War Factories

This episode looks at the the invention of the machine gun, and how weapon that changed the art of war was adopted and adapted by war factories around the world. The Maxim Gun was developed by a British based American inventor called Hiram Maxim and was the first fully automatic machine-gun. The only problem was that it weighed a whooping 136 ibs. British company Vickers aquired Maxim's company and moved on the design.

For the germans, the truck became the secret weapon that changed warfare. From the mountain passes of the Ardennes, across the deserts of Libya and the vast wilderness of Russia, the humble truck enabled the German army to conduct its lightning war with speed and efficiency it required. And the key machine in Blitzkrieg was the GM Opel Blitz. This episode tells the Story of the Blitz and the American-owned war factories that would produce them, putting business before country.

Ferdinand Porsche was one of the most influential engineers in Nazi Germany.

When people think of Skoda, they think of cheap and efficient family cars. As early as the 1930s, their factory was a cover for espionage, sabotage and the liberation of Jews from all over Europe.

The Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster and Wellington bombers, aircraft that undoubtedly won the Battle of Britain, had one thing in common, they were powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.