logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2023
30m 40s

Tuskegee Top Gun

The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
About this episode
January 11, 2022. Lt. Col. James Harvey arrives at Nellis Air Force base in Nevada for the first time in 73 years. He’s there to accept a plaque celebrating the last time he was there—for the Air Force’s first ever weapons competition. Back then, Harvey and the other Tuskegee Airmen on his team had squared off against the best military pilots around. They ta ... Show More
Up next
Mar 2
Stalin Is Dead! | Сталин мертв!
March 5, 1953. The Premier of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, is on his deathbed, and he’s turning blue. At the end of his life, Stalin is surrounded by his closest advisors, but these comrades aren’t hoping for his quick recovery. For days, they’ve been sneaking away from their ... Show More
36m 52s
Feb 23
Disneyland on a Deadline
March 1, 1951. Two Texas horse trainers sit down to lunch with Walt Disney. They assume he wants to use their animals in a movie. Instead, Walt leans in and tells them about something that doesn’t exist yet. Not a carnival. Not an amusement park. Something movie-like in the real ... Show More
29m 31s
Feb 16
How To Dig a Train Tunnel Under the Hudson River
February 14, 1905. A stick of dynamite detonates under the Hudson River — and the ground above swallows a locomotive whole. It's the latest setback in an audacious plan to tunnel beneath the river and bring trains into Manhattan. The Pennsylvania Railroad is the largest corporati ... Show More
36m 16s
Recommended Episodes
May 2023
The Heroic Exploits of WWII’s Pacific Paratroopers
<p>When people think of the paratroopers of World War II, they tend to think of the European theater — the 101st Airborne Division and the Band of Brothers.</p><p>But paratroopers were also deployed in the Pacific, and here to unpack their lesser-known but equally epic and heroic ... Show More
53m 25s
Dec 2023
212 - Invisible Generals
<p>When President McKinley turned down Benjamin Oliver Davis for a place at West Point due to the colour of his skin, Davis joined the army as a private. Davis soon worked his way through the ranks to receive his second lieutenant commission in 1901. It would be over 30 years bef ... Show More
50m 55s
Jun 2022
The Unlikely Fate of the Wright Brothers
On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Wright Brothers changed history when they took the world's first engine-powered flight. It didn't take long for countries around the world to realise that the Wright flying machine had the potential to revolutioni ... Show More
26m 54s
Nov 2023
The Flying Artilleryman
Dropping bombs from planes was unheard of until 1st November 1911, when Italian Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti embarked on an aerial mission over Libya. With a handful of lightweight grenades resting in his lap, he headed to Ain Zara, a village near Tripoli, and chucked them overboard ... Show More
11m 25s
Jun 2023
Ep. 328 - Darrell Utt (U.S. Army / Green Beret)
After graduating high school in 1990, Darrell Utt joined the U.S. Army. During his service, Darrell was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with 'Valor' for heroic actions and leadership during combat operations in Baghdad, Iraq in 2006. He was also awarded four Bronze Star Medals for ... Show More
2h 13m
Sep 2023
My Great-Grandfather's War: Lt-Gen Thomas Snow & The Somme
<p>Dan explores his great-grandfather's part in the First World War. Lieutenant-General Thomas Snow was a senior officer in the British Army who commanded troops on the first day of the Somme. It was a disaster; thousands of men died for almost no strategic gains, and his legacy ... Show More
48 m
Jul 2021
FPP117 - C-17 Globemaster III
<p>Not every aircraft can be (or should be) an attention-grabbing 9G fighter or Mach 3 spy plane. Scores of unheralded support planes play vital military roles including the movement of critical supply. Without timely and sufficient beans, bullets, and bandages provided by cargo ... Show More
55m 31s
Oct 2018
17| Satterly Part 1
During one of the most storied firefights in recent U.S. history, nine special forces soldiers held a house in Somalia, guarding one of the Black Hawk helicopters that had crashed during a routine operation.In the first of a two part series, retired Delta operator and author of “ ... Show More
43 m
Jun 2023
The Wright Brothers
<p>Approximately 100 thousand flights take off and land each and every day. A months long journey on a boat is condensed to just a few hours with the help of aircraft, and the birth of planes introduced an entirely new form of warfare.</p><br><p>Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Wri ... Show More
45m 58s
Feb 2021
Battlegrounds w/ H.R. McMaster: Black History Month: Reflecting On The Achievements And Leadership Of General Roscoe Robinson, Jr., U.S. Army
Wednesday, February 24, 2021 Hoover Institution In this special episode of Battlegrounds in honor of Black History Month, H.R. McMaster and Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Robinson, US Army (Retired), son of General Roscoe Robinson Jr., the first African American four-star general in th ... Show More
1 h