1 00:00:12,013 --> 00:00:15,058 - NARRATOR: December 7, 1941... 2 00:00:15,141 --> 00:00:19,521 the turmoil of World War II enters its 27th month. 3 00:00:19,604 --> 00:00:22,732 Japanese troops storm Shanghai. 4 00:00:24,567 --> 00:00:26,945 German armies stand at the gates of Moscow, 5 00:00:27,028 --> 00:00:30,281 leaving 6 1/2 million casualties in their wake. 6 00:00:31,991 --> 00:00:35,495 Nazi Germany has mainland Europe in its grip. 7 00:00:37,580 --> 00:00:39,332 Under siege, 8 00:00:39,416 --> 00:00:42,460 Britain hangs on by a thread. 9 00:00:44,295 --> 00:00:45,839 Three-thousand miles away, 10 00:00:45,922 --> 00:00:48,299 the United States remains at peace. 11 00:00:48,383 --> 00:00:50,343 Seventy-six percent of her citizens 12 00:00:50,427 --> 00:00:52,011 support neutrality. 13 00:00:54,681 --> 00:00:58,685 At 7:55 AM, the peace is shattered. 14 00:01:02,772 --> 00:01:05,150 Three hundred sixty Japanese warplanes 15 00:01:05,233 --> 00:01:07,485 descend on Pearl Harbor. 16 00:01:12,741 --> 00:01:16,327 World War II has come to America. 17 00:01:22,041 --> 00:01:25,086 This is America's war as never seen before... 18 00:01:27,297 --> 00:01:29,966 from the unique vantage point of space. 19 00:01:34,637 --> 00:01:37,974 Witness the key battles unfold... 20 00:01:38,057 --> 00:01:40,018 and the military strategies behind them, 21 00:01:40,101 --> 00:01:42,270 in stunning detail. 22 00:01:42,353 --> 00:01:45,482 Revealed are the political alliances, 23 00:01:45,565 --> 00:01:48,026 the global battle for resources, 24 00:01:48,109 --> 00:01:49,694 and the astounding awakening 25 00:01:49,778 --> 00:01:52,238 Of American military and manufacturing might 26 00:01:54,407 --> 00:01:56,284 that will determine the outcome 27 00:01:56,367 --> 00:01:58,912 of the greatest conflict ever fought. 28 00:02:12,300 --> 00:02:15,053 The unprovoked Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 29 00:02:15,136 --> 00:02:18,097 will send shock waves across the globe, 30 00:02:18,181 --> 00:02:21,518 but America has feared a strike for months. 31 00:02:23,269 --> 00:02:26,898 Since 1931, Japan's imperial ambitions 32 00:02:26,981 --> 00:02:29,484 have grown bolder and bolder. 33 00:02:29,567 --> 00:02:31,528 First, Manchuria is invaded, 34 00:02:31,611 --> 00:02:34,197 then China itself. 35 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:37,784 When France falls to Nazi Germany in 1940, 36 00:02:37,867 --> 00:02:41,704 Japan seizes control of French Indochina. 37 00:02:41,788 --> 00:02:44,541 The US response is rapid. 38 00:02:44,624 --> 00:02:46,751 Japan's financial assets are frozen 39 00:02:46,835 --> 00:02:49,337 and an oil embargo is imposed. 40 00:02:49,420 --> 00:02:51,339 The message is clear... 41 00:02:51,422 --> 00:02:55,426 withdraw from Indochina or be economically crushed. 42 00:02:55,510 --> 00:02:56,719 - After the embargo, 43 00:02:56,803 --> 00:02:58,721 Japan was faced with two choices... 44 00:02:58,805 --> 00:03:00,890 stop territorial expansion... 45 00:03:00,974 --> 00:03:02,600 give into the demands of the Allies... 46 00:03:02,684 --> 00:03:04,435 or go to war. 47 00:03:04,519 --> 00:03:07,730 Japan chooses War. 48 00:03:07,814 --> 00:03:10,066 In the words of Prime Minister Tojo, 49 00:03:10,149 --> 00:03:13,444 "it is either glory or decline." 50 00:03:13,528 --> 00:03:15,738 It is imperative that they make 51 00:03:15,822 --> 00:03:18,366 the first, decisive strike. 52 00:03:22,036 --> 00:03:24,205 - The Japanese knew they were never gonna go 53 00:03:24,289 --> 00:03:26,040 toe-to-toe with the United States 54 00:03:26,124 --> 00:03:27,750 in a long Naval war in the Pacific. 55 00:03:27,794 --> 00:03:29,674 They knew they didn't have the economic might... 56 00:03:29,698 --> 00:03:32,005 the military might... but it was a calculation 57 00:03:32,088 --> 00:03:34,716 that they could administer a knock-out blow 58 00:03:34,799 --> 00:03:37,844 to the capital ships of the US Pacific Fleet. 59 00:03:37,927 --> 00:03:39,721 - If you could destroy the Pacific Fleet, 60 00:03:39,804 --> 00:03:41,804 the ability of the Americans to respond to anything 61 00:03:41,848 --> 00:03:45,727 for many months would be taken away. 62 00:03:45,810 --> 00:03:47,604 So the strike at Pearl Harbor 63 00:03:47,687 --> 00:03:50,481 was not just a strike at a symbol of American power. 64 00:03:50,565 --> 00:03:53,651 It was American power in the Pacific. 65 00:03:53,735 --> 00:03:55,820 What American intelligence cannot see 66 00:03:55,904 --> 00:03:58,865 is revealed from space. 67 00:03:58,948 --> 00:04:01,451 Admiral Yamamoto's fleet departs Japan 68 00:04:01,534 --> 00:04:04,704 on the longest assault in history. 69 00:04:04,787 --> 00:04:07,081 Avoiding shipping lanes and landmass, 70 00:04:07,165 --> 00:04:08,917 they arrive unseen, 71 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:12,337 275 miles from their target. 72 00:04:12,420 --> 00:04:14,380 It's the perfect vantage point... 73 00:04:14,464 --> 00:04:17,216 beyond the range of America's defensive radar, 74 00:04:17,300 --> 00:04:19,302 but at the optimum strike distance 75 00:04:19,385 --> 00:04:23,222 for its force of 414 cutting-edge aircraft, 76 00:04:23,306 --> 00:04:25,767 the jewel in the crown... 77 00:04:25,850 --> 00:04:27,560 the Mitsubishi Zero. 78 00:04:27,644 --> 00:04:29,604 It's faster than anything 79 00:04:29,687 --> 00:04:31,230 that they've used before. 80 00:04:31,314 --> 00:04:34,817 It's incredibly maneuverable and it has extreme range. 81 00:04:34,901 --> 00:04:37,654 But while the technology was pretty good, 82 00:04:37,737 --> 00:04:42,158 what mattered at Pearl Harbor was the man behind it. 83 00:04:42,241 --> 00:04:44,869 It was the pilot. 84 00:04:44,953 --> 00:04:48,373 The Japanese pilots have already been at war for years, 85 00:04:48,456 --> 00:04:52,585 so they're well-trained crews. 86 00:04:52,669 --> 00:04:54,128 You add on top of that, 87 00:04:54,212 --> 00:04:56,881 they'd been planning that attack for a long period of time. 88 00:04:56,965 --> 00:04:59,884 So they'd been running war games, simulating it, 89 00:04:59,968 --> 00:05:01,970 going through the action again and again, 90 00:05:02,053 --> 00:05:03,888 so that, basically, many of them talked 91 00:05:03,972 --> 00:05:06,975 about how they could have done it going in blind. 92 00:05:07,058 --> 00:05:10,186 At 7:55 AM, the first wave of bombers 93 00:05:10,269 --> 00:05:12,021 swoop from the sky. 94 00:05:14,649 --> 00:05:16,651 - On the deck of USS Arizona 95 00:05:16,734 --> 00:05:19,570 is Don Stratton. 96 00:05:19,654 --> 00:05:22,865 - We knew right away that there were Japanese planes, 97 00:05:22,949 --> 00:05:27,161 and we knew that they were bombing Ford Island, 98 00:05:27,245 --> 00:05:29,580 and something was radically wrong. 99 00:05:34,293 --> 00:05:36,629 - DON: Planes were strafing and dive-bombing, 100 00:05:36,713 --> 00:05:40,591 and it was just a horrible experience 101 00:05:40,675 --> 00:05:43,511 and a horrible sight. 102 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:54,188 - DON: It was a high-altitude bomber, 103 00:05:54,272 --> 00:05:57,358 dropped like a 2,000-lb bomb. 104 00:05:57,442 --> 00:06:00,653 I mean, it just devastated everything in its path, 105 00:06:00,737 --> 00:06:03,156 and the concussion 106 00:06:03,239 --> 00:06:06,492 and the smoke and the fire 107 00:06:06,576 --> 00:06:08,745 was horrendous. 108 00:06:13,249 --> 00:06:16,669 - It just was like... 109 00:06:16,753 --> 00:06:18,588 you'd lost your home. 110 00:06:22,050 --> 00:06:23,718 Of eight battleships at anchor 111 00:06:23,801 --> 00:06:25,553 the Arizona, Oklahoma, 112 00:06:25,636 --> 00:06:28,514 West Virginia, and California are sunk... 113 00:06:28,598 --> 00:06:30,850 the rest severely damaged. 114 00:06:30,933 --> 00:06:32,435 In 68 minutes, 115 00:06:32,518 --> 00:06:37,190 Japan has crippled the heart of America's Pacific Fleet. 116 00:06:37,273 --> 00:06:38,983 - From a Japanese perspective, 117 00:06:39,067 --> 00:06:41,402 the attack on Pearl Harbor succeeded 118 00:06:41,486 --> 00:06:44,489 beyond the most optimistic expectations. 119 00:06:44,572 --> 00:06:46,365 When you consider the losses 120 00:06:46,449 --> 00:06:48,284 that the Japanese suffered in this attack, 121 00:06:48,367 --> 00:06:50,411 it was essentially nothing. 122 00:06:50,495 --> 00:06:52,997 The Japanese lose 64 men 123 00:06:53,081 --> 00:06:57,543 to 3,649 US casualties... 124 00:06:57,627 --> 00:07:03,174 a human damage ratio of 57 to 1. 125 00:07:03,257 --> 00:07:05,259 But Japan's margin of victory 126 00:07:05,343 --> 00:07:08,471 hides two major flaws in the attack. 127 00:07:08,554 --> 00:07:10,890 - The Japanese failed to systemically attack 128 00:07:10,973 --> 00:07:12,517 the oil fields... 129 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:15,019 the oil storage tanks at Pearl Harbor. 130 00:07:15,103 --> 00:07:17,355 If they'd spent one more sortie 131 00:07:17,438 --> 00:07:18,981 taking out those oil tanks, 132 00:07:19,065 --> 00:07:21,025 they would have crippled the whole Pacific Fleet, 133 00:07:21,109 --> 00:07:24,320 which wouldn't have had the fuel supplies to keep going. 134 00:07:24,403 --> 00:07:26,322 More significant are the ships 135 00:07:26,405 --> 00:07:27,865 the Japanese fail to target. 136 00:07:27,949 --> 00:07:29,789 - PROF. KENNEDY: The American aircraft carriers 137 00:07:29,813 --> 00:07:31,285 were absent from Pearl Harbor 138 00:07:31,369 --> 00:07:33,496 at the time of the Japanese attack. 139 00:07:33,579 --> 00:07:35,623 And as things evolved very quickly, 140 00:07:35,706 --> 00:07:37,625 it became clear that the aircraft carrier 141 00:07:37,708 --> 00:07:40,419 was destined to become the most significant naval asset 142 00:07:40,503 --> 00:07:42,588 for either side in the Pacific war, 143 00:07:42,672 --> 00:07:45,133 and the American carriers were untouched. 144 00:07:47,510 --> 00:07:50,513 Oil supplies and air domination... 145 00:07:50,596 --> 00:07:54,475 two factors that will dictate the fate of World War II, 146 00:07:54,559 --> 00:07:59,105 and Japan fails to damage either... 147 00:07:59,188 --> 00:08:01,816 Instead, it has awoken the full wrath 148 00:08:01,899 --> 00:08:04,694 of the sleeping American giant. 149 00:08:09,782 --> 00:08:12,118 - DR. CRANE: Pearl Harbor infuriated the American people. 150 00:08:12,201 --> 00:08:14,328 It also infuriated the American military... 151 00:08:14,412 --> 00:08:17,707 massive casualties, destruction of most of the Pacific Fleet. 152 00:08:17,790 --> 00:08:20,376 If you wanted to do one thing to unite a country 153 00:08:20,459 --> 00:08:23,212 that before this had been rather divided 154 00:08:23,296 --> 00:08:25,798 about what to do about the war, Pearl Harbor was it. 155 00:08:25,882 --> 00:08:27,967 - This was like a lightning rod 156 00:08:28,050 --> 00:08:30,011 throughout the American population. 157 00:08:30,094 --> 00:08:32,221 No longer was President Roosevelt 158 00:08:32,305 --> 00:08:34,473 limited in his options. 159 00:08:34,557 --> 00:08:37,435 He had a United States population 160 00:08:37,518 --> 00:08:40,605 that was angry and unified 161 00:08:40,688 --> 00:08:44,233 and desired revenge against Japan. 162 00:08:44,317 --> 00:08:47,278 Her era of isolationism is over. 163 00:08:47,361 --> 00:08:49,363 America is at war 164 00:08:49,447 --> 00:08:51,324 and begins its rise to become 165 00:08:51,407 --> 00:08:54,076 the most powerful nation on the planet. 166 00:08:58,956 --> 00:09:00,875 Washington calculates victory 167 00:09:00,958 --> 00:09:04,128 will cost $300 billion... 168 00:09:04,212 --> 00:09:07,548 $4.4 trillion in today's money... 169 00:09:07,632 --> 00:09:11,344 over 1 1/2 times the total US federal budget. 170 00:09:13,638 --> 00:09:16,849 The government can raise half through increased taxes. 171 00:09:16,933 --> 00:09:19,977 For the rest, it must turn to the public. 172 00:09:20,061 --> 00:09:21,562 To raise $300 billion 173 00:09:21,646 --> 00:09:23,940 was then viewed as an insurmountable challenge, 174 00:09:24,023 --> 00:09:26,317 because basically we had to get 175 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:28,152 half of the population of the United States 176 00:09:28,236 --> 00:09:30,112 to buy bonds. 177 00:09:30,196 --> 00:09:32,698 And what we were saying is we're in World War II, 178 00:09:32,782 --> 00:09:33,908 we're in this to win, 179 00:09:33,991 --> 00:09:35,618 It's a fight of good versus evil, 180 00:09:35,701 --> 00:09:37,536 and you on an individual level 181 00:09:37,620 --> 00:09:39,872 are gonna make a difference. 182 00:09:39,956 --> 00:09:41,582 To guarantee success, 183 00:09:41,666 --> 00:09:43,709 the ad men of New York recruit 184 00:09:43,793 --> 00:09:47,588 America's most potent propaganda asset. 185 00:09:47,672 --> 00:09:50,466 - We had the Hollywood machine. 186 00:09:50,549 --> 00:09:52,677 America had mass-marketed movies. 187 00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:54,040 They knew the power of Hollywood. 188 00:09:54,064 --> 00:09:56,180 They knew the power of celebrities. 189 00:09:56,264 --> 00:09:58,641 Over 300 movie icons 190 00:09:58,724 --> 00:10:02,019 join the "Stars Over America" campaign 191 00:10:02,103 --> 00:10:04,272 crisscrossing the nation. 192 00:10:04,355 --> 00:10:06,816 Chicago... two huge celebrity rallies 193 00:10:06,899 --> 00:10:10,236 sell over $15 million in bonds. 194 00:10:10,319 --> 00:10:12,530 New York... a 3-way baseball game 195 00:10:12,613 --> 00:10:14,865 generates $56 million. 196 00:10:14,949 --> 00:10:16,617 By the end of the war, 197 00:10:16,701 --> 00:10:23,499 bonds campaigns raise $187.5 billion. 198 00:10:23,582 --> 00:10:26,335 - BOB: To get everybody aligned behind one goal 199 00:10:26,419 --> 00:10:29,588 and make the transaction is... is huge. 200 00:10:29,672 --> 00:10:31,841 America and its beleaguered Allies 201 00:10:31,924 --> 00:10:35,052 are going to need every cent. 202 00:10:37,179 --> 00:10:39,765 Four days after Pearl Harbor, 203 00:10:39,849 --> 00:10:43,894 Nazi Germany declares war on the United States. 204 00:10:43,978 --> 00:10:47,690 She now faces two vast and battle-hardened powers 205 00:10:47,773 --> 00:10:50,943 on two fronts. 206 00:10:51,027 --> 00:10:52,695 When America entered the war, 207 00:10:52,778 --> 00:10:57,325 it looked as if the military aggressors were going to win. 208 00:10:57,408 --> 00:11:00,911 Seen from space, America's peril is clear. 209 00:11:00,995 --> 00:11:02,830 Her fleet is in disarray, 210 00:11:02,913 --> 00:11:07,460 and her Pacific assets at the mercy of a rampant Japan. 211 00:11:07,543 --> 00:11:09,295 On the other side of the planet, 212 00:11:09,378 --> 00:11:11,047 her strongest military ally, 213 00:11:11,130 --> 00:11:12,214 Great Britain, 214 00:11:12,298 --> 00:11:14,759 is buckling under siege from Nazi Germany. 215 00:11:16,927 --> 00:11:18,679 America is at the epicenter 216 00:11:18,763 --> 00:11:21,849 of the greatest conflict in history. 217 00:11:21,932 --> 00:11:25,269 Roosevelt must make the biggest call of any US presidency... 218 00:11:25,353 --> 00:11:29,190 which enemy to engage first. 219 00:11:29,273 --> 00:11:31,073 - DR. CRANE: Franklin Delano Roosevelt decided 220 00:11:31,097 --> 00:11:33,152 that Germany was the one that could take down 221 00:11:33,235 --> 00:11:35,696 our closest friends around the world. 222 00:11:35,780 --> 00:11:39,241 They had to make sure that Britain survived. 223 00:11:39,325 --> 00:11:42,745 - Keeping Britain afloat was essential 224 00:11:42,828 --> 00:11:46,665 to the long-term prospects of victory. 225 00:11:46,749 --> 00:11:49,210 It stood as a large aircraft carrier 226 00:11:49,293 --> 00:11:52,463 that would enable an invasion onto the continent. 227 00:11:52,546 --> 00:11:55,091 If Britain fell under Nazi domination, 228 00:11:55,174 --> 00:11:58,344 the challenge would be almost insurmountable. 229 00:11:58,427 --> 00:11:59,720 For Roosevelt, 230 00:11:59,804 --> 00:12:02,807 the future of Great Britain is the future of the war. 231 00:12:02,890 --> 00:12:05,434 But after 17 months of fighting alone, 232 00:12:05,518 --> 00:12:08,312 its survival rests on a knife edge. 233 00:12:11,690 --> 00:12:13,526 Isolated, Britain's only hope 234 00:12:13,609 --> 00:12:15,611 is to keep her supply routes open... 235 00:12:15,694 --> 00:12:18,322 a fragile lifeline German Admiral Doenitz 236 00:12:18,406 --> 00:12:20,783 seeks to destroy. 237 00:12:20,866 --> 00:12:23,035 - Britain depended on the import 238 00:12:23,119 --> 00:12:27,415 of 5 million tons of stuff every month. 