World At War, The (Bonus DVD) 7 of 7 - 5-Disc Set
HBO Home Video (1973)
TV Series  /  Documentary, History, Special Interest, War
In Collection
#385
0*
Seen ItYes
026359924620
IMDB   9.2
1920 mins USA / English
DVD  Region 1   NR
Laurence Olivier
James Stewart
Stephen Ambrose Himself
Andre Beaufre Himself
David Belchem Himself
Christabel Bielenberg Herself
Sir Max Aitken Himself
Emmi Bonhoeffer Herself
Andr Beaufre Himself
Lord Boothby Himself
Albrecht Brauning Himself
Laurence Olivier Narrator
Eric Porter Narrator
Bruins Slot Himself
Director
Ted Childs
Michael Darlow
Producer Ted Childs
Peter Batty
Writer Neal Ascherson
Peter Batty


The Definitive History Of The Second World War There has never been a war like it. And there has never been a documentary series that more fully examines that war. Previously only available on videocassette, the complete The World At War series is now available for the first time on DVD, featuring brand new digital masters created from new prints struck from the original negatives. Narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier, The World At War draws on an extraordinary wide collection of newsreel, propaganda and home movie footage - including rare footage of Adolf Hitler taken by his mistress Eva Braun - gathered from both the victor nations and the conquered. The World At War also includes interviews with journalists, housewives, soldiers and historians, Polish, Dutch, Italian and Hungarian Jewish camp survivors, survivors, survivors of Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, and the fire-bombing of Dresden; as well as uniquely devastating descriptions by participants as far-reaching as: Traudl Junge, Hitler's secretary Karl Wolff, SS General and Hitler's adjutant Marquis Kido, the Emperor Hirohito's chief advisor Heinz Linge, Hitler's valet Mitsuo Fuchida, leader of the Pearl Harbor attack Takeo Yoshikawa, a spy at Pearl Harbor Jame Stewart, film actor and U.S fighter pilot Alger Hiss, US State Department Advisor to President Roosevelt Paul Tibbets, a pilot on the Hiroshima-targeted Enola Gay Voices like these, and the extraordinary range of footage that accompanies them, make The World At War a truly definitive and unique eyewitness documentary series on all fronts of the Second World War.
Episodes
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins  1.  The Making Of
The making of 'The World At War'
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    10/31/1973  2.  A New Germany (1933 - 1939)
Germany, a nation stricken by humiliating defeat and emerging from crippling economic depression, looks to one man for a resurgence of hope and dignity. That man is Adolf Hitler…
Director:  Hugh Raggett  Writer:  Neal Ascherson 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    11/7/1973  3.  Distant War (September 1939 - May 1940)
In Eastern Europe, the full force of the Nazi machine rolls on - but in Britain, an uneasy calm settles on the nation. It is the 'phoney' war, with the sound of distant guns thundering ominously on the horizon…
Director:  David Elstein  Writer:  Laurence Thompson 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    11/14/1973  4.  France Falls (May - June 1940)
France discovers it is woefully unprepared for modern warfare as the Nazi war machine easily skirts around the Maginot Line. Britain retreats and prepares for invasion.
Director:  Peter Batty  Writer:  Peter Batty 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    11/21/1973  5.  Alone (May 1940 - May 1941)
After Dunkirk, Britain faces the German onslaught. Although the Rap wins the Battle of Britain, the cities are blitzed and on the continent the last Allies are conquered. The outlook is grim.
Director:  David Elstein  Writer:  Laurence Thompson 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    11/28/1973  6.  Barbarossa (June - December 1941)
Hitler at last turns his tanks towards Russia. After a succession of devastating victories, the Germans delay and the fierce Russian winter takes a grip.
Director:  Peter Batty  Writer:  Peter Batty 
Guest starring:  Laurence Olivier
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    12/5/1973  7.  Banzai!: Japan (1931 - 1942)
At war since 1931 on the Chinese mainland, the Japanese hope for easy victories over the British and Dutch. And then on December 7th 1941, Japan makes their infamous attack on Pearl Harbour.
Director:  Peter Batty  Writer:  Peter Batty 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    12/12/1973  8.  On Our Way: U.S.A. (1939 - 1942)
Americans are divided between fighting the Japanese and the Nazis. Hitler solves the problem by declaring war on the U.S.A.
Director:  Peter Batty  / V  Writer:  Peter Batty 
Guest starring:  Laurence Olivier, JK Galbraith
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    12/19/1973  9.  The Desert: North Africa (1940 - 1943)
For 2 years the 8th Army and Rommel's Afrika Corps fight in the wastes of North Africa. Finally the tide turns at El Alamein.
Director:  Peter Batty  Writer:  Peter Batty 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    1/2/1974  10.  Stalingrad (June 1942 - February 1943)
Hitler's early successes in Russia made him reckless and he resolves to capture Stalingrad. The battle lasts six months with the Russians emerging as victors. The Wehrmacht never recovers.
Director:  Hugh Raggett  Writer:  Jerome Kuehl 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    1/9/1974  11.  Wolfpack: U-Boats in the Atlantic (1939 - 1943)
In a war of high technology and animal courage, the German U-Boats fight Allied merchantmen, hounding them in packs.
