For educational purposes
Ruins across Europe tell the story of Blitzkrieg, a revolution in warfare which almost gave Hitler the chance to create his Thousand Year Reich.
Ruins across Europe tell the story of Blitzkrieg, a revolution in warfare which almost gave Hitler the chance to create his Thousand Year Reich.
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00:00It's Nazi Germany's unstoppable combination of speed and firepower.
00:10The outside of this building is absolutely pockmarked with bullet holes.
00:14You can examine this structure forensically.
00:17A revolutionary strike force which gives Hitler the chance to conquer Europe.
00:25New weapons and tactics combine to create a giant machine that delivers lightning victories.
00:32It was a beautiful dive bomber.
00:35Fueled by cutting edge technology, it storms across battlefield after battlefield.
00:41It's an unstoppable force of fast and furious firepower.
00:45Scattered across Europe are the astonishing remains of the war machine that took Nazi
00:50Germany to the brink of winning World War II and changed warfare forever.
00:58This is the story of Blitzkrieg.
01:06The biggest construction projects of World War II, ordered by Hitler to secure world
01:12domination.
01:14Now they survive as dark reminders of the Führer's fanatical military ambition.
01:20These are the secrets of the Nazi megastructures.
01:28July 1941.
01:31In the skies over the Soviet city of Smolensk, Stuka dive bomber pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel
01:37searches for his target, 13,000 feet below.
01:52Any positions blocking our panzers advance are attacked immediately.
01:56Nothing is allowed to slow them down.
02:01Rudel is flying bombing missions in support of the largest military offensive in history.
02:08Operation Barbarossa.
02:11Commanding one of the tanks leading the invasion is Karl Fuchs.
02:15Yes!
02:16That's it, boys!
02:18Russian resistance is feeble.
02:20Wherever they try to stop us, we just brush them aside.
02:23The Stukas back us up 100%.
02:26The pilots are fantastic.
02:30Adolf Hitler has launched three million men in an all-out attack on the Soviet Union.
02:37Before three months have passed, we shall witness a collapse of Russia, the like of
02:43which has never been seen.
02:53Historian James Holland has travelled to Poland to find the secret headquarters controlling
02:58this huge invasion.
03:00Its codename is Mauerwald.
03:04Ah, yes, this is what I'm looking for.
03:06This is one of a large number of concrete bunkers that fill this entire wood.
03:12This is part of a huge complex that was the former field headquarters of the army just
03:18before Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.
03:23Mauerwald has been built to control this invasion, and the fighting technique known
03:29as blitzkrieg, or lightning war.
03:37As a historian, it feels very odd to be standing here so close to what was really the beating
03:44heart of the German army's operations on the Eastern Front.
03:50Slightly overwhelmed, really, with how important this place must have been back in 1941.
04:00The story of blitzkrieg begins in the aftermath of World War I, when a humiliated Germany
04:06is forced to accept the Allies' terms.
04:11The Treaty of Versailles reduces the German army to just 100,000 men, and bans it from
04:17having any tanks or aircraft.
04:20The development of both machines continues in secret.
04:25Then, in 1933, Hitler comes to power.
04:29He expands the army to half a million men, continues with tank production, and creates
04:35a new air force, the Luftwaffe.
04:40Hitler wants Germany to become the most powerful nation in Europe.
04:47But the latest weapons are not enough.
04:50He needs a way of defeating superior numbers as quickly as possible.
04:55Germany has always carried out quick wars.
04:57This is absolutely nothing new.
04:59And the reason is, is because they don't have enough resources for war themselves.
05:03So the theory is, get your victory quickly and decisively, and then you don't get drawn
05:09into a long war that you can't afford.
05:13In 1937, a new book seems to offer a solution to Hitler's problem.
05:21Called Aktung Panzer, or Lookout Tanks, it's written by Panzer General Heinz Guderian.
05:30He makes the claim that motorised forces can make the trench warfare of World War I
05:36a thing of the past.
05:40Guderian's new concept doesn't just depend on tanks.
