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00:00THE END
00:30THE END
01:00Six years of hard training and actual battle experience in Spain and Poland had made the German army look invincible.
01:29But what about the British and French? First, let's take up the British.
01:37They started from scratch, but both at home and abroad an army was growing. For not only Britain had declared war, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.
01:53The whole British Commonwealth of Nations was also determined on victory over Hitlerism and all it stands for.
02:00And Britain had one weapon that was ready, the Royal Navy. Shortly after war was declared, it had swept German shipping from the high seas.
02:09And units of the British fleet were deployed at Suez, Malta, Gibraltar, in the Channel, and in the North Sea, blockading Germany.
02:21World conquest was impossible without running smack up against the rock called Britain.
02:28How to strike at that little island? That was the question.
02:33Between Britain and Germany stood not only France, but the little countries of Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
02:42The people of these small, neutral countries were peaceful, hardworking, and free.
02:49They knew they were in the middle and feared violation of their neutrality.
02:54Hitler knew this. He also knew that if they united with the Allies, they would form a solid democratic wall against Nazi aggression and their conquest would be far more difficult.
03:06So before striking with his armies, he used another weapon, the propaganda barrage, to confuse, to make them lose faith, to divide and conquer.
03:19To lull the fears of the little neutrals, propaganda minister Goebbels told them Germany didn't want a war at all.
03:25It was Britain and France that caused all the trouble. Then it was Hitler's turn.
03:30In a speech on October 6, 1939, he made them all kinds of specific promises. To the Danes, he said, we have concluded a non-aggression pact with Denmark.
03:45To the Norwegians, he said, Germany never had any conflict with the northern states and has none today.
03:52To the Dutch, he said, the new Reich has endeavored to continue the traditional friendship with Holland.
04:01And to the Belgians, he announced, the Reich has put forth no claim which might in any way be regarded as a threat to Belgium.
04:09And while Hitler was making these promises, his generals were cold-bloodedly picking out the first victim, Norway.
04:16Norway. And why did they pick Norway?
04:21Its many steep inlets or fjords would make excellent U-boat bases, from which raiders could prey on British supply lines.
04:33Also, it would give the Nazis vital air bases.
04:37This is Stapa Flo, British naval base. And this, the blockade fleet.
04:41At this time, the German-based bombers couldn't reach them.
04:45Possession of bases on Norway's western shore would bring these vital British defenses under easy bomber attack.
04:52But he couldn't take Norway without also taking tiny Denmark, the springboard for his attack.
04:59So at dawn on April 9, 1940,
05:02The German army rolled across the neutral borders of Little Denmark.
05:12And in a matter of hours, it occupied the entire country.
05:17By nightfall, Denmark is erased as a nation.
05:20And the Danes go into slavery.
05:22Although only six months before, Hitler had announced,
05:25We have concluded a non-aggression pact with Denmark.
05:30The Danes will not forget.
05:35Meanwhile, in Norway, peaceful-looking German merchant ships like these had sneaked inside Norway's neutral waterway.
05:42And tied up at all principal ports.
05:45That is, they looked like merchant ships.
05:48But if the Norwegians had had X-ray eyes, this is what they would have seen.
05:51The Trojan horse of ancient Greece brought up to date with new and deadlier weapons.
05:57At the precise moment that the Nazis overran Denmark, these quiet-looking ships sprang to life.
06:04At the same time, Nazi warships, discovered along the entire coastline, started steaming up the Norwegian fjords.
06:23Ships, transports, tanks, men, planes, all flung themselves simultaneously upon a defenseless country.
06:26Airborne infantry seized every strategic Norwegian airport.
06:40The whole job was made easier by treacherous fifth columnists, led by Major Quisling, who seized power and issued orders to suppress resistance.
06:50Nazi warships steamed past silent guns that could have blasted them out of the water.
06:56This was one of the most amazing acts of treachery the world has ever known.
07:01It brought Major Quisling international fame, making his very name synonymous with the word traitor.
07:09By the afternoon of April 9th, the Germans were in complete control of all seven ports where they had landed in the morning.
07:15For the first time in more than 200 years, the people of Norway saw an invading army parading through their cities.
