All language subtitles for Winston.Churchill.Walking.with.Destiny.2010.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG

[Bell tolling]

SIR BEN KINGSLEY: When
Winston Spencer Churchill died

at the age of 90
on January 24, 1965,

life stopped for a few days
in Great Britain.

While he had been
in ill health

and out of the public life
for many years,

his death still came
as a shock,

not only to the British people
but to the rest of the world.

From the average person
in the street

to world leaders
and the British royal family,

it seemed as if there was
no one who was not affected

by the passing of the man
who many considered to be

the greatest figure
of the 20th century.

WOMAN: I think his legacy
is his inspiration

and the example that he set
in the most difficult time

that his country
had ever had.

MAN: The vital importance
of Winston Churchill was

that he kept the flag
of freedom flying.

I'm convinced that but
for Winston Churchill,

it is entirely possible
that the Nazi swastika

would to this day be flying

over the palace of Westminster,
over Buckingham Palace,

and over every capital city
of Europe as far east as Moscow.

KINGSLEY: 25 years earlier,
few would have predicted

this kind of adulation.

May 10, 1940.

Nazi Germany had just
invaded France, Belgium,

Holland, Norway,
and Denmark.

Increasing numbers
of Britons, dissatisfied

with the way in which
Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain

was handling the war,

were now demanding a change
in the government,

so Chamberlain handed
in his resignation.

The public were calling
for Churchill, the newest

member of the cabinet

and the First Lord
of the Admiralty,

to replace Chamberlain.

But he was not
the preferred choice

of King George VI and many

in the majority Conservative
Party, the Tories.

After a spirited debate
in the House of Commons,

a reluctant decision was
made by the Tories to go

with public sentiment.

That evening, Churchill
was driven to Buckingham Palace

to meet with the King.

On the drive back
to his residence

at the Admiralty,
Churchill was

uncharacteristically quiet.

His personal bodyguard,
Inspector Walter H. Thompson,

wanting to break the silence,

decided to
congratulate his boss

on his appointment.

"I only wish the position
had come your way

in better times, for you
have an enormous task,"

said his long-time aide.

Churchill became
quite emotional.

"God alone knows how
great it is," he replied.

"I hope it is
not too late.

"I'm very much
afraid it is.

We can only do our best."

The situation he
was inheriting was

extremely bleak.

Over 130 Nazi
divisions, backed by

the powerful Luftwaffe
in the air, were on the assault

throughout
Western Europe.

More than 300,000
British and French troops

in Northern France
and Belgium were caught

completely off guard.

The French army was cut
off and unable to launch

an effective
counterattack.

Late on May 10,
in his residence

at the Admiralty,
Churchill reflected

on the situation
and the events which had led

to his becoming
Prime Minister.

By the time he was ready
to retire for the night,

his glum mood after
meeting with the King

had changed.

He wrote in his diary
"I was conscious

"of a profound
sense of relief.

"I felt as if I were
walking with destiny

"and that all my
past life had been

"but a preparation for
this hour and this trial.

I was sure
I should not fail."

In early 1930,
Winston Churchill was

living in the wilderness,
both physically

and politically.

Thrown out of office
the year earlier with

the rest of the Conservative
government, he was still

a member of Parliament
but without a cabinet

position for
the first time

in almost 3 decades.

He had retreated to
the beauty of Chartwell,

his country estate in Kent,
a few hours outside London.

WOMAN: Chartwell was
his home.

Um, he had a house in London,
but Chartwell was

where he felt most,
I should think, at peace.

He did an enormous amount
of work in the grounds.

He developed waterfalls
which went down into

ponds, where he kept
wonderful fish,

and there was
a swimming pool,

and then at the very bottom,

there was a big lake
where he had black swans,

and--he loved any living
creature, so anything

that he could put there,
whether it was fish or

birds, he always had.

My grandfather described
Chartwell as somewhere

where "a day away
from Chartwell is

a day wasted."

KINGSLEY:
One of his favorite tasks

at Chartwell
was bricklaying.

In fact, he took such
pride in his work that he

joined the bricklayers union.

One day, he decided to
take on a particularly

ambitious project,
a brick wall outside

a cottage a local
contractor was building

for him on the estate.

Watching him work was his
bodyguard Walter H. Thompson.

At noon, Churchill
left to have his lunch.

As he was dining,
the builder took

Inspector Thompson over
to Churchill's half-built wall,

each layer of bricks
progressively out of line

with the next.

"Look at his wall,"
the builder exclaimed.

"If he puts one more
layer of bricks on it,

it will topple over."

Knowing how proud
Churchill was of his

bricklaying skills,
Thompson did not want to

deliver the bad news.

So the bodyguard
and the builder tore down

the wall and rebuilt it
while Churchill

enjoyed his lunch.

Upon his return,
Churchill stood

before the wall
admiring his work.

"Look at that," he
proclaimed to Thompson.

As straight as a die."

Despite his isolation
at Chartwell, Churchill had

not stopped paying
attention to world affairs,

especially
a developing situation

in Germany.

MAN: In October 1930--
this is almost

3 years before Hitler
becomes chancellor--

Churchill went to
a dinner party

at the German embassy
in London,

and the counselor
of the embassy was startled

because Churchill kept
asking him about Hitler.

He found it so unusual
that he reported this to

the German foreign
minister as an oddity.

KINGSLEY: One of the reasons
why Churchill was

paying attention
to Hitler's rising

popularity was his
concern about the Nazi

leader's views
and rhetoric about Jews.

Randolph Churchill, his
father, had many close

Jewish friends.

After his death just
before Winston's 20th birthday,

these same friends
looked after him,

becoming father figures,
and when he began his

political career
in the early 1900s,

his first Parliamentary
seat was in Manchester,

with a large Jewish
constituency.

Churchill's concern about
Nazism was also shared

by son Randolph, who in
the early 1930s was

working as a journalist.

MAN: My father, when he
was only 21 years old,

his first commission as
a journalist was to go to

Nazi Germany and report
on the German election campaign,

and he made
friends with Hitler's

press secretary
Putzi Hanfstaengl.

KINGSLEY: Less than
a year later, Randolph Churchill

accompanied his father,
his mother Clementine,

and his sister Sarah on another

trip to Germany,
this time to Munich.

Churchill had signed
a contract to write a book

about his ancestor
the Duke of Marlborough.

Marlborough had defeated
the French in the 17th century

in a series of battles
at Blenheim near Munich,

and Churchill
spent several weeks doing

research there.

MAN: It was very fortunate
for history that Churchill,

when he was in his early
50s, found himself

in November 1932 in
Munich and saw the Nazi

thugs marching in
the streets and heard their

cries and knew that
Hitler was anti-Semitic.

KINGSLEY: Hitler's press
secretary Hanfstaengl

heard that Randolph was
in Munich and contacted

him with an idea.

Would his father be
interested in meeting

the leader of the Nazi Party?

GILBERT: Churchill said,
"Well, I'm happy to meet

"him, but I'd like to
know why he's so

against the Jews."

KINGSLEY: The plan
was for Hitler to meet

Churchill in the lobby
of his hotel one evening

after dinner.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL:
Apparently, according to

Hanfstaengl, Hitler
came to the glass door

of the hotel restaurant
and looked through

at my grandfather,

but in the end,

he didn't dare go through
with the meeting.

I think Hitler maybe
just didn't have

the self-confidence
at that particular moment to

confront my grandfather.

KINGSLEY: Churchill
returned to England

and became the country's
main voice against

Nazism, founding
the British Anti-Nazi League,

and demanding that
the British government do

more to help Jewish
refugees from Germany.

He warned
in the House of Commons,

in newspaper articles,
and in radio speeches

about the danger
of Adolf Hitler,

his true aims for Europe,

and the rearming
of Germany.

CHURCHILL: Only a few
hours away by air,

there dwells to a nation
of nearly 70 million

of the most educated,
industrious, scientific,

disciplined people in
the world, who are being

taught from childhood
to think of war as

a glorious exercise
and death in battle as

the noblest fate for man.

It is but 20 years
since these neighbors

of ours fought almost
the whole world

and almost defeated them.

Now they are rearming
with the utmost speed,

and ready to their hands
is this new lamentable

weapon of the air against
which our navy has

no defense.

Now, these are facts,
are grim, indisputable facts,

and in face of these
facts, I ask again,

what are we to do?

KINGSLEY: Churchill's
warnings about Nazi Germany

fell on deaf ears
throughout most

of the 1930s.

He was accused of being
a warmonger after sharply

criticizing Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain

and Foreign Minister
Lord Halifax

for their policies which
would have given Hitler

control of much of Europe
in exchange for friendly

relations with
Great Britain.

However, in May 1940,
with Europe

at war and Great Britain
under threat by Hitler,

Winston Churchill
was no longer a prophet

in the wilderness.

The British people
were demanding that

Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain step down.

