Good morning!  I hope you are all doing very well.  I will continue with the Last Voices of World War I since the series is turning out to be a very good series.  It is better than what I expected of it and I will be disappointed when it ends.  This time we are going to hear voices from the home front.  The run time for this episode is 47:23.  It is called the Home Front.

It was not just the soldiers, doctors, and nurses who suffered during the Great War.  Many families were left behind and they would witness Zeppelin raids, food shortages, and constant worries.  Would the news of their loved ones come to them through a telegram?  News from the front would oftentimes change these families forever.  Now the people that survived the home front of World War I take their turn and speak.

It would have been harvesting time when war was declared.  War propaganda would have found its way into the smallest of towns.  These towns would have been drained of their men.  These were men looking for adventure and to get away from the farm.  Len Whitehead recalls when his brother first signed up for the war.  Nobody really thought that these men would not come back.  Len’s brother would be a soldier who would never come back.  Civic pride was on the line and towns would compete as to how many men the town could get signed up for war.  Kathleen Barron admired her brother when he signed up for the war.  She was proud of him but at the same time was heartbroken to see her brother leave.

On the home front, many fields were turned over to training.  It would have been the first time local people would have gotten a taste of war.  Florence Billington recalls watching the men train and in active detail, she talks about how the men would stab flour sacks.  She also recalls talking with her sweetheart before he went off to war.  He was convinced that he was going to be killed but they promised that as soon as he got home, they would get engaged.

Family men would also volunteer to fight.  Ruth Armstrong recalls when her father signed up to fight.  Her father had to go even though her mother was upset.  Ruth missed her father so much and would pray that he would be sent back.  Lucy Walter never forgot when her father wished her one last goodbye.  She saw her father one last time descending a hill before he too would go off to fight.

World War I would see the first aerial attacks on Britain.  German Zeppelins would be seen overhead and they would drop bombs.  The first air raid happened in 1915 when Zeppelins dropped bombs on Great Yarmouth.  These zeppelins would cause widespread damage and would kill hundreds of people.  This is an aspect of World War I you never really hear about because it seems the focus was on unrestricted submarine warfare.  Ruth recalls the Zepplin attacks.  Nobody knew what to make of these attacks.  When Ruth told her mother, her mother told her that she would kill her children rather than let the Germans have them.  That was a yikes moment in the documentary.

At the start, the British would catch up with their air defenses.  Nobody felt sorry for the Zepplin crews that they were shot down.  Kathleen could only think of the men burning alive when a Zepplin was shot down.  The Zeppelins would be nicknamed the “baby killers.”  There were only a few safe shelters for the public.  However, the British would eventually carry on after these raids.  To learn more about what the people dealt with on the home front continue to watch the rest of this episode.

You never really think about the home front during World War I, it was always the home front during World War II.  I would recommend showing this with captions that way you can understand what these people are saying.  This is a very good episode covering a topic you never really consider as part of learning about World War I.  This series continues to impress me and I would show this series to a history class.

Good morning!  I hope that you are doing well.  Dare I press my luck with this World War I series?  I feel like I am tempting fate!  Yes, I dare!  This time it is the voices of the nurses and doctors who took care of the wounded.  The run time for this episode is 47:40.  It is called Saving the Wounded.

The British military prided itself on the quality of medical care it could offer its wounded soldiers.  This was the legacy of Florence Nightingale.  However, that legacy would be challenged with the arrival of modern weapons.  Thousands of nurses and doctors were sent to the front-line hospital.  In the four years of fighting thousands of soldiers were wounded or killed which would put these caretakers under strain that even Florence Nightingale could not anticipate.

Jock Gaffron recalls having the overwhelming feeling of something going to happen.  The next thing he remembers he saw that his right foot had been half gone.  He would lose the foot and it would lead to more operations.  Initial help for the wounded was the stretcher-bearers.  However, they were trained with basic first aid.  Still, they risked their lives to get the men safely back behind the front lines.

