December 7 1941 the turmoil
of world war two enters its 27th month
Japanese troops storm Shanghai
German army stands at the gates of moscow leaving six and a half million
casualties in their wake
Nazi Germany has mainland Europe in its grip
under siege Britain hands-on bias
3,000 miles away the United States remains
seventy-six percent over citizens support neutrality
at 7:55 a.m.
the piece to shatter
360 Japanese warplanes
to send on Pearl Harbor
has come
this is America's war has never seen before
the unique vantage point up space
the key battles unfold
military strategies behind in stunning detail
revealed other political alliances
the global battle for resources and the astounding awakening American military
in manufacturing might
determined
the outcome greatest great ever
ok
the unprovoked Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor will send shock waves across the
globe but America
has feared a strike for months
since 1931 japan's imperial ambitions have grown bolder
old first manchurian then China itself
when France falls to nazi germany in nineteen forty
Japan seizes control
French Indochina
US response is rather japan's financial assets are frozen an oil embargo was
imposed
the message is clear withdraw from Indochina
or be economically crushed after the embargo Japan a space for two choices
stop territorial expansion give in to the demands for the Allies
or go to war Japan chooses
more
in the words of Prime Minister Joe Joe it is either glory
or decline
it is in Paris that they make the first decisive
strike
the Japanese knew they were never gonna go toe to toe you know station a long
naval war in the Pacific they knew they didn't have the economic my two military
might fail is a
calculation that they could administer a knockout blow
to the capital ships in the US leave
you could destroy the Pacific Fleet the Billy Americans to respond to anything
for
the many months would be taken away
so the strike a pearl harbor was not just a strike and a symbol of American
power in
possum American power in the pacific one american intelligence cannot see
is revealed from space admiral yamamoto spleen departs Japan
on the longest assault in history avoiding shipping lanes in landmass
they arrive on-scene 275 miles from their target
it's the perfect vantage point beyond the range america's defensive radar
but at the optimum strike distance sports course 414
cutting-edge aircraft the Jews in the crowd the Mitsubishi 0
it's faster than anything days for
it incredibly maneuverable and has extreme range
but while the technology was pretty good what mattered at Pearl Harbor
was the man behind it it was the pilot
the japanese pilots have already been at war for years
so there well train crews take you out on top I dot
they'd been planning that attack from on Pier the times had been running
more games simulating a going through the action again and again
to the basically the many and talk about how they could have done it going in
blind
at 7:55 a.m.
first wave Obama's from the sky
on the deck of the USS Arizona is John Stratton
for you right away here that they were Japanese planes Anna
we knew that they were bombing for armaments
problem was for a cleaner home
for
climbers for every mood II bombing in New Jersey through
time
experience earner are more time
high-altitude bomber got harder 2000 birnbaum
by managers devastated everything in its path
the concussion dinner
smoke in the prior written horrendous
features drew Mike who'd lost your room
diving battleships and anger the Arizona
Oklahoma West Virginia and California are some
the rest severely damaged in sixty eight minutes
Japan has crippled the heart america's specifically do
from a Japanese perspective the attack on Pearl Harbor succeeded beyond the
most
optimistic expectations when you consider the losses
that the Japanese suffered in this attack is essentially nothing
the Japanese lose 64-man to 3,600 49
US casualties
a human damage ratio 57 21
but Japan's margin of victory Heights two major flaws in the attack
the Japanese failed to systematically attacked the oilfields
the oil storage tanks for Pearl Harbor first they'll spend one more sortie
taking out those oil tanks they would cripple hope so thickly which would have
had the
fuel supplies to keep going
more significant other ships the Japanese fail to target
the american aircraft carriers were absent from Pearl Harbor at the time
above the
Japanese attack and there's things evolve very quickly
it became clear that the aircraft carriers destined to become the most
significant naval asset for either side
in the pacific war in the American carriers were
touched
oil supplies and hear domination
two factors that will dictate the faith in the world war two
and Japan fails to damage items
instead it has awoken the whole raft love the sleepy
American Giants
the
Pearl Harbor freed american people also furious American military
massive casualties destruction the most the Pacific Fleet if you want to do one
thing
to unite a country that before this has been rather divided about what to do
about the war
Pearl Harbor was at this was like a lightning rod
throughout the american population no longer was president roosevelt limited
in his options he had a United States population
that was angry and unified
and desired revenge against Japan
heard a row isolationism is over America
is at me
begins its rise to become the most powerful nation
on the planet
gushing 10 calculates victory will cost $300 billion dollars
point four trillion in today's money over one-and-a-half times the total US
federal budget
the government can raise half through increased taxes
for the rest it must turn to the common
to raise $300 billion dollars
viewed as an insurmountable challenge because basically
we had to get half the population United States to buy bonds
we were saying is we're in one or two we're in this to win
it's a5 good versus evil in New on an individual level
are going to make a difference to guarantee success
the admin a New York recruit america's most potent
propaganda assets
we had the Hollywood machine America mass marketed
movies they knew the power hollywoodnews.com: celebrities over
300 movie icons joined the stars all over america campaign
criss-crossing the nation
Chicago two huge celebrity round celebrate 15 years
dollars in bond
New York a three-way baseball game generates 56
by the end
bonds campaigns raise 187.5
billion dollars
to get everybody on line behind one goal and make the transaction is
is huge America and its beleaguered allies for going to need every
said
four-day after pearl harbor
Nazi Germany declares me on the United States
she now faces tune fast and battle-hardened powers
on to products an American to the war
a look as a the military aggressors for them to win
seen from space america's carol is clear
Purfleet is in disarray and a process the gas escaped the mercy
are rampant Japan me on the other side of the planet
her strongest military ally Great Britain is buckling under siege from
Nazi Germany
and
America is at the epicenter the greatest conflict
in history roosevelt must make the biggest column any US presidency
which enemy to engage first
frank del roosevelt decided the germany was the one that could take down our
closest friends
around the world and they had to make sure that Britain survived
keeping Britain afloat was essential
to the long-term prospect a victory
it still has a large aircraft carrier
that would enable an invasion onto the continent if Britain fell under nazi
domination
the challenge would be almost insurmountable on
for roosevelt the future a great britain is the future of the war
but after seventeen months of fighting alone its survival rests
on a knife-edge C
isolated Britain's only home is to keep ur supply routes open
a fragile lifeline German admiral turn its seeks to destroy him
Britain depended on the import of 5 million tons of stuff
every mines German admiral then it's are you very persuasively
we can subtract a million tons a month we will bring bread jewish newson
during its lethal weapon is the UK
capable of traveling thousands of miles submerged
armed with the deadly cocktail the deck guns mines
and torpedoes
is the perfect weapon to starve britain into submission
when they tak they're sending over 9,000 tonnes
up supplies to the bottom of the ocean
one munition want more PTO my detonate increases
we'd underneath the vessel the crates the vessel claps
I'm it's the difference between being stabbed
and someone breaking your back
it's a killer
churchill introduces naval convoys to protect the merchant fleets
during its response is devastating
Admiral Dennis introduced this thing called a brutal tactics
Wolfpack tactical rule is a Packer fans and instead of approaching singly as
summaries done in the past the germans
with after U-boats priorities long control lines
and then they would use radio signals to hungry in a pack
