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this war, it was a total war because the whole economies in those countries who were involved

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in the war, they were focused on winning the war. So they used all resources available to win the

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war. Actually, more than 100 soldiers were fighting in this war. And finally, the last one,

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also this war, it was an extremely merciless war. Why? Because it was the first time in history when

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civilians suffered from bombing, deportations, and genocide. And I was giving you some examples.

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These are images of the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, and the famous bombers,

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which were called Henkel. They were responsible for bombing some British cities,

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such as Coventry. They destroyed almost completely the city center of Coventry. That's why this war,

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I was saying that it was a cutthroat war, una guerra devastadora, desgarradora, because

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they didn't respect civilians. And I was saying everybody, the British, the Yemen,

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and also the United States, we will see that.

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This is another example during the blitz, during the Yemen bombing of some cities in the UK.

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For example, I was saying about the example of London. Only in London, 20,000 people died due to

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the blitz when the Yemenis bombed with their Yemen Air Force the city of London. But also,

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the British were responsible because at the end of the war, they bombed several Yemen cities.

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This is the example of Dresden. The picture was taken from the cathedral. We can see

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the first plane, the gargoyles, and the city of Dresden was completely destroyed

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by the British. It was a pile of rubble due to the bombings from the British.

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And also, we need to remember that at the beginning of the Barbarossa operation,

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when Hitler invaded the territory of the Soviet Union in June 1941, it was the moment of the

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final solution. I mean, when Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, had the idea to put an end to

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the Jewish community in the East, that's why it was called the final solution. Because while they

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were fighting in Russia at the same time, they started an operation of ethnic cleansing,

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to remove the Jewish communities from the East. There are only examples to understand

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the brutality of this war and the final one. We need to remember the concentration camps in the

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East. This is an image of the gas chamber in Auschwitz. In this gas chamber, only in this one,

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one million people died. We need to remember Auschwitz. It was shocking when I was there.

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I remember when I went to Poland, I took a bus in Cracow, Cracovia, because the

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concentration camp is close to the city of Cracow. Really beautiful, by the way.

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I took the bus in the city of Cracow and I remember when I went there and the atmosphere,

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the environment in the bus was normal. It was like going on an excursion. But when we saw the

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reality of the concentration camp, because even now it's possible to see the gas chamber, I remember

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that I went there inside of this gas chamber. On our way back in the bus, the atmosphere changed

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completely. I remember that I was sitting down close to a Serbian girl and she was completely

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crying all the way back from the concentration camp to Cracow. It was shocking to go there.

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We need to remember, if you are close to the concentration camp, I strongly recommend

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to go there because it's a shocking, shocking experience, as I said before.

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Those were only examples of this brutality because we need to remember that during the

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Second World War, almost 60 million people died. Not only soldiers, but also civilians.

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Remember that during the First World War, we're around 15, 20 million. We don't have an exact

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figure. Also, we don't have an exact figure during the Second World War, but it's estimated around

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60 million people died in this brutal war. Now we are going to explain, today we are going to

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explain the first stage of this war. We are going to explain the victories of the Axis powers.

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I mean, Germany and Italy, but above all Germany. We are going to explain the first stage from 1931

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to 1941. Do we have a question up to here? Is everything clear so far?

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Okay. We are going to explain the first stage in this war. I will say that Hitler and also

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the German forces won on the first stage in this war due to two different reasons.

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The first one was due to the German tactic because remember they invaded Poland on the

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1st of September in 1931. They were successful in Poland due to two different reasons. Reason

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one. Reason one was due to the German tactic because they used the Blitzkrieg. In Spanish,

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it's called La Guerra Relámpago. It means, as you can see here in the diagram, that they used

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the German planes and the German tanks together in order to defeat their enemies.

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And they used this tactic in Poland. This tactic was very convenient for Poland because we need

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to remember the geography of Poland. The relief in Poland is very flat and the Germans could use

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the tanks and the airplanes without any problem. They could use the German air force, the Luftwaffe,

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without any problem. That's why

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this campaign was really successful. Enrique, ask me.

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Sorry, I can't hear.

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Now, why was it called La Guerra Relámpago or the Blitzkrieg?

