0:00:10 > 0:00:12On September 13th, 1940,
0:00:12 > 0:00:15an Italian army of 80,000 men
0:00:15 > 0:00:18marched out of Libya into Egypt
0:00:18 > 0:00:21to threaten the epicentre of the British Empire
0:00:21 > 0:00:24at a critical moment in the Second World War.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26The desert itself was peripheral,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29but what began here as a skirmish
0:00:29 > 0:00:33was soon at the heart of Britain's struggle to defeat the Nazis.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37By 1942, it had become pivotal
0:00:37 > 0:00:41to the course of what was by then a truly global conflict.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44The desert campaign was an epic struggle.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48Hundreds of thousands of men from at least ten nations
0:00:48 > 0:00:50fighting to death
0:00:50 > 0:00:54in one of the most inhospitable battlefields on earth.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59The campaign culminated at the battle of El Alamein, 70 years ago.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03A triumph that marked, in Churchill's famous words,
0:01:03 > 0:01:06"The end of the beginning."
0:01:06 > 0:01:08How and why that was so
0:01:08 > 0:01:10are questions that lead from the desert
0:01:10 > 0:01:14to the strategic, political, and personal imperatives
0:01:14 > 0:01:18of those who presided over this military imbroglio.
0:01:18 > 0:01:23This is the story of how the men who fought and died here in the desert
0:01:23 > 0:01:25were players in a high drama
0:01:25 > 0:01:28that was scripted in the war capitals of London,
0:01:28 > 0:01:31Rome, Washington and Berlin.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54On 10th June, 1940, in Rome,
0:01:54 > 0:01:58the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
0:01:58 > 0:01:59declared war on Britain.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04Dunkirk had fallen to the German Panzers.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08His ally, Hitler, was apparently poised to invade Britain.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12This was Il Duce's moment.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19Mussolini was mercurial, quixotic,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22sinister and faintly ludicrous,
0:02:22 > 0:02:25but he wasn't entirely a buffoon.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27He wanted two things.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30An equal place with Hitler at the conference table,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33and that, he said, meant having several thousand
0:02:33 > 0:02:36dead soldiers on the battlefield.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41He also had a wider vision to create a new Roman Empire in Africa.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45And that meant challenging the British in the Middle East.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48Mussolini regarded the Mediterranean
0:02:48 > 0:02:51as Italy's very own lake.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53A lake which yoked the motherland to Libya,
0:02:53 > 0:02:56his Italian colony in North Africa.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58But Libya bordered Egypt,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01the seat of Britain's imperial presence in the Middle East,
0:03:01 > 0:03:03a crucial strategic stronghold,
0:03:03 > 0:03:07and at Alexandria, a vital port for the Royal Navy.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29Egypt was at the hub of an empire which still ruled the waves.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33An empire which had long been a source of power and wealth
0:03:33 > 0:03:37that very few British people ever sought to question.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41For the wartime coalition, and especially for Churchill,
0:03:41 > 0:03:44the threat to Britain and the threat to the empire
0:03:44 > 0:03:46were virtually inseparable.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50The British fleet based here in Alexandria
0:03:50 > 0:03:53patrolled the Mediterranean and protected a web of arteries
0:03:53 > 0:03:55which linked the United Kingdom
0:03:55 > 0:03:58to its possessions and dependencies in the Middle East,
0:03:58 > 0:04:00in Africa and in Asia.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04And for that reason, Churchill placed Egypt
0:04:04 > 0:04:08at the very heart of his strategy for defending the nation.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18The hub of Britain's political and administrative power
0:04:18 > 0:04:20in the Middle East was Cairo.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23Egypt was nominally independent,
0:04:23 > 0:04:28but the British made no attempt to disguise their colonial presence.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34The responsibility for defending the Middle East
0:04:34 > 0:04:36fell on General Archibald Wavell,
0:04:36 > 0:04:41whose authority not only embraced Egypt, but the Mediterranean,
0:04:41 > 0:04:46East Africa and the Persian Gulf, with its crucial supplies of oil.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54Wavell and Churchill could hardly have been more different.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Wavell was a scholar. An intellectual, a poet.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02He was taciturn and withdrawn and he rather despised politicians.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08Churchill, impatient, bombastic and garrulous,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11rather distrusted generals.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14The auguries were far from promising.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19Nonetheless, it was plain to both men
0:05:19 > 0:05:22that Mussolini's declaration of war on Britain
0:05:22 > 0:05:24posed a real threat to Egypt.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28Accordingly, Churchill ordered his commander-in-chief
0:05:28 > 0:05:31to prepare for an Italian invasion.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35Wavell's army was drawn from at least ten nations,
0:05:35 > 0:05:37and especially from Australia,
0:05:37 > 0:05:39South Africa, New Zealand and India.
0:05:39 > 0:05:44An imperial army to defend an imperial stronghold.
0:05:54 > 0:05:59Assuming Hitler was about to conquer Britain, Mussolini was in a hurry.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01To justify his share of the spoils,
0:06:01 > 0:06:05he needed to do battle before Britain sued for peace.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10If Egypt was to form part of his new Roman Empire, he had to move fast.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14To this end, he ordered his army commander in Libya,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18General Graziani, to mount an invasion forthwith.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22General Graziani marched the tenth Italian Army out of Libya,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25across the border into Egypt with the deepest reluctance.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28And only because Mussolini made it very clear to him
0:06:28 > 0:06:29that he'd be sacked otherwise.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34But Graziani knew that his men were ill-trained, ill-equipped
0:06:34 > 0:06:37and wholly unfitted to confront the British,
0:06:37 > 0:06:39even though the British had a much smaller force.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44But the advance itself was a rather stately affair.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48They covered something like 12 miles a day.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52And after four days, they reached this line here,
0:06:52 > 0:06:5450 miles from the border.
0:06:54 > 0:07:01And they set up a chain of defensive forts, of which this was one.
0:07:01 > 0:07:06The Italian invasion was very soon to provoke a prolonged conflict
0:07:06 > 0:07:10that would transform a peripheral desert into a pivotal battleground.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12Not that Graziani saw it like that.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17The idea that he was going to advance as Mussolini wanted,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20towards Cairo, more than 400 miles from here,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23was clearly not on his mind at all.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32With his army poised in the desert, Mussolini was in the Alps,
0:07:32 > 0:07:37on his way to meet Hitler at the border between Italy and Germany.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40In almost every sense, the two axis dictators
0:07:40 > 0:07:43felt themselves to be on top of the world.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47A week earlier on 27th September,
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Germany, Italy and Japan signed the so-called Tripartite Pact,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54which committed each of them to come to the military support of the other
0:07:54 > 0:07:57if any one of them were attacked.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00It also asserted their goal,
0:08:00 > 0:08:02no less than a new world order.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06As their trains climbed towards the Brenner Pass,
0:08:06 > 0:08:09Hitler and Mussolini knew what to expect of each other
0:08:09 > 0:08:12and what they wanted from the meeting.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37This was not the first time
0:08:37 > 0:08:39that the two men had met in the Fuhrer's railway carriage,
0:08:39 > 0:08:43but it was one of the more agreeable.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46But this wasn't merely a Nazi fascist love-in.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Hitler had a very hardnosed purpose.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53Always anxious about the vulnerability of Italy,
0:08:53 > 0:08:55the sudden flank of a Third Reich,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57he needed to prop up Mussolini.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02For his part, Il Duce was reassured when Hitler told him
0:09:02 > 0:09:06that the Mediterranean was an important theatre of the war.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10By the end of the meeting, they both went away convincing themselves
0:09:10 > 0:09:12that one way or another,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15the collapse of the British Empire was at hand.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25However, the British Empire,
0:09:25 > 0:09:28in the person of the Prime Minister, had other ideas.
0:09:33 > 0:09:35Hidden in the cliffs near Land's End,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38there was a secret cable station which despatched
0:09:38 > 0:09:43thousands of Churchill's coded messages to all parts of the empire,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46and, with growing urgency, across the Atlantic
0:09:46 > 0:09:48to the White House and Franklin D Roosevelt.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54The Prime Minister knew that without America
0:09:54 > 0:09:59it would be quite impossible for Britain to defeat the axis powers.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02His task therefore was to persuade the White House
0:10:02 > 0:10:06that the United States was every bit as threatened by Nazism
0:10:06 > 0:10:08as the United Kingdom.
0:10:12 > 0:10:13If we go down,
0:10:13 > 0:10:18you may have a United States of Europe under the Nazi command
0:10:18 > 0:10:23far more numerous, far stronger, far better armed than the new world.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42Roosevelt was not indifferent to Britain's plight.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45But he was a consummate politician
0:10:45 > 0:10:47whose overriding priority at that moment
0:10:47 > 0:10:51was to secure an unprecedented personal victory at home.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55In America the public was unmoved by Britain's predicament -
0:10:55 > 0:10:59partly this was through a latent Anglophobia but more importantly,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01it was a strong feeling -
0:11:01 > 0:11:05"We do not want to get involved in what is Europe's war,"
0:11:05 > 0:11:08even if the polls showed Britain were to go under.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10So strong was this feeling
0:11:10 > 0:11:13that in the run-up to the 1940 Presidential election,
0:11:13 > 0:11:15when he was running for a third term,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18Roosevelt went so far as to tell a crowd,
0:11:18 > 0:11:22"I've said this before, I'll say it again and again and again -
0:11:22 > 0:11:26"your boys are not going into any foreign wars."
0:11:27 > 0:11:34Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign war.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:11:39 > 0:11:45Yes, the purpose of our defence is defence.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59In the Middle East, the British high command,
0:11:59 > 0:12:03urged on by the Prime Minister, was planning an offensive.
0:12:03 > 0:12:08But in a capital city crawling with spies and informers,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11secrecy was essential.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14Wavell brought his wife and two children here to the Gezira Club
0:12:14 > 0:12:17to watch the racing and relax.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20That evening he took friends out to dinner. On the Monday morning,
0:12:20 > 0:12:24he summoned the war correspondents to his office and he told them,
0:12:24 > 0:12:26"We have attacked in the Western Desert".
