Documentaries salute Houston's WWII contributions

Two locally made documentaries will run in conjunction with this week's premiere of Ken Burns' film The War.

Our Nation's Highest Honor (9 p.m. Monday, Channel 8) is a half-hour report on those in the Houston area who have received the Medal of Honor. Interviews with descendants are included. The special, unavailable for preview, was produced by longtime KUHT documentary maker Jim Fisher.

Fisher is also producer of Cruiser Houston: Of Pride and Purpose (9 p.m. Tuesday, Channel 8), an excellent hourlong report on the USS Houston and its crew. Remarkable footage and superb sound editing hallmark this special, which is topped by the inclusion of several men who served aboard the ship during World War II.

The Houston, we learn, was an aging vessel when it was commissioned to serve in the East Indies. The ship survived several Japanese attempts to sink it — the report says Tokyo Rose pronounced the ship destroyed eight times, so many that it became known as the Galloping Ghost of the Java Coast.

But in late February 1942, the ship went down, and 700 of the Navy's finest went with it. Most of the 368 who survived became POWs and part of a labor force that had to build a railroad from Bangkok, Thailand, to Moulmein, Burma (today Myanmar).

USS Houston survivors formed the Cruiser Houston Survivor Association in the late '40s. Only seven of the 31 living survivors were able to attend this year's reunion, which is shown here at the conclusion of this stirring report.

PBS to air episodes of The War

In Houston, The War will be shown uncensored in daily, weekly and multi-episode installments on KUHT, Channel 8. Here’s an episode breakdown:

Episode 1: A Necessary War

December 1941-December 1942

America is shocked by Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Millions enlist. In the Philippines, Americans and Filipinos retreat onto Bataan. Along the U.S. West Coast, more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans are relocated to internment camps. Although America seems unprepared for war, in June 1942 the Navy manages a victory at Midway. But in August, U.S. forces land in Guadalcanal and face six months of hell. By the end of 1942, 35,000 Americans in uniform are dead.

7 and 9:30 tonight

noon Sept. 30

7 p.m. Oct. 3

Episode 2: When Things Get Tough
January 1943-December 1943

With the vast German war machine ensconced in Western Europe, the Allies suffice to nip at the edges. In North Africa, Erwin Rommel repels the Americans at first, but when George Patton assumes command, U.S. forces succeed. In the States, all manufacturing is focused on the war effort, with factories running around the clock. In Europe, American pilots make dangerous daylight raids. The Allies invade Sicily. In the Pacific, victorious U.S. forces emerge from Guadalcanal and begin an island-by-island advance.

7 and 9 p.m. Monday

2:50 p.m. Sept. 30

7 p.m. Oct. 10

Episode 3: A Deadly Calling

November 1943-June 1944

Readers are numbed when Life magazine publishes photos showing the bodies of three dead GIs. The good news of victories in the Solomons and New Guinea are tempered by the knowledge that, with the Japanese empire stretching 4,000 miles, so much more needs to be done. Tarawa is the Americans’ next target. In the States, film goers are shocked by color newsreel footage from Tarawa showing American bodies floating in the sea. Segregated African-American GIs demand equal rights. In Europe, Allied forces stall south of Rome. A landing at Anzio is a failure.

7 and 10 p.m. Tuesday

5 p.m. Sept. 30

7 p.m. Oct. 17

Episode 4: Pride of Our Nation

June 1944-August 1944

On June 6, 1.5 million Allied troops invade France at Normandy. It is the bloodiest day in U.S. history since the Civil War, with nearly 2,500 killed. Yet the Allies succeed in forging a gap in Hitler’s Atlantic wall. Soon, though, they get bogged down in the Normandy hedgerows. In the Pacific, Marines fight their costliest battle to date, at Saipan. By August, the Allies break through the hedgerows, and the Germans go in full retreat.

7 and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday

11 a.m. Oct. 7

7 p.m. Oct. 24

Episode 5: FUBAR

September 1944-December 1944

Allied troops advance to the German border and stall, having outrun their fuel supply lines. A gamble to insert thousands of Allies in an air drop goes badly. The Germans stand their ground in the Hurgen Forest and the Vosges Mountains. A group of Texas soldiers, caught behind enemy lines, meet a grisly fate. In the Pacific, Marines advance toward the Philippines but first make a costly stop at Peleliu. In October, troops land on Leyte. Back home, Americans cheer newsreels showing Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s “return.

7 and 9:30 p.m. Sept. 30

2 p.m. Oct. 7

7 p.m. Oct. 31

Episode 6: The Ghost Front

December 1944-March 1945
The steady stream of telegrams and newspaper headlines telling of losses seems endless. In Europe, Hitler mounts a surprise counterattack, the Battle of the Bulge. Allies stage massive bombing raids on German oil and defense facilities and on cities. In the Pacific, the closer the Allies get to Japan, the more fiercely each island is defended. To assault Tokyo, Allies target an air strip on Iwo Jima. By March, victory in Europe seems imminent.

7 and 9 p.m. Oct. 1

4 p.m. Oct. 7

7 p.m. Nov. 7

Episode 7: A World Without War

March 1945-December 1945

In the Pacific, the Allies battle for Okinawa. Glenn Frazier of Alabama, one of 168,000 Allied POWs in Japan, cheers as he hears Allied planes overhead. On the home front, Americans are shocked to hear President Roosevelt has died. In Europe, Allies sweep through Germany, discovering horrors at concentration camps. Germany surrenders, but the celebration is tempered as Americans remember that fighting goes on in the Pacific. More than 92,000 Japanese die on Okinawa. On Aug. 6, the U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, eventually resulting in 240,000 deaths. Japan surrenders.

7 and 9:30 p.m. Oct. 2

6:30 p.m. Oct. 7

7 p.m. Nov. 14
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/tv/5152884.html

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