Dick Barron signed up for the initial wave of patriotism that had swept through Britain at the start of World War I.  He was a stretcher bearer.  Back home in Liverpool, he had won trophies for his skills in first aid.  When he signed up the recruiters sent him to the field ambulance units.  Thousands of young women volunteered as well to become nurses.  Norah Claye was one of those volunteers.  Her brother had been killed and another brother was fighting.  She wanted to do something.  She loved the challenge of nursing.  However, the number of wounded was growing.  The nurses, doctors, and stretcher-bearers would be challenged.

The Stretcher Bearers' task was to get the men back to aid stations.  IT would have been a challenge to carry these men on a stretcher.  Dick recalls feeling like his shoulders were going to come out.  The terrain was also challenging.  The men worked in teams and it was dangerous work.  Many stretcher bearers were wounded themselves.  Bill Easton, was a stretcher bearer and assigned to a more experienced man who tried to put the young Bill at ease. 

Nobody could anticipate the consequences of modern warfare.  The stretcher bearers would witness many stomach and chest wounds.  They would pick men up in pieces, knowing that they could die at any time.  However, they needed to get the men out as fast as they could.  They would also carry some basic first aid tools as well and would dress wounds where they could.  Dick thought at least they were doing something even though it was clear that the man was going to die.  Bill heated the feeling of the blood on his hands.  For the most part, the stretcher-bearers did not know who they were carrying in, however, there were on occasions when the stretcher-bearer knew who they were carrying back.

The stretcher bearers would bring the wounded to the aide station and then they would be transported to the coast to base hospitals.  There were so many wounded that surgeons would be operating around the clock.  Marjorie Grigsby worked at a clearing station that helped send soldiers to the hospitals and found it challenging.  She felt like she had no idea what she had to do.  Only fully trained nurses would be allowed to serve at the front.  Eventually, volunteer nurses were recruited and they would be sent to the front which was a shock.  To learn more about the experiences of the medical staff, continue to watch the rest of the episode to find out.

Yes, yes, yes, this continues to be a good series to review and explore.  I thoroughly enjoyed the voices of the veterans.  You could sense when the feelings about the war started changing.  Marjorie was very blunt which I found shocking.  It was also disturbing to hear that the Germans were bombing the hospital.  The nurses’ voices were very good to hear.  As far as showing this to a history class, I will continue to recommend showing this to a history class.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this and planning for the school year.  I will press my luck and continue with the Last Voices of World War I.  Today’s documentary is about the battle of the Somme, with a run time of 47:39.  It is called the Battle of the Somme.

The Battle of the Somme was one of the most bloody battles of World War I. By November 1916, over 150,000 troops had lost their lives on this front.  At the start of the battle, there were high hopes that one big push would finally end the war.  The British carefully planned with the French for a mass attack. Plans would be blown up and changed.  However, that did not happen and many lives were lost.  The veterans of this battle recall this battle.

Richard Hawkins remembers this battle and what led up to the battle.  The battle was to begin in June, but it was pushed back to July.  Artillery would rain down on German Lines.  Tom Dewing recalls that this battle was going to be the last battle of the war.  He recalls the guns that were going off, one after another.  This bombardment was intended to break the German spirit.  Arthur Wagstaff had confidence this plan was going to work.  The British Generals told the men to walk across the field and not run, so confident the generals were in the bombardment. 

However, what nobody could anticipate was that this battle was going to be one of the bloodiest battles in British and World War I history.  What the British could not foresee was that the bombardment did not break the Germans.  They sheltered deep in the trenches and did not suffer many losses.  They had their weapons ready.  A catastrophe was going to be unleashed.

Wagstaff recalls the first assault and how very few soldiers were left.  Fred Francis recalls the feelings of being sitting ducks as the Germans fired.  Dewing was watching in horror as to what was going on before him.  Whole divisions were wiped out.  Soldiers were being mowed down.  Fred Francis had been wounded in his hip.  Stretcher-bearers had a challenge taking the wounded back to the British lines. 

