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1:13
At 7:50 a.m.. On the morning of August the 9th 1945
1:18
air-raid sirens began to ring out in the Japanese city of Nagasaki However a short while later the sirens rang out again
1:28
Indicating that there was no danger and people began to climb out of their shelters to carry on about their daily business
1:35
Japanese spotters had only cited two us AAF b-29 bombers Not enough for an air raid on a major city and presumed, they were merely on a reconnaissance mission.
1:47
At 1101 hours a single bomb was dropped into the city's industrial area the bomb detonated with the equivalent force of 22,000 sticks of TNT Which resulted in a blast so bright that was seen by observers over a hundred miles away.
2:04
the fireball generated temperatures in excess of three thousand nine hundred degrees centigrade and Generated winds of up to six hundred miles per hour that added to the destruction
2:15
exact figures are unclear, but at least 129 thousand people were either killed on the day, or would die in the weeks and even years that followed
2:26
six days after this attack Japan surrendered to the Allies Bringing to a close the most destructive conflict ever recorded that ended with the first two and so far only nuclear attacks in history It was the Second World War
2:49
It's impossible to disect the causes of the second world war without discussing the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany and its leader, Adolf Hitler Hitler was himself of Austrian birth, but he fought in the German army during the first world war When the war ended with Germany's humiliation Hitler felt especially bitter about it unlike many in Europe he feared communism spreading beyond the borders of post-revolutionary Russia
3:16
In 1919 a year after the end of the war he joined a new and little-known political group called the German Workers Party and used his great ability as a speaker to stir up crowds and gain support a Year later the party was renamed the National Socialist, German Workers Party more commonly known by its English abbreviation Nazi
3:41
In 1921 Hitler rose to become leader of the party and again using his magnetic personality he continued to garner more and more support Until 1923 the Nazis were confident enough to attempt a coup in Munich and seize power
3:57
Known as the Beer Hall Putsch the effort failed and Hitler was arrested before being put on trial, but this only furthered the Nazi cause
4:06
Hitler used the trial to gain even more supporters and despite him spending a year in prison in which he wrote his autobiography Mein Kampf The Nazis continued to establish themselves in German politics
4:19
Mein Kampf not only outlined his own story, but it also set about establishing his vision for the future of the German people and how he believed subversive groups were holding them back from achieving their destiny through measures such as the Treaty of Versailles Which outlined Germany's surrender terms
4:38
He specifically identified Jews and communists as being leaders of this great international Conspiracy to keep the German people down after the war
4:47
Highlighting the harsh conditions imposed on the country by the victorious Allies Such as the dissolution of Germany's Empire and armed forces
4:56
The loss of territory to newly created countries in the East and France in the West and having to pray crippling war reparations the book effectively became the Nazi Bible by 1933 the Nazi Party had secured enough political support, but Hitler legally became Chancellor of Germany
5:16
He quickly began passing legislation that would transform Germany into Nazi Germany and the swastika would symbolize this reinvigorated country the prosecution of Jews Gypsies and political opponents soon became government policy as Hitler began preparing Nazi Germany to attain what he saw as his destiny cantered around the concept of the Aryan race With himself as the undisputed leader the Fuehrer
5:48
History records that the Second World War began in 1939 However some historians now argue that it began in 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in China
6:01
The Japanese deliberately detonated a bomb by Chinese railway line used by Japanese citizens in order to blame it on Chinese dissidents This was then used as a pretext to invade the country and Japan would occupy the land there until liberated by the Allies in 1945
6:20
Japanese occupation of Chinese territory was extraordinarily harsh Rape and murder were widespread and often encouraged by the Japanese leadership
6:30
While at Pingfang in northeast China a military research unit was set up with a special mission
6:37
designated unit 731 thousands of Chinese civilians were used in nightmarish medical experiments to develop biological and chemical weapons As well as carry out experimental surgeries often without anesthesia for fear of corrupting the data
6:54
In 1922 Benito Mussolini and his national fascist party rose to power in Italy
7:00
Very soon he began reshaping the Democratic political landscape of the country, into a dictatorship counted around himself
7:09
Mussolini like Hitler in Germany Believed his country had a destiny and wanted to build a new Roman Empire beginning with a massive buildup of his armed forces he was not afraid to use them and prove this when he sent his forces into Abyssinia modern-day Ethiopia in 1935 to start the construction of his new empire in Africa
