Apocalypse: The Second World War

$39.99

Bringing a 21st-century perspective to the deadliest conflict of all time.

Using archival footage — most of it previously unseen and now colorized — the series takes a very human look at the enormity of the conflict through the eyes of the people who lived through it: the front-line soldiers, the victims, and the political and military leaders. Using mostly unfamiliar footage — including home movies shot by soldiers and civilians — this series brings you the ultimate re-telling of an era of courage and fear, offering a comprehensive new examination of history’s most devastating war.

Apocalypse: The Second World War

6 Films on 4 DVDs

$39.99

Act of Agression

1945. Berlin lies in ruins as the Red Army wages the final battles. Berlin, once one of the world’s great open cities, before Hitler and the Nazis rose to power and decided to conquer Europe. In 1939, the Führer signs a surprising pact with Stalin, then invades Poland. France and the United Kingdom have no choice. They declare war on Germany. But the Germans and Soviets methodically carve up Poland. The persecution of the Jews and Gypsies begins. In the West, it is the beginning of the “Phony War,” a time of anxious waiting, uncertainty, and yet also hope. For the French and British, the terror of 1914-1918 remains a fresh memory. They hope it is still possible to avert a shooting war. Meanwhile, Hitler makes a bold, fearsome plan for the invasion of France. Will the Allies be caught in his trap?

Lightning Strike

May 10, 1940. The Blitzkrieg: the lightning war. The German army rolls through Belgium, the Netherlands and France. The Allies have fallen into Hitler’s trap. The British expeditionary force and part of the French army descend into panic at Dunkirk. Within days, the swastika is flying over Paris. Meanwhile, Hitler’s ally, Mussolini, craving a share of the spoils, declares war on France. A knife in the back. In France, waves of refugees flee the occupiers. The French are forced to choose between collaborating with Pétain or forming a resistance, rallied by Churchill. Despite intense air raids on British cities, the English remain steadfast, and Churchill refuses to make peace with Hitler. Deeply worried by American rearmament, Hitler hatches a new plan: an attack on his Soviet ally, in hopes of completing his conquest of Europe before Churchill can convince the Americans to take up arms.

Shock

Paris is occupied, as are most European capitals except London, standing firm against German U-boats and air raids. Emboldened by his triumphs, the Führer is convinced he can conquer Stalin’s Russia in three months. As they roll through the Baltic countries and Ukraine, the Germans are initially embraced as liberators. The Wehrmacht wages a genocidal war against “Judeo-Bolshevism,” reaching its depths of terror in the “Shoah by Bullets.” To the Germans’ surprise, the Soviets mount a heroic defense, with the help of an unforgiving climate. It is the beginning of a long nightmare for German soldiers. Having arrived on the outskirts of Moscow, the Wehrmacht gets bogged down, just as in North Africa, where the Allies thwart General Rommel’s attempts to help the Italians. With the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the war now spans the globe.

Conflagration

Following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt declares war on Japan. The war is now a world war. Despite fierce resistance, Allied forces are unable to prevent the Japanese army from sweeping through Southeast Asia. Even India and Australia are at risk. The Japanese defeat at Midway and the American landing at Guadalcanal are the first rays of hope, but also the beginning of long, bloody battles in the “Green Hell” of the jungle. In Europe and North Africa, the resistance is getting organized. The number of attacks grows, and English bombers are starting to rain death on Germany. And yet it seems that nothing can stop Hitler’s armies. Rommel is pounding on Egypt’s gates, and the swastika flies over Stalingrad. The Germans set in motion the “Final Solution” for the extermination of the Jews.

The Noose

Late 1942: the Russians continue to resist at Stalingrad, and the Eastern Front is stalled. In the North Atlantic, the Allies make progress in reducing the threat from German U-boats. Meanwhile, in El-Alamein, in the Egyptian desert, the British Empire halts the menacing advance of Rommel’s troops toward the Suez Canal. The British and Americans open a new front in the Maghreb. Attempting to secure the French Mediterranean coast, Hitler invades the “Free Zone.” He also steps up his massacres of Jews throughout Europe. But Hitler is powerless against General Zhukov’s counterstrike in Stalingrad, and cannot prevent his troops from being surrounded. Hitler attempts a desperate final push against the Red Army at Kursk, but it is in vain. Meanwhile, the Allies land in Sicily. Italy changes sides. The noose tightens around Axis forces in Europe, but more than ever, Hitler remains determined to fight to the bitter end.

Hell

In 1944, the Allies land in Italy, but their advance is blocked by the Wehrmacht, solidly entrenched behind the Gustav Line (Monte Cassino). Thanks to the tremendous industrial power of the United States, the Allies succeed in organizing history’s largest simultaneous invasions, taking both Normandy and Saipan (in the Pacific). In the ensuing battles between Allied and Axis powers across the globe, civilians pay the steepest price. On July 20, Hitler miraculously escapes an assassination attempt. Severe repression follows as the SS takes the reins of power in Germany. Thanks to the heroic efforts of the GIs, Hitler’s final attempt to shatter the Allied coalition, the Ardennes counter-offensive, is a failure. Meanwhile, the Red Army, continuing its inexorable advance to the west, finally reaches Berlin. Germany is defenseless: not even their “secret weapons,” the V1 and V2 rockets, can save the Third Reich. Hitler commits suicide. In the Pacific, as kamikaze pilots pour down on the U.S. fleet, the Japanese army engages in an increasingly fanatic battle to the last man. In order to bring the Empire of the Rising Sun to its knees, and to avoid a bloody ground invasion of Japan, the U.S. unleashes the atomic bomb. The Apocalypse.