239 00:12:27,498 --> 00:12:29,959 German Admiral Doenitz argued very persuasively 240 00:12:30,042 --> 00:12:32,920 that if we can subtract a million tons a month, 241 00:12:33,003 --> 00:12:34,922 we will bring Britain to its knees. 242 00:12:35,005 --> 00:12:38,634 Doenitz's lethal weapon is the U-boat. 243 00:12:38,717 --> 00:12:41,637 Capable of traveling thousands of miles submerged 244 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:43,806 and armed with a deadly cocktail 245 00:12:43,889 --> 00:12:47,309 of deck guns, mines and torpedoes, 246 00:12:47,393 --> 00:12:49,019 it is the perfect weapon 247 00:12:49,103 --> 00:12:51,188 to starve Britain into submission. 248 00:12:51,272 --> 00:12:52,773 - When they attack, they're sending 249 00:12:52,857 --> 00:12:55,526 over 9,000 tons of supplies 250 00:12:55,609 --> 00:12:57,820 to the bottom of the ocean 251 00:12:57,903 --> 00:12:59,780 with 1 munition... 1 torpedo. 252 00:12:59,864 --> 00:13:01,282 And when it detonates, it creates 253 00:13:01,365 --> 00:13:03,033 this void underneath the vessel 254 00:13:03,117 --> 00:13:05,578 that creates the vessel to collapse 255 00:13:05,661 --> 00:13:08,747 - It's the difference between being stabbed 256 00:13:08,831 --> 00:13:11,542 and someone breaking your back. 257 00:13:11,625 --> 00:13:13,377 It's a killer. 258 00:13:15,045 --> 00:13:17,423 Churchill introduces naval convoys 259 00:13:17,506 --> 00:13:20,301 to protect the merchant fleets. 260 00:13:20,384 --> 00:13:23,304 Doenitz's response is devastating. 261 00:13:23,387 --> 00:13:25,427 - PROF. WAWRO: Admiral Doenitz introduced this thing 262 00:13:25,451 --> 00:13:27,725 called "rudel" tactic... wolf pack tactic. 263 00:13:27,808 --> 00:13:29,727 A rudel is a pack of animals, 264 00:13:29,810 --> 00:13:31,770 and instead of approaching singly, 265 00:13:31,854 --> 00:13:33,606 as submarines had done in the past, 266 00:13:33,689 --> 00:13:35,608 the Germans would have their U-boats 267 00:13:35,691 --> 00:13:38,152 strung out in these long patrol lines 268 00:13:38,235 --> 00:13:41,405 and then they would use radio signals to congregate in a pack 269 00:13:41,489 --> 00:13:44,783 and overwhelm the defenses of the convoy. 270 00:13:44,867 --> 00:13:47,203 - The results are devastating. 271 00:13:47,286 --> 00:13:49,371 When you get caught by a pack of these, 272 00:13:49,455 --> 00:13:52,041 you might lose half or more of the convoy. 273 00:13:55,794 --> 00:13:57,379 In 12 months, 274 00:13:57,463 --> 00:14:00,049 900 ships are sunk. 275 00:14:00,132 --> 00:14:03,219 Only 29 U-boats are destroyed. 276 00:14:03,302 --> 00:14:07,264 It's a war of attrition Britain is losing fast. 277 00:14:07,348 --> 00:14:10,351 - Winston Churchill knows one big thing in 1940... 278 00:14:10,434 --> 00:14:12,561 that for Britain to be able to fight this war, 279 00:14:12,645 --> 00:14:15,022 it needs American help... it can't do it alone. 280 00:14:18,025 --> 00:14:20,528 Churchill tirelessly lobbies Roosevelt 281 00:14:20,611 --> 00:14:22,655 for American support. 282 00:14:27,409 --> 00:14:30,246 Though officially neutral, Roosevelt cuts a deal. 283 00:14:32,373 --> 00:14:34,875 The US give 50 destroyers to Britain 284 00:14:34,959 --> 00:14:38,462 to keep it in the fight, but at a price. 285 00:14:38,546 --> 00:14:40,130 In return, Britain hands over 286 00:14:40,214 --> 00:14:43,842 eight of its overseas bases to America and dismantles 287 00:14:43,926 --> 00:14:46,303 its preferential trading system with its colonies. 288 00:14:46,387 --> 00:14:48,597 - DR. PORTER: It was a very mixed deal for Britain, 289 00:14:48,681 --> 00:14:50,891 because on the one hand, it helps Britain fight the war. 290 00:14:50,935 --> 00:14:52,596 They couldn't have done it without 291 00:14:52,621 --> 00:14:54,043 American support materially. 292 00:14:54,103 --> 00:14:55,688 On the other hand, it accelerates 293 00:14:55,771 --> 00:14:57,648 the collapse of the British Empire... 294 00:14:57,731 --> 00:14:59,858 makes the Empire more and more unaffordable. 295 00:14:59,942 --> 00:15:02,319 For Winston Churchill, that's a very painful deal, 296 00:15:02,403 --> 00:15:04,363 but one that probably has to be made. 297 00:15:08,534 --> 00:15:12,288 December 1941 298 00:15:12,371 --> 00:15:14,498 America enters the war. 299 00:15:14,582 --> 00:15:17,251 Its first act of aggression is to join Britain 300 00:15:17,334 --> 00:15:19,378 in the Battle of the Atlantic... 301 00:15:19,461 --> 00:15:22,339 a strategy that meets with disaster. 302 00:15:24,008 --> 00:15:26,427 - PETER: When America enters the war, 303 00:15:26,510 --> 00:15:29,138 the Battle of the Atlantic actually takes a turn... 304 00:15:29,221 --> 00:15:31,557 worse for the Allies. 305 00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:34,310 The amount of Allied shipping that's sunk 306 00:15:34,393 --> 00:15:38,772 goes up by these astronomical amounts. 307 00:15:38,856 --> 00:15:40,816 By mid-1942, 308 00:15:40,899 --> 00:15:44,903 2,703 Allied ships are sunk... 309 00:15:44,987 --> 00:15:48,657 a U-boat kill ratio of 36 to 1. 310 00:15:48,741 --> 00:15:52,953 It's an unsustainable rate of loss. 311 00:15:53,037 --> 00:15:55,581 Even with America fighting alongside, 312 00:15:55,664 --> 00:15:58,834 the liberty of Britain and the freedom of Europe 313 00:15:58,917 --> 00:16:01,378 hang by a thread. 314 00:16:09,178 --> 00:16:11,639 Mid-1942... 315 00:16:11,722 --> 00:16:13,891 Britain remains in the stranglehold 316 00:16:13,974 --> 00:16:16,769 of the German U-boat menace. 317 00:16:16,852 --> 00:16:18,937 American ships coming to its aid 318 00:16:19,021 --> 00:16:23,442 are being destroyed at alarming rates. 319 00:16:23,525 --> 00:16:25,152 To reverse their fortunes, 320 00:16:25,235 --> 00:16:27,196 the Allies must gain the upper hand 321 00:16:27,279 --> 00:16:29,948 in the intelligence war. 322 00:16:30,032 --> 00:16:31,909 - DR. CRANE: The most critical factor 323 00:16:31,992 --> 00:16:34,495 in the Battle of the Atlantic was the exchange of information 324 00:16:34,578 --> 00:16:36,580 between the Americans and the British. 325 00:16:36,664 --> 00:16:38,582 It maximized both the technological 326 00:16:38,666 --> 00:16:41,585 and the intellectual capabilities of both sides. 327 00:16:41,669 --> 00:16:44,254 The precedent for this vital collaboration 328 00:16:44,338 --> 00:16:46,256 is the "Tizard Mission," 329 00:16:46,340 --> 00:16:49,343 15 months before the Pearl Harbor attack. 330 00:16:54,390 --> 00:16:57,101 With Nazi invasion seemingly inevitable, 331 00:16:57,184 --> 00:16:58,560 Henry Tizard, 332 00:16:58,644 --> 00:17:00,521 Head of the British Aeronautical Committee, 333 00:17:00,604 --> 00:17:03,065 persuades Churchill to gift America 334 00:17:03,148 --> 00:17:06,276 every scientific innovation Britain holds, 335 00:17:06,360 --> 00:17:09,738 in exchange for access to US production lines. 336 00:17:11,532 --> 00:17:14,451 The blueprints are packed into a single trunk. 337 00:17:14,535 --> 00:17:17,287 Embarking from Britain, it reaches Washington DC 338 00:17:17,371 --> 00:17:19,790 in September 1940. 339 00:17:19,873 --> 00:17:21,417 - DR. PORTER: That box was described 340 00:17:21,500 --> 00:17:22,876 by one American official 341 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:25,879 as the most important cargo that ever reached its shores. 342 00:17:25,963 --> 00:17:27,723 The trunk contains the memorandum 343 00:17:27,756 --> 00:17:29,842 on the feasibility of the atomic bomb, 344 00:17:29,925 --> 00:17:33,846 designs for jet engines, rockets, superchargers, 345 00:17:33,929 --> 00:17:37,808 gyroscopic gun sights, submarine detection devices, 346 00:17:37,891 --> 00:17:40,894 self-sealing fuel tanks, plastic explosives, 347 00:17:40,978 --> 00:17:46,108 and perhaps the most important invention of World War II... 348 00:17:46,191 --> 00:17:49,278 a working Magnetron Number 12, 349 00:17:49,361 --> 00:17:51,405 an advancement in radar technology 350 00:17:51,488 --> 00:17:53,157 a thousand times more effective 351 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:55,701 than the best American counterpart. 352 00:17:55,784 --> 00:17:57,536 - This was revolutionary. 353 00:17:57,619 --> 00:18:00,789 You can put it into an aircraft, you can put it on a ship, 354 00:18:00,873 --> 00:18:02,791 then you can take that technology 355 00:18:02,875 --> 00:18:05,586 and take it anywhere on the battle space. 356 00:18:05,669 --> 00:18:07,045 American assembly lines 357 00:18:07,129 --> 00:18:08,964 begin mass-producing the device 358 00:18:09,047 --> 00:18:12,885 that will change the course of the war. 359 00:18:12,968 --> 00:18:14,511 Its first challenge... 360 00:18:14,595 --> 00:18:17,765 to close the deadly Mid-Atlantic gap. 361 00:18:17,848 --> 00:18:20,601 From space, the boneyard of Allied shipping 362 00:18:20,684 --> 00:18:23,103 is startlingly revealed. 363 00:18:23,187 --> 00:18:25,427 - DR. CRANE: You can fly missions from the United States, 364 00:18:25,481 --> 00:18:27,858 you can fly missions from Britain, 365 00:18:27,941 --> 00:18:29,860 but you can't quite close everything, 366 00:18:29,943 --> 00:18:32,404 and you've got the mid-Atlantic gap in the middle. 367 00:18:32,488 --> 00:18:36,992 And the U-Boats realize that and concentrate in that area. 368 00:18:37,075 --> 00:18:39,203 By April 1943, 369 00:18:39,286 --> 00:18:44,374 3,450 Allied ships have been lost. 370 00:18:44,458 --> 00:18:46,335 But new carriers are launched, 371 00:18:46,418 --> 00:18:48,670 loaded with long-range aircraft, 372 00:18:48,754 --> 00:18:51,256 fitted with the Magnetron Number 12, 373 00:18:51,340 --> 00:18:53,550 and the gap begins to close. 374 00:18:53,634 --> 00:18:56,762 - It turns the Atlantic from this wide mass 375 00:18:56,845 --> 00:18:59,431 in which the U-boat can hide in 376 00:18:59,515 --> 00:19:03,018 to "No I can find you out there." 377 00:19:03,101 --> 00:19:04,645 As British code breakers 378 00:19:04,728 --> 00:19:06,605 crack the German Enigma code, 379 00:19:06,688 --> 00:19:09,024 the final piece of the Allied resurgence 380 00:19:09,107 --> 00:19:10,943 falls into place. 381 00:19:11,026 --> 00:19:13,362 And the tactical and technological advantage 382 00:19:13,445 --> 00:19:17,115 is exploited in the convoy battle known as ONS 5. 383 00:19:17,199 --> 00:19:19,785 - PROF. OVERY: Among all the convoy battles, 384 00:19:19,868 --> 00:19:23,121 one of the most important was ONS 5 in April '43, 385 00:19:23,205 --> 00:19:26,083 and it's important, really, because it demonstrated 386 00:19:26,166 --> 00:19:28,919 clearly, I think, how far the Allies had gone. 387 00:19:31,463 --> 00:19:35,092 Forty-two ships of the slow-bound ONS 5 convoy 388 00:19:35,175 --> 00:19:38,887 leave Liverpool for Canada. 389 00:19:38,971 --> 00:19:40,138 For Doenitz, 390 00:19:40,222 --> 00:19:42,683 it is a perfect target. 391 00:19:42,766 --> 00:19:44,768 - Doenitz is feeling this great sense of urgency, 392 00:19:44,852 --> 00:19:48,021 like he needs to sink more and more tons of shipping. 393 00:19:48,105 --> 00:19:51,066 And he actually presses his luck in this battle. 394 00:19:54,319 --> 00:19:55,946 The first wave of U-boats 395 00:19:56,029 --> 00:19:59,533 sink 13 Allied ships. 396 00:19:59,616 --> 00:20:05,080 But as thick fog falls, the advantage switches. 397 00:20:05,163 --> 00:20:08,041 Armed with the German codes and advanced radar, 398 00:20:08,125 --> 00:20:10,836 the Allies strike back with impunity. 399 00:20:13,797 --> 00:20:15,883 - PROF. WAWRO: Doenitz fights longer than he should, 400 00:20:15,966 --> 00:20:17,801 brings in more U-boats than he should, 401 00:20:17,885 --> 00:20:21,847 which are then, in fact, chewed up by the convoy. 402 00:20:21,930 --> 00:20:23,390 After the battle, Doenitz says, 403 00:20:23,473 --> 00:20:26,184 "The Battle of the Atlantic is over," 404 00:20:26,268 --> 00:20:28,228 because he sees how expert 405 00:20:28,312 --> 00:20:30,063 the British and Americans have become 406 00:20:30,147 --> 00:20:31,607 at detecting U-boats, 407 00:20:31,690 --> 00:20:35,277 chasing them down, and killing them. 408 00:20:35,360 --> 00:20:36,862 With ONS 5, 409 00:20:36,945 --> 00:20:39,781 the Battle of the Atlantic is all but won. 410 00:20:43,911 --> 00:20:45,913 And the astonishing transformation 411 00:20:45,996 --> 00:20:47,414 of American industry 412 00:20:47,497 --> 00:20:50,250 can start to dictate the fortunes of war. 413 00:20:54,004 --> 00:20:57,674 With the money and the might to out-produce the Axis, 414 00:20:57,758 --> 00:20:59,301 America embarks 415 00:20:59,384 --> 00:21:02,846 on an unprecedented industrial and social revolution. 416 00:21:02,930 --> 00:21:04,848 You had a war industrial board. 417 00:21:04,892 --> 00:21:06,732 They looked around the United States and said: 418 00:21:06,756 --> 00:21:09,059 "This particular place is gonna be where we're gonna build tanks... 419 00:21:09,084 --> 00:21:10,325 we're gonna build planes here." 420 00:21:10,351 --> 00:21:11,671 And so the population went there. 421 00:21:11,695 --> 00:21:14,066 - It's as if in World War II, somebody had picked up 422 00:21:14,149 --> 00:21:16,985 the North American continent at the Eastern seaboard 423 00:21:17,069 --> 00:21:18,654 and raised it and tipped it, 424 00:21:18,737 --> 00:21:21,073 and everything... people, money, machines... 425 00:21:21,156 --> 00:21:24,826 everything just slid westward across the continent. 426 00:21:24,910 --> 00:21:28,664 The population of California swells by 53%, 427 00:21:28,747 --> 00:21:30,874 Oregon by 40%, 428 00:21:30,958 --> 00:21:33,251 and Washington by 37%. 429 00:21:33,335 --> 00:21:34,586 Nineteen million women 430 00:21:34,670 --> 00:21:37,089 become the core of the American labor force, 431 00:21:37,172 --> 00:21:39,466 working in war factories, 432 00:21:39,549 --> 00:21:43,845 transportation, and agriculture across the nation. 433 00:21:43,929 --> 00:21:46,098 Manufacturers of all sizes 434 00:21:46,181 --> 00:21:49,643 become a critical part of the war effort. 435 00:21:49,726 --> 00:21:51,603 - COL. FARRELL: Typewriter manufacturers, 436 00:21:51,687 --> 00:21:54,982 canned goods manufacturers... they're all converted. 437 00:21:55,065 --> 00:21:59,027 They're all mobilized, if you will, to support the war effort. 438 00:21:59,111 --> 00:22:01,351 - DR. CRANE: Car factories are turned into making bombers 439 00:22:01,375 --> 00:22:04,157 and refrigerator factories are turned into making armored cars. 440 00:22:04,241 --> 00:22:06,441 - Not for nothing, it's called "the production miracle." 441 00:22:09,913 --> 00:22:11,393 American industry produces 442 00:22:11,456 --> 00:22:15,794 87,000 ships and landing craft, 443 00:22:15,877 --> 00:22:18,964 100,000 tanks and armored vehicles, 444 00:22:19,047 --> 00:22:21,717 300,000 aircraft, 445 00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:24,219 2 million trucks, 446 00:22:24,302 --> 00:22:27,139 20 million rifles and small arms, 447 00:22:27,222 --> 00:22:30,225 and 41 billion rounds of ammunition... 448 00:22:30,308 --> 00:22:32,352 enough to kill the population of the world 449 00:22:32,436 --> 00:22:35,355 17 times over. 450 00:22:35,439 --> 00:22:39,026 Yet America's decision to engage Germany first 451 00:22:39,109 --> 00:22:41,486 comes at a price. 452 00:22:43,613 --> 00:22:45,532 - DR. CRANE: The Japanese centrifugal offensive 453 00:22:45,615 --> 00:22:49,161 was a shock to everybody. 454 00:22:49,244 --> 00:22:52,205 They seemed unstoppable. 455 00:22:52,289 --> 00:22:55,542 Japan advances through the Pacific unchecked, 456 00:22:55,625 --> 00:22:59,087 capturing American, British and Dutch territories 457 00:22:59,171 --> 00:23:01,715 in a string of decisive victories. 458 00:23:04,593 --> 00:23:06,011 Within six months, 459 00:23:06,094 --> 00:23:08,138 they have near complete control 460 00:23:08,221 --> 00:23:10,265 of the Pacific theatre. 461 00:23:10,348 --> 00:23:12,559 - They captured territories for two main reasons. 462 00:23:12,642 --> 00:23:14,686 The first one was for resources. 463 00:23:14,770 --> 00:23:17,064 The Dutch East Indies provide oil and rubber, 464 00:23:17,147 --> 00:23:20,067 which they're going to need to keep their war machine going. 465 00:23:20,150 --> 00:23:22,527 They also knew America would eventually respond, 466 00:23:22,611 --> 00:23:24,488 and so a lot of the territories 467 00:23:24,571 --> 00:23:27,783 were going to be barriers to set up against the Americans 468 00:23:27,866 --> 00:23:29,534 when they came back across. 