7:32
If Manchuria can be considered the first battle friend of World War two then Abyssinia was the second
7:45
As the 1930s grew on Hitler's Nazi Party became firmly embedded Not just in German politics but into German society on a whole The German people had much to thank the Nazi Party for since they had pulled the country after the disparate feat and reinvigorated it Promising that Germany would soon be attaining its destiny of becoming a great power again Hitler's appeal and influence was not lost on foreign observers
8:11
Many of whom admired him and even began to sympathize with the Treaty of Germany after the war
8:17
Proof of this was given when Hitler became Time Magazine's Man of the Year
8:22
This played perfectly into Hitler's hands as he began making notions of regaining lost territory in the east and west of the country The first test of how the Allied powers of Britain and France would respond to his new Germany came in 1935 When Hitler introduced military conscription which saw the German armed forces swell many times beyond the number permitted by the Treaty of Versailles But the Allies did nothing Encouraged by this he then ordered his troops into the Rhineland in 1936
8:54
the Rhineland had been demilitarized in 1925 In order to create a safety zone for France Who along with Belgium had occupied it for a time due to Germany's inability to pay war reparations
9:07
Hitler had given secret orders to his men that should they encounter French military resistance They were to retreat because Germany was still in no condition to fight a war
9:18
Despite protests by France had the Legion of Nations the precursor to modern-day UN again. They did nothing
9:26
In 1937 British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin stood down and was succeeded by Neville Chamberlain Meanwhile Germany continued to rearm and now set their sights on reclaiming the German state land Which had been absorbed into Czechoslovakia after the war at The same time Hitler looked to his own birth country of Austria to become a part of his new Germany Although this was again forbidden by the Versailles Treaty
9:54
Austria and Germany had long had an almost symbiotic relationship and both countries people view the other as cousins
10:02
Austria even had its own Nazi Party and in January 1938 they attempted their own purge much like Hitler had tried in 1923 the purge failed and many leading Austrian Nazis were imprisoned
10:16
Hitler's propaganda machine went to work creating a false impression that Austrians were rising up in support of their imprisoned Nazis and so on March the 12th 1938 German troops entered Austrian territory on the pretense of restoring order Within weeks the Austrian government was gone, and the country was absorbed into Germany as the province of Ostmark
10:39
a vote on joining Germany claims that 99% of the population Supported the move which was known as Anschluss
10:47
Having secured his home nation under greater Germany Hitler declared himself as the advocate of all ethnic Germans in Europe and primarily of those in sedate inland making clear his intention to absorb the region into Germany a
11:03
Diplomatic crisis was sparked when just like in Austria a sedate inland Nazi Party rose armed and began demanding autonomy from Czechoslovakia the Czech government tried to negotiate with the sedating Germans while a series of meetings were held between Germany Britain and France to reach an agreement on the crisis Culminating in the Munich Agreement, which effectively gave a free hand to Germany's ambitions No Czech, representative was present
11:32
First Hitler took the Sudetenland and then in January 1939 He invaded and captured the rest of Czechoslovakia in his first act of truly open aggression towards a neighbor
11:44
The conquest of Czechoslovakia raised concerns with the mighty Soviet Union which was in the grip of the paranoid Joseph Stalin
11:53
Hitler had written in Mein Kampf that having to fight a war on two fronts was one of the reasons the Kaiser's Germany was defeated And so having already antagonized London and Paris He was far more careful with Moscow and began a diplomatic effort with the Soviet Union to keep them out of events in the West in August 1939 German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop met with his German counterpart Vyacheslav Molotov in Moscow
12:21
Where the two of them effectively divided up Eastern Europe into two on The promise that neither would interfere with the other in those areas The Soviet Union had its own interests in Poland and Finland and so was happy to abide by this agreement even though Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were ideological enemies
12:42
Despite this period of cooperation many fouled that it wouldn't last But with Russia at bay Hitler ordered his troops into Poland on September the 1st 1939
12:57
The invasion of Poland was the final straw for Britain and France there was no justification for the invasion other than to simply capture territory from a foreign land and so Britain and France delivered an ultimatum to Hitler Withdraw his troops, or there would be war The demand was refused and on September the 3rd Neville Chamberlain told the British people they were at war with Germany unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock
13:25
That they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland a state of war Would exist between us I?
