What are your FAVORITE WWII Documentaries???

Greetings,

I am extremely fascinated with World War II, everything from the uniforms, ideology, panzers, the epic struggles, battles, & events that surpass even the most imaginative fictional writer minds. I love watching WW2 documentaries, and was wondering if perhaps if there is still some out there I have not seen.. If you have some favorites please, do list them! I usually prefer the European theatre (particularly the Eastern campaign, or politics & life within the Third Reich) docs but I'll watch anything really that deals with WW2. Here are my top 5 favs, in preferential order:

1) Nat Geo WWII: APOCALYPSE Series (colorized 4 or 5 part series, HIGHLY recommend)
2) World at War Complete Series
3) Discovery Channel's BATTLEFIELD Series
4) Hitler's Bodyguard
4) Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler: Parts 1&2
5) Color of War Series

Personally, I did not enjoy WWII in HD. I felt it "jumped around" too much; the story wasn't conveyed in an orderly, pragmatic fashion. I was highly anticipating this series and was tremendously let down after having watch a few episodes on the Military (my favorite) channel.

PS> I love the fact that there's actually a whole great forum that we can discuss our interests together on!!

 

1 world at war
2 movies4men-paratroopers etc.
3 battle of the atlantic
4 battlefield
5 lost evidence.

 

In addition to those mentioned already, may I inject Victory at Sea? I was fortunate enough to purchase all 26 episodes on a digitally remastered 4 DVD set a few years ago.

 

What is this "lost evidence"? Whats it about, I've never heard about this before.

 

That was a pretty good set of documentary put together for The History Channel a few years ago which took "lost" recon photos of different battles like Normandy and used computers to generate a "virtual" view of them in what would have been real time. Those covering the ETO were good, but those for the PTO, especially Iwo and Okinawa were great.

Here is a link:

http://shop.history.com/?v=history_show_the-lost-evidence

 

Battlefield

The Convoy War

Stalin, The Nazis and the West...World War Two Behind Closed Doors.

 

Nearly forgot that one Antony Beevor did on bunkers and other hidden gems in Germany today.

I forget the title.

 

I've seen this doc on the National Geographic Channel. I believe it was called "Hitler's Hidden City."

For me, it would be:

The World At War
Apocalypse
Timewatch: Lost Heroes, Through Hell for Hitler, Battle of the River Plate and U-864 (BBC)
The Lost Evidence (The History Channel)
For King and Country ("Empire" too, but that's for a WWI discussion.)
Canada at War (National Film Board series)
Battleline
Wings of the Luftwaffe
Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain (PBS)
Voices from Hitler's Army
Secrets of WWII (Nugus-Martin series)
Ghosts of Bataan
Battle of the Atlantic (BBC)

 

World at War
Victory at Sea
Dogfight

 

Besides World at War series, I would highly recommend "The Unknown War", narrated by Burt Lancaster back in the late 1970's. It was around
15 episodes that focused on the war on the eastern front. Lots of actual film footage from both sides, but I must admit that the Soviet Union, was
given preferential treatment by the producers. Despite that, I would highly recommend that you purchase it off Amazon.com. If you like to
know what happened on the eastern front, you will be impressed!

 

By far and all a close tie for the Nr 1 slot:

Battleline.
The Twentieth Century (the original series)
Battlefield.
The World At War. (1st Doc series I ever saw)
The Eagle and the Bear.
Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War-partly because it was narrated by Richard Basehart.
Secrets of War? Partly because it was narrated by Charlton Heston.

 

Not a bad set Clint, and cheap as well. I picked up my copy at the local Wal-Mart in the 5$ bin.

Another of my favorites is Memphis Belle - A Story of a Flying Fortress.

I really have far too many to list.

 

Another docu I would HIGHLY recommend is called Nazis: A Warning From History (3 Disc Set, each disc with 2 parts)

Mostly color or colorized cinematography, this series deals with the underlying causes of the rise of Nazism. Very comprehensive and explainatory.

 

Het duits archief ( The german archive )

 

I am assuming this is in German with english subs?

Having a hard time locating it =(

 

none of the above.

years ago I purchased the Deutsche Wochenschau series or to put it in anothe category the German propaganda films in it's best resort, both in English and German, interesting to here Herr Goebells speak in such a high winey voice though that is exactly what he did. If anything from the German side one experienes rare German footage from all service branches not seen anywhere else except to be pirated off the D.W. for their own film making.

highly recommended

E ~

 

No, its dutch, but the talker is German with dutch subtitles.

 

world at war
hitler henchmen
sensacje XX wieku (very good, Polish weekly programme not only about WW2, but the whole 20th century)

 

Last fall I watched the series Deutsche Wochenschau on disks from the Netflix site. I enjoyed them well enough, but not enough to purhase them. But, they were interesting to say the least. And I agree hearing Goebbels voice in all it's "glory" was almost laughable.

I only purchase those documentaries which I find I wish to watch over and over. Victory at Sea, The Word at War, Neitschze and the Nazis, the original Memphis Belle, but few others.

 

Clint again I point out what you watch with DW is pure German for a Germanaholic like myself, it is purely fashionable propaganda for the folk back home re for a piece of history that it is. if one were to take tht time and watch every episode you would see the glory to the fading mighty quick in the eyes of the German Landser no matter where he was stationed. to point out the seriousness of collecting these they are a pure bonafide bonus for historians of uniforms and modellers delight(s). one of course has to ponder why on earth did the over sized war machine keep having Dr. G. as it's spokesperson ...........the little runt