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00:00This cemetery has 9,387 American boys who were killed in action or died of wounds.
00:12It's probably the most sacred place in Normandy because these are the men that fought for freedom.
00:19Freedom is not free, as you can see.
00:22June 6, 1944, an army of more than 150,000 men becomes part of the largest invasion force ever assembled.
00:34For Operation Overlord, the liberation of Europe begins.
00:39The paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division are among the first men in, behind enemy lines on that historic day.
00:47I rejected taking hold, but they kept attacking, attacking, attacking.
00:54We all had our fingers on the dike. The Germans could have broke through.
00:57The floodwaters would have come. They would have just wiped us out.
01:01Six decades later, some American D-Day veterans return to the battlefields of Normandy, France,
01:08to remember their comrades and the combat that changed their lives forever.
01:12A soldier's mind could never realize, as a young man, what you see in combat, death, and destruction of both sides.
01:22Your enemy and your comrades.
01:24A soldier's mind could never realize, as a young man, what you see in the world.
01:54June 1944, as Germany braces for the inevitable invasion of France
02:07by strengthening its defenses along the Atlantic Wall,
02:13the Allies are preparing for the biggest military offensive in the history of man.
02:18The first Americans into France will be the Pathfinder teams of the 82nd and 101st Airborne.
02:33Bob Murphy of Boston, Massachusetts, is with A Company, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd All-American Airborne Division.
02:43As a Pathfinder, Murphy will go in before the main force to help mark the drop zones.
02:51A Pathfinder has radar equipment that weighs about 45 pounds and has a signal to it.
02:59There are seven other men who have lights and they'd form a T.
03:04So when the aircraft is coming in, the pilots would look down and the light was only supposed to reflect up into the sky.
03:11However, it looked like the Yankee Stadium when we turned the lights off.
03:15The lights illuminate the drop zones for the more than 1,600 planes delivering 13,000 paratroopers behind enemy lines.
03:26Francis Lamoureux of Chicopee, Massachusetts, is a Pathfinder with G Company, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd.
03:35We knew that we were going to go into battle, of course.
03:39We knew we were going to be landing in Normandy and we knew we were going to have Germans shooting at us.
03:45Because the mission of a Pathfinder is to be the first ones to get in there, show the way for the other guys to jump on you.
03:52Then you have to wait until they all come in.
03:54The Pathfinders were a very select group.
03:58We had a lot more training than the average paratrooper, but we were still an infantryman.
04:08Three main objectives for the 82nd Airborne Division are to capture the bridges at Lafayre and Chef Dupont,
04:15as well as the town of St. Mariglis, a German communications center.
04:20Control of these pivotal locations will enable the 4th Infantry Division to make their way inland from Utah Beach.
04:29Staff Sergeant Ted Liska of the 4th Infantry will land on Utah Beach.
04:34The first invasion point Allied forces are scheduled to hit from the sea on D-Day.
04:39The 4th of June, they put us on landing craft infantry.
04:45We were supposed to actually land on the 5th of June, but the sea was so rough,
04:52General Eisenhower postponed it for 24 hours.
04:58But the men were in a boat.
05:00They couldn't get off the boat.
05:01They were just circling around and around.
05:04There was a lot of men sick.
05:05He said, I hope we can get on land, regardless of what happens, at least we'll be on dry land.
05:15Everybody was, I'd say, rather nervous and strainful because we knew what combat was.
05:22We knew what death was.
05:23We knew what serious injuries of an arm or leg being blown off.
05:27And when the jump was canceled on June 5th, it released a lot of tension and anxiety.
05:36Early on June 5th, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces,
05:44learns the weather will clear enough the following day, June 6th,
05:48to give the go for the initial assault phase of the operation, codenamed Neptune.
05:53Captain Roy Creek is with the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd.
06:01The briefings were thorough, and every man was fully informed.
06:05And I think they were fully informed not only on their own mission,
06:09but the mission of other units.
06:12So that if they should happen to miss their drop zone,
06:16they could still do something that would contribute toward the overall mission of the division.
06:23By midnight, the majority of the planes carrying paratroopers across the English Channel are in the air.
06:33We had a kind of a long ride, and it's dull.
06:39It's quiet.
06:41I suppose everybody was pretty tense.
06:44I was anticipating, you know, what was going to happen.
06:48But many of them are sleeping or fainting sleep.
06:51At least they seemed to be content with where they were and what they were doing.
06:56I don't know if they were that calm or not.
06:59I wasn't.
07:01From the moment we hit the coast, we had all kinds of anti-aircraft fire.
07:06We could feel underneath.
07:08We could feel the vibration, the bullets hitting the bottom of the plane, the fuselage.
