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== Ripped and corrected by Kaitian ==
== for www.addic7ed.com ==

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(peal of bells)

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00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:24,995
(narrator) Forlorn monsters today,

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00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:28,356
in May 1940,
these forts of the Maginot line

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00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:32,353
were France's first-line defence
against the Germans.

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00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:43,599
Half a million French soldiers
lurked beneath these man-made hills.

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00:00:46,160 --> 00:00:48,116
These were the most extensive,

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00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:52,552
the most elaborate forts
ever constructed.

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Here the guns would halt the Hun -

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00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:58,753
provided the Hun came this way.

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00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:07,036
"Thank God for the French army,"

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00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,192
said Winston Churchill
when Hitler came to power.

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But in 1933

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the French army was no longer
the superlative weapon it once had been.

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00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:21,716
French military manuals
devoted page after page

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00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:23,995
to the tactics of the First War,

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00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:29,148
although Hitler had said, "The next war
will be very different from the last."

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The French had helped introduce
the tank and the aeroplane,

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but now did little to extend their use.

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00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:44,312
They had pioneered motor transport
in warfare,

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but went back now
to relying on railways and the horse -

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especially the horse.

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(man) It was a period
of very deep decay,

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probably caused by the excess of effort
during the First World War.

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We suffered from an illness
which is not peculiar to the French -

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the illness of having been victorious

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00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:24,077
and believing that we were right
and very clever.

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Victory is a very dangerous
opportunity.

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(chanting in French)

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00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:42,238
(narrator) France between the wars
was deeply divided.

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Factions clashed, alliances altered,
cabinets came and went in the cascade,

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00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:50,516
some lasting a few hours,
some a few months.

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00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:53,234
Rarely did one last a whole year.

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00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:04,672
On the very day Hitler came to power
France was without a government.

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00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:10,073
It was again without one when he
marched into Austria five years later.

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00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:17,790
The Left in France
was concerned more

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00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:20,917
with hounding rogues
in high places at home,

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than curbing fascism elsewhere.

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00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:26,351
The Right so hated the Left

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00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:30,069
it was prepared to countenance
dictatorship.

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As early as 1934
the victor of Verdun, Marshal P�tain,

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was proposed as France's saviour
from communism,

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although he was then nearly 80.

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These deep divisions
were to fetter France

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when she faced the need to re-arm.

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The whole of the possessing classes,

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the Right if you like,

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preferred the idea of the Germans

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00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:00,070
to their own communists.

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00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:02,594
You didn't have to walk round
these streets

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00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:05,319
and see "pour qui et pourquoi"
written on them,

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or the hammer and sickle, to realise
nobody was going to lift a finger.

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00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:26,271
(narrator) France in the '30s
built a series of great forts

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along her frontier with Germany,

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00:05:28,320 --> 00:05:32,836
and because her war minister
then happened to be one Andr� Maginot,

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00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:36,799
these forts came to be known
as the Maginot line.

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00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:42,639
The Maginot forts
were truly 20th-century wonders.

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00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:47,069
Electric trains took the troops
from barracks to gun turret,

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from arsenal to canteen.

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There were cinemas underground,
sun-ray rooms, air conditioning,

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the lot.

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Theirs was a vast
Jules Verne type of world

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hundreds of feet below ground.

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00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:05,151
They called it The Shield of France.

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The Maginot line failed to protect
all of France's eastern flank.

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It was only 87 miles long

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and it stopped 250 miles
short of the Channel.

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Should the alarm
ever have to sound in grim earnest,

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French strategists argued that

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00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:40,952
their troops would need to confront the
Germans on Belgian, if not German, soil.

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Besides, to extend the Maginot line
along the Belgian frontier

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would not only be expensive,

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but would make the Belgians think that
if war came, France would forsake them.

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The folly of this thinking
was shown up in 1936

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when, without consulting the French,

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the Belgian King Leopold
opted for neutrality

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and closed his borders,
even to French military observers.

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All too late France began extending
the Maginot line to the sea.

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But by May 1940
it was far from finished.

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00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:33,510
(shouting in French)

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France had suffered a terrible
loss of life in the Great War.

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Now French military thinking
became wholly defensive,

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forgetting Napoleon's favourite maxim:

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"The side that stays
within its fortifications is beaten."

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Since the French spurned any notion

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of taking the offensive,

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the Maginot line ironically protected
Germany better than it protected France.

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A German colonel, Heinz Guderian,
the year the Maginot line was completed,

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published a book with a prophetic title:
Achtung Panzer.

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A book never properly studied by
the French or English general staff,

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yet these pages expound
a new kind of warfare -

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the concentrated use of tanks with
infantry and air force in close support:

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Blitzkrieg.

