World's Greatest Twentieth Century Battlefields

This new landmark series and book tells the story of some of the worlds greatest modern battles and the experiences of the men who fought in them - from heroic leaders to humble foot soldiers. These battles are the crucial turning points in modern history. Battles shaped the world we live in today and to understand them is to understand the conflicts that dominate the worlds headlines. The battles will be placed in the context of the war in which they played a crucial part. Ex war-correspondent Peter Snow (who covered the majority of these battles) and his son, military historian Dan Snow, will reveal the intricacies of these crucial battles - the strategies, the weapons, the tactics and their impact. A series of compelling narratives will bring to life the vast landscapes of modern warfare and give an extraordinary overview of events. We will discover what strategy the leaders and their armies employed e.g. in 1918 on the Western Front, Field Marshal Haig unleashed a massive onslaught of tanks, planes and artillery together for the first time, eventually causing the Germans to sue for peace. Peter and Dan will also look at the perspective of the men on the ground, both in the events leading up to the battle and on the field itself. Why were they fighting? How were they fighting? The emotions and experience of the ordinary soldiers will be brought into sharp relief using dramatized testimony. Peter and Dan will discover how new technology played a part in the final outcomes: how the very first use of smart weapons - satellite surveillance and laser guided weapons - obliterated Iraqi forces in the first Gulf war in 1991.