''Battlefield Detectives'' is a forensic documentary television series that aired on the History Channel from 2003 to 2006. The series explores famous battles focusing on the battlefield itself, and tell its story based on recent scientific research. It uses modern science to examine how the battles were won or lost.

Format

According to History Television: "This series approaches the perennially interesting topic of famous battles in a fresh and exhilarating way. Focusing on the battlefield itself, each programme takes an important battle telling its story and posing a puzzling central question about the battle that recent scientific research is helping to illuminate - a contemporary journey of discovery and a compelling story from the past."

Episodes

Episode name / original air date

Season 1

# " Custer at Little Bighorn," 4 October 2003 # "

Charge of the Light Brigade The Charge of the Light Brigade was a failed military action involving the British light cavalry led by James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimea ...

," 11 October 2003 # " The Gallipoli Disaster," 18 October 2003 # " What Sank the Armada?," 25 October 2003 # " Who Got Lucky at Hastings?," 8 November 2003 # " Massacre at Waterloo," 9 November 2003 # " Agincourt's Dark Secrets," 23 November 2003 # " Trafalgar," 13 December 2003 # "

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

," 27 December 2003

Season 2

# "

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Operation Market Garden Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation during the Second World War fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 27 September 1944. Its objective was to create a salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine, ...

," 12 November 2004 # "

Native American Wars The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settle ...

: The Apache," 19 November 2004 # "

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolu ...

Battle of Monmouth The Battle of Monmouth, also known as the Battle of Monmouth Court House, was fought near Monmouth Court House in modern-day Freehold Borough, New Jersey on June 28, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. It pitted the Continental Army, c ...

," 26 November 2004 # "

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

The Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place be ...

," 3 December 2004 # "

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Second Federal Republic of Mexico, Mexico f ...

Battle of Palo Alto The Battle of Palo Alto ( es, Batalla de Palo Alto) was the first major battle of the Mexican–American War and was fought on May 8, 1846, on disputed ground five miles (8 km) from the modern-day city of Brownsville, Texas. A force of so ...

," 10 December 2004 # "American Revolution:

Battle of Cowpens The Battle of Cowpens was an engagement during the American Revolutionary War fought on January 17, 1781 near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina, between U.S. forces under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan and Kingdom of Great Britain, British for ...

," 17 December 2004 # "

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of th ...

," 20 December 2004 # "Civil War: Battle of Antietam," 20 December 2004

Season 3

# "

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in ...

," 14 November 2005 # "

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended ...

," 21 November 2005 # "Waterloo," 28 November 2005 # "

Siege of Masada The siege of Masada was one of the final events in the First Jewish–Roman War, occurring from 73 to 74 CE on and around a hilltop in present-day Israel. The siege is known to history via a single source, Flavius Josephus, a Jewish rebel leade ...

," 5 December 2005 # "

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of ...

: Battle of Oriskany," 5 December 2005 # "World War I:

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

," 12 December 2005 # "

Stalingrad Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stalingrád, label=none; ) ...

," 23 December 2005 # "

The War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

: The ''Chesapeake'' and the ''Shannon''," 23 December 2005 # "

Pointe du Hoc La Pointe du Hoc () is a promontory with a cliff overlooking the English Channel on the northwestern coast of Normandy in the Calvados '' department'', France. Pointe du Hoc was the location of a series of German bunkers and machine gun posts. ...

," 30 December 2005 # " The 6-Day War," 30 December 2005 # "Civil War: Shiloh," 2 January 2006 # " Alesia," 9 January 2006 # "

Battle of Big Hole The Battle of the Big Hole was fought in Montana Territory, August 9–10, 1877, between the United States Army and the Nez Perce tribe of Native Americans during the Nez Perce War. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. The Nez Perce w ...

," 30 January 2006

Season 4

# "Siege of Alesia," 5 November 2006 # "Trafalgar's Fatal Flaw," 19 November 2006

Book

An accompanying book reflects on seven of the most famous battlefields in history: The Battle of Hastings, The Battle of Agincourt, The Spanish Armada, Waterloo, The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Battle of Little Bighorn, and Gallipoli. It uses traditional methods and modern technology to discover what really happened on the day. The results include new and controversial insights into some of the world's enduring military mysteries. ''Battlefield Detectives'' uses evidence uncovered by a team of experts from a wide range of disciplines: archaeologists, forensic scientists, crowd dynamics specialists, metal-detectorists and military experts contribute to a new understanding of these fields of war.Battlefield Detectives http://www.crowddynamics.co.uk/Battlefield%20Detectives/BattleField.htm Retrieved 2009-07-26. *''Battlefield Detectives'' llustratedby David Wason. *(Hardcover/Paperback) 256 pages *March 2003 *Publisher: Granada Media *

References

{{History shows Documentary television series about war History (American TV channel) original programming