NavyNet - DVD: Battle in The Atlantic

‘Battle in the Atlantic’ is the latest in the long line of DVD’s that document the long and arduous campaign to control to North Atlantic sea lanes.

I think I’m safe to presume that those reading this have a fair knowledge of the Atlantic campaign so instead of outlining the ‘story’ I’ll crack straight on with the content specific to this DVD.

The DVD is a collection of footage of various elements of the Atlantic campaign with occasional commentary.

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In all honesty this DVD really was disappointing. Call it greed but I’ve come to expect a lot more from Pen & Sword. In their defence the DVD was actually made by a German company. However Pen & Sword still put their name to it and therefore are partially to blame for a truly lacklustre DVD.

The German production of the DVD is one of the main falling blocks of the DVD. By this I mean that the scripting of the commentary doesn’t seem to have survived translation very well. Add to this that there is occasional overdubbing that confuses the matter even more and this DVD may leave you confused and with a headache. I actually found the feature more enjoyable with the sound muted or with the German commentary selected on (being able to speak a bit of German helped!). Even the English of the blurb is a little suspect.

There are good areas however. One of the main selling points of this DVD was the promise of previously unpublished private film from U-Boat crew members. This part of DVD was in fairness rather good. It is probably the most footage of its type that, as far as I recall, I’ve seen in one feature. The sight of the cramped and downright difficult conditions that the men lived and worked brings a sense of humanity to the men who rightly or wrongly set out to sink all that merchant shipping.

‘Battle in the Atlantic’ is not a very good DVD but in fairness it’s wasn’t the worst hour of my life. I believe half of the problem for it is the sheer number of other works on the subject. To really break the market these days a piece of work on WW2 needs to either be ground breaking in production or in its argument. Alas this is neither.

A disappointed 2 Anchors

Fishface