All language subtitles for H-B.09of13.Flights.into.Danger.x264.AC3.MVGroup.org_track6_[eng]

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 handpicked 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,

even when Hitler made himself
increasingly vulnerable

by flying in the relatively
dangerous aircraft of the time.

Hitler was fascinated by
the possibilities of flight.

In the 1930s,

he could see its potential
for dominating future warfare.

Secretly, he rebuilt

his country's air force

and channeled vast amounts
of money into the development

of fast, powerful bombers
and fighters.

He was also one of
the first politicians

to use aircraft
for election campaigning.

In 1932, on the verge of
becoming Chancellor of Germany,

he hired an aircraft so he could
visit five cities in one day.

It was this dynamic,
modern approach to campaigning

that made him one of the most
popular figures

in Germany at the time.

But he was not a natural flier,

and on one turbulent
early trip to Berlin,

he was sick several times.

This anxiety about flying
came back to haunt him

10 years later.

Talking over lunch
to Sepp Dietrich,

chief of his Leibstandarte
bodyguard regiment,

he revealed his feelings.

Man: "I have so many
responsibilities now,

"I don't take unnecessary risks
flying about by aircraft.

"In my early, heroic days,
it was different.

"I only once abandoned a flight,

and that was against my will."

Powell: It was at the end
of an election campaign,

and Hitler wanted to get back
quickly to Berlin.

[All chanting "Sieg Heil" ]

Captain Hans Baur,

Hitler's chief pilot,
finished the story.

Man: "Yes, my Fuhrer, it was
I who insisted you give it up.

"It was a night flight,

"and the route was thick
with heavy storms.

"I was sure of one thing --

"there were a few people who
would have been very happy

to learn we'd broken
our necks."

Powell: Hitler used flying

to his considerable advantage,

but it also presented
his bodyguards

with a whole new
set of problems.

It was in March 1932 that
the 35-year-old Hans Baur

first got a telephone call
from Adolf Hitler

asking him to be his pilot.

Hitler wanted
a steady pair of hands

to help him get over his
natural anxiety about flying,

and he found them in Baur.

Baur learned to fly
in World War I.

He was a natural

and finished his training ahead
of the rest of his class.

He joined a fighter squadron
and had shot down

nine Allied aircraft
by the end of the war.

Defeat for Germany
in World War I

meant that it was banned
from having an air force,

and all military aircraft
had to be destroyed.

Baur joined a pioneering
civilian passenger service.

One of his first V.I.P.s was
Cardinal Pacelli,

the papal nuncio

who later became Pope Pius XII.

Germany's national airline,
Lufthansa,

was founded in 1926,
and Baur became

one of its most reliable pilots.

When Hitler called in 1932,

he was taking a considerable
personal risk

deploying aircraft for
his election campaign,

but it was a very important
year for Hitler.

After languishing in the polls
for most of the 1920s,

the Great Depression
and widespread unemployment

in Germany had made the Nazi
party very popular again.

If Hitler could find
a way of visiting

more cities than his opponents,

he stood a better chance
of getting into power.

[Speaking German]

Hitler flew with Baur
to scores of cities.

His election flights became

a great source of publicity,

as people watched his
tireless crisscrossing

of their country
with admiration.

These campaign flights
were hectic, and, frequently,

Hitler would fly to several
meetings in one day.

Baur would check if a town
had an airfield nearby.

If it didn't, it was crossed off
the campaign list.

Typical of Hitler's
packed itinerary

was the first day
of his election campaign

on March 3, 1932.

He flew from Munich
to Dresden.

[Crowd cheering ]

There he spoke for half an hour

and then flew to Leipzig.

Three quarters of an hour
speaking in a hall,

then on to Chemnitz
for another rally.

Finally, he flew to Plauen,

arriving in the evening.

At the airport he made a
particular point

of thanking Baur sincerely
for his excellent flying.

A few days later,
Hitler flew

from Berlin to Wurzburg,
Furth, and Nuremberg,

giving speeches in each city.

Oh this occasion, a second
aircraft flew ahead of him

as an advanced guard
with Sepp Dietrich,

main organizer
of his bodyguards,

and some journalists.

When Hitler arrived,

Dietrich would brief him on
the local security situation

and then fly on to prepare
the next location.