The slaughter was horrific.  Only a handful of men from the regiments survived the battle.  Roll calls left men in tears.  There were so few, so few men left as one soldier recalls.  The exhausted troops waited for new orders and the directives were switched.  New recruits were sent to the front lines.  One of those recruits Norman Collins talks about knowing that the new soldiers were replacing casualties.  Archie Richards was part of a secret plan to smash the Germans.  He recalls seeing the rotting bodies scattered across the field.

Robbie Burns, who had been part of the war since the start, had become numb to the violence and the war.  Soldiers were looking to get blighty wounds, ala Thomas Barrow in Downton Abbey, to get pulled off the line and be sent home.  Soldiers would stick their legs up above the trench to get a leg wound.  The trenches also forged bonds between the officers and the regular soldiers.  The officers would write home announcing a soldier’s death back home.  They always tried to get a nice letter to the mother or the father.  Thousands of letters would be written and sent back home.

Archie Richards was a part of the first tank corps.  These unwieldy machines were a surprise to the soldiers.  It seemed that Archie recalls these tanks with a great deal of delight.  The tanks would be able to move across no-man-lands and would be able to clear a way for the soldiers behind.  Although these tanks were not battle-tested, they were a morale booster for the troops.  To learn more about the first tanks and the Somme Battle continue to watch the rest of the episode.

Now that I have watched the second episode, I would recommend showing this documentary with closed captions because some English accents can be challenging to understand.  Anyway, that said I am still very happy with the potential the series this has.  I am going to dig around to find more of this series.  I would show this to a history classroom.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this blog and doing your planning.  I am working through documentaries on World War I and World War II for November.  Today will be a documentary on World War I.  I hope that I will be able to turn things around when it comes to good documentaries on World War I.  It looks like it is a part of a series called The Last Voices of World War I.  It has a run time of 47:24.  This episode is called Call to Arms.

When war was declared in 1914, millions of British men signed up for the war believing that it would be a quick war.  These men rode on a wave of patriotic euphoria believing that the war would be an adventure.  However, the reality of the war started to settle in.  Soldiers from World War I were interviewed and now these voices have been brought together for the first time in a documentary series.  Now those voices are silent.

The Germans marched into Paris via Belgium, violating Belgium’s neutrality.  The British were not going to let Belgium’s neutrality be violated.  Soldiers were called up.  Patriotic fervor swept through Britain.  Duty and empire were taught in the British schools.  Richard Hawkins talks about signing up for the war effort.  Public confidence was high that the war was going to be quick.  However, others had more realistic expectations.  Many soldiers signed up to get away from the mundane life.  Others signed up for an adventure.  Robbie Burns was a clerk and was caught up in the patriotic tone.  So far this documentary is starting well.  I like the participation of the veterans.

Ranks began to swell.  Little did the recruit know about what was to come.  The Germans continued to march through Belgium.  Jack Rogers shares his experiences in signing up for the British military.  He had been given a choice as to the regiment he could join.  He joined up with the “Robin Hood Rifles.”  Men signed up because they were promised that they would be fighting with their pals.  Whole regiments were raised from neighborhood streets.  Even men signed up to join the regiments.  Ted Francis recalls wanting to join up because he wanted to push the Germans back to Germany.  They were anxious to get to France to defend little Belgium.

However, parents tried to dissuade their sons from signing up.  George Littlefair recalls how his mother on her death bed tried to stop him from signing up for the military.  Those were the last words she spoke to him.  Geoge would sign up for the military anyway.  By 1914 a million men had signed up for the British military.  However, as the trenches emerged it was clear that this was a war that was not going to be over with by Christmas.

In the meantime, the new volunteers were trained up to be soldiers.  It would have been similar to scout camps.  However, army discipline was harsh.  Infractions were punished.  Robbie Burns recalls the variety of ways that they were punished.  For the younger soldiers, it was the first time they would have been away from home.  The trainers, barely older than the soldiers they trained, mocked the recruits as “mama’s boys.”  On occasion, the mixing of classes could prove to be a volatile combination.  The survivors talk about what offended them during the training process.

