Hitler's Last Stand

The story tellers over dramatize everything. The reenactors were the wrong gear and carry the wrong weapons. It looks like it was put together by a high schooler in AV club with a bunch of his buddies playing the roles. On the plus side, the specifics of the battles are pretty accurate.

What differentiates this series from similar series is the close up and personal look at the action, sometimes with minute-by-minute accounts. Names, dates, times, and everything else about the series gives you an up-close look as you rarely get. Don't expect great acting or outstanding special effects. They're not there. But footage of battles and locations and some rarely scene footage help make this series distinct. Well, worth watching, though it could be better if they had a bigger budget.

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.

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!

This is a very good series.

Having taken in the first 4 series, I can confidently say this was a refreshing and enjoyable format to the WWII documentary drama genre.

Yes, other reviews have pointed out that the tanks used in the reconstructions are incorrect, the uniforms are only 97.3% accurate and the same actors are used to portray different people in different factions across various episodes. Yet, regardless of this, it's nice to see a real tank being used in a reconstruction, the uniforms are but a minor detail that most will not pick up on, and, after all it's a relatively small budget production, not a 700 million dollar Hollywood film.

The reenactments are a breath of fresh air and aid in the retelling of the stories being told. Having watched a lot of documentaries about this war the scenes were a particular highlight instead of the normal approach of reusing footage as in many other documentaires.

8/10, would definitely recommend for those casually interested to long time WWII docu viewer.