Original subtitles

Powell: Adolf Hitler caused the deaths of 50 million people.

An entire nation followed him to ruin.

He was hated by those he persecuted,

and even by some of his own commanders --

yet in 25 years, no one managed to kill him.

Winston Churchill had very few bodyguards,

whilst Hitler had thousands.

He needed them.

During his travels across Europe,

there were over 40 attempts on his life.

Now with access to captured original SS records,

the producers of "Churchill's Bodyguard"

can reveal for the first time in this new series

how fate and a small number of hand-picked bodyguards

helped this evil genius to cheat death on so many occasions.

Why did no one manage to kill Adolf Hitler?

Enough people wanted to.

But as this series shows,

it was not as simple as it sounds.

A good example of this was the frequent occasions

when Adolf Hitler was at his most vulnerable --

traveling by car through crowds

which could easily harbor assassins.

For Hitler loved cars,

and particularly Mercedes.

His gleaming,

open-topped parade cars were his pride and joy.

They symbolized the Third Reich more than any other machine.

Later, when Hitler toured his conquered territories,

or went to wartime headquarters,

he moved in a heavily armed convoy

of giant six-wheel Mercedes G-4s.

His closest SS bodyguards -- men such as Bruno Gesche --

rode with him.

Dozens of other bodyguards followed,

each man armed with two pistols and a machine gun.

If Hitler were going to be killed,

it would probably be in one of these cars.

He was philosophical about the danger,

and said he would rather die standing up in a Mercedes

than hide away.

Hitler's love affair with cars started early.

Shortly after he became leader of the National Socialist party

he acquired a brilliant red Benz.

But after his failed putsch attempt in 1923,

the car was seized by the police.

When Hitler became Chancellor ten years later,

he tracked it down and added it to his collection.

While in prison, Hitler dreamed about cars.

Man: At the window of my cell,

I used to watch the cars going by on the road to Kaufbeuren,

and wonder when the time would return

when I would ride in a car again.

The first thing I did on leaving the prison in Landsberg,

on December 20, 1924,

was to buy my supercharged Mercedes.

It cost me 26,000 marks --

a lot of money then!

Powell: Such was his passion

that he claimed to have submitted numerous sketches

to Daimler-Benz, suggesting how

the manufacturer could improve the line and shape

of its Mercedes cars.

Although Hitler could drive --

some say he had learned in the army --

he liked to employ a chauffeur.

He wanted to project the image

of someone who would be very important in the future.

It was customary at this pioneering time of motoring

to wear a flying helmet,

and Hitler is shown with one in early newsreels.

He first realized the need for a skillful driver

when he accompanied a friend, Adolf Muller,

on a journey from Munich to Wurzburg --

Man: I must confess that my journey with Muller

was a revelation.

His car was a 16-horse Benz,

and it was in beautiful condition.

Man: "I saw at once

"all the faults of my own car.

"Muller drove wonderfully well.

"He took his curves smoothly,

"without making his rear wheels skid,

"and without sudden spurts of acceleration.

"It made me feel ashamed of my own driving.

"During that journey

"I took two decisions --

"I'd buy a Benz,

and I'd teach my chauffeurs to really drive."

Powell: Hitler's Benz was bought with Nazi party funds,

and he had to justify the expenditure

to the German internal revenue service.

He declared it was a tool that enabled him

to carry out his daily work

as a political organizer and speaker.

Despite loving cars

and appreciating good driving,

Hitler was a reluctant driver.

He blamed it on the political situation

in the 1920s.

He said the slightest accident in his car

would give the authorities the opportunity

to put him back in prison.

Hitler's chauffeurs were therefore very important to him.

They acted both as driver and bodyguard.

Unless he was accompanying

an important quest,

he would invariably sit in front next to his driver.

But not all of Hitler's early drivers

were a safe pair of hands.

Hermann Göring was a hazard even when,

as first head of the SA,

he was responsible for Hitler's personal security.

Like Hitler, the future head of the Luftwaffe loved fast cars,

but his leader swiftly recognized that

the former World War I air ace

would never have much of a future as a chauffeur.

Man: "Göring made a point of

"always driving on the wrong side of the road.