Leo Amery,
a senior member

of the Conservative Party,
spoke for many

when he addressed Parliament
in the House of Commons.

He quoted former
Prime Minister Oliver Cromwell's

famous speech
some 3 centuries earlier

about another unpopular
and ineffectual government.

"You have sat here
too long for any good
you may be doing.

"Depart, I say, and let
us have done with you.

In the name of God, go."

While the public loudly
cheered Churchill's

appointment as
Prime Minister, many

in the Conservative Party
were less enthusiastic

about his elevation
to the position.

In order to promote
peace within the party,

Churchill decided to keep
Lord Halifax as foreign

secretary and asked
Chamberlain to stay

on in the cabinet as
Lord President of the Council.

LUKACS: Churchill
and his group were still

a minority in
the Conservative Party.

When Churchill first
appears in Parliament

at his inaugural speech
as Prime Minister, he's

not very much cheered.

Chamberlain walks in,
and he's cheered to

high heaven.

KINGSLEY: Churchill
did not let the tepid

reception get in the way
of delivering a speech

on May 13, intended to
prepare the Parliament

and the nation for
the task ahead.

CHURCHILL: Mr. Speaker,
on Friday evening last,

I received His Majesty's
commission to form a new

administration,
but it must be remembered that

we are in
the preliminary stage of one

of the greatest
battles in history.

I would say to the House,
as I said to those who

have joined
the government, I have

nothing to offer
but blood, toil,

tears, and sweat.

You ask,
"What is our aim?"

I can answer in one word--
victory, victory at all

costs, victory in spite
of all terror, victory

however long and hard
the road may be, for without

victory, there
is no survival.

KINGSLEY: The day after
Churchill's address,

Holland fell to the Nazis,
and the French

and Belgian armies
were in full retreat.

The British Expeditionary
Force, some 230,000

English soldiers,
and another 70,000

French troops were
beginning a massive

withdrawal to Dunkirk.

On the evening of May 14,
French Premier Paul Reynaud

frantically
called Churchill to

report that more than
half the British

air force in France had
been destroyed and that they

were desperate
for more planes.

Churchill decided to
fly to France to meet

with Reynaud and view
the situation in Paris

firsthand, but before
leaving London, he wrote

his first letter to
President Franklin Roosevelt

as Prime Minister.

"I trust you realize,
Mr. President, that the voice

"and force of
the United States may count

"for nothing if they are
withheld for too long.

"You may have
a completely subjugated

"Nazified Europe
established

"with astonishing swiftness,
and the weight

may be more than we
can bear," he warned.

Churchill went on to ask
Roosevelt to allow

Great Britain to borrow as
many as 50 old American

destroyers and purchase
new planes,

antiaircraft weaponry,
and much need ammunition.

FDR replied
the very next day.

The news was not what
Churchill wanted to hear.

FDR maintained that now
was not the time for him

to make such a request
of the Congress or

the American people.

A majority of both were
opposed to involvement

in the war in Europe.

WOMAN: My own sense is
that FDR understood even

from the late thirties
that something was going

to have to be done
to contain Hitler,

but he knew that in a democracy
he could not carry his

country into that war
until he had shaped

public opinion to allow
him to bring them along.

Churchill's meeting
in Paris with Premier Reynaud

and his war cabinet
distressed him as

he learned about
the dire state of affairs

for the French military

and the British
Expeditionary Force.

Back in London, Churchill
set out to prepare

the nation on the situation
in France as he delivered

his first radio address
as Prime Minister.

CHURCHILL: A tremendous
battle is raging

in France and Flanders.

Our task is not only to
win the battle but to

win the war.

After this battle in
France abates its force,

there will come
the battle for our Island,

for all that Britain
is and all that

Britain means.

Centuries ago, words
were written to be a call

and a spur
to the faithful servants

of Truth and Justice:

"Arm yourselves,

"and be ye men of valor,
and be in readiness

"for the conflict;
for it is better for us to

"perish in battle than to
look upon the outrage

of our nation
and our altar."

KINGSLEY: Churchill's
message managed to

inspire the British
people, as well as bring

down the national
stress level.

The polling organization
Mass-Observation reported

on May 20, "Tension
is slightly relieved today,

"slightly less gloom.

"A feeling of grave
seriousness remains,

"if anything, emphasized by
Churchill's broadcast.

"General feeling is
that we shall pull

through, just."

Less inspired by
Churchill's message was

United States ambassador
to England Joseph P. Kennedy.

The ambassador had long
opposed any American

involvement
in the war in Europe.

He believed the greatest
danger to the world was

the Soviet Union
and communism.

Before the war, he'd
written privately

about "Jewish propaganda"
threatening peaceful

relations between Germany
and Great Britain.

He now wrote to FDR,
maintaining that

Great Britain's chances
of winning the war against

Germany were "impossible."

GILBERT: Joseph Kennedy
was urging Roosevelt not

to help Britain because
Britain was finished,

Britain was doomed,
Britain would be defeated,

and therefore,
why waste good armaments,

good destroyers.

KINGSLEY: The news from
France continued to get

worse as reports came in
about British and French

troops retreating in
ever increasing numbers

towards Dunkirk.

The Germans were now
in the position

of annihilating
the retreating

British Expeditionary Forces.

For all intents and purposes,
that would have

meant the end
of the British army.

The 230,000
troops stationed there

represented almost 70%
of the country's entire

armed forces.

On May 24, Adolf Hitler
boarded a plane and flew

from his German
headquarters to

Charleville, France, to
meet with his commanders.

He reviewed the situation
with his top general

Karl von Rundstedt
and decided to call a halt to

the German advance.

The chief of the German
army general staff

Franz Halder was both mystified
and angered by Hitler's

decision, writing in his
diary, "These orders from

"the top just
make no sense.

The tanks are stopped as
if they were paralyzed."

LUKACS: The interesting
thing is why Hitler was

somewhat reluctant to go
into Dunkirk immediately.

Hitler was too cautious.

He said, "Listen.
We have advanced too far.

"The tanks and the Panzers
are worn out.

Let's just stop
for a while."

But there was
another thing.

He let himself to be
convinced by Goering that

the Luftwaffe can do
the job in Dunkirk.

KINGSLEY: The day after
the halt order was

issued, the head of
the SS Heinrich Himmler

arrived in France for
confidential meetings

with Hitler.

The high-ranking
Nazi official brought

a memorandum
with him entitled,

"Reflections on the Treatment
of Alien Races in the East."

Among other things,
the document outlined

Himmler's hope that
the non-Aryan population

"will furnish Germany
annually with migrant

workers for special
tasks" and that

"the concepts of Jews will
be completely extinguished."

Hitler reviewed the memo
and told Himmler that he

found it "very
good and correct."

At the same time,
the Fuehrer also demanded that

it be kept top-secret.

Just a few miles outside
of Dunkirk on the verge

of one of the greatest
military victories

in recorded history,
foremost in Hitler's mind

was that which would
become known as

the Final Solution.

The very next day,
Adolf Hitler lifted the halt

order he had issued some
48 hours previously.

The advance of the German army
was in motion once again.

As this was occurring,
an argument began taking

place in the conference
room at number 10

Downing Street.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL:
Even though to the world

Churchill was now in
the driving seat, in reality

behind closed doors
within the British

cabinet, there was
a battle royal going on.

It was on a knife edge
whether the cabinet would

back Winston Churchill
in refusing to engage

in negotiations, because
Halifax was saying,

"Let's engage Herr Hitler
to see what terms he

might offer."

KINGSLEY: Halifax was
not the only one who held

such views.

There were people
involved at a very high

level within the British
government saying,

"Do not imagine that all of
us want war with Germany.

"There are many of us who
would accept an honorable

negotiated settlement."
And my grandfather saw

that as the slippery slope,
and he realized

that if one once embarked
on that course of action,

there would be no
holding point,

and the game would be lost.

KINGSLEY: Churchill
realized that if he was

going to win this
argument in the cabinet,

he was going to need
the support

of Neville Chamberlain.

Almost immediately upon
becoming Prime Minister,

he began to cultivate
favor with Chamberlain,

formerly his most
bitter rival.

Knowing how much
Mrs. Chamberlain enjoyed

living at number 10,
he told the former

Prime Minister that they
need not move out

of the residence there.
And just before his trip

to Paris, Churchill took
him aside and asked him

to "mind the store."

None of this was lost
on Chamberlain, who after

having been betrayed
by Hitler was no longer

a believer
in the appeasement philosophy

he once backed.

During one particularly
heated argument between

Churchill and Halifax,
the Prime Minister

suddenly cut the debate
short, explaining that he

had a prior
engagement at Parliament.

GILBERT: Although he'd
been Prime Minister

for 3 weeks, he'd not
yet met the majority

of the junior members
of his administration

because the pressure
of war being so,

and he said, "I have to go.

"It's just next.

