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Documentary - 163 mins
Audience - General
Classification - Exempt
Region - 0
Format - PAL
Language - English

Product weight 350g

DVD compatibility



 

 DISC 1 - ASSAULT ON FORTRESS EUROPE - D-DAY

Early in the morning of 6th June 1944, a vast and bizarre armada ploughed steadily against stiff head-winds through the rough waters of the English Channel, heading for the Normandy coast.

Amongst the 5,000 vessels were many of the best British and American warships, of stupendous collective firepower, also ancient battleships and tankers on their last voyage, destined to be sunk to provide breakwaters. Thousands of the craft had been built to make one journey only and that a short one; to ferry the invading allied forces tougher with their immense diversity of equipment on the last difficult, dangerous stretch from the transports to the shore of enemy-occupied France. It was D-Day.

Conceived almost on the shores of Dunkirk, four years planning, two in the organising and one day in the execution, the landing in Normandy was easily the largest and most extraordinary combined military operation ever attempted. It was also a crucial one. By 1944 it was becoming clear that Germany would lose the war in Europe, who would win it was another matter.

Had D-Day failed and at times it came close to it, the western allies would have found it impossible to launch another operation for at least a year, perhaps more and today's map of Europe might have been very different. One of the millions taking part in the landings, Admiral Ramsey, was famous for his dislike of even the mildest exaggeration, as Overlord got under way, he told his officers "Gentlemen, I am sorry about all the superlatives, today they happen to be true." This is that story.

DISC 2 - BATTLE OF BRITAIN - THE FIGHT FOR THE SKY

"With the surrender of France on 22nd June 1940, Britain and her Commonwealth stood alone against the might of the German armed forces.

In that dark summer of 1940, the threat of invasion hung heavily over Britain and the children were once more evacuated to the country side. The Army was still recovering from its defeat in France and could offer no real defence against invasion. That Britain had a strategy to meet German threat was due to one man- Air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh Dowding.

Against enormous internal pressure, Dowding had resisted committing the majority of his Spitfire and Hurricane squadrons to the battle of the Continent, knowing that the major battle was yet to come - the Battle for Britain itself. Having preserved his squadrons, Dowding could now concentrate on his four-point master plane of defence:A fighter strike force of Spitfires and Hurricanes - A superbly flexible radar fighter direction system - A defence shield of anti-aircraft cover- And a brilliantly simple defence strategy, disrupting the bomber attacks before they could reach their targets, but ensuring enough air cover for the bases of the squadron involved in the Battle.

This documentary, using much newly discovered footage gives full justice to the exceptional Commander, Hugh Dowding; to Keith Parks, his second -in-command and to all the men and women who, during that dark summer of 1940, inflicted the defeat on German arms"

DISC 3 - DUNKIRK - BATTLE FOR FRANCE

"So long as the English tongue survives, the worst "Dunkerque" will be spoken with reverence... The glowing language, with which the New York Times greeted the extraordinary rescue of the beleaguered British Expeditionary Force from otherwise certain defeat and captivity on the continent, was in many ways typical of the time.

In Britain, despite Churchill's stern reminder that "wars are not won by evacuations", a tangle of myths quickly sprung up around Dunkirk, which came to be regarded almost as a major victory. A major victory it certainly was not. Dunkirk was a brilliantly executed withdrawal of land forces minus all their equipment across the Channel, following a series of unparalleled military disasters. Indeed, to the Germans, Dunkirk was virtually a sideshow.

Intent on completing the conquest of France, they no longer regarded the small British army as posing any significant threat. For the French, Dunkirk became a bitter symbol of British betrayal. Quarrels and misunderstanding had beset the Alliance, and at one stage the British were near to systematically deceiving their partner.

Yet the evacuation owed much to the unstinting bravery of the French troops fighting at the Dunkirk perimeter or beyond, and gratitude was not wanting. The visions conjured up of a ragged fleet and fishing boats yachts and dinghies sailing the channel, their pilots risking life and limb to save our soldiers from certain defeat and captivity, is vividly realised using very rare footage only recently obtained and painstakingly reassembled.

From the Back Cover

Also includes: Interactive Menus, Scene Selections, Stills Gallery

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