469 00:23:29,618 --> 00:23:33,288 April 1942... America strikes back. 470 00:23:36,249 --> 00:23:37,834 Launching from the US Hornet, 471 00:23:37,918 --> 00:23:41,505 16 B-25's kick-start the next phase of war... 472 00:23:42,422 --> 00:23:46,510 by bombing Tokyo. 473 00:23:46,593 --> 00:23:48,553 - DR. CRANE: For the Americans, the raid 474 00:23:48,637 --> 00:23:50,263 is a chance to strike back, 475 00:23:50,347 --> 00:23:53,183 even though it didn't do very much material damage. 476 00:23:53,266 --> 00:23:55,811 But it had a major impact on Japanese leadership. 477 00:23:55,894 --> 00:23:58,146 The military was embarrassed they'd allowed their... 478 00:23:58,230 --> 00:24:01,316 the emperor to be threatened like that. 479 00:24:01,399 --> 00:24:03,860 The Japanese respond, setting their sights 480 00:24:03,944 --> 00:24:08,240 on America's most westerly Pacific base. 481 00:24:08,323 --> 00:24:11,326 From space, their strategy is clear... 482 00:24:11,409 --> 00:24:13,453 seizing the Island of Midway 483 00:24:13,537 --> 00:24:15,831 will extend their defensive perimeter 484 00:24:15,914 --> 00:24:18,083 deep into American waters. 485 00:24:18,166 --> 00:24:21,878 - And their plan is, "We are going to surprise the Americans. 486 00:24:21,962 --> 00:24:25,173 "We're gonna seize Midway, and they are going to be forced 487 00:24:25,257 --> 00:24:27,759 to come out and fight us on our terms." 488 00:24:27,843 --> 00:24:29,511 The problem for the Japanese is 489 00:24:29,594 --> 00:24:32,180 the Americans already know they're coming. 490 00:24:35,142 --> 00:24:37,477 The story of the American code breakers 491 00:24:37,561 --> 00:24:39,813 is one of these lesser-known 492 00:24:39,896 --> 00:24:42,149 but perhaps one of the most important parts of the story 493 00:24:42,232 --> 00:24:45,068 of why America wins in the Pacific. 494 00:24:45,152 --> 00:24:47,362 From June 1939, 495 00:24:47,445 --> 00:24:50,115 the US Navy Combat Intelligence Unit 496 00:24:50,198 --> 00:24:52,576 under the command of Joseph Rochefort 497 00:24:52,659 --> 00:24:55,871 has been attempting to decipher JN-25, 498 00:24:55,954 --> 00:24:58,248 the Japanese naval code. 499 00:25:00,584 --> 00:25:04,045 Using punch card technology and mathematical analysis, 500 00:25:04,129 --> 00:25:07,257 they work around the clock. 501 00:25:07,340 --> 00:25:09,050 In the lead-up to Midway, 502 00:25:09,134 --> 00:25:11,720 the decisive breakthrough is made. 503 00:25:11,803 --> 00:25:13,221 - PETER: They break the code. 504 00:25:13,305 --> 00:25:15,390 They knew the Japanese were coming. 505 00:25:15,473 --> 00:25:17,726 They knew where they were coming to Midway. 506 00:25:17,809 --> 00:25:20,353 They even knew when they were coming. 507 00:25:22,731 --> 00:25:25,233 US Intelligence finally grasps 508 00:25:25,317 --> 00:25:27,569 the full scale of the Japanese attack. 509 00:25:31,239 --> 00:25:33,742 The situation is highly precarious. 510 00:25:37,412 --> 00:25:38,788 With a weakened fleet 511 00:25:38,872 --> 00:25:41,541 and up against a battle-hardened enemy force, 512 00:25:41,625 --> 00:25:44,127 Midway is the moment of truth. 513 00:25:44,211 --> 00:25:46,296 - PROF. OVERY: The only way the Midway battle 514 00:25:46,379 --> 00:25:47,505 would work for America 515 00:25:47,589 --> 00:25:49,424 was to have their carriers in the right place 516 00:25:49,507 --> 00:25:51,092 and be able to strike the Japanese 517 00:25:51,176 --> 00:25:52,427 at just the right time. 518 00:25:52,510 --> 00:25:55,680 - The Americans have gotta get in the first major shot. 519 00:25:59,434 --> 00:26:00,727 At 4:00 AM, 520 00:26:00,810 --> 00:26:04,272 Japanese bombing of Midway begins. 521 00:26:04,356 --> 00:26:08,318 What Admiral Nagumo can't see is 275 miles away, 522 00:26:08,401 --> 00:26:11,154 safely outside the range of Japanese radar, 523 00:26:11,238 --> 00:26:13,406 4 US carriers 524 00:26:13,490 --> 00:26:15,825 are poised for a counterattack. 525 00:26:15,909 --> 00:26:17,702 Only at 7:40 AM 526 00:26:17,786 --> 00:26:19,537 does a Japanese reconnaissance plane 527 00:26:19,621 --> 00:26:24,334 spot the US fleet. 528 00:26:24,417 --> 00:26:27,754 - DR. CRANE: Battles are often decided by minutes and seconds, 529 00:26:27,837 --> 00:26:31,967 and Midway is filled with important minutes and seconds. 530 00:26:32,050 --> 00:26:34,261 When the late spotter plane 531 00:26:34,344 --> 00:26:35,971 finally finds the American fleet, 532 00:26:36,054 --> 00:26:37,973 Admiral Nagumo is hit with this dilemma about, 533 00:26:38,056 --> 00:26:41,142 "Do I outfit my aircraft for bombs to bomb Midway, 534 00:26:41,226 --> 00:26:43,395 "as they already are, or do I stop, 535 00:26:43,478 --> 00:26:45,397 "take those bombs off and put on torpedoes 536 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:47,107 so they can go after the American fleet?" 537 00:26:47,190 --> 00:26:48,733 And whatever decision he comes upon 538 00:26:48,817 --> 00:26:51,278 is gonna have a major impact on the rest of the battle. 539 00:26:51,361 --> 00:26:53,822 - PROF. OVERY: While they were doing all of this, of course, 540 00:26:53,905 --> 00:26:55,699 there was a long, critical waiting point, 541 00:26:55,782 --> 00:26:56,992 with aircraft on the decks, 542 00:26:57,075 --> 00:26:59,286 huge quantities of explosives around. 543 00:26:59,369 --> 00:27:03,206 For the Japanese this was the riskiest moment. 544 00:27:03,290 --> 00:27:07,419 It is the moment America has been waiting for... 545 00:27:07,502 --> 00:27:12,090 41 Douglas torpedo bombers descend for the attack. 546 00:27:13,591 --> 00:27:15,760 - DR. CRANE: But the American torpedo bombers show up 547 00:27:15,844 --> 00:27:19,514 unescorted, completely vulnerable. 548 00:27:19,597 --> 00:27:21,933 They're shot down like fish in a barrel. 549 00:27:22,017 --> 00:27:25,186 They just don't survive. 550 00:27:25,270 --> 00:27:28,982 Thirty-five out of 41 planes are lost. 551 00:27:29,065 --> 00:27:32,152 Not a single bomb hits the Japanese fleet. 552 00:27:36,031 --> 00:27:40,035 It seems that Japan has struck the decisive blow. 553 00:27:42,996 --> 00:27:45,540 - And then all of a sudden, the dive bombers come in, 554 00:27:45,623 --> 00:27:47,917 and the whole world changes. 555 00:27:51,004 --> 00:27:52,297 A second wave 556 00:27:52,380 --> 00:27:56,384 of American dive-bombers descends. 557 00:27:56,468 --> 00:27:58,303 - DR. CRANE: There's the Japanese fleet 558 00:27:58,386 --> 00:28:00,138 with no air cover and the decks covered 559 00:28:00,221 --> 00:28:02,682 with airplanes and torpedoes and bombs. 560 00:28:02,766 --> 00:28:04,726 They're just torches to be lit, 561 00:28:04,809 --> 00:28:06,394 and the dive-bombers will come in, 562 00:28:06,478 --> 00:28:08,063 and three Japanese aircraft carriers 563 00:28:08,146 --> 00:28:10,065 are destroyed in minutes. 564 00:28:12,776 --> 00:28:15,487 As the final Japanese carrier is destroyed, 565 00:28:15,570 --> 00:28:21,326 along with 250 elite Japanese pilots, 566 00:28:21,409 --> 00:28:24,120 the balance of power 567 00:28:24,204 --> 00:28:26,373 has dramatically swung in America's favour. 568 00:28:26,456 --> 00:28:28,816 - PROF. WAWRO: We had seven new carriers under construction. 569 00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:30,543 They had one carrier under construction. 570 00:28:30,627 --> 00:28:33,213 So they were never gonna be able to replace these carriers. 571 00:28:33,296 --> 00:28:35,215 And what it meant was they would be 572 00:28:35,298 --> 00:28:38,218 thrown back on the defensive for the duration of the war. 573 00:28:40,387 --> 00:28:42,389 In a global theatre of war, 574 00:28:42,472 --> 00:28:44,682 control of the air is proving to be 575 00:28:44,766 --> 00:28:49,396 one of the determining factors for victory. 576 00:28:49,479 --> 00:28:51,356 On the other side of the planet, 577 00:28:51,439 --> 00:28:53,858 America's first strikes on Nazi Germany 578 00:28:53,942 --> 00:28:56,945 are coming from the sky. 579 00:28:57,028 --> 00:28:58,863 The major cities in Europe 580 00:28:58,947 --> 00:29:01,199 are the new front lines of war. 581 00:29:06,079 --> 00:29:08,581 Six months on from Pearl Harbor 582 00:29:08,665 --> 00:29:10,667 and the battlefronts of World War II 583 00:29:10,750 --> 00:29:13,336 are at a tipping point. 584 00:29:13,420 --> 00:29:15,547 America and her allies have stalled 585 00:29:15,630 --> 00:29:17,215 the momentum of German aggression 586 00:29:17,298 --> 00:29:20,093 in the Battle of the Atlantic 587 00:29:20,176 --> 00:29:22,637 and halted Japanese territorial expansion 588 00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:26,891 in the decisive victory at Midway. 589 00:29:26,975 --> 00:29:29,060 And in June 1942, 590 00:29:29,144 --> 00:29:32,230 the first American bombers arrive in Great Britain. 591 00:29:37,402 --> 00:29:40,405 They join a brutal battle for air supremacy 592 00:29:40,488 --> 00:29:44,284 that has raged over Europe since the outbreak of war. 593 00:29:48,538 --> 00:29:51,749 Germany's Luftwaffe squadrons draw first blood, 594 00:29:51,833 --> 00:29:52,750 bringing Poland, 595 00:29:52,834 --> 00:29:54,544 then the Low Countries and France 596 00:29:54,627 --> 00:29:56,421 to their knees. 597 00:29:56,504 --> 00:29:58,756 - DR. CRANE: The fall of France in 1940 598 00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:00,133 really seemed to vindicate 599 00:30:00,216 --> 00:30:01,885 the superiority of the Blitzkrieg. 600 00:30:01,968 --> 00:30:05,054 There's big concerns that the Germans may be unstoppable. 601 00:30:05,138 --> 00:30:07,765 With Nazi domination almost complete, 602 00:30:07,849 --> 00:30:09,476 Hitler turns the Luftwaffe 603 00:30:09,559 --> 00:30:11,936 against his last remaining opposition... 604 00:30:12,020 --> 00:30:13,605 Great Britain. 605 00:30:13,688 --> 00:30:16,816 It is imperative that its Royal Air Force holds. 606 00:30:16,900 --> 00:30:19,527 - The stakes in the Battle of Britain, for the British, 607 00:30:19,611 --> 00:30:21,696 are survival. 608 00:30:21,779 --> 00:30:23,865 July 10, 1940... 609 00:30:23,948 --> 00:30:26,034 the Battle of Britain begins. 610 00:30:26,117 --> 00:30:29,787 The Luftwaffe pounds British defenses and its major cities. 611 00:30:38,296 --> 00:30:40,798 - The RAF adapts very quickly 612 00:30:40,882 --> 00:30:44,260 and begins to shoot down more German bombers and fighters 613 00:30:44,344 --> 00:30:47,138 than the Germans can replace. 614 00:30:47,222 --> 00:30:49,349 Nineteen-hundred German aircraft 615 00:30:49,432 --> 00:30:52,644 are destroyed in 113 days. 616 00:30:52,727 --> 00:30:55,897 It is an unsustainable rate of attrition. 617 00:30:55,980 --> 00:30:59,108 - So Hitler's forced to cancel the battle of Britain and begin 618 00:30:59,192 --> 00:31:02,237 massing forces for an invasion of the Soviet Union. 619 00:31:05,448 --> 00:31:06,728 The Battle of Britain 620 00:31:06,752 --> 00:31:11,287 is Hitler's first major defeat of World War II. 621 00:31:11,371 --> 00:31:15,250 Air power is the new orthodoxy of modern warfare. 622 00:31:15,333 --> 00:31:19,629 Roosevelt orders vast squadrons of aircraft to be manufactured. 623 00:31:21,798 --> 00:31:24,092 At Ford's Willow Run plant in Michigan, 624 00:31:24,175 --> 00:31:27,637 an astounding 8,500 bombers are produced. 625 00:31:29,472 --> 00:31:32,934 Over 127,000 bombers are made... 626 00:31:33,017 --> 00:31:37,021 13,600 are transported to British airfields. 627 00:31:41,067 --> 00:31:42,485 The assault on Germany 628 00:31:42,569 --> 00:31:46,322 can now enter a new phase of intensity. 629 00:31:46,406 --> 00:31:48,825 - DR. CRANE: The arrival of the 8th Air Force in Britain 630 00:31:48,908 --> 00:31:50,451 had a number of impacts... number one, 631 00:31:50,535 --> 00:31:52,787 it guaranteed that the Germans wouldn't be able to launch 632 00:31:52,870 --> 00:31:54,950 another major attack against Britain the way they had 633 00:31:54,998 --> 00:31:56,082 in the Battle of Britain. 634 00:31:56,165 --> 00:31:58,005 There was just too many Allied airplanes there. 635 00:31:58,042 --> 00:32:00,086 It also was a boost to British morale 636 00:32:00,169 --> 00:32:02,922 that the Americans were finally coming en masse. 637 00:32:03,006 --> 00:32:04,886 But the American airmen are entering 638 00:32:04,924 --> 00:32:07,302 a new kind of warfare... 639 00:32:07,385 --> 00:32:12,140 where sheer weight of numbers is no guarantee of success. 640 00:32:12,223 --> 00:32:15,143 - CHRIS: The amount of weapons that are being thrown up 641 00:32:15,226 --> 00:32:17,645 to stop the bombers is having an enormous toll. 642 00:32:17,729 --> 00:32:20,648 The survivability rate is going 11 to 1 to the infantry. 643 00:32:20,732 --> 00:32:22,567 It's actually safer to be an infantryman 644 00:32:22,650 --> 00:32:24,777 on the ground in Europe in a foxhole 645 00:32:24,861 --> 00:32:26,821 than it is to be in this, 646 00:32:26,904 --> 00:32:30,408 advanced machine flying high above. 647 00:32:30,491 --> 00:32:33,703 After losing 1,135 bombers, 648 00:32:33,786 --> 00:32:37,081 the RAF switches to nighttime raids. 649 00:32:37,165 --> 00:32:38,541 But in the dark, 650 00:32:38,625 --> 00:32:41,085 only 1.5% of all bombs 651 00:32:41,169 --> 00:32:45,089 fall within 3 miles of the target. 652 00:32:45,173 --> 00:32:47,093 - The Americans decide that it's too inefficient, 653 00:32:47,117 --> 00:32:48,843 that you had to do it in daylight 654 00:32:48,926 --> 00:32:50,219 where you could see the target. 655 00:32:50,303 --> 00:32:52,463 They thought, "We've got more heavily defended bombers. 656 00:32:52,487 --> 00:32:53,931 "We think this Will Work." 657 00:32:54,015 --> 00:32:57,310 American confidence is based on the B-17, 658 00:32:57,393 --> 00:33:01,064 the most sophisticated war machine of its time. 659 00:33:01,147 --> 00:33:03,524 - CHRIS: The B-17 is an amazing aircraft. 660 00:33:03,608 --> 00:33:05,526 They call it the flying fortress... well, why? 661 00:33:05,610 --> 00:33:08,321 It has 13 50-caliber machine guns 662 00:33:08,404 --> 00:33:11,199 arrayed all around it to give it a bubble of fire. 663 00:33:11,282 --> 00:33:13,117 You have fire coming out the front, 664 00:33:13,201 --> 00:33:14,744 you have fire coming out the flanks, 665 00:33:14,827 --> 00:33:16,788 below, above, and in the rear. 666 00:33:16,871 --> 00:33:18,873 - COL. FARRELL: It was believed that it could fly 667 00:33:18,956 --> 00:33:22,377 in broad daylight, unescorted by fighter aircraft, 668 00:33:22,460 --> 00:33:25,088 deep into the heart of enemy territory 669 00:33:25,171 --> 00:33:28,174 and unleash an amazing amount of ordnance 670 00:33:28,257 --> 00:33:30,593 on enemy targets. 671 00:33:30,677 --> 00:33:33,429 With unswerving faith in the B-17, 672 00:33:33,513 --> 00:33:36,432 the American 8th Air Force plan a dual raid 673 00:33:36,516 --> 00:33:39,727 to destroy the heart of German aviation production. 674 00:33:42,647 --> 00:33:44,732 - DR. CRANE: The Schweinfurt- Regensburg Mission 675 00:33:44,816 --> 00:33:46,693 was seen as the way to really prove 676 00:33:46,776 --> 00:33:49,445 that this precision bombing idea would work. 677 00:33:49,529 --> 00:33:50,780 They seemed to have picked out 678 00:33:50,863 --> 00:33:52,407 the key industries they could knock out 679 00:33:52,490 --> 00:33:54,617 that would cripple the German economy. 680 00:33:54,701 --> 00:33:56,452 They had the battle plan, they thought, 681 00:33:56,536 --> 00:33:58,788 that would get them to the target. 682 00:33:58,871 --> 00:34:01,124 Two squadrons of B-17's 683 00:34:01,207 --> 00:34:04,544 commanded by Colonel LeMay and Brigadier General Williams 684 00:34:04,627 --> 00:34:07,171 prepare to attack simultaneously, 685 00:34:07,255 --> 00:34:09,841 splitting German defenses. 686 00:34:09,924 --> 00:34:14,178 Almost immediately, the plan begins to unravel. 687 00:34:14,262 --> 00:34:18,099 - It was a foggy day in England. LeMay got his guys up. 688 00:34:18,182 --> 00:34:20,143 The other bomber division couldn't get up. 689 00:34:20,226 --> 00:34:22,562 The decision was made that they couldn't land LeMay's guys. 690 00:34:22,645 --> 00:34:24,063 They sent them on. 691 00:34:27,817 --> 00:34:29,736 When the Regensburg mission goes in on its own, 692 00:34:29,819 --> 00:34:32,447 the bombers were sitting ducks, not only for flak, 693 00:34:32,530 --> 00:34:34,532 but for the Germans that were gathering 694 00:34:34,615 --> 00:34:36,617 from all over the whole defense zone. 695 00:34:44,959 --> 00:34:46,836 The Schweinfurt leg then comes in 696 00:34:46,919 --> 00:34:49,338 enough time after the Regensburg leg 697 00:34:49,422 --> 00:34:52,008 so the Germans can refit and rearm, 698 00:34:52,091 --> 00:34:54,135 and it goes through the same mauling. 