The sinking of the Laconia - EP1

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Audio 2:.....................German - English Subs
Picture:...................Colour
Runtime:..................1Hr26mins
Size:........................550Mb

The first of a two-part drama by Alan Bleasdale telling the story of the passengers and crew of the RMS Laconia, which was torpedoed by a U-boat in 1942.Six hundred miles off the west coast of Africa, the mixture of civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian PoWs faced certain death,until the German commander responsible for the attack decided to move in to help rescue the survivors.

der Adler 1939 1-9

Sink the Tirpitz

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................Colour - B&W
Runtime:..................1Hr10mins
Size:........................936Mb

While that damned ship is afloat, she will be a constant menace to all our shipping. Churchill called her 'Hitler's Beast'. Launched in April 1939, the giant German battleship Tirpitz could out-fight anything in the Royal Navy. One-sixth of a mile long, with a crew of 2,400 and capable of speeds close to 40mph, the Tirpitz was also armed with a full battery of seventy-two guns, including eight 15" guns capable of sending a 2,000lb shell over twenty miles. She posed a formidable threat to Britain's sea lanes and convoys - and the fear of her sheer destructive power was so great that sinking her became a personal obsession of PrimeMinister Churchill. Using dramatic reconstructions, computer graphics and rare original footage Sink the Tirpitz! tells the gripping story of the Allies' attempts to destroy this awesome warship.

Collapse of France

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................Colour - B&W
Runtime:..................47mins
Size:........................2.09Gb

During the winter of 1939-40 the French army and the German Wehrmacht faced one another in what was regarded satirically as the sitzkrieg, or sit-down war. The world waited in anticipation of a major conflict between two powerful forces. On May 13, 1940, a bridgehead was established at Sedan, considered the gateway to France, and then suddenly, on May 16, a day after the Dutch capitulation, the German blitzkrieg was released on northern France. German mechanized forces outflanked the Maginot Line, surprised the Allies by attacking through the wooded Ardennes rather than the Belgian plain, and drove the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from the Continent at Dunkirk ( Dunkerque). On June 5 the Germans launched another offensive southward from the Somme. They entered Paris unopposed on June 14 and forced France to sign an armistice at Compiègne on June 22, 1940.

Hitlers Spies

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................B&W - Colour
Runtime:..................45mins
Size:........................350Mb

During World War II, German intelligence spread its tentacles across the globe, operating throughout occupied and neutral Europe, and even as far afield as the United States. We'll see how German intelligence proved a formidable foe, and how in the end it was totally compromised from its center.This program provides an overview of German espionage from 1870 to 1945. The origins and development of the secret 'services' which Germany used to collect intelligence and to counter the activities of other countries are discussed. There are famous spies and unknown operatives involved in the dangerous and mundane activities of the professional "spy". A useful contrast to the fabulous world of Hollywood spies and secret agents, this documentary explores the unglamorous but nonetheless dangerous world of the espionage agent.

Ken Burns - the War EP7

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................B&W - Colour
Runtime:..................1Hr09mins
Size:........................1.36Gb

In spring 1945, although the numbers of dead and wounded have more than doubled since D-Day, the people of Mobile,Sacramento, Waterbury and Luverne understand all too well that there will be more bad news from the battlefield
before the war can end. That March, when Americans go to the movies, President Franklin Roosevelt warns them in a newsreel that although the Nazis are on the verge of collapse, the final battle with Japan could stretch on for years.In the Pacific, Eugene Sledge of Mobile is once again forced to enter what he calls “the abyss” in the battle for the island of Okinawa — the gateway to Japan. Glenn Frazier of Alabama, one of 168,000 Allied prisoners of war still in Japanese hands, celebrates the arrival of carrier planes overhead, but despairs of ever getting out of Japan alive.

Ken Burns - the War EP6

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................B&W - Colour
Runtime:..................1Hr57mins
Size:........................1.36Gb

By December 1944, Americans have become weary of the war their young men have been fighting for three long years; the stream of newspaper headlines telling of new losses and telegrams bearing bad news from the War Department seem endless and unendurable.In the Pacific, American progress has been slow and costly, with each island more fiercely defended than the last. In Europe, no one is prepared for the massive counterattack Hitler launches on December 16 in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and Luxemburg. Tom Galloway of Mobile, Burnett Miller of Sacramento and Ray Leopold of Waterbury are there, among the Americans caught up in the biggest battle on the Western Front — the Battle of the Bulge. Back home, Katharine Phillips of Mobile and Burt Wilson of Sacramento are shocked to see newspaper headlines showing the Germans on the offensive and begin to wonder, “Are we losing now that we’re this close?”

Ken Burns - the War EP5

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................B&W - Colour
Runtime:..................2Hr04mins
Size:........................1.36Gb

By September 1944, in Europe at least, the Allies seem to be moving steadily toward victory. “Militarily,” General Dwight Eisenhower’s chief of staff tells the press, “this war is over.” But in the coming months, on both sides of the world, a generation of young men will learn a lesson as old as war itself — that generals
make plans, plans go wrong and soldiers die.On the Western Front, American and British troops massed on the German border are desperately short of fuel, having outrun their supply lines. Allied commanders gamble on a risky scheme to drop thousands of airborne troops, including Dwain Luce of Mobile and Harry Schmid of Sacramento, behind enemy lines in Holland, but nothing goes according to plan, and it becomes painfully clear that the war in Europe will not end before winter.

