Original subtitles

NARRATOR: May 10, 1940.

An extraordinary coincidence -

the same day that Hitler launches his "lightning war" on Western Europe,

Churchill is named Prime Minister of Great Britain.

As if fate had a hand in the decision.

A few weeks later, Hitler conquers France, Holland and Belgium.

Churchill finds himself isolated,

facing an army that has already vanquished a large portion of Europe.

Churchill refuses to surrender.

CHURCHILL: We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.

We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds.

We shall never surrender.

(SPEAKS GERMAN)

(CHEERING)

Between 1940 and 1945,

Hitler and Churchill devoted every minute of their existence

to the other's destruction.

These two diametrically-opposed personalities will do battle,

and both promise their people victory.

The combat these titans wrought

determined the course of human destiny.

Beneath the clamour of bombs, a river of blood and bodies,

these larger-than-life leaders seem to fuse with their nations.

Their dual, undoubtedly the most important of the modern era,

pits two possible worlds against one another.

How did they get here?

How did destiny bring two men so different

and yet, at times, so alike, together for this ultimate confrontation?

As early as the First World War, Corporal Hitler

and Lieutenant-Colonel Churchill found themselves at odds.

The two intrepid soldiers distinguish themselves on the battlefield.

After the war, thanks to his impressive talent as a public speaker

and his violent henchmen,

the little Austrian corporal, leader of the Nazi Party,

has become the Chancellor of Germany.

In the 1930s, Hitler is at his apex.

While in England, the aristocratic Churchill

has lost the election and hit bottom.

Seen as politically washed up,

the old deputy is nonetheless the only person

who relentlessly denounces Nazi Germany.

When Hitler sets off World War II, he's unstoppable.

In less than six weeks, he wins the Battle of France.

Churchill, the failed politician, is called back by his government

and named Prime Minister of Great Britain.

20 years after the end of the First World War,

the two men find themselves, once again, face to face,

each at the head of their own nation.

A combat of titans ensues.

In August of 1940, the Battle of Britain begins.

Hitler can launch attacks from Belgium,

the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Norway.

Many commenters believe

that England will be beaten before the month is over.

(AIR RAID SIREN WAILS)

Hitler orders Goering to launch an aerial attack,

baptised the Eagle Attack.

Starting on August 12, 1940, hundreds of bombardiers,

escorted by Luftwaffe bombers,

crush every military objective in southern England.

A merciless battle ensues between the German Messerschmitts on one side

and the British Spitfires and Hurricanes on the other.

(GUNFIRE)

The sky over Britain is stained blood-red.

(GUNFIRE)

The Royal Air Force holds its own,

but after several days, the situation is dire.

At the end of August, British pilots have practically lost control

of airspace over southern England, and the Germans have the upper hand.

Happily, a fortuitous incident will change the course of destiny.

On August 24, a German plane mistakenly drops a bomb on London.

For Churchill, it's a provocation.

The next day he orders the bombing of Berlin.

His generals try to dissuade him from this suicide mission,

because Berlin is much too far away.

But Churchill, as impulsive as ever, stands firm.

Only a handful of pilots manage, with great difficulty,

to release their bombs on the suburbs of the capital of the Reich.

The audacious operation infuriates Hitler.

It confirms all his opinions about Churchill -

a madman, a drunkard, a pig,

who will attack German civilians without a second thought.

For Hitler, it's intolerable.

HITLER: (SPEAKS GERMAN)

(CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS)

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(CHEERING)

The Fuhrer orders his air force to change their military objectives.

Major British cities must be destroyed.

The Blitz begins.

In two months' time,

London is hit with almost 100,000 explosive bombs,

and one million incendiary bombs.

In November 1940, the city of Coventry is hit hard.

More than 500 are dead.

The Germans even invent the word 'conventrize'

as a synonym for annihilation.

Churchill visits the city.

REPORTER: Mr Churchill, now Prime Minister, promised

that for every bomb dropped, the enemy would get three back.

He won't forget Coventry.

Despite the fiery wrath that rains down on British cities,

the apocalyptic scenes the citizens endure,

and the tens of thousands of deaths, the English manage to hold on.

