All language subtitles for WWII.Battles.In.Color.S01E01.Blitzkrieg.720p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-squalor

-[Narrator] May 1940.
-[tanks rumbling]

Cameras roll as the German
Army storms across France.

Filming the front
lines of a conflict

fought with a ferocity
and speed

never before witnessed
in the theater of war.

[explosion blasts]

Ruthless aerial onslaughts,

[airplane whirring]

remorseless tank attacks,

and seemingly
inexhaustible stormtroopers

push hundreds of thousands
of British and French troops

to the brink of annihilation
on the beaches of Dunkirk.

[dramatic music]

This is blitzkrieg,
lightning war,

[gun blasting]

as you've never seen it before.

Now, rare, newly
colorized footage,

will take us to the
heart of the action

and reveal just how
close the Germans came

to winning the war and stamping
Nazi rule across the planet.

[suspenseful dramatic music]

[dramatic music]

Summer. 1937.

Edwin Graf Rothkirch and his
13-year-old son, Leopold,

enjoy the International
Exhibition in Paris.

The event is dominated by the
Soviet and German pavilions.

The Senegalese people in
the French Colonial section

catch Rothkirch's eye.

Father and son enjoy
their vacation.

In three years Rothkirch
will return to Paris,

under very different
circumstances.

As an avid amateur movie maker,

Major General Rothkirch films
every aspect of his life.

Like an SS cavalry
parade through Munich.

The swastikas signal
the tightening grip

the Nazis have on Germany.

-[footsteps thudding]
-[crowd chattering]

By the end of the 1930s

Adolf Hitler's popularity in
Germany is at an all-time high.

In Berlin, tens of thousands

crowd around the city's
cathedral to hear him speak.

Hitler makes no
secret of his desire

to expand the German Empire,
to provide lebensraum,

greater living space
for his people.

[Hitler speaks in German]

The crowds back his ambition.

[Hitler speaks in German]

[crowd chants in German]

[suspenseful music]

In March 1939, German forces
sweep across Czechoslovakia.

The jubilant fuhrer

takes a victory lap through
the capital, Prague.

[car engine whirring]

The Western superpowers
of Britain and France

don't respond

So Hitler sets his
sights on Poland.

[ominous music]

The start of the German
invasion of Poland

is marked by Panzer mark I
11s rolling across the border.

[tanks rumbling]

They are filmed by special,
military-trained, camera units.

The idea of embedding
German film crews

with front-line soldiers in the
Wehrmacht was the brainchild

of the minister of propaganda
for the Third Reich,

Joseph Goebbels.

He believed in the program
of manipulating societies

through propaganda

in order to further
the German war effort.

[Narrator] Goebbels'
carefully curated newsreels

are shown weekly in
every German cinema.

They glorify Hitler

and celebrate
the German military.

[tense music]

Goebbels orders German
planes to be equipped

with the latest cameras.

[airplanes whirring]

Propaganda films
celebrate the screaming,

near-vertical bomb runs of
Junker 87 Stuka dive-bombers.

[airplane screaming]

[bomb blasting]

[guns blasting]

By filming and
documenting the Wehrmacht

as it advanced across
the enemy soil,

in particular by showing tanks
advancing down enemy roads

and contrasting that with
defeated and fleeing civilians,

it helped advance the mythos
of an unstoppable German army

that swept all before it.

It was the perfect way to
showcase this new bigger,

faster, and stronger
revitalized German Army.

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] Poland quickly
falls to the Nazis.

In Warsaw, Hitler
brazenly celebrates

with yet another
victory parade.

But, this time,

his belief the Western powers
won't intervene is wrong.

After a hastily
convened war cabinet,

Britain and France
declare war on Germany.

Hitler is shocked after
the invasion of Poland

when the Allies declare war.

He's provoked them
over and over again,

and they haven't reacted.

He turns to an aide at the time,

and supposedly says, "What now?"

Now we think this story
may be apocryphal,

but there seems to be a
real sense of surprise

on Hitler's part that the Allies
have finally declared war.

[Narrator] In Paris,
French newsreels

show off their own
military might,

parading under the
Arc de Triomphe,

a symbol of past glories.

With over 2 1/2 million troops,

backed with fast and
maneuverable tanks,

like the Hotchkiss H39,

France boasts the most
powerful army on the planet.

