History by the Numbers (2021) s01e10 Episode Script

1
(suspenseful music)
- [Narrator] In the last
year of World War II,
two gigantic armies charge
across Northern Europe
to pommel Nazi, Germany
into submission.
- It's a headlong race
between the largest armies
ever assembled in human history.
- [Narrator] On one
side, the Soviet Red Army
on the other side, the
army of the Western Allies,
their target Hitler's Berlin.
- If you get Berlin,
you are the victors
of the war in Europe.
- [Narrator] The race is on
and the stakes
could not be higher.
- Berlin is the control lever,
the gateway to controlling
the center of Europe.
And if you control
the center of Europe,
you control the whole continent.
- [Narrator] But it's a
prize with a massive cost.
- The devastation,
the bloodshed,
is just simply unbelievable.
It completely changes
world history.
- [Narrator] Each army
must travel 700 miles
to stop a madman,
700 miles for victory,
700 miles to control the
future of Europe and the world.
(bomb exploding)
- What happens and
how it plays out
are still being felt, even now.
(upbeat music)
(rocket launching)
(upbeat music)
(tank engines revving)
- [Narrator] In the early
years of World War II,
Hitler's armies
conquer most of Europe.
But in 1942, the tide turns.
And by the summer of 1944,
Germany is in trouble, and
The Allies are closing in,
but Hitler will not yield.
- Even at this stage of the war,
Hitler still has this
complete grip on Nazi Germany.
- [Narrator] Toppling Hitler,
all depends on the number three.
Of the alliance of
nations that come together
to oppose Nazi Germany,
three countries will determine
the outcome of the war
and the future of Europe.
- Of course, there are other
countries involved as well,
but the big three,
the United States,
the Soviet Union and Great
Britain are the most important.
- [Reporter] The
Big Three confer,
Roosevelt, Churchill
and Joseph Stalin.
- [Narrator] The
strength of the Alliance
of these three nations is vital,
but they're not
exactly best buddies.
- They're tactical allies for
the sake of winning the war.
But the relationship
between the Western Allies
and the Soviet Union is
far better characterized
by frankly, hatred
in a lot of ways.
- [Narrator] Soviet
leader, Joseph Stalin,
who sentenced one million
of his own people to death
during the great purge
has a bit of an image problem.
(suspenseful music)
- Stalin is a despotic dictator.
He's an absolute monster.
- [Narrator] UK Prime Minister,
Winston Churchill in particular
has no love for the man
or his politics.
- Churchill's view
was that Stalin
was a really disgusting,
horrible figure.
Churchill was decidedly
anticommunist.
He was absolutely against
the political Sovietization
of Central and Eastern Europe.
- [Narrator]
Stalin, for his part
has more than 8 million reasons
to resent his Western partners.
Since 1941 Stalin
and the Soviet Union
have done the majority
of the fighting
against Hitler's army.
(cannons exploding)
It's been a blood bath.
(airplane engine roaring)
(guns firing)
8.1 million members of his
Red Army are dead, missing
or taken prisoner.
10 times what the USA and the UK
will suffer over the
entire war, combined.
- Now Stalin is
furious about this.
And Stalin's view is,
"We're really doing
"all the heavy lifting here.
"And it's about time
that the Western Allies
"did something as well."
- [Narrator] Now he's finally
going to get his wish.
The Western Allies,
the United States,
the UK and Canada
have plans to launch an
unprecedented invasion
into France from the West.
Meanwhile, Stalin's Red Army
continues to push from the East.
And the end goal for
everyone is the same.
(gentle music)
- Berlin is the target,
the lair of the fascist bEast.
(gentle music)
- [Narrator] Each side we'll
fight through about 700 miles
of heavily defended
enemy territory.
If you want to non-stop,
you can cover that
distance in 183 hours.
It will take these
armies 11 months,
an average of 0.09
miles per hour,
or about half the
speed of a sloth.
- Nobody's expecting
this to be easy.
If the Germans are
notorious for their defense,
notorious for fighting back.
- [Narrator] But this
is not just a fight
against two Fronts
of Hitler's right,
it's a competition
between East and West
for a much bigger prize.
(gentle upbeat music)
- The one hand their
smiles and agreements,
but both sides are actively
preparing for what comes next.
Really it's very much
an ideological contest
between Soviet communism
versus capitalism and democracy
with Berlin being the
center of that objective.
- The race to Berlin is
the competition, in a way,
between the Western
Allies and the Soviets
to get to Berlin before
the other side does,
winning the right to impose
your political system.
(gentle upbeat music)
- [Narrator] The race is set.
