World War II with Tom Hanks (2026) s01e02 Episode Script
Blitz
1
[dramatic music]
♪
The nation of Poland no longer exists,
and that enables Adolf Hitler
to attack the West.
After six months of inactivity,
what is called the Phony War,
Germany quickly occupies Denmark,
then invades Norway,
where they easily defeat
a British and French force,
triggering a crisis
in the British leadership.
Now, the question is,
where will Hitler point
the Wehrmacht next?
And who will be able to stop him?
[dramatic music]
All wars change the world,
but none of them changed the world
like the Second World War did.
Japan's on the march,
Germany's on the march.
No one can imagine
the nightmare they're about to unleash.
The most destructive war
in human history.
Suddenly the world
is turned upside down,
and all hell is let loose.
♪
The West is stunned
by the speed of the advance.
You get the Allies,
led by the big three
Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin.
Men who are dealing
with immensely complicated questions.
It's the biggest military
operation of human history.
The Allies have to come together,
not just militarily,
but industrial scale
it's a global perspective.
They have to fight in every climate,
from the Arctic
to the jungles of the Pacific
to the deserts of Africa
and the depths of the ocean.
♪
But there was no certainty of victory.
It was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.
We see humans
at their absolute worst
how they treat other human beings.
And we see them
at their absolute best
willing to give their lives
that others might live.
World War II was a struggle
in which there could be
one victor and one vanquished.
♪
[explosions, air-raid sirens wailing]
♪
May 10, 1940
♪
German forces sweep through
the Netherlands and Belgium
♪
Headed for France.
♪
This will be the third time
that Germany has invaded
France in 70 years.
Because of this history,
the French have constructed
a 280-mile system of forts
known as the Maginot Line.
♪
The idea is to have a number
of different fortifications
and infrastructures and weapons,
underground tunnels.
You have extensive batteries
that can house entire battalions.
There are even
electric railroads underground
to funnel soldiers
from blockhouse to blockhouse.
♪
Confident that the border
with Germany is secure,
the French position their best troops
along the Belgian-Dutch border.
♪
The French Army of 1940
is regarded as Europe's finest.
They have a large number of soldiers.
[speaking French]
They have some
of the largest and best tanks
in all of the world at this time.
♪
Nobody else has an army
standing between
the Allies and Germany.
♪
It's so deeply assumed
the French Army
will hold off the Germans,
just as it had in the First World War.
♪
The French Army feels more than capable
of meeting any challenge
it might face in a future conflict.
♪
As they did 25 years before,
in the First World War,
Great Britain also sends an army
to stop the German invasion.
Reinforcements for the
British Expeditionary Force
reach France.
♪
The British Expeditionary
Force has been sent across
to assist the French in their
defense against the Germans.
You've probably got about 300,000 men.
They are the cream
of British ground troops.
♪
British and French forces
surge into Belgium
♪
Looking to confront the Germans
in what they believe will be
the main effort of the German attack.
They're heading for the line,
towards the distant rumble of gunfire.
This is precisely
what Hitler wants them to do.
♪
One of the Wehrmacht's best generals,
Erich von Manstein,
has designed a trap.
♪
Manstein very ambitious general,
big advocate
of war-of-movement tactics,
blitzkrieg tactics
he says, we're going to distract them.
We'll still have an army
facing the Maginot Line.
We'll still have an army
sweeping through Belgium,
but we'll do what they least expect.
We'll cut through the Ardennes.
♪
The Ardennes Forest
straddles the French frontier
with Belgium.
♪
Its steep wooded hills and valleys
are considered impenetrable.
Here, there was no reason
to build anything
because the forest was
so thick and dense.
But Manstein's not deterred
by this terrain.
He sends his armored forces into France
from this unexpected direction,
which gives Hitler the opportunity
to outmaneuver the Allies.
And once he's sold on it,
as so often in Hitler's life,
it becomes a kind of mania for it.
He says, this is what I wanted.
Finally, someone understands me.
Hitler now throws
the bulk of his forces
through the Ardennes.
♪
That same day
British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain resigns.
The Second World War
is going badly for Britain.
Hitler's troops have swept
through Denmark and Norway.
And Neville Chamberlain,
the British Prime Minister,
like leaders do,
takes the blame for that.
I sought an audience
of the King this evening
and tendered to him my resignation,
which His Majesty
has been pleased to accept.
♪
The King asks the
First Lord of the Admiralty,
the maverick politician
Winston Churchill,
to become prime minister.
♪
Winston Churchill was born
at a time when Britain was
at its imperial apex
the height of the Victorian age.
From the youngest age, he's brought up
thinking that he's special,
that fate has predestined
that he would one day save
Britain and its empire.
♪
Churchill has openly been
critical of Hitler,
very worried about Hitler
against German rearmament,
and against Hitler's obvious plans
in Europe.
He was the guy who,
sounding like a bit
of a crank for years,
had said this was going to happen.
And then when it does happen
and you're looking to turn to somebody,
it's inevitable
that you turn to the person
that was right all along.
♪
Churchill's immediate challenge
is to stiffen British resolve
and to prepare them
for a long struggle.
♪
From his first address to Parliament,
Churchill demonstrates
his determination
to defeat the Nazis.
♪
Churchill used the wonders of language
and the oratory skill,
and the way he crafted his words
well, he's one of the most
quoted people in the world.
♪
I would say to the House,
I have nothing to offer but blood,
toil, tears,
and sweat.
- Nasty, dirty base words
- blood, sweat, toil.
He takes you up here, and
he brings you back down here.
You ask, what is our aim?
I can answer in one word
victory
victory at all costs,
for without victory,
there is no survival.
♪
People that were there that day said
that you could feel the opposition
to Winston Churchill
just draining away.
♪
As the Wehrmacht advances
on France through Belgium
and the Ardennes Forest
♪
Adolf Hitler takes a risk.
♪
This is a huge gamble
for the simple reason
that if you try to mass
Panzer divisions
and motorized infantry
on these little dirt tracks,
you're going to have
massive traffic jams.
And they're going to be
a ripe target for the French
and British air forces,
which could fly over
and just bomb these things
while they're stuck in the Ardennes.
Hitler is, in some ways,
the ultimate gambler,
with his notions that whatever he does,
if he is strong enough
and if he has the will
and he's got the German people
behind him, nothing can fail.
