MovieChat Forums > The World at War (1973) Discussion > What was lacking in this Series

What was lacking in this Series

posted 15 years ago by Stanley-6
45 replies | jump to latest

Although I love this series, and ranked it 10/10, I thought that there were a few deficiencies:

1) It kind of brushed off quite a few important naval engagements. THe Wolfpack episode focused only on U-boats. The sinking of HMS Hood, and the hunting of the Bismarck deserved some mention. The scuttling of the Graf Spee, the naval evacuation of Crete and the sinkings of HMS Barham, Scharnhorst and Tirpitz were never mentioned. There was a passing reference to the sinking of Repulse and Prince of Wales, but that was about it.

2. The war in China warranted its own episode but was only mentioned in passing in the episodes about Japan.

3. I think that Italy also warranted its own episode.

That's about it for me. I know that they were rather limited by time constraints, but the naval omissions seem especially glaring to me, and I find that the final two episodes, Reckoning and Remember, probably could have been edited into one episode.

[–] Rob4001 13 years ago

1) Was about the war of the Atlantic. Not about naval battles in general.

2) Maybe.

3) It did have it's own episode. "Tough old gut". In addition they got a lot of coverage in the Desert episode.

[–] linop90 13 years ago

Tough old gut was more about after the 8 september when the Germans took over.
Not about Italy at war

[–] Rob4001 13 years ago

True but they got quite a showing in the Desert episode as i say.

Italy were useless in the war anyway and i think their input was adequately covered.

Maybe the Italian form of Fascism could have been given more background.

[–] linop90 13 years ago

They werent useless, thats just propaganda by the English and Aussies mainly.

[–] Rob4001 13 years ago

LOL!

It's more like factual history.

They were at best minimally effective and at worst a burden to Hitler.

[–] linop90 13 years ago

More like Hitler was a burden to Hitler.
With his idiotic decisions and not listening to his generals.

Kasserine pass. Praised by rommel.
The alpini on the Russian front. praised by Stalin.
The Forlgore in North Africa, fought to the last man and praised by churchil
The Decima Mas Frogmen at Malta, sunk a lot of British ships.

When they got their good fighter planes, the cantauro and folgore.
So good the Germans took them.

[–] Rob4001 13 years ago

You don't win wars with magnanimous praise about anecdotal events.

They failed at almost everything they attempted and had to be bailed out by Germany at least twice - distracting German resources from their own efforts.

[–] linop90 13 years ago

And the Poms?how many times did they need to be bailed out?
Fought to the last American, Russian, Aussie, Kiwi, Indian and South African.
Forgetting singapore? malaya, hong kong.

No they didnt win, but they werent as bad as the poms and pom cannon fodder aussies say.

[–] Rob4001 13 years ago

Italy performed better than the UK during WWII?

I'm not even going to bother wasting my breath because you are clearly an extremely deluded and extremely stupid person.

[–] linop90 13 years ago

I didnt say they performed better. Simply not as bad as poms and Aussies say.
The poms had a few losses too dont forget, funny how they are forgotten.

[–] Rob4001 13 years ago

I didnt say they performed better. Simply not as bad as poms and Aussies say.

Says who?

You will probably find most Americans will tell you the same thing. Heck, most Italians will probably struggle to disagree.

Yes the British lost battles, what's Britain got to do with Italy's performance?

Italy failed at almost everything they attempted and had to get the German's to bail them out at least twice.

It's really between Italy and France as to who of the major powers was the least effective.

[–] linop90 13 years ago

Typical Pom, man. unbelievable.
Britain failed at a lot of things they attempted too, aluckily they had their home country to retreat to.

Americans cant say anything. kasserine pass, the timmys and bobbys got done.

The Romanians, Hungarians slovakians were far worse.

[–] Rob4001 13 years ago

Once again are you trying to dispute historical fact? The only distorted attitude here is the one who can't hide it by resorting to petty names like "Pom".

Britian have nothing to do with Italy being poor during WWII so stop talking about Britian.

And as if the Americans can't talk. LMFAO. Who exactly was it that defeated Italy if it wasn't America and Britian then? Why does Kasserine pass matter if the whole of the Italian/Axis forces were pushed all the way from Egypt to Lybia to Tunisia back into their own country and then to capitulation?

In fact, don't even bother answering because you will just continue to spout the same old irrelevant sh*t that you've been spouting in the last few posts.

[–] linop90 13 years ago

Pom is a perfectly fine term for english people.

The way Yanks talk and some Poms, they never took a loss and just walked through the whole war without a scratch.

Kasserine pass matters because it along with other battles show italy wasnt as bad as poms and aussies say they were.

[–] Rob4001 13 years ago

But why did Kasserine pass (which was an anecdote) occur? It occured because Italy took on the vastly outnumbered British in Egypt and got their arses firmly handed to them (Rememeber the 130,000 that surrendered). As such the Germans had to send in Rommel and their reinforcements, which helped the situation. Eventually though the British defeated Italian and German forces in North Africa and then targeted the Italian mainland with the Americans. So although Kasserine pass was one battle that went the Axis's way (against at the time Rookie America), on the whole, the campaign which was initiated by Italy was an enormous *beep* up.

A similar thing happened in Greece but this time the German forces were able to come out victorious, however, it crucially delayed the beginning of Barbarossa.

And yes pom is derogative term.

Just get over it, Germany could have well been better off without Italy during WWII. They were a liability. I have no agenda against Italy, i am just stating the facts.

[–] linop90 13 years ago

Only Greece was a big mistake, their was nothng there, of no value.

And no Pom is not a derogatory term here, so deal with it.
And Germany were more of a hinderance to th Italians, with noone able to stand up to hitler and his idiotic decisions.

And im just stating the facts that the poms gought using every other nationality.
simple.

[–] Rob4001 13 years ago

Greece was a mistake and N.Africa was a mistake.

Hitler lost his marbles the end but Mussolini was a complete idiot from the start. Your suggestion that Italy were hindered by Germany is beyond laughable. Germany constantly had to bail out Italy, they would have probably folded within a year otherwise. Germany also won many major strategic victories during WWII. Italy failed to win any, but they lost quite a few.

And once again, THIS IS NOT ABOUT BRITAIN! Stop letting your hatred of Britian spew over into this debate.

I'm sorry if you find it hard to accept Italy were terrible during WWII, but once again, it is the truth. I have no bias, if i was going to have a bias it would be against Japan and Germany because they were the major perpetrators.

[–] megatosspot 12 years ago

The poms certainly gave the wops a hiding though, didn't they?

[–] indy_go_blue44 12 years ago

Hmm, let me think. Yanks never lost a battle?

Pearl Harbor
Phillipines
Wake
Guam
Kasserine Pass (but then sometimes getting your arse kicked is a good thing IF you learn from it, and they learned plenty. Paraphrasing Rommel because I can't remember his exact words, "I've never seen an army fight so poorly in a battle and in the next one fight so well." One month after Kasserine all ground plus had been recovered; 5 months later 250,000 German and Italian troops surrendered in Tunisia.)
5 months to capture Cassino (not a loss, but not a good show either)
Anzio (call it a stalemate but another bad American show)

[–] verbusen 12 years ago

Just my 2 cents. The Military Channel is playing this and it's the original run not the remastered version. I remember the last man to talk on the series about how he was a shell shocked war hero and his wife left him while he was in the hospital, it seemed so tragic because they were interviewing a man who was still trying to recover after 20 plus years. That was only in the remastered version not the version they show on TV. I could be wrong but I remember it pretty good.

[–] nejgus 9 years ago

The Balkans/Yugoslavia resistance.

[–] 9 years ago

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