*** World War II Documentaries ***

[Grell]

ORIGINAL: Warfare1

The History Channel: D-Days in the Pacific

I bought this a few days ago and I just finished watching it.

* 276 minutes long

* Epic Marine land battles in the Pacific War in WWII.

* My Rating: 5 STARS/5 STARS - SUPERB

Though most people associate D-Day with the massive invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, a "D-Day" is actually a military term for any amphibious operation, and few theaters during WWII saw as many battles as did the waters of the Pacific, where more than 100 D-Days were waged.

The ultimate guide to the epic campaign orchestrated by American forces in the Pacific, this two-volume set includes the following documentary features:

DEATH AT THE TIDELINE: Follow America's earliest amphibious invasions, including the ill-equipped landing on Guadacanal;

CLOSING THE JAWS: America's forces gain new expertise and power, and Nimitz and MacArthur have the enemy on the run;

THE FINAL GRAVEYARD: Relive the battles that pierced Japan's defenses and brought the war to a close;

THE BLOODY HILLS OF PELELIU: Incredible combat footage documents one of the deadliest battlegrounds of the Pacific;

BIOGRAPHY: ADMIRAL CHESTER NIMITZ: Discover the story behind the man who turned a shattered fleet into a devastating naval powerhouse;

BIOGRAPHY: GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR: Learn how this fabled general was able to defeat a seemingly unstoppable Japanese war machine.

For the Pacific War enthusiast this is a MUST buy. At 4 1/2 hours long it felt much longer. Not because it was boring; on the contrary, it was because it was so well done. It packed in a great deal of information and combat footage.

With HBO's The Pacific War currently in production, this is an excellent 2-disc documentary set that you will want to watch again and again. Most of the footage is in color or it has been colorized.

Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/35pf29

Amazon.com:
http://tinyurl.com/3al96a

Thanks Warfare1,

This looks like something I'll purchase.

Regards,

Grell

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: 06 Maestro

I have never seen a "documentary" on WW2 which was free from gross exaggerations, half truths, and out right lies. I would love to see a study done which could focus on the facts of a battle regarding both sides without the unnecessary adjectives and innuendos about the enemy. There is little difference from a modern "documentary" and a wartime propaganda film.

If there is something new out there, I'd be happy to check it out.

Then sign up for 6 years full of reality if your tired of being lie to [8|]

[fvianello]

Buy satellite (or cable) tv with history channel, and you'll have more WWII documentaries that you need to.

World at war is good (BBC production), but I'd recommend a new serie called The Wermacht (italian title is The Army of Death), with interviews to survived german soldiers.

Moreover, it's a lot less biased than most of what I've seen /read; for the first time I heard a couple of historians telling that Hitler's 1941 decision to stop the advance to Moscow and order the panzer armies south was "a concept of war more modern than the old-style wermacht strategy of conquering enemy's capitol"

[Warfare1]

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

Thanks for the above recommendation. I'll put this on my want list.

The two biographies of Nimitz and MacArthur are by A&E and together are worth about $30.00 if bought separately.

D-Days in the Pacific contains the usual high quality of the History Channel: both the music and narration are well done.

[Warfare1]

ORIGINAL: Tomus

The world at War was excellent. It was designed with specific battles that changed the course of the war which they consulted on with historians. There are also quite few episodes that deal with domestic issues in the US, USSR, Britain and Japan. I wouldn't say its heavily Anglocentric, its heavily Eurocentric admitedly. The Battle of Britain is barely mentioned and the whole of North Africa gets only one episode. If you want an overview of WWII then this is the outstanding documentary. If you want detailed military/battle history look elsewhere.

It does seem odd that the Battle of Britain and North Africa are given so little time. However, World at War is an excellent over view of WWII. This could be supplemented by extra docs on these conflicts.

[Warfare1]

ORIGINAL: Jeffrey H.

