TV Guide 5SELECT Saturday

Documentary examining how the conflict occurred and whether it could have been avoided, featuring previously unseen footage now brought to life in colour. In 1914, Europe was enjoying the height of the Belle Epoque, but on 28 June Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated by a young Bosnian nationalist. A few weeks after the killing, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and this triggered an almighty game of alliances between European nations leading to light-hearted troops departing for war, believing any conflict would be short and glorious

Documentary featuring previously unseen footage, now brought to life in colour. The Germans rout the Russian Second Army at the battle of Tannenberg in August 1914, halting the invasion of Prussia. After the French seize the opportunity to counterattack at the first Battle of the Marne, four years of trench warfare begin

Former Royal Marine JJ Chalmers uses his own devastating experiences of war to give his perspective on the evacuation of Allied soldiers in May and June 1940. He begins by following in the footsteps of the British soldiers' desperate retreat after the Nazis' blitzkrieg invasion of France - counting down the seven days that led to Churchill's order to evacuate the British Army in France

JJ Chalmers examines the beginning of the evacuation, revealing how Operation Dynamo started in disarray, and telling the extraordinary human stories of the troops' attempts to escape home while carnage ensued in Dunkirk and on the nearby beaches. JJ also continues the story of the Royal Norfolk regiment, which was assigned to protect a safe corridor down which most of the British Army were still flooding towards Dunkirk

JJ Chalmers examines the final battle to keep German forces back as the evacuation of Allied soldiers neared its conclusion, with a thin line of exhausted troops holding them back. On the beaches of Dunkirk, JJ explores how British ingenuity resulted in the construction of jetties using abandoned lorries, while Raksha Dave examines the truth of the armada of little ships that sailed to the rescue