1 00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:01,640 [military music] 2 00:00:02,520 --> 00:00:04,840 [narrator] On the 13th of April 1943, 3 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:08,080 German troops deep in Soviet territory 4 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:09,320 make a grisly discovery. 5 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:13,960 In Katyn Forest near Smolensk in western Russia, 6 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:16,800 they stumble upon a series of mass graves 7 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:19,280 containing more than 4,000 bodies. 8 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:22,120 All officers from the Polish military, 9 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:25,320 including an admiral, generals, and majors. 10 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:28,360 For Nazi propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels, 11 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:30,080 news of the mass graves 12 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:33,240 is a desperately needed opportunity. 13 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,360 It is clear the graves have been there for several years, 14 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:38,520 so Goebbels and the German High Command 15 00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:41,360 know that these Polish prisoners must have been killed 16 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:46,120 by the Soviets soon after they invaded Poland in 1939. 17 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:48,640 Goebbels believes he can use this information 18 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:52,000 to turn Churchill and Roosevelt against Stalin 19 00:00:52,160 --> 00:00:54,000 and weaken their alliance. 20 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:57,520 But despite Goebbels' attempts to publicise the massacre 21 00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:00,480 and turn international opinion against the Soviets, 22 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:03,520 he is no match for Stalin's duplicity. 23 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:05,240 When questioned by his allies, 24 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:08,280 the Soviet leader denies all knowledge of the massacre 25 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:11,560 and pins the blame firmly on the Nazi regime, 26 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:15,400 and Churchill and Roosevelt accept his assurances. 27 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:20,520 They are about to enter the critical phase of the war, 28 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:23,240 and they need Stalin and his Red Army 29 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:25,440 as much as he needs them. 30 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:29,000 [theme music] 31 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:33,720 [slides clicking] 32 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:39,400 ‐[explosions] ‐[troops marching] 33 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:44,720 [bombs hiss] 34 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:55,080 [narrator] In 1942, the Soviet Union, 35 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:57,120 the United States, and Great Britain, 36 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:01,080 whilst theoretically united against the fascist Axis powers, 37 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:04,360 were, in practice, nations apart. 38 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:07,840 Stalin's Soviet forces were isolated and suffering, 39 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:10,440 desperately defending their western territories 40 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:11,760 from the Nazi invaders. 41 00:02:11,920 --> 00:02:13,800 [distant artillery] 42 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:15,720 The Americans were still in shock 43 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:17,960 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, 44 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:21,320 and as newcomers to this war, were still finding their feet. 45 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:27,400 And Churchill, despite pleas from Stalin and Roosevelt, 46 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:29,840 was still determined to postpone the invasion 47 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:31,960 of northern France until he could be 48 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:34,320 absolutely sure of victory. 49 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:37,000 In August 1942, 50 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:39,600 Churchill flew to Moscow to meet with Stalin. 51 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:41,200 It was supposed to be a meeting 52 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:43,400 of all three of the major Allied powers, 53 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:45,120 but Roosevelt was unable to attend 54 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:46,640 because of his health. 55 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:48,560 What's remarkable, and we know this now 56 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:51,840 because of the recently published Ivan Maisky's diaries, 57 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:54,040 that Churchill was talking about an alliance 58 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:56,360 with the Soviet Union much earlier than people 59 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:57,680 had previously thought. 60 00:02:57,840 --> 00:02:59,880 So, Churchill was willing to be flexible 61 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,040 in the tradition of geo‐strategic politics, 62 00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:05,360 global politics, and even if that meant 63 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:06,760 working with someone 64 00:03:06,920 --> 00:03:08,320 who you didn't necessarily like very well, 65 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:11,960 he understood that ultimately a Nazi Germany represented 66 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:15,400 a greater threat than the Soviet Russia. 67 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:17,800 [narrator] The Soviet Union was on its knees, 68 00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:19,120 and Stalin was desperate 69 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:20,960 for Churchill and the Western Allies 70 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:23,360 to open up a western front in Europe 71 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:26,560 to ease the vast pressure on his armies in the east. 72 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:29,400 [Harshan] Stalin's demand for a second front 73 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:32,800 speaks to some of the real tensions 74 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:35,040 among the Big Three 75 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:36,800 about their own national interests, 76 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:39,600 and also their visions of what the war was for. 77 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:43,760 For him as well, this was about his prestige in The Big Three. 78 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:46,080 And so he wanted to be treated as an equal 79 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:48,120 in this common struggle against Hitler. 80 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:50,280 He was very frustrated about the fact 81 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:52,640 that Churchill would not agree 82 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:56,000 to open that second front sooner than later. 83 00:03:56,160 --> 00:03:57,320 [intriguing music] 84 00:03:57,480 --> 00:03:59,480 [narrator] Churchill was well aware of this 85 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:02,080 and arrived in Moscow for a series of meetings, 86 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:05,160 still determined not to give in to Stalin. 87 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:07,160 [Martin] His principle goal 88 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:10,640 is to talk to Stalin directly 89 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:14,080 because he's concerned that Roosevelt has made 90 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:16,360 a rather rash promise to embark 91 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:18,920 on a second front in France in 1942. 92 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:20,280 Now, of course, 93 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:22,840 that message could have been sent by telegram, 94 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,400 but Churchill also wants to open up 95 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:28,760 some kind of a personal connection to Joseph Stalin. 96 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:31,480 He's a little concerned that Roosevelt 97 00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:32,960 earlier in the year has said 98 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:35,760 Stalin likes Roosevelt better than he likes Churchill, 99 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:38,360 and so perhaps Roosevelt should speak for the both of them. 100 00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:40,360 Churchill did not like that. 101 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:42,440 [narrator] After the usual pleasantries, 102 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:43,960 Churchill cut to the chase 103 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:47,000 saying both British and American military advisers 104 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:48,400 had warned against 105 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:49,840 a cross‐channel invasion of France 106 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:52,000 as being too risky that year. 107 00:04:52,160 --> 00:04:55,120 As far as Stalin is concerned, his prime hope 108 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:58,000 is that Churchill has come to offer a second front, 109 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:00,480 though he knows from his ambassador in London 110 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:03,840 that actually Churchill is going to try and get out of it. 111 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,400 And following his ambassador's advice, 112 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:11,600 he attempts to shame Churchill 113 00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:14,760 by presenting the idea that the British 114 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:16,320 are scared to fight, 115 00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:18,800 trying to appeal to Churchill's fighting spirit. 