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00:00Eighty years ago, a war of an unprecedented scale shook our planet and changed the face of the world.
00:18Never had war been so widespread, so brutal, or so destructive.
00:25A torrent of fire and steel.
00:27Steeped in courage and cruelty.
00:38From the Pacific Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.
00:42From the deserts of Africa to the Russian steppe.
00:51The war broke up nations and forged empires.
00:58It redefined our borders.
01:02Our ideals.
01:04Our fears.
01:06The Second World War shaped the world as we know it.
01:13We know it.
01:27This is the story of a war that changed everything.
01:31The End
01:41The End
01:44The End
02:45The winter 1942, the war had reached its peak.
02:53Nearly 90 million soldiers across the globe were in uniform.
02:57And the conflict had already claimed more than 30 million lives.
03:04Never before had civilians been so deeply caught up in warfare.
03:11In cities turned into battlegrounds, civilians were no longer just collateral damage.
03:16They had become targets.
03:17But 1943 marked a turning point.
03:22Hope was reborn among nations, yearning to see an end to the war.
03:27This year would not only herald the fall of fascist empires,
03:31it would also signal the rise of the next superpowers destined to rule the new world.
03:36The Allies, the US, Great Britain and USSR, were regaining the upper hand over the Nazis.
03:59In the Soviet Union, a decisive battle was unfolding, one that would become legendary.
04:06Amid the ruins of Stalingrad, German troops advanced cautiously, without tank support,
04:22unable to maneuver through the debris, and with no air support for fear of hitting their own men.
04:27From a distance, Soviet snipers picked them off relentlessly, with deadly precision.
04:47For the Russians, the war wasn't global, it was personal.
05:00Soldiers fought fiercely for their own land.
05:02The very survival of the regime hinged on the outcome of this battle.
05:08In Russia, World War II is still known as the Great Patriotic War,
05:13a myth deeply embedded in the nation's identity.
05:17On November the 19th, 1942, the Red Army assaulted the flanks around Stalingrad.
05:41Russian forces succeeded in linking up.
05:48Stalin's strategy paid off.
05:51Instead of stubbornly defending the city, he had let the enemy in, only for them to be left surrounded.
06:06290,000 German soldiers were trapped.
06:09On the other side of the globe, Japan had expanded its empire through a string of conquests.
06:36The Americans fought fiercely to reclaim Guadalcanal.
06:56After a brutal six-month battle, the American GIs emerged victorious.
07:00In February 1943, the Japanese army had no choice but to fall back.
07:07This marked the start of America's reconquest of Asia and the birth of a new strategic approach.
07:13Jumping from island to island, establishing bases ever closer to mainland Japan.
07:18America wasn't merely trying to defeat Japan.
07:28It was laying the groundwork for a lasting foothold in the Pacific.
07:32This strategy would position Washington as judge, jury, and executioner in future conflicts erupting across Asia,
07:43from Korea to the inferno of Vietnam.
07:46The war crept into every household, imposing strict rationing of sugar, meat, and canned goods.
08:07Yet Americans rallied as one.
08:18At this critical moment, nothing mattered more than showing solidarity with those fighting overseas.
08:25And in January 1943, when it was still extremely rare for an American president to cross the Atlantic,
08:35Roosevelt traveled to Casablanca, near the front lines, for a conference intended to demonstrate the Allies' strength.
08:43In Africa, for nearly two years, the British had been fighting Italian and German forces alone.
08:59But the Americans had recently landed in North Africa, during Operation Torch.
09:04Joined by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Roosevelt announced their determination to crush the Axis,
09:18and accept nothing less than the unconditional surrender of Germany, Italy, and Japan.
09:26Yet America and Britain could not shoulder this burden alone.
09:30In Europe, resistance against Nazism was rallying, coalescing around charismatic leaders, such as France's General de Gaulle.
09:46Roosevelt would have preferred General Giroud, a more compliant figure.
09:52But de Gaulle prevailed, insisting that France would never let others dictate its destiny.
10:00A daunting challenge indeed, since during the war, the rising superpowers had grown accustomed to imposing their will, even upon their own allies.
10:10As the Casablanca Conference concluded, Russian soldiers were triumphing amid the ruins of Stalingrad.
10:35On February 2nd, 1943, the Soviets accepted the surrender of German General Paulus.
10:56The Soviet Union, the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union.
11:00Carefully filmed by Soviet cameras,
11:03victory belongs to those who can best stage it.
11:13Stalingrad became a symbol.
11:16The turning point where Nazi defeat shifted from possibility to probability.
