1 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:09,960 July 1942. 2 00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:12,840 It's been over a year since Adolf Hitler launched 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:16,040 Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union. 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:19,400 After initial success, the German campaign bogs down 5 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:21,360 across all fronts... 6 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:24,920 so Hitler prepares to launch another offensive. 7 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:28,760 One of his objectives is capturing Stalingrad, 8 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:31,880 a city of great strategic and symbolic value, 9 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:35,320 particularly to the Soviet leader Josef Stalin. 10 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:41,320 One of the titanic battles of World War II is about to erupt. 11 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:45,520 All wars change the world, 12 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:49,000 but none of them change the world like the Second World War did. 13 00:00:49,160 --> 00:00:52,400 Japan's on the march. Germany's on the march. 14 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:56,800 No-one can imagine the nightmare they're about to unleash... 15 00:00:57,760 --> 00:00:59,640 ...the most destructive war in human history. 16 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:03,200 Suddenly, the world is turned upside down. 17 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:04,880 And all hell is let loose. 18 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:10,760 The West is stunned by the speed of the advance. 19 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:14,400 You get the Allies, led by the big three: 20 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,320 Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin. 21 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:22,000 Men who are dealing with immensely complicated questions. 22 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:26,000 It's the biggest military operation of human history. 23 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:28,440 The Allies have to come together, 24 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:32,600 not just militarily but industrial scale: it's a global perspective. 25 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:34,840 They have to fight in every climate, 26 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:37,720 from the Arctic, to the jungles of the Pacific, 27 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:41,520 to the deserts of Africa and the depths of the ocean. 28 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:47,440 But there was no certainty of victory. 29 00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:50,280 It was going to be a horrific bloodbath. 30 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:52,920 We see humans at their absolute worst: 31 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:55,120 how they treat other human beings. 32 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:57,400 And we see them at their absolute best, 33 00:01:57,560 --> 00:01:59,360 willing to give their lives that others might live. 34 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:01,640 World War II was a struggle 35 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:03,840 in which there could be one victor... 36 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,000 ...and one vanquished. 37 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:39,440 June 1942. 38 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:41,880 Adolf Hitler travels to Finland 39 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:46,280 to meet with Finnish military leader Carl Gustav Mannerheim. 40 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:51,800 The Germans are about to launch another major offensive 41 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:54,240 against the Soviet Union. 42 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:58,600 But to do so, the Wehrmacht needs access to more oil. 43 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:15,640 Hitler's main supply of oil is from his ally Romania. 44 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,800 But he confesses to Mannerheim how dependent Germany is 45 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:21,960 on that one source of fuel. 46 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:36,440 Hitler's also concerned the Romanian oilfields 47 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:39,280 are vulnerable to Allied air attacks. 48 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:44,800 Oil is always a problem for Hitler. 49 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,560 Unlike the United States or Russia, Germany doesn't have 50 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:50,480 an internal source of oil or petroleum it can tap into. 51 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:53,280 It must go get it from somewhere else. 52 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:55,880 The Caucasus, 53 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:58,920 a mountainous region of the Soviet Union's southwest, 54 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:02,040 contains some of the richest oilfields in the world. 55 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:05,240 If the Germans can seize them, 56 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:07,720 the Wehrmacht will have all the oil it needs, 57 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:10,240 as well as depriving the Soviets access. 58 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:17,000 The Caucasus is a vast mountain range 59 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:20,600 that spans Europe and Asia: 750 miles. 60 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:23,600 This is going to be a serious obstacle for any army 61 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:25,760 that tries to traverse it. 62 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:28,280 Hitler and his generals prepare a plan 63 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:32,120 to conquer the Caucasus: Operation Blue. 64 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:36,280 The Southern Army Group first head towards the Volga River 65 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:38,680 to secure this vital supply route 66 00:04:38,840 --> 00:04:41,640 and prevent the Soviets from moving in reinforcements. 67 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:45,480 capture the fields. 68 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:50,320 Can they get there? If they could... 69 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:53,120 could they go ahead and pull all that oil out of there? 70 00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:57,120 Do they have the logistical means necessary to get it back to Germany? 71 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:00,920 This is Hitler's idea. It has to be successful. 72 00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:08,800 Until now, Hitler's campaign against the Soviet Union 73 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:11,120 has proven to be far more difficult than he 74 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:13,680 and the German high command anticipated. 75 00:05:15,840 --> 00:05:19,600 In June of 1941, the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa, 76 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:21,640 the invasion of the Soviet Union. 77 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:25,200 The biggest military operation of all time. 78 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:28,200 Hitler is banking on a quick win. 79 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:31,200 The Germans take tens of thousands of square miles 80 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:34,280 and capture millions of Soviet soldiers. 81 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:37,400 But they don't take Moscow, they don't get the quick win. 82 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:40,080 The war goes on into 1942. 