All language subtitles for World.War.II.with.Tom.Hanks.S01E08.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH.track2

[somber music]

♪

- When the United States
enters the war,

it's understood
that a second front

is needed to defeat
Nazi Germany.

The Red Army
and Soviet people have

taken the brunt
of the Nazi onslaught

for nearly a year,

and now Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin demands

that the Western Allies
do their part.

The Allies disagree
where to attack.

American military leaders
want to invade France,

the most direct route
to Berlin.

But Churchill
and his generals,

still haunted by the
horrible cost of World War I,

are reluctant to invade Europe
before they're ready.

And so the decision
is made to attack

the Germans in North Africa,

in an invasion codenamed
Operation Torch.

The Americans,
inexperienced and untested,

are about to battle
the Wehrmacht

for the very first time.

[dramatic music]

- All wars changed the world,

but none of them
changed the world

like the Second World War did.

- Japan's on the march.

Germany is on the march.

No one can imagine a nightmare
they're about to unleash,

the most destructive war
in human history.

- Suddenly, the world
is turned upside down,

and all hell is let loose.

♪

- The West is stunned
by the speed of the advance.

- You get the Allies led
by the big three--

Roosevelt, Churchill,
Stalin--

men who were dealing with

immensely
complicated questions.

- It's the biggest military
operation of human history.

-The Allies have to
come together

not just militarily,

but industrial scale

it's a global perspective.

- They have to fight
in every climate

from the Arctic
to the jungles of the Pacific

to the deserts of Africa
and the depths of the ocean.

♪

- But there was
no certainty of victory.

It was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.

- We see humans
at their absolute worst,

how they treat other
human beings.

And we see them
at their absolute best,

willing to give their lives
that others might live.

- World War II was a struggle
in which there could be

one victor and one vanquished.

♪

[air-raid siren blaring]

♪

[tense music]

♪

- The British base
of Gibraltar

has long guarded the opening
to the Mediterranean.

♪

- Steady as a rock.

For nearly 240 years,

Gibraltar has stood sentinel
above the harbor,

watching over
the Mediterranean fleet,

the strongest fortress
in the world.

[airplane rumbling]

- On November 5, 1942,

Lieutenant General
Dwight D. Eisenhower

lands at
the military airstrip.

He's arrived to take command

of a joint U.S.-British
ground operation

in North Africa,
codenamed Torch.

♪

[seagull chirping]

This campaign will eventually
open a second front

against German
and Italian forces

already fighting in Africa.

♪

- Operation Torch is
an extremely complex landing.

♪

- In all, we're gonna
be depositing a force

of around 100,000 troops.

And in order
to deliver that force,

we've got to use
300 merchantmen

guarded by
roughly 300 warships.

♪

- Three Allied task forces
are involved

in the complex maneuver.

♪

The east and center forces
will land in Algiers and Oran.

The west task force,
sailing from America,

will land on the beaches
of Casablanca.

♪

- They have to
rendezvous at sea,

hundreds of miles away,

and then carry out
simultaneous landings

across nearly 1,000 miles
of North African Coast.

Nothing remotely like it had
ever been carried out before.

- Eisenhower is hand-picked
by President Roosevelt

to lead the alliance,
to the surprise

of many American and
British military commanders.

He's been a high-level
staff officer for years,

but this will be his
first wartime operation.

- Dwight Eisenhower,
a year ago, had been a colonel.

And now, he's been advanced
to lieutenant general.

Eisenhower has never held
a combat command.

He was not actively involved
in World War I.

- Never seen the Somme.

Never seen Passchendaele.

Never seen a man die
in their arms, in combat.

Who is this man, Eisenhower?

- Eisenhower is
wickedly competitive

and really intelligent.

And the other thing is,
he's not an ego.

He's pretty humble.

He gets along with people,
which is utterly important

when you think about
the center of gravity

for the Allies in World War II,
is the alliance.

♪

- From day one,
in Eisenhower's new role

as supreme commander, he has a
pile of problems on his plate.

He has to run this
gigantic operation.

Nothing on this scale
has ever been done before.

He has to keep it secret.

- Eisenhower will need
to coordinate

the American
and British commands

and synchronize
all elements of Torch.