116 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:21,560 And he does that and Churchill is very offended. 117 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:23,920 [narrator] Churchill's response was to unfurl 118 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:25,840 a map of the Mediterranean and North Africa. 119 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,360 He then took a pen and started to draw 120 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:31,360 a crocodile with a dangerous snout. 121 00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:34,280 Churchill draws his picture of a crocodile and says: 122 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:36,800 "You can attack a crocodile by hitting it on the snout, 123 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:38,920 or hitting it on the soft underbelly, 124 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:40,800 and the Mediterranean is the soft underbelly." 125 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:44,360 Stalin says: "Yes, I can see the advantages of doing that." 126 00:05:44,840 --> 00:05:46,840 [narrator] But did Churchill really believe 127 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:49,840 this was the best way to defeat Nazi Germany? 128 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:53,080 I think Winston Churchill was convinced of the idea 129 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:56,280 that you could move into Germany or move into Europe 130 00:05:56,440 --> 00:05:58,680 by pushing up through the Eastern Mediterranean. 131 00:05:58,840 --> 00:06:00,160 Churchill loves this idea. 132 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:02,880 In fact, Churchill's only novel, Savrola, 133 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:05,520 is about someone who does exactly that 134 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:09,160 and leads an expedition through the soft underbelly of Europe. 135 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:11,400 [narrator] But many historians today 136 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:13,440 think Churchill was also motivated 137 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:16,720 by his desire to keep the British Empire alive. 138 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:19,640 Churchill is particularly concerned 139 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:24,960 that the Mediterranean remain under British control, 140 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:27,280 because it's the connection point, 141 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:30,920 with the Suez Canal at one, end and Gibraltar at the other, 142 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:33,720 of the British Empire, 143 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:35,840 and particularly, of course, the important part 144 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:37,760 of the British Empire, the trade. 145 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:39,680 [narrator] Stalin initially appeared convinced 146 00:06:39,840 --> 00:06:41,480 and seemed to back Churchill's plans. 147 00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:44,280 However, when they met the next day, 148 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:46,960 Stalin's mood had changed. 149 00:06:47,120 --> 00:06:48,960 At their second meeting, Stalin decides, 150 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:50,960 I'm not going to let him get away with that, 151 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:53,720 and starts having a go at Churchill and lecturing him 152 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:55,400 that the Germans aren't that difficult to fight 153 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:56,920 if you start getting down to it. 154 00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:00,160 It looks like the meeting's going to completely collapse. 155 00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:02,760 When Churchill goes for his final meeting with Stalin, 156 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:04,400 it's supposed to be just saying goodbye. 157 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:07,360 They haven't agreed to anything, but they've agreed to differ. 158 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:10,680 After they've chatted for a bit, Stalin says to Churchill: 159 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:13,560 "Would you like to come back to my flat for a drink?" 160 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:16,840 So back they go to Stalin's little apartment in the Kremlin, 161 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,360 which was formerly Catherine the Great's bedroom, 162 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:22,720 and they sit down and start chatting and drinking, 163 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:24,720 and they're there for five hours. 164 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:26,120 They sit there talking about 165 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:28,040 military affairs that they both love. 166 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:29,720 They're both commanders‐in‐chief. 167 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:31,760 They both always stay up all the night talking. 168 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:34,880 Stalin's daughter comes in and brings them some food 169 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:36,440 and Churchill says: 170 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:38,440 "I've got a red‐headed daughter as well." 171 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:41,440 So they start talking about their children and things. 172 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:43,600 And after the end of five hours, 173 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:46,200 they leave having formed 174 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:49,160 a very strange personal relationship. 175 00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:50,880 [narrator] Despite Stalin's appeals 176 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:53,240 for a more direct approach to ease the pressure 177 00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:54,960 on his troops, the soft underbelly 178 00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:57,160 of Churchill's crocodile, the Mediterranean, 179 00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:00,720 was to be the focus for the next critical phase of the war. 180 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:02,160 [tense music] 181 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:05,840 But if Churchill had looked 400 miles northeast 182 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:08,240 to the besieged city of Leningrad, 183 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:10,080 might he have been more susceptible 184 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:11,880 to Stalin's entreaties? 185 00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:18,160 [theme music] 186 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:20,480 discussing the Allies' best route to victory, 187 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:23,280 the Soviet Union's second city, Leningrad, 188 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:26,240 was under siege by the German Sixth Army. 189 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:29,440 The Nazi blockade would eventually last 190 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:32,600 nearly 900 days and claim the lives 191 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:35,440 of more than 800,000 civilians, 192 00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:39,280 as well as more than 1 million Soviet and German soldiers. 193 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:40,840 [artillery] 194 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:44,600 The siege of Leningrad had begun in August 1941, 195 00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:45,880 just over two months 196 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:48,320 after the launch of Operation Barbarossa, 197 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:50,440 the sudden invasion of the Soviet Union, 198 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:52,600 by three million Nazi troops. 199 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:56,560 Hitler considered Leningrad to be a key strategic target. 200 00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:58,960 It was home to the Soviets' Baltic Fleet, 201 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:02,760 and second only to Moscow in terms of industrial output. 202 00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:04,720 But with his invasion force spread wide 203 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:06,480 across the Western Soviet Union, 204 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:08,800 the Nazi dictator did not have the strength 205 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:12,040 in manpower or equipment to overrun Leningrad, 206 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:16,040 so he ordered his troops to encircle the historic city. 207 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:18,040 He did not want to capture Leningrad, 208 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:20,840 but to destroy it by shelling and bombing 209 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:22,960 and starving its people to death. 210 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:25,960 [loud booming] 211 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:27,960 By October 1941, 212 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:30,760 Leningrad was almost completely surrounded, 213 00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:33,000 with road and rail links cut off. 214 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:35,560 The population suffered constant shelling, 215 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:38,360 and an estimated 75,000 bombs were dropped 216 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:40,880 during the 900‐day siege. 217 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:43,760 Meanwhile, the city's 3 million inhabitants 218 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:45,600 were slowly starving. 219 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,520 The only supply route was across Lake Ladoga. 220 00:09:48,680 --> 00:09:50,440 Provisions had to be brought by boat 221 00:09:50,600 --> 00:09:53,440 or across the ice during the frozen winters. 222 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:54,480 [dramatic music] 223 00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:57,400 Very hard to get food in and out. 224 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:01,200 Ironically, when the deep freeze came on, 225 00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:03,360 and it was possible to drive over the lakes, 226 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:06,760 then it was almost easier than when the ground was muddy 227 00:10:06,920 --> 00:10:09,000 or there was heavy rain. 228 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:13,240 So the city had to be supplied basically by convoys of lorries 229 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:14,680 across the lakes, 230 00:10:14,840 --> 00:10:17,040 under shell fire the whole time. It's just horrendous. 