1 00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:06,120 ♪ [theme song plays] ♪ 2 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:51,520 [propellers whirling] 3 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:55,040 [narrator] During the afternoon of August 31st, 1939, 4 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:57,400 German forces made their final preparations 5 00:00:57,440 --> 00:00:59,480 for the invasion of Poland. 6 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:01,560 Air crews studied their targets. 7 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:04,880 Tanks moved to their assault positions. 8 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:09,800 Then, in the early hours of September the 1st, 9 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:12,600 German soldiers dressed in Polish uniforms 10 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:15,680 attacked a radio station on the German side of the border 11 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:17,840 leaving behind some bodies. 12 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:21,080 [machine gunfire] 13 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:22,840 [marching footsteps] 14 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:26,120 This was the "aggression" which Hitler later used 15 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:28,200 to justify his attack. 16 00:01:32,960 --> 00:01:34,560 At 8 that morning, 17 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:37,440 German troops pushed aside the Polish frontier barriers 18 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:40,160 and mobile forces raced forward. 19 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:43,520 [engines revving] 20 00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:47,400 Two days later, on September the 3rd, 21 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:49,760 Britain and France declared war, 22 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:52,920 honouring their promise to stand by Poland. 23 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:59,200 But by then, the Poles were in deep trouble. 24 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:04,720 They were not only outnumbered, 25 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:06,680 but facing a new form of warfare 26 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:08,640 for which they were ill-prepared. 27 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:11,160 Blitzkrieg. 28 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:23,040 In 1939, the German army consisted of 1 1/2 million men. 29 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:29,240 Its elite were the Panzers. Tanks. 30 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:32,080 Six armoured divisions and four light divisions 31 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:33,800 intended for reconnaissance. 32 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:37,240 A total of 2,400 tanks. 33 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:41,040 These had been designed to break through 34 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:43,640 an enemy's defences and strike deep, 35 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:46,520 cutting communications and spreading confusion. 36 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:52,160 Enemy's strong points would be bypassed, 37 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:54,840 left to the following infantry to mop up. 38 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:02,960 The new German air force, the Luftwaffe, 39 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:05,400 was also designed for Blitzkrieg. 40 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:10,320 It had 2,500 aircraft lined up against the Poles. 41 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:18,360 The most notorious was the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber. 42 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:20,800 It was a form of flying artillery 43 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:23,080 making pinpoint attacks in support 44 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:25,560 of the fast-moving ground forces. 45 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,280 The Poles could muster just 600 planes. 46 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:38,000 On the ground it was just as bad. 47 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:42,280 Poland's army was just 500,000 strong. 48 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:45,920 It had only 880 tanks. 49 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:50,280 It even had 11 brigades of cavalry. 50 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:53,960 Lances and horses against armour. 51 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:56,720 But it wasn't just numbers 52 00:03:56,760 --> 00:03:58,800 that gave the Germans their advantage. 53 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:02,960 They used their Panzers in a radically new way. 54 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,960 As separate, hard-striking units. 55 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:10,960 The Polish tanks were dispersed to support their infantry. 56 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:17,280 The Poles' task had been made even more difficult 57 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:20,320 by the German takeover of Czechoslovakia. 58 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:23,800 The west of the country, including the capital Warsaw, 59 00:04:23,840 --> 00:04:26,160 was now surrounded on three sides 60 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:28,440 by German-controlled territory. 61 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:33,280 This geographical advantage was essential 62 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:35,360 to Germany's grand plan. 63 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:40,680 The task of the first thrust of the tanks 64 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:43,080 was to create an initial breakthrough. 65 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:46,520 But actually winning the war depended 66 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:48,360 on deep pincer movements 67 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:51,080 designed to surround and crush the enemy. 68 00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:55,360 These would come from Army Group North 69 00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:57,840 under General Fedor von Bock. 70 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:00,080 He would launch two thrusts 71 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:02,720 from northeast Germany and east Prussia. 72 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:06,120 Army Group South under General Gerd von Rundstedt 73 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:10,000 would launch two more from Silesia and Slovakia. 74 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:12,920 The aim would be for the pincers to meet 75 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:15,640 near Warsaw and Brest-Litovsk. 76 00:05:18,280 --> 00:05:22,120 [machine gunfire] 77 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:25,240 From the start it went well for the Germans. 78 00:05:25,280 --> 00:05:30,440 [machine gunfire and explosions] 79 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:33,120 Polish air force was effectively eliminated 80 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:35,160 within the first two days. 81 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:45,360 [explosions] 82 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,720 The Panzers cut through and struck deep. 83 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:54,080 And the Stukas and medium bombers 84 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:56,440 proved devastatingly effective. 85 00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:00,680 [explosions and planes buzzing] 86 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:03,880 The Poles were sliced apart, 87 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:05,600 pinned into pockets which yielded 88 00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:07,680 vast numbers of prisoners. 89 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:12,680 [men shouting] 90 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:15,280 Legend has it that some Polish cavalry units 91 00:06:15,320 --> 00:06:18,280 gallantly tried to attack the Panzers. 92 00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:21,640 But it was futile. 93 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:30,200 They were just brushed aside. 94 00:06:32,280 --> 00:06:35,720 By September the 8th, the inner pincers had met up. 95 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:37,400 [marching footsteps] 96 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:40,520 German troops were advancing on the outskirts of Warsaw. 97 00:06:43,280 --> 00:06:45,280 On September the 17th, the outer pincers 98 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:47,240 met at Brest-Litovsk. 99 00:06:47,280 --> 00:06:49,440 [footsteps marching and engine revving] 100 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:54,560 On the same day, Soviet forces 101 00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:57,040 crossed the eastern Polish frontier 102 00:06:57,640 --> 00:06:59,160 as part of the agreement reached 103 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:02,680 between Hitler and Stalin in the Nazi-Soviet pact. 104 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:07,720 The Polish army was now in full retreat, 105 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:09,800 its government fleeing abroad. 