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00:00["Pomp and Circumstance"]
00:30["Pomp and Circumstance"]
00:56["Pomp and Circumstance"]
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01:56["Pomp and Circumstance"]
02:20In Washington, the Russian appeal comes in a black hour.
02:24Everywhere there is victory for the Axis.
02:26Nowhere can the democracies do more than hold their own.
02:30Action, bold, decisive action, can no longer be delayed.
02:35Roosevelt and Churchill must strike.
02:38But where? How?
02:40The statesmen of democracy ponder the issues and decide.
02:45Invasion, a second front.
02:48The orders go out to America, to England.
02:51The transatlantic planning begins.
02:54Target, top secret.
02:58In England, General Eisenhower,
03:00newly appointed American commander for Europe,
03:03directs the overall strategy.
03:05The United States has been at war only a few months,
03:08and her means is yet her limit.
03:10The Marines on Guadalcanal need all they can get.
03:14But the pressure of events is inexorable.
03:17The Allies cannot wait.
03:19And time will not wait.
03:21["Pomp and Circumstance"]
03:32In October, troops embark at English ports
03:34for the first joint Anglo-American offensive in World War II.
03:38The troops do not know their mission.
03:41They do not know that they are one prong
03:43of a sweeping double thrust at the axis in North Africa.
03:47The secret force is sought into the Mediterranean.
04:14["Pomp and Circumstance"]
04:20In America, the other prong of the assault
04:22is hurriedly forged at East Coast ports,
04:25where untried and untested troops,
04:27fresh from civilian life,
04:29are brought together for the greatest amphibious operation yet attempted.
04:33Four thousand miles of hostile sea
04:35lie between the crystal sands of Virginia,
04:38the granite rocks of Maine,
04:40and the far shore of North Africa.
04:43Many of the men have never heard of their destination,
04:46Casablanca, on French Morocco's West Coast.
04:50["Pomp and Circumstance"]
05:07Most of the troops have never been to sea before,
05:10and half the young sailors of the convoy
05:12are sailing the ocean for the first time.
05:15The Allies hope to trump some Axis tricks
05:17in a bold move which skeptics call premature.
05:21The chances of success are rated no better than 50-50.
05:26["Pomp and Circumstance"]
05:46Admiral Hewitt commands the American task force.
05:49Rumors circulate that the ships are headed south for maneuvers.
05:53But Task Force 34 is in deadly earnest.
05:56The operation is christened the Torch,
05:59and on these men and ships falls the job of lighting the torch
06:03and keeping it burning.
06:05["Pomp and Circumstance"]
06:12From America, from England,
06:15650 ships and the two convoys plod their precarious way,
06:19converging slowly on the whole northwest corner of Africa,
06:23moving jointly toward the target.
06:26Zigzagging past the submarine packs by day,
06:29steaming straight by night,
06:31the ships make the longest voyage ever ventured by an amphibious force.
06:35Get the soldiers across the vast and perilous sea safely.
06:39Land them on the barren and uncertain beaches safely.
06:43That is the sailors' job.
06:45["Pomp and Circumstance"]
07:15Sailors on watch are charged with the safety of the ships,
07:19greatest of responsibilities.
07:22But in the transports, the troops have little to do except relax,
07:26fool around, wait,
07:29and try to forget what is ahead.
07:32["Pomp and Circumstance"]
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09:31Lectures, briefings, discussions prepare all hands for the coming invasion.
09:36The Americans come as friends,
09:39but to crush Germany and thereby help Russia,
09:42they must first wrest bases from France, the Fren.
09:46The French Vichy government in Europe
09:48has pledged itself to defend its African colonies against all.
09:52But whether the French will resist Americans,
09:55how violently they will react, none can say.
09:59So the friendly convoy must sneak toward shore like an enemy.
10:03["Pomp and Circumstance"]
10:12Now the convoy lies off the coast of high Barbary.
10:16Beyond lies Africa.
10:18President Roosevelt announces the landings to the French by radio
10:21and asks their help.
10:23Then General Eisenhower urges the French
10:25to turn their searchlights skyward as a token of welcome.
10:29The Americans hope and pray there will be no resistance.
10:32["Pomp and Circumstance"]
11:01H-hour comes in the hazy dawn of November 8, 1942.
11:05The troops go ashore,
11:07still uncertain whether they will be welcomed or resisted,
11:10embraced or shot.
11:32The right signal. No resistance.
11:37But the searchlights are deceptive.
11:40The lights are hostile, not friendly.
11:42The French are confused.
