The Twentieth Century has been the most violent in the history of our planet. In no other has war been so widespread or caused so much suffering and loss of life. While the human race has grown ever more sophisticated, the last one hundred years have reinforced the grim fact that war remains a pr...
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As the First World War began, the battleship ruled the waves, and the British Grand Fleet and German High Seas Fleet prepared for a mighty confrontation in the North Sea which could decide the course of the war. But when this came it was inconclusive, and soon the supremacy of the battleship itse...
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Aerial warfare came of age in the Second World War with ever-more sophisticated single-engine fighters grappling to achieve supremacy over each battlefield; close-support aircraft proving a crucial element in every attack; and strategic bombers devastating an enemy's cities and terrorising its ci...
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When Europe went to war in 1914 the heavier-than-air flying machine had been invented for little more than a decade. Within four years agile fighters were dogfighting for supremacy over the frontlines, ground attack aircraft were supporting every offensive, and long-range bombers were attacking e...
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The German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 finally dashed all hope that the conflict of 1914-18 had been the war to end all wars. Britain and France swiftly honoured their pledge to Poland and declared war on Germany, but then seemed as indecisive about how to defeat Hitler militarily as t...
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Since 1945 the Middle East has never been free of conflict. While that between the Arabs and Israelis has dominated, many other wars have taken place. Given the strategic and economic importance of the region, UN and other international forces have often been hard put to contain the violence.This...
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Indo-China has witnessed conflict from the end of World War II until the present day. It was dominated by North Vietnam's twenty year struggle to impose its will on the non-communist South.This episode charts the American involvement in the Vietnam War, one that eventually ended in disillusionmen...
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As the Twentieth Century dawned, the world was enjoying a period of peace and prosperity that had seldom been experienced before. Yet just over a decade later this apparently stable era had collapsed into a massive war which involved all the major European powers.This programme describes the worl...
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At the end of June 1940, the world stood stunned. Hitler's dazzling victories of the past three months had brought Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and France under his sway. German military might seemed invincible; only one state stood out against it. This was Europe's last...
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By the beginning of 1918 the guns on the Western Front had been thundering for more than three years, yet victory for either side seemed as far off as ever. But in reality, the German High Command knew that it must win the war swiftly or perish under the sheer weight of American power which was f...
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The long shadow of the struggle on the Western Front was to haunt succeeding generations. The horrors of the trench warfare and the slaughter of millions in futile attacks against barbed wire and machine-guns, came as a four-year nightmare to men who had marched cheerfully to war in 1914 confiden...
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Just before dawn on the 22 June 1941 a massive artillery barrage heralded 'Operation Barbarossa' - Hitler's assault on the Soviet Union. Within hours the Panzers were thrusting deep into enemy territory at the start of a gargantuan struggle whose intensity was not equalled by any other Second Wor...
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