1 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:58,080 Summer 1943, and on the Eastern Front, 2 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:00,320 Hitler's armies were in retreat. 3 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:10,760 Huge Soviet artillery barrages and tank assaults 4 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:13,040 were shredding the German lines. 5 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:27,160 Hitler, by now, was fighting a war on two fronts. 6 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:32,040 In Western Europe, an Anglo-American force 7 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:35,600 was moving up through Italy, menacing his southern flank. 8 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:42,440 The Germans had been forced to pull some of their elite troops 9 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:45,040 back from the Eastern Front to help. 10 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:56,880 It left their forces in the east dangerously over-stretched. 11 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:00,280 The exhausted German soldiers were up against 12 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:03,960 the enormous reserves of the huge Soviet military machine. 13 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:10,080 The Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, 14 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:13,400 now seized this opportunity to wreak his revenge 15 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:15,880 and move onto the offensive. 16 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,640 By early August 1943, 17 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:25,680 the Red Army had driven the Germans 18 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:28,680 from the cities of Orel and Belgorod. 19 00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:43,000 To celebrate the victories Stalin ordered 20 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:46,400 twelve 124-gun salvoes 21 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:49,480 and a barrage of fireworks in Moscow's Red Square. 22 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:58,160 He proclaimed: "Eternal glory to the heroes who fell 23 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:00,360 in the struggle for freedom. 24 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:02,720 Death to the German invaders." 25 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:10,920 In Germany, Hitler's response 26 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:13,360 was to take greater personal control 27 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:16,360 of all important military decisions. 28 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:24,720 The effects were felt almost immediately by Axis troops 29 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:28,600 occupying the strategically important city of Kharkov. 30 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:40,560 The Soviet forces approached the city from three sides. 31 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:47,840 The German commander, Erich von Manstein, 32 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:50,280 ordered a tactical withdrawal. 33 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:56,480 Hitler immediately countermanded it. 34 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:01,680 Kharkov should be held at all costs. 35 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:06,640 Hitler would not accept anything that would reduce 36 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:08,960 what he called "Lebensraum", 37 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:12,880 the land he believed Germany needed to ensure its greatness. 38 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:19,680 Just as importantly, he also believed Germany would win the war, 39 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:23,720 if not by numbers, then by the sheer will to win. 40 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:30,960 The Germans dug in. 41 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:40,800 At first it seemed to work. 42 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:47,960 For several days, repeated Soviet assaults were repulsed. 43 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:58,640 More than 300 Russian T-34 tanks were destroyed. 44 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:08,520 But by the end of August 1943, 45 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:11,040 the German positions had been overrun. 46 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:21,760 Eventually, Manstein went against his Fuhrer. 47 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:24,280 He order his men to get out. 48 00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:36,760 The Red Army drove into the ruins of Kharkov the next day. 49 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:42,160 It marked the beginning of a massive Soviet offensive 50 00:05:42,280 --> 00:05:45,040 along a 1,500 mile front. 51 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:54,280 It stretched from Rostov in the south to Smolensk in the north. 52 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:10,120 At the southern end of the front, near Rostov, 53 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:12,640 a Russian breakthrough threatened to trap pockets 54 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:15,320 of German soldiers in the Crimea. 55 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:28,120 Once again, Manstein asked permission to withdraw. 56 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:30,760 All he got was a message from Hitler: 57 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:33,440 "Don't do anything, I am coming myself." 58 00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:40,040 But he never did. 59 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:42,720 The German military was forced into another 60 00:06:42,840 --> 00:06:45,840 last minute, chaotic, retreat. 61 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:54,120 The withdrawal was made worse 62 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:57,040 by bands of battle-hardened partisans. 63 00:07:02,120 --> 00:07:04,760 Many were former Red Army soldiers 64 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:07,440 who had been cut off behind enemy lines. 65 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:18,560 They now ambushed the retreating Germans, 66 00:07:18,680 --> 00:07:21,480 cutting their communication and supply lines. 67 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:28,960 The Germans responded with predictable ferocity. 68 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:37,400 There were savage reprisals against the civilian population. 