1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 2 00:00:04,001 --> 00:00:08,001 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 3 00:00:08,002 --> 00:00:12,002 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 2 00:00:21,479 --> 00:00:24,982 (narrator) Forlorn monsters today, 3 00:00:25,066 --> 00:00:28,360 in May 1940, these forts of the Maginot line 4 00:00:28,445 --> 00:00:32,364 were France's first-line defence against the Germans. 5 00:00:38,413 --> 00:00:43,584 Half a million French soldiers lurked beneath these man-made hills. 6 00:00:46,171 --> 00:00:48,130 These were the most extensive, 7 00:00:48,256 --> 00:00:52,551 the most elaborate forts ever constructed. 8 00:00:52,635 --> 00:00:56,013 Here the guns would halt the Hun - 9 00:00:56,097 --> 00:00:58,766 provided the Hun came this way. 10 00:02:05,083 --> 00:02:07,042 "Thank God for the French army," 11 00:02:07,127 --> 00:02:10,212 said Winston Churchill when Hitler came to power. 12 00:02:10,296 --> 00:02:11,505 But in 1933 13 00:02:11,589 --> 00:02:16,260 the French army was no longer the superlative weapon it once had been. 14 00:02:18,263 --> 00:02:21,723 French military manuals devoted page affer page 15 00:02:21,808 --> 00:02:24,017 to the tactics of the First War, 16 00:02:24,102 --> 00:02:29,148 although Hitler had said, "The next war will be very different from the last." 17 00:02:33,987 --> 00:02:37,739 The French had helped introduce the tank and the aeroplane, 18 00:02:37,824 --> 00:02:41,160 but now did little to extend their use. 19 00:02:41,244 --> 00:02:44,329 They had pioneered motor transport in warfare, 20 00:02:44,455 --> 00:02:48,709 but went back now to relying on railways and the horse - 21 00:02:48,793 --> 00:02:50,669 especially the horse. 22 00:03:01,764 --> 00:03:04,975 (man) lt was a period of very deep decay, 23 00:03:05,059 --> 00:03:11,523 probably caused by the excess of effort during the First World War. 24 00:03:11,608 --> 00:03:16,153 We suffered from an illness which is not peculiar to the French - 25 00:03:16,237 --> 00:03:19,615 the illness of having been victorious 26 00:03:19,699 --> 00:03:24,077 and believing that we were right and very clever. 27 00:03:25,205 --> 00:03:29,166 Victory is a very dangerous opportunity. 28 00:03:29,292 --> 00:03:32,294 (chanting in French) 29 00:03:38,051 --> 00:03:42,221 (narrator) France between the wars was deeply divided. 30 00:03:42,305 --> 00:03:47,059 Factions clashed, alliances altered, cabinets came and went in the cascade, 31 00:03:47,143 --> 00:03:50,520 some lasting a few hours, some a few months. 32 00:03:50,647 --> 00:03:53,232 Rarely did one last a whole year. 33 00:03:59,197 --> 00:04:04,660 On the very day Hitler came to power France was without a government. 34 00:04:04,744 --> 00:04:10,082 lt was again without one when he marched into Austria five years later. 35 00:04:15,713 --> 00:04:17,798 The Leff in France was concerned more 36 00:04:17,882 --> 00:04:20,926 with hounding rogues in high places at home, 37 00:04:21,010 --> 00:04:23,011 than curbing fascism elsewhere. 38 00:04:24,347 --> 00:04:26,348 The Right so hated the Leff 39 00:04:26,432 --> 00:04:30,060 it was prepared to countenance dictatorship. 40 00:04:31,688 --> 00:04:36,233 As early as 1934 the victor of Verdun, Marshal Pétain, 41 00:04:36,317 --> 00:04:39,528 was proposed as France's saviour from communism, 42 00:04:39,612 --> 00:04:41,613 although he was then nearly 80. 43 00:04:41,698 --> 00:04:44,992 These deep divisions were to fetter France 44 00:04:45,076 --> 00:04:47,661 when she faced the need to re-arm. 45 00:04:47,745 --> 00:04:50,831 The whole of the possessing classes, 46 00:04:50,915 --> 00:04:54,001 the Right if you like, 47 00:04:54,085 --> 00:04:57,838 preferred the idea of the Germans 48 00:04:57,922 --> 00:05:00,090 to their own communists. 49 00:05:00,174 --> 00:05:02,592 You didn't have to walk round these streets 50 00:05:02,677 --> 00:05:05,304 and see "pour qui et pourquoi" written on them, 51 00:05:05,388 --> 00:05:09,224 or the hammer and sickle, to realise nobody was going to liff a finger. 52 00:05:23,114 --> 00:05:26,283 (narrator) France in the '30s built a series of great forts 53 00:05:26,409 --> 00:05:28,243 along her frontier with Germany, 54 00:05:28,328 --> 00:05:32,831 and because her war minister then happened to be one André Maginot, 55 00:05:32,915 --> 00:05:36,793 these forts came to be known as the Maginot line. 56 00:05:38,755 --> 00:05:42,632 The Maginot forts were truly 20th-century wonders. 57 00:05:43,509 --> 00:05:47,095 Electric trains took the troops from barracks to gun turret, 58 00:05:47,180 --> 00:05:48,638 from arsenal to canteen. 59 00:05:48,723 --> 00:05:52,434 There were cinemas underground, sun-ray rooms, air conditioning, 60 00:05:52,518 --> 00:05:54,478 the lot. 61 00:05:55,730 --> 00:05:59,149 Theirs was a vast Jules Verne type of world 62 00:05:59,233 --> 00:06:01,818 hundreds of feet below ground. 63 00:06:01,903 --> 00:06:05,155 They called it The Shield of France. 64 00:06:05,239 --> 00:06:08,784 The Maginot line failed to protect all of France's eastern flank. 65 00:06:08,868 --> 00:06:12,496 lt was only 87 miles long 66 00:06:12,580 --> 00:06:16,500 and it stopped 250 miles short of the Channel. 67 00:06:31,015 --> 00:06:33,642 Should the alarm ever have to sound in grim earnest, 68 00:06:33,726 --> 00:06:35,394 French strategists argued that 69 00:06:35,478 --> 00:06:40,941 their troops would need to confront the Germans on Belgian, if not German, soil. 70 00:06:41,025 --> 00:06:44,653 Besides, to extend the Maginot line along the Belgian frontier 71 00:06:44,779 --> 00:06:46,488 would not only be expensive, 72 00:06:46,572 --> 00:06:52,285 but would make the Belgians think that if war came, France would forsake them. 73 00:06:53,788 --> 00:06:56,623 The folly of this thinking was shown up in 1936 74 00:06:56,707 --> 00:06:59,209 when, without consulting the French, 75 00:06:59,293 --> 00:07:02,712 the Belgian King Leopold opted for neutrality 76 00:07:02,797 --> 00:07:07,968 and closed his borders, even to French military obserVers. 