I have to speak to them."

So he left the room,
and in the course of speaking

to them, he said, "I'm
one of those who thinks

we should fight
on to the end."

KINGSLEY: The Prime Minister
told the outer

cabinet that making peace
at this moment would not

get Britain better terms
as some were claiming.

"The Germans would
demand our fleet," he

maintained, "our naval
bases, and much else."

"We shall become
a slave state," he added.

"Where would we be at the
end of all that?" he asked.

The Prime Minister argued
that Britain still had

tremendous reserves
and advantages.

Because of that,
he insisted, "We shall go

"on and fight it out here
or elsewhere,

"and if at long last
the story is to end,

"it were better it should
end not through surrender

but only when we are rolling
senseless on the ground."

GILBERT: When he
said that, to his

astonishment, these
40 or 50 junior members

of his administration,
they stood up

and they crowded round him,
and they cheered him to

the rafters, and he was
completely overwhelmed.

He returned to
the meeting of ministers,

told them of this
demonstration, and said,

"So I think, gentlemen,
we do have to fight on,"

and Neville Chamberlain
quick as a flash said,

"Yes, I agree," which
isolated Halifax.

KINGSLEY: The debate
about whether to seek

terms with Hitler was
now a thing of the past.

Churchill had convinced
the government to fight on,

but it needed
an army to do that.

The only way to ensure
the battle could continue

would be to evacuate
the British Expeditionary Force

to Great Britain.

Bracing for the worst,
the Prime Minister told

Parliament "We must
prepare ourselves

"for hard
and heavy tidings.

"Nothing in this battle
can happen that can

"relieve us of our duty to
defend the world cause,

"nor can it destroy our
confidence in our power

"to make our way through
disaster and grief to

the ultimate defeat
of our enemy."

Churchill now focused his
attention on what would

become a rescue
unprecedented

in military history.

The plight of the British
Expeditionary Force was

no longer a subject about
which Americans were

remaining neutral.

A year earlier, most
Americans had been

opposed to any involvement
in the war in Europe.

Now public opinion
was shifting away

from isolationism.

Republican Party leaders
meeting in the Midwest

privately expressed their
concerns that sympathy

for the Allied cause was
growing and that this

could benefit
the Democrats

in the 1940 elections.

At the 1940 World's Fair
in New York City,

a sign was put up
at the popular

McGinnis Restaurant.

It requested that patrons
refrain from discussing

the war at the bar.

Bartenders were expected
to enforce the rule by

management because loud
disagreements among

patrons were disturbing
the atmosphere.

The change in sympathies
were also being reported

by the nation's press.

In the pages of
the nation's most respected

daily came the following
observation: "What some

"men had feared for many
months now was occurring

"to the whole population.

"Germany might win,
the British fleet might be

"swept from the seas,
an enemy might appear

on this side of
the Atlantic."

And the country's
most influential

syndicated columnist
Walter Lippmann noted,

"The rest of the world would
do well to recognize what is

"happening
in the United States.

"The American public
is changing its

mind profoundly."

KINGSLEY: Sunday, May 26, was

the National Day
of Prayer in England.

That morning, an
order was issued

from the Admiralty to
initiate the evacuation

of the British Expeditionary
Force from Dunkirk.

As early as
the 14th of May, the BBC

had broadcast
an announcement to the owners

of self-propelled
pleasure craft

between 30 and 100 feet long

to contact to Admiralty to
add to its roster of ships.

A flotilla of boats
now began to converge
upon Dover.

This rag-tag collection
of vessels would soon be

making a 22-mile voyage
across the English Channel

to Dunkirk for a maritime
rescue mission

that had never
before been attempted.

MAN: It was
an extraordinary sight.

All manner of small
and medium craft appeared.

Some had never been in
the open sea before.

They were manned
by volunteers.

Most were experienced
sailors, but many were

fledglings who
knew nothing

about maritime hazards.

KINGSLEY: Because
of the shortage of personnel,

many of the men were
asked to volunteer

for a month's duty
in the Royal Navy.

Many had little or no
idea what they were

getting themselves into.

MAN AS OSBORNE:
It was then we were told

in lurid detail
of the stunt at hand.

A cold, hard lump
formed in my stomach.

My tummy felt as if it
had dropped to my knees.

I had not even told my
wife and kiddies that

I had left London,
let alone joined up

with the navy.

KINGSLEY: There was
the 59-foot motor launch

piloted by a former
officer on the Titanic,

his teenage son,
and a Sea Scout.

The smallest craft in
the rescue fleet was

the Tamzine, a 17-foot
fishing boat.

The scene at Dunkirk that
awaited the flotilla was

a desperate one.

[Explosions, gunfire]

MAN: The overhead
bombardment

was terrifying.

I can't describe
the fear I felt as the planes

and gunfire got
closer to me.

Men were lined up
on the beach, waiting

for the boats to come to
ferry them to the ships

waiting in deeper water.

They were sitting
targets.

KINGSLEY: As
the situation worsened, many

soldiers tried swimming
out to the boats

in the Channel.

MAN AS LOWE: It must have
been a mile offshore,

and I swam hard through
discarded equipment

and bodies.

I was exhausted
when I was hauled up

onto the deck.

KINGSLEY: However, being
rescued from Dunkirk did

not ensure
returning home safe.

Many of the ships were
bombed from the air

or sunk by torpedoes.

One soldier whose ship
had taken a torpedo hit

said, "The disaster was
still trying to penetrate

"the outer layer
of my brain.

"I remember similar
situations

"in American films.

Gary Cooper always
finds a way out."

There were stories
of quiet heroism.

MAN: A boatload
of wounded came

into our ship.

One asked our lieutenant
if he could be brought

back ashore so he could
look after his wounded

comrades there.

Our lieutenant said
it wasn't possible.

Our boat needed to sail
to Dover immediately.

The soldier pleaded
but to no avail.

Then we heard
an approaching motorboat.

The man hailed it
and jumped into it

from our ship.

As he went, I could see
the intense fighting

on the beach
in the distance,

and I knew I wouldn't
have had the courage

to do what he did
that night.

KINGSLEY: A few
kilometers outside

of Dunkirk, directing
the attacking against

the evacuating British forces,

was General Franz Halder,
the chief of the German army

general staff.

Halder, who had strongly
opposed Hitler's halt

order a few days before,
could not contain his

anger about the fact
that the British

were escaping.

He wrote in his diary,
"The pocket would have

"been closed at the coast
if only our armor had not

"been held back.

"Now we must stand by
and watch countless thousands

of the enemy get away to
England under our noses."

As the boats pulled
away from the coastline

of France, among those
rescued were tens

of thousands of French
soldiers, fighting

with the British
Expeditionary Force.

Many had tears streaming
down their faces,

wondering if they would
ever see home again.

For the almost
250,000 English soldiers,

the escape was
much less melancholy.

Recalled one,
the sweetest words he ever

heard were
"Wakey wakey, lads.

You're at Dover."

Until the masses
of troops started arriving home,

the British people
had been kept in the dark

about the evacuation
for security purposes.

Newspapers were now
filled with emotional

stories of
the returning troops.

The "Manchester Guardian"
noted "One watched them

"with a pride that
became almost pain as one

cheerful, patient figure
succeeded another."

A reporter from
the "Daily Express"

exclaimed, "It is
the greatest sight

"I've ever seen!

"The men came ashore in
heaps, barely able to

"stand, yet they pulled
themselves in straight

lines and walked to
the harbor gates."

The public welcomed
the soldiers

home enthusiastically.

Crowds awaited them
with signs proclaiming,

"Well done, BEF,"
and "Thumbs-up!"

The Women's Voluntary
Services, which had been

formed in 1938 to
assist in civil defense,

worked around the clock
to provide sandwiches

and tea for the returnees
as they arrived

at the railway stations.

But not everyone
was as welcoming.

One civil servant who'd
taken the day off

at the weekend was questioned
by his boss, a government

official, about
the suntan he'd

returned with.

Had he been sunbathing in
Hyde Park, the suspicious

official wanted to know.

"No, sir,"
the man answered.

"I've been with my small
sailing boat to rescue

survivors from
the beaches near Dunkirk."

And then there was
the Marquess of Reading,

the commanding officer of
one particular unit that

fought heroically
on the beaches.

He ordered his troops to
line up for inspection as

they arrived at
the train station.

As he looked them over,
he sneered, "Never in all

"my army career have
I seen such a display

"of filth and dirt,
an absolute disgrace to

the men wearing
His Majesty's uniform."

One of the soldiers his
lordship was dressing

down was Fred Pelican,
a Jewish immigrant from

Breslau, Germany,
who had joined

the British Expeditionary Force
almost immediately upon

his arrival in England.

Just two years
previously, he'd been

an inmate at the Dachau
concentration camp, where

he was tortured.

