1 00:00:00,020 --> 00:00:03,066 Sub extracted from file and improved by Se7enOfNin9 for addic7ed.com 2 00:00:05,130 --> 00:00:07,149 Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party 3 00:00:07,174 --> 00:00:09,050 have dominated the hearts and minds 4 00:00:09,051 --> 00:00:11,578 of the German people for over a decade. 5 00:00:11,787 --> 00:00:15,432 But by the summer of 1944, the Soviet Red Army 6 00:00:15,433 --> 00:00:17,561 and the forces of the Western allies 7 00:00:17,586 --> 00:00:21,213 are tightening their vice grip on Hitler's Third Reich. 8 00:00:22,047 --> 00:00:25,610 The Nazi's complete control is about to crack. 9 00:00:27,007 --> 00:00:29,195 All wars change the world, 10 00:00:29,196 --> 00:00:30,988 but none of them changed the world 11 00:00:30,989 --> 00:00:32,724 like the Second World War did. 12 00:00:33,409 --> 00:00:36,228 Japan's on the march, Germany's on the march. 13 00:00:37,729 --> 00:00:40,649 No one can imagine the nightmare they're about to unleash. 14 00:00:41,150 --> 00:00:44,027 The most destructive war in human history. 15 00:00:44,278 --> 00:00:47,088 Suddenly the world is turned upside down 16 00:00:47,089 --> 00:00:49,032 and all hell is let loose. 17 00:00:50,694 --> 00:00:53,996 The West is stunned by the speed of the advance. 18 00:00:55,056 --> 00:00:58,125 You get the allies led by the big three. 19 00:00:58,333 --> 00:01:00,935 Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, 20 00:01:00,936 --> 00:01:05,757 men who are dealing with immensely complicated questions. 21 00:01:06,008 --> 00:01:10,071 It's the biggest military operation of human history. 22 00:01:10,237 --> 00:01:12,005 The Allies have to come together 23 00:01:12,030 --> 00:01:13,382 not just militarily, 24 00:01:13,407 --> 00:01:14,841 but industrial scale 25 00:01:14,866 --> 00:01:16,784 it's a global perspective. 26 00:01:16,785 --> 00:01:18,720 They have to fight in every climate 27 00:01:18,745 --> 00:01:21,956 from the Arctic to the jungles of the Pacific 28 00:01:21,957 --> 00:01:25,444 to the deserts of Africa and the depths of the ocean. 29 00:01:28,339 --> 00:01:31,133 But there was no certainty of victory. 30 00:01:31,408 --> 00:01:34,453 It was going to be a horrific bloodbath. 31 00:01:34,762 --> 00:01:36,764 We see humans at their absolute worst, 32 00:01:36,806 --> 00:01:38,974 how they treat other human beings. 33 00:01:39,020 --> 00:01:40,993 And we see them at their absolute best, 34 00:01:41,018 --> 00:01:43,453 willing to give their lives that others might live. 35 00:01:43,603 --> 00:01:47,799 World War II was a struggle in which there could be one victor 36 00:01:48,500 --> 00:01:50,114 and one vanquished. 37 00:02:11,839 --> 00:02:14,091 The biggest story in Western Europe today 38 00:02:14,092 --> 00:02:16,969 is the attempted assassination of Hitler. 39 00:02:16,970 --> 00:02:19,555 For the second time since this war began, 40 00:02:19,556 --> 00:02:22,993 an assassin has almost succeeded in killing the Führer 41 00:02:23,018 --> 00:02:25,645 and perhaps changing the course of history. 42 00:02:31,693 --> 00:02:34,279 July 20th, 1944. 43 00:02:35,347 --> 00:02:39,226 A bomb hidden in a briefcase explodes at the Wolf's Lair, 44 00:02:39,346 --> 00:02:41,478 Adolf Hitler's military headquarters. 45 00:02:44,872 --> 00:02:47,207 It was the opening move in an elaborate plan 46 00:02:47,208 --> 00:02:49,877 to kill the Nazi leader and overthrow his government. 47 00:02:52,737 --> 00:02:57,577 Hitler is wounded but survives, and the plot fails. 48 00:03:16,696 --> 00:03:18,949 Surviving the July 20th bombing 49 00:03:18,997 --> 00:03:21,457 convinces Hitler beyond a shadow of a doubt 50 00:03:21,690 --> 00:03:23,590 that he has been chosen by 51 00:03:23,910 --> 00:03:26,021 heaven or by providence 52 00:03:26,148 --> 00:03:28,235 to lead the German people. 53 00:03:31,169 --> 00:03:33,488 He's on all sorts of medications. 54 00:03:33,755 --> 00:03:37,576 He's under more pressure than most human beings can imagine. 55 00:03:39,328 --> 00:03:42,512 He becomes even more paranoid than he already has been. 56 00:03:42,513 --> 00:03:45,083 He is micromanaging even more. 57 00:03:45,792 --> 00:03:48,437 Nazis take over armaments production. 58 00:03:51,565 --> 00:03:54,358 Hitler and the Nazis mobilize even more men 59 00:03:54,359 --> 00:03:57,111 and tighten their grip on Germany and its people. 60 00:04:00,365 --> 00:04:02,407 There is no difference anymore 61 00:04:02,408 --> 00:04:05,093 between the fate of the public and the German people 62 00:04:05,118 --> 00:04:07,773 and the fate of the Nazi state. 63 00:04:08,732 --> 00:04:12,043 The thing is, the German public is not 64 00:04:12,297 --> 00:04:14,929 too happy about how the war goes on. 65 00:04:15,129 --> 00:04:17,963 They are aware that Germany may lose the war, 66 00:04:17,964 --> 00:04:21,552 but they think the only person who can bring 67 00:04:21,553 --> 00:04:24,164 this to a close is Hitler himself. 68 00:04:27,709 --> 00:04:29,536 As summer turns to fall, 69 00:04:29,561 --> 00:04:32,631 Germany's strategic situation deteriorates, 70 00:04:33,564 --> 00:04:35,524 and every German is aware 71 00:04:35,525 --> 00:04:39,054 that the allies demand unconditional surrender. 72 00:04:40,446 --> 00:04:42,891 Hitler knows that that's an impossibility. 73 00:04:43,574 --> 00:04:44,991 Surrender means 74 00:04:44,992 --> 00:04:48,230 humiliation, being betrayed, ultimately executed. 75 00:04:48,705 --> 00:04:51,164 Hitler also knows something about warfare. 76 00:04:51,165 --> 00:04:53,693 A passive defense never works. 77 00:04:54,377 --> 00:04:56,420 You have to show your adversaries 78 00:04:56,421 --> 00:04:58,365 that you're still dangerous. 79 00:04:59,783 --> 00:05:01,879 Hitler quotes Frederick the Great 80 00:05:01,953 --> 00:05:04,845 who was in a similar war in the 18th century. 81 00:05:04,846 --> 00:05:06,473 Frederick famously said, 82 00:05:06,532 --> 00:05:10,493 "We're gonna fight this war till one of our goddamn enemies gets tired." 83 00:05:12,061 --> 00:05:15,357 Hitler wants to come up with some Hail Mary. 84 00:05:15,382 --> 00:05:17,441 He wants to come up with some plan 85 00:05:17,442 --> 00:05:19,252 that will bring advantage back 86 00:05:19,277 --> 00:05:21,888 to a heavily disadvantaged situation. 87 00:05:27,227 --> 00:05:30,388 In September, Hitler summons his generals 88 00:05:30,413 --> 00:05:31,815 to the Wolf's Lair. 89 00:05:32,816 --> 00:05:35,685 He outlines a plan that will return his troops 90 00:05:35,710 --> 00:05:38,363 to the scene of his greatest triumph... 91 00:05:38,714 --> 00:05:40,301 the Ardennes. 