♪
[birds chirping]
Three days after German tank divisions
enter the Ardennes
the French remain unaware
of the Nazi threat.
♪
The French are not expecting
a major German assault here.
So the French troops
along the Meuse are older men,
reservists who've been called
back to the colors.
♪
At 1500 hours on May 13th
the countryside quiet is shattered
by the sound of tank engines.
[distant gunfire, engines rumbling]
So, if you're a French soldier
and you look out
through your binoculars
at what's happening
suddenly there's a tank
appearing across the river.
♪
And then, suddenly, another one.
And then, suddenly, dozens,
even hundreds more.
You make a panicky report back
to your superior officer
I see German tanks.
♪
German pioneer units throw
bridges across the river.
They get their tanks across
and launch a massive assault
on French defenses.
♪
The surprised French troops
now face a terrifying German barrage.
♪
[dramatic music]
[gunfire]
♪
As German Panzer divisions
race across the border
♪
The French Army is overwhelmed.
♪
Now the Wehrmacht pours through
a 60-mile-wide hole
in the French lines.
♪
Line after line after line of tanks
just crossing the Meuse.
And at this point,
there is no time
for the French to mobilize
and to come and defend that area.
♪
One German commander, Erwin Rommel,
is particularly aggressive.
♪
He's a daring, dashing young man.
He doesn't come from the traditional
Prussian aristocratic
military background.
He's very aware of doing
smash-and-grab type actions
♪
Which will get you noticed.
Hitler's been very impressed by him.
When he crosses the Meuse,
it's full speed ahead.
♪
People describe the invasion
of the West as Blitzkrieg,
lightning war.
But, you know, that's really
just a poetic metaphor,
a way to describe something
that is actually much more complex.
The Germans themselves use a term
Bewegungskrieg.
It means "the war of movement."
♪
[speaking German]
The 7th Panzer Division becomes known
as the Ghost Division
because it disappears
from the situation map
for hours, sometimes days at a time.
It's moving faster than
people can keep up with.
♪
But that's Rommel.
The French are in full retreat.
♪
After only a few days of fighting,
northern France
lies largely undefended.
♪
At 7:30 in the morning on May 15th,
Winston Churchill
receives a phone call.
It's French leader
Paul Reynaud, who tells him,
"We are beaten.
The road to Paris is open.
Send all the planes
and all the troops you can."
♪
It cannot be overstated how surprising
and out of left field
this German breakthrough is.
♪
The French Army
that had stayed diligently
in the trenches for four years
in the First World War
crumbling in a matter of days.
♪
Churchill immediately flies to France.
Churchill takes a tremendous
risk by going over to France.
There's a battle ongoing.
There's a danger
he's going to be shot down
at any moment
by hostile German fighters.
♪
But he feels he has to do it
because he wants
to stiffen the French morale.
♪
But when he goes to the Quai d'Orsay,
which is the French foreign office,
they're burning papers.
The scene in Paris is absolute chaos.
The French government
is trying to figure out
what they have to do in the
face of this military defeat.
♪
Churchill calls the French
lily-livered.
He says they don't have
the requisite state of mind
to hold back the Germans.
♪
But what happened has nothing to do
with fighting qualities
or one side being more valiant
than the other.
It has to do with one side
completely overwhelming the other
at the point of contact.
And when things are happening faster
than you think
they should be happening,
the reaction can be
kind of a wave of panic.
♪
With the French
on the brink of collapse
and the British Army in retreat
♪
Churchill turns
to the United States for help.
♪
Churchill had one key strategy
for winning the Second World War
get America involved.
He dictates a telegram
to President Roosevelt.
He makes the clear warning to Roosevelt
that, eventually, Nazism might
come for the Americans as well.
♪
So he makes an appeal.
We need destroyers, naval assistance,
but we also need guns,
we need planes, we need steel.
He's desperate for military assistance.
♪
Ideally, Franklin Roosevelt wanted
to keep German aggression
on the European continent
and, ideally, turn it back.
♪
And so Roosevelt's great hope
is that perhaps by offering supplies,
we keep the war on that side
of the Atlantic,
because a Nazified Europe
was going to be a world threat.
♪
But it's an election year.
Roosevelt is running
for an unprecedented third term
in office.
His domestic policies
are propelling him
back into the White House.
But the majority of Americans
do not want to involve themselves
in another global contest.
So Roosevelt's foreign policy
is a political vulnerability.
♪
Roosevelt wants to help
Britain and France,
but America's neutrality laws
restrict how much he can provide.
♪
His hands are tied.
♪
If the Germans seize France,
Britain will be left
to face the Nazis alone.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
In northern France,
German forces continue forward,
attempting to trap
the fleeing Allied armies.
Now the Germans move
to cut off the Allies
at the English Channel.
Once they reach it,
all those Allied armies
will be surrounded.
♪
The only chance of survival
for the troops
is to build some kind
of defensive system
round the Channel port closest to them,
and that's Dunkirk
♪
And then attempt an evacuation by sea.
♪
The small coastal town of Dunkirk
is just 60 miles across
the Channel from Britain,
but Dunkirk doesn't have
the infrastructure
to support a mass naval evacuation.
♪
By May 20th, more than
450,000 French, Belgian,
and British soldiers
are retreating in desperation
to its wide open beaches.
♪
The Germans are already
on the fringes
of the Dunkirk perimeter.
The Allies are trapped.
There is no other British Army.
That's the best leaders,
the best sergeants
and NCOs in danger
of being absolutely wiped out
by German forces.
♪
Then Hitler orders his Panzers to halt.
♪
Hitler travels to the front lines.
♪
He's noticed some problems.
The tanks are far, far ahead
of their follow-up infantry
Rommel's Ghost Division, for example.
Hitler believes
that the generals at the front
are not reporting back to him
with the specificity they should be.
And he's kind of angry about that.
And so Hitler had decided
to take control of this operation.
♪
Field Marshal Hermann Goering
insists the Luftwaffe
can finish off the Allies.
♪
Goering's like, you know, Hitler,
Fuehrer, you know, it's like, come on.
They're on the beach.
They're sitting ducks.
Why would you want to waste
your precious Panzers?
I can do this
with Luftwaffe aircraft alone.
♪
For the Brits on the beach,
it's an absolute hellscape.
