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00:00To be continued...
00:30During the interwar years, the future commanders of the German Panzer Armies led a strange existence.
00:45Respectable professional soldiers like Heinz Guderian were reduced to working in secret.
00:51The Treaty of Versailles had totally prohibited the use of tanks in the German army.
00:56But with the help of Soviet Russia and the covert assistance of a small team of engineering specialists using disguised agricultural equipment,
01:04Guderian and his colleagues managed to keep pace with developments in tank warfare.
01:10Despite the difficult conditions, they even managed to develop some new innovations of their own.
01:15They could see the advantages that the tank could bring to the next war,
01:19and they developed new theories that centered on the use of the tank.
01:23Theories that would revolutionize the way wars would be fought.
01:29Despite the problems of convincing his superiors of the advantages of the tank,
01:33Guderian in particular stuck to his secretive task.
01:36With determined persistence and the help of some impressive demonstration exercises,
01:41he convinced both the German General Staff and Adolf Hitler that the tank could help to win future wars.
01:49I'm standing here in Bovington Tank Museum in front of the Panzer I,
01:54which was one of the main stays of the Panzer Force in 1939.
01:59This is a command version, so it's actually slightly higher than the normal Panzer I.
02:04But as you can see, it's not the great juggernaut of legend.
02:08It's a very small machine. In many respects, it's not much larger than, say, a modern Land Rover.
02:15But there were probably 1,500 of these in service in 1939 and in 1940, because there was no alternative.
02:23There's no denying that a tank like the Panzer II is a lightweight.
02:27The gun, 20mm cannon, wouldn't really do anyone any serious harm.
02:31Armour thickness is not particularly brilliant.
02:34It's probably as good an example of any, of the fact that it's often how a tank is used,
02:39or how armour is used collectively, that is far more important
02:42than the actual might of the gun or the thickness of the armour.
02:47As a result of Guderian's efforts, in 1935 the first Panzer Divisions were formed.
02:53Every arm had to be presented in the Panzer Division,
02:57to make the Panzer Division almost a small army in its own right,
03:02not to depend on anybody else.
03:04These formations included a tank brigade with 560 tanks to provide the main firepower.
03:10The tank brigade was comprised of two tank regiments,
03:13each of which was split in turn into two battalions.
03:16Two motorised infantry regiments provided close support to the tanks.
03:21A reconnaissance battalion was added to scout out enemy positions and seize weak points.
03:27A motorised artillery battalion with 48 guns provided artillery support.
03:32To provide defence against enemy tanks, an anti-tank battalion was also added.
03:38To back up all of this, the division had its own full supply, support and repair system.
03:44Guderian realised that tanks and armoured warfare were going to be the future,
03:50that hard-hitting, fast-moving spearheads of tanks,
03:55accompanied with infantry and artillery and all the other arms of service,
03:59would pack a formidable punch.
04:02You can really trace this back to two events that took place up on Salisbury Plain in 1928 and 1929,
04:09which were basically an attempt to test out the armoured warfare theory.
04:14What actually happened was that a unit known as the Experimental Armoured Force was created,
04:19and this armoured force consisted of tank battalions, light tanks for reconnaissance,
04:25infantry machine gun carriers, armoured cars for scouting, self-propelled artillery,
04:31mechanised engineers in trucks and even the infantry carried in half-tracks
04:35and all supported by the Royal Air Force.
04:38And what you ended up with was a small, highly mobile, very, very strong fighting force.
04:43Now, in these exercises on the plane, they were pitted against a conventional
04:47infantry, mounted cavalry, horse-drawn artillery division, which was huge by comparison.
04:54In every single operation, no matter how the umpires cheated,
04:58and they did cheat to try and give the traditional arms just a bit of moral support,
05:03the armoured element won. Every single action.
05:07And the proof was there, and the effect it had was amazing.
05:12Because in Britain, one or two stuffy old officers actually began to talk about tanks,
05:16if they might have a future, the people who took notice,
05:19and the people who learned of the Germans,
05:21they could see that if a highly mobile striking force could be created,
05:25not just tanks, not tanks alone, you need intimate artillery support,
05:29you need preferably armoured infantry keeping up with you,
05:32you need everybody mobile in a package,
05:35and you need equally immediate air support, hence the Stukas, and that kind of thing.
05:40And this sort of force, sent against a conventional army,
05:44will go through it like a hot knife through butter.
05:47The heavy tanks would be used as the spearhead
05:49to actually punch a hole through the enemy lines,
05:52and the lighter tanks would be used on the flanks
05:54to actually protect them against infantry and artillery attack,
05:57and maybe other tanks.
05:59But the heavy tanks would be used primarily to push the way through,
06:02and to keep going, and to open the gap in the enemy defences.
06:06A great deal of accurate thought had gone into the development of this type of formation.
06:11The resulting Panzer Division was a well-balanced force,
06:15which could call on the support of any or all of the component parts
06:18to capture an objective.
06:20The purpose of this organisation was to launch a speedy advance
06:24deep into enemy territory, and keep going,
06:27spreading confusion, fear, and panic in the enemy command and communication systems.
06:33One further innovation was the close links with the Luftwaffe,
06:37which could add even more firepower when needed.
06:40The Luftwaffe and the Panzer Divisions had intimate links,
06:45in terms of Luftwaffe staff liaison officers,
06:49who actually travelled on the ground with the Panzer Divisions.
06:52This meant that at any time, whenever a Panzer Division came up against any particular trouble,
06:58where it might need air support,
07:00there were already radio communications established with the Luftwaffe,
07:04which meant that the taxi ranks of Stukas and other Luftwaffe bombers
07:09could be called into play very, very quickly.