231 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:18,720 [narrator] Strict rationing was brought in 232 00:10:18,880 --> 00:10:21,000 by the authorities in an attempt to conserve 233 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:22,720 the very limited supplies. 234 00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:24,920 Diaries from survivors of the siege 235 00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:27,720 reflect the terrible effects of the shortages. 236 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:30,360 "There is no worse feeling than when all your thoughts 237 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:31,640 are on food," 238 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:34,240 wrote Berta Zlotnikova, a teenager. 239 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:36,200 "I am becoming an animal." 240 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:38,800 Another anonymous man wrote: 241 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:41,400 "My stomach has caved in, 242 00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:44,000 my ribs stick out from top to bottom." 243 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:48,200 Ration cards became the only useful currency in the city, 244 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:51,400 with people stealing them and even killing for them. 245 00:10:51,560 --> 00:10:52,720 [tense music] 246 00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:56,120 Food quickly ran out. There was no electricity. 247 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:57,760 Communications were severed. 248 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:00,720 People of Leningrad were soon forced to start 249 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:04,520 eating cats, mice, dogs, leather, 250 00:11:04,680 --> 00:11:06,960 whatever they could find to sustain themselves. 251 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:08,920 There were cases of cannibalism, 252 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:11,560 which were suppressed by Soviet authorities, 253 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:15,280 but it's a sign of desperation which spread through the city. 254 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:17,320 [narrator] Despite these daily horrors, 255 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:19,240 the people of Leningrad held out, 256 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:22,760 but it would be two long years of death and disease 257 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:26,520 before the Red Army finally managed to lift the siege. 258 00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:31,520 While the Soviet armies struggled to fight off 259 00:11:31,680 --> 00:11:34,120 the Nazi forces in the frozen east, 260 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:36,760 their Western allies were engaging the Axis powers 261 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:38,440 in the deserts of Africa. 262 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:41,680 The North African campaign began in June 1940 263 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:43,920 and continued for three years. 264 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:48,600 [loud booming] 265 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:50,800 The British forces, which included troops 266 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:53,960 from Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa, 267 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:55,720 were encamped in Egypt, 268 00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:58,240 while the Italian and German Axis forces 269 00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:00,640 were in control of Tunisia and Libya. 270 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:02,320 North Africa wasn't only important 271 00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:03,840 in terms of attacking Germany 272 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:06,200 via the soft underbelly of Europe, 273 00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:08,840 it was also vital for keeping access open 274 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:12,160 to the Suez Canal and oil in the Middle East. 275 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:13,960 [Jonathan] Britain was not prepared 276 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:15,840 to let the Suez Canal fall into enemy hands, 277 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:18,040 because that would've closed off any possibility 278 00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:20,520 of using the Mediterranean as a shipping route again. 279 00:12:20,680 --> 00:12:23,920 If Britain controlled the Suez Canal 280 00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:27,440 and the Mediterranean, so if they had defeated Italy, 281 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:31,680 then the route to the far east, to India in particular, 282 00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:33,960 was much shorter, and would free up 283 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:35,120 a lot of shipping. 284 00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:37,040 [narrator] During the first 18 months 285 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:39,000 of the North Africa campaign, 286 00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:41,280 each army had struggled to maintain its position 287 00:12:41,440 --> 00:12:43,520 across the expanse of the Sahara Desert. 288 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:47,600 With huge distances to cover over isolated areas, 289 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:50,400 successful offensives often ground to a halt 290 00:12:50,560 --> 00:12:53,200 as supplies ran out and troops were forced 291 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:55,160 to retreat to safer positions. 292 00:12:55,680 --> 00:13:00,480 Primarily it is a war of logistics and supply, 293 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:04,640 and the rhythm of the campaign is entirely determined 294 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:08,280 by the capability of each side to supply themselves 295 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:11,160 at either end of a very long, 296 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:13,720 thousands of miles long supply chain. 297 00:13:13,880 --> 00:13:16,640 When the allies get too far to the west, 298 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:18,920 they're too far away from their sources of supply, 299 00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:20,560 which are primarily in Egypt. 300 00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:22,640 Their ability to maintain themselves 301 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:25,480 and to keep moving forward is eroding day by day, 302 00:13:25,640 --> 00:13:27,280 every mile west that they go. 303 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,920 Likewise, the Germans, whose supply lines 304 00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:33,720 are stretched back to the western end to Tunisia 305 00:13:33,880 --> 00:13:35,320 and western end of Libya, 306 00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:37,080 when they go too far east, 307 00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:39,840 their fighting effort is prejudiced. 308 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:41,840 [narrator] Defending the Allies' position 309 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:45,400 was the British Eighth Army, led by one of World War II's 310 00:13:45,560 --> 00:13:47,840 most notorious military commanders, 311 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,360 General Bernard Law Montgomery. 312 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:52,160 A graduate of Sandhurst, 313 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:54,600 Montgomery was shot through the lung by a sniper 314 00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:57,640 during the First World War and was so severely injured 315 00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:00,000 that a grave was prepared for him. 316 00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:02,600 However, he went on to make a full recovery, 317 00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:05,280 and spent the rest of the war as a staff officer, 318 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:07,640 where he could observe tactics used 319 00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:09,320 by the military high command, 320 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:12,560 and became an outspoken critic of their willingness to accept 321 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:16,600 large numbers of casualties to gain a tactical advantage. 322 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:20,560 In 1942, Churchill appointed Montgomery 323 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:23,560 commander of the Eighth Army in North Africa, 324 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:25,400 entrusting him with leading the fight 325 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:27,880 against German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, 326 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:29,880 known as the Desert Fox. 327 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:32,680 [Sir Mike] Montgomery, I think, 328 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:36,440 was clear in his own mind, 329 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:39,520 and certainly put it to his army: 330 00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:41,840 "There is no going back. 331 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:45,040 We are not going back any further. 332 00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:48,440 We will stay here. We will prepare." 333 00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:51,480 And to be fair, he was true to his word. 334 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:54,320 Very methodical. Some would say cautious, 335 00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:59,400 unwilling to unnecessarily risk soldiers' lives. 336 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:01,880 [Jonathan] He was a very skilled general. 337 00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:03,280 He understood his intelligence, 338 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:04,560 he was getting a lot of intelligence 339 00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:07,880 from Bletchley Park about the weaknesses 340 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:11,600 of the German army, and he knew how to exploit that. 341 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:13,960 [narrator] El Alamein was seen as the gateway 342 00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:16,640 to Egypt and the Suez Canal beyond. 