Blitzkrieg's most astonishing triumph, establishing Hitler as unassailable within continental Europe.
The two mightiest air fleets in the world clashed in tumultuous mortal combat. At issue was Britain’s very survival.
The Battle of Midway changed naval combat forever. Fought almost entirely with aircraft, the United States destroyed Japan’s first-line carrier strength and most of its best trained naval pilots. Together with the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Battle of Midway ended the threat of further Japanese invasion in the Pacific.
The Battle of Stalingrad is infamous as one of the largest, longest and bloodiest engagements in modern warfare. From August 1942 through February 1943, more than two million troops fought in close quarters – and nearly two million people were killed or injured in the fighting, ultimately turning the tide of World War II in favor of the Allied forces.
The Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Normandy landings. A 1,200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, and more than two million Allied troops were in France by the end of August.
The furious, climatic last battle of Hitler’s war. Over half a million lives were lost as the Red Army finally crushed the last Nazi citadel.
After a grim struggle that rolled back and forth across the North African desert for nearly three years, the North African campaign resulted in the first major Allied victory of the Second World War.
For the British the longest and most critical battle of the entire war. The German intention was to sever Britain's trading links with the world, guaranteeing her capitulation.
Hitler's plan for the conquest of Russia called for a classic Blitzkrieg offensive, which would be pressed ruthlessly to its conclusion within the course of a single season's campaign.
When victory in North Africa seemed assured, Allied planners turned their attention to Italy. The objective was to seize Rome, knock Italy out of the war and push north towards Germany.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was fought from 23 - 26 October 1944 and is considered the conflict's largest naval engagement. Returning to the Philippines, Allied forces began landing on Leyte on October 20. Responding, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched plan Sho-Go 1. A complex operation, it called for multiple forces to strike the Allies from several directions. Central to the plan was luring away the American carrier groups that would be protecting the landings.
During the last months of 1944, the British and Americans pressed steadily through France and Belgium to the western frontiers of the Third Reich.
Covers the battle at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and the resulting expulsion of the French and the division of the country into a North and South Vietnam.
Covers the US's growing invovlement from military advisors to combat troops after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. Also covered is Operation Starlight which was the US Marines first battle against the Vietcong in 1965.
Covers the US Army's first battle against the NVA at the Ia Drang Valley in 1965 and the strategy and tactics of the US and North Vietnamese in their efforts to win the war.
Covers the US Operations which try to seek and destroy the Vietcong and induce them into set piece battles in various areas between Saigon and Cambodia in 1966-67.
Covers the events in 1967 which lead the Vietcong to plan an all out attack on South Vietnam during the Tet New Year of 1968.
Covers the Tet Offensive of 1968 in great detail, especially the street battles in Saigon and Hue and the resulting near annihilation of the Vietcong.
Covers the battles and US Operations that raged around the DMZ in the years before 1968.
Covers in great detail the largest battle of the war around the US Marine base at Khe Sanh, including the surrounding hill battles and the many B-52 strikes.
Covers the early years of the Air War with American and South Vietnamese pilots flying tandem to the beginning of the Rolling Thunder campaign.
Covers the air attacks on North Vietnam by US forces during Operation Rolling Thunder in 1965-68.
Covers the struggle US forces have in turning the ground war over to the South Vietnamese and their effort to destroy NVA bases in Laos and Cambodia in 1970. This episode ends with the NVA's buildup before the Easter Offensive of 1972.
Covers the Easter Offensive of 1972 and the unrestricted Christmas Bombings which leads to the Paris Peace Accords of 1973 and the end of the War for the US. This episode finishes with the battles that occurred in the two years after the US left and the resulting defeat of South Vietnam with the fall of Saigon.
In the summer of 1943 more than 2,000,000 men and 6,000 tanks of the German and Soviet Armies faced each other near the Soviet city of Kursk. The ensuing battle is the largest tank battle ever fought in history. It marked the last major offensive operation of German forces in the East and combined with the Soviet victory at Stalingrad was the decisive turning point on the Eastern Front.
The Allies, determined to take the war to Germany, launch the largest strategic bombing campaign to disrupt German war production and weaken civilian morale. The RAF and USAAF bombing campaign cost thousands of Allied lives and caused tens of thousands of civilian deaths.
The remarkable Soviet victory over the once mighty Japanese Kwangtung Army in the mountains of Manchuria is one of the least known of the Second World War. This was no steam roller triumph of greater numbers and brute force, but a victory for superior weaponry, brilliant tactical use of surprise and bold command that was achieved in little more than a fortnight.
The infamous Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was one of the most significant events of World War II. Brilliantly planned and executed, it dealt a crippling blow to the US Pacific Fleet, however it failed to inflict any damage on the US aircraft carriers. Ultimately, the attack brought the US and its industrial might into the war with disastrous consequences for the Axis powers.
Guadalcanal was the first major land battle of the Southern Pacific campaign. The island was considered key to the defense of eastern Australia and was the first step in the "march" up the Solomon Island chain to neutralize the key Japanese base at Rabaul, open up the road to the Philippines, and ultimately to Japan itself.