69 00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:48,000 The Germans also launched a scorched earth policy. 70 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:00,840 Factories, power plants, 71 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:04,160 railways and bridges were all blown up. 72 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:17,800 A massive hydro-electric dam, which provided electricity 73 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:20,560 for the whole of the Ukraine, was wrecked. 74 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:37,120 Meanwhile, in the center of the front, 75 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:40,360 the Germans fell back across the River Dnieper. 76 00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:48,040 As they fled, they blew up yet more bridges, 77 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:51,320 turning the river into a formidable defensive line. 78 00:08:56,760 --> 00:08:59,560 They then dug in along the west bank. 79 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:07,480 Stalin response was to offer the Soviet Union's highest award 80 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:11,240 to the first Red Army soldier to cross the river. 81 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:16,400 By the early autumn 1943, 82 00:09:16,520 --> 00:09:19,320 a number of small Soviet bridgeheads had been established 83 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:21,640 on the German-controlled west bank. 84 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:33,960 But they met determined German resistance. 85 00:09:36,560 --> 00:09:40,840 Fighting raged along the Dnieper throughout October 1943. 86 00:09:50,080 --> 00:09:52,120 Finally, at the beginning of November, 87 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:54,960 Soviet troops captured Kiev. 88 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:03,520 All along the river, the Germans were pushed 89 00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:05,840 out of their defensive positions 90 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:09,480 and forced to retreat still further west. 91 00:10:18,560 --> 00:10:20,760 By the end of 1943, 92 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:23,400 the Red Army had virtually cleared the Germans 93 00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:26,320 out of Russia's historic homeland. 94 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:30,880 They were now moving west across the Ukraine. 95 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:40,920 The countries of Europe were in their sights. 96 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:59,240 By spring 1944, Hitler's armies were in full retreat. 97 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:09,040 The Soviet leadership now poured in 98 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:12,080 ever greater quantities of men and equipment. 99 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:18,760 The Germans had two excellent tanks, 100 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:23,280 the Tiger 1 and the Panzer Mark V Panther. 101 00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:27,960 Both were well-suited to the sort of mobile defensive warfare 102 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:29,720 which was the only remaining hope 103 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:32,200 for the German armies on the Eastern Front. 104 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:38,040 But the Red Army had at least twice as many tanks, 105 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:41,240 mostly the battle tried T-34, 106 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:43,920 and armament factories in Siberia 107 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:47,720 were turning out more at a rate of 2,000 a month. 108 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:59,640 While Hitler was forced to divide his forces between a war on two fronts, 109 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:02,680 Stalin's war machine was working flat out. 110 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:11,920 Six million Soviet troops faced less than three million Germans. 111 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:24,560 In early January 1944, 112 00:12:24,680 --> 00:12:28,640 the forces of the 1st Ukrainian Front moved in from the north 113 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:31,240 on the German-held town of Korsun. 114 00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:38,400 It was the last German toehold on what they'd hoped 115 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:41,960 would be their defensive line along the River Dnieper. 116 00:12:45,800 --> 00:12:49,800 Twelve days later, the forces of 2nd Ukrainian Front 117 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:52,360 drove forward on the southern side. 118 00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:01,760 The attack followed a, by now, well-established Soviet pattern. 119 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:06,000 First there was a build up of an overwhelming number of troops. 120 00:13:08,240 --> 00:13:09,800 The Germans were never quite sure 121 00:13:09,920 --> 00:13:12,080 where the first assault would come from. 122 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:23,240 Then there was a devastating artillery bombardment. 123 00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:34,160 Next, the massed tanks of the Red Army would punch a hole 124 00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:36,560 through the German defenses. 125 00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:43,240 Finally, the infantry poured in. 126 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:52,720 In Korsun, it quickly became obvious to the Germans 127 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:55,040 they were about to be overwhelmed. 128 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:04,440 The German commander, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, 129 00:14:04,560 --> 00:14:07,040 flew to Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia, 130 00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:09,960 to beg yet again for permission to pull out. 131 00:14:12,080 --> 00:14:14,320 But Hitler once more refused. 132 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:30,000 After a week of fierce fighting 133 00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:33,200 about 60,000 men were trapped in what became known 134 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:35,320 as the Korsun pocket. 135 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:41,920 The Soviets called it "Little Stalingrad". 