Each side will have six months
to build up their strength
before the coordinated
assault begins.
The Soviet Red Army
will be directed
by none other than
Stalin himself,
since the ruthless dictator
has some trust issues,
23,000 of them.
- Stalin doesn't trust
anyone on the planet.
You know, he's
suspicious of everybody.
I mean, anyone who kills
23,000 officers in his army
before the outbreak of
the second world war,
that's pretty paranoid.
- [Narrator] Commanding
the Western Front
is general Dwight Eisenhower.
Eisenhower is a much
different leader than Stalin.
People actually like Ike.
- Eisenhower is a
really good man.
You know, he's decent,
he's honorable.
So they're quite
different characters.
- [Narrator] On the eve of
the allied invasion of Europe,
there's a big number
on Ike's mind, 50%.
It's at the heart of the
most difficult decision
he will make in the war.
As an ambulance driver
during the London Blitz,
Kay Summersby witnessed to
the darkest days of the war.
Now three years later, on the
evening of June 5th, 1944,
the 35 year old is driving
general Eisenhower's staff car
out to Greenham Common airfield.
- Eisenhower decides to
go to Greenham Common
where the 101st Airborne
Division, the Screaming Eagles,
are about to make the
trip over to Normandy.
- Eisenhower made
a point of going
and seeing most
units in his army,
as much as he possibly can,
which is quite unusual
for senior commander.
- [Narrator] A nurse
tries to hand the general
a cup of coffee,
but his hands are shaking
too much to hold it.
In the months leading up to
today, Ike's been on edge,
he's smoking four packs
of cigarettes a day.
- The weight of responsibility
on his shoulders
is just absolutely immense.
This is the burden
of high command.
(gentle music)
- [Narrator] Walking among
the 1,430 paratroopers,
Eisenhower stops to speak with
Lieutenant Wallace Strobel,
jump master for plane number 23.
They don't talk about the fact
that the entire war
hinges on this mission,
instead they talk about fishing.
Today's Strobel's birthday,
the young man from Michigan
has just turned 22.
(gentle music)
For him and the
entire 101st Airborne,
this will be their
first combat deployment.
In fact, only 4% of all
invasion force divisions
have seen combat.
- Someone like
Eisenhower, a humane man
who values the lies of
every single young soldier
that is going into battle,
he's an inevitably
gonna be wondering
how many of them gonna be
alive the following morning.
(airplane engine roaring)
(gentle music)
- [Narrator] As
Eisenhower and Summersby
watch the 81 transport planes
disappear into the clouds,
Summersby notices that the
general has a tear in his eye.
(airplane engine roaring)
Ike has been told
that approximately
50% of paratroopers
will likely die before
they hit the ground.
The survival of
Lieutenant Strobel
and everyone else
on those planes
has the odds of a coin toss.
But the plan goes ahead.
Before dawn, the assault begins
and in typical American
fashion, it's over the top.
17,000 soldiers
dropped from the sky.
But that's just the beginning.
The main assault comes by sea.
(cannons exploding)
- The scale of D-Day is
just absolutely gigantic.
It includes 1,213 warships,
4,127 landing craft.
It includes 155,000 men
just on that first day.
This is on a scale that
has never been seen before.
It is the biggest single
amphibious invasion ever,
in the history of world.
- [Narrator] And it all
starts with one step.
By the dawn light, 20
landing craft cut the waves
in a straight shot
for a distant beach.
Inside the landing craft,
22 young American soldiers
are crunched together.
- It was terrible weather,
so basically they're just
crashing over high seas.
(waves crashing)
- [Narrator] 80% Of
them are seasick.
They've been riding through
rough waves for two hours.
When the boat ramp drops open,
Captain Leonard "Max"
Schroeder is the first one out.
They've arrived at 6:28 a.m.
Two minutes early,
and they're still
100 yards from shore.
(waves crashing)
- So, you know, he
wades into the water.
He's got his Colt 45, he's
waving it above his head,
and leading his men on.
- [Narrator] Weighed down
by 80 pounds of equipment,
Max surges forward,
leading his men to shore.
- In the early hours of D-Day,
he is the first man to put
his foot down on French sand.
- [Narrator] It's step number
one in the race to Berlin.
(suspenseful music)
And the starter's pistol
is an explosion of gunfire
from entrenched German
positions up the beach.
- And hell is unleashed.
(guns firing)
The bullets start whizzing
by and the explosions.
And you've got nowhere to hide.
- [Narrator] Max is hit twice
in the left arm and side.
(guns firing)
But the 25-year-old
keeps fighting.
