Greatest Events of WWII in Colour

First, in defense of the series against some of the review comments about the source of the video, just because you've seen it in a movie doesn't mean it's not real wartime footage. Older movies, before CGI, did that all the time to save money. For instance, we've all seen that crash of the plane onto the carrier deck in a movie or two, the one where it breaks in half and spins around. But it's real, not shot for a movie. Second, there's no way to cover everything important that occurred in WWII in 10 hours so obviously many important things will be left out. You can't cover the contributions of every country when so many participated so you pick the major combatants, etc. My main complaint is in many cases they cover some subjects in such a way as to focus on a more minor topic and leave out the major one. So many examples I can't list them all but here's just one: in the Battle of Britain episode they extensively cover the Spitfire without even a mention of the Hawker Hurricane when in fact there were many more Hurricanes used and Hurricanes were responsible for many more German losses than Spitfires. Yes, the Spitfire was the shiney new plane at the the time. But it's higher complexity meant lower percent availability of the smaller numbers of planes and the Hurricane's quicker turnaround time meant a single Hurricane could fly more sorties in a day. So why not take even 20 seconds to mention the most important British fighter in the Battle, especially the early stages?

I stumbled across this late on a Friday night. The last war documentary that I'd seen was Peter Jackson's "They Shall Not Grow Old" and I had been yearning for a similar experience ever since. Well, safe to say-- I found it. This is an enthralling watch. The colorization of such massively historical events allows us viewers 70+ years later to empathize in an unimaginable way, and is careful enough to give us fresh insight into perspectives from both sides. Well done to all involved. Netflix in my opinion is hit or miss but this is without a doubt as good as it gets. Top class. A real tribute to the heroic men and women of that generation.

Side note: Pay no heed to the so-called political connotations suggested by other reviewers. Having watched the entire series through, my mind never once went there, I was too enraptured by the images and the quality on display. It in no way detracts from the documentary itself, if you're reading this prior to watching don't let such comments dismay you. I couldn't recommend this film highly enough.

Whilst there are no startling revelations within this series, as the WW2 conflict has been covered by countless other documentaries, the colouring of the footage does bring the subject matter home in a far more relatable manner.

In fact some of the colouring is so good, you feel like you're watching something that could have been filmed in the last decade.

A must see for any modern history enthusiasts!

Its so sad listening to so many butthurt complainers nitpicking at everything in this documentary. Honestly you could make a 30 or 40 part documentary series on ww2 and not even scratch the surface of the entire war and do every aspect and every service person justice. Those who complain that their country isn't mentioned... so what. You can't mention every damn country in detail.

I think this documentary series does a splendid job as acting as an introductory series to perhaps children/teenagers learning about ww2 for the first time. (then move on to books) Personally I knew most of the information but I enjoyed hearing it again with some coloured footage. The narrator is really easy to listen to and his commentary is mixed in with some war authors and some vetrans (who are becoming very very few, so these documentations of their experiences are essential)

Though I've studied WWII for much of my life, I found this series to be a good, concise description of key events. While it does not go into great depth, it still manages to pack in enough detail with empathetic insights from both Axis and Allied viewpoints. It's an excellent refresher or starting point for key events, which will hopefully engage the viewer to research further.

My only qualm was that the series ends abruptly, with no conclusion/summary. I'd be interested to see a 2nd season into the Cold War, as is hinted at the end of Ep.10.