How British Marines Conquered a German Port With Stolen Enemy Rifles

#DDay #RoyalMarines #WW2History Count what four hundred and twenty Royal Marines are supposed to have on the morning of the sixth of June 1944. Fourteen landing craft. Rifles, Bren guns, mortars. Radios to call in the guns of the fleet. A plan that depends on all of it. Now count what they actually have an hour after they hit the water off Gold Beach. Five of the fourteen craft — gone. Seventy-six men — gone. The radios, on the bottom of the Channel. Dozens of survivors crawl out of the sea armed with nothing at all; some do not even have boots. Their objective has not changed. It is a fortified harbour called Port-en-Bessin, twelve miles away through German-held country. This documentary tells the true story of 47 (Royal Marine) Commando on D-Day and the two days that followed. Landing on the far right of Gold Beach and shattered before they had gone a step inland, the marines did the only thing left to do. They walked up the beach, took rifles out of dead and captured German hands, and set off to conquer a German port with Germany's own guns. Discover how 47 Commando marched twelve miles behind the enemy line; how they fought their way into the little fishing town in the hollow between two gun-studded headlands two hundred feet high; how they took the fuel port the whole invasion needed over the sixth, seventh and eighth of June — and why General Sir Brian Horrocks wrote that in three hundred years of Royal Marine history the corps had, quite possibly, never done anything finer. 🔥 In this video: The Landing That Went Wrong: five craft, 76 men and every working radio lost in the first hour off Gold Beach. Somebody Else's Rifles: marines re-arming with Mausers stripped from dead and captured Germans. Twelve Miles Behind the Line: the march inland to a port the whole invasion needed for its fuel. The Two Headlands: the assault on the gun-studded cliffs standing over Port-en-Bessin. Horrocks's Verdict: three hundred years of Royal Marine history, and possibly nothing finer. Sources of Where I get my facts: Beevor, A. (2009) *D-Day: The Battle for Normandy*. Viking, London. Neillands, R. (1987) *By Sea and Land: The Royal Marines Commandos, A History*. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London. Thompson, J. (2000) *The Royal Marines: From Sea Soldiers to a Special Force*. Sidgwick & Jackson, London. Saunders, H. St G. (1949) *The Green Beret: The Story of the Commandos*. Michael Joseph, London. The National Archives (UK), DEFE 2 series — Combined Operations and Commando Records. Disclaimer: This video is a historical documentary intended for educational purposes. #DDay #RoyalMarines #WW2History #47Commando #PortEnBessin #GoldBeach #WW2 #WorldWarII #Normandy1944 #Commandos #MilitaryHistory #SecondWorldWar #GreenBeret