77 00:07:10,555 --> 00:07:15,392 All too late France began extending the Maginot line to the sea. 78 00:07:16,352 --> 00:07:21,148 But by May 1940 it was far from finished. 79 00:07:31,451 --> 00:07:33,535 (shouting in French) 80 00:07:43,629 --> 00:07:47,382 France had suffered a terrible loss of life in the Great War. 81 00:07:47,467 --> 00:07:51,136 Now French military thinking became wholly defensive, 82 00:07:51,220 --> 00:07:53,930 forgetting Napoleon's favourite maxim: 83 00:07:54,056 --> 00:07:57,726 "The side that stays within its fortifications is beaten." 84 00:08:09,906 --> 00:08:12,616 Since the French spurned any notion 85 00:08:13,242 --> 00:08:14,784 of taking the offensive, 86 00:08:14,869 --> 00:08:19,164 the Maginot line ironically protected Germany better than it protected France. 87 00:08:19,248 --> 00:08:23,251 A German colonel, Heinz Guderian, the year the Maginot line was completed, 88 00:08:23,336 --> 00:08:27,714 published a book with a prophetic title: Achtung Panzer. 89 00:08:27,798 --> 00:08:31,885 A book never properly studied by the French or English general staff, 90 00:08:31,969 --> 00:08:34,846 yet these pages expound a new kind of warfare - 91 00:08:34,931 --> 00:08:40,393 the concentrated use of tanks with infantry and air force in close support: 92 00:08:40,478 --> 00:08:42,562 Blitzkrieg. 93 00:08:47,777 --> 00:08:50,195 We had had tanks in the First World War, 94 00:08:50,279 --> 00:08:52,864 we knew all the difficulties of the game, 95 00:08:52,949 --> 00:08:55,951 while the Germans, who didn't have them, 96 00:08:56,035 --> 00:08:59,829 had the feeling of those who are attacked by tanks. 97 00:08:59,914 --> 00:09:04,042 And while we considered that the tanks were a little awkward 98 00:09:04,126 --> 00:09:05,627 and difficult to use, 99 00:09:05,711 --> 00:09:11,508 the Germans jumped at the new weapons with the appetite of the new rich. 100 00:09:18,140 --> 00:09:22,477 (narrator) Paris, July 14, 1939. 101 00:09:23,896 --> 00:09:27,691 The last Bastille Day parade of the Third Republic. 102 00:09:30,695 --> 00:09:34,781 A few days earlier, Britain's war minister, visiting Paris, had said, 103 00:09:34,907 --> 00:09:38,785 "France has the greatest army in the world." 104 00:09:38,911 --> 00:09:43,832 Like the parade itself, such statements were meant merely to raise morale. 105 00:09:47,336 --> 00:09:50,046 Parisians had hardly got back from their holidays 106 00:09:50,172 --> 00:09:52,716 before they found themselves once more at war 107 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:55,010 with their traditional foe. 108 00:10:05,771 --> 00:10:09,691 But whereas in 1914 the cry had been "On to Berlin", 109 00:10:09,775 --> 00:10:12,902 this time it was "Let's get it over with." 110 00:10:20,369 --> 00:10:23,830 lronically, French mobilisation was too efficient. 111 00:10:23,914 --> 00:10:26,124 The call-up of skilled technicians 112 00:10:26,208 --> 00:10:29,419 brought many vital war industries almost to a halt. 113 00:10:29,503 --> 00:10:34,758 lt was only affer weeks of confusion that these men were released. 114 00:10:50,941 --> 00:10:54,027 Nor was France going to war united. 115 00:10:54,111 --> 00:10:57,030 The bitternesses of French politics continued. 116 00:10:57,114 --> 00:11:00,784 Ministers looked to their own futures instead of their country's 117 00:11:00,868 --> 00:11:04,454 and many took their cue from such leadership. 118 00:11:09,251 --> 00:11:13,505 Paris didn't alter much with the coming of war, save in appearance. 119 00:11:13,631 --> 00:11:19,094 The most popular song that autumn of 1939 was Paris Will Always Be Paris. 120 00:11:19,178 --> 00:11:21,971 (Maurice Chevalier) ♪ As a precaution, we put 121 00:11:22,056 --> 00:11:23,890 ♪ Cross bars on our windows 122 00:11:23,974 --> 00:11:26,226 ♪ Turn our storefronts blue 123 00:11:26,310 --> 00:11:28,561 ♪ And even the tires of our cars 124 00:11:28,646 --> 00:11:30,730 ♪ Remove canvas from all our museums 125 00:11:30,815 --> 00:11:33,191 ♪ Shake up the Champs-Elysêes 126 00:11:33,275 --> 00:11:35,652 ♪ Swaddle with clay 127 00:11:35,736 --> 00:11:37,987 ♪ All the beauties of our statues 128 00:11:38,114 --> 00:11:40,865 ♪ Veil the dreamers in the evening 129 00:11:40,950 --> 00:11:45,453 ♪ Dive into the dark the City of Light 130 00:11:45,538 --> 00:11:49,666 ♪ Paris will always be Paris 131 00:11:49,750 --> 00:11:53,837 ♪ The most beautiful city in the world 132 00:11:53,921 --> 00:11:57,507 ♪ Despite the deep darkness 133 00:11:57,591 --> 00:12:01,386 ♪ Son êclat ne peut être assombri 134 00:12:01,512 --> 00:12:05,223 ♪ Paris sera toujours Paris 135 00:12:05,307 --> 00:12:09,060 ♪ Plus on rêduit son êclairage 136 00:12:09,145 --> 00:12:12,897 ♪ Plus on voit briller son courage, sa bonne humeur et son esprit 137 00:12:12,982 --> 00:12:17,235 ♪ Paris sera toujours Paris 138 00:12:19,947 --> 00:12:23,324 (narrator) While their Polish allies were routed in the East, 139 00:12:23,409 --> 00:12:26,369 the French, like the British, did little in the West. 140 00:12:26,454 --> 00:12:29,622 There was the so-called Sarre offensive - 141 00:12:29,707 --> 00:12:32,167 the only French offensive, in fact, of the war. 142 00:12:43,888 --> 00:12:47,432 A few French divisions advanced five miles, 143 00:12:47,516 --> 00:12:50,435 but they didn't even try to penetrate the Siegfried line, 144 00:12:50,519 --> 00:12:52,145 at that time still unfinished. 145 00:12:52,229 --> 00:12:54,105 And while Poland fought on, 146 00:12:54,190 --> 00:12:57,484 there were no German tanks at all on the Western Front. 147 00:12:57,610 --> 00:13:02,363 The newsreel commentators of the day, though, didn't doubt the French resolve. 148 00:13:02,448 --> 00:13:05,784 (newsreel) We read the communiqués from the French High Command. 149 00:13:05,868 --> 00:13:09,954 This is the living story behind those brief, unvarnished reports. 