Viasat History programa šiandien

June 1942: the most decisive naval-air battle in the Pacific started as a Japanese trap and ended as an American ambush, a totally unpredictable conflict made up of luck, code-breaking, and gambles.

The surprise attack, spearheaded by elite divisions, initially sends American units reeling.

From the beaches of Normandy to the heartland of the Third Reich, this programme delivers compelling and definitive stories of the battles fought to liberate Western Europe from the Nazis.

Hermann Göring, Hitler's designated successor, was one of the regime's most visible leaders; as the war slipped away, so did his influence ending in a final act of defiance at Nuremberg.

Karl Dönitz, Hitler's loyal naval commander, led a deadly U-boat war beneath the seas and unexpectedly inherited the crumbling Third Reich as he ruled a defeated nation for ten fleeting days.

Wilhelm Keitel, Hitler's top military yes-man, signed orders that unleashed war crimes and mass murder across Europe; blindly obedient to the end, he ended up answering to justice at Nuremberg.

Friedrich Paulus and Erich von Manstein, two generals who charted opposite paths through the Nazi war machine - one broke under pressure, the other clung to his reputation.

WWII began with a deadly deception inside a Polish radio station; the early years of the war saw deception in its infancy, from code-breaking and spies to fake bombing sites and even inflatable tanks.

By 1942, deception had become extremely sophisticated; the most cunning operation used a deceased homeless man to trick the entire Nazi leadership about the Normandy invasion.

Technology was used to deceive the enemy; radio and transmitters spread false information, and a ghost army tricked entire enemy forces by using sound effects.

With the war swinging toward the Allies, both sides still used some masterful deceptions; the post-war era saw the US and Soviet Union in a deadly game of espionage in the race for atomic supremacy.

In 1992, the Yugoslav army left the Croatian island of Vis abandoning 30 military facilities, an underground hospital, a submarine shelter and tunnels; after centuries of war, Vis embraced peace.

The games and entertainment, plus violence as a political instrument, with the Battle of Laugaricio (modern-day Slovakia), portraits of Commodus and Lucilla, and the legendary Colosseum.