Before the masses arrived by sea on D-Day, the brave few came from the air. This archive documentary follows the operations of the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, who landed behind enemy lines to prepare the way for the D-Day landings.

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...

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 February 1942, the Second World War came to Australia. The same Japanese fleet that had attacked Pearl Harbor only ten weeks before had set its sights on a new target. The harbour town of Darwin. In two separate attacks on February 19 1942, nearly 250 Japanese aircraft wreaked havoc on the lig...

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...

Max Eisen was only 15 when he and his family were taken from their Hungarian home to the infamous Auschwitz Concentration Camp during the Second World War. All of his relatives were killed; only Max survived to see VE Day and eventual liberation. 74 years on from being liberated, he talks about t...

Recently Dan met D-Day Veteran and Chelsea Pensioner George Skipper at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. After being called in to the British Army in 1940 as an eighteen year old, by June 1944 he was already a veteran of the North African campaign. During the D-Day landings, George and his regiment lan...

Of all the air raids carried out during World War Two, none are as enduringly famous as the attack by Lancaster Bombers against the dams of Germany’s industrial heartland. Commemorated in literature and film throughout the decades, the mission – which was codenamed Operation ‘Chastise’ – has come...

Having been defeated by Nazi Germany in the Battle for France of April and May 1940, French resistance fighters carried on the underground struggle, causing difficulty for the German occupiers, and supplying the Allies in Britain with much needed intelligence in the build up to D-Day. An archive ...

Historian Rishi Sharma is a man on a unique mission, a mission to interview every living World War II combat veteran of the allied forces that he can. In the seven years since he left high school Rishi has travelled through every state and across the globe, often sleeping in his car, to film over...

Once the beach heads were secure on 6 June 1944, the Allies faced a huge battle for the domination of northern France. Despite landing over 1 million men and having vast air superiority over the German defenders, the Battle for Normandy continued for two more months. In August, several German arm...

He is a German Luftwaffe ace with 81 confirmed victories on the Eastern front. Now a 95-year-old veteran, his talent and courage remain legendary throughout the world. It is the most iconic British fighter ever built. The hum of its Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the wonderful elliptical wing, and th...

March 1944: 76 Allied airmen escaped through a tunnel from their prisoner of war camp deep in occupied Poland. Their aim was not only to get back to Britain and rejoin the war, but also to cause as much inconvenience for the German war machine as possible. Within a few days, all but 3 had been re...

This short film includes contains remarkable footage from several beaches on D-Day - but particularly Sword. You can clearly see just how tiny some of the Allied beach heads were in the immediate aftermath of the invasion - a huge amount of men, tanks, guns and supplies were being shipped into ve...

Marina Amaral is a Brazilian artist. Her remarkable colourisations of original photographs have been compiled in the recent book The Colour of Time: A New History of the World, 1850-1960, authored with Dan Jones. In this video, some of the most famous photographs of the Allied landings during Ope...

Over the course of his 106 years, Doctor William Frankland has experienced more than most. He served with the Royal Medical Corps during World War Two, spending more than three years as a prisoner of war of the Japanese following the fall of Singapore. After the war, his medical career focused on...

Over 55,500 men died flying with Bomber Command during World War Two; more than the number who serve in the Royal Air Force today. Flying at night over occupied Europe and battling German night fighters, anti-aircraft fire and mid-air collisions, they showed astonishing courage and resilience in ...