0:12:26 > 0:12:30And he cautioned them: "You should not describe it as an offensive -
0:12:30 > 0:12:33"you can call it an important raid".
0:12:33 > 0:12:35He was delighted to discover that none of them
0:12:35 > 0:12:38had any inkling of what he had planned.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50The attack caught the Italians off-guard.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53The British advanced at rapid speed,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55soon overrunning the Italian frontline.
0:13:06 > 0:13:08The Italians stumbled back into Libya.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11A retreat which soon turned into a rout.
0:13:12 > 0:13:13Churchill was triumphant.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24In barely eight weeks, an advance of over 400 miles
0:13:24 > 0:13:28has been made, the whole Italian army in the east of Libya
0:13:28 > 0:13:31has been captured or destroyed.
0:13:35 > 0:13:42Out of an army numbering 180,000 men, only 30,000 evaded capture.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46The British advance took them beyond Benghazi all the way to El Agheila.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51They left behind a plentiful supply of rich pickings.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59We found a gramophone and a pile of opera records.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04So for some time we sat and ate tinned food with condensed milk
0:14:04 > 0:14:05and listened to opera.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16It was a singular triumph for Britain
0:14:16 > 0:14:18and a singular disaster for Italy.
0:14:20 > 0:14:26In the space of a month, the British had taken 130,000 Italian prisoners.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30The Italians plodded four abreast in the sand,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33a stupendous crocodile of marching figures
0:14:33 > 0:14:35stretched away to either horizon.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39They were tired and dispirited beyond caring.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41I found no triumph in the scene -
0:14:41 > 0:14:45just the tragedy of hunger, wounds and defeat.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49Wavell issued a special order of the day to the Western Desert Force.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53"You have done great deeds. We are fighting for freedom
0:14:53 > 0:14:58"and truth and kindliness, against oppression and lies and cruelty
0:14:58 > 0:15:01"and we shall not fail".
0:15:01 > 0:15:05Operation Compass had been an unequivocal success.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08It was the last for a very long time.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20At the Berghof, his headquarters high in the Bavarian Alps,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23Hitler confronted an unpalatable truth -
0:15:23 > 0:15:26his vulnerable flank in southern Europe
0:15:26 > 0:15:29was now menaced by Britain's success in the desert.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33The rout of the Italians alarmed Hitler,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36and on the 3rd February he told his commanders,
0:15:36 > 0:15:38"If the Italians are beaten in North Africa,
0:15:38 > 0:15:42"then Britain will be able to hold a pistol to the head of Italy.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45"We must do everything to avoid that."
0:15:45 > 0:15:48Three days later, he summoned his favourite General, Erwin Rommel,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51who he regarded as the best tank commander in the German army
0:15:51 > 0:15:57and said, "I'm forming an Afrika Korps. You are to be its commander".
0:16:00 > 0:16:04Rommel had made his reputation during the rout of the British
0:16:04 > 0:16:07that had led to Dunkirk and the fall of France.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14The Desert Fox, as he'd soon be known,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17landed in Libya armed with the most advanced German tanks
0:16:17 > 0:16:20and battle-hardened troops.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22The Afrika Korps was a force to be reckoned with.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30Rommel's task - to rescue Mussolini
0:16:30 > 0:16:33by stopping the British from conquering Libya.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43But at that very moment, this threat dramatically evaporated.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47In London, the Prime Minister had become greatly agitated
0:16:47 > 0:16:52by what was happening on the other side of the Mediterranean.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00Greece was at threat of imminent invasion. If Greece fell,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04then neutral Turkey might fall into Hitler's embrace as well.
0:17:04 > 0:17:05If that happened,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08the whole of the Middle East would be threatened.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12So Churchill, to the initial consternation of Cairo,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15ordered Wavell to withdraw four divisions from the desert
0:17:15 > 0:17:18and dispatch them to Greece
0:17:18 > 0:17:22to help in what he described as her "peril and torment".
0:17:24 > 0:17:27The impact in Libya was immediate.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35On the 24th of February 1941
0:17:35 > 0:17:39a small Panzer unit appeared, as it were from nowhere,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43attacked and destroyed two British Scout cars and a truck.
0:17:43 > 0:17:461,000 miles away, back in his headquarters in Cairo,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49General Wavell, who was preoccupied with the attempt
0:17:49 > 0:17:51to get four divisions across to Greece,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54was unperturbed - it was just a skirmish.
0:17:54 > 0:17:56Rommel had only just arrived, it was inconceivable
0:17:56 > 0:18:00that he could mount a serious assault on the British frontline
0:18:00 > 0:18:04for weeks. As he later admitted, it was a grievous mistake.
0:18:12 > 0:18:13Rommel was a gambler.
0:18:13 > 0:18:19And he gambled now, launching an all-out attack
0:18:19 > 0:18:23with a speed and daring which took the British completely by surprise.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32It is painful to attempt to describe the muddle
0:18:32 > 0:18:34in which the column withdrew.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36Armoured cars, trucks and tanks were mixed up
0:18:36 > 0:18:40without regard to their units; jumbled, jolting forward
0:18:40 > 0:18:44at a speed which indicated that the panic of the higher command
0:18:44 > 0:18:46had communicated itself to the troops.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51We saw tanks coming over.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56Wireless aerials with pennants atop, like a field full of lancers.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58Men of the Tower Hamlets went forward to face them
0:18:58 > 0:19:02in Bren Carriers and were virtually destroyed in a matter of minutes.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11Hardly believing his luck, Rommel wrote home to his wife in triumph.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17Dearest Lu, we've been attacking since the 31st
0:19:17 > 0:19:19with dazzling success.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22I took the rise against all orders and instructions
0:19:22 > 0:19:25because the opportunity seemed favourable.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28The British are falling over each other to get away.
0:19:28 > 0:19:33Our casualties are small. Our booty can't yet be estimated.
0:19:33 > 0:19:38You will understand that I can't sleep for happiness.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48The helter-skelter advance of the German and Italian forces
0:19:48 > 0:19:51that formed Rommel's Panzer army
0:19:51 > 0:19:53had brought them over 1,000 miles
0:19:53 > 0:19:56from axis headquarters in Tripoli to the border with Egypt.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08But with his supply lines now stretched to the limit,
0:20:08 > 0:20:12without a constant supply of food, fuel and weaponry,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15his men would be soon be marooned in the desert,
0:20:15 > 0:20:18unable to sustain an offensive.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25Rommel looked covetously towards a small Mediterranean port
0:20:25 > 0:20:26called Tobruk.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31A former Italian outpost, this garrison town
0:20:31 > 0:20:34with its deep water port and barricaded perimeter
0:20:34 > 0:20:38had fallen into British hands during the rout of the Italians
0:20:38 > 0:20:40a few weeks earlier.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44If Rommel could seize it back again, he could more easily maintain
0:20:44 > 0:20:46the flow of supplies needed to take Egypt.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52He cabled Berlin at once, boasting that Tobruk would soon be his.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56But the British had other ideas.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06Churchill was besotted by Tobruk -
0:21:06 > 0:21:09when Wavell had the temerity to describe it as "an excrescence"
0:21:09 > 0:21:11he was sharply rebuked.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14Tobruk, said Churchill, should be held to the death.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16He told President Roosevelt that it was crucial
0:21:16 > 0:21:19to the protection of Egypt, the survival of the Middle East
0:21:19 > 0:21:23and ultimately therefore to stopping Hitler imposing
0:21:23 > 0:21:27what he described as his "new robot order" on the world.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30That was a hostage to fortune and it made Tobruk
0:21:30 > 0:21:35an emblematic albatross around the necks of the British high command.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39Wavell was far less obsessed with Tobruk, knowing he could
0:21:39 > 0:21:44prevent his enemy using the port without occupying the town itself.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50But Churchill insisted.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54So Wavell rushed in reinforcements to defend Tobruk at all costs.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08The Australian 9th division, fresh to the desert,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11ill-equipped, un-bloodied, found themselves here
0:22:11 > 0:22:16facing down that road to stop Rommel's advancing column.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Their commander, General Morshead,
0:22:19 > 0:22:21"Ming the Merciless" they called him, had said,
0:22:21 > 0:22:26"No surrender, No retreat. There will be no second Dunkirk here".
0:22:27 > 0:22:31It was the start of a month of very bloody fighting.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Again and again, Rommel's men hurled themselves
0:22:36 > 0:22:37at the garrison perimeter.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42And again and again, the defenders drove them off.
0:22:47 > 0:22:53Soon it was stalemate, but Tobruk was now under siege.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05There was no second Dunkirk at Tobruk.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08But in Greece, there was.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13The four divisions that Wavell had diverted there from the desert
0:23:13 > 0:23:17were overwhelmed by the advancing German Panzers and had no choice
0:23:17 > 0:23:24but to flee, leaving behind 15,000 men killed, wounded or captured.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31At Churchill's direction, Wavell was now overseeing military campaigns
0:23:31 > 0:23:33on no less than five fronts.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39A war which had started in Europe had now spread to the Mediterranean,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43the Middle East, and north Africa. Hitler seemed unstoppable.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50By late May the news was dire on every front.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53Greece was gone, Crete was about to fall.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58Vichy-held Syria seemed about to tumble into Hitler's embrace,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01and a uprising in Iraq, with its crucial oil wells,
0:24:01 > 0:24:03had yet to be suppressed.
