The Day When... - Episode Guide

On 28th May 1940, while the Wehrmacht crushed the allied armies in France, British officials were preparing to deal with Adolf Hitler. They even suggested a mediation from Mussolini. A lone voice in the war cabinet, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, thanks to clever politicking, finally convinced his collaborators to fight. Without him, the English government would have dealt with Germany very differently.

On 16th June 1940, Paris fell to the Nazis, and the German conquest of France was almost complete. In Bordeaux, an almost stranger Under-Secretary of State for War decided to secede and to rebel openly against the policy adopted by French Prime Minister Henri Petain, who was preparing to ask for an armistice. The following day, this Under-Secretary flew to England. This episode tells the story of how a provisional general in a subordinate function became De Gaulle, leader of Free France, without whom the country would have ended the war in the camp of the vanquished.

On 7 December 1941, after Japanese pilots sunk a large part of the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt launched the United States into the war. However, rather than focus the main efforts on Japan he instead directs it against Germany. Elected to bring peace to the country, Roosevelt, without much support, did everything to provoke the Japanese and brought America into the war. Without him, and the US Armed Forces, Germany would probably have won World War II.

Hitler's downfall began well before the official end of the war in 1945. It was exactly on 22nd June 1941, when Hitler launched the largest military offensive in history against the Soviet Union: Operation Barbarossa. By opening this eastern front, the Führer, blinded by his firepower, signed his own death sentence. This episode relates, through archives and re-enacted scenes from historical documents, this fateful day. Why did Hitler open a second front after always saying he wouldn't? Why did he suddenly attack the Soviet Union, which did not want to be an obstacle to its enterprises on the west and south fronts? And, why did Stalin foresee the attack?

In February 1945, it was known that Nazi Germany had lost the war. But the real winner remained uncertain. In Yalta, Americans, British and the Soviets competed for the domination of Europe. Stalin was outnumbered by his western counterparts, but thanks to his political manoeuvres, cunning and skill, Stalin tipped the scales in his favour. The final episode tells how Stalin, despite the opposition of Churchill and Roosevelt, became the master of a large part of Europe.