136 00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:47,920 The German forces now attempted to break out. 137 00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:56,520 But the Russians were ready for them. 138 00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:04,560 T-34 tanks and Cossack horsemen 139 00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:07,600 harried the Germans as they tried to escape. 140 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:14,160 The fighting lasted two days. 141 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:25,480 By the time Korsun fell, 142 00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:28,280 the Germans had lost some 30,000 men. 143 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,520 The Red Army forces were now moving forward at speed. 144 00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:50,360 Their advance was made possible by fleets of trucks, 145 00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:52,920 mostly provided by the United States, 146 00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:55,280 that kept their forces supplied. 147 00:15:58,160 --> 00:16:00,760 It was a much faster process than for the Germans, 148 00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:03,320 who still relied heavily on horses. 149 00:16:08,360 --> 00:16:11,520 The Russians were also dominating the skies. 150 00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:27,160 The Luftwaffe had always been a key part 151 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:29,200 of the German war machine. 152 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:33,800 But Hitler had been forced to divert many of his aircraft 153 00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:37,720 to defend the homeland from a US and British bomber offensive. 154 00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:42,280 As a result, 155 00:16:42,400 --> 00:16:45,640 Russian planes outnumbered the Luftwaffe five to one. 156 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:51,600 The Red Air Force's Stormvik fighter-bombers 157 00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:55,720 took a heavy toll on German armor and supply columns. 158 00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:04,880 Yet Hitler refused to contemplate defeat 159 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:09,200 and now announced a new version of his "no retreat" policy. 160 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:16,760 He ordered the German troops to create what he called 161 00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:20,560 "Fortified Areas" or "Local Strongholds". 162 00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:25,640 These were to be defended to the bitter end. 163 00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:30,120 Only with his personal approval 164 00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:32,760 could any of these fortresses be abandoned. 165 00:17:36,280 --> 00:17:38,280 It was a desperate ploy 166 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:40,920 and would come to cost the Germans dearly. 167 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:47,080 One of the first tests of the new strategy 168 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:50,720 was near the Ukrainian town of Kamenets-Podolsky. 169 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:55,680 Here 20 divisions of Panzers 170 00:17:55,800 --> 00:17:58,120 were threatened with being cut off. 171 00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:04,120 But Hitler declared it a "fortified area" 172 00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:06,920 and refused to allow a retreat. 173 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:21,520 In the face of bitter fighting, 174 00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:25,280 there was a vitriolic argument between Hitler and Manstein, 175 00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:27,920 who could see the writing on the wall. 176 00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:38,080 Finally Manstein got his way 177 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:41,880 and the Panzers were given permission to breakout. 178 00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:52,320 Ten days later, some 200,000 men of the 1st Panzer Army 179 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:56,240 safely reached the German lines over 100 miles to the west. 180 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:04,160 But they had lost most of their heavy equipment and weapons. 181 00:19:08,120 --> 00:19:10,920 By now Manstein's requests to retreat 182 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:13,240 had become too much for Hitler. 183 00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:16,600 The Field Marshal was sacked. 184 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:30,920 Further south, the Germans attempted to hold back 185 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:34,080 the Soviet torrent on the Yezhnyy Bug River. 186 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:51,800 They failed and a large force of Germans 187 00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:53,560 was caught behind Russian lines 188 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:56,160 in the Black Sea port of Odessa. 189 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:00,400 They too faced being cut off. 190 00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:06,200 In early April 1944, Hitler declared it a fortress. 191 00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:13,320 But the German troops ignored him and slipped out of the city. 192 00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:22,280 Several days later, on April 10th, Odessa was liberated. 193 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:32,840 Stalin was winning on all fronts. 194 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:38,200 He could now turn his attention to the northern Russian city 195 00:20:38,320 --> 00:20:41,600 that had suffered under Nazi assault for years. 196 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:56,200 By the beginning of 1944, 197 00:20:56,320 --> 00:20:58,080 the Russian city of Leningrad 198 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:00,200 had been under siege from German forces 199 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:02,640 for nearly two and a half years. 200 00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:09,600 During the first winter, almost half a million people 201 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:11,600 had starved to death. 202 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:24,440 Volunteers struggled to put out fires and construct defenses. 203 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:36,600 But by 1944, life in the city had become almost unbearable. 204 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:55,360 Several attempts to relieve it had failed. 