0:24:03 > 0:24:08The great fear now was that with Rommel poised on the Egyptian border
0:24:08 > 0:24:13there would be a Nazi pincer movement that would throttle
0:24:13 > 0:24:16this vital artery of the British empire.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26Churchill's worst fears were now played out in London
0:24:26 > 0:24:30where his own high command roused him to fury
0:24:30 > 0:24:36by warning that he risked losing the war in an effort to save Egypt.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39In these exceptionally testing times,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42it didn't take much to incur the wrath of Churchill -
0:24:42 > 0:24:45especially if your name happened to be Wavell.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49So, when the Middle East commander-in-chief sent a cable to the Prime Minister,
0:24:49 > 0:24:53saying that his troops weren't battle-worthy and ill-equipped,
0:24:53 > 0:24:55and furthermore that if the worst came to the worst,
0:24:55 > 0:24:59he had plans to evacuate Egypt altogether,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Churchill exploded.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07"Wavell has 400,000 men", he shouted at one meeting.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10"If they lose Egypt, blood will flow.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13"I'll have shooting parties to shoot the generals".
0:25:15 > 0:25:19By now, Wavell and Churchill were openly at loggerheads.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22The general had support in the high command.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24But Churchill would have none of it.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28War was a contest of wills.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33Attack was the name of the game. Retreat was out of the question.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40The loss of Egypt and the Middle East would be a disaster
0:25:40 > 0:25:42of the first magnitude.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44The life and honour of Great Britain
0:25:44 > 0:25:47depends upon the successful defence of Egypt.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49The army of the Nile is to fight,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52with no thought of retreat or withdrawal.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05Rhetoric was one thing, reality quite another.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08Rommel's army was on the high ground here
0:26:08 > 0:26:10just inside the Egyptian border.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13Wavell's troops were down below on the coast.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18When Churchill ordered him to attack in June, Wavell demurred,
0:26:18 > 0:26:23warning that the enemy was superior in guns, tanks, and mobility.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25Churchill interpreted this as
0:26:25 > 0:26:28"the message of a tired and beaten man"
0:26:28 > 0:26:30and insisted that his order be obeyed.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38Wavell finally succumbed to Churchill's bullying.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40The result was Operation Battleaxe,
0:26:40 > 0:26:44which was launched here at Halfaya at the border with Libya.
0:26:44 > 0:26:49Battleaxe turned out to be a very blunt instrument.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54The British hoped to take the high ground above the coastal plain
0:26:54 > 0:26:58and then advance along the coast to relieve Tobruk.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01But the Germans were ready for them.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09Not only with their superior tanks, but the 88s -
0:27:09 > 0:27:12an artillery weapon of unrivalled range and power.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17All totally hidden from sight.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20The British armour drove up towards the Halfaya pass -
0:27:20 > 0:27:22into a carefully prepared trap.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28I waved at the tanks, hoping they would pepper the enemy front.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32They went straight in, on into the 88s and they were all wiped out.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Then about an hour after,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38I looks, and all of a sudden there were about six Jerry tanks
0:27:38 > 0:27:42coming for us and I shouted, "Right lads, every man for himself!
0:27:42 > 0:27:47"Live to fight another day or else you've had it. Follow me."
0:27:47 > 0:27:50And we dashed away. We ran like hell.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58Under the ferocity of this bombardment,
0:27:58 > 0:28:01the British offensive collapsed.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07One of the lads started crying.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11We lost half our battalion, and we lost half the company.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15Out of about 90 men, only 46 got out.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24Rommel, who had expected a hard fight, was jubilant.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30Dearest Lu, the three-day battle has ended in complete victory.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33I'm going round the troops today to thank them.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39The outcome was much as Wavell must have suspected.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42On the 18th June he cabled Churchill to say,
0:28:42 > 0:28:47"I am sorry to have to report that Battleaxe has failed."
0:28:54 > 0:28:57The Prime Minister was at his country home, Chartwell,
0:28:57 > 0:28:59when Wavell's cable arrived.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07Churchill had invested a great deal of political
0:29:07 > 0:29:09and personal capital in Battleaxe
0:29:09 > 0:29:13and he was more than usually downcast at the outcome.
0:29:13 > 0:29:18By his account, he wandered disconsolately about the valley for some hours
0:29:18 > 0:29:20as he reflected on a defeat
0:29:20 > 0:29:24in which yet again, the British Army had been comprehensively outgunned,
0:29:24 > 0:29:26outfought and outfoxed.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30In his mind there was only one man to blame.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37Battleaxe was Wavell's personal nemesis in the Middle East.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41A great soldier who faced overwhelming odds
0:29:41 > 0:29:44was dismissed by Churchill with barely a thank you.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49I feel that after the long strain that you have borne a new eye
0:29:49 > 0:29:54and a new hand are required in this most seriously menaced theatre.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59Churchill's military advisors were dismayed.
0:29:59 > 0:30:01Though they admired his energy and resolve,
0:30:01 > 0:30:04this was not the way to run a war.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08In this case too, they knew that the blame for Wavell's defeat
0:30:08 > 0:30:12in an unwinnable battle lay not with the general but the politician.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19They knew also that the fate of the Middle East hung on Hitler.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41The Fuhrer was here in Poland, where he had built
0:30:41 > 0:30:45a vast complex of concrete bunkers hidden in the forest
0:30:45 > 0:30:4750 miles from the Russian border.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53Wolf's Lair, as it was called, was his new headquarters from which to
0:30:53 > 0:30:59mastermind Operation Barbarossa, the mightiest invasion in all history.
0:30:59 > 0:31:05Nearly 4 million men. Over 3,000 tanks, more than 4,000 aircraft.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14Like almost everyone else, including the British,
0:31:14 > 0:31:18Hitler presumed that the Soviet Union would collapse within weeks
0:31:18 > 0:31:22and so vaulting was his ambition, so boundless his hubris,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25that he had already drafted so-called Order 32,
0:31:25 > 0:31:30which called for the destruction of the British in the Mediterranean
0:31:30 > 0:31:33via a movement on one side down through Turkey,
0:31:33 > 0:31:35on the other from Libya.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38The destruction of the Middle Eastern Empire,
0:31:38 > 0:31:41precisely the pincer movement that so agitated Churchill
0:31:41 > 0:31:43and the British High Command.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49The great fear was that intoxicated by his conquest of Russia,
0:31:49 > 0:31:53Hitler would very soon direct his Panzers towards the Middle East,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56posing a mortal threat to the British empire.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15So when president Roosevelt invited Churchill to join him for a tete-a-tete,
0:32:15 > 0:32:19the Prime Minister accepted with alacrity.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22At 7.00 on the evening of the 2nd Roosevelt came here.
0:32:22 > 0:32:27He boarded his presidential yacht The Potomac, telling the media
0:32:27 > 0:32:32that he was off for a few days' cruise away from it all.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36In fact, as soon as he got out of here into the Long Island Sound
0:32:36 > 0:32:40he was transferred from his yacht to the US Warship The Augusta,
0:32:40 > 0:32:44which steamed full speed ahead for a secret rendezvous
0:32:44 > 0:32:46just off the coast of Newfoundland.
0:32:46 > 0:32:48Roosevelt was elated.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51"I am looking forward", he said, "to the big day ahead."
0:32:54 > 0:32:57Steaming to the same rendezvous was Churchill,
0:32:57 > 0:33:00anxious to woo the American President in person.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07At Placentia bay they pledged themselves to quote
0:33:07 > 0:33:10"The final destruction of the Nazi tyranny."
0:33:16 > 0:33:19But this was only a pledge.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22And Roosevelt was quick to reassure the American people,
0:33:22 > 0:33:25war was not in the offing.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29Equally disturbingly for Churchill, Roosevelt's closest advisors
0:33:29 > 0:33:31had already told the Prime Minister
0:33:31 > 0:33:34that the Middle East was a hopeless cause
0:33:34 > 0:33:37and that American weapons should no longer be wasted on it.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42To convince Roosevelt that they were wrong,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Churchill needed results in the desert.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05Wavell's successor was General Sir Claude Auchinleck
0:34:05 > 0:34:07who had come straight from
0:34:07 > 0:34:10perhaps the most impressive jewel in Britain's imperial crown, India.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13He had served in the Indian army during the First World War
0:34:13 > 0:34:16and had stayed on to become Commander-in-Chief.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20He was an imposing figure, a man of clear integrity
0:34:20 > 0:34:23and a little bit obstinate, an outsider.
0:34:24 > 0:34:29Like Wavell before him, Auchinleck was swift to realise that his men
0:34:29 > 0:34:33were not yet trained and equipped to do battle against Rommel.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36And he was even less inclined than his predecessor to
0:34:36 > 0:34:40surrender his military judgment to Churchill's political imperative.
0:34:47 > 0:34:52In the long hot summer months of 1941, Auchinleck did not relent.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58Though Tobruk was still under siege and suffering,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01the Middle East commander-in-chief refused to launch an offensive
0:35:01 > 0:35:04until he thought his troops were ready.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08Rommel, however, was itching for action.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13Unable to get into Tobruk, Rommel set up his headquarters
0:35:13 > 0:35:16here about 20 miles from the heart of the town.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19But he hadn't been idle, he had a big plan,
0:35:19 > 0:35:23it was a blitzkrieg right across the desert
0:35:23 > 0:35:26destroying the Eighth Army and taking Cairo,
0:35:26 > 0:35:28and if he could get resources
0:35:28 > 0:35:30and if there was the commitment from Berlin,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33it would be part of an even larger operation
0:35:33 > 0:35:35to throttle Britain in the Middle East.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41But such an unequivocal commitment was not yet forthcoming.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44The defeat of Russia had to come first.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54In London, the Prime Minister was much vexed at Auchinleck's refusal
0:35:54 > 0:35:56to be harried into premature action.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00With Hitler's Panzers less than 50 miles from Moscow,
0:36:00 > 0:36:03the fall of Russia seemed to be imminent.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07And then, for sure, the Middle East would be next.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11So when he was eventually given a date for Operation Crusader,
0:36:11 > 0:36:16he released his pent-up frustration in a torrent of Churchillian rhetoric.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22"The battle will affect the course of the whole war", he said
0:36:22 > 0:36:26and he went on, never knowingly understated, to say,
0:36:26 > 0:36:31"The desert army may add a page to history to rival
0:36:31 > 0:36:36"that of Blenheim and Waterloo. The eyes of the world are upon you."
