0:00:16 > 0:00:22'In 1940 the British Army was kicked off the beaches of northern France.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24'Instead of trying to get back there,
0:00:24 > 0:00:28'it spent the next four years fighting around the Mediterranean.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33'The British only returned to France,
0:00:33 > 0:00:37'with their American allies in 1944, while the Soviet Union
0:00:37 > 0:00:43'bore the brunt of a life or death struggle with Hitler's Third Reich.'
0:00:48 > 0:00:51Why did the British and Americans spend
0:00:51 > 0:00:55so much of the war paddling around the Mediterranean,
0:00:55 > 0:00:57around North Africa and Italy,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01thousands of miles from the enemy's heartland?
0:01:01 > 0:01:05Why was Britain's most celebrated victory
0:01:05 > 0:01:11of the Second World War named after a nondescript little railway station
0:01:11 > 0:01:13on the coast of Egypt?
0:01:22 > 0:01:26The American Army was sure from the start that the quickest way
0:01:26 > 0:01:30to beat Hitler was straight back across the English Channel,
0:01:30 > 0:01:3521 miles wide, into German-occupied France and on to Berlin.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41But in 1942, President Roosevelt and the Americans
0:01:41 > 0:01:45were still newcomers to the war.
0:01:49 > 0:01:54Churchill would persuade them to target not France,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57but supposedly easier territory in North Africa and later Italy,
0:01:57 > 0:02:01what he called "the soft underbelly" of Hitler's Europe.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10In reality, the soft underbelly would see some of the worst carnage
0:02:10 > 0:02:12in Western Europe.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18Fighting akin to the Great War of 1914-18.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23Britain and America became bogged down,
0:02:23 > 0:02:26while the Soviet war machine ground on remorselessly
0:02:26 > 0:02:31towards the real target, Berlin.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36The fascinating question, I think, is why did Churchill
0:02:36 > 0:02:40and the British persist in their Mediterranean strategy?
0:02:45 > 0:02:49The story takes us into some of the less familiar aspects
0:02:49 > 0:02:52of Britain's Second World War.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55A story of a faltering empire and a demoralised people.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01An army fearful of going head-to-head against the Germans
0:03:01 > 0:03:03on the battlefields of France.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08A government increasingly dependent on the Americans.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12A military machine whose secret weapon,
0:03:12 > 0:03:17the code-breakers of Bletchley Park, had dangerous flaws.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23The campaigns in North Africa and Italy also show us
0:03:23 > 0:03:27an unfamiliar side of Churchill.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30Very different from the jaw-jutting bulldog
0:03:30 > 0:03:32of Britain's "finest hour" in 1940.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37A war leader who was acutely vulnerable.
0:03:37 > 0:03:42Losing faith in his army, politically threatened at home.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47Even ready, at times, to deceive his cherished American allies.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52The war in the Mediterranean
0:03:52 > 0:03:56would expose Winston's own soft underbelly.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31'In June 1942, Winston Churchill was conferring with
0:04:31 > 0:04:35'Franklin Roosevelt in the White House.'
0:04:35 > 0:04:39'During their meeting, a telegram was brought in.'
0:04:39 > 0:04:42'The President handed it without comment to the Prime Minister.'
0:04:47 > 0:04:52"Tobruk has surrendered, with 25,000 men taken prisoners."
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Churchill never forgot that moment.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01One of the heaviest blows, he recalled, of the whole war.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11Tobruk was a major port on the Libyan coast,
0:05:11 > 0:05:15close to the border with Egypt and considered vital
0:05:15 > 0:05:17to Britain's position in North Africa.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22But the Germans had launched a daring surprise attack,
0:05:22 > 0:05:25and cut the British fortress off from reinforcement.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31Tobruk's defences had been neglected and British morale collapsed.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34The commander sent a pitiful last message.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40"Situation - shambles. Am doing the worst."
0:05:45 > 0:05:49His garrison, actually 33,000 men,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53surrendered to an enemy force that turned out to be half its size.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04Churchill did not conceal from the President his bitter anguish.
0:06:04 > 0:06:10As he said, "Defeat is one thing. Disgrace is another."
0:06:12 > 0:06:17The capitulation at Tobruk opened up the prospect of Germany
0:06:17 > 0:06:21rampaging through Egypt to the Suez Canal.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30And it came just a few months after the fall of Singapore,
0:06:30 > 0:06:33an equally humiliating British surrender,
0:06:33 > 0:06:37this time to the Japanese.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41It was less than two years since Churchill's "finest hour",
0:06:41 > 0:06:45when his defiance of Hitler had inspired the Battle of Britain.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48How had it come to this?
0:07:02 > 0:07:04To understand why the surrender of Tobruk
0:07:04 > 0:07:07was so shattering for Churchill,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10we have to examine the massive challenges Britain faced
0:07:10 > 0:07:16in the early years of the war and go back to the hidden story of 1940.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20- CHURCHILL:- 'The Battle of Britain is about to begin.'
0:07:23 > 0:07:26'Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island
0:07:26 > 0:07:28'or lose the war.'
0:07:32 > 0:07:36Churchill's rhetoric in 1940 was all about defending Great Britain
0:07:36 > 0:07:39and celebrating its island story.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44But this was for public morale at home.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50In reality, Churchill believed Britain's fate would be decided
0:07:50 > 0:07:54by events thousands of miles away.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00We can see this in one of the boldest decisions of 1940,
0:08:00 > 0:08:05now almost totally obscured by the hype about the Battle of Britain.
0:08:05 > 0:08:11Churchill and his War Cabinet decided to ship half Britain's tanks
0:08:11 > 0:08:14to another continent - to Egypt.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18Egypt?
0:08:18 > 0:08:24To us in the 21st century, that decision seems utterly crazy,
0:08:24 > 0:08:29because we think of Britain as an offshore European island.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33But, back in 1940, the mindset was very different.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36Britain was still seen as a global power,
0:08:36 > 0:08:40and its leaders knew it was the Empire that enabled the British
0:08:40 > 0:08:43to punch way above their weight in the world arena.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49Without the Empire, Great Britain would be Little England.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00The supreme imperialist was Churchill himself.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05As a young soldier, he had defended the frontiers of empire
0:09:05 > 0:09:07in India, the Sudan and South Africa.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12Even when Britain was faced with invasion,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15Churchill thought globally, not locally.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20In 1940, it wasn't just the British Isles that were in jeopardy,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23but the whole British Empire,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26through the Middle East and out to India,
0:09:26 > 0:09:30because the Empire's main artery, the Mediterranean,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33was in danger of being severed.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52As France collapsed in June 1940, Italy, Britain's upstart rival
0:09:52 > 0:09:57in the Mediterranean, entered the war on Germany's side.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26For the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30this was an electric moment.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34Fascist Italy posed a genuine threat to the British Empire
0:10:34 > 0:10:35in the Middle East.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Jutting right out into the Mediterranean,
0:10:38 > 0:10:42it had a powerful navy and significant colonies
0:10:42 > 0:10:44in Libya and Abyssinia.
0:10:52 > 0:10:58Mussolini, strutting amid the monuments of past imperial grandeur,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01hoped to piggy-back to glory on the shoulders
0:11:01 > 0:11:04of Hitler's victory over France.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17Mussolini reckoned that Britain's crisis would allow his army
0:11:17 > 0:11:22to march unopposed from Libya eastward all the way to Cairo,
0:11:22 > 0:11:27devouring Egypt, heartland of the once-great empire of the Pharaohs
0:11:27 > 0:11:31and now a vital part of the British empire.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36"The loss of Egypt will be the coup de grace for Great Britain",
0:11:36 > 0:11:37Mussolini boasted.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44For the British, the critical threat was to the Suez Canal,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47which linked Britain to the oilfields of the Persian Gulf
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and on to India and Australia.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53Supplies and men from the empire
0:11:53 > 0:11:56were essential for Britain's war effort.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01All Britain's oil and over half its food had to be imported.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05Loss of the Mediterranean would add several weeks
0:12:05 > 0:12:07onto voyages from the Far East,
0:12:07 > 0:12:12exposing scarce merchant ships to attacks from the German U-boats.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19That's why Churchill risked reinforcing Egypt,
0:12:19 > 0:12:24even while Britain itself was facing imminent invasion.
0:12:25 > 0:12:31What looked like a dangerous British gamble proved a spectacular success.
0:12:32 > 0:12:37Mussolini jumped into war, only to fall flat on his face.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48Italy's army was totally unprepared for a serious war.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51The British counter-attacked,
0:12:51 > 0:12:55winning cheap and resounding victories, advancing from Egypt
0:12:55 > 0:12:59and driving deep into the Italian colony of Libya.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13But then Hitler came to Mussolini's aid.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21In February 1941, he sent an ace general, Erwin Rommel,
0:13:21 > 0:13:26to North Africa, along with good tanks and elite troops.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37Rommel was a leader who loved to attack
0:13:37 > 0:13:39and was ready to take huge risks,
0:13:39 > 0:13:42sometimes even against his official orders from Berlin.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49Under Rommel, Germany's Afrika Korps turned the tide
0:13:49 > 0:13:54and started to drive the British back along the road towards Cairo.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59By the beginning of 1942,
0:13:59 > 0:14:03the British position in North Africa was once again in jeopardy.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14Britain could not afford to lose Egypt.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19But holding it against a formidable military machine
0:14:19 > 0:14:23was a massive problem, because the British Army was the weakest link
0:14:23 > 0:14:26in the country's war effort.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31The question was, could the soldiers deliver?
