The History Channel Ultimate Collections: World War II is a ten disc set featuring some of The History Channel's best documentaries on WWII. These are the old school docs from The History Channel's beginnings, when military history buffs could turn on the "Hitler Channel" as it was affectionately (and perversely) called, seemingly at any time of the day or night, and find an excellent documentary, loaded with archival footage, about the various battles and strategies of The Big One: World War II. This was a revelation to most history buffs. Prior to The History Channel (as well as its host network, A&E), PBS was about the only place you could catch a TV documentary on WWII, with 1974's miniseries, The World at War, the preeminent example.

Started in January, 1995, The History Channel was an off-shoot of The A&E Network, which was launched in 1984. At its beginning, much of A&E's schedule was devoted to more esoteric programming, such as shows about dance, theatre and literature, as well as dramas and mysteries. But it had enormous success when it aired its war documentaries, particularly those themed around WWII. This was no doubt due in part to the coming 50th Anniversary of WWII, an historical milestone that was gaining public awareness through an increasing supply of new books, films and documentaries on that monumental struggle. Eventually, with much of its schedule dominated by such series, the network spun off The History Channel, which initially devoted much of its time to these war documentaries, garnering big ratings in the cable Nielsens. As was the case with most cable networks with multiple channels, various programs would overlap on each channel, cross-breeding and expanding the schedules through repetition. The History Channel Ultimate Collections: World War II showcases such programming, including series that were produced prior to the A&E Network's launch, episodes of A&E's popular Biography series, as well as series developed exclusively for The History Channel.

These documentaries, made up almost exclusively of archival footage, are exactly the kind of classic documentaries that die-hard WWII historians like to watch. A voice-over narrator gravely intones the story of each battle or conflict, while grainy, washed out, and scratched-up black and white footage of the war plays out, with dramatic music and loud battle sound effects added for emphasis. Frequently, maps (sometimes as primitive as someone using a pointer on a cardboard-back map; other times, animated) are utilized to place the action and to illustrate troop movements. And military experts and historians, seated directly in front of the camera in the invariable head-and-shoulders shot, interrupt the narration for their overviews of events, often giving a broader historical context to the descriptive narration. This is square, primal, often aggressive filmmaking; there's nothing "arty" about the presentation to the viewer. The horrors of battle (which are unflinchingly shown in numerous shots of the dead) are respected by the purposefully sparse, conservative, no-nonsense, head-on productions. The History Channel Ultimate Collections: World War II is a tremendous resource for viewers who want an exhaustive overview of the single most important event of the 20th century.

Here are the various episodes included in The History Channel Ultimate Collections: World War II, with their DVD box descriptions, as well as some production history:

DISC ONE:

World War II: The War in Europe - Part 1
This disc contains four episodes from War Chronicles, a multiple-episode series of war documentaries written and directed by Don Horan, and hosted and narrated by actor Patrick O'Neal. Running about 26 minutes each in length, the episodes included on this disc were produced in 1983 and 1985. They feature no interviews, just O'Neal (and at times, an anonymous narrator who, inexplicable, drops in additional voice-over material) explaining in detailed narration over the graphic archival footage, the various battle campaigns. Primitive visual aids are used to highlight the action (at times, it's just O'Neal, pointing at a map). The episodes included are:

DISC TWO:

World War II: The War in Europe - Part 2
This disc contains another four episodes from War Chronicles, a multiple-episode series of war documentaries written and directed by Don Horan, and hosted and narrated by actor Patrick O'Neal. Running about 26 minutes each in length, the episodes included on this disc were produced in 1983 and 1985. Again, as with the first disc, they feature no interviews, just O'Neal explaining in detailed narration over the graphic archival footage, the various battle campaigns. The episodes included are:

DISC THREE:

World War II: The War in the Pacific - Part 1
This disc contains another four episodes from War Chronicles, a multiple-episode series of war documentaries written and directed by Don Horan, and hosted and narrated by actor Patrick O'Neal. Running about 26 minutes each in length, the episodes included on this disc were produced in 1983 and 1985. Again, as with the first two discs, they feature no interviews, just O'Neal explaining in detailed narration over the graphic archival footage, the various battle campaigns. The episodes included are:

DISC FOUR:

World War II: The War in the Pacific - Part 1
This disc contains two episodes from War Chronicles, a multiple-episode series of war documentaries written and directed by Don Horan, and hosted and narrated by actor Patrick O'Neal. Running about 26 minutes in length, the episodes included on this disc were produced in 1983 and 1985. Again, as with the first two discs, they feature no interviews, just O'Neal explaining in detailed narration over the graphic archival footage, the various battle campaigns. The episodes included are:

In addition to the two War Chronicles episodes, this disc contains an episode of A&E's famous Biography series, hosted by Jack Perkins. Perkins, who seemed to pop up on A&E every half hour in the 1990's, was a genial host with a trademark AM radio voice delivery that hooked people into watching his shows. Here, Perkins narrates a 45 minute tribute, with help from interviews with military historians, to Admiral William Halsey; it is also written and directed by Don Horan, and was produced in 1995:
Admiral William "Bull" Halsey: Naval Warrior: One of the most celebrated naval commanders in American history, Admiral Halsey led the Battle of the Bismarck Sea and helped neutralize the Japanese offensive.

DISC FIVE:

Biography: General Douglas MacArthur: Return of a Legend
This disc contains another 50 minute A&E Biography episode, hosted by Jack Perkins, discussing the life and career of General Douglas MacArthur. Directed by Don Horan, and written by Norman Stahl, this 1995 documentary isn't narrated by Perkins, but by noted actor Fritz Weaver:

DISC SIX:

Okinawa: The Final Battle
This disc contains a 50 minute documentary, narrated by Fritz Weaver again, exploring the bloody battle in the Pacific. Directed by Don Horan, and written by Norman Stahl and Joseph H. Alexander, this 1995 documentary doesn't have a title card that might indicate what series on A&E or The History Channel it may have appeared on, but it's a safe bet to assume it was featured as a one-shot doc on The History Channel:

DISC SEVEN:

Empires of Industry: War Planes of World War II
This disc contains a 50 minute documentary, narrated by Peter Thomas, exploring the planes that were used during WWII. Written and produced by John Jefferson, this 1998 documentary is part of the popular Empires of Industry series on the A&E Network:

DISC EIGHT:

Nuremberg: Tyranny on Trial
This disc contains a 50 minute documentary, narrated by Paul Sparer, gives a detailed look at the war tribunals in Nuremberg. Written by Norman Stahl and directed by Don Horan, this documentary was produced in 1995 for The History Channel:

DISC NINE:

Great Blunders of World War II - Part 1
This disc contains four, 21 minute episodes from The History Channel miniseries, Great Blunders of World War II. Produced in 1998 by director Jonathan Martin, and written by Charles Messenger, these compact little docs are fascinating looks at the fatal mistakes made by the Axis powers, that aided the Allied victory:

DISC TEN:

Great Blunders of World War II - Part 2
This disc contains four, 21 minute episodes from The History Channel miniseries, Great Blunders of World War II. Produced in 1998 by director Jonathan Martin, and written by Charles Messenger, these compact little docs are fascinating looks at the fatal mistakes made by the Axis powers, that aided the Allied victory:

The DVDs:

The Video:
The History Channel Ultimate Collections: World War II by no means delivers crystal clear video images. Quite a bit of it looks rather rough, with some footage from the documentaries coming from second or third generation video that looks pretty bad. However, most of the archival footage, while admittedly scratched up and contrasty, still impresses with its grainy power. All of the programs are presented in the full screen format.

The Audio:
The audio tracks for The History Channel Ultimate Collections: World War II are a standard Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix. It's strong, and carries the numerous explosions well. There are, unfortunately, no subtitles available for the collection (which is a particular disservice to many of the older viewers who will undoubtedly make up a large block of this set's buyers).

The Extras:
Although the last two discs advertise on their boxes that they have "bonus" episodes, really, they're just four extra episodes of the same series, and as such, don't really count as different extras outside of the documentaries presented here.

Final Thoughts:
Let's face it: if you're a regular viewer of The History Channel or A&E (like I am), you've probably seen one or two of these documentaries. But if you're a military history buff, you won't mind having these entertaining docs in your DVD collection. No, they're not the definitive historical answer to these battles and campaigns (is there such a thing in history?), but the docs contained in the massive, 15 hour The History Channel Ultimate Collections: World War II, with their no-nonsense, square-headed, scrupulously researched approach to their subjects, are welcome reliefs to the fractured, "morally equivalent" historical documentaries that are increasingly turning up on cable networks. I highly recommend The History Channel Ultimate Collections: World War II.