13:36
Have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received and that Consequently this country is at war with Germany
13:49
Some of Germany's more cautious generals had warned Hitler that the country was not yet ready for a second massive European confrontation
13:58
Germany's rearmament plans predicted war with Britain and France breaking out in 1945 By which time they would have their own aircraft carrier large u-boat fleets and powerful tank forces
14:10
the generals therefore concocted their blitzkrieg style of war
14:15
Blitzkrieg meant lightning war and called for the widespread use of tanks and aircraft to break through enemy Formations to capture a key strategic areas and divide enemy forces up to make them easy to destroy
14:30
Above all it was intended to achieve a quick victory rather than a drawn-out war of attrition which Germany could not afford it
14:39
Was first used in Poland and the Polish army proved totally inadequate for this new form of warfare in Less than a month the Polish army was annihilated and the German army the viewmarq Began consolidating their positions in western Poland as the Soviet Union invaded the east of the country on September the 17th as von Ribbentrop had agreed to and was something that was all but ignored by Britain and France who? concentrated on Germany
15:07
Poland ceased to exist as a free country on October the 6th 1939 and Nazi Germany now shared a land border with the Communist Soviet Union
15:18
Britain and Frances declaration of war on Germany sends shockwaves across Europe that were felt politically but appear to do very little ounce Belgium Holland and Norway joined a chorus of European voices declaring themselves neutral in the fighting But in fact this seemed to be very little fighting at all in Terms of helping defend Poland Britain and France could do very little and instead they prepared for when Hitler would charge West
15:45
This was the start of the phoney war a period with both sides seemed to be doing everything They would normally do in a war except all-out warfare
15:54
the French mobilized their armed forces and sent them to the border while Britain created the British Expeditionary Force or BEF to be sent to France to support them Mirroring how the country went to war in 1914
16:10
at sea German u-boats and surface Raiders did sink unprotected merchant ships While in the air British aircraft made attacks on German shipping or conducted leaflet drops over the Ruhr region During one such leaflet dropping mission on September the 9th a formation of RAF Whitley bombers Strayed into Belgian airspace and were attacked by Belgian Fighters This forced one of them to land and they lost two aircrafts to British defensive fire
16:39
However in the South Atlantic a drama was about to unfold that would become a naval legend The German pocket battleship Graf Spee was attacking British merchant ships capturing their cruise and then sinking them The crews were then put on the Graf Spee support ship the Altmark for returning to Germany three British cruisers met German ship in the battle and Managed to inflict enough damage to force the German battleship to put into neutral, Montevideo modern-day Uruguay for repairs
17:11
while there the British began flooding local media sources That a huge British Armada was assembling to destroy the pocket battleship when it left port The German captain learned of this and believing the situation was hopeless he scuttled his mighty warship
17:27
in reality there was no Armada, but the deception meant potentially thousands of sailors lives were saved a Few weeks later British special forces raided the Altmark and rescued a number of captured merchant crews
17:48
Everyone knew the phony war couldn't last forever, and it would only be a matter of time before Hitler struck west of France
17:56
In the meantime Britain and France decided to embark on a campaign in Norway then a neutral country but one that along with Sweden helped supply Germany with vital iron all the eyes mined Norwegian harbors from where German ships operated which provoked Hitler to send his forces in on April the 9th to secure them The battle for Norway would last until June a 10th by which time France and Britain had long retreated Leaving the country to its feint
18:26
The disaster in Norway forced Chamberlain to stand down as Prime Minister on May the 10th and After Lord Halifax refused the post it was offered to Winston Churchill Who as a First Lord of the Admiralty was still basking in the success of the Graf Spee operatiom
18:44
Churchill was something of a surprise having more friends than enemies in the establishment Bert was a popular figure amongst the people He would eventually form a new government made up of members of the main political parties But in doing so effectively suspended British democracy for the foreseeable future He told the British people rather bluntly that he had nothing to offer them but blood toil tears and sweat
19:09
Across the channel the French had been preparing for another war against Germany for over a decade By constructing the Maginot Line a series of turf fortifications along the border with Germany It was designed and constructed in the belief that the war would be reminiscent of the static nature of World War one But it was fundamentally flawed It only went as far as north of the Belgian border and despite popular belief at the time It was not a continuous fortification
