Original subtitles

In just two weeks,

the German army storms France and Belgium,

pushing hundreds of thousands of English and French soldiers

to the sea at Dunkirk.

They revolutionized the war.

They realized that speed is the key,

so they created fast armored units.

I use tanks with new radio technology

And Luftwaffe support. That's the novelty.

Brutal aerial bombardment ...

tanks that move fast

And a superhuman infantry.

We're talking about Blitzkrieg, the lightning war.

Blitzkrieg ?? ?? it means speed.

Maneuvering war.

A campaign based on quick and decisive attacks.

Blitzkrieg is one of the most

fascinating events of World War II.

Rare recordings from around the world,

professionally restored color, tell the story

as you have never heard it before.

After the defeat in the First World War, the Germans were proud and fierce

they are deeply humiliated.

The enslaving terms of the Treaty of Versailles

I put salt on the wound.

World industrial power

It is limited to an army of 100,000 soldiers

He's losing territory.

The Germans feel constrained by the Treaty of Versailles,

which says that the Germans are guilty

the beginning of the war.

Many Germans were outraged

the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles,

the reduction of the army to 100,000 soldiers,

loss of territory and repairs

which were known to have devastating economic consequences.

They objected because they were insinuating

that Germany was responsible for World War I.

And that was the punishment.

How can their powerful nation be defeated?

And why are they forced to cede territory to more insignificant countries?

Territorial losses are significant.

In the East, they are losing territory to the Poles and the Czechs

And they are obliged to demilitarize the islands

so as not to be launching ramps for a new invasion

of Belgium and France.

Enraged by hatred, a populist demagogue

He takes advantage of the wounded pride of the Germans and promises to recover

what was lost.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party began to become popular with the masses.

The Germans see him as a savior,

a man who will regain lost greatness.

After the promotion of the Treaty of Versailles,

most Germans felt

that the stipulated measures were unnecessarily draconian,

both the surrender of territory and reparations for war.

Treaty of Versailles

blamed Germany for World War I, most citizens

considering that they are no more guilty than others.

That poisoned them.

Hitler declares that the Germans are suffering

of deep political and economic insecurity .

Most need a unitary spirit

And economic security on which to rely.

The Nazis give them this by talking

about the involvement of the state in all areas to create jobs.

In the construction of highways and all that.

At the beginning of the Hitler era, most Germans considered it a success.

Hitler reuºeºte sane eliminate

the clauses of the Treaty of Versailles step by step.

By violating the treaty, Hitler consolidates his army

It tests the tolerance of the allies

convinced that no one wants to start another war.

In 1935, he introduced compulsory military service

And the following year, he set out again for the Rhineland

with 30,000 soldiers.

Hitler's long-term plan

is to strengthen its position in Europe,

defeat of Western powers, France and Britain

to then turn your attention to the East,

territories they consider suitable for German expansion.

A place where the German population can expand,

can gather resources and defeat the Bolshevik monster,

which he considers the deadly enemy of fascism.

When the Nazis shamelessly enter Austria,

on 12 March 1938,

they are received with open arms by the Austrians.

Western allies are doing nothing.

Western allies stood with their hands on their chests.

One of the reasons was that they believed

that the Austrians probably wanted to ally with the Germans,

that is, they were not obliged.

Violation of the Treaty of Versailles is a serious matter,

but the allies did not react.

Many believe that Germany has been humiliated enough

by the Treaty of Versailles.

They understand that Germany wants to be a major player again.

On the other hand, the allied countries do not want to risk a new war.

They know from World War I that a war means

Thousands, even millions of victims want to avoid this.

Austria is now in German hands,

Hitler makes public his goal of incorporating areas of Czechoslovakia

in the growing territory of Germany.

It is a country rich in natural resources, such as iron.

The statements alarm the allies, but they still want to avoid conflict.

In September 1938,

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain

goes to Germany three times

hoping to persuade Hitler not to invade Czechoslovakia.

I kept saying:

If you fail the first time,

don't give up. ??

That's what I do.

On the third visit,

joins French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier

And to Benito Mussolini,

at the so-called Munich Conference.

They agreed with Hitler to annex Germany

The region of the South, where German is spoken, but don't try

to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia.