[Stuka sirens wailing]
They're subjected day and night
to constant aerial bombardment
by the Luftwaffe
strafing
♪
Dive bombing
♪
Level bombing.
[explosions]
The British troops
are just on the sand.
And each time this happens
[Stuka siren wailing]
♪
They all take what cover they can.
[Stuka sirens wailing]
This goes on hour after hour
after hour
♪
As they're waiting for deliverance.
It was a time of total terror.
[Stuka sirens wailing]
[explosion]
♪
As the Luftwaffe bombs the troops
♪
The British War Cabinet is
divided over how to save them.
Prime Minister Churchill wants
to evacuate as many British
and French troops as possible by sea.
♪
But his foreign secretary,
Lord Halifax,
wants to explore diplomatic options.
♪
There are factions
in the United Kingdom,
led by Lord Halifax,
which believe that the war
with Germany is pointless,
totally destructive, and can't be won.
They want to have
some sort of peace treaty
with Germany.
Halifax is saying,
we have to face facts here.
We have to face reality.
Adolf Hitler has won in Europe.
We can still preserve our independence.
We can still preserve our empire
if we make a deal with Hitler.
And the way to do that
is talk to an intermediary.
Well, that's
the Italian fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini.
♪
He might be a broker
to negotiate a peace
between Britain and Germany.
♪
Halifax tries to get help
from American diplomats.
♪
The American ambassador in
Rome and various other people
approach Mussolini to come up
with some sort of peace treaty.
But Churchill will not negotiate.
He believes that if London
were to enter into talks
that British morale would collapse.
Churchill decides to risk
the sea-rescue plan,
code-named Operation Dynamo.
♪
On May 26th,
the first Royal Navy ships
set off across the Channel.
♪
Dynamo is the only card
the British can play
at this point.
♪
In London, they're estimating,
maybe we'll get 20,000, 30,000,
45,000 at the most off.
♪
But now Hitler sends
his forces back into action.
♪
Panzers begin to assault
the defensive line
around Dunkirk.
♪
On that first day,
the Royal Navy rescues
less than 8,000 men.
The British need to find
an additional way
to get troops home.
♪
There were these two breakwaters
long stone and concrete jetties
that stretched a mile into the sea.
They're not designed for ships
to come and dock next to them,
but in an emergency,
this is what they can do.
♪
So you've got the British
troops four abreast,
walking out onto this breakwater
so they can get out
to deep enough water
and get picked up by ships.
♪
But meanwhile, they're
under constant air attack
by dive bombers and bombers.
♪
The British are running out of time.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
With over 400,000 Allied troops
trapped on the beach at Dunkirk
♪
A desperate call goes out
from British leaders.
♪
Help us get our soldiers home.
♪
The response is immediate.
For nine days, small vessels,
all captained and crewed by volunteers,
cross the Channel.
Fishing trawlers and paddle steamers
cargo ships and lifeboats
barges and yachts
♪
Each sail into the firestorm
around Dunkirk
joining the Royal Navy
in the rescue mission.
There was every kind of ship
that I saw coming in this morning,
and every one of them was crammed full
of tired, battle-stained,
and bloodstained British soldiers.
The BEF leaves everything
behind all the tanks,
all the artillery, all the trucks.
♪
The idea being that the men
are the most important thing.
We can make new equipment,
but we can't make new men.
♪
The evacuation at Dunkirk
brings over 300,000 British
and French troops
to Britain
♪
Though thousands are left behind.
♪
In Britain, the operation becomes known
as the Miracle of Dunkirk.
♪
On British streets,
there is relief, joy,
and anxiety about what's to come.
On June 4th, Churchill
addresses those fears.
We must be very careful not
to assign to this deliverance
the attributes of a victory.
♪
He reminds people
that things aren't looking
good for Britain at this time.
France is almost certainly lost,
and there's a great possibility
in the weeks and months ahead
that the Germans are going to launch
a sea and air invasion of the UK.
And the question is,
will we be able to stop it?
♪
Churchill's able to come out
and issue this clarion call,
issue this roar of belligerence
and determination.
We shall fight on the seas and oceans.
We shall fight with growing confidence
and growing strength in the air.
We shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be.
It's the most simple messaging
in political history.
This is a war against absolute evil.
It is total war.
We're going to fight
for every inch and every yard,
and we're going to win.
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.
♪
With this speech,
Churchill ends all discussions
of a negotiated peace.
♪
In France, Hitler moves quickly.
He orders the Wehrmacht
to strike south,
heading for Paris and beyond.
♪
[gunfire]
The Germans are essentially
pursuing anti-trench warfare
anything that they can do
to avoid the slog
that they had in the First World War.
[gunfire and shouting]
As German forces race to the capital,
damaging historic cities
in their wake
♪
The French population takes flight.
♪
People are terrified,
fearing for their lives,
of the brutality of the German soldier.
♪
So roads and railways
are soon overflowing
with refugees
men, women, children, grandparents.
♪
Families are divided.
Children get separated
from their parents
because there's so much chaos.
♪
There are 8 million
French refugees on the run.
♪
On June 14th,
German troops march into Paris.
♪
They are parading
down the Champs-Elysées.
Things could not be worse
for the French.
Grown men are crying.
This is unbelievable, unimaginable.
[officer shouts]
♪
Hitler insists the ceremony
to sign the French armistice
happens in the exact railway
carriage where the Germans
signed their surrender
at the end of World War I.
♪
Hitler is like a giddy schoolboy.
He can't believe this is happening.
He's just jubilant.
♪
The terms of the armistice are several.
The French Army is restricted
to a size of no larger than 100,000.
♪
France itself will be divided
into two parts.
The Germans will occupy about 3/5.
The remaining 2/5 will be led
by Marshal Philippe Pétain,
and this will become known
as Vichy France,
because the new French government
will be seated in the town of Vichy.
♪
For the French, it's the end.
♪
[dramatic music]
The fall of France is a seismic event
with global ramifications.
France gave Germany
a blank check today,
signing the terms of the armistice
German propaganda
Captures iconic images
on Hitler's first and only
trip to conquered Paris.
♪
When France falls,
for the vast majority of Americans,
it's as if the unthinkable
has happened.
♪
Roosevelt and the people close to him
recognize immediately what this means.
