01x01 - Episode 1

[bunniefuu]

[distant explosions]

[static crackling]

[announcer]
This is the Mutual Broadcasting System.

[newscaster]
Fresh details of a Europe in turmoil.

[announcer] This is the BBC Home Service.

[Winston Churchill] Upon this battle
depends the survival of civilization.

[German] The Empire must act
like a man standing in motion.

[commentator] Peace or w*r
is now in the lap of the gods.

[Franklin Roosevelt] We believe
that the Nazis and the fascists

have asked for it

and they're going to get it.

[static crackling]

[narrator]
This is the story of World w*r II.

What it was really like.

-[alarm sounding]
-[men shouting]

-[planes buzzing deck]
-[men shouting]

[machine g*ns f*ring]

We'll put you on an aircraft carrier
when the kamikazes strike.

[man speaking German on radio]

Take you inside a t*nk
with the Nazis' Panzer Division.

You'll ride with the American GIs
for the liberation of Paris.

[crowd cheering]

And with the Soviet Red Army
for the final as*ault on Berlin.

[machine g*ns f*ring]

[ordnance pounding t*nk]

This is the true story
of the biggest conflict in human history.

This is World w*r II from the frontlines.

[soldier] Flame thrower, break off.

LEISURE ACTIVITIES

[dive bomber buzzing]

[men shouting]

[narrator] 1939.

Germany is ruled
by n*zi dictator Adolf h*tler.

He believes his people
are a superior race,

destined to conquer Europe.

{\an8}His armies have already walked
into Austria and Czechoslovakia.

{\an8}But the Second World w*r
begins when he invades Poland.

A task that falls first
to the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe.

[indistinct chatter]

[switches click]

[engine revving]

[dramatic music playing]

[Bob in German] I was proud
to be squadron leader at 23.

We thought Germany
was doing something great.

[dive bombers buzzing]

The world would sit up and take notice!

{\an8}[Kulski] There was a terrible noise
and the trees started bending.

And right over the treetops came out

huge black airplanes with crosses.

They seemed like hundreds of them.

They were flying to b*mb Warsaw.

There was just complete chaos.

People running away.

[baby cries]

We just laid down.
I was really terrified.

[announcer] Please stand by
for a very important announcement.

Germany has invaded Poland
and has bombed many towns.

[speaking German]

[h*tler in German]
Already, endless columns of Polish troops

have been captured.

Poland asked for this fight.

Now Poland is getting a fight.

[crowd cheering]

[voice muted by cheering]

[narrator] After three weeks,

the Polish capital, Warsaw,
falls to the German army.

[man in Polish]
Hello, hello. Can you hear us?

This is our last radio announcement.

German troops have entered Warsaw.

{\an8}[Kulski] I remember seeing
the dead horses and the ruined buildings.

Our house didn't have any windows left.

It was the same house, but it wasn't.

My mother bursts crying and she threw up

when she saw
everything that was happening.

It was just such a shock.

{\an8}[woman] We were simply overwhelmed
by the German m*llitary might.

The sort of feeling developed
that we were helpless.

It was a feeling of being in a trap.
There was no way out.

I think people
simply didn't want to accept it.

And then very gradually
but relentlessly, it started to happen.

[narrator] There's something dark
happening in occupied Poland.

{\an8}[Kulski] The Germans started
the terror immediately.

They brought in the Orthodox rabbi

and tied him up to the roof
of the wooden synagogue

and started a fire

and made the elders
run in to try to save him.

And they all d*ed
right in front of my eyes.

The Germans made it very clear

that it was a question of time
that they were going to k*ll us all.

So we had to defend ourselves.
We had to defend our families.

And that was when I decided
to join the Polish resistance.

[narrator]
Julian Kulski is still only a schoolboy.

But soon he will learn
what it means to k*ll a man.

But from Germany,
the w*r looks very different.

[Werk in German] For many of us,
being a decent German

meant being a member of the n*zi party.

We were the good guys.