Not only do the French
have military superiority,

they also have a formidable
defensive system,

the heavily fortified
Maginot Line.

Stretching along 280-mile
of the French-German border,

the Maginot Line is a
state-of-the-art network

of thick concrete bunkers,

[gun blasting]

armed with guns, mortar,
and anti-tank emplacements.

-[shell scraping]
-[gun blasting]

With war looming, French
newsreels reassure the public

that the architects
of the Maginot Line

have planned everything
to the last detail.

[gentle music]

Even to its restaurant
standard kitchens

and underground church.

[priest speaking faintly]

[dramatic music]

The Germans also
see the newsreels.

To try and even up the military
balance with the French,

the Wehrmacht goes into
recruitment overdrive.

[horse whinnying]

51-year-old, World
War I veteran,

Edwin Graf Rothkirch is
called into active duty.

[soldier shouts in German]

A showjumper in
the 1932 Olympics,

Rothkirch trains rookies in the
mounted 9th Reserve Company.

-[water splashing]
-[horse whinnying]

A river crossing has a
steep learning curve.

Warhorses may seem like a
throwback to a previous era.

But the German military
relies heavily on them

and will use almost
three million

over the course of the war.

[tense music]

With tensions rising

and the Allies aware a German
attack could come at any time,

150,000 troops of the
British Expeditionary Force

arrive in Belgium to
bolster French defenses.

Allied preparations for the
German invasion of the West,

very much included
their thinking

that there would be a
re-run of the 1914 plan,

an attack through
central Belgium,

this time,
a mechanized version.

By putting their
first-class mobile troops

in central Belgium,
there was a belief

that they could be moved forward
to stop the German advance,

draw the Germans into
an attritional battle

they couldn't win.

[tense music]

[Narrator] Initially,
the German plan

is to once again invade
France through Belgium.

But a staff officer,
Erich von Manstein,

is frustrated by the lack
of tactical innovation

shown by Hitler's
General Staff.

[Erich] I found it humiliating,

that our generation
could do nothing better

than repeat an old recipe.

[Narrator] Manstein is not
afraid to speak his mind.

Manstein's plan demanded
that the Germans

used radical military thought,

particularly, the modern
use of tank forces.

The aim was to deal the
enemy a psychological blow

using the most modern techniques

that would see
the Allies crumple

and wilt before their eyes.

Hitler was delighted with the
plan that Manstein gave him,

it was not only a radical
plan using radical methods,

it would give the
Germans the opportunity

to win a huge strategic
success in days and weeks,

rather than months and years.

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] Manstein's
plan is for Army Group B

to attack the
Netherlands and Belgium.

But this is a feint.

While the Allies are
engaged in the north,

Army Group A will
sweep into France,

just above the Maginot Line,

through the dense
Ardennes woods.

Then head north to
launch a sneak attack,

and destroy the Allied
armies from behind.

[Cameron] The German high
command had a huge amount

of skepticism
regarding Manstein's Plan.

It required funneling
large numbers of German tanks

through the densely
wooded Ardennes Forest.

If anything were to go wrong,

it would strand thousands of
vehicles and tanks in place.

This would make them sitting
ducks for the Allied air forces

if they were to be
spotted and discovered.

[Narrator] But Manstein trusts

the power of his war machines.

He promises Hitler
his mechanized forces

will deliver a quick and
decisive victory in France

and the complete annihilation
of their enemies.

-[gun blasting]
-[dramatic music]

[explosion blasts]

In the spring of 1940
the French are confident

they are ready to
deal with anything

the Germans throw at them.

[upbeat bugle music]

A rarely seen documentary by
French filmmaker Henry Lepage

gives a morale-boosting insight

into the French Army's
readiness for war.

The troops enjoy
sporting events,

-[soldiers cheering]
-[soldiers applauding]

[upbeat music]

live music,

and movie nights.

[lively music]

There's even dancing
in the streets,

it's all very lighthearted.

But Lepage shows almost
nothing of the troops

training for war.

[tense music]

France's allies show
far more concern.

On May 10th, 1940,

Winston Churchill becomes
Britain's prime minister.

He counters Hitler's aggression

with his own
impassioned declaration.

[Winston] You ask,
what is our policy?

I will say it is to wage
war by sea, land, and air,

with all our might against
a monstrous tyranny,

never surpassed in the
dark and lamentable catalog

of human crime.