♪
All the things that the United States
didn't have to do as long as France
was in between us and the Germans,
they're now going to have to do.
It's going to build a very large army,
it's going to build a very large navy,
it's going to think
about a global presence,
and it's never again going
to put its own security
in the hands of another country,
even a friendly one like France.
♪
Roosevelt now calls
for America to mobilize.
In the coming months,
he'll institute
the first peacetime draft
and call for the production
of 50,000 warplanes.
♪
Overwhelmingly, we as a nation
we are convinced
that military and naval victory
for the gods of force and hate
would endanger the institutions
of democracy
in the Western world.
[crowd cheering]
♪
[crowd cheering]
After taking Norway,
Denmark, the Netherlands,
Belgium, and now France
♪
Hitler is triumphant.
[cheering continues]
There's a tremendous return
of Hitler to Berlin.
The crowds are in the hundreds
of thousands on the streets
♪
Pushing toward his motorcade.
[crowd cheering, chanting in German]
♪
For the Nazis,
these are the glory days.
[cheers and applause]
♪
This is the height of Hitler's power.
For most of the population of Germany,
he can do no wrong.
He is their beloved Fuehrer.
♪
And Hitler's ego goes out of control.
That allows Hitler to convince himself
of his own propaganda,
convince himself that in a way,
he's almost immortal.
♪
Now Hitler attempts
to dictate a new peace deal
with Great Britain.
[speaking German]
all: Heil! Heil! Heil!
♪
Churchill defies him.
♪
And so Hitler gives
the go-ahead to an operation
he thinks will force Britain
into submission
Operation Sea Lion.
He's now saying, okay, well,
if the Brits aren't going
to come to terms with me,
then I will invade Great Britain.
♪
First, the Luftwaffe targets the planes
and infrastructure of
the British Royal Air Force.
♪
So the initial German air assaults
were against British RAF facilities
♪
Airfields, administrative stations,
supply depots, and the like.
♪
Goering claims the Luftwaffe
will destroy the Royal Air Force
in just three days
and leave Britain open to invasion.
♪
[explosion]
♪
British pilots scramble in defense.
♪
Can this relatively small
number of British planes
they've got probably about 2,950
fight off what is
an ever-increasing Luftwaffe?
♪
The Battle of Britain is the largest
and most intense aerial combat
the world has yet seen.
[gunfire]
♪
If the Luftwaffe wins,
Germany will invade.
[gunfire]
[dramatic music]
♪
By the end of August 1940,
the Luftwaffe
is sending 1,000 planes a day
across the English Channel.
♪
The fate of the British Empire
is being decided in the skies
above southern England.
♪
[gunfire]
♪
Churchill is acutely aware
that the future of his country
rests in the expertise and bravery
of just a small number of young pilots
not just from Britain,
but from across the Commonwealth
and conquered Europe as well.
Never in the field of human conflict
was so much owed by so many to so few.
♪
He was talking about those
several hundred fighter pilots
who were flying sometimes
six times a day,
taking off, striking
at a German air armada,
landing, being rearmed, refueled,
and then taking off again.
A 109 destroyed, Freddie, yes.
Oh, good show.
But, of course, actually,
there are ground crew.
There are legions of observers
who are using binoculars
to look at the skies above.
30 enemy aircraft over
the Channel flying due west.
There are women
working on plotting tables
to build up this big picture
of German movement.
There is a gigantic, integrated,
information-rich system
supporting those pilots.
[gunfire]
♪
The German loss rates are really high.
♪
And the Germans
aren't succeeding, you know.
They're not able to break them.
In seven weeks,
the Luftwaffe lose
600 aircraft and their crews.
♪
Germany is losing
the Battle of Britain.
♪
[air-raid siren wailing]
♪
In mid-September,
Hitler approves a new strategy.
♪
Invading Great Britain
is postponed indefinitely.
The Luftwaffe's new mission
is to destroy the spirit
of the British people
through terror bombing.
♪
So begins the Blitz
which is months and months and months
of almost uninterrupted bombing
of British civilian areas.
♪
In the fall of 1940,
the German Luftwaffe
bombs London on 57 successive nights.
♪
- The Blitz was traumatic.
- It was horrifying.
♪
There is arbitrary random death.
♪
Being caught in collapsing buildings,
burned alive, gas mains blowing up.
♪
Tens of thousands
of civilians were killed.
♪
In cities across the United Kingdom,
families bury their dead
♪
Some in mass graves.
♪
Churchill did everything he could.
♪
He visited the East End.
He actually wept on one occasion
when he saw the bloodshed,
the devastation
that had been rained down
by German bombers.
♪
America receives firsthand reports
of Britain's ordeal.
Hello, America.
This is Edward Murrow
speaking from London.
The noise that you hear at the moment
is the sound of the air-raid siren.
[air-raid sirens wailing]
A searchlight off in the distance
sweeping the sky above me now.
♪
Edward R. Murrow
was one of those people
who had this attitude
of bringing you to
You know, "you are there"
was one of the things he used to say.
Off to my left,
I can see just that faint red,
of anti-aircraft bursts
against this steel-blue sky.
[gunfire]
There they are.
That hard, stony sound.
♪
So, all of a sudden,
the American people
had the ability to hear in
their homes from their radios
the sounds of the bombs
falling on London.
[bomb whistles and explodes]
"Live from the Blitz," right?
[explosions]
How could you not have sympathy
with the people on the ground
the women, the children,
the noncombatants?
♪
And it made a huge difference
in terms of building a sea change
in the American attitudes
that laid the groundwork
for the isolationist attitudes
of the United States to change.
[applause]
♪
At the polls in November,
Franklin D. Roosevelt wins
an unprecedented third term.
[crowd cheering]
Now he has the political freedom
to offer all aid
to Great Britain short of war.
♪
Democracy's fight
against world conquest
must be more greatly aided
by sending every ounce
and every ton of munitions and supplies
that we can possibly spare
to help the defenders
who are in the front lines.
♪
We must have more ships, more guns,
more planes, more of everything.
♪
We must be the great arsenal
of democracy.
♪
In the autumn of 1940,
northern Europe is in Nazi hands,
including what had been
the Republic of France.
Great Britain stands alone.
Between the Third Reich
and the Soviet Union,
there exists a territorial peace.
