The reason Germany failed on D-Day (Ft. Jonathan Ferguson)

Adolf Hitler was looking forward to D-Day. His plan was simple. Reinforce the western defences, launch a furious counterattack, and ‘throw the Allies back into the sea’. After that, he could turn his full strength against the Soviet Union and end the war. For Hitler, the outcome of this campaign would be decisive. In the previous episode of our D-Day series, we looked at the air battle for Normandy. This time IWM Curator Adrian Kerrison covers the fighting on land. Why were some beaches bloodier than others? Why did German counterattacks fail? And why did it take so long for the Allies to breakout? To help us answer some of those questions we've brought in the Royal Armouries' Jonathan Ferguson to look at some of the most important weapons of D-Day. D-Day events: IWM Lecture Day: D-Day https://www.iwm.org.uk/events/iwm-lecture-day-d-day IWM Presents: The Longest Day https://www.iwm.org.uk/events/duxford-presents-the-longest-day D-Day and the Aerial battle for Normandy Tour https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/d-day-and-the-aerial-battle-for-normandy Find out more: D-Day from a German perspective: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-german-response-to-d-day What happened after D-Day: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-happened-after-d-day 10 Facts you need to know about D-Day: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-10-things-you-need-to-know-about-d-day The lies that made D-Day possible: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-lies-and-deceptions-that-made-d-day-possible Explore and licence the film clips used in this video from IWM Film: https://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/collections/_GEMDKV4g + https://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/collections/_Rm5yKkmL Follow IWM on social media: https://twitter.com/I_W_M https://www.instagram.com/imperialwarmuseums https://www.facebook.com/iwm.london CC Attributions: Thumbnail image from Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-719-0240-05 / Jesse / CC-BY-SA 3.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en Gerd v. Rundstedt image from Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-718-0149-18A / Jesse / CC-BY-SA 3.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en Geyr v. Schweppenburg image from Szukaj W Archiwach / CC-BY-SA 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en