0:00

It's September the 12th, 1943, just after 3 p.m.

0:02

Two hours north of Rome lies

0:05

a hotel,

0:11

the Campo Imperatore. It

0:14

sits atop the Gran Sasso mountain range,

0:17

a mile above sea level, accessed

0:20

only by a funicular railway.

0:24

Before the war it was a ski resort for the Italian

0:26

capital's well-heeled. Today,

0:29

out of season and out of use, it's

0:32

rather forlorn, tattered, empty,

0:35

save for a solitary resident,

0:37

quite a famous one. His

0:41

name is Benito Mussolini.

0:45

Turfed out of power by a new constitutional

0:48

government, the once strident

0:50

dictator has had a spectacular fall

0:52

from grace. Up here,

0:54

in this remote spot, he's being

0:57

held by armed police

0:59

until Italy's new rulers decide

1:01

what to do with him.

1:02

Till then, his presence remains

1:05

a closely guarded secret. Mussolini

1:09

fears that he will be handed over to the Americans, to

1:12

be exhibited like King Kong

1:14

in a cage at Madison Square Garden.

1:17

And so, on this bright afternoon, he sits at

1:19

his window, contemplating his fate.

1:23

It happens so fast, he barely

1:26

has time to clock it. Out

1:29

of the blue, a large aircraft

1:31

swoops down, its wingtips

1:33

skimming past mere feet away. It's

1:36

silent, a glider. Just

1:39

a rush and the clank of cables as

1:41

the pilot brings it in. Up

1:44

high, you can hear it now, the engines of the

1:47

plane that towed it here. Mussolini

1:51

cranes his neck. There are more

1:53

gliders, circling like

1:55

vultures, taking turns

1:57

to descend. He won't be able to

1:58

get out of here. watches as the first one

2:01

zooms in low to bounce across the

2:03

grassy slope, coming to

2:05

an abrupt precise stop, on

2:09

its wings a black crosses, on

2:12

its tail a swastika, and

2:16

out of its hold a poor German

2:19

paratroopers. They

2:22

clamber up the scree towards the hotel, machine

2:24

guns at the ready. Their lead man

2:27

is waving at him, telling him to get back. Il

2:31

Duceb breathes a sigh. He

2:34

knew he wouldn't abandon him. Not

2:37

after all they've been through together. His

2:39

dear friend, his brother, Adolf

2:42

Hitler, has come to his rescue. From

2:47

Neuser, this is the story

2:49

of Hitler's downfall, and this

2:52

is Real Dictators.

3:00

After the monumental defeat at Stalingrad in February 1943,

3:03

Hitler has been left

3:04

licking his wounds. There

3:08

will be no Lebensraum, no living

3:10

space for his people. What's

3:13

more, the Red Army is continuing to push

3:15

back hard against the Wehrmacht. The

3:19

official narrative spewing from Goebbels' Ministry

3:22

of Propaganda is one of heroic sacrifice,

3:25

a Wagnerian opera, Hitler

3:27

and his folk versus the world.

3:31

Professor Thomas Weber.

3:33

So he's really starting to talk in this kind

3:36

of religious, apocalyptical

3:38

way.

3:39

We Germans were insufficiently heroic

3:41

in the past. We were too peaceful and we all

3:44

have to find redemption from the sins of

3:46

the past. And we can do so in

3:48

committing ourselves to an eternal

3:51

fight for Germany's

3:53

future. Braver

3:55

elements of the public, and indeed the army,

3:58

are now prepared to resist. the Nazi regime,

4:02

even to entertain the unthinkable, the

4:04

killing of their Führer. Though

4:07

for the moment, they remain in the

4:09

shadows. Professor

4:12

Helen Roche.

4:14

Stalingrad marks this

4:16

really big turning point where

4:18

suddenly people begin to realise

4:21

that all of these speeches about

4:24

emulating the 300 or Nordic heroes are

4:28

preparing people for the idea that they're

4:30

making this sacrifice that has

4:33

been forced about by bad military planning. And

4:36

it's almost the gauge of how invested

4:39

in the regime people are, whether at this

4:41

point they continue to believe

4:43

in the final victory or

4:45

whether they begin to pull back and say, hmm,

4:48

things aren't going so well, this is

4:50

bad.

4:55

There's no doubt that America's entry into the

4:57

war has tipped the scales.

5:00

After victory in the Battle of the Atlantic, the

5:03

high seas now belong to the Allies. By

5:07

air, the US 8th Air Force and

5:10

RAF Bomber Command pound the fatherland

5:13

day and night. The United

5:15

States, the arsenal of democracy,

5:18

is also pouring money and material into

5:20

the Soviet Union. Hitler

5:23

may have boasted of a Reich to last a

5:25

thousand years. At

5:27

this rate, they'll be lucky if it lasts

5:29

another thousand days. And

5:33

now an Anglo-American invasion force, fresh

5:36

from its triumph in North Africa, has landed

5:38

in Sicily. The

5:41

response of the Italian army is half-hearted.

5:45

Word is feeding back to Hitler that the

5:47

defenders are coming out with their hands up. Dr.

5:51

John Curatola.

5:59

they fire one round to preserve

6:02

their honor and then they, okay, and then they surrender.

