Previewing The World Wars

Monday, people across the country will be firing up their grill in memory of the great men and women who gave their life for their country. Many of those lives were lost during the two great wars that were waged in-between 1914 and 1945. All told, over 100 million people across the globe died in combat during those thirty years coming out to about 230 deaths per hour. On Monday, History will premiere a three part special The World Wars to air on consecutive days next week.

The first part opens in a trench in Germany of all places where one of its soldiers is struggling to put on a gas mask over his bushy mustache. Of course when the soldiers shaves his upper lip down, it becomes clear why they started here. The World Wars follows all the big players from the time, men like Roosevelt, Hitler, Patton, Mussolini, Churchill, Tojo, DeGaulle and MacArthur, many who were mere foot soldiers in the First World War, their rise to power in between and their major roles in the Second.

The first installment takes us through the First World War all the way up to the Treaty of Versailles. The second episode opens up in 1929 and deals mostly with “peace time” and does a really good job explaining the failures of Treaty of Versailles and how it lead to the start of the Second World War. The third installment starts with Pearl Harbor in December of 1949. Throughout the three installments we witness the introduction of many new military innovations created for the wars like Guns on motor vehicles, trench warfare, tanks, mustard gas, and of course the atomic bomb.

The World Wars does not uncover any new information or even any new footage, but the six hours may be the most comprehensive special on the subjects to ever air on television. The special does feature new interviews with politicians and military men of today like John McCain, Sir John Major, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Stanley McCrystal, Leon Panetta, Joe Liebermann, and numerous historians and biographers. The whole series is narrated by The Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner.

The World Wars airs Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 9:00 on History.