"In moments of danger,

he used to just blast his horn."

Powell: Bruno Gesche was another of Hitler's closest bodyguards,

but he was slightly cross-eyed.

Hitler would joke that it was a good thing

Gesche did not sit directly behind him in his car,

because he might shoot Hitler in the back by mistake.

Emil Maurice was one of Hitler's first regular drivers,

but by 1926 he had been succeeded

as the Fuhrer's number one chauffeur by Julius Schreck.

Schreck was a key figure

in the early Hitler protection squads

that eventually turned into the SS,

and took part in the Munich Putsch attempt.

When the Nazi Party was re-formed in 1925,

he briefly headed the Strosstrupp,

or "Shock Troop," before it became the Schutzstaffel or SS,

Hitler's elite protection squad.

Schreck was SS member number 5,

and it emphasized how importantly

the chauffeur's job was regarded

when Schreck stood down from his position as Reichsfuhrer-SS

to take it on.

He grew a little Hitler-style moustache,

and at a distance was sometimes mistaken for

his more famous passenger.

But it was his qualities as a bodyguard,

rather than as a driver, that most impressed Hitler.

Man: Schreck was as strong as a buffalo and fearless.

He used his car as a weapon for charging Communists.

Powell: On one occasion, Hitler was being driven

back from political campaigning in Mainz to Munich.

Schreck was driving behind him

in a car equipped with a siren.

Suddenly on the road,

Hitler's Mercedes was surrounded by a group of cyclists

who turned out to be communists.

They shouted at Hitler and mobbed his car.

Schreck immediately turned on his siren and intervened.

[Siren wailing ]

Man: "When they heard Schreck's siren,

"they left their bicycles on the road and scattered.

"Schreck proceeded to calmly drive over the bicycles,

"crushing them.

"With Schreck beside me,

"it was the old war-time comrade who sat at the wheel.

"When I have been driven for years by the same men,

I no longer see them as drivers, but as party comrades."

Powell: In 1936, Schreck caught meningitis and died.

It was a great blow to Hitler, and he ordered a state funeral.

It reflected the high status

he accorded the men who operated so close to him.

He knew they stood just a body away from him being killed.

If anyone was going to take a bullet for him,

it would be his chauffeur.

It was fortunate for Hitler

that after Schreck died in 1936,

he had a more reliable character

available to be his principal chauffeur --

Erich Kempka

Kempka was just 22 years old

when he first started working for Hitler in 1932.

He soon proved himself in one of

the most dangerous situations

Hitler got himself into.

On the Night of the Long Knives in 1934,

it was Kempka who drove Hitler

to the hotel at Bad Wiessee

for his confrontation with Röhm.

And it was Kempka's decision

to return to Munich by the back roads

that avoided an ambush set up by vengeful SA men.

Before taking up this key post,

Kempka had been an electrician's apprentice.

He then worked as a mechanic and a professional driver.

It was these qualities that recommended him to Hitler

as his next principal chauffeur.

Between 1929 and 1942,

Hitler ordered at least 44 Mercedes

for the use of himself and his escort.

His preferred type was a soft-top tourer.

From 1933, he ordered four armored saloons,

but these were not frequently deployed.

Hitler's attitude to his security while traveling by car

changed dramatically as he moved

from being arising politician to supreme leader of Germany.

In the years up to 1933,

he preferred to keep matters simple.

Except on public occasions, he did not like his car to be

festooned with flags or special identifying insignia.

He didn't want the police informed of his travel plans,

and liked to change his mind at the last moment.

All this was designed to

wrong-foot anyone tracking his route.

All he needed was his chauffeur-bodyguard beside him,

and perhaps a few more SS men in the back.

But after 1933, he was head of state

and could no longer be so relaxed.

Security agencies crowded around him.

In an official convoy,

Hitler's car was always followed by two cars full of

SS Begleitkommando bodyguards.

To this was added, in 1934,

a third car full of RSD agents.

There was a strict choreography for Hitler's cars

and his bodyguards arriving and departing at public events.

As Hitler's Mercedes approached the location,

one of the cars with armed SS-Begleitkommando officers

moved into stop ahead.