92 00:05:43,736 --> 00:05:45,802 The Ardennes Offensive of 1944 93 00:05:45,803 --> 00:05:48,198 is going to involve multiple German armies 94 00:05:48,223 --> 00:05:50,182 across 100 miles of front. 95 00:05:50,183 --> 00:05:53,268 They're going to crash through what they have identified 96 00:05:53,269 --> 00:05:56,605 as a weakly held portion of the American line. 97 00:05:56,606 --> 00:05:59,209 They're going to drive through the Ardennes Forest, 98 00:05:59,234 --> 00:06:01,503 scene of the great victory of 1940, 99 00:06:01,528 --> 00:06:04,297 and if all goes well, cross the Meuse River, 100 00:06:04,322 --> 00:06:06,531 and from there, make it to Antwerp. 101 00:06:06,532 --> 00:06:08,593 Antwerp is the major supply port 102 00:06:08,618 --> 00:06:11,077 for the entire allied force in Europe. 103 00:06:11,271 --> 00:06:14,607 If the Germans take Antwerp, it will be a catastrophe 104 00:06:14,608 --> 00:06:16,485 of unimaginable proportions. 105 00:06:18,183 --> 00:06:21,714 Hitler sees this as a way to divide the coalition, 106 00:06:21,715 --> 00:06:23,366 demoralize the coalition, 107 00:06:23,367 --> 00:06:24,951 and force the coalition 108 00:06:24,952 --> 00:06:26,786 to make separate peaces with him. 109 00:06:27,787 --> 00:06:32,042 But Hitler will have to strip whole divisions from his Eastern front 110 00:06:32,117 --> 00:06:34,843 to execute his gambit in the West. 111 00:06:39,121 --> 00:06:41,456 Not all of Hitler's generals are on board. 112 00:06:41,543 --> 00:06:43,252 They just don't believe 113 00:06:43,387 --> 00:06:45,638 that given their current force levels 114 00:06:45,639 --> 00:06:48,699 that they can blast across the West European continent 115 00:06:48,700 --> 00:06:51,269 and take the major city of Antwerp. 116 00:06:52,437 --> 00:06:55,290 Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt says 117 00:06:55,352 --> 00:06:57,958 "Antwerp, my god, if we even get to the Meuse River 118 00:06:57,959 --> 00:06:59,293 ...that's less than halfway... 119 00:06:59,294 --> 00:07:01,655 we should get down on our knees and thank God." 120 00:07:02,659 --> 00:07:05,116 But Hitler, by this stage of the war, 121 00:07:05,117 --> 00:07:07,619 he doesn't really trust very many of his generals, 122 00:07:07,911 --> 00:07:10,638 and he does have this belief in luck. 123 00:07:10,639 --> 00:07:13,349 He's gotten lucky at various points throughout this war, 124 00:07:13,350 --> 00:07:15,460 and he might be lucky again this time. 125 00:07:15,461 --> 00:07:17,587 So he decides to roll the dice. 126 00:07:18,064 --> 00:07:21,441 Hitler will even eventually say that, "If this doesn't end well, 127 00:07:21,466 --> 00:07:25,195 I'd see no other path toward reaching a favorable conclusion." 128 00:07:25,895 --> 00:07:28,515 The fate of Germany really hangs in the balance. 129 00:07:40,823 --> 00:07:43,654 December 16th, it's a snowy morning 130 00:07:43,655 --> 00:07:45,824 in the Ardennes for the allies. 131 00:07:46,908 --> 00:07:48,509 It's overcast, 132 00:07:48,510 --> 00:07:50,537 it's freezing cold. 133 00:07:51,997 --> 00:07:54,598 The weather was awful for everybody, 134 00:07:54,599 --> 00:07:56,308 but it gave the Germans advantage 135 00:07:56,309 --> 00:07:59,170 because the allied aircraft are mostly grounded, 136 00:07:59,421 --> 00:08:01,815 and that's the perfect environment 137 00:08:01,840 --> 00:08:05,860 for the Germans to launch this bold offensive. 138 00:08:07,262 --> 00:08:10,556 Suddenly at 5:30, it seems that hell has opened up. 139 00:08:14,975 --> 00:08:16,979 Every artillery piece the Germans own, 140 00:08:16,980 --> 00:08:18,872 heavy artillery, light artillery, 141 00:08:18,873 --> 00:08:22,319 rocket artillery, the famous Screaming Mimi's mortars. 142 00:08:23,737 --> 00:08:27,924 The American position in the Ardennes simply gets shredded. 143 00:08:32,870 --> 00:08:34,789 Trees are thrown through the air 144 00:08:34,790 --> 00:08:37,500 with this just shell after shell. 145 00:08:41,811 --> 00:08:43,897 Allied forces, they're caught off guard. 146 00:08:43,898 --> 00:08:45,800 They are overwhelmed. 147 00:08:46,009 --> 00:08:47,985 They certainly didn't expect the Germans capable 148 00:08:47,986 --> 00:08:51,931 of launching something as big as the Ardennes Offensive. 149 00:08:53,742 --> 00:08:56,644 Suddenly there's a couple of hundred thousand German infantry 150 00:08:56,645 --> 00:08:59,939 with 600 German Panzers along 100-mile front. 151 00:09:06,585 --> 00:09:08,098 One of the four divisions 152 00:09:08,137 --> 00:09:10,382 holding the allied line in the Ardennes 153 00:09:10,383 --> 00:09:13,703 is the newly arrived American 106th. 154 00:09:15,227 --> 00:09:18,199 The 106th Division who are just in the wrong place 155 00:09:18,224 --> 00:09:20,543 at the wrong time who have columns of German armor 156 00:09:20,544 --> 00:09:22,044 coming at them from all directions 157 00:09:22,045 --> 00:09:24,521 are just overwhelmed by this. 158 00:09:24,522 --> 00:09:29,886 And within a matter of hours, 7,000 men are captured. 159 00:09:31,023 --> 00:09:32,358 It's the biggest 160 00:09:32,383 --> 00:09:35,016 mass American surrender since Bataan. 161 00:09:37,746 --> 00:09:40,162 At this point of time, the German troops 162 00:09:40,163 --> 00:09:42,107 are in a state of euphoria. 163 00:09:42,941 --> 00:09:45,876 For weeks or months or even years, 164 00:09:45,877 --> 00:09:48,237 they had only known retreat, 165 00:09:48,238 --> 00:09:50,406 and now for the first and for a long time, 166 00:09:50,407 --> 00:09:52,325 they are on the offense again. 167 00:09:54,207 --> 00:09:57,763 German troops are partly motivated because they're being told, 168 00:09:57,764 --> 00:10:00,098 "Take no prisoners. This is your chance. 169 00:10:00,099 --> 00:10:02,460 Now you get revenge against the Allies." 170 00:10:02,919 --> 00:10:06,798 The result is that there is literally a trail of massacres 171 00:10:08,383 --> 00:10:11,443 that will lead eventually to the most notorious 172 00:10:11,444 --> 00:10:12,887 of about a dozen massacres, 173 00:10:12,888 --> 00:10:14,347 and that's the one that takes place 174 00:10:14,348 --> 00:10:16,698 in the afternoon of December 17th 175 00:10:16,699 --> 00:10:18,977 just outside the city of Malmedy. 176 00:10:24,607 --> 00:10:26,984 The first SS Panzer division, 177 00:10:26,985 --> 00:10:28,895 they've worked their way forward under their 178 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:31,506 their battle group commander Joachim Peiper. 179 00:10:32,984 --> 00:10:34,526 Peiper's built for speed. 180 00:10:34,551 --> 00:10:37,828 He's been told to get ahead as fast as you possibly can 181 00:10:37,829 --> 00:10:41,098 towards the Meuse, cross the river, get to Antwerp. 