[General] listening comprehension questions

[discovery2010]

Hi, all:
I am new here and English is not my native language. What brought me here because I have some listening comprehension questions. Don't know if people here can help me out.
I am trying to figure out a few vague words from the video. Since this is my 1st posting, I am not allowed to attached the video link yet.
So I am trying to ask first if this kind of questions is allowed here. Below is the sample of my questions. I surrounded the vague or unsure parts with (?). I will deeply appreciate if people here can help me.

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5.

The Canadians advanced on Falaise began on the 7th of August, and became bogged down 4 days later.
(00:08)The Canadians reserves and the 1st Polish Armored Division were fighting their 1st battle and they proved unequal to the tasks (?==>)...(<==?) either capturing Falaise or driving through to Argentan to meet up with the Americans.
By the 11th August, when the Canadians came to a halt, they were only half way to Falaise after an advance of 9 miles.
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Most of the Allied commanders, except for the fiery Patton, were somewhat awed by the German military tactics which were admittedly superior.
This was particularly true when their skills were likely to be exercised in this tight corner as Falaise gap.
(2:00)The allies also went in dread in (?==>)fitting(?<== not sure) unacceptable casualty right on their own forces.
Add to that the lack of experience in conducting a large encirclement, and these interventions were going to limit the success the Allies were able to achieve at Falaise.
There was of course no questions that the Germans was going to hold the Falaise pocket.
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But he dismissed Von Kluge whom he suspected not only on a complacity in the July bomb plot but on the negotiating with the Allies behind his back.
(4:26)Von Kluge was replaced by Field Marshal Walter Model who found himself in charge not of an Army but a rabble (?==>)albeit(<==????) to get away from the killing fields of Normandy.　Time for escape was not running very short.
On the 17th of August, the 2nd Canadian Corps and the US 5th Corps made advances that reduced the exit from the Falaise pocket to just a few thousand yards.
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The Canadians meanwhile fired at every group of Germans they could see.
The Germans were scattered running in ones and twos from the shelter of one wood to the next.
(6:27)Some were picked off quickly. Some fell to the ground but managed to run on. Some lay injured unable to continue. Some simply gave up (?==>)while stick white flags(<==?).
But by then the Ground was littered with corpses and (?==>)hulks(?<== not sure) of smoking ruined tanks and vehicles.
The gap between Argentan and Falaise was finally closed on the 21st of August when the Canadians and Poles linked up at Coudehard.
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However they did leave behind 15,000 prisoners and some 4,000 of their tanks and other vehicles were destroyed.
(9:48)This though was not an escape to safety.
The French resistances, (?==>)a...(<==?) for revenge after 4 years of brutal occupation, sought and (?==>)saved(<==?) every opportunity to kill, torture or mutilate or

 

[discovery2010]

segment 6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v77-LIr3TGY


In early September 1944, when the Allied forces were approaching the West Wall, 14 weeks had passed since the D-Day landings in Normandy.
The West Wall, the fortifications protecting Germany's western border, laid 300 hundred miles inland from the Normandy beaches.
(2:56)But that was not the only way the distances could be calculated. It was also measured in (?==>)slog(<==?) and slaughter, hardship and destruction, trauma and exhaustion.
After the D-Day landings in Normandy, hundreds of thousands men had been killed on both sides, scores of them at a time to gain and often lose just a few yards of ground.
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The West Wall featured around 22,000 pillboxes, troop shelters, and command posts, all interlinked and all mutually supportive.
In some places, such as the rivers Rhine, Roer, and Kyll, the terrain provided nature obstacles to invasion.
(7:04)Where the (?==>)___(<==?) of land failed to oblige, concrete pyramids called dragon teeth were planted in parallel rows to obstruct the attackers.
(7:14)Nazi propaganda of course (?==>)t____(<==?) the West Wall as impregnable. Its real purpose was not to repulse the assaults but hold up the enemy long enough for mobile reserves to arrive and stage counterattacks.
Even so for the Allies in 1944 the difference was academic. The reality of the West Wall matched the propaganda for a very long time.

 

[discovery2010]

segment 7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2_-VpGAR2g

His luck inevitably ran out at the West Wall. Model directed ferocious fighting in the Mosel section assigned to his Army group B. But at the end he was forced to yield to the massive Allied onslaught.
(6:39)In April 1945, Model's Army Group B was surrounded in the Ruhr Pocket, rather than accepted defeat, he (?==>)___(<==?) all his forces and gave them the choices going home, fighting on with other units, or surrendering.
Model had always despised Field Marshal von Paulus who capitulated in Stalingrad in 1943 and had no intention of emulating him.
In stead, he shot himself on the 21st of April 1945 because he had said 'a Field Marshal did not surrender.' 'What is there left,' he once asked 'to a commander in defeat?'

