(tense music) (narrator) May 1940, darkness had descended upon the world.

♪ Germany and her allies controlled large swathes of Europe.

Japan had invaded China and was looking to expand her empire further.

Britain and empire were under threat.

But if anybody likes to play rough, we can play rough too.

(narrator) In this fractured world, Winston Churchill became prime minister of the United Kingdom.

He did so with a clear goal, victory.

Now we are at war, and we are going to make war until the other side have had enough of it.

(narrator) This is the story of the man who led Britain and her empire through one of the darkest moments in its history.

This is Winston Churchill's War.

♪ (captivating music) Churchill's finest hour was not an hour of victory.

His triumph as leader was not to win the war, but to keep Britain and her empire in the fight during the dark days of 1940 and '41.

German forces swiftly advanced across France.

Over the skies of Britain, the Royal Air Force valiantly fought to keep German troops from the heart of Churchill's empire.

(planes shooting) Bombs rained destructions upon British cities, as Germany launched the Blitz.

♪ Churchill drew upon all his rhetorical prowess to lift morale and help the people endure.

(Churchill) Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

(narrator) In spite of the hardships, he kept Britain on the offensive.

He deployed bombers over Germany.

He launched campaigns in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

Victories were outnumbered by defeats... (bombs firing) ...but Churchill and the British Empire remained steadfast.

And perhaps, most vitally, Churchill sought help from a powerful friend, the United States, for Britain could not win this war alone, and Churchill knew it.

(indistinct chanting) ♪ (intriguing music) ♪ (crowd murmuring) On the 10th of May, 1940, Churchill became prime minister.

He was, he wrote, "Walking with destiny."

His whole life had been a preparation for this hour and this trial.

It was in the House of Commons, three days later, that he declared his aim, "Victory.

Victory at all costs."

♪ The day he took helm as prime minister was the same day Germany invaded France and the low countries.

The Phoney War had ended, and France was in peril.

♪ (Dr. Mercer) Germany starts moving towards a plan of attack that aims to knock out France, in particular, as soon as possible.

Thereby, isolate Britain, knock Britain out of the war through negotiation.

And then turn, probably, to the war that they really want, which is the one in Eastern Europe.

(ominous music) (narrator) Churchill was faced with the defenses of European nations falling like dominoes, driven back by the rapid German advance.

♪ (mysterious music) ♪ Sheltered behind the Maginot Line, the French had prepared for a defensive war.

♪ The Maginot Line was a series of fortresses, obstacles, and military facilities built in the 1930s to deter a German invasion.

♪ (Dr. Mercer) The French military, of course, is thinking of the First World War.

Their defensive mindset, in part, comes out of that, and, I mean, this isn't entirely the French military's fault.

I mean, France, after the First World War, is, of course, a deeply-affected society.

I mean, they've lost over a million dead, another more than a million wounded.

They've enormous debts coming out of the First World War.

They can't suddenly re-arm to the extent that perhaps the military would have liked to have re-armed.

(narrator) The Maginot Line defensive strategy made economic and strategic sense, but it had some fatal flaws and gaps.

The Germans invaded the low countries, bypassing the Maginot Line along the French and German border by going through Belgium and the Netherlands.

The French had also assumed the dense forest of the Ardennes would protect their right flank from German armor.

But as the German attack through the Netherlands and Belgium drew Allied troops to the north, a southern attack by German forces broke through the Ardennes and shattered the French defenses.

The Germans were moving fast.

They had evolved a new form of warfare using a combination of mechanized infantry, tanks, artillery, and aircraft to swiftly surprise and overwhelm the Allied Forces, Blitzkrieg.

Even small units were equipped with radios, making German communication far stronger than the confused Allied efforts.

(Dr. Stanley) The German blitzkrieg against Western Europe opens on the 10th of May, 1940.

And within a fortnight, the British, and French, and Belgian armies are defeated.

They're withdrawing to the Channel coast.

So, it looks as if the Second World War in the West will be over literally within weeks.

