1 00:02:20,683 --> 00:02:22,977 (cannon exploding) 2 00:02:23,185 --> 00:02:25,813 - [Narrator] This is a film about that scale and grandeur. 3 00:02:26,022 --> 00:02:28,566 (cannon exploding) 4 00:02:28,774 --> 00:02:31,485 This is a film about that military achievement. 5 00:02:31,694 --> 00:02:33,195 (cannon exploding) 6 00:02:33,404 --> 00:02:36,490 This is a film about a people who, for all time, 7 00:02:36,699 --> 00:02:39,285 shattered the legend of Nazi invisibility. 8 00:02:39,493 --> 00:02:40,578 (cannon exploding) 9 00:02:40,786 --> 00:02:44,373 This is a film about victory and defeat. 10 00:02:44,582 --> 00:02:46,042 (rousing orchestral music) 11 00:02:46,250 --> 00:02:51,130 German victory, and German defeat. 12 00:02:51,464 --> 00:02:54,342 (cannon exploding) 13 00:02:55,718 --> 00:02:57,178 This is the battle for Russia, 14 00:02:58,262 --> 00:03:00,514 a battle that has been going on for centuries, 15 00:03:01,932 --> 00:03:04,310 a battle that fills the pages of Russian history. 16 00:03:05,519 --> 00:03:06,312 1242. 17 00:03:07,730 --> 00:03:10,858 (dramatic music) 18 00:03:11,067 --> 00:03:12,652 The Germany order of Teutonic Knights 19 00:03:12,860 --> 00:03:14,945 had invaded northeastern Russia, 20 00:03:15,154 --> 00:03:17,323 and occupied the old city of Pskov. 21 00:03:30,836 --> 00:03:33,297 Under the leadership of their grandmaster, von Bock, 22 00:03:33,506 --> 00:03:35,716 they threatened to enslave the whole population 23 00:03:35,925 --> 00:03:39,553 of that area, including the capital, Novgorod. 24 00:03:43,641 --> 00:03:45,601 (bell ringing) 25 00:03:51,315 --> 00:03:53,109 In their hour of peril, the Russian people 26 00:03:53,317 --> 00:03:56,445 turned for leadership to their prince, Alexander Nevsky. 27 00:04:05,705 --> 00:04:10,209 And on April 5th, 1242, on Lake Peipus, 28 00:04:10,418 --> 00:04:13,671 the Russians met the might of the German forces. 29 00:04:13,879 --> 00:04:17,341 (rousing orchestral music) 30 00:04:31,814 --> 00:04:35,025 They weren't as well equipped or as well organized. 31 00:04:35,234 --> 00:04:39,488 (speaking Russian) 32 00:04:41,031 --> 00:04:44,034 - [Narrator] But in their hearts was a flaming courage, 33 00:04:44,243 --> 00:04:47,121 a flame so fierce that it pierced the German army. 34 00:04:56,046 --> 00:05:01,010 The victory they won fills a bright page of Russian history. 35 00:05:01,969 --> 00:05:05,014 1704, and another conquering army 36 00:05:05,222 --> 00:05:06,849 marched across Russian land. 37 00:05:08,768 --> 00:05:12,229 This time, under Charles XII of Sweden, and again, 38 00:05:12,438 --> 00:05:14,482 the Russians fought for their country. 39 00:05:14,690 --> 00:05:16,734 (cannons exploding) 40 00:05:20,112 --> 00:05:22,531 Led by their emperor, Peter the Great, 41 00:05:22,740 --> 00:05:24,450 after five long years of war, 42 00:05:24,658 --> 00:05:28,162 they defeated the Swedes, in the historic battle of Poltava. 43 00:05:28,370 --> 00:05:32,541 (speaking Russian) 44 00:05:34,752 --> 00:05:36,921 - [Narrator] The invading Swedish armies were crushed, 45 00:05:37,129 --> 00:05:39,340 and forever driven out of Russia. 46 00:05:43,093 --> 00:05:43,928 1812. 47 00:05:45,054 --> 00:05:47,306 ("La Marseillaise") 48 00:05:47,515 --> 00:05:49,975 Napoleon and his armies have blazed their triumphant way 49 00:05:50,184 --> 00:05:52,812 across Europe, and were marching on Moscow. 50 00:05:56,565 --> 00:05:58,609 Conquering armies entered the city, 51 00:05:58,818 --> 00:06:01,028 but they entered a city in flames. 52 00:06:01,237 --> 00:06:04,156 Even in that day, Russian earth was scorched earth 53 00:06:04,365 --> 00:06:06,659 to an invader, and once again, 54 00:06:06,867 --> 00:06:09,370 the invader was forced to start the long march 55 00:06:09,578 --> 00:06:11,539 on the road back out of Russia. 56 00:06:13,207 --> 00:06:17,169 1914, and another German army, this time, 57 00:06:17,378 --> 00:06:20,047 under Kaiser Wilhelm, set out to conquer Russia. 58 00:06:20,256 --> 00:06:22,967 (bombs exploding) 59 00:06:24,969 --> 00:06:27,721 ("1812 Overture") 60 00:06:27,930 --> 00:06:31,058 This time, the Russian people, under the regime of the czar, 61 00:06:31,267 --> 00:06:33,519 were not only fighting German guns 62 00:06:33,727 --> 00:06:37,106 (cannons exploding) 63 00:06:37,314 --> 00:06:39,733 but oppression and corruption in their own country, 64 00:06:41,068 --> 00:06:43,529 and only the ultimate collapse of imperial Germany 65 00:06:43,737 --> 00:06:48,284 saved Russia from losing the Ukraine and the Crimea, 66 00:06:48,492 --> 00:06:50,911 which the Germans had occupied in 1918. 67 00:06:51,829 --> 00:06:56,000 Yes, for 700 years, the Russian people have had to fight 68 00:06:58,878 --> 00:07:01,672 and defend their land against would-be conquerors. 69 00:07:01,881 --> 00:07:03,090 Why? 70 00:07:03,299 --> 00:07:06,385 Why have all these attempts been made to conquer Russia? 71 00:07:09,972 --> 00:07:12,558 Perhaps Russia itself can provide the answer. 72 00:07:13,434 --> 00:07:14,351 Here it is. 73 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:16,562 One sixth of the Earth's surface, 74 00:07:16,770 --> 00:07:17,897 reaching from east to west, 75 00:07:18,105 --> 00:07:20,274 nearly halfway around the world, 76 00:07:20,441 --> 00:07:23,360 and southward from the North Pole to the borders of India. 