On the eve of the war, Hitler addresses himself in these terms,
to a select group of officers.
The first half of my existence is now behind me.
Much has been done.
There's still more to do to safeguard the future of the Reich.
The next few years will be crucial.
Until 1942 or 1943,
we still have superiority in arms in the concert of Western powers,
but after each year will return this increasingly fragile superiority.
If so we must win something,
it must be done immediately.
Almighty God.
Had he written in Mein Kampf.
bless our weapons when the time is right.
Be fair to us as you have always been.
Judge for yourself if we deserve now our freedom.
My God, bless our fight.
June 23, 1940,
Adolf Hitler, having conquered France,
finally realizes the dream of all his life.
In the early morning, he visits the capital, intact and deserted,
accompanied by her three favorite intellectuals.
The architect Albert Speer,
his competitor Hermann Giesler,
and sculptor Arno Breker.
After 10 months of war, Hitler is master of all northern Europe,
from the Arctic to the Pyrenees.
His last victory over France, won in a few weeks,
of a remarkable blitz campaign,
concluded in the wagon of the armistice at Rethondes,
finally convinced him that he had become invincible.
Having read a great deal, he often astonishing and remarkable intuitions,
even if militarily, he remained a simple corporal of the previous war,
unable to lead large armies.
This lack of strategic sense will cost his country dearly.
When, in June 1941, he trained this in the campaign against the Soviet Union.
Because it is towards the east that they have always carried the ambitions of the führer.
It is in these immense expanses that he intends to find living space,
necessary for the new greater Germany.
And although he signed on August 23, 1939 a non-aggression pact with Stalin,
he still considers the Bolshevik colossus as a permanent threat,
for safety and survival even from the Third Reich.
He therefore intends to attack and destroy the most Soviet power as quickly as possible,
before establishing its own power.
Hitler has a problem though more immediate to settle.
If France capitulated, the British Expeditionary Force,
commanded by Lord Gort succeeded to escape from the trap of Dunkirk.
On the other side of the Channel, England remains untouched and hostile.
Hitler, to tell the truth, never wished war with her.
To his dolphin, Rudolf Hess.
He even said:
"This war can establish a friendship lasting relationship between Germany and Great Britain.
This has always been one of my goals since I have been in politics."
As a result, he works with Hess and Goering,
to an alliance plan that would put at the disposal of the English,
12 divisions when needed for to assist it against any aggression in Europe,
including from own allies of the Third Reich.
However, 6 months later the defeat of France,
the Prime Minister British Winston Churchill,
which Hitler regards as an alcoholic dilettante,
stubbornly refuses to take consideration, the secrets of openings,
of peace from the Germans, whatever consequences for England.
In the end, Hitler is going to have to do facing two implacable enemies,
Britain and the Soviet Union.
Stalin certainly congratulated Hitler for his first military triumphs,
but the USSR now annex the countries Baltics, what Germany, by the way,
could not ignore since this annexation appeared in the secret clauses,
of the non-aggression pact of 1939.
Stalin begins to carve up Romania.
The German people are then in full victorious euphoria.
Hitler fears, however, that he cannot ask him for an extra effort.
He confides to those around him that he feels like a hunter facing 2 tigers,
with a single bullet in his rifle.
Which of the two beasts attack first?
This strategic option is a nightmare for him.
He finally decides
it will be the USSR.
He knows he must overcome the Red Army in 1941,
before the United States decides to help England.
On July 6, 1940, Hitler returns to Berlin.
He had given a holiday,
and Goebbels distributes 1 million small swastika flags,
before commenting on the live events on the radio.
The atmosphere of enthusiasm general stimulates Hitler.
It's now or never, that he must launch his crusade against Bolshevism.
He repeats that never Germany will once again have at its head,
a leader with such authority than his.
Despite this, he authorizes the prosecution preparations for invasion of England.
On the evening of July 19, he addresses the Reichstag,
speaking among the marshals and generals who have just been promoted,
following the victory over France,
he appeals to British reason.
This appeal remained a dead letter and Hitler is therefore more and more convinced,
that Churchill places all his hopes in a German-Soviet war.
Illogical, obstinate resistance and short-sighted English Prime Minister,
greatly interferes with the plans carefully considered by the Führer.
For 20 years, in fact, Hitler dreamed of an alliance with England.
Long after the war started, he will cling to this dream,
with a little tenacity ridiculousness of a lover,
refusing to admit that his feelings are not accepted.
The Reich aligns only five divisions to the east.
But opposite, Stalin's troops grow steadily stronger.
Hitler convinces himself that conflict is inevitable.
On July 31, he summons to the Berghof,
on the Obersalzberg,
its military leaders, including the great Admiral Raeder,
Marshals Keitel and Von Brauchitsch,
Generals Jodl and Halder.
Hitler explains why he wants to attack right away.
If Russia is defeated, he tells them,
the last hope of England will fly away.
