Original subtitles

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Soldiers and Sailors all resistance by

whomever offered must be

destroyed November

1942 3 years years into the second world

war America's rookie troops prepare to

make landfall on the shores of French

controlled North

Africa ready to fight the Germans for

the first

time but as they move off the beaches

they come under immediate and heavy

fire not from the Nazis but from

America's oldest Ally

the

French so their first experience is

fighting not against an enemy not

against axis forces but against an old

Ally and they were shot to

pieces this is something that will

always be shocking French and American

troops who should have been working

together killing one another on the

beaches up to this time North Africa has

been a brutal slogging match between the

European powers but this ultimately will

be a crucial theater and into it are

drawn the

Americans in this little known desert

Battlefield the United States will taste

combat in extraordinary

circumstances that will change the

course of the second World

War

[Applause]

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the battle for North Africa begins on

the battlefields of

Europe

in May 1940 Nazi Germany sweeps through

northern France and reaches

Paris humbling two great European powers

and allies Britain and

France the French surrender and the

Nazis install a puppet government in the

town of

fishi and the British army is routed and

chased off the beaches of

Dunkirk so in the summer of 1940 there's

widespread shock in Britain suddenly

you've got swers fluttering just the

other side of the channel and it just

seems so completely

Unthinkable Britain in 1940 is alone to

take on the

Germans but Britain's new prime minister

Winston Churchill is Det determined to

fight

on now we are at War and we are going to

make

war and persevere in making War until

the other side have had enough of

it right away Churchill identifies

something crucial to Britain's

hopes the country relies on her vast

Empire in the East for supplies and most

critically oil

and almost all of it comes through the

sez canal in her North African Colony

Egypt lose the sewers lose the

War the British of course were well

aware of the significance of the oil

they were well aware of the significance

of the SE Canal as a as a link between

Europe or the Mediterranean and the

Indian empire and they were determined

to hold on to it at all costs sus Canal

is an absolutely vital supply line and

the British have been in Egypt since the

1830s and they're not going to let it go

easily but with Britain's main Ally

France now in German hands the sez

suddenly looks more vulnerable than

ever along the North African Coast a

French Fleet is moed at Mel cabir in the

French Colony Al

Nera Churchill has become incredibly

concerned about these ships he believes

that Germany will take them it's only a

matter of time the French navy was the

second most powerful in Europe if it

fell into Germany's hands it would allow

the Germans to control the Mediterranean

which would then shut off Britain's

access to the Suz and to its

Empire

so for Britain who is trying to hold out

against Germany and needs those supply

lines to stay open having Germany grab

the French navy was a serious

problem Churchill orders the Royal Navy

into the Mediterranean Sea and instructs

them to escort the French Fleet away

from North

Africa

but the situation rapidly

escalates the British Admiral sends one

of his officers across to talk to the

French and he gives them an ultimatum he

said you can Scuttle your ship so that

the Germans don't get a hold of them or

you can hand them over to us the

British the French Admiral is pretty

uncompromising himself he like we're

we're not talking about

this so the negotiations unfold through

this incredibly hot day at which tempers

are rising and the tension is rising of

course all the

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time the time is given 5:30 if we