The next morning, Chamberlain signs a separate agreement with Hitler.

a peace agreement between Great Britain and Germany.

Chamberlain is greeted like a hero.

Chamberlain returns to London's Heston Airport

waving this document and talking about peace.

It is a separate agreement that he has personally made

with Hitler.

Last morning,

I had another discussion

with German Chancellor Herr Hitler.

This is the paper

which we both signed.

He avoided war. Undoubtedly

that Hitler could not wait

to enter into force in Czechoslovakia.

This was avoided.

We consider the agreement signed last night

And the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as a wish

of our peoples to never fight again.

While Chamberlain was giving the speech,

German forces are preparing to enter the Southern Region.

In March 1939, Hitler invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia.

It is clear that Hitler's plan is not just to regain territory,

but also the expansion of Germany's borders to the east.

Hitler's desire is to create a huge German empire

in Central and Eastern Europe.

Are they ready for war? It will continue to force

slowly and surely, one after another,

These important countries, Austria, Czechoslovakia

they will begin to give in, and he will be able to

to build this new huge empire,

a vital space for the German people.

France and the United Kingdom are worried

that Hitler's next move would be Poland.

So they put their foot in the door.

If Hitler invades Poland, they will declare war.

Hitler now-in creed.

The German chancellor is more concerned with the reaction

his enemies, the Soviets.

In August 1939, Hitler declared a non-aggression pact

with his ideological enemy, Stalin,

in which they decide not to attack each other.

While Western allies are struggling to understand this strange alliance,

on September 1, the two countries reveal their intentions

when Hitler invades western Poland.

The Polish army, on horseback, cannot withstand German tanks,

but they are brave opponents.

In 16 days, the Soviet Union invades Poland

from the east.

It's a cynical deal.

The Russians will have free hand and part of the eastern area,

including the recovery of lost territories

in the First World War.

And the Germans will have

free hand to invade Poland

without fear that the Russians will retaliate.

In fact, they had made a deal to divide the country among themselves.

Keeping his word, on September 3, 1939

Britain and France declare war on Germany.

Hitler was taken by surprise.

When he hears that Marie Britain

He declared war on him in particular, he was shocked

And a counselor asks himself: ?? What's next ???

He never believed

that these countries were declaring war on him because of a region in Eastern Europe.

The next day,

troops from the British Expeditionary Forces

I'm leaving for France

to join the most powerful army in the world.

They're going to the Belgian border,

where they are preparing for the German attack.

Percy Taylor Beaton, soldier in the Royal Geniuses,

was called to London and boarded a ship,

to Cherbourg, France.

People cheered and cheered.

The soldiers were led with tears in their eyes.

People cheered us on the streets when they saw us,

when I left Bethnal Green.

Thousands came,

they led us and cheered us on.

I don't think they understood what war meant.

They thought it would pass.

Once you arrive in France, at first it was like a vacation.

One in which we stumbled.

In reality, Hitler is unprepared

to fight with the British and French armies.

His army defeats the Poles in over 20 days.

Polish soldiers beat Hitler's army

And they have lost a substantial number

of tanks.

It is clear that Germany is not ready for war.

The German army has tanks and tank divisions,

but it represents a small part of the Wehrmacht.

We have no well-trained soldiers, no supplies or ammunition.

Poland has been proof that we may not be able to

to fight against a real army, as France had.

France has the most trained and equipped army in Europe.

How can we Germans ...

to win?

No way. We'll lose.

In reality, the Wehrmacht is an army

which will become dependent on horses for transportation

And for all logistics.

Only 10% of German divisions are motorized.

The French army has formidable artillery

And over 3,000 tanks on the northeast front,

800 more than the Germans.

Although he faces a weakened Germany

And they have an obvious military advantage,

The Allies decide to stay put, not to attack.

After the outbreak of war in 1939,

there follows a long period called the Strange War

in which the Germans decide how to act

ºi aliaþii aºteaptã.

One of the reasons the Allies remained defensive

is that the French had built an important defensive system,

Maginot Line, on the French-German border

to avoid the bloodshed of the First World War.

While the Allies wait, Hitler thinks about how to react.

