All language subtitles for World.War.II.with.Tom.Hanks.S01E18.Last.Days.Of.The.Reich.720p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta.eng.sdh

[tense music]

- Adolf Hitler
and the Nazi party

have dominated the
hearts and minds

of the German people
for over a decade.

But by the summer of
1944, the Soviet Red Army

and the forces of
the Western allies

are tightening their vice
grip on Hitler's Third Reich.

The Nazi's complete
control is about to crack.

- 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 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.

♪

- 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.

♪

[explosion rumbles]

[siren blares]

- [Reporter] The biggest
story in Western Europe today

is the attempted
assassination of Hitler.

For the second time
since this war began,

an assassin has almost
succeeded in killing the Führer

and perhaps changing
the course of history.

[tense music]

- [Tom] July 20th, 1944.

A bomb hidden in a
briefcase explodes

at the Wolf's Lair, Adolf
Hitler's military headquarters.

It was the opening move
in an elaborate plan

to kill the Nazi leader and
overthrow his government.

Hitler is wounded but
survives, and the plot fails.

[Adolf Hitler speaking German]

- Surviving the July 20th
bombing convinces Hitler

beyond a shadow of a doubt that
he has been chosen by heaven

or by providence to
lead the German people.

- He's on all sorts
of medications.

He's under more pressure than
most human beings can imagine.

- He becomes even more paranoid
than he already has been.

He is micromanaging even more.

Nazis take over
armaments production.

[crowd chatter indistinctly]

- [Tom] Hitler and the
Nazis mobilize even more men

and tighten their grip on
Germany and its people.

- There is no difference anymore

between the fate of the
public and the German people

and the fate of the Nazi state.

The thing is, the German
public is not too happy

about how the war goes on.

They are aware that
Germany may lose the war,

but they think the only
person who can bring this

to a close is Hitler himself.

- [Tom] As summer turns to fall,

Germany's strategic
situation deteriorates,

and every German is aware

that the allies demand
unconditional surrender.

- [James] Hitler knows that
that's an impossibility.

Surrender means

humiliation, being betrayed,
ultimately executed.

- [Robert] Hitler also knows
something about warfare.

A passive defense never works.

You have to show
your adversaries

that you're still dangerous.

Hitler quotes
Frederick the Great

who was in a similar
war in the 18th century.

Frederick famously said,
"We're gonna fight this war

till one of our goddamn
enemies gets tired."

- Hitler wants to come
up with some Hail Mary.

He wants to come
up with some plan

that will bring advantage back

to a heavily
disadvantaged situation.

- [Tom] In September,
Hitler summons his generals

to the Wolf's Lair.

He outlines a plan that
will return his troops

to the scene of his greatest
triumph, the Ardennes.

- [Robert] The Ardennes
Offensive of 1944

is going to involve multiple
German armies

across 100 miles of front.

They're going to crash through
what they have identified

as a weakly held portion
of the American line.

They're going to drive
through the Ardennes Forest,

scene of the great
victory of 1940,

and if all goes well,
cross the Meuse River,

and from there,
make it to Antwerp.

Antwerp is the major supply port

for the entire allied
force in Europe.

If the Germans take Antwerp,
it will be a catastrophe

of unimaginable proportions.

- Hitler sees this as a way
to divide the coalition,

demoralize the coalition,

and force the coalition

to make separate
peaces with him.

- [Tom] But Hitler will have
to strip whole divisions

from his Eastern front to
execute his gambit in the West.

- [Robert] Not all of Hitler's
generals are on board.

They just don't believe

that given their
current force levels

that they can blast across
the West European continent

and take the major
city of Antwerp.

Field Marshall Gerd von
Rundstedt says "Antwerp, my god,

if we even get to the Meuse
River

...that's less than halfway,...

we should get down on
our knees and thank God."

- [Geoffrey] But Hitler, by this
stage of the war,

he doesn't really trust
very many of his generals,

and he does have
this belief in luck.

He's gotten lucky at various
points throughout this war,

and he might be lucky
again this time.

So he decides to roll the dice.

- [Martin] Hitler will even
eventually say that,

"If this doesn't end well,
I'd see no other path

toward reaching a
favorable conclusion."

