Original subtitles

80 years ago,

a war of an unprecedented scale shook our planet

and changed the face of the world.

- Go. - Never had war been

so widespread, so brutal, or so destructive.

A torrent of fire and steel.

Steeped in courage and cruelty.

From the Pacific Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea,

from the deserts of Africa to the Russian steppe.

The war broke up nations

and forged empires.

It redefined our borders, our ideals,

our fears.

The Second World War shaped the world as we know it.

This is the story of a war that changed everything.

The Winter, 1942.

The war had reached its peak.

Nearly 90 million soldiers across the globe were in uniform.

And the conflict had already claimed

more than 30 million lives.

Never before had civilians

been so deeply caught up in warfare.

In cities turned into battlegrounds,

civilians were no longer just collateral damage.

They had become targets.

But 1943 marked a turning point.

Hope was reborn among nations yearning

to see an end to the war.

This year would not only herald the fall of fascist empires.

It would also signal the rise of the next superpowers

destined to rule the new world.

The Allies, the US, Great Britain, and USSR,

were regaining the upper hand over the Nazis.

In the Soviet Union,

a decisive battle was unfolding,

one that would become legendary.

Amid the ruins of Stalingrad,

German troops advanced cautiously

without tank support, unable to maneuver through the debris

and with no air support for fear of hitting their own men.

From a distance, Soviet snipers picked them off relentlessly

with deadly precision.

A shepherd from the Urals gifted with exceptional skill,

Vasily Zaitsev, lay hidden beneath the rubble.

In his crosshairs, a German soldier unaware

that he had only seconds left to live.

Nearly 300 Nazis would fall to his deadly aim.

Soviet propaganda eagerly seized upon his exploits,

turning Zaitsev into a living legend.

Glorified national heroes like him boosted morale

within the Red Army.

Stalin relied heavily on these heroes.

It was up to them to save the city that bore his name

and secure victory on the banks of the Volga.

For the Russians, the war wasn't global.

It was personal.

Soldiers fought fiercely for their own land.

The very survival of the regime hinged

on the outcome of this battle.

In Russia, World War II is still known

as the Great Patriotic War,

a myth deeply embedded in the nation's identity.

On November the 19th, 1942,

the Red Army assaulted the flanks around Stalingrad.

Russian forces succeeded in linking up.

Stalin's strategy paid off.

Instead of stubbornly defending the city,

he had let the enemy in,

only for them to be left surrounded.

290,000 German soldiers were trapped.

The Fuhrer ordered them to hold at all costs.

On the other side of the globe,

Japan had expanded its empire through a string of conquests.

The Americans fought fiercely to reclaim Guadalcanal.

After a brutal six-month battle,

the American GIs emerged victorious.

In February, 1943, the Japanese army had no choice

but to fall back.

This marked the start of America's re-conquest of Asia

and the birth of a new strategic approach:

jumping from island to island,

establishing bases ever closer to mainland Japan.

America wasn't merely trying to defeat Japan.

It was laying the groundwork for a lasting foothold

in the Pacific.

This strategy would position Washington

as judge, jury, and executioner in future conflicts erupting

across Asia, from Korea, to the inferno of Vietnam.

Bring peace to the brethren in Vietnam.

Guadalcanal was the first island reclaimed

by the United States.

Japanese soldiers fought to the last bullet,

driven by fanaticism

or the fear of bringing shame on their families

and clans by surrendering.

Eight out of every 10 Japanese soldiers perished.

The Americans lost 7,000 men,

five times fewer than the Japanese.

Yet still, an agonizingly high price

for a war America had initially never wanted.

On the 12th of January, 1943 in Waterloo, Iowa,

a US Army officer knocked on Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan's door

to deliver devastating news.

All five of their sons had died at Guadalcanal.

Following this tragedy,

the US military adopted a policy

to prevent brothers from serving in the same unit.

In Washington, somber pride.

Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan, parents of five boys

who were all killed in action.

Symbols of supreme sacrifice.

In America, the sacrifices at Guadalcanal

shocked the public.

Especially as, unlike in Europe and Asia,

American soil had remained untouched by direct combat.

The war crept into every household,

imposing strict rationing of sugar, meat, and canned goods.

Yet Americans rallied as one.

At this critical moment,

nothing mattered more than showing solidarity

with those fighting overseas.

And in January, 1943,

when it was still extremely rare for an American president

to cross the Atlantic, Roosevelt traveled to Casablanca,

near the front lines, for a conference intended

to demonstrate the Allies' strength.