and overwhelm the defensive the convoy
the results are devastating when you get cut by a pack
have these you might lose half or more of the condo
in twelve months 900 ships
her son only 29 U-boats are destroyed
it's a war of attrition Britain is losing fast
winston churchill knows one big thing in nineteen forty
for britain together to fight this war need american help
can't do it alone
churchill tirelessly lobbies roosevelt for american support
though officially neutral roosevelt cuts a deal
the US gives fifty destroyers to britain to keep it in the fight
but at a price
in return Britain hands over eight events overseas bases to america
and dismantlers its preferential trading system
with its colonies was very mixed deal for Britain because on the one hand it
helps Britain for the war
I couldn't have done it without american support materially on the other hand
it accelerates the collapse of the British Empire makes him on more more
unaffordable
winston churchill that's a very painful deal the won the public has to be my dad
December 1941
America enters the room
its first active aggression is to join Britain in the Battle of the Atlantic
a strategy that meets with disaster
when america enters the war the Battle of the Atlantic actually takes a turn
worse for the Allies the amount of Allied shipping
that sock goes up by these astronomical amount
by mid-nineteen forty-two 02703
allied ships are some a u-boat kill ratio
36- 21 it's an unsustainable rate of loss
even with america fighting alongside
Liberty a Briton and the freedom in europe hey
by a thread
made 1942
Britain remains in the stranglehold the German u-boat manage
american ships coming to its Eder being destroyed at alarming rates
to reverse their fortunes
the allies must gain the upper hand in the intelligence
workers
see the most critical factor in about Atlantic was exchange information
between
the Americas the British it maximize but the technological intellectual
capabilities for sites
the president for this vital collaboration
is that is our admissions 15 months
before the Pearl Harbor attack way
see with Nazi invasion seemingly inevitable
Henry T's are head of the British aeronautical committee
persuades churchill to give America every scientific innovation Britain
homes
in exchange for access to US production line
the blueprints for packed into a single truck embarking from Britain
it reaches Washington DC in September 1940
that box was described by one American official
as much important cargo the leveraged short the truck
contains the memorandum on the feasibility of the atomic bomb
designs for jet engines rockets superchargers
gyroscopic gun sights submarine detection devices
self-sealing fuel tax plastic explosives and perhaps the most important invention
a world war two
working magnetron number 12 and advancement in radar technology a
thousand times more effective than the best American counterpart
this was revolutionary you can put it into an aircraft you can put on a ship
then you can take that technology
and take it anywhere on the battlespace American assembly lines begin mass
producing the device that will change the course of the war
its first challenge to close the deadly mid-atlantic yeah
space the bone yard a ballad shipping is startlingly reviews
you can fly missions from United States you can fly missions from Britain
but you can't quite close everything you've got the middle and a gap in the
middle
when you most realize that and Kostroun that area
by April 1943 3,450 allied ships have been lost
but new carriers are launched loaded with long-range aircraft fitted with the
magnetron number 12
and the gap begins to close it turns the Atlantic from this
why mass in which the you both can hide n
to know I can find you out there
as british codebreakers cracked the German Enigma code
the final piece up the Allied resurgence falls into place
and the tactical in technological advantage is exploited
in the convoy battle known as ON s5 among the convoy battles one was
important was
-5 maple 43 and it's important really because
it demonstrated clearly asking how far the allies are gone 42 ships
the snowbound 01 s5 convoy leave Liverpool
for Canada
Ford earnings it is a perfect target dennis is feeling is great says
emergency like he needs to sink more more times a shipping
me actually presses lock in this battle
the first wave of you both Singh 13 allied ships
but as golf ball the event
switches
armed with the german codes and advanced radar the allies strike back
with impunity
turns fights longer than the show brings in more you post the nation
which show that in fact chewed up by the con- with
after the ballet dancers Valley lending over
because he sees out expert the British Americans have become a detecting
U-boats chasing them down and killing them
with the 1s 5 the Battle of the Atlantic this fall
but 1
and the astonishing transformation American industry can start to dictate
the fortunes of more
with the money and the mic to help reduce the axis
America embarks on an unprecedented
industrial and social revolution you had a
were industrial bored and they looked around the united states that this
particular place is going to be we're gonna build Tanks we're gonna build
planes here
and so the population went there it's as if in wrong word to somebody
the picked up the North American continent the eastern seaboard
and raise the temp tempted and everything people money
machines everything just slim westward across the country
the population a california swells by 53 percent
Oregon by forty percent and Washington by thirty-seven
nineteen million women become the core the American labor from working in war
factories
transportation and agriculture across the nation
manufacturers of all sizes become a critical part
the world
typewriter manufactures canned goods manufacturers
they're all converted they're all mobilised if you will
to support the war effort car factors returning to make the Bombers
for greater factors are turning maker macarthur's not for nothing is called
the production America
american industry produces 87,000 ships
and landing craft 100,000 tanks and armored vehicles
300,000 aircraft two million trucks
twenty million rifles and small on and $41 billion rounds of ammunition enough
to kill the population of the world
17 times over
yet america's decision to engage Germany first
calms at a price
the Japanese central Kansas was shocked everybody
up they seemed unstoppable
Japan advances through the Pacific on check
capturing American British and Dutch territory's in a stream
decisive victories
within six months they have near complete control of the Pacific the
they captured territories for two main reasons:
the first one is a resource that reason is provide
oil rubber whatcha gonna need to keep the war machine going
they also knew America prevention response
has sold la the territory's we're going to be barriers
to set up against the Americans when they came back across April 1942
America strikes back
launching from the US hornet sixteen B-twenty five's kick start the next
phase of the war
by bombing Tokyo
for the americans to rate is a chance to strike back even though it didn't really
do very much
material damage they had a major impact on Japanese leadership
the military's embarrassed that allowed their the apart to be thrown like that
the japanese response setting their sights on america's most
westerly Pacific base
from space their strategy is clear seizing the island
midway will extend their defensive perimeter
deep into American water's and their plan is
were gonna surprise the Americans were gonna sees midway
and then they're gonna be forced to come out and fight us on our terms
the problem for the Japanese is
the Americans are you know they're coming
the story of the american codebreakers is
what are these lesser-known but out on the most important parts of the story of
why America wins in the pacific
from June 1939 the US navy combat
Intelligence Unit under the command of Joe's rushmore
has been attempting to decipher J and 25
the japanese naval code huh
on using punch card technology and mathematical analysis
they work around the clock the in the lead-up to Midway
the decisive breakthrough is made they break the code they
news
the Japanese calming they knew where they were coming to Midway
they even knew win they were coming
US intelligence finally grasps the full-scale
the Japanese attack
the situation is highly precarious
with the weekend fleet and up against the battle-hardened enemy force
maybe
is the moment of truth
he made the Midway battle with work for america was the other carriers in the
right place
and if the strike for Japanese just the right time
the Americans have got to get in first major shock themes
at 4am Japanese bombing a midway begins
blood admiral Nadu mo can see is 275 miles away
safely outside the range in Japanese radar for US carriers
are poised for a counterattack only at 7:40 a.m.