07:14And I was just waiting for those bullets to come through and go right through and into my feet, my toes.
07:19So in my boots, I had my toes curled up like this.
07:22Let's get out of here quick.
07:23I don't want to get shot up through the legs and the foot and be all mangled before I even get out of the plane.
07:29To this day, I feel I was standing inside of a popcorn popper,
07:33and everything was popping underneath me and waiting for those bullets to come through.
07:36So what a joy it was when the green light was just, go, go, go, go.
07:39As pathfinders, Francis Lamoureux and Bob Murphy must first mark their drop zones for incoming paratroopers.
07:52Then they will try to catch up with one of the units on the ground.
07:55We left England late about 11 o'clock on June 5th and rode across down on the west side of the Normandy Peninsula
08:06and landed approximately 1,000 yards from the point that I'm standing at right now.
08:13As a pathfinder, we were the first one in here.
08:17There was nobody else here but the enemy.
08:19I had a great time coming down because I felt secure.
08:26And I could see that we were heading in towards an apple orchard.
08:30I knew that we were going to fairly high ground.
08:33I didn't see any water around, which was a relief.
08:37We went right in the middle of this nice lane of apple trees.
08:42As soon as I hit the ground, I went flat right on my belly.
08:45And I just caught my breath, and I actually put my face down and I kissed the soil.
08:53I was so happy to be on ground.
08:57Still in the air, Corporal Howard Manoyan is with A Company, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
09:04His unit is among those assigned to take Lafayette Bridge.
09:08I was smoking a cigar, but I wasn't smoking.
09:12I had a cigar just to keep my hands occupied.
09:16I said, well, from what I understand, if you get shot in the head, the brain, you're dead.
09:24And if you get shot in the heart, you're dead.
09:28All the other parts of your body, you can't survive.
09:32You know, these things keep rolling through your mind.
09:37You get a pretty good chance of survival.
09:43At 1 a.m., Manoyan jumps into the darkness.
09:49He misses his drop zone by almost two miles, landing in St. Mariglise.
09:55I landed right here, in this immediate area.
10:05My eyes started to get accustomed to the darkness.
10:09And I said, holy sh**, I'm in a cemetery.
10:15And to me, that was a bad omen.
10:18I had to get out of here quick.
10:20Knowing that St. Mariglise is another 80-second airborne objective,
10:26he quickly hooks up with other paratroopers who have also landed in the small town.
10:32You try to get together as soon as you can.
10:37Naturally, it's better if you get together with your own group.
10:44But in many situations, you mix up.
10:48You don't even know who the other guy is.
10:52But you fight as a team.
10:57We depend on each other.
11:00We cover our backs.
11:03If you have a crumb of bread, you share it.
11:08You share it.
11:10You have two bullets.
11:11You share it.
11:13You share everything.
11:14That's one thing about an airborne troop, and we're proud.
11:20We're proud because we're the first ones in.
11:22A low-lying fog bank and heavy anti-aircraft fire cause extensive misdrops of paratroopers.
11:34Some miss their drop zone by 14 miles.
11:37But they immediately form fighting units determined to reach one of the airborne's targeted objectives,
11:44picking up stragglers along the way.
11:46But now the good point with that was the Germans had spread it out on their radio that there's paratroopers all over Normandy.
11:54And even though some men were misdropped, the good news was that the Germans thought there were thousands more than there actually were.
12:01But there are plenty of Germans in St. Meriglise willing to put up a fight.
12:09Minoian joins the battle with other men from the 505th, whose mission is to capture the town.
12:14The objective of St. Meriglise is a crossroad town, very important.
12:22So when they start coming in towards the beaches, they can hook up with us and keep, continue to fight inland.
12:34Fighting house to house, street by street, the Americans battle their way through the key French town.
12:41The town was cleaned out within a few hours.
12:49An American colonel, Krauss, he raised an American flag in front of the town hall.
12:55He had it in his jacket.
12:57And that was about 4.35 o'clock.
13:03But the German troops, they're all on the outskirts.
13:11I rejected, taken hold.
13:14But they kept attacking, attacking, attacking.
13:18St. Meriglise becomes the first town liberated in France.
13:22But German snipers keep it a very dangerous place.
13:28You never know what to expect.
13:32There was a shot fired in the house.
13:35I told my men, look, I'm going in.
13:45I had an idea which room a person might be in.
13:51I took two hand grenades, pulled the pins, opened the door quick, threw the grenades in,
14:00slammed the door, and laid down on the floor and held my hand on the handle.
14:07Two explosions.
14:09Then I went in with my rifle in my hand, and I saw a German.
14:16And he was laying face down.
14:18And I assumed he was dead.