699 00:35:01,559 --> 00:35:04,729 Sixty US bombers are destroyed, 700 00:35:04,812 --> 00:35:08,816 double the losses ever suffered in a single raid. 701 00:35:08,900 --> 00:35:11,402 - PETER: The problem for the Allies was we took 702 00:35:11,486 --> 00:35:15,531 the marketing of the flying fortress seriously. 703 00:35:15,615 --> 00:35:17,700 We took the idea that it could protect itself 704 00:35:17,784 --> 00:35:19,327 with its own machine guns 705 00:35:19,410 --> 00:35:22,246 and not have to worry about escorted seriously, 706 00:35:22,330 --> 00:35:24,040 And that didn't work. 707 00:35:24,123 --> 00:35:27,376 The flaw is startlingly clear from above... 708 00:35:27,460 --> 00:35:30,254 the lack of fighter escort protection. 709 00:35:30,338 --> 00:35:32,548 The fighters have limited range 710 00:35:32,632 --> 00:35:35,676 and can only protect the bombers partway to their targets, 711 00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:38,054 leaving them dangerously exposed. 712 00:35:38,137 --> 00:35:40,223 - Then we get the real game changer. 713 00:35:40,306 --> 00:35:43,810 We get the P-51. 714 00:35:43,893 --> 00:35:46,896 The P-51 was an amazing fighter 715 00:35:46,979 --> 00:35:49,524 on so many different levels, 716 00:35:49,607 --> 00:35:53,528 but the real key is it had amazing range. 717 00:35:53,611 --> 00:35:55,613 It went with the American bombers 718 00:35:55,696 --> 00:35:58,825 all the way in, all the way out. 719 00:35:58,908 --> 00:36:02,662 That meant that we could now take down the German defenses. 720 00:36:02,745 --> 00:36:05,373 We could create true air dominance, 721 00:36:05,456 --> 00:36:07,959 and that's when you see the Luftwaffe 722 00:36:08,042 --> 00:36:11,921 essentially swept from the skies. 723 00:36:12,004 --> 00:36:13,724 - DR. CRANE: Once the Luftwaffe's destroyed, 724 00:36:13,748 --> 00:36:16,300 and we have pretty much free rein over the German skies, 725 00:36:16,384 --> 00:36:20,221 we really start to take down the oil industry. 726 00:36:20,304 --> 00:36:23,140 Oil... the single most essential commodity 727 00:36:23,224 --> 00:36:25,893 of World War II. 728 00:36:25,977 --> 00:36:28,187 - COL. FARRELL: Possession of large supplies of oil 729 00:36:28,271 --> 00:36:30,314 was the only way to victory. 730 00:36:30,398 --> 00:36:34,777 Without oil, mechanized armies could not fight. 731 00:36:34,861 --> 00:36:36,195 From space, 732 00:36:36,279 --> 00:36:40,616 the battle for the world's oil reserves is revealed. 733 00:36:40,700 --> 00:36:42,618 America is self-sufficient. 734 00:36:42,702 --> 00:36:44,537 Its oil fields are the cornerstone 735 00:36:44,620 --> 00:36:47,206 of Allied military strength. 736 00:36:50,459 --> 00:36:52,003 In contrast, 737 00:36:52,086 --> 00:36:54,964 Germany's stockpile of 20 million barrels 738 00:36:55,047 --> 00:36:56,424 is rapidly running out. 739 00:36:56,507 --> 00:36:57,967 - PROF. OVERY: One of the weaknesses 740 00:36:58,050 --> 00:36:59,844 in the German war effort 741 00:36:59,927 --> 00:37:02,597 was they couldn't get access to unlimited quantities of oil. 742 00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:05,308 They then decided to use synthetic oil, 743 00:37:05,391 --> 00:37:07,143 and synthetic oil was really critical 744 00:37:07,226 --> 00:37:09,729 for making up that difference. 745 00:37:09,812 --> 00:37:11,063 Synthetic Oil, 746 00:37:11,147 --> 00:37:13,024 produced from coal and natural gas, 747 00:37:13,107 --> 00:37:15,943 is the lifeblood of Hitler's mechanized forces. 748 00:37:19,155 --> 00:37:20,489 As Allied air raids 749 00:37:20,573 --> 00:37:22,825 cripple Germany's synthetic fuel production, 750 00:37:22,909 --> 00:37:26,787 Hitler's best hope is to seize the Caucasus oil fields. 751 00:37:29,624 --> 00:37:32,501 Deep inside Russia, the two sides clash 752 00:37:32,585 --> 00:37:35,922 in the bloodiest fighting history has ever seen. 753 00:37:36,005 --> 00:37:40,301 At stake is the outcome of World War II. 754 00:37:48,225 --> 00:37:50,645 September 1940... 755 00:37:50,728 --> 00:37:52,772 while America remains neutral, 756 00:37:52,855 --> 00:37:56,233 Hitler has Mainland Europe in his grip. 757 00:37:56,317 --> 00:37:58,569 But in the skies over Britain, 758 00:37:58,653 --> 00:38:01,906 the Nazis' relentless westward advance is halted. 759 00:38:03,449 --> 00:38:05,326 It is a defeat that forces Hitler 760 00:38:05,409 --> 00:38:08,287 to turn to his attention towards his ultimate goal... 761 00:38:08,371 --> 00:38:12,041 the conquest and annihilation of the Soviet Union. 762 00:38:14,585 --> 00:38:16,504 - COL. FARRELL: The Soviet Union represented 763 00:38:16,587 --> 00:38:19,882 the nexus of everything that Hitler hated. 764 00:38:19,966 --> 00:38:24,762 He saw it as a bastion of communism and Judaism. 765 00:38:24,845 --> 00:38:26,764 And if it were not defeated, 766 00:38:26,847 --> 00:38:28,849 ultimately the Soviet Union 767 00:38:28,933 --> 00:38:32,478 would destroy Germany and destroy the Aryan race. 768 00:38:32,561 --> 00:38:35,314 - There was also just sheer pragmatism here. 769 00:38:35,398 --> 00:38:38,359 The Soviet Union was the "gross raum wirtschaft," 770 00:38:38,442 --> 00:38:40,736 the great economic space. 771 00:38:40,820 --> 00:38:42,780 They needed the raw materials, 772 00:38:42,863 --> 00:38:44,865 the oil, the food, 773 00:38:44,949 --> 00:38:47,076 and by annexing the Soviet Union, 774 00:38:47,159 --> 00:38:49,662 they'd be able to sustain a long war 775 00:38:49,745 --> 00:38:53,374 and fend off any British- American attacks. 776 00:38:53,457 --> 00:38:57,336 June 22, 1941... 777 00:38:57,420 --> 00:39:00,172 Hitler launches "Operation Barbarossa," 778 00:39:00,256 --> 00:39:02,383 the invasion of the Soviet Union. 779 00:39:05,636 --> 00:39:08,055 Across a 1,800-mile front, 780 00:39:08,139 --> 00:39:11,225 Hitler's army of over 4 million Wehrmacht troops 781 00:39:11,308 --> 00:39:12,893 surges forward, 782 00:39:12,977 --> 00:39:15,479 destroying everything in its path. 783 00:39:15,563 --> 00:39:17,481 - COL. FARRELL: This was the largest army 784 00:39:17,565 --> 00:39:20,651 that had been assembled in the history of world. 785 00:39:20,735 --> 00:39:22,570 And the Germans demonstrated 786 00:39:22,653 --> 00:39:24,739 an operational and tactical mastery 787 00:39:24,822 --> 00:39:26,991 that the Soviets simply could not match. 788 00:39:29,410 --> 00:39:33,706 The barbarity is almost incomprehensible. 789 00:39:33,789 --> 00:39:36,417 Following the front-line troops, 790 00:39:36,500 --> 00:39:38,919 there were the special action squads. 791 00:39:39,003 --> 00:39:43,507 Their purpose was to identify and murder 792 00:39:43,591 --> 00:39:45,217 political leaders 793 00:39:45,301 --> 00:39:49,680 and ultimately Jews in the occupied areas. 794 00:39:49,764 --> 00:39:51,724 The slaughter of a million Soviets 795 00:39:51,807 --> 00:39:54,852 is the merciless testing ground for the Holocaust. 796 00:39:59,065 --> 00:40:02,068 The SS accelerate the genocide of Jews 797 00:40:02,151 --> 00:40:05,988 and others seen as undesirable. 798 00:40:06,072 --> 00:40:09,033 Over 9 million are slaughtered. 799 00:40:13,662 --> 00:40:17,833 - COL. FARRELL: This was industrialized mass murder. 800 00:40:17,917 --> 00:40:19,251 This was something that... 801 00:40:19,335 --> 00:40:22,254 that hadn't even appeared in the middle ages. 802 00:40:22,338 --> 00:40:24,465 By the winter of 1941, 803 00:40:24,548 --> 00:40:26,258 their brutal advance has brought them 804 00:40:26,342 --> 00:40:29,595 to the brink of victory. 805 00:40:29,678 --> 00:40:31,722 Leningrad is under siege, 806 00:40:31,806 --> 00:40:35,518 and German panzer divisions are at the gates of Moscow. 807 00:40:35,601 --> 00:40:38,979 Seeking a devastating tactical and ideological blow, 808 00:40:39,063 --> 00:40:43,359 Hitler turns his attentions towards Stalingrad. 809 00:40:43,442 --> 00:40:45,861 - PROF. WAWRO: Stalingrad was an important target for Hitler 810 00:40:45,945 --> 00:40:48,614 because he knew by taking it, he would insult Stalin. 811 00:40:48,697 --> 00:40:51,450 He also knew he would force Stalin to try to take it back, 812 00:40:51,534 --> 00:40:54,036 and he would be able to wear down the Red Army. 813 00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:56,622 But also it was an important city because it would permit him 814 00:40:56,705 --> 00:40:59,250 to pivot south into the Caucasus 815 00:40:59,333 --> 00:41:01,752 and take all these oil-producing regions 816 00:41:01,836 --> 00:41:05,422 and make Germany self-sufficient in petroleum. 817 00:41:05,506 --> 00:41:06,715 For both sides, 818 00:41:06,799 --> 00:41:10,302 the stakes for the Battle for Stalingrad are immense. 819 00:41:10,386 --> 00:41:12,638 - COL. FARRELL: For Hitler to fail at Stalingrad 820 00:41:12,721 --> 00:41:16,600 would be an enormous blow to the Nazi myth. 821 00:41:16,684 --> 00:41:20,396 It would be an enormous blow to the war itself. 822 00:41:20,479 --> 00:41:24,191 Similarly, Josef Stalin was unrelenting. 823 00:41:24,275 --> 00:41:25,901 He would not tolerate defeat. 824 00:41:25,985 --> 00:41:28,404 He would not tolerate pulling back. 825 00:41:28,487 --> 00:41:30,739 To surrender or to give ground 826 00:41:30,823 --> 00:41:33,951 would be met by the utmost sanction. 827 00:41:37,454 --> 00:41:40,457 The Luftwaffe drop 1,000 tons of bombs 828 00:41:40,541 --> 00:41:42,835 on Stalingrad 829 00:41:42,918 --> 00:41:47,173 before 2 1/2 million troops clash. 830 00:41:49,341 --> 00:41:52,261 - COL. FARRELL: The ferocity of the Battle of Stalingrad 831 00:41:52,344 --> 00:41:54,263 was something straight out of hell. 832 00:41:54,346 --> 00:41:57,224 It was not uncommon for battles to be raging 833 00:41:57,308 --> 00:42:01,228 not over parts of the city or city blocks, 834 00:42:01,312 --> 00:42:03,856 but literally for different floors 835 00:42:03,939 --> 00:42:06,692 within one building. 836 00:42:06,775 --> 00:42:09,361 In some cases, Soviet reinforcements 837 00:42:09,445 --> 00:42:11,447 came forward without weapons, 838 00:42:11,530 --> 00:42:13,282 facing certain death. 839 00:42:13,365 --> 00:42:17,203 And yet again and again and again they came. 840 00:42:17,286 --> 00:42:18,871 As the battle rages, 841 00:42:18,954 --> 00:42:22,583 the Red Army launch "Operation Uranus." 842 00:42:22,666 --> 00:42:25,002 What Hitler's high command cannot see 843 00:42:25,085 --> 00:42:27,504 is revealed from space. 844 00:42:27,588 --> 00:42:29,882 Over 1 million Soviet soldiers 845 00:42:29,965 --> 00:42:32,301 outflank the German positions, 846 00:42:32,384 --> 00:42:35,304 before cutting through the enemy's rear. 847 00:42:35,387 --> 00:42:37,848 - Operation Uranus was a complete shock, 848 00:42:37,932 --> 00:42:42,019 and suddenly Stalingrad was encircled. 849 00:42:42,102 --> 00:42:43,520 Cut off from supply, 850 00:42:43,604 --> 00:42:45,105 the Germans are plunged 851 00:42:45,189 --> 00:42:48,943 into the harshest of Russian winters. 852 00:42:49,026 --> 00:42:52,821 In sub-human conditions, they begin to disintegrate. 853 00:42:55,449 --> 00:42:57,409 - PROF. OVERY: It was freezing cold. 854 00:42:57,493 --> 00:42:59,787 Food supplies began to decline. 855 00:42:59,870 --> 00:43:01,247 Guns jammed. 856 00:43:01,330 --> 00:43:02,498 It was a nightmare. 857 00:43:02,581 --> 00:43:04,875 It's difficult to convey in simple words 858 00:43:04,959 --> 00:43:07,586 what that experience was like. 859 00:43:07,670 --> 00:43:09,713 After five months under siege, 860 00:43:09,797 --> 00:43:12,758 Hitler's once-mighty 6th Army capitulates- 861 00:43:12,841 --> 00:43:16,887 the first German field army to do so. 862 00:43:16,971 --> 00:43:19,348 Nearly 2 million have fallen, 863 00:43:19,431 --> 00:43:22,559 but for the Soviets, the tide is turning. 864 00:43:24,395 --> 00:43:26,146 - COL. FARRELL: The boost to Soviet morale 865 00:43:26,230 --> 00:43:28,941 can scarcely be overstated. 866 00:43:29,024 --> 00:43:32,069 German prisoners were marched through Moscow. 867 00:43:32,152 --> 00:43:34,863 And this proved that the Nazi soldiers 868 00:43:34,947 --> 00:43:36,699 were not supermen. 869 00:43:36,782 --> 00:43:39,868 Instead, they saw German soldiers who quit, 870 00:43:39,952 --> 00:43:42,037 who surrendered, who could not match 871 00:43:42,121 --> 00:43:44,999 the determination of the Soviet soldier. 872 00:43:45,082 --> 00:43:48,210 For Hitler, the defeat is devastating. 873 00:43:48,294 --> 00:43:51,005 Instinctively, he strikes back. 874 00:43:51,088 --> 00:43:52,923 - COL. FARRELL: Adolf Hitler attempted 875 00:43:53,007 --> 00:43:55,301 to regain the strategic initiative, 876 00:43:55,384 --> 00:43:58,721 to close a gap... a bulge if you will... 877 00:43:58,804 --> 00:44:01,015 centered around Kursk. 878 00:44:01,098 --> 00:44:04,059 Seen from above, Hitler's objective is clear... 879 00:44:04,143 --> 00:44:06,603 eliminate the bulge, concentrate his forces, 880 00:44:06,687 --> 00:44:08,564 and regain the initiative. 881 00:44:08,647 --> 00:44:10,441 For the Allies, it is critical 882 00:44:10,524 --> 00:44:13,527 that its newest military partner holds. 883 00:44:13,610 --> 00:44:15,821 - DR. PORTER: The eastern front is vital to the Allies 884 00:44:15,904 --> 00:44:19,783 because it absorbs the bulk of Germany's fighting power. 885 00:44:19,867 --> 00:44:21,952 To put it very brutally, the Soviets 886 00:44:22,036 --> 00:44:24,538 did most of the fighting and most of the dying on land. 887 00:44:24,621 --> 00:44:27,583 President Roosevelt commits over $11 billion 888 00:44:27,666 --> 00:44:30,919 of lend lease supplies to Stalin. 889 00:44:31,003 --> 00:44:33,839 Yet traditional trade routes through Europe are blocked. 890 00:44:33,922 --> 00:44:36,342 Getting US aid into the Soviet Union 891 00:44:36,425 --> 00:44:38,719 is one of the greatest Allied logistical challenges 892 00:44:38,802 --> 00:44:40,804 of the war. 893 00:44:40,888 --> 00:44:43,015 - There were three routes that we could use. 894 00:44:43,098 --> 00:44:45,351 One was the North Atlantic route 895 00:44:45,434 --> 00:44:49,146 into the northern Arctic ports of Archangel and Murmansk... 896 00:44:49,229 --> 00:44:53,150 stormy seas, iced in, hard to get to. 897 00:44:53,233 --> 00:44:56,487 And then there was one across to the Pacific to Vladivostok, 898 00:44:56,570 --> 00:44:58,864 but everything had to be unloaded in Siberia 899 00:44:58,947 --> 00:45:01,116 and then trucked into Russia 900 00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:03,160 on the Trans-Siberian Railway, 901 00:45:03,243 --> 00:45:06,205 which is slow and time-consuming. 902 00:45:06,288 --> 00:45:08,707 And then there was the one around the Cape of Good Hope, 903 00:45:08,791 --> 00:45:13,170 up into Iran and into Southern Russia that way. 904 00:45:13,253 --> 00:45:14,671 The Persian Gulf route 905 00:45:14,755 --> 00:45:16,799 is crucial to Russian success, 906 00:45:16,882 --> 00:45:20,427 but making it viable is a monumental task. 907 00:45:20,511 --> 00:45:23,680 - We had to build a supply chain from scratch. 908 00:45:23,764 --> 00:45:25,682 There was no infrastructure. 909 00:45:25,766 --> 00:45:29,061 The harbors are not there... we have to construct those. 910 00:45:29,144 --> 00:45:31,021 Allied engineers build wharfs, 911 00:45:31,105 --> 00:45:33,148 jetties, and piers. 912 00:45:33,232 --> 00:45:36,985 Simultaneously, 450 miles of roads are constructed 913 00:45:37,069 --> 00:45:40,280 and 2000 miles of railway modernized. 914 00:45:40,364 --> 00:45:41,907 With all routes now open, 915 00:45:41,990 --> 00:45:45,285 the US pumps 16 million tons of lend lease 916 00:45:45,369 --> 00:45:46,703 into Russia. 917 00:45:46,787 --> 00:45:48,789 Included are gasoline, 918 00:45:48,872 --> 00:45:51,875 ammunition, 919 00:45:51,959 --> 00:45:55,838 an entire military telecommunication system, 920 00:45:55,921 --> 00:45:58,465 14 million pairs of boots, 921 00:45:58,549 --> 00:46:01,427 and enough food to offer every Soviet soldier 922 00:46:01,510 --> 00:46:06,473 one square meal a day for over a year. 923 00:46:06,557 --> 00:46:07,933 But most significant 924 00:46:08,016 --> 00:46:09,893 are the half million Studebaker trucks 925 00:46:09,977 --> 00:46:12,938 supplied by the factories of Detroit. 926 00:46:13,021 --> 00:46:15,232 - The Studebaker truck was a real game changer, 927 00:46:15,315 --> 00:46:17,568 because it gives the Soviet Army 928 00:46:17,651 --> 00:46:20,237 the ability to operate on a massive scale 929 00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:22,531 with far-flung logistics. 