Basically gave to al qaeda and the taliban a detailed explanation of what u. S. Strategy was going to be. And i dont remember the secretary of defense or other people last summer getting all hot an bothered about the mcchrystal leak. I think that was a far more egregious assault on civilian control of the military. Thanks very much. I really enjoyed it. [applause]. Youre watching American History t. V. All weekend, every weekend. On cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook. At cspan history. Coming up, author and Professor John mcmanus talks about what happened in the days and weeks following the june 6th, 1944 dday invasion of normandy, france. He explores some of the challenges the allied forces faced, including the difficult terrain, and the german fortifications in the towns surrounding the beaches. This hourlong event was part of the National World war ii museums commemoration of the 70th anniversary of dday, in june. The focus today is post june 6th when to some extent the hardest work is beginning for the allies, getting ashore obviously is a monumental effort that requires years of planning, years of compromises and politics and whatever else. What follows from june 7th on wereed is just an absolute bloody slog that ultimately leads deep into germany and the end of hitlers nazi germany. So heres where we are sort of begin. Now, the aftermath of dday in about the next five to six days, sees this basic situation. Youve got the five distinctive landing beaches, obviously, gold and sword for the british, junejuno is sandwiched between them and, the west, omaha beach, the americans carved out a lodgement there and to the west of that, utah beach. For the americans, and that will be my primary focus today, is the American Experience in normandy, and a little about what that was like and ill draw some of the highlights for you. For the americans in the after a math of dday the Main Objective is to get the caravan and link up the two distinctive beachheads. You will not do much of anything in normandy until omaha and utah beaches are linked up as one continuous entity and a kind of basepoint from which you will advance and take your other objectives in normandy and caravan, simply by the accident of geography, happens to be the spot where that must happen. It is really not a very big town, it is 4,000 people, in 1944, it is located near low ground, much of which is flooded or marshy around it and one time in napoleons day, 100 years before this, it was almost like an island because french engineers manipulated the locks in the water and the sea canals nearby, in such a way, as to almost isolate it. It wasnt like that in 1944. But, much of the land around it was inundated and im sure many of you know it was one of the german defenses against the normandy invasion is to flood certain portions of normandy in hopes of foiling airborne landing operations and the like. So, it is the focus for what remains of the 101st Airborne Division in the aftermath of the landings. And, of course the 101st had been scattered around southward and the three or four days after dday their fight is a matter of capturing some of the key dday objectives, and sort of for taylor, the division commander, putting together a coherent, cohesive divisional entity he can maneuver, distinctive battalions and regiments, and so it becomes his primary focus from june 12th, june 10th through june 12th, 1944. Heres how he will do it. Hell approach from the north. Take his 327 glider regiment and envelope around to the right. As you can see it on the map. I know this is something of a busy map but these are some of the better maps you will get in terms of accuracy of the phase of the Normandy Campaign and comes from west point atlas, an online web site. I highly encourage you to check it out, not just the world war ii maps but many throughout military history. Really well done, so, it will be enveloped, the 327th glider infantry regiment along with elements of the 501st paratrooper infantry regiment swings around to the right of the city. East of it. The 502nd parachute infantry regiment will take the lead in coming in from the north and swinging around and on their heels will be probably the most famous regiment in the 101st, the 506 parachute regiment including the famous band of brothers. The problem with all of this is the 327 and the 501 are fighting in marshy ground east of the city and this is a slow and literally difficult slog. For the 502, the main problem is there is only one way in there from the north on a raised cause way over the marshy ground, the germans know this. The causeway is mind and there are obstacles to prevent american movement. There is also in one instance, a german plane, a long american column of infantry. Which is a really unusual experience for americans in normandy, usually the germans are on the wrong end of a strafing attack and as i mentioned the onbstacles, the paratroopers will get caught up and, spread out, taking cover on the embankments, above the causeway, it is an extremely difficult situation but there are distinctive farms north of the town that eventually, some 502 paratroopers get in there. Most notably a battalion, by a fascinating figure, a 27yearold west pointer, a soldiers soldier. We often associate Army Language with general george patton. Cole was sort of pattons equal in terms of colorful Army Language. And a colorful personality. Cole had this manner of speaking gruffly but affectionately to his soldiers. He was kind of larger than life commander in terms of leading from the front. The kind of person who liked to give his soldiers a hard time. You know, to kind of test them in that sense to give them a hard time and see how theyd react to his rather unique sense of humor but he was also an inspirational commander in combat in terms of his kurn and professionalism. So cole had one of sort of the key moments of this push into the northern outskirts and is going to loosely organize what is rare in american modern American Military history and that is a bayonet