Transcription
[Music] the 23rd of November 1939. there are storm clouds over Europe. [Music] 200 generals are summoned by their fuhrer. in the space of just a year, the Wehrmacht has already conquered the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. but Hitler won't stop at that. he makes no bones about it. "continue the war," he orders. "attack France and Great Britain without delay. the time has come for the greatest battle for the future of the German Nation." everyone's stunned. [Music] to the German Army Chiefs, it sounds suicidal. but Hitler is resolute and determined to bring his generals to heel. "training?" he's never been an officer or commanded a battalion. he's convinced that his instinct pulls rank on all their stripes. [Applause] [Music] so the German staff is mobilized without delay. it's time. the adversary is much stronger than the Third Reich. [Music] France has Europe's biggest army, and the United Kingdom hasn't been conquered for 900 years. and the two powers can mobilize up to eight million men, as against the Germans' 3 million. but Hitler ignores all the figures and the campaign plans. "I have a gift for simplifying things," he claims, "and to bring them back to the essentials." while the generals are stuck in their old ways. it's a general, however, who will enable him to act on his intuitions. on the 17th of February in 1940, he meets the Wehrmacht's most radical strategist, Erich Von Manstein. like Hitler, for Manstein, thinks they should take the enemy by surprise. and like Hitler, he believes they must be bold. [Music] he's relying on a military culture that the chancellor is sorely lacking in. he proposes a novel campaign plan, whose success he guarantees. [Music] on the 10th of May 1940, the first phase of Manstein's plan is launched. at once, the Luftwaffe starts bombing French, Belgian, and Dutch airfields. [Music] foreign. [Music] over a hundred planes are destroyed before they can even take off. the next day, the Wehrmacht attacks Belgium and the Netherlands. France and Great Britain immediately deploy their best troops to stop the enemy, unaware of what awaits them. [Music] selves. [Music] they've just fallen into a trap. for the German offensive in Northern Belgium is just a diversion. the decisive attack is unrolling at the same moment, in an unlikely place: the Ardennes. massive, hitherto considered impossible by tanks. this audacity is for Hitler the key to success. but it's not enough for Manstein. they should also seize the city of Sedan before the French can see through the ruse. and in just five days, a record time. [Music] the challenge falls to General Heinz Guderian, a hothead who's a big fan of the Manstein plan. he's champing at the bit. it's the perfect opportunity to show off the mobility and power of his tanks. but Guderian raises the bar even higher and issues a challenge to his tank drivers. "we get to the Meuse in three days. on the fourth, we cross it and we take Sedan." just four days? the Wehrmacht planners are aghast. on the 10th of May 1940, the countdown begins. now, Guderian launches his tanks on a frantic race. panzers don't slow down to get round obstacles. [Music] they improvise and charge up the hillsides. [Music] it's quite a feat. the scattered French troops panic faced with this unprecedented assault. [Music] two days later, Guderian reaches his goal. just 10 kilometers left to Sedan. [Music] but his lightning advance has been spotted by French aviation. the aerial photos are quite clear. the French military staff, however, judged the information absurd, convinced that just one German offensive and it's going on further to the north, where the Allied Forces are concentrated. [Music] the following night's shots again show the German tanks racing ahead. the head of French military intelligence is in denial. he reckons these are just a nocturnal trick of the light. Guderian has got lucky. [Music] but suddenly, the Wehrmacht's rear finds itself stuck in a huge traffic jam. neither Manstein nor Hitler reckoned on there being too few Belgian roads for such a huge armada. [Music] the troops are worried. they're an ideal target for bombardment. but through a lack of coordination, the Allies miss a second chance to halt the invasion. and the last tanks in the column manage to join Guderian's advanced troops unhindered. even the weaknesses in the Manstein plan can't hamper the German advance. Moon. there again, brought to a halt at the banks of the Meuse. the moment of truth is at hand. the river is the final obstacle between Guderian and victory. his soldiers are now within range of the French artillery. [Music] sixty thousand men and 22,000 vehicles must cross under a hail of fire. they're covered by the Stukas that are relentlessly bombing the enemy positions. thanks to them, Guderian's tanks reach the far bank almost intact. it has taken less than four days for the Germans to take Sedan. [Applause] [Music] Manstein's strategy has paid off. [Music] the troops who hadn't slept the three days are exultant. all right. [Music] [Applause] on learning the news, Hitler writes, "it's a miracle. a real miracle." [Music] he wasn't counting on such a resounding success. but he will compromise it all at the very moment that victory is so near. [Music] Guderian, who has pursued the Manstein plan without even waiting for the order, now has the Allies cornered at the Channel. 