Original subtitles

Summer 1943, and on the Eastern Front,

Hitler's armies were in retreat.

Huge Soviet artillery barrages and tank assaults

were shredding the German lines.

Hitler, by now, was fighting a war on two fronts.

In Western Europe, an Anglo-American force

was moving up through Italy, menacing his southern flank.

The Germans had been forced to pull some of their elite troops

back from the Eastern Front to help.

It left their forces in the east dangerously over-stretched.

The exhausted German soldiers were up against

the enormous reserves of the huge Soviet military machine.

The Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin,

now seized this opportunity to wreak his revenge

and move onto the offensive.

By early August 1943,

the Red Army had driven the Germans

from the cities of Orel and Belgorod.

To celebrate the victories Stalin ordered

twelve 124-gun salvoes

and a barrage of fireworks in Moscow's Red Square.

He proclaimed: "Eternal glory to the heroes who fell

in the struggle for freedom.

Death to the German invaders."

In Germany, Hitler's response

was to take greater personal control

of all important military decisions.

The effects were felt almost immediately by Axis troops

occupying the strategically important city of Kharkov.

The Soviet forces approached the city from three sides.

The German commander, Erich von Manstein,

ordered a tactical withdrawal.

Hitler immediately countermanded it.

Kharkov should be held at all costs.

Hitler would not accept anything that would reduce

what he called "Lebensraum",

the land he believed Germany needed to ensure its greatness.

Just as importantly, he also believed Germany would win the war,

if not by numbers, then by the sheer will to win.

The Germans dug in.

At first it seemed to work.

For several days, repeated Soviet assaults were repulsed.

More than 300 Russian T-34 tanks were destroyed.

But by the end of August 1943,

the German positions had been overrun.

Eventually, Manstein went against his Fuhrer.

He order his men to get out.

The Red Army drove into the ruins of Kharkov the next day.

It marked the beginning of a massive Soviet offensive

along a 1,500 mile front.

It stretched from Rostov in the south to Smolensk in the north.

At the southern end of the front, near Rostov,

a Russian breakthrough threatened to trap pockets

of German soldiers in the Crimea.

Once again, Manstein asked permission to withdraw.

All he got was a message from Hitler:

"Don't do anything, I am coming myself."

But he never did.

The German military was forced into another

last minute, chaotic, retreat.

The withdrawal was made worse

by bands of battle-hardened partisans.

Many were former Red Army soldiers

who had been cut off behind enemy lines.

They now ambushed the retreating Germans,

cutting their communication and supply lines.

The Germans responded with predictable ferocity.

There were savage reprisals against the civilian population.

The Germans also launched a scorched earth policy.

Factories, power plants,

railways and bridges were all blown up.

A massive hydro-electric dam, which provided electricity

for the whole of the Ukraine, was wrecked.

Meanwhile, in the center of the front,

the Germans fell back across the River Dnieper.

As they fled, they blew up yet more bridges,

turning the river into a formidable defensive line.

They then dug in along the west bank.

Stalin response was to offer the Soviet Union's highest award

to the first Red Army soldier to cross the river.

By the early autumn 1943,

a number of small Soviet bridgeheads had been established

on the German-controlled west bank.

But they met determined German resistance.

Fighting raged along the Dnieper throughout October 1943.

Finally, at the beginning of November,

Soviet troops captured Kiev.

All along the river, the Germans were pushed

out of their defensive positions

and forced to retreat still further west.

By the end of 1943,

the Red Army had virtually cleared the Germans

out of Russia's historic homeland.

They were now moving west across the Ukraine.

The countries of Europe were in their sights.

By spring 1944, Hitler's armies were in full retreat.

The Soviet leadership now poured in

ever greater quantities of men and equipment.

The Germans had two excellent tanks,

the Tiger 1 and the Panzer Mark V Panther.

Both were well-suited to the sort of mobile defensive warfare

which was the only remaining hope

for the German armies on the Eastern Front.

But the Red Army had at least twice as many tanks,

mostly the battle tried T-34,

and armament factories in Siberia

were turning out more at a rate of 2,000 a month.

While Hitler was forced to divide his forces between a war on two fronts,

Stalin's war machine was working flat out.

Six million Soviet troops faced less than three million Germans.

In early January 1944,

the forces of the 1st Ukrainian Front moved in from the north

on the German-held town of Korsun.

It was the last German toehold on what they'd hoped

would be their defensive line along the River Dnieper.

Twelve days later, the forces of 2nd Ukrainian Front

drove forward on the southern side.

The attack followed a, by now, well-established Soviet pattern.

