Battlefield

"Battlefield" is a masterful rendering of military history. It somewhat arbitrarily presents World War II as a series of battles. This is slightly misleading, since the "Battle for the Rhine" as two tapes are titled, was actually a campaign made up of battles such as Arnheim, Bastogne and the Bulge, which lasted from the D-Day landings to the fall of Berlin. Of course, the totality of a war cannot be explained this way, but "Battlefield's" perspective is narrowly focused on the operational aspect of the war.

Each battle is broken into two tapes, "Prelude" and "The Battle"; each of these is broken into sections comparing leadership (politicians, generals), men (soldiers, sailors, airmen), arms and strategic situations, addressing their respective strengths and weaknesses. The campaigns are illustrated with war footage and punctuated with dynamic war maps. This analytic approach may seem dry to someone looking for a war-as-hell or human interest perspective, but as another reviewer has pointed out, these latter approaches have already been used in other series.

Tim Piggot-Smith is a great narrator, giving an urgent, expressive, yet even and restrained voice to the events.

One quibble: I think "Battlefield" omits some important aspects of particular battles. For example, it doesn't go into enough detail about the successful diversion of Halsey's task force in the Battle of Leyte Gulf to explain how the element of luck was crucial to the American victory. This is covered in other series, such as the History Channel's one-tape Leyte Gulf history. Perhaps the European theater is more vivid to the British than the Pacific theater, which was mainly an aircraft carrier and marine operation between the Japanese and Americans. Of course, when "Battlefield" covers aspects of the war with Japan in which Britain played a major part, such as South Asia, the coverage seems more meticulous. Being American, I may be biased, but this is my impression.

This quibble notwithstanding, "Battlefield" is by far the best video series about World War II, from an operational viewpoint.

This series is an exceptionally superb telling of a history that still is often told with the same type of propagandistic bias found in newsreels of the 1940's and 1950's. The text of the series, and the wonderfully even-toned yet captivating narration, gives a mood of relaxed academic instruction without strident interjections. For those who like history presented in a thorough, balanced, and entertaining manner, this series is exactly what you are looking for.

The series does what it says: a firm focus on those factors affecting the battlefield. Political events are ignored, except those which had a direct impact on tactical considerations. This limiting of scope allows an even greater detail of the battles themselves to be revealed. Instead of a rehash of broad details of battles such as Stalingrad, and how it was a German blunder; we get a complete account of WHY the battle occurred, WHO was involved, WHAT happened and with a full detail of the men, units, and equipment used by each side.

Thankfully, there is a refreshing lack of bias in this series. There is no stupid narration talking about "Nazi tanks advancing". A respectful and accurate "German tanks advancing" is used instead. After all these men were, in the main, courageous and skilled soldiers just like those of any nation. They were fighting for their homes and nation just as surely as the British or the Soviets, and the fanatical excesses of the Nazi party were far from their minds and intentions. Similarly, we don't hear of any "Communist Hordes" repelling invasion. The Soviet armed forces, just like the German and British, and spoken of in factual, academic terms. In all cases, national tendencies and superiorities are detailed in a factual, detailed manner, almost as if a Martian were explaining true human history.

This is a war documentary that is actually soothing in its sonic presentation. The historical film is not presented with blaring explosive noises. The soundtrack is a brilliantly composed piece that creates an ambient effect to background the film and narration, with well-timed moments of change and progression and the story unfolds. The overall effect is one of peering through a portal of time to see what happened, while a unbiased professor elaborates on all the fascinating things we see occurring. This is an ideal way to understand History.

WW2 dochmentaries today usually fall into the genre of hypotheticals and conspiracy, such as "What if Hitlar won the battle of Britain" or "Did Nazi Germany have Alien technology" very weak garbage when compared to documentaries that are trying to be historically accurate as one could be and without the need of being sensational (as is common these day).

Battlefield is a series of documentaries that were released over a period of 6 -7 years. They covered in depth many battles in both the European theatre of war to the Pacific theatre if war. Events included are "The battle of Britain" , "Operation Barbarossa" and "The battle of Leyte Gulf to name a few....

Each rougly 2 hour episode works of a similar formate. Introduces the battle and its significance in the strategic sense in the war. The tactics used in order to carry out the battle. The leaders and commanders are given some background each episode. Then information about the battle as it progressed. Using maps on screen and historical footage....

The only negative I can give this documentary is that sometimes it can appear a little repetitive if you tend to watch a lot of episodes in close succession. This is because the backgrounds of leaders is often repeated over again in an identical fashion. Yet this is a small negative. The narrators of the documentary series are British men and are excellent and have an air of academic seriousness. Unlike perhaps some American documentaries.

This is an extremely well done series. The only complaint I have is the god-awful music throughout. It's terrible & the same in every single episode I've seen. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I have absolutely nothing but praise for this fantastically knowledgeable & well put together series. There is so much about this that is both factual & entertaining at the same time. I would tell everyone to watch this superb series but especially those interested in WWII. Even for Historians of the era or Wannabe historians such as myself who know a ton about the period, there is still information that is quite interesting. I will say that those who just have a passing interest in WWII might not want to watch this as it's generally pretty in-depth for it's 1 hour 37 minute episodes. Give this a try, just ignore the bad music & learn.

For too many years battles have been described in vague form with little heed to tactics, weaponry or the men involved. This series seeks to redress that with an overwhelming concentration of what happened within the battle and why. Pivotal battles such as Stalingrad or Normandy are well analysed and explained in laymens terms so that you do not have be a military nut to understand the events. The series assumes that its audience does not have a military background and so gives a run down on the military hardware used and the consequences of that. There is no distraction with first person testimony or an attempt to shock the viewers with horrific images and narration as that was so well done by The World At War. Instead we are offered an insight into the tactics and thinking of the military commanders and politicians with the use of computer graphics and maps. Having said that there is little on offer here for people with only a passing interest in history. The slow methodical pace does mean that it is unlikely to appeal to anyone outside of the history sector. Still, if you are interested you will emerge from the programme having learned something.