0:14:46 > 0:14:50'To really grasp Britain's predicament in North Africa in 1942,
0:14:50 > 0:14:54'even before the disaster at Tobruk,
0:14:54 > 0:14:58'we have to understand Churchill's great underlying fear.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03'That he had an army that could not win.'
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Britain was haunted by history.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16Such was the public fear of a repeat of the carnage of the Great War -
0:15:16 > 0:15:22the Somme and Passchendaele - that the 1914 acronym BEF,
0:15:22 > 0:15:26British Expeditionary Force,
0:15:26 > 0:15:29was banned from official documents all through the 1930s.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35British leaders put resources into the air force and navy,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39not the army, because they were sure the public would not accept
0:15:39 > 0:15:43another land war on the continent of Europe.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46They expected French soldiers would do most of the fighting
0:15:46 > 0:15:48in any future war against Germany.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55The fall of France in 1940 shredded those illusions.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03Now Churchill had to create a mass conscript army almost from scratch.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07That meant training green troops
0:16:07 > 0:16:10to fight battle-hardened German veterans,
0:16:10 > 0:16:13providing them with decent equipment, especially tanks,
0:16:13 > 0:16:18and finding generals who could match German commanders like Rommel.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23Sir Alan Brooke, Churchill's Chief of the Imperial General Staff and
0:16:23 > 0:16:30supremo of the army, mused gloomily about the magnitude of the task.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33"Half our Corps and Divisional Commanders are totally unfit
0:16:33 > 0:16:36"for their appointments,
0:16:36 > 0:16:38"and yet if I were to sack them I could find no better!"
0:16:40 > 0:16:44"The reason for this state of affairs is to be found in the losses
0:16:44 > 0:16:49"we sustained in the last war of all our best officers,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52"who should now be our senior commanders."
0:16:57 > 0:17:03Between 1940 and 1942, poorly commanded, ill-equipped
0:17:03 > 0:17:04and under-trained,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08the British army had suffered a series of catastrophic defeats.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14Norway, Dunkirk, Greece, Crete, Singapore,
0:17:14 > 0:17:19became bywords for evacuation and humiliation.
0:17:20 > 0:17:27Now people joked BEF stood for Back Every Friday.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Churchill was impatient.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36As an ex-soldier, he knew that the only real way
0:17:36 > 0:17:39to train men how to fight was by fighting,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43and as a political leader, he understood that you couldn't
0:17:43 > 0:17:49sustain public morale indefinitely by big words about future success.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52The only place where the British were really fighting the Germans
0:17:52 > 0:17:54was in colonial North Africa.
0:17:55 > 0:18:01Britain's whole war effort had become hostage to a desert victory,
0:18:01 > 0:18:04and so had the fate of Britain's war leader.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16In 1942, Rommel was at the gates, the Empire was crumbling,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19and the army was floundering.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26Worse still, Churchill's leadership was now being questioned.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33Discontent was brewing about his "dictatorial" ways
0:18:33 > 0:18:38and his "midnight follies" when he tried to impose his ideas
0:18:38 > 0:18:39on exhausted aides.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44Increasingly, even his chief adviser, Brooke, complained
0:18:44 > 0:18:49at having to manage what he called Churchill's "impetuous nature".
0:18:50 > 0:18:54Twice in six months, Churchill, had to fend off votes of no confidence
0:18:54 > 0:18:56in the House of Commons.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Winston, MPs muttered, was yesterday's man.
0:19:05 > 0:19:12A titan in crisis of 1940, but now running out of steam
0:19:12 > 0:19:13and lacking a vision to shape the peace.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19The up and coming men, it was whispered around Westminster,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22were the progressive Tory, Anthony Eden,
0:19:22 > 0:19:26and especially the radical left-winger, Stafford Cripps.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34'Sir Stafford Cripps signs for His Majesty's Government.'
0:19:34 > 0:19:38Stafford Cripps was everything Churchill couldn't stand -
0:19:38 > 0:19:43socialist, religious and, perhaps most horrific of all, vegetarian.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49But Cripps offered a radically different vision
0:19:49 > 0:19:51of how to win the war,
0:19:51 > 0:19:54which caught the public mood in those tired,
0:19:54 > 0:19:58fractious months of 1942.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01'Now over to London, where one of the biggest ever crowds assembles
0:20:01 > 0:20:04'in Trafalgar Square for an "All Aid to Russia" demonstration.'
0:20:04 > 0:20:07Cripps demanded massive aid for the Russians,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10whose Red Army was really taking on the Germans,
0:20:10 > 0:20:12unlike, it seemed, the British army.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19Above all, Cripps did not share Churchill's passionate,
0:20:19 > 0:20:21romantic imperialism.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25In fact, he was demanding a firm timetable
0:20:25 > 0:20:27for giving independence to India.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33I feel quite certain that the scheme I'm taking with me to India
0:20:33 > 0:20:38is one which may successfully settle for all time the future
0:20:38 > 0:20:44of India as a great, free partner in the British Commonwealth of Nations.
0:20:47 > 0:20:52Cripps posed a fundamental challenge to Churchill's view of Empire.
0:20:54 > 0:20:59Cripps understood that if Britain claimed to be fighting for freedom,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02she could not hold 400 million people
0:21:02 > 0:21:05on the other side of the world in imperial bondage.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10For Churchill, the sun would never set on the British Empire.
0:21:11 > 0:21:16For Cripps, the twilight was already closing in.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32In early 1942, the idea of empire was being battered
0:21:32 > 0:21:35not just by politicians like Cripps,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38but by the subject peoples themselves,
0:21:38 > 0:21:42and nowhere more so than in Egypt.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48As in India, nationalist protests
0:21:48 > 0:21:51were challenging British imperial rule.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54But here, Rommel's desert army had emboldened Egypt's king
0:21:54 > 0:21:58and his supporters, and they were backed by crowds who thronged
0:21:58 > 0:22:03the streets chanting, "Down with the English!" and, "Long live Rommel!"
0:22:06 > 0:22:10The British Ambassador was Sir Miles Lampson.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14Six foot five and and 18 stone - a bluff, burly figure,
0:22:14 > 0:22:16quite ready to throw his weight around.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Lampson wanted to shore up the situation
0:22:22 > 0:22:25with a firmly pro-British government,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29but Egypt's young playboy king, Farouk, tried to defy him.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33So Lampson decided to show the "boy",
0:22:33 > 0:22:38as he privately called King Farouk, just who was boss.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46'Lampson drove down to the Royal Palace
0:22:46 > 0:22:48'at the head of an armoured convoy.'
0:22:48 > 0:22:52'As British tanks and troops ringed the building,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55'he marched in, barging aside the King's Chamberlain,
0:22:55 > 0:23:01'and gave Farouk an ultimatum - play ball or abdicate.'
0:23:02 > 0:23:06'A new pro-British government was quickly installed.'
0:23:10 > 0:23:14This tough-guy act worked, but only for the moment.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20Ultimately, the British Empire was a con trick,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23depending on prestige rather than power.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26There simply weren't enough soldiers and administrators
0:23:26 > 0:23:29to keep order if the colonial millions
0:23:29 > 0:23:31decided to challenge British rule.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36Rommel's triumphant army gave the Egyptians their cue.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41Only a decisive desert victory could save the British empire.
0:23:48 > 0:23:49But instead of victory,
0:23:49 > 0:23:54what came next was that worst of all defeats.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56The humiliation at Tobruk.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12In June 1942, the pink telegram,
0:24:12 > 0:24:14thrust into Churchill's hand in the White House,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17summed up in a few words his anguish, and that of Britain.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22The fragility of the empire, the failure of the army,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25and his own inability as a leader
0:24:25 > 0:24:29to deliver the victory he had promised back in 1940.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39On that grim morning, the only saving grace for Churchill
0:24:39 > 0:24:42was the generosity of his American allies.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44There were no recriminations.
0:24:44 > 0:24:49President Roosevelt simply asked, "What can we do to help?"
0:24:58 > 0:25:01In the bleak crisis of mid-1942, relations between Britain
0:25:01 > 0:25:06and America provided Churchill's only bright spot.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13Churchill was trying to build what he called a "special relationship".
0:25:13 > 0:25:17The two governments were forging a uniquely close alliance.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21The two leaders were exchanging dozens of personal messages
0:25:21 > 0:25:25every week, and meeting every few months.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36'On one occasion, when Churchill was staying in the White House,
0:25:36 > 0:25:38'Roosevelt entered his room unannounced,
0:25:38 > 0:25:42'only to find his British guest emerging wet and glowing
0:25:42 > 0:25:46'from the bathroom, draped only with a scanty towel.'
0:25:46 > 0:25:51'FDR started to withdraw, but Churchill beckoned him in.'
0:25:53 > 0:25:58"The Prime Minister of Great Britain has nothing to conceal
0:25:58 > 0:26:00"from the President of the United States."
