Hearing actual native German speakers in a movie like this is just amazing and really adds to the story. I wish studios these days would still put this much effort into realism. It just wouldn't feel right if this dialog was spoken in bad German by native English speakers.
Obviously a German movie but the fact that "Downfall" (Der Untergang) was cast with German-speaking actors added to the incredible realism. I felt like I was really THERE and not watching a movie.
German generals were fine strategists, but divided in their point of views. There were those who believed in the old logic (Von Rundstedt) and those who were wise enough to decipher the enemy's logic (Rommel, Marcks). But destiny came in...
The Germans were good (occasionally Excellent) Tacticians. Their 'strategy' was usually mere expanded tactics. Lacking solid strategy, they displayed minimal operational art. Superior Tactics resulted in the Germans prolonging both world wars!
@George Kurzatkowski It was actually more the strategic depth of the Soviet Union that screwed them. An invasion till Moscow was more than 1000 km, which is a logistical nightmare.
hitler committed many strategic blunders during operation barbarossa. he deviated army group south from its original objective by ordering them to secure oil resourcen in carcasses first. it delayed army group center and south & ultimately gave soviets enough time to prepare and put up strong fortifications in moscow. operation barbarossa would have been a grand victory and moscow would have definitely fallen if nazi forces strictly followed their "blitzkrieg" offences.
@@shinchannohara2924 I would argue they should have fainted towards Moscow and went after the oil. Stalin would have put all the reserves there to protect his own hide, and they could have taken the oil or at least got the luftwaffe close enough to set the complexes on fire. Over 85% of Russian oil production came from there; take that away for six months to a year and its all over. I really do not think the delay mattered as regards Moscow; the fortification there would have prevented its fall before winter hit
@@shinchannohara2924 The Kiev diversion was not a mistake. Think of it in this way: there were roughly 1 million Red Army troops in Ukraine. Had Army Group Center kept on pushing towards Moscow, there would have been a very long and weakly defended southern flank which would most likely to have been targeted by the Red Army counterattacks. Furthermore, the Soviets not only mustered new armies east of Smolensk, but also launched bloody counterattacks which hammered Army Group Center. Meanwhile, AG Center was overextended, low on supplies, and still had to deal with the Smolensk pocket. Last, but not the least, the German rail capacity was already overextended and ended up having trucks to travel as far as 500 kilometers from the railheads to deliver supplies. Logistical constraints ultimately dictate what an army can and cannot accomplish. A lot of misconception such as the myth of Hitler's "blunder" came about because most German accounts and memoirs were LOUSY when it comes to properly sizing up the locations and the sizes of Red Army's operational reserves. (The Soviets had a mobilizable population of around 14 million at the beginning of th. war. During the second half of 1941 alone, the Red Army formed as many as 40+ armies!) It was not until the opening of Soviet military archives when we were finally able to have a better picture of what the Soviets had. Germans might have excelled tactically, but their intel was pitifully bad. (Institutional bias can be blamed for this: German officers were a bit too fixated on operational maneuvers, but did not pay enough attention to boring stuffs like intel and logistics.)
Rommel suspected that the invasion would occur in Normandy rather than Calais. When the invasion came, Rommel was the only one of Hitler's generals who had the prestige to demand that reinforcements be brought in despite Hitler's orders against doing so.There is a story that Rommel left the coast in order to attend a birthday party for his wife. Had he been in Normandy and had he ordered reinforcements, the invasion may have failed. BTW, his wife's birthday was June 6th. Did history change because one man married a woman whose birthday fell on the same day as an invasion delayed by weather? Who knows....
"The minutes of meetings ,records ,diaries will show Adolf Hitler frequently insisted that Normandy was the place . This is why he placed his best tactical commander there ! Field Marshall Rommel. Rommel likened the area to the Bay Of Salerno ,were the Mark Clark's Army had with great difficulty landed in Italy , September of 1943 . Hitler had chosen Rommel to Command Army Group B ,Right in front of the beach' s . The famous Rommel was also made “ Inspector Of Coastal Defenses”. Hitler and his staff ,OKW felt the Allies would come from the Southern English Ports , and there airfields were within the best range of the Normandy . The German Army Command in France ,and traditional General Staff thought Pas De Calais ." www.quora.com/Did-Hitler-think-the-allied-invasion-was-coming-in-a-different-place-Were-Allies-efforts-to-mislead-Germany-before-the-D-Day-paid-off The one thing that destroyed the German War Machine was internal subversion.
+crackshack2 the German war machine never survived a chance against multiple invasions. I'd argue that even a failed invasion would still have left Germany lost.
Yea I always wondered why. I think that with him out of the picture the viewer might get a better perspective of the message he was giving to the others.
Such are the fortunes of war. Good luck, bad luck, etc. Most German Generals were away from Normandy for wargames elsewhere. Bad weather stopped all German air and sea patrols from going out on June 5-6, and detecting the invasion force. The Atlantic wall defences were not complete. The Allies landed, by mistake, at some lightly defended places. Hitler slept in 12 hours. Later, because of confusion, the Germans were still not entirely convinced the real invasion had begun. Etc. This makes me realize how fragile life really is.