First there was a build up of an overwhelming number of troops.

The Germans were never quite sure

where the first assault would come from.

Then there was a devastating artillery bombardment.

Next, the massed tanks of the Red Army would punch a hole

through the German defenses.

Finally, the infantry poured in.

In Korsun, it quickly became obvious to the Germans

they were about to be overwhelmed.

The German commander, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein,

flew to Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia,

to beg yet again for permission to pull out.

But Hitler once more refused.

After a week of fierce fighting

about 60,000 men were trapped in what became known

as the Korsun pocket.

The Soviets called it "Little Stalingrad".

The German forces now attempted to break out.

But the Russians were ready for them.

T-34 tanks and Cossack horsemen

harried the Germans as they tried to escape.

The fighting lasted two days.

By the time Korsun fell,

the Germans had lost some 30,000 men.

The Red Army forces were now moving forward at speed.

Their advance was made possible by fleets of trucks,

mostly provided by the United States,

that kept their forces supplied.

It was a much faster process than for the Germans,

who still relied heavily on horses.

The Russians were also dominating the skies.

The Luftwaffe had always been a key part

of the German war machine.

But Hitler had been forced to divert many of his aircraft

to defend the homeland from a US and British bomber offensive.

As a result,

Russian planes outnumbered the Luftwaffe five to one.

The Red Air Force's Stormvik fighter-bombers

took a heavy toll on German armor and supply columns.

Yet Hitler refused to contemplate defeat

and now announced a new version of his "no retreat" policy.

He ordered the German troops to create what he called

"Fortified Areas" or "Local Strongholds".

These were to be defended to the bitter end.

Only with his personal approval

could any of these fortresses be abandoned.

It was a desperate ploy

and would come to cost the Germans dearly.

One of the first tests of the new strategy

was near the Ukrainian town of Kamenets-Podolsky.

Here 20 divisions of Panzers

were threatened with being cut off.

But Hitler declared it a "fortified area"

and refused to allow a retreat.

In the face of bitter fighting,

there was a vitriolic argument between Hitler and Manstein,

who could see the writing on the wall.

Finally Manstein got his way

and the Panzers were given permission to breakout.

Ten days later, some 200,000 men of the 1st Panzer Army

safely reached the German lines over 100 miles to the west.

But they had lost most of their heavy equipment and weapons.

By now Manstein's requests to retreat

had become too much for Hitler.

The Field Marshal was sacked.

Further south, the Germans attempted to hold back

the Soviet torrent on the Yezhnyy Bug River.

They failed and a large force of Germans

was caught behind Russian lines

in the Black Sea port of Odessa.

They too faced being cut off.

In early April 1944, Hitler declared it a fortress.

But the German troops ignored him and slipped out of the city.

Several days later, on April 10th, Odessa was liberated.

Stalin was winning on all fronts.

He could now turn his attention to the northern Russian city

that had suffered under Nazi assault for years.

By the beginning of 1944,

the Russian city of Leningrad

had been under siege from German forces

for nearly two and a half years.

During the first winter, almost half a million people

had starved to death.

Volunteers struggled to put out fires and construct defenses.

But by 1944, life in the city had become almost unbearable.

Several attempts to relieve it had failed.

One effort in 1942,

led to the capture of more than 50,000 troops

of the Soviet 2nd Shock Army.

Another, in 1943, had enabled a trickle of supplies

to get into the city.

But even so, throughout 1943,

up to 20,000 people continued to die of cold,

disease and starvation every month.

By January 1944, however,

with the Germans in headlong retreat,

Stalin now turned his attention to the plight of the city.

That month Soviet forces secretly infiltrated

the neighboring peninsula around Oranienburg.

The attack on the German positions

started with a savage 65 minute bombardment.

Then Russian troops ripped into the startled German lines.

At the same time another Soviet force attacked

from the north-east around the city.

They too burst onto the German lines.

For three days the German commander,

Field Marshal Georg Von Kuechler, held out.

Finally, he asked Hitler for permission to fall back.

Hitler, as always, refused.

Kuechler argued back, telling the Fuhrer

only a swift withdrawal would save his army from a massacre.

Hitler sacked him.

He was replaced by General Walther Model.

He was known as "Hitler's fireman"

for his fierce loyalty and avid Nazi outlook.

But even to Model, the danger was obvious.

He now disobeyed Hitler and pulled out.

After two and a half years, the siege of Leningrad

was finally lifted.

Nearly a million Russian civilians had died.

Relief in the city was overwhelming.

The first fall-out was in neighboring pro-German Finland,

which now feared a Soviet invasion.

