All language subtitles for World War II Race To Victory Series 1 1of6 Mortal Peril 1080p

[narrator] May, 1945.

Nazi Germany is defeated.

[music continues]

The Allied Powers: Britain,
the United States of America

and the Soviet Union
have won victory in Europe.

[music continues]

In London, crowds gather
outside Buckingham Palace.

Jubilant revellers
fill the streets of New York.

And in Moscow plans are drawn
up
for a massive victory parade.

[vibrant music intensifies]

But this joy
will soon dissipate.

A new and very different
sort of war is coming.

One which will pit
the former allies

against one another.

[Churchill]
From Stettin in the Baltic

to Trieste in the Adriatic,

an iron curtain has descended
across the Continent.

[music gains momentum]

However, recent attacks
by rebel forces...

[music stops]

[narrator] But despite
their alliance against Hitler,

this partnership
between Britain,

America and the Soviet Union

was from the very beginning

marked by deception,
suspicion and mistrust.

The war has been fought and won
not only on the battlefield.

It has been shaped,
behind the scenes,

by the secret decisions
and disagreements

of just a few men.

[sombre music with drum beats]

Men of conflicting ideologies
and personalities.

Men who could have been enemies
as easily as they were allies.

Winston Churchill:

the tenacious
Prime Minister of Great
Britain,

the British bulldog,

whose sheer force of
personality
defined his wartime leadership.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

the President
of the United States,

the only man to hold
that office for four terms,

the leader who overcame
the country's isolationism

to take his people
into a second world war.

And Joseph Stalin,

the brutal Soviet dictator

whose long rule
was characterized

by his distrust of others

and maintained
by ruthless purges and terror.

This is the story
of the personal battles

that shaped
the military conflict;

the war behind the war.

[explosion sound fades]

[vibrant introductory theme]

[slides clicking]

‐[explosions]
‐[troops marching]

[music continues]

[falling bombs hiss]

[music continues]

[music stops]

[narrator] May, 1940.

The Nazi Blitzkrieg
had devastated Europe,

as country after country
fell to the German army.

The Wehrmacht stormed
through Denmark,

Norway, Belgium,
the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

France was faltering
and already partly occupied.

And the British
Expeditionary Force

was having to retreat
towards the French coast.

Britain's pleas for America
to support them and join the
war

were falling on deaf ears.

In London,

the new Prime Minister
met with his War Cabinet.

Despite the disaster
unfolding on the continent,

Winston Churchill was adamant:
Britain had to fight on.

But senior ministers disagreed.

The British Army in France
was facing complete defeat.

‐[tense music, drum beats]
‐[rumbling sounds]

To the Foreign Secretary,
Lord Halifax,

there was a way to save the
army
and the country:

a peace deal with Nazi Germany.

Britain's position
was precarious;

decisive leadership was needed.

Churchill had the character
and the drive,

but to win over
his divided cabinet

he would have to rely
on the supporters of the man

he had ousted from Number 10
and railed against

in public and private:

the leader of Churchill's
party,
Neville Chamberlain.

Chamberlain had become
Britain's Prime Minister

in 1937.

His time in Downing Street

was dominated
by the growing aggression

of Nazi Germany

and his desperate attempts
to avoid another war.

I suspect that for Chamberlain

the shadow
of the First World War

loomed large.

The awful loss of life,
the destruction.

And I don't think
he could contemplate

starting another European war

which had every danger
of extending beyond that.

I don't see Chamberlain

as an appeaser...
well I know many do,

but he was an honourable man

who did what he thought
was his best, I suspect.

But it meant
he had to sup with the Devil.

[narrator] In Germany,

Adolf Hitler had made no secret
of his territorial ambitions

since coming to power in 1933.

In strident nationalistic
and anti‐Semitic rhetoric,

he had demanded the creation
of a Greater Germany:

a Third Reich.

[crowd cheering]

By 1938, Hitler was ready.

[music in faster tempo]

The first country in his sights
was Austria,

the land of his birth.

German troops crossed the
border
on the 12th of March, 1938.

[music stops]

There was no obvious resistance

and little more
from the rest of the world.

Britain was re‐arming itself.