19:38
Having several gaps where it was believed that nature obstacles such as forests and Hills would provide protection It consumed huge amounts of men and resources Leaving some to worry the French were putting all their eggs into one basket as far as defence was concerned
19:54
Hitler looked at the situation and immediately saw what had to be done He was simply going to bypass it by going through Belgium, Holland Like the Kaiser before him in 1914 He paid little interest Belgium's or anyone else's declaration of neutrality if it served his purpose on May the 10th 1940 Germany struck west quickly over running Belgium Luxembourg and the Netherlands and Turning inwards to the heart of France
20:23
All the Maginot Line had achieved was to swell the fighting in the neighboring countries and effectively hand even more of Europe to Hitler The Germans flooded France making good use of their tanks and air forces despite being outnumbered on paper
20:38
Indeed Germans tank forces were in many ways technologically inferior to the Allies in 1940 but the Germans had far superior tactics in the end the British and French found themselves heavily outclassed by the vaunted German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and sustained heavy losses but It would be another German plane that would gain notoriety during the Battle of France The Ju 87 Stuka was a famed dive bomber, but could attacked Tanks and Bridges with extraordinary accuracy and potency
21:11
striking terror into ground units Later the aircraft would be fitted with a siren ears wings that would create a terrifying howl when entered a dive Making it as much as a psychological weapon as a bomber
21:36
To compound problems for the allies the quick German succession and the failure of the Maginot Line To keep Hitler's forces at bay saw French morale in particular suffer terribly Despite spirited resistance by the French army and the British Expeditionary Force a sense of defeatism quickly overwhelmed them
22:01
It soon became apparent that France would fall and So in Britain plans began to be drawn up to evacuate the BEF back to the British mainland So they could defend Britain from what now seemed like an inevitable invasion dubbed Operation Dynamo a huge armada of fishing boats pleasure crafts and even row boats were assembled on the southeast coast of England to make the trip across the channel to Dunkirk with the remnants of the BEF and
22:27
elements of the surviving French and Belgian armies were assembling in This small pocket of French coastline the British and French troops at Dunkirk were surrounded by German troops and waited for either rescue capture or death Hitler wanted to send his troops to wipe them out once and for all but the head of the German Luftwaffe Hermann Goering Convinced him that the air force which had so far proved almost unstoppable could smash them on the beaches with fewer losses to German forces
22:57
Goering hoped that by doing this he would gain favour with Hitler over some of his rivals within a Nazi High Command
23:04
The evacuation began on May the 27th 1940 with the fleet of little boats bearing down on the beaches to take men out awaiting British warships the German Luftwaffe launched a fierce aerial bombardment and inflicted painful losses on the British However for the first time in war the superiority of the Luftwaffe was finally challenged Since Dunkirk was in range of Fighters flying from Britain itself
23:31
The sea and sky thus became a brutal killing field until the evacuation ended nearly a week later on June the 4th By which time a staggering three hundred and thirty-eight thousand men had been rescued
23:45
The evacuation was seen as a victory for Britain, but those in the offices of power knew the truth The defeat in France had not only cost the relatively small British Army sixty-eight thousand men But it had lost huge amounts of equipment such as artillery tanks and other assorted vehicles. That would be vital in repelling a German invasion
24:06
Churchill warned against the optimistic mood after Dunkirk noting that Wars were not won by evacuations in
24:14
The wake of the success of the evacuation a tragedy would occur that has been largely glossed over by history When the British ocean liner the RMS Lancastrian attempted to escape the French port of San Nazaire The liner was taking part in operation Arial, which aimed to evacuate British nationals from France When a 10 Minister for on June the 17th it was bombed by German aircraft
24:40
Exact numbers of how many men women and children were on board is unknown because in the chaos of the evacuation People were crammed into every available space
24:50
But it's estimated that between 3 and 6 thousand people were killed making it the worst maritime disaster in British history
24:59
To put this into perspective the most conservative estimates put the death toll as being twice that of the Titanic the disaster was quickly covered up for fear of damaging national morale On
25:12
June the 10th 1940 Mussolini waded in on the side of Nazi Germany declaring war on Britain and France although Italian forces would play only a token part in the fight for France On June 25th 1940 After just 46 days of fighting Hitler's troops achieved. What the Kaiser had failed to do in four years by defeating and occupying France