does a Japanese reconnaissance plane spot the US fleet
the
battles are often decided by minutes and seconds and Midway
is filled with important minutes and seconds when the late spotter plane
finally finds American flee hamburger monster with us to love about
do I outside my aircraft for bombs to Bobby Flay
as the RTR for do I stop take those bombs often put on trophy does
sleek black americans with and whatever decision he comes upon
as good a major impact on rest
while they were doing Melissa posters along critical waiting point
ways aircraft from takes huge confidence in explosives around
for the Japanese this was the risk is my mom is the moment America has been
waiting
41 Douglas torpedo bombers descent
the attack
but the American tapir bomber show up unescorted
when people
shot down
fish in a barrel they just don't survive
35 about a 41 planes are lost
not a single mom it's the Japanese
it seems the Japan
has struck decisive world
and all the sudden the dive bombers come in and the whole world changes
a second way American dive bombers to say
there's a Japanese fleet no air cover index cover with airplanes
contribute does mom they're just torches to be less die from
come in and three Japanese aircraft carriers were destroyed
immense
as the final Japanese carrier is destroyed along with 250
elite Japanese pilots
the balance of power has dramatically small in america's favor
we had seven new carries against Russian they had one
carry an extra so they were never gonna be alone replaces carriers and what it
meant
is there be thrown back on the defensive for the duration to work
in a global theater of war control the air
is proving to be wanna Lee determining factors for victory
on the other side of the planet america's for strikes on Nazi Germany
are coming from the sky
major cities in Europe by the new frontline's
company
the yo
six months on Pearl Harbor and the battle fronts of world war two
are at a tipping point in America and her allies have stall
the momentum german aggression in the Battle of the Atlantic
and halted Japanese territorial expansion in the decisive victory
admit
and in June 1942 the first american bombers
arrived in great britain
take joint a brutal battle for air supremacy
that has raged over Europe since the outbreak love me
Germany's Luftwaffe squadrons draw first blood bringing poland then the Low
Countries in France
to their needs to follow France in 1940
releasing two vindicate disappear are you blitzkrieg is big concerns that the
germans may be unstoppable
with nazi domination almost complete hitler turns the look mop up against his
last remaining
opposition
Great Britain
it is imperative that its Royal Air Force homes
the station about 101 British par
sure I'm July 10 19
Battle of Britain begin the lookbook pounds British defenses
and its major city
the RAF adapt very quickly and begins to shoot down more German
bombers and fighters then the germans can replace 1900 determine aircraft
registry
in 113 day it is an unsustainable rate attrition
forced to cancel the Battle of Britain begin massing forces for an invasion the
Soviet Union
the Battle of Britain is hitler's first major defeat
World War two
airpower is the new orthodoxy of modern warfare
roosevelt orders vast squadrons have aircraft to be manufactured
at words will run plant in Michigan an astounding
8500 bombers are produced
the over 127,000 bombers are made
13,600 are transported to British
here
the assault on Germany
and now enter a new phase the intention
Air Force in britain at number impacts number 12 guaranteed that the Germans
were belochka other major attack against Britain when I am about Britain's
is too many allied airplanes there
it also was a poster British morale to the Americans from coming to my house
but the american airmen are entering a new kind of morphine
where sheer weight of numbers is no guarantee success
do amount weapons that are being thrown up stop the Bombers
is having enormous toll the survivability rate is going 11 12 the
infantry
it actually safer to be an infantryman on the ground in European of octial
than it is to be in this I advanced machine flying high above
after losing 1,135
bomb the RAF's which is tonight I'm but in the dog
only one
.5 percent of all mom small within three miles of the target
the Americans aside as too inefficient day yet to do in daylight where you can
see the target
they got we've got more heavily defended bombers we think this will work
American Conference is based on the B-seventeen
the most sophisticated war machine up its time
the B-seventeen is an amazing aircraft they call it the flyer for church where
y'at has
13 50 caliber machine guns parade all around to give it a bubble of fire
you have fire coming out the front you have fire coming out the flanks
below about in the rear it was believed they could fly
in broad daylight on escorted by fighter aircraft deep into the heart in enemy
territory
am on leisure an amazing amount of the ordinance
on enemy targets with unswerving face
in the B-seventeen the American eighth Air Force plan
a jewelry to destroy the heart from Germany the Asian production
the shrine for Regensburg mission was seen as the way to really prove that
produce precision bombing idea would work
they seem to have picked out the key industry they can knock out that would
cripple
the German economy they had the battle plan I thought would get them to the
target
two squadrons a B-seventeen is commanded by Colonel the May
and brigadier general williams prepare to attack simultaneously
splitting German defence almost immediate the plan begins to one round
foggy day in England the may get his guys up
the unabomber division can get up the decision was made that they could land
lamaze guys they sent them on
when the Regensburg mission goes in on its own the bombers were sitting ducks
not only for flack
for the germans they were gathered from all over told a friend
Schweinfurt lame tensions and
enough time after the Regensburg legs for the germans generation rearm
and and it goes to the same ol
60 US bombs are destroying
double the losses ever suffered in a single-rate
the problem for the Allies was we took the marketing
love the Flying Fortress seriously we took the idea that it could protect
itself with its own machine guns and not have to worry about escorted
seriously and that didn't work
the flaw is startlingly clear from a bar the lack
a fighter escort protection the fighters have limited range
and can only protect the Bombers part way to their targets
leaving them dangerously exposed then we get the real game changer
you get the p51 Smith the p51
was an amazing fighter on so many different levels
but the real
as it had an amazing range it where
with the american bombers all the way n all the way out
that man we could takedown the German defenses
we could create true air dominance and that's when you see
the lot waffle essentially swept from the skies
once the Luftwaffe strike me as pretty much free reign over the German sky
we really start to take down the oil industry
Boyle the single most essential commodity of world war two
possession large fires a boil was the only way to victory
without oil mechanize armies could not fight
from space the battle for the world's oil reserves
is revealed
America is self sufficient its oil fields are the cornerstone of allied
military strength
on
contrast Germany's stockpile $20 million barrels