14:21And then there was an armoire, closet.
14:24I opened the door quickly.
14:29There's just clothes in there.
14:32No troops or anything.
14:34I turned around.
14:37There's this German on his elbow with his rifle in his hand pointing at me.
14:45He fired.
14:47I get hit.
14:50Right through my palm of my hand.
14:52Right through it.
14:54Automatically, I put the stock of the weapon under my armpit and kept firing it.
15:06And I just kept firing it and firing it and firing it.
15:12I was upset.
15:16By 6 a.m., the first objective of the 82nd Airborne is secure.
15:21American paratroopers control the vital crossroads of St. Mariglise.
15:27But that victory will mean little if they don't take the bridges at Chef Dupont and Lafayette
15:33to secure the causeways in from Utah Beach.
15:36At 06.30, the first wave of the Army's 4th Division is scheduled to hit Utah, which lies just six miles away.
15:46One of the two crucial bridges held by the Germans is just outside the village of Chef Dupont.
16:01Timing was important to Chef Dupont.
16:05If you held the bridge in the causeway, you controlled the movement.
16:11We had to get control of it, of course, for our own troops to move west.
16:16And we could impede any movement of the Germans toward the beaches.
16:22We would stop any reinforcing capability that they might have.
16:28Captain Roy Kriek is the company commander of E Company,
16:32a 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the 82nd Airborne.
16:37This is not the same bridge, of course, that we fought for 60 years ago.
16:46It's been replaced.
16:48But this picture here is supposed to be a picture of the old bridge,
16:54and it doesn't look as I remember it either,
16:57because when we were here, of course, the water would be up to about this level,
17:02and you couldn't see this understructure of the bridge there at all
17:07because it was totally covered by water.
17:12The whole area was inundated on this side,
17:16and as far as you could almost see across the road to the west.
17:20Part of the German inland defense plan
17:23is to flood the marshes and lowlands throughout Normandy
17:26to make it harder for paratroopers and gliders to land.
17:32I thought I was landing in a beautiful meadow.
17:35All those reeds sticking up through the water looked like just grass.
17:39But when I hit, of course, I went right under.
17:42I went over my head in the water.
17:44And I'm the worst swimmer in the world, really.
17:48And I thought, boy, this is a problem.
17:52Oh, I had a trench knife in my boot, and it was razor sharp,
17:56and I just cut my way out of my parachute equipment.
18:00But I left everything in the water.
18:03I got where I could get my head out and wade in the water
18:08and got to the bank, revived myself a little bit,
18:12and I suddenly realized that here I am, you know,
18:15ready to fight a war and I don't even have a gun.
18:17And I lost my rations, my ammunition, my first aid kit,
18:24my gas mask and my change of underwear and socks.
18:30I left everything except what I had in my pockets.
18:33So I went back in to get my gun.
18:36I said, I'm not going to war without a gun.
18:38Creeck organizes about 100 troopers,
18:44then heads off to attack the bridge at Chef Dupont.
18:47I guess you think about the responsibility of leadership,
18:56and you know you're going to have to order men to do things
18:59that could result in their death.
19:04You've got to face that.
19:06You've got to do what you have to do,
19:08and you try to keep the risk at an absolute minimum.
19:12After reaching the town, they immediately come under fire.
19:20In their haste to get to the bridge,
19:22the commanding officer and a lieutenant are shot
19:25when they bypass a number of German foxholes.
19:30Captain Creeck takes command of the assault force.
19:36The Germans are dug in along the shoulders of the road,
19:40all five ten-yard intervals.
19:42It would be a German soldier
19:44with either a rifle or a submachine gun.
19:48We had to take every one of those out.
19:52It took us all day to work our way up to the bridge.
19:58And we used this, the tactic of fire and movement,
20:01where we'd get all the fire we could on a single hole.
20:05They'd take them one at a time.
20:07And it started moving faster,
20:08because we got better at it.
20:10And the Germans were resisting less and less.
20:17I got to the bridge.
20:19There was a sentry house,
20:21just a house for a man to stand in.
20:25I ducked into there.
20:27There was a German soldier in there.
20:29Someone had thrown a white phosphorus grenade in,
20:33and he was burning.
20:35And that was a ghastly kind of an experience.
20:41I couldn't stay in there with him.
20:42It's too crowded.
20:44Plus, the stench was terrible.
20:45The last obstacle to secure the Chef-du-Pont bridge
20:51is a small group of Germans dug in on the other side.
20:55And we sent about ten men across.
21:02They pursued those five men on the other side.
21:06And they jumped up.
21:08They had 50 rifles shooting at them
21:12when they tried to get up and run down the causeway,
21:15so they didn't get very far.
