World War II

September 1st 1939, German troops thrust deep into Poland to win a swift and absolute victory.
Barely 20 years earlier, their forefathers had also been on the march, but back into their
homeland as a defeated army. In November 1918, after four years of World War One,
Germany's Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, had been forced to abdicate. His armies were being
ground down by a remorseless offensive by British, French and US troops. His people faced
starvation. But already a dangerous myth was taking root. The German generals and troops
claimed that they hadn't been defeated in battle, but betrayed by their own cowardly politicians.
Even so, at 11 in the morning on November 11th 1918, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th
month, World War One came to an end. The following month, President Woodrow Wilson of
the United States arrived in Europe promising to create a new world order. He persuaded the
world's leaders to sign up to a new League of Nations. At the Treaty of Versailles, they agreed
that from now on disputes between countries would be resolved not by fighting, but by debate
in the League. The peoples of Europe were set free. And Germany's ally, the Austro Hungarian
empire, was dismembered. Out of it, new nations were created. Austria, Poland, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Germany itself was greatly reduced
in size. But this process contained a time bomb. Not everyone celebrated the birth of countries
like Czechoslovakia. Several of them contained substantial German minorities. One day the
desire to reunite the German peoples would come to haunt Europe. The war torn German
people also had one final indignity inflicted on them. They were forced to pay a massive 6.6
billion Pounds in reparations to France and Britain, something they could ill afford. And when
he returned to America, Wilson's new World order immediately fell apart. The U.S. Congress
decided it could not risk being sucked into another war in Europe. It refused to join his League
and the U.S. withdrew into isolationism. Germany was now a very different nation. It was still
Europe's biggest country but its militaristic monarchy had gone. It had become a democracy.
But its government, the so called Weimar Republic, was soon struck by a series of hammer
blows. Street battles erupted between extreme right wing nationalists and Communists trying
start a revolution. Then in 1923, the country was devastated by hyperinflation, which reached
hundreds of per cent a month. Ordinary people's savings were wiped out. This was fertile
ground for a new breed of rabble rousing right wing politicians. Among them Adolf Hitler.
Hitler had been born in Austria. He had fought bravely as a soldier in World War One and been
awarded the Iron Cross. On returning to Germany he settled in Munich, and his fiery oratory
soon enabled him to seize control of the small National Socialist or Nazi Party. In October
1923, Hitler and his henchmen attempted an armed coup against the Weimar government. It
failed, and he was sentenced to nine months. In prison he wrote a book, Mein Kampf, "My
Struggle", in which he blamed Germany's ills on the Jews and demanded that it rebuild its
strength and seek new territories in the east. On his release, he set about building the Nazis into
a proper, disciplined political party. From now on, he would use the democratic system to
achieve power. But for the next five years, Weimar Germany prospered. Support for extremist
parties, left and right, dwindled. Then suddenly, Hitler's opportunity arrived. In October 1929,
the US stock market crashed. Billions of dollars were lost and an economic depression swept
across the world. Unemployment in Germany soared to over six million. Only extremist
politicians seemed to offer a solution. Politicians like Hitler. By 1931, his Nazis were a true
mass movement. And they had their own brownshirted thugs, the SA stormtroops who
numbered almost three million. In the 1932 elections, the Nazis became the largest party in
Germany's parliament, the Reichstag. But Hitler refused to join a coalition, leaving parliament
paralysed. To break the impasse, President Hindenburg made him Chancellor in January 1933,
head of the government. Within a month, the Reichstag burned down. Hitler accused the
communists and demanded emergency powers. He then used them to ban all other political
parties. In August 1934 President Hindenburg died. Hitler declared himself President. He was
now absolute leader, the Fuehrer, of Germany. At first there was little sign of what was to come.
For the next three years the Fuehrer concentrated on rebuilding Germany's economy. He spent
millions on public works, including the 5,000 mile autobahn system, to soak up the unemployed.
But, in secret Hitler was also spending lavishly on a huge rearmament programme. Under the
Versailles Treaty, the German army had been limited to 100,000 men. The country was
forbidden to have an air force, tanks or submarines. This small army was trebled in size. Then
in 1935, Hitler came out into the open. He unveiled a brand new air force, the Luftwaffe. It had
2,500 planes, far more than Britain or France. Unemployment plunged, and the Nazis became
enormously popular. Now emboldened, the Fuehrer made his first expansionist move. In 1935,
he reoccupied the Saarland district on the French border, after it voted to return from League of
Nations' to German rule. A year later he sent German troops into the Rhineland, part of
Germany which had been demilitarized at Versailles. At the time, many felt that Hitler was only
claiming back what was rightfully Germany's. Neither Britain nor France objected. When
Berlin hosted the 1936 Olympic games, the Nazis were seen by many as firm but fair, a
government which was restoring the nation's pride, and which didn't threaten anyone. Of
course there were signs. The 1935 Nuremberg Laws, forbade Jews to marry true Aryan
Germans and deprived them of their citizenship. But when the first threats came to world peace,
they didn't come from Hitler at all, but from somewhere else entirely. Japan at the start of the
20th century was already a military power. It had defeated Russia in a war in 1905 and it had
fought alongside the Allies in World War One. After the war, Japan was an acknowledged world
power, and it signed up to the League of Nations. But politically, it was a mess of
contradictions. Nominally a democracy, the feudal tradition was still strong. Most Japanese
revered their Emperor as a living god, and regarded him as their true leader. And the country
faced major economic problems, its population was exploding. And it had no natural resources
to fuel its rapidly expanding industries. Its leaders needed solutions and they saw them in
Chinese Manchuria. Manchuria was a land of rich grain fields, with plenty of coal and minerals.
It was a perfect target. Japanese troops were already stationed there. Other possible targets were
the colonies ruled by the European powers, Burma, Malaya, and Hong Kong, controlled by
Britain; Indo China, ruled by France; and the Dutch East Indies. But at this stage Japan had to
be cautious. It didn't want to rouse the other great power in the Pacific, the United States. For
all its anti-imperialist slogans, the U.S. actually ran an unofficial empire in the Pacific. The
Philippines, Guam and several islands were under its direct rule. It undoubtedly had the strength
to take on Japan, but since the end of World War One, it had had other distractions. This was
America's jazz age. Throughout the 1920s, the nation concentrated on exploiting its vast
resources. There was an economic boom that seemed without end. Fortunes were made both in
industry and the stock markets. America seemed lost to the increasing pursuit of pleasure. With
distractions like these, Japan's growing pains in the Pacific seemed very far away. America had
slashed its army after World War One, and agreed a naval reduction treaty with Britain, France
and Japan. This, in effect, handed naval superiority in the Pacific to the Japanese. And then
came the Great Depression. As the economic devastation spread, a quarter of the population lost
their jobs. Tens of thousands were made homeless, living in Shanty towns. Whereas before it
had been distracted by pleasure, now America was distracted by pain. It was time for Japan to
make her move. In 1931, without even informing their own elected government, the Japanese
forces in Manchuria seized the capital Mukden and then overran the rest of the territory. A
puppet state, Manchukuo was proclaimed under a puppet ruler. Henry Pu Yi, the last emperor
of China, who had been deposed in 1911, was dragged out of retirement. At its headquarters in
Geneva, the League of Nations now faced its first great test. Japan was universally condemned.
But her response was blunt. Japan however finds it impossible to accept the report adopted by
the assembly. The Japanese then just walked out, and the League suddenly realized there was
nothing it could do about Manchuria. Japan was declared an international pariah, but it didn't
care. Its leaders had turned their eyes to further conquests, in China. These were easy pickings,
China was in a state of chaos. The government of Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek was locked
in conflict with the Chinese communist party under Mao Tse Tung. There was civil war. In
1936, as a precursor to invasion, the Japanese signed a pact with Hitler. The aim was to guard
against any attack by Soviet Russia, were it to move on China. Then, in July 1937 the Japanese
provoked an incident with Chinese troops and invaded. At first the Chinese were taken by
surprise. But they soon fought back fiercely, the Communists even joining the Kuomintang in a
united front. The Japanese responded with amphibious landings. By the end of 1937 they had
overrun much of northern China and the coast. The Japanese fought this war with exceptional
brutality, bombing cities indiscriminately. Westerners living in the commercial centre, the port
of Shanghai, were now evacuated. The city was then besieged for three months. It suffered
widespread damage, the Japanese forces showing no pity or concern for the native population.
But it was after the capture of Nanking, then the Chinese capital, on December the 17th, 1937
that the Japanese forces really ran amok. Over 300,000 civilians are estimated to have been
massacred during a six week orgy of rape and indiscriminate killing. The Japanese even
attacked British and U.S. warships which had been sent to protect their shipping and trade. The
worst incident came on December the 12th 1937. The American gunboat Panay was sunk by
Japanese bombers, 50 crewmen died. Despite this, the Western powers refused to intervene. So
the League of Nations could do nothing. In the United States President Roosevelt wanted to
impose a naval blockade of Japan. It has become clear that acts and policies of nations in other
parts of the world have far reaching effects on us. But the British would have none of it,
fearing that it might provoke a war. So, all Roosevelt could offer was a $25 million loan to
Chiang Kai Shek to buy arms. Even though the Communists were now fighting alongside the
Kuomintang, the Soviet Union did little to help either. Its only involvement was a series of
clashes along its own border with Manchuria. But China itself received nothing. Instead it had
to fight on alone. During 1938, the Japanese overran Canton, and pushed the Chinese forces
deeper into the west of the country. All the rhetoric of the League of Nations, all those promises
to stop international aggression had come to nothing. And by now the Western powers were
facing aggression much closer to home. Today, it is easy to laugh at Benito Mussolini, the
fascist dictator of Italy. All that posturing seems faintly ridiculous now. But it didn't seem that
way in 1922. Back then, Italy had seemed to be on the edge of anarchy. The country was riven
by strikes and land seizures. The democratic government, just as in Germany, seemed
powerless in the face of such unrest. So Benito Mussolini, a war veteran and a journalist,
decided to take a stand. He organised a right wing nationalist party, the Fascists. With the
country paralysed by a general strike in August 1922, Mussolini ordered his followers to march
on Rome. Fearing a civil war, Italy's king, Victor Emmanuel, asked him to form a government.
Mussolini swiftly stamped out any political opposition, and assumed dictatorial powers. By
1928, his position seemed secure. Parliament was appointed rather than elected, and all power
was firmly in the hands of the Fascist Grand Council. Like Hitler, Mussolini's first acts made
him immensely popular. Massive programmes of public works provided employment and
transformed Italy's infrastructure. Corruption was rooted out and the Mafia more or less
eliminated. Italy's armed forces were built up, including an advanced, modern air force. In the
Mediterranean, Mussolini launched a powerful navy, bigger than the combined might of the
British and French Mediterranean fleets. When the Great Depression came, Italy seemed to
weather it better than most. Mussolini became a source of worldwide inspiration. Political
leaders, not least Adolf Hitler in Germany, saw the Fascist system as a role model, strong and
purposeful in contrast to the weakness of the democracies in Britain and France. But Mussolini
wanted more than adulation. He wanted to recreate the Roman empire. And he already had a
target in mind for his first imperial land grab. His target was Abyssinia, today's Ethiopia. Italy
already had colonies on its borders in Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. In December 1934, Italian
forces provoked a clash with Abyssinian troops at an oasis in the Ogaden region, well inside
Abyssinian territory. Mussolini then sent reinforcements to Eritrea and Italian Somaliland,
demanding that Abyssinia pay reparations. The Emperor of Abyssinia, Haile Selassie appealed
in person to the League of Nations. [Haile Selassie] [speaking in foreign language] He called on
it to live up to its ideals. Here was a small nation under threat from another member of the
League. This was the supreme test. But the League did nothing. Britain's Foreign Minister
Anthony Eden at least tried to broker a peace deal, but Mussolini would have none of it. In
early October 1935 the Italian army invaded from Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. The primitive
Abyssinian forces stood little chance against a modern army equipped with artillery and tanks.
The Italian air force had total command of the air, and harried the Abyssinians. On occasions
dropping gas bombs even though gas had been outlawed at Versailles as a "crime against
humanity". After six months, Abyssinia was completely overrun. The Emperor Haile Selassie
fled into exile in Britain. From its headquarters in Switzerland, the League of Nations wrung its
hands. It did impose economic sanctions, but they had little effect. Mussolini's aggression had
revealed two things. The League of Nations, that great hope for peace, was impotent. And both
Europe's supposed major powers, the democracies Britain and France, no longer had the
stomach for a fight. Both Britain and France had been shattered by World War One and their
economies had never really recovered. Both had witnessed waves of strikes and unrest. Both
had suffered mass unemployment even before the Great Depression. Both also faced the cost of
controlling empires, now swollen by taking on Germany's former colonies and the Middle
Eastern territories once run by the Turkish Ottoman empire. And above all, both had been
traumatised by the horrific casualties of World War One. A succession of British leaders, Lloyd
George, Ramsay Macdonald and above all Stanley Baldwin, all resolved to keep Britain out of
future conflicts. Despite horrific casualties on the Western Front, Britain had ended World War
One with a large and very effective conscript army. This was immediately run down to a small
professional force designed to police its sprawling empire. And when the Great Depression
struck, any ideas of modernising the army were abandoned. It meant that Britain went into the
run up to war economically and militarily weak. French losses during World War One had
been even worse than the British. Ever mistrustful of the Germans, a large conscript army was
maintained, but throughout the 1920s, France's birth rate had declined. It became clear that
there would be a manpower shortage by the mid to late 1930s. France realised it could never
compete with Germany on the size of its army alone. The solution was to adopt an entirely
defensive mentality. The Maginot Line, a series of fortifications was begun in 1930 along the
frontier with Germany and ran as far as the Belgian border. There it theoretically linked up with
fortifications planned by the Belgians. This new French military approach meant that France
was only capable of waging a defensive war. It just did not have the ability to launch an attack
on Italy, even if the British had had the troops to help. And of course, both countries knew that
their navies in the Mediterranean were outnumbered by Mussolini's new fleet. So when Italy
conquered Abyssinia, it made sense for both powers to do nothing. It just seemed too remote.
Too much someone else's problem. By now they both had to deal with all the traumas of the
Great Depression. That seemed so much more pressing. And above all, they were now faced
with a military threat far closer to home. A resurgent and rearming Germany. And Germany's
power and that of Italy too, was soon about to be demonstrated. In supporting the rise of
another dictator, in Spain. In 1936, civil war erupted in Spain. It was exceptionally vicious,
setting family against family, communist against fascist, believers against atheists. In 1931, a
left wing government had come to power determined to get rid of the centuries old Spanish
monarchy. The king was forced into exile and a republic was declared. In February 1936, the
parties of the left combined in a Popular Front to take on the forces of the right in a general
election. The Popular Front won narrowly. Even though its reform programme was modest, the
wave of strikes and land seizures led the right to fear that a communist takeover was inevitable.
Within the Spanish army, long a bastion of conservative and Catholic thinking, senior officers
began to consider the possibility of a coup. Among them was General Francisco Franco, a
former chief of staff who had been effectively exiled to command Spain's forces in the Canary
Islands. On July 17th 1936, the units of the army fighting guerrillas in Spain's colony in
Morocco mutinied. The next day Franco flew to join them, proclaiming a new Nationalist
movement which would save Spain from communism. Mainland garrisons now joined this
revolt. The Popular Front responded by calling for volunteers to defend the republic. Battle
lines had been drawn. At first, Franco faced problems. He and his army were in North Africa
and he had to get across the straits of Gibraltar back to Spain. So he turned to the one person he
thought might help. Adolf Hitler. Within a month, transport aircraft from Hitler's new
Luftwaffe had begun an air lift, taking Franco's battle hardened veterans over to southern Spain.
At this stage, the Republic still seemed to have the advantage. The pro Franco military
uprisings in Madrid and Barcelona, were quickly crushed leaving it in control of most of the
east of the country. Franco's Nationalists were confined largely to the north west and part of the
south. But the Nationalist situation was transformed when Hitler and Mussolini started to pour
in troops and weapons. The German dictator seized the opportunity to test his new equipment
and expanding armed forces. The first Panzer tanks were sent along with some 12,000 troops.
And the Luftwaffe deployed its Condor Legion with its ultra modern new bombers and fighters.
Mussolini sent a so called volunteer corps of 50,000 men and more than 700 aircraft. In vain
did the Republicans appeal to Britain, France and the Soviet Union for help. But London and
Paris were scared of setting off a European war. They declared a policy of non intervention.