07:34Many of these Nazi soldiers, strutting as conquerors in 1940, had last seen Norway some 20 years earlier, when, as refugee German children, they had been raised and cared for by kind Norwegians.
07:48Now these same Germans were back to repay that kindness with terror and destruction.
07:57Once they had occupied the capital, the Nazis quickly fanned out in all directions.
08:02But loyal Norwegian troops stopped one German column between Hamar and Elverem.
08:07So the Germans brought up their bombers.
08:25The Norwegians were forced to flee to the north under constant and unopposed air attack.
08:40It was here that Captain Robert Lozze, an American military attache, was killed, the first American soldier to lose his life in this war.
09:02Meanwhile, the Nazis had spread all over the country.
09:06Small patrols occupied every strategic village.
09:10Parachute troops landed high in the mountains.
09:23Unopposed bombing raids sent defenseless civilians fleeing in stark terror.
09:36They hadn't wanted war.
09:45They had done everything to avoid it.
09:46Hoping they could escape the Nazi scourge, they had compromised.
09:51And tragically failed to unite with the other democracies.
09:52And now they faced the scourge defenseless and alone.
10:01For before the Allies could come to their aid, the Germans were in control of all principal ports.
10:05Regardless of this, British, French, and Polish contingents plunged in and made several landings along the Norwegian coast.
10:19They landed forces north and south of Trondheim and attempted an encircling movement on the city under constant, heavy, and almost entirely unopposed air attack.
10:38For the scene of action was out of range of British fighter planes.
10:48So they brought up aircraft carriers.
10:51But these are at a disadvantage when opposed by land-based planes.
10:55The Allies, therefore, were badly battered from the air.
10:59Finally, suffering heavy losses, they withdrew from a hopeless situation.
11:06Further to the north, at Narvik, they met with better success, inflicting heavy naval losses on the Nazis.
11:25They made landings and held the town for nearly two months.
11:43Incidentally, they also took their first prisoners of the present war.
11:54Again, the Nazis' overwhelming air superiority proved a deciding factor.
12:06The Allies were forced to withdraw under terrific air bombardment.
12:24The Allies were forced under very large amounts of military forces on the banks.
12:27The Allies were forced to withdraw from the forest, or the authorities'
12:53Loyal Norwegians were left with their Quisbings, their ruins, their debt, even though six months
13:04before Hitler had said, Germany never had any conflict with the northern states and
13:10has none today.
13:13The Norwegians will not forget.
13:18Hitler had another victory. He had hijacked two more countries. The world wondered and
13:25sometimes marveled at this man's efficiency. Gangster Dillinger was efficient too.
13:40When a man or a nation throws away all regard for the laws of God and man, he is bound at
13:44first to be more efficient than his victims.
13:47Germany had a police force to deal with gangster Dillinger, but it had no police force to
13:52deal with gangster Hitler. So he clubbed Norway into submission and got what he wanted, bases
13:57for use against Britain. Now he had the northern claw of an enormous pincer movement. A drive
14:04through France would give him the southern claw. Blockade by U-boats coupled with mass bombing
14:08attacks would weaken the British for final invasion. Then, with Britain gone, Germany could reach
14:14out in all directions for world conquest.
14:19His next move must obviously be through France to get his southern claw. Through France. How was she
14:32the key to face the onslaught?
14:36These scenes are ancient history. They occurred in 1914. The German armies, without warning, had smashed across
14:44neutral Belgium. Invaded France. Reached the River Marne, only a few miles from Paris.
14:50Out of the French capital poured the French reserves, riding out to battle the enemy in every vehicle that
14:57could move. The famous taxicab army. Note well, it was riding out to battle. In the center of the French line
15:06stood the 9th French army, commanded by a then comparatively unknown general. On September 5th, 1914, he is reputed to have said,
15:12My right is driven in. My center is giving way. The situation is excellent. I attack.
15:25He did attack. The German arms slot was checked, and Paris was
15:55saved. That comparatively unknown general later became commander-in-chief of all the allied armies, and presided for signing of the armistice with the defeated Germans on November 11th, 1918.
16:07To this general, the French people erected a monument. To Marshal Ferdinand Poche, whose motto was, Attack. Always attack.
