All language subtitles for World.War.II.with.Tom.Hanks.S01E10.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH.track2

[ominous music]

♪

- July 1942.

It's been over a year
since Adolf Hitler

launched Operation Barbarossa
against the Soviet Union.

After initial success,

the German campaign bogs down
across all fronts,

so Hitler prepares
to launch another offensive.

One of his objectives
is capturing Stalingrad,

a city of great strategic
and symbolic value,

particularly to the Soviet
leader, Joseph Stalin.

One of the titanic battles of
World War II is about to erupt.

[dramatic music]

- All wars change the world.

But none of them
changed 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 were 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.

♪

- 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 II was a struggle
in which there could be

one victor and one vanquished.

♪

[air-raid siren blaring]

[tense music]

♪

- June 1942.

Adolf Hitler travels
to Finland to meet

with Finnish military leader
Carl Gustaf Mannerheim.

♪

The Germans are about
to launch

another major offensive
against the Soviet Union.

But to do so, the Wehrmacht
needs access to more oil.

- [speaking German]

- Hitler's main supply of oil
is from his ally Romania,

but he confesses to Mannerheim

how dependent Germany is
on that one source of fuel.

♪

- Hitler's also concerned
the Romanian oil fields

are vulnerable
to Allied air attacks.

♪

- Oil is always a problem
for Hitler.

Unlike the United States
or Russia,

Germany doesn't have
an internal source of oil

or petroleum
that it can tap into.

It must go get it
from somewhere else.

♪

- The Caucasus,
the mountainous region

of the Soviet Union's
southwest,

contains some of the richest
oil fields in the world.

If the Germans can seize them,

the Wehrmacht will have
all the oil it needs

as well as depriving
the Soviets' access.

♪

- The Caucasus is
a vast mountain range

that spans Europe and Asia
750 miles.

This is going to be
a serious obstacle

for any army that tries
to traverse it.

- Hitler and his generals
prepare a plan

to conquer the Caucasus:
Operation Blue.

The southern army group first
head towards the Volga River

to secure this
vital supply route

and prevent the Soviets
from moving in reinforcements.

Next, capture the fields.

- Can they get there?

If they could,
could they go ahead

and pull all that oil
out of there?

Do they have
the logistical means necessary

to get it back to Germany?

This is Hitler's idea.
It has to be successful.

♪

- Until now, Hitler's campaign
against the Soviet Union

has proven to be
far more difficult

than he and the German
High Command anticipated.

♪

- In June of 1941, the Germans
launched Operation Barbarossa,

the invasion
of the Soviet Union,

the biggest military operation
of all time.

Hitler's banking
on a quick win.

The Germans take tens
of thousands of square miles

and capture millions
of Soviet soldiers,

but they don't take Moscow.

They don't get the quick win.

The war goes on into 1942.

♪

- Barbarossa did not
meet its objectives

set by Adolf Hitler,

which was to capture
vast amounts of land,

to get raw materials,
also to wreck Bolshevism,

which needed the collapse
of the Soviet Union

to happen rapidly,
none of which happened.

♪

- Hitler is concerned
he's gotten himself in trouble

in the Soviet Union,
but he's convinced

that the situation
can be righted.

He can continue this war
forever

as long as he has
a sufficient supply of oil.

And that's what
the 1942 strike

is going to take care of,

a strike for the oil fields
of the Soviet Union.

This is the world's first war
for oil.

♪

- June 1942.

German forces begin
their push south

towards the Volga as planned.

- Hitler is impatient
and desperate

to get the oil fields
as soon as he can.

♪

- But then he splits

the southern army group
in two.

♪

- For Hitler, Operation Blue
is an exercise in frustration.

The armies aren't
moving fast enough,

they're not meeting
the objectives.

And for that reason,

he decides to split them
into two big groups.

♪

- It's a measure
of his arrogance

that he thought
he was just simply

going to be able
to divide this force,

and in some
of the most difficult

fighting terrain of Europe.

♪

- Hitler orders most
of the southern army group

to push directly
for the oil fields.