[ominous music]

[Narrator] The same day,

the Germans launch their
invasion of France.

Army Group B begins its
offensive in the north.

[airplanes rumbling]

[Narrator] Cameras roll as
Luftwaffe Dornier 17 pilots

release their deadly
payload on air bases

across the Netherlands
and Belgium.

[bombs blasting]

With the threat of Allied
airborne retaliation removed,

elite paratroopers
of 7th Air Division

drop onto key defensive
sites in Belgium.

They're carrying new
ultra-destructive

hollow-tipped explosives.

The shaped charges,
focus the weapons blast

to destroy even the most
fortified positions.

[explosion blasts]

In response, the unsuspecting
British Expeditionary Force

direct its units
towards Belgium.

French camera crews
film the smiling troops

as they rush headlong into
the trap laid by the Germans.

With the Allies
engaged in the north,

German Army Group A makes
its move into France.

Manstein's plan is
running like clockwork.

Until French
reconnaissance pilots

report a 100-mile traffic
jam of German armed vehicles

heading towards the Ardennes.

Packing so many
panzers onto one road

has brought Army Group A
to a grinding standstill.

The jig could be up.

Stationary German
tank commanders

wait for the Allies to strike.

[Johann] Again and again,
I cast a worried look

up at the bright blue sky.

My division now presents
an ideal attack target.

[Narrator] An Allied airstrike
on the stationary tanks

and World War II could be over.

But the airstrike
never happens.

[Robert] The Allies don't
bombard the Germans

in the Ardennes Forest
for a simple reason,

they don't expect
them to be there.

It's the whole point
of the German plan.

No one would line up all
your tanks in a single column

on a single road and drive
them into the Ardennes.

It's the very
element of surprise

the Germans are counting on.

[Narrator] The tank
gridlock is finally broken

by a German officer

coordinating the traffic
from the air.

[airplane whirring]

[tanks rumbling]

France's military
leaders remain convinced

the Maginot Line will stop any
German advance in the south.

[suspenseful music]

But by traveling just 12 miles
west of where the Line ends,

Army Group A avoids the
barricade altogether.

[tank whirring]

Despite the failure
of the Maginot Line

to stop the German advance.

The French generals
still aren't worried.

The Ardennes' 4,000 square
miles of rough terrain

and dense deciduous forest

should be impassable to the
Nazi's large, heavy, panzers.

But, as the Germans press on,

camera crews embedded with
the 8th Panzer Regiment,

show tank commanders
examining reconnaissance maps.

that show the Ardennes

isn't quite as impenetrable
as the French hope.

-[dramatic music]
-[tank whirring]

Following carefully
planned routes,

the 8th Division's
Panzer Mk IIs

break off from the main road.

The drivers expertly negotiate

the twisting turning
forest paths.

[Lloyd] The French high command
was driven by hope

rather than reality

and they believed that the
Ardennes were impassable.

But the Germans had
done their homework.

Radio assets were used
to very great effect

and together with a great plan,

and also, very bold leadership,

it allowed them to
pass armored vehicles

through the Ardennes,
with great speed,

far more quickly than
anybody had ever expected.

[Narrator] In just
a matter of hours,

the panzers are
through the woods.

-[tanks rumbling]
-[tense music]

With the panzers
now in the open,

tank commander
General Heinz Guderian

orders his units to operate
as fast-moving spearheads.

His motorized divisions cover

an astonishing 100
miles in a day.

German troops, following
behind the tanks,

show extraordinary
levels of endurance.

Some haven't slept
for three days.

A feat made possible

by the use of a stimulant
known as Pervitin.

An early version of crystal
meth, Pervitin can numb fear

and keep a person
alert for days on end.

Between April and July of 1940,

more than 35 million
Pervitin tablets

are shipped to the
German military.

-[dramatic music]
-[soldiers yelling]

[German Crewman] Often
there is euphoria,

an intensification
of performance, a

I worked through the day,
my depression lifted.

[gun blasting]

[Lloyd] Stimulants provided an
opportunity to make the man

into a superman,

to continue his fighting
actions far beyond that

that the enemy
could ever perceive.

-[dramatic music]
-[tanks rumbling]

[Narrator] Heinz Guderian
and his Panzerkorps

arrive at the town of Sedan on
the banks of the River Meuse,

just inside the French border.

The French thought it would
take 10 days to get there.

The Germans do it in three.