16:20Still later, the war-weary French people erected another monument. This one to a minister of war, Andre Maginot.
16:29Between the ideas symbolized by these two statues, may well lie the military story of the fall of a great nation.
16:38In fascist time, the proud spirit of France demanded nothing less than victory, and placed its faith in the attack.
16:47In Maginot's time, the spirit no longer proud, asked only to avoid defeat, and placed its faith in concrete.
16:59So the French built the mighty chain of fortresses called the Maginot Line. These tremendous bastions were built deep into the French land.
17:15They were connected by underground passages and railways, guarding France's eastern borders facing Germany.
17:24And when France was finally forced to declare war against the rising Nazi menace, the French troops, instead of attacking, were marched into their modern caves to wait for the Nazi blitz to smash itself against the Maginot Line.
17:39And their generals, headed by Marshal Pater, proudly announced, whoever makes the first move in this war will be hurt.
17:50But Hitler didn't go near the Maginot Line. That was France's strong point. Instead, he attacked the weak point.
17:59Hitler knew that the French had tried to avoid war instead of preparing for it. That knowledge was one of his greatest weapons.
18:08He knew they had planes, but he knew they were antiquated. He knew they had tanks, but he knew they were few in number and lightly armored.
18:17But most important of all, he knew that France had become a cynical and disillusioned nation.
18:24What made this change in the French spirit? In the first place, between 1914 and 1918, the French suffered more than six million casualties in the heroic defense of their land against German invasion.
18:37The flower of an entire generation was lost, with its stimulus of new blood, new determination, new ideals.
18:46Secondly, the failure of the League of Nations, to which the French had pinned their hopes of peace.
18:53The corruption of many in high places, the greed of special interests, all had combined to shake the faith of the French people in their democratic ideals.
19:04And when a people loses its faith in its own ideals, it is ripe for the insidious words of the devil.
19:11France still looked like an imposing castle, but Hitler's political termites had so gnawed away the binding of national unity that the castle was ready to crumble.
19:23And during those months of military inactivity that we called the Phoney War, a ceaseless barrage of German propaganda crossed the still world.
19:26And during those months of military inactivity that we called the Phoney War, a ceaseless barrage of German propaganda crossed the still world.
19:30waters of the Rhine to affect the soldiers in the Maginot Line to affect the soldiers in the Maginot Line.
19:37Why do you fight?
19:38Why do you fight?
19:39asked the banners.
19:40Poems and friendly notes were sent over by banners.
19:41And during those months of military inactivity that we called the Phoney War, a ceaseless barrage of German propaganda crossed the still waters of the Rhine to affect the soldiers in the Maginot Line.
19:58Why do you fight?
19:59Why do you fight?
20:00asked the banners.
20:01Why do you fight?
20:02asked the banners.
20:03Poems and friendly notes were sent over by balloons.
20:09French tunes were played by German bands.
20:12And German hui was broadcast in French.
20:17The British will fight to the last drop of French blood.
20:24You have been deceived.
20:26This was an imperialistic war for Britain.
20:30We Germans want nothing of France.
20:34What is happening to your wives back home, soldiers?
20:37The British are stationed in your villages.
20:41Yes, France was ready to be plucked.
20:45The whole force of the Nazi might was turned toward the west.
20:49How would they strike this time?
20:52Through Alsace-Lorraine as in 1870.
20:56Through the Low Countries as in 1914.
20:59What was the 1940 model conquest?
21:02The French considered the Maginot Line utterly impregnable and therefore believed the Germans would again try to swing through the Low Countries as in 1914.
21:11But even after Hitler's rape of Scandinavia, Holland and Belgium, hoping against hope, still clung to their neutrality.
21:19So the French masked 78 divisions here along the border of Belgium.
21:2517 were in the Maginot Line.
21:27Ten divisions here in case Mussolini got bold.
21:31Three and a half as a safeguard against Spain.
21:34The British had ten divisions here.
21:36The Allied strategy in the event of an attack against the Low Countries was to swing their armies like a gate into Belgium.
21:44The hinge being the north end of the Maginot Line.
21:48This all-important hinge was protected by the Forest of the Ardennes.