The job of seizing the Volga

will now be left
to a single combat force,

one of the biggest
and most experienced...

the 6th Army.

- The German 6th Army
is the largest army

in the German order of battle.

At the beginning
of the campaign,

the 6th Army had
over 300,000 men in it.

♪

- By the middle of August,

they're closing in
on the Volga

and the city that guards it,
Stalingrad.

♪

- Stalingrad is named after
Adolf Hitler's personal rival

and the personification
of Bolshevism, Joseph Stalin.

♪

- It's Stalin's city.

It was named to commemorate
a great victory he won

over the Whites
in the Russian Civil War.

He doesn't want to surrender
a city named after himself.

♪

- Stalingrad itself is also
a major industrial center

which produces something
like 20% of Soviet tanks,

including the famous T-34.

Along with a lot
of other products

critical to the war economy,

Stalingrad is a prize
in its own right.

♪

- Once again,

the Red Army is
forced to retreat

by the Wehrmacht.

♪

- The German forces
with their shirts off.

It's summer.

And they're just racing
across the steppes,

and the Red Army
is just collapsing.

♪

- Stalin understands that

if Hitler controls
the Volga River,

that he will control
the supply lines,

and therefore,
there's a chance

he can defeat
the Soviet Red Army.

- Stalin goes into
a free fall panic.

♪

- Stalin is determined

that this is where Hitler
must finally be stopped.

In late July 1942,

as the German 6th Army
advances on Stalingrad,

he issues a directive
from Moscow, Order 227.

♪

- As the Germans are advancing

and getting ever closer
to Stalingrad in July 1942,

Stalin issues Order 227.

This is the so-called
Not a Step Back

or Ni Shagu Nazad order.

No more retreat
will be tolerated.

- He's reading
a lot of Roman history

about how the Roman army

punished units
for surrendering.

Stalin says,
we've lost too many provinces.

We've lost all
of European Russia.

The retreat must stop now.

Not one more step back.

Anyone who retreats
in any shape or form

will be instantly executed.

♪

- There are going to be
blocking units

made up of the secret police,
NKVD, commissars,

people like that
whose job it is

to kill soldiers that are
coming back towards them.

- The reason Stalin gives this
order, however, is revealing.

The Soviets were presumed
at the beginning of the war

to have had these
vast and almost endless

stores of manpower, of grain,
of wheat,

a big country, after all,

a much bigger country
than Nazi Germany.

But as many as 70 million
former Soviet subjects

are now behind German lines.

And we shouldn't forget,
of course,

that Nazi Germany is now
drawing on the resources

of occupied Europe as well.

And in Stalin's calculations,
Stalin no longer thinks

the Soviets have
a manpower advantage.

So the essence of this order,
Not a Step Back,

is that if they
withdraw any further,

they will forfeit any possible
material or manpower advantage

over the German armies.

- Both Hitler and Stalin
understand the symbolic power

of Stalingrad.

♪

- Hitler gets fixated
on Stalingrad, you know?

It bears Stalin's name.

Why don't I take Stalingrad?

And this will be
just a, you know,

an unspeakable humiliation
to Stalin

and it'll be, you know,
a sign of, you know,

of German supremacy.

♪

- Stalin,
he's under no illusions

that if Stalingrad is reached
by the German forces,

this is going to be

an existential battle
of annihilation.

♪

- The German 6th Army
surrounds Stalingrad.

[tense music]

- Stalingrad,
a city of 800,000,

is spread along 30 miles
of the Volga River.

[tense music]

It has modern
apartment blocks,

parks, and heavy
industrial factories.

[air-raid sirens blaring]

♪

On August 23, the Luftwaffe
bombardment begins.

♪

In the first 24 hours,
thousands are killed.

[fires crackling]

Still, Stalin orders
all survivors

to remain in the ravaged city.

- Stalin deliberately makes
no organized attempt

to evacuate
the civilian inhabitants.

Have the Germans
attack, shell, bomb.

He wants to showcase
German barbarism.