is rapidly running out when the weaknesses in the germans
more was we couldn't get access to unlimited quantities
oil they don't decide abuse synthetic or cynical it was really critical
for me here but different
synthetically
produced from Coleman
natural gas is the lifeblood hitler's mechanized forces
as allied air raids crippled germany's synthetic fuel production
hitler's best hope is to seize the caucuses
oil
deep inside russia the two sides clash
in the bloodiest fighting history has ever seen at stake
is the outcome group
fortune
the September 1940
the while America remains neutral hitler has mainland Europe
in his grim
but in the skies over Britain the nazi's relentless westward advance
is halted didn't get as a defeat the forces hitler to turn his attention
towards the ultimate goal that conquest and annihilation
on the Soviet Union and
the Soviet Union represented the Nexus
other everything that Hitler hated he saw it as a bastion
communism and Judaism and if it were not defeated
ultimately the Soviet Union were destroyed germany
and destroy the area in race but there is also just sure private is in here
the Soviet Union was just throws around your shaft
the grade economic space they needed the raw materials
the oil the food and by annexing the Soviet Union
may be able to sustain a long war and fend off
any british-american attacks June 22nd
1941
gipper launches Operation Barbarossa the invasion of the Soviet Union
across in eighteen hundred mile front gillers army over four million Vermaak
troops
surges forward destroying everything in its path
this was the largest army that had been assembled
in the history of the world and the germans demonstrated an operational and
tactical mastery
that that the soviets simply could not match
and the barbarity his almost incomprehensible
ok
following the front-line troops tour special action swatch
their purpose was to identify and murder
political leaders and ultimately jews in the occupied areas
the slaughter a million soviets
is the merciless testing ground for the holocaust
I'm
I'm the SS accelerate the genocide of Jews
and others seen as undesirable I'm
over 9 million are slaughtered
you
this was industrialized mass murder
this is something that that hadn't even appeared in the Middle Ages
by the winter of 1941 their brutal advance has brought them to the brink of
victory
leningrad is under siege and German Panzer divisions are at the gates
Moscow seeking a devastating tactical an ideological
gipper turns his attentions
on grad
star Graham was an important target for hitler because in New by taking a review
insults down he also knew he was forced down to try to get back in he would be
able to wear down
the Red Army but also was an important city cuz it would permit him to have
itself
into the caucuses and take all these oil-producing regions and they Germany
self sufficient patrol in
for both sides the stakes for the Battle of Stalingrad
are immense for Hitler to fail in Stalingrad
would be an enormous blow to the Nazi
mass would be an enormous blow to the war
its shelf still early just on
was unrelenting he would not tolerate defeat he would not tolerate
pulling back to surrender or to give ground
would be met by does the utmost sanctions
the lookbook drop a thousand tons of bombs
on Stalingrad on before two and a half a million troops
clash
the ferocity are the Battle of Stalingrad was something straight out of
hell
it was not uncommon for battles to be raging
not over parts of the city for city blocks but literally
for different floors with the in one building
and some cases show via reinforcements came forward without weapons
facing certain death in yet again and again
and again they came as the battle rages
the Red Army watches operation Uranus
when hitler's high command cannot see is revealed from space
over one million Soviet soldiers
out play the German positions before cutting through the enemy's rear
operation your honor's was a complete shock
and suddenly starting run lows in circles cut off from supply
the Germans are plunged into the harshest Russian winter
in sub-human conditions they begin to disintegrate good
it was freezing cold the supplies began to
declines jammed it was a month it's difficult to convey in simple words
what that experience was nine
after five months under siege hitler's once-mighty 6 army capitulate the first
German
field army tradition
nearly two million have ball but for the soviet the tide
his turn
blues showed me around can scarcely the
overstated german prisoners were marched through Moscow
and this proved and the Nazi soldiers were not
Superman instead they saw German soldiers
who quit who surrendered who could not match the determination of the Soviet
soldier
for Hitler the defeat is devastating
instinctively he strikes back Adolf Hitler
attempted to regain the strategic initiative
to close age gap in Balch if you will
Shen around hearst seen from above
hitler's objective is clear eliminate the barge
concentrate his forces and regain the initiative for the Allies
it is critical that its newest military partner homes
the Eastern Front is vital to the Allies because
it absorbs the Bach Germany's foreign power
to put a very brutally so is too much for forty must be dying on land
president roosevelt commits over
billion dollars are lend-lease supplies to starving
yet traditional trade routes through Europe are blocked
getting US aid into the soviet union is one of the greatest
allied logistical challenges of the war there were three
routes that we could use was the North's Atlantic rude into the northern parts
exports archangel in Murmansk
stormy seas I skin hard to get to
and there was one across the Pacific to vladivostok
but everything had to be unloaded in Siberia and then truck
into Russia on the trans-siberian railway which is slow and time-consuming
the and then there was the one around the Cape of Good Hope much into
Iran into southern russia that way the persian gulf
route is crucial to russian success but making it viable
is a monumental task
we had to build a supply chain from scratch
there is no infrastructure the harbors are not there
we have to construct those allied engineers
Guild Wars jetties and peers simultaneously 450 miles on roads are
constructed and two thousand miles of railway modern with all routes now open
the US pump
sixteen million tons a lend-lease into Russia
included our gasoline
ammunition than entire military telecommunication system
fourteen million pairs of boots
and enough food to offer every soviet soldier one square meal a day
for over a year
but most significant for the half a million Studebaker truck
supplied by the factories Detroit Studebaker truck was a real game changer
because it gives the Soviet Army
the ability to operate on a massive scale with are fun logistics
the other things give them is an advantage literally within the battle
itself
there russians have a lot of artillery you
tillery with the truck and suddenly they've got these flying
anti-tank batteries literally stepping across different parts of the
battlefield
to give the soviets the tactical advantage incurs the ally supply one
final thing
intelligence have the German offensive plans
soviets knew they were coming and so they create defense is above a scale
that
really had been seen before in the war mean people talk about the National my
in France this thing was the Maginot Line
put on steroids
space the fall enormity the soviet defenses becomes clear three defensive