21:53A hilly and thickly wooded area, honeycombed with streams, its roads narrowed trails, its bridges too weak for military vehicles.
22:03French strategists estimated the Forest of the Ardennes impossible for armored forces.
22:08As you will see, this was one of the costliest estimates in all military history.
22:13That was the situation on May 9, 1940.
22:27The hour of trial had come.
22:29The people of the democracies prayed for strength to meet the coming hurricane of terror.
22:54They crossed the Rhine.
22:55A delirious madness possessed the German nation.
23:12And as Dauererscheinung.
23:14For us, our foremost.
23:16For the Drehführung der Allgemeinen.
23:19Immer wieder herniedersteigen.
23:21Und dass man die Wahrheit über Deutschland berechnet.
23:2350.000.
23:24Man auf den Baustellen der ganz Deutschland erfasste.
23:27Ãœberall herrscht seit einem Jahrregel.
23:30Und für den Deutschen hekt.
23:32Die Freiheit, seine Rasse hält.
23:34Hitler aber ist Deutschland wie Deutschland.
23:37Deshalb bin ich nicht zu uns gehört.
23:40Die Freiheit!
23:55Die Freiheit!
24:00Die Freiheit!
24:02Die Freiheit!
24:07Fire! Fire!
24:09Fire!
24:11Fire!
24:13The tag had come.
24:37Without even bothering to declare war, the German armies launched a coordinated attack across the neutral borders of Luxembourg, Belgium, and Holland, from the Maginot Line north to the sea.
25:05The action along the entire front was simultaneous, so for purposes of clarity, let's take up one country at a time.
25:13First, let's see what happened in Holland.
25:17Maxi ground forces smashed through the improvised and hastily erected border defenses, but the main attack was to come from the air, far behind the defense lines.
25:35The most recent attack was to come from the air, far behind the defense lines.
26:15Over 10,000 troops were landed in this manner.
26:42Before the stunned citizens of Rotterdam even knew they were at war, these troops, aided by well-trained fifth columnists, quickly captured the airport in outlying sections of the city.
26:53Meantime, Nazi armored columns were racing across the country, their progress speeded by other fifth columnists who prevented the destruction of vital dikes and bridges.
27:08These forces effected a meeting with the parachutists landed in Rotterdam. The Dutch were doomed to defeat.
27:18On the fourth day of the invasion, the Nazis gave the Dutch general an ultimatum. All Dutch resistance must cease or Rotterdam will be bombed flat.
27:31The Dutch general had little choice. To save the lives of innocent civilians, he accepted the German terms. But after the unconditional surrender, the Nazis bombed the city anyway.
27:48Fights of unopposed German bombers flew low over the center of Rotterdam and methodically bombed it into a heap of rubble.
28:03The Germans went into a heap of rubble.
28:05rap
28:06That's right.
28:08Oh, my God.
28:38Oh, my God.
29:08Oh, my God.
29:38One of the most ruthless exhibitions of savagery the world has ever seen.
29:55Over 30,000 men, women, and children were killed in the space of 90 minutes.
30:03Though only six months before, Hitler had said, the New Reich has endeavored to continue the traditional friendship with Holland.
30:12The Dutch will not forget.
30:15Meantime, in Belgium, the whole force of Nazi blitzkrieg has stormed across its neutral borders.
30:22The main German attack was directed at the Albert Canal-Mers River line.
30:34The anchor of which was Fort Ibn Amayo, a modern and seemingly impregnable fortress.
30:39The Germans had secretly built a replica of the mighty fortress in Czechoslovakia and had rehearsed the attack until they knew every detail of the fort's construction and its every weakness.
30:50When the real attack came, it was foolproof.
30:53Parachute troops, dive bombers, plane throwers, specially trained engineer battalions, all working together as a well-trained team.
31:03They knew exactly where to cross the river.
31:33Let's see about the tremor and crew grow up and it came.
31:36Let's have a good night before we go.
31:39Come on!
31:42Come on!
31:43Come on!
31:45Come on!
31:47Come on!
31:49Come on!
31:52Come on!
31:53Let's go.
32:23You will notice that this assault engineer knows exactly where to put his high explosive charge in order to destroy the blockhouse.
