Documentary Review: Great Blunders of WWII: Hitlers's Declaration of War on the United States

Adolf Hitler was persuaded by Japan to declare war on the United States after Pearl Harbor.  However there was no reason to have done so according to treaty.  The Germans has pledged to defend Japan if Japan were attacked.  That was not the case here.  However Hitler was quick to declare war against the United States.  Perhaps Hitler was hoping Japan would tie the Soviets down in the West.  This did not happen.  By doing so, United States entered the war in Europe.  Winston Churchill had been negotiating for this for some time, as England could not win the war on her own.  Hitler  with his declaration resolved this problem for Churchill.  The United States put is industrial might, as well as armed forces to defeating Germany and Japan.

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 I in Color: Mayhem on the Eastern Front

This episode talks a bout the war on the Russian front.  It includes mention of the Armenian holocaust in which the Turkish government killed 1.5 million Armenians.  Turkey was affiliate with Germany and Austria.  Italy entered the war on the Allied side.  In an effort to alleviate some of this suffering, Russia appealed to the other allies.  Germany attempted a Naval campaign in the Gallipoli Peninsula of Turkey.j  This was under the command of Winston Churchill.  At first the Naval vessels set to open with a bombardment hit enemy mines.  When the British forces landed (New Zealand, English and Australian) the became bogged down in a stalemate.  They were removed some months later with the loss of 250,000 casualties.  Churchill was sacked.
The Russians continued to fight, and defended Warsaw from German invasion.  However eventually their forces wore down, and Warsaw fell.  At the same time Czar Nicholas lost control of his country, and the Communist rose to power.  The Russians then left the war.  Russia suffered about 2 million military deaths during the war and another million civilian deaths.  With them leaving the war, the germans could now focus on their western front, France and England.  The effect of the reinforcement from the east was first felt in Italy, as the Germans brought more divisions into the area.  The war would have gone the way except the entry of the United States into the war at about the same time.

Documentary Review: World War II in Colour: Episode 10: Closing the Ring

This is a very interesting episode, as the Russian approach Berlin from the East, and the Allies from the West.  The Allies were in trouble due to no good ways to bring in supplies.  The Germans had destroyed all the ports, and mined them heavily.  The Allies hoped to use Antwerp, but it was heavily defended.  They decided to go around, and use supply routes through Normandy, which were small, and required long distance travel.  Montgomery devised Operation Market Garden, also known as "A Bridge Too Far." as an alternative.  This offensive involved going around the heavily fortified Siegfried Line.  It required airborne troops to capture strategic bridges, while a column of tanks would follow up and relieve them.  However the last important bridge across the Rhine was not held.  The British were able to capture one side of the bridge, but by the time the armored reinforcements arrived they had been forced to surrender.  After this failure the capture of Antwerp became vital as the Allies were hampered by lack of supplies.  Canadian troops carried this fight.  It was difficult and took weeks of fighting before the Allies could bring in mine sweepers clear the port.  After getting the supplies through, the weather then hampered resupply.  The Allies dug in for the Winter, but Hitler had other plans.  He wanted to punch through the Allied lines, and retake Antwerp and thus molest the supply lines.  The Allies were caught off guard, which resulted in the Bulge in their line.  However they were eventually able to hold and push back.  This resulted in a great loss of men on material on the part of the germans, and in the end the line was pushed back to where they had begun.  This episode talks about some of the politics involved in a war; sometimes dirty.  Churchill and Stalin had divided the countries as Stalin looked more and more to having a buffer between himself and Germany.  This episode showed that Stalin ordered to have his troops standby in Poland, while the Germans and the Polish Guard fought it out.  Of course the Polish Guard was doomed without larger weapons.  They were killed, and captured.  Stalin's goal was to have Poland for Russia, and the Polish Guard was pro Western.  Many people died needlessly in Poland as a result.
As they moved towards Berlin, both sides saw the Jewish Holocaust, as the Nazis grappled with the "Jewish Problem."  6 million Jews were murdered during the war.

World War II In Colour 3: Britain at Bay

This is the story of the battle of Britain in this continuing documentary of WWII using colorized film from the war as well as maps and narration.  This battle Winston Churchill predicted would be Britain's finest hour.  The British defenses were stretched thin after the forced retreat from Dunkirk.  They also had to leave much material behind, and so their men where mostly armed with rifles.  However the established a home guard with over a half million volunteers.
Without the use of radar it would have been their last hour.  The radar gave the Britons just enough advantage so they could meet the threat from the Luftwaffe, German's air force.  The normal German tactic of Blitzkrieg was not helpful here.  It was impossible to get his tanks and troops across the English Channel unless he controlled the waterway, or at least had air superiority.  He was unable to establish either, and the possibility of invasion did not present itself so he had to look elsewhere.

Documentary Review: World War II In Colour 2: Lightning War

Lightning war refers to a tactic employed by the Germans.  Blitzkrieg, or lightning war referred to moving fast with armored columns, bypassing the strongest positions, and letting the infantry follow and mop up.  Such was the strategy used by the Germans in Poland in 1939.  Germany used its superiority in air power and in tanks to take territory quickly.  And so it was that Poland was conquered quickly.  With this the British and French troops prepared for invasion of France, thinking the Germans would use similar tactics to the invasion in WWI, through Belgium.  In this they were fooled.  First the Germans attacked north rather than into France.  They conquered Norway, and then other Scandinavian countries, one after the other using similar tactics.  When it came to France, the expected attack was along the coastal areas.  However Germany attacked with their panzer division south and just north of the heavily defended areas considered impenetrable.  The attack was not expected over the rough terrain.  The German's were able to get behind the French and English forces, forces them back so as to avoid being cut off.  German air superiority again played a key roll.  The French and British armies were able to fight their way to Dunkirk, but there they were cut off.  The only hope for the forces was removal.  Churchill mustered a flotilla of any available vessel, but these were kept from the port by the many dive bombers.  He then recruited even smaller vessels who could go and gather the men, and take them to the larger vessels for transportation to Great Britain.  In this way the British Arm was save, as well as many of the French.   However the country of France was lost, and the Germans marched almost unopposed into Paris.