All language subtitles for World War II Race To Victory Series 1 6of6 Race to Berlin 1080p

[narrator] August 6th, 1945.

Almost three months
after victory

over Nazi Germany was declared.

American forces remain locked
in
deadly combat with the
Japanese.

[explosions]

In the Pacific,
the war is far from over.

[explosions]

Newly sworn in President,
Harry S. Truman,

is desperate for an end
to the bloody conflict

that has seen tens of thousands
of Americans killed.

Keen to avoid
an all‐out American invasion

of the Japanese islands,
he will make a decision

that will force
a Japanese surrender

and change the course
of history.

Truman gives authorisation
for an American B‐29 bomber,

the Enola Gay, to drop
America's

latest development
in deadly warfare...

[loud explosion]

...the atomic bomb.

The first bomb flattens
five square miles

of the city of Hiroshima,

killing some 80,000 civilians
immediately.

‐[explosion]
‐ Just three days later,

another bomb is dropped
on Nagasaki,

instantly killing 50,000
people.

It brings about an end
to the Second World War

and ushers in a devastating
new chapter in world history.

‐[loud explosion]
‐[music intensifies]

So, who were the real winners
of the race to victory?

[theme music]

[slides clicking]

[explosions]

[bombs hiss]

As the war entered
its sixth year,

the Allies could sense
imminent victory.

By the beginning of 1945,

both the Soviet
and the Western Allied armies

were on the verge of crossing

into the weakening
Nazi heartlands.

To Churchill, however,
the political situation

that was shaping up
behind the scenes

was of far greater concern,

as he watched the Red Army's
irresistible march

through Eastern Europe.

Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia

lay in the Soviet shadow,

and Poland, though liberated
from the Germans,

had merely exchanged

one despotic conqueror
for another.

Churchill had been pressing
both Roosevelt and Stalin

for another
Big Three conference,

not only to agree on the
conduct

of the final push
to defeat Hitler,

but also to work out what to do
with the Axis powers

and indeed, the whole of
Europe,
once victory was secured.

In doing so, they would lay
the foundations

for a conflict
that would shape the rest

of the 20th century:
the Cold War.

[rocket roars]

[Warren] The relationship
between the big three

by 1945 had changed
dramatically.

Joseph Stalin
increasingly believed

that the West
were sort of very slow

in building the second front
intentionally,

to let the Soviets pay the price

for winning Europe,
in terms of men.

And this frustrated him
significantly.

Roosevelt still suspected
Churchill

of increasingly
imperial ambitions,

and Churchill became
increasingly paranoid

that he was being left out
by Stalin and Roosevelt.

What had been
a good working relationship

between all three,
and quite a close friendship

between Roosevelt and Churchill,

was really starting
to come unbound.

[Martin] I don't think
one should underestimate

the equality of the power

that the Big Three
bring to the Yalta Conference.

The American Armed Forces

are now fighting
a massive naval war

against the Japanese
in the Pacific,

which they're on the verge
of winning, of course.

They have a massive
strategic bomber force

based in Britain and in Italy,

which is pounding
the Third Reich,

and American forces
are heavily engaged

on the ground in Europe

and performing now
very effectively.

The Soviet Union and its forces

have moved
into the neighbouring countries

and driven the Germans
out of Romania,

out of Bulgaria...

They've now occupied
most of Poland,

so both the Soviet Union
and the United States

are doing very, very well.

As far as Britain is concerned,

Britain is fully engaged
in the war.

It cannot devote
any more power to the war.

[narrator]
The seaside resort of Yalta

on the Crimean Peninsula,
was chosen by Stalin

as the place to meet
Roosevelt and Churchill.

In February 1945,
the Big Three travelled

to the city
on the Black Sea coast,

thousands of miles
from both the UK and the U. S.,

but a mere train ride
from Moscow.

Churchill famously said:

"We could not have found
a worse place for a meeting

if we had spent ten years
looking for it,"

nicknaming it
"the Riviera of Hades."

Ironically, having demanded
the conference be held in Yalta

as his doctor had banned him
from travelling long distances,

Stalin was the only one
of the Big Three

not plagued by illness.

Churchill had developed a fever
while travelling to Yalta

and was confined to bed
aboard his plane,

while Roosevelt was endangering
his own ailing health

by travelling thousands of
miles

by boat and plane
to the conference.

