All language subtitles for World.War.II.In.HD.Colour.S01E06.1080p.BluRay.x264-iFH.en

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As Hitler marched triumphantly

across western Europe in
the early summer of 1940,

his fellow dictator in
Italy, Benito Mussolini,

dreamt of a similar
campaign further south.

His dream was to build
a new Roman empire

that would see Italy expand

not only along the northern
Mediterranean coast,

but south through North Africa.

He would turn the Mediterranean

into Mare Nostrum, our sea.

But it was a dream that
would turn into a disaster.

It would lead in due course
to Mussolini's death

and fatally overextend
his German ally.

At the start of the war

Italy already controlled Libya

and Abyssinia, Ethiopia today.

Mussolini calculated
that if he could take

British controlled
Egypt and Sudan,

he would be able to
create a huge swathe

of Italian-controlled territory.

It looked like an easy campaign.

Italy had ten times more troops
in the region than Britain.

In September 1940,
Mussolini invaded Egypt

and captured the small coastal
town of Sidi Barrani.

There the Italians
stopped and dug in.

Britain gathered all available
forces for a counterattack.

On December the 6th, 1940,

they moved in across the desert.

Just four days later, they
overran the Italian defences.

Nearly 40,000 Italians
were taken prisoner.

It was the first sign
that the Italian Army

was in poor fighting shape.

The remainder of the
defeated Italians

retreated back across
the Libyan border.

The British followed
in hot pursuit.

In barely a month, the
Western Desert Force,

as it was called, had advanced

almost 600 miles across Libya.

It now paused and dug in

at the Libyan coastal
town of El Agheila.

Almost half of Italy's Libyan
empire had been seized

and over 100,000 Italian
troops taken prisoner.

Meanwhile, to the
south, British forces

invaded Italian
controlled Abyssinia.

The fighting lasted
for nearly 12 months.

The rugged terrain
made communications

and transport difficult.

But in the end, the Italians
were forced to surrender.

But even as Abyssinia
was being secured,

Mussolini's empire-building
was causing problems

in another part of
the Mediterranean.

Nearly two years
earlier in April 1939,

as part of his plan for
a new Roman empire,

Mussolini had occupied Albania.

The following year he demanded

Greece become an Italian colony.

When the Greeks
refused, he invaded.

The Greeks were outnumbered
more than two to one.

But they swiftly turned
back the Italian advance.

By the beginning of March 1941,

the Italians had not only
been pushed out of Greece,

but out of much of
neighbouring Albania too.

Britain's Prime Minister
Winston Churchill

promised help so the Greeks
could finish the job.

But Britain's
forces were already

heavily committed elsewhere.

So it was that the British
units in North Africa

were told to abandon
their Libyan adventure

and ship much of the force

across the Mediterranean
to Albania.

As the Italian troops
were now pushed back,

Mussolini's Balkan
ambitions fell apart.

The Italians were
in deep trouble.

It left Hitler with a problem.

Should he divert troops
from elsewhere in Europe

to support his most
important European ally

or should he abandon
Mussolini to his fate?

He decided to help.

In April 1941, over half
a million German troops

swept down into
Yugoslavia and Greece.

For Germany, it would
prove to be the beginning

of a fateful entanglement with
Mussolini's political dreams.

But at first, all went well.

The Greeks, despite
British help,

were unable to hold
the Germans back.

And in late April, the
Axis forces captured

the Greek capitol of Athens.

Some 30,000 men were evacuated

to the British controlled
island of Crete.

Hitler decided to
flush them out.

He had at his command

some 22,000 parachute
and glider borne troops

backed up by 150
Stuka dive bombers.

The landings began at first
light on May the 20th.

To begin with, they focused
on the main airfields.

The Allied forces
were overstretched.

There were incessant
German air attacks.

The Germans soon
captured the airfields

and began to fly
in reinforcements.

The allies were pushed
back across the island.

Two weeks later,
it was all over.

Fifteen thousand allied
troops had to be evacuated.

A further 18,000
were taken prisoner.

The Axis powers now controlled

much of the Mediterranean

and the critical supply
routes to North Africa.

It looked as though
Hitler's decision

to support Mussolini
had paid off.

He was poised to drive Britain
out of the entire region.

In February 1941, a
junior German general

arrived at the Libyan
port of Tripoli.

Erwin Rommel was one of the
rising stars of the German Army

and had been chosen by Hitler

as the man to rescue
his Italian ally

and retake North Africa
for the Axis powers.

The first units of his Afrika
Korps were soon landing.

Some 16,000 men and
over 100 tanks

had been diverted from
the European front.

The Axis forces rapidly
outnumbered the British troops,

depleted by the war
in Greece and Crete.

Rommel advanced towards
the British positions

at El Agheila and attacked.

As the British fell back,

Rommel pursued them.

