WINSTON CHURCHILL: THE VALIANT YEARS

[Music] so so wow [Music] [Applause] november 1943 tehran persia [Music] german paratroops have been dropped near the city their assignment assassination [Music] at the russian embassy a very special guest and his host [Music] at the british embassy next door [Music] this meeting probably represented the greatest concentration of worldly power in the history of mankind for security reasons the president of the prime minister have pressed for a desert meeting place but not for the first time stalin says no he wants terror this is a momentous appointment with history the first meeting of the big three the first summit tehran is the last stop on a journey churchill had stopped off at malden to salute the brave people of the island in cairo he met with roosevelt and general issimo and madam chiang kai-shek from cairo churchill and roosevelt travel on to their rendezvous with stalin there is relief all around when the big three are safely inside their strongly defended compounds and the german assassins who would come to kill them are rounded up the conference represented some 12 to 1400 millions of the human race who depended upon our reaching right conclusions together we controlled practically all the naval and three-quarters of all the air forces in the world and could direct armies of nearly 20 millions of men engaged in the most terrible of wars that had yet occurred in human history the supreme issue at tehran is the second front in europe for months stalin has been demanding this and not only stalin not only in russia but in england the second front has become a political issue [Music] war is war but not folly and it would be folly to invite a disaster which would help nobody the suspicious stalin has convinced himself that there will never be a second front roosevelt's bodyguard mike riley sees proof of it the last night of the tehran conference uh stalin gave a tremendous banquet i notice the prime minister and stalin in a very animated conversation towards the end of the banquet stalin got up from his chair and walked out of the room and churchill actually there's no other way to put it precede him and then the uh uh in an outer room backed him into a corner and says marshall i want to go up to visit your front and stalin coley turned around and said mr prime minister when you have a front then you may come and visit mine at tehran churchill and roosevelt break the good news that the great invasion of france will positively take place early the following summer 1944 the tehran conference concludes on a note of accord the common understanding which we have reached guarantees that victory will be ours we shall seek the cooperation and the active participation of all nations whose peoples are dedicated as are our own peoples to the elimination of tyranny and slavery oppression and intolerance we came here with hope and determination we leave here friends in fact in spirit and in purpose from tehran churchill and roosevelt fly to cairo churchill takes the president on a trip a must for tourists in egypt i could not bear his leaving without seeing the sphinx [Music] we examined this wonder of the world from every angle roosevelt and i gazed at her for some minutes in silence as the evening shadows fell russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma churchill moves on to carthage allied military headquarters for the mediterranean area two thousand years ago headquarters of the great hannibal suddenly a new crisis churchill has pneumonia so here i was at this pregnant moment on the broad of my back amid the ruins of ancient carthage fever flickered in and out i had not realized how much i had been weakened by my illness [Music] churchill's boundless energy comes to his aid the doctor insists on a short convalescence he moves on to a lovely oasis i saw in my beloved marrakesh a haven where i could regain my strength i was utterly tired [Music] the invasion forces are building but they are not yet of sufficient strength to undertake an assault against hitler's fortress in the west i pondered what best could be done to take the weight off the russians [Music] while the allies build strength the russians bear the brunt of the war on the eastern front [Music] [Music] churchill's solution is to stab harder in italy the soft underbelly this will draw the reserved german divisions from france and it will be a springboard to central europe as general mark clark remembers i'll never forget mr churchill whom we met with often at checkers and at 10 downing street standing up at a map of the mediterranean and pointing to the soft belly of the mediterranean as he called it it later became my job to slit that soft underbelly and i assure you that i found it instead of being soft to be a tough old gut the italian campaign starts well troops pour into naples to reinforce the allied army in november comes a dramatic change sunny italy puts on its winter coat the advance bogs down the soft underbelly grows a hard shell in the mountain sectors near venafro the most mechanized army in all of history is dependent for all supplies on mule we must continue to engage the enemy we must not lose for a moment the sense of urgency in crisis which must continue to drive us even though we are in the fifth year of the war we must go forward with unrelenting and unwarying efforts to every living minute that is granted to us [Music] ahead lies casino in italy the irresistible force seems to have met the immovable object at a place whose name is to burn its way into the tragic inventory of war casino monte cassino and its world-famous monastery founded by saint benedict hundreds of years before several times in its long history benedict's monastery has known destruction now it is to die once again [Music] so [Music] for sebastian of christianity in 1944 the storm center of the bitterest fighting on the italian front the height on which the monastery stood surveyed the junctions of the rivers rapido and leery and was the pivot of the whole german defense in these rocky mountains a great fortified system had been created with lavish use of concrete and steel [Music] field marshall kesselring's orders are clear [Music] the gustav line must be held at all costs your fuhrer expects the bitterest struggle for every yard from their observation posts on the heights the enemy could erect their guns on all movement in the valley below where the mountains end river and flood take over this is the gustav line the plan is to beat the gustav line by out flanking it first an offensive at casino then the trump card a landing behind the german line 40 minutes from rome a pleasant beach where romans like to spend their sunday one sunday morning in january 1944 the beach is exceptionally crowded but not with bathers [Music] because of mr churchill's keen interest in italy it was sort of his baby he came to see me on many occasions and on one of them began to talk about another amphibious landing at anzio near rome he thought we should go in in a hurry with perhaps two divisions having been through salerno i thought we needed more strength at anzio but he prevailed and we went in with the two divisions one british and one american and we stayed there it was with temps but i trust suppressed excitement that i awaited the outcome of this considerable stroke the prime minister sends this message i am very glad you are picking out claims rather than digging in beachheads [Applause] but now came disaster and the ruin of the prime purpose of the enterprise [Music] no general attempt to advance was made [Music] kessel ring reacts quickly seeing that the allies do not advance he brings new divisions to anzio from the north and masses them for a counter-offensive churchill is suspicious as always that his generals are being too cautious let me know the number of vehicles landed at anzio by the 7th and 14th days how many of our men are driving or looking after 18 000 vehicles in this narrow space we must have a great superiority of chauffeurs i'm shocked that the enemy have more infantry than we in the crowd was pipe major row of the scots guards i was a member of the 24th gaz brigade who along with the third american rangers were the initial assault troops for the angel beach head and this i'd like to say as a british soldier that i have never found a finer comet in arms and an action as an ranger at times the forward posts of the two sides are only yards apart there they remain [Music] uh well the battle rages at anzio at casino an agonizing decision is made the destruction of the abbey [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] we could not break the main front at casino and the germans had equally failed to drive us into the sea at anzio [Music] the fate of italy is indeed terrible here is this beautiful country suffering the worst horrors of war with the hideous prospect of the red-hot rake of the battle line being drawn from sea to sea right up the whole length of the peninsula [Music] we are all bound in solemn compact to fall upon and smite the hun with all the strength that is in us [Music] [Applause] [Music] the assistance of the british broadcasting corporation in the preparation of this series you