182 00:10:42,267 --> 00:10:43,918 And he's just overrun a couple of 183 00:10:43,919 --> 00:10:45,978 rear echelon US detachments, 184 00:10:45,979 --> 00:10:48,715 supply depots, administrative troops. 185 00:10:49,674 --> 00:10:51,233 There's a brief firefight. 186 00:10:51,234 --> 00:10:53,819 The Americans then surrender, about 120 of them. 187 00:10:53,820 --> 00:10:56,765 They move them off the road into a field. 188 00:10:59,851 --> 00:11:02,771 And the result is that 84 Americans, 189 00:11:03,146 --> 00:11:06,566 they are murdered after having surrendered their weapons. 190 00:11:10,566 --> 00:11:12,819 This is one of the largest war crimes 191 00:11:12,820 --> 00:11:15,191 against US soldiers during World War II, 192 00:11:15,216 --> 00:11:17,285 and it shows the ruthlessness which this war 193 00:11:17,286 --> 00:11:18,953 has achieved at this point. 194 00:11:23,915 --> 00:11:25,726 Some German units advance 195 00:11:25,727 --> 00:11:28,546 as much as 20 miles on the first day. 196 00:11:29,547 --> 00:11:31,982 The initial success of the Ardennes Offensive 197 00:11:31,983 --> 00:11:35,804 confirms Hitler's sense of divine destiny. 198 00:11:36,012 --> 00:11:38,947 In Hitler's mind, he thinks, "Again, I was right. 199 00:11:38,948 --> 00:11:41,241 I took the decision to launch this offensive 200 00:11:41,242 --> 00:11:43,076 against the advice of my generals, 201 00:11:43,077 --> 00:11:46,997 against the advice of my experts, but I was right." 202 00:11:49,959 --> 00:11:53,279 So in the first couple of days of the Ardennes Offensive, 203 00:11:54,989 --> 00:11:56,548 it seems for the Germans 204 00:11:56,549 --> 00:11:58,800 that they have regained the initiative. 205 00:12:08,933 --> 00:12:10,629 The Wehrmacht's attack stretches 206 00:12:10,630 --> 00:12:12,423 from Belgium to Luxembourg, 207 00:12:12,716 --> 00:12:15,510 but the initial reports from the front are sketchy. 208 00:12:19,387 --> 00:12:24,310 How to respond to the German assault is the responsibility of one man, 209 00:12:25,020 --> 00:12:26,995 General Dwight Eisenhower, 210 00:12:26,996 --> 00:12:29,065 the Supreme Allied Commander. 211 00:12:30,365 --> 00:12:31,866 So Eisenhower has to determine 212 00:12:31,891 --> 00:12:33,462 whether or not this is a feint, right? 213 00:12:33,487 --> 00:12:35,712 Are the Germans trying to essentially pull his resources 214 00:12:35,713 --> 00:12:37,323 in the wrong direction? 215 00:12:37,574 --> 00:12:39,841 Or is this a proper offensive? 216 00:12:39,842 --> 00:12:41,703 Does he actually have to respond? 217 00:12:43,371 --> 00:12:46,332 Eisenhower immediately defines the threat. 218 00:12:48,575 --> 00:12:51,104 And he says, "This is more than a German feint. 219 00:12:51,588 --> 00:12:53,215 This is a major effort." 220 00:12:54,070 --> 00:12:57,526 And he thinks, let's not see this disaster 221 00:12:57,527 --> 00:12:59,595 as anything but an opportunity. 222 00:12:59,596 --> 00:13:01,764 The Germans wanna fight out in the open, 223 00:13:02,932 --> 00:13:04,684 let's take it to them. 224 00:13:06,769 --> 00:13:08,537 Yeah, the Germans are advancing. 225 00:13:08,538 --> 00:13:11,581 Yeah, the Germans have driven a deep bulge into my lines, 226 00:13:11,582 --> 00:13:13,943 but that offers me this big German salient 227 00:13:13,944 --> 00:13:15,836 that I can attack from the shoulders. 228 00:13:15,837 --> 00:13:18,824 That's why we refer to this as the Battle of the Bulge. 229 00:13:19,936 --> 00:13:23,369 The Germans advance across a 60-mile front, 230 00:13:23,578 --> 00:13:26,705 but are held up by the US 28th Infantry Division 231 00:13:26,706 --> 00:13:29,417 at the Belgian town of Bastogne. 232 00:13:30,251 --> 00:13:33,337 Both sides know that Bastogne is the key. 233 00:13:33,546 --> 00:13:36,958 If the Germans seize it, they can control the road network 234 00:13:36,983 --> 00:13:39,043 and motor all the way to the West, 235 00:13:39,068 --> 00:13:41,220 perhaps even reach Antwerp. 236 00:13:41,721 --> 00:13:43,406 But if the Americans hold it, 237 00:13:43,431 --> 00:13:45,808 the Germans are stuck in their tracks. 238 00:13:47,808 --> 00:13:49,512 So it's a race, 239 00:13:49,537 --> 00:13:51,431 it's a race for the Germans to take it. 240 00:13:51,456 --> 00:13:54,183 It's a race for the Americans to try and resupply it 241 00:13:54,208 --> 00:13:55,818 before it's lost. 242 00:13:56,402 --> 00:13:58,730 So all of a sudden, Bastogne becomes 243 00:13:58,755 --> 00:14:00,565 this key road intersection, 244 00:14:00,590 --> 00:14:03,742 not unlike Gettysburg or Waterloo or Thermopylae. 245 00:14:03,993 --> 00:14:05,495 It is everything. 246 00:14:07,538 --> 00:14:10,766 As the Germans attempt to surround Bastogne, 247 00:14:10,767 --> 00:14:14,420 Eisenhower calls on the 101st Airborne Division, 248 00:14:15,380 --> 00:14:17,006 the Screaming Eagles. 249 00:14:18,967 --> 00:14:20,967 Their big contribution so far is 250 00:14:20,968 --> 00:14:23,782 when they get dropped behind enemy lines before D-Day. 251 00:14:28,267 --> 00:14:31,729 They've basically been in the game since June 5th of '44. 252 00:14:32,702 --> 00:14:35,816 To say that the 101s is unprepared for this fight 253 00:14:35,817 --> 00:14:38,460 is to understate the matter considerably. 254 00:14:38,461 --> 00:14:40,654 They would usually jump into war zones 255 00:14:40,655 --> 00:14:42,239 carrying what they can carry, 256 00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:45,927 which inherently means they don't have a lot of armor, 257 00:14:46,536 --> 00:14:48,386 they don't have any artillery. 258 00:14:48,387 --> 00:14:50,956 They don't have the winter gear, that equipment 259 00:14:50,957 --> 00:14:53,583 that would allow you to fight a tough battle 260 00:14:53,584 --> 00:14:55,001 in the middle of December. 261 00:14:55,002 --> 00:14:57,088 It's a come-as-you-are war. 262 00:14:57,880 --> 00:14:59,714 It tells you the degree 263 00:14:59,715 --> 00:15:01,466 to which this is a crisis, 264 00:15:01,467 --> 00:15:04,386 that in the midst of this crisis, Eisenhower turns around 265 00:15:04,387 --> 00:15:06,556 and looks and says, "I'll take them." 266 00:15:08,558 --> 00:15:10,308 Because the one thing they are 267 00:15:10,309 --> 00:15:12,804 is they are a hardened group of elites, 268 00:15:12,829 --> 00:15:14,764 and they will go in there and do the job 269 00:15:14,789 --> 00:15:17,400 despite all the limitations they face. 270 00:15:22,261 --> 00:15:24,115 December 18th. 271 00:15:24,949 --> 00:15:27,534 The 101st is trucked into Bastogne 272 00:15:27,535 --> 00:15:29,954 to relieve the battered 28th Division. 