Apocalypse: The Second World War (2009): Season 1, Episode 2 - L'écrasement - full transcript

9th May, 1940.

In France and Britain, things had
been quiet in the war up to now.

Life had gone on almost
as in peacetime.

In this small French town, not
far from the German border,

the children continued to
go to school as normal.

But this would be
their last class.

EXPLOSION

On the next day, the German
soldiers invaded France.

Life would never be
quite the same again.

This series is the epic
story of World War Two.

As it raged across
countries and continents.



As millions of soldiers fought
from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Banzai!

It is the moving story of
the millions of civilians

whose homes were destroyed
and lives disrupted...

..as they were caught up
in the cataclysm of war.

To tell this story, the best
footage of the war has been

painstakingly transformed, using
digital techniques, into colour.

Along with original
colour home movies,

it gives a completely
new perspective

to one of the greatest
events of the last century.

This is the powerful story of the
apocalypse and of the people

who fought the Second World War.

10th May, 1940.

At dawn, the Germans unleashed
their offensive in the West.



German paratroopers were
dropped into Holland.

They were the vanguard, the first
of three million invaders.

The Wehrmacht marched into Belgium,
all part of Hitler's deception plan.

The Germans pretended
they were going to attack

France through neutral
Belgium as they did in 1914.

The commander in chief of the Allied
forces, French General Gamelin,

ordered the British
and French armies

to enter neighbouring Belgium.

Gamelin moved his
motorised divisions,

the elite of the French
army, into Belgium,

along with the entire British
Expeditionary Force.

These were the best
soldiers he had.

Their task was to stop the
German advance through Belgium.

Hitler, in his headquarters,
was delighted.

His deception plan had worked!

He exclaimed, "I
could weep for joy."

He instructed Field Marshal Goering,
in command of the air force,

not to bomb the French
and British columns,

and to let them proceed deep
into Belgian territory.

Then he attacked
them from the rear.

His real offensive was
through the Ardennes forest.

According to the
French high command,

"No tank could ever get through
those densely-forested hills."

But nothing stopped the German panzers
except their own traffic jams.

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands,
Belgium and Luxembourg,

people who were lucky enough to
own cars were the first to flee.

The Germans continued their
diversionary tactics,

invading Belgium with
specially-trained airborne forces.

SINGING IN GERMAN

The sappers belted out the
song they had sung in Poland,

"The girls will have
to wait, comrades!

"It's time to go, comrades!"

On 11th May, at daybreak,

German paratroopers were
dropped into Belgium.

Their goal was to
capture the linchpin

of the Belgian defence system,

Fort Eben-Emael on the Albert
Canal, reputed to be impregnable.

An intrepid German soldier was
filmed on the top of a turret,

setting off explosives.

The fort was captured
in less than 24 hours.

Film of the
triumphant conquerors

would create a reputation
of German invincibility.

After the fort fell,
people scrambled

to catch the last
trains to Paris.

In the French capital, the
Red Cross was swamped.

Belgian refugees were transferred
to cattle trucks heading south.

As the Germans entered
Liege, the panic spread.

Faced with such a show of force, the
only thing to do was obey or flee.

EXPLOSIONS

For hundreds of years,
wars had been fought here.

And throughout history, farmers
had always been the last to flee,

to abandon their animals.

The Flemish poet Emile
Verhaeren had written,

"The people around here

"have nothing at all,

"Nothing before them

"but the endlessness

"of the open road.

"The people who work the fields,

"the people round here,

"have only endless misfortune."

The Germans unleashed
an aerial offensive,

destroying crossroads...

..airfields...

..refineries and fuel supplies.

Cities in northern and
eastern France were bombed.

The French were now facing the
reality of modern warfare.

In the Netherlands, the port
of Rotterdam was ablaze.

The result of a German
terror-bombing raid,

like the one on Warsaw.

But these bombs were dropped
afterthe city had surrendered,

another of Hitler's war crimes.

In London, there was a new prime
minister, Winston Churchill.

His first speech revealed his
determination to keep fighting.

"I will say, without a doubt,

"that the fate of Holland and
Belgium, like that of Poland,

"Czechoslovakia and Austria,

"will be decided by the
victory of the British Empire

"and the French Republic."

But things had taken a sudden
turn for the worse in France.

In just three days, the Germans
had swept through the Ardennes

and were advancing towards
the French defensive line

on the Meuse River.

