Bringing History to Life

In 1933, Adolf Hitler seizes power in Germany, where he has seduced the population with golden promises of a restoration of the Great German Empire. He allies himself with Mussolini's fascist Italy, Stalin's communist Soviet Union and the military dictatorship in Japan, which has the same dreams of grandeur as Germany. In this series, you get a thorough review of World War II - from the birth of fascism through the war's many dramas to the aftermath, where the victors deal with the war's worst criminals.

Brave men defied death to change the fortunes of war

Norwegian saboteurs destroy Nazis’ nuclear dream: Suicide mission in sub-zero temperatures • Winter 1942-43. The Nazis want to build an atomic bomb and produce heavy water for their research in a factory in Norway. The Allies get wind of production and decide to launch a daring operation: under the cover of winter darkness, a group of Norwegian saboteurs will be dropped by parachute into the icy mountains, risking their lives to curb Hitler’s doomsday weapon.

512 SOLDIERS SAVED FROM THE NAZIS • In 1944, the Allies launch one of the war’s most dangerous rescue missions: a plan to retrieve more than 500 Americans from German-occupied Yugoslavia, where they’re hiding in the mountains. There are Nazis everywhere, and the wrong move could be the difference between life and death.

Canoes sank Hitler’s freighters • In December 1942, 10 British Royal Marines exit a submarine off the west coast of France. In canoes, they will enter Bordeaux harbour to mine German freighters under cover of darkness. Ahead lies 110 km of paddling and a 1,300-km flight to safety through enemy territory.

Churchill sends 600 men on suicide mission • British Prime Minister Winston Churchill will do anything to prevent the German battleship Tirpitz securing a base on the Atlantic coast. A destroyer is disguised as a German vessel and sneaks close to the giant dry dock in Saint-Nazaire. The destroyer steams at full speed into the outer lock gates, which initially resist. But the British have a trump card up their sleeve.

Montgomery requires a bridge too far from his men • On 17th September, 1944, a huge squadron of 5,000 aircraft takes off from Britain. Its aim is to land 35,000 Allied soldiers behind German lines and capture several important bridges. But en route to the key city of Arnhem, the operation goes completely wrong.

83 ELITE SOLDIERS CAPTURE BELGIAN FORT • On the morning of 10th May, 1940, German gliders land on the top of Belgium’s strongest fortress, Eben-Emael. Only 10 minutes later, all the fort’s guns explode into thin air and the invasion route into France is cleared.

Bombs skip over the water to DESTROY GERMAN DAMS • Under cover of darkness, British bombers head to the Ruhr valley, heart of the Nazi war machine. Underneath the planes hang top-secret bombs designed to destroy three large dams using a technique that’s never been tried before. No one knows if the bombs will work in practice.

The Nazis lay claim to Antarctica • Under orders from Hitler, Hermann Göring prepares a Nazi expedition to map Antarctica and bring back whale meat. By January 1939, the explorers have reached their destination, but now they must claim the world’s coldest continent for the Third Reich.

German captain did the impossible: U-Boat attacks British base • World War II is only one month old when the British are shaken by the first full strike. On 13th October, 1939, a German submarine slides into the heavily guarded British military port Scapa Flow on the Orkney Islands and fires seven torpedoes at the battleship HMS Royal Oak.

FIERY HELL 400,000 firebombs turn Dresden into a • Shortly after 22.00 on 13th February, 1945, the first of 255 British...