All language subtitles for World.War.II.In.HD.Colour.S01E10.1080p.BluRay.x264-iFH.en

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By the summer of 1944,

Allied troops were
racing towards Paris.

The final phase of the
war in Europe was

about to be played out.

The western Allies
were squeezing in

on Germany through France.

The Soviet Union was
approaching from the east.

Hitler, caught in the middle,
made a last desperate attempt

to break out of the
Allied stranglehold.

While he was doing so,
Stalin was beginning

to redraw the political
map of Europe

in an attempt to secure the
Soviet Union's future.

But as the Russians now
advanced into German

occupied territory, they
came across the most

shocking discover
in modern history.

A series of camp that
would call into question

the very nature of humanity.

The world was about
to discover the

true horror of the Nazi regime.

In August 1944, Allied
troops arrived in Paris.

Even as Hitler desperately
signalled to his generals,

"Is Paris burning?"
the German forces

occupying the city surrendered.

Paris free again,
and the beginning

of the last act and
its amazing story.

The surrender of Lieutenant
General von Choltitz,

German commander of
the Paris region.

At a dingy office in
Montparnassee station.

Formal end of German rule.

Paris threw itself into

an orgy of celebration.

The following day, Charles
de Gaulle, the leader

of the Free French
government in exile,

arrived in the city to claim
the glory for its liberation.

Meanwhile as De Gaulle
claimed the credit,

the Allies continued
the fighting.

They crossed the River Seine

and moved east towards Germany.

As they did so, the German army

was retreating in confusion.

But the Allies were running into

severe logistical problems.

The fleeing Germans had
trashed the French ports.

That meant Allied supplies
had to be brought in

from Britain across the
beaches of Normandy

and then transported
several hundreds of miles

along tortuous roads.

Truck convoys, nicknamed
the Red Ball Express

from their identification sign,
rolled forward day and night.

But it was impossible to
bring in enough supplies,

particularly fuel, to
maintain the Allied advance.

A US armoured
division drank up to

25,000 gallons of fuel a day.

Meanwhile, as supply problems
slowed the Allied advance,

Hitler was planning
a new fight back.

His plan, to destroy
Allied morale

by attacking civilian targets,
particularly in Britain.

His method, a new miracle
weapon, the flying bomb.

On June 13, 1944, ten
were fired at London.

Six struck home.

The Germans called it
Vengeance Weapon 1, the V1.

The British simply
called it the doodlebug.

Armed with a warhead of
just under 2,000 pounds,

it could be launched from
sites 130 miles away

and could fly at
400 miles an hour.

For the next few weeks, up
to 100 doodlebugs a day

were fired at British
cities from launch sites

along the German
occupied channel coast.

They caused panic and confusion.

More than 20,000 people
were killed or wounded.

The British set up a screen of

anti-aircraft guns
around the capital.

Many flying bombs
were shot down.

The British also sent up
fighters to intercept them,

including their first
operational jet

the Gloster Meteor.

But still the V1s kept arriving.

Only when the
Allies tracked down

their launch sites
in northern France

did they stop.

But the reprieve was
only temporary.

The Germans had a second miracle
weapon up their sleeves.

Hard on the heels of the V1 came

the much more
sophisticated V2 rocket.

The first fell on London
on September 8, 1944.

The V2s were launched
from easily concealed

mobile launchers 200 miles away.

They travelled at
3,500 miles an hour

and carried a one ton warhead.

For six months, Britain
had no response.

Over 1,100 V2s landed on
defenceless British cities.

They only stopped when
the German positions

in Europe were
pushed so far back

the launch sites were, once
again, out of range of Britain.

Yet despite the horror and
damage the V2s caused,

British morale
remained unbroken.

Meanwhile in mainland
Europe, the Allied advance

reached Brussels on
September 3, 1944.

The next day, British
forces took the huge

Belgian port of Antwerp.

It was still intact.

Here at last seemed an answer

to the Allies'
logistic problems.

New supplies could pour
in through the port.

But it was not to be so simple.

Antwerp is 40 miles from the
sea up the River Scheldt.

As the Germans pulled
out of the city,

they dug in along the waterway,

turning it into a
corridor of death.

The river was also mined.

It meant the port was
unreachable from the sea.

