The War by Ken Burns

[Mark Carver]

Starts Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 on PBS.

From The War (http://www.pbs.org/thewar/)


THE WAR, a seven-part series directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, tells the story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four quintessentially American towns. The series explores the most intimate human dimensions of the greatest cataclysm in history — a worldwide catastrophe that touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America — and demonstrates that in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.

[ScottieBaseball]

Starts Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 on PBS.

From The War (http://www.pbs.org/thewar/)

Is it mandatory that now that I'm 30, suddenly I'm interested in war history? I need to see this.

[BaltiJo]

For anyone who didn't catch the first part tonight (Sunday night) I'd highly recommend picking up with where it left off starting tomorrow night. If you have Tivo, I recommend recording it.

Fantastic presentation so far. Very important production.

[Mark Carver]

With us losing 1000 WWII veterans a day, any film/documentary that has them getting face time talking about their experiences is greatly appreciated. So far, this looks to be a must see, and a must used in today's classroom as a teaching aide.

I want to second... "Fantastic presentation so far. Very important production."

Maryland PBS has a replay of the 1st Episode (A Necessary War) on Saturday, September 29, 2007 (http://www.mpt.org/schedule/home.cfm?thisday=2007-9-29&channelselected=mptv#primetime) at 4:00 PM.

[The Wedge]

Is it mandatory that now that I'm 30, suddenly I'm interested in war history? I need to see this.

I'll let you know if that's a hardwired thing in us on Nov. 1st.

[tennOsfan]

I'm running the DVR for all the episodes. The first episode was great. Some touching and harrowing stories.

The vet talking of being at Guadalcanal and trying to sleep but wishing the guy shot in the distance would just go ahead and die ... and then finding out that was his best buddy the next morning, after he'd finally died. You could tell he's carried that memory and regret for quite a while.

I also appreciate how Burns isn't making the U.S. look perfect in all this. The circumstances of war can make good people do bad things -- how Japanese Americans were treated, how Japanese prisoners of war might've just been executed rather than taken prisoner (of course that's after we discovered how they treated our prisoners). And the Minnesota veteran who admitted he and his buddies didn't sign up out of patriotism or being on the good side -- they signed up to be something individually and lead exciting lives.

There's a lot of honesty here. It's a must-see for any American today.

[rolliefingers]

I love Ken Burns, I'll try and check this out.

[Old#5fan]

I love this series. WWII was the greatest or most significant event in history from many perspectives. I found it fascinating and never knew that Hitler had mapped out his takeover of the U.S. and that had Germany won we would have come under German rule, would now be speaking German and would be living in Territories not states. My God, how horrible is that thought?

I had a cousin who died in WWII in Italy after being wounded and sent back. He received the Bronze star for valor before he was wounded and before he was sent back. He risked his life and rescued a wounded GI while "within a whisper" of the German lines. He entered as a private and was promoted to Sergeant during the war for his efforts. He also got some kind of posthumous commendation from the French Government. His sister who is in her 70's has his medals and they are impressive.

She said she hooked school to see him off to the war without her parents knowledge. She was glad she did as she had this feeling she would never see him again (unfortunately, she was right). Young soldiers like Sgt. Richard Huntzberry, gave up their tomorrows so we could have our todays in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!

My uncle who is now 83 fought all the way through Germany in Patton's division as a private in the 255th Infantry company D. His unit took battle honors in the battle of Wallenburg, and helped liberate a concentration camp! He carried a mortar and also was a machine gunner at various times. He would never talk about it at all until recently. He told me much of it he doesn't remember and most of it he doesn't want to remember. However, he was recently given the Bronze Star in a much belated ceremony after I encouraged him to pursue it with the army and he finally stated in a history of veterans in Washington County Maryland publication that his most memorable moment was sharing a foxhole all night with his first Sergeant who was shot and dying. He said the next morning they found the German who did the shooting several feet away from the foxhole lying dead.

My uncle wouldn't say that he did the shooting of that German, but I happen to think he did. He told me he was "scared to death, and didn't know what to think, most of the time." I got my picture taken with him and the Major who presented his Bronze star. I told him and wrote a nice letter (it was hard to express my feelings in words) how proud I was of him and that what he did was the greatest accomplishment of anyone in our family before or since!

I will try to post a link to the article in the Herald Mail (Hagerstown paper).

The one episode of this series a guy who was a reporter (I believe, or maybe a medic assistant) said that the soldiers he admired most were the ones who you could see were really scared but did their jobs nontheless. He said some people are either dumb or have something built into them to ignore all the carnage and fearsome things around them and those were not the soldiers he was speaking of. He was referring to soldiers like my uncle who were showing they were scared but still doing their duty and doing it damn well.