ORIGINAL: Warfare1

I was just wondering what WWII documentaries my fellow wargamers would recommend.

New war movies are few and far between, so I am looking for some great documentaries to watch during the summer months.

I hear that World at War is good. However, when I read up on it, mention was made that it is biased: ie more attention is placed on British actions vs American ones. So that Patton is never mentioned and that the Pacific war is given short treatment. Is this a fair assessment?

Thanks.

I wouldn't go so far to say it shirks the Americans. That would be a misstatement. It does gloss over many aspects of the war and it tends to jumble up the historical sequence a bit.

But on the good side, it's very heartfelt and genuine and there are face to face interviews with pivotal people that are veritable treasures in our modern time.

On the whole it's light on action and a bit remorseful but not in a bad way. I do agree that it needs augmenting for someone looking for a US perspective. But we have so much nowadays from that angle that you should find some good material.

Thanks.

That's why I'm hunting down some good Pacific War documentaries to supplement this WaW collection.

[Warfare1]

ORIGINAL: Grell

ORIGINAL: Warfare1

The History Channel: D-Days in the Pacific

I bought this a few days ago and I just finished watching it.

* 276 minutes long

* Epic Marine land battles in the Pacific War in WWII.

* My Rating: 5 STARS/5 STARS - SUPERB

Though most people associate D-Day with the massive invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, a "D-Day" is actually a military term for any amphibious operation, and few theaters during WWII saw as many battles as did the waters of the Pacific, where more than 100 D-Days were waged.

The ultimate guide to the epic campaign orchestrated by American forces in the Pacific, this two-volume set includes the following documentary features:

DEATH AT THE TIDELINE: Follow America's earliest amphibious invasions, including the ill-equipped landing on Guadacanal;

CLOSING THE JAWS: America's forces gain new expertise and power, and Nimitz and MacArthur have the enemy on the run;

THE FINAL GRAVEYARD: Relive the battles that pierced Japan's defenses and brought the war to a close;

THE BLOODY HILLS OF PELELIU: Incredible combat footage documents one of the deadliest battlegrounds of the Pacific;

BIOGRAPHY: ADMIRAL CHESTER NIMITZ: Discover the story behind the man who turned a shattered fleet into a devastating naval powerhouse;

BIOGRAPHY: GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR: Learn how this fabled general was able to defeat a seemingly unstoppable Japanese war machine.

For the Pacific War enthusiast this is a MUST buy. At 4 1/2 hours long it felt much longer. Not because it was boring; on the contrary, it was because it was so well done. It packed in a great deal of information and combat footage.

With HBO's The Pacific War currently in production, this is an excellent 2-disc documentary set that you will want to watch again and again. Most of the footage is in color or it has been colorized.

Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/35pf29

Amazon.com:
http://tinyurl.com/3al96a

Thanks Warfare1,

This looks like something I'll purchase.

Regards,

Grell

A great purchase IMHO.

This collection gets my highest recommendation.

Narration and music are perfect. The island landings and combat footage are excellent.

This is something I will watch repeatedly.

[Warfare1]

Great Battles of WWII: Fury in the Pacific



* 3-disc collection on the Pacific War
* 6 hours
* Epic combat footage

DVD Chapters

Side #1 -- Fury in the Pacific - Disc 1
1. Prologue [4:40]
2. Choice of War [11:31]
3. Last Days of Peace [10:19]
4. Eleven Minutes of Terror [11:00]
5. Battleship Row [9:55]
6. Hell in the Harbor [10:00]
7. Second Wave [10:49]
8. Rescue and Escape [10:40]
9. Aftermath [9:32]
10. What Went Wrong? [12:05]
11. The Rising Sun [10:26]
12. Midway [16:34]

Side #2 -- Fury in the Pacific - Disc 2
1. Guadalcanal [1:03:06]
2. Bougainville [22:01]
3. Tarawa [21:52]
4. Saipan [15:09]

Side #3 -- Fury in the Pacific - Disc 3
1. Guam [19:03]
2. Leyte Gulf [16:12]
3. Peleliu [25:10]
4. Hunters & The Hunted [16:32]
5. Iwo Jima [34:44]
6. Okinawa [14:14]


MY REVIEW:

The first disc contains an in-depth look at the attack on Pearl Harbour (1 1/2 hours). Although informative, I found it a bit tedious (especially since I already knew the details). Others may find it more interesting. It is worth at least one viewing.