300,000 British soldiers are surrounded at Dunkirk, at the mercy of the Wehrmacht. for once, Hitler is prudent. too prudent. the Army's Chief of Staff reports that the Fuhrer doesn't want to take risks. Hitler fears a possible counter-attack that would put his precious tanks in peril. amateur strategist panics. [Music] he interferes with the field operation. [Music] on the 24th of May, he confirms that his tanks have been halted. "the Luftwaffe must finish off the Allies." [Music] Air Force is rapidly running out of planes to combat the Royal Air Force, who've come to the rescue. for two days, the military staff tries to convince Hitler to change his mind, but in vain. and when he finally realizes that his victory is slipping away, the British troops are already out of reach. [Music] of the lull in fighting to hurry back home, to live on and fight another day. [Music] Winston Churchill proclaims, "they shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. we could go on to the end. we shall never surrender." [Music] Hitler didn't expect such determination. but what really counts for him is that his victory over the French is now assured. the old enemy has been defeated. [Music] on the 22nd of June 1940, Marshal Pétain's government signs the armistice. the Chancellor's request. the ceremony takes place in the Forest of Compiègne, at the same place and in the same railway carriage in which the defeat of Germany in 1918 was sealed. Hitler returns to Berlin in triumph. [Applause] foreign. has made Germany great again. [Applause] his countrymen share his certainty that the British, with no French ally now, will lay down their arms. thousands of Berliners besieged the Chancellery. some of them have been waiting nearly six hours to get a glimpse of the man of the moment. one young soldier gives voice to all the devotion. "for me, he's the greatest man alive. he's almost like an all-powerful God." [Applause] Hitler can't believe his luck. at his side, Hermann Göring gushes, "the genius of Adolf Hitler has caused a revolution in the way wars are fought." [Music] and Hitler shares his opinion. he's convinced he's proved the superiority of his own intuition and invented a new kind of war: Blitzkrieg, or lightning war. but about the decisive role played by General Manstein, not a word. Hitler will never admit that the winning plan wasn't his idea. [Music] foreign. [Music] so now Hitler considers himself the greatest strategist the world has ever seen. in December 1940, he decides to attack a new enemy: Stalin's USSR. a land 26 times bigger than both France and Belgium combined. he's convinced that the Reich has to conquer enough living space to ensure the survival of the Aryan race. and the time has come. the Red Army is weakened, and its leadership has been decimated by Stalinist purges, while the Wehrmacht is at its fighting peak. his general staff share his certainty and stoke his ambition. but if you're underestimates his new enemy, fundamental error. he brags that war against the USSR will be child's play. [Music] on the 22nd of June 1941, three and a half million soldiers surge into the Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa is unleashed. the objective is to hit the Red Army speedily and deliver it a knockout blow, just as with the French. [Music] the element of surprise pays off, and the Red Army's defenses are pulverized. in the first week of fighting, there's one Soviet soldier dying every two seconds. [Music] within three months, the Wehrmacht is in control of over 2,000 kilometers of the front. from north to south, Stalin himself is in shock. it's even been said that he becomes apathetic and depressed. [Music] far from the field of battle, Hitler is satisfied with the progress of his troops, as well as with the commandos busy exterminating Soviet Jews. the invasion of the USSR is in the name of living space. it's the world's first genocidal war. the Nazi war machine is also at the service of the anti-Semitic ideology Hitler has been professing since the 1920s. "the only true fight is the one that leaves your enemy screaming. the Jewish question is one we can only resolve by brute force." [Music] in Belarus and the Ukraine, in Estonia and in Lithuania, Jewish men, women, and children are being