Cynically, both Germany and Italy signed up to this. But when it became obvious that they were
still sending arms to the Nationalists, Josef Stalin, the Soviet leader, announced that he would
help the Republic. Stalin's worry was the rise of Fascism in Germany. Hitler had made it
abundantly clear that he believed communism to be Nazism's ultimate enemy. Stalin saw the
Spanish conflict as a way of keeping Germany and Italy occupied while building up the Soviet
Union's military strength. About 700 military advisers were sent along with tanks and fighter
aircraft. It was something, but no match for the support Franco had received. In fact the largest
source of outside help for the Republic didn't come from a country at all but from volunteers,
the International Brigades. About 30,000 left wing Americans, British, French and Germans
signed up to fight in Spain. With their new Fascist support, the Nationalists were able to open
two fronts, one advancing towards Barcelona from the North. The other led by Franco pushing
up towards Madrid from the south. By the end of 1936, Madrid was enveloped on three sides
and virtually under siege. The fighting was intense and often accompanied by appalling
atrocities against civilians. The Republicans hunted down and murdered Roman Catholic
priests. The Nationalists slaughtered anyone accused of being communist. German and Italian
air power was used indiscriminately against civilian targets. Madrid was heavily bombed, but
the worst incident came in April 1937, when the Basque town of Guernica was virtually
obliterated with 6,000 civilian deaths. The area controlled by the Republic was steadily ground
down. It's forces fought with great gallantry, but under trained and under equipped amateurs
were no match for the professional soldiers led by Franco or for the combined modern
weaponry of Italy and Germany. As the war dragged on, the fighting around Madrid became a
symbol of the left's determination not to be crushed by a Fascist dictatorship. But behind the
scenes, the Republican alliance was falling apart. The communists and socialists wanted to
concentrate on winning a military victory. But the more idealistic anarchists and syndicalists
saw the war as an opportunity for a mass revolution by the workers. These disagreements burst
out into the open in May 1937. Fighting broke out in Barcelona between the anarchists and
communists. It was a fatal weakening of the Republican cause. By the end of 1938, the
Nationalists had penned their enemy into a small enclave around Barcelona, and another
stretching eastward from Madrid to the coast. Madrid continued to hold out, but the
international brigades were withdrawn. More and more nations began to recognise Franco's
government as his forces closed in for the final assault on Madrid. At the end of March 1939, its
defenders exhausted after nearly three years of fighting, the capital finally surrendered. A
month later, Franco formally declared hostilities at an end. The scars of Spain's civil war took
years to heal and, in some ways, they never have. And internationally, Franco's victory over the
Republic proved a disaster. Hitler and Mussolini were confirmed in their belief that the
democracies of Britain and France were impotent to resist any real pressure. While Stalin
despaired of their willingness to confront Fascism. Hitler in particular saw his way open to
begin the aggressive policies outlined in Mein Kampf. Even before the Spanish civil war ended
his armies were on the march. From the moment he became Chancellor of Germany on January
30th 1933, Hitler had begun to put his long term ambitions into action. On February the 3rd he
told his top commanders that his ultimate aim was "to conquer territory in the "east and
ruthlessly Germanise it". They were instructed to prepare for a massive expansion. Although
Germany had been forbidden tanks, a secret treaty with the Soviet Union in 1923, had allowed
the development of tank designs and experimentation with new mobile armoured tactics.
Energetic young German officers like Heinz Guderian read the theories of British thinkers like
Basil Liddell Hart and Colonel John Fuller. They even watched exercises being carried out by
the British during the 1920s on Salisbury Plain. It was from these that they came up with the
idea of fast moving units combining tanks artillery and infantry that could thrust fast and deep
into enemy territory. Hitler adopted their ideas with enthusiasm, the new army was to have
three Panzer divisions. Similarly, the new air force, the Luftwaffe, under former World War
One fighter ace Hermann Goering, had had a framework to build on. Throughout the years in
which its air force was officially banned, Germany had kept up its design skills by building
civilian machines. And gliding and flying clubs provided a reserve of potential aircrew. Hitler
revealed the existence of the Luftwaffe in March 1935. He then announced that the army was to
be increased to 300,000 men and conscription was reintroduced. Britain and France protested
feebly at this flagrant breach of the Versailles Treaty. But soon they reluctantly and slowly
began to rearm. Until this point, Hitler had been modest in his goals. He had only taken back
what was his, the Rhineland and Saarland. But now he had a grander target in mind. His
homeland Austria. In 1934, Austrian Nazis had attempted to seize power and unify the country
with Germany. Austrians, after all spoke German, even if they had never been part of a German
state. In February 1938, another Nazi plot was discovered. Austrian chancellor Kurt von
Schuschnigg protested to Hitler. Hitler responded by demanding that Austria stop mistreating
the Austrian Nazis and unite with Germany. Schuschnigg promptly called a referendum so that
the Austrians could vote on whether to remain independent. But on March 12th 1938, the eve of
the referendum, Hitler, fearing that it might produce the wrong result, sent in his troops.
Complete surprise and an enthusiastic welcome by Nazi sympathisers made it a bloodless
invasion. Within hours Hitler announced Austria's incorporation into the Third Reich. A
sovereign nation had for the first time, been subsumed into a greater Germany. Once again the
western democracies failed to react. In the summer of 1938 he turned on his next prey,
Czechoslovakia. A substantial German minority lived in the north west of the country, an area
known as the Sudetenland. These Sudeten Germans had been part of the old Austrian empire
but had been cut off when Czechoslovakia was created in 1919. This was the time bomb that
had started ticking at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler encouraged Sudeten German
demands for autonomy, and then threatened the Czech government with force if it refused to
agree. Undaunted, the Czech government ordered general mobilisation and prepared to resist.
The Czechoslovak army was large and well equipped, with formidable fortifications on its
frontier with Germany. Hitler backed off. But then at the beginning of September, concerned
that war might be imminent, the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain decided to act as a
peace maker. He flew to meet Hitler twice. The Nazi dictator assured him that if he could have
the Sudetenland he would make no further territorial demands in Europe. In Munich, on
September 29th 1938, with Mussolini acting as mediator, France and Britain signed an
agreement giving the Sudetenland to Germany in return for a formal declaration by Hitler that
he had no more territorial ambitions. Chamberlain flew back to Britain waving the piece of
paper which he claimed "Guarantees peace in our time." So, on October the 1st, German troops
occupied the Sudetenland and seized the Czech frontier fortifications. Hitler now began sizing
up his next target, Poland. Again the nominal cause was a German minority marooned as a
result of the Versailles Treaty. Hitler demanded the return of the port of Danzig to German
control, so that East Prussia could be linked up with the rest of Germany. The Poles refused,
and Hitler hesitated. He was not quite ready for all out war and he had unfinished business with
Czechoslovakia. In March 1939, the Eastern part of the country, Slovakia, which was ethnically
different to the Czech lands, appealed to Hitler for help in achieving greater independence.
Hitler summoned the Czechoslovak prime minister Emil Hacha to Berlin, and browbeat him into
putting his country under German "protection". German troops now marched into the rest of
Czechoslovakia, unopposed. Most of the country was annexed into the Reich. Slovakia was
declared a protectorate. For the first time, Hitler had seized non German speaking territory. But
again there was only a feeble protest from Britain and France. At the end of March, he again
repeated his demand that Poland give up Danzig. This time France and Britain declared
unequivocally that they would declare war if he attacked Poland. But by now Hitler cared little
whether they did or not, he was sure that they would be weak and indecisive opponents. In
Russia, Stalin had also become increasingly concerned by Hitler's aggression. In April Stalin
proposed an alliance with Britain and France. But negotiations made little progress, and finally
Stalin despaired, deciding that there was another solution to the German threat. On August the
23rd the Soviet Union and the Third Reich, who everyone had believed were sworn enemies,
announced a non-aggression pact. The agreement secretly specified that Poland would be split
between the two countries and Stalin would have a free hand to take over Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania. Now free from any Russian threat, Hitler ordered his armed forces to prepare for an
immediate invasion. On the evening of August the 31st, the German Wehrmacht prepared for
the assault, its Fuehrer had made the decision which would plunge the world into war.

2
During the afternoon of August 31st, 1939, German forces made their final preparations for
the invasion of Poland. Air crews studied their targets. Tanks moved to their assault
positions. Then, in the early hours of September the 1st, German soldiers dressed in Polish
uniforms attacked a radio station on the German side of the border leaving behind some
bodies. This was the "aggression" which Hitler later used to justify his attack. At 8 that
morning, German troops pushed aside the Polish frontier barriers and mobile forces raced
forward. Two days later, on September the 3rd, Britain and France declared war, honouring
their promise to stand by Poland. But by then, the Poles were in deep trouble. They were not
only outnumbered, but facing a new form of warfare for which they were ill-prepared.
Blitzkrieg. In 1939, the German army consisted of 1.5 million men. Its elite were the Panzers.
Tanks. Six armoured divisions and four light divisions intended for reconnaissance. A total
of 2,400 tanks. These had been designed to break through an enemy's defences and strike
deep, cutting communications and spreading confusion. Enemy's strong points would be
bypassed, left to the following infantry to mop up. The new German air force, the Luftwaffe,
was also designed for Blitzkrieg. It had 2,500 aircraft lined up against the Poles. The most
notorious was the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber. It was a form of flying artillery making
pinpoint attacks in support of the fast-moving ground forces. The Poles could muster just 600
planes. On the ground it was just as bad. Poland's army was just 500,000 strong. It had only
880 tanks. It even had 11 brigades of cavalry. Lances and horses against armour. But it
wasn't just numbers that gave the Germans their advantage. They used their Panzers in a
radically new way. As separate, hard-striking units. The Polish tanks were dispersed to
support their infantry. The Poles' task had been made even more difficult by the German
takeover of Czechoslovakia. The west of the country, including the capital Warsaw, was now
surrounded on three sides by German-controlled territory. This geographical advantage was
essential to Germany's grand plan. The task of the first thrust of the tanks was to create an
initial breakthrough. But actually winning the war depended on deep pincer movements
designed to surround and crush the enemy. These would come from Army Group North
under General Fedor von Bock. He would launch two thrusts from northeast Germany and
east Prussia. Army Group South under General Gerd von Rundstedt would launch two more
from Silesia and Slovakia. The aim would be for the pincers to meet near Warsaw and Brest-
Litovsk. From the start it went well for the Germans. Polish air force was effectively
eliminated within the first two days. The Panzers cut through and struck deep. And the
Stukas and medium bombers proved devastatingly effective. The Poles were sliced apart,
pinned into pockets which yielded vast numbers of prisoners. Legend has it that some Polish
cavalry units gallantly tried to attack the Panzers. But it was futile. They were just brushed
aside. By September the 8th, the inner pincers had met up. German troops were advancing on
the outskirts of Warsaw. On September the 17th, the outer pincers met at Brest-Litovsk. On
the same day, Soviet forces crossed the eastern Polish frontier as part of the agreement
reached between Hitler and Stalin in the Nazi-Soviet pact. The Polish army was now in full
retreat, its government fleeing abroad. Warsaw, however, fought on. Its defenders rejected
a German offer to surrender, so the full fury of the German war machine was turned on it.
Watching it all was Adolf Hitler, who had followed closed behind his conquering army. On
September the 27th, Warsaw surrendered. The next day the victors carved Poland up
according to the Nazi-Soviet pact. The Soviet Union annexed slightly over half the country to
the east. Germany took the rest. Both regimes began rounding up anyone who might
present a danger in the future. Many were murdered. And for the first time, the Germans
revealed how they would behave against those peoples in eastern Europe whom they
considered inferior. They sent in the Einsatzgruppen, special SS squads, to round up Jews.
Most were forced into ghettos in the major cities where they would be starved to death.
Others were executed on the spot. This was not, however, the end of the Polish army. More
than 50,000 troops escaped and eventually reached France. There, a provisional government
had been formed by General Wladyslaw Sikorski. The Poles would fight on bravely from
abroad. In Britain, the air raid sirens had sounded within minutes of Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain's announcement that hostilities had begun. In fact, despite their politician's
guarantees of Polish sovereignty, Britain and France had done very little to help Poland. As
Hitler had gambled, they had no idea what to do once they had actually declared war. Both
countries had begun mobilization. Air raid precautions were speeded up. Anti-aircraft guns
were placed in major cities. Shelters were erected. Soon, children were being evacuated.
Everyone had to carry gas masks, and a blackout was introduced. The British army began to
deploy its 100,000 strong Expeditionary Force to northern France. French troops did advance
a little way inside the German border. But they refused to move beyond the protective
cover of artillery range. The initiative was still firmly in Hitler's hands. And he at least knew
precisely what he was going to do next. The Blitzkrieg against Poland had been a stunning
success for Adolf Hitler. He had subdued an entire country in less than four weeks, and he
was hungry for more. So he ordered his generals to plan to attack the British and French in
November 1939, less than two months after the fall of Poland. His general staff was appalled.
The bulk of the German army was still out east and had to be moved west. And there had
been some serious losses in the Polish campaign. Lessons had to be learned. Polish anti-
tank guns had destroyed a division's worth of the lightly armoured Panzers. A quarter of the
aircraft used had been lost. The Panzers were too light and unreliable. And they had
frequently outrun both their supply columns, and the marching infantry. Reluctantly, after
furious arguments, Hitler agreed to wait until the following spring. Meanwhile, his enemies
were also learning lessons. Britain had thought that bombers would be a key weapon in the
coming conflict. But when on September the 4th Britain's Royal Air Force made a daylight
raid on German shipping, seven of the 30 bombers were shot down. It soon became clear that
this wasn't a one-off misfortune. In some raids, over half the aircraft were lost. British
bombers just weren't up to the job. So the RAF switched to night raids. And they decided to
drop not bombs, but leaflets, so as not to provoke retaliation. So with the Blitzkrieg stalled
and the air war quiet, the focus now went to the one remaining arena, the sea. Germany's
Navy was still in the middle of an ambitious building program that wasn't due to finish until
1948. The commander of its submarine arm, Admiral Karl Doenitz, planned to cut Britain's
supply routes across the Atlantic. For this, he wanted 300 ocean-going submarines. But he
had just 38. Nevertheless, Doenitz ensured that all available U-boats were at sea on
September the 3rd, the first day of the war against Britain. That evening, believing it to be an
armed merchant cruiser, U-30 sank the liner Athenia without any warning. 112 lives were
lost, including 26 American citizens. The Royal Navy dwarfed its German counterpart. It had
12 battleships. Germany had none. It had five aircraft carriers. Germany, again, had none.
So after the Athenia, Britain declared a total blockade of German ports. But for all its size,
the Royal Navy had too few escort vessels. Many merchant ships had to sail alone. And by
the end of 1939, more than 100 had been sunk. It quickly became apparent that the British
had woefully underestimated the submarine threat. On September the 17th, U-29 sank the
British aircraft carrier Courageous. On October the 14th, the battleship Royal Oak was sunk
when U-47 slipped through the defences of the British main fleet base at Scapa Flow in the
Orkneys. Meanwhile, Germany's small service fleet had also been unleashed against the sea
lanes. In the North Sea, the battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, intercepted a convoy
on November the 22nd. They sank its escort, the armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi. But it
was the pocket battleship Graf Spee which caused the greatest problems. Designed
specifically for commerce raiding, its 11-inch guns could overwhelm any ship fast enough to
overtake it. And it had the speed to escape from any battleship. The Graf Spee had slipped
away from Germany before hostilities began. Soon, it was cutting loose in the South
Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Finally, three British cruisers, Exeter, Ajax and Achilles,
intercepted it off the River Plate on the east coast of South America. The British ships
damaged the pocket battleship so badly that it had to take refuge in the neutral Uruguayan
port of Montevideo. The Germans were then fooled into thinking that a more powerful
British force had arrived. When the Graf Spee was commanded to leave port, the captain
scuttled her, rather than risk annihilation. Back home, the Royal Navy crews were feted as
heroes. But this was just about the only obvious success enjoyed by the British or French
armed forces during the winter of 1939, though the British did enjoy one secret victory in
the technological war, which was to prove vital. As soon as the war began, Britain began to
lose large numbers of ships to German mines. What was so mysterious, was that the ships
didn't seem to have actually struck them. The mines had simply exploded as the ships passed
nearby. Then, on the night of November the 22nd, 1939, a German plane was spotted
dropping a mine at low tide in the Thames Estuary. Disarmed and rescued from the mud,
the mine was found to be set off by the magnetic signature of a ship passing close by. The
solution was to reduce the ship's magnetic signature by hanging a copper cable around the hull
and then passing an electric current through it, a process called degaussing. Once degaussing
was applied to all ships, the danger from the magnetic mine was massively reduced. But
otherwise, as 1940 began, the war was quiet. The two sides did little during the winter,
except to patrol, train, and try to keep warm, for it was a particularly cold one. An American
journalist called it the phony war. For the Germans, it was the Sitzkrieg. In the spring, the
British Expeditionary Force took up its position towards the left of the front on the Belgian
border. But it was dwarfed by its French ally. France had some 100 divisions along the
Belgian and German frontiers or in reserve nearby. This imbalance meant that the British
Commander Lord Gort had to go along with the ideas of the French General Maurice
Gammelin. And these were entirely defensive. French hopes were pinned on the massive
ramparts of the Maginot line, a series of fortifications that ran from Switzerland to Belgium
along the French-German border. The Marginot line was considered to be completely
impassable and would ensure that French territory remained safe. But otherwise, the allies
had no idea of how actually to defeat Germany. Instead, they brought up their forces and
prepared for a repeat of World War I. They would blockade Germany to sap its strength, and
they would dig in, ready to grind down the assault which they knew must come. None of
their commanders seemed to consider that the Germans might have totally different ideas or
that the next moves might come in a completely different arena, Scandinavia. On
November the 30th, 1939, a new theatre of war was opened up. The Soviet Union invaded its
tiny neighbour, Finland. Finland had only achieved independence from the Russians in 1918,
and hated them. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was convinced that one day the Finns might
allow the Germans in to attack Leningrad and the vital arctic port of Murmansk. The red
army outnumbered its Finnish opponents by more than 10 to one. The invasion should have
been a walkover. But its leadership had been devastated by Stalin's terrible purges. The
Finns were led by General Gustaf Mannerheim. He fought back using hit-and-run tactics
amid the deep snow, often on skis. The Soviet troops, confused and poorly led, suffered
massive losses. Finland's gallant resistance caught the imagination of the British and French.