(lively music) (marching and clanking) (formidable music) ♪ (narrator) As German forces ripped through France, Churchill fought his own battle with members of his war cabinet.

The British foreign secretary, Lord Halifax, believed the best path for Britain lay in a peace settlement negotiated through Hitler's ally, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who, at this point, had not joined Germany in the war.

In early 1940, a peace settlement with Germany still seemed a valid option to Halifax and the other members of the war cabinet.

They hoped that Britain would gain better terms if a peace was negotiated before losses mounted, and before a French defeat.

Britain might retain its freedom for the cost of a few former German colonies and Nazi dominance over Central Europe.

Lives would be spared, in Britain at least.

But Churchill held firm.

He argued surrender before battle would offer no better terms than fighting on.

It would damage morale and dissuade the United States from entering the fight.

And Churchill believed there were no guarantees with the Nazi regime.

A peace guaranteed by Hitler was no true peace.

♪ (crowds roaring) (Benjamin) Hitler always seems to have been optimistic that the British would, as he put it, see reason and come around.

He always hoped that they would get rid of Churchill, the main obstacle to peace, and then there would be some kind of settlement.

By this point, he had very little understanding of the mechanisms within British politics and why it was that Britain was likely to continue the war against Germany.

(narrator) When former Prime Minister Chamberlain added his support to Churchill's argument, and Churchill rallied non-war cabinet ministers to his cause, Halifax eventually conceded.

Britain would fight to the end.

Either way, Chamberlain would not live to see the fight.

(bell tolling) He was mortally ill with cancer and died in November 1940.

This cabinet crisis was a moment in which Churchill's persuasive abilities and his unfailing self-belief proved him to be the leader Britain needed, able to hold firm, even against doubts within his own war cabinet.

But while Churchill scored a political victory, the fate of the men on the ground in France hung in the balance.

(indistinct singing) (somber music) As the Germans moved rapidly toward the coast of France, Allied Forces were in retreat and on the verge of becoming trapped.

♪ An Allied counterattack at Arras failed.

By the 28th of May, Belgium had surrendered and all the ports north of the Somme, save Dunkirk, were in German hands.

There were now fears that the full force of the advancing German army would be unleashed upon the retreating Allied troops.

But on the edge of victory, the German advance was halted.

(Benjamin) Why the German forces didn't move in on the British at Dunkirk is one of those perennial questions about World War II.

I think the answer is not, as is sometimes suggested, that because of Hitler's relative lack of enmity towards the British, he wanted them to be able to rescue their armies so that they would be more amenable to a peace offer.

Much more plausible explanations are that the tank forces, in particular, were absolutely exhausted from an incredibly rapid two-week advance across France, and they just couldn't go any farther at that point.

(whirring) (energetic music) ♪ (narrator) Gathered around Dunkirk, the retreating Allied troops were trapped defending the perimeter with support from the RAF.

♪ From the 26th of May, through to the 4th of June, close to 200,000 British troops and 140,000 French and Belgian troops were evacuated from their precarious position.

Small yachts, fishing boats, and tugs from the Thames came together with destroyers, gun boats, and minesweepers.

They faced air bombardments from the mighty Luftwaffe as they rescued their stranded men.

(explosion) ♪ (Dr. Stanley) We still talk about the Dunkirk spirit because although it was a massive defeat-- I mean, the British were bundled out of the continent in three weeks-- it was a psychological victory, which the British drew on for the rest of the war.

♪ (narrator) The evacuation of the troops from Dunkirk was a Herculean effort, and one that far exceeded Churchill's expectations.

(Churchill) When a week ago today I asked the house to fix this afternoon as the occasion for a statement, I feared it would be my hard lot to announce the greatest military disaster in our long history.

(narrator) He had thought Operation Dynamo might only rescue 45,000 men, but the rescue of over 300,000 trained troops was priceless.

(Dr. Stanley) The evacuation of Dunkirk means several things.

I mean, in sheer practical terms, it means that the British have literally hundreds of thousands of men to continue the fight.

Secondly, they've got not just British troops, but French troops especially.

