Original subtitles

[wind whistling]

[Volkmar] That morning, the sea was rather rough.

This British convoy was detected in the mid-Atlantic...

like a pin in a haystack.

We followed the convoy all day long.

And then when night came, we dived.

They were so close,

we could hear the swish of the ships' propellors running right overhead.

This was it.

When the torpedo hits, it gives a bang.

[explosion]

That's what we have been waiting for, for days.

[explosion]

It was a wonderful sight.

This was a perfect job.

[narrator] It's 1941.

The war is intensifying.

And Hitler is winning.

His air force is attacking Britain.

And London is burning.

[newscaster] German raiders last night made a two-hour attack.

Thousands of firebombs were showered down in London.

[Winston Churchill] Hitler is a monster of wickedness,

insatiable in his lust for blood.

[narrator] British Prime Minister Churchill

is begging America to intervene,

but so far without success.

[Franklin Roosevelt] Your boys are not going into any foreign war.

[crowd applauding]

Together, Germany, Italy and Japan, the Axis powers, seem unstoppable.

And now, Hitler moves three million troops to the Soviet border,

as he starts the next phase of his plan to conquer the world.

[Heinz in German] I was a messenger.

We were summoned and each given a sealed folder.

I took mine to my lieutenant.

He opened it.

"This order is to be destroyed immediately."

He took a lighter and burned it.

It was an order to attack the next morning.

[narrator] These are orders to attack the Soviet Union.

Codenamed "Operation Barbarossa,"

it will be the biggest invasion in human history.

Hitler tells his generals he wants a war against the people.

A war of annihilation.

[Wolfgang] The strength of our army,

the power being unleashed, it was quite something.

Quite a spectacle.

So we were confident.

[soldier in German] Fire!

[newscaster] News has suddenly burst from Europe

that Germany has declared war on Russia.

[newscaster 2] Adolf Hitler's Blitzkrieg forces have been unleashed

against the Soviet Union on a 2,000-mile front.

[Gabbas in Russian] We woke up thinking it was a thunderstorm.

We went outside.

"Guys, that's not a thunderstorm, that's war."

[commentator] This German invasion of Soviet Russia is the ultimate proof

that Hitler has planned the domination of every country in the world.

[cheering]

[narrator] Such is the hatred for Stalin's dictatorship,

that in some areas the Germans are even welcomed.

[Albert in German] Stalin, for them, was synonymous with atrocities.

Stalin let a lot of people starve to death or had them shot.

[Bernhard in German] For us they weren't on the same level to German people.

It was war.

We had orders to destroy them.

[narrator] Hitler's forces are now rapidly spreading across the globe.

They've reached Norway and the Arctic Circle.

They're heading towards the Middle East.

And now he's sending his favorite general, Rommel,

to conquer North Africa.

[wind whistling]

[Winrich in German] It was so exciting.

We were the first German troops to go to Africa.

We were entering the unknown.

There, right on the quay...

...gesturing us to hurry up, was General Rommel himself.

[narrator] Rommel's on a mission to drive out the British

from Libya and Egypt.

For the North Africans caught in the middle,

there's not much love for the British Empire.

[El Latif in Arabic] World War II, it had nothing to do with us.

The British behaved as if they owned the country.

We hated them.

We liked the Germans,

although we didn't know much about them.

[explosions]

[in German] Fire!

[narrator] Rommel's Afrika Korps makes stunning gains.

Forcing the British out of Libya.

[Winrich] Rommel told us to create huge dust clouds,

which we did by attaching brooms to our vehicles.

That effectively made it look like

three full armies were approaching.

The German army is so confident, they act like they're on vacation.

[Winrich] We had such superiority.

We could safely do whatever we wanted, go wherever we wanted.

It was so easy for us.

[newscaster] New, severe fighting in Libya was reported

by the German High Command today.

[narrator] Meanwhile, the German army has been storming through Eastern Europe.

[newscaster] Nazis smashing towards the Russian capital

have succeeded in breaking through another point.

[newscaster 2] The news from Russia continues to be grave.

The position around Kiev is critical.

[Adolf Hitler] We are 1,000 kilometers beyond the border.

We are facing Leningrad.

We are standing on the Black Sea.

[crowd cheering]

[narrator] Hitler's forces are now just 200 miles from Moscow.

And Hitler is already planning a victory parade.

The Red Army is retreating.

A million have been captured.

The Nazis feed them like animals.

[Wolfgang] What happened was ruthless.

But they were on a lower level to us.

You see, one divided Europe into three areas: Europe A, B and C.

So, Russia was Europe C, the lowest standard.

They are not civilized.

Subhuman.

That was our feeling.

[narrator] The Germans are not just here to fight a war.

Hitler wants them to attack civilians too and raze villages to the ground.

[Wolfgang] We had to burn people's houses, one house after the other.

So, I gave the order: "Pour out gas

and spread some straw and set them afire."

[cattle lowing]

[narrator] As the war in Europe descends into barbarism,

Churchill crosses the Atlantic

with a desperate plea to America to intervene.

He and President Roosevelt hold a secret meeting.

They talk for four days, but Roosevelt explains his hands are tied.

Let Europe fight her own battle. They mean nothing to us.

I haven't the slightest idea of European affairs.

War? Not for me.

This time, America should keep out, and I know I will.

[narrator] The American public is divided over the war.

But the president can give military aid.

He sends food and equipment across the ocean to Europe.

The job of protecting the convoys falls to the British Royal Navy,

who are patrolling the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea.

[David] My ship, HMS Barham, was like a floating city.

