Documentary - 280 mins
Audience - General
Classification - Exempt
Region - 2
Format - PAL
Language - English

Product weight 450g

DVD compatibility

 

Disc 1. Face to Face

The vast majority of men involved in the second World War, five out of six, never experienced combat, serving instead in the huge support services that kept the war machine going. The men who were actually at the front lived through some of the greatest horrors of the human experience. Their story was one of a constant struggle to stay alive while experiencing appalling suffering and being pushed beyond the limits of hope.

Disc 2. Battleground

World War Two was truly a global conflict. The fighting raged from the desert sands of Africa to the islands in the Pacific. Allied troops fought in every theatre exposing them to an extraordinary diversity of terrain and climate. Each theatre could produce conditions of dreadful severities. While an infantryman was engaged in combat for an average of one hour each day, he was at war with the environment around the clock.

Rain, mud, extreme cold, deserts, mountains and jungles each presented unique challenges and inflicted extreme hardships on the servicemen who faced them. Soldiers confronted these obstacles with amazing fortitude, finding ways to endure while struggling to defeat the human enemies who also blocked their path to victory. In all the battles of World War 2, terrain was paid for in blood. Thousands of men found their final resting place in the ground for which they fought. This programme is a testament to the courage and sacrifice made by those who paid the ultimate price for victory.

They persevered through an ordeal that is difficult to understand without having experienced it first hand. Their struggle to deal with the feelings churning through them during and after battle was called ‘the sharpest end', an agonising place filled with horror and uncertainty. Until the fighting was over and for most men, long after, dealing with the effects of combat was the toughest battle of all. Shot in colour, this remarkable programme takes us right to the front lines and into the daily lives of the combatants taking on their enemy face to face.

Disc 3. Air War

Of all the assignments a serviceman might find himself undertaking during WW2, flying seemed to offer the greatest promise of glory. The world's air forces were relatively new and elite. Aviation was the wave of the future and new aircraft were built that employed equipment and designs that were on the cutting edge of technology.

Many strategists even predicted that air-power would be the decisive factor in the waging of modern warfare. What was not apparent to anyone in the early years of the conflict was that flying would become the most dangerous job of the war. Indeed, a flyer had less chance of survival than any other serviceman in any other branch of the military. This was an aspect of the air-war that no one had anticipated, particularly the men who flew the planes. During the war, over 130 thousand allied airmen perished whilst those who survived were permanently changed by the experience. Their perseverance in the face of daunting circumstances is a testament to the strength and resilience of the human spirit.

Disc 4. Anchors Aweigh

For the sailors and submariners who fought in World War Two, combat at sea differed radically from any previous conflict. Indeed, naval warfare changed more between 1941 and 1945 than it had in the previous 400 years. The tasks the sailors performed were far more complex and technically demanding than they ever were before. The threats they faced were also much more lethal.

Whether battling Kamikazes aboard a huge warship or guiding troops to the shore off a tiny landing craft, these men faced dangers that the sailors of World War I could never have imagined. Under the waves there was a branch of the military which went quietly about its business. It was a small division of the Navy known as the Submarine Force, dubbed the Silent Service. It was a frightful existence here the elite sailors had little chance of escape when disaster struck. The submarine itself often became a steel coffin.In World War II a sailor's vessel was both his home and attleground. A place where he could find comfort and pleasure or danger and death. It was a movable fortress city at sea, but one with a heart of flesh and blood.

Disc 5. Homefront

World War Two was the most extensive armed conflict in recorded history. It touched the lives of nearly every person on four continents. The millions of combatants and various armed services bore the brunt of this devastating global war. However a struggle of this magnitude was not limited to the fighting forces alone.

The civilian populations of the countries involved also endured their share of hardship and sacrifice. Severe war-time conditions were often inflicted on those least able to cope with them - women, children and the elderly. Their homeland embroiled in total war, they bravely shouldered their war-time duties while suffering the over-whelming burden of materials shortages, personal hardship and concern for their loved ones overseas. This extensive programme takes a detailed look at Britain and America's homefront efforts.

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