[Andrew] Roosevelt's health

had obviously affected him
for a long time.

He'd had polio
since he was a young man,

and he was in a wheelchair.

In terms of the way
that he conducted the war,

it only really started
to affect him

towards the end of the war,

towards the final year
of his life

when he was clearly sick.

You can see the photos,

especially
of the Big Three at Yalta

at the end of the war,

when Roosevelt is clearly not
at the top of his game.

[Martin]
His doctors had told him

that he has
congestive heart disease.

He's being treated
with Digitalis,

which is why he looked
so grey and ill,

because it has that effect,

so it's his medication
that's making him look so ill.

There's much controversy

about Roosevelt's
behaviour at Yalta,

but it's very difficult
when one looks at the records

to see any difference.

On issues that matter to him,
he is sharp.

On issues
that don't matter to him,

he can't be bothered.

But that was always
Roosevelt's way.

[narrator] Perhaps sensing
he had not much time left,

Roosevelt was determined
to secure his vision

for the post‐war world.

Stalin came to Yalta
with clear aims

to maintain
the deep security zone

conquered by the Red Army
in Eastern Europe,

to assert his country's
position
as a great power,

and to ensure that Germany

would never be able
to attack Russia.

Stalin now had the upper hand.

Having been at the mercy
of the Nazis

for most of the war,

his military fortunes
had turned.

His forces
had driven back the Germans

in Poland, Bulgaria and Romania

and were now
within 50 miles of Berlin.

[explosions]

[bomb explodes]

[Peter] Stalin wanted
to keep tight control

over the eastern
European countries,

over the now satellite states
of the Soviet Union,

because he'd learnt the lesson
of Operation Barbarossa,

and that is that he needed
to have buffer states

to stop any future invasion

reaching anywhere near
Leningrad or Moscow again.

He was also keenly aware

that the environment
had now changed.

This was the start
of the Cold War.

He was increasingly distrustful
of the Allies in 1945,

so he wants to cement his gains
in Eastern Europe.

Millions and millions of people

have died in the struggle
against Germany,

and for Stalin,
he felt he needed a reward.

And that was the countries
of Eastern Europe.

[narrator]
Roosevelt's main priority,

on the other hand, was to gain
a firm commitment

that the Soviet Union
would now enter the war in Asia

to exert further pressure
on the Japanese,

as the conflict there
was showing no signs of
abating.

[Andrew] Roosevelt
and his military commanders

are very worried
about the loss of life

in attacking
the Japanese mainland.

And the reason for that
is because they know

that the Japanese fighters

are willing to go
to extreme measures

in order to defend
their territory.

Of course, the reason
that they know this

is that they've been conducting

a long‐term struggle
against Japan,

the island hopping.

The U. S. takes enormous losses
in this campaign,

and they're worried
that if they attack

the Japanese mainland,
that they will simply dig in,

be stuck
in a very long struggle,

which will lead
to enormous loss of life.

[narrator] Stalin agreed
that Soviet forces

would join America
in the war against Japan

within two or three months
after Germany's surrender.

But in return, the Soviet Union
demanded control

of the Japanese territory
it had lost

in the Russo‐Japanese war
of 1905.

[tense music]

Roosevelt's other priority

was his newly envisaged
United Nations.

And he was hoping
France and China

would join the Big Three
at the helm.

In particular he wanted to tie
Stalin and the Soviet Union

to the idea
of an international body

committed to maintaining
peace and prosperity

in the post‐war world.

For Churchill,

the most important business
of Yalta

was the future of Poland
and whether he could snatch

at least a shred
of democratic freedom

for its people.

In doing this,
he might just be able

to save them
from Stalin's grasp.

But Stalin took a hard line,

pointing out that Germany
had twice used Poland

as a corridor through which
to invade Russia.

He announced
that the Soviet Union

would not return
Polish territory

that it had annexed in 1939,

and would not bow to the
demands

of the Polish
government in exile

based in London.

[Martin] It had become clear
by the middle of the war anyway,

that Stalin was determined
to do two things with Poland.

One was to regain control
of the eastern part of Poland

that had been Russian territory

and he regarded
as part of Ukraine and Belarus,

and shift Poland westwards
by giving it German territory.

But also, he was determined
that Poland should have

what he called
a friendly government.

