traveled around France and looked as his orders had been followed.

The beaches had been many of them had been very well fortified in very short time.

Field marshal Irwin Raml was running out of time as May turned into June of 1944.

He had done all he could, including adding Germany’s battleh hardened 352nd Infantry Division to the Normandy coast.

[Music] One huge advantage Raml had going for him in early June 1944 was his knowledge of the tactics used in previous Allied landings in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, especially how they relied on weather reports.

June is a particularly nasty month weatherwise in the English Channel.

Holding to form, the weather in early June 1944 along the English Channel coast of France was very windy, very wet, and predictably nasty.

However, Allied weather forecasters had seen something German meteorologists didn’t see.

A 48-hour break from the elements beginning on June 6th.

Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D.

Eisenhower said, “Go.

” [Music] D-Day.

The decision to launch Operation Neptune Overlord in less than suitable conditions would stun Field Marshal Irwin Raml.

The choice of Normandy as the location was also surprising.

It was not Pakala.

He was very surprised because relied on the expert view of the Germans marine that nobody could land under such weather conditions.

It was a very courageous decision of General Eisenhower and a very successful.

The navy was not existent.

Air Force also said no by such a weather it’s not worth to get our machines out.

And so the first to notice the invasion was infantry.

This is extraordinary.

But making matters much worse for the Germans on the morning of June 6th, 1944 was that the commander of the Atlantic Wall was not even in France.

Irwin Raml decided it would be a good time to return to his home in Herring in Germany to accomplish two objectives, one personal and one professional.

Because he had the intention to to go to Hitler and tell him again what it means if the Normandy has been fallen.

He used to visit my mother who had her 50th birthday.

And so my father was in our house near on the 6th of June.

At 7:20 on the morning of June 6th, 6:20 a.

m.

in France, the telephone rang at the Raml House in Germany.

17,000 Allied airplanes, 7,000 ships, and some,000 Allied troops were either attacking Normandy or just off the coast.

We have interrupted this program to bring you another special invasion broadcast under the command of General Eisenhower.

Allied naval forces supported by strong Eisenhower and his fuel commander, the great Montgomery of Egypt and North Africa have attacked along miles of the French coast.

The elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe and security for ourselves in a free world.

And then he said it takes 24 hours.

Afterward we know what was going on.

[Music] And from this this was the beginning of my heart’s condition that not only the war is lost but the battle is lost.

Manford Rammo was also home on June 6th with his father.

The young teenager had been called up to join the German Lufafa as a flack helper for an anti-aircraft gun.

But I had an opportunity to see my father.

So I am one of the first German understanding that an invasion had begun.

[Music] Manford witnessed his father’s initial reaction to reports of the Normandy landings.

He also saw his frustration of not being able to get back to his headquarters at Lar Roon at that decisive moment in history.

He was not pleased.

Not at all.

He said, “I wish I am was in France.

There there was still no clear picture of the situation in my father’s run headquarters.

They still were doubtful if this really had been the landing.

But this changed in one hour and my father began to call his driver and to prepare himself for departing to France and he said this is very painful that they are landing while I’m not there.

Following more reports from his chief of staff Hans Spidel Irwin Raml left Herlingin Germany by car for France around 10:30 in the morning of June 6th.

The field marshall arrived back at Lar Rokon around 9:00 p.

m.

There were still thoughts that morning that Normandy was just a diversion.

The real attack would still come at Padal.

[Music] Operation Fortitude’s plan of deception had been an overwhelming success.

It worked so well that the German 15th Army stayed at Calala, waiting well into July for an invasion that never came.

Allied control of the skies hindered any immediate response by German tanks and reserve infantry on D-Day and the days that followed, just as Raml had predicted.

Direct hits are scored on roads used by the Nazis to bring up reinforcements against our largest initial beach head less than 10 miles away.

They followed very exactly where the Germans are.

In addition to winning the air battle, American and British ships control the channel coast.

Their big guns reach deep inland.

Some commanders and German said it’s not possible that they fire over a distance of 30 km.

It’s quite something that was possible to control the coast.

The Allies had managed to land 156,000 troops ashore and had driven an average of 4 to 6 miles inland.

