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01:02 Hitler is on the brink of doing what Napoleon failed to do--
01:05 conquer Russia.
01:07 For the Russian people, the war is an unbroken agony
01:10 of siege and defeat.
01:12 In Leningrad alone, 350,000 civilians die of starvation.
01:17 Russia reels and calls on her allies for help.
01:21 Open a second front, cry the Russians,
01:23 hoping to divert the German divisions at the gates
01:25 of Leningrad, of Moscow, of Sevastopol, of Stalingrad.
01:31 The German guns keep pounding.
01:34 [GUNFIRE]
01:37 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:41 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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02:19 In Washington, the Russian appeal comes in a black hour.
02:23 Everywhere there is victory for the Axis.
02:26 Nowhere can the democracies do more than hold their own.
02:30 Action, bold, decisive action, can no longer be delayed.
02:35 Roosevelt and Churchill must strike.
02:37 But where?
02:38 How?
02:40 The statesmen of democracy ponder the issues and decide.
02:44 Invasion, a second front.
02:47 The orders go out to America, to England.
02:51 The transatlantic planning begins.
02:54 Target, top secret.
02:58 In England, General Eisenhower, newly appointed
03:00 American commander for Europe, directs the overall strategy.
03:05 The United States has been at war only a few months,
03:08 and her means is yet her limit.
03:10 The Marines on Guadalcanal need all they can get.
03:13 But the pressure of events is inexorable.
03:16 The Allies cannot wait, and time will not wait.
03:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:23 In October, troops embark at English ports
03:34 for the first joint Anglo-American offensive
03:36 in World War II.
03:38 The troops do not know their mission.
03:40 They do not know that they are one prong
03:42 of a sweeping double thrust at the axis in North Africa.
03:46 The secret force is sought into the Mediterranean.
03:50 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:53,
04:20 In America, the other prong of the assault
04:22 is hurriedly forged at East Coast ports,
04:25 where untried and untested troops,
04:27 fresh from civilian life, are brought together
04:29 for the greatest amphibious operation yet attempted.
04:33 4,000 miles of hostile sea lie between the crystal
04:36 sands of Virginia, the granite rocks of Maine,
04:39 and the far shore of North Africa.
04:43 Many of the men have never heard of their destination, Casablanca,
04:47 on French Morocco's west coast.
04:49 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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04:55 Most of the troops have never been to sea before.
05:09 And half the young sailors of the convoy
05:11 are sailing the ocean for the first time.
05:14 The Allies hope to trump some Axis tricks
05:16 in a bold move which skeptics call premature.
05:20 The chances of success are rated no better than 50/50.
05:23 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:27 Admiral Hewitt commands the American task force.
05:49 Rumors circulate that the ships are headed south for maneuvers.
05:53 But task force 34 is in deadly earnest.
05:56 The operation is christened the Torch.
05:59 And on these men and the ships falls
06:00 the job of lighting the torch and keeping it burning.
06:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
06:07 From America, from England, 650 ships and the two convoys
06:17 plod their precarious way.
06:19 Converging slowly on the whole northwest corner of Africa,
06:22 moving jointly toward the target.
06:25 Zigzagging past the submarine packs by day,
06:28 steaming straight by night, the ships
06:31 make the longest voyage ever ventured
06:32 by an amphibious force.
06:35 Get the soldiers across the vast and perilous sea safely.
06:38 Land them on the barren and uncertain beaches safely.
06:42 That is the sailors' job.
06:43 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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07:20 Sailors on watch are charged with the safety of the ships,
07:23 greatest of responsibilities.
07:26 But in the transports, the troops
07:28 have little to do except relax, fool around, wait,
07:33 and try to forget what is ahead.
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09:30 Lectures, briefings, discussions
09:33 prepare all hands for the coming invasion.
09:36 The Americans come as friends.
09:38 But to crush Germany and thereby help Russia,
09:41 they must first wrest bases from France, the friend.
09:46 The French Vichy government in Europe
09:48 has pledged itself to defend its African colonies against all.
09:52 But whether the French will resist Americans,
09:55 how violently they will react, none can say.
09:59 So the friendly convoy must sneak
10:01 toward shore like an enemy.
10:02 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:05 Now the convoy lies off the coast of high Barbary.
10:15 Beyond lies Africa.
10:17 President Roosevelt announces the landings to the French
10:19 by radio and asks their help.
10:22 Then General Eisenhower urges the French
10:24 to turn their searchlights skyward as a token of welcome.
10:28 All hands hope and pray there will be no resistance.
10:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:34 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:00 H-hour comes in the hazy dawn of November 8, 1942.
11:05 The troops go ashore, still uncertain
11:08 whether they will be welcome to resist it, embraced or shot.
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11:15 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:18 The right signal, no resistance.
11:35 But the searchlights are deceptive.
11:40 The lights are hostile, not friendly.
11:42 The French are confused.
11:44 They have not heard the Allied broadcasts.
