History

Among the world's best, the British Royal Marines build on their noble traditions and the lessons of history to hone the skills of snipers and place them in a proud global lineage. The daring British Commandos, perfecting their use of camouflage and stalking, cleared the hedgerows at Normandy. The Russian Red Army snipers, known for patience and stealth, helped to break the siege of Stalingrad. We also look at a little-known force–the Red Army's deadly women snipers, who fought alongside the men.

Gunny's back — Marine Corps veteran R. Lee Ermey, acclaimed for his role as a Marine Drill Instructor in the movie Full Metal Jacket, previously hosted the popular "Mail Call" show on the History Channel. He now returns in Lock N' Load, an hour-long weekly series featuring the engineering and development of military weapons. The focus of Lock N' Load is firepower — and lots of it.

One of Adolf Hitler’s most brutal and dramatic exterminations came half a decade before the sins of the Holocaust. The SA was Hitler’s army of thugs, but the head of the SA, Ernst Roehm, was threatening Hitler’s rule. On June 29th 1934, Hitler ordered the SA leadership to appear for a meeting at the Hotel Hanselbauer. Without warning, the SS burst in, beginning 48 hours of bloodshed in which 1000 of the leading SA, including Roehm, were rounded up and slaughtered. This murderous deed became an ominous warning of what was to come. It is the single most significant episode in Hitler’s rise to absolute power, and the set the stage for World War and the Holocaust.

It happened more or less by accident; the people who made it happen were amateurs; and for the most part they still are. From his own Silicon Valley garage, author Bob Cringely puts PC bigshots and nerds on the spot, and tells their incredible true stories. Like the industry itself, the series is informative, funny and brash

Legends, lies, and half-truths for a long time have surrounded Hitler's last days in his bunker beneath Berlin's Reich Chancellery. What exactly happened in the days leading up to his suicide on April 30, 1945? Why did the dictator protract the end for so long? Was he still capable of making decisions? A Russian secret service dossier discovered in Moscow sheds new light on events in the bunker. Contemporary witnesses such as Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge, officers Ulrich de Maiziere and Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven, together with renowned historians and Hitler researchers Ian Kershaw and Joachim Fest, analyze events in the bunker from April 20 to 30–from Hitler's last birthday to suicide. Many explosive revelations are scrutinized, for example the claim by Hitler's chief pilot Hans Baur that Eva Braun was pregnant at war's end. Utilizing 3-D tours through the bunker, library discoveries, and unknown statements, a shocking picture of Hitler's last days emerges.

Making History turns back the clock to bring you the past as it's never been seen before. In this fast-moving new series experience significant points in history that cameras weren't around to catch. Using the latest theories from experts and scientists, these shows blend hard historical research with dramatic reconstructions and demonstrate step-by-step how the latest computer trickery can make history really come alive.