07:12And this flexibility, and again, the rapidity of the calling up of air support,
07:18was vital, and indeed an intimate part of German blitzkrieg.
07:25The training given to these new Panzer warriors
07:28emphasised speed and independence of thought.
07:31When these units were unleashed,
07:37they offered a very effective weapon
07:39that their enemies found impossible to master.
07:43In Poland, this new force had the first opportunity
07:46to put their meticulous training into practice.
08:01The Polish campaign was a triumph for the Wehrmacht,
08:06and showed the potential for the tank in battle.
08:09Nonetheless, some problems were encountered.
08:13Because events had moved on far quicker than Hitler would have liked,
08:17they had to press these things into service.
08:21They were used in the Polish campaign,
08:24where their weaknesses were very apparent.
08:27And certainly by the time of France,
08:29it was obvious that these machines had to be retired.
08:32Interestingly, they were kept in service right through to 1941,
08:36and even later,
08:38because it was simply not possible to produce enough machines
08:42in enough quantity to bring them onto the battlefield
08:45in the kind of time we're looking for.
08:48On the 10th of May, 1940,
08:50the tide of Hitler's conquest turned to the west.
08:53This time the Germans will be fighting more modern armies
08:57that were equipped with at least equal or sometimes superior equipment.
09:05The Maginot Line,
09:06that stretched along the majority of the French border to the east,
09:09was bypassed when German panzers advanced
09:12through the Ardennes region in Belgium.
09:14By a combination of careful planning,
09:17surprise and some very daring new innovations,
09:21the Germans were able to make these fortifications almost obsolete.
09:28Once passed here,
09:30they advanced all the way to the coast
09:32with little in their way to stop them.
09:34What had proved impossible
09:36in four years of trench warfare during World War I
09:39was accomplished in the space of six weeks.
09:42The value of the tank in modern warfare
09:46was well and truly established.
09:48The
09:53the
10:00the
10:02the
10:04the
10:06the
10:11The tanks that helped win these early victories and create a new legend in warfare comprised
10:27four main German machines supplemented by two tanks manufactured by the Czech manufacturer
10:32Skoda.
10:34The Panzer I and the Panzer II were mainly used as reconnaissance vehicles.
10:37The Panzer I had a two-man crew, a driver and a commander and was armed with two 7.92
10:42machine guns.
10:44The Panzer II had a three-man crew and was armed with a 20mm automatic cannon.
10:48The Panzer III and the Panzer IV were much larger tanks.
10:51They had a five-man crew which was normally a driver and a gunner in the hull and then
10:56a gunner, commander and loader in the turret.
11:00The Panzer III was mainly used as a fighting tank.
11:03The Panzer IV was used more as a support tank with its 75mm gun.
11:07But the interesting thing is that after the fall of France in 1940, the Americans decided
11:12that if the German tank, the Panzer IV, had a 75mm gun, then that would have to be the
11:16minimum size of the gun that was used in the Sherman tank.
11:20So it was actually the Panzer IV which led to the development of the guns in the American
11:25tanks during the Second World War.
11:27The first of the new German tanks was the tiny Panzer I.
11:31It had its roots in the turretless tractor developed in secret between the wars.
11:36It weighed just less than six tons and had a crew of two.
11:40Machine guns provided the armament.
11:43The main armour protection was provided by 13mm thick steel.
11:48Although its limitations were exposed in Poland, this vehicle was used extensively during
11:52the campaign in the west.
11:56The Panzer I was designed as little more than an armoured machine gun carrier and as such,
12:01did not present a great threat to enemy armoured machines.
12:07As you can see, it's not a very tall vehicle.
12:10I'm not particularly tall and I come up to head height on the thing.
12:15It's very lightly armoured and very flimsy, but in 1939 this was the kind of vehicle you
12:22would face and in 1940 these were the machines that swamped France and took part in that lightning
12:29campaign.
12:30And it was basically a training vehicle to get used to a tank for the different drivers
12:35who would have to drive the heavier and bigger tanks.
12:39And they were quickly built, they had ordinary engines in it, nothing special, and were not
12:46very fast either.
12:48The Panzer II was designed to run alongside the Panzer I and provided a tank with armour-piercing
12:53capabilities.
12:56The first models weighed in at just less than 8 tonnes, with later models increasing their
13:00weight to just over 10 tonnes.
13:03This vehicle had a crew of three.
13:06One MG34 machine gun and one 20mm gun provided the armament.
13:12The armour protection ranged from 13mm in the Model A to 30mm in the Model H.
13:20The Panzer II was a very reliable tank and had a top speed of 35 miles per hour.
13:26Like the Panzer I, this tank was effectively obsolete even at the start of the war.
13:32It lacked sufficient armour protection and the 20mm cannon was not effective against the
13:36Allied tanks.
13:39The Panzer II was to be used as a reconnaissance vehicle, but found itself in the thick of the
13:44fighting, performing the role of a battle tank.
13:46The Panzer II is equipped with a 20mm automatic weapon, which will pump out rounds at a fairly
13:52steady rate.
13:55Next to it, a typical German machine gun MG34 with a very, very high rate of fire, that's
14:01it.
14:02The other thing I would point out, which I think is relevant, is that German tanks, even from
14:07almost the outbreak of war, were of welded construction.
14:10And the difference this makes cannot be overemphasised.
14:13It means that the tank is integrally much stronger, that it doesn't have a subframe to add weight,
14:19and in addition to that, it's pretty well watertight.
14:23The Panzer III was classed as a medium tank by the Germans, but by the standards of the day
14:28it was still fairly light.
14:31The weight of the Panzer III's used in the Western campaigns varied around 20 tonnes.
