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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

timewatch


john w.

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Tonight just seen on BBC2 Timewatch... all to brief scurry cross WW1 anyone else see it? If yes what did you think....

John

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I agree, John. It was a bit too concise for me, combined with a few prejudices about the Germans. The German Army at Mons had lots of reservists, as had the French Army and in both armies the reservists were put into action from the beginning. These men were trained before the war, it was only the German Reserve Corps, mainly used at First Ypres, that were mainly untrained men (Ersatz-Reservists) trained in only six weeks.

The military strategic use of the railroad for their troop movements was not only a German matter, the French did this too and the funding of railroads for military use in Russia by France was one of the reason why the Russian were ready this soon and also one of the reasons the war started (the Russians having moved a few Corps to the German border shortly before the war)...

Jan

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Lee watch it, I found it was very good and well put together and help point out at it was new technology that caused the high casualties. you'll reget not watching it.

John you say it was a brief scurry cross WW1, but any programme going into detail would be as along as the BBC's Great War series.

Regards

Annette

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Annette..

very true.. but like all WW1 and WW2 programmes they have to be concerned with one small part of the war. Like the Forgotten Battlefield or in the case of last night appear to scratch only the surface.

So much has been done on the subject that we seem to find it hard now to come up with 'interesting' programmes. There will be things but those seem so few and far between.

Lee do watch it though I did find it an interesting prgoramme

John

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Unfortunately,I missed the first 25 minutes or so of the programme (too engrossed in this forum at the time!),catching it from the bombardment of Soupir Chateau. Did I miss much,and is it worth me scouting round for someone who recorded the whole thing?

What I did see looked interesting though.

Dave.

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Did I miss much,and is it worth me scouting round for someone who recorded the whole thing?

Thinking about it, with the BBC these days, it's probably going to be screened another couple of times within the next 6 months anyway!!!

:D

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Annette..

very true.. but like all WW1 and WW2 programmes they have to be concerned with one small part of the war. Like the Forgotten Battlefield or in the case of last night appear to scratch only the surface.

So much has been done on the subject that we seem to find it hard now to come up with 'interesting' programmes. There will be things but those seem so few and far between.

Lee do watch it though I did find it an interesting prgoramme

John

Interesting point of view John, but I read elsewhere that you are involved in radio, so you will be aware that it is difficult to put much across in the space of a 30/50 mins of air time, whether on TV or radio.

We often expect a lot of TV, but it is hard to deliever the goods in the medium concerned; the sort of detailed programme many of us here would love to watch would not appeal to a mass audience and therefore unlikely ever to appear on mainstream TV. It's all about funding, sadly.

Incidentally, some good points raised above - especially by Jan. I am not sure where they (Timewatch) got that from. On this occasion I was only a "location fixer" and had no historical input.

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Luckily I saw the episode ,

as a friend gave me a call just in time to alert me .

And I found it well made .

Why not having a section on the forum that alerts participants of an interesting

Movie or documentary W.W.I related to come …. W.W.I on Tv .

Instead of putting up a post afterwards , who has seen this or that documentary?

Personally I see more my pc screen than my tv screen ,

and I do not scrutinize tv programs .

Some time ago there was a mentioning of a rebroadcast ,documentary

Series On wwi made in the 60’s on some BBC channel starting February

Any more details available on this one?

Thanks

Patrick

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Paul

I agree wholeheartedly with what you say, that was my point you either delve into something like the forgotten battlefield, or dare I say it... The tale of John Condon... which humanises an episode of an inhuman conflict; or you scurry across a generic version that raises points for people to discuss.

It is ultimately a question of the audience and who you are trying to get the message across to.

I also work in video production and look for ideas Paul, but I tend look for specific topics to examine.

John

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John,

I found the programme quite interesting it certainly made the point about the conflict being an Artillery/M.C. gun war. My apologies for nit-picking as it detracts from proper criticism but being somewhat familiar with the S.M.L.E. in the last lot, the quote of " 25 aimed rounds a minute" left me wondering.

Cliff.

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