And the only likely
Polish government

to be friendly
to the Soviet Union

was a Communist government.

[narrator] The only one
of Churchill's objectives

at Yalta to which Stalin agreed

was to allow representatives

from other Polish
political parties

into the communist‐dominated

provisional government
in Poland,

and to sanction free elections.

[Martin] Because
the Polish government in London

would not shift on the frontier,

Stalin decided that,
essentially,

they were anti‐Soviet.

He was probably right
about that.

So he begins building up
his own Polish government

of Polish communists.

And that, I think,
becomes the prime concern.

Particularly for the British

who had close connections, of
course, to the Poles in London.

There were Poles fighting
in the British Armed Forces.

Poland had been one
of Britain's most solid allies

through the Second World War

and Britain afterward
had gone to war to protect

the integrity of Poland
at the beginning,

so was deeply concerned
about that.

[narrator] Stalin was now
playing hardball.

Throughout the negotiations,
Roosevelt seemed to be trying

to distance himself
from Churchill

whenever he could

as a way of reaching out
to Stalin.

The dogged Churchill,
on the other hand,

did not share Roosevelt's
optimistic view of Stalin,

and was increasingly frustrated

by the ailing
American president's desire

to pacify the soviet leader.

t

that trying to maintain
good relations

with a Communist
was like "wooing a crocodile.

When it opens its mouth,
you cannot tell

whether it is trying to smile,
or preparing to eat you up."

He knew that if Hitler
was to be finally beaten,

the Soviet Union
and its tyrannical leader

had to be indulged.

But he also knew that
the new post‐war world order

would sweep away
the final remnant

of the British empire
he held so dear.

1945 effectively signalled

the end of the Churchillian
view of history,

the Churchillian view
of the world,

which held Britain
and its empire

as fixed and symbiotic
to the other.

You could just tell
that Britain's hold

over its empire
had greatly diminished.

And this really affected
the ability of Britain

to sway political discussions.

And it affected Churchill
specifically

as well between the Big Three.

[narrator]
Wider power struggles aside,

the division of post‐war
Germany
was the main problem

discussed at the conference.

The Big Three agreed
that it would be divided

into four post‐war
occupation zones,

controlled by American,
British,
French and Soviet forces.

Stalin agreed to include France

in the post‐war governing
of Germany,

but only if France's zone
of occupation

was taken from the American
and British areas of control.

Berlin, although deep within
the Soviet zone,

would be divided
into the same quartet

of occupation zones.

A Roosevelt‐inspired
Declaration of Liberated Europe

was drawn up
which pledged to help countries

freed from the Nazis
resolve their post‐war
political

and economic problems
by democratic means.

The Soviets promised
to allow free elections

in all territories
in Eastern Europe

that had been liberated
from the Nazis.

The Initial reaction
to the Yalta agreements

was celebratory,
giving hope that the spirit

of the U. S.‐Soviet
wartime cooperation

would continue long
into the post‐war period.

It did not take long, however,

for intelligence to filter back
to the British and Americans

that Stalin
was not keeping his promises.

The Provisional Government
of the Republic of Poland,

also known
as the Lublin Committee,

had been seized by
Soviet‐sympathetic communists,

with all other democratic
forces
in the country stamped out.

I don't think there was really
strong indications

that Stalin
would keep his promises.

It was a mistake for Roosevelt

to put as much trust
in Stalin as he did.

It was quite clear
from May, 1945,

that Soviet troops
were going to suppress

any type of democratic movement
in Poland,

and that they were intent

on installing
their communist regime.

[Iwan] What Roosevelt
fundamentally decided

was that it had to be accepted

that the Soviets
would dominate Eastern Europe,

at least in the short term.

But Roosevelt's ultimate hope
was that he would be able

to win Stalin over to a more
cooperative arrangement

as time passed.

[narrator] Before the Big Three
met in Yalta

they were already engaged
in a bitter dash

to seize German territory.

Hitler's forces were crumbling,

and the Allies were moving
towards Germany

in a race to claim

the biggest prize
of all: Berlin.

[explosions]

The conquest would involve
a multi‐pronged approach.

British and American forces
would make separate advances

through Germany from the west,

while Soviet troops
approached Berlin from the
east.

The pivotal part
of their advance

was crossing and conquering
the mighty Rhine.