05:44His idea is to combine all the attack elements of the army in a fully mobile, self-contained unit.
05:52The Panzer Division.
05:54A Panzer Division is made up of three different arms.
05:58It's made up of motorised infantry, motorised, mechanised artillery, and tanks as well.
06:04And the point is, they're all mutually supporting.
06:07Each can help the other.
06:09And together, they're a winning combination.
06:12The key to Panzer Division operations is speed.
06:18But the heavy artillery needed to take out major fortifications in their path is just too slow moving.
06:26The solution is pinpoint aerial attacks.
06:32In 1935, the Luftwaffe introduces a new aircraft, the Junkers Ju 87.
06:40It soon becomes better known as the Stuka, an abbreviation of Sturzkampfflugzeug, or dive bomber.
06:49Nearly 6,500 are built, but incredibly, only two survive intact.
06:56Luftwaffe historian Dr. James Coram is in Hendon in London to examine one of these legendary aircraft.
07:04Now look at this.
07:06This is a big, very heavy, very ugly airplane.
07:12I'm a pilot myself, and frankly, this does not look like it would be a fun aircraft to fly.
07:19Looking at this airplane, it must have been like flying a tank.
07:23There is a lot of massive armor plating around the pilot and the rear gunner and the engine.
07:31If you see this, it's an extremely sturdy airplane, but it's a very dangerous-looking aircraft.
07:37And that's because it was built for one reason, and that was to drop bombs on people.
07:42And it was very, very good at that.
07:45In the early part of World War II, this was Germany's most precise weapon.
07:51Underneath the pilot, from the pilot's view, you have a clear sighting area, and the pilot could acquire the target.
08:00When the pilot acquired the target, whether it's a rail junction, an enemy column, he would put in the dive brakes.
08:09And the one thing that was really special about the Ju 87 Stuka is that it would go beautifully, wing over, into a very steep dive.
08:22The Stuka's 80-degree dive angle means the bomb could hit the propeller if dropped straight off the aircraft.
08:28So the bomb is mounted on a cradle arm.
08:31This releases the bomb so that it clears the propeller on its way to the target.
08:36And it would drop its 500 or 1,000-pound bomb.
08:41It also carried, normally, a couple of 100-pounder bombs on the wings.
08:47So you'd come in, and it would drop five bombs together, taking out the target.
08:53It was a beautiful dive bomber, and it really, really worked.
08:59Stukas can be overhead in a fraction of the time it takes heavy guns to reach the battlefield, and can put their bombs within yards of the target.
09:09But dive bombing takes strong nerves and the strength to withstand G-force as the aircraft pulls up after dropping its bombs.
09:20Novice Stuka pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel struggles to make the grade.
09:25We learn to dive our aircraft at all angles, including vertically.
09:30The training is really tough, but the crews who make it through are experts.
09:35Constant physical training makes sure everyone is at the peak of fitness.
09:41The Stuka squadrons give Guderian the heavy punch he needs to blast a path for his panzer divisions.
09:49The components of the Nazi blitzkrieg machine are ready.
09:55Now comes the challenge of setting the machine in motion and controlling it on the battlefield.
10:05For Blitzkrieg to succeed, the Stukas must work hand-in-hand with another elite force, the tank crews.
10:14To give Hitler the best tank fleet in the world, new panzer training schools are set up.
10:23Military historian Dr. Peter Lieb is exploring one of the most important, at Wünsdorf near Berlin.
10:29This is the main entrance to Wünsdorf garrison.
10:33The young men who march through these gates knew they would form part of a new elite.
10:4480 years ago, this parade ground is packed with young men in their black shiny uniforms.
10:51Uniforms that distinguish them from the rest of the German army.
10:55Karl Fuchs is one of the young men who volunteer for the panzer force.
11:07For the first time, all of us were dressed in our Black Deaths head uniform.
11:11Now, more than anything, we want to see some action.
11:16Ah, look at this. A Panzerhalle. In English, a tank hall.
11:21This is where the Germans kept their tanks.