6:04

And so you don't see the Italians by this

6:07

stage of the war really interested in continuing

6:09

this thing.

6:10

Ground down by years of fascist rule,

6:13

there seems little appetite for

6:15

a fight. Allied

6:17

planes drop leaflets, die

6:20

for Mussolini and Hitler, or live

6:22

for Italy and for civilization.

6:26

The choice is pretty clear. In

6:29

the scenes, local mafia groups, many

6:31

with family ties to the United States, are

6:33

encouraging and secretly facilitating

6:36

the Allied advance. Some

6:40

among the Allies have viewed Italy as an unnecessary

6:42

diversion. The real business

6:45

will be hitting Hitler through France.

6:48

Churchill had wanted to land in Greece and

6:50

push up through the Balkans to strike the vexes

6:53

soft underbelly.

6:55

Italy already has an eye on how they might limit Stalin's

6:57

land grab in Eastern and Central Europe.

7:01

For his part, Stalin would rather

7:03

the British and the Americans cross the English

7:06

Channel. But a failed

7:08

raid at Dieppe in 1942 has

7:11

already laid bare just how difficult

7:13

this might be. Instead

7:16

there has been a compromise. Get

7:19

troops ashore as soon as possible by the

7:21

shortest crossing point. And

7:23

so, Sicily it is. The

7:27

move is as much political as strategic. Russians

7:30

have been dying by the million, quite literally.

7:34

Putting Western boots on the dirt of continental

7:36

Europe is a show of solidarity. In

7:39

terms of land warfare, the

7:41

Russians really are bearing the brunt

7:43

of this. And of course, they're looking for

7:45

some kind of relief from the Western Allies.

7:49

But in 1942 and 1943, both the Americans

7:51

and the British do not have the

7:53

forces and the wherewithal and the knowledge

7:55

and the staff functioning and all the other

7:58

sinews of war to conduct.

7:59

that major cross-channel operation.

8:03

The British and the Americans will try

8:05

this periphery strategy in North

8:07

Africa and Italy. It is not necessarily

8:09

what Stalin wants. He wants something more

8:11

robust.

8:15

But the Soviets appreciate the move. They've

8:18

mounted a big offensive to coincide

8:20

with the Sicily landings.

8:23

The Italian invasion may be expensive. It

8:26

may not realistically provide a route for Allied

8:28

troops to access Berlin, but, at

8:30

the very least, it will help destabilize

8:33

Mussolini's regime. It

8:35

will provide air bases from which to bomb

8:37

southern Axis targets, including

8:40

key oil fields in Romania. And

8:43

it will amount to another huge drain on

8:45

Hitler's resources. Within

8:48

days, Hitler is having to pull

8:50

troops away from the Eastern Front. There

8:56

are few in the Wehrmacht High Command, the

8:59

OKW who believe that this war can

9:01

be sustained, let alone won. And

9:05

the German people, despite ten years of Nazi

9:07

propaganda, are not stupid. On

9:10

the streets of Germany, on the buses, in

9:12

the workplaces, there is a grim

9:14

humor at play. Hitler

9:17

has written a new book, they say, Mein

9:20

Feller,

9:21

my error. There's

9:23

another one, a joke, about the

9:25

U-boat that gets sunk with Hitler and Goebbels

9:27

on board. The entire

9:29

German nation is rescued. Could

9:34

Hitler still buy peace? Many

9:37

Nazi high-ups hope so. The

9:39

Allies have their doctrine of unconditional surrender

9:42

formulated at the Casablanca Conference.

9:45

But in diplomacy, in negotiations, there

9:48

is always wiggle room. Nothing

9:51

is agreed until everything is agreed. Mussolini

9:56

has already urged his buddy to come to some

9:58

agreement with Stalin. The

10:00

idea has gained currency in the Fuhrer's inner

10:02

sanctum, end the slaughter

10:05

in the East, and consolidate. Like

10:10

Hermann Göring, Joachim von

10:13

Riebendropp, the Reich's foreign minister, also

10:15

has contacts in neutral Sweden. He

10:18

puts out feelers. The

10:21

Soviet Union is in the ascendancy, holding

10:23

all the cards. But Riebendropp

10:26

has heard that certain influential Russians

10:29

are also tired of war, and

10:31

tired of Stalin. Maybe

10:34

they could wind back the clock and settle on the

10:36

old 1914 borders. Forget

10:39

this ever happened. They can still

10:41

keep their halves of Poland. But,

10:45

in Stockholm, the line coming

10:47

out of the Soviet embassy is one of deep cynicism.

10:51

Wasn't Riebendropp, the former sparkling

10:53

wine salesman, the one who flogged them the

10:56

dodgy friendship pact with Germany in

10:58

the first place? Hitler

11:01

comes down and his foreign minister like a ton of

11:03

bricks.

11:04

To hell with Russia. This

11:06

is a struggle to the bitter end. Death

11:09

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11:44

Perhaps rightly, Hitler believes that

11:46

no one can be trusted anymore. Trust

11:49

and loyalty, especially where Mussolini is

11:51

concerned, have proven to be very

11:54

costly. than

12:00

Italy. Hitler upbraids

12:02

Il Duce in a two-hour amphetamine-fueled

12:05

rant. He tells him that they must

12:07

remain strong. They will secure

12:09

their Axis legacy just you wait and

12:11

see. Mussolini

12:14

must rouse the Italians into a heroic

12:16

defense against the Allied invader.