Ribbentrop and Keitel are appalled by this plan.
They end up playing the game and early August 1940,
the order is given to begin construction work to the east,
that is to say, to prepare the invasion of the USSR.
From now on,
camouflage won't deceive anyone.
The Luftwaffe on which rests the fate of the weapons since the Kriegsmarine,
convinced Hitler to give up his landing plans,
began operations on July 10 against England.
All the more difficult since Hitler banned the bombing of cities,
especially London.
The capital of the British Empire, must remain intact,
protected by fighter squadrons and anti-aircraft batteries.
Hitler gave the first mission to Goering, recently promoted to Reich Marshal,
to destroy the British fighter.
But Goering is in no hurry,
and the Messerschmitt attack,
and Heinkel bombers did not really started yet,
when the Führer regains the Berghof on August 8.
Surveying the terrace of his villa flooded by the Bavarian sun,
in a sumptuous mountainous landscape, the ruler of the Third Reich,
often thinks of the task ahead,
when the whole of Europe will be in his hands.
He wants to continue the construction of highways that will reach the heart of Eastern Europe.
He will build new cities and beautify Berlin.
He will forgive his adversaries, even in Churchill,
who could paint and write his memoirs.
The Battle of Britain takes gradually gaining momentum.
Every day, the Heinkel squadrons bomb British airfields,
around London, always spared on Hitler's orders.
But on the night of August 24 to 25,
German planes bombard mistake the suburbs of the capital.
In retaliation, the next day, Churchill sends the RAF to attack Berlin.
The damage is minimal but Hitler is furious,
that the capital of the Third Reich not be invulnerable.
On September 4, in his speech to the Reichstag,
he announces that if the British raids on Berlin continue,
London, will in turn be bombarded day and night. He goes further.
"If the English attack our towns, we will burn theirs to ashes."
On September 7, the Luftwaffe abandoned his operations against the English hunt,
to launch the bombardment systematic strategies.
The 400 Heinkel 111 attacking the London docks that day,
are only the first wave of hundreds of others who will follow one another,
until the end of October.
More than 14,000 civilians will be killed,
during what was called the Blitz.
Convinced that Churchill provoked deliberately the raids on Berlin,
Hitler no longer has any scruples.
Grand Admiral Raeder writes,
that the Führer is convinced that he can defeat England without even invading it.
Meanwhile, three armies are sent to the eastern frontiers.
Hitler, at the request of General Ion Antonescu, Prime Minister,
came to Berchtesgaden to ask help from Germany,
a Luftwaffe mission is sent to Romania.
Officially, it is to protect the country's oil fields.
Hitler weaves his web in Central European countries,
striving to seduce heads of state, like here King Boris III of Bulgaria.
The Führer is worried about the initiatives of his ally Mussolini,
whose designs on Greece seem chimerical to him.
He meets, the "Douche", who welcomes him proudly at Florence station, with these words:
"Führer, we are ready to march."
But all the fears of Hitler come true.
Despite the importance engaged forces,
the Italians are repelled by the people Greek fanatic against the invader.
British troops will come officially helping Greece in the spring of 1941,
in Crete, then on the mainland.
Hitler, anxious to guarantee himself himself by helping his ally,
is also preparing to intervene and invade Yugoslavia.
But in fact, the plans he had drawn up for the months to come,
do not go as planned.
He lost the initiative.
The humiliation of the Italians before the Greeks,
boosted morale already raised from the British,
who firmly resist attacks German airlines.
Hitler then decides to intensify submarine warfare,
by launching the U-boats against the convoys Channel and Atlantic English.
The USSR remains the only significant territory where Hitler can still take the initiative.
When, on November 12, 1940,
Molotov arrives at the Reich Chancellery,
the Führer has just given the order to pursue actively preparing for war.
Discussions with the inflexible minister Soviet Foreign Affairs,
are very difficult.
In the last days of his life, Hitler will tell that Stalin's demands,
were both insolent and unacceptable.
He asked me to give him some basics air and access to the North Sea,
plus Constantinople, Romania,
Bulgaria and Finland.
And Germany was supposed to be the winners.
When Molotov leaves Berlin, no one doubts in the Chancellery,
that all negotiations have failed.
Hitler will never regret,
the terrible decision he makes to attack Russia,
even when the war will be permanently lost.
The operation is primarily set for May 1, 1941.
Hitler thinks to reach Leningrad in three weeks.
The bombings against England are continuing.
The Führer's advisers persist to think that these attacks,
coupled with the action of submarines,
is the best way to kill definitely the UK,
that Churchill, still on the ground, continue to galvanize.
As for Goering, furious at the failure squadrons of the Luftwaffe,
despite the prodigies of valor of the hunters,
he withdraws into his domains from East Prussia,
in Carinhall and Rominten, his game reserve.