150 00:13:10,039 --> 00:13:13,041 Our cameramen in the advanced lines on German territory 151 00:13:13,125 --> 00:13:14,501 watch obserVation posts 152 00:13:14,585 --> 00:13:19,464 at the bridge over the Rhine between Kehl and Strasbourg. 153 00:13:23,677 --> 00:13:28,097 This was a German railway station, now in the hands of French troops. 154 00:13:30,684 --> 00:13:35,563 From fortified outposts the vigilant watch is never relaxed. 155 00:13:46,617 --> 00:13:49,953 The Maginot line, built as the first line of defence for France, 156 00:13:50,037 --> 00:13:52,539 has become the second line behind the attack. 157 00:13:52,623 --> 00:13:55,083 The gradual but steady advance of French troops 158 00:13:55,167 --> 00:13:59,170 has brought their camouflaged artillery in range of the Siegfried outposts. 159 00:13:59,255 --> 00:14:02,173 There is no haste, only a grim, relentless pressure 160 00:14:02,258 --> 00:14:03,758 on the Nazi emplacements. 161 00:14:03,843 --> 00:14:06,469 Metre by metre the poilus are moving forward. 162 00:14:06,554 --> 00:14:14,435 lf the French army would have attacked at the beginning of September 163 00:14:15,104 --> 00:14:20,483 with their very strong superiority 164 00:14:20,568 --> 00:14:23,486 in division, in armoured cars - 165 00:14:23,571 --> 00:14:27,824 we lacked all armoured cars on the Western Front at that time - 166 00:14:27,908 --> 00:14:32,662 in artillery and air force, 167 00:14:32,746 --> 00:14:38,918 the German forces on the so-called Western Front 168 00:14:39,003 --> 00:14:44,883 could stand no more than one or two weeks. 169 00:14:46,594 --> 00:14:48,595 (narrator) Before Poland surrendered, 170 00:14:48,679 --> 00:14:52,682 the French commander ordered his men back behind the Maginot line - 171 00:14:52,766 --> 00:14:55,810 a withdrawal the Germans did nothing to prevent. 172 00:14:55,895 --> 00:14:57,645 One Frenchman wrote at the time, 173 00:14:57,771 --> 00:15:00,231 "Affer the prologue of the phoney offensive, 174 00:15:00,316 --> 00:15:02,400 we were ripe for the phoney war." 175 00:15:02,484 --> 00:15:05,111 (Charles Trenet) ♪ The wind in the woods goes hoo-hoo 176 00:15:05,195 --> 00:15:07,363 ♪ The doe at bay says mê-ê-ê 177 00:15:07,448 --> 00:15:09,741 ♪ Broken dishes make fric-fric-frac 178 00:15:09,825 --> 00:15:12,243 ♪ And wet feet make cop-flic-flac 179 00:15:12,328 --> 00:15:13,703 ♪ But... boom! 180 00:15:13,787 --> 00:15:16,414 ♪ When our heart goes boom 181 00:15:16,498 --> 00:15:18,333 ♪ Everything with him says boom 182 00:15:18,417 --> 00:15:20,668 ♪ The bird says boom, it's a storm 183 00:15:20,753 --> 00:15:22,795 ♪ Brrrrr! 184 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:26,633 ♪ Boom! The lightning that goes boom 185 00:15:26,717 --> 00:15:29,135 ♪ And the good Lord says boom... 186 00:15:29,219 --> 00:15:33,431 (narrator) For several minutes each day the Maginot guns boomed out, 187 00:15:33,515 --> 00:15:38,519 usually to impress visitors such as the Duke of Windsor. 188 00:15:38,604 --> 00:15:40,897 ♪ And if it goes boom, if he gets angry 189 00:15:41,106 --> 00:15:43,274 ♪ It brings with it wonders 190 00:15:43,359 --> 00:15:44,442 ♪ Boom! 191 00:15:44,568 --> 00:15:47,070 ♪ The whole world goes boom 192 00:15:47,154 --> 00:15:51,366 ♪ Everything with him says boom when our heart goes boom-boom... 193 00:15:51,450 --> 00:15:54,661 (narrator) Little attempt was made to harass the enemy. 194 00:15:54,787 --> 00:15:56,579 Even bombing the Ruhr was forbidden 195 00:15:56,664 --> 00:15:59,666 in case the Luffwaffe retaliated against French factories. 196 00:15:59,750 --> 00:16:04,170 Journalists were taken up to the lines to see the inactivity. 197 00:16:04,254 --> 00:16:08,466 l stayed at an obserVation post on the Rhine 198 00:16:08,550 --> 00:16:13,471 watching the Germans washing, playing football, 199 00:16:13,555 --> 00:16:16,516 and l said to the sentry, 200 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:19,978 "Why don't you shoot them? Why don't you shoot at them?" 201 00:16:20,062 --> 00:16:22,438 "No," he said, "They're behaving all right." 202 00:16:22,523 --> 00:16:25,316 "They don't shoot at us, why should we shoot at them?" 203 00:16:25,401 --> 00:16:28,987 ♪ Boum! Le monde entier fait boum 204 00:16:29,071 --> 00:16:30,947 ♪ Tout avec lui dit boum 205 00:16:31,031 --> 00:16:34,659 ♪ Quand notre coeur fait boum-boum-boum 206 00:16:34,743 --> 00:16:36,953 ♪ Fait boum-boum 207 00:16:37,037 --> 00:16:40,123 ♪ Brrrrr! Boum! 208 00:16:43,669 --> 00:16:48,297 (narrator) Life at the front was dreary and drab. 209 00:17:00,019 --> 00:17:04,605 Badly paid, leave became an obsession for the French soldier 210 00:17:04,690 --> 00:17:08,151 and was used mainly to make a little on the side. 211 00:17:13,365 --> 00:17:16,951 The winter of 1939 was the coldest for half a century. 212 00:17:17,036 --> 00:17:19,662 Even the Channel froze at Boulogne. 213 00:17:21,165 --> 00:17:24,751 The French halted work on the Maginot extension. 214 00:17:24,835 --> 00:17:29,756 The Germans, however, forged ahead with their plans. 215 00:17:30,507 --> 00:17:34,052 As winter wore on, French morale sank. 216 00:17:34,428 --> 00:17:38,973 Discipline deteriorated and drunkenness became rife. 217 00:17:39,058 --> 00:17:42,560 Special rooms were set aside in railway stations 218 00:17:42,644 --> 00:17:47,148 where men could recover before rejoining their units. 219 00:17:51,653 --> 00:17:57,158 Few French generals ever bothered to inspect, let alone meet, their troops, 220 00:17:57,242 --> 00:18:00,578 but then their commander-in-chief, General Gamelin, 221 00:18:00,662 --> 00:18:03,331 rarely set foot outside his headquarters. 222 00:18:03,415 --> 00:18:08,252 Already 68 at the beginning of 1940, his military record was so impeccable 223 00:18:08,337 --> 00:18:12,131 that no one dreamed of asking him to make way for a younger man. 224 00:18:12,257 --> 00:18:18,638 (Beaufre) Gamelin was very clever, but with no guts at all, 225 00:18:18,722 --> 00:18:20,681 and he was liked by the politicians 226 00:18:20,766 --> 00:18:23,226 because he was an easy commander-in-chief. 