All language subtitles for World.War.II.in.Colour.S02E02.Closing.the.Ring.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

By the summer of 1944,

Allied troops were
racing towards Paris.

The final phase
of the war in Europe

was about to be played out.

The Western Allies were
squeezing in on Germany
through France.

The Soviet Union was
approaching from the east.

Hitler, caught in the middle,
made a last desperate attempt

to break out of
the Allied stranglehold.

While he was doing so,
Stalin was beginning to redraw

the political map of Europe
in an attempt to secure

the Soviet Union's future.

But as the Russians now advanced
into German-occupied territory,

they came across the most
shocking discovery
in modern history.

A series of camps that would
call into question

the very nature of humanity.

The world was about to discover

the true horror
of the Nazi regime.

In August 1944,

Allied troops arrived in Paris.

Even as Hitler desperately
signaled to his generals,

"Is Paris burning?",

the German forces occupying
the city surrendered.

Paris free again,

and the beginning of the last
act and its amazing story.

The surrender of Lieutenant
General von Choltitz,

German commander
of the Paris region.

At a dingy office
in Montparnasse station,

a formal end of German rule.

Paris threw itself
into an orgy of celebration.

The following day,
Charles de Gaulle,

the leader of the Free French
government in exile,

arrived in the city to claim
the glory for its liberation.

Meanwhile, as De Gaulle
claimed the credit,

the Allies continued
the fighting.

They crossed the River Seine
and moved east towards Germany.

As they did so, the German army
was retreating in confusion.

But the Allies were running
into severe logistical problems.

The fleeing Germans had
trashed the French ports.

That meant Allied supplies had
to be brought in from Britain

across the beaches of Normandy

and then transported
several hundreds of miles

along tortuous roads.

Truck convoys, nicknamed
the "Red Ball Express"

from their identification sign,
rolled forward day and night.

But it was impossible to
bring in enough supplies,

particularly fuel, to
maintain the Allied advance.

A US armored division drank up
to 25,000 gallons of fuel a day.

Meanwhile, as supply problems
slowed the Allied advance,

Hitler was planning
a new fightback.

His plan - to destroy
Allied morale by attacking

civilian targets,
particularly in Britain.

His method - a new "miracle"
weapon, the flying bomb.

On June 13th, 1944,
ten were fired at London.

Six struck home.

The Germans called it
Vengeance Weapon 1 - the V1.

The British simply called it
the doodle-bug.

Armed with a warhead of
just under 2,000 pounds,

it could be launched
from sites 130 miles away

and could fly at
400 miles an hour.

For the next few weeks,
up to 100 doodle-bugs a day

were fired at British
cities from launch sites

along the German-occupied
Channel coast.

They caused panic and confusion.

More than 20,000 people
were killed or wounded.

The British set up a screen
of anti-aircraft guns
around the capital.

Many flying bombs
were shot down.

The British also sent up
fighters to intercept them,

including their
first operational jet,

the Gloster Meteor.

But still the V1s kept arriving.

Only when the Allies tracked
down their launch sites

in northern France
did they stop.

But the reprieve
was only temporary.

The German's had a second
"miracle" weapon up
their sleeves.

Hard on the heels of the V1

came the much more
sophisticated V2 rocket.

The first fell on London
on September 8th, 1944.

The V2s were launched
from easily-concealed,

mobile launchers
200 miles away.

They traveled
at 3,500 miles an hour

and carried a one ton warhead.

For six months,
Britain had no response.

Over 1,100 V2s landed on
defenseless British cities.

They only stopped when
the German positions in Europe

were pushed so far back, the
launch sites were, once again,

out of range of Britain.

Yet despite the horror
and damage the V2s caused,

British morale
remained unbroken.

Meanwhile, in mainland
Europe, the Allied advance

reached Brussels on
September 3rd, 1944.

The next day, British forces

took the huge
Belgian port of Antwerp.

It was still intact.

Here at last seemed an answer to
the Allies' logistic problems.

New supplies could
pour in through the port.

But it was not to be so simple.

Antwerp is 40 miles from
the sea, up the River Scheldt.

As the Germans
pulled out of the city,

they dug in along the waterway,

turning it into
a corridor of death.

The river was also mined.

It meant the port was
unreachable from the sea.