12:18

Expelled them from Sicily before it's too

12:20

late.

12:22

It already is. Sicily's

12:24

capital, Palermo, is about to fall

12:27

any day. Hitler's

12:30

tirade is so incomprehensible that

12:32

the Italian dictator has to ask the Führer's

12:34

interpreter for a copy of his notes. Unfortunately,

12:40

Mussolini isn't exactly feeling the call of

12:42

history at the moment. Or so

12:44

he tries to explain to Hitler in his faltering

12:47

German. His biggest enemy

12:49

seems to be his own people. There

12:52

have been riots in Milan and Turin

12:55

over food prices and government corruption.

12:58

Rome has just experienced its first heavy

13:00

Allied bombing raid. And

13:02

now political forces are moving against him

13:04

too. Back

13:07

in the Italian capital, at the urging

13:09

of his lieutenants, Mussolini

13:11

convenes the fascist Grand Council. They

13:15

will renew the fight, restore

13:17

law and order. But the

13:19

proceedings do not turn out the way Il Duce

13:22

had planned. A vote

13:24

is called. By a shock.

13:27

19-8. A resolution is passed

13:29

to restore the constitutional monarchy

13:32

and the parliament. The king,

13:35

Victor Emmanuel III, will become

13:37

the new commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

13:41

Just like that,

13:42

Mussolini is given the order of

13:44

the vote.

13:48

He's in complete denial. He

13:50

turns up for work the next days if nothing has

13:52

happened. The king will

13:54

have none of it. That evening

13:56

Mussolini is arrested and carted off, symbolically.

14:00

in an ambulance to be deposited

14:02

at the nearest police station. He

14:06

has paid the personal price for

14:08

tying Italy's fortunes to

14:10

those of Adolf Hitler. This

14:13

big daddy of European dictators, the

14:16

original strongman tyrant, is

14:18

suddenly history. And

14:21

no one lifts a finger to help him. In

14:23

fact, on the streets, there's rejoicing.

14:27

A popular chant goes up. Benito

14:29

e Finito. The

14:33

king appoints a veteran general, Pietro

14:35

Badoglio, to form a new government. The

14:38

fascist party is dissolved. Political

14:41

opponents of Mussolini's regime are released

14:43

from prison. The dream of

14:45

the black shirts is over. Back

14:53

in Berlin, Hitler is stunned.

14:56

It's not just the loss of his great power. It's

14:59

that Il Duce took it so tamely. Not

15:02

a hint of going down, guns a-blazing.

15:06

What might happen if the German people or the

15:08

generals turn against him? Hitler

15:12

is deeply suspicious of Badoglio.

15:14

He has pledged that Italy will continue the fight

15:17

against the Allies, but Hitler suspects

15:20

that once they reach the mainland, the

15:22

new Prime Minister will throw in the towel.

15:27

There is nothing in the short term

15:29

that Goebbels can't fix. To

15:32

the German people, the line goes out that

15:34

Mussolini has retired due to ill health.

15:37

Nothing to see here.

15:40

Hitler dispatches German troops to secure

15:42

the Alpine process.

15:43

Lest Italian troops blow them up and

15:46

seal off the country altogether.

15:48

Italy will be kept open for military business, he declares.

15:52

They will overthrow this new Roman government,

15:54

this gang of impostors. He

15:57

tells General Yodel, we'll get that

15:59

bunch of swine. out of there. For

16:02

a surprising amount of time,

16:04

Hitler will still think that somehow

16:07

there can be a reversal. He somehow thinks

16:09

that ultimately the Allied

16:12

soldiers will run out of steam and

16:14

will no longer have a will to fight.

16:16

This is why

16:17

almost until the end you can understand

16:20

where Hitler's fantasies of a last-minute reversal

16:22

of the war is coming from.

16:27

The Soviet Union's capacity to withstand

16:30

punishment remains staggering. The

16:32

people of the USSR seem to have a superhuman

16:35

ability to just take it. Up

16:38

north, Leningrad, Russia's

16:41

second city, has been under siege

16:43

for two whole years. By

16:46

the time of its liberation in January 1944, the

16:49

Soviet death toll here will exceed that

16:52

of the combined Western armed forces

16:54

for the entire war.

16:57

I still cannot wrap my head

16:59

around the scale and scope

17:02

of the Eastern Front. How

17:04

big, how massive, the casualties,

17:06

the manpower, the material, it staggers

17:09

the imagination. Just to give you

17:11

a figure to kind of compare, the Americans

17:13

and the British for the war in total

17:16

lose about a half a million men, ballpark figure, 400,000,

17:18

500,000 people. The Russians will

17:22

lose 25 million. And

17:24

that's only an estimate because

17:27

Stalin was doing a Stalin thing in the 30s, so

17:29

we don't know what the starting number was. Seven estimates

17:32

are as high as 45 million. So again,

17:34

when you look at the scale and the scope

17:36

of what happens on the Eastern Front, it's massive.