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00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:50,194
We had had tanks
in the First World War,

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00:08:50,280 --> 00:08:52,874
we knew all the difficulties
of the game,

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while the Germans,
who didn't have them,

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had the feeling of those
who are attacked by tanks.

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And while we considered
that the tanks were a little awkward

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and difficult to use,

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00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:11,511
the Germans jumped at the new weapons
with the appetite of the new rich.

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00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:22,472
(narrator) Paris, July 14, 1939.

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The last Bastille Day parade
of the Third Republic.

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00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:34,798
A few days earlier, Britain's
war minister, visiting Paris, had said,

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"France has the greatest army
in the world."

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Like the parade itself, such statements
were meant merely to raise morale.

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Parisians had hardly got back
from their holidays

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before they found themselves
once more at war

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with their traditional foe.

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00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:09,673
But whereas in 1914
the cry had been "On to Berlin",

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this time it was
"Let's get it over with."

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Ironically, French mobilisation
was too efficient.

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The call-up of skilled technicians

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brought many vital war industries
almost to a halt.

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It was only after weeks of confusion
that these men were released.

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Nor was France going to war united.

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The bitternesses of French politics
continued.

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Ministers looked to their own futures
instead of their country's

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and many took their cue
from such leadership.

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Paris didn't alter much with
the coming of war, save in appearance.

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The most popular song that autumn of
1939 was Paris Will Always Be Paris.

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(Maurice Chevalier)
As a precaution, we may put

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Lattices on our windows

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Turn our storefronts blue

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And even the tires of our cars

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Remove canvas from all our museums

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Shake up the Champs-Elys�es

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Wrapped in clay

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All the beauties of our statues

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Veil the street lights in the evening

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Diving into the dark
the City of Lights

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Paris will always be Paris

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The most beautiful city in the world

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Despite the deep darkness

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Its brightness cannot be darkened

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Paris will always be Paris

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The more we reduce our lighting

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The more we see his courage shine,
his good humor and his spirit

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Paris will always be Paris

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(narrator) While their Polish allies
were routed in the East,

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the French, like the British,
did little in the West.

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00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:29,637
There was the so-called
Saar offensive -

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the only French offensive,
in fact, of the war.

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00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:47,429
A few French divisions
advanced five miles,

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but they didn't even try
to penetrate the Siegfried line,

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at that time still unfinished.

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And while Poland fought on,

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there were no German tanks at all
on the Western Front.

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The newsreel commentators of the day,
though, didn't doubt the French resolve.

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(newsreel) We read the communiqu�s
from the French High Command.

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00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:09,953
This is the living story
behind those brief, unvarnished reports.

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00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:13,032
Our cameramen in the advanced
lines on German territory

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watch observation posts

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at the bridge over the Rhine
between Kehl and Strasbourg.

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This was a German railway station,
now in the hands of French troops.

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From fortified outposts
the vigilant watch is never relaxed.

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The Maginot line, built as
the first line of defence for France,

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has become the second line
behind the attack.

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The gradual but steady advance
of French troops

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has brought their camouflaged artillery
in range of the Siegfried outposts.

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There is no haste,
only a grim, relentless pressure

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on the Nazi emplacements.

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Metre by metre the poilus
are moving forward.

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If the French army would have attacked
at the beginning of September

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with their very strong superiority

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in division, in armoured cars -

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00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:27,838
we lacked all armoured cars
on the Western Front at that time -

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00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:32,675
in artillery and air force,

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00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:38,915
the German forces
on the so-called Western Front

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could stand no more
than one or two weeks.

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(narrator) Before Poland surrendered,

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the French commander ordered
his men back behind the Maginot line -

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a withdrawal the Germans
did nothing to prevent.

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One Frenchman wrote at the time,

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"After the prologue
of the phoney offensive,

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we were ripe for the phoney war."

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(Charles Trenet)
The wind in the woods goes hoo-hoo

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The doe at bay says m�-�-� 

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Broken dishes make
fric-fric-frac

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And wet feet
make cop-flic-flac

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00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:13,719
But... boom!

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When our heart goes boom

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Everything with him says boom

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The bird says boom, it's a storm

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Brrrrr!

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Boom! The lightning that goes boom

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And the good Lord says boom...

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00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:33,438
(narrator) For several minutes each day
the Maginot guns boomed out,

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00:15:33,520 --> 00:15:38,514
usually to impress visitors
such as the Duke of Windsor.

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00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:40,875
And if it goes boom,
if he gets angry

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He brings with him wonders

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00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:44,429
Boom!

