German General Watched 3,000 Bombers Turn His Panzer Lehr Into 'Ghosts' In 2 Hours

Описание: On July 25, 1944, German General Fritz Bayerlein stood at his command post in Normandy, watching American troops withdraw from their positions. He ordered his elite Panzer Lehr Division to advance into the vacated ground, believing the Americans had lost their nerve. He had no idea that within minutes, fifteen hundred B-17 and B-24 bombers would unleash over three thousand tons of explosives directly onto his men in what became the largest carpet bombing of World War Two. This is the incredible true story of Operation Cobra, the devastating aerial assault that shattered Germany's finest armored division and changed the course of the war in Western Europe. Panzer Lehr was no ordinary unit. Built from the instructors of Germany's elite tank training schools, it was the only fully mechanized division in the Wehrmacht, equipped with Panther and Panzer IV tanks crewed by the best trained soldiers the German Army could produce. General Bayerlein himself was a veteran of the Afrika Korps who had served under the legendary Erwin Rommel. Yet none of that experience could prepare him for what happened that summer morning. Within two hours, seventy percent of his soldiers were casualties. Tanks were flipped and buried. Communications collapsed entirely. American General Omar Bradley had gambled everything on this massive air strike to break the Normandy stalemate, and despite tragic friendly fire incidents that took the lives of over one hundred American soldiers including Lieutenant General Lesley McNair, the operation succeeded beyond expectations. The breakthrough at Saint-Lo opened the road to Paris, which was liberated just one month later. This documentary explores the planning, execution, and aftermath of Operation Cobra through the eyes of the commanders on both sides, featuring verified quotes from Bayerlein, Bradley, Eisenhower, and war correspondent Ernie Pyle who witnessed the bombing firsthand.