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(peal of bells)
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00:00:21,479 --> 00:00:24,982
(narrator) Forlorn monsters today,
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00:00:25,066 --> 00:00:28,360
in May 1940,
these forts of the Maginot line
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00:00:28,445 --> 00:00:32,364
were France's first-line defence
against the Germans.
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00:00:38,413 --> 00:00:43,584
Half a million French soldiers
lurked beneath these man-made hills.
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00:00:46,171 --> 00:00:48,130
These were the most extensive,
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00:00:48,256 --> 00:00:52,551
the most elaborate forts
ever constructed.
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00:00:52,635 --> 00:00:56,013
Here the guns would halt the Hun -
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00:00:56,097 --> 00:00:58,766
provided the Hun came this way.
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00:02:05,083 --> 00:02:07,042
"Thank God for the French army,"
11
00:02:07,127 --> 00:02:10,212
said Winston Churchill
when Hitler came to power.
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00:02:10,296 --> 00:02:11,505
But in 1933
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00:02:11,589 --> 00:02:16,260
the French army was no longer
the superlative weapon it once had been.
14
00:02:18,263 --> 00:02:21,723
French military manuals
devoted page after page
15
00:02:21,808 --> 00:02:24,017
to the tactics of the First War,
16
00:02:24,102 --> 00:02:29,148
although Hitler had said, "The next war
will be very different from the last."
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00:02:33,987 --> 00:02:37,739
The French had helped introduce
the tank and the aeroplane,
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00:02:37,824 --> 00:02:41,160
but now did little to extend their use.
19
00:02:41,244 --> 00:02:44,329
They had pioneered motor transport
in warfare,
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00:02:44,455 --> 00:02:48,709
but went back now
to relying on railways and the horse -
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00:02:48,793 --> 00:02:50,669
especially the horse.
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00:03:01,764 --> 00:03:04,975
(man) It was a period
of very deep decay,
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00:03:05,059 --> 00:03:11,523
probably caused by the excess of effort
during the First World War.
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00:03:11,608 --> 00:03:16,153
We suffered from an illness
which is not peculiar to the French -
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00:03:16,237 --> 00:03:19,615
the illness of having been victorious
26
00:03:19,699 --> 00:03:24,077
and believing that we were right
and very clever.
27
00:03:25,205 --> 00:03:29,166
Victory is a very dangerous
opportunity.
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00:03:29,292 --> 00:03:32,294
(chanting in French)
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00:03:38,051 --> 00:03:42,221
(narrator) France between the wars
was deeply divided.
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00:03:42,305 --> 00:03:47,059
Factions clashed, alliances altered,
cabinets came and went in the cascade,
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00:03:47,143 --> 00:03:50,520
some lasting a few hours,
some a few months.
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00:03:50,647 --> 00:03:53,232
Rarely did one last a whole year.
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00:03:59,197 --> 00:04:04,660
On the very day Hitler came to power
France was without a government.
34
00:04:04,744 --> 00:04:10,082
It was again without one when he
marched into Austria five years later.
35
00:04:15,713 --> 00:04:17,798
The Left in France
was concerned more
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00:04:17,882 --> 00:04:20,926
with hounding rogues
in high places at home,
37
00:04:21,010 --> 00:04:23,011
than curbing fascism elsewhere.
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00:04:24,347 --> 00:04:26,348
The Right so hated the Left
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00:04:26,432 --> 00:04:30,060
it was prepared to countenance
dictatorship.
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00:04:31,688 --> 00:04:36,233
As early as 1934
the victor of Verdun, Marshal Pétain,
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00:04:36,317 --> 00:04:39,528
was proposed as France's saviour
from communism,
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00:04:39,612 --> 00:04:41,613
although he was then nearly 80.
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00:04:41,698 --> 00:04:44,992
These deep divisions
were to fetter France
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00:04:45,076 --> 00:04:47,661
when she faced the need to re-arm.
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00:04:47,745 --> 00:04:50,831
The whole of the possessing classes,
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00:04:50,915 --> 00:04:54,001
the Right if you like,
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00:04:54,085 --> 00:04:57,838
preferred the idea of the Germans
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00:04:57,922 --> 00:05:00,090
to their own communists.
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00:05:00,174 --> 00:05:02,592
You didn't have to walk round
these streets
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00:05:02,677 --> 00:05:05,304
and see "pour qui et pourquoi"
written on them,
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00:05:05,388 --> 00:05:09,224
or the hammer and sickle, to realise
nobody was going to lift a finger.
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00:05:23,114 --> 00:05:26,283
(narrator) France in the '30s
built a series of great forts
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00:05:26,409 --> 00:05:28,243
along her frontier with Germany,
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00:05:28,328 --> 00:05:32,831
and because her war minister
then happened to be one André Maginot,
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00:05:32,915 --> 00:05:36,793
these forts came to be known
as the Maginot line.
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00:05:38,755 --> 00:05:42,632
The Maginot forts
were truly 20th-century wonders.
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00:05:43,509 --> 00:05:47,095
Electric trains took the troops
from barracks to gun turret,
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00:05:47,180 --> 00:05:48,638
from arsenal to canteen.
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00:05:48,723 --> 00:05:52,434
There were cinemas underground,
sun-ray rooms, air conditioning,
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00:05:52,518 --> 00:05:54,478
the lot.
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00:05:55,730 --> 00:05:59,149
Theirs was a vast
Jules Verne type of world
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00:05:59,233 --> 00:06:01,818
hundreds of feet below ground.
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00:06:01,903 --> 00:06:05,155
They called it The Shield of France.
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00:06:05,239 --> 00:06:08,784
The Maginot line failed to protect
all of France's eastern flank.
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00:06:08,868 --> 00:06:12,496
It was only 87 miles long
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00:06:12,580 --> 00:06:16,500
and it stopped 250 miles
short of the Channel.
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00:06:31,015 --> 00:06:33,642
Should the alarm
ever have to sound in grim earnest,
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00:06:33,726 --> 00:06:35,394
French strategists argued that
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00:06:35,478 --> 00:06:40,941
their troops would need to confront the
Germans on Belgian, if not German, soil.
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00:06:41,025 --> 00:06:44,653
Besides, to extend the Maginot line
along the Belgian frontier
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00:06:44,779 --> 00:06:46,488
would not only be expensive,
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00:06:46,572 --> 00:06:52,285
but would make the Belgians think that
if war came, France would forsake them.
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00:06:53,788 --> 00:06:56,623
The folly of this thinking
was shown up in 1936
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00:06:56,707 --> 00:06:59,209
when, without consulting the French,
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the Belgian King Leopold
opted for neutrality
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00:07:02,797 --> 00:07:07,968
and closed his borders,
even to French military observers.
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All too late France began extending
the Maginot line to the sea.
