Documentary / War & Politics
Historian Dan Snow relives the story of a crack team of 133 young airmen whose mission is to destroy the great dams of Germany in World War Two using a revolutionary new bouncing bomb.


24-year-old wing commander Guy Gibson has less than eight weeks to recruit and train 147 aircrew for a top-secret mission that will require them to learn to fly at super low attitudes at night towards targets on water.
Wallis tries to get his revolutionary bomb to work, which will require the invention of a new aiming device. Dan Snow takes to the skies to test it, but accuracy isn't the only problem.
The raid on Germany's dams gets off to a rocky start as the crews struggle to clear the airfield in their planes loaded with four tonne bouncing bombs. Of the 133 young men who flew on the raid, only 80 survive.

Cast

In 1945, during the final months of the Second World War, a group of soldiers perform for the Royal Artillery concert party, with comic acts and musical numbers for others prior to their departure for the frontlines. The party avoids partaking in combat duty; thus, the soldiers love being part of the outfit. Some even daydream of becoming world-famous actors when they leave the army.

Island at War is a British television series that tells the story of the German Occupation of the Channel Islands. It primarily focuses on three local families: the upper class Dorrs, the middle class Mahys and the working class Jonases, and four German officers. The fictional island of St. Gregory serves as a stand-in for the real-life islands Jersey and Guernsey, and the story is compiled from the events on both islands. Produced by Granada Television in Manchester, Island at War had an estimated budget of £9,000,000 and was filmed on location in the Isle of Man from August 2003 to October 2003. When the series was shown in the UK, it appeared in six 70-minute episodes.

Colditz is a British television series co-produced by the BBC and Universal Studios and screened between 1972 and 1974. The series deals with Allied prisoners of war imprisoned at the supposedly escape-proof Colditz Castle when designated Oflag IV-C during World War II, and their many attempts to escape captivity, as well as the relationships formed between the various nationalities and their German captors.

Over the past 60 years Britain's Special Air Service regiment has carried out a wide variety of clandestine missions - from deep-penetration raiding to hostage release operations - which have made it respected and feared for its professionalism and daring. The SAS prides itself on doing its work in the shadows, never allowing any publicity and never claiming credit for any of its extraordinary achievements. But, over the years, sufficient information has emerged for a picture of the regiment's exploits to be clear. This series uses interviews with former members of the SAS; detailed and painstaking reconstructions; and cutting edge 3-D graphics to recreate seven great missions which show why the SAS is today regarded as the world's leading special forces unit.