32:53Fort Eben Amal withstood the Nazi attack exactly two days, and the German armies rolled on.
33:08Meantime, an hour and a half after the German invasion began, allied troops crossed the French and Belgian border to meet the advancing Germans.
33:18As they raced across Belgium to take up their defense positions, they met an obstacle they hadn't counted on.
33:36Refugees.
33:38And the refugee choked roads didn't get that way by accident.
33:56The Nazis methodically bombed little towns and villages, otherwise devoid of any military value, not so much to kill as to drive the inhabitants out onto the highway.
34:12Then, by expert machine gunning, the Nazis would herd them along in terror-stricken flight and hopelessly entangle the advancing allied armies.
34:24Refugees used as a weapon of war, a new law in inhumanity.
34:41The Nazis were wrapped around the U.S.
35:02The End
35:32The End
36:02No school today, the sign says.
36:17The children are otherwise occupied.
36:19No, no school today.
36:34Although only six months before,
36:58Hitler had announced,
37:00the Reich has put forth no claim
37:02which might in any way be regarded
37:04as a threat to Belgium.
37:06The Belgians will not forget.
37:13And what about the Allies?
37:15They were convinced that the German attack
37:17on Belgium and Holland was the main threat,
37:20and according to plan,
37:21it swung their armies like a gate into Belgium.
37:24But the attack on Belgium and Holland
37:26was only a feint.
37:29The main German attack was to be centered
37:31where the Allies least expected it,
37:33through the Ardennes forest.
37:35For this decisive blow,
37:37they had secretly assembled
37:38the mightiest striking force
37:39the world had ever seen,
37:41including 45,000 armored vehicles.
37:44at the same time
37:57that the Nazi armies were plunging
37:59into Holland and Belgium,
38:00this column started to move.
38:02Well-trained engineer battalions went first.
38:30They were opposed only by
38:44scattered Allied patrols.
38:45They cleared pathways for the times to follow.
39:05They cleared pathways for the times to follow.
39:07against the Allies,
39:08the Nazis are going to go
39:10to Hungary where built.
39:11While World Union dwelt
39:13is notThe lighter,
39:14the Allies helped drive
39:15for the Alsie to which
39:16will officially be the best
39:18but also the Agora liz.
39:20The Germans still won up
39:21at the other hand
39:23where they were remaining.
39:27They are due to that
39:28since the Allies
39:30in a печ-like
39:31onwards.
39:33Or once had gone
39:34orieis
39:36In three days, the Germans' armored force reached the Mers River, two days faster than
39:51the French thought any troops could get through.
39:54By old rules, the Germans should have paused here to bring up heavy artillery before attempting
39:59to force the river.
40:00But the Nazis had a new type of artillery, diatharmic, and then they blasted the French positions
40:08across the Mers.
40:15With feverish haste, the Germans laid a barrage across the river with anything and everything
40:20that would shoot.
40:30This tremendous concentration of firepower continued all through the night.
40:55By the following day, shop troops were able to get across the river.
41:02By the following day, shop troops were able to get across the river.
41:21The End
41:23The End
41:24The End
41:25The End
41:26Mm-hmm, are we?
41:27You hit my heart diye a bit of a lithium coming off?
41:29The End
41:31How did we get an diarrhea here?
41:32adrenalina
41:33This is a box of robots.
41:35Greetings,
41:37Ganesh, how do youоду out himself?
41:38How did youợ your children, how am I?
41:40How did you drive?
41:41You were among them all you for.
41:42A ominous
41:51I need another murder, and
41:52my Chennai
41:55These shock crews sell the bridgehead until the engineers brought up tauntons and built bridges.
42:00Then, without wasting a moment, across these bridges, the main armored force of the German
42:30military machine rolled through the Sedan for the all-important breakthrough into a dismayed
42:36and flat-footed France.
42:42There went the old ballgame for the allies.
42:45From here on, it was only a matter of how long.
42:49Watch the map as one of our intelligence officers explained the details of the German breakthrough.
42:55You speak of the breakthrough at Sedan, but actually, the break was along a wide front,
43:00extending for 50 miles from Namur in Belgium to Sedan.
