Frontline Battle Treatm

Ben Major is a Major Survival Expert. He was in the Army for 9 years, graduating from Sandhurst Military Academy, and since leaving the army has led dangerous expeditions all over the world. He’s climbed some of the highest mountains, led expeditions to some of the most remote corners of the planet and has survived to tell the tale. But now he’s going to put himself to the ultimate test, to see if he can survive in the habitat, trenches and tough conditions of some of the most famous Front Line Battles in History, just like the toughest soldiers. In this exhilarating new series, Ben takes a look at some of the most famous battles fought on the Front Line – and how the soldiers managed to survive against incredible odds. Each episode will focus on the heroic and extraordinary survival skills of the soldiers in some of the planet’s harshest fought over land, examining the military techniques and tips to stay alive. In each different location, whether swamp, desert or mountain, Ben is catapulted into a new and harsh habitat and is put to the test in the toughest of conditions. He will follow a bloody route on the Frontline, finding out about the weapons and tactics of warfare. From the cold Arctic wastes of Norway and Russia to the deserts of the Middle East, during the Nazi occupied Second World War, Ben will follow in the footsteps of real life war heroes. He will find out about their incredible survival stories and discover the “Badass” soldiers of the war - those guys who have amazing survival skills and who are literally indestructible. From the heroic American solders who survived the Bataan Death March, to British officer Frederick Spencer Chapman who said that the Jungle was Neutral and made it his own in the impenetrable jungles of Malaya. Ben will discover the heroism of Jan Baalstrud in Arctic Norway, and frontline pilot Alexey Marasev who was shot over enemy territory in the Nazi occupied taiga forests of wilderness Russia. As well as the central characters for each episode, there will be a strong supporting cast of British survivors, like John Frederick Dumford-Slater and Max Harari who will demonstrate their resilience and will power under the most toughest of conditions. History will be brought to life with re-enactments and genuine storytelling. These local re-enactors, with authentic costumes and props, will play out the narrative of the war - they will be the soldiers and armies of specific battles as they face the extreme conditions of combat. Ben will find out about the weapons, soldiers and warfare used, while driving the narrative forward with immersive and engaging storytelling and hands on survival tips from those who show incredible perseverance against all odds. EPISODE 1 - THE ARCTIC – JAN BAALSRUD Norwegian officer Jan Baalsrud escapes from Nazis in the Arctic Ben is in a military helicopter traveling over the Arctic, accompanied by the Telemark Battalion, a mechanized infantry unit of the Norwegian Army, and rapid reaction force completely at home in the cold Arctic conditions. The Arctic is the coldest and one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. Yet within the freezing temperatures and blinding blizzards mask extraordinary tales of major survival – such as the case of Jan Baalsrud. Ben is dropped into the Arctic by the Telemark Battalion. Arctic warfare gives rise to armed conflict that takes place in an exceptionally cold climate, usually in snow and icy terrain. During the Second World War, Jan Baalsrud was a member of the Linge’s Company, a British Special Operations Executive Group formed in March 1941, originally for the purpose of performing commando raids during the Nazi occupation of Norway. The SOE were a secret branch of the UK military tasked by Winston Churchill to ‘set Europe ablaze’. Included in the crew were James Bond creator Ian Flemming who derived inspiration for 007 and the group were stationed at Baker Street. Jan Baalsrud In March 1943, Baalsrud, three other commandos and the boat crew of eight, all Norwegians, embarked on a dangerous mission to destroy a German air control tower at Bardufoss. They sailed from England to Nazi occupied Norway to organize and supply the Norwegian resistance. But as Ben explains, the boat was attacked by a German vessel on March 30th, and Baalsrud dove into the ice-cold waters, bullets flying around him, and swam ashore. Ben demonstrates the freezing effects of the water on your body in a survival situation by immersing himself in cold water and showing how to get dry before hypothermia sets in. Baalsrud was the lone survivor and was able to evade capture, and make it to the beach, as he escaped