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00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:47,074
The whole world goes boom

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00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:51,358
Everything with him says boom
when our heart goes boom-boom...

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00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:54,671
(narrator) Little attempt was made
to harass the enemy.

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00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:56,597
Even bombing the Ruhr
was forbidden

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00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:59,672
in case the Luftwaffe retaliated
against French factories.

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00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:04,151
Journalists were taken up to the lines
to see the inactivity.

198
00:16:04,240 --> 00:16:08,472
I stayed at an observation post
on the Rhine

199
00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:13,475
watching the Germans washing,
playing football,

200
00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:16,518
and I said to the sentry,

201
00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:19,956
"Why don't you shoot them?
Why don't you shoot at them?"

202
00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:22,435
"No," he said,
"They're behaving all right."

203
00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:25,318
"They don't shoot at us,
why should we shoot at them?"

204
00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:28,995
Boum! Le monde entier fait boum

205
00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:30,957
Tout avec lui dit boum

206
00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:34,669
Quand notre coeur
fait boum-boum-boum

207
00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:36,955
Fait boum-boum

208
00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:40,112
Brrrrr! Boum!

209
00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:48,276
(narrator) Life at the front
was dreary and drab.

210
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,596
Badly paid, leave became an obsession
for the French soldier

211
00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:08,150
and was used mainly
to make a little on the side.

212
00:17:13,360 --> 00:17:16,955
The winter of 1939
was the coldest for half a century.

213
00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:19,679
Even the Channel froze at Boulogne.

214
00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:24,755
The French halted work
on the Maginot extension.

215
00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:29,755
The Germans, however,
forged ahead with their plans.

216
00:17:30,520 --> 00:17:34,035
As winter wore on, French morale sank.

217
00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:38,956
Discipline deteriorated
and drunkenness became rife.

218
00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:42,555
Special rooms were set aside
in railway stations

219
00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:47,156
where men could recover
before rejoining their units.

220
00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:57,158
Few French generals ever bothered to
inspect, let alone meet, their troops,

221
00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:00,596
but then their commander-in-chief,
General Gamelin,

222
00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:03,319
rarely set foot
outside his headquarters.

223
00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:08,235
Already 68 at the beginning of 1940,
his military record was so impeccable

224
00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:12,108
that no one dreamed of asking him
to make way for a younger man.

225
00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:18,634
(Beaufre) Gamelin was very clever,
but with no guts at all,

226
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:20,676
and he was liked by the politicians

227
00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:23,228
because he was an easy
commander-in-chief.

228
00:18:24,560 --> 00:18:28,314
(narrator) Gamelin chose for his
headquarters this ch�teau at Vincennes,

229
00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:30,709
just outside Paris.

230
00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:35,237
(Beaufre) That choice reveals
what the man was, you know.

231
00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:39,518
The enemy were not the Germans.
It was the French government.

232
00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:44,228
(narrator) Vincennes
was where England's Henry V died

233
00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:47,551
and where the spy Mata Hari
was executed.

234
00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:55,714
It was described by one visitor as
"a submarine without a periscope".

235
00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:59,031
Almost unbelievably,
it had no radio communications,

236
00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:02,829
it was not linked by teleprinter with
any other headquarters in the field.

237
00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:08,790
Instead, messages were dispatched
regularly on the hour by motorcycle.

238
00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:13,597
Gamelin seldom bothered his staff
with orders,

239
00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:16,592
preferring simply to suggest guidelines.

240
00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:25,074
His long-term strategy was to wait
until the Allies could match the Germans

241
00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:28,789
in numbers and equipment
before launching any major offensive,

242
00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:32,316
even though that would mean
waiting until 1941.

243
00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:36,911
Meanwhile, he was concerned
to keep the war away from French soil -

244
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:41,630
hence his interests in any odd stratagem
pushed his way.

245
00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:49,513
We had a plan to go to attack Russia
through Norway - Narvik -

246
00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:52,478
which led to the landing in Narvik.

247
00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:59,318
We had a plan to attack
the oil plants in Baku from Syria.

248
00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:04,155
We had the plans to raise
the Balkans with us

249
00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:09,957
by landing in Salonika
and joining the Yugoslavs, and so on.

250
00:20:10,040 --> 00:20:16,752
But all this was dreams, absolutely
foolish and out of the reality.

251
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:18,637
But that stemmed from the fact

252
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,679
that we thought that the war
couldn't be decided on the main front

253
00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:27,038
because of the inviolability
of that front.

254
00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:30,470
(narrator) Gamelin had 100 divisions
on that front in May 1940,

255
00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:34,473
plus another ten of the British
expeditionary force.

