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I have seen the first six episodes....the final one is tonight.
Last night covered the Battle of the Budge.... it hit home for me because my late father fought in the Budge....... ironically, the night (Dec 2004) before he suffered a massive heart attack that eventually killed him, we sat togather and watched the 60th anniversay special on the Budge....he went on non stop for a couple of hours about his expereinces. Wish to God I had thought to record the conversation.
The Americans were completely caught by surprise...Hitler had order every male between the ages of 16-60 called up...in addition to the rank and file german, he drafted criminals and the infirmed and the mentally impaired...they had a couple of weeks of training and were sent to attack a 20 mile stretch of the western front that was just inside the German border.
My father said two things still stood out after all the years: the fox holes were cold as hell and most of the time he couldnt make out the guy next to him, much less the Germans because of the dense forest and fog. Extremely high casualty rate- he had men all around him shot or blown up into pieces. He took shrapnel in his back and leg.
The episode last night said 19,000 GIs killed during the atatck..... the life span of a junior officer was 7 days (killed or wounded)..my father was a captain. The life span for a GI was less than three days. The GIs were dressed in clothing and boots that they had in England and wasnt fit for the bitter winter.
One of the survivors who wes interviewed, said he spoke with a German prisoner who spoke perfect English and turned out to know the exact location of two rivers in the GIs home town of Waterbury CT. When asked how he knew this, the German said he had been in training for assignment to the new territories... Hitler was insane enough to think that Germany would take over America and turn her into their territory.
If you havent see The War, it will be played again in November.
Very explict battle scenes, brought you into the middle of the horror the soldiers and marines had to endure.
Awesome awesome awesome.