In Africa for nearly two years,

the British had been fighting Italian

and German forces alone.

But the Americans had recently landed in North Africa

during Operation Torch.

Joined by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill,

Roosevelt announced their determination

to crush the Axis and accept nothing less

than the unconditional surrender of Germany,

Italy, and Japan.

Yet America and Britain

could not shoulder this burden alone.

In Europe, resistance against Nazism was rallying,

coalescing around charismatic leaders,

such as France's General de Gaulle.

Roosevelt would've preferred General Giraud,

a more compliant figure.

But de Gaulle prevailed,

insisting that France would never let others

dictate its destiny.

A daunting challenge, indeed,

since during the war, the rising superpowers

had grown accustomed to imposing their will,

even upon their own allies.

As the Casablanca conference concluded,

Russian soldiers were triumphing

amid the ruins of Stalingrad.

On February the 2nd, 1943,

the Soviets accepted the surrender

of German General Paulus.

Carefully filmed by Soviet cameras,

victory belongs to those who can best stage it.

Stalingrad became a symbol,

the turning point where Nazi defeat shifted

from possibility to probability.

The battle would also come to illustrate

the staggering price paid by the Soviet people.

27 million dead,

70 times higher than American losses.

Today, however, in Western memory,

the heroic image of the American savior

overshadows Soviet martyrdom,

a historical oversight

that still fuels deep resentment in Russia.

Germany's defeat at Stalingrad

with 100,000 prisoners captured sent shockwaves

across the Reich, even though Nazi propaganda sought

to minimize the disaster.

Hitler had convinced the Germans

that war was inevitable,

a necessary response to the humiliation of World War I.

Early, swift victories

had reinforced the myth of the country's invincibility.

This feeling wasn't shared by Hans and Sophie Scholl,

brother and sister aged 24 and 21.

Two weeks after the shock of Stalingrad,

they distributed anti-Nazi leaflets

in the halls of their university in Munich.

Sophie flung a stack of leaflets

into the university hall.

They were spotted by the university's caretaker

and immediately reported to the Gestapo.

Hans and Sophie were tried four days later

and swiftly executed.

Before his execution by guillotine,

Hans Scholl warned his executioners,

"Soon, it will be you standing in our place."

Hans and Sophie Scholl were exceptions in Hitler's Germany,

where every child and teenager had been indoctrinated

from an early age to idolize the Fuhrer,

ready to lay down their lives for him.

Like their parents,

steadily poisoned by relentless propaganda.

It would take several generations

for the country to overcome this painful past.

Six days after the Scholls' execution,

Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels

declared total war to galvanize the German people.

Hitler was fully aware

that this war was also an arms race.

Under Albert Speer, Hitler's minister and close confidant,

German industrial production had tripled.

The Reich had transformed into an immense factory state.

Even under relentless Allied bombardment,

its industries endured, streamlining their processes,

burying factories underground, or dispersing them widely.

Nazi science surged forward.

The Germans had initiated the Uranium Project,

aiming to build an atomic bomb.

They also pursued the development of rockets

and long-range missiles

to strike distant targets.

Like London, whose destruction had obsessed Hitler

since the blitz of 1940.

The V-1 rockets,

closely followed by the V-2s,

ushered in a new form of warfare,

and above all, a new era of conquest.

If this were satellite

were today successfully launched

in the US- - That's one small step

for a man.

America too

was racing toward technological breakthroughs

and was sparing no expense to win.

Entrusted to physicist Robert Oppenheimer,

the Manhattan Project,

the largest scientific endeavor of World War II,

advanced at a relentless pace.

At Los Alamos, deep in the New Mexico desert,

thousands of scientists and engineers

worked day and night,

building the first atomic bomb in history.

Never had human ingenuity leaned so heavily on machines

to win a war.

In 1943, thanks to the progress in radar and computing,

submarine warfare shifted decisively.

During Black May,

the German fleet suffered unprecedented losses.

German submarines had long sown fear across the seas.

But the Allies knew exactly where they operated,

thanks to their success in cracking Enigma,

the Nazis' notorious coding machine.

Northwest of London, mathematician Alan Turing

and his team had finally unlocked its secrets.

Their wartime research led directly

to machines capable of automating code-breaking,

paving the way for the first computers.

To protect their crucial secret,

the Allies made a ruthless decision,

to allow certain ships and their crews to sink.

Intelligence followed its own merciless logic,

losing some battles to ultimately win the war.

The United States leveraged intelligence

to extend its global influence.

Since the creation of the OSS,

the precursor of the CIA,

American agents operated on every front.