Despite a tightly
packed schedule,

there were few delays,
and Hitler's bodyguards

were able to provide complete
security for him.

Hitler's air election campaign

was an unqualified success,

and in the following year,
he became Chancellor of Germany.

Hitler never forgot Baur's key
role in this victory.

From 1934, he employed him
as his full-time

private pilot and would not
allow anyone else to fly him.

They developed a strong
personal relationship,

and Baur stood alongside

Hitler's longest-serving
bodyguards

as one of his chief protectors.

It was a role
that would be tested

many times
over the next few years.

Hitler reckoned that luck
was his best line of defense.

He drove his bodyguards mad

with his unpredictable
travel schedules.

He also insisted
on total secrecy

as to his route when
air traffic controllers

demanded advance notice.

On one occasion, in 1933,

he wanted to visit
two destinations --

Karlsruhe, for a speech,

and then Essen for the funeral
of a Brownshirt.

The air traffic controller at
Tempelhof airport in Berlin

insisted on knowing the route

so as to clear the airspace

and prepare security
at the destination.

Baur, Hitler's chief pilot,
refused,

saying that only
the Fuhrer himself

could release that information.

When Hitler arrived,
he laughed at the controller

and again refused to release
any information.

Man: "That will remain
between Baur and me.

"My pilot is so skilled

"that flight security
can be waived

if he assures me that he can
make the flight safely."

Powell: As always,

Hitler considered surprise
his best security.

But this time, he was let down
by his own security forces.

It was the Gestapo that leaked
information about his landing.

As a result,
the airport near Karlsruhe

was crowded and Hitler
was delayed.

He was furious and forced
to cancel his visit

to the SA funeral.

During this trip,
Hitler confided to Baur

some of his fears
about assassination.

Man: "I feel much safer
in the air than on the train.

"Security is more difficult
to maintain by rail.

"When I travel by train
from Berlin to Munich,

"at least 5,000 different people

"have to be notified,

"all the way down to
signalmen at crossings.

"It would be easy
for assassins to set

pressure-triggered mines
to explode on the rail road."

Powell: To fit in with his
master's unpredictability,

Baur always turned up
at an airport

just half an hour
before a flight.

And in an apparent exception
to Hitler's rule

of maintaining secrecy,
Baur usually used

the same aircraft during
the pre-war period

for Hitler's flights

with the registration number
and call sign D-2600.

But because he sometimes
flew other top Nazis,

his presence or that of D-2600

did not necessarily mean that
Hitler would be there, too.

Also, Baur would frequently
fly the aircraft as a decoy

to mislead anyone trying
to track Hitler's movements.

The secret of Baur's success
as a pilot

was a thorough study
of that day's weather maps.

The aircraft Hitler hired

for his first campaign flights
in 1932

was a Rohrbach Ro VIII Roland.

It was called "Immelmann I"

in honor of the World War I
German flying ace.

From late 1932 onwards,

Hitler's moved onto a Junkers
Ju 52 called "Immelmann II."

The three-engine Ju 52

was a very robust
and reliable aircraft.

A bomber variant would
become notorious

for being used
at Guernica in Spain,

one of the world's first terror
air raids directed at civilians.

And the robust "Aunt Ju,"
as it became nicknamed,

was the Luftwaffe's standard
transport throughout the war.

In 1937, the Ju 52s of
the Fuhrer's personal flight

were replaced by
the new four-engine

Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor.

His was "Immelmann III".

The Condor was much faster
than the Ju 52

with a top speed of just over
224 miles per hour

as opposed to 178 miles per hour
and a far longer range,

over 2,000 miles instead
of just 680 miles.

It was a much
sleeker-looking aircraft

and was originally designed as
a transatlantic passenger plane.

Hitler sometimes put aircraft

at the disposal
of his immediate entourage.

His girlfriend, Eva Braun,
used a Condor

to fly on holiday to Italy.

The long range of the Condor

meant that a military version
was developed

as a maritime reconnaissance
bomber for use

during the Battle
of the Atlantic.

A 1942 version of this
with more powerful engines

and armed with four machine guns
was adapted for use by Hitler.

The Condors had
a greater degree of comfort

than previous aircraft.

Hitler sat in his own cabin
with a club chair,

a small sofa, and a table.

He took great interest
in the increased speed

of the aircraft
and had instruments,

including an air speed indicator
and altimeter,

installed on the bulkhead
in front of him.