A third car with SS bodyguards parked behind him.

And a fourth car, full of SS officers,

parked opposite Hitler's Mercedes.

Uniformed SS men lined the streets

while plainclothes RSD or Gestapo mingled with the crowd.

On leaving, Hitler's convoy swooped off

in a similar tight formation.

Plans for moving slowly along a cordoned off street

were equally tight.

A pilot car would drive

50 meters ahead of Hitler's Mercedes,

so as to clear the route

and alert the guards that the Fuhrer was coming.

Hitler's car followed

with three cars with SS Begleitkommando

and RSD bodyguards close behind.

Then after a 100-meter gap

came the cars of guests and senior Nazi officials.

These elaborate security rituals were reflected

in the increasing sophistication of the vehicles

in which the Fuhrer traveled.

The 1938 Grosser Mercedes

Tourer Cabriolet F

is a good example of the kind of protection available

on one of Hitler's favorite parade cars...

At first glance, it seemed to have been designed

primarily for comfort and power.

Seating up to eight on plush leather seats,

this magnificent car came complete with

footrests, floor carpeting,

and an exquisite walnut dashboard.

The three central jump seats

could be folded back against the front partition,

so as to give massive legroom

when extra bodyguards were not needed.

It had a 394-horsepower eight-cylinder

7.6-liter supercharged engine,

making it capable of hitting 112 miles an hour

in an emergency.

It was thirsty, doing only 6.6 miles per gallon,

but the massive 66-gallon armored petrol tank

gave it a substantial range.

But it was the purpose-built security features

that distinguished Hitler's car.

Each tire had 20 separate cells,

making it virtually bullet-proof.

The spare wheels had armor plating

to protect the engine,

and the engine side panels were also armored.

The body was armored throughout

with 18mm steel plating,

but aluminum parts were used elsewhere

to lighten the overall weight of the car.

Hitler's rear seat could be raised

13cm higher than his other passengers,

so he looked the most important person in the car.

A raised armor shield protected his back from bullets.

Further armor plating under the seats

and over the wheel arches

protected him from a bomb explosion.

The windows were made of 40mm thick bullet-proof glass.

An electromagnetic circuit could lock the doors instantly.

The designer of the Grosser

was the Czech-born Dr. Ferdinand Porsche,

who had been chief designer at Daimler

when it merged in 1926 with Benz,

to form Mercedes-Benz.

It was in 1933, when the new Chancellor

went to the Berlin Auto Show,

that he enlisted Porsche

for one of the three major projects

which he announced there

to revive Germany's oar industry.

The heavy tax on cars was removed,

so as to stimulate sales and growth.

Then, to take advantage of this,

Hitler announced that a new small car

that all Germans could afford to buy

was to be developed --

the Volkswagen, or People's Car.

Dr. Porsche would be its designer.

Finally, a great road-building scheme

was announced, to create jobs

and promote road travel.

Seven thousand miles of four-lane Autobahns

would stretch across Germany.

It was an immensely popular project,

providing a massive boost to employment,

but it also had a sinister dimension.

The upgrade of Germany's roads meant that military vehicles

could travel more easily and more quickly

to its borders with other countries.

Hitler was building up the German economy

not just for the benefit of his citizens,

but because he was preparing it for war.

By 1939, about 1,500 miles

of the autobahn network had been completed,

and the new Volkswagen factory

at Fallersleben had produced a handful of cars --

the prototype of which

had been presented to Hitler.

But both projects were now overtaken

by a much greater

and more sinister one -- Hitler's move to dominate

first Europe, and then the world.

And as this set the world aflame in 1939,

Hitler became even more of a marked man.

But despite this,

and knowing that a horde of foreign and even German plotters

wanted him dead, Hitler still insisted on

touring his new conquests in open-topped Mercedes cars.

It was a nightmare for his security officers.

A Mercedes might be Hitler's favorite way of traveling,

but it might also become his coffin on wheels.

For during the early years of conquest,

the Fuhrer drove hundreds of miles by car

to watch his troops in action,

or to tour recently occupied territories.

