All language subtitles for World War II With Tom Hanks S01E01 The Beginning 720p NOW WEB-DL AAC2 0 H 264-RAWR.eng.sdh

- When I was a kid,

every adult I knew shared
one thing in common;

a gap in their lives
when everything appeared uncertain

and time itself seemed
to stand still.

When they talked about it,
they simply called it The War.

For six dark years,
the world was on fire,

cities were demolished,
and whole populations threatened.

When would the war end?
No one knew.

How would it end?

No one knew.

Life was in stasis.

The War is now a part
of our culture,

portrayed in movies
and on television,

in novels and history books.

The Allies usually defeat
the enemy and save the world.

But the grim reality of the war
is almost impossible to comprehend.

Over 65 million people are killed,
the majority civilians.

Everyone fought some version
of The War,

beginning with
the mothers and fathers,

who sent their children overseas,
not knowing when, or if,

they would ever see them again.

And, of course, the soldiers,
sailors, airmen, and marines,

often just a bunch of kids,

who served with honour and bravery
to liberate enslaved peoples

and preserve human dignity.

In doing so,

they saved that which is most
precious and valued by us all.

Freedom.

The Second World War is
the largest event in human history.

No part of the globe is unaffected.

World War Two changed everything,
for all of us.

(tense, dramatic music)

- All wars change the world.

But none of them change the world
like the Second World War did.

- Japan's on the march;
Germany's on the march.

- No one can imagine the nightmare
they're about to unleash,

the most destructive war
in human history.

- Suddenly the world
is turned upside down.

And all hell is let loose.

- The west is stunned
by the speed of the advance.

- You get the Allies
led by the big three,

Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin.

- Men who are dealing with
immensely complicated questions.

- It's the biggest military
operation of human history.

- The Allies have to come together,

not just militarily
but industrial scale,

it's a global perspective.

- They have to fight
in every climate from the Arctic

to the jungles of the Pacific

to the deserts of Africa
and the depths of the ocean.

(dramatic music continues)

- But there was no certainty
of victory;

it was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.

- We see humans
at their absolute worst,

how they treat other human beings.

And we see them
at their absolute best,

willing to give their lives
that others might live.

- World War Two was a struggle
in which there could be one victor

and one vanquished.

(bombs explode)
(sirens wail)

(low, tense music)

TOM: Sometimes the most monumental
events begin without fanfare.

Before the world wakes.

And so it is,
on the 1st of September 1939

as dawn breaks over
a sleeping city on the Baltic Sea,

that the bloodiest conflict
in all history begins.

(gunfire, explosions)
(low, tense music)

NEWS: This is the National Programme
from London.

Germany has invaded Poland.

NEWS 2: Heavy outbreaks of fighting
along the German Polish frontier.

(speaking German)

(tense, dramatic music)

(air-raid siren wails)

TOM: In just a matter of hours,
a million and a half men...

...1300 planes...

...and 2750 tanks...

...cross the Polish border
at lightning speed.

- September 1st, 1939.

A storm breaks over Poland.

(tense dramatic music continues)

- The Germans are racing through
with tanks and with artillery

following up with the infantry
and accompanied by the Luftwaffe.

And all of a sudden people were
waking up to the sound of tanks

rumbling through the town, not
really knowing what was happening.

- You're going to see waves
of trucks and mechanised

and motorised vehicles.

It looks a bit like
a science fiction novel,

like all those novels written
in the 20s and 30s

about what the war of the future
would look like.

And suddenly in 1939,
the future is now.

TOM: At 11 am, Hitler arrives at
a Berlin opera house,

where he's gathered the Reichstag.

(crowd cheering)
(tense military music)

- This is the moment Hitler
has been waiting for all his life.

He's been the leader
of the Nazi Party since 1921.

He came to power in '33.
He rearms the country in '35.

And since then,
it's been prepare, prepare, prepare.

But Hitler wants a war.