227 00:18:24,561 --> 00:18:28,314 (narrator) Gamelin chose for his headquarters this château at Vincennes, 228 00:18:28,398 --> 00:18:30,733 just outside Paris. 229 00:18:30,818 --> 00:18:35,238 (Beaufre) That choice reveals what the man was, you know. 230 00:18:35,322 --> 00:18:39,534 The enemy were not the Germans. lt was the French government. 231 00:18:40,452 --> 00:18:44,247 (narrator) Vincennes was where England's Henry V died 232 00:18:44,331 --> 00:18:47,542 and where the spy Mata Hari was executed. 233 00:18:50,546 --> 00:18:55,716 lt was described by one visitor as "a submarine without a periscope". 234 00:18:55,801 --> 00:18:59,053 Almost unbelievably, it had no radio communications, 235 00:18:59,138 --> 00:19:02,849 it was not linked by teleprinter with any other headquarters in the field. 236 00:19:02,933 --> 00:19:08,813 lnstead, messages were dispatched regularly on the hour by motorcycle. 237 00:19:10,399 --> 00:19:13,609 Gamelin seldom bothered his staff with orders, 238 00:19:13,694 --> 00:19:16,612 preferring simply to suggest guidelines. 239 00:19:21,243 --> 00:19:25,079 His long-term strategy was to wait until the Allies could match the Germans 240 00:19:25,164 --> 00:19:28,791 in numbers and equipment before launching any major offensive, 241 00:19:28,876 --> 00:19:32,336 even though that would mean waiting until 1941 . 242 00:19:32,421 --> 00:19:36,924 Meanwhile, he was concerned to keep the war away from French soil - 243 00:19:37,009 --> 00:19:41,637 hence his interests in any odd stratagem pushed his way. 244 00:19:41,722 --> 00:19:49,520 We had a plan to go to attack Russia through Norway - NarVik - 245 00:19:49,605 --> 00:19:52,481 which led to the landing in NarVik. 246 00:19:52,566 --> 00:19:59,322 We had a plan to attack the oil plants in Baku from Syria. 247 00:19:59,406 --> 00:20:04,160 We had the plans to raise the Balkans with us 248 00:20:04,286 --> 00:20:09,957 by landing in Salonika and joining the Yugoslavs, and so on. 249 00:20:10,042 --> 00:20:16,756 But all this was dreams, absolutely foolish and out of the reality. 250 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:18,633 But that stemmed from the fact 251 00:20:18,717 --> 00:20:22,678 that we thought that the war couldn't be decided on the main front 252 00:20:22,763 --> 00:20:27,058 because of the inviolability of that front. 253 00:20:27,142 --> 00:20:30,478 (narrator) Gamelin had 100 divisions on that front in May 1940, 254 00:20:30,562 --> 00:20:34,482 plus another ten of the British expeditionary force. 255 00:20:35,817 --> 00:20:40,738 40 manned the Maginot line, while five guarded the Swiss frontier. 256 00:20:40,822 --> 00:20:47,286 Another 40, the best, were to go into neutral Belgium once Germany attacked. 257 00:20:47,371 --> 00:20:48,871 But when that happened 258 00:20:48,956 --> 00:20:53,084 the pivot of Gamelin's front would be here, in the Ardennes. 259 00:20:57,673 --> 00:21:00,675 The impenetrable Ardennes. 260 00:21:00,759 --> 00:21:02,843 But was it? 261 00:21:12,562 --> 00:21:14,230 On maps back at headquarters 262 00:21:14,314 --> 00:21:16,899 its thick woods and narrow, winding roads 263 00:21:16,984 --> 00:21:20,236 probably did make the Ardennes seem impenetrable - 264 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:24,865 which is presumably why Gamelin chose to guard this 100-mile stretch of front 265 00:21:24,950 --> 00:21:30,705 with ten of his weakest, least-trained, worst-equipped divisions. 266 00:21:30,831 --> 00:21:34,959 (man) The Ardennes came to be chosen for the main thrust 267 00:21:35,043 --> 00:21:39,880 since it offered an opportunity to circumvent the Maginot line. 268 00:21:40,007 --> 00:21:43,509 And besides we were conscious of the fact 269 00:21:43,593 --> 00:21:47,054 that there were only minor French troops 270 00:21:47,180 --> 00:21:52,560 which held the positions in this section of the French front. 271 00:21:52,644 --> 00:21:57,565 We knew that the French High Command 272 00:21:57,649 --> 00:22:02,194 had dispersed his tanks. 273 00:22:03,113 --> 00:22:08,659 The French had more tanks and some better tanks, heavier tanks, 274 00:22:08,744 --> 00:22:11,787 than we have had panzers. 275 00:22:11,872 --> 00:22:16,709 But we managed our panzer troops - 276 00:22:16,793 --> 00:22:22,089 what Guderian said in his instructions. 277 00:22:22,174 --> 00:22:27,720 (man) "Strike hard and quickly and don't disperse your forces." 278 00:22:35,228 --> 00:22:38,230 (narrator) The spring of 1940 was remarkably sunny. 279 00:22:38,315 --> 00:22:41,567 Nowhere was it more peaceful than here in the Ardennes, 280 00:22:41,651 --> 00:22:45,237 where the generals had said the Germans would never attack. 281 00:22:45,322 --> 00:22:47,073 Yet reports had been pouring in 282 00:22:47,157 --> 00:22:50,326 that nearly 50 Wehrmacht divisions were on the move - 283 00:22:50,410 --> 00:22:52,828 reports which the French chose to ignore. 284 00:22:52,913 --> 00:22:57,833 They even learned the date of the attack, but still did nothing. 285 00:22:57,918 --> 00:23:01,962 As Gamelin put it, they preferred "to await events". 286 00:23:02,047 --> 00:23:04,757 Their waiting was almost over. 287 00:23:12,766 --> 00:23:15,184 5:30am precisely. 288 00:23:15,268 --> 00:23:17,686 May 10, 1940. 289 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:33,119 The German offensive began spectacularly enough 290 00:23:33,203 --> 00:23:36,622 with the invasion of neutral Holland from the air. 291 00:23:36,706 --> 00:23:39,583 Their target: the bridges over the broad Meuse estuary. 292 00:23:45,340 --> 00:23:48,676 lf they could be captured before the Allied troops reached them, 293 00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:50,845 Holland would be cut in two. 294 00:23:55,851 --> 00:24:00,229 The boldness of the German move stunned the Dutch. 295 00:24:00,313 --> 00:24:03,524 Their soldiers were soon surrendering in droves. 