0:26:04 > 0:26:08But however cosy the special relationship seemed in 1942,
0:26:08 > 0:26:12it was impossible to hide the nakedness of British power.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24Surging on from Tobruk, by August 1942,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28Rommel's army was only 100 miles from Cairo.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33Churchill blamed the retreat in North Africa
0:26:33 > 0:26:37on the British commander, Claude Auchinleck.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42In desperation, he flew out to Egypt and sacked Auchinleck
0:26:42 > 0:26:44and his senior staff.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50To head the new team, he appointed Brooke's protege,
0:26:50 > 0:26:52General Bernard Montgomery.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59Yet Monty was not entirely Churchill's cup of tea.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03On one occasion, Churchill visited Monty and watched some manoeuvres.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07Afterwards, the two men had lunch in Monty's field caravan.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15Monty was a lean, austere man and the food was pretty Spartan,
0:27:15 > 0:27:16washed down only with water.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Churchill made clear his displeasure,
0:27:20 > 0:27:22and Monty replied defensively,
0:27:22 > 0:27:27"Prime Minister, I neither smoke nor drink and am 100% fit."
0:27:28 > 0:27:29Churchill glowered back...
0:27:31 > 0:27:36.."I smoke and drink and am 200% fit."
0:27:41 > 0:27:45But Monty had the charismatic manner and leadership skills
0:27:45 > 0:27:47that his predecessors lacked.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51He worked on basic training and made clear
0:27:51 > 0:27:54that there would be no more retreats.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58'I have ordered that all plans and instructions
0:27:58 > 0:28:01'dealing with further withdrawal are to be burnt and at once!
0:28:03 > 0:28:05'We will stand and fight here.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10'If we can't stay here alive, then let us stay here dead.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14'I want to impress on everyone that the bad times are over.
0:28:14 > 0:28:15'They are finished.'
0:28:18 > 0:28:21'This breezy confidence was infectious,
0:28:21 > 0:28:24'and Monty's informality endeared him to the troops.'
0:28:28 > 0:28:30According to anecdote,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33as Monty's jeep was passing one British unit,
0:28:33 > 0:28:39a soldier, wearing a top hat but otherwise completely naked,
0:28:39 > 0:28:41doffed the hat to his commander.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47This was too much, even for Monty. and he issued a blunt order.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50"Top hats will not be worn in the Eighth Army."
0:28:55 > 0:28:57But Monty was no superman.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03In fact, he reaped the benefits of the hard work put in by Auchinleck,
0:29:03 > 0:29:07who had built up a force that halted Rommel's advance
0:29:07 > 0:29:09at the desert outpost of Alamein.
0:29:11 > 0:29:17Slowly and painfully, the British army was learning how to fight.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22By October, Monty was ready to attack in strength.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26He now had real superiority over Rommel,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29with double the troops, tanks and guns,
0:29:29 > 0:29:33while his enemy was starved of supplies, especially petrol.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38'The great point to remember is that we're going to finish
0:29:38 > 0:29:40'with this chap Rommel once and for all.'
0:29:49 > 0:29:51'There was one other reason for Monty's confidence.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57'He had a new secret weapon, thanks to work being done here
0:29:57 > 0:30:02'at Bletchley Park, a quiet country house 50 miles north of London,
0:30:02 > 0:30:05'that had become the nerve centre of British code-breaking.'
0:30:08 > 0:30:13'The Germans used Enigma machines like this one
0:30:13 > 0:30:15'to encode their messages.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19'At first glance, it looked like a small typewriter in a wooden box,
0:30:19 > 0:30:24'but it employed teethed wheels and telephone-style plug-boards
0:30:24 > 0:30:27'to encode messages in almost endless variety.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34'158 million million million possibilities.
0:30:36 > 0:30:41'Penetrating the Enigma was a monumental task.
0:30:41 > 0:30:46'It took painstaking labour, huge strokes of luck
0:30:46 > 0:30:49'and enormous ingenuity by the academics at Bletchley.'
0:30:58 > 0:31:03The information generated by the code-breakers was known as Ultra.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06What mattered was not only decrypting and translating
0:31:06 > 0:31:10the signals quickly, but getting the information out
0:31:10 > 0:31:15to field commanders in time for it to be used in battle.
0:31:23 > 0:31:29In the autumn of 1942, GHQ in Cairo set up Special Liaison Units
0:31:29 > 0:31:33charged with putting Ultra to good use.
0:31:37 > 0:31:39So Monty was the first Desert General
0:31:39 > 0:31:42who was able to exploit Ultra.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47He knew the state of Rommel's dispositions.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56Ultra also helped the RAF to target German convoys
0:31:56 > 0:32:01across the Mediterranean, and German air bases in North Africa,
0:32:01 > 0:32:03strangling Rommel's supply lines.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10Yet, even with all the advantages of Ultra,
0:32:10 > 0:32:15the battle of Alamein still had to be won by hard, bloody fighting.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23The battle opened on 23rd October
0:32:23 > 0:32:25with a spectacular artillery barrage,
0:32:25 > 0:32:31which Monty likened to "a Great War 1914/18 attack".
0:32:33 > 0:32:37But the Afrika Korps had laid nearly half a million mines, so clearing
0:32:37 > 0:32:40paths through the minefields took time,
0:32:40 > 0:32:45and what Monty had envisaged as a quick tank battle
0:32:45 > 0:32:48turned into an infantry slogging match
0:32:48 > 0:32:50by British and Commonwealth forces,
0:32:50 > 0:32:53which for over a week seemed in the balance.
0:33:01 > 0:33:06'Here's some excellent news which has come during the past hour.'
0:33:06 > 0:33:11'The Axis forces in the Western desert, after 12 days and nights
0:33:11 > 0:33:16'of ceaseless attacks by our land and air forces, are now in full retreat.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21'It's known that the enemy's losses in killed and wounded
0:33:21 > 0:33:23'have been exceptionally high.'
0:33:26 > 0:33:29CHURCH BELLS RING
0:33:31 > 0:33:36Church bells rang out across Britain in celebration of this first
0:33:36 > 0:33:39victory by the British army over the Germans.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49For Churchill, Alamein was redemption
0:33:49 > 0:33:52for the purgatory of Tobruk.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56Suez and the artery of empire were now secure.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59At last, the British army had learned how to win,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02at last, the British people had something to celebrate.
0:34:03 > 0:34:08And, what's more, Churchill's own political position was now confirmed
0:34:08 > 0:34:11for the rest of the war.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20For weeks beforehand,
0:34:20 > 0:34:24Stafford Cripps had been threatening to resign from the Cabinet
0:34:24 > 0:34:26over Churchill's mismanagement of the war.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32Once Churchill gained his victory, Cripps no longer posed a threat.
0:34:35 > 0:34:40He did resign, but it was now a damp squib rather than a big bang.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49For the British public and the wider world,
0:34:49 > 0:34:51Churchill played up Alamein
0:34:51 > 0:34:55as a decisive turning point of the whole war.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58And that's how we tend to remember it today.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04But in reality, this was another piece of British spin.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16Talk of "exceptionally high" Axis casualties was an exaggeration.
0:35:18 > 0:35:212,100 Germans and Italians were killed.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23The British death toll was 2,300.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29And although more than 30,000 of the enemy were taken prisoner,
0:35:29 > 0:35:33Monty's caution in the pursuit allowed Rommel
0:35:33 > 0:35:37and much of his Afrika Korps to get away, and fight another day.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49Contrast this with the great turning point on the Eastern Front,
0:35:49 > 0:35:54Stalingrad, where the battle was also decided in November 1942,
0:35:54 > 0:35:58when the Russian pincers closed around the Germans.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05Around half a million soldiers had been killed on both sides.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12The Russians netted over 100,000 prisoners...
0:36:13 > 0:36:16..among them 22 generals,
0:36:16 > 0:36:19including the supreme German commander, Friedrich Paulus.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25BELLS RING
0:36:25 > 0:36:29No wonder the bells also rang out from the Kremlin.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33Stalingrad marked the turn of the Nazi tide in the East,
0:36:33 > 0:36:37the beginning of a long and bloody retreat to Berlin.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41It also signalled the rise of a new imperial threat
0:36:41 > 0:36:43to the British Empire,
0:36:43 > 0:36:46much more significant than Mussolini's tinpot Roman empire.
0:36:49 > 0:36:51As Russia bludgeoned its way west,
0:36:51 > 0:36:56America was beginning to mobilise its vast resources.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00Both now had the power to challenge Churchill's focus
0:37:00 > 0:37:01on the Mediterranean.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10"The only thing worse than fighting with allies
0:37:10 > 0:37:12"is fighting without them."
0:37:12 > 0:37:15That was Churchill's lament all through the war
0:37:15 > 0:37:19when dealing with the Russians and even the Americans.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22But the hard truth was that the British Empire needed
0:37:22 > 0:37:25the support of allies to win the war.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31The problem was that this support would undermine the very empire
0:37:31 > 0:37:34that Churchill was fighting to protect.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38'The freedom we fought for in 1776,
0:37:38 > 0:37:40'Britain has since been freely given to Canada...
