Das Reich Division – Hitler’s last chance to stop D-Day 1944 Animated

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The 2nd SS Panzer Division (Das Reich) was an elite division ordered by the Führer Adolf Hitler to stop the Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944 (D-Day). They were ordered to reach the Normandy landings to stop the invasion. Das Reich Division had to pass through small towns that were occupied by the French resistance, also known as maquis. This is a true story about the bravery of the French Resistance.

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April, 1944. The course of WWII hangs  in the balance as preparations get   underway for operation Overlord, the  long-awaited allied invasion of France.  1.6 million US, British and Canadian troops  are amassing across southern England, ready to   form the biggest invasion fleet in history. Führer knows the invasion is coming soon,  

But not where. His generals   identify 3 potential landing grounds – Pas de Calais is the obvious choice.   It offers the shortest route with a ready-made  port and the quickest route into Germany itself  Cherbourg on the Cotentin peninsula  also has a big ready-made port with  

Land access south as well as east… Then there’s the Normandy coast,   close to the port of Ouistreham, and offering  the shortest route to liberate Paris.  Hitler knows that wherever the force lands, it  cannot all land at once. His generals tell him the  

First few days offer the best – and perhaps last –  opportunity to drive the allies back into the sea.  But he will need his most powerfully  armed, most experienced and fanatical   armoured division to do it. That unit is in Russia. It is the  

Crack 2nd SS panzer division, called ‘Das Reich’. Hitler orders Das Reich to Montauban in south-west   France to re-equip, and make ready to hit  the landing force wherever it should land.  At the innocuous Victorian mansion  called Bletchley Park north of London,   the brilliantly eccentric code-breakers  led by Alan Turing are intercepting  

German military signals Sponsored by Incogni  They know Das Reich’s location and  strength – 15,000 men, 1,400 vehicles   and 209 tanks including dozens of brand new  Panthers, the most potent tank yet built.  British military intelligence  fear that Das Reich could easily   be in Normandy before the landing is secure.

The allies desperately need a way to stop them. The first option is air attack. But Montauban is at the very limit of bomber range and most aircraft will be needed to cover the invasion itself.  The only other option is the French resistance  – secret groups of civilian fighters,  

Called the Maquis, estimated to  total 500k across the country.  But lacking weapons and training, they have so far  failed to inflict any major damage on the Germans  So new teams of British agents, co-ordinated  by the Special Operations Executive in London  

Are parachuted into the areas Das Reich  must travel through on their way north  Agents like 24 year-old John  Tonkin, and 22 year-old Tony Brooks  Their mission: to turn local Maquis leaders  like former soldier and escaped prisoner, Marius   Guedin, trade unionist Georges Guingouin, and  former teacher Jaques Chapou plus 20,000 untrained  

Civilians into a viable guerrilla fighting force. By 5 June, the RAF and USAF have dropped over   2,000 tons of weapons, including tens  of thousands of light machine guns,   rifles and pistols, plus 200 tons of explosive and  ammunition to the Maquis and their SOE handlers,  

Waiting for the invasion to begin. Dawn, June 6. The allied fleet   approaches the Normandy coast. Now Hitler’s  generals know where the invasion will land.  German general Von Rundstedt has only  two panzer divisions – the Lehr and   12th with a third, the 21st panzer 25  kms away to hold up the entire invasion 

Von Rundstedt’s units rush to engage the  allies’ 5 landing sites, hoping to contain   their beachheads until reinforcements arrive… 700 kms south in Montauban, Das Reich is   ordered to Normandy as fast as possible SS commander Heinrich Lammerding knows he   can expect to move his entire division  on 96 railcars along the two main rail  

Lines out of Montauban in 24 hours. To  arrive in Normandy at D-Day + 3, 11 June  One of the first SOE agents to try to  stop them is 22 year-old Tony Brooks  Brooks’ Maquis teams destroy tank-lifting cranes  at Ambrieu, Montauban, Cahors, Bourg and Agen. 

They put 107 locomotives out of action And cut rail lines with explosives at   15 different places. To make doubly sure,   Brooks and the Maquis get French railway workers  to apply abrasive paste to the axle bearings of   all 96 rail cars at Montauban… Guaranteeing they will seize  

Up in a matter of minutes of being moved. By 8 June, Lammerding realises the only option   to get his 15,000 men and 1,400 vehicles and tanks  to Normandy is to drive them at least part-way,   and hope to catch trains further north. Somewhere. The entire Das Reich division splits into 3  

Separate groups with the faster trucks and  half-tracks moving ahead of the lumbering   tanks trailing behind at a maximum speed of 30kmph Ahead of them lie, 250 kms on exposed roads with   each vehicle kept 100 metres apart in case of  air strike, and constantly exposed to ambush. 

In the tiny hamlet of Groslejac 8-30  am. Local Maquis led by Marius Guedin,   armed with a German pistol and WWI rifle,  a Bren gun and a handful of grenades,   open fire on the Germans. In their return  fire, they kill a dozen Maquis and civilians. 

