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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

During the years of World War Two, a short lived, but remarkable, organisation existed. The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a civilian service that was tasked with the delivery of aircraft from factories to the squadrons of the RAF and Royal Navy, and the delivery of supplies. Featuring pilots ...

Of all the clubs in the world, perhaps the most extraordinary is the Guinea Pig Club, a group of Second World War veterans that suffered terrible injuries and were then treated by pioneering surgeon Archibald McIndoe. Today there are only a handful left. Dan visits Jan Stangreciuk, one of the few...

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...

Dan interviews Romeo Vecht, a Jewish refugee captured and imprisoned in Spa, Belgium during the Second World War. This episode is part of a series of films revealing the experiences of children during the Holocaust.

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 ...

By 1944, a third of the civilian population in Britain was engaged in war work, including over 7 million women. From compiling weather reports, maintaining aircraft, serving on airfields or working in intelligence, the work of women was crucial in the fight against Nazi Germany. Alice Loxton trac...

Last summer, we were lucky enough to interview Wing Commander Tom Neil, one of the last of 'the Few' who fought in the Battle of Britain. During the Battle he shot down at least 13 enemy aircraft; he saw over half his squadron shot down within 5 minutes; he is also credited with the longest fligh...

Dan interviews Ruth Becker, a Jewish refugee in France during the Second World War. This episode is part of a series of films revealing the experiences of children during the Holocaust.

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...

Today, Adolf Hitler’s autobiography and Nazi manifesto is still sold all over the world, under the counter, on the internet or simply at the bookshop. This 700 page book, published in 1925, was re-edited numerous times since the death of the author. How was it written? Was Hitler really the autho...

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.