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Charles 'Lucky' Luciano was the number one gangster of all time. He put the 'Organised' into organised crime and invented the modern Mafia. Part 2 of 13.
Now Stalin, Truman and Attlee sat at the table, but Truman had an ace up his sleeve. For the past 4 years, in great secrecy, the top scientists on the planet had been perfecting what was to become the absolute weapon: the atomic bomb. Part 2 of 2.
Edward Mannock VC and James McCudden VC rose from modest backgrounds to become two of Britain's greatest fighter aces in World War One. As the number of their victories grew, so did their chances of dying in flames. Timewatch tells the story of their battle to survive against the odds, and of the 90-year-old mystery surrounding the death of one of them.
Historian Peter Barton explores the events leading up to and on the notoriously bloody first day of the offensive. Walking the battlefield, he explains the failures that led to over 20,000 British deaths, and how the Germans skilfully used the landscape of the Somme to maximise enemy casualties. Calling upon research in German archives, Barton shows just how much they knew in advance about Allied plans through captured documents and interrogations of captured British prisoners and deserters, who were persistently 'spilling the beans'. Part 1 of 3.
Historian Peter Barton concentrates on the second phase of the battle, from the middle of July to the middle of September 1916, and reveals how an Allied advance on objectives which should have lasted days and weeks took months and resulted in yet more carnage. While British tactics were unvarying, the Germans used the changing landscape of the battlefield, developing a tactic of defence in depth. Part 2 of 3.
Historian Peter Barton concludes his history of the battle in the final months of the campaign, showing how a remarkable German tactical revolution begun in the summer of 1916 continued throughout this period to frustrate the Allied advance. This would have profound implications, tragically extending the war beyond Allied expectations. Barton also presents a new narrative which argues that the Battle of the Somme ended not in the winter of 1916, but in the spring of 1917. And he reaches the conclusion that there was no British victory. Part 3 of 3.
The Minoans, considered by many as the first European civilisation, flourished in the islands of the Aegean in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE, but Minoan civilisation is abruptly ended around 1550 BC as a result of a powerful explosive event. Part 1 of 6.
Sea-faring people - the Rapa Nui flourished on a small island at the easternmost edge of the Polynesian Islands - Easter Island. However a series of deadly events saw the entire social order of the island collapse and their culture, lost to history. Part 2 of 6.
The Aztec Empire was the last great civilisation and dominant power of Mesoamerica in the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet their powerful empire would soon be decimated by their encounters with European colonisers. Part 3 of 6.
