Under Siege!

As resistance to the Roman invasion of Northern Europe collapsed the Gallic warrior Vercingetorix marshalled 100,000 troops against the formidable and ruthless Roman Legions in a dramatic futile last stand at the famous Burgundian hilltop fort. However the last of the fighting Gaulls were up against one of military history's most inspired commanders - Julius Caesar.

The bloody Peninsular War, which lasted from 1807 to 1814 saw the great British commanders consistently defeat the best French generals in Napoleon's armies in a series of famous pitched battles. But here at Cuidad Rodrigo, there was a very different type of fight - the bloody business of siege warfare - where civilians and soldiers share the same conditions and privations.

The powerful story of Lenningrad that lost one million of its citizens as it steadfastly withstood a 900-day German siege. Leningrad's refusal to buckle became a symbol of Russian resistance during Hitler's campaign - somehow it's people held out through air attacks, artillery bombardment, starvation and disease until January 1944 when the German army was driven from the city.

The story of the battles for the strategically-vital town in Nottinghamshire are classic examples of how a siege was conducted during the long and bitter English Civil War. In February 1643, the Royalists beat back the determined Parliamentarian attacks but the town had to be relieved by the dashing Prince Rupert a year later.

Fought during the American Civil War, Petersburg should never have been Under Siege at all - Union forces should have seized the town in June 1864, but through a mixture of confusion and incompetence they failed to do so and a gruelling year- long siege followed.

This was the hellish protracted siege that earned the chilling nick-name 'The Mincer'. The fanatical French defence of the three forts - which had enormous psychological value to the whole nation - cost hundreds of thousands of lives and was in part the reason the battle of the Somme was fought during the same year.