haven't got an answer by 5:30 we're

going to open

fire and the friends are probably

thinking you know they're not going to

open fire we're going to call their

Bluff and the British 15in guns on their

battleships open fire and is utter

Carnage one of the French battle

Cruisers blows up uh two of them are so

badly hit that they

sink and worse than that killed 1300

French Sailors and it's a betrayal as

the French see it that they will never

forget

what Maris El Kabir demonstrates is just

how desperate the British are at this

point in the war that they're willing to

turn against uh allies who had been

fighting on their side just a week

before if you

will but with the Embers still glowing

on the tragedy in Algeria Churchill has

to face up to another threat to Egypt

and the

sewers Hitler's main Ally Italy has

hundreds of thousands of troops right

next door in their colony

Libya and that September they invade and

push for the

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sewers

the Italians quite understandably make

the calculation that having lost most of

the arms of its regular army certainly

most of its equipment of the regular

army at duner the British army at that

time is not in a position to properly

defend its Imperial interest North

Africa Churchill scrambles for Manpower

to help him fight

back

his first Hope was that the United

States would join the

war but the American president Franklin

D Roosevelt soon makes him realize he

needs to look

elsewhere Churchill has been trying to

get President Roosevelt to help him and

Roosevelt has time and time again said

uh we're we're not going to go into

another foreign European Imperial War uh

and the American public have been very

much behind that decision

Church realizes that public opinion in

the United States is against entering

the

war but one of the interesting myths is

Britain standing

alone Britain is not alone brsh Empire's

the largest Empire in the world over 300

million people which it utilizes

ruthlessly for its own

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advantage rebuffed by America Churchill

asks the Empire and dominions to send

volunteers to fight in

Egypt Australians New zealanders South

Africans and Indians are all transported

to North Africa to serve alongside the

British

army part of nearly 9 million men

Britain will recruit from the old Empire

during the second World

War swollen with new

recruits the British are able to stop

the Italians advance and push them right

back into

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Libya

but Churchill won't have long to dwell

on the

victory the problem for the British then

becomes okay well you can do that

against the Italians but now at the very

last minute the Germans show

up in February

1941 Hitler sends an armored force of

tanks and 30,000 men to join the

Italians and turn the tide in North

Africa the Germans new Africa core is

headed up by Hitler's former bodyguard

and one of his best tank

commanders General Ain

roml RL gets flown into North Africa

because he's one of Hitler's favorites

he's he's performed very well in Poland

and France and Hitler really likes him

he's he's he's he's very very close cl

to Hitler and Hitler admires him he does

have the qualifications that Hitler

wants both a Daring Do handsome quick

thinking Ain roml thinks outside the

box he is great at improvisation he has

an uncanny intuition for exploiting an

opportunity he is also very narcissistic

he promotes this uh Cult of

himself

roml is heading out to Africa with a

well- drilled military Doctrine from his

victories in

Europe fast panz tanks and mobile

infantry work together to rapidly

outmaneuver the

enemy

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and as soon as Rummel arrives in the

desert he sees that the harsh alien

terrain is the perfect setting for his

form of

warfare you know on the face of it

conditions out in the desert are

terrible the weather is uniformly hot

and oppressive during the day the Flies

are awful the food is

bad but if you're a tank commander like

raml who is one of the foremost uh

proponents of of maneuver-based warfare

and really understands how armored

Warfare works because the spaces are so

wide open this is a golden

opportunity within days of arriving in

Libya roml launches a surprise attack on

the British

lines his fast aggressive tactics and

tanks are too much for the inexperienced

British and Imperial

troops

and what roml is able to do is act with

enormous

decisiveness and he goes right we're

just going to do this and we're going to

hammer in and we're not going to worry

about our flanks we're just going to go

hell forever shoot up everything we

see he uses incredibly aggressive

tactics you see ROM do this in the

Desert War by ranging Way Way Beyond the

uh initial defensive positions of the

British to cause havoc in their rear in

other words you create psychological

Havoc by getting into the rear of your

enemies the German forces relentlessly

attack the British army over 400 mil

back to the

Border

but just as it looks like roml might

ride right into the heart of Egypt and

towards the sez

Canal he's held

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up a Hardy core of Australian troops are

dug in in the Libyan Port Town of T

Brook T Brook is this tiny little Port

kind of sort of Eastern side in

Libya very hard to attack that because

you've got to attack over this kind of

sort of O big open space you got huge

minefields and wire and and you've got

dominating gun

positions it makes it a very very tough

nut to crack from the

desert that's a big problem for

Ronald because we're going to have to

deal with it before you go all the way

into Egypt

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and what Ral thinks is going to be a

