Weapons of the Superspies

Found My Helicopter Unit Video in This Title
Well, this is a prejudiced review of this video that covered military troop movement research. It covers the flying platforms that were tried as a means of transporting soldiers into battle. It looks at everything from fan-powered "flying saucers", to flying platforms, to the rocket belts we saw in one of the James Bond movies. All these were pretty much replaced by the more practical methods learned in Viet Nam using helicopters. Being a Viet Nam era Army helicopter pilot, that part caught my eye. There was about a three minute segment showing the 25th Infantry Division being picked up by the 187th Assault Helicopter Company (The Crusaders) in Tay Ninh RVN. I know this because I remember the day this was filmed! I was flying that day and the choppers clearly have the Crusader Shield as nose art. We had to make a couple of flights in to get what the photographers wanted. We were joking on the radios about looking good and smiling for the cameras. So, I am prejudiced about this video...

Great movies and a fun and interesting new presentation model
We love these kind of movies and while many of them are starting to be clones of each other, this series has a great new approach and presentation model that really stimulates interest in the content.

Each movie in the series has distinct and well choreographed information. As with any live interviews, their usage of real people from the actual events is fabulous. Many of the new series' seem to be grabbing anyone they can throw an 'expert' label on, but they get the actual boots on the ground people in this one and it adds greatly to the authenticity.

Well done. I wish there were more, but the effort that went into these makes them obviously a lot of work, but that is what makes them a great product for the money.

I really loved the commentators in this one also. They seemed very professional, not newbies that over dramatize to get their point across. These folks where colorful, articulate and just plain likeably sharp!

The Tech of D-Day
This episode "Secret Weapons of D-Day" covers the modified tanks (Hobart's Funnies) used to solves specific landing problems during the Normandy landings such as: getting the firepower of a tank onto the beaches to engage the German pillboxes, reaching the beach with a tank during an amphibious landing, traversing a sandy beach with a tank, cutting a safe path for infantry through mine fields and barbed wire,and crossing battlefield obstacles. The allies also had to create, transport, and setup a port where none existed.

The information in this episode is interesting and provides a look at the technical side of the D-Day landing that is often overlooked in history courses. I would recommend this video to those teaching a class on WWII and to social studies teachers who wish to present a history of technology class.

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