The fate of Germany really
hangs in the balance.

[tense music]

- [Robert] December 16th,
it's a snowy morning

in the Ardennes for the allies.

It's overcast,

it's freezing cold.

- The weather was
awful for everybody,

but it gave the
Germans advantage

because the allied aircraft
are mostly grounded,

and that's the perfect
environment for the Germans

to launch this bold offensive.

- Suddenly at 5:30, it seems
that hell has opened up.

[artillery bangs]

Every artillery piece
the Germans own,

heavy artillery,
light artillery,

rocket artillery, the famous
Screaming Mimi's mortars.

The American position in the
Ardennes simply gets shredded.

[bomb booms]

- [Paul] Trees are thrown
through the air

with this just
shell after shell.

[bomb booms]

- [Martin] Allied forces,
they're caught off guard.

They are overwhelmed.

They certainly didn't
expect the Germans capable

of launching something as big
as the Ardennes Offensive.

[guns bang]

- Suddenly there's a couple of
hundred thousand German infantry

with 600 German Panzers
along 100-mile front.

[guns bang]

- [Tom] One of the
four divisions

holding the allied
line in the Ardennes

is the newly arrived
American 106th.

- [Paul] The 106th Division who
are just in the wrong place

at the wrong time who have
columns of German armor

coming at them
from all directions

are just overwhelmed by this.

And within a matter of hours,
7,000 men are captured.

- [Geoffrey] It's the biggest

mass American
surrender since Bataan.

- [Dr. Lieb] At this point of
time, the German troops

are in a state of euphoria.

For weeks or months
or even years,

they had only known retreat,

and now for the first
and for a long time,

they are on the offense again.

- [Martin] German troops are
partly motivated

because they're being
told, "Take no prisoners.

This is your chance.

Now you get revenge
against the Allies."

The result is that there is
literally a trail of massacres

that will lead eventually
to the most notorious

of about a dozen massacres,

and that's the one
that takes place

in the afternoon
of December 17th

just outside the
city of Malmedy.

[tense music]

- [Robert] The first SS Panzer
division,

they've worked their way forward

under their battle group
commander Joachim Peiper.

Peiper's built for speed.

He's been told to get ahead
as fast as you possibly can

towards the Meuse, cross
the river, get to Antwerp.

[cannon booms]

And he's just
overrun a couple of

rear echelon US detachments,

supply depots,
administrative troops.

- There's a brief firefight.

The Americans then
surrender, about 120 of them.

They move them off
the road into a field.

And the result is
that 84 Americans,

they are murdered after having
surrendered their weapons.

- This is one of the
largest war crimes

against US soldiers
during World War II,

and it shows the
ruthlessness which this war

has achieved at this point.

[tense music]

- [Tom] Some German
units advance

as much as 20 miles
on the first day.

The initial success of
the Ardennes Offensive

confirms Hitler's sense
of divine destiny.

- [Dr. Lieb] In Hitler's mind,
he thinks, "Again, I was right.

I took the decision to
launch this offensive

against the advice
of my generals,

against the advice of my
experts, but I was right."

[cannon booms]

So in the first couple of days
of the Ardennes Offensive,

it seems for the Germans

that they have regained
the initiative.

[rockets zoom]

[tense music]

- [Tom] The Wehrmacht's
attack stretches

from Belgium to Luxembourg,

but the initial reports
from the front are sketchy.

How to respond to the German
assault is the responsibility

of one man,

General Dwight Eisenhower,

the Supreme Allied Commander.

- So Eisenhower
has to determine

whether or not this
is a feint, right?

Are the Germans trying to
essentially pull his resources

in the wrong direction?

Or is this a proper offensive?

Does he actually
have to respond?

- Eisenhower immediately
defines the threat.

And he says, "This is
more than a German feint.

This is a major effort."

- And he thinks, let's
not see this disaster

as anything but an opportunity.

The Germans wanna
fight out in the open,

let's take it to them.

- [Geoffrey] Yeah, the Germans
are advancing.

Yeah, the Germans have driven
a deep bulge into my lines,

but that offers me
this big German salient

that I can attack
from the shoulders.

- That's why we refer to this
as the Battle of the Bulge.