930 00:46:22,614 --> 00:46:24,366 The other thing that these trucks give them 931 00:46:24,450 --> 00:46:27,953 is an advantage literally within the battle itself. 932 00:46:28,036 --> 00:46:30,414 The Russians had a lot of artillery. 933 00:46:30,497 --> 00:46:33,333 You match that artillery with the truck, 934 00:46:33,417 --> 00:46:35,002 and suddenly they've got 935 00:46:35,085 --> 00:46:37,880 these flying anti-tank batteries literally zipping 936 00:46:37,963 --> 00:46:40,466 across different parts of the battlefield. 937 00:46:40,549 --> 00:46:43,635 To give the Soviets the tactical advantage at Kursk, 938 00:46:43,719 --> 00:46:47,431 the Allies supply one final thing... 939 00:46:47,514 --> 00:46:51,310 intelligence of the German offensive plans. 940 00:46:51,393 --> 00:46:53,073 - PETER: The Soviets knew they were coming. 941 00:46:53,145 --> 00:46:55,314 And so they create defenses of a scale 942 00:46:55,397 --> 00:46:58,066 that really hadn't been seen before in the war. 943 00:46:58,150 --> 00:47:02,196 I mean people talk about the Maginot Line in France. 944 00:47:02,279 --> 00:47:06,783 This thing was the Maginot Line put on steroids. 945 00:47:08,285 --> 00:47:09,620 From space, 946 00:47:09,703 --> 00:47:11,705 the full enormity of the Soviet defenses 947 00:47:11,788 --> 00:47:13,457 becomes clear. 948 00:47:13,540 --> 00:47:15,709 Three defensive lines contain 949 00:47:15,792 --> 00:47:19,671 a vast interconnected web of thousands of anti-tank guns, 950 00:47:19,755 --> 00:47:21,840 pre-sighted artillery zones, 951 00:47:21,924 --> 00:47:25,177 and over 400,000 mines. 952 00:47:25,260 --> 00:47:28,388 It is the largest defense network ever constructed... 953 00:47:28,472 --> 00:47:30,933 over 50 miles deep. 954 00:47:36,355 --> 00:47:38,899 July 5, 1943... 955 00:47:38,982 --> 00:47:43,111 over 2,000 tanks and 2 million troops engage. 956 00:47:50,911 --> 00:47:53,413 - COL. FARRELL: The level of intensity at the Battle of Kursk 957 00:47:53,497 --> 00:47:54,915 was extraordinary. 958 00:47:54,998 --> 00:47:57,251 Large numbers of tanks and soldiers 959 00:47:57,334 --> 00:47:59,962 were fighting to the most brutal degree 960 00:48:00,045 --> 00:48:03,257 at very close quarters. 961 00:48:03,340 --> 00:48:06,176 There was brutal hand-to-hand combat, 962 00:48:06,260 --> 00:48:07,678 flamethrowers, 963 00:48:07,761 --> 00:48:09,096 thousands of tanks, 964 00:48:09,179 --> 00:48:11,640 coupled with artillery raining down. 965 00:48:11,723 --> 00:48:13,684 All of this would have combined 966 00:48:13,767 --> 00:48:15,852 to create a scene that would have resembled 967 00:48:15,936 --> 00:48:18,647 hell on earth. 968 00:48:18,730 --> 00:48:20,274 After 11 days, 969 00:48:20,357 --> 00:48:22,276 the German offensive collapses, 970 00:48:22,359 --> 00:48:25,070 only a third of the way to their objective. 971 00:48:29,491 --> 00:48:32,119 Hitler's attempt to crush the Soviet Union 972 00:48:32,202 --> 00:48:33,954 has failed. 973 00:48:35,247 --> 00:48:36,807 - COL. FARRELL: Hitler's worst nightmare 974 00:48:36,831 --> 00:48:38,000 had come to pass. 975 00:48:38,083 --> 00:48:41,587 Germany would now be faced with a war on two fronts 976 00:48:41,670 --> 00:48:45,924 and a war of attrition. 977 00:48:46,008 --> 00:48:47,467 Stalin gains 978 00:48:47,551 --> 00:48:49,219 the initiative on the Eastern Front 979 00:48:49,303 --> 00:48:51,013 at a huge cost... 980 00:48:51,096 --> 00:48:54,891 over 9 million Soviet casualties. 981 00:48:54,975 --> 00:48:56,476 In contrast, 982 00:48:56,560 --> 00:48:58,895 America has yet to put a single soldier 983 00:48:58,979 --> 00:49:01,189 on the battlefields of Europe. 984 00:49:01,273 --> 00:49:05,027 - Stalin was deeply frustrated with Allied dawdling 985 00:49:05,110 --> 00:49:06,737 about opening a second front. 986 00:49:06,820 --> 00:49:08,989 He assumed that it was a conspiracy, 987 00:49:09,072 --> 00:49:11,283 that Churchill and Roosevelt 988 00:49:11,366 --> 00:49:14,661 were going to fight to the last Russian. 989 00:49:14,745 --> 00:49:16,865 Then the British and Americans would cross the Channel 990 00:49:16,913 --> 00:49:19,166 and harvest all the spoils of war, 991 00:49:19,249 --> 00:49:20,626 the Russians having won it 992 00:49:20,709 --> 00:49:22,210 with their own blood and treasure. 993 00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:27,299 Prior to a full-scale invasion of Europe, 994 00:49:27,382 --> 00:49:29,885 Roosevelt elects to blood his troops 995 00:49:29,968 --> 00:49:32,512 in North Africa. 996 00:49:32,596 --> 00:49:34,556 - COL. FARRELL: The North African campaign 997 00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:37,517 was a testing ground for the American army, 998 00:49:37,601 --> 00:49:40,312 which had yet to face the German military 999 00:49:40,395 --> 00:49:42,814 in a significant way. 1000 00:49:42,898 --> 00:49:44,900 Overconfident and inexperienced, 1001 00:49:44,983 --> 00:49:48,695 the US Military is about to receive a baptism of fire... 1002 00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:52,658 that will shake it to its core. 1003 00:49:52,741 --> 00:49:56,036 - The disaster at Kasserine Pass was a seminal event. 1004 00:50:05,170 --> 00:50:06,880 As the American Pacific drive 1005 00:50:06,963 --> 00:50:09,299 towards Japan accelerates, 1006 00:50:09,383 --> 00:50:11,343 and as Stalin in the East 1007 00:50:11,426 --> 00:50:13,595 and the Allied bombing campaign in the west 1008 00:50:13,679 --> 00:50:15,931 continue to weaken the Third Reich, 1009 00:50:16,014 --> 00:50:18,141 America prepares to test its troops 1010 00:50:18,225 --> 00:50:19,768 in North Africa. 1011 00:50:22,354 --> 00:50:24,189 They will join a desert campaign 1012 00:50:24,272 --> 00:50:26,566 that has been raging for over two years. 1013 00:50:29,778 --> 00:50:32,781 June 10, 1940... 1014 00:50:32,864 --> 00:50:34,908 Italy, under Benito Mussolini, 1015 00:50:34,991 --> 00:50:37,411 joins the Axis 1016 00:50:37,494 --> 00:50:39,996 and, with Germany, plans to force Britain 1017 00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:41,581 from North Africa. 1018 00:50:41,665 --> 00:50:44,292 - PROF. WAWRO: North Africa was a vital front 1019 00:50:44,376 --> 00:50:46,211 for the British in World War II 1020 00:50:46,294 --> 00:50:49,381 because it was the vital hinge of the British Empire. 1021 00:50:49,464 --> 00:50:51,091 A German and Italian victory 1022 00:50:51,174 --> 00:50:53,552 will open up the untapped oil reserves 1023 00:50:53,635 --> 00:50:56,388 of the Middle East 1024 00:50:56,471 --> 00:50:58,432 and seize the Suez Canal 1025 00:50:58,515 --> 00:51:01,059 that connects Britain to its empire. 1026 00:51:01,143 --> 00:51:04,187 - LTG MASON: The Suez Canal you needed to protect at all costs. 1027 00:51:04,271 --> 00:51:05,856 The bottom line, if you are moving 1028 00:51:05,939 --> 00:51:08,275 large quantities of equipment, you gotta use the sea lanes. 1029 00:51:08,358 --> 00:51:10,444 And that's as true today as it was then. 1030 00:51:10,527 --> 00:51:12,070 September 1940... 1031 00:51:12,154 --> 00:51:16,950 the Axis invades. 1032 00:51:17,033 --> 00:51:19,578 For two years, they drive the British back. 1033 00:51:19,661 --> 00:51:21,455 But the advance is halted 1034 00:51:21,538 --> 00:51:23,331 as German Field Marshall Rommel 1035 00:51:23,415 --> 00:51:27,377 is defeated at El Alamein. 1036 00:51:27,461 --> 00:51:29,337 To capitalize on this victory, 1037 00:51:29,421 --> 00:51:32,174 Churchill lobbies Roosevelt for support. 1038 00:51:32,257 --> 00:51:35,886 But the majority of presidential advisers have their doubts. 1039 00:51:35,969 --> 00:51:37,429 - COL. FARRELL: Initially 1040 00:51:37,512 --> 00:51:39,598 most American senior military personnel, 1041 00:51:39,681 --> 00:51:42,434 saw the campaign in North Africa 1042 00:51:42,517 --> 00:51:44,853 as a diversion from the main effort, 1043 00:51:44,936 --> 00:51:47,856 essentially a waste of time. 1044 00:51:47,939 --> 00:51:51,651 Decisively, Roosevelt overrides his council. 1045 00:51:51,735 --> 00:51:54,196 - DR. CRANE: FDR's decision to send American forces 1046 00:51:54,279 --> 00:51:55,739 to North Africa was probably 1047 00:51:55,822 --> 00:51:58,909 the most important strategic decision of World War II. 1048 00:51:58,992 --> 00:52:01,411 - PROF. WAWRO: It really gave us a place where we could 1049 00:52:01,495 --> 00:52:03,622 land the US army, bring it into the battle 1050 00:52:03,705 --> 00:52:05,582 against secondary German units, 1051 00:52:05,665 --> 00:52:07,584 not the units we'd encounter in Europe. 1052 00:52:07,667 --> 00:52:11,171 And so it was... it was a brilliant move. 1053 00:52:11,254 --> 00:52:13,298 Since the Pearl Harbor attack, 1054 00:52:13,381 --> 00:52:16,510 a vast American army has been amassing, 1055 00:52:16,593 --> 00:52:19,429 hungry for their first taste of war. 1056 00:52:19,513 --> 00:52:22,057 People were lined up at the recruiting stations. 1057 00:52:22,140 --> 00:52:24,226 All the boys were up in arms. 1058 00:52:24,309 --> 00:52:26,228 I graduated in February, 1059 00:52:26,311 --> 00:52:30,607 and I was in uniform in March. 1060 00:52:30,690 --> 00:52:33,777 The country had been violated, is what we thought. 1061 00:52:33,860 --> 00:52:36,071 And everybody just wanted to get busy 1062 00:52:36,154 --> 00:52:38,448 and do something about it. 1063 00:52:38,532 --> 00:52:40,951 Volunteers and inductees from the draft 1064 00:52:41,034 --> 00:52:43,912 swell the ranks as America rises to become 1065 00:52:43,995 --> 00:52:47,082 the largest military power in the world. 1066 00:52:47,165 --> 00:52:48,500 - COL. FARRELL: Before the war, 1067 00:52:48,583 --> 00:52:50,627 the total strength of the US Army, 1068 00:52:50,710 --> 00:52:52,128 including its Air Corps, 1069 00:52:52,212 --> 00:52:54,297 was Well below 200,000. 1070 00:52:54,381 --> 00:52:57,509 There would be over a 40-fold increase 1071 00:52:57,592 --> 00:53:00,679 in the space of 6 years. 1072 00:53:00,762 --> 00:53:03,098 - PROF. KENNEDY: During the war, the armed forces 1073 00:53:03,181 --> 00:53:05,308 encompassed 16 million men under arms. 1074 00:53:05,392 --> 00:53:09,521 That's 13% of the entire population. 1075 00:53:09,604 --> 00:53:11,565 With this vast army assembled, 1076 00:53:11,648 --> 00:53:16,111 America is primed for "Operation Torch," 1077 00:53:16,194 --> 00:53:18,530 then the largest amphibious invasion 1078 00:53:18,613 --> 00:53:21,449 in history. 1079 00:53:21,533 --> 00:53:23,869 - Torch actually was a very important rehearsal 1080 00:53:23,952 --> 00:53:26,955 for D-Day... it was a huge operation. 1081 00:53:27,038 --> 00:53:30,542 It was logistically extremely complex. 1082 00:53:30,625 --> 00:53:32,919 - Torch was a monumental challenge for the US, 1083 00:53:33,003 --> 00:53:35,755 because we hadn't won the Battle of Atlantic yet. 1084 00:53:35,839 --> 00:53:39,134 We have to escort troops, ammunition, supplies 1085 00:53:39,217 --> 00:53:41,720 from the United States direct to North Africa, 1086 00:53:41,803 --> 00:53:45,515 escort troops from Great Britain down to North Africa, 1087 00:53:45,599 --> 00:53:48,560 through waters patrolled by German submarines. 1088 00:53:48,643 --> 00:53:51,396 Then we have to land them on a hostile shore. 1089 00:53:51,479 --> 00:53:54,316 November 8, 1942... 1090 00:53:54,399 --> 00:53:56,568 73,000 Allied troops 1091 00:53:56,651 --> 00:53:59,195 disgorge onto the beaches, 1092 00:53:59,279 --> 00:54:02,616 and immediately the problems begin. 1093 00:54:02,699 --> 00:54:05,911 What we saw in the landings of North Africa 1094 00:54:05,994 --> 00:54:08,622 is a great study in everything that can go wrong 1095 00:54:08,705 --> 00:54:10,040 in an amphibious landing. 1096 00:54:10,123 --> 00:54:12,459 And virtually everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. 1097 00:54:12,542 --> 00:54:15,295 - PETER: The landing craft... you didn't run out the front, 1098 00:54:15,378 --> 00:54:16,963 right onto the beach. 1099 00:54:17,047 --> 00:54:19,341 Instead you had to jump over the side. 1100 00:54:19,424 --> 00:54:22,469 That, of course, is not the most efficient way to get in there. 1101 00:54:22,552 --> 00:54:25,055 It's the most dangerous... it's the slowest. 1102 00:54:25,138 --> 00:54:29,142 A number of our craft get stuck on sandbars. 1103 00:54:29,225 --> 00:54:32,228 When they drive them out, the electronics get fried. 1104 00:54:32,312 --> 00:54:34,232 - Fortunately, they're fighting the Vichy French, 1105 00:54:34,256 --> 00:54:35,857 who fight half-heartedly. 1106 00:54:35,941 --> 00:54:39,361 And had they been attacking the Germans in 1944, 1107 00:54:39,444 --> 00:54:41,488 the Japanese in 1944, 1108 00:54:41,571 --> 00:54:43,615 the experience would have been a lot... 1109 00:54:43,698 --> 00:54:45,450 a lot worse. 1110 00:54:48,119 --> 00:54:50,288 As French Vichy troops loyal to Hitler 1111 00:54:50,372 --> 00:54:52,374 capitulate, 1112 00:54:52,457 --> 00:54:54,542 US forces head for Tunisia 1113 00:54:54,626 --> 00:54:56,002 and their first clash 1114 00:54:56,086 --> 00:54:59,297 with the full-strength German war machine. 1115 00:54:59,381 --> 00:55:01,301 - PROF. WAWRO: They're really blissfully ignorant 1116 00:55:01,325 --> 00:55:03,218 of the realities of modern war. 1117 00:55:03,301 --> 00:55:05,541 I mean they've got their trucks, they've got their tanks, 1118 00:55:05,565 --> 00:55:07,347 they've got their rifles, 1119 00:55:07,430 --> 00:55:10,016 they've got their very complicated chain of command 1120 00:55:10,100 --> 00:55:11,685 from army to corps, division, 1121 00:55:11,768 --> 00:55:12,686 brigade, regiment, battalion. 1122 00:55:12,769 --> 00:55:17,399 They think that they'll do fine. 1123 00:55:17,482 --> 00:55:19,484 US forces engage Rommel 1124 00:55:19,567 --> 00:55:21,569 outside the town of Faid. 1125 00:55:24,322 --> 00:55:26,157 Making an initial breakthrough, 1126 00:55:26,241 --> 00:55:28,868 they pursue retreating panzer divisions. 1127 00:55:31,997 --> 00:55:36,209 From space, Rommel's master tactic is revealed... 1128 00:55:36,292 --> 00:55:38,128 the panzers are decoys, 1129 00:55:38,211 --> 00:55:42,090 luring US forces into a trap. 1130 00:55:42,173 --> 00:55:44,175 - CHRIS: They fall prey to the techniques 1131 00:55:44,259 --> 00:55:46,261 of double envelopment by the Germans, 1132 00:55:46,344 --> 00:55:49,305 with some very good weapons like the German 88. 1133 00:55:49,389 --> 00:55:53,143 - The 88mm gun was literally 1134 00:55:53,226 --> 00:55:56,688 a world-class anti-tank weapon. 1135 00:55:56,771 --> 00:56:00,567 Not only could it shoot at a further distance, 1136 00:56:00,650 --> 00:56:03,319 but it had an incredible kill rate. 1137 00:56:03,403 --> 00:56:05,155 It's basically just lethal. 1138 00:56:05,238 --> 00:56:07,991 This thing is diabolic. 1139 00:56:08,074 --> 00:56:11,369 - COL. FARRELL: In many cases, Americans either surrendered 1140 00:56:11,453 --> 00:56:14,706 or dropped their weapons and ran. 1141 00:56:14,789 --> 00:56:18,251 The American performance, to put it charitably, 1142 00:56:18,334 --> 00:56:21,171 was... was abysmal. 1143 00:56:21,254 --> 00:56:24,674 US forces are pushed back in to Kasserine Pass, 1144 00:56:24,758 --> 00:56:26,760 where under constant attack, 1145 00:56:26,843 --> 00:56:29,471 the untested units fall apart. 1146 00:56:29,554 --> 00:56:31,473 - PROF. KENNEDY: To raise an armed force 1147 00:56:31,556 --> 00:56:33,558 of 16 million people in a hurry means 1148 00:56:33,641 --> 00:56:35,769 that in the initial stages of armed conflict, 1149 00:56:35,852 --> 00:56:37,812 you're going to have troops in the front line 1150 00:56:37,896 --> 00:56:40,273 who have no taste of battle before this moment. 1151 00:56:40,356 --> 00:56:41,775 Dwight Eisenhower, for example, 1152 00:56:41,858 --> 00:56:43,298 becomes the supreme Allied commander. 1153 00:56:43,322 --> 00:56:45,612 Before World War II, before his North African campaign, 1154 00:56:45,695 --> 00:56:48,073 he had never heard a bullet fired in anger 1155 00:56:48,156 --> 00:56:49,824 in his entire life. 1156 00:56:49,908 --> 00:56:53,286 He had no actual combat experience. 1157 00:56:53,369 --> 00:56:56,039 Further disaster is averted when reinforcements 1158 00:56:56,122 --> 00:56:59,417 from the British 1st Army arrive. 1159 00:56:59,501 --> 00:57:01,336 And with Field Marshall Montgomery 1160 00:57:01,419 --> 00:57:02,962 approaching from the East, 1161 00:57:03,046 --> 00:57:05,840 Rommel retreats. 