Over 700 miles long,
the river represented

the last natural
defensive barrier

to the German heartland.

In anticipation of Allied
forces
getting that far,

Hitler had ordered
the bridges across the river

to be destroyed.

[Sir Mike] The Americans
first crossed it somewhere,

Remagen, I think.
Almost by good luck,

found a railway bridge unblown.

[narrator] The U. S. capture

of one of the last bridges
still standing,

Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen,
on the 7th of March, 1945,

thwarted Hitler's plans

and proved to be a turning
point

in the advance into Germany.

Before the bridge finally
collapsed ten days later,

the Americans had managed
to get 25,000 troops

accompanied by tanks,
artillery pieces,

and trucks, across the river
into the German heartland.

U. S. General George S. Patton
had been instructed

to wait until the following day
for the main Allied assault,

but had defied orders
by crossing

on the night
of 22nd March, 1945.

This was the first crossing
of the Rhine by boat

by an invading army

since Napoleon Bonaparte's
crossing in 1805.

Patton's troops quietly
slipped across the river,

surprising the German defenders
in complete darkness.

By the 25th March,

Patton's troops were rapidly
approaching Frankfurt,

German resistance
now dissolving in their path.

e

to beat the British
to the other side of the Rhine.

His commanding officer,
General Omar Bradley,

claimed at the time
that Patton said,

"I want the world to know
that the Third Army made it

before Monty starts across."

The British had been planning

their own crossing
further North.

Codenamed Operation Plunder,

Montgomery's crossing
of the Rhine

was the largest river assault
in the history of warfare.

[Sir Mike]
A very big set piece airborne

and river crossing operation,

where 30‐40 miles northwest
of Dusseldorf...

did a very big operation.

There was no real doubt
about the end at this point.

[narrator] The attack started
with an aerial bombardment

of the town of Wesel.

On the night
of the 23rd of March,

troops began to cross the river

in landing craft
and amphibious vehicles,

and did not stop
until the next day.

[Jonathan]
Amphibious vehicles, DUKWs,

and all other sorts of cars
that could float, landing craft.

They had to drop paratroopers

on the far bank
of the Rhine as well.

Huge firepower deployed
to suppress

the German defenders.

Really it was more
like a sea crossing

than a river crossing,
and very effective.

[narrator] On the 24th of March,
an airborne assault

was launched
codenamed Operation Varsity,

dropping the British 6th

and American 17th
Airborne Divisions

further east of the Rhine.

The next day
Britain's Prime Minister

crossed the Rhine
in a landing craft,

stepping onto
the eastern bank of the river.

The bulldog leader had now
set foot for the first time

in the heartland
of Hitler's Germany.

By the end of March,
the Allies had conquered

the mighty river.

Now the path to Berlin
was wide open.

[Sir Mike]
Once the Rhine was crossed,

that last bastion,

natural bastion
of German territory,

north Germany
is quite flat open.

Certainly then,
there wasn't a lot

to...
physically to stop the Allies.

[narrator] There was, however,
a tragic event

that brought a sudden end
to The Big Three,

as the world had known them.

[sombre music]

[narrator] On the 12th of April,
after many years of ill health,

63‐year‐old
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

suffered a brain haemorrhage.

The longest serving President
in American history,

the man
who had lifted his country

from the turmoil
of the Great Depression

to become the world's
preeminent
industrial and military power,

was dead.

[Iwan] Roosevelt had been
wheelchair‐bound

since contracting polio in 1921,
so he had spent

all his presidency
living with that disability.

But during the war,
the advancement of his age,

the greater pressures
of the job,

the fact that he was
a very heavy smoker,

and a regular, if moderate,
imbiber of cocktails,

meant his health deteriorated

from about late 1943 onwards.

The deterioration
was probably precipitated

by the difficulties of travel

to the Tehran Conference
to meet Churchill.

He suffers cardiac problems,
his blood pressure is huge,

and he requires
long periods of rest.

And the final challenge he faced

was going
to Yalta in early 1945,

and that left him exhausted

and he would die
shortly afterwards.

[narrator] Churchill could not
attend Roosevelt's funeral,

but penned a note
to his wife Eleanor.

"I feel so deeply for you all.

As for myself, I have lost
a dear and cherished friendship

which was forged
in the fire of war."

