All language subtitles for World.War.II.with.Tom.Hanks.S01E12.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH

[pensive music]

- In 1942 and into 1943,

hundreds of thousands
of Americans

descend on the east of England

to live, fight, and maybe die

in the joint effort to defeat
Nazi Germany from the air.

Combat at 25,000 feet
and 300 miles per hour

has never been attempted before.

The physical, mental,
and emotional challenges

will be unique.

Victory in World War II
will be largely determined

by who controls the skies,

the German Luftwaffe or
the Allied air forces.

[suspenseful music]

- All wars changed 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.

[suspenseful music]

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.

[dramatic music]

- 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]

- 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.

[dramatic music]

[explosion booming]

[siren blaring]

[suspenseful music]

- [Tom] 1942, the Third Reich

is building elaborate
coastal defenses in Europe.

As they continue to battle
the Soviets in the East,

the Germans know that
it's only a matter of time

before Britain and America
attack from the west.

From the English channel
to the plains of Russia,

Germany controls most of Europe.

[dramatic music]

- Hitler has turned Europe

into an apparently
impregnable fortress.

But as people said at the time,

yes, but he forgot to
put a roof over it.

And the Allied bombers are
going to take advantage of that.

[pensive music]

- [Tom] In the First World War,

both sides bombed each
other to little effect.

But as aviation evolves,
a new concept of warfare

develops in the 1920s and
'30s, strategic bombing.

Its proponents are
a group of officers

from the US Air Corps
Tactical School.

They come to be known
as the Bomber Barons.

- [Robert] The theory is

we'll use this novel weapon in a
novel way,

not to attack the
enemy's armies,

to attack the enemy's homeland,

his factories,

his infrastructure,

destroying his economy,

and thus making it
impossible for the enemy

to make war.

These air power advocates

say this is a better
way to fight war.

No need for that horrible trench
deadlock from World War I.

That's the old way.

The new way is
strategic bombing.

[pensive music]

- East Anglia is the England
of little churches,

hedges, fields, medieval
buildings,

and it's turned
into one gigantic

aircraft carrier.

- [Tom] In the spring of 1942,

the US Eighth Air Force
begins construction

on dozens of air bases,

transforming a quiet
corner of East England

into one of the
most vital fronts

of the entire Second World War.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan S.] It's flat, it's
perfect for airfields.

[propeller whirring]
[dramatic music]

So you get this massive, massive
influx of American bombers

carrying the most destructive
weapons ever produced,

and just as strikingly,
young American airmen.

[suspenseful music]

- They all had grown up dreaming
of flying above the clouds

at over 300 miles per hour,

something their parents
and grandparents

could never imagine.

And all of a sudden,
here's this opportunity.

- The English used to
complain, they're oversexed,

they're overpaid, and
they're over here.

[dramatic music]

[plane engine rumbling]

- [Tom] The Royal Air Force

has been striking the German
homeland for two years.

- Take off, off you
go, off you go, over.

[bomber rumbling]

- [Tom] Prime Minister
Winston Churchill

understands how important such
raids are for British morale.

But the RAF pays
a grievous cost.

- In these early
months of the war,

there were raids with hardly
any aircraft coming back.

- And the most important
lesson they took away from it

is that daytime bombing

was a very hazardous
thing to undertake.

[pensive music]

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan S.] Arthur Harris is
the man put in charge

of Britain's Bomber Command.

And it's his idea to
switch to night bombing,

to use night as a cloak to
protect these bomber forces

so that they can
drop their bombs

and they have a better
chance of making it home.

[explosions banging]

- [Robert] So what they're doing
is merely area bombing.

They're flying over
German cities at night

and letting loose
their bomb loads.

And that means
civilian casualties.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan S.] There's a lot of
retribution

in this British strategy.

The Blitz had smashed
British cities and factories

in the winter of 1940-41.

And the Brits plan to smash
German society so badly

that it knocks them
out of the war.

- They sowed the wind,

and now they are going
to reap the whirlwind.

[pensive music]

- [Tom] Meeting in Casablanca,
President Roosevelt,

Prime Minister Churchill,
and their staffs

strategize how to continue
the Allied assault

on the Third Reich.

- [Robert] One of the major
outcomes

of the Casablanca Conference

is the Allies declared
unconditional surrender

as their war aim.

But something else happens
at Casablanca as well,

an argument on air strategy

between the British
and Americans.