1162 00:57:05,924 --> 00:57:09,010 Frank Gervasi witnesses the aftermath. 1163 00:57:10,345 --> 00:57:14,891 - We got to Kasserine Pass, and we had patrols going out, 1164 00:57:14,974 --> 00:57:17,352 and you could still smell the flesh, 1165 00:57:17,435 --> 00:57:19,229 from, you know, the burnt-out tanks 1166 00:57:19,312 --> 00:57:24,984 and human beings, and it was bad. 1167 00:57:25,068 --> 00:57:26,945 We took an awful beating. 1168 00:57:27,028 --> 00:57:29,239 Don't forget, though, we were against 1169 00:57:29,322 --> 00:57:31,783 Germany's best... Rommel's. 1170 00:57:31,866 --> 00:57:34,702 We had the equipment but we didn't have the experience. 1171 00:57:36,663 --> 00:57:40,125 America suffers 6,500 casualties. 1172 00:57:40,208 --> 00:57:42,710 Its first land battle in World War II 1173 00:57:42,794 --> 00:57:44,921 is a disaster. 1174 00:57:45,004 --> 00:57:48,133 - Kasserine was a tremendous defeat for the United States. 1175 00:57:48,216 --> 00:57:50,635 There's just no way to sugar-coat that. 1176 00:57:50,718 --> 00:57:52,971 On the other hand, Kasserine is the best thing 1177 00:57:53,054 --> 00:57:54,722 that ever happened to the US Army. 1178 00:57:54,806 --> 00:57:56,724 Better to get your butt kicked there 1179 00:57:56,808 --> 00:57:58,476 than get your butt kicked in Normandy. 1180 00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:01,938 - There are some changes made in policies, 1181 00:58:02,021 --> 00:58:03,398 in how we're going to operate, 1182 00:58:03,481 --> 00:58:05,400 but there are also some key leadership changes. 1183 00:58:05,483 --> 00:58:07,318 You've got Eisenhower earning his spurs. 1184 00:58:07,402 --> 00:58:09,154 You've got George Patton. 1185 00:58:09,237 --> 00:58:11,364 And the lessons learned in North Africa 1186 00:58:11,447 --> 00:58:13,825 are gonna be applied for the rest of World War II. 1187 00:58:15,660 --> 00:58:17,328 The new US Army doctrines 1188 00:58:17,412 --> 00:58:20,123 ensure a dramatic turnaround. 1189 00:58:20,206 --> 00:58:23,793 First, Tunisia falls, followed by Sicily, 1190 00:58:23,877 --> 00:58:27,839 preparing the way for the Allied invasion of Italy. 1191 00:58:27,922 --> 00:58:30,258 And on the other side of the world, 1192 00:58:30,341 --> 00:58:34,220 the Pacific war enters a new phase of ferocity. 1193 00:58:34,304 --> 00:58:37,557 - The carnage was phenomenal. 1194 00:58:47,859 --> 00:58:49,652 From the ashes of Pearl Harbor, 1195 00:58:49,736 --> 00:58:51,112 the American war machine 1196 00:58:51,196 --> 00:58:53,072 is approaching full potential, 1197 00:58:53,156 --> 00:58:55,950 engaging her enemies on three continents. 1198 00:58:58,286 --> 00:58:59,704 In the Pacific, 1199 00:58:59,787 --> 00:59:03,249 troop numbers grow by 457%. 1200 00:59:03,333 --> 00:59:06,544 Its fleet trebles in size. 1201 00:59:06,628 --> 00:59:08,963 With this vast force assembled, 1202 00:59:09,047 --> 00:59:12,383 America's final drive towards Japan begins. 1203 00:59:13,927 --> 00:59:16,012 - The American strategy is a dual-pronged approach, 1204 00:59:16,095 --> 00:59:18,097 with Admiral Nimitz, 1205 00:59:18,181 --> 00:59:20,600 with the Navy Marines going through the central Pacific, 1206 00:59:20,683 --> 00:59:23,519 General MacArthur with most of the army forces 1207 00:59:23,603 --> 00:59:25,230 coming through the Southwest Pacific... 1208 00:59:25,313 --> 00:59:27,815 both approaching Japan from different axes. 1209 00:59:30,235 --> 00:59:31,778 Admiral Nimitz's flotilla 1210 00:59:31,861 --> 00:59:33,905 is the largest in history... 1211 00:59:33,988 --> 00:59:35,907 the perfect weapon to destroy 1212 00:59:35,990 --> 00:59:38,785 Japan's defensive strongholds. 1213 00:59:40,328 --> 00:59:42,247 - PETER: It's this massive fleet 1214 00:59:42,330 --> 00:59:45,625 of aircraft carriers, destroyers, 1215 00:59:45,708 --> 00:59:47,877 fast battleships, 1216 00:59:47,961 --> 00:59:50,755 backed by this long logistics train 1217 00:59:50,838 --> 00:59:53,675 of supply ships, oilers, 1218 00:59:53,758 --> 00:59:55,843 hospital ships... you name it. 1219 00:59:55,927 --> 00:59:57,929 This thing was lethality 1220 00:59:58,012 --> 01:00:01,224 and industrialization personified. 1221 01:00:02,976 --> 01:00:05,019 The flotilla targets Saipan, 1222 01:00:05,103 --> 01:00:07,063 one of the Mariana Islands. 1223 01:00:09,440 --> 01:00:11,693 Its airfields can become the launchpad 1224 01:00:11,776 --> 01:00:16,823 for a sustained aerial bombardment of Japan. 1225 01:00:16,906 --> 01:00:18,574 Emperor Hirohito demands 1226 01:00:18,658 --> 01:00:21,035 his 32,000 troops stationed there 1227 01:00:21,119 --> 01:00:23,913 to defend at all costs. 1228 01:00:23,997 --> 01:00:25,456 - COL. FARRELL: For the Japanese, 1229 01:00:25,540 --> 01:00:28,793 defeat was not an option... retreat was not an option. 1230 01:00:28,876 --> 01:00:31,421 If it meant losing everything and everyone, 1231 01:00:31,504 --> 01:00:34,299 they would do it in pursuit of victory. 1232 01:00:36,467 --> 01:00:38,428 June 1944... 1233 01:00:38,511 --> 01:00:41,222 8,000 US marines hit the beaches 1234 01:00:41,306 --> 01:00:44,183 under intense Japanese fire. 1235 01:00:44,267 --> 01:00:46,602 - PROF. OVERY: For the marines, it was a nightmare. 1236 01:00:46,686 --> 01:00:49,230 At the end of the day, the Japanese have one job, 1237 01:00:49,314 --> 01:00:50,815 which is to inflict heavy casualties 1238 01:00:50,898 --> 01:00:52,150 on the people attacking them. 1239 01:00:52,233 --> 01:00:53,735 If you're in the front line, 1240 01:00:53,818 --> 01:00:55,778 you're going to be one of those casualties. 1241 01:00:58,489 --> 01:01:00,575 Facing fanatical resistance, 1242 01:01:00,658 --> 01:01:02,618 a further 80,000 troops land, 1243 01:01:02,702 --> 01:01:05,830 all dependent on naval support. 1244 01:01:07,915 --> 01:01:09,959 But what US Commander Admiral Spruance 1245 01:01:10,043 --> 01:01:13,504 cannot see... 1246 01:01:13,588 --> 01:01:17,300 are 55 Japanese ships rapidly approaching. 1247 01:01:19,469 --> 01:01:21,804 - For the Japanese, this really was gonna be 1248 01:01:21,888 --> 01:01:23,139 their last shot. 1249 01:01:23,222 --> 01:01:25,725 They had to have success here in this particular battle, 1250 01:01:25,808 --> 01:01:28,436 or they were not gonna be ever able to field 1251 01:01:28,519 --> 01:01:30,813 this kind of force again. 1252 01:01:30,897 --> 01:01:32,857 Responding to danger, 1253 01:01:32,940 --> 01:01:34,150 Spruance splits his force, 1254 01:01:34,233 --> 01:01:37,528 dispatching one half to engage the Japanese fleet. 1255 01:01:44,494 --> 01:01:46,412 As the two forces clash, 1256 01:01:46,496 --> 01:01:49,540 US technological superiority dominates, 1257 01:01:49,624 --> 01:01:53,836 most notably 480 newly developed Hellcats. 1258 01:01:54,962 --> 01:01:56,964 - PETER: The Hellcat's just an incredible weapon. 1259 01:01:57,048 --> 01:01:58,174 It's fast. 1260 01:01:58,257 --> 01:02:00,593 It can take hits and still keep going on. 1261 01:02:00,676 --> 01:02:01,803 It's well armored. 1262 01:02:01,886 --> 01:02:04,138 And on top of that, it's now flown 1263 01:02:04,222 --> 01:02:07,266 by elite pilots. 1264 01:02:07,350 --> 01:02:09,435 - The Japanese lost most of their well-trained pilots 1265 01:02:09,519 --> 01:02:12,146 in other battles... they couldn't replace them. 1266 01:02:12,230 --> 01:02:13,898 They didn't have the fuel to train. 1267 01:02:13,981 --> 01:02:15,650 Their aircraft weren't as good. 1268 01:02:15,733 --> 01:02:18,986 - And that's what really creates the turkey shoot 1269 01:02:19,070 --> 01:02:20,613 of the Battle of the Philippines Sea. 1270 01:02:23,366 --> 01:02:25,076 Over the next 8 hours, 1271 01:02:25,159 --> 01:02:28,287 429 Japanese planes are destroyed, 1272 01:02:28,371 --> 01:02:30,498 compared to 29 American... 1273 01:02:30,581 --> 01:02:33,918 a kill ratio of 15 to 1. 1274 01:02:34,001 --> 01:02:36,045 - DR. CRANE: The scale of the slaughter 1275 01:02:36,129 --> 01:02:37,922 between the American pilots and the Japanese 1276 01:02:38,005 --> 01:02:40,299 is significant enough where, after the battle of Marianas, 1277 01:02:40,343 --> 01:02:41,743 the Japanese aircraft carrier force 1278 01:02:41,767 --> 01:02:44,645 is no longer a factor in the war in the Pacific. 1279 01:02:47,557 --> 01:02:49,517 On land, American troops 1280 01:02:49,600 --> 01:02:53,020 continue to face ferocious resistance. 1281 01:02:53,104 --> 01:02:54,522 - PROF. KENNEDY: The Pacific war was 1282 01:02:54,605 --> 01:02:57,692 a bitter and cruel war, 1283 01:02:57,775 --> 01:02:59,861 but at Saipan, it became more and more evident 1284 01:02:59,944 --> 01:03:04,115 how deep was the Japanese ferocity 1285 01:03:04,198 --> 01:03:05,366 or the ferociousness 1286 01:03:05,450 --> 01:03:08,536 of the Japanese capacity to resist. 1287 01:03:08,619 --> 01:03:11,247 There are these hair-raising stories about how the Americans 1288 01:03:11,330 --> 01:03:14,417 had to lower drums of gasoline and explode them 1289 01:03:14,500 --> 01:03:17,044 in the caves in which the Japanese were hiding, 1290 01:03:17,128 --> 01:03:18,671 because they could not induce people 1291 01:03:18,754 --> 01:03:21,966 to come out and surrender. 1292 01:03:22,049 --> 01:03:25,136 The suicidal fervor is not confined to soldiers. 1293 01:03:29,807 --> 01:03:31,809 Eight thousand Japanese civilians 1294 01:03:31,893 --> 01:03:33,436 leap to their deaths. 1295 01:03:33,519 --> 01:03:35,104 - PROF. KENNEDY: The American witnesses 1296 01:03:35,188 --> 01:03:37,148 could not believe their eyes that they were seeing 1297 01:03:37,231 --> 01:03:39,859 this mass suicide of Japanese civilians, 1298 01:03:39,942 --> 01:03:42,028 including women and children... 1299 01:03:42,111 --> 01:03:44,655 mothers killing their own babies... 1300 01:03:44,739 --> 01:03:48,201 rather than surrender to the Americans. 1301 01:03:48,284 --> 01:03:49,911 When Saipan falls, 1302 01:03:49,994 --> 01:03:52,747 over 3,400 Americans lie dead, 1303 01:03:52,830 --> 01:03:55,917 alongside 46,000 Japanese, 1304 01:03:56,000 --> 01:03:59,879 half of whom are civilian suicides. 1305 01:03:59,962 --> 01:04:02,632 It is a mere taste of what's to come. 1306 01:04:05,092 --> 01:04:07,220 January 1945 1307 01:04:07,303 --> 01:04:09,680 American Air Force General Curtis LeMay 1308 01:04:09,764 --> 01:04:11,724 arrives at the conquered airfields 1309 01:04:11,807 --> 01:04:15,019 of the Marianas. 1310 01:04:15,102 --> 01:04:16,812 The war in the Pacific... 1311 01:04:18,773 --> 01:04:21,567 is about to ruthlessly escalate. 1312 01:04:21,651 --> 01:04:23,611 - COL. FARRELL: Curtis LeMay believed 1313 01:04:23,694 --> 01:04:26,405 there should be no hesitation and no moderation 1314 01:04:26,489 --> 01:04:29,242 in bringing destruction to the enemy, 1315 01:04:29,325 --> 01:04:32,036 and the surest, most effective way to do that 1316 01:04:32,119 --> 01:04:36,123 would be through massive, unrestrained strategic bombing. 1317 01:04:36,207 --> 01:04:38,084 - He was going out to destroy 1318 01:04:38,167 --> 01:04:41,379 the industrial power of Japan. 1319 01:04:41,462 --> 01:04:44,257 And the kindling for all those fires he was lighting 1320 01:04:44,340 --> 01:04:46,509 to burn down the factories 1321 01:04:46,592 --> 01:04:48,636 happened to be houses with people in them. 1322 01:04:51,430 --> 01:04:52,890 March 9... 1323 01:04:52,974 --> 01:04:55,851 over 300 B-29's reach Tokyo. 1324 01:04:58,729 --> 01:05:00,773 They systematically lay down 1325 01:05:00,856 --> 01:05:06,112 1,665 tons of M-69 incendiary clusters 1326 01:05:06,195 --> 01:05:08,948 over the wooden city. 1327 01:05:09,031 --> 01:05:11,659 It remains the most destructive air raid 1328 01:05:11,742 --> 01:05:14,036 in the history of mankind. 1329 01:05:17,415 --> 01:05:20,835 - The Japanese later called the early fire raids 1330 01:05:20,918 --> 01:05:22,420 the "night of the black snow," 1331 01:05:22,503 --> 01:05:25,756 because of the debris and the impact 1332 01:05:25,840 --> 01:05:28,467 of these particular raids on their lives. 1333 01:05:28,551 --> 01:05:30,678 The master bomber who was watching the raids 1334 01:05:30,761 --> 01:05:33,055 said you could see the fires 150 miles away. 1335 01:05:35,516 --> 01:05:39,312 You had asphalt melting in the streets. 1336 01:05:39,395 --> 01:05:41,647 You had glass melting out of buildings. 1337 01:05:44,108 --> 01:05:46,777 A lot the air crews were really shaken up by the results. 1338 01:05:46,861 --> 01:05:49,363 Tail gunners reported watching people burning to death 1339 01:05:49,447 --> 01:05:51,949 and burning rivers covered with napalm. 1340 01:05:54,160 --> 01:05:56,329 Japanese doctors wrote about watching the debris 1341 01:05:56,412 --> 01:05:57,913 floating in rivers afterwards, 1342 01:05:57,997 --> 01:06:00,458 and they couldn't tell if it was bodies or sticks of wood. 1343 01:06:02,543 --> 01:06:06,422 Sixteen square miles are razed to the ground. 1344 01:06:06,505 --> 01:06:09,842 The inferno claims 90,000 civilian lives 1345 01:06:09,925 --> 01:06:14,138 and leaves over 1 million homeless. 1346 01:06:14,221 --> 01:06:16,349 On the other side of the Atlantic, 1347 01:06:16,432 --> 01:06:18,267 Allied forces converge 1348 01:06:18,351 --> 01:06:20,978 to prepare for an equally decisive breakthrough 1349 01:06:21,062 --> 01:06:23,522 in the liberation of Europe. 1350 01:06:23,606 --> 01:06:26,609 - For the Allies, the D-day landings 1351 01:06:26,692 --> 01:06:29,111 represented the success or failure 1352 01:06:29,195 --> 01:06:32,239 of the entire war. 1353 01:06:32,323 --> 01:06:35,409 - But the outcome really rested on a knife edge. 1354 01:06:46,087 --> 01:06:48,589 November, 1943... 1355 01:06:48,673 --> 01:06:50,925 Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill 1356 01:06:51,008 --> 01:06:53,969 meet in Tehran to plan "Operation Overlord," 1357 01:06:54,053 --> 01:06:56,430 the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. 1358 01:06:59,809 --> 01:07:02,853 Churchill warns of the challenges that await them. 1359 01:07:02,937 --> 01:07:05,356 - The British had learned firsthand 1360 01:07:05,439 --> 01:07:08,067 how capable, how effective a fighting force 1361 01:07:08,150 --> 01:07:10,027 the Wehrmacht was. 1362 01:07:10,111 --> 01:07:13,406 Britain's experience is chastening- 1363 01:07:13,489 --> 01:07:16,951 evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940, 1364 01:07:17,034 --> 01:07:20,830 driven from Norway and Greece. 1365 01:07:20,913 --> 01:07:22,415 Yet despite the dangers, 1366 01:07:22,498 --> 01:07:25,334 the Allies determine to risk everything 1367 01:07:25,418 --> 01:07:29,004 on a full-scale cross-Channel invasion 1368 01:07:29,088 --> 01:07:34,802 into the teeth of the Nazi defenses. 1369 01:07:34,885 --> 01:07:37,388 - COL. FARRELL: In order for D-Day to succeed, 1370 01:07:37,471 --> 01:07:40,975 it required four distinct events to happen. 1371 01:07:41,058 --> 01:07:43,936 First, the Allies needed the momentum 1372 01:07:44,019 --> 01:07:46,188 of manpower and equipment 1373 01:07:46,272 --> 01:07:47,606 to make it to the beach 1374 01:07:47,690 --> 01:07:50,025 and continue to reinforce the beachhead 1375 01:07:50,109 --> 01:07:52,361 once the landings were secure. 1376 01:07:52,445 --> 01:07:54,530 Secondly was air supremacy. 1377 01:07:54,613 --> 01:07:57,032 The Allies had to prevent the Germans 1378 01:07:57,116 --> 01:08:00,828 from reinforcing their positions on the beachhead. 1379 01:08:00,911 --> 01:08:04,540 Also, the Allies needed a major Soviet offensive 1380 01:08:04,623 --> 01:08:06,751 so that Germany would be sandwiched 1381 01:08:06,834 --> 01:08:09,086 between two invading armies. 1382 01:08:09,170 --> 01:08:11,922 And finally, the element of surprise. 1383 01:08:12,006 --> 01:08:14,967 If the Germans had been aware that the invasion was coming, 1384 01:08:15,050 --> 01:08:18,387 it would have certainly failed. 1385 01:08:18,471 --> 01:08:20,306 To win the intelligence war, 1386 01:08:20,389 --> 01:08:26,228 the Allies launch "Operation Fortitude." 1387 01:08:26,312 --> 01:08:28,773 - Operation Fortitude stands to the present day 1388 01:08:28,856 --> 01:08:31,776 as arguably the greatest deception plan 1389 01:08:31,859 --> 01:08:33,736 in modern warfare. 1390 01:08:36,071 --> 01:08:38,491 In an audacious act of misdirection, 1391 01:08:38,574 --> 01:08:41,160 a decoy army of 11 ghost divisions 1392 01:08:41,243 --> 01:08:42,953 figure headed by General Patton 1393 01:08:43,037 --> 01:08:46,040 assembles opposite Calais. 