On December 18, at the Berghof,
place of work and retirement Hitler's favorite
General Jodl brings to the Führer,
the final version of the operation order,
concerning the future campaign of which the codename is Barbarossa.
This 11-page document,
orders the Wehrmacht to destroy the Soviet Union,
during a rapid campaign and before let the war with England be over.
Hitler wants to have solved the whole continental questions before 1942,
date on which he thinks the United States are likely to occur.
Italy, however, remains a concern important to him, thwarts his plans.
The Greeks have now pushed back Italian forces into Albania.
In Egypt, the English pushed back Mussolini's troops to Libya,
and in January 1941 they even took the port of Tobruk,
capturing in passing thousands of prisoners.
Hitler thinking that the Third Reich and fascist Italy,
are bound for the better and for the worse,
decides to send to Africa, 2 divisions to support Mussolini.
While the first units of the future Afrikakorps,
commanded by General Erwin Rommel, land in Africa.
Hitler, disillusioned, learns that General Franco,
refuses to go to war.
The Führer, said one of his close friends,
is then about to to leave Spain.
It will take very little.
The first wave of divisions concentrated in the east
moves slowly towards the Soviet border.
The German secret services know almost nothing about intentions,
state of mind, opponent's plans.
Officers don't have a security card. the immense country they have a mission to invade.
This does not prevent the soldier from Wehrmacht to believe itself invincible.
And yet the Wehrmacht is less in number.
However, if Soviet armor are more numerous than the panzers,
They are mostly obsolete.
Finally, the whole strategy of the head of Germany is based on the will,
to bring down the USSR in a few months.
It is also a necessity. Stocks fuel and spare parts,
will not go beyond.
In the South, Hitler is preparing his campaign against Romania,
both to relieve the Italians, protect the oil fields,
and constitute a starting point expanded to attack the USSR.
The Balkans are not the best ground,
to maneuver a modern and mechanized army.
Well trained, the Wehrmacht nevertheless overcomes all obstacles,
and on March 7, 1941, its first elements take position on the Greek border,
facing the forces British and Greek.
A week earlier, Hitler once again went to Vienna.
His younger sister, Paula, who works discreetly,
In a hospital of the Austrian capital,
told him:
"When I go to the mountains and I meet a chapel, I pray for you."
He replied:
"I have the absolute conviction that the hand of the Lord is over me."
On March 27, the pro-German government of Regent Paul of Yugoslavia is overthrown.
King Peter II returns to power.
Hitler reacts immediately,
knowing however that any action in the Balkans,
delays the triggering of Barbarossa.
But once again, fate favors him.
Early spring rains turned the Russian plains into a quagmire.
Anyway, the panzers could not act before June.
In early April, German troops crossed the Greek and Yugoslav borders.
Belgrade is bombarded on the 6th.
There are 20,000 victims.
The Yugoslav army capitulated on the 18th,
and the king fled to London.
In 12 days of victorious campaigning, the Wehrmacht lost only 151 dead.
The Greek armies surrendered on March 30, after a heroic resistance.
Hitler salutes their determination and their value,
ordering the release of the prisoners.
"I fight England, not small countries like Greece."
He explains to a diplomat.
The Greeks agreed to surrender to the german generals,
but they refuse to do so as much in front of the Italians.
Mussolini's self-esteem has already been injured many times.
So he's playing a trick to his ally by announcing,
prematurely on the radio, that the troops Hellenes surrendered to the Italian army.
At the moment, Hitler is dumb with rage,
but no event is capable to darken it permanently.
The English leave Greece and end May, under the blows of the Luftwaffe,
of General Freyberg,
and Student paratroopers,
they evacuate the ridge.
Similarly, British troops are failing in North Africa.
Rommel prepares to attack at the beginning of April.
He doesn't want to stop the advance of the Afrikakorps,
before reaching the Egyptian border.
On May 4, Hitler makes a speech enthusiastic in the Reichstag.
Rudolf Hess, his dolphin, sits not far from him.
Shortly after, Hess will ask his führer if it is still decided,
to settle with the British to fight communism with them.
Hitler confirms this.
6 days later, the former Great War Pilot,
flies to Scotland on board of a Messerschmitt 110.
He hopes, through his connections with the Duke of Hamilton,
to be able to negotiate a separate peace that he believed to be Hitler's secret objective.
His mission fails.
Taken prisoner, he will die in captivity in Berlin in 1989.
44 years after the war.
Hitler finally decided that Operation Barbarossa would begin,
Sunday, June 22, 1941.
In May, Luftwaffe bombers,
execute their last attack massive in London.
Now they will act on the Eastern Front.
To many signs we surrendered realize that Stalin, too,
feverishly preparing the offensive.
Hitler knows there is large plans,
and a gigantic building program,
but he ignores the details.
Faced with the future Soviet navy, the Kriegsmarine is getting ready.
On May 5, Hitler inspects the two new battlecruisers Bismarck and Tirpitz.
