All language subtitles for World.War.II.in.Colour.S01E01.The.Gathering.Storm.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

September 1st, 1939,

German troops thrust
deep into Poland

to win a swift
and absolute victory.

Barely 20 years earlier,

their forefathers
had also been on the march,

but back into their homeland
as a defeated army.

In November 1918, after
four years of World War One,

Germany's Emperor,
Kaiser Wilhelm II,

had been forced to abdicate.

His armies were
being ground down

by a remorseless offensive by
British, French and US troops.

His people faced starvation.

But already a dangerous myth
was taking root.

The German generals
and troops claimed

that they hadn't been
defeated in battle,

but betrayed by their own
cowardly politicians.

Even so, at 11:00 in the
morning on November 11th, 1918,

the eleventh hour
of the eleventh day

of the eleventh month,

World War One came to an end.

The following month,
President Woodrow Wilson

of the United States
arrived in Europe

promising to create
a new world order.

He persuaded the world's
leaders to sign up

to a new "League of Nations".

At the Treaty of Versailles
they agreed that from now on

disputes between countries
would be resolved

not by fighting but
by debate in the League.

The peoples of Europe
were set free.

Germany's ally,
the Austro-Hungarian empire,

was dismembered.

Out of it,
new nations were created -

Austria, Poland,
Hungary, Czechoslovakia,

Yugoslavia, Latvia,
Lithuania and Estonia.

Germany itself was
greatly reduced in size.

But this process
contained a timebomb.

Not everyone celebrated
the birth of countries

like Czechoslovakia.

Several of them contained
substantial German minorities.

One day the desire to
reunite the German peoples

would come to haunt Europe.

The war-torn German people

also had one final indignity
inflicted on them.

They were forced to pay
a massive £6.6 billion

in reparations
to France and Britain,

something they could ill-afford.

And when he returned to America,

Wilson's new world order
immediately fell apart.

The US Congress
decided it could not risk

being sucked into
another war in Europe.

It refused to join his League

and the US withdrew
into isolationism.

Germany was now
a very different nation.

It was still Europe's
biggest country

but its militaristic
monarchy had gone.

It had become a democracy.

But its government,
the so-called Weimar Republic,

was soon struck by
a series of hammer blows.

Street battles erupted between
extreme right-wing nationalists

and communists
trying start a revolution.

Then in 1923, the country was
devastated by hyper-inflation,

which reached hundreds
of per cent a month.

Ordinary people's
savings were wiped out.

This was fertile ground
for a new breed

of rabble-rousing
right-wing politicians.

Among them Adolf Hitler.

Hitler had been born in Austria.

He had fought bravely
as a soldier in World War One

and been awarded the Iron Cross.

On returning to Germany,
he settled in Munich

and his fiery oratory soon
enabled him to seize control

of the small National Socialist
or Nazi Party.

In October 1923,
Hitler and his henchmen

attempted an armed coup
against the Weimar government.

It failed, and he was
sentenced to nine months.

In prison he wrote a book,
"Mein Kampf",

"My Struggle", in which
he blamed Germany's ills

on the Jews and demanded
that it rebuild its strength

and seek new territories
in the east.

On his release,
he set about building the Nazis

into a proper,
disciplined political party.

From now on, he would
use the democratic system

to achieve power.

But for the next five years,
Weimar Germany prospered.

Support for extremist parties,
left and right, dwindled.

Then suddenly,
Hitler's opportunity arrived.

In October 1929,
the US stock market crashed.

Billions of dollars were lost

and an economic depression
swept across the world.

Unemployment in Germany
soared to over six million.

Only extremist politicians
seemed to offer a solution.

Politicians like Hitler.

By 1931, his Nazis
were a true mass movement.

And they had their own
brown-shirted thugs, the SA -

Storm Troops - who numbered
almost three million.

In the 1932 elections, the Nazis
became the largest party

in Germany's parliament,
the Reichstag.

But Hitler refused
to join a coalition,

leaving parliament paralyzed.

To break the impasse,
President Hindenburg

made him Chancellor in January
1933, head of the government.