1394 01:08:46,123 --> 01:08:49,001 - They had to really trick the German high command 1395 01:08:49,084 --> 01:08:51,295 into thinking that Calais, 1396 01:08:51,378 --> 01:08:53,214 the shortest route across the Channel, 1397 01:08:53,297 --> 01:08:57,134 was the way that the invasion was going to be mounted. 1398 01:08:57,218 --> 01:08:59,178 It had dummy tanks, 1399 01:08:59,261 --> 01:09:01,430 dummy airstrips, dummy hangers. 1400 01:09:01,514 --> 01:09:03,891 And they let the German reconnaissance aircraft 1401 01:09:03,974 --> 01:09:06,685 fly over these areas and say, "Oh, here's a huge army. 1402 01:09:06,769 --> 01:09:09,688 This is clearly where they're going to put their main effort." 1403 01:09:11,565 --> 01:09:13,984 With Fortitude blinding the Axis, 1404 01:09:14,068 --> 01:09:16,821 the real invasion force secretly assembles... 1405 01:09:20,157 --> 01:09:23,786 9 1/2 million tons of supplies, 1406 01:09:23,869 --> 01:09:27,665 4,000 amphibious vessels, 1407 01:09:27,748 --> 01:09:30,459 and over 1 1/2 million troops. 1408 01:09:32,169 --> 01:09:33,379 The man charged 1409 01:09:33,462 --> 01:09:35,542 with the immense logistical challenge of the landings 1410 01:09:35,566 --> 01:09:39,426 is British Naval mastermind, Sir Bertram Ramsey. 1411 01:09:39,510 --> 01:09:42,805 - Sir Bertram Ramsey's plan was meticulous, 1412 01:09:42,888 --> 01:09:45,391 it was complex, it was rehearsed, 1413 01:09:45,474 --> 01:09:47,643 and it was thorough in every way. 1414 01:09:49,812 --> 01:09:51,897 The plan is astonishing. 1415 01:09:51,981 --> 01:09:54,066 Almost 7,000 vessels 1416 01:09:54,149 --> 01:09:56,360 will be loaded with men and supplies 1417 01:09:56,443 --> 01:10:00,030 and moved in secret to the assembly points. 1418 01:10:00,114 --> 01:10:01,907 At a pre-determined time, 1419 01:10:01,991 --> 01:10:04,076 they will navigate through narrow channels 1420 01:10:04,159 --> 01:10:05,494 cleared of mines, 1421 01:10:05,578 --> 01:10:09,623 towards enemy shores through unpredictable seas. 1422 01:10:09,707 --> 01:10:12,501 Simultaneously, naval screens will be mounted 1423 01:10:12,585 --> 01:10:15,754 to protect against Axis counterattacks. 1424 01:10:15,838 --> 01:10:17,798 - LTG MASON: The scope and depth of it... 1425 01:10:17,882 --> 01:10:19,300 it's just off the scale. 1426 01:10:19,383 --> 01:10:21,427 Me personally, I've been involved in planning 1427 01:10:21,510 --> 01:10:24,013 for things like Desert Storm, 1428 01:10:24,096 --> 01:10:26,181 Operation Iraqi Freedom... 1429 01:10:26,265 --> 01:10:28,142 the early pieces of it... and even that, 1430 01:10:28,225 --> 01:10:31,061 with big computers and lots of smart guys working it, 1431 01:10:31,145 --> 01:10:32,688 it was daunting then. 1432 01:10:35,316 --> 01:10:37,476 Getting the Allied forces to the beachheads 1433 01:10:37,500 --> 01:10:40,070 is just the start. 1434 01:10:40,154 --> 01:10:43,699 Awaiting them is Hitler's Atlantic wall, 1435 01:10:43,782 --> 01:10:47,369 a defensive network 1,600 miles long 1436 01:10:47,453 --> 01:10:51,248 and considered by the Führer as unbreachable. 1437 01:10:51,332 --> 01:10:53,876 - PETER: It's this combination of everything 1438 01:10:53,959 --> 01:10:57,296 from millions of mines, 1439 01:10:57,379 --> 01:10:59,214 specific defenses 1440 01:10:59,298 --> 01:11:02,593 designed to rip the bottom of a landing craft. 1441 01:11:02,676 --> 01:11:05,512 Then you get to machine gun bunkers 1442 01:11:05,596 --> 01:11:07,932 with interlocking fires, 1443 01:11:08,015 --> 01:11:10,476 6-inch cannons-you name it. 1444 01:11:10,559 --> 01:11:13,187 It's just a nasty, nasty piece of work. 1445 01:11:13,270 --> 01:11:15,522 - DR. CRANE: You know, there are trained troops 1446 01:11:15,606 --> 01:11:17,066 who've been there for years sighting 1447 01:11:17,149 --> 01:11:18,901 every avenue of approach off the beach. 1448 01:11:18,984 --> 01:11:21,224 And you know there are gonna be massive counterattacks... 1449 01:11:21,278 --> 01:11:22,780 the Germans are masters at that. 1450 01:11:22,863 --> 01:11:24,365 So there's just so much uncertainty. 1451 01:11:29,203 --> 01:11:30,643 The window of opportunity 1452 01:11:30,704 --> 01:11:33,999 is desperately narrow. 1453 01:11:34,083 --> 01:11:36,502 Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower 1454 01:11:36,585 --> 01:11:38,837 sets the date... 1455 01:11:38,921 --> 01:11:43,175 June 5, 1944. 1456 01:11:43,258 --> 01:11:44,843 - COL. FARRELL: Once Eisenhower 1457 01:11:44,927 --> 01:11:45,844 made the decision, 1458 01:11:45,928 --> 01:11:47,304 it was irrevocable... 1459 01:11:47,388 --> 01:11:48,681 there was no plan B. 1460 01:11:48,764 --> 01:11:51,225 This was it... go for broke. 1461 01:11:51,308 --> 01:11:53,310 Either the invasion would succeed 1462 01:11:53,394 --> 01:11:55,479 or the invasion attempt 1463 01:11:55,562 --> 01:11:57,523 would have to be put off indefinitely. 1464 01:11:57,606 --> 01:12:01,068 - Dwight Eisenhower sat down and wrote a little note 1465 01:12:01,151 --> 01:12:04,238 taking blame for the failure of the landings 1466 01:12:04,321 --> 01:12:07,366 that he was prepared to deliver if it did fail. 1467 01:12:07,449 --> 01:12:10,160 No one on the Allied side saw this as a sure thing. 1468 01:12:12,663 --> 01:12:15,040 As the Allies bomb the French infrastructure 1469 01:12:15,124 --> 01:12:17,501 connecting Normandy to the east, 1470 01:12:17,584 --> 01:12:19,461 3 million servicemen 1471 01:12:19,545 --> 01:12:23,507 are locked away from the population. 1472 01:12:23,590 --> 01:12:26,427 Coastal towns are locked down. 1473 01:12:26,510 --> 01:12:31,181 The fate of the world hangs in the balance. 1474 01:12:40,399 --> 01:12:44,528 After an agonizing 24-hour delay due to bad weather, 1475 01:12:44,611 --> 01:12:47,197 "Overlord," the most important Allied operation 1476 01:12:47,281 --> 01:12:48,407 of World War II 1477 01:12:48,490 --> 01:12:51,952 is set in motion. 1478 01:12:52,036 --> 01:12:54,538 Before the armada embarks for Normandy, 1479 01:12:54,621 --> 01:12:56,040 the Allies launch 1480 01:12:56,123 --> 01:13:00,419 one final master class of deception. 1481 01:13:00,502 --> 01:13:02,379 To convince the Germans 1482 01:13:02,463 --> 01:13:04,715 that Calais is the invasion site, 1483 01:13:04,798 --> 01:13:07,968 British bombers circle at low altitude, 1484 01:13:08,052 --> 01:13:11,680 dropping tons of metallic chaff into the air. 1485 01:13:11,764 --> 01:13:15,017 - CHRIS: This created a huge radar registry for the Germans, 1486 01:13:15,100 --> 01:13:18,604 and this phantom army that has been constructed in their minds 1487 01:13:18,687 --> 01:13:21,690 through documents and fake bases... 1488 01:13:21,774 --> 01:13:23,942 now it starts to come alive. 1489 01:13:24,026 --> 01:13:27,237 - Totally threw the German defensive planning. 1490 01:13:27,321 --> 01:13:29,865 It threw it into disarray. 1491 01:13:29,948 --> 01:13:31,617 With the misdirection campaign 1492 01:13:31,700 --> 01:13:33,118 underway, 1493 01:13:33,202 --> 01:13:36,330 the invasion force heads towards its targets... 1494 01:13:36,413 --> 01:13:38,499 five beachheads 1495 01:13:38,582 --> 01:13:41,335 and a cliff-top gun emplacement at Pointe Du Hoc. 1496 01:13:46,006 --> 01:13:47,341 Ahead of the transports, 1497 01:13:47,424 --> 01:13:51,428 an aerial and naval barrage pounds the coastal defenses. 1498 01:13:51,512 --> 01:13:54,223 Despite the assault, the men on the landing craft 1499 01:13:54,306 --> 01:13:57,267 come under ferocious German fire. 1500 01:13:57,351 --> 01:13:58,852 - MICHAEL: It was confusing. 1501 01:13:58,936 --> 01:14:01,313 The German Planes were going right over us. 1502 01:14:01,396 --> 01:14:04,775 There was these bombs and guns going off and everything else. 1503 01:14:04,858 --> 01:14:09,863 - Some of the boats, they got hit by bombs already, 1504 01:14:09,947 --> 01:14:12,866 and all you could see was you don't know who they were... 1505 01:14:12,950 --> 01:14:14,868 see guys laying in the water, 1506 01:14:14,952 --> 01:14:17,329 some with limbs off and arms. 1507 01:14:17,412 --> 01:14:20,791 There was more than being frightened on the boats. 1508 01:14:20,874 --> 01:14:23,168 Some guys were crying a little bit. 1509 01:14:23,252 --> 01:14:25,129 Some guys was even urinating. 1510 01:14:25,212 --> 01:14:28,715 - We were all nervous... everybody was... 1511 01:14:28,799 --> 01:14:30,884 but there was nothing you could do about it. 1512 01:14:30,968 --> 01:14:34,721 You knew what had to do and it had to be done. 1513 01:14:34,805 --> 01:14:36,765 Charles Barley and Michael Vernillo 1514 01:14:36,849 --> 01:14:39,017 are amongst the first to hit Omaha, 1515 01:14:39,101 --> 01:14:43,480 the most heavily defended German position. 1516 01:14:43,564 --> 01:14:46,567 - A lot of guys were in a bunch getting off the boat, 1517 01:14:46,650 --> 01:14:48,610 and they were killed instantly, 1518 01:14:48,694 --> 01:14:51,196 you might as well say. 1519 01:14:51,280 --> 01:14:53,866 We got into the water. 1520 01:14:53,949 --> 01:14:55,868 The water was up to my stomach, 1521 01:14:55,951 --> 01:14:59,329 and I said to myself, I said, "Goodbye, Charlie... you're gone." 1522 01:15:02,708 --> 01:15:05,502 And then it was really a terrible feeling in the water. 1523 01:15:05,586 --> 01:15:07,421 You can see there's bodies laying around, 1524 01:15:07,504 --> 01:15:09,256 and you couldn't identify them... 1525 01:15:09,339 --> 01:15:12,885 it was really nasty... really bloody. 1526 01:15:12,968 --> 01:15:14,448 - COL. FARRELL: Those fortunate enough 1527 01:15:14,472 --> 01:15:15,804 to make it off the boats... 1528 01:15:15,888 --> 01:15:17,472 the scene they would have confronted, 1529 01:15:17,556 --> 01:15:21,685 it's almost unimaginable. 1530 01:15:21,768 --> 01:15:24,980 They would have been suffering still from seasickness. 1531 01:15:25,063 --> 01:15:26,940 They would have heard the whirring of bullets 1532 01:15:27,024 --> 01:15:28,525 above their heads. 1533 01:15:28,609 --> 01:15:30,277 They would have seen in front of them 1534 01:15:30,360 --> 01:15:33,405 dead and dying American soldiers. 1535 01:15:33,488 --> 01:15:35,449 But it was more than chaos. 1536 01:15:35,532 --> 01:15:38,076 It was deadly chaos. 1537 01:15:38,160 --> 01:15:40,204 As the Allies continue to land 1538 01:15:40,287 --> 01:15:42,122 against merciless German fire, 1539 01:15:42,206 --> 01:15:45,292 the casualty rate soars. 1540 01:15:49,546 --> 01:15:51,715 - But after 15 hours of fighting, 1541 01:15:51,798 --> 01:15:53,800 all beachheads are taken 1542 01:15:53,884 --> 01:15:58,722 with Pointe Du Hoc falling the following day. 1543 01:15:58,805 --> 01:16:01,767 The Allies suffer 10,000 casualties, 1544 01:16:01,850 --> 01:16:06,021 but it is blood shed achieving the almost-impossible. 1545 01:16:06,104 --> 01:16:10,359 They have a foothold in Nazi-occupied Europe. 1546 01:16:12,736 --> 01:16:14,821 - For Hitler, this was 1547 01:16:14,905 --> 01:16:17,241 the nightmare come to pass. 1548 01:16:17,324 --> 01:16:20,035 - We basically, you know, 1549 01:16:20,118 --> 01:16:22,871 signed the death certificate of Nazi Germany 1550 01:16:22,955 --> 01:16:24,873 on June 6, 1944. 1551 01:16:28,669 --> 01:16:30,545 - COL. FARRELL: After weeks and weeks 1552 01:16:30,629 --> 01:16:33,006 of being bottled up in the Normandy beachhead, 1553 01:16:33,090 --> 01:16:36,093 the breakout that occurred exceeded expectations. 1554 01:16:38,011 --> 01:16:41,098 The success is down to the network of supply lines 1555 01:16:41,181 --> 01:16:44,851 chasing the front-line soldiers. 1556 01:16:44,935 --> 01:16:47,437 Connecting France with the war depot of Britain 1557 01:16:47,521 --> 01:16:50,357 are artificial Mulberry harbors, 1558 01:16:50,440 --> 01:16:53,235 landing 2 1/2 million men, 1559 01:16:53,318 --> 01:16:55,570 4 million tons of supplies, 1560 01:16:55,654 --> 01:16:58,824 and 500,000 vehicles within the first 10 months. 1561 01:17:01,034 --> 01:17:04,246 Fueling the offensive is "Operation Pluto"... 1562 01:17:04,329 --> 01:17:07,082 70 miles of undersea pipeline 1563 01:17:07,165 --> 01:17:12,963 pumping up to a million gallons of fuel per day into France. 1564 01:17:13,046 --> 01:17:15,126 - LTG MASON: Those tons and those millions of gallons 1565 01:17:15,150 --> 01:17:16,758 of fuel were on a scale 1566 01:17:16,842 --> 01:17:18,802 that probably won't be replicated in the future, 1567 01:17:18,885 --> 01:17:22,389 so what they accomplished might be unique 1568 01:17:22,472 --> 01:17:25,851 in human history, really. 1569 01:17:25,934 --> 01:17:28,562 From space, the speed of advance 1570 01:17:28,645 --> 01:17:30,564 is astounding. 1571 01:17:30,647 --> 01:17:33,608 August 19... Paris is liberated, 1572 01:17:33,692 --> 01:17:36,028 followed by Rouen, Verdun, 1573 01:17:36,111 --> 01:17:39,573 Antwerp and Brussels. 1574 01:17:39,656 --> 01:17:42,784 By September, the Allies reach the Siegfried Line 1575 01:17:42,868 --> 01:17:45,704 on the cusp of the German Fatherland. 1576 01:17:45,787 --> 01:17:48,790 Hitler launches his final, desperate counterattack- 1577 01:17:48,874 --> 01:17:50,834 the Battle of the Bulge. 1578 01:17:50,917 --> 01:17:54,296 Despite heavy losses, the Allies prevail 1579 01:17:54,379 --> 01:17:57,466 and Nazi Germany stands on the abyss. 1580 01:17:59,217 --> 01:18:01,261 - Hitler's gamble in the Ardennes 1581 01:18:01,345 --> 01:18:03,847 basically ensures the end of the Reich. 1582 01:18:03,930 --> 01:18:06,099 This is his last operational force he had 1583 01:18:06,183 --> 01:18:08,060 where he could try to influence 1584 01:18:08,143 --> 01:18:10,604 the pace of either front, East or West. 1585 01:18:10,687 --> 01:18:12,606 Once he threw that force away, 1586 01:18:12,689 --> 01:18:14,816 the American-Soviet conquering 1587 01:18:14,900 --> 01:18:17,361 of the Reich in the next year was inevitable. 1588 01:18:21,156 --> 01:18:24,993 The War in Europe nears its climax. 1589 01:18:25,077 --> 01:18:28,163 On the other side of the planet, the drive towards Japan 1590 01:18:28,246 --> 01:18:33,960 is also approaching its bloody conclusion. 1591 01:18:34,044 --> 01:18:36,046 But every island invaded 1592 01:18:36,129 --> 01:18:39,466 is coming at increasingly higher cost. 1593 01:18:39,549 --> 01:18:42,094 - PROF WAWRO: At every stage, the ferocity 1594 01:18:42,177 --> 01:18:45,722 and intensity of Japanese defense increases. 1595 01:18:45,806 --> 01:18:49,309 What they thought were suicidal defense tactics in Saipan 1596 01:18:49,393 --> 01:18:51,478 are redoubled at Iwo Jima. 1597 01:18:57,234 --> 01:19:00,362 February 19, 1945... 1598 01:19:00,445 --> 01:19:02,447 60,000 US Marines 1599 01:19:02,531 --> 01:19:04,658 storm the island of Iwo Jima, 1600 01:19:04,741 --> 01:19:08,370 where a battle of unrivaled brutality begins. 1601 01:19:14,209 --> 01:19:15,919 - COL. FARRELL: The fighting on Iwo Jima 1602 01:19:16,002 --> 01:19:18,922 stands as arguably the fiercest fighting 1603 01:19:19,005 --> 01:19:21,049 that US military personnel 1604 01:19:21,133 --> 01:19:23,093 have ever experienced. 1605 01:19:23,176 --> 01:19:24,970 There was no amount of punishment 1606 01:19:25,053 --> 01:19:26,847 could be inflicted on the Japanese 1607 01:19:26,930 --> 01:19:29,224 that would cause them to lose their will. 1608 01:19:31,309 --> 01:19:32,936 - PETER: Essentially they've decided 1609 01:19:33,019 --> 01:19:35,147 that they are going to die there. 1610 01:19:35,230 --> 01:19:37,774 And when you have that kind of suicidal fervor, 1611 01:19:37,858 --> 01:19:41,570 it means that the sort of tactics 1612 01:19:41,653 --> 01:19:44,114 that you might have used previously 1613 01:19:44,197 --> 01:19:46,533 don't work. 1614 01:19:46,616 --> 01:19:49,995 And so we start using flamethrowers, 1615 01:19:50,078 --> 01:19:52,914 napalm, tanks up close... 1616 01:19:52,998 --> 01:19:54,791 a style of battle 1617 01:19:54,875 --> 01:19:58,170 that raises the level of violence, 1618 01:19:58,253 --> 01:19:59,963 even past what we've seen 1619 01:20:00,046 --> 01:20:02,048 in earlier parts of World War II, 1620 01:20:02,132 --> 01:20:05,302 which is hard to imagine. 1621 01:20:05,385 --> 01:20:07,387 When Iwo Jima falls, 1622 01:20:07,471 --> 01:20:10,432 Japan suffers 20,000 casualties 1623 01:20:10,515 --> 01:20:13,393 compared to 23,000 American, 1624 01:20:13,477 --> 01:20:15,395 the first time US casualties 1625 01:20:15,479 --> 01:20:19,483 exceed that of their enemy. 