Hitler was careful
to avoid needless luxury.

When the interior of a Ju 52

was upholstered with
green Morocco leather,

he said the aircraft
looked very beautiful

but was more suited to
the tastes of Hermann Göring.

The military Condor also
had a personal escape system

with a trapdoor forward
of Hitler's seat

and a parachute
under the seat

with the harness installed in
the back of the seat cushion.

In an emergency,

a bodyguard would strap
Hitler into the harness.

The door was then released
by a red lever beside the seat.

It was spring-loaded
so as to eject downwards,

and the airstream would then
carry it clear of the plane

so that Hitler could drop
safely through the opening.

In 1944, this escape system
was improved

when a new aircraft was adapted
for use by Hitler --

the four-engined
Junkers Ju 290 A-6.

This had also been
designed originally

as a long-range
civilian transport

and then adapted as a military
transport and maritime bomber.

When Hitler pushed
his red lever,

an escape hatch would open
hydraulically,

and he would slide out
in his seat,

dropping to the ground
with a parachute.

To protect Hitler
against a midair attack,

his seat was shielded with
12mm-thick armor plate.

Further armor plates
and 50mm-thick bulletproof glass

were added to the fuselage
and window

near where Hitler sat.

With the constant addition
of new airplanes,

Baur ended up running

a personal air fleet for Hitler

that consisted of almost
50 aircraft.

Before every journey
that Hitler took,

his chosen aircraft was taken
on a short test flight.

This would check the reliability
of the aircraft,

as well as detecting any bombs
linked to movement or altitude.

And then no one apart
from the pilot

was allowed near the aircraft.

SS and RSD troops always guarded
the aircraft on the ground.

Hitler repaid Baur's diligence
with a close friendship,

allowing access to him anywhere.

He frequently ate lunch
or dinner with him.

This close relationship

meant that Baur had to be
on call at any time,

but there were compensations.

On Baur's 40th birthday,

Hitler invited him to
the Reich Chancellery for lunch.

He even had Baur's favorite meal
cooked for him --

roast pork and dumplings.

The Fuhrer had failed to turn
his pilot into a vegetarian.

Then he presented him with
a luxury model black Mercedes

with grey leather seats.

He gave it to Baur
because he couldn't stand him

driving around in
an American Ford.

Baur treasured the car
and his friendship with Hitler.

This example of
his close relationship

with his employer came in 1937,

but by then, Hitler was
on the road to war,

and the demands
on all his bodyguards,

and in particular
his personal pilot,

would soon expand enormously.

World War II started well
for Hitler.

Airpower supporting

fast-moving Panzers devastated

the outdated Polish forces.

The Fuhrer was keen to see

the progress of
the Blitzkrieg personally.

And within days, his chief
pilot, Hans Baur,

was making arrangements.

He selected a Ju 52

for this first visit

to the front in September 1939.

Although slower
and less comfortable

than the sleek, modern Condor,

it was sturdy and reliable

and would attract
less attention.

Used for all sorts
of military transportation,

it was the perfect disguise
for Hitler.

But deception wasn't
Baur's only weapon.

When Hitler's Ju 52 took
to the air, he was accompanied

by an escort of
Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters.

The tour of the front
was not a pleasure trip,

and Baur frequently
had to land the aircraft

in unprepared fields.

There Hitler's plane
would be met

by the Mercedes 6-wheelers
of the "Grey Column,"

with the escort from the army's
Fuhrer Begleit Battalion.

The terrible highlight
of this aerial tour

was circling at 6,000 feet
to watch the flash

of thousands of German guns

pulverizing the historic
Polish capital of Warsaw.

For much of the winter
of 1939-40,

Hitler remained
at Berchtesgaden,

but in April 1940,
Nazi forces invaded

and swiftly seized first Denmark
and then Norway.

Paratroops played a vital part
in this assault,

and Baur anticipated

that Hitler would soon want
to visit this new conquest

to congratulate these
revolutionary new troops.

But the approaches
to Oslo airport

were dangerously
close to mountains.

Attacks and crashes
were frequent,

and Baur reported
back to Hitler

that a landing should
not be attempted.

The next important request
received by Baur

was in early May 1940, --

to take the Fuhrer's personal
aircraft to Hamburg.