11:32Sheer size of it. 80 years ago, you can hear officers shouting their orders, NCOs doing drills with their men.
11:41It was not just training for peacetime, it was training and preparing for war.
11:46Two interesting details when we look here.
11:48First, this concrete block. What is it for?
11:53This block helps to protect the walls.
11:57If a tank reverses into the hall, and the driver is quite a novice,
12:03that he doesn't bump into this pillar and damages the hall.
12:07Also on top, you've got here some metal to protect the hall.
12:13Some metal to protect the hall.
12:16And here you can probably see that someone tried to go in or go out too fast.
12:23Some armoured warfare experts think tanks should operate independently.
12:29Guderian sees tanks as part of a synchronised force, along with infantry, engineer and artillery units.
12:37He gets his way, thanks to a powerful supporter, Hitler himself.
12:44Hitler believes that warfare is the way for Germany to become great.
12:50So he's fascinated with motors, he's fascinated with airplanes,
12:54he gets the idea that Germany's developed tanks, this is the way for the future.
13:00Hitler will enthusiastically support these kinds of weapons.
13:06Guderian now makes sure all the elements he wants in his panzer divisions function as an integrated team.
13:14As a junior officer, Guderian was attached several times to a signals unit.
13:19That made him aware of the importance of means of communication.
13:23And so he insisted the whole division, all elements should have radio communication.
13:29What's different about the panzer divisions is that all those different arms,
13:34infantry, artillery and tanks, are all connected by radio.
13:38And that gives them the crucial edge in mobility, manoeuvrability and flexibility.
13:45It's a revolutionary idea.
13:47Every tank can communicate with its unit commander,
13:51and he can call on the other elements of the division.
13:55It means that specialized units, including Stukas, can support the tanks at a moment's notice.
14:02Crucially, dive-bombing attacks can be synchronized with the ground forces' movements.
14:08Alongside close teamwork, Guderian demands initiative and drive from his panzer crews.
14:16Panzer soldiers were trained always to think two levels up of their chain of command,
14:22of their military hierarchy, in order to understand their role in the whole mission.
14:29It required a thinking soldier.
14:31It's not just the panzer crews who are taught to push forward at all costs.
14:36To keep up the relentless pressure of attack,
14:39Guderian trains his panzer division commanders to lead from the front.
14:43Over there! All of you, to the right!
14:46Specialized vehicles are produced to act as mobile command posts.
14:51This type of vehicle enables the panzer division to be able to move around the battlefield.
14:56This type of vehicle enables commanders like Guderian to rush from one focal point to the next focal point,
15:03so he could react flexibly to the ever-changing situation on the battlefield.
15:10Command vehicles are packed with extra radios and equipment needed to control motorized units.
15:17With its new mobile striking force and a system of command years ahead of its rivals,
15:22Germany is ready to revolutionize warfare.
15:26Blitzkrieg is the powerful new weapon Hitler needs to expand his Reich.
15:32But, like any machine, it needs one more crucial ingredient.
15:38Fuel.
15:44Some of Nazi Germany's most important megastructures are built on nuclear weapons.
15:49Some of Nazi Germany's most important megastructures are built to power the Blitzkrieg machine.
15:57James Holland has traveled to the former German town of Perlitz on the Baltic coast.
16:03Now part of Poland, it was the site of a revolutionary oil refinery, which helped make Blitzkrieg possible.
16:10Everywhere you turn in these woods, you can see remnants of the old Perlitz plant.
16:16Bits of concrete, bits of brickwork everywhere, and, oh, here's something pretty big.
16:21This is a very big structure.
16:23And it's not just one, there's two of them. These are clearly old oil storage tanks.
16:32If we have a look in here, Perlitz back in the war was just an enormous plant.
16:38I mean, the scale of it was really, really massive.
16:41In the 1920s, Germany imports most of its oil from America.
16:46In wartime, it would be all too easy for this vital supply line to be cut, starving the Blitzkrieg machine of fuel.
16:55But Germany has huge reserves of coal.
16:59A new process called hydrogenation, which turns coal into synthetic oil, could be the answer.