205 00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:01,000 One effort in 1942, 206 00:22:01,120 --> 00:22:04,040 led to the capture of more than 50,000 troops 207 00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:06,960 of the Soviet 2nd Shock Army. 208 00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:17,120 Another, in 1943, had enabled a trickle of supplies 209 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:19,240 to get into the city. 210 00:22:19,360 --> 00:22:21,720 But even so, throughout 1943, 211 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:25,400 up to 20,000 people continued to die of cold, 212 00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:28,480 disease and starvation every month. 213 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:48,640 By January 1944, however, 214 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:51,160 with the Germans in headlong retreat, 215 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:54,920 Stalin now turned his attention to the plight of the city. 216 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:04,080 That month Soviet forces secretly infiltrated 217 00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,160 the neighboring peninsula around Oranienburg. 218 00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:14,920 The attack on the German positions 219 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:18,280 started with a savage 65 minute bombardment. 220 00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:29,600 Then Russian troops ripped into the startled German lines. 221 00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:36,880 At the same time another Soviet force attacked 222 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,400 from the north-east around the city. 223 00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:45,480 They too burst onto the German lines. 224 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:53,920 For three days the German commander, 225 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:56,960 Field Marshal Georg Von Kuechler, held out. 226 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:06,560 Finally, he asked Hitler for permission to fall back. 227 00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:12,640 Hitler, as always, refused. 228 00:24:25,360 --> 00:24:27,960 Kuechler argued back, telling the Fuhrer 229 00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:31,440 only a swift withdrawal would save his army from a massacre. 230 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:35,040 Hitler sacked him. 231 00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:41,880 He was replaced by General Walther Model. 232 00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:46,360 He was known as "Hitler's fireman" 233 00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:50,040 for his fierce loyalty and avid Nazi outlook. 234 00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:58,640 But even to Model, the danger was obvious. 235 00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:04,520 He now disobeyed Hitler and pulled out. 236 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,480 After two and a half years, the siege of Leningrad 237 00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:15,600 was finally lifted. 238 00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:20,480 Nearly a million Russian civilians had died. 239 00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:28,160 Relief in the city was overwhelming. 240 00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:45,080 The first fall-out was in neighboring pro-German Finland, 241 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:47,440 which now feared a Soviet invasion. 242 00:25:50,120 --> 00:25:54,000 So in March 1944, a secret Finnish delegation 243 00:25:54,120 --> 00:25:56,640 arrived in Moscow to discuss peace. 244 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:03,440 Stalin's terms were harsh. 245 00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:09,520 He demanded the Petsamo region in the far north of Finland, 246 00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:12,840 an area rich in nickel, an important ingredient 247 00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:15,080 in the manufacture of metal alloys. 248 00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:24,600 He also demanded reparations of $600 million. 249 00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:33,520 The Finns refused and prepared for a Soviet invasion. 250 00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:38,520 But Finland could wait. 251 00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:43,760 The Soviet High Command, or STAVKA as it was known, 252 00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:46,560 had more pressing business further south. 253 00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:05,760 The Red Army offensives in the Ukraine, in late 1943, 254 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:09,800 had trapped 120,000 German troops in the Crimea. 255 00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:16,800 Hitler, as ever, had refused to allow them to withdraw. 256 00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:20,640 They now waited helplessly for a Soviet onslaught. 257 00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:32,560 In early April, two months after the lifting 258 00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:36,080 of the siege on Leningrad, it came. 259 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:40,280 The troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front 260 00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:42,920 crashed into the Crimea from the north. 261 00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,000 At the same time, a diversionary attack 262 00:27:51,120 --> 00:27:53,400 landed on the eastern end of the peninsula. 263 00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:05,000 In less than a day, 264 00:28:05,120 --> 00:28:08,320 the Axis troops in the west had given way. 265 00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:16,720 They fell back on the port of Sebastopol 266 00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:19,120 and Hitler ordered "Fortress Sebastopol" 267 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:21,480 to hold out to the last man. 268 00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:28,120 They didn't stand a chance. 269 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:48,720 Within two weeks of the siege, 270 00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:51,640 German troops were being evacuated by sea. 271 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:55,440 40,000 men escaped. 272 00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:01,720 But some 30,000 defenders were still trapped in the port. 273 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:07,480 They retreated to the beaches south of the city 274 00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:10,160 hoping to be rescued by more German ships. 