- [Tom] The Germans advance
across a 60-mile front,

but are held up by the
US 28th Infantry Division

at the Belgian town of Bastogne.

- [Robert] Both sides know that
Bastogne is the key.

If the Germans seize it, they
can control the road network

and motor all the
way to the West,

perhaps even reach Antwerp.

But if the Americans hold it,

the Germans are stuck
in their tracks.

- [Col. Douds] So it's a race,

it's a race for the Germans
to take it.

It's a race for the Americans
to try and resupply it

before it's lost.

So all of a sudden,
Bastogne becomes

this key road intersection,

not unlike Gettysburg or
Waterloo or Thermopylae.

It is everything.

- [Tom] As the Germans
attempt to surround Bastogne,

Eisenhower calls on the
101st Airborne Division,

the Screaming Eagles.

- [Col. Douds] Their big
contribution so far is

when they get dropped behind
enemy lines before D-Day.

[planes whir]

They've basically been in the
game since June 5th of '44.

- [Robert] To say that the 101s
is unprepared for this fight

is to understate the
matter considerably.

- [Col. Douds] They would
usually jump into war zones

carrying what they can carry,

which inherently means they
don't have a lot of armor,

they don't have any artillery.

- [Robert] They don't have the
winter gear, that equipment

that would allow you
to fight a tough battle

in the middle of December.

It's a come-as-you-are war.

- [Col. Douds] It tells you the
degree

to which this is a crisis,

that in the midst of this
crisis, Eisenhower turns around

and looks and says,
"I'll take them."

Because the one thing they are

is they are a hardened
group of elites,

and they will go in
there and do the job

despite all the
limitations they face.

[tense music]

- [Tom] December 18th.

The 101st is trucked
into Bastogne

to relieve the
battered 28th Division.

The defense of this
Belgian town is the key

to the allied effort
against Adolf Hitler

on the Western front.

And the key to the defense
of this town is in the hands

of the men of the
101st Airborne.

[tense music]

- [Col. Douds] For the Germans,

this whole thing has to
happen fast.

Every day they're standing
in front of Bastogne

is time they don't have,

time where the weather
could clear up,

time where the rest
of the allied armies

are starting to get
reinforcements in there.

- And so the Germans
are determined

to throw everything at Bastogne
that they possibly have.

[cannons boom]

There's an artillery
bombardment.

They're attacking
from all sides.

They're trying to push
the Americans out.

- [Robert] For the 101st
Airborne,

the fighting around Bastogne

is as tough as any in the war.

[gun bangs]

It's out in the open,
it's bitterly cold,

there's snow on the ground.

- [Col. Douds] They're short on
food,

and yet with almost just
small arms, bazookas,

and machine guns, they're
able to put up enough bluster

and defense that they're
able to hold the line.

[tense music]

- [Tom] To reinforce
the 101st in Bastogne,

Eisenhower turns to his
most aggressive commander,

General George Patton
and the Third Army.

- [Michel] Patton, you know,
promises him three divisions

in two days for Bastogne,
which is something

only George S.
Patton would promise.

- [Paul] Promising three
divisions.

And you know, that's 40,000+ men

ready at 48 hours.

- [Michel] Patton had already
planned

for precisely this contingency

and was ready to take the lead

once he was given the operation.

- [Tom] But until the
Third Army arrives,

the Screaming Eagles are
virtually on their own.

- [Martin] The Germans encircle
the city,

and that encirclement
will be headline news

back in the United States.

There was this critical
thought that we might lose

the entire 101st Airborne
Division to the enemy.

- [Alexandra] It looks as if the
Germans are really in control

and they send a message
to the 101st Airborne.

They say, "You've
got to surrender."

- [Col. Douds] They're gonna
give it to the

acting division commander,

Brigadier General Anthony
McAuliffe.

McAuliffe will read the thing

and he'll send back a one-word
reply

and it says, "Nuts!"

Now, you gotta imagine,
you know, some savvy

Airborne officer

gets to go give this to
the German delegation.

Of course, they read
"Nuts" and they're like,

"We don't understand
the colloquialism."

And so he gets to stand
there and he says,

"It's the same as go to hell."