(7:30)The Main Commander
The Allies(U.S.)
Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges was taciturn and uncommunicative.
(7:35)He shunt the (?==>)___ light ___(<==?)General Eisenhower despair of the obtaining for him the recognition he deserved as the commander of the US 1st Army.
It was possibly part of the campaign by Eisenhower to heighten Hodges profile as his troops became the 1st Allied forces to cross the Rhine in 1945.
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with his understated manner and version of publicity, Hodges was one of the quiet men of the American high command. Rarely raising his voices to get things done.
(8:40)Unfortunately he (?==>)struck(<==?) the lower ranks cold and colorless and had nothing like the flamboyant Patton's popular appeal.
Bradley however appreciated Hodges qualities, especially his insistence on detail planning. And one said he had implicit faith in Hodges judgments, skill, and restraint.

 

[discovery2010]

segment 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdKmH27CWYk&NR=1


(0:00)In 1945, tests showed the weapon was now able to fire over the distances up to 5,600 yds. The development continued into 1951 at which time the chemical mortar (?==>)____(<==?) one expert as a legitimate infantry weapon.
The pillbox in the West Wall was strong point, arsenal, and under ground shelter combined.
The reinforced concrete roofs were up to 7.5 feet thick, and the walls more than 6.5 feet thick. The roof rested on steel beams up to a foot think and there were two 1.1" steel doors.
(00:44)The regular pillboxes in the West Wall were interspersed with large multi-story structures, like the (?==>)cast head(<==?) armored fort near the village E... in the south Eifel.
(1:15)Its foundation was dug to a depth of 118 feet and the fort contained 3 stories with (?==>)reversible(<==?) turret (?==>)cannons(<==?), automatic flame throwers and machine guns. The rooms were air conditioned providing plenty of comfort for at least 48 men crew who could remain in the (?==>)cast head(?) for 6 weeks at a time.
(1:59)The typical West Wall pillbox was more compact. There were 2 entrances with large gas proof chamber between them. On the right it shows the stair case led up to the arms room with ammunition bunker attached and another 37 feet square beyond that. The 2nd arms room (?==>)leading(<==?) 99 feet square was sited in the rear.
(4:16)The 3rd battalion, led by the Lieutenant colonel (?==>)Teig(<==?), advanced towards the Black Man heights, carefully using the terrain to keep out of the sight of the West Wall's defenders.
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(5:39)A tough German (?==>)b...(<==?) Kampfgruppe Colonel was there, together with SS troops to dismiss American efforts with (?==>)furor(<==?) fire.
(9:10)Pencil thin penetrations were no interest to General George Patton, commander of the 3rd Army. As he told the newspaper reporters: 'I'm going to go through the wall like a (?==>)___(<==?) through a (?==>)___(<==?).'
(9:39)Patton’s (?==>)in p... no(<==?) serious difficulty. The section of West Wall immediate facing the 3rd Army was manned by 7 weak infantry divisions and a Panzer brigade of the German 1st Army.

 

[discovery2010]

segment 9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSeSSIAtJko&NR=1


(0:25)At this junction, the Americans had to halt for 4 days through the lack of supplies and provisions, and the onset of the bad weather. The delay gave the Germans the opportunity to regroup and concentrate their reserves from their 1st Army and had (?==>)shutter some ___(<==?) while they blocked the main route to the Rhine.
(0:52)The contest continued for 10 days and took on a regular pattern. The Germans attacked under the cover of fog, and (?==>)___(<==?) with vigorous engagement with the Americans. The Americans were aided by the aircraft by the 18th Tactical Air Command outmaneuvered the panzers and forced them to withdraw.
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(3:56)All the while they would maintain the maximum fire to ensure no German could escape while the defenders were being held and (?==>)enthralled(<==?) in this fashion. Buildings would be collapsing all around them and it would bury them in the ruins.
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(5:08)The 155mm worked on the Germans like a terror weapon. Later the German commander in Aachen, Colonel Gerhard Wilck, condemned it as "barbarous and (?==>)c...fully(<==?) banned(?)".

 

[discovery2010]

segment 10: YouTube - (10/11) Battlefield The West Wall 10 of 11 World War II

(00:00)fearful battle of (?==>)___(<==?) which infantry suffered so many losses that they were unable to continue.
(0:48)The ultimate responsibility for breaking this (?==>)unpass(<==?) lay with General Eisenhower.
(2:09)In one of the worst cases of bad luck coincidence in military history, Eisenhower's trap was pre-empted by the Ardennes offensive. A last gust (?==>)___(<==?) initiative by 24 German divisions to throw back the Allies and possibly win the war.
(3:00)Their target was Heinsberg salient, around 20 miles long which was defended by 3 lines of fortifications continuous trench and weapon pits covered by barbed wire and (?==>)liberally(<==?) sewn with mines.

(5:11)When contact eventually made, Patton was (?==>)enfuried(<==?) to be told the 3rd Army must stay put to go on defensive and wait for further orders. Orders when they came through were not much comfort to Patton.

But the attempts to preserve the elements of surprises suffered setbacks.
(5:53)The Germans suspected something big was (?==>)afoot(<==?) and was certain of it when the 3rd Army suddenly imposed radio silence.