25:36
France was not wholly occupied by Germany, but instead the country was split in two With Germany occupying the northern half and the South being ruled by the Vichy French government who were essentially German puppets the French surrender also gave Churchill concerns that France's fleet would be absorbed into Germans Navy and Used to try and blockade Britain in one of the most controversial acts during the war on July the 3rd
26:01
He ordered the Royal Navy to demand the French warships atmail Kerber in french algeria to surrender to them And when they refused the Royal Navy bombarded them with shall fire killing 1297 French soldiers and sinking or damaging 8 ships
26:17
With France dully suppressed Hitler was now concerned with what to do with Britain It wasn't in his favor to destroy them as he believed that would only hand her Empire to the Americans who were becoming increasingly Hostile to him after Poland Believing Britain was spent after the fall of France he sued for peace But Churchill refused even though. He knew Britain's chances of repelling a full German invasion was slim at best
26:43
Hitler therefore ordered his generals to draw up plans for operation sea lion the invasion of Britain
26:50
At the same time Germany along with Mussolini's Italy met with representatives of Japan to begin negotiations For an alliance that was meant to counter the United States
27:01
this ultimately culminated in the tripod pact signed on September the 27th 1940 and Saw the birth of WOD history now remembers as the Axis forces
27:14
Unlike Germany's previous military endeavours the invasion of Britain had a serious obstacle in the way namely the English Channel Hitler's military leadership agreed that it would only be possible to cross the channel in the summer Since the weather during the autumn and winter months would be too poor to cross safely First however you would have to destroy Britain's air force
27:34
Otherwise his troops would be sitting ducks to British aircraft as they sat in their invasion barges during the crossings As Germany made their invasion preparations Churchill readied the country to do what to be done to defend themselves
27:48
Declassified documents Show just how far he was prepared to go to repeal Hitler's forces should they land in Britain He ordered that British forces would use chemical and even biological weapons at any German landing zone in Britain Frequently saying that is our country and we can do what we want to defend it on
28:07
July the 10th 1940 the German Luftwaffe began their offensive to destroy the RAF It was the start of the Battle of Britain and German confidence was still high after their swift defeat of Poland and Western Europe However unlike much of the fighting in Europe the Luftwaffe now had to be content with a well-organized and highly integrated air defense Network Centered around the re s fighting command led by Sir Hugh Dowding
28:34
They were equipped with two of the best fighter aircraft in the world at the time Namely the Hawker hurricane and the more advanced Supermarine Spitfire
28:44
Fighter commands ranks also swelled with an influx of British Commonwealth French Dutch polish and even American pilots volunteering to fight with them Many of whom already had combat experience during the battles for their own countries
29:00
Over the coming weeks the RAF would rise to face the overwhelming German aircraft But they were suffering for it as the Luftwaffe blasted their airfields in an effort to destroy their support infrastructure on August 13 to 1940 so many German aircraft attacked Britain But Churchill was warned that the invasion was finally under way but despite a great deal of damage being done the RAF was still holding out against the Germans who were joined by the contingents of Italian aircraft
29:30
By September Fighter Command was at its weakest point in terms of men and machines But then British fighter production ramped up to the point where it outstripped Lawson's a newly trained pilots began to join the fight
29:44
However the damage to the airfields was proving more problematic
29:48
Hitler on the other hand was unaware that the RAF was once again growing in strength and Was taught by Goering that it was barely able to put any aircraft into the air
29:58
after British bombers hit targets in Berlin in response to an accidental bombing by German aircrafts of London Hitler decided to order his bombers to turn their attention away from the airfields in order to devastate London and other British cities His belief was that British morale would be so shaken by these terror attacks, that the country would collapse Forcing Churchill to surrender thus making an armed invasion unnecessary It was a colossal mistake
30:25
Fighter Command effectively rebuilt and reorganized itself and by the time Hitler realized his mistake the summer was coming to an end The weather was worsening RAF Fighter Command was still a potent threat And the country's defenses had been built up to where it was no longer practical to invade
30:43
While the Germans had successfully captured the British Channel Islands Britain herself was spared
30:54
Just as it had been in the first world war The outbreak of war in Europe again saw the fighting spill over into the territories But European imperial powers held control of elsewhere around the world
