The Real Reason D-Day Didn’t Fail After the Landings — What Historians Get Wrong

Comments · 72

• MI

  @michaellong5714 · 6 days ago

  Some years ago, I remember watching a program on the Normandy break-out with the tanks racing across the open land (maybe it was the movie 'Patton' and then having them basically run low or out of fuel and having to stop and slug it out. Watching Band of Brothers did cover some of what was brought up here, like the Brocage issues. Other videos I remember seeing dealt with the problems about the taking of Cherbourg, and having to completely rebuild the port area. However I certainly appreciated seeing a video that put most of those issues and including ones I wasn't familiar with, together and explaining why they happened and how the Allies overcame them.

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• RT

  @rtsesmelis · 10 days ago

  Excellent video, thanks. Seems that the contribution of the French Resistance was seriously underrated. There has been some prejudice.....

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• ME

  @MegaMarkVI · 13 days ago

  I don't which historians you're talking about, but most of them got that perfectly well.

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• GR

  @grandpawoods2275 · 13 days ago

  What historians?  Anyone who has spent even a few short hours learning about the invasion knows the allies were stuck on Normandy and its hedgerows for two months, and that the casualties were horrific. The Culin Cutter, attached to many of the Shermans so they could breach the hedgerows without exposing their vulnerable underbellies to German fire, was one of the many innovations that finally made the breakout possible.

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• ST

  @staleydu1 · 13 days ago

  I think you vastly underestimate what some of us already know

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• IA

  @iansinclair7581 · 4 days ago

  The first Pluto pipeline went to Port en Bessin, a small fishing harbour. This was captured on DDay by No47 Commando. It was quite a hard battle because an anti aircraft ship had been moored in the harbour without allied intelligence knowing about it.

• CI

  @CIMAmotor · 13 days ago

  The American engineers didn't construct their Mulberry Harbour properly.

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• TO

  @tommysmith2409 · 4 days ago

  Excellent video. Too many comments on here are nitpicking.

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• MA

  @MarketsofyesterdayUS · 13 days ago

  Everyone focuses on the beaches, but this is the real story - the Mulberries failing, the hedgerows, and Hitler's Panzer reserves sitting idle because no one could wake him. D-Day was won in the 77 days after, not just the first 6 hours.

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• PE

  @petegarnett7731 · 13 days ago (edited)

  The Murican Mulberry was torn apart because they did not bother to assemble it correctly and install all the fasteners, despite instructions that were totally clear and logical.  It was similar to their loss of most of their DD Shermans due to being launched 3 miles offshore into a swrll they could not survive in instead of a mile out..   R.I.P. the boys who were sacrificed.

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• DM

  @dmw0077 · 13 days ago

  Really good video. However, one of the many things Hollywood consistently gets wrong about D-Day is the same thing this video also got terribly wrong at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y_xsLLethQ&amp;t=888">14:48</a> -&gt; Patton. &nbsp;I loved the movie Patton too but there is virtually no evidence or reason for the Germans to &quot;fear&quot; or even have thought particularly highly of Patton prior to August 4, 1944, which is when Third Army became operational nearly eight weeks after the initial Normandy landings. At the time, Patton just happened to be the only senior Army general with combat experience located near Pas-de-Calais, where German intelligence expected the main invasion of France. The German military was far more concerned about Eisenhower and Montgomery. By far the most fervent German military praise of Patton occurred after the war by POWs eager to make nice with their American captors. And even then, they referred to him more like their near-equal (rather than their superior) based on his aggressive use of tanks. Hollywood loves Patton because he was rich, colorful, out-spoken, controversial and larger-than-life dramatic. He was competent but he also had plenty of outstanding Corps and Division Commanders under him. So I still think highly of him, but the idea that the German military ever feared him is just another oft-repeated &nbsp;myth.

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• DU

  @DuaneBettger · 13 days ago

  What it was is that once Montgomery got ashore he stopped to build up strength instead of taking Caen on the first day like he had promised.