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So in the Invasion episode of The War, I found the discussion of Operation Cobra a little short. I mean, how is it possible to discuss this event and not mention the fact that Allied bombers also killed and wounded American soldiers due to “short” drops? One web page…
Over 100 U.S. soldiers were killed and approximately 500 were wounded. One unit, 1st Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment, from the 30th Infantry Division, suffered 25 soldiers killed (including General Lesley J. McNair) and 131 wounded.
150 Americans were killed by accident by these bombs. The highest ranking fatality of this massive friendly fire incident was a three-star general of the US Army, “blown out of his slit trench some two miles behind where I had been hole up…”
This seems like a pretty big detail to exclude. How hard would have it have been to mention that in one sentence, out of respect to the dead?
If you happened to catch Episode 4 of Ken Burns’ The War (this is the invasion episode), you may have noticed the paratrooper/smashed pumpkin simile, with no author attributed. It was referenced as “one man described it as…”. That one man is Don Burgett, member of the 101st Airborne (A-1st-506), and noted author of four memoirs concerning the war in Europe.
So on page 87 of Currahee: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy, Burgett sets the scene: he has just landed and was getting out of this jump gear laying on his back as another plane flew overhead, “hedge-hopping” out of cowardice the author suggests, with paratroopers jumping. Burgett writes:
Their chutes were pulling out of the pack trays and starting to unfurl when they hit the ground. Seventeen men hit the ground before their chutes had time to open. They made a sound like a large ripe pumpkin being thrown down to burst against the ground.
It’s a shame Burns’ crew chose not to highlight this writer by name. I mean you can’t even say “paratrooper Don Burgett” and let others in the world google the name and discover his work? Please, visit his web site and buy his books.
So I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ epic The War ontape (I mean, who can do 2.5 hours per night?), and checking some of the history forums online to see what folks are thinking. Generally, the tone is positive, but one thing has come up a few times: “some” are annoyed at Burns’ focus on the home front. They want more battle footage, maps, analyses from historians.
This criticism is misplaced, I think, as the more interesting parts of the show (to me, anyway), have focused on, say, race relations in Mobile, Japanese internment (and who can forget that terribly ironic Life mag paraphrased quote: “they are still cheerful, as they’ve only lost their freedom”), and of course, the work of newspaperman Al McIntosh, voiced by Tom Hanks. As Burns suggests, this work is about a simultaneous view of war, what was going on in different places during the conflict. And McIntosh voices those hometown concerns in ways that evoke much pathos.
To the home front haters, get a grip. He did both. Live with it.
Viewers of Ken Burns’ The War no doubt noted the reference to Frank Capra’s Why We Fight series in Episode 1. The offerings on youtube are pretty scant, though there is one clip, likely from early in the series, where all the setup is taking place. Note the emphasis on different religions in uniting against the “dark” half of the world. Sorry to say, too, that the clip is one small part of a larger piece that is cut off pretty abruptly, though it’s still worth viewing.
The link above will play all the movies online (a national archives page), with the proper software on your computer.
Two articles on Ken Burns’ The War appeared in today’s Washington Post. The first is a lengthy review here by Rich Atkinson and the other is a feature-length piece (by Paul Farhi) on one of the men in the documentary, Quentin Aanenson. Both articles aptly set the tone for those ready to wade into Burns’ 15.5 hour epic, especially Atkinson’s. He writes:
Perhaps “The War” is best viewed as one views an art exhibition, focusing on the pictures and not on the captions or the curator’s exegesis. The narrative is just scaffolding for the images, many of which linger long after an episode ends: the vivid color footage of flamethrowers on Saipan; the photo of pedestrians strolling past a smoking body next to a burning city bus; the group portrait of butchered soldiers in the dead of winter, their frozen eyes open and lightly dusted with snow, like macabre Jack Frosts.
So then it begins tonite. I had planned to do episode reviews, but alas, I have a job. I will, however, post a few highlights from the episodes as I can.
You know, I realized that in my previous posts about Ken Burns’ new mini-series, I neglected to post the basics…So here it is, for those surfing in, straight from a PBS press release about the series. It’s getting close.
THE WAR will air over two weeks, beginning Sunday, September 23, 2007 (four nights the first week and three nights the second week) from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on three nights).
For the last week or so, the ww2file has been running on autopilot, with posts appearing every other day (or so) while I was catching up with some relatives at the OBX, NC. It was nice to sun these tired old bones for a few days.
During my time in the water, I couldn’t help but think of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, or the sinking of the USS Indy, as dramatized in the show Ocean of Fear. Think about this: if you happen to travel to a beach (and swim a little past the shore breakers), or even find yourself in the deep end of the pool, try to keep afloat for more than a few minutes. It’s a lot tougher than you might think. Then read In Harm’s Way.
I also learned a good deal about the maritime shipping loses off the OBX shoreline (from German u-boats). I spoke to a resident (who was a teen in the early 1940s) who remembers seeing the fires offshore from sinking merchant ships as well the bodies that would wash ashore after the sinkings. I’m planning to study this a bit a make a post or two about it in the coming weeks.
So with the start of the school year just around the corner, the ww2file will feature 2 (or so) posts per week. When things do heat up on the job, (papers, papers, papers), I’m certain this site will be a sanity saver. Look for posts that follow the production of the new Pacific War mini-series, Ken Burns’ The War, and the Featured Image from ww2db.com.
Saw this rather interesting review of Ken Burns’ The War due in September 2007. The lead graf (in bold) caught my eye. Imagine that.
Ken Burns continues his long march through key passages in U.S. history with “The War,” a characteristically serious, patriotic yet flawed account of Americans and their memories of World War II. Utterly of a piece with the work of PBS’ favorite documaker, this 14-hour epic contains a fresh wrinkle only in that there’s no parade of history experts to offer a distanced perspective. Rather, Burns has made a deliberately populist American version of the so-called “good war,” with all the assets and deficits that entails.
This article hits Burns a little for his narrow nationalism, in the choice to construct the series through the lens of 4 American towns. The criticism here has to do with perspective, according to the article by Robert Koehler. There is much more to this conflict, and “[a]s such, WWII as a whole is short-shrifted in ‘The War,’ with such enormous conflicts as the Japanese conquest of East Asia and the painfully protracted but finally victorious Soviet defense against Hitler’s invading army either ignored altogether or reduced to a footnote, merely because the U.S. wasn’t involved.”
This is a fair statement, and it’s good to know going in, especially the part concerning “no history experts.” What’s up with that, Ken? Populist, indeed. Flawed/fading memories, probably. But I’ll still watch. But I’m not giving any $$ to PBS, no matter how many times they cut from the show.
So Ken Burns set his sights on WWII after giving us projects like The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The West (one of my favs), among many projects. To this I say:
“Hey, Ken. What took you so long?”
I read in a forum a while back about a guy who just happened to bump into Burns on an NYC street corner. He relayed parts of that conversation to the forum about the necessity of getting certain things in the mini-series regarding his field of interest. It’s an interesting side note for me for this upcoming series. That’s some cajones right there to have some words with the biggest documetary filmmaker in the US about content.
I found this bit on youtube as well that features parts of the series with commentary from Burns. It looks like a news report from VOA (Voice of America). The series is set to air in seven parts this September.
During my time in the water, I couldn’t help but think of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, or the sinking of the USS Indy, as dramatized in the show Ocean of Fear. Think about this: if you happen to travel to a beach (and swim a little past the shore breakers), or even find yourself in the deep end of the pool, try to keep afloat for more than a few minutes. It’s a lot tougher than you might think. Then read In Harm’s Way.