BATTLEFIELD - Great Sea Battles of WWII

If you're familiar with this series then you probably will purchase this and if you're not familiar; then purchase this with the knowledge that it is one of the best and probably least known TV series covering the United States involvement in World War 2 and Vietnam. According to Wikipedia this series started in 1994 and finished in 2002 after six seasons (series). The series is a comprehensive detailed look into each battle offering rare film footage and yes even color footage along with a single narrator Tim Piggott-Smith. The individual episodes are broken into 2 parts lasting about 58 mins each.This set contains the following episodes: The Battle Of Midway / The Battle of Leyte Gulf / Battle of the Atlantic. It is about the Battle Of Midway I want to comment on. The major point about the Midway DVD is that there is about 3 minutes of footage missing that they couldn't find. This is interesting because I have an original VHS tape with all footage when I recorded the original showing. There is no mentioning of this on the package are anywhere else. In fact there are two parts; but, here, NBC / Timeless media group decided to air it in one complete package. There are interactive chapter menus which I couldn't locate except buy pressing the next chapter button on my remote. The DVD audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 and the film is in color / black & white and it looks like it was taken care of properly even though there is no remastering involved here.The program sets you up with an introduction to the events and then with the aid of the film and maps presents a well detailed account of the battle. Midway was a battle victory for the United State which was in a desperate need of some type of victory 6 months after Pearl Harbor. The victory came on the heels of good luck, excellent planning, and all those teams working together. One interesting fact that was brought out is the American ships had radar with an effective range of about 100 - 150 miles while the Japanese ships had no radar. The island of Midway was equipped with a rather old radar but it was a long range radar. Still a good bite of luck was needed to locate the opposing side. Midway couldn't fall into Japanese hands as it was really close to our doorstep after Hawaii. With only 3 aircraft carries and limited support units the United State handily defeated the Japanese Navy by sinking 4 of their top line aircraft carries something Japan never recovered from.If you have the movie Midway either the edited or complete version (containing the battle of the Coral Sea) you owe it to yourself to have this detailed account of the battle. Any historian / WWII buff would also want to purchase this. Don't let the missing 3 minutes bother you. In fact if NBC wants the footage they are welcome to drop me a note here with instructions as to how to get it to them. This is also coming out on blu-ray next week (December 7) so enjoy this excellent series in either format.

I am a fan of the Battlefield series on battles and campaigns of WWII. These documentaries are very professional productions with good analyses of the battles - though some are misnamed rather than misrepresented.This three-disc set consists of three, 2-hour documentaries on three WWII sea battles: the Battle Of Midway, the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the Battle of the Atlantic. Each disc covers one battle/campaign. Each title does a fine job of "setting the stage" for the battle, evaluating opposing forces/commanders/weapons, cogently describing the course of the battle and its aftermath. Use of period film footage is excellent.The first is the Battle of Midway in the Pacific that turned the tide against Japan in a single day and was one of the most decisive naval battles in history, right up there with Trafalgar and Salamis. In this one battle, the Japanese lost four fleet carriers and their best aircrew.The second is the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese Imperial Navy's last roll of the dice that almost worked. Instead, the last remnants of their once-mighty fleet would never again do battle with the US Navy in the Pacific and would rely on Kamikaze to attack the Us forces in increasing desperate waste of human life.The third is the Battle of the Atlantic between the U-Boats of Karl Donitz and the allied merchant fleets and escorts. A long campaign lasting for years, the Battle of the Atlantic was finally won by the allies after massive building programs of ships, both military and merchant. In the end, the "Liberty Ships" could be built faster than the U-Boats could sink them.This is not only a collection of excellent documentaries, but the price is a real value and the purchaser essentially gets three DVD's for the price of one. I recommend this set with five stars.

But, like all Anglo-American WWII stuff out there: It ignores the pathetic role Gen. Mac Arthur played in these events. Old " Dugout Dough " gets his usual whitewash in this recount of events. Other than that I have no complaints. Well worth what I paid for it. ...OscarPOST SCRIPT: MacArthur was known as dugout doug and not dugout dough. BUT dugout Dough seems an appropriate name also seeing as he accepted $ 500,000 from Phillipine Pres. Quezon. Also " Mac " awarded himself the Medal of Honor for his cowardly abandonment of his men in the Phillipines. Read here all about it: http://www.subsowespac.org/books/hopkins-the-pacific-war.shtmlIt is surely worth noting that the above referenced book by William Hopkins is written by a man who fought as a Marine in both WWII and the Korean War. He was one of many seriously wounded in Korea and returned to the USA. So Mr. Hopkins is a man worth hearing from about all this.I just now bought this book by William Hopkins from Amazon. I guess it takes a Marine to tell the truth about Gen. MacArthur in a book. Many WWII veterans of the Phillipine`s campaign have discussed what a miserable coward MacAthur was at this crucial time in American history. A Marine had the guts to publish a book that discusses these events. And yes I am a former Marine. Did my two tours in Nam and was badly wounded doing so. ...Oscar

