Hitler's Last Stand

The documentary series presents snippets of small unit action - battalion level - from the Western Front. The first two episodes I've watched covers the assault on "Abbaye D'Ardenne" by 1st Battalion Canadian Regina Rifle Regiment and the storm on "Fort Montbarey" by a battlegroup consisting of U.S. 121st Engineer Battalion, U.S. 1st Bn, 116th under Maj Tom Dallas and the "Crocodile" tanks of B Squadron, 141st Regiment of the Royal Armoured Corps. The former is a snippet of the "Battle for Caen" and the latter "Battle of Brest".

The concept is good: Take an interesting battalion level small unit action, which by the way in both cases turn out to be an assault on a fortified position, from a larger battle and tell the story. The cases are also well chosen.

However the overall quality of reenactment is hideous. One can bear the usual low budget effects and scaled down extras, a few soldiers representing the companies, but by god acting is unbearable. The one playing the Kurt Meyer is especially annoying. The equipment is not accurate. Crocodiles represented by Shermans, British Tankers wearing American suits etc. The story telling is usually good except lausy order of battles. How many of the Germans were on those fortified positions we do not told and I had to look up internet in order to figure out "Regina Rifles" is a battalion strength unit. If you're going to tell us small unit action you have to do it properly and give us necessary details.

Overall; good concept, bad execution.

The angle is strange! The battles are described in a way that gives the impression that the Germans were winning and then suddenly the Germans lost in the few last minutes! The Germans are also depicted as some kind of supermen that lose for some strange reason! The allied are shown as clueless bunglers and whereas the Germans are show as supreme at planning and strategy!

The level of historical battle accuracy and reenactment was top notch. I have been watching war movies for over 40 years. My dissatisfaction has always been with equipment, vehicles, artillery etc. It's not easy finding WWII tanks, trucks etc that look new and many Hollywood movies must use 70 yr old resources. We all know by the 1940's everything in action was shiny brand new, yet in film, 70 year old stuff looks 70 years old. Not here. Equipment and uniforms were new as they should have been. Hitler was a bastard and we need to keep educating each new generation so they understand it must never happen again. That said, without turning this into Schindler's List, it still should have depicted the lose of innocent life caused by the Nazi Final Solution; extermination of all Jewish people.

Watching this the Germans seem to win every battle and the Allies look like keystone cops??Allied victories are glossed over in few seconds. On the positive side realistic history of the tactics and historical battles are examined. Perhaps it does a good job of highlighting how difficult the advance was. Perhaps the directors took the view that only the most difficult battles are of interest. Having said that perhaps the Allied generals who became heroes like Montgommery had their limitations and seemed to make many tactical nlunders. The pristine soldiers uniforms are not that realistic but the horrors that the soldiers must have faced are highlighted.

They seem to have decent writing, access to world-class historians like David O'Keefe, and a budget for CGI. The reenactments, however, are horrifyingly bad. I feel for the extras who have been given not only the wrong types of uniform and equipment to work with, but absolutely no informed instructions on how to wear any of it convincingly. Firearms carries are abysmal and modelled after modern day police tactics rather than what soldiers were doing in the field in 1944. Many won't notice much of this, but for those in the know, the reenactments are unwatchable. And they deserve to have been the centrepiece.