By the afternoon of June 6th,
he and his man have
done their job,
they've secured the beach.
Captain Schroeder survives
to fight another day.
But many aren't so lucky.
Of the estimated 10,000
allied casualties on D-Day,
4,414 men lost their lives.
(gentle upbeat music)
Despite the losses, the
D-Day landings are a success.
- The most important thing,
when you're launching
an amphibious invasion,
is that it doesn't fail.
(gentle music)
And D-Day doesn't,
it's really very,
very successful.
- [Narrator] Eisenhower could
breathe a sigh of relief.
Pre-invasion casualty estimates
had been almost four times
higher than they turned out.
And only 338 American
paratroopers were killed,
far below the 6,500 he'd
been told to expect.
At the end of the day,
The Allies secure the foothold
they need on French soil.
Between D-Day and the end of
the war, 2.5 half million men,
half a million vehicles
and 4 million metric
tons of supplies
will pass through the beachhead.
In the race to Berlin,
the Western Allies
are first out of the blocks.
(gentle music)
- [Reporter] DNA
was stand in history
as one of the greatest
military feats of all time.
The Alliance were on
their way to Berlin.
(gentle music)
- [Narrator] Western Allies
are off to a great start,
but on the Eastern
Front, Stalin is seizing.
He's got 30 million reasons
to be out for vengeance.
Stalin and Hitler
had been allies,
but in 1941, Hitler being
Hitler, betrays Stalin.
(crowd cheering)
- [Reporter] When the blow came
it was from five
different directions.
- Stalin was absolutely shocked
when Hitler invades
the Soviet Union,
and Hitler's invasion is brutal.
Many people believe
that the Soviet Union
was actually going to fall.
(suspenseful music)
- Somewhere between about
27 and 30 million people
in the Soviet Union died,
vast majority are civilians,
which tells you the nature
of the German war effort.
It's not a regular war.
This is a war of extermination,
it's a war of blood.
- [Narrator] But the
Soviets fight back
fueled by the biggest
draft in history.
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Reporter] This war
is not an ordinary war.
It is a war of the
entire Russian people.
- [Narrator] Before the
end of World War II,
almost 30 million
troops will be drafted
to serve in the Red Army.
And that's one new soldier
for every person lost
to Hitler's invasion.
- A lot of young men
weren't properly trained,
didn't have proper uniforms.
They had bad equipment.
They were taken from their
villages and just said,
"Okay, you're going
to the frontline now,
"you have to fight
because we need you."
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] In June of 1944
with his army now replenished
and the Western Allies
invasion of Europe underway,
it's time for Stalin
to strike in the East.
- Bagration, is Stalin's plan
for the great summer
offensive of 1944,
the largest, bar none, single
ally campaign in World War II.
- [Narrator] On D-Day, the
Western Allies invasion force
numbered approximately 155,000.
But that's nothing compared
to the number Stalin has.
He begins his race to Berlin
with a force more
than 10 times bigger.
(upbeat music)
- Stalin gets together
over 2.3 million men.
We're talking
thousands of tanks,
thousands of trucks,
thousands of aircraft.
It's absolutely massive.
Hitler by this point has
around about 1 million troops
on the Eastern Front.
They're setting up
this horrific defense
that the Soviets are
gonna have to go through.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Stalin's problem
isn't the number
of men he's got,
but how to hide the fact
that he's got so many.
The goal, catch the
Germans off guard.
- What Stalin wants is to try
and hide from the Germans.
But you know, there is this
storm of steel coming their way.
- [Narrator] To keep 2.3
million men a secret,
it's going to take Stalin's
secret weapon, Maskirovka.
- Maskirovka is a Russian
word for disguise or deceit.
Stalin does a number of things
in order to deceive Hitler,
having fake radio signals,
having fake army groups,
which don't really exist.
(suspenseful music)
- [Narrator] Stalin's
ploys to make it appear
the attack will
come in the Ukraine
when he actually plans
to attack further North
in Byelorussia.
(gentle music)
- Gentler of course was
no military strategist.
The Germans are duped.
They move huge numbers of
German tanks to the South.
And that left them
virtually defenseless.
- [Narrator] Stalin is about
to find out just how long
he can keep his 2.3
million men a secret.
(train engine revving)
- The Germans had laid these
vast minefields on their Front
in order to prevent the
service from coming through.
- [Narrator] In
the dead of night,
on the Byelorussian Front,
21-yeah-old Pyotr Makeyev
slips between trees,
careful not to make a sound.
- The work that Pyotr
and his team are doing
is incredibly dangerous,
deactivating minefields
in preparation for the
invasion of Bagration.
