All language subtitles for m.m.n.g.i.w.s01e01.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

[THEME MUSIC]

ROD FOUST: Europe was in chaos
after the First World War.

Germany signed the
armistice ending World War I

on 11 November, 1918.

After the armistice was signed,
the Imperial German armed forces

withdrew from their
various fronts

and began returning to a
defeated fatherland en masse.

Nowhere in Europe did
word of the armistice

prove more shattering than
at a military hospital

in the small German
town of Pasewalk.

Among the soldiers who learned
the news from a sobbing pastor

was an obscure
corporal, Adolf Hitler,

still half-blinded as a
result of a British gas attack

the month before.

The war's end left Germany
exhausted, broke, and hungry.

The war had consumed
almost everything

that could be eaten, worn,
or melted down to munitions.

The Allied blockade, which was
maintained until March 1919

to ensure Germany's
submission, made food

still scarcer and helped to kill
some 800,000 underfed civilians.

One weak government
after the other

chipped away at Germany's
massive problems.

Afraid to raise taxes
or curtail credit,

the government paid its bills
by printing more and more marks.

With the end of the war
also came a sweeping wave

of revolution and
counter-revolution across most

all of Western and
Eastern Europe.

Germany was not immune to
the fervor of revolution

and experienced numerous
uprisings, coup attempts,

counter-revolutionary
assaults, street battles,

and territorial land grabs.

The front soldiers that
largely disbanded and dissolved

upon returning home
to Germany fought

on both sides of these
revolutionary struggles.

A great number of
these former soldiers

went on to form or join ad hoc
volunteer units collectively

known as Freikorps.

Freikorps units
consisted of small groups

of less than 100
men loosely thrown

together along quasi-military
lines to defend local areas.

Others were divisional-sized
formations consisting

of infantry,
artillery, machine gun

and motorized units,
logistical support,

engineers, and air power.

Germany plunged into social
and economic instability

as socialist and communist units
fought the right wing Freikorps

in nightly, bloody battles
in the streets of cities

all across the divided country.

The Freikorps also sold
service as frontline troops

in the Baltic region
and fought the Poles

along the eastern
frontier, defending against

various territorial incursions.

Since most vestiges of
the Imperial German Army

had all but disappeared shortly
after the end of the war,

it was soon realized that a
formal military force was needed

by the new Weimar
Republic, aside

from the largely independent
and unregulated Freikorps.

On 28 June, 1919, Germany
signed the formal peace treaty

sealing the previous
armistice of November 11.

According to the treaty,
the German general staff

was to be disbanded
and the army limited

to a small defense force.

This new and highly
regulated force

was to be known simply as the
Reichswehr, which was officially

formed on 1 January, 1921.

It consisted of the newly named
Reichsmarine and Reichsheer.

Although forbidden by the Treaty
of Versailles to exceed 100,000

soldiers and denied modern
equipment and planes,

thousands of men
existed in thinly

veiled paramilitary
organizations

funded by the army.

The German general staff,
disbanded by the treaty,

simply disguised itself
among its troops.

In fact, this all
but armless army

was being carefully
trained as the nucleus

of a future war machine.

Its leader was General Hans
von Seeckt, a commander

who was anything but
a rigid stereotype

of the Prussian general
he appeared to be.

Von Seeckt was a
canny innovator,

who slipped around the treaty
sanctions with ingenuity

to build an expert force
of bright, physically

rugged young men,
who were paid well

and who enlisted for 12 years.

To give his men experience in
the tactics of tank warfare,

Von Seeckt simulated tanks by
draping automobiles with canvas,

cardboard, or tin armor.

Anti-tank guns and other
forbidden artillery

were mocked up in wood.

The army was also
secretly engaged

in developing new technologies
in Russian factories

and was involved in
training exercises

with the Russian
army in the Ukraine.

A few well-informed people,
such as Winston Churchill,

were aware of what was
going on in Germany,

but they tended to ignore
or disparage the toy army.

After all, Germany
was effectively

hemmed in by French might in
the west and the Polish Army

with its splendid
cavalry on the east.