But he also figures that

this will stiffen
the resistance of Stalingrad.

♪

- His thinking
at this point is that

if I leave a Russian population
in a city center,

that Soviet soldiers
will fight

all that more heroically
in their defense.

♪

- Stalingrad has
been destroyed.

There is devastation
everywhere.

But the German 6th Army,
1/4 million men, 500 tanks,

is ready to push in the city
and conquer it.

♪

- Germany's 6th Army is led
by General Friedrich Paulus.

♪

- Paulus as a character
is quite weak.

He doesn't have
the self-confidence

of a Manstein or a Rommel
or anybody like that.

- Friedrich Paulus is one
of Hitler's less able generals.

He doesn't have a lot
of experience in battle.

He's a technocrat who's
going to get the job done,

and Hitler doesn't think
the job's going to be

particularly difficult.

[explosions and gunfire]

♪

- After two weeks
of constant bombardment,

General Paulus orders
the 6th Army

to enter Stalingrad.

♪

There, the German troops
are confronted

with a unique
battered landscape

that provides cover for
thousands of Soviet soldiers.

[gunfire]

♪

- Imagine an urban warfare
campaign in New York.

♪

Or London.

It's a partially destroyed,
nightmarish ruin.

There's actually civilians
still running around

and living,
like, in little caves

that they've dug
out of the rubble.

♪

The environment is surreal.

[gunfire]

- The Germans describe this
savage close-quarter combat

as Rattenkrieg,
war of the rats.

♪

- The German notion
of Rattenkrieg,

rats scurrying between rubble,

soldiers maneuvering
in and out of sewers,

it's open a door,
there's an enemy.

Now all of a sudden,
you're fighting with fists,

not with artillery
and not with tanks.

It is a very face-to-face,
personal,

and infantry
energy-intensive battle.

[explosion]

- The Germans push through
the mangled industrial debris

of factories and oil depots.

♪

Hiding within the ruins...

[gunshot]

Soviet snipers pick off
individual soldiers...

[gunfire]

Sowing a sense
of random terror.

[gunshot]

The most skilled marksmen
become legends.

Men like Vasiliy Zaytsev,

who becomes a hero
throughout the Soviet Union.

♪

Everyone, young and old,
is expected to fight,

including women.

- Women are very much part
of the Red Army effort anyway.

But in Stalingrad,
they're trapped in the city.

And so they would
just get in there

and start to fight equally
with the men.

They dig tank traps,
they learn how to shoot,

they become snipers.

♪

- But despite the Red Army's
gallant defense of Stalingrad,

street by street,
yard by yard,

the Germans are
gaining ground.

♪

By the second week
of fighting,

the Soviets are in danger
of losing the city.

[explosion]

At the same time,
German forces are closing in

on the oil fields
in the Caucasus.

♪

- The Battle of Stalingrad
is going badly.

The entire Soviet Union seems
to be staring down the barrel.

Stalin decides he has to do
something dramatic

to save the city.

- Stalin summons his first
deputy commander-in-chief,

Georgy Zhukov,

who successfully defended
Leningrad and Moscow.

At a meeting in the Kremlin,

Stalin confers with Zhukov
on military strategy.

- Stalin had always wanted
to be a military commander.

Long before World War II,

he dressed
as a military commander.

But he's not a commander,

he's not a brilliantly
talented strategist,

and he's still constantly
overruling his generals,

ordering offensives
that are unnecessary,

that are unprepared.

But now, Stalin begins to learn
to listen to people he trusts.

- He's starting to find
talented people.

Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov,
who helped defend Moscow,

he's now going, hey, that guy,
I think he knows how to win.

- Zhukov is broad-shouldered,
he's short, he's muscular.

He's an incredibly
tough person.

He literally clears minefields

by sending troops
running across them.

The quintessential
Stalinist general.

♪

- Zhukov presents Stalin
with a new plan:

lure the 6th Army
deeper into Stalingrad,

then surround them
and counterattack

from the rear of the city.