77 00:07:24,361 --> 00:07:27,072 One country of nine million square miles. 78 00:07:28,782 --> 00:07:31,368 That's our own country three times over, 79 00:07:31,577 --> 00:07:34,455 or all of North America, and a million square miles to boot. 80 00:07:35,539 --> 00:07:37,333 The sun never sets on Russia. 81 00:07:38,375 --> 00:07:41,128 When it is dusk on its western borders, facing Europe, 82 00:07:41,337 --> 00:07:44,298 it is already dawn on its eastern borders 83 00:07:44,506 --> 00:07:45,341 facing the Pacific. 84 00:07:51,972 --> 00:07:53,349 That's Russia, or to be correct, 85 00:07:53,557 --> 00:07:55,768 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 86 00:07:57,645 --> 00:07:59,229 Deep in its mountains lie thick, 87 00:07:59,438 --> 00:08:01,982 rich veins of gold and silver. 88 00:08:02,149 --> 00:08:06,111 Below ground lie enormous deposits of copper, tin, 89 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:08,280 manganese and nickel, 90 00:08:08,489 --> 00:08:09,698 chromium and radium, 91 00:08:09,907 --> 00:08:11,241 sulfur and magnesium. 92 00:08:12,201 --> 00:08:14,828 Russia is rich in raw materials. 93 00:08:15,037 --> 00:08:18,999 Her forests cover millions upon millions of acres. 94 00:08:19,208 --> 00:08:21,543 One fourth of all the lumber reserve in the world 95 00:08:21,752 --> 00:08:25,172 belongs to Russia, and as for fuel, 96 00:08:25,381 --> 00:08:27,967 there's coal, ton upon ton, 97 00:08:29,677 --> 00:08:32,012 and more important, there's also oil, 98 00:08:32,179 --> 00:08:34,807 213 million barrels a year of it, 99 00:08:35,808 --> 00:08:38,185 black gold flowing from the earth, 100 00:08:38,394 --> 00:08:41,188 that contains 55 percent of the world's oil. 101 00:08:42,231 --> 00:08:43,774 What else? 102 00:08:43,983 --> 00:08:45,192 Iron? 103 00:08:45,401 --> 00:08:47,236 Russia has better than 10 billion tons. 104 00:08:48,570 --> 00:08:51,156 That can make a lot of steel before it's done. 105 00:08:51,365 --> 00:08:53,283 Yes, Russia is rich. 106 00:08:53,492 --> 00:08:56,662 Her farms cover millions upon millions of acres, 107 00:08:56,870 --> 00:08:59,206 the rich black earth that besides giving forth 108 00:08:59,415 --> 00:09:01,959 oil and coil, will also grow everything 109 00:09:02,167 --> 00:09:04,753 from sunflowers to lotus. 110 00:09:04,962 --> 00:09:08,173 The tea your people drink in such huge quantities, 111 00:09:08,382 --> 00:09:10,009 and the tobacco that they smoke. 112 00:09:11,218 --> 00:09:13,429 Cotton grows here, too. 113 00:09:13,637 --> 00:09:16,765 Three million, 800 thousand bales a year, 114 00:09:16,974 --> 00:09:19,977 and sugar, and on the pasture land, 115 00:09:20,185 --> 00:09:23,814 the animals grow fat for food and wool for clothing, 116 00:09:25,315 --> 00:09:27,568 while on the warm plains, the fields of grain 117 00:09:27,776 --> 00:09:30,112 stretch as far as the eye can reach. 118 00:09:30,320 --> 00:09:35,200 Corn, oats, hops, rye, and don't forget wheat. 119 00:09:35,534 --> 00:09:37,578 One third of the world's best. 120 00:09:37,786 --> 00:09:40,205 Yes, Russia is very rich, 121 00:09:41,206 --> 00:09:43,042 for it has not only raw materials 122 00:09:43,250 --> 00:09:45,002 and the products of its soil, 123 00:09:45,210 --> 00:09:47,004 Russia is also people. 124 00:09:47,212 --> 00:09:51,675 (people singing in Russian) 125 00:09:54,553 --> 00:09:56,597 193 million people. 126 00:09:56,805 --> 00:10:01,268 (people singing in a foreign language) 127 00:10:04,396 --> 00:10:07,441 People of every race, color and creed, 128 00:10:07,649 --> 00:10:09,777 people coming from the many different republics 129 00:10:09,985 --> 00:10:12,071 that comprise The Soviet Union, 130 00:10:12,279 --> 00:10:15,699 people speaking more than a hundred different languages, 131 00:10:15,908 --> 00:10:18,243 but all citizens of one country. 132 00:10:18,452 --> 00:10:22,748 (people singing in Russian) 133 00:10:32,174 --> 00:10:33,133 Whether they are the great Russians, 134 00:10:33,342 --> 00:10:36,637 the descendants of the first settlers of this vast area, 135 00:10:36,845 --> 00:10:39,348 and for a thousand years, its main population, 136 00:10:40,516 --> 00:10:43,852 or Cossacks, or famous horsemen from the open plains 137 00:10:44,019 --> 00:10:45,187 of the Don River Valley. 138 00:10:46,772 --> 00:10:51,318 (people singing in Russian) 139 00:10:56,907 --> 00:10:59,993 Whether they come from the southwest, the Ukraine. 140 00:11:09,962 --> 00:11:12,297 Here in the bread basket of the Soviet Union 141 00:11:12,506 --> 00:11:16,135 live the little Russians that are known as Ukrainians, 142 00:11:16,343 --> 00:11:20,222 and beside them, the Moldavians and Bessarabians, 143 00:11:20,430 --> 00:11:21,890 but if they come from the far south, 144 00:11:22,099 --> 00:11:24,309 between the Caspian and Black Seas. 145 00:11:33,193 --> 00:11:36,488 Where we find the Armenians and the Georgians, 146 00:11:36,697 --> 00:11:38,699 the Ingush, the Chechens, 147 00:11:39,867 --> 00:11:40,784 and rugged as the high peaks 148 00:11:40,993 --> 00:11:43,203 of their native Caucasus Mountains. 149 00:12:08,896 --> 00:12:13,066 Whether they are Uzbeks, Turkmen, Kyrgys, 150 00:12:13,275 --> 00:12:15,444 from the Persian and Indian frontiers. 151 00:12:18,530 --> 00:12:19,573 Or Mongols. 