they were the "3rd Reich a lesson from history" and "the 3rd Reich - the fall" watched them both a few times now but you are correct, they use footage willy nilly. but in the instance of the Y-straps it was footage of the coastal defences along the French coast and the fall of Stalingrad with not a y-strap in sight, the MP41 GI was the liberation of a concerntration camp.
the thing that concerned me most was while showing footage of the attrocites being committed, some terrible footage which just makes me rage and want to beat the crap out of the ones committing the act (70 years to late, and not much i could have done anyway even if i had the balls) - but mixed into all the emotion was the sudden thought every time i saw black clad SS troopers "damn thats the best uniform ever" - this made me realise i was basically saying. "These SS swine I want to kill them all, their so evil....but dont they have lovely uniforms". 
their so evil....but dont they have lovely uniforms.
The seductive evil of fascism summed up in one sentence.
wrt duff footage, 'The World at War' generally did a fairly decent job of matching footage to period, although even theen there were some bloopers. I always rather enjoyed the old BBC series 'The Great War' where to keep it 'simple' they made sure the British/French were always facing right and the Germans always facing left, reversing the footage if necessary. So you get to see an awful lot of left handed rifles and artillery pieces.
Cheers
Martin
"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" Helmuth von Moltke
Toys: AGM MP40, Cyma M1A1, TM M14/G43/SVT40, TM VSR/K98, SnS No. 4, ASG Sten, Ppsh.
Arnhem3,Gumrak,Campoleone
but in the instance of the Y-straps it was footage of the coastal defences along the French coast and the fall of Stalingrad with not a y-strap in sight
Was the program showing the SS in Stalingrad with no Y straps or das heer in Stalingrad with no Y straps?
It is a very important difference.
aka Stigroadie
AFRA
better by design
"Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable. "
They were Heer i believe.
Thats ok. There were almost no SS at Stalingrad. You could probably count those that got into the city on two hands.
aka Stigroadie
AFRA
better by design
"Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable. "
most of these 48-minute TV dinner military history programs feature footage which is not from the correct period / front,
Indeed there laziness in applying correct footage is one of my pet hates, King Tigers smashing through the Ardennes when there talking about the 1940 invasion of France
Surely you proof read a book, I could do the same for these TV shows, for a small fee of course
It's usually down to cost rather than laziness. Archive combat footage from WWII is not very plentiful and it's expensive to license. It's way cheaper to use a single compilation of generic wehrmacht footage from a single supplier, even if some of it is wrong, than it is spend time cherrypicking the correct bits from different sources.
their so evil....but dont they have lovely uniforms".
Nope. Their uniforms are Camper than a row of tents.
Main two points was the evacuation of Tallinn and the excuse given that the merchant ships were left behind so that the naval fleet wasnt lost, very cowardly in my mind and the program gave this as an excuse why these merchant ships with troops on board was left to the mercy of the German navy and shore batteries.
The thing about real war is you have to make choices. Was leaving the wounded behind at Dunkirk so the fighting men could get out cowardly or the correct decision in the circumstances?
