Victory in Europe: D-Day to V-E Day

During World War II, George Stevens, the famed film editor who is known for such films as "Giant" and "The Greatest Story Ever Told," and many, many, others, was a Lieutenant Colonel in charge of film coverage of American troops in battle.Because the Technicolor Process was too complicated and the cameras too cumbersome at that time, all news films of the war were in black and white. Kodak, however had a color process made for home moving pictures that had the advantages of being simple and of high quality. There was a major disadvantage however; this process yielded a single copy and no negative. For his own record, George Stevens used this color process, in conjunction with the official black and white newsreels, to photograph the period from D-Day to the end of the war. These color films remained, untouched and unviewed, in tins in his storage room until being discovered by his son, George Stevens Jr., some forty years after the end of the war. Luckily, the tins were air tight and the film had not deteriorated.About 200 pictures were made from Stevens' film and used for this book. Max Hastings, a war correspondent for BBC and The London Standard, has provided the narrative that accompanies the photography. Together, Hastings' words and Stevens' photography, combine to present an outstanding portrayal of the period from D-Day to the end of the war.I have visited the concentration camp at Dachau. Today it is a museum dedicated to the horrors that once took place there. In no way, however, can a museum adequately portray those horrors. Stevens' picture, on page 165, of a stack of emaciated corpses that the Nazi's had been unable to cremate before the Allies liberated Dachau, portrays that horror better than any sterile museum could hope to do.From the beaches of Normandy to French cities that are little more than heaps of rubble, to defeated Germans looking through coils of barbed wire, to Generals in unsoiled uniforms, to battle scenes, to the triumphant parade up the Champs Elysees after the recapture of Paris, and to the signing of the German surrender, Stevens and his camera were there.Hastings, in words, tells us of dismal failures and triumphant victories, of brilliant tactics and horrible blunders. He brings the war back to life in a style that never bores and always intrigues.This is a readable, beautifully photographed history of the final months of WW II. By reading and viewing it, one will experience both the heroism of battle and the horror of war. If I didn't already own one, I'd go looking for a copy.