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But by May 1940
it was far from finished.
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(shouting in French)
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France had suffered a terrible
loss of life in the Great War.
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Now French military thinking
became wholly defensive,
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forgetting Napoleon's favourite maxim :
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"The side that stays
within its fortifications is beaten."
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Since the French spurned any notion
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00:08:13,242 --> 00:08:14,784
of taking the offensive,
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the Maginot line ironically protected
Germany better than it protected France.
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00:08:19,248 --> 00:08:23,251
A German colonel, Heinz Guderian,
the year the Maginot line was completed,
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published a book with a prophetic title:
Achtung Panzer.
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00:08:27,798 --> 00:08:31,885
A book never properly studied by
the French or English general staff,
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yet these pages expound
a new kind of warfare -
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the concentrated use of tanks with
infantry and air force in close support:
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Blitzkrieg.
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00:08:47,777 --> 00:08:50,195
We had had tanks
in the First World War,
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00:08:50,279 --> 00:08:52,864
we knew all the difficulties
of the game,
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while the Germans,
who didn't have them,
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had the feeling of those
who are attacked by tanks.
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00:08:59,914 --> 00:09:04,042
And while we considered
that the tanks were a little awkward
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and difficult to use,
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the Germans jumped at the new weapons
with the appetite of the new rich.
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00:09:18,140 --> 00:09:22,477
(narrator) Paris, July 14, 1939.
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00:09:23,896 --> 00:09:27,691
The last Bastille Day parade
of the Third Republic.
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00:09:30,695 --> 00:09:34,781
A few days earlier, Britain's
war minister, visiting Paris, had said,
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00:09:34,907 --> 00:09:38,785
"France has the greatest army
in the world."
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00:09:38,911 --> 00:09:43,832
Like the parade itself, such statements
were meant merely to raise morale.
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00:09:47,336 --> 00:09:50,046
Parisians had hardly got back
from their holidays
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before they found themselves
once more at war
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with their traditional foe.
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00:10:05,771 --> 00:10:09,691
But whereas in 1914
the cry had been "On to Berlin",
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00:10:09,775 --> 00:10:12,902
this time it was
"Let's get it over with."
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00:10:20,369 --> 00:10:23,830
lronically, French mobilisation
was too efficient.
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00:10:23,914 --> 00:10:26,124
The call-up of skilled technicians
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00:10:26,208 --> 00:10:29,419
brought many vital war industries
almost to a halt.
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00:10:29,503 --> 00:10:34,758
It was only after weeks of confusion
that these men were released.
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00:10:50,941 --> 00:10:54,027
Nor was France going to war united.
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00:10:54,111 --> 00:10:57,030
The bitternesses of French politics
continued.
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00:10:57,114 --> 00:11:00,784
Ministers looked to their own futures
instead of their country's
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00:11:00,868 --> 00:11:04,454
and many took their cue
from such leadership.
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00:11:09,251 --> 00:11:13,505
Paris didn't alter much with
the coming of war, save in appearance.
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00:11:13,631 --> 00:11:19,094
The most popular song that autumn of
1939 was Paris Will Always Be Paris.
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00:11:19,178 --> 00:11:21,971
(Maurice Chevalier)♪ Par précaution on a beau mettre
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00:11:22,056 --> 00:11:23,890
♪ Des croisillons à nos fenêtres
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00:11:23,974 --> 00:11:26,226
♪ Passer au bleu nos devantures
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00:11:26,310 --> 00:11:28,561
♪ Et jusqu'aux pneus de nos voitures
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00:11:28,646 --> 00:11:30,730
♪ Désentoiler tous nos musées
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00:11:30,815 --> 00:11:33,191
♪ Chambouler les Champs-Elysées
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00:11:33,275 --> 00:11:35,652
♪ Emmailloter de terre battue
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00:11:35,736 --> 00:11:37,987
♪ Toutes les beautés de nos statues
128
00:11:38,114 --> 00:11:40,865
♪ Voiler le soir les réverbères
129
00:11:40,950 --> 00:11:45,453
♪ Plonger dans le noirla Ville Lumière
130
00:11:45,538 --> 00:11:49,666
♪ Paris sera toujours Paris
131
00:11:49,750 --> 00:11:53,837
♪ La plus belle ville du monde
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00:11:53,921 --> 00:11:57,507
♪ Malgré l'obscurité profonde
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00:11:57,591 --> 00:12:01,386
♪ Son éclat ne peut être assombri
134
00:12:01,512 --> 00:12:05,223
♪ Paris sera toujours Paris
135
00:12:05,307 --> 00:12:09,060
♪ Plus on réduit son éclairage
136
00:12:09,145 --> 00:12:12,897
♪ Plus on voit briller son courage,sa bonne humeur et son esprit
137
00:12:12,982 --> 00:12:17,235
♪ Paris sera toujours Paris
138
00:12:19,947 --> 00:12:23,324
(narrator) While their Polish allies
were routed in the East,
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00:12:23,409 --> 00:12:26,369
the French, like the British,
did little in the West.
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00:12:26,454 --> 00:12:29,622
There was the so-called
Sarre offensive -
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00:12:29,707 --> 00:12:32,167
the only French offensive,
in fact, of the war.
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00:12:43,888 --> 00:12:47,432
A few French divisions
advanced five miles,
143
00:12:47,516 --> 00:12:50,435
but they didn't even try
to penetrate the Siegfried line,
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00:12:50,519 --> 00:12:52,145
at that time still unfinished.
145
00:12:52,229 --> 00:12:54,105
And while Poland fought on,
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00:12:54,190 --> 00:12:57,484
there were no German tanks at all
on the Western Front.
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00:12:57,610 --> 00:13:02,363
The newsreel commentators of the day,
though, didn't doubt the French resolve.
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00:13:02,448 --> 00:13:05,784
(newsreel) We read the communiqués
from the French High Command.
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00:13:05,868 --> 00:13:09,954
This is the living story
behind those brief, unvarnished reports.
150
00:13:10,039 --> 00:13:13,041
Our cameramen in the advanced
lines on German territory
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00:13:13,125 --> 00:13:14,501
watch observation posts
152
00:13:14,585 --> 00:13:19,464
at the bridge over the Rhine
between Kehl and Strasbourg.
153
00:13:23,677 --> 00:13:28,097
This was a German railway station,
now in the hands of French troops.
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00:13:30,684 --> 00:13:35,563
From fortified outposts
the vigilant watch is never relaxed.
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00:13:46,617 --> 00:13:49,953
The Maginot line, built as
the first line of defence for France,
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00:13:50,037 --> 00:13:52,539
has become the second line
behind the attack.
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00:13:52,623 --> 00:13:55,083
The gradual but steady advance
of French troops
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00:13:55,167 --> 00:13:59,170
has brought their camouflaged artillery
in range of the Siegfried outposts.
