Britain At War - Defending The Empire DVD

Disc 1 - The History Of World War 2: Britain's response to Germany's Blitzkrieg invasion of Poland in 1939 was the British Expeditionary Force sent to Europe to prevent the Germans following their successful airborne invasion of the Low Countries with an armoured assault against France. The BEF'S enforced heroic withdrawal at Dunkirk - shown here in dramatic film footage - left the Royal Air Force under Sir Hugh Dowding to win the Battle of Britain and postpone Nazi invasion plans indefinitely. The Royal Navy's early fortunes on the high seas under First Lord (soon... to be Prime Minister) Winston Churchill are followed as are the desert tank battles in North Africa where British armour prevailed under general O'Connor at Torbruk. As World War II entered its second decisive phase the British Army showed its teeth at El Alamein where Montgomery's victory halted Rommel's armoured sweep through North Africa. Further East Hitler's Barbarossa attack on the Soviet Union provided suicidal: German surrender at Stalingrad was followed by Kursk the biggest ever tank battle that left Russia poised to punch into the heart of the Reich. These and other momentous events are portrayed through front-line film footage and carefully researched contemporary accounts. In the Far East Japan followed their pre-emptive strike at Pearl Harbour with rapid territorial gains before being pushed back from Midway by American naval might. In Europe RAF Bomber Command directed by Arthur Harris blitzed German cities as the D-Day invasion of Normandy - Eisenhower's Operation Overload - was taking shape. By April 1945 U.S. and Russian forces had Berlin surrounded: the liberation of Europe was complete. Disc 2 - The Boer War: The Story Of Britain's Last Great Imperial War. When Britain went to war against the Boers in October 1899 the British public expected the fighting to be over by Christmas. As it turned out The Boer War in Kipling's famous phrase gave the British ""no end of a lesson"". Using accounts of the soldiers who fought in this bitter and bloody clash-of-arms and remarkable contemporary photographs the programme tells the story of Britain's last great Imperial war. Disc 3 - The Story Of World War 1 1914-1918: This fascinating DVD chronicles the story of the First World War utilising original archieve footage from the Imperial War Museum. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June 1914 lit the flames of a savage bloody conflict that engulfed Europe and eventually the World. The First World War ranged Britain and her Allies against the Central powers in a conflict so vast it became referred to as 'The Great War'. This film is composed entirely of original archieve footage. [show more]

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