He had his eyes on the eastern area.

Now, he faces an unexpected threat from the West.

Hermann Göring and his generals are campaigning

to persuade him not to declare war on France,

so he presents a plan doomed to failure.

All generals were against the war.

They said, "Don't negotiate." Do something,

but we can't solve the problem

with the army. ??

They presented Hitler with a timid plan of war

And he said, What is this?

It's the same as in 1914.

Where are the new, innovative ideas?

Now so more ??

The leaders of the German army do not want war.

At the end of 1939, their conviction

was that Hitler was forcing the attack on France

And that they will be defeated.

In the First World War I fought for four years with France,

with a large army, much better trained and lost.

The original plan made by Hitler's conservative generals

copies the scenario of the First World War,

the invasion of the Netherlands and northern Belgium,

as well as the invasion of northern France.

It is a plan that highlights the strengths of the Allies,

specially created to end a disaster.

How can you make a dictator change his mind?

You can't tell him he's an idiot and that he has to negotiate.

But if you convince him,

From a military point of view, he will lose a possible war ...

That was about their plan.

Don't give him a plan of success.

Give a general ambitions,

Erich von Manstein, a Prussian aristocrat, leaves the party.

Suggests a plan with a higher chance of success.

Conservative generals intervene quickly to shut their mouths.

Von Manstein thinks he could get the advantage

quickly attacking French lines and disorienting the enemy.

Attacking them at a much faster speed than expected

it could make them retire

And to completely confuse them,

and in the confusion created it could advance a great deal,

and the infantry that would come behind would destroy

the French army inside.

With von Manstein's plan postponed, Hitler took advantage of the Strange War

to get iron ore to make weapons.

His army invades Denmark and southern Norway.

The British immediately identify the danger.

Germany to defend its northern flank

And access to the Baltic Sea,

decided to invade Norway and Denmark,

on April 9, 1940.

The British retaliated

trying to land troops in Norway.

They will lose many precious resources

in front of the Germans, iron ore and others from Norway,

And they are obliged to prevent this.

Unprepared to retaliate,

allies land troops in Norway,

but their operation is undecided and incompetent.

The Germans introduce their new armed forces into the game ,

Luftwaffe, with great results.

Stuka dive bombers wreak havoc on the Allies.

It's a terrible humiliation for Western allies,

and by the beginning of May 1940,

The Allies left Norway, which remains under German control.

Meanwhile, the insistent General von Manstein

He finds a moment to present Hitler's plan.

He knows he has only one chance.

Von Manstein sees an opportunity to change Hitler's view,

He says, " We have to do something different."

Let's do it, let's make the most of it

armored divisions and Luftwaffe

And let's use the element of surprise. Let's do something unexpected.

Hitler supports his plan, he seems much bolder.

This plan seems more likely to succeed quickly,

compared to the wrong plan devised by the other generals.

On 10 May, the British Prime Minister,

Neville Chamberlain is forced to resign after the failure in Norway.

He is replaced by Winston Churchill.

Churchill was bold and had an oscillating political career,

but he was the one in the 1930s

he insisted on not liking Hitler.

We have to hold his chest.

Finally, Churchill is given the chance to lead the British into war.

In his first speech, in the House of Commons,

new prime minister announces:

I will tell the Chamber,

as I said to members of the government ...

I have nothing to offer but blood,

pain, sweat and tears.

The day Churchill became prime minister,

Germany is devastatingly attacking Belgium and the Netherlands.

German paratroopers capture strategic bridges in the Netherlands.

The Luftwaffe is bombing the airfields.

Airborne troops are parachuted to overwhelm their smaller neighbors.

It seems clear that Hitler wants to capture the English Channel ports

And the bases from which he will be able to invade Britain.

Must capture the English Channel ports ,

otherwise the German navy is blocked.

They have access to the North and Baltic Seas , but they can't get out.

If they have access to the ports of the Canal

And to the French in the Atlantic,

from there they have unrestricted access to the ocean.

The Allies are ready for this move and retaliate,

sending the best units to Belgium to meet the attack.

At that time, reconnaissance planes were sending conflicting news from the south.

They reported a huge traffic jam on the road to the Ardennes,

which stretched to the border with Germany.