line contain a vast interconnected web
thousands of anti-tank guns three-sided artillery zones
and over 400,000 mines
it is the largest defense network ever constructed over 50 miles deep
July 5th 1943 over two thousand tanks
into Union troops engage
testing at the Battle of Kerch was extraordinary large numbers of tanks and
soldiers
for fighting the most brutal degree and very close quarters
was brutal hand
flame throwers thousands a day
coupled with
gallery raining down all of this would have combined
to create a scene they would have resembled hell on earth
after 11 days the German offensive collapse only a third of the way
to their objective
hitler's attempt to crush the Soviet Union
has failed hitler's worst nightmare
it come to pass Germany would now be phased
with the war on two fronts and a war of attrition
stalin gains the initiative on the Eastern Front at a huge cost
over 9 million soviet casualties in contrast
America has yet to put a single soldier on the battlefields of Europe
stalin was deeply frustrated with allied
dawdling about opening a second front you soon there was a conspiracy
the Churchill and Roosevelt we're going to fight
to the last russian then the British Americans across the channel
the harvest all the spoils of war the russians having won it with their own
blood and treasure
prior to a full-scale invasion of Europe
roosevelt elects to blood his troops in North Africa
the North African campaign was a testing ground for the american army
which had yet to face the German military
in a significant way overconfident an inexperienced
the US military is about to receive a baptism of fire
to which
master Kasserine Pass was a seminal event
as the American Pacific Drive towards Japan
accelerates and as stalin in the east the Allied bombing campaign in the West
continue to weaken the Third Reich america prepares to test its troops
in North Africa
they will join the desert campaign that has been raging for over 2 G's
June 10 1940
Italy under Benito Mussolini
joins the action
with Germany plans to force britain from North out
North Africa was a vital front for the British in world war two
because it was the vital hinge to the British Empire
a German and Italian victory will open up the untapped oil reserves in the
Middle East
and sees the Suez Canal that connects britain to its empire
the Suez Canal use project at all cost the bottom line if you move in large
quantities ok with me
you gotta use the sea lanes in this is true today as it was then
September 1940 the axis in vain
for two years they drive the british back but the advance
is halted his German field marshal rommel is defeated
el Alami
to capitalize on this victory churchill lobbies roosevelt for support
but the majority a presidential advisers Hampton Downs
initially most american senior military personnel
saw the campaign in North Africa as a diversion from the main effort
essentially a waste of time
decisively roosevelt overrides his counsel
FDR's decision to send american force North Africa probably the most important
strategic decision a world war two in really gave us a place where we could
land the US sorry bring in a battle
against secondary German unit not the units will encounter in Europe and so it
was a it was a it was a brilliant move since the Pearl Harbor attack
a vast American army has been amassing
palm for their first taste more people were lined up at the recruiting stations
home was Robin arms a graduate in February
and I wasn't in uniform in March
the country had been violated is what we thought and everybody just wanted to get
busy and do something about it
volunteers and inductees from the draft swell the ranks
as america rises to become the largest military power in the world
before the war total strangers the US Army including a chair core
was well below 200,000 there would be home 40
bold increase into space six years
during the war the armed forces and compass sixty million men under arms
best 13 percent of the entire population this
last army assemble america is prime for
Operation Torch
then the largest amphibious invasion in history
torture she was very important rehearsal for the day was a huge
operation it was logistically extremely
complex torch was a monumental challenge for the US because we had won the battle
the Atlantic Jones
we have to ask or troops ammunition supplies from the United States director
North Africa
escort troops from Great Britain down in North Africa
true waters patrolled by German submarines million to land them in a
hostile shortened
November 8th 1942 73,000 allied troops disgorge onto the beach
and immediately the problems begin was on the landings are Africa
it's a great story and everything that can go wrong and amphibious landing
virtually everything that could go wrong dig around
the landing craft you didn't run out the front right onto the beach
that you had to jump over the side that of course is not the most efficient way
to get an there its most dangerous its slowest
number of are a crack gets stock on sandbars
when they drive a mile electronics get prime
portion defining the Vichy French you fight half-heartedly and had they been
attacking the germans 9 1944 the Japanese in 1944
experience would have been on lockdown
a lot worse
as French Vichy troops loyal to Hitler capitulate US forces head for Tunisia
and their first clash with the full strength German war machine
they're really blissfully ignorant have the reality is a modern war
I mean they've got their trucks they've got their tanks they've got their rivals
they've got their
very complicated chain of command from are made according to vision brigade
regiment battalion
they think that dahl 25 hey US forces engaged rommel
outside the town of it. hey the
making an initial breakthrough they pursue retreating panzer divisions
from space krummel's master tactic is revealed
the Panzers Rd Corey's luring US forces
into a trap
they fall prey to the techniques have double envelopment by the germans
with some very good weapons like the German 88 day D eight-millimeter
gun was literally a world-class
anti-tank weapon not only kurdish
gotta further distance by it had an incredible
kelberg it's basically just will be four this thing is
diabolique
many cases Americans IDR surrendered or
drop their weapons and brand the American
performance to put it charitably was was abysmal
US forces are pushed back into Kasserine Pass
where under constant attack the untested units
fall apart to raise r for some 60 million people in a hurry
means that in the initial stages about conflict you're gonna have troops on the
frontline
have no taste the battle before the small dwight eisenhower for example
becomes the supreme Allied commander
forward to forced professional campaign he had never heard a bullet fired in
anger his tire life
have no meat no actual combat experience further disaster is a burden
reinforcements from the British first Army a ride and with Field Marshal
Montgomery approaching from the east
rommel retreat Frank Genovese
witnesses the after by
regard to Cache Creek Pass and be improved gone
use my own flash music burn
sanction human beings who's been
we took on my hubby dude germany's past
brahms we had you clinton do we have a huge pair
America suffers 6500 cash
its first land battle in world war two
is a disaster Cazarine was a
tremendous defeat for the United States just no way