On June 7th, Raml drove to Normandy to see the desperate situation for himself.

My father analyzed the situation but came back to his headquarters.

Despite 10,000 casualties, the Allies had established their beach head.

A week after D-Day, Irwin Raml knew full well the war in Western Europe was lost.

Raml’s bluntness about the situation in Normandy with Adolf Hitler was not appreciated by the furer.

The two met on June 15th to discuss Normandy.

My father even he did not exclude that Hitler might give in when he sees that there is no hope.

We cannot win the war and this is not possible.

We must see that.

And then Hitler said to my father, I see it well, but with me nobody will make peace.

And this was many people had to discover that Hitler would more like to lead the Germans to the disaster.

And this is terrifying that he was almost successful.

[Music] Irwin Raml knew all along that all his mines, obstacles, fortifications, and infantry could never stop the Allies.

By gaining their beach head, Raml knew that the Anglo-American alliance now held all the cards in the West.

As the battle of Normandy raged, Irwin Raml began articulating that the only way to save Germany was for Adolf Hitler to seek a truce with the Americans and the British.

We were in a very poor situation.

My father was convinced that the Germans had no never had any chance to win the battle under the beaches.

The war was lost.

The allied were in a position where they had not to concede anything to the Germans.

Hitler had it to disappear and the only thing you could do, only thing good you could do in as a German general was to surrender.

Raml told Hitler to make peace even if that meant that Hitler had to step down as fur as head of state.

If the allies would not negotiate with Hitler and Hitler openly admitted, no one will negotiate with me.

In that case, it was time for Hitler to step aside.

And as Raml put it, the proper considerations have to be taken.

Irwin Raml’s forthrightness with Hitler came to a head on July 15th, 1944 in a three-page letter to the Furer.

In it, Raml told Hitler the war in the West was lost and in so many words that the Furer of Germany should now sue for peace in the West.

Ending the fight in Western Europe would also allow Germany to devote more resources to defending itself against the fast approaching Russians in the east.

The only thing that Evan Raml could have done, he could have done no other.

He could not have remained silent and watched the Germany that he loved be destroyed in the name of a man that he had come to detest.

There had been rumblings that others also wanted Adolf Hitler removed.

Their goal, however, was to assassinate him.

A small group was working on a plan to murder Hitler in the summer of 1944.

The great majority were passive in the third rank.

It was not not possible to tell to your friend.

We should kill Hitler and make a revolution.

Maybe the friend is such a patriot that he runs to the police denounces you.

Also the the German resistance movement was composed of staff officers of priests of elite who who believed and knew that they were not falling in the hands of traitors but to in public to talk to people this was suicide.

The war was no longer about Germany.

The war had had morphed into being about Adolf Hitler.

And at that point, in Raml’s estimation, it certainly became evil.

And Hitler became evil with it.

Because Hitler was no longer working for Germany’s general good.

He was using Germany to preserve himself.

The honeymoon was long past.

The time for a divorce was coming.

[Music] Irwin Raml was not in favor of killing Germany’s leader.

Raml’s oath to serve his country superseded any murderous plot.

Irwin Raml wanted Hitler out but felt assassination was not an option.

Raml believed Hitler should surrender Germany to the Western Allies first, then stand trial in court by the German people.

Any thoughts of being part of a murder plot was not something Irwin Raml actively considered in 1944.

However, he did listen to some of those German officers in favor of Hitler’s assassination.

Now, this is where it gets tricky.

The whole idea of assassination of a head of state was something that would have been abhorrent to uh Evan Raml simply because it wasn’t done.

And by that I mean this is a patently illegal act.

It’s not the way Germans do things.

It was treason pure and simple.

In Raml’s eyes, he was prepared to to countenance Hitler being arrested and removed from his position as fur of the Third Reich.

He was not willing to countenance assassination.

It’s the difference between a legal and an illegal action.

[Music] On July 17th, 1944, while returning to Lar Roon from a conference, two British Spitfires caught up with Irwin Raml’s staff car near the French town St.

Germaine de Montgomery.

car was forced off the off the road and into into the ditch.