Ultimately,
every aspect of the operation,

including preparing unproven
American soldiers for combat,

is on his shoulders.

♪

- One of the reasons
they've chosen North Africa

as a theater
for American troops

is because it will
give them an opportunity

of blooding them--
they're inexperienced.

Most of them hadn't even
seen combat up to this point--

against an incredibly
formidable foe.

- The German troops
were battle hardened.

They'd been in the field now
for two full years.

They'd conquered
various kinds of climbs,

various kinds of terrain,
various kinds of enemies,

and they'd beaten them all.

- By the summer of 1942,
the Nazi empire is huge.

It goes all the way from
the western coast of France

to well inside the borders
of the Soviet Union.

So that's the whole
of continental Europe,

effectively,
is controlled by the Nazis.

- The Germans control
most of Europe,

but that's not the sum total
of Hitler's ambitions.

Germany has to be
a global empire,

he says many times.

And so now, the focus
turns outside of Europe

to North Africa.

- German and Italian forces

are already fighting
the British in North Africa,

threatening the Suez Canal,

the vital supply line
between Britain and India.

- British imperial strategists

have always been obsessed
with the Suez Canal.

It is the great artery
of the British Empire.

It joins Britain
and its empire in the East,

particularly India, the jewel
of the British Empire.

[horn blares]

- The danger is that
the Axis forces move

from there to control of the
oil fields of the Middle East.

And if all of that happens,

they're gonna sever
the supply lines

to the rest of the empire.

- Prime Minister
Winston Churchill

also wants to get
the Americans in the fight

against the Axis
as soon as possible.

- Roosevelt believed
that American troops

need to be in the field
against the Axis powers

in 1942.

The people needed to feel
that we were striking back.

♪

- We need to figure out
how to fight a modern battle.

And this is where
the army is gonna use

as its proving ground.

There are valuable lessons
to be learned.

North Africa might
be a place to do it.

♪

- But there's
an immediate challenge.

The future landing spots
on North Africa's coast

are on Vichy French territory.

- The French empire is the
second largest in the world,

behind only that
of Great Britain,

with immense manpower
and resources at its disposal.

The French still control

Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.

♪

- After France surrenders
to Germany in 1940,

the country is split in two.

The southern half of France is
ruled by the Vichy government,

which collaborates
with Nazi Germany.

[cheers and applause]

It's led by World War I hero
Marshal Philippe Pétain.

♪

Eisenhower is anxious.

♪

Will the French
in North Africa

resist the American landing?

[airplane whooshes]

- No one's clear exactly
how many soldiers

and how much military asset the
French have in North Africa.

What they do know is that
the French have a lot

of very modern warships there.

They also have about
120,000 soldiers,

although no one knows exactly
how well trained they are

or, most crucially,
what their morale is,

what they're inclined to do.

- American diplomats
in North Africa believe

the French are unlikely
to resist the invasion,

but cannot guarantee it.

Eisenhower has been
sending messages

to various Vichy governors
in North Africa,

hoping for cooperation.

♪

On November 7,
over 600 ships gather

at their meeting points
out at sea.

The warning order is flashed
to the waiting ships.

H-Hour is confirmed--
November 8.

♪

The Allies are ready to land.

♪

♪

- On November 7th,

more than
100,000 Allied troops

are waiting off the coast
of North Africa.

♪

- There's risk.

Amphibious operations require

detailed, advance preparation.

What are the tides?
What's the footing gonna be?

How close
can landing craft get?

Are there mines?

Are there
underwater obstacles?

♪

- The first wave
of landing craft

from East and Center
task forces

set off for the beaches
at Algiers and Oran.

♪

Shortly after, fighter support
takes off from Gibraltar.

♪

- Ike Eisenhower must have
been incredibly nervous

and was nervous, we know,
from his naval aide,

who writes that Ike is like
a "cat on bricks."

- Even though the weather was
kind of bad the night before,

when they actually started
unloading their landing craft

and moving those craft
up to the beaches,

the surf is low enough
that they're able

to get their
initial landing forces

onto the beaches successfully.

- The first reports
Eisenhower receives

from the landing craft on
the beaches are encouraging,

but when large Allied warships
enter the ports

of Algiers and Oran,
the French open fire.