So, there's a free French army created in Britain because of the evacuation of Dunkirk.

(narrator) The evacuation had been a success, and France was not yet completely defeated, but Churchill cautioned the British people against complacency.

(Churchill) We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory.

Wars are not won by evacuations, but there was a victory inside this deliverance.

(passionate music) ♪ (uneasy music) ♪ (narrator) After the evacuation of Dunkirk, Germany had turned its advance southwards from the Seine toward Paris.

Another simultaneous attack on the Maginot Line prevented the deployment of French reinforcements to defend the capital.

♪ On the 14th of June, Paris fell to the Germans.

♪ Among the many reasons for the German victory, key was the agility and maneuverability of the German army.

Blitzkrieg had delivered victory to the Nazis in France.

♪ (Dr. Jones) France and the low countries, their armies-- Holland, Belgium, France-- and indeed the British Expeditionary Force were all uniquely vulnerable to this type of attack.

They were slow-moving armies.

In many ways, weak.

Undertrained, in some senses, and expecting a long period of static war, whereby they would hold the Germans and then gradually build up their fighting strength before defeating them.

What blitzkrieg did was it took away that element of time, and the Allied armies were unable to keep pace.

(somber music) (narrator) On the 16th of June, the French hero of Verdun, Philippe Pétain, became premier of what would become the Vichy French government.

The following day, he asked the Germans for terms for an armistice.

On the 22nd of June, France surrendered to Germany.

Britain and her empire now stood alone.

(ominous music) ♪ When the war began, Hitler had no immediate plans for an invasion of Britain.

(tense music) He assumed the empire would sue for peace.

When it became clear Britain would fight, he began planning for an invasion, codenamed Operation Sea Lion.

If Germany was to launch an invasion, air superiority was vital.

British fighters and bombers could destroy an invasion fleet before ships reached the British shore.

The Luftwaffe had to destroy British airfields and aircraft, or an invasion by sea would not have a chance.

♪ (Kristen) They were going to come by water.

So, obviously, if you've got landing craft and you have a viable air force that is going to attack it.

They weren't going to take that risk.

Air superiority was paramount.

(engine whirring) (foreboding music) (narrator) In July 1940, just three months after Churchill became prime minister, the air war over Britain began.

(explosions) The fight came to be known as the Battle of Britain and would last through to October 1940.

♪ (engine whirring) (sober music) (guns firing) (airplane whistling) (explosion) ♪ In August 1940, at the height of the battle, addressing the House of Commons, Churchill praised all who contributed to the Battle of Britain.

(Churchill) The gratitude of every home in our island, in our empire, goes out to the British airmen.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

(propellers buzzing) ♪ (narrator) Those few in the skies were supported by the many on the ground, the crews who kept the aircraft running, who repaired the damage, the armourers, the Observer Corps, the anti-aircraft and barrage balloon crews, and those who worked tirelessly in factories to manufacture more aircraft.

♪ Churchill was particularly impressed with Lord Beaverbrook, who was minister for air production, oversaw a constant supply of aircraft to the fight.

Beaverbrook boosted output when it was badly needed, producing over 5,000 fighter planes between June and October 1940.

♪ Churchill had a three-decade long association with Beaverbrook, and he thought him a dynamic leader, the kind of man who could inspire the much-needed rapid production of aircraft.

Many did not trust the political loyalty of Beaverbrook, including Churchill's wife, Clementine, who cautioned Winston against him.

But Churchill had faith his old friend would deliver.

♪ (intriguing music) The Battle of Britain helped cement Churchill's standing as leader.

After the defeat of France, Britain had faced the terrifying prospect of invasion.

The Battle of Britain spared the people that fate, and it was Churchill who framed the fight and led them through the threat.

♪ (Kristen) With the Battle of Britain, and with Churchill and his superb propaganda in bringing the people into the battle, they were part of the fight.

They were willing to put up with everything that was happening.

And they knew, too, that Britain was not going to lose.

