I've been catching up with the WWII program on public television. I dvr'd it when it was on, but it was too much tv to watch all at once. Also, I had a lot of Halo3 I needed to play (war Lite). The program (officially titled The War) is outstanding. I cannot watch too much of it at once. Even the 2 or 2.5 hour format gets long, because a lot happens, and almost all of it is terrible.
Parts of it are funny, as when Sidney Phillips recalls a Marine recruiter telling him "you can't be in the Navy anyway, because your parents are married." Sidney joined the Marines.
Much of it is horrifying, with staggering numbers of dead and wounded. According to the program, 1 in 4 of all the men shipped away from the fighting were victims of some kind of mental disorder, for which they had names like "shellshock" and "battle fatigue". A phrase like "lost his mind because he got tired of killing people and people trying to kill him" is untidy and doesn't fit on reports.
Parts are both funny and horrifying, as when a cook being shelled at Anzio (7,000 dead, 36,000 wounded or missing, 44,000 "battle casualties" - about which see above) fell to his knees and shouted "God help us! You come yourself; don't send Jesus. This is no place for children."
The program is full of rich stories, compelling characters, and original images. I highly recommend it.
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