152 00:12:21,116 --> 00:12:24,912 (traditional Mongolian music) 153 00:12:29,583 --> 00:12:33,837 The Bashkirs, the Turko- Tartars, the Buryats, 154 00:12:34,046 --> 00:12:37,132 the Yakuts, from beyond the Ural Mountains, 155 00:12:39,218 --> 00:12:41,053 or the people of the ice country, 156 00:12:41,261 --> 00:12:42,596 hunters like the Saamis. 157 00:12:44,223 --> 00:12:46,642 Or settlers like the Laplanders. 158 00:12:50,187 --> 00:12:52,272 Whether they come from the pioneering wilderness 159 00:12:52,439 --> 00:12:53,398 of the far north, 160 00:12:54,691 --> 00:12:57,778 or from a great city, like their capital, Moscow, 161 00:12:57,986 --> 00:13:01,740 where the ancient buildings of an ancient civilization 162 00:13:01,949 --> 00:13:06,662 stand beside the modern structures of a modern civilization, 163 00:13:06,870 --> 00:13:09,248 where the old Russian droshky still competes 164 00:13:09,456 --> 00:13:10,624 with the modern limousine. 165 00:13:11,792 --> 00:13:15,587 (people singing in Russian) 166 00:13:22,552 --> 00:13:26,139 Whether they work in factories or as soldiers, 167 00:13:27,224 --> 00:13:31,144 whether they are brick layers or traffic cops, 168 00:13:31,353 --> 00:13:36,233 sailors or riveters, school children or farmers, 169 00:13:38,652 --> 00:13:41,530 nurses or engineers, 170 00:13:41,738 --> 00:13:44,866 window washers or sales girls, 171 00:13:45,075 --> 00:13:48,704 housewives or postal clerks, 172 00:13:48,912 --> 00:13:51,707 radio announcers or stewardesses, 173 00:13:51,915 --> 00:13:54,459 scientists or typists, 174 00:13:54,668 --> 00:13:57,004 musicians or ballerinas. 175 00:13:57,212 --> 00:13:59,756 ("Swan Lake") 176 00:14:06,972 --> 00:14:10,058 Regardless of what they do or where they live, 177 00:14:10,267 --> 00:14:14,313 they all have one thing in common: love of their soil. 178 00:14:14,521 --> 00:14:18,817 (people singing in Russian) 179 00:14:24,948 --> 00:14:26,325 That is Russia. 180 00:14:26,533 --> 00:14:27,576 Size? 181 00:14:27,784 --> 00:14:29,328 The largest country in the world. 182 00:14:30,329 --> 00:14:31,872 Raw materials? 183 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:33,457 Unlimited. 184 00:14:33,665 --> 00:14:34,791 Man power? 185 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:36,960 193 million. 186 00:14:37,169 --> 00:14:39,880 These are three reasons why ever conqueror in history 187 00:14:40,088 --> 00:14:42,716 has wanted Russia, and these are the reasons 188 00:14:42,924 --> 00:14:45,427 why the modern would be conqueror wrote. 189 00:14:45,635 --> 00:14:47,429 - [Man] "When we speak of new territory, 190 00:14:47,596 --> 00:14:48,889 "we must think of Russia. 191 00:14:49,097 --> 00:14:51,475 "Destiny itself points the way there." 192 00:14:52,601 --> 00:14:53,727 - [Narrator] Yes, as we have seen, 193 00:14:53,935 --> 00:14:56,229 Germany's spirit of aggression was handed down 194 00:14:56,438 --> 00:14:58,482 from generation to generation, 195 00:14:58,690 --> 00:15:00,817 and now, in Hitler's Germany, 196 00:15:01,026 --> 00:15:03,153 the dream was world conquest. 197 00:15:04,613 --> 00:15:06,865 For such a dream, there could be only one answer: 198 00:15:07,074 --> 00:15:08,033 collective security. 199 00:15:09,117 --> 00:15:10,744 So with this objective, 200 00:15:10,911 --> 00:15:15,582 in 1934, the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations. 201 00:15:15,791 --> 00:15:17,793 Again and again before the League, 202 00:15:18,001 --> 00:15:20,212 its representatives urged binding agreements 203 00:15:20,420 --> 00:15:22,381 to support by collective action 204 00:15:22,589 --> 00:15:24,883 any nation submitted to attack. 205 00:15:25,092 --> 00:15:27,636 - [Litvinoff] The State I represent entered the League 206 00:15:27,844 --> 00:15:29,888 with the sole purpose of the maintenance 207 00:15:30,097 --> 00:15:31,598 of invisible peace. 208 00:15:31,807 --> 00:15:33,975 The League of Nations is still strong enough 209 00:15:34,184 --> 00:15:35,685 by its collective actions 210 00:15:35,894 --> 00:15:38,105 to avert or arrest aggression. 211 00:15:38,313 --> 00:15:40,857 There is no room for bargaining or compromise. 212 00:15:41,066 --> 00:15:42,401 - [Narrator] But while some members of the League 213 00:15:42,609 --> 00:15:45,028 were pleading vainly for the use of collective force 214 00:15:45,237 --> 00:15:48,532 to stop aggression, the world saw other members, 215 00:15:48,740 --> 00:15:53,620 Germany, Italy, Japan, withdraw from the League 216 00:15:53,870 --> 00:15:55,747 to follow the path of aggression. 217 00:15:56,957 --> 00:16:00,419 Manchuria, Ethiopia, 218 00:16:01,711 --> 00:16:03,964 then Hitler invaded Austria, 219 00:16:04,172 --> 00:16:08,093 Czechoslovakia, and in 1939, Poland. 220 00:16:08,969 --> 00:16:11,304 First step on the road to Russia. 221 00:16:11,513 --> 00:16:13,306 But his eastward march was interrupted 222 00:16:14,474 --> 00:16:17,936 by France and Britain declaring war. 223 00:16:19,146 --> 00:16:22,023 So the Germans were forced to turn west, 224 00:16:22,232 --> 00:16:24,568 and in 1940, as we have seen, 225 00:16:24,776 --> 00:16:27,195 wiped the last opposition from western Europe, 226 00:16:28,447 --> 00:16:30,782 and while the Nazis were unsuccessfully trying 227 00:16:30,991 --> 00:16:33,034 to bring Britain to her knees, 228 00:16:33,243 --> 00:16:35,745 the German generals were already planning to resume 229 00:16:35,954 --> 00:16:37,664 the interrupted eastern blitz. 