0:36:37 > 0:36:40Churchill reiterated this in a long letter to Roosevelt,
0:36:40 > 0:36:45assuring him that a British victory against Rommel in Libya
0:36:45 > 0:36:48would alter "the whole shape of the war in the Mediterranean".
0:36:52 > 0:36:55Auchinleck was in a sanguine mood.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59Just before the battle, he wrote to the chiefs of staff in London.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03I am not nervous about Crusader, but I wonder if you realise
0:37:03 > 0:37:07how everything hangs on the tactical issue of one day's fighting
0:37:07 > 0:37:12and on one man's tactical ability on that one day.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15All these months of labour and thought can be
0:37:15 > 0:37:19set at nought in one afternoon, rather a terrifying thought.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29In the early hours of 18th November,
0:37:29 > 0:37:33more than 100,000 men and 700 tanks,
0:37:33 > 0:37:36the Eighth Army as it was now called,
0:37:36 > 0:37:38advanced out of Egypt into Libya.
0:37:42 > 0:37:48Their quarry, the 400 tanks and 120,000 men of Rommel's Panzer Army.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56Here on the airfield at Sidi Rezegh
0:37:56 > 0:37:58there took place the most intense tank battle
0:37:58 > 0:38:01of the entire desert campaign.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05Hundreds of tanks on both sides across this vast area.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09But the British were hugely outgunned
0:38:09 > 0:38:13and therefore, with the romance of the 19th century cavalry,
0:38:13 > 0:38:17they opted to charge, charge directly at Rommel's lines.
0:38:26 > 0:38:30I cannot describe the confusion of this all-out tank battle,
0:38:30 > 0:38:33we were here, there and everywhere.
0:38:33 > 0:38:35I do not know who was keeping the score
0:38:35 > 0:38:39but we were losing a great deal of equipment and men.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42The noise, the heat and the dust were unbearable.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49Despite the heroism of their crews,
0:38:49 > 0:38:52the British tanks were outmatched by the Panzers,
0:38:52 > 0:38:55outgunned and outpaced.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02Sometimes the dead were laid alongside the blackened hulks
0:39:02 > 0:39:04of their burnt-out tanks.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08The tanks themselves still smouldered and smelt evilly.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11Their interior fittings had been dragged out
0:39:11 > 0:39:14like the entrails of some wounded animal,
0:39:14 > 0:39:18for you would see the toothbrushes and blankets of the crews
0:39:18 > 0:39:22scattered around, together with their little packets of biscuits,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25their water bottles, photographs of their families.
0:39:34 > 0:39:38The Desert Fox was a master at integrating
0:39:38 > 0:39:42and orchestrating his forces infantry, artillery and armour
0:39:42 > 0:39:46working as one, driving a wedge between the scattered British lines.
0:39:50 > 0:39:55Within three days, Sidi Rezegh had become a charnel house
0:39:55 > 0:39:58but it belonged to Rommel.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06With half the Eighth Army's armour now destroyed,
0:40:06 > 0:40:10Rommel opted for a gamble that defied military logic.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13Carving a route straight through the British lines,
0:40:13 > 0:40:18he led two Panzer divisions in a headlong dash to the Egyptian border.
0:40:20 > 0:40:25At this point, showing the intuition of a truly great commander-in-chief,
0:40:25 > 0:40:29Auchinleck sensed that Rommel had over-reached himself.
0:40:29 > 0:40:31Telling his generals at the front to stay firm,
0:40:31 > 0:40:33at a moment of real crisis
0:40:33 > 0:40:36he sent a message to every man in the Eighth Army.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40"You've got your teeth into him, hold on, fight deeper and deeper.
0:40:40 > 0:40:46"There is only one order, attack and pursue, all out, everyone!"
0:40:52 > 0:40:53It worked.
0:40:53 > 0:40:55Rommel was forced to rush back from the border
0:40:55 > 0:40:58to rejoin the main body of the Panzer Army
0:40:58 > 0:41:01which was hard-pressed on the outskirts of Tobruk.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07This was the moment for the garrison to break out.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13Slicing through the Axis lines, they managed to link up with
0:41:13 > 0:41:16the New Zealand 2nd Division, which had itself
0:41:16 > 0:41:21cut a swathe through the Panzer Army from the other side.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25A siege which had lasted 240 days was over.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32Rommel was now critically short of men, machines, and supplies,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36he had little choice but to retreat.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39For once, he had been too clever by half.
0:41:40 > 0:41:45In a dramatic reversal of fortune, the Desert Fox was now on the run.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53Dearest Lu, we're pulling out. There was simply nothing else for it.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56I hope we manage to get back to the line we've chosen.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Christmas is going to be completely messed up.
0:41:59 > 0:42:04My commanding officers are ill - all those who aren't dead or wounded.
0:42:07 > 0:42:12With the siege of Tobruk lifted, the Eighth Army pressed on,
0:42:12 > 0:42:16driving Rommel back, forcing him to retreat beyond Benghazi,
0:42:16 > 0:42:18hundreds of miles,
0:42:18 > 0:42:22to the point where he had started this campaign nine months earlier.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34The Eighth Army had inflicted 40,000 casualties
0:42:34 > 0:42:36on the Italian and German soldiers of the Panzer Army.
0:42:40 > 0:42:4518,000 of Auchinleck's men were dead, wounded, or missing in action.
0:42:58 > 0:43:03The British had paid a high price but it was a big victory.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09It was not a victory on the scale of Blenheim or Waterloo,
0:43:09 > 0:43:12but it was a single triumph,
0:43:12 > 0:43:15demonstrating that Rommel could be worsted on the battlefield
0:43:15 > 0:43:20and in the grim days of 1941, Crusader, though long forgotten,
0:43:20 > 0:43:24except by those who fought here, was a precious gleam of light.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39Churchill was delighted.
0:43:39 > 0:43:44"Here then" he intoned later, "we reached a moment of relief
0:43:44 > 0:43:47"and indeed rejoicing about the desert war."
0:43:49 > 0:43:55But Crusader was suddenly and dramatically overshadowed
0:43:55 > 0:43:58by an event which turned the Second World War
0:43:58 > 0:44:00into a truly global conflict.
0:44:01 > 0:44:06On the very day that Tobruk was relieved,
0:44:06 > 0:44:09the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour.
0:44:10 > 0:44:15When Churchill heard the news, he could scarcely contain his delight.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation,
0:44:21 > 0:44:26I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30To have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy.
0:44:30 > 0:44:34At this very moment I knew the United States was in the war,
0:44:34 > 0:44:36up to the neck and in to the death.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41Churchill now seized the moment.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44His overriding purpose, to persuade the Americans to adopt
0:44:44 > 0:44:48his strategy for defeating the global threat posed
0:44:48 > 0:44:53by the alliance of Germany, Italy, and now Japan as well.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56To this end, he invited himself to the White House.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19For his second visit, Churchill crossed the Atlantic
0:45:19 > 0:45:22in the battleship The Duke of York in conditions so atrocious,
0:45:22 > 0:45:25so stormy that the journey took twice as long as usual.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27Ten days rather than five.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31But while those about him were collapsing with sea sickness,
0:45:31 > 0:45:35he sat down and he wrote one of the major documents of the war.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38A grand vision for the future strategy of what was now
0:45:38 > 0:45:42a military alliance between Britain and the United States.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45Armed with that, he went straight to the White House -
0:45:45 > 0:45:51his task, to persuade Roosevelt that his first priority should be
0:45:51 > 0:45:54not the destruction of the Japanese in the Pacific
0:45:54 > 0:45:56or of the Germans in Europe
0:45:56 > 0:46:00but to join with Britain in fighting in North Africa.
0:46:00 > 0:46:02A pretty tall order.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16Churchill stayed as Roosevelt's houseguest for almost three weeks.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18Their personal relationship blossomed,
0:46:18 > 0:46:21but they had sharp differences of perspective.
0:46:21 > 0:46:23At dinner one night,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26the President went out of his way to tell the Prime Minister
0:46:26 > 0:46:30that most Americans had a genuine hatred for the British empire -
0:46:30 > 0:46:33a measure of the difficulties Churchill faced
0:46:33 > 0:46:36in persuading his ally to confront their enemies
0:46:36 > 0:46:39in North Africa before anywhere else.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48Nonetheless, the Prime Minister was much feted in Washington
0:46:48 > 0:46:51where he was given a rapturous reception
0:46:51 > 0:46:55when he was accorded the rare privilege of addressing Congress.
0:46:55 > 0:47:00'In the days to come the British and the American people
0:47:00 > 0:47:05'will for their own safety and for the good of all
0:47:05 > 0:47:10'walk together in majesty, in justice and in peace.'
0:47:14 > 0:47:18But this display of transatlantic amity made precious little impact
0:47:18 > 0:47:20on any of the President's men.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23They thought the defeat of Japan or Germany mattered far more
0:47:23 > 0:47:27than Churchill's imperial ambitions for the Middle East.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32When Roosevelt's most senior advisers looked closely
0:47:32 > 0:47:35at Churchill's plan some of them were aghast.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37It was madness to go to North Africa.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40Others were ambivalent, how on Earth could it work?
0:47:40 > 0:47:43Churchill had made it clear he was predicating his plan
0:47:43 > 0:47:47on the assumption that the British would soon win in Libya.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51The issue, after days and days of wrangling, was left in doubt.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54But when Churchill came to leave he was elated
0:47:54 > 0:47:58when Roosevelt said to him, "Trust me to the bitter end".
