User reviews

The documentary series presents snippets of small unit action - battalion level - from the Western Front. The first two episodes I've watched covers the assault on "Abbaye D'Ardenne" by 1st Battalion Canadian Regina Rifle Regiment and the storm on "Fort Montbarey" by a battlegroup consisting of U.S. 121st Engineer Battalion, U.S. 1st Bn, 116th under Maj Tom Dallas and the "Crocodile" tanks of B Squadron, 141st Regiment of the Royal Armoured Corps. The former is a snippet of the "Battle for Caen" and the latter "Battle of Brest".

The concept is good: Take an interesting battalion level small unit action, which by the way in both cases turn out to be an assault on a fortified position, from a larger battle and tell the story. The cases are also well chosen.

However the overall quality of reenactment is hideous. One can bear the usual low budget effects and scaled down extras, a few soldiers representing the companies, but by god acting is unbearable. The one playing the Kurt Meyer is especially annoying. The equipment is not accurate. Crocodiles represented by Shermans, British Tankers wearing American suits etc. The story telling is usually good except lausy order of battles. How many of the Germans were on those fortified positions we do not told and I had to look up internet in order to figure out "Regina Rifles" is a battalion strength unit. If you're going to tell us small unit action you have to do it properly and give us necessary details.

Overall; good concept, bad execution.

What differentiates this series from similar series is the close up and personal look at the action, sometimes with minute-by-minute accounts. Names, dates, times, and everything else about the series gives you an up-close look as you rarely get. Don't expect great acting or outstanding special effects. They're not there. But footage of battles and locations and some rarely scene footage help make this series distinct. Well, worth watching, though it could be better if they had a bigger budget.

Watching this the Germans seem to win every battle and the Allies look like keystone cops??Allied victories are glossed over in few seconds. On the positive side realistic history of the tactics and historical battles are examined. Perhaps it does a good job of highlighting how difficult the advance was. Perhaps the directors took the view that only the most difficult battles are of interest. Having said that perhaps the Allied generals who became heroes like Montgommery had their limitations and seemed to make many tactical nlunders. The pristine soldiers uniforms are not that realistic but the horrors that the soldiers must have faced are highlighted.

The angle is strange! The battles are described in a way that gives the impression that the Germans were winning and then suddenly the Germans lost in the few last minutes! The Germans are also depicted as some kind of supermen that lose for some strange reason! The allied are shown as clueless bunglers and whereas the Germans are show as supreme at planning and strategy!

As a series of short documentaries this is good. It shows some well-known and less knows 'incidents' and they are presented in an interesting way. The storytelling is good, the acting could have been better. I guess the budget wasn't huge, because many of the actors are seen in various roles over various episodes. OK, John Wayne played many roles in many films, but they were different kinds of films and not parts of a series. If watching this series, in one episode an actor is playing the role of a German officer and in the next episode a Canadian one and in another episode he's an American soldier. Also, when watching episodes concerning castles, all have the samen walls. And residential buildings all look the same: not very house-like. Even tank no. 14 seems to take part in many different battles.

My overall opinion: good intention, not so good execution.

They seem to have decent writing, access to world-class historians like David O'Keefe, and a budget for CGI. The reenactments, however, are horrifyingly bad. I feel for the extras who have been given not only the wrong types of uniform and equipment to work with, but absolutely no informed instructions on how to wear any of it convincingly. Firearms carries are abysmal and modelled after modern day police tactics rather than what soldiers were doing in the field in 1944. Many won't notice much of this, but for those in the know, the reenactments are unwatchable. And they deserve to have been the centrepiece.

The level of historical battle accuracy and reenactment was top notch. I have been watching war movies for over 40 years. My dissatisfaction has always been with equipment, vehicles, artillery etc. It's not easy finding WWII tanks, trucks etc that look new and many Hollywood movies must use 70 yr old resources. We all know by the 1940's everything in action was shiny brand new, yet in film, 70 year old stuff looks 70 years old. Not here. Equipment and uniforms were new as they should have been. Hitler was a bastard and we need to keep educating each new generation so they understand it must never happen again. That said, without turning this into Schindler's List, it still should have depicted the lose of innocent life caused by the Nazi Final Solution; extermination of all Jewish people.

This show is really good and sheds light on some lesser known battles with fairly accurate information. My biggest problems with this though is the narrator will say something along the line of "the Stug 3 moved forward" yet on the screen they're showing a Panzer. This is confusing and leads people to miss identify equipment. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just once or twice but it's every episode I've watched so far and it happens with all sorts of equipment.

But the show is good and I'd recommend it to others but I'd also tell them to do their own research so as not to be confused by what they're being too and what they see.

This is a very good series.

Having taken in the first 4 series, I can confidently say this was a refreshing and enjoyable format to the WWII documentary drama genre.

Yes, other reviews have pointed out that the tanks used in the reconstructions are incorrect, the uniforms are only 97.3% accurate and the same actors are used to portray different people in different factions across various episodes. Yet, regardless of this, it's nice to see a real tank being used in a reconstruction, the uniforms are but a minor detail that most will not pick up on, and, after all it's a relatively small budget production, not a 700 million dollar Hollywood film.

The reenactments are a breath of fresh air and aid in the retelling of the stories being told. Having watched a lot of documentaries about this war the scenes were a particular highlight instead of the normal approach of reusing footage as in many other documentaires.

8/10, would definitely recommend for those casually interested to long time WWII docu viewer.

The story tellers over dramatize everything. The reenactors were the wrong gear and carry the wrong weapons. It looks like it was put together by a high schooler in AV club with a bunch of his buddies playing the roles. On the plus side, the specifics of the battles are pretty accurate.

Excellent camera angles and acting in this multi episode World War II Docu-Drama. Each episode covers a different part of real life stories and battles during the War.