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00:00From
00:281939 to 1945, the tyrants of the Axis powers, Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo, plunged the world
00:36into a brutal nightmare of relentless warfare.
00:40The world was engulfed in an epic struggle between the designs of tyranny and the will
00:45of freedom.
00:46The Axis powers slaughtered, they silenced, and they subjugated.
00:50And they would not stop until they fulfilled their maniacal dreams of world conquest.
00:56Freedom put up a fiercer fight than they had bargained for.
01:011919, Adolf Hitler was no one of consequence.
01:10Fifteen years later, he was a ruthless tyrant in control of one of the most powerful war
01:14machines ever assembled.
01:16On November 11, 1918, Germany signed the armistice that ended the First World War, Germany's
01:24first quest for world domination had come to an end.
01:27The Treaty of Versailles limited the German army and dictated the reparations the Germans
01:32were to pay.
01:34The Allies had stomped the German war machine into oblivion.
01:38But a new threat was growing, Adolf Hitler.
01:46Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf of his disgust with Germany's post-war attitude of subservience.
01:52He believed the German people were superior to all others and should act like it.
02:21Hitler found a platform for his fanatical ideas in the National Socialist Workers' Party,
02:26the Nazis.
02:28In his speeches, Hitler bashed the Treaty of Versailles.
02:31Crowds cheered.
02:34The German economy had been devastated by war reparations and corrupt leaders.
02:38The people who came to see Hitler speak liked what they heard.
02:43They were paupers, but Hitler told them they were kings.
02:46They were the master race.
02:47It was their destiny to rule the world.
02:51More and more people responded to Hitler's message.
02:54In 1933, the Nazis received more votes than any other political party.
02:59Hitler was elected German Chancellor.
03:02On February 23, 1933, the Reichstag burst into flames.
03:08The Nazis seized the opportunity and claimed the Communists had set the fire.
03:13Hitler declared a state of emergency and assumed dictatorial powers.
03:17Hitler abolished all other political parties.
03:19He disbanded the trade unions.
03:21He banned all literature not in keeping with the Nazi message.
03:25If the people wanted something to read, they could read Mein Kampf, the new Bible of the
03:30new Reich.
03:31Hitler created the German labor front to mold the minds of the workers, telling them what
03:35to think.
03:36He suppressed the traditional religions.
03:39There was no place for hymns to God in the Third Reich.
03:46In schools, German students sang a new anthem.
04:02Germany's adults were as obedient as her children.
04:06Millions attended the rallies at Nuremberg.
04:09Hitler and his minions spewed hate-filled rhetoric of racial superiority and plans for
04:14world domination.
04:16The Führer had triumphed.
04:18Throughout Germany, cries of despair were replaced with cries of Heil Hitler.
04:22Hitler had subjugated an entire nation to his twisted will.
04:26He had crushed dissent, obliterated the individual.
04:31The minds of the German people goose-stepped in time like his armies, armies he was ready
04:36to march across the face of the earth.
04:44It was time to build an empire.
04:46With Germany bent to his will, Hitler turned his attention to world conquest.
04:56March 12, 1938.
04:59The first to fall was Austria.
05:03The German army marched over the Austrian border.
05:06Hitler rode unopposed into Vienna.
05:09Hitler threw a nationalist fit and claimed the Sudetenland as part of Germany and his own.
05:15Powers of Europe appeased him as Chamberlain claimed peace had finally been achieved.
05:20Hitler was not satisfied with just a piece of Czechoslovakia.
05:23March of 1939 took the whole country.
05:28On September 1, 1939, the German army raced over the Polish border.
05:34It was blitzkrieg.
05:36Mechanized German forces stormed Polish defenses with lightning speed.
05:40The Luftwaffe wiped out the air force, destroyed bridges, highways, railroads, and communications.
05:49The Polish army was outmatched.
05:51The Nazi panzers thundered across the land as Polish soldiers on horseback met them head-on.
05:57The Germans surrounded Warsaw and pounded the city with endless artillery barrages.
06:21Warsaw's citizens fought to save their city from the fires erupting all around them.
06:29The other European powers stood by as the German juggernaut choked the city.
06:33Finally, the Poles surrendered.
06:37By year's end, the Nazi conquerors would execute over 18,000 Polish soldiers.
06:43After the shocking attack on Poland, the other powers of Europe were forced to acknowledge Hitler's evil plan.
06:49On September 3, England and France declared war on Germany.
06:53We shall aid and stir the people of every conquered country to resistance and revolt.
07:00We shall break up and derange every effort which Hitler makes to systematize and consolidate his subjugation.
