Hi, all: I am new here. I come to seek help from nice people who are willing to help me debug the transcript I wrote down from the video YouTube - (6/11) Battlefield The West Wall 6 of 11 World War II At some spots on the video I cannot figure out the narrator's voices myself. Hopefully I can get the support I need from here. Thank you in advance. Regards, Discovery
Ca you please post the exact spots? This is 10minutes long, and we could search forever and not find an exact spot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v77-LIr3TGY they can find. Whole units of German soldiers wandered around looking for the Allied troops who they could surrender. Only the heaven of captivity can protect them from the fury of the French. Meanwhile in the west, far off any chances of getting out of France, isolated German garrisons held out at Brest, Lorient, St. Nazaire, La Rochelle, and the estuary of Gironde. Brest surrendered after a long siege on the 18th of September 1944 and the rest a few months later, except for Lorient which remained in Germans’ hands until the end of the war. The garrisons stayed in place on Hitler's orders but it was a futile gesture. They were nothing but specks left over from the once mighty force who had overrun and occupied France since 1940 and the zest of that triumph had long since faded. The major pursuit of the course was in the northeastern France where the Allied forces were chasing their quarry towards the west wall. The fortifications popularly known as the Siegfried Line that protected the western border of Germany. The British and Americans were still in pursuit well into September but this was creating its own problems. The further the Allied forces were from the Normandy coast, the longer their supply lines became and the fresh campaign would be needed to shift the Germans from the more convenient ports on the Belgium coast. Meanwhile the German forces who managed to elude the Allies clutches had a chance to dig themselves in behind the West Wall. The fortifications popular known as the Siegfried Line was 3 miles deep and had been built after 1938 to protect the western border of Germany. In 1944, reserves were rushed to the West Wall as the survivors of Normandy dug themselves in. They were in the similar state to the war itself: battered, dilapidated, feeble. But their discipline and their will to fight were still intact and their leadership headed by Field Marshal von Rundstedt was high quality. If Normandy was anything to go by, the Allies was in for yet another costly struggle and the war was still a long way from its end. In early September 1944, when the Allied forces were approaching the West Wall, 14 weeks had passed since the D-Day landings in Normandy. The West Wall, the fortifications protecting Germany's western border, laid 300 hundred miles inland from the Normandy beaches. (2:56)But that was not the only way the distances could be calculated. It was also measured in slog(?) and slaughter, hardship and destruction, trauma and exhaustion. After the D-Day landings in Normandy, hundreds of thousands men had been killed on both sides, scores of them at a time to gain and often lose just a few yards of ground. Thousands of acres of countryside were laid waste and littered with burned out wrecks of tanks, guns and vehicles. Towns and villages were left a mass of smoking ruins. Eventually German forces fleeing from the battle of Normandy had been trapped in the Falaise-Argentan pocket. Those who managed to escape were pursued all the way to the west German border. The Germans fled in disarray, often in panic. But if any one who believed they were finished was very much a mistake. Once they reached the safety of the West Wall, the Germans took on a new guise. No longer an exhausted enemy on the run but defenders encased in fortifications of concrete and steel which they believed to be impregnable. (4:27)The West Wall Originally the West Wall, begun in 1938, had been Germany's answer to the Maginot Line which protected the eastern France from attack across the Rhine. The 2 fortifications faced each other across a short stretch of territory in the Saar region of southwest Germany. The value of the West Wall at that time was diplomatic rather than military. (4:53)Adolph Hitler found it very useful as a frightener. The West Wall later known to the Allies as the Siegfried Line helped the Fuhrer scare the governments of Britain and France into make concessions so fitting their policy appeasedly(?). It was March 1939 when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia before the British and French at last woke up to reality. By then the 2nd World War was only 6 month away. After the German conquest of France in 1940, the West Wall became irrelevant as machine guns and canons were removed and sent to the Atlantic Wall and the fortifications fell into disrepair. Even the D-Day landings in June 1944 failed to prompt the Germans to make efforts of getting the wall into better shape. It was not until the following August when the already lost battle of Normandy that the Germans began to think the unthinkable, the fatherland itself might soon be invaded. The potential of the West Wall could no longer be ignored. On Hitler's orders, some 360,000 civilians and boys from the Hitler Youth were set to work repairing and rearming the dilapidated defense line. Considering the short time available, this scratch workforce achieved wonders. When they finished, some parts of the wall remained weak, but others had been greatly strengthened. And even in this date, the wall is still a formidable barrier. The fortifications formed a band of nature and artificial defenses up to 5 miles deep, stretching some 400 miles in the southwest corner of Netherlands to the Swiss border. The West Wall featured around 22,000 pillboxes, troop shelters, and command posts, all interlinked and all mutually supportive. In some places, such as the rivers Rhine, Roer, and Kyll, the terrain provided nature obstacles to invasion. (7:04)Where the ...(?) of land failed to oblige, concrete pyramids called dragon teeth were planted in parallel rows to obstruct the attackers. (7:14)Nazi propaganda of course t...