[suspenseful music]

- [Tom] The US Army Air Force,

particularly its commander,
General Henry Hap Arnold,

insists that daylight
precision bombing

on critical wartime industries
will be more effective.

- [Robert] And as so often
in World War II,

American expectations come up
against British experience.

- Churchill is gonna go
to FDR and tell him that,

"Look, your daylight precision
stuff, it's not gonna work.

We tried it, it didn't work.

That's why we are doing
bombing operations at night.

And that is the way forward."

Well, Hap Arnold
gets wind of this.

[dramatic music]

- Arnold's a
pioneer in aviation,

taught by the Wright
brothers how to fly,

and he is a believer
in strategic air power.

And when the British say,

"Hey, you guys should bomb
at night just like we do,"

he says, "No, no, air power
could be used in a better way."

- [Tom] The American plan
rests on a cutting-edge device,

the Norden bombsight.

[pensive music]

- The Norden bombsight
is an analog computer.

You punch in various data:
wind speed, altitude,

wind direction, air pressure,

and it correlates all
those things together

and tells you exactly
when to drop the bomb.

According to the
advertising slogans,

it can drop a bomb in a
pickle barrel at 18,000 feet.

- [Tom] Americans claimed
the Norden bombsight,

which requires daylight
and clear weather,

promises greater precision

and therefore fewer
civilian casualties.

- [A.J.] So Henry Arnold and his
advisors come up with this plan,

the Combined Bomber Offensive,

which means the British
bombing at night

and the Americans bombing
precision targets

during the day.

- [Col. Douds] The Americans
are gonna sell it

as this round the clock bombing.

And this utterly
appeals to Churchill,

with the idea that his adversary
will never catch a break.

[dramatic music]
[plane rumbling]

- [Tom] Attacking an
enemy from 25,000 feet

presents unique challenges.

[bomber rumbling]

Temperatures dip below
-50 degrees Fahrenheit.

If an airman's supply of oxygen

is cut off for more
than 60 seconds,

he will die.

[suspenseful music]

- [Robert] You look out the
window as a crewman on a B-17

and you begin to
see black puffs.

[suspenseful music]

And they might not
look too dangerous.

[explosion banging]

Until one actually
makes contact.

- [Martin] The most infamous
German weapon of them all

was the Flak 88 millimeter gun.

[anti-aircraft gun firing]

It's capable of sending
29-pound explosive projectiles

to altitudes
approaching 30,000 feet.

[suspenseful music]

[anti-aircraft gun firing]

- [Col. Douds] The dilemma with
flak is

you can't maneuver to avoid it,

so the best you can do is sit
tight and grit your teeth.

[suspenseful music]

- Once the flak stops,
there's silence.

It's a deathly silence because
they know what's coming.

- [Pilot] There's four
of 'em, one o'clock high.

- [Gunner] They're
coming around.

[suspenseful music]

- [John] German fighter pilots
are seasoned combat veterans.

Many of them have
hundreds of kills

'cause they've been engaged
in this war since 1939.

- [Col. Douds] The best way to
kill a German fighter

is to send Allied fighters
to shoot them down.

But when the United States
starts to bomb Germany proper,

their fighters
don't have the range

to be able to escort bombers
all the way to a target.

[suspenseful music]

- [Robert] So the B-17 is
bristling with machine guns

around the fuselage
of the aircraft.

[bomber rumbling]

- [Pilot] Three planes,
nine o'clock, coming around.

[machine gun firing]
[suspenseful music]

- [Pilot] Too fast, six
o'clock up, coming in.

[machine gun firing]

- [John] It really is a
flying fortress.

[machine gun firing]

- [A.J.] Bomber crews were these
interdependent societies

in which every
person was dependent

upon the person
sitting next to 'em

and the person
sitting behind them.

- [Pilot] Breaking
11, breaking 11.

- [Gunner] I got him.

[machine gun firing]
[suspenseful music]

- [Pilot] B-17 out of
control at three o'clock.

C'mon, you guys, get out
that plane, bail out.

Come on, get out of there.

[suspenseful music]
[bombers rumbling]

- [John] A few miles from
the actual target,

the bomber will start
what's called the bomb run.

It's all done visually.

You have to hold
altitude, hold air speed,

and hold heading so the
bombardier can dial in

on the Norden bombsight.

'Cause if you don't
hit the target,

you gotta come back again.