106 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:12,560 Warsaw, however, fought on. 107 00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:17,320 [explosions] 108 00:07:17,360 --> 00:07:19,600 [gunfire] 109 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:22,800 Its defenders rejected a German offer to surrender, 110 00:07:22,840 --> 00:07:26,720 so the full fury of the German war machine was turned on it. 111 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:29,480 [explosions] 112 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:37,720 [explosions and crashing] 113 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:40,400 Watching it all was Adolf Hitler, 114 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,560 who had followed closed behind his conquering army. 115 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:50,960 On September the 27th, Warsaw surrendered. 116 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:57,000 The next day the victors carved Poland up 117 00:07:57,040 --> 00:07:59,240 according to the Nazi-Soviet pact. 118 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:03,600 The Soviet Union annexed 119 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:06,480 slightly over half the country to the east. 120 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:10,080 Germany took the rest. 121 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:13,280 Both regimes began rounding up 122 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:16,120 anyone who might present a danger in the future. 123 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:19,080 Many were murdered. 124 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:22,640 And for the first time, the Germans revealed 125 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:24,760 how they would behave against those peoples 126 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:28,280 in eastern Europe whom they considered inferior. 127 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:33,720 They sent in the Einsatzgruppen, 128 00:08:33,760 --> 00:08:37,120 special SS squads, to round up Jews. 129 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:47,200 Most were forced into ghettos in the major cities 130 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:49,560 where they would be starved to death. 131 00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:54,000 Others were executed on the spot. 132 00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:58,240 [woman crying] 133 00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:02,760 This was not, however, the end of the Polish army. 134 00:09:03,040 --> 00:09:05,320 More than 50,000 troops escaped 135 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:07,400 and eventually reached France. 136 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:10,680 There, a provisional government had been formed 137 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:13,200 by General Wladyslaw Sikorski. 138 00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:16,320 The Poles would fight on bravely from abroad. 139 00:09:17,560 --> 00:09:21,000 [sirens] 140 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:27,160 In Britain, the air raid sirens 141 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:28,760 had sounded within minutes 142 00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:30,560 of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's announcement 143 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:33,000 that hostilities had begun. 144 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:36,160 In fact, despite their politician's guarantees 145 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:38,360 of Polish sovereignty, Britain and France 146 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:40,880 had done very little to help Poland. 147 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:45,040 As Hitler had gambled, they had no idea what to do 148 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:47,520 once they had actually declared war. 149 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:53,160 Both countries had begun mobilization. 150 00:09:54,560 --> 00:09:56,720 Air raid precautions were speeded up. 151 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:00,960 Anti-aircraft guns were placed in major cities. 152 00:10:01,680 --> 00:10:03,440 Shelters were erected. 153 00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:08,640 Soon, children were being evacuated. 154 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:13,000 Everyone had to carry gas masks, 155 00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:15,320 and a blackout was introduced. 156 00:10:17,760 --> 00:10:19,360 The British army began to deploy 157 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:23,120 its 100,000 strong Expeditionary Force to northern France. 158 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:27,520 [engines running] 159 00:10:27,560 --> 00:10:29,360 French troops did advance a little way 160 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:31,080 inside the German border. 161 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:32,600 But they refused to move 162 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:35,120 beyond the protective cover of artillery range. 163 00:10:37,240 --> 00:10:40,320 The initiative was still firmly in Hitler's hands. 164 00:10:41,920 --> 00:10:45,760 And he at least knew precisely what he was going to do next. 165 00:10:47,560 --> 00:10:51,640 [crowd cheering] 166 00:10:51,680 --> 00:10:53,400 The Blitzkrieg against Poland 167 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:56,520 had been a stunning success for Adolf Hitler. 168 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:00,520 He had subdued an entire country in less than four weeks, 169 00:11:00,560 --> 00:11:02,280 and he was hungry for more. 170 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:07,440 So he ordered his generals to plan to attack 171 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:10,240 the British and French in November 1939, 172 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:13,280 less than two months after the fall of Poland. 173 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:18,800 His general staff was appalled. 174 00:11:19,560 --> 00:11:21,920 The bulk of the German army was still out east 175 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:23,840 and had to be moved west. 176 00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:26,120 And there had been some serious losses 177 00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:27,760 in the Polish campaign. 178 00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:30,160 Lessons had to be learned. 179 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:37,040 Polish anti-tank guns had destroyed a division's worth 180 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:39,320 of the lightly armoured Panzers. 181 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:45,120 A quarter of the aircraft used had been lost. 182 00:11:46,480 --> 00:11:49,080 The Panzers were too light and unreliable. 183 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:50,680 And they had frequently outrun 184 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:53,440 both their supply columns, and the marching infantry. 185 00:11:56,560 --> 00:11:59,200 Reluctantly, after furious arguments, 186 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:02,320 Hitler agreed to wait until the following spring. 187 00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:11,080 Meanwhile, his enemies were also learning lessons. 188 00:12:13,680 --> 00:12:15,040 Britain had thought that bombers 189 00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:17,600 would be a key weapon in the coming conflict. 190 00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:21,080 But when on September the 4th Britain's Royal Air Force 191 00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:23,520 made a daylight raid on German shipping, 192 00:12:23,560 --> 00:12:26,200 seven of the 30 bombers were shot down. 193 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:31,400 It soon became clear that this wasn't a one-off misfortune. 194 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:34,720 In some raids, over half the aircraft were lost. 195 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:39,240 British bombers just weren't up to the job. 196 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:42,480 So the RAF switched to night raids. 197 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:44,720 And they decided to drop not bombs, 198 00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:48,640 but leaflets, so as not to provoke retaliation. 199 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:58,480 So with the Blitzkrieg stalled and the air war quiet, 200 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:02,840 the focus now went to the one remaining arena, the sea. 201 00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:06,320 [fog horns] 202 00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:08,280 Germany's Navy was still in the middle 203 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:10,160 of an ambitious building program 204 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:13,240 that wasn't due to finish until 1948. 205 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:18,280 The commander of its submarine arm, Admiral Karl Doenitz, 206 00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:21,640 planned to cut Britain's supply routes across the Atlantic. 207 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:26,840 For this, he wanted 300 ocean-going submarines. 208 00:13:27,560 --> 00:13:29,720 But he had just 38. 209 00:13:31,680 --> 00:13:34,440 Nevertheless, Doenitz ensured that all available U-boats 210 00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:36,640 were at sea on September the 3rd, 211 00:13:36,680 --> 00:13:39,600 the first day of the war against Britain. 212 00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:44,560 That evening, believing it to be an armed merchant cruiser, 213 00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:49,040 U-30 sank the liner Athenia without any warning. 