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00:07When the United States enters the war it's understood that a second front is
00:11needed to defeat Nazi Germany. The Red Army and Soviet people have taken the
00:17brunt of the Nazi onslaught for nearly a year, and now Soviet leader Joseph
00:21Stalin demands that the Western Allies do their part. The Allies disagree where
00:27to attack. American military leaders want to invade France, the most direct route
00:31to Berlin. But Churchill and his generals, still haunted by the horrible cost of World
00:37War I, are reluctant to invade Europe before they're ready. So the decision is
00:43made to attack the Germans in North Africa in an invasion codenamed Operation
00:49Torch. The Americans, inexperienced and untested, are about to battle the
00:56their march for the very first time. All wars change the world, but none of them
01:03change the world like the Second World War did. Japan's on the march, Germany's on the
01:08march. No one can imagine a nightmare they're about to unleash. The most
01:14destructive war in human history. Suddenly the world is turned upside down and all
01:20hell is let loose. The West is stunned by the speed of the advance. You get the
01:28Allies led by the big three. Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin. Men who are dealing with immensely
01:36complicated questions. It's the biggest military operation of human history. The Allies have to come
01:44together, not just militarily, but industrial scale. It's a global perspective. They have to fight in
01:51every climate from the Arctic to the jungles of the Pacific, to the deserts of Africa and the depths of
01:57the ocean. But there was no certainty of victory. It was going to be a horrific bloodbath. We see humans
02:08at
02:08their absolute worst, how they treat other human beings. And we see them at their absolute best,
02:14willing to give their lives that others might live. World War II was a struggle in which there could be
02:19one victor and one vanquish.
02:46The British base of Gibraltar has long guarded the opening to the Mediterranean.
02:53Steady as a rock. For nearly 240 years, Gibraltar has stood sentinel above the harbor,
02:59watching over the Mediterranean fleet. The strongest fortress in the world.
03:04On November 5th, 1942, Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower lands at the military airstrip.
03:12He's arrived to take command of a joint U.S.-British ground operation in North Africa, codenamed Torch.
03:25This campaign will eventually open a second front against German and Italian forces already fighting in
03:37Africa.
03:37Operation Torch is an extremely complex landing.
03:42In all, we're going to be depositing a force of around 100,000 troops. And in order to deliver
03:48that force, we've got to use 300 merchantmen guarded by roughly 300 warships.
03:55Three Allied task forces are involved in the complex maneuver.
04:02The east and center forces will land in Algiers and Oran.
04:07The west task force, sailing from America, will land on the beaches of Casablanca.
04:15They have to rendezvous at sea, hundreds of miles away,
04:19and then carry out simultaneous landings across nearly 1,000 miles of North African coast.
04:26Nothing remotely like it had ever been carried out before.
04:30Eisenhower is handpicked by President Roosevelt to lead the alliance,
04:34to the surprise of many American and British military commanders.
04:38He's been a high-level staff officer for years, but this will be his first wartime operation.
04:46Dwight Eisenhower, a year ago, had been a colonel. And now he's been advanced to
04:52lieutenant general. Eisenhower has never held a combat command. He was not actively involved in World
04:59War I. Never seen the Somme. Never seen Poshendale. Never seen a man die in their arms in combat.
05:09Who is this man, Eisenhower?
05:13Eisenhower is wickedly competitive and really intelligent. And the other thing is, he's not
05:18an ego. He's pretty humble. He gets along with people, which is utterly important when you think
05:23about the center of gravity for the Allies in World War II is the alliance. From day one in Eisenhower's
05:30new role as Supreme Commander, he has a pile of problems on his plate. He has to run this gigantic
05:36operation. Nothing on this scale has ever been done before. He has to keep it secret. Eisenhower will
05:43need to coordinate the American and British commands and synchronize all elements of torch.
05:50Ultimately, every aspect of the operation, including preparing unproven American soldiers
05:56for combat, is on his shoulders. One of the reasons they've chosen North Africa as a theater for
06:05American troops is because it'll give them an opportunity of blooding them, their inexperience,
06:10most of them hadn't even seen combat up to this point, against an incredibly formidable foe.
