WW2 Documentaries
Discussion
A freelance contract that ended in December last year, resulted in a nearly 5 month period of redundancy (which has now ended - yay for me) which saw me watching a number of WW2 documentaries on the Discovery and Yesterday channels. I found them all very interesting, but the stand-out was WWII in HD & Colour.
It featured great editing, a consistent timeline of events, coverage of some of the lesser known campaigns, and a narrative with the necessary gravitas from Robert Powell.
So, given that I have watched that series in its entirety, is it worth forking out for the complete series of The World At War narrated by Laurence Olivier in consideration that it is accepted to be one of the best WW2 documentaries ever broadcast?
It featured great editing, a consistent timeline of events, coverage of some of the lesser known campaigns, and a narrative with the necessary gravitas from Robert Powell.
So, given that I have watched that series in its entirety, is it worth forking out for the complete series of The World At War narrated by Laurence Olivier in consideration that it is accepted to be one of the best WW2 documentaries ever broadcast?
OT but the radio 4 Book of the Week 'Double Cross' was very interesting
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01fhrhx/Book... until Monday (5 episodes)
Written by Ben Macintyre.
A team of agents (codenames Bronx, Brutus, Treasure, Tricycle and Garbo) is recruited to work as part of the 'Double Cross System' run by the secret Twenty Committee.
D-Day, 6 June 1944, the turning point of the Second World War, was a victory of arms. But it was also a triumph for a different kind of operation: one of deceit, aimed at convincing the Nazis that Calais and Norway, not Normandy, were the targets of the 150,000-strong invasion force. The deception involved every branch of Allied wartime intelligence - the Bletchley Park code-breakers, MI5, MI6, SOE, Scientific Intelligence, the FBI and the French Resistance. But at its heart was the 'Double Cross System', a team of double agents controlled by the secret Twenty Committee, so named because twenty in Roman numerals forms a double cross.
The key D-Day spies were just five in number, and one of the oddest military units ever assembled: a bisexual Peruvian playgirl, a tiny Polish fighter pilot, a Serbian seducer, a wildly imaginative Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming, and a hysterical Frenchwoman whose obsessive love for her pet dog very nearly wrecked the entire deception. Their enterprise was saved from catastrophe by a shadowy sixth spy whose heroic sacrifice is here revealed for the first time. Under the direction of an eccentric but brilliant intelligence officer in tartan trousers, working from a smoky lair in St James's, these spies would weave a web of deception so intricate that it ensnared Hitler's army and helped to carry thousands of troops across the Channel in safety.
These double agents were, variously, brave, treacherous, fickle, greedy and inspired. They were not conventional warriors, but their masterpiece of deceit saved countless lives. Their codenames were Bronx, Brutus, Treasure, Tricycle and Garbo. This is their story.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01fhrhx/Book... until Monday (5 episodes)
Written by Ben Macintyre.
A team of agents (codenames Bronx, Brutus, Treasure, Tricycle and Garbo) is recruited to work as part of the 'Double Cross System' run by the secret Twenty Committee.
D-Day, 6 June 1944, the turning point of the Second World War, was a victory of arms. But it was also a triumph for a different kind of operation: one of deceit, aimed at convincing the Nazis that Calais and Norway, not Normandy, were the targets of the 150,000-strong invasion force. The deception involved every branch of Allied wartime intelligence - the Bletchley Park code-breakers, MI5, MI6, SOE, Scientific Intelligence, the FBI and the French Resistance. But at its heart was the 'Double Cross System', a team of double agents controlled by the secret Twenty Committee, so named because twenty in Roman numerals forms a double cross.
The key D-Day spies were just five in number, and one of the oddest military units ever assembled: a bisexual Peruvian playgirl, a tiny Polish fighter pilot, a Serbian seducer, a wildly imaginative Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming, and a hysterical Frenchwoman whose obsessive love for her pet dog very nearly wrecked the entire deception. Their enterprise was saved from catastrophe by a shadowy sixth spy whose heroic sacrifice is here revealed for the first time. Under the direction of an eccentric but brilliant intelligence officer in tartan trousers, working from a smoky lair in St James's, these spies would weave a web of deception so intricate that it ensnared Hitler's army and helped to carry thousands of troops across the Channel in safety.