[ominous music]

g in the path of the
German blitzkrieg into France

is the French 2nd Army
at Sedan,

16,000 troops housed in
concrete blockhouses.

Expecting a World War
I-style engagement,

they dig in ready to
repel any frontal assault.

Guderian has other ideas.

He calls in the Luftwaffe.

[airplanes whirring]

For the next 8 hours, 12
squadrons of Stuka dive-bombers

fly more than 1,000 sorties

over the French soldiers
entrenched in Sedan.

[airplanes roaring]

It's the most intense
aerial bombardment

the Luftwaffe will
deliver in the entire war.

-[airplanes screaming]
-[bombs blasting]

[soldiers yelling]

German propaganda crews
brave the aerial onslaught

to film sappers as they build

pontoon bridges
across the Meuse.

[explosion blasts]

Few bunkers are hit and
there are just 56 casualties.

But the bombing
exceeds even the horror

of the gas attacks in
the First World War.

[airplanes roaring]

[bomb blasts]

The French soldiers are
psychologically devastated.

[airplanes roaring]

[David Boyer, voice-over]
The attack was far worse

than my imagination
could have invented.

The explosions were so frequent

you could not distinguish
between individual bomb blasts.

I was deaf and could
hardly breathe.

I made myself as
small as possible,

my world-shaking, I sobbed.

[bomb booming]

[Lloyd] The German air attack
not only fractured

the French defenses,

it also fractured the
French psychologically.

Once the Germans had
crossed the Meuse,

the French were in no position
to offer any resistance.

[sparse solemn music]

[Narrator] Major
Wilhelm Emmerling

serving with the
anti-tank battery 188,

films the bomb blasted
ruins of Sedan.

Empty pillboxes stand silent,

destroyed French tanks
litter the roadside,

and POWs from the
French 2nd Army

stare glassy-eyed at
the camera,

while Wilhelm
Emmerling and his crew

sit back and play cards.

Guderian commands
his mechanized units

to continue the blitzkrieg,

towards the unwary Allied
armies in the north.

[tanks rumbling]

The jaws of the
Manstein's pincer movement

draw closer together.

Trapped in the German's grip

are 12 divisions of the
British Expeditionary Force,

28 French divisions, and
almost the entire Belgian Army.

Totaling over one million men.

Guderian who's really at the
spearhead of this advance,

really recognized an
opportunity

to capture the
entire Allied army.

If Britain and France
lost that many soldiers,

they wouldn't be able
to recover from that

and that would
effectively end the war.

[Narrator] Realizing
the precarious state

of the Allied forces,
Churchill asks his generals

to prepare for a
worst-case scenario.

[Cameron] Churchill, for the
first time,

has to confront the possibility

that he'll have to
withdraw British manpower

from the continent

in order to preserve
British fighting strength,

This means abandoning
his ally, the French,

in their most urgent
and dire time of need.

-[tense music]
-[tanks rumbling]

[Narrator] Footage
shot by a crewman

shows the 1st Panzer Division,

heading north towards
the Allies

trapped on the French coast.

After his success in the south,

tank commander Heinz Guderian
is in a relaxed mood.

It seems like nothing
can stop his panzers.

Tank commanders sit
drinking champagne

[soldiers laughing]

while their crews smoke
celebratory cigars.

All confident the
enemy is at their mercy

and a famous victory
will soon be theirs.

But their leaders
aren't so sure.

Hitler, having sanctioned
a radical military plan,

just at the point when it
was about to be successful,

got the jitters.

His fear was that the tanks
had rolled too far forward

from the following infantry.

And that left his troops open

to the potential
for a counterattack

from the French interior

and the jittery fuhrer
loses his nerve.

[Narrator] Luftwaffe
commander Herman Goering

has Hitler's confidence.

And Goering wants the glory.

He reassures the fuhrer,

his air force can destroy
the enemy on its own.

[suspenseful music]

The German high command

orders its rampaging
tank units to halt.

Footage from the 8th
Panzerkorps show their tanks

and their crews sitting idle.

Some units appropriate
furniture, food, and wine

from French locals and
take the chance to relax.

Others use the delay
to wash away the grime

of two weeks of
unremitting warfare.

[water splashing]

But some tank
officers aren't happy.

