This video is sponsored by Battlefront Miniatures and their table-top miniature game Flames of War. Check out their products here: www.flamesofwar.com

An American hears the word hedge and thinks a small decorative row of shrubbery, not a several hundred year old structure designed to keep cows in a field, a possible source of the oversight.

Im glad you used these models to demostrate, it adds value and understanding please use this format more often.

Probably the coolest sponsorship yet.

Today I learned that hedgerows are not just hedges. This makes so much more sense

The vetter was very vet and vindy. (The accent is but a small reason why I love this channel.)

You should play a battle against Lindybeige finally settle the questions about the power of the MG42 vs Bren. Panzer III vs Churchill Kar 98 vs No. 4. Have Bismark and Squire come in and make plane noises with his mouths in the backgound.

" Haha they are just some bushes. Our tanks will smash trough them! " French hedgerows: *I'm about to deztroy this man's entire tactical plan.*

"At first Glantz seems correct." Your puns are top-notch!

That last quote! Hell yes MHV

My Dad was in an Aviation engineering battalion. He drove heavy equipment (bulldozers and shovels) to build forward fighter airstrips. He came ashore on Omaha beach on June 12th along with the rest of his battalion. He was in the hedgerow country for a little while. He described a technique they tried one day. They had crates of hand grenades available. The ground troops would start the assault by throwing a BUNCH of grenades over the top to suppress the defenders and to generate smoke. Then my Dad would drive a bulldozer up to the hedge and try to punch through. The blade was set at the sharpest angle they could set it to try and make it punch through easier. If the hedge gave way, the plan was to leave the bulldozer in gear and let it crawl across the field ahead while the driver bailed off just before getting through the hedge. They tried that on one hedge and it worked! Dad managed to punch through and bailed off just in time. The bulldozer continued on across the field and eventually ground to a halt at the next hedge. A couple of tanks ran through and supporting infantry and that assault was quickly over. The next hedge they tried it at a panzerfaust was fired at the bulldozer and blew off the mount for the cables that raised and lowered the blade. That was the end of Dad's hedge hopping career. Captain wasn't happy about the damage to his bulldozer. Another group tried to remote control a bulldozer with some cables hanging off the levers that controlled left and right turns. Kinda worked, but not well. The cables got hung up a lot and the bulldozer either stopped going or turned off in the wrong direction. They quickly decided it wasn't worth the cost in lost bulldozers - they were worth as much or more as a tank in many situations, but that is another story.

When the Hedges start speaking German and the Trees start speaking vietnamese

Little known fact: Hitler used the Flames of War German Starter Force to rebuild the German army. The vehicles and soldiers were even pre-painted.

I'mma use this next time the neighboor's kid tries retrieving the ball he kicked into my backyard

I always laugh at "first Glantz" and the have to back up to see what I missed. But don't stop with the Saint David references.

Great video! I played a bocage scenario in Flames of War and it was utter hell for my Canadians to get through! The American 2nd Armoured Division had its own approach by improving its tank-infantry co-operation by briefly training the infantry in Russian style tank riding. It was considered to be quite effective and reduced road congestion since the half-tracks weren't needed. The training was as followed, quoted from Panzergrenadier vs US Armoured Infantryman by Steven J. Zaloga, page 40: "The first step taken was to "marry-up" one infantry company and one tank company in a common bivouac area where maximum personal contact between tank and doughboy was physically possible and highly encouraged. Infantrymen were quickly familiarized with as many characteristic and capabilities of the tanks as the limited training time permitted. Among the means used to orient the attached infantry were scheduled, supervised practice rides on the back deck of tanks, tank performance demonstrations, and conferences at which company and platoon level tank-infantry tactics were stressed. At the end of the planning phase, each infantryman knew the name of his tank commander and knew the name of the tank they were riding upon which he was to ride and give his support in the ensuing action, as well as what he could expect in the way of support, and just how the team was to function."

So you’re saying America’s weakness is plants that speak foreign languages

While mainstream TV channels are broadcastings loads of run-of-the-mill american praising documentaries, I'm glad I can enjoy quality tactical content on MHV.

Nice sponsor. They do provide a really effective means of visual examples.

