Episode 01: Panzer Punch Reshapes D-Day

Panzer IV Tank

What was once an unimpeded view of French coastline is rudely interrupted by ugly, squat concrete bunkers, machine gun nests, and miles of barbed wire. The quaint French town of stone streets, houses, and a cathedral is a rubble-strewn mess.

Now, acrid smoke clings to the beach grass bluffs and round pebble dunes. On the beaches, everything is burning or burnt. Private Wojcik sees charred metal carcasses of Sherman tanks, misshapen burning hulls of square landing craft, and piles of smoldering ammunition boxes, ration crates, and soldiers. So many soldiers. They look like a carpet of green against the tan sand and gray rocks of the beaches.

His team of Polish, Russian and Czech prisoner soldiers are cleaning up debris from the Allied landings the day before. He finds it hard not to admire the bravery of the young American, Canadian and British soldiers who threw themselves against the Atlantic Wall. All for little to no effect.

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