In a matter of weeks
the Allied soldiers

had been pushed all the way
back to the Egyptian border.

But in the retreat a division
of Australian troops

had been cut off by the Germans

in the Libyan port of Tobruk.

The British Commander,
Sir Archibald Wavell,

now launched two successive
attempts to relieve them.

Both were fought off by Rommel's
now well-encamped troops.

The Germans massively
out gunned the British.

Their 88 millimetre
anti-aircraft guns,

when used against tanks,

far outranged the British.

Moreover, Rommel took advantage

of the wide open landscape

to drive his tanks around
the British forces,

outflanking them
time and time again.

It would become his
trademark tactic.

The British press half
grudgingly, half admiringly,

nicknamed Rommel the Desert Fox.

For Wavell, it was too much.

Now exhausted, he was replaced
by General Claude Auchinleck.

Auchinleck came under
immediate pressure

to try and again to relieve
the allied troops in Tobruk.

But he refused until his
forces had been reinforced.

Then on November the 18th, 1941,

he launched a major assault.

Operation Crusader,
as it was called,

started with a lengthy
armoured dogfight.

Again, the British tanks
suffered heavy casualties.

But the infantry
slowly moved forward.

Finally, after a month
of confused fighting,

Rommel retreated.

Tobruk had been relieved.

The Axis units fell
back along the coast

all the way to their starting
point at El Agheila.

Auchinleck's military
command now assumed Rommel

was a spent force, at
least for the time being.

Its units were dispersed
to bases along the coast

for a badly needed refit.

It was a mistake.

Two months later
in January 1942,

Rommel's Afrika Korps
was back on the attack.

It quickly brushed aside
the forward units

of a now unprepared
British Army.

The chase along the
coast of Africa

began all over again.

The allies fell back towards
a new defensive line

just west of Tobruk.

Here a series of
defensive positions,

known as the Gazala
Line, were constructed.

Rommel attacked it at
the end of May 1942.

Once again, he swung his armour
around the British forces

in a great outflanking movement

and came in behind the
British positions.

But this time the British
were prepared for it

and tried, in turn,
to outflank Rommel.

The fighting lasted
for three weeks,

as each side tried to
outmanoeuvre the other.

Eventually, the British
were forced to retreat.

Three days later the Germans
overran the Allied positions.

Rommel pressed home
his advantage.

The British withdrawal
threatened to become a rout.

Finally, Auchinleck
turned to face his enemy

at the Egyptian village
of El Alamein.

His southern flank rested
on the Qattara Depression,

an area impassable to tanks.

On July the 1st, 1942,

Rommel attacked again.

But this time the
British defences held.

Rommel, with his
supply line stretched

and now seriously short of fuel

was forced to give up.

Now Auchinleck attempted
a counterattack.

For the rest of July the two
sides pushed at each other

like exhausted boxers.

Churchill was furious at the
lack of British progress

and now visited Egypt.

It was time for yet another
change of leadership.

Auchinleck was replaced by
not one but two generals.

General Harold Alexander as
Commander in Chief, Near East,

and General Bernard Montgomery
as commander of 8th Army.

The British and Axis forces

had fought each other
to a standstill.

There was no clear winner.

And the fate of North Africa
still hung in the balance.

Everything would now depend
on whether the British

could throttle the
Axis supply routes

across the Mediterranean.

For the first months
of World War II

the allies had enjoyed
unchallenged control

of the Mediterranean Sea.

Britain's own supplies
from the Middle East

passed through it undisturbed.

And communications
with the empire

in India and the Far
East were secured.

Italy's entry into the
war changed all that.

Its naval fleet was
modern and well equipped.

The Italians now
concentrated their fire

on the strategically crucial

British controlled
island of Malta.

The island was an
important refuelling base

for British submarines
and aircraft

in the eastern Mediterranean.

It had become the centre
for Royal Navy attacks

on Italian and German supply
convoys to North Africa.

In summer 1940, Italy bombed it.

It was the beginning
of a two-year assault

which would inflict
terrible suffering

on the island's population.

Yet for all Malta's
strategic significance,

Britain was caught on the hop.

There were no fighter
aircraft on the island

to beat off the attacks.

Then almost by accident four
gladiator fighter biplanes

were found in crates
on the island.

They were hastily assembled.

The aircraft put up a
fierce resistance.

For three weeks the fate of
Malta remained uncertain.

Then finally, British fighter
reinforcements arrived.

And the Italian bombers were
temporarily beaten off.

But it was now obvious
to the British

that they had to do something

if they were to keep a
toehold in the region.

That winter Britain
launched what it hoped

would be a knockout blow
against the Italian Navy.

On the evening of
November the 11th,

twenty-one Swordfish
torpedo bombers

lifted off an aircraft carrier.

They swept in on
the Italian fleet,

anchored in its base at Taranto.

