Hitler's Britain

What if? That's the question raised by this documentary that considers the question of what life in Britain would have been like had Hitler's Germany won World War II and occupied the island. This has the advantage of being based on actual documents. The Germans expected to defeat Britain and had very detailed plans for what to do with the occupation, right down to which personalities would be arrested, which organizations would be destroyed and which museums would be plundered. The first half of this film deals with that German occupation, and it's a sobering look at what British life would have become, based on the documents and on the examples of how the Germans dealt with other nations under occupation. As this half comes to a close, I thought the film lost a bit of its bite as it became highly speculative, proposing either a nuclear war between Germany and the United States or a Cold War between the two powers, and suggesting that, with Werner von Braun not being captured by the Americans, Germany would have landed men on the moon first. Maybe, but that seemed to be becoming a bit too speculative and was going a bit beyond what the purpose of the film was. The second half of the movie shifts the focus from what the Germans would have done in the occupation to what the British would have done, and focuses on the plans for the "Auxiliary Units" set up on Churchill's orders - basically, small groups of men organized on a village by village basis who were to engage in guerilla warfare against the Germans. The depiction of the types of sabotage they would have engaged in was realistic, but in the end the film suggests that their operations would have been largely hopeless, and would have led to widespread reprisals against the civilian population.

Certainly, this is a sobering and realistic documentary that makes one grateful for those who so long ago made sure that Nazi tyranny would be defeated.

Hitler's Britain. This documentary sets out a Britain where we had been defeated and lay under the Nazi jackboot.

Many of you military historians out there may have noticed that the idea for a successful German invasion, that the program puts forward, kinda falls down when it comes to crossing the channel and not mentioning the Royal Navy, which as the Sandhurst War Game proved, could have straddled the German's supply and reinforcement line via the Channel. It also mentions the successful German paratroop landings. Which would'nt have been possible. Even in October 1940 the German Airborne divisions were still re-equipping and training replacement recruits for their losses in France and the Low-Countrys. Even if the BEF had been cut off at Dunkirk the Royal Navy would have made a massacre of the invasion fleet which consisted mainly on Rhine River Barges. About a quarter would have capsized in the Channel anyway. So there's the history.

Whilst the actual invasion itself was poorly thought out by the writers the content of the program was fascinating. The German's prepared a list of about 2,300 Britons to be "detained" if Britain was taken. With Einzatzgrupen sqauds (Death Sqauds) at London, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh. Also mentioned was the treatment of Freemasons and Jews but most of you pretty much know all about this so I wont go into it. How the Britsh police force was to be handled. And of course the big question, who was going to be the Prime Minister ? (The program killed Churchill off in an air raid). The first name that will pop into someones head is probably Oswald Mosley the interned leader of The British Union of Fascists. You might be screaming TRAITOR, TRAITOR at Mosley but it was not to be the case. The Nazi's rarely let local Fascist or Nazi party's run occupied country's governments and anyway Mosley announced he was supporting the British war effort and called on BUF men and women to resist the invaders. The program settles on Lord Halifax becoming leader and surrendering the country after the British counter attack is defeated due to lack of armour. (Which also doesn't stand up as we had an armoured division that was nearly fully equipped and also that Air Chief Marshall Dowding had a plan to withdraw what was left of the RAF to the Midlands, and don't forget there was also a considerable force in Scotland and the North of England at that time). So anyway the the writers have the Royal Family as we know it George VI, Queen Elisabeth (later Queen Mother), Princess Elisabeth (later Queen) and Princess Margret, fleeing to Canada. It has Edward VIII being instated as Prince Regent and Wallis Simpson, his Princess. They rule from Balmoral Castle in Scotland. I'm guessing they rule the North of England, Scotland, Nothern Ireland and a part of the British Empire (as the Dominions, the West Indies, the South Atlantic Islands and some African colonies would remain loyal to King George.) Others like India would stay loyal to the puppet government so that Germany could restrain Japan from trying to seize British colonys there.

Anyhow it ends up with another program on the Auxiliury Units or "The British Resistance". The Auxiliury Units were set up in mid 1940 to act as a resistance movement in case the country was occupied. This is the most interesting program as it has interviews with former members and charts a fictional one in a what-if scenario.

All in all it's a good documentary, if flawed on the historical side. Worth a watch though and much better than ITV's horrible attempt to put their view of it in "When Hitler Invaded Britain".

There was no plan to invade England by the Nazis, a waste of film! Should be described as a work of complete fiction - a "What If" rather than a true documentary. The Germans were already busy on various fronts without having to even contemplate invading the British Isles.

There is no "Concrete" evidence, documents or otherwise that suggested that Hitler even contemplated this other than as an excuse to get rid of his own Military advisers, and get them off his back.

He paid no more than lip service to any of their crazy schemes.

His Air Force were totally incapable of providing necessary air support over Germany at the time let alone supporting a 3rd Reich Invasion force.

A wasted exercise for a rather phony documentary.

A very interesting book that preceded both Deighton's SS-GB and this movie, was "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick. (He's also the author of many fantastic stories that have made it to the screen: Bladerunner; Total Recall, Screamers, Minority Report, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly).

In the Man in the High Castle, the US is divided up between Japan and Germany after winning WWII. Japan gets the West Coast, Germany the East Coast.

READ IT!! it's fantastic! and while you're at it, also read It Can't Happen Here...

This documentary is about what if Germany invaded Britain during World War II. It was a goal of the Nazis to overtake the world. This documentary describes the possibilities of the horrors that would happen to it's population. The Jews would be taken away after they are stripped of their businesses. They would be branded with yellow stars of David like all the others nations. They would placed in ghettos and sent to concentration camps in Eastern Europe where they would be killed. The Royal Family would evacuate to Canada. Churchill's secret army of Auxiliaries men and women would be more active and risk their lives to retake their country as the resistance. This documentary asks what would happen if Germany was successful. We must all stop and pause to thank that they weren't and never invaded Britain at all. The Britons knew Germany's horror in occupied Europe by those refugees.