Historical documentaries?

[*Chernaudi]

Hi everyone.

 

For those of you who might know me, I have admitted to being a World War II history fanatic to a degree.  Hence, when an interesting one's on, I often will watch it.

 

I have two favorites that I've always taken time to watch, and one's called High Hitler, and the other is Hitler's Bodyguard.  In High Hitler, the story of how Adolf Hitler was probably turned into a meth addict by his personal doctor Theo Morell is told, as well as some rather unconventional medical treatments that Hitler put himself through to cure various ailments, such as his frequent stomach upsets and, as Dr. Morell put it, "constipation and colossal flatulence", which is what started this whole deal with the weird medical treatments.  The most prominent of these treatments included a series of injections that were heavily loaded with methamphetamines, as well as some potion that was made from human feces.  Yep, Dr. Morell was a craptastic crack pot who unwittingly helped bring down his own Fuhrer, and probably made the Allies job much easier than it would've been otherwise--after all, Allied commanders actually though that Hitler was worth more to them alive than dead because of his blundering from 1942 onwards.

 

And then there's Hitler's Bodyguard, a 13 episode series from the makers of Churchill's Bodyguard (which I have yet to see) talking about the bodyguard elements of Hitler and other Nazi party officials.  After you watch enough episodes, you do really begin to wonder the following:  How the hell did this bastard live until 1945?!  For those of you who know about the history of such things, it's known that Winston Churchill had very few bodyguards, namely a former Scotland Yard detective named Walter Thompson who adopted the codename "Intrepid" and a handful of other people who he commanded.  Hitler, on the other hand, had thousands of bodyguards.  This series does show that bigger isn't always better, and how confused things were within the bodyguard elements of Adolf Hitler, and, in fact, it was partially intended to be that way by Hitler himself.  Hitler always though that a certain amount of chaos in the ranks did help insure his safety and also kept his underlings occupied with rivalries so they couldn't challenge him for power.  Other dictators did much the same, namely Benito Mussolini and, to a lesser extent, Joesph Stalin.

 

Hitler's bodyguard included a palace guard that was part of the dreaded SS which soon became a mechanized Panzer division just before World War II broke out, and even a special division of the regular German Army called the Fuhrer Escort Battalion, which was at one point commanded by Erwin Rommel before he became head of the German Army's Afrika Corps.  As part of the regular German Army, and not the SS, the Escort Battalion was granted Amnesty after the war as simple enemy combatants as opposed to being a criminal organization.  But it did show how far some were willing to go to ensure Hitler's protection, as the Escort Battalion guarded Hitler's military HQ's, such as the Wolf's Lair in Rastenburg, in modern day Poland.

 

But, remember what I said about how "bigger isn't always better"?  In hindsight, Hitler's Bodyguard as an organization was so large, unwieldy, and over-complex that many screw ups did happen, some of which nearly lead to Hitler being assassinated.  A Swiss man got tickets to view a military parade in 1938, and nearly shot Hitler if it wasn't for his Close Escort Command elements.  He also tried to assassinate Hitler in Berlin and at his Bavarian retreat called the Burghoff, and was only caught when police questioned him about riding a train without a valid ticket.  In 1939 during a Munich Beer Hall memorial celebration, Hitler avoided being killed in a bomb attack only because he left the festivities about 15 minutes early, and then there was the July 20, 1944 bomb plot at the Wolf's Liar.  Those were just three of the over 40 attempts to kill Hitler before and during World War II.

 

His own generals were able to plot an attempt to have him removed from power that nearly succeeded if not for some political poker playing by Hitler to obtain the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, and even in the last days of the war, some of those closest to him wanted to snuff him and other Nazi leaders out.  Add to that political infighting within the ranks of the massive security apparatus, it's kinda a wonder that Hitler survived so long.  So many plots to kill him nearly succeeded and it was often chance and fate that intervened to save on of history's most evil men, and if any such plots succeeded, the course of history could've been significantly changed.  World War II may've been shortened or even averted in Europe, at least in the way that the events as we know them now, had Hitler been killed in any of those attacks.

 

Anyone else here a fan of historical documentaries?  As I said, I'm a pretty big fan of World War II history, and it's interesting to think about what could've happened if some event intervened to change history as we know it.  Also, its kinda funny to think that Hitler may've been turned into a meth addict in part because he suffered from stomach cramps, constipation and bad gas...

[LordSpleach]

I like WWII docs too, though I've always been more of a fan of the Pacific theater. Probably due to the aerial dogfights and I've always like Submarines. Plus, I also find it interesting to hear the Japanese perspective and how some of the higher officers in the ranks disagreed with the war, particularly attacking America.

 

I've always found that the European theater was a war against evil, while the Pacific theater was just a territorial war between United States and Japan.

[*Chernaudi]

I like the idea of the Nazi documentaries because they show some really corrupt and inept stuff going on.  It's actually kinda shocking to think that a political and military machine that conquered much of Europe by the spring of 1942 and had an "empire" that extended into western Russia, North Africa, and almost all of western Europe had some pretty screwed up stuff going on.  And that's not even counting the evil of the Holocaust.  There was also political and military blunders and ineptitude.  In particular, I enjoy the studies of Benito Mussolini and Fascist Italy if you want a comedy/tragedy/tragicomedy of errors.  And of course, Tea with Mussolini is one of my favorite World War II themed movies, even if it's kinda a PG-rated chick flick (remember, I'm a fan of the Twilight Saga), though I also liked the old Great Escape and Battle of the Bulge films that the History Channel used to air often on Saturday nights. 

 

I really like the Nugus/Martin WWII documentary series and others like them, such as Hitler's Bodyguard, Secrets of World War II, Nazi Collaborators, and The Secret War.  I also like shows and books that talk about WWII technology and weapons, because he weapons and tactics do sort of shed a light on how things worked and even give a bit of a lead in to the political factors and strategies in the outcomes of such battles.

 

I like to study the Pacific Theater as well, but one area that often really gets overlooked IMO is the North African/Mediterranean Theater, also known as the Southern European Theater.  Much of the discussion focuses on Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Pacific and the Atlantic, but some of the fiercest battles and most interesting events happened in Southern Europe and North Africa.  Maybe that neglect is what draws my interest there.

[*YoungGuyver]

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