About the Episode
For 80 years, World War II has remained the most devastating and defining conflict in human history. Now, World War II with Tom Hanks reexamines the war through the lens of a new century. This new 20-part series captures the full arc of the war—from the rise of fascism in Europe to the fall of Berlin, from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima, and the uneasy peace that follows.
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the series during a panel discussion with featured historian Rob Citino, PhD, and Kirk Saduski, a producer with Playtone
Topics Covered in this Episode:
- World War II
- The Invasion of Poland
- History and Storytelling
- Public History
Kirk Saduski
Playtone executive and producer Kirk Saduski was the executive-in-charge for HBO’s Band of Brothers, co-producer of HBO’s The Pacific, and co-producer of Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air.
Robert Citino, PhD
Robert Citino, PhD, is the former Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian in the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy. Dr. Citino is an award-winning military historian and scholar who has published 11 books, including The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943, Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942, and The German Way of War: From the Thirty Years' War to the Third Reich and numerous articles covering World War II and twentieth-century military history.
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The Beginning
In September 1939, Germany invades Poland, setting the stage for the most destructive war in history.
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Blitz
After toppling the Netherlands and Belgium, Nazi Germany pushes further west. The Allies scramble to support France as Churchill is forced to defend Britain from the skies and FDR rushes to mobilize wartime production.
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Barbarossa
The story of Operation Barbarossa, Adolf Hitler’s massive surprise invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the largest and costliest land offensive in human history.