83 00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:46,680 Barbarossa did not meet its objectives set by Adolf Hitler, 84 00:05:46,840 --> 00:05:51,360 which was to capture vast amounts of land, to get raw materials. 85 00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:53,320 Also, to wreck Bolshevism, 86 00:05:53,480 --> 00:05:56,640 which needed the collapse of the Soviet Union to happen rapidly. 87 00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:58,160 None of which happened. 88 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:02,280 Hitler is concerned he's gotten himself in trouble 89 00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:05,040 in the Soviet Union but he's convinced 90 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:07,440 the situation can be righted. 91 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:09,560 He can continue this war forever... 92 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:13,280 as long as he has a sufficient supply of oil. 93 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:16,720 And that's what the 1942 strike is going to take care of, 94 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:20,080 a strike for the oil fields of the Soviet Union. 95 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:23,160 This is the world's first war for oil. 96 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:31,880 German forces begin their push south 97 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:34,040 towards the Volga as planned. 98 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:38,520 Hitler is impatient and desperate to get... 99 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:41,520 the oilfields as soon as he can. 100 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:47,280 But then he splits the Southern Army Group in two. 101 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:52,600 For Hitler, Operation Blue is an exercise in frustration. 102 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:54,680 The armies aren't moving fast enough. 103 00:06:54,840 --> 00:06:56,600 They're not meeting the objectives. 104 00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:00,520 And for that reason, he decides to split them into two big groups. 105 00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:05,440 It's a measure of his arrogance that he thought 106 00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:08,520 he was just simply going to be able to divide this force. 107 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:13,160 And it's some of the most difficult fighting terrain of Europe. 108 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:17,320 Hitler orders most of the Southern Army Group 109 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:20,040 to push directly for the oilfields. 110 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:22,240 The job of seizing the Volga 111 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:25,200 will now be left to a single combat force, 112 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:28,280 one of the biggest and most experienced... 113 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:32,240 ...the 6th Army. 114 00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:37,240 The German 6th Army is the largest army 115 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:39,920 in the German order of battle. 116 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:41,800 At the beginning of the campaign, 117 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:43,960 the 6th Army had over 300,000 men in it. 118 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:48,520 By the middle of August, 119 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:51,880 they're closing in on the Volga and the city that guards it: 120 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:54,040 Stalingrad. 121 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:00,880 Stalingrad is named after Adolf Hitler's personal rival 122 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:04,680 and the personification of Bolshevism, Joseph Stalin. 123 00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:08,640 It's Stalin's city. 124 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:11,200 It was named to commemorate a great victory 125 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:13,800 he won over the Whites in the Russian Civil War. 126 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:18,120 He doesn't want to surrender a city named after himself. 127 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:24,080 Stalingrad itself is also a major industrial centre, 128 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:27,360 which produces something like 20% of Soviet tanks, 129 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:29,960 including the famous T-34, 130 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:34,320 Along with a lot of other products critical to the war economy, 131 00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:37,440 Stalingrad is a prize in its own right. 132 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:42,680 Once again, the Red Army is forced to retreat 133 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:44,840 by the Wehrmacht. 134 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:49,560 The German forces with their shirts off, 135 00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:53,120 it's summer, and they're just racing across the steppes. 136 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:55,280 And the Red Army is just collapsing. 137 00:08:56,560 --> 00:09:00,400 Stalin understands that if Hitler controls the Volga River, 138 00:09:00,560 --> 00:09:03,040 that he will control the supply lines, 139 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:06,120 and therefore, there's a chance he can defeat the Soviet Red Army. 140 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:11,760 Stalin goes into a freefall panic. 141 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:14,960 Stalin is determined 142 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:18,120 that this is where Hitler must finally be stopped. 143 00:09:20,040 --> 00:09:22,080 In late July 1942, 144 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:25,480 as the German 6th Army advances on Stalingrad, 145 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:28,200 he issues a directive from Moscow. 146 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:31,600 Order 227. 147 00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:34,440 As the Germans are advancing 148 00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:38,840 and getting ever closer to Stalingrad in July 1942, 149 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:41,120 Stalin issues Order 227... 150 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:43,600 this is the so-called 'Not a step backward', 151 00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:45,760 'Ni shagu nazad' order. 152 00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:48,440 No more retreat will be tolerated. 153 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:51,120 He's reading a lot of Roman history 154 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:54,800 about how the Roman army punished units for surrendering. 155 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:58,040 Stalin says, 'We've lost too many provinces. 156 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:02,280 We've lost all of European Russia. The retreat must stop now. 157 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:04,760 Not one more step back. 158 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:08,120 Anyone who retreats, in any shape or form, 159 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:11,000 will be instantly executed.' 160 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:16,240 There are going to be blocking units, 161 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:18,800 made up of the secret police, NKVD, 162 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:21,280 commissars, people like that, 163 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:25,080 whose job it is to kill soldiers that are coming back towards them. 164 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:31,000 The reason Stalin gives this order is revealing. 165 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:34,600 The Soviets were presumed, at the beginning of the war, 166 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:38,240 to have these vast and almost endless stores... 