And in a sense, the whole
unit kind of reaches out

and they hit the collective
I believe button,

which is not so much that
they can hold out forever,

but Patton's coming.

They're all coming.

All we have to do is
hold out a little longer.

[tense music]

[cannon booms]

- [Tom] In Bastogne, the men
of the 101st Division

had been under siege
for almost a week.

But on December 26th,
Patton's Third Army

reaches the outskirts.

- [Martin] Famously, it was the
4th Armored Division

that has given the
task of fighting up

a narrow road corridor
toward Bastogne.

[tense music]

And on the day after
Christmas, on December 26th,

elements of C Company of
the 37th Tank Battalion

pull up to the
Bastogne perimeter.

[cannon booms]

- [Col. Douds] The allies break
the German lines,

and now supplies will
be able to flow in.

And so for the Germans,

the Ardennes Offensive
breaks over Bastogne.

[cannon booms]

- [Tom] Even though
Bastogne is relieved,

fighting continues across
the front for weeks.

The United States Army
suffers more casualties

in the Battle of the Bulge

than in any other
battle in its history.

But ultimately Hitler's
Ardennes Offensive is a failure.

- [Robert] For Hitler,

the catastrophe of the Ardennes
is that

it was the last
round in the chamber.

The Germans really poured

their entire armored
reserve into it.

They could have
used those troops

perhaps to defend more robustly

in the east and
west simultaneously,

but they threw them
all away on a gamble

and a gamble that failed.

[somber music]

- [Tom] As the Allies
stop Hitler in the West,

the Soviets launch a massive
offensive in the East.

- The Red Army is a
force of millions,

which has begun its advance
everywhere from Finland

and the Baltics in the north,

all the way down
to the Black Sea in the south.

- The Soviet forces had
advanced incredible speed,

incredible hard fighting,

and Stalin had stopped them
between October and December

for a very clear
strategic purpose,

to prepare a massive,
massive buildup of armor.

- [Sean] So by January '45,

they are ready to go on
the offensive.

[bomb booms]

- [Tom] Within weeks, Soviet
forces cross into Germany.

The Red Army has breached
the border of the Fatherland.

[cannons boom]

- [Dr. Lieb] Having Soviet boots
on German ground

is a major blow for
the German psyche

because they consider the
Soviets as their mortal enemies,

and this is a disaster for them.

- [Sean] The war is finally
being brought home

to the Germans.

- [Dr. Lieb] In theory, the
Nazi authorities

would've had the
time for months

to evacuate
the civilians,

but that's something
they didn't do,

because if you stay
there, you'll show that

you've got more confidence

and that you are defending
your home territory.

- [Geoffrey] But basically,
the Russians come

with such overwhelming force

that the Germans can't
stop them at the border.

And so this causes mass
panic as the German civilians

take to the roads to try to
escape this Russian onslaught,

knowing full well what
awaits if they stay.

[cannon booms]

- [Sean] The Germans have
fought a horrific war

of annihilation in
the Soviet Union.

Now the Soviets are finally able

to take revenge
against the Germans.

- [Geoffrey] They looted and
they pillaged and they raped

and they burned
and they destroyed,

and they took pleasure
in doing these things

as they advanced.

[somber music]

- [Sean] There's 100,000 or more
deaths on the German side,

and something like maybe a fifth

of the female
population is raped.

- This is the beginning of
what the Germans can expect

to receive when Red
Army break into Berlin.

- [Tom] Joseph Stalin engineers

the Soviet Union's final moves,

as the Red Army continues its
march west

towards Berlin.

- [Sean] Berlin is really the be
all, end all of the war.

This is where we have
the Reich Chancellery,

where we have the
Reichstag building,

where Hitler has his bunker.

Once the Red Army reaches
Berlin, the war will be over

and it will be a great
victory and a great triumph.

[crowd speaks in
foreign language]

- [Col. Douds] For someone who
lives in Berlin.

It's not lost on them what
happens in East Prussia.

The Soviets are
getting retribution

and it's coming in the
form of German bodies,

German blood, rapes, killings,
and that's coming your way.

Almost the image of an incoming
tide that you cannot stop.

[bomb booms]

[tense music]

- [Tom] In the spring of 1945,

Germany is under assault
from multiple directions.