21:21Another piece of the invasion puzzle falls into place
21:24as the 507th captures the Chef-du-Pont bridge.
21:29At the end of the day,
21:30we had succeeded in taking the bridge
21:33and felt that we could hold it.
21:36We had a letdown feeling, I think.
21:39You're so keyed up during the fighting
21:41and so intent on what you're doing.
21:44And when you're through,
21:45you're through for that moment.
21:48But it's a letdown feeling
21:49because you realize that this is just the beginning.
21:53It's still a long, long way to Berlin.
21:59Less than two miles west of the bridge,
22:02Francis Lamoureux's Pathfinder team
22:04joins up with 200 other troopers.
22:07After initial clashes with the enemy,
22:10they spread out in a defensive position on Hill 30
22:13to cover the right flank
22:15of the Americans fighting at Chef-du-Pont.
22:18Soon, they are completely surrounded by German forces.
22:25It was important not only because we were on the high ground,
22:29but once they met German opposition up here
22:31on Hill 30,
22:32we decided that we're not going to go any further.
22:35So dig in and form a defensive position now
22:38and haul off the Germans.
22:41And I still to this day don't understand
22:44why the Germans just didn't come in,
22:45run right over us and just wipe us out.
22:48But they didn't.
22:50The reason they didn't was because
22:51they were still pretty much confused.
22:53They thought we were a much larger force than we were.
22:56It just spread out.
23:00I had the feeling it just came over me.
23:03I said, my God, I said, I don't have a weapon.
23:07All I have is my bandolier of ammunition,
23:09which we were using up.
23:10I was passing it out to people who need it
23:12because I didn't have a gun to use that ammunition.
23:14And I had grenades, which I could use.
23:18The Germans were getting closer and closer and closer,
23:21but we didn't move.
23:23And I had the feeling that next thing you know,
23:26they're going to be right here.
23:28We knew when the time would come,
23:29we were going to get up and fight hand to hand,
23:32a German against an American paratrooper.
23:34And someone has to lose, someone has to win.
23:36The 82nd Airborne troops on Hill 30
23:39are providing critical protection
23:41for the Americans guarding the bridge at Chef Dupont.
23:45The question is, how long can they hold on?
23:54This is the final tactical objective
23:57for the 82nd Airborne
23:58that must be taken to ensure the success
24:01of the Utah Beach invasion,
24:04the Lafayette Bridge.
24:07Unlike most of the other units,
24:09about 90% of A Company of the 505th
24:13hits their drop zone by Lafayette.
24:16This bridge here is the most critical bridge in the area.
24:21We had discussed this bridge
24:23and knew what the bridge was
24:25and the importance of it in England
24:27before we even left.
24:31Utah Beach is probably 7 or 8 miles from here.
24:34And this is the only way the Germans could get across
24:37to get into St. Mary's Greece
24:38other than coming down from the north.
24:42Private Bob Murphy and other paratroopers
24:44soon discover fighting in the French countryside
24:47has its strategic pluses and minuses.
24:51In Normandy, very indigenous to the area of these fields.
24:57And this is what they call bocage.
25:00This is hedgerow,
25:02which is almost impossible to get through.
25:04You can hide behind those
25:08and it would be impossible to see the enemy,
25:13except you might see some firing
25:15if they have a tracer coming out at you.
25:17In some cases, it was okay.
25:26On almost each side,
25:27like the other side of this hedgerow here,
25:29will be a deep gully.
25:31And they were fantastic
25:33because they saved so many lives.
25:35Heavy artillery, you have to get in a hole,
25:42otherwise it's going to explode
25:44and the artillery and the shrapnel will kill it.
25:49At daybreak, they begin moving toward the bridge.
25:53They soon come under fire
25:54and three officers are killed.
25:58In this area here,
26:00right behind this hedgerow,
26:02is where they have a machine gun,
26:05which is the gun that killed Major McGinnity,
26:09which was right aside,
26:10who was right aside of Lieutenant Dolan,
26:12the A-Company commander.
26:15They had probably eight to 12 men, Germans,
26:19who had a wide-open view of the entire field.
26:22That machine gun, probably an M-42,
26:25held up for approximately three-quarters of an hour
26:28any advance from this area.
26:35After knocking out the machine gun,
26:37they come across a group of buildings,
26:39including a large farmhouse known as the Lafierre Manois.
26:44It's here that some men from the 507th and 508th Parachute Infantry Regiments join the fight.
26:51In the Manois, there were machine gunners,
26:54and we had battles in and around the Manois itself.
26:59It's like a fort.
27:03You had to make a direct hit on the man.
27:06That's why it took us so long,
27:08because they were so well protected.
27:09And we were in the wide open,
27:12trying to attack them.
