War Documentary Films

A state-of-the-art, edge-of-your-seat experience! Get in the cockpit with the world’s best pilots to witness the most challenging flying of their careers. Follow a young American pilot as he makes his way through Red Flag – the world’s most intense, simulated air war, training event – where U.S. and international pilots, ground crews, mechanics and [...]

Director Peyton Wilson entered the world of U.S. Navy fighter pilots, and thanks to unprecedented access granted by the Navy, Peyton captured and created the most intimate film ever made on fighter pilots. Epic High Definition aerial footage and stunning cockpit photography provide a dramatic backdrop for the larger story of fighting for your dreams. [...]

In 1914, when WWI began, the aeroplane was so new that the British had never used it in battle before. Eager recruits, some as young as 17, rushed to join the British army’s new aircraft service – the Royal Flying Corps – and quickly came up against Germany’s hunting squadrons and most notorious fighter pilot, [...]

The Lancaster at War is a vivid account of the aircraft that became the mainstay of Britain’s Bomber Command in the struggle to defeat Nazi Germany. Described as the outstanding heavy bomber of World War II, the Avro Lancaster played a major role in the long and savage bombing campaign to cripple Hitler’s Third Reich. [...]

This story exposes significant historical events that been largely neglected or completely forgotten by today’s contemporary society. It tells the tale of the World War 2 Beaufighter Aircraft – known by the Japanese as Whispering Death, a fast heavily armed and almost indestructible aircraft, and its indefatigable Australian crews. Together they helped tip the balance [...]

World War I was the first time aeroplanes were deployed for warfare. The then rickety flying machines fought crucial dogfights as both sides struggled for air supremacy. Flying aces like Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, won fame and glory for their aerial expertise. Four Years of Thunder reveals, for the first time, the [...]

The challenges, adventures and behind-the-scenes family lives of fighter pilots and aspiring Top Guns’ in the Royal Australian Air Force. Real Top Guns is a TV series about Australian fighter pilots and the dramas of their day. It’s not all about their amazing flying machines and their adventures in the air. Real Top Guns relies [...]

Blue Angels: A Year In The Life is a four part series that follows the lives of the Navy’s elite flight demonstration team, from starting as “newbies,” to the end of the air show season, all shot in High Definition video. Each year as new pilots are selected, they must endure a long and arduous [...]

The B-29 earned it legacy as being the bomber that brought Japan to its knees in 1945, and delivered the two atomic bombs. B-29 Frozen in Time tells the story of the “Kee Bird” a B-29 landed on the Greenland Ice cap after running out of fuel in a storm in 1947. A small group [...]

In 1940, Nazi air strikes had Britain on her knees. The RAF was desperate for planes and their supply of US aircraft, sent on ship convoys, had been sunk in the icy Atlantic by relentless German U-boats. In response, a remarkable decision was made to fly the planes across the unforgiving ocean. Because of US [...]

History’s most thrilling aerial battles can now be experienced as never before from inside the cockpit. Legendary aircraft like the F8 Crusader, P40 Tomahawk, P-51 Mustang, and Fokker triplanes are brought back to life as Dogfights takes viewers straight into the heat of the aerial action. The original pilots themselves narrate these battles, illuminating the [...]

It flies like a plane and lands like a helicopter. After more than two decades in development and coming in at $20 billion over budget, the V-22 Osprey heads to Iraq to enter combat for the first time. Veteran filmmaker and war correspondent Richard Mackenzie travels with a U.S. Marine Corps squadron to document this [...]

Discover Nazi Germany’s top-secret development of radar-evading technology. In the final months of World War II a jet powered flying wing made its first test flight from a remote airfield deep inside Nazi Germany. Generations ahead of its time, the Horten 229 had been designed to be a lethal fighter-bomber and more importantly, virtually undetectable [...]

The men of the RAF’s 27 Squadron are in Afghanistan for a tour of duty. For two months, they will be flying missions around the notorious frontline of Helmand Province, where British troops are engaged daily in ferocious battles with a resurgent Taliban. In this intimate film featuring cockpit footage, we follow the pilots and [...]

The Korean War pitted the two most advanced fighters of their day, the American F-86 Sabre and the Soviet MiG-15, in furious air battles in North Korea’s notorious “MiG Alley.” With the help of dramatic reconstructions, rare archival footage, and interviews with veteran American and Soviet pilots, NOVA puts viewers in the cockpit to experience [...]

Brothers Colin and Ewan McGregor follow up their documentary The Battle of Britain with a film exploring Bomber Command, a rarely-told story from the Second World War. The film focuses primarily on the men who fought and died in the skies above occupied Europe, with numerous examples of individual heroism and extraordinary collective spirit, and [...]

Jetstream chronicles the gripping trials of an elite group of Air Force pilots struggling to master one of the world’s most advanced supersonic tactical fighter jets: the $35-million F-18 Hornet. Hand picked from thousands, seven men and one woman are poised to join the world’s most exclusive fight club. But who will make the cut? [...]

Long after the Battle of Britain, the aircrews of RAF Bomber Command risked their lives night after night during the Second World War. Bomber Crew is a four-part series that tells the stories of the airmen of Bomber Command. Building on the hugely popular and critically acclaimed Spitfire Ace series, Bomber Crew features first-hand testimony [...]

Seventy years on, brothers Colin and Ewan McGregor take viewers through the key moments of the Battle of Britain, when ‘the few’ of the RAF faced the might of the Nazi Luftwaffe. As they fly historic planes, meet the veterans, explore the tactics and technology, Colin and Ewan discover the importance of the Battle and [...]

The story of the Great War told from a unique new aerial perspective. Featuring two remarkable historical finds, including a piece of archive footage filmed from an airship in summer 1919, capturing the trenches and battlefields in a way that’s rarely been seen before. And aerial photographs taken by First World War pilots – developed [...]

This dramatised documentary recounts how, during the most decisive phase of the Battle of the Britain, a single squadron of 34 Polish fighter pilots wreaked havoc on the Luftwaffe, in the process helping to change the course of history and overturning RAF prejudices. From 303 Squadron’s bitter struggle for acceptance when they first arrived in [...]

The Red Arrows are The RAF’s least secret weapon. Their quest for excellence is such that they push their abilities and bodies to the limit. Flying at speeds of 500mph, in death-defying formations, there is no room for error. In this job, your first mistake could easily be your last. One of the greatest dangers [...]

The heroic tales of World War II are legendary, but Operation Crossbow is a little-known story that deserves to join the hall of fame: how the Allies used 3D photos to thwart the Nazis’ weapons of mass destruction before they could obliterate Britain. This film brings together the heroic Spitfire pilots who took the photographs [...]

During World War II, a remarkable band of female pilots fought against all odds for the right to aid the war effort. These trailblazers were part of the Air Transport Auxiliary, a thousand-strong organization that delivered aircraft to the front line RAF during Britain’s darkest hours. Every day, responsibility fell on their shoulders to get [...]

The First Blitz In January 1915, in a Zeppelin raid on the Norfolk town of Great Yarmouth, Sam Smith became the first British civilian to die as a result of aerial bombing. In the words of those who lived through it, Timewatch tells the forgotten story of the ‘First Blitz’. It was a three-year terror [...]