The Japanese surrender at the end of WWII allowed U.S. troops to peacefully enter as an occupation force. What they found and how they transformed their former enemy is told through the work of a team of cameramen who recorded it all on color film. They were among the first to witness the devastation wrought by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They also captured on film the first free elections and the birth of Japanese democracy.

Several years after his release from Spandau prison, where he completed his twenty-year sentence for war crimes, Albert Speer is interviewed by Canadian reporter Patrick Watson. The interview reveals Speer’s assessment of his life, and chronicles the rise and fall of the Nazi regime.

British historian David Irving scripted this two-hour video special, based on his book Hitler’s War. Researching, writing, and revising this book, he spent many years privately interviewing members of Hitler’ staff and his generals. When it appeared in 1977, it was an instant best-seller.

This documentary called 'Did we have to Fight?' explores Britain's options in the run-up to the Second World War. It will be particularly useful for students of appeasement, Neville Chamberlain, and of the wider conflict. Re-uploaded.

This program investigates the fate of the two-and-a-half million Indians who fought for Britain during the Second World War. It looks at how they were forgotten by Britain, and disowned by India after the war and faced racism and prejudice.

The Night of the Long Knives, or the Röhm purge, also called Operation Hummingbird (Unternehmen Kolibri), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate his power and alleviate the concerns of the German military about the role of Ernst Röhm and the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazis' paramilitary organization, known colloquially as "Brownshirts". Nazi propaganda presented the murders as a preventive measure against an alleged imminent coup by the SA under Röhm – the so-called Röhm Putsch.

By spring of 1942, Japan controlled the western Pacific, the Philippines, and large parts of Indochina. America and her allies knew that final victory could only be achieved by unconditional surrender and that would involve occupation of the Japanese homeland. This is the story Operation Downfall, the plan to invade and occupy Japan that would dwarf the D-Day landings in Europe. According to the plan, on X-Day--November 1, 1945--General MacArthur would lead an invasion force onto the beaches of Kyushu, the southern most of the Japanese Islands. Y-Day would follow six months later when the largest beach landing in military history would take Tokyo. Politicians and military strategists knew that Japanese resistance would be ferocious. Plans for the invasioncontinued throughout 1945 until President Truman made the decision to drop the atom bomb. We trace the invasion plans from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and analyze why Truman chose the bomb over Operation Downfall.

The 1938 Munich Agreement, by which Britain and France gave Hitler the go-ahead to take over the Sudetenland, stands as one of the more shameful episodes leading to World War II. Nothing in ''The Peace of Paper'' is designed to change that estimate, but it helps us to understand the play of forces behind what is called here ''a symbol of diplomatic naivete and military weakness.'' The sober narrative of Robert Kee, dramatic newsreel footage and the recollections of Czechoslovaks, Britons, Germans and others capture the tragic dimensions of Munich

Nueva Germania is a district of San Pedro Department in Paraguay. It was founded as a German settlement on 23 August 1887 by Bernhard Förster, a German nationalist, who was married to Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, sister of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Förster's idea was to create a model community in the New World and to demonstrate the supremacy of German culture and society. Förster committed suicide after the settlement's initial failure. It is located about 297 kilometres from Asunción, capital of the Republic of Paraguay.

Series looking at the events that led up to World War II. Charles Wheeler examines events on the German side.

Charles Wheeler examines the role of the Soviet Union in the war, and Stalin's relationship with Hitler.

The economic and political problems France faced in the aftermath of victory in World War I and asks why this led to another invasion during World War II.

Using archive footage and eyewitness accounts, this episode documents how Germany's desire for expansion in eastern Europe, starting with Poland, developed into a worldwide conflict.

An in depth looks at inside the Battle of Iwo Jima, using actual footage combined with cutting edge 3D animation, host P.J. O'Rouke explanes the stratagies behind one of WWII bloodiest battle.

A fascinating two part investigative documentary that revisits the circumstances surrounding the execution of Mussolini, making the case that he was not killed by Italian partisans but by two secret agents acting on orders from Winston Churchill to prevent the surfacing of secret letters from Churchill to Mussolini written over ten years offering Italy a separate peace, correspondence that would have been embarrassing to Churchill and diminished his legacy in post-war Europe.

By the time America entered the war in December 1941, Britain had been at war with Germany for two years. Japan and Germany as strong allies, both held sophisticated electronic coding equipment with which to transmit their secret military traffic. Since 1939, Britain had been able to read most of the German and Japanese codes and may have known of the Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor. Did Churchill know of the attack several days beforehand and was President Roosevelt told in time? Is this why the US aircraft carriers sailed from Pearl Harbor before the fatal attack?

