicle just a few seconds before the Tiger Royal fired
23:03and picked that Jeep up and knocked it across the road in pieces practically.
23:11Now, we know we're next.
23:14There's nothing on Earth we can do except try to get out of there.
23:22But Celentano and his men can't move their M5 anti-tank gun.
23:28Repeated firing has driven the tails deep into the ground.
23:31In my case, the gun dug in so far because we fired so many rounds,
23:38it was very difficult to get them out of the ground.
23:44Then the Tiger Royal, for some reason or other, wanted to get into a better position to be able to fire on us.
23:52And he backed up into a huge building.
23:58Everything, the whole building came right down on us.
24:06And we made our escape.
24:08Before that Tiger Royal got a chance to do any firing, the whole building came down on us.
24:14Despite the Americans' efforts, Piper and his column cross the bridge, take Stavolo, and push on towards the Meuse River.
24:26Piper leaves behind a small force of SS troopers to protect his rear, and they quickly live up to their notorious reputation.
24:32As Piper's pushing west, the troops behind him are basically running riot.
24:40They're going into houses, they're throwing hand grenades into cellars full of civilians.
24:44Babies as young as nine months old, pensioners in their 70s. They're doing just what they want, basically.
24:52The village lies in ruins.
25:00130 civilians are slaughtered, including the family of Arlette Mignon.
25:06I was only two years old. We were living here, my parents and my two sisters and me.
25:16The morning of the 19th, there was lots of movement, and we started to panic. So we went down to the cellar.
25:22In the afternoon, we heard footsteps on the first floor, and even though my mother was scared, and since my mother could speak German, she told them that we were civilians, but they shot at us anyway.
25:37My mother was hit, and she died with my two sisters, and I was in my father's arms.
25:44To make sure everyone was dead, they shot at us again, and my father got a bullet in the foot, and a bullet went through my leg.
25:58To be safer, my father brought me up to the attic.
26:03The Americans came and took us to the hospital and saved our lives.
26:08Later that day, American reinforcements arrive in Stavalo, wipe out Piper's rear guard and destroy the bridge.
26:19But it's too late. Piper's main force is already on its way to the news.
26:27As the 1st SS Panzer Division pushes west, the 12th SS Panzer Division is ordered to clear the twin towns of Kringkalt-Rochrad,
26:35held by stubborn remnants of the U.S. 99th Infantry Division.
26:41The 12th SS is well equipped, fielding more than 14,000 men, 90 tanks, and 60 SP guns, including 40 Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyers.
26:56The Jagdpanzer IV is protected by 80 millimeters of sloped frontal armor, and is powered by a 300 horsepower engine, enabling it to reach top speeds of 40 kilometers per hour.
27:08It is a 26-ton tank killer, equipped with a 75-millimeter high-velocity cannon, able to rip through even the most robust Allied armor.
27:19With all that firepower, it should be easy to take the twin towns.
27:24But in 1944, the whole German war machine, including the 12th SS, is running out of gas.
27:30You can't start an offensive that leads forward if you have a shortage of gas.
27:41You have to watch every single liter of gas you spend.
27:45Our movements were so impaired that a speedy progress was just not possible.
27:56And inwardly, we were hoping to reach American gas dumps.
28:01On December 18th, we attacked Krink-Kelt.
28:14And we made it into the center of the village, close to the water tower in Krink-Kelt.
28:19Close by the water tower was a hayfield, and we forged ahead, and we opened fire towards a village where we assumed Americans would hide.
28:34We were under attack by anti-tanker.
28:38We were under attack by anti-tank guns.
29:04There was a terrain with hedges to the right.
29:06And it was very well camouflaged in there.
29:12And it hit us and our company commander full-on from the side through a gap in the hatch.
29:28He was leaning outside the hatch with his torso to shoot at the Americans with his assault rifle.
29:33He took a deadly blow to the neck by flying shell parts.
29:39The gunners in my hats and headsets were blown from our heads by the explosion.
29:46It had been placed so cleverly and had hit us at such a weak spot that we had to be allowed.
29:52We all made it out of the tank, although the driver was injured then.
29:57We all made it out of the tank, although the driver was injured then.
30:03For me and my crew, the operation in Klingkelt had ended.
30:09It goes on like this for two days.
30:14The Americans bringing lethal fire onto the fuel and ammunition station.
30:20starved 12th SS and the German advance stalls only a few kilometers from their start point.
