| Image Alt: | Screenshot of title, with the word "Battlefield" against a dark background |
| Director: | Dave Flitton |
| Theme Music Composer: | David Galbraith |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | British English |
| Num Seasons: | 6 |
| Num Episodes: | 42 |
| Producer: | Andy Aitken, Justin McCarthy |
| Location: | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Runtime: | 100 minutes |
| Company: | Lamancha Productions |
| Network: | PBS |
Battlefield is a series produced by Lamancha Productions in Edinburgh, Scotland, which debuted on the American PBS channel in 1994. The series explored battles fought during the Second World War and the Vietnam War, with detailed accounts of major battles and background and contextual information.[1] Its sixth and final season was broadcast in 2002.
Each episode describes the events preceding the featured battle and provides details about its aftermath. It presents the political and military situation leading up to each battle, details about relevant weapons and tactics, analysis of the battle's cause, and its context in the war as a whole with maps and graphical depictions of the relative strength of the respective forces and their movements during the battle.
The series, narrated by Tim Pigott-Smith and produced by Lamancha Productions in Edinburgh, Scotland, contains archival footage and 3D graphics. Rare colour footage, specific to each battle, is often included. Each episode runs for about 100 minutes, and is divided into segments. The format of a typical episode is:
Battlefield originally aired in the United States on PBS. The Military Channel showed a shorter version of the series. Networks still showing documentaries from the Battlefield series include Discovery Networks Europe in the UK and PBS in the US.
Battlefield was released on VHS by PolyGram Video (UK - PAL format) and Time-Life (US - NTSC format). DVD collections were released by PolyGram Video in the UK (PAL format) in 2005. In 2010, the original series was released on DVD in the US.
Season four, narrated by Gavin MacFadyen, was released by Time-Life on DVD as 12 episodes, 60 minutes each, splitting each originally-aired episode in half; episode one, "Kursk", was split into two episodes: "Operation Citadel" and "The Battle for Kharkov".
According to the Journal of Strategic Studies, "Every department of politics or modern history should invest in this set, and use it".