14:36It was crewed by five men.
14:39All of the Panzer III's that saw action in the Western campaign of 1940, had a 37mm cannon
14:44as their main armament.
14:47This was backed up with three MG34 machine guns.
14:51Two were placed in the turret at each side of the main gun, and the third was situated
14:55in the front of the hull.
14:58This tank had 30mm armour protection, and a top speed around 25 miles per hour.
15:04However, the main problem was the 37mm cannon.
15:07It was a poor match against the heavier armour of the Allied machines.
15:13The decision to fit the early Panzer III's with the 37mm gun had angered Guderian, who
15:18had forcefully argued that the Panzer III needed a main armament of at least 50mm calibre, if
15:24the shells would have any realistic chance of piercing the heavy armour of the British and
15:29French tanks of the war.
15:31Later Model G's were fitted with the better 50mm main gun, but were too late for their
15:36inclusion in the Western campaign.
15:39The Mark III only came out because the development of what was later known as the Panzer IV took
15:45very much longer as anticipated, and so they brought this Panzer III out, which was a smaller
15:51version of it in a way, and performed excellently in France.
15:56But in this project it wasn't all that much better than, say, several of the British or even
16:02French tanks.
16:03In addition to the Panzer III, the German Panzer Division also included an infantry support
16:08tank.
16:09These early Panzer IV's had the low velocity, short muzzle, 75mm main gun.
16:16This was backed up with two MG34 machine guns.
16:19One was situated in the turret, and the other in the front of the hull.
16:24Armour protection ranged from 15mm to 30mm.
16:29The speed was the same as the Panzer III at 25mph.
16:35This tank was a good design, although the versions used in this stage of the war had the low velocity
16:40L24 gun, which was only designed to fire high explosive shells, and lacked the real hitting
16:46power which was needed for tank-to-tank contact.
16:49Nonetheless, once it was upgraded, it was to become the main battle tank of the German forces
16:55throughout the war.
16:58This is an early war version of the Panzer IV, which was the infantry support tank which
17:04was used by the German forces early in the war and through into the desert campaign.
17:10You can tell it's the early version by the extended commander's cupola up on the top
17:15there, which looks almost like a dustbin that's been stuck on the tank.
17:19As you can appreciate, this wasn't a particularly good innovation because in action it represented
17:25an easy target and they were frequently ripped off by enemy artillery which left the tank vulnerable.
17:33So by 1941 these had begun to disappear.
17:37Round at the front we see the 75mm infantry support gun.
17:42It wasn't a high velocity gun so it didn't give it the kind of tank killing power which
17:46it needed in the Russian campaign.
17:48But certainly for the early desert years it was more than adequate.
17:53We can see here the thickness of the armour.
17:56By this stage in the war it's about 40mm thick and it would get progressively thicker as the
18:02campaign wore on.
18:03One of the ways to upgrade the Panzer IV was to add on extra spaced plates in front of the
18:11turret which gave it a lot of extra strength.
18:14Again, some uncompromisingly flat armour at the front here.
18:19And as tank design improved over the war years they soon realised that what you need is sloped
18:25armour that deflects shells away from the vehicle.
18:28So this was very much a wrong design in tank terms but those lessons still had to be learned
18:33and still had to be assimilated.
18:36When the Germans annexed the regions of Bohemia and Moravia in early 1939 they took possession
18:42of the main battle tanks of the Czech army at the manufacturing plants.
18:47These machines were incorporated into the Germans' existing line-up of tanks.
18:51They consisted of two designs.
18:55The 35T weighed in at 10 tonnes and had a crew of four.
19:01It was armed with a 37mm L40 main gun which was very accurate together with two 7.92mm machine
19:08guns.
19:10The armour protection was 35mm thick which was very adequate for a light tank.
19:15The engine produced a top speed of 25mph.
19:20The second Czech design used by the Germans was the 38T.
19:29It weighed less than the 35T at 9.5 tonnes.
19:33It also had a crew of four.
19:35Its main armament was a 37mm gun backed up with two machine guns.
19:41The armour protection was 30mm thick.
19:44It had a top speed of 26mph.
19:47Unlike the 35T this machine was renowned for its reliability and ease of maintenance.
19:55These two light tanks made a very valuable addition to the range of tanks already available to
19:59the Germans.
20:01It has been argued that without these two machines Germany would have been unable to conduct the
20:05offensive in the west.
20:07The 35T by the 1940 was quite an old tank so it was phased out after 1940 but the 38T was
20:16a very successful tank used by the Germans very successfully in the fall of France.
20:24It was capable of taking on the British Matilda and some of the French vehicles.
20:31It was quite fast, quite well armoured and with a reasonable sized gun on it being able
20:37to cope with the Matilda as I said.
20:41It was such a good vehicle that it was still used later on in the war and was developed into
20:46other forms of armoured vehicle which later in the war you would see as various self-propelled
20:53guns and tank destroyers.
20:56The 35T was issued to the 6th Panzer Division while the 38T was the mainstay of the 7th
21:03and 8th Panzer Divisions for the campaign in France.
21:07These Czech tanks were involved in the thick of the fighting as the 7th Panzer Division provided
21:12the main thrust for the forthcoming battle.
21:16The 38T stayed in German service throughout the war under various guises and finally ended
21:21up as the basis for the excellent Hetzer tank destroyer.
21:24In the Blitzkrieg of 1940 the 7th Panzer Division, that was Rommel's Panzer Division, was almost
21:32entirely equipped with 38Ts and 35Ts.
21:34In fact there was nearly 400 Czech tanks took part in that battle.
