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BBC History Of World War II
''BBC History of World War II'' (1989–2005) is a 30-hour, 12- disc collection of 10 BBC television films about World War II. The films include documentaries, docudramas, and "dramatized documentaries" (inter-cutting of historical footage with dramatic recreations). The films :1. '' The Nazis: A Warning from History'' (1997, 6 Episodes, 290 minutes, 4:3 Full screen, 2 Discs) ::*Documentary on the reasons behind the rise and fall of the Nazis and of Nazi Germany. :2. '' The Road to War: Great Britain, Italy, Japan, USA'' (1989, 2 Episodes, 190 minutes, 4:3 Fullscreen, 1 Disc) ::*Documentary on how Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Italy, the Soviet Union, Japan and the USA entered the war. Narrator is Charles Wheeler. :3. ''Dunkirk'' (2004, 3 Episodes, 176 minutes, 16:9 Anamorphic, 1 Disc) ::*Docudrama on the evacuation from Dunkirk. :4. '' War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin'' (1999, 4 Episodes, 190 minutes, 4:3 Fullscreen, 1 Disc) ::*Documentary on the R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pacific War
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast Pacific Ocean theater, the South West Pacific theater, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Soviet–Japanese War. The Second Sino-Japanese War between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China had been in progress since 7 July 1937, with hostilities dating back as far as 19 September 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. However, it is more widely accepted that the Pacific War itself began on 7 December (8 December Japanese time) 1941, when the Japanese simultaneously invaded Thailand, attacked the British colonies of Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong as well as the United States military and naval bases in Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippines. The Pacific War saw the Allies pitted against Japan, the latter ai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden was an Allies of World War II, Allied military operation during the World War II, Second World War fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 27 September 1944. Its objective was to create a Salient (military), salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine, creating an Allies of World War II, Allied invasion route into northern Germany. This was to be achieved by two sub-operations: seizing nine bridges with combined U.S. and British airborne forces (Market) followed by land forces swiftly following over the bridges (Garden). The airborne operation was planned and undertaken by the First Allied Airborne Army with the land operation by XXX Corps (United Kingdom), XXX Corps of the Second Army (United Kingdom), British Second Army.The Battle for the Rhine 1944 by Robin Neillands, Chapter 4 The Road to Arnhem Although the largest airborne operation of the war up to that point, Market Garden's ultimate outcome remains debated: The operation s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Cobra
Operation Cobra was the codename for an Offensive (military), offensive launched by the United States First United States Army, First Army under Lieutenant General Omar Bradley seven weeks after the D-Day landings, during the Invasion of Normandy, Normandy campaign of World War II. The intention was to take advantage of the distraction of the Nazi Germany, Germans by the British and Canadian attacks around Caen in Operation Goodwood,Trew, p. 64 and thereby break through the German defenses that were penning in their forces while the Germans were unbalanced. Once a corridor had been created, the First Army would then be able to advance into Brittany, rolling up the German flanks once free of the constraints of the bocage country. After a slow start, the offensive gathered momentum and German resistance collapsed as scattered remnants of broken units fought to escape to the Seine. Lacking the resources to cope with the situation, the German response was ineffectual and the entire N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
D-Day To Berlin
''BBC History of World War II'' (1989–2005) is a 30-hour, 12- disc collection of 10 BBC television films about World War II. The films include documentaries, docudramas, and "dramatized documentaries" (inter-cutting of historical footage with dramatic recreations). The films :1. '' The Nazis: A Warning from History'' (1997, 6 Episodes, 290 minutes, 4:3 Full screen, 2 Discs) ::*Documentary on the reasons behind the rise and fall of the Nazis and of Nazi Germany. :2. '' The Road to War: Great Britain, Italy, Japan, USA'' (1989, 2 Episodes, 190 minutes, 4:3 Fullscreen, 1 Disc) ::*Documentary on how Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Italy, the Soviet Union, Japan and the USA entered the war. Narrator is Charles Wheeler. :3. ''Dunkirk'' (2004, 3 Episodes, 176 minutes, 16:9 Anamorphic, 1 Disc) ::*Docudrama on the evacuation from Dunkirk. :4. '' War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin'' (1999, 4 Episodes, 190 minutes, 4:3 Fullscreen, 1 Disc) ::*Documentary on the R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France (and later western Europe) and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours; a further postponement would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day that meant only a few days each month were d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
