Gallipoli (1915)
The story of the Allied campaign in the Dardanelles that was supposed to knock Turkey out of World War One. Winston Churchill convinced Allied High Command that an attack at Gallipoli would also open up vital supply lines to Russia and establish a third front against Austria-The Australian and New Zealand troops who fought and died during the ten month Gallipoli campaign that saw an estimated 36,000 Commonwealth troops lose their lives before the allied withdrawal in January 1916. It was not only Turkish shot and shell at infamous places such Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay that claimed so many lives, but also those other traditional hidden enemies of the solder - sickness and disease.
More from Season 2
Episode 1
The Retreat from Mons
The small British Expeditionary Force, moving up into Belgium on the left flank of the French 5th Army, met with the full weight of the German 1st Army advancing towards Paris under the Schlieffen Plan. A short but intense fire fight - where the British caused heavy casualties to the thick masses of enemy infantry - was followed by a British withdrawal out of the canal salient. This manoeuvre was made more urgent by news that the French Army on the right flank was in retreat.
Episode 2
Cambrai (1917)
At Cambrai in November 1917, a tank force of over three hundred tanks punched a hole four miles deep into the German lines in the space of a single morning, But the Germans counter-attacked and the result of the battle was a virtual draw, with the front lines shifting slightly. However the battle of Cambrai marked a major turning point in the course of the war - as the era of trench warfare was coming to an end and technology was beginning to reign supreme on the battlefields of Europe.
Episode 4
The Somme (1916)
July 1st 1916 was the blackest day in the history of the British Army when a combination of bad planning and German bullets sent Kitchener's Army to their doom. An army that had taken two years to build took only a day to destroy.
Episode 5
The Battle of Gettysburg (1863)
The historic Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, a turning point in the American Civil War, in which the Confederate troops and the Federal force fought an escalating battle at a cost of more than 50,000 lives.
Episode 6
Balaclava (1854)
The battle of Balaclava, aka The Charge of the Light Brigade, was the famous engagement during the Crimean War in which a Russian commander attempted to lift the siege of Sevastopol by attacking with 25,000 troops.
Episode 7
The Battle of Waterloo
Graphic reconstructions are used to illustrate how Wellington's departure from military tradition at Waterloo secured victory over the French and managed to change the course of European history