167 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:41,200 of manpower, of grain, of wheat. 168 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:45,000 A big country, after all, a much bigger country than Nazi Germany. 169 00:10:46,680 --> 00:10:50,440 But as many as 70 million former Soviet subjects 170 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:53,160 are now behind German lines. 171 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:56,480 And we shouldn't forget, of course, that Nazi Germany is now drawing on 172 00:10:56,640 --> 00:10:59,040 the resources of occupied Europe as well. 173 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:01,680 In Stalin's calculations, 174 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:06,400 Stalin no longer thinks the Soviets have a manpower advantage. 175 00:11:06,560 --> 00:11:09,440 So, the essence of this order, not a step back, 176 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:12,400 is that if they withdraw any further, 177 00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:16,560 they will forfeit any possible material or manpower advantage 178 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:18,680 over the German armies. 179 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:21,960 Both Hitler and Stalin understand 180 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:24,520 the symbolic power of Stalingrad. 181 00:11:25,480 --> 00:11:28,560 Hitler gets fixated on Stalingrad. 182 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:30,760 It bears Stalin's name. 183 00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:32,880 'Why don't I take Stalingrad? 184 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:37,560 This will be an unspeakable humiliation to Stalin. 185 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:41,080 It will be a sign of German supremacy.' 186 00:11:43,360 --> 00:11:46,640 Stalin, he's under no illusions that if Stalingrad is reached 187 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:48,560 by the German forces, 188 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:52,120 this is gonna be an existential battle of annihilation. 189 00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:58,240 The German 6th Army surrounds Stalingrad. 190 00:12:08,880 --> 00:12:12,560 Stalingrad, a city of 800,000, 191 00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:16,040 is spread along 30 miles of the Volga River. 192 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:20,920 It has modern apartment blocks. 193 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:23,720 Parks. 194 00:12:24,560 --> 00:12:26,560 And heavy industrial factories. 195 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:42,480 On August 23rd, 196 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:44,800 the Luftwaffe bombardment begins. 197 00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:56,320 In the first 24 hours... 198 00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:58,480 thousands are killed. 199 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:05,040 Still, Stalin orders all survivors... 200 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:07,640 to remain in the ravaged city. 201 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:11,280 Stalin deliberately makes no organised attempt 202 00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:14,080 to evacuate the civilian inhabitants. 203 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:16,840 Have the Germans attack, shell, bomb. 204 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:19,320 He wants to showcase German barbarism. 205 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:22,160 But he also figures that this will... 206 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:24,040 stiffen the resistance of Stalingrad. 207 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:30,160 His thinking at this point is that if I leave a Russian population 208 00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:32,320 in a city centre, that... 209 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:36,680 Soviet soldiers will fight all that more heroically in their defence. 210 00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:41,360 Stalingrad has been destroyed. 211 00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:43,560 There is devastation everywhere. 212 00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:46,760 But the German 6th Army, a quarter of a million men, 213 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:51,160 500 tanks, is ready to push in the city and conquer it. 214 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:57,400 Germany's 6th Army is led by General Friedrich Paulus. 215 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:02,480 Paulus as a character is quite weak. 216 00:14:02,640 --> 00:14:06,320 He doesn't have the self-confidence of a Manstein, or a Rommel, 217 00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:08,680 or anybody like that. 218 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:12,280 Friedrich Paulus is one of Hitler's less able generals. 219 00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:15,320 He doesn't have a lot of experience in battle. 220 00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:17,760 He's a technocrat, who is gonna get the job done. 221 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:21,360 And Hitler doesn't think the job is gonna be particularly difficult. 222 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:28,680 After two weeks of constant bombardment, 223 00:14:28,840 --> 00:14:33,160 General Paulus orders the 6th Army to enter Stalingrad. 224 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:40,800 There, the German troops are confronted with a unique, 225 00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:42,800 battered landscape... 226 00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:46,320 that provides cover for thousands of Soviet soldiers. 227 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:55,400 Imagine an urban warfare campaign in New York... 228 00:14:57,880 --> 00:14:59,760 ...or London. 229 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:05,920 It's a partially destroyed, nightmarish ruin. 230 00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:09,120 There's actually civilians still running around 231 00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:12,760 and living, like, in little caves that they've dug out of the rubble. 232 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:17,280 The environment is surreal. 233 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:22,920 The Germans describe this savage, close quarter combat... 234 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:26,680 as Rattenkrieg: war of the rats. 235 00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:30,880 The German notion of Rattenkrieg, 236 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:33,080 rats scurrying between rubble, 237 00:15:33,240 --> 00:15:35,360 soldiers manoeuvring in and out of sewers. 238 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:37,680 Open a door. There's an enemy. 239 00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:40,080 Now, all of a sudden, you're fighting with fists, 240 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:42,360 not with artillery and not with tanks. 241 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:45,000 It is a very face-to-face, personal, 242 00:15:45,160 --> 00:15:47,760 and infantry-energy-intensive battle. 243 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:53,960 The Germans push through the mangled industrial debris 244 00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:56,240 of factories and oil depots. 245 00:16:01,040 --> 00:16:03,040 Hiding within the ruins, 246 00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:06,840 Soviet snipers pick off individual soldiers... 247 00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:13,840 ...sowing a sense of random terror. 248 00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:19,080 The most skilled marksmen become legends. 249 00:16:20,680 --> 00:16:23,400 Men like Vasily Zaytsev, 250 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:26,720 who becomes a hero throughout the Soviet Union. 251 00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,960 Everyone, young and old, is expected to fight... 