D-Day 6
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France (and later western Europe) and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours; a further postponement would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day that meant only a few days each month were d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Holmes (military Historian)
Edward Richard Holmes, CBE, TD, JP, VR (29 March 1946 – 30 April 2011), known as Richard Holmes, was a British military historian. He was co-director of Cranfield University's Security and Resilience Group from 1989 to 2009 and became Professor of Military and Security Studies at Cranfield in 1995. Early life and education Holmes was educated at Forest School, Walthamstow, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Northern Illinois University, and the University of Reading, where he was awarded a PhD in 1975. Military career In 1964, he enlisted in the Territorial Army, the volunteer reserve of the British Army. Two years later he received a commission as a second lieutenant with the Territorial Army, and was promoted to lieutenant on 17 June 1968. He was promoted to acting captain in 1972, substantive captain in 1973, acting major in 1978 and substantive major in 1980. In 1979, he was awarded the Territorial Decoration. Holmes was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1986, whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firebombing
Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs. In popular usage, any act in which an incendiary device is used to initiate a fire is often described as a "firebombing". This article is concerned with aerial incendiary bombing as a military tactic; for non-military (almost always criminal) acts, see ''arson''. Although simple incendiary bombs have been used to destroy buildings since the start of gunpowder warfare, World War I saw the first use of strategic bombing from the air to damage the morale and economy of the enemy, such as the German Zeppelin air raids conducted on London during the Great War. The Chinese wartime capital of Chongqing was firebombed by the Imperial Japanese starting in early 1939. London, Coventry, and many other British cities were firebombed during the Blitz by Germany. Most large German cities were extensi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became less restrictive and increasingly targeted industrial sites and the civilian manpower base essential for German war production. In total 364,514 operational sorties were flown, 1,030,500 tons of bombs were dropped and 8,325 aircraft lost in action. Bomber Command crews also suffered a high casualty rate: 55,573 were killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew, a 44.4% death rate. A further 8,403 men were wounded in action, and 9,838 became prisoners of war. Bomber Command stood at the peak of its post-war military power in the 1960s, the V bombers holding the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent and a supplemental force of Canberra light bombers. In August 2006, a memorial was unveiled at Lincoln Cathe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Arnhem
The Battle of Arnhem was a battle of the Second World War at the vanguard of the Allied Operation Market Garden. It was fought in and around the Dutch city of Arnhem, the town of Oosterbeek, the villages Wolfheze and Driel and the vicinity from 17 to 26 September 1944. The Allies were poised to enter the Netherlands after sweeping through France and Belgium in the summer of 1944, after the Battle of Normandy. Operation Market Garden was proposed by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, who favoured a single push northwards over the branches of the Lower Rhine River, allowing the British Second Army to bypass the Siegfried Line and attack the Ruhr. US Airborne troops were dropped in the Netherlands to secure bridges and towns along the line of the Allied advance. Farthest north, the British 1st Airborne Division landed at Arnhem to capture bridges across the Nederrijn (Lower Rhine), supported by men of the Glider Pilot Regiment and the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade. The Briti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Monte Cassino
The Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino, was a series of four assaults made by the Allies against German forces in Italy during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The ultimate objective was to break through the Winter Line, and facilitate an advance towards Rome. At the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was anchored by Germans holding the Rapido-Gari, Liri and Garigliano valleys and several of the surrounding peaks and ridges. Together, these features formed the Gustav Line. Monte Cassino, a historic hilltop abbey founded in 529 by the Benedict of Nursia, dominated the nearby town of Cassino and the entrances to the Liri and Rapido valleys. Lying in a protected historic zone, it had been left unoccupied by the Germans, although they manned some positions set into the slopes below the abbey's walls. Repeated artillery attacks on assaulting allied troops caused their leaders to conclude incorrectly that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
