All Episodes 2007

A look at developments leading up to the outbreak of WWII, including personal testimonies from British, German, French, and Italian nationals.

Previously untold dramatic stories from British, French and German soldiers and sailors at the scene when France fell in May and June 1940.

A horrific account of the carnage following Winston Churchill's reluctant orders to sink the French fleet off the coast of North Africa in 1940.

By Autumn 1940, the RAF and the Luftwaffe were less squeamish, leading to a rise in civilian deaths - including the city of Coventry.

A look at how the bombs and blackouts of December 1940 forced Londoners to sleep in air raid shelters each night but also spiced up sex and courtship.

By January 1941, with Portsmouth bombed and Britain facing bankruptcy, Winston Churchill persuaded the Americans to lend money, ships and arms.

With no sign of the war ending, an increasing number of British women were called up to defend England as the Allies advanced through North Africa.

With no sign of the war ending, an increasing number of British women were called up to defend England as the Allies advanced through North Africa.

First-hand accounts of how U-boats hunted the Atlantic in April 1941, including how damaged sub U-57 escaped detection only to be sunk accidentally.

Sir Ludovic Kennedy and others recall the destruction of HMS Hood by the Germans and the dramatic sinking of Germany's battleship the Bismarck.

In June 1941 the British launched 'Operation Battleaxe' in a last-ditch attempt to drive the Germans back from Tobruk, the last British stronghold in Libya. Hitler, meanwhile, was preparing to invade Russia, a move that would mark the beginning of the bloodiest and most ruthless campaign the world had ever seen.

In July 1941 the Germans swept through Western Russia, closing in on Moscow, Leningrad and the oil fields in the South. Would Stalin capitulate as France had done a year earlier?

The German advance into Russia begins to slow down as August 1941 proves to be one of the wettest ever. Churchill and Roosevelt meet off the coast of Newfoundland to draw up the Atlantic Charter for the post-war era.