One of my favorite movies, a d one of the best war movies. The German scenes were excellent, as were the French Resistance scenes. Also the very poignant moment before the naval bombardment where the Free French admiral tells his men: "To drive out the invader, we must fire on our honeland. This is the price of liberty". Inspired. Probably the best depiction of D-day until Saving Private Ryan, and probably the best detail of the airborne parachute and glider operations of any film.
The victory was sealed by air power. All those panzers north of Caen would have been destroyed if they had moved south so in the end, no matter what the German generals thought was the point for the landin, air power would be the final arbiter . Allies controlled the air and the Germans would lose. Rommel knew this from North Africa so he wanted the panzers to be stationed closer to the front lines along with major Luftwaffe squadrons. He lost that argument so the Germans lost the war.
Rommel was such a loving and a loyal husband that he returned to Berlin to celebrate with his wife's birthday but the western allies landed on the time he didn't expected
1:40 - 3:36 I think I've seen that Chateau before, but where? *plays Battlefield 1 on the map Ballroom Blitz OOOOOOOOOOOoooooooohhhhhhhhh!!!! (I guess French Chateaus all look the same then)
I'm not Lucie Rommel, but if he had those shoes specially made for my birthday I'd be really pissed...so ugly...I think she was nice to him because she still felt bad about Alamein
Rommel was a great tactician-but strategically thinking a little short sighted. (Von Rundstedt thought Field Marshal was too big a promotion to Rommel due to this shortcoming. Rundstedt also thought Field Marshal Model would have made a 'fine regimental sergeant major' but nothing more. Von Rundstedt did well during Barbarossa-and even bucked Hitler's orders to keep advancing by having his group make a strategic withdrawal to prepare defenses for the coming winter. Hitler countermanded these orders to which Von Rundstedt resigned-rather than play politics with the 'Austrian corporal'. Von Rundstedt simply didn't comprehend how big a role Allied air superiority would have at Normandy. He couldn't hardly move without air attack.
@@tomservo5347 I mostly agree with you about Rommel, von Rundstadt, and Model. Rommel tried to inform the other German leaders about Allied Tactical Airpower, however, they continued to think it was like the Luftwaffe, (over Hyped)!
does anyone think that, had Rommel survived the war, he would have been placed in command of the Bundeswehr? just spitballing here, but with his grasp of tactics, one would think that he would have, at the very least, been in command of NATO's Armored units in west Germany.
@@pittsburghpirate58 the Soviet Union was even more exhausted than the British Empire! Until 1955 they were still fighting holdouts, and resistance movements. They needed to 'digest' the Ukraine, as well as new conquests. Nor could the USA and various Allies have "liberated" eastern Europe, let alone the Soviet Union.
The actor's name is Til Kiwe. Remarkably, he served in the Afrika Korps as a captain and was awarded the Knight's Cross in 1943! This makes him probably the most decorated actor in the entire film. The actor you are referring to was called Hans Christian Blech. He also plays in this film, but not in this scene, but as Major Pluskat directly in a bunker on the beach.
Rommel says: "Hat Berchtesgaden bestätigt, dass ich zum Vortrag beim Führer erwartet werde?" (("Did Berchtesgaden confirm that I was expected for a talk at the Führer?")
The was also two Asian soldiers found who's only language couldn't immediately be identified. An Oxford Don identified it as a rare Mongolian Dialect spoken on the Russian side of the border. Neither understood what the USSR was. One day soldiers "Red Army" arrived and took all the young men and with no training sent them to the front where the two where soon captured. Forced to labor for Germany and then press-ganged into the German army. Again no training. Just sent to the Atlantic wall and captured on D-day. Neither understood what had happened.
Este assassino está preocupado com as suas rosas mas não quer saber das pessoas que ele fez com que matassem,só lhe importa o jardim e ir à Alemanha estar com a mulher do seu aniversário,mas nesse dia recebe a noticia do desembarque na Normandia com mau tempo e chama-se estupido a si proprio por ter ido à Alemanha,mas demasiado tarde;e depois disso tem que se entender com Hitler.Esse video quero ver,deve ser uma furia daquelas do Hitler,bronca das grandes.
Fun fact: Rommel kept troops from partaking during the landings because he estimated they would be needed to fight SS troops still loyal to the regime after operation Valkyria.
@Rommel the Cat also you will find that the British faced as many infantry divisions and panzer divisions just after D-day as the Russians did during the bagration attack
Os aliados desembarcaram mesmo com mau tempo e conseguiram sair das praias e vançar pela França e mais tarde chegar a Paris e depois mesmo chegar à Alemanha e derrotar os nazis também com ajuda das tropas soviéticas.
The lighting for these scenes is so theatrical as to be beyond belief. Compare the lighting of "Saving Private Ryan" to "The Longest Day" and it just looks like a typical "Brady Bunch", or, "MacMillan and Wife", or "Columbo". I know the technology has changed drastically, but, still, couldn't the producers, with an almost unlimited budget, have done something to give the lighting a more realistic rendering? For this, I give th is movie a a 5 Stars thumbs down.