The Allied advance, now
desperately low on supplies

was in danger of
grinding to a halt.

By autumn 1944, the Allied
advance across western Europe

was running short of supplies.

They needed a new plan if
it was to move forward.

It was now that the
methodical and ultra-cautious

British Commander
Bernard Montgomery

came up with a bold,
even reckless, idea.

Instead of large
numbers of troops

advancing across a wide front,

why not send a smaller force

to punch a single hole
through the German defences?

It would be faster and
much more economical.

The idea was drive
a narrow corridor

from east of Antwerp
across southern Holland

to the Dutch town of Arnhem
near the German border.

The Allies would then push
across the Rhine into Germany,

outflanking the huge
German defensive positions

of the so called Siegfried line,

and drive deep into the
heart of Hitler's Reich.

Montgomery's boss, General
Dwight Eisenhower,

the Supreme Allied
Commander in the West,

had until now favoured a
broad, steady advance.

But he unexpectedly agreed.

However, it was never
going to be easy.

The route went over a
mass of waterways.

Airborne troops would
have to be sent in

to seize strategic bridges
behind German lines

at the towns of Veghel and Zon,

Grave and Nijmegen,

and finally across
the Rhine at Arnhem.

Their task would be
to hold the bridges

while the main attack, led
by a column of tanks,

drove up from Belgium.

Timing was critical.

If the tank column took too long

the airborne troops
holding the bridges

would be overwhelmed.

Operation Market Garden

began early on the afternoon
of September 17, 1944.

30,000 British and
US airborne troops,

equipped with gliders,

landed in German
occupied territory.

The US 101st Airborne,
the Screaming Eagles,

swiftly captured the
bridge at Veghel.

But their second objective,
the bridge at Zon,

was blown up by the Germans just
as the Americans approached.

Further north, the US 82nd
Airborne, the All Americans,

successfully seized
the bridge at Grave.

But stiff German
resistance prevented them

from capturing the second
crucial bridge at Nijmegen.

Meanwhile at Arnhem,
two brigades

of the British First
Airborne Division

landed safely about eight
miles west of the town.

But as the paratroops advanced

towards Arnhem's vital
bridge across the Rhine,

they ran into two German
Panzer divisions.

The British dropped
reinforcements

of men and machines.

But as they drifted
down to earth,

they were cut to
pieces by German fire.

Finally, by eight
in the evening,

after a day of fierce fighting,

an Allied battalion reached

the northern end of the bridge.

But the Germans still
held the other end.

Operation Market
Garden was in trouble.

At the same time
the tank column,

advancing up a
single track road,

was also running
into difficulties.

As it drove towards the Dutch
border on the first day,

the lead vehicles were
ambushed by German troops

using the lethal handheld
Panzerfaust antitank rocket.

The advance was halted

while infantry was brought
in to clear the way.

The following day the
tank column reached Zon,

but was delayed overnight
while the bridge

was replaced with a
temporary structure.

By the third day it had
crossed the bridges

at Veghel and Grave,

but was held up again by
fierce resistance at Nijmegen.

Finally, four days
after starting out

the column was at last within
striking distance of Arnhem.

But it was too late.

The British paratroops holding
the northern end of the bridge

had surrendered.

Montgomery's daring
plan had failed.

Arnhem had proved
a bridge too far.

The war on the western front

seemed to have ground
to a standstill again.

Then, ten days later,

the Allies launched a new
effort to break the deadlock.

The plan was to clear
the seaway into Antwerp

so that urgently needed
supplies could be brought in.

It was slow going.

The Germans had flooded
much of the area.

It took Canadian troops three
weeks to clear the riverbanks

of German soldiers and
machine gun nests.

But still the Germans

clung on to the strategically
important Walcheren Island.

It had massive guns that
commanded the river entrance.

On November 1, 1944,
British commandos

were sent in to flush
the Germans out.

They were supported by
two World War I monitors

with huge 15 inch guns.

The Germans held on
for another week

before they were
finally overwhelmed.

Allied mine sweepers could
now clear the seaway.

Three weeks later, on
November 28, 1944,

the first supply ships
reached Antwerp.

Now at last, the
Allies could move on

towards the German frontier.

But then just as the
supplies had begun to flow,

the weather changed.

