History Television's "Week of Rembrance"

[dangerboy]

History Television is showing a series of shows on WWI and WWII as part of their "Week of Remembrance"

Passchendaele: The Underground War
Mon. Nov. 10th and 8pm and 9pm ET/PT
Passchendaele: The Underground War is the story of an unprecedented excavation of a First World War underground dugout in Flanders, Fields, Belgium. Using laser scanners, ground-sensing radar and submersibles, the evacuation team finds and drains a dugout that was built in 1918. The team quickly finds that the dugout contains a series of surprises including cave-ins, fires and artifacts. Each of these modern events and discoveries is used to trigger flashbacks to the underground war, allowing viewers to explore the evolution of this secret front.

Vimy Ridge: Heaven to Hell
Tues. Nov. 11th at 6pm and 10pm ET/PT
In Vimy Ridge: Heaven to Hell, viewers will be on the ground with the Canadian Corps through a battlefield archaeological excavation. Found objects are subject to analysis—each one allowed to tell its own unique story; to reveal the untold personal experiences of Canadian ground troops and their enemies.

Finding The Fallen Season 2
Tues. Nov. 11th and Wed. Nov. 12th from 8pm - 10pm ET/PT
Traveling to infamous battlefields of the First World War, a group of archaeologists, forensic experts and historians excavate the past, one shovelful at a time, to preserve the memories of the lives that ended there. The second season travels to countries including Germany, Belgium, France and Britain, and unearths the history of the men and women who fought in the First World War the stories that have remained buried for many years.

Bloody Normandy
Wed. Nov. 12th at 6pm and 11pm ET/PT
Bloody Normandy is the story of one of the greatest military campaigns in history through the eyes of the men who were there. In one chapter, Canadian veteran Bill Bettridge returns to the village of Mouen for the first time in over 60 years to pay tribute to seven men from his unit who were murdered in cold blood by the Nazi SS in July 1944.

Bloody Italy
Thurs. Nov. 13th at 6pm and 11pm ET/PT
This is the story of the remarkable and dramatic journey of Canada’s 1st Division as they move through the rugged and harsh Italian countryside coming face to face with some of Hitler’s most feared and well-trained soldiers.

Battlefield Mysteries
Thurs. Nov. 13th from 8pm - 10pm ET/PT, Fri. Nov. 14th at 8pm ET/PT
Battlefield Mysteries follows acclaimed historian Norm Christie as he investigates the real and often unknown stories behind history’s most significant battles. Shot on location in France, Britain, Malta and Spain, the series features computer-generated animation, eyewitness accounts and Christie’s own insights and hands-on investigative techniques

Bloody Victory
Fri. Nov. 14th at 6pm and 11pm ET/PT
After the successful battle of Normandy, the Canadian army is given a new mission: advance up the French, Belgian and Dutch coasts and secure strategic ports vital to supplying the allied war machine. Now, sixty-five years later, Canadian veterans return to the battlefields where they fought and won the battle for Northwest Europe.

For anyone that likes documentaries like myself this looks like a good week of informative shows.

(Mods: could not decide if this was more appropriate here or under Military film and literature, feel free to move if you wish.

 

[Old Sweat]

Battlefield Mysteries
Thurs. Nov. 13th from 8pm - 10pm ET/PT, Fri. Nov. 14th at 8pm ET/PT
Battlefield Mysteries follows acclaimed historian Norm Christie as he investigates the real and often unknown stories behind history’s most significant battles. Shot on location in France, Britain, Malta and Spain, the series features computer-generated animation, eyewitness accounts and Christie’s own insights and hands-on investigative techniques.

The episode listed in the TV schedule that came in today's Ottawa Citizen as being aired on Thursday at 8 p.m. is titled "Who Killed the Black Baron?" This is an investigation of the incident near the Caen-Falaise Highway on 8 August 1944 in which Michael Wittmann, the acting commander of 101 SS Heavy Tank Battalion and the then top scoring German panzer ace, was killed. The episode is based in part on the examination in an Appendix to my book on Operation Totalize, No Holding Back, with some additional material discovered by Mister Christie. It includes interviews with veterans of the battle including the gunner of a Sherman Firefly who knocked out three Tigers that day. I have not seen it myself, but I am aware of its findings which I cannot disclose and am looking forward to the program.

 

[Old Sweat]

Further to the above, a colleague in France tipped me off about two new series of documentaries that include the Wittmann battle. The links to promos for both are below. For those that don't recognize them, the three gentlemen being interviewed in one of the clips are BGen (ret) Radley-Walters, Joe Ekins, the Firefly gunner who killed three Tigers at one go, and Ken Tout, who has written extensively on his life as a crewman in a Sherman in Normandy.

http://www.breakthroughfilms.com/production_showlistings_show_default.asp?sid=214&gid=1

http://www.breakthroughfilms.com/production_showlistings_show_default.asp?sid=163&gid=1

 

[ENGINEERS WIFE]

Tues. Nov. 11th at 6pm and 10pm ET/PT
In Vimy Ridge: Heaven to Hell, viewers will be on the ground with the Canadian Corps through a battlefield archaeological excavation. Found objects are subject to analysis—each one allowed to tell its own unique story; to reveal the untold personal experiences of Canadian ground troops and their enemies.