♪ (Churchill) Few would have believed we could survive, none would have believed that we should today not only feel stronger, but should actually be stronger than we have ever been before.

♪ (tense music) ♪ (airplanes flying overhead) (narrator) But victory in the Battle of Britain did not mean peace or safety for civilians.

♪ A new danger from the air threatened to shatter lives and morale.

(people screaming) In September 1940, a German strategic bombing campaign began over England.

(explosion) ♪ Known as the Blitz, high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices fell relentlessly across Britain.

(bombs whistling) ♪ (Prof. Clapson) London was almost, not completely, but almost continuously bombed from September 1940, through to May 1941.

There were a few nights when the weather and various other adverse conditions meant that the Luftwaffe didn't come.

But broadly speaking, London suffered one of the longest continuous bombing campaigns in the 20th century.

♪ (narrator) Countless numbers were left homeless.

By the end of 1940, 15,000 British civilians had been killed.

♪ (Prof. Clapson) The intention behind mass bombings was to really destroy and degrade the civilian population and the civilian morale.

It was also, of course, to take out manufacturing, production, defense areas, military installations, and so on.

Civilians were not to be deliberately targeted, but, of course, when the whole civilian population's mobilized for war, then civilians will become targets of air raids.

(explosions) (curious music) ♪ (narrator) The morale of Britain could have easily shattered under this torment, but Churchill would not allow it.

His inspiring oratory was his strongest weapon during The Blitz.

(Churchill) We will mete out to the Germans the measure, and more than the measure that they have meted out to us.

You do your work, and we will do our best.

(crowd roaring) ♪ (narrator) But Churchill offered more than words.

He showed he was fearless, or even reckless with his safety.

He remained in London and often made his way to the rooftops to seek a better view during the raid.

(crowd cheering) In the aftermath of the raids, he visited bomb-damaged towns and cities.

He showed empathy.

He walked among the people in the hope it would give them strength.

(Prof. Napier) He was always in the newsreels, and particularly on the radio, which, of course, was a relatively new medium, which brought Churchill and Churchill's voice into people's living rooms.

So for the first time, they could actually listen and hear the nuances of his speech, his emphasis, his pauses, which made him such a great speaker.

They could hear it themselves in the living room, rather than reading about it in a newspaper.

(Churchill) If we are conquered, then the United States will be left single-handed to guard the rights of men.

(narrator) His speeches provided a rallying point, but it was the strength of the people themselves who ensured endurance and upheld the morale of the nation.

♪ (ominous music) ♪ As London endured The Blitz, Britain was carrying out its own aerial bombing campaign against German cities.

Churchill firmly believed Bomber Command provided a path to victory.

It was also one way to attack the heartland of Germany without sending in troops.

(Prof. Napier) Churchill realized fairly early on the air force was the only way that Britain could hit back at Germany.

So, Churchill encouraged the expansion of the air force, and particularly of Bomber Command, to carry the fight to Germany.

That was expanded in September 1941 with the directive to focus on German industries and transportation.

(narrator) The strategic air war continued and escalated as the war progressed.

Soon enough, Germany would be subjected to air raids night and day, and many of its cities set alight.

♪ Aerial dominance over the skies of England kept Britain safe from invasion, but there was another threat from the sea.

(indistinct speaking) (gloomy music) ♪ After France signed the armistice with Germany, the British war cabinet feared the French navy fleet might fall into German hands.

The combined German and French navies would alter the power balance at sea in the Axis' favor.

♪ Churchill ordered that all French vessels in Portsmouth and Plymouth be taken under British control, but French ships in other ports were a different matter.

The strongest group of French warships was anchored at Mers-El-Kébir in French Algeria.

♪ They were still under the control of the French admiralty and Britain delivered them an ultimatum.

The French ships could join the British fleet against Germany, or the ships could sail to North America to be demilitarized.

If none of these options were agreed upon, Britain would destroy the fleet.

But negotiations were complicated by a language barrier, and communications problems between French officers and their commanders in France.

Negotiations were eventually terminated, and the Royal Navy was ordered to attack.