Miraculously, he'd been
released when his mother

managed to secure
an immigration visa for him,

which brought him
to Great Britain.

Stanley Mewis was
another of the returnees.

He was one of less
than 70 survivors

of the torpedo attack on
the HMS Wakeful in which

almost 700 soldiers
were killed.

Unbeknownst to Mewis,
his mother had received

a telegram saying
he was missing

and presumed killed.

MAN AS MEWIS:
My mother was overwhelmed.

I didn't tell her
I was coming.

I just turned up,
and she was very shocked.

It was a few weeks after
this that I got married.

The vicar wanted me
to get married in my uniform,

but it was
covered in black oil

and was filthy.

I certainly couldn't
get married like that.

KINGSLEY: The rescue of
the British Expeditionary Force

seemed to unify
the nation and give it

a much needed
psychological boost.

Harold Nicolson,
who as a junior member

of the Churchill
government, had urged his

wife, the famed writer
Vita Sackville-West, to

prepare a suicide pill
only days before,

convinced that
the Germans would defeat them.

Now he wrote to her,
"My darling,

"how infectious courage is.

"I am rendered far
stronger in heart

and confidence
by such bravery."

Nellie Last, a Lancashire
housewife, jotted in her

diary, "I forgot I was
a middle-aged woman who

"woke up tired
and often had a backache.

"The story made me feel
a part of something that

was undying
and never old."

And in a small apartment
in Hampstead

in North London,
David Ben-Gurion,

who would become Israel's
first Prime Minister,

was listening closely to

radio reports about
the Dunkirk rescue.

Ben-Gurion had come
to England to consult

with Zionist Organization
President Chaim Weizmann,

who was based in London.

In a letter to his
wife Paula in Tel Aviv,

he marveled at Britain's
perseverance in fighting

until victory even
when it remained alone

in the struggle.

"As it happens," he
wrote, "I was called here

"during days that will
not quickly be forgotten

by history."

In the end, over 860
ships belonging to

the Royal Navy
or civilians participated

in the rescue.

More than
240 were sunk.

Over 300,000 allied
troops were brought out

of Dunkirk, 228,000
British,

and the remainder French.

Over 2,000 were
killed in the treacherous

crossing
of the English Channel.

As the evacuation was
completed on June 4,

Churchill addressed
Parliament, acknowledging

that a miracle had
taken place at Dunkirk.

At the same time, he
wanted the nation to be

realistic about what
had actually occurred.

CHURCHILL: We must be
very careful not to

assign to this
deliverance

the attributes of a victory.

Wars are not won
by evacuation.

Our thankfulness
at the escape of our army

and so many men does not
blind us to the fact that

what happened in France
and Belgium is a colossal

military disaster.

So I have, myself, full
confidence that if all do

their duty, we shall
prove ourselves once more

able to defend
our Island home.

We shall go on to
the end, we shall fight

in France, we shall fight
on the seas and oceans,

we shall fight with
growing confidence

and growing strength
in the air,

we shall defend our Island,

whatever the cost may be.

We shall fight
on the beaches,

we shall fight
on the landing grounds,

we shall fight in the fields
and in the streets,

we shall fight
in the hills;

we shall never surrender.

KINGSLEY: In the United States,
Churchill's words

resonated deeply to both
the average American,

as well as
to President Roosevelt.

GOODWIN: When Churchill
was able to give words

that gave meaning to
the Dunkirk evacuation,

that is something
that both Roosevelt

and the American people
had enormous respect for,

and Roosevelt especially
was a man of words.

He knew how important
it could be to instill

confidence in a people to
get them through, as he

had gotten them through
those early days

of the Depression,
and now he hears

and the American people
hear those extraordinary

words that Churchill gave
after Dunkirk, plus

the miraculous evacuation,
which made people feel,

Yes, There's something
in that British spirit.

KINGSLEY: Less than
a week after the evacuation

at Dunkirk
and the Prime Minister's speech,

a nationwide Gallup
poll found that 62%

of Americans were
convinced that if

the Nazis defeated France
and Britain, the United States

would be attacked next.
And in a "Life" magazine

survey, over 70% said
that they were in favor

of the adoption
of immediate compulsory

military training for
young men, while 88%

answered that the U.S.
should "Arm to the teeth

at any expense."

On June 10,
President Roosevelt addressed

the graduating class at
the University of Virginia,

which included his son
Franklin Roosevelt Jr.

He had decided to use
the occasion to make a strong

statement in support
of the British and to condemn

Italy, which had just
joined Nazi Germany

and declared war
on the Allies.

ROOSEVELT: In our unity,
in our American unity,

we will extend
to the opponents of force

the material resources
of this nation.

[Applause]

We will harness
and speed up the use

of those resources.

We will not slow
down or detour.

Signs and signals
call for speed,

full speed ahead.

[Applause]

KINGSLEY: Prime Minister
Churchill was extremely

heartened by FDR's
speech, cabling

the President that his words
were "an encouragement to

the Allies
in a dark hour."

The hour was getting even
darker as the German army

was now advancing on
Paris with the Luftwaffe

already bombing
parts of the city.

At this point, Premier Reynaud
and the cabinet

moved the government
a hundred miles southwest

of Paris, the first
of two moves that would

occur over
the next two weeks.

The developments in Paris
alarmed Churchill, who

was determined to keep
the French in the fight.

Churchill conferred
with his war cabinet and then

sent another urgent cable
to President Roosevelt.

"This is the moment for
you," Churchill told

the President,
"to strengthen Reynaud

the utmost you can."

The Prime Minister then
flew to France to meet

with Reynaud
and the French war cabinet.

The premier was not
encouraged by Churchill's

correspondence with FDR.

However, Churchill
managed to convince

Reynaud to hang on
until he heard back

from the President.

This was not what
the French war cabinet

wanted to hear.

The French chief of staff,
General Maxime Weygand,

gave Churchill
an extremely bleak

assessment
of the situation

of the French military.

As Weygand saw things,
France had no other

choice but to
negotiate an armistice

with Hitler.

The general
and Reynaud had been arguing

about this for days.

Disagreements
between the premier

and the chief of staff
often turned into

personal shouting matches.

Weygand accused Reynaud
of being callous towards

the French people, who
were suffering because he

insisted on continuing
the fight.

Reynaud argued that in
negotiating peace terms,

Weygand was "taking
Hitler for Kaiser Wilhelm,

"the old gentleman
who only took

from us Alsace-Lorraine."

"Hitler," shouted
the primer,

"is Genghis Khan!"

Adding to the strain
the French leader was under

was the pressure being
brought onto him by his

mistress, the Countess
Hélène de Portes,

a well-known fascist
sympathizer.

She read his private
correspondence,

interfered in government
affairs, and tried

cajoling him into
making an armistice.

In fact, the countess
was so infuriated that

Churchill was prodding
her lover to keep

fighting the Nazis that
as the two men were

saying an emotional good-bye
to one another before

the Prime Minister's
return to England,

she lunged at Churchill,
trying to attack him.

Inspector Walter H. Thompson,

the Prime Minister's
personal bodyguard,

managed to stop the assault.

"She had no gun,"
he explained, "but we found

a knife on her person."

The threat to Churchill's
physical safety on their

trip did not stop
with the Countess de Portes.

Flying across
the English Channel on the way

back to London without
a fighter escort,

the Prime Minister's plane
suddenly dove towards the sea.

A Nazi fighter plane was
attacking French fishing

boats in the channel.

The quick action
of Churchill's pilot,

diving into the sea mist,
kept he Luftwaffe airman

from seeing
the Prime Minister's plane.

Commented Inspector
Thompson, "Some German

"pilot will never know how
close he was to winning

an Iron Cross
first class."

Premier Reynaud sent
one last desperate

correspondence to
Roosevelt early

on June 14.

"If you cannot give to
France the certainty that

"the United States will
come into the war within

a very short time,"
wrote Reynaud, "the fate

of the world will
change."

But was too late.

That same day, the German
army marched into Paris

and occupied the city.

Infantrymen paraded
down the Champs-Elysees

and through
the Arc de Triomphe.

Nazi soldiers acted
like tourists, enjoying

themselves in the cafes
and photographing each

other in front
of the Eiffel Tower.

The news that Paris had
fallen stunned the rest

of the world.

In New York's
Tin Pan Alley, Jerome Kern

and Oscar Hammerstein
quickly wrote a song that

became a bestseller, as
well as a lament for what

had been lost.

WOMAN: ♪ The last
time I saw Paris ♪

♪ Her heart was
warm and gay ♪

♪ I heard
the laughter of her heart ♪

♪ In every street cafe ♪

♪ The last time
I saw Paris ♪

♪ Her heart was
young and gay ♪

♪ No matter how
they change her ♪

♪ I'll remember
her that way ♪

KINGSLEY: Within two
days, Reynaud resigned,

and a new French
government headed by

the venerated
World War I hero

Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain
was now in place,

with its capital in Vichy.

