Their Finest Hours • 2019 • episode "S1E2" • Presidents at War

25:27

The Story of Aerial Photographic Reconnaissance The fascinating story with newly released footage on how flying high and fast, and often unarmed, aircraft brought back valuable intelligence on the enemy in both war and peace. Sometimes they did not return. We have come a long way since the first few silk-suited aerostiers of the French revolution ascended in tethered balloons to scan the battlefield through wobbly telescopes. In just 230 years, humanity has progressed from its first faltering flights to the capability to photograph from space an object the size of a grapefruit - a testament both to technological progress and our need to keep a close eye on the world around us. From the days of artillery-spotting balloons the extensive use of aerial reconnaissance began in the Great War and has continued throughout wartime and peacetime. Newly released footage shows the dangers that these planes faced flying high and fast in enemy territory. Many of these reconnaissance planes were unarmed with only their wits to guide them safely back home. Some however never returned.

18/20 • The True Action Adventures of the Twentieth Century • 1996 • History

81:30

Actor Clive Standon travels across Europe with Viking experts to discover how the Vikings were able to invade England and France. In Rise of the Pagans,Vikings actors Clive Standen and Maude Hirst travel to Scandinavia to explore the pagan beliefs and warrior culture of the Vikings-and dispel myths about their violent society.

S1E1 • Real Vikings • 2016 • History

44:30

The Teutonic Knights were one of the great chivalric orders that emerged from the Crusades, alongside the Hospitallers and Templars. The Teutonic Knights evolved out of a "fraternity" of German crusaders who took part in the siege of Acre during the Third Crusade. 'Help, defend, Heal' was the motto of the 'Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem', the Teutonic Order. It was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals.

S1E2 • The Crusaders • 2019 • History

177:37

Ch1. Barbarossa Focuses on the Eastern Front during the Second World War, which many see as the defining arena of the conflict. In the autumn of 1940, Adolf Hitler has to decide what to do about the Soviet Union and its leader Joseph Stalin. He offers to carve up the post-war world in exchange for his fellow dictator's support in the war against Britain, but is actually preparing an attack on the USSR. Ch2. Stalingrad In January 1942 the German army loses the battle for Moscow and a furious Hitler sacks or side-lines his top generals and appoints himself commander-in-Chief of the army. He decides on a bold new plan, focusing his forces on seizing the Soviets oil fields and stealing the fuel from the Red Army to supply his own. Stalin unveils his own plan to drive the Germans out of the Soviet Union by launching a huge offensive from Leningrad to the Black Sea. Zhukov warns him that the Red Army is in no shape to attack, but Stalin banishes the former chief of the general staff to the front and takes control. Ch3. The Home Front Hitler retreats from public life as he faces defeat on the Eastern Front after the Red Army's triumph at Stalingrad, with senior Nazis competing to prove themselves as his most valuable deputy, and each has a different strategy. Meanwhile, student resistance group the White Rose call on the youth of Germany to rise up and overthrow Hitler and the Nazi party, and Claus von Stauffenberg is part of a military resistance network who are planning to kill Hitler.

S2 • Rise of the Nazis • 2019 • History

50:15

Mao Zedong, Supreme Leader of Communist China for 30 years, is one of the 20th Century's most ruthless tyrants. His reign of cruelty and revenge, transforms him to a position of authority so great, his personality cult remains to this day.

5/10 • Evolution of Evil • 2015 • History

50:02

Japanese General, Hideki Tojo is a cold blooded control freak, who takes millions to their deaths in the dirtiest war ever known. This is the story of the dictator responsible for Pearl Harbor, an Asian Holocaust and the torture of thousands of POWs.

4/10 • Evolution of Evil • 2015 • History