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At the end of November 1941,

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Fritz Todt, the head of the German
armaments ministry demanded

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a meeting with Adolf Hitler.

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Todt said to Hitler,
the war would cost something

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like $150 billion, which is more
than Germany's gross domestic

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product before the war.

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Put bluntly, Nazi Germany's failure
to knock Russia out the war

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in the summer of 1941 meant
that she could basically no longer

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afford the war.

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As Todt said, this war can
no longer be won militarily.

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Now just think about
that for a moment.

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In the winter of 1941 -

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this is even before Hitler had
failed to take Moscow,

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years before the end of the war -

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Hitler is actually being told
that he can't win the war.

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Yet Hitler chooses
to fight Hitler on.

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Hitler does more than that because
on December 11th he then declares

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war on the United States
after Pearl Harbor.

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Just think about that.

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He is declaring war on the richest
nation on Earth when he's got no

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money to do so.

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It's surely total lunacy.

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On the face of it, it's crazy.

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But what you've really got to do
is to try and see the world

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from Hitler's perspective.

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One of the factors still
influencing Hitler's decision

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to continue to fight the war
to the desperate end

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is his conviction that he's really
fighting two wars.

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He's fighting the standard war
between great powers

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but he was also fighting a war

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against the international
Jewish conspiracy.

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This is his chance to attack what
he regards as the biggest enemy,

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the Jewish bankers in America.

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Unless you see Hitler's vision
of war in that way,

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it's quite hard to work out why he
continues to fight the way he does.

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For Hitler, this is a war of numbers
and there's only one number

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that counts.

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It's not dollars.

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It's not Reichsmarks.

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It's the number of Jews he can kill.

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Right from the very beginning,
Hitler's war was never

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just about conquest.

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It was about extermination.

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Hitler's plan was always to take
over vast swathes of land

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and basically to get rid
of its population to make room

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for Germans - Lebensraum.

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And just as he did in Poland,
Hitler sends squads of merciless

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killers to Russia.

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Their sole purpose is the ethnic
cleansing of Germany's Lebensraum.

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In preparing the Operation
Barbarossa, four Einsatzgruppen

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units were created.

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In the summer of 1941,
they were expanded, initially

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from 3,000, to maybe around 30,000

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people involved in direct
atrocities.

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And the Einsatzgruppen became
the primary forces behind the

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mass shootings of Jews

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in Ukraine, in Belorussia,
the Baltic states,

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and in southern Russia.

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But death squads form only part
of the Nazi killing machine.

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It's also important to remember
the cost which was built

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into the plan.

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It wasn't incidental
of allowing millions of people,

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millions of Russians and Ukrainians
to starve to death.

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The sheer callousness of Nazi
strategy is thrown into full focus

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as the panzers of Army Group North
reach Leningrad in September 1941.

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This is the city of the revolution
named after Lenin.

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The German army no longer
had the strength to take both

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Leningrad and Moscow.

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So, Hitler decided to starve
the city.

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But he didn't intend to starve
Leningrad into submission.

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He wanted to starve it to death.

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Hitler had absolutely no concern
for the welfare of the civilians.

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He said, "We have no interest
in saving a single civilian."

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A cordon would be placed
around the city.

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So, not only couldn't the city
be relieved but also the citizens

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couldn't come out.

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This is a brutal process
in which, at the very beginning

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of it, the Nazis bomb a food depot.

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The four-acre site is engulfed
in flames incinerating 3,000 tonnes

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of valuable bread-making flour,

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enough for six months.

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This begins the longest siege
in history.

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Almost 3.5 million people were
trapped by the siege of Leningrad.

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In the end,
they held out for 872 days -

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that's almost two and a half years -
against constant bombardment

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by the Germans.

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A daily minimum of 1,000 tonnes

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of supplies is needed to keep

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the population of Leningrad alive.

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Most of these are ferried
across Lake Ladoga to the east

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of the city along a hard-won
corridor carved out

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of the German lines.

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When winter set in, that lake froze,
and that meant that the Soviets

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were able to build a highway
across the ice.

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So, food and supplies
could be brought in

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and people could be brought out.

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But the ice was not always
reliable.

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One woman was travelling
across the ice as part of a convoy.

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She was in the second lorry.

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Her children were in the first
lorry, and she recalls watching

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that lorry with her children
just sink down into the ice.

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Her lorry didn't stop.

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It just simply went round the first
lorry and she watched her children

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going under as her lorry
simply carried on.

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Despite the highway, supplies often
fall far short of the 1,000 tonnes

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per day the city needs.

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By November 1941, the food ration
is 125g of bread a day,

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which is not enough calorific
intake to sustain human life.

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It is a fraction of the rations
received in other countries,

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even under wartime conditions.

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Imagine this loaf of bread
is the daily caloric intake required

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for somebody
in the Second World War.

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In Britain, even with rationing,
you actually get more than

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a loaf per person per day.

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In Nazi Germany,

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well, it starts off at a loaf
per person per day but it drops

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as the war goes on.

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But that has to be better
than occupied Europe.

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Here you're on half a loaf
per person per day.

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That's just enough
to stop you from starving.

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But even that's better than
if you found yourself in Leningrad

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besieged by the Nazis.

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That's just two slices
per person per day.

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In 1944, in the Warsaw Ghetto,
a single slice of bread.

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And if you were in a concentration
camp, it drops to just that.

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And that's murder - pure and simple.

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Things get so bad in Leningrad
that people

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resort to all kinds of desperate
measures to stay alive.

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People were eating household
pets and rats, anything

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even if it was poisonous.

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They had no heating.

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They had no transportation.

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They had to go and fetch water
from a hole in the River Neva.

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The effort required even to
go and do that was enormous.

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Grabbing bread from the hands
of strangers, and there was

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an expression which was quite
simply, "Don't go to bed."

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Because, very often if you lay down
you were in such a physically

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weak state that you simply
wouldn't wake up again.

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But dying in your sleep
could be the least of your problems.

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A housing administrator visited
a woman whose children had died,

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and there was a pot boiling
on the stove and the woman said,

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"Oh, that's mutton."

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So the housing administrator
took out the lid and started ladling

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through it and there was
a human hand inside the pot.

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Over the course of the siege,

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something like 2,000 people

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were arrested for cannibalism.

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And that was just the tip
of the iceberg.

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More than 1.1 million soldiers
and civilians die in Leningrad,

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at a rate of around 1,000 a day.

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All part of the Nazi plan to starve
Russia to death.

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More Russian people
were killed at Leningrad

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than British and American soldiers
were killed throughout

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the entirety of the war.

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But Leningrad refuses to surrender
and the siege drags on for years.

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872 days starting in September 1941
ending in January 1944.

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In the end, it would have made
far more sense for Hitler either

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to bring his troops away
from Leningrad or to devote enough

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troops to actually take the city.

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Yet for Hitler, Leningrad is a
symptom of a much, much darker

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malaise, because by January 1942,

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the Nazis had decided to fulfil
their racial destiny.

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They must turn
murder into an industry.

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On January 20th 1942,

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15 middle-ranking functionaries
of the Nazi administration

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met in a lakeside country house at
Wannsee on the outskirts of Berlin.

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It was a number of bureaucrats
meeting to decide precisely

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how to best exterminate
the Jewish people...

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..before relaxing
over Cognac and cigars.

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It is not a moment
when key decisions are made.

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But actually just
collating and coordinating.

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The Wannsee conference marks
that switch from mass shootings

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mostly in the former Soviet
territories to mass extermination,

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which means the construction
of dedicated killing facilities.

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It is quite significant
in some ways.

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For one thing, it was actually
trying to implicate people

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from different areas, different
backgrounds so that more people

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would feel some responsibility, both
for carrying this forwards

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and maintaining secrecy
as best they could.

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By the end of the war, as many as

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800,000 people had become

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implicated, either directly

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or indirectly, in what would become

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chillingly known as the Final
Solution to the Jewish Question.

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Their murderous intent was driven
by Hitler's growing conviction

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that he must kill
as many Jews as he can.

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This is a war which has accelerated
during this period because Hitler

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thinks the Jews really are
responsible for what's happening.

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He thinks that for every German
killed o the Eastern Front,

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you know, a Jew has got to pay.

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Then, on December 7th 1941,

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Hitler's war against international
Jewry takes on a whole new urgency

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after Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.

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At the end of 1941, the beginning of
1942, there was no doubt that

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the programme against the Jews
becomes radicalised.

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Partly because the United States
has entered the war -

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it's now a global war against
the Jews and international Jewry,

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and that if he doesn't fight
that war to the end,

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they will destroy Germany.

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And so this is where the focal
point of the war for Hitler,

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the fight against the Jews
really came to a head.

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He felt that even if he was going
to suffer military defeat,

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he would have gone a long way
towards accomplishing

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00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:01,120
his central war aim
by exterminating the Jews.

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00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:05,320
His time was limited and he would
have to find more expeditious ways

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00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:06,760
to eliminate the Jewish people.

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00:12:08,960 --> 00:12:13,560
Yet while the war with America
may have accelerated the Holocaust,

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00:12:13,560 --> 00:12:14,960
it did not start it.

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00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:20,960
Some historians argue that actually
it was the development of a European

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war into a world war with the entry
of America that made

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all the difference.

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00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:27,640
But I think all the evidence
suggests that the difference

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00:12:27,640 --> 00:12:30,880
had already been in the planning
in the preceding months.

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00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:36,360
That planning was prompted by a
brutally simple logistics problem.

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00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:41,000
The way in which the Nazis
had murdered Jews in the former

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00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:45,480
Soviet Union through shooting
couldn't be repeated infinitely

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00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:48,360
for the Jews of the whole
of Nazi-occupied Europe.

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00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:52,120
The shooters having
to get blind drunk,

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00:12:52,120 --> 00:12:56,360
some of the shooters having severe
mental problems as a result,

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so they start looking for more
efficient ways of killing.

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00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:03,920
During the autumn of 1941,

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00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:08,720
experiments on Soviet prisoners
of war as well as on Jews

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00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:15,640
were carried out and the idea
was to find the best, the quickest

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the safest means of murdering Jews.

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00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:24,200
In Chelmno, they devised specially
constructed vans

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00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:27,400
where the exhaust pipe
was piped back in.

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00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:30,360
People were told to get in the back
of the truck and in the course

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00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:34,560
of that journey to a mass grave
they'd asphyxiated those people

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with carbon monoxide fumes.

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00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:38,960
So Chelmno was the first
place where they really started

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bringing Jews to a specific place

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in order to kill them,
rather than going to places

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00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:46,600
where there were lots of Jews
and killing them

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00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:47,680
where they found them.

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00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:56,000
At the same time as between 150,000
and 300,000 Jews and Gypsies

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00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:59,040
were being suffocated in vans
at Chelmno,

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another more efficient method
of killing

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00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:03,600
was being developed elsewhere.

239
00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:09,200
There were six sanatoria
for the mentally and physically

240
00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:14,320
disabled within the Reich
that were repurposed to kill

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00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:16,840
the mentally and physically
disabled.

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00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:19,320
However, in August '41 there is this

243
00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:23,560
public sermon by
Bishop Clemens, Count von Galen,

244
00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:27,080
there is a lot of public outcry
and Hitler, ever worried

245
00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:31,720
about his support in the population,
terminates that officially.

246
00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:35,240
That's at exactly the same time as
reports are coming from the east

247
00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:37,640
saying that the shootings
are not going well.

248
00:14:38,640 --> 00:14:42,600
And, so, the euthanasia experts
are brought in to look at other ways

249
00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:47,320
of gassing and one of these is
to experiment with Zyklon B gas,

250
00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:51,560
which they do on September 3rd
in Auschwitz killing Soviet

251
00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:54,080
prisoners of war
on that particular experiment.

252
00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:59,280
This proved so effective
that the Nazis eventually converted

253
00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:02,800
the nearby POW camp
at Auschwitz-Birkenau

254
00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:05,040
into a dedicated death camp,

255
00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:12,520
with four gas chambers capable
of killing 4,416 people a day,

256
00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:15,760
almost 1.6 million people a year.

257
00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:20,480
Additional killing facilities
were created at Belzec,

258
00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:24,720
Sobibor, Majdanek,
and Treblinka in Poland.

259
00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:27,280
It took no time before the death
camps were functioning

260
00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:29,080
like clockwork.

261
00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:33,880
The camps were heavily camouflaged
so people would arrive thinking

262
00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:36,520
they were being
taken to a work camp.

263
00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:40,320
You would be subjected
to a selection process.

264
00:15:40,320 --> 00:15:44,600
If you were sent one way
because you were old, or you were

265
00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:49,240
young, or you were unfit to work,

266
00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:54,560
then you would essentially
be sent to have a shower.

267
00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:58,280
This was in fact not a shower
but a gas chamber.

268
00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:00,760
They would have to get undressed,
leave their belongings,

269
00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:04,520
and so on, and then they would be
herded into the gas chambers.

270
00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:08,360
Either a Zyklon B tablet would be
put into a special hatch and would

271
00:16:08,360 --> 00:16:10,120
gas everybody inside to death,

272
00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:12,560
or else carbon monoxide
would be pumped in.

273
00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:17,760
Either way, everybody in that
supposed shower would end up dead.

274
00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:22,520
Their bodies would then be cleared
away by the Sonderkommando.

275
00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:27,160
These were inmates whose job
it was to take away the gold teeth,

276
00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:29,840
to take away anything else
that could be used and to dispose

277
00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:30,920
of the body.

