(26 X 46 minute episodes)
THE SERIES
Dead men don't tell tales - or do they? Are there forensic clues left in the sands of time? Are there traces of archive film which even today are waiting to unveil their grisly secret? Not all the captivating and fascinating stories of military escapades in the 20th Century have been fully examined and many fascinating insights are still to be revealed and told.
These have been known until now as DEADMEN'S SECRETS.
What was the true story behind the tragic death of John F Kennedy's older and better looking brother? Was this the man who Joe Kennedy Sr. was really grooming for President? Could his death have been avoided?
How was it possible for an American President to order the death in mid-air of the man who executed the raid on Pearl Harbor? Who tampered with the flying controls of General Sikorski's plane? And which secret frogman was first on the scene when the plane crashed into the sea? Why did Hitler murder his right-hand man and why did the bomb plot to kill Hitler fail?
How did the Allies execute a daring plot to kill Hitler's chosen successor and who set fire to the 'Normandie' before she could set sail from New York with 6,000 American troops on board?
Who really was 'The Man Who Never Was'? This and many other fascinating questions are answered in this new pivotal series entitled DEADMEN'S SECRETS.
With newly discovered archive film and new state of the art 3D computer graphics the series sets out to answer some of the most baffling questions and war mysteries of the 20th Century. What was the truth about Rudolf Hess and whatever happened to Raoul Wallenberg? What did the Oslo Report reveal and who wrote it? And how close was Hitler to developing the atomic bomb at the end of World War II? Some of the answers are both frightening and unexpected.
With the release of new Government information on both sides of the Atlantic it is now possible to painstakingly reconstruct some of the most famous mysteries of recent military history. DEADMEN'S SECRETS is the first serious attempt this Century to lay some of the last Century's most puzzling ghosts to rest.
FOR WORLDWIDE TV RIGHTS
PLEASE CONTACT:
MICHAEL KATZ
VICE PRESIDENT PROGRAMMING & PRODUCTION
THE INTERNATIONAL DEPT,
THE HISTORY CHANNEL
A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS
235 EAST 45TH STREET
NEW YORK
NY - 10017
USA
TEL: 001 212 210 9003
FAX: 001 212 907 9476
E-MAIL: michael.katz@aetn.com
FOR WORLDWIDE VIDEO AND ALL PUBLISHING RIGHTS
PLEASE CONTACT:
KATE WINN
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING HOME VIDEO
NEW VIDEO GROUP
A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS
216 EAST 45TH STREET
NEW YORK
NY - 10017
USA
TEL: 001 203 353 7204
FAX: 001 212 907 9418
E-MAIL: kate.winn@aetn.com
ALSO: CERTAIN VIDEO CASSETTES AND DVDs ARE AVAILABLE FROM:
PLEASE CONTACT:
SUSAN MARGOLYN
NEW VIDEO GROUP INC
902 BROADWAY (9TH FLOOR)
NEW YORK
NY 10010
USA
TEL: (212) 206 8600 X 226
FAX: (212) 206 9001
E-MAIL: SMargolin@newvideo.com
THE STORIES
(each programme = 46 minutes)
Programme 1
The Mysterious Death of Joe Kennedy
In August 1944 a heavily-laden US Navy Liberator took off from an English airfield, piloted by Joe Kennedy Junior. Many expected him to follow in the family tradition, and eventually make president of the USA, but that day he perished when his aircraft exploded before it even reached enemy airspace. Kennedy was the daring test pilot in a highly secret and extremely dangerous operational trial involving a flying, remote-controlled bomb.
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Programme 2
The Mysterious Death of Yamamoto
Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was the mastermind behind the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the terrible times that followed a nation demanded revenge. With astounding military precision, 16 Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter planes flew 650 miles to intercept Yamamoto's aircraft as he made a routine flight to visit his forces. Their mission: hunt and destroy. The pilots had become assassins, and the death of Yamamoto was sanctioned by the President of the United States.
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Programme 3
The Mysterious Death of General Sikorski
General Wladyslaw Sikorski was head of the Polish government-in-exile and commander of all Polish soldiers who had escaped the Nazis and returned to the fight. In 1943, the B-24 Liberator carrying him out of Gibraltar failed to lift off after take-off, and crashed straight into the sea. The official line was that Sikorsky and his fellow passengers had died in an accident, but evidence of sabotage indicated otherwise. Who wanted Sikorsky dead? Could it be his Russian arch-enemy Stalin, or perhaps even Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who may have found him a troublesome ally?
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Programme 4
Whatever Happened to Glenn Miller?
Big band leader Glenn Miller was the King of Swing until his Norseman light aircraft vanished over the English Channel in 1944. Was Miller in the wrong place at the wrong time when returning bombers offloaded their excess payload over the water, or was his death far more sinister? Why would the authorities cover up the musician's death? Could he have been a spy?
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Programme 5
Why Did Hitler Murder Ernst Roehm?
Even before World War II had started, Hitler had begun his killing career. In 1934, he had one of his best friends and loyal servants murdered. During the infamous 'Night of the Long Knives' SA leader Ernst Roehm's time was up. He had become too powerful, and his brown-shirted SA troops posed a threat to Hitler's personal bodyguard, the SS. Worse, he was a homosexual and to Hitler and his Nazis a pervert. When Hitler was forced to choose between loyalty and power, there would be no hesitation.
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Programme 6
Revenge! The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich was the perfect Nazi: tall, blond, athletic - and evil. From his appointment as Reichsprotektor in Czechoslovakia and his determination to clear the country of Jews, he earned the nickname 'Hangman of Prague'. So the British government and the Czech leader in exile came up with a plan to assassinate him. One morning in 1942, as Heydrich was driven through the streets of Prague, he was gunned down. The Czech people struck a blow for liberation, but in the reprisals that follow, many innocent people would pay with their lives.
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Programme 7
German Death Trap - the Kammhuber Line
The Kammhuber Line was an awesome integrated system of air defences stretching from Denmark to Paris. It protected Germany from Allied bombers, and mystified Allied intelligence in their efforts to crack the Line. They soon discovered Freya and Wurzburg; early warning systems to detect the approach of enemy aircraft, and direct the German fighters on to the incoming Allied bombers. The system was way ahead of its time, and Allied scientists worked round the clock to find a way past the defences, and stop more flyers being killed.
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Programme 8
Secrets of Hitler's Special Forces
Hitler's Special Forces carried out some of the most daring raids of World War II: the first glider-borne assault on the Belgian fortress of Eben-Emael... a paratroop aerial assault on the island of Crete... and the audacious rescue of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from his mountain-top prison high in the Gran Sasso range. Led by the formidable Otto Skorzeny, Hitler's special forces were among the best in the world.
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Programme 9
Why Did The Plots To Kill Hitler Fail?
The course of history could have been so different if the first plot to kill Adolf Hitler, in 1939, had been successful. But it seemed that Hitler was a hard man to kill. Over the course of the war several attempts were made on his life, but none were successful. This programme analyses what went wrong. Eventually Hitler took his own life. Why had no-one else succeeded?
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Programme 10
Escape From Hitler's Bunker
In 1945 Soviet tanks roared through the flaming ruins of Berlin. In Hitler's bunker under the Reich Chancellery waited a group of the most hated men in history. Some took their own lives, but some escaped. Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler were caught soon after their flight from the bunker. But what happened to party secretary Martin Bormann and Gestapo chief Heinrich Muller?
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Programme 11
How Close Was Hitler to Developing Atomic Weapons?
At the start of World War II, the race was already on between the Nazis and the Allies to be the first to create an atomic weapon. By teaming up with the Japanese, Hitler planned to launch an atomic attack on San Francisco. The date was set for August 17th, 1945. But on August 6th an American Superfortress dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and the war was finished. The race to nuclear war was won by the Allies - but only by a matter of days.
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Programme 12
The Strange Quest of Rudolph Hess
Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolph Hess parachuted into a field in Scotland in 1941. He had come to contact members of the British Royal family on a secret peace mission that he hoped would end the war. He was captured by some locals and imprisoned, but rumours surfaced many years later questioning his identity - and the true extent of the Royal family's involvement.
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Programme 13
Who Set Fire to the Normandie?
1942. Fire blazed on the Normandie, a magnificent luxury ocean liner anchored in New York Harbour. She had just been converted to a troop carrier, ready to take 10,000 American troops to Britain. Nazi sabotage was supected, but the official story was negligence. Decades later Mafia chieftain Lucky Luciano claimed his organisation had burnt the Normandie, and in the aftermath had made a deal with the US government to protect the dock from further Nazi sabotage.
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Programme 14
Secrets of the 'Y' Service
In World War II electronic warfare became crucial. The Y Service was a group of highly trained technicians who used technology to fight the war. They listened in to enemy messages and pinpointed enemy radio stations and the tracks of ships, U-boats and aircraft around the globe.
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Programme 15
Operation Bodyguard: D-Day Deception
The Allies knew that to be successful on D-Day they must disguise where they would land; so they created an elaborate system of hoax and deception named Operation Bodyguard to fool the Germans who were waiting. There were fake armies, dummy landing craft and false intelligence, all designed to keep Hitler guessing about the true objective of the Allied landings.
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Programme 16
Who Was 'The Man Who Never Was'?
Operation Mincemeat: a corpse floated off the coast of Spain carrying battle plans in a briefcase chained to his wrist. But the corpse was a plant, the plans were fake, and the Germans were totally fooled. What was the true identity of the mysterious body, and how could it be linked to the mysterious sinking of the aircraft carrier HMS Dasher off the coast of Scotland - and the loss of nearly 500 sailors lives?
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Programme 17
Secrets of the Sea Wolves
Admiral Karl Doenitz led the U-boat packs as they roamed the Atlantic hunting down their prey. They came close to starving Britain into surrender, and in their 'Happy Time' laid waste to the Allied fleet. What were the U-boats' secrets, how could they be so effective and how were they finally, and utterly defeated.
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Programme 18
Tracking Down Nazi Gold
In the chaos that surrounded the fall of Berlin, millions of dollars of gold went missing from the Reichsbank, taken by the Nazis and hidden deep in the German countryside. The Nazis also stole from their victims, thieving from the very corpses of the Jews they murdered in the concentration camps. Even the money the Jews had put into Swiss bank accounts before the war was not safe - their children and grandchildren could not gain access to it because of stringent Swiss 'privacy' laws.
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Programme 19
Secrets of Hitler's Wonder Weapons
In the last years of World War II Hitler's war machine turned in desperation to some of the strangest weapons ever devised in warfare. Advanced technological weapons so secret that even today their true use remains a mystery. The Allied forces were aware of the Messerschmitt Me-262 - the world's first jet fighter...the V-1 flying bomb, the ancestor of today's cruise missile...and the V-2 - the world's first ballistic missile. But there were more surprises to come.
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Programme 20
MI9 - Escape and Evasion in Europe
MI9 was one of the most secretive agencies of the war. It existed to assist Allied troops caught behind enemy lines - spies, downed airmen and escaped prisoners. Before they faced the enemy, soldiers were trained how to avoid capture on enemy territory, what to do if they were caught, and how to escape. With the help of Resistance teams, who risked their lives in Occupied Europe, many valuable men were brought home to fight another day.
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Programme 21
America's Secret War
American Intelligence is now the most powerful in the world, but at the start of WWII, it was almost non-existent. This programme shows how US Intelligence was born, in the 1920s, developed during World War II through the Office of Strategic Services...the Allied Intelligence Bureau...the breaking of the Japanese naval codes by US Navy Intelligence... and the brilliant advances made in aerial reconnaissance.
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Programme 22
Whatever Happened to Raoul Wallenberg?
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat in Budapest, at the height of Hitler's Final Solution. As hundreds of Jews were loaded onto trains destined for the concentration camps, Wallenberg used his personal authority to save many of those who had been earmarked for death. From under the noses of the Nazis, he is thought to have rescued 100,000 people. But suddenly in 1945, he disappeared, and was never seen again. This programme follows the trails uncovered by his family, researchers, and even governments, in their hunt for the truth.
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Programme 23
The Oslo Report
In 1939 a mysterious package finds its way into the hands of British scientists. It is unsigned, and written in German. It reveals the stage of technological advancement that has been reached by Hitler's scientists. It is beyond the realms of belief, but gradually, events reveal it to be accurate, and it becomes a vital tool in combating the Nazi advances. But who was the anonymous author of one of the most important scientific reports of World War II, and why did he send such precious information to England?
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Programme 24
Nazi Fugitives From Justice
For many years the Odessa was thought to be a fictional organisation - a group who helped Nazi war criminals, especially members of the SS, escape Allied justice. But the truth was that many of the most brutal murderers lived to see the old age that they had denied their victims. Known killers were secreted down 'ratlines' through Europe, until they reached comparative safety in South America, where they could use their deadly training to support the militaristic regimes. But could it be possible that the authorities knew of their escape from justice - and even helped them evade capture?
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Programme 25
Red Spies Against the Axis
The Red Orchestra was made up of people from all nations, united by their faith in Communism, who provided information to Stalin in Russia. These spies risked their lives to procure intelligence from the heart of Germany, and many paid the price. As they were captured and tortured by the Gestapo, the spy rings fell apart, but they had provided information with such startling accuracy, that today many people believe there must have been a Communist spy in the highest echelons of Nazi government. Who could it have been?
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Programme 26
Secrets of the Desert War
The fighting in North Africa was some of the most ferocious in World War II. In those inhospitable conditions, ideas of warfare could be pushed to their limits. This programme explores the ingenuity behind the desert war, which included using magic to hide the entire Suez Canal, and camouflage to fool the enemy into believing in the presence of whole fake armies. Misinformation and subterfuge defeated the Germans as much as guns and tanks.
For video availability click here.
FOR WORLDWIDE TV RIGHTS
PLEASE CONTACT:
MICHAEL KATZ
VICE PRESIDENT PROGRAMMING & PRODUCTION
THE INTERNATIONAL DEPT,
THE HISTORY CHANNEL
A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS
235 EAST 45TH STREET
NEW YORK
NY - 10017
USA
TEL: 001 212 210 9003
FAX: 001 212 907 9476
E-MAIL: michael.katz@aetn.com
FOR WORLDWIDE VIDEO AND ALL PUBLISHING RIGHTS
PLEASE CONTACT:
KATE WINN
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING HOME VIDEO
NEW VIDEO GROUP
A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS
216 EAST 45TH STREET
NEW YORK
NY - 10017
USA
TEL: 001 203 353 7204
FAX: 001 212 907 9418
E-MAIL: kate.winn@aetn.com
ALSO: CERTAIN VIDEO CASSETTES AND DVDs ARE AVAILABLE FROM:
PLEASE CONTACT:
SUSAN MARGOLYN
NEW VIDEO GROUP INC
902 BROADWAY (9TH FLOOR)
NEW YORK
NY 10010
USA
TEL: (212) 206 8600 X 226
FAX: (212) 206 9001
E-MAIL: SMargolin@newvideo.com