WW2 Women on the Frontline
PBS Western Reserve (WNEO 45.1 / WEAO 49.1):
Mondays at 10 PM beginning Aug. 18
Tuesdays at 3 AM beginning Aug. 19
Saturdays at 1 PM beginning Aug. 23
Fusion (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2):
Fridays at 7 PM beginning Aug. 22
Women played a vital role in World War II, and working in factories, laboring on farms and volunteering for the Red Cross was just the start. The three-part series WW2 WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINE explores the daring and unknown histories of the remarkable female pilots, journalists, guerrillas, and spies who fought, flew, and died in the war as they defied expectations and overcame prejudices.
Featuring archival footage, dramatic recreations, expert observations, and dynamic first-person interviews, the program provides inspiring portraits of courage. In occupied France, Josephine Baker used her celebrity status to smuggle information to the Allies. Journalist Martha Gelhorn stowed away on a hospital ship and landed on Omaha Beach to report on D-Day. Teenage girls in the Netherlands bravely assassinated Nazi officers. These and many more remarkable women changed the course of the war and history itself.
Episode #1 — Behind Enemy Lines
Brave women across Europe risked everything to battle against Hitler’s Nazi hordes behind enemy lines. This intriguing episode reveals just some of them. Josephine Baker used her celebrity status to smuggle information to the Allies. A wireless operator in France single-handedly supported a Paris spy network. And, teenage girls in the Netherlands bravely assassinated Nazi officers
Episode #2 — The War in The Air
Meet the female flying aces who took on Hitler’s aerial threat and helped win the war. Remarkable figures from World War II are revealed, including a pilot who delivered over 1400 aircraft with only her flying skills to keep her alive, a Soviet group called the Night Witches who completed thousands of sorties and a Gunner Girl battling Hitler’s Luftwaffe.
Episode #3 — Boots on The Ground
In this episode, the little-known feats of journalists, nurses and guerilla fighters take center stage. Female war correspondents were treated with suspicion by the Allied top brass and kept from the frontline; two brave American reporters broke the rules. Martha Gellhorn was furious that she couldn’t be with the D-Day fleet, so she stowed away on a hospital ship and landed on the toughest beach of them all, Omaha. Lee Miller was a former model turned photojournalist. She found herself in the heat of the action in Normandy and then in Dachau, where she took some of the first photos of the horrors of the camps.
