The Century Of Warfare

This first program looks at the background to the wars which have convulsed our planet, and technological advances which have transformed warfare. From the Boer War to the Gulf War From Cavalry to the main Battle Tank From Biplane Fighters to the Stealth Bomber From the Battleship to the Trident Submarine.

Shows factors pushing the world towards WWI.

Actual footage of the opening stages of WWI showing the trench warfare.

Why, after three countries go to war, the Russians drop out of the fighting when the Czar and his government is lost due to the Russian Revolution.

As the First World War began, the battleship ruled the waves, and the British Grand Fleet and German High Seas Fleet prepared for a mighty confrontation in the North Sea which could decide the course of the war. But when this came it was inconclusive, and soon the supremacy of the battleship itself was to be threatened. This programme shows how the mighty battlefleets clashed and how naval warfare was revolutionised by the success of new weapons such as the submarine. * The Dreadnought Revolution * Battlefleets clash at Jutland * Scourge of the U-Boat aces * Q-Ships and Convoys

The German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 finally dashed all hope that the conflict of 1914-18 had been the war to end all wars. Britain and France swiftly honoured their pledge to Poland and declared war on Germany, but then seemed as indecisive about how to defeat Hitler militarily as they had been to control him politically. This programme shows how the German Panzers and Stukas unleashed a new form of warfare which proved devastating, swiftly overrunning Norway, Denmark, France, and the Low Countries. * Cavalry versus Tanks * The Maginot Line * The Luftwaffe Triumphant * Panzers drive to the Channel

As 1945 dawned, Hitler's Third Reich was reeling from repeated hammerblows; Allied bombers were devastating German cities; the Red Army was poised to strike at Berlin; and the British and American armies were preparing to thrust across the Rhine and into the heart of Germany. This programme describes the death throes of Hitler's empire, and the massive task of rebuilding a shattered continent which faced the victors. * V-Bomb Blitz on London * The Battle for Berlin * Liberating the Concentration Camps * The Death of Hitler * Germany in Defeat