Autumn rain turned the
battlefield into a swamp.

By late 1944, the Allied
advance had to stop again.

The final defeat of Germany

would have to wait
until the spring.

But even as the Allies waited,

Hitler was preparing
a massive response.

By autumn 1944 the Allied
armies were virtually

lined up along the Belgian
German frontier waiting

for the winter weather to
clear before they pushed on.

Germany's situation
was disastrous.

Her forces were
hugely outnumbered,

they lacked air support,

and they were desperately
short of fuel.

Nevertheless, Hitler,

against the advice of
his senior commanders,

decided to launch a
huge counter attack.

It was a desperate gamble,
but if it paid off,

it might just change
Germany's fortunes.

His plan was to burst
through the Allied lines

in the Ardennes hills
and head for Antwerp.

If he could retake the port,
the Allied supply lines

would be cut out once again.

Some 200,000 German troops

and 950 tanks and
tank destroyers

were assembled in
total radio silence.

Hitler was calling on
what was, in effect,

his last remaining strategic
reserve of troops.

The Allies missed the
build-up completely.

As a result, the lines
facing the German positions

were only lightly manned.

On December 16, 1944, the
Germans opened fire.

Soon afterwards, German
tanks and infantry

crossed the US lines.

The Americans were caught
completely by surprise.

In fact, during the first
day General Omar Bradley,

Commander of US 12th Army Group,

even refused to believe

a major German assault
was underway.

American confusion
was made worse

when the Germans sent in English
speaking special forces

in captured US uniforms and
jeeps to carry out sabotage

behind the US lines.

American troops became
so nervous that even

General Bradley was stopped
and asked to produce

his identity papers to prove
that he was not a German.

But despite this, the
US forces regrouped.

Any Germans captured
wearing US uniforms

were summarily shot as spies.

The Americans began
to fight back.

But the German
advance had created

a huge bulge in
the Allied lines.

The attack would become known
as the Battle of the Bulge.

It was now, on the northern
flank of this bulge,

that the Germans committed
one of the worst atrocities

of the war in northwest Europe.

SS Colonel Joachim
Peiper captured

some 150 members of a US
artillery observation battalion

near the village of Malmedy.

When later US forces
retook the village,

they found 85 bodies.

Their comrades had been
shot by their SS guards.

It was a sign of how desperate
the fight had become.

As the German advance
near Malmedy continued,

US combat engineers blew up
bridges to slow it down.

The Germans were forced to use
precious supplies of fuel

to look for alternative
crossings.

Meanwhile, on the southern
flank of the bulge,

US troops blocked road junctions

to slow the German tanks.

One of the most
important crossroads

was at the small Belgian
town of Bastogne.

Here the Allies sent
in reinforcements.

The Germans were
forced to bypass it,

but the US forces
holding Bastogne

blocked their supply lines.

Two days later, however, the
Germans were approaching

the town of Dinant, some
30 miles further west.

Despite the setbacks,
Hitler's gamble appeared

to be paying off.

The German bulge was
moving forward.

But their supply lines were
now dangerously overextended

and they were running
desperately low on fuel.

The advance slowed.

For almost a week
in the biting cold,

the two sides
remained deadlocked.

Neither could gain
the upper hand.

Then on New Year's Day
1945, the Luftwaffe

launched a do or die
assault on Allied bases.

Over 300 Allied planes
were destroyed.

But the Luftwaffe lost
several hundred too,

far more than it could replace.

As the weather now
improved, the Allies

took advantage of their
overwhelming air power.

US troops temporarily under
Montgomery's command

pushed in from the north.

US General George
Patton's forces

squeezed from the south.

Allied air power pummelled
the German lines.

The German bulge was
slowly pushed back.

By early February 1945,
Hitler's gamble had failed.

The Germans had retreated to
their original positions.

The attack had
taken a heavy toll

on their already
depleted resources.

Over 120,000 men were killed,
wounded, or taken prisoner.

Meanwhile, on the
other side of Europe,

Stalin now began to move on
Germany's eastern border.

In doing so, he would
begin to redraw

the political map of Europe.

During the summer
and autumn of 1944,

as the Allies overran France
and Belgium, in the east

the core of Stalin's Red
Army was camped outside

the Polish capital of Warsaw.

