0:00:26 > 0:00:31In 1940, the Germans launched one of history's most dynamic invasions,
0:00:31 > 0:00:37unleashing a lightning war that simply overwhelmed Allied forces.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39This is the story of that invasion,
0:00:39 > 0:00:47and of how a small British force, fighting near the French town of Arras, almost threw it off course.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55The First World War left deep scars on France.
0:00:55 > 0:01:03A third of young Frenchmen had been killed or crippled. Huge tracts of French territory had been devastated.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07Frenchmen were determined never to be invaded again.
0:01:07 > 0:01:15In 1930, they had begun work on a fortified barrier, named after the then War Minister, Andre Maginot.
0:01:15 > 0:01:21This fort, with its barbed wire and steel, has changed very little.
0:01:21 > 0:01:29A line of forts like this covered 90 miles of the most vulnerable area of the Franco-German border.
0:01:29 > 0:01:35But they stopped short at the frontier with Belgium, France's ally.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43These Maginot Line forts
0:01:43 > 0:01:48were the cutting edge of 1930s' technology.
0:01:48 > 0:01:53They had underground barracks, hospitals and even electric railways.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57They were equipped for a variety of threats.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01This is a twin 8mm machine gun to deal with infantry.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06If tanks appeared,
0:02:06 > 0:02:12this 37mm anti-tank gun could be swung forward on a rail, through this armoured shutter.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19The Press called this the shield of France.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24But a shield can be moved. This steel and concrete can't.
0:02:24 > 0:02:30By 1940, war had moved on and made this increasingly irrelevant.
0:02:30 > 0:02:35The Germans had used new tactics in Poland the year before.
0:02:35 > 0:02:41They brought tanks and close-support aircraft together on the battlefield in a new form of war.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44It was called Blitzkrieg.
0:02:47 > 0:02:52On May 10th 1940, Germany invaded Holland and Belgium.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57The Allies sent the best of their forces to intercept them,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01thinking this was the main German attack.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04It wasn't.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06The Germans had a more daring plan.
0:03:06 > 0:03:13They would attack the weak link between the main Allied army and the Maginot Line,
0:03:13 > 0:03:18by going through the Ardennes Forest and across the River Meuse at Sedan.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23The French regarded the Ardennes as virtually impassable,
0:03:23 > 0:03:25so the attack would be a surprise.
0:03:25 > 0:03:32General Guderian's three Panzer divisions attacked Sedan on 13th May.
0:03:32 > 0:03:382,000 of Guderian's vehicles were stacked up on this road, waiting to cross.
0:03:38 > 0:03:43German aircraft and artillery had pounded French defences all day.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47It was the heaviest concentration of air power ever.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51MUSIC: "Carmina Burana" by Orff
0:04:01 > 0:04:04As German aircraft bombed the French,
0:04:04 > 0:04:10tanks, artillery and anti-tank guns, firing from across the Meuse,
0:04:10 > 0:04:15pounded the concrete bunkers housing the defenders of Sedan.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17The 88mm gun did this damage.
0:04:17 > 0:04:24It was an anti-aircraft gun but was used very effectively against bunkers and tanks.
0:04:29 > 0:04:37At 3pm, the barrage lifted, and Colonel Balck's First Rifle Regiment crossed the river in assault boats.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41French bunkers were back from the water,
0:04:41 > 0:04:45so the Germans secured a bridgehead quite easily.
0:04:45 > 0:04:53But the French had blown up all the bridges, so the Germans couldn't get tanks over until they built new ones.
0:04:55 > 0:05:00The engineers set to work, building bridges under heavy fire,
0:05:00 > 0:05:05allowing German tanks and infantry to cross the river within hours.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11The defenders of Sedan found the odds stacked against them.
0:05:16 > 0:05:21This bunker is pretty rudimentary compared with the Maginot Line.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24In 1940, it wasn't even finished.
0:05:24 > 0:05:31As nobody expected the Germans to come this way, these positions were held by over-age reservists.
0:05:31 > 0:05:38Despite dive-bombing and shelling, the men here fought till German infantry burst in.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40Then the little garrison of ten men
0:05:40 > 0:05:43was taken out and shot.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50At the heart of Sedan is one of the largest castles in Europe,
0:05:50 > 0:05:56but medieval stone was no defence against three Panzer divisions.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59This part of the town fell easily.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04For the third time in 70 years, the Germans had taken Sedan.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09Jacques Rousseau has lived in the town all his life.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45On 15th May, two days after the Sedan crossing,
0:07:45 > 0:07:47the German advance was taking shape.
