Battle 360 on the History channel

[Admiral Scott]

There is a new series on the History channel called History 360.

Battle 360 is the story of the World War II aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. The Enterprise held a pivotal place on the turbulent seas of World War II, engaging in some of modern combat's fiercest multi-front battles. Using the latest technology and cutting-edge computer graphic animation, Battle 360 brings viewers deep into the action, from high in the sky to deep underwater as the Enterprise fights its way to victory.

Series premieres Friday, February 29 at 10pm/9C

[Admiral Scott]

Here is the episode guide link.

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?cont ... i_id=57954

[TOMLABEL]

I saw an advertisement about it tonight on the History Channel. The animations looked o.k. as far as I could tell from the 60 second spot. Although, I have to say, I'm a bit leary of the History Channel doing this given their excellent track record of getting everything wrong! Hopefully, the ENTERPRISE ASSOCIATION had a lot of say in making it!

Remember their show on the battleship YAMMAMATO ? I could go on with other examples, but I won't. I believe someone on this board call them the HERESY CHANNEL.

Nevertheless, its definitely gonna be DVR'ed.

TOMLABEL

[Admiral Scott]

I saw the first episode tonight, and I thought it was well done.
I was not aware that planes from the Enterprise were involved with Jap planes during the Pearl Harbor attack.

[TOMLABEL]

It looks like we've got a couple of thread going on about this. I watched this tonight. It was pretty good for the History Channel. Mostly digitalized re-enactments of the smaller skirmishes prior to Coral Sea. The next episode looks to be better as it covers the Midway battle.

TOMLABEL

[witpqs]

I didn't like it very much - it was just OK. Too many inaccuracies and too much photographic game playing. The animations were pretty good.

Enterprise dive bombers sunk the first Japanese ship of WWII (a sub on 12/10/42) - so they ignored the midget sunk outside Pearl. They totally omitted the shooting down of some Enterprise carrier planes on 7 December. Instead they gave the clear impression that all the lost planes were the result of enemy action.

They used a lot of inappropriate footage. For example, when the Enterprise entered Pearl Harbor after the surprise attack, they had a voice over about all the fire-fighting and rescue efforts going on, and showed a carrier with a cruiser beside it spraying fire hoses toward it... what?! There was lots of wrong stock footage used as almost all such productions do.

What I found particularly annoying was the way they embellished historical footage by adding wispy images on top of it to make it look more chaotic or whatever. I'm using the word 'images' but they weren't really, they were just artifacts that changed the overall appearance of the historical footage. Remember how many old movies (and documentaries) would use a flak special affect (something like smoke puffs painted on glass) that was clearly in front of the film? It was just like that. All it did was degrade the visual quality of the footage while adding nothing.

Like I said, I felt it was just OK.

[TOMLABEL]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

What I found particularly annoying was the way they embellished historical footage by adding wispy images on top of it to make it look more chaotic or whatever. I'm using the word 'images' but they weren't really, they were just artifacts that changed the overall appearance of the historical footage. Remember how many old movies (and documentaries) would use a flak special affect (something like smoke puffs painted on glass) that was clearly in front of the film? It was just like that. All it did was degrade the visual quality of the footage while adding nothing.

Yea, these sections were the low point. I hope the next episodes are better, but like I said, I thought it was pretty good. There was some footage of the E in port ( or it could have been the locks at Panama) that I've never seen before.

TOMLABEL

[Skyros]

They mentioned that Northampton carried torpedos and I always thought the US CAs did not carry them.

Just checked wiki and it looks like she carried 6 tubes.

[witpqs]

There was good stuff in it - like the guy who accidentally tripped the battle stations alarm during the Doolittle mission. He said he's lucky he got away with it - his shipmates wanted to get their hands on the guy!

[Tiornu]

Just checked wiki and it looks like she carried 6 tubes.

Ooh! Now I have this terrible feeling they got some of their information from Wikipedia....
The Northampton comment was the only thing that really bugged me. Yes, she was designed with four 5in guns and six torpedo tubes, but like all similarly designed CAs, she landed the tubes and got four more 5in guns prewar.