The problem is that the French refuse to believe

reconnaissance pilot reports.

General Gamelin, Supreme Commander of the French Army,

He says it's impossible, that it can't be true.

This is ignored.

It was a huge mistake, von Manstein's plan was in progress.

Air reconnaissance was correct.

The Germans had gathered at the foot of the Ardennes

And now I pass through the woods and over the river Meuse,

from the border with France.

The French had small units

on the river Meuse, near the Ardennes, because they did not expect it

Be attacked there.

Invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium

it was intended to attract allies to the north.

He wanted to attract the elite of the allied armies

in the north of France, in Belgium and in the south of the Netherlands,

and the main attack, through the Ardennes,

to surround them and cut off their retreat.

It's a clever plan. They will surround them in Belgium.

They will attack through the Ardennes, through this difficult relief.

They will cross the Meuse River, then advance to the English Channel

They will be surrounded by the British Expeditionary Forces

And the French army in Belgium.

They will take the Allies by surprise.

The element of surprise is always an essential element

in winning a war.

The operation will use time, speed and boldness

to compensate for the inferiority of the German infantry.

Use the latest technologies.

It promises a quick victory.

The impression is that not only will the French army defeat ,

but it will annihilate the entire British army.

The new British Prime Minister, Churchill,

He lives a nightmare as German tanks parade

to the city of Sedan, on the French border.

If the French had taken air reconnaissance seriously ,

the German army would have been in their hands.

Military traffic jams acted like German artillery

be very vulnerable.

The traffic jam reaches colossal dimensions.

French reconnaissance aircraft notice this.

At that time, it would have been possible

to organize all the French and English bombers

And to attack them.

It would have stopped the German advance

He would have ended his war. Everything that followed would have been avoided.

I get angry every time I think about it.

They missed a major opportunity.

The Germans make the most of it,

in an amazing demonstration of speed.

Before the French retaliate, the Germans advance on the city of Sedan.

Infantry, armor and artillery show unusual resistance,

overcoming all enemy defense.

Almost without stopping, they reach the Sedan in three days.

Many German soldiers have not slept since the beginning of the operation.

The French can't believe their eyes.

German tanks enter the Sedan without opposition.

The French defense is suddenly confronted

with 60,000 Germans

in 22,000 vehicles and 850 tanks.

After three days of march,

the Germans are not going to stop.

I am preparing to cross the river Meuse in three places.

The plan is an example of a Bewegungskrieg textbook ,

a maneuver war for which the Germans are well known.

Its architect is Heinz Guderian,

a general who knows how to combine new technology

with the traditional German war tactics ,

attacking and overwhelming the enemy,

then encircle it before it can react.

Guderian is very skilled

the use of new methods of combat, the Luftwaffe as an air artillery,

new mobile equipment, trucks, mobile artillery

And, of course, tanks, armored vehicles and new radio technology.

The Supreme Commander of the French Army, Maurice Gamelin

orders that the Sedan be defended at all costs,

but he prepared his troops for another war of attrition,

as in the First World War.

When there is a need for troops to be mobile,

I don't know how to proceed.

Nobody expects the nightmare that will follow.

Waves of dive bombers attack the French defense.

Almost no hopper is hit directly

And only 56 people die,

but the psychological effect

the sound of bombers and the sound of bombs is devastating.

These German attacks

They are absolutely catastrophic for the French defense.

It quickly becomes obvious

that the morale of the French is destroyed by these attacks

And that they fail to counterattack properly.

My conclusion is that this is the legacy of World War I.

Those long years of wear and tear in which they died

Extraordinarily many French people have left their mark

on the next generation who doesn't want to go through that anymore.

Following the confusion, the German infantry crossed the Meuse.

It's a dangerous maneuver.

German forces are now isolated and vulnerable to a counterattack.

On the evening of May 13, although several Germans

they have crossed the river, their situation is vulnerable.

At that moment, no tank had crossed the river,

and this was an opportunity for the French to counterattack.

But French tank pilots were traumatized

And they reacted slowly.

Until they came back to you

They organized an attack on May 14,

Guderian had crossed the river with enough armor on the bridges made by the geniuses

to destroy French tanks.