(speaking German)

TOM: The invasion follows months
of diplomatic tension

over a strip of land known
as the Polish Corridor.

Land that had once been part
of Germany...

...but was ceded to Poland
to give her access to the sea

after the first World War.

Twenty years earlier,

global leaders gathered
in the French city of Versailles

to sign the historic treaty
ending that war.

After four years of brutal fighting,

an alliance led
by Britain and France,

and supported by the United States,
emerged victorious.

Germany, its military exhausted
and its people near starvation,

had lost.

And now,
they would pay the price of defeat.

- The Treaty of Versailles takes
territories away from Germany.

It strips Germany of populations
and raw materials.

It turns the entire German merchant
marine over to the allies.

It imposes reparations
on the Germans.

- The allies were attempting to
limit the future power of Germany.

The effects of the First World War
were so grave.

They were so catastrophic that
no one wanted to see

a repeat of that.

TOM: One young Austrian corporal
fighting for the German army

is Adolf Hitler.

Like many, he is shocked
by the way the war ends.

- Your average German was surprised
by the news of the armistice

because it happened so suddenly.

The army was still in the field,
and there was the sense

that we haven't been invaded
and thoroughly beaten.

- It was personally
a tragedy for Hitler.

He heard the news of the armistice

when he was still ill
from injuries sustained in battle.

He did not process
the end of the war well.

He did not accept
the defeat of Germany.

TOM: Surviving soldiers come home
angry and confused.

- Frankly, the response of many
of them is disillusionment.

Four years at the front, I managed
to dodge all those bullets,

and now I came home
and this is what I fought for.

- When Hitler comes back
from the war,

he learns to talk to former soldiers
who are now disgruntled

and begins to feel the fact that
he's actually quite a good speaker.

(Hitler speaking in German)
(men cheer)

- He attends a meeting of
a small group,

which will become the
National Socialist German Workers,

or Nazi Party.

He finds something attractive.
this is a party of grievance,

talking about how
Germany could be transformed,

and Germany could be made
powerful again.

In 1921,
Hitler's talent for public speaking

makes him the leader
of this tiny party.

TOM: Hitler's first move is
an attempted coup

against the Bavarian state
government in Munich...

...but it fails
and he's arrested for treason.

At his trial,

the judge allows Hitler to publicly
share his movement's grievances,

against war guilt, reparation,
and communism.

In jail,
he publishes his memoir Mein Kampf,

or, My Struggle.

With Hitler's notoriety,
Nazi party membership grows

as Germany's Weimar Republic
moves through the unstable 20s.

The economy is burdened
by heavy war reparations.

In 1923,
the cost of one loaf of bread

rockets from
three Marks to 80 billion.

The years that follow are
unstable, chaotic.

Hitler's Nazi party fuels
racial hatred against Jews

and fears about communism.

Then,
just as the economy is recovering,

the Great Depression throws
six million Germans out of work.

- People in Germany are confused,
bewildered, unhappy.

And so there's a real opening
for a leader who will speak

all these lines perfectly
and talk about

how I'm going to bring
the Germans back together.

TOM: In the 1932 elections,
Germany is deeply divided.

But President von Hindenberg,
backed by conservative businessmen,

appoints Hitler Chancellor
to run the government

at the beginning of 1933.

- In 1934,

Hitler declares that he will now
continue to be Chancellor

and take over the role
of the President as well.

He's transformed what was
a democracy in Germany

into a one party
and a one-man dictatorship.

He's become the German leader,
the Fuhrer.

TOM: His first promise as Fuhrer
is to reclaim the land

Germany lost at Versailles.

He seizes The Rhineland,
Austria, and the Sudetenland,

German-speaking parts
of Czechoslovakia.

By 1938, just four years later,
he's reshaped the map of Europe.

Desperate to avoid another war,

Britain and France allow Hitler
to expand his empire.