Churchill sent word to
Reynaud, asking that he

come to England and head
up the French resistance

movement there,
but the now former premier

declined the offer.

Fearing arrest,
he quickly left

with Countess de Portes,
driving south,

where the Nazis had not
yet occupied the country.

A few miles away, their
car crashed into a tree,

killing the countess
instantly.

A few weeks later,
the former premier would be

arrested by the Vichy
government and imprisoned

for the rest of the war.

Almost immediately
after being named

the new French leader,
Marshal Pétain sent word

to Hitler requesting
an armistice.

24 hours later,
the Vichy government signed

terms capitulating
to Nazi Germany.

Within a few months,
German military

authorities in France
issued the first laws

severely limiting
Jewish rights.

Jewish businesses were
required to post signs

identifying them as such.

Jews were required to
submit to a census and to

carry I.D. cards
with the marking "Juif."

The bad news about
France was leading to

speculation that
a similar onslaught was

ahead for Great Britain.

The Prime Minister
decided to send a message

to Hitler and the rest of
the world in what would

become one of his most
dramatic addresses to

the House of Commons.

CHURCHILL: I expect that
the Battle of Britain is

about to begin.

The whole fury and might
of the enemy must very

soon be turned on us.

If we can stand up
to him, all Europe

may be free.

But if we fail, then
the whole world will sink

into the abyss
of a new Dark Age.

Let us therefore brace
ourselves to our duties,

and so bear ourselves
that, if the British Empire

and its Commonwealth last

for a thousand years,
men will still say,

"This was their
finest hour."

KINGSLEY: Despite
the fact that French

armistice terms with
Germany did not require

surrendering their navy,
Prime Minister Churchill

was convinced that
the Nazis would get

control of it.

Through the prime
minister's office,

the French admiral in Algiers
was ordered to either

join the British or
neutralize his ships.

When he refused,
the British navy attacked

the French fleet there.

More than a thousand
French sailors were killed,

and the ships were sunk.

The decision was
a heart-wrenching one

for Churchill, who was in
tears when he announced

it to Parliament.

In France, the reaction
to the news was so bitter

that all relations
between the Pétain

government and Great
Britain were broken off.

On July 10, what
Churchill had described

as the Battle of Britain
a month earlier

officially began.
But it was not the German

land invasion that
so many had predicted.

The Luftwaffe started
bombing British shipping

convoys in
the English Channel.

The Royal Air Force
quickly responded,

and battles were soon
taking place in the skies

above England.

With France defeated
and tens of thousands

of German troops
in northern France,

some 20 miles across
the English Channel,

why didn't Hitler invade
the British Isles?

British intelligence
agents at Bletchley Park

outside London got
advanced word of such

an attack.

They had captured
the German military encoding

machine called Enigma
and had broken its code

on the same day Churchill
became Prime Minister.

For weeks, they had been
intercepting orders from

the Nazi high command
and sending them to Churchill

and the war cabinet.

On July 16, they
decrypted an order

from Hitler called Operation
Sea Lion, in which he

said, "I have decided
to begin to prepare

"for and if necessary
carry out an invasion

of England."

There was little
question at that time

about the ability of
the German infantry to carry

off an exercise
of this nature.

Even in the Churchill
home, there was concern

about the likelihood
of a Nazi invasion.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL:
I remember my mother

Pamela Harriman,
who later became American

ambassador to France,
telling me how age 20,

6 months pregnant with me,
dining alone with her

in-laws,
with my grandfather

and grandmother,
my grandfather comes

to table,
and silence reigns.

Nobody says anything,
and he's far away, brooding

in his thoughts, and he
suddenly brings his eyes

into focus on my mother's
and said, "If the Hun

"comes, I'm counting on
each one of you to take

one with you
before you go."

And my mother said, "But,
Papa, I don't have a gun,

and if I did, I wouldn't
know how to use it."

"But, my dear, you can
go to the kitchen and get

a carving knife."

KINGSLEY: However, Hitler
delayed launching

a land invasion
for the time being.

As was the case in
Dunkirk, he may have been

listening to Goering, who
maintained that in order

to successfully invade
Britain, Germany needed to

first obliterate
the RAF and gain control

of the skies. And Goering
was betting on a quick

victory, as the Luftwaffe
outnumbered the RAF more

than two to one
at that moment.

The Germans initially
concentrated their

attacks on Dover
and the southeastern corner

of England.

Defeating the British
thee would make it easier

for the Nazis to launch
a cross-Channel

land invasion.

In spite of being
outnumbered by the Germans,

the RAF's two
main fighter aircraft,

the Spitfire
and the Hurricane,

were superior to the Luftwaffe's
principal fighter,

the Messerschmitt, in both
range and firepower.

Throughout July and early
August, the Germans lost

more than twice as many
planes as the British.

ANNOUNCER: Somebody's hit
a German, and he's coming

down in a long streak.

He's coming down
completely out of control,

a long streak of smoke.

The man's bailed
out by parachute.

The pilot's bailed
out by parachute.

It's a Junker 87,
and it's going slap into

the sea, and there he goes.

Smash!

KINGSLEY: A frustrated
Goering called a meeting

of his top fighter aces
to ask if there was

something else they
needed to turn the tide

against the RAF.

When he asked Adolf Galland,
the Luftwaffe's

most famous and feared
fighter pilot, the German

ace answered,
"I should like an outfit

of Spitfires."

Goering stormed out
of the meeting in a rage.

But this was not a one-sided
battle, especially

when Goering ordered
massive strikes on RAF

airfields to knock
out the Spitfires

and the Hurricanes before
they could take to

the air, in an operation
called The Attack

of the Eagles.

[Air raid siren]

An additional component
of this strategy was

German raids on key
British factories

and industries during
the evening hours, taking

advantage
of the Luftwaffe's

superior nighttime
bombing techniques.

Bletchley Park decoders
had picked up

the Luftwaffe chief's
orders for the operation,

learning that it would
start anytime after August 5.

While Goering's Attack
of the Eagles strategy

inflicted serious
damage on RAF airfields

and British
industry, poor German

intelligence seriously
hampered the effort.

The Luftwaffe's
intelligence chief,

Colonel Joseph "Beppo" Schmidt,
often told Goering what

he wanted to hear
rather than the reality

of the situation.

At one point, Schmidt
reported that

the Luftwaffe had destroyed
so much of the RAF that

it had no more
than 300-400

fighters left.

The truth was
it was almost 650

at that moment.

Britain's aircraft
industry was quickly

closing the gap,
producing planes

at the rate of 4-1
over the Germans.

[Ringing]

During this period, RAF
pilots scrambled to their

planes as many as
6 or 7 times a day.

While the RAF may have
been lacking in numbers,

they weren't to short
on spirit or courage.

The majority of the flyers were

in their late teens
and early 20s.

The squadrons were
on permanent alert,

with the young pilots
practically living

in their flight suits
on the Tarmac,

sleeping in tents
or makeshift huts,

scrambling at the sound
of the alarm.

In minutes, they were in
the air, taking off from

landing strips that were
often hastily converted

farm fields.

The key was to keep alert
in the air and watch

from all sides,
remembering the refrain

"Watch for the Hun
in the sun."

There was squadron leader
Douglas Bader, who flew

despite the fact that he
had lost both of his legs.

And Sailor Malan,
a South African who reportedly

got his nickname from serving
in the merchant marines.

The truth was that he
preferred Sailor to his real

first name--Adolph.

His 10 rules for
air fighting began with,

"Wait until you see
the whites of his eyes."

Not all of them
were youngsters.

42-year-old Ernie Mayne
was a World War I fighter pilot

who volunteered
and flew alongside

the 19- and 20-year-olds.

Billy Fiske was one
of the 10 Americans flying

with the RAF then.

An Olympic gold medalist,
he'd come to England to

study at Cambridge
and married

the Countess of Warwick.

Masquerading as
a Canadian, he joined

the RAF, flying a Hurricane.

Other Americans included
Eugene "Red" Tobin from

California, who'd worked
as a studio messenger

at MGM to finance
his flying lessons

before he came to England
to volunteer.

And Andy Mamedoff from Miami
was a well-known stunt flyer,

who had barnstormed
across the U.S. before

joining the RAF.

Vernon "Shorty" Keough
from Brooklyn, New York,

was 4'10", the shortest
officer in the RAF.

He needed two inflatable
pillows to see out

through the windows
of his Hurricane.

None would survive
the war.

GILBERT: There was even
a German fighter pilot

in the Battle of Britain--
Ken Adam--later

a distinguished
filmmaker involved

in the James Bond films,
and Ken Adam was a young

flight lieutenant, was
one of the bravest

of the British
fighter pilots,

and he was
a German Jewish refugee.

KINGSLEY: There were also
the women who joined

the Women's
Auxiliary Air Force.

