The Ultimate Guide: Submarines

The 'mighty' Hood was the pride of the British Navy for more than 20 years, revered around the world as the largest and most powerful warship afloat. But when it was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck off the coast of Greenland on 24 May 1941, its end was shockingly swift.

How the Soviet Union was able to copy the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, and the influence of the resulting Tupolev TU-4 on the Cold War.

The Civil War Confederate commerce raider C.S.S. Alabama sailed over 75,000 miles and captured more than 60 Union merchant ships. For two years the "ghost ship" wreaked havoc--until the U.S.S. Kearsage caught up with her in a French port where she had pulled in for repairs. Out-manned and out-gunned, the Alabama sank to the bottom of the English Channel. We join marine archaeologist Gordon Watts and a team of U.S. and French divers as they attempt to excavate the wreck and recover artifacts.

The story of the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps and their 2000-mile bicycle journey from Montana to St. Louis in 1897.

From May 10, 1940, France is living one of the worst tragedies of it history. In a few weeks, the country folds, and then collapsed in facing the attack of the Nazi Germany. On June 1940, each day is a tragedy. For the first time, thanks to historic revelations, and to numerous never seen before images and documents and reenacted situations of the time, this film recounts the incredible stories of those men and women trapped in the torment of this great chaos.

Recorded during World War II, this rare color film traces an RAF Bomber Command night attack on Berlin -- from strategic planning and preparation to the execution of the actual attack with Avro Lancaster bombers. Air Commodore H.I. Cozens filmed the events during a period when the Bomber Command flew into Germany nearly every night for a massive series of raids on key targets.

The first American space station Skylab is found in pieces scattered in Western Australia. Putting these pieces back together and re-tracing the Skylab program back to its very conception reveals the cornerstone of human space exploration.

Doolittle's Raiders pull off a one-way bombing run over Tokyo and ditch their planes in and along the coast of China, where they are rescued by Chinese villagers, guerrillas, and missionaries. That generosity triggers horrific retaliation by the Japanese that claims an estimated quarter-million lives and prompts comparisons to the 1937-38 Rape of Nanking. The memory of the Raiders and their rescuers is kept alive by their children and grandchildren.

Guy Martin undertakes a challenge to restore a plane from the Second World War, and recreate a parachute jump into Normandy, as thousands of Allied soldiers did during D-Day.

Military historian Howard Tuck travels along the south coast uncovering forgotten traces of one of the most terrifying planned invasions of Britain. Howard knocks on doors and takes metal detectors into the countryside to unearth untold stories of bravery, tragedy and guilt lain buried for 70 years.

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The Three Musketeers is a legendary work, whose heroes have rocked multiple generations. These fictional musketeers have eclipsed the real musketeers, those who formed the royal company that existed between 1622 and 1775. Who were these men, and how did they serve the King? Did they really take part in the affairs of the Crown? Did Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan really exist? Thanks to the best historians, discover the true story of the Musketeers.

Mike Brewer sets off on a journey of discovery to find out the story of one of the most remarkable aircraft in the British Armed Forces: a Chinook helicopter code named Bravo November. By doing so he examines the invaluable contribution that these helicopters have made to campaigns from the Falklands War to modern day British Military service over the past thirty years.

Explore the events of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and hear from some of the actual participants in this riveting program. After an American naval blockade intercepted Soviet submarines on a secret mission to set up a military base in Cuba, the two nations engaged in a tense standoff that led the world to the brink of nuclear war. Submariners from both sides talk about the conflict, and viewers get a look inside their subs and the U.S. war room.

Nothing is easy about flying from an aircraft carrier. Based on a popular book by the same name, this documentary presents archive footage of the most dramatic mishaps in naval aviation, plus the story of the horrific USS Forrestal fire.

Scramble the Seawolves is the unknown story of the US Navy’s first and only Attack Helicopter Gunship Squadron. Established in 1967 and tasked with a life-saving mission of providing close air support for Gamewarden Operations and friendly allies in the Mekong Delta, Republic of Vietnam. Using war-torn hand-me-down huey’s, the Seawolves would become the most decorated Squadron in the Vietnam War and Naval Aviation History. Fifty years later, this is their story.

Travelling the Western Front, grave to grave, former All Black Andrew Mehrtens shares the story of the 13 All Blacks killed in WW I.

This short film takes viewers on a whirlwind tour of the history of air combat, from World War I through the Vietnam War. It was produced by General Dynamics sometime prior to 1990 and re-released by Lockheed Martin in the mid-nineties. As a promotional short for the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the film reviews the development of aerial combat to place the F-16 in historical context. Informational narration is supplemented with snippets from interviews of top fighter aces. The aces focus on the characteristics that make great fighter pilots and great fighter aircraft. The interviewees include World War I ace W.C. "Bill" Lambert; World War II aces Douglas Bader, Stanford Tuck, Adolf Galland, Erich Hartmann, Gabby Gabreski, Tex Hill, and Svein Heglund; Korean War ace Ralph Parr; and Vietnam War ace Steve Ritchie. The film includes historical footage and stills, along with opening and closing segments briefly featuring the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Two well-known Quebec artists (filmmaker Jacques Godbout and playwright René-Daniel Dubois) look at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Whose version of this historic event should prevail? Is history best served by documentary or fiction? We also meet Baron Georges Savarin de Marestan and Andrew Wolfe-Burroughs, direct descendants of Montcalm and Wolfe, both of whom died in the battle that would give birth to Canada and to the province of Quebec.

Looking back on the creation of the Vietnam Memorial, this Emmy-nominated documentary chronicles the controversy surrounding the monument's construction and touches on the history of the polarizing war that inspired it. Fueled by the vision of Vietnam veteran Jan Scruggs and brought to life by then-fledgling designer Maya Lin, the memorial would eventually become the nation's most visited monument. But its success was a hard-fought victory.