1942-43 N. African Theatre: Battles for El Alamein. Pacific Theatre: Battle of Guadalcanal; Burma. European Theatre: Dieppe Raid; Resistance Movements. Eastern Front: Battle for Stalingrad; Siege of Leningrad begins. Casablanca Co...

The End of the Beginning

The War Turns.

As usual, this fine documentary series begins with a summing up of recent events. There are no experts, participants, or talking heads of any sort, only combat footage, the occasional useful map, and the narration by some Yank who has a wayward way with words. As I&apos;ve said, it&apos;s more amusing than irritating. And I don&apos;t really mind much when &quot;Reich&quot; becomes &quot;Rike.&quot; 

But this is produced by the Brits and I don&apos;t think they&apos;re very much interested in the Pacific. The fantastic and chaotic naval battles around Guadalcanal are reduced to a summary of the last one, in which Japanese troop ships were sunk or beached, giving the mistaken impression that we made no mistakes. &quot;Japanese air superiority forced the withdrawal of the carriers,&quot; with no description of the consequences of that withdrawal. The strategic value of the island is not mentioned.

The program is admirably candid about the Canadian raid on the French port of Dieppe. &quot;It was a disaster.&quot; Of 6,100 attacking troops, 4,100 didn&apos;t return. And the raid was hastily staged partly for political reasons, to show Stalin that we were keeping the common enemy busy in the west. The film rests the responsibility on the shoulders of Lord Louis Mountbatten, an ambitious member of the royal family.

There is a brief but cogent segment dealing with the reactions of the occupied people -- resistance, acquiescence, and collaboration. The judgment rendered is anodyne. It&apos;s easy for us to look back and condemn everyone who didn&apos;t act like a hero. Actually, from a sociological point of view, acquiescence of most subjugated people made it possible for resistors to live among them unnoticed. Without the compliance and collaboration, resistance would have been impossible. In the case of the Balkans, occupation split the populations along existing fracture lines, with ethnic tribe fighting ethnic tribe as well as with or against the Nazis. It&apos;s the sort of higher-order analysis almost always skipped in ordinary documentaries of the war.

Considerable footage is given over to the Battle of Stalingrad, which marked the end of the Nazi advance into the USSR. Both dictators, Hitler and Stalin, issued orders of no retreat, partly because the city was named STALINgrad. Always good to be forced to die for somebody else&apos;s name. The Germans couldn&apos;t retreat. The Soviet troops were shot if they fell back. There was no &quot;fog of war&quot; here, only mustard gas. Anthony Beevor&apos;s book, &quot;Stalingrad,&quot; details the nightmarish conditions of the armies. Stalingrad is now Volgograd, just as Leningrad has now returned to St. Petersburg.

The irony is sometimes overwhelming. In 1942, Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran and deposed the Shah, who was pro-Nazi, replacing him with his pro-Allies son. In 1954, the USA, uncomfortable with the socialist leanings of democratic Iran, reinstalled the Nazi sympathizer on the throne, where he stayed until 1979 and was replaced by a theocracy that made us even LESS comfortable.

As usual, this fine documentary series begins with a summing up of recent events. There are no experts, participants, or talking heads of any sort, only combat footage, the occasional useful map, and the narration by some Yank who has a wayward way with words. As I've said, it's more amusing than irritating. And I don't really mind much when "Reich" becomes "Rike." 

But this is produced by the Brits and I don't think they're very much interested in the Pacific. The fantastic and chaotic naval battles around Guadalcanal are reduced to a summary of the last one, in which Japanese troop ships were sunk or beached, giving the mistaken impression that we made no mistakes. "Japanese air superiority forced the withdrawal of the carriers," with no description of the consequences of that withdrawal. The strategic value of the island is not mentioned.

The program is admirably candid about the Canadian raid on the French port of Dieppe. "It was a disaster." Of 6,100 attacking troops, 4,100 didn't return. And the raid was hastily staged partly for political reasons, to show Stalin that we were keeping the common enemy busy in the west. The film rests the responsibility on the shoulders of Lord Louis Mountbatten, an ambitious member of the royal family.

There is a brief but cogent segment dealing with the reactions of the occupied people -- resistance, acquiescence, and collaboration. The judgment rendered is anodyne. It's easy for us to look back and condemn everyone who didn't act like a hero. Actually, from a sociological point of view, acquiescence of most subjugated people made it possible for resistors to live among them unnoticed. Without the compliance and collaboration, resistance would have been impossible. In the case of the Balkans, occupation split the populations along existing fracture lines, with ethnic tribe fighting ethnic tribe as well as with or against the Nazis. It's the sort of higher-order analysis almost always skipped in ordinary documentaries of the war.

Considerable footage is given over to the Battle of Stalingrad, which marked the end of the Nazi advance into the USSR. Both dictators, Hitler and Stalin, issued orders of no retreat, partly because the city was named STALINgrad. Always good to be forced to die for somebody else's name. The Germans couldn't retreat. The Soviet troops were shot if they fell back. There was no "fog of war" here, only mustard gas. Anthony Beevor's book, "Stalingrad," details the nightmarish conditions of the armies. Stalingrad is now Volgograd, just as Leningrad has now returned to St. Petersburg.

The irony is sometimes overwhelming. In 1942, Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran and deposed the Shah, who was pro-Nazi, replacing him with his pro-Allies son. In 1954, the USA, uncomfortable with the socialist leanings of democratic Iran, reinstalled the Nazi sympathizer on the throne, where he stayed until 1979 and was replaced by a theocracy that made us even LESS comfortable.

1942-43 N. African Theatre: Battles for El Alamein. Pacific Theatre: Battle of Guadalcanal; Burma. European Theatre: Dieppe Raid; Resistance Movements. Eastern Front: Battle for Stalingrad; Siege of Leningrad begins. Casablanca Conference.

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The End of the Beginning

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