The Germans roll on towards Sarlat,  randomly shooting civilians as they go  At Gabaudet, they destroy a  farmhouse killing 20 Maquis fighters  At Cressensac. They’re hit by a  Maquis ambush and return heavy fire.  By the time the recon unit get to Brive-la  Gaillarde, a 2 hour journey has taken 8. 

That night, June 8, resistance  reinforcements arrive in the form   of SAS units flown in from Blida in Algiers. The Maquis fighter who finds them reports an   SAS officer has brought his wife with  him – in fact this is Scottish Major  

Tommy McPherson in his regimental kilt. It’s a  blatant act of bravado to inspire the locals.  McPherson’s orders are to cut the main  RN 20 road between Montauban and Brive   la Gaillarde to separate the advanced units  from the heavy armour following behind 

30 Kms north, 500 resistance fighters, led by  Jacques Chapou have seized the town of Tulle from   its small German garrison, taking 50 prisoners At 21:00 that night, the first Das Reich   units arrive to retake town in a brief,  intense firefight with the Maquis fighters 

Led by Chapou most escape, taking  30 German prisoners with them   who they execute in a village 50kms away The next morning, as more Das Reich armour   tries to join forward units at Tulle  from the south, driving through the   ancient town of Bretenoux (CHECK **) Macpherson’s team mine the D940 road  

And the surrounding trees. They blow the  tracks off the leading armoured vehicles,   blocking the road. Then, as the Germans begin  to work through the trees to outflank them,   they bring down the trees on their attackers. In a 3-hour gun battle for the road,  

They destroy 3 German vehicles, but  18 maquis are killed in the firefight…  Meanwhile in Tulle, now aware of the fate of their  comrades, the Germans round up 300 inhabitants.   Then they gather the rest of the town’s population  to watch 99 of them hanged in the public square.  

Das Reich is now pre-occupied with revenge… But with every action against the Maquis and   civilian populations Das Reich is being slowed  more and more in its journey north. Yet they have   to continue to respond to the Maquis wherever  they capture towns, or take German prisoners 

By June 9, Limoges has been cut off for  2 days by the Maquis, led by aggressive   local leader, Georges Guingouin. 1st battalion Der Fuhrer regiment,   led by Adolf Diekmann, finally  breaks into the town that morning  The continued drive north is held up for  hours by a single Maquis – 20 year old  

Henri Rognon – firing on them until  he is killed at 8 o’clock that night  At Argenton, the Maquis make a decoy  attack and seize 2 petrol trains,   blow up more rail lines and capture 23 Germans. 53 French civilians are killed in revenge 

The Germans are also obliged to re-take  Gueret, occupied by Maquis since June 6.  En route, their commander, Major  Kampfe is captured by Maquis scouts  A frantic German search begins until a French  informant tells them he was burned alive in   front of cheering Maquis fighters 10 June, Kampfe’s comrade and  

Friend Major Adolf Dieckmann, is told the Maquis led by Guingouin,   have a base at nearby Oradour sur Glane Dieckmann’s men rapidly take over the town,   finding no sign of the Maquis. Angry, frustrated and wanting   revenge for Kampfe’s murder, he orders the  round-up of the town’s entire population. 

190 men are taken into barns and shot 245 women and 207 children are taken   into the church to be shot and burned. In all, 643 innocent people murdered in the single   biggest massacre of French civilians in WWII Das Reich are still 500km from Normandy 

In Normandy the Germans have been  losing 2,500 – 3,000 men a day since   June 6. But the battle is in stalemate By now the allies had expected to take   Caen and Cherbourg. But the 5 landing grounds  have only just joined up. If Das Reich can  

Get here soon, there’s still a good  chance they can stop their break-out  But half of Das Reich’s tanks are still  stranded at Tulle. The long road journey   has taken its toll; they need 14  new engines, new wheels, new tracks 

The 100 Das Reich tanks that are still mobile have  reached Perigueux railhead ready to load onto the   last remaining trains north and join the fight. But before they get to Normandy they need to pick   up enough fuel for the battle.  So they head for Chatellerault 

Two days ago, SAS commander John Tonkin  got word from French railway workers that   eleven petrol tankers were parked  in the Châtellerault rail sidings.  That same night he sends his second in command,  Twm Stephens alone by bicycle on the 119 km round  

Trip to confirm the location of the petrol train.  Stephens reports it is there, but too heavily   guarded for a single SAS squadron to take on. So Tonkin calls in an airstrike.  Next day, 24 mosquitos of 487 squadron RNZAF  and 107 squadron RAF attack the rail sidings  

With 48 – 500lb bombs and cannon fire. They  destroy all 11 tankers, robbing Das Reich   of the precious fuel reserves they will need to  fight in Normandy… when they finally get there.  The first advanced units of Das Reich  trickle into Normandy between 15 and 30 June,  

And are immediately scattered in  multiple battles to shore up the   German defences. Das Reich as a single division  does not begin to fight again until July 10.  By this time, the allies have taken both Caen and  Cherbourg and the invasion is now unstoppable. 

Das Reich’s journey from Montauban to  Normandy cost the lives of many thousands   of Maquis fighters and innocent civilians…  At the expense of just 35 of its own men.  But the cost in time – 2 weeks for a 3-day  journey – was incalculable for the 3rd Reich.