Soon they were planning to send help via Norway and Sweden. The fact that this might suck
two neutral countries into the war was ignored. But a renewed Soviet offensive at the
beginning of February broke the Finnish defensive line. In early March, the Finns had to cede
territory to Stalin. By now, Hitler, too, had become interested in Scandinavia. The Nazi war
machine relied on iron ore from Sweden. In the winter months, the only way it could get to
Germany was via the Norwegian port of Narvik. If the allies landed in Norway, this vital
supply could be cut off. So he ordered plans to be prepared for an invasion of Norway.
Denmark, which was in the way, would also have to be seized. The Norway theatre heated up
on February the 16th, 1940. The British destroyer Cossack boarded the German supply ship
Altmark in a Norwegian fjord to release prisoners. Then, on April the 9th, German troops
began landing at five ports, Oslo, Kristiansand, Bergen, Trondheim and Narvik. At the
same time, men of their newly formed German parachute division seized Stavanger and Oslo
airfields. The Norwegian defenders were swiftly overwhelmed, as were the Danes. German
forces occupied their country within 24 hours. In Norway, the Germans moved swiftly to link
up their beachheads and seize all the major towns. In the air, the Luftwaffe had total control.
The allies now responded. A landing force was dispatched to recapture Narvik. French and
Norwegian forces achieved this on May the 28th. But a substantial German force was now
approaching. So six weeks later, the allies abandoned Norway to its fate. Hitler had spent
most of that winter and spring at his country retreat, the Berghof in Southern Bavaria. For
him, the events in Scandinavia were a sideshow. Instead, he was preparing for his next major
Blitzkrieg against Britain and France. The first plan his generals brought him had a familiar
ring to it. The Germans would advance into Belgium aiming to swing down towards Paris.
It was a repeat of the Schlieffen Plan, which the Germans had used at the start of World War I.
The allies were expecting this. And their main strategic discussion was how to prepare for it.
When the Germans attacked, the allies planned that their forces west of the Marginot Line
would swing forward into Belgium to hold them on the shorter and more defensible line of
the Rivers Dyle and Meuse. Then on January the 10th, 1940, a German liaison aircraft lost its
way and crashed in Belgium. A copy of the German plan was found. This convinced the
allies that their Dyle plan must be right, and they deployed their troops accordingly.
Unfortunately, the same event made the Germans alter their ideas entirely. Chief planner
General Erich von Manstein had always thought the original plan unimaginative. He was
worried that the German forces would become bogged down, as in World War I, and that his
country would lose a long, drawn out war. So he proposed to Hitler that the main thrust
should be made at the point where the Marginot Line ended and where the allies were most
vulnerable, as their western armies moved forward. Virtually all Germany's Panzers would
be gathered opposite the Ardennes in southeast Belgium. The allies considered this hilly and
wooded area almost impossible for tanks. It was, therefore, lightly defended. The plan was
to drive deep behind the allied armies which would have advanced into Belgium. They could
then cut them off. And all the forces sitting in the Marginot Line would be bypassed. It was
a high-risk strategy. The German armour could become stuck in the forest. But Hitler loved
it. So the German forces were redeployed without the allies knowing. The allies meanwhile
prepared for their long, defensive war. In addition to the formidable barrier of the Marginot
Line, they had a slight advantage, both in manpower, some 110 divisions available against 95
German, and in armour, about 3,000 vehicles against 2,700. The French also had the better
tanks. Their 32 ton Char B had both 75 and 47 millimetre guns. Its disadvantage was that
the main gun was mounted in the hull and so was difficult to aim. The other gun was in a one
man turret, from which the commander had to control the tank as well as man the gun. In
contrast, the newest German design, a 17 ton Panzer Mark IV had a 75 millimetre gun in a
spacious three man turret. So its crew could work as a team, though only about 100 were
available. The other main French tanks also had guns which matched those of their German
counterparts, but again, the French had the one man turret. The one area where the Germans
had a clear advantage was in the air. The Luftwaffe had 2,000 bombers, the allies just 800.
The Luftwaffe had 4,000 fighters, including the ultra-modern Messerschmitt Bf 109. They
faced just 2,500 mainly older aircraft. The Royal Air Force did have about 800 excellent
Spitfire and Hurricane fighters. But it was keen to keep them for home defence. But the main
difference between the two armies was in philosophy. Everything the Germans did was
focused on the possibilities of Blitzkrieg. All their armour was grouped in 10 independent
Panzer divisions. But the French were preparing for a repeat of the static fighting of World
War I. They saw tanks as infantry support and distributed them piecemeal instead of
concentrating them. They had noticed the success of Germany's Panzers in Poland. So they
were assembling three armour divisions. But by the start of hostilities, none was fully
operational. Two totally different ways of military thinking were about to go head to head.
Blitzkrieg against static warfare. The summer of 1940 would soon show which was correct.
On May the 10th, 1940, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Britain. He couldn't
have picked a worse day. That was the day Hitler chose to launch his Blitzkrieg against
France and Britain. At dawn, a whole German airborne division parachuted into Holland to
seize bridges and airfields. Simultaneously, the massive Belgian fortress of Eban Emael was
assaulted. Paratroop engineers were dropped on top by swooping German gliders. They
swiftly silenced its guns. Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe attacked Dutch and Belgian air bases.
Then, the frontier barriers were pushed aside. And Hitler's Army Group B under General Fedor
von Bock now drove into Holland and Belgium. As planned, the French and British armies
along the Belgian border moved forward to their new defensive line along the Dyle and Meuse
Rivers. But none of the allied commanders seemed to have noticed that German Army
Group A, which had the bulk of the Panzers, after brushing aside the Belgian frontier troops
had now begun driving through the hills and woods of the Ardennes to their south.
Meanwhile, the Germans were pushing rapidly through Holland. The obsolete Dutch army was
no match for the highly tuned German war machine. And it was under continual heavy air
attack by the Luftwaffe which roamed the skies unchallenged. On May the 14th, the Germans
demanded the surrender of the port of Rotterdam. A large force of bombers took off as the
Dutch hesitated. While they were airborne, the Dutch agreed to surrender the city. But
apparently a recall message never reached the bombers. Rotterdam was devastated. The
Dutch capitulated the next day. Then came the hammer blow. The thing that British and
French planners had thought impossible had happened. German Panzers were through the
Ardennes and had reached the Meuse by the evening of May the 12th. Among the first to
arrive at Sedan, well north of the Marginot Line, were the men of the 19th Panzer Corps
commanded by General Heinz Guderian, fresh from the triumphs in Poland. Guderian now
showed how Blitzkrieg should be done. He ignored the troops in the Marginot Line, and he
didn't wait for his own infantry to catch up. He pushed straight on. The next day, assault
troops crossed the River Meuse. Engineers began building bridges for the armour while
under heavy French fire. On the 14th, the Panzers began crossing. That evening Guderian's
bridgehead was eight miles deep. The French troops, stuck in the Marginot Line, were too
immobile to intervene. Allied bombers made despairing attempts to destroy the German
bridges. But most were shot down. All the while German artillery pounded the French
defences while the Stukas screamed in. Just three days after the attack had been launched,
the French defenders around Sedan broke. Guderian's Panzers began racing westwards. By
nightfall they had advanced more than 40 miles behind the northern group of Allied armies.
These had been holding firm on the Dyle line. But now the French supreme commander,
General Gamelin, realised that they were about to be encircled. He ordered them to fall back.
This sudden decision to withdraw bewildered the allied troops who had no idea what was
going on behind them. As they fell back, they were hindered by a growing flood of refugees
clogging the roads. That day, the French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud phoned Churchill.
He said, "We are beaten. We have lost the battle." But for all the brilliance of the Blitzkrieg,
the Germans were vulnerable. As the Panzers raced westwards, they created an ever longer
corridor just a few miles wide. The allies realised that this was open to counterattack. The
bulk of the German army was still totally dependent on horsepower or its own feet for
transport. So the gap between the rampaging Panzers and the follow-up infantry grew with
every hour. On May the 17th, Colonel Charles de Gaulle, commander of one of the newly
formed French armour divisions, made the first of two attempts to cut through the German
line near Crecy. But the cumbersome French command system meant that units were sent
into battle piecemeal, not in a coordinated thrust. The Germans had little difficulty warding
off both attacks, inflicting heavy casualties. It seemed that nothing could now stop Guderian.
He plunged on further and further into France. By the 19th, his lead units were past Peronne.
On the 20th, in an extraordinary 56 mile dash, Amiens had been taken by lunchtime.
Abbeville, just 14 miles from the English channel, was seized by 9 that evening. And at
midnight, a battalion of the 2nd Panzer division reached the coast of Noyelles. The Germans
had split the allied front in two. Everything now depended on whether they could defend this
long, thin corridor, or whether the allies could successfully counterattack. So now the British
got ready to break the German lines. On May the 21st, two armoured battalions prepared to
launch an attack south of Arras. The British tanks were even more unsuited to fast-moving
armoured warfare than the French. Their most effective machine, the Matilda II, had been
designed for infantry support. Though well armoured, it was slow and undergunned. The
Germans had little trouble in repulsing the attack. But it did have an effect. By now, the
German high command were becoming worried by their extended lines of communication.
So, for the time being, driving south into the rest of France was put on hold until the infantry
had caught up. The priority was to turn north and eliminate the British Expeditionary Force
and the French First Army fighting beside it. On May the 22nd, Guderian and the Panzers
began their attack to destroy the allied armies. These were now pulling back to the ports of
Boulogne, Calais, and Dunkirk, but they were trapped. On May the 23rd, General Alan
Brooke, commander British II Corps, wrote, "Nothing but a miracle can save the British
Expeditionary Force." Two days later, the Germans seized Boulogne. It was beginning to
look as if even a miracle would be too late. May the 25th, 1940. the situation of the British
Expeditionary Force and the French First Army was desperate. The port of Boulogne had
been overrun. German troops had isolated Calais. The British were being forced back to the
port of Dunkirk. Lord Gort, the British commander, advised his government that the only
hope of saving even a fraction of his troops was to organise an evacuation by sea. But as
the dive bombers screamed down and the Panzers were poised for the final assault,
evacuation seemed a forlorn hope. The British anticipated that Dunkirk would be overrun
within a day. But unknown to the British, Hitler and the German high command had made
a decision which was to save them from total annihilation. The Germans were only too aware
that their Panzer crews were exhausted and their machines needed urgent repairs. Those
attacks by De Gaulle and the British may have failed, but they had shown very clearly how
vulnerable the German lines of communication were. This was the great weakness of
Blitzkrieg. So the high command made a fateful decision. It decided to stop the Panzers'
advance to save them from further damage, and wait for the infantry to come up. Only then
would the allied pocket around Dunkirk be eliminated. So the Blitzkrieg was halted, and the
Panzers lay idle. They would not advance for two days, just enough to buy the British in
particular a little time to prepare. As the tanks waited, the only major action was in Calais.
There, the British and French garrison refused to surrender. Instead, they had to be overrun in
three days of bloody hand to hand fighting. When the Panzers got going again two days later
on May the 26th, the weather had changed. The Germans became bogged down in the heavy
rain, again giving the allies more time. So it was that at 7:57 p.m. on May the 26th, Vice
Admiral Bertram Ramsey, Flag Officer commanding Dover, received a signal that he was to
put Operation Dynamo into action. Operation Dynamo was a plan to withdraw the British
Expeditionary Force by sea. He had prepared it more in hope than in expectation that it could
ever be used. The following day a makeshift fleet of destroyers, tugs, and passenger ferries
crossed the English Channel. But by the end of the day, less than 8,000 of the over 300,000
troops of Dunkirk had been rescued. The port was under such heavy air attack that it could
not be used. And the ships could not get in close enough to the beaches. So Ramsay now sent
out a call for any boats of shallow draft that were over 30 feet long. Hundreds of cabin
cruisers, fishing boats, and barges were gathered from harbours all over southern England
and sent across the channel. Often crewed by their civilian owners, the little ships worked on
the beaches of Dunkirk ferrying troops out to the larger boats waiting to take them to safety.
All the time they were under constant air attack. The British Air Force threw every fighter it
possessed into the battle to drive the Luftwaffe off. Even so, seven French and six British
destroyers were sunk together with 24 smaller war ships. A quarter of the 665 small boats
never got home. But when the evacuation was halted on June the 4th, over 300,000 men,
41% of them French, had been rescued. None of this would have been possible without the
heroism of the French army. It played a vital role in slowing down the German advance. The
French rear guard didn't leave its positions around Dunkirk until the last boats had pulled
away from the beaches. One British officer compared them to the last stand of the Spartans at
Thermopylae. Even so, the British army had lost most of its heavy weapons. It wouldn't be
fit to fight the Germans again for a long time. France still had to fight on, but it had lost
more than half its army. Against them, the Germans had 92 divisions, including masses of
armour. At 4 in the morning of June the 5th, a short bombardment began the final destruction
of France. Assault troops crossed the Somme and the Aisne. At first, the French resistance
was fierce. And the Germans struggled to break out of their bridgeheads. But once again, the
Luftwaffe helped crush the defences. Soon, the Panzers were pushing south. And the trickle
of surrendering French troops turned into a flood. By the 9th, the Panzers had reached the
River Seine. And the infantry were only a few hours behind. Once across the river, the
Germans fanned out into the interior of the country. On the 14th, the German army marched
into Paris. The swastika was raised on the Eiffel Tower. Hitler had secured the prize which
had eluded the Kaiser in 1914. The Parisians could only watch in stunned horror. Throughout
the period of the French collapse, Winston Churchill paid five visits to France trying to
bolster French resistance. On June the 16th, he even offered Paul Reynaud a union with
Britain if France stayed in the fight. But it was too late. Raynaud's cabinet rejected the
proposal, and the Prime Minister resigned that evening. He was succeeded by Marshal
Philippe Petain who immediately asked the Germans for an armistice. It was only now that
the Germans finally began to attack the Marginot Line, which had been left isolated. After
a heavy artillery bombardment, the French defenders offered only token resistance before the
German troops occupied the forts. On June the 21st, Hitler went to Compiegne, where the
railway carriage in which the Germans had signed the armistice in 1918 was kept. As the
French delegation entered the carriage, he handed them his terms and then left. The French
insisted on consulting their government. But the next day, they were told that if they didn't
sign immediately, the Panzers would roll again. They signed. And the humiliation of
France was complete. For Hitler, his control of western Europe seemed absolute. He felt sure
that Britain must now seek peace and that soon, he could turn to the next stage of his master
plan. But even though the Blitzkrieg had achieved so much so fast, it hadn't won him the war.
The British, battered and wounded, had escaped to fight another day.
3
On June 22, 1940, Britain stood alone against the Nazis. France had surrendered, and Prime
Minister Winston Churchill could only crow defiance. We'll fight on the beaches. We'll
fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in
the hills. We shall never surrender. Britain still had all the resources of its vast empire.