17:39

Another statistic for you, roughly,

17:42

for every 10 dead Germans, seven

17:44

were killed by a Russian bullet.

17:50

It all feeds into the Kremlin's paranoia.

17:52

This big three alliance,

17:55

the United States, Britain and themselves,

17:58

is a marriage of convenience. sense, everyone

18:01

knows it. The West doesn't

18:03

want a Soviet-dominated Europe, any

18:05

more than it wants a Nazi runway. So

18:08

is this all just a ploy, all

18:11

parts of the long game? Are

18:13

the West and Allies simply letting the Russians burn

18:15

themselves out? In

18:18

which case, is responding

18:20

to German peace overtures really such

18:22

a mad idea? Could

18:25

they have the momentum now? Why quit

18:28

when they're on top? And the Germans

18:30

have committed too much atrocity to be led off the

18:32

hook. Ironically,

18:36

the advancing Germans had been greeted

18:38

as liberators in some parts, in the Baltics,

18:41

in areas of Ukraine. The

18:43

Wehrmacht could have used the local people to their

18:45

advantage. But

18:47

Hitler never treated them as anything other than

18:49

Untermensch, subhumans.

18:52

And now, it's payback time.

18:56

And you see this upswell

18:58

of patriotism, not fighting

19:00

for communism, but fighting for

19:03

Mother Russia. Stalin is smart

19:05

enough to understand, look, they're not going to fight

19:07

for the greater glory of the Soviet Union, they're going

19:09

to fight for Mother Russia. And so you

19:12

see this changing mental and

19:14

emotional messages that are coming out

19:16

from the Soviet Union at this time.

19:21

The Soviet forces meanwhile grow stronger

19:23

by the day. By

19:25

the road route across Persia, by

19:28

the Arctic convoys, Russia

19:30

is being supplied and armed to

19:32

the teeth.

19:35

Dr. Chris Diller. The

19:37

prospects for Germany winning the war

19:39

are receding quickly. The industrial

19:42

capacity of Germany cannot

19:45

match that of the US

19:47

plus the other allies. And so

19:49

Germany can't turn out enough

19:51

planes, they can't turn out enough

19:54

capital battleships to win a world

19:57

war. It can turn out things are easier like

19:59

tank but it can't cope with a large

20:01

air war. Generals would sometimes convince

20:04

themselves that by sheer elan and

20:07

fighting spirit, they could offset these basic

20:09

material realities. But I imagine

20:12

that once they'd sobered up after their cognac, the

20:14

situation generally was much clearer. The

20:17

Red Army, with over 6 million

20:19

personnel deployed on the Eastern Front, is

20:22

now more than twice the size of the Wehrmacht.

20:26

The big showdown is about to come. A

20:29

combined 2 million men, 6,000 tanks

20:32

and 4,000 aircraft, are

20:35

about to clash in one of the biggest battles

20:37

in history, the Battle of Kursk.

20:45

Kursk lies in Western Russia.

20:48

In the open land outside the city, across

20:51

the undulating wheat fields and gentle streams,

20:54

the Germans have been watching. They've

20:57

observed a growing bulge in the Soviet

20:59

lines, a salient. Hitler

21:03

believes it can be cut off and encircled.

21:07

And so in April, he initiates

21:09

Operation Citadel. As

21:13

Hitler sees it, once this

21:15

Soviet weakness has been exploited, 900,000 men

21:18

and 17 panzer divisions will

21:21

punch through the enemy lines and

21:23

wheel back up to Moscow. Hitler

21:27

declares the Reich's imminent and inevitable

21:30

victory to be a beacon for

21:32

the whole world. But

21:35

it's a desperate swing from a punch-drunk

21:37

boxer. He has

21:39

telegraphed his move, literally. British

21:42

intelligence has been pressing decoded Wehrmacht

21:45

messages to their Soviet allies. Sir

21:49

Anthony Beaver.

21:50

Now, the battle, of course, was something

21:53

which Hitler had been planning with Field

21:55

Marshal von Manstein from quite

21:57

early on in 1943. The

22:00

trouble was that they kept delaying

22:02

the operation. And I mean, to give

22:04

an idea of Hitler's obstinacy, Hitler

22:07

was determined that, for example, the

22:09

new Panther tank, the Mark V Panzer,

22:12

must be involved in the operation. Well,

22:15

through a lucky chance, part of

22:17

our strategic offensive actually

22:20

hit the factory where the Panzer tank

22:22

was being manufactured. But instead

22:24

of changing the plan and saying, well, we'll

22:26

just have to get on with it, Hitler then again

22:29

postponed the operation back until

22:31

May. Well, by then, the

22:34

Russians had managed to really increase

22:37

their defensive positions. I mean, every

22:40

single bump or dip in the ground

22:42

had been turned into a fortified position with

22:45

anti-tank guns, with barbed wire,

22:48

with trenches and all the rest of it. And

22:51

they knew exactly what was happening. This

22:54

is a problem you're going to see for the remainder of the war.

22:57

One of the things that makes the Wehrmacht so successful,

23:00

say 1939, all the way up into the

23:02

end of 1941 and getting into 1942, is the fact

23:04

that you have a lot of innovation. You

23:07

have a lot of commanders who have the authority

23:10

to act independently and think independently.

