This groundbreaking series tells the story of The Second World War from a perspective that recognises the overwhelming fact of war as a human experience. Our narrative begins not with the German invasion of Poland, but two years earlier, when Japan invaded China. The war in Europe joined in 1939 and, in 1941 with Pearl Harbor and the sweeping Japanese offensive, the war became global. The series' eight episodes advance through the chronology, using international resources to tell this story from a global perspective. More than 70 eminent international experts contribute insights and opinions, including noted authorities in the fields of military history, political history, social history and well-known general historians of the war, including Sir Max Hastings and Antony Beevor.
00:00 Episode 1 - We Are At War Retraces the beginning of the German invasion of Poland and the segregation of the Jews. Mussolini joins Hitler in his fight against the Allies, Winston Churchill is appointed British Prime Minister, and Germany invades France.
50:01 Episode 2 - We Shall Go On Germany continues to build its empire in Europe, and the Führer seeks to crush Britain with the Luftwaffe; France is conquered and divided, since Churchill rejects any attempt at an armistice.
01:40:03 Episode 3 - Infamy By June 1941, Hitler had become master of Europe, save for the USSR. He thought that the conquest of it would be finished in a just weeks, but the Red Army refused to collapse. And then Pearl Harbor was bombed, changing everything.
02:30:05 Episode 4 - A Dream Of Great Success After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese armies celebrate their victory. Four months later, the Battle of the Coral Sea shakes their confidence. In Europe, the German attack against the Soviet Union causes heavy losses.
03:20:07 Episode 5 - I Shall Never Look Back At the beginning of 1942, war wages on the battlefields in Eastern Europe, North Africa, and Asia Pacific.
04:10:08 Episode 6 - Rattenkreig From the Indian border in Burma to China, at war with Japan since 1937, the war becomes increasingly fierce; in Europe, despite his fewer resources, Hitler renews his assault on the Soviet Union.
05:00:10 Episode 7 - The Shame Of Returning Alive With the power of the Soviet army pushing back the German forces on the lands they occupied, and faced with the devastation of German cities by Allied bombers, Goebbels calls for 'total war'.
05:50:00 Episode 8 - Endless Numbers A Soviet offensive pushes German forces 30 kilometres from the Polish border; the siege of Leningrad is lifted after 900 days; on June 6, 1944, Operation Overlord is launched for the final offensive against Germany.
