For all of you are interested in the history of WWII

[missdpuck]

Not part of this series but watch "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" if you can. For the innocent child's point of view.

[Hemi-Cuda]

well i'm 2 episodes in, amazing series. how did they manage to get so much stock color footage? i know the technology existed back then, but i didn't think color photography/film was widely used. is a lot of it original black and white images that have been colorized?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

well i'm 2 episodes in, amazing series. how did they manage to get so much stock color footage? i know the technology existed back then, but i didn't think color photography/film was widely used. is a lot of it original black and white images that have been colorized?

Its interesting but throughout the series they sometimes mention the people taking the film. For example on Midway I think it was John Forde who was a pretty big deal at the time and was wounded when a bomb fell close to him. They also mentioned famous German and Japanese film makers.

I think most of that footage was actual color footage, no expense was spared in making propaganda movie. However it was most likely not shown at the time because by 1940's standards it was pretty grusome and graphic.

Especially the bits that they showed of flame thrower victims.

[ken0042]

There was some that was colourized. Either that or the film had degraded a great deal over time.

I'm pretty sure I've never seen a purple sky before; at least not on this planet.

[puckhog]

Originally Posted by ken0042

One interesting thing mentioned in an episode today; once German officers started establishing a presence in the Allied POW camps in North America, they made sure that through the chain of command they made life tough for the soldiers underneath them. Part of the reason for this was to get the word out to soldiers still fighting that being a POW was no picnic.

I found this point very interesting from a personal point of view. One of my great-grandfathers was conscripted into the German army during WWII, and was ultimately captured by the allies. He ended up in a POW camp in Louisianna, where he was treated so well by the Americans that he decided that when he was free he was going to move his family from Germany to North America. I guess this tactic failed for him at least.

[3 Justin 3]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

The sad thing is that this is a series that can create a lot of discussion. However, I'm taking a new girlfriend out to Drumheller tommorrow and she has no interest in the same kind of history as I do.

Guess I'll have to talk about stuff that she's interested in.

Leave her, it is the only way. Or even better, drop her off at Drumheller, and leave her.

[icarus]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

The sad thing is that this is a series that can create a lot of discussion. However, I'm taking a new girlfriend out to Drumheller tommorrow and she has no interest in the same kind of history as I do.

Guess I'll have to talk about stuff that she's interested in.

This! I took my girlfriend to the National Army Museum in London on Saturday (wicked museum BTW) and she had no interest whatsoever.

[Byrns]

My wife is busy PVR'ing it so she can watch it later. I win!

[drewboy12]

I would have watched it if I didnt know the ending!!!! Nah I watched one the other night, looked pretty amazing. Wicked to see in color.

[Montana Moe]

Unrelated to the series, but WWII related:

Normandy 1944 Then and Now
http://acidcow.com/pics/3772-normand...204_pics.html/

[Bertuzzied]

What an amazing series. Wish i started to watch the whole thing earlier than 9pm though. Up until 4am watching this with work the next day.

Would Hitler have won if he didnt' attack Russia? Didn't know he had parkinsons either.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

What an amazing series. Wish i started to watch the whole thing earlier than 9pm though. Up until 4am watching this with work the next day.

Would Hitler have won if he didnt' attack Russia? Didn't know he had parkinsons either.

there are a lot of mistakes that Hitler made which resulted in Germany losing the war. he might have succeeded with his Russian invasion had his plan not resulted in splintering the German force into 3 separate factions. diverting forces to help Mussolini in Africa was a pretty big blunder too. the world got pretty lucky that Hitler was a very poor military tactician and refused to listen to his generals who did know what they were doing

[3 Justin 3]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

there are a lot of mistakes that Hitler made which resulted in Germany losing the war. he might have succeeded with his Russian invasion had his plan not resulted in splintering the German force into 3 separate factions. diverting forces to help Mussolini in Africa was a pretty big blunder too. the world got pretty lucky that Hitler was a very poor military tactician and refused to listen to his generals who did know what they were doing

He made 3 major mistakes, or so I was told. 1) delaying the attack at Normandy (or something like that). 2) splitting up his forces when attacking Russia...during winter. And I forget the 3rd, but I think it has to do with attacking Africa.

