Victory at Sea is the definitive sea going version of World War II. Sometime after the war some one at NBC was looking at the news reel film shot during the war and was so impressed that he said “We ought to show this to the public. And so they did. It started coming out on NBC in 1952. The movie film of warships in action, troops in combat, the US industrial plant turning out war material, the aircraft in combat was compelling. I was very young when it was broadcast on NBC, but I watched each episode to the end. They got Richard Rogers of Broadway fame to compose the score, and it was very very good. Every bit as good at the score John Williams would do for Star Wars 25 years later. They sold 33 rpm vinyl records of the score.
The movie film is
dramatic. The show a battleship, taking
a hit, rolling over on its side and then sinking. They show German U-boats torpedoing merchant
vessels. They show British troops, flat
tin helmets, Bermuda shorts, bayoneted Enfield
rifles marching across desert sand to encounter Rommel’s Germans in the Western
Desert. Good shots of Mussolini and Hitler. A lot of really old fashioned tanks and motor
vehicles. Some shots of European navy sailors wearing T shirts with big black and white stripes that no American would be caught dead wearing.
I got my three disk set in a plastic box at the cheapy DVD bin at Walmarts some years ago. You ought to be able to find them somewhere. If you have children, showing Victory at Sea to them will give them a fine clear idea of what went on in World War II.
All in all, Good Flick.
1 comment:
A few more observations. The movies show many many anti aircraft guns blazing away at enemy aircraft. Once they show an enemy aircraft taking a solid hit and floating down in pieces, wings, tail, fuselage. More often the cameramen would catch an enemy aircraft after it had taken a good hit and was crashing into the ground or into the sea.
WWII aircraft carriers lacked the catapults of modern aircraft carriers. The propeller piston engine power plants developed more thrust at low speeds than modern jets do. Plus the carriers always headed into the wind, and cranked up best power to give best wind over the deck. They could all do 30 knots or better so even on dead calm days the carrier engines could give 30 knots of wind over the deck for takeoff or landing.
Every army issued distinctive helmets for WWII. If you are hep you can tell British from American, from German, from Russian, from Italian, merely be the style of the troop's helmets.
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