[machine gun firing]

[fighter planes roaring]

[machine gun firing]

- [Robert] War sometimes breaks
down to

individual moments of terror.

[suspenseful music]
[fighter plane roaring]

[machine gun firing]

You're watching other planes

being literally
blown out of the sky.

And you have to drop
the bombs with precision

and then make it out
again on the way home.

- [Bombardier] Bombs away!

[bombs whistling]

[explosions booming]
[bombers rumbling]

[pensive music]

- [Tom] In combat conditions,

the accuracy of the
Norden bombsight

is not as precise as
the Air Force predicted.

The casualties are
greater than they feared.

[pensive music]

[plane rumbling]

- These missions would come
back with 10, 20% losses.

And of course the pilots
are highly trained,

highly technical people that
are very difficult to replace.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan S.] No one in history has
ever tried strategic bombing

on this scale before.

As generals, and
strategists, and air marshals

are working out the
future of air war,

these man are guinea pigs.

[dramatic music]

[suspenseful music]

- [Tom] Mission by mission,

the Eighth Air Force
slowly develops the methods

needed to damage their
intended targets.

But Adolf Hitler's
attention remains fixed

on his battle with the Soviets.

- [Martin] He had seen the
German losses back in 1940

when the Luftwaffe
was attacking England.

And to him it looked
like strategic air power

doesn't win wars,
ground forces win wars.

So Hitler's viewpoint
about an air force

is that it exists to
support the ground troops.

[pensive music]

- [Tom] With the
loss at Stalingrad,

including the capture
of his entire 6th Army,

Hitler is focused on
the Eastern Front.

But the Allied raids

do alarm Luftwaffe air
marshal Hermann Göring.

[pensive music]

- [Robert] Göring is hearing
from his local

and regional
Luftwaffe commanders

that they really need
more fighter aircraft.

But in a sense,
Göring's trapped.

If he detaches air power
from the Eastern Front,

a situation that
is already critical

is soon going to turn mortal.

[dramatic music]

- [John] The Germans now are
gonna streamline procedures

and make things more efficient.

They start producing more
aircraft, more armaments

in the middle of the
Combined Bomber Offensive.

So from 1943 on, there's
an exponential increase

in German industrial output.

- [Robert] With German fighter
production on the upswing,

the Allied government is
becoming increasingly concerned

and they're getting
a little tired

of hearing their airmen say,

"We can bring Germany
to its knees,"

when they don't see any
evidence that that's true.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom] In May, Churchill
and Roosevelt meet

to finalize plans in
the Mediterranean.

They also commit to a

cross-channel
invasion of France.

- [Robert] Since America came
into the war,

they've had a strategy

to land a gigantic force
somewhere in Northwestern France

and then driving straight
into the heart of Germany.

- [Tom] Code named
Operation Overlord,

the attack is scheduled for
spring of the next year.

Achieving air supremacy
over occupied Europe

is crucial to the
success of the invasion.

- [Col. Douds] At this point,

everybody recognizes amphibious
operations can't happen

unless you control the seas
and have control of the air.

- So the top
commanders all agree

that the number one priority
is destroying the Luftwaffe.

- [Dan S.] And that means the
bomber force is given the job

of smashing the infrastructure

of the Luftwaffe on the ground,

so that when the
Allies land on D-Day

and in the ground
fighting that follows,

there'll be no German
aircraft interfering.

[suspenseful music]

- [Tom] The RAF and Eighth
Air Force join efforts

for what they term Blitz Week,

attacks on various
cities across Germany.

Their first joint target is
a busy port with dockyards,

submarine pens,
and manufacturing.

It's also a home to
over a million people.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan S.] Hamburg is a real
center of aircraft production.

So for the Americans,

there's lots of specific
military industrial targets

they can attack.

But the Brits look at the
types of housing there

and they think they're
very vulnerable to fire.

So they're going to
burn neighborhoods.

They're gonna de-house
German people.

And that means workers
are gonna be killed,

factories will grind to a halt,

supply chains will break down

- [Tom] It's codenamed
Operation Gomorrah,

after the Old Testament city

that was destroyed
by fire from above.

- [Col. Douds] This is gonna be
eight days and seven nights

of pounding the city of Hamburg.

- [Robert] It's very carefully
planned.

First, there are high
explosives to blow out windows,

to blow out roofs, to
knock down buildings.

- And they'll drop
incendiaries, smaller bombs,

that just burn
like firecrackers.

