Due to the huge amount of interest many people (including myself) have in world war 2, shows and movies relating to it have been springing up all over the place ever since the 50s. Even during the war itself people were busy watching and creating things about the war because it was, and still is, a monumental event. One show that doesn't get discussed as much as it should is Combat, since it manages to be both highly realistic, funny at times, and is just an all around excellent second world war show. Combat started airing in the early 60s and stars Vic Morrow as Sergeant "Chip" Saunders and Rick Jason as his commanding officer, Second Lieutenant Hanley. What makes the show so unique is the fact that it is drama with interesting and relatable characters, but with a ww2 paintjob. While I have only seen a fraction of the 150 or so episodes available, none of them have disappointed me so far. Some are better written than others, but for the most part, none of them are bad. The only partially negative thing I have to say is how the show takes place entirely in france, because the main characters are part of a squad that has arrived in europe after d-day in 1944. The pilot episode has the first half taking place in england as Saunders and company prepare to assault Hitler's fortifications at normandy, but this episode was shown as number 11 for some strange reason. The tense scenes in this show involving gunfights between GI's and german troops are definitely the best thing about this series. Don't think of this as just another generic war program where the producers had no idea how to make realistic battle sequences. Many people who were actually in world war 2 helped advise Morrow and everyone else involved, so it's as close to the real thing as it gets. One thing I especially like Combat for is how it depicts the common german fighting man. A huge amount of ww2 related films and shows have a habit of depicting the germans as pure evil with nothing redeeming about them. While this may be true of the murderous Waffen SS (who ran the death camps during the war) the same cannot be said for the average german citizen who was forced to fight for a psychopath. In all the installments I've seen so far anyway, the germans are depicted as tenacious and skilled fighters, but also as gentlemen who make sure the people in nazi-occupied france are happy and not mistreated (usually). Sometimes they're shown to be extremely villainous and horrible, but this just adds to the show's charm because it means convincing bad guys are a common sight here. It's also greatly appreciated that the german soldiers actually speak their own language and wear actual wehrmacht (and SS) uniforms. They really went above and beyond to make it as authentic as possible. Despite all the praise I've given Combat so far, it's not immune to shortcomings. What's the worst thing about it? I think it suffers from the same thing most other ww2 things do, meaning that there are basically no actual german vehicles in the show, only american ones painted with iron crosses. As someone who studies military history, it's so painfully obvious when the germans are using a cold war era tank that didn't even exist until 10 years after the war. It sticks out like a sore thumb. Additionally, the germans don't seem to use MG42's, which was a stamped metal machine gun with a terrifying rate of fire. Instead, they're shown using those bulky ww1 era guns with water jackets on them to cool them off after sustained shooting. It's not a complete loss when it comes to the weapons though, since the kar98k rifle and MP40 sub machinegun are both shown numerous times, and those are both german weapons. The acting in Combat is also great, since Vic Morrow accurately portrays the typical hardheaded frontline infantryman who wants to be nowhere else in the world than on the battlefield with his squad mates. He stays alive because he takes orders and does what he's told, and the men serving under him have to do what they're told. Occasionally, they don't, which creates great drama in the various episodes. Rick Jason as Morrow's lieutenant is an officer, so he's not technically a soldier, and is instead tasked with ordering soldiers around, including Morrow. Still, he's never far from the action and every so often, a person who outranks him takes over to help the squad accomplish a certain objective. Whichever way you look at it, Combat is an incredibly engrossing show with tons of interesting stories to tell, and is loaded with fast paced action, good acting, and original storylines. I just kind of wished there was a follow up this show that centers on a group of marines fighting the japanese in the pacific.
Review of Combat!