[booming]

♪

The Allies keep moving

and overcome the French
a day later.

On the Atlantic landing point
at Casablanca,

it's a different story.

Eisenhower entrusts this force
to his old friend,

Major General
George S. Patton Jr.

- George Patton is
an aggressive commander

who believes
aggressive leadership.

He is a fast-talking
disciplinarian,

a character
easily recognizable

to the average soldier.

♪

- As the Western Task Force
nears shore,

Patton delivers a speech
to his troops

over each ship's
public address system.

- Soldiers and sailors,

it is not known whether
the French African Army

will contest our landing,
but all resistance,

by whomever offered,
must be destroyed.

♪

- In the early morning,

Allied warships enter
the harbor at Casablanca.

[booming]

- The French do as they've
been instructed to do.

They resist.

[booming]

This was an invading force,

and the French open fire
on the ships.

- It's the last thing
in the world

that an amphibious
operation needs.

Just a couple of heavy shells
can destroy a landing.

♪

- Despite French resistance,

Americans continue
their attack,

from the air
as well as by sea.

- The result is actually
the largest naval battle

in the Atlantic
during the war.

[guns rattling]

[shouting]

- Despite Eisenhower's
diplomatic efforts,

the troop landings face
heavy French opposition.

[booming]

- Nobody on the American
or British side,

least of all Eisenhower,
wants American forces

fighting French forces
and does not want that to go on

for any extended
period of time at all.

- Eisenhower writes
what he calls

the "Worries of a Commander."

"No Frenchman
immediately available,

"no matter
how friendly toward us,

seems able to stop
the fighting."

♪

Then, with Operation Torch
in danger of failing,

the Allies contact a senior
French military officer

with the power
to provide a solution.

- It just so happens that

the commander in chief
of French forces,

Admiral Francois Darlan,

is in North Africa
at this time,

visiting his son,
who's stricken with polio.

- Although Darlan is
a key Vichy collaborator,

he is the only man
with the authority

to stop
the French counterattack.

- Darlan had been
a deep collaborator

with the Germans and the Nazi
presence in Vichy, France.

And as distasteful
as a figure he is,

he holds the key to stopping

Vichy French resistance
in North Africa.

- Eisenhower authorizes
negotiations with Darlan.

♪

The Allies will put him in
charge of French North Africa

if he agrees to an armistice.

- It's a dirty deal.
It's an unpleasant one.

It's a nasty one.

It's one that
American journalists were

absolutely appalled by.

- That evening, Darlan
orders a general ceasefire

and tells all French forces
to join the Allies.

And so on November 11th,

in the port city
of Casablanca,

French guns fall silent.

♪

- Algeria and French Morocco
have joined hands

with the Allies against
Germany and Italy,

and this fact has immensely
eased the difficulties

that face our united nations'
commanders

in French North Africa.

- Eisenhower thought it would
save lives on both sides,

and it would allow them

to get on to the military
mission at hand.

- The Allies had landed
in North Africa

and have convinced the French
to fight alongside them.

♪

Now, as they push east,

they will face tough,
battle-hardened Axis forces.

♪

After the Allied landings,
General Eisenhower moves

his combined force across
the North African desert.

♪

The Allied plan is not simply
to approach from the west.

Their strategy
is more ambitious.

- The ultimate goal,
if Torch works, is,

the United States
and the British that land

in the western part of Africa
will drive to the east.

The British that are
in the east, in Egypt,

will drive to the west,

and they will capture
a German-Italian army

in between those two pincers.

♪

- The British fighting
in the east, The Eighth Army,

has been battling
the Afrika Korps--

[airplane rumbles]

[booming]

--led by the Desert Fox,
Erwin Rommel.

- He had a mystique about him.

He had a World War I
reputation.

He was a feared leader.

He had the fingertip feel
of a battle.

♪

- For months, Rommel has
pursued the British

through Libya into Egypt,
capturing vital supplies

and threatening
the Suez Canal.

♪

The Afrika Korps'
success has left

Prime Minister
Winston Churchill depressed

and politically vulnerable.

- Churchill looks like
he's lost his touch.

He faces two no confidence
motions in Parliament,

both of which he wins.

But as one
Labour MP says, well,

you keep winning the debates,
but you lose the battles.