Stalin, who suspected that
Roosevelt had been poisoned,

also wrote a heartfelt letter
speaking of a genuine
friendship

that had helped
propel the Soviet Union

to imminent victory.

For a generation of Americans,

for whom Roosevelt
had been a guiding light

and voice of hope
for over a decade,

his death
was a devastating blow.

[Liesl] He was smart,
he knew what he was doing.

He kept going,
and to be a President

for that amount of time
that he was,

and it has never happened again.

He was there
during a very hard time

and he was having
a very hard time

with his physical self,
so you got to love him.

I think a lot of people
were very sad when he died.

[solemn music]

[narrator] The relatively
low‐key Vice President,

Harry S. Truman,
a one‐time haberdasher,

was quickly sworn in
as President

on the very same day
Roosevelt died,

to direct America's war effort.

As the world mourned the death
of Roosevelt,

the race to Berlin
continued unabated.

The Western Allies
were seemingly unstoppable,

but on the other side
of Germany,

Soviet troops were also
making steady progress

across the country,

brutally quashing
any German resistance.

The Russians and the Americans
eventually met up

at the town of Torgau
on the River Elbe

on the 25th of April,
just 85 miles from Berlin.

As Allied troops shook hands
on the riverbank,

their respective armies had
effectively cut Germany in two.

The moment,
which came to be known

as the Meeting on the Elbe,

portended the end of the war
in Europe.

A jubilant Churchill declared:

"We meet in true
and victorious comradeship

and with inflexible resolve

to fulfil our purpose
and our duty.

Let all march forward
upon the foe."

Truman, who had been
sworn in as president

less than two weeks before,
welcomed the news:

"This is not the hour
of final victory in Europe,

but the hour draws near,

the hour for which
all the American people,

all the British people
and all the Soviet people

have toiled and prayed so
long."

Stalin's approach
was a little more cautious:

"Our task and our duty

are to complete
the destruction of the enemy.

The Red Army will fulfil
to the end this task

and this duty to our people

and to all
freedom‐loving peoples."

The race was now well
and truly on

to get to Berlin first.

To speed up his campaign,
he split the command

of the Berlin operation between
Marshall Zhukov in the centre

and Marshall Konev in the
south.

Stalin, the master manipulator

and a sly practitioner
of "divide and rule,"

had effectively triggered a
race

between his two
most senior commanders.

Stalin encouraged
the race to Berlin

between Konev and Zhukov
because he saw it

as imperative
to capture the city

before the Allied powers did.

He knew that the German army
was about to be defeated,

and he knew that the struggle
was going to change

and develop into what we know
as the Cold War.

And capturing Berlin

was kind of the first victory
in that.

[narrator]
Not only would capturing Berlin

have symbolic significance,

it was also rumoured to house
the German nuclear programme.

The Germans definitely
had a nuclear programme going on

in the Second World War.
We absolutely knew that,

and there are files now
declassified which confirm that.

And at the very end of the war
Hitler's top scientists,

his top nuclear scientists,

were brought initially
to Britain

before they then went
to America.

to get his handste

on the German
nuclear research centre,

the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute,
before the Americans got there.

And after Germany's surrender,
the Soviet Union did indeed

requisition equipment,
materials and personnel.

Stalin knew about
the German military programme

through his intelligence
operatives.

The Soviets had
their own nuclear programme

called Operation Borodino,

but this was lagging
behind the Americans.

So another reason why Stalin

was so intent
on capturing Berlin

was to take as much information

about the German nuclear
programme as possible.

They targeted
the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute

in particular.

Importantly,
they managed to seize

three tonnes of uranium oxide,
and this was critical

to kind of kickstarting
of their own atomic programme.

[narrator] The uranium oxide
allowed them to start working

on their first nuclear weapon,

triggering the start
of the nuclear arms race

that would define the Cold War.

[explosion]

By mid‐April 1945, the Red Army
was on the outskirts of Berlin.

The final attack of nearly
six years of war in Europe

commenced on the 16th April
when the Soviet forces

began a mighty
artillery barrage.

More than a million shells
were fired

against German positions
west of the river Oder.

Soviet fronts attacked Berlin
from the east and south,

while a third
overran German forces

positioned north of Berlin.

Around two and a half million
Soviet troops

descended on the city.