214 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:52,120 [explosion] 215 00:13:53,920 --> 00:13:58,760 112 lives were lost, including 26 American citizens. 216 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:04,880 The Royal Navy dwarfed its German counterpart. 217 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:07,840 It had 12 battleships. 218 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:09,360 Germany had none. 219 00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:11,640 It had five aircraft carriers. 220 00:14:11,680 --> 00:14:13,920 Germany, again, had none. 221 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:16,280 So after the Athenia, Britain declared 222 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:19,040 a total blockade of German ports. 223 00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:26,360 But for all its size, the Royal Navy 224 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:29,000 had too few escort vessels. 225 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:32,160 Many merchant ships had to sail alone. 226 00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:33,320 [explosion] 227 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:37,760 And by the end of 1939, more than 100 had been sunk. 228 00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:41,760 It quickly became apparent that the British 229 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:45,280 had woefully underestimated the submarine threat. 230 00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:47,200 On September the 17th, 231 00:14:47,240 --> 00:14:51,080 U-29 sank the British aircraft carrier Courageous. 232 00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:52,960 [explosion] 233 00:14:57,560 --> 00:14:58,720 On October the 14th, 234 00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:01,040 the battleship Royal Oak was sunk 235 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:03,400 when U-47 slipped through the defences 236 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:07,560 of the British main fleet base at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys. 237 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:14,040 Meanwhile, Germany's small service fleet 238 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:17,200 had also been unleashed against the sea lanes. 239 00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:20,680 In the North Sea, the battle cruisers 240 00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:22,600 Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, 241 00:15:22,640 --> 00:15:25,760 intercepted a convoy on November the 22nd. 242 00:15:26,440 --> 00:15:28,560 [explosion] 243 00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:32,040 [explosion] 244 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:37,240 They sank its escort, the armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi. 245 00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:43,000 But it was the pocket battleship Graf Spee 246 00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:45,320 which caused the greatest problems. 247 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:49,040 Designed specifically for commerce raiding, 248 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:51,880 its 11-inch guns could overwhelm any ship 249 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:53,720 fast enough to overtake it. 250 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:57,440 And it had the speed to escape from any battleship. 251 00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:02,320 The Graf Spee had slipped away from Germany 252 00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:04,200 before hostilities began. 253 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:08,840 [explosions] 254 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:10,120 Soon, it was cutting loose 255 00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:12,720 in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. 256 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:18,720 Finally, three British cruisers, 257 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:21,280 Exeter, Ajax and Achilles, 258 00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:23,320 intercepted it off the River Plate 259 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:25,400 on the east coast of South America. 260 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:27,720 [explosions] 261 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:32,080 The British ships damaged the pocket battleship so badly 262 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:34,080 that it had to take refuge in the neutral 263 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:36,480 Uruguayan port of Montevideo. 264 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:41,200 The Germans were then fooled into thinking 265 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:43,920 that a more powerful British force had arrived. 266 00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:49,520 When the Graf Spee was commanded to leave port, 267 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:53,600 the captain scuttled her, rather than risk annihilation. 268 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:03,120 Back home, the Royal Navy crews were feted as heroes. 269 00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:05,720 But this was just about the only obvious success 270 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:08,960 enjoyed by the British or French armed forces 271 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:11,920 during the winter of 1939, 272 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:15,880 though the British did enjoy one secret victory 273 00:17:15,920 --> 00:17:19,520 in the technological war, which was to prove vital. 274 00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:21,640 [explosion] 275 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:25,360 [explosion] 276 00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:30,080 As soon as the war began, Britain began to lose 277 00:17:30,120 --> 00:17:32,880 large numbers of ships to German mines. 278 00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:36,880 What was so mysterious, was that the ships 279 00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:39,120 didn't seem to have actually struck them. 280 00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:44,320 The mines had simply exploded as the ships passed nearby. 281 00:17:48,480 --> 00:17:51,880 Then, on the night of November the 22nd, 1939, 282 00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:54,280 a German plane was spotted dropping a mine 283 00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:56,840 at low tide in the Thames Estuary. 284 00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:03,320 Disarmed and rescued from the mud, 285 00:18:03,360 --> 00:18:05,200 the mine was found to be set off 286 00:18:05,240 --> 00:18:09,440 by the magnetic signature of a ship passing close by. 287 00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:15,560 The solution was to reduce the ship's magnetic signature 288 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:18,240 by hanging a copper cable around the hull 289 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:21,280 and then passing an electric current through it, 290 00:18:21,320 --> 00:18:23,320 a process called degaussing. 291 00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:28,040 Once degaussing was applied to all ships, 292 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:31,600 the danger from the magnetic mine was massively reduced. 293 00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:39,280 But otherwise, as 1940 began, the war was quiet. 294 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:41,920 The two sides did little during the winter, 295 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:45,760 except to patrol, train, and try to keep warm, 296 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:48,280 for it was a particularly cold one. 297 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:53,920 An American journalist called it the phony war. 298 00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:56,520 For the Germans, it was the Sitzkrieg. 299 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,080 [engines running] 300 00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:04,240 In the spring, the British Expeditionary Force 301 00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:06,520 took up its position towards the left of the front 302 00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:08,400 on the Belgian border. 303 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:14,640 [footsteps marching] 304 00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:17,120 But it was dwarfed by its French ally. 305 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:19,600 France had some 100 divisions 306 00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:21,760 along the Belgian and German frontiers 307 00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:24,120 or in reserve nearby. 308 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:28,560 This imbalance meant that the British Commander Lord Gort 309 00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:30,280 had to go along with the ideas 310 00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:32,880 of the French General Maurice Gammelin. 311 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:36,640 And these were entirely defensive. 312 00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:42,280 French hopes were pinned on 313 00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:45,120 the massive ramparts of the Maginot line, 314 00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:47,880 a series of fortifications that ran 315 00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:51,720 from Switzerland to Belgium along the French-German border. 