- At the end of the meeting,

Stalin shakes hands for
the first time with Zhukov,

something
he's never done before,

because he realizes that
if this works,

the tide of the war
will change.

[tense music]

♪

[indistinct chatter]

- In September 1942,
Soviet General Zhukov

had designed a new strategy
to defend Stalingrad.

Relying largely
on deception,

he opens up misleading
radio channels,

orders fake defenses,

and starts construction
on 17 false bridges.

- The Soviets are starting
to learn the art of war.

This is not the Soviet army
of 1941.

- Zhukov, a chess player,

is known for
meticulous planning.

- Zhukov's plans for
the operation are elaborate,

and they take weeks to prepare.

[explosions and gunfire]

- The army inside Stalingrad
is completely unaware

of what its real role is.

Its role is to be
the bait in the trap.

Their commander knows that
the only way he can do it

is by sacrificing
more and more men.

[gunfire]

♪

- By October,

both armies combined lose
nearly 6,000 troops a day.

♪

And both sides are equally
ruthless in their tactics.

♪

- German soldiers would
bribe these poor orphans

to go and fill their
water bottles in the Volga

with a crust of bread.

Soviet snipers were ordered

to shoot down the Russian
children who were starving.

This was the pitilessness
of the battle.

♪

- At his headquarters,
Adolf Hitler is informed

that his army won't be able

to take the oil fields
in the Caucasus.

His earlier decision
to split his forces

has doomed the operation.

♪

- Hitler is told
that actually,

we haven't got enough troops
to seize the oil fields.

He explodes in rage.

He says he's been lied to.

He blames his generals.

So it completely changes
the atmosphere

at Fuehrer headquarters.

♪

- Hitler shifts his focus
to one goal:

capturing Stalingrad.

[gunfire]

By mid-November, it appears
the 6th Army might just do it.

♪

They make their final push

to encircle Soviet troops
on the Volga.

- The Germans are
feeling confident

about the Battle of Stalingrad.

They already hold
90% of the city.

Hitler is getting reports from
his commanders on the site

that the city is about to fall.

♪

- They're starting to fly
swastika flags.

Hitler is boasting
to his buddies

that Stalingrad's
about to be mine.

[cheering]

♪

- Hitler seems confident
that the Wehrmacht

is on the verge of victory.

♪

As fighting continues
around Stalingrad,

the Red Army unleashes
a deafening fusillade

from over 3,000 Soviet
heavy artillery

and Katyusha rockets.

♪

- Katyusha rockets are
one of the great weapons

invented by the Red Army.

They could fire
these terrifying salvos.

The scream is
completely unearthly.

[rockets wailing]

- The 6th Army's flanks

are defended by badly-equipped
Romanian troops.

This is where Zhukov
focuses his attack.

- They were whipped
by their own officers.

They received
virtually no pay at all.

Their morale was rock-bottom.

Why should they die
for Germany?

♪

- The Romanians are
quickly overrun.

♪

Hundreds of thousands
of Red Army soldiers

encircle the 6th Army
in a pincer movement.

On November 22,
Soviet forces link up

in the town of Kalach
on the Don River.

The 6th Army is
now surrounded

and cut off
from its supply lines.

General Paulus is
in a desperate position.

- One of the most
shocking documents

in the German command
of the Second World War

is the memo that
General Paulus writes back

to Fuehrer headquarters.

♪

It opens with two words.

[speaks German]
The army is surrounded.

Words that no German commander
ever believed

they would ever have to write.

- Hitler,
when he hears about this,

is absolutely speechless
with rage.

♪

As far as Hitler was
concerned,

the capture of Stalingrad had
been proclaimed as a victory.

It was only a few days before
the great Soviet encirclement.

He could not admit
that they had lost it.

- This crucial battle

has altered Stalin's approach
to leadership.

- Stalin had been
the headstrong, clumsy,

and obstinate commander

who constantly
makes colossal mistakes

with catastrophic effects.

Stalin by now has learned
to listen to generals,

to recognize the limits
of his expertise,

and to let them plan the detail

while he sets
the larger strategy.

