Best new docu-series on Dubya-Dubya Dos in a long time. Beautifully edited and woven together, it features [mostly] full color actual film footage with a poignant, interesting backstory narrative. Most of this footage has never been seen on TV before.

The narratives span 12 individuals - from a female Army nurse, to famous war correspondents, to American pilots - including one of the Tuskegee Airmen - and even a Japanese-American G.I who, for obvious reasons, spent the war in Europe - in an all All-Japanese regiment.

Gary Sinise is the main narrator, telling the overarching, connective stories. Each of the 12 individuals has their own voice-over narrator and man, it is so good. Not sure how they did it but the footage matches the narrative almost perfectly. It is like watching a real-life Saving Pvt. Ryan in a lot of ways.

Sometimes, if the actual people are still alive - about 4-5 of them still are - the narration actually is edited [in parts] so that it overlaps the actual person speaking. Beautiful!

It is truly eye-opening - both good and bad. It winds up tonight with the final two, 1-hour episodes. I have learned a lot from watching it. Last night, they had Robert Sherrod's story of Iwo Jima. Sherrod was a top national correspondent for Time-Life magazine so his narration, based on his first-hand notes, is really, really interesting.

I couldn't help but think of the twin movies that Clint Eastwood put out a few years ago - Flags of Our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima - while watching the never-before-seen-on-TV color footage from the actual battle on Iwo.

Very interesting.

Fair warning: Some of the footage [and narration] is gruesome, horrific and certainly not appropriate for young children. And I do mean gruesome.

Thanks for the link, shrugged. And that link is World War II in HD

We DVRd this this past weekend...I'm looking forward to seeing it.

It is really something to see.

Helps me understand what my parents and grandparents generation (and countless others like them) must have gone through- one child shot down in a bomber on his first run over Germany (survived). The other killed in the Battle of the Bulge. At the time all my grandmother had were telegraphs from the war department telling her and my father (too young to go to war) about the fate of her children as each event happened within weeks of each other. She kept all the correspondence in her bedroom dresser until she passed. Fascinating and disturbing to read.

My mom's kid brother - my uncle - lost his life on the way back from a "milk run" over France in July, 1944. He was the 21-year-old navigator on a B-24.

After numerous long-range bombing missions, Uncle Pete and his crew looked forward to a close-in, low-level run to bomb some railroad yards just a few miles inland from Normandy. Drop and hop - back to England.

They dropped, and turned toward home when they got hit by Nazi ack-ack just as they crossed over the waters of the English Channel. My uncle and the pilot were both killed instantly by the AA explosion. The rest of the crew bailed-out, were captured by the Germans and spent the rest of the war in a P.O.W. camp.

Oh, and my dad - 87 this January - was in the Seabees [Navy] in WW II. He still has his dress whites and amazingly, he still wears them from time-to-time. Mainly, to entertain "the old folks" [remember, he's 87!] at Alden Valley, playing the ukelele and singing the "old time songs" at the annual Luau.

He has so many great stories and many of them so reveal his youthful, carefree state-of-mind back in 1944-1946.

Thanks to Google, I found “The Iron Duke & Its Crew: The story of a B-24 crew shot down over Europe and their adventurous survival” by George Reynolds

I discovered and read this tale quite by accident... only because the Navigator of “The Iron Duke” was an obscure relative from a side of the family I didn’t even know existed — First Officer Richard Eselgroth.

The story would make a good Spielberg movie — after several successful sorties the B-24 was shot down near Berlin. Eselgroth lived and was captured; others did not.

Weird things: As the story details, Eselgroth was saved from certain death at the hands on an angry mob after parachuting into the back yard of a Mrs. Juliane Kaiser. “Kaiser” was the maiden name of my wife’s mother, whose family emigrated to the USA from Germany in the 1800’s.

Weird story #2: Thanks to the internet, decedents of two of the crew members — F/O Eselgroth and Sgt. Baldamore Garcia — tracked each other down... only to discover they lived just a few miles from each other in Arizona.

Weird story #3: Garcia’s descendent, John Garcia, now works for WarPlanes.c0m, a company that makes serious and highly detailed scale models of modern and historical airplanes, including WWII aircraft — including The Iron Duke.

It’s a great read, even if you’re not a relative and even if Spielberg hasn’t gotten around to making the movie yet. —Ted E.

My uncle's B-24 was named Spare Parts. Not real sexy.

Weird story also: My Uncle who was shot down in the bomber ended up a prisoner of war (towards the end of the war). Talked about being marched through German villages and getting spit on and stoned (plus no boots due to parachute opening)- resulting in permanent back injury. Refused to talk about it or even fly in a plane for years. And years later his daughter gets engaged and its to a German immigrant who was in the Nazi youth. Huge problem! But in the long run they ended up being really good friends. Humans- go figure.