They had no tactics.

The biggest problem of the French

It's that they don't have any communication systems.

General Gamelin, the supreme commander

of French forces, is at the Castle of Vincennes,

on the outskirts of Paris, but doesn't even have a phone,

believing it's a security risk.

A madness!

The French depend on the telephone lines on the front

which are interrupted by the attacks of the Stuka bombers, and the cavalry messengers

take messages very late,

because the roads are crowded with refugees.

The French believed that the Germans would need two weeks

to get to the sedan.

Not three days.

Three days and three nights,

the savage and unstoppable attack did not stop at all.

The soldiers were like superhumans.

It was becoming increasingly clear that this German army

it was as it had never been before.

The French did not know that the German army

he had a secret weapon.

The weapon was manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Temmler.

Pervitin is a potent methamphetamine,

known today as crystallized methamphetamine.

The drug was sold over the counter in Germany

And it proves invaluable on the front.

Pervitin is considered the ideal medicine to fight fatigue.

It is used in World War II especially by armored crews

And pilots flying at night.

Troops that are close to the enemy

And which must remain active longer.

Pervitin was also used by German citizens.

They could buy it from the pharmacy and use it

to stay awake and work.

As the war continues, Pervitin

it began to be easily accessible to German troops and aviators.

Methamphetamine can alleviate empathy

It makes you feel like a superman,

exactly the qualities needed for a super soldier.

Many reports before the attacks began on May 10, 1940,

mentions that many soldiers were depressed, did not want to fight,

which reminded him of World War I.

The morale of the Germans was quite low,

but once they took methamphetamine,

morale has risen significantly.

German tactics of lightning war

rely on fast tanks, air superiority,

real-time communications and fearless and tireless soldiers.

For the first time in the history of wars,

the army did not need to rest at night,

it could go on for three days and three nights.

Without Pervitin, this would have been impossible.

The drug helps to turn a person into a fighting robot.

Imagine almost a hundred thousand people,

arm yourself to the teeth, storming enemy territory.

The situation becomes uncontrollable.

The side effects of Pervitin are that it makes you thoughtless.

It gives you crazy courage.

On May 14, when crossing the river Meuse ...

These guys had to keep going.

The fights go on until the evening and beyond.

How do you keep them active? Then take a tablet of Pervitin

it wasn't a bad idea.

You had better suffer from the side effects than die.

In the north, the mock attack is on the rise.

The Germans bomb the Port of Rotterdam,

killing about 1,000 people.

The Dutch are so shocked by the number of victims

And the destruction of the center of Rotterdam,

so that they surrender.

In just four days, the Dutch are defeated.

After the elimination of the French defense from the Sedan,

Guderian is ordered to stop to wait for the infantry.

He ignores orders.

Flanked by his subordinates on motorcycles, he goes in front of the tanks

continuing the advance through France.

Guderian is very dynamic. He's smart, polite,

He has rich experience

And he's not afraid of new things. And ...

he is not afraid of making decisions.

I ignore the orders of superiors

And keep moving forward to get the amazing victory

for Germany

or I stop and wait for the infantry to come,

losing momentum and everything else?

He told her he would ignore orders and move on.

French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud

He is shocked by the speed with which the Germans are advancing.

He calls the British Prime Minister and tells him the terrible news.

We can see that Reynaud was panicking.

He calls Churchill on the phone

He tells her that the battle is lost.

After only five days: The battle is lost.

The Germans entered France with so many people

so I don't think we can stop them. ??

The Germans are approaching the capital of France,

and Churchill fears the French may not respond quickly enough

with the necessary counterattack.

Churchill understood that everything was falling apart

Just at that moment and that was important

for the French to continue the fight,

to continue to fight back and fight.

To organize permanent counter-offensives

And do not give up morally.

On May 16, just six days after his appointment as prime minister,

Churchill flies to Paris to try to strengthen the French resistance.

He is determined to do something

to keep the French in battle,

because if they give in, Britain will be left alone.

On May 20, 1940,

just ten days after crossing the German border,

Guderian's decision to ignore the orders of his superiors proves correct

And it reaches the Atlantic.

