Untitled Document

LAST DAYS OF WORLD WAR II

(26 x 1 Hour episodes)

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THE SERIES

Here is the ultimate synchronisation of details and events which signalled the last six months of the greatest conflict the world has ever known. It involved over 100 countries, it killed 50 million people and absorbed six years of struggle and bloodshed for the peoples of half the globe.

It started with the thirst for revenge by a Germany humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles. Humiliation which turned into a need for national reconstruction and respect, urged on by the nationalistic rantings of the most evil dictator world history has ever produced.

The fact that Britain stood alone in 1940, with its empire and commonwealth, was not by itself sufficient to defeat the tyrant and his Allies and it was only when America joined the struggle that its factories, raw materials and shipyards, eventually produced a numerical superiority of aircraft, ships and tanks that the Third Reich's days were numbered.

The great war leaders, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin committed the largest forces ever assembled in order to defeat the combined might of Germany, Italy and Japan. Forcing Hitler to die by his own hand, was the only way to rid the world of his particular brand of genocidal fascism. The series commences in mid-February 1945 with the Allies already victorious on D-Day and pursuing the Germans back from whence they came, through France, through Belgium, through the Netherlands, through the Ruhr to Berlin, to the very heart of Hitler's evil empire.

The Russians expended the lives of millions of men in their last desperate attempt to reach Berlin first and Germany was split into two by an Iron Curtain.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, the Allies, mainly with American air and seapower, captured the islands which gave them the springboard into the very home islands of Japan itself. Each bloody island encounter demonstrated the fanatical tenacity of the Japanese defenders and the Allies were left with no alternative but to develop an ultimate weapon system, so terrible that it would render major wars obsolete for another 60 years.

Even when America freed the Philippines in barbaric hand to hand fighting, the Japanese would still not surrender and rather than lose over 1 million Allied soldiers in landing on Japan itself, the Allies gave warning to the Japanese war leaders that they were prepared to use the ultimate weapon. In fact, the Atomic bomb had to be used twice in order to secure eventual Japanese surrender.

Each week is minutely examined with high technology maps, rare archive film, the recollections of servicemen and state of the art 3D computer graphics which bring alive for today's viewer, the tactics and strategy employed to free the world by August 1945 from those who sought to destroy it. Week by week the series builds to the inevitable and exciting climax which culminates in the final Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay in August 1945.

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

THE HISTORY CHANNEL

A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS

235 EAST 45TH STREET

NEW YORK

NY - 10017

USA

TEL: 001 203 353 7204

FAX: 001 212 907 9418

E-MAIL: kate.winn@aetn.com

FOR VIDEO CASSETTES AND DVDs

PLEASE CONTACT (USA):

SUSAN MARGOLIN

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 = 26 minutes)

1. THE BATTLE FOR IWO JIMA
- 18 - 24 February 1945
2. THE ALLIES ADVANCE
- 25 February - 3 March 1945
3. FIRESTORM OVER TOKYO
- 4 - 10 March 1945
4. HITLER'S LAST OFFENSIVE
- 10 - 17 March 1945
5. THE RACE FOR BERLIN
- 18 - 24 March 1945
6. WAR IN THE PACIFIC
- 25 - 31 March 1945
7. THE INVASION OF OKINAWA
- 1 - 7 April 1945
8. NAZI DEATH CAMPS
- 8 - 14 April 1945
9. ASSAULT ON BERLIN
- 15 - 21 April 1945
10. BLOODY STALEMATE IN OKINAWA
- 22 - 28 April 1945
11. THE FALL OF BERLIN
- 29 April - 5 May 1945
12. GERMANY SURRENDERS
- 6 - 12 May 1945
13. THE BLOODSHED CONTINUES
- 13 - 19 May 1945
14. VICTORY IN EUROPE
- 20 - 26 May 1945
15 JAPAN FIGHTS TO THE DEATH
- 27 May -2 June 1945
16. NO SURRENDER!
- 3 - 9 June 1945
17. CLOSER TO VICTORY
- 10 - 16 June 1945
18. VICTORY ON OKINAWA
- 17 - 23 June 1945
19. THE END IN SIGHT
- 24 - 30 June 1945
20. VICTORY IN THE PHILIPPINES
- 1 - 7 July 1945
21. TARGET JAPAN
- 8 - 14 July 1945
22. THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
- 15 - 21 July 1945
23. THE FINAL ULTIMATUM
- 22 - 28 July 1945
24. HIROSHIMA
- 29 July - 4 August 1945
25. THE WAR COMES TO AN END
- 5 - 11 August 1945
26. V-J DAY
- 12 - 18 August 1945

Programme 1

THE BATTLE FOR IWO JIMA

18 - 24 February 1945

PERSONALITY OF THE WEEK:
- GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR
WEAPONS OF THE WEEK:
- ALLIGATOR LVT
- THE FLAME THROWER