0:37:45 > 0:37:47'..Australia...
0:37:47 > 0:37:48'New Zealand...'
0:37:48 > 0:37:52For most Americans, "empire" was a dirty word.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56They had fought a bloody war of independence to escape
0:37:56 > 0:37:58from the British Empire, and prided themselves
0:37:58 > 0:38:02on not being a colonial power, unlike the nations of Europe.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05'Of course, no-one ever talks about the British Empire today
0:38:05 > 0:38:07'without mentioning India,
0:38:08 > 0:38:12'and men of goodwill in Britain as well as other countries
0:38:12 > 0:38:15'have been outspoken in their demands for Indian freedom,
0:38:15 > 0:38:18'for no man who believes in democracy
0:38:18 > 0:38:20'can support foreign rule of any people.'
0:38:22 > 0:38:24To Roosevelt and the Americans,
0:38:24 > 0:38:28Churchill embodied an archaic world order.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34British domination of places like Egypt and India
0:38:34 > 0:38:39were seen as Victorian relics that had to be swept away.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43US leaders were sure that they were fighting a war
0:38:43 > 0:38:48for high principle, to spread American democratic values
0:38:48 > 0:38:50across the globe.
0:38:58 > 0:39:04The tension over empire was revealed dramatically in April 1942,
0:39:04 > 0:39:08when the nationalist campaign in India was reaching a crescendo.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12Roosevelt leaned hard on the Prime Minister
0:39:12 > 0:39:14to come out for Indian independence.
0:39:16 > 0:39:21Churchill was furious and, in effect, threatened to resign,
0:39:21 > 0:39:23unless the President stopped interfering
0:39:23 > 0:39:26in what he saw as a British issue.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31"I could not be responsible for a policy which would throw
0:39:31 > 0:39:34"the whole sub-continent of India into utter confusion
0:39:34 > 0:39:38"while the Japanese invader is at its gates.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41"I should personally make no objection at all
0:39:41 > 0:39:43"to retiring into private life."
0:39:48 > 0:39:50The transatlantic wrangling over empire
0:39:50 > 0:39:54was not only disturbing relations between the two leaders.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57It was also poisoning discussions between the generals
0:39:57 > 0:39:59over how to beat the Germans.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03For many American commanders,
0:40:03 > 0:40:07the Mediterranean campaign looked like a selfish diversion
0:40:07 > 0:40:12by the imperialist Brits to bolster their own power in Egypt.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16It also seemed a completely stupid strategy.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21The American Army Chief of Staff, George Marshall,
0:40:21 > 0:40:26operated on the basis of simple geometry, insisting that,
0:40:26 > 0:40:30since the shortest distance between two points was a straight line,
0:40:30 > 0:40:33the best route from London to Berlin
0:40:33 > 0:40:38was through France, via Dover to Calais.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44'We have our men all through the Pacific.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49'They are landing in Ireland and England.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52'And they will land in France.'
0:40:58 > 0:41:02George Marshall was already a legend in Washington.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05A career army officer renowned for honesty,
0:41:05 > 0:41:07candour and organisational skill.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13Unlike many American generals, he had no political ambitions
0:41:13 > 0:41:17and didn't even vote in elections for fear of colouring his judgment.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23Marshall was also a match for his own President.
0:41:23 > 0:41:28Franklin Roosevelt was a consummate politician, charming all around him
0:41:28 > 0:41:33with seductive words while keeping his own counsel.
0:41:33 > 0:41:39FDR once remarked in a rare moment of candour,
0:41:39 > 0:41:43"I'm a juggler. I never let my right hand know what my left hand does,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47"and furthermore, I am perfectly willing to mislead
0:41:47 > 0:41:50"and tell untruths if it will help win the war."
0:41:53 > 0:41:58Yet Marshall was never drawn into Roosevelt's political web.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02He deliberately kept FDR at a distance,
0:42:02 > 0:42:07refusing to let the President call him "George", and insisting,
0:42:07 > 0:42:10"I want the right to say what I think
0:42:10 > 0:42:12"and it will often be unpleasing."
0:42:19 > 0:42:22Marshall was quite clear about the need for an early
0:42:22 > 0:42:26Second Front in France, and he told Roosevelt so repeatedly.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33In April 1942, Marshall arrived in London to present his plans
0:42:33 > 0:42:35for crossing the Channel,
0:42:35 > 0:42:39certainly in 1943, and ideally later in 1942.
0:42:42 > 0:42:48British commanders, mindful of the Great War, thought this was crazy.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51Brooke spoke scathingly about Marshall building
0:42:51 > 0:42:52"castles in the air".
0:42:56 > 0:43:00But anxious not to blatantly oppose their new ally,
0:43:00 > 0:43:03Churchill and Brooke played a masterful game.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12The Prime Minister praised Marshall's "momentous proposal"
0:43:12 > 0:43:14and said he "cordially agreed".
0:43:15 > 0:43:20He spoke expansively about "complete unanimity on the framework".
0:43:20 > 0:43:22The two nations, he said,
0:43:22 > 0:43:26"would march ahead together in a noble brotherhood of arms".
0:43:27 > 0:43:32But Churchill mentioned "one broad reservation". It was, he said,
0:43:32 > 0:43:38"essential to carry on the defence of India and the Middle East".
0:43:39 > 0:43:43In other words, Churchill was determined to keep on fighting
0:43:43 > 0:43:45in the Mediterranean.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55For the moment, Churchill was senior partner in the alliance.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59Such was America's unreadiness for war
0:43:59 > 0:44:02and the demands of the Pacific
0:44:02 > 0:44:04that the US Army could only offer a couple of divisions
0:44:04 > 0:44:08for any cross-Channel attack in 1942.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13The bulk of the troops would have to be British and Canadian.
0:44:13 > 0:44:18This gave Churchill a veto power over what appeared in London
0:44:18 > 0:44:20to be a suicide mission.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28As a way of appeasing the Americans and the Russians,
0:44:28 > 0:44:30the British mounted a small-scale,
0:44:30 > 0:44:35lightning raid on the Channel port of Dieppe in August 1942.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41But it turned into a complete disaster,
0:44:41 > 0:44:46with the Canadian 2nd Division losing 70% of its men.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01With this tragic vindication, Churchill managed to ward off
0:45:01 > 0:45:07any idea of a full-scale cross-Channel attack in 1942.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11But he still needed to satisfy the pressure from Washington
0:45:11 > 0:45:16and Moscow for some kind of second front that year.
0:45:18 > 0:45:21If not France, then where?
0:45:33 > 0:45:37During the Great War, Churchill had revolted against the stalemate
0:45:37 > 0:45:41on the Western Front by proposing a campaign in the Mediterranean
0:45:41 > 0:45:46to knock out Germany's junior ally, the Ottoman Turks.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49The half-baked landings at Gallipoli
0:45:49 > 0:45:52almost destroyed his political career,
0:45:52 > 0:45:56but Churchill never lost his conviction that the Mediterranean
0:45:56 > 0:46:00was the theatre where a decisive breakthrough could be made.
0:46:04 > 0:46:08But in 1942, he had to persuade his new allies.
0:46:08 > 0:46:12In August, Churchill became the first Allied leader
0:46:12 > 0:46:15to fly to Moscow to meet Stalin face to face.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22Churchill saw himself as the broker between East and West.
0:46:24 > 0:46:29In the Kremlin, he condensed his strategy into a simple image.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32Sketching the outline of a crocodile,
0:46:32 > 0:46:36he told Stalin that France was Hitler's hard snout
0:46:36 > 0:46:40but the Mediterranean was the "soft underbelly" of the Axis.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44That was where the Allies should make their first stab.
0:46:49 > 0:46:54The "soft underbelly" was a brilliantly seductive idea.
0:46:54 > 0:46:59Churchill presented it as common sense, sound strategy.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03But in reality, it masked his fears
0:47:03 > 0:47:06about the weakness of the British army,
0:47:06 > 0:47:09and it also suited Britain's interests very well,
0:47:09 > 0:47:13because it would eliminate the British Empire's rivals
0:47:13 > 0:47:15in the Mediterranean.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23But would the Americans buy it?
0:47:26 > 0:47:30Marshall was not taken in by the soft underbelly.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33But he wasn't America's Commander-in-Chief,
0:47:33 > 0:47:36and he wasn't a politician.
0:47:38 > 0:47:43President Roosevelt was determined to mount some kind of offensive
0:47:43 > 0:47:48against Germany in 1942, above all to head off political opponents
0:47:48 > 0:47:51who wanted to focus on the war against Japan in the Pacific.
0:47:54 > 0:47:59For FDR, the opinion polls were alarming, indicating that 20%
0:47:59 > 0:48:03of Americans were inclined to sign a peace with Hitler so they
0:48:03 > 0:48:08could concentrate on getting revenge on the Japanese for Pearl Harbor.
0:48:10 > 0:48:16To put it bluntly, Roosevelt needed American blood to be shed
0:48:16 > 0:48:20by the Germans so his people would feel committed to the European war.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26And, as a politician, he really wanted the action to start
0:48:26 > 0:48:30before the midterm elections of November 1942.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35So the President simply overruled Marshall.