I watched this one yesterday on Global.  It was fantastic!! They went down into a tunnel and the names and carving that were in the stone from Canadian soldiers that had been there was unbelievable.  It brought tears to my eyes.  Made you stop in your tracks to think it hasn't  been seen or touched for such a long time.  What these soldiers did way incredible.  A must watch!!

 

[karl28]

            I agree I saw the same Documentary on the History channel and it was truly moving to watch .

 

[Danjanou]

Just watched the Who killed Wittmann episode, pretty well done I thought and a good logical analysis of what really happened.

 

[Rodahn]

I watched the episode on the Battle of the Somme on Remembrance Day, and thought it was well done. However that battle has a little more meaning for me, as that was where my Grandfather was gassed. He was one of the lucky ones and survives, but with only one functional lung.

 

[PMedMoe]

Band of Brothers marathon (uncut) on Sunday 16 Nov.

 

[Franko]

Just watched the Who killed Wittmann episode, pretty well done I thought and a good logical analysis of what really happened.

Extremely well done episode. Seems Wittmann's crew was brewed up by Rad's troops. Wittmann always thought he'd be nailed by an AT Gun.

Regards

 

[Old Sweat]

Extremely well done episode. Seems Wittmann's crew was brewed up by Rad's troops. Wittmann always thought he'd be nailed by an AT Gun.

Rad gave me copies of his correspondence with Lord Tom Boardman, who was the 2ic of the Yeomanry Squadron. His Lordship got snarkier and snarkier over the years as he began to appreciate that the British claim was by no means ironclad. Being an upper class Brit, when his argument was weak he resorted to personal and national abuse. Rad should be pleased.

 

[Franko]

Rad gave me copies of his correspondence with Lord Tom Boardman, who was the 2ic of the Yeomanry Squadron. His Lordship got snarkier and snarkier over the years as he began to appreciate that the British claim was by no means ironclad. Being an upper class Brit, when his argument was weak he resorted to personal and national abuse. Rad should be pleased.

I've chatted with him over the years, never had the chance to make it out to his farm before he took a turn in his health though. Used to be a regular thing in the Regiment...go out and see if he needed a hand with anything. Wasn't construed as a duty, just helping out a war vet.

Everyone jumped at the chance IIRC.

Regards

 

[Danjanou]

Rad gave me copies of his correspondence with Lord Tom Boardman, who was the 2ic of the Yeomanry Squadron. His Lordship got snarkier and snarkier over the years as he began to appreciate that the British claim was by no means ironclad. Being an upper class Brit, when his argument was weak he resorted to personal and national abuse. Rad should be pleased.

I'm keeping an eye on a couple of wargame forums where I posted details re this to see the responses of snarky Brits and Wittmann fanboys. Should be interesting.  >

 

[Old Sweat]

I'm keeping an eye on a couple of wargame forums where I posted details re this to see the responses of snarky Brits and Wittmann fanboys. Should be interesting.  >

While I was not the first to make the point that the Canadians got Wittmann in print, as Lieutenant Colonel Larry Zaporzan had included it in his MA thesis, my book was the first that had fairly wide distribution. This led to some interesting email discussions, none of which questioned my findings. A PhD at Hiedelberg University doing stem cell research who had been a Panzer officer answered my question re why Wittmann had driven into such an obvious trap by stating W was a tactical ignoramus who never should have been commissioned.

This program should energize the debate once again. The hard core opponents of the theory fall into two categories. Those who will claim the Brits got him out of sheer arrogance and chauvinism, and the airplane got him group. The latter subscribe to the belief that no mere Sherman could have killed the panzer ace of aces. When confronted by the evidence that there were no Typhoons in the area that day, they then claim he fell to 9 USAAF. When asked for a source and reminded that 9 USAAF was heavily engaged against the Mortrain offensive at the other end of the front, they drop the matter or just repeat their claim over and over again.

 

[time expired]

A Sherman Firefly with the 17pdr could have certainly got him
if the the range and angle had been right.However is it really that
important who got him as long as someone did,after reading a
little about him I believe his time had run out as he was starting
to believe he was invincible.
                                        Regards

 

[Old Sweat]

The range from the Chateau wall behind which the Sherbrookes were lurking was under 300 metres and his tank took a hit from the rear which penetrated the back deck and then entered the tank and probably started a fire in the ammunition.

You are absolutely correct in that the important thing is that he and his comrades in the Tigers were put out of action. It was peripheral to the main engagement, it still was important. Wittmann and his tanks were part of a major counter attack by 12 SS Panzer Division. In my opinion the defence of the St Aignan position by the Northamptonshire Yeomanry and 1st Battalion the Black Watch, which defeated the counterattack, sealed the fate of the German army in Normandy.