The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company brings you the sound of war, the actual sound record of World War II. 2,191 days from the time Hitler's Panzer divisions moved across the Polish borders to the ceremony of the Japanese surrender aboard the United States battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. World War II, the most terrible period of death and destruction in the long history of man. World War II, a drama preserved for all time through the medium of radio, an era never to be forgotten. Tonight, the fall of France. On June 10th, 1940, France was in misery. It was just one month since the Nazi Panzer divisions had crashed the borders of the low countries, Belgium, Luxembourg and Holland. Two days later, the German Wehrmacht spearheaded by 100 divisions crossed into France. On March 15th, the Dutch army surrendered and the following day the French army broke ranks at Sedan. The Belgian army surrendered. Now the British and French were being driven into the sea. In one of the most amazing evacuations in the history of man, more than 350,000 Allied soldiers in boats and ships of every description were returned to the safety of the British shores. But now the French and British would face another blow. It is June 10th, 1940. The Salini began, combatant on land, sea and in the air, black shirt of the revolution and of the legion, men and women of Italy, of the empire and of the kingdom of Albania. Listen, an hour signed by destiny, with ticking on the skies of our country, an hour of a reckless decision, a declaration of war has been given to the ambassador. To the ambassador of France and England. Italy has declared war against Great Britain and France. In the United States, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke. The people and the government of the United States have seen with the utmost regret and with grave disquiet the decision of the Italian government to engage in the hostilities now raging in Europe. More than three months ago, the chief of the Italian government sent me word that because of the determination of Italy to limit so far as might be possible, the spread of the European conflict, more than 200 millions of people in the region of the Mediterranean had been enabled to escape the suffering and the devastation of war. The government of Italy has now chosen to preserve what it terms its freedom of action and to fulfill what its states are its promises to Germany. In so doing, it has manifested disregard for the rights and security of other nations, disregard for the lives of the peoples of those nations which are directly threatened by the spread of this war and has evidenced its unwillingness to find the means through pacific negotiations for the satisfaction of what it believes are its legitimate aspirations. On this tenth day of June 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor. Italy had entered the war. Italy, traditional friend of Great Britain. Italy, an ally of the United States, Great Britain and France in World War I. Italy, whose many sons had crossed the ocean to become bulwarks of American civilization. Italy, a nation steeped in the law of freedom. Italy, the nation that produced Garibaldi and Kivur. Italy, the nation that produced Mussolini. Italy was now at war with France and Great Britain. A brief recapitulation of the events leading to the entrance of Italy into the war. On May 16, 1940, six days after Prime Minister Winston Churchill took office, he wrote to Benito Mussolini, said Mr. Churchill, now that I have taken up my office as Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, I look back to our meetings in Rome and feel a desire to speak words of goodwill to you as chief of the Italian nation across what seems to be a swiftly widening gulf. Is it too late to stop a river of blood from flowing between the British and Italian peoples? If you so decree, it must be so. I beg you to believe that it is in no spirit of weakness or of fear that I make the solemn appeal which will remain on record. Down the ages, above all other calls, comes the cry that the joint heirs of Latin and Christian civilization must not be ranged against one another in mortal strife. Harken to it, I beseech you in all honor and respect before the dread signal is given. It will never be given by us. Two days later came Mussolini's reply. Mussolini wrote, without going too far back in time, I remind you of the initiative taken by your government to organize at Geneva sanctions against Italy engaged in securing for herself a small space in the African sun. If it was to honor your signature that your government declared war on Germany, you will understand that the same sense of honor and of respect for engagements assumed in the Italian-German treaties guides Italian policy today and tomorrow. In the face of any event whatsoever, in three weeks Italy would honor those treaties. It is still June 10, 1940. From Paris, Premier Rénaud makes an appeal. Monsieur Rénaud is saying, let all who are watching this drama of the Battle of France understand therefore and let them understand at once. For the stakes are enormous and only time can truly measure them. As for us, more than ever before, we have confidence in our own. Four days later the tragedy of France was all but complete. The Germans were entering Paris. In one of the last broadcasts from Paris under French rule, the crackling almost incoherent strains of the Marseillaise pitifully but dramatically tell the story of the French defeat, yet the Paris was all but deserted. Within an hour after the Germans entered the city, swastikas were unfurled atop every important building of the city. Now France and in particular Paris would be in unbelievable misery. Everywhere there were bands and the martial music blared out the marching songs of the Bosch. As the German soldiers marched and re-marched in ceremonial revue, the Axis press wrote with contempt of the plight of the allies. Said one Italian newspaper, let the French nation learn once and for all time the torture of defeat to respect and honor other peoples. Let them remain on their knees for centuries. As for the English, let them remember that their time will come. Now Great Britain was alone. Unusual proposals sprung from the empire to ensure the continuance of the French nation in the conflict. The British proposed that one nation of Great Britain and France be formed with a single effort, a single force be realized that thus so joined they would conquer. But the following day the aged Marshal Henri Pétain talked to the nation by radio. Said Pétain, it is futile to continue the struggle against an enemy superior in numbers and arms. It is with heavy heart that I say we must cease the fight. I have applied to our opponent to ask him if he is ready to sign an agreement with us as between soldiers after the fight and in honor, a means to put an end to hostilities. In Berlin there was wild rejoicing. If our will is strong enough then nothing can fail. Germany, Sieg heil. Hitler spoke of the glory of the fatherland, of the glory of the Wehrmacht, of the glory of the cause. Then to the air waves came propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Said Joseph Goebbels to the victorious German army, you have just one more battle to win. Then the bells of peace will ring. The peace