systematically murdered. the SS are on the move, with the backing of the equally anti-Semitic Wehrmacht. [Music] the whole hierarchy is involved, from the ordinary soldiers to the very highest ranks. [Music] and so, in early December 1941, General Manstein, the brilliant strategist of the Western Front, gives the order to eradicate, before Christmas, the male Jewish population of Simferopol in the Crimea. [Music] to meet the deadline, the state provides him with executioners, vehicles, fuel, and soldiers. eleven thousand people are shot dead in less than three weeks. during this first year of occupation, almost a million Jews are murdered. things are indeed moving like lightning, and Hitler blurts out, "the war's already won." essentially, he's so confident he takes a little tour around the Ukraine. he's filmed along with the troops. no more the great statesman, the adulation of his people. he's now the seasoned Warchief, respected by his peers. [Applause] it's one of his last walkabouts, because his macabre designs will soon have him making a new mistake, a big one. is he himself who chooses Leningrad, the USSR's second biggest city, as his main target? [Applause] [Music] changes his. he doesn't want to attack the city anymore. he wants to lay siege to it. he wants to starve its two and a half million inhabitants. for Hitler, they're a burden. there's not many pickings for the Reich in the north of Russia, so they might as well eliminate them. the soldiers dig in. this will take months. in the autumn of '41, almost 200,000 men are immobilized. there'll be quite a loss to the ongoing offensive. [Music] the Wehrmacht will never overcome the city, and Hitler will lose this important battle. right now, his only chance of getting the USSR to surrender is to take Moscow. the generals have been going on about this for months, but Hitler would have no part of it, even before he invaded, saying that he wasn't going to make the same mistake as Napoleon. [Music] General Jodl reckons that Moscow gives him the chills. [Music] Hitler gives in in the end, though. yeah. [Music] the forecast says that the dreadful Russian winter won't set in for another two months. [Music] but autumn's already turning the roads into a quagmire. far from covering 75 kilometers a day, the tanks are hardly managing to go 15. [Music] on the 13th of November 1941, the first snowflakes take the men by surprise. then a few days later, a freezing blizzard. it was always a bad plan and implemented with no foresight. only a third of their supplies can get through to the troops. they're too far from base. Guderian may have crossed the Ardennes in four days, but here his tanks are completely paralyzed. his men are exhausted. the Arctic temperatures dropped to minus 30 degrees. on the 5th of December, he announces with heavy heart that his troops can advance no further. and that's when the Soviets counter-attack. [Music] a massive offensive that takes the Germans completely off guard. from infantry men on skis to light armored vehicles, the Red Army calls on all its considerable resources. the civil population is mobilized to defend Moscow. [Music] General Zhukov has 10 armies, all battle-ready, and he throws his men at the Wehrmacht, scattered over an overstretched front. the Germans are overwhelmed. [Music] such a violent attack, the Guderian just can't push back. [Music] every man of the rear is brought up to swell the ranks. drivers, grooms, bakers, even. a total waste. like Napoleon, Hitler is doomed to retreat. the Wehrmacht leaves behind tens of thousands of cannons and trucks, and over ten thousand dead. [Music] foreign. [Music] [Music] and the Soviets can breathe again. on a tide of propaganda, hope returns. [Music] nothing. [Music] especially Stalin, looking much better. he's reorganized the Red Army and sees that it's well armed by moving 1,500 factories out of the way of the German lines. [Music] they're producing twice as many tanks as the Third Reich. [Music] women, retirees, teenagers, they're all working shifts, both day and night. no more holidays or days off. the whole of society is now part of the war effort. [Music] Hitler takes it hard. the war in the East is no child's play now. he thought the Soviets would crumple at the first combat. just once will he recognize his error? in just one film clip, will he unwittingly reveal his thoughts? [Music] [Music] again. foreign. [Music] but to the general staff and to the German people, the chancellor can never admit his mistake. at the Berlin Sportpalast, he blames the weather. [Music] foreign. [Music] for the German people, despite their brave smiles, it's a huge disappointment. [Music] Hitler promised them a lightning victory. clear that the war will continue. soon, the men on leave will have to return to the front. [Music] for the first time, a doubt