The First World War From Above

I thought it was awful. A programme about WW1 from the air spent most of the time talking about tunnelling, and all that great film... was wasted.

 

If anything, I thought it provided lots more idea's for further programmes - in particular i'd like to see more on the tunnel system that the old girl fell down.....I like the way her husband got changed before looking for her !!

So have we seen the airship films before, or is it 'forgotten footage' as claimed.

I'd like to see more about the efforts of the tunnellers in relation to the mines as well.

Just watched a Canadian film about Paschendaele, will have to pay the place a visit one day.

 

I thought it was awful. A programme about WW1 from the air spent most of the time talking about tunnelling, and all that great film... was wasted.

Totally agree... a pretty dire re-hash of all the bog-standard guff that seems to be aired periodically for the mass-market. A completely lost opportunity to make something memorable and 'different'.

Now... that 'newly discovered film'. Why is it that I feel that I've seen it before somewhere (even the pilot is familiar)? Unless my memory is playing tricks with me,I'm pretty certain that that film was being shown at the Citadel in Verdun as long ago as 10/15 years back (or, at least, clips from it were)! Has it really just been 'discovered' or is it just a 'complete copy' that has been discovered?

Dave

 

Dave, it isn't 'just discovered'. I was struggling to think where I had seen it before, and you are right - Verdun. I also know of at least two documentaries that have used excerpts of the Ypres part of it. Ho hum.

 

Pete, I've done a couple of visits to Ypres, Paschendael and Tyne Cot and would thoroughly recommend it. Very sobering. Amazing to think Ypres remained in British (and Commonwealth) hands throughout the war. The reconstructed Cloth Hall museum is well worth a visit and the town itself if full of character.
Re the documentary I didn't enjoy Keane's presentation and I thought the whole thing was a bit 'light' but perhaps we are purists and expected to see the whole 1919 airship film (78 minutes?).
Is it possible to view the whole 1919 film somewhere online?
Re tunneling operations I felt that this should have been covered in a different documentary, not included in this Aerial View programme.

Mike

 

There's been at least one documentary on the tunnels, which airs fairly regularly on the satellite channels:

Untitled Document

 

Interesting programme however it was not what Ihad expected to see (As described in the title)
Pity about that however my view is that the more interest that is stirred in this subject then the better it will be for everyone and perhaps more effort will go into preserving sites.

 

It would have been better had there been two documentaries on the aerial material available.The airship coverage over the quiet battlefields would have been very interesting as would the aerial intelligence coverage.Both would have been capable of standing as dedicated documentaries in their own right.

Interesting in the end when the French lady is told of her father's involvement in the making of the aerial former battlefield coverage.Then she confirms that her parents were both executed by the Germans.It looks as if her father was an organiser and her Polish born mother,a courier in a resistance reseau.Both apparently were betrayed, a continual risk hanging over such people who resisted in some form or another.Did not state the location of the reseau.

I saw two of the usual "fill ins",the one "going over the top" scene and the one where a wounded soldier is being carried on the shoulder of another.

Its very common, just seen a short clip of the women ferry pilots who were relating their experiences of handling single aircraft when a Halifax, squadron coded,I think,CP, made its appearance twice during the discussion.

 

Waste of a good opportunity I thought. The commentry was awful, so depressingly put together linking worn "how awful" cliches with stock footage. How much of the film contained the 1919 airship? Very little - I have not seen the film before so it was new to me. The Then & Now was used a few times but there was so little of "This is..." when flying over the Messines ridge line.

I was disaapointed with it, as it really was dumbed down. I accept that many people don't know a huge amount about WW1 but it was too bland for those that have some knowledge..

Now if they were to make a few half-hour shows expanding on the detail tucked away on BBC 4 then it could be better

Jim

 

What I thought was amazing was how the landscape has been returned to its former glory since those sad days, When you see the total destruction that had occurred, bomb craters & thousands of miles of trench systems and all the detritus of war plus the large loss of men who could have restored the battlefields its a miracle. and to also think only 20 years after the destruction it happened again but not to the same extent.

 

Too right, Paul!

A real waste of resources. The money would have been
better spent digitising the images and let us all see them
at our leisure for free


And the moment with the balloon pilots daughter was
almost pornographic with the stupidest questions!

"and your parents were tortured"..."how does it feel to
see your father" etc, cringe!


I thought it was awful. A programme about WW1 from the air spent most of the time talking about tunnelling, and all that great film... was wasted.

 

Just been watching this graphic account of the destruction and futility of what went before.

Fantastic moving pictures.

If anybody missed it its available on BBCiPlayer on BBC2.

 

Hi Doc,

Saw it too unbelievable the numbers 16 million and what a great show more like this one please....

 

Just been watching this graphic account of the destruction and futility of what went before.

Fantastic moving pictures.

If anybody missed it its available on BBCiPlayer on BBC2.

Recording it on Sky +. Looks good.

 

Thanks Owen for the consolidation. It's interesting to read the earlier posts from November 2010.

For me it brought home (once again) just a flavour of what my Uncle William of Post Office Rifles, among the missing at Paeschendale, Uncle Percy (MM) Machine Gun Corps, Uncle Fred of West Kents and my father, invalided out, must have been expected to endure. It also showed the flying conditions prevailing for Uncle Charlie, who flew as an Observer in the rear cockpit in the Royal Flying Corps. No wonder they never said a word about it!

 

BBC iPlayer - The First World War from Above

this remarkable programme was repeated last night on BBC2

its on iplayer for the next 7 days - if you missed it, it is well worth watching as it vividly highlights the landscape of belgium and france in 1918/19 as filmed for aa airship by a french crew - and the route is retraced as it exists today. Beautiful piece of TV
a unique account of an era that should never be repeated

 

Thought it was one of the worst and cringingingly awful military history docos I've seen in a while, sorry guys.

 

Thought it was one of the worst and cringingingly awful military history docos I've seen in a while, sorry guys.

Why Paul? If it's that bad I won't bother.

 

The film made in 1919 didn't feature the Somme yet over half this programme was about the Somme. One of the 'experts' spouted complete rubbish, and the handling of the balloon pilots daughter was the cringingly awful bit. A real waste of an excellent original source.