07:09At dawn on April 9, 1940, Hitler invaded Denmark, occupying the country by nightfall.
07:16Internal treachery let Hitler's armies goose-step into Norway.
07:20The skies over Holland filled with 10,000 Nazi paratroopers.
07:25Rotterdam, the capital, was reduced to rubble.
07:30Belgium saw its mightiest fort easily overrun.
07:33Its people fled in terror.
07:35One by one, the low countries of Europe fell to the devastating attacks of the German war machine.
07:44The French took up positions along the Maginot Line,
07:47a seemingly impenetrable series of fortresses built after World War I to defend against German aggression.
07:54The French prepared for an all-out assault.
07:58On May 10, 1940, the German Panzer Division bypassed the Maginot Line,
08:03racing instead at an impossible pace through the Ardennes Forest.
08:10The overwhelmed Allies beat a retreat as the Germans attacked from all sides.
08:16The German Panzer Division was forced to retreat.
08:20The overwhelmed Allies beat a retreat as the Germans attacked from all sides.
08:27Hitler's forces chased the French and English armies across France,
08:31breaking through column after column of resistance.
08:39There was no place to hold. The Allies were crushed at every turn.
08:43The Germans' final push sent the Allied army scattering.
08:47France was under Nazi control.
08:57To add insult to injury, Hitler ordered the humiliating surrender terms
09:01to be signed in the same railway car in which Germany had signed the armistice in the previous war.
09:06Then Hitler blew up the railway car.
09:09The Nazis marched down the boulevards of Paris as Hitler gazed triumphantly on the Eiffel Tower.
09:15The dark curtain of tyranny was drawn on the City of Light.
09:20Only the tiny island nation of England stood between Hitler and total conquest of Europe.
09:40May 1940. As the Nazi Blitzkrieg threatened to overrun Paris,
09:45the Allied forces were driven to the sea at Dunkirk.
09:52The mighty German army was closing in.
10:01It would take a miracle to save the Allies from being swallowed up by the Germans.
10:05The miracle came in the form of a flotilla of naval and civilian crafts, Operation Dynamo.
10:12Crossing the channel at high speed, 900 ships answered the call to rescue the stranded soldiers.
10:22The rescue operation took nine full days, from May 26 to June 4.
10:36The Luftwaffe flew out to attack the rescue craft,
10:45sinking 18 ships and damaging 27 others.
10:52The RAF rose to the challenge, fighting to keep the German planes at bay.
10:58In the battle at Dunkirk, English aviators shot down 240 German aircraft.
11:15The Nazis took prisoner the small contingent of French and English soldiers who had voluntarily stayed behind
11:21and who valiantly defended the evacuating troops from the advancing German army.
11:28The Nazis whirled through the streets of Dunkirk, onward to the beaches.
11:32There they were met by a stunning sight, thousands of abandoned guns and vehicles.
11:41The sacrifice made by the small group of Allied soldiers was not in vain.
11:45Over 335,000 of their comrades were shepherded to safety.
11:50Those who survived the bloody evacuation of Dunkirk were buried alive.
11:57Dunkirk would form the core of the fighting group that would face Hitler's army in future battles.
12:06The dark shroud of Nazism covered the European continent.
12:10Hitler had a new goal.
12:14England would fall to the Reich.
12:16The German plan. Get control of the air.
12:19Pound the coast with bombs.
12:21Establish beachheads.
12:23Send the panzer divisions rumbling toward London.
12:27The British called up every available man to fight.
12:30Their wives, daughters and sisters pitched in to help defend against the impending invasion.
12:37Outmanned and outgunned, the British grimly awaited the imminent Nazi attack.
12:44On August 8, 1940, it came.
12:46The air raid sirens screamed in London.
12:50Hundreds of Luftwaffe crossed the English Channel.
12:54The RAF flew out to meet them, accompanied only by the will of freedom.
13:01Outnumbered by as many as ten to one, the RAF valiantly engaged the Nazis,
13:06shooting 182 German planes out of the sky in the first four days.
13:15The sheer number of Nazi warplanes overwhelmed the defenders of the English coast.
13:20Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton and Plymouth burst into flames.
13:26The RAF fought on.
13:29Time after time, the Germans attacked, making 26 assaults in all to gain control of the air.
13:34But they failed to do so.
13:36The RAF sent 697 planes crashing to a fiery doom.
13:42By September 7, 1940, their lightning strike on England had fizzled.
13:47Hitler sent the Luftwaffe to terrify the civilians instead.
13:51The blitz had begun.
13:53Day after day, the Germans bombed London.