Some of these recruits would rise in the rakes.  Richard Hawkins recalls being given command of a regiment even though he had no experience.  He found it challenging but was still proud to have been given command to defend his country.  There were weapons shortages so the trainees would be given a variety of tools to train with to practice.  When the rifles were issued it was a great day for the recruits.  To learn more about the recruits and their experiences in training continue to watch the rest of the documentary.

I am genuinely impressed and surprised at the quality of this documentary.  I really liked the interviews by the veterans and I wished it would have been mentioned when these interviews were conducted.  So far I am learning towards showing this documentary to a history class.

Good morning!  I will continue to work through documentaries on World War I and World War II for November.  Today, I am going to do a documentary about World War II and it is going to be a good documentary.  It is from the National Geographic YouTube channel.  It is part of the Drain the Oceans Series.  It is called Nazi Secrets and has a runtime of 46:53.

Hitler unleashed some of the most terrifying weapons on the sea.  These weapons were lost to sea.  Imagine if you were draining the seas to learn more about these weapons.  This episode looks at several different wrecks.  How close did Hitler come to building an atomic bomb?  Was the pride of Australia sunk by a German secret weapon?  How did the Nazis invent a nearly invisible sub?  Using the latest in technology these wrecks are scanned and examined to learn more about those Nazi secrets.

The first stop on this tour of wrecks is in Norway.  A secret mission was unleashed that would stop the Nazi dream of an atomic bomb.  Hitler dreamed of an atomic bomb dropped on London.  Such a weapon could turn the war in the Nazi’s favor.  However, the Nazis would need a vital ingredient to help with their dream: heavy water.  The world’s largest producer of heavy water was Norway. 

Nazis set their sets in Norway and they invade Norway.  They take the plant that produces heavy water.  This plant comes under threat from Allied bombers.  Once there they load up barrels of heavy water onto a ferry.  It is meant to go to Berlin, however it never makes it.  Twenty-six civilians are killed in the sinking.  Now decades later a ROV is sent down to the site of this shipwreck to learn more about the ferry and its sinking.

A ghostly shape looms out of the darkness.  The ship is well preserved in the icy waters.  The lake is drained and it shows that the ferry is the victim of a catastrophic sinking.  How was this ferry wrecked?  The answer is found in the Norway resistance.  To learn more about this ferry continue to follow the rest of this episode.

The next shipwreck is that of the HMAS Sydney.  It was an Australian warship that vanished in 1941.  It is found in the Indian Ocean and its sinking was a trauma for the Australian public.  Its fate also puzzled Australians for decades.  A German captain boasted that he had defeated the Sydney in battle.  However, these claims were met with a great deal of skepticism.  So the Australian government funded an expedition to find the Sydney as well as a German merchant ship.  David Mearns was set on the expedition and he used the German captain’s records to help with the search.

After twelve days, the first signs of a shipwreck were discovered.  The German merchant ship was found, but will he find the Sydney?  Eventually, he does find the Sydney.  An ROV is sent down to the site of both wrecks.  Both ships were severely damaged in their firefight.  The damage on the Sydney is shocking.  The bridge is missing from the Sydney. And the merchant ship reveals its secrets.  The supposed merchant ship is armed to the teeth.  The merchant ship fires on the Sydney at point blank range.  However, the Sydney does manage to return fire and hits the merchant ship in the engine room.  The merchant ship is not going to go down without a fight.  The merchant ship fires torpedoes on the Sydney.  I was shocked at the damage that was inflicted on the Sydney by the supposed merchant ship.  To learn more about these watery Nazi secrets continue to watch the rest of the episode.

Yay for Eric Grove being a part of the documentary!  He has always been an excellent speaker.   I wish this documentary was divided up into chapters to help make things easier to view.  It was also nice to see David Mearns locate the HMAS Sydney wreck.  Documentaries and technology have come a long way when it comes to learning history.  The historians were really good.  Overall, this is a good documentary to show to a history class.