Within a month,
the Reichstag burned down.

Hitler accused the communists
and demanded emergency powers.

He then used them to ban
all other political parties.

In August 1934,
President Hindenburg died.

Hitler declared
himself President.

He was now absolute leader,
the Fuhrer, of Germany.

- Sieg Heil!
- Heil! Heil!

Heil!

At first there was
little sign of what was to come.

For the next three years,
the Fuhrer concentrated on

rebuilding Germany's economy.

He spent millions
on public works,

including the 5,000-mile
autobahn system,

to soak up the unemployed.

But in secret, Hitler
was also spending lavishly

on a huge rearmament program.

Under the Versailles Treaty,

the German army had been
limited to 100,000 men.

The country was forbidden
to have an air force,

tanks or submarines.

This small army
was trebled in size.

Then in 1935, Hitler
came out into the open.

He unveiled a brand new
air force, the Luftwaffe.

It had 2,500 planes,
far more than Britain or France.

Unemployment plunged and the
Nazis became enormously popular.

Now emboldened, the Fuhrer made
his first expansionist move.

In 1935, he reoccupied
the Saarland district

on the French border,
after it voted to return

from League of Nations'
to German rule.

A year later, he sent German
troops into the Rhineland,

part of Germany which had been
demilitarized at Versailles.

At the time, many felt that
Hitler was only claiming back

what was rightfully Germany's.

Neither Britain
nor France objected.

When Berlin hosted
the 1936 Olympic Games,

the Nazis were seen by many
as firm but fair,

a government which was
restoring the nation's pride,

and which didn't
threaten anyone.

Of course there were signs.

The 1935 Nuremberg Laws
forbade Jews to marry

true Aryan Germans and deprived
them of their citizenship.

But when the first threats
came to world peace,

they didn't come
from Hitler at all,

but from
somewhere else entirely.

Japan at the start
of the 20th century

was already a military power.

It had defeated Russia
in a war in 1905

and it had fought alongside
the Allies in World War One.

After the war, Japan was
an acknowledged world power

and it signed up to
the League of Nations.

But politically,
it was a mess of contradictions.

Nominally a democracy,

the feudal tradition
was still strong.

Most Japanese revered
their Emperor as a living god,

and regarded him
as their true leader.

And the country faced
major economic problems.

Its population was exploding,

and it had no natural
resources to fuel

its rapidly
expanding industries.

Its leaders needed solutions

and they saw them
in Chinese Manchuria.

Manchuria was a land
of rich grain fields,

with plenty
of coal and minerals.

It was a perfect target.

Japanese troops were
already stationed there.

Other possible targets
were the colonies

ruled by the European powers.

Burma, Malaya and Hong Kong,
controlled by Britain;

Indo-China, ruled by France;

and the Dutch East Indies.

But at this stage
Japan had to be cautious.

It didn't want
to rouse the other

great power in the Pacific -
the United States.

For all its anti-imperialist
slogans, the US actually

ran an unofficial empire
in the Pacific.

The Philippines,
Guam and several islands

were under its direct rule.

It undoubtedly had
the strength to take on Japan,

but since the end
of World War One,

it had had other distractions.

This was America's jazz age.

Throughout the 1920s,
the nation concentrated

on exploiting
its vast resources.

There was an economic boom
that seemed without end.

Fortunes were made
both in industry

and the stock markets.

America seemed lost to the
increasing pursuit of pleasure.

With distractions like these,

Japan's growing pains in the
Pacific seemed very far away.

America had slashed
its army after World War One,

and agreed
a naval reduction treaty

with Britain, France and Japan.

This, in effect,

handed naval superiority in
the Pacific to the Japanese.

And then came
the Great Depression.

As the economic
devastation spread,

a quarter of the population
lost their jobs.

Tens of thousands
were made homeless,

living in shanty towns.

Whereas before it had
been distracted by pleasure,

now America
was distracted by pain.

It was time
for Japan to make her move.

