Every war has a moment when everything could have gone differently. We find that moment.
World History Files makes full-length documentaries about World War I and World War II, told through the hours, minutes and decisions that changed history: the wrong turn in Sarajevo, the first day of the Somme, the radar warning at Pearl Harbor, the last six hours of WW1, the final days of Berlin.
Inside every film: authentic archival footage and photographs, original animated battle maps, the words of eyewitnesses and research drawn from leading historians. Every source is credited in the description.
New documentaries every Friday and Sunday.
Strictly non-political and educational. We never glorify war or any ideology. We explain how it happened, so that it is never forgotten.
Business and rights enquiries: the email on this page.
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Real footage. Real stories. The hours that changed history.
WORLD HISTORY FILES
On D-Day, the U.S. 4th Infantry Division landed on Utah Beach. How did its losses compare with the men killed in the Exercise Tiger rehearsal five weeks earlier?
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WORLD HISTORY FILES
MYTH OR FACT: The dead of Exercise Tiger were secretly buried in a mass grave in a field in Devon.
MYTH. The story has been told for decades, but no such grave has ever been found. The men who were recovered from the sea were buried in American military cemeteries, and many were later brought home. What WAS real was the silence: survivors were ordered not to talk.
The full story is in our new documentary.
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WORLD HISTORY FILES
Could the peace of 1919 have been made in a way that did not lead to another world war?
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WORLD HISTORY FILES
MYTH OR FACT: the armistice that ended the First World War was signed in a railway carriage.
FACT. It was signed in Marshal Foch's private carriage in the forest near Compiègne. In 1940 Hitler had the very same carriage brought back to the very same spot — to make France sign its own surrender there.
Did you know this? Tell us in the comments.
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WORLD HISTORY FILES
28 April 1944, half past one in the morning. Eight American landing ships, lights off, crossing Lyme Bay in a single line. Nobody on board knows that nine German torpedo boats are coming.
Five weeks before D-Day, the rehearsal for Utah Beach turned into one of the worst nights of the war for the U.S. Army in Britain — and then it disappeared from history.
Our new documentary tells the whole story of Exercise Tiger. Tomorrow.
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WORLD HISTORY FILES
The armistice was signed at about 5 a.m. on 11 November 1918. It came into force at 11 a.m.
In those six hours, more than 2,700 men were killed. The last of them fell at 10:59.
Why did the guns keep firing? Our new documentary, "How the First World War Ended", premieres on the channel. Tomorrow, 5 p.m. UK / 12 p.m. ET.
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WORLD HISTORY FILES
The swimsuit called the "bikini" was presented in Paris how long after the first atomic test at Bikini Atoll?
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WORLD HISTORY FILES
MYTH OR FACT: The admiral in charge of the Bikini atomic tests celebrated with a cake shaped like a mushroom cloud.
FACT. In November 1946, Vice Admiral William Blandy and his wife cut a mushroom-cloud cake at a party in Washington. The photo made the newspapers — and not everyone found it funny.
What else happened at Bikini that the textbooks skip? Watch our documentary.
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WORLD HISTORY FILES
25 July 1946, 8:35 a.m. In a lagoon in the middle of the Pacific, 95 warships wait with no one on board. Ninety feet under the water hangs an atomic bomb.
Some of those ships had survived Pearl Harbor. One of them had sent the order to attack it.
Our new documentary tells the whole story of Operation Crossroads. Tomorrow, 4 p.m. UK / 11 a.m. ET.
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WORLD HISTORY FILES
MYTH OR FACT: American and Soviet troops met on the Elbe before Hitler died.
FACT. The first contacts came on 25 April 1945, near Strehla and Torgau — five days before the shot in the bunker. Germany was cut in two, and the soldiers of two very different armies celebrated together.
Did you know this? Tell us in the comments.
https://youtu.be/iWIa5a3ll6o
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