296 00:24:05,318 --> 00:24:06,986 Further south in Belgium, 297 00:24:07,070 --> 00:24:10,865 the Germans had another spectacular success that first day - 298 00:24:10,949 --> 00:24:12,908 the capture of Eben-Emael, 299 00:24:12,993 --> 00:24:17,830 the strongest fort in the world and the linchpin of Gamelin's line. 300 00:24:18,790 --> 00:24:23,419 That line had been breached before any Allied troops arrived. 301 00:24:26,715 --> 00:24:29,467 (whistle blows) 302 00:24:33,805 --> 00:24:37,766 Gamelin persisted in moving his armies north into Belgium and Holland. 303 00:24:37,851 --> 00:24:40,519 40 of his best divisions, almost half his strength, 304 00:24:40,604 --> 00:24:43,314 including all of the British expeditionary force, 305 00:24:43,398 --> 00:24:46,567 and they were moving straight into the trap 306 00:24:46,651 --> 00:24:49,653 Hitler and his generals had set for them. 307 00:24:54,493 --> 00:24:57,077 lt wasn't long before the troops were passing 308 00:24:57,162 --> 00:24:59,997 the first pitiful, straggling lines of refugees. 309 00:25:00,081 --> 00:25:03,334 Lines that were to hamper the Allied reinforcements, 310 00:25:03,418 --> 00:25:05,419 just as the Germans had pganned. 311 00:25:05,504 --> 00:25:09,882 The great idea on the Germans' part was speed, 312 00:25:09,966 --> 00:25:14,512 and they sent ahead of the army 313 00:25:14,596 --> 00:25:19,433 policemen with truncheons and white gloves who went on motorbicycles. 314 00:25:19,518 --> 00:25:23,062 They all had their Michelin Guide for France, 315 00:25:23,146 --> 00:25:26,273 they knew exactly where the roads were. 316 00:25:31,530 --> 00:25:35,407 The German panzers were pouring over the border into Luxembourg. 317 00:25:35,492 --> 00:25:37,409 Their column stretched 100 miles, 318 00:25:37,494 --> 00:25:40,371 presenting a prime target to any would-be bomber, 319 00:25:40,455 --> 00:25:43,040 but Allied air activity that first day was busy 320 00:25:43,124 --> 00:25:48,295 supporting the British and French move north into Belgium. 321 00:25:53,134 --> 00:25:57,930 The Luffwaffe were striking at Allied aeroplanes on the ground. 322 00:26:01,643 --> 00:26:05,396 At one RAF base near Reims, the planes lined up in neat rows 323 00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:09,984 were destroyed in the opening minutes of the attack. 324 00:26:13,113 --> 00:26:18,033 50 British and French airfields were attacked that first day 325 00:26:18,118 --> 00:26:20,536 and the losses were heavy. 326 00:26:26,001 --> 00:26:29,587 But while Allied air chiefs were counting their losses, 327 00:26:29,671 --> 00:26:33,799 the panzers had just about penetrated the impenetrable Ardennes 328 00:26:33,883 --> 00:26:37,553 and were set to fall upon the weak French garrisons 329 00:26:37,637 --> 00:26:39,847 along the Meuse here at Sedan. 330 00:26:41,057 --> 00:26:44,602 The panzers reached Sedan late on the third day of the offensive, 331 00:26:44,686 --> 00:26:46,937 although Gamelin had calculated 332 00:26:47,022 --> 00:26:50,524 they couldn't possibly be here before the ninth day. 333 00:26:58,450 --> 00:27:02,870 All the bridges over the Meuse were blown up by the French on May 12th - 334 00:27:02,954 --> 00:27:04,788 all except one. 335 00:27:05,540 --> 00:27:09,001 This old weir some 40 miles north of Sedan had been leff 336 00:27:09,085 --> 00:27:13,797 for fear of lowering the water level so much that the river could be forded. 337 00:27:13,882 --> 00:27:17,384 But the French also leff it relatively unguarded, 338 00:27:17,469 --> 00:27:22,514 as one panzer commander, Erwin Rommel, soon found out. 339 00:27:34,778 --> 00:27:40,574 Next morning the Luffwaffe's resources were hurled into action above Sedan. 340 00:27:44,371 --> 00:27:48,499 Gamelin still refused to believe the Germans could cross of the Meuse 341 00:27:48,583 --> 00:27:50,459 before another three or four days. 342 00:27:54,631 --> 00:27:57,383 Hitler was unwilling to wait that long. 343 00:27:57,467 --> 00:28:01,053 He was working to the timetable of 1940, not 1914. 344 00:28:02,305 --> 00:28:05,766 What's more, the French generals still had their eyes firmly fixed 345 00:28:05,850 --> 00:28:09,645 on what was happening in Belgium and Holland. 346 00:28:16,027 --> 00:28:19,113 There were big French guns on the west bank of the Meuse, 347 00:28:19,239 --> 00:28:22,116 but they limited firing in case they ran out of ammunition 348 00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:24,868 before the battle proper began. 349 00:28:25,620 --> 00:28:30,582 So the German panzers were able to pick off the French pillboxes one by one. 350 00:28:30,667 --> 00:28:35,379 Soon thousands of French gunners had taken to their heels. 351 00:28:47,267 --> 00:28:51,603 As suddenly as it had started, the German bombardment stopped. 352 00:28:52,981 --> 00:28:56,442 As though still performing one of their winter war games, 353 00:28:56,526 --> 00:29:00,446 the German infantrymen prepared to cross the Meuse. 354 00:29:27,557 --> 00:29:32,269 By midnight on May 13, still only day four of the offensive, 355 00:29:32,353 --> 00:29:36,064 not only were German infantrymen across the Meuse in force, 356 00:29:36,149 --> 00:29:39,276 but German sappers were bridging the river 357 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:42,446 and making ready for the panzers to cross. 358 00:29:46,242 --> 00:29:47,659 That night of May 13, 359 00:29:47,786 --> 00:29:51,914 the British expeditionary force, far to the north in Belgium, 360 00:29:51,998 --> 00:29:55,209 had still not seen serious fighting, 361 00:29:55,293 --> 00:29:58,837 yet the battle was now virtually decided. 362 00:30:04,385 --> 00:30:09,890 (Beaufre) The morale of the French High Command was very quickly broken. 363 00:30:10,475 --> 00:30:15,896 When we happened to know that the front had been broken through at Sedan, 364 00:30:15,980 --> 00:30:19,650 the feeling was that everything was lost. 365 00:30:19,734 --> 00:30:25,697 l saw General Georges, who was commanding the northeast front, 366 00:30:25,782 --> 00:30:30,702 l saw him sobbing and saying, 367 00:30:30,787 --> 00:30:36,792 "There has been some... deficiencies," 368 00:30:36,876 --> 00:30:41,255 and he fell in a chair and sobbed. 