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and a host of other territories had all
been quick to declare war on Germany. But they were thousands of miles away, across the
oceans, and their military power could not be brought to bear where it mattered. Britain's
situation seemed hopeless. And Hitler had no doubt that Britain would soon try to negotiate a
peace. But Churchill quickly showed how determined he was prepared to be in the war
against the Nazis. A powerful squadron of two French battleships and two battle cruisers was
lying in the port of MerselKebir in French North Africa. If the French ships fell into German
hands, the British Navy's position in the Mediterranean would become impossible. So on
July 3, a Royal Navy task force demanded that the French ships either join it or sail to a
neutral port to be interred. The French refused. So the British opened fire on their former
allies. They destroyed or severely damaged three of the battleships. Almost 1,300 French
sailors were killed. But Churchill's ruthlessness didn't seem to impress Hitler. On July 19, he
returned in triumph to Berlin and was greeted by more than a million people. That day he
made a speech in the Reichstag, the German parliament, offering peace terms to Britain. His
offer seemed generous. Britain could keep its empire. In return, Hitler wanted a free hand in
Europe. His plan was to conquer the countries of the East in order to win Lebensraum, room
to live for the German people. But Churchill would have none of it. The British would fight
on. This would, as he put it, be their finest hour. Churchill's defiance was immensely popular.
King George VI wrote in his diary, "Personally, I feel happier now that we have no more
allies to be polite to and pamper." But it was difficult to see how Britain could turn the tables
and actually win the war. The British army might have survived Dunkirk, but it had lost
almost all its tanks, artillery, and transport in the evacuation. It had just 25 divisions, armed
mainly with rifles, to resist the vast armoured columns of the world's most fearsome war
machine. So there was little be done except dig in and wait. Coastal defences were prepared
and concrete strongpoints build all across southern England. Signposts on roads were
removed to make it harder for any invaders to find their way around. Large open areas were
littered with obstacles to deter airborne troops. The volunteer defines force, the home guard
was recruited. It was made up of men who were otherwise ineligible to fight, often because
of their age. By the end of June 1940, almost one and a half million volunteers had signed up.
But there were few weapons with which to arm them. Hitler, meanwhile, was getting on with
his invasion plans, code named Operation Sea Lion. Some 20 divisions would be landed on a
broad front along England's south coast. Barges were gathered from all over Northwest
Europe. These were hurriedly converted into makeshift landing craft. Troops were trained for
beach landings. But for all Hitler's bravado, those planning Sea Lion were worried. Hitler
might dismiss the English Channel as just another river to be crossed. But Britain's Navy was
still the largest in the world. It might be stretched thin by its worldwide commitments, but the
Royal Navy's home fleet far outnumbered the German. The German naval chief, Admiral Erich
Raeder, had no confidence that he could seize control of the English Channel for long enough
to get the army across. But the Germans did have one area of apparent massive superiority.
The Luftwaffe far outnumbered Britain's Royal Air Force. The Luftwaffe's commander,
Hermann Goering, had little doubt that he could establish air control over the Channel long
enough for Sea Lion to take place. On July 10, the Luftwaffe began attacking shipping in the
Channel. In response, the British had two of the most outstanding of the new breed of single
engine multi gun mono planes. The Supermarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane. The
Spitfire was slightly faster and more agile than its German rival, the Messerschmitt Bf109,
which escorted the German bombers. It would be used to intercept these. The Hurricane
would prove a lethal bomber kill. But in July 1940, Air Vice Marshal Hugh Dowding, the
head of Fighter Command, had less than 700 fighters. Against them were 2,600 German
fighters and bombers. The odds against the RAF were daunting. Dowding knew that he could
not take on the Luftwaffe every time it came over the Channel. So when the Germans began
hitting British shipping, he did nothing. Instead he would only use the RAF to stop the
Luftwaffe from establishing the air supremacy needed for invasion. So he would only take on
its big attacks. To help him, the British had one crucial innovation. Radar. By the 1930s,
scientists in both Britain and Germany knew that objects well beyond human sight could be
detected by bouncing radio pulses off them and measuring the time it took for the signals to
return. In Britain, a team of scientists led by Robert Watson-Watt began developing radar as
a means of detecting approaching aircraft at long range. Their work was seized upon by
Dowding. He made radar the core of the world's first integrated air defines system. Known
as Chain Home, this was a string of 21 300 foot tall radar masts sited along the south and east
coasts of Britain. These could pick up aircraft at a range of 120 miles and give their distance,
direction, height, and numbers. The information would be passed back to RAF Fighter
Command's headquarters at Bently Priory, just outside London. There, it would be assessed
and warning of an impending raid passed to Fighter Command's operation room. Moonshine
one four sky blue take target one channel "G" George. Roger. Controllers would then alert
the nearest RAF airfields and scramble the necessary number of fighters. The question was,
would radar make up for Germany's massive superiority in numbers? The stage was now set
for what would become known as the Battle of Britain. Since June 10, 1940, the German
Luftwaffe had been battering British shipping in the English Channel. The Luftwaffe's
commander, Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering, was determined to lure the British air force
into combat. But Britain's Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding refused to take the bait. He
used his fighters sparingly, knowing that the real battle was still to come. As this first phase
of the Battle of Britain began, the Luftwaffe had a massive superiority in numbers. It had
1,100 single engine fighters available to the Royal Air Force's 700. Almost all the German
fighters were the excellent Messerschmitt Bf109E with a top speed of around 350 miles an
hour. About two thirds of the British fighters were Hawker Hurricanes, slower than the 109s,
but more agile. The remainder were Supermarine Spitfires, with a top speed similar to the
109s. For their assault, the Germans had over 1,300 medium bombers, Dornier Do17s,
Heinkel He111s, and Junkers Ju88s, each carrying about 4,000 pounds of bombs. Goering
selected August 13 as Adlertag, Eagle Day, for the start of his main assault. His aim was to
destroy RAF fighters in the air, and the RAF's airfields and Britain's aircraft factories.
Softening up attacks were made the day before. These concentrated on the airfields and the
radar towers along the south coast. One station on the Isle of Wight was put out of action,
and several were damaged, but these were working again within hours. Goering did not
believe that radar had a significant role to play in the battle, and so these attacks were not
repeated. It was a big mistake. Adlertag dawned cloudy, so the main assault was postponed
until the afternoon. When it came, radar gave ample warning. Calling, planes heard three
miles southwest. None the less, most of the RAF airfields in the south were hammered. But
by the end of the day, none had been put out of action. The Luftwaffe lost 46 aircraft. Britain,
just 13. The Luftwaffe mounted its largest attack of the whole battle on August 15. Waves
of heavily escorted German bombers forced their way through to the RAF airfields. The RAF
was so overstretched that some pilots flew seven sorties that day. By the time the raids died
away, some 90 German aircraft had been shot down for the loss of 42 British fighters. The
battle continued with equal ferocity over the next few days. Both sides became increasingly
exhausted. Dowding tried to rotate his pilots to rest them, but he simply did not have enough
of them. Many were being sent into battle with just ten-hour flying experience. The
Luftwaffe was suffering too. Its pilots were shocked and increasingly demoralised by the
resilience of the British. The RAF fighters always seemed to be waiting for them. As the
fighting wore on for 12 solid days, the British losses began to creep up to match those of the
Germans. The Royal Air Force was close to breaking. To turn the screw, Goering began
using his bombers to attack at night as well. But this decision had an unexpected outcome.
On the night of August 24, a flight of Heinkel bombers lost its way and bombed the city of
London. It was the first attack on a non-military target. The next night 81 British bombers
responded by raiding Berlin. Hitler was infuriated and demanded massive retaliation. This
came on the evening of September 7. German bombers attacked the London docks and
surrounding areas. More than 450 people died and thousands of homes were destroyed. But
in fact, this was Goering's second crucial mistake. By switching from the RAF's airfields just
at the moment when it seemed about to break, he gave it the respite it needed. Had Goering
continued to attack the airfields, the RAF could not have continued to defend the skies.
Instead, on September 15, British radars picked up another massive assault on London. The
first wave of 100 bombers and four hundred fighters was intercepted. Fighting raged all the
way from the coast. In the afternoon, another fleet of 150 bombers renewed the attack.
Winston Churchill was at the Fighter Command headquarters that day. After he heard
controllers calling in reinforcements from neighbouring groups, he asked, "What other
reserves have we got?" The reply was, "There are none." But it was obvious that the
Luftwaffe had failed to gain control of the air, and on September 17, Hitler postponed
Operation Sea Lion. The Battle of Britain did not really end. It died away. Hitler now tried
a new tactic. By October 5, the daylight raids stopped and the Germans concentrated on
bombing Britain's cities by night. This was the so called Blitz. London was attacked every
night but one up to November 12. On November 10, the centre of the city of Coventry was
obliterated. The Blitz continued into 1941, with the last major raid being made on London on
the night of May 10. More than 50,000 civilians were killed in the Blitz, but there was never
any question of Britain cracking. Victory in the Battle of Britain was a moment of huge
national relief. Pilots had come from all over the empire to join the RAF, and from countries
occupied by the Nazis, like Poland and Czechoslovakia. Churchill summed up the nation's
gratitude. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
But for Hitler, this was no more than an irritating setback. Britain, he was convinced, could
never be a serious threat. So he now turned to Eastern Europe. For Britain, there was now a
chance to rebuild with a view, one day, to taking the fight to the enemy. But to do that,
Churchill would need help. Britain may have won the Battle of Britain, but it was still
immensely vulnerable. Night after night, its cities were hammered by the Nazis' Blitz. Its
supply lifelines at sea were under constant assault. Churchill needed more help. And there
was only one country that could provide it. The United States. By 1940, the U.S. had
recovered from the Great Depression and the economy was booming again. It had immense
reserves of manpower and unrivalled industrial strength. But the people of the United States
were utterly opposed to becoming involved yet again in Europe's wars. In July 1940, a poll
showed that only 8% of them were willing to enter the war. Undeterred, Churchill lobbied
the U.S. president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt had long admired Churchill for his
outspokenly anti-Nazi views, and the two men shared an interest in naval affairs. Roosevelt
had been Under Secretary for the U.S. Navy in 1917. After he became president, Roosevelt
kept in touch with Churchill. The two began a correspondence, Churchill signing himself,
"former Naval person." For all his avuncular image, Roosevelt had no illusions that German
aggression would one day suck America into the war. So he began the long job of preparing
American public opinion. I am a Pacifist, but I believe you and I will act together to protect
and to defend our science, our culture, our American freedom and our civilization. In July
1940, he got approval for a massive expansion of the U.S. Navy, including the building of six
large battleships and a new class of aircraft carriers. The following month, Congress agreed
that the National Guard and other reserves should be called up for one year's active duty.
And in September, a large expansion of the 150,000 strong U.S. Army was agreed, with a
limited number of conscripts being chosen by lottery. The first number, drawn by the
Secretary of War, is serial number 158. That same month, Roosevelt announced a deal
under which the U.S. would supply Britain with 50 World War I destroyers, in return for 99-
year leases on bases in Newfoundland and the Caribbean. The British Navy, desperate for
more escorts to fight the U-boats, began taking them over within days of the deal being
signed. The clearest sign that Roosevelt was slowly winning the argument came in the
November 1940 presidential election, when he convincingly defeated the isolationist
Wendell Wilkie with 27 million votes to 22 million. At the end of the year, Roosevelt spoke to
the American people, setting out the four essential freedoms which he believed were at stake,
and which Britain was fighting to uphold. Freedom of speech and religion and freedom
from want and from fear. To save these, the United States must become the arsenal of the
democracies. In other words, it must arm Britain. We shall send you in ever increasing
numbers, ships, planes, tanks, guns. That is our purpose and our pledge. But some
Americans remained implacably opposed to helping Britain. One of the most outspoken was
the American ambassador in London, Joseph Kennedy, father of the future president John F.
Kennedy. A Boston Irish businessman who had made his fortune booze smuggling during
Prohibition, Kennedy hated the British and seized every opportunity to claim that they would
shortly be forced to surrender. However, Kennedy's virulence was counterbalanced by the
growing admiration many Americans felt for the bravery shown by the British people during
the Blitz. In particular, the broadcasts by the CBS London correspondent Ed Murrow helped
to change public opinion. This is London. I remember the evening of Sunday, December 29.
It was just like any other winter evening. The first bombers were over London at about 6:30.
Soon the fires hissed from the top story windows. Hitler once boasted, "I will rub out their
cities." This is what he meant. Encouraged by his electoral success, in January 1941
Roosevelt introduced his so called Lend Lease Bill. The United States would supply weapons
and war material to Britain and China, which was still struggling desperately against the
invading Japanese. Payment would be delayed. Roosevelt likened Lend Lease to lending a
neighbour a hose to put out a fire. You would worry about the payback later. Roosevelt was
also being canny. It also meant that unlike in 1917, if America had to enter the war, it already
would have a substantial weapons industry. American war preparations didn't end there.
Roosevelt secretly authorised U.S. military staffs to discuss a common strategy with the British
should America enter the war. By April 1941, he felt confident enough to take another step to
help Britain at sea. He greatly extended the Pan American security zone, the area within
which U.S. warships would protect U.S. merchant vessels. In May, U.S. troops set up bases
in Greenland, and in July, U.S. Marines were sent to replace the British garrison in Iceland,
which was there to deprive the Germans of its harbours. The U.S. Navy also began providing
limited convoy escorts, particularly for U.S. ships carrying Lend Lease materials. Hitler
now gave his submariners strict instructions not to sink American ships, as he didn't want to
provoke the United States into war. But inevitably, there were clashes. On September 4,
1941, a British aircraft attacked a German submarine. Thinking that the strike had come from
the nearby U.S. destroyer Greer, the U-Boat fired a torpedo at it. The Greer responded with
depth charges and there was a running battle which lasted three hours. Neither vessel was
sunk, but the tension was mounting. On November 17, the destroyer USS Kearney was hit by
a torpedo while on convoy duty off Iceland. The U-Boat commander claimed it was an
accident. He had been firing at a British ship and the Kearney had got in the way. But 11
U.S. sailors were dead and the destroyer only just made it back to port in Rekyavik.
Roosevelt protested and the U.S. press was outraged. However, the American public remained
resolutely opposed to going to war. Within weeks, at the end of 1941, the situation was
reversed in a single day. But in the meantime, Britain would have to fight on alone. And
luckily, it had an astonishing weapon to hand. It looks like just another mansion in the English
countryside, a bit run down. But Bletchley Park once contained a secret that fundamentally
affected the course of World War II. Because it was at Bletchley that Britain worked out how
to read Germany's most secret codes. Since the mid-1930s, all the German armed forces and
intelligence departments had adopted a standard machine for encoding their messages. The
Cypher Machine E, better known as Enigma. It was developed in the early 1920s as a handy
tool for businessmen to keep commercial messages secret. It was powered by a battery, and
its encoded messages were transmitted in Morse code to be decoded on a second Enigma
machine at the receiving end. The critical element of the machine was three rotors which
could be set to scramble the message in a way which could only be unscrambled by another
machine with the same settings. The rotors could be replaced and set differently. As a result,
each letter typed could come up in any one of 150 million ways. Given the almost infinite
number of settings, it was not surprising that the Germans remained convinced throughout
the war that Enigma was uncrackable. It was the Poles who took the first steps in solving
this baffling puzzle. They knew of the existence of the Enigma machine and assembled a
team of top mathematicians to crack it. Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Roszickzi and Henry
Zigalski. But the team could not decipher messages without knowing the internal wiring of
the rotors. The solution was supplied by French intelligence, which sent its Polish allies
material gathered by a spy in the German army's cipher department. Amongst this was an
Enigma manual. The Poles were able to reconstruct an Enigma machine and began
laboriously decoding messages. By July 1939, Hitler was sounding increasingly threatening
towards Poland. Britain and France had promised to come to its aid. It was clear that war was
coming. So intelligence officers from the three allies met in Warsaw. There, the British and
French were astonished at how much the Poles had done in decoding Enigma. And the Poles
agreed to send two of their reconstructed machines to London. Just two weeks after they
were handed over, Poland was invaded. By the time Poland fell to the Germans, the Polish
cryptographers had destroyed all evidence of their work on Enigma. Some were captured and
tortured, but none revealed what they had been up to. The task was now taken up by the
British at their Government Code and Cypher School, at Bletchley Park, near London. Its
head was Commander Alistair Denniston. Denniston recruited a strange collection of
mathematicians, chess masters and crossword puzzle experts to continue the decoding.
Among these experts was Alan Turing, a Cambridge don. In 1936, Turing had described the
idea of a universal computing machine, a machine that he believed would one day be able to
solve all mathematical problems. He used his ideas to design decryption machines known
as "Bronze Goddesses." The raw material for Bletchley came from the British Y service, a
chain of radio listening stations which monitored and recorded German transmissions. The
messages were fed into Beltchley's Bronze Goddesses and permutations run until at last the
key was found. Once a message had been decrypted, it was translated, analysed and passed
on to the appropriate authority. From the moment he became Prime Minister and learned of
Bletchley's work, Winston Churchill understood its extraordinary importance. He referred to
Bletchley's output as his ultra secret information, and Ultra became its codename. The
distribution of Ultra was tightly controlled. Senior commanders were shown only that
information which directly concerned their operations. The need to keep the source of
intelligence secret was so great that Churchill insisted that no action could be taken on the
basis of Ultra material unless a cover plan had been developed to convince the Germans that
the intelligence must have come from another source. The third critical element of the
Bletchley operation, after decoding and assessing the material, was keeping control of it.
