Battlefield

If history were presented in the "Battlefield" series format, I would have undoubtedly like it much more...

The series manages to strike a very good balance of introducing the key impacts in major battles of WW2. It does not want to reduce the battle to one single trigger, instead it focuses on the prelude, people, weaponry and tactics/strategy.

The latter is a favorite part of mine, as this was usually the key ingredient missing in many other popular historic presentations. The series devotes a significant amount of time to this part, making much more sense of why did the great generals behave the way they did.

As I grew up in the "computer game" generation, this series made me remember of the endless number of strategy games I've played, and in particular, of the game "Civilization".

The graphics and music background are not high-tech, however, IMHO this only reduces any distractions and makes you enjoy this series even more.

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.

I've really enjoyed this season, particularly the first 4 featuring Tim Pigott-Smith as Narrator. What is most enjoyable is the way each major battle is broken down into well organized segments, such as "Prelude to Battle", "National Leaders", "Weapons", etc. There is a lot of original footage, though some does tend to be reused, sometimes several times in the same episode.

If the show has a flaw, it is that each episode seems overly long, and sometimes the material has to be stretched to fit all that time. The worst example I encountered was in Season 5, Episode 2 "El Alamein", when the same information was repeated not just once, or twice, but sometimes three times. It was clear that the writers didn't have enough material concerning the relatively small battle at El Alamein, so had to simple repeat, repeat, and repeat again. It got quite tiresome.

Otherwise, it is a very interesting series that I have enjoyed tremendously.

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.

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.