273 00:15:32,415 --> 00:15:34,948 The defense of this Belgian town is the key 274 00:15:34,973 --> 00:15:36,877 to the allied effort against Adolf Hitler 275 00:15:36,878 --> 00:15:37,962 on the Western front. 276 00:15:38,971 --> 00:15:41,702 And the key to the defense of this town 277 00:15:41,808 --> 00:15:45,011 is in the hands of the men of the 101st Airborne. 278 00:15:50,110 --> 00:15:52,951 For the Germans, this whole thing has to happen fast. 279 00:15:52,952 --> 00:15:55,012 Every day they're standing in front of Bastogne is 280 00:15:55,037 --> 00:15:56,479 time they don't have, 281 00:15:56,480 --> 00:15:58,182 time where the weather could clear up, 282 00:15:58,207 --> 00:16:00,351 time where the rest of the allied armies 283 00:16:00,376 --> 00:16:02,944 are starting to get reinforcements in there. 284 00:16:02,945 --> 00:16:04,779 And so the Germans are determined 285 00:16:04,780 --> 00:16:07,925 to throw everything at Bastogne that they possibly have. 286 00:16:12,805 --> 00:16:15,766 There's an artillery bombardment. 287 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:17,994 They're attacking from all sides. 288 00:16:18,019 --> 00:16:20,129 They're trying to push the Americans out. 289 00:16:22,483 --> 00:16:24,108 For the 101st Airborne, 290 00:16:24,133 --> 00:16:27,177 the fighting around Bastogne is as tough as any in the war. 291 00:16:29,155 --> 00:16:31,848 It's out in the open, it's bitterly cold, 292 00:16:31,849 --> 00:16:33,308 there's snow on the ground. 293 00:16:33,309 --> 00:16:35,018 They're short on food, 294 00:16:35,019 --> 00:16:38,281 and yet with almost just small arms, bazookas, 295 00:16:38,306 --> 00:16:42,210 and machine guns, they're able to put up enough bluster and defense 296 00:16:42,389 --> 00:16:44,566 that they're able to hold the line. 297 00:16:53,466 --> 00:16:56,624 To reinforce the 101st in Bastogne, 298 00:16:56,874 --> 00:17:00,086 Eisenhower turns to his most aggressive commander, 299 00:17:01,087 --> 00:17:03,840 General George Patton and the Third Army. 300 00:17:05,174 --> 00:17:09,194 Patton, you know, promises him three divisions in two days for Bastogne, 301 00:17:09,195 --> 00:17:12,348 which is something only George S. Patton would promise. 302 00:17:12,907 --> 00:17:14,451 Promising three divisions. 303 00:17:14,475 --> 00:17:17,970 And you know, that's 40,000 men 304 00:17:17,995 --> 00:17:19,939 ready at 48 hours. 305 00:17:21,732 --> 00:17:23,650 Patton had already planned 306 00:17:23,651 --> 00:17:25,068 for precisely this contingency 307 00:17:25,069 --> 00:17:26,695 and was ready to take the lead 308 00:17:26,696 --> 00:17:28,447 once he was given the operation. 309 00:17:30,533 --> 00:17:32,718 But until the Third Army arrives, 310 00:17:32,751 --> 00:17:36,038 the Screaming Eagles are virtually on their own. 311 00:17:37,943 --> 00:17:40,267 The Germans encircle the city, 312 00:17:40,268 --> 00:17:43,228 and that encirclement will be headline news 313 00:17:43,229 --> 00:17:45,047 back in the United States. 314 00:17:45,798 --> 00:17:48,901 There was this critical thought that we might lose 315 00:17:48,926 --> 00:17:52,972 the entire 101st Airborne Division to the enemy. 316 00:17:53,598 --> 00:17:56,933 It looks as if the Germans are really in control 317 00:17:56,934 --> 00:18:00,563 and they send a message to the 101st Airborne. 318 00:18:02,356 --> 00:18:04,775 They say, "You've got to surrender." 319 00:18:07,066 --> 00:18:09,754 They're gonna give it to the acting division commander, 320 00:18:09,755 --> 00:18:11,924 Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe. 321 00:18:11,949 --> 00:18:13,508 McAuliffe will read the thing 322 00:18:13,509 --> 00:18:16,036 and he'll send back a one-word reply 323 00:18:16,037 --> 00:18:17,747 and it says, "Nuts!" 324 00:18:19,752 --> 00:18:23,018 Now, you gotta imagine, you know, some savvy Airborne officer 325 00:18:23,019 --> 00:18:24,853 gets to go give this to the German delegation. 326 00:18:24,854 --> 00:18:26,617 Of course, they read "Nuts" and they're like, 327 00:18:26,642 --> 00:18:28,633 "We don't understand the colloquialism." 328 00:18:29,342 --> 00:18:31,134 And so he gets to stand there and he says, 329 00:18:31,135 --> 00:18:32,970 "It's the same as go to hell." 330 00:18:34,347 --> 00:18:37,557 And in a sense, the whole unit kind of reaches out 331 00:18:37,558 --> 00:18:40,019 and they hit the collective I believe button, 332 00:18:41,395 --> 00:18:43,956 which is not so much that they can hold out forever, 333 00:18:44,106 --> 00:18:46,484 but Patton's coming. 334 00:18:46,632 --> 00:18:48,142 They're all coming. 335 00:18:48,169 --> 00:18:50,696 All we have to do is hold out a little longer. 336 00:19:01,249 --> 00:19:04,000 In Bastogne, the men of the 101st Division 337 00:19:04,001 --> 00:19:06,420 had been under siege for almost a week. 338 00:19:08,130 --> 00:19:11,858 But on December 26th, Patton's Third Army 339 00:19:11,859 --> 00:19:13,803 reaches the outskirts. 340 00:19:15,346 --> 00:19:17,840 Famously, it was the 4th Armored Division 341 00:19:17,865 --> 00:19:19,891 that has given the task of fighting up 342 00:19:19,892 --> 00:19:23,161 a narrow road corridor toward Bastogne. 343 00:19:30,848 --> 00:19:34,322 And on the day after Christmas, on December 26th, 344 00:19:34,323 --> 00:19:37,675 elements of C Company of the 37th Tank Battalion 345 00:19:37,676 --> 00:19:39,786 pull up to the Bastogne perimeter. 346 00:19:43,182 --> 00:19:45,934 The allies break the German lines, 347 00:19:45,935 --> 00:19:48,645 and now supplies will be able to flow in. 348 00:19:48,646 --> 00:19:50,547 And so for the Germans, 349 00:19:50,548 --> 00:19:53,358 the Ardennes Offensive breaks over Bastogne. 350 00:19:56,529 --> 00:19:58,847 Even though Bastogne is relieved, 351 00:19:58,848 --> 00:20:02,059 fighting continues across the front for weeks. 352 00:20:02,852 --> 00:20:05,578 The United States Army suffers more casualties 353 00:20:05,579 --> 00:20:07,355 in the Battle of the Bulge 354 00:20:07,356 --> 00:20:09,775 than in any other battle in its history. 355 00:20:11,519 --> 00:20:16,115 But ultimately Hitler's Ardennes Offensive is a failure. 356 00:20:16,851 --> 00:20:19,427 For Hitler, the catastrophe of the Ardennes is that 357 00:20:19,428 --> 00:20:21,594 it was the last round in the chamber. 358 00:20:21,595 --> 00:20:23,371 The Germans really poured 359 00:20:23,372 --> 00:20:25,915 their entire armored reserve into it. 360 00:20:25,916 --> 00:20:27,375 They could have used those troops 361 00:20:27,376 --> 00:20:29,627 perhaps to defend more robustly 362 00:20:29,628 --> 00:20:31,838 in the east and west simultaneously, 363 00:20:31,839 --> 00:20:33,757 but they threw them all away on a gamble 364 00:20:33,758 --> 00:20:35,343 and a gamble that failed. 