23:13

But as things start to go pear-shaped

23:15

for the Germans, this ability to have

23:17

flexibility starts to evaporate.

23:19

The Russians on

23:22

the Eastern Front, they go the opposite direction. nals

23:26

of his

23:29

ilk, to operate independently without

23:32

having, say, Stalin stick his finger

23:34

in the pie.

23:40

It's not until July the 5th that the great

23:42

offensive begins. Marshal

23:44

Zhukov knows exactly what to do.

23:47

Sit tight and soak up the pressure.

23:50

As one might put it, park the bus.

23:54

Thanks to this advance intel, the

23:57

Soviet Air Force has already managed to destroy 500.

24:00

looked after aircraft on the ground, depriving

24:03

the German army of medical air support.

24:07

Hitler is already having to pull troops out of the

24:09

front lines to reinforce the new Italian

24:11

front. To replace them,

24:14

he calls up members of the Hitler Youth and

24:17

men in their fifties. The

24:22

ongoing battle is muddy, chaotic

24:25

and epic in scale.

24:27

It was a slodding battle of

24:29

the worst imaginable kind. And

24:32

by holding in there, the Russians

24:34

or the Red Army was able to inflict very

24:37

heavy casualties on the German

24:39

army. During the

24:42

battle, of course, we see

24:44

the whole of the balance of power

24:47

in the air on the Eastern Front changing. For

24:50

once now, suddenly, the Germans

24:52

are having to pull back their anti-aircraft

24:54

guns to Germany, again, to defend

24:57

the cities, leaving the Eastern

24:59

Front fuck war experience. And

25:02

this actually has a critical effect,

25:05

in fact, on war as a whole and not

25:07

just the war on the Eastern Front.

25:10

By July the 15th, with half

25:12

of his tanks wiped out, Hitler

25:14

calls a halt. Operation

25:17

Citadel is over. The

25:19

battle of Kursk is lost.

25:27

It has been hugely costly for the Red Army

25:29

too.

25:31

Now, are they losing a lot? Yes,

25:33

they are. However, they can sustain

25:36

those losses. The Germans, on the

25:38

other hand, are not in a position to

25:40

sustain these large-scale losses. And

25:43

while Blitzkrieg is

25:45

based upon quick lightning

25:48

strikes, it's not designed

25:50

for an attritional fight, which is what

25:52

they get.

25:54

In the history books, this momentous

25:56

clash tends to play second fiddle to

25:58

Stalingrad. especially

26:00

when Soviet achievements become downplayed

26:03

in the West during the Cold War. It

26:06

doesn't help either that the Battle of Kursk

26:08

goes by varying operational names

26:11

and consists of multiple different encounters.

26:15

But it is one of the significant engagements

26:18

of the European conflict. With

26:22

a million men now chasing after the retreating

26:24

Germans, the Red Army is

26:26

an unstoppable force. From

26:29

August to November 1943, the cities

26:32

have retaken. Olyol, Belgorod,

26:35

Kharkov, Smolensk, Kiev.

26:39

And Stalin's commanders have reached a major geographical

26:42

and strategic objective. The

26:44

Dnieper River. The

26:47

wide waterway flows north-south from Russia

26:50

down through Ukraine, all the way

26:52

to the Black Sea. With

26:55

it, Stalin can build up his forces

26:57

at his own leisure.

26:59

Once across the Dnieper, the

27:01

Wehrmacht will be backpedaling all the way

27:03

to the Brandenburg Gate.

27:06

In the spring, German

27:08

soldiers were boasting of sending home Astrakhan

27:11

furs to their wives and girlfriends.

27:15

By autumn, they're scavenging

27:17

for rags

27:17

to wrap their frostbait fate.

27:21

The Nazi rhetoric still spouted by their

27:23

officers rings hollow. Many

27:26

can't look their own man in the eye.

27:29

The problem is, what is the Soviet

27:31

Union's center of gravity? What

27:33

will cause the Soviet Union to capitulate?

27:36

And that's something that the Germans can't figure out. They

27:39

can take city after city. They're very good

27:41

at taking a city or winning an engagement.

27:44

But the problem is, how do you string

27:46

engagements or battles to

27:49

meet a strategic objective? If

27:51

your strategic gain is to

27:53

remove Jewish Bolshevism,

27:56

I use that term, and specifically

27:58

in the Soviet Union, well, how do you do that? How do you do that? And

28:02

so while you can take these individual cities,

28:04

it is not moving your strategic objective

28:07

that marker down the field. You're

28:09

basically just wasting assets and wasting

28:12

men.

28:18

In Sicily, US and Commonwealth

28:20

forces prepare to cross the Straits of Messina

28:22

to the mainland. They

28:25

land successfully on September the 3rd,

28:27

virtually unopposed. But

28:30

the fighting will become more intense. The

28:33

Germans are ready and waiting for the coastal

28:35

ascent on Solerno. Hitler

28:40

summons a war council of the OKW.

28:43

He tells them that they need to toughen up, to

28:45

demonstrate a willingness for cruelty in the

28:48

treatment of their men, just like

28:50

the Soviets have done. There

28:52

should be trials and court-marshals and executions

28:55

to stiffen the resolve.

