clive's - Rented List

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The Evolution of a Legend 1939-1945 The Famous Tiger tanks of the German Panzer forces were only available at the hard-pressed front in modest quantities, but this tiny force forged a legend out of all proportion to it's size.

This episode contains: Extensive use of rare footage from Russian, German and Allied sources. Superb 3D graphics to illustrate the design and development of the Tiger Tanks. The view of the worlds leading tank experts and historians, including David Fletcher and Professor John Erickson. New footage of surviving Tigers.

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By 1943 the tide of the war had finally started to flow in favour of the Allied forces. As the industrial might and great cities of Germany began to suffer under the constant aerial bombardments, Hitler promised a devastating revenge.

"Vengeance weapons" were developed and deployed and were soon causing indiscriminate damage to cities such as London and Antwerp. Although deployment of V1 and V2 rockets signalled the death throws of the crumbling Third Reich, given more time they could have completely changed the outcome of the war. The detailed analysis and stunning computer graphics within this programme clearly describe the fascinating story of the "Doodlebugs".

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Hidden in territories held by Nazis were forces that inspired a greater level of fear in the individual invader than any other. These were the partisans; organised civilian groups who fought military actions and campaigns of sabotage, disruption, espionage and protest against the occupying forces.

This video looks at the French Resistance, amongst others, and asks searching questions about their effectiveness while seeking to separate fact from fiction. Other perhaps less well documented groups also fall under the spotlight, including the successful partisans of Yugoslavia and of Russia. Klaus Schmider of the Sandhurst Military College, testimony from World War Two veterans and informative maps and graphics depicts a side of the war that was hugely successful but also resulted in savage reprisals.

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There are many weapons of war; fighter planes, heavy tanks and skilled infantrymen but it could be argued that none is more powerful than the power of suggestion. Propaganda and the war worlds played an undoubtedly vital role in both the successes and failures of World War Two.

Governments struggled to gain the upper hand in the war away from the battlefield, but one man proved to have a deft talent for spin. Joseph Goebbels honed the art of mass communication until, in the early days at least, it became one of Germany's most effective weapons. This video features rare examples of propaganda posters and campaigns, and insight from Chris Read and Robin Lenman both of Warwick University into the huge part propaganda had to play within World war Two.

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In 1915 the armies of the Great War were locked in a stalemate of the trenches but a new form of combat would soon put an end to stationary battles - the aerial duel. Almost from its conception air-warfare captured the popular imagination, turning men into heroes, pilots into Fighter Aces.

High above the trenches the courage and skill of men such as Baron Von Richthofen, Oswald Boelcke, Edward 'Mick' Mannock, Billy Bishop and Hermann Goering would make them legends in their own lifetime. During the Spanish Civil War a new generation of German Aces won its spurs, with the tactics and machines being perfected for the forthcoming "Blitzkrieg". Throughout the Battle of Britain the hastily trained fighter pilots of the RAF learnt tactics "on the wing" against the Luftwaffe veterans of Spain. The heroisms and determination of the RAF Aces such as Joseph Frantichek and Ginger Lacey were all that stood between Britain and invasion. In Europe and North Africa the flying skills and tactical genius of men like Werner Moelders, Adolf Galland and Hans Marseilles won the respect of friend and foe alike. On the Eastern Front Erich Hartmann, the Ace of Aces won 352 victories, an astonishing achievement never equalled in the history of aerial combat. This video charts the history of aerial combat from the Great War to the dawn of the jet age using rare archive footage, much of which has been unavailable in the West since World War Two.

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The German Luftwaffe entered World War II in September 1939, employing as its main day fighter the Messerschmitt Bf-109, one of the classic fighter aircraft designs of all time.

When war broke out, it was already riding high on a reputation derived from its successful blooding in the Spanish Civil War. 1941 saw the introduction of the Focke Wolf Fw-109 over the English Channel. Its superiority over the Spitfire Mk. V saw it rapidly become the Luftwaffe fighter arm's 'second iron' and was to play a major role in the widening conflict from 1941 onwards. This programme covers the operations of the Bf-109 in its role on all fronts, to 1942 and the early missions by the Fw-190 over France and the English Channel.