The Allied advance,
now desperately low on supplies,

was in danger of
grinding to a halt.

By autumn 1944, the Allied
advance across Western Europe

was running short of supplies.

They needed a new plan
if it was to move forward.

It was now that the methodical
and ultra-cautious

British commander
Bernard Montgomery

came up with a bold,
even reckless, idea.

Instead of large numbers
of troops advancing

across a wide front,

why not send a smaller force
to punch a single hole

through the German defenses?

It would be faster and
much more economical.

The idea was drive a narrow
corridor from east of Antwerp

across southern Holland
to the Dutch town of Arnhem

near the German border.

The Allies would then push
across the Rhine into Germany,

outflanking the huge
German defensive positions

of the so-called Siegfried Line,

and drive deep into
the heart of Hitler's Reich.

Montgomery's boss,
General Dwight Eisenhower,

the Supreme Allied Commander
in the west,

had until now favored
a broad, steady, advance.

But he unexpectedly agreed.

However,
it was never going to be easy.

The route went over
a mass of waterways.

Airborne troops would
have to be sent in to seize

strategic bridges
behind German lines

at the towns
of Veghel and Zon;

Grave and Nijmegen;

and finally across
the Rhine at Arnhem.

Their task would be to
hold the bridges

while the main attack,
led by a column of tanks,

drove up from Belgium.

Timing was critical.

If the tank column
took too long,

the airborne troopers
holding the bridges would
be overwhelmed.

Operation Market Garden

began early on the afternoon
of September 17th, 1944.

30,000 British and US
airborne troops,

equipped with gliders, landed
in German-occupied territory.

The US 101st Airborne -
the Screaming Eagles -

swiftly captured
the bridge at Veghel.

But their second objective,
the bridge at Zon,

was blown up by the Germans just
as the Americans approached.

Further north, the US 82nd
Airborne - the All Americans -

successfully seized
the bridge at Grave.

But stiff German resistance
prevented them from capturing

the second crucial bridge
at Nijmegen.

Meanwhile at Arnhem,

two brigades of the British
1st Airborne Division

landed safely about eight miles
west of the town.

But as the paratroops advanced
towards Arnhem's vital bridge
across the Rhine,

they ran into
two German Panzer divisions.

The British dropped
reinforcements

of men and machines.

But as they drifted
down to earth

they were cut to pieces
by German fire.

Finally,
by eight in the evening,

after a day of fierce fighting,

an Allied battalion reached
the northern end of the bridge.

But the Germans
still held the other end.

Operation Market Garden
was in trouble.

At the same time
the tank column,

advancing up
a single-track road,

was also running
into difficulties.

As it drove towards the
Dutch border on the first day,

the lead vehicles were
ambushed by German troops

using the lethal hand-held
Panzerfaust anti-tank rocket.

The advance was halted

while infantry was brought in
to clear the way.

The following day,
the tank column reached Zon,

but was delayed overnight
while the bridge was replaced

with a temporary structure.

By the third day,
it had crossed the bridges

Veghel and Grave.

But was held up again by
fierce resistance at Nijmegen.

Finally, four days
after starting out,

the column was at last within
striking distance of Arnhem.

But it was too late.

The British paratroops holding
the northern end of the bridge
had surrendered.

Montgomery's daring plan
had failed.

Arnhem had proved
"a bridge too far".

The war on the Western Front

seemed to have ground
to a standstill again.

Then, ten days later,

the Allies launched a new effort
to break the deadlock.

The plan was to clear
the seaway into Antwerp

so that urgently needed
supplies could be brought in.

It was slow going.

The Germans had flooded
much of the area.

It took Canadian troops three
weeks to clear the riverbanks

of German soldiers
and machine-gun nests.

But still the Germans clung on

to the strategically important
Walcheren Island.

It had massive guns that
commanded the river entrance.

On November 1st, 1944,
British Commandos

were sent in to flush
the Germans out.

They were supported by
two World War One Monitors

with huge 15-inch guns.

The Germans held on
for another week,

before they were
finally overwhelmed.

Allied mine sweepers could
now clear the seaway.

Three weeks later,
on November 28th, 1944,

the first supply ships
reached Antwerp.

Now, at last, the Allies
could move on towards
the German frontier.

But then, just as
the supplies had begun to flow,

the weather changed.