278
00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:33,920
Mostly, Sonderkommando gangs worked
for a little while and then

279
00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:35,160
they too were gassed.

280
00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:39,200
But a few did survive,
and the way they describe what must

281
00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:42,760
have been a struggle within the gas
chambers, how the strongest

282
00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:45,000
the fittest were on top
of the mound and the weak,

283
00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:47,400
and the old, and the children
were at the bottom

284
00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:48,840
partly trampled to death.

285
00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:52,560
Sonderkommando members
were themselves victims,

286
00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:55,720
and so the perpetrators again
had an easier job of it not

287
00:16:55,720 --> 00:17:02,160
having to do that very emotive
close work with the dead bodies

288
00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:04,280
of those they'd just killed.

289
00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:09,000
Now, if you survived the entry
procedure, that was because

290
00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:11,600
you had some work left in you.

291
00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:15,080
You would therefore have your head
shaved, you would receive a tattoo,

292
00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:18,800
you would be sent to a barracks
and there your work would begin,

293
00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:22,720
making munitions, or whatever
it was that was being made

294
00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:24,320
inside that camp.

295
00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:27,600
You would live on
starvation rations.

296
00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:31,880
You would be liable
to be killed at any moment.

297
00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:33,840
And not just killed.

298
00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:36,240
Women in the camps could be
subjected to the most

299
00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:38,160
inhumane treatment.

300
00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:42,800
An SS Sergeant, a man called Erich
Bauer, recalled the fact that

301
00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:48,320
that he had kept two sex slaves,
two Jewish actresses

302
00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:52,120
called Ruth and Gisela
and he had kept them,

303
00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:56,360
and then other SS, NCOs
officers,

304
00:17:56,360 --> 00:18:01,520
people had come in on a regular
basis and just basically raped them

305
00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:04,480
and he had complained
in his testimony

306
00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:09,120
about the fact that their being
raped at night in his custody

307
00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:10,400
used to keep him awake.

308
00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:16,400
Like so many others, the girls
were used like animals, then gassed

309
00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:18,720
once their usefulness was over.

310
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:23,880
This took state-sponsored mass
murder to a whole new level.

311
00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:27,200
There had been previous genocides,
for instance, the Armenian

312
00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:29,240
genocide in Turkey

313
00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:30,840
during the First World War,

314
00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:33,280
and others before that
throughout history.

315
00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:37,440
But the death camps were something
unique in human history.

316
00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:43,280
Hitler, and Himmler, and the SS
industrialise this process.

317
00:18:43,280 --> 00:18:44,720
You had the transport system.

318
00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:46,760
The fact that it was
not so difficult

319
00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:50,040
through Germany's excellent railway
system to move these people

320
00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:52,360
to death centres.

321
00:18:52,360 --> 00:18:56,960
This was the supreme perversion
of the industrial age.

322
00:18:56,960 --> 00:19:00,840
To industrialise murder, to turn
it into an industrial process,

323
00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:02,840
to make it into the everyday.

324
00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:08,760
Between them, these five Polish
death camps murdered at least

325
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:15,120
1,474,166 human beings

326
00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:17,000
by the end of 1942.

327
00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:21,320
And each campaign only needed
a couple of hundred prison guards

328
00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:22,320
to run them.

329
00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:25,560
In these hellish places,

330
00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:29,720
even a human kindness could
inadvertently snuff out life.

331
00:19:30,800 --> 00:19:34,600
Frida Weinman was the daughter of a
woman with three young children.

332
00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:39,040
And when they arrived at Auschwitz,
Frida and her two brothers were sent

333
00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:43,920
one way, while Frida's mother
was handed somebody else's child

334
00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:45,560
and sent the other way.

335
00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:50,600
And when Frida's older brother
saw this happening,

336
00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:56,560
he sent his little brother
over to the other queue to stand

337
00:19:56,560 --> 00:20:00,440
with Frida's mother, because
he felt that his little brother

338
00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:03,480
would feel safer
with his own mother.

339
00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:08,160
But of course, what he was actually
doing was condemning his brother

340
00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:11,880
to death because they were
in the queue to be taken straight

341
00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:13,240
to the gas chamber.

342
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:21,600
A quite different example, which I
think is so little written about,

343
00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:23,840
is that of gay men.

344
00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:27,400
There was a French homosexual,
called Pierre Seel

345
00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:30,920
and he had to stand
and see how his young lover

346
00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:33,360
called Jo, with whom
he was deeply in love,

347
00:20:33,360 --> 00:20:36,120
was brought into the camp,
was made to stand in the middle

348
00:20:36,120 --> 00:20:39,440
in the appelplatz, had a bucket put
over his head,

349
00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:41,880
and then dogs were unleashed on him.

350
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:46,400
Pierre Seel could never get
over that experience

351
00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:48,880
for the rest of his life.

352
00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:54,840
That's the kind of human tragedy
that multiplied by millions

353
00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:57,760
was taking place every single day.

354
00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:09,240
So, how did a civilised 20th century
society get to the point

355
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:15,040
where it was mass murdering millions
of people just because

356
00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:16,640
of who they were?

357
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:19,280
We can talk about rabid
anti-Semitism, we can talk

358
00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:24,320
about Nazi ideology and seeing
the Jews as the root of all evil.

359
00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:28,600
But all of that doesn't ultimately
explain the madness of deciding

360
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:33,680
you are going to physically murder
all these human beings of every age

361
00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:36,320
from tiny babyhood
through to old age.

362
00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:40,680
One of the most important things
in relation to the Holocaust is not

363
00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:44,040
simply to sideline it
as something from history,

364
00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:48,080
something that that happened
a long time ago to other people.

365
00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:53,360
The main thing is not to forget
that this happened.

366
00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:57,240
But even more importantly
not to forget how it happened.

367
00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:02,640
A big part of it is depriving
people of their humanity.

368
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:05,840
Even in the way we talk
about other people.

369
00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:10,680
That it's better that they drown
and arrive on our shores.

370
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:14,040
This is the kind of mind-set
that is not a million miles

371
00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,040
from where we ended up
at the end of the 1930s.

372
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:23,520
You can see the initial problems
being in 1933-34 when people

373
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:25,080
just fall into line.

374
00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:29,000
Whether it's careerism,
opportunism, bandwagon effect.

375
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,280
I think that capitulation by people
who should have known better

376
00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:35,080
and should have done otherwise
in the first 18 months is the first

377
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:37,720
step where it really goes
badly wrong.

378
00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:41,080
It's partly because of the endless
propaganda that presents a Jew

379
00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:42,720
as the enemy, and so on.

380
00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:46,160
And then you increase
that with little acts by saying

381
00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:47,440
that these people are different.

382
00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:49,800
These people are not good.

383
00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:52,400
They're not healthy to society
as a whole.

384
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:57,440
And soon, people are taking
this for granted,

385
00:22:57,440 --> 00:22:59,120
that that is the way things are.

386
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:03,560
Well, perhaps they deserve
to be treated

387
00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:07,240
like this because, you know,
there's no smoke without fire.

388
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:12,200
And then it gets more extreme
and more extreme.

389
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:16,800
And by that time,
you, as the bystander,

390
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:18,400
are somehow implicated in this.

391
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:22,240
There's an increasing radicalisation

392
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:26,320
and once it's in wartime
it's a quite different situation

393
00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:30,040
because there you can say,
your country is endangered,

394
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:32,000
your country is at war.

395
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:36,400
If you're a good patriotic German,
you don't want to risk endangering

396
00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:37,520
your country at war.

397
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:42,640
Step by step,
you cross all those thresholds

398
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:46,720
until it is actually possible
to kill Jews in huge numbers

399
00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:49,360
without really questioning why
you're doing it.

400
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:54,360
Words are so important.

401
00:23:54,360 --> 00:23:56,720
That's where it all starts.

402
00:23:56,720 --> 00:24:00,920
Phrases like, "They're not people,
they're animals."

403
00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:02,920
Easy enough to overlook.

404
00:24:05,120 --> 00:24:08,520
But my goodness me,
do they lead places.

405
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:12,040
Because, before you know it,

406
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:13,840
terrible things
could be happening again.

407
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:19,560
By discounting the Jews
and Slavs as animals,

408
00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:21,720
Hitler and his henchmen
could justify

409
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:23,840
all that they had done so far.

410
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:29,360
But to cling on long enough
to kill all the Jews it can find,

411
00:24:29,360 --> 00:24:34,120
Hitler's tottering state needs
more resources to fight the war.

412
00:24:34,120 --> 00:24:36,400
And in spring 1942,

413
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:39,080
the Nazis come up with a plan
to do just that.

414
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:44,960
It will thrust one Russian town
into the cauldron of history.

415
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:45,960
Its name...

416
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:47,960
..is Stalingrad.

417
00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:57,920
On 8th May 1942,
more than 1.5 million German troops

418
00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:02,600
backed up by almost 2,000 tanks
and over 2,000 aircraft

419
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:04,880
roll into the northern Caucasus.

420
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:09,120
They find themselves
facing 1.7 million Russians

421
00:25:09,120 --> 00:25:13,960
with almost 4,000 tanks
and 1,600 planes.

422
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:15,840
But despite their numbers,

423
00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:18,520
the Russians aren't ready
for what hits them.

424
00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:20,920
Stalin was so convinced

425
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:24,040
that a German attack
was still coming in Moscow

426
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:29,000
that he refused to believe any
intelligence to suggest otherwise.

427
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,720
Hitler is absolutely elated
because now that spring's here,

428
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,320
those Panzers can
really punch through,

429
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:39,840
just as they did in the blitzkrieg
of the early days of Barbarossa.

430
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,480
But after their initial surprise,

431
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:45,280
the Soviet fallback
becomes more organised.

432
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:48,040
These armies
are withdrawing strategically,

433
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:51,680
so the forces that end up
withdrawing to Stalingrad

434
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:55,160
have not been crushed in the way
that some of those forces were

435
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:58,840
in June, July and August of 1941.

436
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:01,600
This enables the Soviets
to strengthen the city

437
00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:04,200
that bears their leader's name.

438
00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:06,400
The Battle of Stalingrad
is often presented

439
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:08,200
as a battle between
the two dictators.

440
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:10,880
Stalin wanted to defend the city
that bore his name.

441
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:15,320
Hitler wanted to capture Stalingrad
because it had Stalin's name.

442
00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:18,680
But there was more to Stalingrad
than just a name.

443
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,800
It was also an immensely important
industrial hub.

444
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:24,240
Strategically, it was one of

445
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:26,600
the lowest crossing places
of the River Volga.

446
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:30,920
And if the Germans could hold it,
they would prevent the Soviets

447
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,200
from retaking the Caucasus.

448
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:37,720
Capture Stalingrad,
cut the Volga and seize the oil.

449
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:42,240
But symbolically,
if Stalin loses his named city,

450
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:47,160
it's as though
he's conceding the fight to Hitler.

451
00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:50,440
Determined that
his name city must not fall,

452
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:53,960
Stalin issues
a not-one-step-back order

453
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:56,360
to the armies
dedicated to its defence.

454
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:00,200
When one of its generals
ignores the order

455
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,440
and starts to withdraw
across the Volga,

456
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:04,400
he is summarily dismissed.

457
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:07,800
Stalin was incandescent.

458
00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:10,360
This isn't just because
it's a city with his name on it.

459
00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:13,320
As he tells his generals,
"It's got these factories."

460
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:15,200
You know,
"It's got our main waterway.

461
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:18,720
"If we lose the Volga,
then the war is over."

462
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:22,400
Bear in mind,
this is the area from which

463
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,640
Russia gets 90% of its oil.

464
00:27:27,360 --> 00:27:31,120
If he can deny that oil to Russia
and take it to himself,

465
00:27:31,120 --> 00:27:33,920
he's effectively knocked
the Soviet Union out of the war.

466
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,080
Hitler's under no illusions
about this,

467
00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:37,760
and he even goes on to admit,

468
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:40,520
"If I don't seize the Caucasus
by the autumn,

469
00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,840
"then there's no way
that I can win this war."

470
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:46,160
Stalin places an iron-willed veteran

471
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:48,760
of the Russian Revolution
in command.

472
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:51,920
His name is Vasily Chuikov.

473
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:56,360
When he takes over at Stalingrad
on the 13th of September 1942,

474
00:27:56,360 --> 00:28:01,880
the Soviet defence force has shrunk
to a mere 20,000 men and 60 tanks,

475
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:03,720
and the tanks have so little fuel,

476
00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:05,920
they have to be towed into position.

477
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:10,160
By contrast, Field Marshal
Friedrich Paulus's Sixth Army

478
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:13,120
has something like 280,000 men.

479
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:19,280
The Soviets have dug into
the industrial heart of the city,

480
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:22,880
anchored upon
a 300ft-high artificial hill

481
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:25,600
known as the Mamayev Kurgan.

482
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:29,680
This high ground dominates
three giant industrial factories,

483
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:33,560
the most famous of which
is the Dzerzhinsky Tractor Works.

484
00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:35,560
These factories are vast.

485
00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:37,920
Think of Battersea Power Station
in London

486
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:40,120
or Grand Central Station
in New York.

487
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:43,080
These huge brick
and concrete structures

488
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:48,560
were built for industry,
but they had another purpose now.

489
00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:52,600
They became a kind of fortress
in the battle for Stalingrad.

490
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:56,200
They were able to stand up to
shelling, to bombing, to assaults.

491
00:28:56,200 --> 00:29:01,160
They were able to protect the people
holding them against the attackers.