11:47 And military leaders loyal to the Vichy government
11:49 decide to fight.
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12:29 For the landing troops, no doubt remains now.
12:33 They will be resisted.
12:34 The shores are hostile.
12:36 The French are fighting.
12:39 But the assault proceeds as planned.
12:41 And the troops head for shore on either side
12:42 of Casablanca, the target.
12:45 And lying at anchor in the harbor of Casablanca,
12:48 more trouble.
12:50 Ships of the French Navy.
12:51 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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13:43 The battle for Casablanca continues
13:45 for three bitter days before the Vichy French surrender.
13:49 And the Free French and their American allies take over.
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14:31 Casablanca's harbor, a major prize.
14:40 But the victory is not without sorrow.
14:43 Americans and French who have fallen fighting one another
14:47 are buried side by side.
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14:56 A German commission sent to negotiate with the French
15:01 is trapped in Casablanca.
15:03 This, says the general who heads the delegation,
15:06 is the worst setback to German arms since 1918.
15:09 [MUSIC PLAYING]
15:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]
15:16 [MUSIC PLAYING]
15:41 [MUSIC PLAYING]
15:44 Meanwhile, the second Allied convoy
15:49 slips through the Straits of Gibraltar
15:51 and steams eastward for Oran and Algiers.
15:55 In Oran, there are vital airfields
15:57 and an important road network.
15:59 Algiers is the economic, political, and military center
16:02 of the entire area.
16:05 If the convoy can survive the Mediterranean gauntlet
16:07 of submarines and bombers, all of Northwest Africa
16:10 will fall into Allied hands in one swift stroke.
16:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]
16:17 With some help from the French, the tactics work.
16:33 The landings are the first major Allied victory
16:35 in the war against the Axis.
16:38 Three days after the first troops touched the beaches,
16:41 French North Africa is a fighting ally.
16:44 The French themselves are now free to join the march
16:46 against the common enemy.
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17:44 At their newly won seaports, the Allies
17:57 begin the enormous buildup of supplies in preparation
18:00 for the ultimate conquest of all North Africa.
18:04 General Montgomery and his 8th British Army,
18:06 a lashy Marshal Rummeland, is fleeing Africa
18:08 for 1,200 miles to the east.
18:11 In the west, the Allies must make
18:13 ready for a drive into the desert
18:15 to catch Rummel in his flight and squeeze him to death.
18:19 The campaign that began as an amphibious assault
18:22 becomes a grinding struggle for supplies.
18:24 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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19:13 The showdown for the Mediterranean is on.
19:21 All supplies, all Allied soldiers
19:23 must be brought in by ship.
19:25 The campaign depends on the ports
19:28 and the navies that control them.
19:30 [MUSIC PLAYING]
19:34 [MUSIC PLAYING]
19:38 [MUSIC PLAYING]
20:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
20:04 The British First Army spearheads the race
20:23 toward Tunis and Dezerte, key ports in Rummel's rear.
20:27 [MUSIC PLAYING]
20:30 But the Desert Fox and his unbroken Afrika Korps
20:46 reach Tunisia first, checking the Allied move
20:49 and nullifying the chance for a quick German defeat.
20:53 Rummel's dream of taking Suez is shattered,
20:56 but the Nazis still have a firm grip on North Africa.
21:00 They will not let go.
21:02 Into Tunisia, across the Mediterranean
21:04 narrows from Sicily, the Axis high command
21:07 sends streams of transport planes to reinforce Rummel.
21:11 Swiftly, efficiently, the Axis begins its own buildup
21:15 to counter the Allies.
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22:33 [EXPLOSION]
22:56 [MUSIC PLAYING]
23:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
23:02 But the Allies are now pushing Rummel from both ends,
23:05 from the east, from the west.
23:08 And they keep pushing him, and pounding him, and pushing him.
23:12 [MUSIC PLAYING]
23:16 [MUSIC PLAYING]
23:26 [MUSIC PLAYING]
23:30 Allied hands are at the Axis throat.
23:39 The pincers close.
23:41 The sands run out for Rummel.
23:43 [MUSIC PLAYING]
23:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]
23:50 Death of the Afrika Korps.
24:16 End of the Axis in Afrika.
24:18 Defeated in the Mediterranean on sea and sand.
24:22 Its obituary is written in the names of supply ports
24:25 which it could not hold, which marked the road to disaster.
24:31 Alexandria, El Alamein, Eldava, Mersa Matruh, Sidi Barani,
24:37 Saloum, Bardia, Tobruk, Gazala, Derna, Benghazi, El Agheila,
24:46 Sirte, Cuiraut, Isolata, Homs, Tripoli, Spax, Sousse, Cape
24:55 Bonn, Tunis, Bizerte.
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25:41 250,000 Axis prisoners.
25:44 With the 300,000 additional Germans lost at Stalingrad,
25:48 the face of fascism shows the first furrows of defeat.
25:52 It is not yet the beginning of the end,
25:56 but it is the end of the beginning.
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26:25 [Music]