While some in the RAF
referred to them as

the Beauty Chorus, their
bravery and ability to

keep calm under fire
was unquestioned.

Some of the first
casualties

of the Battle of Britain
were volunteers belonging to

the Women's Auxiliary
Air Force, who refused to

leave their posts
and radar stations

that came under attack.

These young women were
also the witnesses to

the last screams of RAF
pilots trapped in their

cockpits as their
flaming planes plunged

to the ground.

Those who were able to eject
themselves from their

disabled aircraft were
not assured rescue

or survival.

Many who bailed out
into the freezing waters

of the English Channel
died of hypothermia

waiting for help in view
of the white cliffs of Dover.

The heroism of these
young airmen was not lost

on Winston Churchill.

In mid August,
at the height

of The Attack of the Eagles,
the Prime Minister

and Military
Chief of Staff Lord Ismay

drove down to Oxbridge,

the RAF's southern
headquarters.

During the course
of their visit, waves

of German bombers began
attacking, and the RAF

immediately responded
with its Spitfires

and Hurricanes.

Churchill was quite
taken with the courage

of the RAF pilots,
the ground crews,

and the radio operators
of the Women's Auxiliary
Air Force.

After the battle was over,
Churchill and Lord Ismay

left Oxbridge.

As the car pulled away,
Churchill admonished

the general,
"Don't speak to me.

I have never
been so moved."

A few minutes later,
he turned to Ismay

and uttered the words
that became part of one

of his most celebrated
speeches of the war.

CHURCHILL: The gratitude
of every home in our

Island, in our Empire,
and indeed throughout the world

goes out to the British
airmen who, undaunted by

odds, unwearied in
their constant challenge

and mortal danger,
are turning the tide

of the world war
by their prowess

and by their devotion.

Never in the field
of human conflict was

so much owed
by so many to so few.

KINGSLEY: In the closing
days of August,

the Luftwaffe's bombers
caused their most serious

damage to the RAF during
the Battle of Britain.

Had the Nazis
continued to focus

on the airfields, the RAF
might not have been able

to recover, and Operation
Sea Lion, Hitler's

proposed land invasion
of the British Isles,

might have succeeded.

On the evening
of August 24, a simple

navigational error led
German bombers to drop

their payload on
civilian areas of London.

Prime Minister Churchill
was furious and ordered

retaliatory raids on
Berlin to take place

within 24 hours.

They continued for
the next 4 days, terrifying

the German public
and humiliating

Hermann Goering.

He had promised Berliners
that the Luftwaffe would

ensure their city
would always be safe.

He had once said that,
"If one British bomb ever

fell on Berlin,
my name is Meyer."

Hitler could not
contain his anger

about the British attack,
and in a speech

at the beginning of
September, he promised

a frenzied crowd, "If they
attack our cities, we

will wipe out theirs."

Heil!

Sieg...

Heil!

Sieg...

Heil!

KINGSLEY: By attacking
Berlin, Churchill

provoked Hitler into
changing the Luftwaffe's

strategy from bombing
Britain's airfields

and industry to attacking
its cities and civilians.

It also forced the Fuehrer
to put Operation Sea Lion

on hold indefinitely.

This enabled the RAF
to replenish itself

for the fight ahead.

England had held out
and decisively won

the Battle of Britain,
a turning point in the war.

At the same time,
the British people were

about to experience
a period of almost

unrelenting terror.

MAN: I'm standing
on the roof

of Broadcasting House
on this evening

of Sunday, in September,

and we had a warning
earlier on in the day,

but this is the first
time the raiders

actually appeared over London.
And they were met

by a tremendous barrage
of antiaircraft fire.

[Air raid sirens]

You could see their
flashes quite plainly,

and we had shrapnel
falling around,

and away on the far side
of the river, there's another

severe fire over
in the direction of Woolwich,

where they've started
another large fire.

I can actually see
Saint Paul's and the city

churches silhouetted
against the blaze.

KINGSLEY: September the 7th,
1940, became known as

Black Saturday,
the official beginning

of what the world would
soon call the Blitz.

Throughout the fall
and winter of 1940

and well into 1941,
German bombers conducted

nightly raids
over London.

The air raid sirens would sound,
and wherever

one was in the city,
he or she would run to

the closest shelter.

Some people would go
down into deep shelters

in the Underground.

The trains kept running
until about midnight,

and people getting on
and off the trains, so you

could only actually
sleep at the back

of the platform
and in passageways.

If you had a back garden,
you could have your own

Anderson shelter.

You got two pieces
of corrugated iron that were

bolted together.

There were quite a few
cases where people slept

under railway arches,
and a direct hit,

and everybody died.

KINGSLEY: For parents,
many of whom were working

in the city, the anxiety
about their children,

who were either
at school or at home,

was overwhelming.

Many opted to send them
to relatives, friends,

even strangers
in the countryside, where

the Luftwaffe was not
dropping bombs.

[Air raid sirens]

[Explosions]

The Luftwaffe's bombs
fell indiscriminately.

From the wealth
of Mayfair to the poor

Italian and Jewish
neighborhoods in the East End,

no one was shown any mercy.

Yet, the next day,

people picked up
the pieces of their lives.

They found new places
to live if they had to

and went off
to their jobs.

GASKIN: And if
the office wasn't there,

there would probably be
a rope across

with a piece of paper saying,
"The office has moved to

so and so," and then
they'd have to sort of

climb over whatever
they had to climb over to

get to the new office.

My mum, for example,
she would be working up

in the city,
and she said you would turn up,

and sometimes,
the buildings just weren't

there anymore, and I'd
say, "Well, how did you

carry on?"

And she said, "Well, you
just got on with it."

KINGSLEY: American
journalists covering

the Blitz spent
a great deal of time

trying to figure
out what kept
the British going.

The American newspaper
reporter Ernie Pyle

published a dispatch
when the country's most

important church after
Westminster Abbey,

Saint Paul's,
was bombed during one raid

in November 1940.

He noted that Londoners
looked at the damage

without sadness and said,
"We would rather have it

"that way in a free London
than have it whole like

Notre Dame in
an imprisoned Paris."

One of the key reasons
why the British managed

to keep going despite
the nightly barrage

of Luftwaffe bombs was
seeing their Prime Minister

Winston Churchill out among them
on a regular basis.

From the moment
the Blitz started, Churchill

ventured out into
the streets to inspect damage

and offer comfort
to Londoners.

CHURCHILL: These cruel,
wanton, indiscriminate

bombings of London are, of
course, a part of Hitler's

invasion plan.

Little does he know
the spirit of the British

nation or the tough
fiber of the Londoners.

KINGSLEY: To protect
the Prime Minister,

the cabinet, the highest
echelons of the military,

and the government,
a heavily fortified

underground complex was
built, called

the Cabinet War Rooms,
just steps away

from number 10 Downing Street.

The Prime Minister's wife
Clementine, his personal

bodyguard Inspector
Walter H. Thompson,

as well as many in
the government would have

preferred that he
remained in the safety

of the Cabinet War Rooms.

But to the chagrin
of those surrounding him,

Churchill insisted
on being where
the action was.

He would often go
up on the roof

of the government offices
in Whitehall to view

an air raid as
it was occurring.

On one occasion, while
dining with the King

at number 10,
the Luftwaffe began bombing

and both His Majesty
and the Prime Minister

were asked to go into the
shelter, but Churchill refused,

telling the King,
"I must go out

and see how
things are going."

The Prime Minister
did not like to sleep

in the bedroom provided for him
in the Cabinet War Rooms.

He preferred
the residence at number 10

so he could get outside
quickly during a raid

and see what
was happening.

One day, Mrs. Churchill
got word from the Air Ministry

that a big attack was expected.

She made her husband
promise that they would

sleep in the private quarters
at the Cabinet War Rooms.

She asked Inspector Thompson
to make sure

that the Prime Minister
did just that.

When the air raid began,
the bodyguard was amazed

to see Churchill getting
into his bedclothes

and doing exactly
what his wife
had requested of him.

But when Thompson
returned to his own room,

his bell rang,
and he returned to find

the Prime Minister
in his dressing gown

and slippers.

"Thompson, get my
clothes," he said.

"I've kept my promise
to Mrs. Churchill.

Now I'm going
upstairs to sleep."

Churchill insisted
on taking his nightly

constitutional
in Saint James' Park

despite the danger.

After one such walk as
he and Inspector Thompson

stepped into the annex at
number 10, a tremendous

explosion occurred.

The bodyguard was hoping
that his might dissuade

the Prime Minister from
taking further strolls,

but he was undaunted,
telling Thompson,

"There is someone looking
after me besides you."

"Do you mean Sergeant Davis?"
the inspector asked,

referring to his assistant.

"No," answered
the Prime Minister,
as he pointed his finger

towards the skies.

"I have a mission to
perform," said Churchill,

and that person
intends to see
that it is performed."