13:55Men, women and children took refuge underground in shelters, basements and subway stations.
14:02Nazi bombers darkened the skies.
14:04Fire rained down on the city, leveling blocks of homes.
14:08The bombs made no distinction between England's social classes,
14:12ravaging ordinary workers' homes and Buckingham Palace alike.
14:16In the glorious battle for survival, they were all in it together.
14:20The RAF decimated the German bombers when they came by day.
14:24So the Nazis bombed at night, pulverizing England's cities.
14:31In November of 1940, wave after wave of German planes dropped lethal payloads on Coventry.
14:37One million pounds of bombs in all.
14:40A thousand civilians died and thousands more lost their homes.
14:46The indomitable spirit of the British would not falter.
14:49Each morning they emerged from their holes in the earth, attempting to resume a normal life.
14:55Though his country suffered mightily from shell shock,
14:58Churchill took the battle to the enemy,
15:00sending the RAF in daring nighttime bombing raids of their own on Berlin.
15:09In a year of German bombing, Britain lost 40,000 men, women and children.
15:14But not one German soldier set foot on British soil.
15:30With strength and determination,
15:32the British people heroically resisted the full might of the Nazi war machine.
15:45North Africa was to be the first arena of combat
15:48between fascist Axis powers and the Allied armies in World War II.
15:57September 1940.
15:59Mussolini declared war on England.
16:01The first strike? In North Africa.
16:06Italian forces raced east from Libya to attack British troops in Egypt.
16:10The Italians were stopped before they could reach the Suez Canal.
16:15December 7th, 1940.
16:17The British responded with their own offensive.
16:29The next two months they chased the Italians out of Egypt,
16:32seized much of Libya and captured 135,000 prisoners.
16:37In the blink of an eye, the Italians had lost the initiative in North Africa.
16:41Adolf Hitler was concerned.
16:43He selected General Erwin Rommel to command the Afrika Korps.
16:50Rommel quickly launched an offensive.
16:52It proved to be wildly successful.
16:54By early April 1941,
16:56he had succeeded in pushing the British all the way back to the Egyptian frontier.
17:00By the summer of 1942,
17:02Rommel had advanced to El Alamein.
17:04The Suez Canal was once again in danger of falling under Nazi control.
17:10The Allies were in need of a bold plan
17:12or the strategically important region would be lost.
17:16The plan they devised was called Acrobat.
17:21In the largest overseas airfield in the world,
17:24Acrobat was the largest airfield in the world.
17:28In the largest overseas expedition ever to sail from the U.S.,
17:32tens of thousands of American G.I. sailed across the Atlantic.
17:38The American convoy was then joined by a British convoy twice its size.
17:46110,000 Allied soldiers in all left their home ports in the U.S. and England
17:51and made the journey to North Africa in absolute secrecy.
17:58Under the cover of darkness,
18:01the convoys passed through the Straits of Gibraltar.
18:07On the morning of November 8, 1942,
18:10Allied ships made simultaneous amphibious landings
18:13at the North African cities of Casablanca, Oran and Algiers.
18:28The Allied troops encountered sporadic resistance
18:31from French forces loyal to the Vichy government.
18:38Negotiations quickly took place
18:40and by November 13, all the French troops in North Africa
18:43had agreed to fight alongside the Allies.
18:45In response, Germany invaded the rest of unoccupied France.
18:50The Allies could now force the German and Italian armies to fight on two fronts.
18:58On the Tunisian border to the west and on the Libyan border to the east.
19:04By January 1943, the British had pushed Rommel's forces all the way back through Libya
19:14to the Marath line on the eastern Tunisian border.
19:18The battle for North Africa was to be decided in Tunisia.
19:22February 14, 1943, the German armies struck first,
19:26surging through the Kazarin Pass until they were halted by Allied forces.
19:30For the first time, American and German troops had met in battle.
19:35By March 17, the Allies had pushed the Germans back
19:38to restore the original battle lines of the winter.
19:43In mid-March, the Allies launched a punishing assault
19:46on Rommel's troops stationed at the Marathon.
19:4924 straight hours of saturation bombing softened Rommel's defensive positions,
19:53allowing 50,000 Allied soldiers to advance.
19:57To the west, Major General George S. Patton
20:00simultaneously led an American attack on the German line.
20:06Along with other Allied troops, the Americans pushed the Germans
20:10in the last remnants of the Italian armies east.
20:14The Marath line fell.
20:16The Allied forces to the south now pushed relentlessly north.
20:20The German and Italian troops were steadily squeezed
20:23into the northeastern tip of Tunisia.
