The World Wars on History Channel Monday May 26th

looking forward to watching this three part mini-series The World Wars on History Channel. it is the story of how WWI and the period between the two World Wars shaped the WWII leaders Hitler, Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt

episode 1 Monday May 26th is "Trial by Fire" which takes place during WWI

episode 2 Tuesday May 27th is "A Rising Threat" which takes place between the war

episode 3 Wednesday May 28th is "Never Surrender" about the four main subjects as leaders during WWII.

https://www.history.com/shows/the-world-wars

Going to watch that as well.  Discovery will also have a drama doc. series in the fall about the "The West" , focusing on the wild west from the civil war period until the 1890 ties. 

any date for that series yet, Mikael?

Not yet. Only thing i know is fall 2014

Finally something worthwhile on the history channel.

watched episode one and thought it was very interesting. I seem to always learn something new from History Channel shows every time I watch one. did NOT know that a British soldier, Henry Tandey, had a young Adolph Hitler in his sights during WWI and for some reason did NOT shoot him.

also did NOT know that then Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur and then Lieutenant Colonel George Patton together lead one of the first ever "combined arms" infantry plus tanks attacks near the end of the war.

also thought the history of Benito Mussolini's and the Fascist's rise to power in  post WWI Italy was interesting. did NOT know that prior to the war he had been a pacifist and BUT his service as an Italian army sniper transformed him into a Nationalist

REALLY looking forward to seeing episode two tonight after the Rangers @ Canadiens NHL playoff game. hopefully they will cover the rise of General Hideki Tojo and the Japanese militarists after WWI

Saw episode 1 last night and was great.  I can't believe Tandey didn't shoot Hitler when he had the chance.  Hitler was standing there just waiting to die.  Didn't know Hitler escaped death twice after the Mustard gas which should have killed him.

episode 2 was decent BUT there was quite a bit of "BS" in it also. NO mention of Hitler building the autobahn? it was technically a military project to rapidly move troops BUT was also a WPA style "public works"

anyone who has ever seen the movie "Battle of Britain" knows that Hitler had standing orders NOT to bomb London early in the "Blitz" BUT an accidental night bombing of the city caused the English to retaliate by bombing Berlin and then he went NUTS bombing London. probably cost the German's that battle because they had the RAF on the ropes from attacking their airfields

as for Douglas MacArthur, he was actually sacked as Army Chief of Staff after brutally breaking up the Bonus Army protesters in Washington, DC in 1932 and forced to retire in 1937. he was already in the Philippines as a military advisor to their Government in 1941 when he was recalled to active duty.

got to say that the actors playing young Hitler and later "Der Fuhrer" are wicked scary in their likenesses as is the actor playing Stalin. the guy playing Churchill has his voice down pat

btw, BEST line from the commentators so far was from Colin Powell about dealing with advisories. "In my military career I had to shake hands with a LOT of Pigs"

after being excellent Episode 1 and I would say "average" Episode 2, Episode 3 had some REALLY "off the wall" comments and omissions. I can NOT believe they would NOT at least mention the 8th Air Force air battles over Germany. at 50% losses, being an American or British bomber crewmember was the 3rd most dangerous assignment in WWII after only Japanese "Kamikaze" pilots and German U-boat crewmen

was NO mention of either US Navy Chester Nimitz OR Japanese Admiral Yamamoto in the Battle of Midway segment? also talked like FDR personally set the American tactics to ambush the Japanese

they made a statement that General George Patton conquered Italy in 6 weeks? they may have been thinking Sicily and mis-spoke

during the D-Day segment there was NO mention of the Canadian forces. they were the primary attackers at Juno Beach. also they talked like Patton didn't enter the European campaign until shortly before the Battle of the Bulge

one statement that I believe is totally true is that FDR knew that IF the US and Great Britain did NOT invade Europe from the west, the Red Army might just keep going after defeating Germany and Europe would just be trading Hitler for a Stalin dictatorship

also appears that a LOT of footage was left on the cutting room floor in the 1st three Episodes. along with segmets on the WWII political leaders FDR,   Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo with the American military leaders MacArthur and Patton, there was also unshown segmets on future French President Charles De Gaulle.

they said last night at the conclusion of Episode 3 that there is a "directors cut" re-run of ther series that will play on History Channel 2 June 22nd

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Wars_(miniseries) has the list of players. as stated before, the actors that did the young Hitler, "Der Fuhrer" and Stalin were wicked scary likenesses as was Churchill in both look AND voice. 

Wow, what a series. Great heads up Rink.

Ever go to London checkout Churchill's underground bunker museum/tour. It'll blow ya away.

I think the "directors cut" on History 2 is going to be better. I know they only had three 2 hour segments to tell the story BUT as I stated, there were a LOT of important military leaders not even mentioned along with major battles like th Air War over Europe and the Battle of the Atlantic

was produced by the same group that did The History Channel's The Men Who Built America which was a 4 part, 6 hour mini-series that was absolutely OUTSTANDING. The World Wars definately needed at least one more segment. hopefully that happens with the "directors cut"

Looking forward to it.

Watched Men Who Built America twice. Incredible.

Don't understand how Hitler came up with money to build their war machine after the treaty. They were broke I thought.

would be an interesting study for an economic historian. for some reason Germany under Hitler recovered faster from the Great Depression than just about any other industrialized country in the world probably because of all his armaments manufacturing and public works like the autobahn and the olympic stadiums. they had pretty much full employment by 1936. probably WHY the average German was willing to put up with the NAZI's garbage

Good point. The flow of money seemed endless, especially toward the final stages of the war. Must be some economic study out there.

I remember seeing some money from the Weimar republic. Millions of Marks notes.