♪

- You start to see
this transition

of Joseph Stalin
into political leader

and letting
his military professionals

fight the battles.

Joseph Stalin is indeed

maturing as a war leader.

[gunfire]

- Stalin's forces have
Paulus's 6th Army surrounded.

- Stalin's forces have
Paulus's 6th Army surrounded.

The Russian winter
is closing in.

[wind howling]

- November 1942.

[tense music]

Winter descends over
the Eastern front.

What remains
of the German 6th Army

is trapped in the city
of Stalingrad.

250,000 men are completely
surrounded by Soviet troops.

♪

General Paulus asks permission
to attempt a breakout.

♪

Hitler refuses.

- Hitler is linked
with the stand fast order.

Where the German soldier
sets foot, there he stays.

Not taking Stalingrad
is not an option.

It has to do
with public opinion.

But Hitler knows the degree
of the predicament he's in.

[wind howling]

- The Wehrmacht is now going
to face not only a Soviet army

that is growing in capability,
capacity, and credibility,

they're also going to have
to face the Russian winter.

Soldiers don't have
the right gear,

supplies become harder,
vehicles are harder to start,

maintenance is harder to do.

Everything that should be easy

becomes more difficult
because people are cold.

♪

- How long till
the ammunition runs out?

How long till the medical
supplies run out?

♪

- The Germans are hit
by the full force

of the Russian winter.

- You're talking about
bitterly cold weather,

people suffering
from frostbite.

♪

- People are literally dying
of cold where they stand.

The bodies are frozen solid.

♪

You could break off their arm,
they're so frozen.

♪

- Soldiers are dying
of dysentery,

typhoid, and tuberculosis.

♪

By the end of December,
their daily food intake

is less than a handful of
bread with weak, watery soup.

♪

The troops are starving.

- There are dead men
lying everywhere.

There are rats everywhere.

There's no fuel.
There's nothing to burn.

There's absolutely no thought
of fighting anymore.

Even hanging on to life has
become almost impossible.

- You see German soldiers
and officers

asking the doctors for pills so
that they could commit suicide.

- They are frozen.

They are desperate.

It's a scene of hell on Earth.

[somber music]

♪

- Back in Germany,
the public is largely unaware

of how serious
the situation has become.

♪

But now some are getting
letters from their loved ones

detailing
the horrors unfolding

in the ruins of Stalingrad.

♪

- Try to put yourself
in the place

of these German troops.

You're very far away
from home, right?

It's Christmas season

and you're listening
to the radio

and they're playing
"Silent Night."

At a certain point,
you realize

that they're basically
writing you off.

♪

- Again and again,

Paulus asked for permission
to break out.

[wind howling]

Each time,
Hitler's answer is no.

♪

- General Paulus's men
are dying

in the thousands every day.

Any sense of military utility
had long departed.

And yet,
Paulus chose loyalty to Hitler

over loyalty to the men
under his command.

♪

- Hitler has created
a command culture

in which his commanders can't
use their professionalism

and their expertise
on the ground

to do what's best
for their forces,

and so this is also a failure
of Hitler's management

of his commanders.

♪

- By the end of January,

Paulus informs Hitler
that they cannot fight on.

Hitler responds
with a radio message

promoting Paulus
to field marshal

and congratulating him
on his new position.

- Hitler does this not
out of any great love

or admiration from Paulus.

He does it because
no field marshal

has ever surrendered
in the field in German history.

- He feels that
this is one way of basically

making Paulus commit suicide.

♪

- The next day, Paulus goes

to Red Army headquarters
outside Stalingrad.

150,000 of his men are dead.

♪

- Paulus is trapped.

He faces an impossible choice.

- Paulus surrenders
what is left of the 6th Army.

The remaining
90,000 German troops

are led away
as prisoners of war.

Only a small number of them
will ever see Germany again.

♪

- It really was a shock
to the Nazi elite,

but also to the people
of Germany.

Psychologically, it really was
the turning point.

- All of the sudden,
the unthinkable,

the idea that you
might lose this war,

is right there in your face.