sure but that on the other hand katherine is best their happiness army
they'd better get your butt kicked their
they get your butt kicked in already there are some
changes made in policies our good operate but there are also some key
leadership change
got eisenhower burning aspersion got george patton
and lessons learned in North Africa are gonna be applied for the rest of the
game or two
new US Army doctrines and shoes a dramatic turnaround
first in his earphones followed by system preparing the way for the allied
invasion
it and on the other side in the war
Pacific moon
enters a new phase of ferocity the carnage
was was from mom
times
from the ashes a pearl harbor the American war machine
is approaching full potential engaging her enemies on three continents
in the pacific troop numbers grow by four hundred fifty seven percent
its fleet troubles insides with this vast force assembled
america's final drive towards Japan
this
the American strategy say door pronged approach with
admiral nimitz for the navy marines going to such Pacific
John MacArthur mostly army forces coming through the southwest Pacific
both approaching Japan from diffraction
admiral nimitz is flotilla is the largest in history
the perfect weapon to destroy japan's defensive stronghold
is this massive the mom aircraft carriers
destroyers fast battleships
backed by this long logistics train love
supply ships boilers hospital ships you name it
this thing was lethality and
industrialization personified
the flotilla targets i pan one of the Mariana Islands
did airfields can become the launch pad for a sustained
aerial bombardment up japan
the Emperor Hirohito demands his 32,000 troops stationed there to defend
at all costs the Japanese
defeat was not an option retreat was not an option if it meant losing everything
and everyone
they would do it in pursuit of victory
June 1944 eight rows in US marines hit the beaches
under intense Japanese fire
Marines he was in mind the end and a Japanese a one job action flick
heavy casualties on people attacking if you're in the front line
you can be won the special teams
facing fanatical resistance a further eighty thousand troops lands
ball depends
support
but what US commander admiral Spruance cannot see
ok our fifty-five Japanese ships
rapidly approaching
the Japanese this really was gonna be there LaShonda they had have success
here
in this particular battle they were not revealed ever field this kinda force
against
responding to danger Spruance splits his force
dispatching 1/2 to engage the Japanese fleet
as the two
forces clash US technological superiority
the most notable 480 the newly developed help
Hellcats just an incredible clapton's fast you can take kids and still keep
calling on swell of
and on top of that it's now flown by
delete pilots the Japanese lost most they're well trained pilots another
battles they could replace them
the nafta track their aircraft forms good
and that's what really creates the turkey should of the powerful PC
over the next eight hours 429 Japanese planes are destroyed compared to 29
American kill ratio
15 to walk the scale to slaughter between american parts in Japanese a
significant enough work after the Bala merry on us
the Japanese aircraft carrier forces no large factor in warmups
on lands American troops continue to face ferocious resistance
Pacific were was the better
am cream but that's i buy em it became or more evident how
deep was the Japanese ferocity or the ferocious the subject his capacity to
resist
on
just hair raising stories about how the americans have to lower drums a
gasoline and explode them in the caves in which the japanese were
hiding because they could not it is people to come out and surrender
ok the suicidal fervor is not confined to soldiers
dreams
eight thousand japanese civilians leaped to their deaths
the American witnesses could not believe their eyes that they were seen this
mass suicide japanese civilians including women and children
women mothers killing their own babies a
rose runner to the Americans once I pan fall
over 3400 americans lie dead
alongside forty-six thousand japanese
happen for civilian suicides
it on your taste up what's to come
good
January 1945 American Air Force general curtis lemay arrives at the Concord
airfields and the Mariana scheme
war in the Pacific the
is about to ruthlessly escalate Curtis Lum a
believe there should be no hesitation and no moderation
in bringing destruction to the enemy and the surest
most effective way to do that would be through massive
unrestrained strategic bombing he was going out to destroy
the industrial power Japan and
the kindling for all those fires he was lying to build on the back to burn down
factories
happen to be houses with people and
March 9th over 300 B-twenty nines reached Tokyo
they systematically lay down 1,665 tons up and 69
incendiary clusters over the
city
it remains the most destructive air raid in the history of mankind
the Japanese later called the early fire raids tonight at the Black Snow
because a very debris
impacted to these particular raise in their lives
master bomber who was watching the raid said you can see the fires under fifty
miles away
you had asphalt nothing in the streets
you had class not going out of buildings
love the air crews were shaken up by the results tale Gunners reported watching
people burning to death
burning reverse covered with Nepal
Japanese doctors wrote about watching the breeze flowing rivers afterwards
they could tell she was bodies restriction work
16 square miles or razed to the ground
the inferno claims ninety thousand civilian lives
and leaves over 1 million homeless
on the other side of the Atlantic allied forces converged to prepare for
equally decisive breakthrough in the liberation %uh view
for the Allies d-day landings represented
the success or failure and the entire with
the outcome really
rested on a nation
in
dick I'm
November 1943 roosevelt
Stalin and Churchill meet in Toronto to plant operation overlord
the invasion of nazi-occupied Europe
churchill warns of the challenges that await them the British
had learned firsthand how capable how effective a fighting force the Fairmont
watch
Britain's experience is chasing
evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940 driven from Norway
and Greece
yet despite the dangers the allies determined to risk everything
on a full-scale cross channel invasion
into the teeth up the Nazi defense
in order for D-day to succeed required four distinct events to happen
first the allies needed the momentum
I love manpower and equipment to make it to the beach
and continue to reinforce the beachhead once the landings were secure
and secondly was air supremacy the Allies had to prevent the germans
from reinforcing their positions on the beach and
also the allies needed a major show the defense's for the Germany
would be sandwiched between two invading on us and finally
element of surprise if the Germans have been aware that the invasion was coming
it would have certainly fail to win the intelligence war
the allies launch operation 42
operation fortitude stance the present-day marginally
the greatest deception plan in modern warfare
in an audacious active misdirection a decoy army
11 ghost divisions figure headed by General Patton
assembles opposite Calais
they had to retrieve the germans I come on into thinking
the Calais shortage which boasts a channel was the wave
inventions country
he had dummy change dummy estrich to me hangin