230 00:16:38,582 --> 00:16:41,168 The road to Russia was now open, 231 00:16:41,376 --> 00:16:44,880 but before that attack, preliminary steps were necessary. 232 00:16:45,088 --> 00:16:48,258 South and east of Germany are Hungary, Romania, 233 00:16:48,467 --> 00:16:52,012 Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Greece, 234 00:16:52,220 --> 00:16:55,515 and Hungary had grain, rich fields of it, 235 00:16:56,391 --> 00:16:59,227 grain too good for Hungarians, when German soldiers 236 00:16:59,394 --> 00:17:01,146 have such good appetites. 237 00:17:01,354 --> 00:17:03,315 Hungary had bauxite. 238 00:17:03,523 --> 00:17:07,319 Bauxite makes aluminum, and aluminum makes planes, 239 00:17:07,527 --> 00:17:09,696 and Hungary had an army, 240 00:17:09,905 --> 00:17:11,865 not the battle trained German army, 241 00:17:12,073 --> 00:17:14,367 but good enough to throw against Russian guns. 242 00:17:15,702 --> 00:17:18,663 Romania had not only grain, but oil, 243 00:17:18,872 --> 00:17:20,749 and Hitler needed every last drop of it 244 00:17:20,957 --> 00:17:22,918 to power his war machine. 245 00:17:23,126 --> 00:17:27,130 Romania also had men, more slave labor, 246 00:17:27,339 --> 00:17:30,300 and more cannon fodder for the attack on Russia. 247 00:17:30,509 --> 00:17:33,428 And most important, Romania and Hungary both 248 00:17:33,637 --> 00:17:37,349 had Russian frontiers, and Hitler wanted those frontiers 249 00:17:37,557 --> 00:17:39,809 in the hands of German generals. 250 00:17:40,018 --> 00:17:42,687 Bulgaria didn't have a Russian frontier, 251 00:17:42,896 --> 00:17:44,689 but it did have bases, 252 00:17:44,898 --> 00:17:47,234 bases on the Black Sea, 253 00:17:47,442 --> 00:17:51,112 bases for German submarines to prey on Russian shipping. 254 00:17:52,489 --> 00:17:54,199 By the spring of 1941, 255 00:17:54,407 --> 00:17:56,785 the reactionary governments of Hungary, 256 00:17:56,993 --> 00:18:01,289 under the dictatorship of Admiral Horthy of Romania, 257 00:18:01,498 --> 00:18:03,500 governed by young King Michael, 258 00:18:03,708 --> 00:18:06,628 who was only a tool in the hands of Hitler's puppet, 259 00:18:06,836 --> 00:18:11,716 General Antonescu, and of Bulgaria, ruled by King Boris, 260 00:18:12,551 --> 00:18:14,761 always a disciple of German imperialism. 261 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:17,889 All had sold their countries out to Hitler. 262 00:18:18,848 --> 00:18:22,060 Now, threatened by a revolt of their peoples, 263 00:18:22,269 --> 00:18:25,146 they were only too glad to be protected by Hitler's armies. 264 00:18:26,314 --> 00:18:30,652 So by March of 1941, German armies were in occupation 265 00:18:30,860 --> 00:18:35,156 of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria. 266 00:18:35,365 --> 00:18:38,159 That still left Yugoslavia and Greece. 267 00:18:38,368 --> 00:18:40,620 So long as they remained unoccupied territory, 268 00:18:40,829 --> 00:18:41,580 they remained the root 269 00:18:41,788 --> 00:18:44,457 for a possible Allied counter invasion. 270 00:18:44,666 --> 00:18:45,792 At one of their regular meetings, 271 00:18:46,001 --> 00:18:47,919 Hitler had assigned the job of conquering Greece 272 00:18:48,128 --> 00:18:50,255 to his stooge, Mussolini. 273 00:18:50,463 --> 00:18:51,881 The stooge was delighted. 274 00:18:52,799 --> 00:18:54,634 Here was his chance to prove to his people 275 00:18:54,843 --> 00:18:56,845 that he, too, was a conqueror. 276 00:18:58,096 --> 00:18:59,764 But he was wrong. 277 00:18:59,973 --> 00:19:01,433 Perhaps the uniforms fooled him. 278 00:19:02,350 --> 00:19:03,685 Something did. 279 00:19:03,893 --> 00:19:06,563 For after the fascist legions had blitzed on one cylinder 280 00:19:06,771 --> 00:19:08,940 this far into Greece, the Greeks, 281 00:19:09,149 --> 00:19:11,776 in a brilliantly conducted mountain campaign, 282 00:19:11,985 --> 00:19:15,196 drove the Italians back, and invaded Albania. 283 00:19:16,197 --> 00:19:17,824 Hitler was enraged. 284 00:19:18,033 --> 00:19:20,493 The failure of his stooge to protect his southern flank 285 00:19:20,702 --> 00:19:23,121 was delaying the attack on Russia. 286 00:19:23,330 --> 00:19:24,998 He sent a final ultimatum. 287 00:19:25,206 --> 00:19:29,336 For the Yugoslavs and Greeks, it was surrender or else. 288 00:19:30,962 --> 00:19:33,131 But the Yugoslavs and Greeks come from a long line 289 00:19:33,340 --> 00:19:34,758 of fighting men. 290 00:19:34,966 --> 00:19:37,385 Nazi slavery didn't appeal to them. 291 00:19:37,594 --> 00:19:41,473 (plane engine whirring) 292 00:19:41,681 --> 00:19:44,017 (bombs exploding) 293 00:19:44,225 --> 00:19:48,104 (missiles whirring and exploding) 294 00:19:48,313 --> 00:19:51,191 (missiles whirring) 295 00:19:53,818 --> 00:19:58,156 At dawn on April 6th, German bombs told the Yugoslavians 296 00:19:58,365 --> 00:19:59,741 they were at war with Germany. 297 00:20:00,784 --> 00:20:03,662 The Nazis and Italians launched a powerful 298 00:20:03,870 --> 00:20:05,622 and coordinated attack from all their bases, 299 00:20:05,830 --> 00:20:08,500 supported by virtually unopposed aerial bombarding. 