[cannon booms]

In the east, the Red Army
rapidly advances towards Berlin.

In the west, the allies
continue on a broad front

as they approach
the Rhine River.

- [Paul] The Rhine is the
German's last

key strategic position

to try and delay the inevitable

of the allies
getting into Germany

and defeating the Third Reich.

- [Geoffrey] It's a big, broad
river, fast-flowing, deep,

and the Germans know
this, so they're planning

to kind of defend
every inch of it.

- [Dr. Lieb] Their defense
strategy in the west is

to blow up all the bridges
across the River Rhine.

To use this huge
natural barrier.

- [Tom] British Field
Marshal Bernard Montgomery

designs an operation that
will take Allied Forces

across the Rhine and
further into Germany.

But unexpectedly, the
American 9th Armored Division

discovers another way
into the German Reich.

- [Paul] Really, out of
nowhere, an advanced unit

of Americans ends up
at the Remagen Bridge,

the key bridge across the Rhine.

And the Germans, they failed
to destroy the bridge properly.

- [Martin] That's not because
the Germans were dumb,

the Germans tried
to blow the bridge.

It's just that they didn't have

enough explosives to do the job.

- [Geoffrey] But it was very
stoutly built.

The bridge just kind
of jumps on these

really heavy stone piers

and then settles back into
place.

The Allies couldn't
believe their luck,

so they raced forward
and they took the bridge.

And they get across the Rhine

three weeks earlier
than anticipated.

- Once you're over the Rhine,
you're into Germany proper.

It's a crucial moment
for the war in the West.

- [Dr. Lieb] For the Germans,
this is a huge blow

because now the
Allies can bring in

reinforcements much quicker

and Hitler is absolutely
furious about this.

- [Robert] Oh, Hitler is prone
to rage at this time,

and he demands that
everyone responsible

will be immediately
court marshaled,

not brought to
Berlin to explain,

but a drumhead court marshal
in the field and shot.

[somber music]

- [Tom] Hitler
retreats to Berlin.

He orders the destruction
of bridges, roads, railways,

factories, anything that
can aid the allied advance.

- [Martin] This Nero order named
in honor of the Roman Emperor,

who famously allowed the
city of Rome to burn,

would authorize German forces

to destroy absolutely
everything as they retreated.

[thunderous explosion]

- [Dan] Blow up the bridges,
blow up the sanitation,

blow up the power plants,

even if it doesn't do any
good in the war effort.

There's no reason to worry
about a post-war Germany.

He stopped caring about
the individual people

'cause they're no longer
worthy of surviving the war.

- [Tom] Hitler
commands his loyal

and capable minister of
armaments, Albert Speer,

to carry out his order.

Speer refuses.

- [Geoffrey] Because he sees
that Hitler's, you know,

gone mad essentially.

And Speer actually comes to
Berlin and says, you know,

right before the end, and he
says, "I haven't done it."

- [Dr. Lieb] This shows that the
bond between Hitler

and his leadership is being
broken to a certain degree.

It's almost to the very last
days, the crumbling Third Reich

that this link finally
starts to collapse.

Hitler has now lost control
of the entire situation.

He's now focused only
on the battle of Berlin.

[somber music]

- [Tom] In the garden outside
the Reich Chancellery,

the Führer reviews a
formation of Hitler youth

who have been awarded
the Knight's Cross

for bravery in battle.

Now, many will be
ordered to defend Berlin.

- [Robert] The Hitler youth,
14 and 15 and 16-year-old boys.

[youth speaks in
foreign language]

- [Robert] By any analysis,
this is insane.

- [Geoffrey] And he comes up
out of the bunker

and he pins metals on these
sort of beardless little boys.

Any rational onlooker can
see that Hitler has lost

all attachment to reason.

- [Robert] It may be he's
thinking of the last lost war,

but I think 1918 is enough
of a obsession with Hitler

that he is determined

that Germany will not
give in this time.

There will be no surrender.

There will be total
war to the end.

If Germany is gonna go down,

it's going to go down
in a blaze of glory.

[tense music]

- [Tom] Allied forces
rapidly advanced

through the Ruhr Valley and
into the heart of Germany.

The British and
Americans had agreed

that Soviet forces
should capture Berlin,

but Stalin grows suspicious
of allied success.