But then came Hitler, and
all too soon the Reichswehr

disappeared, and
in its place stood

the world's most up-to-date
army, whose leaders were

none other than the
iron men who had

played at war with wooden guns.

By 1925, Paul von Hindenburg,
the head of the Kaiser's army,

had become president
of the Weimar Republic.

The German Army
unanimously backed him.

He was also backed
by conservative

and middle-of-the-road political
parties to help bring stability

to the republic and to thwart
any attempt by radical parties

to capture the presidency.

As things got
better economically,

there was a sense of relaxation
among the German people.

Amid all this,
Adolf Hitler knew it

was going to be slow-going
for his party, which

had counted so many
unhappy, disgruntled men

among its early members.

But Hitler also had a sense that
the good times would not last.

The German Republic
was living on borrowed

money and borrowed time.

On 29 October, the Wall
Street stock market

crashed with disastrous
worldwide effects.

First, in America, then
the rest of the world,

companies went
bankrupt, banks failed,

and people instantly
lost their life savings.

Unemployment soon
soared, and poverty

and starvation became real
possibilities for everyone.

Fear ruled.

Governments stood on the brink.

The Great Depression had begun.

Adolf Hitler knew
his time had come.

By mid-1930, amid the economic
pressures of the Great

Depression, the German
democratic government

was beginning to unravel.

The crisis of the
Great Depression

brought disunity to
the political parties

in the Reichstag.

Instead of forging an alliance
to enact desperately needed

legislation, they broke
up into squabbling,

uncompromising groups.

In the midst of
all this turmoil,

elections were set
for 14 September.

Hitler and the Nazis
sprang into action.

Their time for
campaigning had arrived.

The Nazis waged a
modern whirlwind

campaign in 1930s unlike
anything ever seen in Germany.

Hitler traveled the
country, delivering dozens

of major speeches, attending
meetings, shaking hands,

signing autographs,
posing for pictures,

and even kissing babies.

On election day,
14 September, 1930,

the Nazis received 6,371,000
votes, over 18% of the total,

and were thus entitled to 107
seats in the German Reichstag.

It was a stunning
victory for Hitler.

Overnight, the Nazi party
went from the smallest

to the second largest
party in Germany.

Now, for the floundering
German democracy,

the clock was ticking, and
time was on Hitler's side.

Money was flowing in from
German industrialists,

who saw the Nazis as
the wave of the future.

They invested in Hitler
in the hope of getting

favors when he came to power.

The German general staff
was also investing support

in Hitler, hoping he meant
what he said about tearing up

the Treaty of
Versailles, which limited

their army to 100,000 men and
also prevented modernization.

Berlin was now a
swirling mass of fear,

intrigue, rumors, and disorder.

Hitler knew he could not
succeed as führer of Germany

without the support of
existing institutions,

such as the German Army and the
powerful German industrialists.

A group of the country's most
influential industrialists,

bankers, and
business leaders went

to Hindenburg, asking him to
appoint Hitler as chancellor.

They believed Hitler would
be good for business.

The military also placed
its bet on Hitler,

believing his repeated
promises to tear up

the Treaty of Versailles
and expand the army

and bring back its former glory.

They all had one
thing in common.

They underestimated Hitler.

Around noon on 30 January, 1933,
a new chapter in German history

began as a teary-eyed
Adolf Hitler emerged

from the presidential palace as
chancellor of the German nation.

Surrounded by admirers,
he got into his car

and was driven down the street,
lined with cheering citizens.

"We've done it.

We've done it," a jubilant
Adolf Hitler exclaimed.

On the evening of 30 January,
just about every member

of the SA and SS
turned out in uniform

to celebrate the new Führer
chancellor, Adolf Hitler.

Carrying torches and singing
the Horst Wessel song,

they were cheered by
thousands as they marched

through the Brandenburg Gate
and along the Wilhelmstrasse

to the presidential palace.

Dismissive of the Bohemian
corporal, as he called Hitler,

Hindenburg hoped making Hitler
chancellor in January 1933

would appease and quiet him.

The Nazis had
always used violence

to intimidate their opponents,
and once Hitler took office,

this did not change.