This is followed by a cursory look at the Coral Sea and Midway sea battles. Not enough coverage on these.

However, where this collection truly shines is the in-depth examination and combat footage contained on the 2nd and 3rd discs. You get about 4 hours of strategy, naval landings and great combat footage of all the major island campaigns. No war movie will ever give you this much in-sight into the campaigns or the amount of gritty combat footage contained on these discs. It makes you feel like you are there.

Narrated by Dale Reed (great voice) and containing interviews by numerous combat veterans, these two discs are worth repeated viewings.

Also contained on disc two is an examination of the Silent Service (Hunters & The Hunted). Basically narrated gov't stock footage that seems out of place in this otherwise good collection.

MY RATING:

DISC ONE: 3 STARS/5 STARS

DISC TWO AND THREE: 4.5 STARS/5 STARS

Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/2vrvnl

Amazon.com:
http://tinyurl.com/2ltnaz

[Warfare1]

The Battlefield: The Battle for the Mediterranean





* DVD Release Date: February 12, 2008
* Run Time: 100 minutes
* MY RATING: 4.8 STARS/5 STARS

This is from the landmark Battlefield series of great WWII documentaries now available for the first time in North America


Product Description

This is the story of the crucial battles for control of the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the irreplaceable oil fields of the Middle East. The program covers the great battles between the Italian Navy and British Navy, the land campaigns in the North African desert between Rommel's Afrika Korp and the British 8th Army, and Britain's struggle to retain its control of Malta. Additionally featured is the war for control of the skies between the German Luftwaffe and the RAF, eventually joined by the US Army Air Force, and the story of the war in Greece.

This episode is from the landmark television series Battlefield. Featuring fascinating archive footage from all over the world, the program includes a review of the political and military situation before the battle, portraits of leaders and commanders, and an explanation of weapons and tactics. Vivid graphics place the battle into the context of the war as a whole.


MY REVIEW:

I loved this documentary. It is from the Battlefield series and it goes in-depth into all the action that took place in the Mediterranean.

Wargamers will especially enjoy this as it uses a "raised" full colour map of the Med along with counters and actual battle footage to describe the action.

A MUST buy for wargamers and military enthusiasts.

MY RATING: 4.8 STARS/5 STARS

Amazon.ca
http://tinyurl.com/3dcbp7

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Battlefield-Battl ... B0012EI89I

[anarchyintheuk]

ORIGINAL: Warfare1

Narrated by Dale Reed (great voice) and containing interviews by numerous combat veterans, these two discs are worth repeated viewings.

All documentaries should be narrated by the guy who did the Battlefield series.

[Armygrognard]

ORIGINAL: Warfare1

I was just wondering what WWII documentaries my fellow wargamers would recommend.

New war movies are few and far between, so I am looking for some great documentaries to watch during the summer months.

I hear that World at War is good. However, when I read up on it, mention was made that it is biased: ie more attention is placed on British actions vs American ones. So that Patton is never mentioned and that the Pacific war is given short treatment. Is this a fair assessment?

Thanks.

World at War is good. So is Victory at Sea. Great scoring, too. There's another that escapes my mind at the moment, but I believe it was on the 'epic' scale of the other two.

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

ORIGINAL: Neilster



... Given that the vast majority of American-made WW2 documentaries are outrageously ethnocentric...

Here we go with the inevitable American bashing. Thanks, Neilster, you'll undoubtedly succeed in getting this thread locked soon.