30:26The 6th Panzer Army is now five days behind schedule.
30:33And the German advance stalls only a few kilometers from their start point.
30:39The 6th Panzer Army orders the 2nd SS Division, originally intended to follow Piper's advance to the Mews to move south and attempt their own breakthrough.
30:46The well equipped 2nd SS advance to the Mews to move south and attempt their own breakthrough.
30:52The well equipped 2nd SS advances with 28 Panzer IVs, 28 self-propelled guns, and 58 Mark V Panther tanks.
31:01The Panzer IV is now 5 days behind schedule, and the German high command orders the 2nd SS Division,
31:07and the German high command orders the 2nd SS Division, originally intended to follow Piper's advance to the Mews to move south and attempt their own breakthrough.
31:12The well equipped 2nd SS advances with 28 Panzer IVs, 28 self-propelled guns and 58 Mark V Panther tanks.
31:21The Panzer IVs was, until the end of the war, the most functional and best tank in the world, based on three components.
31:30Velocity, cross-country mobility, and the tank protection.
31:39And the Panther definitely achieved the best results in all three.
31:45They just didn't stand a chance against the Panther.
31:52On December 24th, lead elements of the 2nd SS Panzer Division advanced towards Manet.
32:00To protect their rear, 2nd Lieutenant Fritz Langanke and a platoon of four Panthers are ordered to secure the village of Freyneux.
32:08So we entered the village staggered.
32:15I stopped and thought, I saw vehicles and started shooting.
32:22At the same time, American tanks were shooting on us.
32:30It's an ambush.
32:33The decisive battle, the one that will determine whether or not the 2nd SS can take the Mews River Bridges, is about to begin.
32:40The Battle of the Bulge enters its ninth bloody day, and elements of the 6th Panzer Army have driven 80 kilometers into Belgium.
33:00But stiff US resistance has stalled their advance.
33:12Desperate to reach the Mews River, the 2nd SS Panzer Division is ordered to attack the Belgian village of Manet.
33:19To protect their rear, 2nd Lieutenant Fritz Langanke and a platoon of four Panthers were ordered to take the village of Freyneux.
33:34On December 24th, I was a member of the 2nd SS Tank Company, Das Reich, and I was leading the 1st World.
33:41So we entered the village staggered.
34:02Ahead of us was the steeple and other houses.
34:06But in front, a couple of bushes hit the view of the street.
34:27I stopped and thought I saw vehicles and started shooting.
34:30At the same time, American tanks were shooting on us.
34:40The Sherman M4A3 has a relatively underpowered 75-millimeter cannon.
34:46But at close ranges, it can still be deadly.
34:49Especially if their target is the vulnerable 50-millimeter armor plating on the side of a Panther tank.
34:54I recognized a Sherman on the left side of the street.
35:05And fired at it.
35:07We received lots of hits on the front sides.
35:12So that the welds on the right side burst, and all of a sudden, we had sunlight coming.
35:24Riesiger Krach im Wagen.
35:25It's an enormous noise inside, and your nerves have to be solid for that for sure.
35:31And we had them.
35:41The other vehicles had been hit as well.
35:43I saw that the barrel of one of them had fallen off.
35:48The fourth had not been hit, and drove back with the others.
35:59I drove back as well, and we returned to the bluff and stopped there.
36:02I was rather sure that it was just a question of time until the American tanks would show up here as well.
36:15In the meantime, I did some observation on the area around us.
36:22I fired on three different points in the area, like a tree, and something to get the exact distance.
36:32I had to shoot.
36:39This is a common procedure to measure the distance for firing later, to assure 100% hits.
36:49Good thing I had prepared this before, because shortly after, five Sherman showed up.
36:55The distance wasn't that big.
36:59Maybe 500 or 600 meters.
37:11As I had the exact distances, I managed to shoot the first four Shermans with only one round each.
37:16The last one tried to back off, but I finally managed to reach this one as well.
37:34The battlefield is littered with burning tanks on both sides.
37:48But the Americans win the day.
37:50They stop the advance towards Manhey, putting an end to the 2nd SS Panzer Division's hope of reaching the Meuse River.
37:56Farther north, the 1st SS is not faring any better.
38:03Kampfgroove Piper, the once powerful spearhead of the 6th Panzer Army, is now in a battle for survival.
38:09They've been trying for nine days to cross the Amblev River Gorge, but each time U.S. engineers blow the bridges just as they arrive.