For the Russian leader
the aim of the war

had by now changed.

It was no longer a
matter of survival

or even of pushing the enemy
out of the Soviet Union.

It had become a
political affair.

Top of Stalin's
agenda was building

a buffer zone between the
Soviet Army and Germany.

One of the keys to
this was Poland.

The Russians and Poles had
long hated each other.

Soviet armies had
collaborated with the Germans

in carving up Poland in 1939.

Then in April 1943, German
soldiers found the bodies

of more than 4,000
Polish army officers

in the Katyn Woods near
Smolensk in the Soviet Union.

They had been murdered
by the Russians.

Stalin denied any involvement
and blamed the Germans.

But the Poles never
believed him.

Then in the summer of 1944,
the Polish Home Army

in Warsaw rose up against
its German occupiers.

It was now that hostility
between the two countries

came to a head.

The Home Army had
been spurred on

by a broadcast from
Moscow on July 29

urging a popular uprising.

In the first days of the rising

it seized some two
thirds of the city.

It had about 40,000
men and women,

armed mainly with
captured German weapons.

There were also more than
200,000 unarmed helpers.

But they lacked any weapons

capable of repelling the
German heavy armour.

The Poles looked to
the Soviet Army,

still camped just to
the south, for help.

But Stalin ordered
it to do nothing

and dismissed the Home
Army's leadership

as power seeking criminals.

German reinforcements
poured into Warsaw

under the command of SS General
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski.

He was an expert

in crushing and slaughtering
partisan groups.

The situation in the
city became desperate.

Savage house to house fighting
raged for two months.

The Home Army was forced back
into an ever smaller area.

The German advance was
accompanied by rape and murder.

Wounded prisoners
were burned alive.

Women and children were
used as human shields.

The Polish forces were forced
back into cellars and sewers.

But still the Red Army sat back.

Stalin's reasoning was simple.

He saw the Polish Home Army

as pro-Western and
anti-communist.

He reasoned that if it and its
supporters were destroyed,

it would clear the way

for the Polish communists
to take power.

By October 2, the
Germans had done

just what Stalin had hoped.

The Home Army and its
sympathizers were crushed.

Over 15,000 army members and
200,000 civilians died.

Some 15,000 people surrendered.

Hitler now set about

the complete destruction
of the city.

Warsaw was razed to the ground.

The remnants of the Home
Army went underground.

Later when the Red Army
finally moved into Warsaw,

they would be hunted down
by Soviet secret police.

Stalin's scheming had worked.

Pro-Western Polish
forces had been smashed

and the country
would, after the war,

become a key buffer state
between Russia and the West.

In London, the British Prime
Minister, Winston Churchill,

was appalled by
Stalin's conduct.

But he was also a pragmatist.

In October 1944, Churchill
went to Moscow.

It was several months
after the crushing

of the Warsaw uprising.

There he agreed with Stalin

on a division of the
European spoils.

According to a document
Churchill scribbled down,

the Soviets would have
90% of the influence

in Romania and the
British 90% in Greece.

In Bulgaria, the Soviets
would have 75% influence,

and 50% in Yugoslavia
and Hungary.

The future of Poland was left
vague, probably deliberately.

Churchill described it
as the naughty document.

The wording was confusing
and nobody was sure

quite what it meant, but
Stalin happily agreed to it.

He was probably aware
that the winner

would take all and he
intended to be the winner

in most of Eastern
Europe and the Balkans.

Churchill never told the
Americans about the document.

He knew that they
would be horrified

by such old fashioned
imperialism

between the European powers.

But the US found
out soon enough.

In late 1944, the Germans
pulled out of Greece.

The country descended
into a civil war

between the Monarchists
and the Communists.

Churchill wanted his 90%
influence and sent in

British troops to support the
pro-Western Monarchists.

Stalin, mindful of the naughty
document, did not object.

But the Americans were
outraged at what they saw

as such blatant meddling in
another country's affairs.

But by the end of 1944, there
was a more pressing issue.

Western and Soviet forces

were about the same
distance away from Berlin.

The race was on to be
the first to get there.

But even before it began,

new and shocking news
came out of the East.