06:17The German troops were battle-hardened. They'd been in the field now for two full years. They'd
06:22conquered various kinds of climes, various kinds of terrain, various kinds of enemies,
06:27and they'd beaten them all.
06:30By the summer of 1942, the Nazi empire is huge. It goes all the way from the western coast of
06:38France
06:38to well inside the borders of the Soviet Union. So that's the whole of continental Europe, effectively,
06:44is controlled by the Nazis. The Germans control most of Europe, but that's not the sum total of
06:51Hitler's ambitions. Germany has to be a global empire, he says many times. And so now the focus
06:58turns outside of Europe to North Africa. German and Italian forces are already fighting the British
07:05in North Africa, threatening the Suez Canal, the vital supply line between Britain and India.
07:14British imperial strategists have always been obsessed with the Suez Canal. It is the great
07:18artery of the British Empire. It joins Britain and its empire in the east, particularly India,
07:24the jewel of the British Empire. The danger is that the Axis forces move from there to control of the
07:32oil fields of the Middle East. And if all of that happens, they're going to sever the supply lines to
07:38the rest of the empire. Prime Minister Winston Churchill also wants to get the Americans in the fight
07:43against the Axis as soon as possible. Roosevelt believed that American troops need to be in the field
07:52against the Axis powers in 1942. The people needed to feel that we were striking back.
08:02We need to figure out how to fight a modern battle, and this is where the army is going to
08:07use as its
08:07proving ground. There are valuable lessons to be learned. North Africa might be a place to do it.
08:14But there's an immediate challenge. The future landing spots on North Africa's coast are on Vichy
08:22French territory. The French Empire is the second largest in the world, behind only that of Great
08:27Britain. With immense manpower and resources at its disposal, the French still control Morocco, Algeria,
08:37and Tunisia. After France surrenders to Germany in 1940, the country is split in two. The southern half
08:47of France is ruled by the Vichy government, which collaborates with Nazi Germany.
08:55It's led by World War I hero Marshal Philippe Pétain.
09:03Eisenhower is anxious.
09:08Will the French in North Africa resist the American landing?
09:16No one's clear exactly how many soldiers and how much military asset the French have in North Africa.
09:24What they do know is that the French have a lot of very modern warships there.
09:29They also have about 120,000 soldiers, although no one knows exactly how well trained they are,
09:34or most crucially, what their morale is, what they're inclined to do.
09:39American diplomats in North Africa believe the French are unlikely to resist the invasion,
09:45but cannot guarantee it. Eisenhower has been sending messages to various Vichy governors in
09:54North Africa hoping for cooperation. On November 7, over 600 ships gather at their meeting points out at sea.
10:10The warning order is flashed to the waiting ships. H hour is confirmed November 8.
10:20The Allies are ready to land.
10:37On November 7, more than 100,000 Allied troops are waiting off the coast of North Africa.
10:49There's risk. Amphibious operations require detailed, advanced preparation.
10:55What are the tides? What's the footing going to be? How close can landing craft get?
11:01Are there mines? Are there underwater obstacles?
11:10The first wave of landing craft from east and center task forces set off for the beaches at
11:16Algiers and Oran. Shortly after, fighter support takes off from Gibraltar.
11:28Ike Eisenhower must have been incredibly nervous and was nervous, we know from his naval aide,
11:35who writes that Ike is like a cat on bricks. Even though the weather was kind of bad the night
11:42before,
11:42when they actually start unloading their landing craft and moving those craft up to the beaches,
11:48the surf is low enough that they're able to get their initial landing forces onto the beaches successfully.
11:55The first reports Eisenhower receives from the landing craft on the beaches are encouraging.
12:02But when large Allied warships enter the ports of Algiers and Iran, the French open fire.
12:14The Allies keep moving and overcome the French a day later.
12:19On the Atlantic landing point at Casablanca, it's a different story.
