the first cannon shot of the second world war is fired on dancing entering battle as if in a bygone age the polish cavalry charges the german tanks and is slaughtered the aim would be for the princess to meet near warsaw and brest litovska on the 25th of september hitler orders the bombing of warsaw the city is surrounded but still holding out the polish army surrenders to the germans and in the east to the soviets 10th of may 1940 at 5 35 a.m the germans unleashed their offensive the germans are heading for the coast and that the allies have fallen into a trap no tank could ever get through those densely forested hills nothing stops them the british forces have left behind almost all of their equipment 1940 at daybreak the germans march into paris the nazi emblem the swastika flies over paris taking off from these fields in occupied france the germans will attack convoys in the channel harbours and airfields in southern england [Music] the british pilots hold out giving everything they have [Music] they found easy figures german bombers attack british cities like coventry and london this is the blitz daily bombings japan is about to attack the united states of america the japanese attack the british colony of hong kong then they bombed the american air bases in the philippines and land on the batang peninsula churchill severely underestimates the enemy hong kong falls to japan in just 17 days the pride of the royal navy they are both sunk by the japanese in less than an hour a fateful date the end of great britain's dominion over the seas [Music] so [Music] in just five months japan has destroyed the allied forces in the far east and conquered half of the pacific half a million german troops swept down into yugoslavia and greece [Music] he was poised to drive britain out of the entire region rommel believes in tanks and in the lightning war he quickly orders the africa corps to set off for the british positions the first we're marked sappers steal over onto russian territory they are followed by 153 german divisions as well as by finnish romanian slovakian and hungarian troops in the south the economic target kiev and the ukraine the battle for smolensk lasts three weeks the russians fight until the very end godarian continues to advance in the meantime the rest of the german forces the sixth army led by general paulus is marching towards stalingrad at that moment the red army is going through its own ordeal the russians call it the black summer of 1942 that will close up around the oil fields and the caucasus and with rommel advancing through egypt those in the middle east his other goal is stalingrad stalin city and its factories oh by september 1942 paulus reaches the railway line that goes to moscow he manages to follow it all the way to stalingrad from there they can control all of stalingrad on the 15th of october 1942 the germans reached their goal the great russian river the vulgar drive towards the baku oil fields has come to a halt in the caucasus mountains the world is holding its breath will hitler defeat stalin africa corps is just outside egypt the wehrmacht occupies a third of russia the imperial navy of japan controls the pacific and germany's submarines are wreaking havoc in the atlantic december 7th 1941 a date which will live in infamy admiral yamamoto is on his way at the head of the biggest armada ever put together 200 battleships and above all an exceptional fleet of eight aircraft carriers transporting nearly 600 planes on board are 5 000 japanese marines and a painter who's come along to immortalize the battle fujita chester nimitz prepares to defend midway he has fewer aircraft carriers than yamamoto but he brings them all over to set up an ambush and then take off to attack the japanese fleet torpedo squadron 8 will strike first the allies open up a new front in north africa a first step towards controlling the mediterranean montgomery launches his offensive with a preliminary artillery barrage followed by a massive tank assault the german 88 flat guns caused tremendous losses rommel's soldiers counter attack relentlessly rommel retreats in order to surround the german army occupying stalingrad at 7 00 am the soviets obliterate the enemy's lines pounding them with the rocket launchers they call stalin's organs zhukov's massive army launches the offensive the germans see the soviet tanks close the circle around them general palace's sixth army is trapped inside stalingrad beyond the red flag is the univermag store where the commander of the sixth army general friedrich paulus is entrenched his men surrender uh at the same time the allies win another victory they enter tunis with its 88 millimeter gun the tiger was the most dreaded of the german tanks and germany will launch a massive summer offensive operation citadel the biggest tank battle in history 2 700 german tanks are preparing to combat thousand six hundred soviet tanks field marshal von neinstein [Music] is one of the biggest battles of the second world war the wehrmacht troops are pushed back the great patriotic war as they call it has taken a new turn for them the red army is suddenly able to strike with a force that amazes all sides an endless supply of men even after the extremely costly battles of moscow and stalingrad the eastern front is a thousand kilometers wide but the russians are able to push forward hundreds of kilometers within two months destroying 17 german army divisions the wehrmacht retreats towards east prussia leaving behind many thousands of casualties the noose is tightening things are moving fast the germans invade italy and have no qualms about slaughtering their former allies who attempt to resist [Music] the allies have landed in italy which is occupied by the germans the german paratroopers push them back the german shock troops are now firmly entrenched in the ruined monastery as the wehrmacht retreats it once again leaves a path of destruction behind it by early 1943 the japanese empire was at its height the country had occupied malaya and burma the philippines and the dutch east indies indonesia today at the same time in southern england the allied war machine assembled for the normandy landings is gearing up on the evening of the fifth of june the paratroopers get ready to leave over the normandy region [Music] the paratroopers are the first to set foot in occupied fronts atlantic wall a staggering system of fortifications stretching from norway down to the spanish border the allied fleet is on its way it is the biggest armada ever assembled nearly 5 000 landing ships and assault craft from the seine to the koten town peninsula where the german atlantic war defenses are the weakest and neutralizing the german cannons with the help of the royal air force's fighter bombers [Music] as for the russians in the east they are crossing the german border the heavy resistance in the west the allies are gaining the upper hand for the vermont the situation is deteriorating 50 000 german soldiers are taken prisoner it is a much needed victory for the allies [Music] most of the german army has retreated to the east [Music] um but the german offensive in the ardennes failed due to the extraordinary defense put out by the american paratroopers in bastoy to the intervention of general patton's tanks and to the overwhelming power of the allied air forces power of the united states is such that just a few days after the normandy landings in europe it's able to assemble a second fleet on the other side of the world in the pacific [Music] until now it has remained untouched dresden known as the florence of the elder was one of europe's finest medieval [Music] cities [Music] this tanks north towards berlin but his remaining soldiers overwhelmed by the russian rocket launchers surrender one after the other beneath the ruins of the chancellery in his underground bunker hitler rants and raves and maneuvers his imaginary armies the war in the pacific continues the marines raised the american flag on top of mount suribachi the volcano that dominates the island of iwo jima the battle took the lives of 7 000 americans and 20 000 japanese it is now possible for the boeing b-29 super fortress bombers taking off from iwo jima and other islands in the pacific to reach japan million and a half soviet troops stormed into manchuria and northern china there were still over a million japanese troops in the area but the red army blitzkrieg was unstoppable the japanese position in the war had become untenable ferocious month-long battle to seize the philippines in the pacific the suicide pilots that the japanese call kamikaze nose dive their planes into the american fleet in the end the united states decides against an invasion of japan which it things will cost the country a million lives instead it detonates the atomic inferno the first two nuclear bombs ever exploded kill in one second over a hundred thousand people and finally enable the emperor hirohito to seek peace without losing face [Music] [Music] [Music] this is belson another center brutality starvation and disease you see our troops moving in it is these men who say strongly advocate the publication of these pictures which show only in small part what they see in reality [Music] you