The greatest challenge
to Hitler's survival

during the early years
of the Third Reich

came from his own brownshirted
stormtroopers, the SA, led

by Chief of Staff Ernst Röhm.

The battle-scarred Rohm was a
decorated World War I combat

officer and a post-war
street brawler,

who had been with
Hitler from the start.

Röhm's jackbooted stormtroopers
were largely responsible

for putting Hitler in power.

On the frontlines of the
Nazi political revolution,

they had risked their
necks battling communists

for control of the streets
and squashed anyone

who stood in Hitler's way.

The SA was powerful
enough to displace Hitler,

if they so desired, and
thus became a threat.

Also, Hitler could never
gain control of the army

until he eliminated
the SA as a threat

to the thoroughly
Prussian officer corps.

On June 30, 1934, during
the Night of Long knives,

Rohm and several
other SA leaders

were summoned to a
villa outside Berlin,

where they were arrested.

Hermann Goring and
Heinrich Himmler,

envious of Rohm's
intimacy with Hitler,

accused him of
being a homosexual.

He was taken to prison, where he
was beaten and told to confess.

When he would not, he
was offered a pistol.

When he did not commit suicide,
the door was thrown open,

and he died in a
hail of gunfire.

By crushing the
SA, Hitler gained

the support of the army, which
signed a pledge of allegiance

to him.

The German Army generals,
by condoning the purge,

locked themselves
in step with Hitler

and began the long journey that
would take them over the next 11

years to the brink
of world conquest

and finally to the hanging
docks at Nuremberg.

After the Night of
the Long Knives,

nothing stood between Hitler
and absolute power in Germany,

except 87-year-old German
president, Paul von Hindenburg,

who now lay close
to death at his

country estate in East Prussia.

For Hitler, Hindenburg's
demise couldn't

have come at a better time.

He had just broken the back
of the rowdy Brownshirts

and cemented the support of
the army's general staff.

Now he just needed to resolve
the issue of who would succeed

Hindenburg as president.

About 9:00 AM on August
2, 1934, the much

anticipated death of President
Hindenburg finally occurred.

Within hours, the Nazi
Reichstag announced

that the Office
of Reich President

would be combined with
that of Reich Chancellor.

The existing authority
of the Reich President

would consequently
be transferred

to the Führer and Reich
Chancellor, Adolf Hitler.

Immediately following the
announcement of the new Führer

law, the German officer corps
and every individual soldier

in the German Army
was made to swear

a brand new oath of allegiance.

[CHANTING IN GERMAN]

"I swear by god,
this sacred oath,

I will render unconditional
obedience to Adolf Hitler,

the Führer of the
German Reich and people,

supreme commander
of the armed forces,

and will be ready as a brave
soldier to risk my life

at any time for this oath."

[CHANTING IN GERMAN]

MAN: Adolf Hitler!

SOLDIERS: Adolf Hitler!

MAN: Adolf Hitler!

SOLDIERS: Adolf Hitler!

MAN: Adolf Hitler!

ROD FOUST: The unprecedented
oath was to Hitler personally,

not the German state
or constitution,

as were previous army oaths.

All men in uniform would now
regard obedience to Hitler

as a sacred duty.

In accordance with their
military code of honor,

this would make the German
Army the personal instrument

of the Führer.

Hitler consolidated his control
over the army on Friday, 15

March, 1935, when he convened
his cabinet and members

of the army's general staff.

He announced a major
decision he had just come to.

Germany would openly defy
the military limitations

set by the Treaty of
Versailles and rearm.

This was a flagrant violation
of part 5 of the Treaty

of Versailles, signed
by Germany back in 1919

after its defeat in World
War I. Breaking the treaty

was an affront to Germany's
former World War I

enemies, France and England.

Everyone waited to see how
they would respond to the news.

Some of Hitler's more
cautious army generals

thought there might even be
an immediate military attack

by France.

But absolutely nothing
happened, except

for a few diplomatic protests.

Hitler's next big move in the
game of international diplomacy

didn't occur until
a year later, and it

would be one of the biggest
risks of his entire career.

Beginning at dawn on Saturday,
7 March, 1936, three battalions

of the German Army crossed
the bridges over the Rhine

and entered into the industrial
heartland of Germany,

known as the Rhineland.

