WWII: Frontlines

WWII: Frontlines

From North Africa to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean to the Pacific, we reflect on the enormous diversity of conditions which frontline soldiers had to come to grips with during WWII.

EP 1

Midway

Jun 1942: the most decisive naval-air battle in the Pacific started as a Japanese trap and ended as an American ambush. A totally unpredictable conflict, made up of luck, code-breaking…

25 Sep 2026 21:00
Midway
EP 2

Monte Cassino

Jan-May 1944: Atop the hill in Monte Cassino lies an abbey of which its Commander has forbidden its military use. Despite this, the abbey is reduced to rubble and the…

28 Sep 2026 21:00
Monte Cassino
EP 3

Anzio

Jan 1944: Two divisions land at the Italian port of Anzio in one of the easiest Allied assaults of the war. But they fail to exploit their advantage, giving the…

29 Sep 2026 21:00
Anzio
EP 4

Omaha

June 1944: A stretch of beach overlooked by fortified cliffs created a devastating baptism of fire. Failed plans, missed opportunities and courage make this frontline a major turning point in…

30 Sep 2026 21:00
Omaha
EP 5

Hill 112

Jun-Jul 1944: Three weeks after D-Day, the Allied advance has stalled. The killing fields around Hill 112 become the start of a brutal war of attrition that the Nazis cannot…

Hill 112
EP 6

Bastogne

Dec 1944: with Europe in the grip of a terrible winter, Hitler's Panzers spearhead an attack on the Allied frontline in the Ardennes. They are to break through and re-capture…

Bastogne
EP 7

Iwo Jima

Feb 1945: A quarter of all the US Marines who died in WWII were killed in Iwo Jima. The Leathernecks were forced to re-think their tactics, as one in three…

Iwo Jima
EP 8

Berlin

April 1945: Stalin's generals compete to raise the Red Flag over the Reichstag. A Panzer Army, two army groups, and the home guard are locked in a desperate battle with…

Berlin