Ken Burns - the War EP4

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................B&W - Colour
Runtime:..................1Hr18mins
Size:........................1.36Gb

By June 1944, there are signs on both sides of the world that the tide of the war is turning. On June 6, 1944 — D-Day — in the European Theater, a million and a half Allied troops embark on one of the greatest invasions in history: the invasion of France. Among them are Dwain Luce of Mobile, who drops behind enemy lines in a glider; Quentin Aanenson of Luverne, who flies his first combat mission over the Normandy coast; and Joseph Vaghi of Waterbury, who manages to survive the disastrous landing on Omaha Beach where German resistance nearly decimates the American forces. It is the bloodiest day in American history since the Civil War, with nearly 2,500 Americans losing their lives. But the Allies succeed in tearing a 45-mile gap in Hitler’s vaunted Atlantic Wall, and by day’s end more than 150,000 men have landed on French soil. They quickly find themselves bogged down in the Norman hedgerows, facing German troops determined to make them pay for every inch of territory they gain. For months, the Allies must measure their progress in yards, and they suffer far greater casualties than anyone expected.

Ken Burns - the War EP3

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................B&W - Colour
Runtime:..................1Hr50mins
Size:........................1.37Gb

In fall 1943, after almost two years of war, the American public is able to see for the first time the terrible toll the war is taking on its troops when Life publishes a photograph of the bodies of three GIs killed in action at Buna. Despite American victories in the Solomons and New Guinea, the Japanese empire still stretches 4,000 miles, and victory seems a long way off. In November, on the tiny Pacific atoll of Tarawa, the Marines set out to prove that any island, no matter how fiercely defended, can be taken by all-out frontal assault. Back home, the public is devastated by color newsreel footage of the furious battle, including the bodies of Marines floating in the surf, and grows more determined to do whatever is necessary to hasten the end of the war.

Ken Burns - the War EP2

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................B&W - Colour
Runtime:..................1Hr55mins
Size:........................3.04Gb

By January 1943, Americans have been at war for more than a year. The Germans, with their vast war machine, still occupy most of Western Europe, and the Allies have not yet been able to agree on a plan or a timetable to dislodge them. For the time being, they will have to be content to nip at the edges of Hitler’s enormous
domain. American troops, including Charles Mann of Luverne, are now ashore in North Africa, ready to test themselves for the first time against the German and Italian armies. At Kasserine Pass, Erwin Rommel’s seasoned veterans quickly overwhelm the poorly led and ill-equipped Americans, but in the following weeks, after George Patton assumes command, the Americans pull themselves together and begin to beat back the Germans. In the process, thousands of soldiers learn to disregard the belief that killing is a sin and come to adopt the more professional outlook that “killing is a craft,” as reporter Ernie Pyle explains to the readers back home.

Ken Burns - the War EP1

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................B&W - Colour
Runtime:..................2Hr22mins
Size:........................1.36Gb

After a haunting overview of the Second World War, an epoch of killing that engulfed the world from 1939 to 1945 and cost at least 50 million lives, the inhabitants of four towns — Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; Waterbury, Connecticut; and Luverne, Minnesota — recall their communities on the eve of the conflict. For them, and for most Americans finally beginning to recover from the Great Depression, the events overseas seem impossibly far away. Their tranquil lives are shattered by the shock of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and America is thrust into the greatest cataclysm in history. Along with millions of other young men, Sid Phillips and Willie Rushton of Mobile, Ray Leopold of Waterbury and Walter Thompson and Burnett Miller of Sacramento enter the armed forces and begin to train for war.

Birth of the S.A.S.

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................Colour - B&W
Runtime:..................24mins
Size:........................350Mb

Robert Powell traces the exploits of the legendary fighting unit on its first mission in North Africa during World War Two. The SAS was the brainchild of fearless adventurer David Stirling, who was convinced that small, highly trained units could cause havoc behind enemy lines, although the first operation was nearly the last as gale-force winds tossed parachutists like rag dolls, leaving many of them sitting ducks for German guns.

U-Boat 534

Genre:.....................Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................Colour - B&W
Runtime:..................50mins
Size:........................699Mb

'Underwater, underhanded and damned un-English' they might have been but submarine development and deployment has long been an integral part of naval warfare. For centuries man has been fascinated with the possibility of an underwater vessel, the ultimate method of improving the odds against a superior surface fleet. Being submerged beneath the sea was the obvious means by which a warship could be approached and attacked without detection - but the attempts to create the perfect sub was a long and often tragic affair. This film tracks the evolution of underwater crafts from the early Turtle to a privileged look inside the salvaged U-Boat 534 and beyond. Aboard the famous U-Boat 534 we examine the living conditions and the true bravery shown by all her crew.

The Ghost Ships Of Truk Lagoon

Genre:.....................WWII Documentary
Language:.................English - No Subs
Picture:...................Colour - B&W
Runtime:..................50mins
Size:........................699Mb

Truk Lagoon in the Western Pacific Ocean is one of the most attractive places on earth. Formed by a coral reef 140 miles long, its warm, shallow waters teem with marine life. Many visitors to Truk are divers attracted by a seemingly unspoilt world of natural beauty and peace. But there is another reason why divers are attracted to Truk Lagoon, a reason from the pages of history. In February 1944, this Micronesian paradise was visited by the full force of war, an air attack by the United States on the occupying Japanese forces. It was a massive aerial assault, and its consequences can still be seen today. Below the water surface of the lagoon are the preserved remains of ships, aircraft and other military material. It was warplanes launched from American carriers that created this underwater graveyard during the two days of Operation Hailstone.