27:15The Germans ultimately gave up.
27:18Lafierre Bridge,
27:23which appears to have no enemy soldiers guarding it,
27:26is less than a football field away from the front of the farmhouse.
27:30But a German division,
27:32which can be as many as 15,000 men,
27:35is garrisoned at Cockany,
27:37the small town on the other side.
27:39When you take a look at this water out here,
27:44that's the Mertere River.
27:45However, during D-Day,
27:48and just prior to it,
27:50this whole area was a total flood.
27:52This was all filled.
27:53The water all the way across,
27:55a thousand yards across this causeway.
27:59I believe we were so far outnumbered,
28:01I'd say probably by 10 to 1,
28:03at least 10 to 15 to 1.
28:05It was vital to the Germans to get over this bridge here,
28:08to stop the Americans from coming in
28:11into St. Mary's police.
28:16Preparing for the certain German counterattack,
28:19Lieutenant Dolan positions two bazooka teams
28:22on the far side of the bridge.
28:25Against mechanized armor in superior numbers,
28:28the 82nd repels the first assault,
28:30with the bazookas knocking out three German tanks.
28:34The evening of the first day,
28:41and during darkness,
28:42the Germans let loose
28:44with all kinds of artillery and mortar fire.
28:48Probably about 11 o'clock at night,
28:51the mortar fire ceased and let up a little bit
28:54until early in the morning.
28:56Then the Germans pulled all kinds of artillery
29:03and mortar attack,
29:04everything that they had,
29:05so that this place was absolutely devastated.
29:09The whole front of the Manoir at that time
29:12was completely blown apart.
29:14At the end of D-Day,
29:19the 82nd Airborne has a tenuous hold
29:21on Lafayre Bridge,
29:23but the Germans are massing
29:25for yet another attack.
29:28While they have no idea
29:30how the invasion is going elsewhere in Normandy,
29:33the paratroopers know they must stand firm
29:36and wait for the 4th Infantry Division
29:38to arrive from Utah Beach.
29:40The beach landings on D-Day
29:49are spread over a 50-mile stretch
29:52of Normandy coastline
29:53and broken into five codenamed sectors.
29:57Sword and Gold are the British Landing Zone beaches.
30:00The Canadians land on Juneau,
30:03and the American LZs are Omaha and Utah.
30:06Utah Beach is to be the first landing zone
30:11Allied forces hit from the sea.
30:14Each hour for the Army's 4th Infantry Division
30:17is 0630.
30:19Staff Sergeant Ted Liska
30:21will land with his mortar squad
30:23in the second wave.
30:26As we start coming in the 6th of June,
30:29some of the men in the landing craft
30:30were saying their prayers,
30:32just like myself.
30:33What we saw on a beach
30:53was all kind of debris.
30:55Seen some landing craft that were damaged,
30:57and we seen bodies.
30:59Hitler's Atlantic Wall
31:06is reinforced with concrete gun emplacements,
31:09machine gun pillboxes,
31:12and barbed wire fences.
31:14There are also 500,000 beach and water obstacles
31:18and 4 million mines
31:20placed along the Norman coast.
31:22This area to the right and left,
31:27there was a white tape
31:29about 20 yards away
31:31and white tape 20 yards this way.
31:36The land mines were not taken out
31:40by the combat engineers
31:42in back of that tape
31:44or in the back of this tape.
31:45And they told us,
31:47come through this lane.
31:49Our thoughts was,
31:51if one shell,
31:52an artillery shell,
31:53would hit us,
31:55they would get 50 or 100 men
31:57because we could not move fast
31:59with our equipment.
32:01After wading ashore,
32:03Liska and his men
32:04soon hit water again
32:06as they moved inland from the beach.
32:09The defensive flooding by the Germans
32:10reaches all the way out
32:12to the seawall at Utah.
32:14As we're going through the water,
32:17it was like sitting ducks for us.
32:20The Germans were able to shoot at us
32:23with their rifles
32:24or with their artillery pieces
32:26or their mortars.
32:27We had some casualties,
32:29but we just kept on going.
32:31It seemed like we were in the water
32:32for hours,
32:34but it probably was only an hour,
32:36an hour and a half
32:37until we got to dry land.
32:3820,000 troops and 1,700 vehicles
32:45land on Utah Beach on D-Day.
32:53About 200 men are killed on June 6,
32:56a relatively low number
32:58in comparison to the 2,400 American casualties
33:01suffered at Omaha Beach.
33:03It was a shame
33:06that they came in
33:07and they had it so tough
33:09and in a way
33:10we had it so easy,
33:12but I said to myself,
33:14I said,
33:15that's destiny.
