Cool History Channel Stuff

[Jesse James]

I'm a big fan of watching History Channel and other related TV channels (military channel, etc.), and figure there's bound to be a lot of other guys watching it...

Something that prompted me to fire this thread up is a new show they're running called "Battle 360", which takes a historical battle (so far only World War 2 that I've seen), and it's really fantastic.  It animates battles gives you a full view of how the battle would've played out...  It tends to focus on specific moments and actions in the overall battle too, pointing out unorthidox techniques of commanders and indivudals during the battle.

Anyway, tonight was the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in the Pacific theater, a naval conflict between the U.S. and Japanese.

I won't get into the episode too much if people want to watch it for themselves (I'm sure it'll be repeated like everything else on the channel about 3000 times this weekend).  What I found fascinating, and what interests me the most in the show I guess, is one specific moment actually that the show made sure to point out...  It's kind of the reason I wanted to start the thread.  I'm very into history and military history in particular, so this just was really "neat" to me and I thought it was worth mentioning.

The USS Smith was acting as a screen to the USS Enterprise during the battle while Enterprise was getting pounded by Japanese Dive Bombers and Torpedo Bombers...  A US pilot shot and damaged a Japanese plane, which rolled into a dive at the Smith which was nearby the Enterprise, and he Kamikazied the Smith in the bow.

His Torpedo also was still "live" and went off a short time later...  The forward hull was engulfed in flames on the Smith, and the crew was having difficulty getting the flames under control and it was threatening to detonate the ship's own ammunition stores... 

The Smith's Captain, amidst all this chaos, smoke, fire, and really unbelievable carnage, turned the vessel into the wake of another escorting ship, which was kicking up a lot of spray...  To get control of the forward fire on the ship, he actually pulled in behind another and the spray put the flames down...  The ship returned then to putting flak in the air and defending the USS Enterprise.

I've never read this story, never heard about this action that saved a ship really and put it back to its job immediately, despite a blow that for all intents and purposes should've crippled, if not sunk the Smith.  That's just simply incredible stuff...  It's the kind of small action that usually gets glossed over in the hsitory books due to the larger battle it all took place in.  But it's the kind of thing that I'm loving about this new Battle 360 show, as it really puts you in a place where you can see how the battle played out, and why things turned out as they did, and the actions that made the day a success (or failure) for either side.

I highly recommend this one...  History Channel shows tend to come and go quickly, but this one I'm really hoping sticks around and covers more than just naval engagements.

Weird thread perhaps, I just was really enjoying the program and thought I'd share.  Plus it really introduces some heroes to you too.  Well worth watching for a wide variety fo reasons I think.

[Angry Ewok]

Never heard of that before, great idea, though. Had no idea the spray of an escort would be adequate to control a fire in the hull.


Say it, don't spray it.

[Nicklab]

I caught the first episode of this, but haven't seen the other chapters yet.  I hope I can catch up on it soon.

[Rob]

Pretty much for a half hour or hour before bed I flip between History Channel, History International, Discover, Military, National Geographic, and Science channels.  I'll stop on whichever one has the most interesting thing on.

I loves me some WWII aviation, so I'll stop on Battle 360 if the episode is on something from back then.

[Matt_Fury]

I love watching the shows in HD.  My wife and I recently watched the "How the Earth was Made" special which was a geological history of the Earth, with a theoretical look 2 billion years into the future to it's "end".  Fantastic to watch in HD.

Every so often on the Military Channel they have a lot of WWI shows....fascinating time in History.

[Jesse James]

That's another great show (how the earth was made), and I also dug the "life after humans" show they did...

Also, this was just this weekend but I loved watching the "Protestant Reformation" special.  Weird as that may sound...  It was very interesting.  I'm a Lutheran, so I found it especially informative and interesting because of my own religion.  Well worth watching though regardless what you believe I think.

I'm going to start DVR'ing Battle360 I think though, as that's one I just can't get enough of.  Very well made series.  I liked Dogfights, which seemed to sort of be the jumping off point for this new series, but this is 10x better than Dogfights, and that was a great program. 

I'm hoping to see them expand to other eras (US Civil War, etc.) as well.  It'd be neat to see it expand beyond WWII right now.

[jjks]

Good thread Jesse! I actually just caught up on the last three episodes of Battle 360 tonight. I watched the first one and loved it, so made a point to set the DVR to catch this show. I was really fascinated with the story of the USS Smith as well, and had never heard of that either. I love that the show has numerous actual vets of the battles, seeing them get choked up while discussing the burials at sea was pretty rough though. I just can't imagine experiencing something so traumatic that it still effects you sixty plus years later. It makes you really appreciate what they went through

[Chris M]

Battlefield 360 is a pretty cool show.

But I think Dogfights is even better.  For those who don't know, the two usually run back to back on Friday nights and as Jesse mentioned, they are replayed many times and you can catch up on what you missed..or just set the DVR and record away.

I might also add that the show Shootout is really good, also on the History Channel.  It's like the other two and goes in depth with tactics and decisions made during firefights and battles.  If you enjoy History and need are a "visual" learner, the above mentioned shows are excellent to help you get a perspective on things.