1626 01:20:19,566 --> 01:20:22,277 As Allied forces prepare to invade Okinawa, 1627 01:20:22,360 --> 01:20:25,864 the proposed launch pad for the invasion of Japan, 1628 01:20:25,947 --> 01:20:28,700 the stakes for both sides are vast. 1629 01:20:30,452 --> 01:20:32,996 - DR. CRANE: The Japanese defenders of Okinawa knew 1630 01:20:33,079 --> 01:20:35,373 that they were not going to survive... they could not win. 1631 01:20:35,457 --> 01:20:38,210 But they hoped that, by causing enough casualties, 1632 01:20:38,293 --> 01:20:40,504 creating enough horror, that it might either 1633 01:20:40,587 --> 01:20:42,964 make the Americans decide not to invade Japan, 1634 01:20:43,048 --> 01:20:44,925 or at least maybe get the Japanese 1635 01:20:45,008 --> 01:20:47,719 a better peace offer of some kind. 1636 01:20:47,802 --> 01:20:50,388 April 1, 1945... 1637 01:20:50,472 --> 01:20:54,059 the America armada approaches its target. 1638 01:20:54,142 --> 01:20:57,979 Its scale is unmatched in the Pacific War. 1639 01:20:58,063 --> 01:21:00,440 - Okinawa was a military undertaking 1640 01:21:00,524 --> 01:21:03,151 on a scale that rivaled D-Day... 1641 01:21:03,235 --> 01:21:05,153 the size of the invasion force, 1642 01:21:05,237 --> 01:21:08,657 the size of the invasion fleet. 1643 01:21:08,740 --> 01:21:10,825 One thousand- two hundred warships 1644 01:21:10,909 --> 01:21:13,787 support 3 mass amphibious attack forces 1645 01:21:13,870 --> 01:21:16,748 hitting the beaches. 1646 01:21:16,831 --> 01:21:21,962 More than 170,000 troops land eerily unopposed. 1647 01:21:25,632 --> 01:21:27,175 But unseen by American troops 1648 01:21:27,259 --> 01:21:30,554 are 97,000 Japanese defenders, 1649 01:21:30,637 --> 01:21:34,766 ready to strike with unprecedented savagery. 1650 01:21:34,849 --> 01:21:37,602 - They are taking the Japanese soldier 1651 01:21:37,686 --> 01:21:41,189 and using just his body as a weapon. 1652 01:21:41,273 --> 01:21:44,067 Japanese soldiers with 22-lb satchel bombs 1653 01:21:44,150 --> 01:21:46,653 run under tanks. 1654 01:21:46,736 --> 01:21:49,573 Six thousand defenders banzai-charge marines 1655 01:21:49,656 --> 01:21:53,410 armed only with bamboo spears and sidearms. 1656 01:21:53,493 --> 01:21:56,204 - PROF. KENNEDY: In our own time, we make the comparison 1657 01:21:56,288 --> 01:21:58,331 with suicide bombers, but if you can imagine 1658 01:21:58,415 --> 01:22:00,333 where entire Japanese units had 1659 01:22:00,417 --> 01:22:03,587 that depth of commitment that would actually suffer 1660 01:22:03,670 --> 01:22:06,798 mass, essentially suicidal death 1661 01:22:06,881 --> 01:22:09,342 rather than surrender their position... 1662 01:22:09,426 --> 01:22:12,012 that's a very formidable military obstacle. 1663 01:22:14,306 --> 01:22:17,559 At sea, wave after wave of Kamikazes 1664 01:22:17,642 --> 01:22:20,687 crash into US ships. 1665 01:22:20,770 --> 01:22:23,607 - DR. CRANE: The Kamikazes were especially terrifying 1666 01:22:23,690 --> 01:22:25,525 to the Americans trying to shoot them down 1667 01:22:25,609 --> 01:22:27,777 because how do you deter somebody 1668 01:22:27,861 --> 01:22:30,238 who is willing to die for something. 1669 01:22:30,322 --> 01:22:31,823 Their goal is to die. 1670 01:22:31,906 --> 01:22:36,703 And 18% of Kamikazes hit ships. 1671 01:22:36,786 --> 01:22:40,165 Four hundred-four US ships are struck. 1672 01:22:40,248 --> 01:22:42,208 When Okinawa finally falls, 1673 01:22:42,292 --> 01:22:45,045 nearly 100,000 Japanese soldiers 1674 01:22:45,128 --> 01:22:49,215 and 150,000 civilians lie dead. 1675 01:22:49,299 --> 01:22:52,385 The US suffers 76,000 casualties, 1676 01:22:52,469 --> 01:22:55,680 a third of the entire invasion force. 1677 01:22:57,599 --> 01:23:00,185 - DR. CRANE: The escalation is just horrifying here. 1678 01:23:00,268 --> 01:23:01,728 And these are little islands, 1679 01:23:01,811 --> 01:23:03,605 and now we're talking about invading 1680 01:23:03,688 --> 01:23:04,814 the whole Japanese homeland, 1681 01:23:04,898 --> 01:23:06,691 where there are millions of defenders 1682 01:23:06,775 --> 01:23:08,568 and even more millions of civilians? 1683 01:23:10,487 --> 01:23:12,364 The US War Department estimates 1684 01:23:12,447 --> 01:23:14,574 that the invasion of Japan will result 1685 01:23:14,658 --> 01:23:17,577 in 10 million Japanese casualties, 1686 01:23:17,661 --> 01:23:20,705 along with at least 1.7 million American. 1687 01:23:22,832 --> 01:23:25,710 Another solution must be sought. 1688 01:23:25,794 --> 01:23:28,713 As the Allies celebrate victory in Europe... 1689 01:23:28,797 --> 01:23:31,716 as Hitler and his Reich go up in flames... 1690 01:23:31,800 --> 01:23:36,304 America swears in a new president. 1691 01:23:36,388 --> 01:23:38,682 And Harry Truman is destined to unleash 1692 01:23:38,765 --> 01:23:40,558 a weapon SO fearsome 1693 01:23:40,642 --> 01:23:43,603 it will herald in a new dawn of warfare 1694 01:23:43,687 --> 01:23:45,647 across the globe. 1695 01:23:55,949 --> 01:23:59,828 War has ravaged the world for nearly six years. 1696 01:23:59,911 --> 01:24:02,247 Germany and Italy are defeated. 1697 01:24:02,330 --> 01:24:06,835 Only Japan fights on in defiance of the Allies. 1698 01:24:06,918 --> 01:24:09,713 But a new weapon is about to make World War II 1699 01:24:09,796 --> 01:24:11,673 reach its climax... 1700 01:24:14,843 --> 01:24:16,761 December 1938... 1701 01:24:16,845 --> 01:24:19,514 German scientists split the atom, 1702 01:24:19,597 --> 01:24:22,642 releasing 200 million volts of electricity. 1703 01:24:25,645 --> 01:24:29,023 After Albert Einstein warns US President Roosevelt 1704 01:24:29,107 --> 01:24:31,568 that Hitler plans an atomic program, 1705 01:24:31,651 --> 01:24:33,987 the race for the Bomb is on. 1706 01:24:35,697 --> 01:24:39,451 America, in collaboration with Britain and Canada, 1707 01:24:39,534 --> 01:24:43,121 launches the Manhattan Project. 1708 01:24:49,753 --> 01:24:52,714 Entire towns and industrial complexes 1709 01:24:52,797 --> 01:24:57,677 are constructed across the nation. 1710 01:24:57,761 --> 01:25:00,722 Employing 600,000 people 1711 01:25:00,805 --> 01:25:03,349 and costing $2 billion... 1712 01:25:03,433 --> 01:25:06,269 $25.8 billion in today's money... 1713 01:25:06,352 --> 01:25:09,814 it is engineering on an unprecedented scale. 1714 01:25:11,733 --> 01:25:14,235 - DR. CRANE: No other nation in the world could have done 1715 01:25:14,319 --> 01:25:16,112 the Manhattan project like the United States did. 1716 01:25:16,196 --> 01:25:18,156 You get all these theorists together, and they say 1717 01:25:18,180 --> 01:25:20,366 there are two ways in which we can build this weapon. 1718 01:25:20,450 --> 01:25:23,077 There's a plutonium bomb and a uranium bomb. 1719 01:25:23,161 --> 01:25:24,078 They're different processes. 1720 01:25:24,162 --> 01:25:24,954 They're both immensely expensive. 1721 01:25:25,038 --> 01:25:26,198 Anybody else would have said, 1722 01:25:26,222 --> 01:25:27,791 "Which one do I want to focus on?" 1723 01:25:27,874 --> 01:25:30,126 And the US said, "We're gonna make sure this works. 1724 01:25:30,210 --> 01:25:31,336 "We're going to do both." 1725 01:25:34,172 --> 01:25:35,965 July 1945... 1726 01:25:36,049 --> 01:25:38,551 the project bears fruit... 1727 01:25:38,635 --> 01:25:41,471 a uranium bomb code-named "Little Boy" 1728 01:25:41,554 --> 01:25:45,183 and a plutonium bomb code-named "Fat Man." 1729 01:25:45,266 --> 01:25:48,770 - The atomic bomb is a technology 1730 01:25:48,853 --> 01:25:50,688 that historically is on the scale 1731 01:25:50,772 --> 01:25:53,983 of the introduction of gunpowder. 1732 01:25:54,067 --> 01:25:57,237 They've taken the kind of lethality 1733 01:25:57,320 --> 01:26:01,032 that's been honed throughout World War II 1734 01:26:01,115 --> 01:26:04,953 and multiplied it by a whole new aura of magnitude. 1735 01:26:06,371 --> 01:26:08,414 - COL. FARRELL: For the first time, 1736 01:26:08,498 --> 01:26:09,999 with a single event, 1737 01:26:10,083 --> 01:26:12,418 an entire city could be destroyed. 1738 01:26:12,502 --> 01:26:15,338 This represented a new era in warfare. 1739 01:26:18,902 --> 01:26:19,902 Returning 1740 01:26:19,926 --> 01:26:21,046 from the Potsdam Conference, 1741 01:26:21,094 --> 01:26:23,221 US President Harry S. Truman 1742 01:26:23,304 --> 01:26:25,056 must decide whether to unleash 1743 01:26:25,139 --> 01:26:27,392 the atomic bomb on Japan. 1744 01:26:29,602 --> 01:26:31,896 - DR. CRANE: If it had come out a year later 1745 01:26:31,980 --> 01:26:33,898 that the president of the United States 1746 01:26:33,982 --> 01:26:35,817 had a weapon he could have used, 1747 01:26:35,900 --> 01:26:37,610 that might have ended the war earlier, 1748 01:26:37,694 --> 01:26:39,571 and instead he did not, 1749 01:26:39,654 --> 01:26:42,991 and we suffered 100,000 extra casualties, 1750 01:26:43,074 --> 01:26:45,577 he would have been run out of... 1751 01:26:45,660 --> 01:26:47,704 at best, run out of town on a rail. 1752 01:26:47,787 --> 01:26:49,414 There was no way an American president, 1753 01:26:49,497 --> 01:26:51,332 responsible to his constituents, 1754 01:26:51,416 --> 01:26:54,502 could have not used this weapon. 1755 01:26:54,586 --> 01:26:57,922 Truman, hostile to Stalin and his communist ethos, 1756 01:26:58,006 --> 01:27:00,633 can see the significance of a nuclear strike 1757 01:27:00,717 --> 01:27:03,011 for the postwar world. 1758 01:27:04,012 --> 01:27:06,723 - PROF. OVERY: In 1945, America faced a real paradox. 1759 01:27:06,806 --> 01:27:08,725 For a long time, of course, Roosevelt and Truman 1760 01:27:08,808 --> 01:27:10,351 had been saying to Stalin, you know, 1761 01:27:10,435 --> 01:27:12,228 "Please help us with the war against Japan. 1762 01:27:12,312 --> 01:27:13,646 "Please invade Manchuria. 1763 01:27:13,730 --> 01:27:15,648 Please defeat the Japanese army." 1764 01:27:15,732 --> 01:27:17,692 But when it was realized that the Soviet Union 1765 01:27:17,775 --> 01:27:19,527 might defeat the Japanese and then move on 1766 01:27:19,611 --> 01:27:22,363 and occupy part of the Japanese islands, 1767 01:27:22,447 --> 01:27:24,616 that's not what the Americans wanted at all. 1768 01:27:24,699 --> 01:27:27,118 They wanted the task of rebuilding Japan. 1769 01:27:27,201 --> 01:27:29,454 And I think this was one of the most important factors 1770 01:27:29,537 --> 01:27:31,623 in influencing the American decision 1771 01:27:31,706 --> 01:27:33,166 to drop the Atomic bomb. 1772 01:27:35,793 --> 01:27:38,504 After a successful test in the New Mexico desert, 1773 01:27:38,588 --> 01:27:41,090 Truman gives the order to drop the bomb 1774 01:27:41,174 --> 01:27:42,884 as soon as possible. 1775 01:27:45,637 --> 01:27:47,805 - PROF. OVERY: A number of cities were chosen 1776 01:27:47,889 --> 01:27:49,474 as potential targets. 1777 01:27:49,557 --> 01:27:51,557 They were left untouched by the incendiary bombing, 1778 01:27:51,601 --> 01:27:54,187 because if you bombed a city, you couldn't tell 1779 01:27:54,270 --> 01:27:57,273 how much damage had been done by the atomic attacks. 1780 01:27:57,357 --> 01:28:00,360 They were also looking for one with quite a large population, 1781 01:28:00,443 --> 01:28:02,820 because if you could attack a city with a large population, 1782 01:28:02,904 --> 01:28:06,074 you, again, would be able to see the full impact. 1783 01:28:06,157 --> 01:28:08,451 When you look at it, this is a really cynical decision 1784 01:28:08,534 --> 01:28:10,203 for choosing a target 1785 01:28:10,286 --> 01:28:13,039 on which you're going to drop the most dangerous weapon 1786 01:28:13,122 --> 01:28:16,125 that has ever been developed. 1787 01:28:16,209 --> 01:28:18,836 On August 6, 1945, 1788 01:28:18,920 --> 01:28:23,091 the Enola Gay launches from the Mariana Islands. 1789 01:28:23,174 --> 01:28:25,343 At 8:15 AM local time, 1790 01:28:25,426 --> 01:28:28,805 "Little Boy," loaded with 60 kg of Uranium, 1791 01:28:28,888 --> 01:28:31,432 is released over Hiroshima. 1792 01:28:31,516 --> 01:28:33,601 Forty-three seconds later, 1793 01:28:33,685 --> 01:28:36,312 the world changes forever. 1794 01:28:40,817 --> 01:28:43,486 The blast creates a circle of devastation 1795 01:28:43,569 --> 01:28:45,154 1 mile wide, 1796 01:28:45,238 --> 01:28:48,741 with fires over another 41/2-mile radius. 1797 01:28:52,036 --> 01:28:55,331 Sixty-thousand are killed instantly, 1798 01:28:55,415 --> 01:28:57,917 with a further 100,000 dying 1799 01:28:58,001 --> 01:29:00,086 from burns and radiation. 1800 01:29:03,339 --> 01:29:04,799 Three days later, 1801 01:29:04,882 --> 01:29:07,885 "Fat Man" is exploded over Nagasaki, 1802 01:29:07,969 --> 01:29:10,888 killing 80,000 civilians. 1803 01:29:10,972 --> 01:29:12,890 - DR. CRANE: After the first bomb in Japan, 1804 01:29:12,974 --> 01:29:15,018 there was a certain amount of disbelief. 1805 01:29:15,101 --> 01:29:17,145 After Nagasaki, though, it was kind of hard to deny 1806 01:29:17,228 --> 01:29:19,689 that the Americans had some kind of new weapon here, 1807 01:29:19,772 --> 01:29:21,983 and this is just the start of what could be 1808 01:29:22,066 --> 01:29:24,944 a long pattern of destruction. 1809 01:29:25,028 --> 01:29:27,864 September 2, 1945... 1810 01:29:27,947 --> 01:29:30,199 Japan capitulates. 1811 01:29:30,283 --> 01:29:33,202 World War II is over. 1812 01:29:33,286 --> 01:29:36,330 The nuclear age has begun. 1813 01:29:40,251 --> 01:29:42,003 - DR. CRANE: A lot of people think 1814 01:29:42,086 --> 01:29:44,406 that the moral, ethical line of destruction in World War II 1815 01:29:44,430 --> 01:29:46,132 is crossed by the atomic bomb. 1816 01:29:46,215 --> 01:29:47,300 I disagree. 1817 01:29:47,383 --> 01:29:49,260 I think that if there's any moral lines left, 1818 01:29:49,343 --> 01:29:50,928 they're all crossed with the fire raids 1819 01:29:51,012 --> 01:29:54,432 against Japanese cities. 1820 01:29:54,515 --> 01:29:56,392 The whole question of the atomic bomb is, 1821 01:29:56,476 --> 01:30:00,396 "Will we continue to do what our weapons make possible?" 1822 01:30:00,480 --> 01:30:02,356 And that is the ultimate dilemma we've hit 1823 01:30:02,440 --> 01:30:05,485 with atomic and nuclear weapons. 1824 01:30:23,795 --> 01:30:25,046 - PROF. KENNEDY: If you ask 1825 01:30:25,129 --> 01:30:26,172 who won World War II, 1826 01:30:26,255 --> 01:30:27,757 and if by that you mean, 1827 01:30:27,840 --> 01:30:29,842 what society, what nation, contributed the most 1828 01:30:29,926 --> 01:30:32,095 in blood and treasure to the eventual victory, 1829 01:30:32,178 --> 01:30:33,387 it's not the United States. 1830 01:30:33,471 --> 01:30:36,140 It's the Soviet Union. 1831 01:30:36,224 --> 01:30:40,353 Soviet losses in the war... over 25 million people. 1832 01:30:40,436 --> 01:30:44,398 American losses are 405,399 military dead 1833 01:30:44,482 --> 01:30:47,527 and a handful of civilians. 1834 01:30:47,610 --> 01:30:50,029 But if you ask the question who won World War II, 1835 01:30:50,113 --> 01:30:52,323 and you mean who ended up 1836 01:30:52,406 --> 01:30:55,034 in the most advantageous position at the end of the war... 1837 01:30:55,118 --> 01:30:56,828 reaped the greatest fruits of victory... 1838 01:30:56,911 --> 01:30:59,622 then the answer is clearly the United States. 1839 01:30:59,705 --> 01:31:02,458 During the 6 years of war, 1840 01:31:02,542 --> 01:31:05,837 America grows from the 17th world military power 1841 01:31:05,920 --> 01:31:07,713 to number 1. 1842 01:31:07,797 --> 01:31:10,675 Her overseas bases expand from 14 1843 01:31:10,758 --> 01:31:14,178 to over 30,000 spread across the globe. 1844 01:31:14,262 --> 01:31:15,930 Her GNP doubles, 1845 01:31:16,013 --> 01:31:18,558 and she becomes the biggest creditor in the world, 1846 01:31:18,641 --> 01:31:21,686 commanding half of the planet's manufacturing capacity 1847 01:31:21,769 --> 01:31:25,731 and owning 2/3 of the world's gold stocks. 1848 01:31:25,815 --> 01:31:28,484 - DR. CRANE: It dominates the world economy. 1849 01:31:28,568 --> 01:31:31,487 It controls the formation of the UN. 1850 01:31:31,571 --> 01:31:34,157 It launches the world on a path towards globalization 1851 01:31:34,240 --> 01:31:35,658 that it wants. 1852 01:31:35,741 --> 01:31:37,827 But it can no longer go back to being isolationist. 1853 01:31:37,910 --> 01:31:40,413 The isolationist America is gone forever. 1854 01:31:40,496 --> 01:31:44,917 I'm not sure if it has actually sunk in even today 1855 01:31:45,001 --> 01:31:47,295 how much we have to be involved. 1856 01:31:47,378 --> 01:31:50,298 But as a result of World War II, we're drawn in the world's ways. 1857 01:31:50,381 --> 01:31:54,385 We cannot escape... whether we realize it or not. 1858 01:31:56,009 --> 01:31:59,009 Source used: Z0N3T - SubScene