12:25Eisenhower entrusts this force to his old friend, Major General George S. Patton, Jr.
12:31George Patton is an aggressive commander who believes in aggressive leadership. He is a fast-talking,
12:39disciplinarian, a character easily recognizable to the average soldier.
12:45As the Western task force nears shore, Patton delivers a speech to his troops over each ship's public address system.
13:08In the early morning, Allied warships enter the harbor at Casablanca.
13:20The French do as they've been instructed to do. They resist.
13:26This is an invading force. And the French open fire on the ships.
13:31It's the last thing in the world that an amphibious operation needs. Just a couple of heavy shells can destroy
13:38a landing.
13:41Despite French resistance, Americans continue their attack from the air as well as by sea.
13:48The result is actually the largest naval battle in the Atlantic during the war.
13:58Despite Eisenhower's diplomatic efforts, the troop landings face heavy French opposition.
14:07Nobody in the American or British side, least of all Eisenhower, wants American forces fighting French
14:12forces and does not want that to go on for any extended period of time at all.
14:17Eisenhower writes what he calls the worries of a commander.
14:22No Frenchman immediately available, no matter how friendly toward us, seems able to stop the fighting.
14:31Then, with Operation Torch in danger of failing, the Allies contact a senior French military officer with the power to
14:40provide a solution.
14:42It just so happens that the commander-in-chief of French forces, Admiral Francois Darlan, is in North Africa at
14:49this time, visiting his son who's stricken with polio.
14:53Although Darlan is a key Vichy collaborator, he's the only man with the authority to stop the French counterattack.
15:01Darlan had been a deep collaborator with the Germans and the Nazi presence in Vichy France.
15:09And as distasteful as a figure he is, he holds the key to stopping Vichy French resistance in North Africa.
15:18Eisenhower authorizes negotiations with Darlan.
15:29The Allies will put him in charge of French North Africa if he agrees to an armistice.
15:37It's a dirty deal. It's an unpleasant one. It's a nasty one.
15:40It's one that American journalists were absolutely appalled by.
15:45That evening, Darlan orders a general ceasefire and tells all French forces to join the Allies.
15:53And so, on November 11th, in the port city of Casablanca, French guns fall silent.
16:04Algeria and French Morocco have joined hands with the Allies against Germany and Italy.
16:08And this fact has immensely eased the difficulties that face our United Nations commanders in French North Africa.
16:14Eisenhower thought it would save lives on both sides and it will allow them to get on to the military
16:19mission at hand.
16:21The Allies have landed in North Africa and have convinced the French to fight alongside them.
16:30Now, as they push east, they will face tough, battle-hardened Axis forces.
16:43After the Allied landings, General Eisenhower moves his combined force across the North African desert.
16:54The Allied plan is not simply to approach from the west.
16:58Their strategy is more ambitious.
17:01The ultimate goal, if torch works, is the United States and the British that land in the western part of
17:06Africa will drive to the east.
17:09The British that are in the east in Egypt will drive to the west.
17:13And they will capture a German-Italian army in between those two pincers.
17:19The British fighting in the east, the 8th army, has been battling the Africa Corps.
17:28Led by the desert fox, Erwin Rommel.
17:32He had a mystique about him.
17:34He had a World War I reputation.
17:36He was a feared leader.
17:39He had the fingertip feel of the battle.
17:43For months, Rommel has pursued the British through Libya into Egypt,
17:48capturing vital supplies and threatening the Suez Canal.
17:55The Africa Corps' success has left Prime Minister Winston Churchill depressed and politically vulnerable.
18:03Churchill looks like he's lost his touch.
18:07He faces two no-confidence motions in Parliament, both of which he wins.
18:12But as one Labour MP says, well, you keep winning the debates, but you lose the battles.
18:17Winston Churchill is in need of victories.
18:21For Churchill and for Operation Torch, one battle in North Africa will be critical.
18:28Just weeks before the Allied landings, the British 8th Army, led by General Bernard Montgomery,
18:36prepares his troops at a little-known railway junction called El Alamein.