This demilitarized area included
all territory west of the Rhine

River and extended to the French
border, as well as a portion

east of the river, including
the cities of Cologne,

Dusseldorf, and Bonn.

This was another gross violation
of the Treaty of Versailles.

Once again, the
whole world waited

to see how the French
and British would react.

German troops
entering the Rhineland

even had orders to scoot
back across the Rhine bridges

if the French army attacked.

But in France, the politicians
were simply unable to convince

their generals to
act and were also

unable to get any British
support for a military response.

So they did nothing.

The French army, with
its 100 divisions,

never budged against the 30,000
lightly armed German soldiers

occupying Rhineland, even though
France and Britain were both

obligated to preserve
the demilitarized zone

by the Treaty of
Versailles and the Locarno

pact of mutual assistance.

It had been a tremendous gamble
for Hitler, one that might have

cost him everything, if his
troops had been humiliated

by their old enemies.

Later, Hitler would
privately admit,

"The 48 hours after the
March into the Rhineland

were the most
nerve-wracking in my life.

If the French had marched
into the Rhineland,

we would have had to withdraw
with our tail between our legs

for the military,
resources at our disposal

would have been wholly
inadequate for even

a moderate resistance."

41 months would elapse
from the day Hitler grabbed

control of the German Army until
the actual start of World War

II.

During those months, Hitler
engaged in a kind of gangster

diplomacy in which he bluffed,
bullied, threatened, and lied

to various European
leaders in order to expand

the borders of his Reich.

His very first victim was Dr.
Kurt von Schuschnigg, chancellor

of Austria, a country
being torn apart

from within by Nazi
agitators and also feeling

threatened from the
outside by Germany's

newfound military strength.

Von Schuschnigg met
Hitler at Berchtesgaden

on 12 February, 1938.

Hitler demanded
Anschluss, or union.

Von Schuschnigg decided
on a national vote

to let Austrians decide if they
wanted to reunify with Germany.

Hitler challenged the vote,
demanded and got the resignation

of the Austrian government.

Even before he got it,
German troops entered Vienna.

Again, the Western
powers did nothing,

fearing an open confrontation
with Germany would lead to war.

Now Adolf Hitler began looking
toward lands not traditionally

part of greater Germany.

The Sudetenland, a narrow
strip of mountainous land

in Czechoslovakia,
held a predominantly

ethnic German population
on the border with Germany.

The Sudetenland was important
to the Czechs for two reasons.

The mountains were
a natural defense

against German
aggression, and most

of their made fortifications
were located there.

If the Sudetenland were to fall,
the whole of Czechoslovakia

would be open to
German occupation.

After street battles like those
during Hitler's rise to power

and the Austrian
Anschluss, Hitler

demanded the Sudetenland
from Czechoslovakia

and President Edvard Benes.

Benes turned to
Britain for help,

especially to Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain.

Chamberlain was a man who did
not comprehend the circumstances

in which he lived.

The world was changing far more
rapidly than he could handle.

He sought to appease
Hitler and flew

to Munich on 29
September, 1938 to discuss

the Czechoslovakian crisis.

Also joining the discussion
was Italian duce,

Benito Mussolini, and French
premier, Édouard Daladier.

Benes was not present, nor
any Czech representative.

Once again, Hitler had
gotten everything he wanted

without firing a single shot.

Incredibly, this time, he
would have welcomed a fight.

Somewhat exasperated, he said,
"I did not think it possible

that Czechoslovakia would
be virtually served up to me

on a plate by her friends."

Hitler had promised British
Prime Minister Neville

Chamberlain and
the German people

that the Sudetenland would be
his last territorial demand

in Europe.

In reality, it was
only the beginning.

And Hitler now wanted to grab
the remainder of Czechoslovakia

due to its strategic importance.

At 5:55 AM Wednesday,
15th March,

amid a late winter snowstorm,
the German Army rolled

into the first
non-Germanic territory

to be taken by the Nazis.

"Czechoslovakia has
ceased to exist,"

Hitler announced to the German
people later that day just

before departing for Prague.