20:29To make their last stand, the Axis armies set up a defensive ring
20:33around Tunis and the Aegean Sea.
20:36The Axis troops were forced to retreat.
20:39To make their last stand, the Axis armies set up a defensive ring
20:43around Tunis and Bizet.
20:49On May 7, 1943, American forces entered Bizet,
20:55while the first British forces broke through to Tunis.
20:596 days later, it was over.
21:0415 full German and Italian divisions, 275,000 troops,
21:09laid down their arms in one of the greatest mass surrenders
21:12of fully-equipped soldiers ever.
21:15Hitler's African adventure was over.
21:19The great continent of Tunisia was now in the hands of the Axis.
21:23Hitler's African adventure was over.
21:27The great continent of Africa was free.
21:29The Allies could now turn their attention to an enslaved Europe.
21:39The skies over Europe exploded with aerial combat for six years
21:43as the fight for freedom took to the air.
21:47September 3, 1939.
21:49England declared war on Germany.
21:51That same day, RAF bombers dropped their first payload on the Reich land.
21:575.4 million leaflets that urged the German people to overthrow Hitler.
22:10Over the next two years, bombs were dropped on Germany.
22:14Over the next two years, bombs took the place of paper.
22:17By late 1941, the RAF had unleashed some 40,000 tons of high explosives on Germany.
22:24They bombed by day and they bombed by night.
22:29No German city was safe from British bombs.
22:35Not even Berlin.
22:39The RAF was not destined to go it alone for long, however.
22:42In the summer of 1942, American airmen of the Eighth Army Air Force,
22:47the Mighty Eighth, arrived to help with the European air war effort.
22:52They had come to assume some of the incredible responsibility
22:56the British had bravely shouldered on their own.
22:59The odds against the typical American flyer were daunting.
23:02The chance that he would be killed before completing his 30 required missions
23:07would end up being over 70%.
23:10In the meantime, each of those 30 missions would be an extraordinary test of his will.
23:16Conditions on the bombers were abysmal.
23:19They were noisy and cramped and the temperature inside the planes
23:22could drop to 40 degrees below Fahrenheit.
23:25Flying the bombers over enemy territory took nerves of steel.
23:28The slow-moving planes, heavily laden with bombs and fuel,
23:32were practically sitting ducks for anti-aircraft guns.
23:35The Germans had set up rings of defensive flak guns around their cities.
23:39A single shell from one of these big guns could tear a bomber to pieces.
23:45The high level of danger would remain a constant throughout the war.
23:4912,000 bombers would eventually be shot down
23:52and over 100,000 Allied crewmen would be killed.
23:57But even with the odds weighted heavily against him,
24:00the American airmen resolved to get the job done.
24:03He had the perfect tools for the task at his disposal.
24:06The B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator.
24:11The B-17 is one of the most famous planes ever built.
24:14It saw action in every combat zone in World War II.
24:18And for good reason.
24:19It carried nine machine guns and a 4,000 pound bomb load.
24:26Bristling with armaments, it was truly a flying fortress.
24:29The plane also gained fame for remaining aloft,
24:32even after taking a brutal pounding.
24:35The Memphis Belle, the first bomber in the European campaign
24:38to survive and complete its required number of missions,
24:41was a prime example of the incredible toughness of the B-17.
24:45Over the course of ten months,
24:47the Belle flew 20,000 combat miles,
24:50dropped more than 60 tons of bombs over France, Belgium and Germany
24:54and shot down eight enemy fighters.
24:56By the end of its career,
24:58the Belle was riddled with bullet holes and flak damage.
25:01Its engines had been shot out on five separate occasions.
25:05One time, the bomber was able to land successfully,
25:08even though most of its tail had been shot off.
25:11Perhaps most astonishing,
25:13not one of the Memphis Belle's crew members was ever seriously injured.
25:27The B-24 Liberator would also prove to be an indispensable weapon in the air war.
25:34The B-24 had an 8,000 pound bomb load,
25:37carried up to ten machine guns
25:39and flew at a top speed of 290 miles an hour.
25:42They were so effective that the U.S. produced more of them
25:45than any other combat aircraft during the war.
25:48It was a plane to be reckoned with.
25:50The bombers participated in every major bombing campaign
25:53and in aerial combat over Europe,
25:55B-24 crews shot down 2,600 enemy aircraft.
26:00The American bombers saw some of their first action in January 1943,
26:04when 53 were sent to attack the submarine pens at Wilhelmshaven.
26:09As the bombers closed in on the target,
26:11they were set upon by 100 Luftwaffe fighters.