[crowd cheering]

[crowd chanting "Sieg heil!"]

[Werk] h*tler was there for us.

He was our Führer, sent by God.

[soldiers in German] Here we stand.

We are ready

to carry Germany into a new era.

One people,

one Führer,

one Reich!

{\an8}[narrator] h*tler's plan is
to create a German empire

{\an8}by invading countries to the east.

{\an8}But Great Britain and France
have a pact with Poland.

{\an8}So they now declare w*r on Germany.

{\an8}[announcer] Just to bring you
up to date on the news of Europe,

{\an8}if you are just turning on your radios:

{\an8}Great Britain is now at w*r with Germany.

[announcer 2]
Every minute spent on production now

is vital to the defense
of the country and your homes.

In Paris and London, they're sending
children to the safety of the countryside.

[man in French] We are determined
not to submit to threats of v*olence.

[narrator] France and Britain are calling
up their colonial armies for support

{\an8}from Asia and Africa.

{\an8}[man in French]
In a world of masters and slaves,

{\an8}we must save liberty and dignity.

Allied troops spread out
along the Maginot Line,

a network of bunkers
and fortresses along the German border.

For eight months, the two sides
eyeball each other across the line.

[announcer in German] The first phase
of this great fight is over.

And what we did in Poland
will be fulfilled in England and France!

[narrator] Spring 1940.

The Germans launch a surprise att*ck.

They go around the Maginot Line,
through the Ardennes Forest.

[indistinct chatter on radio]

[Heinlein in German]
My friends had fought in Poland,

and I wanted to see action.

I was thrilled.

[men speaking German on radio]

{\an8}[narrator] The Panzers pour into Belgium,

{\an8}the Netherlands, and France.

[Heinlein] We were surprised
there was hardly any resistance.

{\an8}[woman] The day they arrived,
I remember, I was afraid.

My mother said, "Things are
going to get very bad, very bad."

They were arresting
young people on the street.

And you never saw them again.

It was terrible.

[Heinlein] Then the British came
in their little armored vehicles.

They were so outdated.

With one sh*t they were in a ditch.

[narrator] The British fall back
to the beaches of Dunkirk,

cornered by the Germans.

They're trapped and defenseless.

{\an8}[Hunn] We'd got to Dunkirk.

{\an8}Then suddenly out of the sky
would come these airplanes.

[plane engines revving]

[dive bombers buzzing]

They're screaming, and they would dive
on these men and machine-g*n them.

You could do nothing about it.

What terror!

[narrator] With their backs to the wall,
the British mount a last-ditch evacuation.

[announcer] Near Dunkirk this evening,

Allied troops have been
deliberately machine-gunned

and slaughtered by low-flying aircraft.

Allied hospital ships have been att*cked.

[Hunn]
You're up to your neck. Dead bodies.

The slaughter.

Then somebody pulled me up.

I looked out, and there in front of you

was the whole of Dunkirk.

Massive flames, smoke, explosions.

And you think, that's hell.

[announcer] ...and how the Royal Navy,
using nearly a thousand ships,

has brought back nearly 350,000 men.

[narrator] The British Army scrambles home

and lives to fight another day.

[Hunn] We arrived back home at Margate.

I felt rather ashamed.

Because I knew that
there was hordes of Germans

on the other side of the channel.

DUNKIRK

[narrator] In the space of a few weeks,

the German army has k*lled or captured
more than two million Allied troops.

It takes the Nazis 21 days to take
the rest of France and roll into Paris.

[commentator] France has surrendered.

[commentator 2]
Britain alone will continue the struggle.

[crowd cheering]

[narrator] In Berlin,
h*tler gets a hero's welcome.

The Nazis now control much of Europe.

Only Great Britain stands in their way.

But Prime Minister Winston Churchill
is defiant.

[Churchill] We are in
one of the greatest battles in history.

You ask, what is our policy?

It is to wage w*r by sea, land and air

with all the strength
that God can give us.

