The World Wars

2014
The World Wars

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1

EP1 Trial by Fire May 26, 2014

A chronological look at the events that occurred during the world wars. An assassin's bullet sparks a global conflict that quickly evolves into the deadliest war humanity has ever seen. In the chaos, a new generation of soldier emerges, including a group of men who would become the most infamous leaders of the 20th century.

EP2 The Price of Glory May 27, 2014

The fighting may have stopped, but tensions around the world continue to simmer just beneath the surface. Few may realize it, but the seeds of the next great global conflict have already been sown.

EP3 The Rising Tide May 28, 2014

A new generation of world leaders is called to action as war inevitably breaks out again. The men who came of age in battle now must rely upon past experiences to fight a new conflict, as they face the greatest challenge humanity has ever seen.
7.9| 0h30m| en| More Info
Released: 26 May 2014 Ended
Producted By: History
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.history.com/shows/the-world-wars
Synopsis

The story of three decades of war told through the eyes of various men who were its key players: Roosevelt, Hitler, Patton, Mussolini, Churchill, Tojo, DeGaulle and MacArthur. The series examines the two wars as one contiguous timeline starting in 1914 and concluding in 1945 with these unique individuals coming of age in World War I before ultimately calling the shots in World War II.

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Reviews

jjcarr-49015 Spoiler AlertThe idea behind this series - to show how for a number of key figures (Roosevelt, Hitler, Patton, Mussolini, Churchill, Tojo, De Gaulle and MacArthur) their experiences in WW1 influenced the actions in WW2 - is worthwhile. Unfortunately it's about the only thing in this series that is. Here I refer to the six one-hour episodes shown in Europe as opposed to the three two-hour shows shown originally in the US. In fairness it signals its awfulness from the start. We see the British launching a night attack with gas on 16th October 1914! A German soldier can't get his gas mask to seal because of his handlebar moustache! After surviving by holding his breath he uses a knife or bayonet to shave the bars off leaving a toothbrush moustache. He looks up at the camera to show us the face of a young Hitler. It's a spot-the-deliberate-error competition. Apart from the fact that attacks tended to occur in daylight and that Hitler didn't change his moustache style until recovering from a wound in 1916 the real howler is that neither side used poison gas in 1914 though the Germans and French did use tear gas. Later in the episode the Hitler/Tand(e)y story which may or may not be an urban legend - Hitler may not, as he claimed, by the soldier whose life was spared by Tand(e)y - is presented unequivocally as a fact. In part 4 we have both Churchill giving part of the 'finest hour' speech (which actually occurred on 18th June 1940) and being brought back into the cabinet (which actually occurred on 3rd September 1939) before the war started on 1st September 1939. They have him giving the 'we shall fight' speech after the fall of France rather than after Dunkirk but before the fall of France. Then they put the Blitz before the Battle of Britain. In part 5 we have the Battle of Moscow starting after Pearl Harbor and Hitler's declaration of war on the US! These are just a sample of the numerous factually inaccuracies inflicted on the viewer. Basically they're putting carts before horses to suit their narrative. At times this got so painful to watch that more than once I considered stopping watching but I decided to stick it out so I could give a review based on the whole series and to see if it has any redeeming feature. It hasn't. Why did I give it one out of ten? Because imdb won't let you give zero.
jlthornb51 There are so many errors in this thing that it should not be considered a documentary at all. If it is indeed a documentary, it is the sloppiest one ever produced and an absolute travesty. The people associated with this should be ashamed and must be some of the laziest on earth. Any historian who came near it should hide for the next decade until the smoke clears from this because their reputations are totally mud. The film of a C-130 Hercules dropping German paratroopers over Poland in 1939 as American B-17's bomb Warsaw are a couple of examples of the jarring images used to misleadingly illustrate the narration. The narration and the commentary is okay and just that because the rest of the production is so slip-shod, haphazard, and downright trash. This was painful to watch and became impossible to view after the first 45 minutes. What a complete mess and insult to the intelligence of the viewers. Obviously, no one cared what they were doing when this abomination was thrown together and they felt accurate research was a waste of time. This junk is a waste of the audience's time and should be avoided. Stick to pawn shops and ice roads, "History" channel. Faking that stuff is what you do well!