MACHINE-GUN FIRE

Closing the net with
their pincer movement,

the Germans tried to entrap the
Allied troops massed in Belgium.

The German advance rapidly
overwhelmed the French defences.

With hand grenades,
machine guns...

..they took the town
of Sedan in one day.

Success at Sedan proved
to be the key to victory.

BOMBS WHINE

EXPLOSION

The next obstacle for the
Germans was the Meuse river.

On the night of 13th May,

they brought in girders
to bridge the river.

The French fought back.

But the Germans neutralised
the French artillery,

and the next morning their
sappers finished the bridge,

galvanised by their general, Heinz
Guderian, a 42-year-old Prussian.

A great armoured
warfare strategist,

he deployed tanks to strike
with force, daring and speed.

The blitzkrieg, or
"lightning war",

was intended to give the
enemy no time to react.

First in were the tanks, then the
infantry, all supported by aircraft,

especially the Stuka.

The Stukas were dive-bombers
equipped with sirens.

Their highly-trained pilots
released their bombs

at the last minute
with lethal precision.

The French premier, Paul Reynaud,
telephoned Churchill in alarm.

"They've broken through the front,
the road to Paris is open."

The French generals were at a loss,
unable to react to the crisis.

With the Allied forces tied up
in Belgium, how could they stop

the German advance?

Paris, in late May, 1940.

The French authorities
were struggling to

deal with the increasing
number of refugees.

All of Belgium and northern France
seemed to be pouring into the city.

Schools, hospitals and barracks
were soon overflowing.

For these people, their
exile had begun.

Information was sparse,
rumours abounded.

Had Gamelin, the French
general, committed suicide?

No. But the French high
command now realised

that the Germans were
heading for the coast

and the Allies had
fallen into a trap.

A counterattack was ordered,
and a young colonel

named Charles de Gaulle distinguished
himself at the head of a tank brigade.

The French army possessed more tanks
and many were of better quality

The French soldiers
kept asking themselves,

"Why isn't our air
force protecting us?"

Badly led and poorly organised,

the French pilots were
outnumbered three to one,

but they fought on regardless.

1,000 German pilots were shot
down and taken prisoner.

The British government
repeatedly asked its French ally

to hand over these pilots

in order to transfer
them to Canada...

in vain.

This proved to be a
terrible blunder.

When the armistice was signed,
these pilots returned to Germany

and were then able to join
the battle against Britain.

The German panzers moved swiftly through
the towns and villages of northern France.

Valiantly, French and
British soldiers

tried to slow the
German advance.

MACHINE-GUN FIRE

But the Germans crushed any
pockets of resistance.

The French commanders no longer
knew where the enemy were.

A staff officer,
Captain Beaufre.

"We kept receiving more
and more bad news.

"The atmosphere
was unbelievable.

"After eight days in a
row of disastrous news,

"we were being worn
down psychologically.

"That was also the first
time I ever saw a man cry."

The Germans finally fought their way
through to the English Channel.

Their deception plan
worked brilliantly.

Lured into Belgium, the
British Expeditionary Force

and the French armed
forces were now encircled.

On 28th May, the Belgian king
surrendered, along with his army.

The British Expeditionary Force
withdrew towards the coast.

The Allied armies were on
the brink of disaster.

In Paris, the French premier,
Paul Reynaud, dismissed Gamelin

and appointed a new commander,
General Weygand, 72 years old,

one of the architects of the Allied
victory in 1918. To bolster morale,

Reynaud named another World
War I hero as vice-premier,

84-year-old Marshal Petain,

who would soon turn his
back on Reynaud's policies.

But Weygand had no choice,
he too was forced to order

a full retreat towards Dunkirk.

Hitler let them go.

Maybe this was a gesture of
mercy towards Great Britain

and he was hoping for
a separate peace.

Or had Goering assured
him that his air force

was capable of preventing
an evacuation?

400,000 men flooded onto the
beach, helpless and in disarray.

They had one last chance, to
escape across the Channel.

Churchill ordered any vessel that
could float to go and get them.

Destroyers, minesweepers, trawlers,
tugboats, barges, luxury yachts,

and even the Thames fireboat.

The flotilla of "little ships"
sailed across the Channel

to rescue the besieged troops.

On the outskirts of Dunkirk,
British and French troops

held back the Germans,
with heavy losses.