369 00:30:55,019 --> 00:30:58,480 (narrator) French counterattacks were poorly organised 370 00:30:58,565 --> 00:31:01,984 and seldom pressed home with any persistence. 371 00:31:15,248 --> 00:31:18,667 Tank for tank, the French were a match for the Germans, 372 00:31:18,751 --> 00:31:21,253 but the panzers always fought en masse 373 00:31:21,337 --> 00:31:25,048 and the French tanks were prone to mechanical trouble. 374 00:31:25,133 --> 00:31:29,678 Time affer time they had to be leff behind on the battlefield. 375 00:31:45,612 --> 00:31:49,281 German infantry divisions were now catching up with the panzers 376 00:31:49,365 --> 00:31:50,991 at the Meuse crossing point. 377 00:31:51,117 --> 00:31:56,038 Everything on the German side at least was going according to plan. 378 00:32:11,179 --> 00:32:12,971 For the Allied air forces, 379 00:32:13,056 --> 00:32:17,726 affer their almost total inactivity on May 13, May 14 was hectic. 380 00:32:17,810 --> 00:32:21,688 British and French bombers raided the pontoon bridges across the Meuse 381 00:32:21,773 --> 00:32:23,273 with reckless abandon. 382 00:32:27,028 --> 00:32:28,695 Too late, the French generals 383 00:32:28,905 --> 00:32:32,032 had recognised this sector's vital importance. 384 00:32:32,116 --> 00:32:37,663 But despite the courage of the Allied pilots, the result was disastrous. 385 00:32:43,836 --> 00:32:47,589 Nearly half the Allied planes did not return. 386 00:32:47,674 --> 00:32:50,175 ln the words of the official RAF history: 387 00:32:50,259 --> 00:32:56,223 "No higher rate of loss has ever been experienced by the Royal Air Force." 388 00:32:56,307 --> 00:33:01,812 Affer May 14th the skies were undeniably German. 389 00:33:04,565 --> 00:33:08,026 On that day too Holland surrendered. 390 00:33:09,070 --> 00:33:13,407 Nothing short of a miracle could save France now. 391 00:33:19,872 --> 00:33:24,501 With the bridgehead secure, the panzers were poised to break out. 392 00:33:24,585 --> 00:33:29,589 The battle for Sedan was now giving way to the battle for France. 393 00:33:29,674 --> 00:33:33,844 The most crucial phase of the whole German plan was about to begin - 394 00:33:33,970 --> 00:33:39,725 the swing north to the coast that would trap the Allied armies in Belgium. 395 00:33:39,809 --> 00:33:45,272 As soon as news of the Sedan defeat reached Paris, panic set in. 396 00:33:53,239 --> 00:33:55,532 Those who could, leff. 397 00:34:02,206 --> 00:34:05,500 The French High Command, not yet privy to the German plan, 398 00:34:05,585 --> 00:34:09,296 assumed Hitler intended to capture Paris immediately. 399 00:34:09,380 --> 00:34:10,964 To protect the capital, 400 00:34:11,049 --> 00:34:14,134 troops were pulled back from elsewhere along the Meuse, 401 00:34:14,218 --> 00:34:18,555 which only serVed to widen the German bridgeheads. 402 00:34:27,857 --> 00:34:30,776 Gamelin refused to believe his tactics were at fault 403 00:34:30,860 --> 00:34:33,153 and assumed he must have been betrayed. 404 00:34:33,237 --> 00:34:37,199 While gendarmes searched for fiffh columnists behind the lines, 405 00:34:37,283 --> 00:34:41,119 Gamelin reacted by sacking 20 or so of his front-line commanders, 406 00:34:41,245 --> 00:34:43,872 almost at random. 407 00:34:48,753 --> 00:34:51,171 The Allied troops were ordered back from Belgium 408 00:34:51,297 --> 00:34:55,217 and on May 17th Brussels fell. 409 00:35:02,058 --> 00:35:04,851 lt was also the end for Gamelin. 410 00:35:04,936 --> 00:35:07,354 He was replaced as commander-in-chief 411 00:35:07,438 --> 00:35:10,440 by General Weygand, recalled from virtual retirement. 412 00:35:10,525 --> 00:35:12,400 France had become desperate. 413 00:35:12,485 --> 00:35:16,238 A 73-year-old was replacing a 68-year-old, 414 00:35:16,322 --> 00:35:20,909 and Weygand had spent the last year in Syria and was out of touch. 415 00:35:20,993 --> 00:35:26,373 At this time too Marshal Pétain, now 84, became deputy prime minister. 416 00:35:26,457 --> 00:35:29,543 Before leaving Spain, where he'd been France's ambassador, 417 00:35:29,627 --> 00:35:31,128 Pétain told General Franco, 418 00:35:31,212 --> 00:35:36,675 "My country has been beaten. This is the work of 30 years of Marxism." 419 00:35:36,759 --> 00:35:40,470 (Spears) He was completely on the side of the defeatists. 420 00:35:40,555 --> 00:35:42,931 He was a very, very old man 421 00:35:43,015 --> 00:35:50,147 and he'd been recalled in the hopes that his name would bolster French morale. 422 00:35:50,231 --> 00:35:52,315 lt did nothing of the sort. 423 00:35:53,192 --> 00:35:56,820 (narrator) Trying in their own way to contain the German break-out, 424 00:35:56,904 --> 00:36:00,657 the French generals drew halt lines on their maps, 425 00:36:00,741 --> 00:36:05,287 only to hear the panzers had passed them even before the orders had been issued. 426 00:36:10,293 --> 00:36:12,711 (gunfire) 427 00:36:12,837 --> 00:36:14,504 ln the dash to the coast, 428 00:36:14,589 --> 00:36:19,259 the German commanders were always one jump ahead of the French. 429 00:36:32,356 --> 00:36:35,942 Hordes of prisoners fell into German hands. 430 00:36:36,027 --> 00:36:38,737 Many columns, 10,000 or 20,000-strong, 431 00:36:38,821 --> 00:36:43,783 simply threw away their weapons and marched without being told, 432 00:36:43,868 --> 00:36:47,245 their officers at their head, toward the German lines. 433 00:36:48,456 --> 00:36:54,753 (Werlimont) The French troops did not prove the same soldierly discipline 434 00:36:54,837 --> 00:36:56,379 as in the First World War. 435 00:37:12,355 --> 00:37:20,111 l think this was caused by the Maginot spirit and the long phoney war, 436 00:37:20,196 --> 00:37:25,617 so that the French soldiers believed that they will have no more war. 437 00:37:27,411 --> 00:37:30,413 (narrator) Not just ordinary troops fell into German hands, 438 00:37:30,498 --> 00:37:31,581 but generals too. 439 00:37:31,666 --> 00:37:33,416 On May 19th General Giraud, 440 00:37:33,501 --> 00:37:37,629 newly appointed commander of France's 9th Army, was captured: 441 00:37:37,713 --> 00:37:40,173 by a group of tanks, according to the French; 442 00:37:40,258 --> 00:37:43,343 by a field kitchen unit, according to the Germans. 