[Cameron] So Guderian and other
corps and divisional commanders

were absolutely
furious and gobsmacked

that right on the cusp
of this glorious

unimaginable
operational victory,

that had succeeded beyond
anyone's wildest dreams,

victory was being taken away
from them at the last instance.

[Heusinger voice-over] What is
this order to stop

the panzer formations?

Do we want to build golden
bridges for the English,

whose army is being
squeezed in?

It is sheer nonsense.

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] The British Admiralty
is frantically planning

an evacuation
across the Channel.

They choose the northernmost
town in France, Dunkirk.

It's an industrial port,
flanked by wide sandy beaches,

[birds cawing]

with long moles that
jut out into the sea.

French news crews record

a steady stream of
Allied soldiers

retreating to Dunkirk
by any means possible.

Train, horse, motorcycle.

[motorcycle revving]

Expecting the Germans to
easily block the evacuation

and with few ships
in the vicinity,

the British secretly
fear they'll rescue

just 40,000 troops
from Dunkirk,

less than a tenth of the
number trapped there.

Goering does his best
to fulfill his promise.

The Luftwaffe destroy
Dunkirk itself.

[bombs blasting]

The beleaguered troops have
nowhere to go but the beaches.

[dramatic music]

They scrabble over the
sands, wade into the sea,

and pray for rescue.

With the Allies now
exposed on the open dunes,

Goering orders his Luftwaffe

to wipe out their
defenseless enemy.

[bombs whistling]

[bombs booming]

[suspenseful music]

/2 a million Allied
troops are trapped on the docks

and beaches of Dunkirk.

Many thousands plunge
into the water,

hauling themselves
towards the rescue boats.

The struggling men
and stationary vessels

are easy targets for the
predatory Heinkel 111s

and Stuka dive bombers.

As they lay waste to the area.

[airplanes roaring]

-[bomb whistling]
-[bomb blasting]

[Narrator] Running
protection for the bombers

are Messerschmitt Bf
109 fighter planes.

-[suspenseful music]
-[airplanes rumbling]

One of the pilots
is Adolf Galland.

After a near-fatal
training crash,

Galland badly damages one eye,

only passing sight tests
by memorizing the charts.

Despite his compromised vision,

Galland downs
three Allied planes

in his first combat flight.

He'll add 100 more kills
by the end of the war.

Elevating to him to
Fliegerass, aka fighter ace.

Protected by flyers
like Galland,

Luftwaffe bombers strike
Dunkirk again and again,

their barrage bringing
them to the brink

of wiping out the
retreating Allies.

[Arthur Divine, voice-over]
The din was infernal.

To the scream of falling bombs,

was added the angry hornet
noise of dive bombers,

machine-gun fire, the
snarl of falling planes.

-[airplane exploding]
-[airplane chugging]

[Narrator] To try and
shield the stranded troops,

the RAF deploys its
latest fighter plane,

the Supermarine Spitfire.

-[airplane whirring]
-[suspenseful music]

Some are fitted with cameras,

that activate when
the guns fire.

[guns blasting]

They capture the Spitfire
at its deadliest,

shooting down a
Stuka dive bomber.

The RAF send 16
fighter squadrons

to attack the
Luftwaffe over Dunkirk.

Able to bank and roll
faster than the Me 109s,

the Spitfire edges
it in dogfights.

In a single day, they
claim over 38 kills.

As the air battles rage,

a hastily assembled
evacuation fleet

with over 50 destroyers, starts
its unlikely rescue mission.

Recently discovered footage

taken by Lieutenant
Philip Hall,

shows one of the
destroyers, HMS Whitehall,

plowing through heavy
seas towards France.

[waves crashing]

Then, Dunkirk itself
comes into view.

Smoke clouds from
bombed oil refineries

billow 15,000 feet
into the sky.

[Marceau, voice-over] Everything
had been devastated,

there was smoke everywhere.

And on the sea it was horrible,

boats were sinking all around.

Some of which we could
only see the mast.

It was terrible.

It was terrible.

[Narrator] Destroyed
boats block the harbor.

Big ships like the Whitehall
can't get close to the beaches.

The Royal Navy had ships

that required deep water
in which to operate.

What they didn't have,
were shallow-draft vessels

of an amphibious assault-type,
that could land on beaches

and extract troops from
the beaches themselves.

[Narrator] The British
Admiralty issues a call to arms

for anyone who has a
vessel seaworthy enough

to cross the Channel.