492
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:03,840
So, yes, they may
have been built to produce

493
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:05,920
all manner of industrial goods,

494
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:09,120
but my goodness me,
they now served a new purpose.

495
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:12,080
The terrain around
these factory fortresses

496
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:14,040
is a pockmarked hellhole

497
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:17,400
of blown-out craters
and collapsed buildings

498
00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:21,000
bombed to rubble
by German artillery and aircraft.

499
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:22,640
But Chuikov realises that

500
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:24,840
the very nature
of the German assault

501
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:26,760
can be turned to his advantage.

502
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,560
Cities are hell to fight in.

503
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:32,120
Once you've blown
half of them apart,

504
00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:35,240
defenders can hide themselves
in rubble.

505
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,480
The rubble was perfect cover

506
00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:39,760
for small units
with Molotov cocktails

507
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:41,280
or individual snipers.

508
00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:45,960
Incredibly difficult for tanks
to winkle out the Russian snipers

509
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:49,920
hiding in every building
and fighting from every building.

510
00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:52,440
Chuikov's locals
have got a huge advantage

511
00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:54,080
because they know the city.

512
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:57,080
He orders them to get within
grenade-throwing distance.

513
00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:58,920
That's just a few metres,
essentially.

514
00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:01,080
And it means that
the Germans can't counterattack

515
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:02,360
with their Stuka dive-bombers.

516
00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:04,560
Because a Stuka
wouldn't risk attacking

517
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:08,000
very close to German armour
or German troops.

518
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:10,720
And to throw the German Sixth Army

519
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,560
into a battle against
these desperate people,

520
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:17,040
this was something nobody had taught
in the German staff colleges -

521
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:18,840
how you deal with this.

522
00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:21,720
Even so, just one day
into his command,

523
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:25,400
Chuikov finds himself with
his back pinned against the Volga.

524
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:28,800
General Paulus launches a massive
assault on the city centre,

525
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:31,760
driving really hard
for the Mamayev Kurgan.

526
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:34,880
This hill was so important
that it was to be the site

527
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:38,840
of continuous fighting for 112 days.

528
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:41,720
And that's despite the fact
that the average life expectancy

529
00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:45,960
of somebody fighting over it
was about 76 hours.

530
00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:48,920
Chuikov finds himself
pushed so far back,

531
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:51,160
the rear wheels
of his rocket launchers

532
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:53,520
are actually hanging over
the harbour walls

533
00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:56,920
so he can get the elevation he needs
to fire his rockets.

534
00:30:56,920 --> 00:30:59,400
By the evening
of September the 14th,

535
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:01,040
the situation is desperate.

536
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:03,360
The Russians have no choice
but to throw in

537
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,200
the only reserve division
they have for Stalingrad -

538
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:09,160
10,000 members of the 13th Guards

539
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:12,920
led by General Alexander Rodimtsev.

540
00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:17,680
The Guards have just been
force-marched 450 miles,

541
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:19,480
so it's no wonder they're exhausted.

542
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:23,120
And worse still - about 1,000
of them don't even have any rifles.

543
00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:24,840
They ferry across the Volga

544
00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:28,120
and they're thrown straight into
the fight on the other side.

545
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:30,800
The ferry across the Volga
is under constant bombardment.

546
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:32,200
The Germans whole strategy was,

547
00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:34,120
if they could take
the embarkation point,

548
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:35,760
they could stop reinforcements

549
00:31:35,760 --> 00:31:37,200
coming across the Volga

550
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:39,560
to keep the city fighting.

551
00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:43,280
Just 15 tanks are holding the jetty
when the Guards arrive,

552
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:47,480
and they charge straight at
the attacking Germans,

553
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:49,800
who are only about 200 yards away.

554
00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:52,120
The Guards managed
to push their way up the hill

555
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:53,680
and regain the riverfront.

556
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:55,440
They suffered enormous casualties,

557
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:57,640
but they managed to stop
the German advance.

558
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:02,040
By the end of the battle,
of the 10,000 Guards who arrived,

559
00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:05,720
about 320 are still alive.

560
00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:11,080
Such acts of suicidal heroism
become two a penny in Stalingrad.

561
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:14,560
It was an epic fight for survival.

562
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,280
Pitting two of
the most vile dictators

563
00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:20,240
and their equally ruthless armies
against each other,

564
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:23,480
and the stories that come out of it
are just extraordinary.

565
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,720
You've got this story of a marine
called Mikhail Panikakha

566
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:28,440
who tries to throw
a Molotov cocktail,

567
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:29,960
but it explodes in his hand.

568
00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:33,120
Drenched him in fire,
but that wasn't enough to deter him.

569
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:34,720
He picked up another.

570
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:39,160
He carried on charging at a tank
that was approaching him,

571
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:41,320
and he managed to destroy the tank.

572
00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:44,040
And that story is so representative

573
00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:48,280
of how Soviets wanted
to remember the battle.

574
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:50,720
And, actually, you can see him
on this huge frieze -

575
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:53,200
the Volga frieze -
which commemorates the battle.

576
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:58,160
Then you've got
the extraordinary story

577
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,400
of a signaller called Titaev

578
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:03,760
who's sent to reconnect
some severed communication wires

579
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:05,280
on the Mamayev Kurgan.

580
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:07,000
He was later found dead...

581
00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:11,480
..but between his teeth,
on one side, he had one wire,

582
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:13,960
and on the other side,
he had the other wire.

583
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:17,680
He's actually used his skull
as a conductor.

584
00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:20,760
Do we take these stories
at face value?

585
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:23,160
Clearly, some are going
to raise eyebrows.

586
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:26,480
The whole myth of Stalingrad
and the sort of smaller stories,

587
00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:29,120
fictionalised or not,
are all part of

588
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:33,440
a very powerful narrative that
inspires the Soviets to fight back.

589
00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:38,360
This is what it means
to defend Mother Russia.

590
00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:40,560
The mythology is so compelling

591
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,240
that Hitler himself
is sucked into the saga.

592
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:46,640
He becomes obsessed
with taking Stalingrad.

593
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:48,840
On the 9th of November,
he orders Paulus

594
00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:51,040
to strip every German unit
he can find

595
00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:54,480
from the Axis armies
defending the flanks of Stalingrad

596
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:58,240
and hurl them against the anvil
of the factories in the centre.

597
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:02,560
That same day, when Paulus
is launching this great offensive,

598
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:05,600
Hitler stands up
in front of the party faithful

599
00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:09,280
at a huge gathering in Munich
and he says to the crowd,

600
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,440
"I will soon be
the master of Stalingrad."

601
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:16,760
But Hitler has reckoned
without Marshal Zhukov.

602
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:18,200
What Hitler doesn't know

603
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:22,120
is that this is exactly
what Zhukov wants him to do.

604
00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:25,920
Because Stalingrad,
in truth, was a trap.

605
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:33,680
Hitler has become so obsessed
with Stalingrad

606
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:36,880
that he decides
to throw everything at it.

607
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:40,240
This is what Zhukov
has been waiting for.

608
00:34:40,240 --> 00:34:41,920
A lot of Germans were moving

609
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:44,520
more and more of their troops
and resources into Stalingrad.

610
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:46,880
Unknown to them, of course,
the Soviet high command,

611
00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:49,560
and particularly Marshal Zhukov,
had looked at the situation

612
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:51,440
and realised this was
a potential trap.

613
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:54,120
What they needed to do
was to build up large forces

614
00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:58,160
on the flanks of the long
and very extended German line.

615
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:00,080
Unbeknownst to Hitler,

616
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:02,640
the Soviets have been preparing
for a moment like this

617
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:05,960
ever since the Nazi tanks
first rolled into Russia.

618
00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:08,840
I think it's fair to say
that the German high command -

619
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:12,120
Hitler, too, of course -
really had no idea

620
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:14,920
what was going to be involved
in the war in the Soviet Union.

621
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:16,480
They thought the Red Army was,

622
00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:18,480
you know, a primitive army,
badly led,

623
00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:21,240
and they seemed to have no sense,
really, of the sheer space

624
00:35:21,240 --> 00:35:22,760
they were going to have to occupy.

625
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:26,360
It's also got countless numbers
of troops in reserve.

626
00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:29,480
And for every factory
that Hitler manages to overrun,

627
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:32,040
there are another ten like it
beyond the Urals.

628
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:35,160
As German Panzers roll into Russia,

629
00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:40,520
more than 2,500 Soviet
industrial plants were uprooted

630
00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:43,320
and carried
in 1.5 million railway wagons

631
00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:45,200
beyond the River Volga...

632
00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:50,960
..the Ural Mountains
and as far east as Siberia,

633
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:55,200
more than 2,000 miles
east of Moscow.

634
00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:59,920
The sheer scale of Stalin's
mobilisation beggars belief.

635
00:35:59,920 --> 00:36:02,360
He has stripped and taken apart

636
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:05,640
tens of thousands of factories
and moved them to the east.

637
00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:08,160
And these factories
weren't just moved a few miles.

638
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:13,160
They were moved further than
the Germans ever managed to reach

639
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:14,840
during Operation Barbarossa.

640
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:20,680
These are distances that
the Nazis can only dream about.

641
00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:23,800
The communists had no qualms
forcibly uprooting

642
00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:26,360
a massive army of factory workers

643
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:29,640
to operate
their relocated production lines.

644
00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:33,880
16.5 million men and women
were forced to leave their homes

645
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:36,880
to work 18-hour days,
six days a week,

646
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:39,080
in appalling conditions.

647
00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:42,080
Here are these people
uprooted from their factories

648
00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:43,760
around Moscow, let's say,

649
00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:45,960
put on trains
with all the machine tools,

650
00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:49,240
and they're taken to these god-awful
places in the middle of nowhere.

651
00:36:49,240 --> 00:36:52,600
These places sprung up so quickly
that one new town on the Volga

652
00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:55,040
was known as Bezimeni,

653
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:58,360
which, translated, means
"the town with no name".

654
00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:00,640
This industrial mobilisation

655
00:37:00,640 --> 00:37:03,960
was dedicated to one thing -
rearmament.

656
00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:05,520
Every factory has a quota,

657
00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:08,960
and if you don't make your quota,
the penalties are really severe.

658
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:11,800
And, of course, that's one of
the ironies of the Second World War,

659
00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:14,600
is that the Soviet Union -
you know, one of the allies

660
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,640
against Hitler's assault
on freedom and democracy -

661
00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:20,040
has effectively enslaved
its own people

662
00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:21,760
in order to fight this war.

663
00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:25,520
By the time the Germans
have forced their way

664
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:28,640
through Stalingrad's
abandoned tractor works,

665
00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:31,280
Marshal Zhukov's trap is in place.

666
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:33,960
This was something that
Zhukov was incredibly good at -

667
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:36,920
getting a plan
and methodically working towards it

668
00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:40,560
in order to ensure that
it worked out optimally.

669
00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:42,480
Over the preceding months,

670
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:45,400
he had gradually built up
a formidable force.

671
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:47,560
More than 1 million men,

672
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:49,800
almost 1,000 tanks,

673
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:54,360
14,000 guns and 1,350 aircraft

674
00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:56,400
were ready to spring his trap.

675
00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:59,960
The more and more Germans get
sucked into the Stalingrad battle,

676
00:37:59,960 --> 00:38:03,360
their long line of communications
becomes weaker and weaker.

677
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,080
Zhukov knows that, at some point,
it's going to be possible

678
00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:08,280
to cut that line

679
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:11,880
and to encircle Stalingrad and
trap all the German forces inside.

680
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:14,840
He waited very patiently,
and only when Hitler

681
00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:17,240
stripped his flanks
of the last German units,

682
00:38:17,240 --> 00:38:20,520
to leave only Italian
and Romanian troops,

683
00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:21,840
did he make his move.

684
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:23,840
At 7.30 that morning,

685
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:26,400
3,500 Russian guns

686
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,720
fired the opening salvos
of Operation Uranus.

687
00:38:29,720 --> 00:38:33,920
The attack is spearheaded
by T-34 and KV-1 tanks

688
00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:36,080
supported by aircraft.

689
00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:38,560
This is a Russian blitzkrieg.

690
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:41,320
This was Zhukov playing them
at their own game,

691
00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:44,760
this enormous encircling movement,
which had been characteristic

692
00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:47,920
of how the Germans
had conquered France and so forth.

693
00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:51,120
Within five days,
Soviet advance columns

694
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:54,080
have completely
encircled Stalingrad.

695
00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:56,400
Now, it's at this point
when any sensible general

696
00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,040
will want to mount
a tactical withdrawal,

697
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:01,920
and Paulus wants permission
to do so.

698
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:06,160
Hitler orders Paulus to stand firm,
assuring him that the Luftwaffe

699
00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:10,400
will airdrop all the supplies
he needs until relief arrives.

700
00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:15,520
Paulus tells Hitler that he needs
750 tonnes of supplies a day.

701
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:20,560
Air Chief Marshal Goering claims
he can airlift 500 tonnes a day.

702
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:25,640
In reality, the Luftwaffe manages
less than 100 tonnes a day.

703
00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:27,560
Why Hitler is listening to Goering

704
00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:29,800
after the failure
of the Battle of Britain

705
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:31,560
is frankly anybody's guess.

706
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:34,800
There's no way the Luftwaffe
is going to supply

707
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:38,000
the volume of airdrops needed
to help out Paulus.

708
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:39,800
At its lowest ebb,

709
00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:43,240
the Luftwaffe was dropping
less than 60 tonnes a day,

710
00:39:43,240 --> 00:39:47,480
and for some inexplicable reason,
they weren't just dropping food.