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00:13:59,255 --> 00:14:02,173
There is no haste,
only a grim, relentless pressure
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00:14:02,258 --> 00:14:03,758
on the Nazi emplacements.
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00:14:03,843 --> 00:14:06,469
Metre by metre the poilus
are moving forward.
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00:14:06,554 --> 00:14:14,435
lf the French army would have attacked
at the beginning of September
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00:14:15,104 --> 00:14:20,483
with their very strong superiority
164
00:14:20,568 --> 00:14:23,486
in division, in armoured cars -
165
00:14:23,571 --> 00:14:27,824
we lacked all armoured cars
on the Western Front at that time -
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00:14:27,908 --> 00:14:32,662
in artillery and air force,
167
00:14:32,746 --> 00:14:38,918
the German forces
on the so-called Western Front
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00:14:39,003 --> 00:14:44,883
could stand no more
than one or two weeks.
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00:14:46,594 --> 00:14:48,595
(narrator) Before Poland surrendered,
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00:14:48,679 --> 00:14:52,682
the French commander ordered
his men back behind the Maginot line -
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00:14:52,766 --> 00:14:55,810
a withdrawal the Germans
did nothing to prevent.
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00:14:55,895 --> 00:14:57,645
One Frenchman wrote at the time,
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00:14:57,771 --> 00:15:00,231
"After the prologue
of the phoney offensive,
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00:15:00,316 --> 00:15:02,400
we were ripe for the phoney war."
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00:15:02,484 --> 00:15:05,111
(Charles Trenet)♪ Le vent dans les bois fait hou-hou
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00:15:05,195 --> 00:15:07,363
♪ La biche aux abois fait mê-ê-ê
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00:15:07,448 --> 00:15:09,741
♪ La vaisselle cassée faitfric-fric-frac
178
00:15:09,825 --> 00:15:12,243
♪ Et les pieds mouillésfont flic-flic-flac
179
00:15:12,328 --> 00:15:13,703
♪ Mais... boum!
180
00:15:13,787 --> 00:15:16,414
♪ Quand notre coeur fait boum
181
00:15:16,498 --> 00:15:18,333
♪ Tout avec lui dit boum
182
00:15:18,417 --> 00:15:20,668
♪ L'oiseau dit boum, c'est l'orage
183
00:15:20,753 --> 00:15:22,795
♪ Brrrrr!
184
00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:26,633
♪ Boum! L'éclair qui, lui, fait boum
185
00:15:26,717 --> 00:15:29,135
♪ Et le bon Dieu dit boum...
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00:15:29,219 --> 00:15:33,431
(narrator) For several minutes each day
the Maginot guns boomed out,
187
00:15:33,515 --> 00:15:38,519
usually to impress visitors
such as the Duke of Windsor.
188
00:15:38,604 --> 00:15:40,897
♪ Et s'il fait boum,s'il se met en colère
189
00:15:41,106 --> 00:15:43,274
♪ Il entraîne avec lui des merveilles
190
00:15:43,359 --> 00:15:44,442
♪ Boum!
191
00:15:44,568 --> 00:15:47,070
♪ Le monde entier fait boum
192
00:15:47,154 --> 00:15:51,366
♪ Tout avec lui dit boumquand notre coeur fait boum-boum...
193
00:15:51,450 --> 00:15:54,661
(narrator) Little attempt was made
to harass the enemy.
194
00:15:54,787 --> 00:15:56,579
Even bombing the Ruhr
was forbidden
195
00:15:56,664 --> 00:15:59,666
in case the Luftwaffe retaliated
against French factories.
196
00:15:59,750 --> 00:16:04,170
Journalists were taken up to the lines
to see the inactivity.
197
00:16:04,254 --> 00:16:08,466
l stayed at an observation post
on the Rhine
198
00:16:08,550 --> 00:16:13,471
watching the Germans washing,
playing football,
199
00:16:13,555 --> 00:16:16,516
and I said to the sentry,
200
00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:19,978
"Why don't you shoot them?
Why don't you shoot at them?"
201
00:16:20,062 --> 00:16:22,438
"No," he said,
"They're behaving all right."
202
00:16:22,523 --> 00:16:25,316
"They don't shoot at us,
why should we shoot at them?"
203
00:16:25,401 --> 00:16:28,987
♪ Boum! Le monde entier fait boum
204
00:16:29,071 --> 00:16:30,947
♪ Tout avec lui dit boum
205
00:16:31,031 --> 00:16:34,659
♪ Quand notre coeurfait boum-boum-boum
206
00:16:34,743 --> 00:16:36,953
♪ Fait boum-boum
207
00:16:37,037 --> 00:16:40,123
♪ Brrrrr! Boum!
208
00:16:43,669 --> 00:16:48,297
(narrator) Life at the front
was dreary and drab.
209
00:17:00,019 --> 00:17:04,605
Badly paid, leave became an obsession
for the French soldier
210
00:17:04,690 --> 00:17:08,151
and was used mainly
to make a little on the side.
211
00:17:13,365 --> 00:17:16,951
The winter of 1939
was the coldest for half a century.
212
00:17:17,036 --> 00:17:19,662
Even the Channel froze at Boulogne.
213
00:17:21,165 --> 00:17:24,751
The French halted work
on the Maginot extension.
214
00:17:24,835 --> 00:17:29,756
The Germans, however,
forged ahead with their plans.
215
00:17:30,507 --> 00:17:34,052
As winter wore on, French morale sank.
216
00:17:34,428 --> 00:17:38,973
Discipline deteriorated
and drunkenness became rife.
217
00:17:39,058 --> 00:17:42,560
Special rooms were set aside
in railway stations
218
00:17:42,644 --> 00:17:47,148
where men could recover
before rejoining their units.
219
00:17:51,653 --> 00:17:57,158
Few French generals ever bothered to
inspect, let alone meet, their troops,
220
00:17:57,242 --> 00:18:00,578
but then their commander-in-chief,
General Gamelin,
221
00:18:00,662 --> 00:18:03,331
rarely set foot
outside his headquarters.
222
00:18:03,415 --> 00:18:08,252
Already 68 at the beginning of 1940,
his military record was so impeccable
223
00:18:08,337 --> 00:18:12,131
that no one dreamed of asking him
to make way for a younger man.
224
00:18:12,257 --> 00:18:18,638
(Beaufre) Gamelin was very clever,
but with no guts at all,
225
00:18:18,722 --> 00:18:20,681
and he was liked by the politicians
226
00:18:20,766 --> 00:18:23,226
because he was an easy
commander-in-chief.
227
00:18:24,561 --> 00:18:28,314
(narrator) Gamelin chose for his
headquarters this château at Vincennes,
228
00:18:28,398 --> 00:18:30,733
just outside Paris.