The Italians hadn't expected it.

Three of Italy's six
battleships were crippled.

Four months later,
Britain struck again.

The Italian fleet was
again caught off guard

off the coast of Greece.

A fourth Italian
battleship was damaged.

Mussolini's challenge to the
British Navy was finished.

It was a turning point
for Hitler too.

It was now clear that
Italy could no longer

be depended on to maintain
control of the Mediterranean.

It meant his supply
lines to North Africa

were at risk of being cut off.

Germany decided to
take a direct hand.

In early 1941, the
Luftwaffe bombed Malta.

The island took another
severe battery.

The attacks continued
month after month.

Yet the British
garrison hung on.

During an interlude in
the German bombardment

in autumn 1941, it even managed
to step up its attacks

on the Axis supply
convoys to North Africa.

Then the Luftwaffe
resumed the assault.

But despite the battering,

the people of Malta held on.

The following spring
in April 1942,

they received a unique
honour for the heroism

they had shown on
the four months

of devastating Axis bombardment.

The island was awarded
the George Cross,

Britain's highest award
for civilian courage.

But by the summer of 1942,

Malta was running short of
supplies and ammunition.

In mid-June the British
Navy sent convoys

from Gibraltar and
Egypt to relieve it.

But the Germans were waiting.

Just two of the 17
ships got through.

The situation on the island
was getting desperate.

It was time for some
decisive action.

In August, Britain launched
Operation Pedestal,

the biggest convoy
ever sent to Malta.

Fourteen merchant ships
entered the Mediterranean

through the Straits
of Gibraltar.

They were accompanied by
a large naval escort.

Almost immediately they ran
into German opposition.

For three days there was
a ferocious sea battle

as Axis submarines and aircraft

attempted to stop and
sink the convoy.

Finally, on the fourth day,

five of the British
merchant ships

made it into port.

They brought with them
just enough supplies

to keep the island going.

Malta had been rescued.

It meant the allies could
continue to harass

the Axis supply lines
to North Africa.

It was a strategic advantage
that would prove crucial

to future events in the region.

In North Africa, Churchill's
orders to his new team,

Generals Alexander and
Montgomery, were simple.

Destroy the army commanded
by Field Marshall Rommel.

Almost immediately
they were informed

by the team that had broken
Germany's enigma code

that Rommel was preparing
to attack them.

Montgomery assumed
the Desert Fox

would try another of
his outflanking moves

and fortified the
ridge of Alam Halfa,

just to the southeast
of El Alamein.

It was, he hoped,
the rock on which

the Axis forces would be broken.

When it came, the fighting
lasted for three days.

This time Allied ground forces
were helped by air power.

The RAF played havoc with
the advancing German tanks.

Rommel was forced to give up.

And short of fuel
again, he pulled back.

It was now Rommel's
turn to dig in.

He chose a line between
the impassable

sand sea of the
Qattara Depression

and the Mediterranean coast.

Great belts of minefields
were covered by artillery.

Rommel's Panzer divisions

were held back as
a mobile reserve

to destroy any Allied
breakthroughs.

Montgomery was well aware it
was a formidable barrier.

He also knew it was
impossible to outflank it.

His only option is
to punch his way

directly through the middle
of the Axis defences.

He was helped by a
flood of new equipment

from the United States,

which included the new
American Lee and Sherman tanks

with 75 millimetre guns.

At last, the Allies had a weapon

which could match the Germans.

Finally, on the evening of
October the 23rd, 1942,

the British opened up an
artillery bombardment

on Rommel's positions.

The Battle of El
Alamein had begun.

Under cover of the bombardment,

Allied engineers moved
forward to clear paths

through the Axis minefields.

The British, Australian,
New Zealand,

and South African divisions

fought to drive a hole
through Rommel's defences.

Rommel's artillery
took a terrible toll.

Casualties mounted
on both sides.

The Axis forces were harried
by Allied air power.

Finally, after ten
days of fighting,

the Allied forces broke through.

The following day
Rommel retreated.

It was Germany's
first major defeat

at the hands of the
western allies.

Churchill was triumphant.

No, this is not the end.

This is not even the
beginning of the end.

Though what it is perhaps
the end of the beginning.

For two and a half months

Montgomery chased Rommel west

along the North African
coast towards Tunisia.

Meanwhile, an Anglo
American force

had landed a thousand
miles to his rear

in French North Africa,
Morocco and Algeria today.

It was code named
Operation Torch.

The Allied 1st Army was soon

moving eastwards
towards Tunisia.

Rommel was in danger of
being attacked from behind.

Over the next few days
the Germans flew in

tens of thousands of
troops from Europe

to save Rommel and shore up

the German position
in North Africa.

Finally, in late February 1943,

Rommel, reinforced, set
up a new defensive line

a hundred miles inside Tunisia

and turned to attack
Montgomery's advancing forces.