711
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:50,200
Imagine what it's like
to be one of these German troops

712
00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:51,760
trapped in Stalingrad.

713
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:55,720
You're actually starving to death.
That's your biggest enemy now.

714
00:39:55,720 --> 00:39:58,480
And you see a plane
that's got through the cordon,

715
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,600
and it drops a package.

716
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:05,000
Do you run out into the open
to pick up this package?

717
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,160
Because there's every chance
you can be picked off by a sniper.

718
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:09,680
So, you run out,
but at the same time,

719
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:11,640
a comrade who has
also seen it runs out.

720
00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:13,000
He gets shot.

721
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:17,520
You manage to get to the package
and you run back under cover.

722
00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:18,920
Praying it's going to be food.

723
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:22,160
My God, you need food.
You just want food.

724
00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:25,920
And with trembling hands,
fumbling hands... You open it up.

725
00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:28,520
And it goes through your mind,

726
00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:31,240
"What if this isn't food?
What if this is ammunition?"

727
00:40:31,240 --> 00:40:34,520
Frankly, to hell with ammunition.
You need something to eat.

728
00:40:34,520 --> 00:40:36,360
You rip this package open.

729
00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:40,440
And there inside
is a load of condoms.

730
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:46,480
Goering has dropped you
a packet of condoms.

731
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:51,400
You have no bloody use for condoms
at this particular moment,

732
00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:55,960
whereas a piece of bread -
yeah, that would come in handy.

733
00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:58,800
Trapped in Stalingrad,
Paulus has no option

734
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:01,440
but to offer
a humiliating surrender.

735
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:06,040
Of around 280,000 Germans

736
00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:08,240
who had been thrown into
that cauldron,

737
00:41:08,240 --> 00:41:12,560
only 91,000 survive
to shuffle off to captivity.

738
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:18,040
Of the 90,000 Germans
who are captured at Stalingrad,

739
00:41:18,040 --> 00:41:22,640
only 9,626 make it back home alive.

740
00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:26,080
The rest are basically
worked to death in the gulags.

741
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:31,160
Stalingrad is a disaster
for the Nazis.

742
00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:34,160
Of the 51 divisions
that began the campaign,

743
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:37,080
32 are lost completely

744
00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:41,400
and another 16 are so shattered,
they will never be the same again.

745
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:43,920
Including the reinforcements
poured into the region

746
00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:46,200
to support the stalling campaign,

747
00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:50,160
12,000 guns, 3,500 tanks,

748
00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:54,640
and something like 3,000 aircraft
have been lost with them.

749
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:57,440
People are too quick
to talk about turning points

750
00:41:57,440 --> 00:42:00,600
in relation to war.

751
00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:03,200
But I think what we have here
is a true turning point

752
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:07,160
because Hitler said at the time,
"If we abandon this attack,

753
00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:10,560
"then we abandon the whole purpose
of the campaign."

754
00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:12,600
"We can't replace
what we've got there," he says.

755
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:15,400
"If we leave there,
we can never return."

756
00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:18,720
In other words, he was saying,
"If we abandon Stalingrad,

757
00:42:18,720 --> 00:42:21,200
"we lose the Caucasus."

758
00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:25,440
And with that,
I think you can say he lost the war.

759
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:29,360
More than 1.1 million
Russian soldiers and civilians

760
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,200
fell in the Stalingrad campaign,

761
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:35,840
but behind them
stand tens of millions more,

762
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:39,800
and now the Soviets have the guns,
the tanks, the generals

763
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:42,200
to turn the tide of the war.

764
00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:45,320
Before Stalingrad,
there was still a chance

765
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:48,320
that the Germans
might have won in the east.

766
00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:51,720
After Stalingrad, they might
somehow be able to hang on

767
00:42:51,720 --> 00:42:54,040
and keep fighting the war,
but victory was gone.

768
00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:57,440
No prospect of victory
after Stalingrad for the Germans.

769
00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:01,920
They don't have the actual numbers
with which to win the war.

770
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:05,680
Hitler's words will now
come back to haunt him.

771
00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:09,240
And on the other side of the world,
another mighty conflict

772
00:43:09,240 --> 00:43:11,880
is about to turn the tide
in the Pacific.

773
00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:21,960
December the 7th, 1941.

774
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:24,720
Admiral Yamamoto's
Japanese Imperial Navy

775
00:43:24,720 --> 00:43:28,640
destroys the US battleship fleet
based at Pearl Harbor.

776
00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:37,640
Even though he helped to plan
and direct the Pearl Harbor attack,

777
00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,080
Admiral Yamamoto
actually didn't support it.

778
00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:42,720
He felt it was probably
the most dangerous thing

779
00:43:42,720 --> 00:43:45,000
that Japan could do.

780
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,880
In the famous film
"Tora! Tora! Tora!",

781
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:50,080
Yamamoto is shown as saying,

782
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:54,320
"I fear that all we have done
is to have awakened a sleeping giant

783
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:57,360
"and filled him
with terrible resolve."

784
00:43:57,360 --> 00:43:59,760
In fact, he doesn't say
quite those words,

785
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:02,400
but he does say something
pretty similar.

786
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:04,760
Unlike Japanese high command,

787
00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:07,320
Yamamoto has lived
in the United States

788
00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:10,880
and has unrivalled insight
into Uncle Sam's potential.

789
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:15,520
When asked how his Navy would fare
if Japan attacked the US,

790
00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:18,320
Yamamoto said,
"For the first six months,

791
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:21,160
"I will have victory after victory."

792
00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:25,480
"But then, if the war continues,
I have no expectation of success."

793
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:32,480
So, Yamamoto was aware
of America's potential

794
00:44:32,480 --> 00:44:35,360
and he was aware
of the numbers involved.

795
00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:39,000
In other words, he exhibited
a reticence to going to war

796
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:41,760
with the United States
for the long term.

797
00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:45,520
Yamamoto's prediction
proved spookily accurate.

798
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:48,880
179 days after
the Pearl Harbor attack,

799
00:44:48,880 --> 00:44:52,760
a battle unfolds
that conclusively and decisively

800
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:55,320
ends the Japanese campaign
of expansion...

801
00:44:57,440 --> 00:45:01,920
..almost exactly to the date
as Admiral Yamamoto had predicted.

802
00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:04,200
Very soon, the US built up

803
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:08,560
from having about
the 18th largest army in the world

804
00:45:08,560 --> 00:45:11,600
to the second
after the Soviet Union.

805
00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:17,800
And what's more, it built up
its Navy from 1,000 ships to 5,500.

806
00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:23,200
How America achieved such
a remarkable and speedy turnaround

807
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:26,640
is a tale of ingenuity, enterprise,

808
00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:30,520
and unimaginably high,
war-winning numbers.

809
00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:38,760
December the 11th, 1940.

810
00:45:38,760 --> 00:45:42,000
Just four days after
Japan's surprise air raid

811
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:44,320
on the Americans in Hawaii,

812
00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:48,080
Nazi Germany makes clear
its intentions toward Uncle Sam.

813
00:45:50,240 --> 00:45:52,000
The United States was not at war

814
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:54,720
with either Fascist Italy
or Nazi Germany.

815
00:45:54,720 --> 00:45:58,600
However, in a long and rambling
speech before the Reichstag,

816
00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:01,640
Adolf Hitler concluded the speech
by declaring war on the USA.

817
00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:10,720
That was playing right into
President Roosevelt's hands.

818
00:46:10,720 --> 00:46:14,320
He had been having great difficulty
in focusing the minds

819
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:16,960
of the American people
on the war in Europe.

820
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:20,520
Well, now he was given
the perfect excuse to do so.

821
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:24,720
From here on, American rearmament
will follow a policy

822
00:46:24,720 --> 00:46:27,200
of Germany first.

823
00:46:27,200 --> 00:46:31,080
It must confront not just
the direct aggressor -

824
00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:32,480
the Empire of Japan -

825
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:35,440
but also the indirect aggressor -
Nazi Germany.

826
00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:44,240
What America's going to do

827
00:46:44,240 --> 00:46:47,800
is to fight a containment war
in the Pacific.

828
00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:50,600
But what it wants to spend
more of its resources on

829
00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:53,480
is feeding its allies -
Britain and Russia -

830
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:57,040
and then defeating Hitler
and Germany in Europe,

831
00:46:57,040 --> 00:47:01,000
and only then will it turn
its full attention to Japan.

832
00:47:02,800 --> 00:47:06,680
Even a limited war of containment
still requires troops...

833
00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:12,120
..but at the start of the war,
America has precious few.

834
00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:15,800
When General George C Marshall,
the US army's chief of staff,

835
00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:17,440
took over in 1939,

836
00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:22,120
the American army
was just 174,000 strong.

837
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:23,560
Now, that is really small.

838
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:26,800
That was smaller than the size
of Portugal's army.

839
00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:30,600
By 1941, that had gone up
to 1.8 million.

840
00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:33,360
That sounds big, but in comparison
to other countries,

841
00:47:33,360 --> 00:47:36,520
it's still
really pathetically small.

842
00:47:36,520 --> 00:47:41,520
By contrast, the USA's Pacific Fleet
almost matches Japan's.

843
00:47:42,720 --> 00:47:47,040
11 battleships versus
11 Japanese battleships.

844
00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:50,320
34 light and heavy cruisers
versus 41.

845
00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:54,520
100 destroyers versus 129.

846
00:47:56,720 --> 00:47:58,920
But the surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor

847
00:47:58,920 --> 00:48:01,960
shifts the numbers
in Japan's favour,

848
00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:04,440
putting 19 US vessels out of action.

849
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:10,600
Still, there are
three crumbs of comfort.

850
00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:14,960
America had three aircraft carriers
in the Pacific in 1941.

851
00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:18,720
These were the Lexington,
the Enterprise and the Saratoga,

852
00:48:18,720 --> 00:48:20,520
and they were defending
Midway Island

853
00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:22,000
when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

854
00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:24,200
So, after that, they then retreat

855
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:26,320
to the safety
of the Californian coast.

856
00:48:29,320 --> 00:48:31,520
To contain the Japanese,

857
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:33,640
the USA needs numbers
in the Pacific.

858
00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:39,520
What the United States needed to do,
and to do fast,

859
00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:41,120
was to build up its military.

860
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:43,920
Just weeks later,

861
00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:46,760
President Roosevelt presents
a budget to Congress

862
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:49,800
which diverts enormous resources
to war production.

863
00:48:52,720 --> 00:48:57,720
Of $59 billion,
52 billion is devoted to rearmament.

864
00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:01,280
He follows this up
with one of the most punitive

865
00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:03,640
tax regimes in history.

866
00:49:05,240 --> 00:49:07,440
The number of Americans
who were required

867
00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:10,000
to pay tax in 1941 was 7 million.

868
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:13,600
The number required to pay tax
a year later, in 1942?

869
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:15,360
42 million.

870
00:49:15,360 --> 00:49:18,440
And that money was ploughed
straight into rearmament.

871
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:23,880
Roosevelt then deploys
his most powerful weapon -

872
00:49:23,880 --> 00:49:25,320
capitalism.

873
00:49:26,720 --> 00:49:29,320
While the Soviet command economy

874
00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:33,040
used patriotic coercion
to build its weapons,

875
00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:36,840
America paid private enterprise
to churn out thousands of planes,

876
00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:41,400
millions of rifles
and billions of bombs and bullets.

877
00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:46,000
Once the tap is turned on,
its an extraordinary stream

878
00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:47,480
of entrepreneurial initiative.

879
00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:52,080
As Roosevelt's War Secretary
Henry Stimson said,

880
00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:54,480
"In a capitalist country,
if you are going to war,

881
00:49:54,480 --> 00:49:57,000
"you have to let business
make money out of it,

882
00:49:57,000 --> 00:49:58,760
"or business will not work."

883
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:03,520
In this war,
American business not only works,

884
00:50:03,520 --> 00:50:07,120
it underwrites one of
the most incredible turns of fortune

885
00:50:07,120 --> 00:50:09,040
in all of military history.

886
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:16,520
January 1942.

887
00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:21,360
At war with Japan and Germany,
America must arm itself.

888
00:50:23,400 --> 00:50:24,560
In Washington,

889
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:27,400
head of the Federal Government's
Production Management Office,

890
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:30,400
William Knudsen,
calls together many of the USA's

891
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:32,800
most powerful industrialists.

892
00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:37,040
Before they arrived, he had
all of the different contracts

893
00:50:37,040 --> 00:50:40,000
spread out on a table,
so that, when they walked in,

894
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:42,600
he simply told them,
"Have a look and take your pick."

895
00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:47,920
Quickly, four-fifths
of US government contracts

896
00:50:47,920 --> 00:50:50,920
have been distributed
to the 100 biggest companies

897
00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:52,840
in the United States.

898
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:56,560
And America has the workforce
to handle this.

899
00:50:56,560 --> 00:51:00,440
One of the reasons why it's possible
to get going so fast

900
00:51:00,440 --> 00:51:02,840
is that America has
a lot of unemployed resources.

901
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:08,280
US unemployment quickly falls
by 9 million.

902
00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:11,720
Wages rise an incredible 70%.

903
00:51:11,720 --> 00:51:15,960
The Great Depression
is finally over.

904
00:51:15,960 --> 00:51:17,960
It's often said that
the Second World War

905
00:51:17,960 --> 00:51:19,480
was good for America.