But what does that mean
to a leader like Adolf Hitler?
[dramatic music]
♪
The nation of Poland no longer exists,
and that enables Adolf Hitler
to attack the West.
After six months of inactivity,
what is called the Phony War,
Germany quickly occupies Denmark,
then invades Norway,
where they easily defeat
a British and French force,
triggering a crisis
in the British leadership.
Now, the question is,
where will Hitler point
the Wehrmacht next?
And who will be able to stop him?
[dramatic music]
All wars change the world,
but none of them changed the world
like the Second World War did.
Japan's on the march,
Germany's on the march.
No one can imagine
the nightmare they're about to unleash.
The most destructive war
in human history.
Suddenly the world
is turned upside down,
and all hell is let loose.
♪
The West is stunned
by the speed of the advance.
You get the Allies,
led by the big three
Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin.
Men who are dealing
with immensely complicated questions.
It's the biggest military
operation of human history.
The Allies have to come together,
not just militarily,
but industrial scale
it's a global perspective.
They have to fight in every climate,
from the Arctic
to the jungles of the Pacific
to the deserts of Africa
and the depths of the ocean.
♪
But there was no certainty of victory.
It was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.
We see humans
at their absolute worst
how they treat other human beings.
And we see them
at their absolute best
willing to give their lives
that others might live.
World War II was a struggle
in which there could be
one victor and one vanquished.
♪
[explosions, air-raid sirens wailing]
♪
May 10, 1940
♪
German forces sweep through
the Netherlands and Belgium
♪
Headed for France.
♪
This will be the third time
that Germany has invaded
France in 70 years.
Because of this history,
the French have constructed
a 280-mile system of forts
known as the Maginot Line.
♪
The idea is to have a number
of different fortifications
and infrastructures and weapons,
underground tunnels.
You have extensive batteries
that can house entire battalions.
There are even
electric railroads underground
to funnel soldiers
from blockhouse to blockhouse.
♪
Confident that the border
with Germany is secure,
the French position their best troops
along the Belgian-Dutch border.
♪
The French Army of 1940
is regarded as Europe's finest.
They have a large number of soldiers.
[speaking French]
They have some
of the largest and best tanks
in all of the world at this time.
♪
Nobody else has an army
standing between
the Allies and Germany.
♪
It's so deeply assumed
the French Army
will hold off the Germans,
just as it had in the First World War.
♪
The French Army feels more than capable
of meeting any challenge
it might face in a future conflict.
♪
As they did 25 years before,
in the First World War,
Great Britain also sends an army
to stop the German invasion.
Reinforcements for the
British Expeditionary Force
reach France.
♪
The British Expeditionary
Force has been sent across
to assist the French in their
defense against the Germans.
You've probably got about 300,000 men.
They are the cream
of British ground troops.
♪
British and French forces
surge into Belgium
♪
Looking to confront the Germans
in what they believe will be
the main effort of the German attack.
They're heading for the line,
towards the distant rumble of gunfire.
This is precisely
what Hitler wants them to do.
♪
One of the Wehrmacht's best generals,
Erich von Manstein,
has designed a trap.
♪
Manstein very ambitious general,
big advocate
of war-of-movement tactics,
blitzkrieg tactics
he says, we're going to distract them.
We'll still have an army
facing the Maginot Line.
We'll still have an army
sweeping through Belgium,
but we'll do what they least expect.
We'll cut through the Ardennes.
♪
The Ardennes Forest
straddles the French frontier
with Belgium.
♪
Its steep wooded hills and valleys
are considered impenetrable.
Here, there was no reason
to build anything
because the forest was
so thick and dense.
But Manstein's not deterred
by this terrain.
He sends his armored forces into France
from this unexpected direction,
which gives Hitler the opportunity
to outmaneuver the Allies.
And once he's sold on it,
as so often in Hitler's life,
it becomes a kind of mania for it.
He says, this is what I wanted.
Finally, someone understands me.
Hitler now throws
the bulk of his forces
through the Ardennes.
♪
That same day
British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain resigns.
The Second World War
is going badly for Britain.
Hitler's troops have swept
through Denmark and Norway.
And Neville Chamberlain,
the British Prime Minister,
like leaders do,
takes the blame for that.
I sought an audience
of the King this evening
and tendered to him my resignation,
which His Majesty
has been pleased to accept.
♪
The King asks the
First Lord of the Admiralty,
the maverick politician
Winston Churchill,
to become prime minister.
♪
Winston Churchill was born
at a time when Britain was
at its imperial apex
the height of the Victorian age.
From the youngest age, he's brought up
thinking that he's special,
that fate has predestined
that he would one day save
Britain and its empire.
♪
Churchill has openly been
critical of Hitler,
very worried about Hitler
against German rearmament,
and against Hitler's obvious plans
in Europe.
He was the guy who,
sounding like a bit
of a crank for years,
had said this was going to happen.
And then when it does happen
and you're looking to turn to somebody,
it's inevitable
that you turn to the person
that was right all along.
♪
Churchill's immediate challenge
is to stiffen British resolve
and to prepare them
for a long struggle.
♪
From his first address to Parliament,
Churchill demonstrates
his determination
to defeat the Nazis.
♪
Churchill used the wonders of language
and the oratory skill,
and the way he crafted his words
well, he's one of the most
quoted people in the world.
♪
I would say to the House,
I have nothing to offer but blood,
toil, tears,
and sweat.
- Nasty, dirty base words
- blood, sweat, toil.
He takes you up here, and
he brings you back down here.
You ask, what is our aim?
I can answer in one word
victory
victory at all costs,
for without victory,
there is no survival.
♪
People that were there that day said
that you could feel the opposition
to Winston Churchill
just draining away.
♪
As the Wehrmacht advances
on France through Belgium
and the Ardennes Forest
♪
Adolf Hitler takes a risk.
♪
This is a huge gamble
for the simple reason
that if you try to mass
Panzer divisions
and motorized infantry
on these little dirt tracks,
you're going to have
massive traffic jams.
And they're going to be
a ripe target for the French
and British air forces,
which could fly over
and just bomb these things
while they're stuck in the Ardennes.
Hitler is, in some ways,
the ultimate gambler,
with his notions that whatever he does,
if he is strong enough
and if he has the will
and he's got the German people
behind him, nothing can fail.