So in March 1944, a secret Finnish delegation

arrived in Moscow to discuss peace.

Stalin's terms were harsh.

He demanded the Petsamo region in the far north of Finland,

an area rich in nickel, an important ingredient

in the manufacture of metal alloys.

He also demanded reparations of $600 million.

The Finns refused and prepared for a Soviet invasion.

But Finland could wait.

The Soviet High Command, or STAVKA as it was known,

had more pressing business further south.

The Red Army offensives in the Ukraine, in late 1943,

had trapped 120,000 German troops in the Crimea.

Hitler, as ever, had refused to allow them to withdraw.

They now waited helplessly for a Soviet onslaught.

In early April, two months after the lifting

of the siege on Leningrad, it came.

The troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front

crashed into the Crimea from the north.

At the same time, a diversionary attack

landed on the eastern end of the peninsula.

In less than a day,

the Axis troops in the west had given way.

They fell back on the port of Sebastopol

and Hitler ordered "Fortress Sebastopol"

to hold out to the last man.

They didn't stand a chance.

Within two weeks of the siege,

German troops were being evacuated by sea.

40,000 men escaped.

But some 30,000 defenders were still trapped in the port.

They retreated to the beaches south of the city

hoping to be rescued by more German ships.

It didn't happen.

The evacuation was interrupted

by a Soviet artillery bombardment.

Three days later, the Germans surrendered.

Meanwhile, back in the north-west of the country,

the Germans still occupied much of what is Belarus today.

But the Red Army had grabbed a vast bulge of land

stretching into Poland and Rumania.

It meant the Germans had to defend a 1,400 mile front.

They were hugely over-extended.

Military logic suggested it was time for the Germans

to withdraw to more manageable defensive positions.

But Hitler, still obsessed with territorial gain,

refused to allow any further retreat.

The German military would continue to pay a high price

for Hitler's constant meddling and unrealistic ambitions.

By the spring of 1944,

Hitler's forces were stretched to their limit.

All along the Eastern Front

there was a desperate need for reinforcements.

The problem for the German High Command was where to place

the few resources it had, to maximum advantage.

German intelligence reports suggested

the next big Red Army offensive would be into Belarus.

But Hitler disagreed.

He was convinced Stalin would strike south

and seize the Rumanian oilfields.

Both were wrong, at least to begin with.

In the early summer, the Red Army Command

finally turned its attention to Finland.

Russian troops attacked across the Karelian Isthmus.

After two days fighting, the Finns were forced to retreat.

Slowly, over the next month,

the Red Army advanced north into Finland.

By August 1944, it was all over

and the Finns sued for peace.

It was now that Stalin showed the first signs

of a pattern that would be repeated across Europe.

He seized land, in this case areas of Finnish Karelia,

and the nickel-rich Petsamo region.

Next, Stalin's attention turned to central Europe.

In summer of 1944,

he launched what he called Operation Bagration,

named after a Russian hero of the Napoleonic wars.

At 5:00am on June 22nd, three years to the day

after Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union,

the guns of the Red Army began a ferocious bombardment

of German forces in what today is Belarus.

It was exactly where, months earlier,

German intelligence reports had suggested

a Soviet attack would come.

But because Hitler had ignored them

the area was poorly defended.

It was another of his mistakes.

The Germans were now being pounded along a 350 mile front.

In some places the Russians used over 400 guns for every mile.

The barrage was followed, as always,

by a torrent of Soviet tanks and infantry

crashing into the German defenses.

To make matters worse for the Germans,

they had almost no air support.

Much of the Luftwaffe was still tied up

defending the German homeland.

It was now that Hitler's folly of fighting a war

on two fronts became all too apparent.

The Red Airforce could operate almost unopposed.

Russian planes now struck deep behind German lines,

cutting communications and harassing reinforcements.

Within 36 hours, the German Panzers had been swept aside.

About 50,000 men faced encirclement

in the German held town of Vitebsk.

Hitler, as had become routine,

initially refused to let it retreat.

Then, when on the following day he relented,

it was too late for many of his troops.

Four days later Vitebsk fell.

20,000 Axis troops were killed and 10,000 taken prisoner.

Further south, along the Belarus front, the pattern was repeated.

Hitler, now furious, sacked his general,

Field Marshal Ernst Busch.

Once again, he brought in his favorite,

the now promoted Field Marshal Walther Model.

But it made no difference. Town after town fell.

The regional capital of Minsk was now within reach.

Two days later, the Red Army encircled it.

Over 100,000 German troops were trapped.

Soviet forces bombarded them.

Within a week, the German survivors surrendered.