256
00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:40,749
40 manned the Maginot line,
while five guarded the Swiss frontier.

257
00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:47,279
Another 40, the best, were to go into
neutral Belgium once Germany attacked.

258
00:20:47,360 --> 00:20:48,873
But when that happened

259
00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:53,078
the pivot of Gamelin's front
would be here, in the Ardennes.

260
00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:00,672
The impenetrable Ardennes.

261
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:02,830
But was it?

262
00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:14,232
On maps back at headquarters

263
00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:16,914
its thick woods
and narrow, winding roads

264
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:20,231
probably did make the Ardennes
seem impenetrable -

265
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:24,871
which is presumably why Gamelin chose
to guard this 100-mile stretch of front

266
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:30,717
with ten of his weakest,
least-trained, worst-equipped divisions.

267
00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:34,958
(man) The Ardennes came to be chosen
for the main thrust

268
00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:39,875
since it offered an opportunity
to circumvent the Maginot line.

269
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:43,515
And besides we were conscious
of the fact

270
00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:47,036
that there were only minor French troops

271
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:52,558
which held the positions
in this section of the French front.

272
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:57,555
We knew that the French High Command

273
00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:02,191
had dispersed his tanks.

274
00:22:03,120 --> 00:22:08,672
The French had more tanks
and some better tanks, heavier tanks,

275
00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:11,797
than we have had panzers.

276
00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:16,715
But we managed our panzer troops -

277
00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:22,079
what Guderian said in his instructions.

278
00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:27,712
(man) "Strike hard and quickly
and don't disperse your forces."

279
00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:38,232
(narrator) The spring of 1940
was remarkably sunny.

280
00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:41,551
Nowhere was it more peaceful
than here in the Ardennes,

281
00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:45,235
where the generals had said
the Germans would never attack.

282
00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:47,072
Yet reports had been pouring in

283
00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:50,311
that nearly 50 Wehrmacht divisions
were on the move -

284
00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:52,834
reports which the French
chose to ignore.

285
00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:57,835
They even learned the date
of the attack, but still did nothing.

286
00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:01,959
As Gamelin put it,
they preferred "to await events".

287
00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,759
Their waiting was almost over.

288
00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:15,194
5:30am precisely.

289
00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:17,669
May 10, 1940.

290
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:33,112
The German offensive
began spectacularly enough

291
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:36,636
with the invasion of neutral Holland
from the air.

292
00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,598
Their target: the bridges
over the broad Meuse estuary.

293
00:23:45,360 --> 00:23:48,670
If they could be captured
before the Allied troops reached them,

294
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:50,830
Holland would be cut in two.

295
00:23:55,840 --> 00:24:00,231
The boldness of the German move
stunned the Dutch.

296
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,517
Their soldiers were soon
surrendering in droves.

297
00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:06,992
Further south in Belgium,

298
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:10,868
the Germans had another
spectacular success that first day -

299
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:12,916
the capture of Eben-Emael,

300
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:17,835
the strongest fort in the world
and the linchpin of Gamelin's line.

301
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:23,430
That line had been breached
before any Allied troops arrived.

302
00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:29,473
(whistle blows)

303
00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:37,759
Gamelin persisted in moving his armies
north into Belgium and Holland.

304
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:40,513
40 of his best divisions,
almost half his strength,

305
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:43,319
including all of the British
expeditionary force,

306
00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:46,551
and they were moving
straight into the trap

307
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,632
Hitler and his generals
had set for them.

308
00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:57,074
It wasn't long before the troops
were passing

309
00:24:57,160 --> 00:24:59,993
the first pitiful, straggling lines
of refugees.

310
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:03,311
Lines that were to hamper
the Allied reinforcements,

311
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:05,436
just as the Germans had planned.

312
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:09,877
The great idea on the Germans' part
was speed,

313
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:14,511
and they sent ahead of the army

314
00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:19,435
policemen with truncheons and white
gloves who went on motorbicycles.

315
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:23,069
They all had their Michelin Guide
for France,

316
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,277
they knew exactly
where the roads were.

317
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:35,399
The German panzers were pouring over
the border into Luxembourg.

318
00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:37,391
Their column stretched 100 miles,

319
00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:40,358
presenting a prime target
to any would-be bomber,

320
00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:43,034
but Allied air activity
that first day was busy

321
00:25:43,120 --> 00:25:48,274
supporting the British and French
move north into Belgium.

322
00:25:53,120 --> 00:25:57,910
The Luftwaffe were striking
at Allied aeroplanes on the ground.

323
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:05,394
At one RAF base near Reims,
the planes lined up in neat rows

324
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:09,996
were destroyed
in the opening minutes of the attack.