365 00:20:42,518 --> 00:20:45,369 As the Allies stop Hitler in the West, 366 00:20:45,394 --> 00:20:49,065 the Soviets launch a massive offensive in the East. 367 00:20:52,420 --> 00:20:54,895 The Red Army is a force of millions, 368 00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:57,756 which has begun its advance everywhere 369 00:20:57,781 --> 00:21:00,217 from Finland and the Baltics in the north, 370 00:21:00,242 --> 00:21:03,412 all the way down to the Black Sea in the south. 371 00:21:06,624 --> 00:21:09,668 The Soviet forces had advanced incredible speed, 372 00:21:09,669 --> 00:21:11,545 incredible hard fighting, 373 00:21:11,546 --> 00:21:15,966 and Stalin had stopped them between October and December 374 00:21:15,967 --> 00:21:18,552 for a very clear strategic purpose, 375 00:21:18,553 --> 00:21:22,890 to prepare a massive, massive buildup of armor. 376 00:21:24,225 --> 00:21:26,618 So by January '45, 377 00:21:26,619 --> 00:21:28,495 they are ready to go on the offensive. 378 00:21:33,479 --> 00:21:37,378 Within weeks, Soviet forces cross into Germany. 379 00:21:37,379 --> 00:21:41,033 The Red Army has breached the border of the Fatherland. 380 00:21:44,209 --> 00:21:46,705 Having Soviet boots on German ground 381 00:21:46,872 --> 00:21:50,000 is a major blow for the German psyche 382 00:21:50,251 --> 00:21:55,563 because they consider the Soviets as their mortal enemies, 383 00:21:55,564 --> 00:21:58,384 and this is a disaster for them. 384 00:21:58,509 --> 00:22:02,305 The war is finally being brought home to the Germans. 385 00:22:03,639 --> 00:22:05,949 In theory, the Nazi authorities 386 00:22:05,950 --> 00:22:08,619 would've had the time for months 387 00:22:08,644 --> 00:22:10,978 to evacuate the civilians, 388 00:22:11,063 --> 00:22:13,082 but that's something they didn't do, 389 00:22:13,167 --> 00:22:15,626 because if you stay there, you'll show that 390 00:22:15,651 --> 00:22:16,960 you've got more confidence 391 00:22:16,961 --> 00:22:19,572 and that you are defending your home territory. 392 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:23,325 But basically, the Russians come 393 00:22:23,326 --> 00:22:24,743 with such overwhelming force 394 00:22:24,744 --> 00:22:26,645 that the Germans can't stop them at the border. 395 00:22:26,670 --> 00:22:29,706 And so this causes mass panic as the German civilians 396 00:22:29,707 --> 00:22:32,626 take to the roads to try to escape this Russian onslaught, 397 00:22:32,627 --> 00:22:35,504 knowing full well what awaits if they stay. 398 00:22:37,590 --> 00:22:40,383 The Germans have fought a horrific war 399 00:22:40,384 --> 00:22:43,220 of annihilation in the Soviet Union. 400 00:22:45,389 --> 00:22:47,432 Now the Soviets are finally able 401 00:22:47,433 --> 00:22:50,060 to take revenge against the Germans. 402 00:22:54,524 --> 00:22:57,108 They looted and they pillaged and they raped 403 00:22:57,109 --> 00:22:58,985 and they burned and they destroyed, 404 00:22:58,986 --> 00:23:00,737 and they took pleasure in doing these things 405 00:23:00,738 --> 00:23:02,572 as they advanced. 406 00:23:07,095 --> 00:23:11,098 There's 100,000 or more deaths on the German side, 407 00:23:11,207 --> 00:23:13,242 and something like maybe a fifth 408 00:23:13,267 --> 00:23:15,377 of the female population is raped. 409 00:23:19,131 --> 00:23:23,552 This is the beginning of what the Germans can expect 410 00:23:23,553 --> 00:23:26,931 to receive when Red Army break into Berlin. 411 00:23:32,186 --> 00:23:34,346 Joseph Stalin engineers 412 00:23:34,371 --> 00:23:37,107 the Soviet Union's final moves, 413 00:23:37,316 --> 00:23:40,778 as the Red Army continues its march west 414 00:23:41,629 --> 00:23:43,504 towards Berlin. 415 00:23:43,505 --> 00:23:46,992 Berlin is really the be all, end all of the war. 416 00:23:46,993 --> 00:23:49,261 This is where we have the Reich Chancellery, 417 00:23:49,286 --> 00:23:51,412 where we have the Reichstag building, 418 00:23:51,413 --> 00:23:53,349 where Hitler has his bunker. 419 00:23:53,498 --> 00:23:56,434 Once the Red Army reaches Berlin, the war will be over 420 00:23:56,435 --> 00:23:59,045 and it will be a great victory and a great triumph. 421 00:24:00,519 --> 00:24:02,298 For someone who lives in Berlin. 422 00:24:02,299 --> 00:24:05,052 It's not lost on them what happens in East Prussia. 423 00:24:05,302 --> 00:24:07,470 The Soviets are getting retribution 424 00:24:07,471 --> 00:24:10,723 and it's coming in the form of German bodies, 425 00:24:10,724 --> 00:24:14,770 German blood, rapes, killings, and that's coming your way. 426 00:24:15,396 --> 00:24:19,024 Almost the image of an incoming tide that you cannot stop. 427 00:24:29,528 --> 00:24:31,803 In the spring of 1945, 428 00:24:31,804 --> 00:24:34,682 Germany is under assault from multiple directions. 429 00:24:38,432 --> 00:24:42,631 In the east, the Red Army rapidly advances towards Berlin. 430 00:24:43,632 --> 00:24:46,759 In the west, the allies continue on a broad front 431 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:48,887 as they approach the Rhine River. 432 00:24:52,467 --> 00:24:54,992 The Rhine is the German's last 433 00:24:54,993 --> 00:24:57,228 key strategic position 434 00:24:57,229 --> 00:24:59,230 to try and delay the inevitable 435 00:24:59,231 --> 00:25:01,190 of the allies getting into Germany 436 00:25:01,191 --> 00:25:02,901 and defeating the Third Reich. 437 00:25:02,993 --> 00:25:06,671 It's a big, broad river, fast-flowing, deep, 438 00:25:06,672 --> 00:25:08,881 and the Germans know this, so they're planning 439 00:25:08,882 --> 00:25:11,785 to kind of defend every inch of it. 440 00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:14,620 Their defense strategy in the west is 441 00:25:14,621 --> 00:25:17,791 to blow up all the bridges across the River Rhine. 442 00:25:19,460 --> 00:25:22,212 To use this huge natural barrier. 443 00:25:26,307 --> 00:25:28,717 British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery 444 00:25:28,718 --> 00:25:31,720 designs an operation that will take Allied Forces 445 00:25:31,721 --> 00:25:34,642 across the Rhine and further into Germany. 446 00:25:36,018 --> 00:25:39,328 But unexpectedly, the American 9th Armored Division 447 00:25:39,329 --> 00:25:42,316 discovers another way into the German Reich. 448 00:25:46,031 --> 00:25:47,796 Really, out of nowhere, 449 00:25:47,821 --> 00:25:51,442 an advanced unit of Americans ends up at the Remagen Bridge, 450 00:25:51,467 --> 00:25:53,534 the key bridge across the Rhine. 451 00:25:53,535 --> 00:25:57,122 And the Germans, they failed to destroy the bridge properly. 