The unstoppable Russian advance

now pushed on to the Baltic states.

First to fall was the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.

Across the entire Eastern Front the Germans were in retreat.

But they left behind them towns and countryside laid waste.

They committed widespread atrocities

against local inhabitants.

Nothing, however, could have prepared the Red Army

for what it was about to discover.

On July 23rd, 1944,

Soviet forces reached the small Polish village

of Maidanek near Lublin.

Here they came across their first evidence

of Hitler's "Final Solution",

the Maidanek extermination camp.

It was a camp designed for the murder of Jews

on an industrial scale.

But as the first Soviet reports of what they'd found leaked out,

the Western Allies simply dismissed them.

Three days after seizing Maidanek,

the Russians were approaching Warsaw.

But here the Red Army paused.

Stalin now stood ready to do what Hitler had done before,

grab land not in the name of "Lebensraum", but of communism.

By the summer of 1944, Operation Bagration

had ripped the heart out of the German army in the east.

More than 300,000 Axis soldiers had died.

150,000 had been taken prisoner.

The Red Army now paused

and dug in along the River Vistula south of Warsaw.

Stalin was in no hurry to bring the war to an end.

With Europe in turmoil, conditions were ideal

for the spread of communism.

The first victims of Stalin's political calculations were the Poles.

On August 1st, 1944, the Polish Home Army

rose up in Warsaw against its Nazi occupiers.

But it desperately needed help.

The Red Army, camped just to the south,

was perfectly placed to provide it.

But Stalin regarded the Polish Home Army

as close to the Polish government in exile in London

and hostile to communism.

So, he turned a blind eye

to the plight of the Polish fighters.

They were crushed with terrible brutality.

The Germans wouldn't finally be pushed out of Poland

until the Russian army drove them out in January 1945.

It was the start of a Soviet masterplan

that would eventually see communist governments

across most of eastern Europe.

To the north, contingents of the Red Army

continued to clear the Germans out of the Baltic States.

These would later be incorporated into the Soviet Union.

Near the Latvian capital of Riga,

over 200,000 Germans were trapped behind Russian lines.

But Hitler, still determined to hold on

to his "Lebensraum", refused to countenance a retreat.

Even so, gradually the German forces

were pushed back to the Baltic coast.

By mid-October 1944, the Germans had been squeezed

onto the Courland Peninsula, west of Riga.

They would remain marooned there for the rest of the war,

when they eventually surrendered to Soviet forces.

Stalin, meanwhile, was already sizing up

other territory in eastern Europe.

He could have moved directly west towards Germany.

Instead units of the Red Army moved south

in a vast thrust down through the Balkans.

Nearly 1,500 tanks and a million men

pushed into Rumania in late August 1944.

The defending Axis forces had less than 400 tanks

and just 800,000 troops.

Pro-German Rumanian troops gave way almost immediately

all along the front.

Three days later, large pockets of German troops

were surrounded near Kishinev.

Hitler issued his standard command, "no retreat".

For nine days, there was bitter fighting.

Over 180,000 German troops were killed or taken prisoner.

The remainder beat a belated retreat.

In late August, Rumania's pro-German dictator,

Marshal Ion Antonescu, was arrested.

Romania surrendered.

By the end of the month, the Red Army was in Bucharest

and had occupied the strategically important Romanian oilfields.

It meant Germany had lost its main supply of oil.

Three Soviet armies now moved south into Bulgaria.

Bulgaria had tried to stay neutral

but it too would soon be swallowed up

by the Soviet empire.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Russian forces

now moved west towards Yugoslavia.

German troops to the south, in Greece, faced being trapped.

They began a hasty retreat up through Albania

and southern Yugoslavia.

They were harried all the way by Albanian and Yugoslav partisans.

By mid-October 1944,

the Red Army had reached the Yugoslav capital

of Belgrade.

Only now did it begin swing north and west

towards Hungary and then Germany.

German reinforcements poured into Hungary

to support the pro-Nazi puppet government.

But the Red Army ground on.

Eight weeks later, it laid siege to Budapest.

The siege lasted over six weeks

before the German puppet government collapsed.

By the end of 1944,

most of eastern Europe lay in Stalin's grasp.

His troops controlled the Baltic States and Poland,

Rumania and Bulgaria.

Pro-soviet forces ruled in Yugoslavia and Albania.

Hungary and Czechoslovakia were in his sights.

Stalin had successfully laid the foundations

for the future Soviet Bloc.

He could now at last move on to Germany.

But in the west, Allied forces

were also approaching the German border.

The race was on to be the first to take Berlin.