0:48:05 > 0:48:09The Prime Minister's satisfaction did not last long.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22Despite the fact that the Soviet Union had failed
0:48:22 > 0:48:24to collapse on schedule,
0:48:24 > 0:48:27Hitler's vision of the Thousand-Year Reich
0:48:27 > 0:48:31was remarkably undimmed by any kind of reality check.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34So in January he was talking about the Wehrmacht heading south
0:48:34 > 0:48:37through the Caucasus to take Iran and Iraq.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41Then he thought the Arabs would rise up in revolt against the British,
0:48:41 > 0:48:44at the same time, Churchill would be obliged
0:48:44 > 0:48:46to remove his troops from North Africa
0:48:46 > 0:48:50and, he said, he would give all the resources Rommel needed
0:48:50 > 0:48:53to ensure that the British were driven to the conference table.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05That put the spotlight on the island of Malta, a British garrison
0:49:05 > 0:49:09strategically located in the middle of the Mediterranean.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12A deep water port, and the only airbase between Italy
0:49:12 > 0:49:15and the North African coast.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19For months, the Royal Navy and the RAF had set off from here
0:49:19 > 0:49:23to inflict severe damage on the Axis convoys on which Rommel relied
0:49:23 > 0:49:27for the supplies needed to sustain his campaign in the desert.
0:49:31 > 0:49:33But this was about to change.
0:49:34 > 0:49:39In one of his spasms of anxiety about the Middle East and Rommel,
0:49:39 > 0:49:43Hitler belatedly woke up to the importance of the Mediterranean
0:49:43 > 0:49:47which he now said should be seen as a decisive theatre of the war
0:49:47 > 0:49:52and that meant neutralizing the Royal Navy and the RAF.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54In turn, that meant Malta.
0:49:54 > 0:49:56Malta had to blockaded,
0:49:56 > 0:50:01besieged from the sea and bombarded from the air.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04The impact was almost immediate.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11The onslaught on Malta - led by Luftwaffe squadrons
0:50:11 > 0:50:14released from the Russian front - made British operations
0:50:14 > 0:50:18against Axis convoys in the Mediterranean extremely hazardous.
0:50:21 > 0:50:26As a result, Rommel's supplies once again started to flow freely
0:50:26 > 0:50:27to his front line.
0:50:29 > 0:50:34The British, somewhat resting on their laurels near Benghazi,
0:50:34 > 0:50:36failed to see what was coming.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44The Panzer Army struck like lightning,
0:50:44 > 0:50:47leaving the British reeling and wrong-footed.
0:50:50 > 0:50:54They were soon in headlong flight all the way back until
0:50:54 > 0:50:58they reached a point, not far from Tobruk, known as the Gazala line.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03Here they dug in across a front which stretched for 50 miles
0:51:03 > 0:51:07from the sea to a fort called Bir Hakeim.
0:51:13 > 0:51:15Rommel gloated contentedly.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21Dearest Lu, I wonder what you have to say about the counter attack
0:51:21 > 0:51:23we started at 8.30 yesterday.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26Our opponents are getting out as though they'd been stung.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29Prospects are good for the next few days.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47Churchill was astonished and horrified.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50The rout of the Eighth Army threatened to torpedo his efforts
0:51:50 > 0:51:54to enlist the Americans in his North African venture.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56A prime ministerial cable from Porthcurno
0:51:56 > 0:51:58was soon on its way to Cairo.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01I am much disturbed.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03I had certainly never been led to suppose
0:52:03 > 0:52:05that such a situation could arise.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08It seems to me this is a serious crisis
0:52:08 > 0:52:10and one, to me, quite unexpected.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14Auchinleck not only failed to reply
0:52:14 > 0:52:16but soon made matters worse by informing London
0:52:16 > 0:52:19that the Eighth Army would not be ready to confront Rommel
0:52:19 > 0:52:21for at least two months.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28A furious Prime Minister demanded to see him in London.
0:52:31 > 0:52:32But Auchinleck refused.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37I am certain that I cannot, repeat, not,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40leave the Middle East in present circumstances.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44I am not, repeat, not, prepared to delegate authority to anyone
0:52:44 > 0:52:49while strategical situation is so fluid and liable to rapid changes.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53Churchill was tempted to fire him.
0:52:53 > 0:52:56Instead, he dispatched a caustic reply.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59Your losses have been far less than the enemy
0:52:59 > 0:53:02who nevertheless keep fighting.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06It will be thought intolerable that your men should remain unengaged,
0:53:06 > 0:53:10preparing for another set-piece battle in July.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26At home, the Prime Minister was in trouble.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31From Dunkirk to Greece to Singapore,
0:53:31 > 0:53:35one defeat had followed another without sign of victory anywhere.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41Churchill's leadership was coming under severe and sometimes
0:53:41 > 0:53:45savage scrutiny, murmurings in Westminster and Whitehall.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Outright attacks in the public prince.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51At a secret session of Parliament
0:53:51 > 0:53:55seeking to explain set back after set back, he let rip.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58"I am anxious that members should realise" he said
0:53:58 > 0:54:03"that our affairs are not conducted by simpletons and dunderheads
0:54:03 > 0:54:05"as the comic papers would depict.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09"Any featherhead can be confident in time of victory.
0:54:09 > 0:54:14"The test is to have faith when things are going badly".
0:54:21 > 0:54:25And they were going badly, very badly, in the Mediterranean.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31Malta was still under siege, its people half starving.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46By the spring, Malta was being throttled.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49The aerial bombardment had reached such a pitch
0:54:49 > 0:54:52that people fled the city to live in the countryside
0:54:52 > 0:54:56or in tunnels underground or in makeshift air raid shelters.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00In a little over one month more than 1,000 people were killed,
0:55:00 > 0:55:054,500 injured, more than 15,000 buildings destroyed.
0:55:05 > 0:55:10In March and April, more bombs fell on Malta
0:55:10 > 0:55:13than on London during the entire Blitz.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20Hitler now authorised an invasion of the island
0:55:20 > 0:55:25and gave Rommel the go-ahead for an all-out offensive on Egypt.
0:55:32 > 0:55:38On the 27th May 1942 a forward officer of the Southernmost tip
0:55:38 > 0:55:42of the Gazala line radioed his core headquarters
0:55:42 > 0:55:4540 miles up the line to say, "In a cloud of dust I think
0:55:45 > 0:55:48"I can see large military formation on the move".
0:55:48 > 0:55:51He was told, "No, there are no forces south of you."
0:55:53 > 0:55:56"They're tanks, I can see that their tanks!"
0:55:56 > 0:55:59"No, I repeat, no, there are no enemy movements."
0:56:00 > 0:56:04"The tanks are approaching, they're German Mark IVs"
0:56:04 > 0:56:06At the other end a bored voice said,
0:56:06 > 0:56:09"No, there are no movements like that."
0:56:09 > 0:56:13"I'm under fire." And then the line went dead.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18It was Germans, it was an astonishing move by Rommel,
0:56:18 > 0:56:21right down to the south to get round the back of the Gazala line.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28The Panzers surrounded and then overran
0:56:28 > 0:56:32the 7th Armoured Division - the Desert Rats.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36The shelling was at close quarters and murderous.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44I didn't realise it had hit us.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47I turned round and there were two radio operators without heads.
0:56:47 > 0:56:51I was wounded in the legs. I fell off the tank.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54I was left miles from anywhere in no-man's-land,
0:56:54 > 0:56:55watching shells drop round me,
0:56:55 > 0:57:00just wondering about the things you've done and you'd like to do.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04Fear, because you didn't know what was going to happen.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15German armour and German vehicles got right up on us.
0:57:15 > 0:57:20All our positions were overrun like a farmer ploughing his fields.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35After two and a half weeks, the Eighth Army could take no more.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39Confused and exhausted, the troops were ordered
0:57:39 > 0:57:42to retreat across the border back into Egypt,
0:57:42 > 0:57:47leaving the garrison in Tobruk to fend for itself.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07By this time, Tobruk was totally surrounded.
0:58:07 > 0:58:11The defenders here demoralized and frightened,
0:58:11 > 0:58:13watching as the remnants of the Eighth Army
0:58:13 > 0:58:16streamed back towards the border.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18Churchill had made it very clear
0:58:18 > 0:58:21that Tobruk should be held at all costs.
0:58:21 > 0:58:26Rommel was equally determined to destroy it.
0:58:26 > 0:58:30He launched his final assault on the perimeter just here.
0:58:33 > 0:58:35The onslaught started in the early hours
0:58:35 > 0:58:37with a massive artillery barrage.
0:58:54 > 0:58:57Then at dawn, out of a clear sky,
0:58:57 > 0:58:59the dive-bombers began their attack -
0:58:59 > 0:59:04the first wave of some 600 missions flown on that day alone.
0:59:12 > 0:59:14The effect was overwhelming.
0:59:16 > 0:59:20The garrison crumbled, almost without resistance.
0:59:22 > 0:59:26By the end of the day, the Panzers had reached the town centre.
0:59:35 > 0:59:39Sensing that it was all over, the demoralised defenders -
0:59:39 > 0:59:43or a hard core at least, stumbled on a stash of booze, got drunk,
0:59:43 > 0:59:45and sung themselves into oblivion
0:59:45 > 0:59:48before being marched off to captivity.
0:59:48 > 0:59:52# There'll always be an England
0:59:52 > 0:59:56# Where there's a busy street... #
0:59:56 > 1:00:00Across town, Rommel's men countered this musical cacophony
1:00:00 > 1:00:02with their own patriotic counterpoint.
1:00:09 > 1:00:15Just before the Tobruk commander ordered the 35,000 men under him to surrender,
1:00:15 > 1:00:20he signalled Eighth Army headquarters, "Situation: shambles."
1:00:23 > 1:00:26Bodies lay everywhere.
1:00:26 > 1:00:30At what was once the town square, we found thousands of other prisoners.
1:00:30 > 1:00:33My God, the humiliation of it all.
1:00:36 > 1:00:39Rommel stormed into town,
1:00:39 > 1:00:42passing columns of dejected British prisoners,
1:00:42 > 1:00:45to stay here at the hotel at the heart of Tobruk.