Autumn rain turned
the battlefield into a swamp.

By late 1944, the Allied
advance had to stop again.

The final defeat of Germany
would have to wait until
the spring.

But even as the Allies waited,

Hitler was preparing
a massive response.

By autumn 1944,

the Allied armies were
virtually lined up

along the Belgian/German
frontier

waiting for the winter weather
to clear before they pushed on.

Germany's situation
was disastrous.

Her forces were
hugely outnumbered,

they lacked air support,

and they were desperately
short of fuel.

Nevertheless, Hitler,
against the advice
of his senior commanders,

decided to launch
a huge counterattack.

It was a desperate gamble
but if it paid off,

it might just change
Germany's fortunes.

His plan was to burst
through the Allied lines

in the Ardennes hills
and head for Antwerp.

If he could retake the port,

the Allied supply lines
would be cut once again.

Some 200,000 German troops and
950 tanks and tank destroyers

were assembled
in total radio silence.

Hitler was calling
on what was, in effect,

his last remaining
strategic reserve of troops.

The Allies missed
the build-up completely.

As a result the lines
facing the German positions

were only lightly manned.

On December 16th, 1944,
the Germans opened fire.

Soon afterwards German tanks and
infantry crossed the US lines.

The Americans were caught
completely by surprise.

In fact, during the first day,
General Omar Bradley,

commander of US 12th Army Group,

even refused to believe a major
German assault was underway.

American confusion was made
worse when the Germans sent in

English-speaking special forces,

in captured
US uniforms and jeeps,

to carry out sabotage
behind the US lines.

American troops
became so nervous

that even General Bradley,
was stopped and asked

to produce his identity papers

to prove that
he was not a German.

But despite this,
the US forces regrouped.

Any Germans captured
wearing US uniforms

were summarily shot as spies.

Fire!

The Americans began
to fight back.

But the German advance
had created a huge bulge

in the Allied lines.

The attack would become known
as the Battle of the Bulge.

It was now, on the northern
flank of this bulge,

that the Germans committed
one of the worst atrocities

of the war
in north-west Europe.

SS Colonel
Joachim Peiper captured

some 150 members of a US
artillery observation battalion

near the village of Malmedy.

When, later,
US forces re-took the village,

they found 85 bodies.

Their comrades had been
shot by their SS guards.

It was a sign of how desperate
the fight had become.

As the German advance
near Malmedy continued,

US combat engineers blew up
bridges to slow it down.

The Germans were forced to
use precious supplies of fuel

to look for
alternative crossings.

Meanwhile, on the southern
flank of the bulge,

US troops blocked road junctions
to slow the German tanks.

One of the most
important crossroads

was at the small
Belgian town of Bastogne.

Here the Allies sent
in reinforcements.

The Germans were forced
to bypass it,

but the US forces
holding Bastogne

blocked their supply lines.

Two days later, however,
the Germans were approaching

the town of Dinant,
some 30 miles further west.

Despite the setbacks,

Hitler's gamble appeared
to be paying off.

The German bulge was
moving forward.

But their supply lines were
now dangerously over-extended

and they were running
desperately low on fuel.

The advance slowed.

For almost a week,
in the biting cold,

the two sides
remained deadlocked.

Neither could gain
the upper hand.

Then on New Year's Day 1945,

the Luftwaffe launched
a do-or-die assault
on Allied bases.

Over 300 Allied planes
were destroyed.

But the Luftwaffe lost
several hundred too,

far more than it could replace.

As the weather now improved,

the Allies took advantage of
their overwhelming air power.

US troops, temporarily
under Montgomery's command,

pushed in from the north.

US General George Patton's
forces squeezed from the south.

Allied air power
pummeled the German lines.

The German bulge
was slowly pushed back.

By early February 1945,
Hitler's gamble had failed.

The Germans had retreated
to their original positions.

The attack had taken
a heavy toll

on their already
depleted resources.

Over 120,000 men were killed,
wounded or taken prisoner.

Meanwhile,
on the other side of Europe,

Stalin now began to move
on Germany's eastern border.

In doing so,
he would begin to redraw

the political map of Europe.

During the summer
and autumn of 1944,

as the Allies overran
France and Belgium,

in the east the core
of Stalin's Red Army

was camped outside
the Polish capital of Warsaw.

