Churchill's Desert WarMay 5, 2015

On September 13th 1940 80,000 Italian troops marched out of Libya into Egypt to threaten the epicentre of the British Empire at a critical moment in the Second World War. And what began as a desert skirmish rapidly became the fulcrum of Britain's struggle for survival against the Nazis. This obscure wilderness, of no apparent strategic value, was the scene of Winston Churchill’s lonely stand against the seemingly overwhelming forces of the German-Italian fascist Axis. To tell this compelling story Jonathan Dimbleby travels to all the key locations, among them the Cabinet War Rooms deep beneath Whitehall, the vast bunker in Poland where Hitler plotted his campaigns, the tunnels under Malta where civilians sheltered from the Nazi bombs and the Brenner Pass where Hitler and Mussolini met to decide the world’s fate. (From the UK) (Documentary) (class tba) CC

Churchill's Desert War was broadcast on SBS ONE at Tuesday 5 May 2015, 17:35. This episode was initially placed on Saturday 19 April 2014.