1:00:47 > 1:00:48He was ecstatic.
1:00:48 > 1:00:51"The high point of the African war", he said.
1:00:51 > 1:00:55If he was ecstatic, Hitler was euphoric.
1:00:55 > 1:00:58"Destiny's gift to the German people" he said.
1:00:58 > 1:01:00A quite incredible victory,
1:01:00 > 1:01:04and as a mark as how important Tobruk had become to both sides,
1:01:04 > 1:01:08the next day, Rommel was made Field Marshall.
1:01:09 > 1:01:12Rommel was exultant and wrote to his wife,
1:01:12 > 1:01:16"Tobruk, it was a wonderful battle"
1:01:19 > 1:01:23Even as Tobruk crumbled, Churchill was on his way to the White House
1:01:23 > 1:01:26once again hoping to convince the President that
1:01:26 > 1:01:30the first Allied operation of the war should be in North Africa
1:01:30 > 1:01:34and not in Europe, as most of his advisors were still urging.
1:01:35 > 1:01:38The Prime Minister was with Roosevelt
1:01:38 > 1:01:40when the news arrived from Tobruk.
1:01:40 > 1:01:43It could hardly have come at a worse moment.
1:01:43 > 1:01:45An aide came into the room carrying a piece of paper.
1:01:45 > 1:01:47It was handed to Churchill who looked at it
1:01:47 > 1:01:49and according to those present,
1:01:49 > 1:01:53literally the blood drained from his face.
1:01:53 > 1:01:55Tobruk, Tobruk had fallen.
1:01:57 > 1:02:01Tobruk had been his beacon, a litmus test of triumph or disaster.
1:02:01 > 1:02:04This was a humiliation.
1:02:04 > 1:02:08Instead, Roosevelt broke the silence with six words,
1:02:08 > 1:02:11"What can we do to help?"
1:02:11 > 1:02:14It was an extraordinary moment.
1:02:14 > 1:02:18So far from ruining Churchill's credibility in Washington.
1:02:18 > 1:02:22The debacle at Tobruk was about to turn the tide of the war.
1:02:22 > 1:02:26The Americans not only agreed to ship 300 of their newest tanks
1:02:26 > 1:02:29to the desert but it soon became clear that the President
1:02:29 > 1:02:32was on the verge of committing US troops
1:02:32 > 1:02:34to an Allied landing in North Africa.
1:02:47 > 1:02:50None of this gave Churchill respite.
1:02:50 > 1:02:54In London, politicians and public alike knew virtually nothing
1:02:54 > 1:02:56about the secret talks in Washington.
1:02:56 > 1:03:00Nothing about a joint military operation in North Africa,
1:03:00 > 1:03:03and nothing about the 300 American tanks.
1:03:03 > 1:03:07The only news was Tobruk.
1:03:07 > 1:03:08Yet another national disaster
1:03:08 > 1:03:12which prompted another censure motion in the Commons,
1:03:12 > 1:03:16"This house has no confidence in the central direction of the war."
1:03:18 > 1:03:21The debate gave a flavour of the animosities
1:03:21 > 1:03:24lurking beneath the surface of the war time coalition.
1:03:24 > 1:03:28Aneurin Bevan, the Welsh Labour MP, declared
1:03:28 > 1:03:30"The Prime Minister wins debate after debate,
1:03:30 > 1:03:33"loses battle after battle."
1:03:33 > 1:03:36Churchill did not attempt to disguise the enormity
1:03:36 > 1:03:39of what had happened but he countered,
1:03:39 > 1:03:43"If there are any profiteers of disaster who feel able to
1:03:43 > 1:03:48"paint the picture in darker colours they are at liberty to do so."
1:03:48 > 1:03:52The censure motion was overwhelmingly defeated.
1:03:52 > 1:03:57Though Churchill emerged virtually unscathed from this public ordeal,
1:03:57 > 1:04:01he was far from confident about his own position as Prime Minister
1:04:01 > 1:04:03and the news from Egypt promised calamity.
1:04:07 > 1:04:09With Tobruk in his hands,
1:04:09 > 1:04:13Rommel advanced rapidly across the border into Egypt, racing the
1:04:13 > 1:04:17Eighth Army back towards the British naval headquarters at Alexandria.
1:04:18 > 1:04:22A victory for the Axis dictators seemed but days away.
1:04:29 > 1:04:32On the 1st of July, German radio broadcast
1:04:32 > 1:04:36to the women of Alexandria, "Get your frocks out, we're coming".
1:04:36 > 1:04:39It wasn't a joke and there was suppressed panic.
1:04:39 > 1:04:42Shopkeepers put up signs, welcoming Rommel and the Germans,
1:04:42 > 1:04:45that the British fleet evacuated the port and made for Haifa,
1:04:45 > 1:04:49Beirut and Portside and the ex-patriot community,
1:04:49 > 1:04:54fleeing, took to the buses, the trains or their cars and went south.
1:05:03 > 1:05:07In Cairo too, the British community headed for the exits -
1:05:07 > 1:05:10for Palestine and even South Africa.
1:05:14 > 1:05:18Fearing that Rommel would soon be at the gates of Cairo,
1:05:18 > 1:05:21the staff here at the Embassy and the General Headquarters
1:05:21 > 1:05:26built funeral pyres of papers, secret documents, codes and maps.
1:05:26 > 1:05:30Great plumes of smoke went up and were seen over the city.
1:05:30 > 1:05:33Paper fluttered the ground on what was soon known as "Ash Wednesday,"
1:05:33 > 1:05:38but as the British community made for their cars, the boats,
1:05:38 > 1:05:40the trains and the buses,
1:05:40 > 1:05:44the British Ambassador, showing enviable sangfroid,
1:05:44 > 1:05:50simply ordered that the white railings around the embassy should be repainted.
1:05:57 > 1:06:01The Middle East commander-in-chief hastened to the front line.
1:06:01 > 1:06:04Not in panic, but with purpose.
1:06:14 > 1:06:17Taking personal command of the Eighth Army,
1:06:17 > 1:06:19Auchinleck ordered his troops to retreat back here
1:06:19 > 1:06:22to this small halt on a railway line
1:06:22 > 1:06:25in the middle of nowhere called El Alamein.
1:06:27 > 1:06:30It was about 60 miles from Alexandria.
1:06:30 > 1:06:33If Rommel and the Panzer Army could break through here
1:06:33 > 1:06:35they'd have all Egypt at their mercy.
1:06:35 > 1:06:37Threatening Britain's oil supplies
1:06:37 > 1:06:41and the vital artery between Britain and its Empire beyond,
1:06:41 > 1:06:43India and the Far East.
1:06:43 > 1:06:46A catastrophe of almost unimaginable proportions.
1:06:49 > 1:06:52Auchinleck had chosen well.
1:06:52 > 1:06:5640 miles to the south of El Alamein lay the Qattara depression,
1:06:56 > 1:07:00an empty quarter that was virtually impassable.
1:07:04 > 1:07:08The only way for Rommel to reach Alexandria and Cairo
1:07:08 > 1:07:11was to force a way through the British lines
1:07:11 > 1:07:14between the station and the depression.
1:07:20 > 1:07:24The terrain favoured the defenders.
1:07:24 > 1:07:27Rommel knew that and that his only hope of victory
1:07:27 > 1:07:30was to make one more lunge through the British lines
1:07:30 > 1:07:32in the hope of reaching Cairo.
1:07:49 > 1:07:50For day after day,
1:07:50 > 1:07:55night after night, the first battle of El Alamein raged to and fro.
1:07:55 > 1:07:59Attack, counter attack, all along this line.
1:07:59 > 1:08:00After three and a half weeks
1:08:00 > 1:08:04Auchinleck asked for one more supreme effort.
1:08:04 > 1:08:07He told his men, in an order of the day,
1:08:07 > 1:08:09"You have stopped them at the threshold of Egypt,
1:08:09 > 1:08:11"now stick to it".
1:08:11 > 1:08:12And they did.
1:08:15 > 1:08:19Gradually but inexorably, Rommel was forced to yield.
1:08:21 > 1:08:27Dearest Lu, unfortunately, things are not going as I should like them.
1:08:27 > 1:08:31Resistance is too great and our strength exhausted.
1:08:31 > 1:08:35However, I still hope to find a way to achieve our goal.
1:08:35 > 1:08:37I'm rather tired and fagged out.
1:08:38 > 1:08:43Not only Rommel, everyone on both sides was exhausted.
1:08:43 > 1:08:45The struggle petered out.
1:08:53 > 1:08:57While the first battle of El Alamein drifted towards a stalemate,
1:08:57 > 1:09:01a delegation from Roosevelt arrived in London.
1:09:01 > 1:09:04In something of a volte face, they sought again to persuade
1:09:04 > 1:09:08the British to put Europe before north Africa.
1:09:08 > 1:09:10This time there was a showdown.
1:09:11 > 1:09:15After long tortuous months of high-wire negotiation
1:09:15 > 1:09:19littered with acrimony and bad faith on both sides,
1:09:19 > 1:09:22Churchill finally made it unambiguously clear.
1:09:22 > 1:09:26There would be no circumstances in which Britain would participate
1:09:26 > 1:09:30in a joint Anglo-American invasion of mainland Europe,
1:09:30 > 1:09:34the so-called Second Front, until 1943 at the earliest.
1:09:35 > 1:09:38Instead, Churchill argued for the destruction
1:09:38 > 1:09:41of the Axis forces in North Africa.
1:09:41 > 1:09:44An Anglo-American invasion from the west to coincide with
1:09:44 > 1:09:48an assault from the east led by the Eighth Army.
1:09:48 > 1:09:52The operation would be codenamed Torch.
1:09:52 > 1:09:57Roosevelt accepted that and agreed in Churchill's phrase that
1:09:57 > 1:10:01"the true Second Front should be in North Africa."
1:10:01 > 1:10:05It was a defining moment of the Second World War.