For the Russian leader, the aim
of the war had by now changed.

It was no longer
a matter of survival

or even of pushing the enemy
out of the Soviet Union.

It had become
a political affair.

Top of Stalin's agenda
was building a buffer zone

between
the Soviet Union and Germany.

One of the keys
to this was Poland.

The Russians and Poles
had long hated each other.

Soviet armies had collaborated
with the Germans

in carving up Poland in 1939.

Then in April 1943,
German soldiers found

the bodies of more than
4,000 Polish army officers

in the Katyn woods near
Smolensk in the Soviet Union.

They had been murdered
by the Russians.

Stalin denied any involvement
and blamed the Germans.

But the Poles never
believed him.

Then in the summer of 1944,
the Polish Home Army in Warsaw

rose up against
its German occupiers.

It was now that hostility
between the two countries
came to a head.

The Home Army had been spurred
on by a broadcast from Moscow

on July 29th urging
a popular uprising.

In the first few
days of the rising,

it seized some
two-thirds of the city.

It had about
40,000 men and women,

armed mainly with
captured German weapons.

There were also more than
200,000 unarmed helpers.

But they lacked any
weapons capable of repelling

the German heavy armor.

The Poles looked to
the Soviet Army,

still camped just
to the south, for help.

But Stalin ordered it
to do nothing

and dismissed
the Home Army's leadership

as "power-seeking criminals".

German reinforcements
poured into Warsaw

under the command of SS General
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski.

He was an expert in crushing and
slaughtering partisan groups.

The situation in the city
became desperate.

Savage house-to-house
fighting raged for two months.

The Home Army was forced
back into an ever smaller area.

The German advance was
accompanied by rape and murder.

Wounded prisoners
were burned alive.

Women and children were
used as human shields.

The Polish forces were forced
back into the cellars
and sewers.

But still the Red Army sat back.

Stalin's reasoning was simple.

He saw the Polish Home Army as
pro-Western and anti-communist.

He reasoned that if it and
its supporters were destroyed,

it would clear the way for the
Polish communists to take power.

By October 2nd, the Germans had
done just what Stalin had hoped.

The Home Army and its
sympathizers were crushed.

Over 15,000 army members
and 200,000 civilians died.

Some 15,000 people surrendered.

Hitler now set about
the complete destruction
of the city.

Warsaw was razed to the ground.

The remnants of the Home Army
went underground.

Later, when the Red Army
finally moved into Warsaw,

they would be hunted down
by Soviet secret police.

Stalin's scheming had worked.

Pro-western Polish forces
had been smashed

and the country would,
after the war,

become a key buffer state
between Russia and the West.

In London, the British Prime
Minister, Winston Churchill,

was appalled
by Stalin's conduct.

But he was also a pragmatist.

In October 1944,
Churchill went to Moscow.

It was several months after the
crushing of the Warsaw uprising.

There he agreed with Stalin on a
division of the European spoils.

According to a document
Churchill scribbled down,

the Soviets would have
90 percent of the influence

in Rumania, and the British
90 percent in Greece.

In Bulgaria, the Soviets would
have 75 percent influence,

and 50 percent in
Yugoslavia and Hungary.

The future of Poland was left
vague, probably deliberately.

Churchill described it
as the "naughty document".

The wording was confusing
and nobody was sure

quite what it meant,
but Stalin happily agreed to it.

He was probably aware that
the winner would take all,

and he intended to be the winner

in most of eastern Europe
and the Balkans.

Churchill never told the
Americans about the document.

He knew that they would
be horrified by such

old-fashioned imperialism
between the European powers.

But the US found out
soon enough.

In late 1944, the Germans
pulled out of Greece.

The country descended
into a civil war

between the monarchists
and the communists.

Churchill wanted his
90 percent influence

and sent in British troops to
support the pro-Western
monarchists.

Stalin, mindful of the "naughty
document", did not object.

But the Americans
were at outraged

at what they saw
as such blatant meddling

in another country's affairs.

But by the end of 1944,
there was a more pressing issue.

Western and Soviet forces

were about the same distance
away from Berlin.

The race was on to be
the first to get there.

But even before it began,

new and shocking news
came out of the east.