And everyone back at home
would have known about it.

The morale is going to suffer.

That's a turn-the-tables
moment.

♪

- There's very few families
in Germany that didn't have

some tie to the 6th Army--

a son, a father,
a neighbor's son.

The 6th Army was
the largest army

in the German order of battle,

and now it's been
completely destroyed.

♪

- When Hitler receives
the news

of Paulus's surrender,

he's silent for several hours.

♪

Then he explodes.

- He actually says,

why didn't Paulus
put a bullet in his brain?

It only takes a second,

and he would have been immortal
from then on.

But instead, he chose

what Hitler said was
the coward's way out.

But Hitler knows
the gravity of this defeat.

♪

- To lose 250,000 men
in a moment, essentially,

in other words,
to have that military force

wiped off your ledger,

that hadn't happened
to the Germans in the war.

It changes the political
calculation entirely,

and this myth of invincibility
is going to be shattered.

♪

- In a single campaign,
Hitler has lost an army

- In a single campaign,
Hitler has lost an army

and began to lose the faith
of the German people.

[tense music]

♪

- Following the defeat
of Stalingrad,

Adolf Hitler withdraws to his
mountain retreat in Bavaria.

On April 20, 1943,
his inner circle

throws a party to mark
his 54th birthday.

♪

- After Stalingrad,

all the indicators are
running against Germany.

The campaign in North Africa
has clearly gone bad.

Increasingly, Hitler is
losing control of himself.

The entire 1942 campaign
had been marked

by gigantic tantrums
against his officers.

He is no longer
up to the stress

of running a global war.

But Hitler knows

that he has to launch
an offensive in 1943

or he risks losing control
of the war completely.

- The Germans have
enough armor

and enough energy
and enough manpower

to mount one final offensive
on the Eastern Front.

- The Soviets have advanced
into an area to the south,

creating a salient

around a region called Kursk.

Hitler sees an opportunity
to seize the initiative.

- The salient around Kursk
in 1943

was such an obvious target
that basically,

both sides knew some type
of offensive was coming.

- Hitler is basically putting
all of his chips on the table.

- But his resources
are already stretched

across Europe.

♪

- Everything is getting harder
by 1943.

The Soviet artillery
is better,

their tanks are better,
their leadership is better.

So it will take
a lot of resources,

it'll take a lot of armor,

and it will cost
in order to do this.

♪

- Considering the resources
of Nazi Germany at this point,

its economic reserves,
its soldiers,

this is a ridiculous thing
to attempt.

- Hitler is particularly
excited about his giant tanks,

the Tigers and Panthers,

which he thinks are
game-changers.

♪

- In Moscow,

the Soviet High Command
is receiving intelligence

about the Germans'
upcoming offensive.

♪

Unlike earlier in the war,

Stalin is now utilizing
the intelligence he receives.

- Stalin's instincts are
always just attack now,

attack on all fronts,
attack at any cost.

By the time of Kursk,
he's learned that actually,

this is not the way
to win a war.

Now he's taking
the intelligence on board.

He's trusting it.

The German attack
is going to be massive.

Zhukov persuades Stalin,
we're going to dig in,

we're going to prepare,

and we're going
to draw the Germans in.

♪

- As Zhukov prepares
for the coming offensive,

Soviet factories
increase their production.

♪

- By this stage of the war,
the Soviet economy

is vastly outproducing
the German economy.

Stalin was now producing
massive amounts of weaponry.

- The United States has also
been sending military supplies

to the Soviets through
its Lend-Lease plan,

which was designed
to get American materials

to Great Britain
and the Soviet Union.

By 1943,
tons of military hardware

are rolling off Allied ships
each month.

♪

- The Soviets were
especially impressed

with the Willys Jeeps,
the American Sherman tanks,

along with
more than 12,000 warplanes.

♪

- The Soviets are
also receiving

hundreds of thousands
of tons of food.

♪

- The Soviet army
is actually being fed

by the American economy
in 1943,

everything from
the famous tushonka pork

Americans refer to as Spam

to millions of packets
of dehydrated borscht.