43:04Further north, the Allied armies had swung like a gate into these positions.
43:09The German armies had swept over Holland, broken the line of the Albert Canal,
43:15and, for all anyone knew, were preparing to smash against the Allied front with all their power.
43:21That was the situation, dangerous but obscure, on the evening of May 13th.
43:27On the 14th and 15th, it became clear that the German breakthrough south of Namur was in the greatest strength,
43:34and that the French 9th Army, attacked while moving into position, had been shattered.
43:41Without doubt, this was the point of mortal danger,
43:44and the French High Command ordered the abandonment of these positions,
43:49although they had not yet been attacked.
43:51Those positions were abandoned solely because of the situation developing along the Meurs near Sedan.
43:58In the meantime, the French 7th Army had been ordered to make its historic forced march far to the south,
44:10into the area threatened by the rapidly advancing German spearheads.
44:15This army was not used to attack the German flank, but rather was used as a plug to restore the broken front.
44:23Throughout, the Allies had placed their fate not in offense, but in defense,
44:28and the defense was doomed to failure because it was confronted with an entirely new technique in warfare,
44:35the playing tank infantry team in action.
44:39The world was staggered by the speed with which the German armored columns moved.
44:44What was the secret that enabled armies to move so far so rapidly?
44:49The secret lay in the organization of the striking spearhead.
44:53Armed forces came first, closely followed by motorized divisions,
44:58which peeled off, forming solid walls.
45:02And through the corridor, thus formed, raced the supply trucks to feed the ever-lengthening column.
45:10It was obvious that if the Allied situation was to be restored, the German column would have to be cut.
45:18On May 17th, General de Gaulle attacked the German flank and captured a few prisoners.
45:25But his light-mechanized forces were like a pin pricking the side of a rhinoceros.
45:31A subsequent attack met with even less success.
45:37The means for a really successful counterattack against the German corridor simply did not exist.
45:47Where numbers of divisions were required, only handfuls of companies and battalions were available.
45:56A valiant attempt to cut the German corridor was made by a group of slow-moving British tanks just south of Arras.
46:07But lack of sustained striking power doomed this valiant unit to destruction.
46:13On May 21st, the German spearhead reached the channel port of Abbeville.
46:20Protecting their flank along the Somme, the Germans fanned out to the north and east.
46:27This was to be the perfect battle of annihilation.
46:31On May 28th, the Belgian army, compressed into a small space and weary of battle, laid down its arms.
46:40That left the desperate French and British defenders with their backs to the sea at the small channel port of Dunkirk.
46:50One of the greatest disasters in history seemed in the making.
46:54An entire British army faced annihilation.
46:57But out of the fog and the mist, shrouding the channel, came a strange armada.
47:02Navy craft, fishing boats, pleasure yachts, anything that would float.
47:08The seagoing people of Britain had come to rescue their army.
47:12High overhead British fighter planes fought the Luftwaffe to a standstill.
47:17While below, small allied suicide units held the Germans back long enough for the miracle of Dunkirk to take place.
47:47Two hundred and eleven thousand five hundred British troops, plus a hundred and twelve thousand five hundred French and Belgian were rescued.
47:57Over three hundred thousand battle-tested men, grimly determined to go back again with new tools.
48:04New weapons with which to blast the hated Nazis out of this world.
48:08For free men are like rubber balls.
48:11The harder they fall, the higher they bounce.
48:14Leaving the British by this time was a man who had been bouncing all his life, Winston Churchill.
48:20Who had tried for years to warn the world about Germany.
48:23Meantime, the situation that faced France was as nearly hopeless as a military situation can be.
48:30Two fifths of the French army was lost.
48:33There were fewer than fifty divisions left to defend the front almost two hundred miles long.
48:39Running from the northern end of the Maginot Line to the sea.
48:42And behind that thin front line, there were no reserves.
48:47The despairing people of Paris sent their children south, praying that some miracle would keep them from harm.
48:56The hopeless men of the French army, without adequate arms or equipment, braced themselves for the coming blow.
49:13The first blow fell on June 5th.
49:17The French resistance was determined.
49:19But by June 8th, the left flank army had been shattered.