But now, in an ominous
development for Hitler,

Britain and France
found their backbone.

On 31 March, Prime
Minister Chamberlain

issued a solid declaration
with the backing of France,

guaranteeing Hitler's next
likely victim, Poland,

protection from Nazi aggression.

The era of Hitler's
bloodless conquest had ended.

The next time German troops
rolled into foreign territory,

there would be an
actual shooting war.

The decision to invade
Poland was a gamble.

The Wehrmacht, or German Army,
was not yet at full strength,

and the German economy
was still locked

into peacetime production.

As such, the plan for invasion
alarmed Hitler's generals

and raised opposition
to his command.

Hitler's generals urged caution.

They asked for more time
to complete the defenses

of the Westwall in order to
stem any British and French

counteroffensive in the west
while the bulk of the Wehrmacht

was engaged in the east.

The Führer dismissed
their concerns, however,

demanding their total loyalty.

Hitler was confident that
the invasion of Poland

would result in a
short, victorious war

for two important reasons.

First, he was convinced that
the deployment of the world's

first armored
corps would swiftly

defeat the Polish Armed Forces
in a blitzkrieg offensive.

Second, he judged the British
and French prime ministers,

Neville Chamberlain and
Édouard Daladier, respectively,

to be weak, indecisive leaders,
who would opt for a peace

settlement rather than war.

The latter judgment was a
product of Hitler's success

from 1935 to 1938 in winning
substantial revisions

of the 1919 treaty of
Versailles and bloodless

victories in the Rhineland,
Austria, and Czechoslovakia.

But this time, Hitler
overplayed his hand.

Warsaw refused his
overtures in order

to retain its independence.

Their courage was fortified
by a 30 March guarantee

from Britain and France to
come to its aid in case of war

with Germany.

Now, with war inevitable,
Hitler's only real concern

was that a sudden German
invasion of Poland

might alarm Stalin and trigger
a war with the Soviet Union.

Stalin feared a German
invasion and had been seeking

an anti-Nazi collective Security
Alliance with the Western powers

for many years.

But by July 1939,
Britain and France

had still not agreed to terms.

Poland had also rejected an
alliance with the Soviet Union

and refused permission
for the Red Army

to cross its territory to engage
the Wehrmacht in a future war.

Hitler saw an opportunity to
neutralize the massive Red Army

and authorized his foreign
minister, Joachim von

Ribbentrop, to enter
into secret negotiations

with the Soviet Union.

The result was the signing
of the Nazi-Soviet Pact

on 23 August, 1939.

To the surprise of the
world, both Hitler and Stalin

set aside their mutual
antipathy for national gain,

and in particular,
the restoration

of their pre-1919 borders.

Germany could now
prepare for the conflict

without having to
plan a two-front war.

Hitler called the
Wehrmacht senior commanders

to a meeting at the
Berghof in Berchtesgaden

to brief them on the situation.

He concluded his
remarks with, "My only

fear is that some
schweinehund will

make a proposal for mediation."

On 29 August, Germany issued
Poland a final ultimatum,

now demanding the Polish
corridor in its entirety.

When Poland refused to
hand over the territory,

German foreign minister,
Von Ribbentrop,

declared negotiations with
Poland to be at an end.

On the night of
31 August, Hitler

ordered hostilities
against Poland to start

at 4:45 the next morning.

At 0440 hours, the Luftwaffe
swooped out of the pre-dawn sky

to attack the Polish
town of Wielun,

destroying 75% of the city and
killing close to 1,200 people.

Five minutes later,
at 0445 hours,

the old German battleship,
Schleswig-Holstein,

in the harbor on
a goodwill visit,

opened fire on the Free City of
Danzig and the Polish Military

Transit Depot at Westerplatte.

Air supremacy was
achieved on the first day

after most of Poland's Air
Force was caught on the ground.

Panzer spearheads smashed
holes in the Polish lines

and permitted the slower-moving
German infantry to pour

through into the Polish rear.

At 0800 hours, German troops,
still without a formally

issued declaration
of war, attacked

near the Polish town of Mokra.

The invading force was
composed of five armies

and reserves, all under
command of General

Walther von Brauchitsch.

