TV series
World War II in Colour
Overview
World War II In Colour is a 13-episode television documentary miniseries recounting the events of World War II narrated by Robert Powell. The show covers the Western Front, Eastern Front, and the Pacific War. It is on syndication in America on the Military Channel. This series is in full color, combining both original and colorized footage.
Details
- First air date
- 2009-09-04
- Status
- Ended
- Seasons
- 1 season
- Episodes
- 13 episodes
- Genres
- Documentary, War & Politics
- Network
- Military Channel, PLANÈTE+
- Production
- World Media Rights
- Country
- GB
- Original language
- EN
Cast
- Robert Powell as Narrator
- Adolf Hitler as Self (archive footage)
- Winston Churchill as Self (archive footage)
- Franklin D. Roosevelt as Self (archive footage)
- Joseph Stalin as Self (archive footage)
- Dwight D. Eisenhower as Self (archive footage)
- Erwin Rommel as Self (archive footage)
- Chester W. Nimitz as Self (archive footage)
- Douglas MacArthur as Self (archive footage)
- Benito Mussolini as Self (archive footage)
- Georgi Zhukov as Self (archive footage)
- Władysław Sikorski as Self (archive footage)
Creators and crew
- Jonathan Martin - Creator
- Matthew Barrett - Executive Producer
- Philip Nugus - Producer
- Jonathan Martin - Writer
Episodes
Episode 1: The Gathering Storm
Just years after World War I, Germany and other nations are in an economic depression. Leader approval ratings of Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain are shallow, giving the rise to military dictators along with their parties. Years after Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany, he and his generals plot the invasion of Poland.
Episode 2: Lightning War
The German Blitzkrieg allowed them to overrun both Poland and France within weeks. See how this radical military tactic caught the Allies totally unprepared.
Episode 3: Britain at Bay
In July 1940, Britain stood alone against the Nazis. Hitler had more troops, abetter air force and the better weapons. Britain came extremely close to defeat, as its exhausted air force struggled to fight off the German Luftwaffe. However, because of critical errors by the Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering, Britain was able to regroup. Then using its brilliant team of code crackers and specially trained spies, Britain began the fight back, working alongside the resistance movements in the occupied territories.
Episode 4: Hitler Strikes East
When Hitler expounded his intention to invade Russia his generals looked at him in horrified silence. The Soviet Union was vast and had matchless resources. Hitler’s whole plan depended upon striking a swift and decisive knock-out blow. A long, drawn-out war would ensure a loss for Germany. Hitler was certain his forces could do it since no country had yet defeated them, but here had never been a military gamble like this. This episode covers Stalingrad and the battle of Kursk, the biggest tank battle in all history.
Episode 5: Red Sun Rampant
December 7th 1941 is “a date that will live in infamy”proclaimed President Franklin Roosevelt. That was the day that Japan entered World War II, with its surprise attack upon theU.S. Fleet in Pearl Harbor. Japan swiftly followed this up with the defeat of a huge British army in Singapore. For a while Japan was rampant in the Pacific. But gradually, America, the sleeping giant, awoke. The war that would follow would be characterized by major innovations.
Episode 6: The Mediterranean and North Africa
Mussolini’s ambition had always been to recreate the old Roman Empire. The trouble was, he was a disaster militarily. After failed attacks in North Africa and Greece, his armies were on the run. Hitler now faced a difficult choice. Did he divert troops needed at other fronts to support his ally, ordid he let Mussolini fall? Hitler chose to support him —a decision that would spell disaster for both of them. Hitler would lose hundreds of thousands of troops and Mussolini would lose his life. This episode tells the extraordinary story of the war in North Africa and features the heroics of the tiny island of Malta as it withstood wave after wave of Nazi assault. It ends with the Allies fighting their way up Italy and Germany in retreat.
Episode 7: Turning the Tide
Nazi submarines tried to cut supply lines across the Atlantic, while the Allies fire-bombed German cities.
Episode 8: The Soviet Steamroller
By July 1943, the full extent of Hitler’s failed gamble in the East had become clear. After failing to deliver knock-out blows at Stalingrad and Moscow, his army was now at the mercy of the vast Soviet war machine. With its huge resources and seemingly limitless numbers of men, the Red Army slowly pushed the Germans back out of Russia through Ukraine, Poland, the Balkans and Hungary. This was war on a monster scale, pitching armies of millions against each other. But it was also a war fought by small bands of partisans, men like Tito in Yugoslavia, leading guerrilla bands against Nazi forces.
Episode 9: Overlord
How close did D-Day come to failure? Despite meticulous planning, deception plans and specialised equipment, its success was always balanced on a knife-edge.
Episode 10: Closing the Ring
The Battle of the Bulge saw Hitler take his last great gamble, throwing his reserve forces against the oncoming Allies in the Ardennes.
Episode 11: The Island War
The war in the Pacific against Japan was a savage, hand-to-hand, island-to-island struggle, fought by new specialist fighting units like the valiant Chindits.
Episode 12: Victory in Europe
Allied forces converge on Germany, uncovering the horrors of Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald, before pushing towards Berlin, where Hitler clings to power in his last desperate days.
Episode 13: Victory in the Pacific
With Germany beaten, the Allies turned their attention to Japan, who made them pay for every inch of gained ground.
More like this
WWII in HD
WWII in HD is a 10-part American documentary television miniseries that originally aired from November 15 to November 19, 2009 on the History Channel. The program focuses on the firsthand experiences of twelve American service members during World War II, including an Army nurse, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, a second generation Japanese American and prisoner of war, and an Austrian Jewish immigrant. The twelve members recorded their time in both theaters and some had later interviews; found footage from the battlefield was paired with the stories of the twelve service members.
The episodes premiered on five consecutive days, with two episodes per day. The series is narrated by Gary Sinise and was produced by Lou Reda Productions in Easton, Pennsylvania, United States.
The War
The story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four American towns. The war touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America and demonstrated that in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.
The World at War
A documentary series that gives a historical account of the events of World War II, from its roots in the 1920s to the aftermath and the lives it profoundly influenced.
The Civil War
A documentary on the American Civil War narrated by Ken Burns, covering the secession of the Confederacy to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Marvel Studios Legends
Revisit the epic heroes, villains and moments from across the MCU in preparation for the stories still to come. Each dynamic segment feeds directly into the upcoming series — setting the stage for future events. This series weaves together the many threads that constitute the unparalleled Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
Chronicles the lives of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, three members of the most prominent and influential family in American politics. It is the first time in a major documentary television series that their individual stories have been interwoven into a single narrative. This seven-part, fourteen hour film follows the Roosevelts for more than a century, from Theodore’s birth in 1858 to Eleanor’s death in 1962.
Top Gear
Motoring programme featuring reviews of and reports about cars of all types.
American Experience
TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.
Nazi Megastructures
In a quest for world domination, the Nazis built some of the biggest and deadliest pieces of military hardware and malevolent technology in history. This is the stories of the engineers who designed them and how these structures sparked a technological revolution that changed warfare forever.
The Third Reich: The Rise & Fall
An intimate, authentic portrait of Hitler's Germany as recorded by the people who lived it. Never-before-seen home movies, Nazi propaganda films and personal recollections culled from German's diaries, journals and letters provide a rare look inside the darker pages of world history.