(?) the West Wall as impregnable. Its real purpose was not to repulse the assaults but hold up the enemy long enough for mobile reserves to arrive and stage counterattacks. Even so for the Allies in 1944 the difference was academic. The reality of the West Wall matched the propaganda for a very long time. (7:53)Before the Battle Only about 12% of the German 7th Army who were rather ex-decimated remnants had managed to escape from the Falaise-Argentan gap in August 1944. But before long, these remnants formed out along the West Wall and were soon being joined by reinforcements. The German high command had given the western defenses priority and units were transferred from the Italian front and the garrisons in Norway and Denmark. They were also removed from the eastern front even though the Russians were fast approaching the Prussian border and about to break into Germany. Nothing underlined the emergency of the West Wall more than this. For the Germans, the Russians were the most terrifying awe enemy and civilians waited their arrival with dread. (8:43)Nevertheless the defense against the east was sorted(?) for man power which was rushed across Germany to face the imminent danger in the west. When all were in place, the West Wall and its adjacent areas were being defended as far as the River Mosel by Army Group B under Field Marshal Walter Model, and as far as Karlsruhr by Army Group G under General Hermann Balck. The rest fortifications down to the border with Switzerland was defended by SS troops under their chief, Heinrich Himmler. The enormous losses the Germans had already suffered by 1944 meant they were unable to build up the West Wall garrison to the size its designers envisaged. However the problems facing the Allies gave them the chance to make the best of what they had. Exhaustion after the long chase from Falaise was only one of the problems. The Allies other difficulties were much more fundamental. (9:55)Before the Battle (end of this segment) ------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ Dear Chef des Todes, Those red spots are the places where I think I have problems with. Certainly there are even more prone errors unknown to me. Could someone either rectify the red spots or go through the full 10 mins for me please? Either way I will deeply appreciate it. By the way, is the deletion feature available to the users here if they decide to remove their previous postings? Thanks. Best regards, Discovery
Slog-Very slow and weary, took them a long time. 7:04- Lie of the land- For example Tank barriers were usually trees, or mountains/ditchs, or deep water ways/Floodings. If there wasn't any they had to put dragon teeth, so the vechicals couldnt come. These are Dragon teeth, look at the land. Anti-tank ditch. That is a man made one, though there are natural hills and slops when it comes to mountains. 7:14- Touted -Attempt to sell (something), typically by pestering people in an aggressive or bold manner. Remember the germans did everything possible to tell the german people they were the best, even if they knew it was over. If you want to learn more about their Propganda, check out Josef Goebbels. He was in charge of all that. Here is he > 8:43- I believe and I can easily be wrong, that they were sayig to try and send as much resource as possible to the eastern front and not be captured by the Russians. For example the Russians did terrible things when they got to the Germans, I remember once I think they sank 2 Medical Ships, raped every girl/woman in the first village they got to, all ages, executed the men, and then killed the woman. I rather be captured by an american then a russian if I german. *You can't delete post only you can change your post. Only Moderators and Admins can delete posts anywhere, and Trustees can delete and change post, in their selected sectios. Need anything easl Discovery let me know
Hi, Chef des Todes, Thanks for the quick response with corrections and additional explanations. How about the following sentence? Could you give me some hint too? It just does not look right to me at the red part grammatically. (4:53)Adolph Hitler found it very useful as a frightener. The West Wall later known to the Allies as the Siegfried Line helped the Fuhrer scare the governments of Britain and France into make concessions so fitting their policy appeasedly(?). ////////// My understanding aligns with yours: “…try and send as much resource as possible to the eastern front and not be captured by the Russians….” Some view even says at that stage Germans tried to make it easy on the western country’s armies, so the western country’s forces could advance faster than the Red Army and occupied more German territories. But seems to me, this video per this topic says Germans then tried to comb manpower urgently from here and there to protect the West Wall as high priority. Anyway, I am neither interested in nor wanting to create a debate on this. I just try to make out what the words on this video are. Thank you very much again.
"It was more diplomatic, rather than military" -4:49-4:52 Concessions-failure to challenge or cessation of challenging, as in "conceding an election" or "conceding a game". <-- Then after those words, notthing is revealed so it's hard to figure it out from clues. I'm sorry but I really don't know. Wish I could help more, is there anything easl?
Hi, Chef des Todes: Appreciate the answers. It suddenly came to my mind that either description could be correct. Perhaps when the Western Allies just reached the West Wall (Sep/1944), the Germans were defying. They were still trying to defend their fatherland. Back then the Russians had not even reached the border of Eastern Prussian yet. That matches the video’s contents from the time point of view. But by Oct/1944, after Ivan Chernyakhovsky’s 3rd Belorussia Front reached the first German village, the Germans started realizing what kind of foes they were facing from east. The Germans gradually changed their mindset. Especially after the Western Allies crossed the Rhine in early Apr/1945. The Germans started losing land purposely to the Western Allies. But this is just my guesses. I need to read more on this topic. ////////////////// Can I receive more supports by posing my questions from the segment #7 of the same episode?
Your guesses I believe are correct Discovery. Yes please post #7 and anything you need help on it with.
On one of their pictures of Normandy, U-Tube shows the American flag on the right near Caen and the British flag on the left at the Carentan, it was just the other way around. According to this account, the Germans had weeks and weeks to prepare the Seigfried Line to defend Germany. In most other accounts the Allies found German pillboxes grown over with weeds, guns missing, etc. and the poor Germans who were ordered to man them could not find the keys to gain entrance. Maybe different parts of the front did allow the Germans plenty of time to rebuilt the Seigfried line, but Hitler had adopted a no retreat policy in Normandy and expressly forbade any plans to work on defensive positions in the rear. This same 'no retreat policy' was also behind the decision to defend Germany west of the Rhine, so that after the Allies crossed that huge natural barrier, the Germans had little to resist the Allied advance.
