World At War: Home Fires 5 of 5

[Inediblehulk]

Those V1s and V2s were eerie beasts! I used to have nightmares as a kid of those mindless, soulless zombie bombs from faraway lands hitting my house for no better reason than they had to stop somewhere. Luckily, this was in 1980s Canada, so they didn't come true. Still scarier today than their ultraprecise descendants, somehow.

[ThibetanMonk]

This war led Britain to bankruptcy. But someone worked behind the scene to deal with the critical public policy challenges that accompanied World War II and postwar reconstruction. Someone's financial aid made it possible for Britain to wage an effective war and then deal with the destruction it wrought.

[sirdard1]

wow, cricket! now Pakistaniis favourite game :)

[TheBelovedButterfly]

@sirdard1 Very popular throughout India/Pakistan, and Australia and New Zealand. We left hockey for the Canadians, and invented baseball for the Americans. Aren't we nice?

[ITILII]

@TheBelovedButterfly America invented baseball along with such other things as telephone, radio, computers, alternating current, airplanes, and rock and roll...and the Declaration of Independence....what a country !!!! ;-)

[TheBelovedButterfly]

@ITILII Baseball was a British game which took off in America. Telephone: British (A G Bell). Radio; German (H R Hertz). Computer: British (Charles Babbage); AC: French (Guillaume Duchene); Aeroplanes: British (John Stringfellow:) The signatories of the Declaration of Independence would undoubtedly have described themselves first and foremost as English gentlemen, inspired by "Rights of Man" by Tom Paine (an Englishman.) Rock and Roll - you're right - Bill Haley WAS American!

[TheBelovedButterfly]

There are many wonderful things about America, (although how such nice people manage to consistently elect such bastards to government, I don't know) but you have an offensive tendency to claim total credit for anything you eventually become involved in..Throwing money at an original invention in it's later stages is NOT the same as "invention", just as throwing money at a war in it's later stages when 59000 people per day have been dying for 28 months is NOT the same as "winning singlehanded."

[TheBelovedButterfly]

Having said that, 450,000 precious young Americans died during the last half of that war, but so often, people like me need to seem to denigrate their sacrifice, to point out the facts to Americans who seem unaware and contemptuous of the sacrifices and suffering of other countries. Britain and France declared war on 3rd September 1939, followed within days by Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Winning WW2 was a mutual effort - but our effort lasted twice as long as America's, and was bloodier.

[TheBelovedButterfly]

It's pretty typical that, along with complaints of this video being about PW Britain (er, yes - it is a British series!) my response to someone commenting on our export of national sports should have been seized on for a rather ill-informed attempt to grab credit for every aspect of modern life. America has it's own vibrant history, inventions and successes - you don't need to try to poach, or deny others credit. and btw, you could do worse than to learn from this how to set up a welfare state!

[the82spartans]

5*'s

[thx291]

This was probably the weakest episode in this series. I know this is a British documentary but the spent too much time on relatively minor events.

[DaiJonesful]

@thx291 This is a 26 part series. It was made in 1974, in the UK, for the UK TV station ITV. They have 4% dedicated to the changing British life, away from the conflict, during the war, and somehow this is over indulgent and irrelevant.

Bombs and guns may make for good TV to some people, but the individual idiosyncrasies of the changing soul of the fabric of British life provide as good and important a historical document as any amount of explosives.

[thx291]

@DaiJonesful I merely stated that this was a rather weak episode compared to the others. Your response is to arrogantly claim that I just want explosions and want to ignore the complex & incricate details of the times.

I just felt that British politics didn't deserve a FULL episode. Especially since they barely even covered the genocide that Japan inflicted on China. Maybe if this had been an episode on British AND Soviet AND US politics during the war it might have been more interesting.

[DaiJonesful]

In general, you are right, but as stated, this is a British documentary for British TV. There are many other documentaries. It was made in 1973. All nations were much more introspective than today with our internet and high speed world travel. As an example, there are many fighting in the Middle East, but US media would have you all think it is USA only. They only pay attention to US casualties. It is culturally understandable. Maybe this is your call to go remake those documentaries yourself.

[thx291]

They don't only pay attention to US casualties. Just yesterday the top story on CNN was about a British journalist who was killed.

[DaiJonesful]

That is a very isolated incident. I could also say this documentary mentions genocides in China. Which it does. But your issue is with the emphasis, as is mine.

The USA didn't even want to count civilian deaths in Iraq. It just mentioned US military deaths. I know. I live in the USA. It is just how it is. I am not criticizing anyone. I really am not. I am just supporting the natural character of the documentary, and need to point out it was made in 1973, and for British viewers primarily.

[DaiJonesful]

I didn't mean to sound arrogant towards you. I apologize. Your knowledge of Sino Japanese relationships is to be praised. From my point of view, as I am sure you are, I am delighted to be in a free world, where I am able to watch these great films. I am amazed at the lack of knowledge, compassion or historical perspective from many commentators. It is amazing how viscous and nasty some comments can be. It is easy to feel overly protective. But on a second reading, you are right, it was arrogant.

[Yookoolele]

I found this episode interesting - more interesting than many other episodes, in fact. It's fascinating to me how Britain persevered under so direct an assault.

This entire documentary series is among the best ever made in my opinion, and it is because it takes the time to tell the whole story that it is so successful. Appreciating what the politics, the home life, etc were like when Germany was bombing said home is an important part of understanding the war.

[thx291]

It's important but I just don't believe an entire episode needed to be devoted to British politics especially when the Japanese genocide in China was barely mentioned and that was one of the most horrific acts in the war.

[askjiir]

This episode was SUPPOSED to be about the british home fires during the war. What the F do you expect?

[thx291]

Uh...yeah....I know. What I said though was that they didn't need an entire episode devoted to that especially when they barely mentioned the genocide in China.

[askjiir]

I agree. They should have covered that far more extensively.

[TheBelovedButterfly]

@thx291 maybe there should have been another episode? You must remember, this is a British series; also, we were the only unoccupied country in Europe and the first to build a democratic welfare state, so it is interesting to see this. They got the rations wrong, though - I've seen my parent's ration books (they were small children) and they didn't receive even 1/4 of what is mentioned in this - and the "meat" was often stuff like whale-blubber, which made them vomit.

[1982labman]

@TheBelovedButterfly Ireland wasn't occupied.

[TheBelovedButterfly]

@1982labman Thanks to us.

[teslagod2003]

@Yookoolele its just sad the entire movie tried to show balance and just to tell the story of what probably happened in ww2,but its really sad,many people look at this as a weapon of hate,and just believed in just 1 side and never even tried to understand the other sides,very selfish,tsk...

the movie depicted only want us to know about ww2,not to fuel more hatred.people who lives in hatred dies in hatred...

[kingeric77]

churchill was anti-democratic to the core, but could not contain the forces of democracy unleashed by the labour movement

[joshvn715]

churchill was FEARFUL of SOCIALISM because he would defend England from communism to the end. Everyone felt that socialism was the progression to communist and absolutist authority.

Another democracy and socialism contradict each other. Govts. should only have the impetus to such things when the country and peoples very existence is threatened but it is terribly dangerous to govts have such a tremendous influence because** govts ARE ONLY GOOD at getting more power. Thus undermine democracies...

[darkhouse1906]

I wonder if this is playing in Brazil?

[danbman74]

thanks for these damoosebelly!  keep it up!

[turr520]

Salute to all those who fought against injustice in WW2.