- In 1938, at Munich,
Neville Chamberlain,

the British prime minister,

and the French actually
made a deal with Hitler.

What he wanted was
the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia.

The British had said, fine,

we'll just dismantle
an entire country to keep you happy.

TOM:
But when Hitler turns to Poland,

the West finally takes a stand.

The Poles have already endured
centuries of foreign rule.

The country regains its independence
as part of the Versailles treaty,

but its new borders now include
20,000 square miles

of what had been German land.

In Summer 1939,

the British and the French sign
a guarantee with the Poles,

promising military assistance
if the Germans invade.

- Hitler, speaking to his officers,
they're asking him questions.

What was the attitude of the West
going to be if you attack Poland?

And he snorted.
Don't worry, he said.

I've seen my opponents at Munich.
They're little worms.

TOM: Hitler doesn't believe the West
has the will to go to war...

...so he moves across the border,

ready to invade with the full force
of the Nazi Wehrmacht.

(low, tense music)

TOM: In the first twenty-four hours
of the invasion...

...the Germans take out railroads,
bridges, and airfields.

The destruction paves the way
for their army to advance

deep into Poland.

- The Poles have a modern army.

It's the fifth largest army
in the world.

And it's equipped with modern tanks,

with all sorts of artillery,
and armoured trains.

But Hitler has been putting
almost all his resources

into equipping the military.

The Poles were outgunned by
the Germans who had 3 to 1 tanks,

and 5 to 1 airplanes

so there's no question that
the Germans were a superior force.

TOM: Despite those odds,

the Poles are determined
to defend their country.

- Everyone had to help;

and soldiers conscripted civilians
on the street putting them to work.

I saw one man who was stopped
six times on his way home

with a loaf of bread.

TOM: The Poles remain resilient.

(low, tense music)

But the question is,
what will Britain and France do?

NEWS: Here as ever in critical days
we're seeing the coming

and going of the leaders
of the country.

- The British and French had
an alliance with the Poles.

They have to defend Poland.

But they're not
militarily prepared to do so,

and they're not
mentally prepared to do so.

The home fronts in Britain and
France are dead set against war.

TOM: British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain tells Parliament

he's considering issuing
an ultimatum.

But many feel he's backtracking
on his promise to Poland.

- This is a profound injury
to British honour,

that if we don't act
and declare war,

no other country will ever trust
a treaty with Britain ever again.

TOM: Britain delivers an ultimatum
to Berlin

on the morning of
September 3rd, 1939.

Hitler has until 11:00 AM
to withdraw his forces.

(Big Ben chimes)

It's ignored.

- This morning the
British ambassador in Berlin

handed the German government
a final note

and consequently, this country
is at war with Germany.

(air-raid siren wails)

TOM: In cities across Britain,

air-raid sirens signal
a strange new era,

and millions of gas masks
are sent to British homes.

Across the Atlantic,

America is just emerging from
the Great Depression

and not prepared for war.

The peacetime army is small.

And Neutrality laws make it
nearly impossible to aid the allies.

In the White House,

the press gathers for one of
President Roosevelt's

Fireside Chats.

- I have said not once
but many times

that I have seen war

and that I hate war.

I say that again and again.

I hope the United States
will keep out of this.

And I give you assurance
and reassurance,

that every effort of your government
will be directed toward that end.

- Most Americans,

when they're asked should
the United States get involved,

90% of Americans
say absolutely not.

But Franklin Delano Roosevelt
is watching what's happening

in Europe very closely.

The question is about freedom
and democracy.

He understands what is at stake.

TOM: In Germany, Hitler is surprised
when Britain and France declare war.

- When the British
declaration of war is made,

Hitler receives it in silence
and for a couple of moments,

he stares at his foreign minister,
Ribbentrop,

and then, with a quite vicious tone
to his voice

he says, what now?

(tense, dramatic music)

TOM: Despite the British and French
declaration,

Hitler continues his master plan
for Poland

and sends in the Luftwaffe.