[wooohooo]

Anyone know if I can buy/download this series? I don't have cable in Edmonton and would love to see this.

[Bigtime]

6 hours of my Sunday completely gone as I was absolutely engrossed by this series. I grew up watching WWII shows with my dad (World at War, etc) and I could only recognize a few scenes that were footage I had seen before.

The soundtrack? EPIC.

I'm hoping this comes out on DVD, I'll be buying it right away.

[Cowperson]

It's not a lot different than other WWII histories through the years EXCEPT watching it in hi def on a 50 inch screen puts it into another league, making it a very powerful series.

Cowperson

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

It's not a lot different than other WWII histories through the years EXCEPT watching it in hi def on a 50 inch screen puts it into another league, making it a very powerful series.

Cowperson

Really? I'm trying to remember the last WWII doc that showed shrunken Jewish heads from the concentration camps (asides from other horrors). I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

[automaton 3]

Originally Posted by 3 Justin 3

He made 3 major mistakes, or so I was told. 1) delaying the attack at Normandy (or something like that). 2) splitting up his forces when attacking Russia...during winter. And I forget the 3rd, but I think it has to do with attacking Africa.

I think you might mean Dunkirk. Hitler's delay there allowed the bulk of the (then) Allied army to escape to England. Had they been captured instead, it would have been a huge blow to the Allies.

As it was, the English abandoned much of their heavy equipment in the retreat. Had Hitler followed through with Operation Sealion right away the English still may not have had time to regroup.

Also...in the Battle of Britian Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to switch to attacking civilian targets from military...right when they had the RAF pretty much at the breaking point - they were losing both pilots and planes at an unsustainable rate. By switching to civilian targets Hitler allowed the RAF to recover and also crystallized British resolve.

[CaptainCrunch]

Hitler made a lot of major mistakes, and they really compounded after the attempt on his life when he flipped his lid.

Not following up on Dunkirk with Sealion really allowed the British to stay in the war and gave them time to rebuild their shattered army, you can blame that on Hitler's foundness for Great Britain.

The invasion of Russia wasn't a big tactical mistake at the start, however there were multiple mistakes. first and foremost he was so confident of a quick war that he didn't put supplies in place for winter so his men were forced to fight in the harsh Russian winter wearing fall uniforms.

Changing the objective well into the invasion in going after Stalingrad instead of going after the original objectives of the rich oil fields. Stalingrad shattered his eastern army. If you remember he also split his Russian invasion force and sent half of it off on a 2000 mile road march to defend Sicily.

The battle of britain and changing his objectives from airfields and factories to civilian targets giving the RAF a chance to breath and reload. I think that the figure was that the RAF would have been wiped out in three days if they had continued their original strategy.

Splitting off his sub force and sending boats on stupid missions to the Atlantic coast of Canada and the U.S. weakening his blockade of England.

Believing the terrible intelligence about D-Day and believing that the main invasion was a diversion to the real invasion happening further north which meant that A) the main invasion beach defenses were fairly weak and B) he refused to release the heavy armor battalions to re-enforce the beach heads.

Instead of butchering the Russian civilians at every turn during the invasion of Russia, he should have been far more gentle, at the start of the invasion the German's were treated as liberators who could have deposed Stalin, instead of treatment of Russian civilians galvanized the whole country and allowed the Soviets to successfully stage the fighting retread while burning everything of possible value to the Germans. The old saying is "First you conquer em, then you murder em" The German's did the opposite "First they murdered them, then they conquered them, then they failed"

Not insisting on better security and code changes. Once the British had Enigma they were reading the German's mail. I think the German's were suffering from victory fever.

The forced suicide of his best general in Rommel, who was his last great leader who possibly could have turned the tide after D-Day.

[KevanGuy]

For those that missed it, it looks like NGHD is re-running an episode tomorrow. Not sure if its a weekly thing or not.