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Victory at Sea - S1E09: Sea and Sand
Film Gorillas
Follow
9/21/2023
Category
😹
Fun
Transcript
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00:00
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
00:30
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
00:56
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
01:26
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
01:34
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
01:56
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
02:20
In Washington, the Russian appeal comes in a black hour.
02:24
Everywhere there is victory for the Axis.
02:26
Nowhere can the democracies do more than hold their own.
02:30
Action, bold, decisive action, can no longer be delayed.
02:35
Roosevelt and Churchill must strike.
02:38
But where? How?
02:40
The statesmen of democracy ponder the issues and decide.
02:45
Invasion, a second front.
02:48
The orders go out to America, to England.
02:51
The transatlantic planning begins.
02:54
Target, top secret.
02:58
In England, General Eisenhower,
03:00
newly appointed American commander for Europe,
03:03
directs the overall strategy.
03:05
The United States has been at war only a few months,
03:08
and her means is yet her limit.
03:10
The Marines on Guadalcanal need all they can get.
03:14
But the pressure of events is inexorable.
03:17
The Allies cannot wait.
03:19
And time will not wait.
03:21
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
03:32
In October, troops embark at English ports
03:34
for the first joint Anglo-American offensive in World War II.
03:38
The troops do not know their mission.
03:41
They do not know that they are one prong
03:43
of a sweeping double thrust at the axis in North Africa.
03:47
The secret force is sought into the Mediterranean.
04:14
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
04:20
In America, the other prong of the assault
04:22
is hurriedly forged at East Coast ports,
04:25
where untried and untested troops,
04:27
fresh from civilian life,
04:29
are brought together for the greatest amphibious operation yet attempted.
04:33
Four thousand miles of hostile sea
04:35
lie between the crystal sands of Virginia,
04:38
the granite rocks of Maine,
04:40
and the far shore of North Africa.
04:43
Many of the men have never heard of their destination,
04:46
Casablanca, on French Morocco's West Coast.
04:50
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
05:07
Most of the troops have never been to sea before,
05:10
and half the young sailors of the convoy
05:12
are sailing the ocean for the first time.
05:15
The Allies hope to trump some Axis tricks
05:17
in a bold move which skeptics call premature.
05:21
The chances of success are rated no better than 50-50.
05:26
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
05:46
Admiral Hewitt commands the American task force.
05:49
Rumors circulate that the ships are headed south for maneuvers.
05:53
But Task Force 34 is in deadly earnest.
05:56
The operation is christened the Torch,
05:59
and on these men and ships falls the job of lighting the torch
06:03
and keeping it burning.
06:05
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
06:12
From America, from England,
06:15
650 ships and the two convoys plod their precarious way,
06:19
converging slowly on the whole northwest corner of Africa,
06:23
moving jointly toward the target.
06:26
Zigzagging past the submarine packs by day,
06:29
steaming straight by night,
06:31
the ships make the longest voyage ever ventured by an amphibious force.
06:35
Get the soldiers across the vast and perilous sea safely.
06:39
Land them on the barren and uncertain beaches safely.
06:43
That is the sailors' job.
06:45
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
07:15
Sailors on watch are charged with the safety of the ships,
07:19
greatest of responsibilities.
07:22
But in the transports, the troops have little to do except relax,
07:26
fool around, wait,
07:29
and try to forget what is ahead.
07:32
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
08:02
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
08:17
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
08:47
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
08:57
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
09:07
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
09:31
Lectures, briefings, discussions prepare all hands for the coming invasion.
09:36
The Americans come as friends,
09:39
but to crush Germany and thereby help Russia,
09:42
they must first wrest bases from France, the Fren.
09:46
The French Vichy government in Europe
09:48
has pledged itself to defend its African colonies against all.
09:52
But whether the French will resist Americans,
09:55
how violently they will react, none can say.
09:59
So the friendly convoy must sneak toward shore like an enemy.
10:03
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
10:12
Now the convoy lies off the coast of high Barbary.
10:16
Beyond lies Africa.
10:18
President Roosevelt announces the landings to the French by radio
10:21
and asks their help.
10:23
Then General Eisenhower urges the French
10:25
to turn their searchlights skyward as a token of welcome.
10:29
The Americans hope and pray there will be no resistance.
10:32
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
11:01
H-hour comes in the hazy dawn of November 8, 1942.
11:05
The troops go ashore,
11:07
still uncertain whether they will be welcomed or resisted,
11:10
embraced or shot.
