All language subtitles for World War II Race To Victory Series 1 3of6 Victory at Any Cost 1080p

[military music]

[narrator]
On the 13th of April 1943,

German troops
deep in Soviet territory

make a grisly discovery.

In Katyn Forest near Smolensk
in western Russia,

they stumble upon
a series of mass graves

containing
more than 4,000 bodies.

All officers
from the Polish military,

including an admiral,
generals, and majors.

For Nazi propaganda minister,
Josef Goebbels,

news of the mass graves

is a desperately needed
opportunity.

It is clear the graves have
been
there for several years,

so Goebbels
and the German High Command

know that these Polish
prisoners
must have been killed

by the Soviets soon after
they invaded Poland in 1939.

Goebbels believes
he can use this information

to turn Churchill and Roosevelt
against Stalin

and weaken their alliance.

But despite Goebbels' attempts
to publicise the massacre

and turn international opinion
against the Soviets,

he is no match
for Stalin's duplicity.

When questioned by his allies,

the Soviet leader denies
all knowledge of the massacre

and pins the blame firmly
on the Nazi regime,

and Churchill and Roosevelt
accept his assurances.

They are about to enter
the critical phase of the war,

and they need Stalin
and his Red Army

as much as he needs them.

[theme music]

[slides clicking]

‐[explosions]
‐[troops marching]

[bombs hiss]

[narrator]
In 1942, the Soviet Union,

the United States,
and Great Britain,

whilst theoretically united
against the fascist Axis
powers,

were, in practice,
nations apart.

Stalin's Soviet forces
were isolated and suffering,

desperately defending
their western territories

from the Nazi invaders.

[distant artillery]

The Americans
were still in shock

after the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbour,

and as newcomers to this war,
were still finding their feet.

And Churchill, despite pleas
from Stalin and Roosevelt,

was still determined
to postpone the invasion

of northern France
until he could be

absolutely sure of victory.

In August 1942,

Churchill flew to Moscow
to meet with Stalin.

It was supposed to be a meeting

of all three
of the major Allied powers,

but Roosevelt
was unable to attend

because of his health.

What's remarkable,
and we know this now

because of the recently
published Ivan Maisky's diaries,

that Churchill
was talking about an alliance

with the Soviet Union
much earlier than people

had previously thought.

So, Churchill was willing
to be flexible

in the tradition
of geo‐strategic politics,

global politics,
and even if that meant

working with someone

who you didn't
necessarily like very well,

he understood that ultimately
a Nazi Germany represented

a greater threat
than the Soviet Russia.

[narrator] The Soviet Union
was on its knees,

and Stalin was desperate

for Churchill
and the Western Allies

to open up
a western front in Europe

to ease the vast pressure
on his armies in the east.

[Harshan] Stalin's demand
for a second front

speaks to some
of the real tensions

among the Big Three

about their own
national interests,

and also their visions
of what the war was for.

For him as well, this was about
his prestige in The Big Three.

And so he wanted
to be treated as an equal

in this common struggle
against Hitler.

He was very frustrated
about the fact

that Churchill would not agree

to open that second front
sooner than later.

[intriguing music]

[narrator]
Churchill was well aware of
this

and arrived in Moscow
for a series of meetings,

still determined
not to give in to Stalin.

[Martin] His principle goal

is to talk to Stalin directly

because he's concerned
that Roosevelt has made

a rather rash promise to embark

on a second front
in France in 1942.

Now, of course,

that message could
have been sent by telegram,

but Churchill
also wants to open up

some kind of a personal
connection to Joseph Stalin.

He's a little concerned
that Roosevelt

earlier in the year has said

Stalin likes Roosevelt better
than he likes Churchill,

and so perhaps Roosevelt should
speak for the both of them.

Churchill did not like that.

[narrator]
After the usual pleasantries,

Churchill cut to the chase

saying both British and
American
military advisers

had warned against

a cross‐channel
invasion of France

as being too risky that year.

As far as Stalin is concerned,
his prime hope

is that Churchill has come
to offer a second front,

though he knows
from his ambassador in London

that actually Churchill is going
to try and get out of it.

And following
his ambassador's advice,

he attempts to shame Churchill

by presenting the idea
that the British

are scared to fight,

trying to appeal
to Churchill's fighting spirit.