300 00:20:09,626 --> 00:20:11,544 The conclusion was inevitable. 301 00:20:11,753 --> 00:20:13,088 Although resistance was determined, 302 00:20:13,296 --> 00:20:14,673 the Yugoslav army was cut up 303 00:20:14,881 --> 00:20:17,550 into many small segments, and captured. 304 00:20:17,759 --> 00:20:20,762 The war in Greece also began on April 6th. 305 00:20:20,970 --> 00:20:23,223 There, in spite of fierce and valiant resistance 306 00:20:23,431 --> 00:20:25,266 by the Greeks, and the British, 307 00:20:25,475 --> 00:20:27,143 who had come to their aid, 308 00:20:27,352 --> 00:20:29,729 the Germans, overwhelmingly superior 309 00:20:29,938 --> 00:20:31,815 in both numbers and equipment, 310 00:20:32,023 --> 00:20:34,067 forced their way past the Vistritza River, 311 00:20:34,275 --> 00:20:38,488 Mount Olympus, the famous passage of Thermopylae, 312 00:20:38,697 --> 00:20:39,572 and by the end of April, 313 00:20:39,781 --> 00:20:42,075 a swastika flew over the ancient city of Athens. 314 00:20:44,536 --> 00:20:46,746 The conquest of the Balkans was now complete. 315 00:20:47,706 --> 00:20:49,708 The whole force of Nazi might could now 316 00:20:49,916 --> 00:20:51,251 be turned loose on Russia. 317 00:20:52,168 --> 00:20:54,087 There was no time to waste, 318 00:20:54,295 --> 00:20:56,256 for time was Russia's weapon. 319 00:20:57,132 --> 00:21:00,176 Their industries, so recently built and which, 320 00:21:00,385 --> 00:21:03,430 like our own, were designed for the ways of peace, 321 00:21:03,638 --> 00:21:05,724 were converted for war. 322 00:21:05,932 --> 00:21:08,393 Instead of steel for plows and tools, 323 00:21:08,601 --> 00:21:11,730 steel for shells and guns. 324 00:21:11,938 --> 00:21:13,857 They knew their industry could never produce enough 325 00:21:14,065 --> 00:21:16,609 too adequately for the titanic struggle, 326 00:21:16,818 --> 00:21:18,695 but what they could produce, they would. 327 00:21:20,447 --> 00:21:22,657 (people singing in Russian) 328 00:21:22,866 --> 00:21:24,784 At the same, the army began to grow. 329 00:21:24,993 --> 00:21:27,704 More and more men were called up to be trained, 330 00:21:27,912 --> 00:21:32,250 hardened, drilled, prepared to defend their land. 331 00:21:32,459 --> 00:21:33,084 (engine revving) 332 00:21:33,293 --> 00:21:36,254 (people singing in Russian) 333 00:21:37,505 --> 00:21:42,343 (people singing in Russian) 334 00:21:42,552 --> 00:21:43,511 With the conquest of the Balkans, 335 00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:47,182 the Nazis had a solid front from the Black Sea to the Baltic 336 00:21:47,390 --> 00:21:49,934 but the Russians had built themselves a buffer, 337 00:21:50,143 --> 00:21:52,145 to take some of the steam out of the Nazi punch 338 00:21:52,353 --> 00:21:53,813 no matter where it landed, 339 00:21:54,022 --> 00:21:55,273 but where would it land? 340 00:21:55,482 --> 00:21:56,733 (cannons exploding) 341 00:21:56,941 --> 00:22:00,695 When the blow came, it was from five different directions, 342 00:22:00,904 --> 00:22:03,406 and from the north, one extra, just for luck. 343 00:22:04,699 --> 00:22:05,950 That was the big day. 344 00:22:06,159 --> 00:22:09,496 (engines roaring) 345 00:22:09,662 --> 00:22:12,165 As dawn broke, more than 200 Axis divisions, 346 00:22:12,373 --> 00:22:15,960 more than 2 million men plunged into a front 347 00:22:16,169 --> 00:22:20,548 2000 miles long, reaching from the White Sea to the Black. 348 00:22:20,757 --> 00:22:21,382 Their aim? 349 00:22:21,591 --> 00:22:22,717 The annihilation of the Red Army, 350 00:22:22,926 --> 00:22:25,762 in the decisive battle on the frontier. 351 00:22:27,013 --> 00:22:29,933 (gunfire exploding) 352 00:22:34,312 --> 00:22:36,564 The offensive started along the whole length of the front, 353 00:22:36,773 --> 00:22:40,318 but was concentrated on three main objectives: 354 00:22:40,527 --> 00:22:45,406 Leningrad, Moscow, and Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. 355 00:22:46,074 --> 00:22:47,992 In the first 30 days, von Leeb's forces 356 00:22:48,201 --> 00:22:51,287 drove to within 125 miles of Leningrad, 357 00:22:51,496 --> 00:22:55,124 while the Finns under Mannerheim, supported by the Germans, 358 00:22:55,333 --> 00:22:58,336 began to drive from the north to encircle the city. 359 00:22:58,545 --> 00:23:02,257 In the center, von Bock's army plunged 480 miles 360 00:23:02,465 --> 00:23:04,300 into Soviet territory. 361 00:23:04,509 --> 00:23:06,803 One Russian city after the other was overrun 362 00:23:07,011 --> 00:23:08,096 by the invaders. 363 00:23:21,860 --> 00:23:25,321 And on July 17th, they captured the first main objective: 364 00:23:25,530 --> 00:23:29,033 Smolensk, regarded as the key to Moscow. 365 00:23:29,242 --> 00:23:32,579 Simultaneously in the south, von Rundstedt's forces 366 00:23:32,787 --> 00:23:34,163 cut deep into the Ukraine. 367 00:23:35,164 --> 00:23:37,458 This was Blitzkrieg at its best. 368 00:23:37,667 --> 00:23:40,336 The world gave Russia another six weeks, 369 00:23:40,545 --> 00:23:42,797 and the Germans issued a communique. 370 00:23:44,048 --> 00:23:46,759 - [Man] The issue in the east has already been settled. 371 00:23:46,968 --> 00:23:50,513 Smolensk is the last halt on the road to Moscow. 372 00:23:50,722 --> 00:23:52,932 - [Narrator] But then, a strange thing happened. 