Londoners eat and sleep in air raid shelters or the Underground.

REPORTER: Hitler hopes by killing large numbers of civilians,

and women and children

that he will terrorise and cow the people

of this mighty, imperial city.

Little does he know the spirit of the British nation.

(BIG BEN CHIMES)

The day after bombings, the British carry on, as is their wont,

and Londoners return to work as if nothing had happened.

The catchphrase of the day is, "London can take it."

During the Blitz campaign, Churchill is regularly on-hand

in bombed-out neighbourhoods to bolster the people's morale.

Hitler felt certain that Britain's spirit would be crushed, along with their leader.

But the bombings have the opposite effect.

Churchill's firmness, his unflappable dignity,

his unwavering faith in the future,

his confidence that England will triumph,

his smile, his hat, his cigar, his passionate speeches,

align in this moment of history

and make Churchill a symbol of the fight against tyranny.

CHURCHILL: We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.

We shall fight on the beaches,

we shall fight on the landing grounds,

we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,

we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.

Hitler had his people behind him.

Now, Churchill has his.

(ALL CHEER)

Hitler has made a terrible mistake.

Changing his military objectives allowed the Royal Air Force

to regroup and go on the offensive.

(GUNFIRE)

RAF dominates their attackers.

(GUNFIRE)

The British are victorious in the battle for the sky.

Churchill won the Battle of Britain because he acted impulsively -

a strategic amateur.

Hitler lost because he made the same mistake.

There are more than 23,000 dead, but England is not invaded.

It's Hitler's first defeat.

Churchill kept him at bay.

The Axis propaganda machine

opens fire on Churchill,

depicting him as a blood-thirsty creature

eager to plunge Europe into war.

And Hitler singles him out in several speeches.

HITLER: (SPEAKS IN GERMAN)

While Hitler bellows,

one man in his entourage has a singular moment of clarity.

Of Churchill, Goebbels writes:

"This man is a mixture of heroism and cunning.

"If he had been in power in '33, we wouldn't be where we are now.

"And I believe he'll cause us other problems.

"We must not underestimate him."

For the time being, Hitler must postpone the invasion of England.

His plan is to make them fold

by destroying one of Britain's blood enemies - the Soviet Union.

In June 1941, three million German soldiers,

backed by the air force, enter Russia.

Operation Barbarossa begins spectacularly.

In a few hours more than 1,200 Soviet airplanes

are demolished on the ground.

While Hitler immobilises part of his armies in the East,

a dramatic event takes place in the West.

In December 1941, the United States naval base Pearl Harbor

is attacked by the Japanese.

Our two strategists rejoice at the same time

but not for the same reason.

Hitler is buoyed because Japan is on his side.

He tells his marshals, "There's no way we can lose the war!

"We now have a partner who has remained undefeated for 3,000 years!"

Churchill is ecstatic.

Pearl Harbor is the lifesaver he's been waiting for,

having tried unsuccessfully for months to convince

the American President Franklin Roosevelt to enter the war.

He writes, "No American will think it wrong of me if I proclaim

"to have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy."

"England would live, Britain would live.

"I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful."

But the deliverance is short-lived.

Because of Japan, the US Army

will now need to preserve their weaponry for themselves.

What will be left for England?

Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, the British Prime Minister

travels to the United States

to give one of the most important speeches of his life.

He must, at all costs, convince Congress to continue to aide England.

Churchill brings his most powerful weapons with him -

his grit and his sense of humour.

If my father had been American

and my mother British... (CLEARS THROAT)

..instead of the other way around,

I might have got here on my own.

(CONGRESS LAUGHS)

What kind of a people do they think we are?

Is it possible that they do not realise that we shall never cease

to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson

which they and the world will never forget?!

His speech is a success, but he was under a great deal of stress

and his age didn't help matters.

After a long discussion with Roosevelt,

Winston feels a terrible pain in his left arm.

It's a heart attack.

Out of the question for Churchill to give up the fight,

he begs his doctor, "Do not tell me to rest. I can't.

"No-one else can do this job.

"You mustn't say anything.

"At a time when we've allied with the United States,

"England cannot reveal its prime minister has a weak heart.

"This must remain secret."