Winston Churchill
is in need of victories.

♪

- For Churchill
and for Operation Torch,

one battle in North Africa
will be critical.

Just weeks before
the Allied landings,

the British Eighth Army,

led by
General Bernard Montgomery,

prepares his troops
at a little-known

railway junction called
El-Alamein.

♪

From here,
Montgomery plans to launch

a massive counteroffensive
against the Afrika Korps.

♪

- El-Alamein shouldn't
be viewed in isolation.

It's part of
a broader Allied plan.

Montgomery's Eighth Army
attacking Rommel from the east,

and meanwhile
a vast amphibious landing

in the western half
of North Africa,

Operation Torch, converging
on Rommel from two directions

and eventually presenting him

with an insoluble
operational dilemma,

trying to maintain himself
against not just one,

but two superior enemies.

- Montgomery is reinforced

with American Sherman
and Grant tanks,

plus troops from India,
New Zealand, South Africa,

and the rest of
the British Commonwealth.

At last, Montgomery, who has
been fighting the Wehrmacht

since the invasion of France,

has the opportunity to go on
the offensive against Rommel.

♪

[booming]

On the night
of October 23, 1942,

Montgomery opens the battle
with a massive barrage.

[booming]

- Montgomery knows he's got
to proceed step by step,

1,000 yards by 1,000 yards.

Get the infantry in.

Clear the minefield.
Open the way for the tanks.

Hold the ground.

[airplane rumbles]

♪

- Rommel fights back,

but he's hampered
by lack of fuel.

♪

After days of fighting,
the Eighth Army prevails.

♪

- By the 11th day
of the fighting,

Montgomery's superior numbers
and material

finally begin to take effect.

♪

- The British infantry
and the New Zealand infantry

finally break their way
through the German lines

and open things up
for the armor.

[booming]

- Tens of thousands of men,
thousands of tanks,

hundreds of heavy artillery--
heavy losses on both sides.

♪

Inevitably,

the better supplied
and armed force win out,

and that's Montgomery's
Eighth Army.

♪

- Winston Churchill
is absolutely thrilled.

This is years of planning
and preparation.

He bounces in for lunch
with the king and queen,

and he says,
"I bring you victory."

And they think he's gone mad.

They haven't heard
of any victories for years.

- In London,
at the Lord Mayor's luncheon,

Winston Churchill frames
the victory at El-Alamein

and puts it into context.

- This is not the end.

No, it is not even
the beginning of the end,

but it is perhaps
the end of the beginning.

[applause]

♪

- Montgomery's win here
is one of the most

significant British
victories of the entire war.

- Montgomery has beaten Rommel
at El-Alamein,

and Rommel is retreating
as fast as he can.

- The critical pincer plan,
the ultimate goal of Torch,

is underway.

- Montgomery certainly
undertakes an epic pursuit

from El-Alamein over the wire,
the Egyptian-Libyan border,

and now heading
towards Tripoli.

- In the west,
Eisenhower's troops

have moved hundreds of miles.

[rumbling]

Three weeks after landing,

they're only 12 miles
outside Tunis,

the capital of Tunisia.

When he learns this,

Adolf Hitler is determined
to stop the Allies.

- The war is not going the way
he thought it was going to go,

and now all of a sudden,
you've got these Allies

messing around
in North Africa.

This isn't supposed to happen.

♪

- Hitler sends reinforcements,

including an entire
Panzer division,

to the ports and air bases
around Tunis.

♪

Combined with
Rommel's Afrika Korps,

there are now 100,000
German and Italian troops

on the continent.

♪

- No one in either camp
had ever envisioned

a gigantic continental battle
being fought for Tunisia.

But that's where
the fortunes of war

have brought
the two adversaries.

♪

[airplane rumbling]

♪

- Thanksgiving, 1942.

♪

Near Tunis, American tanks
clash with German Panzers

for the first time.

- The tank is the modern
manifestation of land warfare.

The idea that tanks,
American tanks,

are fighting German tanks--

this is what FDR said
was gonna happen.

We're now pushing back
against Germany.

- This is the actual
battlefield,

Germans on the left,
Americans on the right.

P-38s move ahead
of the advancing forces.