Often Ultra revealed vital information about German plans and actions. News of forthcoming
attacks and other intelligence was filed away in a massive card index system. This was
constantly mined for answers to questions great and small. By the end of the war, Bletchley
was decoding much of the German traffic almost as fast as it was being sent. It was
jokingly said that it would have been quicker for a German commander to ring Bletchley to get
his orders. It was at sea that the Allies first became aware of how vital information from
Ultra could be. An early example of its potential came on June 8, 1940. The British aircraft
carrier Glorious was covering the convoys withdrawing Allied troops from Norway, when
Bletchley decoded signals showing the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau
were approaching its position. A warning was passed to Royal Navy headquarters, but
unaware of how accurate the information was likely to be, this chose not to pass it on. The
Glorious was intercepted and sunk. The British Navy had learned the hard way just how
important the new source of intelligence could be. It was not a mistake it would make again.
Bletchley also performed a critical role in the build up to the Battle of Britain. It had
provided a clear picture of the Luftwaffe's order of battle, and the overall strategy being
adopted by its leader, Hermann Goering. This information convinced the head of British
Fighter Command, Air Vice Marshal Hugh Dowding that his tactic of committing his fighters
bit by bit rather than in large numbers was the correct one, a tactic that played a crucial part
in preserving the RAF's narrow winning margin. As Britain continued its lonely fight into
1941, it had at last found a way of fighting back. Bletchley Park was ready for action. The
major breakthroughs had been made. The systems for exploiting them put in place and well
tested. In the coming years, Ultra and the work of Bletchley Park would prove vital to the
Allied successes. But as the Battle of Britain and the Blitz ground on, these were still a long
way off. Churchill still needed more immediate results. And by early 1941 he thought that he
had at last found a way to get them. Nazi Germany might now control most of western
Europe, but Britain's prime minister, Winston Churchill, now decided to take the war to the
Germans. We shall not flinch from the supreme child. All will come right. Even before
France had surrendered he was looking for ways of striking back, and of keeping resistance
alive in the countries which had been overrun. Just as the last troops were being taken off
the beaches of Dunkirk, Churchill was already planning ahead. He wrote to his chiefs of
staff, demanding the formation of raiding forces which could attack the coasts of occupied
Europe. Within a few days, a call for volunteers had been circulated to create a force of 5,000
men. They were to be called Commandos, after the highly mobile Boer units which had
fought the British for three years in South Africa at the turn of the century. Ten commando
units each of 500 men were set up. They began practising attacks from the sea. One unit was
ordered to specialise in parachuting and using assault gliders. This soon became the basis of
the separate Parachute Regiment. Admiral Sir Roger Keyes was appointed Director of
Combined Operations. Churchill instructed him to prepare to mount three major raids as soon
as the threat of an invasion of Britain had passed. One of Keyes' first tasks was to develop
ships which could land his new troops. Three cross Channel ferries were converted so as to
carry landing craft. On March 4, 1941, two Commando units and a demolition squad were
landed on the Lofoten Islands off Northern Norway. Their main objective was to destroy
factories which converted fish oil into glycerine for explosives. The Commandos achieved
total surprise and landed without a shot being fired. A German armed trawler in the harbour
was seized. They quickly destroyed the factories and fish oil tanks. One officer could not
resist using the local post office to send a telegram to A. Hitler, Berlin. It read, "Reference
your last speech, I thought you said that wherever British troops land on the continent of
Europe, German soldiers will face them. Well, where are they?" The Commandos then
rounded up 60 Norwegian collaborators and 225 German prisoners before returning without
any losses. With them, they also took 115 Norwegian volunteers. These would then join the
Free Norwegian forces in Britain. The Lofoten raid was an enormous public relations
success and a huge boost for British morale. But its most important result was one which
could not be publicised, the capture of a set of rotors for an Enigma machine. Although the
machine had been thrown overboard from the armed trawler, its crew forgot the spares. They
were to give invaluable help to the cryptographers of Bletchley Park in breaking the German
naval codes. Then in December 1941, four Commando units landed at the Norwegian port of
Vaagso and were immediately involved in heavy fighting. The approach to Vaagso was
covered by the small island of Maaloy, on which the Germans had placed artillery. This
was quickly overrun, but across the water in Vaagso, the fighting was intense. It took several
hours for the main German garrison to be subdued. The Commandos then blew up several
factories and sank eight ships before withdrawing. These raids convinced Hitler that sooner
or later the British would attempt to retake Norway. So for the remaining four years of the
war, he kept some 250,000 troops there. Troops which might have proved vital on other
fronts. But effective as they were, Commando raids were not enough to stop the Nazis.
Churchill needed other ways to hurt them, so he focused on the resistance movements in the
occupied countries. In July 1940, a Special Operations Executive, SOE, was formed, as
Churchill put it, to set Europe ablaze. Its objectives were to encourage sabotage of the enemy
war effort, gather intelligence and prepare clandestine forces to disrupt German defences.
The bulk of SOE's activities centred on France. Soon agents were recruited in Britain to build
up and coordinate the French resistance networks. Radio operators and couriers were also
trained to support them. One problem was how to get these teams into the country.
Submarines, high speed launches, and fishing vessels were all tried out. But the German
coastal defences proved difficult to penetrate. The answer was aircraft. And in August 1940,
a special RAF unit was set up with Whitley bombers and short take-off and landing Westland
Lysanders. Agents and equipment were either parachuted in from the bombers or flown in
and brought out by the Lysanders. On moonlit nights, a growing number of reception
committees would be waiting, as an increasingly widespread network of resistance groups was
built up. But all the while, they were hunted by an increasingly sophisticated German counter
espionage system. This used direction finding equipment to locate hidden radios and double
agents to infiltrate networks. The work of SOE agents was desperately perilous and their life
expectancy short. The slightest lapse in concentration might betray them to the Gestapo.
Many suffered torture and death. But Churchill was sure it was worth it. Keeping resistance
alive in the occupied countries gave hope to millions that liberation would eventually come.
The British Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, was also enlisted to raise the hopes of those
living under German rule. It broadcast the news in all the languages of the occupied
countries. The German penalty for listening to these bulletins was death. But people tuned
in regardless. The BBC also played a crucial role in transmitting coded messages to
resistance groups. These always came after the nine o'clock news. For the peoples of
occupied Europe, the prospect of liberation might only be a distant dream, but in the middle
of 1941, it suddenly became more likely. For by then Britain was no longer alone in fighting
Nazism. It had gained a massive ally. But it wasn't America, which Churchill had been
assiduously been courting. It was the Soviet Union.
 4

[theme music plays] [background music over dialogues] [cheering] [bombs exploding]
[cannons firing] [woman crying] [speaking german] [speaking german] [audience applauding]
[narrator] Adolf Hitler had never disguised his belief that the Soviet Union would be his
regime's ultimate enemy. [audience applauding] [speaking german] He hated communism and
saw the vast open spaces and abundant natural resources of Soviet Russia as the prize which
would finally enable the German people to become the master race. Throughout the early
months of 1941, as he stayed at the Berghof, his country retreat in the Bavarian Alps, Hitler
planned his greatest gamble: Operation Barbarossa, the assault on the Soviet Union. Steadily,
his armies were redeployed to the east and re-equipped for what would be their greatest
challenge. In theory Stalin's Soviet Union was still Hitler's ally, and Stalin was keen to keep it
that way for his country was woefully unprepared for war. [firing] The mighty Red Army, once
the largest and most technologically advanced in the world, had been devastated by Stalin's
purges in the late 1930s. Three quarters of its senior officers had been shot or imprisoned.
Despite appearances there had been a catastrophic collapse in morale and efficiency. As
German soldiers now flooded into neighbouring Poland Stalin, desperate to maintain the peace,
gave orders that nothing should be done to offend Hitler. But Hitler had one other task to
perform before he could push on to Russia. He needed to secure his southern flank. Romania,
Bulgaria and Hungary were Germany's firm allies. But in March 1941 the Yugoslav
government, sympathetic to Germany, was overthrown by pro-British forces. It's next-door
neighbour Greece was also pro-British. [firing] So, on 6 April 1941, the German army invaded
the Balkans. [firing] 33 German divisions moved into Yugoslavia. They swiftly tore its
defences apart. The capital Belgrade surrendered on 12 April. Greece fell almost as quickly.
Despite British help Athens was captured in less than three weeks. The way was now clear for
Operation Barbarossa. [background music over dialogues] Over four million men were to be
deployed. They were supported by more than 3,000 aircraft. The plan called for three
simultaneous thrusts. Army Group North would overrun the Baltic states and seize Leningrad.
Army Group Centre was to advance to Moscow. And Army Group South would occupy the
Ukraine. Hitler's generals went silent when he showed them the plan. They were worried it was
too ambitious and would spread their forces too thinly. But none dared voice their doubts. The
Red Army was much bigger. It had nearly two million men within striking distance of the
Western Front and millions more in reserve. The Russians also had more than 20,000 tanks, far
outnumbering Germany's 6,000. They were older and less powerful but they were still a
formidable fighting force. The issue for Germany was: could its superior technology and speed
overwhelm the Russians before the Red Army's vast numbers ground them down? Operation
Barbarossa began at 3:15 am on 22 June 1941. [firing] The Luftwaffe joined in at dawn,
targeting Soviet airfields. [firing] Simultaneously, the ground attack began. [firing] The
Germans swiftly crossed the River Bug on the border between Poland and the Soviet Union.
Hitler's Panzers were soon thrusting deep into Soviet territory. Within two days the Panzers had
penetrated more than 50 miles. Ill-coordinated Red Army counterattacks were swiftly brushed
aside. [explosion] [explosion] Tens of thousands of Soviet prisoners were rounded up.
Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe had total domination of the air. The Red Army's leadership seemed
paralysed by the German onrush. On 29 June, seven days after the start of the assault, two
Panzer thrusts met up near Minsk, surrounding huge pockets of Soviet troops. [firing] As the
follow-up infantry arrived more than 300,000 prisoners were taken. [shout] Often the Germans
found themselves welcomed as liberators, particularly in the Ukraine where anti-Russian
feeling was widespread. In Moscow Stalin appeared to have suffered a near-breakdown at the
news of his betrayal by Hitler. He remained silent for more than a week. [speaking ukraine]
Not until 3 July did he appeal to his people's patriotism to save the Motherland. In Britain the
Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, received the news of Operation Barbarossa with very
different feelings. It meant the country no longer stood alone. He announced that any enemy of
Nazi Germany was a friend of Britain's, no matter what the political differences in the past. He
then sent a mission to Moscow to sign a treaty of mutual assistance with Soviet foreign
minister, Vyacheslav Molotov. But apart from sending aid by sea there was little Britain could
do immediately to help the Soviet Union. As June turned to July the German Blitzkrieg slashed
deeper into Soviet territory. It was beginning to look as if nothing could stop Hitler. But he was
about to make his first major strategic blunder. [firing] In early July 1941 over 300,000 Red
Army troops were surrounded west of Minsk. Hitler's Panzer commanders, in particular
General Heinz Guderian, begged to be allowed to race on. Operation Barbarossa was working
like clockwork. [firing] [explosion] Within a week, the Panzers were at Smolensk, deep inside
Russia and only a couple of hundred miles from Moscow. On 22 July a Panzer pincer
movement met to the east of Smolensk, trapping another 310,000 Soviet troops. Here there was
a brief pause while the rest of the army caught up. Though the tanks could move at spectacular
speed, most of the army still had to walk or rely on horse-drawn transport. But it still only took
them five days before they arrived and began mopping up. [firing] The operation was
completed in just nine more days. Vast columns of Soviet prisoners began trudging west to
captivity. Over two and a half million never returned. Moscow was now only 200 miles away
and the road lay open. It seemed certain it would fall by the end of the summer, as planned.
[firing] But elsewhere the German advance was finding the going more difficult. The Red
Army was counter-attacking more effectively and by mid-July Army Group South was still
more than 50 miles from Kiev. Hitler decided Guderian's Panzers should delay their advance on
Moscow and swing south to Kiev to provide help. Guderian objected strongly, but Hitler was
adamant. There should be no further advance on Moscow until Kiev had fallen. It would turn
out to be a fateful decision. There were already worrying signs the Red Army was not going to
be the pushover Hitler had been expecting. Soviet manpower seemed endless. More than 16
million troops were now mobilised. And the Red Army now had some formidable new weapons.
In particular a new tank, the 37-ton T-34. It had a 76 mm gun and was faster and better cross-
country than the Panzer Mark IV. [firing] Yet, as the Blitzkrieg continued, it was easy to miss
the warning signs. Guderian's Panzer group began its thrust south on 23 August 1941. The
Panzers of Army Group South struck north three weeks later. The pincers met east of Kiev on
16 September. [firing] Two more Soviet armies were utterly destroyed. Half a million men
were killed or captured. On the same day, more than 1,000 miles to the north, Army Group
North surrounded the city of Leningrad, today's Saint Petersburg. It was immediately cut off
from the rest of the Soviet Union. [firing] The city was besieged. Hitler decided not to storm it
and the German troops settled down to starve it into surrender. Conditions in the city became
dire. The only link to the rest of the Soviet Union was across Lake Ladoga to the east but only
a small amount of food could come in by water. Starvation set in. Over 11,000 people died in
November. Not until December could an ice road be opened across the lake and there was a
slight increase in rations. But 3,700 people died of starvation on one day in December alone.
Meanwhile, Army Group Centre now prepared for the final assault on Moscow. Guderian's
Panzers had re-joined it to lead the Blitzkrieg. The Germans had a two to one superiority in
tanks and men at the front, and three to one in aircraft. [explosion] The assault started on 20
September 1941. [firing] Once again Guderian's Panzers slashed deep through the Red Army.
By 7 October yet more Soviet troops were surrounded. But Stalin was determined to defend
Moscow to the last. He appointed Marshal Georgy Zhukov to organise the defence of the city.
The people of Moscow were mobilised to dig a series of defensive lines. [thunder] But the real
obstacle to German advance would be the weather. On 8 October heavy rains set in. German
vehicles soon became bogged down in a sea of mud. By late October appalling weather and an
increasingly stubborn Soviet resistance meant Army Group Centre was still some 50 miles short
of Moscow. Hitler was finally paying the price for his decision earlier in the year to delay his
advance on Moscow. At around the same time Army Group South reached the Black Sea,
trapping yet more Soviet soldiers. Another 100,000 prisoners were taken. But they too were
hampered by the weather. Even so, the city of Kharkov was captured on 24 October 1941. But
the weather was now starting to freeze. The German forces, confident the campaign would be
over by the summer, were caught unprepared. With no winter clothing, they now suffered
terribly. On the Moscow front Army Group Centre was now beginning its final push to capture
the Soviet capital. By 4 December its leading units were just 19 miles from Red Square. Some
reconnaissance patrols claimed they could see the golden domes of the Kremlin glinting in the
distance. But that night the temperature plunged again. Tank engines would not start. Weapons
froze. Many soldiers were severely frostbitten. On 5 December the Germans halted the attack.
Winter had come to the rescue of the Red Army. But the Germans were confident that, come
the spring, they could finish the job. [firing] [firing] For much of autumn 1941, Stalin's armies
reeled under the German onslaught. But all the while he had another worry: that the Japanese
would attack his forces in Siberia. But in November the Soviet dictator received a message
from his top spy in Japan assuring him the Japanese had no such intention. Immediately more
than 30 divisions began moving west along the Trans-Siberian railway to Moscow. They were
well-equipped and well-trained in winter fighting. By early December more than half a million
extra men were in position near the capital. On 5 December, just as the Germans were
abandoning their attempt to capture Moscow, they were hit by a savage Russian attack. [firing]
First came a massive Soviet artillery barrage. Then swarms of Soviet T-34s crashed through the
German defences. Stunned by the savagery of the attack by an enemy they had assumed was on
the ropes, the Germans fell back. For the next seven days the Soviet troops tore into the
German forces. For Hitler, who had only reluctantly agreed to halt the attack on Moscow it was
a terrible blow. [dog barking] On 19 December he sacked his overall commander-in-chief,
Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, and assumed command himself. Heinz Guderian was
also sacked, along with 35 other senior officers. Hitler now ordered that there would be no more
retreats. The German troops should fight and, if necessary, die where they stood. [firing] It
worked. The German line gradually steadied. [firing] But Stalin, elated by the Red Army's
success, now demanded a massive advance across the whole front. Marshal Zhukov, one of
Stalin's most trusted commanders, tried to dissuade him, but Stalin was determined. [firing]
For the next four months, fighting swirled inconclusively around the German defensive
positions. For Hitler this was a very uncomfortable situation. He was used to, and expected,
quick results. Now he was dangerously bogged down in the Soviet Union and facing an enemy
that never seemed to give up. Nor was Russia his only headache. On 7 December 1941
Germany's ally, Japan, attacked the US without warning. Hitler, with almost no thought, also
declared war on the US. With no advanced planning he had taken on a massive new enemy. As
1941 became 1942, Hitler remained determined to go on the offensive again in Russia. But he
needed a new strategy. The original plan of fighting across the whole front was no longer
tenable. Moreover, as his economic advisers told him, Germany's oil supplies were running
low. So he decided to halt the attacks in the north and instead head for Russia's oilfields in the
south. The initial plan for Operation Blue, as it was called, envisaged an assault south of
Kharkov with Army Group A swinging down to seize the oilfields while Army Group B
covered its flank along the River Don. Straight away there was a brutal encounter with Soviet
forces trying to retake Kharkov. [firing] [explosion] Another 200,000 Soviet troops were
captured. 70,000 were killed. [firing] As part of the same operation the German's tightened
their siege of the port of Sebastopol in the Crimea. For eight months the defenders were under
constant bombardment from German artillery including a massive 400 mm railway gun.