In battles, we feared nobody.

[plane engine humming]

We were the greatest navy in the world.

Britannia ruled the waves.

[narrator] David Holmes is part of a task force

hunting down an enemy fleet,

but what the British don't know is that they are also being hunted.

[David] The first torpedo struck and I thought,

"Don't need to worry about it."

The second one hit.

-[explosion] -[shouting]

And then the third and the fourth.

Then I really knew we were in trouble.

The ship went over at such a speed.

I had to stand on the hull of the ship.

[hull creaking]

I went up, how high, I don't know.

I was checking all my limbs, to see if I've got all my limbs.

You think to yourself, "If they can sink that ship as easy as that,

what chance have we got?"

[narrator] October 1941.

On the Eastern Front, winter is closing in.

The advance of Hitler's army finally begins to slow.

Their supply trucks can't get through.

Wolfgang Horn witnesses what his commander does next.

[Wolfgang] He ordered the shooting of Russian prisoners.

I heard the lieutenant calling, "This one too."

And then a shot.

[gun firing]

I heard shots again and again and again.

It was hard.

[soldier shouting in German]

[Heinz] Some soldiers came to us with a Russian prisoner.

My lieutenant gave me the order to shoot him.

We walked along a forest path.

I let him walk ahead of me.

Then I said, "Turn around."

At that time he probably assumed that his time had come.

I lowered my rifle and said...

"Don't be afraid. I'm not a killer, I am a human being."

He took a step towards me and held out his hand

and said, "Thank you."

"Peace be with you!"

And we parted ways.

[narrator] Heinz Drossel is a rare exception.

As well as prisoners, the German army

is now engaged in the mass execution of civilians.

Over a million Jewish people and other groups are murdered.

[newscaster] Despite the heavy snow

up and down virtually the entire Eastern Front,

reports here persist that German advances are still being made.

[narrator] November 1941.

[missiles whistling]

[newscaster] Reports from the East reveal that the Luftwaffe

are pounding the Moscow area, hour after hour.

[narrator] The Germans are 50 miles from the gates of Moscow.

[newscaster] The raids are the heaviest yet carried out

against the Soviet capital.

[narrator] Stalin has not been seen in months

and the whole war seems to hang in the balance.

A meeting is called

in the underground tunnels of the Moscow subway system.

[crowd applauding]

[in Russian] Comrades!

We have a determined enemy against us.

These people have the impudence

to call for the destruction of our great Russian nation.

So, from now on, our task

will be to exterminate all the Germans, to the last one.

If these Germans really want a war of annihilation, they can have it.

[cheering]

[narrator] Now, the Red Army fightback begins.

And the war is intensified further.

[missiles whistling]

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Japan's forces are on the attack.

They've annexed Korea.

They're in China.

And they want Hong Kong, Malaya and the Philippines...

as they seek to dominate the whole of Asia.

They know there's one thing that could stop them.

The U.S. Navy.

But they have a plan for that too.

[Takeshi in Japanese] Training started on September 18.

We had to fly low, just ten meters above the water.

We used buoys as targets.

We were training to drop torpedoes.

I knew the war had finally come,

though I didn't know against who yet.

[narrator] Japan has watched for months as America has debated

whether to join the war.

Now their leaders decide they're not going to wait to find out.

Instead, they'll launch a surprise attack

to destroy the American fleet at Pearl Harbor.

[Zenji in Japanese] I remember that morning vividly.

The lights from the back of the planes

were like a swarm of fireflies.

It was a beautiful sight.

They had no idea what we were planning,

but if it was Japan's destiny to fight America,

we could never meet them on a level playing field.

A surprise attack was our only option.

[Jack] It was Sunday morning,

and I was on third deck of the battleship Tennessee

and my job was to look out.

[plane engines humming]

All of a sudden, a torpedo plane flew right over our bow.

[sailors shouting]

[explosions]

I turned to see sailors being blown into the water.

Then we were just engulfed in smoke.

[narrator] Witnessing the attacks at Pearl Harbor is Harold Ward.

He calls in the news of what's happening.

[Harold] So, I put on the 'phones.

A voice from out of damage control.

He says, "What's going on up there?"

So, I told him that we were being attacked by Japanese air force.

"Don't you get wise with me, Ward. I asked you a question."

So, I began to describe what I was looking at.

And there was a dead silence when I finished speaking.

"Very well. Thank you."

[newscaster] We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin.

The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by air.

[telegraph beeping]

[newscaster 2] All Army and Navy bases on the island of Oahu and Hawaii...

[newscaster 3] President Roosevelt said in a statement today

that the Japanese have attacked the Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from the air.

I'll repeat that.

President Roosevelt says that the Japanese

have attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii from the air.

[Zenji] I saw smoke rising into the clouds.

It must have been 1,000 meters high.

Then we got a Morse code message: "Tiger, tiger, tiger!"

The mission was a success.

We were so happy!

[narrator] The Japanese have tried to take out the entire Pacific Fleet.

They have sunk five battleships and three destroyers.

And killed over 2,000 people.

But they haven't destroyed it all.

[Richard] I saw the destruction the next day.

I really couldn't believe it was true.

It was a shame and a humiliation.

I realized, this is only the beginning.

Now, this has to be war.

[Roosevelt] Yesterday, December 7th, 1941,

a date which will live in infamy,

the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked

by forces of the Empire of Japan.

I ask that the Congress declare

a State of War.

[applause]

[narrator] Now, finally, America fires up its war machine.

And it will take its revenge on the Japanese.

[subdued theme song playing]