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It was a really good question. It was called La Guerra Relámpago or Blitzkrieg

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because they might use their planes and their tanks very, very fast, Enrique,

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in order to defeat their enemies. Actually, we need to remember that the German planes

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were connected by radio with the tanks. The tanks and the planes were connected by radio

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and that's why they could advance faster than the enemies. That's why it was called La Guerra

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Relámpago or the Blitzkrieg. Okay, Enrique. So, they used the Blitzkrieg in two different waves,

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oleadas. They used the Blitzkrieg in two different waves. In the first attack, the Germans

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used the planes and the tanks. In the second attack, if there were some

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enemies and some soldiers who remained, the Germans used the second wave of soldiers,

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the traditional infantry, to wipe out their enemies. So, the first wave was

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basically based on using the tanks and the planes to destroy the enemy. If some enemies remain,

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they used the second wave. They used the traditional infantry, the infantry, normal

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soldiers, to wipe out their enemies. So, the traditional soldiers were called the Wehrmacht.

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It was the traditional army group in Germany. The Germans deployed, pay attention to this figure,

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1.5 million soldiers to defeat the Polish forces in Poland.

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So, as I said before, I will say that the first reason about the successful German campaign in

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Poland was the Blitzkrieg. They used that due to the particular relief in Poland. Remember this,

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that the relief in Poland is very flat, like in Germany. So, basically, they could move

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very, very fast, their planes and tanks, to defeat the Polish forces.

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But the second reason was the Soviet-German treaty that we explained yesterday.

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Why? Because when Hitler signed a treaty with Stalin,

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Hitler knew that he could move their forces over Poland

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because Stalin would help him to conquer Poland. Actually, Hitler invaded Poland on the 1st of

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September. Here we have the German campaign. They launched two different attacks, one from the south,

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another from the north. The Polish forces retreated to the city of Warsaw. They built

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fortresses in the city of Warsaw. But the Germans bombed the city. They destroyed completely the

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city. Actually, now the city of Warsaw that we know was built after the Second World War.

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So, the city was completely destroyed by the Germans. Once Hitler controlled this part of Poland

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in the west, Stalin invaded the other part

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in the east on the 17th of September. So, basically, they complied with what they

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signed in the treaty. Both countries controlled Poland.

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Okay. So, it was the second reason. I will say that the other important reason was the Russian

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neutrality due to the pact, due to the non-aggression pact between Germany and the

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Soviet Union. Due to this pact, you need to write that they managed to conquer Poland

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in only three weeks. In only three weeks, they managed to conquer Poland.

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Here we have other examples. Remember that the Germans invaded Poland on the 1st of September.

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They controlled their part on the 17th of September. At the end of the month,

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at the end of the month, also the Soviet Union controlled completely its part.

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Why? Because Poland, as I said before, was an open territory due to its particular relief.

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Due to the Blitzkrieg, both countries controlled their part, I will say, from the 17th of

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September onwards. Okay. You don't need to explain all of this because, remember, you have

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to explain the conceptual map, but this is only more information to understand the situation in

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war at that moment. So, class, what happened next? Shall I carry on or do you have questions?

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No? No? Okay, I'm going to carry on. So, what happened next? When Hitler invaded Poland and

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he controlled Poland, he thought that he might invade the other part, the part of Western Europe

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very, very quickly. You know that the campaign in Poland took place in September and Hitler

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thought in November and also in December in 1931 that he might move their troops very, very quickly

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to the West. But the general said that it wasn't possible because it's not very clever to invade

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a country during the winter due to the weather conditions. So, they had to wait. Both armies,

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the Allies and the Axis, had to wait. They must wait up to the spring in 1940. Okay.

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They didn't move from November 1939 up to the spring in 1940. So, what happened in 1940?

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In 1940, it was the moment during the spring that the weather was better than before and Hitler

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moved their troops. Hitler first conquered Denmark and from Denmark he invaded Norway.

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Why did Hitler invade Norway? Because Norway in the Baltic countries was key to protect Sweden

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because Hitler needed Sweden to take raw materials and other resources from Sweden,

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above all steel, iron. So, it was key for the German forces and that's why Hitler invaded Poland.

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It was true that there was stiff resistance in Norway.

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And a stiff resistance means a very hard resistance in Norway. Actually, Norway received

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help from the British and from the French. But finally, the British and the French realized that

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they couldn't defend Norway and Hitler conquered Norway in April 1940. The British and the French

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decided to keep their forces to defend Western Europe instead of giving their forces completely

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to Norway. So, what happened next? All of this happened in April 1940.

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So, when Hitler conquered Norway, imagine the situation. He was emboldened and valentonado

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because he conquered Norway and he might get the resources from Sweden to carry on fighting war.

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And that's why in the month of May in 1940, Hitler invaded not only Holland, the Netherlands,

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but also Belgium. He started this campaign over Holland on the 10th of May and

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the campaign took only 19 days. It finished on the 19th of May,

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basically because Holland didn't have a strong army to defeat the Germans.

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And also because the Germans bombed the city of Rotterdam. They bombed the city of Rotterdam,

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what they had done before to Warsaw and they destroyed completely the city of Rotterdam.