21:39Now the Czech tank, the 38T, had actually been offered to the British Army and was actually
21:43tested in England in Chertsey in 1938 and 1939 and the British found it wanting for various
21:48reasons.
21:49But the Germans were perfectly happy to use it and it was a great success in the Battle
21:54for France in 1940.
22:05Without the restrictions which had been placed on Germany, the main allied countries of Britain
22:09and France had also been engaged in developing their weapons during the 20s and 30s.
22:15They did however take different routes.
22:18The other major nations had not recognised the full potential of the tank and therefore
22:22design and innovation in this aspect were rather more limited.
22:26France had relegated the tank to the role of an infantry support weapon.
22:30Britain had seen the potential of this new machine and set about developing new designs.
22:36This is the tank known as the light tank, Mark VIB and they are really no more than a
22:40tracked reconnaissance vehicle, you might say an armoured car on tracks.
22:44The armour thickness is minimal.
22:47The average anti-tank rifle would go through it easily.
22:49So its job is to keep a low profile, to move about the country rapidly and gather information.
22:55They are not, strictly speaking, a fighting machine.
22:58It's basically a small light tank, very similar to the German Panzer I in performance and capabilities.
23:09Some people say one of the best things about this vehicle was that we left them all behind
23:13in Dunkirk because they were, by that time, an obsolete design.
23:18The Matilda Mark I was designated a light tank and weighed 11 tons.
23:23It was crewed by two men.
23:26The main armament was provided by a Vickers machine gun.
23:30Like the Panzer I, this tank was little more than an armoured machine gun carrier.
23:34However, unlike the Panzer I, this vehicle had very good armour protection that was 60mm thick.
23:41This was double the thickness of the best German tank at the time.
23:45It had a very low top speed of 8 miles per hour.
23:49The tank's limitations were shown up in the French campaign.
23:53Although it protected its crew well, it was no match for the determined German Panzer crews.
23:59The one-man turret was a major drawback.
24:02Over 140 of these machines were sent to France, but all of them were lost in that campaign.
24:08It is an example of a tank built down to a price.
24:12It was ordered from Vickers Armstrong in about 1936.
24:17And the designer was told, we've got about £15,000 to spend, build us a cheap tank.
24:24And the only consideration they put on it was that it must have armour thick enough to resist any known anti-tank gun.
24:31The idea was an infantry tank.
24:33And the infantry tank in the British sort of ideology of armour was a tank that would move slowly,
24:38that the infantry would follow when they're making an assault upon a fixed enemy position.
24:44So we're not talking about roaring across country at high speed, we're talking about moving slowly.
24:49It's probably attracting a lot of fire, hence the need to be bulletproof.
24:52And just to see the infantry onto their objective.
24:55Now this is fine if the enemy is prepared to play ball.
24:58If they're going to set themselves up in a nice defensive position and allow you to attack, great.
25:04If these are going to be used in open country with enemy armour milling about, they are in a very sorry state.
25:09And of course that is the situation in France in 1940.
25:12We've got the Germans on the move all the time, not standing still, not waiting to be attacked.
25:17And therefore these tanks cease to have a useful role.
25:20The Matilda II was designed to mount a two-man turret,
25:24and came about after the realisation that the Matilda I could not accommodate this requirement.
25:29The Matilda II weighed 27 tons and had a crew of four.
25:34It was armed with a two-pounder gun, backed up with a Vickers machine gun.
25:39It was very well protected, with 78 millimetre armour thickness.
25:43The speed was a maximum 15 miles per hour.
25:46This is probably the best known British tank of World War II.
25:51This tank performed well, and remained in service throughout the war on all fronts.
25:56This tank, which is the better known of the two Matildas, was the replacement for the little infantry tank Mark I.
26:05We wanted a tank that could support the infantry and would therefore travel slowly and be resistant to enemy fire.
26:12For that reason the frontal armour is 80 millimetres thick.
26:15This was unheard of at that time. No one had built a tank with armour this strong.
26:19So in terms of its ability to survive on the battlefield, immensely high.
26:24But it was also equipped with the British two-pounder anti-tank gun, which I think we've already established.
26:29Probably one of the best anti-tank weapons in the world in 1940.
26:32It's interesting to ask yourself why we used an anti-tank gun in a tank that was primarily for infantry support.
26:38A lot of people asked that question because they basically believed that a howitzer firing high explosive
26:43would have been far more useful on the kind of battlefield they expected to see.
26:47The War Office argument was that by equipping the tank with an anti-tank gun,
26:51it not only supported the infantry onto their objective, it then moved through the objective,
26:56stopped the other side and held off enemy tank counter-attacks.
27:00And that was the logic behind it.
27:02The Matilda Mark I was a fairly basic infantry tank with only a Vickers machine gun as its main armament.
27:12But nonetheless its armour, over 60mm of armour plate, was very impressive for the time.
27:18The Matilda Mark II was an even more heavily armoured tank with upwards of 80mm of armour plate protecting it.
27:27But still armed with only a two-pounder gun which could only fire armour-piercing rounds.
27:33Not terribly impressive as an infantry support tank.
27:36Nonetheless, given the level of armour protection, both marks of Matilda,
27:41really any anti-tank gun of the day, had real difficulty in penetrating the armour.
27:47And this meant that the Matildas in 1940 could range about the battlefield with relative immunity
27:54against the first line of defence, the anti-tank gun.
27:58The British used a variety of tanks in France in 1940.
28:02They had the light tanks like the Vickers Mark VI and Bren gun carriers.
28:06They had the infantry tanks such as the infantry Mark I and II which was the Matilda I and the Matilda II.