325
00:26:13,120 --> 00:26:18,035
50 British and French airfields
were attacked that first day

326
00:26:18,120 --> 00:26:20,509
and the losses were heavy.

327
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:29,595
But while Allied air chiefs
were counting their losses,

328
00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:33,798
the panzers had just about penetrated
the impenetrable Ardennes

329
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:37,555
and were set to fall upon the weak
French garrisons

330
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:39,835
along the Meuse here at Sedan.

331
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:44,589
The panzers reached Sedan
late on the third day of the offensive,

332
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:46,910
although Gamelin had calculated

333
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:50,510
they couldn't possibly be here
before the ninth day.

334
00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:02,877
All the bridges over the Meuse were
blown up by the French on May 12th -

335
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:04,791
all except one.

336
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:08,996
This old weir some 40 miles
north of Sedan had been left

337
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:13,790
for fear of lowering the water level
so much that the river could be forded.

338
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:17,395
But the French also left it
relatively unguarded,

339
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:22,508
as one panzer commander,
Erwin Rommel, soon found out.

340
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:40,551
Next morning the Luftwaffe's resources
were hurled into action above Sedan.

341
00:27:44,360 --> 00:27:48,512
Gamelin still refused to believe
the Germans could cross of the Meuse

342
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:50,477
before another three or four days.

343
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:57,393
Hitler was unwilling to wait that long.

344
00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:01,029
He was working
to the timetable of 1940, not 1914.

345
00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:05,756
What's more, the French generals
still had their eyes firmly fixed

346
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:09,628
on what was happening
in Belgium and Holland.

347
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:19,112
There were big French guns
on the west bank of the Meuse,

348
00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:22,118
but they limited firing
in case they ran out of ammunition

349
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:24,873
before the battle proper began.

350
00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:30,589
So the German panzers were able to pick
off the French pillboxes one by one.

351
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:35,390
Soon thousands of French gunners
had taken to their heels.

352
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:51,592
As suddenly as it had started,
the German bombardment stopped.

353
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,436
As though still performing
one of their winter war games,

354
00:28:56,520 --> 00:29:00,433
the German infantrymen
prepared to cross the Meuse.

355
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:32,270
By midnight on May 13,
still only day four of the offensive,

356
00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:36,069
not only were German infantrymen
across the Meuse in force,

357
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,277
but German sappers
were bridging the river

358
00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:42,432
and making ready
for the panzers to cross.

359
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:47,673
That night of May 13,

360
00:29:47,800 --> 00:29:51,918
the British expeditionary force,
far to the north in Belgium,

361
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,197
had still not seen serious fighting,

362
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:58,829
yet the battle was now virtually
decided.

363
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:09,872
(Beaufre) The morale of the French
High Command was very quickly broken.

364
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:15,873
When we happened to know that the front
had been broken through at Sedan,

365
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,629
the feeling was that everything
was lost.

366
00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:25,670
I saw General Georges,
who was commanding the northeast front,

367
00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:30,715
I saw him sobbing and saying,

368
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:36,796
"There has been some... deficiencies,"

369
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:41,237
and he fell in a chair and sobbed.

370
00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,476
(narrator) French counterattacks
were poorly organised

371
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:01,996
and seldom pressed home
with any persistence.

372
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:18,676
Tank for tank, the French
were a match for the Germans,

373
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:21,228
but the panzers always fought
en masse

374
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:25,029
and the French tanks
were prone to mechanical trouble.

375
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:29,671
Time after time they had to be
left behind on the battlefield.

376
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:49,275
German infantry divisions
were now catching up with the panzers

377
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:50,998
at the Meuse crossing point.

378
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:56,035
Everything on the German side at least
was going according to plan.

379
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:12,957
For the Allied air forces,

380
00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:17,716
after their almost total inactivity
on May 13, May 14 was hectic.

381
00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:21,679
British and French bombers raided
the pontoon bridges across the Meuse

382
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:23,273
with reckless abandon.

383
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:28,678
Too late, the French generals

384
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:32,037
had recognised this sector's
vital importance.

385
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:37,672
But despite the courage of the Allied
pilots, the result was disastrous.

386
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:47,594
Nearly half the Allied planes
did not return.

387
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:50,148
In the words of the official
RAF history:

388
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:56,230
"No higher rate of loss has ever been
experienced by the Royal Air Force."

389
00:32:56,320 --> 00:33:01,792
After May 14th
the skies were undeniably German.

390
00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:08,030
On that day too Holland surrendered.

391
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:13,392
Nothing short of a miracle
could save France now.

392
00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:24,510
With the bridgehead secure,
the panzers were poised to break out.