Though his condition stays a secret, Winston can't hide

the series of disasters taking place on the battlefields.

Everywhere, Hitler armies have the upper hand.

In North Africa or during the Battle of the Atlantic,

hundreds of thousands of English soldiers die or are taken prisoner.

Churchill is criticised in Parliament.

Because whereas the Nazi dictator imposes his viewpoints,

the Prime Minister must support his with sound arguments.

England's parliament is a democracy, after all.

Churchill says, "I'm like a fighter pilot.

"I go out on a mission every night,

"knowing that one of them will be the last."

Regardless, his political adversaries

understand that if Hitler is to be stopped,

replacing Churchill in the middle of a war is impossible.

The British Lion is in incredible physical shape, no-one would guess

that the sexagenarian had suffered a heart attack.

A general says, "Winston is doing a tremendous job

"and always makes it looks as if he was enjoying himself.

"I can understand why his entourage is so devoted to him.

"He dedicates each waking hour to winning the war.

"He shows no sign of fatigue and seems in better shape

"than politicians who work less than he does."

In fact, Churchill has never been happier.

His depression is far behind him.

In response to journalists he says, "I have only one goal.

"It is to get rid of Hitler and it has simplified my life immensely."

The bloodbath on the eastern front was horrific,

but the Wehrmacht survived the winter.

Hitler's tenacity has paid off.

His generals agree.

His determination saved the German army from defeat.

Hitler assigns his troops new objectives -

Stalingrad and the Caucasus.

The self-taught strategist is confident.

"Now that January and February are behind us,

"our enemies will no longer see us

"bear the curse of the Napoleon's armies.

"We will start to right the balance."

But to realign the power balance,

Hitler neglects to coordinate his offensives

with his Japanese and Italian allies.

He doesn't even inform Mussolini that he plans to invade the USSR.

Hitler sees war as an individual sport.

Whereas Churchill is more of a team player.

As he told Ribbentrop in the '30s,

his mission is to turn the entire world against Hitler.

He shuttles back and forth between Roosevelt the capitalist

and Stalin the communist in order to build an invincible coalition.

But the Kremlin's leader has his own demands.

He wants a second front in Europe to help relieve the Red Army.

Winston, still traumatised by the failed landing at Gallipoli, baulks.

But to bring down the Reich, the old lion puts aside his fears.

In the utmost secrecy, he convinces Stalin and Roosevelt

to first attack the Axis Power's weak spot - North Africa.

On November 8, 1942,

Anglo-American troops disembark in Oran, Algiers and Casablanca.

Operation Torch, devised by Churchill, is a resounding success.

A few days earlier,

General Montgomery launched his attack on El Alamein in Egypt

against the enemy stronghold.

He breaks Rommel's Afrika Korps and forces them into a long retreat.

On the Russian Front, Hitler's army can't budge

and steels itself for another harsh winter.

The old lion's efforts at last bear fruit.

The coalition works in concert.

Always on the go, Churchill is a veritable dynamo.

He inspires his troops and his generals with a hunger for victory.

All the while preserving his inimitable sense of humour.

When General Montgomery says to him,

"I don't drink, I don't smoke and I am 100% fit,"

Churchill replies, "I drink and I smoke and I am only 200% fit."

Hitler can't accept defeat.

He becomes more and more irritable.

He's lost confidence in his generals.

Halder, List, Von Manstein,

Keitel and Guderian are relieved of their commands

or transferred to another front.

Sometimes Hitler doesn't bother to replace them

and take their posts himself.

He thus becomes the Commander of all the Armed Forces -

the Commander of the Army,

and the commander of a division of the army, within the army.

His multiple roles are a caricature.

He could practically hold a meeting

of the general staff all by himself.

Upon learning that Hitler

has given himself all the power,

Churchill taunts him.

CHURCHILL: The jaws of another Russian winter are closing

on Hitler's armies.

They have, of course, the consolation

of knowing that they have been commanded and led

not by the German General Staff but by Corporal Hitler himself.

But this consolation is short-lived because the Soviet counterattack

is of an unprecedented force.

The Wehrmacht's situation is desperate...

..but Hitler doesn't care.

His determination has turned into obstinacy.

