World War One
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They Shall Not Grow Old: In Conversation with Peter Jackson
They Shall Not Grow Old is a remarkable new documentary made by Peter Jackson. The Oscar-winning director has restored and colourised World War One footage from the Imperial War Museum, adding a soundtrack with original audio and transforming the entire project into 3D. In doing so, he has create...
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Africa and War
The first shot fired by British forces in the First World War was fired by an African soldier in Africa. Historian David Olusoga presents three 1418 Now art commissions that will highlight the often overlooked role played by African soldiers.
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Untold Stories of World War One
Dan Snow introduces four projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council over the last four years, highlighing underexplored aspects of First World War history, from German wartime photography to miltary training in Northern Ireland.
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The Untold Story of the Unknown Warrior
The First World War was a conflict like nothing the World had ever known. More than 700,000 men mobilised in the UK would die during the conflict. Roughly 250,000 of those would have no known grave. The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior became a place where all those people who were denied a grave to v...
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WW1: The Final Hours
On 8 November 1918, an Englishman, a Frenchman and a German gathered in secret, on a train carriage in a forest near Paris. Their meeting would last for three days. Its aim: bring peace to Europe, and an end to four long years of brutal and deadly war.
One hundred years after the end of the Firs...
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The Aftermath of World War One
Today Dan is joined by Margaret MacMillan, professor at St. Antony's College at Oxford University and author of Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War. Together they discuss the effects WWI had on the world, and how Europe began to rebuild in the years that fol...
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Forgotten Faces of the Great War: The Chinese Labour Corps
China started out as a neutral country during the First World War. But by early 1917, one thousand Chinese men were on their way to the Western Front. Tens of thousands more would follow, to provide logistical support to the Allies. They constituted one of the largest labour corps of the war. The...
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Fighting Proud: A Gay History of the World Wars
At the end of World War Two the British public wanted to get back to ‘normal’. The gay men who had served their King and country found themselves subjected to a vigorous enforcement of the draconian law that would put them into prison if they were found guilty of indecency. But servicemen living ...
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1916
Last year audiences around the world were astounded by Sam Mendes' incredible World War One epic, 1917. This autumn, Dan Snow was invited to take a look at a recreated World War One trench network in the UK, built by military historian Taff Gillingham. In homage to 1917, we decided to film this w...
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The Cutting Edge: Tanks in World War One
On 15 September 1916 the battlefield changed forever. At Flers-Courcelette, during the brutal, bloody fighting on the Somme, the British army released a new weapon designed to combat the devastating power of the machine gun: the tank. Moving on caterpillar tracks and protected by plated armour, t...