28:12And they had the cruiser tanks which was the cruiser Mark I on the Vickers suspension
28:16and the cruiser Mark IV which was on the Christie suspension.
28:19Mechanically, this is a very, very important tank as far as British tank design is concerned.
28:24It features an American suspension system by a maverick inventor, a chap named J. Walter Christie.
28:31Christie started designing tanks in the mid-twenties.
28:35By 1928 he produced a tank which was putting up some amazing performances.
28:40By 1932 he had a tank which would do 60 miles an hour on its tracks.
28:45And by taking the tracks off and running it as a wheeled vehicle, he got 120 miles an hour out of it.
28:49It was a sort of tank dragster, if you like.
28:51Christie, however, was a cussard sort of individual and he fell out with just about everyone in the US administration.
28:58So much so that the Americans built six of his tanks and gave up.
29:01The Russians, however, purchased a Christie tank,
29:04found it was all they required in basic mechanical terms and copied it by the thousand.
29:09And it was two British officers visiting these Red Army manoeuvres in about 1935 who saw these tanks,
29:15came away amazed and persuaded Lord Nuffield, the Morris Motors chief,
29:20to buy a tank off Christie from which we would develop our own design.
29:24And really the only Christie feature that we retained in the design of the tank was the suspension.
29:29And the key to it is this, large diameter road wheels.
29:32Each wheel is on a short sort of swinging arm bearing against an enormous coil spring,
29:38which is hidden behind this armour.
29:39And that allows the wheel a tremendous amount of free movement.
29:42You won't find many tanks anywhere with a gap this great between the track and the tin work.
29:47And it's to allow the wheels to move.
29:49It means you can get terrific speeds out of it.
29:5160 would be ridiculously punishing, but this tank could do 30 comfortably.
29:55And that really gave the crew a pretty comfortable ride.
29:58And it is more important still because in the British way of doing things,
30:03we believe tank crews should shoot on the move.
30:06It meant that between the wars, just down the road from the museum here at Lulworth Camp,
30:11they trained firing on the move against moving targets
30:14and reached standards that were absolutely exceptional for their day.
30:18But remember, this is a small trained army of highly motivated professionals.
30:23Now you take our A-13 cruiser.
30:26The gun is in free elevation.
30:28It literally just waves up and down inside the tank.
30:32But what it means is that the gunner becomes the stabiliser.
30:36And it means that he's standing in a sort of half-crouch position inside the turret.
30:43He's got one hand on the trigger of the gun.
30:46He's got his eye pressed up against a telescope.
30:48And his other hand on the traversing mechanism here.
30:51And it's his knees bouncing up and down, which are the stabiliser for the gun.
30:56You can see the problem.
30:58A well-trained soldier who was used to the motion of the tank,
31:01who had been trained well at Lulworth to shoot on the move at moving targets,
31:04would be a prize worth having.
31:06But the man who's just come back from the reserve,
31:09a territorial army soldier, a new volunteer,
31:12you are never going to train him up to those standards in the time allowed.
31:15The A-9 Mark 1 cruiser weighed in at 13 tons and was crewed by six men.
31:22The main firepower was the two-pounder gun,
31:25but this time it was backed up with three Vickers machine guns.
31:28It was thinly armoured at 14 millimetres,
31:31but it had a good top speed of 25 miles per hour.
31:35Like the cruiser Mark 4, the structural design consisted of many angles
31:39that trapped the armour-piercing enemy shells.
31:42This, coupled with the thin armour,
31:44resulted in many of them being lost in the French campaign.
31:47The A-9 tank in some respects showed the sorry state of British tank design in interwar years.
31:57It wasn't that the British couldn't design good tanks,
32:00it was more the fact that with budgetary restraints placed on the army
32:05and the fact that the army actually came in third in terms of budget
32:09as opposed to the Air Force and the Navy,
32:12the A-9 tank was very much designed on a very tight budget.
32:16This meant that neither its armour nor its engine
32:21made it capable of fulfilling a true cruiser function,
32:25but nor was it heavily armoured enough or well armed enough
32:29to act in the infantry role.
32:32Thus it was a strange mixture of features
32:35and really wasn't a terribly impressive design
32:38and did not fare terribly well in battle.
32:41This is a typical example of muddled thinking in tank design.
32:44It's totally transitional.
32:46For a start, and the most damning feature of all, are these little turrets.
32:49It's in addition to the main turret,
32:51which has got the 40mm, the two pounder gun,
32:53and a coaxial machine gun,
32:55you've got two tiny turrets flanking the driver's position,
32:58each with its own Vickers machine gun.
33:00This kind of thing appeared on many tanks built in the late 20s and early 30s.
33:04And of course, it has all kinds of problems.
33:07For a start, some poor wretch is bottled up in here.
33:10The other main problem with the turret
33:12is that you cannot increase the armour thickness.
33:14Because the way these two turrets are mounted
33:16either side of the driver's cab with virtually no clearance,
33:18any thickness increase in the armour will immediately jam them solid.
33:22So the 14mm armour to which this was built in the first place
33:25is all you're ever going to get.
33:27There's other problems.
33:28The tank requires a crew of six.
33:31So it's labour intensive, if you like.
33:33Three in the main turret,
33:34driver in the cab there,
33:35and an individual in each one of these turrets.
33:50French thinking in tank use
33:52was influential in the design of their new machines.
33:58Like the British, they had four main designs available
34:00at the start of the French campaign.
34:03The Char Sommoir S35 was a medium tank weighing 20 tons.
34:09A crew of three manned it.
34:11A 47mm main gun backed up with a 7.5mm machine gun
34:16provided the main armament.
34:19The armour protection was very good at 55mm.
34:23It had a top speed of 25 miles per hour.