26:14In a hot fight, the Americans lost three planes to the Germans.
26:19The results of the mission were only fair,
26:21but that didn't matter to the Americans.
26:23The important thing was that for the first time, they had bombed Germany.
26:29Now that the American flyers were up to speed,
26:32the RAF and the AAF began to work together.
26:35They took turns bombing the city of Hamburg round the clock.
26:39The effect was devastating.
26:41Ten square miles of the city were destroyed
26:43and 50,000 people were killed.
26:46On August 17, the Allies attacked the Schweinfurt ball bearing factories.
26:50The 291 flying fortresses that returned to attack the factories again two months later
26:56were picked up in the sights of German anti-aircraft batteries
26:59and attacked by 300 Luftwaffe fighters.
27:03Over the next three hours,
27:05the skies were set ablaze with criss-crossing streaks of fire.
27:14The German air force was able to secure the city of Hamburg.
27:17It was only a matter of time before the Allies were able to take it down.
27:21The German air force was able to secure the city of Hamburg.
27:24It was only a matter of time before the Allies were able to take it down.
27:28Criss-crossing streaks of fire.
27:36There's two more diving through the 94th.
27:38Three planes, 9 o'clock, coming around.
27:40Keep your eye on them, boys.
27:44Around the 10th.
27:45Watch them, Chuck. Keep your eyes on them.
27:47They're breaking the level.
27:50Another runner. He's at 10 o'clock.
27:52I see him.
27:54I got my sights on him.
27:56He's at B-17, Chuck, at 3 o'clock.
27:59Level is 10 o'clock.
28:08B-17 out of control at 3 o'clock.
28:16Come on, you guys, get out of that plane. Bail out.
28:18It was one of the fiercest aerial battles of the entire war.
28:22By the end of it, the Americans had lost 60 bombers.
28:25The Germans, 38 fighters.
28:29As air combat over Germany shifted to Berlin,
28:32the Luftwaffe took the upper hand.
28:34The Germans mounted a pair of 20mm cannons to the tops of their planes.
28:39Flying below an Allied plane,
28:41Luftwaffe fighters could shoot at a bomber's exposed belly
28:44without being seen by the bomber's crewmen.
28:46The Luftwaffe put the innovation to work
28:49when 795 Allied bombers appeared in the sky near Berlin.
28:55It proved to be incredibly effective.
28:57The Luftwaffe scored a decisive victory in the battle,
29:00downing 95 Allied planes.
29:04But the Allies soon shifted the odds back in their favor
29:07by developing the technology to extend the fuel capacity
29:10of the P-51 Mustang fighter plane.
29:12When fitted with drop tanks,
29:14P-51s could escort heavy bomber formations
29:17all the way to their designated targets and back,
29:20a feat no other fighter could manage.
29:26With its six heavy machine guns
29:28and a top speed of 440 mph on a single engine,
29:32the P-51 took on any fighter the Germans sent against it.
29:40The P-51 Mustang was considered by many
29:43to be one of the finest fighting machines of the war.
29:56Some of the most famous P-51 pilots of World War II
30:00were the Tuskegee Airmen,
30:02who fought American prejudice along with Nazi militarism.
30:06Taking their nickname from the town in Alabama where they trained,
30:09the African-American pilots saw action in both North Africa
30:12and in several European campaigns during the war.
30:16Under the leadership and iron discipline of Colonel Benjamin O. Davis,
30:20the Red Tails learned that their mission in life was to protect the bombers.
30:25In July 1944,
30:27the Tuskegee Airmen began service as fighter escorts
30:30on bombing runs in Central and Southern Europe.
30:33In an unprecedented achievement,
30:35they flew 200 escort missions
30:37without losing a single bomber to enemy aircraft.
30:40They became so feared
30:42that even the sight of their distinctive Red Tail planes
30:45convinced many German pilots to let them pass without a fight.
30:48In March 1945,
30:50the Tuskegee Airmen flew their longest bomber escort mission to Berlin.
30:54They shot down three German fighters
30:56and damaged five on the run,
30:58while they lost neither a single bomber
31:00nor a single fighter of their own.
31:04The Tuskegee Airmen received a Presidential Unit Citation
31:07for their incredible run on Berlin.
31:09Starting in late February 1944,
31:12over 1,000 bombers at a time,
31:14supported by an equal number of fighters,
31:16made 3,800 sorties over targets in Germany and Poland.
31:20In what came to be known as Big Week,
31:23the bombers dropped more than 10,000 tons of bombs
31:26over the course of six days,
31:28dealing a major blow to the German aircraft industry.