These double agents were, variously, brave, treacherous, fickle, greedy and inspired. They were not conventional warriors, but their masterpiece of deceit saved countless lives. Their codenames were Bronx, Brutus, Treasure, Tricycle and Garbo. This is their story.
The Powell documentary was good but the "Colour and HD" bit was unimpressive, it looked terrible. Nat Geo had their own version out at about the same time, WW2 The Apocalypse which was also very good from a narrative point of view and the coloured-in technique looked marginally better too.
Soviet Storm currently running on Military is excellent too.
Soviet Storm currently running on Military is excellent too.
Edited by weyland yutani on Saturday 14th April 23:35
The World at W£ar still remains one of the greatest TV documentaries of all time. Elements of it seem dated now (especially the Dad's Army graphics) but it scores over modern documentaries in that it spoke to very important decision makers from all sides when they were still relatively young and articulate. The interviews were shot between 1971 and 1973.
Of course some revelatory mnaterial has been unearthed in the intervening decades, but the series still retains its relevance and power.
Of course some revelatory mnaterial has been unearthed in the intervening decades, but the series still retains its relevance and power.
If you want a really good series of WW2 Documentaries, then this series, The Secret War, based around the book Most Secret War by R V Jones ( the book is a must read )is great.
Looking at the scientific and intelligence war, it looks quite dated now, but simply full of detail that no one now days bothers with and features many of the men involved in key parts, such as Sir Tommy Flowers talking about the worlds first electronic computer used in decode German Enigma traffic.
There's 5 or 6 episodes, click the link to the first and then follow the rest from the sidebar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6SkWxL5FzE&fea...
Looking at the scientific and intelligence war, it looks quite dated now, but simply full of detail that no one now days bothers with and features many of the men involved in key parts, such as Sir Tommy Flowers talking about the worlds first electronic computer used in decode German Enigma traffic.
There's 5 or 6 episodes, click the link to the first and then follow the rest from the sidebar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6SkWxL5FzE&fea...
Eric Mc said:
The World at W£ar still remains one of the greatest TV documentaries of all time. Elements of it seem dated now (especially the Dad's Army graphics) but it scores over modern documentaries in that it spoke to very important decision makers from all sides when they were still relatively young and articulate. The interviews were shot between 1971 and 1973.
Of course some revelatory mnaterial has been unearthed in the intervening decades, but the series still retains its relevance and power.
Actually, one thing that was missing from WWII in Colour were interviews with people directly involved. I think that fact alone pretty much warrants investing in The World at War.Of course some revelatory mnaterial has been unearthed in the intervening decades, but the series still retains its relevance and power.
Good point.
An excellent example of contextually apt interviews was another WW2 documentary I watched whilst "between jobs". Auschwitz: Nazis & The Final Solution was harrowing and absorbing in equal measure, and the interviewees had fascinating stories from the surviving prisoners, to members of the Sonderkommando, to SS members.
One interviewee, Oskar Gronig, was a young SS recruit who was in charge of cashflow in and out of the camp. Whilst not complicit in any of the mass murders, he was in charge of traffiking the valuables from the prisoners off the trains. During the series, he just stated facts; what he did and what he saw. It was only in the last instalment that he stated that the only reason he had accepted the offer to appear in the documentary was that he had heard so many tales and stories from Holocaust Deniers, that he should clearly state - as a SS member at the camp who saw the gas chambers, saw the crematoria, saw the piles of bodies - that these atrocities did really happen.
An excellent example of contextually apt interviews was another WW2 documentary I watched whilst "between jobs". Auschwitz: Nazis & The Final Solution was harrowing and absorbing in equal measure, and the interviewees had fascinating stories from the surviving prisoners, to members of the Sonderkommando, to SS members.