The mission puzzled Baur

since he had understood that
Hitler was at the Felsennest --

the Rocky Nest --
his military headquarters

near the Belgian border.

France and Britain were
Germany's two remaining enemies,

and it was likely
that the next military action

would be on Germany's
Western Front.

Baur couldn't help wondering

why Hitler was apparently
wanting to go

to northern Germany.

When he got to Hamburg,

the mystery became clear.

Hitler was at his Felsennest HQ.

He had sent Baur
on a wild goose chase

to fool allied
intelligence services.

He was convinced their spies
knew his itinerary too well

and constantly changed
destinations

to throw them off his track.

Just days later on May 10th,

the German armies swept into
the Netherlands and Belgium.

And soon the Blitzkrieg

was thrusting across
northern France

to reach the English Channel
on the 20th.

As the onrush continued,

Baur was constantly in action

ferrying senior officers
from forward HQ

to forward HQ

in a Fieseler Storch
observation aircraft.

Hitler was also constantly
touring the front line,

but mainly by car
and under heavy escort

by the Begleitkommando.

At Charleville,

he visited a fighter squadron

headed by Adolf Galland,

the Luftwaffe's leading ace,

and personally awarded
Galland the Iron Cross.

Early on the morning
of June 28, 1940,

Baur flew Hitler

on his most historic flight of
the entire western campaign.

From his Wolfschlucht HQ
on the southern Belgian border

to Le Bourget airport in Paris.

There Hitler was met
by a convoy of Mercedes

and taken on an unscheduled
early morning tour of Paris.

The entire tour
went off without mishap,

and Baur thought the atmosphere
was surprisingly relaxed,

even at Le Bourget airport.

Man: "Our flight was delayed
because of a flat tire,

"but Hitler chatted
with a number

"of the French ground crew
at the airport.

They laughed a lot."

Powell: Remarkably,
the French mechanics

were allowed to repair
the aircraft,

although it was just
a burst tire.

Normally, they would
not have been allowed

anywhere near Hitler's aircraft,

which was constantly guarded
by SS troops.

It all seemed to be going
too well for Hitler,

but by the autumn of 1940,

his plans to invade Britain
had stalled.

British airpower
had defeated the Luftwaffe,

and Hitler had to shelve
his ideas of invasion.

The British were proving
to be a tough enemy

and Baur discovered that they
could pose a threat to Hitler

in the most unexpected way.

In Norway,
several German aircraft

had mysteriously crashed.

When Nazi air experts
investigated,

they found that in most cases,

the tail sections
had been blown away.

All aircraft were grounded
and searched.

In one, a section of rubber hose

was found containing explosives.

It was linked
to a flashlight battery

and a detonator set to trigger
the bomb at a specific altitude.

Resistance agents,

supplied with these devices
by the British,

were smuggling them
into numerous aircraft.

Baur ordered a thorough search
of all Hitler's fleet

and security was increased.

But it was not
these British bombs

that Hitler would have to fear
most when he next flew

into a war zone.

It would be bombs
planted by his own generals.

The war was about
to enter a new phase

that would make Baur's job
even more dangerous

than it already was.

It was "Operation Barbarossa,"

his invasion of the Soviet Union
on June 21,1941,

that decisively turned the war

against Hitler.

Despite conquering
vast tracts of land

and getting within 19 miles
of central Moscow,

the onset of
severe winter weather

and stubborn Soviet resistance

prevented the Germans
from finishing the job.

Hitler needed
to visit his generals

during this fast-moving
campaign,

but it involved flying
huge distances.

He was now frighteningly
vulnerable

to sudden changes of weather

or sabotage directed
at his aircraft.

At first, it was problems of

the extreme cold that
threatened his flights.

Hans Baur, Hitler's chief pilot,

struggled to get his aircraft
into the air.

Inside, passengers
found the conditions

equally appalling.

Generals nearly froze as he flew
them to meet Hitler.

During the summer of 1942,

the German armies launched

a massive new assault in the
southern sector of the front

designed to seize
the oil fields of the Caucasus.

The left flank of this
was to be secured

by capturing the city
of Stalingrad on the Volga.

And by the end of August,
the men

of General Friedrich Paulus's
Sixth Army

were close to the city.

But ten weeks later,

the Red Army was still
resisting heroically

in savage hand-to-hand fighting.