They coordinated with resistance movements,

and encouraged guerrilla warfare.

In Burma, Detachment 101,

consisting of around 100 American operatives,

organized local tribes.

The same unit operated in Indochina

supporting insurgent warfare.

In China, they aided Mao Zedong's Communist forces.

Against all odds,

guerrilla warfare, seemingly primitive compared

to modern tanks, planes, and artillery,

proved remarkably effective,

becoming a lasting tactic in future conflicts.

After the war,

impenetrable jungles or mountains

would continue to shelter rebels.

Eventually, guerrilla forces turned against

the very regimes that had armed them.

If the war upset various balances in Asia,

it also shook Africa's colonial empires.

African soldiers were on the front line

in the North African campaign.

Those who'd witnessed France's defeat in 1940

and refused collaboration now fought alongside the Allies

against German and Italian forces.

Four months after Operation Torch,

Allied forces converged in Tunisia.

Following intense fighting,

Axis troops surrendered in May, 1943.

North Africa was finally liberated.

Now, it was time to roll back Axis forces in Europe itself.

Occupation grew harsher, shortages intensified,

and the black market became essential.

Collaborators remained loyal to the Reich.

But others chose resistance.

This was a vital opportunity for the Allies,

who found crucial support points across Europe.

Ordinary men and women took extraordinary risks

to resist oppression.

Initially scattered in France, Greece, and Yugoslavia,

resistance groups organized under leaders

in direct contact with London.

Supported by Allied intelligence services,

these groups became a strategic asset

in the struggle against the Axis.

In Norway, Joachim Ronneberg, age 23,

was parachuted into the mountains

along with six companions.

Britain's SOE had entrusted them with a mission

of the utmost importance.

After skiing covertly for 15 days

through freezing conditions,

on February the 27th, 1943,

they infiltrated the Vemork heavy water production plant,

a key site in the Nazis' nuclear program, and destroyed it.

This daring strike shattered the Reich's atomic ambitions.

Through their acts of bravery and sacrifice,

the resistance captured Europe's imagination

and shaped a shared vision of the lone hero

rising against tyranny.

For the first time,

the resistance also placed women at the forefront.

Subject to less suspicion,

they became couriers, saboteurs, spies.

Even though they were rarely allowed to bear arms.

The exception was in the USSR,

where women served both behind the lines and at the front,

some forming entirely female battalions.

June the 28th, 1942.

Serafima Amosova, commander

of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment,

took off for her first mission.

Piloting a fragile biplane,

she silently glided at low altitude over enemy lines.

Shutting off her engine to avoid detection.

She dropped her bombs,

narrowly escaping heavily flak from below.

This daring raid inaugurated the legend

of the Night Witches, female pilots

whose nocturnal missions would terrify Nazi troops.

Despite their pivotal roles,

after the war, women were largely pushed back

into traditional positions.

Yet, their extraordinary wartime contributions

left a lasting legacy in the struggles for equality.

Six months after Stalingrad,

Soviet forces had advanced nearly 600 kilometers,

forming a salient around the Kursk region,

one Hitler was determined to eliminate.

He mobilized substantial resources

to halt intense Russian artillery fire.

The panzers charged forward only to meet fierce resistance

from Soviet T-34 tanks.

The battle decisively demonstrated Soviet superiority

on the eastern front.

The Red Army took the lead in liberating Europe,

and Stalin secured a strong bargaining position

for future negotiations.

Ironically, these Soviet tanks,

celebrated as instruments of liberation,

would later become symbols of fear across post-war Europe.

The Soviet economy successfully adapted

to war conditions

by relocating factories eastward, far from the front lines,

and by standardizing production methods

to create simple, yet robust, weapons.

By 1943, Soviet tank production had quadrupled

from the previous year,

vastly outperforming the Reich,

and proving the Soviet economic model could match that

of other major powers.

The eastern front had become a graveyard for Nazi ambitions.

Meanwhile, another front was opening in Italy.

On July the 10th, 1943, the Allies landed in Sicily.

General Patton, commanding American troops,

General Montgomery, leading British forces,

quickly became heroes of Allied propaganda,

frequently filmed and celebrated.

Patton, wearing his Colt on his belt,

fiery and charismatic,

symbolized America's fearless resolve.

Montgomery played the calm, meticulous strategist.

Fire.

They were outnumbered by Axis forces

on the island, but Italian and German forces

crumbled in just two weeks.

And the two German divisions holding Sicily retreated.

