New to
History this May, 2010:
WWII Lost FilmsPremiered: Tuesday, 11 May 2010 at 20h30
New episodes air on Tuesdays at 20h30
A 10-part series that draws on first hand accounts if World War II featuring voiceovers by Hollywood stars and previously unseen colour footage.
To create the show, History launched an exhaustive worldwide search for footage. As a result, the series draws upon more than 3000 hours of footage unearthed from archives and private collections around the globe.
The show follows the personal stories of 12 servicemen, war reporters and medical personnel throughout the war in the Pacific, Africa and Europe. Their in-the-moment accounts, selected from original sources and new interviews, are delivered with emotional impact as the veterans recount their experiences firsthand.
The sobering reality of their stories is also amplified through private and never-before-seen footage and sounds from the battlefield.
Six of the veterans featured in the series are still alive and tell their experiences onscreen. Their accounts are aided by Hollywood’s leading actors including Rob Lowe, LL Cool J, Ron Livingston and Amy Smart, who provide voiceover narration for the 12 heroes’ individual war stories.
The series aims to transform a war that many know only through black-and-white footage into something real, relatable and relevant.
The episodes
Episode1: Darkness Falls
By 1940 Europe has erupted into war, while America does its best to stay out of it. Austrian immigrant Jack Werner flees to America, where he joins the army thus joining the fight against Hitler.
Following Pearl Harbor, America finds itself pushed into a war where she is too weak to fight.
Gung-ho combat reporter Richard Tregaskis lands on the island of Guadalcanal and college senior Charles Scheffel is sent to North Africa.
Episode 2: Hard Way Back
America has joined England in the fight against the Axis, but is unsure about how to continue.
Young platoon leader, Charles Scheffel battles against Rommel's Afrika Korps in Tunisia, where Nurse June Wandrey begins to understand the true horrors of the war. Meanwhile Sergeant Jack Werner fights against the Japanese for Aleutian Islands.
Episode 3: Bloody Resolve
By late 1943 America's industrial capacity is starting to make progress. On the island of Tarawa, the machines the Marines were relying on crash, turning Tarawa into a bloody battle.
Marine Nolen Marbrey joins MacArthur's island-hopping campaign in the South Pacific.
Meanwhile reporter Richard Tregaskis leaves the Pacific for the front lines of Italy's bitter combat where he is met by an unfortunate incident.
Episode 4: Battle Stations
London in the 1940's
As 1944 opens, the Allies are preparing to invade France. Pilot Bert Stiles joins the 8th Air Force as they move through the skies of Normandy.
In the Pacific, battle-hungry Jack Werner is frustrated during the Americans' attempts to seize the airfields of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.
Charles Scheffel is in England, preparing for the D-Day invasion which is approaching.
Episode 5: Day of Days
America‘s expectations for a quick victory are premature. Lieutenant Charles Scheffel is attacked on his journey to Normandy.
In the Pacific, reporter Robert Sherrod accompanies the massive invasion of the island Saipan, where Japanese civilians are brutally attacked.
Navy enlistee Jack Yusen survives a rather unusual first action in the Atlantic. And when Lt. Charles Scheffel finally rejoins his unit in France, they are attacked in Normandy.
Episode 6: Point of No Return
Lt. Charles Scheffel's unit escapes the hedgerows and begins speeding across France. Nurse June Wandrey is doing the same from the south.
In the Pacific, Marine Nolen Marbrey is wounded in the battle of Peleliu, and when Lt. Scheffel is ordered to seize a town on the border of Germany, he is injured so badly that he’s sent home.
Episode 7: Striking Distance
By the autumn of 1944 America is ready to liberate the Philippine islands. Sgt. Jack Werner invades the Philippine island of Leyte, while Seaman Jack Yusen is sunk in the naval battle off Samar.
Tuskegee airman Shelby Westbrook is shot down in Yugoslavia. Japanese American 442nd medic Jimmie Kanaya is captured by Germans in the Vosges Mountains.
Episode 8: Glory and Guts
Reporter Robert Sherrod accompanies the Marines on their assault of Iwo Jima and witnesses the horror of the fight.
B-17 pilot Bert Stiles returns to heal at an England estate - but he returns to base ready to become a fighter. On his 6th mission he chases a German fighter but crashes into the ground and is killed.
Infantryman Rockie Blunt arrives in Normandy as a replacement.
Episode 9: Edge of Abyss
After surviving the Battle of the Bulge, infantryman Rockie Blunt carries on through the Rhine.
Nurse June Wandrey visits with American POWs. Japanese-American army medic Jimmie Kanaya is liberated from his POW camp in Nuremburg.
In the Pacific, Reporter Robert Sherrod witnesses the first days of battle for Okinawa. He sadly goes back home.
Episode 10: End Game
Pearl Harbour
The war is coming to an end. Infantryman Rockie Blunt is in shock at what he sees in the concentration camps.
In the Pacific, the brutal battle on Okinawa continues. Sergeant Jack Werner is wounded in action and is sent home, while Corporal Nolen Marbrey participates in his most horrific fight yet.
Japan finally surrenders after the detonation of the atomic bomb, while the world explodes into celebration on Victory over Japan Day.
History is on DStv Channel 254