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After the horrors of the Great War, an uneasy peace prevailed. Britannia ruled the waves - but for how long? The mid 1930's saw Germany rebuilding her fleets, defying the Versailles Treaty as Hitler planned to encircle Britain with his Kriegsmarine.

Within hours of war's declaration, a U-boat had claimed its first victim in an underwater reign of terror that struck merchantmen and warship alike. By April 1940, Germany had sunk one million tons of Allied shipping. The entrance of Mussolini's Italy shifted the balance of power in the Mediterranean. However the course of Naval warfare was changed in 1941 when torpedo bombers from HMS Illustrious decimated the Italian fleet at anchor in Taranto, crippling three of their battleships in the first Allied victory since the fall Of France. Japan soon learned the lesson - to America's cost. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941 dwarfed Taranto, With 19 Warships and 190 aircraft lost and 22,500 dead. Sea power proved crucial in the Pacific. The battle of the Coral Sea was decisive in denying Japan a gateway to Australia and was a naval first - opposing forces, launching air attacks 120 miles apart, were never in sight of each other. After the US strike On Midway, there was no doubting the tide had turned. Leyte Gulf Was the last and greatest sea battle of World War II, leaving the Imperial Fleet all but destroyed. The era of the battleship had long gone: the aircraft carrier was now the undisputed master of naval warfare.

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In 1929, Winston Churchill ceased to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Detective Sergeant Walter Thompson sadly stopped guarding the man he had come to regard as a friend. However, within two years, Winston's outspoken views had gained him fresh and deadly enemies.

Walter was recalled, but the next threat to Winston's life came from a totally unexpected direction. In almost any piece of film you'll see of Britain's great wartime leader, he is the man in the background anonymous and secret. Until now his critical role in saving the life of Churchill from a series of attacks has been hidden from the wider public. After the war Walter Thompson's censored book told just part of the story. His full memoirs were suppressed even by Churchill himself only now can we recount the number of assassination attempts on Churchill's life. Many foiled by Walter. This thirteen part series, with unique access to these incredible memoirs, reveals for the first time, die story of Walter's life with Winston. Together they travelled thousands of miles on precarious journeys to meet Stalin and Roosevelt and other world leaders. Together they rode with Lawrence of Arabia, dodged German assassins, were nearly shot down by enemy aircraft, lone gunmen, U-boats and IRA hitmen.

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Soon alter he became Winston Churchill's personal bodyguard, Walter Thompson was given the challenge of keeping his boss alive during a visit to the Middle East.

A leading British politician was a natural target for assassins, and on several critical occasions, Walter was rescued by one of the most enigmatic figures of the 20th Century - Lawrence of Arabia. In almost any piece of film you'll see of Britain's great wartime leader, he is the man in the background anonymous and secret. Until now his critical role in saving the life of Churchill from a series of attacks has been hidden from the wider public. After the war Walter Thompson's censored book told just part of the story. His ftill memoirs were suppressed even by Churchill himself only now can we recount the number of assassination attempts on Churchills life. Many foiled by Walter. This thirteen part series, with unique access to these incredible memoirs, reveals for the first time, the story of Walter's life with Winston. Together they travelled thousands of miles on precarious journeys to meet Stalin and Roosevelt and odier world leaders. Togedier they rode with Lawrence of Arabia, dodged German assassins, were nearly shot down by enemy aircraft, lone gunmen, U-boats and IRA hitmen.

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In the background of almost every piece of footage in Britain's great wartime leader Winston Churchill, is an anonymous figure: his bodyguard, Detective Inspector Walter Thompson of Scotland Yard.

