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Aug. 24, 1985 9 p.m. From the Blitzkrieg to the Bomb: Normandy to Berlin WHYY-TV 12
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00:00:01It was the most massive and destructive war of all time.
00:00:06A war unlike any ever fought before.
00:00:10A struggle that would eventually engulf the entire world,
00:00:14leaving in its aftermath unimaginable destruction
00:00:16and the loss of countless lives.
00:00:20This is the story of how it happened.
00:00:23The strategies, the battles, and the consequences
00:00:26of a global conflict that left our world changed forever.
00:00:33This is the story of World War II,
00:00:36From Blitzkrieg to the Bomb.
00:00:45From Blitzkrieg to the Bomb is made possible in part
00:00:49with funds provided by this public television station,
00:00:52which depends largely on viewer contributions.
00:00:55Please join with your support.
00:01:07Fascist Italy in the late 1930s.
00:01:13Militaristic in appearance and brutal by nature,
00:01:16this new form of government is headed by a former Italian socialist,
00:01:20Benito Mussolini.
00:01:34This would-be Caesar dreams of a new Roman Empire,
00:01:38which will control the entire Mediterranean region.
00:01:42In 1935, he invades Ethiopia,
00:01:44one of the first aggressive acts that will eventually bring the entire world to war.
00:01:51Mussolini is Europe's first dictator,
00:01:54but it is Germany's Adolf Hitler who becomes the symbol for the fascists.
00:02:02This former World War I corporal and his Nazi party come to power in 1933.
00:02:08One year later, Hitler proclaims himself Fuhrer of the people,
00:02:13as all opposition is crushed.
00:02:19In exchange for abandoning democracy,
00:02:23Hitler promises the rebirth of Germany,
00:02:25a Third Reich that will last a thousand years.
00:02:30There are many reasons why the German people knowingly delivered themselves into the hands of a dictator.
00:02:37Since World War I, the German government had struggled under the burdens of the Versailles peace treaty and worldwide depression.
00:02:45In contrast, the Nazi party offers the promise of a new way of life.
00:02:50Discipline and order will take the place of uncertainty.
00:02:53Much of the country's economic ills are blamed on Jews,
00:02:57who are singled out for persecution.
00:02:59Internationally, Hitler denounces the Versailles treaty
00:03:02and bans the fears of communism.
00:03:05At the same time, Hitler orchestrates colossal parades and gigantic spectacles
00:03:11as proof of the resurgence of Germany.
00:03:21The German people are mesmerized.
00:03:26In 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome-Berlin Axis.
00:03:31The third member of the alliance will be Japan,
00:03:34still another nation with plans for territorial conquest.
00:03:37With its growing industrial base, Japan finds itself in need of raw materials.
00:03:43The Japanese first aggressive act was against Manchuria in 1931.
00:03:48Six years later, this tiny island nation invades the giant China.
00:03:55But in the late 30s, much of the world's attention is centered on the increasingly belligerent Hitler.
00:04:01In 1936, he marches troops into the Rhineland,
00:04:06a demilitarized zone bordering Germany, France and Belgium.
00:04:13Two years later, Hitler achieves the bloodless annexation of Austria.
00:04:17He declares that Germany has no more territorial demands to make in Europe,
00:04:22but soon he is menacing Czechoslovakia.
00:04:28To resolve the Czech crisis, the Allied leaders meet with Hitler in Munich.
00:04:33As the discussions take place, Germany is mobilizing four million men for war.
00:04:39Threatened and bullied, the Allies give in to all of Hitler's demands.
00:04:43The well-intentioned but gullible Prime Minister of England, Neville Chamberlain,
00:04:48believes he has found the answer to peace in his time.
00:04:52The piece of paper which he holds says only that in return for the territorial demands on Czechoslovakia,
00:04:59Germany promises to seek peaceful solutions to differences with the Allies.
00:05:04Yet it will be another treaty that will ignite World War II.
00:05:10Besides England and France, Germany faces a formidable foe to the east,
00:05:16Stalin's communist Russia.
00:05:18Historically, the two nations are natural enemies,
00:05:20and Hitler has previously singled out communism as an enemy of the Third Reich.
00:05:25But Hitler fears communism less than the possibility of a war on two fronts.
00:05:31In 1939, Germany and Russia shocked the entire world by announcing the signing of a non-aggression pact.
00:05:38The secret provisions of the treaty free Hitler to attack Poland to the east.
00:05:43In exchange for allowing the invasion, Hitler promises Stalin half of the Polish territory.
00:05:50Only one week following the signing of the pact,
00:05:53without a declaration of war, Germany invades Poland.
00:05:57It is September the 1st, 1939.
