The post World War II era was a challenging time for America. Planners were looking for ways to repair and reconstruct the very country, which their bombers had laid waste only a few months ago! The wheels of German industry had come to a standstill and they had to set them rolling again! Witness how this was done on this rare, amazing and historic DVD! Halfway through World War II, the United States Army Air Force began its own bombing missions over Germany. While the Royal Air Force relied on the cover of darkness to carry out its aerial raids, the USAAF preferred to attack by daylight, claiming greater accuracy and lesser threat to civilians. Although both strategies had their advantages and problems, the overall impact of this relentless pounding of German cities and industries had a telling effect on the outcome of the war. Strangely, Germany retaliated initially by increasing industrial production, but the sheer tonnage of explosive delivered by day and by night was eventually sufficient to cause widespread damage, and, more importantly from a military point of view, force Germany to divert resources to counter it. This was to be the real significance of the Allied strategic bombing campaign - resource allocation. The twin campaigns - the US by day, the Commonwealth by night - built up into massive bombing of German industrial areas, notably the Ruhr followed by attacks directly on cities such as Hamburg and the more often-criticized bombing of Dresden. Albert Speer, Hitler’s Minister of Industries, has gone on record to admit that the bombing caused crucial production problems particularly on Germany’s ambitious U-Boat industry. For three years Allied bombers systematically bombed industrial plants and cities all over the Reich, reducing much of urban Germany to rubble. |
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9 of 11 found the following review helpful:
A Learning ExperienceApr 27, 2006
By Deacon Who knew just how bad Germany was hit by world war 2? In school they taught us about the Marshall Plan but I didn't realize that we did that because we almost ruined an entire country.
I watched this DVD with my mouth agape. There is a lot of footage of complete rubble on the ground and people's lives were destroyed.
I didnt' think anything could make me feel bad for the Germans after WW2 but this disk did.
8 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Disturbing But InterestingApr 26, 2006
By Bart This DVD was very creepy, but I'm glad I ordered it. When I learned about WWII in history the videos we saw of the end of the war were all about American soldiers coming home victorious.
What I never thought about was what happened to the countries that lost the war.
When I watched this DVD it brought home to me that there were a lot of innocent German people who had their lives ruined and cities destroyed - even though they had nothing to do with the Nazis.
There is no narration or commentary on the DVD, but that just made it scarier for me - in a good way.
12 of 16 found the following review helpful:
This movie is a Rip-Off!!!Oct 27, 2005
By A. Timmons
"History WWII Buff"
This movie was put together piecemeal using old Army handheld footage. The first two-thirds of the DVD is simply old footage of a bombed out Germany. After 2-3 minutes it all looks the same. There is no narration whatsoever. The final third of the movie is an old documentary of a day in the life of a German family. Very boring. Uninspiring. This could have been an opportunity to convey some insight using old footage; however the auther of this DVD obviously piecemealed a bunch of old footage together and slapped a price on it. In fact, the guy that gave this five star review... has given a bunch of other videos similar ratings and similar misleading reviews. Just read his. This is a total rip-off!!
Very poorly doneJan 02, 2012
By Martin Theophilus Waste of my time. There are so many well produced videos on WW II. This is definitely not one of them. As a 45 year production company, we'd be embarrassed to have this product on the market. Repeating "My Way" music? Go figure. Hope the royalties were paid. Write up on Amazon should not be allowed as it misrepresents what the video content really is.
Sad and TragedyJul 14, 2007
By A. H. Shaker This Movie shows the German city famous and non famous to the outsider how it looks like 28 months after the D Day ! so sad to see Germany become like that and nothing and it makes you even more sad if you see the newsreel and how Germany looks like before the war. German city were famous for its traditional and cultural rich architecture but it's all ruin !! some of the clips are simply private tour and they don't really take full round scene at each city but snap shots from her and there which make you annoy some times . no narrator and just music " my way" on saxophone repeated over and over ..
it is good to watch to give you somehow a close idea of how the German people suffer from the war and how their cities turned to rabble due to the Allied Air Raid which is savages goes behind imagination
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