Honestly, the footage in the first two episodes of this documentary is NOT why you should be watching this series.
This series is English, and the narrator and script is first rate. The war historians and professors are also top notch. Add to that a few surviving veterans and some truly solid human interest stories about the top leaders, generals, on down to the soldiers and pilots, and it's a surprisingly emotional and beautifully produced documentary series.
This isn't as sterile and rote as many WWII documentaries, and it's certainly more about people than the title would have you believe. I almost didn't watch it because of the title, and to be honest, there is footage in here from films, modern re-enactments, and some colorized B&W as well. There is a majority amount of authentic color footage as well, much of it I've never seen before.
The documentary also seems to delve into the true motivations and machinations of various real events in WWII, and the invasion of France in particular included a lot of information which was new to me. I consider myself knowledgeable, but certainly not a scholar, but it was interesting to hear various facts and theories related by scholars I had not considered before.
The second episode is dedicated to a real veteran pilot of the Battle Of Britain who was interviewed for the episode. You really got the sense of heroism and duty from this clearly very aged but lucid survivor. The editing is fast paced but really easy to absorb.
Honestly, this was far better than I expected. This is up there with the much older World at War series that Olivier narrated, though it's hard to beat Olivier for gravitas. Still, this really is worth seeing for any history buff and good for newbies as well. To those discussing omissions, of course that is going to happen in such a hugely broad topic.
What also comes across quickly in this series, more so than in other series I've seen, is the unnecessary futility and outright stupidity of Hitler's goals and ambitions, and the tragic waste of the entire war. Whatever savvy innovations the Germans proved they had in the first 9 months of the war was clearly being squandered from Dunkirk on. The first episode also does gives the best explanation I've ever heard of explaining how and why the French folded.