0:07:47 > 0:07:54First, the motorcycle reconnaissance, then the tanks, and miles behind, marching to catch up, the infantry,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58still well on the other side of the Meuse.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00In the village of La Horgne,
0:08:00 > 0:08:07this 20th-century armoured advance bumped into something out of the Napoleonic Wars.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12La Horgne was held by two regiments of spahi -
0:08:12 > 0:08:15French North-African cavalry.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17They had horses,
0:08:17 > 0:08:22carried sabres, carbines and had a few anti-tank guns.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26They held the village in a desperate day's fighting.
0:08:26 > 0:08:33Colonel Balck, one of the German commanders, considered it one of the hardest day's fighting of his career.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43The spahi lost 610 men,
0:08:43 > 0:08:47including both regimental commanders killed.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52These Moroccan and Algerian troopers lie in French soil.
0:08:52 > 0:09:00It's a cruel irony that their sons may have fought for independence AGAINST France only ten years on.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16The biggest danger to the Germans
0:09:16 > 0:09:21was that the Allies would get between their armour, forging ahead,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24and the infantry miles behind.
0:09:24 > 0:09:30Guderian had already been in trouble with his superiors for moving too fast.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33On 17th May, here at Montcornet,
0:09:33 > 0:09:40a few dozen French tanks under Colonel de Gaulle jabbed into the flank of the German line of advance.
0:09:40 > 0:09:46They shot up German trucks before they ran out of momentum and petrol.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51It was an indication of how vulnerable the Germans were
0:09:51 > 0:09:59and of what might have been achieved, had the Allied commanders been able to mount a co-ordinated attack.
0:10:03 > 0:10:10Once they reached these straight roads across northern France, the Germans fairly clipped along.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12Almost nothing was in their way.
0:10:12 > 0:10:20Captain von Kielmansegg of First Panzer Division described that odd vacuum behind the Panzer divisions -
0:10:20 > 0:10:24"In this peaceful landscape, human beings are absent.
0:10:24 > 0:10:30"Everything is dead and empty. Not even the old people have remained."
0:10:30 > 0:10:34The German plan was working brilliantly.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38Blitzkrieg was as much about psychology as about fighting.
0:10:38 > 0:10:43The Panzers were moving so fast that the Allies were stunned,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46unable to react effectively.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50By the time they planned a counterattack,
0:10:50 > 0:10:54the Germans were halfway to the Channel.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58But most of the Allied army was still in Belgium.
0:10:58 > 0:11:03At last, amid hesitation and misunderstanding,
0:11:03 > 0:11:08a small British force was sent to counterattack the Germans at Arras.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14Arras had been ruined in the First World War.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Re-building was barely complete
0:11:17 > 0:11:20when, in May 1940, it was bombed.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26SOPRANO SINGS LIEDER
0:11:53 > 0:11:55German dive bombers -
0:11:55 > 0:12:00a terrifying part of the campaign - set fire to parts of the town.
0:12:00 > 0:12:06This World War One memorial was hit by bombs that destroyed the station.
0:12:06 > 0:12:14There was only a tiny British garrison here. Most of the British Army was in the north, in Belgium.
0:12:19 > 0:12:27The British Army had been in France since September 1939, but few of its men had seen any action.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30Britain's main tank was the Matilda.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35It was slow-moving, as it was made to be used with infantry.
0:12:35 > 0:12:41But most of the infantry hadn't seen a tank, let alone trained with one.
0:12:46 > 0:12:53This is one of the few surviving specimens of the infantry tank, Mark One, known as the Matilda.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57It lives in the tank museum at Bovington.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02It's cramped, slow, poorly armed but heavily armoured.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07Not the ideal thing in which to take on a Panzer division.
0:13:15 > 0:13:22Peter Vaux fought at Arras and remembers all too well the shortcomings of the Matilda.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25What's it like seeing one of these?
0:13:25 > 0:13:27I never thought I'd see one again.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32We had 58 at Arras, and we left most behind.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36It was produced in 1938 to a budget of £11,000.
0:13:36 > 0:13:42The requirement was to have a slow-moving tank. God knows it was, at 8mph!
0:13:42 > 0:13:45It was to be thickly armoured.
0:13:45 > 0:13:51You have a look at the thickness of this. You've got 60mm there...
0:13:51 > 0:13:55and on there and the turret... Even more in places.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59- Two-man crew?- A commander up there and a driver down here.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02The commander was very busy.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06He had to command his tank and fire that gun.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09It was a difficult gun to fire.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12He had to operate the radio at the back.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15To turn the knobs on it,
0:14:15 > 0:14:20he had to lie on his stomach with his feet at the driver's back.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23That was very hard to do in battle.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28- This running gear looks very exposed. - All this, very vulnerable indeed.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30I saw one tank in the battle
0:14:30 > 0:14:35that had had this suspension unit completely blown off.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38And yet it was hobbling along.
0:14:38 > 0:14:43Of course, if this was broken, the tank was crippled.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45Here we have the engine.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50A straightforward Ford V8 engine from a car.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52It constantly broke down.