343 00:15:17,240 --> 00:15:21,080 At 10 p. m. on the night of October the 23rd, 1942, 344 00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:23,480 the British Eighth Army launched their offensive 345 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:24,920 on the Axis forces 346 00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:27,760 with a furious 15‐minute bombardment 347 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:29,880 by more than 1,000 guns. 348 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:37,520 Crucially, at this point, Rommel was not with his troops, 349 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:40,480 as he was at home in Germany on sick leave. 350 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:43,720 By the time he returned to command three days later, 351 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:45,680 German lines had been broken 352 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:48,040 and the Allies were in total control. 353 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:50,120 Hitler ordered his troops 354 00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:53,080 to fight and die to the last man, 355 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:57,040 but after 12 days of exhausting combat in El Alamein, 356 00:15:57,200 --> 00:15:59,040 Rommel and his remaining men 357 00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:02,040 retreated across the desert back to Tunisia. 358 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:09,560 Montgomery's Eighth Army had lost nearly 5,000 men, 359 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:11,120 but Rommel's army lost more. 360 00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:14,200 9,000 Axis soldiers were killed 361 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:17,480 and a further 35,000 were taken prisoner. 362 00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:22,120 It had been an overwhelming victory 363 00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:24,360 for General Montgomery and the Eighth Army, 364 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:26,360 but the Battle of El Alamein 365 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:29,960 was also symbolically and psychologically significant. 366 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:32,200 This was the first time in the war 367 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:36,520 the Western Allies had broken a German army on the ground 368 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:40,680 and delivered a knockout blow, sending them into full retreat. 369 00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:42,960 Churchill makes the famous quote about 370 00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:44,560 "this not being the beginning of the end, 371 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:46,080 this is the end of the beginning." 372 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:48,440 [narrator] In his post‐war memoirs, Churchill wrote: 373 00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:51,760 "It might almost be said that before Alamein, 374 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:53,560 we never had a victory. 375 00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:57,440 After Alamein, we never had a defeat." 376 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:00,320 In another six months, 377 00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:02,680 the Allies would drive the Axis forces 378 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:04,920 out of North Africa completely. 379 00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:09,760 As Rommel and his men retreated into Tunisia, 380 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:11,720 the allies were planning a further, 381 00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:13,960 and they hoped, final operation 382 00:17:14,120 --> 00:17:16,760 to remove the Axis troops from North Africa. 383 00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:21,560 Operation Torch, led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 384 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:24,520 and launched on the 8th of November 1942, 385 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:28,240 saw a vast amphibious landing at Fedala, in Morocco, 386 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:31,040 15 miles northeast of Casablanca. 387 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:34,360 Hitler was still keen to defend North Africa 388 00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:38,200 at all costs, and sent reinforcements from Germany. 389 00:17:38,360 --> 00:17:40,440 However, they were vastly outnumbered 390 00:17:40,600 --> 00:17:43,520 by the Allied troops made up of British, American, 391 00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:46,520 Canadian, French, and Indian soldiers. 392 00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:51,120 The Axis forces were trapped in Tunisia 393 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:53,720 and surrounded by the Allied armies. 394 00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:56,120 In addition, the British navy controlled 395 00:17:56,280 --> 00:17:58,360 the Mediterranean sea to the North, 396 00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:01,160 and the RAF was in charge of the skies. 397 00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:06,960 The Germans had nowhere to go, but they weren't giving up. 398 00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:08,240 ‐Fire! ‐[explosion] 399 00:18:09,840 --> 00:18:12,040 Arriving on the Moroccan shore at Fedala, 400 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:14,920 the American forces met little resistance. 401 00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:16,600 But that would quickly change. 402 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:20,680 On 19th of February 1943, Rommel ordered an assault 403 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:22,760 on the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, 404 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:25,120 which was held by the U. S. II Corps. 405 00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:27,840 The Germans inflicted heavy damage 406 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:29,360 on the defending Americans, 407 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:32,600 and the Allies suffered around 10,000 casualties 408 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:35,880 with hundreds of American troops taken prisoner. 409 00:18:36,360 --> 00:18:37,800 American troops, 410 00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:42,440 badly mauled at the Battle of Kasserine Pass, 411 00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:44,240 are forced to retreat. 412 00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:47,600 And the American high command realises 413 00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:50,480 that its troops need to be far better trained, 414 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:52,080 and equally important, 415 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:55,480 far better led than they were at Kasserine Pass. 416 00:18:55,640 --> 00:18:58,360 [narrator] Eisenhower replaced the lieutenant general in charge 417 00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:00,480 with a more aggressive commander 418 00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:02,000 would come to be recognised 419 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:04,520 as one of America's greatest ever generals 420 00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:08,840 and battlefield tacticians, General George S. Patton. 421 00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:11,600 Under Patton's relentless command, 422 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:13,880 the superior numbers of the Allies won out, 423 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:15,920 as they drove the Axis forces 424 00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:18,880 back into a smaller and smaller area. 425 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:23,520 Remember this: you don't have to be a corpse to be a hero. 426 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:29,200 [narrator] On 13th of May 1943, surrounded by the Allied armies, 427 00:19:29,360 --> 00:19:32,680 the Axis forces in Tunisia surrendered, 428 00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:34,520 and more than a quarter of a million 429 00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:36,400 of their soldiers were captured. 430 00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:39,480 The Allies had taken North Africa, 431 00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:41,400 and now had a base from which to build 432 00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:45,920 the next phase of their strategy to attack Germany via Sicily. 433 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:48,280 Here General Patton would come into conflict 434 00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:53,160 not only with the Axis forces, but also his supposed ally, 435 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:55,280 Field Marshal Montgomery. 436 00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:59,080 The two men loathed one another almost more than their enemy, 437 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:02,320 with each determined to outshine the other. 438 00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:05,480 As the strike through the Mediterranean 439 00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:07,360 got underway in earnest, 440 00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:10,040 America and Roosevelt were also focused 441 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:13,120 on becoming the dominant power in the Pacific, 442 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:16,800 and that would mean taking on the imperial forces of Japan. 443 00:20:20,360 --> 00:20:25,040 [theme music] 444 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:27,280 [narrator] The surprise attack on Pearl Harbour 445 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:29,280 in December 1941 446 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:32,240 had left the U. S. armies shocked and humiliated. 447 00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:38,840 But six months later, a reinvigorated U. S. military 448 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:42,200 took part in a huge naval and aerial battle 449 00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:45,680 which would go on to define the war in the Pacific: 450 00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:47,080 the Battle of Midway. 451 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:48,480 [explosion] 452 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:54,120 For the Japanese, the success of Pearl Harbour 453 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:55,960 left them determined to eliminate 454 00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:59,440 any American military presence in the Pacific. 