393
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:29,594
The battle for Sedan was now
giving way to the battle for France.

394
00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:33,832
The most crucial phase of the whole
German plan was about to begin -

395
00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:39,717
the swing north to the coast that would
trap the Allied armies in Belgium.

396
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:45,272
As soon as news of the Sedan defeat
reached Paris, panic set in.

397
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:55,515
Those who could, left.

398
00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:05,510
The French High Command,
not yet privy to the German plan,

399
00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:09,275
assumed Hitler intended
to capture Paris immediately.

400
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:10,958
To protect the capital,

401
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:14,112
troops were pulled back
from elsewhere along the Meuse,

402
00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:18,557
which only served
to widen the German bridgeheads.

403
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:30,752
Gamelin refused to believe
his tactics were at fault

404
00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:33,155
and assumed
he must have been betrayed.

405
00:34:33,240 --> 00:34:37,199
While gendarmes searched for
fifth columnists behind the lines,

406
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:41,114
Gamelin reacted by sacking
20 or so of his front-line commanders,

407
00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:43,879
almost at random.

408
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:51,149
The Allied troops
were ordered back from Belgium

409
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:55,193
and on May 17th Brussels fell.

410
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:04,838
It was also the end for Gamelin.

411
00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:07,354
He was replaced
as commander-in-chief

412
00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:10,432
by General Weygand,
recalled from virtual retirement.

413
00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:12,397
France had become desperate.

414
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:16,234
A 73-year-old
was replacing a 68-year-old,

415
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:20,916
and Weygand had spent the last year
in Syria and was out of touch.

416
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:26,358
At this time too Marshal P�tain, now 84,
became deputy prime minister.

417
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:29,557
Before leaving Spain,
where he'd been France's ambassador,

418
00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:31,119
P�tain told General Franco,

419
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:36,672
"My country has been beaten. This
is the work of 30 years of Marxism."

420
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:40,469
(Spears) He was completely
on the side of the defeatists.

421
00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:42,915
He was a very, very old man

422
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:50,156
and he'd been recalled in the hopes that
his name would bolster French morale.

423
00:35:50,240 --> 00:35:52,310
It did nothing of the sort.

424
00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:56,829
(narrator) Trying in their own way
to contain the German break-out,

425
00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:00,629
the French generals
drew halt lines on their maps,

426
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:05,276
only to hear the panzers had passed them
even before the orders had been issued.

427
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:12,714
(gunfire)

428
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:14,512
In the dash to the coast,

429
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:19,276
the German commanders were always
one jump ahead of the French.

430
00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:35,955
Hordes of prisoners
fell into German hands.

431
00:36:36,040 --> 00:36:38,713
Many columns,
10,000 or 20,000-strong,

432
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:43,789
simply threw away their weapons
and marched without being told,

433
00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:47,236
their officers at their head,
toward the German lines.

434
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:54,754
(Warlimont) The French troops did not
prove the same soldierly discipline

435
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:56,398
as in the First World War.

436
00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:20,119
I think this was caused by the
Maginot spirit and the long phoney war,

437
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:25,593
so that the French soldiers believed
that they will have no more war.

438
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:30,392
(narrator) Not just ordinary troops
fell into German hands,

439
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:31,595
but generals too.

440
00:37:31,680 --> 00:37:33,398
On May 19th General Giraud,

441
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:37,638
newly appointed commander
of France's 9th Army, was captured:

442
00:37:37,720 --> 00:37:40,154
by a group of tanks,
according to the French;

443
00:37:40,240 --> 00:37:43,357
by a field kitchen unit,
according to the Germans.

444
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:51,512
But most tragic of all
was the plight of the refugees.

445
00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:03,234
At one time 12 million people
were on the roads of northern France,

446
00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:06,153
bound for goodness knows where.

447
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:29,039
(Waterfield) All the civilians
would ask us what they were to do,

448
00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:31,720
because the government
had not told them what to do.

449
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:35,588
We said, "For heaven's sake, stay
where you are. Don't get on the roads."

450
00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:39,229
But they all got in a panic and left.

451
00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:42,198
One old lady had a key
which she gave to us

452
00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:45,829
and we said, "Why?
You mustn't give us your key."

453
00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:48,275
"Oh, well, in the last war
I took away my key

454
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:51,079
and when I came back
I had the key but no house."

455
00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:11,070
My worst memory was seeing two German
planes coming along at roof level,

456
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:12,679
machine-gunning,

457
00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:16,719
and one realised then
how awful it was for the refugees.

