Crimean Conference

Professor Saul David uses the BBC archive to chart the history of the world's most destructive war, by chronicling how the story of the battle has changed. As new information has come to light, and forgotten stories are remembered, the history of World War Two evolves. The BBC has followed that evolution, and this programme examines the most important stories, and how our understanding of them has been re-defined since the war ended over 70 years ago.

The real Great Escape didn't feature Steve McQueen racing through the Third Reich on a motorcycle like in the 1963 movie, but the big breakout was still thrilling in every way. This program sheds new light on the audacious escape of 76 Allied airmen from a Nazi POW camp during World War II.

The little known story of one of the worst non-combat disasters in the history of the US Navy, …AS IF THEY WERE ANGELS is a story of courage, heart, sacrifice and the heroism of miners & fishermen of 2 small towns, who risked their lives to save nearly 200 American sailors, shipwrecked on the rugged cliffs of Newfoundland. Narrated by Peter Coyote, it’s a deeply layered tale of navigation errors, courts martial mistakes, a steep loss of life, and resonates today as if the very telling of its deep humanity offers a lifeline for our fractured times.

In 1944, two prisoners miraculously escaped from Auschwitz. They told the world of the horror of the Holocaust and raised one of the greatest moral questions of the 20th century.

A look at the recently discovered fascinating behind the scenes footage shot by the legendary Hollywood director John Ford at Pearl Harbor in 1942 while filming his popular World War II documentaries December 7th and The Battle of Midway.

The untold story of a Royal "propagandist in pearls" whose wartime friendship with President Roosevelt became a vital catalyst to win back freedom for her tiny occupied country.

The "Alaska at War" film project was an effort to document events of World War II in Alaska. It was funded by the Alaska Legislature through the Alaska Historical Commission and was supported by the Alaska Historical Society and private subscription. The production work was performed by aurora Films, assisted by a citizen's advisory committee. The production "Alaska at War" was first shown in public on Alaska Day, October 18th 1986.

The Polish city of Łódź was under Nazi occupation for nearly the entirety of WWII. The segregation of the Jewish population into the ghetto, and the subsequent horrors are vividly chronicled via newsreels and photographs. The narration is taken almost entirely from journals and diaries of those who lived–and died–through the course of the occupation, with the number of different narrators diminishing as the film progresses, symbolic of the death of each narrator.

The background to, events of and consequences of the Battle of Mers-El-Kebir on 3 July 1940. In that battle, Royal Navy ships fired on the French Fleet in order to prevent it from falling into German hands. A French battleship was sunk and several other ships damaged. Nearly 1,300 French sailors were killed.