Goering sent in the Luftwaffe's
Stukas and bombers.

AEROPLANE ENGINE SCREAMS

224,000 British and 114,000 French
troops were successfully evacuated,

rescued from death or capture.

CHEERING

The British army was saved.

But it was in tatters.

The French were sent back to
Brittany in a final attempt

to defend their country.

The British were sent
off to be re-equipped.

All of Great Britain hailed
Dunkirk as an extraordinary feat.

Churchill, however, put
it into perspective.

He told the House of Commons, "Wars
are not won by evacuations."

Even so, it was then,

in those first days of June 1940,
that the "Dunkirk spirit" was born.

The British people now had to
face up to fighting on alone.

Some thought it was time
to make peace with Hitler.

On 4th June, Churchill, who was
also battling the defeatists

within government, spoke out.

His words made history.

"We shall fight on the beaches, on
the landing grounds, in the fields,

"in the streets
and on the hills.

"We shall never surrender."

Finally, on that same day,
the Germans took Dunkirk.

Abandoned equipment
was everywhere,

lavishly filmed by the
Wehrmacht's propaganda units.

The British forces had left
behind almost everything.

And the beach was
littered with wreckage.

Hitler proclaimed the Battle of Dunkirk
as "the greatest battle in history"

and said the 4th of June would now
be a national holiday in Germany.

In spite of their success, the
Germans also suffered huge losses.

Guderian allowed his
soldiers to take a break.

They were proud of their general and marked
their equipment with his initial, G.

THEY LAUGH AND SPEAK GERMAN

Most of them were
drunk with fatigue.

After fighting non-stop,
night and day,

they had hardly slept
in four weeks.

ENGINE ROARS

The offensive continued.

France looked like it
was about to collapse.

But Reynaud and De Gaulle,

now General and Undersecretary
of State for War,

were determined to
continue the fight.

On the 10th of June,
1940, in Rome,

the Italian dictator Mussolini,

"Il Duce", had a big
announcement to make.

Mussolini was already dreaming
of his share of the spoils.

Corsica, Nice, Savoy,

Tunisia, Malta.

The Allies called his declaration
of war 'a stab in the back'.

General Rommel's troops stormed
into Normandy and entered Rouen.

Paris was declared an open city.

It was turned over to the enemy
without a fight in order to be

spared the fate of
Warsaw and Rotterdam.

The French government had
already evacuated to Bordeaux

as the Germans approached Paris.

Abandoned by their government,
many Parisians fled.

All of France seemed to take to the
road, an event that would come to be

known by a biblical name -

the Exodus.

Six million French men and women
set off towards the river Loire,

the last line of defence.

But there was no defence
against the Stukas.

At daybreak,

on the 14th of June 1940,

the Germans entered Paris.

The Nazi Swastika flew triumphantly
over the French capital.

The first act of the German
occupiers was to seize records from

the abandoned ministries -

lists of spies, of
Jews, of Freemasons.

Even the original copy of
the Treaty of Versailles

that so humiliated
Germany in 1919

was sent off to Hitler.

The Exodus had come to a halt.

The bridges over the
Loire had been blown.

There was nowhere
left to flee to.

Petain, in Bordeaux, wanted to
put an end to the suffering.

The Germans continued their
relentless advance south

with such speed that the French
army began to disintegrate.

It's losses were huge.

In one month, 100,000
French soldiers had died,

more than in the first month
of the First World War.

One million, eight hundred
and fifty thousand soldiers

were taken prisoner, along with
36,000 officers and 176 generals.

Among the prisoners, were
many African soldiers

from the French colonial troops.

3,000 African soldiers and
officers from the French army

were shot and killed after
they were captured.

Racism was rampant among
the German soldiers

after seven years of
Nazi indoctrination.

Marshal Petain was appointed
to head the French government.

On the 17th of June,

those who had remained in
Paris listened to Petain.

The First World War hero now

announced that he was
seeking an Armistice.

RADIO CRACKLES

German radio translated this speech
announcing France's capitulation.

Some people in France were
able to receive the BBC.

General de Gaulle had
arrived in London.

On the 18th of June, he
denounced the Armistice.

A few days later, he
recorded a new speech.

As he toured Paris, Hitler
received a telegram of

congratulations from Stalin.

On the 22nd of June 1940, Hitler
arrived in Compiegne, near Paris,

to accept the French surrender.