They are the most powerful ships world war.
When on May 22, he learns than the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen,
that other giant,
took to the sea for their first campaign in the North Atlantic,
the führer is seized by a sudden presentiment and request on the spot,
if it is possible to bring them back.
The battle that begins on May 24 begins good for the 2 German ships,
who were chased by the British fleet.
The Bismarck sinks the cruiser Hood and seriously damages the Prince of Wales.
But the Bismarck is losing oil and fled to Saint-Nazaire,
chased by several ships including the aircraft carrier Victorious.
Having intercepted a radio message, the English are put back on the road of their adversary,
who, despite his advance, is joined and attacked by the planes of the Victorius,
May 25 and 26.
The battle rages all night.
Out of ammunition, the Bismarck blazes from stern to bow.
On the morning of the 27th, the German cruiser sank, high pavilion,
with 2200 sailors.
This sacrifice was not in vain.
The Bismarck had attracted great part of the british naval force,
and thus contributed to the German success on the Mediterranean front.
Barely a few weeks separate this Barbarossa fight.
The Soviet Union tries to find allies among its neighbours.
But the intense diplomatic activity of Hitler is bearing fruit.
Finland, Romania and Hungary,
offer the Third Reich encouragement and military assistance.
Assuming that victory German cannot be doubted,
Hitler had Keitel broadcast his first orders from the main commanders of the army.
His instructions are so harsh that the headquarters,
orders their destruction after reading.
So that they do not risk not to be known.
It is expected to be ruthless for communist political commissars,
which Hitler does not hear apply the laws of war.
If they're caught in arms or if they resist,
they will be executed immediately.
His orders will be carried out not only by German troops,
but by the many foreign contingents fighting alongside the Wehrmacht,
Slovaks, Croats, Romanians,
Belgians, French...
To the extent that the deadline is approaching,
Hitler is taken back by his insomnia.
He stays awake whole nights,
brooding over his plans and seeking desperately the faults,
which could upset his grand designs.
On June 20, each unit commander receives a secret message from Hitler.
This concludes: "As you read these lines,
largest and strongest assembly of armed forces,
that has ever been reunited is ready to attack.
The biggest front line of history will shake off,
not only to end this war and liberate oppressed nations,
but also to save civilization and European culture.
German soldiers, you start the fight the toughest and most demanding there is.
May God help us !"
At dawn on June 22, 1941, troops Germans attack all along the front.
The surprise of the Soviets is total.
2 days later, Hitler joined its new headquarters,
the wolf's den in Rastenburg.
It is from this entrenched camp, hidden in the middle of the woods,
riddled with blockhouses and surrounded minefields,
that the ex-corporal of the First World War will lead the German army.
Hitler therefore launches to conquer Russia.
He is 52 years old.
His legions go from fight to fight,
cross immense monotonous plains
and beaten by the wind,
the rich expanses of Ukraine, marshes and steppes,
the inhospitable tundra.
At the cost of extraordinary sacrifices and exemplary courage,
the soldiers of the Third Reich will reach finally the Caucasus mountains.
First overcome by panic, Stalin reacted quickly and proclaimed,
the patriotic war.
He thus succeeds to fanaticize his troops.
The Germans realize that Soviet tanks are more modern,
and effective than Hitler repeated.
They are also surprised by the fighting spirit and the tenacity of the soldiers of the Red Army,
brave, stubborn and ready to sacrifice their lives.
The Russian soil is in itself an obstacle.
With the rain, the roads change quickly in a quagmire.
But that's not all.
The Germans notice the preparations of the Soviets to attack the Reich.
From the depths of the forests, from the end of the plains.
They see a new chariot advancing of 30 tons, the famous T34,
including the best experts don't know anything.
At the end of July, however, 12,000 Soviet tanks,
were destroyed or captured.
Hitler himself would eventually admit before certain civil and military leaders:
"If I had known he had so much armor of this type,
I would have thought twice before attacking them.
Stalin, who did not sign the Geneva Convention,
calls for guerrilla warfare behind German lines.
His troops apply the policy scorched earth.
Entire towns are mined to take trap enemy assault units.
In July, Hitler estimated that the campaign is virtually won.
Yet the battle from Smolensk to the center,
showed the ability of Soviet resistance.
Considering that Moscow no longer has of real strategic importance,
he launches the armies to conquer of Crimea and Donetsk,
and north of Leningrad.
At headquarters, many officers complain about Hitler's constant interference,
in the conduct of operations.
One of them, General Halder, wrote in his diary:
“It seems more and more obvious that the enemy has unlimited resources,
in men and material."
Halder and the other generals are persuaded that the only possibility of winning,
is to attack the centers industrialists like Moscow.
Hitler is convinced that before destroy all the food reserves,
fuel and steel.
While this debate occupies and tear the wolf's lair,
Hitler suddenly falls ill.