The 890 day siege of the Soviet Union's second city has come to epitomise the misery, suffering and savagery of the war on the Eastern Front. The city was not finally liberated by Soviet troops until 19th January 1944 - by that time 600,000 of its citizens had starved to death and 200,000 more had perished in the fighting.
The campaign in Tunisia saw the battles that finally ended the brutal war in North Africa. The arrival of the British 1st Army gave the Allies a six-to-one numerical advantage in troops and a fifteen-to-one superiority in tanks, guns, and aircraft. The Allied blockade in the Mediterranean also began to bite, making the beleaguered Germans short of fuel, food, and ammunition. Eventually, all German troops in Tunisia surrendered.
Covering the leaders, the equipment, and the men, as well as the battles, it covers the period from the beginning of the war in Africa until the end where the Axis is expelled. The main battle covered here is the last battle of El Alamein.
The Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino, was a series of four assaults made by the Allies against German forces in Italy during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The ultimate objective was to break through the Winter Line, and facilitate an advance towards Rome.
This is the story of the construction and defense of Hitler's three-mile deep web of fortifications, pillboxes, troop shelters, and anti-tank obstacles that ran along Germany's western frontier. "The Siegfried Line," as it was nicknamed by the Allies, and the natural barrier formed by the Rhine River, were key to Germany's defense of its Western Front. The breaching of the Siegfried Line at the Battle of the West Wall, and the subsequent crossing of the Rhine barrier at Remagen, heralded the collapse of German resistance in the West.
Operation Market Garden's objective was to create a 64 mile salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine, creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. Although the largest airborne operation of the war up to that point, Market Garden's ultimate outcome remains debated: The operation succeeded in liberating the Dutch cities of Eindhoven and Nijmegen along with many towns, and limited V-2 rocket launching sites. However, it failed to secure a bridgehead over the Rhine, with the advance being halted at the river.
The French city of Caen was identified by the Allies as an early goal for troops coming ashore during the D-Day invasion. Rather than quickly falling, the struggle for Caen became a bloody, grinding affair that lasted for seven weeks due to intense German resistance. While a costly struggle, the fighting around Caen pinned down German troops which facilitated Operation Cobra in late July. This saw the Allies breakout of the beachhead and move to encircle German forces in Normandy.
Hitler's obsession with the Crimea was the source of fierce disagreements with his General staff. So it was that the German 11th Army under Manstein broke through the Soviet lines in October 1941 - but this was only the beginning of a series of bloody battles that cost the Russians two whole armies. However, the tide turned after the disastrous German defeats at Stalingrad and Kursk. Cut off and isolated in the Crimea, the Germans faced massive Russian attacks and Sevastapol surrendered in May 1944. Twelve German and Rumanian divisions were completely destroyed and 25,000 prisoners were taken.
The vicious 14-week war between the Finns and the Russians ended in March 1940 when the Finns finally surrendered a large part of its territory to the Soviet invaders. It was a hollow victory, since for much of the war the Russians took a drubbing from the determined and resourceful Finns, who organised the defence of their country brilliantly. It is believed that one million Russians lost their lives during the fighting. Hitler became increasingly aware of the potential threat of Norway and mounted the world's first airborne invasion there in February 1940. At the same time, German Forces invaded Denmark. Over the next few years, the horrors and intrigues of the Quisling government in Norway unfolded amidst determined Norwegian resistance.
The convoys that sailed across the Atlantic Ocean bringing vital supplies to Britain faced one of the most deadly threats of the war. Hidden deep beneath the waves were German U-boats. This program follows the evolution of the Atlantic War, from the beginnings of the U-Boat war, to the "Happy Time" when German submarines almost brought Britain to her knees, to the eventual Allied triumph for control of the Atlantic sea-lanes. Also see the critical role that superior Allied technology played in winning the war and how British cryptographers successfully broke the German naval codes.
The battle for Okinawa, chosen to be the final springboard for an Allied invasion of Japan, claimed more American lives than any other battle in the Pacific campaign. The Japanese had constructed a formidable series of defenses and were prepared to fight for every inch of the island's soil. The battle included a 700-plane Kamikaze raid against the US naval fleet. US casualties were estimated to be 49,000. Ultimately US forces took control of the island in June 1945 and in August, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the war against Japan to a dramatic end.
In August 1943 the Romanians changed sides. Thereafter, events moved swiftly: the Russians soon captured the vital Ploesti oil fields, a huge loss to the German war effort, and within days the Soviets captured Bucharest. A nervous Bulgaria sued for peace with the Allies, but the Russians pushed on into Sofia. Despite German delaying tactics, Hungary fell next. In Yugoslavia the Germans held grimly on to Belgrade until October. The bloody mop-up fighting was left to the Soviets and lasted until the end of the war.
This is the story of the crucial battles for control of the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the irreplaceable oil fields of the Middle East. The program covers the great battles between the Italian Navy and British Navy, the land campaigns in the North African desert between Rommel's Afrika Korp and the British 8th Army, and Britain's struggle to retain its control of Malta. Additionally featured is the war for control of the skies between the German Luftwaffe and the RAF, eventually joined by the US Army Air Force, and the story of the war in Greece.
