Main content
This programme is not currently available on 麻豆官网首页入口 iPlayer

World War Two: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly

David Reynolds asks why Britain spent much of the war fighting in Africa and Italy, reassessing Churchill's view that the Mediterranean was the soft underbelly of Hitler's Europe.

The British fought the Second World War to defeat Hitler. This film asks why, then, did they spend so much of the conflict battling through North Africa and Italy?

Historian David Reynolds reassesses Winston Churchill's conviction that the Mediterranean was the 'soft underbelly' of Hitler's Europe. Travelling to Egypt and Italian battlefields like Cassino, scene of some of the worst carnage in western Europe, he shows how, in reality, the 'soft underbelly' became a dark and dangerous obsession for Churchill.

Reynolds reveals a prime minister very different from the jaw-jutting bulldog of Britain's 'finest hour' in 1940 - a leader who was politically vulnerable at home, desperate to shore up a crumbling British empire abroad, losing faith in his army and even ready to deceive his American allies if it might delay fighting head to head against the Germans in northern France.

1 hour, 30 minutes

Last on

Tue 18 Jul 2017 23:30

History on 麻豆官网首页入口 Four

Take a look at the 麻豆官网首页入口 Four History documentaries available to watch in iPlayer.

Army: A Very British Institution

Army: A Very British Institution

For more about the British armed forces, visit the 麻豆官网首页入口 Four Collection Army: A Very British Institution.

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter David Reynolds
Director Russell Barnes

Broadcasts

麻豆官网首页入口 History

The causes, events and people of the most destructive war in history.