0:14:52 > 0:15:00That was the big weakness. To mend it, you had to open these things, which was difficult under fire.
0:15:00 > 0:15:06- So, well-armoured, poorly armed... - Well-armoured.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10Stupidly armed with one machine gun.
0:15:10 > 0:15:16But their anti-tank guns couldn't do US any harm in this, either.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18Only the big guns blew us to pieces.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21German officers since have told me
0:15:21 > 0:15:27that they were amazed at how their anti-tank shells bounced off this.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36Troops and tanks going to Arras had a hellish journey from Belgium,
0:15:36 > 0:15:40on roads made perilous by German dive bombers.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42The roads were choked...
0:15:42 > 0:15:47with Belgian and French refugees crossing northern France,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49fleeing the German advance.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56The British were to rendezvous at Vimy Ridge, just north of Arras.
0:15:56 > 0:16:01Most arrived exhausted and ill-prepared for the battle.
0:16:01 > 0:16:07I'm up on Vimy Ridge, amid trenches that date from the First World War.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12These trees were to commemorate Canadians lost during the war.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16Many died capturing the ridge in 1917.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20Some of the British who fought at Arras in 1940
0:16:20 > 0:16:24got some sleep here the night before the battle.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29It must have been eerie, on the eve of their first battle,
0:16:29 > 0:16:34for them to spend the night in First World War trenches.
0:16:34 > 0:16:39A British tank officer tells us what it was like -
0:16:40 > 0:16:44"I arrived at Petit Vimy exhausted and disorganised.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49"I was given a map by my commander and told to follow him.
0:16:49 > 0:16:56"The wireless didn't work. There was no tie-up with infantry and no clear orders.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01"This was our state as we crossed the start line for our first action.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04"It wasn't a very auspicious start."
0:17:04 > 0:17:08# We're gonna hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line
0:17:08 > 0:17:13# Have you any dirty washing, mother dear?
0:17:13 > 0:17:18# We're gonna hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line
0:17:18 > 0:17:23# Cos the washing day is here
0:17:23 > 0:17:28# Whether the weather may be wet or fine
0:17:28 > 0:17:32# We'll just ramble on without a care
0:17:32 > 0:17:35# We're gonna hang out the... #
0:17:35 > 0:17:41This abbey in the shadow of Vimy Ridge was ruined in World War One.
0:17:41 > 0:17:47On 20th May 1940, the Twelfth Lancers, a British reconnaissance regiment, was here.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52The Lancers reported that the Germans had passed along that road
0:17:52 > 0:17:58and that the area was stiff with German tanks, infantry and artillery.
0:17:58 > 0:18:03But the men had been told to attack the Germans in the Arras area
0:18:03 > 0:18:08and had been given the impression that there were very few of them.
0:18:08 > 0:18:16In fact, the British were throwing a handful of tanks and infantry into this whirlpool of German armour.
0:18:30 > 0:18:35The attackers left Vimy Ridge late on the morning of 21st May.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38Their plan was simple enough.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41There were two columns.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45Each consisted of 40 tanks of the Royal Tank Regiment,
0:18:45 > 0:18:50Durham Light Infantry and some motorcycle reconnaissance.
0:18:50 > 0:18:57They planned to go round Arras and not meet any Germans until they were south-west of it.
0:18:57 > 0:19:05It was hot, and the tanks got ahead of the infantry, who were marching, heavily laden, down this road.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10The sight of a First World War cemetery can't have been encouraging.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25The Durham Light Infantry in the right-hand column
0:19:25 > 0:19:30had fought a small battle and got separated from its tanks
0:19:30 > 0:19:32by the time it reached Warlus.
0:19:32 > 0:19:39Its leading company pushed on down this road but soon ran into heavy opposition and had to fall back.
0:19:39 > 0:19:46It's typical of the day's confusion that it was just short of the line where the battle was meant to start.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50SOPRANO SINGS LIEDER
0:20:18 > 0:20:23Some of the Durhams gathered by this water tower outside the village,
0:20:23 > 0:20:27where they were attacked by dive bombers.
0:20:27 > 0:20:35One of them remembered... "We were subjected to a terrifying aerial attack. Everybody was shattered.
0:20:35 > 0:20:42"After a few minutes, the officers and NCOs collected themselves and said, 'We must get on with it.'
0:20:42 > 0:20:50"It was hard to get some men moving. We had to kick them into position, and the effect was considerable."
0:20:50 > 0:20:57The Durhams fell back into Warlus. Later that night, they broke out with the help of French tanks.
0:20:57 > 0:21:02The survivors were back up on Vimy Ridge by six the next morning.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08The two columns of tanks,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11both moving well ahead of their infantry,
0:21:11 > 0:21:15ran straight into Seventh Panzer Division.
0:21:15 > 0:21:23Its commander was a little-known major general who was soon to spring to prominence in North Africa.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26His name was Erwin Rommel.
