World War 2: Day by Day

One has to admire the labor that went into the compilation, research and editing of this documentary. Unfortunately, to anyone familiar with the history of WWII, it is rendered almost unwatchable by the amateur narration. The precious and deliberate pronunciation of every syllable creates an effect not unlike a robo-call while the uniformed speaker mispronounces character and place names like Vichy, Jodl, and, get ready, Potomac. I say Po-toh-mek and you say Pot-oh-mac. Let's call the whole thing off!

This review is about a DVD set called "WWII Diaries, A Day By Chronicle". It's marketed by Mill Creek Entertainment in two DVD boxes vol 1 has 9 DVD's and covers 1939 to mid 1942, vol 2 has 10 DVDs and covers the rest of the war up to September 1945. It was available on Prime years ago but I don't think its available for free anymore, I bought the 2 volume DVD set on ebay used. I believe this was made in 2004, and that the narrator is an AI type voice, thus the reason for the mispronunciations. I find it interesting to watch especially because it not only talks about the major combatants but all of the minor combatants down to even those in South America! This is great if you want to know what countries like Romania, Finland and Vichy France were doing combat wise. It also discusses politics in the countries and how the war effected leadership and decisions. Presented as an episode for each month with each episode lasting an hour. Lots of decent war film footage mixed with some dated computer graphics and sound effects. It's not a World at War quality level of war history video but its worth having in any war history lovers collection, especially if you can get a deal on a used set. 9 of 10.

Where is Morgan Freeman when you need him? The guy narrating this series pronounces almost everything wrong. He can't even pronounce "America." Could have been a much better serious.

Yeah, the narrator provides ample wft pronunciation choices and enunciates... oddly at times. You can get past it easily.

However, the steady, grinding chronological presentation, the masses of historical video footage, and just the sheer scope of the coverage has made what was always a chaotic mess of information into something I can follow. And the geographical thoroughness of the coverage shows me that my US-centric education never really reflected the true international nature of the war.

Altogether it made me appreciate the sacrifices, the losses, the destruction, and just the sheer awfulness of the war. It doesn't editorialize, it just sets it out inexorably.