Narrow Escapes of WWII

Episode 1

The Doolittle Raid

Tue, May 15, 2012 45 mins

Seeking to hit back at Japan, Col. Jimmy Doolittle puts B-25 bombers on aircraft for a mission that the crews have little chance of surviving.

Episode 2

Wingate and the Chindits

Tue, May 22, 2012 45 mins

Surrounded by the Japanese, Orde Wingate led the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade in one of the most imaginative and complex escapes of World War II.

Episode 3

The Black Battalion Holds the Line

Tue, May 29, 2012 45 mins

When Hitler launches his final major offensive on the Western front, everything turns on the ability of the U.S. Army to hold the town of Bastogne. Outnumbered 10 to one, a unit of African-American gunners must stand fast against the battle-hardened troops of Waffen-SS.

Episode 4

Manstein Holds the Line

Tue, Jun 5, 2012 45 mins

By the spring of 1943, the German army is on the run across southern Russia. Gen. Erich von Manstein has plans for a new, highly mobile form of defensive warfare that might reverse the course of the war in the East. But first he has to convince Hitler, who is adamantly opposed to any kind of retreat, strategic or otherwise.

Episode 5

Lucky Laycock's Escape from Crete

Tue, Jun 12, 2012 45 mins

After the German invasion of Crete in May 1941, Winston Churchill orders the 25,000 British and Commonwealth troops stationed there to defend the island at all costs. A force of specially trained commandos under Col. Robert Laycock arrives to sabotage the Germans, but their mission soon changes.

Episode 6

The Amiens Raid

Tue, Jun 19, 2012 45 mins

In advance of the Allied landings at Normandy, the British plan the aerial bombing of Amiens Prison, where a hundred Resistance fighters await execution.

Episode 7

Breakout Through Hell's Gate

Tue, Jun 26, 2012 44 mins

With their backs to the Dnieper River in January 1944, 60,000 German troops face encirclement by the Soviets. After an airfield supplying defenders falls to the Russians, the Germans head for a corridor flanked by Russian soldiers, tanks, artillery, and cavalry--known thereafter as Hell's Gate.

Episode 8

The Road of Bones

Sun, Jul 8, 2012

In 1944, 1500 outnumbered British and Indian troops amazingly hold Japanese forces at the key Burmese town of Kohima. This is their amazing story.

Episode 9

Morshead Holds Tobruk

Sun, Jul 15, 2012 52 mins

By Easter 1941, all that stands between Afrika Korps commander Erwin Rommel and Egypt's Suez Canal is Tobruk. Australia's Gen. Leslie Morshead and his defenders are ordered to hold the Libyan port for eight weeks while the defenses of Egypt can be strengthened. The "Rats of Tobruk" are convinced that if they fail, the war against Germany will be lost.

Episode 10

The Real Bridge Too Far

Sun, Jul 22, 2012

Episode 11

Evacuation in the Baltic

Sun, Jul 29, 2012 51 mins

As the war enters its final months, the nearly 2 million Germans living in East Prussia flee an advancing Red Army no longer distinguishing between German soldiers and civilians. Hundreds of thousands make for the Baltic ports--the start of the single biggest evacuation of WWII.

Episode 12

Operation Pedestal

Sun, Aug 5, 2012 52 mins

By 1942, the fight between the Allies and the Axis for control of the Mediterranean is focused on tiny Malta. From there, British aircraft and submarines have been preying on enemy supply ships. When Hitler and Mussolini decide to crush Malta, Churchill dispatches a huge convoy to run the gauntlet of Axis air and naval power to reach the beleaguered island stronghold.

Episode 13

Moore's March

Sun, Aug 19, 2012 50 mins

With the Italians preparing to invade Egypt in the summer of 1940, the British army's Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) causes havoc far behind the front. But after an LRDG patrol is attacked, a tough New Zealander named Ron Moore leads the survivors barefoot through the desert, 300 miles from Allied lines.