252 00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:35,200 ...including women. 253 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:38,280 Women are very much part of the Red Army effort anyway, 254 00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:41,200 but in Stalingrad, they're trapped in the city. 255 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:43,480 And so they would just get in there 256 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:45,880 and start to fight equally with the men. 257 00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:50,280 They dig tank traps. They learn how to shoot. They become snipers. 258 00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:56,200 But despite the Red Army's gallant defence of Stalingrad, 259 00:16:56,360 --> 00:16:59,040 street by street, yard by yard, 260 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:01,240 the Germans are gaining ground. 261 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:04,640 By the second week of fighting, 262 00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:08,000 the Soviets are in danger of losing the city. 263 00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:13,520 At the same time, German forces are closing in 264 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:15,680 on the oilfields in the Caucasus. 265 00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:24,920 The Battle of Stalingrad is going badly. 266 00:17:25,080 --> 00:17:28,240 The entire Soviet Union seems to be staring down the barrel. 267 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:32,400 Stalin decides he has to do something dramatic to save the city. 268 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:36,160 Stalin summons his First Deputy Commander in Chief... 269 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:38,240 Georgy Zhukov, 270 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:41,840 who successfully defended Leningrad and Moscow. 271 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:43,880 At a meeting in the Kremlin, 272 00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:47,400 Stalin confers with Zhukov on military strategy. 273 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:52,600 Stalin had always wanted to be a military commander. 274 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:54,880 Long before World War II, 275 00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:57,560 he dressed as a military commander, 276 00:17:57,720 --> 00:17:59,680 but he's not a commander. 277 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:02,320 He's not a brilliantly talented strategist, 278 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:06,080 and he's still constantly overruling his generals, 279 00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:09,800 ordering offensives that are unnecessary, that are unprepared. 280 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:14,360 But now, Stalin begins to learn to listen to people he trusts. 281 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:17,800 He's starting to find talented people: 282 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:21,280 Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who helped defend Moscow. 283 00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:24,440 He's now going, 'Hey, that guy, I think he knows how to win.' 284 00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:27,520 Zhukov is broad-shouldered. 285 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:30,320 He's short. He's muscular. 286 00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:32,440 He's an incredibly tough person. 287 00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:37,680 He literally clears minefields by sending troops running across them. 288 00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:40,720 The quintessential Stalinist general. 289 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:46,560 Zhukov presents Stalin with a new plan. 290 00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:49,880 Lure the 6th Army deeper into Stalingrad... 291 00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:52,040 then surround them 292 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:55,000 and counterattack from the rear of the city. 293 00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:58,080 At the end of the meeting, Stalin shakes hands, 294 00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:01,160 for the first time, with Zhukov. 295 00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:04,000 Something that he's never done before, 296 00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:06,320 because he realises that if this works, 297 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:09,040 the tide of the war will change. 298 00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:28,960 In September 1942, 299 00:19:29,120 --> 00:19:33,480 Soviet General Zhukov designed a new strategy to defend Stalingrad. 300 00:19:34,360 --> 00:19:36,360 Relying largely on deception... 301 00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:39,840 ...he opens up misleading radio channels... 302 00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:42,920 ...orders fake defences, 303 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:46,920 and starts construction on 17 false bridges. 304 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:50,400 The Soviets are starting to learn the art of war. 305 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:53,360 This is not the Soviet Army of 1941. 306 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:56,440 Zhukov, a chess player, 307 00:19:56,600 --> 00:19:58,840 is known for meticulous planning. 308 00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:02,320 Zhukov's plans for the operation are elaborate, 309 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:04,680 and they take weeks to prepare. 310 00:20:08,360 --> 00:20:10,400 The Army inside Stalingrad 311 00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:13,200 is completely unaware of what its real role is. 312 00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:15,640 Its role is to be the bait in the trap. 313 00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:19,160 Their Commander knows that the only way he can do it 314 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:21,200 is by sacrificing more and more men. 315 00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:30,080 By October, both armies combined 316 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:32,840 lose nearly 6,000 troops a day. 317 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:41,040 And both sides are equally ruthless in their tactics. 318 00:20:43,120 --> 00:20:46,720 German soldiers would bribe these poor orphans 319 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:50,320 to go and fill their water bottles in the Volga with a crust of bread. 320 00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:52,320 Soviet snipers were ordered to shoot down 321 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:54,320 the Russian children who were starving. 322 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:57,360 This was the pitilessness of the battle. 323 00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:07,320 At his headquarters, Adolf Hitler is informed... 324 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:11,360 that his army won't be able to take the oilfields in the Caucasus. 325 00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:15,960 His earlier decision to split his forces... 326 00:21:16,120 --> 00:21:18,120 has doomed the operation. 327 00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:21,400 Hitler is told that, actually, 328 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:24,480 we haven't got enough troops to seize the oil fields. 329 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:27,240 He explodes in rage. 330 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:30,600 He says he's been lied to. He blames his generals. 331 00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:35,000 So, it completely changes the atmosphere at Fuhrer headquarters. 332 00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:39,480 Hitler shifts his focus to one goal... 333 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:42,880 ...capturing Stalingrad. 