275 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:15,880 It didn't happen. 276 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:21,880 The evacuation was interrupted 277 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,640 by a Soviet artillery bombardment. 278 00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:37,600 Three days later, the Germans surrendered. 279 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,360 Meanwhile, back in the north-west of the country, 280 00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:50,120 the Germans still occupied much of what is Belarus today. 281 00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:55,400 But the Red Army had grabbed a vast bulge of land 282 00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:58,680 stretching into Poland and Rumania. 283 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:04,440 It meant the Germans had to defend a 1,400 mile front. 284 00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:10,960 They were hugely over-extended. 285 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:16,680 Military logic suggested it was time for the Germans 286 00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:20,080 to withdraw to more manageable defensive positions. 287 00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:25,320 But Hitler, still obsessed with territorial gain, 288 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:28,640 refused to allow any further retreat. 289 00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:37,600 The German military would continue to pay a high price 290 00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:41,920 for Hitler's constant meddling and unrealistic ambitions. 291 00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:01,080 By the spring of 1944, 292 00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:03,800 Hitler's forces were stretched to their limit. 293 00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:11,480 All along the Eastern Front 294 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:14,680 there was a desperate need for reinforcements. 295 00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:23,480 The problem for the German High Command was where to place 296 00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:26,800 the few resources it had, to maximum advantage. 297 00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:33,840 German intelligence reports suggested 298 00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:37,680 the next big Red Army offensive would be into Belarus. 299 00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:42,200 But Hitler disagreed. 300 00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:44,800 He was convinced Stalin would strike south 301 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:47,600 and seize the Rumanian oilfields. 302 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:53,440 Both were wrong, at least to begin with. 303 00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:57,520 In the early summer, the Red Army Command 304 00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,360 finally turned its attention to Finland. 305 00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:08,960 Russian troops attacked across the Karelian Isthmus. 306 00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:19,000 After two days fighting, the Finns were forced to retreat. 307 00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:36,240 Slowly, over the next month, 308 00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:39,560 the Red Army advanced north into Finland. 309 00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:48,000 By August 1944, it was all over 310 00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:50,680 and the Finns sued for peace. 311 00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,560 It was now that Stalin showed the first signs 312 00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:03,440 of a pattern that would be repeated across Europe. 313 00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:10,200 He seized land, in this case areas of Finnish Karelia, 314 00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:12,720 and the nickel-rich Petsamo region. 315 00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:24,600 Next, Stalin's attention turned to central Europe. 316 00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:29,320 In summer of 1944, 317 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:31,880 he launched what he called Operation Bagration, 318 00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:35,920 named after a Russian hero of the Napoleonic wars. 319 00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:44,400 At 5:00am on June 22nd, three years to the day 320 00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:47,080 after Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, 321 00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:50,200 the guns of the Red Army began a ferocious bombardment 322 00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:53,840 of German forces in what today is Belarus. 323 00:34:08,240 --> 00:34:10,720 It was exactly where, months earlier, 324 00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:13,200 German intelligence reports had suggested 325 00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:15,520 a Soviet attack would come. 326 00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:20,320 But because Hitler had ignored them 327 00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:22,280 the area was poorly defended. 328 00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:29,720 It was another of his mistakes. 329 00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:46,360 The Germans were now being pounded along a 350 mile front. 330 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:51,800 In some places the Russians used over 400 guns for every mile. 331 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:08,520 The barrage was followed, as always, 332 00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:12,000 by a torrent of Soviet tanks and infantry 333 00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:14,400 crashing into the German defenses. 334 00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:27,080 To make matters worse for the Germans, 335 00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:29,600 they had almost no air support. 336 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,120 Much of the Luftwaffe was still tied up 337 00:35:36,240 --> 00:35:38,480 defending the German homeland. 338 00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:44,400 It was now that Hitler's folly of fighting a war 339 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:48,120 on two fronts became all too apparent. 340 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:52,400 The Red Airforce could operate almost unopposed. 