373 00:23:53,099 --> 00:23:55,310 For the first time since the mighty German army 374 00:23:55,518 --> 00:23:58,813 started its career of blitz, smashing into submission 375 00:23:59,022 --> 00:24:01,399 one European country after the other, 376 00:24:01,608 --> 00:24:04,611 that same German army came up against a country 377 00:24:04,777 --> 00:24:06,321 (cannons blasting) 378 00:24:06,487 --> 00:24:08,156 that did not submit. 379 00:24:08,364 --> 00:24:09,949 Despite the fact that Hitler's army 380 00:24:10,158 --> 00:24:12,702 swept deeper and deeper into the Soviet Union, 381 00:24:12,911 --> 00:24:15,413 and by October the 15th stood practically 382 00:24:15,622 --> 00:24:17,457 within the shadows of the Kremlin, 383 00:24:17,665 --> 00:24:19,417 despite the fact that the Soviet government 384 00:24:19,626 --> 00:24:23,171 and all foreign missions were forced to move to Kuibyshev, 385 00:24:23,379 --> 00:24:25,214 700 miles to the east, 386 00:24:25,423 --> 00:24:27,717 despite Hitler's triumphant pronouncement, 387 00:24:27,926 --> 00:24:30,553 I can say that this enemy is already broken 388 00:24:30,762 --> 00:24:32,263 and will never rise again. 389 00:24:32,472 --> 00:24:33,097 (speaking German) 390 00:24:33,306 --> 00:24:34,849 Despite the fact that by December, 391 00:24:35,058 --> 00:24:37,977 500,000 square miles of Russian territory, 392 00:24:38,144 --> 00:24:41,773 an area equal to the entire middle western United States 393 00:24:41,981 --> 00:24:45,318 had fallen to the invaders, yes, 394 00:24:45,526 --> 00:24:49,447 despite Russia's loss of her best agricultural areas, 395 00:24:49,656 --> 00:24:52,367 her most thoroughly developed industrial plants, 396 00:24:52,575 --> 00:24:54,702 millions of her people, 397 00:24:54,869 --> 00:24:57,705 thousands of her tanks and her planes, 398 00:24:57,914 --> 00:25:01,084 despite everything, those six weeks had lengthened 399 00:25:01,292 --> 00:25:04,671 into nearly six months, and the dread Nazi blitz 400 00:25:04,837 --> 00:25:09,759 had spluttered, stumbled, and finally died. 401 00:25:10,176 --> 00:25:11,552 What had happened here? 402 00:25:11,761 --> 00:25:13,513 Let's try to analyze it. 403 00:25:15,098 --> 00:25:18,101 First, in this titanic struggle, not only two armies, 404 00:25:18,309 --> 00:25:21,729 but two fighting methods and two strategies 405 00:25:21,938 --> 00:25:23,648 came face to face. 406 00:25:23,856 --> 00:25:25,858 The German strategy was based on the well tried 407 00:25:26,067 --> 00:25:28,152 'Keil and Kessel' 408 00:25:28,361 --> 00:25:30,029 or wedge and trap maneuver. 409 00:25:30,238 --> 00:25:32,657 One wedge would be driven deep into the enemy territory, 410 00:25:32,865 --> 00:25:35,076 to hook up with another spearhead, 411 00:25:35,284 --> 00:25:36,953 driven through to meet it. 412 00:25:37,161 --> 00:25:40,373 In the trap thus formed, the victim would be pocketed 413 00:25:40,581 --> 00:25:42,041 for annihilation. 414 00:25:42,250 --> 00:25:45,169 The German plan in every campaign was to seek 415 00:25:45,378 --> 00:25:48,214 a decisive battle at the moment of invasion. 416 00:25:48,423 --> 00:25:50,341 - [Man] A single blow must destroy the enemy, 417 00:25:50,550 --> 00:25:52,051 without regard for losses, 418 00:25:52,260 --> 00:25:55,221 a gigantic, all destroying blow. 419 00:25:56,556 --> 00:25:58,641 - [Narrator] Remember the campaigns you have already seen 420 00:25:58,850 --> 00:26:00,351 in these films. 421 00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:04,063 Poland, the Poles concentrated on their borders. 422 00:26:04,272 --> 00:26:06,107 The blitz broke through. 423 00:26:06,315 --> 00:26:08,109 18 days finished Poland. 424 00:26:09,110 --> 00:26:12,363 France, the Allied strength on the borders, 425 00:26:12,572 --> 00:26:14,449 the breakthrough at Sedan, 426 00:26:14,657 --> 00:26:17,201 and the issue of France was settled. 427 00:26:17,410 --> 00:26:21,122 The Balkans, the Yugoslavians rushed to the border, 428 00:26:21,330 --> 00:26:25,376 the breakthrough came and in 12 days, Yugoslavia was gone. 429 00:26:26,252 --> 00:26:29,505 The Germans planned the same blitz against the Russians, 430 00:26:29,714 --> 00:26:32,091 but the Russians had developed their own strategy, 431 00:26:32,300 --> 00:26:36,179 one to take full advantage of the vast area of their land. 432 00:26:36,387 --> 00:26:39,140 The Russian strategy was a defensive depth, 433 00:26:39,348 --> 00:26:43,227 line after line, far back into the interior, 434 00:26:43,436 --> 00:26:45,563 and when the Nazi wedge struck, 435 00:26:45,772 --> 00:26:47,815 the first line would bend with it, 436 00:26:48,024 --> 00:26:49,901 until it became part of the second. 437 00:26:50,818 --> 00:26:52,904 Again, the wedge would strike, 438 00:26:53,112 --> 00:26:56,115 again, a segment would be lost, but again, 439 00:26:56,324 --> 00:27:00,620 the line would bend, until it became part of the third. 440 00:27:00,828 --> 00:27:04,415 So the deeper the Germans plowed into Russian soil, 441 00:27:04,624 --> 00:27:06,834 the stronger their opposition, 442 00:27:07,043 --> 00:27:10,546 until finally, they faced an unshatterable wall, 443 00:27:10,755 --> 00:27:12,423 and were robbed of their chance to hit 444 00:27:12,632 --> 00:27:15,468 that all destroying blow they had counted on. 445 00:27:15,676 --> 00:27:17,136 The result? 