crosses their minds. what if the Fuhrer is not infallible? [Applause] but Hitler will never doubt himself. if the Blitzkrieg in the East is a fiasco, it's his incompetent generals who are to blame. Von Brauchitsch, then in charge of the entire invasion, is stripped of his duties. to replace him, the Fuhrer chooses the only man he entirely trusts: himself. [Music] despite the disaster, his first decision is to forbid the men to fall back. [Music] the outspoken General Guderian warns him, "they'll lose the cream of their officers." but Hitler replies, "I have the right to demand of any soldier that he sacrifices his life. you should back off." so now Guderian is sacked. [Music] 35 generals will suffer the same fate. that winter, Hitler seems to think that leading an army is just a formality. the facts will crushingly prove otherwise. from now on, he's also in charge of logistics for the land army. the stakes are crucial, because the Wehrmacht is running out of fuel. within three months, there will be none left. yeah. so Hitler comes up with a risky plan. he'll seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and thus bring down the Soviet Union. while he's at it, two birds with one stone. [Music] but time is of the essence. the quickest way would be to strangle Moscow by cutting off its supplies on the river Volga. he pinpoints a crucial spot on the route: Stalingrad. and not because of its name, because of its armaments factories. [Music] in the summer of '42, the Wehrmacht makes its move. but the troops are advancing too slowly for Hitler's liking. he's impatient. [Music] so he changes his strategy. but to get all the Stalingrad oil fields at the same time, he splits his forces in two. of the two fronts, thus finds itself fatally weakened. the amateur strategist, though, never doubts for an instant that they'll succeed. "chief of staff is dismayed. this chronic habit of underestimating the enemy," he says, "is getting very dangerous." he'll soon be proved right. by the foothills of the Caucasus, the Germans have lost hope. the petrol they so needed has gone up in smoke. the Red Army has destroyed the oil wells before they can be taken by the enemy. must never get its hands on the Soviet Black Gold. but the worst is yet to come. at Stalingrad, the Sixth Army, the pride of the Reich, is in difficulty. faced with fierce resistance from the Red Army, it gets sucked into history's first ever great urban battle. close-range fighting. you can die for a staircase, for one more floor, for a street corner. [Applause] [Music] [Music] after three months of hellish combat, the Sixth Army is still far from victory, and its men are exhausted. and Hitler said the city would fall in eight days, even as the battle was raging. he said. [Applause] devastated Stalingrad is no longer of any real strategic importance, but he refuses to lose face to the German public. on the night of the 24th of December 1942, propaganda leads many families to believe they're listening in on the fight. [Applause] thank you. obviously, that silent night wasn't recorded in the besieged city, and the Christmas presents everyone's preparing will never get through. [Music] hardly surprising, since the men of the Sixth Army are busy dying of hunger, cold, and disease. [Music] [Applause] one of them writes, "Hitler's just dumped us here. this is what the end looks like." [Music] on the morning of the 2nd of February 1943, 90,000 refugees from hell give themselves up to the Soviets. Marshal Paulus has chosen captivity over suicide. Hitler is furious. the defeat of Stalingrad is a turning point in public opinion. some parents who've lost sons in the fighting will no longer give the Hitler salute. [Music] for the first time, fingers are pointing at the Fuhrer. all over the University of Munich, graffiti denounces "the assassin of Stalingrad, the mass murderer." as this reconstruction shows. [Music] elsewhere, one underground paper is glad he's been given a kicking. the Gestapo are quick to seize all pamphlets. [Music] trust extends even into the ranks of the army. one officer, Vinegar, admits that "all the admiration I had for Hitler as head of the armies, as a human being, but also as the Fuhrer, was broken forever." [Music] Hitler is stunned by the defeat. he doesn't dare announce it to the German people. hides himself away. [Music] he's obsessed with this war, devoured by it. insomniac and living on tranquilizers, turning into a wreck. [Music] only his dog Blondie can comfort him. [Music] General Guderian, back after a year in disgrace, doesn't recognize him when he sees him. the Fuhrer is less sure of himself. he says he has trouble finding his words. his left hand is shaky. the next battle will be decisive for the Kursk offensive. he picks the very best fighters and calls on his best planes and most modern tanks. the