His doctors, whose few competent Doctor Morell,
treat it with drugs intended for tropical diseases,
and even apply leeches to him.
His illness, does not prevent him from directing as often as possible,
the daily conference with his staff officers.
He learns during one of these that his troops march on Moscow.
On August 18, Hitler had an interview with his propaganda minister, Goebbels,
seen here welcoming the Führer at one of the many meetings,
at the Sports Palace in Berlin.
That day, it is about the measures racial attacks directed in particular against the Jews.
Hitler approves surveillance plan increased presented to him by Goebbels.
He decides that once the operation Barbarossa completed,
the mass deportation of German Jews eastward can begin.
In September 1941, the Führer still believes in victory.
He plans to build major highways that will lead north, to Scandinavia,
and south to Crimea.
But although the Soviet Union remains his pet peeve,
he privately declares to his confidants,
that Stalin is a great man,
that he will authorize him to continue his socialist experience beyond the Urals.
His will to destroy, however, is still going strong.
He orders to shave fully Leningrad,
who does not present to his eyes no strategic interest.
In the former capital of the tsars,
the inhabitants barricade the streets.
In mid-September, German troops are located in the south of the city.
Famine begins to set in.
There is even in the starving population cases of cannibalism.
On September 16, however, the panzers are stopped in their advance,
and directed to the Moscow front.
On October 2, the first city in the USSR is attacked.
Addressing the crowd again enthusiastic about the Sports Palace,
Hitler explains how many countries became allies of Germany,
except England, unfortunately. he regrets.
He accuses the Jews and Churchill, this warmonger.
Returned to his headquarters, he is taken before these marshals,
of a new bout of megalomania.
He compares Russia to India,
and imagine a gigantic railway which would double the Trans-Siberian.
He plans to send there 5 million German settlers.
On October 7, a vast pocket is created around Bryansk.
General Jodl warns his führer that the Soviets are about to lose,
72 divisions.
From excitement, Hitler loses his appetite.
The next day, Jodl triumphantly announces:
“We can finally say, without exaggeration,
that we have won this war."
But on the eastern front, it starts raining,
and the sky announces the first snows.
On the other side of the world, the United States officially remain out of the war.
But President Roosevelt has since long out of strict neutrality.
He ordered the Navy, in a famous directive,
to fire on sight at Axis ships.
Hitler, for his part, refuses to get carried away.
Roosevelt's position don't really worry about it.
He mocks American industrialists armament and smiles,
maneuvers of their tanks without believing in their reality.
Eastern Front operations stalled.
Army Group Center of Marshal von Bock,
is paralyzed by snow and mud.
The Germans, advancing fighting through the storms,
cross the endless columns of prisoners marching west.
A report from the Abwehr, the service German counterintelligence
reports that the populations welcome the Germans as liberators,
but it is to be feared that this state of mind,
immediately picked up by propaganda services,
is above all the consequence of the traditional sense of Russian hospitality.
At the first clumsiness, the same populations could well turn around,
against their conquerors.
Precisely, this war entails very quickly a certain number of atrocities.
Especially in Ukraine where the Einsatzgruppen of the SS,
not to be confused with troops elite of the Waffen-SS,
carry out executions summaries of Jews,
which revolt the leaders of the Wehrmacht.
Generals and Marshals von Manstein, von Bock, von Reichenau,
von Leeb, von Rundstedt with many others,
speak out against these executions.
They also know that civilians horrified russians,
although often anti-Semitic,
will provide thousands from volunteers to supporters,
who will soon be the fiercest opponents of German soldiers.
But Hitler's spirit, cut off from the world,
in Rastenburg, where he receives here Goering,
is focused on the only battle and its consequences.
He dreams aloud of the vast projects that motivated the opening of this second front.
He repeats to his staff that he would have wished to be 10 or 15 years younger,
to be able to live this long-term future. But the Führer is already ill.
His doctors discovered that he suffers from coronary artery disease,
rapidly evolving.
The countdown has already started for the leader of the Third Reich.
In this mid-October 1941,
Moscow has practically emptied of its inhabitants.
Von Bock's troops who, after the spectacular victories of the armored armies,
of Guderian and von Kleist in Ukraine,
launched Operation Typhoon,
are no more than 100 km from the capital.
This is when the Wehrmacht begins to face the terrible winter of 1941.
cold, ice and snow,
block in place hundreds of units which quickly run out of fuel.
Hitler's hope of destroying quickly Stalin's armies fly away,
with the intense cold that nails to the ground Luftwaffe squadrons.
He must postpone his many projects, especially since the other fronts,
don't give him more reason to be optimistic.
His mood darkens, his anger is more frequent,
even in front of its visitors brand, like here,
Luftwaffe Marshal Milch,
and General Galland, head of the hunt.
The Führer knows he has found in Stalin a serious adversary.