17:05At first, production is low because the process is so expensive.
17:09But cost means nothing to Hitler.
17:13When Hitler comes to power, he decides that Germany's got to become as self-sufficient as it possibly can, and that includes synthetic fuels.
17:21Perlitz here becomes one of the great synthetic fuel plants of the Third Reich.
17:26But there's a big catch with this process, and that is that it takes fuel to make fuel.
17:31Converting coal into oil is incredibly inefficient.
17:36It also requires dedicated, coal-hungry power stations to run the process.
17:42The synthetic fuel industry may be vital for Hitler's aircraft and tanks, but it's also a major drain on Germany's resources.
17:50Oh, my goodness, that is absolutely extraordinary.
17:54I've been warned that this milling plant was here, but when you see it, it's absolutely extraordinary.
17:59I've been warned that this milling plant was here, but when you see it, it's absolutely extraordinary.
18:07Before it can be converted to oil, the coal has to be pulverised.
18:13This mill here is the start of the synthetic fuel process.
18:17You have coal coming in, and it gets ground down, and look here, these are the flues through which the ground coal would drop.
18:26And actually, you can see stains of this whole process on the walls.
18:32And actually, down here, that's coal dust. That is 70-year-old coal dust.
18:39Germany is a world leader in chemical research.
18:43Now, some of its best scientists and most advanced equipment are sent to oil plants like Pölitz.
18:50Output increases dramatically until it makes up half Germany's total oil supply.
18:57Crucially, the Luftwaffe is almost totally reliant on synthetic fuel.
19:06A network of aerial pipelines carries Pölitz's fuel to be distributed around the Reich.
19:13Everywhere you look in amongst these trees, there's bunkers, broken structures, even bridges.
19:18But then again, you have to remember that there were 24,000 people working here.
19:23Three shifts a day, seven days a week, every single day of the year.
19:27This place was vast.
19:30But even with the synthetic oil, there's still only enough fuel to power a fraction of Hitler's forces.
19:36The armoured element and the tanks were only a minority of the German army.
19:41The vast majority was infantry and horse-drawn.
19:45Although it's still small and untested, Hitler believes his Blitzkrieg machine could be the weapon to lead Germany to victory.
19:55He decides to risk everything by swift and brutal action against his weakest enemy, Poland.
20:04If Blitzkrieg delivers, it can be turned on other nations before they learn from Poland's experience.
20:11Once the Blitzkrieg is launched in Poland in September 1939, Germany is taken on an unstoppable juggernaut.
20:18They've either got to have complete victory, or there's going to be Armageddon.
20:22This is the kind of black-and-white gambler's terms that Hitler completely understands,
20:26and he's absolutely prepared to take Germany down with him if it fails.
20:30The rush to war leaves the panzer force equipped with many lightly armed tanks, designed for training, not combat.
20:37But speed and superior tactics help them smash through Polish defences.
20:45When Hitler visits the front line, Guderian has a surprise in store.
20:52So this is what our bombers can do?
20:56No, mein Fuhrer, this was done by our panzers.
21:01Incredible.
21:03Thank you, mein Fuhrer. With your permission, there's more to see over there.
21:14The Stukas have also played their part, reaching ahead of the armoured columns to pulverise airfields and communication lines.
21:23Blitzkrieg has come through the test of battle.
21:26Now, Hitler will unleash its full power against the British and French.
21:36Spring 1940.
21:39Hitler's armies are lined up along the German border, facing those of Britain and France.
21:47But thanks to his Blitzkrieg machine, Hitler is sure there will be no re-run of the years of bloody stalemate.
21:53The big difference between 1914 and 1940 is that the point of the spear is so much more effective.
22:00And it's not just in terms of the panzer arm, but also the Luftwaffe as well.
22:05The German army will attack at two points.
22:09In the north, they'll cross neutral Belgium and the Netherlands to draw the Allies into battle.
22:14But at the same time, a crucial battle is about to begin.
22:18They'll cross the Netherlands to draw the Allies into battle.