And he does that
and Churchill is very offended.

[narrator] Churchill's response
was to unfurl

a map of the Mediterranean
and North Africa.

He then took a pen
and started to draw

a crocodile
with a dangerous snout.

Churchill draws his picture
of a crocodile and says:

"You can attack a crocodile
by hitting it on the snout,

or hitting it
on the soft underbelly,

and the Mediterranean
is the soft underbelly."

Stalin says: "Yes, I can see
the advantages of doing that."

[narrator]
But did Churchill really
believe

this was the best way
to defeat Nazi Germany?

I think Winston Churchill
was convinced of the idea

that you could move into Germany
or move into Europe

by pushing up through
the Eastern Mediterranean.

Churchill loves this idea.

In fact, Churchill's
only novel, Savrola,

is about someone
who does exactly that

and leads an expedition through
the soft underbelly of Europe.

[narrator]
But many historians today

think Churchill
was also motivated

by his desire to keep
the British Empire alive.

Churchill
is particularly concerned

that the Mediterranean remain
under British control,

because it's
the connection point,

with the Suez Canal at one,
end and Gibraltar at the other,

of the British Empire,

and particularly, of course,
the important part

of the British Empire,
the trade.

[narrator] Stalin initially
appeared convinced

and seemed to back
Churchill's plans.

However,
when they met the next day,

Stalin's mood had changed.

At their second meeting,
Stalin decides,

I'm not going to let him
get away with that,

and starts having a go
at Churchill and lecturing him

that the Germans
aren't that difficult to fight

if you start getting down to it.

It looks like the meeting's
going to completely collapse.

When Churchill goes for his
final meeting with Stalin,

it's supposed to be
just saying goodbye.

They haven't agreed to anything,
but they've agreed to differ.

After they've chatted for a bit,
Stalin says to Churchill:

"Would you like to come back
to my flat for a drink?"

So back they go to Stalin's
little apartment in the Kremlin,

which was formerly
Catherine the Great's bedroom,

and they sit down
and start chatting and drinking,

and they're there
for five hours.

They sit there talking about

military affairs
that they both love.

They're both
commanders‐in‐chief.

They both always
stay up all the night talking.

Stalin's daughter comes in
and brings them some food

and Churchill says:

"I've got a red‐headed
daughter as well."

So they start talking about
their children and things.

And after the end of five hours,

they leave having formed

a very strange
personal relationship.

[narrator]
Despite Stalin's appeals

for a more direct approach
to ease the pressure

on his troops,
the soft underbelly

of Churchill's crocodile,
the Mediterranean,

was to be the focus for the
next
critical phase of the war.

[tense music]

But if Churchill had looked
400 miles northeast

to the besieged city
of Leningrad,

might he have been
more susceptible

to Stalin's entreaties?

[theme music]

discussing the Allies'
best route to victory,

the Soviet Union's
second city, Leningrad,

was under siege
by the German Sixth Army.

The Nazi blockade
would eventually last

nearly 900 days
and claim the lives

of more than 800,000 civilians,

as well as more than 1 million
Soviet and German soldiers.

[artillery]

The siege of Leningrad
had begun in August 1941,

just over two months

after the launch
of Operation Barbarossa,

the sudden invasion
of the Soviet Union,

by three million Nazi troops.

Hitler considered Leningrad
to be a key strategic target.

It was home
to the Soviets' Baltic Fleet,

and second only to Moscow
in terms of industrial output.

But with his invasion force
spread wide

across the Western Soviet
Union,

the Nazi dictator
did not have the strength

in manpower or equipment
to overrun Leningrad,

so he ordered his troops
to encircle the historic city.

He did not want
to capture Leningrad,

but to destroy it
by shelling and bombing

and starving
its people to death.

[loud booming]

By October 1941,

Leningrad was almost
completely surrounded,

with road and rail links
cut off.

The population suffered
constant shelling,

and an estimated
75,000 bombs were dropped

during the 900‐day siege.

Meanwhile, the city's
3 million inhabitants

were slowly starving.

The only supply route
was across Lake Ladoga.

Provisions had
to be brought by boat

or across the ice
during the frozen winters.

[dramatic music]

Very hard to get food
in and out.

