Although it took America’s armed forces four years to bring World War II to a successful conclusion, viewers can experience World War II in a single day when The History Channel airs all ten one-hour episodes of its mini-series “World War II in HD,” on Saturday, February 27th, starting at 1 pm. World War II has been the subject of countless documentaries, but “World War II in HD” gives it a fresh new look, using immersive high definition color and utilizing film culled from thousands of hours of footage taken from historical archives and private collections. The series, originally shown in November, 2009, is narrated by Gary Sinese.Accompanying the visual images of World War II are the true experiences of a dozen different solders, whose diaries and war journals tell their personal war stories. As the war’s larger events are chronicled, we’re introduced to individuals such as an army nurse who served in the North African campaign through to the liberation of the concentration camps, a young African American man who became a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, and the son of Japanese immigrants who ended up captured and imprisoned in Europe. The writings of these 12 veterans are brought to life by the voices of several Hollywood personalities, including LL Cool J, Rob Lowe, Amy Smart and Rob Corddry.
The ten hours of “World War II in HD” moves from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima, covers the European and Pacific theaters, and chronicles the major battles at both land and sea. But the real star of this documentary is the color film, which illuminates the wartime landscape, and makes World War II come alive like never before. If nothing else, the footage gives viewers a much better understanding of what kind of conditions U.S. soldiers had to live through day after day…they were called “The Greatest Generation” for a reason.