Hitler's air force is led
by a trusted member

of his inner circle,

Field Marshal Hermann Goering.

- Goering is a German celebrity.

In WWI, he was the head of
the Flying Circus,

Der Fliegende Zirkus.
This elite group of fighter pilots.

And so he's well known in Germany.

He's very handsome,
very charismatic guy.

But there's also a very dark side
to Goering.

He feels deeply embittered
by the way the war ended.

And he falls under Hitler's spell.

And he's able to get huge
appropriations from Hitler

for Luftwaffe procurement.

TOM:
Goering's elite pilots are young

and have spent thousands of hours
in training.

From the cockpits of heavy bombers,
they drop explosives.

But it's the precision dive bombers
that wreak the most terror.

- The Sturzkampfflugzeug,

the Stuka as it's usually
abbreviated,

you know, it's not
a particularly swift craft.

But they dive at
an almost 90-degree angle...

...and literally drop
a bomb in your lap.

And there's even a bit
of psy war here as well.

As they're coming down on you,
there's a siren screaming.

- In Poland, there are pilots flying
at low altitude

who can see women
and children fleeing the roads,

who actually target them
deliberately.

(sombre music)

Polish civilians experience
modern war

in an unbelievably horrifying way.

They see people killed.
They see bodies all around them.

It's a nightmare.

TOM: Poland is being destroyed.

It is not clear when, or even if,

Britain and France can send
forces to help.

(tense, dramatic music)

TOM: On day three,

Adolf Hitler boards his heavily
armoured private train,

the Amerika.

He named it after his admiration
for the way America settled

a vast continent.

Now, travelling towards Poland,

he looks out on the territory
he means to conquer.

Land stretching deep
into Eastern Europe.

Lebensraum. Living space,
for his new German Empire.

This is his and Germany's destiny.

- Hitler talks about
a thousand-year Reich.

Its borders would stretch
from the Atlantic in the west

to Scandinavia in the north,
and the Mediterranean in the south.

Poland and the lands to the east
play a special role

in Hitler's foreign policy plans.

They're wide-open spaces,

farmland
as far as the eye could see.

TOM: In order to achieve
this vast empire,

Germans must clear out
the people living there,

in a remorseless race war.

- Adolf Hitler's whole worldview

is based on a kind
of neo-Darwinism,

in which every single act
is a biological struggle.

Warfare between different races.

He believes that the Aryan race,
the Germans,

is the superior race on the planet,

it's destined to rule Europe
and indeed the world.

TOM: Until now, Hitler's main target

has been
Germany's Jewish population.

Under his orders,
they lost their status as citizens,

had their wealth
and property seized,

and many were forced into exile.

- Hitler believes that humanity is
locked in this existential battle

between Aryans,
as he describes them, and Jews.

And Jews are supposedly responsible
for all of society's

and the world's ills.

- So who is responsible for
the German loss in World War One?

Jewish people.

Who is responsible
for economic inequality?

Jewish people.

They control media, newspapers,
all the businesses.

The reason you are poor is because
they are hoarding money.

- What the Nazis are seeking to do
at this stage

is to make life so unpleasant,
so difficult for Jewish people

within the Reich
that they want to leave.

TOM: Hitler also wants to remove
the Slavs of eastern Europe,

including the people of Poland.

Day four.

Hitler reaches
the Polish frontlines,

where he holds a photo opportunity
with his troops.

- He makes himself very visible,
goes to the front

and he's greeted by these thousands
and thousands of people.

They're all vying with one another
to get close to Adolf Hitler.

- He's fought in World War One.
He's a battle tested leader.

He's taking back
historic German territory.

He's built the armed forces.

They listen to him.

- These German soldiers marching on
Poland believe in Germany's destiny.

That they will be the creators
of the great new Germany.

- This is the first action
they've had militarily

since the black day
of the German army in 1918.