455 00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:03,440 The first step would be to attack and take control 456 00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:05,760 of the small island of Midway, 457 00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:09,560 the westernmost U. S. held territory in the Pacific. 458 00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:13,560 This island more than 3,000 miles west of the USA, 459 00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:18,640 and 2,500 miles from Japan, was home to a U. S. naval base, 460 00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:21,480 and was seen by Japanese command 461 00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:25,360 as the gateway to domination of the Pacific Ocean. 462 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:29,440 The Japanese approached the battle 463 00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:32,320 with a clear advantage in firepower. 464 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:37,040 But the U. S. had a different strength: intelligence. 465 00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:41,080 American codebreaking teams based in Hawaii 466 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:43,600 had intercepted Japanese communications 467 00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:45,520 about their secret plans. 468 00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:48,200 The Japanese intended to fake an attack 469 00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:50,880 on the Aleutian Islands north of Midway, 470 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:54,640 diverting the American fleet away from their real target. 471 00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:58,160 In addition, U. S. codebreakers had discovered the time, 472 00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:01,280 location, and the plan of attack on Midway. 473 00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:06,280 As they approached Midway on the 4th of June 1942, 474 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:08,520 the Japanese were expecting to carry out 475 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:10,560 a surprise attack on the U. S., 476 00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:13,320 just as they had at Pearl Harbour. 477 00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:16,040 This time, the tables had been turned. 478 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:17,960 [loud booming] 479 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:23,480 American planes bombed the Japanese carriers 480 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:25,880 which still had dozens of aircraft on deck 481 00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:27,400 being refuelled. 482 00:22:28,120 --> 00:22:31,960 The Japanese lost three carriers almost immediately. 483 00:22:32,120 --> 00:22:34,680 [loud booming] 484 00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:39,880 So at the time, Pearl Harbour was thought 485 00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:41,640 of as a disaster for the Americans 486 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:43,720 and a huge success for the Japanese 487 00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:47,360 because they had sunk all the American battleships. 488 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:50,240 With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that things 489 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:51,600 were a little bit different than that. 490 00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:53,720 The American aircraft carriers survived, 491 00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:55,920 and over the course of the rest of the war, 492 00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:58,440 the Americans evolved a way of waging war 493 00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:03,240 involving aircraft carriers and amphibious infantry. 494 00:23:03,400 --> 00:23:06,160 That allowed them to leapfrog from island to island 495 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:09,560 across the Pacific until they got within range of Japan, 496 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:13,000 and thereby created the whole new way of war 497 00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:14,920 built around the aircraft carrier 498 00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:16,600 rather than around the battleship, 499 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:19,520 which is still broadly the way that navies operate today. 500 00:23:20,120 --> 00:23:22,640 [narrator] The battle continued for three days, 501 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:24,080 and while the Japanese rallied, 502 00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:25,880 they never regained the initiative. 503 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:30,760 The Battle of Midway ended in a resounding U. S. victory. 504 00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:38,840 The Japanese lost more than 3,000 men, 505 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:42,600 four carriers, and hundreds of aircraft at Midway, 506 00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:46,160 while the United States lost just 362 men, 507 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:50,880 one carrier, one destroyer, and 144 aircraft. 508 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:54,840 [explosions in distance] 509 00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:56,240 The Battle of Midway turned 510 00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:58,400 the war in the Pacific on its head. 511 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:01,880 The Japanese imperial expansion had been stopped, 512 00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:04,800 and now the Americans would push them back, 513 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:06,640 island by island. 514 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:09,160 [explosions] 515 00:24:14,360 --> 00:24:17,360 With its Navy once more in command of the seas, 516 00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:19,520 the U. S. forces planned to seize control 517 00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:21,360 of the many Pacific islands. 518 00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:22,840 [gunshots in distance] 519 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:25,040 And one of the most brutal battles of the campaign 520 00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:27,040 took place at Guadalcanal. 521 00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:30,680 This British colony, one of the Solomon Islands, 522 00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:35,000 had been invaded by Japanese troops in July 1942. 523 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,880 But the Allies wanted to reclaim it, 524 00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:42,240 and on the 7th of August, their first major land offensive 525 00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:44,000 in the Pacific began. 526 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:47,840 6,000 U. S. Marines landed on Guadalcanal 527 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:49,560 and seized the airfield, 528 00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:52,600 surprising the 2,000 Japanese soldiers there. 529 00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:57,640 With both the U. S. and Japanese seeing Guadalcanal 530 00:24:57,800 --> 00:24:59,440 as strategically important, 531 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:03,320 a ferocious fight for control of this territory began. 532 00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:06,360 Both sides poured reinforcements onto the island. 533 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:09,240 By October, the Japanese had around 534 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:12,400 36,000 ground and naval troops there. 535 00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:16,560 The savage combat went on for months in the island jungle. 536 00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:25,000 In a bid to regain control of the island's airstrip, 537 00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:29,240 the Japanese sent 7,000 troops on 11 transport ships, 538 00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:31,600 protected by two battleships. 539 00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:34,440 The Allies had received intelligence reports 540 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:36,400 that the convoy was coming, 541 00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:39,280 and sent every available unit in the area 542 00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:41,440 to attack the Japanese fleet. 543 00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:44,320 After an intense battle, 544 00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:46,760 most of the Japanese ships were sunk. 545 00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:48,120 [artillery fire] 546 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,800 Finally, in February 1943, 547 00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:54,440 the Japanese completely overwhelmed, 548 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:58,320 were forced to evacuate 12,000 of their remaining troops 549 00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:00,080 from Guadalcanal. 550 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:03,000 From then on, the Japanese were only able 551 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,920 to send supplies and reinforcements by submarine, 552 00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:08,800 and as their numbers and morale dwindled, 553 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,080 the Allied forces gradually took control. 554 00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:16,840 Japan could only go on the defensive 555 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:20,000 against an increasingly powerful United States. 556 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:23,160 [reporter] No Jap planes attacked this beachhead. 557 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:25,640 American air power rules the Solomon. 558 00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:31,520 And 1943, the year of strength has just begun. 559 00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:34,000 The leaders have planned, the United Nations 560 00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:37,000 are sworn to attack until there is peace 561 00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:40,080 with the unconditional surrender of the Axis. 562 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:49,120 with war raging in the Pacific, North Africa, and Russia, 563 00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:52,360 Churchill and Roosevelt met in Casablanca 564 00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:55,160 to decide upon future plans for the war. 565 00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:59,560 The Americans come to Casablanca hoping for agreement 566 00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:03,600 that the next operation will be the invasion of northern France. 