48 Hours To Stop D-Day | SS Das Reich's Race to Normandy

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Dawn June 6th. The Allied fleet approaches the  Normandy coast. German General Von Runstedt has only two Panzer divisions, the Lehr and the  12th, with a third, the 21st Panzer, 25 km away to hold up the entire allied invasion.  Von Runstedt's units rush to engage the Allies five landing sites, hoping to contain  their beachheads until reinforcements arrive.

[00:00:29]700 km south in Montbaubon, Das Reich is  ordered to Normandy as fast as possible, the brilliantly eccentric codebreakers led by Alan  Turing are intercepting German military signals.

[00:00:42]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 German tank yet built. British military intelligence fears that Das Reich could easily be  in Normandy before the landing is secure. In April 1944, the course of World War II hangs in the  balance as preparations get underway for Operation Overlord, the long- awaited Allied invasion of  France. 1.6 6 million US, British, and Canadian troops are amassing across southern England, ready  to form the biggest invasion fleet in history.

[00:01:28]Generals identify three potential landing  grounds. Pas de Calais is the obvious choice.

[00:01:35]It offers the shortest route with a ready-made  port and the quickest route into Germany itself.

[00:01:42]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 Brest and offering the shortest route to liberate Paris. Wherever  the force lands, it cannot all land at once.

[00:02:02]First few days offer the best and perhaps last  opportunity to drive the Allies back into the sea.

[00:02:09]most experienced and fanatical armored  division to do it. That unit is in Russia.

[00:02:17]It is the crack second SS Panzer Division called  Das Reich. Leader orders Das Reich to Montauban in southwest France to re-equip and make ready  to hit the landing force wherever it should land.

[00:02:33]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. A secret group civilian fighters called the Marquee,  estimated to total 500,000 across the country.

[00:02:58]But lacking weapons and training, they have so far  failed to inflict any major damage on the Germans.

[00:03:06]So, new teams of British agents coordinated  by the Special Operations Executive in London are parachuted into the areas the German Panzer  division, must travel through on their way north.

[00:03:17]By the 5th of June, the RAF and USAF  had dropped over 2,000 tons of weapons, including tens of thousands of light  machine guns, rifles, and pistols, plus 200 tons of explosives and ammunition  to the Marquee and their SOE handlers.

[00:03:35]Waiting for the invasion to begin. Dawn, June 6th.  The Allied fleet approaches the Normandy coast.

[00:03:45]One of the first SOE agents to try to  stop them is 22-year-old Tony Brooks.

[00:03:51]Brooks's marquee teams destroy tank lifting  cranes at Ambrier, Montauban, Caor, Bour, and Aen.

[00:04:01]They put 107 locomotives out of action and cut  rail lines with explosives at 15 different places.

[00:04:10]To make doubly sure, Brooks and  the Marquee 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 the 8th of June, Lamodink realizes the only option to get his  15,000 men and 1,400 vehicles and tanks to Normandy is to drive them at least partway and  hope to catch trains further north somewhere.

[00:04:42]The entire Das Reich Division splits into three  separate groups with the faster trucks and halftracks moving ahead of the lumbering tanks  trailing behind at a maximum speed of 30 kmh.

[00:04:55]Ahead of them lie 250 km of exposed roads with  each vehicle kept 100 meters apart in case of air strike and constantly exposed to ambush in the  tiny hamlet of Guljac. 8:30 a.m. local Marquee, led by Marius Guda, armed with a German pistol  and World War I rifle, a Bren gun and a handful of grenades open fire on the Germans. In their return  fire, they kill a dozen Marquee and civilians.

[00:05:28]The Germans roll on towards Salah,  randomly shooting civilians as they go.

[00:05:36]30 km north, 500 resistance fighters led by Jacqu  Chapo have seized the town of Tul from its small German garrison, taking 50 prisoners. At 2100  that night, the first Das Reich, units arrived to retake the town in a brief intense firefight with  the marquee fighters led by Chapo. Most escape, taking 30 German prisoners with them,  who they execute in a village 50 km away.