Hello and good morning!  I will continue World War I and World War II documentaries for November.  This is a documentary that comes from World War I.  World War I was the war that introduced trench warfare.  This documentary is looking at the trench warfare of Ypres.  The run time for this episode is 44:42.  It is part of the Great Underground War Series.  It is called the Mines of Ypres.

World War I was going to be the war to end all wars.  New technology was introduced such as the airplane and more technologically advanced guns.  Gas was introduced.  Trench warfare was introduced.  This would have been a change to warfare and the soldiers who lived in the trenches would have faced difficult conditions.  There was endless mud and the trenches flooded.  How did these soldiers endure in these mud pits?

These trenches scar the landscape in Europe.  The area around Ypres is particularly scary as it was the site of three major battles during World War I.  It was the site of the largest man-made explosion during the war.  The British and French took the high ground for the first time.  Thousands of men died in the blast.  Two archeologists go to the site to explore the tunnels.  They will learn more about tunnels and trenching around this area during World War I.

The story about digging the tunnels is told from the perspective of one of the tunnel diggers.  Geoffrey Bosby was writing to his girlfriend Edith about digging the tunnels.  Edith’s son explores the letters that this soldier wrote to his mother.  This soldier talks about all the mud that he encountered.  I do not know if mentioning this person was appropriate for this documentary, or if his words would be better used if the filmmaker followed him through the documentary as he dug the trenches instead of the jumps.  Then there is a discussion on Ypres and how the war impacted the city.  The Germans occupied the high ground while the British and the French occupied the lower lands in the marshes.

Then there is an examination of the weapons that were involved during World War I and the discussion on the no man’s land.  Even though trenches were not safe from grenades launched into those trenches.  The conditions were harsh for the soldiers during World War I.  There is an interview with a German historian who talks about the challenges of the trench life.

The roots of trench warfare were inspired by digging trenches for sewers.  The British were convinced that they could dig tunnels under the Germans.  However, the Germans would learn that they were digging and they would answer.  They blew up a group of Indian soldiers who were digging.  Their trenches would be a challenge to dig on this sandy plain.  Eventually, quieter digging methods were developed and the Germans could no longer hear that the British were digging.
However, where the Germans occupied the ridge the soil was sandy and the British were occupying where there was clay. 

The British could easily build good trenches in this clay.  The historians explore the tunnels that were dug.  There were still challenges because the water table was very high so the diggers would have to be careful building these trenches.  The water tables would rise and fall with the weather.  I am finding it challenging to write out this review, things are furiously jumping around with this documentary.  Then there was a discussion on the soldier who was attached to a trench-digging regiment and the letters are explored more.  Anyway, to learn more about trench warfare during World War I continue to follow this documentary.

At times this documentary was hard to follow and I found myself drifting away.  I ended up having to rewind and pause the documentary several times throughout writing this review.  The archeologists were suddenly at the trenches and the landscape archeologist was suddenly present.  Maybe a different approach to editing would make this documentary flow better.  It was just difficult to get through period.  As far as showing this to a history classroom, this is one I would skip showing.  If it I was a challenge for me to follow along, then it will be a challenge for a student to follow.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this.  After the disappointing documentary on the Red Baron, I am going to do a World War II shipwreck for a good bounce back.  This documentary is part of the Deep Wreck Mysteries Series.  It is called Stealth Sub and it has a run time of 51:07.

In the English Channel off the Isle of Wright, 80 feet beneath the surface there is the wreck of the submarine.  Although the English Channel was a busy area during World War II, there was no known submarine sinking in English History.  The official history of the area shows that there were no submarine patrols.  So why is this submarine there?  What happened to it?  The Deep Wreck Mystery crew is on the case.

The English Channel has one of the swiftest currents in the world and a pair of Divers make their way down to the wreck.  They have a short window of time to explore the wreck to identify it.   The first job for these divers is to identify the type of submarine.  They quickly realize that it is a type seven German U-boat.  However, this submarine is highly unusual. 