Everything was designed
to humiliate the losers.

Hitler had brought in the same
railway car that was used for

the signing of the 1918 Armistice
that had sealed Germany's defeat.

His revenge was complete.

The French delegation was
led by General Huntziger.

An interpreter read out a
diatribe accusing France of

declaring war
without any reason.

Hitler did not utter
a single world.

Then he stood up and left.

The French delegates
had been informed

of the terms of the Armistice.

One of them they objected to,
handing over all the anti-Nazi

Germans who had taken
refuge in France.

Huntziger tried to negotiate.

The Germans refused.

The Armistice was
signed as it was.

It was a humiliation for France

and a catastrophe for Britain
who had lost its major ally.

Hitler visited the men who had
delivered the stunning victory.

He was more solemn when he entered
Strasbourg and its cathedral.

Alsace and Lorraine
were German once again,

as he promised they
would be in Mein Kampf.

The spoils of the French
campaign, 2,000 tanks,

5,000 cannons, 300,000 rifles,

four million rounds
of ammunition.

The other spoils
were the factories,

the harbours, all the
riches of France.

It was the French who
had declared war.

As a consequence, they would have to
pay the equivalent of 100 million

dollars a day in compensation.

General Huntziger visited
Germany for the first meeting

of the commission charged with
applying the terms of the Armistice.

To spare troops,
Hitler decided to let

France retain
partial sovereignty

under a government at his beck and
call, and with a limited army,

stripped of heavy weapons,
just to maintain order.

France was divided in two -
an occupied zone in the north

and along the entire Atlantic coast
giving the Germans all the ports.

Italy controlled the Mediterranean
area and occupied a narrow ribbon

along the Alps.

The rest was called a "free zone"
with a new capital, Vichy.

This spa town had been chosen
because of its many hotels.

In early July, Marshal
Petain moved in,

along with all the
government ministries.

However, the Vichy
government continued

to control a vast
colonial empire

and above all, a
still-powerful navy.

Hitler demanded that its ships
be disarmed and remain in their

ports for he was afraid the navy
might join forces with Britain.

Churchill feared the opposite - that
it would fall into German hands.

He ordered the Royal
Navy to neutralize it.

A British naval force sailed to one
of France's biggest naval bases,

Mers el Kebir in Algeria.

Churchill was taking no risks.

An ultimatum was dispatched.

"Either join us, scuttle
your own ships,

"or leave for the West Indies."

The Vichy government
ignored the demands.

The Royal Navy opened fire.

Two French battleships,

two cruisers and a
destroyer were sunk.

Twelve hundred French
sailors were killed.

Seeking to show his people,
the world and, above all,

the United States how
determined he was,

Churchill had struck out
at his former ally,

whose fleet could have helped the
Germans land on British shores.

The ministers in Vichy wanted
to declare war on Britain.

Petain disagreed, saying
one defeat is enough.

CHEERING

All of Germany cheered Hitler

for his stunning lightning
conquest of Europe.

He now saw himself

as the greatest war leader of all
time, on a par with Napoleon.

And, like the Emperor Napoleon,

no-one dared to
contradict him any more.

The Germans occupied the Channel
Islands, Jersey and Guernsey -

the first step towards
an invasion of Britain.

But Hitler held off.

The British were, after all,
Anglo-Saxons, distant cousins.

An alliance with Britain
was still a possibility.

All Europe would be German,
and the ocean British.

But Churchill refused
to negotiate.

The British prepared for a
German invasion and removed

all signs and nameplates.

It was rumoured that the
Germans had won the

Battle of France because
they had good maps.

Another urgent measure was

to evacuate the children to
the countryside for safety -

a painful process.

The young women of
Britain enlisted,

along with their mothers
and grandmothers.

Every woman had to help
to defend her home

against the fearsome
German paratroopers.

♪ LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY

The men joined up as local defence
volunteers in the Home Guard,

even veterans of the
First World War.

Even Chelsea
Pensioners joined up.

While civilians were mobilised, the
Army, rescued at Dunkirk, reformed.

America supplied the rifles,

machine guns and anti-aircraft guns
and soldiers prepared for battle.

Churchill delivered another of
his great speeches to inspire

the British people.

The Battle of Britain
is about to begin.

Let us therefore brace
ourselves to our duties

and so bear ourselves

that if the British Empire

and its Commonwealth last
for a thousand years,

men will still say,

"This was their finest hour."