31:06
Britain and France held territory across Africa, which Italy's Mussolini eyed jealously and When Italy declared war on Britain and France in support of Germany it Gave him the opportunity to invade those territories from Italian possessions Such as Ethiopia Somaliland and most significantly Libya which bordered British Egypt
31:29
Egypt was vital to British interests because of the Suez Canal Which linked Britain to its Far East possessions such as Hong Kong and India as well as the oil-rich Middle? East which both sides desperately needed access to on
31:44
September 13th 1948 a lien forces launched an invasion in Egypt with Britain herself still preparing for an invasion it was left to the small contingent of British and Commonwealth troops stationed there to Defend the large border against the numerically superior Italians At first the Italians made good progress eventually capturing the important airfield at Sidi Bharani
32:10
However when Hitler forced to cancel the invasion of Britain fresh troops and equipment Began to be mobilized for North Africa under the command of Lieutenant General Sir Richard, O'Connor
32:21
firstly however They would have to make the Paradis sea voyage down the North Atlantic and into the Mediterranean Where the Italian fleet was still the dominant air force after Frances surrender
32:33
Heavily outnumbered the British concocted a daring plan to attack the Italian fleet while it was still moored in Port Toronto Using obsolete Fairey swordfish biplane bombers on the night of November the 11th 1940 the force of swordfish bombers took off from HMS Illustrious and caught the Italians completely by surprise
32:55
the attack inflicted severe damage on a large number of the Italians capital ships taking them out of the war for several months in order to be repaired and their severely hampering Italy's efforts to disrupt supplies to North Africa
33:09
Unfortunately the British still had to contend with air and submarine attacks
33:15
the task of expelling Italian forces from Egypt seemed immense in the late 1914 and Yet, the newly arrived British forces managed to achieve just that the British retook Sidi Bahrani and by January the 3rd 1941 were already pushing forward into Libya in Two months a British force comprising of just two whole divisions had advanced 500 miles destroyed 10 Italian divisions and taken 130,000 prisoners as well as capturing over a thousand tanks and artillery pieces
33:49
Operating from Italy the German Luftwaffe began supporting the Italian operations from the air But things on the ground continue to go badly for the Italians with British forces capturing the strategic port of Tobruk on January the 22nd
34:05
Confident of Italian defeat Churchill began his plans for helping to defend Greece and the Balkans from a joint German and Italian invasion
34:13
However Germany decided to send two of its own divisions to help shore up Italian forces in North Africa Which would form the nucleus of its Africa core under the command of Aaron Rommel Rommel was a gifted leader and tactician who understood tank warfare better than most generals in 1941 The plans of North Africa were ideal for tank combat and Rommel"s influence was almost immediately felt He attacked El Agheila on March 24, and then pushed east across Libya back towards Egypt
34:46
However, he failed to retake Tobruk and instead laid siege to British garrison there, which held out for a staggering 240 days Providing a severe thorn in the side of the Axis forces and tying up resources on April the 14th British and Commonwealth forces had been pushed back to the border and had even captured General Connor and his replacement General Neem but Rommels forces were struggling with the logistic problems, which Hitler feared the British could take advantage of
35:17
Fuel was such a concern for the Germans that they began efforts to steal it from the British Which resulted in British troops referring to their fuel cans as jerrycans
35:28
By May Rommel was forced to halt his advance at hellfire pass in egypt while he resupplied his forces under
35:36
General Wavell the british did indeed counterattack in June hoping to cut off Rommel's supplies and force him to surrender but Rommel outmaneuvered him and the attack failed as the year went on the British became obsessed with killing Rommel had earned the nickname desert fox and Even send a commando raid to assassinate him which ultimately failed For the next few months the battle lines fluctuated
36:01
But Rommel's logistical problems continued to hold him back and worsened when Hitler began to focus more on other fronts
36:13
With Hitler being forced to call off operation Sea Lion in 1940 The Germans recognized that their window to invade Britain had closed, and it would now be impractical to attempt another invasion
36:26
Britain was becoming fortress Britain and so Hitler turned to a medieval method of warfare the siege
36:33
Hitler knew that Britain relied extremely heavily on war supplies material and even food coming from her empire and North America
36:42
Therefore he turned to his navy the creeks marina and tasked them to cut off this vital supply The Royal Navy was still the most powerful surface fleet in the world in 1940 and while Germany had advanced warships like the Tirpitz and Bismarck They couldn't hope to meet the Royal Navy in a pitched battle like the Kaiser's fleet had in World War one without being overwhelmed by British numbers