relatively bloodless Victory which is

his assault on to Brook is repulsed not

only once but twice by the Australians

so the Australians who are incredibly

poorly disciplined they don't salute

senior officers they they look pretty

slovenly but it when it comes to actual

fighting they are very good at

it yeah we made it a title of honor to

be the Rats of T Brook who would not be

caught

for Britain's prime minister Winston

Churchill the Defiance of T Brook is a

vital positive in a difficult

campaign although to Brook has had a

pretty good bashing it still holds up

more than that it's a real thorn in the

enemy's side the spirit of T Brook's

Gallant Defenders is indomitable

with t Brook holding out the British

forces in Egypt eventually

regroup and in the spring of 1942 they

dig in and build vast defenses in the

desert to support to Brook and hold the

line but roml has a plan to break the

deadlock

on the 26th of May he drives his Africa

course South through the desert and into

the rear of the British defensive

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line the Mana to surprise the British

with extreme daring and with his sense

of exploiting

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opportunities suddenly the kind of

contagion of defeat sweeps through the

British Army and people start to cut and

run what what you get now is suddenly

everything starts to kind of

disintegrate the British forces in the

desert flee

eastwards

and the town of T Brook is left isolated

and hopelessly

surrounded after Holding Out for 400

Days it finally

Falls 30,000 British and Imperial troops

are taken

prisoner and the legend of raml the

desert fox is born

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one or two of our people were captured