And with these roof tiles gone,

the wooden structure of
the roofs is exposed,

and these little incendiaries
will land in those roofs

and just set fires.

- [Robert] The British want
revenge on Hamburg

for the Blitz.

The Americans have been singing

the strategic bombing
song for years,

and now they can show
the destructive nature

of the Combined Bomber Offensive

to wipe a city off the map.

[pensive music]

- [Tom] In the summer of 1943,

Allied air forces
launched Blitz Week,

the largest series of
raids on Germany to date.

- [Robert] The British and
American air forces

have supposedly been
working together,

the British bombing by
night, the US by day.

But they haven't been bombing
the same target cities.

That changes in
the summer of 1943.

[suspenseful music]

- [Tom] The Allies'
first joint target

is the city of Hamburg.

On the night of July
24th, the raids begin.

[suspenseful music]

The RAF drops incendiary bombs.

[explosions banging]

But in the following days,

American B-17s are unable
to hit their targets.

[dreary music]

- [Robert] The Americans
intended to bomb

aircraft factories,

but the use of incendiaries
created so much smoke

that the Norden bombsights
were essentially blinded.

- [Col. Douds] They can't
actually see their targets.

So they're almost reduced
to doing area bombing,

not unlike the British.

[bomber roaring]

- [Tom] On July 27th, a heat
wave sends temperatures soaring

as the RAF returns for a
fourth night of strikes.

[suspenseful music]

- [John] It's very hot,

it's very dry, and the
meteorological conditions

are ripe for firestorm.

[fire blaring]

This time the fires burn so hot

the oxygen that these fires
demand causes a windstorm.

- Winds are over
150 miles an hour.

- [Dan S.] The firestorm works a
little bit like a blast furnace.

It's a localized weather system

that will see that fire spread

at the speed of a
galloping horse.

[suspenseful music]

- [Robert] A gigantic updraft
results

that robs people cowering
in their shelters of oxygen

and leads to death
by asphyxiation.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dr. Grant] Temperatures go up
to a thousand degrees Celsius.

[fire blaring]

It's the most
devastating firestorm

that's ever been created.

- [Dan C.] Stories are of people
trying to run out of shelters

with children near
them, burning,

with their hands and feet
stuck in melting asphalt,

with the buildings falling
down on top of them.

- [Dan S.] The city of Hamburg

is devastated.

[pensive music]

- [Tom] Operation Gomorrah
kills over 40,000 civilians.

Almost 2/3 of the city's houses
are burned to the ground,

leaving a million
residents homeless.

- [Dan S.] Churchill is worried
about

the human cost
of what they're doing.

He's worried about how
history will look at it.

- [Dan C.] And there's a line
from Churchill supposedly,

where he looks at some
of the movies of Hamburg,

and goes, "Are we beasts?"

- The striking thing
about air power

is it makes all
of us combatants.

It's not just about
the battlefield.

The battlefield is actually
civilian populations.

- [Tom] The destruction
stuns Nazi high command.

[pensive music]

One of Hitler's
ministers tells him

that "Hamburg put the
fear of God in me."

But Hitler refuses
to visit the city

or receive a
delegation of civilians

who had saved lives
during the fire.

- Hamburg is a shock to the
entire German war effort.

Göring has told
Hitler repeatedly

that he had this bomber
problem under control,

and now here lies the second
largest city in Germany

in ashes.

- [Tom] Accounts of
the bombing of Hamburg

spread throughout Germany.

Hitler begins to transfer
German fighter planes

from the Eastern Front
and the Mediterranean

to the fatherland.

[planes rumbling]

[pensive music]

- [Robert] In addition, the
Germans ring their major cities

with these gigantic
monumental flak towers,

150-feet tall, 11-foot
thick concrete walls,

bristling with guns.

Not only are they
highly effective

against incoming bombers,

their guns barking
the sound and fury

remind the people that Hitler
is looking out for them.

[anti-aircraft gun firing]

[fighter plane roaring]

[pensive music]

- [Dan S.] Back in Britain,

there was big disagreement at
the time

with how the raid
on Hamburg goes.

From Harris's point of view,
this is a war-winning strategy,

that if you hit
people hard enough,

you can cause a breakdown
of their will to fight.

- [Robert] But for Arnold,
Hamburg was not a success.

It proved the inefficiency
of area bombing.

He wants to strike
precise targets,

the factories that are keeping
the Luftwaffe in the air.