567 00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:06,920 The British come hoping that the next operation 568 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:09,280 will be to continue their movements 569 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:10,800 in the Mediterranean. 570 00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:13,480 They managed to persuade the Americans to agree 571 00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:16,800 they will at least embark on the next operation, 572 00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:18,360 which is the invasion of Sicily. 573 00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:20,960 The Americans say that will be it, 574 00:27:21,120 --> 00:27:22,600 and then we'll transfer 575 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:25,440 our attentions to northern France. 576 00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:28,000 The British, I think hope that, well, 577 00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:30,320 we hope it won't be it. Once we've got Sicily, 578 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,280 the obvious thing to do would be to carry on into Italy. 579 00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:35,560 [narrator] Roosevelt was still keen 580 00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:37,520 on an Allied invasion in western France, 581 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:39,600 though less so than Stalin, 582 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:41,840 who had declined the invitation to the conference 583 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:44,600 because of the dire situation the Red Army 584 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,360 and his people were facing at Leningrad. 585 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:50,760 So far, Churchill's plan had succeeded. 586 00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:54,400 FDR, distracted by events in the Pacific, 587 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:56,600 and without Stalin to back him up, 588 00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,240 once again allowed the British Prime Minister 589 00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:00,720 to have his way, 590 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:04,320 and the second front in Europe was again postponed. 591 00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:09,360 I think Roosevelt recognised that... 592 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:13,480 the Allies, western Allies, were simply not ready yet. 593 00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:16,840 For example, they did not have 594 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:22,120 sufficient flat bottom boats to convey invading troops 595 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:23,360 onto the beaches. 596 00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:25,400 [narrator] One overarching conclusion 597 00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:27,120 that was reached in Casablanca, 598 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,760 with which Stalin would certainly have agreed, 599 00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:33,040 was that there were to be no deals with Hitler. 600 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:36,440 The only goal of this war was total victory 601 00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:40,400 and unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers. 602 00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:41,640 [intriguing music] 603 00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:43,480 In July 1942, 604 00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:45,960 Stalin and the people of the Soviet Union, 605 00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:48,160 already suffering aerial bombardment 606 00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:50,440 and starvation in Leningrad, 607 00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:53,080 were facing a vicious assault from the Nazis 608 00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:54,880 in another Soviet city. 609 00:28:57,400 --> 00:28:59,760 Situated on the banks of the Volga River 610 00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:01,240 in southwestern Russia, 611 00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:04,760 Stalingrad was a key strategic target for the Nazis. 612 00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:07,400 It was one of the Soviet Union's main producers 613 00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:10,360 of tanks, armaments and tractors, 614 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:13,480 and taking control of it would sever transport links 615 00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:15,000 with southern Russia. 616 00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:19,320 The Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted seven months, 617 00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:22,720 is regarded as the bloodiest and most brutal battle 618 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,280 of the entire Second World War. 619 00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:28,160 [Sir Mike] I'm not sure any other battle, 620 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:29,320 certainly in Europe, 621 00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:32,240 comes close to Stalingrad. 622 00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:35,200 It is a big city, Stalingrad. 623 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:39,280 The Volga, huge river flowing through it. 624 00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:43,000 Very important industrially to the Soviet Union. 625 00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:47,000 So totemic, and in strategic terms, 626 00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:50,080 basically, um... 627 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:54,400 it stopped the Russians' ability to cross the river Volga. 628 00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:56,920 [narrator] As important as the military victory 629 00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:58,960 was the potential propaganda victory 630 00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,480 the Nazis would have by seizing the city 631 00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:03,600 bearing the Soviet leader's name. 632 00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:05,640 It had great symbolism is his mind, 633 00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:08,280 he was not going to let this fall to the Germans. 634 00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:10,320 It was the important supply route 635 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:13,280 on the Volga River, which moved goods 636 00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:16,080 from the south of Russia to the north. 637 00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:19,480 But Stalingrad was also in Hitler's path 638 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,240 as he moved his forces south, 639 00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:23,800 so it was absolutely imperative that the city 640 00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:25,280 didn't fall to Hitler. 641 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:27,520 [narrator] Stalin steadfastly refused 642 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:29,440 to concede to the Germans, 643 00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:33,640 and on the 28th of July issued Order No. 227, 644 00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:35,920 which decreed that the city's defenders 645 00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:38,760 would take "not one step back." 646 00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:43,000 He also refused to allow the evacuation of any civilians, 647 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,280 stating that the army would fight harder 648 00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:47,680 to defend the people who lived there. 649 00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:51,960 [loud boom] 650 00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:54,920 More than 300,000 crack German soldiers 651 00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:57,400 were tasked with taking Stalingrad. 652 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:01,280 On 23rd of August, the Luftwaffe launched 653 00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:03,640 a ruthless aerial assault on the city, 654 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,760 launching wave after wave of incendiary bombs 655 00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:10,000 which razed most of the city's wooden housing to the ground. 656 00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:13,440 By mid‐September, 657 00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:15,800 the Germans had pushed the Soviet forces back 658 00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,360 into the very centre of the city, 659 00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:21,000 a 9‐mile‐long strip along the Volga. 660 00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:22,600 [distant artillery] 661 00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:26,400 Within weeks, the Nazis controlled 662 00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:28,240 two thirds of Stalingrad, 663 00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:32,640 and Hitler broadcast a message that the city was about to fall. 664 00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:38,040 But Stalin stuck by his promise to defend it at all costs, 665 00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:40,600 and sent in more reinforcements. 666 00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:43,560 Under the leadership of General Zhukov, 667 00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:46,120 one of the few competent Red Army commanders 668 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:48,240 to have avoided Stalin's purges, 669 00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:52,760 the Soviets dug in and engaged the enemy in close combat, 670 00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:55,880 street by street, house by house, 671 00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:57,520 and even floor by floor. 672 00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:01,960 In the city you can't move 673 00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:04,840 great fleets of tanks, and... 674 00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:10,400 it's messy, it's short, short range stuff. 675 00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,720 The techniques are rather different. 676 00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:19,440 The ammunition expenditure in built up areas is vast. 677 00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:23,440 They are different, different beasts. 