♪
[birds chirping]
Three days after German tank divisions
enter the Ardennes
the French remain unaware
of the Nazi threat.
♪
The French are not expecting
a major German assault here.
So the French troops
along the Meuse are older men,
reservists who've been called
back to the colors.
♪
At 1500 hours on May 13th
the countryside quiet is shattered
by the sound of tank engines.
[distant gunfire, engines rumbling]
So, if you're a French soldier
and you look out
through your binoculars
at what's happening
suddenly there's a tank
appearing across the river.
♪
And then, suddenly, another one.
And then, suddenly, dozens,
even hundreds more.
You make a panicky report back
to your superior officer
I see German tanks.
♪
German pioneer units throw
bridges across the river.
They get their tanks across
and launch a massive assault
on French defenses.
♪
The surprised French troops
now face a terrifying German barrage.
♪
[dramatic music]
[gunfire]
♪
As German Panzer divisions
race across the border
♪
The French Army is overwhelmed.
♪
Now the Wehrmacht pours through
a 60-mile-wide hole
in the French lines.
♪
Line after line after line of tanks
just crossing the Meuse.
And at this point,
there is no time
for the French to mobilize
and to come and defend that area.
♪
One German commander, Erwin Rommel,
is particularly aggressive.
♪
He's a daring, dashing young man.
He doesn't come from the traditional
Prussian aristocratic
military background.
He's very aware of doing
smash-and-grab type actions
♪
Which will get you noticed.
Hitler's been very impressed by him.
When he crosses the Meuse,
it's full speed ahead.
♪
People describe the invasion
of the West as Blitzkrieg,
lightning war.
But, you know, that's really
just a poetic metaphor,
a way to describe something
that is actually much more complex.
The Germans themselves use a term
Bewegungskrieg.
It means "the war of movement."
♪
[speaking German]
The 7th Panzer Division becomes known
as the Ghost Division
because it disappears
from the situation map
for hours, sometimes days at a time.
It's moving faster than
people can keep up with.
♪
But that's Rommel.
The French are in full retreat.
♪
After only a few days of fighting,
northern France
lies largely undefended.
♪
At 7:30 in the morning on May 15th,
Winston Churchill
receives a phone call.
It's French leader
Paul Reynaud, who tells him,
"We are beaten.
The road to Paris is open.
Send all the planes
and all the troops you can."
♪
It cannot be overstated how surprising
and out of left field
this German breakthrough is.
♪
The French Army
that had stayed diligently
in the trenches for four years
in the First World War
crumbling in a matter of days.
♪
Churchill immediately flies to France.
Churchill takes a tremendous
risk by going over to France.
There's a battle ongoing.
There's a danger
he's going to be shot down
at any moment
by hostile German fighters.
♪
But he feels he has to do it
because he wants
to stiffen the French morale.
♪
But when he goes to the Quai d'Orsay,
which is the French foreign office,
they're burning papers.
The scene in Paris is absolute chaos.
The French government
is trying to figure out
what they have to do in the
face of this military defeat.
♪
Churchill calls the French
lily-livered.
He says they don't have
the requisite state of mind
to hold back the Germans.
♪
But what happened has nothing to do
with fighting qualities
or one side being more valiant
than the other.
It has to do with one side
completely overwhelming the other
at the point of contact.
And when things are happening faster
than you think
they should be happening,
the reaction can be
kind of a wave of panic.
♪
With the French
on the brink of collapse
and the British Army in retreat
♪
Churchill turns
to the United States for help.
♪
Churchill had one key strategy
for winning the Second World War
get America involved.
He dictates a telegram
to President Roosevelt.
He makes the clear warning to Roosevelt
that, eventually, Nazism might
come for the Americans as well.
♪
So he makes an appeal.
We need destroyers, naval assistance,
but we also need guns,
we need planes, we need steel.
He's desperate for military assistance.
♪
Ideally, Franklin Roosevelt wanted
to keep German aggression
on the European continent
and, ideally, turn it back.
♪
And so Roosevelt's great hope
is that perhaps by offering supplies,
we keep the war on that side
of the Atlantic,
because a Nazified Europe
was going to be a world threat.
♪
But it's an election year.
Roosevelt is running
for an unprecedented third term
in office.
His domestic policies
are propelling him
back into the White House.
But the majority of Americans
do not want to involve themselves
in another global contest.
So Roosevelt's foreign policy
is a political vulnerability.
♪
Roosevelt wants to help
Britain and France,
but America's neutrality laws
restrict how much he can provide.
♪
His hands are tied.
♪
If the Germans seize France,
Britain will be left
to face the Nazis alone.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
In northern France,
German forces continue forward,
attempting to trap
the fleeing Allied armies.
Now the Germans move
to cut off the Allies
at the English Channel.
Once they reach it,
all those Allied armies
will be surrounded.
♪
The only chance of survival
for the troops
is to build some kind
of defensive system
round the Channel port closest to them,
and that's Dunkirk
♪
And then attempt an evacuation by sea.
♪
The small coastal town of Dunkirk
is just 60 miles across
the Channel from Britain,
but Dunkirk doesn't have
the infrastructure
to support a mass naval evacuation.
♪
By May 20th, more than
450,000 French, Belgian,
and British soldiers
are retreating in desperation
to its wide open beaches.
♪
The Germans are already
on the fringes
of the Dunkirk perimeter.
The Allies are trapped.
There is no other British Army.
That's the best leaders,
the best sergeants
and NCOs in danger
of being absolutely wiped out
by German forces.
♪
Then Hitler orders his Panzers to halt.
♪
Hitler travels to the front lines.
♪
He's noticed some problems.
The tanks are far, far ahead
of their follow-up infantry
Rommel's Ghost Division, for example.
Hitler believes
that the generals at the front
are not reporting back to him
with the specificity they should be.
And he's kind of angry about that.
And so Hitler had decided
to take control of this operation.
♪
Field Marshal Hermann Goering
insists the Luftwaffe
can finish off the Allies.
♪
Goering's like, you know, Hitler,
Fuehrer, you know, it's like, come on.
They're on the beach.
They're sitting ducks.
Why would you want to waste
your precious Panzers?
I can do this
with Luftwaffe aircraft alone.
♪
For the Brits on the beach,
it's an absolute hellscape.