0:21:28 > 0:21:36Late in the afternoon, Rommel arrived in the village of Vailly to find chaos and confusion.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40He drove up onto this hillock, where there were some German guns,
0:21:40 > 0:21:46only to be attacked by British tanks coming from Arras in the north
0:21:46 > 0:21:49and from the west, across the main road.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13Rommel galvanised the defence
0:22:13 > 0:22:17with the help of his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Most.
0:22:17 > 0:22:24"With the enemy tanks so close, only rapid fire from every gun could save the situation.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28"All I cared about was to halt the enemy tanks by heavy gunfire.
0:22:28 > 0:22:36"The worst seemed to be over, when suddenly Most sank to the ground behind a 20mm anti-aircraft gun.
0:22:36 > 0:22:42"He was mortally wounded, and blood gushed from his mouth."
0:22:42 > 0:22:46Rommel's personal intervention had checked the attack here,
0:22:46 > 0:22:54but the British had come within an ace of killing a general who was later to cause them infinite trouble.
0:22:59 > 0:23:05The left-hand column, curling round the suburban fringes of Arras, did better.
0:23:05 > 0:23:12Its tanks, moving ahead of the infantry, got as far as the level crossing which stood here,
0:23:12 > 0:23:14and found it down.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17Old habits of peacetime die hard,
0:23:17 > 0:23:24and it took some time before an officer summoned up the nerve to crash straight through.
0:23:24 > 0:23:31Just over the other side, the tanks ran squarely into a column of German infantry in trucks.
0:23:31 > 0:23:38The Germans had nothing to penetrate the armour of British tanks, and dozens were killed or captured.
0:23:38 > 0:23:43One British officer said we had a glorious free-for-all...
0:23:43 > 0:23:48"I didn't see why we shouldn't go all the way to Berlin."
0:24:06 > 0:24:08The British didn't get to Berlin.
0:24:08 > 0:24:16They got barely another two miles and were stopped here by field guns firing from that ridge.
0:24:16 > 0:24:21One officer drove up here and saw 20 tanks lying in this field,
0:24:21 > 0:24:26their crews dead beside them or crawling through the grass.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31He gunned the wood and saw artillery observers fall out of the trees.
0:24:31 > 0:24:37He passed his commanding officer's tank with its side blown in.
0:24:37 > 0:24:44He wrote, "Although I didn't know it, the Colonel and his radio operator were dead inside it.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48"This was the high watermark of British success."
0:25:14 > 0:25:17The battle was over.
0:25:17 > 0:25:22As night fell, the survivors tried to get back to Vimy Ridge.
0:25:22 > 0:25:28But the area was full of Germans, and many British were taken prisoner.
0:25:28 > 0:25:35The Royal Tank Regiment lost half its tanks, and nearly half the infantry were killed or wounded.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37But the battle shook the Germans.
0:25:37 > 0:25:42Rommel reported that he'd been attacked by five divisions.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47In reality, the total British strength was less than one.
0:25:47 > 0:25:53I'm back up on Vimy Ridge with the First World War memorial behind me.
0:25:53 > 0:25:59Most survivors of the Arras battle also ended up here at the end of the day
0:25:59 > 0:26:02and were evacuated from Dunkirk.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06In simple terms, their attack had failed.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11But it sent ripples of alarm throughout the German High Command.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16The German commander, von Rundstedt, was seriously worried...
0:26:16 > 0:26:21"A critical moment came as my forces had reached the Channel.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25"It was caused by a British counter-stroke south of Arras.
0:26:25 > 0:26:32"It was feared that the Panzers would be cut off before the infantry had arrived to support them.
0:26:32 > 0:26:37"No French counterattacks carried a serious threat like this."
0:26:37 > 0:26:44This mood contributed to von Rundstedt's decision to order his armour to halt.
0:26:44 > 0:26:50German tanks remained stationary for several crucial days.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55This gave the British the chance to mount an evacuation from Dunkirk.
0:26:55 > 0:27:00Nearly 340,000 soldiers were taken to safety.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Dunkirk was something of a miracle.
0:27:15 > 0:27:20The difficult process of evacuating so many thousands took days.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24The last troops were taken to safety on June 4th,
0:27:24 > 0:27:28leaving the beach strewn with wreckage.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32The Channel was Britain's shield against defeat.
0:27:32 > 0:27:38It was four long years before British troops returned in strength.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49The German invasion had been an extraordinary success.
0:27:49 > 0:27:57Some Panzers had fought their way from Sedan to the coast in seven days - a journey of over 200 miles.
0:27:57 > 0:28:05Yet the Arras attack proved that the Germans were not invincible and that their offensive had entailed risks.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10But it was the Allies' tragedy that, mesmerised by Blitzkrieg,
0:28:10 > 0:28:15they never managed to turn these risks to their advantage.