341 00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:07,240 Russian planes now struck deep behind German lines, 342 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:11,360 cutting communications and harassing reinforcements. 343 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:20,960 Within 36 hours, the German Panzers had been swept aside. 344 00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:29,960 About 50,000 men faced encirclement 345 00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:32,680 in the German held town of Vitebsk. 346 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:42,200 Hitler, as had become routine, 347 00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:45,280 initially refused to let it retreat. 348 00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:51,400 Then, when on the following day he relented, 349 00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:53,960 it was too late for many of his troops. 350 00:36:57,080 --> 00:36:59,600 Four days later Vitebsk fell. 351 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:08,160 20,000 Axis troops were killed and 10,000 taken prisoner. 352 00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:19,160 Further south, along the Belarus front, the pattern was repeated. 353 00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:24,240 Hitler, now furious, sacked his general, 354 00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:26,640 Field Marshal Ernst Busch. 355 00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:29,880 Once again, he brought in his favorite, 356 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:33,480 the now promoted Field Marshal Walther Model. 357 00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:40,520 But it made no difference. Town after town fell. 358 00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:52,800 The regional capital of Minsk was now within reach. 359 00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:02,240 Two days later, the Red Army encircled it. 360 00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:09,080 Over 100,000 German troops were trapped. 361 00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:17,000 Soviet forces bombarded them. 362 00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:34,440 Within a week, the German survivors surrendered. 363 00:38:40,720 --> 00:38:43,320 The unstoppable Russian advance 364 00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:45,800 now pushed on to the Baltic states. 365 00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:55,480 First to fall was the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. 366 00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:04,360 Across the entire Eastern Front the Germans were in retreat. 367 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:11,880 But they left behind them towns and countryside laid waste. 368 00:39:16,120 --> 00:39:17,960 They committed widespread atrocities 369 00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:20,200 against local inhabitants. 370 00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:31,480 Nothing, however, could have prepared the Red Army 371 00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:34,080 for what it was about to discover. 372 00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:38,800 On July 23rd, 1944, 373 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:41,520 Soviet forces reached the small Polish village 374 00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:44,440 of Maidanek near Lublin. 375 00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:49,520 Here they came across their first evidence 376 00:39:49,640 --> 00:39:52,080 of Hitler's "Final Solution", 377 00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:55,240 the Maidanek extermination camp. 378 00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:00,760 It was a camp designed for the murder of Jews 379 00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:03,120 on an industrial scale. 380 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,440 But as the first Soviet reports of what they'd found leaked out, 381 00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:11,360 the Western Allies simply dismissed them. 382 00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:21,760 Three days after seizing Maidanek, 383 00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:24,160 the Russians were approaching Warsaw. 384 00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:30,880 But here the Red Army paused. 385 00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:37,920 Stalin now stood ready to do what Hitler had done before, 386 00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:42,600 grab land not in the name of "Lebensraum", but of communism. 387 00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:57,520 By the summer of 1944, Operation Bagration 388 00:40:57,640 --> 00:41:01,240 had ripped the heart out of the German army in the east. 389 00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:09,280 More than 300,000 Axis soldiers had died. 390 00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:17,680 150,000 had been taken prisoner. 391 00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:28,400 The Red Army now paused 392 00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:32,280 and dug in along the River Vistula south of Warsaw. 393 00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:41,200 Stalin was in no hurry to bring the war to an end. 394 00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:46,040 With Europe in turmoil, conditions were ideal 395 00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:48,280 for the spread of communism. 396 00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:03,680 The first victims of Stalin's political calculations were the Poles. 397 00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:09,480 On August 1st, 1944, the Polish Home Army 398 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:13,200 rose up in Warsaw against its Nazi occupiers. 399 00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:20,600 But it desperately needed help. 400 00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:28,560 The Red Army, camped just to the south, 401 00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:31,240 was perfectly placed to provide it. 402 00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:37,120 But Stalin regarded the Polish Home Army 403 00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:40,560 as close to the Polish government in exile in London 404 00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:42,880 and hostile to communism. 405 00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:50,720 So, he turned a blind eye 406 00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:53,440 to the plight of the Polish fighters. 407 00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:00,520 They were crushed with terrible brutality. 