BBC Four

Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

BBC Four HD

WWII: Operation Crossbow

Samantha Bond

Eamon Hardy

Tim Dunn

Operation Crossbow

Documentaries

Factual: History

15/05/2011

BBC Two - Operation Crossbow

How the Allies used 3D photographs to thwart the Nazis' superweapons.

Documentary telling the little-known story about how the Allies used 3D photographs to thwart the Nazis' superweapons before they could devastate Britain.

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 and the brilliant minds of RAF Medmenham that made sense of the jigsaw of clues hidden in the photos. Hitler was pumping a fortune into his new-fangled V weapons in the hope they could win him the war. But Medmenham had a secret weapon of its own, a simple stereoscope which brought to life every contour of the enemy landscape in perfect 3D. 

The devil was truly in the detail. Together with extraordinary personal testimonies, the film uses modern computer graphics on the original wartime photographs to show just how the photo interpreters were able to uncover Hitler's nastiest secrets.

BBC Two

BBC Two is a TV channel that started broadcasting on the 20th April 1964.

BBC 2

BBC2

BBC Two is a lively channel of depth and substance, carrying a range of knowledge-building programming complemented by great drama, comedy and arts.

BBC HD

BBC Two Scotland

BBC Two Northern Ireland

Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Operation Crossbow

Contributors

Genres

Formats

BBC Four HD

About BBC Four