906
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:22,680
Americans are better off -
quite a lot better off - in 1945

907
00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:25,320
than they were in 1941,
which is not true of anywhere else.

908
00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:29,040
The secret of their success
can be found

909
00:51:29,040 --> 00:51:33,480
in the engine of America's
car industry - mass production.

910
00:51:33,480 --> 00:51:35,960
One of the big advantages
the United States has

911
00:51:35,960 --> 00:51:38,640
is a long experience
of mass production.

912
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:42,680
The car industry in America is
bigger than any other car industry.

913
00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:47,080
Each worker had one job.
It meant that the worker didn't need
to be particularly skilled.

914
00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:49,000
They just had to be able
to do one thing,

915
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:51,240
which they perfected
and did very quickly,

916
00:51:51,240 --> 00:51:54,840
before it moved on to
the next person, who did their job.

917
00:51:56,280 --> 00:51:59,640
Manufacture of the American Jeep
is so simplified

918
00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:01,560
that, over the entire war,

919
00:52:01,560 --> 00:52:05,760
more than 600,000 facsimiles
with interchangeable spare parts

920
00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:07,400
are built at several factories

921
00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:10,320
belonging to both the Willys
and Ford motor companies.

922
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:19,800
This is the Willys Jeep,

923
00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:24,200
this one made by Ford under licence
from the Willys company.

924
00:52:24,200 --> 00:52:27,120
These vehicles were produced
in enormous numbers.

925
00:52:27,120 --> 00:52:29,280
We're talking about building,
altogether,

926
00:52:29,280 --> 00:52:32,480
640,000 of them during the war,

927
00:52:32,480 --> 00:52:35,560
a third of them going to
the Soviet army and to Britain.

928
00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:39,600
And this vehicle could carry
800 pounds of equipment

929
00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:43,800
or could pull an anti-tank gun
and five crew members

930
00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:46,400
and go almost anywhere.

931
00:52:46,400 --> 00:52:49,080
By the end of the war,
every American regiment

932
00:52:49,080 --> 00:52:52,000
has 149 of these vehicles.

933
00:52:53,800 --> 00:52:58,240
Some US companies have
a surprising head start on others.

934
00:52:58,240 --> 00:53:01,040
Automobile giants
General Motors and Ford

935
00:53:01,040 --> 00:53:05,320
have been building armaments
for years...for Germany.

936
00:53:05,320 --> 00:53:07,200
Now, it may come as a surprise,

937
00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:12,440
but Adolf Hitler had
a life-sized portrait of Henry Ford,

938
00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:16,040
the father of mass production,
hanging in his office.

939
00:53:16,040 --> 00:53:18,280
He idolised him for two reasons.

940
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:21,560
First, his anti-Semitism,
which Ford had outlined

941
00:53:21,560 --> 00:53:25,040
in a series of newspaper articles
throughout the 1920s.

942
00:53:25,040 --> 00:53:28,400
And secondly, he admired
Ford's vision of capitalism.

943
00:53:29,520 --> 00:53:31,720
So, it's no surprise that Ford wins

944
00:53:31,720 --> 00:53:35,640
an enormous amount of contracts
in Germany to help Germany rearm.

945
00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:41,080
In July 1938, Hitler awarded Ford
the Grand Cross of the German Eagle,

946
00:53:41,080 --> 00:53:43,120
which was the highest honour

947
00:53:43,120 --> 00:53:46,600
that he could bestow
on a foreign national.

948
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:49,760
The following month, you see
an executive at General Motors,

949
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:54,120
a man called James Mooney,
also receiving this selfsame medal.

950
00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:56,480
So, you know, again,
you see this reward

951
00:53:56,480 --> 00:54:00,120
going across the Atlantic
for helping Hitler rearm.

952
00:54:02,240 --> 00:54:05,440
Both companies will now cash in
on American demand

953
00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:07,600
for their mass production know-how.

954
00:54:09,160 --> 00:54:11,400
Henry Ford's son, Edsel,

955
00:54:11,400 --> 00:54:14,520
proffers a plan to mass-produce
the Liberator heavy bomber

956
00:54:14,520 --> 00:54:16,120
for the US Army Air Force.

957
00:54:17,720 --> 00:54:20,040
It is an enormous challenge.

958
00:54:21,400 --> 00:54:23,320
A car had 15,000 parts

959
00:54:23,320 --> 00:54:26,080
that had to be put together
on an assembly line.

960
00:54:26,080 --> 00:54:28,560
Well, a B-24 four-engine bomber

961
00:54:28,560 --> 00:54:34,120
had precisely 488,193 parts.

962
00:54:34,120 --> 00:54:36,080
So, this was
something else altogether.

963
00:54:36,080 --> 00:54:37,600
Could it actually be done?

964
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:42,600
The Ford Motor Company
is awarded the contract

965
00:54:42,600 --> 00:54:45,640
to produce
the B-24 Liberator bomber.

966
00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:49,320
Edsel creates a gigantic plant
to construct the planes

967
00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:52,320
at Willow Run, south of Detroit.

968
00:54:52,320 --> 00:54:54,640
Willow Run is awe-inspiring.

969
00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:58,080
It's a room a mile long
by a quarter of a mile wide.

970
00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:02,520
It was called the largest room
in the history of mankind.

971
00:55:03,920 --> 00:55:07,960
You started with
these four parallel conveyors,

972
00:55:07,960 --> 00:55:10,320
production lines,
and at a certain point,

973
00:55:10,320 --> 00:55:13,840
it becomes two, and then just one.

974
00:55:13,840 --> 00:55:16,000
The whole thing really is
quite incredible.

975
00:55:17,680 --> 00:55:20,120
But it almost didn't happen.

976
00:55:20,120 --> 00:55:23,920
The building was so long
that it actually poked out

977
00:55:23,920 --> 00:55:28,240
from the Republican-controlled
county that most of it was in

978
00:55:28,240 --> 00:55:31,640
into a Democratic county
that was bordering.

979
00:55:31,640 --> 00:55:34,680
Now, that Democratic county
charged higher taxes.

980
00:55:34,680 --> 00:55:37,360
Henry Ford wasn't going
to have any of that,

981
00:55:37,360 --> 00:55:41,760
so what he did was to have the
building rebuilt at a right angle,

982
00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:45,680
so it actually obeyed the border
of the Republican county.

983
00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:48,040
They had a turntable
inside the building

984
00:55:48,040 --> 00:55:50,800
so that the aircraft would
come along the production line

985
00:55:50,800 --> 00:55:52,880
and then be turned at right angles

986
00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:56,560
and carry on being built
inside the Republican county.

987
00:55:57,680 --> 00:56:01,960
The number of aircraft built
at Willow Run is extraordinary.

988
00:56:01,960 --> 00:56:05,840
They were rolling them off
at about one every 63 minutes,

989
00:56:05,840 --> 00:56:10,560
so almost one B-24 an hour
at peak production.

990
00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:14,720
That's a staggering
650 planes a month.

991
00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:22,280
A total of one-fifth
of America's military equipment

992
00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:25,480
will roll off assembly lines
operated by car manufacturers...

993
00:56:27,280 --> 00:56:30,520
..but to keep those lines moving
requires workers.

994
00:56:31,880 --> 00:56:36,200
The only problem is able-bodied men
are signing up for military service.

995
00:56:37,440 --> 00:56:39,280
There's a famous recruiting station

996
00:56:39,280 --> 00:56:42,000
right in Times Square,
in New York City,

997
00:56:42,000 --> 00:56:45,040
and there were apparently
5,000 people waiting in line

998
00:56:45,040 --> 00:56:47,960
in front of it on the morning
of Monday, December the 8th, 1941.

999
00:56:47,960 --> 00:56:53,160
By war's end, more than 16 million
Americans will serve.

1000
00:56:54,680 --> 00:56:58,480
The subsequent gap in the
labour market needs to be filled.

1001
00:56:58,480 --> 00:57:02,360
As the size of the American military
begins to expand,

1002
00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:05,760
it leaves a void
in the industrial workplace,

1003
00:57:05,760 --> 00:57:07,720
and it's probably best known

1004
00:57:07,720 --> 00:57:10,520
the way that we filled that void -
with women.

1005
00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:13,280
Even as early as January 1942,

1006
00:57:13,280 --> 00:57:18,440
something like 2.8 million women
were involved in war work.

1007
00:57:18,440 --> 00:57:22,960
That figure will rise
to fully 19 million in 1945.

1008
00:57:25,640 --> 00:57:28,080
The most iconic woman war worker

1009
00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:31,800
is a propaganda poster girl
named Rosie the Riveter.

1010
00:57:33,360 --> 00:57:35,800
Rosie the Riveter
was a striking character

1011
00:57:35,800 --> 00:57:38,400
who embodied strength
and self-sufficiency,

1012
00:57:38,400 --> 00:57:41,760
but she was also feminine,
she was alluring.

1013
00:57:41,760 --> 00:57:45,720
The idea was to make her attractive,
to make her into an icon

1014
00:57:45,720 --> 00:57:48,400
to encourage women
to work in war production.

1015
00:57:50,080 --> 00:57:53,440
Rosie the Riveter
was a fictional character,

1016
00:57:53,440 --> 00:57:56,920
but she does seem to have been based
on a woman called Rose Monroe,

1017
00:57:56,920 --> 00:58:01,360
who was actually a riveter
and who was working at Willow Run.

1018
00:58:04,760 --> 00:58:10,440
By 1943, Axis factories
are also working at full tilt.

1019
00:58:10,440 --> 00:58:13,200
Their most crucial shortage
is not labour,

1020
00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:15,360
but something which has spurred
the Japanese

1021
00:58:15,360 --> 00:58:17,480
to conquer half of Southeast Asia...

1022
00:58:18,640 --> 00:58:22,040
..and forced Hitler to lose
an entire army at Stalingrad.

1023
00:58:23,560 --> 00:58:28,480
Oil - the lifeblood of
World War II's killing machines.

1024
00:58:28,480 --> 00:58:31,280
Without the oil,
you can't fight modern war.

1025
00:58:31,280 --> 00:58:33,920
Oil was at the heart
of the national strategies

1026
00:58:33,920 --> 00:58:36,280
of every country
involved in the conflict.

1027
00:58:38,400 --> 00:58:41,680
In the early stages of the war,
nearly every major offensive

1028
00:58:41,680 --> 00:58:44,800
carried out by the Axis powers
is because of oil.

1029
00:58:46,080 --> 00:58:48,280
The reason for this is simple -

1030
00:58:48,280 --> 00:58:52,440
a tiny number of countries
control almost all the world's oil.

1031
00:58:53,760 --> 00:58:57,960
Over 90% of it
is in the hands of the Allies.

1032
00:58:57,960 --> 00:59:01,040
Germany and Japan control just 3%.

1033
00:59:02,280 --> 00:59:04,040
For the Japanese,
it was a big problem

1034
00:59:04,040 --> 00:59:08,360
because they imported almost
all the oil for the Germans, too.

1035
00:59:08,360 --> 00:59:13,680
The situation is so bad that
Hitler even signed a four-year deal

1036
00:59:13,680 --> 00:59:16,560
with the petrochemical giant
IG Farben

1037
00:59:16,560 --> 00:59:19,440
to produce synthetic oil from coal

1038
00:59:19,440 --> 00:59:23,080
at six times the cost of normal oil.

1039
00:59:23,080 --> 00:59:27,320
German petrochemical giant IG Farben
agrees to expand

1040
00:59:27,320 --> 00:59:31,520
synthetic oil production
at its plant at Leuna, East Germany,

1041
00:59:31,520 --> 00:59:34,560
to 350,000 tonnes per annum.

1042
00:59:35,640 --> 00:59:38,680
But that's only a fraction
of what's required.

1043
00:59:38,680 --> 00:59:42,560
So, this is why the Russian Caucasus
are so vital to Hitler.

1044
00:59:44,320 --> 00:59:46,880
The oilfields at Baku alone

1045
00:59:46,880 --> 00:59:49,160
produce more than three times

1046
00:59:49,160 --> 00:59:50,640
what Germany consumes

1047
00:59:50,640 --> 00:59:51,800
in oil every year.

1048
00:59:57,200 --> 01:00:00,520
But the only key oilfield
Hitler's Panzers capture

1049
01:00:00,520 --> 01:00:02,280
is called Maikop,

1050
01:00:02,280 --> 01:00:05,840
which produces a useful
2 million barrels of oil per year.

1051
01:00:07,480 --> 01:00:11,000
But the Germans fail
to exploit their bounty.

1052
01:00:11,000 --> 01:00:14,880
When the Germans arrive at Maikop,
they find that the Russians

1053
01:00:14,880 --> 01:00:17,000
have destroyed
all the drilling equipment.

1054
01:00:18,080 --> 01:00:21,160
The Germans haven't brought along
any of their own.

1055
01:00:22,480 --> 01:00:27,520
The most the Germans ever got
out of Maikop was 70 barrels a day.

1056
01:00:31,600 --> 01:00:35,520
In the Pacific,
the Japanese fare better.

1057
01:00:35,520 --> 01:00:39,920
By April 1942, the Japanese have
captured the Philippines, Burma

1058
01:00:39,920 --> 01:00:42,120
and the Dutch East Indies.

1059
01:00:42,120 --> 01:00:44,840
It has 70% of the world's tin.

1060
01:00:44,840 --> 01:00:48,760
It has vast rubber resources
at its disposal.

1061
01:00:48,760 --> 01:00:51,080
And then, most importantly,
it has oil.

