Documentary Review: World War Two: 1941 and the Man of Steel (2011)

This is an interesting look at WWII from the other side, the Soviet Union side.  Joseph Stalin, whose name means steel, as a Communist dictator was a brutal murderer, killing 10 million peasants in his own country.  When the peasants would not go along with the plan to develop communal farms,  many of them killed their own cattle.  A a result Stalin transported them to remote areas, and let them starve.  He was also a master manipulator, instilling fear in his people and fellow politicians.  Many were carted off to prisons or concentration camps, or executed.  He even killed the wife of his person secretary.  No one was immune.  No one was immune.  However when the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, many things changed.  Stalin was incredulous, and consequently the Russian  reaction was slow.  Stalin's forces were near defeat, and with them would have gone Stalin's ability to lead.  Stalin appealed to national Russian pride, rather than the benefits of communism.  In this way he rallied the people and his own position.  He determine not to abandon Moscow to the Germans, and over time this decision was born out.  When the snow hit, Russians were at a disadvantage, in terms of not having proper equipment.  Even their tanks would take hours to start in the freezing weather.  A counter attack pushed them back.  However Stalin was too greedy.  He pushed his generals into a trap, and almost a million men were captured.
In 1842 Stalin was forced to reach out to the West.  He was also forced to trust his generals.  he removed communist oversight, and let his generals lead.  He also supported them by allowing reserves to move forward.  This time around Stalingrad (which if it fell would have opened the way to Persia and the British oil reserves) the Russians were again able to push back the Germans.  However this time they were more cautious in their advance.
Behind all of this was the relationship between Stalin and Churchill.  Churchill had previously sworn to stamp out communism.  Now they were allies.  However they were allies with differences.  Russia insisted on the Balkans and Poland be given to them.  However England did not give in. Stalin insisted on a second front to relieve pressure on Russia.  Churchill agreed to opening a front in Africa.  Situations were tense, but the allegiance prevailed.  Russia and England needed each other.
After the war, Stalin went back to his old tactics, arresting generals and ruling with an iron hand.  And in truth the Soviet Union gained more territory than the had asked, as many countries, included much of Germany, were behind the iron curtain and under communist oversight.
This is a BBC production with David reynolds narrating and Russell Barnes directing.

Documentary Review: World War II in Colour: Victory in Japan: episode 13

This is the final episode brought to us by BBC television.  In this the end of the war in the Pacific is presented started with Iwo Jima.  Iwo Jima was an important battle because it would give the Allies airstrips close enough to Japan to support the fire bombing raids with fighter escorts.  The U.S. had given up on tactical bombing and went with fire bombing which was highly effective, but would also destroy entire communities, with spreading flames faster than someone could run.  One such raid was attributed with 100,000 deaths.
Iwo Jima was a battle in which the Japanese refused to surrender, fighting to the death.  Of the 21,000 Japanese defending the island, 18,000 were killed in the fighting.  Only about three hundred were captured in the fighting.  The Japanese had ingrained in them the terrible things the Americans would do to them if they were caught.  About 3000 Japanese continued living in the caves and tunnels after the fighting was over, coming out at night to scavenge for food.  They slowly surrendered, the last surrendering in 1949.
The next major jump after Iwo Jima was Okinawa.  Here the commander swore he would make the Americans pay in blood.  Even though the landing was not resisted heavily, the defensive lines the Japanese were able to create on the island proved large obstacles to over come.  Just as the Americans began to make progress, the Japanese would fall back to another defensible line, and thus there was a series of battles and defensive lines.  Finally the Americans had to land another wave of Marines behind these lines.
The Battle at Sea was also terrible at Okinawa.  The Japanese employed Kamikaze pilots, in planes and jets, submarines and even a Kamikaze battle ship on a suicide mission.  It never reached the Americans as it was spotted and sunk by planes from the aircraft carriers.
However after Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the Americans were well aware of the cost in invading the Japanese mainland.  It also appeared the fire bombing would never bring the Japanese to surrender.  A much larger weapon was needed.  When President Truman succeeded to the presidency, he learned of the nuclear weapons.  There were two prototypes, a uranium bomb and a plutonium bomb.  It was decided to use both weapons if needed.  The bomb "Little Boy" was used on Hiroshima, and caused over 100,000 immediate deaths, with more deaths later due to radiation sickness, burns and starvation.  The second plutonium bomb "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki.  It was actually the more powerful bomb, but missed its target causing about 40,000-80,000 deaths.  Again half were immediate with the others coming later.
About this same time, the Russians declared war against Japan.  They were actually trying to fatten their own territories, invading Manchuria and Mongolia.  Even after the Japanese surrendered, the Russians fought on trying to gain more territory.
Japan announced its surrender August 15, 1945.  The formal document of surrender was signed September 2 aboard the USS Missouri.  General Douglas McCarthy took over temporary leadership of Japan.