316 00:19:53,120 --> 00:19:56,680 The Marginot line was considered to be completely impassable 317 00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:00,000 and would ensure that French territory remained safe. 318 00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:04,880 But otherwise, the allies had no idea 319 00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:07,920 of how actually to defeat Germany. 320 00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:12,880 Instead, they brought up their forces 321 00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:15,760 and prepared for a repeat of World War I. 322 00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:20,640 They would blockade Germany to sap its strength, 323 00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:22,120 and they would dig in, 324 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:26,560 ready to grind down the assault which they knew must come. 325 00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:31,040 None of their commanders seemed to consider 326 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:34,280 that the Germans might have totally different ideas 327 00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:36,480 or that the next moves might come 328 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:38,720 in a completely different arena, 329 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:41,000 [explosions] 330 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:42,720 Scandinavia. 331 00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:47,280 [explosions] 332 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:51,680 On November the 30th, 1939, 333 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:52,840 [explosions] 334 00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:55,040 a new theatre of war was opened up. 335 00:20:56,560 --> 00:21:00,120 The Soviet Union invaded its tiny neighbour, Finland. 336 00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:02,240 [airplane roaring] 337 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:04,120 Finland had only achieved independence 338 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:07,440 from the Russians in 1918, and hated them. 339 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:11,080 Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was convinced 340 00:21:11,120 --> 00:21:13,880 that one day the Finns might allow the Germans in 341 00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:18,400 to attack Leningrad and the vital arctic port of Murmansk. 342 00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:20,000 [marching footsteps] 343 00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:22,680 The red army outnumbered its Finnish opponents 344 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:24,520 by more than 10 to one. 345 00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:27,520 The invasion should have been a walkover. 346 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:31,480 But its leadership had been devastated 347 00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:33,640 by Stalin's terrible purges. 348 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:39,800 The Finns were led by General Gustaf Mannerheim. 349 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:44,000 He fought back using hit-and-run tactics 350 00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:46,760 amid the deep snow, often on skis. 351 00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:51,320 The Soviet troops, confused and poorly led, 352 00:21:51,360 --> 00:21:53,160 suffered massive losses. 353 00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:56,680 [gunshots] 354 00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:58,240 Finland's gallant resistance 355 00:21:58,280 --> 00:22:01,280 caught the imagination of the British and French. 356 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:06,400 Soon they were planning to send help via Norway and Sweden. 357 00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:09,040 The fact that this might suck 358 00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:12,160 two neutral countries into the war was ignored. 359 00:22:13,120 --> 00:22:18,120 [explosions] 360 00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:21,080 But a renewed Soviet offensive at the beginning of February 361 00:22:21,120 --> 00:22:23,400 broke the Finnish defensive line. 362 00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:24,920 [explosions] 363 00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:29,320 In early March, the Finns had to cede territory to Stalin. 364 00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:36,720 By now, Hitler, too, had become interested in Scandinavia. 365 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:42,040 The Nazi war machine relied on iron ore from Sweden. 366 00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:46,760 In the winter months, the only way it could get to Germany 367 00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:49,200 was via the Norwegian port of Narvik. 368 00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:51,880 If the allies landed in Norway, 369 00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,720 this vital supply could be cut off. 370 00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:58,200 So he ordered plans to be prepared 371 00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:00,320 for an invasion of Norway. 372 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:03,240 Denmark, which was in the way, 373 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:05,520 would also have to be seized. 374 00:23:09,080 --> 00:23:12,720 The Norway theatre heated up on February the 16th, 1940. 375 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:14,600 The British destroyer Cossack 376 00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:16,840 boarded the German supply ship Altmark 377 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:20,160 in a Norwegian fjord to release prisoners. 378 00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:25,360 [waves crashing] 379 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:26,880 Then, on April the 9th, 380 00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:29,920 German troops began landing at five ports, 381 00:23:31,360 --> 00:23:35,680 Oslo, Kristiansand, Bergen, 382 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:38,280 Trondheim and Narvik. 383 00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:41,480 [airplanes roaring] 384 00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:43,560 At the same time, men of their newly formed 385 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:45,360 German parachute division 386 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:48,080 seized Stavanger and Oslo airfields. 387 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:51,480 [gunshots] 388 00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:54,640 The Norwegian defenders were swiftly overwhelmed, 389 00:23:58,160 --> 00:23:59,640 as were the Danes. 390 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:06,560 German forces occupied their country within 24 hours. 391 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,600 In Norway, the Germans moved swiftly 392 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:16,440 to link up their beachheads and seize all the major towns. 393 00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:21,400 In the air, the Luftwaffe had total control. 394 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:26,280 The allies now responded. 395 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:30,080 A landing force was dispatched to recapture Narvik. 396 00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:34,960 French and Norwegian forces achieved this 397 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:36,480 on May the 28th. 398 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,960 But a substantial German force was now approaching. 399 00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:45,080 So six weeks later, 400 00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:49,240 the allies abandoned Norway to its fate. 401 00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:57,480 Hitler had spent most of that winter and spring 402 00:24:57,520 --> 00:24:59,080 at his country retreat, 403 00:24:59,120 --> 00:25:01,400 the Berghof in Southern Bavaria. 404 00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:04,680 For him, the events in Scandinavia were a sideshow. 405 00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:09,400 Instead, he was preparing for his next major Blitzkrieg 406 00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:11,760 against Britain and France. 407 00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:15,480 The first plan his generals brought him 408 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:17,440 had a familiar ring to it. 409 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:20,720 The Germans would advance into Belgium 410 00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:23,400 aiming to swing down towards Paris. 411 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,240 It was a repeat of the Schlieffen Plan, 412 00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:30,360 which the Germans had used at the start of World War I. 413 00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:34,960 The allies were expecting this. 414 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:36,720 And their main strategic discussion 415 00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:38,400 was how to prepare for it. 416 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:42,880 When the Germans attacked, the allies planned 417 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:45,160 that their forces west of the Marginot Line 418 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:47,080 would swing forward into Belgium 419 00:25:47,120 --> 00:25:50,280 to hold them on the shorter and more defensible line 420 00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:52,640 of the Rivers Dyle and Meuse. 