Ironically,
when the deep freeze came on,

and it was possible
to drive over the lakes,

then it was almost easier
than when the ground was muddy

or there was heavy rain.

So the city had to be supplied
basically by convoys of lorries

across the lakes,

under shell fire the whole time.
It's just horrendous.

[narrator]
Strict rationing was brought in

by the authorities
in an attempt to conserve

the very limited supplies.

Diaries from survivors
of the siege

reflect the terrible effects
of the shortages.

"There is no worse feeling
than when all your thoughts

are on food,"

wrote Berta Zlotnikova,
a teenager.

"I am becoming an animal."

Another anonymous man wrote:

"My stomach has caved in,

my ribs stick out
from top to bottom."

Ration cards became the only
useful currency in the city,

with people stealing them
and even killing for them.

[tense music]

Food quickly ran out.
There was no electricity.

Communications were severed.

People of Leningrad
were soon forced to start

eating cats, mice,
dogs, leather,

whatever they could find
to sustain themselves.

There were cases of cannibalism,

which were suppressed
by Soviet authorities,

but it's a sign of desperation
which spread through the city.

[narrator]
Despite these daily horrors,

the people of Leningrad
held out,

but it would be two long years
of death and disease

before the Red Army finally
managed to lift the siege.

While the Soviet armies
struggled to fight off

the Nazi forces
in the frozen east,

their Western allies
were engaging the Axis powers

in the deserts of Africa.

The North African campaign
began in June 1940

and continued for three years.

[loud booming]

The British forces,
which included troops

from Australia, New Zealand,
India, and South Africa,

were encamped in Egypt,

while the Italian
and German Axis forces

were in control
of Tunisia and Libya.

North Africa
wasn't only important

in terms of attacking Germany

via the soft underbelly
of Europe,

it was also vital
for keeping access open

to the Suez Canal
and oil in the Middle East.

[Jonathan]
Britain was not prepared

to let the Suez Canal
fall into enemy hands,

because that would've
closed off any possibility

of using the Mediterranean
as a shipping route again.

If Britain controlled
the Suez Canal

and the Mediterranean,
so if they had defeated Italy,

then the route to the far east,
to India in particular,

was much shorter,
and would free up

a lot of shipping.

[narrator]
During the first 18 months

of the North Africa campaign,

each army had struggled
to maintain its position

across the expanse
of the Sahara Desert.

With huge distances
to cover over isolated areas,

successful offensives
often ground to a halt

as supplies ran out
and troops were forced

to retreat to safer positions.

Primarily it is a war
of logistics and supply,

and the rhythm of the campaign
is entirely determined

by the capability of each side
to supply themselves

at either end of a very long,

thousands of miles long
supply chain.

When the allies get
too far to the west,

they're too far away
from their sources of supply,

which are primarily in Egypt.

Their ability
to maintain themselves

and to keep moving forward
is eroding day by day,

every mile west that they go.

Likewise, the Germans,
whose supply lines

are stretched back
to the western end to Tunisia

and western end of Libya,

when they go too far east,

their fighting effort
is prejudiced.

[narrator]
Defending the Allies' position

was the British Eighth Army,
led by one of World War II's

most notorious
military commanders,

General Bernard Law Montgomery.

A graduate of Sandhurst,

Montgomery was shot
through the lung by a sniper

during the First World War
and was so severely injured

that a grave
was prepared for him.

However, he went on
to make a full recovery,

and spent the rest of the war
as a staff officer,

where he could observe
tactics used

by the military high command,

and became an outspoken critic
of their willingness to accept

large numbers of casualties
to gain a tactical advantage.

In 1942, Churchill
appointed Montgomery

commander of the Eighth Army
in North Africa,

entrusting him
with leading the fight

against German Field Marshal
Erwin Rommel,

known as the Desert Fox.

[Sir Mike] Montgomery, I think,

was clear in his own mind,

and certainly put it
to his army:

"There is no going back.

We are not going back
any further.

We will stay here.
We will prepare."

And to be fair,
he was true to his word.

Very methodical.
Some would say cautious,

unwilling to unnecessarily risk
soldiers' lives.

[Jonathan]
He was a very skilled general.

He understood his intelligence,

he was getting
a lot of intelligence

from Bletchley Park
about the weaknesses

of the German army,
and he knew how to exploit that.

[narrator] El Alamein was seen
as the gateway

to Egypt
and the Suez Canal beyond.

At 10 p. m. on the night
of October the 23rd, 1942,

the British Eighth Army
launched their offensive

on the Axis forces

with a furious
15‐minute bombardment

by more than 1,000 guns.

Crucially, at this point,
Rommel was not with his troops,

as he was at home
in Germany on sick leave.

By the time he returned
to command three days later,

German lines had been broken

and the Allies
were in total control.

Hitler ordered his troops

to fight and die
to the last man,

but after 12 days of exhausting
combat in El Alamein,

Rommel and his remaining men

retreated across the desert
back to Tunisia.

Montgomery's Eighth Army
had lost nearly 5,000 men,

but Rommel's army lost more.

9,000 Axis soldiers were killed

and a further 35,000
were taken prisoner.

It had been
an overwhelming victory

for General Montgomery
and the Eighth Army,

but the Battle of El Alamein

was also symbolically
and psychologically
significant.

This was
the first time in the war

the Western Allies had broken
a German army on the ground

and delivered a knockout blow,
sending them into full retreat.

Churchill makes
the famous quote about

"this not being
the beginning of the end,

this is the end
of the beginning."

[narrator] In his post‐war
memoirs, Churchill wrote:

"It might almost be said
that before Alamein,

we never had a victory.

After Alamein,
we never had a defeat."

In another six months,

the Allies would drive
the Axis forces

out of North Africa completely.

As Rommel and his men
retreated into Tunisia,

the allies were planning
a further,

and they hoped, final operation

to remove the Axis troops
from North Africa.

Operation Torch, led by
General Dwight D. Eisenhower,

and launched
on the 8th of November 1942,

saw a vast amphibious landing
at Fedala, in Morocco,

15 miles northeast
of Casablanca.

Hitler was still keen
to defend North Africa

at all costs, and sent
reinforcements from Germany.

However,
they were vastly outnumbered

by the Allied troops made up
of British, American,

Canadian, French,
and Indian soldiers.

The Axis forces
were trapped in Tunisia

and surrounded
by the Allied armies.

In addition,
the British navy controlled

the Mediterranean sea
to the North,

and the RAF
was in charge of the skies.

The Germans had nowhere to go,
but they weren't giving up.

‐Fire!
‐[explosion]

Arriving on the Moroccan shore
at Fedala,

the American forces
met little resistance.

But that would quickly change.

On 19th of February 1943,
Rommel ordered an assault

on the Kasserine Pass
in Tunisia,

which was held
by the U. S. II Corps.

The Germans inflicted
heavy damage

on the defending Americans,

and the Allies suffered
around 10,000 casualties

with hundreds of American
troops
taken prisoner.

American troops,

badly mauled
at the Battle of Kasserine Pass,

are forced to retreat.

And the American
high command realises

that its troops need
to be far better trained,

and equally important,

far better led than
they were at Kasserine Pass.

[narrator] Eisenhower replaced
the lieutenant general in
charge

with a more aggressive
commander

would come to be recognised

as one of America's
greatest ever generals

and battlefield tacticians,
General George S. Patton.

Under Patton's
relentless command,

the superior numbers
of the Allies won out,

as they drove the Axis forces

back into
a smaller and smaller area.

Remember this: you don't have
to be a corpse to be a hero.

[narrator] On 13th of May 1943,
surrounded by the Allied
armies,

the Axis forces
in Tunisia surrendered,

and more than
a quarter of a million

of their soldiers were
captured.

The Allies
had taken North Africa,

and now had a base
from which to build

the next phase of their
strategy
to attack Germany via Sicily.

Here General Patton
would come into conflict

not only with the Axis forces,
but also his supposed ally,

Field Marshal Montgomery.

The two men loathed one another
almost more than their enemy,

with each determined
to outshine the other.

As the strike through
the Mediterranean

got underway in earnest,

America and Roosevelt
were also focused

on becoming the dominant power
in the Pacific,

and that would mean taking on
the imperial forces of Japan.

[theme music]

[narrator] The surprise attack
on Pearl Harbour

in December 1941

had left the U. S. armies
shocked and humiliated.

But six months later,
a reinvigorated U. S. military

took part in a huge naval
and aerial battle

which would go on to define
the war in the Pacific:

the Battle of Midway.

[explosion]

For the Japanese,
the success of Pearl Harbour

left them determined
to eliminate

any American military presence
in the Pacific.

The first step would be
to attack and take control

of the small island of Midway,

the westernmost U. S. held
territory in the Pacific.

This island more than
3,000 miles west of the USA,

and 2,500 miles from Japan,
was home to a U. S. naval base,

and was seen by Japanese
command

as the gateway to domination
of the Pacific Ocean.

The Japanese
approached the battle

with a clear advantage
in firepower.

But the U. S. had a different
strength: intelligence.

American codebreaking teams
based in Hawaii

had intercepted
Japanese communications

about their secret plans.

The Japanese intended
to fake an attack

on the Aleutian Islands
north of Midway,

diverting the American fleet
away from their real target.

In addition, U. S. codebreakers
had discovered the time,

location, and the plan of
attack
on Midway.

As they approached Midway
on the 4th of June 1942,

the Japanese
were expecting to carry out

a surprise attack on the U. S.,

just as they had
at Pearl Harbour.

This time,
the tables had been turned.

[loud booming]

American planes bombed
the Japanese carriers

which still had dozens
of aircraft on deck

being refuelled.

The Japanese lost three
carriers
almost immediately.

[loud booming]

So at the time,
Pearl Harbour was thought

of as a disaster
for the Americans

and a huge success
for the Japanese

because they had sunk
all the American battleships.

With the benefit of hindsight,
we can see that things

were a little bit different
than that.

The American aircraft carriers
survived,

and over the course
of the rest of the war,

the Americans evolved
a way of waging war

involving aircraft carriers
and amphibious infantry.

That allowed them to leapfrog
from island to island

across the Pacific until
they got within range of Japan,

and thereby created
the whole new way of war

built around
the aircraft carrier

rather than around
the battleship,

which is still broadly the way
that navies operate today.

[narrator] The battle continued
for three days,

and while the Japanese rallied,

they never regained
the initiative.

The Battle of Midway ended
in a resounding U. S. victory.

The Japanese lost
more than 3,000 men,

four carriers, and hundreds
of aircraft at Midway,

while the United States
lost just 362 men,

one carrier, one destroyer,
and 144 aircraft.

[explosions in distance]

The Battle of Midway turned

the war in the Pacific
on its head.

The Japanese imperial expansion
had been stopped,

and now the Americans
would push them back,

island by island.

[explosions]

With its Navy once more
in command of the seas,

the U. S. forces planned
to seize control

of the many Pacific islands.

[gunshots in distance]

And one of the most brutal
battles of the campaign

took place at Guadalcanal.

This British colony,
one of the Solomon Islands,

had been invaded
by Japanese troops in July
1942.

But the Allies wanted
to reclaim it,

and on the 7th of August,
their first major land
offensive

in the Pacific began.

6,000 U. S. Marines
landed on Guadalcanal

and seized the airfield,

surprising the 2,000 Japanese
soldiers there.

With both the U. S. and Japanese
seeing Guadalcanal

as strategically important,

a ferocious fight for control
of this territory began.

Both sides poured
reinforcements
onto the island.

By October,
the Japanese had around

36,000 ground
and naval troops there.

The savage combat went on
for months in the island
jungle.

In a bid to regain control
of the island's airstrip,

the Japanese sent 7,000 troops
on 11 transport ships,

protected by two battleships.

The Allies had received
intelligence reports

that the convoy was coming,

and sent every available unit
in the area

to attack the Japanese fleet.

After an intense battle,

most of the Japanese ships
were sunk.

[artillery fire]

Finally, in February 1943,

the Japanese
completely overwhelmed,

were forced to evacuate
12,000 of their remaining
troops

from Guadalcanal.

From then on,
the Japanese were only able

to send supplies
and reinforcements by
submarine,

and as their numbers
and morale dwindled,

the Allied forces gradually
took control.

Japan could only
go on the defensive

against an increasingly
powerful
United States.

[reporter] No Jap planes
attacked this beachhead.

American air power
rules the Solomon.

And 1943, the year
of strength has just begun.

The leaders have planned,
the United Nations

are sworn to attack
until there is peace

with the unconditional
surrender
of the Axis.

with war raging in the Pacific,
North Africa, and Russia,

Churchill and Roosevelt
met in Casablanca

to decide upon future plans
for the war.

The Americans come to Casablanca
hoping for agreement

that the next operation will be
the invasion of northern France.

The British come hoping
that the next operation

will be to continue
their movements

in the Mediterranean.

They managed to persuade
the Americans to agree

they will at least embark
on the next operation,

which is the invasion of Sicily.

The Americans say
that will be it,

and then we'll transfer

our attentions
to northern France.

The British,
I think hope that, well,

we hope it won't be it.
Once we've got Sicily,

the obvious thing to do would be
to carry on into Italy.

[narrator]
Roosevelt was still keen

on an Allied invasion
in western France,

though less so than Stalin,

who had declined the invitation
to the conference

because of the dire situation
the Red Army

and his people were facing
at Leningrad.

So far, Churchill's
plan had succeeded.

FDR, distracted
by events in the Pacific,

and without Stalin
to back him up,

once again allowed
the British Prime Minister

to have his way,

and the second front in Europe
was again postponed.

I think Roosevelt
recognised that...

the Allies, western Allies,
were simply not ready yet.

For example, they did not have

sufficient flat bottom boats
to convey invading troops

onto the beaches.

[narrator]
One overarching conclusion

that was reached in Casablanca,

with which Stalin
would certainly have agreed,

was that there were to be
no deals with Hitler.

The only goal of this war
was total victory

and unconditional surrender
of the Axis Powers.

[intriguing music]

In July 1942,

Stalin and the people
of the Soviet Union,

already suffering
aerial bombardment

and starvation in Leningrad,

were facing a vicious assault
from the Nazis

in another Soviet city.

Situated on the banks
of the Volga River

in southwestern Russia,

Stalingrad was a key
strategic target for the Nazis.

It was one of the Soviet
Union's
main producers

of tanks,
armaments and tractors,

and taking control of it
would sever transport links

with southern Russia.

The Battle of Stalingrad,
which lasted seven months,

is regarded as the bloodiest
and most brutal battle

of the entire Second World War.

[Sir Mike]
I'm not sure any other battle,

certainly in Europe,

comes close to Stalingrad.

It is a big city, Stalingrad.

The Volga, huge river
flowing through it.

Very important industrially
to the Soviet Union.

So totemic,
and in strategic terms,

basically, um...

it stopped the Russians' ability
to cross the river Volga.

[narrator] As important
as the military victory

was the potential
propaganda victory

the Nazis would have
by seizing the city

bearing
the Soviet leader's name.

It had great symbolism
is his mind,

he was not going to let
this fall to the Germans.

It was
the important supply route

on the Volga River,
which moved goods

from the south of Russia
to the north.

But Stalingrad was also
in Hitler's path

as he moved his forces south,

so it was absolutely imperative
that the city

didn't fall to Hitler.

[narrator]
Stalin steadfastly refused

to concede to the Germans,

and on the 28th of July
issued Order No. 227,

which decreed
that the city's defenders

would take "not one step back."

He also refused to allow
the evacuation of any
civilians,

stating that the army
would fight harder

to defend the people
who lived there.

[loud boom]

More than 300,000
crack German soldiers

were tasked
with taking Stalingrad.

On 23rd of August,
the Luftwaffe launched

a ruthless aerial assault
on the city,

launching wave after wave
of incendiary bombs

which razed most of the city's
wooden housing to the ground.

By mid‐September,

the Germans had pushed
the Soviet forces back

into the very centre
of the city,

a 9‐mile‐long strip
along the Volga.

[distant artillery]

Within weeks,
the Nazis controlled

two thirds of Stalingrad,

and Hitler broadcast a message
that the city was about to
fall.

But Stalin stuck by his promise
to defend it at all costs,

and sent in more
reinforcements.

Under the leadership
of General Zhukov,

one of the few competent
Red Army commanders

to have avoided Stalin's
purges,

the Soviets dug in and engaged
the enemy in close combat,

street by street,
house by house,

and even floor by floor.

In the city you can't move

great fleets of tanks, and...

it's messy, it's short,
short range stuff.

The techniques
are rather different.

The ammunition expenditure
in built up areas is vast.

They are different,
different beasts.

[narrator] The Nazi invaders
became increasingly tired

and dispirited
by the heavy losses

they have suffered.

Conversely, the Red Army
was buoyed

by successfully
holding its ground,

and while keeping
the Nazis at bay,

they planned a counteroffensive
of their own outside the city.

On the 19th of November 1942,

Operation Uranus
was launched north and south

of the Axis troops,

attacking the weaker divisions
at the flanks

of the German attack,

rather than the crack troops
on the frontline in the city.

The operation
totally surprised the Nazis,

and within four days,

the German and Axis armies
outside Stalingrad

were completely surrounded,

leaving the divisions
in the city cut off.

Hitler refused to allow them
to retreat from the Volga River

and ordered them
to stand and fight.

But this was a losing battle.

Winter was setting in,

and food and medical supplies
were running out.

[distant artillery]

Eventually,
on the 31st of January 1943,

the Germans surrendered.

Stalin and his Red Army
had finally won

the Battle of Stalingrad.

[sombre music]

This was Stalin's greatest
victory in the entire war,

but it came at great cost.

More than
a million Soviet soldiers

are estimated to have been
killed, wounded, or captured,

and more than
40,000 civilians also died.

The tolerance

for casualties of the leaders
of the Soviet Union

is remarkable.

The Russians executed
13,000 of their own men

in the course
of the battle of Stalingrad

for not fighting hard enough.
13,000.

The Russians
were willing to send

men into action in Stalingrad
without weapons.

They were expected to...
When things were most desperate,

they were ferried
across the river Volga,

dropped on the bank,
told to climb up the bank

and pick up a rifle as they went

and then go
and fight the Germans.

There was an acceptance
of the requirement

to sacrifice for the motherland.

[narrator] The Axis forces
also sustained heavy losses,

an estimated 800,000 men.

It was as close
as the Germans got

to breaking through
right into the heartland.

And the fact that Nazi Germany
was roundly defeated,

it was very symbolic.

[narrator] The impact
of the victory was immense.

Stalingrad was undoubtedly
the key turning point

in the war between
Germany and the Soviet Union,

and also in the overall battle

between Allied forces
and the Axis powers.

But just as the tide finally
seemed to be turning

in favour of the Big Three,

the Nazi discovery of thousands
of corpses in mass graves

in a forest in western Russia

threatened to cause a major
rift
between the Allies.

[theme music]

April 1,

when Nazi soldiers discovered
more than 4,000 bodies

hidden in mass graves

in Katyn Forest
in the Soviet Union,

all the evidence suggested

that the killings had been
carried out by the Soviets

during their invasion of
Poland.

The carve‐up of the country
had been agreed

between Hitler and Stalin

in the Nazi‐Soviet
non‐aggression pact.

The victims, who had been shot
in the back of the head

and buried,
were Polish military officers,

and the Nazi propaganda
minister Joseph Goebbels

was now keen to publicise
the massacre to the world

in an attempt
to break the alliance

between Stalin,
Churchill and Roosevelt.

But Goebbels
was to be disappointed.

Whatever Churchill and
Roosevelt
may have suspected

about Stalin's part
in these murders,

they could not afford
to lose him as an ally.

There was very little doubt

that both Roosevelt
and Churchill knew

that the Soviets were
responsible for the massacre.

But again, it was a trade‐off,

certainly for Roosevelt,
and even for Churchill.

Are we going to kick up
a fuss about this?

Churchill is quoted as saying:

"Alas, it's probably true."

The Soviets, of course, denied
that they'd been responsible

and accused the Germans
of having killed the Poles

when they went through
the area in 1941.

That was their official story.

[narrator]
At the time, 4,443 bodies

were found in Katyn Forest,

but we now know that more than
22,000 Polish intellectuals

and officers who had been taken
as prisoners of war

were rounded up and shot
by the Soviets

before being dumped
into mass graves

in different locations
in western Russia.

They were generals,
majors, chaplains,

university professors,
lawyers and engineers

targeted by Stalin

and the Soviet Secret Police,
the NKVD.

It was an attempt
to crush resistance

to the Soviet invaders

and prevent the resurgence
of an independent Poland.