The war genius has only one strategy -

don't back down.

The Wehrmacht meets its Russian Verdun.

In Stalingrad, in February of 1943,

General Paulus signs the surrender of the 6th Army.

Hitler has caused the worst defeat in German military history.

The Axis forces count 400,000 men dead, wounded or captured.

After a continuous 23-year rise to the top since his failed putsch,

Hitler begins his fall.

He becomes more and more mystical and inscrutable.

He says, "The god of war has gone over to the other side."

But while Hitler is losing the war,

Churchill is losing control of his leadership.

Despite the Allied success,

he's been superseded by Roosevelt and Stalin,

the new masters of the war,

and no longer has full control of operations.

In Tehran, November, 1943,

Churchill is painfully conscience of his weakened position.

PHOTOGRAPHER: One more.

"I realised at Tehran for the first time

"what a small nation we are," he writes in his memoirs.

"There I sat with the great Russian bear on one side of me,

"and on the other side the great American buffalo,

"and between them, the poor little English donkey,

"who is the only one who knows the right way home."

He was the bulldog, the old lion,

and now he compares himself to a little donkey.

Depression has hit again.

And soon pneumonia will send him to the mat.

Winston fears his final hours are drawing near.

But a few days later, fickle as ever,

the patient is much better and poses in front of cameras

in a uniform that no army general would dare wear.

Very quickly, the miracle man finds the energy

to dive back into military maps and planning.

Because Churchill, like Hitler,

can't stay away from a map for very long,

the two warriors are nightmares for their generals.

They give orders and modify strategies,

when, in fact, neither of them are great strategists.

But there is a difference.

Winston knows he's an amateur and listens to his advisers,

who save him from irreparable mistakes many a time.

Whereas Hitler, by purging his staff, has essentially silenced his generals

because they don't dare contradict him, despite repeated catastrophes.

Since the beginning of the war,

Germany has already lost three million soldiers

and the future looks worse.

The disembarkment is coming.

The Furher never questions his course of action and announces,

"The Western plutocracy can attempt to land whenever they like,

"they will fail."

In several months, England has become an immense arsenal

in preparation for D-day.

Churchill is still just as cagey about landings,

but this time he has a trump card.

His secret services have assembled a phantom army.

Codename - Operation Fortitude.

To misdirect German reconnaissance units,

thousands of inflatable vehicles of all types are deployed near Dover

to make it look like a landing in the Pas-de-Calais.

Full decoy divisions, made out of rubber,

are placed in the fields.

Hitler had leaked false intelligence to the Allied nations

about his military might in the 1930s.

Well, he's going to get a taste of his own medicine.

Churchill can't be sure the illusion will work,

but he has a joker on the opposing side -

Adolf Hitler himself.

In the night between the 5th and 6th of June 1944,

the biggest armada ever assembled

makes its way towards the French coast.

Hitler goes to bed at 4am.

At 6 in the morning, the fleet is spotted and combat is engaged.

(MORTARS FIRE)

German generals immediately call the Chief of Staff,

fearing this armada is the dreaded invasion fleet.

They call for reinforcements in case of an attempted landing.

But General Jodl refuses to wake the Furher to request authorisation.

One doesn't disturb a sleeping dictator,

especially not Hitler.

Hitler isn't roused until 10 in the morning by his camp aide.

But Hitler is convinced that the attack on Normandy

is nothing more than a diversion for the real landing

in the Pas-de-Calais.

He refuses to send reinforcements.

Hitler has taken the bait.

The inflatable rubber decoys of Operation Fortitude did the job.

It's already 2:30 in the afternoon

when Hitler orders reinforcement troops.

That's eight hours after the armada was sighted.

It's too late.

Fear of the dictator and his unilateral authority

served to hasten the success of D-day.

Churchill is relieved.

Drawn by the smell of gunpowder, as always,

he visits the landing beaches himself.

NEWS REPORTER: Winston Churchill now came himself

on to the soil of Normandy.

The visit was brief.

It didn't take long for the Prime Minister

to satisfy himself that all goes well

on the first stage of the assault of Europe.

The Prime Minister and his party returned to the Destroyer Kelvin

in complete confidence of still greater successes to come.