- [Narrator] Pyotr clips
barbed wire and pulls it away,
creating a safe channel
for troops in the rear
to move through.
- These young men had to crawl
out into these minefields
and very, very carefully try
and find out where they were
and then deactivate them
by taking them apart.
(gentle music)
To do it in the dead of night
where you can't see anything,
you can't communicate, you
don't know where the mines are,
was enormously dangerous work.
- [Narrator] Many of
Pyotr brothers in arms
will be killed in the attempt.
(bomb exploding)
But by the time they
are done their work,
the Front has been cleared for
Stalin's surprise assaults.
(upbeat music)
Hitler is still none the wiser.
But how much time does
Stalin have before he is?
(upbeat music)
Vasily Ermolenko is on the
frontline ready for the attack.
Like every Soviet soldier,
after three years of fighting
for survival, he's exhausted,
physically and mentally,
even his boots
are falling apart.
- And yet by
Bagration comes along
and this gives them all this
tremendous boost of hope.
Because finally,
this is the chance
that they're going to actually
be able to show the Germans
what they've got.
- [Narrator] On June
22nd, it begins.
(cannons exploding)
- The battle begins
early in the morning
and it begins with
artillery barrage.
(cannons exploding)
So these guns that
had been lined up,
all the way down for kilometers,
all of a sudden start to fire.
- [Narrator] 32,000
Pieces of artillery,
open up on German defenses,
firing a total of 192,000
metric tons of ordinance.
- The Germans are
just all of a sudden
faced with this massive barrage,
pounding down on them.
And the Germans don't
know what hit them
because they weren't
expecting this at all.
And then they become terrified.
- [Narrator] After the
artillery, the Red Army,
Ermolenko included
surges forward.
- Waves and waves of troops
smashing into the Germans.
They scramble and
try to fight back,
but it really doesn't help.
They start to surrender.
And this is such a
moment of triumph
for the Red Army soldiers.
It's a complete
and utter victory
for the Soviets
from the moment go.
Stalin's maskirovka
is so successful,
it takes three days
before Hitler realizes
he's made this enormous
error of judgment.
- [Narrator] Three
days is all it takes
to give Stalin the
advantage he needs.
All along the Eastern Front,
the Red Army pushes
into occupied territory,
rapidly gaining ground.
Stalin takes back all the
territory he's lost since 1941
and then some.
(bombs exploding)
- Bagration is the
most territory gains
in the shortest period of
time and all of World War II.
So in the span of
about two months,
they make it all
the way to Poland.
- [Narrator] The Germans
suffer 350,000 casualties,
over 40% of their
defending forces.
(suspenseful music)
- It's absolutely staggering,
how successful Bagration is
to Hitler's absolute fury.
And Stalin of
course is jubilant.
Finally, there's a sense of
retribution, sense of revenge.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] By August of 1944,
the Red Army has
advanced 400 miles,
more than halfway to
the German capital.
The Western Allies, meanwhile,
have only made it 150
miles towards Berlin.
(gentle music)
- The allies get
stalled in France.
People often think,
you know, June 7th,
the day after D-Day,
it's all over.
It's not over.
The allies had tough go.
(guns firing)
- [Narrator] Advantage Stalin.
But he's paid for
the lead in blood.
His Red Army suffers
over 770,000 casualties.
While the Western Allies
suffer just over 226,000.
There's a quote famously
attributed to Stalin,
"One death is a tragedy, a
million deaths, a statistic."
- The bottom line is that Stalin
doesn't care how
many people die.
All he cares about is winning.
(gentle music)
(tank engine revving)
- [Narrator] Commanding
the Western Front,
Eisenhower has been taking
a more measured approach
on the road to
Berlin than Stalin.
- In terms of character,
in terms of personality,
you almost couldn't find
two people more opposite.
Because Eisenhower
is very cautious,
he's very concerned
with the welfare
of his own men and women.
- [Narrator] After
the success of D-Day,
the Western Allied
armies get bogged down
by heavy German
resistance in Normandy.
(bombs exploding)
- Allied bombing,
followed by overwhelming forces
is what actually breaks 'em.
(bomb exploding)
And the American forces burst
that way through that hole.
- [Narrator] The Western advance
is finally picking up steam
and Eisenhower is
hoping to make up ground
in the race to Berlin.
But at a time when
any delay counts,
he's got a problem in Paris,
20,000 problems actually.
Paris has been under Nazi
occupation for four years.
And the more than 2 million
citizens want the Germans gone.
Eisenhower though,
has other ideas.
- In the pre-invasion planning,
Eisenhower never had any
intention of fighting for Paris.