11:26the battle would also come to illustrate the staggering price paid by the soviet people
11:3627 million dead 70 times higher than american losses
11:43today however in western memory the heroic image of the american savior overshadows soviet martyrdom
11:54a historical oversight that still fuels deep resentment in russia
12:00germany's defeat at stalingrad with 100 000 prisoners captured sent shock waves across
12:21the reich even though nazi propaganda sought to minimize the disaster
12:25generale offiziere und offiziere und mannschaften forchten schulter an schulter bis zur letzten
12:49patrone das opfer der army war nicht umsonst sie starben damit deutschland lebe
12:59hitler had convinced the germans that war was inevitable a necessary response to the humiliation
13:16of world war one early swift victories had reinforced the myth of the country's invincibility
13:25this feeling wasn't shared by hansen sophie scholl brother and sister aged 24 and 21. two weeks
13:41after the shock of stalingrad they distributed anti-nazi leaflets in the halls of their university
13:47in munich
13:47sophie flung a stack of leaflets into the university hall they were spotted by the university's
14:02caretaker and immediately reported to the gestapo
14:04hansen sophie scholl were tried four days later and swiftly executed before his execution by guillotine
14:15hans scholl warned his executioners soon it will be you standing in our place
14:21hansen sophie scholl were exceptions in hitler's germany where every child and teenager had been
14:35indoctrinated from an early age to idolize the fuhrer ready to lay down their lives for him
14:41like their parents steadily poisoned by relentless propaganda
14:49it would take several generations for the country to overcome this painful past
14:57six days after the shoals execution nazi propaganda minister josef goebbels declared total war
15:11to galvanize the german people
15:18to galvanize the german people
15:26the
15:37hansen
15:52hitler was fully aware that this war was also an arms race
15:56under albert speer hitler's minister and close confidant german industrial production had tripled
16:17the reich had transformed into an immense factory state even under relentless allied bombardment
16:25its industries endured streamlining their processes
16:29burying factories underground
16:32or dispersing them widely
16:35nazi science surged forward
16:38the germans had initiated the uranium project
16:41aiming to build an atomic bomb
16:47they also pursued the development of rockets and long-range missiles
16:52to strike distant targets
16:55like london
16:56whose destruction had obsessed hitler since the blitz of 1940
17:07the v1 rockets
17:08closely followed by the v2s
17:10ushered in a new form of warfare
17:12and above all
17:13a new era of conquest
17:15and above all a new era of conquest
17:19this
17:20and right
17:21to
17:22the
17:23goal
17:25is
17:26America, too, was racing toward technological breakthroughs
17:38and was sparing no expense to win.
17:46Entrusted to physicist Robert Oppenheimer,
17:49the Manhattan Project,
17:50the largest scientific endeavor of World War II,
17:53advanced at a relentless pace.
17:57At Los Alamos, deep in the New Mexico desert,
18:02thousands of scientists and engineers worked day and night
18:06building the first atomic bomb in history.
18:15Never had human ingenuity leaned so heavily on machines to win a war.
18:26In 1943, thanks to the progress in radar and computing,
18:38submarine warfare shifted decisively.
18:41During Black May, the German fleet suffered unprecedented losses.
18:57German submarines had long-sown fear across the seas.
19:00But the Allies knew exactly where they operated.
19:15Thanks to their success in cracking enigma,
19:18the Nazis' notorious coding machine.
19:20Northwest of London,
19:28mathematician Alan Turing and his team
19:30had finally unlocked its secrets.
19:39Their wartime research
19:41led directly to machines capable of automating code breaking,
19:44paving the way for the first computers.
19:47To protect their crucial secret,
20:04the Allies made a ruthless decision
20:07to allow certain ships and their crews
20:10to sink.
20:12Intelligence followed its own merciless logic,
20:15losing some battles to ultimately win the war.
20:22The United States leveraged intelligence
20:25to extend its global influence.
20:39Since the creation of the OSS,
20:41the precursor of the CIA,
20:43American agents operated on every front.
20:52They coordinated with resistance movements
20:56and encouraged guerrilla warfare.
21:02In Burma,
21:04Detachment 101,
21:06consisting of around 100 American operatives,
21:09organized local tribes.
21:10The same unit operated in Indochina,
21:14supporting insurgent warfare.
21:25In China,
21:26they aided Mao Zedong's communist forces.
21:29Against all odds,
21:37guerrilla warfare,
21:38seemingly primitive compared to modern tanks,
21:41planes and artillery,
21:42proved remarkably effective.
21:46Becoming a lasting tactic in future conflicts.
21:49After the war,
22:05impenetrable jungles or mountains
22:07would continue to shelter rebels.
22:11Eventually, guerrilla forces
22:12turned against the very regimes
22:14that had armed them.