And on November 19th,

the Soviets launched
an unexpected counterattack

which swiftly surrounded
Paulus's forces.

Attempts to relieve them failed,

and by January 1943,

just over 100,000
German soldiers

were still sheltering in
the ruins of the Russian city.

Nearly 200,000 men had already
perished in the bitter fighting.

The Red Army offered Paulus
the opportunity to surrender,

but he refused.

Paulus had wanted to fight his
way out while he still could.

But Hitler told him to stand
and fight to the last man.

On January 31, 1943,

Paulus surrendered the broken
remnants of his army.

Deeply embittered,

he allowed the Soviets to use
him for propaganda purposes.

He broadcast
urging his fellow officers

to rebel against Hitler
and kill him,

thoughts that had
already occurred

to many German officers.

The atmosphere at Hitler's
Eastern Front HQ,

the Wolf's Lair at Rastenburg,
became even gloomier.

Baur overheard the arguments
Hitler had with his generals.

Man: "From this time on,

"Hitler stopped eating
with his generals.

"He didn't trust them,

"and he didn't want them turning
his conversation against him.

He ate alone in his bunker."

Powell: But still Hitler's
personal luck held out.

On February 17, 1943,

he flew for a conference with

Field Marshal Erich von Manstein
at Zaporizhzhya,

close to where
the Russians were advancing

after their victory
at Stalingrad.

The meeting took place a few
miles from the airstrip

and while waiting there
with the Condor,

Baur received the grim news that
Soviet tanks

were approaching rapidly.

Aircraft were scrambled
to attack them,

but were unable to do so
because of low cloud.

So Baur radioed Hitler

asking permission to move
to another field.

Only to be told to stay put

because the Fuhrer's party
was already coming back.

It was a desperate race
against the Soviet tanks,

but the jeeps reached
the aircraft just in time.

With Hitler safely on board,

Baur gunned the engines
for takeoff

and the Condor
roared into the sky

with the Soviet tank-men
still unaware of the prize

which had been
within their grasp.

It was Hitler's closest escape
from being shot down or captured

during his flights
on the Eastern Front,

and extraordinarily,

it later turned out
to have been a double escape.

For the conference with Manstein

was originally
scheduled to be held

near Poltava

and there a group of generals
led by Hubert Lanz

and Hans Speidel were plotting
to arrest Hitler

and kill him if he resisted.

Lanz commanded a battle group

which included elements of
Hitler's SS bodyguard regiment,

the Leibstandarte.

But he had become
convinced that Hitler

was a criminal and did not
deserve the protection

of such loyal troops who
had bled themselves white

fighting the Russians.

When Hitler suddenly
changed his plans

for the conference
at the last moment,

the plot was abandoned.

Once again, his unpredictability
had saved him,

on this trip,
from not one but two

separate and potentially fatal
threats to his life.

Shortly after these
narrow escapes,

Hitler decided
that he must visit

Army Group Centre's
headquarters at Smolensk

for a conference.

The news delighted
a particular group of officers.

For another group of plotters
had been gathering

around Major General
Henning von Tresckow,

the senior operations officer
at Army Group Center,

and his friend and aide-de-camp,
Fabian von Schlabrendorff.

On March 7, 1943,

they met for what was ostensibly
an intelligence briefing

with Admiral Wilhelm Canaris,
head of the Abwehr,

the military intelligence
department.

In reality, it was to discuss
the final details

of how Hitler would be killed.

Canaris was a firm anti-Nazi

who had long been sympathetic
to plots against Hitler.

He was accompanied by
his deputy, Hans Oster,

who had been directly involved
in the Generals' Plot

to remove Hitler
from power in 1938

during the Sudetenland Crisis.

The plotters discuss

two different ways
of killing Hitler.

One was a direct approach.

A group of officers volunteered

to shoot him
while he was at lunch.

But when news of this reached
Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge,

the commander
of Army Group Center

who was also sympathetic
to the plotters,

he refused to support them.

Amazingly,

it wasn't that Kluge objected
to the removal of Hitler,

he just didn't think
it was right

to shoot a man
while he was eating.

The plotters now fell back
on their second approach --

smuggling a bomb on board
Hitler's aircraft.

Von Tresckow had given

38-year-old Colonel
Rudolf von Gersdorff,

an army intelligence officer,

the task of obtaining
suitable explosives.

