Generation War

[warrenpeace]

Watched Generation War on AmazonPrime over the last two nights.  Had heard it was "German Band of Brothers".  Not really.  Overall the acting was excellent, the characters were interesting, but not well done from a strictly military/historical perspective.

Spoilers below:

1)  I don't think it is realistic that the group of 5 main friends includes a Jewish one.  This group was born in 1921, and they certainly all would have been in the hitler youth.  Is it really likely that they would have maintained friendship with an openly Jewish character through the summer of 1941?  Seems unlikely to me.

 

2)  The one brother is a leiutenant in the Wehrmacht and has seen service in Poland and France.  He then goes on to Russia.  In 1943 at the battle of Kursk he is still a lieutenant!  No way.  If this guy has survived that long without injury and is not a total **** up he would have been promoted at least once probably twice.  Survival was a good way to get promoted in WW2.

3)  One of the characters is a Nurse.  It appears she stays with the exact same unit for her entire War experience between 1941-1945.  Is that really likely?

4)  The lieutenant's younger brother is an enlisted man in his own platoon.  I have trouble believing that that would be allowed in the Wehrmacht or any army.

5)  The most egregious thing to me is:  Why do the Russians have panzerfausts at the battle of Kursk?  The Germans don't even have them!

6)  Not really good portrayal of German small unit infantry tactics?  When assautling the factory, where is the MG34?  Why are they using submachine guns to suppress.

7)  Polish people did not like the portrayal of the partisans being anti-semitic.  I actually was not bothered by this.  There were Polish partisan groups that would shoot jews and were anti-semitic.  However, other groups did take in Jews and still other groups were primarily Jewish.  

Was a bit surprised at how "replacements" were dealt with in show.  Seemed like replacements were raw recruits straight from Repo Depot ala US army.  My understanding is that in the German Army they would go into a "replacement battalion" where they would be given combat experience before being dolled out to other units.

[Erwin]

Saw this last year and recommend it despite some of the dramatic embellishments as warren describes.  Still a good show.