The Battle of Berlin
had well and truly begun.

On the 20th of April, 1945,
Hitler's 56th birthday,

Zhukov's forces advanced
from the east,

while Konev's forces

advanced towards the southern
suburbs of Berlin.

The Soviet bombardment
was so immense

that in Berlin's eastern
suburbs

houses shook
and pictures fell from walls.

Even now, the Germans
defended desperately.

There was confusion all around.

According to
one Russian veteran,

Soviet artillery was fired
without proper guidance,

killing scores
of Red Army soldiers.

Over the next 12 days,

the Red Army gradually
took the entire city,

over‐running and destroying

the historic seat
of German power,

the Reichstag.

[explosions]

[Sir Mike] This is the capital,
the heartland of the darkness

that was Nazi Germany.

This said they have been
defeated unarguably:

"We are in Berlin."

"We", of course,
being the Red Army.

So, it was hugely symbolic

but equally, well,
strategic significance.

That said: "This ghastly regime
is over. It's dead."

[narrator] On 28th
of April 1945, in Italy,

Mussolini and his mistress
were shot

and their bodies strung up
for all to see.

Two days later, determined
not to suffer the same fate,

Hitler committed suicide
in his bunker,

having ordered
that his body be burned

so as not to be to be claimed
by the Allies.

Even then,
it took another two days

for the Germans
to finally surrender.

More than 80,000 Soviet
soldiers

had died
trying to capture the city.

Stalin's hunger to get to
Berlin
ahead of the Western Allies

undoubtedly
led to poor decision making

and an excessive loss
of Soviet lives.

The battle for Berlin
had brought to an end

one of the bloodiest wars
in European history.

[Peter] There were lots

of German troops
within the city,

many civilians,
and the Russian troops,

the Red Army,
had been sent by Stalin

at an accelerated pace
with orders to capture the city

as quickly as possible.

So, this did lead
to lots of brutal fighting

and it was a bloody end
to the Second World War.

And the darker side
of that conflict

is the atrocities of war crimes
which were carried out

by Red Army soldiers,

particularly the mass rape

of perhaps
up to two million women.

Something which
the Russian government,

and the Soviet government,
in later decades

denied had happened at all.

[narrator] The Russians
had won the race to Berlin.

The red flag
of the Soviet Union waved

above the battered
and beleaguered Reichstag,

but for all the Allied forces,
it was mission accomplished.

On the 7th of May,
at his headquarters in Reims,

north‐eastern France,

Supreme Allied Commander
General Eisenhower accepted

the unconditional surrender
of all German forces.

Stalin, however,
wanted his own ceremony,

and demanded
another one in Berlin.

So the next day,
on the 8th of May,

the ceremony was repeated,

and a further document
was signed.

An exhausted but euphoric
Europe

finally celebrated VE Day

‐on the 8th of May.
‐[cheers]

[Rudi in Dutch]
It was wonderful.

We went to England

to kick the Germans
out of Europe

with the Allied troops.

And it had worked,
and that felt fantastic.

And then when you come back home

after you have kicked
the Germans out,

and you see
all those Dutch people

out in the street celebrating,
it feels wonderful.

[narrator] But in deference
to his U. S. ally,

Winston Churchill was quick
to remind them

the world war wasn't over yet.

We may allow ourselves
a brief period of rejoicing,

but let us not forget
for a moment

the toils and efforts
that lie ahead.

Japan, with all her treachery
and greed, remains unsubdued.

The injuries she has inflicted
on Great Britain,

the United States,
and other countries,

and her detestable cruelties,

call for justice
and retribution.

We must now devote
all our strength and resources

to the completion of our task,
both at home and abroad.

[narrator]
The war in the Pacific

was very much alive.

To bring about
the final conclusion

of one of the bloodiest wars
in human history,

the leaders
of the Grand Alliance

would have to meet
one last time.

The Potsdam Conference

began in July 1945,

principally to determine
the borders

and reconstruction
of post‐war Europe.

But it proved impossible
to reach a consensus.

The U. S. saw Potsdam
as an opportunity

to try and secure
Soviet commitment

in the war against Japan.

While Stalin's main objective

was to obtain enormous economic
reparations from Germany

as compensation
for the destruction wrought

by the Nazis
in the Soviet Union.

It was also a very different
negotiating team

to the one
that sat around the table

at their last meeting in Yalta.