And it is an average infantryman
from the First World War

who's leading it.

So this is redemption,

20 years after what never should
have happened, happened.

TOM: Shadowing his invading forces
is another wing of the Nazi regime.

The protection squadron.

In German, the Schutzstaffel. Or SS.

They were Hitler's personal
bodyguards as he rose to power...

...but under the leadership
of Heinrich Himmler,

they become a paramilitary outfit
at the heart of the regime.

- Himmler is somebody
who has a sadistic streak.

He's quite meek.
He's not particularly assuming.

He's certainly not very
physically impressive.

But he's somebody who's got
a burning desire to achieve things.

He gets drawn into the Nazi loop.

And then over a period of time,

he eventually takes control
of the SS.

- Himmler has developed the SS from
a small kind of a bodyguard unit

that's supposed to really
protect Hitler

into a vast, militarised force.

TOM: In Poland, the SS units fan out
across the newly-occupied territory,

as does a special wing of the SS,

the Einsatzgruppen.

Mobile death squads.

(low, tense music)

In September 1939,
during the Invasion of Poland,

the Nazi Einsatzgruppen are under
orders to neutralise any opposition.

- The Einsatzgruppen
are specifically set up

to go into towns, villages
and other areas of Poland,

to kill civilians.

That's their only job.

Professors, landowners, politicians,
newspaper editors,

these sorts of people,
they were targeted and killed

because these were the people
who were identified

as possibly leading
some sort of resistance

against the German forces.

And this is something that the Poles
could not have known yet

on those first days of the invasion,

that this wasn't just going to be
a military invasion,

but this was also going to be
a war of annihilation.

- For Hitler, this is a chance
not just to destroy Poland,

but to clear Poland,
to crush the Polish people

who are Slavs

and Slavs in the Nazi ideology
are untermenschen, under humans.

But it's more than that.
There are also Jews in Poland.

TOM: For centuries, Poland has been
home to millions of Europe's Jews,

who fled there to avoid
religious persecution.

- The Jews originally settled there
because it was the freest kingdom

in Europe.

Now they found themselves
in a terrifying, murderous trap.

- The SS drag Orthodox Jewish men
out into the streets

and they desecrate their clothes
and their hair.

They smash up synagogues.

They are seeking to amplify
the terror that they've sought

to develop within the Reich
towards Jews within Poland.

TOM: These acts of brutality
escalate into public executions.

In the town of Konskie
on September 12th,

German troops order local Jews
to the town square...

...to dig the grave
of a German soldier.

- This rather humiliating
forced grave digging exercise

quickly descends into a pogrom.

Jews are shot. You know, they try
and run away from the scene,

they're quickly apprehended.

And in total,
22 Jews are killed on that day.

This was happening across Poland.

The brutal mass murder
of innocent civilians.

(tense, dramatic music)

TOM: Nine days into the invasion.

Britain and France continue
to mobilise their forces.

Civilians are being killed
in the streets,

but the army isn't defeated.

With their capital city, Warsaw,
now the target.

Two Polish armies stage
a counterattack

to the west of the city.

Polish cavalry and reconnaissance
tanks drive German forces back

12 and a half miles,
in the Battle of the Bzura River.

- You know, all too often
the Polish campaign is talked about

as some kind of pushover.
But the Poles fought hard.

- The classic stereotype
of the Poles

is that they're all in their horses
with sabres drawn,

riding toward tanks
who are just shooting them down.

This is absurd.
The Poles were very sophisticated.

- Very finely trained soldiers,
extremely brave.

TOM: As Poles fight
under German bombardment...

...Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
and French Premier Edward Daladier

meet for a Supreme War Council,
and reach a grave decision.

- Daladier and Chamberlain agree
to leave Poland to its fate.

They also adopt formally what
they call the long war strategy,

the idea that they have superior
resources to Germany,

and that over time,

those resources will come to bear
in the allies' favour.

