Victory at Sea Episode 1 Part 1

[Northatlantic2012]

It's been a long time since this documentary was shown on TV. It should be shown again, along with other programs that inform those who need informing of the great sacrifices that were made be American service members in World War II.

[jrusso9722]

My dear Father and I watched Victory at Sea, every Sunday night. Just a great father/son thing. I love my Dad for it.

[Icaller1915]

I watched this before!

[desertdog111]

The main thing that annoys me about the american involvement is why did'nt they get involved earlier in the first place? Did they have to wait to save britain when it was on deaths' doorstep? Or when japan gave them a kicking? I dont like the fact that that they say they did us a favour when they could've helped earlier on (instead of watching and doing nothing) and prevented more deaths.(Dont get me wrong i am not criticising the soldiers, only the government)

[al1936ful]

@desertdog111 Because the conservative factions of the U.S. did not want it to get involved in the war.

[morrieswigs]

thanks for these uploads!

[Starlifter88]

David Brinkley wrote that World War II was won by millions of acts of sacrifice and heroism. The individuals on the ships, including the merchant marines, are surely counted in that number. It takes lots of guts to go out in the convoys with no real protection.

[Planetar17]

History would say.

[savoy1801]

Damned good series!!

[paxtofettel]

People, lets not fight about wether or not America was not needed in the war. All that matters is that many brave men and women died and we should all honor the sacrifice that were made in order to stop fascism.

[ilovealexjones1]

@paxtofettel look at the united states and much of the world today...i wouldnt say it stopped fascism...

[paxtofettel]

@LeeGeorge08 You need to learn some respect, troll

[paxtofettel]

@LeeGeorge08 What makes you think I don't respect the contributions of the other countries?

[mrniggerbaiter]

Forget the vet.

[harrytsam]

Funny isn't it, how today's coddled and jaded generations find it so easy to criticize the US! Hmmm..wonder what they would be saying if the western U.S. was ruled by Japan, and the eastern U.S. was ruled by Nazi Germany?! Of course, since, were that the case, free speech would have been banned in in 1945, I doubt they would say much of anything!

[billy1212ist]

Cupcake,and kevin,..it's a word game that you play.Yes the USA had some"minor attacks",but were never "threatened".To acknowledge a Threat,is to acknowledge danger.And the USA,was "NEVER" at danger.SEE ?..........a word game.

[DMarksmanLima21]

Thanks for this upload! This was my dad's favorite record album (sound track). We must have listened to this every Pearl Harbor Day and many other times, but this is the first time I have ever known of this series. Thanks for taking the time to upload this.

[DMarksmanLima21]

Thanks for this upload!

[MrAFLANDERS]

The USN...that is all that needs to be said. Excellence in combat

[greatmongo]

Has anyone the episode on the other one not shown yet? Ya'll know the one I mean? I think it was over there earlier. Can you see it?

[rhoddity]

You know, every time I hear this music, I keep getting flashbacks to the war, and I'm only 20...

[Cupcakealex]

US not Threatened? I was a youngster during the war but American ships were being sunk just off the eastern seaboard of the US by roving 'WOLF PACKS" before we even were combatants with Nazi Germany! These brave men and women apparently suffered and died so this generation can be oh so flip about war and who and where our enemies lie. Remember 9/11? Well we had german spies landed on Long Island. Not for tourism but to sabotage US industry and morale. Please read your history before sounding off

[Nguli34689]

@Cupcakealex 42 years ago, we had a 6th grade teacher who lived near the eastern seaboard and she used to tell us about the threat of a possible Nazi invasion via New York, and the drills that the citizenry had to undergo if they wanted to survive.

My family remembers the forced repatriation of Russians back to the Soviet Union. They also remembered how a woman jumped off a train with her kid because she knew what they were going back to. I remember the dread of a possible thermonuclear attack.

[fromthesidelines]

This series originally aired on Sunday afternoons at 3pm(et) for 26 weeks [October 1952- April 1953], as the network originally considered it just another "Sunday afternoon ghetto" program, where the major networks usually scheduled public affairs, "cultural", documentary, children's and "experimental" programs, before pro football filled those afternoons by the end of the '60s. It was word of mouth that made this a success. This originally aired on October 26, 1952.

[09KnobSt]

cool

[Italiangladiator4u]

Very inspiring. Not only TV was black and white back then--our world was! I'm a bit tired of all these "shades of grey" nowadays. Farewell, age of mechanics; hello, cyber hell. On the other hand, thanks for posting!