[Stuka sirens wailing]
They're subjected day and night
to constant aerial bombardment
by the Luftwaffe
strafing
♪
Dive bombing
♪
Level bombing.
[explosions]
The British troops
are just on the sand.
And each time this happens
[Stuka siren wailing]
♪
They all take what cover they can.
[Stuka sirens wailing]
This goes on hour after hour
after hour
♪
As they're waiting for deliverance.
It was a time of total terror.
[Stuka sirens wailing]
[explosion]
♪
As the Luftwaffe bombs the troops
♪
The British War Cabinet is
divided over how to save them.
Prime Minister Churchill wants
to evacuate as many British
and French troops as possible by sea.
♪
But his foreign secretary,
Lord Halifax,
wants to explore diplomatic options.
♪
There are factions
in the United Kingdom,
led by Lord Halifax,
which believe that the war
with Germany is pointless,
totally destructive, and can't be won.
They want to have
some sort of peace treaty
with Germany.
Halifax is saying,
we have to face facts here.
We have to face reality.
Adolf Hitler has won in Europe.
We can still preserve our independence.
We can still preserve our empire
if we make a deal with Hitler.
And the way to do that
is talk to an intermediary.
Well, that's
the Italian fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini.
♪
He might be a broker
to negotiate a peace
between Britain and Germany.
♪
Halifax tries to get help
from American diplomats.
♪
The American ambassador in
Rome and various other people
approach Mussolini to come up
with some sort of peace treaty.
But Churchill will not negotiate.
He believes that if London
were to enter into talks
that British morale would collapse.
Churchill decides to risk
the sea-rescue plan,
code-named Operation Dynamo.
♪
On May 26th,
the first Royal Navy ships
set off across the Channel.
♪
Dynamo is the only card
the British can play
at this point.
♪
In London, they're estimating,
maybe we'll get 20,000, 30,000,
45,000 at the most off.
♪
But now Hitler sends
his forces back into action.
♪
Panzers begin to assault
the defensive line
around Dunkirk.
♪
On that first day,
the Royal Navy rescues
less than 8,000 men.
The British need to find
an additional way
to get troops home.
♪
There were these two breakwaters
long stone and concrete jetties
that stretched a mile into the sea.
They're not designed for ships
to come and dock next to them,
but in an emergency,
this is what they can do.
♪
So you've got the British
troops four abreast,
walking out onto this breakwater
so they can get out
to deep enough water
and get picked up by ships.
♪
But meanwhile, they're
under constant air attack
by dive bombers and bombers.
♪
The British are running out of time.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
With over 400,000 Allied troops
trapped on the beach at Dunkirk
♪
A desperate call goes out
from British leaders.
♪
Help us get our soldiers home.
♪
The response is immediate.
For nine days, small vessels,
all captained and crewed by volunteers,
cross the Channel.
Fishing trawlers and paddle steamers
cargo ships and lifeboats
barges and yachts
♪
Each sail into the firestorm
around Dunkirk
joining the Royal Navy
in the rescue mission.
There was every kind of ship
that I saw coming in this morning,
and every one of them was crammed full
of tired, battle-stained,
and bloodstained British soldiers.
The BEF leaves everything
behind all the tanks,
all the artillery, all the trucks.
♪
The idea being that the men
are the most important thing.
We can make new equipment,
but we can't make new men.
♪
The evacuation at Dunkirk
brings over 300,000 British
and French troops
to Britain
♪
Though thousands are left behind.
♪
In Britain, the operation becomes known
as the Miracle of Dunkirk.
♪
On British streets,
there is relief, joy,
and anxiety about what's to come.
On June 4th, Churchill
addresses those fears.
We must be very careful not
to assign to this deliverance
the attributes of a victory.
♪
He reminds people
that things aren't looking
good for Britain at this time.
France is almost certainly lost,
and there's a great possibility
in the weeks and months ahead
that the Germans are going to launch
a sea and air invasion of the UK.
And the question is,
will we be able to stop it?
♪
Churchill's able to come out
and issue this clarion call,
issue this roar of belligerence
and determination.
We shall fight on the seas and oceans.
We shall fight with growing confidence
and growing strength in the air.
We shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be.
It's the most simple messaging
in political history.
This is a war against absolute evil.
It is total war.
We're going to fight
for every inch and every yard,
and we're going to win.
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.
♪
With this speech,
Churchill ends all discussions
of a negotiated peace.
♪
In France, Hitler moves quickly.
He orders the Wehrmacht
to strike south,
heading for Paris and beyond.
♪
[gunfire]
The Germans are essentially
pursuing anti-trench warfare
anything that they can do
to avoid the slog
that they had in the First World War.
[gunfire and shouting]
As German forces race to the capital,
damaging historic cities
in their wake
♪
The French population takes flight.
♪
People are terrified,
fearing for their lives,
of the brutality of the German soldier.
♪
So roads and railways
are soon overflowing
with refugees
men, women, children, grandparents.
♪
Families are divided.
Children get separated
from their parents
because there's so much chaos.
♪
There are 8 million
French refugees on the run.
♪
On June 14th,
German troops march into Paris.
♪
They are parading
down the Champs-Elysées.
Things could not be worse
for the French.
Grown men are crying.
This is unbelievable, unimaginable.
[officer shouts]
♪
Hitler insists the ceremony
to sign the French armistice
happens in the exact railway
carriage where the Germans
signed their surrender
at the end of World War I.
♪
Hitler is like a giddy schoolboy.
He can't believe this is happening.
He's just jubilant.
♪
The terms of the armistice are several.
The French Army is restricted
to a size of no larger than 100,000.
♪
France itself will be divided
into two parts.
The Germans will occupy about 3/5.
The remaining 2/5 will be led
by Marshal Philippe Pétain,
and this will become known
as Vichy France,
because the new French government
will be seated in the town of Vichy.
♪
For the French, it's the end.
♪
[dramatic music]
The fall of France is a seismic event
with global ramifications.
France gave Germany
a blank check today,
signing the terms of the armistice
German propaganda
Captures iconic images
on Hitler's first and only
trip to conquered Paris.
♪
When France falls,
for the vast majority of Americans,
it's as if the unthinkable
has happened.
♪
Roosevelt and the people close to him
recognize immediately what this means.
