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Mon, Jun 28, 2010
A group of Eastern European pilots who with their advanced experience and ability help the allies win the Battle of Britain during the Second World War. They combined forces with the British Air Force in Polish Flying Squadron 303. Their contribution has been largely unnoted by history and yet their assistance made a massive difference to the outcome of the airborne effort. Feric was writing his personal diary from September 1939, which were turned into No.303 Squadron's unit history.
Tue, Jun 29, 2010
Though the Great Fire of London is acknowledged to have been started accidentally the programme details the thoughts at the time that it had been begun on purpose by Dutch saboteurs - England had recently been at war with the Dutch. Dutch nationals and other foreign residents in London were beaten up by mobs and needed to be rescued by the watch. Hubert,a young Frenchman,actually admitted to causing the blaze and was hung and only afterwards was it discovered that he could not possibly have done so. Wealthy European Londoners were however generous in contributing to re-building the city after the fire.
Mon, Jun 28, 2010
The battle of Trafalgar is generally held to be a triumphant English victory but the documentary shows,using the list of crew members of the HMS Bellerophon, that the ships' companies were made up of other nationalities;- recently freed or escaped West Indian slaves, Scandinavian professional sailors who were on board for the money and Americans,sometimes press-ganged from other ships. Though the battle was against the French there were even French career sailors aboard. Hundreds of black sailors took part and there are portrayals of them in the frieze at the base of Nelson's Column.
Thu, Jul 1, 2010
Septimius Severus,born in Leptis Magna in Libya,was a soldier and consul who became Roman emperor in his forties having slain the Pretorian Guard who murdered the then emperor Pertinax. Some fifteen years later,in 207 A.D.,in his early sixties and so unwell that he was carried in a litter,he took a vast Roman army into Scotland to conquer the Celtic tribes,accompanied by reluctant son Caracalla. However the Scots guerilla tactics decimated the invaders and Severus died in 211 in York. The show implies that his actions made the Scots more determined to be independent than ever.