458
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:18,870
(planes approaching)

459
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:25,876
(gunfire)

460
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:03,474
(narrator) The Germans had advanced
200 miles in just seven days,

461
00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:07,155
and on May 20th
they reached the Channel.

462
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:11,392
The Daily Telegraph reported
that telephone lines

463
00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:14,278
between Paris and London
had been cut.

464
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:18,717
A Post Office spokesman didn't know
when normal service might be resumed.

465
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:25,475
With the panzers at the coast,

466
00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:31,715
the best of the Allied armies drawn into
Belgium were now cut off from the south.

467
00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:35,190
Belatedly the French
tried to force a way through to them.

468
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:37,635
Their attack was too puny.

469
00:40:37,720 --> 00:40:40,678
But they argued
the British had let them down.

470
00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:45,319
(Beaufre) The recriminations started

471
00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:50,918
with the unilateral withdrawal
of the British army.

472
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:57,030
The orders were to attack southwards,
near Arras,

473
00:40:57,120 --> 00:41:00,669
and, without warning,

474
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:05,470
we happened to know that the British
were withdrawing to Dunkirk.

475
00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:13,518
We have not the right
to criticise this too much

476
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:15,955
because, after all,
we were the bosses

477
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:17,712
and we lost the battle,

478
00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:21,918
and this gives a good excuse
for the British to be selfish.

479
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:24,634
But anyway, they were very selfish.

480
00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:41,557
(narrator) On May 25th Boulogne fell.

481
00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:49,475
On May 26, Calais.

482
00:41:52,640 --> 00:41:56,792
Weygand's appointment had given
the French a flicker of optimism.

483
00:41:56,880 --> 00:41:59,440
It soon faded when
his counterattack failed

484
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:04,310
and news of Belgium's capitulation
reached Paris on May 28.

485
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:10,191
Thereafter, the mood became
steadily more and more defeatist.

486
00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:16,879
(Waterfield) I think the defeatism
came at the top.

487
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:21,238
There was a very strong peace move
among certain politicians,

488
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:25,359
some of them were even pro-German
and wanted jobs with the Germans.

489
00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:31,635
When things went badly, this group got
larger and became more dominant.

490
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:35,669
(narrator) Prime Minster Reynaud
fought back

491
00:42:35,800 --> 00:42:38,109
by dismissing from his cabinet
weaker spirits

492
00:42:38,240 --> 00:42:40,674
and bringing in fighting men
like de Gaulle,

493
00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:43,752
now entering the political arena
for the first time.

494
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:46,678
But the war
was virtually out of their hands.

495
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:50,719
Perhaps it was that that prompted the
special service of prayer at Notre Dame

496
00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:53,439
on that Sunday before Dunkirk.

497
00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:55,556
(organ plays)

498
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:13,029
(Spears) The French very soon accepted
the idea of defeat and surrendered.

499
00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:19,719
To them it was rather a conception
of the old days of the royalty

500
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:23,588
when you just exchanged
a couple of provinces,

501
00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:26,513
paid a certain number of millions,

502
00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:31,196
and then called it a day,
hoping you'd be more lucky next time.

503
00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:41,551
(narrator) Dunkirk fell on June 4.

504
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:46,432
Hitler ordered church bells to be rung
for three days throughout Germany

505
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:51,350
to mark what he described as
"the greatest German victory ever".

506
00:43:56,920 --> 00:43:59,514
With the panzers reorganised
and re-equipped,

507
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:02,433
the day after Dunkirk fell,

508
00:44:02,520 --> 00:44:06,832
the second major German offensive
in the West began.

509
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:40,996
Although outnumbered now
by more than two to one,

510
00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:42,638
the French fought stubbornly -

511
00:44:42,720 --> 00:44:45,188
much more aggressively, in fact,

512
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:47,714
than at any time during
the battle for the Meuse.

513
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:07,870
But after three days of bloody fighting,
disaster once more overtook the French.

514
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:18,555
Another breakthrough by Rommel.

515
00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:23,839
In a matter of hours
he had reached the Seine at Rouen.

516
00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:43,833
Elsewhere the panzers
were passing almost effortlessly

517
00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:46,559
through the heartland of France.

518
00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:58,755
All roads pointed to Paris.

519
00:45:59,920 --> 00:46:04,914
On June 10th
the French government left the capital.

520
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:08,993
On that day Mussolini
brought Italy into the war.

521
00:46:12,720 --> 00:46:16,110
On the day we left Paris

522
00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:23,311
we went to this Vincennes headquarters
of Gamelin

523
00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:28,520
and... we heard on the radio

524
00:46:28,600 --> 00:46:33,993
all the songs and music
of the Italian war, you know.

525
00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:37,556
"Giovinezza" and all that, you know.