On July 23, 1944,

as Soviet forces advanced
through eastern Poland,

they overran a small
village called Maidanek.

Nearby they found a
prison compound.

They quickly realised it
was no ordinary camp.

They found specially built gas
chambers and incinerators.

Near them were piles of corpses.

It was a camp designed for
the mass murder of Jews.

Adolf Hitler had always
been anti-Semitic.

When in the 1930s he
had come to power,

many German Jews had
been forced to flee.

Those who couldn't
were persecuted

and deprived of their rights.

Then in the summer of 1939,
the Germans invaded Poland.

Suddenly the German Reich

found itself ruling two
million more Jews.

So the Nazis sent in
special SS squads,

the Einsatzgruppen, whose
job was to round them up.

Many Jews were immediately shot.

The remainder were herded
into walled ghettos

in the major cities,
while Germans worked out

how to solve what they
called the Jewish problem.

Life in the ghettos was harsh.

People were systematically
starved and beaten.

Two years later the German
army entered the Soviet Union.

Millions more Jews

suddenly found themselves
under Nazi rule.

Here the Einsatzgruppen were
helped by the local population,

which was often anti-Semitic

and only too willing to carry
out pogroms of its own.

Hundreds of thousands of Jews

were rounded up
and exterminated.

The most notorious pogrom
occurred at Babyi Yar in Kiev.

33,000 Jews were
shot in cold blood.

But machine gunning
was an expensive way

of dealing with the
Jewish problem.

Nor was it popular with
many German soldiers.

So at a conference in January
1942, the SS leadership

cast round for more
efficient solutions.

First it tried using
carbon monoxide fumes.

But that didn't kill enough
people quickly enough.

The conference eventually
agreed to set up

a series of camps where
Europe's Jewish population

would be systematically
exterminated.

There would be six of
these death camps,

all in Poland.

They were at Maidanek,
Sobibor, Treblinka,

Chelmno, Belzec, and Birkenau.

As the camps were being built,

the Jewish ghettos
were liquidated.

One notorious example
was in Warsaw.

Here, as the Germans
moved into the ghetto

to clear it out, the
inhabitants fought back.

They held out for
nearly a month.

7,000 died in the fighting
before they were overwhelmed.

Those who had survived it

were rounded up and
sent to Treblinka.

Here they entered what
was rapidly becoming

a highly organised system of
slave labour and extermination.

New inhabitants
arrived at the camps

in cattle trucks from
all over Europe.

At places like Birkenau the
extermination facilities

were next to the work
camps like Auschwitz.

At facilities like this, the
new arrivals were sorted.

Able bodied men and a few women

went to the work camp to be
worked to death as slaves.

Children, the old, and
most of the women

went straight to
the gas chambers.

They were stripped and
their heads shaved.

Next they were herded,
up to 2,000 at a time,

into sealed rooms
disguised as showers.

SS officers then poured
Zyklon-B crystals through

a trap in the roof to
form a deadly gas.

It was far more effective
than carbon monoxide.

At Auschwitz Birkenau,
the gas chambers

could kill over
10,000 people a day.

Small groups of prisoners,
known as Sonderkommandos,

were used to clear the
bodies out of the chambers.

Some bodies were burned in pits.

Some in crematoria.

The camps could also be
profitable businesses.

Major German companies
built factories near them

and paid the SS, which
administered the camps,

to hire Jews as slaves.

The belongings and hair of
those gassed were sold off,

their gold teeth melted
down and hoarded.

For most Jews, resistance
was almost impossible.

At Treblinka, Sobibor,
and Birkenau, however,

the Sonderkommandos mounted
brief and doomed rebellions.

But in July 1944 most of
this was still unknown.

As news began to seep out of
the Russian find at Maidenek,

most people simply
found it unbelievable.

Yet today we know that
people in the west,

like Churchill, almost certainly
knew more than they admitted.

During 1934 and '44 several
reports reached London

about what was going on inside
the extermination camps.

But nothing was done.

Today it is estimated
some six million Jews

were exterminated
in Hitler's camps.

What the Allies had
never understood,

until the war was over,
was the vast scale

of the Nazi
extermination campaign.

Nor did they grasp the sheer
quantity of resources

the Germans were
prepared to devote to it

when Germany was
facing its final days.