1:10:07 > 1:10:10It was a triumph for the Prime Minister,
1:10:10 > 1:10:13the more remarkable because the Americans had for so long
1:10:13 > 1:10:15disputed the importance of the Middle East
1:10:15 > 1:10:19and because they deplored Britain's imperial pretensions -
1:10:19 > 1:10:22both of which were now to be salvaged.
1:10:23 > 1:10:25Buoyed by this diplomatic breakthrough,
1:10:25 > 1:10:27Churchill headed for Cairo.
1:10:39 > 1:10:42Churchill arrived here at the British Embassy in Cairo
1:10:42 > 1:10:44at the beginning of August,
1:10:44 > 1:10:48after a long, arduous and dangerous flight from London.
1:10:48 > 1:10:49In a bomber that was so noisy
1:10:49 > 1:10:53he could only communicate with his staff by writing notes,
1:10:53 > 1:10:56but he was exhilarated, and when he got here
1:10:56 > 1:10:57the ambassador Sir Miles Lampson
1:10:57 > 1:11:00gave him his private quarters to live in.
1:11:00 > 1:11:02He had delicious food,
1:11:02 > 1:11:06the air was cool, the sybarite in Churchill purred with pleasure.
1:11:06 > 1:11:10The war leader was on the war path.
1:11:10 > 1:11:15Churchill decided the time had come to confront Auchinleck -
1:11:15 > 1:11:19who had not been forgiven for his refusal to obey every exhortation
1:11:19 > 1:11:23emanating from a prime ministerial cable.
1:11:24 > 1:11:27Churchill came up here to Ruweisat Ridge
1:11:27 > 1:11:30where Auchinleck had his forward headquarters.
1:11:30 > 1:11:33The Prime Minister was not impressed.
1:11:33 > 1:11:35Auchinleck lived very frugally
1:11:35 > 1:11:39and Churchill was offered a very frugal breakfast.
1:11:39 > 1:11:42After breakfast, he got up, jabbing at a map and saying,
1:11:42 > 1:11:46"Can't you attack here, here or here?"
1:11:46 > 1:11:49and Auchinleck saying, "No, no, not yet."
1:11:49 > 1:11:53After a bit, Churchill went out of the caravan
1:11:53 > 1:11:56and stood with his back to the General.
1:11:57 > 1:12:00Nothing could have been a more eloquent testimony
1:12:00 > 1:12:03to his irritation and his anger.
1:12:05 > 1:12:07A few days later,
1:12:07 > 1:12:11Churchill gave the Middle East commander-in-chief his marching orders.
1:12:11 > 1:12:14Another fine General fired for refusing
1:12:14 > 1:12:17to lead his army into battle until he could be confident
1:12:17 > 1:12:21of the victory that Churchill so urgently required.
1:12:29 > 1:12:32For several days, Churchill had been in intense discussions
1:12:32 > 1:12:35with his most senior staff, trying to find a successor to Auchinleck.
1:12:35 > 1:12:39Someone who would be really anxious to take the battle to Rommel.
1:12:39 > 1:12:41Almost in desperation, he even offered the job
1:12:41 > 1:12:44to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff.
1:12:44 > 1:12:47Churchill then appointed General Gought,
1:12:47 > 1:12:51who was almost immediately killed when his plane was shot down.
1:12:51 > 1:12:54It was at that point that they summoned from London
1:12:54 > 1:12:58a General who had never been to the desert before - Bernard Montgomery.
1:12:58 > 1:13:02Montgomery had a reputation for being abrasive and dyspeptic.
1:13:02 > 1:13:04That didn't worry Churchill.
1:13:04 > 1:13:07In a letter to his wife Clemmie, he said, "If he is disagreeable
1:13:07 > 1:13:11"to those about him, he is also disagreeable to the enemy."
1:13:14 > 1:13:17Montgomery, who had been decorated for gallantry in the first war,
1:13:17 > 1:13:21was serving in something of a backwater on the home front,
1:13:21 > 1:13:22when the summons arrived.
1:13:22 > 1:13:25He left at once for Egypt.
1:13:27 > 1:13:30Montgomery was in a hurry.
1:13:30 > 1:13:32Even before he officially took over
1:13:32 > 1:13:35as the New Commander of the Eighth Army,
1:13:35 > 1:13:38he came up to Auchinleck's headquarters at Ruweisat Ridge here
1:13:38 > 1:13:43and he summoned his staff officers to his side and told them,
1:13:43 > 1:13:46"No more withdrawals, here we stand and fight,
1:13:46 > 1:13:50"if we can't stay here alive, let us stay here dead."
1:13:52 > 1:13:55Stirring stuff, but it included a pretty nasty smear
1:13:55 > 1:13:59and an insinuation that Auchinleck was planning to withdraw.
1:13:59 > 1:14:02Nothing could have been further from the truth.
1:14:02 > 1:14:05Not that would have worried Montgomery, he was vain,
1:14:05 > 1:14:08arrogant, brutal and prepared to do almost anything
1:14:08 > 1:14:13to serve his own advantage, whatever the cost to others and yet,
1:14:13 > 1:14:19yet he had an uncanny skill to electrify the atmosphere around him.
1:14:19 > 1:14:23Churchill was swift to detect that in Montgomery
1:14:23 > 1:14:27he had found the man to deliver the great imperial victory he craved.
1:14:27 > 1:14:29After a whistle-stop tour of the front
1:14:29 > 1:14:32during which he swam naked in the Mediterranean
1:14:32 > 1:14:34and met the men at the front,
1:14:34 > 1:14:37the Prime Minister came away rejoicing in what he described as
1:14:37 > 1:14:39"the reviving ardour" of the Eighth Army.
1:14:39 > 1:14:43But it was not merely Montgomery's way with soldiers.
1:14:43 > 1:14:46Hitler had abandoned the invasion of Malta.
1:14:46 > 1:14:51The Royal Navy and the RAF were once more sinking Axis convoys.
1:14:51 > 1:14:53And, as a result, Rommel was yet again critically
1:14:53 > 1:14:56short of weapons, ammunition, and fuel.
1:14:56 > 1:14:58Even more importantly,
1:14:58 > 1:15:03the Eighth Army had been massively reinforced from Britain and America.
1:15:03 > 1:15:07Knowing all this, Churchill left no-one in any doubt
1:15:07 > 1:15:10about the importance of the struggle ahead.
1:15:10 > 1:15:13Before he left for London, he declared,
1:15:13 > 1:15:18"We are determined to fight for Egypt and the Nile Valley
1:15:18 > 1:15:22"as though it were the soil of England itself."
1:15:28 > 1:15:30Back in England, however,
1:15:30 > 1:15:34the Prime Minister came down to Earth with a jolt.
1:15:34 > 1:15:37By now Churchill was driven by demons,
1:15:37 > 1:15:39often filled with deep gloom.
1:15:39 > 1:15:42Fearing he would be driven from office with, as he put it,
1:15:42 > 1:15:45"A load of calamity about my shoulders".
1:15:45 > 1:15:48He needed a victory, and he wanted it before Torch
1:15:48 > 1:15:51to deal a mortal blow against Rommel,
1:15:51 > 1:15:55to make the likelihood of success in North Africa much greater,
1:15:55 > 1:15:57and to convince the Americans
1:15:57 > 1:16:01that the British could fight and win on the battlefield.
1:16:01 > 1:16:05It would also raise the spirits of the British people
1:16:05 > 1:16:08and thereby his own as well.
1:16:13 > 1:16:17In the desert, Montgomery had already been put to the test.
1:16:17 > 1:16:19At Alam el Halfa, his troops had held the line
1:16:19 > 1:16:23against a desperate effort by Rommel to breakthrough towards Cairo.
1:16:23 > 1:16:28The challenge now was to drive him out of Egypt altogether.
1:16:28 > 1:16:32The Eighth Army had a decisive edge in men and weapons
1:16:32 > 1:16:36but Montgomery was no less cautious than his predecessors -
1:16:36 > 1:16:40and he refused to be bounced into action before his troops were ready
1:16:40 > 1:16:45for what he described as "the killing match" which awaited them.
1:16:45 > 1:16:48The date was set for the last week of October.
1:16:54 > 1:16:59Some 200,000 Imperial and Commonwealth troops
1:16:59 > 1:17:05were waiting for the order to start the final battle of El Alamein.
1:17:05 > 1:17:06Two months earlier,
1:17:06 > 1:17:10Montgomery had said that victory was a mathematical certainty.
1:17:10 > 1:17:11On paper it was,
1:17:11 > 1:17:16but the British had to cross some seven miles
1:17:16 > 1:17:19through a huge minefield to reach Miteiriya Ridge
1:17:19 > 1:17:22before dawn the next morning,
1:17:22 > 1:17:25and that was anything but a mathematical certainty.
1:17:26 > 1:17:32At 9.40pm on the 23rd October, in the light of a full moon,
1:17:32 > 1:17:37the silence of the desert was broken in the most spectacular fashion.
1:17:39 > 1:17:44No fury of sound had ever assailed our ears like that before,
1:17:44 > 1:17:47it cuffed, shattered and distorted the senses,
1:17:47 > 1:17:49and loosened the bowels alarmingly.
1:17:49 > 1:17:51It was sheer horror.
1:17:55 > 1:17:58At 10.00pm tens of thousands of infantrymen -
1:17:58 > 1:18:01from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India,
1:18:01 > 1:18:04as well as Britain and other parts of the Empire -
1:18:04 > 1:18:07rose from their slit trenches
1:18:07 > 1:18:12and began to march in steady columns towards the Axis front line.
1:18:12 > 1:18:16The sound of the Highlanders' bagpipes wafted through the night air.
1:18:17 > 1:18:19They soon came under heavy fire.
1:18:19 > 1:18:22Dead and wounded littered the ground.
1:18:26 > 1:18:30One of the casualties has both legs and an arm blown off.