00:06:00World War II is underway.
00:06:13The attack against Poland is the first to use a tactic known as Blitzkrieg or Lightning War.
00:06:20It is a strategy that will revolutionize modern warfare.
00:06:25The Blitzkrieg delivers a 1-2-3 knockout combination of tanks, motorized infantry, and air power.
00:06:35Columns of German Panzer tank divisions take the lead, piercing defensive armies which are stretched across long territorial borders.
00:06:43Once the front lines are penetrated by tanks, motorized infantry pours through, outflanking, and finally surrounding the defenders.
00:06:55Meanwhile, from the air, dive bombers concentrate on destroying bridges, roads, railways, and other lines of communication.
00:07:06The German Stuka bomber is designed for just such a task, with its ability to perform steep dives.
00:07:14Almost as terrifying as the Stuka's deadly bomb loads are its screeching sirens which give the plane its distinctive sound.
00:07:27For the Polish army, with its strategy based on the trench warfare of the First World War, and its equipment
00:07:33and weapons obsolete, the outcome is inevitable.
00:07:37Cavalry units are slaughtered as they charge German tanks.
00:07:48The Polish capital Warsaw is left no more than rubble by German air attacks.
00:07:53It is the first of many cities that will suffer from indiscriminate aerial bombardment.
00:08:01Two weeks after the German invasion, with Poland near collapse,
00:08:05Stalin orders his Red Army across the border to lay claim to Russia's portion of the vanquished nation.
00:08:12The occupation and suppression of Poland is the responsibility of the feared German SS.
00:08:18Under the direction of Heinrich Himmler, the SS murders thousands of Polish civilians who are declared enemies of the German
00:08:26state.
00:08:29Countless numbers more are shipped away to serve as slave labor, the first of millions to suffer the horror of
00:08:36the Nazi concentration camp.
00:08:45During the Blitzkrieg, Poland's reluctant allies, England and France, had declared war on Germany as they had promised to do.
00:08:52But little was done to help the doomed country.
00:08:57By all accounts, France has the largest and finest army in all of Europe.
00:09:03Following the invasion of Poland, one Frenchman in eight is called to duty as the nation cautiously prepares for war.
00:09:22Like Poland, the French commanders are better prepared to refight the battles of World War I than the modern Blitzkrieg.
00:09:33The French strategy is almost entirely defensive in nature.
00:09:37It is centered around the defense of the Maginot Line, an amazing string of heavily fortified bunkers armed with heavy
00:09:44artillery.
00:09:50These 20th century castles stretch the entire length of the French-German border.
00:09:59The French boast that the Maginot Line is indestructible.
00:10:03It is also immobile.
00:10:05And against the Blitzkrieg, it will be obsolete.
00:10:08Germany's generals will decide merely to bypass it.
00:10:14Prepared to fight a defensive war, the French sit in wait.
00:10:21The British, meantime, move troops across the Channel.
00:10:24Hitler, protected by the non-aggression pact with Russia, is free to move his troops to the Western Front.
00:10:32The winter of 1939 will later be called the Phony War, as declared enemies stay behind their lines, waiting and
00:10:40watching in plain view of each other.
00:10:42A strange but temporary calm before the full fury of the war erupts.
00:10:49By the spring of 1940, Hitler is ready for his next move.
00:10:53A strike to the North, to capture the neutral nations of Denmark and Norway.
00:10:59Hitler's paratroopers secure the northern flank of Europe.
00:11:02Under intense pressure, British Prime Minister Chamberlain resigns on May 10th, 1940.
00:11:08His successor, Winston Churchill, takes office on the same day that Hitler orders an all-out attack on the Western
00:11:14Front.
00:11:28The German military machine again strikes with amazing quickness.
00:11:32Small diversionary forces and artillery duels occupy French troops stationed on the Maginal Line, while the main German attacks come
00:11:41from the North against Holland and Belgium.
00:11:56Like Poland, the assault is not limited to military targets as cities and their civilian populations are bombed by the
00:12:03German-rush warfare.
00:12:04There are more civilian casualties than military losses for the Dutch.
00:12:32Holland surrenders after just five days of fighting.
00:12:35On this same day, Churchill is told the grim news by France that the battle for Western Europe is already
00:12:42lost.
00:13:01Belgium fights on, but this small country is no match for the panzer attacks.
00:13:12Prior to the German invasion, Belgium had refused to allow Allied forces to enter its territory in hopes of preserving
00:13:20its strict neutrality.
00:13:30Disorganized and ill-prepared, the Belgians surrender unconditionally on May 28th, just over two weeks after the first German assault.
