Historic Battles
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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...
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Essex Dogs: In the Footsteps of the Crécy Campaign
1 season
To tell the story behind the events of his novel 'Essex Dogs', Dan Jones goes on a special journey across Northern France for History Hit, following in the footsteps of Edward III and his English army on their Crécy Campaign - one of the earliest and bloodiest raids of the Hundred Years' War.
On...
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2 seasonsD-Day: The Soldiers Story
2 seasons
Using the raw, unvarnished accounts of the first young men ashore, presenter Giles Milton reveals an astonishing tale of fear, courage, and heroism.
D-Day was the greatest seaborne invasion in history: this immersive documentary follows the unfolding events through the experiences of those i... -
Rome’s Disaster: The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
2 seasons
Tristan Hughes investigates one of Rome’s greatest disasters, the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
The Battle of the Teutoburg forest stopped Roman expansion in its tracks. It’s a story of betrayal, of one man’s vehement desire to liberate his people from Roman rule and the brutal, bloody length...
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The Battle of Towton: Was It Really the Bloodiest in English History?
1 season
The Battle of Towton in 1461 has long held the distinction of being the largest and bloodiest battle on English soil. A decisive moment in the Wars of the Roses, it saw the Yorkist Edward IV defeat his Lancastrian rival Henry VI and claim the English throne. But are claims that the number of deat...
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Battle of Britain: Three Days that Saved the Nation
1 season
July 10th 1940 is officially the start of the Battle of Britain. To mark that summer of aerial warfare, History Hit is showing this special documentary series.
With Hitler determined to bring Britain to its knees, Nazi bombers unleashed a campaign of terror. From north to south, the skies were...
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1 seasonWaterloo's Warriors
1 season
The army that defeated Napoleon at Waterloo is often remembered as an iconic English redcoat force. A little known fact is that most of the men under the Duke of Wellington's command weren't English at all. Using unpublished accounts, the story of the battle is told from the perspective of those ...
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1 seasonBattle Honours
1 season
An extraordinary war demanded extraordinary soldiers. Forged into elite bands of brothers by facing the trials of war together, these are the stories of the Second World War's most famous fighting formations and their journey through tragedy and triumph to earn their battle honours.
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Finding the Lost Battlefield of Brunanburh
The Battle of Brunanburh was one of the bloodiest and biggest battles of early medieval history. Fought 1100 years ago, Athelstan - the king of the English - opposed a coalition of Irish, Scots, Northumbrians and Vikings and won a decisive victory. The enemy shield wall was penetrated. Their troo...
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Edgehill: A Fight of Spite and Spleen
When Charles I acceded to the throne in 1625, there was every reason to hope his reign would be as peaceful and prosperous as any. But by 1642, after almost two decades of religious aggravation and personal ‘tyranny’, tensions reached boiling point. The chance for peaceful resolution and diplomat...
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D-Day - 24 Hours in Normandy
At 07.37 on 6th June 1944, the ramps of the landing craft carrying the men of A and D companies 6th battalion Green Howards went down, and the men stormed up the beaches.
It was D-Day.
Now Dr James Rogers is going to put D-Day under the microscope, following in the footsteps of the men of the ...
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Total Victory: The Battle of Trafalgar
Victory was total. An enemy fleet obliterated. The course of a great war determined. A hero struck down and a legend born. In October 1805 the British Royal Navy defeated the combined battle fleets of the French and Spanish empires 20 miles northwest of a promontory of rock and sand in southern S...
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The Battle of Agincourt with Mike Loades
Legend of popular history Mike Loades provides Dan a detailed run down of Henry V's famous victory at Agincourt on 25 October 1415 and how his men were more a band of brigands than a 'band of brothers'. They discuss the arms, the armour, the tactics and the popular myths today associated with the...
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Arnhem: Battle for the Bridges
Operation Market Garden was the Allied operation to end the Second World War by Christmas 1944. The brainchild of Bernard Montgomery, it involved the combined use of airborne and armoured divisions carving a path through the Netherlands, securing several vital bridges, bypassing the formidable Si...
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The Battle of Okinawa
On 1 April 1945, as the Second World War in Europe was reaching its end, one of the bloodiest battles in the whole conflict commenced on a small island south of mainland Japan. It was the Battle of Okinawa. Saul David comes on the show to provide a fascinating rundown of this truly horrific battle.
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The Crusaders' Last Battle for the Holy Land
Roger Crowley is the author of the new book, Accursed Tower: The Crusaders' Last Battle for the Holy Land. The city of Acre, powerfully fortified and richly provisioned, was the last crusader stronghold. When it fell in 1291, two hundred years of Christian crusading in the Holy Land came to a blo...
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Battle of Hastings: The English Camp
Dan Snow visits the Saxon camp at the Battle of Hastings reenactment where the Anglo Saxons are preparing for battle.
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1066: The Year of Conquest
1066 - one of the most famous years in English history. In a succession crisis like no other three warlords separated by hundreds of miles and savage seas vied for control of the English throne in a series of bloody battles. From Harald Hardrada's crowning victory at Fulford to the renowned Battl...
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The Making of Wellington: The Battle of Vimeiro
On 21st of August 1808, the 39-year-old Sir Arthur Wellesley (later to become the Duke of Wellington) stood at the head of an Anglo-Portuguese army numbering approximately 14,000.
His army was positioned on the blind side of a slope, awaiting the advance of a French Army under General Jean-Ando...
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The Battle of Britain
In June 1940 Nazi Germany overran France and forced the British army to evacuate at Dunkirk. Severely lacking in military equipment, Britain and her empire now stood alone against Adolf Hitler's forces. Nevertheless Winston Churchill, Britain's new prime minister, refused to come to peace terms, ...
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St Helena: Napoleon's Last Battlefield
Napoleon was one of the most significant soldiers and statesmen in world history. And his last years spent on the remote island of St Helena only adds to the fascination of his story.
Dan Snow visits the key sites on St Helena, linked to Napoleon's stay on this island. St Helena has been COVID ...
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The Causes of the Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were one of the bloodiest periods in English history. After 30 years of conflict between the royal houses of Lancaster and York, the nobility was shattered, and the Plantagenet dynasty was ended. But what caused this long period of internecine violence? It's a story of such ...
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1 seasonThe 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.
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The Battle of China
Why We Fight is a series of seven propaganda films, produced by the US Army Signals Corps, under the direction of Frank Capra, between 1942 and 1945. The films were intended to be shown to US troops before they departed overseas. The mission of the films was two-fold: to provide an informative ov...