28:59

It doesn't work. In

29:01

three weeks, the Allies will have taken

29:03

Naples. And

29:05

just as Hitler had predicted, on September

29:08

the 8th, Prime Minister Badolia

29:10

reveals that he has sought an armistice.

29:13

Italy is out of the war.

29:18

Two days later, from the wolf's lair,

29:21

Hitler makes a radio broadcast. At

29:24

just 16 minutes long, the

29:26

speech seems rushed, high-pitched.

29:30

My right to believe unconditionally and success

29:32

is founded not only on my own life, but

29:35

also on the destiny of our people. Germany

29:38

is invincible. In

29:41

reality, events are now running

29:43

away with themselves. Hitler

29:47

has two courses of action up his sleeve.

29:50

The first, Operation Axis, is

29:53

to initiate the full German military occupation

29:55

of Italy. The man

29:57

for the job is Field Marshal Kesselring. The

30:00

masterful Luftwaffe commander, one

30:02

of his most capable. He will

30:04

be charged with seizing Rome and

30:07

shoring up the defenses. Kesselring

30:10

duly takes the Italian capital, crushing

30:13

resistance and taking 650,000 soldiers as

30:17

prisoners of war. Most

30:19

are sent off as forced labor. A

30:22

second move, Operation Oak, is

30:25

designed to restore some fascist honor.

30:29

At Hitler's personal initiative, it

30:32

will be an audacious mission to rescue

30:34

Mussolini. Professor

30:37

Nicholas of Schonasy.

30:39

Unlike Stalin, who is incapable of

30:41

personal loyalties, Hitler was capable

30:44

of very strong personal loyalties, and

30:47

particularly in the case of Mussolini,

30:49

and so he was determined to save

30:51

him, and save him he did, by one

30:53

of the most remarkable surgical interventions

30:56

of World War II.

30:59

Lieutenant Colonel Otto Skorzini is

31:01

a Nazi officer straight out of a Hollywood

31:03

B-movie.

31:06

He's 35 years of age, 6'4",

31:09

multilingual. The

31:11

Austrian SS man is best known for the deep

31:14

fencing scar that runs down his left cheek.

31:17

He got it in a duel. A

31:21

former bodyguard to Hitler, Skorzini

31:23

has distinguished himself in combat on the Eastern

31:25

Front. He's earned a reputation

31:28

as Europe's most dangerous man. After

31:32

the war, Skorzini will escape captivity

31:34

and pop up in Spain, Argentina,

31:37

Egypt. He will

31:39

end up in what seems an extremely unlikely

31:41

moment

31:42

in time,

31:44

working for the Israeli secret service,

31:46

Mossad. But that's another

31:48

story. Mussolini

31:52

is being held in the Grand Sasso Mountains

31:54

in Northern Italy at the Hotel

31:56

Campo Imperatori, and

31:58

what better way to liberate him than by the hand

32:01

of the Reich's most famous warrior. On

32:06

September 12th, Scosini

32:08

and 107 mission commandos are

32:10

transported in a squadron of gliders, toered

32:13

by light aircraft. They

32:16

are released on high, riding on a

32:18

thermal to circle around the hotel before

32:21

coming in low. They crash

32:23

land just a few hundred yards away. Scosini

32:28

watches on in expectation as

32:30

Scosini's men scramble up the slope.

32:33

They've even brought a film crew with them to

32:35

record the daring raid for Costa Rica.

32:39

When the lead squad rushes in, submachine

32:41

guns raised, the sight of them is so

32:43

awe-inspiring that the armed police

32:46

guarding Mussolini head for the hills, at

32:49

least according to the legends. In

32:52

Neil Duce's room, Scosini

32:54

informs the ousted Italian leader that

32:57

Hitler personally has sent them to

32:59

release him. The

33:01

teary prisoner embraces his rescuer. I

33:04

knew my Führer would not let me down. Mussolini

33:09

does not look well. The normally well-fed

33:12

tyrant is gaunt and unshaven. His

33:15

traditional smooth skull is patchy and stubbly,

33:18

and he's dressed in an ill-fitting, saggy civilian

33:21

suit. A

33:24

few minutes later, a small single-engined

33:26

aircraft bumps along the grass. Mussolini

33:31

is swept out and bundled into it. The

33:34

pilot insists that there's only room for the

33:37

one passenger.

33:38

What's Scosini's adamant that he

33:40

will come along for the ride?

33:44

The plane turns into the wind, ready

33:46

for takeoff. The pilot revs

33:48

the engine. The run-up

33:50

is ridiculously short, near yards.

33:53

The overlaid aircraft rattles along, strained

33:56

to the max. Then plunges

33:58

off the edge of the mountain. into a ravine.

34:01

The

34:04

pilot heaves back on the stick with

34:06

all his might, struggling to keep the plane's

34:08

nose pointing skyward. Somehow

34:11

he does it. He

34:15

climbs away. The

34:18

Salini

34:19

has been sprung.