0:48:40 > 0:48:45He gave the go-ahead for Operation Torch - an invasion of Morocco
0:48:45 > 0:48:48and Algeria by American and British troops,
0:48:48 > 0:48:52to attack Rommel from the rear as he retreated from Alamein.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58For his own political reasons,
0:48:58 > 0:49:01Roosevelt had bought in to Churchill's grand idea.
0:49:02 > 0:49:08In 1942, the soft underbelly became the Allies' compromise strategy.
0:49:08 > 0:49:14For better and for worse, there would be real military benefits,
0:49:14 > 0:49:18but also lasting consequences for the post-war world.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28To keep the American military sweet, Churchill let Roosevelt and Marshall
0:49:28 > 0:49:33propose a commander of the combined American and British forces
0:49:33 > 0:49:35for the Torch landings.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40The choice was between two up-and-coming generals,
0:49:40 > 0:49:43Dwight Eisenhower and Mark Clark.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48Clark was shrewd and meticulous,
0:49:48 > 0:49:52but also relentlessly ambitious and deeply insecure.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56"The higher you climb the flagpole," he once said,
0:49:56 > 0:49:59"the more of your ass is exposed."
0:49:59 > 0:50:02He was also congenitally suspicious of the Brits.
0:50:03 > 0:50:09"Ike" was junior to Clark and, as Brooke caustically remarked,
0:50:09 > 0:50:12he'd never even commanded a battalion in action.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15But he had priceless assets for the role
0:50:15 > 0:50:17of commanding an alliance of nations.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21A ready smile, a gregarious manner and, above all,
0:50:21 > 0:50:26total commitment to making the Anglo-American alliance really work.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32Eisenhower dealt ruthlessly with all
0:50:32 > 0:50:35who took a narrowly nationalist view.
0:50:35 > 0:50:40One American officer was sent home for insulting a British officer.
0:50:40 > 0:50:45The Brit tried to intercede: "Sir, he only called me an SOB."
0:50:46 > 0:50:48Ike was unmoved.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52"I understand he called you a British SOB."
0:50:53 > 0:50:57"That is quite different. My ruling stands."
0:50:58 > 0:51:03It was Ike who got command of Torch, and he would never look back.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18The Torch landings were the greatest amphibious assault
0:51:18 > 0:51:23in history to date, dwarfing Gallipoli in 1915.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26And they went far better than that disaster,
0:51:26 > 0:51:30which had blackened Churchill's name in the Great War.
0:51:32 > 0:51:36For now, Churchill's soft underbelly strategy appeared to be working.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42The Americans were onside, the Germans seemed to be on the run.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49Hopes were high that, by Christmas 1942,
0:51:49 > 0:51:54the Allies would reach Tunis and squeeze Rommel out of North Africa.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59These hopes were not mere illusion.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02Drawing on what he called his "golden eggs",
0:52:02 > 0:52:05the daily decrypts from Ultra,
0:52:05 > 0:52:08Churchill believed that the Germans were about to cut their losses
0:52:08 > 0:52:10in North Africa and pull out.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16The question was, could Ultra always be taken at face value?
0:52:20 > 0:52:23The code-breakers, for all their brilliance,
0:52:23 > 0:52:26were limited by the military messages on which they worked.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30Bletchley Park could shed little light
0:52:30 > 0:52:33into the manic mind of Adolf Hitler.
0:52:44 > 0:52:49Determined not to be humiliated, in November 1942,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52the Fuhrer performed a dramatic U-turn...
0:52:57 > 0:53:00..and decided to make a stand in Tunisia...
0:53:01 > 0:53:04..rushing in fresh troops and supplies.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12Hitler's last-ditch reinforcements enabled the Germans to hang on
0:53:12 > 0:53:18in Tunisia, until the rains came and the sandy tracks turned to mud.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36The months of desert war that followed
0:53:36 > 0:53:40at least gave American soldiers valuable battle experience.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46Roosevelt and Marshall had been faced with the task of creating
0:53:46 > 0:53:49an army even more quickly than Churchill and Brooke.
0:53:49 > 0:53:55'Boy, do I remember breaking in them first GI shoes.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57'We learnt quick it was a fighting outfit
0:53:57 > 0:54:00'from that rugged training we got here and overseas.'
0:54:00 > 0:54:04Troops had to be trained and supplied, and, equally important,
0:54:04 > 0:54:06taught how to fight with Allies.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12Many GIs got a bad name among the British
0:54:12 > 0:54:15for their high pay and brash confidence.
0:54:15 > 0:54:21There were punch-ups in British pubs after GIs used lines like,
0:54:21 > 0:54:25"Gimme a beer as quick as you guys got out of Dunkirk."
0:54:28 > 0:54:31The real war therefore came as a rude shock.
0:54:33 > 0:54:38In February 1943, American forces at the Kasserine Pass
0:54:38 > 0:54:41in the Tunisian mountains were routed by Rommel
0:54:41 > 0:54:43in a surprise attack.
0:54:43 > 0:54:49The green GIs, badly led, were forced back 85 miles in seven days,
0:54:49 > 0:54:52one of the worst American defeats of the war.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58Eisenhower reported to Marshall,
0:54:58 > 0:55:01"Our people, from the very highest to the lowest,
0:55:01 > 0:55:04"have learned that this is not a child's game."
0:55:14 > 0:55:17The story was played down in America,
0:55:17 > 0:55:20but there was considerable malicious satisfaction in Britain.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24The Great War song The Yanks Are Coming
0:55:24 > 0:55:29was heard again with new words - The Yanks Are Running.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34# Over there, over there
0:55:34 > 0:55:36# Send the word, send the word
0:55:36 > 0:55:38# Over there
0:55:38 > 0:55:41# That the Yanks are coming
0:55:41 > 0:55:43# The Yanks are coming
0:55:43 > 0:55:46# The drums rum-tumming everywhere. #
0:55:46 > 0:55:504,000 Allied prisoners were taken at Kasserine,
0:55:50 > 0:55:53and to add to America's humiliation,
0:55:53 > 0:55:56some of the GIs were shipped to Italy
0:55:56 > 0:55:58and marched as a spectacle through Rome.
0:55:58 > 0:55:59# And we won't come back
0:55:59 > 0:56:02# Till it's over over there. #
0:56:09 > 0:56:13With the North African campaign dragging on,
0:56:13 > 0:56:15British and American leaders met in Casablanca
0:56:15 > 0:56:19to discuss what they could salvage from this setback.
0:56:21 > 0:56:23Churchill and Brooke were quite clear.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25Finish the job in North Africa,
0:56:25 > 0:56:28and then continue to stab at the soft underbelly
0:56:28 > 0:56:31by targeting Hitler's weaker partner, Italy.
0:56:34 > 0:56:36Marshall could see the way things were going.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40He grumbled that the Mediterranean was turning into a "suction pump".
0:56:41 > 0:56:46But, bogged down in Tunisia, the Americans were in a weak position
0:56:46 > 0:56:51to argue and British military planners ran rings around them.
0:56:54 > 0:57:00One US general commented, "We came, we saw, and we were conquered."
0:57:08 > 0:57:11After months of muddy stalemate, the Allies re-grouped,
0:57:11 > 0:57:16and in May 1943, they finally captured Tunis.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19The haul was immense.
0:57:19 > 0:57:25Some 250,000 prisoners, including a dozen German generals.
0:57:27 > 0:57:31North Africa had finally been cleared of enemy troops
0:57:31 > 0:57:34and the Mediterranean was now open to Allied shipping.
0:57:39 > 0:57:44'But although the Americans talked up the victory as "Tunisgrad",
0:57:44 > 0:57:46'it came six months too late.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50'That half year since Alamein and Stalingrad
0:57:50 > 0:57:53'was of decisive importance.'
0:57:53 > 0:57:56'The Red Army was now surging west, while total victory in North Africa
0:57:56 > 0:58:03'came too late to change Anglo-American strategy for 1943.'
0:58:08 > 0:58:10Marshall was still pushing
0:58:10 > 0:58:13for a cross-Channel invasion to be given priority.
0:58:14 > 0:58:15But was he right?
0:58:17 > 0:58:21It's clear from the Dieppe disaster that the Allies could not
0:58:21 > 0:58:25have established a firm foothold in France in 1942.
0:58:26 > 0:58:32They might have in 1943, but only if they had done nothing
0:58:32 > 0:58:36in North Africa in order to build up troops and resources
0:58:36 > 0:58:37here in Britain.
0:58:39 > 0:58:43Even then, it would have been very iffy,
0:58:43 > 0:58:47because the Allies had not yet gained clear supremacy in the air
0:58:47 > 0:58:50against the Luftwaffe,
0:58:50 > 0:58:55or control of the Atlantic supply lines against the U-boats.
0:58:56 > 0:59:01What's certain is that the failure to clear North Africa,
0:59:01 > 0:59:06as hoped, by the end of 1942 made it virtually impossible
0:59:06 > 0:59:11to cross the Channel in strength in 1943.
0:59:20 > 0:59:24So Churchill and Brooke's Mediterranean strategy
0:59:24 > 0:59:27continued to triumph, by default.
0:59:27 > 0:59:31With no option of attacking France, the Americans were persuaded
0:59:31 > 0:59:35to beach-hop from Africa to Sicily in July 1943.