A revealing look at the untold story of Japan's atomic bomb, and how they may have detonated a nuclear device just two days before surrender. Since the end of WWII, conventional wisdom claimed that Imperial Japan was years away from building an atomic weapon--this special shatters this view. Using once secret Japanese wartime documents, we provide evidence that Japan had world-class nuclear physicists, access to uranium ore, and cyclotrons to process it. They devised an innovative way to deliver the bombsusing 400-foot long Sen Toku submarines, capable of carrying and launching airplanes. Most startling--just six days after Hiroshima, Japan tested its own atomic device on a small island 20 miles off the Korean coast. The sobering conclusion is that Japan may have been just weeks behind the US in the race for the bomb.

The Battle of Iwo Jima was an epic military campaign between U.S. Marines and the Imperial Army of Japan in early 1945. Located 750 miles off the coast of Japan, the island of Iwo Jima had three airfields that could serve as a staging facility for a potential invasion of mainland Japan. American forces invaded the island on February 19, 1945, and the ensuing Battle of Iwo Jima lasted for five weeks. In some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II, it’s believed that all but 200 or so of the 21,000 Japanese forces on the island were killed, as were almost 7,000 Marines. But once the fighting was over, the strategic value of Iwo Jima was called into question.

Canadian documentary about the looming Japanese threat. Narration by Lorne Greene.

Decades of violent intrigue and miscalculation between Japan and the United States pave the way for the deadly attack on Pearl Harbor. Edward Hermann narrates.

They were unlikely allies, bound together on the principle of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." But despite fighting on opposite sides of the globe and the ideological divide that separated them, Germany and Japan cooperated extensively throughout World War II.Using government documents, the recollections of soldiers and commentary from leading historians, SAMURAI AND THE SWASTIKA tells the long-overlooked story of the strategic alliance between the Axis powers. See how Japan supplied Germany with much-needed raw materials for the war, while German engineers shared sophisticated rocket and jet-propulsion technology with their Japanese counterparts. Jointly, they supported anti-English uprisings in India, giving aid and military supplies to Bose Chandras, a dissident Indian general, and his guerilla army. And in perhaps the boldest scheme of all, they conspired to destroy the Panama Canal and cut off America's Pacific war from its crucial Atlantic supply operations.

One of the most compelling stories of World War II concerns the origins of the unlikely alliance between the Axis powers. While many people imagine that the union was forged along the lines of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," the real story is far more complicated.LAST SECRETS OF THE AXIS picks up where the popular special THE SAMURAI AND THE SWASTIKA left off, examining the remarkable historical confluence that led to the rise of German-Japanese cooperation. At the heart of story is Karl Haushofer, a geography professor (and the man who coined the term "geopolitics"). The program explores the professor's convoluted role, following him from the origins of the Reich to the Nuremberg Trials. LAST SECRETS also reveals details of many overlooked engagements, including a coup in Iraq, backed by German and Italian forces, that had the long-term goal of establishing a Persian Gulf base for Japanese submarines!From unsung battles to back-room dealings, this is a compelling examination of the LAST SECRETS OF THE AXIS.

Behold the genius and ingenuity of innovators on both sides of the Atlantic. From the CHANCE VOUGHT FLYING PANCAKE that could take off vertically to perhaps the biggest secret project outside the building of the A-bomb Churchill s plan to build a fleet of giant aircraft carriers made of ice uncover the mysteries of the Allied aircraft programs.

Hear the story of the tiny HE 162 jet interceptor, built in deep underground caves and flown by pilots from the Hitler Youth, and the amazing HORTEN FLYING WING jet bomber designed to attack New York. Plus, we reveal the plans for a jet version of the STUKA DIVE BOMBER and how it might have impacted the battle for the Eastern Front.

History has overlooked the unimaginable hardships Russian aircraft designers faced under the rule of Josef Stalin. This programme reveals how Soviet aircraft designers independently discovered jet and rocket technology.

Trace the development of the Japanese aviation industry and its famous creations, including the NAKAJIMA KI-43 OSCAR and the MITSUBISHI A6M ZERO. In addition, explore the frantic top-secret weapons programs that would have made these legendary aircraft tame by comparison, such as a long-range aircraft designed to strike directly at the US west coast with biological weapons.

The outbreak of war war was celebrated in the bars of Berlin but its occupants would pay a heavy price with the devastation and ultimate occupation of their city.

Starvation, the bitterly cold weather and the Nazi offensive did not break the spirit of the occupants of the city.

The city escaped much of the bombing and destruction of other cities but Parisians had to endure the humiliation of Hitler's victory parade, revenge for the Treaty of Versailles, and Nazi occupation until they were freed by the allies.

This doc tracks the time from declaration of WWII to VE day the inhabitants of London.