- [Michel] You have to remember
that Stalin is naturally

and not unreasonably
deeply mistrustful.

So when the Western
Allies start pouring

into Western Germany far
faster than anyone expects,

Stalin fears that
there may be something

that he doesn't see.

- [Simon] Stalin is always
paranoid

that the Western powers
are going to make a deal

with the Germans
at the last minute

against the Soviet Union,
against the Communists.

- [Tom] In Moscow, Stalin
summons Marshal Georgy Zhukov,

the hero of
Stalingrad and Kursk,

and Marshal Ivan Konev,

who has led the first
Ukrainian front,

a famed Red Army group
throughout the war.

- [Simon] He sits there with
the map and he says,

"Who's gonna take Berlin?"

- [Sean] So Stalin effectively
sets up

a kind of race between them

to see who will
take Berlin first.

So this is a way of
motivating his generals

because Stalin, of
course, wanted to ensure

that the Red Army would be
the first to reach Berlin.

- [Simon] And in an amazing
scene, both Marshals salute

and leave the room
and run to their cars

to start the race to Berlin.

[tense music]

- [Tom] By mid-April, the Red
Army is closing in on Berlin.

Zhukov's forces
approach from the east.

Konev's troops will
attack from the south.

- [Sean] The final assault
on Berlin begins

with a ferocious
artillery barrage.

[cannon booms]

[cannons boom]

Something like 9,000 guns
rained down 1.2 million shells.

[cannons hiss]

- [Geoffrey] To put that in
context, the British fired

one million rounds of artillery

onto the German
trenches on the Somme

over like two weeks
in World War I.

Now, in one day more shells
into the streets of Berlin.

- [Tom] Zhukov's forces meet

particularly fierce resistance
in the Seelow heights,

an area the Germans consider
the gates of Berlin.

- [Sean] The Germans are dug in.

They have no desire to surrender

because they know they
would be viewed as traitors.

Berlin is meant to be a
fortress city, Festung Berlin.

This means it has to be
defended at all costs.

- [Paul] Hitler's order
was to keep fighting

until there's nothing left.

They're not gonna admit
the war's been lost.

- [Dr. Lieb] Hitler is now
facing total defeat,

and he wants to drag
the entire German people

into this total defeat.

- [Dan] The population has been
pressed into service.

They've been, you know,
building tank traps

and digging ditches.

But I don't think you can
fool a bunch of people

who are living in
cities that are rubble.

You hear the artillery
in the distance

that the Soviets are
shooting at your city.

I mean, we're past
the time of illusions.

You're people at
the end of the rope.

- [Geoffrey] The German troops
that are left,

it's this bizarre
assembly of overage people

that normally wouldn't
be drafted or underage.

- [Martin] You have a large
number of very young members

of the Volkssturm.

They were divided into
these tank hunting units

where they were 12
and 13-year-old boys

that were equipped with this

very effective
German anti-tank weapon

called the Panzerfaust.

- [Geoffrey] These basically
one-shot German bazookas,

and they're gonna be in
these load of fighting holes

waiting for the Soviet tanks
to come and take their one shot

and then be, you know, crushed
into pulp under the treads,

- [Paul] The ideology of the
Reich has gone out the window.

You don't know what you're
fighting for anymore.

You are now protecting your
street and your friends

and your family from the
marauders that are coming.

- [Geoffrey] If you're still in
Berlin by April 1945,

you're not gonna get out.

So you're fighting
for your life.

[bazooka booms]

[tense music]

- [Tom] On April
19th, Zhukov's troops

break through the German
lines at Seelow Heights.

Konev enters the Nazi
capital from the south.

[guns bang]

- [Simon] Battle of Berlin is
brutal.

[guns bang]

It's an urban battlefield,

which is the hardest sort of
fighting and the most costly.

[guns bang]

It's impossible not to
take every building.

You can't leave
buildings behind you.

You're under fire all the time
from buildings on both sides.

Large amounts of
civilians are killed,

and it's incredibly
slow and dangerous.

[tense music]

- [Geoffrey] This moonscape of
Berlin that's already been

just shattered to rubble
is now just being pounded

by companies of Soviet infantry

filtering into the
city from all points.