421 00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:57,680 [airplane roaring] 422 00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:00,080 Then on January the 10th, 1940, 423 00:26:00,120 --> 00:26:02,840 a German liaison aircraft lost its way 424 00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:04,760 and crashed in Belgium. 425 00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:08,400 A copy of the German plan was found. 426 00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:12,600 This convinced the allies 427 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:14,480 that their Dyle plan must be right, 428 00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:16,760 and they deployed their troops accordingly. 429 00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:21,640 Unfortunately, the same event made the Germans 430 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:24,240 alter their ideas entirely. 431 00:26:27,360 --> 00:26:29,760 Chief planner General Erich von Manstein 432 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:33,320 had always thought the original plan unimaginative. 433 00:26:33,360 --> 00:26:35,080 He was worried that the German forces 434 00:26:35,120 --> 00:26:38,000 would become bogged down, as in World War I, 435 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:41,520 and that his country would lose a long, drawn out war. 436 00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:45,960 So he proposed to Hitler that the main thrust 437 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,200 should be made at the point where the Marginot Line ended 438 00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:51,280 and where the allies were most vulnerable, 439 00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:53,840 as their western armies moved forward. 440 00:26:56,120 --> 00:26:58,400 Virtually all Germany's Panzers would be gathered 441 00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:01,520 opposite the Ardennes in southeast Belgium. 442 00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:06,280 The allies considered this hilly and wooded area 443 00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:08,640 almost impossible for tanks. 444 00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:11,400 It was, therefore, lightly defended. 445 00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:17,360 The plan was to drive deep behind the allied armies 446 00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:19,560 which would have advanced into Belgium. 447 00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:21,560 They could then cut them off. 448 00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:24,080 And all the forces sitting in the Marginot Line 449 00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:25,520 would be bypassed. 450 00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:29,640 It was a high-risk strategy. 451 00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:33,120 The German armour could become stuck in the forest. 452 00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:34,640 But Hitler loved it. 453 00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:39,920 So the German forces were redeployed 454 00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:41,680 without the allies knowing. 455 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:48,400 The allies meanwhile prepared for their long, defensive war. 456 00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:52,920 In addition to the formidable barrier of the Marginot Line, 457 00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:55,480 they had a slight advantage, both in manpower, 458 00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:59,760 some 110 divisions available against 95 German, 459 00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:03,280 and in armour, 460 00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:07,320 about 3,000 vehicles against 2,700. 461 00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:11,080 The French also had the better tanks. 462 00:28:11,120 --> 00:28:14,200 Their 32 ton Char B had both 463 00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:17,480 75 and 47 millimetre guns. 464 00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:19,600 Its disadvantage was that the main gun 465 00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:22,960 was mounted in the hull and so was difficult to aim. 466 00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:28,080 The other gun was in a one man turret, 467 00:28:28,120 --> 00:28:30,120 from which the commander had to control the tank 468 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:32,000 as well as man the gun. 469 00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:38,000 In contrast, the newest German design, 470 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:40,480 a 17 ton Panzer Mark IV 471 00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:42,280 had a 75 millimetre gun 472 00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:44,600 in a spacious three man turret. 473 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:46,800 So its crew could work as a team, 474 00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:49,320 though only about 100 were available. 475 00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:53,680 [ground vibrating] 476 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:55,960 The other main French tanks also had guns 477 00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:58,720 which matched those of their German counterparts, 478 00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:02,080 but again, the French had the one man turret. 479 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,280 [airplane roaring] 480 00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,280 The one area where the Germans had a clear advantage 481 00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:09,920 was in the air. 482 00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:17,120 The Luftwaffe had 2,000 bombers, the allies just 800. 483 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:22,320 The Luftwaffe had 4,000 fighters, 484 00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:25,880 including the ultra-modern Messerschmitt Bf 109. 485 00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:29,840 They faced just 2,500 mainly older aircraft. 486 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,000 [airplanes roaring] 487 00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:35,080 The Royal Air Force did have about 800 488 00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:37,480 excellent Spitfire and Hurricane fighters. 489 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:41,040 But it was keen to keep them for home defence. 490 00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:46,280 But the main difference between the two armies 491 00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:47,960 was in philosophy. 492 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:49,640 Everything the Germans did 493 00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:52,400 was focused on the possibilities of Blitzkrieg. 494 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:54,480 All their armour was grouped 495 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:57,320 in 10 independent Panzer divisions. 496 00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:02,680 But the French were preparing for a repeat 497 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,400 of the static fighting of World War I. 498 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:08,880 They saw tanks as infantry support 499 00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:10,600 and distributed them piecemeal 500 00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:12,400 instead of concentrating them. 501 00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:19,080 They had noticed the success of Germany's Panzers in Poland. 502 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:22,080 So they were assembling three armour divisions. 503 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:26,720 But by the start of hostilities, none was fully operational. 504 00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:32,560 Two totally different ways of military thinking 505 00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:34,720 were about to go head to head. 506 00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:39,200 Blitzkrieg against static warfare. 507 00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:45,560 The summer of 1940 would soon show which was correct. 508 00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:52,000 On May the 10th, 1940, 509 00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,040 Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Britain. 510 00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:57,840 He couldn't have picked a worse day. 511 00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:02,600 That was the day Hitler chose to launch 512 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,680 his Blitzkrieg against France and Britain. 513 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:10,080 At dawn, a whole German airborne division 514 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,960 parachuted into Holland to seize bridges and airfields. 515 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:20,560 Simultaneously, the massive Belgian fortress 516 00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:23,120 of Eban Emael was assaulted. 517 00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:25,680 [explosion] 518 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:27,680 Paratroop engineers were dropped on top 519 00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:29,880 by swooping German gliders. 