34:27This tank was more than capable of tackling the enemy
34:29and was well designed.
34:31In fact, the Germans made use of them in their army
34:33after the campaign was over.
34:35This is a tank for a medium regiment for fighting other tanks.
34:40Therefore, more attention is paid to armour thickness and shape
34:44and to fighting capability.
34:46Now, unfortunately, the two tanks,
34:48the Char Bay and the Sommoir, have the same turret.
34:50So you've got exactly the same problem repeated.
34:53You've got one man in there who, in addition to commanding the tank,
34:56is working the main gun and the co-action machine gun.
34:59The outstanding feature of the Sommoir, without any doubt,
35:02is this use of cast armour.
35:04It is said that this was one of the features
35:07that appealed to the designers in the United States
35:10when the Sherman first appeared.
35:12And they adopted cast armour
35:14for some of the versions of the Sherman tank.
35:16And there is some influence here.
35:18Mechanically, again, like most French tanks, it's brilliant.
35:21The suspension system, there's the springs,
35:23is somewhat complicated.
35:25And you'll notice that the French, in particular,
35:28go to a lot of trouble to hide the suspension,
35:30something you won't see later in the war.
35:32But they shield it to prevent it being damaged.
35:35But in all respects, except its fighting capacity,
35:40and that is really more down to manpower and human resources than design,
35:45this was a very good tank in its day.
35:47The Char B1 was the heaviest tank in use by the French,
35:50weighing 32 tonnes.
35:52It was manned by a crew of four.
35:55The main firepower consisted of one 75mm gun
35:58situated in the hull.
36:00This was backed up with a 47mm gun located in the turret.
36:04In addition, there were two 7.5mm machine guns on board also.
36:08The armour protection was an excellent 60mm.
36:11The speed was limited to 17mph,
36:14the weight being a deciding factor.
36:17This was a very good tank,
36:19and he gave a good account of itself in the fight against the Germans.
36:22The main restrictions were the hull-mounted 75mm gun
36:26that could only be fired straight ahead.
36:28In addition, although the armour was very thick,
36:31the Germans found that this beast could be easily knocked out
36:34by a well-placed shell in the ventilation grill.
36:37At the start of the French campaign,
36:39this was probably the most formidable tank in use.
36:43Before the war, it was always regarded
36:45as one of the best tanks in the world,
36:47but there are one or two features that stand out.
36:50In the first place, the main armament,
36:52which is a 75mm howitzer,
36:55is located here in the hull alongside the driver.
36:58And although it will elevate and depress,
37:01it has no lateral movement at all.
37:03Every millimetre or degree, if you like, of lateral movement
37:06is made by swinging the whole tank around.
37:08And in a tactical sense, that ain't a terribly good idea.
37:13The problem is that in order to swing the tank accurately,
37:18to get the gun laid as directly on target as you can,
37:21required a very sophisticated steering system.
37:23This tank has it.
37:24It has a hydrostatic steering system,
37:26which literally allows the tank to be nudged around
37:29a degree at a time.
37:30But that means the driver is intimately involved
37:33in laying the gun, which you don't have in a turret.
37:36Now, the French are an eminently logical race,
37:39and they therefore said, fine, if we're going to have the driver
37:42lay the gun by traversing the tank,
37:44he might just as well do elevation and depression as well.
37:46So the driver, using his right hand,
37:48using a little hand wheel, winds the gun up and down.
37:51They then take that logic to its ultimate length and say,
37:53right, he's aimed the tank, he's elevated the gun,
37:56he might just as well fire it.
37:58So it's the driver's duty in this tank
38:00to aim the tank, to get the elevation set,
38:03and fire the gun.
38:04For which reason, the sights for the gun
38:06are built into his driver's visor.
38:08And that is really probably asking a lot of a driver.
38:11He's got a loader, who's working behind him there,
38:13and way at the back of the tank, the radio operator.
38:16But the guy you've got to feel sorry for
38:18is the fellow up there in the turret.
38:20He's the tank's commander.
38:21He's got the job of commanding the tank
38:24and maintaining orders to the crew.
38:27He's got to relay messages to the radio operator.
38:30He's got an anti-tank gun to aim, load and fire,
38:36and a co-action machine gun, which he's got to aim, load and fire,
38:40and clear stoppages in, because machine guns love jamming up.
38:43So in terms of sort of ergonomics,
38:48the tank doesn't seem eminently practical.
38:51It's quite interesting that if you study the war diaries
38:53of the Germans who came into that part of France
38:56where they met these things,
38:58and they were going to meet a tank which they believed
39:00was one of the great leviathans of the battlefield,
39:03they tend to say that they got remarkably coast
39:06to the French tanks before they were noticed.
39:09Now you could say that's because everyone in here is so busy,
39:11they haven't time to notice what's going on outside.
39:13I think it's more likely that the vision facilities in the tank
39:17are probably not as good as they might be.
39:19The Hotchkiss H35 was one of the two light tanks in use by the French.
39:24It weighed in at 12 tons and had a two-man crew.
39:28Like most of the French tanks,
39:30the Germans used them after their victory in this campaign.
39:33The Renault R35 was another one of the French light tanks.
39:38However, the top speed was only 12 miles per hour.
39:43On balance, the Allied machines, and particularly the French tanks,
39:47outclassed the Germans in armour protection and main armament.
39:51The Germans were surprised to find that their 37mm anti-tank gun
39:55was ineffective against the thick armour of these tanks.
39:58The downfall of the Allied tanks was the way in which they were employed tactically.