I think theres an issue around 2:55 There dosnt seem to be anything inside the "Excellent Camouflage circle" but im sure i looked there

Illuminating video. Thank you. My father walked across Omaha beach with the 83 Infantry division a week after D-Day and his introduction to combat was to form up and be ordered to "take the hedgerows". They were at it for weeks and it was apparently slow and bloody work. Tactics were improvised because training had consisted primarily of long marches with full backpacks. Germans were professional soldiers who started with the Hitler youth. Dad, like many of the guys, had been given an honorary diploma when he dropped out of high school to enlist. Dad didn't tell too many stories, but he said it was quite shocking when they realized after the first day that the Lieutenant was ordering privates to walk across the middle of the small fields. One of the older privates figured out that, if all 3 of them got to the next hedgerow, it was safe to order the company across because none of them had been dropped by snipers. Like I said, tactics were "improvised". And combat was close quarters. Dad said that they learned early to stagger their reloads. The Germans were often close enough to hear the distinctive PING as their M-1 Garand would lock open on the last round and use the moment to counter. There was a lot yelling to find out if the troops on the other side of the hedge were on your side as you threw grenades or poked your head thru a bush. Being part of an "every man" army that defeated professional soldiers was a great point of pride for him.

I'd heard a bit about tactics surrounding hedgerows, but this was very informative. Keep up the good work.

interesting that you omitted mentioning the Cullen Hedgerow Cutter that according to many sources was the best and most expedient solution to the hedgerow problem. Prior to it's use, tanks would expose their vulnerable underside too long and be knocked out easily. Most hedges were too tall for tanks sitting behind them to shoot in to the corners, or any where else in the objective field. Once fitted with hedgerow cutters, tanks could knock their way through and provide the necessary fire support using their main gun and coaxial, assuming that someone wasn't able to hit them with rocket grenade. Close coordination between not only tanks and infantry, but often with tanks teams as well served to finally overwhelm the defenders immediately upon the assault commening, with the mentioned motor teams spreading havoc behind the objective hedgerow. This was still casualty intensive, nasty work with enemies often shooting at each other from what would normally be considered pistol range. I had a good grounding in this from my late father, who was there.

Germany right before the war: *No really, these are tractors, honest* America: *Sherman Dozer*

0:28 "ohama beach" that's close enough, I'll accept it

I like this sponsership, It seems like something that actually fits your channel and helps with demonstration

Really quality content you have been putting out around the Normandy invasion anniversary. Top-notch, you put such an incredible amount of work into this, I just wanted to commend you and say thanks! Keep it up.

Very nice! This video reminds me a lot the tactical game "Close Combat". Some of the series take place in the bocages area. By the way, you need to paint more yellow or ocre in your German tanks. Green, brown and yellow.

@Military History Visualized I have always enjoyed your video presentations and found them well researched and informative. However, I cannot fail to comment , after you called the beach where the allied losses were the greatest - Ohama! Other than that, thankyou for all your sterling efforts thus far. 😊

The product placement for the sponsor actually makes sense in this video.

I lived in Normandy for 10 years and I can guarantee that even after watching this video you're still underestimating the "Bocage". They aren't hedgerows, not even close, they're essentially walls of earth held together by tree roots, in some cases (especially either side of country roads) they can be several metres high and extremely steep. Think something like this: __ / \ / \______ _____ / \__/ You're on the road (on the left) then there's a drainage ditch 2 foot deep in front of a sloped wall covered in long grass and weeds topped with thick hedges or trees that's anywhere from 4-12 foot high, followed by a sharp drop on the other side into an open field with little to no cover (Mostly grazing fields for livestock in Normandy). On top of this much of the countryside is rolling hills as opposed to the flat field shown in the video. I honestly can't imagine a worse place to attack since you're essentially fighting field by field whilst your enemy has natural defensive walls behind them every few hundred yards that they can retreat to. You don't even need to set up minefields because the enemy armour can hardly ever get into position. It's an ambush-setters wet dream. The only good side is that the terrain also allowed the allies to maintain a foothold in Normandy and prevent a german counterattack.

You do good work man. I really enjoy your videos. I particularly like the detail on tactics. Great stuff.

Wonderful use of the models to explain the tactical level of action.

Thank you for posting this video so close to the anniversary of the Normandy invasion. Very timely!

This...was a cool idea. Well done sir👏😃

0:20 "On the 6th of june, 1944..." My brain: *THE ALLIES ARE TURNING THE WAR!*

I love the usages of the Flames of War stuff :)

I love the dioramas that shows us who it was done in practice.

Thanks for posting this, MHV. I sure hate how the hedgerows keep immobilizing my tanks and taking them out of my forcepool, it's good that I can now watch this video to know how to best eliminate them. Never mind, I seem to have confused "Hedgerow tactics" with "anti-hedgerow tactics".