408 00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:06,480 The Germans wouldn't finally be pushed out of Poland 409 00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:10,800 until the Russian army drove them out in January 1945. 410 00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:20,760 It was the start of a Soviet masterplan 411 00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:23,200 that would eventually see communist governments 412 00:43:23,320 --> 00:43:25,720 across most of eastern Europe. 413 00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:37,720 To the north, contingents of the Red Army 414 00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:41,400 continued to clear the Germans out of the Baltic States. 415 00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:45,120 These would later be incorporated into the Soviet Union. 416 00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:54,320 Near the Latvian capital of Riga, 417 00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:58,840 over 200,000 Germans were trapped behind Russian lines. 418 00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:06,560 But Hitler, still determined to hold on 419 00:44:06,680 --> 00:44:11,560 to his "Lebensraum", refused to countenance a retreat. 420 00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:22,560 Even so, gradually the German forces 421 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:24,880 were pushed back to the Baltic coast. 422 00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:36,760 By mid-October 1944, the Germans had been squeezed 423 00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:40,240 onto the Courland Peninsula, west of Riga. 424 00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:47,720 They would remain marooned there for the rest of the war, 425 00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:51,280 when they eventually surrendered to Soviet forces. 426 00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:01,960 Stalin, meanwhile, was already sizing up 427 00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:05,040 other territory in eastern Europe. 428 00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:09,360 He could have moved directly west towards Germany. 429 00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:12,560 Instead units of the Red Army moved south 430 00:45:12,680 --> 00:45:15,600 in a vast thrust down through the Balkans. 431 00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:25,080 Nearly 1,500 tanks and a million men 432 00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:29,360 pushed into Rumania in late August 1944. 433 00:45:33,240 --> 00:45:37,240 The defending Axis forces had less than 400 tanks 434 00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:40,320 and just 800,000 troops. 435 00:45:57,600 --> 00:46:01,320 Pro-German Rumanian troops gave way almost immediately 436 00:46:01,440 --> 00:46:03,280 all along the front. 437 00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:11,760 Three days later, large pockets of German troops 438 00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:14,360 were surrounded near Kishinev. 439 00:46:17,280 --> 00:46:21,400 Hitler issued his standard command, "no retreat". 440 00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:30,480 For nine days, there was bitter fighting. 441 00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:47,800 Over 180,000 German troops were killed or taken prisoner. 442 00:46:55,720 --> 00:46:58,640 The remainder beat a belated retreat. 443 00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:08,000 In late August, Rumania's pro-German dictator, 444 00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:11,320 Marshal Ion Antonescu, was arrested. 445 00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:15,440 Romania surrendered. 446 00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:24,840 By the end of the month, the Red Army was in Bucharest 447 00:47:24,960 --> 00:47:29,320 and had occupied the strategically important Romanian oilfields. 448 00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:35,440 It meant Germany had lost its main supply of oil. 449 00:47:39,120 --> 00:47:43,200 Three Soviet armies now moved south into Bulgaria. 450 00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:51,280 Bulgaria had tried to stay neutral 451 00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:53,480 but it too would soon be swallowed up 452 00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:55,600 by the Soviet empire. 453 00:48:00,720 --> 00:48:03,400 Meanwhile, the rest of the Russian forces 454 00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:06,320 now moved west towards Yugoslavia. 455 00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:15,280 German troops to the south, in Greece, faced being trapped. 456 00:48:22,240 --> 00:48:25,160 They began a hasty retreat up through Albania 457 00:48:25,280 --> 00:48:27,280 and southern Yugoslavia. 458 00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:41,240 They were harried all the way by Albanian and Yugoslav partisans. 459 00:48:54,240 --> 00:48:56,400 By mid-October 1944, 460 00:48:56,520 --> 00:48:59,240 the Red Army had reached the Yugoslav capital 461 00:48:59,360 --> 00:49:01,560 of Belgrade. 462 00:49:07,040 --> 00:49:10,480 Only now did it begin swing north and west 463 00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:13,840 towards Hungary and then Germany. 464 00:49:16,040 --> 00:49:18,880 German reinforcements poured into Hungary 465 00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:21,680 to support the pro-Nazi puppet government. 466 00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:23,960 But the Red Army ground on. 467 00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:34,080 Eight weeks later, it laid siege to Budapest. 468 00:49:42,160 --> 00:49:44,120 The siege lasted over six weeks 469 00:49:44,240 --> 00:49:47,040 before the German puppet government collapsed. 470 00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:53,440 By the end of 1944, 471 00:49:53,560 --> 00:49:57,200 most of eastern Europe lay in Stalin's grasp. 472 00:49:59,880 --> 00:50:03,720 His troops controlled the Baltic States and Poland, 473 00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:06,320 Rumania and Bulgaria. 474 00:50:07,600 --> 00:50:11,600 Pro-soviet forces ruled in Yugoslavia and Albania. 475 00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:15,800 Hungary and Czechoslovakia were in his sights. 476 00:50:20,080 --> 00:50:22,640 Stalin had successfully laid the foundations 477 00:50:22,760 --> 00:50:25,240 for the future Soviet Bloc. 478 00:50:26,640 --> 00:50:30,200 He could now at last move on to Germany. 479 00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:34,880 But in the west, Allied forces 480 00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:37,400 were also approaching the German border. 481 00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:43,920 The race was on to be the first to take Berlin.