229
00:18:30,818 --> 00:18:35,238
(Beaufre) That choice reveals
what the man was, you know.
230
00:18:35,322 --> 00:18:39,534
The enemy were not the Germans.
It was the French government.
231
00:18:40,452 --> 00:18:44,247
(narrator) Vincennes
was where England's Henry V died
232
00:18:44,331 --> 00:18:47,542
and where the spy Mata Hari
was executed.
233
00:18:50,546 --> 00:18:55,716
It was described by one visitor as
"a submarine without a periscope".
234
00:18:55,801 --> 00:18:59,053
Almost unbelievably,
it had no radio communications,
235
00:18:59,138 --> 00:19:02,849
it was not linked by teleprinter with
any other headquarters in the field.
236
00:19:02,933 --> 00:19:08,813
Instead, messages were dispatched
regularly on the hour by motorcycle.
237
00:19:10,399 --> 00:19:13,609
Gamelin seldom bothered his staff
with orders,
238
00:19:13,694 --> 00:19:16,612
preferring simply to suggest guidelines.
239
00:19:21,243 --> 00:19:25,079
His long-term strategy was to wait
until the Allies could match the Germans
240
00:19:25,164 --> 00:19:28,791
in numbers and equipment
before launching any major offensive,
241
00:19:28,876 --> 00:19:32,336
even though that would mean
waiting until 1941.
242
00:19:32,421 --> 00:19:36,924
Meanwhile, he was concerned
to keep the war away from French soil -
243
00:19:37,009 --> 00:19:41,637
hence his interests in any odd stratagem
pushed his way.
244
00:19:41,722 --> 00:19:49,520
We had a plan to go to attack Russia
through Norway - Narvik -
245
00:19:49,605 --> 00:19:52,481
which led to the landing in Narvik.
246
00:19:52,566 --> 00:19:59,322
We had a plan to attack
the oil plants in Baku from Syria.
247
00:19:59,406 --> 00:20:04,160
We had the plans to raise
the Balkans with us
248
00:20:04,286 --> 00:20:09,957
by landing in Salonika
and joining the Yugoslavs, and so on.
249
00:20:10,042 --> 00:20:16,756
But all this was dreams, absolutely
foolish and out of the reality.
250
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:18,633
But that stemmed from the fact
251
00:20:18,717 --> 00:20:22,678
that we thought that the war
couldn't be decided on the main front
252
00:20:22,763 --> 00:20:27,058
because of the inviolability
of that front.
253
00:20:27,142 --> 00:20:30,478
(narrator) Gamelin had 100 divisions
on that front in May 1940,
254
00:20:30,562 --> 00:20:34,482
plus another ten of the British
expeditionary force.
255
00:20:35,817 --> 00:20:40,738
40 manned the Maginot line,
while five guarded the Swiss frontier.
256
00:20:40,822 --> 00:20:47,286
Another 40, the best, were to go into
neutral Belgium once Germany attacked.
257
00:20:47,371 --> 00:20:48,871
But when that happened
258
00:20:48,956 --> 00:20:53,084
the pivot of Gamelin's front
would be here, in the Ardennes.
259
00:20:57,673 --> 00:21:00,675
The impenetrable Ardennes.
260
00:21:00,759 --> 00:21:02,843
But was it?
261
00:21:12,562 --> 00:21:14,230
On maps back at headquarters
262
00:21:14,314 --> 00:21:16,899
its thick woods
and narrow, winding roads
263
00:21:16,984 --> 00:21:20,236
probably did make the Ardennes
seem impenetrable -
264
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:24,865
which is presumably why Gamelin chose
to guard this 100-mile stretch of front
265
00:21:24,950 --> 00:21:30,705
with ten of his weakest,
least-trained, worst-equipped divisions.
266
00:21:30,831 --> 00:21:34,959
(man) The Ardennes came to be chosen
for the main thrust
267
00:21:35,043 --> 00:21:39,880
since it offered an opportunity
to circumvent the Maginot line.
268
00:21:40,007 --> 00:21:43,509
And besides we were conscious
of the fact
269
00:21:43,593 --> 00:21:47,054
that there were only minor French troops
270
00:21:47,180 --> 00:21:52,560
which held the positions
in this section of the French front.
271
00:21:52,644 --> 00:21:57,565
We knew that the French High Command
272
00:21:57,649 --> 00:22:02,194
had dispersed his tanks.
273
00:22:03,113 --> 00:22:08,659
The French had more tanks
and some better tanks, heavier tanks,
274
00:22:08,744 --> 00:22:11,787
than we have had panzers.
275
00:22:11,872 --> 00:22:16,709
But we managed our panzer troops -
276
00:22:16,793 --> 00:22:22,089
what Guderian said in his instructions.
277
00:22:22,174 --> 00:22:27,720
(man) "Strike hard and quickly
and don't disperse your forces."
278
00:22:35,228 --> 00:22:38,230
(narrator) The spring of 1940
was remarkably sunny.
279
00:22:38,315 --> 00:22:41,567
Nowhere was it more peaceful
than here in the Ardennes,
280
00:22:41,651 --> 00:22:45,237
where the generals had said
the Germans would never attack.
281
00:22:45,322 --> 00:22:47,073
Yet reports had been pouring in
282
00:22:47,157 --> 00:22:50,326
that nearly 50 Wehrmacht divisions
were on the move -
283
00:22:50,410 --> 00:22:52,828
reports which the French
chose to ignore.
284
00:22:52,913 --> 00:22:57,833
They even learned the date
of the attack, but still did nothing.
285
00:22:57,918 --> 00:23:01,962
As Gamelin put it,
they preferred "to await events".
286
00:23:02,047 --> 00:23:04,757
Their waiting was almost over.
287
00:23:12,766 --> 00:23:15,184
5:30am precisely.
288
00:23:15,268 --> 00:23:17,686
May 10, 1940.
289
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:33,119
The German offensive
began spectacularly enough
290
00:23:33,203 --> 00:23:36,622
with the invasion of neutral Holland
from the air.
291
00:23:36,706 --> 00:23:39,583
Their target: the bridges
over the broad Meuse estuary.
292
00:23:45,340 --> 00:23:48,676
lf they could be captured
before the Allied troops reached them,
293
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:50,845
Holland would be cut in two.
294
00:23:55,851 --> 00:24:00,229
The boldness of the German move
stunned the Dutch.
295
00:24:00,313 --> 00:24:03,524
Their soldiers were soon
surrendering in droves.
296
00:24:05,318 --> 00:24:06,986
Further south in Belgium,
297
00:24:07,070 --> 00:24:10,865
the Germans had another
spectacular success that first day -
298
00:24:10,949 --> 00:24:12,908
the capture of Eben-Emael,
299
00:24:12,993 --> 00:24:17,830
the strongest fort in the world
and the linchpin of Gamelin's line.
