Episode Information

The figures are stark and almost impossible to comprehend: military deaths estimated between 21-25 million, civilian deaths between 50-55 million. The greatest manmade event in history was also the most lethal, taking far more lives away from the battlefield than on it. “Hell on Earth” tells the story of The Second World War” from a perspective that recognises these overwhelming facts: war as a human experience. Our narrative begins not with the German invasion of Poland, but two years earlier, when Japan invaded China. The war in Europe joined in 1939 and, in 1941 with Pearl Harbor and the sweeping Japanese offensive, the war became global. The series’ eight episodes advance through the chronology. The first episode ends with Churchill’s words, “The battle of France is over”. Episode Two takes us to the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Episode Three to Pearl Harbor, Four to the turning points in 1942, then Five to Stalingrad, Six to the Second Front, Seven to the end of the war in Europe and finally, the aftermath. “Hell on Earth” uses international resources to tell this story from a global perspective. More than seventy eminent international experts contribute insights and opinions in interviews conducted around the world. These interview contributors include noted authorities in the fields of military history, political history, social history and well-known general historians of the war, including Sir Max Hastings and Antony Beevor.