On July 23, 1944,

as Soviet forces advanced
through eastern Poland,

they overrun a small village
called Maidanek.

Nearby, they found
a prison compound.

They quickly realized
it was no ordinary camp.

They found specially built
gas chambers and incinerators.

Near them were piles of corpses.

It was a camp designed
for the mass murder of Jews.

Adolf Hitler had always
been anti-Semitic.

When, in the 1930s,
he had come to power,

many German Jews had
been forced to flee.

Those who couldn't
were persecuted

and deprived of their rights.

Then, in the summer of 1939,

the Germans invaded Poland.

Suddenly the German Reich
found itself ruling

two million more Jews.

So the Nazis sent in
special SS squads,

the Einsatzgruppen,
whose job was to round them up.

Many Jews were immediately shot.

The remainder were herded
into walled ghettos

in the major cities,
while the Germans worked out

how to solve what they
called the "Jewish Problem".

Life in the ghettos was harsh.

People were systematically
starved and beaten.

Two years later, the German
army entered the Soviet Union.

Millions more Jews suddenly
found themselves under
Nazi rule.

Here, the Einsatzgruppen were
helped by the local population,

which was often anti-Semitic

and only too willing to
carry out pogroms of its own.

Hundreds of thousands
of Jews were rounded up
and exterminated.

The most notorious pogrom
occurred at Babyi Yar in Kiev.

33,000 Jews were
shot in cold blood.

But machine gunning
was an expensive way

of dealing with
the "Jewish problem".

Nor was it popular
with many German soldiers.

So at a conference
in January 1942,

the SS leadership cast round
for more "efficient" solutions.

First, it tried using
carbon monoxide fumes.

But that didn't kill enough
people quickly enough.

The conference eventually
agreed to set up

a series of camps where
Europe's Jewish population

would be systematically
exterminated.

There would be six of these
death camps, all in Poland.

They were at Maidanek,
Sobibor, Treblinka,

Chelmno, Belzec and Birkenau.

As the camps were being built,

the Jewish ghettos
were liquidated.

One notorious example
was in Warsaw.

Here, as the Germans moved into
the ghetto to clear it out,

the inhabitants fought back.

They held out
for nearly a month.

7,000 died in the fighting
before they were overwhelmed.

Those who had survived
it were rounded up

and sent to Treblinka.

Here, they entered
what was rapidly becoming

a highly organized system
of slave labor

and extermination.

New inhabitants arrived
at the camps in cattle trucks

from all over Europe.

At places like Birkenau,
the extermination facilities

were next to work
camps like Auschwitz.

At facilities like this,
the new arrivals were sorted.

Able-bodied men
and a few women

went to the work camp to be
worked to death as slaves.

Children,
the old and most of the women

went straight
to the gas chambers.

They were stripped
and their heads shaved.

Next, they were herded,
up to 2,000 at a time,

into sealed rooms
disguised as showers.

SS officers then
poured Zyklon-B crystals

through a trap in the roof
to form a deadly gas.

It was far more effective
than carbon monoxide.

At Auschwitz-Birkenau
the gas chambers

could kill
over 10,000 people a day.

Small groups of prisoners,
known as Sonderkommandos,

were used to clear the bodies
out of the chambers.

Some bodies were burnt
in pits, some in crematoria.

The camps could also be
profitable businesses.

Major German companies
built factories near them

and paid the SS, which
administered the camps,

to hire Jews as slaves.

The belongings and hair of
those gassed were sold off.

Their gold teeth
melted down and hoarded.

For most Jews resistance
was almost impossible.

At Treblinka,
Sobibor and Birkenau, however,

the Sonderkommandos mounted
brief and doomed rebellions.

But in July 1944,
most of this was still unknown.

As news began to seep out
of the Russian find at Maidanek,

most people simply
found it unbelievable.

Yet today, we know that people
in the West, like Churchill,

almost certainly knew
more than they admitted.

During 1943 and '44, several
reports reached London

about what was going on
inside the extermination camps.

But nothing was done.

Today, it is estimated
some six million Jews

were exterminated
in Hitler's camps.

What the Allies
had never understood,

until the war was over,

was the vast scale of the Nazi
extermination campaign.

Not did they grasp the sheer
quantity of resources

the Germans were
prepared to devote to it

when Germany was facing
its final days.