526
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:40,029
And we thought...

527
00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:43,709
And that is where I heard
the first time somebody say,

528
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:45,631
"It can't go on like that."

529
00:46:45,720 --> 00:46:48,029
"We must have an armistice."

530
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:51,157
We had the greatest difficulty
getting out of Paris

531
00:46:51,240 --> 00:46:53,959
because everybody,
although Paris was empty,

532
00:46:54,080 --> 00:46:59,029
all the roads outside Paris
were absolutely full of motorcars,

533
00:46:59,120 --> 00:47:04,069
people even going in and out of the
trees at the side to try and get ahead.

534
00:47:04,160 --> 00:47:10,190
But we were able to get off the
main roads into the countryside,

535
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:14,239
and then it was most extraordinary
because it was beautiful weather,

536
00:47:14,320 --> 00:47:16,754
all the villagers were very welcoming

537
00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:20,156
and brought out their best cognac,
their best wine,

538
00:47:20,240 --> 00:47:23,232
because they said,
"Why leave it for the Germans?"

539
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:27,478
Arriving in the airspace over Paris

540
00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:33,795
I observed that great columns of German
infantry had already entered the town.

541
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:41,158
Observing this and remembering
that we had failed to reach this goal

542
00:47:41,240 --> 00:47:45,870
all through the First World War,

543
00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:50,795
I felt such joy and exultation

544
00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:56,876
that I asked the pilot of my
small plane, a so-called Storch,

545
00:47:56,960 --> 00:48:03,274
whether it would be possible to perform
a landing on the Place de la Concorde.

546
00:48:03,400 --> 00:48:07,916
After circling around some time,

547
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:13,199
he and... we came down
on the Place de la Concorde,

548
00:48:13,280 --> 00:48:17,273
which was entirely free of any traffic

549
00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:22,831
and landed on the outside
of the Champs Elys�es.

550
00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:35,035
(narrator) Two days after Paris fell,
the new prime minister, Marshal P�tain

551
00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:37,315
asked the Germans for an armistice.

552
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:40,995
Reynaud had been opposed to
a separate peace and resigned.

553
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:46,677
In most of France the news of
an armistice was received with relief.

554
00:48:50,040 --> 00:48:53,112
Hitler insisted on using
for the negotiations

555
00:48:53,240 --> 00:48:57,153
Marshal Foch's old railway carriage
in the woods of Compi�gne,

556
00:48:57,240 --> 00:49:01,119
where the 1918 armistice
had been signed.

557
00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:04,715
It was the supreme humiliation
for France.

558
00:49:25,760 --> 00:49:30,151
(Beaufre) One must have lived
the retreat in France,

559
00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:34,711
with this enormous movement of crowds.

560
00:49:34,800 --> 00:49:39,237
It's something which you can't
understand if you haven't seen it.

561
00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:42,710
We thought that really
that had to be stopped.

562
00:49:53,040 --> 00:49:58,034
(narrator) Once the French had signed,
Hitler ordered the site destroyed.

563
00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:01,032
Germany had had its revenge.

564
00:50:01,760 --> 00:50:04,991
(announcement in French)

565
00:50:15,760 --> 00:50:18,593
(narrator) Paris radio,
now under German control,

566
00:50:18,680 --> 00:50:22,468
broadcast the terms of the armistice.

567
00:50:57,080 --> 00:51:01,232
Paris had now to adapt
to a new wave of tourists.

568
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:03,675
Among the first was Hitler himself,

569
00:51:03,760 --> 00:51:06,718
making the only trip of his life
to the city,

570
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:09,109
and a fleeting one at that.

571
00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:27,514
For four bleak years France was to
disappear from the forefront of the war.

572
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:34,799
Some Frenchmen chose a courageous
resistance at home or overseas,

573
00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:38,873
others were to settle into a routine
of apathetic collaboration.

574
00:51:39,520 --> 00:51:42,751
Many connived at Hitler's
new order for Europe -

575
00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:45,115
the Vichy version.

576
00:52:09,520 --> 00:52:12,956
For Paris there remained
one more humiliation.

577
00:52:23,400 --> 00:52:24,799
The German triumphal parade

578
00:52:24,880 --> 00:52:27,917
followed the exact route
of the French victory procession

579
00:52:28,040 --> 00:52:30,554
after the First World War.

580
00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:52,230
It had taken the Wehrmacht just five
weeks to humble their historic foe.

581
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:09,749
In the words of Winston Churchill:

582
00:53:09,840 --> 00:53:13,310
"The Battle of France was now over."

583
00:53:13,400 --> 00:53:15,914
"The Battle of Britain
was about to begin."