on May later Johnson circle fly over these areas say I is a huge army
this Kb where
them
with 42 blinding the axis the real invasion force secretly assembles
nine and a half million tons of supplies
4,000 amphibious vessels
and over
one and a half million troops
the man charged with the immense logistical challenge at the landings is
British naval mastermind sir bertram ramzi
sir Burcham ramsey's plant was meticulous
complex was rehearsed and it was thorough
in every way
the plan is astonishing
almost 7,000 vessels will be loaded with men
and supplies and in secret to the assembly points
at a predetermined time they will navigate through narrow channels cleared
of mines
towards enemy shores through unpredictable scenes
simultaneously naval screens will be mounted to protect against taxes
counterattacks
the scope and depth David is just off the scale me personally I've been
involved in planning for a
things like desert storm up Operation Iraqi Freedom the early pieces ovett and
even that
with with big computers and lots more guys working it was darting then
getting the Allied forces to the beachheads is just the start
awaiting them is hitler's Atlantic mall a defensive network 1600 miles long
and considered by the pure as on bridgeable
it's this combination of everything
from millions past lines specific defenses
designed to rip the bottom of the landing craft
then you get to machine-gun bonkers with
interlocking fires six-inch Can Dance
you name it it's just a nasty nasty piece of work
another train troops have been there for years citing every avenue
approach of the beach you know there could be massive counterattacks Germans
are masters at that so there's just so much uncertainty
the window of opportunity is desperately narrow
supreme Allied commander eisenhower sets the date
June 5th 19
with
lunch eisenhower made the decision
it was irrevocable there was no plan B this was it
go for broke either the invasion would succeed or
the invasion attempt would have to be put off indefinitely
Dwight Eisenhower sat down to write a little note taking blame for the failure
in the landings
that he was prepared to deliver if it did fail
no one on the allied side saw this is shorter
as the allies mom the French infrastructure connecting normandy to
the east
three million service
locked away from the population
coastal town
on lockdown the fate of the world
hey its in the balance
after an agonizing 24-hour delay due to bad weather
over the the most important allied operation in world war two
said in
for the Armada embarks for normandy the allies launched one final master class
deceptions
to convince the germ the Calais is the invasion site
british bombers circle at low altitude dropping
tons and metallic chaff into the air this created a huge radar registry for
the germans
and this phantom army that has been constructed in their minds through
documents and fake
of bases now it starts to cool come alive
totally through the the German defence a planning it it through into disarray
with the misdirection campaign underway the invasion force
heads towards its targets
5 the chase and a cliff top gun emplacement
at pointe du hoc
have the transports an aerial and naval rock com the coastal defence
despite the assault
the men on the landing craft come under her roof sure
fire that was confusing the German
program ride offers there was these by then
some goodbye my moms are ready
not a good thing is I hope you're done over there were
two guys a little water to Muslims offer or
some geysers even your name your honor
and anyone's it is not easy to do
bad you know what you had to do
began Charles barley and Michael vernal 0
are among the first to hit omaha the most heavily defended
German position
guys punch good rock the boat and they were killed instantly
we got into
to my stomach I said to myself I thought reply Charlie you're gone
true
shoes parties later on
fire was really really necessarily body
fortune up make an offer
would have confronted almost unimaginable on
they wanted fans some
still
they would hurt
gone
the with seen on
american soldiers but it was more than chaos
it was dead by chance
as the allies continue to land against Mercer chairman fire
the casualty rates soon
but after fifteen hours a fighting all beachheads are taken quick point are
calling the following day
the allies suffer ten thousand casualties but it is bloodshed
achieving the almost impossible they have a foothold
in nazi-occupied Europe
for Hitler this was a nightmare
come to pass we basically the you know
sign the death certificate a Nazi Germany on June 6 1944
after weeks and weeks are being bottled up in the Normandy beachhead
the break out that occurred exceeded expectations
the success is down to the network of supply lines
chasing the front-line soldiers
connecting France with the war Depot a Briton are artificial
mulberry harbors landing two and a half million man
four million tons of supplies and 500,000 vehicles within the first 10
months
fueling the offensive his operation pluto seventy miles
undersea pipeline pumping up to a million gallons of fuel per day
into France
those tons in those millions account a few word on a scale that probably won't
be replicated future
so what they accomplished and might be unique in a
in in human history really
from space the speed in advance is astounding August 19
Paris is liberated followed by Rouen
for done Antwerp
and Brussels
by September the allies reach the Sikh redline on the cusp but the German
fatherland
hitler launches his final desperate counterattack
the battle in the ball
despite heavy losses the allies today
Nazi Germany
stands on the abyss
hitler's gamble on your dance basically insurers the end to the right this is
his last
operational forces at work to try to influence the pace have either front
east or west one see through that force away the american soviet
conquering love the reich in the next year was inevitable yeah the war in
Europe nears its climax
the on the other side of the planet the drive towards Japan
is also approaching its bloody conclusion that every island invaded
is coming at increasingly higher cost at every stage the ferocity
and intensity in the Japanese defense increased
what did I were suicidal defense tactics inside pant
are redoubled ideology men's
february nineteenth nineteen forty-five 60,000 US Marines stormed the island to
be with Jean
were a battle %uh unrivaled brutality begins
the fighting and he would jima stands is arguably the fiercest fighting
that US military personnel have ever experienced
there was no amount of honest to be inflicted on the Japanese
they would cause them to lose their well
essentially they've decided today Mr more
guy
suicidal for
demeans says sort of tactics to my nephews
previously
don't work
and so we start you see flame throwers
nay palm tanks up close the
style about all day raises the level of violence even
passport we've seen and earlier part someone were to purchase
hard to imagine
when he would you move falls japan suffers twenty thousand casualties
compared to 23,000 American the first time US casualties exceed that of their
enemy
as Allied forces prepare to invade ok in our the proposed launch pad for the
invasion of Japan the stakes for both sides
are back past
Japanese fighters okinawa new that they were not going to survive they could not
win
but the hope that by Kazi enough cash the spreading of our