300
00:24:18,790 --> 00:24:23,419
That line had been breached
before any Allied troops arrived.
301
00:24:26,715 --> 00:24:29,467
(whistle blows)
302
00:24:33,805 --> 00:24:37,766
Gamelin persisted in moving his armies
north into Belgium and Holland.
303
00:24:37,851 --> 00:24:40,519
40 of his best divisions,
almost half his strength,
304
00:24:40,604 --> 00:24:43,314
including all of the British
expeditionary force,
305
00:24:43,398 --> 00:24:46,567
and they were moving
straight into the trap
306
00:24:46,651 --> 00:24:49,653
Hitler and his generals
had set for them.
307
00:24:54,493 --> 00:24:57,077
It wasn't long before the troops
were passing
308
00:24:57,162 --> 00:24:59,997
the first pitiful, straggling lines
of refugees.
309
00:25:00,081 --> 00:25:03,334
Lines that were to hamper
the Allied reinforcements,
310
00:25:03,418 --> 00:25:05,419
just as the Germans had planned.
311
00:25:05,504 --> 00:25:09,882
The great idea on the Germans' part
was speed,
312
00:25:09,966 --> 00:25:14,512
and they sent ahead of the army
313
00:25:14,596 --> 00:25:19,433
policemen with truncheons and white
gloves who went on motorbicycles.
314
00:25:19,518 --> 00:25:23,062
They all had their Michelin Guide
for France,
315
00:25:23,146 --> 00:25:26,273
they knew exactly
where the roads were.
316
00:25:31,530 --> 00:25:35,407
The German panzers were pouring over
the border into Luxembourg.
317
00:25:35,492 --> 00:25:37,409
Their column stretched 100 miles,
318
00:25:37,494 --> 00:25:40,371
presenting a prime target
to any would-be bomber,
319
00:25:40,455 --> 00:25:43,040
but Allied air activity
that first day was busy
320
00:25:43,124 --> 00:25:48,295
supporting the British and French
move north into Belgium.
321
00:25:53,134 --> 00:25:57,930
The Luftwaffe were striking
at Allied aeroplanes on the ground.
322
00:26:01,643 --> 00:26:05,396
At one RAF base near Reims,
the planes lined up in neat rows
323
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:09,984
were destroyed
in the opening minutes of the attack.
324
00:26:13,113 --> 00:26:18,033
50 British and French airfields
were attacked that first day
325
00:26:18,118 --> 00:26:20,536
and the losses were heavy.
326
00:26:26,001 --> 00:26:29,587
But while Allied air chiefs
were counting their losses,
327
00:26:29,671 --> 00:26:33,799
the panzers had just about penetrated
the impenetrable Ardennes
328
00:26:33,883 --> 00:26:37,553
and were set to fall upon the weak
French garrisons
329
00:26:37,637 --> 00:26:39,847
along the Meuse here at Sedan.
330
00:26:41,057 --> 00:26:44,602
The panzers reached Sedan
late on the third day of the offensive,
331
00:26:44,686 --> 00:26:46,937
although Gamelin had calculated
332
00:26:47,022 --> 00:26:50,524
they couldn't possibly be here
before the ninth day.
333
00:26:58,450 --> 00:27:02,870
All the bridges over the Meuse were
blown up by the French on May 12th -
334
00:27:02,954 --> 00:27:04,788
all except one.
335
00:27:05,540 --> 00:27:09,001
This old weir some 40 miles
north of Sedan had been left
336
00:27:09,085 --> 00:27:13,797
for fear of lowering the water level
so much that the river could be forded.
337
00:27:13,882 --> 00:27:17,384
But the French also left it
relatively unguarded,
338
00:27:17,469 --> 00:27:22,514
as one panzer commander,
Erwin Rommel, soon found out.
339
00:27:34,778 --> 00:27:40,574
Next morning the Luftwaffe's resources
were hurled into action above Sedan.
340
00:27:44,371 --> 00:27:48,499
Gamelin still refused to believe
the Germans could cross of the Meuse
341
00:27:48,583 --> 00:27:50,459
before another three or four days.
342
00:27:54,631 --> 00:27:57,383
Hitler was unwilling to wait that long.
343
00:27:57,467 --> 00:28:01,053
He was working
to the timetable of 1940, not 1914.
344
00:28:02,305 --> 00:28:05,766
What's more, the French generals
still had their eyes firmly fixed
345
00:28:05,850 --> 00:28:09,645
on what was happening
in Belgium and Holland.
346
00:28:16,027 --> 00:28:19,113
There were big French guns
on the west bank of the Meuse,
347
00:28:19,239 --> 00:28:22,116
but they limited firing
in case they ran out of ammunition
348
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:24,868
before the battle proper began.
349
00:28:25,620 --> 00:28:30,582
So the German panzers were able to pick
off the French pillboxes one by one.
350
00:28:30,667 --> 00:28:35,379
Soon thousands of French gunners
had taken to their heels.
351
00:28:47,267 --> 00:28:51,603
As suddenly as it had started,
the German bombardment stopped.
352
00:28:52,981 --> 00:28:56,442
As though still performing
one of their winter war games,
353
00:28:56,526 --> 00:29:00,446
the German infantrymen
prepared to cross the Meuse.
354
00:29:27,557 --> 00:29:32,269
By midnight on May 13,
still only day four of the offensive,
355
00:29:32,353 --> 00:29:36,064
not only were German infantrymen
across the Meuse in force,
356
00:29:36,149 --> 00:29:39,276
but German sappers
were bridging the river
357
00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:42,446
and making ready
for the panzers to cross.
358
00:29:46,242 --> 00:29:47,659
That night of May 13,
359
00:29:47,786 --> 00:29:51,914
the British expeditionary force,
far to the north in Belgium,
360
00:29:51,998 --> 00:29:55,209
had still not seen serious fighting,
361
00:29:55,293 --> 00:29:58,837
yet the battle was now virtually
decided.
362
00:30:04,385 --> 00:30:09,890
(Beaufre) The morale of the French
High Command was very quickly broken.
363
00:30:10,475 --> 00:30:15,896
When we happened to know that the front
had been broken through at Sedan,
364
00:30:15,980 --> 00:30:19,650
the feeling was that everything
was lost.
365
00:30:19,734 --> 00:30:25,697
l saw General Georges,
who was commanding the northeast front,
366
00:30:25,782 --> 00:30:30,702
l saw him sobbing and saying,
367
00:30:30,787 --> 00:30:36,792
"There has been some... deficiencies,"
368
00:30:36,876 --> 00:30:41,255
and he fell in a chair and sobbed.
369
00:30:55,019 --> 00:30:58,480
(narrator) French counterattacks
were poorly organised
370
00:30:58,565 --> 00:31:01,984
and seldom pressed home
with any persistence.
