Posted on 11/24/2023 2:56:01 PM PST by thegagline
Both series were very faithful to the Herman Wouk novels.
Das Boot was amazing and was a monster hit here; its first run in Toronto was in the theatres for at least 18 months (The Gods Must be Crazy ran for three years).
I never had much interest in the eastern campaign between the USSR and the Axis powers until I came across the Battlestorm Stalingrad series by TIKHistory on YouTube. It is an incredibly detailed account of the events leading up to the battle and the battle itself. It’s about 50 episodes totaling almost 40 hours. By far the most detailed account ad analysis of Stalingrad on video.
bookmark
A Bridge too Far was good. It was about a failed Anglo-American attempt at a shortcut to Berlin via the Netherlands. Unfortunately the operation was doomed before it started because Monty and the Americans both underestimated the enemy; after it was over, Montgomery gave the job to Guy Simmonds any his Canadian troops to both liberate the Netherlands and enter Germany from the north.
True story: A friend of mine was only born here because his father survived as a Wehrmacht veteran who survived the Eastern Front and immigrated after he was demobilized.
In Germany he was a land surveyor until he was conscripted and shipped east; in Canada he took up his civilian profession. During the 1950s he was responsible for surveying the sites for DEW line radar stations in the Canadian sub-arctic.
I used to joke that after years fighting the Soviets, Canada put him to work at- you guessed it- fighting the Soviets.
Just watched the first two episodes on my smart phone. Unfortunately my hearing is bad, so will try to find a source with subtitles.
I’ll tell you this, though: Everytime Neville Chamberlain cam up, so did the bird.
Actually it was the Poles that cracked Enigma:
https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2018/01/polish-mathematicians-and-cracking-the-enigma.html
Grampa, what do you want for Christmas?
(Now I'm ready.)
ping
I forgot that but it makes sense; the UK made maximum use of Polish exiles (among others) while they were fighting “alone” against the Axis.
p
would add Tora,Tora,Tora to that list
Check this one out....
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+unauthorized+history+of+the+pacific+war
‘The World at War’ aired every Saturday afternoon just after cartoons, and just before Grand Prix Wrestling when I was a kid... It was very educational and displayed the true horror of a war in which my both my uncles fought, and one of whom died after being torpedoed by a U-boat.
The episodes that covered the freeing of concentration camps was very indelible. Today this documentary series it would sadly be deemed ‘too violent’ for children to watch... But they should in fact be forced to watch it. There are too many people who have no idea how cruel humankind can be to each other... And being reminded of that cruelty is a necessary education for everyone, young and old.
My father fought “up the bloody boot” with the 36th infantry, to France where he was captured. He spent the rest of the war as a POW.
Sixty years later, he saw his foxhole buddy’s name written in a list of his Battery and sobbed. His buddy was killed after he got captured and he said he’d always wondered, if he’d still been there, if his buddy would have made it. Sixty years and it was like it was yesterday.
I have not seen some of these. Will check them out. Thank you.
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