[Artillery fire]

These journeys exposed him not only to

the normal perils of war, such as bombing,

shelling, or snipers --

but to ambush by guerrillas

or deliberate assassination attempts

by a hostile population.

[Crowd chanting "Sieg heil!"]

But it is a remarkable fact,

that the Fuhrer was never directly threatened

during these car journeys.

The sort of incident

which gave his bodyguard sleepless nights

only happened after the Fuhrer had abandoned

long-distance car journeys

for other forms of transport.

And it happened to one of his most bloodthirsty Chieftains,

not to him directly.

In May 1942,

the Czech Reichsfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich

was killed by a bomb thrown at his open Mercedes

by British-trained Czech agents.

[ Explosion ]

He had made the error of never changing his routine,

and his assassins knew exactly where to catch him.

Not only would Hitler never have been so predictable --

his frequent changes of mind

were designed to make targeting him almost impossible...

But on the occasions when he did have to be predictable,

he was now surrounded by

substantially increased security.

As the German empire began to expand,

and Hitler visited Czechoslovakia and then Poland,

his convoys took on a more military appearance.

His favorite Grosser Mercedes

was replaced by the three-axle, six-wheel G-4 Tourer.

This monster was not fast,

but could be used for cross-country travel

as well as military parades --

when Hitler's seat could be raised for easier standing.

The armor was lighter than on the Grosser,

and concentrated in a few essential areas.

Windshields and rear windows

had 30mm thick bullet-proof glass,

while the roll-up side windows had 20mm thick glass.

8mm thick steel plates were used in the car doors.

Ordinary tires with extremely low pressure

were used because any bumps

irritated Hitler's frequent stomach upsets.

The stream of cars was now preceded by

the motorcycles and armored cars

of the army's Fuhrer Begleit Battalion.

Hitler's G-4 followed.

In addition to his driver,

four SS adjutants and Begleitkommando bodyguards

rode with him.

And behind Hitler's Mercedes

came three more G-4s filled with bodyguards --

and fitted with machine guns.

It was in France in 1940,

the scene of Hitler's greatest military triumph,

that this "Grey Column," as it became nicknamed,

was most widely used.

In the middle of the afternoon

of May 9th, Hitler boarded his armored train in Berlin

and traveled overnight to his secret HQ

on Germany's western border, the Felsennest near Euskirschen.

He was met at Euskirchen station by Begleit Battalion troops,

and escorted by car to his fortified HQ.

As they drove,

the Fuhrer had one special new fear --

attack from above.

He had good reason to.

That same morning,

German airborne troops

used gliders to hurtle silently over the Belgian border,

and land without warning

on top of the vital fortress of Eben-Emael.

It was a brilliant success

for a startling new kind of warfare.

The Belgian garrison was overwhelmed

by the sudden aerial assault.

The skill of his airborne forces

both delighted and worried Hitler.

If he could do this to his enemies,

then they could do it to him.

Throughout the war,

he feared such an airborne assault

on his own HQ.

To disguise the Felsennest from the air,

camouflage nets and straw mats

were draped over the bunkers and barracks.

A guard unit of machine-gun equipped troops

was given special instructions to look out for air attacks.

Anti-aircraft batteries scoured the skies

and fired on fighters or bombers

entering the airspace around the Felsennest.

As the gliders were landing on Eben-Emael,

other airborne units were seizing key bridges

in the Netherlands.

Then German assault troops

pushed through the frontier barriers

and raced towards Rotterdam.

Thinking this was the main attack,

the British and French armies swung forward into Belgium --

confident that their right flank was covered

by the hills and forest

of the Ardennes,

which were supposedly impassable to tanks.

But unfortunately, no one had told

the German planners about this --

and unobserved by the Allies,

the bulk of the German Panzers

started moving through the narrow valleys

towards the French border.

On May 13th, they burst into France.

The river Meuse was soon forced under fire.

And then a headlong race began to reach the Channel coast

and outflank the main Allied armies.

While the full force of Blitzkrieg

was being demonstrated in this spectacular way,

Hitler made his first trip to the Western Front.

On the 17th, the bodyguard went on full alert

as he flew from the Felsennest to Bastogne airport.

The "Grey Column" had already been sent there.