"Great Sea Battles" is one of four separate collections collectively titled "Battlefield" and like the other collections; each showcases three of the most important battles of World War II. In this particular collection, that being the Battle of Midway where the tide turned in the Pacific, the Battle of Leyte Gulf where the Imperial Fleet was broken once and for all and the Battle of the Atlantic. (I'll detail the specifics of this particular collection at the bottom of this review - Skip ahead if you've already seen my overview from one of the other collections.) But first here's an overview of all four collections.........Firstly "Battlefield" is a British made documentary series originally shown in North America on PBS back in the mid 90's. The subject matter itself is of extremely high quality and goes into details that very few other war series ever come close to emulating. On the battles/campaigns that it covers, it is pretty much the reference work for a video series.However, don't mistake the Battlefield series as a complete documentary on the second world war. That's not it's purpose. Rather it is meant to show twelve of the most important pivotal moments of World War II in exquisite detail. It is not intended to be an all purpose overview. For that go to the superb documentary series "The World at War" for the entire war or NBC's older but still the best "Victory at Sea" for the naval war.Inside each of the four collections, each of the three battles that collection covers consists of two parts; each part being one hour long. The first part goes into exhaustive detail showing how/why the battle or campaign started, who the protagonists were, what they were trying to achieve, who their leaders were, every major unit and/or equipment used and the final build-up to the battle. They give details I've seen nowhere else on a video documentary. It is very comprehensive.Then the second part of each episode goes into the actual battle/campaign itself. How it starts, the units engaged, how it unfolds, where it goes wrong or right and the final outcome. Like the first part it's very, very detailed. You will find out things you never realized unless you're a war historian. There are no extras and frankly, concerning the level of detail. None is needed. This is a specialized series that will literally make you an expert on that one particular battle/campaign.Now it's not perfect of course. While the subject matter is of high quality, the masters from which they were forced to work are not. For one thing, there is some light purplish vertical banding that comes and goes on the black & while shots (it never appears on the coloured maps) which is apparent at some time or other on all twelve documentaries. While annoying, it's not always present and you do eventually learn to ignore it.In addition the menu is very spartan. For each battle there is simply a choice of Part One or Part Two, that's it. (3 of the 12 don't even have that!) Plus they don't bother with a Chapter Selection Menu either. Though you can still use your chapter skip key to get approximately to where you want to go. And because the series was obviously intended to be shown over two episodes (hence part 1 and 2), sometimes there's a little bit of repetition in the beginning of the second part.Here's the breakdown on this individual collection -The Battle of Midway - Beginning with the reasoning behind the Japanese decision to seize Midway Island through the Battle of the Coral Sea right up to the aftermath of the Battle. This is just a fascinating tale and highly recommended. (Please note that this is one of the three documentaries that has no separate parts 1 & 2., so be prepared for a lot of chapter skipping if you want to see something near the end of it!)It also has a small gap missing from what would have been near the beginning of part 2 where they could not find the original video masters so they've simply posted audio notes (which they did have) with an apology! This missing piece is called Phase 1, Battle of the Coral Sea, has some short map pieces, shows about ten seconds of Japanese fleet steaming and about the same of American carrier action and is exactly 90 seconds long! So you're not really missing anything of significance. How do I know this? Because I recorded this documentary back in the 90's from a local PBS station and I've just watched it on my old VHS tape. Feel free to tell Timeless Media Group and the NBC Archives that I have their missing 90 seconds if they still want it! LOLThe Battle of Leyte Gulf - This is by far the best one of the three and is just a fascinating look into the final climactic battle between the American and Japanese fleets where the Imperial Japanese Navy was decisively crushed once and for all. Everything is covered from the suicidal sacrifice of the Japanese Carrier force, the desperate battle between the U.S. Escort Carrier Force and the lumbering behemoths of the Main Imperial Battle Fleet right down to the virtually unknown Battleship duel in the South. Just fascinating!The Battle of the Atlantic - Basically starts right from the beginning of the war with the surface ships and continues on to about May of 1943 when the pendulum swung permanently over to the allies.Overall, the entire series is in a standard 4:3 format, mostly B&W except for the maps detailing the action and as a result the blu ray version looks no different from the dvd's. The only advantage being that a single Blu-ray takes up slightly less space than three thinpak dvd's in their slipcover. Frankly, I prefer the dvd versions for the additional artwork and the ability to play anywhere. I just wish they had compiled one master collection of all twelve documentaries in one single collection instead of four.Highly recommended for all World War II buffs. You'll find out things you never knew before!J. A.

This series is well presented and formatted. In Part 1 of each battle portrayed is:a) placed into the historical backgroundb) given the technical details of the major weapons involvedc) given a brief biography of the leaders and commanders of the timed) provided with the morale and confidence of the sailorse) shown with the major intelligence and counter-intelligence of the situation.In part 2 the battle itself is described giving good maps and excellent contemporary film footage.This series is a little academically orientated, but, nevertheless, explains everything well to anyone at all interested in WW2.

What a fantastic series this is! The British really know how to produce these better than anyone else. It has the facts correct, and presents them very objectively.

Dévoile les faits et stratégies.

The entire Battlefield series is good. There is always some footage that you don't see elsewhere. I like Tim Pigot-Smith (the narrator). This is just the sea battles, there are a bunch more Battlefield episodes in the series!