It takes a lot of courage to make such a decision,

because if you make a mistake and the result is negative,

you are defeated in great trouble,

especially in a totalitarian and militaristic state such as Nazi Germany.

But he has the courage to uphold his beliefs and take action.

The result is extraordinary, unprecedented in history.

The risk taken by Hitler with von Manstein's plan paid off.

The bulk of the Allied troops are now trapped in a narrow corridor.

This means that the Allied armies in the north,

including the British Expeditionary Forces,

their supply lines were cut off .

Allied troops in Belgium,

surrounded on all sides by Germans,

fighting now in Belgium, and in the Netherlands,

completely surrounded by the German army,

the only ways to escape were to break the German lines

or be saved from the sea.

Guderian will need a few more days

to block the last escape route to the coast,

And to permanently encircle one million Allied soldiers.

Surrounded, the British begin to make plans

evacuation of troops by sea,

and Churchill decides that in Calais

It's the best place to send ships.

Send three elite regiments to defend the city of Calais,

but the Germans annihilate them

I'm conquering the city.

The loss of life is terrible, but this operation

allows the BEF to make other plans.

The decision to send troops to Calais is the key to the story,

for without that locking force

which was eventually captured by the Germans,

the rest of the British Expeditionary Forces and the French army

they will not have enough time to get to Dunkirk

And build a perimeter of defense to help them be saved.

When hundreds of thousands

Allied soldiers are about to be slaughtered or captured,

Hitler makes an extremely controversial decision .

When German forces close

pushed the Allies into the English Channel,

Hitler orders them to stop.

German tank officers wondered:

Are they crazy? Have they lost their minds? We will win.

Yes, we are exhausted and we have no more supplies, but ...

speed is our salvation.

We don't have to stop.

But they clearly received the order

And, indeed, they stopped, then began to wonder:

What the hell is going on here? It's absurd. ??

One of the reasons was that the generals

they acted independently in the previous days , defying Hitler's orders.

Hitler wanted to prove that he was the supreme commander of the war

And they had to listen to him.

The man behind the decision

He is the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring.

He convinced Hitler that he deserved the annihilation of Allied soldiers

It should not belong to the German army, but to the Luftwaffe, which is full of Nazis.

Hermann Göring was a very influential Nazi

who considered the Luftwaffe to be the weapon of the future.

He said: “Let me act with the Luftwaffe.

There are safe targets on the beach, which they can destroy from the air.

With the army you can act in the south and destroy

the rest of the French army, you can conquer Paris and follow them

to the Loire, if that's where it goes.

The Luftwaffe can do this without the involvement of ground forces.

When this branch of the army was taken from the Germans at Versailles,

they did not expect them to restore it

stronger and stronger under the command of Adolf Hitler.

But Göring's plan soon begins to fall apart.

Conveniently for the British, the sky was cloudy

during the evacuation, aggravated situation and the fact

that the Germans had bombed the Dunkirk oil refinery

Heavy clouds of smoke rose to 4,500 m in the air.

So they couldn't see anything.

Low visibility prevents

Luftwaffe to drop bombs

And even when it starts to clear,

Stuka planes hit targets hard.

When you drop bombs from 1,800 m,

A destroyer full of people looks like a pencil

ºi se miºcã de colo colo

And it is extremely difficult to hit something in motion

from that distance.

Göring's planes face an unexpected weapon.

In the squadrons sent by the Combat Aircraft Command

in the south of England to help with the evacuation

There is an excellent new fighter jet,

Supermarine Spitfire.

For the first time, the Aircraft Command

he was able to challenge German air superiority.

I'm sending Spitfire and Hurricane planes from the south-east of England to Dunkirk

to help with the evacuation and he is doing quite well.

They suffer losses, but they are quite effective

They destroy a large number of German bombers.

The Luftwaffe bombs Royal Navy ships ,

but it fails to annihilate French and British forces on the beaches

or their lifeboats, as Göring hoped.

Cecil Ingram, a soldier in the Royal Engineers, recalls the evacuation.

I was a mass of soldiers

And we were bombed all the time,

so we tried to protect ourselves as best we could,

burying ourselves in the sand as long as we could.

I was sitting on the ground.

I could hear and see the bombs dropped by Stuka fall

And the awful noise as they plummeted.