In 1931, without even informing
their own elected government,

the Japanese forces in Manchuria
seized the capital, Mukden,

and then overran
the rest of the territory.

A puppet state, Manchukuo, was
proclaimed under a puppet ruler.

Henry Puyi,
the last emperor of China,

who had been deposed in 1911,
was dragged out of retirement.

At its headquarters in Geneva,
the League of Nations

now faced its first great test.

Japan was universally condemned.

But her response was blunt.

Japan however finds it
impossible to accept

the report adopted
by the assembly.

The Japanese
then just walked out

and the League suddenly realized

there was nothing it could do
about Manchuria.

Japan was declared
an international pariah,

but it didn't care.

Its leaders had turned their
eyes to further conquests

in China.

These were easy pickings.

China was in a state of chaos.

The government of
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek

was locked in conflict with
the Chinese Communist Party

under Mao Tse-Tung.

There was civil war.

In 1936,
as a precursor to invasion,

the Japanese
signed a pact with Hitler.

The aim was to guard against
any attack by Soviet Russia

were it to move on China.

Then in July 1937, the
Japanese provoked an incident

with Chinese troops and invaded.

At first the Chinese
were taken by surprise.

But they soon
fought back fiercely,

the Communists even
joining the Kuomintang

in a united front.

The Japanese responded
with amphibious landings,

and by the end of 1937
they had overrun

much of northern China
and the coast.

The Japanese fought this war
with exceptional brutality,

bombing cities indiscriminately.

Westerners living in
the commercial center,

the port of Shanghai,
were now evacuated.

The city was then besieged
for three months.

It suffered widespread damage,

the Japanese forces
showing no pity or concern

for the native population.

But it was after
the capture of Nanking,

then the Chinese capital,

on December 17th, 1937,

that the Japanese forces
really ran amok.

Over 300,000 civilians are
estimated to have been massacred

during a six-week orgy of rape
and indiscriminate killing.

The Japanese even attacked
British and US warships,

which had been sent to protect
their shipping and trade.

The worst incident
came on December 12th, 1937.

The American gunboat Panay
was sunk by Japanese bombers.

50 crewmen died.

Despite this, the Western
powers refused to intervene.

So the League of Nations
could do nothing.

In the United States,
President Roosevelt

wanted to impose
a naval blockade of Japan.

It has become clear that acts
and policies of nations

in other parts of the world

have far-reaching
effects on us.

But the British
would have none of it,

fearing that it might
provoke a war.

So, all Roosevelt could offer
was a $25 million loan

to Chiang Kai-Shek to buy arms.

Even though the communists
were now fighting

alongside the Kuomintang,

the Soviet Union
did little to help either.

Its only involvement
was a series of clashes

along its own
border with Manchuria.

But China
itself received nothing.

Instead it had
to fight on alone.

During 1938, the Japanese
overran Canton,

and pushed
the Chinese forces deeper

into the west of the country.

All the rhetoric
of the League of Nations,

all those promises to stop
international aggression

had come to nothing.

And by now the Western powers

were facing aggression
much closer to home.

Today, it is easy to laugh
at Benito Mussolini,

the fascist dictator of Italy.

All that posturing
seems faintly ridiculous now.

But it didn't
seem that way in 1922.

Back then, Italy had seemed
to be on the edge of anarchy.

The country was riven
by strikes and land seizures.

The democratic government,
just as in Germany,

seemed powerless in
the face of such unrest.

So, Benito Mussolini,
a war veteran and a journalist,

decided to take a stand.

He organized
a right-wing nationalist party,

the Fascists.

With the country paralyzed by
a general strike in August 1922,

Mussolini ordered
his followers to march on Rome.

Fearing a civil war,
Italy's king, Victor Emmanuel,

asked him to form a government.

Mussolini swiftly stamped out
any political opposition,

and assumed dictatorial powers.

By 1928,
his position seemed secure.

Parliament was appointed
rather than elected,

and all power
was firmly in the hands

of the Fascist Grand Council.

Like Hitler, Mussolini's first
acts made him immensely popular.