520 00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:32,280 They swiftly silenced its guns. 521 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:37,040 Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe attacked 522 00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:39,440 Dutch and Belgian air bases. 523 00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:45,240 Then, the frontier barriers were pushed aside. 524 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:51,640 And Hitler's Army Group B under General Fedor von Bock 525 00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:54,520 now drove into Holland and Belgium. 526 00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:01,320 As planned, the French and British armies 527 00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:03,280 along the Belgian border moved forward 528 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:07,200 to their new defensive line along the Dyle and Meuse Rivers. 529 00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:11,880 But none of the allied commanders 530 00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:13,480 seemed to have noticed 531 00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:17,080 that German Army Group A, which had the bulk of the Panzers, 532 00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:20,280 after brushing aside the Belgian frontier troops 533 00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:22,720 had now begun driving through the hills and woods 534 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:25,160 of the Ardennes to their south. 535 00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:30,760 [rumbling and gunshots] 536 00:32:30,800 --> 00:32:34,320 Meanwhile, the Germans were pushing rapidly through Holland. 537 00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:36,960 [gunfire] 538 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:40,720 [explosions] 539 00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:43,440 The obsolete Dutch army was no match 540 00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:46,400 for the highly tuned German war machine. 541 00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:51,280 And it was under continual heavy air attack by the Luftwaffe 542 00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:53,680 which roamed the skies unchallenged. 543 00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:58,200 On May the 14th, the Germans demanded 544 00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:00,400 the surrender of the port of Rotterdam. 545 00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:07,040 A large force of bombers took off as the Dutch hesitated. 546 00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:11,760 While they were airborne, 547 00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:13,840 the Dutch agreed to surrender the city. 548 00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:17,520 But apparently a recall message never reached the bombers. 549 00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:25,720 Rotterdam was devastated. 550 00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:29,240 The Dutch capitulated the next day. 551 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:36,240 Then came the hammer blow. 552 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:38,200 The thing that British and French planners 553 00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:40,440 had thought impossible had happened. 554 00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:43,000 German Panzers were through the Ardennes 555 00:33:43,040 --> 00:33:46,120 and had reached the Meuse by the evening of May the 12th. 556 00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,040 Among the first to arrive at Sedan, 557 00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:55,040 well north of the Marginot Line, 558 00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:57,880 were the men of the 19th Panzer Corps 559 00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:00,280 commanded by General Heinz Guderian, 560 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:02,320 fresh from the triumphs in Poland. 561 00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:10,040 Guderian now showed how Blitzkrieg should be done. 562 00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:13,680 He ignored the troops in the Marginot Line, 563 00:34:13,720 --> 00:34:16,880 and he didn't wait for his own infantry to catch up. 564 00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:18,680 He pushed straight on. 565 00:34:21,720 --> 00:34:24,920 The next day, assault troops crossed the River Meuse. 566 00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:28,080 [gunfire] 567 00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:29,880 [explosions] 568 00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:32,560 Engineers began building bridges for the armour 569 00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:34,600 while under heavy French fire. 570 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:37,920 [explosions] 571 00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:41,960 [rumbling] 572 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:45,040 On the 14th, the Panzers began crossing. 573 00:34:45,720 --> 00:34:49,280 That evening Guderian's bridgehead was eight miles deep. 574 00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:53,120 The French troops, stuck in the Marginot Line, 575 00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:55,600 were too immobile to intervene. 576 00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:01,280 Allied bombers made despairing attempts 577 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:03,560 to destroy the German bridges. 578 00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:08,480 [explosions] 579 00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:12,480 But most were shot down. 580 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:20,120 [explosions] 581 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:21,680 All the while German artillery 582 00:35:21,720 --> 00:35:23,280 pounded the French defences 583 00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:25,680 while the Stukas screamed in. 584 00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:30,720 [airplanes buzzing] 585 00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:34,800 Just three days after the attack had been launched, 586 00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:37,960 the French defenders around Sedan broke. 587 00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:44,120 Guderian's Panzers began racing westwards. 588 00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:46,920 By nightfall they had advanced more than 40 miles 589 00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:49,480 behind the northern group of Allied armies. 590 00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:54,280 These had been holding firm on the Dyle line. 591 00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:57,600 But now the French supreme commander, General Gamelin, 592 00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:00,400 realised that they were about to be encircled. 593 00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:02,320 He ordered them to fall back. 594 00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:06,960 This sudden decision to withdraw 595 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:08,600 bewildered the allied troops 596 00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:11,680 who had no idea what was going on behind them. 597 00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:18,720 As they fell back, they were hindered by a growing flood 598 00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:21,080 of refugees clogging the roads. 599 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:27,720 That day, the French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud 600 00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:29,280 phoned Churchill. 601 00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:31,360 He said, "We are beaten. 602 00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:33,080 We have lost the battle." 603 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:38,080 But for all the brilliance of the Blitzkrieg, 604 00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:40,160 the Germans were vulnerable. 605 00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:44,080 As the Panzers raced westwards, 606 00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:46,120 they created an ever longer corridor 607 00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:48,120 just a few miles wide. 608 00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:51,840 The allies realised that this was open to counterattack. 609 00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:55,320 The bulk of the German army was still 610 00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:57,120 totally dependent on horsepower 611 00:36:57,160 --> 00:36:59,760 or its own feet for transport. 612 00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:02,280 So the gap between the rampaging Panzers 613 00:37:02,320 --> 00:37:05,160 and the follow-up infantry grew with every hour. 614 00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:11,760 On May the 17th, Colonel Charles de Gaulle, 615 00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:15,400 commander of one of the newly formed French armour divisions, 616 00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:16,960 made the first of two attempts 617 00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:19,680 to cut through the German line near Crecy. 618 00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:24,000 But the cumbersome French command system 619 00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:26,480 meant that units were sent into battle piecemeal, 620 00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:28,880 not in a coordinated thrust. 621 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:33,920 [explosions] 622 00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:39,200 The Germans had little difficulty 623 00:37:39,240 --> 00:37:41,080 warding off both attacks, 624 00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:43,640 inflicting heavy casualties. 