Over 800 civilian vessels,
including merchant ships,

yachts, and fishing
boats respond.

A flotilla known as
the Little Ships,

sets off towards Dunkirk.

The civilian little ships
were a taxi service,

if you will, from the
beaches back to the larger,

Royal Naval vessels.

[Narrator] On the first day,

just 28,000 Allied troops
get off the beaches.

The exhausted men scramble
from little ships to big ones.

But their terror isn't over.

The Luftwaffe target the
ships in the Channel.

[dramatic music]

The RAF and
anti-aircraft weapons

[guns blasting]

throw up a protective
wall of gunfire.

But cracks remain.

[airplanes rumbling]

[James Hill, voice-over]
We were attacked relentlessly,

by Stukas. I remember seeing
a paddle steamer

and I watched a Stuka
dive-bombing it.

It looked like the bomb
had gone down the funnel

the whole thing disintegrated.

I think they lost 2,000 chaps.

[majestic thoughtful music]

[Narrator] Overloaded
ships arrive in ports

along the southeast
coast of Britain.

In Dover, troops from the
British Expeditionary Force

and French armies disembark
and reunite with their units.

Many are scarred,
mentally and physically.

The walking wounded are
helped down the gangplank,

while the worst of the
injured are lifted off.

For eight days, the desperate
Allied evacuation continues.

The RAF fly wave after
wave over Dunkirk.

Its aerial umbrella,
denying Goering's Luftwaffe

its vow to annihilate
the Allies.

In Dunkirk, Major
Wilhelm Emmerling

reveals a scene of
utter devastation.

[somber music]

His footage shows
once ornate villas

reduced to burnt-out shells.

The ruined Church of Saint-Eloi
gutted by incendiary bombs.

The town's rubble hiding
many of the 1,000 civilians

killed by the Luftwaffe's
indiscriminate bombing.

And wrecked hulls
litter the beach.

A silent reminder of
the 240 Allied vessels

lost in the evacuation.

[John Cameron, voice-over]
Dunkirk was a graveyard.

The whole scene was filled

with a sense of
finality and death.

The curtain was ringing
down on a great tragedy.

[Narrator] Over 16,000
French and British troops

die during the evacuation.

The dead buried by
their comrades in arms.

With the fleeing
Expeditionary Force

abandoning nearly all of its
tanks, vehicles, and equipment.

But thanks to the
unremitting bravery

of the crews of the
Navy, the Little Ships,

and the RAF, 340,000 Allied
soldiers are rescued.

Many more than the 40,000 that
were expected to be saved.

[soldiers cheering]

Despite the chastening
defeat in France,

British newsreels
headline the evacuation

as the Miracle of Dunkirk.

[crowd cheering]

[Lloyd] The evacuation from
Dunkirk was superbly planned,

brilliantly executed.

We find that it's a
great morale boost

for all British people.

But also, the evacuation
allowed the Allies

to take off the
beaches of Dunkirk,

a very important
experienced cadre of troops

that provided the
basis for an expansion

of the British Army.

It gives them the
wherewithal psychologically,

to continue the fight, even
if that meant standing alone.

[majestic music]

[Narrator] Churchill uses
Dunkirk as a rallying cry

for Britain to escalate
its war efforts.

[Winston Churchill] We shall
fight on the beaches,

we shall fight on
the landing grounds,

we shall fight in the
fields and in the streets.

We shall never surrender.

[crowd cheering]

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] For the Germans,

the Battle of Dunkirk
is a missed chance

to take the Western
forces out of the war,

but the invasion of
France stills rages.

-[ominous music]
-[fire crackling]

Almost a month
into its campaign,

the German Army is
still on the move.

Now it launches the second
phase of its conquest,

the wholesale destruction
of the French military

and the capture of the
nation's capital, Paris.

This phase of the offensive
begins with armored units

heading into the north and
west-central regions of France.

At the same time, a separate
force attacks the Maginot Line

to the east, to stop
French units there

reinforcing the
defense of Paris.

[airplanes whirring]

[gun blasting]

It's now the heart of France
that faces the blitzkrieg.

French fighters fiercely
defend their homeland.

In Amiens, they repeatedly
drive the German 4th Army back

with concentrated machine
gun and artillery fire.

[gun blasting]

But soon, even the most
dogged French units

are overwhelmed by
the German onslaught.

French tanks are no match
for German firepower.