[firing] In late June 1942 Sebastopol finally fell to the Germans. It was now safe to head for the
oilfields. [firing] On 28 June the offensive began. Army Group B forced its way through to the
River Don and advanced along its western bank. [firing] [explosion] Army Group A faced
stronger resistance. But by 9 July it was close to Rostov. Hitler now made a series of what
would turn out to be serious strategic blunders. As Army Group B made its way along the Don,
the Führer ordered it to capture Stalingrad even though the city had no immediate strategic
significance. The army had suddenly been given a massive new task. Two weeks later Hitler
compounded his misjudgement. Frustrated by the slow progress of the campaign in the
Caucasus, he diverted the bulk of his Panzers down to the mountains. The march on Stalingrad
slowed noticeably. The reinforced Army Group A now raced across the Caucasus to within 70
miles of the Caspian, threatening to cut off all the Soviet armies in the area. But then Hitler
changed his mind again. Enraged by Army Group B's slow progress to Stalingrad, he now
ordered the Panzers back up north. On 9 August Army Group A seized the first of the southern
oilfields at Maykop. It found them comprehensively trashed. [firing] But without
reinforcements it could get no further and the huge oilfields in the central Caucasus and those
near the Caspian Sea remained beyond its grasp. But by now Hitler's attention had shifted
again. In late August, German forces were within striking distance of Stalingrad. [firing] The
assault on the city which bore the name of Hitler's arch-enemy had begun. It would be one of
the most crucial battles of World War II. On 17 August 1942 General Friedrich Paulus' Sixth
Army crossed the Don and began a final push on Stalingrad. Six days later one Panzer thrust
had reached the Volga river just north of the city and German forces were fighting in the outer
suburbs. Hitler seemed poised for a famous victory. Stalingrad was an important industrial
centre. It straggled for more than 12 miles along the west bank of the river. Its factories
produced over a quarter of the Soviet Union's tractors and trucks, as well as tanks and guns.
The Russian people had turned it into a formidable fortress. They had been helped by Hitler's
decision to send Army Group B's Panzers to the south. This had given them another two weeks
to prepare. The German plan was to make a direct assault on the city. [firing] [firing] Now
began one of the most prolonged and intense battles of World War II. [firing] [explosion]
Slowly the Germans edged forward, street by street, with Stuka dive bombers blitzing just
ahead of them. [explosion] The fighting was savage, house to house, room by room. [firing]
The Soviet defenders used the sewers for shelter and communications, and the ruins above for
sniping. Russian reinforcements had to be brought across the river. [firing] Often, they were
under assault from the air. But even so, thousands got through. [firing] By late September the
Germans had pushed their way through most of the city, almost to the Volga. For Hitler the
capture of Stalingrad was now an obsession. On 4 October 1942 General Paulus launched what
was meant to be the final assault on Stalingrad. Tanks led the way, grinding over the rubble
and firing point-blank into courtyards. One German officer said: "The advance is measured in
corpses, not metres." German victory seemed certain. But in fact, the Germans were
dangerously overextended. By mid-November the Soviet army was bringing in reinforcements.
More than a million troops, 13,500 guns, 900 tanks and over 1,000 aircraft were secretly moved
to the battle zone. On 19 November they attacked the German's northern flank. [firing] After a
massive artillery barrage, the T-34s and assault infantry burst through the German positions.
Now it was the Germans who surrendered in their thousands. The next day a Soviet assault in
the south was equally successful. And on 23 November these pincer movements met west of
Stalingrad cutting off the German Sixth Army. General Paulus, in charge of the German forces,
could have broken out. But Hitler ordered him to stand and fight. The Führer had been assured
by the Luftwaffe that sufficient supplies could be airlifted into Stalingrad. This was enough for
him to announce that the German positions must hold out until relieved. To help Paulus Field
Marshal Erich von Manstein, the overall German commander in the region, launched Operation
Winter Storm on 12 December. It was an attempt by the German Panzers to break the Soviet
encirclement of the city. [firing] For two days it went well. But then Red Army resistance
increased. By 23 December the German rescue attempt had ground to a halt about 30 miles
from the city. [firing] Manstein advised the beleaguered Paulus to attempt to break out of
Stalingrad. But Paulus wanted Hitler's permission. This was refused. It was probably too late
anyway. Marshal Zhukov now unleashed the next stage of his master plan. It was a massive
assault on the Panzer relief operation. [firing] The Panzers were pushed back, away from the
city, and by the end of December, all hope of relieving German forces in Stalingrad had gone.
Worse still, plans to airlift aid into the city were a fiasco. The German troops needed 700 tons
of supplies a day to survive. They never received more than 80. The weather was too bad and
the Red Air Force now commanded the skies. [firing] Steadily, the Soviet troops squeezed in on
the encircled Germans. 200,000 men were trapped. On 8 January the Soviets called on the
Germans to surrender. They refused. [firing] On 31 January 1943 Paulus was forced to
surrender. [shout] Over 100,000 men stumbled off into captivity. Only 5,000 would ever return
to Germany. Stalingrad had been a bloody battle. The Germans had been savaged. They had
lost some 300,000 of their men and at least as many of their allies. The Russians had lost about
the same number, including thousands of civilians. It was Germany's greatest catastrophe in the
war so far, but it wouldn't be the last. The Red Army was now inflicting massive defeats on
Hitler's forces across the whole Eastern Front. Stalingrad had been a great triumph for the Soviet
army. Now its operational commander, Marshal Zhukov, set his sights on the Germany's Army
Group A, still camped in the Caucasus. Soviet troops thrust their way west of Stalingrad and by
early December 1942 were within 120 miles of Rostov. There was a real possibility all the
German forces in the south would be cut off. With little choice Hitler reluctantly gave Army
Group A permission to fall back. [firing] Over the next month the Germans fought a skilful
rear\guard action. [firing] Hundreds of thousands of troops withdrew. Then, on 12 January
1943, Zhukov launched an all-out assault. [firing] The Soviets attacked along a 500-mile front.
Outnumbered seven to one, von Manstein, the overall commander of German forces in the
region, fought a brilliant mobile retreat. But by the end of February, the Red Army had
recaptured both Kursk and the nearby city of Kharkov. This Russian winter offensive had
struck a crippling blow to German power. Over a matter of months it had lost a million men,
and vast numbers of tanks and guns. The Red Army still had enormous reserves of manpower.
It was also benefiting from a huge increase in weapons production and aid from the United
States and Britain. The Germans also no longer had the technological upper hand. The T-34
tank was more than a match for the Panzer Mark IV. And they also had the terrifying Katyusha
multiple rocket-system, which shattered German troops. Yet Hitler refused to give up hope. He
still dreamed of a pre-emptive summer assault that would throw the Soviet Union off balance
and regain the initiative. The city of Kursk seemed the obvious place to start. Here, the Soviet
assault had pushed a bulge deep into the German lines. It looked temptingly exposed. Hitler
decided it should be cut off and annihilated. He also had an ace up his sleeve. The German
counter-attack would be led by a new generation of German tanks especially designed to
combat the formidable Russian T-34. The massive but slow 55-ton Tiger had a lethal 88 mm
gun and its frontal armour made it almost impervious to Soviet tank guns. And then there was
the faster 43-ton Panther with a new 75 mm gun, also capable of knocking out the T-34. These
tanks were so new, Hitler was forced to delay the attack while sufficient numbers were
manufactured and delivered to the front. But even as the German forces began to assemble
Soviet commander Marshal Zhukov guessed what was about to happen. Soon afterwards he
received information from a Soviet spy ring inside the German High Command, confirming the
site of the attack. Zhukov ordered the construction of a series of defensive lines with anti-tank
ditches, minefields and deep belts of barbed wire. He also massively built up Soviet forces in the
area, pulling in troops and tanks from less vulnerable parts of the front. By the eve of the assault
on Kursk, the Germans were hugely outnumbered by Soviet defenders, who also knew exactly
when the Germans would attack. On 5 July 1943, just as the German troops prepared to assault,
they were hit by a huge Soviet artillery bombardment. [firing] Even so, the next morning the
Panzers still rolled forward. But this time they were up against a well-entrenched enemy. There
was no realistic chance of a lightning Blitzkrieg breakthrough. [firing] The results were
disastrous. In the north the German army gained a mere six miles for the loss of 25,000 men
and more than 200 tanks. [firing] In the south the Germans fared a little better. A wedge 25
miles deep was driven into the Soviet defences. But it also came at a high price. 10,000 men
were killed and 350 tanks destroyed. But, for a brief moment, it looked as if a German
breakthrough might be possible. [firing] Then Zhukov threw in his reserves. On 12 July 1943
900 tanks charged into the German flank. [firing] Almost 2,000 tanks now engaged in what
was the largest armoured battle of World War II. [firing] The Soviet T-34's drove into the
German lines and opened fire at point-blank range. [firing] After a single day of brutal combat
the Germans had lost a further 350 tanks and were retreating. Meanwhile, overhead, there was
an epic air battle. Eventually, the Soviet air force established supremacy over the Luftwaffe.
Now the Russians could unleash their formidable Ilyushin IL 2 Sturmovik tank killers. By 23
July the Germans had lost any ground they had gained and with it the cream of their army.
Hitler's adventure at Kursk had cost him at least 50,000 troops and more than 700 tanks. Never
again would the Germans launch a major offensive on the Eastern Front. The Russians had
turned the tide of the war.

5
[theme music plays] [background music over dialogue] [woman crying] [engine planes
roaring] [narrator] At 7:56 on the morning of December the 7th, 1941, Japanese aircraft
swooped down over Hawaii. Their target: The US Pacific Fleet at anchor in its base at Pearl
Harbour. [explosion] Five U.S. ships were hit immediately. [explosion] A few minutes later,
more Japanese aircraft joined in. By 8:35, two U.S. battleships were sinking, two had capsized,
and two were badly damaged. A seventh battleship, the Nevada, slipped her moorings and was
heading out to sea when she too was caught and forced to beach. [aircraft engine roaring]
Simultaneously, Japanese Zero fighters strafed U.S. aircraft lined up on the island's airstrips.
[explosions] They also shot up nearby army barracks. [explosions] By the end of the attack
dozens of U.S. warships had been sunk or damaged. A hundred and eighty eight aircraft were
also destroyed. The next day, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan.
[Roosevelt] Since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th,
1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire. [applause]
[narrator] The stage was set. Could Japan knock out the United States with a swift blow before
the huge might of America ground it down? It would become one of the great conflicts of World
War II. [soldier's footsteps] Japan's first steps towards war had come in August 1940.
Capitalizing on France's defeat in Europe, it seized control of air bases in the north of the
French colony of Indo-China. It was looking for a quick and easy expansion of its Empire.
[soldier's footsteps] A year later it issued an ultimatum demanding the use of all French air
bases throughout Indo-China. When the French hesitated, the Japanese invaded and seized
control of the entire colony. [soldier's indistinct conversation] [music playing] Japan felt the
consequences almost immediately. The United States froze its overseas financial assets
effectively robbing the country of its ability to buy oil. [marching] Japan faced a choice. Climb
down and lose face, or seize more territory and up the stakes. For a new Japanese government,
under the aggressive General Hideki Tojo, there was no question about which course to take.
Japanese Army and Navy commanders were told to prepare for a swift war to occupy all the Far
Eastern territories controlled by Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States. The
country was expecting a swift victory. [big band music plays] Japan saw the Americans, in
particular, as a nation of pleasure lovers with no stomach for a lengthy war and heavy
casualties. The Japanese military calculated that if they could destroy the U.S. Pacific fleet, the
U.S. would quickly sue for peace. [speaking in Japanese] It was now that they decided to attack
Pearl Harbour. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese combined fleet, was
put in charge. [indistinct chatter in Japanese] He had ten battleships, ten aircraft carriers, and
the world's most advanced naval aircraft. [plane engines roaring] Against him, the U.S. Pacific
Fleet had eight World War I vintage battleships and two carriers. Yamamoto planned the attack
with great care. He would hit the U.S. fleet in Pearl Harbour on a Sunday, since, according to
intelligence reports, it usually spent the weekends in port. [people chattering] In total radio
silence, the Japanese strike force gathered in Tankan Bay in the northerly Kurile Islands. The
fleet set sail on November the 26, 1941. Meanwhile, as a decoy, Japanese negotiators arrived in
Washington to discuss a possible Japanese withdrawal from China. [indistinct chattering] The
Japanese fleet refuelled after several days at sea. Three days later it was off Hawaii. The
Americans were still blissfully unaware that anything was wrong. [speaking in Japanese] At 6
AM on December the 7th, after a final briefing, the first wave of Japanese aircraft took off.
[cheering] As the Japanese aircraft dived into the attack, U.S. personnel were still just stirring
on a fine Sunday morning. [chattering] [aircraft flying overhead] [explosion] It was all over in
less than two and a quarter hours. Yamamoto's plan had worked like a dream. Or had it? There
was only one problem. The U.S. fleets' two aircraft carriers had not been in Pearl Harbour at the
time and had escaped the attack. Yamamoto's main aim of crippling the U.S. Pacific fleet had
only partially succeeded. [aircraft revving] U.S. naval air power in the region was still intact.
But in the United States there was shock and disbelief. [chattering] It quickly turned into a
mood of fury and determination. Angry mobs attacked the Japanese embassy. Japan had
disturbed the sleeping giant. The U.S. Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, spoke for many. The
Japs started this war. We are going to finish it. [speaking in Japanese] [cheering] [narrator]
Yet, before the U.S. could mobilize its full strength, the Japanese were to inflict more
humiliating defeats on the Western Allies. In December 1941, as America was licking its
wounds after Pearl Harbour, Japan launched a series of attacks on western colonies in South
East Asia. [artillery firing] It thought it had knocked out America. Now it moved against
Britain and its colonies. The first to be hit was Malaya, where a Japanese force came ashore in
the north-east of the country. [cannon firing] The plan was that it should make its way south,
down the east coast. [gunfire] [distant gun fire] The invasion force was met by a contingent of
British Indian troops. But after a day of fighting they were brushed aside. Meanwhile, further
north in Thailand, a second Japanese landing was unopposed. Thirty thousand Japanese troops
were soon making their way down the western coast of Malaya. The target of the two groups:
Singapore. The centre of British military and political rule in the Far East. Britain had turned
the island into what it believed was an impregnable fortress. But all the guns pointed south, out
to sea. The Japanese were approaching by land from the north. Yet, British military
commanders remained remarkably untroubled. They didn't rate the Japanese as fighting men,
and believed the Malay jungle was, anyway, virtually impassable. But the Japanese had other
ideas. To soften up Singapore they attacked the city from the air. Britain sent the new
battleship, Prince of Wales, and a battle cruiser, Repulse, to attack Japanese troop convoys.
They were met by Japanese bombers. Both warships were sunk in less than two hours. Almost
1,000 of their crew were lost. It was the greatest British naval disaster of World War II. In an
era of aircraft and aircraft carriers it was now clear the battleship, for years the mainstay of the
British navy, had had its day. [gunshots] Back on land the Japanese continued to head south
towards Singapore. On January the 11th, 1942, Kuala Lumpur was captured. [cheering] The
British forces fell back and withdrew to Singapore. There were now about 100,000 British
soldiers to defend it. They faced a force of only 30,000 Japanese. Even without their big guns,
the British should have been able to hold out. The Japanese launched an assault in early
February. [machine gun firing] It was supported by more air strikes. [artillery firing] The
British defence was soon reduced to chaos. Civilian casualties began to escalate. Four days later
the Japanese had pushed through the last of the British defensive lines. The commander,
General Arthur Percival, surrendered with over 90,000 men. Never in the history of the British
Army had a commander in charge of such a large force had to surrender, and to an enemy
general whose force was outnumbered more than three to one. [indistinct chattering] Britain's
200-year-old power and prestige in the Far East had been wiped out in just 10 weeks. But it
wasn't the only disaster. [machine gun firing] Elsewhere in Southeast Asia the Japanese forces
were equally triumphant. The British garrison in Hong Kong fought for two weeks before
succumbing to a Japanese invasion. [artillery firing] In the Philippines, America fared no better.