Evidence that the United States and Britain knew beforehand of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The European Civil War is a concept meant to characterize a series of 19th- and 20th-century conflicts in Europe as segments of an overarching civil war within a supposed European society. The timeframes associated with this European Civil War vary among historians. Some descriptions range from 1914 to 1945, thus including World War I, World War II, and many lesser conflicts of the interwar period. Others argue that this period started in 1870 with the Franco-Prussian War, or in 1905. Sometimes, the notion also serves to explain the process of European integration, and the creation of the European Union as a peaceful solution to this conflict. Arguments in favor of this description usually point towards the relative cultural homogeneity of the European continent, to the family relation of European monarchs at the beginning of World War I, or to the continuity of armed conflicts in Europe between the various time frames. Arguments against the notion point towards the strong distinctions in religions and political systems that existed between European nations at the beginning of the period which undermine the idea that Europe formed a united "civil society". Other stress the global, i.e. not strictly European, nature of both world wars, which the characterization sometimes fails to account for. Consensus among historians does not support the notion of a European Civil War.

They fought for the losing side in the greatest conflict in history. Allied propaganda painted them as killing machines, willing to fight to the death for the master race or their emperor. But what is the truth about the Axis' soldiers? FOOT SOLDIER: THE AXIS is a penetrating look at the men who fought for Hitler, Mussolini and Emperor Hirohito. Rare films show their training exercises and the brutal reality of some of history's bloodiest engagements. Get an up-close view of what it was like to fight for Rommel in Africa, to endure the bitter cold of the Eastern Front, and to battle American Marines at Okinawa and Iwo Jima through extensive documents and testimony from the men who were there

Some were civilians transformed nearly overnight into soldiers. Some were the staunch protectors of an island nation and its far-flung holdings. Together, they won World War II. THE ALLIES is a unique look at the greatest conflict in history as seen through the eyes of the soldiers who fought for America and Britain. Examine how the grand strategies of the Allied commanders were made real by these unsung heroes, and stand beside them in some of the most storied battles ever fought, from North Africa to D-Day to the Pacific campaign. See how the American army was built from scratch, and watch rare footage of their training.

October 23rd 1942, in the remote North African desert, British and Allied troops face off against the feared German Afrika Korps and their Italian Allies. This battle will become a personal duel between General Bernard Montgomery and General Erwin Rommel. In one of the greatest deceptions of the war, photo recons help to fool the Germans into making a catastrophic mistake.

During the summer of 1940, the world held its breath and watched, as the British RAF and German Luftwaffe were locked in a battle to the death. The German Nazi war machine had conquered all in its path, only Britain stood in its way to total European domination.

December 16th 1944 - three German armies have been amassed in total secrecy with one sole aim - to send the Allies back into the sea and change the outcome of World War Two. The troops on the ground will have to dig deeper than ever before if they are to destroy Hitler's last gamble in Europe.

July 10th 1944, six long weeks since D-Day. Allied forces have been caught in a murderous battle trying to breakout of the invasion beachhead. The Germans have rebounded from the shock of invasion and are fighting back furiously, inflicting horrendous casualties on the Allied ground forces; the Allies need a breakthrough, and fast.

On March 7th 1945, at the town of Remagen, American soldiers discover to their amazement that a bridge across the Rhine has not been demolished. Fate would deal the men of the 9th Armored Division a lucky card, as German attempts to blow the bridge in the face of the advancing troops failed.

September 17th 1944: over 20,000 elite troops descend from the skies into Nazi occupied Holland in a massive airborne assault planned to end the war in Europe by Christmas of 1944. Their objective: to secure the bridges across canals and rivers in Holland, so that the Allied army can advance at high speed into Hitler's Germany and the heart of the Third Reich.

Determined to destroy the Soviet Union once and for all Hitler has ordered his armies to strike south and seize the vital oilfields of the Caucasus region. But first they must capture Stalingrad. But the Soviet defenders make the 6th German Army pay in blood for every inch of ground and draw the Germans into a trap from which there will be no escape.

On August 19th Parisians rise up against their Nazi overlords, vowing to exact revenge for four years of brutal and bloody occupation. As the battle intensifies on the streets of the French capital, the race is now on for the Allies to get to Paris and save the citizens from possible slaughter and its city from complete destruction.

An account of the discovery of Adolf Hitler's corpse by Soviet forces in Berlin in 1945 and the subsequent actions taken by Soviet authorities to dispose of the body. It includes contemporary interviews with Russian witnesses present at the time of the discovery.

From the BBC series Omnibus

Over 14 dreaful years between 1932 and 1945, Japan went on a rampage of war and atrocity beyond comprehension. The Japanese had taken over 320,000 Allied prisoners, and their warrior code of Bushido said, "Do not survive to suffer the dishonour of capture." Surrender made captives subhuman.