♪
All the things that the United States
didn't have to do as long as France
was in between us and the Germans,
they're now going to have to do.
It's going to build a very large army,
it's going to build a very large navy,
it's going to think
about a global presence,
and it's never again going
to put its own security
in the hands of another country,
even a friendly one like France.
♪
Roosevelt now calls
for America to mobilize.
In the coming months,
he'll institute
the first peacetime draft
and call for the production
of 50,000 warplanes.
♪
Overwhelmingly, we as a nation
we are convinced
that military and naval victory
for the gods of force and hate
would endanger the institutions
of democracy
in the Western world.
[crowd cheering]
♪
[crowd cheering]
After taking Norway,
Denmark, the Netherlands,
Belgium, and now France
♪
Hitler is triumphant.
[cheering continues]
There's a tremendous return
of Hitler to Berlin.
The crowds are in the hundreds
of thousands on the streets
♪
Pushing toward his motorcade.
[crowd cheering, chanting in German]
♪
For the Nazis,
these are the glory days.
[cheers and applause]
♪
This is the height of Hitler's power.
For most of the population of Germany,
he can do no wrong.
He is their beloved Fuehrer.
♪
And Hitler's ego goes out of control.
That allows Hitler to convince himself
of his own propaganda,
convince himself that in a way,
he's almost immortal.
♪
Now Hitler attempts
to dictate a new peace deal
with Great Britain.
[speaking German]
all: Heil! Heil! Heil!
♪
Churchill defies him.
♪
And so Hitler gives
the go-ahead to an operation
he thinks will force Britain
into submission
Operation Sea Lion.
He's now saying, okay, well,
if the Brits aren't going
to come to terms with me,
then I will invade Great Britain.
♪
First, the Luftwaffe targets the planes
and infrastructure of
the British Royal Air Force.
♪
So the initial German air assaults
were against British RAF facilities
♪
Airfields, administrative stations,
supply depots, and the like.
♪
Goering claims the Luftwaffe
will destroy the Royal Air Force
in just three days
and leave Britain open to invasion.
♪
[explosion]
♪
British pilots scramble in defense.
♪
Can this relatively small
number of British planes
they've got probably about 2,950
fight off what is
an ever-increasing Luftwaffe?
♪
The Battle of Britain is the largest
and most intense aerial combat
the world has yet seen.
[gunfire]
♪
If the Luftwaffe wins,
Germany will invade.
[gunfire]
[dramatic music]
♪
By the end of August 1940,
the Luftwaffe
is sending 1,000 planes a day
across the English Channel.
♪
The fate of the British Empire
is being decided in the skies
above southern England.
♪
[gunfire]
♪
Churchill is acutely aware
that the future of his country
rests in the expertise and bravery
of just a small number of young pilots
not just from Britain,
but from across the Commonwealth
and conquered Europe as well.
Never in the field of human conflict
was so much owed by so many to so few.
♪
He was talking about those
several hundred fighter pilots
who were flying sometimes
six times a day,
taking off, striking
at a German air armada,
landing, being rearmed, refueled,
and then taking off again.
A 109 destroyed, Freddie, yes.
Oh, good show.
But, of course, actually,
there are ground crew.
There are legions of observers
who are using binoculars
to look at the skies above.
30 enemy aircraft over
the Channel flying due west.
There are women
working on plotting tables
to build up this big picture
of German movement.
There is a gigantic, integrated,
information-rich system
supporting those pilots.
[gunfire]
♪
The German loss rates are really high.
♪
And the Germans
aren't succeeding, you know.
They're not able to break them.
In seven weeks,
the Luftwaffe lose
600 aircraft and their crews.
♪
Germany is losing
the Battle of Britain.
♪
[air-raid siren wailing]
♪
In mid-September,
Hitler approves a new strategy.
♪
Invading Great Britain
is postponed indefinitely.
The Luftwaffe's new mission
is to destroy the spirit
of the British people
through terror bombing.
♪
So begins the Blitz
which is months and months and months
of almost uninterrupted bombing
of British civilian areas.
♪
In the fall of 1940,
the German Luftwaffe
bombs London on 57 successive nights.
♪
- The Blitz was traumatic.
- It was horrifying.
♪
There is arbitrary random death.
♪
Being caught in collapsing buildings,
burned alive, gas mains blowing up.
♪
Tens of thousands
of civilians were killed.
♪
In cities across the United Kingdom,
families bury their dead
♪
Some in mass graves.
♪
Churchill did everything he could.
♪
He visited the East End.
He actually wept on one occasion
when he saw the bloodshed,
the devastation
that had been rained down
by German bombers.
♪
America receives firsthand reports
of Britain's ordeal.
Hello, America.
This is Edward Murrow
speaking from London.
The noise that you hear at the moment
is the sound of the air-raid siren.
[air-raid sirens wailing]
A searchlight off in the distance
sweeping the sky above me now.
♪
Edward R. Murrow
was one of those people
who had this attitude
of bringing you to
You know, "you are there"
was one of the things he used to say.
Off to my left,
I can see just that faint red,
of anti-aircraft bursts
against this steel-blue sky.
[gunfire]
There they are.
That hard, stony sound.
♪
So, all of a sudden,
the American people
had the ability to hear in
their homes from their radios
the sounds of the bombs
falling on London.
[bomb whistles and explodes]
"Live from the Blitz," right?
[explosions]
How could you not have sympathy
with the people on the ground
the women, the children,
the noncombatants?
♪
And it made a huge difference
in terms of building a sea change
in the American attitudes
that laid the groundwork
for the isolationist attitudes
of the United States to change.
[applause]
♪
At the polls in November,
Franklin D. Roosevelt wins
an unprecedented third term.
[crowd cheering]
Now he has the political freedom
to offer all aid
to Great Britain short of war.
♪
Democracy's fight
against world conquest
must be more greatly aided
by sending every ounce
and every ton of munitions and supplies
that we can possibly spare
to help the defenders
who are in the front lines.
♪
We must have more ships, more guns,
more planes, more of everything.
♪
We must be the great arsenal
of democracy.
♪
In the autumn of 1940,
northern Europe is in Nazi hands,
including what had been
the Republic of France.
Great Britain stands alone.
Between the Third Reich
and the Soviet Union,
there exists a territorial peace.
But what does that mean
to a leader like Adolf Hitler?