371
00:31:15,248 --> 00:31:18,667
Tank for tank, the French
were a match for the Germans,
372
00:31:18,751 --> 00:31:21,253
but the panzers always fought
en masse
373
00:31:21,337 --> 00:31:25,048
and the French tanks
were prone to mechanical trouble.
374
00:31:25,133 --> 00:31:29,678
Time after time they had to be
left behind on the battlefield.
375
00:31:45,612 --> 00:31:49,281
German infantry divisions
were now catching up with the panzers
376
00:31:49,365 --> 00:31:50,991
at the Meuse crossing point.
377
00:31:51,117 --> 00:31:56,038
Everything on the German side at least
was going according to plan.
378
00:32:11,179 --> 00:32:12,971
For the Allied air forces,
379
00:32:13,056 --> 00:32:17,726
after their almost total inactivity
on May 13, May 14 was hectic.
380
00:32:17,810 --> 00:32:21,688
British and French bombers raided
the pontoon bridges across the Meuse
381
00:32:21,773 --> 00:32:23,273
with reckless abandon.
382
00:32:27,028 --> 00:32:28,695
Too late, the French generals
383
00:32:28,905 --> 00:32:32,032
had recognised this sector's
vital importance.
384
00:32:32,116 --> 00:32:37,663
But despite the courage of the Allied
pilots, the result was disastrous.
385
00:32:43,836 --> 00:32:47,589
Nearly half the Allied planes
did not return.
386
00:32:47,674 --> 00:32:50,175
In the words of the official
RAF history:
387
00:32:50,259 --> 00:32:56,223
"No higher rate of loss has ever been
experienced by the Royal Air Force."
388
00:32:56,307 --> 00:33:01,812
After May 14th
the skies were undeniably German.
389
00:33:04,565 --> 00:33:08,026
On that day too Holland surrendered.
390
00:33:09,070 --> 00:33:13,407
Nothing short of a miracle
could save France now.
391
00:33:19,872 --> 00:33:24,501
With the bridgehead secure,
the panzers were poised to break out.
392
00:33:24,585 --> 00:33:29,589
The battle for Sedan was now
giving way to the battle for France.
393
00:33:29,674 --> 00:33:33,844
The most crucial phase of the whole
German plan was about to begin -
394
00:33:33,970 --> 00:33:39,725
the swing north to the coast that would
trap the Allied armies in Belgium.
395
00:33:39,809 --> 00:33:45,272
As soon as news of the Sedan defeat
reached Paris, panic set in.
396
00:33:53,239 --> 00:33:55,532
Those who could, left.
397
00:34:02,206 --> 00:34:05,500
The French High Command,
not yet privy to the German plan,
398
00:34:05,585 --> 00:34:09,296
assumed Hitler intended
to capture Paris immediately.
399
00:34:09,380 --> 00:34:10,964
To protect the capital,
400
00:34:11,049 --> 00:34:14,134
troops were pulled back
from elsewhere along the Meuse,
401
00:34:14,218 --> 00:34:18,555
which only served
to widen the German bridgeheads.
402
00:34:27,857 --> 00:34:30,776
Gamelin refused to believe
his tactics were at fault
403
00:34:30,860 --> 00:34:33,153
and assumed
he must have been betrayed.
404
00:34:33,237 --> 00:34:37,199
While gendarmes searched for
fifth columnists behind the lines,
405
00:34:37,283 --> 00:34:41,119
Gamelin reacted by sacking
20 or so of his front-line commanders,
406
00:34:41,245 --> 00:34:43,872
almost at random.
407
00:34:48,753 --> 00:34:51,171
The Allied troops
were ordered back from Belgium
408
00:34:51,297 --> 00:34:55,217
and on May 17th Brussels fell.
409
00:35:02,058 --> 00:35:04,851
It was also the end for Gamelin.
410
00:35:04,936 --> 00:35:07,354
He was replaced
as commander-in-chief
411
00:35:07,438 --> 00:35:10,440
by General Weygand,
recalled from virtual retirement.
412
00:35:10,525 --> 00:35:12,400
France had become desperate.
413
00:35:12,485 --> 00:35:16,238
A 73-year-old
was replacing a 68-year-old,
414
00:35:16,322 --> 00:35:20,909
and Weygand had spent the last year
in Syria and was out of touch.
415
00:35:20,993 --> 00:35:26,373
At this time too Marshal Pétain, now 84,
became deputy prime minister.
416
00:35:26,457 --> 00:35:29,543
Before leaving Spain,
where he'd been France's ambassador,
417
00:35:29,627 --> 00:35:31,128
Pétain told General Franco,
418
00:35:31,212 --> 00:35:36,675
"My country has been beaten. This
is the work of 30 years of Marxism."
419
00:35:36,759 --> 00:35:40,470
(Spears) He was completely
on the side of the defeatists.
420
00:35:40,555 --> 00:35:42,931
He was a very, very old man
421
00:35:43,015 --> 00:35:50,147
and he'd been recalled in the hopes that
his name would bolster French morale.
422
00:35:50,231 --> 00:35:52,315
It did nothing of the sort.
423
00:35:53,192 --> 00:35:56,820
(narrator) Trying in their own way
to contain the German break-out,
424
00:35:56,904 --> 00:36:00,657
the French generals
drew halt lines on their maps,
425
00:36:00,741 --> 00:36:05,287
only to hear the panzers had passed them
even before the orders had been issued.
426
00:36:10,293 --> 00:36:12,711
(gunfire)
427
00:36:12,837 --> 00:36:14,504
In the dash to the coast,
428
00:36:14,589 --> 00:36:19,259
the German commanders were always
one jump ahead of the French.
429
00:36:32,356 --> 00:36:35,942
Hordes of prisoners
fell into German hands.
430
00:36:36,027 --> 00:36:38,737
Many columns,
10,000 or 20,000-strong,
431
00:36:38,821 --> 00:36:43,783
simply threw away their weapons
and marched without being told,
432
00:36:43,868 --> 00:36:47,245
their officers at their head,
toward the German lines.
433
00:36:48,456 --> 00:36:54,753
(Warlimont) The French troops did not
prove the same soldierly discipline
434
00:36:54,837 --> 00:36:56,379
as in the First World War.
435
00:37:12,355 --> 00:37:20,111
l think this was caused by the
Maginot spirit and the long phoney war,
436
00:37:20,196 --> 00:37:25,617
so that the French soldiers believed
that they will have no more war.
437
00:37:27,411 --> 00:37:30,413
(narrator) Not just ordinary troops
fell into German hands,
438
00:37:30,498 --> 00:37:31,581
but generals too.