There is an unusual coating on the sub that makes the sub’s surface completely flat.  However, some sheets are peeling away from the sub.  The Deep Wreck detectives realize that the coating is rubber.  Eventually, the sub was identified as U-480, it was the only sub that would enter the English Channel.  However, this sub should not be in the English Channel.  The Royal Navy believed that they had sunk the U-boat off the Scillies Islands.

In the early start of the war, the U-Boats put a squeeze on Britain destroying many tons of merchant shipping that was heading to Britain.  Tens of thousands were killed in these wolfpack attacks by U-boats.  The British’s survival is at stake.  Eventually, Radar was developed to help ships on the surface locate submarines.  This allows the British Navy to depth charge the submarines with more accuracy.  The Nazis suffer many losses as a result of radar.

Tactics are switched and the snorkel is developed which allows the submarines to remain underwater indefinitely.  It is here that the lone survivor of U-480 talks.  He remembers his submarine captain as both a captain and a friend.  The mission of the U-480 was to sink Allied shipping.  Many supplies needed to be shipped over to supply the troops after the D-day invasion.  The U-480 attacks many ships.  I think it was cool to hear from this survivor of the U-Boat, it reminds me of Herbert Guschewski the lone survivor of U-869, which sank off New Jersey.  Much like U-480, U-869 was thought to have been sunk off of Africa, however, it had been sunk off of New Jersey.

Now back to the mystery of U-480.  How was this sub able to get into the English Channel and make its attack undetected?  What was this submarine’s secrets?  Why was this U-boat able to sink so many ships undetected?  There was a good recreation of the attack of one such Allied ship and an interview with the survivors of this sinking.  The Deep Wreck Detectives are going to help solve this mystery.

The wreck is carefully scanned and mapped out.  This will help the team plan for future dives to discover more about the U-480 submarine.  Also scanned are the four ships that the U-boat has sunk in the English Channel.  Where the U-boat was relative to the other ships will help determine why the U-boat sank.  To learn more about this wreck, please continue to follow along with this documentary.

I miss Eric Grove’s participation in these naval documentaries.  However, this is a really good series even though Eric Grove was not a part of it.  The recreations were very well done and I enjoyed hearing from the survivors.  The discussion on the enigma was very well done.  One nitpicky thing is that I wished they would have included the names of the participants in the documentary as they spoke.  I also like including these names when I write my review.  Anyway, this is another excellent documentary and I would show this to a history classroom as well as a science classroom.

Good morning!  Today I will watch a documentary on the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen.  He was a fighter ace during World War I.  Here goes nothing, it looks like it is an older documentary.  The documentary is The Legend of Manfred von Richthofen and has a runtime of 52:36.

Manfred von Richthofen was the greatest fighter ace during World War I.  He was also considered the most famous fighter pilot of all time.  He is credited with 80 air combat victories.  He belonged to the landed gentry before becoming a fighter pilot.  He would become a brilliant tactician and lead a squadron known as the “Flying Circus.”  This “Flying Circus” would be successful.  Unfortunately, Richthofen would be shot and killed in 1918, at the age of 25.  This is the story of Manfred von Richthofen.

The von Richthofen family were not initially soldiers, that changed when Manfred von Richthofen’s father joined the military.  The Richthofen family was landed gentry and so Manfred would have grown up running estates if his father had not joined up with the military.  Eventually, Manfred would follow his father into the military.  He went through school first before joining the military at age eleven.  He would become a calvary man.  Eventually, the skies would interest him and he trained as a pilot.  World War I would make Manfred von Richthofen a legend.  He would be nicknamed the “Red Barron,” because he flew a distinctive red aircraft.

Eventually, we learn about the modern German air force and von Richthofen’s impact on the Luftwaffe.  This is a squadron named for Richthofen, which one pilot talked about wearing that name with Richthofen.  The squadron carries on through the modern German Air Force.  This section does not seem to fit in a documentary about Richthofen.  Then there was a short discussion on the Richthofen and the education of the nobility during the time before World War I.

