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Where to watch "World War II Diaries - The Complete War Report"
73. 1945 September
2017 - Season 1
In Europe, after six years of war, most countries and major cities are in ruins. For example, Berlin and Warsaw, along with large areas of London, are piles of rubble. Industries have disappeared, infrastructure has been destroyed and millions of people are penniless.
72. 1945 August
2017 - Season 1
On the Pacific front, American Secret Services, after intercepting Japanese government messages, are convinced they will not accept unconditional surrender. The Secretary of the Navy, James R. Forrestal, says that, in his opinion, despite the circumstances in which they find themselves, the Japanese are determined to continue the war.
71. 1945 July
2017 - Season 1
U.S. warplanes bomb Tokyo and other Japanese cities. Japanese government sources claim that there are no more than 200,000 people left in the Japanese capital, because the rest have fled to safer areas. They add that about five million civilians have died as a result of the incendiary bombs dropped by the Americans.
70. 1945 June
2017 - Season 1
In Germany, the Soviets have carefully studied the remains of Hitler, Eva Braun, and Joseph Goebbels and his family, who have been buried temporarily in a forest near the town of Rathenow in the vicinity of Brandenburg. At the Vatican, Pope Pius XII, in a radio message, calls on the German people to abandon Nazism and rebuild their country.
69. 1945 May
2017 - Season 1
The Czech resistance stages the Prague uprising. In the course of the day, two thousand barricades are built throughout the city, and the main bridges over the Vltava River are taken over by the insurgents. Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, orders the city garrisons to suppress the rebellion. The SS soldiers that are captured by the partisans are hung from lampposts and burned alive.
68. 1945 April
2017 - Season 1
When he visits, General Eisenhower, is so affected that he sends photographs to Churchill with copies of movies that have been filmed. The British Prime Minister is so horrified that he circulates the material among members of the War Cabinet.
67. 1945 March
2017 - Season 1
Stalin intends to make the Allies believe that his objective is to take Dresden. However, Marshal Zhukov has orders of taking the German capital and capturing Hitler as soon as possible. For his part, General Eisenhower is considering the idea of not being the first to arrive at Berlin. The casualty rate would be very high and would be difficult to explain to the American and British public.
66. 1945 February
2017 - Season 1
On German soil, Soviet forces are less than one hundred kilometers from Berlin, which is a declared a "fortress city". Children, women and old people throw up barricades while the city is plastered with posters proclaiming "Victory or Siberia."
65. 1945 January
2017 - Season 1
Both for Germany and Japan, 1944 has been catastrophic. Hitler's secret weapons have not had the desired effect, and they are proving inconsequential in the development of the war. In Washington, the government makes public the casualties suffered in the war up to December 21 1944: 135,323 soldiers have died, 362,824 wounded, 75,844 have disappeared, and 64,148 have been taken prisoner.
64. 1944 December
2017 - Season 1
Charles De Gaulle travels to Moscow to meet with Josef Stalin. After a number of meetings over several days, they will sign a military alliance against Germany. In the Pacific, today marks the third anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and U.S. entry in the war. The Americans have recovered much of the lost ground, though this has been at the cost of thousands of deaths.
63. 1944 November
2017 - Season 1
The Japanese launch the strategy of sending fire balloons over the Pacific Ocean with the hope that they will reach the United States and produce massive wildfires in the West Coast woodlands. The operation will take place over five months, in the course of which more than nine thousand balloons will be sent off. Three hundred of them will reach American territory, producing hardly any damage.
62. 1944 October
2017 - Season 1
On the Eastern Front in Europe, four hundred Jews held in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp stage an uprising. Members of a sonderkommando responsible for taking corpses from the gas chambers to the crematoriums desperately attack their guards using explosives stolen from a nearby factory. They manage to destroy one of the crematoriums before SS soldiers kill them all.
61. 1944 September
2017 - Season 1
On the Western Front in northern France, General Eisenhower sets up his headquarters in the city of Reims. A great student of history, he is trying to emulate Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who defeated the Romans at Cannae in south eastern Italy, in a battle considered as one of the greatest tactical displays in military history.
60. 1944 August
2017 - Season 1
Under Hitler's instructions, Heinrich Himmler orders that all family members of Von Stauffenberg be persecuted. His wife Nina, a few months pregnant, is arrested by security forces and sent to prison and then to the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. Their four children are sent to an internment camp.
59. 1944 July
2017 - Season 1
To date, the Allies have landed to date more than one million soldiers and one hundred and seventy thousand vehicles in northern France. The number of captured German prisoners has risen to forty thousand.
58. 1944 June
2017 - Season 1
The greatest combined force of all time undertakes the most extraordinary amphibious operation in history, consisting of 13,000 planes, 702 warships, 4,126 transport ships, 80,000 trucks, 10,000 tanks and nearly three million men: the invasion of the Normandy coast of northern France. The first Allied troops, the Americans, land at 6:30 am on the Utah and Omaha beaches.
57. 1944 May
2017 - Season 1
Stalin claims that Germany has been defeated during a speech delivered during the May Day celebrations. He calls for Romanians, Bulgarians, and Hungarians to rise against Hitler and his occupation forces. He ends by saying: "the Nazi beast is wounded; we must now chase to its lair and destroy it".
56. 1944 April
2017 - Season 1
Hitler issues an order to the commanders on the Eastern Front encouraging them to achieve victory and saying "the Russians have exhausted their strength and it's time to finally stop their advance." The German generals cannot believe what they read and consider the Führer has lost his mind.
55. 1944 March
2017 - Season 1
Allied commanders estimate that German troops need an average of four thousand tons of supplies daily to supply the forces. Their goal is to cut off the supply lines to the rearguard. General Alexander increases the number of U.S. aircraft involved in Operation Strangle, aimed at railway hubs, bridges, roads and supply stores in a broad sweep of the Italian peninsula.
54. 1944 February
2017 - Season 1
Over 800 RAF bombers launch a night-time attack against the German city of Leipzig, which is followed in the morning by an air raid by the Eight US Air Force in what comes to be known as the Big Week, the carpet bombing of the major industrial centers of the Third Reich.
53. 1944 January
2017 - Season 1
In Germany, Hitler, in his New Year's address to the German people, reasserts his will to keep fighting: "No matter how long the war may last, it's better to continue in it than to condemn our homeland to the humiliation of defeat", he says.
52. 1943 December
2017 - Season 1
After the fall of Mussolini, Hitler has strengthened his own security measures to the maximum, to the extent of not revealing to his closest confidantes the dates of his trips. During his stay at headquarters he covers his head with a heavy armoured cap.
51. 1943 November
2017 - Season 1
In Europe, Heinrich Himmler has decided to annihilate outright the Jews of the Polish labour camps. In Moscow, Stalin delivers a radio speech praising the bravery of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. For Hitler, the loss of Kiev has been a heavy blow.
50. 1943 October
2017 - Season 1
Hitler orders the Marshal Kesselring to maintain defensive lines south of Rome and use any means necessary to avoid the Allies' advancing north. In Poland, 1196 children arrive at Auschwitz death camp from the Bialystok ghetto. They are sent straight to the gas chambers.
49. 1943 September
2017 - Season 1
Hitler believes that Germany will recoup the initiative thanks to the lack of unity among the Allies, and his new weapons of mass destruction. In order to accelerate the production of war materials, he gives more power to Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production.
48. 1943 August
2017 - Season 1
The American planes take off from a base near Benghazi (Libya) and, after flying 2,400 miles to reach the target, find it heavily defended by German fighters and anti aircraft batteries. The B-24s launch their explosives on the huge oil installations, representing one of the lifelines of the Third Reich. The Germans quickly repair the damage and production reaches its highest level within a week.
47. 1943 July
2017 - Season 1
The Führer, to his regret, and in light of the Allied landings in Sicily, decides to temporarily halt Operation Zitadelle. The last major German offensive on the Eastern Front has represented a costly failure: most of their tank reserves have been annihilated and, to make matters worse, the Red Army enjoys the strategic initiative and has started to clear the way for Berlin.
46. 1943 June
2017 - Season 1
German and Ukrainian soldiers encircle the Lvov ghetto (eastern Poland) to prevent its inhabitants from fleeing. When Nazi units penetrate it to carry out genocide, they encounter strong resistance, so they torch buildings to flush out the inhabitants. More than three thousand Jews are killed and another seven thousand are captured and sent to Janowska camp, where they will be killed.
45. 1943 May
2017 - Season 1
In Poland, over two thousand Jews are transferred from Wlodawa to the Sobibor death camp, directed by the SS general Franz Reichleitner. When they reach the arrivals platform and realize the tragic fate that awaits them, they desperately rebel against the SS guards watching over them, attacking them with sticks and stones. The rioters are gunned down.