Excellent use of visual props to explain the details of the tactics used by the troops and infantry in the hedgerow country.

I'm honestly surprised at how few people actually grasped the concept of these natural walls. Thank you for making this video, everything about it was fun to watch AND educational. Great sponsor too btw!

Great video! Love these shows! I use the Flames of War models for Chain of Command table top game for a more historical WW2 skirmish

I love table top miniatures; I paint and collect them as a source of relaxation. Your videos provide excellent background entertainment while hobby-tasking. Keep up the proper work.

Top notch work mate👌

Really great video man. Keep it up

Awesome. Well done as always.

Super das du jetzt auch bei Tabletop Sachen unterwegs bist. Gefällt mir sehr gut.

Oh, I remmeber those Hedgerows from the "Bridge to Far" games. Espeecially with my brother playing as the germans.

"...at first Glantz....", I see what you did there.

The miniatures were a very significant improvement to your visuals.

Please keep on using the miniature figures for future videos grüße aus dem Odenwald!

Close Combat originally from Microsoft has a lot of this kind of fighting in it. It's really fun & very accurate regarding sound effects etc. Great video.

Very well explained! Awesome video!

A very good cooperation between the purpose of your channel/your lessons and your sponsorship! Very well!

0:28 "Ohama means family" :P Great video as always. :)

Very interesting to me, as my Dad fought at Falaise as a member of an American armored Cavalry unit he joined pre-war. He crewed an M8 armored car. He told one story about his unit having to drive across an intersection lined with hedgerow. They went one by one, while the Germans had an 88 shooting down the road. He never told much detail about his war service, but he did say the Canister round for his M8’s 37mm cannon was useful there, as was the .50 Browning. He also became a lifetime fan of the M1 Garand. One thing you seem to have missed... It wasn’t so much a “dozer Sherman”... American ingenuity came into play, and locally fabricated hedge blades were made and mounted on Sherman’s and Stuart’s.

Thanks for the wonderful coverage of the problems surrounding Hedgerow Hell. I'd found similar info and turned it into a small document, including an altered formula used by the 2d Division and the effects of the combined arms teams in combat: '… spent the next weeks trying to solve the problem of assaulting through the hedgerows; insidious 4-8 foot-high hedges built atop thick stone walls which formed "Hedgerow Hell"--the Bocage. These small fields and high hedges made coordinated attacks difficult and precluded the adjustment of artillery fire as a man could see no further than the hedge opposite his own. Attached tank units could not assist the infantry, as cresting a hedge exposed the underside of the tank to anti-tank fire. Narrow roads constricted maneuver; a single knocked out tank would block the small single-lane avenues and a single MG would close these same lanes to infantry. A combined arms solution was needed, and thus the idea of the tank-infantry-engineer team was formulated. 29th Div teams opted to have a dozer or rhino tank breach a hedge, closely followed by a supporting rifle squad, an engineer team, an MG, and a 60 mm mortar. During rehearsals, cal .30 MGs were found to be too cumbersome to take into these attacks; infantrymen instead took to scrounging extra B.A.R.s to supplement the single such weapon a squad was usually issued. Some squads likely managed to hoard as many as three or four, though two was the norm. The 2d Div altered this formula, dispensing with 60 mm mortars entirely and instead proceeded with a rifle squad and a tank, with one engineer team attached to each. The rifle squad would enter a field and take the opposing hedge under fire, attempting to suppress it. The accompanying engineer team would "gap" their own hedge with explosives. With an M4 medium tank-sized hole now present, the tank would rumble into the field with its own engineer team clearing any mines they found from its path. On 11 July the 38th Infantry (with the 23d Infantry directly to the west) was ordered capture Hill 192. To soften up enemy positions, a 50-minute preparatory barrage was lain down with a second 25,000-round rolling artillery barrage initiated in its wake. Following no more than 100 yd behind this barrage were the assault-infantry companies and their new tank-infantry-engineer teams. E/2/38 initiated an attack at 0600; at 0620 the attack of the 38th’s 1st battalion (1/38) was stopped cold at its starting line by intense direct fire, including successive Panzerfaust attacks that put 6 tanks out of action before 0720. 2/38 to the right (west) attacked at 0630 and made steady progress up the hill. It captured parts of it and proceeded south toward D792, a departmental road that led to Bayeux. 1/38 kept steady pressure on the enemy (of 3. Fallschirmjägerdivision); remaining fanatic defenders around the hamlet of Cloville (nicknamed "Kraut Corner") refused to surrender and were buried alive by a dozer tank of the accompanying 741st Tk Bn. Having had their flank turned by 2/38, the Germans opted to retreat and abandoned the hill to the Americans, who captured the summit by 1330. The advance continued, with artillery called down on any perceived German positions. German gun emplacements survived in the wake of such an earth-shattering barrage, even from direct hits; the German paratroops fought like dogs and had to be sought out and gunned down at close range. By nightfall (1900 hours), the hill was fully-secured and the two battalions of the 38th dug in a mere 200 m north of D792 to defend their newly-won territory against major counterattacks that never materialized; only one small, ineffectual attack was launched by the German paratroops. Of the mere 200 German prisoners taken, many were curious about the diabolical new American artillery, which they assumed had to be fully-automatic.'

