User:Goldblooded/Notable people interviewed in the World at War

The World at War (1973–74) is a 26-episode British television documentary series chronicling the events of World War II. It was produced by Jeremy Isaacs, narrated by Laurence Olivier, and has a score composed by Carl Davis. A book, The World at War, was written by Mark Arnold-Forster to accompany it.

The World at War, which made use of rare colour film footage, was commissioned by Thames Television during 1969. Such was the extent of its research, it took four years to produce at a cost of £900,000 (2009 equivalent: £11.4 million ). At the time, this was a record for a British television series. It was first shown during 1973, on ITV.

It has now become an art of history, Since at that time World War II was still fresh on everyones minds, the narrarator; Jeremy Isaacs was ahead of his time in perceiving that old-fashioned military history was out. What mattered was to portray the most devastating human experience in history: what living and dying through those years was like for soldiers, sailors and airmen; for civilians; for the tragic victims of tyranny and, above all, concentration camp inmates.

Nobody can ever again make a television series like The World At War. Most of those who bore witness before its cameras in the early 1970s have now passed.

In the early Seventies, and probably why the World at War is received so highly throughout the world is that not only were the 'Poor Bloody Infantry' of Churchill's war still only middleaged, but many commanders and statesmen were still alive and highly articulate: Americans such as General Mark Clark; British leaders like Anthony Eden, Lord Mountbatten, Gen Brian Horrocks; Germans like Hitler's architect and armaments minister Albert Speer and several of his generals.

World War II was then scarcely more remote than is the Falklands conflict from us today. In 1971, Isaacs, a 39-year-old ITV producer, perceived a brief window of opportunity in which he could bring together the newsreels of every belligerent nation with the memories of survivors of the most terrible war in history.

This list includes those who are notable enough to have their own wikipedia article, not nessarially all those who were interviewed.

A
Sir Max Aitken, 2nd Baronet (1910-85) - wartime RAF fighter ace, son and heir of Lord Beaverbrook, proprietor of the Daily Express. He became a Conservative MP, and disclaimed his father's barony as soon as he inherited it.

Stephen E. Ambrose (1936-2002)- prolific and influential US historian: author, amongst other works, of Band of Brothers.

Aleksei Antonov - (1896-1962) Soviet staff officer in the war, Red Army Chief of Staff 1945-46, Chief of Staff to Warsaw Pact Forces 1955-62.

B
George Wildman Ball (1909-1994) - wartime lawyer for the Lend-Lease programme and Director of the Strategic Bombing Survey. Under-Secretary of State for Economic Affairs and UN Ambassador under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, he left office in opposition to the Vietnam War.

André Beaufre (1902-1975) - captain on the French General Staff in 1940, post-war strategic theorist, exponent of the French independent nuclear deterrent: author, amongst other books, of The Fall of France and Deterrence and Strategy.

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (1911-2004) German consort to Queen Juliana of the Netherlands who fought against the Nazi occupation and became a rallying figure for the Dutch Resistance

Christabel Bielenberg (1909-2003) Englishwoman married to an anti-Nazi German lawyer, author of The Past is Myself

Charles E. Bohlen (1904-1974) American diplomat and ambassador to the Soviet Union during the Cold war

Robert Boothby (1900-1986) British Conservative politician, confidant of Churchill and RAF officer. Ennobled in 1958.

Arthur Bottomley (1907-1995) MP in 1945 election and trade unionist. ennobled in 1984.

McGeorge Bundy (1919-1996) US wartime official, helped to implement the Marshall plan. Later part of JFK's cabinent and Professor of history at New York University.