- Although the statement
that is given to the world's press

is one of wholehearted support,

Poland is essentially cast
to the four winds.

TOM: There is one British politician
who has always wanted

to take a more aggressive position
against the Nazis.

Appointed to the new War Cabinet
is Hitler's most vocal critic

in the West,

First Lord of the Admiralty,
Winston Churchill.

- Throughout the 1930s,

Churchill had spoken up with concern
about German rearmament,

about the failure to take effective
measures to enforce

the Versailles Treaty.

It's clear now that Germany couldn't
be trusted as a diplomatic partner.

(tense military music)

TOM: Two weeks into the invasion.

The Poles seem abandoned, and their
counteroffensive is collapsing.

The German third, eighth and tenth
armies encircle Warsaw.

The capital is a city of palaces,
churches, and opera houses,

the heart of the Polish nation.

But now,
Warsaw is in ruins and under siege.

- Bombs were falling and everybody
was trying to help get people out

of the rubble.

When your roof is burning,
when your children are in hospital

because they've been bombed,
I mean these are shocking moments.

TOM: American photographer
and cameraman Julien Bryan

is in Poland's capital,
filming suffering and defiance.

He pleads for Poland.

- President Roosevelt
and the people of America,

listen to my story.

America must act. It must help.

TOM: As help is called for, there is
an army preparing to sweep in.

They're not coming from the West.

But from the East.

(tense, dramatic music)

- On the 17th of September,

Joseph Stalin calls the German
ambassador to the Kremlin

and says, we're going
to invade eastern Poland.

TOM: Poland's fate isn't sealed
just by the Nazis.

The communists of Soviet Russia
also sense opportunity;

and so does
their all-powerful master.

- Stalin is one of the most
extraordinary figures in the history

of the 20th century.

From the very beginning of
the Russian Revolution in 1917,

he's been part of the tiny clique
that's been running Russia

and has emerged as the dominant
leader of the whole Soviet Union.

The inner circle called him Hoziam:
the Master, the Boss.

But in public, he was the Vozhd:
the leader.

But he was a tough man,
a morbid man, a mysterious man.

- He learned the hard way
in the Russian Civil War

that you operate ruthlessly,
you sacrifice, you attack,

you show no quarter to your enemies.

Stalin saw the world
in geopolitical terms.

He recognised that the Soviet Union
couldn't survive, isolated,

surrounded by adversaries.

- He had to play the poker game
of diplomacy and war.

And the players were
the Western democracies

led by England and France,
and the dictatorships.

His great fear was that
the two sides would gang up

against him
and destroy the Soviet Union.

And all of his decisions
came from this fear.

TOM: In August 1939,

just one week
before Germany invades Poland,

Joseph Stalin shocked the world

when he signed a non-aggression pact
with Adolf Hitler.

- The revelation of
the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

causes mayhem
in the Western capitals.

It changes everything.
It's a complete shock.

For the last sort of 5 years,
the two dictatorships,

Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia,

had been pouring excrement
over each other in the media.

They had been calling each other
every name under the sun.

And for each, the other was
the quintessential enemy

of everything they believed.

And now suddenly, there's thawing,

and the next thing you know,
Ribbentrop is flying to Moscow.

- In August 1939,
by signing a pact with Hitler,

Stalin helps to ensure that
the Second World War will break out.

In fact,
it makes it virtually a certainty

that such a war will break out.

TOM: The pact promises a decade
of non-aggression

between the two regimes.

But there's another, secret,
protocol which carves up

Eastern Europe,
sharing the land between them.

First up is Poland.

- Neither the Germans nor
the Soviets wanted Poland to exist.

They both saw it as an affront.

Poland had historically been
a province of the Russian Empire.

The Soviets want that back

as a buffer against the stronger
Germany that's emerging.

- The division of Polish territory
favoured the Soviets,

who got more territory
than Germans did.

So it's actually the Soviet invasion
of eastern Poland

that decides the fate of Poland.