♪

These scenes were
photographed from a hill

overlooking the battlefield.

- All logic would tell you,

this is gonna go badly
for the Americans.

They have no experience
of warfare at this stage.

The Germans are
hardened combat veterans.

A lot of them have fought
in Western Europe,

in all those
victorious battles.

- These are
German Mark IV tanks.

- These are Panzer IVs
with 75-millimeter guns--

very effective.

And up against them,

you've got relatively light
American tanks.

They've only got
37-millimeter guns,

and the skin of the armor
isn't very effective.

♪

- The skirmish begins badly
for the Americans,

who are supported
by British troops.

- A British
ammunition lorry is hit.

[guns booming]

- At the start of it,
they get knocked back.

A whole troop of tanks
gets wiped out.

[booming]

- But the Allies have a second
company of tanks in reserve.

- They're able to fire
into the position

of the German armor
that is very weak,

which is really
around the belt,

and also at the back
of the tank.

And they knock out,
in the space of a few minutes,

eight German Panzers.

- Watch the tank
in the center of the picture.

[booming]

A blast on the left
of the screen

has struck the center tank.

It spins around, disabled.

[booming]

There it goes.

- The Panzers now withdraw.

In this very first
tank-to-tank skirmish,

the Americans beat back
the Germans.

- Black smoke indicates
the end.

♪

- But the offensive stalls.

♪

Reinforcements sent by Hitler
pummel them from land and air,

while the winter rains
impede movement.

Just before Christmas,

General Eisenhower
visits the front

to consult with his troops
and commanders.

He concludes that
there's no chance

of reaching Tunis
in the current conditions

and calls off the advance.

- The U.S. Army report
from this era, which says,

"At present, the Germans are
making war better than we are."

♪

- In the new year,
President Roosevelt

and Prime Minister Churchill
meet in Casablanca.

♪

President Roosevelt
flies in,

the very first president
to fly while in office.

♪

- The code name of Roosevelt's
secret meeting with Churchill

in Casablanca is Don Quixote.

♪

This is the first time
that an American president

has left the United States
during wartime.

♪

- Moving a president
of the United States

and his entourage
is always a difficult thing.

In this case,
they can't send him

by ship across
the Atlantic Ocean

because of the presence
of German U-boats.

So they send him on
this insane trip by rail

from Washington to Miami,

then by a Clipper flying boat
from Miami to Trinidad,

Trinidad to Brazil,
Brazil to Gambia,

Gambia to Casablanca.

It's an incredibly arduous
journey that Roosevelt

believed he had to make.

- Roosevelt and Churchill
will meet numerous times

throughout the war
and derive great benefit

from face-to-face meetings.

- Churchill can
now play the part

of the great imperial warlord

that, so far, he's been
only through his speeches.

Now he can do it
on the ground.

And he does what
he does best, which is,

he rolls out the maps
and talks about grand strategy

with the U.S. president.

♪

- Over 10 days, the two
leaders and their staffs

discuss the progress
of Operation Torch

and plan
the Allies' next steps.

♪

- It's really
the high water mark

of the Roosevelt-Churchill
relationship.

They're statesmen,

moving chess pieces
around on a board.

- Just before they leave,
they talk to reporters

from around the world.

- The North African conference
is the fourth occasion

on which the two great men
have met

since the beginning
of the war.

- To the surprise of many,
including Churchill,

Roosevelt announces
a new war aim.

- A new phrase was born,

"unconditional surrender"
for the Axis.

- "Unconditional surrender"
meant that Nazi Germany

would have to fall.

That did not mean that
Germany had to be destroyed,

but Nazi power
had to be smashed.

We would now call this
"regime change."

- There will be no armistice.

There will be no
soft surrender.

There will be no repetition
of World War I.

This is
unconditional surrender.

♪

- It's quite something.

We're in early 1943,

and it is not at all clear
that the Allies

are even winning the war.

They're having trouble
taking Tunis,

which is a very long way
from Berlin.

Yet Roosevelt and Churchill
know that

they can produce more
than their adversaries.

And if production goes
as they think it will,

they will be able
to swamp the armies

that the Axis puts
in the field against them.

♪

- As the conference ends,

Allied intelligence reveals
Rommel's army,

pursued by Montgomery,

has joined with
Hitler's reinforcements.