Soviet tanks may be less sophisticated, but there's twice as many of them. the Red Army rapidly gains the advantage. Hitler has to give up the fight. by July 1943, Germany no longer has the resources to beat the USSR. [Music] situation gets even more serious. Hitler must now face a new enemy, one even more powerful than the Soviet Union. [Music] self has provoked two years previously. in December 1941, he declared war on the United States after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. [Music] he alone stood up to the world's greatest economic power. he alone took a gamble that the Americans would be too busy fighting the Japanese to come to the aid of London and Moscow. [Music] Hitler had no idea of the power of the storm he had unleashed against himself. Washington had immediately mobilized the bulk of its forces against the Third Reich. Roosevelt had sent huge quantities of military equipment to the British and to the Soviets. tins of corned beef to improve the soldiers' daily lives. [Music] ever since then, his planes have been bombing Germany without respite. [Music] foreign cities and industrial centers. [Music] Hamburg, Essen, and Berlin are in ruins. and then, on the 6th of June 1944, the Allies land in Normandy with unprecedented force. but another threat awaits. it's hits time. it's from within. [Music] on the 20th of July 1944, a bomb explodes at his headquarters. the attack has been organized by a handful of his own officers. [Music] four dead. the Fuhrer miraculously survives. his distrust of the senior officers is turning to paranoia. he exclaims, "now I have proof. the entire general staff is contaminated. but for those traitors, we would have won long ago." [Music] foreign. [Music] the backlash isn't confined to the conspirators. even heroes of the regime pay the price. Marshal Rommel, one of the rare officers that Hitler trusted, is driven to suicide. [Music] more than ever, Hitler's living on dreams. he tries one last wild bet. [Music] he'll attack the Allies in the very place his talents as an infallible strategist were first born: the Massif of the Ardennes. [Music] but the intuition he relied on back in 1940 has deserted him now. [Music] this last Blitzkrieg can never succeed. the Wehrmacht is now just the shadow of the great army that once brought Europe to its knees. [Music] in January 1945, it is crushed by the Allied counter-attack. the failure is complete. Hitler at last admits, "I know the war is lost. We will never surrender. We may go down, but we will take a world with us." one last time, he speaks to the German people in a tired voice. he exhorts them to keep fighting. [Music] oh, but not all Germans are willing to follow the Fuhrer at the cost of their own life. the godlike military leader now looks more like a divine retribution. as one secret service report puts it, "many now think Hitler was sent by heaven to punish Germany." the Fuhrer has failed. charisma has shattered on the rocks of war, penury, disaster, and death. over the last nine months, more than two million German soldiers have been sacrificed on the altar of his rage. [Music] now, whole regiments are surrendering to the Americans, often without a struggle, and the tide of deserters is growing. [Music] more than ever now, the defeat is inevitable. the annihilation of the Jews becomes Hitler's priority. [Music] nearly 6 million of them have already perished. the Fuhrer has ordered that no deportee, Jewish or otherwise, must be left alive for the Allies. they're either shot dead or sent off on death marches. in the spring of 1945, Berlin is besieged by the Red Army. Hitler now never leaves his ruined Chancellery. he hides in the basement, in his bunker. he can no longer hide that he's ravaged by Parkinson's. the commander of Berlin's defenses describes him. [Music] we're back. [Music] that's stupid. [Music] a vast. [Music] on the 30th of April, Hitler commits suicide. even in his will, he lays all the blame for the war on the Jews and maintains he's done nothing wrong. [Music] on the 8th of May 1945, the Third Reich surrenders. the Allies divide up the spoils, and with a Cold War looming, everyone starts claiming victory. Adolf Hitler, the new incarnation of pure evil, the intrepid strategist who almost had all Europe at his feet, is defeated. [Music] the more powerful the enemy, the greater the valor. it's a convenient theory, perhaps, but one that avoids the difficult questions. the Allies' blindness to the rise of the brown shirts, their lack of coordination, their divergent interests, in favor of a lasting myth. [Music] Hitler was indeed a war leader. [Music] but he was blinded by his pride and by his deadly ideology. the self-proclaimed strategist turned out to be an amateur whose heirs plunged his country into the depths of disaster. [Music] foreign. [Music]