[bunkosquad2000]

I was glued to this series as a kid. My parents owned all 3 LPs and I spent hours listening. I still have them. BTW - I see a lot of accolades to Richard Rogers. True, he was a genius, but he only wrote a few bars of each theme for the series. Most of the credit goes to Robert Russell Bennett who expanded on the few themes given to him by RR and created an American symphonic treasure. He was listed merely as the arranger.

[MassachusettsMollusk]

@bunkosquad2000 I, too, LOVE the soundtrack. And, yes! credit to Robert Russell Bennett for arranging and composing the largest symphonic piece!

[Hisotrygeek94]

Man, I like the beginning of this, the first moments showed the peaceful sea, and then it jumps to a Nazi U-boat on the hunt, the sinister music helps with the mood. In fact, I'd love to listen to this cool track, for it's basically Victory at Sea's villain theme.

[musicnsports95]

Snapscape: You just don't get it.

Victory At Sea (VAS) layed the ground work for World at War(WAW). If not for VAS WAW might not have been possible. Not to mention that more info was de-classified by the time that WAW came out. Both are outstanding in series.

[Snapscape]

Hardly. American WWII documentaries were all the same until World at War, and the BBC have been doing documentaries long before this series.

[deepcosmiclove]

Snapscape, you really can't know anything about what you are talking about. Prior to 1950 there weren't hardly any televisions around, much less documentary series. The BBC may have produced some public affairs shows prior to VS, but certainly no series with an original score. What separates World at War are the interviews, and as I said, 30 years of advanced technical innovations and technique, but even so that series had a much bigger budget than VS.

[Snapscape]

A boring series with the typical Hollywood glam treatment. The World at War series blows this out of the water.

[deepcosmiclove]

This was produced in 1953 and the first TV documentary series. Thirty years later technique had gotten better.

[Snapscape]

That doesn't mean anything. Film documentaries have been around for ages and though they may not have been for TV, there was no Hollywood fanfare.

[deepcosmiclove]

Hollywood didn't have anything to do with the production of Victory at Sea. In addition film documentaries hadn't been around for "ages." I may be mistaken but VS was the first of it's kind; the first documentaries up until then being only newsreels. There wasn't much fanfare for VS either: It was just an ordinary American TV series that lasted due to its quality.

[DoubleDutchBust]

Hear The Boom BooMercyMeC

THe Good LifeMRBoManecipe

Hear The Boom BooMercyMeC

EmOut 10:03 I Have HumanaB

[DoubleDutchBust]

10:03am Wednesday (GMT) - Time in United Kingdomercy i am 3 seconds behind-will catch up promise.

[DoubleDutchBust]

4:00am Wednesday (CST) - Time in

Mississippi, United States of America

OfCourseIAmOnTimeSeanKalielGra­y

Mississippi, United States of America

4:00am Wednesday (CST) - Time in

[RangerAlways]

This was a first class TV series. The film footage is priceless. The writing & narration top notch. I would really like to hear John Williams do this complete soundtrack as he might be Richards only equal.

[scootmanbill]

"Victory at sea" is now a term that surfers use when the ocean is blown out with gale force winds!

[bonesdoc11]

Undoubtedly one of the best documentaries that has ever been recorded. I have been wanting to see it on TV again for years but now I have You Tube YEA!!!!!

[kcmj62]

I'm playing the music to this show at my veterans day concert in band. I love playing it, its so beautiful.

[chengloki]

It's going to happen, again!! =Stefan=

[oriskany]

No DVDs when this was on TV. You just had to be ready and waiting.

Dad was career Air Navy when these came out, and yet he was right there in the living room watching these with me.

[CarlSchwamberger]

@oriskany if you were really lucky your elementary school teach obtained reel or two of these and you got to watch this for history class instead of math drills or spelling tests :)

[billy1212ist]

@CarlSchwamberger So true Carl,who needs math or spelling in life ?

[Crimble67]

Yes, "REMEMBER" that's all we will have of our once great republic

[LetsNotBeL7]

"Victory at Sea" (1952)

Directed by M. Clay Adams. With Leonard Graves,Winston Churchill, Chester W. Nimitz. Soundtrack score by Richard Rogers and Robert Russell Bennett. Twenty-six episode series about naval combat during World War Two.

[MarthaH605]

In my opinion, the music is the best thing about this series.

[phyliscd]

i am also a vietnam war navy vet and while on board during high seas i heard in my head the music from victory at sea.and my heart goes out to all who listed here that lost their parents who served in world war two.

[LEOPARDTWO]

Remember.

[1oo8jm]

Great series! I bet that NBC would never make it now "Defeat at Sea"

[fanowhatnottowear]

Thank you so much for posting this! My father was in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War. He was very proud of that time and often told stories about his time in the service. He passed away on May 24, 2009. I have very fond memories of watching these episodes with my Dad.

[darthmoon01]

My Great Grandfather served in WWII,

he was at the battles of Guatlecannal, Okanawa and Iwo Jima.

he got 3 purple hearts

bronze and silver star

and the Medal of Honor- for saving the lives of 10 troops and while having 20 bullets in his legs and torso.

Passed away April 20, 2009 age 86

[bigman95impala]

wow what a great man

im sorry to hear he has passed

my grandfather served in the pacific during the same time and he to is no longer with us

may god bless there souls

[Moosey1789]

@darthmoon01 Eleven men were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions at Guadalcanal. They were: Kenneth Bailey, John Basilone, Harold Bauer, Anthony Casamento, Charles Davis, Meritt Edson, Joseph Foss, William Fornier, Lewis Hall, Douglas Munro, and Norman Scott. All of the mothers of these men sat in a hospital room with each in their arms as infants, thinking of the names listed above. Will he do great things? Is this the right name for him? War is a terrible thing. Even "good" wars.

[Crimble67]

The U.S. Navy and Marines prevented the invasion of Australia at the battles of Coral Sea and Guadalcanal where we stopped the Japanese expansion.

You F-ing twats. Yeah, name all the Canadian and Australian aircraft carriers, battle ships, fighter and bomber aircraft and tanks. Yeah, the Canadians and Ausies contributed MORE. The U.S. supplied everyone including the Soviets in the early years of the war.

[fntime]

You are totally correct. If anyone wants to read about the Coral Sea and Guadalcanal, they'd realize the Marines under terrible conditions, it looked as though they might be isolated on Guadacanal after the Japanese played havoc on the Navy, turned back the Japanese. Canadians are group of people with a deep sense of inferiority. They lack the courage and brains of Americans, they are still a 'colony' of the Crown.

[amadokk]

Especial thanks to all of those from each nation that fought to keep the world free during World War II. Each nation lost lives; each nation sacrificed in blood and tears. My Daddy who served in the Marines in WWII always was so grateful for the sacrifices that each nation that made up the "Allies" rendered. Go Brits, Go Scots, Go Aussies, Go NZ, Go Wales, Go Canada.. and all the rest.

[BlueshoeProductions]

thanks so much for posting this my father first showed it to me when i was 9

[haltmusic]

"Victory at Sea" (1952)

Directed by M. Clay Adams. With Leonard Graves, Winston Churchill, Chester W. Nimitz. Twenty-six episode series about naval combat during World War Two.

[benccollins]

They do keep mentioning "england" and not the UK!

Thank you to Canada & all the allies.

They´ll be another war along soon enough !! RIP All war victims.

[istartedi]

Guys, you can measure the contribution of a nation in any number of ways: KIA, total casualties, KIA per capita, total men under arms, material support, etc. I'm sure that if you developed some kind of index, somebody would come out no. 1. I would submit that it's a pointless endeavor. WE were allies. Why don't we stay that way? And, FWIW, I'm from the USA and came here looking for the music not a fight.

[shathriel]

want to see a decent WW2 documentary , watch the very old by now , world at war narrated by laurence olivier.

this is pretty dire to be honest.

[EuroGB123]

I don't think the people of the UK today realise just how much we really needed Canada .... today's youth appear to think that the USA was the main contributor ... its wasn't ... Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia, India and contributed more ...

[Vyperpunk13]

richard rodgers fantastic

[carolinaswinger28303]

The Victory ar Sea Suite is the longest musical composition ever.....13 hours!

[RELeeOnTraveller]

Gotta admit, propaganda or not, the music is very good.