It is particular interesting to hear the stories about the difference between working in bocage cause. For example, our Recce Sqn vets remember how bocage caused a change in crest drills from something recognizable as a crest drill into: Driver will pull out manual throttle to a level that is just past the point that the veh will just make the crest. Then crew bails out of the truck, and if the enemy doesn't shoot the gas tank, you run after the truck, get into a spot where you jump into your truck in a position to continue your Recce. Trouble is the crucial bits, such as setting the throttle, is rife with problems. Facta non verba.

Look forward to playing some hedgerow tactics games with my son over the summer holidays.

Big shout out to the Cullen Hedgerow Cutter

cool to see Battlefront / FOW as the sponsor. I've been into their stuff since beta.

I love the little icons you use in all your videos

You should do more videos on battles for amateur history buffs with these models. These models are super cool.

Love the use of miniatures.

I wish those figure came pre painted. Love the use of them in the video.

So goood explanation.. Easy to understand. Nice keep it good works 🤗🤗

this is the absolute first time i actually clicked on an youtube promotion. I love wings of glory, but never heard about flames of war.

Those are great looking miniatures man! I really think you should keep using them for your videos. Also as a side note are you into Team Yankee as well or just traditional Flames of War?

Outstanding review.

Great video as alvvays MHV ! It vvas nice to see a video completely dedicated to just this aspect of the D-Day invasion ( though it technically happend after the invasion & further inland ). Also it vvas nice seeing that you vvere sponsered by a miniature vvargame company rather than a video game company . I actually got the Open Fire box set from Flames of VVar about 4yrs ago & have found FoVV to be a really good miniatures system that has decent realism & allovvs players to re-create any of the various armies @ vvhatever time during the vvar & the rules for tanks seem both fair & accurate vvhen comparing their strengths & vveaknesses. But back to the topic I appreciate that you included the German tactics for defending the hedgrovvs as most history books make little mention ofit & concentrate on the Allies efforts to overcome them. TY for a great video & my appologies for my broken Double You key.

I read the accounts of a German infantryman that the fighting in Normandy was much harder on the German soldiers and caused a lot more shell-shock than the fighting on the Eastern front.This correlates with your description that the Western Allies would rather use up a lot of ammunition and send in the infantry cautiously rather than trying to exploit any gap that was formed with disregard to high losses, as the Soviets did.

The thing about infantry used cautiously is also what my grandfather experienced. He was 17 years old when he was drafted to the german army and became 18 shortly before the war ended. He told be a story about his squad getting bombarded by artillery and mortars for hours without any infantry engaging. They took cover in ruined buildings. When the bombardement stopped the infantry made it's move to look if they are still capable of fighting. When my grandfathers squad opened fire the infantry retreated instantly and the artillery started to bomb their positions again. My grandfathers squad made a fall-back as well when they realized they couldn't do anything except getting bombed to pieces. That's also one reason the americans had so (comparable) few casualties. They had more than enough ammunition and ressources and had no need to manage them. If an attack wasn't succesful they could simply restock and try again. They also had every time of the world knowing that germany was the one running out of time. That's why they had the luxury to watch closely over their soldiers. Also their wounded soldiers mostly survived because the medical support was very good. Wounded german soldiers had a much higher chance to succumb to their wounds because of the lack of medics and ressources at this stage of war. Overall the war was lost for germany when they failed to capture moscow and were on retreat. If they would have managed to bring the soviet union down, as unlikely as it might seem, they would have had access to huge reservoirs of ressources and equipment and they could have started to focus on the western theatre. And that would have made it several times harder to succesfully get a grasp on normandy after the landing. Maybe they wouldn't have tried it at all under these circumstances.