Richthofen would have learned his flying skills on his own time and would have learned on the job to become a fighter pilot.  He also was an excellent horseman and enjoyed horseman.  Richthofen would connect the cavalry to flying an airplane.  He believed that the aircraft was the fighter of the skies.  He believed that a man who was a born horseman and hunter would be a natural fighter pilot.  Both needed careful control and a keen eye.

Richthofen was in his early 20s when he became known as a national hero as a combat fighter pilot.  Then there was a recreation of what fighter pilots would have faced during World War I.  During the war, Richthofen brought down many British and French machines.  Flying and fighter planes were going to have an impact on World War II.  Then there was a short discussion on a squadron leader who was Richthofen’s inspiration.  This leader was eventually killed during World War I.

When this leader died it would seem that Richthofen would be a natural successor to this leader.  However, there were some big shoes to fill after this man’s death.  Eventually, Richthofen would become a German national hero after he shot down the British Ace.  It was after this the legend of the Red Barron was born.  How would he become the leader of the Flying Circus?  What else did Richthofen accomplish in his career as a fighter pilot?  Would his love of his red plane be his downfall?  Tune into the rest of the documentary to find out.

Wow, this documentary is dated and even though it is dated it is a VERY fast-moving documentary.  It was very hard to keep up at times and I had to stop and rewind several times to make sure I was hearing things right.  Any German language was translated by the narrator.  It almost seemed disjointed at times, all of a sudden a discussion as Richthofen as a student transitioned to the discussion on the Luftwaffe.  There were no clear transitions in each of the sections that were discussed on Richthofen.  It was just a challenge to watch.  I think there was a better documentary on Richthofen from the Secrets of the Dead series.  I would not show this documentary to a history class.  I would not even recommend this documentary for research purposes.

Good morning!  Today I am working through documentaries on World War I and World War II for November.  Today’s documentary is going to talk about the D-Day Invasions.  This documentary looks like it is part of the Hidden Side of World War II.  Anything that was subtitled was subtitled.  The run time for this documentary is 53:53.

It was the early morning of December 6, 1944, and a group of ships were making their way for the beaches of Normandy.  Many of these men did not know where they were going.  On the French shore, nobody expected the invasion.  It would have been an immense gable that could have cost the soldiers thousands of lives.  What happened to prepare for D-Day behind the scenes?  Who made what decisions?  Who were the secret agents involved with the D-Day invasion?  This documentary examines the unknown facts and stories behind the D-Day invasion.

The D-Day preparation story begins in London in an underground bunker.  Preparations began a year before.  Winston Churchill had spent much of his time in a secret underground bunker.  It was well protected from bombs and it was where Winston Churchill lived for much of the war.  Life would happen underground for the majority of the government. 

The war had reached a crossroads.  Hitler controlled Europe and his troops were bogged down in Russia.  The Nazis were suffering massive losses in Russia.  It was time for an invasion of Europe.  When and where would this invasion take place?  It was going to be a landing, but where was the problem?  The Atlantic Wall was going to be a challenge.  The British were reluctant to launch an attack before it was time.  The beaches were going to be very well defended.

Eventually, the decision was made and Normandy was selected.  It was where there would be the fewest German soldiers.  This is where the spin machine started.  It was planned to put it out there that this invasion was going to take place somewhere else.  Operation Fortitude was launched and it was led by John Bevin.  It was put out there that a potential invasion was going to take place in Calais.  It was the closest port to England from France.

A massive, dummy army was created and placed in Kent in the countryside.  Fake airplanes and weapons were kept there.  The land was flat and spy planes overhead could easily spot the dummy army.  It was a complex job and Operation Fortitude turned to New York to help create the dummy army.  They took their inspiration from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  No detail was too small, the teams would even create tank tracks.  Inflatable landing crafts were created and placed in the water around Kent.  This dummy army even had a name and it would be led by Patton.  He was the most high-profile general in the US Army and the Germans respected him.  Patton was the perfect person to lead this dummy army.  He was photographed widely around Kent inspecting the “troops.”  Everything was pointing to an invasion at Calais.  However how long would the Germans be deceived?