[jason029099]

the cold war was not only started by tensions at the time of ww2 but during the russian revoulotian us allys sent a few troops into russia to help the tzarist beat the communist part, then in wwii it evolved to mistrust and the tensions of communists hate towards democracy. im not saying ethier is the bad guy

[Cropduster777]

Propaganda makes my ROFL-WAFFLE BOFFLE

[generationll]

I have all these episodes of this series on dvd I got at Wal Mart

[fromthesidelines]

"VICTORY AT SEA" originally aired on Sunday afternoons at 3pm(et), when most people usually weren't watching TV. But the series was repeated (and eventually syndicated), even spawning a theatrical feature version in August 1954, with Alexander Scourby as narrator.

[haltmusic]

"Victory at Sea" (1952)

Directed by M. Clay Adams. With Leonard Graves, Winston Churchill, Chester W. Nimitz. Twenty-six episode series about naval combat during World War Two.

[donno54]

god this takes me back to when i was a kid . I can still hum the haunting soundtrack

[GT40Bill]

Same here!! Great series and great music

[GammatronTriode]

you would not think this show one sided

if you had been a merchant sailer

on a ship in convoy PQ-17

[haltmusic]

"Victory at Sea" (1952)

Directed by M. Clay Adams. With Leonard Graves, Winston Churchill, Chester W. Nimitz. Twenty-six episode series about naval combat during World War Two.

[jimbobbarley]

Thanks for sharing tecklec and waywrd , kinda like a vintage carshow of the navy , they have come along way with our armada since then , Definitly was a serene time ,Great job

[TECHKLEC]

At eight years old I was watching this with my dad and it gave me my first rtealizations of the massive war efforts on both sides.

[luridplanet]

Before people criticise the tone of this series, they should remember that it was real - millions were dying every year of the war. The Americans were nice guys compared to the Nazis and Japanese.

[SWright51]

What about the amzing fact that Richard Rodgers wrote music for every moment of the series! That's 13 hours of original composing.

[LordWham]

Though I'm 15 years younger than the series, I grew up listening to the music. My father had complete record collection. My mother says her highschool marching band used to perform music from the series in the early

60's.

[1D84down]

Excllent series -I really used to enjoy watching it as a lad. Biased? Of course it was, we'd just been through a world war and hardly in the mood to be apologists to those who'd tried to knock us off lol

[spartonboat1]

Today's generation is extraordinarily naive about how severe the war was and how difficult it was for US forces. The US came extremely close to losing in the first 6 months of the Pacific theater. Over 500,000 deaths. The winning of the Battle of Midway was a miracle! Japan had a huge advantage in terms of its naval forces.

The US will also involved the European and Atlantic actions.

So to those who post to denigrate the US, you are dramatically in need of research!!

[KEVINKEVINKEVINWWW]

The US lost .3% of it's population in the entire war.

(Est 1940 pop. 131,669,275).

Though tragic, hardly kind of loss that would bring a country to it's knees. There is not a single serious historian that believes that the continental US was threatened in any way.

[Redzircon]

@spartonboat1

I totally agree: one only has to read a few pages of WWII history to realise victory was not certain at all, and how close the Germans, Italians and Japanese came to enslaving the world, which was their ambition. I am reading Winston Churchill's The Second World War, and facts are chiling. I am so glad the Germans lost, and I was born in Germany!

[Marcfj]

@Redzircon Germany had no plans to enslave the world. You've been reading too many comic books.

[deetjay1]

@spartonboat1

A miracle? Japanese arrogance is more to the point , actually. An attitude the powerful Axis powers displayed to their everlasting regret. Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the Pearl Harbor sneak attack said it best..."I fear that all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.." No one listened...

[gamesbok]

@deetjay1 I didn't know anyone still thought Pearl Harbour was a 'sneak attack'.

[savino60007]

@spartonboat1

EXCELLENT 

[markgodofpoop]

@spartonboat1 Ya! You yanks did a great job! And it only took you 5 years to get off your asses! Here's to showing up at the 11th hour and trying to claim sole credit for victory!



[deetjay1]

@markgodofpoop

Up until that moment, The Axis had already taken out most of Europe; several thousand miles of Pacific property. Hell...the second rate Italian military was carving up North Africa...No one who lost family in WW II, brags or struts around bragging about Americas role in ending the damn thing...But Americans sure do see red listening to idiots like you claiming to know history better than anyone else. This war really did need a "village" to beat the Axis powers...Feel better?

[moto19d]

@markgodofpoop

Yeah well, we figured if you Brits were gonna sit around and let the nazi's run loose all over europe, including your allies that you let Hitler have for free, then why should we care? Maybe if you guys weren't busy with your 'empire' at the time, huh? How did India, Hong Kong, etc work out for you anyway?