11:44They have not heard the Allied broadcast,
11:46and military leaders loyal to the Vichy government decide to fight.
11:50["Pomp and Circumstance"]
12:19["Pomp and Circumstance"]
12:30For the landing troops, no doubt remains now.
12:33They will be resisted.
12:35The shores are hostile.
12:37The French are fighting.
12:39But the assault proceeds as planned,
12:41and the troops head for shore on either side of Casablanca, the target.
12:46And lying at anchor in the harbor of Casablanca,
12:48more trouble.
12:50Ships of the French Navy.
13:18["Pomp and Circumstance"]
13:44The battle for Casablanca continues for three bitter days
13:47before the Vichy French surrender,
13:49and the Free French and their American allies take over.
14:17["Pomp and Circumstance"]
14:37Casablanca's harbor.
14:39A major prize.
14:41But the victory is not without sorrow.
14:44Americans and French who have fallen fighting one another
14:47are buried side by side.
14:50["Pomp and Circumstance"]
14:59A German commission sent to negotiate with the French is trapped in Casablanca.
15:03This, says the general who heads the delegation,
15:06is the worst setback to German arms since 1918.
15:10["Pomp and Circumstance"]
15:40["Pomp and Circumstance"]
15:47Meanwhile, the second Allied convoy slips through the Straits of Gibraltar
15:52and steams eastward for Oran and Algiers.
15:55In Oran, there are vital airfields and an important road network.
16:00Algiers is the economic, political, and military center of the entire area.
16:05If the convoy can survive the Mediterranean gauntlet of submarines and bombers,
16:09all of northwest Africa will fall into Allied hands in one swift stroke.
16:14["Pomp and Circumstance"]
16:31With some help from the French, the tactics work.
16:34The landings are the first major Allied victory in the war against the Axis.
16:38Three days after the first troops touch the beaches,
16:41French North Africa is a fighting ally.
16:44The French themselves are now free to join the march against the common enemy.
16:49["Pomp and Circumstance"]
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17:41["Pomp and Circumstance"]
17:55At their newly won seaports, the Allies begin the enormous buildup of supplies
18:00in preparation for the ultimate conquest of all North Africa.
18:04General Montgomery and his Eighth British Army
18:06are lashing Marshal Rommel into fleeing Africa for the 1,200 miles to the east.
18:11In the west, the Allies must make ready for a drive into the desert
18:15to catch Rommel in his flight and squeeze him to death.
18:19The campaign that began as an amphibious assault
18:22becomes a grinding struggle for supplies.
18:25["Pomp and Circumstance"]
18:51["Pomp and Circumstance"]
19:18The showdown for the Mediterranean is on.
19:21All supplies, all Allied soldiers must be brought in by ship.
19:26The campaign depends on the ports and the navies that control them.
19:31["Pomp and Circumstance"]
20:00["Pomp and Circumstance"]
20:22The British First Army spearheads the race toward Tunis and Bizerta,
20:26many ports in Rommel's rear.
20:29["Pomp and Circumstance"]
20:44But the desert fox and his unbroken Afrika Korps reach Tunisia first,
20:48checking the Allied move and nullifying the chance for a quick German defeat.
20:53Rommel's dream of taking Suez is shattered,
20:56but the Nazis still have a firm grip on North Africa.
21:00They will not let go.
21:02Into Tunisia, across the Mediterranean Narrows from Sicily,
21:06the Axis High Command sends streams of transport planes to reinforce Rommel.
21:11Swiftly, efficiently, the Axis begins its own buildup to counter the Allies.
21:17["Pomp and Circumstance"]
21:38["Pomp and Circumstance"]
22:07["Pomp and Circumstance"]
22:36["Pomp and Circumstance"]
23:03But the Allies are now pushing Rommel from both ends, from the east, from the west,
23:08and they keep pushing him, and pounding him, and pushing him.
23:34Allied hands are at the Axis throat.
23:37The pincers close.
23:39The sands run out for Rommel.
23:42The sands run out for Rommel.
24:13Death of the Afrika Korps.
24:16End of the Axis in Africa.
24:19Defeated in the Mediterranean on sea and sand.
24:23Its obituary is written in the names of supply ports which it could not hold,
24:27which marked the road to disaster.
24:31["Pomp and Circumstance"]
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25:28["Pomp and Circumstance"]
25:41250,000 Axis prisoners.
25:44With the 300,000 additional Germans lost at Stalingrad,
25:48the face of fascism shows the first furrows of defeat.
25:53It is not yet the beginning of the end,
25:56but it is the end of the beginning.
26:26The end.