625 00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:50,200 It seemed that nothing could now stop Guderian. 626 00:37:50,240 --> 00:37:53,920 He plunged on further and further into France. 627 00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:58,560 By the 19th, his lead units were past Peronne. 628 00:37:59,840 --> 00:38:03,560 On the 20th, in an extraordinary 56 mile dash, 629 00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:06,120 Amiens had been taken by lunchtime. 630 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:11,360 Abbeville, just 14 miles from the English channel, 631 00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:13,880 was seized by 9 that evening. 632 00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:19,280 And at midnight, a battalion of the 2nd Panzer division 633 00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:21,880 reached the coast of Noyelles. 634 00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:28,920 The Germans had split the allied front in two. 635 00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:32,600 Everything now depended on whether they could defend 636 00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:34,440 this long, thin corridor, 637 00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:37,960 or whether the allies could successfully counterattack. 638 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:47,400 So now the British got ready to break the German lines. 639 00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:53,560 On May the 21st, two armoured battalions 640 00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:56,680 prepared to launch an attack south of Arras. 641 00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:02,480 The British tanks were even more unsuited 642 00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:05,440 to fast-moving armoured warfare than the French. 643 00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:08,000 Their most effective machine, the Matilda II, 644 00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:10,920 had been designed for infantry support. 645 00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:15,800 Though well armoured, it was slow and undergunned. 646 00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:20,840 [explosions] 647 00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:26,120 [explosions] 648 00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:31,160 The Germans had little trouble in repulsing the attack. 649 00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:35,800 But it did have an effect. 650 00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:39,600 By now, the German high command 651 00:39:39,640 --> 00:39:41,000 were becoming worried 652 00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:43,200 by their extended lines of communication. 653 00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:48,280 So, for the time being, 654 00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:51,480 driving south into the rest of France was put on hold 655 00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:53,800 until the infantry had caught up. 656 00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:57,200 The priority was to turn north 657 00:39:57,240 --> 00:39:59,720 and eliminate the British Expeditionary Force 658 00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:02,640 and the French First Army fighting beside it. 659 00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:08,960 On May the 22nd, Guderian and the Panzers 660 00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:12,320 began their attack to destroy the allied armies. 661 00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:16,600 These were now pulling back to the ports 662 00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:19,160 of Boulogne, Calais, and Dunkirk, 663 00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:20,720 but they were trapped. 664 00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:25,280 On May the 23rd, General Alan Brooke, 665 00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:27,920 commander British II Corps, wrote, 666 00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:29,640 "Nothing but a miracle can save 667 00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:31,880 the British Expeditionary Force." 668 00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:36,800 Two days later, the Germans seized Boulogne. 669 00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:41,840 [explosions and gunfire] 670 00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:43,280 It was beginning to look as if 671 00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:45,760 even a miracle would be too late. 672 00:40:50,320 --> 00:40:53,080 May the 25th, 1940. 673 00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:55,600 the situation of the British Expeditionary Force 674 00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:58,320 and the French First Army was desperate. 675 00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:02,080 The port of Boulogne had been overrun. 676 00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:05,600 German troops had isolated Calais. 677 00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:10,080 The British were being forced back to the port of Dunkirk. 678 00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:14,520 Lord Gort, the British commander, 679 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:17,040 advised his government that the only hope 680 00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:19,320 of saving even a fraction of his troops 681 00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:22,440 was to organise an evacuation by sea. 682 00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:28,080 But as the dive bombers screamed down 683 00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:30,760 and the Panzers were poised for the final assault, 684 00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:33,880 evacuation seemed a forlorn hope. 685 00:41:35,240 --> 00:41:37,480 The British anticipated that Dunkirk 686 00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:39,640 would be overrun within a day. 687 00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:43,120 But unknown to the British, 688 00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:45,000 Hitler and the German high command 689 00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:47,800 had made a decision which was to save them 690 00:41:47,840 --> 00:41:50,160 from total annihilation. 691 00:41:53,720 --> 00:41:55,280 The Germans were only too aware 692 00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:57,680 that their Panzer crews were exhausted 693 00:41:57,720 --> 00:42:00,120 and their machines needed urgent repairs. 694 00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:04,600 Those attacks by De Gaulle and the British may have failed, 695 00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:06,240 but they had shown very clearly 696 00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:09,760 how vulnerable the German lines of communication were. 697 00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:13,320 This was the great weakness of Blitzkrieg. 698 00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:19,000 So the high command made a fateful decision. 699 00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:21,240 It decided to stop the Panzers' advance 700 00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:23,000 to save them from further damage, 701 00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:25,360 and wait for the infantry to come up. 702 00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:28,240 Only then would the allied pocket 703 00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:30,520 around Dunkirk be eliminated. 704 00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:38,680 So the Blitzkrieg was halted, and the Panzers lay idle. 705 00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:41,480 They would not advance for two days, 706 00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:44,360 just enough to buy the British in particular 707 00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:46,560 a little time to prepare. 708 00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:50,160 [explosions] 709 00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:54,280 As the tanks waited, the only major action was in Calais. 710 00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:56,080 There, the British and French garrison 711 00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:57,920 refused to surrender. 712 00:42:57,960 --> 00:43:01,080 [explosions] 713 00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:03,880 Instead, they had to be overrun in three days 714 00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:06,320 of bloody hand to hand fighting. 715 00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:11,760 When the Panzers got going again two days later 716 00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:15,040 on May the 26th, the weather had changed. 717 00:43:20,640 --> 00:43:23,360 The Germans became bogged down in the heavy rain, 718 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:26,040 again giving the allies more time. 719 00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:34,880 So it was that at 7:57 p.m. on May the 26th, 720 00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:39,080 Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsey, Flag Officer commanding Dover, 721 00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:41,120 received a signal that he was to put 722 00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:43,800 Operation Dynamo into action. 