18:43From here, Montgomery plans to launch a massive counter-offensive against the Africa Corps.
18:52El Alamein shouldn't be viewed in isolation.
18:54It's part of a broader Allied plan.
18:58Montgomery's 8th Army attacking Rommel from the east.
19:01And meanwhile, a vast amphibious landing in the western half of North Africa, Operation Torch.
19:08Converging on Rommel from two directions and eventually presenting him with an insoluble
19:14operational dilemma, trying to maintain himself against not just one, but two superior enemies.
19:21Montgomery is reinforced with American Sherman and Grant tanks.
19:27More troops from India, New Zealand, South Africa, and the rest of the British Commonwealth.
19:33At last, Montgomery, who has been fighting the Wehrmacht since the invasion of France,
19:38has the opportunity to go on the offensive against Rommel.
19:56On the night of October 23rd, 1942, Montgomery opens the battle with a massive barrage.
20:06Montgomery knows he's got to proceed step by step, thousand yards by thousand yards,
20:12get the infantry in, clear the minefield, open the way for the tanks, hold the ground.
20:27Rommel fights back, but he's hampered by lack of fuel.
20:33After days of fighting, the 8th Army prevails.
20:40By the 11th day of the fighting, Montgomery's superior numbers and material finally begin to take effect.
20:48The British infantry and the New Zealand infantry finally break their way through the German lines
20:54and open things up for the armor.
20:59Tens of thousands of men, thousands of tanks, hundreds of heavy artillery, heavy losses on both sides.
21:09Inevitably, the better supplied and armed force win out.
21:14And that's Montgomery's 8th Army.
21:19Winston Churchill is absolutely thrilled. This is years of planning and preparation.
21:22He bounces in for lunch with the King and Queen and he says,
21:24I bring you victory, and they think he's gone mad. They haven't heard of any victories for years.
21:30In London, at the Lord Mayor's luncheon, Winston Churchill frames the victory at El Alamein
21:36and puts it into context.
21:38This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.
21:45But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
21:56Montgomery's win here is one of the most significant British victories of the entire war.
22:01Montgomery has beaten Rommel at El Alamein and Rommel is retreating as fast as he can.
22:07The critical pincer plan, the ultimate goal of Torch, is underway.
22:13Montgomery certainly undertakes an epic pursuit from El Alamein over the wire,
22:20the Egyptian-Libyan border, and now heading towards Tripoli.
22:25In the West, Eisenhower's troops have moved hundreds of miles.
22:33Three weeks after landing, they're only 12 miles outside Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.
22:39When he learns this, Adolf Hitler is determined to stop the Allies.
22:45The war is not going the way he thought it was going to go.
22:49And now, all of a sudden, you've got these Allies messing around in North Africa.
22:54This isn't supposed to happen.
23:00Hitler sends reinforcements, including an entire panzer division, to the ports and air bases around Tunis.
23:09Combined with Rommel's Afrika Korps, there are now 100,000 German and Italian troops on the continent.
23:17No one in either camp had ever envisioned a gigantic continental battle being fought for Tunisia.
23:26But that's where the fortunes of war have brought the two adversaries.
23:48The tank is the modern manifestation of land warfare.
23:53The idea that tank, American tanks, are fighting German tanks.
23:57This is what FDR said was going to happen. We're now pushing back against Germany.
24:02This is the actual battlefield. Germans on the left, Americans on the right.
24:07P-38s move ahead of the advancing forces.
24:13These scenes were photographed from a hill overlooking the battlefield.
24:17All logic would tell you this is going to get badly for the Americans.
24:20They have no experience of warfare at this stage.
24:22The Germans are hardened combat veterans.
24:25A lot of them have fought in Western Europe in all those victorious battles.
24:29These are German Mark IV tanks.
24:31These are Panzer IVs with 75-millimeter guns, very effective.
24:36And up against them, you've got relatively light American tanks.
24:40They've only got 37-millimeter guns, and the skin of the armor isn't very effective.