Their crews pay
the ultimate price.

Among the hardest hit
divisions in the French Army

are Black African troops

drawn mainly from France's
colonies in West Africa.

The aftermath of
one bloody encounter

is filmed by Wehrmacht
cavalry captain,

Harald von Vietinghoff-Riesch.

Nazi racial stereotypes
and propaganda

had depicted African and
colonial soldiers as a wild,

unhinged, savages almost.

This served a
couple of purposes.

First, it reinforced the
superiority of Aryans.

Secondly, it convinced
the Wehrmacht

that African
and colonial soldiers

were to be treated without
quarter and without mercy.

[somber music]

[Narrator] Vietinghoff's footage

shows captured African troops

forced to drag corpses
from burning buildings

and dig mass graves for
their fallen comrades.

[Cameron] We see massacres
propagated

against African and
colonial soldiers.

When African soldiers
surrender they're put in camps

and their conditions
are generally worse

than with white French POWs.

And part of this comes
down to the idea that

Africans are subhuman,

that they're less than
the fully civilized

and fully developed Aryan race.

[Narrator] General
Edwin Rothkirch

visits one such POW camp.

As he did on his trip to
Paris three years earlier,

Rothkirch appears
fascinated by black faces.

He films as starving POWs

fight over the raw
entrails of a goat.

A sobering insight into the
suffering of the 120,000

French Colonial troops
captured by the Nazis.

Many of the African soldiers

are summarily killed
by the Germans,

while others are
used as test subjects

in degrading anthropological
and medical experiments.

[dramatic music]

The Wehrmacht blazes
a trail of destruction

that leaves cities in ruins

and the French Army decimated

as it advances on Paris.

Millions flee the city shock
written on their faces.

[suspenseful music]

A near-deserted Paris
awaits the Nazi's arrival.

U.S. ambassador,
William Bullitt Junior,

is the only diplomat of a
major nation left in Paris.

Fluent in French and German,

Bullitt is appointed
the city's mayor,

by Prime Minster Reynaud.

After stepping in to
convince the Nazis

not to bomb the city,

Bullitt negotiates the
safe surrender of Paris.

Just six weeks after the start
of its invasion of France,

the German Army enters the
French capital unopposed.

Standing on the same street

where he'd vacationed with
this son three summers earlier,

Edwin Rothkirch films
a German Guard Division

as it parades from
the Arc de Triomphe,

then along the Champs Elysee.

The avenue of fallen heroes.

[footsteps thudding]

Hitler demands the victory
become a huge propaganda event.

[crowd chattering]

Hitler sought to
obliterate the memory

of the defeat of
Germany in 1918,

one that was very
painful for him

and for the wider
German nation.

On entering Paris, the
Germans wasted no time

in branding it their own.

Monuments, particularly
those that were relevant

to the French success
in the First World War,

were initially draped
in the swastika flag,

and then eventually, destroyed.

[tense music]

[Narrator] Prime
Minister Reynaud

is replaced by
World War I veteran

Field Marshall Philippe Petain.

With the Nazis now in
control of much of France,

Petain negotiates an
armistice with Hitler.

The Germans win the campaign
quite rapidly and in style,

and Hitler rubs France's
nose in their defeat.

He has the surrender
ceremony take place

in the same rail car

where the Germans signed
the Armistice in 1918.

[Narrator] The railway carriage

is transported from a museum
to the exact location

where, 22 years earlier,

the Germans surrendered
to the French

after the First World War.

Film crews capture
a gloating Hitler,

strutting as he arrives to
sign the Armistice papers.

The newsreels
highlight every detail

of the humiliated French
in their moment of defeat.

A week later, Hitler orders
the railway carriage destroyed.

The blitzkrieg
campaign may have been

von Manstein's brainchild,

but Hitler takes the
credit and the glory.

[Cameron] In the aftermath of
the Battle of France,

Hitler had a new sense
of self-confidence.

He began to view himself
as a military genius,

Hitler believed that he was
the only one going forward

who would be able to drive
the German military machine.

He begins to view the war

as a contest between him
and the rest of the world.

-[dramatic music]
-[crowd cheering]

[Narrator] Once again,

Hitler celebrates
with a victory lap,

this time before adoring
crowds in Berlin.

Emboldened by his
success in France,

Hitler accelerates his campaign

to stamp Nazi authority
across the globe.