Secret War

WW2 documentary that rivals espionage suspense thrillers
Arguably the most fascinating WWII documentary ever. Few historical accounting's prove this enthralling (even to my wife.) It is about the British Special Operations Executive [SOE] established by Churchill himself, admonishing spies to "set Europe ablaze." They did, and this set provides 13 episode proof which contain narration, archival & new footage, survivor testimony, experts, photos, some reenactment clips, and all historically & entertainingly produced. Color and much in B/W, no attempt to colorize the 1940s film.

A must own for spy thriller, WW2, military, history, and political fans. Or those willing to try something completely different and astonishing.

It's a toss up as to whether it's more educational or entertaining. I submit 50/50. I began listing fave episodes till I realized it was them all. Helpful facts for the novice about British intelligence: MI6 = Brit. Intelligence Espionage Service; MI5 = Brit. Home Counter-Espionage Service; SAS = Special...

disappointing
I had this company's documentary about Hitler's body guards. It was first rate. This presentation is completely different. It has loud mood music. It has visual effects such as rapid changes in the video image. These things are distracting in a documentary. In order to pad out the presentation to 50 minutes, additional scenes are added that are not from the situation being documented. It leaves out important information. For instance in the North African episode it failed to say that the British had terrible tactical radio security. The Germans collected much intelligence from this. The Germans had special radio direction finding units that triangulated the locations of the British forces, including commando raids. Also, the Germans had broken the British codes. This is how they had two weeks advanced notice of one of the raids. In order to disguise this, they attributed the cryptography information to human spies.

Another thing not mentioned in the documentary was that...

Secret War Good History
If you want to go deeper into the history of WWII, this is a good set. It also includes some less than successful efforts.

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