Pretending to be researching
anti-partisan weapons,

he experimented with

a British-made
plastic explosive.

Just a pound of it

blew the turret
off a Russian tank.

To detonate the explosive,

Gersdorff then selected
an acid-activated spring fuse,

also British made.

He then made two bombs,

which he disguised
as bottles of cognac.

Now everything was ready,

and the officers waited
for their quarry to arrive.

They were on tenterhooks

that Hitler might foil them

with one of his sudden
changes of plan.

But he did not,

and a signal confirmed
his visit to Smolensk.

At last, it seemed
as if the long nightmare

on the Eastern Front

might soon be ended.

All that was necessary
was to find a way

of getting the bomb
onto Hitler's aircraft.

On March 13, 1943,

as German troops
fought desperately

to halt the Soviet advance after
the debacle at Stalingrad,

Hitler's Focke-Wulf Condor
piloted by Hans Baur

landed at Army Group Centre's
headquarters at Smolensk.

Waiting for their Fuhrer
was the chief of operations,

Major General
Henning von Tresckow

and a group of officers.

They were men on a mission.

They were going to kill
their Führer.

Von Tresckow's aide-de-camp,
Fabian von Schlabrendorff,

was carrying a parcel
containing two bombs

disguised as bottles of cognac.

After the meeting,
he asked Colonel Heinz Brandt,

one of Hitler's staff,

to take this back to Rastenburg
as a gift for a friend there.

Brandt was happy to do so.

Unwittingly, he was enabling
von Schlabrendorff

to avoid both any searches
of the plane

and the preliminary test flight

which Baur always made.

When Hitler climbed on board,

accompanied by Brandt
and the brandy bottle bomb,

the fuse had just
30 minutes to go.

The aircraft disappeared
into the clouds.

Tresckow and Schlabrendorff
could do nothing but wait.

To their horror,
they heard nothing.

And then after two hours
came the news

that the aircraft had
landed safely at Rastenburg.

The plotters were devastated.

Von Tresckow quickly
phoned Brandt

to tell him to hold on
to the brandy bottles,

explaining that he had been
given the wrong package.

The next day, Schlabrendorff
flew to Rastenburg

to retrieve the failed bomb.

Many years later,

Baur learned about the plot.

Man: "An investigation
later revealed

"that the acid had
eaten at the fuse

"but the detonator bolt had
failed to ignite a spark

"and set off the explosive.

What incredible luck."

Powell: What saved Hitler
was that the intense cold

in the unheated
luggage compartment

had prevented the plastic
explosive from working.

The conspirators did not abandon

their plan
to assassinate Hitler.

They still had the two bombs
and wanted to use them.

Colonel von Gersdorff
volunteered for the mission.

Having lost his wife
a year earlier,

he would, if necessary,

act as a suicide bomber
to kill Hitler.

Just two weeks later,
von Gersdorff joined Hitler

at a display
of military equipment.

In the pockets of his greatcoat
he had the two bombs,

and as Hitler arrived,
he started the fuse,

ready to blow himself up
alongside the Führer.

But Hitler suddenly decided

to cut short his visit
and left the display

before von Gersdorff
could catch up with him.

Von Gersdorff ran to
the nearest lavatory

and removed the fuse
just in time.

Once again,

Hitler's instinct
to be unpredictable

had saved him.

Von Tresckow and his colleagues
had failed to kill Hitler.

It would be another year

before another attempt
was made to do so,

and this time it would come
very close to succeeding.

Hitler now withdrew to spend
much of his time

at Rastenburg,
while the situation

on the Eastern Front grew
ever more disastrous.

In July and August 1943,

a massive German
counteroffensive at Kursk

was bloodily repulsed.

Following its victory

in the greatest tank battle
the world has ever seen,

the Red Army began the first

of a series of
massive offensives.

By December 1944, Soviet forces

had advanced so far westwards

that they threatened Hitler
in his HQ.

Hans Baur had to fly him
out of Rastenburg to Berlin.

Unlike Hitler's generals,

Baur remained faithful
to his Führer.

He stayed on with him
in his bunker

deep beneath
the Reich Chancellery

even as the Red Army was
fighting its way into the city

and many others
were fleeing.

Baur was at Hitler's
final birthday party

on April 20, 1945.