Here, a preemptive bombing raid caught large numbers of U.S. aircraft neatly lined up at Clark
Field. Most were destroyed. Two days later, with U.S. air power virtually non-existent,
Japanese troops began to land. [cannon firing] The local Philippine troops melted away.
[machine gun firing] [distant explosion] The Japanese advanced rapidly. [explosion] Ten days
later Manila was captured. The U.S. soldiers were forced to withdraw to the Bataan Peninsula.
Here they hoped to hold out until a relief force could be sent. It never came. On April 3rd,
1942, Japanese troops launched a major assault on U.S. positions. [machine gun firing] After
four days of heavy fighting they broke through. The Americans surrendered two days later.
That left just one British colony in the region: Burma. In early 1942, Japanese forces pushed
into the south of the country. The British defences had been utterly neglected. There were only
some 15,000 men defending the country. They were no match for the Japanese. The Allied
troops mounted a brief but doomed resistance. [explosions] [people screaming] Less than two
months after invading Burma, the Japanese had seized the capital, Rangoon. [cheering] Eight
weeks later the British had been pushed entirely out of the country. In just under six months the
Japanese had seized control of the whole eastern rim of the Pacific. Their Oriental Blitzkrieg
had been swift and crushing. [soldier's marching] Yet, already, there were warning signs that
they were not as powerful as they appeared. On April 18th, 1942, four months after Pearl
Harbour, America struck back at the Japanese. U.S. bombers, flying low over Tokyo, dropped
bombs on the city close to the Emperor's Palace. [explosions] Others struck Yokohama, Kobe
and Nagoya. The raid, authorized by President Roosevelt himself, was daring in the extreme.
The B-25 Mitchell bombers had not been designed to be launched from aircraft carriers. They
barely managed to lumber off the deck of the U.S.S. Hornet, which had brought them to within
700 miles of the Japanese capital. But that didn't diminish their effectiveness in the air. In Japan
the raids caused profound shock. After their runaway successes of the past four months, they
had never expected an attack on their homeland. Japan's military planners now decided to extend
the country's defences If they could seize additional strategic outposts in the Pacific, they could
attack and destroy Allied Forces before they even came close to the homeland. Japan already
controlled much of the Chinese coast, Southeast Asia and the Philippines. They had also seized
the Dutch East Indies. Now they decided to strike south and attack Papua New Guinea and the
Solomon Islands. And east to take the Island of Midway in the middle of the Pacific. It would
mean the homeland was surrounded by a string of fortified positions. Yet, even as Japan was
planning its move, its operations were severely compromised, though it only realized this after
the war. The United States had broken its military and diplomatic codes. [typewriters clattering]
By spring 1942, the U.S. Navy's code-breaking team in Hawaii was reading enough messages
to give it a remarkably accurate insight into Japan's intentions. So it was that the U.S.
commander-in-chief in the region, Admiral Chester Nimitz, learnt the details and timing of
Japan's planned invasions of the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. If successful they
would cut off Australia from her allies. A Japanese bombing raid on Darwin had already caused
widespread fear of an invasion. In early May, 1942, the Japanese plan to widen its defensive
perimeter was launched. They seized the Solomon Islands. [cheering] Two days later, the
Japanese carrier force entered the Coral Sea in preparation for the main assault on Papua New
Guinea. But this time the Americans had anticipated them. Admiral Nimitz had ordered two
U.S. aircraft carriers and a number of smaller warships into the area. For two days the rival
fleets searched for each other. Then on May the 7th U.S. aircraft located and sank the Japanese
carrier Shoho. [bell ringing] The battle of the Coral Sea was underway. [alarm beeping] Early
the following day, the Japanese responded, unleashing a hail of torpedoes and bombs. To begin
with the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown managed to avoid the Japanese torpedoes. [artillery
firing] But then she took a bomb which penetrated four decks before exploding. Thirty seven
men were killed. [artillery firing] The larger and less manoeuvrable carrier, Lexington, was
also hit by several bombs as well as two torpedoes. [huge explosion] She developed a heavy list
to port. [machine gun firing] The Americans returned fire, attacking the Japanese carrier
Shokaku. [artillery firing] The first U.S. raid was blunted by Japanese Zero fighters which
forced the U.S. Douglas Devastator bombers to drop their torpedoes too far out. All the
torpedoes missed. But a second wave of U.S. dive bombers struck home. The Shokaku's deck
was so badly damaged she could no longer be used by aircraft. After two days of fighting the
two forces finally disengaged. That evening, the Lexington, still afloat, suddenly erupted in a
huge explosion. There had been an undetected leak of aviation fuel that had caught fire.
[indistinct panicked conversation] Amazingly all but 215 of the nearly 3,000 men on board
were rescued. Later that evening an American torpedo scuttled the burning hulk. [huge
explosion] The Battle of the Coral Sea was, on paper, a draw. Each side had lost one carrier
and had another severely damaged. Strategically, however, it was a major U.S. success. It had
prevented the Japanese from seizing more territory, and it had stopped them from isolating
Australia. The Battle of the Coral Sea marked a new era in naval tactics. It was the first major
sea battle in which the opposing ships were completely out of visual contact. It was fought,
instead, by aircraft flying from carriers. [machine gun firing] It would soon become clear which
side had adapted to the new form of naval conflict more successfully. By the late spring of 1942
Japan and America were deadlocked. [inaudible] Japan needed a quick victory if it was not to
be ground down by the huge resources of the United States. In mid-May it began its next move.
U.S. code breakers reported Japanese plans for a new attack. [typewriters clattering] It would be
on "Target AF", somewhere in the mid-Pacific. The problem, for the Americans, was that they
had no idea where "Target AF" was. Could it be a reference to Midway Island near Hawaii? An
ideal jumping off point for another attack on the American fleet in Pearl Harbour. The code
breaking team suggested a way to find out. The U.S. air base on Midway was instructed to send
an un-coded message reporting problems with the island's water system. Almost immediately
the code breakers intercepted a Japanese signal that "Target AF" was having water supply
problems. Admiral Chester Nimitz now knew exactly where the enemy would strike. [ship
horn blares] The Japanese plan was typically complex. A diversionary attack on the Aleutian
islands in the North Pacific would draw away part of the U.S. fleet, while Midway was seized
by an occupation force. The Americans would be obliged to hurriedly commit their carrier force
to retaking the island. There they would be annihilated by a huge Japanese naval presence
including four large aircraft carriers. It was the second Japanese attempt to wipe out the U.S.
Navy in the Pacific within a year. [aircraft engine revving] [ship horn blares] Forewarned, the
American carriers left port and moved to a position where they could ambush the Japanese. On
June the 3rd, 1942, Japanese forces launched the expected attack on the Aleutian Islands.
Nimitz didn't respond. Then, early the next morning, the main Japanese carrier force launched
a first air strike on Midway Island to soften up its defences. U.S. war planes from the island
intercepted them. Most were outdated Brewster Buffaloes and were easily shot down by the
more agile Japanese Zero fighters. [firing] But the Japanese attack had been blunted. Midway's
defences had not been broken. [explosion] The Japanese commander, Admiral Chuichi
Nagumo, faced a difficult decision. He'd kept some of his aircraft in reserve, loaded with
munitions designed specifically for attacking ships, just in case the U.S. fleet was spotted.
Should he now order this reserve to be stripped of its torpedoes and armour-piercing bombs,
and reloaded with high explosive and fragmentation bombs for a second strike on Midway? It
would leave him ill-equipped to take on the U.S. Navy, but he calculated it was a risk worth
taking. Then, just as the reloading was under way, he received unwelcome news. A U.S. Naval
force had been spotted. Was this the U.S. carrier force, or a smaller, less significant, fleet of
ships? Nagumo was in a dilemma. Should he continue with the second strike on Midway, or
should he, once again, re-equip his bombers to take on the U.S. vessels? Nagumo decided to
gamble. He would push ahead with the second strike on Midway. [plan engines roaring] His
hope was that when the bombers returned there would still be time to rearm them to take on the
U.S. ships. Even as he weighed the odds, the Japanese carriers were attacked by U.S. bombers.
[warning siren blares] Every available Japanese Zero fighter was scrambled before the U.S.
bombers were repelled. [continuous firing] Then came another report from reconnaissance
planes. The U.S. force did indeed contain aircraft carriers. Nagumo was, once again, on the
spot. His aircraft were half way through reloading, but the U.S. carriers were a much more
important target. He took a second gamble. He decided to change their weapons yet again to
attack the U.S. force. But while he did so, his ships would be sitting ducks. Almost immediately
they came under attack from low-flying U.S. torpedo bombers. But they were old and slow and
attacked without fighter support. As they approached the Japanese fleet they were rapidly shot
down. [aircraft exploding] For a brief period it looked as though Nagumo's gamble had paid
off. Then, just as his bombers had been reloaded and were ready to take on the U.S. carriers,
disaster struck. U.S. dive bombers, approaching unseen at high altitude, hurtled down on his
ships. The Japanese were caught completely by surprise. Nagumo had gambled once too often
and was now at the mercy of American air power. Within five minutes the U.S. dive bombers
had reduced three of Japan's largest aircraft carriers to flaming wrecks. [aircraft carrier
explosion] All would later sink. A fourth carrier, the Hiryu, had been masked by a rain storm,
and that afternoon mounted a desperate counterattack. [explosion] The U.S. carrier Yorktown
was severely damaged. [emergency alarm beeps] [indistinct] It was torpedoed by a Japanese
submarine several days later. But the Japanese fight back was short-lived. Late in the afternoon
that day the Hiryu was also hit and turned into a blazing pyre. In a matter of hours Japan's
mastery of the sea had been destroyed. [fire crackling] The attack on Midway Island had
achieved nothing. But it had cost Japan its finest carriers and 332 aircraft. Well over 2,000
sailors had also died. America now ruled the waves in the Pacific. Yet, Japan was still
undefeated on land and a powerful, threatening force in the air. [music plays] In the coming
months it would try to maximize these advantages. [people cheering] By summer 1942,
Japanese plans to build a defensive ring of occupied territories around their homeland had still
not been completed. [tanks roaring] Heavy losses at sea had frustrated their attempts to grab
Papua New Guinea and islands in the central Pacific. Japanese planners now came up with a
new plan. If they couldn't do it by sea, they'd do it by land. [indistinct Japanese chatter] On
July the 21st, a division-sized force of experienced jungle troops landed on the northern coast of
Papua New Guinea. They immediately struck west to capture Port Moresby, the capital.
[artillery firing] Progress was swift at first. The small Australian defence force was completely
outnumbered. Within weeks the Japanese had captured the main pass over the Owen Stanley
Mountains. [explosion] They then halted to await reinforcements before the final push on Port
Moresby. The Australians also mustered new forces. [artillery firing] When the Japanese
moved off again they now met much stiffer resistance. [gunshot] For the first time, Japanese
troops were up against men who matched them for training, experience and morale. [machine
gun firing] The Australians stood their ground, and the Japanese were temporarily brought to a
standstill. [machine gun firing] But conditions in the jungle were appalling. There was constant
tropical rain. Malaria was rife. The Australians were eventually, again, forced to retreat.
[machine gun firing] After two months of grim fighting, the Japanese were within 30 miles of
Port Moresby. [machine gun firing] Then, finally, U.S. reinforcements arrived. [continuous
machine gun firing] Through September and October, the Japanese were, in their turn, forced
back. The Japanese made an heroic but suicidal stand. [machine gun firing] Many chose to die
fighting rather than surrender. [distant gun firing] [bomb exploding] [continuous gun firing] It
took the Allies another two months before the Japanese were finally overwhelmed. It had been
a bloodbath. Fifteen thousand Japanese troops had embarked on the operation. Only 3,000 got
away. The Japanese were in trouble. They'd lost at sea. They were now rapidly losing the
initiative on land. American military might was asserting itself. [playing trumpet] There was
only one alternative left: air power. [man hitting with a sledge hammer] Through the summer of
1942, Japanese engineers began building a string of airstrips across the Pacific. One was on the
island of Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands. It was particularly well situated to
threaten U.S. convoys heading for Australia. It would become the focus of an epic battle. In
July, 1942, an amphibious force of U.S. marines invaded the island. They landed without
resistance. [indistinct audio] The plan was to capture the half-built airstrip, complete it and
then turn it into a U.S. base. But the Japanese were not ready to give up. That night they sent in
a naval force to land reinforcements and to attack the fleet of U.S. ships supporting the marines.
[continuous firing and explosion] In a dazzling display of night fighting the Japanese cruisers
sank four Allied warships and drove the rest out to sea. [indistinct chattering] The marines
were now marooned without supplies and without much of their equipment. They dug in around
the airstrip. Despite constant bombardment, using construction machinery left behind by the
Japanese, they pushed ahead with the completion of the airfield. Two weeks later a group of
U.S. Wildcat fighters and Dauntless dive bombers flew in. They were not a moment too soon.
The next day, newly arrived Japanese troops launched a series of suicidal attacks on the airstrip.
[machine gun firing] Over the following months, wave after wave of fanatical troops were
thrown into the battle. [gunshots] By the winter of 1942, the two sides had fought themselves
to a standstill. Both now dug in to defensive positions. [indistinct chattering] Then, in
December, the exhausted U.S. marines were replaced by fresh troops. U.S. soldiers now began
a new push on the increasingly isolated pockets of Japanese resistance. [machine gun firing]
[gunshots] By early February, 1943, the Americans had finally won control of Guadalcanal.
They had now beaten the Japanese at sea and on land. [background music over dialogue] They
had even denied them access to the air. [soldier's marching] The Oriental Blitzkrieg had failed.
The Japanese Empire now faced a foe that was still growing in strength, at a rate it could never
hope to match. It was the beginning of a fundamental shift in the course of the war. [plane
engines roaring]
6
[theme music plays] [background music over dialogue] [bombs exploding] [cannon fire]
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[cheering] [narrator] As Hitler marched triumphantly across western Europe in the early
summer of 1940, his fellow dictator in Italy, Benito Mussolini, dreamt of a similar campaign
further south. [Mussolini speaking in Italian] [cheering] His dream was to build a new Roman
empire that would see Italy expand not only along the northern Mediterranean coast, but south
through North Africa. He would turn the Mediterranean into Mare Nostrum, our sea. [propellers
whirling] But it was a dream that would turn into a disaster. It would lead in due course to
Mussolini's death and fatally overextend his German ally. [background music over dialogue]
[cheering] At the start of the war Italy already controlled Libya and Abyssinia, Ethiopia today.
Mussolini calculated that if he could take British controlled Egypt and Sudan, he would be able
to create a huge swathe of Italian-controlled territory. [engine sputtering] It looked like an easy
campaign. Italy had ten times more troops in the region than Britain. [soldiers marching]
[airplanes roaring] In September 1940, Mussolini invaded Egypt and captured the small coastal
town of Sidi Barrani. There the Italians stopped and dug in. Britain gathered all available forces
for a counterattack. On December the 6th, 1940, they moved in across the desert. [explosions]
Just four days later, they overran the Italian defences. [explosions] Nearly 40,000 Italians were
taken prisoner. [indistinct chatter] It was the first sign that the Italian Army was in poor
fighting shape. The remainder of the defeated Italians retreated back across the Libyan border.
The British followed in hot pursuit. In barely a month, the Western Desert Force, as it was
called, had advanced almost 600 miles across Libya. It now paused and dug in at the Libyan
coastal town of El Agheila. Almost half of Italy's Libyan empire had been seized and over
100,000 Italian troops taken prisoner. Meanwhile, to the south, British forces invaded Italian
controlled Abyssinia. [explosions] The fighting lasted for nearly 12 months. The rugged terrain
made communications and transport difficult. [background music over dialogue] But in the end,
the Italians were forced to surrender. [soldiers marching] But even as Abyssinia was being
secured, Mussolini's empire-building was causing problems in another part of the
Mediterranean. Nearly two years earlier in April 1939, as part of his plan for a new Roman
empire, Mussolini had occupied Albania. [cheering] The following year he demanded Greece
become an Italian colony. When the Greeks refused, he invaded. [explosions] The Greeks were
outnumbered more than two to one. But they swiftly turned back the Italian advance.
[explosions] By the beginning of March 1941, the Italians had not only been pushed out of
Greece, but out of much of neighbouring Albania too. Britain's Prime Minister, Winston
Churchill, promised help so the Greeks could finish the job. But Britain's forces were already
heavily committed elsewhere. So it was that the British units in North Africa were told to
abandon their Libyan adventure and ship much of the force across the Mediterranean to Albania.