439
00:37:31,666 --> 00:37:33,416
On May 19th General Giraud,
440
00:37:33,501 --> 00:37:37,629
newly appointed commander
of France's 9th Army, was captured :
441
00:37:37,713 --> 00:37:40,173
by a group of tanks,
according to the French ;
442
00:37:40,258 --> 00:37:43,343
by a field kitchen unit,
according to the Germans.
443
00:37:47,348 --> 00:37:51,518
But most tragic of all
was the plight of the refugees.
444
00:37:58,150 --> 00:38:03,238
At one time 12 million people
were on the roads of northern France,
445
00:38:03,322 --> 00:38:06,157
bound for goodness knows where.
446
00:38:25,011 --> 00:38:29,055
(Waterfield) All the civilians
would ask us what they were to do,
447
00:38:29,140 --> 00:38:31,725
because the government
had not told them what to do.
448
00:38:31,809 --> 00:38:35,603
We said, "For heaven's sake, stay
where you are. Don't get on the roads."
449
00:38:35,688 --> 00:38:39,232
But they all got in a panic and left.
450
00:38:39,317 --> 00:38:42,193
One old lady had a key
which she gave to us
451
00:38:42,278 --> 00:38:45,822
and we said, "Why?
You mustn't give us your key."
452
00:38:45,906 --> 00:38:48,283
"Oh, well, in the last war
l took away my key
453
00:38:48,367 --> 00:38:51,077
and when I came back
l had the key but no house."
454
00:39:05,051 --> 00:39:11,097
My worst memory was seeing two German
planes coming along at roof level,
455
00:39:11,182 --> 00:39:12,682
machine-gunning,
456
00:39:12,767 --> 00:39:16,728
and one realised then
how awful it was for the refugees.
457
00:39:16,812 --> 00:39:18,897
(planes approaching)
458
00:39:23,819 --> 00:39:25,862
(gunfire)
459
00:39:58,312 --> 00:40:03,483
(narrator) The Germans had advanced
200 miles in just seven days,
460
00:40:03,567 --> 00:40:07,153
and on May 20th
they reached the Channel.
461
00:40:08,406 --> 00:40:11,408
The Daily Telegraph reported
that telephone lines
462
00:40:11,492 --> 00:40:14,285
between Paris and London
had been cut.
463
00:40:14,370 --> 00:40:18,706
A Post Office spokesman didn't know
when normal service might be resumed.
464
00:40:23,212 --> 00:40:25,463
With the panzers at the coast,
465
00:40:25,548 --> 00:40:31,719
the best of the Allied armies drawn into
Belgium were now cut off from the south.
466
00:40:31,804 --> 00:40:35,181
Belatedly the French
tried to force a way through to them.
467
00:40:35,266 --> 00:40:37,642
Their attack was too puny.
468
00:40:37,726 --> 00:40:40,687
But they argued
the British had let them down.
469
00:40:42,606 --> 00:40:45,316
(Beaufre) The recriminations started
470
00:40:45,401 --> 00:40:50,905
with the unilateral withdrawal
of the British army.
471
00:40:50,990 --> 00:40:57,036
The orders were to attack southwards,
near Arras,
472
00:40:57,121 --> 00:41:00,665
and, without warning,
473
00:41:00,749 --> 00:41:05,462
we happened to know that the British
were withdrawing to Dunkirk.
474
00:41:10,634 --> 00:41:13,511
We have not the right
to criticise this too much
475
00:41:13,596 --> 00:41:15,972
because, after all,
we were the bosses
476
00:41:16,056 --> 00:41:17,724
and we lost the battle,
477
00:41:17,808 --> 00:41:21,936
and this gives a good excuse
for the British to be selfish.
478
00:41:22,021 --> 00:41:24,647
But anyway, they were very selfish.
479
00:41:38,454 --> 00:41:41,539
(narrator) On May 25th Boulogne fell.
480
00:41:45,878 --> 00:41:49,464
On May 26, Calais.
481
00:41:52,635 --> 00:41:56,804
Weygand's appointment had given
the French a flicker of optimism.
482
00:41:56,889 --> 00:41:59,432
It soon faded when
his counterattack failed
483
00:41:59,517 --> 00:42:04,312
and news of Belgium's capitulation
reached Paris on May 28.
484
00:42:04,396 --> 00:42:10,193
Thereafter, the mood became
steadily more and more defeatist.
485
00:42:12,905 --> 00:42:16,866
(Waterfield) I think the defeatism
came at the top.
486
00:42:16,951 --> 00:42:21,246
There was a very strong peace move
among certain politicians,
487
00:42:21,330 --> 00:42:25,375
some of them were even pro-German
and wanted jobs with the Germans.
488
00:42:25,459 --> 00:42:31,631
When things went badly, this group got
larger and became more dominant.
489
00:42:33,342 --> 00:42:35,677
(narrator) Prime Minster Reynaud
fought back
490
00:42:35,803 --> 00:42:38,137
by dismissing from his cabinet
weaker spirits
491
00:42:38,222 --> 00:42:40,682
and bringing in fighting men
like de Gaulle,
492
00:42:40,766 --> 00:42:43,768
now entering the political arena
for the first time.
493
00:42:43,894 --> 00:42:46,688
But the war
was virtually out of their hands.
494
00:42:46,772 --> 00:42:50,733
Perhaps it was that that prompted the
special service of prayer at Notre Dame
495
00:42:50,818 --> 00:42:53,444
on that Sunday before Dunkirk.
496
00:42:53,529 --> 00:42:55,572
(organ plays)
497
00:43:06,917 --> 00:43:13,047
(Spears) The French very soon accepted
the idea of defeat and surrendered.
498
00:43:13,132 --> 00:43:19,721
To them it was rather a conception
of the old days of the royalty
499
00:43:19,805 --> 00:43:23,600
when you just exchanged
a couple of provinces,
500
00:43:23,684 --> 00:43:26,519
paid a certain number of millions,
501
00:43:26,604 --> 00:43:31,190
and then called it a day,
hoping you'd be more lucky next time.
502
00:43:38,324 --> 00:43:41,576
(narrator) Dunkirk fell on June 4.
503
00:43:42,119 --> 00:43:46,456
Hitler ordered church bells to be rung
for three days throughout Germany
504
00:43:46,540 --> 00:43:51,377
to mark what he described as
"the greatest German victory ever".
505
00:43:56,925 --> 00:43:59,510
With the panzers reorganised
and re-equipped,
506
00:43:59,595 --> 00:44:02,430
the day after Dunkirk fell,
507
00:44:02,514 --> 00:44:06,851
the second major German offensive
in the West began.
508
00:44:37,549 --> 00:44:41,010
Although outnumbered now
by more than two to one,
509
00:44:41,095 --> 00:44:42,637
the French fought stubbornly -
510
00:44:42,721 --> 00:44:45,181
much more aggressively, in fact,
511
00:44:45,265 --> 00:44:47,725
than at any time during
the battle for the Meuse.
