On August 3rd 1990, Iraq, under its ferocious dictator Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait, its oil-rich neighbour. Not long out of a war with Iran, Iraq badly under-estimated the reaction of the watching world to its unprovoked attack; in particular, they believed that the US would not dare to become involved. A coalition against Iraq was formed and it struck back in January 1991. Iraq's air defence system and the country's infra-structure were taken apart by air attacks that utilised the very latest warfare technology - and it was technology as much as anything else that brought Iraq's armed forces to its knees. Saddam had promised the 'mother of all battles' - words that came to haunt him and his army as they were caught in the open on the bloody road to Basra.
The story of the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, the echoes of which are still heard today in the middle east. In May of that year, Egypt, under President Nasser, blocked the Tiran Straits to Israeli shipping and began to gather huge numbers of troops in the Sinai Peninsula. At the same time King Hussein's Jordan allowed Iraqi troops across her border. Israel was swift to respond to this turn of events and there was a devastating pre-emptive air strike against the Egyptian airforce. Jordanian and Syrian attacks were halted and repelled, after only six short days Israel had captured East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Sinai itself.
June 1982 saw the final battles of the Falklands War. For the servicemen of the British Task Force, the campaign to defeat a determined enemy had been difficult and costly, but now the capital Stanley, the final prize, lay within their grasp. This programme tells the story of the drive to liberate Port Stanley, during which battles such as those at Tumbledown and Mount Longdon found their way into the pages of British military history.
The fight at Goose Green in May 1982 was the most famous battle of the Falklands War, which saw British and Argentine troops struggle for control of the Falkland Islands. In the wake of the shock Argentine invasion, Britain sent a hastily assembled Task Force to the South Atlantic charged with the job of restoring British sovereignty. The Argentine positions at Goose Green were thought to pose a threat to the British advance across the Islands and troops from the Parachute Regiment were sent to deal with it.
Discover why the last major German offensive of World War Two so nearly succeeded and how heroic defensive actions by American GIs thwarted their plans.
The great German spring offensive of 1918 was the Kaiser's last attempt to make a decisive breakthrough during World War I. For a time, it seemed it would succeed, but the attack petered out through exhaustion and supply difficulties. Germany would never regain the initiative.
Experience the terrible final battle for Berlin in 1945 from the perspective of the attacking Red Army and the positions of the shattered German forces that made a final desperate defence of the city.
The bitter, bloody and inhuman struggle for Stalingrad was the turning point of the war on the Eastern Front and a pivotal moment of World War Two. Germany's defeat there signalled to the Allies at large that Hitler and the Reich could be beaten.
The controversial battle waged by American and Polish troops to gain ground around the Italian monastery of Monte Cassino.
View the famous D-Day landings of 1944 from the ships of the Allied invasion fleet and from the positions of the German army as it tried desperately to defend the beaches of Normandy. Taken from the hugely-popular television series “Line of Fire”, this programme harnesses state of the art computer technology to explore, explain and bring new perspectives to one of the most vital battles of World War Two. It also features rare archive footage, specially treated recreations and authoritative comment by leading military historians from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. About 'Line of Fire' Line of Fire is history with a difference. For the first time the great battlefields of the world are presented in a unique animated environment, providing new insights into military history's most compelling events. Each powerful episode combines unrivalled graphics with atmospheric recreations to analyse every facet of famous battles from medieval times to the Second World War.
In 1942, after a crushing defeat in France and the loss of Singapore to Japan, British forces produced Germany's first major defeat at El Alamein, in northwestern Egypt. It was an unqualified success, and signaled to the British that the war was not hopeless. As Churchill later remarked, "Before Alamein we never had a victory; after Alamein we never had a defeat."
This is the story of 'Operation Market-Garden', the code name of the offensive which was supposed to bring the Allies victory before the end of 1944. Despite the bravery of the Allied troops, the attack was a costly failure... the war would not be over by Christmas.
