With testimony from the UK, the US, the Commonwealth and Germany, 'D-Day: The Shortest Day' documents the meticulous planning leading up to the world's biggest amphibious invasion, the terror and triumph of the landings and the bitterness of the fighting in the days that followed.
Veterans of the most decorated battalion in marine corps history discuss the psychological injuries of war, and the unexpected trauma of returning to civilian life after the accolades of their successful battles have ended.
Relying on newly discovered archival footage, memoirs from the fallen, and expert commentary from scholars, this documentary tells the story of World War I from the American perspective: Its ace pilots, mine-laying Sailors, heroic doughboys, Harlem Hell Fighters, and courageous nurses.
On April 27, 1813, American forces defeated the British at York (present-day Toronto) and captured the capital of Upper Canada - but not before suffering their own losses. History Television's Explosion 1812 looks at the Battle of York and unearths new evidence around this lesser-known event from the War of 1812.
The small Belgian army held up the German advance, the British Expeditionary Force fought its first battle and the invincible German army was brought to a standstill in Belgium. This film traces that first month, the battles of Liège, Antwerp and Mons. In reconstruction it uses the words of those who took part and looks at the remains of the battlefields and the fortifications that still exist.
The U.S. Pacific submarine fleet was all that was available in the early days of America's involvement in World War 2 and it took the fight to the Japanese with great success.
Swedish-Eritrean radio host Meron Estefanos produces her weekly program at home in Stockholm where she broadcast, devoted entirely to the hundreds of Eritrean refugees held hostage in the Egyptian Sinai Desert. The Bedouins kidnap Eritreans making their way to Israel and demand large ransoms from their families. We follow Meron in her attempts to turn the tide by calling the hostages and kidnappers alike during her radio show. The film focuses on the stories of two hostages: A) Hiriyti was pregnant when she got kidnapped. We hear the young woman talking with her husband Amaniel in Tel Aviv, who is doing everything he can to free his wife and their baby from the torture camp. B) The ransom for 20-year-old Timnit has been paid, but her brother haven't heard anything from her since her flight to the Egyptian-Israeli border. The battle for Hiriyti's release and the search for Timnit takes Meron to Sinai. There, she stumbles on the marks left by the many atrocities.
A young Polish partisan flees from the Warsaw Uprising. Whilst hiding in the yard of a countryside manor, he is chased up a tree by a large wolfhound. With his rifle out of reach, there seems to be no way to escape his predicament.
Using obscure archival footage, animated illustrations and interviews, this film tells the story of the Vietnam War from the perspective of five Vietcong veterans: a soldier, an officer, an informant, a guerilla, a My Lai survivor, and the leader of the Long Hair army.
How do these people live, how do they endure the confinement and pain of the country's borders ? Under the splendor of the landscapes we can feel the constant threat of a cold war In the heart of Caucasus. The villagers have learned to live with the sound of reports, while knowing that the next bullet may be for them. Scenes from ordinary life, in a country where the threat of war may never be forgotten: yet a feeling of life prevails: resident forever, forever. This film talk about the current state of the world and humanity with respect to imposed violence, in a set of border areas.
New York, 1941, shortly before the US enters the war. Stevie Mayer is an intelligent twelve-year-old who’s father suddenly disappears after being chased by two threatening men. Alone and unprotected, Stevie is left with a mysterious suitcase that everybody wants and nobody is who they claim to be. Thrown headlong into a mind-twisting plot, Stevie begins to suspect that his father is part of ring of Nazi spies. With the help of Miriam, a young Jewish refugee in his class, Stevie attempts to unravel the puzzle that leads to an explosive conclusion. It is a tale of non-stop adventure and a budding young love.
Explorer Marco Polo is assigned to accompany two priests on a mission to China, to try to convert the "pagan" Kublai Khan to Christianity. However, on a dangerous trek through the mountains, the priests decide they don't believe that China even exists, and when Marco tries to argue the point, they abandon him and turn back. He eventually makes it through the mountains and into the fabled land of China, where he is received at the court of Kublai Khan as an envoy. Accompanied by his faithful servant Pedro, Marco spends 20 years in that country, and when he eventually returns to Europe what he brings with him changes the course of history forever.
The story of Battalion 609 revolves around a cricket match between the Indian Army and the Pakistan army gone wrong and narrates the tale of the brave soldiers of Battalion 609 putting up a fight with the mighty Taliban.
Just moments before the end of hostilities, a foolhardy order ricochets through the front- line trench. Sergeant Archie Jones and his pals find themselves going over the top one last time. All they had to do was wait just one more hour. As eleven o'clock approaches Archie, badly wounded, slips between two worlds. One filled with the familiar sounds and smells of death, the other of warm sunshine, a soft embrace and the innocent smile of a child. When all seems lost help is offered from an unexpected hand.
Unknown or forgotten by most Americans, the Korean War divided a people with several millenniums of shared history. Memory of Forgotten War conveys the human costs of military conflict through deeply personal accounts of four Korean American survivors whose experiences and memories embrace the full circle of the war: its outbreak and the day-to-day struggle for survival, separation from family members across the DMZ, the aftermath of a devastated Korean peninsula, and immigration to the United States. Each person reunites with relatives in North Korea conveying beyond words the meaning of four decades of family loss. Their stories belie the notion that war ends for civilians when the guns are silenced and foreshadow the futures of countless others displaced by ongoing military conflict today.