Reviews for The World at War

The average rating for The World at War based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-03-30 00:00:00 John Mikonczyk I probably would not have watched this documentary had not Wastrel praised it as “the best television series ever made.” This bald statement prompted me to get my hands on it as soon as I could; and I am happy to report that, if not the best ever, The World at War is undoubtedly in the running. (As in several other of my reviews, here I’m focusing on the documentary series and not on the companion book.) Consisting of 26 episodes, each about 50 minutes long, The World at War traces the history of the Second World War from its beginnings to its aftermath. The program is remarkable in scope, covering the relevant political history of the United States, England, Germany, and Japan; the war efforts in north Africa and southeast Asia; the Russian and the Western front, as well as the final push against Japan; the bombing campaigns and their effects on civilian life; the horrors of the Holocaust; the struggles of the Allied shipping fleet against the German U-boats; the final peace negotiations in Europe and Asia, and the concomitant haggling between the U.S.S.R. and the West; and much else. But the series has depth as well as breadth. There are hours and hours of archival footage—of battles, bombings, bombardments, protests, speeches, life on the front line, civilian life, negotiations, military parades, invasions, celebrations, triumphs, massacres, tragedies—much of it never used before, unearthed by the program’s research team. Even more impressively, there are hours of interview footage, from Poles, Russians, French, Germans, English, Americans, Japanese. There are interviews of gunners, tank crew, infantrymen, sailors, pilots; interviews of housewives, firefighters, barmen, taxi drivers, resistance fighters; as well as of politicians, advisors, generals, and even Hitler’s personal secretary and chauffeur. Considering that these interviews were made specifically for the series, from people directly involved in the action, this makes the raw footage (most of it unused) a valuable primary historical document. And this is not to mention the wonderful narration by Laurence Olivier, which is always tasteful, often moving, and sometimes chilling. In short, the documentary is a masterpiece, bringing the drama of the war to life while also being supremely informative. If you want to watch any documentary about World War II, make it this one. To speak personally, watching this documentary had a strange effect on me, because it made me realize how much my perspective has changed since I was a kid. Back then, I used to watch World War II documentaries because the war seemed like a comic book. It was a story with clear bad guys and good guys, and the good guys won in the end. It was a story of personal heroism and bravery, of self-sacrifice and honor, of hardships endured and battles fought for the greater good. I was even fascinated with the military technology, the tanks, war planes, battleships, and guns. I remember going to the military museum at West Point, and seeing replicas of the nuclear bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There was something undeniably awe-inspiring about the ability to create so much destruction, to wield so much power. This time around, I had a different reaction. The more I watched, the more I became overwhelmed with a sense of pointless loss, destruction, and violence. Millions of young men marching off to shoot other young men, and for what? Towns blown to pieces, cities burned to the ground, and most of all, countless lives lost. People shot, stabbed, drowned, burned; people executed by firing squad, hanging, the gas chamber. Beaches filled with bloated bodies, corpses rotting in the road, the remains of grandparents and grandchildren buried under piles of rubble. And it just kept going, the planes kept dropping bombs, the men kept throwing grenades, the tanks kept rolling on. By the end of the series, every episode made me feel sick. When you see the numbers of the dead, it’s easy to grow numb. The totals become mere, meaningless statistics. But when you realize that those millions were composed of individuals—people with their own favorite song to whistle, shade of blue, local restaurant; people with their own quirks of personality, their own flaws and virtues; people who were loved and who loved in return; people who might have done anything had they survived the war—the enormity of the tragedy dawns on you. No matter what the aggressors hoped to gain from the war, no matter how glorious it seemed, it could not have been worth it. The documentary does not shy away from the horrors of war, but dwells on them, and for good reason. For if there is any lesson to be learned from World War II, it is simply this: We must do everything in our power to avoid repeating that catastrophe.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-09-08 00:00:00 Ed Damptz This narrative makes for compelling reading both in it's combined sweep and attention to detail. The author covers World War II from a military and political point of view, from the rise of Hitler to the war's aftermath. This book was written to accompany the television series of the same name and i s a series of accounts of individual campaigns, rather than chronological series. The book covers interesting facts such as the mention of how the war nourished important technological and social developments- American technicians desperate to break Japanese codes developed the ancestors of today's computers. In 1942 the Japanese captured the world's only source of quinine and inadvertently helped the British to develop the cure for malaria. In Chapter 1 we read of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy and that Chamberlain and his Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax actually planned to make a deal with Nazi Germany in 1940 after the war had started, whereby Britain would sue for peace. This was of course scuppered by the taking over of the helm of the intrepid Winston Churchill. In the chapter on the Greek and Yugoslav campaign Arnold-Foster points out that the Yugoslav revolt against Nazi occupation and the British landing in Yugoslavia in May, 1941pushed the date of the German invasion of the Soviet Union until June 22 1941 putting the Nazis at a considerable disadvantage, causing them to fight the Soviets in the dead of the Russian winter which had also been the undoing of course of Napoleon. Hitler saw the Slavs as subhuman, only slightly less obnoxious than the Jews, and this is what motivated his sudden invasion of Russia. While most of the Russians were not ferevent Communists, they were all strong patriots and this is what rallied them together to fight the war under Stalin against the Nazi invasion. The Nazi invasion of rRussia cost 20 million Russian lives. Interesting accounts of the Battle of Britain, the North Africa Campaign, the war in Yugoslavia and Greece and the war of the allies against the Japanese in the Pacific. Hero's of the war we read about include Orde Wingate, weho rallied Ethiopain resistance units to fight the Italians in 1940 and later the Chindits in burma to fight the Japanese. Wingate had before the war helped Jewish fighters in Mandatory Palestine protect themselves from Nazi-inspired Arab terrorists. Across half the world thee battles were fought and the death toll mounted: 20 million Russians, nearly 6 million Jews, 405 000 Americans, and 375 000 British including 60 000 civilians killed during the Nazi blitz. Fascinating accounts of Dunkirk and the Burma Campaign among others. End with the author's analysis of past war international politics. A comprehensive but concise very readable account. Also highly recommended is The Second World War: A Complete History