22:21But at the same time, a crucial panzer thrust will be made further south,
22:26cutting the Allied armies off from the rest of France and surrounding them.
22:35The job goes to the architect of Blitzkrieg, Guderian.
22:40I will advance in three columns through Luxembourg and southern Belgium.
22:44Five days after the attack is launched, I will have reached the west bank of the Meuse.
22:52I will take my panzer straight to the Channel Coast.
22:59Guderian's objective on the river Meuse is the town of Sedan.
23:04The reason the Germans go for Sedan is because it's on the hinge of the Allied defences.
23:10Below is the Maginot Line. Well, they're not going to try going through that, that's just impregnable.
23:14But above that, at an angle, is the mobile defences of the Allies.
23:19The French, British, Dutch and Belgians. And this is the weak spot.
23:24The attack begins on the 10th of May, 1940.
23:28Now a final secret element of Blitzkrieg is revealed.
23:35For the first time in history, parachute troops are used to capture bridges ahead of the advancing Northern Army.
23:44Get in!
23:57Fire!
24:02The airborne forces are a really exciting development in warfare because they've never been tried before.
24:08And they can give you two things. They can give you a huge tactical advantage, but also a psychological one as well.
24:14And in the Blitzkrieg in 1940, they managed to achieve both.
24:20The airborne operations convince the Allies the Northern attack is a major threat.
24:25And they advance into Belgium to stop it.
24:30But 100 miles to the south, Guderian's mighty armoured force is moving through the heavily wooded area on the French border.
24:38The Ardennes.
24:44Conflict archaeologist Dr Tony Pollard is exploring this focal point in the battle for France.
24:51The French place great store in defence for their national security.
24:55There are places that they know they need to defend and they spend a lot of time building fortifications.
25:01But there are others that they think are impregnable.
25:04And looking back from this hillside at the forests of the Ardennes, it's really easy to understand why they think this place is impregnable.
25:11Split into three columns, Guderian's panzer force has to cover 60 miles through the Ardennes.
25:18Nearly 800 tanks and 22,000 other vehicles have to use its network of country roads and farm tracks.
25:28There are roads through the Ardennes, but they are not freeways.
25:31This little track is very typical.
25:33It's one tank wide.
25:34And the problem for the Germans is that they're bringing thousands of vehicles in here.
25:38They've got to drive their way through.
25:40And if you can't spread out, you've only got one option and that's go straight ahead.
25:44And it must have been a shock for those panzer drivers to come down this narrow road and suddenly be facing this.
25:52The Ardennes is not completely undefended.
25:55The French have built what are known as Maisons Fortes, or house strong points by some roads.
26:00And at 3 p.m. on the 12th of May, one column comes up against Maison Forte 11 in the valley of La Atrelle.
26:10There are only six French soldiers in this concrete box.
26:14But because of that narrow road, they can hold off the Germans.
26:18They've got them trapped.
26:20And from there, for a while, it must have been like shooting fish in a barrel.
26:24It's just a box in the middle of nowhere.
26:26But because they're determined, they manage to hold back these Germans for four hours.
26:33The men in Maison Forte 11 are completely isolated.
26:37But lined up nose to tail on the narrow track, only the lead panzers can target their bunker.
26:43The infantry join in the fight.
26:47The outside of this building is absolutely pockmarked with bullet holes.
26:50And if you look closely, they've got a story to tell.
26:53You can examine this structure forensically and work out what might have happened.
26:58We've got machine gun fire around that corner.
27:01That looks like it was probably the first shots fired by the Germans.
27:05They're trying to take out that position on the corner there, which may be spraying the road with machine gun fire.
27:11We've got the anti-tank embrasure here.
27:13But something different is happening here on this corner.
27:16Look at the damage here.
27:18They've blasted away the concrete, exposing the iron reinforcing rods.
27:22What that means is that at some point, the Germans have moved around onto the left flank of the position.
27:28This fire that's created this damage can only have come from over there.
27:33The Stuka force has to concentrate on the left flank of the position.
27:37They've got to make sure that the Germans don't get there.