they were astonish to to see R

appear one one of the questions was have

they gotten any

complaints um there was a tremendous

admiration for for the

man I mean he became the sort of

Wonderman

Superman Ral taking to Brook seems to

even further reinforc the ramal myth

this idea of this this General who's

astonishing and dashing and can take

whatever he wants and then the Germans

will soon be at the sez

canal with t Brook neutralized roml

pushes deep into Egypt and up to the

last fortified British defensive line at

L

alamain he is now within Striking

Distance of the vital sez

canal

Churchill is at a conference in the

United States when he hears the

news the British have made a great play

about the the defensive to Brook and

holding off against roml and the fact

that it collapses so quickly and

spectacularly in 1942 I think is

something quite difficult the loss of to

Brook really chills Churchill to his and

he comes out with one of the great lines

of the second world war which is defeat

is one thing disgrace is

another but amongst the bad news there

is one Ray of Hope for the Prime

Minister his hosts the United States are

now in the war as

allies and President Roosevelt is Keen

to

help so while the loss of T Brook was a

bit of a horror show for church he was

also able to say look North Africa's

important you know the the Egypt's now

under

threat and Churchill says listen why

don't you come in North Africa and

Roosevelt is convinced and persuaded by

Churchill Roosevelt tells Churchill he

does want to send us forces to North

Africa but when the plan is put to

American Military Chiefs they hit a

problem

the United States Army isn't battle

ready yet and Roosevelt's advisers are

very unsure if North Africa is the right

place to enter

combat many in his own government were

very very against

it there's a huge debate in the United

States as to what the state should

do for the American commanders it's a

sideshow that is going to to end up

consuming more and more resources and

that is

dangerous under pressure from his

advisers Roosevelt tells Churchill he

can't commit to North Africa right

away but he promises fresh Consignments

of us material and weapons to British

forces in the

region Roosevelt's now commitment to

North Africa one of the things he does

is said okay where do our tanks go our

tanks are going to go to North Africa

and if they can't be used by American

troops right away they're going to be

used by British

troops Churchill leaves America

determined to turn the tide in Egypt and

prove the president is right to support

him he flies out to the desert in person

and fires his senior

Commanders

and recruits General Bernard Montgomery

instead Monty is told to come up with a

plan to push the Germans

back for monry is a bit of a kind of

Marite character you kind love him or

hate him he's a very good trainer of men

he's a very good

planner when they go into battle they're

going to win you know boringly

methodically he was almost the opposite

of roml he was not good when the battle

was moving at

speed his style was a setpiece battle

which he set

up on the 23rd of October

1942 Montgomery launches a counter

offensive he chooses to attack at

night but to break out of el alamine his

men then will need to clear a path

through a lethal Minefield of over half

a million

landmines shells were falling all around

about you machine G buets were flying

all over the

place although the Moonlight was bright

inevitably somebody would actuate trick

one exposed and moving slowly the

British take heavy

casualties but over the next few

days narrow corridors are successfully

cleared through the

Minefield and now bursting out of L

alamain onto the battlefield a stunning

show of force from President

Roosevelt an Iron Fist of 300 brand new

American tanks it is a gift from

Roosevelt to Churchill really it is a a

sign of the new

partnership Montgomery had for the first

time he had a really effective tank the

Sherman it was very solid it had good

Armament and it was quite

quick AED by the might of American

Machinery Montgomery's forces now

outnumber the

Germans rl's Africa core are caught off

guard and it looks like they could be

engulfed and

destroyed these crucial opportunities

where roml is prone or at least is very

very vulnerable which are a matter of

hours you know you've got to strike when

the when the Germans are out their

weakest there was a real opportunity if

Montgomery had been decisive that he

could have inflicted a really crushing

defeat but that wasn't his

style what Montgomery doesn't want to do

is lose his cohesion so he he's a bit

slow and a bit more methodical and he

doesn't kind of pursue fast

enough while Montgomery diers roml takes

decisive

action he pulls back to mountainous

Tunisia 1,000 m to the west and prepares

to count Counter Strike the British

army but the desert fox should be

looking over his

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shoulder off the northwest coast of

Africa a vast transport Fleet appears on

the

horizon America is about to enter the

war with Operation

Torch it was a a very impressive site

this is really the first Great American

war Fleet now being sent into action

against the

axis given the fact that this whole

thing was thrown together in two months

time I think demonstrates that that the

US is is on the verge of superpower

status 850 War warships carrying over

100,000 men have rued in the middle of

the Atlantic Ocean and borne down on

North

Africa the world's first ever large

scale amphibious Invasion

Force really it's extraordinary

particularly at that moment in the war a

lot of the ships are coming fresh out of

um the shipyard a lot of the crews

aren't incredibly green and yet it still

works but President Roosevelt's decision

to join the fight in North Africa has

not been

easy his commanders wanted to fight the

Nazis in occupied

Europe and the president has been forced

to overrule them with a direct

order the president is the

commanderin-chief

and revelt doesn't want to invade Nazi

buau too quickly he believes it would be

too bloody too difficult and you might

you end up with mass American casualties

the invasion of North Africa suits Revel

because the American army can bet in it

will give us combat experience we will

learn the lessons cuz we are

inexperienced Army everyone else has

been at War for many

years and Winston Churchill has sold

Roosevelt A major advantage for blooding

his troops in North

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Africa the American amphibious assault

can make landfall not in axis territory

but in Algeria and Morocco colonies

controlled by the

French the belief is that the French

will welcome us with open arms as Liber

aters Hitler after all has invaded their

country and then created this puppet

government this vishy Frant and you know

who if your French would not want to get

rid of this there's such a a

longstanding history of friendship

between the US and France fighting

alongside one

another president Rosevelt beams a

speech in French over Colonial radio to

greet America's old

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friends on the morning of the 8th of

