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Rating:  -
An excellent,deeply researched video of a massive war. Giving all sides of the conflict adds a great deal of interest. Even those of us who lived through it can learn something new and enlightening.It isn't any more understandable for all of this insight.
Rating:  -
The sections on "Battlefields" contain annnoying anti-American propaganda aimed at General Mark Clark, Fifth Army Commander in Italy, and General John Lucas, commander of the Anzio beachhead. Professor Holmes, who never saw a battlefield except from a safe distance, does NOT interview anyone to defend the actions of either General Clark or General John Lucas.
In the chapter on "Bomber", Professor Holmes presents only the story of British aircraft bombing Germany and completely excludes any mention of the US Air Force. In the chapter on "Alamein", there is no mention of the 400 tanks President Roosevelt and General Marshall sent the British Army. After listening to Holmes, you would think the British won WWII by themselves.
Rating: -
They say that war histories are usually written by the victors not long after the event. Thus, earlier documentary histories of World War II failed to give much balance for telling the story from the viewpoint of the ultimately defeated Axis powers, though the first successful attempt was in the excellent German TV series made into a movie, Das Boot, based on the last voyage of a U-Boat submarine and its crew.
Also the further away in time one gets from the actual series of events that make up World War II the more perspective one gets on it. Hence for at least the first half of the nineteenth century Napoleon I was viewed as every bit of a villain and disturber of the international peace as Hitler has been seen during the second half of the twentieth century. That is not to say that this fairly new box set on World War II puts any unnecessary gloss on Hitler or the Nazis but it does attempt to explain who they were and where they were coming from, how they got elected to power and why they were greatly supported -up to 1943 at least- by the majority of German and Austrian people.
Yet one never is free of contemporary fashions regarding a particular period of time in history. The viewpoints subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, hidden in these documentaries reflect the early 21st century's mistrust of wars as a solution in human conflict. Thus, the BBC documentary focuses much more than usual on the seemingly inevitable bloodiness and inhumanity of war, with atrocities committed by all sides, although the Nazis and Japanese still seem to be the worst, but not the only offenders. German guards are seen executing French resistance members even with allies only three miles away. In the episode on the wars in the Far East a US marine veteran over fifty year later is explaining how, and why, they routinely shot Japanese soldiers even while they were surrendering. The American soldiers regarded Japanese as subhuman just as the Nazi troops viewed the Russians. Russian and German civilian survivors relate how their women were raped and murdered by either side almost as a matter of routine. A whole episode is shown of the allied bombing of Germany and the dreadful and deliberate slaughter from 20,000 above of civilians under Bomber Harris. The episode covering the D-Day invasion is particularly graphic and vividly coloured, showing blood and guts galore after firing of machine guns or shelling, the like of which is not show at all in the famous black and white film of the event, The Longest Day. The moral seems to be that war brutalises almost everyone involved.
The series is presented roughly chronologically but is more analytical than usual in war documentaries and necessarily selective despite the 30 hours at the producers' disposal. Being a British documentary it naturally focuses much more on British units than on their American allies, for example. In many episodes , particularly those covering the German invasion of Soviet Russia and the subsequent reversal of fortune after Stalingrad, there are reels of vintage footage spliced with modern interviews with military and civilian survivors on all sides. The episodes on the successful retreat from Dunkirk interestingly enough rely on a complete and very convincing dramatisation of events as seen by different battle units and by high command control in Whitehall. This approach is loosely followed in the D-Day diskette. In the Dunkirk and D-Day diskettes actual footage is skilfully interwoven with the dramatisation. Personally I found this box series produced between 2000 and 2004 one of the most enlightening and interesting drama documentaries on the subject that I have seen in my own 66 years.
Rating: -
I'll try not to be too wordy. This is a 1st rate review and summation of WWII as well as it's causes and antecedents. Especially for American audiences the slightly British slant on events gives a well deserved perspective to those events. Of special interest is the disc covering the Eastern front. Since there was no American involvement we, as Americans, know very little about that "greatest conflict in the 20th century". Each disc is worth more than 1 viewing. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have.
Rating: -
Very well done and informative. I found the difference perspective to history to be very interesting
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