Massive programs of public works
provided employment

and transformed
Italy's infrastructure.

Corruption was rooted out

and the Mafia
more or less eliminated.

Italy's armed forces
were built up,

including an advanced,
modern air force.

In the Mediterranean, Mussolini
launched a powerful navy,

bigger than the combined might
of the British

and French
Mediterranean fleets.

When the Great Depression came,

Italy seemed to weather it
better than most.

Mussolini became a source
of worldwide inspiration.

Political leaders, not least
Adolf Hitler in Germany,

saw the fascist system
as a role model,

strong and purposeful,
in contrast to the weakness

of the democracies
in Britain and France.

But Mussolini
wanted more than adulation.

He wanted to recreate
the Roman Empire.

And he already had
a target in mind

for his first
imperial land grab.

His target was Abyssinia,

today's Ethiopia.

Italy already had colonies
on its borders

in Eritrea
and Italian Somaliland.

In December 1934,
Italian forces provoked a clash

with Abyssinian troops at
an oasis in the Ogaden region,

well inside
Abyssinian territory.

Mussolini then sent
reinforcements to Eritrea

and Italian Somaliland,

demanding that Abyssinia
pay reparations.

The Emperor of Abyssinia,
Haile Selassie,

appealed in person
to the League of Nations.

He called on it
to live up to its ideals.

Here was a small
nation under threat

from another member
of the League.

This was the supreme test.

But the League did nothing.

Britain's Foreign Minister,
Anthony Eden,

at least tried to
broker a peace deal,

but Mussolini
would have none of it.

In early October 1935,

the Italian army invaded from
Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.

The primitive Abyssinian forces
stood little chance against

a modern army equipped
with artillery and tanks.

The Italian air force
had total command of the air,

and harried the Abyssinians.

On occasions
dropping gas bombs,

even though gas had been
outlawed at Versailles

as a "crime against humanity".

After six months, Abyssinia
was completely overrun.

The Emperor Haile Selassie
fled into exile in Britain.

From its headquarters
in Switzerland,

the League of Nations
wrung its hands.

It did impose
economic sanctions,

but they had little effect.

Mussolini's aggression
had revealed two things.

The League of Nations,
that great hope for peace,

was impotent.

And both Europe's
supposed major powers,

the democracies
Britain and France,

no longer had
the stomach for a fight.

Both Britain and France had
been shattered by World War One

and their economies
had never really recovered.

Both had witnessed waves
of strikes and unrest.

Both had suffered
mass unemployment,

even before
the Great Depression.

Both also faced the cost
of controlling empires,

now swollen by taking on
Germany's former colonies

and the Middle Eastern
territories once run

by the Turkish Ottoman empire.

And above all,
both had been traumatized

by the horrific casualties
of World War One.

A succession of British
leaders, Lloyd-George,

Ramsay MacDonald and
above all Stanley Baldwin

all resolved to keep Britain
out of future conflicts.

Despite horrific casualties
on the Western Front,

Britain had ended
World War One

with a large and very
effective conscript army.

This was immediately run down
to a small professional force

designed to police
its sprawling empire.

And when
the Great Depression struck,

any ideas of modernizing
the army were abandoned.

It meant that Britain
went into the run up to war

economically
and militarily weak.

French losses
during World War One

had been even worse
than the British.

Ever mistrustful of the Germans,

a large conscript army
was maintained,

but throughout the 1920s,

France's birth rate
had declined.

It became clear that there
would be a manpower shortage

by the mid- to late-1930s.

France realized it could
never compete with Germany

on the size of its army alone.

The solution was to adopt
an entirely defensive mentality.

The Maginot Line,
a series of fortifications,

was begun in 1930 along
the frontier with Germany

and ran as far
as the Belgian border.

There it theoretically
linked up with fortifications

planned by the Belgians.

This new French military
approach meant that France

was only capable
of waging a defensive war.

It just did not have the ability
to launch an attack on Italy,

even if the British
had had the troops to help.

And of course, both countries
knew that their navies

in the Mediterranean
were outnumbered

by Mussolini's new fleet.

