All battles are hellish but Okinawa was particularly brutal for all the men on both sides -- the Japanese, few of whom survived, and the men of America and Britain, both on land and at sea. It cost us about 7,000 lives and about 50 ships, but these losses were dwarfed by those of the Japanese. Ironically, the Japanese warrior code demanded sacrifice to the extent that their fierce resistance probably played a part in the decision to use the atomic bomb and prevent a forced landing on the Japanese coast.
There are a couple of issues involved with this series though. The name -- "Battlefield" -- suggests an earlier and more carefully constructed series from Universal, subtitled "The Battles That Won the Second World War." (That subtitle is something of a misnomer: One of the episodes is "The Battle For France," which did not lead to victory for the Allies.) The series of which this episode is a part is from something called "The War File." And it's from CRM, not Universal.
It makes a difference. Whoever put The War File series together took a rather more cavalier approach, and I was led to wonder if the producers ever really got around to WATCHING it before it was marketed.
Unlike the Universal series, this one imposes maps on a low-contrast photo of a military scene. It doesn't render the maps unreadable, just a little more difficult than they need to be. Some of the background photos are more distracting than others.
The narrator is supposed to be Tim Pigott-Smith but it doesn't sound like his voice. Whoever it is has a tendency to mispronounce names of people and places, and not only Japanese. Kwajalein comes out Kwa-ga-leen. It's a small thing but why didn't anyone catch it? The same with the misidentification of the F4U Corsair as an F6F (Hellcat). An extended clip in slow motion of Admiral "Chester Nimitz" shows an unidentified general in the US Army staring at the camera.
It follows roughly the same format as the original Battlefield series -- The Commanders, The Weapons, and so forth -- but they don't reflect the same degree of thoughtfulness or insight. There is, for instance, no political background provided.
It's still a good series, especially as an introduction to a war that fewer and fewer people know about in any detail. Just don't use it as a source in your doctoral dissertation.
There are a couple of issues involved with this series though. The name -- "Battlefield" -- suggests an earlier and more carefully constructed series from Universal, subtitled "The Battles That Won the Second World War." (That subtitle is something of a misnomer: One of the episodes is "The Battle For France," which did not lead to victory for the Allies.) The series of which this episode is a part is from something called "The War File." And it's from CRM, not Universal.
It makes a difference. Whoever put The War File series together took a rather more cavalier approach, and I was led to wonder if the producers ever really got around to WATCHING it before it was marketed.
Unlike the Universal series, this one imposes maps on a low-contrast photo of a military scene. It doesn't render the maps unreadable, just a little more difficult than they need to be. Some of the background photos are more distracting than others.
The narrator is supposed to be Tim Pigott-Smith but it doesn't sound like his voice. Whoever it is has a tendency to mispronounce names of people and places, and not only Japanese. Kwajalein comes out Kwa-ga-leen. It's a small thing but why didn't anyone catch it? The same with the misidentification of the F4U Corsair as an F6F (Hellcat). An extended clip in slow motion of Admiral "Chester Nimitz" shows an unidentified general in the US Army staring at the camera.
It follows roughly the same format as the original Battlefield series -- The Commanders, The Weapons, and so forth -- but they don't reflect the same degree of thoughtfulness or insight. There is, for instance, no political background provided.
It's still a good series, especially as an introduction to a war that fewer and fewer people know about in any detail. Just don't use it as a source in your doctoral dissertation.