678 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,400 [narrator] The Nazi invaders became increasingly tired 679 00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:28,440 and dispirited by the heavy losses 680 00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:29,680 they have suffered. 681 00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:31,880 Conversely, the Red Army was buoyed 682 00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:34,040 by successfully holding its ground, 683 00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:36,360 and while keeping the Nazis at bay, 684 00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:40,160 they planned a counteroffensive of their own outside the city. 685 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:43,600 On the 19th of November 1942, 686 00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:46,240 Operation Uranus was launched north and south 687 00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:48,000 of the Axis troops, 688 00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:50,040 attacking the weaker divisions at the flanks 689 00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:51,680 of the German attack, 690 00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:54,760 rather than the crack troops on the frontline in the city. 691 00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:59,600 The operation totally surprised the Nazis, 692 00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:01,200 and within four days, 693 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:04,360 the German and Axis armies outside Stalingrad 694 00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:06,240 were completely surrounded, 695 00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:09,000 leaving the divisions in the city cut off. 696 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,880 Hitler refused to allow them to retreat from the Volga River 697 00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:15,840 and ordered them to stand and fight. 698 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:18,040 But this was a losing battle. 699 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:19,840 Winter was setting in, 700 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,480 and food and medical supplies were running out. 701 00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:24,520 [distant artillery] 702 00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:28,280 Eventually, on the 31st of January 1943, 703 00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:30,240 the Germans surrendered. 704 00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:34,560 Stalin and his Red Army had finally won 705 00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:36,200 the Battle of Stalingrad. 706 00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:38,200 [sombre music] 707 00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:42,960 This was Stalin's greatest victory in the entire war, 708 00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:45,360 but it came at great cost. 709 00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:47,920 More than a million Soviet soldiers 710 00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:51,480 are estimated to have been killed, wounded, or captured, 711 00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:55,640 and more than 40,000 civilians also died. 712 00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:58,520 The tolerance 713 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,400 for casualties of the leaders of the Soviet Union 714 00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:03,040 is remarkable. 715 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:07,160 The Russians executed 13,000 of their own men 716 00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:08,640 in the course of the battle of Stalingrad 717 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:10,640 for not fighting hard enough. 13,000. 718 00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:12,440 The Russians were willing to send 719 00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:14,680 men into action in Stalingrad without weapons. 720 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,040 They were expected to... When things were most desperate, 721 00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:19,400 they were ferried across the river Volga, 722 00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:21,840 dropped on the bank, told to climb up the bank 723 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:23,360 and pick up a rifle as they went 724 00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:24,760 and then go and fight the Germans. 725 00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:29,400 There was an acceptance of the requirement 726 00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:31,880 to sacrifice for the motherland. 727 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,880 [narrator] The Axis forces also sustained heavy losses, 728 00:34:36,240 --> 00:34:39,200 an estimated 800,000 men. 729 00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:42,800 It was as close as the Germans got 730 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:46,200 to breaking through right into the heartland. 731 00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:51,240 And the fact that Nazi Germany was roundly defeated, 732 00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:53,680 it was very symbolic. 733 00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:56,720 [narrator] The impact of the victory was immense. 734 00:34:56,880 --> 00:34:59,680 Stalingrad was undoubtedly the key turning point 735 00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,840 in the war between Germany and the Soviet Union, 736 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:04,840 and also in the overall battle 737 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:07,840 between Allied forces and the Axis powers. 738 00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:11,360 But just as the tide finally seemed to be turning 739 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:13,680 in favour of the Big Three, 740 00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:18,080 the Nazi discovery of thousands of corpses in mass graves 741 00:35:18,240 --> 00:35:20,280 in a forest in western Russia 742 00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:24,840 threatened to cause a major rift between the Allies. 743 00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:29,960 [theme music] 744 00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:32,920 April 1, 745 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:36,400 when Nazi soldiers discovered more than 4,000 bodies 746 00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:37,920 hidden in mass graves 747 00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:40,280 in Katyn Forest in the Soviet Union, 748 00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:42,120 all the evidence suggested 749 00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:45,680 that the killings had been carried out by the Soviets 750 00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:48,040 during their invasion of Poland. 751 00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:50,320 The carve‐up of the country had been agreed 752 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:51,960 between Hitler and Stalin 753 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:55,120 in the Nazi‐Soviet non‐aggression pact. 754 00:35:55,720 --> 00:35:58,480 The victims, who had been shot in the back of the head 755 00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:02,160 and buried, were Polish military officers, 756 00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:05,840 and the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels 757 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:09,680 was now keen to publicise the massacre to the world 758 00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:12,040 in an attempt to break the alliance 759 00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:15,520 between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt. 760 00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:17,640 But Goebbels was to be disappointed. 761 00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:21,200 Whatever Churchill and Roosevelt may have suspected 762 00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:23,280 about Stalin's part in these murders, 763 00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:26,480 they could not afford to lose him as an ally. 764 00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:28,480 There was very little doubt 765 00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:32,800 that both Roosevelt and Churchill knew 766 00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:36,120 that the Soviets were responsible for the massacre. 767 00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:40,240 But again, it was a trade‐off, 768 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:44,360 certainly for Roosevelt, and even for Churchill. 769 00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:46,680 Are we going to kick up a fuss about this? 770 00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:49,440 Churchill is quoted as saying: 771 00:36:49,600 --> 00:36:51,560 "Alas, it's probably true." 772 00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:54,840 The Soviets, of course, denied that they'd been responsible 773 00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:57,560 and accused the Germans of having killed the Poles 774 00:36:57,720 --> 00:37:02,000 when they went through the area in 1941. 775 00:37:02,160 --> 00:37:03,800 That was their official story. 776 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:07,520 [narrator] At the time, 4,443 bodies 777 00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:09,320 were found in Katyn Forest, 778 00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:13,880 but we now know that more than 22,000 Polish intellectuals 779 00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:16,600 and officers who had been taken as prisoners of war 780 00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:19,040 were rounded up and shot by the Soviets 781 00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:20,920 before being dumped into mass graves 782 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:24,040 in different locations in western Russia. 783 00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:27,760 They were generals, majors, chaplains, 784 00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:31,280 university professors, lawyers and engineers 785 00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:32,720 targeted by Stalin 786 00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:36,240 and the Soviet Secret Police, the NKVD. 787 00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:38,960 It was an attempt to crush resistance 788 00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:40,480 to the Soviet invaders 789 00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:44,120 and prevent the resurgence of an independent Poland. 790 00:37:45,240 --> 00:37:48,320 The scale of the massacre is now undisputed 791 00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:51,280 since the execution documents were made public. 