While the German army, not at all prepared for this winter struggle,
is immobilized in place,
the Soviet generals, like Zhukov here, prepare the counter-offensive.
They have fresh and numerous troops, those coming in particular from Siberia,
and improving hardware from month to month.
The German advance on Moscow is completely stopped in mid-November.
The Soviet resistance is getting stronger.
Hitler confided to some of his relatives that he now doubts victory.
Terrible frosts swoop down on his troops.
Both opponents support winter in a very different way.
The Soviets are both accustomed cold and equipped accordingly.
The Germans, on the other hand, do not have no warm clothes.
Weapons jam. Engines and fuel freeze.
Supply is not suitable under such combat conditions.
The Wehrmacht is freezing to death in the primary sense of the term.
The struggle is now marked by two sides by equal savagery.
The Germans loot the villages to find food,
then burn everything so as not to give refuge to partisans.
They take prisoners their warm clothes.
Field Marshal's Fourth Army von Kluge attacks Moscow.
On December 2, a recognition passing through the blizzard,
reaches the outskirts of the city.
Wehrmacht soldiers manage to move on,
about ten kilometers towards the center.
This will be the sharpest point extreme of the Germans.
They will never go further.
The temperature drops below 35 degrees.
The cylinder heads burst.
Hands stick to steel guns and cannons.
The oil itself freezes in the mechanisms.
It was then that Stalin ordered a powerful counter-offensive,
which starts on December 5 all over the front.
14 armies commanded by Zhukov go drive the Germans back 100 km from Moscow.
The formidable T-34 tank and its 30 tons appeared en masse.
Its cannon, its two machine guns of 7.62 and its shielding,
make him invulnerable to weapons classic German anti-tank tanks.
The most alarming news are now coming from the Russian front.
For Hitler begins a real nightmare.
It is to him that the multiple threads lead which should lead to strategic decisions.
When, on December 7, 1941, he saw arrive his familiars at the Chancellery,
he knows that the quest for warm clothes began the day before throughout the country,
and the most concrete event of a worsening situation.
That day, around midnight,
the conversation languishes when a press officer bursts in.
A radio statement American has just announced,
Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Empire of the Rising Sun is at war,
with Great Britain and the United States.
This is for the Third Reich of a true miracle.
Hitler told his staff:
"It is now impossible for us to lose the war.
Our new ally has never been defeated in 3000 years of history."
Then, alluding to Italy, he adds :
"As for our other ally, he constantly has the underside,
but eventually finds himself always on the right side."
On December 11, Hitler declares the war in the United States.
Deep down, he instinctively knows that future events,
will no longer be favorable to him.
Over the past few days of this pivotal year,
he often happens to meditate in front of his entourage on the strangeness of a situation,
where, with the help of Japan,
Germany weakens the position of the white race in the Far East,
while Great Britain, she,
fight against Europe alongside the Bolsheviks.
During the winter, driven by his desire for absolute power,
the führer shows his will to do.
On the contrary, several of his generals see no solution,
than in an inglorious retreat.
Hitler asks them to hold out until spring in order to then be able to stop,
the enemy offensive.
If they argue or disobey, he will dismiss them.
If necessary, he threatens them to take Eastern Front Operations Command.
He will finally do so on January 19,
by relieving the field marshal von Brauchitsch.
His strength of conviction, which he expresses when he decorates its most deserving soldiers,
like here young officers of the Luftwaffe,
ends up overcoming the reluctance.
The chiefs who are the most hostile
no longer resist his objurgations.
And yet, despite the efforts from Japan to relieve the Eastern front,
disaster seems imminent.
Hitler telephoned Von Bock in person,
"In our situation, there is only one solution,
never give up an inch of ground, fill the holes,
and hold on at all costs.
He signs the famous order which will henceforth guiding all the action on the Eastern Front.
The troops must oppose on place a fanatical resistance,
in order to absolutely prevent any break in their line,
on the sides as well as on the back.
More than ever, Hitler felt during these weeks the loneliness of power.
How can he be sure that his decisions are the only ones valid?
Or on the contrary, will he wear final responsibility,
of a military disaster unprecedented ?
The Soviets react with fierce brutality.
One of the regimental commanders who fights wrote in his diary:
"The Russians take out the wounded and hospital patients,
gather them outside, water them gasoline and set it on fire.
The heads of German prisoners are placed on the ground,
to form the ruins symbols of the SS.
Hitler's Will Without Weakness finally saves the Wehrmacht.
The front stabilizes for some time.
In mid-January 1942, he authorized von Kluge to be removed from the front lines,
the most exposed units of his army group.
This tactic on Earth is followed,
of a maritime operation unprecedented strategy.
On February 11, 1942, the fleet surface stationed in Brest,
including cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau,
manages to reach the North Sea across the Channel,
without being spotted by the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.
Under the protection of the Luftwaffe and the General Galland's Messerschmitt fighters,
the proud ships of the Kriegsmarine pass without incident,
apart from two damages without gravity due to the mines.
