To commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, this special presents the key events of the Allied invasion of Nazi-held Europe and the subsequent battles that captured the control of the Normandy coast. Some of the last surviving veterans recall in detail the terror, patriotism and drama from the frontlines of war. This special also honors the diverse backgrounds of all who served.
It was the last days of June 1942. The fascist troops were tearing towards Sevastopol, and fighting was already going on in the city itself. Ships of the Black Sea Fleet had already broken through to Sevastopol more than once, delivering replenishment, ammunition and weapons. And now, destroyers "Daring" and "Stremitelny" receive a new order to go to Sevastopol. This way is known to sailors well enough, but the fascists repeatedly mined the only fairway to Sevastopol, and enemy aircraft constantly attacking destroyers. At the cost of losing the "Daring" sailors manage to break through to Sevastopol. But the hardest tests fall to the sailors on the way back, when overloaded with wounded "Stremitelny" returns to his native port.
This film tells the story of World War II as experienced by the inhabitants of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, at the time a satellite of Moscow. The very rich oil deposits of the region aroused the covetousness of Hitler who needed the oil from Baku to carry out his program of world domination. His entire campaign of 1942-1943 was aimed at seizing them. But the Soviets and the Allies were determined to prevent him from doing so, by all means, including the most radical, even if it meant wiping the city off the map.
In just one moment 19-year-old Hannah's world shatters when her parents are murdered in front of her. After fleeing, she seeks refuge with family friends before becoming the embodiment of rage and revenge towards those responsible for destroying her life. An unexpected connection with a handsome young Nazi Officer generates a moment of respite, but she is consumed by vengeance at any cost, no matter what or when. The story is inspired by the true events of women who helped defeat the Nazis during WWII.
On the eve of World War II in Athens, a troupe of young actors plans to put on William Shakespeare's, A Midsummer Night's Dream. However, the outbreak of war changes everything.
Marcin Krysztalowicz's film is both a partisan ballad, showing the real face of German occupation of Poland during WW2 and a startling war thriller. It tells a story of corporal "Wydra", struggling not only with Germans and Polish traitors but also with his own past...
A group of people find themselves stuck in remote train station in German-occupied Poland. A drunk German station guard there gets paranoid and sees partisans all around him, phones headquarters, and when the German soldiers arrive and search the station they find a gun. They then threaten to execute every fifth person unless someone claims it.
Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, two of England's most important World War I poets are sent, along with other traumatized combatants, to a rest home in order to treat their emotional troubles, caused by the psychological fatigue that suffer the soldiers fighting in the no man's land.
Always the diplomat, Alex Hazen is slow to take sides in Europe of the 1920s and 1930s. Cassie Bowman wants him to be more decisive and leaves him in Rome just as Mussolini is coming to power. There Alex marries Emily, daughter of a newspaper publisher who hires Cassie for his Paris bureau -- just before retiring from active management of his paper. Alex and Emily's son Sam, recently returned from active duty in World War II, learns the whole story one night in Washington when Emily invites Cassie to dinner. Sam has a story to tell, too.
After the Geneva Convention, Viet Minh cadres are gathered to the North. There are also many who secretly stayed. Among them is Robert Nguyen Thanh Luan. He returns to Vinh Long, part of the diocese of Bishop Peter Ngo Dinh Thuc, who has known his Catholic family for long. The bishop adopts him into the Ngo family, where he begins associating with Ngo Dinh Nhu, the Vice President and Presidential Consultant of the Republic of Vietnam.
1943. WWII. Senior Sergeant Maksudov and his contact Zakirov, who were captured, manage to escape from Germany to Bulgaria. But here Zakirov ends up in prison, and Maksudov manages to escape from the chase and join the Bulgarian partisans.
Lieutenant Mario Ludovici, an army officer, gets himself transferred to a Libyan post when his romance with society girl Cristiana goes on the rocks. Ludovici is looked upon as a weakling by Captain Santelia, the hard-boiled commander of the troops, but after a bitter campaign against a rebel tribe Ludovici proves his true worth and returns as commander when Santelia is mortally wounded. Cristiana arrives and tries to entice him to return to Rome, but he decides to stay in Africa with the army.
At the end of the Spanish civil war, Fando, a boy of about ten, tries to make sense of war and his father's arrest. His mother is religious, sympathetic to the Fascists; his father is accused of being a Red. Fando discovers that his mother may have aided in his father's arrest. Sometimes we witness Fando imagining explanations for what's going on; sometimes we see him at play, alone or with his friend Thérèse. Oedipal fantasies and a lad's natural curiosity about sex and death mix with his search for his mother's nature and his father's fate. Will Fando survive the search?
Jackie Gleason and Jack Durant are teamed for the first and only time as Hank and Jed, a pair of dimwitted barbers who are forced into bankruptcy because all their customers have marched off to war. Figuring that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, Hank and Jed try to join the Army themselves, only to be rejected for a variety of reasons (When asked to read the eye-chart, Hank says he can't-not because he can't see, but because he can't read).
In 1973 Alister Barry joined the crew of a protest boat (The Fri) to Mururoa Atoll, where the French Government were testing nuclear weapons. Barry records the assembly of the crew, the long journey from Northland, and their reception in the test zone; when The Fri was boarded and impounded by French military he had to hide his camera in a barrel of oranges.
During the final days of World War II, a simple French peasant rescues a wounded German soldier and nurses him back to health. As their playful camaraderie grows, two young men who should be enemies begin to bond in ways neither thought possible.
A vulture, a gorilla and a hyena (“with no small resemblances to actual dictators”) bully the woodland animals, who eventually fight back, using the letter V as their victory symbol.