The plan was to bypass Paris.
- It's not a major military
objective for The Allies.
It's only in the French minds
that Paris is important.
- [Narrator] With
the Germans attention
on the allied invasion,
the French Resistance
make their move.
(bomb exploding)
- The uprising by
the French Resistance
that starts on the
19th of August, 1944.
(guns firing)
- It's a bit of a ragtag army
armed with whatever they
can get their hands on,
but it's quite sizable.
- [Narrator] The resistance
has up to 20,000 fighters
determined to help
liberate Paris,
which puts their numbers on
par with German occupiers.
But they only have 600 guns,
one for every 33 fighters.
Despite being badly outgunned,
the Resistance have the
backing of the people of Paris.
But the Germans don't back down.
(upbeat music)
- Hitler is insisting
they fight for every yard.
(guns firing)
So there's quite
vicious fighting.
And there are a
number of casualties.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Eisenhower
and his generals
have been keeping an eye on
Paris and the rising body count.
2000 Parisians and 800
Resistance fighters killed,
thousands more are wounded.
But diverting troops from
the frontline to help
risks stalling their
advanced to Berlin.
- It very quickly becomes clear
that they simply can't let this
turn into a kind of bloodbath,
they're gonna have to
do something about it.
Eisenhower says, "Yes, okay,
we'll send in the troops."
(tank engine revving)
- [Narrator] Two days later,
allied troops enter Paris
and the tide of
the uprising turns
in favor of the Resistance.
But there's still one
more wrong left to right.
(upbeat music)
When the Germans first
took Paris in 1940,
they ordered a
French firefighter
to hang a swastika from the
top of the Eiffel Tower.
He complied, but swore he
would take it down one day.
(gentle music)
Redemption is never easy.
For Lucien Sarniguet, it
will take 1,671 steps.
August 25th, the battle
for Paris is raging,
the city is in chaos,
but Sarniguet is
singularly focused.
- His kept a tricolor the red,
white and blue flag of France
since the surrender
back in 1940.
And he seized this opportunity
to raise the tricolor on the
very top of the Eiffel Tower.
- Sarniguet and three
fellow firefighters
rush to the base of
the Eiffel Tower.
As the four men begin to climb
the thousand foot tall tower,
the Germans open fire.
(guns firing)
- There was heavy fighting,
Germans were shooting at him.
And then he saw another
team of Frenchmen
doing the exact same thing.
So it became kind
of a foot race.
- [Narrator] Sarniguet
rushes to close the distance.
Gasping for breath,
the 45 year old
reaches the last of
the tower's 1,671 steps
to see his competition
raising their own tricolor
in place of the swastika.
Sarniguet swore he'd
be the one to do it,
but in the moment
of seeing the French
flag flying once again,
his disappointment
gives way to elation.
It was never about him,
this was about France.
- You're not just
raising one flag,
you're taking down the
flag of your oppressor.
So in a way that raising of the
tricolor or the Eiffel Tower
is the moment that
Paris has liberated.
(gentle music)
- [Narrator] The remaining
German troops surrender
in the face of
overwhelming odds.
But the liberation of Paris
has cost the
Western Allies time,
putting them even further
behind the Soviets
in the race to Berlin.
(tank engine revving)
Which means Stalin,
already ahead of the game,
has 63 days to kill.
(gentle music)
At August, 1944,
Stalin's Red Army
is approaching
the Vistula River,
just on the other side, Warsaw.
(upbeat music)
Just like the Parisians,
the Polish home army
thinks liberty is at hand
and they rise up against the
German occupiers in Warsaw.
But to the surprise of
the home army fighters
and the Germans,
the Red Army stopped six
miles outside the city
and doesn't budge.
- The Russian army is
ordered to stay put.
There's no reason why
they couldn't have helped
but it was the malice of Stalin,
not wanting to spend
his forces for Poland.
- [Narrator] Warsaw
is abandoned.
For the residence, the number 13
represents their
last hope of escape.
- Civilians can't get out.
So they're just simply
massacred by bombing
and by shellfire.
(bombs exploding)
- Girl scout, Anna Kowalska
may only be 13 years old,
but she is no
stranger to combat.
- The AK, the Polish home army
was very much a young
people's movement
made up of people in
their teens and early 20s.
And this included young
boy scouts and girl scouts.
They worked as couriers,
hid things in their houses.
They dobbed graffiti
on the walls
in the aid of the
resistance movement.
- [Narrator] Throughout
the uprising,
Anna has been an
essential courier,
dodging German gunfire
and leaping barricades.