37:07
Therefore the German Navy used their new boat to besiege Britain the kaisers u-boats had proved how vulnerable Britain was to such a weapon, but it seems Britain had learned very little from this during the interwar years
37:22
Tactics to combat the u-boats had changed very little and new technologies such as ASDIC an early form of sonar Had yet to take prevalence in the fleet meaning the main method to detect a u-boat was to spot it on the surface Recharging its batteries or when using its periscope
37:40
Aircraft was seen as ideal platforms for this, but RAF Coastal Command had aircraft inadequate for the job at the start of the war Lacking range and weaponry, but also having to rely solely on the air crews eyes for detection
37:54
meanwhile the Royal Navy began organizing merchant ships into convoys in order to provide them protection and Also began taking on trawlers from Britain's fishing fleets and arming them to hunt u-boats
38:07
Nevertheless the u-boats began to inflict painful losses on Britain while efforts to destroy them at sea met with mixed success as did RAF Bomber commands efforts to bomb the u-boats yards in France and Norway
38:21
Churchill would later admit that the u-boats were the only thing that truly scared him during the war
38:27
However the u-boats needed help in locating the convoys and so the Luftwaffe used long-range Condor patrol aircraft to organize the u-boat attacks Realizing this Britain began looking of ways of destroying these aircraft they weren't enough aircraft carriers in the Royal Navy during the early years to protect every convoy and So they came up with a novel solution catapult merchantman or cam ships
38:52
These were merchant ships equipped with a catapult to launch a single Hawker hurricane or ferry form a fighter To attack the Condors when they were sighted it was a one-way mission there being no way to recover the aircraft Which had to ditch alongside the convoy with the pilot hoping to be picked up by a passing ship Which made it one of the most dangerous jobs in the war The urgency to combat the new bones saw the rapid development of technology particularly in the field of radar
39:19
The u-boats had to ride on the surface to charge their batteries that powered them And this was often carried out under the safety of night However radar had been used to combat night bomber raids and was now being trialed against u-boats on December the 22nd 1941 a u-boat was sunk by a Royal Navy plane on the surface under the cover of darkness
39:42
From that point on you boats could be attacked anytime anywhere
39:47
The situation was made worse for the u-boats by the addition of new longer-ranged aircraft equipment with radar which left fewer and fewer places for them to hide
40:03
At the same time Mussolini's Italy opened the North African campaign His troops also opened up another front this time against Greece
40:13
Mussolini felt he was playing second fiddle to Hitler in Europe and wanted to establish himself as an equal He viewed Greece as an easy target and began putting pressure on the country's own facet like dictator Ioannis Metaxas on August 15th 1940 an Italian submarine sank the Greek warship Elli Italian troops finally attacked on October the 28th 1914 but like in North Africa they were beaten back despite the odds seemingly being in their favor
40:45
the Italian attack pushed Greece closer to Britain who had desperate for allies after the fall of Western Europe This in turn made Hitler take an interest in Greece And he had his General Staff start drawing up plans for his own troops to once again come to the aid of the Italians
41:01
The problem was that Germany had no land border with Greece it being blocked by Yugoslavia and Bulgaria Hitler demanded cooperation from both nations to allow his forces to pass through Bulgaria greed and so too Did Yugoslavia both of whom joined the Axis forces
41:19
But public opinion in the latter was strongly anti German leading to a coup against the government and the rejection of any alliance
41:28
outraged Hitler ordered that when his troops invaded Greece from Bulgaria on April the 6th 1941 But they were to concurrently invade Yugoslavia despite stiff resistance Yugoslavia was overrun in just over a week and a half
41:44
Two weeks later the Greek surrendered having been overwhelmed by the combined might of the German and Italians British assistance could do little to repel the invaders and along with the Greek forces. They retreated to the island of Crete
41:59
consolidating his position on the Greek mainland Hitler ordered the invasion of Crete to begin on May the 20th and was opened with a massive attack by German paratroopers after nearly two weeks of fierce fighting the island fell But while British and observers in Washington were impressed with the effectiveness of a paratrooper invasion launched against them Hitler was appalled at the cost of his forces and never again ordered a large-scale airborne invasion
42:28
Nazi Germany's army seemed unstoppable by mid 1941 and no-one became more convinced of this than Hitler himself Who after defeating the British on mainland Europe in France and Greece and while Rommel continued pushing them back in North Africa Decided that it was time to achieve his ultimate goal the destruction of the Soviet Union Hitler view the Soviet Union as a way of not only eradicating communism