One interviewee, Oskar Gronig, was a young SS recruit who was in charge of cashflow in and out of the camp. Whilst not complicit in any of the mass murders, he was in charge of traffiking the valuables from the prisoners off the trains. During the series, he just stated facts; what he did and what he saw. It was only in the last instalment that he stated that the only reason he had accepted the offer to appear in the documentary was that he had heard so many tales and stories from Holocaust Deniers, that he should clearly state - as a SS member at the camp who saw the gas chambers, saw the crematoria, saw the piles of bodies - that these atrocities did really happen.
kiteless said:
Eric Mc said:
The World at W£ar still remains one of the greatest TV documentaries of all time. Elements of it seem dated now (especially the Dad's Army graphics) but it scores over modern documentaries in that it spoke to very important decision makers from all sides when they were still relatively young and articulate. The interviews were shot between 1971 and 1973.
Of course some revelatory mnaterial has been unearthed in the intervening decades, but the series still retains its relevance and power.
Actually, one thing that was missing from WWII in Colour were interviews with people directly involved. I think that fact alone pretty much warrants investing in The World at War.Of course some revelatory mnaterial has been unearthed in the intervening decades, but the series still retains its relevance and power.
Anthony Eden
Albert Speer
Squadron Leader Max Aitken
Jimmy Doolittle
The lady in charge of children evacuation from British cities
Churchill's personal secretary
Yamamoto's second in command
The US Secretary of State during WW2
Senior Russian Generals
Senior German Generals
and so on.
It was a last opportunity to get to these people and it is as well that the series was made when it was.
Sorry to hijack, I've been reading some excellent literature on the post war/cold war technologies - radar, ciphers etc.
Has anyone got any recommendations for documentaries or films?
I recently bought a rather shakey documentary about the V Bombers (on the back of that C4 one about the Falklands mission), I still enjoyed it.
Actually, I've still got the C4 3-parter on Sky+ somewhere.
Ta
Has anyone got any recommendations for documentaries or films?
I recently bought a rather shakey documentary about the V Bombers (on the back of that C4 one about the Falklands mission), I still enjoyed it.
Actually, I've still got the C4 3-parter on Sky+ somewhere.
Ta
A relevant bump, this.
On the recommendations here, I asked mrs k for the full boxed set of TWAW for my birthday a couple of days ago. Now, it's not her thing watching WW2 docs, so I'm watching it on the PC at the mo; currently on Episode 2.
There have been a couple of "bloody hell" moments already.
There but for the grace of god was Churchill seated as PM in 1940, considering the good will towards Lord Halifax and Churchill's poor advice concerning the Norway campaign.
Also, and this was a
moment, we sent 200,000 troops to Northern France in late 1939 / early 1940 to help out. Dig in. Just in case Hitler got moody. 200,000 men from this little island. During this, the French "allegedly" mobilised 6 million troops, and accused Blighty of "not taking the war seriously".
So far, so impressed with the narrative, the footage, and the interviews.
A very poignant start, also, alluding the destruction of Oradour Sur Glane as a physical metaphor for a world war.
On the recommendations here, I asked mrs k for the full boxed set of TWAW for my birthday a couple of days ago. Now, it's not her thing watching WW2 docs, so I'm watching it on the PC at the mo; currently on Episode 2.
There have been a couple of "bloody hell" moments already.
There but for the grace of god was Churchill seated as PM in 1940, considering the good will towards Lord Halifax and Churchill's poor advice concerning the Norway campaign.
Also, and this was a
moment, we sent 200,000 troops to Northern France in late 1939 / early 1940 to help out. Dig in. Just in case Hitler got moody. 200,000 men from this little island. During this, the French "allegedly" mobilised 6 million troops, and accused Blighty of "not taking the war seriously".So far, so impressed with the narrative, the footage, and the interviews.
A very poignant start, also, alluding the destruction of Oradour Sur Glane as a physical metaphor for a world war.
"D-Day to Berlin" is one of the best WW2 docs ever (in proper original Kodachrome)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162344/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162344/
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