1062
01:00:53,600 --> 01:00:56,120
The Japanese recognised
that there would be

1063
01:00:56,120 --> 01:01:00,720
a sabotaging of equipment that would
delay or keep production levels low,

1064
01:01:00,720 --> 01:01:03,120
and so the Japanese
compensated for that.

1065
01:01:03,120 --> 01:01:07,880
The Japanese came fully tooled
to repair their captured oilfields.

1066
01:01:07,880 --> 01:01:11,040
Some people thought that
it was going to take about two years

1067
01:01:11,040 --> 01:01:14,400
and, in fact, it only took
the Japanese a few days.

1068
01:01:15,840 --> 01:01:18,920
Getting the oil out of the ground
is simple,

1069
01:01:18,920 --> 01:01:22,640
but Japan's Navy lacks the numbers
to protect its tankers.

1070
01:01:24,000 --> 01:01:26,240
For the most part,
Japanese merchant vessels

1071
01:01:26,240 --> 01:01:29,880
are sailing unarmed and unescorted

1072
01:01:29,880 --> 01:01:33,360
in their return voyages
to the Japanese home islands.

1073
01:01:33,360 --> 01:01:35,160
Now, what can the Americans do?

1074
01:01:35,160 --> 01:01:38,120
They can attack these ships
with submarines and planes.

1075
01:01:40,480 --> 01:01:43,160
In fact, despite gaining the means
to produce more oil

1076
01:01:43,160 --> 01:01:46,080
than Iran and California combined,

1077
01:01:46,080 --> 01:01:48,280
Japan's oil imports actually sink

1078
01:01:48,280 --> 01:01:51,600
to barely 15%
of their pre-war level.

1079
01:01:53,800 --> 01:01:56,360
The situation got so dire
by the end of the war

1080
01:01:56,360 --> 01:02:00,280
that Japan was having to convert
its ships to run on coal,

1081
01:02:00,280 --> 01:02:03,240
and the small boats and planes
that ran on oil

1082
01:02:03,240 --> 01:02:07,120
only had enough for
one-way tickets - suicide missions.

1083
01:02:08,840 --> 01:02:12,720
By contrast, America,
which produces its own oil,

1084
01:02:12,720 --> 01:02:14,480
has massive reserves.

1085
01:02:14,480 --> 01:02:20,480
America supplied 90%
of the high-octane aviation fuel

1086
01:02:20,480 --> 01:02:23,000
used to keep
Allied aircraft in the skies.

1087
01:02:24,280 --> 01:02:27,240
But for the Axis powers,
fuel was so scarce

1088
01:02:27,240 --> 01:02:31,040
that, often, the first time
a German pilot flew

1089
01:02:31,040 --> 01:02:32,680
would be in combat.

1090
01:02:32,680 --> 01:02:34,400
That's a real handicap,

1091
01:02:34,400 --> 01:02:37,240
and as a result,
the Allies ruled the air.

1092
01:02:39,760 --> 01:02:43,360
But in summer 1942,
nothing seems predictable.

1093
01:02:46,160 --> 01:02:49,800
If Japan wants to complete
its stranglehold on the Pacific,

1094
01:02:49,800 --> 01:02:52,920
it needs to sever
Australia's lifeline to the USA...

1095
01:02:54,200 --> 01:02:58,360
..and to do that,
it must first destroy the US Navy.

1096
01:03:04,760 --> 01:03:06,520
April 1942.

1097
01:03:07,680 --> 01:03:12,720
In just four months, Japan has
conquered much of Southeast Asia,

1098
01:03:12,720 --> 01:03:15,280
and they're not done yet.

1099
01:03:15,280 --> 01:03:17,040
They also want to get hold of India,

1100
01:03:17,040 --> 01:03:19,360
but they can't
because of the monsoon rains,

1101
01:03:19,360 --> 01:03:24,680
so Yamamoto gets approval for a plan
that sees him looking south

1102
01:03:24,680 --> 01:03:27,200
directly towards Australia.

1103
01:03:27,200 --> 01:03:30,280
To cement Japan's dominance
in the Pacific,

1104
01:03:30,280 --> 01:03:32,600
Yamamoto wants to cut Australia off

1105
01:03:32,600 --> 01:03:35,560
as the last springboard
for an Allied strike back.

1106
01:03:36,760 --> 01:03:39,000
Australia takes the threat seriously

1107
01:03:39,000 --> 01:03:41,400
and readies itself
for a full invasion.

1108
01:03:42,640 --> 01:03:46,200
61 heavy gun emplacements
are placed around her coast...

1109
01:03:47,920 --> 01:03:49,880
..and 34,000 troops are brought back

1110
01:03:49,880 --> 01:03:51,320
from North Africa.

1111
01:03:53,320 --> 01:03:55,920
But before
it can threaten Australia,

1112
01:03:55,920 --> 01:04:00,360
Yamamoto's fleet must first clear
the US Navy from the Pacific.

1113
01:04:01,560 --> 01:04:04,560
Part of this thrust toward Australia
would include

1114
01:04:04,560 --> 01:04:07,360
a decisive naval engagement
on the high seas

1115
01:04:07,360 --> 01:04:09,320
that would sweep the US Navy

1116
01:04:09,320 --> 01:04:11,680
once and for all
from the field of battle,

1117
01:04:11,680 --> 01:04:14,240
so that it would
no longer represent a threat

1118
01:04:14,240 --> 01:04:16,720
to continuing Japanese expansion.

1119
01:04:18,000 --> 01:04:20,040
To put this plan into action,

1120
01:04:20,040 --> 01:04:22,600
Japan aims to capture
the strategic strong point

1121
01:04:22,600 --> 01:04:24,760
of Port Moresby, New Guinea.

1122
01:04:26,960 --> 01:04:30,200
The American fleet steams into
the Coral Sea to defend it.

1123
01:04:33,960 --> 01:04:37,360
What follows will be
a new kind of sea battle.

1124
01:04:38,920 --> 01:04:43,360
It was the first naval battle
in history where the opposing ships

1125
01:04:43,360 --> 01:04:45,200
never came within sight
of one another.

1126
01:04:46,320 --> 01:04:49,080
Naval warfare is now
being projected by air power,

1127
01:04:49,080 --> 01:04:51,200
not being protected by the big guns.

1128
01:04:52,200 --> 01:04:55,600
The gathered forces look
fairly evenly matched.

1129
01:04:55,600 --> 01:04:58,880
Both sides have
two heavy aircraft carriers

1130
01:04:58,880 --> 01:05:03,120
containing just under 130
battle-ready aircraft.

1131
01:05:03,120 --> 01:05:07,600
Both have nine battle cruisers
protecting their carriers.

1132
01:05:07,600 --> 01:05:11,160
The US has 13 destroyers, Japan 15.

1133
01:05:12,520 --> 01:05:16,080
But Japan does have the advantage
of an extra light carrier.

1134
01:05:18,080 --> 01:05:21,680
Japan's fleet heads to a chain
of islands north of the Coral Sea...

1135
01:05:23,320 --> 01:05:28,480
..but before hostilities even begin,
America has an ace up its sleeve -

1136
01:05:28,480 --> 01:05:30,880
a crack team of code breakers

1137
01:05:30,880 --> 01:05:33,080
named HYPO Station.

1138
01:05:33,080 --> 01:05:35,360
The somewhat aptly named
HYPO Station

1139
01:05:35,360 --> 01:05:39,360
was a team of code breakers
run out of Hawaii

1140
01:05:39,360 --> 01:05:42,280
by a somewhat eccentric figure
called Joseph Rochefort.

1141
01:05:42,280 --> 01:05:45,040
Now, he was
a very celebrated cryptanalyst

1142
01:05:45,040 --> 01:05:47,360
who would famously work
day and night,

1143
01:05:47,360 --> 01:05:48,800
just ran on coffee,

1144
01:05:48,800 --> 01:05:53,280
and he actually wore a dressing gown
and slippers over his uniform.

1145
01:05:53,280 --> 01:05:58,840
HYPO is attempting to decipher
Japanese naval code JN25.

1146
01:05:58,840 --> 01:06:01,200
This is a seriously difficult task

1147
01:06:01,200 --> 01:06:03,360
because that is ciphered

1148
01:06:03,360 --> 01:06:07,040
using 100,000 five-digit numbers

1149
01:06:07,040 --> 01:06:08,800
in order to scramble any messages.

1150
01:06:08,800 --> 01:06:11,120
It's really hard to break.

1151
01:06:11,120 --> 01:06:14,600
But Rochefort and his team were able
to crack about a third of the code,

1152
01:06:14,600 --> 01:06:17,080
and that was just enough
for them to learn

1153
01:06:17,080 --> 01:06:21,280
that the Japanese were preparing
something very big in the Coral Sea.

1154
01:06:25,920 --> 01:06:30,200
Thanks to HYPO, US Admiral Nimitz
knows the Japanese are coming,

1155
01:06:30,200 --> 01:06:33,160
and dispatches a force
including the two aircraft carriers

1156
01:06:33,160 --> 01:06:34,640
Lexington and Yorktown.

1157
01:06:39,680 --> 01:06:42,120
On May the 7th, 1942,

1158
01:06:42,120 --> 01:06:45,520
it blunders into
the Japanese task force.

1159
01:06:45,520 --> 01:06:48,400
The Battle of the Coral Sea
was a complete mess.

1160
01:06:48,400 --> 01:06:52,080
For starters,
both sides misidentified

1161
01:06:52,080 --> 01:06:54,560
their advance ships
for the main force

1162
01:06:54,560 --> 01:06:57,280
and therefore launched
their carrier planes against them.

1163
01:07:02,520 --> 01:07:04,480
They only found
their opponent's carriers

1164
01:07:04,480 --> 01:07:06,360
on the second day of the battle.

1165
01:07:08,800 --> 01:07:10,960
Neither side had
adequate fighter screens

1166
01:07:10,960 --> 01:07:12,200
to protect their ships.

1167
01:07:15,840 --> 01:07:18,680
The battle takes its toll
on both sides.

1168
01:07:23,160 --> 01:07:25,440
Japanese light aircraft carrier
Shoho

1169
01:07:25,440 --> 01:07:28,280
and US carrier Lexington
are both lost.

1170
01:07:36,880 --> 01:07:40,080
Aircraft losses
are almost even, too,

1171
01:07:40,080 --> 01:07:41,920
but Japanese personnel losses

1172
01:07:41,920 --> 01:07:44,480
are practically twice
that of America...

1173
01:07:46,520 --> 01:07:49,960
..so the overall result
is an Allied victory.

1174
01:07:49,960 --> 01:07:51,880
The United States
comes out of the battle

1175
01:07:51,880 --> 01:07:53,800
and it can declare itself the winner

1176
01:07:53,800 --> 01:07:57,320
because it prevented
the invasion of Port Moresby.

1177
01:07:57,320 --> 01:08:00,520
Japan puts its plans
for Australia on hold...

1178
01:08:02,320 --> 01:08:06,280
..but the Imperial Navy has not
finished taking on the Americans.

1179
01:08:06,280 --> 01:08:09,200
Yamamoto decides to,
once and for all,

1180
01:08:09,200 --> 01:08:12,080
seek that final decisive battle,

1181
01:08:12,080 --> 01:08:14,680
and that it will be done
at Midway Atoll.

1182
01:08:16,680 --> 01:08:20,000
The island of Midway
is a tiny archipelago

1183
01:08:20,000 --> 01:08:22,320
and US staging post.

1184
01:08:22,320 --> 01:08:25,800
It's about 1,500 miles
west of Hawaii,

1185
01:08:25,800 --> 01:08:28,280
and it's just basically
three lumps of rock,

1186
01:08:28,280 --> 01:08:30,480
each of which
is about two miles across,

1187
01:08:30,480 --> 01:08:32,400
and one of which
has got an airstrip.

1188
01:08:34,240 --> 01:08:38,240
By sending a diversionary flotilla
toward the Aleutian Islands,

1189
01:08:38,240 --> 01:08:40,960
Yamamoto plans to trick
the American fleet

1190
01:08:40,960 --> 01:08:43,920
into exposing itself north of Midway

1191
01:08:43,920 --> 01:08:46,440
and in range
of Japanese battleships.

1192
01:08:48,640 --> 01:08:51,640
The Japanese imagined
that this battle would be a trap

1193
01:08:51,640 --> 01:08:54,080
for what was left
of the United States Navy,

1194
01:08:54,080 --> 01:08:57,200
and that they would
quickly sort that out.

1195
01:08:57,200 --> 01:08:59,200
But that's not going to happen,

1196
01:08:59,200 --> 01:09:03,600
and that's because the United States
knows that Midway's the target.

1197
01:09:03,600 --> 01:09:06,440
Nimitz even knows the very date
they want to attack -

1198
01:09:06,440 --> 01:09:09,080
he 4th of June 1942.

1199
01:09:10,960 --> 01:09:14,440
Yamamoto's bluff
is about to be called.

1200
01:09:14,440 --> 01:09:18,000
In fact, he is the one being duped.

1201
01:09:18,000 --> 01:09:21,160
The US also seeds disinformation

1202
01:09:21,160 --> 01:09:24,400
that two of its Pacific
aircraft carriers are absent

1203
01:09:24,400 --> 01:09:26,600
patrolling the Australian coast,

1204
01:09:26,600 --> 01:09:31,960
while another, USS Yorktown,
was lost at Coral Sea,

1205
01:09:31,960 --> 01:09:34,440
none of which is true.