00:13:49Meanwhile, panzer divisions continue to stream through gaping holes in the Allied lines.
00:13:54In France, 16 generals are dismissed.
00:14:16Germany takes full advantage of the Allied paralysis of command.
00:14:20Although they are outnumbered in men and tanks, the Germans cut an armored path all the way to the English
00:14:26Channel, cutting the Allied army in half.
00:14:34Severed from supplies, ammunition and reinforcements, the Northern Allied army is trapped.
00:14:40It retreats to the only escape left, the French coastal port of Dunkirk.
00:14:48The Battle of Dunkirk has been called the most successful military evacuation in all of history.
00:14:54Others call it simply a miracle.
00:14:57The miracle occurred in large measure because of Hitler's order to halt his panzer troops for three critical days just
00:15:04as the evacuation is beginning.
00:15:06The reason for Hitler's order has never been understood.
00:15:10Instead of allowing his troops to finish the kill, Hitler assigns the annihilation of the encircled Allied army to Air
00:15:17Marshal Hermann Goring.
00:15:19But bad weather grounds the air attack.
00:15:22And again, the destruction of the Allied army stranded on the beaches is delayed.
00:15:39To save the Allied army, a British armada comprised of every conceivable type of floating vessel, including many civilian craft,
00:15:47ferries back and forth across the channel for nine days.
00:15:51Many are hit by German planes now trying to make up for lost time and bad weather.
00:16:06In the end, a third of a million troops escape to England.
00:16:09Only 40,000 men are left behind, mostly French troops who have fought a rear guard action to slow down
00:16:16the German advance.
00:16:19On June the 5th, one day after the final troops escape from Dunkirk, the Germans turn south towards Paris in
00:16:27an assault that hurls over 100 divisions into the French lines.
00:16:31France crumbles.
00:16:40With the best French divisions already lost in Belgium and most of the French Air Force destroyed, the battle to
00:16:47save France becomes a humiliating route.
00:16:54Seeking to share in the spoils of war, Mussolini declares war on France on June 10th.
00:17:00Two days later, Paris is declared an open city.
00:17:03On June 14th, German troops marched down the Champs-Elysées.
00:17:11France, once self-assured behind its marginal line, finds itself a conquered nation in a matter of weeks.
00:17:19With an irony lost on no one, Hitler arranges for the surrender ceremony to take place in the same railway
00:17:26car in which Germany had been forced to accept the terms of the Armistice of 1918 ending the First World
00:17:33War.
00:17:35Under the terms of the 1940 Armistice, France is divided in half.
00:17:40German troops occupy the entire northern half of the country, including all of France's coastline.
00:17:46The southern half is left in French hands, but governed by a puppet regime of Germany.
00:17:54Following the surrender of France, England, in one of the great ironies of the war, attacks the French navy to
00:18:01keep it from falling into the hands of the Axis powers.
00:18:04The former allies find themselves all but enemies, a scar that will take many years to heal.
00:18:12The French troops who had escaped to England are loosely organized into a fighting force.
00:18:17Its leader is a little-known French general named Charles de Gaulle.
00:18:27Germany's success with the Blitzkrieg had surprised the entire world.
00:18:31The modern army of France had fallen just as quickly as the cavalry charging poles.
00:18:36Nothing seems capable of stopping the Nazi military machine.
00:18:43With the capture of France, the war in Western Europe is over.
00:18:47It is an enormous victory for Hitler.
00:18:50Yet, in allowing the English army to escape from Dunkirk, Hitler had made one of the great strategic errors of
00:18:56the war.
00:18:57The British army rescued from the Dunkirk beaches contained most of England's experienced troops.
00:19:02They would fight another day.
00:19:06But only after the heroic battle of Britain, the first major air battle of the Second World War.
00:19:16As early as July 1940, Hitler had ordered secret preparations for Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of England.
00:19:24The plans call for first destroying the British Royal Air Force.
00:19:28The German air commander, Goring, promises to wipe out the RAF in four days.
00:19:33And begins massive air raids against England's airfields and radar stations.
00:19:56The British are outnumbered in planes three to one, but they score kills of two to one against the Germans.
00:20:06With the aid of the newly developed radar, which Goring fails to knock out, the British know when and where
00:20:12the German raids will take place,
00:20:13allowing them to make maximum advantage of their smaller number of planes.
00:20:20The RAF pilot is called upon to fly multi-missions each day, going up time and time again to meet
00:20:27German bombers and fighters in the sky.
00:20:37But gradually, the German attacks wear down the number of British planes and their pilots.
00:20:43In the first two weeks of the battle, a quarter of the British pilots are lost and the remainder are
00:20:48in desperate need of rest.