♪

But the Americans
and the British

now have them surrounded.

[dramatic music]

[airplanes rumble]

- By the end of January 1943,

the Allies are finally gaining
ground against the Axis powers

of Germany, Italy, and Japan.

[booming]

In the Pacific, the Americans
have secured Guadalcanal.

The Allies successfully
landed in the west,

and Montgomery's
Eighth Army has pressed

Rommel's Afrika Korps
across a wide front.

♪

The Allies now surround the
Axis army deep inside Tunisia.

♪

But before they can get far,

Rommel plots
a counteroffensive.

♪

He's identified a weak point
in the Allied line,

at Kasserine Pass.

- Kasserine is this
very narrow pass.

It's only about 2 miles wide,
and it leads into

the Dorsale Mountains,
they call them,

the mountain range
in the center of Tunisia.

You've got heights
on either side of it.

- If Rommel can drive deep
enough through Kasserine

and into the rear areas
of the Allied army,

he can possibly turn
the whole thing round.

- From there, he'll have
all sorts of choices

about what to do next--

overrun Allied supply dumps,

perhaps drive straight north
to the sea

and cut off the entire
Allied force in Tunisia.

- There are 30,000
Allied troops in the region,

but the narrow pass itself
is guarded by just 2,000 men,

spread thinly
across the terrain.

- The Allied troops
in the Kasserine Pass

are the U.S. II Corps--

infantry, engineers,
artillery--

men who, by and large,
are completely inexperienced.

- The Allied forces are
distributed and dispersed,

lacking mutual support.

Air support is not
dominant at this point.

♪

- On February 19th,
Rommel launches his attack.

♪

Until now, the Americans
have had skirmishes with

the Germans but haven't faced
a full-scale Panzer assault.

♪

[booming]

- This attack comes in
with heavy artillery,

rapid movement
of German armor,

and effective use of motorized
infantry to clear positions.

♪

The American forces
are caught off guard.

♪

- Not only is this
their first major fight,

but their commander
is far behind the lines

and doesn't communicate
with the front.

The results are devastating.

[booming]

- These troops,
slowly but surely,

are being outgunned,
outmaneuvered, outfought.

What starts out as a defeat
becomes a bit of a route.

♪

- And the Axis now begins
streaming up this pass.

It's just a steamroller.

- By the evening
of the second day,

U.S. defenses in the pass
have collapsed.

Around 2,500 soldiers
are wounded,

another 2,500 taken prisoner.

Others abandon their vehicles
and flee over the hills.

♪

Rommel's plan is working,
but then he pushes too far.

He sends his troops forward,

seeking a way
through the mountains

and allowing his supply lines
to get dangerously long.

- Rommel might have
thought he had

the U.S. Army on the run,

but the momentum
that he had established

from that opening is now
beginning to wear down.

His losses are mounting,
his supplies are running out,

especially tank ammunition
and fuel.

♪

- As Rommel weakens,

the U.S. Army steadies itself
and regroups,

blocking Rommel's breakout
with a wall

of U.S. artillery
and air support--

[airplanes roaring]

♪

[booming]

--which ultimately
forces Rommel to retreat.

♪

- The Americans lose
casualties and POWs taken.

This is a real
black eye for them.

- It is the punch in the face

that the American doctrine
isn't where it should be.

We aren't fighting
the way we should.

We need better training.

We need better leadership.

Kasserine Pass condemns
all of those weaknesses.

- The result of this is gonna
be that Americans become

much more serious
about making sure

their forces remain
concentrated,

particularly armored forces,

that we're not going to
allow them to be doled out

in little bits and pieces.

- General Eisenhower
takes responsibility

for the initial breakdown
at Kasserine Pass

and makes changes
to address logistical

and operational issues.

He also reorganizes the
Allied force in North Africa.

His first move is to give
General George Patton

command
of the U.S. II Corps.

- Patton's a swashbuckler,

and he's been
waiting in the wings,

and now it's his moment.

He's a man who is
a strong leader,

and troops respond
to strong leaders.

- His subordinate
commanders all know

that he will be up there
on the battlefield,

looking over their shoulders.

And if they are not
performing up to expectations,

they're gone.