charge. A bayonet charge against a group of germans who control a Farm Building and surrounding hedgerows, more on that in a moment and is basically about 60 to 80 502 troopers charging forward with their bayonets over open ground with cole leading the way with a pistol. There is almost a kind of absurdly humorous moment that happens during the incredible assault. Cole doesnt see this like drainage gully or Drainage Ditch and falls straight into it. And he splashed up to here with water and has these guys around him, going past him or following him and looks back and says, dont follow me, the antiinfantry credo. Fort benning, the infantry credo is follow me, and he goes against it and dont fall me into here. Doesnt want everybody falling into the ditch. He works out of there and others work straight at the germans, there are literally instance when they will sort of bayonet the germans in their stomachs, believe it or not, and they kind of get their foot in the door by overrunning the german position in one of the key spots, north of the town, once they get artillery reinforcement, the germans are not able to counterattack and dislodge them and it opens the doorway into the town for the rest of the 101 Airborne Division including most notably the 506. They swing around to the left and come at the town from the south, and, then basically take it street by street. There were concerns if you had an entire german parachute regiment, the 6th, in the town and as it turned out they left a rear guard of a company in there and, this is portrayed famously in the miniseries, band of brothers and portrayed very well. So, the key lep now, once they have taken the town on june 10th is to defend it against an approaching attack, from the south. Why did they want the town back . They understand if it remains under american control omaha and utah beach link up and the americans advance from there and the germans are cognizant of the importance of the objective. So, this fighting in the german counterattack, which takes place mainly like june 11 through 13th, 1944, takes place outside of the city limits. Not really in the town. But outside in the fields and hedgerows, and is one of the instances of the entire campaign of World War Ii Allied leaders are able to receive intelligence, what is called you ext ultra intelligence, to break the german operational codes and figure out something of their intentions. General bradley, the first army commander, the u. S. First army commander, had the ultra intelligence and knows what panzer grenadier is going to do and has tanks available to deal with them coming from the second Armored Division. They have been landed hastily and will enter the town fight alongside the paratroopers who are lightly armed to deal with tanks and armored personnel carriers and will stave off the counterattack, successfully, by june 12th and 13th. Allowing the two american beachheads to link up. Obviously, this is important. This is significant. So, from there, where do the allies go . They are each dealing, the two distinct allied forces now, the americans and their allies from britain and canada are dealing with different points of resistance. Different obstacles. On the british side, canadian siesh side, closer to cannes, the biggest add vary you have are the german units, some of the most powerful units in the german army are forming around cannes to deal with the british and canadians there. That means 12th fs panzer, 21st panzer. You have pretty good Rolling Ground around cannes. Rolling plains, plateaus and farm fields that are right there, in the summertime, you know, getting close to harvest. Good tank country, there are good roads around cannes and the british want cannes for the obvious reason. The biggest city in normandy and the perfect pivot point to advance out of normandy. Also an inland port to help your logistics, to land supplies and people and whatever else. So, british general montgomery, 21st Army Group Commander had hoped to have cannes the first day. After dday. He will deny later in life, disingenuously and hoped to have it and, instead it takes a month. They are facing the toughest unit in the entire german army. One example the Canadian Third Division will ultimately end up in a blood feud with the aforementioned 12th ss panzer division, a youth division, 16, 17, 18yearold alumni of the hitler youth alongside hardened russian veterans. There will be the killings of canadian prisoners by 12 ss, most notably, at an abbey west of cannes, the western suburbs of cannes when the ss captures canadian prisoners, initially they shoot them, just almost out of hand. Out of sorts, they head down on the Eastern Front at times. Eventually they will collect them and take them to the abbey des jardins and one by one execute them, at least 25 are killed in the garden of the abbey des jardins and you can go there in this day and age and visit it and see a memorial marker to the canadians killed there. The Canadian Third Division then will take no prisoners from the ss, at least they say. And these will basically lock horns throughout much of june and much of july, 1944. And destroy each other. 