This is the story of how these two very different characters met, and how the poor boy from London's East End saved his boss from an IRA assassination attempt. In almost any piece of film you'll see of Britain's great wartime leader, he is the man in the background, anonymous and secret. Until now, his critical role in saving the life of Churchill from a series of attacks has been hidden from the wider public. After the war Walter Thompson's censored book told just part of the story. His full memoirs were suppressed even by Churchill himself. Only now can we recount the number of assassination attempts on Churchill's life, many foiled by Walter. This thirteen part series, with unique access to these incredible memoirs, reveals for the first time the story of Walter's life with Winston. Together they travelled thousands of miles on precarious journeys to meet Stalin and Roosevelt and other world leaders. Together they rode with Lawrence of Arabia, dodged German assassins, were nearly shot down by enemy aircraft, lone gunmen, U-boats and IRA hitmen.

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The famous Tiger tanks of the German Panzer forces were only available at the hard pressed front in modest quantities, but this tiny number forged a legend out of all proportion to its size.

This fascinating programme plots the history of its conception and evolution against the background of World War Two tank development. Expert analysis is provided by tank and military historians David Fletcher and Professor John Erickson, and also includes new footage of surviving Tiger tanks.

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Hitler's trail to glory was blazed my Panzers. In Poland, Western Europe, North Africa and Russia they repeatedly overcame enormous odds by combining radio communications, tanks and Stuka dive-bombers to wage Blitzkrieg - lightning war.

Using such revolutionary tactics, commanders like Erwin Rommel rewrote the rules of tank warfare. However, Rommel's reverse at El Alamein was the first indication that the tide was turning - and on the Eastern Front the German defeat at Kursk was to confirm it. The Nazi armoured advance had seemed unstoppable - would Hitler succeed where Napoleon himself had failed? The Panzer was a potent symbol of German invincibility, but it was tactics - not technology, that brought success. In mounting Operation Citadel against Kursk, Hitler set up the greatest tank tattle in history. He needed an unqualified triumph "to shine like a beacon" and avenge the humiliation of Stalingrad. He had reckoned without the Soviet T-34, built in half the time of a Panzer and easier to maintain in inhospitable conditions. The German pincer movement was finally mounted in early June 1943, but after a week both Northern and Southern armies were at a standstill. Soviet Packfront tactics - rockets and artillery, backed by tanks and infantry - proved a costly but effective answer to Blitzkrieg. The worlds biggest ever tank battle at Prokhorovka saw 1,500 tanks on the battlefield - but as the lust settled, it was the Germans who licked their wounds. The action ground on for 20 more weeks - but Citadel was doomed, and with it Hitler's chances of remaining in Russia. Russia was the anvil on which the war machine was broken and the Panzers had finally lost their myth of invincibility.

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By the winter of 1942, Hitlers dream of Aryan supremacy had become a nightmare. His armies could be found freezing and starving on the Eastern front, and Americas fighting forces had just entered the war in the West.

On January 20th of that year, 15 Nazi officials attended a conference at Wannsee on the outskirts of Berlin. Organized by SS Major Adolf Eichmann (Stanley Tucci) under the direction of the ruthless and efficient Chief of Security Reinhard Heydrich (Kenneth Branagh), it was to be a polite conference with food, wine and some debate, but beneath this veneer of manners lay an evil intent. By the meetings close, the fete of six million lives would be decided with the decision that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated in what would become known as the Holocaust.

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From early September 1940 air raids on London took place almost every night, as the Luftwaffe dropped hundreds of tonnes of bombs on the capital.

Atypical raid involved 100 to 200 bombers dropping around 200 tonnes of high explosive and 300 incendiaries, although there were raids involving 300 and 400 planes with more than double the amount of bombs dropped. The resilience of Londoners in the face of this nightly onslaught has passed into legend, as ordinary men, women and children showed amazing courage just by carrying on with their daily lives in spite of the nightly bombing raids. This programme tells the story of the horrific nightly bombardment which lasted from 7th September 1940 to 10th May 1941.

This film explores 'Operation Thunderclap', the thousand bomber raids on the German city of Dresden. It includes first hand accounts from the people of the city describing the horror and devastation as the city was pounded from the air by the Royal Air Force.