1206
01:09:34,440 --> 01:09:35,800
The Japanese believe that

1207
01:09:35,800 --> 01:09:38,000
the American aircraft carrier
USS Yorktown

1208
01:09:38,000 --> 01:09:41,800
has been sunk in the Coral Sea,
but it has not.

1209
01:09:41,800 --> 01:09:46,120
Yorktown was damaged and limped back
to Hawaii for repairs.

1210
01:09:47,480 --> 01:09:50,640
The initial estimate says
that 90 days will be needed

1211
01:09:50,640 --> 01:09:53,760
to get the ship
back in fighting shape.

1212
01:09:53,760 --> 01:09:57,920
But 1,400 dockyard engineers
pull off a minor miracle.

1213
01:09:59,000 --> 01:10:02,520
In just 48 hours,
the Yorktown is back up and running,

1214
01:10:02,520 --> 01:10:04,200
and it's steaming into the fight.

1215
01:10:05,760 --> 01:10:10,120
Admiral Yamamoto doesn't know it,
but at Midway, US Admiral Nimitz

1216
01:10:10,120 --> 01:10:13,040
will have three aircraft carriers
at his disposal...

1217
01:10:14,840 --> 01:10:18,480
..and the American senses
an opportunity.

1218
01:10:18,480 --> 01:10:20,680
I'm a huge admirer
of Admiral Nimitz,

1219
01:10:20,680 --> 01:10:25,040
the American Commander in Chief,
because Nimitz, again and again,

1220
01:10:25,040 --> 01:10:26,680
made brilliant judgments.

1221
01:10:26,680 --> 01:10:29,320
And his brilliant judgment
for Midway, of course,

1222
01:10:29,320 --> 01:10:31,920
was when the code breakers
tell Nimitz that

1223
01:10:31,920 --> 01:10:36,320
the Japanese are going for Midway,
he decides to bet the ranch

1224
01:10:36,320 --> 01:10:39,440
and to send his carriers
to take them on

1225
01:10:39,440 --> 01:10:43,200
and to launch a decisive
counterthrust against Midway,

1226
01:10:43,200 --> 01:10:45,320
and it required huge courage
to do this.

1227
01:10:47,280 --> 01:10:50,360
When Admiral Nagumo
launches 108 planes

1228
01:10:50,360 --> 01:10:53,000
against the US air base at Midway,

1229
01:10:53,000 --> 01:10:56,400
he is completely surprised
when one of his spotter planes

1230
01:10:56,400 --> 01:11:00,160
sights an American carrier force
steaming in his direction,

1231
01:11:00,160 --> 01:11:03,680
just as his returning aircraft
are being refitted on deck.

1232
01:11:05,400 --> 01:11:09,000
The American carrier force
timed its attack perfectly.

1233
01:11:09,000 --> 01:11:11,120
It came in three waves.

1234
01:11:15,720 --> 01:11:19,280
41 Devastator torpedo bombers go in,

1235
01:11:19,280 --> 01:11:21,040
but only six come out.

1236
01:11:23,120 --> 01:11:27,360
They were shot to pieces
by the Japanese fighter cover.

1237
01:11:29,320 --> 01:11:31,160
But the Devastators
had done their job

1238
01:11:31,160 --> 01:11:35,760
because coming out of the sun
were 37 dauntless dive-bombers,

1239
01:11:35,760 --> 01:11:39,920
and they're able to drop their loads
on three aircraft carriers.

1240
01:11:46,080 --> 01:11:51,360
Aircraft carriers Akagi,
Kaga and Soryu take ten direct hits.

1241
01:11:52,840 --> 01:11:56,440
The flight decks of every single one
of those aircraft carriers

1242
01:11:56,440 --> 01:12:02,040
was covered with petrol tankers,
bombs, aircraft being refuelled.

1243
01:12:02,040 --> 01:12:06,360
I mean, this is going to go up like
a barbecue with the gas left on.

1244
01:12:06,360 --> 01:12:09,600
You drop a match and whoomph,
and that's exactly what happens.

1245
01:12:09,600 --> 01:12:14,200
And in a matter of minutes,
Akagi, Kaga and Soryu

1246
01:12:14,200 --> 01:12:17,160
are reduced to funeral pyres.

1247
01:12:17,160 --> 01:12:20,640
Hiryu narrowly escapes,
but not for long,

1248
01:12:20,640 --> 01:12:23,360
because we come back
and get Hiryu later.

1249
01:12:23,360 --> 01:12:26,880
And in addition to losing
four aircraft carriers,

1250
01:12:26,880 --> 01:12:31,400
600 of Japan's best pilots
are knocked out of the war.

1251
01:12:31,400 --> 01:12:37,080
But at Midway alone, Japan lost 70%
of its most experienced pilots -

1252
01:12:37,080 --> 01:12:39,000
either killed or injured.

1253
01:12:39,000 --> 01:12:40,920
She would never be able to recover.

1254
01:12:49,760 --> 01:12:52,480
It really boils down
to this one magic moment

1255
01:12:52,480 --> 01:12:55,000
where ten bombs in ten minutes

1256
01:12:55,000 --> 01:12:57,600
decide the outcome
of the war in the Pacific.

1257
01:13:00,080 --> 01:13:04,000
Japanese losses at Midway
vastly outnumber America's...

1258
01:13:06,200 --> 01:13:08,360
..and Nippon cannot keep up
with the pace

1259
01:13:08,360 --> 01:13:10,800
of America's industrial output.

1260
01:13:10,800 --> 01:13:12,280
In the next two years,

1261
01:13:12,280 --> 01:13:16,280
Japan will build just seven
new aircraft carriers.

1262
01:13:16,280 --> 01:13:19,800
In the same time period,
America builds 90.

1263
01:13:21,120 --> 01:13:25,720
Midway puts Japan on the defensive
for the rest of the war.

1264
01:13:25,720 --> 01:13:30,000
Midway was a genuine turning point
in the Second World War,

1265
01:13:30,000 --> 01:13:33,640
and certainly THE turning point
of the war in the Pacific.

1266
01:13:33,640 --> 01:13:38,120
It was assuredly the last moment
of which any realistic possibility

1267
01:13:38,120 --> 01:13:42,360
of the Japanese winning the war
in the Pacific was ended -

1268
01:13:42,360 --> 01:13:45,280
that those Japanese hopes
were at the bottom of the sea

1269
01:13:45,280 --> 01:13:48,520
and every Japanese admiral
with half a brain understood that.

1270
01:13:52,840 --> 01:13:55,040
But in this global war,

1271
01:13:55,040 --> 01:13:58,680
before they can finally push Nippon
out of Southeast Asia,

1272
01:13:58,680 --> 01:14:02,560
the Americans must first push
the Nazis out of Africa.

1273
01:14:07,110 --> 01:14:09,790
North Africa, summer 1942.

1274
01:14:12,270 --> 01:14:15,590
The sending home
of 34,000 Australian troops

1275
01:14:15,590 --> 01:14:19,590
to defend their country
against a possible Japanese invasion

1276
01:14:19,590 --> 01:14:22,830
weakens British General Auchinleck's
desert army.

1277
01:14:24,670 --> 01:14:28,110
Germany's Field Marshal
Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps

1278
01:14:28,110 --> 01:14:30,470
will take full advantage.

1279
01:14:30,470 --> 01:14:33,230
Rommel launches
this absolutely ferocious

1280
01:14:33,230 --> 01:14:35,230
counterattack in the desert.

1281
01:14:35,230 --> 01:14:38,350
He's got the Italians. He's got
the full weight of the Afrika Korps.

1282
01:14:38,350 --> 01:14:43,910
He's got nearly 100,000 men,
500 tanks, 500 aircraft.

1283
01:14:43,910 --> 01:14:46,070
This is a seriously big force.

1284
01:14:49,550 --> 01:14:51,110
One of Rommel's victories

1285
01:14:51,110 --> 01:14:53,470
will be particularly damaging
to the British.

1286
01:14:54,830 --> 01:14:56,550
A year and a half earlier,

1287
01:14:56,550 --> 01:14:59,710
the British Eighth Army captured
the Libyan port of Tobruk.

1288
01:15:03,430 --> 01:15:05,790
Now Rommel retakes it.

1289
01:15:11,470 --> 01:15:14,070
In a war in which
the British have already taken

1290
01:15:14,070 --> 01:15:17,150
a seriously heavy pounding,
the fall of Tobruk

1291
01:15:17,150 --> 01:15:20,630
has a really bad effect
on Britain's morale.

1292
01:15:23,630 --> 01:15:27,430
15,000 Allied troops
are killed or wounded.

1293
01:15:27,430 --> 01:15:30,190
33,000 more are taken prisoner.

1294
01:15:31,350 --> 01:15:35,830
800,000 artillery rounds,
13 million bullets

1295
01:15:35,830 --> 01:15:39,990
and almost 1,200 Allied tanks
are left behind.

1296
01:15:41,350 --> 01:15:44,510
Churchill,
actually speaking about it,

1297
01:15:44,510 --> 01:15:49,470
said that, "Defeat is one thing.
Disgrace is another."

1298
01:15:49,470 --> 01:15:52,190
He talked about this
as the lowest points

1299
01:15:52,190 --> 01:15:53,790
he experienced during the war.

1300
01:15:59,870 --> 01:16:02,190
Rommel's counterattack
was so effective,

1301
01:16:02,190 --> 01:16:06,910
it not only captured Tobruk,
but also pushed Auchinleck back

1302
01:16:06,910 --> 01:16:09,470
to a small town
on the North African coast

1303
01:16:09,470 --> 01:16:11,070
called El Alamein.

1304
01:16:13,110 --> 01:16:15,030
The British force positions itself

1305
01:16:15,030 --> 01:16:17,750
on the edge of the infamous
Qattara Depression.

1306
01:16:19,350 --> 01:16:22,630
The Qattara Depression
is a huge, sunken wilderness

1307
01:16:22,630 --> 01:16:25,030
right in the middle of the desert.

1308
01:16:25,030 --> 01:16:29,270
It's got marshes and salt lakes
and quicksands.

1309
01:16:29,270 --> 01:16:32,270
This is not a place you can just
drive your tank through,

1310
01:16:32,270 --> 01:16:33,670
blitzkrieg-style.

1311
01:16:35,030 --> 01:16:39,270
And that's why this was a good spot
for the British to retreat to.

1312
01:16:39,270 --> 01:16:44,070
Unable to break through,
Rommel digs in and waits.

1313
01:16:44,070 --> 01:16:46,750
It will prove to be a bad decision.

1314
01:16:48,510 --> 01:16:50,590
The defeat of the Japanese at Midway

1315
01:16:50,590 --> 01:16:54,070
has freed American troops
for use on the Western Front,

1316
01:16:54,070 --> 01:16:57,310
but no-one can agree
where they should strike.

1317
01:16:57,310 --> 01:17:00,270
General Marshall,
who is the US Army Chief of Staff,

1318
01:17:00,270 --> 01:17:03,590
wants to mount
an immediate invasion of Europe.

1319
01:17:03,590 --> 01:17:06,550
Churchill does not like this idea.

1320
01:17:06,550 --> 01:17:10,790
Churchill's plan is to fight Rommel,
hopefully win,

1321
01:17:10,790 --> 01:17:14,590
and then use North Africa
as a springboard to attack Italy.

1322
01:17:15,630 --> 01:17:17,950
Churchill prevails,

1323
01:17:17,950 --> 01:17:20,710
but has to concede
overall military command

1324
01:17:20,710 --> 01:17:23,790
to American General
Dwight D Eisenhower

1325
01:17:23,790 --> 01:17:27,670
because the Americans have no faith
in Britain's failed generals.

1326
01:17:30,070 --> 01:17:34,270
Operation Torch, the American-led
invasion of North Africa,

1327
01:17:34,270 --> 01:17:36,830
is scheduled for November 1942.

1328
01:17:37,910 --> 01:17:41,430
Now, this gives Churchill
just five months to succeed

1329
01:17:41,430 --> 01:17:43,270
before the Americans join in,

1330
01:17:43,270 --> 01:17:46,430
and Churchill's really desperate
to prove a point that the British,

1331
01:17:46,430 --> 01:17:49,350
and her empire,
can fight this on their own.

1332
01:17:51,590 --> 01:17:54,190
The man charged with
delivering Churchill a victory

1333
01:17:54,190 --> 01:17:57,350
is the new commander
of the British Eighth Army

1334
01:17:57,350 --> 01:17:59,550
Bernard Montgomery.

1335
01:17:59,550 --> 01:18:02,630
Bernard Montgomery, or Monty,
as he became known to his troops,

1336
01:18:02,630 --> 01:18:06,430
was a very interesting character.

1337
01:18:06,430 --> 01:18:10,990
He was very confident
to the point of arrogance.

1338
01:18:10,990 --> 01:18:13,390
Some people couldn't abide him,

1339
01:18:13,390 --> 01:18:17,550
yet at the same time,
he was deeply loved by his own men.

1340
01:18:18,870 --> 01:18:21,150
He had served well
in the First World War

1341
01:18:21,150 --> 01:18:24,270
and he had also
acquitted himself well at Dunkirk.

1342
01:18:24,270 --> 01:18:27,590
Those were the pluses.
The big minus was the fact that

1343
01:18:27,590 --> 01:18:31,630
he had taken part in the planning
of the disastrous raid on Dieppe,

1344
01:18:31,630 --> 01:18:35,830
which had cost 4,000 Canadians
and British commandos.