The scale of the massacre
is now undisputed

since the execution documents
were made public.

After the Nazi‐Soviet Pact
was agreed,

Red Army troops
move through eastern Europe,

occupying territory
that was agreed

as part of the secret protocol
of that pact.

Now, as part of that
movement across Europe,

Stalin wanted any pockets

of potential anti‐Soviet
resistance to be eliminated.

It's very much in keeping
with how he'd operated

throughout the 1930s.

And this is when
the Polish prisoners

who were housed
in western Belarus

and western Ukraine
come into this,

because he saw them
as potentially dangerous.

They could be a rallying point
of anti‐Soviet opposition.

Moreover, if he got rid
of these prisoners,

who were officers,
they were Polish intellectuals,

he might also head off
the possibility

of a resurgence
of a Polish government.

And, of course,
he was looking to install

his own communist government
in Poland.

[narrator] In April 1943,
three years after the killings,

and almost immediately
after the Red Army

had recaptured the region
from the Nazis,

the Soviet cover‐up began.

[sombre music]

The NKVD destroyed a cemetery

the Germans had permitted
the Polish Red Cross to build

and removed other evidence.

In January 1944,

Moscow appointed
its own investigative body,

which unsurprisingly concluded

that the Polish prisoners
had been murdered in 1941

during the German occupation,
not in 1940.

But the cover‐up
extended far beyond

the borders of the Soviet
Union.

Documents released in 2012

showed how far
Churchill and Roosevelt

were prepared to go
in accepting Stalin's denials.

The Polish government in exile,
based in London,

was pushing for an independent
inquiry into Katyn.

But archives now show us
that in April 1943

Churchill wrote
a note to Stalin,

saying he would
"oppose vigorously"

any investigation.

Roosevelt's language
was more diplomatic,

but his meaning
when he wrote to Stalin

was the same:

"I am inclined to think
that Prime Minister Churchill

will find a way of prevailing

upon the Polish government
in London in the future

to act with more common sense."

We now know
from American documents

that were declassified
in the 1970s

that FDR also sent
a telegram to Churchill

at the end of April 1943.

Roosevelt, of course,
was in a much weaker situation

than Churchill,

because he had a large
Polish‐American constituency,

one of the bedrock elements

of the New Deal voter coalition
were Polish‐Americans,

and they looked to Roosevelt
to do something to ensure

the independence
of their homeland

after World War II.

After all, the British had gone
to war in 1939 to defend Poland.

But here we were in 1944,
apparently getting ready

to set Poland up for domination

by the Soviet Union
after World War II.

[narrator]
Churchill's ambassador

to the Polish government
in exile, Owen O'Malley,

wrote his own report,

which came to some
uncomfortable conclusions:

"There is now available

a good deal
of negative evidence,

the cumulative effect of which

is to throw serious doubt
on Russian disclaimers

of responsibility
for the massacre."

Churchill sent the full report
to Roosevelt

with the following notes:

"I should like to have it back
when you've finished with it,

as we are not circulating it
officially."

The people who ordered
and carried out this massacre

were never brought to justice,

but eventually in 1990,

the eighth and last leader
of the Soviet Union,

Mikhail Gorbachev,
did accept responsibility

for his country's role
in the tragedy.

Solidarity is a universal value

that is becoming fundamental

for progress and human survival.

[narrator]
We now know without a doubt

that Stalin was behind
these killings.

But at the time, the Big Three

had other,
more pressing concerns,

such as keeping
the alliance together

to defeat Hitler.

[theme music]

Next time on Race To Victory.

The Big Three meet face‐to‐face
for the first time in Tehran.

But as a result
of the successes and failures

of battles already fought,

the dynamic of their
relationship is changing.

It's very clear to Churchill
that he's on the outs

and that Stalin and Roosevelt
are getting closer and closer,

and Churchill's starting
to struggle to find a place,

a reason to be there.

[narrator]
And while the Allied forces

fight their way into Italy,

a second front in France
is finally agreed,

despite Churchill's concerns.

The Americans always believed
that the war in the West

would be won in France,
not the Mediterranean.

[narrator] To be successful
in the fight against Hitler,

the Big Three will need
to put their differences aside

once and for all.

The Final Phase
of the race to victory

is beginning.

[theme music]