22:15If the war upset various balances in Asia,
22:24it also shook Africa's colonial empires.
22:32African soldiers were on the front line
22:34in the North African campaign.
22:36Those who'd witnessed France's defeat in 1940
22:44and refused collaboration
22:46now fought alongside the Allies
22:48against German and Italian forces.
22:51Four months after Operation Torch,
23:08Allied forces converged in Tunisia.
23:10Following intense fighting,
23:22Axis troops surrendered in May 1943.
23:29North Africa was finally liberated.
23:33CHOICE
23:44and Juve
23:48left
23:50as well as the door
23:51of France�� этом
23:52all로
23:53and after all the war
23:55with Sophie
23:57and Samuel
23:58and
23:59who
24:01Now, it was time to roll back Axis forces in Europe itself.
24:11Occupation grew harsher, shortages intensified, and the black market became essential.
24:31Collaborators remained loyal to the Reich, but others chose resistance.
24:45This was a vital opportunity for the Allies, who found crucial support points across Europe.
24:52Ordinary men and women took extraordinary risks to resist oppression.
25:01Initially scattered in France, Greece, and Yugoslavia, resistance groups organized under leaders in direct contact with London.
25:13Supported by Allied intelligence services, these groups became a strategic asset in the struggle against the Axis.
25:21In Norway, Joachim Ronenberg, aged 23, was parachuted into the mountains along with six companions.
25:34Britain's SOE had entrusted them with a mission of the utmost importance.
25:39After skiing covertly for 15 days through freezing conditions, on February the 27th, 1943, they infiltrated the Wehmok heavy water production plant, a key site in the Nazis' nuclear program, and destroyed it.
25:58This daring strike shattered the Reich's atomic ambitions.
26:07This daring strike shattered the Reich's atomic ambitions.
26:07Through their acts of bravery and sacrifice, the resistance captured Europe's imagination, and shaped a shared vision of the lone hero, rising against tyranny.
26:32For the first time, the resistance also placed women at the forefront.
26:55Subject to less suspicion, they became couriers, saboteurs, spies.
27:09Even though they were rarely allowed to bear arms.
27:15The exception was in the USSR.
27:18Where women served both behind the lines and at the front, some forming entirely female battalions.
27:38June 28, 1942.
27:40Serafima Amosova, commander of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, took off for her first mission.
27:56Piloting a fragile biplane, she silently glided at low altitude over enemy lines.
28:02Shutting off her engine to avoid detection.
28:15She dropped her bombs, narrowly escaping heavy flak from below.
28:19This daring raid inaugurated the legend of the Night Witches, female pilots whose nocturnal missions would terrify Nazi troops.
28:39Despite their pivotal roles, after the war, women were largely pushed back into traditional positions.
28:46Yet their extraordinary wartime contributions left a lasting legacy in the struggles for equality.
28:58Six months after Stalingrad, Soviet forces had advanced nearly 600 kilometers.
29:15Forming a salient around the Kursk region.
29:18One Hitler was determined to eliminate.
29:20He mobilized substantial resources to halt intense Russian artillery fire.
29:35The panzers charged forward, only to meet fierce resistance from Soviet T-34 tanks.
29:40The battle decisively demonstrated Soviet superpowers.
29:4100,000,000,000,000,000.
29:42Home warval, to be gone.
29:43Warval, to be sure.
29:44Warval, to be very
29:46The battle decisively demonstrated Soviet superiority on the Eastern Front.
30:12The Red Army took the lead in liberating Europe, and Stalin secured a strong bargaining position
30:21for future negotiations.
30:26Ironically, these Soviet tanks, celebrated as instruments of liberation, would later
30:33become symbols of fear across post-war Europe.
30:42The Soviet economy successfully adapted to war conditions by relocating factories eastward,
30:55far from the front lines, and by standardizing production methods to create simple yet robust
31:02weapons.
31:04By 1943, Soviet tank production had quadrupled from the previous year, vastly outperforming
31:12the Reich and proving the Soviet economic model could match that of other major powers.
31:24The Eastern Front had become a graveyard for Nazi ambitions.
31:29Meanwhile, another front was opening in Italy.
31:40On July the 10th, 1943, the Allies landed in Sicily.
31:48General Patton, commanding American troops, General Montgomery, leading British forces, quickly
31:56became heroes of Allied propaganda.
32:06to be filmed and celebrated.
32:09Patton, wearing his colt on his belt, fiery and charismatic, symbolized America's fearless
32:15resolve.
32:18Montgomery played the calm, meticulous strategist.
32:31They were outnumbered by Axis forces on the island.
32:35But Italian and German forces crumbled in just two weeks.