40:03The French tanks were probably better than ours and better than the Germans,
40:08but they were spread so thinly over the whole length of the French border
40:12that when the Germans attacked, there were so few tanks available to counter those attacks
40:18that the Germans, with their superior tactics, could just steamroll them through.
40:23The French High Command used its armoured forces in support of the infantry units,
40:28and most of the losses of the French tanks were caused by either Stuka attack,
40:32by artillery, by mines or anti-tank guns.
40:34There were very few instances when large numbers of French tanks met large numbers of German tanks.
40:39This was mainly because the German tanks were in the spearheads
40:42and were moving onwards and ever onwards towards the coast.
40:46The French tanks were used to attack the flanks of the German armoured spearheads,
40:50and so most of their opposition was only soft-skinned vehicles or anti-tank guns.
40:55The campaign itself was codenamed Operation Yellow.
41:09The plan had been devised by von Manstein, but had been credited to Hitler.
41:14It was a variation of the Schleifen plan from World War I.
41:18The Schleifen plan had the objective of drawing the Allies into the Low Countries.
41:23They would follow this by swinging through behind the Allies and ending up in Paris,
41:27thereby encircling the Allied forces.
41:30The plan had just failed in World War I,
41:33but the Germans were confident that it would bring them victory this time.
41:37However, the plans for Operation Yellow had fallen into the hands of the Allies
41:42through an unfortunate accident.
41:44This meant that the German staff had to rethink their plan of attack.
41:48This time Manstein envisaged a spoiling attack in the Low Countries like the original plan.
41:55The main change was the direction of the main thrust.
41:59It would be delivered through the Ardennes region that was thought to be tank-proof.
42:03For the attack, the Germans split their forces into three army groups.
42:08Army Group B would advance through Holland and Belgium, thereby providing the bait for the Allies.
42:14Army Group A would move through the Ardennes and they would provide the main thrust.
42:20Army Group C would be opposite the Maginot Line and they would keep the French defenders busy.
42:26The main thrust had the objective of racing through the enemy positions
42:30and on towards the French coast near Boulogne and Calais.
42:35The Allies anticipated a rerun of the World War I plan and they distributed their forces accordingly.
42:41The bulk of their forces was positioned north in readiness for the attack through the Low Countries.
42:47They had two further lines of reserves. One of these was positioned in the Ardennes region.
42:53The Allies grossly overestimated the tank strength of the Germans and estimated that they had over 7,000 tanks.
43:01The reality was that the Germans had just over 2,400 tanks for the attack in the form of the Panzer IV.
43:08Over 1,400 of these were no more than armoured machine gun carriers.
43:12The Allies had over 3,300 tanks to field against the Germans.
43:17In the important areas of main gun and armour protection, the Allied machines outclassed the German tanks.
43:24When the attack began in the early hours of the 10th of May, it caught the Allies by surprise.
43:32The Germans made quick gains and good advances.
43:35This was helped considerably as the Allied strength was in the north,
43:39whereas the bulk of the Germans' strength would smash through the Ardennes further south.
43:44The Allied thinking had lulled them into a false sense of security
43:47and they felt confident that they would destroy the Germans easily.
43:52Although the Germans lacked superiority in machines, they had been training hard on their new concepts
43:58and had tested the coordination of their forces.
44:01The concept was fairly simple, but very effective and advanced for the time.
44:07A point of impact would be chosen that was small in width.
44:11The armour would concentrate on the central point
44:14and the weight of firepower would be used to overwhelm the enemy.
44:17Once a breach had been made, the rest of the division would rush through the gap
44:22and into the rear enemy areas.
44:24The tanks would continue in the race deep inside the enemy lines,
44:28whilst the infantry and artillery would deal with any pockets of resistance
44:32and capture key objectives.
44:34The anti-tank gunners would set up a defensive screen
44:38to protect the areas already captured.
44:41Under this well-coordinated attack, the Allies fell back in confusion and panic.
44:47They were still thinking of the last war
44:49and were prepared for a defensive battle.
44:52The Germans had proved that a rapid, deep advance into the enemy lines
44:56provided its own defence.
44:59We looked up, there were these German tanks coming down the road.
45:02We started moving out.
45:04We didn't know where we were going.
45:06We got away from the Germans who were pushing hard
45:09and they were travelling miles every day and catching the British troops up
45:13and the troops were on the run.
45:15The British troops were running away.
45:17There's no doubt they were running away.
45:19And the French civilians, when we were going back,
45:25they were lining the road and they'd cheered and they'd spit at us, you know,
45:30the British no good, you know.
45:32The most significant advance was made by the 7th Panzer Division,
45:36commanded by General Erwin Rommel.
45:38His tank force advanced quickly through the lightly defended areas in Belgium.
45:43When they ran into heavier defended areas in France,
45:46they used their speed, surprise and weight of fire to overwhelm the enemy.
45:51This unit became the first to cross the river Meuse.
45:55Once across, they continued their advance towards Arras.
45:58The 7th Panzer Division was advancing so fast
46:01that they were given the unofficial nickname of the Ghost Division.
46:04When they advanced further, they came into the area held by a mixed British and French force.
46:10The British, who were to the north of the German advance,
46:13decided to mount a counter-attack from the direction of Arras.
46:16They were under the impression that the French, who were south of the German advance, would also attack.
46:22On the 21st of May, the British launched their attack into the flank of the Germans.
46:27This was mounted by, really, a very small force of about 60 British infantry tanks
46:37and a brigade of British infantry.
46:40With the constant Stuka dive bombing, the British infantry were actually delayed.
46:46And this meant that the Matilda tanks, the Mark 1s and Mark 2s,
46:50rolled forwards against Rommel's 7th Panzer Division, more or less unsupported.