When the fleet arrives in its ports attachment, joy and pride,
are breaking out all over Germany.
It's a terrible humiliation for Churchill.
Hitler immediately makes a long speech at the Sports Palace,
in front of thousands of young officers.
He persuades them that in these dramatic hours, they alone,
can change the course of war.
When he leaves the podium to cheers,
its prestige is still taken up a notch.
Hitler's thought puts a lot of hope in the coming spring.
He hopes, as the weather improves,
be able to launch an offensive decisive on the Caucasus.
At the same time, he is seized very weak,
which does not fail to worry the many visitors who come to see him in Rastenburg.
He keeps coming back to his directives to the generals, to his plans for the offensive,
in spring and summer.
The Wehrmacht must prepare to launch north on Leningrad,
and to the south on Stalingrad and the Caucasus Mountains.
And yet several advisors to the Führer are against this general offensive.
Keitel in particular doubts that the army can seize,
intact Baku oil fields.
Hitler, however, has no alternative.
He absolutely needs this oil to its tanks, planes and trucks.
Stalin urges Churchill to obtain the opening of a second front.
The British Air Force is stepping up its bombardments on German cities.
RAF raids cause thousands of casualties among civilians.
In response, Hitler ordered expeditions punitive measures of the Luftwaffe,
on the cities most elders of England.
On May 8, 1942, General von Manstein,
opens the spring campaign by attacking Crimea and its capital, Sevastopol.
Simultaneously, Hitler ordered the offensive on Kharkov.
The Soviets will react with a armor attack on the flanks which,
poorly prepared, will fail.
The two German offensives, they will succeed.
Sevastopol falls on July 1.
Hitler hoped that his blue operation,
offensive code name on the Caucasus, will succeed very quickly.
He declares to Goebbels: "I would strangle the Soviet system clutching its Adam's apple."
Later, when watching movies news items seized on Soviet troops,
and showing German prisoners,
he will note with satisfaction that the faces expressed no trace of fear,
or so frequent spinelessness among surrendered soldiers.
On June 28, he launched into the blue operation fully reconstituted units.
They push their main effort on the Volga and the Caucasus.
But the Red Army retreats so quickly,
that the Wehrmacht fails to hang in the best conditions.
When the 2 adversaries will finally find face to face,
winter will have come and the lines communication of the Germans,
will be at the extreme limit.
On June 21, 1942, Hitler heard the news. surprise of the capture of Tobruk,
by Rommel's troops.
The British fleet evacuates Alexandria.
Hitler already sees Egypt fall into his hands.
He expects this defeat leads to the downfall of Churchill.
But the English are getting ready to stand up to their adversaries,
to a place in the desert called El-Alamein.
Rommel has only of 70 panzers and armored vehicles.
Between the German troops and the oilfields of Baku,
almost stand 800 km of wild mountains.
History has already proven that it constitutes an impassable barrier to any invasion.
Hitler charges Field Marshal Wilhelm List,
to lead his army group through its mountains to the Caspian Sea.
The Edelweiss plan begins on July 24.
Many difficulties slow down the operations.
Hitler storms.
He blames the generals they tax arrogance and incompetence.
List takes hold despite everything from Rostov-on-Don.
At the end of August 1942, the offensive is marking time.
Soviet armies commanded by Budenny and Tcholenev,
prevent the Germans from succeeding in their breakthrough.
They are helped by rain, fog,
and the mud of a new early autumn.
In front, it is a success.
Hitler's hatred for generals of his staff goes up a notch.
On the Volga Paulus launched the assault on Stalingrad,
of which he reached the center on July 27.
But in the face of stubborn resistance Russian soldiers and workers,
the offensive is no longer advancing only very slowly.
At the far north of the front,
Hitler charged von Manstein, under the orders of von Küchler,
to finally seize Leningrad.
The first copies the new Heavy Tiger tank,
must take part in the assault.
But on August 27, the Soviets take the initiative,
and advance simultaneously on the fronts of Leningrad and the Volkhov,
supported by the Baltic Fleet,
The German attack on Leningrad is compromised.
More than 2500 km away,
The African Corps, after having lost the battle of El Alamein,
returns to its starting point.
At his headquarters in Rastenburg, where he continues to receive,
military or political leaders,
to whom he holds long optimistic speeches,
Hitler doesn't know yet that this beautiful autumn,
precedes total defeat.
The daily state lectures major are more and more animated,
and even stormy.
One rule for those close to the Führer,
ensure that its reputation of strategic infallibility remains intact.
In Stalingrad, the shells fall by the thousands over the city.
German troops hold the suburbs, but the Russians are fighting heroically.
Beginning the encirclement that's gonna be fatal to the sixth army of Paulus.
In the east and south-east, partisans recruited without difficulty,
in the face of the attitude of the Germans, put implement a new type of combat.