[decaro]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

I didn't like it very much - it was just OK. Too many inaccuracies and too much photographic game playing. The animations were pretty good.

Enterprise dive bombers sunk the first Japanese ship of WWII (a sub on 12/10/42) - so they ignored the midget sunk outside Pearl ...

I forgot about that midget sub too, but then again I'm not a professional historian working for the "History Channel". Perhaps they considered it the first vessel sunk after war was declared, but if that's what they intended, it got lost in editing.

ORIGINAL: witpqs
What I found particularly annoying was the way they embellished historical footage by adding wispy images on top of it to make it look more chaotic or whatever ....

There were so many gratuitous graphics that it gave the show a "video game" feel. I also thought the sponsorship of Enterprise rent-a-car was somewhat hokey, even if a former Big E pilot is it's corporate head.
So is Scott Bakula going to "materialize" on the show next week?

Despite all that, I got some good info from "360", esp. the one about the floating mop handle being mistaken for a perisciope before the Doolittle Raid.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Tiornu

Just checked wiki and it looks like she carried 6 tubes.

Ooh! Now I have this terrible feeling they got some of their information from Wikipedia....
The Northampton comment was the only thing that really bugged me. Yes, she was designed with four 5in guns and six torpedo tubes, but like all similarly designed CAs, she landed the tubes and got four more 5in guns prewar.

Exactly, by the time the war started, the only American cruisers still carrying torpedos were the old Omaha class relics. The modern ones had more guns. The Brits did still have some cruisers with Torpedos, but not sure if they had any heavy cruisers left with them.

Plus I was always under the impression that the 3 American carriers were too far out to see to participate in the PH attack?

[bradfordkay]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

There was good stuff in it - like the guy who accidentally tripped the battle stations alarm during the Doolittle mission. He said he's lucky he got away with it - his shipmates wanted to get their hands on the guy!

This is a "sea story" that I have to question. He seems to have gotten away with it (by what the show says) but it would have been far too easy for the officers to find out who was supposed to be on duty at that post and who was no longer there. Busted!

[witpqs]

Yeah. He did say he heard someone say that 'it was a guy in a pea coat', so maybe he just scurried far enough to ditch it and get back before he was missed!

[Big B]

Oh, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who generally finds the History Channel less than inspiring. [;)]

ORIGINAL: TOMLABEL

... Although, I have to say, I'm a bit leary of the History Channel doing this given their excellent track record of getting everything wrong! ... I believe someone on this board call them the HERESY CHANNEL.


TOMLABEL

[bobogoboom]

ORIGINAL: Big B

Oh, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who generally finds the History Channel less than inspiring. [;)]

ORIGINAL: TOMLABEL

... Although, I have to say, I'm a bit leary of the History Channel doing this given their excellent track record of getting everything wrong! ... I believe someone on this board call them the HERESY CHANNEL.


TOMLABEL

i was done with them when they became the ufo, alien, paranormal channel.[8|]

[Tiornu]

ORIGINAL: Shark7
The Brits did still have some cruisers with Torpedos, but not sure if they had any heavy cruisers left with them.

Yes, there were still British/Commonwealth CAs with torpedoes. Somewhere or other I have a complete listing of Royal cruiser torpedo firings and the relatively inconsequential number of hits they scored.

[JeffroK]

My wife has banned me from History channel, "they really did this', "they didnt do that"
While it may provide some info, it provides more disinformation (At least i understand how the yanks think they won the war)

Tiornu, didnt Dorsetshire sink the Bismark??[8D]

[Big B]

[&:]

ORIGINAL: JeffK
... (At least i understand how the yanks think they won the war)

Oh come on now, we all know WWII started on Dec 7th 1941 and was fought between the USA, Germany, and Japan...and a few troops from some other countries of little consequence [:D]

[Nikademus]

He's read MacArthur's book!