BTW, you're welcome for we Yanks keeping the rump of the British Empire alive during the WWII years. [8|]

[:D][:D][:D]

I'm in Germany now, watching Sky (Brit broadcasting) and I get to see their documentaries. They have their own bias. We just don't see many in the States.

[Armygrognard]

Gentlemen -- I apologize for the double-post. Deleted message is attached above.

I'm used to posting-at-will in Delphi forums. Must...try...harder... [8D]

[Warfare1]

Just a question about "Victory at Sea":

I understand it's narrated with a musical score, but are there sound effects as well?

I mean, when sea battles are shown, do we hear any naval guns or planes? Or is it all just music?

Thanks.

[Armygrognard]

Wow, good question. I haven't seen it in 20-30 years. I believe it does, but I do have to agree with the others as it is as much propaganda as anything, and I may be remembering it fondly for the memory of youth.

Still, I will buy it sometime. For pure factual documentaries, there are better ones.

[panzers]

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin
BTW, you're welcome for we Yanks keeping the rump of the British Empire alive during the WWII years. [8|]

KG

Normally I'm on your side with a fair few arguments on these boards, but you are out of order there, my friend.

You weren't the only "...keep the rump of the British Empire alive" during WWII. There were plenty of British that died for the cause also.

And as Neilster said...he didn't disparage the actual input by the Americans during either war, or indeed any other conflict. What he did allude to was the fact that alot of US documentaries are biased.

If you fail to distinguish between media propaganda effort and real life effort, then that's your lookout...not anyone elses.

Ok, my admiration for the Aussies, who were part of the empire, is well known, but I crossed the line with that careless remark. In the context of recent events, it was in extremely bad taste. I sincerely apologize. [:o]
I am an American and very proud of it. Normally, I would back my fellow countryman here, but I'm going to go agauinst the grain here and side with Neilster.
I'm not going to say anything more other than to his defense we are being bashed across the world and we are getting a bit sensitive about it. So I can fully understand and appreciate where he is coming from. So let's all try and get along here. This is a very interesting topic and we all just want to find out what's out there.
As far as that goes: I just say to continuously watch the History Channel. They are always coming up with something new like, as stated earlier, the battlefield series with all the computer animations and analysis. also, even though it's the 20th century , try the century of warfare. Obviously WWII is well represented there, but you also get everything that led to WWII in that series. That's the kind of thing I like. I saw the WAW series, and I agree with everyone that it is awesome. But, outdated now. I'm more interested in all the new serieses where they can use the computer to analyze situations much like battlefield to give us a better and more knowlegible base and understanding of how and why everything went down like it did.
One more series I like and it is a very old series but fun to watch is the classic victory at sea series. One more: unsolved mysteries of WWII gives you a different spin on some of the mysteries Like the riddle of Dunkirk.

[panzers]

Although a little old, the Victory at sea series does a pretty good job in the Pacific.

[panzers]

ORIGINAL: Adam Parker

ORIGINAL: Warfare1

I taped a bunch of documentaries onto VHS tapes over the years, and would love to get them on dvd, but alas they are either not available, or out of stock.

My fear is that the way history is being shoved onto the back burner by mainstream TV, many these may not be available at all.

Has anyone seen the documentary called "TANKS!"? It was a multi-episode doc about different German tanks in WWII. I thought it was quite well done.

I've got "Tanks" and it's definitely available on DVD as a 3 disc set.

The thing with specialised documentaries like the one on Russia is that very often they only run for 50 minutes and they show King Tigers storming in Barbarossa or Shermans at Dunkirk. I HATE that [:D]


I bought a combined DVD/Video player/recorder last year and it's a breeze to copy tape to disc with one button. A worthy investment if you need a second DVD machine and very cheap now too without hard drive.

You have got to be kidding me about the king tigers. Rtfl.