On July the 25th, Mussolini,

betrayed by his own inner circle,

was removed from power and imprisoned.

After more than 20 years under dictatorship,

Italians joyfully celebrated in the streets

as their tyrant fell.

From Italy, British and American bombers

could now strike southern Germany,

previously untouched.

Even as the north already burned under heavy bombardment.

For months, Allied bombers had relentlessly

targeted German industrial facilities and urban centers.

Seeking unconditional surrender,

no matter the human cost.

Germany erupted into flames.

On July the 27th, 1943,

Hamburg was devastated by a relentless rain

of incendiary bombs.

Temperatures reached 750 degrees Celsius,

melting windows and asphalt alike.

From his plane

above Hamburg, Royal Air Force Officer Trevor Tympani

watched the immense inferno engulfing the city.

Below, Henne Klonk, clutching her infant,

fled her burning apartment with her husband.

Their neighbor wasn't so lucky,

set ablaze before their very eyes.

37,000 civilians perished in Hamburg,

and 60% of the city lay in ruins.

The Allies deliberately targeted civilian populations,

escalating the brutality.

Soon, other German cities would share the same fate.

By the war's end, the devastation was so profound,

Germans spoke of year zero.

This systematic destruction spread across all Europe,

leveling entire cities,

and forcing massive reconstruction

that would permanently reshape them.

Yet, the Axis powers refused to collapse.

On September the 3rd, 1943,

the Allies landed on mainland Italy.

Secretly, Italy's king and prime minister

negotiated an armistice.

But when the Germans discovered this betrayal,

they swiftly seized Rome and occupied Northern Italy.

The country was now divided in two:

royalists in the south,

loyalists of Il Duce in the north.

The fallen dictator, imprisoned in isolation high

in the Apennine Mountains,

became the centerpiece of a spectacular rescue,

orchestrated

by a weakened Germany desperate for a propaganda victory.

On September the 12th, 1943,

an elite commando unit of 382 Waffen-SS soldiers

freed Mussolini in a daring raid,

carefully filmed by Nazi propaganda to boost morale.

Mussolini was promptly reinstalled

as the figurehead of a puppet state,

a mere shadow of the fascist empire he once dreamt of.

Through Hitler's will alone,

Italian fascism appeared reborn.

Proof that the Nazi machine remained dangerously effective.

Soon, Nazis began organizing the deportation

of Italian Jews,

something Mussolini has previously resisted.

Every day, hundreds of trains crossed Europe,

carrying deported Jews toward death camps.

Despite mounting defeats and fading prospects of victory,

Nazi priorities did not waver.

Instead, the Holocaust intensified.

Writer Primo Levi was arrested two months later

and deported to Auschwitz.

"We traveled here in sealed wagons.

We watched our women

and children disappear into nothingness.

None of us will return.

Nobody will ever leave this place alive to bear witness,

branded into their flesh

of what man did to man at Auschwitz."

In Denmark, until then spared the roundups,

Nazis planned the deportation of the Jewish population.

But this time, they faced determined resistance.

An underground network emerged.

Danish citizens hid their Jewish neighbors,

warning them in advance.

For nearly three weeks,

every night, fishing boats spirited entire families

away to safety.

On October the 3rd, 1943, in northern Denmark,

Henny Sinding, age 22, hurriedly guided a Jewish family

aboard a fishing boat.

From the lighthouse, her father kept watch.

On the docks,

Otto Andersen, a crew member, distracted German patrols.

Quietly, the small vessel slipped away into darkness

heading towards freedom in Sweden.

Within days, nearly 90% of Denmark's Jews were rescued.

This unparalleled nationwide mobilization

earned Denmark's resistance

the collective honor of righteous among the nations.

Yet, the war was far from over.

German military setbacks convinced Hitler

that the continent itself

must become an impregnable fortress.

Along 2,600 kilometers of coastline,

he ordered construction of the Atlantic Wall,

a formidable defense line of bunkers,

forts, and gun emplacements.

Ironically, the Fuhrer,

who'd effortlessly bypassed the Maginot Line,

now relied on concrete fortifications

to repel an anticipated Allied invasion.

Hitler had good reason to worry.

In November, 1943, the Allies met in Tehran.

These summits had become the place

where great powers shaped the world's future.

For the first time, Stalin attended.

No one ignored the stark ideological divide

between Communist dictatorship and democracy,

yet coordination was essential for the final assault

on Nazi Germany.

The Soviets would push from the east,

while the Allies launched a massive invasion from the west.

The countdown had begun.

Five months remained until D-Day.