443 00:37:47,348 --> 00:37:51,518 But most tragic of all was the plight of the refugees. 444 00:37:58,150 --> 00:38:03,238 At one time 12 million people were on the roads of northern France, 445 00:38:03,322 --> 00:38:06,157 bound for goodness knows where. 446 00:38:25,011 --> 00:38:29,055 (Weterfieid) All the civilians would ask us what they were to do, 447 00:38:29,140 --> 00:38:31,725 because the government had not told them what to do. 448 00:38:31,809 --> 00:38:35,603 We said, "For heaven's sake, stay where you are. Don't get on the roads." 449 00:38:35,688 --> 00:38:39,232 But they all got in a panic and leff. 450 00:38:39,317 --> 00:38:42,193 One old lady had a key which she gave to us 451 00:38:42,278 --> 00:38:45,822 and we said, "Why? You mustn't give us your key." 452 00:38:45,906 --> 00:38:48,283 "Oh, well, in the last war l took away my key 453 00:38:48,367 --> 00:38:51,077 and when l came back l had the key but no house." 454 00:39:05,051 --> 00:39:11,097 My worst memory was seeing two German planes coming along at roof level, 455 00:39:11,182 --> 00:39:12,682 machine-gunning, 456 00:39:12,767 --> 00:39:16,728 and one realised then how awful it was for the refugees. 457 00:39:16,812 --> 00:39:18,897 (planes approaching) 458 00:39:23,819 --> 00:39:25,862 (gunfire) 459 00:39:58,312 --> 00:40:03,483 (narrator) The Germans had advanced 200 miles in just seven days, 460 00:40:03,567 --> 00:40:07,153 and on May 20th they reached the Channel. 461 00:40:08,406 --> 00:40:11,408 The Daily Telegraph reported that telephone lines 462 00:40:11,492 --> 00:40:14,285 between Paris and London had been cut. 463 00:40:14,370 --> 00:40:18,706 A Post Office spokesman didn't know when normal serVice might be resumed. 464 00:40:23,212 --> 00:40:25,463 With the panzers at the coast, 465 00:40:25,548 --> 00:40:31,719 the best of the Allied armies drawn into Belgium were now cut off from the south. 466 00:40:31,804 --> 00:40:35,181 Belatedly the French tried to force a way through to them. 467 00:40:35,266 --> 00:40:37,642 Their attack was too puny. 468 00:40:37,726 --> 00:40:40,687 But they argued the British had let them down. 469 00:40:42,606 --> 00:40:45,316 (Beaufre) The recriminations started 470 00:40:45,401 --> 00:40:50,905 with the unilateral withdrawal of the British army. 471 00:40:50,990 --> 00:40:57,036 The orders were to attack southwards, near Arras, 472 00:40:57,121 --> 00:41:00,665 and, without warning, 473 00:41:00,749 --> 00:41:05,462 we happened to know that the British were withdrawing to Dunkirk. 474 00:41:10,634 --> 00:41:13,511 We have not the right to criticise this too much 475 00:41:13,596 --> 00:41:15,972 because, affer all, we were the bosses 476 00:41:16,056 --> 00:41:17,724 and we lost the battle, 477 00:41:17,808 --> 00:41:21,936 and this gives a good excuse for the British to be selfish. 478 00:41:22,021 --> 00:41:24,647 But anyway, they were very selfish. 479 00:41:38,454 --> 00:41:41,539 (narrator) On May 25th Boulogne fell. 480 00:41:45,878 --> 00:41:49,464 On May 26, Calais. 481 00:41:52,635 --> 00:41:56,804 Weygand's appointment had given the French a flicker of optimism. 482 00:41:56,889 --> 00:41:59,432 lt soon faded when his counterattack failed 483 00:41:59,517 --> 00:42:04,312 and news of Belgium's capitulation reached Paris on May 28. 484 00:42:04,396 --> 00:42:10,193 Thereaffer, the mood became steadily more and more defeatist. 485 00:42:12,905 --> 00:42:16,866 (Weterfieid) l think the defeatism came at the top. 486 00:42:16,951 --> 00:42:21,246 There was a very strong peace move among certain politicians, 487 00:42:21,330 --> 00:42:25,375 some of them were even pro-German and wanted jobs with the Germans. 488 00:42:25,459 --> 00:42:31,631 When things went badly, this group got larger and became more dominant. 489 00:42:33,342 --> 00:42:35,677 (narrator) Prime Minster Reynaud fought back 490 00:42:35,803 --> 00:42:38,137 by dismissing from his cabinet weaker spirits 491 00:42:38,222 --> 00:42:40,682 and bringing in fighting men like de Gaulle, 492 00:42:40,766 --> 00:42:43,768 now entering the political arena for the first time. 493 00:42:43,894 --> 00:42:46,688 But the war was virtually out of their hands. 494 00:42:46,772 --> 00:42:50,733 Perhaps it was that that prompted the special serVice of prayer at Notre Dame 495 00:42:50,818 --> 00:42:53,444 on that Sunday before Dunkirk. 496 00:42:53,529 --> 00:42:55,572 (organ plays) 497 00:43:06,917 --> 00:43:13,047 (Spears) The French very soon accepted the idea of defeat and surrendered. 498 00:43:13,132 --> 00:43:19,721 To them it was rather a conception of the old days of the royalty 499 00:43:19,805 --> 00:43:23,600 when you just exchanged a couple of provinces, 500 00:43:23,684 --> 00:43:26,519 paid a certain number of millions, 501 00:43:26,604 --> 00:43:31,190 and then called it a day, hoping you'd be more lucky next time. 502 00:43:38,324 --> 00:43:41,576 (narrator) Dunkirk fell on June 4. 503 00:43:42,119 --> 00:43:46,456 Hitler ordered church bells to be rung for three days throughout Germany 504 00:43:46,540 --> 00:43:51,377 to mark what he described as "the greatest German victory ever". 505 00:43:56,925 --> 00:43:59,510 With the panzers reorganised and re-equipped, 506 00:43:59,595 --> 00:44:02,430 the day affer Dunkirk fell, 507 00:44:02,514 --> 00:44:06,851 the second major German offensive in the West began. 508 00:44:37,549 --> 00:44:41,010 Although outnumbered now by more than two to one, 509 00:44:41,095 --> 00:44:42,637 the French fought stubbornly - 510 00:44:42,721 --> 00:44:45,181 much more aggressively, in fact, 511 00:44:45,265 --> 00:44:47,725 than at any time during the battle for the Meuse. 