The architects of victory return home.

Despite the success of the Allied force's landing,

the dictator will not admit defeat.

The Berlin bluffer bets everything on a last counterattack,

a tactic he masters.

On December 16th, to the shock of Allied forces,

1,900 cannons open fire in the Ardennes region of France.

For the first hours,

the surprise attack surpasses the expectations

of the German general staff.

Hitler's playing poker.

This offensive could freeze the Western Front

and convince the Anglo-Americans to negotiate with him

to unite against the Soviets.

The move surprises everyone.

General Bradley, Commander of the First US Army, is furious.

He rages, "My God, where does this son of a bitch get his manpower?"

Hitler savours his victory.

But it's premature.

The road conditions, the downed bridges,

and especially the scarcity of petrol paralyse any progress.

Soon, daylight allows Allied air forces to harass the Wehrmacht.

They give no quarter and regain the upper hand.

Hitler has lost his wager.

At his headquarters, worry and tension mount.

Goering suggests negotiating an armistice.

"This war is lost," he explains.

Hitler replies, "I forbid you

"to make any decision whatsoever in the matter.

"If you do not carry out my orders, I'll have you shot.

"We will never surrender, we may go down,

"but we'll take everyone with us."

Hitler continues to put all his hopes on the fall of the Allied coalition.

He tells his generals,

"The moment will come when tension within the Allied forces

"will be so great that a crack will appear.

"Every coalition in history has collapsed sooner or later.

"The only thing to do is wait for the right moment."

But Churchill has every intention of avoiding this disastrous prediction.

During the Yalta Conference in February, 1945, like in Tehran,

the old lion carefully composes his arguments

to safeguard the great alliance he founded.

He relinquishes protecting Poland from Soviet influence

and already senses the fall of the British Empire,

but it's the price to be paid for a solid alliance against Hitler.

To accelerate the breakdown of the Reich,

Winston resorts to the kind of terror that Hitler used against him.

The Allied forces double down with massive bombings

on major German cities.

In February 1945, Churchill and Roosevelt

give the green light to the bombing of Dresden,

even though this artist city

is overrun with tens of thousands of refugees

and has no strategic value.

A pilot writes, "The spectacle was fantastic.

"From an altitude of 20,000 feet over Dresden,

"it looked like all the city's streets

"were engraved with fiery lines."

The flames are visible more than 300km from the target.

There are more than 40,000 deaths.

Nothing justified this level of destruction.

But Winston hasn't forgotten the Blitz, or Coventry,

or the thousands of countrymen killed by German bombs.

Churchill would walk through the ruins,

supporting his people.

For Hitler, such a gesture is unthinkable,

despite pleas from his Minister of Propaganda, Goebbels.

Ever since the god of war had gone over to the other side,

the Furher speaks to fewer and fewer of the people

who had brought him to power, and rarely appears in public.

He'd gone from the summits of his alpine residence

to a Berlin bunker seven metres underground.

NEWS REPORTER: It was an historic moment,

this visit of a British Prime Minister

to the soil of a conquered Rhineland.

How different it is in spirit and meaning from Munich,

the last time a British premier went to Germany.

A visit to the frontline gun site

produces a characteristic Churchill gesture.

"Hitler personally" he writes on the giant shell

and the great 240 millimetre gun is pointed to fire on one

of the main German escape routes across the Rhine.

(GUNFIRE)

In March, 1945, the tireless septuagenarian

visits the Siegfried Line.

The Reich has finally been breached.

Since autumn 1939, every soldier has made the promise

to hang out their washing here.

# On ira pendre notre linge sur la Ligne Siegfried

# Si on la trouve encore la... #

The old lion will go one better.

He marks his territory by relieving himself

on the dragon's teeth with great relish.

Thus while Churchill parades,

Hitler makes his final appearance in the news.

The eagle has transformed into a vulture.

Hunched, decrepit, suffering from Parkinson's disease,

he encourages members of the Hitler Youth

to hold on until the last bullet is spent.

The newsreels of the day censor a piece of film.

We see Hitler trembling, incapable of controlling himself.

He sinks into madness and his regime follows.

Firing squads kill deserters by the dozens.

