World War II: Total War
Documentary
World War II: Total War
The end of the Second World War brought destruction and liberation, relief mixed with grief. Explore the aftermath of total war.
Up next: 01:00 PM · Nazi War Machines: Secrets Uncovered
Oct 9, 2026
Times in America/New_York
Archived schedule for this day. The player opens the live stream.
The end of the Second World War brought destruction and liberation, relief mixed with grief. Explore the aftermath of total war.
As the armies of WWI struggled, the German government broke the stalemate and ushered in a new era of warfare by turning to covert operations.
The treatment of POWs on both sides during WWII. From interrogation to housing to repatriation, civilian and military POWs were often used as pawns.
The US plan for invading Japan was a secret; new revelations detail manipulated casualty figures and plans to stockpile gas weapons preparing for war.
General Westmoreland executes his plan by unleashing America's advanced technology and firepower.
The war enters its fourth year. U.S. troop numbers and casualty lists spiral upward. At home, the war grows increasingly unpopular, and the government faces protests, riots, and assassinations.
1968's celebration of the Lunar New Year doesn't go as planned. The Tet Offensive exploded across more than 100 towns and cities, including the ancient capital of Hue and even the grounds of the U.S.
Lyndon Johnson bows out, and Richard Nixon wins big to become America's fourth president to oversee the war.
After the naval battle in Midway the U.S.A. regain the leading drive of the war in the Pacific.
Allied invasion of Normandy. Liberation of Paris.
The final push in WWII and German resistance in Berlin finally capitulates.
By 1942, Rommel’s Afrika Corps has been pushed back to Tunisia and the brash 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 1944 the US 3rd Armored Division spearheads the Allied push from the western border of Germany towards Berlin. The American tankers battle fanatical Germans defending their homeland.
Flank attack – going around the side of the enemy instead of taking him head-on – is one of the most basic of Battleplans, yet stories of key victories decided by a flanking manoeuvres fill military textbooks.
Siege warfare is almost as old as history itself and can have several aims; To frustrate an enemy’s offensive Battleplan, to seize victory by capturing a key position, or to tie down a critical element of the enemy’s forces.
While Hitler funds space projects for his war effort, rather than science, German space pioneer Eugen Sanger is a true believer in advancing science and space flight.
WWII historian James Holland gets inside the cockpit of the Nazi's star fighters.
WWII historian James Holland uncovers the truth behind Hitler's feared Panzer divisions, from the inoffensive Panzer II to the enormous Tiger tank.
WWII historian James Holland goes to the depths with the Wolf Packs - the force that threatened Britain's survival like no other.
WWII historian James Holland tests out just how effective German weaponry was in battle conditions.
When the Nazi Battleship Bismarck was launched it was destined to be one of the greatest battleships that ever took to sea.
June 6, 1944, the biggest seaborne invasion in history. Allied soldiers from Britain, the US, and Canada land on five Normandy beaches—Gold, Sword, Utah, Omaha, and Juno.
Allied soldiers push on to take their first objective, the city of Caen. They're met by formidable Panzer forces determined to push the Allies back into the sea.
Hitler orders a massive counter-attack in an attempt to cut the Allies in two. But British and Canadian forces press in on Germans forces from the North, while American troops close in from the South.
Seizing the Scheldt Estuary fell to the Canadians who fought a victorious battle through mud, minefields, and canals to secure the critical shipping supply route to the Allied troops waiting in Antwerp.
Under-armed and under-prepared US infantry divisions find themselves fighting off the best of the German army in the inaccessible hill and forest country of the Ardennes.
With only the Rhine River between the Allies and Hitler. Once across the Rhine, the Allies meet the Russian troops at Elbe and the war reaches its endgame with the Russian siege of Berlin.
From Germany's Big Bertha in World War I to Iraq's secret Project Babylon, this program explores the development of the terrifying super gun.
no info available