334 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:48,960 By mid-November, it appears the 6th Army might just do it. 335 00:21:53,120 --> 00:21:57,360 They make their final push to encircle Soviet troops on the Volga. 336 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:01,960 The Germans are feeling confident about the Battle of Stalingrad. 337 00:22:02,120 --> 00:22:04,520 They already hold 90% of the city. 338 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,320 Hitler is getting reports from his commanders on the site 339 00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:09,840 that the city is about to fall. 340 00:22:11,360 --> 00:22:13,680 They're starting to fly swastika flags. 341 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:19,040 Hitler is boasting to his buddies, 'Stalingrad is about to be mine.' 342 00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:36,560 Hitler seems confident that the Wehrmacht 343 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:38,720 is on the verge of victory. 344 00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:46,160 As fighting continues around Stalingrad, 345 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:49,520 the Red Army unleashes a deafening fusillade 346 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:52,720 from over 3,000 Soviet heavy artillery... 347 00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:54,880 and Katyusha rockets. 348 00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:03,760 Katyusha rockets are one of the great... 349 00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:06,640 weapons invented by the Red Army. 350 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:09,920 They could fire these terrifying salvos. 351 00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:13,800 The scream is completely unearthly. 352 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:18,960 The 6th Army's flanks are defended 353 00:23:19,120 --> 00:23:22,280 by badly-equipped Romanian troops. 354 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:25,640 This is where Zhukov focuses his attack. 355 00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,240 They were whipped by their own officers. 356 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:32,080 They received virtually no pay at all. 357 00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:34,880 Their morale was rock bottom. 358 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:37,640 Why should they die for Germany? 359 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,040 The Romanians are quickly overrun. 360 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,320 Hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers 361 00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:56,320 encircle the 6th Army in a pincer movement. 362 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:00,480 On November 22nd, 363 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:06,040 Soviet forces link up in the town of Kalach, on the Don river. 364 00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:09,400 The 6th Army is now surrounded 365 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:11,880 and cut off from its supply lines. 366 00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:16,280 General Paulus is in a desperate position. 367 00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:19,200 One of the most shocking documents 368 00:24:19,360 --> 00:24:21,680 in the German command of the Second World War 369 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:25,400 is the memo that General Paulus writes back to Fuhrer headquarters. 370 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:29,360 It opens with two words: 371 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:31,360 Armee eingeschlossen. 372 00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:33,520 'The army is surrounded.' 373 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:36,880 Words that no German commander 374 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:39,200 ever believed they would ever have to write. 375 00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:43,080 Hitler, when he hears about this, 376 00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:45,440 is absolutely speechless with rage. 377 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:48,880 As far as Hitler was concerned, 378 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:51,840 the capture of Stalingrad had been proclaimed as a victory. 379 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:55,600 Only a few days before the great Soviet encirclement. 380 00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:58,920 He could not admit that they had lost it. 381 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:02,600 This crucial battle has altered 382 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:04,760 Stalin's approach to leadership. 383 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:09,160 Stalin had been the headstrong, clumsy... 384 00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:11,320 and obstinate commander, 385 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:14,480 who constantly makes colossal mistakes 386 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:16,480 with catastrophic effects. 387 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:20,040 Stalin by now has learnt... 388 00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:22,240 to listen to generals, 389 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:25,080 to recognise the limits of his expertise, 390 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:29,760 and to let them plan the detour while he sets the larger strategy. 391 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:33,080 You start to see this transition 392 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:35,480 of Joseph Stalin into political leader, 393 00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:38,480 and letting his military professionals fight the battles. 394 00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:41,480 Joseph Stalin is indeed maturing as a war leader. 395 00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:47,400 Stalin's forces have Paulus's 6th Army surrounded. 396 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:50,960 The Russian winter is closing in. 397 00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:02,400 Winter descends over the Eastern Front. 398 00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:06,800 What remains of the German 6th Army 399 00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:09,320 is trapped in the city of Stalingrad. 400 00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:11,680 250,000 men... 401 00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:14,760 are completely surrounded by Soviet troops. 402 00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:21,480 General Paulus asks permission to attempt a breakout. 403 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:25,960 Hitler refuses. 404 00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:28,840 Hitler is linked with the Stand Fast order: 405 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:31,280 'Where the German soldier sets foot, there he stays.' 406 00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:35,360 Not taking Stalingrad is not an option. 407 00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:38,400 It has to do with public opinion. 408 00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:41,480 But Hitler knows the degree of the predicament he's in. 409 00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:48,720 The Wehrmacht is now gonna face not only a... 410 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:52,240 Soviet Army growing in capability, capacity and credibility, 411 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:55,800 they're also gonna have to face the Russian winter. 412 00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:58,880 Soldiers don't have the right gear, supplies become harder, 413 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,480 vehicles are harder to start, maintenance is harder to do. 414 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:03,600 Everything that should be easy becomes more difficult 415 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:05,520 because people are cold. 416 00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:09,840 How long till the ammunition runs out? 417 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:12,320 How long till the medical supplies run out? 418 00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:21,840 The Germans are hit by the full force of the Russian winter. 