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And when the Dutch showed the capacity of Hitler, they surrendered completely and then

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Belgium also surrendered in the month of May. But the question is, at that moment,

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the allies, the French, received the help in the French territory from the British.

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The French and the British thought that the main attack would come down from the North,

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like in the First World War, from Holland and from Belgium. But the question was,

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the question is, why did Hitler succeed on the Western front?

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Because after Holland and after Belgium, Hitler, imagine, he was emboldened even more than before.

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He was stronger than before and he decided to launch another campaign over the French territory

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after Belgium and Holland. And the question is, why did Hitler succeed

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on the Western front? Because Hitler, as we are going to explain now, he defeated completely

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the French, the French troops. I don't know if you have some questions up to here because if not,

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I'm going to explain the French campaign and with this we are going to finish the class.

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So what happened next? Why did Hitler succeed on the Western front? We are about to finish,

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I promise you. So this image shows you the Western front and the vast majority of the

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the French soldiers were in this part, in the Maginot Line. The French built the Maginot Line,

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I'm going to show you an image of the Maginot Line. The Maginot Line was a line of fortresses

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and they were impressive, shocking because they had munition there, a metro, hospital

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to defend the territory. So the French spent a lot of money in building the Maginot Line

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and as I said before, the vast majority of the French troops were in the Maginot Line.

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Another part of the French troops were in the north,

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in the north, but they were very old-fashioned because they pulled their artillery using horses

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instead of tanks. So imagine, they were not ready for this war, obviously. And in the center,

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they left just a few soldiers. Why? Because in the center,

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in the center, there was a forest which was called the Ardennes and the French thought that this part

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was completely impenetrable. So the Germans couldn't attack from this area because there

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was a dense forest and it was precisely the part that was used for Hitler to invade France.

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The idea wasn't from Adolf Hitler, the idea was from one German general, you don't need to know

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that, it was Erich von Manstein. And this general had the idea to attack France from this forest

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for the Ardennes. So the German troops went through this forest, the Ardennes, and they

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managed to cross the forest in only three days. So the French thought that it was impossible to

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cross the forest with the tanks, with the soldiers, but the German troops

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demonstrated that it was possible to go through the forest. They went through the forest in only

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three days and imagined the situation when the Germans invaded France. The British and the French

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were in panic. The British ran very very quickly to the coast, to the city of Dunkirk. The French

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troops were completely in disarray, in chaos. And as I said before, the British troops

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ran to the city of Dunkirk on the coast. They were trapped there, they were trapped there,

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estaban atrapados. And this is the moment when the prime minister in Britain, Winston Churchill,

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Winston Churchill was the prime minister in Britain from the campaign in Norway up to here.

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So in the campaign of Norway, it was the moment when the previous prime minister,

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Neville Chamberlain, resigned, stepped down. Churchill came into power and it was Churchill

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who had the idea to rescue all these soldiers in the beaches of Dunkirk. Antonio,

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do you have a question? No? Okay. Shall I carry on? Yes? Okay.

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Can you repeat the part of Churchill, the idea?

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Yes, exactly. We have the movie of Dunkirk and all of this appears in the movie. It was

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Winston Churchill who had the idea to rescue all these soldiers, British and French soldiers,

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who ran directly to the coast so as to survive. Imagine the situation, the British and the French

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ran to the coast, to the city of Dunkirk. They were persecuted by the Germans.

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The Germans, they made a mistake at this moment because they gave the order to stop instead of

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persecuting the British and the French. They thought that they could control completely and

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defeat the French and the British, but it wasn't the case. So finally, as I said before,

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Winston Churchill gave the order to rescue all these people in the Operation Dynamo.

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He rescued Winston Churchill and the British rescued more than 300,000 British and French

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soldiers. The Germans made a mistake because instead of persecuting the British and the French,

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they stopped. General Goering gave the order to Hitler to stop instead of

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defeating completely the British and the French. We are going to finish with this.

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The main consequence of that was that the Germans conquered France. This is a picture of Hitler in

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the Eiffel Tower. This is another one because Hitler went there to the city of Paris. The

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Germans conquered the city and France was divided into two different parts. The Germans occupied

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60% of the country. The Germans occupied 60% of the country. They controlled directly

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the north, as you can see here. The rest, 40% of the country, was controlled by the

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Vichy government. Here we have the president of the Vichy government, General Pétain,

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who received orders directly from Hitler. This is the moment when Italy joined the war.

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When the Germans conquered France, it was the moment when Mussolini gave the order to join the

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war. Italy became an ally of Hitler and Mussolini invaded Albania. With this,

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I think that we have enough for today.