It was a gloomy affair
held in the stale atmosphere

of the bunker while
fighting raged overhead.

Three days later,

Baur drove out
to inspect the airport

at Gatow, where Hitler's last
Condor aircraft was based.

One had been destroyed
by Soviet artillery,

and the airfield was about
to be overrun by the Red Army.

This was the time
to fly out of Berlin,

but Baur declined,

even when Hitler told him to go.

That same day,
Hitler received a telegram

from one of his oldest comrades,

Hermann Göring,
the commander of the Luftwaffe.

In it, Göring suggested

that since Hitler
was cut off in Berlin,

he should take over command
of the Third Reich.

Furiously,

Hitler ordered Göring to be
stripped of his rank and shot.

He appointed

General Ritter von Greim to be
the new chief of the Luftwaffe.

Faced with such betrayal

by his closest friend,

Baur insisted it was not
too late for Hitler

to fly out of Berlin.

He was overseeing
the construction

of a temporary airstrip

on the section of the main
east-west axis

leading west from
the Brandenburg Gate.

It was a wide section of
the road that formerly was used

for military parades.

It could just about take

a Fieseler Storch
light aircraft,

the last plane available
to Hitler in Berlin.

Holed up beneath
the ruined Reich Chancellery,

Hitler refused to leave Berlin.

But the practicality
of a last minute escape

was proved by a dramatic landing

by another of Hitler's
favorite pilots.

As new head of the Luftwaffe,

von Greim was keen
to see Hitler in his bunker

and receive
his final instructions.

He was flown in
by Hanna Reitsch,

one of the most remarkable
pilots of the Third Reich.

The 33-year-old Reitsch

was the leading female pilot
of her time in Germany.

The only woman to win

the Iron Cross
during World War II,

she test-flew many of Hitler's
more extraordinary aircraft,

including one of the world's
first helicopters in 1938.

From Rechlin on April 26th,

Reitsch and von Greim
had planned to fly

a more advanced helicopter

to the garden of
the Reich Chancellery.

But their helicopter
was damaged,

so they requisitioned
a two-seat training version

of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.

Accompanied by fighters,

they flew through Russian flak
to Gatow airfield near Berlin.

There they swapped
to a Fieseler Storch...

and then headed over
the Soviet lines

at treetop level
towards the Reich Chancellery.

Greim was injured

as an anti-aircraft shell
smashed through the fuselage,

but amazingly, Reitsch managed
to land the tiny aircraft

just in front of
the Brandenburg Gate.

They were Hitler's
last visitors.

Two days later,

Reitsch flew Greim
out of Berlin in the Storch,

taking off along the same strip
of shell-cratered road.

It was a daring piece of flying.

Baur was impressed, but neither
he nor Hitler followed them.

Baur was with Hitler
until the very end.

At one point,
the Fuhrer ordered his pilot

to take care
of cremating his body.

Man: "On his way
out of the room,

"Hitler grabbed me
with both hands.

"He said 'Baur,
my gravestone must read

'He was the victim
of his generals!"

Powell: ironically, he was
unaware of just how often

his generals really had
tried to kill him

and how lucky he'd been
to survive their plots

and assassination attempts.

On April 30th,
Hitler shot himself.

The body of the man
who Baur had devoted

most of his career
to protecting in the air

was burned in the courtyard of
his ruined Reich Chancellery.

With Hitler gone,

Baur looked to his own survival.

That night, he set off to escape
with Martin Bormann,

Hitler's private secretary.

Amid the shelling they
managed to get through

the Russian lines,
but then Baur lost Bormann.

His complete body would
never be found.

Baur carried on until
he was caught in enemy fire.

Badly wounded, he was captured

and admitted his close
relationship to Hitler.

It was the beginning of 10 years

as a prisoner
of the Soviet Union.

Baur served Hitler

for 13 years as his chief pilot.

He had acted as his principal
aerial bodyguard,

protecting him from injury

through his sheer skill
in the air.

But flying was not the only way

that Hitler covered
the vast distances

of his conquests.

He also entrusted his life
to a special train

known as the Fuhrersonderzug.

Armored and heavily armed,

the Hitler Special was packed
with his bodyguards.

It was one of the most powerful
vehicles in the Third Reich

and would take Hitler on some
of his most dangerous journeys

deep into the war zone.

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