So when Italy
conquered Abyssinia,

it made sense for
both powers to do nothing.

It just seemed too remote,
too much someone else's problem.

By now they both had to deal

with all the traumas
of the Great Depression.

That seemed
so much more pressing.

And above all, they were now
faced with a military threat

far closer to home.

A resurgent
and rearming Germany.

And Germany's power,
and that of Italy too,

was soon about
to be demonstrated,

in supporting the rise
of another dictator -

in Spain.

In 1936, civil war
erupted in Spain.

It was exceptionally vicious,

setting family against family,

communist against fascist,
believers against atheists.

In 1931, a left-wing
government had come to power

determined to get rid of the
centuries-old Spanish monarchy.

The king was forced into exile
and a republic was declared.

In February 1936,

the parties of the left
combined in a Popular Front

to take on the forces of
the right in a general election.

The Popular Front won narrowly.

Even though its reform
program was modest,

a wave of strikes and
land seizures led the right

to fear that a communist
takeover was inevitable.

Within the Spanish army,
long a bastion of conservative

and Catholic thinking,
senior officers

began to consider
the possibility of a coup.

Among them was
General Francisco Franco,

a former chief-of-staff who
had been effectively exiled

to command Spain's forces
in the Canary Island.

On July 17th, 1936,

the units of the army
fighting guerrillas

in Spain's colony
in Morocco mutinied.

The next day,
Franco flew to join them,

proclaiming a new
nationalist movement

which would save Spain
from communism.

Mainland garrisons
now joined this revolt.

The Popular Front responded
by calling for volunteers

to defend the Republic.

Battle lines had been drawn.

At first, Franco faced problems.

He and his army
were in North Africa

and he had to get across
the Straits of Gibraltar

back to Spain.

So he turned to the one
person he thought might help.

Adolf Hitler.

Within a month,
transport aircraft

from Hitler's new Luftwaffe
had begun an air lift,

taking Franco's battle-hardened
veterans over to southern Spain.

At this stage, the Republic
still seemed to have
the advantage.

The pro-Franco
military uprisings

in Madrid and Barcelona
were quickly crushed,

leaving it in control of most
of the east of the country.

Franco's Nationalists
were confined

largely to the north-west
and part of the south.

But the Nationalist situation
was transformed

when Hitler and Mussolini

started to pour
in troops and weapons.

The German dictator seized
the opportunity to test

his new equipment
and expanding armed forces.

The first Panzer tanks were sent
along with some 12,000 troops.

And the Luftwaffe deployed
its Condor Legion

with its ultra-modern
new bombers and fighters.

Mussolini sent
a so-called volunteer corps

of 50,000 men
and more than 700 aircraft.

In vain did the Republicans
appeal to Britain,

France and
the Soviet Union for help.

But London and Paris were scared
of setting off a European war.

They declared
a policy of non-intervention.

Cynically, both Germany
and Italy signed up to this.

But when it became obvious that
they were still sending arms

to the Nationalists,
Josef Stalin, the Soviet leader,

announced that he would
help the Republic.

Stalin's worry was
the rise of fascism in Germany.

Hitler had
made it abundantly clear

that he believed communism
to be Nazism's ultimate enemy.

Stalin saw the Spanish conflict

as a way of keeping Germany
and Italy occupied

while building up the Soviet
Union's military strength.

About 700 military
advisers were sent,

along with tanks
and fighter aircraft.

It was something,

but no match for the support
Franco had received.

In fact, the largest source of
outside help for the Republic

didn't come from a country
at all but from volunteers -

the International Brigades.

About 30,000
left-wing Americans, British,

French and Germans
signed up to fight in Spain.

With their new fascist support,

the Nationalists were able
to open two fronts:

one advancing towards
Barcelona from the north,

the other, led by Franco,

pushing up towards
Madrid from the south.

By the end of 1936, Madrid
was enveloped on three sides

and virtually under siege.

The fighting was intense
and often accompanied by

appalling atrocities
against civilians.