Then the Fuhrer and his staff and bodyguard

visited several units before returning to the Felsennest.

By May 20th, the German tanks

had reached the English Channel at Noyelles.

One of the first divisions to get there

was led by General Erwin Rommel,

the former commander of Hitler's Begleit Battalion bodyguard.

The Allies were now in grave danger

of being trapped and cut off,

and fell back in disarray,

unable to mount any effective counterattacks.

Rommel wasn't the only one of Hitler's bodyguard commanders

to take an active role in the fighting.

Sepp Dietrich

and the Leibstandarte palace guard

had now grown to be a mechanized regiment,

and they were made part of

the 9th Panzer Division for the invasion of the Netherlands.

Once Rotterdam had surrendered

after being severely bombed on the 14th,

the Dutch capitulated the following day.

The 9th Panzer Division

and the Leibstandarte then swung south

as part of the pincers

pressing the tattered British and French forces

back on Dunkirk.

When Hitler ordered a pause in the advance,

Dietrich ignored the order

and continued pushing forward

until his superior, General Guderian,

had to reprimand him.

Like Rommel, Dietrich had had his fill of desktop command

and wanted to demonstrate

how tough his elite troops really were.

But these were SS bodyguards, not regular army troops,

and their fanatical belief in their savage views

was soon revealed in a notorious incident.

80 to 90 British prisoners were captured by a Leibstandarte unit

and then massacred in this barn near Wormhoudt.

Remarkably, four survived,

and later testified to the war crime.

After the war, Dietrich denied any direct involvement,

claiming that he personally treated

captured British officers very well.

But he was ultimately in charge of the Leibstandarte,

and the cold-blooded massacre

underlined what a ruthless Nazi Killing machine

Hitler's palace guard really was.

As his armies raced forward,

Hitler was eager to continue following them.

On the 1st and 2nd of June, 1940,

he made a longer visit to the front.

This started with a flight from the Felsennest to Brussels,

where he received an enthusiastic welcome

from the Luftwaffe personnel manning the airstrip.

The Grey Column

and the troops of the Begleit Battalion

had been sent on ahead, and were waiting.

The convoy drove to Ghent,

Courtrai, and then to the World War I battlefield

near Ypres, where Hitler had served in the trenches.

And the German cemetery at Langemarck,

where several of his comrades were buried.

A briefing was given by General von Reichenau,

commander of the troops in the area.

Lunch was eaten at a field kitchen.

The Fuhrer and his entourage spent the night

at the Chateau de Brigode

in the village of Villeneuve d'Ascq.

The next day, the tour continued

with visits to Vimy and Cambrai.

From there, Hitler went to Charleville

for a briefing with Army Group Commander

Gerd von Rundstedt,

before returning to the Felsennest.

It was now decided that his HQ must move nearer the action.

Part of the Maginot Line

was considered as a site, but rejected.

And it was not until June 6th

that Hitler moved his headquarters onto conquered soil

at the Belgian village

Bruly-de-Pesche, near the French border.

The new HQ was code named "Wolfschlucht" -- Wolf's Gorge.

It was the first of several Fuhrer Headquarters

to use the prefix "Wolf,"

a reference to the alias Hitler had chosen

in his early political career, "Herr Wolf,"

a reflection of his image of himself as a predatory creature.

The Headquarters was barely finished --

the concrete of the bunkers still wet --

and the smell of varnish meant that

Hitler spent as much time as possible

outside the buildings in the surrounding woods.

He did not feel safe there,

and declined to use his personal bunker.

An RAF air raid dropped incendiary bombs

on the nearby village,

and hit the barracks containing his SS and RSD bodyguards.

By the time Hitler moved into the Wolfschlucht,

a crucial German pause

had allowed over 338,000 Allied troops --

including 120,000 French --

to be rescued off the beaches of Dunkirk.

And the German armies had begun to drive south

to complete the defeat of France.

The second stage of the campaign

began on June 5th.

And by the 10th,

the German troops were pouring across the Seine,

having breached the last serious French defensive line.

And the next day Paris was declared an open city

to save it from bombardment and destruction.

German troops occupied it on the 14th.

