WORLD WAR II THE PRICE OF EMPIRE

http://www.wildbear.tv/work/world-war-ii-the-price-of-empire/

Un documentar excepional despre Al Doilea Rzboi Mondial, realizat n 2015 de

Wildbear Entertainment (13 ep x 50 min).
Prin intermediul resurselor inegalabile ale uneia dintre cele mai importante arhive de
film din lume, vom vedea refacerea complet a lumii n timpul anilor de rzboi. Miile de ore
de reportaje captivante despre conflict, frontul intern i liderii politici arat evenimentele care
au dus la cderea puterilor tradiionale ale lumii. Aceast arhiv de amploare este adus la
via prin mrturii nregistrate exclusiv pentru aceast serie ale martorilor oculari, veterani
din Polonia, Rusia, India i Anglia care au luat parte la conflict. Povetile lor sunt ilustrate,
totodat, de animaiile care explic aciunea la nivel tactic i la nivel global.

Episode One A Map of the World

In 1.900 the map of the world was keyed to the colours of great empires various
nations had established dominance on every continent and French grey, British red, Belgian
green, along with colours for Portugal, the Netherlands and others showed how small
European countries held sway over distant dominions in Asia, India, Oceania, Africa and the
Americas.
Halfway through the Twentieth Century, with as many as 100 million people killed in
war, the map was different. The countries of Asia and Africa were asserting their right to self-
determination, India was independent, revolution had united China behind a new government.
Traditional empires were in retreat, other ancient empires Habsburg, Ottoman, Romanov,
Hohenzollern had vanished. New empires were on the rise. By the end of the century there
would be no colonies left in Africa or Asia, and China would be poised to become the most
powerful economy of the Twenty-First Century.
This is a tale of two wars, fought at the same time, roughly on opposite sides of the
same planet and often, wrongly, labeled as though a single war the Second World War. Two
wars that remade the political map of the world the Wars of East (The War of Resistance
Against Japan) and West.
In many respects these two wars arose from the unresolved issues of a third. Between
1914 and 1918 two armed alliances had fought each other to a virtual standstill. Losses had
been enormous. That was the First World War.
In September 1939, just twenty years after the peace treaties had been signed, war
consumed the world again. The final aggressive action of Hitlers Germany, the invasion of
Poland, was a step too far for even the appeasing powers and they took up arms. This was the
War of the West.
But this was not the start of the Second World War. It was the start of a continental war
that pitched Allies against Axis, but on the other side of the world the fight against Japanese
expansion had been raging for several years. This was the War of the East.
 These were the two wars that would, by 1945, lay-out a new world order.
That is our story, told in 13 episodes through the unparalleled resources of one of the worlds
great film archives, the hundreds of hours of newsreel coverage of war, conflict, home front
and political leaders captured by Movietone News.
It is the story of how a world, centuries in the making, was completely remade in a
couple of decades and, to help us understand it, we interview eminent political and military
experts.
It is the story of how great powers fell from greatness as others rose to make the
modern world of those that could afford, and those that could not afford, The Price of
Empire.

Episode Two A Phony War

The European story continues with the invasion of Poland and the irresistible casus
belli that forced even the most resistant of the powers into a declaration of war. The
appeasing Prime Minister (Chamberlain) falls to be replaced by Winston Churchill. Now
hardly remembered military action and early naval encounters characterize a war that, in the
West, resembles skirmishing in the East Japan has suffered major reverses with Chinese
victories at Changsha and Guangxi.

Episode Three Blitzkrieg

In 1940 the Japanese turns back a Chinese counter-offensive at the same time, war
simply explodes across Western Europe. Blitzkrieg the German invasion of France. The
Germans learned from the stalemate of the Western Front, they invested in mobile amour,
airborne troops, airpower on the battlefield and their assault is irresistible. France falls, the
British Army is evacuated from Dunkirk and Britain stands alone, awaiting invasion.
Germany does not have the naval power to invade, the Royal Navy is still the strongest
maritime force.

Episode Four Stalemate

Germany seeks to neutralize British strength from the air, the Battle of France is over
Churchill broadcasts, the Battle of Britain has begun. It is a victory for the Allies, the only
one with almost the whole of the European continent now under Nazi control and Germany,
moving to reinforce the Italians, beginning to turn the tide in favour of the Axis in North
Africa where Rommel arrives and drives the Allies back. In China Imperial Japanese forces
control most of the eastern coastal area but suffer heavy casualties.

Episode Five Blitzkrieg

Allied forces are destroyed in Crete, the Battle of Britain has repelled the Luftwaffe but
the bombing campaign (the blitz) has targeted British cities Then, on 22nd June 1941, the
worlds attention turns to Eastern Europe where Hitler unleashes the greatest military
operation the world has ever seen. Operation Barbarossa four million soldiers, 600,000
vehicles, 750,000 horses on an almost 3,000 kilometers front... the invasion of Russia.
Episode Six A Date in Infamy
The Germans advance deep into Russia, they reach the gates of Moscow. And then the
snow comes. The U Boat campaign is causing major disruption to shipping in the Atlantic.
Tobruk is besieged. Japanese troops reveal their countrys true expansionist plans by
occupying Southern Vietnam and Cambodia (French Indo-China) having already occupied
the northern region (Laos). But the day that changed the war came at the end of the year, on
December 7th. President Roosevelt called in a day of infamy Japanese carrier-born
aircraft attack the American Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbour.

Episode Seven Turning Point

Japans escalation of the War in the East is devastatingly effective Malaya and
Singapore fall and the myth of European superiority, on which centuries of Empire have been
constructed, comes crashing down. But despite Japans success it is possible to see, from the
start, the inevitability of her defeat she has roused the might of the United States and the
battles of Midway and the Coral Sea foretell the inevitable outcome. On land it is already
clear that Japan is far from invincible with the Chinese victory at Changsha but such events
are little known outside of the War in the East.

Episode Eight The End of the Beginning

The war moves inexorably in favour of the Allies. A new commander, Montgomery, at
last turns the tables on the Afrika Corps at El Alamein it was said that before El Alamein the
allies had not won a battle, after it they did not lose one. The Japanese are checked and
defeated at Guadalcanal in Solomon Islands and a major offensive they mount in China is
successfully repelled in Hubei and Changde. Perhaps most tellingly, in the bloodiest theatre
of all the Germans are checked outside Stalingrad.

Episode Nine The Beginning of the End

Episode Ten Overlord
Episode Eleven Unconditional Surrender
Episode Twelve A Thousand Suns
Episode Thirteen A New Map of the World