It was Churchill's
practice to go out among

the people, especially
after a particularly

severe bombing raid.

Inspector Thompson
recalled that, surrounded

by the intense
devastation of a whole

block or cluster of homes,
he would stand and talk,

chatting with survivors,
listening to their

accountings of what
had happened to them.

After one raid,
the Prime Minister arrived

at the scene of a bombed
house, only to pitch in

and help the rescue workers.

MAN AS THOMPSON: Winston
went down on his knees to

clutch a woman who,
still conscious,
was being dug out.

For a moment, they looked
at one another,

Winston with his coat
and trousers spattered

with mud, the woman
covered from head to

foot in dust.

Then with a tremor in her
voice, she thanked him

and was taken
away by friends.

"There goes
greatness," Winston said.

Tears were streaming
down his face.

There were many occasions
when he would silently

and without shame
or embarrassment

weep without speaking
for many minutes.

KINGSLEY: Winston Churchill's
visibility

among the people, as
well as his addresses

on the radio, helped to
send a message to Britons

that became a watchword
during the Blitz--

Keep calm and carry on.

GASKIN: Winston Churchill
really sort of put all

the right words
in the right order so that

people could
say, "Yes, yes.

"I can move, fight on.

"I can get myself up
and do the next day.

We will keep going."

KINGSLEY: On several
occasions, the Prime Minister

was accompanied
by the King and Queen.

While many in
the government had insisted

that the royal family
move to Canada for their

safety, the King
and Queen refused,

insisting it was their duty
to stay in England.

They remained
in Buckingham Palace

with the two princesses
even after it was bombed

during one raid,
killing a member

of the Royal Guard.

WOMAN: When we heard
that our King and Queen

weren't deserting us
and going to a safer country,

of course we were all
thrilled, and it gave

everybody a lot
of hope and courage,

and that meant a lot.

KINGSLEY: Another
important component

in helping to keep up
the sprits of the British

people during
the worst of the Blitz

was popular culture.

LYNN: When war was
declared, everybody

assumed that everything
was going to close up,

particularly places
of entertainment.

But of course,
that didn't prove so.

People were very glad
of the entertainment,

and they all still hoped
that everything would be

OK while they were there,
but the manager used to

come on stage and say that
there'd been the siren

and if anybody wished to
leave, they could and go

to the nearest shelter.
And those who wanted to

stay could just say,
and of course, they stayed.

Only recently I had
a letter from someone

saying that they were on
their way home one night

from work and they passed
a theater in London

and saw my name up,
and they thought, "Ooh,

right. I'll just pop in
and see her," because he

was a fan, and he did,
and he enjoyed the show.

but when he got home,
his house had gone.

It had just been bombed
and blown away.

So he said he was very
grateful to me for probably

saving his life.

You know, I remember singing

"A Nightingale Sang
in Berkeley Square"

one night,
and the sirens went off,

and of course,
it was no nightingale

we could hear but
the start of some bombing,

but nobody moved.

They still sat there,
and I still stood on stage

and carried on with my
nightingale that was

singing in
Berkeley Square.

LYNN: ♪ The streets of town ♪

♪ Were paved
with stars ♪

♪ It was such
a romantic affair ♪

♪ And as we kissed
and said good night ♪

♪ A nightingale sang
in Berkeley Square ♪

♪ I know 'cause
I was there ♪

♪ That night ♪

♪ In Berkeley Square ♪

KINGSLEY: Ironically,
some of the best

entertainment
took place

in some of the underground
shelters.

They had the ballroom
at the Dorchester Hotel,

where there was
an orchestra and people

danced as the bombs fell.

GASKIN: Somebody sort of
looked around this very

high-class room and said,
"If a bomb hit now, it

"would be like the Titanic
going down all over again,"

and then someone
else pointed out that

a lot of these really
well-dressed girls were

actually during
the day or on other nights

driving ambulances or
fire trucks, or they

might be nurses.

KINGSLEY: November
1940, was a difficult

month for Great Britain.

The Luftwaffe carried out
one of its most powerful

bombing raids
on the town of Coventry.

Over 500 German
bombers destroyed

4,000 homes, killing
600 and wounding more

than a thousand.

There was not a building
in the city center that

did not suffer
some damage.

Giving the British public
some hope was the fact

that Franklin Roosevelt
had won an unprecedented

third term as President
of the United States.

FDR had campaigned on
a platform that said,

"All aid to Britain
short of war."

The President was
quite concerned that

with Britain under attack,
the United States would

not be far behind.

One afternoon, FDR,
who was paralyzed from

the waist down with polio,
demonstrated to an aide

how he would make for
the nearest exit in the event

of a German air raid.

He got out of his
wheelchair, got down

on the floor, and began
to move on his elbows.

The First Lady happened
to walk into the Oval Office

at this moment
and fled in tears when she

realized what her
husband was doing.

With the election behind
him, President Roosevelt

began to focus on getting
Churchill the destroyers

and other military
aid he'd been asking

for since he became
Prime Minister in May.

His job was made somewhat
easier when the Luftwaffe

pounded London on
December 29, igniting

even greater support
in America

for the British people.

That evening,
the President addressed

the nation about
the situation

in Great Britain in one of
his famous fireside chats.

We must be the great
arsenal of democracy.

For us, this is
an emergency as serious as

war itself.

There will be no
bottleneck in our

determination
to aid Great Britain.

CHOIR: ♪ Ding dong
merrily on high ♪

♪ In Heaven,
the bells are ringing ♪

♪ Ding dong verily... ♪

KINGSLEY: The weekend between
Christmas and New Year's,

"Christmas Under Fire,"
a short film

written and narrated
by the American journalist

Quentin Reynolds,
was rushed into 16,000

movie theaters in
the United States.

It had a big impact on
public opinion just prior

to President Roosevelt's
State of the Union Address.

FDR laid out a plan
that would lend American

destroyers and other
military equipment to

Great Britain in exchange
for leases on British

naval bases.

FDR dispatched a close
aide and confidant,

the former commerce secretary
Harry Hopkins, to England

to meet with Churchill
to help coordinate

the working
relationship between

the two countries.

Hopkins was tremendously
moved by what he saw

in England and created
a close bond with Churchill

that would last
the rest of the war.

In early March 1941,
after two months

of politicking, the U.S.
Lend-Lease Act passed

in the Congress.

The long-awaited American
destroyers and other

material were on their
way to Great Britain.

Within a few weeks,
Germany began to scale

back on their
nightly bombing raids.

The British people had
refused to give up during

the Blitz.

The Luftwaffe's arsenals
were becoming depleted.

RAF retaliatory raids on
Berlin and other German

cities were also
shaking up the Nazis.

One British attack came as
Russian Foreign Minister Molotov

was completing meetings
with Hermann Goering

and German Foreign Minister
von Ribbentrop.

Throughout the meetings, Goering
and von Ribbentrop kept bragging

that Great Britain
was finished.

As RAF bombs started
raining down on Berlin,

Molotov looked at his
hosts and asked,

"If Britain is finished,
then why are we in this

shelter, and whose bombs
are falling on us?"

In the North London
neighborhood where

David Ben-Gurion was living,
he often found himself

in the shelter
in the Underground station

around the corner
from his flat during air raids.

Back in his apartment
after the all clear,

the future Prime Minister
of Israel reflected

on Winston Churchill's
leadership, writing,

"He lifted an entire nation
out of the depths

"of humiliation and defeat,
instilled in them

"the spiritual strength
to hold fast
against heavy odds.

If not for Churchill,
England would have gone down."

8 years later, as Israel
was about to declare its

independence, Ben-Gurion
thought back on his time
in London.

"I recall the men
and women of London during

the Blitz," he wrote.

"I have seen what
a people are capable

of achieving
in the hour of supreme trial.

"I have seen their spirit
touched by nobility.

This is what
the Jewish people can do."

There was another reason
why the Nazis began to

decrease their raids on
England in the spring of 1941.

Hitler had made
the decision to launch

Operation Barbarossa,
the invasion

of the Soviet Union.

3 days before the invasion began
on June 21, 1941,

Nazi Propaganda Minister
Joseph Goebbels

expressed his frustration
about Winston Churchill.

"Were it not for him,"
wrote Goebbels in his diary,

"this war would
have ended long ago."

Despite the fact that
Russia and Germany had

signed a non-aggression
pact, relations between

the two had deteriorated
and become hostile.

Hitler was convinced that
invading in June would

ensure a quick victory
before the bitter Russian
winter set in.

Within a month
of the Nazi invasion,

special units of the SS
called the Einsatzgruppen

were sent into the Ukraine
and eastern Poland.

Their mission was to
eliminate the Jewish
population from those areas.

Over the next 18 months,
more than 1.5 million Jews

were murdered at killing
centers called Belzec,

Majdanek, Treblinka,
and Sobibor.