46:55Nonetheless, given their extremely thick armour,
46:59the Germans were astonished to find that their anti-tank rounds
47:03from their 37mm anti-tank guns simply bounced off these British tanks.
47:08And the British tanks were able to roll forwards from Arras,
47:12crushing anti-tank guns under their tracks
47:14and destroying many German tanks and vehicles of Rommel's division.
47:19The threat they posed by storming across country
47:22in two sort of left and right hooks and attacking this German column
47:27was such that Rommel himself left his position with the leading tanks,
47:31came rushing back.
47:32Because, obviously, if he'd been completely cut off inside France
47:35with the Brits and possibly the French across his tail,
47:38he would be in serious trouble.
47:39So he then called up literally every gun in the area,
47:43from anti-aircraft guns, the dreaded 88s,
47:45through to field artillery and anti-tank guns,
47:47and brought the British attack to a stop
47:49by a sort of last-ditch effort with these weapons.
47:52And in that role, although it wasn't their chosen role,
47:55actually for a few hours they had a bit of glory,
47:57a moment or two of glory, and did quite well.
47:59The Germans had estimated the attacking Allied force
48:03to number hundreds of tanks,
48:05when in fact it was considerably less than this.
48:08Although the attack was determined,
48:10it could not halt the advance of the enemy.
48:13It did, however, give the Germans a bloody nose
48:16and cause them considerable concern.
48:18This attack had showed what could be achieved
48:21if the Allies had been better coordinated.
48:24The day before this attack, the Germans had reached the coast.
48:30Any coordination that the Allies possessed had been lost.
48:34The Germans were close to defeating the enemy
48:36in the climax to this stunning campaign.
48:38They had successfully penned the Allies in around Dunkirk.
48:46However, after Hitler's famous order to stop the Adwads,
48:49the bulk of the Allies escaped to England.
48:52Once this area was secured,
48:55the Germans surveyed the mayhem
48:57that had been left behind by the retreating Allies.
49:00They had been forced to abandon all of their equipment,
49:02and the majority of this lay in ruin around the port.
49:05The German victory was not yet complete,
49:08and the next phase required them to turn south
49:10and concentrate on the remaining French and British forces
49:13that numbered some 66 divisions.
49:16We got down to the docks,
49:18and then these German Messerschmitts were machine gunning all the boats.
49:25There were a lot of boats in the dock there.
49:27They were machine gunning these boats,
49:29these people and the boats.
49:31And of course, a lot of our chaps got killed.
49:33But when we got on this boat,
49:35we had the chance to go on a bigger boat.
49:38And we saw this Messerschmitt come down, dive bombing,
49:43and they put a bomb right down the funnel of this big liner.
49:46It was the Lancaster.
49:47They killed every so many troops in there.
49:53This part of the advance began on the 5th of June, 1940.
49:56Less than three weeks later,
49:58the enemy was completely defeated.
50:00The armistice was signed by the leaders of the destroyed French forces
50:05in the same railway carriage
50:07that they themselves had used at the end of World War I.
50:11This was the perfect end
50:13to what was almost a perfect victory
50:15for Hitler and his new Panzer Army.
50:20The German victory had been spectacular,
50:22and had been a vindication of the Blitzkrieg concept.
50:26The part played by the German tanks had been crucial.
50:29In the space of six weeks,
50:31they destroyed the armies of Holland,
50:33Belgium, France, and Britain.
50:36The confidence of the Germans was at an all-time high.
50:39They had complete faith in their men and machines.
50:42In particular, the tanks that had helped secure the victory.
50:47The close support of the Luftwaffe
50:48had also been a deciding factor
50:50and helped to instill terror upon the fleeing enemy soldiers.
50:53Hitler now regarded the war as almost won.
50:59New weapons development was restricted after this time
51:02due to the strains on the economy.
51:04And resources were routed to anti-tank weapons
51:07and the cheaper-costing assault guns.
51:11The deficiencies that were apparent
51:12with regards to armor protection
51:14and main armament in these early campaigns
51:16were to resurface in later campaigns
51:18but with greater consequences.
51:24With a sense of invincibility fresh in everyone's mind,
51:27a complacency and lack of urgency set in.
51:31Although Hitler was already looking
51:33to undertake the biggest gamble yet,
51:35the equipping of the armed forces
51:37did not undergo any serious redesign.
51:40After the French campaign, Hitler actually demobilised
51:45certain sections of the German army.
51:47He was not interested in building up his Panzer Force
51:52really much further
51:54and did not put any real effort
51:57into designing new vehicles or tanks.
52:00Indeed, the infamous Fuhrer order of late 1940,
52:05which forbade any work on any technical development
52:09which would take more than one year to complete,
52:12really stunted German technical development
52:16for the next campaign for Operation Barbarossa.
52:21Adolf Hitler plunged ahead with the planning
52:23for the mighty invasion of the Soviet Union.
52:26He was confident that his army would deliver victory once more.
52:31The men on the front line would quickly discover
52:33just how inadequate their tanks would be
52:36against the enemy.
52:56That was甚麼.
52:57I was here by the way.
52:58I was constantly learning a little bit
52:59about the left.
53:00There's a way that was to do the right to want
53:02to do it.
53:03I wasstroke the most.
53:05I was just trying to get the right to the right
53:06people that didn't want to forgive them
53:07that one.
53:08The men that were there
53:09were the ones that were there
53:10were in the same place.
53:11The men that were there
53:12were seen.
53:13The men that were there
53:14were so many people
53:15about their enemies.
53:16Many and their Jeans
53:17could remember
53:18it only had the right to have
53:19the right to make
53:20the most difficult
53:22and the right to leave.
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