446 00:27:17,345 --> 00:27:20,890 The Germans conquered land and lost the campaign. 447 00:27:21,099 --> 00:27:23,142 For the Russian tactics kept the main bulk 448 00:27:23,309 --> 00:27:26,813 of their armies intact, and made a long war inevitable, 449 00:27:27,021 --> 00:27:29,982 instead of that quick decision the Germans sought. 450 00:27:30,191 --> 00:27:31,943 And the Russians had other tactics 451 00:27:32,151 --> 00:27:34,403 that threw the Germans for a loss. 452 00:27:34,612 --> 00:27:35,655 (bombs exploding) 453 00:27:35,863 --> 00:27:36,989 Germany had developed blitz warfare, 454 00:27:37,198 --> 00:27:41,285 mechanized warfare, armies on wheels, 455 00:27:41,494 --> 00:27:43,579 juggernauts to crush everything before them. 456 00:27:44,914 --> 00:27:46,541 (cannons exploding) 457 00:27:46,707 --> 00:27:48,209 But the Russians found a way to drag them out 458 00:27:48,376 --> 00:27:49,961 of their traveling fortresses. 459 00:27:50,169 --> 00:27:52,672 They used their cities as strongholds, 460 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,591 and made the blitz come to them down alleys. 461 00:28:02,265 --> 00:28:03,349 (cannons exploding) 462 00:28:03,558 --> 00:28:06,727 The more a city was bombed, the more impassable it became 463 00:28:06,936 --> 00:28:08,813 to the German Panzers. 464 00:28:09,021 --> 00:28:11,440 They made the names of these Russian cities 465 00:28:11,649 --> 00:28:14,694 as familiar to us as the names of towns in the next county. 466 00:28:15,570 --> 00:28:20,491 Rostov, Kharkov, Kiev, Kursk, Smolensk. 467 00:28:22,076 --> 00:28:25,079 City after city, standing in the path of the Nazi blitz, 468 00:28:25,288 --> 00:28:28,875 the Red Army has found a way to make their cities 469 00:28:29,083 --> 00:28:30,543 of great strategic importance. 470 00:28:31,544 --> 00:28:36,507 Odessa, the scene of a heroic siege of more than two months 471 00:28:37,925 --> 00:28:40,636 held up the whole Nazi thrust into the Crimea. 472 00:28:42,096 --> 00:28:45,224 Sevastopol, which resisted every attempt of the Germans 473 00:28:45,433 --> 00:28:46,184 to break through. 474 00:28:50,646 --> 00:28:52,398 Here, for eight and a half long months, 475 00:28:52,607 --> 00:28:54,650 the Russians fought for the town. 476 00:28:54,859 --> 00:28:57,361 Inch by inch, barring the Germans 477 00:28:57,570 --> 00:29:00,364 from the great Black Sea naval base located there. 478 00:29:01,407 --> 00:29:04,327 Finally, when the Germans entered the town, 479 00:29:04,535 --> 00:29:07,580 each district was defended street by street. 480 00:29:07,788 --> 00:29:10,374 (guns firing) 481 00:29:10,583 --> 00:29:11,667 (machine gun firing) 482 00:29:11,876 --> 00:29:14,295 Each street house by house 483 00:29:14,503 --> 00:29:16,881 (guns firing) 484 00:29:24,513 --> 00:29:27,183 and each house room by room. 485 00:29:27,391 --> 00:29:29,894 (guns firing) 486 00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:35,858 (bombs exploding) 487 00:29:36,067 --> 00:29:37,860 The Russians knew their cities would be demolished, 488 00:29:38,069 --> 00:29:41,322 but their objective was not to save cities, 489 00:29:41,530 --> 00:29:43,157 but to destroy Germans, 490 00:29:44,075 --> 00:29:46,786 a high price to pay for a copy of Mein Kampf. 491 00:29:47,870 --> 00:29:50,998 So the Germans were forced out of their armored shells, 492 00:29:51,207 --> 00:29:55,336 to fight and to die in the hand to hand combat 493 00:29:55,544 --> 00:29:57,255 they thought they had abolished. 494 00:29:57,463 --> 00:29:59,840 There was another item the Germans had overlooked. 495 00:30:00,049 --> 00:30:04,929 They overlooked people, and generals may win campaigns, 496 00:30:05,429 --> 00:30:07,807 but people win wars, 497 00:30:08,015 --> 00:30:10,893 and on that fatal June 22nd, 498 00:30:11,102 --> 00:30:13,104 when the Russian people first learned 499 00:30:13,312 --> 00:30:15,439 of the invasion of their country, 500 00:30:15,648 --> 00:30:18,943 their grim faces told of their determination, 501 00:30:19,151 --> 00:30:23,322 to fight and to die, but never to surrender. 502 00:30:24,282 --> 00:30:26,701 They knew this wasn't a question of who occupied 503 00:30:26,867 --> 00:30:28,619 what piece of land. 504 00:30:28,828 --> 00:30:31,706 This was a question of life or death. 505 00:30:32,748 --> 00:30:34,959 (speaking Russian) 506 00:30:35,167 --> 00:30:36,836 - [Interpreter] This war is not an ordinary war. 507 00:30:37,044 --> 00:30:39,964 It is the war of the entire Russian people, 508 00:30:40,172 --> 00:30:43,676 not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our heads, 509 00:30:43,884 --> 00:30:47,346 but to aid all people groaning under the yoke of fascism. 510 00:30:48,472 --> 00:30:51,809 - [Narrator] So the alarm was spread to factory and farm, 511 00:30:52,018 --> 00:30:54,520 and from every Russian town and village, 512 00:30:54,729 --> 00:30:57,064 men poured forth to answer the call. 513 00:30:59,567 --> 00:31:01,235 From now on, one thing mattered, 514 00:31:01,444 --> 00:31:04,613 and one thing only: victory. 515 00:31:04,822 --> 00:31:07,450 Total war meant total mobilization, 516 00:31:07,658 --> 00:31:11,746 not war just for soldiers, war for everyone, 517 00:31:11,912 --> 00:31:16,208 young or old, male or female, it made no difference. 