Bevins would turn to a gentleman, that was unknown to the public.  He was a Spanish spy and he was bent on destroying dictatorships.  He had seen massive atrocities in Spain and wanted to fight back.  However, the British were reluctant to take him on as a spy.  However, with an active imagination and his offer to spy for the Nazis with the intention to betray the Nazis, he was able to change the British’s minds.  So how did he do it?  To learn more about this spy and the behind-the-scenes work that was done in preparation for D-Day continue to watch the episode.

I recall hearing about this job and that it was put out there that Patton was going to be part of the invasion.  It was interesting to see that Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was the inspiration for the Dummy Army.  The story of the Spanish spy was very good and I got a kick at this one man operation.  This was a very good documentary and provided an excellent background into the work done behind the scenes to prepare for D-Day.  This would be a documentary I would show to a history class.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening.  I am working through documentaries on World War II.  This documentary is from the Get Factual YouTube Channel.  There are English subtitles to this episode.  The run time for this documentary is 48:17.  The documentary is called The First Victim.  Here goes nothing when it comes to reviewing this documentary.

Poland fell under the Nazi Blitzkrieg which would start World War II.  This attack would last for six weeks.  However, its consequences for Poland would be devastating.  Poland would endure the harshest conditions under the Nazi regime.  The governor of Poland Hans Frank would have the power of life and death over the Polish people.  He would rule Poland with brutality and would eventually come to justice for his crimes.

The documentary begins at the end of the war when a family is rounded up and lined up against the wall.  They are about to be shot.  However, one book stood up and stared down the soldiers.  His father had been the governor of Poland under the occupation.  His father was Hans Frank and he would face trial for his crimes at Nuremberg.  Danzig was a city that was under the governance of the League of Nations, both Germany and Poland wanted the city.  Budzimira was a fifteen-year-old who lived in Danzig and shared her memories of living there before the war.  The Germans were in the majority and the Polish were the minority.  The Germans in Danzig wanted to be part of the German Reich. 

Where the Germans were the minority they felt themselves under pressure from the Polish people.  Tensions would grow and the Germans would feel the fires of persecution.  However, some of that could have been provoked as one historian discusses.  Marian Sobkowaik, a resident from another German-majority town talks about how things were changing.  He would have been fifteen years old at the time.  Growing up he would have read the newspapers and the news of the day seemed to hint at war coming.

Then the war came fast and furious on September 1.  Danzig was a key German objective.  Budzimira remembers hugging her father for the last time.  He would have been killed in the first days of the conflict.  A reign of terror would be unleashed and arrests would be made.  The Polish nationalists were arrested and executed.  At the age of fifteen, Budzimira said, she became an adult.  Hans Frank would be appointed governor and move the capital to Krakow.  His first order was to force the Jews and Poles to do forced labor.  Jews had to have a permit to live in Krakow and had to wear armbands with stars on them.

Jews and Poles were treated as sub-humans and were treated as a labor pool for Germany.  The effects were felt far and wide even in the countryside.  The brutality of the Nazis came as a shock to the Poles.  The Gestapo came into Poland with names on the list and would shoot the names on the list.  One man witnessed his schoolmaster being shot.  Executions aimed to destroy the heart and soul of Poland.

Hans Frank’s sons recall a conversation that his older brother had with their father about his brutality.  The governor would not hear it and would storm out of the room as a result of the conversation.  Poles and Germans would be forcibly separated from each other.  Poles were forbidden from being in the same places as the Germans.  Poles were thrown out of their houses and they were relocated.  Over one million Poles were deported and their homes would be given to ethnic Germans.  Poles did not have any rights and were considered menial laborers.  However, the worst was yet to come to the Polish People and the Jews.  To learn more about the German occupation of Poland continue to watch the rest of the episode.

The recreations were very well done.  It was also very good to hear from the residents who lived in Poland at that time.  I was very impressed with this documentary and it was very well done.  I also liked the historical commentary as well.  I would highly recommend that teachers show this documentary to a history class room.