20th Century

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  • The Forgotten Battle of World War I

    This documentary sees military historian Alex Churchill travelling through Germany and the Belgian battlefields, retracing the opening weeks of the First World War - a blood battle that took place before the trenches, barbed wire and gas we typically think of when we think "First World War" - ins...

  • A History of England

    1 season

    England is a country stuffed full of history. From the Stone Age to the Nuclear Age there are thousands of inspirational sites that have helped to shape the past and present.

    Join Dan Snow on an epic road trip, from Stonehenge in Wiltshire to the Cold War Bunker in York. He’ll be racing across ...

  • Swordfish: World War II's Surprising Aircraft and the Raid that Changed History

    Dan Snow flies on a mission to explore one of the most daring and dangerous aerial attacks of World War 2

    On 11th November 1940, 21 antiquated Swordfish aircraft took off from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. They were embarking on one of the most extraordinary raids of the Second World Wa...

  • The Lost Sailors - Solving a World War II Mystery

    During WWII, the sailors of the British merchant navy played a vital role keeping the UK fed and armed. They carried essential supplies across the treacherous Atlantic - and many paid with their lives. What's less well known is that many of those sailors were Chinese - volunteers who came to Brit...

  • More Than A Medal

    A century-old injustice needs to be corrected. “More Than a Medal,” follows the extraordinary story of researchers working against time, exploring previously untold heroic stories from the battlefields of France, and the experience of modern-day descendants as they maintain cautious hope of reco...

  • Crowning Glory: The History of the Coronation

    Coronations - pomp and pageantry or a vital link with the timeless traditions of taking the throne?

    In our second coronation special, History Hit’s Matt Lewis digs deep into the past to investigate how centuries old aspects of Anglo-Saxon and Medieval coronations will be mirrored in Charles III...

  • Buffalo Bill: The Man Behind the Legend

    Buffalo Bill was America’s first celebrity… and the most famous man in the world at the turn of the 20th century.

    He was a former scout, soldier, Buffalo hunter…but what he’s most known for of course, is his showmanship. He vied with PT Barnum for the title of greatest showman on earth.

    At the ...

  • Alan Turing: The Pride of Manchester

    A special film exploring the life and legacy of Alan Turing - genius pioneer of modern computing. With Alan's nephew Sir Dermot Turing and exclusive access to unseen family records, we investigate lesser known aspects of his incredible work. This story is rooted in the City of Manchester, home t...

  • Hitler vs Stalin: The Battle for Stalingrad

    1 season

    80 Years ago the armies of Hitler and Stalin went head to head in the bloodiest battle of the Second World War.

    Fought over five months through the bitter Russian Winter, the Battle for Stalingrad would serve as a turning point in the course of the Second World War and would mark a drastic chang...

  • Tanks of World War Two: With James Holland

    1 season

    Historian, broadcaster and World War Two expert James Holland investigates the most iconic armoured fighting vehicles of the Second World War.

  • Queen Elizabeth II: A Life in History

    Queen Elizabeth II was born in a totally different world to today. Her life spanned decades of profound change, both in the United Kingdom and around the globe.

    In this special programme, Dan Snow and royal historian Prof. Kate Williams reflect on the early years of Elizabeth II’s remarkable l...

  • Uncovering the Band of Brothers

    1 season

    80 years ago, millions of American soldiers started arriving in Britain, a friendly invasion that was here to prepare for the liberation of Europe. Amongst them was Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment - that would become the famous Band of Brothers. Now, a team of volunteers, in...

  • Uncovering the Band of Brothers, Episode 1

    80 years ago, millions of American soldiers started arriving in Britain, a friendly invasion that was here to prepare for the liberation of Europe. Amongst them was Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment - that would become the famous Band of Brothers. Now, a team of volunteers, in...

  • The Falklands: The Last British War

    1 season

    On the night of the 2nd April 1982, without warning, Argentina launched the invasion of the Falklands Islands. What followed was Britain’s last solo war: the last major conflict fought over British imperial territories, the last major conflict Britain fought by itself rather than as part of a coa...

  • Inside Britain's Secret Nuclear Bunker

    In the wake of the Second World War, Britain moved to cement itself as one of the world's main nuclear powers. The erection of a series of nuclear bunkers followed across the UK, tasked with protecting a fortunate few against any devastating nuclear attack. Sarah Agha explores Britain's secret nu...

  • Shackleton: The Story of Endurance Episode 3

    The extraordinary story of Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance reaches its almost unimaginable conclusion.

    In this special History Hit project, Dan Snow completes his Antarctic journey in the wake of Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition of 1914-16.

    We have already seen how their ship, Endur...

  • Shackleton: The Story of Endurance

    1 season

    This 3-part documentary celebrates an explorer who failed in everything he set out to do, but whose toughness, courage and leadership made him a legend: Sir Ernest Shackleton.

  • The Traces of War

    1 season

    Dr James Rogers, Assistant Professor of War Studies, is fascinated by these remains and exactly what they can tell us about not just the changing nature of war through time - but the stories of the people who lived through those events.

  • The Traces of War: Epic Engineering

    In the second episode of Traces of War - James continues his journey across Europe. This time he will be visiting the site of some of the biggest military engineering projects undertaken during the Second World War.

    His journey starts in Belgium where James explores the enormous super fortress E...

  • The Traces of War: The Battle for France

    The traces of war are everywhere - if you know where to look.

    Dr James Rogers, Assistant Professor of War Studies, is fascinated by these remains and exactly what they can tell us about not just the changing nature of war through time - but the stories of the people who lived through those event...

  • Shackleton: The Story of Endurance Episode 2

    Part 2 of 3.

    Throughout this series, Dan Snow is retracing Shackleton’s most famous voyage, taking a deep dive into one of the most remarkable and unlikely escape stories in history.

    In this second episode, Dan is in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, exploring in the wake of Endurance, Shackleton’s ...

  • Endurance: Rediscovered

    It was one of the last great lost shipwrecks of history - Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance. But now, incredibly, it has been rediscovered - over a century after it sank beneath the ice in freezing Antarctic waters.

    Organised by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, the expedition to locate the...

  • The Pursuit of Endurance: On the Shoulders of Shackleton

    In the heart of the Antarctic, nine adventurers are about to live an extraordinary story. They come from very different backgrounds, but one thing brings them together: a passion for adventure and testing the limits.

    Their goal: to follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest legends of the go...

  • Shackleton: The Story of Endurance

    Part 1 of 3.

    Explorers called it the 'Great White Silence', an inhospitable continent of rock, ice and snow on which no human has stepped until just over 100 years ago. Girdled by an ocean packed with shifting ice and beyond that, the roughest oceans on the planet with waves as tall as apartment...