Back in the summer
of 1941 at Bletchley Park,

Enigma intercepts
were providing

Prime Minister Churchill
with information

about the Einsatzgruppen
murder squads.

Churchill decided
to raise the issue

with President Roosevelt
at their first face-to-face

meeting off the coast
of Canada in late August 1941.

GILBERT: Churchill
had spoken on what was

happening to the Jews of Russia,
and he was very

concerned with it,
but at this meeting, he was

concerned, could
Britain survive?

KINGSLEY: While Churchill
was intent on getting

a deeper commitment by
the President to joining

the war effort, FDR
seemed to be focused

on the world
after the war.

Toward the end of their
meeting, President Roosevelt

presented Churchill
with a document

called the Atlantic Charter.

It was FDR's vision of
a post-war world in which

Great Britain
and the United States would

pledge themselves to
respect the right of all

peoples to choose
a form of government

under which they live.

Churchill supported
the idea of the charter,

but he raised an issue
with FDR that would prove

to be a sticking point
in their relationship

throughout the rest
of the war years.

The Prime Minister
explained his fears that

under the charter,
the Arabs of Palestine might

claim the right to expel
the Jews or to forbid

future Jewish
immigration there.

"I am strongly wedded
to the Zionist policy,"

Churchill told
the President.

Meeting later with
his war cabinet,

the Prime Minister declared that
if Britain and the U.S.

emerged from the war
victorious, the creation

of a "great Jewish state"
in Palestine would be one

of the matters discussed
at the peace conference.

Returning to London
on August 24, the Prime Minister

discussed his meetings

with the President
in a BBC broadcast.

He also raised the issue
of German atrocities

in the Soviet Union.

CHURCHILL: There has
never been methodical,

merciless butchery
on such a scale

or approaching such a scale,

and this is
but the beginning.

We are in the presence
of a crime without a name.

KINGSLEY: On the evening
of December 7, 1941,

Winston Churchill was
at Chequers, the official

country estate
of the British Prime Minister,

dining with the newly
appointed U.S. ambassador

Gilbert Winant
and FDR's special envoy

Averell Harriman.

Churchill turned on
the radio so the group could

listen to the 9 P.M.
BCC news.

NEWS READER:
Here is the news.

Japan's long-threatened
aggression in the Far East began

tonight with air attacks
on United States naval bases

in the Pacific.

KINGSLEY: As Churchill
switched on the radio,

there was a bulletin
about the Japanese attack

on Pearl Harbor,
which had just occurred.

The Prime Minister jumped
to his feet and said,

"Great Britain shall
declare war on Japan."

A moment later,
Ambassador Winant got

President Roosevelt
on the telephone

and confirmed the attack.

He then put
the Prime Minister on the phone.

Roosevelt's first
words were, "We are all

in the same boat now."

It was something that
Churchill had been

waiting to hear since
May of 1940.

That night, Churchill
would later report

he slept the sleep
of the saved and thankful.

Two weeks later,
Prime Minister Churchill

arrived in
Washington, D.C., to meet

with President Roosevelt
and strategize the now

joint war effort
between Great Britain

and the U.S.

Churchill stayed on
as FDR's guest

in the White House.

GOODWIN: Churchill arrives,
and they put him up

in the room which is
now known of course as

the Churchill room,
and he said,

"Now I have a few rules.

"There's not to be
any talking

"in the hallways around me.

"I don't like
to hear that.

"I hate to hear whistling,
and I need to have

"have a bottle
of sherry every morning

"before breakfast.

"I need to have Scotch
and soda before lunch,

"and I need to have wine
and liquor and brandy

after dinner."

He would then stay up
with Roosevelt

until 2 A.M.

The two of them would
smoke and drink until

finally Eleanor would
come in and say,

"Isn't it time for you
two little boys to go to bed?"

KINGSLEY: One morning
during Churchill's visit,

FDR had an idea and asked
his aide to wheel him

into the Prime Minister's
room immediately.

GOODWIN: It so happened
Churchill was just coming

out of the bathtub
and had absolutely nothing

on, so Roosevelt
said, "I'm so sorry.

I'll come back in a few
moments," but Churchill,

ever able to speak
spontaneously, in a very

formal voice said,
"Oh, no. Please stay.

"The Prime Minister
of Great Britain has nothing

"to hide
from the President

of the United States."

KINGSLEY: The day
after Christmas,

Winston Churchill was given
an honor accorded to

a very few.

He addressed the joint houses
of the United States Congress.

The Prime Minister, whose
mother was an American,

immediately won over
the Congressional

representatives
and senators assembled.

I cannot help
but reflecting that if my

father had been American
and my mother British

instead of the other way
around, I might have got

here on my own.

[Laughter and applause]

Here we are, together,
facing a group of mighty

foes, who seek our ruin.

Here we are, together,
defending all that

to free men is dear.

Twice in a single
generation,

the catastrophe of world war
has fallen upon us.

Twice in our lifetime
has the long arm of fate

reached out across
the ocean to bring

the United States into
the forefront of the battle.

Here I avow my hope
and faith sure and inviolate

that in the days to come
the British and American

people will for their own
safety and for the good

of all walk together
in majesty, in justice,

and in peace.

KINGSLEY: The U.S.
Congress, which a year

earlier has balked at
helping Great Britain,

was now giving
its Prime Minister

a standing ovation.

Around the United States,
there was no more

popular a figure.

The strain of the last
few weeks and months,

as well as the 10-day
journey from England to

the U.S., had taken
its toll on Churchill.

The morning after his
triumphant speech, as he

was opening the window
to his room at the White House,

he felt a sharp pain
in his chest.

His personal
physician Lord Maron was

immediately summoned,
and after examining

the Prime Minister, he found
that Churchill had suffered

a mild heart attack.

Rather than alarming
Churchill or his American

hosts, the doctor kept
the news to himself,

telling his patient that
he had strained a muscle

and needed some rest.

He insisted that
Churchill relax for a few

days in Florida before
his upcoming trip to

Canada, where he was
scheduled to speak to

the Canadian parliament.

Lord Maron's secret
would be kept for almost

a quarter of a century.

There was little evidence
of the heart attack as

Churchill resumed a full
schedule of meetings

in the U.S. after
his trip to Canada.

At the end of January,
it was time for him to

return to Great Britain.

President Roosevelt saw
him off at the airfield.

When Churchill and FDR
had last said good-bye

during their
Atlantic Charter conference,

the President had taken
his bodyguard

Inspector Thompson aside
and said to him,

"Take care of him.

"He is about the greatest
man in the world.

In fact, he may very
likely be the greatest."

Now Roosevelt's final
words to Churchill

as he boarded
his plane were,

"Trust me to
the bitter end."

At the start of his
journey across

the Atlantic, the plane's
captain invited

the Prime Minister
to the control deck.

Churchill then asked if
he could pilot the plane.

The Prime Minister's
questions

about the plane's
operations assured

the captain that he could
handle it himself.

The captain turned off
the automatic pilot

and turned over
the control of the plane

to Churchill.

The Prime Minister then
asked if he could make

a couple of banked turns,
which he did,

with considerable success.

The captain then asked
the Prime Minister

when he'd last
piloted a plane.

Churchill replied, "1913."

As the Prime Minister's
plane crossed

the Atlantic, a navigational
error sent it within

5-6 minutes
of Nazi-occupied France.

When the mistake was
discovered, the captain

turned north at once.

Now entering
British airspace

from the direction of France,
it was detected by British

radar as
a hostile bomber.

6 Hurricane fighters
were dispatched to shoot

it down before
the captain was able to

identify who they were.

"Fortunately," Churchill
would later comment,

"they failed in
their mission."

Winston Churchill, who'd
been in the political

wilderness just a few
years before, who some

had believed would never
last as Prime Minister,

now returned to
England in triumph.

He had forged an alliance
with the United States,

one that few would have
predicted when he became

Prime Minister in 1940.

But it was a goal
he insisted
was obtainable

and which
he made a reality.

Against all odds, he'd
led his nation as it

won the Battle of Britain
and survived the Blitz.

As he arrived back in
London and reflected

on what he'd
accomplished, the words

of his good friend,
the Presidential envoy

Harry Hopkins,
were ringing true.

At a dinner the year
before, Hopkins toasted

the British Prime Minister
and discussed

the future
of British-American relations.

He paraphrased
the Book of Ruth,

bringing Winston
Churchill to tears:

"Whither thou goest,
I will go,

"and where thou lodgest,
I will lodge.

"Thy people
shall be my people

and thy God my God
even to the end."

A few weeks later,
Winston Churchill

addressed
the British people.

He told the nation,
"We must remember that we are

"no longer alone.

"We are in the midst
of a great company.

"The whole future
of mankind may depend upon

"our action
and upon our conduct.

"So far,
we have not failed.

"We shall not fail now.

"Let us move forward
steadfastly together

into the storm."