In the extermination camps,

deportees are massacred or driven on long death marches

to wipe out every last one.

Having failed to win the war, Hitler wants a substitute victory -

the success of the genocide.

Even in Germany, like a final death wish,

Hitler decrees the Nero Order -

the wholesale destruction of the German infrastructure -

transportation, electricity and supply lines.

Having wiped out the Jews, the Slavs and the Gypsies,

Hitler lets even his own people be destroyed,

as if he wanted to erase every witness to the apocalypse

into which he drove Germany.

"If the war is lost, what do I care if the people die?

"Don't count on me to shed a single tear,

"they don't deserve as much," he says.

On April 12th, 1945, President Roosevelt dies.

Churchill is profoundly saddened.

He says, "He was a great friend to us.

"He helped us enormously.

"Without him, we would have surely gone under."

Meanwhile, Goebbels telephones Hitler...

"My Fuhrer, I congratulate you. Roosevelt is dead.

"It is written in the stars that the second half of April

"will mark a decisive turning point for us."

Hitler is hopeful.

Imagining the coalition will now break, he says,

"The great miracle, the one I've always predicted has happened.

"The war is not lost."

But in the East, the Soviet Army is on the offensive.

(EXPLOSIONS)

The Red Army pours into Berlin.

It's over.

Hitler has just celebrated his birthday.

He is 56 years old and looks like an old man.

With his usual unbridled confidence,

he declares to a handful of disciples who have remained by his side,

"You will see, the Russians will suffer their greatest defeat,

"the bloodiest defeat in their history,

"in front of the gates of Berlin."

But it quickly becomes clear that the Reich

that was to last for 1,000 years has only a few days left to survive.

Holed-up in his bunker,

Hitler dictates his final political testament.

His first words are for Churchill,

the only person who stood up to him in 1940

and the one who caused his downfall.

"By refusing to come to an understanding with me,

"Churchill subjected his country to political suicide.

"At the beginning of this war,

"I tried to act as if Churchill were capable

"of comprehending this great policy.

"But he has been attached to the Jews for too long.

"My idea behind sparing the English

"was to prevent irreparable harm in the West."

The fallen eagle has one last request -

"I want it written on my gravestone -

"'He was the victim of his generals.'"

Hitler marries Eva Braun.

On April 30th, 1945, he commits suicide in his bunker.

The spell he cast was so powerful that many Germans commit suicide,

following him into darkness.

Radio Berlin announces that Hitler is dead,

"Fighting to his last breath for Germany against Bolshevism."

Churchill, fervently anti-Russian as well, comments,

"Well, I must say I think he was perfectly right to die like that."

Winston has the last word.

On May 8th, 1945, Germany surrenders.

Cheered in the streets,

given a standing ovation in Parliament,

congratulated by the King,

Winston savours for one brief moment the results of a six-year battle.

No-one had believed in him.

Not his father, not his colleagues in the Deputy Chamber,

and yet just as he promised, he has accomplished the impossible

and has written history.

CHURCHILL: This is your victory...

..victory of the cause of freedom in every land.

In all our long history,

we have never seen a greater day than this.

But the victory quickly turned sour.

The democrat won the war,

but he lost the legislative elections.

Democracy also has its pitfalls.

Churchill sinks into depression.

So, he travels, returns to his writing,

and packs paintbrushes

and 86 bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne

in his suitcases.

Perhaps he missed Hitler.

For a time after the death of his best enemy,

he lost his reason for being.

Never has a duel so marked the history of the world.

The eagle was the poison and the old lion was the antidote.

What survives of their battle?

Hitler remains one of the most nefarious men

the world has ever known.

And Churchill, one of the most idolised leaders

of all times.

He offered the world his bravery and his incomparable humour.

He would continue to write history for 20 more years

as Prime Minister and as a Nobel Prizewinner in Literature.

(SPEAKS FRENCH)

(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)

He'd always miss the smell of gunpowder and the rigours of combat.

Long after the war, when journalists asked what year

of his life he'd chose to relive,

he replied, "1940 every time, every time."

MAN: (SPEAKS IN ITALIAN)

Captions by Red Bee Media (c) SBS Australia 2018