0:59:38 > 0:59:40'We have a good plan.
0:59:43 > 0:59:47'There can only be one end to this next battle
0:59:47 > 0:59:49'and that is another success.
0:59:50 > 0:59:55'Forward to victory. Let us knock Italy out of the war.'
1:00:01 > 1:00:03This was more Monty bravado.
1:00:03 > 1:00:11The Sicily landings were a mess, and three German divisions
1:00:11 > 1:00:13gave two far-superior Allied armies
1:00:13 > 1:00:17a hard, month-long battle, inflicting 20,000 casualties.
1:00:20 > 1:00:23More disturbing still, co-operation between
1:00:23 > 1:00:26the British and American commanders was breaking down.
1:00:27 > 1:00:31Monty and the British, still sceptical about the quality
1:00:31 > 1:00:36of the GIs after Kasserine, tried to sideline the US forces.
1:00:38 > 1:00:41But while Monty's Eighth Army worked its way slowly through Sicily
1:00:41 > 1:00:46in brutal battles, an American rival surged across the island
1:00:46 > 1:00:49in a series of dashing tank offensives.
1:00:53 > 1:00:56"Goddamn, all the British!" fumed General George Patton.
1:00:58 > 1:01:00"I'd rather be commanded by an A-rab!"
1:01:02 > 1:01:04Patton treated the campaign in Sicily
1:01:04 > 1:01:09as what he called a "horse race" with Monty,
1:01:09 > 1:01:14insisting that "the US must win, not as an ally, but as a conqueror".
1:01:21 > 1:01:23Despite the Allies' bickering,
1:01:23 > 1:01:26Churchill's strategy still appeared to be paying off.
1:01:28 > 1:01:32With Sicily invaded, Mussolini was toppled in a political coup.
1:01:35 > 1:01:38The Italians surrendered and tried to side with the Allies.
1:01:41 > 1:01:45But the Germans now moved in to occupy Italy.
1:01:49 > 1:01:53Churchill was convinced it was vital to get into Italy
1:01:53 > 1:01:55before Hitler consolidated his hold.
1:01:57 > 1:02:00This was a decisive moment.
1:02:01 > 1:02:05Up till now, Churchill's soft underbelly strategy had paid off.
1:02:06 > 1:02:10The Mediterranean, the artery of empire, was secure,
1:02:10 > 1:02:12and British armies had learned how to fight
1:02:12 > 1:02:15without getting into a bloodbath like the Somme.
1:02:16 > 1:02:23But now a bright idea would become a dark obsession.
1:02:33 > 1:02:37Increasingly for Churchill, the Mediterranean would become
1:02:37 > 1:02:41not a means to an end, but the end in itself.
1:02:42 > 1:02:46He expected Italian-controlled islands in the Aegean
1:02:46 > 1:02:49to fall quickly into British hands.
1:02:50 > 1:02:53With such rich pickings on offer,
1:02:53 > 1:02:56Churchill was ready to put Operation Overlord,
1:02:56 > 1:02:59the invasion of France, on hold.
1:03:01 > 1:03:06This is clear from a top secret meeting in October 1943,
1:03:06 > 1:03:10which reveals just how far Churchill was willing to go
1:03:10 > 1:03:13in deceiving his American allies.
1:03:14 > 1:03:21Churchill told the British Chiefs of Staff his priorities would now be,
1:03:21 > 1:03:23"One. To reinforce the Italian theatre to the full.
1:03:25 > 1:03:26"Two. To enter the Balkans.
1:03:26 > 1:03:31"Three. To hold our position in the Aegean Islands.
1:03:31 > 1:03:34"Four. To build-up our air forces
1:03:34 > 1:03:38"and intensify our air attacks on Germany.
1:03:38 > 1:03:42"Five. To encourage the steady assembly in this country
1:03:42 > 1:03:46"of United States troops, with a view to taking advantage
1:03:46 > 1:03:48"of the softening in the enemy's resistance
1:03:48 > 1:03:52"due to our operations in other theatres,
1:03:52 > 1:03:57"though this might not occur until after the spring of 1944."
1:03:59 > 1:04:02Plodding bureaucratic words, you might think,
1:04:02 > 1:04:04but actually diplomatic dynamite.
1:04:06 > 1:04:11Churchill was saying that the British, given a free hand,
1:04:11 > 1:04:12would put crossing the Channel
1:04:12 > 1:04:15at the bottom of their list of priorities.
1:04:18 > 1:04:21His sweet talk about Overlord
1:04:21 > 1:04:25was simply to jolly along the Americans.
1:04:25 > 1:04:31And there's that telling phrase about building up US troops
1:04:31 > 1:04:33in Britain to take advantage
1:04:33 > 1:04:36"of a softening in enemy resistance elsewhere".
1:04:38 > 1:04:42Here again, Churchill was following British imperial tradition.
1:04:42 > 1:04:46The empire had always preferred to wage a war of attrition
1:04:46 > 1:04:49rather than fight direct.
1:04:49 > 1:04:53It had taken 20 years to beat Napoleon,
1:04:53 > 1:04:56and for much of that time the British army had been
1:04:56 > 1:05:00deployed in Spain while the Russians slogged it out with the French.
1:05:02 > 1:05:07Churchill shunned going head-to-head with a full-strength German army.
1:05:08 > 1:05:12Better to wear the enemy down by squeezing the Mediterranean
1:05:12 > 1:05:16and ratcheting up the bombing until Hitler's Reich began to crack.
1:05:18 > 1:05:22Crossing the Channel would simply be finishing the job.
1:05:27 > 1:05:31Churchill's obsession with penetrating the soft underbelly
1:05:31 > 1:05:34was not completely mad-cap.
1:05:34 > 1:05:38He found support for his strategy in intelligence reports
1:05:38 > 1:05:41from Bletchley that suggested that the Germans were ready
1:05:41 > 1:05:42to throw in the towel in Italy.
1:05:47 > 1:05:51Ultra indicated that, once the Allies got established
1:05:51 > 1:05:54on the toe of Italy,
1:05:54 > 1:05:56the Germans would pull back north towards the Alps.
1:05:58 > 1:06:02That would give the Allies some excellent Italian airfields
1:06:02 > 1:06:06from which to bomb the industrial cities of southern Germany.
1:06:07 > 1:06:13But, once again, Ultra couldn't get into the crevices of Hitler's brain.
1:06:15 > 1:06:20In October 1943, faced with the humiliation of losing Rome,
1:06:20 > 1:06:22the Fuhrer performed another about-turn
1:06:22 > 1:06:25and instructed his generals to fight for the Imperial City.
1:06:27 > 1:06:32And so Italy, like Tunisia, became a protracted, grinding struggle.
1:06:36 > 1:06:41This time, the mountainous terrain was ideal for the German defenders.
1:06:43 > 1:06:47Italy's Apennine range is over 800 miles long,
1:06:47 > 1:06:51some 80 miles wide, and it rises to 4,000 feet,
1:06:51 > 1:06:56so the soft underbelly turned out to have a rocky spine.
1:06:59 > 1:07:05After the war, one German general offered a friendly piece of advice.
1:07:05 > 1:07:09"Next time you're invading Italy, don't start at the bottom."
1:07:18 > 1:07:22The British and Americans battled their way north, but autumn rains
1:07:22 > 1:07:26and winter snow then made movement almost impossible for months on end.
1:07:29 > 1:07:33Churchill had predicted that Italy would be a springboard
1:07:33 > 1:07:35for the Allies.
1:07:35 > 1:07:40Instead, as he grimly admitted, it turned out to be a "sofa"
1:07:40 > 1:07:42on which they got well and truly stuck.
1:07:44 > 1:07:45The Americans were blunter.
1:07:45 > 1:07:50General Mark Clark said that the soft underbelly turned out
1:07:50 > 1:07:53to be "a tough old gut".
1:07:58 > 1:08:01Churchill blustered that the Allies
1:08:01 > 1:08:04were diverting German troops from France.
1:08:04 > 1:08:06In fact, it was the other way round.
1:08:06 > 1:08:10The Germans were diverting the Allies from the real Second Front.
1:08:12 > 1:08:18With bloody fighting at Salerno, Ortona and the Rapido River,
1:08:18 > 1:08:20Italy was turning into a costly sideshow.
1:08:29 > 1:08:32The situation was even worse in the Aegean,
1:08:32 > 1:08:35which Churchill had expected to mop up.
1:08:37 > 1:08:39In fact, the Germans moved in first.
1:08:41 > 1:08:46On the island of Leros, a small but determined German unit
1:08:46 > 1:08:50overcame a larger British force without much of a fight.
1:08:52 > 1:08:55It seemed like Tobruk all over again.
1:09:00 > 1:09:03Churchill kept clamouring for American help to hit back
1:09:03 > 1:09:08and invade Rhodes, the German stronghold in the Aegean.
1:09:08 > 1:09:11But now even Brooke snapped.
1:09:11 > 1:09:15He considered Churchill's plan "sheer madness".
1:09:15 > 1:09:18"The Americans are already desperately suspicious of him,
1:09:18 > 1:09:21"and this will make matters far worse."
