By June 23rd 1940, Hitler's dream of mastery in Europe had come true as he triumphantly took Paris after only ten months at war, and then launched his ultimate plan for an Eastern Front. Opposed by the twin forces of the invincible Russian winter and the indomitable Russian soldier, the German army froze and starved outside Moscow. Encouraged by Japan's entry into the war, Hitler's hopes lay in a speedy spring offensive, but weakened elsewhere by the disastrous Battle of the Atlantic, defeats in North Africa, the British bombing offensive, and certain war with the US, his 6th army was crushed and forced to retreat from the Red Army battalions. His resolve unshaken, Hitler bows to the need to re-arm, and in 1943 German teeth are clenched as the struggle begins to re-establish supremacy by any means. Germany's situation worsens. With four armies lost at Stalingrad, the Africa Korps defeated and the submarines neutralised by radar, Germany's morale waivers. By 1944 much ground is lost, and the fight is against time as Hitler faces losing the Ukraine, crippling air raids on Berlin, and an acute shortage of troops. Not even the last desperate deployment of the terrifying flying bombs can turn the tide. With the 1944 allied invasion, the defeat of Rommel's troops, the relentless Soviet military machine, and the French winter counter-offensive leading to the Battle of the Bulge, the crisis deepened. Hitler was ill, threatened with assassination by his own generals, and the fuel and ammunition were running out in the face of the advancing allied forces closing in on a stricken Berlin, making it only a matter of time before Hitler's war would be over. This video depicts Hitler's war using rare archive colour footage - including material shot by Eva Braun at the Berghof - much of which has been unavailable in the West since World War Two.
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