[panzers]

ORIGINAL: Warfare1

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

ORIGINAL: Warfare1

..It's an eternal quest... does it ever end? [X(]

No it doesn't. Once the passion grabs hold of you, your thirst for more never seems to be satisfied. That's the curse of a researcher.

There's more -- once you can start pointing out factual errors in a given documentary or book, you know you're hooked.

Funny thing is that I have loved history even when I was a young sprite. I devoured books from my school library. Before the advent of computer games and CGI movies I was reading about Napoleon, Caesar, The Civil War, etc for days on end....

Then I found wargames. The thought that I could now game battles that I had always read about, was a dream come true.

I remember picking up the board game "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". I skipped school and spent the whole day in the local library reading the rule book. My imagination was on fire...

Then came computer wargames. I was in heaven.

Funny thing is that I thought I was relatively alone in this little hobby of mine. No one else I knew cared to talk about history, let alone thought about playing wargames.

Then came the internet. And my discovery that there are all these lovers of history and wargames the world over. Truly a "Unified Field Theory" of history and wargame enthusiasts.

Frankly, I could talk about history and wargames all day. I never tire of it.

Dude: If I didn't know any better, I could swear I just wrote everything you just said. You read my mind.
Everything is right on the money with me. Like everyone else, it all started with axis and allies and has been a run away fright train out of control ever since. Now, here I am anxiously awaiting for the mother of all wargames: World In Flames. Now tentetively scheduled in December with a probable public beta testing due at Origins international gaming expo in July in Columbus Ohio.

[SuluSea]

For my money  Victory At Sea is without question the best.

Recently I've been buying stuff from The War File , Carrier Wars, Greatest Sea Battles, Battle of Midway, all are very good.

ORIGINAL: Warfare1

Just a question about "Victory at Sea":

I understand it's narrated with a musical score, but are there sound effects as well?

I mean, when sea battles are shown, do we hear any naval guns or planes? Or is it all just music?

Thanks.

YES Sound effects as the person filming it would hear. With studio added narration and music.

[Warfare1]

ORIGINAL: panzers

ORIGINAL: Warfare1

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin



No it doesn't. Once the passion grabs hold of you, your thirst for more never seems to be satisfied. That's the curse of a researcher.

There's more -- once you can start pointing out factual errors in a given documentary or book, you know you're hooked.

Funny thing is that I have loved history even when I was a young sprite. I devoured books from my school library. Before the advent of computer games and CGI movies I was reading about Napoleon, Caesar, The Civil War, etc for days on end....

Then I found wargames. The thought that I could now game battles that I had always read about, was a dream come true.

I remember picking up the board game "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". I skipped school and spent the whole day in the local library reading the rule book. My imagination was on fire...

Then came computer wargames. I was in heaven.

Funny thing is that I thought I was relatively alone in this little hobby of mine. No one else I knew cared to talk about history, let alone thought about playing wargames.

Then came the internet. And my discovery that there are all these lovers of history and wargames the world over. Truly a "Unified Field Theory" of history and wargame enthusiasts.

Frankly, I could talk about history and wargames all day. I never tire of it.

Dude: If I didn't know any better, I could swear I just wrote everything you just said. You read my mind.
Everything is right on the money with me. Like everyone else, it all started with axis and allies and has been a run away fright train out of control ever since. Now, here I am anxiously awaiting for the mother of all wargames: World In Flames. Now tentetively scheduled in December with a probable public beta testing due at Origins international gaming expo in July in Columbus Ohio.

heh

Yeah, it sure can become a life long passion.

I love everything about history....

Since I'm not quite ready to jump onto the Blu-Ray bandwagon just yet (I think prices are still too high for players and movies) I've decided to go retro and get into movies and documentaries that probably will never be on Blu-ray for a long time, if ever. I'm glad I did. I've found some great stuff.

I'll continue updating this thread with my reviews as I watch some of these documentaries.