452 00:25:58,481 --> 00:26:00,475 That's not because the Germans were dumb, 453 00:26:00,476 --> 00:26:02,209 the Germans tried to blow the bridge. 454 00:26:02,210 --> 00:26:05,022 It's just that they didn't have enough explosives to do the job. 455 00:26:05,277 --> 00:26:06,898 But it was very stoutly built. 456 00:26:06,899 --> 00:26:08,483 The bridge just kind of jumps on these 457 00:26:08,484 --> 00:26:09,925 really heavy stone piers 458 00:26:09,926 --> 00:26:11,929 and then settles back into place. 459 00:26:13,889 --> 00:26:15,865 The Allies couldn't believe their luck, 460 00:26:15,866 --> 00:26:18,159 so they raced forward and they took the bridge. 461 00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:19,643 And they get across the Rhine 462 00:26:19,644 --> 00:26:21,522 three weeks earlier than anticipated. 463 00:26:22,439 --> 00:26:25,818 Once you're over the Rhine, you're into Germany proper. 464 00:26:26,568 --> 00:26:29,154 It's a crucial moment for the war in the West. 465 00:26:32,074 --> 00:26:35,119 For the Germans, this is a huge blow 466 00:26:35,452 --> 00:26:38,429 because now the Allies can bring in 467 00:26:38,430 --> 00:26:39,889 reinforcements much quicker 468 00:26:39,890 --> 00:26:42,459 and Hitler is absolutely furious about this. 469 00:26:42,876 --> 00:26:45,269 Oh, Hitler is prone to rage at this time, 470 00:26:45,270 --> 00:26:47,355 and he demands that everyone responsible 471 00:26:47,356 --> 00:26:49,398 will be immediately court marshaled, 472 00:26:49,399 --> 00:26:52,068 not brought to Berlin to explain, 473 00:26:52,069 --> 00:26:55,514 but a drumhead court marshal in the field and shot. 474 00:27:04,805 --> 00:27:06,900 Hitler retreats to Berlin. 475 00:27:07,693 --> 00:27:13,058 He orders the destruction of bridges, roads, railways, factories 476 00:27:13,332 --> 00:27:16,860 anything that can aid the allied advance. 477 00:27:19,055 --> 00:27:24,559 This Nero order named in honor of the Roman Emperor, who 478 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,061 famously allowed the city of Rome to burn, 479 00:27:27,062 --> 00:27:29,146 would authorize German forces 480 00:27:29,147 --> 00:27:32,171 to destroy absolutely everything as they retreated. 481 00:27:33,376 --> 00:27:35,403 Blow up the bridges, blow up the sanitation, 482 00:27:35,404 --> 00:27:38,115 blow up the power plants, even if it doesn't do 483 00:27:38,140 --> 00:27:39,740 any good in the war effort. 484 00:27:39,808 --> 00:27:43,270 There's no reason to worry about a post-war Germany. 485 00:27:44,938 --> 00:27:47,314 He stopped caring about the individual people 486 00:27:47,315 --> 00:27:51,403 'cause they're no longer worthy of surviving the war. 487 00:27:58,034 --> 00:27:59,743 Hitler commands his loyal 488 00:27:59,744 --> 00:28:01,805 and capable minister of armaments, 489 00:28:01,830 --> 00:28:04,792 Albert Speer, to carry out his order. 490 00:28:05,834 --> 00:28:07,544 Speer refuses. 491 00:28:08,195 --> 00:28:11,404 Because he sees that Hitler's, you know, gone mad essentially. 492 00:28:11,469 --> 00:28:13,624 And Speer actually comes to Berlin and says, you know, 493 00:28:13,649 --> 00:28:17,262 right before the end, and he says, "I haven't done it." 494 00:28:18,555 --> 00:28:21,198 This shows that the bond between Hitler 495 00:28:21,199 --> 00:28:24,937 and his leadership is being broken to a certain degree. 496 00:28:25,687 --> 00:28:29,273 It's almost to the very last days, the crumbling Third Reich 497 00:28:29,274 --> 00:28:32,668 that this link finally starts to collapse. 498 00:28:32,669 --> 00:28:35,796 Hitler has now lost control of the entire situation. 499 00:28:35,797 --> 00:28:38,492 He's now focused only on the battle of Berlin. 500 00:28:45,563 --> 00:28:48,685 In the garden outside the Reich Chancellery, 501 00:28:48,686 --> 00:28:51,880 the Führer reviews a formation of Hitler youth 502 00:28:52,089 --> 00:28:55,258 who have been awarded the Knight's Cross for bravery in battle. 503 00:28:55,970 --> 00:28:59,821 Now, many will be ordered to defend Berlin. 504 00:29:00,222 --> 00:29:04,367 The Hitler youth, 14 and 15 and 16-year-old boys. 505 00:29:07,646 --> 00:29:11,024 By any analysis, this is insane. 506 00:29:11,942 --> 00:29:14,068 And he comes up out of the bunker 507 00:29:14,069 --> 00:29:18,490 and he pins metals on these sort of beardless little boys. 508 00:29:18,740 --> 00:29:21,950 Any rational onlooker can see that Hitler has lost 509 00:29:21,951 --> 00:29:24,012 all attachment to reason. 510 00:29:25,622 --> 00:29:29,001 It may be he's thinking of the last lost war, 511 00:29:29,543 --> 00:29:34,814 but I think 1918 is enough of a obsession with Hitler 512 00:29:34,815 --> 00:29:36,232 that he is determined 513 00:29:36,257 --> 00:29:38,592 that Germany will not give in this time. 514 00:29:38,593 --> 00:29:39,986 There will be no surrender. 515 00:29:39,987 --> 00:29:42,264 There will be total war to the end. 516 00:29:42,472 --> 00:29:44,556 If Germany is gonna go down, 517 00:29:44,557 --> 00:29:47,352 it's going to go down in a blaze of glory. 518 00:29:56,805 --> 00:29:59,213 Allied forces rapidly advanced 519 00:29:59,214 --> 00:30:02,576 through the Ruhr Valley and into the heart of Germany. 520 00:30:02,910 --> 00:30:04,760 The British and Americans had agreed 521 00:30:04,761 --> 00:30:07,748 that Soviet forces should capture Berlin, 522 00:30:08,165 --> 00:30:11,793 but Stalin grows suspicious of allied success. 523 00:30:13,806 --> 00:30:16,814 You have to remember that Stalin is naturally 524 00:30:16,815 --> 00:30:20,109 and not unreasonably deeply mistrustful. 525 00:30:20,110 --> 00:30:23,029 So when the Western Allies start pouring 526 00:30:23,030 --> 00:30:26,032 into Western Germany far faster than anyone expects, 527 00:30:26,033 --> 00:30:28,159 Stalin fears that there may be something 528 00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:29,686 that he doesn't see. 529 00:30:30,395 --> 00:30:32,955 Stalin is always paranoid 530 00:30:32,956 --> 00:30:36,500 that the Western powers are going to make a deal 531 00:30:36,501 --> 00:30:38,919 with the Germans at the last minute 532 00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:41,757 against the Soviet Union, against the Communists. 533 00:30:51,959 --> 00:30:55,729 In Moscow, Stalin summons Marshal Georgy Zhukov, 534 00:30:55,754 --> 00:30:58,982 the hero of Stalingrad and Kursk, 535 00:30:59,168 --> 00:31:00,941 and Marshal Ivan Konev, 536 00:31:00,942 --> 00:31:03,069 who has led the first Ukrainian front, 537 00:31:03,070 --> 00:31:06,056 a famed Red Army group throughout the war. 538 00:31:09,478 --> 00:31:12,145 He sits there with the map and he says, 539 00:31:12,354 --> 00:31:14,439 "Who's gonna take Berlin?" 