But the hopes in London

were that war
could still be avoided.

Hitler, however,
was not satisfied

with the annexation
of Austria alone.

Within weeks,

he claimed the Sudeten region
of Czechoslovakia,

where there was a small
German‐speaking population,

should be under German control.

Still, Britain
and the rest of the world

did nothing.

It's easy to forget that
there was a lot of support for

the idea that these were things
that were happening,

as Chamberlain famously said of
the invasion of Czechoslovakia,

"in a faraway country."

So, the invasion
of places like Czechoslovakia,

the Anschluss with Austria
in 1938,

were seen as almost
someone else's problem.

These European countries
and their leaderships

are doing their best

to articulate
and raise the alarm

for leaders in Washington,
Moscow and London,

and elsewhere,

that this will lead
to further invasions

and further conquests.

So it was not just
a European episode,

it was one, as they
quite rightly articulated,

would lead to a grand

and more difficult
and violent and long war.

[narrator]
In late September 1938,

Chamberlain travelled to
Munich.

He met with
his French counterpart,

Edouard Daladier,

with the Italian Fascist
leader,
Benito Mussolini,

and with Adolf Hitler.

The Czechoslovakians
were not present

when the fate of their country
was decided

and Hitler got what he wanted.

The deal agreed
to the annexation

of the Sudetenland.

The settlement
of the Czechoslovakian problem,

which has now been achieved,

is, in my view, only the
prelude

to a larger settlement

in which all Europe
may find peace.

[narrator] Chamberlain
returned to Britain

and a hero's welcome
on the streets.

But although some in government

were completely
against such appeasement,

we now know,

there was also
considerable appreciation

behind the scenes
for what he had done.

Chamberlain's traditionally
been the bad guy in all of this.

He comes back from Munich
having signed the peace,

the peace in our time,
the appeasement,

but actually, behind the scenes,

the head of the secret
intelligence service MI6

had actually said
to the government,

"We are not ready for war.

And if Chamberlain doesn't sign
that piece of paper,

we are at war immediately
with Nazi Germany,

and we aren't ready."

[narrator] A large country house
in Buckinghamshire,

Bletchley Park,

was secretly purchased
to become the centre

of Britain's
wartime intelligence operation.

We now know from a study
of intelligence files

that British intelligence
was preparing for war

in 1938.

We knew that war was inevitable;
it was just a matter of when.

[narrator] But in the tearooms
of Westminster,

other meetings were being held

that would change
the course of history.

A small gang
of Conservative MPs,

led by Winston Churchill,

was utterly opposed
to the appeasement of Hitler.

They discussed
how Britain's foreign policy

could be changed

and how the Prime Minister
could be removed to allow this.

Winston Churchill was certainly
not willing to do

any kind of deal with Hitler

and this was a great difference
between him and Halifax

and Chamberlain.

[narrator] As another world war
loomed,

Churchill was already
in his mid‐sixties.

His career had seemed set
to end in disappointment,

a politician remembered
chiefly for his failures

in the First World War

and his mistakes as Chancellor
in the 1920s.

When we think of Churchill
during these years,

he was seen as an outcast

on many of the great issues
of British politics at the time.

Churchill's career up to 1939,

it was a study in failure.

[narrator] Churchill's
opposition to appeasement

had given him a new political
and moral purpose.

He warned that Hitler's demands

would not end
with Czechoslovakia.

He would soon be proved right.

On September the 1st, 1939,

the peace Chamberlain
thought he had guaranteed,

was shattered.

Germany invaded Poland.
Appeasement had failed.

Two days later,
on September the 3rd, 1939,

Britain declared war.

While across the Atlantic,
just a few hours afterwards,

United States President,
Franklin D. Roosevelt,

declared
his country's neutrality.

This nation will remain
a neutral nation.

[narrator] For now,
this would be Europe's war.

His immediate concern really

is how he balances approaching
the situation in Europe

with the fact that he is trying
to keep the United States,

at least for the time being,
out of the war.

[narrator]
Over the next eight months,

German troops and tanks

advanced rapidly
across the continent.

[suspenseful music]

Denmark, Norway, Belgium,
the Netherlands and Luxembourg

were now under Nazi occupation.

