Great Raids of World War II episode 4 – Storm at St. Nazaire: The great dry dock at St Nazaire was the only one on the Atlantic coast of occupied Europe large enough to repair Germany’s giant battleship Tirpitz. If it could be put out of action the chances of the Nazi raider threatening Britain’s Atlantic lifeline would be greatly […]
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Great Raids of World War II episode 3 – Radar Beam Raiders: As RAF Bomber Command began to strike back at Nazi Germany, it was soon suffering unsustainable losses from the Nazi air defence system. At its heart were as yet unidentified radar systems using wavelengths which urgently needed to be cracked. At last, in December 1941 a key German
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Great Raids of World War II episode 2: In late 1943, the Resistance asked for help – some of their top operatives were being held in Amiens prison and facing interrogation, torture and execution. They must be rescued. The plan which evolved depended on a very special aircraft – the Mosquito fighter-bomber – and the skill and courage of its
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Great Raids of World War II episode 1: It was Hitler’s deadliest secret – his scientists had promised him an atomic bomb. If he got it first, Nazi domination was assured. But the Germans needed one ingredient – heavy water – which was only produced in one factory – deep in the heart of occupied Norway. In 1943 a team
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Hitler’s Secret Weapons Manager: When SS General Hans Kammler, a key figure in the Nazis’ secret weapons programme, vanished in 1945 he was said to have taken his own life. Yet recently discovered documents cast doubt on this claim. ZDF History shows evidence of this for the first time. A US Air Force Secret Service document dated May 30, 1945
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Hitler Takes on the West episode 2: May 1940. France is in chaos. The French people take to the roads, trying to escape. The government signs an armistice as Germans take over half the country. The French and the English retreat desperately. In Dunkirk, there are more than 300,000 troops waiting to be transhipped in hundreds of ships, which perform
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Hitler Takes on the West episode 1: 1940 – Nine months after the onset of World War II, Hitler attacks the West – Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Great Britain – with intense violence. The “phoney war” ends, the real war begins, in an unleashing of violence never seen before. The devastating blitzkrieg exceeds all expectations in intensity and its
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Hitler’s People: A Portrait of the Third Reich part 2: On 18 February 1943 Joseph Goebbels held his notorious “Total War” speech about being “faithful to the last” at the Berlin Sportpalast. But the Reich’s defeat in Stalingrad a few weeks earlier shook the faith of the Germans in the “final battle”, which saw Germany crumbling more and more every
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Hitler’s People: A Portrait of the Third Reich part 1: On 30 January 1933 Adolf Hitler was appointed German Reichskanzler. Theoretically, he was only one further new head of government. But in the practice of the coming months, the head of the NSDAP managed to completely reconstruct the country and center it around his person. Terror became a principle of
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Rise of the Nazis episode 6: Facing defeat on the Eastern Front, Hitler retreats. Deep rifts emerge, and his inner circle vies for power. The resistance gets a student voice, and an enemy within plots to kill Hitler. A fresh perspective on how Hitler brutally seized and kept power – and the missed chances that could have stopped
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Rise of the Nazis episode 5: The Nazis have lost in Moscow. Hitler and Stalin take charge of their armies – with no-one to hold them back. In Stalin, Hitler has met his match – it’s now a fight to the death. A fresh perspective on how Hitler brutally seized and kept power – and the missed chances
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Rise of the Nazis episode 4: At the peak of his power, Hitler now faces fellow ruthless dictator Stalin. He tries to deceive Stalin with a plan to invade Britain, all while preparing an attack on the Soviet Union. A fresh perspective on how Hitler brutally seized and kept power – and the missed chances that could have
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