Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Military

At midnight on 4 August, Britain had declared war on Germany. The pacifist Bertrand Russell was shocked by the pro-war euphoria on the streets, yet young men enlisted willingly because "it would all be over by Christmas". It was not. Instead the opposing armies had become entrenched. It was the beginning of a long and bitter stalemate.

The Second World War ended over 75 years ago, and the number of men and women who lived through it is rapidly dwindling. But its legacy casts a long shadow, and the memories of those who experienced the conflict left both powerful stories and often a complex inheritance behind for their children and grandchildren. In this series, Sean Bean investigates how the trauma of profound wartime experiences - whether spoken or unspoken - can be transferred down through subsequent generations.

John Reed's first-hand description of the October Revolution was written in early 1918 and published in the USA the following year. The veracity and impact of his dynamic snapshot-style reportage made the book an instant best seller, and it has since become a modern classic, inspiring films including Sergei Eisenstein's October and the Oscar-winning Reds.

‘We Churchills die at forty,’ said Winston in 1908, ‘and I want to put something more on the slate before then.’ By the time he died in 1965, the slate was full. From his earliest days Churchill was an ambitious character, eager for action. He achieved fame and popularity through his...

'The most persuasive and patriotic exhortations to arms since the Agincourt address from Henry V.' - The Guardian. Sir Winston Churchill steered Britain through its darkest hours during World War II. He was one of the 20th century's greatest orators and the speeches that he painstakingly...

A unique collection of historic recordings in which the last brutal encounters of the war and the mixed emotions of the armistice are remembered by troops from both sides. By the end of March 1918, Germany's Spring Offensive had thrown British forces back over the old Somme battlefields. But this last push failed, and with the stalemate of trench warfare broken, the Allies swept from near defeat to victory. However, their joy was tempered by sorrow. Too many would not come home.

Award-winning journalist Audrey Gillan was embedded with British troops during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. She was on the ground with the Household Cavalry's D Squadron when American pilots, firing at what they believed to be the enemy, injured four of its soldiers and killed one: 25-year-old Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull.

A unique collection of historic BBC archive recordings documenting the last months of the Second World War, the euphoria of the victory celebrations, and the dawning of a very different world. In this original compilation of eyewitness accounts, BBC correspondents and official observers describe the contentious fire-bombing of Dresden in February, the liberation of Belsen in April, and the dropping of the atomic bomb in August.

The year 1917 was a year of decisive events. Germany raised the stakes at sea; America eventually declared war; the Nivelle offensive almost destroyed the French army; and, following two revolutions in February and October, Russian forces collapsed. For the Allies, despite their successes at Messines and Cambrai, the year was overshadowed by the losses at Passchendaele. Survivors recall their despair as men and horses drowned in mud: 'a viscous, tenacious mud which smelt of death'.

The First World War was the great military and political event of its time. But it was also an imaginative event: one that profoundly altered the ways in which men and women thought about the world, and about culture and its expressions. In this compelling five-series programme, journalist and presenter Francine Stock scrutinises the diverse responses of artists and entertainers to the bitter realities of war, and reveals how their new perspectives entered the public consciousness.

Moving from St Paul’s coining of the word in the first century of the Christian Era right up to the present day, charisma continues to be a powerful influence, not always for the good, in the fields of politics, banking, terrorism, theatre and film. Along the way, Francine takes in early medieval mystics such as Margery Kempe and Joan of Arc; the Elizabethan belief in the so-called 'Royal Touch' and its different manifestations today; the powerful healing claims of Franz Mesmer; and radical charismatic leaders from Garibaldi to Osama bin Laden.