34:24

At the wolf's lair, Hitler has been pacing

34:27

around waiting for news. Word

34:30

comes through that they've set down at a German-occupied

34:32

airport near Rome. Le

34:35

Fure telephones, Guzzini. You

34:37

have performed a military feat which will become

34:39

part of history. You have

34:41

given me back, my friend, Mussolini.

34:46

The mission, it turns out, has been somewhat overstated.

34:49

There was no real raid, no

34:52

jailbreak. The Italian

34:54

defenders had even posed for photographs

34:57

with Guzzini's men. But

34:59

Goebbels has got a sensational action film

35:01

to screen to the German public. A

35:04

mission impossible. And

35:06

the Reich has an instant hero.

35:10

Many were involved in that operation,

35:13

but the PR machine let Scorsini

35:15

take the credit. He was quite

35:17

old. He'd been rejected for the German Air

35:19

Force because he was too tall, my

35:22

dear, and too old. So

35:25

he was, in a way, you could say past

35:27

his prime. He was getting on. But

35:30

he nevertheless looked the part.

35:33

And if you see the Third Reich as a

35:35

movie, designed by a set

35:37

designer and self-produced,

35:40

which it was, then Scorsini

35:42

fitted the bill.

35:45

Mussolini has spirited away to Vienna,

35:47

where he spends the night at the Hotel Imperial.

35:50

Scorsini, thoughtfully, has brought

35:52

Il Duce some pajamas. But

35:55

the tearful captive is now recovering his form

35:58

back to the old Braggadocio. He

36:01

never wears anything at night, he tells Scusini,

36:03

clapping him on the back, and I would advise

36:05

you do the same, especially if you're with

36:08

a woman. After

36:11

a stopover in Munich, where he's reunited

36:13

with his family, Mussolini is

36:15

soon airborne again, winging his

36:17

way to East Prussia for the big bromantic

36:20

reunion. September

36:25

14th, 1943, morning at the Wolf's Lair. A

36:31

plane appears, it purrs past

36:34

the windsock to land at the command post

36:36

airfield. An expectant

36:38

fuhrer in his leather trench coat waits

36:41

excitedly, and soon

36:43

there he is, Mussolini,

36:46

coming down the steps. In

36:49

the morning sunshine the two dictators clutch

36:51

hands, gazing into each other's

36:54

eyes. If

36:56

they can't lay waste to Europe and murder

36:58

millions of people,

37:00

then who can?

37:02

Once settled in the bunker, Hitler

37:04

gets down to business. He

37:07

urges Mussolini to take vengeance on

37:09

Prime Minister Badaglia as soon and as painfully

37:11

as possible. But

37:14

Mussolini hasn't got the stomach for it anymore.

37:17

Hitler asks, what is this sort

37:20

of fascism that melts with the snow before

37:22

the sun?

37:23

Their new order is not dead, not

37:25

by a long shot. Take heart.

37:30

Hitler sweetens the deal. He

37:32

will set Mussolini up with his own republic

37:34

in northern Italy. Fascism

37:36

will live on. Tell

37:39

me a small service charge. He'll

37:41

do Cemma's hand over some territory. Mussolini

37:44

shrugs, whatever. And

37:47

so on September 15 at Hitler's behest,

37:50

Mussolini proclaims the new Italian

37:53

social republic. Everything

37:55

from Rome, northwards. Badaglia's

37:59

legitimate government meanwhile goes into exile

38:01

in the southern city of Brindisi. On

38:04

October the 13th it will formally switch

38:07

sides to join the Allies. The

38:11

special forces of the SS managed

38:13

to liberate Mussolini but that

38:15

is of course the special operation. This is not the war

38:17

at large and in the way it's also a smokescreen

38:20

that things are still not going at all

38:23

and what soon becomes clear is that

38:25

Mussolini is in no position

38:27

at all to really take over the helm

38:29

of Italy again. As

38:32

head of the new puppet state Mussolini

38:34

along with his mistress Clara Petacci is

38:37

set up in a villa on the north shore of Lake Garda

38:40

under the close watch of the SS. He

38:43

will flex his dictatorial muscles again

38:45

with a demonstration to Hitler as

38:47

much as to anyone that Il Duce is

38:49

back in business. After

38:53

a show trial in Verona four

38:55

members of the fascist Grand Council who

38:57

voted against Mussolini are

38:59

sentenced to death including

39:02

his son-in-law Count Giorno the

39:04

old foreign minister. In

39:07

January 1944 they will be killed by

39:10

firing squad given a

39:12

dishonorable end by being tied

39:14

to chairs facing away

39:16

from their executioners.

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39:54

The only thing Mussolini seems concerned about

39:56

once again is that Hitler settles

39:59

his scores with style.

39:59

It

40:01

is not just in Sweden where back channels

40:03

have been opened. The Japanese

40:06

too have been having conversations

40:08

on the Axis' behalf. There

40:10

is no doubt in Tokyo as to who is going to emerge

40:13

victorious on the Eastern Front, as

40:16

Soviet victory could have ramifications

40:18

regarding the war in Asia. At

40:22

the Wolf's Lair, Goebbels

40:24

tries to soften up Hitler again to the idea

40:27

of a negotiated peace. End

40:30

it now, before the Red Army

40:32

ravages Berlin. On

40:35

September 23, Goebbels takes Hitler

40:37

for a walk in the woods to lay out his case.