The Republicans hunted down and
murdered Roman Catholic priests.

The Nationalists slaughtered
anyone accused of being
communist.

German and Italian air power
was used indiscriminately

against civilian targets.

Madrid was heavily bombed,

but the worst incident
came in April 1937,

when the Basque town of Guernica

was virtually obliterated
with 6,000 civilian deaths.

The area controlled
by the Republic

was steadily ground down.

Its forces fought
with great gallantry,

but under-trained
and under-equipped amateurs

were no match for
the professional soldiers

led by Franco or for
the combined modern weaponry

of Italy and Germany.

As the war dragged on,
the fighting around Madrid

became a symbol of
the left's determination

not to be crushed by
a fascist dictatorship.

But behind the scenes,
the Republican alliance
was falling apart.

The communists and socialists
wanted to concentrate

on winning a military victory.

But the more idealistic
anarchists and syndicalists

saw the war as an opportunity

for a mass revolution
by the workers.

These disagreements burst out
into the open in May 1937.

Fighting broke out
in Barcelona between

the anarchists and communists.

It was a fatal weakening
of the Republican cause.

By the end of 1938,
the Nationalists

had penned their enemy into a
small enclave around Barcelona,

and another stretching eastward
from Madrid to the coast.

Madrid continued to hold out,

but the International
Brigades were withdrawn.

More and more nations
began to recognize

Franco's government
as his forces closed in

for the final assault on Madrid.

At the end of March 1939,

its defenders exhausted after
nearly three years of fighting,

the capital finally surrendered.

A month later, Franco formally
declared hostilities at an end.

The scars of Spain's civil war
took years to heal

and, in some ways,
they never have.

And internationally,

Franco's victory over
the Republic proved a disaster.

Hitler and Mussolini
were confirmed in their belief

that the democracies of Britain
and France were impotent

to resist any real pressure.

While Stalin despaired of their
willingness to confront fascism.

Hitler in particular
saw his way open to begin

the aggressive policies
outlined in "Mein Kampf".

Even before
the Spanish civil war ended

his armies were on the march.

From the moment he became
Chancellor of Germany

on January 30th, 1933,

Hitler had begun to put his
long-term ambitions into action.

On February 3rd,
he told his top commanders

that his ultimate aim was to
conquer territory in the east

and ruthlessly Germanize it.

They were instructed to prepare
for a massive expansion.

Although Germany had
been forbidden tanks,

a secret treaty with
the Soviet Union in 1923

had allowed the development
of tank designs

and experimentation with
new mobile armored tactics.

Energetic young German
officers like Heinz Guderian

read the theories of British
thinkers like Basil Liddell Hart

and Colonel John Fuller.

They even watched
exercises being carried out

by the British during
the 1920s on Salisbury Plain.

It was from these that
they came up with the idea

of fast moving units combining
tanks, artillery and infantry

that could thrust fast
and deep into enemy territory.

Hitler adopted their ideas
with enthusiasm.

The new army was to have
three Panzer divisions.

Similarly, the new air force,
the Luftwaffe,

under former World War One
fighter ace Hermann Goering,

had had a framework to build on.

Throughout the years
in which its air force

was officially banned,

Germany had kept up
its design skills

by building civilian machines,

and gliding and flying clubs

provided a reserve
of potential aircrew.

Hitler revealed the existence
of the Luftwaffe in March 1935.

He then announced that
the army was to be increased

to 300,000 men and conscription
was reintroduced.

Britain and France
protested feebly

at this flagrant breach
of the Versailles Treaty.

But soon they reluctantly
and slowly began to rearm.

Until this point, Hitler
had been modest in his goals.

He had only taken back
what was his -

the Rhineland and Saarland.

But now he had a grander
target in mind.

His homeland, Austria.

In 1934, Austrian Nazis
had attempted to seize power

and unify the country
with Germany.

Austrians,
after all spoke German,

even if they had never
been part of a German state.

In February 1938, another
Nazi plot was discovered.

Austrian chancellor Kurt von
Schuschnigg protested to Hitler.