540 00:31:15,062 --> 00:31:17,334 So Stalin effectively sets up 541 00:31:17,335 --> 00:31:19,528 a kind of race between them 542 00:31:19,736 --> 00:31:21,905 to see who will take Berlin first. 543 00:31:22,114 --> 00:31:24,590 So this is a way of motivating his generals 544 00:31:24,591 --> 00:31:27,384 because Stalin, of course, wanted to ensure 545 00:31:27,385 --> 00:31:30,247 that the Red Army would be the first to reach Berlin. 546 00:31:30,706 --> 00:31:34,683 And in an amazing scene, both Marshals salute 547 00:31:34,684 --> 00:31:38,062 and leave the room and run to their cars 548 00:31:38,063 --> 00:31:40,882 to start the race to Berlin. 549 00:31:46,786 --> 00:31:50,392 By mid-April, the Red Army is closing in on Berlin. 550 00:31:51,685 --> 00:31:54,438 Zhukov's forces approach from the east. 551 00:31:55,022 --> 00:31:57,774 Konev's troops will attack from the south. 552 00:31:58,831 --> 00:32:01,193 The final assault on Berlin begins 553 00:32:01,194 --> 00:32:03,629 with a ferocious artillery barrage. 554 00:32:12,492 --> 00:32:17,669 Something like 9,000 guns rained down 1.2 million shells. 555 00:32:21,423 --> 00:32:23,924 To put that in context, the British fired 556 00:32:23,925 --> 00:32:25,592 one million rounds of artillery 557 00:32:25,593 --> 00:32:27,236 onto the German trenches on the Somme 558 00:32:27,237 --> 00:32:29,431 over like two weeks in World War I. 559 00:32:30,265 --> 00:32:34,644 Now, in one day more shells into the streets of Berlin. 560 00:32:38,856 --> 00:32:40,374 Zhukov's forces meet 561 00:32:40,375 --> 00:32:44,211 particularly fierce resistance in the Seelow heights, 562 00:32:44,212 --> 00:32:47,991 an area the Germans consider the gates of Berlin. 563 00:32:50,077 --> 00:32:52,052 The Germans are dug in. 564 00:32:52,053 --> 00:32:53,954 They have no desire to surrender 565 00:32:53,955 --> 00:32:56,291 because they know they would be viewed as traitors. 566 00:32:57,042 --> 00:33:01,187 Berlin is meant to be a fortress city, Festung Berlin. 567 00:33:01,188 --> 00:33:03,757 This means it has to be defended at all costs. 568 00:33:05,731 --> 00:33:08,235 Hitler's order was to keep fighting 569 00:33:08,236 --> 00:33:10,387 until there's nothing left. 570 00:33:10,388 --> 00:33:12,849 They're not gonna admit the war's been lost. 571 00:33:13,100 --> 00:33:16,035 Hitler is now facing total defeat, 572 00:33:16,036 --> 00:33:18,746 and he wants to drag the entire German people 573 00:33:18,747 --> 00:33:21,191 into this total defeat. 574 00:33:21,733 --> 00:33:24,276 The population has been pressed into service. 575 00:33:24,277 --> 00:33:26,545 They've been, you know, building tank traps 576 00:33:26,546 --> 00:33:28,198 and digging ditches. 577 00:33:28,615 --> 00:33:31,091 But I don't think you can fool a bunch of people 578 00:33:31,092 --> 00:33:33,177 who are living in cities that are rubble. 579 00:33:33,178 --> 00:33:36,013 You hear the artillery in the distance 580 00:33:36,014 --> 00:33:38,457 that the Soviets are shooting at your city. 581 00:33:38,458 --> 00:33:40,500 I mean, we're past the time of illusions. 582 00:33:40,501 --> 00:33:42,462 You're people at the end of the rope. 583 00:33:43,310 --> 00:33:45,064 The German troops that are left, 584 00:33:45,065 --> 00:33:48,800 it's this bizarre assembly of overage people 585 00:33:48,857 --> 00:33:51,596 that normally wouldn't be drafted or underage. 586 00:33:53,056 --> 00:33:55,746 You have a large number of 587 00:33:55,771 --> 00:33:58,578 very young members of the Volkssturm. 588 00:33:59,479 --> 00:34:02,754 They were divided into these tank hunting units where they were 589 00:34:02,779 --> 00:34:05,443 12 and 13-year-old boys that were equipped with this 590 00:34:05,468 --> 00:34:08,697 very effective German anti-tank weapon called the Panzerfaust. 591 00:34:10,198 --> 00:34:12,716 These basically one-shot German bazookas, 592 00:34:12,717 --> 00:34:14,927 and they're gonna be in these load of fighting holes 593 00:34:14,928 --> 00:34:18,138 waiting for the Soviet tanks to come and take their one shot 594 00:34:18,139 --> 00:34:21,418 and then be, you know, crushed into pulp under the treads, 595 00:34:22,586 --> 00:34:25,312 The ideology of the Reich has gone out the window. 596 00:34:25,313 --> 00:34:27,799 You don't know what you're fighting for anymore. 597 00:34:29,092 --> 00:34:32,278 You are now protecting your street and your friends 598 00:34:32,279 --> 00:34:35,182 and your family from the marauders that are coming. 599 00:34:36,766 --> 00:34:40,620 If you're still in Berlin by April 1945, 600 00:34:40,653 --> 00:34:42,276 you're not gonna get out. 601 00:34:43,189 --> 00:34:45,066 So you're fighting for your life. 602 00:34:59,732 --> 00:35:01,625 On April 19th, 603 00:35:01,759 --> 00:35:05,795 Zhukov's troops break through the German lines at Seelow Heights. 604 00:35:06,129 --> 00:35:09,633 Konev enters the Nazi capital from the south. 605 00:35:16,702 --> 00:35:19,184 Battle of Berlin is brutal. 606 00:35:21,786 --> 00:35:23,829 It's an urban battlefield, 607 00:35:23,830 --> 00:35:26,999 which is the hardest sort of fighting and the most costly. 608 00:35:29,277 --> 00:35:31,695 It's impossible not to take every building. 609 00:35:31,696 --> 00:35:33,255 You can't leave buildings behind you. 610 00:35:33,256 --> 00:35:36,576 You're under fire all the time from buildings on both sides. 611 00:35:38,286 --> 00:35:40,245 Large amounts of civilians are killed, 612 00:35:40,246 --> 00:35:43,708 and it's incredibly slow and dangerous. 613 00:35:47,974 --> 00:35:50,023 This moonscape of Berlin 614 00:35:50,048 --> 00:35:52,442 that's already been just shattered to rubble 615 00:35:52,467 --> 00:35:54,361 is now just being pounded 616 00:35:54,386 --> 00:35:57,905 by companies of Soviet infantry filtering into the city from all points. 617 00:35:57,906 --> 00:35:59,599 I mean, literally all points. 618 00:36:11,093 --> 00:36:12,737 But in the end, 619 00:36:12,781 --> 00:36:14,994 this extraordinary battle, 620 00:36:15,214 --> 00:36:20,328 the Soviet troops begin to converge on the Chancellery. 621 00:36:24,530 --> 00:36:26,835 Beneath the Reich Chancellery, 622 00:36:27,095 --> 00:36:29,144 Hitler is sequestered in a bunker 623 00:36:29,145 --> 00:36:31,605 with his companion, Eva Braun, 624 00:36:31,606 --> 00:36:34,400 and surrounded by aides, secretaries, 625 00:36:34,401 --> 00:36:36,469 and Nazi party officials. 626 00:36:37,512 --> 00:36:39,806 He believes that the military 627 00:36:40,056 --> 00:36:43,351 and the German people have let him down. 628 00:36:43,601 --> 00:36:46,036 Hitler wants to keep the resistance going 629 00:36:46,037 --> 00:36:47,871 for as long as possible to inflict 630 00:36:47,872 --> 00:36:50,565 as much damage on the invading armies. 