History Rediscovered: Divide and Conquer

The third installment in Frank Capra's epic WWII Why We Fight propaganda film series, Divide and Conquer brilliantly presents the Nazi conquest of Western Europe in 1940. The documentary begins immediately after the fall of Poland in October, 1939, as Hitler prepares his formidable Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe for an assault on Denmark and Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium, and finally France. The Blitzkrieg form of "Lightning Warfare", which relies on tanks, mechanized forces and paratroops to achieve unprecedented movement, proves innovative, heavily destructive, and decisive. The highly mobile German forces quickly outflank France's vaunted Maginot Line, and in under a month and a half France capitulates. Capra highlights Hitler's diabolical political skill, with each of the Fuhrer's statements of non-aggression towards the neutral countries of Europe shown to be treacherous and false. By film's end it is clear that only Britain stands in the way of a Fascist victory.