Line of Fire

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War Documentary hosted by Christopher Kent and published by History Channel in 2002 - English narration

[edit] Cover

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'Line Of Fire' is history with a difference. For the first time, the great battlefields of war are presented in a unique animated environment, providing new insights into military history's most compelling events. Each powerful episode combines unrivalled graphics with atmospheric recreations to analyse every facet of famous battles from the medieval period to the modern times.

[edit] Mons

The small British Expeditionary Force, moving up into Belgium on the left flank of the French 5th Army, met with the full weight of the German 1st Army advancing towards Paris under the Schlieffen Plan. A short but intense fire fight - where the British caused heavy casualties to the thick masses of enemy infantry - was followed by a British withdrawal out of the canal salient. This manoeuvre was made more urgent by news that the French Army on the right flank was in retreat.

[edit] Gallipoli

The story of the Allied campaign in the Dardanelles that was supposed to knock Turkey out of World War One. Winston Churchill convinced Allied High Command that an attack at Gallipoli would also open up vital supply lines to Russia and establish a third front against Austria-The Australian and New Zealand troops who fought and died during the ten month Gallipoli campaign that saw an estimated 36,000 Commonwealth troops lose their lives before the allied withdrawal in January 1916. It was not only Turkish shot and shell at infamous places such Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay that claimed so many lives, but also those other traditional hidden enemies of the solder - sickness and disease.

[edit] The Somme

July 1st 1916 was the blackest day in the history of the British Army when a combination of bad planning and German bullets sent Kitchener's Army to their doom. An army that had taken two years to build took only a day to destroy.

[edit] Cambrai

At Cambrai in November 1917, a tank force of over three hundred tanks punched a hole four miles deep into the German lines in the space of a single morning, But the Germans counter-attacked and the result of the battle was a virtual draw, with the front lines shifting slightly. However the battle of Cambrai marked a major turning point in the course of the war - as the era of trench warfare was coming to an end and technology was beginning to reign supreme on the battlefields of Europe.

[edit] Stalingrad

The bitter, bloody and inhuman struggle for Stalingrad was the turning point of the war on the Eastern Front and a pivotal moment of World War Two. Germany's defeat there signalled to the Allies at large that Hitler and the Reich could be beaten.

[edit] Arnhem

This is the story of 'Operation Market-Garden', the code name of the offensive which was supposed to bring the Allies victory before the end of 1944. Despite the bravery of the Allied troops, the attack was a costly failure... the war would not be over by Christmas.

[edit] The Battle of the Bulge

Discover why the last major German offensive of World War Two so nearly succeeded and how heroic defensive actions by American GIs thwarted their plans.

[edit] Battle of Berlin

Experience the terrible final battle for Berlin in 1945 from the perspective of the attacking Red Army and the positions of the shattered German forces that made a final desperate defence of the city

[edit] The Six Day War

The story of the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, the echoes of which are still heard today in the middle east. In May of that year, Egypt, under President Nasser, blocked the Tiran Straits to Israeli shipping and began to gather huge numbers of troops in the Sinai Peninsula. At the same time King Hussein's Jordan allowed Iraqi troops across her border. Israel was swift to respond to this turn of events and there was a devastating pre-emptive air strike against the Egyptian airforce. Jordanian and Syrian attacks were halted and repelled, after only six short days Israel had captured East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Sinai itself.
Although Sinai was returned to Egyptian control in 1979, Israel held on to her other prizes and it is these 'occupied territories' which are so much a part of the troubles that blight the region to this very day.

[edit] Goose Green

The fight at Goose Green in May 1982 was the most famous battle of the Falklands War, which saw British and Argentine troops struggle for control of the Falkland Islands. In the wake of the shock Argentine invasion, Britain sent a hastily assembled Task Force to the South Atlantic charged with the job of restoring British sovereignty. The Argentine positions at Goose Green were thought to pose a threat to the British advance across the Islands and troops from the Parachute Regiment were sent to deal with it.

[edit] The Fall of Port Stanley

June 1982 saw the final battles of the Falklands War. For the servicemen of the British Task Force, the campaign to defeat a determined enemy had been difficult and costly, but now the capital Stanley, the final prize, lay within their grasp. This programme tells the story of the drive to liberate Port Stanley, during which battles such as those at Tumbledown and Mount Longdon found their way into the pages of British military history.

[edit] The Gulf War

On August 3rd 1990, Iraq, under its ferocious dictator Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait, its oil-rich neighbour. Not long out of a war with Iran, Iraq badly under-estimated the reaction of the watching world to its unprovoked attack; in particular, they believed that the US would not dare to become involved.
A coalition against Iraq was formed and it struck back with awesome power in January 1991. Iraq's air defence system and the country's infra-structure were taken apart by air attacks that utilised the very latest warfare technology - and it was technology as much as anything else that brought Iraq's armed forces to its knees. Saddam had promised the 'mother of all battles' - words that came to haunt him and his army as they were caught in the open on the bloody road to Basra.