On the "hindsight warrior" I read a book about WW2 (maybe luck and a lancaster?) That said at least the glider pilots *did* train in hedgerows but that the ones in England were very different from the ones in france, leading to excessive crashes on landing. This suggests that maybe some of the infantry did train for hedgerows but the wrong kind, or that the reason they didn't train was because the ones in England lead command to believe they weren't an obstacle in need of additional special training.

So you’re telling me that neither the French nor the British bothered to remark about the reality of hedgerow country? To be honest, thank you for answering this question in your video.

Really nice video. You could have used used papper or wool to symbolise fire and smoke/phosporus in the stop-motion sequences. a simple computer animation would also work to clarifie where infantry, tanks and arty fire.

Nice use of models to illustrate the tactical issues. I actually went to their web-site to order something, but gave up in frustration after a few minutes.

That was an excellent talk about the hedge groves. Seriously, thank you. I've always been frustrated on how so many "historians" fail to adequately explain the fighting there. I would point out that American infantry quite probably didn't take advantage of artillery barrages because they didn't know if they were effective enough to exploit. Thanks again.

"pipe device" Bangalores! Sounds much cooler. Great use of a sponsor to make an informative video. Well done.

I can't beleive you were sponsored by Flames of War! 😁 I love that game.

The Bocage was HELL. Two of my Mom's uncles were in the 29th infantry, Omaha Beach / D-Day plus one. One of them was awarded the Bronze Star and Silver Star during the break out in the Bocage and in the Battle for St. Lo. My Mom still remembers when he came home (Roanoke Va) in 1945. He took her fishing one summer day, so he had shorts on. She said his legs were covered with scar tissue from where he had been wounded by shrapnel.

The tabletop miniatures are a good addition to your visuals. I hope you use them more often. Try shooting them from a lower angle though to get that eyeball line of sight.

Also, if they had done extensive training for fighting in the Bocage Country it would have been possible for the Germans to hear about that and know where the attack was coming.

Basically the Allies had secure supply lines and the resources to outlast and overwhelm the Nazis who were short of both men and materials so there was no need for the Allies to risk men as they also had time on their side (e.g. could dictate the tempo of the fight). **Credit to Lindybeige's recent video on Arty bombardments**

Good stuff. Just the way Uncle ED described it.

I love the way u say weather. The Vedther

i am still not sure how to react the term "legendary kitties" hmm

Excited to see me favourite miniatures game interacting with UKposts historians ☺️

Wow what hell! I knew about the hedgerows, but never really thought about how terrible it was to fight through them

I like that you use FOW models to demonstrate, I just started to collecting Flames of war models, so its great for me (i wanted earlyer but i waited for New starter box).

Surprised no mention of the Cullins Hedgerow Device.

@8:25 I've served in the Swiss Infantry and we still use "sections" today. The names are a bit complicated, since we mix our diffrent languages (Italian, German and French) in Military jargon. We just call the Platoon "Zug" (50- 70 Men), which consists of four groups "uno" "due" "tre" and "quattro". The Section is called "Halbzug" and is often refered to as "12" or "34" during radio communication (12 = uno + due / 34 = tre + quattro). The Platoon leader will often use this during manouvers where there is no external support available. In that case 12 is the attacking force which will assault an enemy position, while 34 provides covering fire.

Great video, I really love the minis tie-in. Would love to see similiar content, but totally get if tabletop wargaming not your thing ;)

Because the breakout was supposed to be at Caen. The US troops were there to secure the flank, and take one or two major ports. When the British bogged down, the US troops had no choice but to attack in the worse terrain this side of the Pripet Marsh.

Will you be doing a video on the Battle of the Buldge? Thank you and love your videos!

"At first Glantz"

I was in Normandy last year for D-Day celebration and just driving in the Edgerow is sketchy as hell !

Thanks for this video and the sponsor. Im pleased to see a quality sponsor like that.

Dammit! You beat me to it. I've had a similar video on the back burner for a while. I'm hoping to have it finished by the 80th anniversary...

Looks like a great game! And great job with the visuals! Very cool way to make it new and interesting.

Can Flames of War miniatures be used to play Crossfire? I just picked up the rulebook for CF because of Lindybeige, but now I'm interested in FoW, too. But I only have so much room to store the minis!