You can find some of the best war documentaries on television every Tuesday night on WLRN - TV, starting at 8:00 p.m.
Weapons of World War II: Gliders (8:00 pm)
When it was impossible for aircraft to land safely on enemy territory, gliders were the perfect answer for delivering special forces behind enemy lines. German paratroopers used gliders spectacularly to land on Belgian defenses in 1940, while the British employed them to land soldiers in their effort to win a bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem in 1944.
Weapons of World War II: Aircraft Carriers (8:30 pm)
Giant aircraft carriers dominated the Pacific War between Japan and the USA. Pearl Harbor was launched to destroy US carriers but failed, while the battle of Midway - the turning point in the Pacific War - was won by US carriers delivering tremendous air strikes against Japanese battleships. This program shows them in dramatic action.
The War “FUBAR” (9:00 pm)
The War, a seven-part documentary series directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, explores the history and horror of the Second World War from an American perspective by following the fortunes of so-called ordinary men and women who become caught up in one of the greatest cataclysms in human history.
During World War II, from September 1944 to December 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower’s chief of staff announces that “this war is over” but it becomes obvious that the war won’t end before winter. American and British troops massed on the German border are running low on fuel and are outrunning their supply lines. A battle on the island of Peleliu is expected to last four days, but drags on for months. It becomes one of the most brutal and unnecessary campaigns in the war.