Now she has for
most difficult task,
40 feet below the city
in a river of filth.
- The home army have used
the sewer system in Warsaw,
throughout the Warsaw uprising,
to move around the
city underground.
Girl scouts, who of course
were very small, very slim,
could work in the sewers.
And they were the ones
who actually mapped out the
routes through the sewers.
- [Narrator] Desperate to
escape German artillery,
Anna leads people
in groups of 50
through the maze of tunnels.
Below, it's almost pitch-black.
Some lose consciousness
because of the smell
and have to be carried.
And for those carrying them,
the journey takes five hours.
At last, they reached
the exit manhole,
gasping for fresh air.
Behind them, Warsaw burns.
And just across the
river, the Red Army
watches it all happen.
In three days, over 5,000
Poles escape bombardment
before the sewer
entrance is destroyed.
But thousands more are left
behind to face Nazi wrath.
(gentle music)
- In the end, after 63 days,
it's Germans have
managed to take Warsaw,
fiercely crushing
the Warsaw uprising.
(building crashing)
- [Narrator] All this
time, the Red Army
remains effectively
at a standstill.
For Stalin, it's
a calculated risk,
he can kill two
birds with one pause,
allow the Red Army to resupply
before the push to Berlin
and also set the stage for
his post-war ambitions.
(upbeat music)
- Politically it's
in Stalin's interest
to see the
destruction of Warsaw.
Stalin's making it very clear
what he wants out of this war,
and he wants Central
and Eastern Europe
to be under Soviet control.
- He wanted to eliminate
Polish resistance
to make sure that the resistance
that the Soviets
would face, was gone.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] But those 63 days
waiting for the Warsaw
uprising to fail,
risks losing Stalin his
lead in the race to Berlin.
Because at the
other end of Europe,
the Western Allies
are making headway.
(crowd cheering)
- From the moment
they come to Paris,
suddenly the race is on.
You know, they're charging
through Northern France
and Eastern France.
- [Narrator] By mid
September, 1944,
the Western Allies have advanced
through France and Belgium
to the doorstep of
Germany's Western border,
340 miles from Berlin.
But they're about to face
their greatest challenge yet,
the Siegfried Line.
- The Siegfried line is a
series of German defenses
West of the River Rhine.
This is a major, major
obstacle that The Allies face.
- [Narrator] Built over three
years from 1936 to 1939,
the Siegfried Line is
more than 390 miles long,
but has only one purpose,
to stop anyone from
getting into Germany alive.
It has 22,000 bunkers.
The defenses go
almost 20 miles deep.
It has never been breached.
But there might
be a way through.
And one number,
69, holds the key.
Eisenhower's methodical advance
has kept us forces
relatively safe up to now.
But has him trailing Stalin
in the race to Berlin.
A fact that frustrates
Winston Churchill.
- Churchill believed
that getting to Berlin
quickly and ahead of Stalin is
really very, very important.
- [Narrator] The British
prime minister pressures Ike
to gamble on a shortcut.
- There is a gap in
the Siegfried Line
which is in Northern Holland.
That gives you the chance to
burst through into Germany,
to try and get to
Berlin by Christmas.
(tank engine revving)
- [Narrator] It's Highway 69.
But that route requires
capturing key bridges
in a risky lightening strike
in order to secure a path
across the River Rhine.
- Eisenhower, didn't
like the plan.
And that leads to a
significant military debate
between The Allies.
But war isn't always
about military strategy.
It's often about
political strategy too.
- [Narrator] In the
end, Eisenhower agrees
to roll the dice
with the largest airborne
operation in history.
- Operation Market Garden
is the allied effort
to try and force away through
around the Northern edge
of the Siegfried Line.
- [Narrator] On September
17th, 34,600 men
are airlifted into combat
in an attempt to break
through German lines.
But after only eight days,
The Allies suffer
17,000 casualties
and are forced to withdraw.
- Market Garden was a
giant gamble and it failed.
And it costs sizeable
losses for The Allies.
- [Narrator] Highway 69 gains
the nickname Hell's Highway.
Eisenhower took a
risk and it cost him.
Now he knows they can't go
around the Siegfried Line.
If The Allies want
to get to Berlin,
they'll have to go through it.
- The Battle of Hurtgen Forest
is just one of a
series of battles
that takes place all
along the Siegfried Line.
- [Narrator] It's
one of the most
heavily defended
spots on the Line.
54 square miles of dense
woods, deep ravines
and high ridges.
And the Western
Allies, biggest enemy,
a 100-foot-tall pine tree
times several million.
- The whole allied way of
war is to use fire power,
tanks and vast
amounts of artillery.