40:41

But it leads to the usual histrionics. Besides,

40:44

when does Hitler, even if they were to negotiate,

40:47

a big if? Wouldn't Churchill

40:49

be the better bet? The

40:51

British and the Germans, as he always said,

40:54

are kindred spirits. They could

40:56

march together against the Bolsheviks,

40:58

couldn't they? Goebbels

41:01

disagrees. Churchill

41:03

is a romantic adventurer. Stalin

41:06

is the pragmatist, the realist. That

41:09

is where any deal might be done. When

41:13

they die in a loan, later Hitler seems

41:16

to have been swan.

41:18

Maybe Goebbels is right. There

41:21

were one or two occasions when he would say

41:23

something like that, I think that the war is lost. But

41:26

only one or two people, just very, very close colleagues

41:29

or close collaborators. And

41:31

then he would change his mind again, saying, you

41:33

know, we will reorganize this when we organize

41:36

that or whatever. He could never keep,

41:38

should we say, consistent thoughts in

41:40

his head about the course of the war.

41:44

But the chances of Stalin calling a truce,

41:47

remote as they already were, are diminishing

41:49

by the day, especially

41:52

as he's about to sweep across the Dnieper

41:54

River. And worse,

41:57

there are rumors he is about to meet up with Roosevelt

41:59

and Churchill. indeed

42:02

in just a few weeks in November a

42:05

further Allied conference will take place

42:07

in Tehran. It will be

42:09

the first time the big three leaders have

42:11

convened in person. And their

42:14

agenda? This is no

42:16

longer about the prosecution of the war but

42:19

the post-war settlement. A

42:21

plan for the post-Nazi era.

42:25

Hitler has already been consigned to the

42:27

dustbin

42:27

of history.

42:30

They will discuss something else too. A

42:33

new military mission. Something

42:35

called Operation Overlord.

42:40

The long awaited invasion across the English

42:42

Channel has finally been given the go-ahead.

42:45

Set for the following spring. On

42:51

November the 8th for the anniversary

42:53

of the Beer Hall Podge Hitler is

42:55

back in Munich making his customary

42:57

speech about ultimate victory. Maybe

43:01

he knows something the Allies don't. For

43:04

advancing up the Italian peninsula is turning

43:06

out to be a long hard slog. Less

43:09

soft underbelly. More tough

43:11

old gut as US General Mark

43:14

Clark calls it. Due

43:16

to the mountainous interior fighting

43:18

is restricted to the coasts. It's

43:21

a case of edging northwards and trying

43:23

to leapfrog ahead of the enemy with a series

43:25

of shore landings. Hitler's

43:29

loyal Field Marshal Kesselring has

43:31

dug in south of Rome. His

43:34

Gustaf line, which hinges

43:36

on the hilltop monastery of Monte Cassino,

43:39

seems to be holding out. After

43:42

the beach landings at Ancio, the

43:45

Germans even captured two American range

43:47

of Italians and parade them

43:49

through Rome. The

43:52

fighting is bucco. Monte

43:54

Cassino is leveled by Allied bombing. A

43:57

monument to the war's intensity. Eventually,

44:00

even Kesselring is forced to withdraw. He

44:03

declares Rome an open city. US

44:06

General Clark's Fifth Army enters it on

44:09

June the 4th, 1944.

44:12

The first Axis capital has fallen.

44:19

Midday, June the 6th, 1944. We're

44:24

at the Berghof. Unable

44:27

to digest the news from Italy, Hitler

44:29

takes to his bed. He's

44:32

back to his old routine, medicated

44:35

by his personal physician, Dr. Morell, working

44:38

late or droning on through the night about

44:40

the good old days, and then sleeping

44:42

into the afternoon. You

44:45

would be a fool to wake the Fuhrer, no

44:48

matter the circumstances. No

44:51

matter that on this very morning,

44:54

the Berghof switchboard is lit up like a

44:56

Christmas tree. The airwaves

44:58

buzzing with a shock new development.

45:02

There is massive allied activity on

45:04

the coast of Normandy, France. There

45:08

were paratroop landings during the night, the

45:10

reports are stating. Local

45:13

resistance has been active in behind the line

45:15

sabotage. And since first

45:17

light, backed by an almighty

45:19

air and naval bombardment, a

45:22

huge, amphibious assault has

45:23

been taking place. Wave

45:27

after wave of landing craft has been grinding onto the

45:30

sand. British, American, and Canadian units

45:33

are advancing off the beaches.

45:39

But that was what, six, seven hours ago now? Field

45:41

commanders in northern France are in a

45:43

state of confusion, awaiting instructions, powerless

45:47

to act until given Hitler's personal

45:49

consent.

45:51

At the Berghof,

45:54

at the Berghof, they eye the

45:56

clock.

45:58

Somebody really ought to.

45:59

await the Führer.

46:09

In the next episode, a

46:13

delusion of Hitler downplays the

46:15

Normandy Lineings. A

46:17

group of generals, meanwhile, attempts an

46:19

audacious military coup. With

46:22

Allied bombers pounding Germany, the

46:24

Führer plays his next card. Scientific

46:28

wonder weapons that will turn

46:30

the war back his way.