[Video] NEH: Ken Burns' 'The War'--D-Day Episode; HISTORY: 'D-Day in HD': JUNE 6-7 AT 9/8C

The War (2007)

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Directed and Produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. A production of Florentine Films and WETA Washington, DC. In this seven-part, 15-hour series, six years in the making, director Ken Burns traces America's experience in World War II through four towns: Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; Luverne, Minnesota; and Sacramento, California. Blending new interviews and rare wartime photographs and footage, the project tells the stories of those who went to war, from Guadalcanal to the skies over Europe—and of the sweeping changes at home. Through its intimate portraits of everyday Americans, the film pursues a central insight: "in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.”

Episode Four, Pride of Our Nation





(June 1944-August 1944)

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June 6, 1944 – D-Day – a million and a half Allied troops embark on one of the greatest invasions in history: the invasion of France. It is the bloodiest day in American history since the Civil War, with nearly 2,500 Americans losing their lives. But the Allies succeed in tearing a 45-mile gap in Hitler’s vaunted Atlantic Wall, and by day’s end more than 150,000 men have landed on French soil. They quickly find themselves bogged down in the Norman hedgerows, facing German troops determined to make them pay for every inch of territory they gain. For months, the Allies must measure their progress in yards, and they suffer far greater casualties than anyone expected. In the Pacific, the long climb from island to island toward the Japanese homeland is well underway, but the enemy seems increasingly determined to defend to the death every piece of territory they hold.

'The War' Documentary is a little slow and plodding but worth watching.



It focuses on four American towns / cities during WWII.



Not as much flag waving and placing combat on a pedestal as in most of the History Channel documentaries.





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HISTORY: 'D-Day in HD': JUNE 6-7 AT 9/8C

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Part 2 Premiere Date:June 07, 2014 - 09:00-11:02PM ET For the 70th Anniversary of the Allied invasion of Nazi-held Europe, History tells the story of D-Day in HD. Rare footage is rendered in High Definition, then combined with interviews from the men who lived through it. Allied and German survivors tell their first-hand stories about the war that changed the course of the world. Through these stories, the long held belief that an Allied victory was secured after a single, bloody day will be dispelled. In truth, it would take weeks of back and forth struggle before the Allies could cement their foothold in enemy territory. And the final death toll far exceeds anything seen on the beaches. D-Day remains one of the most important turning points of WWII, yet very few of us know the real story…until now.

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