The wily, patrician Roosevelt
had been replaced

by the altogether more blunt
and parochial Harry S. Truman.

And halfway through
the two‐week conference,

Churchill's Conservative Party
lost the general election

and, to Stalin's astonishment,

he was almost
immediately replaced

at the negotiating table

by Labour leader Clement
Attlee.

The only member of the Big
Three
that remained

was Stalin himself,

giving him
considerable advantage.

[Warren] It's inconceivable
to Joseph Stalin

that in this moment
Winston Churchill

could be kicked out of office.

There's a famous cartoon
of him going to Yalta

and Clement Attlee
carrying his bags,

and then, going back to Yalta,

and he's having to carry
Clement Attlee's bags.

It does affect Britain's status,
I think.

And it certainly
affects Churchill's.

It's one
of the most unexpected things,

at least by our political
commentators at the time,

at least, that Churchill
lost the July 1945 election

and did not just lose,
the Conservatives were trounced.

The electorate was seen
as being very grateful

to Mr. Churchill,
the war leader,

but they did not want
Mr. Churchill,

the peacetime leader,

and instead wanted
to have Labour,

which was seen as more geared
to a peacetime existence

than the Conservatives
under Winston Churchill.

[narrator] But the world
was about to get a massive
jolt.

On the 16th of July, 1945,
in a remote desert location

near Alamogordo, New Mexico,

the Americans detonated
the first atomic bomb.

[explosion]

The Trinity Test
was the culmination

of four years' work
by the Manhattan Project

to weaponize nuclear power.

They had succeeded,

and in doing so,
ushered in the Atomic Age.

Roosevelt keeps
the existence or the development

of the atomic bomb a secret

from his vice president,
Harry Truman.

So, Truman actually
only finds out

about the atomic bomb

when he becomes president
in April of 1945.

It tells you something
about Roosevelt's attitudes

to those who are
even immediately around him.

His vice president did not know

one of the most important
military secrets of the war.

[Jonathan] Pretty much as soon
as they finished the atom bomb

and were sure
that it would work,

they sent it off
to drop it on Japan.

They were in a hurry
to finish the war

as quick as possible.

Would they have dropped it
on Germany

if Germany had still
been fighting in August 1945?

I suspect so,
but we'll never know.

[narrator] Truman now felt
he held the winning hand

and lost no time
in informing Stalin

that the United States
possessed

"a new weapon
of special destructive force,"

with which
to bring Japan's resistance

to a juddering halt.

He did not at this stage

specify that it was
the atomic bomb.

Stalin already knew
about the project

from his spies in the West.

But he gave little away
when he was told.

What the bomb would mean
for the outcome of the war

would soon become apparent
when Britain and the U. S.

threatened the Japanese

with "prompt
and utter destruction"

if they did not immediately
surrender unconditionally.

The Pacific war raged on,
and casualties from the battles

at Iwo Jima and Okinawa

were some of the highest
of the war.

[explosions]

American military planners

feared the prospect
of invading Japan.

The Japanese army
had millions of troops

and was ready to use many more
millions of civilian conscripts

in the defence
of their home islands.

The experience from Okinawa,

where civilians committed
suicide instead of
surrendering,

meant the loss of life
amongst the Japanese population

would be horrific.

The Japanese
had shown themselves,

in defence particularly,

where they've been
for some while,

to be fanatical.

They simply would not surrender.

You had to kill
each and every one.

And I think the concern

was that Japan
will only be defeated

when occupied by the Allies

and here, obviously,
the United States.

But to do that is going to cost
the lives of so many GIs

because of this fanaticism,
refusal to surrender

by Japanese troops.

And so it would have weighed
very heavily

on presidential minds.

They were trying
to equip schoolchildren

with bamboo spears
to go and fight the Americans

when they landed.
I mean, it's just asking

for mass murder. It was crazy.

t
Harry S. Truman

was informed
that the atomic bomb test

had been successful
in New Mexico,

he calculated
that this monstrous weapon

might be used to defeat Japan

in a way less costly
to U. S. lives

than a conventional invasion
of the Japanese homeland.

[Sir Mike] Well, you can see

what went through Roosevelt
and then Truman's mind.

The potential cost
to the United States

in casualties, if nothing else,
which would have been involved

with an invasion
and occupation of Japan.

