In December 1971 Bangladesh won its independence from Pakistan, but the eight months before it were among the bloodiest of the twentieth century. This History Hit film traces the collapse of the political settlement between East and West Pakistan, the crackdown launched by the Pakistani army against the Bengali population, and the guerrilla resistance that grew in response. Archival footage and photographs from refugee camps, army operations, and the eventual Indian military intervention carry the narrative alongside expert testimony that lays out how a regional political dispute turned into a war with millions of casualties and one of the largest refugee crises of the era. The film follows events through to Pakistan's surrender in Dhaka in December 1971 and the birth of Bangladesh as an independent state, treating the war as both a military campaign and a humanitarian catastrophe whose scale is still debated by historians today.