[00:06:08]The next morning, as more Das Reich armor tries  to join forward units at Tul from the south, driving through the ancient town of Breton,  McFerran's team mines the D940 road and the surrounding trees, they blow the tracks off  the leading armored vehicles blocking the road.

[00:06:27]Then, as the Germans begin to work  through the trees to outflank them, they bring down the trees on their attackers.  In a three-hour gun battle for the road, they destroy three German vehicles, but  18 marquees are killed in the firefight.

[00:06:44]Meanwhile, in Tul, now aware of the fate of their  comrades, the Germans round up 300 inhabitants.

[00:06:52]Then they gather the rest of the town's population  to watch 99 of them hanged in the public square.

[00:06:58]Dasar Reich is now preoccupied  with revenge. By June 9th, Limoj has been cut off for two days by the  marquee led by aggressive local leader Gor Ganga.

[00:07:13]First Battalion Regiment, led by Adolf Deikman,  finally breaks into the town that morning.

[00:07:19]The continued drive north is held up for hours  by a single marquee, 20-year-old Henri Renong, firing on them until he is  killed at 8:00 that night.

[00:07:31]At Arjun, the marquee makes a decoy attack and  seizes two petrol trains, blow up more rail lines, and captures 23 Germans. 53 French  civilians are killed in revenge.

[00:07:46]The Germans are also obliged to retake Guer, which  has been occupied by Marquee since June 6th. En route, their commander, Major Camper, is captured  by Marquee scouts. A frantic German search begins until a French informant tells them he was burned  alive in front of cheering marquee fighters.

[00:08:08]10th of June. Campfi's comrade and friend, Major  Adolf Deman, is told the marquee led by Ganga has a base at nearby Oradour-sur-Glane.  Deman's men rapidly take over the town, finding no sign of the McKe. Angry, frustrated,  and wanting revenge for Camper's murder, he orders the roundup of the town's entire  population. 190 men are taken into barns and shot.

[00:08:40]245 women and 27 children are taken into the  church to be shot and burned. In all, 643 innocent people were murdered in the single biggest  massacre of French civilians in World War II.

[00:08:59]Das Reich is still 500 km from Normandy. In  Normandy, the Germans have been losing 2500 to 3,000 men a day since June 6th, but the  battle is in a stalemate. By now, the allies had expected to take Caen and Cherbourg, but the  five landing grounds have only just joined up.

[00:09:24]If Das Reich can get here soon, there's still  a good chance they can stop their breakout.

[00:09:30]But half of Das Reich's tanks are still stranded  at Toul. The long road journey has taken its toll.

[00:09:37]They need 14 new engines, new wheels, new tracks.  The 100 German tanks that are still mobile have reached Perigee railhead, ready to load onto the  last remaining trains north and join the fight.

[00:09:53]But before they get to Normandy, they need to pick  up enough fuel for the battle. So they head for Chatelo. 2 days ago, SAS commander John Tonkin got  word from French railway workers that 11 petrol tankers were parked in the Chatelo rail sidings.  That same night, he sends his second in command, Tom Stevens, alone by bicycle on the 119 km round  trip to confirm the location of the petrol train.

[00:10:24]Stevens reports it is there, but too heavily  guarded for a single SAS squadron to take on.

[00:10:31]So Tonken calls in an air strike. Next  day, 24 mosquitoes of 487 Squadron RN Z AF and 107 Squadron RAF attack the rail  sidings with 48 500lb bombs and cannon fire.

[00:10:49]They destroy all 11 tankers, robbing Das Reich  of the precious fuel reserves they will need.

[00:10:56]The first advanced units of the division trickle  into Normandy between the 15th and 30th of June and are immediately scattered in multiple  battles to shore up the German defenses.

[00:11:07]Das Reich as a single division does not  begin to fight again until July 10th.

[00:11:13]By this time, the allies have taken both Caen and  Cherbourg and the invasion is now unstoppable.

[00:11:22]The Division's journey from Montauban to  Normandy cost the lives of many thousands of marquee fighters and innocent civilians  at the expense of just 35 of its own men.

[00:11:35]But the cost in time, 2 weeks for a 3-day  journey, was incalculable for the Third Reich.