| THE UNKNOWN WAR | ||||||||||||
| Year | Col / b&w | Sound | Ratio | Nationality | Genre |
| 1978 | B/W & Color | Mono | USA from UK/Russian archives | Documentary |
 
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Burt Lancaster hosts 20 one hour specials documenting World War II.
A landmark television series, detailing the drama of the Eastern European front. "The Unknown War" covers that period of history from June 1941, when Germany launched its surprise attack on Russia, through to the end of the war. Episodes
1. June 22, 1941 |
Film footage from Soviet archives comprises a major portion of the series, supplemented by film from both the United States and British archives.
Academy Award Winner Burt Lancaster spent three weeks in eight cities in Russia, for location filming.
Executive producer and director Isaac Kleinerman was film editor of the classic documentary series "Victory at Sea" and producer of "The Twentieth Century" and "The 21st Century" for CBS-TV. He is an Emmy and Peabody Award winner.
Script consultant Harrison Salisbury is a Pulizter Prize winning journalist, historian and one of the foremost authorities on Russian affairs. Affiliated with the New York Times for almost 30 years and serving as its Moscow correspondent from 1949 to 1954.
All script material was prepared from specific outlines for each episode, written by Mr Salisbury and film footage selected under the supervision of Mr Kleinerman.
"The greatest battles of World War II, the most colossal encounters of military force, the most devastating human losses which the modern world has ever seen, occurred on Russian soil in 1941-45, in a war hardly known to Americans," says Salisbury. "The conflict between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia claimed more than 30 million lives. Nowhere, before or since, did such masses of men and military material collide." Individual episodes will detail the savage suddenness of the initial Nazi attack, as Hitler's legions rolled ahead on a 1,500 mile front, surging to the gates of Leningrad and Moscow, smashing Kiev, driving to the Volga and penetrating the mountains of the Caucasus.
Additional segments depict the incredible 900 day siege of Leningrad, the Battle of Moscow in which Hitler, for the first time, tasted defeat; the siege of Stalingrad, which broke the back of the German military machine, the thrusts to liberate the cities of Russia and the Ukraine, the sweep into Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and the climactic battle of Berlin.
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