- One of the ways that Hitler
wants to defeat these people

and whittle down their numbers
is through starvation.

But if they're being fed
from outside sources,

you can't do that.

♪

- The supplies help
the Soviets build

one of the largest
defensive forces ever seen,

1.3 million troops.

♪

At Zhukov's command,

civilians dig several thousand
miles of trenches

and tank traps outside Kursk.

Nearly one million mines
are laid.

- It's the most
densely defended area

of the whole Earth

in the course
of the Second World War.

[explosions and gunfire]

♪

- The Soviets are prepared

- The Soviets are prepared

for the full weight
of the German Wehrmacht.

[tense music]

♪

- July 1943.

♪

The Germans launch
their colossal offensive

against the Red Army
in the Kursk salient.

♪

[gunfire]

♪

Quickly, the German advance

runs into
Zhukov's fortifications.

♪

- It's the countermove
to the idea of blitzkrieg.

♪

If you break through
the front line,

there's another line
behind there

with antitank efforts
and trenches and men.

If you break through that one,
there's another one.

♪

Your forces
as the German Wehrmacht

are getting smaller
and weaker and damaged.

And eventually,
you just sort of

whittle away
the spear point here.

- For eight days, the Germans
grind against Soviet defenses.

♪

Two vast tank armies collide.

♪

- Astonishing intensity.

♪

Tanks helm-to-helm,
hull-to-hull.

♪

- The German tanks are
better built,

have bigger guns, better armor.

But if you've only got
a few of them

and you've got a mass
of T-34s coming at you,

you have a big problem.

♪

- Hitler's miracle weapons,

the Tigers and Panthers,

which are these giant,
diabolical metal machines,

actually don't work too well.

♪

- Hitler's tanks are destroyed

by the more maneuverable
Soviet tanks.

♪

After two days, the Wehrmacht
is forced to withdraw.

- Hitler has failed.

He's rolled the dice three
times inside the Soviet Union,

Operation Barbarossa in '41,
Operation Blue in '42,

and now,
the great offensive at Kursk,

and he's failed each time.

Hitler's final gamble
on the Eastern Front

has been crushed.

♪

- They get nothing out
of the Battle of Kursk.

It's a huge defeat
for the Germans.

They're always going
to be going backwards

from this point on.

- Kursk destroys enough
of the German combat power

that they can never
take the offensive

for the rest of the war.

Therefore, the Soviets maintain

the initiative to pick the time
and place of the choosing

where they're going
to take their next act.

- This is a decisive moment
in Stalin's development

as a supreme commander.

Hitler is undergoing precisely
the opposite transformation.

- By this point in the war,

Hitler is really
losing his grip on reality.

And people thought he made
some madcap moves in 1940,

but they paid off.

As the war lengthens,

his decisions become
more and more suspect.

- The two great warlords
of World War II

are passing each other as one
develops and one deteriorates.

♪

- In November 1943,
Joseph Stalin meets

with Prime Minister
Winston Churchill

and President
Franklin D. Roosevelt.

♪

It's the first meeting
of the group

that would become known
as The Big Three.

♪

- The Big Three sat down
in Tehran,

around the table
with their teams.

Each of them said something,
and Stalin really put it best.

He said,
history has spoiled us.

Never have three men had
the vast and massive powers

that we have today.

Let's get to work.

♪

- Stalingrad creates
a tradition

that eventually spreads
to the rest of the Red Army.

Soviet soldiers passing
each other in the street

say blind swap, and exchange
the items in their pockets

without looking.

Soldiers swap a single
cigarette for a watch

or money or a scrap of paper.

In Stalingrad,
life is so uncertain,

soldiers could be dead
in an instant,

that nothing has
any value at all.

The battle for Stalingrad is
the turning point of the war

on the Eastern Front.

Never again would the Wehrmacht
take the offensive in the East.

And in the West,

the Allies prepare
to cross the Mediterranean,

the next step in their attack
against the Third Reich.