33:16That could have happened to us
33:18or it could happen to somebody else.
33:20Everybody did not know
33:22where they were coming in,
33:24but they knew
33:24they were coming ashore
33:26to fight the Germans
33:28who were occupying
33:29the French soil.
33:30Thanks to the lighter resistance,
33:34the fighting on Utah Beach
33:35subsides by midday.
33:37The longer fight lies inland
33:40as they try to establish the beachhead
33:42and hook up with the airborne troops.
33:45At the end of the first day
33:47in the evening,
33:47we were up on dry land,
33:49so I started telling my men
33:51to start digging a foxhole.
33:54As I started digging my foxhole,
33:56I hit cement or hard rocks.
33:58I said,
34:00well,
34:00it's no use digging any further.
34:02It was only six inches deep.
34:04I laid down and I says,
34:06if a shell's going to get me,
34:07it'll get me if I'm six feet deep
34:09or six inches above ground.
34:11And I try to lay down
34:12and get some rest.
34:20As the infantry advances inland
34:22towards St. Mariglise,
34:24the airborne units
34:25are still fighting
34:26to clear the way.
34:27By D-plus-two,
34:29June 8th,
34:30the 505th
34:31is engaged
34:32in a full-scale counterattack
34:34by the Germans
34:35at Lafayette Bridge.
34:38The battle started again
34:40with hundreds of infantrymen
34:42coming over
34:43from the other side
34:44and we were firing
34:46machine guns
34:47and every kind of
34:49running automatic rifle,
34:50all our weapons.
34:51we were just shooting
34:55at any target
34:58that you could see
34:58and we had killed
35:00a lot of the enemy
35:01and they were firing,
35:03still firing at us,
35:04all this artillery
35:05and orders coming at us.
35:10Feeling they can't hold the bridge,
35:12the platoon sergeant
35:13sends Murphy
35:14to the company commander
35:15on the other side
35:17of the road
35:17to tell them
35:18they are out of ammunition
35:19and to ask
35:22if they should pull back.
35:25Lieutenant Dolan
35:26scribbles a note
35:27for Sergeant Owens.
35:30Owens,
35:31a box sergeant
35:32who took over
35:32the first platoon
35:33and the few men
35:36that were still left
35:36took a look at the note
35:39that Lieutenant Dolan
35:40handed me
35:41to give to Owens
35:43and it said
35:44there's no better spot
35:46to die,
35:47we stay.
35:50We did stay.
35:53The greater member
35:54of our company
35:54would kill the wounded
35:55but suffice us to say
35:57that not one German
35:58ever crossed this bridge
36:00unless he crossed it
36:02as a prisoner of war.
36:08After helping
36:09with the liberation
36:09of St. Mariglis,
36:11Corporal Howard Manoyen
36:12heads toward
36:13the Lafayette Bridge
36:14to reunite
36:15with his unit.
36:18I left St. Mariglis
36:20on the morning
36:21of the 8th
36:21with three of my men
36:23and we came
36:24across country.
36:26As the crow flies,
36:27it's three,
36:28three and a half kilometers
36:30but it took us
36:31almost four hours
36:33to get here
36:34zigzagging
36:36and hiding.
36:38We came down
36:39to this area
36:40I would say
36:41about 50 yards away
36:44my company commander
36:46told me to keep
36:47my eye on the bridge.
36:51Of course,
36:52I didn't realize it.
36:54The next day
36:55was a big push.
37:00By June 9th,
37:01a new group of men
37:02have joined the fight
37:03at Lafayette Lafayette,
37:04the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment,
37:08part of the 82nd Airborne Division.
37:12These men join three waves
37:14who mount a bold
37:15offensive charge
37:16across the bridge,
37:18exposing themselves
37:19to heavy enemy fire.
37:21Their starting point
37:23is a six-foot stone wall
37:24located halfway between
37:26the bridge
37:27and the Manoir.
37:30This wall here,
37:32probably for six feet across,
37:34was totally blown away
37:35by this artillery.
37:36It was constant
37:37and continuous artillery.
37:38And the 325th Glider Infantry
37:44on June 9th
37:45was behind this wall
37:46and as one man started out,
37:49he was killed
37:50and laying right in front
37:52of all of the other men
37:53that had a great deal
37:54of fear
37:56to see this,
37:58one of their comrades,
37:59killed.
38:01However,
38:02they did get control
38:04of themselves.
38:05the 325th
38:08part of my company.
38:11Once we start attacking,
38:13we didn't stop.
38:15When we went across the bridge,
38:17it's mayhem.
38:20Dash, run, push.
38:23A lot of that.
38:26And we're firing
38:26at the same time.
38:35I never went
38:45into details like this.