As the Italian troops were now pushed back, Mussolini's Balkan ambitions fell apart. The
Italians were in deep trouble. [background music over dialogue] It left Hitler with a problem.
Should he divert troops from elsewhere in Europe to support his most important European ally
or should he abandon Mussolini to his fate? He decided to help. In April 1941, over half a
million German troops swept down into Yugoslavia and Greece. For Germany, it would prove
to be the beginning of a fateful entanglement with Mussolini's political dreams. [gun firing]
But at first, all went well. [explosions in distance] The Greeks, despite British help, were unable
to hold the Germans back. And in late April, the Axis forces captured the Greek capitol of
Athens. Some 30,000 men were evacuated to the British controlled island of Crete. [background
music over dialogue] Hitler decided to flush them out. [background music over dialogue] He
had at his command some 22,000 parachute and glider borne troops backed up by 150 Stuka
dive bombers. The landings began at first light on May the 20th. [airplanes roaring] To begin
with, they focused on the main airfields. [gun firing] The Allied forces were overstretched.
There were incessant German air attacks. [airplanes buzzing] [explosion] [machine gunfire]
The Germans soon captured the airfields and began to fly in reinforcements. The allies were
pushed back across the island. [explosions] Two weeks later, it was all over. Fifteen thousand
allied troops had to be evacuated. A further 18,000 were taken prisoner. The Axis powers now
controlled much of the Mediterranean and the critical supply routes to North Africa. It looked
as though Hitler's decision to support Mussolini had paid off. He was poised to drive Britain out
of the entire region. In February 1941, a junior German general arrived at the Libyan port of
Tripoli. Erwin Rommel was one of the rising stars of the German Army and had been chosen by
Hitler as the man to rescue his Italian ally and retake North Africa for the Axis powers. The
first units of his Afrika Korps were soon landing. Some 16,000 men and over 100 tanks had
been diverted from the European front. The Axis forces rapidly outnumbered the British troops,
depleted by the war in Greece and Crete. Rommel advanced towards the British positions at El
Agheila and attacked. [explosions] As the British fell back, Rommel pursued them. In a matter
of weeks the Allied soldiers had been pushed all the way back to the Egyptian border. But in
the retreat a division of Australian troops had been cut off by the Germans in the Libyan port of
Tobruk. The British Commander, Sir Archibald Wavell, now launched two successive attempts
to relieve them. [explosions] Both were fought off by Rommel's now well-encamped troops.
[explosions] The Germans massively out gunned the British. Their 88 millimetre anti-aircraft
guns, when used against tanks, far outranged the British. Moreover, Rommel took advantage of
the wide open landscape to drive his tanks around the British forces, outflanking them time and
time again. It would become his trademark tactic. The British press half grudgingly, half
admiringly, nicknamed Rommel the Desert Fox. For Wavell, it was too much. Now exhausted,
he was replaced by General Claude Auchinleck. Auchinleck came under immediate pressure to
try and again to relieve the allied troops in Tobruk. [background music over dialogue] But he
refused until his forces had been reinforced. [background music over dialogue] Then on
November the 18th, 1941, he launched a major assault. [explosions] [explosions] Operation
Crusader, as it was called, started with a lengthy armoured dogfight. [explosions] Again, the
British tanks suffered heavy casualties. But the infantry slowly moved forward. Finally, after a
month of confused fighting, Rommel retreated. Tobruk had been relieved. The Axis units fell
back along the coast all the way to their starting point at El Agheila. Auchinleck's military
command now assumed Rommel was a spent force, at least for the time being. Its units were
dispersed to bases along the coast for a badly needed refit. It was a mistake. Two months later
in January 1942, Rommel's Afrika Korps was back on the attack. [explosions] It quickly
brushed aside the forward units of a now unprepared British Army. [cheering] The chase along
the coast of Africa began all over again. [indistinct chatter] The allies fell back towards a new
defensive line just west of Tobruk. Here a series of defensive positions, known as the Gazala
Line, were constructed. [explosions] Rommel attacked it at the end of May 1942. [explosions]
[explosions] Once again, he swung his armour around the British forces in a great outflanking
movement and came in behind the British positions. But this time the British were prepared for
it and tried, in turn, to outflank Rommel. [explosions] [explosions] The fighting lasted for
three weeks, as each side tried to outmanoeuvre the other. Eventually, the British were forced to
retreat. Three days later the Germans overran the Allied positions. [indistinct chatter] Rommel
pressed home his advantage. [explosions] The British withdrawal threatened to become a rout.
Finally, Auchinleck turned to face his enemy at the Egyptian village of El Alamein. His
southern flank rested on the Qattara Depression, an area impassable to tanks. [background
music over dialogue] On July the 1st, 1942, Rommel attacked again. [explosions] But this
time the British defences held. [explosions] [explosions] Rommel, with his supply line
stretched and now seriously short of fuel was forced to give up. [explosions] Now Auchinleck
attempted a counterattack. For the rest of July the two sides pushed at each other like exhausted
boxers. [explosions] Churchill was furious at the lack of British progress and now visited
Egypt. [cheering] It was time for yet another change of leadership. Auchinleck was replaced by
not one but two generals. General Harold Alexander as Commander in Chief, Near East,
[background music over dialogue] and General Bernard Montgomery as commander of 8th
Army. The British and Axis forces had fought each other to a standstill. [background music
over dialogue] There was no clear winner. And the fate of North Africa still hung in the
balance. [background music over dialogue] Everything would now depend on whether the
British could throttle the Axis supply routes across the Mediterranean. For the first months of
World War II the allies had enjoyed unchallenged control of the Mediterranean Sea. Britain's
own supplies from the Middle East passed through it undisturbed. And communications with
the empire in India and the Far East were secured. Italy's entry into the war changed all that. Its
naval fleet was modern and well equipped. The Italians now concentrated their fire on the
strategically crucial British controlled island of Malta. The island was an important refuelling
base for British submarines and aircraft in the eastern Mediterranean. It had become the centre
for Royal Navy attacks on Italian and German supply convoys to North Africa. In summer
1940, Italy bombed it. [explosions] It was the beginning of a two-year assault which would
inflict terrible suffering on the island's population. [airplanes roaring] Yet for all Malta's
strategic significance, Britain was caught on the hop. [airplanes buzzing] [explosions] There
were no fighter aircraft on the island to beat off the attacks. [explosion] Then almost by
accident four gladiator fighter biplanes were found in crates on the island. They were hastily
assembled. The aircraft put up a fierce resistance. [machine gunfire] For three weeks the fate of
Malta remained uncertain. [airplanes roaring] Then finally, British fighter reinforcements
arrived. And the Italian bombers were temporarily beaten off. [airplane buzzing] [indistinct
chatter] But it was now obvious to the British that they had to do something if they were to
keep a toehold in the region. That winter Britain launched what it hoped would be a knockout
blow against the Italian Navy. [airplane buzzing] On the evening of November the 11th,
twenty-one Swordfish torpedo bombers lifted off an aircraft carrier. They swept in on the Italian
fleet, anchored in its base at Taranto. [airplanes buzzing] The Italians hadn't expected it.
[explosion] Three of Italy's six battleships were crippled. Four months later, Britain struck
again. The Italian fleet was again caught off guard off the coast of Greece. [explosions]
[explosions] A fourth Italian battleship was damaged. Mussolini's challenge to the British Navy
was finished. It was a turning point for Hitler too. [background music over dialogue] It was
now clear that Italy could no longer be depended on to maintain control of the Mediterranean. It
meant his supply lines to North Africa were at risk of being cut off. Germany decided to take a
direct hand. [airplanes roaring] In early 1941, the Luftwaffe bombed Malta. [sirens blaring]
[airplanes roaring] [explosion] The island took another severe battery. [airplane roaring] The
attacks continued month after month. [explosions] Yet the British garrison hung on. During an
interlude in the German bombardment in autumn 1941, it even managed to step up its attacks
on the Axis supply convoys to North Africa. [machine gunfire] [airplane roaring] Then the
Luftwaffe resumed the assault. But despite the battering, the people of Malta held on. [indistinct
chatter] The following spring in April 1942, they received a unique honour for the heroism they
had shown on the four months of devastating Axis bombardment. The island was awarded the
George Cross, Britain's highest award for civilian courage. [indistinct chatter] [airplane
roaring] But by the summer of 1942, Malta was running short of supplies and ammunition. In
mid-June the British Navy sent convoys from Gibraltar and Egypt to relieve it. But the Germans
were waiting. [airplane roaring] [explosions] Just two of the 17 ships got through. The
situation on the island was getting desperate. It was time for some decisive action. In August,
Britain launched Operation Pedestal, the biggest convoy ever sent to Malta. Fourteen merchant
ships entered the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar. They were accompanied by a
large naval escort. [airplanes buzzing] Almost immediately they ran into German opposition.
[explosion] For three days there was a ferocious sea battle as Axis submarines and aircraft
attempted to stop and sink the convoy. [explosion] [airplane buzzing] [machine guns]
[explosions] Finally, on the fourth day, five of the British merchant ships made it into port.
[crowd cheering] They brought with them just enough supplies to keep the island going. Malta
had been rescued. It meant the allies could continue to harass the Axis supply lines to North
Africa. [machine gunfire] It was a strategic advantage that would prove crucial to future events
in the region. [explosions] In North Africa, Churchill's orders to his new team, Generals
Alexander and Montgomery, were simple. Destroy the army commanded by Field Marshall
Rommel. [background music over dialogue] Almost immediately they were informed by the
team that had broken Germany's enigma code that Rommel was preparing to attack them.
[background music over dialogue] Montgomery assumed the Desert Fox would try another of
his outflanking moves and fortified the ridge of Alam Halfa, just to the southeast of El Alamein.
It was, he hoped, the rock on which the Axis forces would be broken. [explosions] When it
came, the fighting lasted for three days. [airplanes roaring] [explosions] This time Allied
ground forces were helped by air power. [explosions] The RAF played havoc with the
advancing German tanks. Rommel was forced to give up. And short of fuel again, he pulled
back. It was now Rommel's turn to dig in. He chose a line between the impassable sand sea of
the Qattara Depression and the Mediterranean coast. Great belts of minefields were covered by
artillery. Rommel's Panzer divisions were held back as a mobile reserve to destroy any Allied
breakthroughs. Montgomery was well aware it was a formidable barrier. He also knew it was
impossible to outflank it. His only option is to punch his way directly through the middle of the
Axis defences. He was helped by a flood of new equipment from the United States, which
included the new American Lee and Sherman tanks with 75 millimetre guns. At last, the Allies
had a weapon which could match the Germans. [indistinct chatter] Finally, on the evening of
October the 23rd, 1942, the British opened up an artillery bombardment on Rommel's positions.
[explosions] The Battle of El Alamein had begun. [explosions] Under cover of the
bombardment, Allied engineers moved forward to clear paths through the Axis minefields.
[explosions] [explosions and gunfire] The British, Australian, New Zealand, and South African
divisions fought to drive a hole through Rommel's defences. [explosions] Rommel's artillery
took a terrible toll. Casualties mounted on both sides. The Axis forces were harried by Allied
air power. [explosions] Finally, after ten days of fighting, the Allied forces broke through. The
following day Rommel retreated. It was Germany's first major defeat at the hands of the western
allies. Churchill was triumphant. [Churchill] No, this is not the end. This is not even the
beginning of the end. Though what it is perhaps the end of the beginning. [narrator] For two
and a half months Montgomery chased Rommel west along the North African coast towards
Tunisia. [explosions] Meanwhile, an Anglo American force had landed a thousand miles to his
rear in French North Africa, Morocco and Algeria today. [machine gunfire] [water splashing]
It was code named Operation Torch. The Allied 1st Army was soon moving eastwards towards
Tunisia. Rommel was in danger of being attacked from behind. [airplanes roaring] Over the
next few days the Germans flew in tens of thousands of troops from Europe to save Rommel and
shore up the German position in North Africa. Finally, in late February 1943, Rommel,
reinforced, set up a new defensive line a hundred miles inside Tunisia and turned to attack
Montgomery's advancing forces. [roaring] But Montgomery had been forewarned by the
enigma code breakers. And his troops were waiting as the German tanks rolled forward.
[explosions] British artillery broke up the assault and the Panzers were quickly halted. It was
Rommel's last battle in North Africa. He now returned to Germany to beg Hitler to abandon the
North African campaign. But Hitler refused. It was a misjudgement. As Montgomery's 8th
Army now pushed up from the south, the Anglo American 1st Army squeezed in from the west.
On May the 7th, US forces took the port of Bizerta. The British 7th Armour Division, the
famous Desert Rats, drove into Tunis. [cheering] The Allies pincer closed, and the Axis troops
were trapped. Five days later, a quarter of a million German and Italian soldiers surrendered. It
was more than twice the number that had surrendered at Stalingrad four months earlier. For
Germany, it was another momentous disaster. The following day, the British regional
commander in chief, General Harold Alexander, signalled Winston Churchill, "Sir, it is my duty
to report that all enemy resistance has ceased. We are the masters of the North African shores."
Mussolini's gamble in North Africa had taken a terrible toll on German resources. [explosions]
It was about to have even more serious consequences for both him and Germany. [background
music over dialogue] In January 1943, at a conference in the Moroccan city of Casablanca,
Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to open a new front on German dominated Europe.
[background music over dialogue] The obvious target was Italy seriously weakened by its North
African failures. The only question was where should the invasion begin? Should the route go
via Sardinia or Sicily? The Allied high command chose the Sicilian route. But to throw the
Germans off the scent, they organised a deception plan. [background music over dialogue]
Operation Mincemeat was launched. A corpse was dropped off the shores of Spain carrying
false papers. When it was washed ashore in May 1943 and the papers passed to the Germans,
they revealed that the Allies would pretend to attack Sicily but that their real target was Sardinia.
[background music over dialogue] Enigma code breakers soon confirmed the Germans had
fallen for it. [Morse code beeping] Six weeks later, the British 8th Army under Montgomery
landed in the southeast corner of Sicily. The Italian coastal troops presented few problems.
Further west, the US 7th Army landed in the Gulf of Gela. [explosions] The Italian resistance
was again overwhelmed. [explosions] [machine gunfire] For the Italian people the invasion of
Sicily was the final humiliation. [cheering] Mussolini was overthrown in a popular uprising.
[cheering] The new government now opened secret talks with the Allies for an armistice. [horns
beeping] For Hitler, it was another nightmare. He was now forced to pour in yet more scarce
resources to protect his southern flank. He told his commanders that even if Italy surrendered,
they should fight on. Within five weeks the Germans had been pushed out of Sicily. The Allies
now crossed to the main land and pushed up through the country. US troops moved up the west
side. British troops moved up the east. [explosions] The Germans fought back savagely all the
way. [explosions] Even so, Naples fell to the Allies on October the 1st, 1943. But then their
progress was slowed by autumn rains and skilful German rear guard attacks. [machine gunfire]
It was not until the end of November that Allied forces finally reached the Gustav Line, the first
of a series of German defensive positions cutting across Italy. British troops managed to break
through at the eastern end of the line, but winter was setting in. And bad weather forced them to
halt. Nevertheless, in the west, US forces attempted to outflank the German defences by taking
to the sea. [explosions] They landed on January the 22nd, 1944, sixty miles to the north of the
point of Anzio. [explosions] But here, amidst fierce fighting, they were pinned down and
nearly driven back into the sea. The Americans remained trapped at Anzio for the rest of the
winter and into the spring. Meanwhile, in the centre of Italy, the key to breaking the Gustav Line
was the towering Monte Cassino mountain complex. [explosions] As spring came, there was a
series of attempts to capture it. [machine gunfire] [explosions] [gunfire] Each assault failed.
[machine gunfire] [airplanes roaring] In desperation, the Allies bombed a historic monastery on
the summit. [explosions] But the Germans hung on. [machine gunfire] [explosions] [machine
gunfire] Finally, in late spring 1944, as the weather improved, the Allied forces broke through
the German lines. Simultaneously, the Americans broke out of Anzio. The Allied forces now
moved swiftly north to Rome. [cheering] The Italian capitol was liberated on June the 4th,
1944. [cheering] For Hitler, it was another blow. He was now hanging on to Italy by his
fingernails. The Allies continued to push north. [explosions] [roaring] The German defenders
finally fell back to the formidable Gothic Line, just north of Florence. Here bad weather again
brought the Allied advance to a halt. It wouldn't be until the spring of 1945 that the campaign
could resume and Italy was finally won. [cheering] By then the Italians had had enough of
Mussolini. He was captured by Italian partisan forces and shot. His corpse was hung by its heels
in Milan. Mussolini's war had been a catastrophe for himself and his country. It had also left the
German southern flank dangerously exposed. The German Army was now overcommitted,
short of troops, and retreating on all fronts.

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