1:18:30 > 1:18:32While I stand there he regains consciousness
1:18:32 > 1:18:36and starts pleading, "Kill me, God, please kill me."
1:18:38 > 1:18:41I find I am incapable, and with tears in my eyes
1:18:41 > 1:18:45cover the body with a greatcoat, thinking how small he looks.
1:18:49 > 1:18:52In fact, Montgomery had miscalculated.
1:18:52 > 1:18:56It took much longer than he had allowed to clear the minefields.
1:18:56 > 1:19:00As a result, the tanks, which followed the infantry,
1:19:00 > 1:19:01became gridlocked.
1:19:03 > 1:19:06By daylight on the 24th, it was a shambles.
1:19:06 > 1:19:11Infantry tanks and artillery still trapped here in the minefield.
1:19:11 > 1:19:15Miteiriya Ridge - complete chaos, a traffic jam of vehicles,
1:19:15 > 1:19:18tanks on fire, a human carnage.
1:19:18 > 1:19:21The attack was petering out.
1:19:23 > 1:19:26But the Panzer Army was also in trouble,
1:19:26 > 1:19:29running out of tanks and fuel.
1:19:29 > 1:19:33To make matters worse, they were without Rommel,
1:19:33 > 1:19:36who'd been sent home some weeks earlier on doctor's orders.
1:19:36 > 1:19:39Hitler now realised that the Desert Fox was needed urgently
1:19:39 > 1:19:41at the battlefront.
1:19:49 > 1:19:52The Fuhrer rang Rommel, who was in the Austrian Alps
1:19:52 > 1:19:55recuperating from his many stomach ailments, a sick man.
1:19:55 > 1:19:57Hitler said,
1:19:57 > 1:20:02"The news from North Africa is bad, are you well enough to go back?"
1:20:02 > 1:20:06Rommel immediately assented, but with great foreboding
1:20:06 > 1:20:08as he was to write later,
1:20:08 > 1:20:12"there were no more laurels to be won in Africa."
1:20:15 > 1:20:19Montgomery's offensive - Lightfoot, he had called it - now stalled.
1:20:19 > 1:20:23And his casualties were mounting fast.
1:20:24 > 1:20:28Before long, Montgomery realised that he had to think again,
1:20:28 > 1:20:32that his plan was in tatters and that meant calling a pause.
1:20:34 > 1:20:40In Downing Street, the Prime Minister could scarcely believe it.
1:20:40 > 1:20:44When Churchill was told that Montgomery had been forced to pause and regroup,
1:20:44 > 1:20:48he was incandescent, almost frantic, ordering,
1:20:48 > 1:20:52"It is most necessary that the attack be resumed before Torch",
1:20:52 > 1:20:54which was then only five days away.
1:20:54 > 1:20:59Soon afterwards, he followed up with a flow of abuse about Montgomery
1:20:59 > 1:21:02for allowing the battle to peter out.
1:21:02 > 1:21:06Storming, "Have we not got one single General
1:21:06 > 1:21:10"who can ever win one single battle?"
1:21:11 > 1:21:15The General in question betrayed not one sign of anxiety,
1:21:15 > 1:21:18knowing that in the battle of attrition that now loomed,
1:21:18 > 1:21:20there should be only one outcome.
1:21:25 > 1:21:27The Eighth Army's great superiority in men
1:21:27 > 1:21:29and weaponry soon began to tell.
1:21:30 > 1:21:33Montgomery's final assault - Supercharge -
1:21:33 > 1:21:35caught Rommel off balance.
1:21:37 > 1:21:40As he struggled to fill the ever thinning ranks of his front line,
1:21:40 > 1:21:45Supercharge became a slogging match, man against man.
1:21:45 > 1:21:47Tank against tank.
1:21:59 > 1:22:01Some of the tanks continued to advance even after
1:22:01 > 1:22:03they had been hit and set on fire,
1:22:03 > 1:22:06with only dead and dying men inside them,
1:22:06 > 1:22:09like huge self-propelled funeral pyres,
1:22:09 > 1:22:12a dead man's foot still pressing down the accelerator.
1:22:12 > 1:22:17The souls of the dead men must have been trapped in their vehicle,
1:22:17 > 1:22:20how else could a smashed and blazing tank
1:22:20 > 1:22:22continue to advance towards the enemy?
1:22:31 > 1:22:35The Italian high command in Rome knew that all was lost.
1:22:35 > 1:22:39But their leader appeared to think otherwise.
1:22:39 > 1:22:43By this time, Mussolini was living in parallel universe,
1:22:43 > 1:22:45with Rommel at bay in the desert
1:22:45 > 1:22:49and his own dreams of an African Empire crumbling before him.
1:22:49 > 1:22:54Nonetheless, on the 1st November he roused himself to send a message
1:22:54 > 1:22:57to Rommel saying, "I'm sure there will be victory in this battle."
1:23:06 > 1:23:08Like Mussolini,
1:23:08 > 1:23:12Hitler was also living in a parallel universe of unreality and denial.
1:23:12 > 1:23:15Now facing a monumental crisis at Stalingrad
1:23:15 > 1:23:20where the Third Reich would soon reach its nemesis, he cabled Rommel,
1:23:20 > 1:23:24ordering him, "Stand fast. Yield not a yard.
1:23:24 > 1:23:28"There is only one way, that of victory or death."
1:23:30 > 1:23:33This was a ludicrous order and it was ignored.
1:23:33 > 1:23:36The Panzer Army was crippled.
1:23:36 > 1:23:39Its young men broken by an unimaginable outcome.
1:23:39 > 1:23:43Defeat. Rommel was in despair.
1:23:45 > 1:23:49Dearest Lu, we are simply being crushed by the enemy weight.
1:23:50 > 1:23:52At night I lie open-eyed,
1:23:52 > 1:23:57racking my brains for a way out of this plight for my poor troops.
1:23:57 > 1:24:00The dead are lucky, it's all over for them.
1:24:01 > 1:24:06I think of you constantly with heartfelt love and gratitude.
1:24:07 > 1:24:12Perhaps all will be well, and we shall see each other again.
1:24:19 > 1:24:22The Eighth Army now drove the remnants of Rommel's force
1:24:22 > 1:24:24back into Libya towards Tripoli.
1:24:24 > 1:24:26For the first time,
1:24:26 > 1:24:30Britain could claim an unequivocal victory on the battlefield.
1:24:43 > 1:24:47Montgomery had advised that in the final battle of El Alamein,
1:24:47 > 1:24:52some 13,000 men from Britain and the Empire would be killed or wounded.
1:24:53 > 1:24:55He was right.
1:25:01 > 1:25:03In the two years since the start of the desert war,
1:25:03 > 1:25:07the price in human lives on both sides
1:25:07 > 1:25:10had been in the many scores of thousands.
1:25:16 > 1:25:19Killed, wounded or missing.
1:25:29 > 1:25:34Three days after El Alamein, with Rommel's men in full retreat,
1:25:34 > 1:25:39more than 100,000 allied troops landed in North Africa.
1:25:39 > 1:25:41Torch had been ignited.
1:25:43 > 1:25:45It is virtually inconceivable that
1:25:45 > 1:25:47Roosevelt would have gone to war in North Africa
1:25:47 > 1:25:49and from there to Italy,
1:25:49 > 1:25:52if Churchill had not fought with such tenacity
1:25:52 > 1:25:57to defend the Middle East in an otherwise empty desert.
1:25:57 > 1:26:00What might originally have seemed to be a faraway struggle,
1:26:00 > 1:26:02a sideshow at best.
1:26:02 > 1:26:06The conflict, which reached its climax at El Alamein,
1:26:06 > 1:26:10had proved to be pivotal in a war which now engulfed the world.
1:26:18 > 1:26:22For the first time in the war, Churchill could celebrate.
1:26:24 > 1:26:28After a long string of defeats, he had a victory.
1:26:28 > 1:26:31And at a mansion house luncheon a few days later,
1:26:31 > 1:26:34he made the most of it.
1:26:34 > 1:26:36We have a new experience.
1:26:38 > 1:26:44We have victory, a remarkable and definite victory.
1:26:44 > 1:26:51Germans have received back again that measure of fire and steel
1:26:51 > 1:26:56which they have so often meted out to others.
1:26:59 > 1:27:05Now this is the not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end,
1:27:05 > 1:27:10but it is perhaps the end of the beginning.
1:27:12 > 1:27:15Churchill had good cause for feeling jubilant.
1:27:15 > 1:27:19After two long gruelling years, it was becoming clearer by the day
1:27:19 > 1:27:24that Hitler would not prevail, that Mussolini was a busted flush.
1:27:24 > 1:27:28The Americans were not only in the war but fighting in North Africa
1:27:28 > 1:27:33alongside the British, where victory was virtually inevitable.
1:27:33 > 1:27:36He had achieved his overriding ambition
1:27:36 > 1:27:39to place the Middle East and the Mediterranean
1:27:39 > 1:27:43at the very heart of Allied strategy for the defeat of Nazism.
1:27:43 > 1:27:45In so doing,
1:27:45 > 1:27:48he had chartered the future course of the war in the West.
1:27:48 > 1:27:54It was a remarkable personal, political and diplomatic triumph.
1:27:54 > 1:27:58The campaign in the desert which culminated at El Alamein
1:27:58 > 1:28:00had cost a great many lives.
1:28:00 > 1:28:06But for both sides it did indeed mark the end of the beginning.
1:28:06 > 1:28:08CHURCH BELLS CHIME
1:28:09 > 1:28:14For two years the church of bells of Britain had been silent -
1:28:14 > 1:28:18to be rung only to warn of a Nazi invasion.
1:28:18 > 1:28:22Now they echoed across the land in celebration
1:28:22 > 1:28:26and to honour those who had won glory on the battlefield
1:28:26 > 1:28:31in a faraway desert, at a place called El Alamein.
1:28:49 > 1:28:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd