Auctioneer Paul Laidlaw provides a tour of Laidlaw's Militaria collection in Carlisle, which is home to the only known surviving blueprint of the British Mark I Tank.

Dan Snow steps aboard the RRS Discovery in Dundee, the first purpose built scientific research vessel for the Antarctic. Guided around the ship by Ali Gellatly, he learns what life and adventure was like aboard this unique vessel.

The legendary polar explorer Captain Scott commanded Discovery's...

In 1845, a British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin departed England aboard two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. The expedition was assigned to traverse the last unnavigated sections of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic and to record magnetic data to help ...

In this fascinating interview, Dan Snow chats to the world's greatest living explorer Ranulph Fiennes about Ernest Shackleton and his heroic expeditions in the Golden Age of Antarctic Exploration.

In the deadly skies over war torn Europe, one unit led America's fight with Hitler. Daring aerial warriors who sacrificed all to destroy the Nazi war machine. Relentlessly attacking deep into the heart of the Reich, no matter the odds or cost. They were the 8th US Army Airforce - the Mighty Eighth.

Throughout World War Two, one unit came to define elite military excellence in the American Army. Superb warriors, pushed to the limits in the most difficult missions ever conceived. From assaulting African beaches, to clearing the mountains of Italy and scaling French cliffs, they were the US Ar...

During World War Two, when things looked at their worst, an elite American Airbourne Unit was created for the most extreme combat missions. They were the first US soldiers to set foot in Nazi-occupied France, who took part in the biggest airbourne assault in history and stood firm in Hitler's las...

During the Second World War, a British Unit won fame as pioneers of armoured warfare. They were one of Churchill's favoured divisions, who tackled Hitler's most feared commanders and his worst war machines... at great cost.

Fighting all the way from the baking sands of the desert, to the hedger...

In Britain's Darkest Hour, a new force of crack troops was founded. Trained for combat behind enemy lines, they descended from the skies to take part in some of the most daring raids of the Second World War.

From the deadly deserts of North Africa to a heroic stand at Arnhem, they established t...

Re-join Leutnant Friedrich Sander, a Panzer officer in the German Wehrmacht as he continues his journey into the heart of the Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa.

In Part two, we pick up with Sander as the Russian weather starts to turns, the German advance begins to stutter and the So...

In 1945, as the Red Army arrived at the edge of Warsaw, it was confronted by a sea of destruction, rubble, ash and misery. Arriving as "liberators", the shadow of the Soviet Union would soon loom large over a population brutalised by five long years of Nazi occupation - a population that had los...

During the Second World War, one US Army Infantry Division repeatedly proved itself as America's finest. Leading the way into action in Africa, Italy and on to bloody Omaha Beach, lightly armed G.I.s who stood their ground against Hitler's best SS Panzers.

They are the 1st Infantry Division - t...

It was the war to end all wars. In 1914, catastrophe struck Europe as great power diplomacy failed and alliance systems mobilised vast armies against one another in a conflict that dragged on in bloody stalemate for four long years. Nations geared their entire economies towards victory and called...

Follow the path of Leutnant Friedrich Sander, a Panzer officer in the German Wehrmacht during Operation Barbarossa, the attack on the Soviet Union.

In the first part of a two-part film, we follow Leutnant Sander on the strenuous, and costly race towards Leningrad and learn about the murderous a...

In August 1941, the Allies launched Operation Dervish. This was the first of the Arctic Convoys, ships which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland and North America, and brought essential supplies to the Soviet Union.

After the successful launch of Operation Barbarossa, the USSR was in despe...

Between 1919 and 1921, Ireland played host to a long and bloody guerrilla conflict between British state forces and Irish republican guerrillas, in the form of Irish Volunteers or the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The conflict would completely transform the political landscape in Ireland.

In this...

After the country's occupation in 1939, the people of Poland were brutally oppressed by the Nazi SS and Geheime Staatspolizei. Yet, they never gave up the fight. Throughout the Second World War, a Polish Underground State was established - the largest underground resistance movement in all of occ...

In this poignant interview, Lord Saye and Sele shares his unique story from the Second World War, which began on D-Day, 6 June 1944.

Launched on 14 February 1939, the German flagship and pride of the Kriegsmarine, Bismarck was launched. In the darkness of the early morning of the 19 May 1941, Bismarck slipped out of harbour on the Baltic coast and started making its way through the Baltic Sea on its maiden voyage, Operation Rh...

The Battle of the Somme, which began on 1 July 1916, is remembered as one of the bloodiest events of the First World War. On the first day of the offensive, one man was killed every 4.4 seconds, making it the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army. There were over a million casua...

After their country was invaded in 1939 on two fronts, by both German and Soviet forces, those who lived in occupied Poland throughout the Second World War endured some of the most appalling living conditions and became the victims of the most horrific war crimes of the Holocaust. From the ghetto...

20 miles north-east of Warsaw lies the small Polish town of Radzymin. Forgotten by history, this region is home to Jaktory House, a small manor house or dwór which has been at the centre of some of the most remarkable and violent history of the twentieth century. Napoleon was here, Lenin was here...