Smokey Stover
Banned
Diamond Dogs..? Maybe its a temporary mental block, but remind me what kind of film this is plz....
What is your favorite WW2 movie
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Smokey Stover
Banned
There is a BBC mini series called "First light" about the memoirs of bob ace Geof Wellum. It's not heaped in historical inaccuracies as other bob films and has a lot more realism about the huge and daunting job of repulsing the Luftwaffe and negating any chance of invasion of the British mainland. Not to mention of course the German armed forces, especially the Army and Navy were highly dubious about the barges and canal boats that would have been used to ferry the Wehrmacht across the channel that at best can be highly volatile. Not to mention without total air supremacy the Royal Navy would have surely annihilated the German attempted landings on mainland Britain. The biggest blunder made by the luwftwaffe and its leaders was not understanding the huge importance of Radar and the English ability to not have to fly continuous fighter sweeps/patrols over the south coast. And i have read many accounts of German aircrew who were shocked to see RAF formations vectored right onto the approaching bomber/fighter formations that Germany were convinced would prove the turning point. Also worth noting all the British commonwealth pilots were drafted in and put straight into combat during those tough summer months. Also should be noted of the volunteers from neutral countries such as the USA + its Eagle squadrons. I think as well once the American people seen how much devastation had been caused in London, it kind of sent a wave of sympathy towards the British public for standing strong in the face of such devastation. And not only was the mood changing towards England, more and more Americans sympathise with another nation that looked and talked like the US. And i imagine the feeling was, if little Britain can stand firm and repulse the nazis, then America would surely have the belief they could smash and control German aggression if indeed the US did ever enter the war.Kelly's Heroes
Battle of Britain (despite miserable editing, pan/scan and 60's hairstyles)
Saving Private Ryan (despite the main sob story)
Das Boot
Der Untergang
The Eagle Has Landed
Where Eagles Dare
Flammen og Citronen (The Flame and the Lemon)
And my all-time fave, even though it's a mini series: Band of Brothers.
I'd wish - oh I wish! - that messrs. Spielberg Hanks would give the Battle of Britain the same treatment...but that's just a daydream, I'm afraid. Just imagine the production costs...*yelps*
The US at the time was almost as polarized and gridlocked as it is now. The "progressive intelligensia", mostly clustered near the coasts, were paying attention to what was going on in Europe and the far East, and shuddering in their shoes, while the "conservative heartland", comfortable in their isolation, and aghast at the heresies of the New Deal, were leery of "foreign entanglements" and committed to "America First". It took Nanking in ruins, and then London in flames (London, epicenter of the English-speaking world!) to hit Americans at a gut level and start to elevate "America First" from a national to a global ambition, which resonates to this day.
Without the images of St Paul's against a flaming sky, Roosevelt could never have gotten away with Lend-Lease or swapping destroyers for bases, or escorting convoys, or most importantly, "a hundred thousand planes next year".
Cheers,
Wes
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Smokey Stover
Banned
Personally i think Roosevelt did a fantastic job. And lets not forget, The US were basically fighting a major war on two fronts. The ETO & PTO at the same time. The resources needed to do that as well as send tons and tons of supplies not just to Britain but to Russia and many other nations under threat of invasion/occupation. Roosevelt went out on a limb to help Britain despite his need to keep American opinion stable and away from what was really happening, with regards to lend lease and constant steady supplies of military hardwear. I heard in early 41 something like 50% of US aircraft production was switched ove to helping the British stay in the war. Some could argue that had England been defeated the outcome might have been so different. But thankfully the bravery and tactical savvy of the RAF fooled the Germans into a war of attrition. And despite the very real fear of invasion. I still think it would have been a bloobath for the Germans had they attempted to invade the British coast
swampyankee
Chief Master Sergeant
- 4,166
- Jun 25, 2013
Isolationism and its opposite were somewhat unrelated to the left-right spectrum, with isolationist Progressives and internationalist conservatives. Also, many isolationists were more than happy to intervene, especially in places like Central America and the Caribbean. There were also people quite happy with Germany slaughtering its way through Eastern Europe and offended by Japan behaving similarly in China. The politics were very confused.
From an American perspective, it seems there were a significant number of Britons of the wealthier classes who weren't all that offended by Nazism, thinking maybe it had some good ideas, such as anti-Semitism and Teutonic superioriy. (weren't the Angles and the Saxons both of German DNA?) Then all of a sudden, there they were, just across the river, and not seeming to show any sign of friendliness toward their island dwelling cousins. In fact they were being downright nasty, jettisoning ordnance on their blood relations!
Funny how a thing like that can have a unifying and hardening effect on the public will, isn't it?
"We will fight them on the beaches, we will fight them in the streets, and on the landing fields;...we will never surrender!" And we thought Japan would have been a tough nut to crack?
Cheers,
Wes
Aren't they always? Electoral mandates are illusory. They carry the seeds of their own undoing.
Cheers,
Wes
Hansie Bloeckmann
Senior Airman
There was a society, started by Lady Astor- that leaned toward the Hitlerian concept of a Europe under Nazi rule- One of fat-boy Churchill's cabinet, Lord Halifax, and also Neville Chamberlain were trying to negotiate with Mussolini to intercede with Hitler, to keep England out of another global European blood-bath a la 1914-1918. Trying to get Hitler to keep his word (as with the Czechoslovakian 1938 "Peace In Our Time" fubar, would be a difficult task indeed.
Hitler was a meglomaniac, his word was not to be trusted by anyone- The anti Jewish scenario, and both invading Russia in June 1941, and Hitler's declaring was on America, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, were among his many mistakes- His pact with the Japanese detailed that Germany would then declare on America only if and when America should attack Japan- Hitler got that one "bass-ackwards" and paid the price by May 1945- a whole continent laid to waste- millions died in the death camps and in battle fields from Normandy to Kiev, Athens and Tobruk, and points in between. I hope that the Brits pilloried Lady Astor and her followers--
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swampyankee
Chief Master Sergeant
- 4,166
- Jun 25, 2013
There were — and are — a not insignificant number of Americans who view nazi racism and antisemitism quite favorably.
Yes, and to quote the USFS: "Climatic conditions are favorable for the spread of wildfires."
Wink, wink. Nod, nod.
Wes
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fubar57
General
Kelly's Heroes..."woof woof'
Fishboy
Airman
You know it's interesting. I spent about 3 1/2 years on a US nuke fast attack based out of San Diego. Among other times at sea, we went on deployment to the western Pacific in 79. Mission to track Soviet boomers up near the Bering Sea. The longest we spent submerged continuously was 66 days. Now I know that the ventilation and atmospheric cleanup systems were night and day different on the boat I was on compared to the U-boats in WW2. But I remember the smells... or lack of. You'd walk by the garbage facility and you'd see it was just oozing, and you knew it had to stink to high heaven. But you'd detect it faintly, but not overpowering. I guess we got used to the slow accumulation of odors over the deployment. Kind of like the frog in a pot of water....if it's hot initially he'll jump out. Start out cold and slowly heat it up, he'll boil to death. You always smelled petroleum products like fuel oil, etc.
At the end of the 66 days, we pulled into a Guam and in the process ventilated the boat with fresh air. I remember that it smelled and tasted "different". It was then you realized just how foul the air had been.
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
That was a key part of Washington's farewell address over two hundred years ago.
To get back to the original topic, I'd like to toss in a vote for "Shogun", the mini series. Not WWII, but arguably a pre- pre- prequel.
Cheers,
Wes
parsifal
Colonel
One of my favourites is Yamato, a Japanese film about the loss of the famous ship. Its similar in structure to Saving Pte Ryan. I just prefer the subject material
fubar57
General
Why is my favorite WW2 movie set in WW2 not suitable for the "What is Your Favorite WW2 Movie?" and your pre-pre-prequel set in the 1600s is?
Sorry, didn't mean to hit you with negative waves, man! I was acknowledging your implication that we had drifted off topic and needed to make a course correction. Didn't make myself clear, I guess. I always get a kick out of Kelly's Heroes.
"We've been working on the railroad.....". One of my favorite scenes in the video pantheon.
Cheers,
Wes
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I agree, so many to choose from …..David Bowie was great in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Peter O'toole in Lawrence of Arabia. To End All Wars with Robert Carlyle, Kiefer Sutherland and Sakae Kimura was an emotional experience! I did enjoy Flags of our Father but too bad it was not historically correct...….the Flag raiser was my cousin Harold Schultz not that medic! Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan.....too many to list!
YF12A
Airman
Twelve O'Clock High. But I am a bit biased as my neighbor was in the 306th from 1942 until 1944 and saw it all happen. He told me some of the things portrayed in the movie did happen, some obviously didn't, but said it did capture the intensity well. This from someone who flew in the first raid over Germany and was Lead pilot for the 306th on the Schweinfurt mission
