World War II: Total War (2018)
A Total War is all encompassing, a war without boundary or limitation. It is a war of material and morale. A war that mobilizes, destroys and displaces civilian populations. The Second World War was a war in which massive armies advanced, confronting whole populations with impossible choices. The manufacture of weapons transformed industry and the workforce; area bombing campaigns reduced cities to rubble; sieges doomed populations to starvation; racial policies sponsored campaigns of genocide. Told through archive footage and expert interviews, we learn how WWII shattered the boundaries between home-front and battlefield.
Seasons & Episode
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The Second World War was the closest the world has come to a complete total war. But it was in the interwar years that nations honed the methods of destruction which were unleashed on a much wider scale in the Second World War. We look to wars in Manchuria, China, Abyssinia and Spain to see how each served as a 'terrible precedent,' revealing elements of total war that soon engulfed the globe.
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Total War demands resources - economic, agricultural and industrial. When it became clear that strategies of appeasement would not prevent another war, nations across the globe mobilized.
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WWII shattered the boundaries between battlefield and homefront in much of the world. We examine the impact of occupation and the stories of those who fought to resist their occupiers.
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In WWII, civilians became defenders against and targets of aerial warfare on a scale that had never before been seen.
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WWII was not the cause of the Holocaust, but it did provide a means for its execution. Episode #5 explores what role total war played in this genocide.
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The end of WWII was met with destruction and liberation, relief mixed with grief. In its wake, tens of millions were dead and millions more displaced.