The World Wars on the History Channel

[Bailey Guns]

Anyone watch this series that was on this past week? I DVR'd it and watched the first of three episodes tonight. It was full of technical mistakes that I thought were pretty bad.



German soldiers in trenches using SMLE rifles.
Close ups of German soldiers firing what looked like 1903 rifle then reloading with an SMLE mag
British soldiers using chromed 1903 drill rifles
An actor playing Churchill charging out of a trench with a 1911. (I suppose that's possible but it seems highly unlikely...especially since the US was a year away from even entering the war)
Patton, a LtC meets McArthur, a one-star, on the battlefield and in the dialog the actor playing Patton introduces himself as Lt Patton when he's clearly wearing silver oak leafs.
a close up of a young Adolph Hitler charging a Luger with a clearly empty magazine and then firing it.


Overall I enjoyed the program and actually learned some really interesting things but was really distracted by the numerous and ongoing inaccuracies in the technical details. Just curious if anyone else watched.

[KestrelBike]

Saw the first episode too, I thought Patton said Lt.Col out loud, not just Lt.

[StagLefty]

I watched all 3 episodes and liked it.

Sent from my KFOT using Tapatalk 2

[sroz]

All kinds of screw-ups. When I saw Churchil with the 1911, I googled it because like you I thought it was possible but unlikely. Turns out he actually did carry a 1911. Makes one wonder how they got this right but blew it on the easy details.

[UncleDave]

Churchill carried automatic pistols throughout his military career, starting in the Boar War when as a young lieutenant he had torn his right shoulder so could not use his saber in the charge as was considered gentlemanly. His mother sent him a broom handle Mauser, which he carried throughout that campaign. He was always an aficionado of new and innovative weapon designs, and could afford to have the latest and greatest. A very intesting man. I would recommend My Early Life, a memoir of his life from childhood to WW1 if I remember correctly.

[ChunkyMonkey]

How about the T55 w/ red star?

[BPTactical]

Almost as good as Apocalypse Now and 30 round magazines.
Or Platoon when Willem Dafoe is by himself running in the bush whacking Charlie and they show the closeup of him changing magazines. I never realized a Nam era carbine was rollmarked "For Law Enforcement, Military, Export Only"....

"Artistic License"

[Ah Pook]

Haven't seen this one yet.

Been watching Ken Burns WWII and The Civil War lately.

Three Days To Kill had some obvious firearm goofs. When the blonde racks the Glock slide, leaving the slide locked open with a full loaded mag, and hands it to Costner. How many goofs can you pick out?

[StagLefty]

This might sound weird but I don't expect a lot of accuracy (especially on the History channel anymore ) unless it's a legit documentary.

[Irving]

Three Days To Kill had some obvious firearm goofs. When the blonde racks the Glock slide, leaving the slide locked open with a full loaded mag, and hands it to Costner. How many goofs can you pick out?

That just sounds like common courtesy to me.

[Bailey Guns]

Watched part 2 tonight. Good lead up to the US entry into WWII. More errors I noticed:



MacArthur was portrayed as a General of the Army (5 stars) in 1933 or 34, 10 years before he achieved that rank and also when he went to the Philippines prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
C-130s dropping German paratroops over Czechoslovakia
German B-17s bombing Poland
Modern warships portrayed as Japanese ships in 1940/41.

[HoneyBadger]

Saw a bunch of modern warships portrayed as allied and axis ships, but I guess it didn't really bother me. It's a dramatization.

[Bailey Guns]

It's a good series so far. I'm just disappointed they couldn't get simple details right. Shouldn't have been that hard with all the archival footage available from WWII.

[newracer]

I thought they were very entertaining. My 15 and 12 year old boys did too.

[Bailey Guns]

Finally watched episode 3 last night. Not bad...but there was no mention of Doolittle's Raiders or the fact Yamamoto was against the attack on Pearl Harbor. They also didn't mention many of the famous island battles like Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Overall I'd rate it about 6/10. I guess there's an extended "director's cut" edition being aired the end of this month if you missed it.

[flogger]

I thought they were very entertaining. My 15 and 12 year old boys did too.


This is a great series for kids to watch, no stunning CG graphics or major political slant to the story. I'm guessing it's better than what the average public school spends on the subject but maybe not.

Newracer, did your boys ask questions?