31:33Next, the Allies turned their attention back to Berlin.
31:36On March 4th,
31:38the Americans got their first crack at the capital.
31:40As they made their way there,
31:42German fighters rose to challenge them.
31:44In a battle that raged for 45 minutes,
31:47the Americans lost 80 planes,
31:49the Germans 82.
31:55The battle seemed to end in a tie,
31:57but in fact, the Americans had scored a lopsided victory.
32:04This was because they were able to replace the pilots
32:07in the planes they had lost over Berlin.
32:09The Germans, on the other hand, were running out of aircraft.
32:12Even worse, they were running out of the highly skilled men
32:15who knew how to fly them.
32:18A few weeks later, Allied bombers returned to the capital.
32:21Fewer German planes than ever rose to challenge them.
32:26The Allies lost only two planes on the raid to the Luftwaffe.
32:31The Allies now ruled the skies.
32:34June 6th, 1944, D-Day.
32:37More than 8,000 Allied bombers and fighters
32:40flew 14,700 individual sorties.
32:43They encountered hardly any resistance from the Luftwaffe.
32:46In the fall, the bombing campaign shifted back to Germany.
32:49Over the next seven months,
32:51Allied planes dropped 800,000 tons of bombs on German targets.
32:55Berlin and Dresden reeled from punishing blows delivered from the air.
32:5925,000 Berliners died in one February raid alone.
33:06On February 13th,
33:08British planes dropped more than 2,000 tons of bombs on Dresden,
33:12mainly incendiaries that set the wooden buildings
33:15in the old part of the city aflame.
33:17American planes followed and dropped hundreds of tons of bombs.
33:21A raging inferno engulfed the city.
33:23Dresden burned for a week.
33:25Nearly the entire old city was destroyed.
33:2835,000 more Germans perished.
33:32By April 1945, the rout of Germany was complete.
33:36Allied pilots had run out of targets to bomb.
33:40There were a great many heroes in the European Air War.
33:43In the American Eighth Army Air Force alone,
33:4617 Medals of Honor were awarded,
33:48along with 220 Distinguished Service Crosses,
33:51852 Silver Stars,
33:547,000 Purple Hearts,
33:5646,000 Distinguished Flying Crosses,
33:59and 442,000 Air Medals.
34:02There were 261 fighter aces in the Mighty Eighth,
34:0531 of them had shot down 15 or more enemy aircraft.
34:10The human cost of the air war in Europe was tremendous.
34:13The Allies suffered more than 150,000 casualties,
34:1779,265 Americans,
34:20and 79,281 British.
34:23The American Mighty Eighth alone suffered 47,000 casualties,
34:28of which over 26,000 were deaths.
34:32More than 35,000 American airmen were captured by the Germans
34:36and made prisoners of war.
34:38Many were sent to concentration camps and executed.
34:44We have been starving and beaten and killed.
34:51Fortunately, my turn hadn't come.
34:56The valiant efforts of the Allied airmen
34:58helped to expel tyranny from the continent
35:00and restore peace from Birmingham to Berlin.
35:11The two-year struggle to liberate Italy
35:14was destined to go down in history
35:16as one of the most brutal battlegrounds of World War II.
35:22July, 1943.
35:24A flotilla of 3,300 Allied ships embarked for Sicily,
35:28marking the beginning of the Italian campaign.
35:32On July 10th, in the first large-scale Allied paratroop operation of the war,
35:374,600 men on 222 planes and 144 gliders landed on Sicily.
35:45Over the next 48 hours,
35:46British and American ground troops stormed Sicily's beaches.
35:5180,000 men went ashore
35:53and they marched unimposed into Syracuse and La Cotta,
35:56but ran into heavy fighting in Gila.
35:59Waiting for them were 50,000 Germans and 200,000 Italian troops.
36:05The fighting was intense
36:06and the Germans were nearly able to push them back into the sea.
36:17With the help of punishing naval barrages,
36:19the Allies pushed the Germans back
36:21and then kept pushing until the Germans were stuck in the northeast tip of Sicily
36:25with their backs to the sea.
36:31General George S. Patton seized the opportunity
36:33to drive north to the town of Palermo,
36:35which he took at the cost of only 272 Allied casualties.
36:41A race developed between Patton and his British counterpart,
36:44General Bernard L. Montgomery,
36:46to see who could be first to take the port of Messina.
36:51Control of Messina meant control of Sicily
36:53and each general was eager to win the prize for himself and his country.
36:59August 16th, American troops were the first to march into Messina.
37:05British troops arrived a few hours later.