by climbing a 200ft snow gully, where he shot and killed the leading German Gestapo officer with his pistol. Poorly clothed, and with one foot entirely bare, as he had lost one of his sea boots, and part of his big toe shot off, Baalsrud was relentlessly pursued through the Arctic by the Nazis, about 50 Germans, as he left a trail of blood through the snow. Ben follows his trail, as he scrambled across the island and swam succes- sively across the icy sound to two other islands. On the second, he lay dying of cold and exhaustion. Alone in the wilderness, Baalsrud’s goal was to march through mile after mile of unbroken snow towards neutral Sweden. Sometimes he marched for as long as 28 hours without rest. En route to then Lyngen Alps, a fierce storm took hold, and an avalanche flung his body 300 feet down a sheer drop to a valley floor. Baalsrud survived the avalanche – he was buried alive for days under the snow. He lost his gloves, hat and rucksack with food in the avalanche. He fought his way over the Norwegian mountains and tundra. He evaded capture for almost two months, suffering from frostbite and snow blindness. He survived for three days wandering around completely snow blinded. Ben shows how to dig a snow hole that Baalsrud lived in for almost two weeks. Ben is taken to his next location by the Telemark’s Army CV-90, infantry fighting vehicles and Leopard 2 tanks. These are all purpose vehicles suitable for the Arctic terrain. Only a few months before Jan Baalsrud’s incredible journey, one of the most famous raids against the Nazis by the SOE occurred – the Norwegian heavy water sabotage, codename Operation Gunnerside Ben describes how on October 19th 1942, a four man team of Special Operations Executive trained Norwegian commandos parachuted into the Hardangervidda plateau in Norway. From their drop point in the wilderness, they had to ski long distance to the Vemork plant, a hydroelectric plant outside Rjukan in Norway, the first site to mass produce heavy water for nuclear weapons. The SOE were controlled by ra- dio directly from Britain. The first agent inside the plant wasEinar Skinnarland, who was later decorated for his achievements in sabotaging the plant. Ben will discover how a few commandoes was able to holt German’s plans for nuclear war. Einar Skinnarland Another British Army Officer,John Frederick Durnford-Slater was credited with raising the first Army Commando Unit during the Second World War. He led a force of 250 men from No 3. Commando on a highly successful raid on the Lofoten Islands in Norway, which Ben says was known as “Operation Archery”, taking place over 26th-28th December 1941. Central to the operation was the destruction of fish oil production and stores, which the Germans used in the manufacture of high explosives. Perhaps the most significant outcome of the raid was the capture of a set of rotor wheels for an Enigma Cypher Machine and its code books from the German Krebs. This enabled German Naval Codes to be read at Bletchley Park, providing the intelligence needed to allow allied convoys to avoid U Boat concentrations. The raid was successful and later Dumford-Slater received the Distinguished Service Order. He returned to the UK to being planning for D-Day. John Frederick Durnford-Slater Ben resumes the trail that Baalsrud took towards safety, making his way over the Norwegian mountains. He began walking in the general direction of the mainland, with hikes of 24, 13 and 28 hours without a break. He then stumbles into the village of Mandal. The locals were willing to save him and help him escape back home to Sweden. In a wooden hut at Revdal, which Baalsrud called “Hotel Savoy”, he was forced to operate on his legs with a pocket knife. He believed that he had blood poisoning and that drawing the blood out would help. What saved his life was his medical knowledge and a strong will to survive. Not long after that, Baalsrud was left on a high stretcher in the snow for 27 days due to weather and Nazi patrols in the town of Mandal, his life hanging by a thread. He lay behind a snow wall built around a rock to shelter him – this is when he amputated nine of his toes to strop the spread of gangrene – an action that saved his life. \ Ben is in admiration of the mental and physical strength of Jan Baalsrud who traveled over 125 miles against all the odds to survive. He died in Norway in 1988, at the age of 71. EPISODE 2 – TAIGA FOREST – ALEXEY MARESYEV Russian Frontline pilot is shot down in Nazi occupied Russia Ben is flying with the 76th Guards Air Assault Division of the Russian Airborn Troops, over the immense Taiga forest.

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