War

A documentary looking at Operation Anthropoid during World War II.

Run Boy Run is the true story of Jurek, an eight-year-old boy, who escapes from the Warsaw ghetto, then manages to survive in the woods and working as a farmhand, disguising himself as a Polish orphan. He encounters people who will betray him for a reward, who will beat him up or try to kill him, and he meets those, who will do and risk almost everything to help him. Jurek’s resilience is put to the ultimate test, when an accident cripples him, making it harder to find work. But he struggles on against all odds. Eventually the Russians reach his area and Jurek even finds a family where he could stay. Yet he is betrayed again, and a young man from a Jewish orphanage forcefully tries to bring Jurek back to his people and his faith.

An emotionally-unstable prisoner of war deals with the social and moral repercussions of PTSD, haunted by an enigmatic ghost of a past that he is told may not have even existed.

Missing in action in Vietnam for thirty nine years, the remains of Lt. Jack E. Buchannon, U.S.M.C., are found and identified. He is brought home and awarded the medal of honor and is buried as a fallen hero. His three childhood best friends, all ex-marines and Vietnam veterans, get together after attending the funeral to raise a toast, look back on their lives, their friendships and their service to the country.

Jeremy Clarkson tells the dramatic story of the Arctic convoys of the Second World War, from Russia to the freezing Arctic Ocean.

Before, during and after World War II, governments around the globe produced copious propaganda films. These are true moments of world history, the attitudes of the people, the visual and audio recording of what occurred.

Kingsley Glover hosts this program by Visions of War at the Stratford Armories. In this edition of the show, we look closer at the British Airborne Forces. Witness a remarkable series of films from all different divisions of the British airborne forces. History includes the BAF creation in 1942, Operation Market & the bridge at Arnhem 1944 and Operation Varsity 1945.

A short film about the heroism of ordinary people during the Slovak National Uprising, portrayed by popular Slovak personalities.

John Baumhackl recalls the early days of the Vietnam War when more and more troops were being sent into combat every month. In 1968, John's number came up and he was drafted into the conflict. Buying a camera at his company store before shipping off, he captured many battles while in a helicopter. John was near the front lines when President Nixon made the controversial decision to push into Cambodia. In John's view, this saved American lives.

Like many other young men of his generation, after Pearl Harbor was attacked, Aldo Giannini joined the Marines with little idea of what lay ahead. After training, he was quickly deployed overseas and fought in the bloody Battle of Tarawa, surviving with a shrapnel injury and the haunting memory of witnessing the loss of 3,250 U.S. lives. He went on to fight in other battles and returned home after 3 intense years of service. Nearly eight decades later, he still questions if winning the island was worth the price.

A Kuwaiti Comedy Play Starring Hassan Al Ballam.

The small Belgian army held up the German advance, the British Expeditionary Force fought its first battle and the invincible German army was brought to a standstill in Belgium. This film traces that first month, the battles of Liège, Antwerp and Mons. In reconstruction it uses the words of those who took part and looks at the remains of the battlefields and the fortifications that still exist.

The daring raid is undoubtedly one of the most famous in the history of the Second World War, the subject of a great British blockbuster and countless books. But what did the elite fliers of No 617 Squadron RAF, otherwise known as the Dambusters, do after Operation Chastise? This new documentary provides a wealth of insight into the spectacular missions undertaken by the squadron after the deployment of the famous bouncing bombs in 1943.

Mairéad Farrell was shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in 1988 along with two other unarmed members of the IRA in one of the most controversial incidents arising from the Troubles in Northern Ireland. She had just been released from prison the year before after serving ten years for causing an explosion at an hotel near Belfast. The killing of the three provoked an international outcry and eventual enquiry. Due to her youth, her gender and her stature within the IRA, Mairéad Farrell was, unsurprisingly, quickly subsumed into the pantheon of Irish republican martyrs. But behind the mythologizing and demonisation of the time, there was also a real person, a flesh and blood young woman who was prepared to kill and die for her beliefs.