For many in the opening years of the Second World War, the vision of the menacing, gull-winged Stuka dive bomber, plunging vertically earthwards, its sirens wailing like banshees before releasing its bomb load, became the very embodiment of the terror created by the new form of 'Blitzkrieg' warfare unleashed on Europe by the German Wehrmacht in September, 1939. Designed to assist ground operations, the Stuka was always to be found operating with the leading elements of the army in France, North Africa, and Russia as 'flying artillery'. In this wide-ranging presentation the Stuka is seen in action on all fronts, as well as the Hs-129s and Fw-190 in action in Russia.
The German Luftwaffe entered World War II in September 1939, employing as its main day fighter the Messerschmitt Bf-109, one of the classic fighter aircraft designs of all time. When war broke out, it was already riding high on a reputation derived from its successful blooding in the Spanish Civil War. 1941 saw the introduction of the Focke Wolf Fw-109 over the English Channel. Its superiority over the Spitfire Mk. V saw it rapidly become the Luftwaffe fighter arm's 'second iron' and was to play a major role in the widening conflict from 1941 onwards. This programme covers the operations of the Bf-109 in its role on all fronts, to 1942 and the early missions by the Fw-190 over France and the English Channel.
The reality of the air-war over Germany is demonstrated in this programme, illustrating the battles fought by the Luftwaffe day fighter squadrons in their attempts to frustrate the ever growing US and Allied bomber raids.
Using combat footage from all fronts and from film shot in the skies by night and day over Germany, this programme provides a dramatic account of the contribution made by the heavy fighters of the Luftwaffe in World War 2.
A look at combat operations from North Africa through to Northern Norway,the Atlantic approaches to the Battle of Stalingrad,and the role of the Luftwaffe's bombing in the period of Germany's military expansion between 1939 and 1942.
This episode covers German bombers during the final years of the war. Included are a review of German seaplanes and flying boats, including the Blohm & Voss 238, the heaviest aircraft ever flown at that time; the Hs 293 anti-ship missile, dropped from He 111s; the He 177 'Griffon' heavy bomber, and more.
Covered in this program are glider operations in Italy, and even the employment of DFS 230s to re-supply garrisons on the Oder front in 1945. Also shown are reconnaissance, trainer and liaison aircraft, which made a vital contribution to the role of the Luftwaffe on all fronts in the Second World War.
The assumption that the RAF's long-range reconnaissance aircraft, the Mosquito, could continue to employ its high speed to range across German with impunity, was shattered on 25th July 1944. A Mosquito, belonging to the No.544 squadron, barley escaped destruction after having been attacked in the first air-to-air encounter with the revolutionary new German fighter, the Messerchmitt Me-262.
The effectiveness of its artillery arm was one of the dominating features of the German Army on the battlefields of the Western Front in the First World War. Indeed, a specific requirement of the Treaty of Versailles was that the new Reichswehr be denied heavy artillery. The expertise and technology that had made the artillery arm so effective in that conflict were never lost. So that when re-armament began in Germany 1933, following the Nazi accession to power, the ground was already laid for the rapid expansion of artillery of all types for the new Wehrmacht. While never acquiring the glamour of Panzer arm, the guns of the Wehrmacht were nevertheless instrumental in serving the German Armed Forces in victory and defeat through to 1945.
From 1940 until war's end, German industry produced a plethora of self-propelled weapons for the German Army. Whilst some of these were purposely designed, others were extemporary affairs developed rapidly using available weapons and chassis to serve the immediate need of the German Army in the field. Those covered in this programme fall mainly into the categories of tank destroyers and self-propelled artillery. This unique compilation of combat footage of these vehicles will allow the viewer to gain an insight into the variety and importance of such weapons to the German Army, up to its defeat.
Seemingly present whenever German combat cameramen were filming, armored cars and half tracks were as vital to the German war machine as the Panzers. Designed for the vital role of reconnaissance, they ranged ahead of the advancing Panzer spearheads to assess enemy strengths and intentions. Whether on four wheels or employing the more distinctive eight wheel configuration, German armored cars would be seen as much a symbol of the Blitzkrieg as the Panzers themselves. This programme covers all these vehicles and includes rare footage of the late war 'Puma' armored car in Normandy.
During WW2, the need for capable and qualified crewmen to work with and maintain the equipment became vital. In order to keep up with the demands of warfare, soldiers and engineers were educated partly with training films. This program shows footage of the Tiger tanks during Operation Citadel, as well as edited highlights of two German Army training films from late 1943 and mid 1944.
It is one of the enduring myths of the Second World War, that the German 'Blitzkrieg' victories of the early years of the conflict were achieved by their employment of a numerically and technologically superior tank force. In reality, the defeat of Poland and France, Yugoslavia and Greece and the remarkable victories in the opening stages of the Russian campaign and in North Africa, were wrought by German tank divisions equipped, in the main, with light tanks. The Panzer I weighed less than six tons, and was armed with two machine guns and armour barely able to withstand the impact of such weapons itself. It was with these light-weight workhorses, rather than their heavier and more glamorous stable mates, that the Blitzkrieg legend was forged.
The Panzer III emerged as one of the formative images of German military success in the newsreels produced by the Propaganda Ministry, documenting the Blitzkrieg victories of the early war years. While proving adequate to the task of countering allied armour in France and the Western desert, the fateful encounter with the superior Soviet T-34 tank, following the invasion of Russia in 1941, revealed the technical shortcomings of the Panzer III. Its days as a battle tank were numbered., but it could still be seen serving in the East as a command tank until 1944, and in other secondary theatres such as Norway until the German surrender.
In continuous production from 1936 until 1945, the Panzer IV was the armoured 'workhorse' of the German Army in the Second World War. Designed originally as a heavy 'support' tank for its stable mate, the lighter Mark III in the Panzer divisions, it became one of the key instruments of the Blitzkrieg victories in the early war years. This programme traces the long history of this most versatile of German tanks, and documents a combat career that finally ended with the destruction of the last Mark IV's in Syrian service by the Israeli Army on the Golan Heights in 1967.
The Panther was Germany's response to the shocking experience of encountering the superior Soviet T-34 tank in the wake of the invasion of Russia in 1941. This programme covers not only evolution of the Panther design but through the usage of combat footage illustrates the Panther in action on all fronts on which the German Army fought from 1943 until 1945.
The history of this legendary tank is told with particular emphasis placed on combat footage of the Tiger in action, as well as footage of the Ferdinand/Elefant on the Eastern Front and the Sturmtiger in action in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.
From 1942 onwards the Sturmgeschutz (Assault Gun) was increasingly employed as a tank destroyer, but its origin lay not in that role but in a 1936 order for an armoured infantry support vehicle.