512 00:45:01,990 --> 00:45:07,870 But affer three days of bloody fighting, disaster once more overtook the French. 513 00:45:16,296 --> 00:45:18,548 Another breakthrough by Rommel. 514 00:45:18,632 --> 00:45:23,845 ln a matter of hours he had reached the Seine at Rouen. 515 00:45:39,778 --> 00:45:43,823 Elsewhere the panzers were passing almost effortlessly 516 00:45:43,907 --> 00:45:46,576 through the heartland of France. 517 00:45:56,462 --> 00:45:58,755 All roads pointed to Paris. 518 00:45:59,923 --> 00:46:04,927 On June 10th the French government leff the capital. 519 00:46:05,012 --> 00:46:09,015 On that day Mussolini brought ltaly into the war. 520 00:46:12,728 --> 00:46:16,105 On the day we leff Paris 521 00:46:16,190 --> 00:46:23,321 we went to this Vincennes headquarters of Gamelin 522 00:46:23,405 --> 00:46:28,534 and... we heard on the radio 523 00:46:28,619 --> 00:46:33,998 all the songs and music of the ltalian war, you know. 524 00:46:34,124 --> 00:46:37,543 "Giovinezza" and all that, you know. 525 00:46:37,628 --> 00:46:40,046 And we thought... 526 00:46:40,172 --> 00:46:43,716 And that is where l heard the first time somebody say, 527 00:46:43,801 --> 00:46:45,635 "lt can't go on like that." 528 00:46:45,719 --> 00:46:48,054 "We must have an armistice." 529 00:46:48,138 --> 00:46:51,140 We had the greatest difficulty getting out of Paris 530 00:46:51,225 --> 00:46:53,976 because everybody, although Paris was empty, 531 00:46:54,061 --> 00:46:59,023 all the roads outside Paris were absolutely full of motorcars, 532 00:46:59,107 --> 00:47:04,070 people even going in and out of the trees at the side to try and get ahead. 533 00:47:04,154 --> 00:47:10,201 But we were able to get off the main roads into the countryside, 534 00:47:10,285 --> 00:47:14,247 and then it was most extraordinary because it was beautiful weather, 535 00:47:14,331 --> 00:47:16,749 all the villagers were very welcoming 536 00:47:16,875 --> 00:47:20,169 and brought out their best cognac, their best wine, 537 00:47:20,254 --> 00:47:23,256 because they said, "Why leave it for the Germans?" 538 00:47:23,340 --> 00:47:27,468 Arriving in the airspace over Paris 539 00:47:27,553 --> 00:47:33,808 l obserVed that great columns of German infantry had already entered the town. 540 00:47:35,644 --> 00:47:41,148 ObserVing this and remembering that we had failed to reach this goal 541 00:47:41,233 --> 00:47:45,862 all through the First World War, 542 00:47:45,946 --> 00:47:50,783 l felt such joy and exultation 543 00:47:50,868 --> 00:47:56,873 that l asked the pilot of my small plane, a so-called Storch, 544 00:47:56,957 --> 00:48:03,296 whether it would be possible to perform a landing on the Place de la Concorde. 545 00:48:03,380 --> 00:48:07,925 Affer circling around some time, 546 00:48:08,010 --> 00:48:13,180 he and... we came down on the Place de la Concorde, 547 00:48:13,265 --> 00:48:17,268 which was entirely free of any traffic 548 00:48:18,270 --> 00:48:22,857 and landed on the outside of the Champs Elysées. 549 00:48:30,282 --> 00:48:35,036 (narrator) Two days affer Paris fell, the new prime minister, Marshal Pétain 550 00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:37,330 asked the Germans for an armistice. 551 00:48:37,414 --> 00:48:41,000 Reynaud had been opposed to a separate peace and resigned. 552 00:48:41,084 --> 00:48:46,672 ln most of France the news of an armistice was received with relief. 553 00:48:50,052 --> 00:48:53,137 Hitler insisted on using for the negotiations 554 00:48:53,221 --> 00:48:57,141 Marshal Foch's old railway carriage in the woods of Compiégne, 555 00:48:57,225 --> 00:49:01,103 where the 1918 armistice had been signed. 556 00:49:01,188 --> 00:49:04,732 lt was the supreme humiliation for France. 557 00:49:25,754 --> 00:49:30,174 (Beaufre) One must have lived the retreat in France, 558 00:49:30,300 --> 00:49:34,720 with this enormous movement of crowds. 559 00:49:34,805 --> 00:49:39,225 lt's something which you can't understand if you haven't seen it. 560 00:49:39,309 --> 00:49:42,728 We thought that really that had to be stopped. 561 00:49:53,031 --> 00:49:58,035 (narrator) Once the French had signed, Hitler ordered the site destroyed. 562 00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:01,038 Germany had had its revenge. 563 00:50:01,748 --> 00:50:05,001 (announcement in French) 564 00:50:15,762 --> 00:50:18,597 (narrator) Paris radio, now under German control, 565 00:50:18,682 --> 00:50:22,476 broadcast the terms of the armistice. 566 00:50:57,095 --> 00:51:01,223 Paris had now to adapt to a new wave of tourists. 567 00:51:01,308 --> 00:51:03,684 Among the first was Hitler himself, 568 00:51:03,769 --> 00:51:06,729 making the only trip of his life to the city, 569 00:51:06,813 --> 00:51:09,106 and a fleeting one at that. 570 00:51:22,537 --> 00:51:27,500 For four bleak years France was to disappear from the forefront of the war. 571 00:51:28,376 --> 00:51:34,799 Some Frenchmen chose a courageous resistance at home or overseas, 572 00:51:34,883 --> 00:51:38,886 others were to settle into a routine of apathetic collaboration. 573 00:51:39,513 --> 00:51:42,765 Many connived at Hitler's new order for Europe - 574 00:51:42,849 --> 00:51:45,101 the Vichy version. 575 00:52:09,501 --> 00:52:12,962 For Paris there remained one more humiliation. 576 00:52:23,390 --> 00:52:24,807 The German triumphal parade 577 00:52:24,891 --> 00:52:27,935 followed the exact route of the French victory procession 578 00:52:28,019 --> 00:52:30,563 affer the First World War. 579 00:52:46,371 --> 00:52:52,251 lt had taken the Wehrmacht just five weeks to humble their historic foe. 580 00:53:07,434 --> 00:53:09,768 ln the words of Winston Churchill: 581 00:53:09,853 --> 00:53:13,314 "The Battle of France was now over." 582 00:53:13,398 --> 00:53:15,900 "The Battle of Britain was about to begin." 456 00:54:11,335 --> 00:54:13,379 © anoXmous 00:54:17,380 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 458 00:54:17,381 --> 00:54:21,381 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud