I am finally watching "The War"

[w8liftinglady]

all I can say is...what a sacrifice everyone had paid.where is OUR sacrifice now?I know where my son's was.I can only say..Thank you.

[Blue Belle]

1. Ken Burns does it again...

I thought I'd tune in and catch the first part of it yesterday, but I ended up watching the entire episode last night and tonight. I used to think myself knowledgeable of WWII because I knew the major players and the dates of some battles, but I've learned a lot in this film that doesn't necessarily get covered in high school history or even the history channel. I had no idea that MacArthur completely bailed on his troops in the Philippines, and I didn't know that German U-boats were blowing up our ships in the Gulf of Mexico or on the East Coast. I also had no idea that Romania had a larger army than we did when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Amazing. I recommend this documentary series to everyone.

[question everything]

2. Same here

I really did not know much about the war in the Pacific, and there is more to learn.

And I am reminded of the many movies made on specific events: Private Ryan, Memphis Bell, The Longest Day, the Great Escape, the English Patient, Empire of the Sun, A Town like Alice...

All described some of the atrocities but ended up with some hope. Here we are constantly being bombarded by horrific news and the numbers of dead and wounded are hard to grasp.

It is amazing how ill prepared we were, with no decent military to for a quick response.

Apparently the plan was to land at France in 1942 and it was postponed for political reasons, but the way our troops were so ill prepared, it was a good idea to wait two more years, otherwise that landing would have ended up in a massacre and today most of Europe would be still under Nazi rule.

[Javaman]

6. Check out the old movie "battleground" with Van Johnson

excellent excellent picture.

[pokerfan]

4. It's engrossing

While I haven't really learned anything new the individual stories are still compelling.

I knew about MacArthur slipping out under the cover of dark. My biggest complaint with MacArthur was his complete and total inaction (some historians have called it a paralysis) following the attack on Pearl. Despite the nine hours warning he allowed half of his air force to be destroyed on the ground. He completely ignored the war plan and the war order that had been transmitted from Washington.

Yet for his "defense" of the Phillpines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor.

[Blue Belle]

5. I didn't know he had 9 hours of warning...

and he did nothing - just left the planes sitting on the runway to be destroyed. Thay always prop MacArthur up as this great hero in the history books, and in reality he cut and ran. I also had no idea of the extent that Japan had captured... they were really at Australia's doorstep there for a while. Not much is said about the battles in the Pacific...

[Javaman]

7. MacArthur was an ego maniac.

read the book, "An American Caesar".

[pokerfan]

14. Like Patton he was tremendous self promoter

But I have great respect for Patton if only from the history books. MacArthur, not so much.

[SeattleGirl]

3. It really is a great documentary.

I'm watching the second showing of the 2nd installment right now.

I knew a lot about WWII, but not as much as I thought I did.

[Javaman]

8. I'm a little disappointed that nothing was mentioned about

the evacuation of Dunkirk. That had a major psychological effect, obvious on the Brits, but also on the US.

[question everything]

10. It is from an American point of view

otherwise this will be a 50 hours program.

[Javaman]

11. True.

now there is an idea. I half hour show, 365 days a year for 7 plus years with each day giving an account of what happened on that day.

or not...

[spinbaby]

9. We just ordered the DVD set from Amazon

It's out next Tuesday.

[bdamomma]

12. The War, it is a education for all of us

how can we prod ahead without knowing the past. Great documentary.

[Zookeeper]

13. What really struck me from yesterday's episode...

was the story the airplane gunner told of bleeding from injuries and, because the temperature in the damaged compartment dropped to -30, the drops of blood froze in little balls that he had to remember to brush out of the plane before landing.

A weird little detail that felt very real to me.

[lpbk2713]

15. You might want to watch *Band of Brothers* if you haven't seen it before.

It will be shown on the History Channel in its entirety starting Saturday afternoon at around 1:30pm. It's a fairly factual account following a company of Army paratroopers during WW-II. I've seen it several times and I'll be watching again.

Link: http://www.history.com/minisites/bandofbrothers/