Two days later, at the Wolfschlucht,

Hitler received the news

that the French government had sent emissaries

to ask for an armistice.

And on June 22nd, his bodyguard was put on high alert

as he was driven to the forest of Compiégne

where the surrender terms were to be presented

to a French delegation.

This took place in the same railway carriage

in which the Germans had surrendered in 1918.

It was sweet revenge for Hitler,

and this newsreel shows his delight

that a great national humiliation

had been revenged.

Shortly after the surrender ceremony,

Hitler took a spur of the moment decision.

He instructed his Bodyguard

that he wished to visit Paris.

He had already seen other great French treasures

like Strasbourg Cathedral,

now the opportunity had arrived to fulfill a dream he had had

since being an art student in Vienna.

It would be a tremendous gamble,

and his Bodyguard wondered at the wisdom of

driving around the recently conquered capital

in full view of a defeated and embittered enemy population.

Early on the morning of June 28, 1940,

Hitler left the Wolfschlucht

and flew to Le Bourget airport,

where five G-4s were waiting.

With him were the colleagues

he felt would most enjoy the trip,

including Albert Speer, his favorite architect,

and the sculptor Arno Brecker.

Only about ten members of the Begleitkommando and RSD

would be escorting the small party.

As Hitler later said,

he was largely relying on surprise to protect him.

Man: "I paid my visit very early in the morning,

"between 6:00 and 9:00.

"I wanted to refrain from exciting the population

by my presence."

Powell: First stop was the Paris Opera House.

Its ornate interior was not to Hitler's taste --

Man: "I've long studied

"the plans of the Opera, since I was a young man.

"Finally being confronted with it in reality

"made me reflect that the opera houses

"of Vienna and Dresden were built with more taste.

"The Paris Opera has an interior

decorated in an overloaded style."

Powell: Next, they drove along the Champs-Elysées

and admired the sculpture on the Arc de Triomphe.

From there the convoy headed southwest

to the Palais de Chaillot.

There they stopped,

and Hitler and his party

walked out onto the terrace to view the Eiffel Tower.

With the iconic monument as a background,

Hitler posed for a famous photograph --

the art student become warlord.

Beside him stood Speer and Arno Brecker.

From there, they crossed the Seine

to visit the French military school

and Les Invalides.

Hitler went in to see the tomb of Napoleon,

and meditated on the life of the French dictator --

a man so similar in ambition

to himself -- but who was also finally undone

by an invasion of Russia.

The tour continued to the Pantheon,

followed by a brief detour to Montparnasse,

and then onto the Sainte-Chapelle

and Notre Dame Cathedral.

Hans Baur, Hitler's favorite pilot,

took part in the tour,

and noted the emptiness of the French streets.

Man: "A few workers

"were returning home in the early hours of dawn.

"Street sweepers were starting their work.

"The first porters appeared in front of houses.

Sometimes, Hitler was recognized."

Powell: But no one shouted at him.

No one threatened the convoy.

Hitler passed by

without anyone attacking his Mercedes.

Again, surprise was his best bodyguard.

The convoy then crossed the river again

to drive through the medieval quarter of the Marais,

before heading back past the Louvre,

and up the hill to Montmartre.

Man: "Finally we went up to the Sacre-Coeur.

"It was terrible!

"But, on the whole,

Paris, remains one of the jewels of Europe."

Powell: The tour was over by 9:00 am.,

and Hitler slipped away --

his gamble had paid off,

and his Bodyguard could breathe again.

On June 28, 1940,

Hitler moved to his final Western Front headquarters.

Deep in the Black Forest near Freudenstadt,

it was code named Tannenberg,

after the decisive German victory

over the Russians in World War I.

Tannenberg was lavishly equipped with bunkers and barracks,

and surrounded by barbed wire,

but Hitler spent just a week there.

During that time he took a short visit

to see the mighty fortifications of the French Maginot Line.

These impressive concrete and steel forts

had been the backbone of France's defenses,

but the Germans had simply

driven round the line.

It became synonymous with a failure to understand

the nature of modern mobile warfare.

It was at the Tannenberg HQ

that Hitler began to consider his future options.

One of these was the invasion of Britain.