Christopher Heselton This "documentary" leans more towards a fictional alternative universe that conforms with some US-centric narrative, because it is rife with inaccuracies and seems to think that the US mattered more in these wars than any other country. As a historian of East Asia, I can down-right say that nearly everything said about Japan was inaccurate. These were not nit-picky mistakes. For example, in episode 2, the narrator claims that:"In 1937, the Emperor of Japan approves an invasion of Northeastern China. A dedicated soldier is chosen to lead the troops. His name is Hideki Tojo. … After overseeing a series of successful battles, Tojo is names Japan's Minister of War and is now responsible for the state of the Japanese military."I don't know where to begin: 1) The Japanese invasion of Northeastern China (Manchuria) was on September 18, 1931 and was completed by 1933. It was not July 7, 1937 as they stated. July 7, 1937 is the date of the Marco Polo Bridge incident, a bridge just outside Beijing (just down the street from where I live) where a small clash between a Chinese warlord and the Japanese Imperial Army occurred and quickly grew into a total-war between China and Japan. It is generally taken as the beginning of World War II in China.2) The Japanese emperor never approved of any invasion of northeastern China. The consensus is that the invasion was begun unapproved by anyone in the central government, and instead was undertaken by renegade officers in the colonial (not imperial) Kwantung Army – particularly Seishiro Itagaki and Kanji Ishiwara – and then taken further by Shigeru Honjo. In fact, the Minister of War, Jiro Minami, was trying to have Seishiro removed fearful that he would provoke a conflict. Once the invasion begun, however, the invasion proved to be popular with the public and politicians didn't want to admit they couldn't control their own officers, so they retroactively (many months later) approved. 3) Hideki Tojo wasn't involved in the invasion of Northeastern China at all. He was a colonel in the 1st Regiment of the Imperial Japanese Army, which didn't see action then. It wasn't until 1935 he served as a Kempeitai officer in Manchukuo (the puppet state set up by the Japanese in northeastern China). The invasion of Manchuria was run by several officers, but Shigeru Honjo probably did more. Since there was no central plan, no one really was in control, so no one was leading it. It was often mid-ranking officers taking the initiative to gain promotions and celebrity status in the media – in fact, the central government was trying to contain the conflict.4) Tojo wasn't made the Minister of War until 1940, and of course he was Prime Minister a year later.These are mistakes that could be revealed with simple checks on Wikipedia. My undergraduate students do a better job than this on their mid-term papers, which shows the un-professional quality of the writing of this film.Not to mention: Why are John McCain, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney doing on a "history" program? They don't seem very knowledgeable on the subject. As far as I know, they didn't serve in any positions of leadership or witness any of the events they comment on. It also seems odd (and suspicious) that they only have these right-wing politicians – granted I don't think there are any politicians in a position to really be able to comment on this. You'd get just as accurate a response by pulling a random stranger off the street.
dfarhie-811-176368 I had a lot of interest in The World Wars, because I've been interested in World War history in general since I was a lad. The resulting tripe was terribly disappointing. Not only was it badly edited, but the narrator was a plodding, monotone voice that showed little or no emotion during the program. What I thought was an adult level program turned into a middle school level show with frequent recaps just in case the watchers were morons and couldn't remember from one segment to the next. The only factoid I gleaned from this rehash of the facts was the English soldier who possibly had Hitler in his sights during World War I and didn't shoot. I hadn't heard that one. Inaccuracies, distortions and just bad history were the norm. What do you expect? The show featured numerous republicans who love to skew history to their ends, and how can anybody take a show seriously that has former Bush administrators who lied to the American People about WMD's. I'm surprised they didn't dredge up John Poindexter and Oliver North! Shame on you History Channel for turning what could have been a monumental show into a pig trough of slop.