But in a dense pine
forest, how do you do that?
The infantry have got to
actually gain the ground.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator]
November 14th, 1944,
20-year-old Private
Floyd A. Fulmer
advances through
the thick forest.
Everything is silent.
(gentle music)
As he inches forward, he
is surrounded by the bodies
of those who came before him,
reminding him of just
how deadly this place is.
(guns firing)
Suddenly the trees come
alive with gunfire.
(guns firing)
Mowing down the men as they
stumble and dive for cover.
Fulmer scrambles to
make it to a foxhole.
(guns firing)
But it's too late.
He's hit, his body drops
lifeless to the ground.
(guns firing)
The rest of his squad
is forced into retreat.
In the chaos Fulmer's
must be abandoned.
Afterwards, he is listed as
missing and presumed dead.
(guns firing)
One more fallen soldier in a
forest filling up with them.
By the Hurtgen Forest campaign,
on December 16th, 1944,
an army of 120,000 will
suffer 33,000 casualties,
a rate of 27.5%.
- We look back on these
things and we say,
well, eventually they won,
but we often forget that it
came at significant costs.
(gentle music)
- [Narrator] In all
the Siegfried Line
will cost the Western
Allies 250,000 casualties
and stall their advanced
on Berlin for months.
(gentle music)
(motorcycle engine revving)
In the East, Stalin
watches as the Germans
divert more troops
to the Western Front.
And he knows his day will come,
a day marked on his
calendar by the number one.
(upbeat music)
By the end of December, 1944,
the Red Army has been
standing down for five months
outside of Warsaw.
But they've been busy with a
massive logistical buildup,
132,000 carloads of supplies,
9 million rounds of ammunition,
30 million gallons of fuel.
- Stalin starts to
build up the supplies
in preparation for
this winter offensive.
And Stalin is just determined
to push as far Westward
as he possibly can.
- [Narrator] January 12th, 1945,
the Red Army is on
the march again.
For three weeks, they
drive unrelentingly
through Poland towards Germany
and all over the
depleted Nazi defenses
with their vastly
superior numbers.
- There's about a five
to one discrepancy
between the Germans and
the Soviets by this point.
(tank engine revving)
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] 295,000
German troops
are killed in three weeks.
That's an astonishing
14,000 every single day.
By January 31st, the Red
Army has covered 270 miles
to the banks of the Oder river.
- That thrush through Poland
is everything for the Russians.
Then basically you're right
on the German doorstep.
(gentle upbeat music)
- [Narrator] The Red Army
now sits only 40 miles
from the finish line in Berlin.
(bombs exploding)
- As you get closer
and closer to Berlin,
the German soldiers
start to fight more
and more and more ferociously.
- [Narrator] Facing
fierce resistance,
Stalin pauses the Soviet
advanced once more.
He wants to make
sure his Red Army
can crush the Germans
on their home turf.
- He wants to
consolidate their forces
and to build them up for that
last thrust into Germany.
(gentle music)
(bombs exploding)
- [Narrator] February
on the Western Front,
The Allies are finally
passed the Siegfried Line,
battling their way into
German cities and towns
on the banks of the River Rhine.
By the end of March,
they've crossed the Rhine
and are into the
German Heartland.
- In March, 1945, it's
clear to Eisenhower
that Hitler doesn't
have a hope of winning.
In most wars, usually
people surrender
when they're not going to win.
- [Narrator] But Hitler has
no intention of surrendering.
He's insisting his army defend
to the last man standing.
So with Berlin,
just 175 miles away,
Eisenhower changes focus.
- His primary
objective is of course
to deliver victory
to the allied forces.
But he wants to make sure
that the goal is achieved
without dramatic losses or
as few losses as possible.
That now becomes the paramount
goal, not the race to Berlin.
- [Narrator] Eisenhower
decides it's better
to isolate Berlin,
cut off the enemy's supply lines
and slowly suffocate the
remaining German resistance.
But he'll need Stalin to
go along with this plan.
(bomb exploding)
- Eisenhower sends his telegram
to Stalin on the
28th of March, 1945.
You know, he's a
pretty straightforward,
honest kind of guy.
And I suppose his hope is
that by being
straight with Stalin,
Stalin will be
straight with him.
(suspenseful music)
- Eisenhower wrote the telegram
to assure Stalin his intentions,
that an American
thrusts of Berlin
would be a waste
of time and effort.
And all they had to do
is basically wait it out.
- As Stalin gets this telegraph
and he's absolutely thrilled.
He says, "Yes, yes,
we absolutely agree.
"We don't think that Berlin
"is particularly important
strategic point anymore either."