512
00:45:01,990 --> 00:45:07,870
But after three days of bloody fighting,
disaster once more overtook the French.
513
00:45:16,296 --> 00:45:18,548
Another breakthrough by Rommel.
514
00:45:18,632 --> 00:45:23,845
In a matter of hours
he had reached the Seine at Rouen.
515
00:45:39,778 --> 00:45:43,823
Elsewhere the panzers
were passing almost effortlessly
516
00:45:43,907 --> 00:45:46,576
through the heartland of France.
517
00:45:56,462 --> 00:45:58,755
All roads pointed to Paris.
518
00:45:59,923 --> 00:46:04,927
On June 10th
the French government left the capital.
519
00:46:05,012 --> 00:46:09,015
On that day Mussolini
brought ltaly into the war.
520
00:46:12,728 --> 00:46:16,105
On the day we left Paris
521
00:46:16,190 --> 00:46:23,321
we went to this Vincennes headquarters
of Gamelin
522
00:46:23,405 --> 00:46:28,534
and... we heard on the radio
523
00:46:28,619 --> 00:46:33,998
all the songs and music
of the Italian war, you know.
524
00:46:34,124 --> 00:46:37,543
"Giovinezza " and all that, you know.
525
00:46:37,628 --> 00:46:40,046
And we thought...
526
00:46:40,172 --> 00:46:43,716
And that is where I heard
the first time somebody say,
527
00:46:43,801 --> 00:46:45,635
«It can't go on like that."
528
00:46:45,719 --> 00:46:48,054
"We must have an armistice."
529
00:46:48,138 --> 00:46:51,140
We had the greatest difficulty
getting out of Paris
530
00:46:51,225 --> 00:46:53,976
because everybody,
although Paris was empty,
531
00:46:54,061 --> 00:46:59,023
all the roads outside Paris
were absolutely full of motorcars,
532
00:46:59,107 --> 00:47:04,070
people even going in and out of the
trees at the side to try and get ahead.
533
00:47:04,154 --> 00:47:10,201
But we were able to get off the
main roads into the countryside,
534
00:47:10,285 --> 00:47:14,247
and then it was most extraordinary
because it was beautiful weather,
535
00:47:14,331 --> 00:47:16,749
all the villagers were very welcoming
536
00:47:16,875 --> 00:47:20,169
and brought out their best cognac,
their best wine,
537
00:47:20,254 --> 00:47:23,256
because they said,
"Why leave it for the Germans?"
538
00:47:23,340 --> 00:47:27,468
Arriving in the airspace over Paris
539
00:47:27,553 --> 00:47:33,808
l observed that great columns of German
infantry had already entered the town.
540
00:47:35,644 --> 00:47:41,148
Observing this and remembering
that we had failed to reach this goal
541
00:47:41,233 --> 00:47:45,862
all through the First World War,
542
00:47:45,946 --> 00:47:50,783
l felt such joy and exultation
543
00:47:50,868 --> 00:47:56,873
that I asked the pilot of my
small plane, a so-called Storch,
544
00:47:56,957 --> 00:48:03,296
whether it would be possible to perform
a landing on the Place de la Concorde.
545
00:48:03,380 --> 00:48:07,925
After circling around some time,
546
00:48:08,010 --> 00:48:13,180
he and... we came down
on the Place de la Concorde,
547
00:48:13,265 --> 00:48:17,268
which was entirely free of any traffic
548
00:48:18,270 --> 00:48:22,857
and landed on the outside
of the Champs Elysées.
549
00:48:30,282 --> 00:48:35,036
(narrator) Two days after Paris fell,
the new prime minister, Marshal Pétain
550
00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:37,330
asked the Germans for an armistice.
551
00:48:37,414 --> 00:48:41,000
Reynaud had been opposed to
a separate peace and resigned.
552
00:48:41,084 --> 00:48:46,672
In most of France the news of
an armistice was received with relief.
553
00:48:50,052 --> 00:48:53,137
Hitler insisted on using
for the negotiations
554
00:48:53,221 --> 00:48:57,141
Marshal Foch's old railway carriage
in the woods of Compiègne,
555
00:48:57,225 --> 00:49:01,103
where the 1918 armistice
had been signed.
556
00:49:01,188 --> 00:49:04,732
It was the supreme humiliation
for France.
557
00:49:25,754 --> 00:49:30,174
(Beaufre) One must have lived
the retreat in France,
558
00:49:30,300 --> 00:49:34,720
with this enormous movement of crowds.
559
00:49:34,805 --> 00:49:39,225
lt's something which you can't
understand if you haven't seen it.
560
00:49:39,309 --> 00:49:42,728
We thought that really
that had to be stopped.
561
00:49:53,031 --> 00:49:58,035
(narrator) Once the French had signed,
Hitler ordered the site destroyed.
562
00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:01,038
Germany had had its revenge.
563
00:50:01,748 --> 00:50:05,001
(announcement in French)
564
00:50:15,762 --> 00:50:18,597
(narrator) Paris radio,
now under German control,
565
00:50:18,682 --> 00:50:22,476
broadcast the terms of the armistice.
566
00:50:57,095 --> 00:51:01,223
Paris had now to adapt
to a new wave of tourists.
567
00:51:01,308 --> 00:51:03,684
Among the first was Hitler himself,
568
00:51:03,769 --> 00:51:06,729
making the only trip of his life
to the city,
569
00:51:06,813 --> 00:51:09,106
and a fleeting one at that.
570
00:51:22,537 --> 00:51:27,500
For four bleak years France was to
disappear from the forefront of the war.
571
00:51:28,376 --> 00:51:34,799
Some Frenchmen chose a courageous
resistance at home or overseas,
572
00:51:34,883 --> 00:51:38,886
others were to settle into a routine
of apathetic collaboration.
573
00:51:39,513 --> 00:51:42,765
Many connived at Hitler's
new order for Europe -
574
00:51:42,849 --> 00:51:45,101
the Vichy version.
575
00:52:09,501 --> 00:52:12,962
For Paris there remained
one more humiliation.
576
00:52:23,390 --> 00:52:24,807
The German triumphal parade
577
00:52:24,891 --> 00:52:27,935
followed the exact route
of the French victory procession
578
00:52:28,019 --> 00:52:30,563
after the First World War.
579
00:52:46,371 --> 00:52:52,251
It had taken the Wehrmacht just five
weeks to humble their historic foe.
580
00:53:07,434 --> 00:53:09,768
In the words of Winston Churchill:
581
00:53:09,853 --> 00:53:13,314
"The Battle of France was now over."
582
00:53:13,398 --> 00:53:15,900
"The Battle of Britain
was about to begin."
51658
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