Is this something that equates?
Is there an advantage?

I mean, these are
dreadful decisions.

[narrator]
On the 6th of August, 1945,

an American B‐29 bomber,

the Enola Gay, dropped
the world's first atomic bomb

over the city of Hiroshima.

Instantly the city was
levelled,

and some 80,000 people
were killed.

That figure doubled
within the year

from burns and radiation
effects
from the bomb.

On the 9th of August
a second bomb was dropped

over the Japanese city
of Nagasaki,

with a similar death toll.

The impact was cataclysmic
and unlike anything experienced

in the history of warfare.

A day before
the Nagasaki bombing

on the 8th of August,

the Soviet Union had finally
declared war against Japan.

On the 10th of August,
the Japanese government

issued a statement
agreeing to accept

the surrender terms
of the Potsdam Declaration

on the understanding
that the emperor's position

as a sovereign ruler
would not be prejudiced.

The Allies granted
Japan's request,

and on the 15th of August

the Emperor Hirohito
urged his people

to accept the decision
to surrender.

[sombre music]

The fighting was over.

‐[vibrant music]
‐[cheers]

After nearly six years of war,

the Allies had finally achieved
their goal

with a full
and comprehensive defeat

of their enemy on all fronts.

But it had come at a huge cost,

and the world
would never be the same again.

As mushroom clouds
rose above Japan,

the world stood witness
to the creation

of a new, terrifying Atomic
Age.

[Jonathan] The atom bomb,
and particularly the possession

by both the Americans
and the Soviets

of nuclear weapons,

created a whole new way

of doing business
in international politics

for the next 50 years.

There was a theory
that one of the reasons

the Americans dropped
the bomb on Japan

was precisely to show
the Soviets

that they had this thing.

To cow them into being
a bit more pliant.

If that's the case,
it didn't work.

It has to be said.
The Russians, as we know,

were already working
on their own bomb

and, indeed, stealing the plans
for the American one,

and therefore were able
to catch up pretty quickly.

[narrator] A new Europe
would have to be forged

in the long shadow
of a Nuclear Arms Race

and the threat of
"mutually assured destruction."

[theme music]

[narrator] So who had
won the race to victory?

Certainly not Great Britain.

Britain had gone
into war in 1939

as a great world power,
but it left 1945

as a very diminished one
and faced great privations,

great destruction,
a great loss of men

and women, and people,
as well as resources.

And it almost permanently
handicapped Britain's ability

to assert itself
on the world stage.

[narrator]
Many say the Americans

were the outright winners
of the race,

bearing in mind
they had asserted themselves

as a global superpower
for the first time.

[Warren] I think the victory

was probably the greatest
for the Americans.

America made quite a lot
of profit out of it

in terms of becoming
the global power

to take up what had been
the role of Britain

as a sort of guarantor for,

kind of, Western ideas
and liberal ideas.

And so I think
there's a real victor

in the Second World War
in the United States.

[narrator] But in terms
of territory gained,

Stalin was the clear winner.

At the end
of the Second World War,

Communist parties seized
the governments of Bulgaria,

Romania, Hungary, Poland,
Czechoslovakia

and Eastern Germany,
buffer states

for the Soviet Union

that lay beyond what Churchill
called "The Iron Curtain."

Stalin and the Soviet Union
emerge as a superpower.

And this was
a remarkable turnaround

from the 1920s,
when this had been

a predominately peasant country
with a backwards industry.

He'd defeated
one of the most advanced

capitalist countries
in the world, Nazi Germany,

and they rivalled
the United States,

so this was a huge turnaround
for the Soviet Union.

Really, this was
the height of Soviet influence.

[narrator]
Despite the massive losses

and destruction
of Soviet cities,

the war had enabled Stalin
to sit side‐by‐side

with his
democratically‐elected,
ideological enemies,

and to be seen and recognized
by all as a world statesman.

Stalin entered the war
as the world's ogre,

despised by the West
and deeply feared and
mistrusted

by all
except his nearest cronies,

who depended on him
for their lives and positions.

He left the stage
of World War II

as an undisputed
world statesman,

respected
by his international colleagues

and loved and revered
by his people.

[cheers]

If any one leader can be said
to have won the race to
victory,

it was Joseph Stalin.

[theme music]