1345
01:18:40,590 --> 01:18:43,750
Despite intense pressure
for quick results,

1346
01:18:43,750 --> 01:18:45,990
Montgomery refuses to be hurried.

1347
01:18:47,390 --> 01:18:49,110
Monty's got a plan,

1348
01:18:49,110 --> 01:18:53,030
and it's a plan that requires a lot
of meticulous build-up of forces,

1349
01:18:53,030 --> 01:18:55,390
which is slow and takes time.

1350
01:18:58,550 --> 01:19:02,230
America sends Montgomery
300 Sherman tanks...

1351
01:19:03,470 --> 01:19:07,950
..mass-produced at pre-war
locomotive and car factories.

1352
01:19:07,950 --> 01:19:11,070
This is the Sherman M4 tank,

1353
01:19:11,070 --> 01:19:15,030
manufactured by
the American car industry.

1354
01:19:15,030 --> 01:19:18,590
It's reliable. It's fast at 30mph.

1355
01:19:18,590 --> 01:19:21,630
If there's a problem with
the Sherman, it's the armour.

1356
01:19:21,630 --> 01:19:24,510
It's very thin,
and with its slab sides,

1357
01:19:24,510 --> 01:19:28,230
almost any German anti-tank gun
can penetrate it.

1358
01:19:28,230 --> 01:19:30,750
And with the hull and turret
full of ammunition,

1359
01:19:30,750 --> 01:19:34,470
it's almost inevitable it'll burst
into flame, it'll brew up.

1360
01:19:34,470 --> 01:19:37,870
Rather horrifically,
they are known as Tommy cookers.

1361
01:19:37,870 --> 01:19:39,870
But in terms of numbers,

1362
01:19:39,870 --> 01:19:43,350
if the Germans can produce
2,600 Tigers,

1363
01:19:43,350 --> 01:19:45,590
the Allies, by 1946,

1364
01:19:45,590 --> 01:19:50,390
have produced 49,000
of these Shermans.

1365
01:19:50,390 --> 01:19:52,470
It's simply a numbers game,

1366
01:19:52,470 --> 01:19:55,390
and the Allies can out-manufacture
the Germans.

1367
01:20:00,790 --> 01:20:02,750
October 1942.

1368
01:20:03,910 --> 01:20:08,110
At El Alamein,
94,000 German and Italian troops

1369
01:20:08,110 --> 01:20:11,390
will face 195,000 Commonwealth.

1370
01:20:13,590 --> 01:20:17,830
It sounds like a sizable advantage,
but it's not.

1371
01:20:17,830 --> 01:20:20,590
Conventional wisdom
says that you need

1372
01:20:20,590 --> 01:20:24,270
a three-to-one advantage
against entrenched enemy.

1373
01:20:24,270 --> 01:20:26,470
Monty's only got
a two-to-one advantage.

1374
01:20:26,470 --> 01:20:28,310
That's not great.

1375
01:20:28,310 --> 01:20:31,710
But Montgomery also has four times
as many tanks as Rommel...

1376
01:20:32,910 --> 01:20:36,470
..and a crucial tactical advantage.

1377
01:20:36,470 --> 01:20:40,750
What Monty has access to
is all the German radio traffic...

1378
01:20:41,910 --> 01:20:44,710
..because the British
have managed to decrypt

1379
01:20:44,710 --> 01:20:46,830
the famous German Enigma machine.

1380
01:20:49,190 --> 01:20:51,310
This is dynamite for Monty.

1381
01:20:52,910 --> 01:20:55,670
Insecure communication is one thing,

1382
01:20:55,670 --> 01:20:58,430
tanks running on empty -
quite another.

1383
01:20:59,870 --> 01:21:03,190
One of Rommel's big problems
is that he's running short on fuel,

1384
01:21:03,190 --> 01:21:06,550
and his supply lines, at that point,
stretched almost 2,000 miles.

1385
01:21:08,070 --> 01:21:13,870
To keep his tanks running,
he has to bring 5,776 tonnes of fuel

1386
01:21:13,870 --> 01:21:17,110
along that narrow roadway
every single month.

1387
01:21:18,870 --> 01:21:21,430
But a combination of that distance,

1388
01:21:21,430 --> 01:21:23,830
Allied air superiority
in the Mediterranean,

1389
01:21:23,830 --> 01:21:26,070
naval superiority
in the Mediterranean

1390
01:21:26,070 --> 01:21:29,830
means that that much fuel
simply isn't getting through.

1391
01:21:31,070 --> 01:21:34,390
Rommel had a sufficient amount
of fuel on hand

1392
01:21:34,390 --> 01:21:37,510
to reposition his armour two times,

1393
01:21:37,510 --> 01:21:39,990
but if he tried to do it
a third time, he'd run out of gas.

1394
01:21:43,750 --> 01:21:47,710
The battle for El Alamein begins
like something out of the Great War.

1395
01:21:49,310 --> 01:21:53,390
At 21.40
on the 23rd of October 1942,

1396
01:21:53,390 --> 01:21:58,150
882 guns,
manned by 6,000 artillerymen,

1397
01:21:58,150 --> 01:22:01,430
bombard the enemy lines
for more than five hours.

1398
01:22:03,790 --> 01:22:07,950
The Allies will fire an estimated
1 million shells during the battle.

1399
01:22:09,990 --> 01:22:12,750
Then Montgomery sends in
his first wave.

1400
01:22:15,470 --> 01:22:17,630
This was known as
Operation Lightfoot.

1401
01:22:17,630 --> 01:22:21,190
The infantry had to be light of foot

1402
01:22:21,190 --> 01:22:25,470
not to set off the large tank mines
that were in their path.

1403
01:22:25,470 --> 01:22:27,910
This actually took longer
than was hoped for,

1404
01:22:27,910 --> 01:22:31,350
and what Montgomery
called the dogfight,

1405
01:22:31,350 --> 01:22:35,510
the war of attrition,
then started to take place.

1406
01:22:38,150 --> 01:22:42,750
Back in London, Churchill is
absolutely incandescent.

1407
01:22:42,750 --> 01:22:46,110
"How can I find a general
who's going to win a battle?"

1408
01:22:46,110 --> 01:22:48,150
he rages at the general staff.

1409
01:22:48,150 --> 01:22:51,230
Luckily, Montgomery's
superiors stood by him.

1410
01:22:51,230 --> 01:22:53,950
They trusted that he knew
what he was doing.

1411
01:22:57,150 --> 01:22:58,990
Under pressure to advance,

1412
01:22:58,990 --> 01:23:02,790
Montgomery launches
Operation Supercharge.

1413
01:23:02,790 --> 01:23:05,390
Operation Supercharge
is a suicide mission

1414
01:23:05,390 --> 01:23:06,990
for its leading troops.

1415
01:23:08,990 --> 01:23:11,510
So, when the commander
of this spearhead

1416
01:23:11,510 --> 01:23:15,070
tells Monty of the dangers,
Monty says, "Yes, I know,

1417
01:23:15,070 --> 01:23:19,550
"but I'm willing to accept
a 100% casualty rate."

1418
01:23:24,750 --> 01:23:27,870
13,500 British
and Commonwealth troops

1419
01:23:27,870 --> 01:23:31,630
perish at El Alamein,
but they enable Monty's armour

1420
01:23:31,630 --> 01:23:35,110
to break through
Rommel's defensive line.

1421
01:23:35,110 --> 01:23:38,470
Despite Hitler's usual
stand-or-die orders,

1422
01:23:38,470 --> 01:23:40,430
Rommel is running low on fuel.

1423
01:23:40,430 --> 01:23:43,390
He cannot mount
a Panzer counterattack,

1424
01:23:43,390 --> 01:23:45,110
so he retreats,

1425
01:23:45,110 --> 01:23:49,350
abandoning 450 tanks and 1,000 guns.

1426
01:23:51,030 --> 01:23:56,350
Rommel also leaves behind
20,000 Axis troops killed or wounded

1427
01:23:56,350 --> 01:23:58,950
and a further 30,000 taken prisoner.

1428
01:24:00,710 --> 01:24:02,350
By the end of the day,

1429
01:24:02,350 --> 01:24:05,990
Rommel lost almost a third
of his army at El Alamein.

1430
01:24:05,990 --> 01:24:08,230
He lost huge numbers of tanks.

1431
01:24:08,230 --> 01:24:11,630
By the end, he only actually had
35 working tanks left.

1432
01:24:15,110 --> 01:24:17,270
Churchill has his victory.

1433
01:24:18,630 --> 01:24:21,030
It's almost impossible to overstate

1434
01:24:21,030 --> 01:24:24,510
the moral importance
of El Alamein to Britain,

1435
01:24:24,510 --> 01:24:27,750
which remained
the only major victory of the war

1436
01:24:27,750 --> 01:24:30,470
that was won by Britain alone
without any Allies.

1437
01:24:31,710 --> 01:24:35,110
It led Winston Churchill
ultimately to say that,

1438
01:24:35,110 --> 01:24:37,470
"Before El Alamein,
we had nothing but defeats.

1439
01:24:37,470 --> 01:24:40,390
"After El Alamein,
we had nothing but victories."

1440
01:24:45,030 --> 01:24:48,830
Just four days later,
a great Anglo-American fleet

1441
01:24:48,830 --> 01:24:51,350
consisting of 350 warships,

1442
01:24:51,350 --> 01:24:54,630
carrying over 100,000 troops,

1443
01:24:54,630 --> 01:24:57,030
assembles off the coast
of North Africa.

1444
01:25:00,750 --> 01:25:02,910
When a joint American
and British force

1445
01:25:02,910 --> 01:25:04,670
launched Operation Torch -

1446
01:25:04,670 --> 01:25:06,510
that was the invasion
of North Africa

1447
01:25:06,510 --> 01:25:08,590
on the 8th of November -

1448
01:25:08,590 --> 01:25:12,110
well, by that time,
Rommel's situation seemed hopeless.

1449
01:25:12,110 --> 01:25:16,470
But in February 1943,
at Tunisia's Kasserine Pass,

1450
01:25:16,470 --> 01:25:20,950
the Americans discover that Rommel
has a painful sting in his tail.

1451
01:25:20,950 --> 01:25:23,710
The Americans had arrived
into North Africa

1452
01:25:23,710 --> 01:25:26,470
pretty firm in the belief that they
were going to turn things round.

1453
01:25:26,470 --> 01:25:29,430
They were going to show the British
how it was done.

1454
01:25:29,430 --> 01:25:31,830
But, actually, Rommel,
who, bear in mind,

1455
01:25:31,830 --> 01:25:34,790
was on the run from Montgomery,
was still able

1456
01:25:34,790 --> 01:25:37,950
to teach the Americans a lesson
at Kasserine Pass.

1457
01:25:39,190 --> 01:25:41,910
Rommel's shock counterattack
at Kasserine Pass

1458
01:25:41,910 --> 01:25:44,790
inflicts 10,000 casualties.

1459
01:25:47,110 --> 01:25:50,630
It vindicates Churchill's call
to delay a liberation of France

1460
01:25:50,630 --> 01:25:53,990
until the Allies have
sufficient numbers and experience

1461
01:25:53,990 --> 01:25:57,230
to take on and beat
battle-hardened German troops.

1462
01:25:59,750 --> 01:26:03,270
To this day,
some American historians argue

1463
01:26:03,270 --> 01:26:06,350
that the Mediterranean
was a great snare and delusion

1464
01:26:06,350 --> 01:26:08,670
which Churchill set for Roosevelt,

1465
01:26:08,670 --> 01:26:11,390
and Roosevelt was foolish enough
to fall into.

1466
01:26:12,830 --> 01:26:16,670
But I think American participation
in North Africa, and later Italy,

1467
01:26:16,670 --> 01:26:20,190
was absolutely vital
to teach the Americans

1468
01:26:20,190 --> 01:26:22,750
what it was really like
making war against the Germans.

1469
01:26:24,070 --> 01:26:26,550
North Africa is where
the Americans grew up,

1470
01:26:26,550 --> 01:26:30,990
it was where the British were able
to consolidate their power,

1471
01:26:30,990 --> 01:26:36,030
and it was very much a springboard
for the Allies to win the war.

1472
01:26:38,830 --> 01:26:42,790
In March 1943, Rommel leaves Africa.

1473
01:26:44,710 --> 01:26:46,070
Two months later,

1474
01:26:46,070 --> 01:26:49,830
a quarter of a million
Axis troops have surrendered.

1475
01:26:49,830 --> 01:26:51,270
Most of them are Italians,

1476
01:26:51,270 --> 01:26:53,990
but that also includes
the better part of the Afrika Korps.

1477
01:26:55,430 --> 01:26:57,870
Thanks to Hitler's
uncompromising orders,

1478
01:26:57,870 --> 01:27:00,070
Hitler's desire always to fight on,

1479
01:27:00,070 --> 01:27:02,950
the Germans lost
close to half a million men

1480
01:27:02,950 --> 01:27:05,750
for absolutely no gain,

1481
01:27:05,750 --> 01:27:08,070
which, of course,
was a total disaster.

1482
01:27:09,510 --> 01:27:13,750
Eisenhower, Bradley,
Patton, Montgomery -

1483
01:27:13,750 --> 01:27:16,270
each of these generals
cuts their teeth

1484
01:27:16,270 --> 01:27:18,270
in the deserts of North Africa.

1485
01:27:21,950 --> 01:27:23,670
In the years to come,

1486
01:27:23,670 --> 01:27:26,790
that experience will help them
turn the tide of the war

1487
01:27:26,790 --> 01:27:28,590
in the Allies' favour.