Victory at all costs.

Without victory, there is no survival.

[narrator] h*tler is preparing
the final knockout blow,

a full-scale invasion of Great Britain.

But first, he must take down
the British Royal Air Force.

{\an8}[bell ringing]

[pilots shouting]

{\an8}[Wellum] Somebody gave me this...
lithe-looking creature called a Spitfire

and said,
"There's a Spitfire, go and fly it."

The ground crew were waiting for me
and told me how to start the thing.

The next thing I knew,
it had leapt into the air.

Sort of me hanging on to it, really...

and off we went
into the wild blue yonder.

[narrator] Geoffrey Wellum is
a Spitfire pilot just out of training.

He's one of just over
a thousand young men

who now carry the fate
of the w*r on their shoulders.

[Wellum] I remember thinking,
"Oh, my goodness me."

And you offered up a little prayer.

"It's going to be
a very busy day, O Lord."

"If I forget you, don't you forget me."

"Just give me this day."

"Please give me this day."

[narrator] Across the English Channel,

the German pilots
gather for a final briefing.

[Bob] The campaigns in Poland and France

gave us a lot of experience

so we were ready.

The English knew we were better pilots.

[Wellum] One got a little bit angry.

What were they doing over here?

They've decimated Europe,
flattened Poland.

And here they are over this country.

You know, what right
have they got to do this sort of thing?

[Churchill] We shall fight
on the seas and oceans.

We shall fight with growing confidence
and growing strength in the air.

We shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be.

We shall fight on the beaches.

We shall fight
in the fields and in the streets.

We shall never surrender.

[Bob] We had always
seen the English as brothers,

but as soon as the sh**ting started,

it was us or them.

[Wellum] We went up
through a little bit of cloud.

And I looked ahead.

There they were.

I've never seen
so many airplanes in the sky at one time.

[dive bombers buzzing]

We were heading
towards them at 300 miles an hour.

They were coming
towards us at 300 miles an hour.

That's 600 miles an hour.

The next thing I knew,
we went straight into them.

[machine g*n f*ring]

[metal clanging]

It was just flying for your life.

You see aircraft on fire.

Aircraft breaking up.

People bailing out
and their parachutes don't open.

It was total w*r.

[narrator] For 12 weeks,
the RAF and the Luftwaffe battle it out.

By the end of September,


have been brought down.

[Bob] The losses were so huge.

The whole mission had to be aborted.

And the Battle of Britain came to an end.

[narrator] For now,
Britain is safe from invasion.

[Wellum] The important thing
was that we stopped them

and denied them their aim.

For the first time,

the Germans realized
they had suffered a setback.

And they didn't like it.

[in Italian] Hail the Duce!

[crowd cheering]

[in Italian] We are going to battle
against the democracies of the West.

Run to your weapons...

[crowd cheering]

to show your tenacity...

your courage

and your valor!

[narrator] h*tler isn't the only dictator
casting a shadow over Europe.

Italy has its own strongman,
Benito Mussolini.

He's plotting a deal with h*tler

and planning
m*llitary adventures of his own.

[Mussolini] Italy is standing strong,

proud and united as never before.

[narrator] With the Brits
fighting Germany,

{\an8}Mussolini takes his chance

{\an8}and invades British-controlled Egypt.

{\an8}It took five days for the Axis troops
from Agedabia to Derna.

[crowd cheering]

[narrator] Meanwhile, back in Europe,

thousands of Allied soldiers
are now prisoners of w*r.

One of them is Pham Van Kiem,

a Vietnamese soldier
serving with the French army.

[Kiem in French]
Once we got into the camp...

in the barracks,
there were many prisoners of all races.

Senegalese, Algerians, Moroccans,
Tunisians, from all over.

[narrator] The Nazis begin
to separate colonial soldiers

from other prisoners of w*r.

[Kiem] After shaving our heads,

we were all given numbers.

I didn't understand why.