27:39It can only have come from over there.
27:41The Stuka force has to concentrate on major targets.
27:45So the men in the panzer column have to take out the bunker themselves.
27:49They must keep to Guderian's blitzkrieg timetable.
27:53Just stepping in here, you get an idea of how claustrophobic it is.
27:57Six men, all using automatic weapons.
28:01You've got angles in every direction.
28:04And that's the real problem for the Germans.
28:06Looking through here, you've got clear lines of sight down onto that road.
28:10And this is where the anti-tank gun would have been.
28:13Again, targeted directly on the road.
28:18All of the mechanised armour components are in place here.
28:21All pointing at this blockhouse.
28:24The problem for the Germans, though, is that there's one vital element missing.
28:28And that's a heavy artillery element.
28:30And in this location, that would be delivered by the Stukas from the air.
28:34But they're busy elsewhere.
28:36And that's why, just because of that one missing piece of the jigsaw,
28:40these men, these six French soldiers, managed to hold off a German column for four hours.
28:48After a bitter fight, Maison Fort 11 is finally destroyed.
28:53And the column moves on.
28:56Guderian has reached the Meuse in just three days.
29:00Even faster than he planned.
29:02Now, he launches the next stage of his lightning advance.
29:08To get his tanks across the river, Guderian needs to take out French defensive positions.
29:15He calls in the Stukas.
29:20For five hours, they launch non-stop attacks.
29:24The French guns didn't dare fire a shot when the Stukas were overhead.
29:31While the Stukas pound the French defenders, Guderian's infantry cross the river in assault boats.
29:39Once they've established a foothold, his engineers build bridges for the tanks.
29:44A day later, the first panzer rolls across the Meuse.
29:48The greatest barrier facing the Germans is the river Meuse.
29:51And once you've broken through that, the floodgates are open.
29:54And really, it's all about charging hell for leather straight to the coast.
29:58In many ways, the breakthrough at Sedan is the high point of Blitzkrieg.
30:05Guderian's armoured spearhead can now roll on.
30:09All right, lads. Keep going.
30:12One tank man who's missed out on the panzer's incredible success is volunteer Karl Fuchs.
30:19We pull every string we can to get sent to a front-line unit, but it's useless.
30:25The war will be over before I hear a shot fired, and people will think I'm a coward.
30:31But it's not over yet.
30:33But it's useless.
30:35The war will be over before I hear a shot fired, and people will think I'm a coward.
30:42On the 20th of May, ten days after the attack on France began, Guderian's tanks reach the Channel coast.
30:51The German army has sliced clean through France, cutting off a superior force of more than a million Allied troops.
31:00A few weeks later, France surrenders.
31:04But there is to be no rest for the victorious men of the panzer force and their Stuka flying artillery.
31:12July 1940. The Blitzkrieg machine has proved itself in France.
31:18Now, Hitler has greater ambitions.
31:22Gentlemen, France is defeated.
31:25I congratulate you.
31:28And now, we must deal with Russia.
31:35Hitler sees the Communist Soviet Union and its huge army as Nazi Germany's most dangerous enemy.
31:42But since the war began, he's had to buy millions of barrels of oil from this hated rival to fuel his war machine.
31:50Now, by unleashing his Blitzkrieg on the Soviet Union, Hitler plans to help himself to all the oil and resources he needs to make the Third Reich a global superpower.
32:01For Hitler, this is his ultimate aim, to get into the Soviet Union.
32:06It's an economic war, political war, an ideological war as well.
32:11And for him, it's kind of all or nothing.
32:14Colossal building projects are started.
32:16Colossal building projects are started to turn Hitler's dreams of empire into reality.
32:23In present-day Poland, James Holland is exploring the remains of a canal system, intended to bring eastern resources back to Germany.
32:32Well, my goodness, that's just enormous.
32:37And you can see the branding there. It's quite sinister, really.
32:41I mean, that's so obvious what that symbol is. That would have been an eagle and a swastika.
32:47Like everything in Hitler's Germany, the canal is designed on an epic scale.