419 00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,280 You're talking about bitterly cold weather. 420 00:27:26,120 --> 00:27:28,120 People suffering from frostbite. 421 00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:32,880 People are literally dying of cold where they stand. 422 00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:35,320 The bodies are frozen solid. 423 00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:40,240 You could break off their arm, they're so frozen. 424 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:44,920 Soldiers are dying of dysentery, 425 00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:47,360 typhoid and tuberculosis. 426 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:50,120 By the end of December, 427 00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:53,000 their daily food intake is less than a handful of bread, 428 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:55,160 with weak, watery soup. 429 00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:58,840 The troops are starving. 430 00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:01,640 There are dead men lying everywhere. 431 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:05,200 There are rats everywhere. There's no fuel. There's nothing to burn. 432 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:08,480 There's absolutely no thought of fighting any more. 433 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,280 Even hanging on to life has become almost impossible. 434 00:28:12,360 --> 00:28:14,800 You see German soldiers and officers 435 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:17,720 asking the doctors for pills so that they can commit suicide. 436 00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:22,440 They are frozen. They are desperate. 437 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:26,520 It's a scene of Hell on Earth. 438 00:28:31,120 --> 00:28:32,960 Back in Germany, 439 00:28:33,120 --> 00:28:37,280 the public is largely unaware of how serious the situation has become. 440 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:42,520 But now some are getting letters from their loved ones, 441 00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:47,480 detailing the horrors unfolding in the ruins of Stalingrad. 442 00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:52,920 Try to put yourself in the place of these German troops. 443 00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:55,560 You're very far away from home, right? 444 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:58,440 It's Christmas season, and you're listening to the radio, 445 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:00,400 and they're playing Silent Night. 446 00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:05,200 At a certain point, you realise that they're basically writing you off. 447 00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:10,280 Again and again, Paulus asks for permission to break out. 448 00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:15,000 Each time, Hitler's answer is... 449 00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:16,600 'No.' 450 00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:23,920 General Paulus's men are dying in the thousands every day. 451 00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:27,920 Any sense of military utility had long departed. 452 00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:31,480 And yet Paulus chose loyalty to Hitler 453 00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:33,880 over loyalty to the men under his command. 454 00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:37,360 Hitler has created a command culture 455 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:39,920 in which his commanders can't use their professionalism 456 00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:43,160 and their expertise on the ground to do what's best for their forces. 457 00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:45,320 And so this is also a failure of... 458 00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:48,280 Hitler's management of his commanders. 459 00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:51,480 By the end of January, 460 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:55,080 Paulus informs Hitler that they cannot fight on. 461 00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:57,320 Hitler responds with a radio message, 462 00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:00,160 promoting Paulus to Field Marshal, 463 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:02,920 and congratulating him on his new position. 464 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:08,080 Hitler does this not out of any great love or admiration for Paulus. 465 00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:10,280 He does it because no field marshal 466 00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:13,200 has ever surrendered in the field in German history. 467 00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:16,160 He feels that this is one way of, basically, 468 00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:18,640 making Paulus commit suicide. 469 00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:24,800 The next day, 470 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:28,200 Paulus goes to Red Army headquarters outside Stalingrad. 471 00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:32,240 150,000 of his men are dead. 472 00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:40,400 Paulus is trapped. He faces an impossible choice. 473 00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:44,920 Paulus surrenders what is left of the 6th Army. 474 00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:49,320 The remaining 90,000 German troops 475 00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:52,000 are led away as prisoners of war. 476 00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:55,560 Only a small number of them will ever see Germany again. 477 00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,240 It really was a shock the Nazi elite, 478 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:03,440 but also to the people of Germany. 479 00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,720 Psychologically, it really was the turning point. 480 00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:09,880 All of a sudden, the unthinkable. 481 00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:14,000 The idea you might lose this war is right there in your face 482 00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:16,320 and everyone back at home would have known about it. 483 00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:18,160 The morale is going to suffer. 484 00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:21,640 That's a turn-the-tables moment. 485 00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:26,360 There's very few families in Germany that didn't have 486 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:28,360 some tie to the 6th Army: 487 00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:31,320 a son, a father, a neighbour's son. 488 00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:34,120 The 6th Army was the largest army in the German order of battle. 489 00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:36,480 And now it's been completely destroyed 490 00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:41,880 When Hitler receives the news of Paulus's surrender, 491 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,040 he's silent for several hours. 492 00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:47,400 Then he explodes. 493 00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:51,520 He actually says, 'Why didn't Paulus put a bullet in his brain?' 494 00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:55,320 It only takes a second, and he would have been immortal from then on. 495 00:31:55,480 --> 00:32:00,560 But instead, he chose what Hitler said was the coward's way out. 496 00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:04,040 But Hitler knows the gravity of this defeat. 