And then the first thing he does
after answering the telegram
is to call together his generals
and to figure out how
they're going to take Berlin
as quickly as possible.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] It's April
1st, April Fool's Day.
Eisenhower has made the mistake
of underestimating
Stalin's willingness
to sacrifice Soviet lives
to get what he wants.
(crowd cheering)
And the next date on
Stalin's calendar, May 1st.
(gentle music)
The final push to
Berlin will involve
over 2 million Soviet troops,
6,250 tanks
and 41,000 pieces of artillery.
(cannon exploding)
More than 750,000 German
troops stand between them
and the German capital.
On April 15th, the
assault begins.
1.2 million shells rain
down on the first day.
After nine days of
intense fighting,
Red Army troops have
surrounded Berlin.
They swarm into the city.
Their goal, the Reichstag,
the traditional seat of
the German government.
(bombs exploding)
- They're like locusts.
I mean it is carnage,
destruction, death, mayhem,
everywhere you look.
(bomb exploding)
- [Narrator] The race
to Berlin has been run
for 11 months and 700 miles.
But the last 1,200 feet
takes seven hours to cross.
(upbeat music)
April 30th, 1945,
20 year old Kazak Lieutenant
Rakhimzhan Qoshqarbaev
and his comrade Grigory
Bulatov take cover.
(guns firing)
- The battle is raging
around the Reichstag.
The Germans are
fiercely defending it.
And these two young men
who've been fighting
for such a long time,
have a very precious
cargo with them.
(guns firing)
- [Narrator] Two men
carry a Soviet flag.
Their orders are that the flag
must hang from the
Reichstag by May 1st,
International Workers Day.
Exactly the kind of
political home run
Stalin is looking for.
- They're sneaking
toward the Reichstag.
There's sniper fire,
there's rifle fire,
there's shrapnel going off,
but they managed to get inside.
(guns firing)
- [Narrator] Heavy
German resistance
pushes back at them as
they ascend the steps.
By the time they get
safely to the top
night has fallen.
They complete their
mission in the dark
with just over three
hours to spare,
hanging the flag and officially
declaring a winner
in the race to Berlin
at 8:40 p.m. on
April 30th, 1945.
(gentle music)
- They were going to take
pictures of this flag
waving above the Reichstag.
But the problem was of
course, by this point,
it was dark and the
image didn't work
and nobody really sees it.
And so they wrap the flag
back up again and retreat.
(guns firing)
- [Narrator] The race began
with gunshots over Utah beach.
It ends with a gunshot as well.
A few hours before
the Soviet flag
is planted on the Reichstag,
28 feet underground, Adolf
Hitler puts a gun to his head
and pulls the trigger.
(gun firing)
By the end of the
battle of Berlin,
Soviet casualties stand
at 81,000 dead or missing.
The Germans have lost
at least 100,000.
Stalin has the victory he
craved, but it isn't enough.
He needs the world to see it.
(upbeat music)
- It's the photograph
of the guy on Reichstag
that's important to Stalin.
However, it's not
until the 2nd of May,
when they re-enact the moment,
that the famous picture
of the young soldier
reaching out and putting the
flag up on the Reichstag,
is actually photographed.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] One last
deception from the master,
Joseph Stalin.
(upbeat music)
The unqualified winner
of the race to Berlin,
even if he was one day late.
(upbeat music)
- Stalin's getting
to Berlin first
is a great propaganda coup,
which bolsters his own
image in the Soviet Union.
- It's a glorious
moment for the Russians
and for Stalin personally,
but it's wasteful.
You commit tens of thousands
of boys to their graves
in order to hoist a flag.
- [Narrator] For Stalin it's
just one more small sacrifice
for victory and glory.
- Stalin wins the
race for Berlin
because he wants it
more that The Allies,
because he's
prepared to sacrifice
more of his men to achieve it.
It is absolutely unquestionably,
the Eastern Front,
where the most blood is spilled.
- [Narrator] Over 50% of all
German casualties took place
within these last 12
months of the war.
And 80% of those casualties
were on the Eastern Front.
The Western Allies face
25% of the German army.
The Soviets faced 75%.
The Soviet Union lost more
than 15% of its population,
but they won the race.
And for Stalin much more.
(gentle upbeat music)
- In a way World War II
sealed the power of Stalin
and his regime.
And he's got pretty well
everything East of Berlin
and also East Germany.
- [Reporter] An iron
curtain splits Europe.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Stalin
had his glory,
his territory, and a
stranglehold on Europe
from which to maintain Soviet
control for decades to come.
(upbeat music)