24:46The skirmish begins badly for the Americans, who are supported by British troops.
24:51A British ammunition lorry is hit.
24:56At the start of it, they get knocked back. A whole troop of tanks gets wiped out.
25:02But the Allies have a second company of tanks in reserve.
25:07They're able to fire into the position of the German armor that is very weak,
25:10which is really around the belt and also at the back of the tank.
25:13And they knock out, in the space of a few minutes, eight German panzers.
25:18Watch the tank in the center of the picture.
25:22A blast on the left of the screen has struck the center tank.
25:25It spins around, disabled.
25:29There it goes.
25:32The panzers now withdraw.
25:34In this very first tank-to-tank skirmish, the Americans beat back the Germans.
25:40Black smoke indicates the end.
25:45But the offensive stalls.
25:50Reinforcements sent by Hitler pummel them from land and air, while the winter rains impede movement.
25:57Just before Christmas, General Eisenhower visits the front to consult with his troops and commanders.
26:04He concludes that there's no chance of reaching Tunis in the current conditions, and calls off the advance.
26:11There's a U.S. Army report from this era which says, at present, the Germans are making war better than
26:17we are.
26:26In the new year, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill meet in Casablanca.
26:35President Roosevelt flies in, the very first president to fly while in office.
26:47The code name of Roosevelt's secret meeting with Churchill in Casablanca is Don Quixote.
26:53This is the first time that an American president has left the United States during wartime.
27:02Moving a president of the United States and his entourage is always a difficult thing.
27:05In this case, they can't send him by ship across the Atlantic Ocean because of the presence of German U
27:10-boats.
27:10So they send him on this insane trip by rail from Washington to Miami, then by a clipper flying boat
27:17from Miami to Trinidad, Trinidad to Brazil, Brazil to Gambia, Gambia to Casablanca.
27:22It's an incredibly arduous journey that Roosevelt believed he had to make.
27:27Roosevelt and Churchill will meet numerous times throughout the war and derive great benefit from face-to-face meetings.
27:37Churchill can now play the part of the great imperial warlord, that so far he's been only through his speeches.
27:44Now he can do it on the ground. And he does what he does best, which is he rolls out
27:48the maps and talks about grand strategy with the U.S. president.
27:53Over ten days, the two leaders and their staffs discuss the progress of Operation Torch and plan the Allies' next
28:02steps.
28:05It's really the high-water mark of the Roosevelt-Churchill relationship, their statesmen moving chess pieces around on a board.
28:15Just before they leave, they talk to reporters from around the world.
28:20The North African Conference is the fourth occasion on which the two great men have met since the beginning of
28:25the war.
28:26To the surprise of many, including Churchill, Roosevelt announces a new war aim.
28:34A new phrase was born, unconditional surrender for the Axis.
28:39Unconditional surrender meant that Nazi Germany would have to fall.
28:44That did not mean that Germany had to be destroyed, but Nazi power had to be smashed.
28:51We would now call this regime change.
28:54There'll be no armistice.
28:56There'll be no soft surrender.
28:58There'll be no repetition of World War I.
29:01This is unconditional surrender.
29:05It's quite something.
29:07We're in early 1943, and it is not at all clear that the Allies are even winning the war.
29:13They're having trouble taking Tunis, which is a very long way from Berlin.
29:19Yet Roosevelt and Churchill know that they can produce more than their adversaries.
29:25And if production goes as they think it will,
29:28they will be able to swamp the armies that the Axis puts in the field against them.
29:35As the conference ends, Allied intelligence reveals Rommel's army,
29:41pursued by Montgomery, has joined with Hitler's reinforcements.
29:49But the Americans and the British now have them surrounded.
29:58By the end of January 1943, the Allies are finally gaining ground against the Axis powers of Germany,
30:05Italy, and Japan.
30:09In the Pacific, the Americans have secured Guadalcanal.
30:14The Allies successfully landed in the west,
30:17and Montgomery's 8th Army has pressed Rommel's Africa Corps across a wide front.