497 00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,440 To lose 250,000 men, 498 00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:12,840 in a moment, essentially, In other words, 499 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:16,680 to have that military force wiped off your ledger, 500 00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:19,240 that hadn't happened to the Germans in the war. 501 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:23,560 It changes the political calculation entirely, 502 00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:26,640 and this myth of invincibility is going to be shattered. 503 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:31,120 In a single campaign, 504 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:33,520 Hitler has lost an army... 505 00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:37,560 ...and began to lose the faith of the German people. 506 00:32:57,680 --> 00:32:59,800 Following the defeat of Stalingrad, 507 00:32:59,960 --> 00:33:03,560 Adolf Hitler withdraws to his mountain retreat in Bavaria. 508 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:07,760 On April 20th 1943, 509 00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:12,080 his inner circle throws a party to mark his 54th birthday. 510 00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:17,320 After Stalingrad, 511 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,360 all the indicators are running against Germany. 512 00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:23,800 The campaign in North Africa has clearly gone bad. 513 00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:27,120 Increasingly, Hitler is losing control of himself. 514 00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,320 The entire 1942 campaign had been marked 515 00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:34,560 by gigantic tantrums against his officers. 516 00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:39,720 He is no longer up to the stress of running a global war, 517 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,920 but Hitler knows that he has to launch... 518 00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:45,040 an offensive in 1943. 519 00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:48,600 Or he risks losing control of the war completely. 520 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:52,760 The Germans have enough armour, 521 00:33:52,920 --> 00:33:54,800 and enough energy and enough manpower, 522 00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:58,160 to mount one final offensive on the Eastern Front. 523 00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:02,680 The Soviets have advanced into an area to the south, 524 00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:06,200 creating a salient around a region called Kursk. 525 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:12,480 Hitler sees an opportunity to seize the initiative. 526 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:18,600 The salient around Kursk in 1943 was such an obvious target 527 00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:22,680 that basically both sides knew some type of offensive was coming. 528 00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:27,320 Hitler is basically putting all of his chips on the table. 529 00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:32,840 But his resources are already stretched across Europe. 530 00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:38,320 Everything is getting harder by 1943: 531 00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:41,160 the Soviet artillery is better, their tanks are better, 532 00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:43,120 their leadership is better. 533 00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:45,960 So it will take a lot of resources, it will take a lot of armour, 534 00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:48,240 and it will cost in order to do this. 535 00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:53,480 Considering the resources of Nazi Germany at this point, 536 00:34:53,640 --> 00:34:55,800 its economic reserves, its soldiers, 537 00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:59,200 this is a ridiculous thing to attempt. 538 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:03,520 Hitler is particularly excited about his giant tanks, 539 00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:07,000 the Tigers and Panthers, which he thinks, 'Oh, game changers.' 540 00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:14,280 In Moscow, the Soviet high command is receiving intelligence 541 00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:17,000 about the Germans' upcoming offensive. 542 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:20,800 Unlike early in the war, 543 00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:24,600 Stalin is now utilising the intelligence he receives. 544 00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:27,880 Stalin's instincts are always just, 'Attack now. 545 00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:30,200 Attack on all fronts. Attack at any cost.' 546 00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:33,760 By the time of Kursk, he's learnt that, actually, 547 00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:35,920 this is not the way to win a war. 548 00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:39,080 Now he's taking the intelligence on board. 549 00:35:39,240 --> 00:35:42,680 He's trusting it. The German attack is gonna be massive. 550 00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:45,520 Zhukov persuades Stalin, 'We're gonna dig in. 551 00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:49,640 We're gonna prepare, and we're gonna draw the Germans in.' 552 00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:54,600 As Zhukov prepares for the coming offensive, 553 00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,480 Soviet factories increase their production. 554 00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:02,920 By this stage of the war, 555 00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:07,360 the Soviet economy is vastly outproducing the German economy. 556 00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:12,320 Stalin was now producing massive amounts of weaponry. 557 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:16,560 The United States has also been sending military supplies 558 00:36:16,720 --> 00:36:19,640 to the Soviets through its Lend-Lease plan, 559 00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:22,840 which was designed to get American materials to Great Britain 560 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:25,200 and the Soviet Union. 561 00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:28,320 By 1943, tons of military hardware 562 00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:31,240 are rolling off Allied ships each month. 563 00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:37,040 The Soviets were especially impressed with the Willys Jeeps, 564 00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:40,040 American Sherman tanks, 565 00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:43,960 along with more than 12,000 warplanes. 566 00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:51,160 The Soviets are also receiving hundreds of thousands 567 00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:53,320 of tons of food. 568 00:36:56,320 --> 00:36:58,880 The Soviet Army is actually being fed 569 00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:01,600 by the American economy in 1943, 570 00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:06,280 everything from the famous tushonka pork Americans refer to as Spam 571 00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:09,720 to millions of packets of dehydrated borscht. 572 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:14,480 One of the ways that Hitler wants to defeat these people, 573 00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:16,960 and whittle down their numbers, is through starvation. 574 00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:20,280 But if they're being fed from outside sources, you can't do that. 575 00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:24,760 The supplies help the Soviets build 576 00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:27,680 one of the largest defensive forces ever seen: 577 00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:31,080 1.3 million troops. 