But Montgomery had
been forewarned

by the enigma code breakers.

And his troops were waiting

as the German tanks
rolled forward.

British artillery
broke up the assault

and the Panzers were
quickly halted.

It was Rommel's last
battle in North Africa.

He now returned to Germany

to beg Hitler to abandon the
North African campaign.

But Hitler refused.

It was a misjudgement.

As Montgomery's 8th Army now
pushed up from the south,

the Anglo American 1st Army
squeezed in from the west.

On May the 7th, US forces
took the port of Bizerta.

The British 7th Armour Division,

the famous Desert Rats,
drove into Tunis.

The Allies pincer closed,

and the Axis troops
were trapped.

Five days later, a
quarter of a million

German and Italian
soldiers surrendered.

It was more than
twice the number

that had surrendered at
Stalingrad four months earlier.

For Germany, it was another
momentous disaster.

The following day, the British
regional commander in chief,

General Harold Alexander,

signalled Winston Churchill,

"Sir, it is my duty to report"

that all enemy
resistance has ceased.

"We are the masters of the
North African shores."

Mussolini's gamble
in North Africa

had taken a terrible toll
on German resources.

It was about to have even
more serious consequences

for both him and Germany.

In January 1943, at a conference

in the Moroccan
city of Casablanca,

Churchill and Roosevelt
agreed to open a new front

on German dominated Europe.

The obvious target was Italy

seriously weakened by its
North African failures.

The only question was where
should the invasion begin?

Should the route go via
Sardinia or Sicily?

The Allied high command
chose the Sicilian route.

But to throw the
Germans off the scent,

they organised a deception plan.

Operation Mincemeat
was launched.

A corpse was dropped off
the shores of Spain

carrying false papers.

When it was washed
ashore in May 1943

and the papers passed
to the Germans,

they revealed that the Allies
would pretend to attack Sicily

but that their real
target was Sardinia.

Enigma code breakers
soon confirmed

the Germans had fallen for it.

Six weeks later, the British
8th Army under Montgomery

landed in the southeast
corner of Sicily.

The Italian coastal troops
presented few problems.

Further west, the US 7th Army
landed in the Gulf of Gela.

The Italian resistance
was again overwhelmed.

For the Italian people
the invasion of Sicily

was the final humiliation.

Mussolini was overthrown
in a popular uprising.

The new government now
opened secret talks

with the Allies
for an armistice.

For Hitler, it was
another nightmare.

He was now forced to pour in
yet more scarce resources

to protect his southern flank.

He told his commanders that
even if Italy surrendered,

they should fight on.

Within five weeks the Germans
had been pushed out of Sicily.

The Allies now crossed
to the main land

and pushed up through
the country.

US troops moved
up the west side.

British troops
moved up the east.

The Germans fought back
savagely all the way.

Even so, Naples
fell to the Allies

on October the 1st, 1943.

But then their
progress was slowed

by autumn rains and skilful
German rear guard attacks.

It was not until the
end of November

that Allied forces finally
reached the Gustav Line,

the first of a series of
German defensive positions

cutting across Italy.

British troops managed
to break through

at the eastern end of the line,

but winter was setting in.

And bad weather
forced them to halt.

Nevertheless, in the
west, US forces

attempted to outflank
the German defences

by taking to the sea.

They landed on January
the 22nd, 1944,

sixty miles to the north
of the point of Anzio.

But here, amidst
fierce fighting,

they were pinned down and nearly
driven back into the sea.

The Americans remained
trapped at Anzio

for the rest of the winter
and into the spring.

Meanwhile, in the
centre of Italy,

the key to breaking
the Gustav Line

was the towering Monte
Cassino mountain complex.

As spring came,
there was a series

of attempts to capture it.

Each assault failed.

In desperation,
the Allies bombed

a historic monastery
on the summit.

But the Germans hung on.

Finally, in late spring 1944,

as the weather improved,
the Allied forces

broke through the German lines.

Simultaneously, the Americans
broke out of Anzio.

The Allied forces now moved
swiftly north to Rome.

The Italian capitol
was liberated

on June the 4th, 1944.

For Hitler, it was another blow.

He was now hanging on to
Italy by his fingernails.

The Allies continued
to push north.

The German defenders
finally fell back

to the formidable Gothic Line,

just north of Florence.

Here bad weather again brought
the Allied advance to a halt.

It wouldn't be until
the spring of 1945

that the campaign could resume

and Italy was finally won.

By then the Italians had
had enough of Mussolini.

He was captured by Italian
partisan forces and shot.

His corpse was hung by
its heels in Milan.

Mussolini's war had
been a catastrophe

for himself and his country.

It had also left the
German southern flank

dangerously exposed.

The German Army was
now overcommitted,

short of troops, and
retreating on all fronts.