The French fleet at Mers-El-Kébir was destroyed.

(Prof. Toye) And this was obviously a very controversial thing to do.

Went down extremely badly in France, as you would expect.

Churchill gave a speech in the House of Commons.

It's not a speech which contains any memorable phrases.

He didn't deliver it over the radio.

It was a simple, quite unadorned account of the series of decisions which had led up to this particular attack on the French.

(narrator) It was not a decision Churchill had taken lightly, but he could not risk the fourth largest fleet in the world being used by Germany against Britain.

(Prof. Toye) This was, perhaps, a sort of a key changing point in his political fortunes, where, for the first time, the Conservative party received Churchill very warmly.

(tense music) (pensive music) ♪ (narrator) One threat throughout the war that was said to have really frightened Churchill was the threat posed by German U-boats.

(explosion) The Battle of the Atlantic was fought to defend the movement of troops and supplies across the seas.

If Britain could not guarantee supplies to the island, her people would starve.

And if troops could not be transported, Britain's offensive capacity was limited.

(Churchill) Since we last met, the Battle of the Atlantic has been going on unceasingly.

In his attempt to blockade and starve out this island by U-boat and air attack, the enemy continually changes his tactics.

Driven from one beach, he goes to another.

Chased from home waters, driven from the approaches to this island, he proceeds to the other side of the Atlantic.

(explosion) ♪ (narrator) The Battle of the Atlantic ran throughout the war, but it reached a crisis point in the second half of 1940.

After the fall of France, German U-boats could base themselves in French ports, far closer to Allied shipping.

And from September 1940, wolfpacks of U-boats stalked the seas.

♪ (Dr. Brendon) Churchill was really seriously worried about the whole question of the Atlantic convoys.

He thought that Britain might eventually be strangled by the U-boats.

(narrator) For the crews of the Allied merchant ships, the Battle of the Atlantic was terrifying.

If a ship was sunk, it was unlikely the crews would be rescued.

If a convoy or a lone ship stopped to help, it was vulnerable to attack.

Little could be done for survivors who faced a dark fate in the deep Atlantic waters.

(somber music) Churchill spent most of 1940 focused on preparing for a potential invasion on British soil.

When the threat passed, he turned to a strategy to which he had held firm since the First World War, the soft underbelly strategy.

He had won the defensive battle for Britain, but defensive actions did not deliver victories.

Britain needed to take the offensive, and the Middle East and North African theatres provided an opportunity to do so.

♪ As a strategist, Churchill was a man with many ideas.

More than one observer, including US President Franklin Roosevelt, noted that not all of them were good.

(Dr. Brendon) He saw himself as a military leader, and he took a very, very close interest in strategy.

He was not always right, in fact, often he was wrong in the strategies that he advocated.

But the great thing about Churchill, unlike Hitler, he never overrode his military advisors.

He would drive them nearly to distraction by pushing his own particular schemes, often misplaced schemes, but he never overrode them.

In the end, he never went against them.

♪ What made him a great military leader was not his success as a strategist, but his success as a personality.

He embodied the kind of ancient will, the ancient courage, the ancient traditions of Britain.

(cheering) (foreboding music) ♪ (tank clicking) ♪ (narrator) Churchill took a particularly strong interest in the Allied Middle East campaign.

(Prof. Napier) In the early stages of the war, it was the only theatre where the commonwealth troops were actually fighting German troops anywhere in the war.

The Middle East was also an important communications hub.

There was the Suez Canal, which gave a valuable link to the Far East.

And, of course, Britain needed oil for its warships, and for its industry, and for its own war machine.

And suddenly, they were threatened by first, the Italians, and then the Germans.

(tense music) (cheering) (narrator) Italy had joined the war against Britain and France on the 10th of June 1940.

Despite Italy having vastly greater numbers in the field, the initial Allied campaign in the Middle East and North Africa was highly successful.

From 1939, a garrison of British troops had guarded the Suez Canal.

In September 1940, the Italians moved across the Western Desert, creating fortified positions about 80 kilometers into their advance.

♪ The Allied response, in December 1940, was decisive and effective.

The Italian fortified positions were overrun in a matter of days, and Italian forces retreated to Bardia.

♪ In early January 1941, British commonwealth troops successfully attacked the Italian stronghold in the Libyan town of Bardia and captured tens of thousands of prisoners, more than 400 artillery pieces, and over 100 tanks.

♪ (intriguing music) ♪ It was a morale-boosting victory for Britain and for Churchill, who reported the success in the House of Commons.

(Prof. Napier) It was a theatre which Churchill took a great interest in, despite having acknowledged and agreed with his chiefs of staff early in the war that first priority had to be Britain.

Churchill, in reinforcing the Middle East, was going against his own chiefs of staff and what, to them, was the correct strategy.

♪ (tense music) (narrator) But by mid-year 1941, German forces, led by "The Desert Fox," General Erwin Rommel, had arrived in North Africa.

The tide of the battle in North Africa turned against the Allies, and an unhappy stalemate settled around Tobruk in Libya, lasting until December.

♪ (pensive music) ♪ The battles fought in the Middle East and North Africa were important, but victory in that theatre would not win the war.

Churchill knew he needed powerful friends, and he spent a good deal of 1940 and 1941 courting Roosevelt and the United States.

One of the ways he did this was through his speeches.

(Churchill) The end may be far off.

We cannot tell.

That depends upon the enemy.

How long he will resist, we cannot tell.

(narrator) Churchill's commitment to fight 'till the end, and beyond, through the Royal Navy was admired by some in the United States.

Eleanor Roosevelt called Churchill's words a tonic for those in Britain and the United States.

♪ (Prof. Toye) Particularly, if we think about the fight on the beaches speech, Churchill having said we will fight on 'till the end, he goes on to say that if we were defeated in these isles, which not for one moment do I believe, that we would continue the fight across the seas.

In other words, the British fleet would move to Canada and to other places in order to continue the struggle.

And that in particular, from the American point of view, that's the crucial bit.

♪ (narrator) But many in the United States still held strong isolationist views.

This was a European war, and they did not want to get embroiled in the conflict.

Churchill's calls across the sea to the new world did not sit easily among the isolationists.

(people murmuring) (Prof. Toye) And what they're saying is, they're not saying that Churchill is a bad speaker.

What they're saying is that Churchill is somebody who represents Britain and the British Empire, and he's doing a very effective job on behalf of the British Empire, but that doesn't mean that we, the Americans, have to fall in behind him and do things by allying ourselves with the British Empire, that are not in our interest.

♪ (narrator) Roosevelt and Churchill had been corresponding since the beginning of the war.

The friendly banter in their letters went a long way in building relations between the two.

(Dr. Woolner) Churchill and Roosevelt had great fun.

You can see it in their correspondence.

I mean, their relationship was very warm and cordial throughout the war, but particularly in the first couple of years.

When Roosevelt first started writing to Churchill, he called him "Dear Naval Person," 'cause he was First Lord of the Admiralty.

And then when Churchill became prime minster, he signed his letters, "Former Naval Person."

(passionate music) (narrator) Churchill pressed Roosevelt for help in the form of material.

In September 1940, the Roosevelt administration offered the destroyers- for-bases exchange.

(Roosevelt) We have come to realize that the greatest attack that has ever been launched against freedom of the individual is nearer the Americas than ever before.

♪ (narrator) The United States would provide 50 naval destroyers in exchange for 99-year leases on bases in British territories in Newfoundland, the British West Indies, and Bermuda.

♪ The deal also included a promise that if Britain was forced to surrender, they would dispatch the Royal Navy to North America.

This was a concession Roosevelt could make without going to Congress.

He was sympathetic to the dire position Britain faced.

(Roosevelt) ...give you the strength to regain and maintain a free world.

We shall send you, in ever-increasing numbers, ships, planes, tanks, guns.

That is our purpose and our pledge.

