Rarely has a war produced such clear cut reasons to fight as World War II. Suddenly, ordinary men and women found themselves thrown into fearsome, situations worthy of any Hollywood movie. The only difference in this series is that every story is true. Real people emerge as the Heroes of Telemark. Ordinary GIs and US Airforce and Navy personnel suddenly find themselves flying against the Japanese in China, jungle fighting in Burma and being dropped by submarine on enemy coasts at midnight. These untold stories can now be examined in great detail with the benefit of hindsight, newly-discovered film, maps and graphics. Each fifty-two minute story covers the background to the main action. It will give the viewer a clear view of the historical context, the strategic objective and the tactical effort made by flyers, sailors and foot-soldiers - often in the most oppressive and life-threatening situations - to win victory from the enemy.
In this BBC documentary series newly declassified documents are used to examine the strategic roles played in the war by thirteen of the world's regular and resistance land, sea and air forces.
Between loves and ideals, the story of the last two years of the life of Goffredo Mameli, a young Genoese student who wrote the song that would become the national anthem of the Italian Republic
A candid look at what life was really like for those living in, and under Hitler's Swastika - at home - and abroad, a record not only of what they saw, but of what they knew.
February 1916. World War I has been raging for two years and has killed over three million people, neither side gaining the upper hand. The Germans mobilize more artillery and men in Verdun than in any other offensive -- for three hundred days -- but the French hold out. Constructed from over five hundred hours of restored, colorized archival footage.
In June 1941, Hitler took his greatest gamble - launching an attack against the Soviet Union. Despite being the largest German operation of WWII, Operation Barbarossa was one of his biggest failures.
The Battle of Stalingrad, which cost the lives of at least a million German soldiers, Red Army troops and Soviet civilians, was the bloodiest of the decisive battles in the "war of extermination" which Hitler had unleashed. This three-part documentary, employing previously unreleased film footage and brutally frank statements from survivors on both sides, explains exactly how the catastrophe came about and describes the gruesome consequences of the battle for the soldiers and the inhabitants of the city.