would be dictated to the allies in London. And from London in the terrible hour came the Prime Minister. Resolute, determined, majestic. It is June 18th, 1940. Prime Minister Winston Churchill. During the first four years of the last war, 1914 to 1918, the allies experienced nothing but disaster and disappointment. That was our constant fear. One blow after another. In terrible losses, in frightful danger. Everything miscarried. And yet at the end of those four years, the morale of the allies was higher than that of the Germans, who had moved from one aggressive triumph to another and who stood everywhere, triumphant invaders of the land into which they had broken. During that war, we repeatedly asked ourselves this question. How are we going to win? And I do not remember that anyone was ever able to answer it with much precision. Until at the end, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, our terrible foe collapsed before us. And we were so gorge and deluded with victory that in our folly we threw it all away. We do not know yet what will happen in France or whether the French resistance will be prolonged, both in France and in the French Empire overseas. Or whether it will only be prolonged in the French Empire overseas. The French government will be throwing away great opportunities and casting adrift at their future if they do not continue the war in accordance with their treaty obligations, from which we have not felt able to release them. What General Vagon has called the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit upland. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister and perhaps more protracted by the likes of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty. So bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its commonwealths last for a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour. And as the Prime Minister called for Great Britain's finest hour, the darkest hour in the history of France would be unfolding. It is June 21st, 1940, the place, the town of Compiègne, France. The situation, the signing of the peace between Germany and France. The place, a town 45 miles north of Paris, the town of Compiègne. Compiègne, the final humiliation of France. Compiègne, where on November 11th, 1918, Marshal Ferdinand Foch had dictated the surrender terms to the Germans at the end of World War I. The scene was a strange one. Compiègne would now become the surrender place of the French. From the relics of World War I, the Germans had gathered the same railway car used in 1918 for their surrender. It would be used in the surrender ceremony today. The French had built a museum near the surrender site. One monument to the days of 1918 read, to the heroic soldiers of France, defenders of our country and of right, glorious liberators of Alsace-Lorraine. Another inscription of a monument read, here on the 11th of November, 1918, succumb the criminal pride of the German Empire, vanquished by the free peoples which had tried to enslave. Now it is 3.15 p.m. An automobile draws up to the Alsace-Lorraine monument at Compiègne. A door opens and outsteps Chancellor Adolf Hitler. He is wearing his army uniform. Below his left breast pocket, he wears the Iron Cross. Accompanying the Führer are Marshal Hermann Göring, second in command, and Rudolf Hess, his third in command. Then there are the men of the military. Chief of High Command General Wilhelm Keitel, General Walter von Brauhich, commander in chief German Army, Admiral Erich Raeder, Grand Admiral of the German fleet. Almost as tourists, the Nazi leaders slowly move around the open clearing, reading the inscriptions on the French monuments, tributes to the 1918 surrender. Not showing what they felt in their hearts, the Germans moved impassively from monument to monument. A few minutes later, the French surrender delegation arrived. The French and German officers exchanged salutes, but there were no handshakes. The Germans entered the railway car. A few minutes later, the French entered. Now a subtle, cynical flourish from the Germans. As if on signal, they rose from their chairs, a courtesy not afforded the Germans in 1918. Then Hitler nodded toward Field Marshal Keitel, and the ceremony was underway. The proceedings took 27 minutes. An eyewitness to the ceremony. Hello, CBS. Hello, NBC. This is William C. Kirk, now carrying on. Hitler himself was the first one to rise as soon as the French plenipotentiaries entered the dining car. By the by, the number of that car is number D-2604. And as soon as Adolf Hitler stood up to greet the French delegates by giving the Nazi salute half on Ribbentrop and half followed suit, while Field Marshal Goering and Grand Admiral von Rader rose for battle, leaving Colonel General von Brauchitsch and von Keitel as the only ones to give the military salute. The French gentlemen themselves in turn greeted with a military salute, and although at present wore uniforms except Michel Noelle, who was attired in smart civilian clothes. He himself was quite a contrast to the glittering uniforms which surrounded him. However, undeterredly, he took his place, almost facing every pair, sitting at the opposite side of that long green table with his back towards the statue of General Foch. Well, it was 21 years and eight months ago that Comte d'Arne was the scene of the signing of an amnesty. And today we are right here on the very same spot. It is the same car which was used at that time, the same table, the same chairs. Only this time everything is reversed. Where Marshal Foch sat that time, now Hitler sat. Where the German delegates had their place, now the French 20 percent chairs are seated. Everything is reversed. Then it was Germany who was asking for an amnesty, and now it is France. As the Germans left the car, the band struck up the Marshal music. All stood at attention as once again Deutschland Über alles, and the horse vessel song rang through the wooded area of Compiègne. The French delegation was headed by General Charles Hunziger. He informed the Germans that their terms were hard and merciless, more severe than the terms the Allies had imposed on Germany in 1918. The Germans were adamant. Within 24 hours the French signed the instrument of surrender. The terms, the demobilization of the French fleet, the turning over of all anti-Nazi Germans residing in France, the conditions that any Frenchman caught while fighting with another country against Germany would be shot, and finally the most tragic term of all, that French prisoners would not be released until the conclusion of peace. General Weygand, who agreed to this term, believed the British were just a few short weeks from complete defeat. History, however, records that General Weygand condemned a million and a half French prisoners to Nazi prisoner camps for five years. As France died, there was one French voice that arose from the grave. It belonged to General Charles de Gaulle. Said General de Gaulle, France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war. Five years, two months, and 13 days later, France would live again. The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company has brought you The Fall of France, the voices and sounds of the most dramatic and tragic period of our time. This program was written, produced and directed by Bud Greenspan. My name is David Perry.