37:09After more than a month of hard fighting,
37:11Sicily belonged to the Allies
37:13at a total cost of 19,000 British and American casualties.
37:1712,000 Germans had been killed or captured
37:20along with 145,000 Italians.
37:24July 25th, 1943,
37:27as his control of Italy disintegrated,
37:29Mussolini was deposed as dictator.
37:3221 years of fascist rule had come to an end.
37:36In early September,
37:38the new Italian government surrendered to the Allied powers.
37:41The German armies in Italy, however, did not.
37:44The Allies would be forced to fight for the boot.
37:47Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark,
37:49who had served as deputy commander to Dwight D. Eisenhower
37:52during the North African campaign,
37:54was placed in command of the U.S. Fifth Army.
37:57In 1943, it was one of our strategic aims
38:01to draw as many German forces as possible
38:04away from the Russian front and French coastal areas
38:08and to contain them on the Italian peninsula
38:12while liberating as much of Italy as might be possible
38:15with the means at our disposal.
38:18September 9th, 1943, Salerno.
38:2170,000 men stormed the beaches of the Italian mainland.
38:25The fighting was fierce.
38:35Days later, the Allies were still on the beach.
38:39Navy ships did their best to help,
38:41pounding the Germans with 11,000 tons of shells.
38:45With the German pullback in mid-September,
38:48Salerno belonged to the Allies.
38:50They now had their first toehold on the continent of Europe.
38:55Naples was next.
38:57It was a hard fight as the Germans fought delayed actions.
39:03Finally, on October 1st, Naples fell.
39:08Six days later, British troops reached the Volterno River.
39:12The Germans lay in wait on the other side.
39:15When the Allies had assembled enough strength,
39:17they crossed the Volterno and attacked.
39:22Once the river bank was secured,
39:24the engineers built bridges,
39:26enabling troops and tanks to get across.
39:30A series of three German defensive positions,
39:33each one more lethal than the next,
39:35lay just ahead.
39:37It proved to be some of the toughest fighting
39:39of the entire Italian campaign.
39:47It took the Allies two weeks to crack the first German line.
39:54The going wasn't any easier after the guns died down.
39:57The Allies were forced to traverse 75,000 mines
40:00to reach the next major strong point.
40:05Mines were not the only problem.
40:07Steep rocky mountain passes provided little natural cover.
40:10The soldiers were sitting ducks for German machine gunners.
40:15Those who made it through the treacherous passes
40:17were given a reward of dubious merit,
40:19a bitter fight for the town of San Pietro.
40:25The Allies launched the attack on the morning of December 8th, 1943.
40:30The Germans opened up,
40:32with mortars and guns from well-dug-in positions.
40:35Two full battalions were assigned the capture of San Pietro.
40:39They were assaulted by a hailstorm of German fire
40:42and were only able to advance 400 yards.
40:52For the next week, they fought relentlessly for the town.
40:56They suffered enormous casualties.
40:58One battalion lost 80% of its men.
41:01The other, half.
41:07Finally, the Americans managed to seize the two mountains flanking San Pietro.
41:11In danger of being surrounded,
41:13the Germans withdrew from the town.
41:17By mid-January, 1944,
41:19the Germans had captured San Pietro.
41:22By mid-January, 1944,
41:24the Allies had punched their way through
41:26to the third and final German defensive position,
41:29the Gustav Line.
41:31January 22nd.
41:33Hoping to surround the Germans,
41:35the Allies made a daring landing at Anzio.
41:37Allied troops met little opposition on the beaches,
41:40and by nightfall, 36,000 men were ashore.
41:44The Germans quickly amassed reinforcements
41:46and threw them at the Allied divisions trying to get off the beach.
41:49The reinforcements did their job with ruthless efficiency.
41:55After three days of fighting,
41:57the Allies were forced to abandon their attempt
41:59to break out of the beachhead.
42:01They would have to assault the last German line
42:03the old-fashioned way, head-on.
42:07January 24th, 1944.
42:09The Battle of Cassino began.
42:11It took the Allies a month just to drive up the Cassino Massif
42:15to Monte Cassino itself.
42:20As they navigated the rugged terrain,
42:23they ran into one deadly German gun emplacement after another.
42:27Casualties skyrocketed.
42:29One division lost 2,200 men.
42:33All the while, German fire rained down on them with startling accuracy.
42:45By the time they reached Monte Cassino,
42:47the Allies thought they'd figured out why.
42:49Perched on the top of the mountain
42:51was a 6th-century Benedictine monastery
42:53with stone walls 10 feet thick.
