The World At War

It is not really a comment.

Can you tell me when "world at war" will appear on your screens again please

When are the last two in the series (episodes 25 and 26) to be shown on UK TV History? I have very much enjoyed the first 24 episodes recently shown, but am frustrated by that the last two have disappeared from the schedules.

I want to add my own sense of frustration to Andy's comment about the last two episodes of The World at War having disappeared from the schedules. Perhaps uktv History could let us know when they are to be transmitted? There seems to be no information about this on the web site! It is very annoying to watch a long, and superb, series such as this and then find that the final parts are not being shown.

I e-mailed them at the weekend abou this problem and got no reply, so I've tried again today. It seems bizzare that they can schedule a programme and leave 2 parts out
If and when I get a reply I will post it here.

I can't believe the last two episodes are not listed for transmission! What is going on? Please let us see them soon.

Ever since first viewing the `World at War` I`ve been hooked. So much so, that I purchased the entire boxed set.

I've sent 6 e-mails so far to find out when the last 2 episodes are going to broadcast and they haven't had the courtesy to reply to any of them. My account seems to have been deleted as well !! All my e-mails have been polite and to the point so I don't know what's going on. I will keep trying.

It took me 15 !!!! Emails but I finally got the answer to where episodes 25 & 26 went to. Here is the e-mail
"I have looked into this and the reason the final two episodes didn't transmit were due to a scheduling issue, which has now been rectified. The good news is that the whole series is repeating from the week commencing 6th November - with the final two episodes transmitting on the 7th and 8th of December at 13.00, 18.00 and 23.00 hours"
Happy viewing in Decemeber

Do what I did, buy the box set. And then you can watch it when you need to. And you can let the young people learn of the sacrifices that were made - and I mean this so nicely

Well done arwenthecat2 - you've done a great job and I admire your tenacity! I look forward to the pre-Christmas treat of watching the entire series - and I will be thinking of you as I do so! Maybe uktvHistory will also transmit at some time that other wonderful series on The Great War narrated, I think, by Michael Redgrave....

Now all I would like to see is People's Century. I thnk this has only been transmitted twice. Time for UKHistory to show it. Think I'll start bombarding them with e-mails. It gets a response...in the end

i totally agree that you should show the last few programmes as they keep you glued to the tv

Please would you let me know when you again plan to screen the "Fall of Singapore" instalment of The World at War Series. I think My Mother and I are in one of the scenes walking on the dockside of Singapore Port in December 1941 prior to our departure back to the UK.

Can you help? Can anyone remember a World at War programme that was on approx. 14th June at approx. 5pm. It was about Wingate (near Newcastle) and the Chindits in Burma.

Can anyone tell me the name and author of the poem at the end of the episode about the siege of Stalingrad (I think?). the first verse started "Do not call me, Father" and another verse started with the line "Farewell then my son" it was very moving and I would like to know who wrote it.

Just saw the episode yesterday "The Bomb" Has the episodes on UKTV History been edited. There appears to be cuts compared to the DVD release of the episodes

Top 10 moments

1. The footage of the French market town of Oradour-sur-Glane. Episode 1. A New Germany (1933–1939).
2. The footage that locates Toshikazu Kase on board USS Missouri during the surrender ceremonies on 2 September 1945. Episode 22. Japan (1941-1945).
3. Sir Laurence Olivier’s reading of Wait For Me by Konstantine Simonov. Episode 11. Red Star-The Soviet Union (1941-1943).
4. The testimony of Rivka Yosilevska. Episode 20. Genocide (1941-1945).
5. The testimony of R.M. Van Der Veen. Episode 18. Occupation-Holland (1940-1944).
6. The testimony of Rita Boas Koupman. Episode 18. Occupation-Holland (1940-1944).
7. The testimony of Traudl Junge. Episode 16. Inside the Reich-Germany (1940–1944).
8. The footage of the woman disarming the wounded Vichy gunman accompanied by Sir Laurence Olivier’s declaration “Morning had come.” Episode 17. Morning (June-August 1944).
9. The footage of Russan Katyusha multiple rocket launchers as the Red Army advances on Berlin. Episode 21. Nemesis-Germany (February–May 1945).
10. George Formby performing “Imagine me in the Maginot Line” to allied troops. Episode 15. Home Fires-Britain (1940–1944).

People often inquire after the poem Wait For Me read by Sir Laurence Olivier in Episode 11. Red Star-The Soviet Union (1941-1943). It was written in 1941 by a young Soviet officer, Konstantin Simonov. Today he is regarded as arguably Russia’s greatest poet. At the time he was unknown. Wait For Me was intended for his girlfriend Valentina Serova but ended up being published in Pravda. Soldiers cut it out of the paper, copied it out as they sat in the trenches, learned it by heart and sent it back in letters to wives and girlfriends. It was found in the breast pockets of the killed and wounded. Here is one translation of the poem.

Wait for me, and I'll return
Only wait very hard
Wait when you are filled with sorrow
Wait in the sweltering heat
Wait when the others have stopped waiting
Forgetting their yesterdays.

Wait even when from afar no letters come to you
Wait even when others are tired of waiting.
And when friends sit around the fire
Drinking to my memory
Wait, and make no haste to drink
Alone amongst them all.

Wait. For I'll return, defying every death.
And let those who do not wait say that I was lucky
They will never understand that in the midst of death
You with your waiting saved me
Only you and I know how I survived
It's because you waited, as no one else did.

Konstantin Simonov 1941

I just saw "Red Star" for the first time (on DVD). As a child, I watched most of the World At War series. However, I missed this particular episode, which I found intensely moving. With appreciation for previous efforts, please allow me to submit my own transcript of Olivier's rendition of Simonov's poem:


WAIT FOR ME

Konstantin Simonov(1)
Summer of 1941(2)

To Valentina Serova(3)


Wait for me and I'll return.
Only wait very hard.
Wait when you are filled with sorrow,
As you watch the yellow rain.
Wait when the winds sweep the snow drifts.
Wait in the sweltering heat.
Wait when others have stopped waiting,
Forgetting their yesterdays.

Wait when even from afar, no letters come to you.
Wait even when others are tired of waiting.
Wait even when my mother and son think I am no more.
And when friends sit around the fire,
Drinking to my memory,
Wait, and do not hurry to drink to my memory too soon.

Wait, for I'll return, defying every death.
And let those who do not wait say that I was lucky.
They never will understand that in the midst of death,
You, with your waiting, saved me.
Only you and I will know how I survived.
It's because you waited, as no one else did.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:

(1) Born 11/15/1915 in Petrograd, died 08/28/1975 in Moscow
(2) As 25-year-old Soviet poet, playwright and war correspondent
(3) Soviet actress. Born 12/23/1917 in Kharkov, died 12/12/1975 in Moscow

Biographies of Simonov and Serova available on Wikipedia.com. There, a quite different translation is available, although I believe the topic at hand is Laurence Olivier's original TV rendition.