War Stories Channel

A Total War is all encompassing, a war without boundary or limitation. It is a war of material and morale. The Second World War was a war in which massive armies advanced, confronting whole populations with impossible choices. Told through archive footage and expert interviews, we learn how WWII shattered the boundaries between home-front and battlefield. Episode one explores the portents of total war to come; in Manchuria, China, Abyssinia and Spain.

Hitler disobeyed the call for German disarmament as early as 1933. By 1935, the world knew he had broken the terms for world peace. This meant the rest of the western world could only mobilise too...

The Lightning War was an unprecedented series of German offensives that resulted in almost total and complete victory in every instance. But how did they do it? Why was it so effective? And what was it like for the countries who fell so swiftly before the German war machine?

In WW2, air raids were one of the most brutally effective and destructive methods of striking at the heart of the opposition. However, inevitably, this would come at a great cost to those at home....

Total War was not the cause of the Holocaust but it did provide a means for its execution. This episode will explore what role total war played in this genocide. How it enabled 'ordinary people' to take part in unfathomable horrors against innocent women, children and men under the cloak of war. How the administration of the war facilitated the enactment of a repugnant ideology.

The end of the Second World War brought destruction and liberation, relief mixed with grief. Explore the aftermath of total war. The war crimes trials that sought to prosecute unprecedented crimes and established new laws that hoped to prevent their repetition. The creation of the United Nations, the hopes for an 'enduring peace' and the fate of millions of refugees displaced by total war.

In 1950 the world is caught off guard as North Korea launches a massive armoured assault into South Korea. This is the story of the American tankers who rush to the aid of the South and the bloody battles they fight up and down the Korean Peninsula.

In 1916, the British debut a new mobile weapon, hoping to break the long bloody stalemate on the Western Front. This is the story of the first tanks and how they change the face of the modern battlefield forever.

Battlezone uses the collated newsreels and archived war films that were used to inform the US home front of how the war in the Pacific was progressing -- from the perspective of the American Military.

At the outset of WWII, the Germans pioneered a new form of mobile armored warfare .This is the story of how the Nazi's unleashed the blitzkrieg on Western Europe as thousands of Panzer tanks raced across rugged terrain and crushed Allied defenses.

This episode uses the collated newsreels and archived war films that were used to inform the US home front of how the war in Vietnam was progressing -- from the perspective of the American Military.

Canadian Armoured Corps tanks charge up the Italian peninsula to help liberate Rome from the Nazis.

Here, we've collated some very special films shot by the American military to give a sense of how the American military depicted the Vietnamese - from both south of the border and north.

By 1942, Rommel's Afrika Corps has been pushed back to Tunisia and the new US tank force lands in North Africa. This is the story of the final North African battles as two of history's most famed tank commanders - Patton and Rommel - go head to head.

In 1963, the U.S. Army 57th Medical Detachment (Helicopter Ambulance) commander started using the radio call sign "Dustoff" for his medical evacuation chopper.

The dramatic story of highly-decorated German tanker Ludwig Bauer who discovered the harsh reality of armoured warfare during World War II.

Archival footage of US Army films that discuss the changing tactics of the Viet Cong, and how the American Military adapted to meet the challenge.

In 1967, in response to a growing threat by her Arab neighbours, Israel launches a pre-emptive strike against Egypt in the Sinai. This is the story of one of the swiftest and most dramatic victories in modern warfare.

Rare archive footage of the Vietnam War from both fronts; the combat and peacekeeping efforts of the American Military, and the growing animosity toward the war back home...