The Germans Thought They Won—Nobody Expected What Happened Next

Raven Stories is on Spotify too, for listening in the car or late at night: https://open.spotify.com/show/5gnIPKc... Hitler's last big armored counterattack in Normandy rolled into Mortain just after midnight on 7 August 1944, without a single shell of warning. He had written that the decision in the Battle of France depended on it: a drive of about 20 miles to the sea at Avranches to cut the American armies in two. Above the town, about 700 men of the 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry, 30th Infantry Division were cut off on Hill 317 for six days, and when a German officer came up under a white flag to demand their surrender, the answer he got became legend. The six days on the hill are told by the clock, through the German commanders who believed the attack had won and the two artillery lieutenants whose radio stopped it, through the shells packed with bandages and the relief at noon on 12 August, to the way Hitler's attack became the trap at Falaise. Maj. Thomas Howie and the cut-off battalion at St. Lô, Lt. Col. Robert Cole's charge at the Carentan causeway, and the closing of the Falaise Gap at Chambois fill out the summer. Chapters: 0:00 The Hill Above Mortain 1:56 The Order 23:45 Nobody Expected What Happened Next 25:46 The Major of St. Lô 27:00 The Ridge 37:51 Will Do 52:22 The Charge at Carentan 53:43 The Causeway 1:02:26 The Farmhouse 1:18:50 The Gap at Chambois 1:28:46 The Shooting Gallery 1:33:20 Five Ways Out Thumbnail: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-296-1651-18 / Schwoon (colourised), CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Sources: Martin Blumenson, Breakout and Pursuit (U.S. Army in World War II, 1961), ch. XXIV: https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-... Martin Blumenson, Breakout and Pursuit (U.S. Army in World War II, 1961), ch. XXV: https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-... National Guard Bureau, Heritage Series: Battle of Mortain: https://www.nationalguard.mil/Resourc... 30th Infantry Division scrapbook, Stars and Stripes reprints (February 1945): https://www.indianamilitary.org/30TH/... U.S. War Department Historical Division, St-Lô (American Forces in Action, 1946), ch. 6: https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-... Martin Blumenson, Breakout and Pursuit (U.S. Army in World War II, 1961), ch. VIII: https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-... Charles Cawthon, July, 1944: St. Lô, American Heritage (1974): https://www.americanheritage.com/july... Mitchell Yockelson, Forgotten Fights: The 101st Airborne at Carentan, The National WWII Museum: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war... John C. McManus, Battle to Control Carentan During World War II, HistoryNet (2006): https://www.historynet.com/battle-to-... Martin Blumenson, Breakout and Pursuit (U.S. Army in World War II, 1961), ch. XXVII: https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-... C. P. Stacey, The Victory Campaign (Official History of the Canadian Army, 1960), ch. X: https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/Canad... Tough 'Ombres! The Story of the 90th Infantry Division (G.I. Stories booklet, 1944): https://lonesentry.com/gi_stories_boo... The film and photographs are from the archives of the time, and the words and terms of 1944 are kept as they were, for history and teaching. Where nothing was filmed, a few moments may be shown as reconstructions, labelled on screen. Nothing here is meant to glorify war or to offend any person, nation or group. #Mortain #Hill317 FOOTAGE AND IMAGE SOURCES Archival film, most screen time first: Road to Versailles; 2nd Armored Division, Outskirts of Château Forte, France (111-ADC-2211): https://catalog.archives.gov/id/16015 German wartime newsreel, Die Deutsche Wochenschau Nr. 725 (27 July 1944), via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/1944-07-2... Reconnaissance Observers near Périers; Mortar OP, St. Michel de Montjoie, France (111-ADC-2117): https://catalog.archives.gov/id/15922 German wartime newsreel, Die Deutsche Wochenschau Nr. 726 (1944), via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/die-deuts... German wartime newsreel, Die Deutsche Wochenschau Nr. 723 (13 July 1944), via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/1944-07-1... French 2nd Armored Division Attack Argentan; 39th Infantry Regiment, France (111-ADC-2135): https://catalog.archives.gov/id/15940