took on d day were extensive. and the fighting ever since has been extremely costly. it will really have the lead role in the push for sanlo. it gives you a closer look at it. you could see the varsz units in play. this is the thickest of the country. it fights in this area from july 10th to july 18 h. r.

>> le wruz wrong about that. howie turns out to be beloved by his mend and during one of the last drives for sanlo, he was killed by german shell fire. either mortar or artillery, not really sure. his body is carried by other

soldiers into sanlo and is placed under a flag. >> it's kind of a symbol of what american youth has done. he's known to this day as the major of sanlo. thomas howie. so with this key objective, finally, in his hand, bradly hopes to kind of pivot out of san lurks o and beyond. i mentioned montgomery's good wood offensive. now, originally, he had hoped to coordinate that with a major offensive by bradly pushing southwest out of sanl ourks. and both want to use the air forces to carpet bomb the front lines ahead of them.

the americans rbt going to be in a position to push until july 24th. that's several days after the good wood offensive. so july 24th, 1944, bradly will launch what's called operation cobra. he's coordinated with the air force back in england to basically bomb in front seat of his lines. so tach rate the german lines in front of the u.s. army units. basically three divisions with infantry mounted on tanks. basically, they're going to be mounted on tanks from the third armor division.

like a mobile tagsing force. to exploit that breech in a mobimoe bible campaign in normandy. the commanders is not good. the air commanders told bradly, though he will deny this later, that they could not, basically, bomb whosonly to the american lines. so if this is the u.s. line here, the bombers would ideally come other the german lines and drop their bombs. but if they do that, they're going to run a gaunt lent all along the german line there. plus, it's going to take them forever. hours and hours and hours to do this. they said no, we're going to come over vertically. straight over the u.s. lines and drop our loads once we're passed the u.s. lines. this is, of course, what happens. they come in from that direction. the drops are short.

and there is loss of life on the u.s. side. ground commanders demonstrated great frustration because they had taken some hard one ground. and then the ground commander said great, i've got to go take that. even with that, dozens of lives lost. so bradly has to decide. this is a tough senior leader decision. should i unleash the bombing again on july 25 thd, knowing the dangers this time. and decides to go ahead with it. so the crewmen are briefed. so what do you think happens on

july 25th? here's murphy's law, in effect. which way do you think the wind is blowing? towards the orange lines. there's confusion by at least one or two groups. and that's all it takes. they will unload their bombs over the u.s. lines. and there will be more friendly fire casualties. ultimately, you'll have 111 americans killed. many come from the old hickory division. i can assure you by july 25th, hates the u.s. army air force. if you've ever heard of the great correspondence early pile. he wrote a wonderful account of what this was like to be bombed by his own air force. he was right there with the fourth division. they find that the germans are

still in a good position to resist. some of those front line positions hasn't been hit that hard. the rear areas had been really nailed. people just destroyed, horse columns destroyed. all of this kind of stuff. so once you get past that hard crust of initial resis tense, there is room maneuver. and colins has to make this decision. there's kraterring and we don't know what's ahead of us. should i send the task force of infantry on tanks. send them forward. he does so by july 26th and 7th. it leads to a breakthrough through that rectangle, that blue rectangle that's been bombed and beyond. and now is where the germans are really in trouble. and the kind of mobile campaign that the americans had always

wanted. the july 28th and 29th will be in roadblock position and run into a very powerful, german armored task force that leads to confused night battle with significant loz of life on both sides. it is to the american's advantage now. on august 1 st, of course, they act vat the famous third army. this is iii siesly what they'll

be doing on the western side of the map. bassically, slash and dash. move quickly. just hit the germans hard. get to the rear areas and circle them. this is what patten's army excels at. they're going to move to the german army going to find them else there a very difficult and mortal position at this stage. and from a kind of conceptual viewpoint, this is, i think, you know, history isn't just about memorizing facts or dates or even military histories about that, either. there's a kind of larger analysis or purpose to it all, in a sense. and what's interesting to me as an american historian, is that this u.s. army that you now see in late july, in august, 1944, after what's generally known as the breakout from normandy,

reflects the society that has created it and is sustaining it. the u.s. army hardly even knows what a horse is. not just the day mouse tanks, but jeeps and trucks and recovery vehicles and air kraft and all of it is designed for mobile slashing, transportation-oriented mechanized maneuverable warfare.