(applause) ♪ (Dr. Woolner) After the fall of France, of course, Britain is carrying on the war alone, and by December, they were broke.

They had no more resources to purchase American war material, which came as a real shock to Roosevelt.

This is also the period of the London Blitz.

So, on the newsreels and in newspapers, you have these photographs of the British firemen with these huge hoses trying to put out these fires at night as London is bombed.

And Roosevelt gave this remarkable press conference, where he said if your, if your neighbor's house is on fire, and he comes over and wants to borrow a garden hose, you're not gonna say, "Well, you gotta pay for it."

You're gonna give him the hose.

(fretful music) ♪ (narrator) In early 1941, US Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act.

It now allowed the president to provide aid to countries whose defense was vital to the United States.

♪ (Roosevelt) People of Europe who are defending themselves, do not ask us to do their fighting.

They ask us for the implements of war, the planes, the tanks, the guns, freighters, which will enable them to fight for their liberty and our security.

(narrator) Securing the support of the United States was important for Britain.

But in 1941, it seemed increasingly likely that the outcome of the war against Germany would be decided on the Eastern front.

(plane buzzing) (grim music) ♪ The war on the Eastern front was war on a massive scale.

♪ In June 1941, the German invasion took place on a front nearly 3,000 kilometers long.

♪ The Germans attacked the Soviet Union with 150 divisions, 3,000 tanks, 2,500 aircraft, 7,000 pieces of artillery, and some three million men.

Thirty divisions of Finnish, Romanian, and other Axis troops further bolstered the invasion force.

♪ In the initial stages of the invasion, the Germans were successful.

Blitzkrieg again proved powerful.

The Panzer groups cut through Russian defenses and traveled 800 kilometers in three weeks.

By July 1941, hundreds of thousands of Russian troops had been captured.

For the Soviets, the situation was becoming catastrophic.

By August, German tanks were closing in on Moscow.

(Dr. Stahel) In early September 1941, Stalin writes to Churchill and asks for two things.

He's asking for military support and equipment, but he's also asking Churchill if he can launch a second front, already in 1941, somewhere on the continent.

And to the first request, Churchill replies that he will attempt to meet Stalin's demands.

He will try and send 400 planes and 500 tanks a month.

And this will also lead to the extension of lend-lease supplies under the first protocol that will attempt, through the United States and Great Britain, to sustain the Red Army.

(announcer) The great fighting qualities of the Soviets' enormous man power must be sustained by a constant supply of weapons, however far the Germans penetrate.

(tense music) ♪ (narrator) This was a remarkable show of support from Churchill, especially considering his long-held antipathy toward communism.

(Dr. Stahel) So, there's no question of a willingness on behalf of the Western powers to support the Red Army.

And this is significant when one considers the starting point, the animosity, the suspicion, the anti-communism of the West.

The support of Stalin is genuine and real, to the detriment sometimes of British forces in North Africa.

But there is a recognition of the numbers, the sheer numbers of German forces being deployed in the East, and the fact that the Red Army is doing the bulk of the fighting.

(Churchill) Whatever our sufferings, whatever our toils, we will continue hand in hand like comrades and brothers until every vestige of the Nazi regime has been beaten into the ground.

♪ (morose music) ♪ (narrator) Churchill recognized the scale of the contribution being made by the Soviet Union.

He knew he needed Stalin as an ally, but he also knew Britain did not have the manpower or resources to sustain the second front Stalin wanted.

(Dr. Stahel) To the other request of a second front, Churchill will respond to Stalin by saying, actions leading to fiascoes are of no help to anyone but Hitler.

And I think this is a hallmark of the British response because there's simply a recognition of the logistics involved.

And even if you can get onto the continent, how do you sustain them?

(narrator) Despite pressure from Stalin and the United States, over the course of the war, Churchill held firm on that view.

(explosion) September delivered the Soviet Union more defeats.

(gun firing) Kyiv fell to Axis forces.

Leningrad, now the city of Saint Petersburg, was cut off.

♪ The siege of Leningrad would last 872 days and plunge the city into starvation.