[pensive music]

- [Col. Douds] Henry Arnold
thinks

strategic bombing can work.

We just need to do it harder.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom] The combined
American-British raid on Hamburg

levels a city but does little
to destroy the Luftwaffe

before the invasion of Europe.

By August of 1943,
the Eighth Air Force

is receiving enough
planes and personnel

to launch the large
formations required

to decimate German
aircraft production.

Bomber Baron theory is about
to be put into practice.

- What is keeping the
Luftwaffe in the air

are the factories behind it.

That's what Arnold
wants to strike.

And he thinks the way to do that

is to double down on
daylight precision bombing,

more planes, more raids, more
attacks on the same target

until the Germans break.

[suspenseful music]

- [Tom] Arnold now
demands maximum effort

from the Eighth Air Force.

[plane roaring]

[planes rumbling]

- Normally there are planes
that are being worked on,

or repaired, or air
crew that are resting,

so that every now and
then they get a day off.

But now when you
go maximum effort,

it means you put everything
in the air every time.

- [Tom] Previously, around 90
B-17s would fly each mission,

but that number will
soon double and triple.

[dramatic music]

- The Americans are obsessed

with this view of
the German economy

as a series of interconnected
hubs and spokes.

So if they hit the right
domino, they'll all come down.

- [Dr. Grant] These are called
bottleneck industries,

industries where just a
few plants and locations

control all the production.

- [Robert] Bombing bottleneck
targets

seems to be a more efficient
use of your air force.

One big raid, one
factory destroyed,

a crucial sector of the
German war economy crippled.

- [Col. Douds] Probably the
most consequential

bottleneck industry with
regards to the Luftwaffe

is ball bearings.

[pensive music]

Anything that moves
needs a ball bearing.

Anything that turns
needs a ball bearing,

including German
aircraft engines,

propellers turning,
landing wheels,

and also all the
machines and machinery

that build those products.

So it's a twofer.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom] On August 17th,
one year to the day

from their first attack
on occupied Europe,

the Eighth Air Force
launches a dual raid.

The first strike on Regensburg

is meant to draw
off German fighters

so that the rest of the force
can hit the primary target,

Germany's largest ball bearing
factory in Schweinfurt.

Three weeks later,

the Eighth strikes another
plant in Stuttgart.

In these raids alone,

the Eighth loses
nearly a hundred planes

and a thousand crew
killed or captured.

Ball bearing production
is interrupted,

but only temporarily.

- [Robert] The Allies are always
surprised at how rapidly

the Germans rebuild their
cities and factories.

[dramatic music]

But they do so with this
almost inexhaustible supply

of slave labor,

prisoners of war in the
hundreds of thousands.

They're barely fed.

When one dies, they
can be simply discarded

and another one
put in their place.

- [Tom] Forced laborers
from occupied countries

are ordered by the Nazis to
reconstruct German factories.

- [Col. Douds] They also
dispersed

the German aircraft industry

so that it can't be taken
out in any one strike

'cause it's not
all in one place.

And they put it underground.

They used old salt mines.

They used old quarries.

- [Martin] Now you can't hit it.

Now you can't bomb it.

There is nothing you can do

because you can't bomb a
facility when it's underground.

- [Col. Douds] This ultimately
means German aircraft production

will continue to increase.

- [Tom] By the fall of 1943,
the Eighth Air Force

is bombing targets
deep inside the Reich

and returning to ones
they've already hit.

[bombers rumbling]

In early October, they fly a
series of maximum effort raids,

including a second strike
on the plant in Schweinfurt,

all in a single week.

[pensive music]

- [Robert] There is a limit

to how much the human psyche can
take.

And on many occasions, bomber
crews reach that limit.

[suspenseful music]

You're five miles up and you're
braving death every second.

[explosion booming]

Fighters, flak, fighters, flak.

[explosion booming]

An adrenaline rush overloading
your nervous system.

[machine gun firing]

[explosion booming]

And then you land.

And it's quiet.

You're back at a
base in East Anglia.

You have a hot meal.

You sleep in a comfortable bed.

And then maybe you'd
do it again tomorrow.

[suspenseful music]
[bombers rumbling]

More fighters, more flak.

[explosion booming]

You think you were gonna die

10 times in the course
of this bomb raid.

[bomber rumbling]
[explosion booming]

And that night you'd
be drinking scotch

with a couple of friends
at the commissary.