12th ss ends up really completely destroyed ultimately but the Canadian Third Division is severely depleted and one thing about the canadian war effort in world war ii this was a kind of hangover from world war i, in world war i you could get drafted and sent to the western front and they had taken massive casualties and world war ii you had to be a volunteer to be sent overseas to fight in a combat unit, you could be drafted to serve and defend canada at home but not necessarily be drafted to serve in the Canadian Third Division fighting in normandy so it was difficult to replenish the manpower once they were losing people and the british are having the same problems, though obviously they have a draft in which you can serve everywhere. For the americans, their main challenge is the terrain itself. Not that the german opposition is you know, should be taken lightly. But the terrain can do some of the defensive work for the germans in normandy. You are looking at the honeycombed hedgerows and it is an aerial view from 1944, almost a checker board sense of the area. This place, these fields. What are the hedgerows . Well, it is mostly, hedgerows in normandy are structured thusly. You have a four to 8 foot embankment, earthen embankment, sometimes reinforced with stones or other fencing material but often reinforced with deep and thick roots that date back many, many hundreds, if not thousands of years, the foliage is extensive. Especially in summertime. This is a formidable natural obstacle. The hedgerows have been deliberately cultivated by normand farmers for two millenn millennia, dating back to roman times and were used to delineate whose field was whose and to have a border area. So, you can see, probably have deeply rooted trees, foliage and deeply packed earth. The northern man soil is moist and the consistency of clay, adhesive in the sense, it is beautiful, beautiful soil but obviously, it is very formidable. You know, for any attacker who is hoping to deal with it. Kind of a presentday look at how confining this will be. Think of sort of isnt there a claustrophobic effect to this . Your visibility is limited. Youre in the middle of the green and, you dont often sense how thick some of the hedgerows are until you are right upon them and, in this circumstance you can imagine it will be difficult to manipulate and maneuver units to know what is going on, even a quarter of a mile away, and have any kind of sense of what the german opposition might be. And you can also sense that any opening in the hedgerows is going to be covered by german weaponry, isnt it . And, so, how will you move and take land and maneuver under these circumstances . This is what the us army comes facetoface with. Kind of a stunning situation by you know by the second week of june or so. How to deal with this and the germans learned quickly how to fortify the various hedgerows and make the americans pay dearly. And, i as you dont want to say there are none in the british sector. There are but the heaviest is on the american part of normandy. So, the us army from an operational and command standpoint is not really prepared to deal with these hedgerows. Most of the training focused on getting ashore. And maneuvered war fare. What the us army will do well. Maneuver with vehicles, use a lot of fire power, use air power, all these kind of things, though there is certainly recognition that the hedgerows exist, you know, at high command level the French Resistance of course told them all about this. Normandy is not a mystical place. Many americans and britons and canadians visited there. George patton is a good example. He visit there during world war i and thereafter. You know, so, it is not like this is brand new but there is this disconnect between understanding, yes, there are hedgerows in normandy but maybe they are sort of like those in britain which are more like hedges. And, maybe we will have to deal with that, you know, as a commander at the small unit level, Platoon Company your people are probably not prepared for this. And so u. S. Orthopedic is going to have to improvise and initially, the performance in the hedge rows for sup units is really not good. Really problematic. The 90th Infantry Division is an example. The tough hombres, texasoak ho textoklahoma national guard. And two regiments will land and theyll fight on the peninsula and were trained as an am fib use unit and their Senior Leadership was not up to the path and there will be a lot of firing and turmoil and as the 90th is going to be in this kind of learning curve throughout the weeks of june, 1944. And, a lot of soldiers lose their lives, or get wounded, as people figure out how to deal with this. Ultimately, i should point out, the 90th will end you say as one of this finest units in the us army in europe but, as i mention it is a steep learning curve and, there are other units that struggle, too. Not quite as much as the 90th but it is a problem. So how will they deal with them . Improvization. A bottomup kind of thing. Senior commanders arent noodling with how to deal with the hedgerows, it is the sergeants and the Junior Officers dealing with it on a daytoday basis and, the solution to the whole thing is combined arms. Certainly the first thing you have to do is create a new opening in the hedgerows, right . You will not go through their opening they presighted and get killed. How do you create it . What they think of first is, we have engineers with tnt and well blow holes that way but you dont have enough engineers or tnt. Your infantry cant get through on their own. They dont have the weapons for it. And your tanks, what about them . Well, one thing theyll start doing is welding prongs onto the front of United States army tanks in order to punch holes through the hedge rows. Now, you will often hear claims, oh, this guy does it first and this guy did it first and that guy, whatever. All of those are debatable because it is going on uniformly. Across the board. Each unit figuring it out on their own kind of thing. It isnt as much a unified kind of approach. So im giving you sort of the general picture of the fact that people are improvising and figuring out, okay. Well punch holes with tanks. But the tanks are going to be vulnerable on their own. If you send a tank through, punch through the hedgerow, there is a very good possibility a german will wait on the other side, crouching en a ditch with a panzer faust, an antitank weapon, basically a fire and forget weapon, he can basically punch a hole in your armor and destroy the tank if hes close enough and you have antitank weapons that are dug in. So this is where you need the infantry, it might be alongside the tank as they punch through, tanks punch through a hedge row like you see there sand will figure there must be germans in the ditches or in the nekxt hede row line or the field if they are dumb, maybe close by. They saturate the area with White Phosphorus she