The place where the great poet Pushkin crafted his works. The fascist forces occupied Mikhailovskoye. Each of the local residents “follows his own path”. Some join the partisans, some collaborate with the occupiers. Among them — Sergey. A professor of literature, Frau Shiller comes to Mikhailovskoe from Germany. The front line is getting closer, and soon an order comes from Berlin to transfer all historical values out of Mikhailovskoe. Neither the partisans, nor Sergey, who’s fallen into a relationship with Frau Shiller, can allow this to happen. Sergey decides to save the country’s heritage.
Featuring Charles 'Bud' Tingwell in only his second film and first lead role, which helped prepare him for his part in the 1953 World War Two Hollywood action drama, 'The Desert Rats'. 'Always Another Dawn' celebrates the Australian Navy's contribution to the Allied victory in WW2. The ship (Dauntless) is based on the real-life HMAS Yarra, which was sunk by a Japanese cruiser squadron on 4 March 1942 with 138 lives lost. Assisted by the Royal Australian Navy, filming took place at Flinders Naval Depot Melbourne and aboard the destroyer HMAS Bataan.
Performed by Constance Smith, Pauline Cushman-Fryer tells us how she became a Union Spy, got caught and was almost hanged, why Abraham Lincoln granted her the rank of Major, and how she died lonely in San Francisco from an overdose of opium.
Souliotes learn that Ali pasha is planning to attack. Photos Tzavellas and his men are ready to defend their freedom. They repel repeatedly Ali's army but after a prolonged siege the decide that they are not to be taken alive. All women go to Zaloggo where they fall off the cliffs dancing, while the men decide to die exploding a convent at Kougi mountain.
Two Danish youngsters see action in the USSR as volunteers in a special legion under German command in 1944-45. Returned to a camp in their native country, they go AWOL, having first killed a couple of officers. They are now being chased through a wintry Denmark by the German Army, Danish Quislings and the Danish freedom fighters. Love crosses their path when they take a Jewish girl as hostage.
The documentary, using the dramatization of fact, makes the case that the Canadian government knowingly sent two unprepared infantry battalions to help defend Hong Kong in late 1941, fully aware that they may have been on a doomed mission. The C Force, consisting of about 2000 soldiers from the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada (from Quebec City) were, with the other British, Indian and Hong Kong troops, attacked on December 8, 1941 and overwhelmed by Japanese troops, leading to numerous casualties and the surrender on Christmas day. The Canadians would spend more than 3 and half years as prisoners of war, in horrible conditions. Part of "The Valour and the Horror" mini series.
In Autumn of 1941, the German army, determined to put down a Communist-led uprising in Serbia, is conducting a policy of killing 100 hostages for any German soldier killed. The city of Kraljevo is the site of one of those massacres, portrayed in this movie.
This program provides, through 1st hand accounts & contemporary films & photographs, a rare insight into what really happened. Together with meticulously researched stories, it provides a unique analysis of the Gallipoli campaign, including never-seen before interviews with the last 10 Gallipoli Anzacs, rare film footage showing the beach & trenches at Gallipoli.
April 1945. In a dramatic operation the SS transports 139 special prisoners, and kin of the prisoners, into the Alps. The plan: to use the prisoners as bargaining chips in possible negotiations with the Allies. During the journey a number of prisoners plan their escape and experience six days between liberty and death, their fates in the hands of ruthless and increasingly nervous criminals. But the hostages band together and turn the tables with a clever ploy: they call in the Wehrmacht to aid them…
The war is over. Once a young sculptor, and now a soldier, he returned home. Married, there were children. In search of work, he was hired to make grave monuments. Time passed... At one time, visiting a cemetery with friends, he saw with different eyes all his work done over the years...
During World War II, a hand-picked group of American GI's undertook a bizarre mission: create a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the German Army as their audience. The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops used inflatable rubber tanks, sound trucks, and dazzling performance art to bluff the enemy again and again, often right along the front lines. Many of the men picked to carry out these dangerous deception missions were artists. Some went on to become famous, including fashion designer Bill Blass. In their spare time, they painted and sketched their way across Europe, creating a unique and moving visual record of their war. Their secret mission was kept hushed up for nearly 50 years after the war's end.