38:49The Germans,
38:50they're throwing
38:53everything at us.
38:55Mortars,
38:56running,
38:58double timing,
39:00and you're trying
39:00to get across
39:01that causeway
39:02and it's very,
39:04very difficult.
39:05Now you want
39:06to fall down,
39:08hide.
39:09You can't do it
39:10because you have
39:10to continually
39:12dodge,
39:16fire,
39:17and then the causeway
39:19itself is small,
39:21narrow.
39:23There were so many men
39:25that were dead
39:26and killed
39:27and wounded
39:28on that bridge
39:29that it was
39:30very difficult
39:30for these men
39:32to get across.
39:32You had to step
39:33over the dead
39:34and the wounded.
39:34Americans.
39:44The 4th Division
39:45was supposed
39:46to come off
39:47and into
39:48St. Mary Gliese
39:49and at least
39:50by the second day
39:51to be across
39:52this bridge
39:52and heading west
39:53with all their
39:54artillery and their
39:55tanks.
39:56That didn't happen
39:57until June 9th.
40:02The commanding generals
40:04were very upset
40:05about this.
40:09There were so many
40:10dead and wounded
40:11down here.
40:12When they come down
40:12and saw what was
40:13happening,
40:13they understood
40:14why it was
40:15so difficult.
40:17The cost of this
40:18area here
40:19to the American
40:20airborne forces
40:21was extremely high.
40:23I'd say 40%
40:24of the men
40:25were either killed
40:25or wounded
40:26and great numbers
40:27were wounded
40:28and taken out of here
40:30and put back
40:31in hospitals
40:32or aid camps
40:33and so forth.
40:35Makeshift field hospitals
40:37followed the advancing
40:38invasion troops.
40:40Some of the newly
40:41liberated French residents
40:42like Madame Andre Ouvray
40:44helped tend
40:46to the wounded.
40:48On June 6th,
40:54I was 18 years old
40:55and I was expecting
40:56a child for the
40:57end of June.
40:58And when the invasion
40:59took place,
41:00we were lucky
41:01in that there was not
41:02a single German soldier
41:03left occupying the farm.
41:06A few days later,
41:07a makeshift hospital
41:09was put up,
41:09a makeshift hospital
41:10in the field
41:11behind the house.
41:13We worked together
41:14to tend to the wounded
41:15and we took in
41:16the refugees
41:17from St. Mare
41:18who were forced
41:19to evacuate
41:19by the German attacks.
41:21And so we had
41:22110 people
41:23sleeping in the stables.
41:25On straw,
41:26on blankets,
41:27it was war, right?
41:28So we really had
41:29a sensation of freedom.
41:31Despite the awful things
41:33we saw,
41:33we were joyful.
41:35We were heading
41:35towards freedom.
41:37It was wonderful.
41:38I crossed the fields
41:51and I found
41:52the American hospital.
41:54And there,
41:54you know,
41:55for a kid,
41:55even sometimes
41:56at the age of 72,
42:05it's all coming back to me.
42:07when I saw
42:08all these poor
42:09young people
42:10bleeding,
42:11wounded,
42:12I couldn't stay
42:13and I was unable
42:14to sleep
42:15for several nights.
42:17For a child of 12,
42:19it's a terrible thing,
42:20you know?
42:23And I often think
42:24of these poor
42:25American families
42:26who sent their children
42:27to France.
42:31And I say,
42:32even now,
42:33never forget
42:34that a mother
42:34let her son leave
42:36and that she never
42:37saw him again.
42:45By D-plus-4,
42:47June 10th,
42:48the men on Hill 30
42:49near Chef Dupont
42:50are surrounded
42:51and barely holding on
42:53against the constant
42:54German attacks.
42:56They are running
42:57out of food,
42:58medical supplies
42:59and ammunition
43:00and have taken
43:01heavy casualties.
43:03We all had our fingers
43:04on the dike.
43:05If the Germans
43:05could have broke through it
43:06with the floodwaters
43:07would have come,
43:08they would have just
43:09wiped us out.
43:11They were supposed
43:12to have already
43:12hooked up
43:13with the 4th Infantry
43:14coming in
43:14from Utah Beach.
43:17Instead,
43:18the 4th
43:18lets their presence
43:19be known
43:20by unleashing
43:21a barrage of artillery
43:22onto the German positions.
43:24At the last minute,
43:27we heard the artillery
43:28coming over out
43:29right overhead
43:32and they were
43:33actually decimated.
43:35They really wreaked havoc
43:37with the Germans
43:37that were up here
43:38and a lot of Germans
43:39were killed.
43:46Once the tension
43:47was over,
43:48we said,
43:48at least this part
43:49is over.
