VE Day Collection
4 Seasons
8 May is Victory in Europe Day, celebrating the end of the Second World War in Europe.
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44:03Episode 1
Countdown to War: Episode 1
Episode 1
JJ Chalmers and Raksha Dave tell the dramatic story of the countdown to World War II.
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43:53Episode 2
Countdown to War: Episode 2
Episode 2
On 2nd September 1939, tension rises as RAF recruits deploy and London braces for war.
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44:52Episode 3
Countdown to War: Episode 3
Episode 3
JJ Chalmers and Raksha Dave recount 3rd September 1939, when Britain declared war.
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25:58Episode 4
Britain's Darkest Hour
Episode 4
The host of History Hit's 'Warfare' podcast James Rogers sits down with author and military historian John Buckley in the (IWM) Churchill War Rooms to discuss his new book: 'The Armchair General: Can You Defeat the Nazis?'
Listen to the Warfare podcast here: https://play.acast.com/s/the-world-wa...
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18:03Episode 5
May 1940: Churchill's Finest Hour
Episode 5
It was a moment of mortal peril. Britain reeled from a series of devastating military defeats. Its politicians faced one of the most monumental decisions in 20th century history. Faced with a rampant Germany on the continent led by the fascist dictator Adolf Hitler, should Britain fight? Or make ...
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59:59Episode 6
The Lancaster Bomber
Episode 6
The Lancaster Bomber tells how, as Bomber Command’s most destructive weapon, it went on to become instrumental in the defeat of Nazi Germany during the second world war.
With contributions from military historians Alexandra Churchill, Dr Peter Johnston and James Holland, authors Leo McKinstry (L...
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The Room Where It Happened: The Yalta Conference
Episode 7
It's February 1945. War in Europe is still raging, but the end is in sight. Nazi Germany is surrounded by the allied armies. Hitler has sought sanctuary in his bunker under the ruins of his chancellery in Berlin never to be seen in public again. Meanwhile the war in the Pacific rumbles on. A vici...
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22:55Episode 8
Secrets of the Churchill War Rooms
Episode 8
Winston Churchill, wartime Prime Minister of Great Britain and its empire during the Second World War, is one of the most recognisable figures of world history. The man dominated Whitehall and Westminster, but many of his most vital decisions during the war years were taken away from the public e...
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1:16:33Episode 9
Germany's Wars: One Man's Life
Episode 9
From the trenches of WW1 to rise of Hitler and the Nazis, never before seen diaries & photos reveal the life of German Soldier & Teacher Wilhelm Kurtz.
Hidden away since his death in 1982, they are part of an extraordinary archive of documents and personal photographs from the frontline of histo...
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The Air War: The Escalation of Allied Bombing
Episode 10
During the Second World War a storm of fire and steel was unleashed. Not just on front line troops, but on enemy society itself. All sides in the Second World War believed that aerial bombardment could decisively affect the strategic outcome of the conflict. But did the unprecedented onslaught fr...
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The Lost Sailors - Solving a World War II Mystery
Episode 11
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...
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55:11Episode 12
Secrets of Hitler's Island Fortress
Episode 12
Guernsey and its neighbouring islands have a unique distinction which sets them apart from the rest of the British Isles. Together with the rest of the Channel Islands, they were the only part of the British Isles to fall to Nazi Germany in the Second World War. In this documentary Dan Snow disco...
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20:12Episode 13
Hunt for the U-576
Episode 13
A team of maritime archaeologists descends 700 feet off the coast of North Carolina in search of the U-576, a German submarine that went down in a historic 1942 battle, possibly trapping 45 Nazi sailors inside.
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1:52:33Episode 14
Stalingrad: The Last Letters
Episode 14
Stalingrad: The Last Letters, a History Hit Original feature-length documentary, revealing newly translated, never-before heard accounts that shed light on the agonising final moments of the men trapped in the ruins of Stalingrad during the Second World War.
Discovered and translated by renowned...
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44:28Episode 15
Hitler vs Stalin: Not One Step Back
Episode 15
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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42:39Episode 16
Hitler vs Stalin: Last Man Standing
Episode 16
After four months of heavy fighting, German commander Paulus and his troops had succeeded in pushing the Soviet's from out of the centre of the city and to within 800 metres of the Volga.
Victory seemed within their grasp, but what Paulus and Hitler didn't know was that Zhukov and Stalin were pl...
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Swordfish: World War II's Surprising Aircraft and the Raid that Changed History
Episode 17
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...
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The Savage Storm: The Allied Invasion of Italy - Part One
Episode 18
The Italian campaign in September 1943, spearheaded by the US 5th and British 8th Armies, is one of the most dramatic campaigns of the entire Second World War - it was here that Hitler’s ‘Fortress Europe’ would finally be pierced. The first, tentative steps to total Allied victory. But lacking th...
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The Savage Storm: The Allied Invasion of Italy - Part Two
Episode 19
The Italian campaign in September 1943, spearheaded by the US 5th and British 8th Armies, is one of the most dramatic campaigns of the entire Second World War - it was here that Hitler’s ‘Fortress Europe’ would finally be pierced. By the beginning of October, after a tough fight to gain a foothol...
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The Savage Storm: The Allied Invasion of Italy - Part Three
Episode 20
In this third episode - “The Road to Rome" - James continues his journey following the men of the Allied forces towards the campaign's conclusion.