792 00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:55,640 After the Nazi‐Soviet Pact was agreed, 793 00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:59,160 Red Army troops move through eastern Europe, 794 00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:01,280 occupying territory that was agreed 795 00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:04,360 as part of the secret protocol of that pact. 796 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:08,200 Now, as part of that movement across Europe, 797 00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:10,560 Stalin wanted any pockets 798 00:38:10,720 --> 00:38:13,760 of potential anti‐Soviet resistance to be eliminated. 799 00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:16,320 It's very much in keeping with how he'd operated 800 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:18,000 throughout the 1930s. 801 00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:20,000 And this is when the Polish prisoners 802 00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:21,960 who were housed in western Belarus 803 00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:23,840 and western Ukraine come into this, 804 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:27,040 because he saw them as potentially dangerous. 805 00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:30,360 They could be a rallying point of anti‐Soviet opposition. 806 00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:33,960 Moreover, if he got rid of these prisoners, 807 00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:36,920 who were officers, they were Polish intellectuals, 808 00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:40,400 he might also head off the possibility 809 00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:43,440 of a resurgence of a Polish government. 810 00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:45,200 And, of course, he was looking to install 811 00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:47,600 his own communist government in Poland. 812 00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:51,960 [narrator] In April 1943, three years after the killings, 813 00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:53,960 and almost immediately after the Red Army 814 00:38:54,120 --> 00:38:56,440 had recaptured the region from the Nazis, 815 00:38:56,600 --> 00:38:58,680 the Soviet cover‐up began. 816 00:38:58,840 --> 00:38:59,960 [sombre music] 817 00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:01,920 The NKVD destroyed a cemetery 818 00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:04,960 the Germans had permitted the Polish Red Cross to build 819 00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:07,280 and removed other evidence. 820 00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:09,360 In January 1944, 821 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:12,520 Moscow appointed its own investigative body, 822 00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:15,000 which unsurprisingly concluded 823 00:39:15,160 --> 00:39:18,560 that the Polish prisoners had been murdered in 1941 824 00:39:18,720 --> 00:39:22,360 during the German occupation, not in 1940. 825 00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:25,600 But the cover‐up extended far beyond 826 00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:27,960 the borders of the Soviet Union. 827 00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:30,280 Documents released in 2012 828 00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:33,000 showed how far Churchill and Roosevelt 829 00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:36,720 were prepared to go in accepting Stalin's denials. 830 00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:39,280 The Polish government in exile, based in London, 831 00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:43,000 was pushing for an independent inquiry into Katyn. 832 00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:47,640 But archives now show us that in April 1943 833 00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:49,600 Churchill wrote a note to Stalin, 834 00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:52,120 saying he would "oppose vigorously" 835 00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:54,040 any investigation. 836 00:39:54,200 --> 00:39:56,840 Roosevelt's language was more diplomatic, 837 00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:59,040 but his meaning when he wrote to Stalin 838 00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:00,600 was the same: 839 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:03,240 "I am inclined to think that Prime Minister Churchill 840 00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:04,840 will find a way of prevailing 841 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:07,920 upon the Polish government in London in the future 842 00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:10,320 to act with more common sense." 843 00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:13,120 We now know from American documents 844 00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:15,720 that were declassified in the 1970s 845 00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:18,360 that FDR also sent a telegram to Churchill 846 00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:20,680 at the end of April 1943. 847 00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:23,520 Roosevelt, of course, was in a much weaker situation 848 00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:24,960 than Churchill, 849 00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:28,080 because he had a large Polish‐American constituency, 850 00:40:28,240 --> 00:40:31,080 one of the bedrock elements 851 00:40:31,240 --> 00:40:34,760 of the New Deal voter coalition were Polish‐Americans, 852 00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:39,640 and they looked to Roosevelt to do something to ensure 853 00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:41,400 the independence of their homeland 854 00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:43,040 after World War II. 855 00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:47,080 After all, the British had gone to war in 1939 to defend Poland. 856 00:40:47,240 --> 00:40:52,080 But here we were in 1944, apparently getting ready 857 00:40:52,240 --> 00:40:55,520 to set Poland up for domination 858 00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:57,600 by the Soviet Union after World War II. 859 00:40:58,160 --> 00:40:59,520 [narrator] Churchill's ambassador 860 00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:01,880 to the Polish government in exile, Owen O'Malley, 861 00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:03,240 wrote his own report, 862 00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:06,000 which came to some uncomfortable conclusions: 863 00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:07,280 "There is now available 864 00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:09,600 a good deal of negative evidence, 865 00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:11,440 the cumulative effect of which 866 00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:14,200 is to throw serious doubt on Russian disclaimers 867 00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:16,440 of responsibility for the massacre." 868 00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:19,280 Churchill sent the full report to Roosevelt 869 00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:20,960 with the following notes: 870 00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:23,480 "I should like to have it back when you've finished with it, 871 00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:26,320 as we are not circulating it officially." 872 00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:29,560 The people who ordered and carried out this massacre 873 00:41:29,720 --> 00:41:31,200 were never brought to justice, 874 00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:33,560 but eventually in 1990, 875 00:41:33,720 --> 00:41:36,400 the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, 876 00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:39,960 Mikhail Gorbachev, did accept responsibility 877 00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:42,800 for his country's role in the tragedy. 878 00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:47,920 Solidarity is a universal value 879 00:41:48,240 --> 00:41:51,160 that is becoming fundamental 880 00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:55,320 for progress and human survival. 881 00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:57,800 [narrator] We now know without a doubt 882 00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:00,280 that Stalin was behind these killings. 883 00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:01,880 But at the time, the Big Three 884 00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:04,560 had other, more pressing concerns, 885 00:42:04,720 --> 00:42:06,880 such as keeping the alliance together 886 00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:08,360 to defeat Hitler. 887 00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:11,560 [theme music] 888 00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:15,080 Next time on Race To Victory. 889 00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:19,320 The Big Three meet face‐to‐face for the first time in Tehran. 890 00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:22,080 But as a result of the successes and failures 891 00:42:22,240 --> 00:42:23,880 of battles already fought, 892 00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:27,640 the dynamic of their relationship is changing. 893 00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:30,960 It's very clear to Churchill that he's on the outs 894 00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:34,440 and that Stalin and Roosevelt are getting closer and closer, 895 00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:37,920 and Churchill's starting to struggle to find a place, 896 00:42:38,080 --> 00:42:39,240 a reason to be there. 897 00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:41,520 [narrator] And while the Allied forces 898 00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:43,000 fight their way into Italy, 899 00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:46,160 a second front in France is finally agreed, 900 00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:48,320 despite Churchill's concerns. 901 00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:52,600 The Americans always believed that the war in the West 902 00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:55,480 would be won in France, not the Mediterranean. 903 00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:00,760 [narrator] To be successful in the fight against Hitler, 904 00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:04,200 the Big Three will need to put their differences aside 905 00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:05,240 once and for all. 906 00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:08,720 The Final Phase of the race to victory 907 00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:10,320 is beginning. 908 00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:26,360 [theme music]