It was almost
impossible to reconcile.

- The longer you did it,

you would become
more and more aware

of how vulnerable you were.

[pensive music]

- [Tom] By the end of the month,

the Eighth Air Force has
endured horrific losses.

The men call it Black October.

- [Robert] If you're an American
airman,

you have a 20% chance
of being killed

on any mission you undertake.

One in five, that
is forbidding math.

Adding to that,

they don't appear to be
having an appreciable impact

on the German war effort,

leading to an incipient
collapse of airman morale.

- [Col. Douds] They start to see
the losses around them and go,

"We're just gonna fly
until we're dead."

[bomber rumbling]

[explosion booming]

[machine gun firing]
[explosion booming]

[dramatic music]

- [Tom] A series of American
raids in Black October

shows the cost of daytime
precision bombing.

- [John] The loss rates,

the limitations of
the Norden bombsight,

the weather, all these
things play in the factor

in how ineffective the
bombing campaign is in 1943.

You could easily say
that the Luftwaffe

still owned the
skies over Germany.

- [Tom] In the late fall,

bad weather forces the Eighth
Air Force to suspend missions,

giving ground crews the winter
to patch battered planes.

[pensive music]

[bombers rumbling]

But the RAF launches its
largest campaign yet,

a sustained assault on Berlin.

- [Col. Douds] These are gonna
be massive raids,

16 of them in the
heart of Germany.

[plane engine rumbling]

- [Robert] The British goal over
Berlin

is to destroy German morale.

That's the way to beat Germany,

not to destroy
individual factories.

Harris thinks
these Berlin raids

will cost 4 to 500 bombers,

but they'll cost
Germany the war.

[suspenseful music]

[explosions booming]

- [Tom] The RAF
winter raids to Berlin

push the limit and stamina
of British air crews,

with modest results.

[gun firing]

[explosions cracking]

[gun firing]

[explosion booming]

[ominous music]

- [Col. Douds] Harris is
presciently accurate.

They lose 400 to 500 aircraft
and almost 5,000 airmen.

- [Robert] The Berlin bombing
campaign is an epic effort

but unfortunately
an epic failure.

Both air forces are
finding their plans

are not corresponding
with reality.

They're having almost no
impact on the Luftwaffe at all.

They're simply getting more
of their plane shot down

and more of their crewmen
killed or captured.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom] After months
of heavy losses,

the Eighth Air Force
is at a crossroads.

- [Dr. Grant] Arnold realizes
the bombers can't do it alone.

If he wants these bombers to
make a difference in this war,

he's got to send fighters
to the target with them.

[bomber rumbling]

- [Martin] The Allied air forces
have the P-38 Lightning

and the P-47 Thunderbolt,

two absolutely excellent
fighter aircraft

capable of dog fighting

just about as well as
anything else in the sky.

[fighter planes rumbling]

They only had one limitation,
and that was range.

[dramatic music]

[fighter planes rumbling]

- [John] At the time,
aeronautical engineers

believed having an
aircraft that could fly

almost a thousand miles
into Germany and back,

with enough firepower,

enough maneuverability,

enough engine power,

is an engineering impossibility.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom] But a new fighter
is already being produced

by the United States
for the British,

the P-51 Mustang.

- [John] And the Brits test
fly it, and they go,

"Thanks, it's okay."

[fighter plane rumbling]

Below 15,000 feet, it's fine,

but we're looking for
something higher altitude.

[fighter plane rumbling]

Then we get the idea

of putting a Rolls-Royce
Merlin engine in this thing.

So you have a British-made
engine, an American airframe,

made it together,
and it's gangbusters.

[fighter plane rumbling]

- [Col. Douds] That's when it
turns into this magical machine.

[fighter plane rumbling]

It's fast, it flies high.

It's so efficient that
it could escort a bomber

all the way to downtown
Berlin and back.

It's the equivalent

or better than anything
the Germans have.

[suspenseful music]

- [Robert] The Americans and
British are allies,

but in many ways they've been
working at cross purposes,

especially in the air campaign.

But now the US and
British war efforts

come together to
produce an aircraft

that is greater than
the sum of its parts.

It's the embodiment

of the Anglo-American
coalition in World War II.

[fighter plane rumbling]

- [Anand] The P-51 is a
game-changer,

but it requires, mind you,

an entire rethink of
American aerial doctrine.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan S.] Allied planners
realized

that if they threaten targets

that are essential to
the German war efforts

and they force the Germans

to send up fighters to
protect those targets,

the P-51s can pounce
and shoot them down.