In total, German forces included
some 1,850,000 soldiers,

over 3,100 tanks, and
10,000 artillery pieces,

along with 2,085 airplanes
grouped in two air fleets,

or Luftflotte.

The attacking force
also held advantage

by being able to attack Poland
from three directions at once.

All three assaults were
to race across Poland

to converge on the
capital of Warsaw.

Polish forces included
some one million soldiers.

However, due to
incomplete mobilization,

which started on August
31, the Polish Army was not

able to increase its size to its
intended strength of 1,350,000.

Some 900 tanks and
4,300 artillery pieces,

along with some 435
airplanes were also part

of the Polish Armed Forces.

Only a small percentage of all
Polish equipment was modern.

The Polish army lacked
motorized transport

and relied on foot infantry
and horse-drawn transports.

While the Germans opened
fronts along Poland's

western, southern,
and northern borders,

Luftwaffe aircraft began raids
on dozens of Polish cities.

In advance of the
line of attack,

the Luftwaffe heavily bombed
all road and rail junctions

and concentrations
of Polish troops.

Flying directly ahead of the
advancing Panzers, The Junkers

Ju 87 dive bomber, or Stuka,
fulfilled the role of artillery

and destroyed any strong
points in the German path.

The surprise German
strategy of blitzkrieg

was based upon continuous
advance and the prevention

of a static frontline
that would permit

Polish forces time to regroup.

At 8:00 AM on 1
September, Poland

requested immediate
military assistance

from France and Britain.

But it was not until noon
on 3 September that Britain

declared war on Germany,
followed by France's declaration

at 5:00 PM.

NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN: This
morning, the British ambassador

in Berlin handed the German
government a final note,

stating that unless we heard
from them by 11 o'clock

that they were prepared
at once to withdraw

their troops from
Poland, a state of war

would exist between us.

I have to tell you now that
no such undertaking has been

received, and that
consequently, this country

is at war with Germany.

ROD FOUST: The delay
reflected British hopes

that Hitler would respond to
demands and end the invasion.

The guarantee of
support from the West

proved meaningless
for the hapless Poles.

Western military commanders
were rooted in the strategies

of World War I and
entirely unprepared for

the rapid invasion of Poland.

They expected the
Germans to probe

and bombard the Polish
line with heavy artillery

for several weeks before
launching a full invasion.

There was no offensive strategy,
because France expected to fight

a war of defense
and had invested

heavily in the static
defenses of the Maginot Line.

The RAF, instead of bombing
factories or rail centers,

spent its time
dropping leaflets,

urging a peace settlement.

Despite some Polish successes
in minor border battles,

German technical, operational,
and numerical superiority

forced the Polish armies to
withdraw from the borders

toward Warsaw and Lvov.

By 3 September, Von
Kluge in the north

had reached the Vistula River,
which was some 10 kilometers

from the German border.

Kluge was approaching
the Narew River,

and Reichenau's armor was
already beyond the Warta River.

By 6 September, the two
Wehrmacht Army groups

had linked up at Lodz
in the center of Poland

and cleaved the country
in two, trapping

the bulk of the Polish Army
against the German border.

Two days later, the Panzers
had corralled Polish forces

into five isolated pockets
centered on Pomerania, Poznan,

Lodz, Krakow, and Carpathia.

12 of Poland's divisions
were cavalry armed

with lances and sabers.

They were no match
for the German tanks.

Each pocket was relentlessly
bombarded and bombed.

Once food and
ammunition had run out,

they had little choice
but to surrender.

By 8 September,
the leading Panzers

were on the outskirts of
Warsaw, having covered

140 miles in only eight days.

The fourth Panzer tried to
take the capital by surprise,

but was thrown back
after heavy losses.

At the same time, Guderian
led his Third Army tanks

across the Narew, attacking
the line of the Bug River,

tearing the Polish Army to
shreds and encircling Warsaw.

The Polish armies were splitting
up into uncoordinated fragments,

some of which were
retreating, while others

were delivering
disjointed attacks

on the nearest German columns.

The Polish plan
for border defense

was proven a dismal failure.

