Product Description

DISC 1 GREAT SEA BATTLES OF WORLD WAR TWO After the horrors of the Great War, an uneasy peace prevailed. Britannia ruled the waves- but for how long? The mid 1930's saw Germany rebuilding her fleets, defying the Versailles Treaty as Hitler planned to encircle Britain with his Kriegsmarine. Within hours a war's declaration, a U-boat had claimed its first victim in an underwater reign of terror that struck merchantman and warship alike. By April 1940, Germany had sunk one million tons of Allied shipping. The entrance of Mussolini's Italy shifted the balance of power in the Mediterranean. But the Allies changed the course of naval warfare in 1941 when torpedo bombers from HMS Illustrious decimated the Italian fleet at anchor in Taranto, crippling three battleships in the first Allied victory since the fall of France. Japan soon learned the lesson- to America's cost. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941 dwarfed Taranto, with 19 warships and 190 aircraft lost and 22,500 dead. Sea power crucial in the Pacific, The battle of Coral Sea was decisive in denying Japan gateway to Australia and was a naval first- opposing forces launching air attacks 120 miles apart were never in sight of each other. After the US strike on Midway, there was no doubting the tide had turned. Leyte Gulf was the last and the greatest sae battle of World War II, leaving the Imperial fleet all but destroyed. The era of the battleships had long gone: the aircraft carrier was now the undisputed master of naval warfare. DISC 2 BATTLESHIPS AT WAR The battleship reigned supreme in naval warfare from the start of this century to 1945 - and though only the Dardanelles and Jutland provided action in World War I, German rearmament ensured the heavily-armed queen of the seas would play a major part in the second conflict. The Royal Navy won early successes: the mighty Graf Spee was scuttled off South America, while half of Raeder's fleet was destroyed at Narvik. U-boats and air power posed a real threat to battleship superiority, as proved by British torpedo bombers at Taranto, but Britain had to destroy France's capital ships off North Africa to prevent them falling into enemy hands. Admiral Cunningham's fleet led by HMS Warspite ensured the Royal Navy's mastery of the Mediterranean, crushing Italy at Cape Matapan. Battleships later played a leading role in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and the D-Day landings as floating weapons platforms pounding shore-based enemy positions. The US Navy proved all-powerful in the Pacific, Leyte Gulf leaving the Japanese with only one surviving battleship, fittingly, the final act of the war took place on the USS Missouri as Japan signed the surrender. The Allies had secured ultimate victory - a triumph in which the battleship had played its part. DISC 3 GREAT GERMAN BATTLESHIPS OF WORLD WAR TWO This fascinating DVD, using archive footage, stills and interviews with German ex-Naval officers and seamen, concentrates on the exploits of the famous Bismarck. This is followed by an in-depth portrait of the mightiest and most famous German warships of World War Two, including the big sea battles they encountered. DISC 4 U BOAT WAR 'They were the only thing that really frightened me.' So said the usually steadfast Winston Churchill of the German Navy's U-boat fleet - the dreaded Wolf Pack which stalked the Atlantic depths, bringing instant death to merchantman and warship alike. Together with a formidable surface fleet, the U-boats challenged the Royal Navy's traditional supremacy of the oceans, countering Britain's strength in numbers with reign of silent terror. A decade of secret rebuilding had brought forth capital ships like Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen - names to strike fear into any allied seafarer. But it was from under the water that the biggest threat was to come.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14790 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-07-20
• Rating: Exempt
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 330 minutes

Synopsis
Includes: 'Great Sea Battles Of World War 2', 'Battleships At War', 'Great German Battleships Of World War 2', 'U Boat War', 'The Battle Of Midway', and 'Carrier Battles Of World War 2'.

Customer Reviews

Seriously disappointing
There is some good footage here - Schleswig-Holstein bombarding Danzig, for example. But, as is so often, the commentary is not related to the images, and, as usual, the sinking of HMS Barham is used to illustrate the sinking of any old ship. Not worth the cash.