World War II in Colour 5: Red Sun Rampant

This documentary episode starts with the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor.  The surprise attack damaged the American fleet in the Pacific, but it wasn't the knock out blow as the U.S. carriers were not in port.  Japan was defeating everyone in the region in the air, on land and at sea.  This movie follows the conflict until in each of these areas, the Japanese had been bested.  The Battle of the Coral Sea was basically a draw, with two carriers damaged on both sides.  The Yorktown was damaged on the American side, but quick repairs prepared her for the next battle.  However it was a moral victory for the Americans.  having cracked the Japanese code, The U.S. were laying in wait at Midway, where the Japanese planned to establish a forward base.
While the Japanese were bombing Midway Island, The U.S. were able to catch them unaware, and pound them from the air.  The initial torpedo planes were unsuccessful, but the dive bombers coming from the clouds were able to inflict serious damage to three carriers.  The Japanese had four carriers in the area.  They were able to inflict a counter blow to the Yorktown, but again the Americans finally caught the fourth carrier and inflicted heavy damage.  This day would mark a great difference at sea, while four Japanese carriers were gone, one American carrier was sunk and another damaged.
ON Land and air, the battle to Guadalcanal was important.  The Japanese were establishing an air base, but the American marines attacked and took control of the base.  however the Japanese fleet was able to cut them off by chasing the American boats away, sinking a couple.  Even so the completed the airway, and were resupplied by air.  In addition the planes were able to harass the Japanese.  It was some months before they were refortified with troops, but eventually the Americans were able to get through, and slowly Guadalcanal was taken.

World War II in Colour 4: Hitler Strikes East

There episode explores the war in Russia.  Hitler had forged an alliance with Stalin, but all along he intended to expand the Nazi empire in this direction.  Stalin had forged the deal, knowing that Russia was ill prepared for an all out war.
Hitler's attack on Russia had three movement, north towards Leningrad, center towards Moscow, and south towards Stalingrad.  The early part of this attack showed the effectiveness of blitzkrieg, as the Russians melted away.  However the attack to the south got bogged down.  All of the attacks were slowed as they had to deal with hundreds of thousands of prisoners.  The tank commanders wanted to move on to follow up their advantage.
Hitler made a crucial error.  As they were driving towards Moscow, and where sure to enter the city in just a few weeks, he diverted his panzers to the south, to follow up gains there.  They surrounded Kiev.  However then several times the tanks were moved back and forth, and only after precious time was lost did they finally refocus on Moscow.  The still advanced, but eventually were stalled by the weather.  It got so cold the tanks wouldn't start, nor would they function properly.
Russia on the mean time used this time to prepare a counterattack.  After Stalin assured through his espionage efforts that Japan was not going to attack Russia in Siberia, he repositioned half a million men from Siberia towards Moscow using the Siberian Railroad.  5 December the Russians counter attacked, with some gains.  Hitler ordered that the Germans go into a defensive mode.  The German generals wanted to fall back to consolidate their lines.  Hitler would not give permission, and replaced his generals.  Thousands of German troops were surrounded.  They could have escaped but were ordered to hold.  A Panzer attack to free them proved unsuccessful.  Consequently 200,000 German troops were surrendered, and marched into Russia.  Only 5000 would ever return to Germany.  
In the south, Hitler became determined to take Stalingrad at all costs.  They actually made significant progress, however again a Russian counter attack would leave them vulnerable to capture and only through a sound rear movements were they able to escape.  This was the end of offensive movements by the Germans in Russia, and from there it was always falling back towards Germany.  Of support for the Russians was a new tank which was just as good as the Panzer, and also their rockets, and finally they were able to manufacture air planes.  Initially the Germans had control of the skies, but that would change.

Documentary Review: Battle of Britain: The Real Story (2010)

This is an incredible story about the Battle of Britain.  This battle is thought to have been a one-sided affair with Germany having many more aircraft.  However the English had control of the seas and the English Channel.  The battle wasn't as one sided as perhaps supposed.  At first the German air force attempted to attack the British navy from the air.  However there was enough resistance from fighters on the island to help Britain maintain control of the English Channel.  They would also launch attacks against the airports of the Luftwaffe, which kept some of them pinned down not attacking England.  They were made more effective by the use of a new technology, radar.  The attack then changed focus to the Royal Air Force an the radar installation.  Not enough credit was given by the Germans to the radar, and more attack there may have had an effect.  The attacks on the runways was very effective, although the airports remained in service.  A bit more concentration and the Royal Air Force may have been driven from the sky.  However, inadvertently a German plane accidentally dropped its bombs on London.  Winston Churchill ordered a retaliatory bombing of Moscow.  Hitler then lost focus, and the German air attacks began to focus on London civilian targets, rather than the air force.  This film contends however that the Luftwaffe was not very effective against the grass airfields in the first place.  It also contends that different methods of counting the number of planes in a squad.  the number of British planes was greatly underestimated.  As a result, the german airplane superiority began to ware down after repeated attacks.  They were not able to establish air superiority, and the invasion of England did not happen.