His commanders brought him plans

for Operation Sea Lion --

an assault by sea and air across the English Channel.

He also worked on a peace-with-Britain-speech

he hoped to deliver soon.

With the catastrophic collapse of France,

he could not imagine Britain holding out much longer.

There would be no need

for an invasion.

But he greatly underestimated

the fighting spirit of the British people.

Led now by Prime Minister Winston Churchill,

they refused to accept defeat so easily.

On July 6th, Hitler left the Tannenberg HQ for Berlin.

He was greeted by a rapturous welcome,

with millions lining the streets to greet the conquering hero.

Anticipating Operation Sea Lion,

Hitler's bodyguard battalion

moved onto another Fuhrer Headquarters

at Adlerhorst -- the Eagle's Nest --

at Castle Ziegenberg, near Bad Nauheim.

This was equipped with

the latest cipher and radio equipment,

and was relatively luxurious

compared with the other

bunker-based forward headquarters.

But Hitler would never stay there.

On July 19th, he addressed the Reichstag.

Having righted the wrongs of the Versailles Treaty

by defeating France,

he felt confident enough to offer peace to Britain

on his terms.

The offer was rejected.

Germany would have to defeat Britain in battle

before she would submit.

Despite this rebuff, it was decided to hold

a spectacular victory parade in Paris on July 27th.

Thousands of German troops

would march though the Arc de Triomphe,

and along the Champs-Elysées.

Their triumphant Fuhrer would take the parade.

It would be the ultimate humiliation of the French,

but some people were delighted

to hear that Hitler would be there --

and none of them had his best interests at heart.

Among those who welcomed the news

were Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg,

the former deputy chief of the Berlin police,

who had been involved in the abortive "Generals Plot"

to arrest Hitler in 1938,

and was now serving in Paris --

and his colleague, Dr. Eugen Gerstenmaier,

who worked for the German Foreign Ministry.

For them it seemed

a perfect opportunity to complete unfinished business.

The Fuhrer would be shot on the reviewing stand.

But fate intervened yet again.

In another of Hitler's unexpected changes of mind,

he decided to cancel the victory parade.

Schulenburg and Gerstenmaier's opportunity was gone.

And they were not the only potential assassins

to be frustrated by the cancellation

of the Paris victory parade --

in England, DF Stevenson,

Director of Home Operations in the Air Ministry,

had suggested a low-level air raid

to drop bombs on the reviewing stand.

And ironically, it was Luftwaffe chief Göring's

inability to guarantee that such an attack

could not take place that made Hitler

decide to change his mind.

The gloves were now off,

as far as the British government was concerned,

but Hitler's irregular habits

remained his best defense against attack.

On August 12th, the Luftwaffe launched its attempt

to establish air supremacy over England --

the essential prerequisite for the invasion.

The Battle of Britain

raged over the towns and fields of southern England.

Fighter pilots dueled in the air...

but as the desperate struggle continued,

it seemed less and less likely

that Hitler would enjoy a secret tour of London,

as he recently had of his latest conquest.

Two months later,

with the RAF still fighting back,

Hitler secretly decided that Operation Sea Lion

would have to be postponed until 1941.

In reality, it was abandoned,

for Hitler had decided that Britain was now so isolated,

he could safely shift his attention

to a far greater adventure.

Since the 1920s, Hitler had had a seething hatred

of the Bolshevik regime in Russia.

Unexpectedly, he had concluded a non-aggression pact

with the Soviets in 1939,

but that was just a means to an end --

keeping Russia out of a European war.

But now he felt secure enough to turn and face

his ultimate enemy -- the Soviet Union.

Here were the vast tracts of land

he could colonize with Nazis.

Here were the endless supplies

of oil, raw materials and food to supply his German empire.

But these distances were measured in thousands,

not hundreds, of miles.

Hitler could no longer drive to the front

from a headquarters in Germany.

He would have to use aircraft to cover the long distances.

And this would present new dangers to him.

A crash in a plane was so much more deadly

than a crash in a car.

Hitler would now depend on

a whole new range of bodyguards.

Men who could protect his aircraft

both on the ground and in the air.

Subtitling made possibly by Acorn Media