[machine gun firing]

[explosion booming]

- [Dr. Grant] The Allies have
started out thinking B-17s

will destroy the German
air force on the ground.

By early 1944, they
realized the P-51

is going to destroy the
German Air Force

in the air.

[suspenseful music]

- [Tom] Knowing that command
of the air is crucial

to the upcoming cross
channel invasion,

Allied air forces launch
Operation Argument,

a five-day series of bombing
raids over major German cities.

[dramatic music]

[bombers rumbling]

- [Dr. Grant] This is the
critical hour

for the Combined
Bomber Offensive

because the Allies now know

that they're approaching the
time for the D-Day landings.

[fighter planes rumbling]

They need to draw
up the Luftwaffe

so that the P-51 can
destroy it in the skies.

[fighter planes rumbling]

The plan is to send
thousands of bombers

knowing that the Luftwaffe
will have no choice

but to send everything
it has up in the skies

to defend the homeland.

So in a way, the
bombers are the bait.

[suspenseful music]

- [Tom] Fitted with extra
fuel tanks, the P-51 Mustangs

are capable of penetrating
deep into Germany.

[fighter planes roaring]

Their primary mission has
been protecting the bombers.

Now they're ordered to actively
pursue German fighters,

even if it leaves the
formations vulnerable.

[fighter planes rumbling]

- [John] The mission of the
American fighters

is to be aggressive

and go after the Luftwaffe
in the air to kill them

in any way, shape, or form.

[machine gun firing]

[suspenseful music]

- [Tom] Operation Argument,
known as Big Week,

begins a battle of attrition

between the Allied air
forces and the Luftwaffe.

[machine gun firing]

[explosion booming]

[machine gun firing]

[explosion booming]

The success of the
upcoming invasion

hangs in the balance.

[explosion booming]
[pensive music]

- [John] The United States
is gonna lose

about a quarter of the Eighth
Air Force in that fight.

The Germans are gonna lose

about a third of
their fighter force

and 18% of their fighter pilots.

This is something the
Allies can sustain,

the Germans cannot.

[suspenseful music]

- [Robert] From the US
perspective,

this is a war economy

that is churning out hundreds
and hundreds of heavy bombers

every day of the year.

Young men are
signing up in droves.

And so the cold-blooded
calculation

is that no matter how
heavy US losses are,

America can replace
its planes and pilots.

[suspenseful music]
[machine gun firing]

[explosion booming]

- [Tom] In the month
after Big Week,

American fighters down more
German planes over Europe

than in the previous two years.

[suspenseful music]

The Luftwaffe is being
destroyed in the air

and on the ground.

- [Col. Douds] It's really this
symbiosis.

Mustangs, they're
killing German fighters,

which means the bombers
can now be more accurate,

which means they're
doing a better job

of attacking the German
aircraft industry.

[explosions booming]

It's a cycle that's
destroying the Luftwaffe.

[machine gun firing]

[explosion booming]

- [Tom] By June, 1944,

there are few experienced
Luftwaffe pilots left alive.

- [John] By the time the D-Day
comes, the Allies own the air.

That's why you see very
few Luftwaffe fighters

over the beaches of
Normandy on June 6th, 1944.

[bombers rumbling]

[pensive music]

- [Tom] Control of the air
is decisively established.

The Luftwaffe will be incapable

of opposing the upcoming
Allied invasion.

But again, the cost is high.

[somber music]

Fewer than a quarter of British
and American bomber crews

survive the campaign.

- [Robert] The tragedy of the
air war is that the bomber crews

were essentially testing
out an unproven theory.

- [Dan C.] Anytime you're
talking about high technology

and cutting-edge weaponry,

there is an element of
experimentation involved.

And some of the ways,
unfortunately,

that you learn in
war is by dying.

Sometimes in wartime, there's
no other way to learn.

- [Robert] When both the British

and American air
forces worked together,

bombers and fighters together,

they proved to be the most
effective aerial instrument

of war in history.

[dramatic music]

- The battle in
the air over Europe

isn't won by B-17s or P-51s.

It's won by the men who
fight in those planes

and the men and women who
support them on the ground.

What they accomplished,

the destruction of
the German Luftwaffe,

will make possible

the greatest land and
sea invasion in history.