[narrator] The Nazis are
conducting so-called medical research

to advance their r*cist beliefs.

And this is just the beginning.

[static on radio]

Back in occupied Poland,

they are segregating the Jewish population

inside areas of cities
and towns known as ghettos.

LIVING SPACE FOR JEWS
DO NOT ENTER

To fight back, 13-year-old Julian Kulski
has decided to join the Polish resistance.

[Kulski] At first I was just the runner,

{\an8}carrying messages through
a secret underground passage.

Later on,
my captain taught me how to fight,

how to k*ll a person
with a Kn*fe or with your hands.

[g*n fires]

[narrator] Julian's unit prepare
for resistance against the occupiers.

But their operation
is uncovered by the Nazis.

[soldiers shouting indistinctly]

[Kulski] Somehow the Germans
learned about my commander.

And the Germans arrested him

and sh*t him point-blank.

He was everything.

I loved that man.

And I just swore that I would revenge him.

I and another boy spent
the whole day looking for Germans.

We found downtown a German soldier.

He started pulling out his g*n.

And we both fired.

He fell on his face.

My initial reaction was,
you were able to k*ll them.

They were human.

Next day, they k*lled 20 women
and children on that spot.

'Cause for every German,

there were 20 civilians
sh*t on the same place.

It was medieval.

I feel responsible
for the death of these poor people.

[narrator] In the ghettos,
they'll soon begin to round up Polish Jews

and deport them to camps.

As for the rest of Poland,

the Nazis have plans for them too.

[Twardecki in German]
One day, a troop of SS guards came.

Our mothers were told

there was no food in Poland,

so they wanted
to care for us at a children's camp.

I remember being torn from her arms

and put onto a train.

On the side, it said: "Polish children
for nourishment of the Reich."

[narrator] Alojzy Twardecki
is one of 20,000 Polish children

abducted by the SS.

[somber choral music playing]

[Twardecki] The color of the eyes,
the hair... those were weeded out.

They called me "little angel."

I had curly hair then, very, very blond.

And light blue eyes.

And then, Germanization began.

I felt like a German boy.

[h*tler] My German youth,
we want to be one people.

And you, my youth,

are to be this people...

because you are the flesh of our flesh
and the blood of our blood.

And in your young heads
burns the same spirit that rules us.

Before us Germany lies,
in us Germany burns,

and behind us Germany follows!

[narrator] The scale
of h*tler's ambition is now clear.

He dreams of creating a 1,000-year Reich,

homeland to a single master race.

[incoming bombs whistling]

Now German bombs
are falling again on British cities

in a new terror campaign.

[announcer] German aircraft carried out
a number of att*cks on Great Britain.

The raid was scattered
over many parts of the country.

[narrator] Meanwhile, Fascist Italy
has invaded neighboring Greece.

[reporter] Troops are moving forward

after breaking through
the weak Greek resistance.

[narrator] And beyond Europe,
w*r is spreading.

Japan is on a mission to build
a so-called new order in Asia.

They're already at w*r with China.

[Tojo in Japanese]
Our Empire has entered the next stage

of cooperation in a New World Order!

[narrator] Now n*zi Germany,
Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan

agree to join forces
in a formidable new alliance.

They're known as the Axis powers.

Their plan is to conquer the entire globe.

But there's one more player
to be reckoned with.

[patriotic Russian music rising]

The Soviet Union
has the world's largest army.

And in Joseph Stalin,

they have a dictator
with the ambition to match h*tler's.

[Stalin in Russian]
Our forces are numberless.

The enemy
will soon learn this to their cost.

Forward to victory!

[narrator] 1940 has seen
the fires of w*r ignited in Europe.

In 1941, the flames will spread
to engulf every corner of the globe.

[announcer]
From the NBC news room in New York...

...President Roosevelt
said that the Japanese

have att*cked
the Pearl Harbor from the air.

I'll repeat that.

President Roosevelt
says that the Japanese

have att*cked
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii from the air.

[subdued theme music playing]