One of Churchill's
principal weapons

was the Royal Air Force along
with its superb aircraft,

like the Spitfire with its
Rolls-Royce Merlin engine-

the best fighter
plane in the world.

Britain also excelled in
the field of electronics.

A Briton had invented radar.

In the RAF Ops rooms, radar was
used for detecting enemy aircraft

and guiding pilots towards them.

Pilots from all over the
British Empire were joined

by airmen who had managed to flee their
countries under German occupation.

Poles, Dutch, Belgians, Czechs

and quite a few Americans.

Their country might be
neutral, but they weren't.

And there were Free French
Forces, along with de Gaulle.

Some of the RAF pilots were
Oxford and Cambridge students.

One of them, Richard Hillary,
wrote before going into combat...

"We were known as the
long-haired boys.

"We were disillusioned
and spoiled.

"The press referred to us
as the Lost Generation.

"Superficially, we were
selfish and egocentric.

"The war gave us an opportunity to
prove to ourselves and to the world

"that, undisciplined
though we might be,

"we were a match for
Hitler's dogma-fed youth."

These German pilots had been
trained in the Hitlerjugend,

the Hitler Youth, with the
sole idea of revenge.

They felt they were the elite.

Their leader, Goering, was one of
the regime's most popular figures.

Goering, who loved a life of luxury,
had turned the Hotel Ritz in Paris

into the Luftwaffe's
French headquarters.

He had promised Hitler
that, in five days,

he could destroy the Royal Air
Force, take control of the air

and enable the Wehrmacht
to invade Britain.

And the Luftwaffe now had a
big advantage - it could use

all of France's airfields, their
installations and equipment.

Its pilots had plenty of
experience, like Adolf Galland,

with his trademark cigar, who had fought
against the Republicans in Spain.

Or Werner Molders, an ace
from the Battle of France.

He was one of those pilots
shot down, taken prisoner

and then returned
to the Germans.

He was now leading the aerial
offensive against Britain.

Taking off from these fields in
occupied France, the Germans began

to attack convoys
in the Channel,

then coastal ports and then the
airfields in southern England

in the engagement that would be
called the Battle of Britain.

The Luftwaffe shot down
400 British aircraft

at the cost of 1,000
of their own.

But the RAF pilots held out.

GUNFIRE

Churchill proclaimed that,

"Never, in the field of human conflict,
was so much owed by so many to so few."

Hitler was forced to postpone
his plans to invade Britain.

This was his first setback.

He decided to change tactics.

He said, "The British
will surrender when

"their cities have
been destroyed."

German bombers attacked British
cities like London and Coventry.

This was the Blitz, with
its daily bombings.

But this change in targets was a
fatal mistake on Hitler's part,

because if he had continued
bombing the airfields,

he could have broken
the Royal Air Force.

Bombing the cities relieved
the pressure on the RAF.

But the British people were
now in the firing line.

Those who had gardens
dug shelters in them.

Some slept in the Underground

and still went to
work the next day.

People rarely lost their
confidence or sense of humour.

London was bombed, with
only a single respite,

for 76 consecutive nights.

40,000 civilians were killed.

200,000 homes were damaged.

The determined spirit of the people
of Britain became legendary.

♪ We'll have a barrel of fun... ♪

♪ BAND PLAYS "ROLL
OUT THE BARREL"

♪ We'll have a barrel of fun

♪ Roll out the barrel... ♪

Hitler was exasperated.

He called Churchill, "A Jew-ridden,
half-American drunkard."

From then on, whenever
he was thwarted,

he would vent his fury
against the Jews.

On the 12th of October 1940,
on the day of Yom Kippur,

a ten-foot-high wall was erected
around the Warsaw ghetto,

enclosing 500,000 Jews - men,
women, children, old people -

who would all suffer horribly
from hunger, cold and poverty.

In his retreat in the Bavarian Alps,
the Berghof, Hitler was filmed

by his mistress, Eva Braun, as
he celebrated Christmas 1940,

surrounded by the children
of Nazi dignitaries.

He was planning another big gamble,
to conquer new living space

in the East by launching a massive
invasion of the Soviet Union.

But having failed to take
Britain, he had to move quickly

before Churchill was able to
draw America into the war.

Hitler's next offensive
would set the world ablaze.

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