30:34The Allies now surround the Axis army deep inside Tunisia.
30:41But before they can get far, Rommel plots a counteroffensive.
30:47He's identified a weak point in the Allied line at Kasserine Pass.
30:54Kasserine is this very narrow pass. It's only about two miles wide.
30:58And it leads into the dorsal mountains, they call them,
31:01the mountain range in the center of Tunisia.
31:04You've got heights on either side of it.
31:07If Rommel can drive deep enough through Kasserine and into the rear areas of the Allied army,
31:14he can possibly turn the whole thing around.
31:18From there, he'll have all sorts of choices about what to do next.
31:22Overrun Allied supply dumps, perhaps drive straight north to the sea,
31:27and cut off the entire Allied force in Tunisia.
31:31There are 30,000 Allied troops in the region.
31:36But the narrow pass itself is guarded by just 2,000 men, spread thinly across the terrain.
31:45The Allied troops in the Kasserine Pass are the U.S. 2nd Corps, Infantry, Engineers,
31:50artillery, men who, by and large, are completely inexperienced.
31:54The Allied forces are distributed and dispersed, lacking mutual support.
32:00Air support is not dominant at this point.
32:09On February 19th, Rommel launches his attack.
32:15Until now, the Americans have had skirmishes with the Germans,
32:18but haven't faced a full-scale panzer assault.
32:27This attack comes in with heavy artillery,
32:32rapid movement of German armor,
32:35and effective use of motorized infantry to clear positions.
32:41The American forces are caught off guard.
32:47Not only is this their first major fight, but their commander is far behind the lines,
32:52and doesn't communicate with the front.
32:55The results are devastating.
32:59These troops, slowly but surely, are being outgunned, outmaneuvered, outfought.
33:06What starts out as a defeat becomes a bit of a rout.
33:11The Axis now begins streaming up this pass.
33:14It's just a steamroller.
33:17By the evening of the second day, U.S. defenses in the pass have collapsed.
33:22Around 2,500 soldiers are wounded, another 2,500 taken prisoner.
33:29Others abandon their vehicles and flee over the hills.
33:34Rommel's plan is working, but then he pushes too far.
33:40He sends his troops forward, seeking a way through the mountains,
33:44and allowing his supply lines to get dangerously long.
33:48Rommel might have thought he had the U.S. Army on the run,
33:51but the momentum that he had established from that opening is now beginning to wear down.
33:57His losses are mounting.
33:59His supplies are running out, especially tank ammunition and fuel.
34:04As Rommel weakens, the U.S. Army studies itself and regroups,
34:09blocking Rommel's breakout with a wall of U.S. artillery and air support.
34:23Which ultimately forces Rommel to retreat.
34:29The Americans lose casualties and POWs taken. This is a real black eye for them.
34:37It is the punch in the face that the American doctrine isn't where it should be.
34:41We aren't fighting the way we should. We need better training. We need better leadership.
34:48Kasserine Pass condemns all of those weaknesses.
34:50The result of this is going to be that Americans become much more serious about making sure their
34:55forces remain concentrated, particularly the armor forces. That we're not going to allow them to be
35:01doled out in little bits and pieces. General Eisenhower takes responsibility for the initial
35:08breakdown at Kasserine Pass and makes changes to address logistical and operational issues.
35:15He also reorganizes the Allied force in North Africa. His first move is to give General George
35:22Patton, command of the U.S. Second Corps. Patton's a swashbuckler. And he's been waiting in the wings.
35:30And now it's his moment. He's a man who is a strong leader. And troops respond to strong leaders.
35:38His subordinate commanders all know that he will be up there on the battlefield looking over their
35:44shoulders. And if they are not performing up to expectations, they're gone.
35:50He tells his troops famously, you're not all going to be killed. Only about 4% of you.
35:56He reassures them, you're probably going to survive this.
35:58But death is going to be your companion going forward. And I'm not going to spare you.
36:03We're going to hit the Germans face to face and toe to toe.