November the first stage of the US

Landings

begins a small force of just over 400

American troops in two British royal

Navy ships move to peacefully take

control of the Algerian port of

Oran

but things do not go according to

plan even though these ships are coming

in flying American flags and

broadcasting you know don't shoot don't

shoot we're

Americans the French immediately open

fire on them and just rake them from

stem to stern uh it's it's pretty

horrible and it's an absolute blood bar

about 700 Allied soldiers lose their

lives mostly uh American but also Royal

Navy are killed in this operation and

it's a total

Fiasco the French had never forgiven the

British for sinking part of their Fleet

at meel cabia which of course is in

French North Africa in 1940 Direct

directly after the

armers and it's the Americans that are

paying the

price Churchill's decision to sink the

French Fleet in Algeria two years before

has come home to roost for the

Allies along the coast in Casablanca

Morocco a French Fleet Sor his from Port

to engage the American Navy in open

combat

the battle kasablanca is no hold Bar

Naval

Warfare by the time the Americans are

done with the French

Fleet Casablanca Harbor is a

cemetery

it doesn't really fit nicely into the

triumphant narrative that we like to

tell ourselves about World War to

because there is no easy way to square

the fact that the Americans and the

British fought the

French but the French still shot at

American soldiers the French still

defended their colonies they are

defending their

home but as American troops start to

make landfall in large

numbers the local leaders of the puppet

vichi French regime have a difficult

decision to make stay loyal to their

Nazi overlords or let the Americans in

and that big fear of a lot of people in

French North Africa what happens if Nazi

Germany exert pressure on them because

Germany has 2 million French po W's that

it consistently uses as leverage against

the Vish regime to get what it

wants it was a very very complicated

situation and they're not sure what the

implications are going to be if the

Americans come in there's a lot of

infighting and they start changing their

minds to the point where the Americans

are now about to launch a final

devastating attack against Casablanca

which would have killed hundreds if not

thousands of civilians in the

process finally we get the word uh that

the the Supreme French commander in

North Africa admiral darlan has said go

ahead and lay down your arms so it is

only that that prevents much wider

Bloodshed after a few days all French

Resistance to Operation Torch ceases

and as a 100,000 men disembark the

French forces start to work side by side

with the

Allies North Africa is really a turning

point for France in the war it's when

France goes to joining the Allied

cause we're fighting for France to be a

state again fighting for France to be

something other than a vassel of Nazi

Germany

and as cargo pours off the Allied ships

it quickly becomes apparent that there

is a new American way of Waging

War we bring everything tractors you

know barbed wire Hospital components

railroad ties railroad engines they even

sent 6 tons of lingerie to bargain with

locals to to get favors so that is also

true it's crazy you

know the Americans don't solve their

problems they overwhelm

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them but America's huge Invasion force

will have to wait to prove its

power they've landed over a thousand

miles from rl's forces in

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Tunisia and just as they arrive the

onset of winter turns mountainous French

North Africa into an impassible

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Quagmire at the same time Montgomery and

the British advance from the East is

also getting bogged down

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with the Allies moving slowly on both

fronts roml has time to resupply and

plot his next

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move the question is should he go

