WAR JUNK
SEASON 4
Market Garden
In a private collection they discover a helmet worn by a British paratrooper that may connect to the battle at Arnhem bridge, the infamous story depicted in the movie A Bridge Too Far. At a local museum they find a unique artifact, a scrapbook from an American soldier who was with the 101st Airborne, the unit from the hit TV series Band of Brothers. Both items are shrouded in mysteries. The team searches for present day relatives to help shed light on the stories of the soldiers who fought during Operation Market Garden.
Into the Rhineland
Along the banks of the historic Rhine river, Professor David O'Keefe and filmmaker Wayne Abbott explore the final phase of World War II - symbolized by the Allied crossing into Germany. The duo dig on former Canadian artillery positions in the Netherlands before heading across the border into Germany and investigating the infamous Reichswald Forest. The imposing forest is littered with evidence of fierce fighting, including highly dangerous unexploded ordinance. Also along the Dutch/German border the team is presented with two mysterious items, including a helmet with a hole clean through it. To experience the Rhine like few other could, David and Wayne find a 1945 amphibious vehicle and mount up their own expedition to cross the river.
SEASON 3
Juno Beach
There really is no more iconic battlefield in history than the Normandy beaches. The landings on D-Day on June 6th, 1944 define the greatness of our troops during WW2. The War Junk team has been given a rare and unprecedented opportunity to search, investigate and excavate on Juno Beach. They do the first ever ‘ground penetrating radar’ investigation on the actual beach, and when the data has been analyzed the team work to excavate a portion of the German defence system that Canadian soldiers faced during D-Day. They search to find a German machine gun post that appears on maps but has disappeared within the sands. Can they find it? Also they search for the family of a soldier whose ID bracelet was picked up in a field south of the beachhead.
Vimy Ridge
The War Junk team explore the iconic battlefield of VIMY RIDGE where one of the most significant battles took place over Easter weekend in April 1917. They not only explore the land on the surface that shows the scars of battle a century later but they are the first to ever to explore and film kilometres of tunnels under the Ridge that were dug during WW1. They go over 100 feet down into a complex system of tunnels, investigating what remains today including high explosives put in place before the battle. The team also tell a little known story of soldiers who etched their names in the walls of the towns around Vimy. The names have survived nearly 100 years and finally research will connect the past and present.
Italy
One of the bloodiest battles during WW2 was in Monte Cassino. This mountainous area of Italy was a tough corridor for the Allies to move through beginning in November 1943. It took over 6 horrific months of fighting to move north and liberate Rome. The War Junk team will explore and investigate this dynamic battlefield beginning with climbing the infamous Monte La Difensa in the footsteps of the First Special Service Force. The team will also dig on the same mountain as the famous Abbey that was destroyed by Allied forces early in 1945. They will search for smaller artifacts of soldiers who fought in the Monte Cassino area and find family members to bring to Italy to connect with the past.
Holland
The last two weeks of the war for the Canadian army took place in northern Holland. After five years of fighting it was in the area of the city of Groningen where Canadian soldiers ended up fighting tough German forces and vicious Dutch SS troops. The War Junk team will investigate the streets of Groningen where terrible urban battles took place. They dig for ‘dumping pits’ where Allied forces buried discarded war materials after liberation. In their search for smaller artifacts they find two helmets of two soldiers whose fate at the end of the war was much different. One soldier lived and one died. This is a tale of two helmets and the team hopes to find and bring families of both soldiers over to Holland.
SEASON 2
Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme is one of the most famous battles of WW1 that began on July 1st, 1916 and lasted 5 bloody months. Fought on both banks of the Somme River it became a war of attrition as Allied soldiers fought desperately against German troops. The team gets the chance to investigate a lost German WW1 tunnel to search for rare artifacts and they also discover a mysteries leather case that they hope they can connect with a Canadian soldier.
Ypres
The team search the battlefields in and around the city of Ypres, Belgium where some of the most vicious and bloody fighting happened in WW1. They meet up with a local digger who has dug up over 1,000 artifacts on his family farm and they discover a unique artifact, a mysterious bible, from a soldier who was killed in 1915.
SEASON 1
Battle for Hong Kong
The War Junk teams travels to Hong Kong to search the hills around this dynamic city to find remnants of the Battle of Hong Kong that occurred in December 1941. It took only three weeks for Japanese forces to take over the city.
The team searches an old British fortress to investigate how it fell into enemy hands so quickly, and they find a personal artifact they hope to connect with a soldier who was killed during the battle.
Buried War
With the success of War Junk, NSE produced a pilot for a new series titled BURIED WAR, with the main focus of digging on well known battlefields around the world. In this episode, the team travels to one of the most famous WW1 battlefields, Passchendaele, a bloody battle that unfolded in 1917 near Ypres, Belgium.