As country after country fell,

so did the popularity
of Britain's Prime Minister,

Neville Chamberlain.

In London, moves were afoot
to remove him from office.

But how would they succeed?

[vibrant introductory theme]

Britain declared war
on Nazi Germany.

The appeasement of Hitler
by PM Neville Chamberlain

had failed.

A war cabinet was assembled

and Chamberlain invited
one of his fiercest critics

to become
First Lord of the Admiralty.

Winston Churchill
was no stranger to the role.

He had been
in charge of the admiralty

in the First World War,

when his record was marred

by the disastrous
amphibious landing

of Allied troops at Gallipoli,
in Turkey, in 1915.

[Dockter] This is something
that his political opponents

used to say he was a risk
taker,

and a sort of...
politically unreliable

or strategically unreliable,

and it even haunts him
into the Second World War.

[narrator] Churchill would not
fare much better

in the early months
of the Second World War.

He'd returned to the Admiralty

determined
to rebuild his reputation

as a military strategist.

In an effort to try and slow
Hitler's advance,

he championed a plan
to move allied troops

into Norway and Sweden,

to cut the supply lines
of iron ore

to the Nazi War Machine.

Unfortunately for the British,
the Germans got there first.

They invaded Norway
on the 9th April, 1940.

Britain attempted
a counterattack,

but it was unsuccessful.

The campaign was a military
and strategic disaster.

Yet, this time,

it was the prime minister,
Neville Chamberlain,

rather than
the First Lord of the
Admiralty,

that got the blame.

I fear Chamberlain's goose
was already cooked.

In some ways,
Britain hadn't really

got its head around the fact

it was a war,
and not only a war,

but a war
with a ruthless military power.

And mistakes were made,
without a doubt, in Norway.

And the surprising thing,
in some ways,

is that Churchill survived it,

but it didn't seem to be
held against him.

[narrator] Behind closed doors
in Westminster,

there were some who saw

the public's willingness
to blame Chamberlain

as an opportunity.

As Allied troops withdrew
from Norway in late April,

the Prime Minister's
political opponents

made their move.

On the 7th of May,
the House of Commons gathered

for one of the most momentous
debates in its history.

Moving adeptly
from the disasters

of the Norway campaign,

speeches soon took aim

at the government's
overall conduct of the war

and at Chamberlain's
position as Prime Minister.

On the second day of the
debate,
a vote was forced.

It transformed the debate
into a vote of confidence

in Chamberlain himself.

It became a sort of
de facto vote of "no
confidence"

partly because Chamberlain
made the mistake actually,

of standing up
in the House of Commons

and saying "I hope my friends
will vote with me on this."

So, if you like, challenging
his Conservative Party MPs

to back him or sack him.

And, of course, he got
the answer he didn't want.

[narrator] Although
the Prime Minister won,

around 40 Conservative MPs
voted against him.

and 60 abstained.

The blow to his authority

meant his resignation
was inevitable.

Chamberlain wanted
his foreign secretary,

Lord Halifax, to succeed him.

But Halifax, was seen
as altogether too patrician,

too high Anglican and too much
of a Chamberlain crony

to be acceptable
to Labour Leader Clement Atlee

and the opposition benches.

Halifax told Chamberlain

he did not want
to be Prime Minister

and pleaded ill health.

On May the 10th, 1940,

as Germany
swept into the Low Countries,

Chamberlain resigned.

[music fades]

That evening,
Churchill made his way

to Buckingham Palace

to meet King George VI

and become Britain's second
wartime Prime Minister.

The rest of the country
still had no idea

that Chamberlain
had even resigned.

What had been agreed
between a few men

behind the scenes in
Westminster

would have repercussions
across Europe.

Addressing the Commons,
Churchill declared,

"I have nothing to offer but
blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

Churchill would be

a very different
leader for Britain.

[Kumarasingham] He was seen
as someone who would be able

to bring the country together,

to bring Parliament together
and prosecute the war.

But it's interesting to note

that when Churchill did become
Prime Minister in May 1940,

he was not the leader
of the Conservative Party.

Chamberlain remained leader
of the Conservative Party,

and he remained in the cabinet

effectively as
the Deputy Prime Minister.

The realities
of British politics

at that high elite level,
where there was still

a vast majority
of the Conservative Party,

supported Neville Chamberlain,

and did not want Churchill

to become leader
of the Conservative Party.

[narrator] Churchill's position
was precarious in the extreme.

To stay in Downing Street,

he would have to keep
the party grandees on side.

And events on the continent
were soon to test that support.

German forces had swept
through Belgium,

the Netherlands and into
France.

The British Expeditionary Force
had been dispatched to Europe

at the outbreak of war.

But by late May 1940,

around 400,000 service men
were encircled in Belgium

and Northern France.

We had put forward
an expeditionary force

to bolster up the French
and the Belgians.

Not of itself very large
comparatively,

but politically
most significant.

And the collapse of France
and the collapse of Belgium

really left no other outcome

for the British
Expeditionary Force

other than withdrawal by sea.

[narrator]
Retreating to the edge

of the English Channel,
at Dunkirk,

they faced annihilation

at the hands
of the advancing Germans.

After just 16 days
as Prime Minister,

Churchill now faced a crisis
which could end his premiership

and the ability of the British
to continue to fight the Nazis.

The fact that France
collapsed so quickly

came as a real shock
to Winston Churchill.

[narrator] On the 26th of May,

as a desperate attempt
was launched

to rescue the stranded soldiers
from Dunkirk,

the War Cabinet began

a two‐day‐long meeting
in London.

But the politicians
were starkly divided.

The new Prime Minister
wanted to fight on,

while the Foreign Secretary,
Lord Halifax,

wanted to contact Mussolini

and convince
the Italian dictator

to broker peace terms
with Hitler.

Churchill was completely
opposed to this.

But he also recognised
that in the war cabinet

that he wasn't necessarily
going to win the fight

against Halifax and Chamberlain.

[narrator] The battle
in Whitehall went on for days.

The future of Britain
and the course of the entire
war

hung in the balance.

The war cabinet was
in complete disagreement

about the way forward.

If Halifax resigned,
and others followed,

the government could fall.

It was Churchill's
powers of persuasion

on the 28th of May
that carried the day.

Nobody knows for sure

what exactly
Winston Churchill said,

but they came out
of that meeting

and everyone was convinced that
they were going to fight on.

So it's a remarkable moment
when Winston Churchill changes

the course of history
personally.

What you have in a sense
is this whole secret world

going on, pulling the strings
of what's happening.

[narrator] Later that day,
the Cabinet unanimously agreed.

Britain would fight on.

The attempted rescue
of more than 300,000 troops

stranded
on the shores of Dunkirk

had already begun,
on the 26th of May.

And in just 12 days,
a swiftly assembled fleet

of more than 700 vessels,
large and small,

arrived on the French coast
and carried to safety

the bulk of what
Churchill called

the "root and core and brain
of the British Army."

[Jackson]
The extraordinary response,

the naval response,
not only the Royal Navy,

but of numerous small boats
owned by whomever,

civilians on whatever calling,
a remarkable response.

Very brave defence
of the perimeter

by those troops
who had given that job

which should only end
in one of two ways for them:

death or capture.

And they did that job
and bought the time

for the sea evacuation
to take place.

The RAF put in a great effort

to maintain over the perimeter

air superiority
or least air equivalents.

And keep the German bombers
off the soldier's backs.

[narrator] On the 4th of June,

Churchill made
one of his most famous

and stirring speeches.

[Churchill]
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!

[narrator]
Churchill's brilliant words

transformed a military defeat
into an act of heroic defiance.

[gloomy tune]

But Dunkirk was, at best,
a glorious failure.

I don't think Churchill
is ever under any illusions

that this was anything
other than a catastrophic defeat

and regarded it as so,
and just the prelude

to what he expected,
which was a German invasion.

And he was aware, of course,
that he got the soldiers off,

but they left
all their artillery,

and their trucks
and their tanks behind them.

[narrator] The British Army
had lost almost 50,000 soldiers

as well as most of its tanks
and equipment.

Churchill, remember,
after Dunkirk,

warns the British people

that wars aren't won
by glorious evacuations.

The Dunkirk evacuation,
of course we think of it

as the heroic efforts
of 330,000 men

evacuated from the beaches.

But we mustn't forget
that 50,000 were left behind.

5,000 taken and, you know,
went into some sort of hiding.

And so, behind the scenes

there's a new branch
of military intelligence,

known as MI9,

and it's their role very swiftly
to set up secret escape lines

to get those soldiers,

and later airmen
if they're shot down,

back from behind enemy lines
to fight again.

[narrator] Acknowledging
Britain's vulnerability,

Churchill desperately
reached out to Roosevelt

through a series of telegrams,

in the hope that the President
might bring the United States

into the war.

But despite his best efforts,

Churchill
had to settle with the US

allowing Britain to purchase
much needed arms and equipment.

Roosevelt's
"cash and carry" scheme

gave Britain the supplies
she needed

to remain in the war.

For Churchill,
he thought that the aid

that came from the US
was of paramount importance

to surviving what the Germans
might throw at the allies.

[narrator] Adolf Hitler
had expected Britain

to seek a peace settlement

after the capitulation
of France.

But he had underestimated

the kind of a man
he was dealing with

and the resolve
of the British people.

Churchill stuck to his word
to never surrender.

[solemn tune with drum beats]

The fight for Europe
moved to the skies

with the Battle of Britain.

The Royal Air Force now
took on the German Luftwaffe

in a deadly battle
for air supremacy.

a secret message
was hand delivered

to the Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin

by Sir Stafford Cripps,
British Ambassador in Moscow.

The telegram
came from Winston Churchill.

The Prime Minister
had a warning for Stalin.

British intelligence
had detected

massive German troop build‐ups
on the Soviet border.

It could mean only one thing,

that Hitler planned
to invade the Soviet Union.

[gloomy tune]

Stalin, paranoid as ever,

dismissed it
as a "capitalist trick."

Roosevelt also had intelligence
about the attack

and told Stalin
it was as certain

as that the night
followed the day

that as soon as Hitler
had conquered France,

he would turn on Russia.

Both Churchill and Roosevelt
warned Stalin in 1941

that an invasion
was going to happen.

Stalin disregards
these warnings.

Why does he do this?

It's because he doesn't trust
either Roosevelt or Churchill.

Stalin was
an ideological person.

He believed in a major clash

between communists
and capitalists

as being inevitable.

This had informed his thinking
for two decades.

Churchill, in particular,
was the leader

of the world's
preeminent imperial power.

And they'd been portrayed
in Soviet propaganda

as the main enemy throughout
the 1920s, going into the 1930s.

So, it's not surprising

that Stalin disregarded
their warnings in 1941,

and he decided
to go with his gut instinct,

which was to do nothing
about the invasion.

And that proved to be
a catastrophic mistake.

[narrator] But Stalin continued
to ignore the allies' warnings.

He even ordered his men
not to fire

on Nazi surveillance planes
that crossed the border,

preferring to believe
Hitler's ludicrous explanation

that the pilots
had simply got lost,

rather than entertain Churchill
and Roosevelt's warnings

that Hitler was about
to turn on him.

[Folly] It's interesting
that before the German
invasion,

about a week before,
Churchill and Roosevelt

had exchanged correspondence
about the possibilities

of a German attack,

which they both had been
receiving intelligence,

was going to happen.

And Churchill at that point
had assured Roosevelt

that he wasn't thinking
of alliance

with the Soviet Union,

and he knew that
that would be very difficult

in the United States too.

But Roosevelt, like Churchill,

appreciated the addition,
to the Allied cause,

of Soviet power.

And he too, like Churchill,

was prepared to provide support
for the Soviet Union.

[narrator] Two years earlier,
in the summer of 1939,

Britain, France
and the Soviet Union

had been deep in talks
over the growing aggression

of Nazi Germany.

A shared response
was called for,

a united front
against a common enemy.

What they didn't know
was that the Soviet Union

was also holding talks
with Nazi Germany.

As far as Stalin was concerned,

the arrangement
with the British and French

was much more risky,
because the risk was

that Germany
would attack Poland,

and the Soviet Union would now
be in the front line

in a war against the Germans,

without any guarantee

that the British and French
would do anything at all.

He saw Hitler
on a march across Europe

and, initially, Stalin's plan

was to make a pact
with the Western powers,

but Western powers ultimately
did not trust Stalin.

Stalin loses patience

and sees a deal
can be made with Hitler.

And he manages
to spread soviet influence

into Eastern Europe.

[narrator]
On the 23rd of August, 1939,

German Foreign Minister,
Joachim von Ribbentrop,

arrived in Moscow
to complete a stunning deal

with his Soviet counterpart
Vyacheslav Molotov.

The Molotov‐Ribbentrop pact

agreed that neither Germany
nor the Soviet Union

would attack the other
for a decade.

Nor would they support
any other country doing so.

Hitler had suggested
the deal last a century,

but Stalin said
ten years would do.

It was hardly a marriage
made in heaven.

For years, each side
had demonised the other.

The Soviet film industry
constantly pumped out

anti‐Nazi propaganda.

And Hitler had called
the Russian people

a "mass of born slaves"

and had declared it
Germany's mission

to rid the world of Bolshevism.

Equally, the Soviet dictator
didn't trust Britain or France.

And he did not share
their belief

that war was avoidable.

So, if a conflict was coming,
he wanted to make sure

that Germans were bogged down
in Western Europe

for as long as possible.

[sombre tune]

The Russians were completely
unprepared for war.

In his rampant paranoia,

Stalin had purged thousands
of officers from the Red Army.

It was typical Stalin behaviour.

And so, the Red Army,

at the point of their invasion
by the Nazis,

were very much decimated
in their senior command.

[Whitewood]
30,000 military personnel

were affected by this purge.

There were thousands of arrests,

there were
hundreds of executions.

The main reason
why Stalin did this

is because
he mistrusted his military.

He believed
there was a spy scare

and espionage agents
within officer corps in 1937.

[narrator] Stalin hoped
this pact with Germany

would give him more time.

But there was
another part of the deal

that was kept secret.

One which made the pact
even more attractive

to the Soviet dictator.

A private agreement between
them
which would seal the fates

of millions
of innocent civilians.

[sombre tune]

Following the victory
he confidently predicted,

Hitler had promised Stalin
that Eastern Europe

would be divided between Nazi
and Soviet spheres of
influence.

They would rule the continent
together.

Hitler, of course,

never had any intention
of honouring the promise

but Stalin allowed himself
to be flattered and beguiled.

And initially,
he saw his faith rewarded.

they seized
the west of the country.

Sixteen days later,

the Soviet Union
invaded from the east.

Poland was divided
and wiped off the map,

just as agreed.

[sombre tune]

The division of Poland
and the creation of a buffer

to protect the Soviet Union

was critical
to Stalin's sense of security.

For many years, Stalin had been
interested in acquiring

what we know as buffer zones.

He was interested, of course,

in spreading Communism
worldwide,

but the two things were not
mutually exclusive.

Stalin could
look to push Communism

further across Europe
and also secure the Soviet state

with this ring of countries
against the invasion.

The Russians and the Poles
had fought a war in 1920‐1921,

which the Soviets had lost,

and so Stalin was
quite keen for a bit of revenge.

[narrator] In Stalin's mind,

the Molotov‐Ribbentrop pact
was working.

Trade between the USSR
and Germany increased.

Soviet grain, oil
and other raw materials

were exchanged
for German industrial goods

and military equipment,
including even a naval cruiser.

The trade agreement
in the Nazi‐Soviet Pact

carried on.

So as the Nazis and their troops

were massing
at the Soviet border,

the Soviet Union was still
sending them goods,

and still trading with them
and actually giving them

resources they needed
to later invade.

[narrator] But Hitler
had not changed his beliefs.

His hatred for what he called
"Jewish Bolshevism" remained.

As did his contempt for Stalin.

Once the pact had been signed,

it made war
more or less inevitable.

[narrator] But why was Stalin,

a man who had built
a totalitarian state

based on suspicion and
paranoia,

so easily seduced by Hitler?

His calculation was that Hitler
would not fight a war

against the Soviet Union

while he was still
engaged with Britain.

He believed that he saw
Hitler's motivations,

believed that Hitler wanted
to avoid a war on two fronts,

that Hitler would appreciate
the economic aid

that he was getting
from the Soviet Union,

and that Hitler
would be prepared

to allow
that relationship to continue

while it was benefiting him,
and most particularly,

while he was still
fighting the war in the West.

He was also somewhat deluded
by German deception plans,

which were calibrated
to convince him

that German build up in Poland

was all part of their build up
to attack Britain.

[narrator] By mid‐1940,
the Soviet Union

had control of the territories
bordering the Balkans.

They were now within
striking distance

of the Romania oil fields
Germany depended on.

Even while waging war
against France and Britain,

Hitler had one eye on the East.

But the Soviet Union,
even when taken by surprise,

would be a formidable enemy.

German commanders knew
they would have to move fast

and secure victory
before Stalin could mobilise

his own massive,
if inexperienced, forces.

Germany planned to attack
the Soviet Union

along an 1,800‐mile front,

from occupied East Prussia,
Romania and Poland.

It would be the largest
invasion force ever assembled.

148 divisions,
and 3.5 million troops,

equipped with 3,000 tanks,
7,000 artillery pieces

and 2,500 aircraft.

One army group
would strike north,

towards Leningrad.

A second group
would strike south

into Ukraine
and down towards the Black Sea.

A third group
would head for Moscow.

Their aim was to take the city
within just four months.

[thrilling tune]

But the Nazi plans
were discovered.

The German government
and military

communicated through a cipher
known as Enigma.

They thought
it was impenetrable.

But they were wrong...

With the help
of Polish cryptanalysts

based at Bletchley Park,

British intelligence had broken
its first wartime Enigma
message

in January 1940.

The messages
they intercepted in 1941

revealed
three Panzer tank divisions

on the move in Poland

and movements
of more German troops

towards other parts
of the Soviet border.

[thrilling tune intensifies]

The German invasion
of the Soviet Union

was imminent.

[Folly] Churchill
had sent a message to Stalin

at the beginning of April,
based on some of the material

coming from
the Bletchley Park operation.

The problem was
that they couldn't reveal

the source of that material
because it was ultra‐secret.

So it rather reduced

the credibility
of the information

when it got to Stalin,

who's getting
a lot of information

from his own agents
and from other people.

He thinks it's disinformation
being spread by Churchill,

because if he was Churchill,
he'd try and persuade

the Soviet Union
to come into the war.

So he just chuckles to himself
and thinks,

"I know what you're trying
to do, Churchill,

and I'm not going to be fooled."

[narrator]
More warnings followed,

giving detailed information

on the German units
massing on the Soviet border.

Still,
Stalin did not believe them.

He was about to pay
a devastating price.

‐[vibrant, driving brass music]
‐[cannon balls firing]

[music stops]

On June the 22nd, 1941,

Nazi Germany and its Axis
allies
launched Operation Barbarossa.

The invasion
along an 1,800‐mile wide front

took the Soviets
completely by surprise.

I think the Germans invaded
about 3:00 in the morning,

then at about 8:00 that morning

the orders to the Red Army
were given

to take up defensive positions.

So, they were on the back foot.

The Germans battle
hardened in France,

Belgium knew
what they were doing.

Well‐equipped at this point
and a very large force indeed.

[narrator] Stalin was
at his country estate

when news of the invasion came.

He did not emerge for a week,
hiding away in his dacha,

drunkenly despairing
that his government

had ruined "Lenin's legacy".

The Soviet dictator

had been privately warned
by Churchill

that Hitler's betrayal
was coming.

But Stalin had not believed it.

He's isolated, it seems like

he's been totally
overwhelmed by events

and he leaves it
to his deputies and his allies

to actually take it
upon themselves

to respond to the invasion.

It's telling that it's Molotov

who gives the first address
to the Soviet people

announcing the war.

[narrator]
Now the Nazi Blitzkrieg,

which had conquered
Western Europe,

was unleashed
on the Soviet Union.

[sombre tune]

While Stalin wallowed
in drunken self‐pity,

millions of his people
were forced to flee their
homes.

His armies
were fighting for their lives.

The Red Army's
inexperienced commanders

were no match
for the battle‐hardened
Germans.

Stalin ordered that his men
stand their ground,

rather than retreat and
regroup.

The result was encirclement
and surrender.

[sombre, tense tune]

Huge numbers of Soviet soldiers
were taken prisoner.

Stalin sent desperate messages
to London.

He pleaded with Churchill

to open a second front
in the West,

so that Hitler would
have to fight on two sides.

Britain had been quick to
strike

an alliance with the Soviets
after the invasion.

It was sending
what supplies it could spare.

But it was in no position

to mount an invasion
of Nazi‐occupied Europe.

I think what Churchill saw
was an opportunity.

And that is that he recognised

that this was a moment
to bring Joseph Stalin in

on his own side.

And as he famously said,

even if Hitler decided
to invade hell,

he would at least make
a favourable statement

about the Devil
in the House of Commons.

He decided,
pretty much instantly,

that Britain would align itself

with the cause
of the Soviet Union.

There were many misgivings

about lining up
with the Bolsheviks,

but he, on the very day,

decided that he would make
a public broadcast

pledging British support
for the Soviet Union,

and he does so
in one of his greatest speeches,

it was actually a TV broadcast,
he says that nobody's been

as big an opponent
of communism as him,

but this isn't about communism,

it's about Russian people
defending their heartland,

defending their women
and their children,

and Britain
will march alongside them.

[narrator] By mid‐July,
the Wehrmacht had advanced

500 miles into Soviet
territory,

had captured nearly
600,000 Red Army soldiers.

But this rapid advance
came at a cost to the Germans.

The vast distances were
stretching their supply lines

to breaking point.

And the scorched earth policy
of Soviet defenders

left little behind
that the invaders could use

in terms of food or shelter.

Already, time was running short

for the Germans
to achieve victory

before the extreme
Russian weather set in.

[tense tune]

By autumn 1941,

the Nazis had Moscow
in their sights.

Taking the capital would not
just be a symbolic victory.

The city was a major hub
of industry and transportation.

But Hitler had other ideas.

To the despair of his generals,
he changed his strategy

and redirected forces south,
towards Kiev,

and north to Leningrad,

where the Red Army was
putting up stubborn resistance.

Moscow could wait.

[Boff] In the autumn
of 1941, he knew

that he had... only had
the resources to do one thing.

I think from
a military standpoint

actually he was probably right.

The important thing
was to destroy the Red Army.

The important thing was not
necessarily to get to Moscow.

The problem that he
experienced,
however,

of course was
just that Russia's so big.

[narrator] The Germans who were
heading towards Moscow,

slowed their advance
as the Red Army dug in.

Autumn rains
turned roads to mud.

And then
the Russian winter set in.

It was one of the coldest
of the twentieth century.

Temperatures plummeted.

And little winter equipment
was reaching German soldiers

at the front.

Their coats were too thin.

They could not use
their guns or vehicles.

Frostbite affected thousands.

The Germans were not ready

for the harshness
of the Russian winter.

[narrator] Hitler
had underestimated

not just the depths
of the Russian winter,

but the depths
of Russian determination.

[machine gun firing]

The snow would not last
forever.

The fight on the Eastern Front
was far from over.

‐[vibrant music]
‐[aircraft dropping bombs]

[vibrant introductory theme]

Next time, on Race to Victory:

The Soviet Union's
desperate fight for survival.

This was now a fight
for Mother Russia,

for the soul of Mother Russia.

And so they tackle too
with a will

and accepted
horrific casualties.

Many people think they
know Stalin very well indeed

because in many ways
he is obvious,

a vicious brutal dictator,

who cared little
about sacrificing

huge numbers of human lives
in the cause.

He is the man of course who said

"One death is a tragedy,
a million deaths is statistic."

[narrator] Whilst in Washington,

FDR continues
to sit on his hands,

until a new foe

makes a devastating entrance
to the field of battle,

in a totally
unexpected location.

[Roosevelt] A date
which will live in infamy,

the United States of America

was suddenly
and deliberately attacked.

[narrator] The European war
is about to become a World War.

[explosion]