32:59And I'm guessing here is where the gates would have been.
33:02And you can see where they would have slotted in.
33:07You know, this is suggestive of a much more sinister ambition.
33:11Yeah, the scale of it, it's just... God, it blows you away. It really does.
33:16I've never seen anything like this before.
33:20Work on the canal stops when war breaks out.
33:24The workforce and building materials are needed to construct the huge new army headquarters at nearby Mauerwald.
33:31It'll be the brain controlling Hitler's giant army as it storms into the Soviet Union.
33:37Operation Barbarossa.
33:40Of all the bunkers in this vast complex, these two were the largest and most important.
33:45And back then, they were even bigger than they are now, because there were two huge wooden structures on top.
33:51These offices house the dozens of telephone and radio operators transmitting orders to the front line.
33:58And from the wooden huts up above, we go down into the operations room below.
34:05A bomb-proof shelter.
34:10And this is the hub. It's one of two communication bunkers, and it's from here that
34:15Operation Barbarossa is being controlled and commanded.
34:19It looks a bit dark and dank now, but...
34:23this would have been a room of light and activity, the sound of teleprinters and coding machines.
34:31You know, it's bomb-proof, this is a place where all the codes and ciphers go back and forth between here, the field headquarters,
34:38and the army headquarters.
34:40It's a place where all the codes and ciphers go back and forth between here, the field headquarters, and the army at the front.
34:47This is a place that never, ever goes to sleep. This is a place that never stops.
34:53Barbarossa is bigger than anything the world has seen.
34:57Three million men and more than 3,000 tanks will take on the Red Army.
35:03In the spring of 1941, Hitler sets out Barbarossa's timetable.
35:09Is everything ready?
35:12Our troops have received their orders to begin the attack at 3.30 a.m. on the 22nd?
35:19Excellent.
35:22Before three months have passed, we shall witness the collapse of Russia.
35:28The like of which has never been seen in history.
35:33He's certain that the panzers and Stukas of the Blitzkrieg machine can deliver once again.
35:40But they face a bigger challenge, with forces only slightly larger than they were in France.
35:46There was a Stuka force of about 300-something airplanes available to the active troops.
35:54300-something airplanes available to the active Luftwaffe units on the front.
36:00That's not a lot of airplanes.
36:03And, crucially, over 400 panzers have been destroyed in France.
36:08Despite this, Hitler orders the number of armored divisions to be doubled.
36:13There is only one solution.
36:16They grabbed everything from the captured vehicles from the French and from the Czechoslovakian stock.
36:21But with all these different types of models, this caused a huge logistical nightmare.
36:29Just keeping this assortment of vehicles on the roads becomes a major headache for panzer leaders like Guderian.
36:36This can't be right. The 6th Division reports only ten working tanks and one battalion non-operational.
36:43What the hell is going on? I don't care how, but I want that battalion mobile immediately!
36:52At 3.15 a.m. on the 22nd of June 1941, a massive bombardment opens the attack that Hitler says will make the world hold its breath.
37:08Panzer soldier Karl Fuchs at last gets his chance to see some action.
37:13Yesterday I took out another Russian tank. The second in three days.
37:17War isn't half as bad as they say, and we are hot on the heels of the Russians.
37:22Victory is just around the corner.
37:26Along a thousand-mile front stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea,
37:32panzers and Stukas use their better communications and tactics to smash through the Red Army's lines.
37:40It's a winning combination, but the Blitzkrieg machine's success begins to slow it down.
37:47The foot-slogging infantry divisions with their horse-drawn artillery are hundreds of miles behind.
37:54The panzers waste precious time waiting for them to catch up.
37:59Despite this, the Blitzkrieg machine still seems to be on course for another incredible victory.
38:10In June and July 1941, the Soviet Union suffers appalling casualties.
38:17Hitler is convinced his Blitzkrieg has succeeded.
38:23You see, gentlemen, it's as I said.
38:27The Red Army has numbers but no controlling brain.
38:32Another few weeks and the Bolshevik menace will be no more.