38:17To make matters worse, U.S. forces are now securely in control of Stavalo.
38:24Piper's elite battle group is cut off and running dangerously low on fuel and ammunition.
38:29And American reinforcements are closing in.
38:32The noose is tightening on Kampfgruppe Piper.
38:35December 23rd, 1944.
38:49The Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's great Ardenne offensive, begins to falter.
38:54Kampfgruppe Piper, the spearhead of the 6th Panzer Army, is no longer on the offensive, but fighting for survival.
39:05Piper's running low on fuel and ammunition, and the Americans are closing in.
39:16Piper orders his tankers to dig in at the village of La Glaise.
39:22One of the men is Sergeant Rolf Earhart.
39:26A large number of American Shermans appeared on the backslope road after the first Tiger fired and missed.
39:31The Shermans formed up an unexpected front and began firing rapidly.
39:38The American shells burst through the house.
39:41Suddenly Tiger Commander Hansch appeared with both hands pressed against his head.
39:45This Tiger had taken several hits.
39:48The numerical supremacy of approximately 15 Shermans negated the weapons superiority of our Panzers.
39:54After these losses and the shortage of everything, what would the next day bring?
40:02December 24th.
40:04The Americans prepare for one big final push against Piper's forces at La Glaise.
40:10They amass 4,000 men and over 200 Sherman tanks.
40:15At 0300 hours, they attack.
40:17The attack went perfectly and exactly as planned.
40:24The instant they started shooting, we opened up with tank, machine gun and mortar fire.
40:31We were all in the town by 10 o'clock that morning.
40:51We were utterly amazed at what we saw there.
40:53Besides scores of dead and wounded Germans, we found over 175 vehicles in the immediate vicinity of La Glaise alone.
41:12We're in La Glaise.
41:14This is one of Kampfgruppe Piper's Tigers.
41:17So here we have a testament to the power of a German tank in 1944.
41:22They didn't come bigger or better than this machine here.
41:27It was left in a field behind this schoolhouse here in La Glaise.
41:32Because La Glaise was the place where Piper made his last stand.
41:35This is where the net tightened around him.
41:40By Christmas Eve 1944, the game was more or less up for Kampfgruppe Piper.
41:48Piper abandons La Glaise.
41:49Piper abandons La Glaise.
41:50He leaves all his armour behind.
41:51He leaves all the half-tracks, all the artillery, all the tanks, everything.
41:56And he goes out of this place on foot.
41:58He walks out of La Glaise.
42:04On Christmas Day, Piper and the 800 remaining men of his armoured battle group straggled back to German lines.
42:10In nine days of fighting, they have lost 70 tanks.
42:15More than 2,000 men are killed, wounded or captured.
42:21Across the Ardennes, the fighting continues.
42:24And on January 12, 1945, the Germans are overwhelmed by Allied reinforcements and air power.
42:30And the battle of the bulge comes to an end.
42:35Hitler's final gamble has failed.
42:37We did the best we could.
42:45The soldiers themselves tried to fight as hard as they could.
42:49If you're lacking a lot of things, you can fight as much as you want.
42:53But if there's no material, you can't go forward.
42:56You just have to draw back.
43:02That's how simple it is.
43:08Only our faith was stronger than what we had.
43:11That's how it was.
43:17The casualties on both sides are enormous.
43:19More than 90,000 German soldiers are killed, wounded or captured.
43:24Almost 20,000 Americans die.
43:27And 50,000 are wounded.
43:29We lost a lot of people.
43:32We would lose 40, 50 men at a crack.
43:36How many times I got out of tanks alive.
43:40Yet my buddy that couldn't get out would be half in and out of the tank hollering,
43:45Les, Les, I'm on fire, get me out.
43:49And you'd see the fire gush up over him and he'd die right there.
43:55At the time, I didn't think anything of it.
44:00All I was worried about was getting out of there.
44:02You know, I was very proud the next day.
44:07But you also realize that costs, you know, that's another thing that happens to you kind of late.
44:13You realize what it costs.
44:15Some of your very best friends.
44:20But, uh, I wouldn't want to do it again.
44:22That's for sure.
44:52Let's see.
44:53This is a fantasy as two years.
44:55,
44:57As of now.
44:59Yeah.
45:01We have to be careful.
45:03We have to be careful.
45:05We probably have to be careful.
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