723 00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:48,600 Operation Dynamo was a plan to withdraw 724 00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:51,560 the British Expeditionary Force by sea. 725 00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:54,440 He had prepared it more in hope than in expectation 726 00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:56,520 that it could ever be used. 727 00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:00,920 The following day a makeshift fleet 728 00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:03,400 of destroyers, tugs, and passenger ferries 729 00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:05,320 crossed the English Channel. 730 00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:10,320 But by the end of the day, 731 00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:13,200 less than 8,000 of the over 300,000 troops 732 00:44:13,240 --> 00:44:15,360 of Dunkirk had been rescued. 733 00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:22,480 The port was under such heavy air attack 734 00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:24,280 that it could not be used. 735 00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:25,840 [explosions] 736 00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:29,360 And the ships could not get in close enough to the beaches. 737 00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:36,280 So Ramsay now sent out a call for any boats of shallow draft 738 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:38,720 that were over 30 feet long. 739 00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:41,920 Hundreds of cabin cruisers, fishing boats, 740 00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:44,360 and barges were gathered from harbours 741 00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:47,720 all over southern England and sent across the channel. 742 00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:50,880 Often crewed by their civilian owners, 743 00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:55,600 the little ships worked on the beaches of Dunkirk 744 00:44:55,640 --> 00:44:58,080 ferrying troops out to the larger boats 745 00:44:58,120 --> 00:45:00,360 waiting to take them to safety. 746 00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:06,560 [airplanes buzzing] 747 00:45:06,600 --> 00:45:09,640 All the time they were under constant air attack. 748 00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:16,040 The British Air Force threw every fighter it possessed 749 00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:19,200 into the battle to drive the Luftwaffe off. 750 00:45:19,240 --> 00:45:23,920 [airplanes buzzing] 751 00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:26,520 [explosions] 752 00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:30,480 [airplanes buzzing] 753 00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:34,800 Even so, seven French and six British destroyers were sunk 754 00:45:34,840 --> 00:45:38,000 together with 24 smaller war ships. 755 00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:44,320 A quarter of the 665 small boats never got home. 756 00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:50,880 But when the evacuation was halted on June the 4th, 757 00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:54,880 over 300,000 men, 41% of them French, 758 00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:56,560 had been rescued. 759 00:45:58,520 --> 00:46:00,760 [explosion] 760 00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:03,080 None of this would have been possible 761 00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:05,440 without the heroism of the French army. 762 00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:09,200 It played a vital role in slowing down the German advance. 763 00:46:09,240 --> 00:46:13,880 [explosions] 764 00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:16,240 [gunfire] 765 00:46:16,280 --> 00:46:17,840 The French rear guard didn't leave 766 00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:19,400 its positions around Dunkirk 767 00:46:19,440 --> 00:46:22,720 until the last boats had pulled away from the beaches. 768 00:46:27,320 --> 00:46:29,240 One British officer compared them 769 00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:32,560 to the last stand of the Spartans at Thermopylae. 770 00:46:36,720 --> 00:46:38,880 Even so, the British army had lost 771 00:46:38,920 --> 00:46:40,800 most of its heavy weapons. 772 00:46:42,280 --> 00:46:43,480 It wouldn't be fit to fight 773 00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:46,120 the Germans again for a long time. 774 00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:51,480 France still had to fight on, 775 00:46:51,520 --> 00:46:53,920 but it had lost more than half its army. 776 00:46:54,320 --> 00:46:56,920 Against them, the Germans had 92 divisions, 777 00:46:56,960 --> 00:46:59,080 including masses of armour. 778 00:46:59,120 --> 00:47:03,920 [explosions] 779 00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:06,120 At 4 in the morning of June the 5th, 780 00:47:06,160 --> 00:47:10,000 a short bombardment began the final destruction of France. 781 00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:18,360 Assault troops crossed the Somme and the Aisne. 782 00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:21,080 At first, the French resistance was fierce. 783 00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:24,040 And the Germans struggled to break out of their bridgeheads. 784 00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:30,400 But once again, the Luftwaffe helped crush the defences. 785 00:47:30,440 --> 00:47:32,560 [explosions] 786 00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:37,520 Soon, the Panzers were pushing south. 787 00:47:38,640 --> 00:47:40,880 And the trickle of surrendering French troops 788 00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:43,080 turned into a flood. 789 00:47:45,360 --> 00:47:48,520 By the 9th, the Panzers had reached the River Seine. 790 00:47:49,040 --> 00:47:52,080 And the infantry were only a few hours behind. 791 00:47:55,440 --> 00:47:58,040 Once across the river, the Germans fanned out 792 00:47:58,080 --> 00:48:00,320 into the interior of the country. 793 00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:07,160 On the 14th, the German army marched into Paris. 794 00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:10,560 [marching footsteps] 795 00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:15,040 The swastika was raised on the Eiffel Tower. 796 00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:22,480 Hitler had secured the prize 797 00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:26,080 which had eluded the Kaiser in 1914. 798 00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:33,040 The Parisians could only watch in stunned horror. 799 00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:39,160 Throughout the period of the French collapse, 800 00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:42,480 Winston Churchill paid five visits to France 801 00:48:42,520 --> 00:48:45,080 trying to bolster French resistance. 802 00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:49,280 On June the 16th, he even offered Paul Reynaud 803 00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:52,720 a union with Britain if France stayed in the fight. 804 00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:54,920 But it was too late. 805 00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:57,760 Raynaud's cabinet rejected the proposal, 806 00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:00,560 and the Prime Minister resigned that evening. 807 00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:06,120 He was succeeded by Marshal Philippe Petain 808 00:49:06,160 --> 00:49:09,760 who immediately asked the Germans for an armistice. 809 00:49:10,920 --> 00:49:15,560 [explosions] 810 00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:17,080 It was only now that the Germans 811 00:49:17,120 --> 00:49:19,560 finally began to attack the Marginot Line, 812 00:49:19,600 --> 00:49:21,680 which had been left isolated. 813 00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:27,200 After a heavy artillery bombardment, 814 00:49:27,240 --> 00:49:29,920 the French defenders offered only token resistance 815 00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:33,440 before the German troops occupied the forts. 816 00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:41,680 On June the 21st, Hitler went to Compiegne, 817 00:49:41,720 --> 00:49:44,200 where the railway carriage in which the Germans 818 00:49:44,240 --> 00:49:48,040 had signed the armistice in 1918 was kept. 819 00:49:50,120 --> 00:49:52,280 As the French delegation entered the carriage, 820 00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:55,680 he handed them his terms and then left. 821 00:49:56,200 --> 00:49:58,680 The French insisted on consulting their government. 822 00:49:58,720 --> 00:50:00,440 But the next day, they were told that 823 00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:02,240 if they didn't sign immediately, 824 00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:04,320 the Panzers would roll again. 825 00:50:06,920 --> 00:50:08,280 They signed. 826 00:50:08,320 --> 00:50:11,120 And the humiliation of France was complete. 827 00:50:13,160 --> 00:50:16,880 [cheering] 828 00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:21,120 For Hitler, his control of western Europe seemed absolute. 829 00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:23,920 He felt sure that Britain must now seek peace 830 00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:25,720 and that soon, he could turn 831 00:50:25,760 --> 00:50:28,400 to the next stage of his master plan. 832 00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:34,560 But even though the Blitzkrieg had achieved so much so fast, 833 00:50:34,600 --> 00:50:36,920 it hadn't won him the war. 834 00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:42,440 The British, battered and wounded, 835 00:50:42,480 --> 00:50:45,240 had escaped to fight another day. 9999 00:00:0,500 --> 00:00:2,00 www.tvsubtitles.net