11:32
The right signal. No resistance.
11:37
But the searchlights are deceptive.
11:40
The lights are hostile, not friendly.
11:42
The French are confused.
11:44
They have not heard the Allied broadcast,
11:46
and military leaders loyal to the Vichy government decide to fight.
11:50
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
12:19
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
12:30
For the landing troops, no doubt remains now.
12:33
They will be resisted.
12:35
The shores are hostile.
12:37
The French are fighting.
12:39
But the assault proceeds as planned,
12:41
and the troops head for shore on either side of Casablanca, the target.
12:46
And lying at anchor in the harbor of Casablanca,
12:48
more trouble.
12:50
Ships of the French Navy.
13:18
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
13:44
The battle for Casablanca continues for three bitter days
13:47
before the Vichy French surrender,
13:49
and the Free French and their American allies take over.
14:17
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
14:37
Casablanca's harbor.
14:39
A major prize.
14:41
But the victory is not without sorrow.
14:44
Americans and French who have fallen fighting one another
14:47
are buried side by side.
14:50
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
14:59
A German commission sent to negotiate with the French is trapped in Casablanca.
15:03
This, says the general who heads the delegation,
15:06
is the worst setback to German arms since 1918.
15:10
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
15:40
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
15:47
Meanwhile, the second Allied convoy slips through the Straits of Gibraltar
15:52
and steams eastward for Oran and Algiers.
15:55
In Oran, there are vital airfields and an important road network.
16:00
Algiers is the economic, political, and military center of the entire area.
16:05
If the convoy can survive the Mediterranean gauntlet of submarines and bombers,
16:09
all of northwest Africa will fall into Allied hands in one swift stroke.
16:14
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
16:31
With some help from the French, the tactics work.
16:34
The landings are the first major Allied victory in the war against the Axis.
16:38
Three days after the first troops touch the beaches,
16:41
French North Africa is a fighting ally.
16:44
The French themselves are now free to join the march against the common enemy.
16:49
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
17:13
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
17:41
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
17:55
At their newly won seaports, the Allies begin the enormous buildup of supplies
18:00
in preparation for the ultimate conquest of all North Africa.
18:04
General Montgomery and his Eighth British Army
18:06
are lashing Marshal Rommel into fleeing Africa for the 1,200 miles to the east.
18:11
In the west, the Allies must make ready for a drive into the desert
18:15
to catch Rommel in his flight and squeeze him to death.
18:19
The campaign that began as an amphibious assault
18:22
becomes a grinding struggle for supplies.
18:25
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
18:51
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
19:18
The showdown for the Mediterranean is on.
19:21
All supplies, all Allied soldiers must be brought in by ship.
19:26
The campaign depends on the ports and the navies that control them.
19:31
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
20:00
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
20:22
The British First Army spearheads the race toward Tunis and Bizerta,
20:26
many ports in Rommel's rear.
20:29
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
20:44
But the desert fox and his unbroken Afrika Korps reach Tunisia first,
20:48
checking the Allied move and nullifying the chance for a quick German defeat.
20:53
Rommel's dream of taking Suez is shattered,
20:56
but the Nazis still have a firm grip on North Africa.
21:00
They will not let go.
21:02
Into Tunisia, across the Mediterranean Narrows from Sicily,
21:06
the Axis High Command sends streams of transport planes to reinforce Rommel.
21:11
Swiftly, efficiently, the Axis begins its own buildup to counter the Allies.
21:17
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
21:38
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
22:07
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
22:36
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
23:03
But the Allies are now pushing Rommel from both ends, from the east, from the west,
23:08
and they keep pushing him, and pounding him, and pushing him.
23:34
Allied hands are at the Axis throat.
23:37
The pincers close.
23:39
The sands run out for Rommel.
23:42
The sands run out for Rommel.
24:13
Death of the Afrika Korps.
24:16
End of the Axis in Africa.
24:19
Defeated in the Mediterranean on sea and sand.
24:23
Its obituary is written in the names of supply ports which it could not hold,
24:27
which marked the road to disaster.
24:31
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
24:59
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
25:28
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
25:41
250,000 Axis prisoners.
25:44
With the 300,000 additional Germans lost at Stalingrad,
25:48
the face of fascism shows the first furrows of defeat.
25:53
It is not yet the beginning of the end,
25:56
but it is the end of the beginning.
26:26
The end.
Recommended
26:22
|
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