The Best Episodes of Battlefield

The two mightiest air fleets in the world clashed in tumultuous combat over the skies of Britain and the English Channel. The very survival of the English depended on the bravery of the Royal Air Force, of whom Churchill said, " Never was so much owed by so many to so few."

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In a classic naval engagement, the American and Japanese Navies squared off in the carrier-to-carrier Battle of Midway. Both sides knew that the victor would rule the Pacific for decades to come.

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In August 1944, with the battle for the beaches won, Allied troops were advancing through Normandy. The Falaise Gap, southeast of Caen, represented the only remaining escape route for the Germans. In danger of being overrun, the Germans were determined to extract their forces before becoming completely encircled. The subsequent fighting in the hedgerows and fields was intense, as the Allies battled to overcome 150,000 determined Germans. The Gap was finally closed on August 19. Approximately 50,000 trapped German soldiers surrendered. Germans losses, especially of heavy guns and tanks, were catastrophic.

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The furious, climatic last battle of Hitler’s war. Over half a million lives were lost as the Red Army finally crushed the last Nazi citadel.

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To restore American prestige in the Pacific, President Franklin Roosevelt authorized an invasion of the Philippines, a former American Territory and the scene of a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Japanese in 1942.

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The Nazi German Blitzkrieg's most astonishing triumph, sweeping into the heart of Paris in a few short days, and establishing Hitler's supremacy over Continental Europe.

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The annihilation of an entire army amidst the charred and frozen ruins of Stalingrad was catastrophe for Nazi arms. Thereafter, the colossus of the Red Army was never to lose the initiative in the East.

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The longest continuous military campaign of WWII, The Battle of the Atlantic raged across the ocean from 1939 till 1945, pitting feared U-boats and other German naval warships against Allied shipping and troop convoys.

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Hitler's plan for the conquest of Russia called for a classic Blitzkrieg offensive, which would be pressed ruthlessly to its conclusion within the course of a single season's campaign.

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When victory in North Africa seemed assured, Allied Planners turned their attention to Italy. The objective was to seize Rome, knock Italy out of the war and push north towards Austria.

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During the last months of 1944, the British and Americans pressed steadily through France and Belgium to the western frontiers of the Third Reich.

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In 1953 the French and Viet Minh forces had been at war for seven years. The climactic encounter of the war occurred at Dien Bien Phu, a small hamlet in northwestern Vietnam, in a battle that neither side could afford to lose

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What starts as a ripple becomes a wave, and with the United States involvement in Vietnam, it began as a contingent of U.S. "military advisors" after the attack at Dien Bien Phu. From there it turned into "non-official combat missions," and finally, after an unprovoked torpedo attack by a North Vietnamese patrol boat against the unsuspecting U.S. destroyer Maddox, it became "The Undeclared War."

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While the method of "search and destroy" is the ultimate goal for any armed conflict, it developed a new face in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. With the absence of an actual front line, the North circumvented skirmishes by entering neighboring Cambodia, only to reappear within striking distance of the South stronghold of Saigon. With such bold initiative, the American contingent retaliated with heavily armed helicopter gunships from the U.S. First Air Cavalry Division, thus introducing the world's first helicopter-based military formation at the battle of the La Drang Valley.

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Expanding its presence in 1966, the U.S. Army sets up patrols in the south to draw out Viet Cong guerrillas, but can't force a decisive battle. Included: veterans recall missions to uncover Viet Cong bases; the political climate in Saigon.

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Viet Cong incursions in 1967 prompt the U.S. to reinforce key southern bases, unaware that the North Vietnamese were planning an all-out assault for early 1968. Included: combat footage; comments from veterans.

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Viet Cong guerrillas, backed by the North Vietnamese Army, staged a massive offensive against major cities and U.S. bases in January 1968, during the Tet holiday.

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Unlike the two world wars and the many before, the conflict in Vietnam was void of a so-called front line. Battles were fought in pockets of resistance, with troops dropped in by helicopter. What did exist was the section of the country dividing the North from the South known as the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone). This was often an arena of heavy combat, and Battlefield Vietnam: War on the DMZ highlights such furious fighting as "Operation Hastings" and "Operation Prairie."

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In early 1968, American and allied forces fought the North Vietnamese Army in one of the most dramatic battles of the Vietnam War. For 77 days, two powerful NVA Divisions laid siege to the U.S. Marine Corps base at Khe Sahn.

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The first of two programs on American bombing during the war, concentrates on the campaign prior to 1965, and examines how the Communists responded to U.S. air superiority.

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The air war against the north intensifies as fighting in the south escalates. The U.S. targets North Vietnamese transport and supply routes (some of them in Laos and Cambodia), culminating in the so-called Christmas bombings of Hanoi and Haiphong in December, 1973.

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The Paris Peace Accord finally brought an end to the Vietnam War, and the last U.S. Soldiers left Vietnam on March 29th, 1973. Two years later, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Army. Vietnam was reunited.

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The U.S. withdrawal left the South Vietnamese with a well equipped but poorly led army unable to contain the 1974-75 Communist assault that ended in the capture of Saigon.

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In the summer of 1943 more than 2,000,000 men and 6,000 tanks of the German and Soviet Armies faced each other near the Soviet city of Kursk. The ensuing battle was, to this day, the largest tank battle ever fought in history. It marked the last major offensive operation of German forces in the East and, combined with the Soviet victory at Stalingrad, was the decisive turning point on the Eastern Front.

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