What are you watching?

Recently finished American Primeval and am part way through The Last Kingdom on Netflix.
 
iveofione said:
As kind of a history buff I have spent the winter watching as many WWII videos and real films as possible. Mostly I have concentrated on the war in the Pacific as two of my uncles fought in the island hopping campaign on the route to Japan. Some of the naval battles were horrifying as many capitol ships went down with the loss of their entire crew with sometimes only a handful surviving. Submarine warfare was the most frightening to me since I am a little claustrophobic and can't imagine a worse or more terrifying way to die.

But an event in Norway in 1940 caught my eye and I watched several iterations and descriptions of the event. It was the Battle of Drobak Sound when the Germans tried to sneak up the Oslo Fjord and capture the king of Norway and the entire government. They came in darkness late at night hoping to surprise the Norwegians with the newest and most modern ship in the navy-the cruiser Blucher. Loaded with troops it was to be an easy operation with lots of firepower and blitzkrieg troops. In a remarkable occurrence of serendipity they were spotted near a pinch point in the fjord where two ancient guns that hadn't been fired in decades were manned by inexperienced crews. Not knowing who they were firing at, they fired at the blacked out ship and remarkably scored 2 direct hits igniting the Blucher and sounding its death knell. The guns were so old and took so long to reload that they were only able to get off one shot but a little further up the fjord some old out of date torpedoes were fired from an underwater facility and they connected. The Blucher went down on it's first patrol with a huge loss of life. The loss of the ship and subsequent shelling of the warships behind it caused the raid to abort and gave the king and his family and the government officials time to escape to Britain for the rest of the war and take the gold in the treasury with them.

It is such an unlikely story that it probably would have made a good movie, it didn't need any embellishments or Hollywood drama but I'm sure the movie industry would have squeezed an ingenue in there somehow...
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I am also sort of a history buff, one grandpa was in naval artillery (later submarine machinist) the other was a torpedoman, so your post piqued my interest and refreshed my memory.

A couple years ago I saw a Norwegian biographical movie called "The King's Choice" that came out in 2016 focusing on events preceding and following the Battle of Drøbak Sound, mainly from the perspective of the Norwegian royal family and the German envoy tasked to deliver the ultimatum to either allow a German take over or face deadly consequences of resisting. The film is not perfect, but it avoids Hollywood drama and usual BS while filmed on location and staying mostly true to historical facts. Focuses on a mix of diplomatic /family intrigue and two well depicted battle scenes: the one you mentioned (they even used the original huge naval guns, firing blanks) and a following minor but significant land battle where an improvised Norwegian force faced German paratroopers in their pursuit of the King, his family and cabinet after evacuating Oslo.

The Battle of Drøbak Sound is one of those "David and Goliath" moments in history where reality surpasses fiction. In addition to the details shared by @iveofione, there are many fascinating others. While the heavy cruiser Blucher was the newest large ship (commissioned 8 months prior) in the German navy, the Oscarsborg Fortress was almost 100 years old with a battery of 3 50-year old German made guns for which only one artillery crew was available, they had to recruit cooks and inexperienced conscripts that had been at the fortress for only a week, so they could not fire the 3rd gun, let alone reload the 2 that fired. There was also an underwater secret torpedo battery, with 40-year-old torpedoes (of the first self-propelled design ever developed) sourced from the by then gone Austro-Hungarian Empire. The fortress commander was 6 months from retirement and the torpedo battery commander had been retired for 13 years but re-assigned to his post. Given all this and the fact that they had no clear instructions on what to do (Norway was neutral), no notice about who they were facing, it is astounding that their obsolete weapons were used to devastating effect, all direct hits and in less than 10 minutes stopped the attempted decapitating coup on the Norwegian government. The Germans assumed they had run into naval mines (none were laid out) so they abandoned the attempt to land at Oslo giving time to the Royal family, government, and gold reserves to evacuate eventually to the UK.

Below a more detailed account of the Drøbak Sound battle and a video excerpt from "The King's Choice" featuring said battle (quality is not great, actual movie was available to stream in several services, at least until recently)

en.wikipedia.org

Battle of Drøbak Sound - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

 
Severance on AppleTV. Season 2 just started after a 2+ year lapse due to Covid. Rewatched season one recently and found it more interesting the second time around. Mental Sci-Fi probably best describes it. Office workers have an “Outtie” and an “Innie” defined as two different individualities from outside the workplace and inside the workplace. Superb in depth acting along with a plot line involving the future blending of AI and reality in the (not so) future. Probably not for everyone but it does make you think.
 
I have been watching Stephan Milo and his archaeological series on prehistory and the great mysteries of the ancient past. He is an excellent presenter with a calm demeanor and a good sense of humor. He doesn't deal in bullshit or wild conspiratorial theories like some guys, like Graham Hancock, but instead often states that: "We just don't know." Which is the correct answer for something that happened 12,000 years ago to a civilization that disappeared 11,000 years ago. We just don't know and never will but the pseudo scientist have made up a narrative for the unknown and sold it like snake oil.

Milo is a relief from the click bait headlines that a lot of these charlatans present and when he doesn't know something he often interviews an expert that does instead of creating some BS dialog.

No mention of historical information would be complete without including Dr Alice Roberts, the excellent British archaeological reporter and presenter. She is beautiful, charming, brilliant, adventurous and a delight to listen to. History has always been one of my favorite subjects and with Alice it is absolutely fascinating.
 
JudyM said:
Streaming on Peacock, The Americas narrated by Tom Hanks. On Sunday night on NBC affiliate.
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Enjoyed this and am usually a Tom Hanks fan but something about his voice, or his over acting on this one took a bit away. Just seemed like he was trying too hard?
 
Miumiu, she is 11 now and her voice is starting to mature. If you aren't familiar with her check out: Miumiu Guitar Girl playing Hotel California at age 6. It is an amazing effort for a six year old singing in a foreign language. The recording is made with her playing numerous guitars all layered over each other, playing the drums, handling the rhythm section and doing the vocal with multiple recordings of herself all in unison. Hard to do at any age but at six it is almost unbelievable.
 
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