20th Century Battlefields: About the show

Throughout the series, father and son team Peter and Dan Snow take you through these conflicts, from the bleak chill of Stalingrad, where the Hitler's army buckled under the superior tactics of the Russian army, to the steamy jungles of Vietnam where the most powerful nation on the planet was brought to its knees.

In Depth Analysis
This series has truly set a precedent for recreating the intricacies of large-scale conflict. Obviously a battle is so much more than two sides just attacking each other; the strategies, the weapons, the tactics and their impact are all scrutinised, as are the potential outcomes had these campaigns gone the other way.

Some of the battles in the series concluded as a result of superior military insight and ingenuity outfoxing the opposition. In other instances human error, pride and arrogance can be seen causing defeat. It can also be said that luck is never far away from any military conflict.

The first rule of warfare is that no strategy or campaign can withstand the first actual encounter with the enemy. As this series will show, victory or defeat often come about by the crucial decisions made when the battle is underway; It is often the ability to adapt that separates the winners from the losers.

Alternate Future?
What would be the impact on Britain had we lost the Falklands War? Would Hitler have succeeded in his plan for European domination had he not taken such a crushing defeat at the hands of Stalin's determined military forces?

In more recent years, you have to ask what the American attitude to foreign policy would be, had Uncle Sam not suffered such a psychological battering by losing the war in South East Asia?

Of course, we know what really happened, but this series is not afraid to look at the implications of what might have been. After all, it is only by doing so that you can really see the significance of each military campaign.

History has shown that the legacy of major conflicts cause a ripple effect through time and this is none more significant when it comes to learning about our recent, violent history and the global climate we currently live in. Simply put, you need to understand the American defeat in Vietnam to understand its mindset when it invaded Iraq.

Computer wizardry
Because studying any battle is a complicated business, 20th Century Battles takes that extra step by making the most of current CGI to help us understand exactly what happened in each campaign, bringing to life the vast landscapes of modern warfare to give a comprehensive overview of events.

Perhaps more importantly, the series also dramatises the experiences of the ordinary soldiers that were involved in the battles. Regardless of whether you think a particular war is justified or not, it is ultimately the testimony of ordinary soldiers caught up in the carnage that can truly help us imagine the unimaginable and understand what it means to fight and die for your country.