Well after watching the show for a few hours I think the footage is spectacular, but I'm a little bummed by the dialogue- strikes me as a little bit romanticizing and sensationalistic about WW2. I know it's supposed to be from a soldiers point of view but it seems to alienate the fact that it's people killing people. "Well I killed the Jap with my knife and than puked in the ditch because I felt bad, after all I was a musician" Hmmmm.

The book "Flyboys" which includes George HW Bush's career as a WW2 pilot I think gives a more accurate perspective on the history leading up to and including the war on the pacific front.

But what do I know, I wasn't there. Most of that generation is about gone now (as is my uncle) so history will now do what is does with the past.

My father flew photo recon in P-38s in the South Pacific in WW II. He could very well have been one of the first Americano's to walk the streets of Tokyo after it was declared radioactively safe after he flew nurses into Japan in a DC-2. In short, had it not been for him, you'd all be speaking Japanese right now. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1994...but I am 100% certain that he would have wanted you to show his appreciation for saving you by showering his youngest son with Capital Grille gift cards. That's what a great man he was. Funniest man I have ever met. So awesome a man was he that I named my oldest son after him. After years of wanting a "normal" name he has finally realized that he has the coolest name in town.

quote:

I'm a little bummed by the dialogue- strikes me as a little bit romanticizing and sensationalistic about WW2.

I think most of the narrative is from the writings of the people, especially the ones that are long dead.

And it was a German that Rocky Blunt killed. He was in Europe.

quote:

Originally posted by ByTheNumbers:
Oh, and my dad - 87 this January - was in the Seabees [Navy] in WW II.

BTN, my Grandfather was a seebee. He passed away almost 20 years ago. I bought my Dad this book. It has a collection of stories and after reading my Dad says the stories in there are very similar to the ones his Dad told him.

I like some aspects of the series. I miss the big picture part of it. Other countries contributions or sufferings are given short shrift.

I think limiting the video to color video limits the video that can be shown.

Still its an interesting look at War from the lowest levels . And I think it at least partially gets at why we continue to go to war.

My cable is currently out of commission, so I have about 21 channels and unfortunately couldn't watch this show. It sounds amazing, though: definitely one to keep my eyes peeled for on DVD.

My grandfather was also in the Seabees in WWII. He passed away when I was only 8, so I never really got to hear any of his firsthand stories. Does anyone have any suggestions on where I might be able to research to find out what he was involved in?

One story the old man tells happened in New Guinea. Not sure of the exact date/time but the Japanese had supposedly all been cleared from the place.

As people may or may not know, the term "SeaBee" was really based on the acronym - CB, or Construction Battalion. Yes, they were U.S. Navy but it was the main mission of the CB's to build things, drive bulldozers and suffer in miserable jungles out in the middle of nowhere.

So, the old man is suffering, out in the middle of nowhere on some God-forsaken base camp that is being built in the raw New Guinea jungle. Any Japanese were supposed to have been long gone but still, at night, guard duty was mandatory. Two swabbies would share the perimeter walk, each armed with a semi-auto carbine.

These guys must've scared themselves with stories of "hold out Japs" and suicide charges and all of the other scuttlebutt they had heard because one night, as the old man is walking his duty, he hears his mate, the other guy on guard duty, yell out loudly:

"Halt! Who goes there? Stop! Or I WILL shoot!"

Suddenly, the pitch-black night is lit up with a rapid succession of flashes, follwed-on by the sharp - crack! crack! crack! - of a semi-auto rifle being fired.

Old guy hits the deck. Hears nothing but rustling of the palm leaves. Starts to see lights going on in the quonset huts. Now, he sees other Seabees all running to where the shots came from.

He joins in.

The other guy on guard duty, it seems, had panicked when he heard a loud rustling sound mere feet into the jungle off the perimeter he was walking. When the group of 'Bees got to the guy, the 250 pound wild boar was still twitching, back legs jerking spasmodically as it breathed its final breaths.

Epilogue: One of the guys in their outfit was a butcher. Can you say: Bacon, pork chops and ham?

Old guy is careful to mention that eating native foods or hunting them was STRICTLY forbidden by the U.S. military. But, in this case? What the hell! Don't ask, don't tell!

GESM2
I had to do a lot of research on the internet to find my Uncle's story as he wouldn't talk about his experiences and the crew was shot down on their first mission so there was not a lot to go by. I was amazed by the history that is preserved on the internet through websites.

If you can find out what unit he was in or where he may have served you can find what you're looking for. The military also has a WW2 record repository and can provide information on almost any soldier (even the history of bombers, ships, etc.), who served though apparently a minor amount of their records was lost many years ago.

In the end I found my uncles unit's website and even the pilot of his bomber living in Iowa. Turned out he wrote a book about his experiences. My father got to talk to him directly about his brother. It was very rewarding. Many of the websites collect photos and other memorabilia sent in by vets and their families.

That's awesome! Thanks, Bio. Now I just have to hope that one of my aunts, my mom, or my uncle was paying attention to what unit he was in