Product Description

The conflict at seas between Allied merchant ships and their escorts and German U-boats, christened the Battle of the Atlantic by Winston Churchill, was the longest and arguably the most critical campaign of WWII. If Britain had fallen, there would have been no base for the western Allies to launch a strategic air offensive or a land invasion of the European mainland to defeat Germany. To survive, Britain needed imports of food, fuel and raw materials from overseas. The Germans used submarines (U-boats), mines, surface warships, armed merchant ships and aircraft during the battle, but it was the U-boats that posed the deadliest threat to Britain's survival.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69032 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-03-04
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 222 minutes

Customer Reviews

The North Atlantic Lifeline...
Before television and the internet, people went to the theater to get their news along with their movies. "Battle Ground: The Battle of the Atlantic" reproduces in digital form a collection of US, Canadian, British and captured German combat action footage, newsreel short features, and service-produced documentaries associated with the Battle of the Atlantic, the duel between the Allies and Nazi Germany for the supplyline to Britain. The audio and visual quality are excellent considered the original black and white film footage must have been over sixty years old when this item was produced in 2007.

Disk One has segments on the German submarine wolfpacks, the Atlantic Convoy System, action in the South Atlantic, the German commerce raiders, and the air patrols over the North Atlantic. Disk Two has three features on the conduct of the Battle of the Atlantic, plus two features relating to D-Day in Normandy and one on the building of the famous Liberty cargo ships.

The films have their original narration, which assumed the viewer understood the context of the stories. Viewers not familar with the Second World War may find some of the features a little hard to follow. Students of the Second World War should find these films fascinating viewing for their wealth of detail and sense of place and time. "Battle of the Atlantic" is very highly recommended to them.