42:59This eagle's nest was the perfect spot
43:01from which to direct fire over the entire area.
43:05The Allies decided to level the monastery.
43:09On February 15th,
43:11wave after wave of heavy bombers
43:13dropped 600 tons of explosives on the building.
43:18EXPLOSIONS
43:34The monastery proved to be incredibly strong.
43:36Even after additional barrages,
43:38much of it remained standing.
43:40Ironically, the aerial attack on the monastery
43:43had made it even more formidable.
43:46The building's rubble proved excellent cover for German troops.
43:50They beat back repeated Allied attempts to seize the ruins.
43:56Things were no better for the Allied soldiers
43:58trying to take other objectives nearby.
44:00In fierce combat that lasted for months,
44:02the town of Cassino was flattened.
44:04Still, the Germans were able to secure the monastery
44:07After months, the town of Cassino was flattened.
44:10Still, the Germans held on.
44:12May 18th, with one mighty push,
44:14the Allies were finally able to claim Cassino
44:17and the infamous monastery overlooking the town.
44:21The Italian campaign had become
44:23an endless nightmare of brutal battles.
44:26The Allies had lost 40,000 men in their drive north.
44:30One of the hardest-hit American units
44:32was the 442 Regimental Combat Team,
44:35made up of second-generation Japanese-Americans, or Nisai.
44:39Large numbers of Japanese-Americans
44:41had enlisted in the armed forces.
44:45The 442's motto was Go for Broke,
44:48and in Italy, they did just that,
44:50suffering an unprecedented casualty rate of 314%
44:54as they fought one savage battle after another.
44:59For their heroic efforts,
45:00the men of the 442 received 18,000 individual decorations,
45:04including 9,486 Purple Hearts and 21 Medals of Honor.
45:10The 442 is considered to be
45:12the most highly decorated unit of its size
45:14in U.S. military history.
45:17On June 4th, the Allies finally entered Rome.
45:22A grateful populace burst into cheers.
45:35The liberation of Rome had given the Allies a psychological advantage,
45:39and they were not about to relinquish it.
45:41They left Rome the next day,
45:43hot on the heels of the retreating Germans.
45:50Desperate to halt the Allies' momentum,
45:52the Germans set up one temporary line of defense after another.
45:55The Allies blew through them all.
45:57They were on the move and would not be stopped.
46:04The Germans vowed to fight on.
46:06They retreated once again, this time to the Gothic Line.
46:09It was here that they planned to make their last stand in Italy.
46:27The Allies ruined that plan
46:29by breaking through the center of the Gothic Line in September,
46:32forcing the Germans to withdraw still further north.
46:35Only the snowfalls of winter halted the Allied advance.
46:41The Allies would be bogged down by the long, cold Italian winter for months.
46:51In the spring of 1945, the Allied offensive was renewed.
46:54It was unstoppable.
46:57Aula, Bologna, Genoa, Milan, Tehran.
47:01Each fell, one after the other.
47:03German soldiers began surrendering.
47:06In one two-day stretch alone, the Allies took 11,000 prisoners.
47:11Mussolini, who had escaped to northern Italy,
47:14had been captured and imprisoned by Allied forces.
47:17Hitler ordered Mussolini rescued.
47:20He gave the job to SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny,
47:23a daring commander who was no stranger to calculated risk.
47:27Mussolini was shepherded aboard a waiting cable car,
47:30then whisked away by plane.
47:35Hitler was there to greet him when he arrived,
47:37and then installed him as the head of a puppet fascist state in northern Italy.
47:47Now as the Allies overran his domain, the dictator fled to Austria.
47:52On his journey there, his convoy was ambushed by a band of partisans.
47:57Mussolini was taken away and shot.
47:59Al Duce was dead.
48:02His mutilated body, along with his mistress, was hung in the streets.
48:09By the end of April, Hitler's armies in Italy had officially disintegrated.
48:16On May 2, 1945, after over 20 months of fighting,
48:20the longest sustained campaign of World War II was over.
48:24Peace came to Italy at last.
48:28The Allies, the Germans, and the Italian Army suffered enormous losses in the campaign.
48:3317,500 Allied soldiers were killed.
48:3660,000 Axis soldiers met the same fate.
48:42The country of Italy suffered the most.
48:44Almost all of her cities lay in ruins.
48:49146,000 civilians were dead.
48:55With the Allied victory, the Italian people could now pick up the pieces
48:59and begin to rebuild their shattered nation.
49:01The liberation of Europe was at hand.
49:24To be continued...
49:54To be continued...
50:24To be continued...