32:42And the two German divisions, holding Sicily, retreated.
32:50On July 25th, Mussolini, betrayed by his own inner circle, was removed from power and imprisoned.
32:59After more than 20 years under dictatorship, Italians joyfully celebrated in the streets, as their tyrant fell.
33:06From Italy, British and American bombers could now strike southern Germany.
33:13From Italy, British and American bombers could now strike southern Germany.
33:22Previously untouched.
33:28From Italy, British and American bombers could now strike southern Germany.
33:35Previously untouched.
33:45British and American bombers could now strike southern Germany.
33:46Even as the north already burned under heavy bombardment.
33:48For months, Allied bombers had relentlessly targeted German industrial facilities and urban centers.
34:10They were seeking unconditional surrender, no matter the human cost.
34:25Germany erupted into flames.
34:37On July 27th, 1943, Hamburg was devastated by a relentless rain of incendiary bombs.
34:52Temperatures reached 750 degrees Celsius, melting windows and asphalt alike.
35:04Soon, other German cities would share the same fate.
35:11By the war's end, the devastation was so profound, Germans spoke of year zero.
35:21This systematic destruction spread across all Europe, leveling entire cities and forcing massive reconstruction that would permanently reshape them.
35:33Yet the Axis powers refused to collapse.
35:52On September 3rd, 1943, the Allies landed on mainland Italy.
36:01Secretly, Italy's king and prime minister negotiated an armistice.
36:08But when the Germans discovered this betrayal, they swiftly seized Rome and occupied northern Italy.
36:22The country was now divided in two, royalists in the south, loyalists of Ilduci in the north.
36:45The fallen dictator, imprisoned in isolation high in the Apennine mountains, became the centerpiece of a spectacular rescue.
36:54Orchestrated by a weakened Germany desperate for a propaganda victory.
37:09On September 12th, 1943, an elite commander unit of 382 Waffen SS soldiers freed Mussolini in a daring raid, carefully filmed by Nazi propaganda to boost morale.
37:26Mussolini was promptly reinstalled as the figurehead of a puppet state, a mere shadow of the fascist empire he once dreamt of.
37:40Through Hitler's will alone, Italian fascism appeared reborn, proof that the Nazi machine remained dangerously effective.
37:53Soon, Nazis began organizing the deportation of Italian Jews, something Mussolini had previously resisted.
38:00Every day, hundreds of trains crossed Europe, carrying deported Jews toward death camps.
38:20Despite mounting defeats and fading prospects of victory, Nazi priorities did not waver.
38:39Instead, the Holocaust intensified.
38:44Writer Primo Levi was arrested two months later and deported to Auschwitz.
38:55We traveled here in sealed wagons.
38:59We watched our women and children disappear into nothingness.
39:03None of us will return.
39:06Nobody will ever leave this place alive to bear witness.
39:09Branded into their flesh of what man did to man at Auschwitz.
39:19In Denmark, until then spared the round-ups, Nazis planned the deportation of the Jewish population.
39:40But this time, they faced determined resistance.
40:01An underground network emerged.
40:03Danish citizens hid their Jewish neighbors, warning them in advance.
40:08For nearly three weeks, every night, fishing boats spirited entire families away to safety.
40:28On October the 3rd, 1943, in northern Denmark, Henny Sinding, aged 22, hurriedly guided a Jewish family aboard a fishing boat.
40:43From the lighthouse, her father kept watch.
40:50On the docks, Otto Andersson, a crew member, distracted German patrols.
41:02Quietly, the small vessels slipped away into darkness, heading towards freedom in Sweden.
41:12Within days, nearly 90% of Denmark's Jews were rescued.
41:17This unparalleled nationwide mobilization earned Denmark's resistance the collective honor of righteous among the nations.
41:31Yet the war was far from over.
41:54German military setbacks convinced Hitler that the continent itself must become an impregnable fortress.
42:07Among 2,600 kilometers of coastline, he ordered construction of the Atlantic Wall.
42:18A formidable defense line of bunkers, forts, and gun emplacements.
42:28Ironically, the Führer, who had effortlessly bypassed the Maginot Line, now relied on concrete fortifications to repel an anticipated Allied invasion.
42:39Hitler had good reason to worry.
43:02In November 1943, the Allies met in Tehran.
43:21These summits had become the place where great powers shaped the world's future.
43:28For the first time, Stalin attended.
43:32No one ignored the stark ideological divide between communist dictatorship and democracy.
43:40Yet coordination was essential for the final assault on Nazi Germany.
43:47The Soviets would push from the east, while the Allies launched a massive invasion from the west.
43:57The countdown had begun.
43:58Five months remained until D-Day.
44:27Time for
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