1:09:22 > 1:09:26Brooke wanted all the Allied resources devoted to Italy,
1:09:26 > 1:09:30rather than being dissipated around the Mediterranean.
1:09:34 > 1:09:39The Prime Minister was isolated from even his closest military adviser.
1:09:40 > 1:09:44As for Marshall, he had no interest in Italy and he was
1:09:44 > 1:09:50enraged by Churchill's bombast about Rhodes, telling the PM to his face,
1:09:50 > 1:09:53"Not one American soldier is going to die on that goddamn beach."
1:09:56 > 1:10:00Marshall and Roosevelt were determined to push through
1:10:00 > 1:10:04Operation Overlord, the invasion of France through Normandy,
1:10:04 > 1:10:06in the spring of 1944.
1:10:09 > 1:10:12They were now thoroughly fed up with Churchill's obsession
1:10:12 > 1:10:13about the Mediterranean.
1:10:15 > 1:10:19Overlord wasn't merely a strategy,
1:10:19 > 1:10:26it had become a metaphor for who was on top in the special relationship.
1:10:34 > 1:10:37Armed with evidence of Churchill's intrigues against the plans
1:10:37 > 1:10:42for invading France, Marshall sent a blistering memo to Roosevelt,
1:10:42 > 1:10:47insisting that "further indecision, evasion, and the undermining
1:10:47 > 1:10:49"of agreements cannot be borne.
1:10:51 > 1:10:54"The Prime Minister must be told that he must now give his
1:10:54 > 1:10:59"unqualified support to Overlord, or else propose an acceptable
1:10:59 > 1:11:03"alternate course of action to guarantee victory over Germany."
1:11:08 > 1:11:11At the end of November 1943,
1:11:11 > 1:11:13Churchill and Roosevelt met once again at Tehran.
1:11:15 > 1:11:18But now they were joined for the first time by Stalin,
1:11:18 > 1:11:21whose armies were rolling the Germans back
1:11:21 > 1:11:24and had recently liberated the whole of the Ukraine.
1:11:25 > 1:11:28Stalin was in a strong position and he knew it.
1:11:31 > 1:11:37The Soviet leader had tolerated the Mediterranean strategy in 1942,
1:11:37 > 1:11:42but he was furious that Churchill had kept it going during 1943.
1:11:44 > 1:11:48He shared the American desire to pin Churchill down
1:11:48 > 1:11:52on launching a second front in France in the spring of 1944.
1:11:55 > 1:12:01In the opening session, Roosevelt made clear his view that the
1:12:01 > 1:12:07"cross-Channel attack should not be delayed by any secondary operation."
1:12:07 > 1:12:10Stalin was even blunter.
1:12:10 > 1:12:14He said that Hitler was trying to keep as many Allied divisions
1:12:14 > 1:12:18as possible in Italy, where no decision could be reached.
1:12:19 > 1:12:22Better to strike at the heart of Germany
1:12:22 > 1:12:24through an invasion of northern France.
1:12:26 > 1:12:30It was two to one for Overlord.
1:12:30 > 1:12:32Churchill was outvoted.
1:12:35 > 1:12:39The press and newsreels captured pictures of the Big Three,
1:12:39 > 1:12:41smiling and chatting as equals,
1:12:41 > 1:12:47but privately Churchill muttered that the little British donkey
1:12:47 > 1:12:51was caught between the Russian bear and the American elephant.
1:12:52 > 1:12:55It was an apt image.
1:12:55 > 1:13:00The two big beasts favoured the direct attack into Germany
1:13:00 > 1:13:03because they had the strength to do so.
1:13:03 > 1:13:08Stalin had masses of men, and didn't care how many he lost.
1:13:08 > 1:13:13Roosevelt, as a leader of a democracy, had to be more careful,
1:13:13 > 1:13:16but the Americans could bring to bear massive firepower.
1:13:17 > 1:13:20Unlike Churchill, neither of them intended to wait
1:13:20 > 1:13:23until the Third Reich had been softened up.
1:13:29 > 1:13:32Next day, the shift of power got personal.
1:13:32 > 1:13:36Stalin kept needling Churchill about whether the British
1:13:36 > 1:13:38were serious about Overlord.
1:13:40 > 1:13:43And Roosevelt took his side, in the hope of showing the Russians
1:13:43 > 1:13:46that they weren't facing an Anglo-American bloc.
1:13:49 > 1:13:54At dinner, Stalin remarked that to stop a third European war,
1:13:54 > 1:13:59"at least 50,000 and perhaps 100,000 of the German High Command
1:13:59 > 1:14:02"should be physically liquidated."
1:14:04 > 1:14:05Churchill lost his cool.
1:14:07 > 1:14:09"The British parliament and people
1:14:09 > 1:14:13"will not tolerate mass executions."
1:14:14 > 1:14:18FDR offered what he drily called a compromise.
1:14:19 > 1:14:23How about shooting only 49,000?
1:14:24 > 1:14:28At this point Churchill stomped out of the room in disgust.
1:14:28 > 1:14:33"You are pro-German!" Stalin taunted.
1:14:33 > 1:14:41Churchill, tired out, had over-reacted to the gallows humour,
1:14:41 > 1:14:44but, at a deeper level, I think, he was venting his frustration
1:14:44 > 1:14:48at Britain becoming the junior partner in the alliance,
1:14:48 > 1:14:53now that the vast power of America and Russia had been fully mobilised.
1:14:58 > 1:15:01The exertions of Tehran and the frustrations of Italy,
1:15:01 > 1:15:04challenges to his basic world view,
1:15:04 > 1:15:07brought Churchill to one of his lowest points of the war.
1:15:10 > 1:15:14In mid-December, stopping off in Tunis en route back to Britain,
1:15:14 > 1:15:18he contracted pneumonia and suffered two minor heart attacks.
1:15:19 > 1:15:22For a day or two, there were fears for his life
1:15:22 > 1:15:24and his wife flew out to be with him.
1:15:28 > 1:15:33Churchill had driven himself too far,
1:15:33 > 1:15:35but his collapse was not merely physical.
1:15:37 > 1:15:42This was a leader who could begin to see the limits of his power
1:15:42 > 1:15:45and that of the empire he'd vowed to preserve.
1:15:47 > 1:15:49Yet Churchill remained a fighter.
1:15:50 > 1:15:55As he recovered, his energy was still directed towards completing
1:15:55 > 1:16:01the campaign in Italy and justifying his Mediterranean gamble.
1:16:05 > 1:16:10In January 1944, Churchill persuaded the Americans
1:16:10 > 1:16:14to retain landing craft earmarked for Normandy in the Mediterranean,
1:16:14 > 1:16:17so he could mount a landing behind enemy lines at Anzio,
1:16:17 > 1:16:20only 40 miles from Rome.
1:16:22 > 1:16:26This was a last bold throw of the dice
1:16:26 > 1:16:28to win a quick victory in Italy.
1:16:31 > 1:16:35The landings were a complete success.
1:16:36 > 1:16:39But the troops failed to move swiftly off the beachhead,
1:16:39 > 1:16:43and were then hemmed in by German counter-attacks.
1:16:54 > 1:16:55'Hello, BBC.
1:16:55 > 1:16:59'Wilfred Vaughan Thomas speaking with Herbert Walden recording.
1:16:59 > 1:17:01'That's the sound, the first sounds, of our own ack ack.
1:17:02 > 1:17:05'The first bomb's going down. It's away to the left of us,
1:17:05 > 1:17:08'but even back here the ground around is shaking viciously
1:17:08 > 1:17:12'and Walden's recording truck is now rocking on its springs.'
1:17:18 > 1:17:23The attack became bogged down as soldiers dug into ditches
1:17:23 > 1:17:26and gullies that, in places, ran only 50 yards from the enemy lines.
1:17:33 > 1:17:35Churchill blamed the sluggish American commander,
1:17:35 > 1:17:38General John Lucas, for not racing towards Rome.
1:17:41 > 1:17:43The Americans claimed that Churchill's plan
1:17:43 > 1:17:45was flawed from the start.
1:17:47 > 1:17:50Lucas wrote in his diary...
1:17:50 > 1:17:54"The whole affair has a strong odour of Gallipoli,
1:17:54 > 1:17:58"and apparently the same amateur is still on the coach's bench."
1:18:01 > 1:18:05With no decisive breakthrough, the slugging match in Italy dragged on.
1:18:07 > 1:18:10One of the most epic and tragic battles
1:18:10 > 1:18:14took place at the German-held monastery of Monte Cassino,
1:18:14 > 1:18:19which towered some 1,700 feet above the valley below.
1:18:22 > 1:18:28Besieging this spectacular natural fortress
1:18:28 > 1:18:32was the absurd culmination of the soft underbelly strategy.
1:18:33 > 1:18:37A succession of "British" units - many of them actually Poles,
1:18:37 > 1:18:42Indians, Canadians, New Zealanders - took terrible casualties
1:18:42 > 1:18:47in courageous assaults on German positions.
1:18:57 > 1:19:00The monastery itself was flattened by Allied bombers.
1:19:03 > 1:19:06Later, the Allies bombed the town below.
1:19:14 > 1:19:16But the rubble proved even better for its defenders.