00:20:50Yet, just as Hitler's order to halt the attack on the Allied forces on Dunkirk had saved the British Army,
00:20:57another decision by Hitler would cost Germany the battle for Britain.
00:21:04On the night of August 24th, a German squadron of bombers accidentally drops its bomb loads on civilian targets in
00:21:12London.
00:21:27Churchill orders a retaliatory raid on Berlin. An enraged Hitler redirects his air attacks from military targets to the city
00:21:36of London itself.
00:21:37It is Hitler's second major error. The blitz against London begins September 7th and continues night and day for two
00:21:50months. London is virtually destroyed.
00:22:15Hitler had hoped that his terror bombing would break the will of the British people.
00:22:19Instead, Churchill is greeted with cries of, we can take it, by his countrymen.
00:22:26The suffering endured by London gives the British Air Force the time it needs to recover, retrain new pilots and
00:22:32build new planes.
00:22:33With England still capable of protecting its skies, Hitler postpones indefinitely the invasion of England.
00:22:41It is a pivotal point in determining the outcome of the war.
00:22:45Hitler's failure to defeat Britain would mark the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.
00:22:50Western Europe, Italy's Mussolini begins the conquest of the Mediterranean in October 1940 by invading Greece.
00:22:56The Greeks offer stiff resistance and the Italian army is stopped.
00:23:07Mussolini's efforts in North Africa meet with even less success.
00:23:10By February of 1941, the Italian army fighting against the British in East Africa surrenders and droves to the famed
00:23:18Desert Rats.
00:23:21Coming to the aid of his Pact of Steel ally, Hitler sends troops into Greece and North Africa.
00:23:28The battle for Greece, which had stalemated Mussolini's army, readily falls to the Germans in a matter of days.
00:23:35Hitler also orders to Africa one of Germany's brightest commanders, General Erwin Rommel, who is soon placed in charge of
00:23:42the Desert War.
00:23:44Rommel had distinguished himself from the Blitzkrieg of France, but in Africa, he will become legendary as the Desert Fox.
00:23:55Rommel halts the route of the Italian army, then counterattacks in March 1941.
00:24:14The British are pushed all the way back into Egypt, placing the strategic Suez Canal in jeopardy.
00:24:26With these successes, Hitler has reached the high-water mark of the Third Reich.
00:24:30North Africa and the Mediterranean are under control, while most of Europe is under Nazi rule.
00:24:36Only the British remain isolated on their island, and in Egypt.
00:24:44With this view of the world map, Hitler decides to launch his largest Blitzkrieg.
00:24:49It ultimately will be Hitler's third and most devastating miscalculation.
00:24:54Operation Barbarossa is to be a surprise attack against Russia.
00:25:21Following a pre-dawn artillery barrage, the Panzers roll across the Russian border on June 22nd,
00:25:271941.
00:25:29Stalin had received numerous warnings from the Allies that an attack was likely.
00:25:34But the usually highly suspicious Stalin had turned a deaf ear.
00:25:38The German attack is the largest military invasion in history, as some 200 German divisions attack
00:25:45a Russian front 2,000 miles long.
00:25:58From the Baltic to the Black Sea, 8 million men find themselves engaged in a battle of titanic proportions.
00:26:11Stalin's troops are caught by total surprise.
00:26:14The German Stukas virtually wipe out the entire Red Air Force before it has a chance to leave the ground.
00:26:20By the end of the first day's fighting, the Panzer units have plunged some 50 miles deep into Russian territory.
00:26:34Besides the element of surprise, the Germans also have the advantage of fighting against inexperienced Russian officers in the field.
00:26:42Most of Russia's experienced commanders were removed as a part of Stalin's political purges in the 30s.
00:26:49Soviet troops are taken prisoner by the hundreds of thousands.
00:26:59At first, Russian civilians welcome the Germans, hoping for relief from the oppression of Communist rule.
00:27:06Instead, they find the Germans even more brutal.
00:27:11With his armies on the verge of collapse, Stalin pleads by radio for his countrymen to fight to the death
00:27:18for Mother Russia.
00:27:20Stalin also orders Russia's citizens to carry out a scorched earth policy.
00:27:25Like Napoleon's troops a century earlier, the Germans find homes and crops in flames, wells poisoned, and livestock slaughtered.
00:27:40Remembering another lesson from history, Stalin trades Russian territory for time as his army falls back in face of the
00:27:48German advance.
00:27:50Besides land, Stalin can also afford to sacrifice soldiers.
00:27:54Russia's population outnumbers Germany three to one.
00:28:00The German advance is finally stopped, not by the Russian army, but by the autumn rains.
00:28:08Dirt roads become quagmires of mud, bogging down machines and men.
00:28:16Hitler, based on his previous successes, had hoped to capture Moscow in eight weeks.
00:28:22But four months after the invasion, the greatest of Stalin's weapons joins the battle, the Russian winner.
00:28:28It will be the coldest winter in half a century.
00:28:44The Germans are ill-prepared for the bitter cold.
00:28:48In weather beyond comprehension, weapons and vehicles freeze and refuse to work.
00:28:56Many German soldiers, dressed in nothing more than summer uniforms, simply freeze to death.
00:29:04By early December, the greatest of the blitzkriegs is halted, all but in sight of the spires of the Kremlin.
00:29:19Hitler refuses to allow his men to dig in for the winter, an impossibility anyway with the ground frozen solid.
00:29:36With the Germans suffering the misery and death of the Russian winner, Stalin strikes back with a counter-attack.
00:30:03One hundred Soviet divisions smash into the German lines around Moscow, relieving the capital from the German threat.
00:30:19To the north, the Soviet port of Leningrad is in a state of siege.
00:30:27Its three million inhabitants are entirely cut off by the German army.
00:30:31The only supplies trickle in by truck convoy which travels across the frozen lake Ladoga.
00:30:43The people of Leningrad suffer as much from hunger as the constant bombardment of German guns.
00:30:49Thousands die each day from starvation and the intense cold.
00:30:59All across the Eastern Front, it is a winter of icy death.
00:31:04By the end of the year, German losses are estimated at one million casualties.
00:31:09Soviet losses are believed to be at least three times that number.
00:31:16When the spring of 1942 finally arrives, Hitler launches the second round of his eastern offensive.
00:31:22With the heavy losses taken with the first Russian blitzkrieg, Germany can no longer afford to move against the entire
00:31:29front.
00:31:29Hitler decides to maintain his central position near Moscow.
00:31:34He concentrates his offensive to the north on Leningrad and to the south on the city of Stalingrad and the
00:31:40region's oil fields.
00:31:49The streets of Stalingrad are witness to some of the most bitter and savage fighting of the war.
00:31:56The capture of this industrial city on the Volga becomes an obsession for Hitler, far outweighing its strategic value.
00:32:05He demands that his commanders capture the city by the end of August.
00:32:09But the Germans encounter a Russian army unwilling to concede an inch of the 30-mile-long metropolis.
00:32:16Stalingrad is fought for house by house, street by street, block by block.
00:32:21An urban battle lasting four months.
00:32:26While the defenders of Stalingrad and Leningrad occupy the German army,
00:32:31Stalin amasses new troops and tanks.
00:32:33In November, the Soviets strike back.
00:32:51Last Russian enemy, Stalin is sitting down at the very oneself.
00:32:51Thelauben, the British army, thestrategies of Stalingrad,
00:32:57Let's go to the Lord of His Kirin and 큰 feathers.
00:32:58The German army has lost the city now.
00:32:59The German army has lost everything for the North.
00:32:59The German army is still in the ground,
00:33:00The German army has lost everything for the storm.
00:33:00The German army.
00:33:01The German army has lost everything for the system on the flag.
00:33:07The German military has lost everything into the distance.
00:33:32The German army attempting to capture Stalingrad suddenly finds itself completely surrounded.
00:33:44Like the citizens of Leningrad, the exhausted German army is trapped, battling against cold,
00:33:50hunger and the revenge of the Russian army.
00:33:56Ignoring Hitler's order to fight to the death, the encircled German army surrenders.
00:34:01Less than a third of 300,000 German soldiers have survived.
00:34:05Far fewer would ever return home.
00:34:13While snow turns red with blood along the Eastern Front, the United States draws closer to entering
00:34:19the war.
00:34:20Although not actively engaged in fighting, the Axis powers see America as neutral in name
00:34:26only.
00:34:26The 1941 Lend-Lease Act, passed by the U.S. Congress, allows President Roosevelt to aid any country
00:34:33whose defense is essential to American interests.
00:34:38Besides the war in Europe and North Africa, the United States concerns itself with the
00:34:43aggressive activities of Japan.
00:34:45As tensions grow worse between the two countries, the United States embargoes the trade of materials
00:34:51crucial to the Japanese military.
00:34:53While diplomats negotiate for a solution in Washington, the Japanese launch a surprise naval air attack
00:35:00at Pearl Harbor on December the 7th, 1941.
00:35:10Like victims of Germany's blitzkrieks, the United States Navy is caught totally by surprise as
00:35:15some 350 Japanese fighters and bombers strike without warning or declaration of war.
00:35:24Seven American battleships are destroyed or knocked out of commission.
00:35:31Fortunately for America, its three Pacific aircraft carriers are at sea when the attack occurs.
00:35:36They are now all that is left to defend America's western coast.
00:35:42A united America declares war on Japan on December the 8th.
00:35:47Three days later, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.
00:35:51The war is now truly a world war.
00:35:55Hoping to dominate the entire Pacific region, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is quickly
00:36:01followed by the capture of Guam, Wake, and the Philippine Islands.
00:36:04But their advance is finally halted with the battles of Coral Sea and Midway.
00:36:17By breaking Japan's secret military codes, America knows in advance that a Japanese invasion
00:36:23force is moving through the Coral Sea towards New Guinea for an eventual invasion of Australia.
00:36:33Armed with this information, a smaller force of American carriers intercepts the convoy.
00:36:39The engagement marks the beginning of a new era in military tactics.
00:36:43For the first time, aircraft carriers will do battle.
00:37:03The battle of the Coral Sea is fought entirely by planes as both sides attempt to destroy the other's carriers.
00:37:10Japanese and American ships do not even come in sight of one another as the entire battle is fought in
00:37:17the air.
00:37:25After two days of intense aerial attacks, both sides withdraw.
00:37:30They have each lost one carrier.
00:37:32Both sides claim victory, but the Japanese invasion is turned back.
00:37:36It is but a prelude to the epic battle of Midway.
00:37:44In May of 1942, an armada of some 200 Japanese ships sails for the Midway Islands.
00:37:52Again, the American Navy is forewarned by information secured through the breaking of the Japanese military codes.
00:37:59Like Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway is an aerial battle.
00:38:03For four days, the two navies fight for their lives against plane attacks.
00:38:07Will do they steal their energy?
00:38:14Oh, my God.
00:38:47Oh, my God.
00:39:08With their bombs dropped and low on fuel, damaged planes seek the safety of their carriers.
00:39:40Oh, my God.
00:39:43Oh, my God.
00:39:49Oh, my God.
00:39:57Oh, my God.
00:40:06Oh, my God.
00:40:14Oh, my God.
00:40:28Oh, my God.
00:41:22Oh, my God.
00:41:50Oh, my God.
00:41:53Oh, my God.
00:42:22Oh, my God.
00:42:53Oh, my God.
00:43:29Oh, my God.
00:43:43Oh, my God.
00:43:47Oh, my God.
00:43:50Oh, my God.
00:43:55Oh, my God.
00:44:09Oh, my God.
00:44:23Oh, my God.
00:44:24Oh, my God.
00:44:53Oh, my God.
00:45:23Oh, my God.
00:45:47Oh, my God.
00:45:53Oh, my God.
00:45:58Oh, my God.
00:46:07Oh, my God.
00:46:08Oh, my God.
00:46:10Oh, my God.
00:46:11Oh, my God.
00:46:12Oh, my God.
00:46:13he is arrested and held captive.
00:46:17His ally, Hitler, sends a commando team to rescue him.
00:46:21Mussolini, now ill and powerless,
00:46:23is appointed the leader of a puppet regime in northern Italy.
00:46:33In September, Montgomery's 8th Army lands in Italy.
00:46:36A week later, American G.I.s hit the beaches
00:46:39along the Gulf of Salerno.
00:46:44With the Allies firmly entrenched,
00:46:47the new southern Italian government does an about-face
00:46:50and declares war on its former ally, Germany.
00:46:53Hitler's reprisal is quick and brutal.
00:46:56Nearly two-thirds of a million Italian soldiers
00:46:58find themselves German prisoners of war.
00:47:02Italy would not prove to be the soft underbelly of Europe
00:47:05the Allied leaders had hoped.
00:47:07The struggle for Italy lasts over a year
00:47:10as German commanders take full advantage
00:47:12of the mountainous and highly defendable terrain of the north.
00:47:31Rome is not captured until June of 1944,
00:47:34but it is to the delight of the Italian people.
00:47:46Two days after the fall of Rome
00:47:48and the defeat of Italy,
00:47:49the final assault on Hitler's empire
00:47:51begins on the beaches of Normandy.
00:47:56The Allied objective is to recapture France
00:47:59by landing on its shores
00:48:01and driving the Germans back past the Rhine
00:48:03and to eventual unconditional surrender.
00:48:12Charged with defending the French coast
00:48:14is the Desert Fox.
00:48:16Rommel's strategy is to defeat the Allies on the beaches.
00:48:21It is here he declares that the war will be won or lost.
00:48:35Dismayed at the lack of preparation for an invasion,
00:48:38Rommel orders the construction of massive concrete fortifications.
00:48:44He also directs his engineers to line the beaches
00:48:47with barriers, mines, and traps.
00:48:50Rommel's counterpart in England
00:48:52is General Dwight Ike Eisenhower,
00:48:54who is placed in command of the Allied invasion.
00:48:58He has an army of some 3 million soldiers, sailors, and airmen.
00:49:03The first wave of landings alone
00:49:05will deliver over 175,000 troops to the beaches of France.
00:49:10It is the largest amphibious force ever assembled.
00:49:43Rommel's the jurisdiction of Home.
00:49:43VE
00:49:50On June 6th, 1944, the first Allied soldiers land on the beaches of Omaha, Goal, Juneau,
00:49:58Sword, and Utah.
00:49:59It is a battle that will later be called The Longest Day.
00:50:13By nightfall, the beachhead is firmly secured, with Allied troops again in France.
00:50:19Just as Rommel had predicted, the war had been lost on the beach within the first 24 hours of battle.
00:50:27As foot soldiers land in France from England, Allied bombers hit German targets.
00:50:32The British fly their missions at night to avoid heavy losses.
00:50:36The Americans fly daylight raids at higher altitudes.
00:50:40Though at more risk than the British, the American daylight bombing provides greater precision,
00:50:46the combination proves deadly, as the all but defeated Luftwaffe can no longer even defend Germany's cities.
00:51:26Seeking revenge, Hitler launches two new secret weapons against London.
00:51:33The V-1 is a gasoline-powered unmanned bomb, the world's first cruise missile.
00:51:39Over 2,000 of these buzz bombs fall on London.
00:51:48Even more terrifying is the V-2, a guided missile.
00:51:51Flying faster than the speed of sound, the V-2 gives no warning and cannot be shot down like the
00:51:57slower V-1.
00:51:58Over 1,000 V-2s rain down on Allied targets.
00:52:02As terrifying as the V-2 proves, it does not affect the invasion or the outcome of the war.
00:52:12By July 1944, a million Allied soldiers are on the European continent.
00:52:18They shove the German army farther back towards the Rhine.
00:52:25In Paris, the French resistance is no longer an underground activity as its members fight openly against the remaining German
00:52:33occupation troops.
00:52:43Eisenhower directs French and American troops to take the city.
00:52:54On August 25th, Charles de Gaulle and the rest of the Allied troops enter a freed city.
00:53:05By mid-September of 1944, the American First Army reaches the border of Germany.
00:53:11There is talk of ending the war by Christmas.
00:53:23In hopes of outflanking the German lines, General Montgomery proposes the dropping of three airborne divisions behind German lines in
00:53:31Holland.
00:53:49Operation Market Garden proves a major setback for the Allies as the paratroopers land in the midst of two panzer
00:53:56divisions and are cut to pieces.
00:54:25The German lines are cut to pieces.
00:54:27The German line is cut to pieces.
00:54:28As it becomes a very serious trouble, as it is fighting wars on three fronts.
00:54:31The Russians to the East, Americans and British to the South from Italy, and French, American and British troops from
00:54:37the West in France.
00:54:40The draft age in Germany is lowered to 16.
00:54:48In hopes of slowing down the Allied advance, Hitler plans for his final offensive, the
00:54:54Battle of the Bold.
00:54:55In the midst of winter, the Germans amass 200,000 troops and attack a weak point in
00:55:01the Allied Western Front held by some 80,000 Americans.
00:55:04The surrounded 101st Airborne Division is asked to surrender.
00:55:08The American reply is nuts.
00:55:13The encircled troops are rescued by Patton's Third Army, which arrives as a belated Christmas
00:55:18present on December 26th.
00:55:39The 60-mile deep penetration of the Allied line is turned back.
00:55:43The Battle of the Bulge ends as the German army, its resources spent, begins a retreat.
00:55:49It had been the largest battle fought on the Western Front.
00:55:53Although the outcome of the war could be seen, the Allies realized that much bitter fighting
00:55:58remained.
00:56:04In the Pacific, the American forces begin the conquest of the Japanese islands.
00:56:15General Douglas MacArthur had vowed to return again to the Philippines.
00:56:19The recapture of these islands would see the greatest naval battle in all of history, the
00:56:24battle for Leyte Gulf.
00:56:28Like Hitler's desperate Battle of the Bulge, the Japanese gather the remnants of their navy,
00:56:33some 70 ships and over 700 planes.
00:56:36The Japanese force is outnumbered better than two to one, but odds are of little consequence,
00:56:41as this battle is a suicide mission.
00:56:44Leyte Gulf is the first battle to use kamikaze pilots.
00:56:52To be a kamikaze pilot is considered a great privilege.
00:56:56The word kamikaze itself means divine wind.
00:57:00In the world.
00:57:27The Japanese hahikaze pilot was saved and wasEEP in my life in the world.
00:57:29In this hand, it is the most part of the war.
00:57:49By the end of the battle, Japan has lost over a third of her fleet, including four carriers.
00:57:54American losses are five ships and one carrier.
00:57:58The naval war in the Pacific is over, although Japanese pilots continue to slam their planes
00:58:04into American naval ships.
00:58:09During the Battle of Okinawa, some 5,000 seamen are killed from suicide attacks.
00:58:36From the sea, the Pacific fighting shifts to the islands as U.S. Marines fight stubborn
00:58:41Japanese defenders in the Philippines, in Ujima, in Okinawa.
00:58:49For the Japanese, surrender is not an option.
00:58:52Suicide is preferable to capture.
00:59:03One by one, the islands are taken.
00:59:13With the end of the war in sight, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet in February of 1945
00:59:18at Yalta on the Black Sea.
00:59:21Here, the three allies decide to divide Germany into four occupation zones.
00:59:27Eastern Europe is placed under Russian influence, but free elections are promised by Stalin,
00:59:32Stalin, who breaks his promise within weeks.
00:59:34Eastern Europe has been under Soviet domination ever since.
00:59:38Churchill, who had led his British countrymen with such valor throughout the war, would soon
00:59:44be voted out of office.
00:59:45Roosevelt, frail and in poor health, would be dead of a stroke in two months.
00:59:50Two days after the Yalta conference, Dresden, Germany is targeted by Allied bombers.
00:59:57800 British bombers by night and 300 American bombers by day incinerate Dresden with a massive
01:00:04firestorm.
01:00:05Of no military consequence other than its railway system, over 100,000 civilians are killed.
01:00:16But the most horrifying symbol of man's inhumanity to man in World War II would be the discovery
01:00:24of the Nazi concentration camps.
01:00:26The invading Allied troops find atrocities and cruelty beyond description or human comprehension.
01:00:39As one death factory after another is uncovered, the magnitude of the suffering caused by Hitler's
01:00:46Third Reich is finally known.
01:00:49Some 12 million people had died in the camps from disease, starvation, mutilation, and the
01:00:55gas chambers.
01:00:56Nearly six million of them were Jews.
01:00:58The gas chamber had been Hitler's final solution.
01:01:08In late April, Soviet and American troops meet some 75 miles south of Berlin.
01:01:15Germany has been cut in two.
01:01:21Berlin itself is near collapse from advancing Russian troops.
01:01:27On April 28th, Mussolini is captured and shot.
01:01:30His body is sent to Milan where it is strung up by jeering crowds.
01:01:35Two days later, with Berlin in flames, Adolf Hitler is believed to have committed suicide.
01:01:40His body burned.
01:01:42On May 2nd, 1945, Berlin falls to Russian troops.
01:01:47The thousand-year Reich had lasted but twelve.
01:01:52The German army officially surrenders on May 7th, 1945.
01:01:57The next day, the ceremony is repeated in Berlin in the presence of the Soviet army.
01:02:02Victory in Europe for the Allies was finally at hand after six years of destruction.
01:02:11In the Pacific, the island fighting goes on with appalling losses.
01:02:16With its navy destroyed, most of its soldiers either dead or captured, and its cities in flames,
01:02:22the Japanese still refuse to surrender.
01:02:24American military commanders begin plans for the invasion of Japan,
01:02:29a campaign with American casualty estimates of one minute.
01:02:39After hinting of prompt and utter destruction, on August 6th, 1945,
01:02:46America sends the B-29 bomber Enola Gay over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
01:03:15In an instant, the city and some 80,000 Japanese people are vaporized.
01:03:26Three days later, a second atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.
01:03:31On August 10th, the Japanese government sues for peace.
01:03:37The official ceremony takes place on August 15th aboard the USS Missouri.
01:03:43General MacArthur, in accepting the Japanese surrender, would say,
01:03:46Today, the guns are silent. A new era is upon us.
01:03:51Even the lesson of victory itself brings with it profound concern,
01:03:55both for our future security and the survival of civilization.
01:04:02The Allies celebrate the end of the war.
01:04:05Yet even as crowds cheer in England, France, Russia, and the United States,
01:04:10former allies grow distant and cold.
01:04:13As MacArthur had declared on the deck of the Missouri,
01:04:16the end of the Second World War marked a new era.
01:04:20In the atomic age, tanks, ships, and planes would matter less than the microscopic mysteries of the atom.
01:04:26The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had changed the world forever.
01:04:31We have lived ever since in dread of a third and final world war.