(tense, dramatic music)

TOM: The Red Army pours into
Poland's Eastern provinces.

They too carry orders to eradicate
Polish leaders and culture.

- When the Red Army goes
into eastern Poland,

they are accompanied,
inevitably by the secret police,

the NKVD,
and they arrest all these people.

Writers, diplomats,
aristocrats, army officers.

Some of them are killed instantly,
some of them are deported,

and a large number of them,
between 20 and 30,000,

are stowed in camps
near the Katyn woods.

All of these people are to be
secretly executed,

shot in the back of the head.

(sombre music)

TOM: On September 22nd, 1939,
in the town of Brest-Litovsk,

Nazi and Soviet generals gather
to watch a parade of both armies.

- There's this free mingling
of German and Soviet forces,

the two sides are sort of mixing,
sharing cigarettes,

sharing anecdotes.

And they even develop
almost a slang between them

'Germanski Bolsheviki
together strong'.

- If you're a Polish person,
to see these two people

that have always been dangerous
on both sides of you,

working together to see that Poland
once again disappears,

you had to feel
like there's no help close by.

TOM: As Poland burns,
and her enemies celebrate,

one city resists.

Warsaw.

(tense, dramatic music)

Despite weeks of assault,
Warsaw has not yet surrendered.

Surviving Polish troops rush
to the capital

where 300,000 soldiers
and civilians hold the city.

To break the resistance,

Goering orders the largest air raid
ever seen.

(air-raid siren wails)

- Goering levels Warsaw with
no regard for civilian casualties.

They strew thousands of pounds of
high explosive and incendiary bombs,

firebombs over Warsaw
and they reduce it to rubble.

(sombre music)

- It is the largest
incendiary bombing

that the world has ever seen.

Air raids last
for the entirety of the day.

People are trapped
in their basements.

They're trapped in courtyards.
They're trapped in stairwells.

Those who crawl out
when the bombardment is over,

there's no water.
There's nothing to feed them.

- 20% of the city is destroyed
in one way or another.

And about 18,000 people are injured
or killed in these bombardments.

And the city finally
has to surrender.

(speaking Polish)

(sombre music continues)

(low, tense music)

TOM: In London,
Winston Churchill warns his country

that this is just the beginning.

- Poland has been overrun by two
of the great Powers

which held her in bondage

for 150 years,

but were unable to quench
the spirit of the Polish nation.

The heroic defence of Warsaw
shows that the soul of Poland

is indestructible.

The British Empire and
the French Republic

have been at war with Nazi Germany
for a month tonight.

Directions have been given
by the government

to prepare for a war
of at least three years.

TOM: But Churchill has received
a signal of hope.

A few weeks earlier,
President Roosevelt sent him a note,

congratulating him on his new role
in the War Cabinet,

and opening up a secret line
of communication.

- Once Germany invades Poland,
Roosevelt infers that this war

is going to be sizeable
in its scope

and that the United States
is probably going to need

to intervene at some point.

Churchill has this reputation
of being a fighter.

It's really telling that Roosevelt
seeks him out

rather than Chamberlain
at this critical juncture

at the beginning of
the Second World War.

- So there's this relationship
that develops between

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
and Winston Churchill.

There's an understanding on the part
of Roosevelt

that there is someone
in the leadership of Great Britain

who understands what's at stake,

and just how dangerous
this moment is.

It's not simply about
the German invasion of Poland.

They are two men
who are united in their belief

that Adolf Hitler is perhaps
the most dangerous man on the planet

TOM: After the surrender,

Hitler travels to Warsaw
to survey the ruins.

He points at the utter destruction

and tells the officers
who are with him...

...this is the real meaning of war.

In less than a month,

a major European nation
has been removed from the map.

It will be engulfed in darkness
for most of the next six years.

And it's only the beginning
as Hitler looks to the west.

Subtitles by Sky Access Services