1:19:21 > 1:19:25The struggle for Cassino dragged on for five months
1:19:25 > 1:19:28in rain and sleet, snow and mud.
1:19:29 > 1:19:32Surveying the blasted landscape,
1:19:32 > 1:19:37the German commander was reminded of the Great War, when he said,
1:19:37 > 1:19:40"I experienced the same loneliness
1:19:40 > 1:19:42"crossing the battlefield of the Somme."
1:19:47 > 1:19:50Ironically, Churchill had created in Italy
1:19:50 > 1:19:53what he wanted to avoid in France.
1:19:59 > 1:20:01'Fighting has been severe in the extreme.
1:20:03 > 1:20:05'Men fought till they dropped.
1:20:05 > 1:20:08'Dropped exhausted, or dropped killed or wounded.
1:20:10 > 1:20:13'They had to get through appalling mountain tracks with the Germans
1:20:13 > 1:20:17'commanding them and pouring streams of fire upon them at every move.'
1:20:17 > 1:20:22'You could, by day, remain alive only in a hole in the ground.
1:20:23 > 1:20:26'To show yourself and move in daylight
1:20:26 > 1:20:28'in these forward positions was death.'
1:20:35 > 1:20:38'Eventually, a co-ordinated attack by Allied units
1:20:38 > 1:20:41'did force the Germans to withdraw.
1:20:43 > 1:20:47'The Poles, the most recklessly brave of Allied soldiers,
1:20:47 > 1:20:51'had the honour of taking the remains of the monastery,
1:20:51 > 1:20:55'for which over a thousand of their comrades had died.
1:21:05 > 1:21:10'In late May 1944, American troops, now heavily reinforced,
1:21:10 > 1:21:13'finally broke out of the Anzio beachhead.'
1:21:17 > 1:21:19The Americans were ordered to drive east
1:21:19 > 1:21:23in order to cut off the Germans, at last in retreat from Cassino.
1:21:25 > 1:21:28But the commander of the breakout was Mark Clark.
1:21:29 > 1:21:33Fuming at playing second fiddle to Eisenhower, and at being relegated
1:21:33 > 1:21:39to a theatre of operations dominated by the Brits, Clark unilaterally
1:21:39 > 1:21:44diverted troops of his US Fifth Army north-west to take Rome.
1:21:46 > 1:21:49He wrote later, "We not only wanted the honour of capturing Rome,
1:21:49 > 1:21:52"but we felt that we more than deserved it.
1:21:53 > 1:21:57"We intended to see that the people back home knew that it was
1:21:57 > 1:21:59"the Fifth Army that did the job
1:21:59 > 1:22:01"and knew the price that had been paid for it."
1:22:05 > 1:22:11Most of the Germans retreating from Cassino escaped to the north,
1:22:11 > 1:22:12but Clark had won his prize.
1:22:14 > 1:22:19Early on 5th June, he held a carefully-staged conference
1:22:19 > 1:22:21with his senior staff on the Capitoline Hill,
1:22:21 > 1:22:24surrounded by press and cameramen.
1:22:27 > 1:22:31"Well, gentlemen," Clark declared with studied nonchalance,
1:22:32 > 1:22:36"I didn't really expect to have a press conference here.
1:22:36 > 1:22:39"I just called a meeting with my commanders
1:22:39 > 1:22:41"to discuss the situation.
1:22:42 > 1:22:47"However, I'll be glad to answer your questions.
1:22:47 > 1:22:50"This is a great day for the Fifth Army."
1:22:52 > 1:22:56No mention here of the troops of the British Empire or France
1:22:56 > 1:23:00who'd helped make possible Clark's Roman triumph.
1:23:01 > 1:23:05Even patriotic American pressmen were embarrassed.
1:23:05 > 1:23:12One commented, "On this historic day, I feel like vomiting."
1:23:17 > 1:23:21The soft underbelly had been Churchill's grand idea,
1:23:21 > 1:23:27but the Americans had stolen the glory by taking the imperial city.
1:23:30 > 1:23:34But having tried to deceive his American allies on strategy,
1:23:34 > 1:23:37Churchill was in no position to complain
1:23:37 > 1:23:40when they gave him the run-around on tactics.
1:23:46 > 1:23:50In any case, Mark Clark's moment in the spotlight was short-lived.
1:23:51 > 1:23:54Next day, the long-awaited Second Front,
1:23:54 > 1:23:59led by his rival Dwight Eisenhower, opened for real in Normandy.
1:24:04 > 1:24:07To his aides, the weary Prime Minister was still complaining
1:24:07 > 1:24:12that Overlord had been "forced upon us by the Russians
1:24:12 > 1:24:15"and the United States military authorities".
1:24:16 > 1:24:20Yet, in public, Churchill put the best face on things,
1:24:20 > 1:24:23and threw himself into preparations for D-Day.
1:24:25 > 1:24:30But in private, fear about attacking the hard snout of the Axis
1:24:30 > 1:24:32still gnawed at Churchill's belly.
1:24:33 > 1:24:38In October 1943, he foresaw Overlord turning into
1:24:38 > 1:24:40"a disaster greater than Dunkirk".
1:24:42 > 1:24:43And on the night before D-Day,
1:24:43 > 1:24:46Churchill dined alone pensively with his wife.
1:24:47 > 1:24:50Just before going to bed, he turned to her.
1:24:51 > 1:24:56"Do you realise that by the time you wake up tomorrow morning
1:24:56 > 1:24:59"20,000 men may have been killed?"
1:25:05 > 1:25:07'This is the BBC Home Service
1:25:07 > 1:25:09'and here is a special bulletin read by John Snagge.
1:25:10 > 1:25:12'D-Day has come.
1:25:12 > 1:25:15'Early this morning, the Allies began the assault
1:25:15 > 1:25:18'on the north-western face of Hitler's European fortress.'
1:25:19 > 1:25:22Churchill's gloom was misplaced.
1:25:22 > 1:25:26Total Allied casualties on D-Day - killed, wounded and missing -
1:25:26 > 1:25:29were 10,000, not 20,000.
1:25:29 > 1:25:31The generals had learned their trade
1:25:31 > 1:25:34in the back waters of the Mediterranean.
1:25:36 > 1:25:39'In the euphoria about the landings,
1:25:39 > 1:25:42'the news from Rome was wiped off the front pages.
1:25:42 > 1:25:47'Churchill's soft underbelly had become a mere appendix.
1:25:47 > 1:25:52'The real drama was now being played out on beaches closer to home.'
1:26:02 > 1:26:05Churchill the bulldog kept fighting Britain's corner.
1:26:05 > 1:26:08But the Americans were now determined
1:26:08 > 1:26:10to dictate strategy in the West.
1:26:11 > 1:26:13In the battle across France and Germany,
1:26:13 > 1:26:15they were the dominant partners.
1:26:16 > 1:26:20Monty, hero of Britain's desert victory,
1:26:20 > 1:26:22was now firmly under Eisenhower.
1:26:25 > 1:26:28As Churchill sensed at Tehran,
1:26:28 > 1:26:31the Big Three was becoming a thing of the past.
1:26:32 > 1:26:37In a future increasingly defined by America and Russia,
1:26:37 > 1:26:40British diplomats started talking sardonically about
1:26:40 > 1:26:42"the Big Two and a Half".
1:26:44 > 1:26:47Britain would soon be stripped of its imperial assets.
1:26:47 > 1:26:53By 1945, the British position in India had become untenable,
1:26:53 > 1:26:57and within two years, a Labour government, in which Stafford Cripps
1:26:57 > 1:27:01was a leading member, would concede full Indian independence.
1:27:14 > 1:27:19Mussolini, the last "Roman" emperor, ended his days strung upside down
1:27:19 > 1:27:23by Italian partisans in a petrol station in Milan.
1:27:24 > 1:27:27But he wasn't the only imperial visionary
1:27:27 > 1:27:29whose dreams were shattered by the war.
1:27:34 > 1:27:37In 1940, Churchill had been the voice of freedom,
1:27:37 > 1:27:39echoing around the world.
1:27:40 > 1:27:43But the war for freedom hastened the end of empire.
1:27:45 > 1:27:48The decline and fall of Mussolini's Roman empire came quickly.
1:27:50 > 1:27:53The British Empire had deeper foundations,
1:27:53 > 1:27:57but these, too, were undermined by the Second World War.
1:28:01 > 1:28:06The Battle of Alamein was a great victory, yes,
1:28:06 > 1:28:11but what it really exposed were the limits of the British Empire
1:28:11 > 1:28:14when faced with total, global war.
1:28:16 > 1:28:20The Mediterranean strategy of gradually squeezing Germany,
1:28:20 > 1:28:23rather than going for the jugular,
1:28:23 > 1:28:25was an expression of weakness, not strength.
1:28:27 > 1:28:30Eventual victory over the Axis depended on strong allies
1:28:30 > 1:28:33like America and Russia,
1:28:33 > 1:28:35with their own distinctive visions of the future.
1:28:38 > 1:28:41In the entrails of the soft underbelly,
1:28:41 > 1:28:45we can discern the death pangs of the British Empire.
1:29:08 > 1:29:11Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd