Unsolved Mysteries of World War Two
A series, made for television, video and DVD,
which questions some of the mysteries of World War Two, many of which
are still making world headlines today. Six hours of programming are
currently available, which comprise the following titles:
Pearl Harbour 1 x 30 minutes
The Japanese raid on Pearl Harbour on December 7
1941 shocked the world and drew the United States into the war. Did
British Intelligence and Britain’s Prime Minister, Winston
Churchill, know in advance of the Japanese attack and fail to warn the
Americans?
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The Riddle of Rudolph Hess 1 x 30 minutes
On 10 May 1941 Rudolph Hess, former deputy Fuhrer
of the Third Reich, made an extraordinary lone flight to Britain. Was
Hess attempting to make peace with the British before the German
invasion of the Soviet Union? Was the Duke of Hamilton, on whose
Scottish estate Hess attempted to land, an intermediary between the
British Aristocracy and high-ranking Nazis? Why did the British
Government, instead of treating the incident as a propaganda coup,
shroud the Hess affair in a web of official secrecy?
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Kill Hitler 1 x 30 minutes
Throughout Hitler’s reign only one powerful
group of men remained immune to his infamous charm. Paradoxically,
these were the men most necessary to Hitler’s dreams of conquest.
They were the High Command of the German Army. Again and again during
the war Hitler’s own generals would plot to remove and later kill
their Fuhrer.
Despite years of conspiracy and the most meticulous
of plans, this most secret aim of Germany’s bravest Generals
would never be achieved. Why was Hitler never able to command the
unswerving loyalty of his own senior military staff? And why, despite
all their efforts, were these Generals always finally unable to kill
Hitler?
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The Phantom Invasion 1 x 30 minutes
By June of 1944 Adolf Hitler had become convinced
that the main Allied invasion of France would be launched against the
Pas de Calais. Hitler ensured that this section of the French coastline
had therefore been fortified at the expense of other, more vulnerable
areas along the same coast.
Even when the Allied forces began to land on the
Normandy coast, Hitler still refused to succumb to what he saw as an
obvious and elaborate distraction, maintaining the heavy defenses at
the Pas de Calais and starving his armies in Normandy of much needed
assistance where the defences were at their weakest and most
vulnerable.
Why did Hitler become so convinced of the threat to
the Pas de Calais and sacrifice the security of possible coastline
invasions? Was it because there were secret Allied plans for a
follow-up invasion in this area?
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The Secret War
Throughout most of World War II the British were
intercepting and decoding German signals traffic. The information they
obtained proved invaluable to the war effort, providing advance warning
of some of the war’s most crucial attacks. These achievements
were regarded as so important that an impenetrable veil of secrecy
surrounded them for more than thirty years after the war had ended. Why
did the Germans never suspect that their codes had been broken? How did
the British disguise the source of their information? Just how
important was The Secret War to the outcome of the conflict?
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Decision at Dunkirk 1 x 30 minutes
In May 1940 the British Army in France was facing
annihilation at the hands of powerful German armoured formations. Yet,
with such a resounding victory within his grasp, Hitler
uncharacteristically ordered the tanks to halt, enabling the British to
make a dramatic escape from the beaches of Dunkirk. Why did Hitler
ignore the advice of his tank commanders and issue the now famous
“Stop Order”? Did he, as some suggest, actually want the
British to escape?
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The Enigma of the Swastika 1 x 30 minutes
What are the origins of this dreaded symbol of
National Socialism? How did the Swastika change from a Buddhist sign of
good fortune to the Nazi emblem which would strike terror into the
hearts of millions? Recent research traces the history of the Swastika
through a network of shadowy occultist groups to the secretive Thule
Society and Hitler’s infant Nazi Party.
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Hitler’s Secret Weapons 1 x 30
minutes
During the war German scientists invented a range
of remarkable weapons. But the most awe inspiring of all was
undoubtedly the long-range rocket known to history as the V-2. Why did
the Germans spend so much time and effort developing a space age weapon
only to arm it with less than one ton of conventional explosive? Did
Hitler have plans to arm the rocket with a more sinister and a more
deadly warhead?
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The Last Days of Hitler 1 x 15 minutes
In May 1945 the Third Reich came to an end in the
cataclysmic battles of Berlin. By the time the dust had settled on the
ruined city, thousands of people had simply disappeared, never to be
seen again. One such man amongst the thousands missing or lost from the
city was Germany’s Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. Today, the mystery still
surrounds Hitler’s fate. Did he, as some claim, escape from the
ruins of his chancellery and seek refuge in one of the South American
countries?Or did Hitler take his own life, by poison capsule or by
shooting himself? What did happen to Adolf Hitler in these last
desperate days of the Reich?
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The Strange Death of Geli Raubal 1 x 15
minutes
On the night of 17 September 1931 Angela Raubal,
Adolf Hitler’s niece, was found dead in Hitler’s apartment.
She had been shot and beside her was Hitler’s own gun. Angela
‘Geli’ Raubal was widely believed to have been
Hitler’s mistress. Was Geli’s death a suicide as the Nazi
party claimed at the time or did Hitler himself murder his own niece in
a fit of jealous rage?
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Himmler’s Castle 1 x 15 minutes
Deep in the Westphalian countryside Heinrich
Himmler transformed an ancient castle into a secret centre for SS rites
and rituals. The site had been chosen by Himmler’s personal
clairvoyant advisor, Karl Maria Wiligut, and was intended to become the
Vatican City of the 1000 year Reich. What were the mysterious
ceremonies performed in the castle crypt? Did Himmler really believe
that the castle would be the spiritual focal point of the final great
battle between East and West?What became of the contents of
Himmler’s secret safe hidden deep in the castle vaults and
removed by American forces in 1945?
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Drugs and the Fuhrer 1 x 15 minutes
Under the influence of personal physician Professor
Morrell, Adolf Hitler’s mental and physical state dramatically
deteriorated. Recent evidence raises new questions about Hitler’s
increasing dependence on drugs prescribed by Morrell.
Was Hitler a dying man who held the fate of Europe
in his hands? Was his mental instability and his worsening judgement
the result of his total faith in the bizarre remedies of a quack
physician?
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Stalin’s Secret Armies 1 x 30
minutes
In November 1943 the Red Army unleashed one million
men and thousands of tanks to encircle the German 6th Army at
Stalingrad. Amongst the Soviet forces, which inflicted on the German
Army its first great defeat of the war, were divisions, the existence
of which came as a total surprise not just to the Germans but to
Russian, American and British Allies. Where did these powerful
formations come from?How long had this secret army existed and had
Stalin refused to commit them even when Hitler’s Armies were at
the gates of Moscow.
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The Eagle and the Swastika 1 x 30 minutes
Four days after the Japanese attack upon Pearl
Harbour, Adolf Hitler declared war on America. This was the only
declaration of war he ever issued and one which rescued an American
President, privately intent on a war with Germany, but hamstrung by
popular clamour for a war of retribution against Japan. Why Hitler
unilaterally declared war on the most powerful neutral nation on earth
is a mystery that has never been properly resolved, a mystery
compounded by Hitler’s own later observation; “This war
with America is a tragedy: illogical, devoid of fundamental
reality”.
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© Eagle Media Productions 2004