38:38Hitler is the arch gambler, and against France and the Low Countries he's rolled the dice,
38:43and against all the odds managed to pull it off.
38:45So he believes, like any gambler, that he can pull it off again.
38:49The problem is, is the timetable is so tight for Operation Barbarossa, it's just 12 weeks that they've got to do it in,
38:56and for them to achieve that victory, that complete annihilation of the Red Army,
39:02that timetable has to go exactly according to plan.
39:06But conditions in the Soviet Union are totally different to those in Western Europe.
39:11The bad roads and vast distances soon exhaust Germany's fuel supplies.
39:16Panzer losses become critical.
39:19The captured Allied tanks and vehicles are some of the first to fail.
39:24They all require different parts, and once they start to wear out and break down, there's no means of replacing them.
39:31The panzer divisions need their Stuka flying artillery more than ever.
39:37But Hans Ulrich Rudel and the other pilots are stretched to breaking point.
39:43We have reached the stage where even willpower isn't enough.
39:48We are just completely exhausted.
39:52The aircraft themselves are no longer fit to fly.
39:56What stops the Luftwaffe in front of Moscow is the fact they'd outrun their logistics.
40:02They're out of fuel, they're out of spare parts.
40:06Now another enemy attacks the German army.
40:10The Russian winter.
40:12The first snow has melted, leaving us up to our necks in mud.
40:16Even the tanks are bucked down, and trying to walk around is like wading through quicksand.
40:21You just can't move.
40:23Ferocious Soviet resistance and the terrible weather are too much for the worn-out men and machines of Hitler's blitzkrieg.
40:31The whole campaign has been so front-loaded, so completely geared to the fact that it's only going to last 12 weeks,
40:39that when it goes on into the autumn and then the winter, they're simply not prepared for it.
40:44And that goes down to such basics as winter clothing. There just isn't any at all.
40:48On the 21st of November, Karl Fuchs tries to hold back a Soviet counterattack.
40:53He's vulnerable in his Czech-built tank.
40:56Where? Where?
40:57Fuchs dies just 50 miles from the ultimate blitzkrieg objective, Moscow.
41:09Desperate to salvage the remains of his once-invincible panzer force,
41:14blitzkrieg leader Heinz Guderian tries to explain the situation to Hitler.
41:19Mein Führer, conditions for the men at the front are getting impossible.
41:23Their clothes are worn out and none of the winter uniforms we have been promised have arrived.
41:34Casualties from exposure and frostbite are climbing day by day.
41:40You are letting yourself be too deeply affected by your soldiers' problems.
41:46You must close your mind to these details.
41:50You have your orders.
42:11Hitler blames his generals for blitzkrieg's failure.
42:20Guderian is relieved of his command when he puts his men first and orders a retreat.
42:27Thinking about my men freezing to death out in the open makes it impossible to sleep.
42:32The staff back at Mauerwald have no idea what it's like in this frozen wasteland.
42:42Even at Mauerwald, the high command realizes its plans to defeat the Soviet Union in a matter of weeks.
42:50That ambition was a step too far for blitzkrieg.
42:54And when you look around at the empty, derelict bunkers now,
42:58what you are reminded of is the failure of that ambition.
43:01And really, the failure of blitzkrieg.
43:04Hitler's gamble he could smash the Red Army and plunder the Soviet Union has failed.
43:09Now he is trapped in a brutal war of attrition.
43:13On the eve of Barbarossa, Hitler has just one enemy, Great Britain.
43:17By the time that Barbarossa has eventually ground to a halt, the end of December 1941, he's got three.
43:24He's got Britain, United States and the Soviet Union.
43:28And they, together, have unparalleled access to resources and manpower.
43:33And with that, the Germans simply can never hope to compete.
43:37In the last months of the war, Hitler becomes obsessed with developing new superweapons to defeat the Allies.
43:43Rockets, jets and giant tanks.
43:47But none are able to deliver the same stunning success on the battlefield
43:52that made blitzkrieg the greatest Nazi war machine.