50 Weapons

From the spear to the nuclear bomb, a reckoning of the most significant weapons throughout history. Each chapter focuses on one weapon, in roughly chronological order, explaining how it worked, how it was used in battle, and how it changed the practice of war.

Setsuko Thurlow was 13 when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Horrific scenes of pain and destruction were burned into her memory. She moved to the US and Canada and began to tell the world what had happened in Hiroshima. Her work with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) overcame resistance from nuclear powers and resulted in the adoption of a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons. Their efforts earned the group the Nobel Peace Prize. This gripping documentary follows Setsuko's journey from a childhood wracked by war to international recognition.

Documentary looking at the work of those who kept the armies fed and supplied during the Second World War.
For every one army in the field during World War Two, there were two behind, helping clothe, feed, house, arm, supply and organize. It was said to take three men to put one effective man onto the field of battle, and for the High Command of all armies, supplying their front line forces presented as big a problem as securing victory over the enemy. Napoleon Bonaparte once said 'An army marches on its stomach', this episode proves that adage to be very true.

There are many weapons of war; fighter planes, heavy tanks and skilled infantrymen but it could be argued that none is more powerful than the power of suggestion. Propaganda and the war of words played an undoubtedly vital role in both the successes and failures of World War Two. Governments struggled to gain the upper hand in the war away from the battlefield, but one man proved to have a deft talent for spin. Joseph Goebbels honed the art of mass communication until, in the early days at least, it became one of Germany's most effective weapons.

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