518 00:31:17,251 --> 00:31:19,670 Age had nothing to do with it. 519 00:31:19,879 --> 00:31:21,797 If you were only 12 years old, there was work 520 00:31:22,006 --> 00:31:23,549 for 12 year olds to do. 521 00:31:24,675 --> 00:31:26,886 Sex had nothing to do with it. 522 00:31:27,094 --> 00:31:30,556 If you could hold a rifle, you were a soldier. 523 00:31:30,765 --> 00:31:33,351 If you could turn a lathe, you were a soldier. 524 00:31:33,559 --> 00:31:36,562 If you could harvest the fields, you were a soldier. 525 00:31:36,771 --> 00:31:38,189 If you could handle a locomotive, 526 00:31:38,397 --> 00:31:41,275 or pilot a ship, or guide a tractor, 527 00:31:41,484 --> 00:31:43,694 you were still a soldier. 528 00:31:43,903 --> 00:31:46,906 For everything you did was part of that total war. 529 00:31:47,907 --> 00:31:51,160 Nothing that the enemy could use was left behind, 530 00:31:51,369 --> 00:31:54,497 not a yard of wire, or a pound of iron, 531 00:31:54,705 --> 00:31:57,583 not an acre of wheat or a head of cattle, 532 00:31:57,792 --> 00:32:01,003 and the old men stood watch over the fields, 533 00:32:01,212 --> 00:32:02,797 ready to give the word to burn 534 00:32:03,005 --> 00:32:04,465 at the first sight of the enemy. 535 00:32:07,259 --> 00:32:08,052 Scorched earth. 536 00:32:08,928 --> 00:32:12,098 What can't be withdrawn must be destroyed. 537 00:32:13,224 --> 00:32:16,894 That meant the factories, the plants, the oil depots, 538 00:32:17,103 --> 00:32:19,063 flames claimed them all. 539 00:32:19,980 --> 00:32:23,609 The giant dam at Dneprostroi, into which had been poured 540 00:32:23,818 --> 00:32:25,861 not only steel and concrete, 541 00:32:26,070 --> 00:32:29,865 but five long years of Russian toil and Russian sweat, 542 00:32:30,074 --> 00:32:32,326 to yield the miracle of electricity to the farms 543 00:32:32,535 --> 00:32:34,495 and people of the Ukraine. 544 00:32:34,703 --> 00:32:37,373 Now, rather than let the power it generated 545 00:32:37,581 --> 00:32:40,126 fall to the enemy, they destroyed it. 546 00:32:40,292 --> 00:32:42,545 (exploding) 547 00:32:43,504 --> 00:32:45,423 Scorched earth. 548 00:32:45,631 --> 00:32:48,300 The land they had lived on, worked on, 549 00:32:48,509 --> 00:32:52,012 their forests, their fields, their farms, 550 00:32:52,930 --> 00:32:54,682 they surrendered them to the flames, 551 00:32:55,724 --> 00:32:57,059 but not to the invaders. 552 00:32:58,018 --> 00:33:00,104 That was the scorched earth. 553 00:33:00,312 --> 00:33:03,149 (flames crackling) 554 00:33:03,357 --> 00:33:05,317 And for action behind the German lines, 555 00:33:05,526 --> 00:33:07,236 a new army was formed, 556 00:33:07,445 --> 00:33:10,698 an army without uniforms whose home was the forest, 557 00:33:11,866 --> 00:33:13,868 and whose front was the enemy's rear, 558 00:33:14,994 --> 00:33:16,078 the guerrilla army. 559 00:33:17,246 --> 00:33:21,792 A minimum of glory, and a maximum of determination. 560 00:33:22,001 --> 00:33:24,920 Their achievements were seldom recorded. 561 00:33:25,129 --> 00:33:27,715 Look well at these faces. 562 00:33:27,923 --> 00:33:31,218 You will never see them again in the ranks of war prisoners, 563 00:33:31,427 --> 00:33:33,804 or read their names over heroes' graves. 564 00:33:35,014 --> 00:33:37,808 Ahead of them lay nothing but the rope and the halter, 565 00:33:38,809 --> 00:33:40,978 but they stayed behind and went on fighting. 566 00:33:41,979 --> 00:33:45,232 Their only goal was merciless destruction, 567 00:33:45,399 --> 00:33:48,444 destruction of communication lines, supplies, 568 00:33:48,652 --> 00:33:51,238 the invaders themselves. 569 00:33:51,447 --> 00:33:52,865 (guns firing) 570 00:33:53,073 --> 00:33:56,619 Their weapons were dynamite, and the terror of surprise. 571 00:33:56,827 --> 00:33:59,038 (exploding) 572 00:34:01,499 --> 00:34:04,627 They asked for no mercy, and they gave none. 573 00:34:04,835 --> 00:34:07,213 (guns firing) 574 00:34:10,424 --> 00:34:14,345 This is the guerrilla army, this, the scorched earth, 575 00:34:15,429 --> 00:34:19,058 this, the Red Army, these, its leaders. 576 00:34:20,184 --> 00:34:21,644 These are the reasons why 577 00:34:21,852 --> 00:34:24,772 although the Germans conquered land, 578 00:34:24,980 --> 00:34:27,608 500,000 square miles of it, 579 00:34:27,816 --> 00:34:32,071 it was just land, barren land, scorched land. 580 00:34:33,072 --> 00:34:35,950 These are the reasons why, after five and a half months 581 00:34:36,158 --> 00:34:40,788 of blitz warfare, after coming within sight of their goal, 582 00:34:40,996 --> 00:34:44,625 the Germans were stopped at the very gates of Moscow. 583 00:34:44,833 --> 00:34:47,836 These are the reasons why although Hitler had sworn 584 00:34:48,045 --> 00:34:50,256 that before December, the swastika would fly 585 00:34:50,422 --> 00:34:54,593 from the Kremlin towers, December had come, 586 00:34:54,802 --> 00:34:56,512 but it wasn't the swastika that flew 587 00:34:56,720 --> 00:34:57,846 over the Russian capital, 588 00:34:58,973 --> 00:35:01,100 and it wasn't the Nazi conquerors who marched 589 00:35:01,308 --> 00:35:03,394 through the streets of the ancient city. 590 00:35:03,602 --> 00:35:04,562 (singing in Russian) 591 00:35:04,770 --> 00:35:06,021 But fresh reserves of the Red Army.