Director:  Ted Childs  Writer:  J.P.W. Mallalieu 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    1/16/1974  12.  Red Star: The Soviet Union (1941 - 1943)
For two years the Soviet Army fights the Germans almost alone. After one of the greatest land battles in history, the nation survives and triumphs - but with a loss of no less than twenty million of its people.
Director:  Neal Ascherson  Writer:  Neal Ascherson 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    1/23/1974  13.  Whirlwind: Bombing Germany (September 1939 - April 1944)
Bomber Command begin bombing German cities by night and the Americans reinforce the attacks by day; a whirlwind of terror and destruction that will win the war.
Director:  Ted Childs  Writer:  Charles Douglas Home 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    1/30/1974  14.  Tough Old Gut: Italy (November 1942 - June 1944)
Churchill called Italy the 'soft underbelly of the crocodile' and thought the Allies could cut through it to the heart of Germany. By the soft underbelly turned out to be a 'tough old gut'.
Director:  Ben Shepherd  Writer:  David Wheeler 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    2/6/1974  15.  It's A Lovely Day Tomorrow: Burma (1942 - 1944)
Vera Lynn sang of a lovely day tomorrow, but the war in Burma was mud and monsoon. Britain's largest army learned to master the jungle and fought the Japanese to standstill.
Director:  John Pett  Writer:  John Williams 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    2/13/1974  16.  Home Fires: Britain (1940 - 1944)
Finding strength in unity at home in Britain during the war, it was a time of gas masks, Winston Churchill, Dig for Victory, evacuation, George Formby, the Land Army, ITMA, the Squander Bug and the Beveridge Report.
Director:  Philip Whitehead  Writer:  Angus Calder 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    2/20/1974  17.  Inside the Reich: Germany (1940 - 1944)
Initial victory in Europe turns sour after the defeat at Stalingrad, yet Germany prepares to fight to the end - even after an assignation attempt on the Führer.
Director:  Philip Whitehead  Writer:  Neal Ascherson 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    2/27/1974  18.  Morning (June - August 1944)
The Western Allies resolve to invade Europe. England becomes a floating supply dump and the British and Americans assemble the largest invasion fleet in history. It is June 6th 1944 - D Day.
Director:  John Pett  Writer:  John Williams 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    3/13/1974  19.  Occupation: Holland (1940 - 1944)
Through a neutral country, Holland is attacked by Germany without warning in 1940. During the next four years, life carries on seemingly without incident, but underneath resistance never dies.
Director:  Michael Darlow  Writer:  Charles Bloomberg 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    3/20/1974  20.  Pincers (August 1944 - March 1945)
The end of the war appears close at hand with the liberation of Paris in 1944, but the British and Americans disagree on how to advance. Meanwhile, Poland suffers devastating losses to achieve victory.
Director:  Peter Batty  Writer:  Peter Batty 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    3/27/1974  21.  Genocide (1941 - 1945)
The Nazi's are racist; the Aryans are a master race, others, particularly the Jews are sub-human. Himmler's SS sets about ridding Europe of millions of Jews.
Director:  Martin Smith  Writer:  Charles Bloomberg 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    4/3/1974  22.  Nemesis: Germany (February - May 1945)
Hitler retreats to the Fuhrer bunker is Berlin as Germany crumbles around him and his lieutenants abandon him to a fate of suicide. Meanwhile, the Russians raise the red flag in Berlin.
Director:  Martin Smith  Writer:  Stuart Hood 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    4/10/1974  23.  Japan (1941 - 1945)
Initially apprehensive about the outcome of declaring war, the Japanese quickly turn to celebration with early victory. In the end, their worst fears are unimaginably exceeded.
Director:  Hugh Raggett  Writer:  Courtney Browne 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    4/17/1974  24.  Pacific (February 1942 - July 1945)
The Americans fight their way across the Pacific towards Japan and the Phillipines. Perhaps the bloodiest campaign of all, each island has to be taken by storm and the Japanese fight to the last man.
Director:  John Pett  Writer:  David Wheeler 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    4/24/1974  25.  The Bomb (February - September 1945)
Western scientists have developed a new, immensely powerful weapon - the atomic bomb. On August 6th 1945, the Enola Gay delivers the world's first atomic bomb to Hiroshima. The world would be forever altered.
Director:  David Elstein  Writer:  David Elstein 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    5/1/1974  26.  Reckoning (1945...and after)
The war ends slowly and messily. Britain is victorious but exhausted and the super-powers confront each other as they decide the fate of Europe.
Director:  Jerome Kuehl  Writer:  Jerome Kuehl 
    Seen it: Yes   60 mins    5/8/1974  27.  Remember
For many the Second World War was the most significant experience of their lives. Heartbreaking first hand remembrances from a vast array of survivors on both sides of the war.
Director:  Jeremy Isaacs  Writer:  Jeremy Isaacs 
Edition Details
Edition 26 Episode Series Collection
Series The World at War
Distributor HBO
Release Date 8/24/2004
Packaging Custom Case
Screen Ratio Standard 1.33:1 B&W
Audio Tracks ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Mono
Layers Dual Side, Dual Layer
No. of Discs/Tapes 5

Features
Disc 01 Individual Episode Introductions by Producer Jeremy Isaacs
Episode Summaries
Scene Index with Direct Access to Songs, Speeches, Maps
World War II Timeline
Imperial War Museum Photo Gallery
Brief History of World War II
DVD-ROM Links to The Imperial War Museum Website and More
Biographies of Leading Figures