Honestly, I was a little scared ...

because we didn't know what to expect.

The roads were destroyed.

I think the most appropriate word is "chaotic".

Finally I got up and went into the water

holding the wet gun up.

I managed to get on a ship.

My legs were bleeding.

As far as England, I lay on the deck of this ship.

Private Stanley William, of the Royal Auxiliary Troops,

survived a German air strike over the English Channel.

I entered Dunkirk during an air raid.

There were many strong air raids. A direct hit killed 100 people.

I saw planes approaching, then they started firing machine guns

killing about 60 people and injuring many others, including myself.

I took refuge in a niche.

Bullets flew inches from my feet,

If he had stayed on the deck, he would have been killed or ...

I lost a finger and received a bullet in the shoulder.

Churchill initially hopes

to save about 45,000 soldiers from death or captivity.

But thanks to the navy, small ships and the RAF,

Nearly 340,000 were rescued.

They gathered a huge number

of civil mud,

and they voluntarily crossed the English Channel

They risked their lives to coordinate with the Royal Navy

And to save a large part of the troops at Dunkirk.

Göring is humiliated.

Unable to stop the British rescue operation in Dunkirk,

Hitler directs his armies to Paris.

Trying to keep its precious capital intact,

the French flee and let her be captured.

The French knew

how the Germans bombed

Rotterdamul ºi Varºovia,

they saw the destruction caused in those cities

And they didn't want Paris,

A jewel of architecture, to suffer the same.

They declared it an open city and moved its government south.

German troops enter the city on June 14.

The French government moves to Tours,

then to Bordeaux.

Prime Minister Reynaud is replaced by the 84-year-old war hero,

Mareºalul Philippe Pétain.

Petain is a little defeatist.

He is quite convinced that the French have lost the battle.

The most important thing was to avoid a revolution,

to avoid the final collapse of the French army

And the best way to do that is to negotiate an armistice.

Northern France and the Atlantic coast

are now occupied by the Germans.

The south is declared an unoccupied area

He is led by the puppet regime of Marshal Pétain

from the Vichy spa resort.

Pétain's authoritarian regime replaces the French motto

"Freedom, equality, fraternity",

with a new slogan, ?? Work, family, homeland. ??

Hundreds of thousands of French workers are deported to Nazi Germany

to forced labor to support the war effort.

They replace the enlisted Germans

on the Eastern Front.

The speed of the German victory is astonishing.

The Lightning War was a great success.

The German generals were thinking

always at the ?? perfect war ??.

For them, war is an art.

Germany attacked with a lower army.

Lower quantitatively and qualitatively,

but superior in mentality.

We, as generals, dream of the perfect war.

The whole war plan ...

since 1940

it was aimed at the perfect war.

And that's because the British and the French

they made all the mistakes they could make.

The Nazis exploit the triumphant victory over France

to create a grand show in front of news agencies,

Finally erasing the humiliating experience

from the First World War.

Germany's victory against France

it was the greatest military victory in German history.

It was a triumphant event for Germany,

and Hitler was smart enough to strike a blow

by signing the armistice.

It was not signed in a hidden place, without significance,

s-a creat un moment special, propagandistic.

This time, Hitler was the one enjoying the moment.

Reconstructing the moment of signing the armistice of November 1918,

he orders the wagon to be driven

in the same place, at Compiegne,

where Germany signed the armistice in World War I.

This time, the French will be the humiliated

in front of the cameras.

He took the wagon from the museum,

took him to the place of the signing of the armistice of the First World War,

And in that place,

the French leadership had to sign the armistice.

The symbolism was that, after this victory,

somehow Germany took revenge on the defeat of the First World War.

Reporters and cameras were present ,

and after a few days,

Hitler decided to take the wagon

back to Germany and destroy the site of the 1918 armistice,

considered an act of humiliation of Germany.

Now we had won.

We had won the war that began in 1914.

It's a combination of World War I and World War II,

and we won it.

This is how we overcame the defeat of the First World War.

We are no longer defeated, we have won.

Terrible defeat

from World War I is in the past, it's forgotten,

And Hitler got it.

Hitler.

The greatest leader of all time.