The soldiers of the Third Reich, will learn quickly,
to fear these guerrillas whom they shoot and hang as soon as they take them.
On November 8, 1942, the Allies land in North Africa.
Hitler's reaction is immediate.
He orders an airlift to create a new bridgehead in Tunisia.
The bad news is piling up.
Hitler learns that the Soviets are preparing a gigantic counter-offensive,
led by the best Generals Voronov, Rokossovski
Fedorenko, Novikov.
It starts on November 19 to the southwest and on the Don,
causing the rupture of the German-Romanian front.
Two days later, the Sixth Army of Stalingrad is completely surrounded.
Paulus' only hope rests on air rescue.
Goering, however, is in no hurry.
Hitler orders the start of a gigantic aerial bridge,
which will make it possible to provide daily to the besieged, supplies and equipment.
Despite the efforts Junker 52 pilots,
we are however far from 500 tons,
that would be needed every day.
The Soviets advance regularly to the city,
advancing 100 to 150 km per day.
On December 11, Hitler waits all night the confirmation of the offensive,
of the Fourth Panzer Army which must attack to clear Stalingrad.
Paulus only has a few days left food and ammunition.
He knows that 6 Soviet armies converge on him,
and that he has practically no chance of winning.
Only the breakthrough of the Fourth Panzer can save him.
The attack starts well.
Von Manstein, on whom depends the fourth Panzer, is optimistic,
but the Soviets succeed to create a breach,
in the Italian system covering the western sector of Stalingrad.
This new disaster stuns Hitler.
His physician, Dr. Morell, fear for his health,
and orders him cardiac stimulants.
His patient tells him that he is not afraid of death,
and that he is ready to give his life for Germany.
Paulus' situation is desperate.
His troops number dozens thousands of wounded and sick,
that can hardly be evacuated.
We can no longer bury the dead in the frozen ground.
Soldier morale is low.
Hitler knows that by sacrificing a quarter of million men holding back the Soviets,
he can however save Caucasus Army Group.
If the Sixth Army gives way, the troops of Stalin will sweep over the west.
Paulus faces 70 divisions.
Hitler forbids whoever he comes to elevate to the marshal to surrender.
At the end of December, all German attempts to break the encirclement failed.
Bases around Stalingrad fell into Soviet hands.
The supplies no longer arrive and the wounded can no longer be evacuated.
The terrible cold is wreaking havoc among the besieged.
On December 27, Hitler ordered von Kleist evacuation from the Caucasus,
while there is still time.
Von Kleist retreats to Rostov and the Taman peninsula.
The withdrawal which is beginning foreshadows that general, which will not stop,
before the German borders.
The army group succeeds to save 270,000 men.
Rostov will be taken over by the Russians in February 1943.
Speaking to Marshal Antonescu, Romanian head of state,
Hitler recalls that in the past and at the height of crises,
no statesman has been able to predict the outcome of a conflict.
Very often, however, and even in these conditions, resolution leads to victory.
The Red Army, however, rushes into the breach.
The Stalingrad front line recedes towards the center of town,
fully invested.
Marshal Paulus still refuses to surrender.
He sends to Hitler one last radio message:
"Your orders have been carried out. Long live Germany !"
Hitler prepares for the inevitable.
He thinks that the heroism of his soldiers at Stalingrad will even have to be surpassed,
In the coming months.
Whatever happens, the Wehrmacht will continue to fight without thinking back.
29,000 wounded have already been evacuated by plane when the last airfield in Stalingrad,
fell into Soviet hands.
Surviving fighters have permission to write one last letter to their family.
When did the last Heinkel 111 piloted by Lieutenant Kuntz,
decorated with the Knight's Cross,
from school on January 20, 1943 from the track still accessible from Gumrak,
he takes 19 wounded and 7 bags of mail.
The Sixth Army is bloodless.
Paulus surrenders on January 31 with 91,000 men,
including 2,500 officers and 23 generals,
Less than 10,000 will return from captivity.
Hitler is mad with rage.
His magnificent Wehrmacht, its exceptional soldiers,
his high command corps quality and its modern weapons,
are reduced to retirement across the Eastern Front.
The master of the Third Reich, during his long insomnia,
note the general decline of his troops on all fronts.
Even in North Africa, where Rommel tries to avoid a general defeat.
As for Goering's Luftwaffe, despite the courage of its pilots,
she is more and more helpless.
Meanwhile, the waves ceaselessly British and American bombers,
pound German cities.
However, a document taken on the Soviets reveals that these lament,
more than 11 million deaths.
This news would be bearer of hope for Hitler,
if he could give a new one blow to his opponent.
But his troops absolutely need a rest period.
Furthermore, from a strategic point of view, we must leave to the arms factories,
time to release new panzers, new planes, new submarines.
The year 1943 which opens on the defeat of Stalingrad,
will be decisive for the future of the world.