[Jesse James]

I've always been a fan of tactics and strategy...  During the PBS series The Civil War, I always appreciated the animated maps though they were pretty simplistic.  That's why I was hoping we'd see the Battle360 series expand to ground campaigns and other wars/eras to really illustrate the how's and why's of a large battle and moments in history that often were turning points.

There's another series that's done a lot of ground campaigns, and right now I'm brainfarting on what the name of that show is, but they haven't done new ones in a long while.  One of their better ones was the battle of Stalingrad though, and really illustrated just how brutal that conflict was.  That series seems to be dead and only airing repeats though.

I think Dogfights is new this season, isn't it Chris?  It's good...  I mean, it tells you stories you'd never hear otherwise...  One from Korea with two pilots chasing one another all the way down on the deck INSIDE a dried out river bed...  Who knew that stuff went on?  Who knew there was a US pilot alive who lived a friggin' movie storyline like that?  Tom Cruise, eat your heart out...  I mean, it was nuts, and the pilot, likely a Russian ace, led the US pilot right to his base and flak fire, where the US pilot shot him down as he tried to land...  Crazy stuff.

I saw Dogfights last week and they were talking to a P47 pilot duking it out with a German pilot and how the two of them got alongside one another and started gesturing to one another before they continued fighting.  It's just crazy the stories these men will tell.

[Chris M]

I've always been a fan of tactics and strategy...  During the PBS series The Civil War, I always appreciated the animated maps though they were pretty simplistic.  That's why I was hoping we'd see the Battle360 series expand to ground campaigns and other wars/eras to really illustrate the how's and why's of a large battle and moments in history that often were turning points.

There's another series that's done a lot of ground campaigns, and right now I'm brainfarting on what the name of that show is, but they haven't done new ones in a long while.  One of their better ones was the battle of Stalingrad though, and really illustrated just how brutal that conflict was.  That series seems to be dead and only airing repeats though.

I think Dogfights is new this season, isn't it Chris?  It's good...  I mean, it tells you stories you'd never hear otherwise...  One from Korea with two pilots chasing one another all the way down on the deck INSIDE a dried out river bed...  Who knew that stuff went on?  Who knew there was a US pilot alive who lived a friggin' movie storyline like that?  Tom Cruise, eat your heart out...  I mean, it was nuts, and the pilot, likely a Russian ace, led the US pilot right to his base and flak fire, where the US pilot shot him down as he tried to land...  Crazy stuff.

I saw Dogfights last week and they were talking to a P47 pilot duking it out with a German pilot and how the two of them got alongside one another and started gesturing to one another before they continued fighting.  It's just crazy the stories these men will tell.

Yeah Jesse, DF is new this season.  The one you are thinking about in your second paragraph is 20th Century battlefields.  I think I've DVR'd all of those and have seen them all now.

For a good story, you can some of Stephen Coonts non-fiction writings...can't remember the name of the particular book at the moment.  I could go on and on about good history books...image that???  Jesse, if you are interested in some good readings, or anyone for that matter, either reply here or shoot me a PM about your subject preference and I'll see if I've read something on it.

BTW, for those who don't know, I've got a degree in History and teach it to 8th graders and will be working on a Masters shortly, also in History.

[Jesse James]

That's it Chris, thanks...  I could get Battlefield in my head, but not the 20th C. part...  Love that show, but it seems possibly dead in the water. 

[Paul]

360 is a fun show.  I really like the CGI (wow, did I just say that?).  I think it is going to be very Pacific Theater focused early on and I was promised by someone working for the show that the CGI was going to get better as it went, I had not seen this thread yet or would have asked about other time periods.

If they go into other eras (older than WWII) we will not have many vets...but I do like when they have people read 1st hand accounts from letters.   

The amount of time I spend on JD.com is rivalled only by my time at History Channel, Military Channel, Pentagon Channel and History Channel International.

24 hours a day I can find something about WWII or other interesting topics.

I wonder if anybody else remembers when you had to stay up till 9:35pm to catch the Why We Fight Series on TBS in the early days of cable. 

[Darth Kenobi]

I ended up DVRing one epsiode of 360 about the first weeks of the war and the USS Enterpise activities.  One of the more interesting things on it was how a (I think) Mechanic Mate 3rd class, jumped into the rare gunner's seat of a dive bomber/torpedo bomber to fire on a Japanese Bomber who was starting to start a Kamikaze run at the Enterpise.  The US bomber was parked on the deck making it an easy target for the Japanese pilot to target for the impact zone of the crash.  Eventually the Japanese Bomber ended up summersalting over the park bomber and crashing into the water. 
Admiral Halsey saw this event and ordered the Mechanic Mate to see him and ended up promoting him.

[Jesse James]

I find I'm going to those same channels everyone's listing on the weekends or when there's not something specific I want to see...  I'm always game to flick it on one of the history/military/science channels and look at what's going on.  Weaponology's been outstanding, and for some reason I can watch half that stuff over and over...

Which is positive since it's aired, over and over.