36:08Eisenhower's troops are now prepared and in position to deal a final blow to the Axis powers in North Africa.
36:26After five months of combat, the combined Allied troops have become an effective fighting force.
36:35General Eisenhower now marshals these troops for what he hopes will be a final confrontation with
36:42Rommel and the Axis.
36:43The Allied plan is to bleed Rommel's strength off.
36:49Anytime he faces the British, theoretically, he can have the Americans advancing into his rear.
36:55And every time he turns against the Americans, he can have Montgomery advancing into his rear.
37:06On March 20th, the Allies are ready to attack in a place called El Gitar.
37:14Patton tells his men, we must be eager to kill.
37:18If we fight viciously enough, we will live to return to our family as conquering heroes.
37:25The Germans become aware of that position and say to themselves,
37:30we think we can eject the Americans fairly easily. We did it before at Kasserine, right?
37:38As German panzers burst onto the planes at El Gitar with Stukas plunging down,
37:45Patton deploys U.S. field artillery and tank destroyers.
37:53Patton is very aware of how to use armor, infantry, and artillery all together.
38:00And when the Germans put in that attack, the Americans greet them with a true example of combined arms.
38:08And they absolutely shellack them.
38:20Patton is very aware of how to use armor.
38:21Having come right after Kasserine passed, it has gone from failure to success.
38:34Over the next month, the Allies squeeze the Axis armies.
38:38And by early April, Eisenhower's forces and Montgomery's Eighth Army finally join.
38:45Eisenhower rejoices.
38:49We are at last operating on a single battle line.
38:54Now the Allies set their sights on Tunis.
38:58German resistance is ferocious.
39:00Every hill and pass is a struggle.
39:06But gradually, with concentrated firepower from two sides, the Allies continue to move forward.
39:18Almost inch by inch, the Axis position in Tunisia shrinks.
39:25Until it's little more than an arc around the city of Tunis itself.
39:36On May 7th, Allied troops enter Tunis, and the Axis forces surrender.
39:44After the capture of Tunis, North Africa is finally free of the Nazis and their fascist Italian allies.
39:51The North African campaign is over.
39:54By tens, by hundreds, by thousands, they came.
40:00And at the end, 15 full divisions, 266,000 of their best men laid down their arms.
40:10Over a quarter of a million Germans and Italians are captured.
40:16Prisoners as far as the eye can see.
40:20This is a great moment for the Allied cause.
40:23There had been one disastrous encounter with the Germans after the other since this war began.
40:29And now, I think everyone on the Allied side,
40:31especially Roosevelt would say, the home folks can see that something was going right in this war.
40:46Many high-ranking Axis commanders are captured, but not Rommel,
40:51who has been recalled to Germany by Adolf Hitler.
40:57The success of Operation Torch, combined with British victory at El Alamein,
41:03pushed the Nazis out of North Africa.
41:06It is the first step toward Allied victory over the Third Reich.
41:11To give you a sense of the scale of the victory in Tunisia,
41:15Churchill orders the church bells to be rung.
41:17They haven't been rung during the course of the whole war.
41:20It's an unbelievable victory for the Allies.
41:24The tide of the war is turning, but it's unclear what's next.
41:34This great victory is a monument to the perfection of cooperation
41:38among the fighting services of several nations.
41:40I know you would be proud of the way our own boys,
41:44your husbands, brothers, sons and sweethearts, have delivered here for you.
41:53Winston Churchill said the only thing worse than fighting with allies is fighting without them.
42:00Operation Torch demonstrates that General Eisenhower could command the multinational
42:06coalition of military forces necessary to topple the Third Reich.
42:11There are many fronts in modern war. Because of its very nature, the role of gathering intelligence
42:18is often obscure and misunderstood. But when it's successful, it can be decisive.
42:24That's why a small English hamlet, purposefully located between Cambridge and Oxford,
42:31becomes a crucial front in World War II.
42:33is a critical field that they went through.
42:34Therefore, you willérêt through through to be able to do two��es,
42:35He leaned out
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