49:22And a general withdrawal was ordered to the line of the Mon and the Seine.
49:26On June 9th, the German main attack came.
49:31Within two days, the German armored and motorized divisions roared out into the open terrain.
49:38With this breakthrough, the issue of the Battle of France was decided.
49:42And from that time on, there was official talk of an armistice.
49:49Now, what about the famous Marginot Line?
49:53Let's go back and take a look.
49:55On June 14th, the Germans launched two attacks against the Marginot Line.
50:01In both cases, penetrations were affected.
50:04But we must remember that this was against fortifications defended by men devoid of hope.
50:10In the meantime, Mussolini, now thinking it's safe, sent his division racing across the border.
50:21The hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor.
50:29Organized resistance in France was no longer possible.
50:42The government faced two alternatives.
50:44Retire to North Africa and carry on from there, or give up the struggle.
50:49France's leaders were old and tired.
50:52And the oldest and most tired was Marshal Pétain.
50:56Egged on by men like Laval, who saw in a German victory his chance for personal power,
51:02on June 16th, Pétain asked for an armistice.
51:06The news is carried to Hitler, who received this word of a great nation's fall in a characteristic manner.
51:13Also characteristic were his terms for the armistice.
51:20It must be signed in the coach where Marshal Frosch met the defeated Germans in the last war.
51:43The French delegation arrived to pay the final price of French disunity and the treachery of some of its leaders.
51:56The final price.
51:58A price that for centuries to come, the French won't forget.
52:03More than three-fifths of their country was to be blacked out by a military occupation.
52:13The remainder was to be controlled by a French government acceptable to Hitler.
52:18A tax of 400 million francs a day was to be imposed on the French people to support the German army of occupation.
52:27Nearly two million French prisoners of war were to be taken into Germany and kept there as hostages,
52:34to work as slaves or rot of hunger, tuberculosis or other diseases in concentration camps.
52:42Men deliberately and permanently separated from their families in order to decrease the French birth rate
52:50and thus eliminate France as a world power in future generations.
52:54French civilians, men, women and children, must slave on farmer and factory for the Nazi master race or starve.
53:06There will be a class of subject alien races.
53:10We need not hesitate to call them slaves.
53:13French children were to grow up on such inadequate food that many would reach the age of 12 before they grew new teeth.
53:22And for any attempts to protest against these restrictions, thousands of innocent French civilians would be executed.
53:34This was the price the French were to pay as they signed the armistice.
53:41And the master of the master race must go to Paris to tour the streets of what was once the city of light.
53:50You notice no cheering crowds here to welcome in the new order.
53:55When the people of Paris come to the streets again, it is to hear the voice of dictators telling them what they must do,
54:11how they must live, what they must say, what they must think, telling them how to be slaves.
54:23Gone is the Republic of France.
54:26Gone is free speech and a free representative government.
54:30Gone is liberty, equality, fraternity.
54:34These French, with their ears they listen, but their minds and their hearts, these are down on the Mediterranean,
54:44where the battle colors of the regiments are being taken to Africa, out of the Nazi grasp.
54:50The people weep as their glory departs, for they don't as yet know that France has hope, a rallying point.
54:57Charles de Gaulle, a soldier in the great tradition of Foch, is not surrendering.
55:03He will continue to fight, gathering about him loyal Frenchmen from all over the world,
55:09to become the Free French Army, the Fighting French.
55:14Yes, the people weep as they watch their colors go, not knowing that two years later,
55:20those same flags would again be unfurled in North Africa.
55:24Alongside the Stars and Stripes, alongside the Union Jackets.
55:31Once more, their leaders, General de Gaulle and the famous, united in the common cause with the leaders of their allies.
55:38Once more, the red, white, and blue of France is raised on high.
55:43For out of the ashes of the defeat and the humiliation of France, her soul has been born again.
55:51The Red, white, and blue of France, her soul has been born again.
55:54The Red, white, and blue of France, her soul has been born again.
55:56The Red, white, and blue of France, her soul has been born again!
55:57The Red, white, and blue of France, her soul has been born again.
56:01Woo, woo, woo!
56:12Woo, woo, woo!
56:16Woo!
56:20Woo, woo!
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