against Monty in the eth Army first or

should he attack the Americans first and

he makes the decision that he's going to

go against the Americans first and why

because first of all they're not yet at

full strength and and they're possibly

easy to

beat the American units in many cases

are composed of recruits who less than a

year ago were shop clerks or mechanics

or

Farmers you know there's pity of people

who are arriving on the beaches of North

Africa who've never even seen a tank let

alone trained with one those American

troops are really really

green and as the US for forces move East

towards

Tunisia even their Commander General

Lloyd fredendall is experiencing the

campaign Trail for the first

time I I don't know whether it's

suddenly this responsibility whether he

just completely freaks out I don't know

what is but he starts acting very

oddly he seems to use a very strange

code language so that nobody can really

understand what he's saying so for

example go ahead

move your command I.E the walking boys

Pop Guns Baker's outfit and the big

fellows to M have your boys report to

the French gentleman whose name begins

with j at a place which begins with d

which is five grid squares to the left

of

M and it turned out in the field he did

not have a good understanding of the

battlefield conditions and therefore was

a disaster uh when he actually came up

against the

Germans in February

1943 Fred Andor reaches the Atlas

Mountains and he sends his rookie

infantry forward into a narrow pass with

no reconnaissance and no

support

they're ambushed by rl's crack Africa

core it's a

massacre there's no way of you knowing

where they're shooting

from we had airplanes shooting at us and

shooting at

us just like shooting

ducks Bulls are zipping over and

my men were falling

dead a guy behind me was shot straight

through that middle of the

forehead they're in the middle of this

in of this past they can't get out they

can't really turn around and the force

that raml brings on them is absolutely

terrifying the terrible thing for the

troops was seeing for the first time uh

people dying in front of them their

their buddies dying in combat they

hadn't seen this

before this is um moral success maybe

for um

RL inferior in numbers and uh tanks and

in almost everything but creating um

essentially nervous breakdown on the

other

side there are over 3,000 us casualties

in under 48

Hours the same number again again a

taken

prisoner it's a harsh lesson for the

Americans okay now this is what war is

it's merciless it's arbitrary and you

cannot be an amateur at

this so North Africa was a necessary

evil for the Americans to learn our

craft to figure out what it was going to

be like to actually fight the

Germans this after all had been one of

the reasons that Roosevelt had argued

for them Landing in North Africa so that

they could have some battle experience

before they did go and Tackle uh the

Hitler's

re days after the battle Fred Andor is

unceremoniously

fired the American High command digs

into its list of names for a new

commander and they come up with General

George S

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Patton what North Africa does is it

begins to reveal the strengths and

weaknesses of different American

officers there is no officer who really

competes with General George Patton for

being the enlightening Rod American war

fighting so he gets out a real can of

whoop ass to beat them into shape and

turn them into a fighting unit again

very very quickly and he's successful at

it he's sometimes very vulgar he pees

into every river he crosses and makes a

point of it but he has Charisma among

his troops and he loves to push

forward General Patton has been a tank

commander as far back as World War I and

he quickly proves to be a genius with

mobile

Warfare pioneering aggressive American

Tank

Maneuvers paton's daring risk taker try

and do outlandish things and so Patton

provides an antidote to traditional

American

officers he is ferociously aggressive he

is highly Technical and so he's one of

the great practitioners of tank warfare

within this war and he's perfectly

capable of being put on the same plane

as a

raml at last Germany's desert fox meets

his

match in unrelenting Lightning Fast

attacks Paton drives his armored column

deep into

Tunisia and in March 1943 he outflanks

and splits the enemy's Western

Front meanwhile Britain's General

Montgomery has finally reached the

region from the

East ruml and the axis forces are caught

between an anvil and a

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hammer

the German and Italian Army in Tunisia

is going to just be grounded down by

Superior Allied

Firepower until they can no longer

resist General Ain Rummel can now see

that the writing is on the wall all in

North

Africa no matter how hard he tries no

matter uh you know how good he might be

no matter what he does he can't he can't

succeed and that feeling leads to kind

of a breakdown both physically breaking

down but also mentally he goes into a

depression he has to go back on sick

leave to Germany to recover roml is um

flown out it was convenient to have him

absent when things were not going well

it's almost too big to

fail abandoned by their talismanic

commander on the 13th of May

1943 the strangled axis forces in

Tunisia are finally forced to

surrender

230,000 German and Italian troops

including the famed Africa Corp are

taken prisoner by the

Allies it will prove one of the largest

single surrenders in the entire course

of the

war in the coming years roml will face a

spectacular Fall From Grace within the

Nazi regime implicated in a plot to

assass ass inate

Hitler Roman gets a message from the

secret police that they want him to

commit suicide and they threaten that if

he doesn't his family would get arrested

including his children and um

potentially abused tortured so he took

the poison that was provided to

him he got a hero's funeral

and this was all kept um a

secret but for Britain and America this

is their first

Victory after 3 and a half years of

fighting combat between five different

nations and soldiers from around the

world the Allies finally control the

whole of North Africa

and on this vast desert Battlefield the

scales of War have finally begun to tip

in the Allies

favor you know if you see North Africa

as a sort of testing ground a Proving

Ground for British and of course

American troops as well then it's a

massive tick in the Box because

obviously they've had setbacks yet

they've learned from it and by by the

end you've got Allied Forces that's

working together as a

coalition those British were clapping

our hands and we were them too and

happy get over here yank and have tea

with

us oh that was a celebration in

Tunis this has been a long hard Rad but

a determined conflict uh which has come

good for the allies

and it is a great turning point in the

war Churchill says it

himself this is not the end uh it is not

even the beginning of the

end but it is perhaps the end of the

beginning

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