I mean, literally all points.

[tense music]

- [Simon] But in the end, this
extraordinary battle,

the Soviet troops begin to
converge on the Chancellery.

[tense music]

- [Tom] Beneath the
Reich Chancellery,

Hitler is sequestered
in a bunker

with his companion, Eva Braun,

and surrounded by
aides, secretaries,

and Nazi party officials.

He believes that the military

and the German people
have let him down.

- [Sean] Hitler wants to keep
the resistance going

for as long as
possible to inflict

as much damage on
the invading armies.

However, he does not want to
outlast, to outlive the war.

He does not want to
become a prisoner of war.

He does not want to become
some type of curiosity

exhibited by his enemies.

- [Robert] And so he has to stay
alive as long as possible,

as close to the
bitter end as possible

so that there will never really
be an idea of Nazi Germany

in people's minds that does
not include Adolf Hitler.

He's going to go down
in Wagnerian fashion

and take a world with him.

[tense music]

- [Tom] On April 29th,
Hitler is informed

that his longtime ally,
the Italian dictator

Benito Mussolini,
has been executed.

His body put on display
by Italian partisans.

- [Geoffrey] Mussolini has just
been hung upside down

in a gas station in
northern Italy,

along with his mistress,
Clara Petacci,

where he's like mocked and
spat upon and vilified.

Hitler fears the same
fate for himself.

- The Soviets are right
outside the Führer bunker.

He's listening to the
shelling happening above him.

- [Martin] And so Adolf Hitler,
on April 30th, 1945,

commits suicide in the Führer
bunker along with Eva Braun

in a city that has
been reduced to rubble.

[somber music]

- [Simon] When Hitler commits
suicide,

Stalin is woken in the
night by Marshal Zhukov,

and Marshal Zhukov says to him,

"Marshal Stalin, I've got news.

Hitler is dead and he's
committed suicide in the ruins,"

and there's a long silence.

And then Stalin
says something like,

"So that's the end
of the bastard."

Puts the phone down
and goes back to sleep.

[somber music]

- [Tom] On May 2nd, the
Soviets raised their flag

above the ruins
of the Reichstag.

On May 7th, German
General Alfred Jodl

surrenders to the Western
Allies at Reims, France.

A day later, the Germans
officially surrendered

to the Soviets.

- With the stroke of the pen,

Nazi Germany ceases to
exist on May 8th, 1945.

[tense music]

- [Harry] This is a solemn
but a glorious hour.

General Eisenhower informs
me that the forces of Germany

has surrendered to
the United Nations.

- [Michel] Here we are at the
end of a brutal war

against a brutal
adversary in Europe.

And there was such great
costs with so much exhaustion.

It's almost
impossible to imagine

what that must have been like.

- [Harry] Our rejoicing
is sobered and subdued

by a supreme consciousness
of the terrible price

we have paid to rid
the world of Hitler

and his evil band.

- [Simon] Hitler was the
ultimate reckless gambler.

Risking everything, even
Germany, even Europe.

- [Harry] Let us not
forget the sorrow

and the heartache,
which today abide

in the homes of so
many of our neighbors.

- [Sean] The Second World
War, unlike the first,

is one in which the
majority of the casualties

actually happened among
the civilian population.

A lot of it was
simply because of

the vast atrocities committed.

[somber music]

The war left terrible scars
on the landscape of Europe

and in the memories
of the populations.

- [Harry] We must work
to bind up the wounds

of a suffering world.

The West is free, but the
East is still in bondage.

- In the popular mind, World
War II tends to wrap up

with the glory of VE Day.

It did not happen that way

for the people who
were fighting it.

In the Pacific, there's
no end in sight.

- [Harry] When the
last Japanese division

has surrendered unconditionally,

then only will our
fighting job be done.

Until that day, let no
man abandon his post

or slacken his efforts.

[plane zooms]

- After VE Day, Europeans
facing chaos and uncertainty

begin the long work of putting

their shattered
world back together.

In the Pacific, the war
is reaching a crescendo.

As the United States
fights its way

to the Japanese home islands,

a new weapon is tested in
the deserts of New Mexico.

A noiseless flash with a
potential to change the world.