[christo930]

@markgodofpoop WTF were you accomplishing on your own? it was only the Russians that were having any real effect against the NAZI's by June of 1944. But even before that you had our manufacturing and our energy, without which you would have been defeated.

[scottrotc06]

@christo930 I think the five thousand men of the Eighth Air Force who didn't come home would like to correct that statement. They were bombing Germany without fighter protection in broad daylight.

[christo930]

@scottrotc06 I wasn't taking anything away from them, I was acknowledging the contributions of the US to the even the early allied attacks.

[ErikaCn100]

@christo930 it was only the US (as well as England) that helped shipped countless tons of supplies - from ships to band aids - to the Russians that allowed the Red Army to steamroll the Germans on the Eastern Front.

[christo930]

@ErikaCn100 Sure, there was a lot of cooperation between the allies, which is why they were called the allies. Also, don't forget that Canada was helping the war effort as well. Had Hitler never opened the Eastern front, England would have eventually settled for peace and who knows what the world would have looked like today if that had happened.

[TUCKERZONE]

@spartonboat1 They did a Stunning Job I Salute them All

[TheRapper10000]

@spartonboat1 I like learning facts and stories about ww2. People today just want to hate this country for no reason.

[NEWLOVE559]

@spartonboat1 good point

[976bush]

great series; I loved it has a kid, and I still do. Thanks for posting it.

[91625248]

This is the documentary of the greatest generation and what they did to purchase

our freedom

[newyorkernut3]

I saw these the first time around and this show

of our victory over the axis is still significant.However I for see in the future those that were not alive during WW2 like the

young ? 18seki( above) will write there own version of history however untrue,thats why history

is only in the eyes of the viewer.

God bless our troops that fought in that war.

They through their advancing age are leaving us as witnesses.

[18seki]

The narrator's comments are so biased that it becomes a comedy. However most average people will get their history lessons from these propoganda clips which is tragic.

[Jim275]

Biased? how? This is probably the most accurate and respected documentary of wwii ever produced. I don't see anything comical or amusing about it. There is no opinion given in this series, just the chronological facts. Apparently, you missed the point of the series.

[HHS76]

"The World at War" is without argument, "the most accurate and respected documentary of WW II ever produced" but was 20+ yrs later.

"Bias" is always the perspective of the victors; this was shown in prime time on NBC, with NO ADs in the 50's at a time when we were in the Korean War and the Cold War was well underway. This was produced to entertain and to give tribute to all those who had served in WW II - and a side benefit was to rally support for our military.

It's tone is not "documentary"

[malthechal]

This program would be considered as "popular history"

The filming is actual and has an important side to it.

There was another program that came out about that time or later on known as World at War which was a documentary.

I believe that was the name

[SWright51]

How right you are! The totalitarian regimes of Germany and Japan were composed of nice guys who were just misunderstood and meant no harm to anybody. I am afraid that it is your misunderstanding of the times in context that is tragic.

[982Munchie]

18seki, I agree that the comments of the western Allies are biased. Those of the Nazi regime were far more biased, to put it mildly. Under which leadership would you prefer to live?

[18seki]

982Munchie, don't be so self-righteous. Allies included the Soviet Union. Please study some history first before you post another comment.

[982Munchie]

Nothing self-righteous about it, I simply asked you a question: under which leadership would you prefer to live. Please don't assume other posters here need to study some history before they can post another comment. You have no idea what studies I've already taken or what my personal experiences are in this regard.

[chicago85bearz]

I dont see how its so biased. The only comment i saw was how the video said that submarines were basically cheap. I love when people who dont like the United States come on here and bitch mawr, propaganda, biased... of course yours isnt.. its the truth..

[mdmceuensr]

I got the whole set of these @ Sam's Club not to long ago, and really enjoy them very much. If I had to say one bad thing about them, it would be the the music score is quite a bit louder than the narrator. In order to hear him, you have to turn in up, only to have the music "BLOW" you away. Otherwise, a well put together documentary. Well done.

[rdadal]

When this originally appeared on TV it took 26 weeks to show all the episodes. They then began running the series all over again. They then did this 4 or 5 times more.

[pennyfritz]

thank God for Churchill

[slickwing]

Great video series,thank you.

[reyzaguirr]

thank you for posting this, my dad watched this when it came out and he talks about it constantly