43:50It was a relief
43:53with a great burden
43:54off our minds
43:55and I realized
43:56at the time,
43:57I said,
43:57well,
43:58this is only the beginning.
43:59There's going to be more
44:00of this.
44:01The war isn't over yet.
44:03So I sat down
44:04and I said,
44:04it's time to write a letter
44:05to my fiancée.
44:07I wrote a dear Hildegard
44:08and I told her,
44:09gave her a nice long letter
44:11and while I was writing
44:12the letter,
44:13I was crying
44:13and the tears
44:14stained the paper.
44:16I folded it up
44:17and I carried it
44:17all through the war
44:18and I brought it home
44:19with me.
44:19I never mailed it to her
44:20and to this day,
44:22she's never read the letter
44:23but my son has read it.
44:24I let him read the letter
44:25so he could see
44:26what his father
44:27was thinking about.
44:31Thanks largely
44:32to the efforts
44:33and sacrifices
44:34of the 82nd Airborne Division,
44:37the corridor,
44:38created by capturing
44:39St. Mariglis
44:40and the two bridges
44:41to the west,
44:42allows 750,000 tons
44:44of supplies
44:45and 200,000 vehicles
44:47to be brought in
44:49through Utah Beach.
44:51During the five months
44:53Utah is operational,
44:5540% of all the men
44:56who fight in Normandy
44:57land on that beach.
45:01D-Day would prove
45:03to be one of the most
45:04decisive moments
45:05in World War II.
45:06On D-plus 337,
45:11May 8th, 1945,
45:14Germany surrenders
45:15unconditionally.
45:16In the scope of history,
45:27when you talk about
45:28the Battle of Normandy,
45:29you forget about
45:30all these old skirmishes.
45:33No one worries
45:34about Hill 30
45:35or Chef Dupont,
45:37except the guys
45:38were here.
45:39We're the only ones.
45:41We were here,
45:41so we remember.
45:42Even though the drop
45:44was a mess
45:45because everyone
45:46was scattered,
45:47the airborne troops,
45:49505, 507, 508,
45:5180 seconds,
45:52we did perform
45:53our mission.
45:56I know the French
45:57aren't going to forget it.
45:59The French aren't going
45:59to forget that we were here.
46:03We've left our blood
46:04in the soil of France here.
46:06So we always feel welcome.
46:08We feel bad
46:09that the time
46:09is coming now
46:10or we won't be able
46:11to come back.
46:11The vetchers
46:12will be dwindling.
46:15I think there's a bonding
46:16that happens in combat.
46:18You remember the people
46:19that you're associated with
46:21under those kinds
46:22of conditions
46:23and the stress
46:24and the hardships
46:25that you endured together.
46:28And I remember
46:29the people so well.
46:33Very frequently,
46:34you'll get word
46:35of someone passing away
46:37because it's time
46:38when they start
46:39doing that.
46:40You know,
46:41you're at an age
46:42when you're not expected
46:43to live beyond.
46:51More than a thousand
46:52American World War II veterans
46:54die every day.
46:56These are the kind of men
46:58who fight and die in wars.
47:00Young men full of potential,
47:03full of dreams,
47:03who know freedom
47:05for many
47:05is worth the risk
47:07and sacrifice
47:08of a few.
47:13Many people return here
47:14and a lot of these soldiers
47:17who have their comrades here,
47:20it's just amazing
47:21the way they refresh
47:24their recollection.
47:26They can remember their faces
47:28and what they did,
47:29what they talked about,
47:30where they were
47:31till the return
47:33of the scenes
47:36from 40 and 50
47:38and now almost 60 years ago.
47:41It's just beautiful here,
47:42very quiet and peaceful.
47:47Marcel Wenzel,
47:49our first sergeant,
47:51G Company, the 508.
47:53When you got to know the guy,
47:55he was a great guy.
47:57He was killed
47:57on the 9th of June of 1944.
48:00Whenever I come,
48:01I always visit his grave
48:02because he,
48:04yeah, I feel,
48:06I feel overwhelmed.
48:18Okay, Marcel.
48:19God bless you.
48:21We don't talk about death.
48:29In my opinion,
48:30these men are not dead.
48:32My comrades
48:33are not gone.
48:35I still remember them
48:37very well.
48:41I remember
48:42many nights
48:44going into town
48:45and
48:45going different places
48:48and training with them.
48:50I think every soldier
48:51remembers his comrade.
48:54We'll see them someday.
48:55day.
49:03Hey,
49:03I'm out now.
49:09Bye-bye.
49:12Bye-bye.
49:13Bye-bye.
49:14Bye-bye.
49:17Bye-bye.
49:21Bye-bye.
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