- He tells his troops,
famously,

"You're not all going to be
killed, only about 4% of you."

He reassures them, you're
probably gonna survive this,

but death is going to be
your companion going forward,

and I'm not going to spare you.

We're gonna hit the Germans
face to face and toe to toe.

- Eisenhower's troops are
now prepared and in position

to deal a final blow to the
Axis powers in North Africa.

[dramatic music]

♪

[tank rumbling]

- After five months of combat,
the combined Allied troops

have become an effective
fighting force.

♪

General Eisenhower
now marshals these troops

for what he hopes will be
a final confrontation

with Rommel and the Axis.

- The Allied plan is to bleed
Rommel's strength off.

Anytime he faces
the British, theoretically,

he can have the Americans
advancing into his rear.

And every time he turns
against the Americans,

he can have Montgomery
advancing into his rear.

♪

- On March 20th,
the Allies are ready to attack

in a place called El Guettar.

♪

Patton tells his men,
"We must be eager to kill.

"If we fight viciously enough,
we will live

to return to our family
as conquering heroes."

- The Germans become aware
of that position

and say to themselves,

we think we can eject
the Americans fairly easily.

We did it before
at Kasserine, right?

♪

- As German Panzers
burst onto the plains

at El Guettar
with Stukas plunging down,

Patton deploys
U.S. field artillery

and tank destroyers.

♪

- Patton is very aware
of how to use

armor, infantry,
and artillery all together.

And when the Germans
put in that attack,

the Americans greet them with a
true example of combined arms.

♪

And they absolutely
shellac them.

[booming]

♪

- Having come right after
Kasserine Pass,

it has gone from failure
to success.

♪

- Over the next month,

the Allies squeeze
the Axis armies.

And by early April,
Eisenhower's forces

and Montgomery's Eighth Army
finally joined.

Eisenhower rejoices.

♪

We are at last operating
on a single battle line.

♪

Now the Allies set
their sights on Tunis.

German resistance
is ferocious.

Every hill and pass
is a struggle.

♪

But gradually,
with concentrated firepower

from two sides,

the Allies continue
to move forward.

[booming]

♪

- Almost inch by inch,

the Axis position
in Tunisia shrinks

till it's little more
than an arc

around the city
of Tunis itself.

♪

- On May 7,
Allied troops entered Tunis

and the Axis forces surrender.

- After the capture of Tunis,

North Africa is finally
free of the Nazis

and their fascist
Italian allies.

The North African Campaign
is over.

♪

- By tens, by hundreds,

by thousands, they came.

And at the end,
15 full divisions.

266,000 of their best men

laid down their arms.

- Over a quarter of a million
Germans and Italians

are captured.

- Prisoners as far
as the eye can see.

This is a great moment
for the Allied cause.

There had been one disastrous
encounter with the Germans

after the other
since this war began.

And now, I think everyone
on the Allied side,

especially Roosevelt,
would say,

the home folks
can see that something

was going right in this war.

♪

- Many high-ranking
Axis commanders are captured,

but not Rommel,
who has been recalled

to Germany by Adolf Hitler.

♪

The success
of Operation Torch,

combined with British victory
at El-Alamein,

push the Nazis
out of North Africa.

It is the first step
toward Allied victory

over the Third Reich.

- To give you a sense
of the scale

of the victory in Tunisia,

Churchill orders
the church bells to be rung.

They haven't been rung during
the course of the whole war.

It's an unbelievable victory
for the Allies.

- The tide of the war
is turning,

but it's unclear what's next.

♪

- This great victory
is a monument

to the perfection
of cooperation among

the fighting services
of several nations.

I know you would
be proud of the way

our own boys, your husbands,
brothers, sons,

and sweethearts have delivered
here for you.

♪

- Winston Churchill said,

"The only thing worse
than fighting with allies

is fighting without them."

Operation Torch demonstrates
that General Eisenhower

could command the multinational
coalition of military forces

necessary to topple
the Third Reich.

There are many fronts
in modern war.

Because of its very nature,

the role of
gathering intelligence

is often obscure
and misunderstood.

But when it's successful,
it can be decisive.

That's why
a small English hamlet,

purposefully located between
Cambridge and Oxford,

becomes a crucial front
in World War II.