The German advance as a
whole was not slowed down,

and the Germans moved
quickly, overwhelming

secondary positions.

Two days later,
all Polish forces

were ordered to fall back
and regroup in Eastern

Poland for a last stand.

All hope was pinned upon
a major French and British

offensive in the west
to relieve the pressure.

Meanwhile, Warsaw, under
heavy aerial bombardment

since the first hours of the
war, was attacked on 9 September

and was put under
siege on 13 September.

The largest battle during this
campaign, the Battle of Bzura,

took place near the Bzura
River, west of Warsaw,

and lasted from 9
September to 18 September.

While Stukas attacked
the Bzura bridgeheads,

the motorized and
Panzer divisions

of the 10th Army
wheeled north and caught

the Polish forces in the flank.

There was a vicious
fight around Lowicz

before the Poles pulled back.

The battle ended with
the total destruction

of Polish forces involved.

Although it delayed the
capitulation of Warsaw,

170,000 Polish soldiers
were forced to surrender.

On 19 September, the largest
tank versus tank engagement

of the campaign took place
near Tomaszów Lubelski, where

some 80 Polish
tankettes and tanks met

in combat with German tanks.

Polish armies,
Poznan and Pomorze,

retreating from the border
area of the Polish Corridor,

attacked the flank of the
advancing German Eighth Army.

The counterattack failed
after initial success.

After the defeat,
Poland lost its ability

to take the initiative and
counterattack on a large scale.

From the beginning of
the Polish campaign,

the German government
repeatedly asked

Stalin to act upon
the August agreement

and attack Poland from the east.

Worried by the unexpectedly
rapid German advance

and eager to grab their
allotted share of the country,

Soviet forces entered
Poland on 17 September.

The Soviets claimed that
they were protecting

Ukrainian and
Belarusian minorities

of Eastern Poland in view of
an imminent Polish collapse.

The Soviet invasion was one
of the decisive factors that

convinced the Polish government
that the war in Poland was lost.

On 24 September, 1,150 German
aircraft bombed Warsaw.

The bombing set the
city's flour mills ablaze,

while the filtration and pumping
stations for water supply

were nearly all destroyed.

The Modlin Fortress
north of Warsaw

capitulated on 29 September
after an intense 16-day battle.

The last operational
unit of the Polish Army,

General Franciszek Kleeberg's
Samodzielna Operational Group

Polesia, capitulated after
the four-day Battle of Kock

near Lublin on 6 October.

This marked the end of
the September campaign.

The campaign lasted
less than two months

and ended in the destruction
of the Polish Army

and the partition of Poland.

When Hitler broadcast to the
German people on 30 September,

he announced the
number of Polish

prisoners taken as 694,000.

This was compared with German
losses of 10,572 killed, 3,400

missing, and 30,322 wounded.

German losses were
surprisingly heavy, considering

the brevity of the campaign.

What Hitler did not mention
was that fully one quarter

of the tanks the Germans
committed to battle

were lost to Polish
anti-tank guns.

The Luftwaffe was forced to
write off some 550 aircraft.

It was not a cheap
victory by any means,

but it did confirm to the
generals of the Wehrmacht

that the military machine
that they had built

was indeed the best in the world
and worthy of their confidence.

REPORTER: A number of
officers and politicians

attempt to remove Hitler.

On July 20, Colonel
Claus von Stauffenberg

hides a bomb under
Hitler's table

in the headquarters
in East Prussia.

As Hitler's usual concrete
bunker is under repair,

the meeting is held
in a wooden barrack,

and this saves his life.

The bomb blows out the
roof and thin walls.

Hitler suffers minor burns,
and his right arm is paralyzed.

Hitler takes a fearful revenge.

4,980 people are executed
during the following

months and thousands sent
to the concentration camp.

A so-called People's
Court, under

the presidency of
Freisler, pronounces

death sentences en masse.

At the first trial, Field
Marshal von Witzleben

was forced to appear
without braces or belt.

REPORTER: The Nazi
veteran and chief

of police in Berlin,
Count Helldorf,

is one of the conspirators.

REPORTER: Count Schwerin von
Schwanenfeld states that he has

thought of the many murders.

[THEME MUSIC]