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  • 18/09/2016 at 15:14 #48864
    Not Connard Sage
    Participant

    Tonight, BBC2. Reads like revisionism. Again.

    “Historian David Reynolds reassesses Winston Churchill’s conviction that the Mediterranean was the ‘soft underbelly’ of Hitler’s Europe. Travelling to Egypt and Italian battlefields like Cassino, scene of some of the worst carnage in western Europe, he shows how, in reality, the ‘soft underbelly’ became a dark and dangerous obsession for Churchill.
    Reynolds reveals a prime minister very different from the jaw-jutting bulldog of Britain’s ‘finest hour’ in 1940 – a leader who was politically vulnerable at home, desperate to shore up a crumbling British empire abroad, losing faith in his army and even ready to deceive his American allies if it might delay fighting head to head against the Germans in northern France.”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ndj09

    • This topic was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Mike. Reason: tidied up formatting

    "I go online sometimes, but everyone's spelling is really bad. It's... depressing."

    18/09/2016 at 17:04 #48870
    Cerdic
    Participant

    Yes. I read that stuff about the programme as well.

     

    I decided not to watch because it would probably result in a lot of shouting at the telly…

    http://28mmreview.blogspot.co.uk
    18/09/2016 at 17:28 #48872
    zippyfusenet
    Participant

    So, which parts of that narrative do you think are revisionist, Connard? And with which parts do you disagree? That’s pretty much the received wisdom on the west side of the Atlantic. We admire Churchill for his early stand against Fascism and his stubborn will-to-win when the war seemed lost, but we disagree with many points of his strategy, ever since 1942.

    You'll shoot your eye out, kid!

    18/09/2016 at 18:46 #48879
    Norm S
    Participant

    My limited understanding is that at the time, there was U.S. suspicion that Churchill was pursuing a war that served British interests in the Med, rather than looking at assaulting Northern France (U.S. Favoured option) for a faster and more direct way into Germany. Roosevelt had the difficult task of steering a course between those two interests.

    The program blurb just says it will be looking at “the stories behind the battles of North Africa and Italy”, so who knows how the program will pan out ……… certainly not me as it is on at 9pm and my wife watches Victoria while taping Poldark, which are also on at that time.

    I will just have to console myself by playing a game. I am looking at the mini game by Decision Games that covers Saratoga, so I might get that started tonight.

    18/09/2016 at 18:54 #48881
    Rhoderic
    Participant

     

    Norm S wrote:

    The program blurb just says it will be looking at “the stories behind the battles of North Africa and Italy”, so who knows how the program will pan out ……… certainly not me as it is on at 9pm and my wife watches Victoria while taping Poldark, which are also on at that time.

    If you’re in the UK, there’s always BBC iPlayer.

    19/09/2016 at 04:57 #48905
    Norm S
    Participant

    Ah – good shout, I knew it would come in handy one day 🙂

     

    19/09/2016 at 14:05 #48939
    Thuseld
    Participant

    I watched it last night. I found it interesting. But if I am being honest I watched it mainly to see as much original WW2 footage as possible. I can’t get enough of that.

    It did, however, excite me for my new 6mm WW2 project that will be underway in the coming months.

    Experiments here: http://inexperiencedmodelmaker.blogspot.co.uk/

    Tranquil Stars updates: https://tranquilstars.wordpress.com

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