♪ (hopeful music) While the Soviet Union battled the main German force, in August 1941, a secret meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt was planned off the coast of Newfoundland.

♪ On the morning of the 9th of August, Churchill stood in nervous anticipation aboard the HMS Prince of Wales.

♪ He needed the meeting to go well.

He needed Roosevelt's approval, and he needed the United States.

♪ (Dr. Brendon) He treated Roosevelt with enormous deference and respect.

He said no man ever sought to please his mistress as much as I sought to please Franklin Roosevelt.

And he'd started pretty early, he'd started in 1939 writing personal letters to Roosevelt 'cause he realized that Roosevelt was key, really, in a way that Chamberlain didn't.

He despised Roosevelt and thought that the Americans were going to give us nothing but words.

Churchill saw that only the great Arsenal of Democracy was going to save the British.

(announcer) Mr. Churchill leaves to go aboard the United States cruiser, Augusta, in which Mr. Roosevelt, supposed to be on a fishing trip on his yacht, Potomac, has come to the appointed place.

(narrator) The meeting did not secure a commitment from the United States to enter the war.

It had not delivered an alliance, but it illustrated a show of support, a shared vision for a democratic future after the war.

And for Churchill, it was an important opportunity to further cement his bond with Roosevelt.

♪ (water spraying) (narrator) On August 15th, 1941, on his return voyage to the United Kingdom, out in the Atlantic, Churchill's party came across a British convoy of more than 70 ships.

The HMS Prince of Wales sped through at 22 knots, but the crews recognized the nine-flag hoist, which spelled out Churchill, and they waved and cheered as his ship passed.

An enthused Churchill stood on the bridge cheering and giving the sign "V" for victory.

He was so thrilled by the encounter, he had the ship turn around and pass by a second time.

♪ (menacing music) ♪ As the Allies continued the struggle against Germany, another serious threat had been rising in the Asia Pacific.

♪ Japan was looking to expand its empire.

♪ (Dr. Woolner) There's no question that both Churchill and Roosevelt understood that something was up.

They could see troop movements toward the Malay Peninsula.

They really expected Malaya to be attacked.

Roosevelt was even very careful and cautious about avoiding some kind of confrontation that would allow the Japanese to say, "Well, you fired on us first."

The British were very worried.

They went to Roosevelt and said, "Look, if they attack the British Empire and Asia, are you gonna come into the war with us?"

They were desperate to get the Americans into the war.

(narrator) In November 1941, when Churchill delivered his address at the Mansion House, it was clear he was concerned about a potential Japanese attack.

He declared himself a sentimental well-wisher of Japan, an admirer of her many gifts and qualities.

A conflict between Japan and the English-speaking world was something he would view with keen sorrow.

♪ On the 7th of December, 1941, that sorrow was realized.

Japan attacked Peal Harbor.

Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was the headquarters for the US Navy Pacific fleet.

Japan's attack killed thousands and severely depleted the ships available to the US Navy.

(Roosevelt) December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.

(narrator) The war became a global conflict.

(planes humming) (anxious music) Japan's attack and Germany's declaration of war on the United States a few days later, finally brought the US into the war.

Churchill would now have guaranteed support from the powerful ally he had been courting for so long.

(Dr. Brendon) When the news of Pearl Harbor came through, he said he went to bed that evening and he slept the sleep of the just and the saved because he knew that America coming into the war in that way would tip the balance completely against Nazi Germany.

(narrator) In 1940 and 1941, Churchill used all of his persuasive abilities to keep Britain in the fight and to secure assistance from a powerful friend, and he compromised his principles to accept Stalin and the Soviet Union as allies in the fight against Germany.

But with the entry of Japan, the war had changed.

Japan had imperialist ambitions of its own, ambitions which were now directed at British and US interests in Asia.

The power of the United States, now an Ally in the war, was on the rise.

♪ And the Soviet Union had plans of its own.

New empires were rising, friend and foe.

And the British Empire, which Churchill held so dear, would never be the same again.

♪ (lively music) ♪ (energetic music)