Hidden Histories of WWII

January 1944, high above snow-shrouded northwest Europe, an extraordinary air battle was taking place. James Holland and his companion, historian Rowland White, explore what this largely forgotten engagement can tell us about the wider strategic air battle over Europe, about the men that fought it, and the machines they were using. Thanks to the advent of the P-51 Mustangs, Operation POINTBLANK was underway: the destruction of the Luftwaffe as an effective force in the west. This major operation was only made possible by the fighter escorts flying these new planes, and one fighter pilot in particular, Major Jim Howard, was about to make history by had single-handedly taking on the Luftwaffe at a ratio of Thirty to One without losing a single bomber from the stack he was protecting. This is the story of how a number of elements came together to bring skilled pilots and cutting-edge design together to achieve such remarkable results.

May, 1944. This is the story of the Polish fighting force and their unlikely four-year journey to the frontline in Italy from the Siberian gulags, and via much of the middle east and North Africa. The start of the Second World War is famous for the imagery of German forces pouring into Poland from the west in early September 1939. By the middle of that month, the country was also invaded from the east by the Soviet Union. In just a few weeks Poland had been effectively wiped off the map, with millions of people displaced, and many now taken prisoner by either the Nazis or the Soviets. Many were liberated following the Battle of Barbarossa in 1941, where they then made a 2,000-mile journey south, largely on foot, to re-join the Allied war effort. In Monte Cassino, south of Rome, James Holland is on the ground with historian Alexandra Richie. When the Poles finally arrived at the Gustav Line in 1944, they were thrown into one of the bloodiest theatres of the war.