Hitler responded by
demanding that Austria stop

mistreating the Austrian Nazis
and unite with Germany.

Schuschnigg promptly
called a referendum

so that the Austrians could vote

on whether
to remain independent.

But on March 12th, 1938,
the eve of the referendum,

Hitler, fearing that it might
produce the wrong result,

sent in his troops.

Complete surprise and
an enthusiastic welcome

by Nazi sympathizers
made it a bloodless invasion.

Within hours, Hitler announced
Austria's incorporation

into the Third Reich.

A sovereign nation
had for the first time

been subsumed into
a greater Germany.

Once again, the Western
democracies failed to react.

In the summer of 1938,
he turned on his next prey -

Czechoslovakia.

A substantial German minority

lived in the north-west
of the country,

an area
known as the Sudetenland.

These Sudeten Germans had been
part of the old Austrian empire

but had been cut off when
Czechoslovakia was
created in 1919.

This was the time bomb
that had started ticking

at the signing of
the Treaty of Versailles.

Seig Heil! Seig Heil!

Hitler encouraged Sudeten
German demands for autonomy,

and then threatened
the Czech government

with force
if it refused to agree.

Undaunted,
the Czech government

ordered general mobilization
and prepared to resist.

The Czechoslovak army
was large and well-equipped,

with formidable fortifications
on its frontier with Germany.

Hitler backed off.

But then at the beginning
of September,

concerned that war
might be imminent,

the British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain

decided to act as a peace maker.

He flew to meet Hitler twice.

The Nazi dictator assured him

that if he could have
the Sudetenland

he would make no further
territorial demands in Europe.

In Munich,
on September 29th, 1938,

with Mussolini
acting as mediator,

France and Britain
signed an agreement

giving the Sudetenland
to Germany

in return for a formal
declaration by Hitler

that he had no more
territorial ambitions.

Chamberlain flew back to Britain
waving the piece of paper

which he claimed,
"Guarantees peace in our time."

And so, on October 1st,

German troops occupied
the Sudetenland

and seized the Czech
frontier fortifications.

Hitler now began sizing up
his next target, Poland.

Again the nominal cause
was a German minority

marooned as a result
of the Versailles Treaty.

Hitler demanded the return
of the port of Danzig

to German control,
so that East Prussia

could be linked up
with the rest of Germany.

The Poles refused,
and Hitler hesitated.

He was not quite ready
for all-out war

and he had unfinished business
with Czechoslovakia.

In March 1939, the eastern
part of the country, Slovakia,

which was ethnically different
to the Czech lands,

appealed to Hitler for help in
achieving greater independence.

Hitler summoned the
Czechoslovak Prime Minister

Emil Hacha to Berlin,

and browbeat him into
putting his country

under "German protection".

German troops now marched into
the rest of Czechoslovakia,

unopposed.

Most of the country
was annexed into the Reich.

Slovakia was
declared a protectorate.

For the first time,
Hitler had seized

non-German speaking territory.

But again there was
only a feeble protest

from Britain and France.

At the end of March,
he again repeated his demand

that Poland give up Danzig.

This time France and Britain
declared unequivocally

that they would declare war
if he attacked Poland.

But by now Hitler cared little
whether they did or not.

He was sure that they would be
weak and indecisive opponents.

In Russia,
Stalin had also been become

increasingly concerned
by Hitler's aggression.

In April, Stalin
proposed an alliance

with Britain and France.

But negotiations
made little progress,

and finally Stalin despaired,

deciding that there was
another solution

to the German threat.

On August 23rd,

the Soviet Union
and the Third Reich,

who everyone had believed
were sworn enemies,

announced a non-aggression pact.

The agreement secretly specified
that Poland would be split

between the two countries and
Stalin would have a free hand

to take over Estonia,
Latvia and Lithuania.

Now free from
any Russian threat,

Hitler ordered
his armed forces to prepare

for an immediate invasion.

On the evening of August 31st,

the German Wehrmacht
prepared for the assault.

Its Fuhrer
had made the decision

which would plunge
the world into war.