that I might either-or make the American side not to invade Japan
or at least maybe get the japanese a better piece of sometimes
april first nineteen forty-five the american armada approaches its target
its scale is unmatched in the pacific war
okinawa was a military undertaking on a scale that
rival D-day the emphasize the invasion force the size the invasion fleet
1200 warship support three mass and PBS attack force is hitting the beaches
more than 170,000 troops land here in the unopposed
am
ok
unseen by American troops are ninety seven thousand japanese defenders
ready to strike with unprecedented savagery
they are taking the Japanese soldier and using just
his body as a weapon Japanese soldiers with 22 pounds satchel bombs run under
tanks
their 6,000 defend Banzai charge marines armed only with bamboo spears and side
arms
in our own time we make the comparison with suicide bombers but if you can
measuring tire Japanese units have that depth of commitment
that they would actually suffer mass
essentially suicidal def rather than surrender their position
that's a very formidable military ops at sea
wave after wave kamikaze crash into US ships
kamikazes world especially terrifying to
American strike
hey deter somebody is willing to die for something their goal was to die
and 18 percent kamikazes it ships
T
404 US ships are struck when ok an hour finally falls
nearly 100,000 Japanese soldiers and 150,000 civilians
lie dead
the US suffers 76,000 casualties
a third the entire invasion force No
the escalation justice are fine here and he's a little islands
and our talk about a vein or Japanese home when where there are millions of
defenders and even more millions of civilians
the US War Department estimates that the invasion of Japan will result in 10
million japanese casualties
along with the heat 1.7 million Americans
another solution must be sought as the allies
celebrate victory in europe as Hitler and his reich
go up in flames America squares in a new president
and harry truman is destined to unleash a weapons so fearsome
it will herald the end a new dawn on me
morphine across the globe
war has ravaged the world for nearly six years
Germany and Italy are defeated only Japan
fights on in defiance of the Allies but a new weapon
is about to make World War two reach its crime
December 1938 German scientist
split the atom releasing 200 million volts of electricity
after Albert Einstein warns US President Roosevelt that Hitler plans an atomic
program
the race for the mom is on
America in collaboration with britain and Canada
launches the Manhattan Project
entire towns an industrial complexes
are constructed across the nation
flowing 600,000 people and costing
to billion dollar 25-point eight billion in today's money
it is engineering on and unprecedented skis
no other nation in the world could have done
the Manhattan Project like United States you get all these tears together and
they say there are two ways we can build this weapon as after Tony a bomb Iranian
bomb
the different processes they're both a mess with expensive
anybody else was said which 1i want to focus on US said
for make sure this works Redbox
July 1945 the project bears fruit
a uranium bomb code-named little boy
and a plutonium bomb code-named fat man
the atomic bomb is a technology
dead historically is on the scale love introduction of gunpowder
been taken
kind of lithology it's Ben home through now
want to and multiplied it by a whole new
or magnitude
for the first time
with a single event an entire city could be destroyed
this represented a new era in warfare
returning from the Potsdam Conference US President Harry S Truman
must decide whether to unleash the atomic bomb
on japan's
if it come out a year later that the present I States
at a weapon he could have used they might have ended the war earlier
and instead he did not and we suffered 100000 x two casualties
he would have been run out of it best run out on rail
there was no way an american president responsible to his constituents
could have not used this weapon
truman hostile to Stalin and his communist the sauce
can see the significance of a nuclear strike for the post yeah
the 145 America face a real paradox for a long time Force Reserve
term been saying to start a new peace help us with a war against Japan
peas invade Manchuria geez defeat the Japanese army when it was realised that
the Soviet Union might
defeated Germany's move on Occupy party Japanese
islands that's not what the americans wanted to chill
play wanted the task of rebuilding Japan I think this was one of the most
important factors
influencing the American decision to drop the atomic bomb
on
after a successful test in the New Mexico desert
truman gives the order to drop the bomb as soon as possible
numbers such as much as members potential targets
they were left untouched by the injured bombing because
if you bomb the city you couldn't tell how much damage had been done by me
atomic attacks they're also looking for long as quite a large population
believe you could protect the city life of leisure you again
been super full impact
when you look at it this is a relieved cynical decision for choosing
a target all major financial most dangerous weapons
have been developed I'm on August 6
1945 the enola gay launches from the Mariana Islands
at age 15 local time little boy
loaded with 60 kilograms of uranium is released
over her Russian
43 seconds later
changes forever
ok
the blast creating a circle the devastation
one-mile why with by over another four and a half mile radius
60,000
killed instantly with the further 100,000
dying from burns and radiation
three days later fat man is exploded over nagasaki killing eighty thousand
civilians
after the first bomb in Japan a sermon in disbelief after nagasaki though
it's kinda hard nylon americans have some kind
weapon and it's just the start of what could be a long pattern
destruction
September 2nd 1945 Japan capitulate
World War two his own the nuclear
has begun
a lot of people think that the moral ethical line infrastructure were too was
cross the atomic bomb I disagree
I think that if there's any more lines left there across with fire race against
japanese cities
the whole question at the atomic bomb is will we continue to do what our weapons
make possible
and that is the ultimate a memory chip with Tom actions
2112 if by that you mean what society one nation contribute the most
blood treasure to the eventual victory is not the United States
is the sole you
sonya losses
over 25 million people
american losses reporter 5300 99 military damn
and a handful civilians
but if you ask the question or two main whom
ended up in the most advantageous position at the end or reap the greatest
from some victory then hashers
there
today
during the six years
America grows from the 17 military power
to number one
her overseas bases expand from fourteen to over 30,000
spread across the globe our GNP double and she becomes the biggest creditor in
the world
commanding half of the planet's manufacturing capacity
and owning two-thirds the world gold star
dominates the world economy it controls
the formation the UN it launches the world on a path towards globalization
and wants
but it can no longer go back to an isolationist the isolation america's
gone forever
I'm not sure if it is actually sunk in even today
how much we have to be involved but as a result in world war two were drawn in
the
ways we cannot escape whether we realize