8pm DARK CHARISMA OF ADOLF HITLER - History - Hitler leads the German people to war in 1939 and the victory in France in 1940.
No one else so changed the state of the world and left behind such a wake of ruins as Adolf Hitler. Yet crucially, the way in which Hitler led the Nazi party has not received the attention that it deserves - how and why so many people followed Hitler, ultimately to the destruction of their own country.
In this second episode, Laurence Rees looks at the peak of Adolf Hitler's popularity in Germany throughout the 1930s and his decision to invade France in 1940. In Nuremburg, huge numbers of people gathered to pay homage to Hitler, filling the streets in celebration of their leader. Yet Hitler had not hypnotised the German people into following him, they did so willingly. Hitler's ultimate aim was to take Germany into a war of racial conquest to gain a vast new empire. But since many of his followers did not want war, Hitler had to persuade his people to maintain their faith in him and embrace conflict.
9pm WORLD WAR II: Price of Empire - History of the Second World War - OVERLORD - The second front opens in Europe with the D Day landings as the Germans continue to retreat from Russia.
The Germans continue their retreat from Russia and Eisenhower, leading Allied forces from Morocco, moves to link with Montgomery’s forces in North Africa and launch the invasion of Italy. But the most significant event at this stage of the war is the opening of the second front in Europe with the D Day landings on June 6th – Operation Overlord.
10pm NAZI MEGA WEAPONS - History - This series uncovers the engineering feats that sparked a technological revolution and changed warfare forever.
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THE WOLF'S LAIR - As European countries fall like dominoes to the German armies, Hitler becomes convinced of his own military genius. He plans to invade Russia and orders the construction of a huge command complex of bunkers named the Wolf’s Lair. But as he isolates himself in his concrete city, the war begins to slip from his grasp, and a conspiracy is hatched to make the secret base his tomb.