578 00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:35,280 At Zhukov's command, 579 00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:38,520 civilians dig several thousand miles of trenches 580 00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:40,920 and tank traps outside Kursk. 581 00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:45,840 Nearly one million mines are laid. 582 00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:49,560 It's the most densely defended area 583 00:37:49,720 --> 00:37:52,880 of the whole Earth in the course of the Second World War. 584 00:37:58,240 --> 00:38:00,240 The Soviets are prepared... 585 00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:02,720 for the full weight... 586 00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:04,760 of the German Wehrmacht. 587 00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:14,000 July 1943. 588 00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:19,800 The Germans launch their colossal offensive against the Red Army 589 00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:21,960 in the Kursk salient. 590 00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:31,560 Quickly, the German advance runs into Zhukov's fortifications. 591 00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:40,880 It's the countermove to the idea of blitzkrieg. 592 00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:45,720 If you break through the front line, there's another line behind there 593 00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:49,160 with anti-tank efforts and trenches and men. 594 00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:51,280 If you break through that one, there's another one. 595 00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:00,600 Your forces, as the German Wehrmacht, 596 00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:02,840 are getting smaller and weaker and damaged. 597 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:07,160 And eventually you just sort of whittle away the spear point here. 598 00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:11,800 For eight days, the Germans grind against Soviet defences. 599 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,960 Two vast tank armies collide. 600 00:39:31,720 --> 00:39:33,480 Astonishing intensity. 601 00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:40,080 Tanks, helm to helm, hull to hull. 602 00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:50,960 The German tanks are better built, have bigger guns, better armour. 603 00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:53,240 But if you've only got a few of them, 604 00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:56,760 and you've got a mass of T-34s coming at you, 605 00:39:56,920 --> 00:39:58,920 you have a big problem. 606 00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:02,920 Hitler's miracle weapons, the Tigers and Panthers, 607 00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:05,840 which are these giant, diabolical metal machines, 608 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:08,680 actually don't work too well. 609 00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:14,960 Hitler's tanks are destroyed 610 00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:17,200 by the more manoeuvrable Soviet tanks. 611 00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:23,800 After two days, the Wehrmacht is forced to withdraw. 612 00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:26,560 Hitler has failed. 613 00:40:26,720 --> 00:40:29,920 He's rolled the dice three times inside the Soviet Union. 614 00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:34,000 Operation Barbarossa in '41, Operation Blue in '42... 615 00:40:35,120 --> 00:40:38,960 ...and now the great offensive at Kursk, and he's failed each time. 616 00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:43,840 Hitler's final gamble on the Eastern Front has been crushed. 617 00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:47,600 They get nothing out of the Battle of Kursk. 618 00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:49,480 It's a huge defeat for the Germans. 619 00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:52,160 They're always gonna be going backwards from this point on. 620 00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:56,200 Kursk destroys enough of the German combat power 621 00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:58,520 that they can never take the offensive for the rest of the war. 622 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:01,360 Therefore, the Soviets maintain the initiative to pick the time 623 00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:04,200 and place of the choosing, where they're gonna take their next act. 624 00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:07,360 This is a decisive moment 625 00:41:07,520 --> 00:41:10,560 in Stalin's development as a supreme commander. 626 00:41:10,720 --> 00:41:14,440 Hitler is undergoing precisely the opposite transformation. 627 00:41:15,720 --> 00:41:17,480 At this point in the war, 628 00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:20,120 Hitler is really losing his grip on reality. 629 00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:22,120 And... 630 00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:25,200 people who thought he made some madcap moves in 1940, 631 00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:27,080 but they paid off. 632 00:41:27,240 --> 00:41:31,400 As the war lengthens, his decisions become more and more suspect. 633 00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:35,840 The two great warlords of World War II are passing each other 634 00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:39,000 as one develops and one deteriorates. 635 00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:48,960 In November 1943, 636 00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:52,560 Joseph Stalin meets with Prime Minister Winston Churchill 637 00:41:52,720 --> 00:41:54,800 and President Franklin D Roosevelt. 638 00:41:58,240 --> 00:42:00,240 It's the first meeting of the group 639 00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:03,640 that will become known as... the Big Three. 640 00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:10,920 The big three sat down in Tehran, 641 00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:13,400 round the table with their teams. 642 00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:17,760 Each of them said something, and Stalin really put it best. 643 00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:20,600 He said, 'History has spoilt us. 644 00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:23,880 Never have three men had... 645 00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:28,480 the vast and massive powers that we have today. 646 00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:30,680 Let's get to work.' 647 00:42:34,720 --> 00:42:38,480 Stalingrad creates a tradition that eventually spreads 648 00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:40,520 to the rest of the Red Army. 649 00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:44,840 Soviet soldiers passing each other in the street say 'blind swap' 650 00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:48,840 and exchange the items in their pockets without looking. 651 00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:51,800 Soldiers swap a single cigarette for a watch, 652 00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:54,800 or money for a scrap of paper. 653 00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:57,280 In Stalingrad, life is so uncertain, 654 00:42:57,440 --> 00:42:59,560 soldiers could be dead in an instant, 655 00:42:59,720 --> 00:43:01,800 that nothing has any value at all. 656 00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:05,720 The Battle for Stalingrad is the turning point 657 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:07,880 of the war on the Eastern Front. 658 00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:12,000 Never again would the Wehrmacht take the offensive in the east. 659 00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:14,720 And in the west, 660 00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:17,920 the Allies prepare to cross the Mediterranean: 661 00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:21,200 the next step in their attack against the Third Reich.