so what you have is a fast-moving force. this is the flip side of the air force. the heavy bombers had been asked to do something that was really not in their skill set to bomb a precision target right in front of friendly troops. now, in this instance, you're talking about fighter bombers, medium bombers, that are more 5:00 rat, that can fly flower, moving ahead of ground formation to act as eyes and ears and to give them close support. and this is precisely what happened. if you're a jer machb column moving on the roads of normandy, you're going to be in the road of trouble. so they get kind of bent around. so if you're the german commanders, at this point, you might say, well, it's time to get out of there, right? well, hitler being hitler, he's not going to think that way. he wants to attack.

he's giving orders forbidding retreat. and he says, all right, let's counter attack. he scrapes together their best remaining armored divisions in normandy and attacks on august 7th through 12th, 1944. the purpose of this is to get all the way to about ten miles away and to basically cut off patten and reverse the whole time. certainly, it takes the americans off guard and leaves it fr a period of three to four days. the operation is a dismal failure. he loses about one-third of his armor. when it's over, it's pretty clear they have to get out of nor man day or risk everything that's left. so in the wake of mortane, what the americans are hoping to do is to ensieshcircle the remains that army and destroy it. paten has had to siphon off in

britain, which he doesn't want to do. why? there's supply ports. that's the original plan. just like shareborg. they're going to have to fight to the end and then destroy the port cities when they have the chance. chance. the rest of patton's army is going to swing around eastward. patton is hoping to swing north toward the landing beaches and snap that trap shut and join hands with the 21st army group, british and canadians coming from the other direction. well, originally, this is the concept for the allies, but eventually bradley will tell them to halt more or less at argent. this is a controversial decision, because it's thought by some historians that it allows some germans to escape that otherwise might not have. regardless of that, you do end up with an encirclement eventually, by about august 18th, 1944. tens of thousands of germans had

escaped. some tanks escaped, some vehicles escaped, equipment and the like. but the two sides do join hands. and in a town called chambois. what's interesting about this, it's not a linkup of americans and british, it's americans and polish. a captain from the 90th division, a company commander, is reconning ahead of his unit that day. he's taking cover in a ditch, trying to see what's ahead as he has orders to move forward and take the town. he notices a guy in a funny looking uniform walking along the road. he knows he's not a german, but he's not sure whoe had is, so he decides to kind of go from cover, he doesn't want to, and find out who he is and talk to him. it turns out it's a polish army commander. you have a polish army division moving from the other direction. heconnect 1200

>> the home to american history tv. programs that tell our nation's story, including six unique series. the civil war's 150th anniversary, visiting battlefields and key events. american artifacts, touring museums and historic sites to reveal america's past.

"history bookshelf" with the best known american history writers. the presidency, looking at the policies of the commanders in chief. lectures in history, with top college professors delving into america's past. and archival government and educational films from the 1930s through the '70s. c-span3, created by the cable tv industry and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. we're taking the opportunity while congress is on break to show you some of the american history programs you would normally see on weekends,8(d he on c-span3. we begin with army veterans, on what it was like on the front lines during world war ii. including their experiences as part of the d-day invasion of nazi occupied france. then the wives and children of soldiers discuss their memories of world war ii, including pearl harbor, d-day and president

franklin roosevelt's death. that's followed by author rick atkinson on the significance of the allied invasion of sicily and the italian campaign, to the eventual liberation of europe. friday, 8:00 p.m. eastern, a history tour looking at the civil war. saturday 6:30 p.m. eastern, the communicators visits a technology fair on capitol hill. sunday on q&a, political commentator, author and former presidential candidate pat buchanan. hillary clinton, barack obama, and edward snowden. saturday at 10:00 p.m. eastern, daniel hellber. and saturday morning at 10:30, we visit the sites of casper, wyoming. and the negro league's