42:53
But of feeding his thousand-year Reich by providing vast areas of agricultural land and vital resources such as oil and metals However, Germany's generals warned the Führer against invading the Soviet Union unless Moscow attacked first Britain herself remained unconquered and worse still was now sending fleets of oh bombers into Europe to attack German industry Also, the job of defending British and British Commonwealth forces in Africa
43:21
Required the resources Hitler wanted to commit to fighting the Soviet Union they believed It was better to send those forces to destroy British resistance in Africa and then seize British possessions in the Middle East Which would afford them oil which would starve Britain offer supplies, and eventually helped force London to surrender
43:39
But Hitler was impatient He argued that the German people would not be as supportive for a war on Russia after a few more years of fighting
43:47
also, he believed the Soviet Army was incompetent after his poor showing against Finland in the winter war of 1939 if He waited then the Soviet leadership might learn from their mistakes and become a more credible threat
44:02
Hitler would say we only have to kick in the front door and the whole rotten Russian air defense will come tumbling down He defied his generals and gave the order to attack the Soviet Union
44:14
dubbed Operation Barbarossa Germany committed a huge force of troops that included Romanian Finnish and Hungarian units who were by now signed up members of the Axis forces The attack was launched from occupy polish territory at 0:00 300 hours on Sunday the 22nd of June 1941 and involved a staggering 3.8 million personnel launched across a 2,900 kilometre front The German forces were arranged in three key army groups north center and south
44:46
The Soviet Army had warnings that the Germans were massing for an invasion But Stalin refused to believe it in the days after the invasion Stalin retreated into his own mind He being unable to comprehend. Just what was happening which left his government That was terrified to act against him following his brutal purges unsure what to do The Soviet army sustained incredible losses in the early years of the war while the Soviet Air Force was largely smashed on the ground
45:15
The aircraft that did get airborne who often obsolete types or their pilots poorly trained making them easy targets for skilled and experienced German fighter pilots
45:26
The Soviets also had to contend with anti-communist forces conducting sabotage and intelligence-gathering operations from the Germans
45:35
the fighting in the east was particularly brutal Hitler had told his forces that a war against the Soviet Union could not be fought along civilised lines and As such he promised no German would ever be held accountable for his conduct against the enemy in A sense they were given a free hand to rape plunder and murder When Soviet units were overwhelmed many of them surrendered as their command structure collapsed and these soldiers were led into captivity
46:03
Where there was an actual plan in place to starve them to death
46:07
behind the German troops advanced German death squads began murdering so-called undesirables such as Jews
46:14
The speed of the German advance took everyone by surprise including the Germans themselves The vast areas of land Germany's forces took proved a logistical nightmare and on several occasions They lost the initiative as they waited for supplies of food fuel and re armaments to catch up with them the Germans advanced across eastern Poland Belarus Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania Ukraine and into Russia itself proving almost unstoppable
46:42
But everyone knew that the biggest obstacle the Germans would have to face was rapidly approaching the Russian winter By December 1941 the snow was setting in but German troops were on the verge of taking Moscow itself However, they failed to take the embattled city and their advanced ground to a halt The soviet union's leadership meanwhile had relocated their major weapons production
47:06
Facilities further east out at the range of German bombers which allowed them to build tanks and aircraft unmolested They were also getting supplies from Britain. Thanks to the efforts of the men on the perilous Arctic convoys
47:20
The German army leadership knew the truth even if Hitler remained convinced of Germany's superiority They had lost their window of opportunity to destroy the Soviet Union quickly Now the Soviets were engaged committed and far more prepared for the coming war of attrition than Germany was in Mein Kampf Hitler had outlined that Germany could not fight a prolonged war on two fronts Yet at the end of 1941 he was effectively committed to three fronts
47:48
Britain in the West British Commonwealth forces in North Africa and now the Soviet Union in the East and while the snow fell on German soldiers in Russia ill-equipped for winter warfare they whirled away in the tropical climate of Hawaii a Fleet of Japanese ships were closing in on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor
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