44. 1943 April
2017 - Season 1
Many among the Nazi leadership are convinced that Germany will eventually be defeated. Heinrich Himmler, in anticipation of this possibility, orders that in the reports on the "Jewish Question", the term "special treatment" be omitted so as to conceal the genocide. His aim is to eliminate as much evidence about the Holocaust as possible to avoid being charged for this after the war.
43. 1943 March
2017 - Season 1
At Madison Square Garden's in New York, more than 20,000 Jews gather under the banner of the "American Jewish Congress", whose aim is to pressurise the U.S. government and its allies into providing refuge for European Jews and to abolish restrictions on immigration to Palestine.
42. 1943 February
2017 - Season 1
The remainders of the Sixth Army and the Fourth Panzerarmee have surrendered to the Red Army. Some fifty-five thousand prisoners are sent on foot to concentration camps in Siberia. Many of them will die in the strenuous walk. In the US, in Oak Ridge (Tennessee), the construction of the world's fist production plant of Uranium-235 begins, with the aim of developing the A-bomb.
41. 1943 January
2017 - Season 1
The Japanese High Command decides to evacuate the island of Guadalcanal. This means giving up complete control of the Solomon Islands and mastery of their northwest shipping routes to Australia and New Zealand. In Stalingrad, General Paulus and his men continue to endure the pressure of the Russian siege. Luftwaffe losses increase as it attempts to maintain the feeble airlift of supplies.
40. 1942 December
2017 - Season 1
In Stalingrad, two hundred and fifty thousand German soldiers from the Sixth Army have been trapped in the Cauldron (Der Kessel), where rotting corpses are piling up. They have the vain hope that Marshal Erich Von Manstein will come to help them. "The Führer will not abandon us" is the most common phrase among the Wehrmacht men.
39. 1942 November
2017 - Season 1
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, after analyzing the situation orders part of the Italian forces to withdraw to positions behind the Afrika Korps. He later tells the Wehrmacht High Command that, due to lack of reinforcements and supplies, his only option is to retreat.
38. 1942 October
2017 - Season 1
Hitler is obsessed with the conquest of Stalingrad, although General Kurt Zeitzler, the new Chief of the Army General Staff, warns him that it would be wise to reconsider their strategy after the success of the Soviets to resist the second German offensive. The Führer, however, thinks that the battle will be decided with yet another attack.
37. 1942 September
2017 - Season 1
The Führer, distanced from direct contact with his High Command, and as he had vowed, eats alone and refuses to shake hands with some of his commanders. His obsession has become the rapid conquest of Stalingrad. He wishes to take and display the city as trophy to disguise the failure in the Caucasus.
36. 1942 August
2017 - Season 1
General Dwight Eisenhower is officially named Commander in Chief of the Allied forces in Europe. Roosevelt and Churchill also agree to put him in charge of Operation Torch, the Allied landings on the French colonies of North Africa.
35. 1942 July
2017 - Season 1
In Berlin, Heinrich Himmler presides over a secret meeting along with his personal doctor, Karl Gebhardt, and the SS general, Richard Glueks, General Inspector of concentration camps, and the leading German gynaecologist, Karl Clauberg. With Hitler's consent, they agree to carry out medical experiments on the prisoners of the Auschwitz and Ravensbrück camps.
34. 1942 June
2017 - Season 1
A decree is issued in France and the Netherlands making compulsory the use of the Jewish star on clothes. The SS states that to date 977,000 Jews have been eliminated using gas. The Polish socialist underground newspaper Liberty Barricade reveals the killings taking place in the extermination camps of Poland. In Britain, The Times echoes the news with the heading "Slaughter in Poland".
33. 1942 May
2017 - Season 1
A deathly silence takes hold as white flags are hoisted over the Allied positions. Colonel Motoo Nakayama takes Wainright to Bataan to speak with General Masaharu Homma. The American General explains that it has been impossible to communicate his decision to General Sharp on the island of Mindanao. After lengthy and difficult negotiations he surrenders his troops unconditionally.
32. 1942 April
2017 - Season 1
At his headquarters in Rastenburg, Hitler meets with Himmler. The head of the SS presents his project for German schools. Children considered to be of Aryan race living in the occupied territories will be separated from their parents and educated in Nazi schools.
31. 1942 March
2017 - Season 1
In London a depressed Winston Churchill passes through one of his worst moments in office, under fire from his critics. Along with the problems in Southeast Asia, North Africa and the delicate situation in Malta, the country is facing shortages of foodstuffs and coal. The Prime Minister wants the American President to take determined action as time is running out for the United Kingdom.
30. 1942 February
2017 - Season 1
Japanese have suffered ten thousand casualties in Malaysia and their supply system is broken down. In London, RAF Air Marshal Arthur Travers Harris, the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command issues the order of selective area bombing. From now on, the air force's objective will be to destroy the morale of the German people, using saturation bombing against civilians and industrial sectors.
29. 1942 January
2017 - Season 1
President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet in the White House. During a press conference, Roosevelt declares that the government is considering the possibility of transferring the war industries, especially the aeronautic sector on the Pacific coast, to the interior, due to fears of a Japanese attack on the West Coast of the United States.
28. 1941 December
2017 - Season 1
The radar station at Opana Point detects the presence of aircraft but believes them to be B-17s. At 7h 50 local time, the Japanese naval air forces commanded by Vice Admiral Nagumo launch their attack against the American military base. Ninety minutes later 2,403 Americans have lost their lives.
27. 1941 November
2017 - Season 1
The American public is shocked by the deaths of some of the crew members of the destroyer "Reuben James". Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy declares that the sinking of the vessel was a cowardly action even worse than piracy. President Roosevelt accuses Hitler of ordering unprovoked attacks against American vessels.
26. 1941 October
2017 - Season 1
The Battle of Moscow begins. The third and fourth Panzer groups of Marshal Von Bock launch the first attack of Operation Typhoon (Taifun). As Hitler put it, "Today begins the last great battle that will be decisive in the war". The Germans intensify their attacks all along the Russian front.
25. 1941 September
2017 - Season 1
In Berlin, a decree is introduced ordering all Jews older than six years of age and living in German territory to wear a Star of David sewed onto their clothes over the chest. The gay and gipsy communities are forced to wear a triangular shape.
24. 1941 August
2017 - Season 1
The American government announces a new oil embargo on all countries outside the Western Hemisphere except those belonging to the British Empire. Japan is hit the hardest by the measure. Soviet losses amount to a million men killed, taken prisoner or missing in action. The British army deploys troops on the border between Iran and Afghanistan. The Burmese government suspends trade with Japan.
23. 1941 July
2017 - Season 1
In London, Winston Churchill declares on the radio that in recent weeks British planes have dropped on Germany half the number of bombs that the Germans have dropped during the whole war. But this is only the beginning, and there will be no letup until Hitler is destroyed." According to the British Prime Minister, some Germans can be forgiven, but others deserve to die.
22. 1941 June
2017 - Season 1
Winston Churchill speaks with President Roosevelt on the telephone and appeals for more help as Britain is in a desperate situation.
21. 1941 May
2017 - Season 1
In Berlin, Hitler again meets with the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yosuke Matsuoka, who is returning from his visit to Italy. They study the possibility of an attack against Singapore and the consequences of a possible American intervention in the war.
20. 1941 April
2017 - Season 1
In Berlin, Hitler again meets with the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yosuke Matsuoka, who is returning from his visit to Italy. They study the possibility of an attack against Singapore and the consequences of a possible American intervention in the war.
19. 1941 March
2017 - Season 1
Winston Churchill, in a meeting with the War Cabinet, analyzes the German occupation of Bulgaria. With this action Hitler's troops have within reach all the strategic points of the Balkans, as well as the Bosporus Strait, which divides the city of Istanbul, the Dardanelles, which separate Europe and Asia, and Salonika. This represents a significant achievement for Hitler in the region.
18. 1941 February
2017 - Season 1
Winston Churchill declares in a speech on the radio that the American people and government are resolved to provide Britain with everything it needs for victory. Give us the means and we will finish the job, he says. Even though Hitler will do everything he can to prevent it.
17. 1941 January
2017 - Season 1
In London Winston Churchill, free from his 'Black Dog', as he calls his depression, examines strategy in the Mediterranean. It is essential to aid Greece even if that means slowing down the advance in North Africa. The government is afraid for the life of famous female flyer Amy Johnson, whose plane came down over the Thames Estuary and has not been found.
16. 1940 December
2017 - Season 1
In the Battle of Britain, Southampton, London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Plymouth and Bristol endure Luftwaffe attacks. The German pilots are unaware of the effectiveness of the British use of radar and after suffering heavy losses in bombers shot down by RAF Spitfires they are forced to fly in small squadrons. The RAF keeps on hammering targets within Germany.
15. 1940 November
2017 - Season 1
After 57 consecutive days of heavy bombing, the city of London has a quiet night. It is now evident that the Germans have been unable to break British air defences and their hopes that the Battle of Britain would only last a couple of weeks have faded. In Germany there is widespread anger among the citizens of Berlin who are forced to spend many hours during the night in air raid shelters.
14. 1940 October
2017 - Season 1
Waves of Luftwaffe planes bomb London without letup. The city is enveloped by thick clouds of smoke and flames and its inhabitants are forced to take refuge in precarious shelters with no water or electricity. Crowded hospitals are hit in the merciless bombing. The British authorities desperately try to organize a fire service to cover the whole city. Liverpool and Manchester are also bombed.
13. 1940 September
2017 - Season 1
With the American signing of a defensive agreement with Canada, which is part of the British Commonwealth, the USA is no longer "neutral", as far as the Germans are concerned, but only a "non-belligerent" power. In Germany the government orders all Jews in the country to wear a yellow star sewn onto their clothes at all times.
12. 1940 August
2017 - Season 1
In London the British Secret Service warns the government of the build up of German troops and ships on the Dutch and Belgian coasts. In the House of Commons secret meetings continue, despite criticism from the press. Meanwhile, a group of pilots from Southern Rhodesia arrives at the country. The Italians continue their bombardment of Gibraltar in the Mediterranean.
11. 1940 July
2017 - Season 1
Hitler's troops have taken over the Channel Islands, adding to the pressure on Churchill's government. The British also have to face up to the possibility that both Syria and Lebanon, controlled by the French, might become German bases from which attacks may be launched against other countries in the Middle East with which Britain has defense agreements.
10. 1940 June
2017 - Season 1
From Italy Mussolini offers Hitler his help in the occupation of France. The Nazi leader declines his offer, saying to General Wilhelm Keitel "This fool said that his country wasn't prepared for war and now he is in a rush to share the spoils".
9. 1940 May
2017 - Season 1
In London Prime Minister Chamberlain confirms in the House of Commons the evacuation of the British and French troops from Norway and the withdrawal of a division from France, due to the threat of a German airborne offensive and landings in Britain itself.
8. 1940 April
2017 - Season 1
In London, the Allied supreme war council decides that if Hitler's troops invade Belgium and the Netherlands the British and French armies will enter both countries in order to stop the offensive. At the same time, both Britain and France promise not to sign peace unilaterally with any enemy country.
7. 1940 March
2017 - Season 1
In London the British Secret Service warns the government of the build up of German troops and ships on the Dutch and Belgian coasts. In the House of Commons secret meetings continue, despite criticism from the press. Meanwhile, a group of pilots from Southern Rhodesia arrives at the country. The Italians continue their bombardment of Gibraltar in the Mediterranean.
6. 1940 February
2017 - Season 1
For Churchill one of the biggest problems of the war is the threat posed by the German submarines in the Battle of the Atlantic. The repeated successes of the U-boats have surprised the British navy, which underestimated the danger of submarines and now orders a news blackout on radio broadcasts.
5. 1940 January
2017 - Season 1
Nazi terror is enforced by a curfew, forcing all inhabitants to be inside their houses from eight at night onwards. Despite the fact that the mass executions and the transport of prisoners in cattle wagons is a daily occurrence, the Polish people are not easily intimidated and throughout the country posters and graffiti denounce the atrocities committed by the invaders.
4. 1939 December
2017 - Season 1
In Poland there is no letup in the public executions carried out by the Soviets and the Germans. The objective is to terrorize the population and dissuade them from any action against the occupiers.
3. 1939 November
2017 - Season 1
The Nazis and Soviets continue to commit atrocities in Poland. The Gestapo arrest 167 professors from the University of Cracow and send them to the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, to the north of Berlin. Seventeen of them are tortured to death, including the leading Polish literary critic Ignatius Chrzanowski.
2. 1939 October
2017 - Season 1
Roosevelt, watching events in Europe with alarm, takes the decision to end American diplomatic efforts to persuade Germany to desist from aggression.
1. 1939 September
2017 - Season 1
London begins to prepare for enemy air attacks while the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, reshuffles his cabinet, bringing in people who have criticized his policy of appeasement. One of these is Winston Churchill, who is named First Lord of the Admiralty.