631 00:36:50,566 --> 00:36:54,779 However, he does not want to outlast, to outlive the war. 632 00:36:55,030 --> 00:36:57,673 He does not want to become a prisoner of war. 633 00:36:57,674 --> 00:37:00,492 He does not want to become some type of curiosity 634 00:37:00,493 --> 00:37:02,746 exhibited by his enemies. 635 00:37:03,496 --> 00:37:08,142 And so he has to stay alive as long as possible, 636 00:37:08,143 --> 00:37:10,794 as close to the bitter end as possible 637 00:37:10,795 --> 00:37:15,065 so that there will never really be an idea of Nazi Germany 638 00:37:15,066 --> 00:37:18,345 in people's minds that does not include Adolf Hitler. 639 00:37:19,195 --> 00:37:22,974 He's going to go down in Wagnerian fashion 640 00:37:23,183 --> 00:37:25,101 and take a world with him. 641 00:37:34,398 --> 00:37:36,879 On April 29th, Hitler is informed 642 00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:38,882 that his longtime ally, 643 00:37:38,907 --> 00:37:41,843 the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, 644 00:37:41,899 --> 00:37:43,806 has been executed. 645 00:37:43,911 --> 00:37:47,432 His body put on display by Italian partisans. 646 00:37:48,851 --> 00:37:51,143 Mussolini has just been hung upside down 647 00:37:51,144 --> 00:37:53,729 in a gas station in northern Italy, 648 00:37:53,730 --> 00:37:55,647 along with his mistress, Clara Petacci, 649 00:37:55,648 --> 00:37:59,511 where he's like mocked and spat upon and vilified. 650 00:38:01,888 --> 00:38:04,182 Hitler fears the same fate for himself. 651 00:38:05,517 --> 00:38:08,202 The Soviets are right outside the Führer bunker. 652 00:38:08,203 --> 00:38:11,122 He's listening to the shelling happening above him. 653 00:38:14,789 --> 00:38:18,712 And so Adolf Hitler, on April 30th, 1945, 654 00:38:18,713 --> 00:38:22,884 commits suicide in the Führer bunker along with Eva Braun 655 00:38:25,710 --> 00:38:28,360 in a city that has been reduced to rubble. 656 00:38:38,308 --> 00:38:40,216 When Hitler commits suicide, 657 00:38:40,217 --> 00:38:43,470 Stalin is woken in the night by Marshal Zhukov, 658 00:38:43,471 --> 00:38:45,405 and Marshal Zhukov says to him, 659 00:38:45,406 --> 00:38:47,574 "Marshal Stalin, I've got news. 660 00:38:47,575 --> 00:38:49,952 Hitler is dead and he's committed suicide in the ruins," 661 00:38:49,953 --> 00:38:51,471 and there's a long silence. 662 00:38:51,496 --> 00:38:53,288 And then Stalin says something like, 663 00:38:53,289 --> 00:38:54,915 "So that's the end of the bastard." 664 00:38:54,916 --> 00:38:57,944 Puts the phone down and goes back to sleep. 665 00:39:12,703 --> 00:39:14,419 On May 2nd, 666 00:39:14,511 --> 00:39:18,256 the Soviets raised their flag above the ruins of the Reichstag. 667 00:39:21,734 --> 00:39:24,945 On May 7th, German General Alfred Jodl 668 00:39:25,054 --> 00:39:28,683 surrenders to the Western Allies at Reims, France. 669 00:39:30,310 --> 00:39:33,603 A day later, the Germans officially surrendered 670 00:39:33,604 --> 00:39:34,981 to the Soviets. 671 00:39:35,356 --> 00:39:36,790 With the stroke of the pen, 672 00:39:36,791 --> 00:39:40,987 Nazi Germany ceases to exist on May 8th, 1945. 673 00:39:48,566 --> 00:39:52,040 This is a solemn but a glorious hour. 674 00:39:52,499 --> 00:39:55,101 General Eisenhower informs me 675 00:39:55,242 --> 00:39:59,172 that the forces of Germany has surrendered to the United Nations. 676 00:39:59,998 --> 00:40:02,357 Here we are at the end of a brutal war 677 00:40:02,358 --> 00:40:05,193 against a brutal adversary in Europe. 678 00:40:05,194 --> 00:40:09,015 And there was such great costs with so much exhaustion. 679 00:40:09,224 --> 00:40:11,283 It's almost impossible to imagine 680 00:40:11,284 --> 00:40:13,060 what that must have been like. 681 00:40:17,136 --> 00:40:20,562 Our rejoicing is sobered and subdued 682 00:40:20,710 --> 00:40:23,795 by a supreme consciousness of the terrible price 683 00:40:23,796 --> 00:40:27,008 we have paid to rid the world of Hitler 684 00:40:27,033 --> 00:40:29,035 and his evil band. 685 00:40:30,537 --> 00:40:33,706 Hitler was the ultimate reckless gambler. 686 00:40:34,374 --> 00:40:38,127 Risking everything, even Germany, even Europe. 687 00:40:40,694 --> 00:40:42,382 Let us not forget 688 00:40:42,407 --> 00:40:44,901 the sorrow and the heartache, 689 00:40:44,926 --> 00:40:49,604 which today abide in the homes of so many of our neighbors. 690 00:40:49,871 --> 00:40:52,324 The Second World War, unlike the first, 691 00:40:52,325 --> 00:40:54,660 is one in which the majority of the casualties 692 00:40:54,661 --> 00:40:57,605 actually happened among the civilian population. 693 00:40:58,064 --> 00:40:59,956 A lot of it was simply because of 694 00:40:59,957 --> 00:41:02,485 the vast atrocities committed. 695 00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:11,385 The war left terrible scars on the landscape of Europe 696 00:41:11,386 --> 00:41:14,163 and in the memories of the populations. 697 00:41:16,907 --> 00:41:19,226 We must work to bind up the wounds 698 00:41:19,227 --> 00:41:20,712 of a suffering world. 699 00:41:20,962 --> 00:41:25,717 The West is free, but the East is still in bondage. 700 00:41:26,259 --> 00:41:31,279 In the popular mind, World War II tends to wrap up 701 00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:33,891 with the glory of VE Day. 702 00:41:35,268 --> 00:41:37,270 It did not happen that way 703 00:41:37,604 --> 00:41:40,773 for the people who were fighting it. 704 00:41:41,566 --> 00:41:45,111 In the Pacific, there's no end in sight. 705 00:41:46,322 --> 00:41:48,547 When the last Japanese division 706 00:41:48,548 --> 00:41:51,492 has surrendered unconditionally, 707 00:41:51,743 --> 00:41:55,079 then only will our fighting job be done. 708 00:41:55,872 --> 00:42:00,168 Until that day, let no man abandon his post 709 00:42:00,501 --> 00:42:02,670 or slacken his efforts. 710 00:42:06,507 --> 00:42:11,361 After VE Day, Europeans facing chaos and uncertainty 711 00:42:11,362 --> 00:42:13,071 begin the long work of putting 712 00:42:13,072 --> 00:42:15,600 their shattered world back together. 713 00:42:15,850 --> 00:42:19,187 In the Pacific, the war is reaching a crescendo. 714 00:42:19,437 --> 00:42:21,455 As the United States fights its way 715 00:42:21,456 --> 00:42:23,356 to the Japanese home islands, 716 00:42:23,357 --> 00:42:26,861 a new weapon is tested in the deserts of New Mexico. 717 00:42:27,111 --> 00:42:31,866 A noiseless flash with a potential to change the world.