In the process, Raml, who was sitting in the front seat, was thrown against the uh frame of the windshield, uh smashed to the left side of his face, uh to the point where it was almost disfiguring.

the Hespa hospital and I first suppose suppos supposed suppos supposed suppos supposed suppos supposed suppos supposed suppos supposed suppos supposed suppos supposed suppos supposed suppos supposed suppos supposed that he will die in the same night did not survive but my father did and this was the end of his military career uh his cheekbone was was crushed the the orbit for his left eye received a fractured skull um interestingly enough it didn’t seem to do anything to him psychologically ly uh he was still uh very alert and aware but it took him out of the battle completely.

He never held active command again after that.

He was relieved of command for uh for medical reasons and that really marked the end of his combat career.

Before suffering his severe injuries on July 17th, Irwin Raml had allegedly been working on an alternative scenario for ending the war in Western Europe sooner rather than later.

Raml’s arrangement involved taking matters into his own hands and dealing with the Allies himself if Hitler would not.

Therefore, he decided to try to render the army.

But he couldn’t do so because he was hit by the bullets and grenades of two British fighters and was out of action since July 17th.

Operations room Hitler’s headquarters following the attempt to his life.

Conjecture runs high as to whether in fact he did escape at the time or succumbed later to his injuries.

The planned July 20th, 1944 attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Furer’s Rastenberg headquarters in East Prussia, also known as the Wolf’s Lair, failed.

[Music] More than 5,000 people would be tried and executed for the attempt on Adolf Hitler’s life.

Most were not involved in any way, but it allowed Hitler to eliminate many of those he felt were not loyal to him.

One of those on his list was his once favorite field marshal.

Raml would never be allowed a public trial.

Adolf Hitler would make sure of that.

Raml was guilty of speaking the truth to Hitler.

It didn’t matter if he was in on the plot to kill Hitler or not.

Raml committed treason in Hitler’s eyes for having a defeist attitude.

[Music] In the fall of 1944, Hitler’s form of justice caught up with Irwin Raml while he was recuperating at home in Herlingan, Germany.

When Irvin Raml woke up on the morning of October 14th, 1944, he had no idea that it was his last day on Earth.

Around noon, two general officers, SS generals, came calling and informed him that a military tribunal had concluded that he was guilty of acting against the furer and the interests of the fatherland.

He was given a choice.

One of the generals had brought a vial of cyanide with him.

Rama could take the cyanide, commit suicide.

No actions would be taken against Lucy or Manfred.

Raml would be given a state funeral and there would be no mention whatsoever about any disfavor that Raml might have fallen into uh with Hitler.

Or the alternative was that Raml could dispute the charges and be brought before a people’s court.

You didn’t leave the people’s court with an acquitt.

It was only a question of how much of a circus and how much of a farce they would make out of the proceedings before a pronouncement of guilt and a death sentence was handed down.

He had a brief scene with Lucy telling her that uh in a quarter of an hour I’ll be dead.

There were two men outside.

They brought poison.

Um, this is the price I have to pay for telling the truth to Hitler.

So, Raml asked Manford to be strong and to be there for his mother.

And then he drove off with the two SS generals and a few hundred yards up the road.

They pulled over to the side.

The two generals got out of the car, walked short distance away.

Raml took the poison.

They came back.

Uh, he was gasping for air.

He was already unconscious and almost dead.

Within minutes, he was dead.

[Music] He was given a state funeral.

At one point, uh, Field Marshall Fon Runstead had to declare because his speech was scripted by Gerbell’s propaganda department.

[Music] Fun should had to declare that Raml’s heart belonged to the furer, which of course was absolute nonsense.

But Raml had done the honorable thing.

It was the only choice he had really.

Adolf Hitler had succeeded in ridding himself of one of his only generals who dared tell him the truth about the war.

[Music] [Music] Following Raml’s death, Hitler led Germany to almost total ruin before finally committing suicide in his Berlin bunker on April 30th, 1945.

[Music] By that time, millions more Germans had died unnecessarily, and the Soviet Union was set to claim half of Germany as communist property.

Germany’s once most celebrated field marshal had been proven right in the end.

Irwin Raml had paid for his prophetic words and brutal honesty with his life.

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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