I’ve covered most of the base set content, and before moving to new war theaters and finally purchasing my first expansion, I’m becoming increasingly curious about the details behind the war, how it went down and who were the people that fought in them.
There is an enourmous amount of WW2 content out there, too much to watch at any single point. Is there anything that you recommend watching before starting a particular Memoir '44 expansion? This can include movies, series, documentaries, etc.
I’ve heard good things about The Pacific, a miniseries, and also about Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers (two movies portraying different sides of the pacific war front). Would you say these are good suggestions?
I’m doing exactly the same thing as you right now. I’m part way through a 3 part documentary on Amazon Prime. “The concise history of WW2” I think it’s called. If you just want a timeline of facts then this is short enough to give you a good understanding of the sequence of events I think.
If I were to recommend one thing to watch, Band of Brothers series by HBO is by far my favourite. The Pacific was also produced by HBO later on and may have the same minds behind it but for me, it just isn’t as engaging. I’ve watched the Band of Brothers through a few times and I almost reached for it last week before finding the documentary I mention above. I just wanted something new to watch.
Let me know what you find as I will be interested in anything worth watching.
I asked the same question on facebook and I got a ton of good answers, but since I was moving between apartments didn’t have the time to link them all here. Let me try to add in everything with credits included (for the person that suggested them):
Documentaries:
Brent Nelson suggested The War by Ken Burns, saying that it’s a documentary series that covers all aspects of the war from Africa and the Pacific.
Daniel Niemi suggested “World at War” calling it the #1 documentary, which was confirmed by others.
Jon Garrett suggested checking out Flying Heritage and going on the Watch tab in their website, which includes some intervies with WW2 soldiers, including German ones. I was surprised they were able to fly out ex German soldiers for the interviews, and have their own active Instagram account on which they post a ton of cool stuff.
It’s great to know I’m not the only one interested in historical accuracy and that the Memoir '44 (naturally) contains some people that I consiter to be historians on the topic of WW2. The list of content is big and daunting, but I’m sure that I can start anywhere
Taking your suggestion, I went in and got a one month pass for HBO and started watching Band of Brothers. I’m now on episode 3 and D-Day is unfolding, and the series seems to be very impressive. Not only for the cast and storyline but also from the production perspective. I read that the directors and producers regularly had veterans who were portrayed in the movie to review the scenes for their accuracy and this (I think) impacts you when you are watching it. The build up before D-Day was monumental and I cannot wait to watch another episode. Definitely recommended!
I’m almost done with Band of Brothers, totally recommend it to others both from a cinematic but also for historic reference and I’m going to watch The Pacific next. I’ve been told that it’s not as good as Band of Brothers, but I’m also interested in that war front.
Lately I also watched some German soldier interviews from the Flying Heritage website that I mentioned before, and I also enjoyed those very much. It’s very interesting to know how the Nazi ideals became popular and remained so during the war, despite also going after its own people (not just jews, but dissidents and other minorities). There are some good stories told there!
