What I watched: The first episode of Crusade in Europe, a documentary series adapted from Dwight Eisenhower’s book of the same name. The adaptation was done by Fred Feldkamp, and narrated by the awesomely-named Westbrook van Voorhes. This episode aired on ABC at 9:00 PM on May 5, 1949. The entire series is available on DVD or Amazon Prime Video.
What happened: We begin at the end, with the official signing of surrender by the Nazi chief of staff. We cut back to the 1930s, where Hitler has already risen to power. We see glimpses of Nazi rallies, and of various European powers signing pacts with Hitler to hand him over various surrounding lands. Through the use of a map, we see how Hitler’s territory expands until war is inevitable.
We get a brief glimpse into the American occupation of the Philippines, where Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur were serving at this time. Eisenhower pipes in to say that he knew the United States would be drawn into the war. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans are doing frivolous things, like watching horse races!
The Luftwaffe attacks
There are some images of the Maginot Line, where the French — said to be “naturally averse to offensive warfare” are content to turtle up, unaware that the Nazis will be attacking through an unguarded flank. They get wrecked real quick. There’s some stunning footage of the German army marching into Paris while Frenchmen watch on, crying and looking stunned.
Americans are still doing silly things, like riding trains and watching baseball. In a staged scene, two chumps talk about how they don’t want to bother with Europe’s business. Across the Atlantic, the British suffer heavy losses at Dunkirk, but are rescued by the Navy. We see scenes of Brits sleeping inside air raid shelters, and RAF planes battling the Luftwaffe. There’s a clip of Churchill’s famous “Finest Hour” speech, particularly the part promising that if Britain is lost the United States will also fall into “the abyss.” With the situation thus suitably dire, the episode ends.
What I thought: While little in this episode will be unfamiliar to anyone who stayed awake in high school history, Crusade in Europe is an interesting project. Along with the Toscanini concerts, it’s an early example of “prestige TV”, designed to prove that the medium can be turned to productive and educational ends. It’s also a pretty major production for 1940s television. Everything is on film, with some scenes captured from the battlefield. Some of the footage is obviously staged, but is still impressive nonetheless, as with the aerial scenes. It’s certainly a big shift from watching third-rate actors goof around a studio.
Indeed, it’s remarkable to see how quickly the now-predominant narrative about World War II was formed. As narrated by van Voorhes, the war happened because European powers tried to appease Hitler and Americans were too isolationist to realize the danger he posed. This is summed up in the staged conversation between two “average Ameicans” (both white men, of course), who myopically focus on baseball and question the European war’s relevance to their lives. The suggestion is that if the Allied countries had attacked Hitler years before, they could have nipped the threat in the bud. This narrative of the war is still a well-worn weapon in the American and British political arsenals, used to always argue for war against whatever tinpot dictator is argued to be the new Hitler of the day.
Crusade in Europe explicitly calls attention to itself as an adaptation of a book with its opening titles. At the beginning of the episode we see the first page of the book, and hear Eisenhower (or possibly an Eisenhower sound-alike) reading the words out loud. The message to the viewer is clear: this is unvarnished truth, based off the words of the war’s greatest general with no alterations. The series wields Eisenhower’s image as a way of according itself seriousness and authenticity. There’s a lot to be said about Eisenhower, and how his postwar celebrity transformed into a political career, and I expect I’ll say it all over the coming twenty-five episodes. For now, I’ll just note that he’s not exactly the greatest prose writer in the world, or the most original historian, at least if this episode is any guide. What he brings to his chronicle, and its television adaptation, is the sense of experience and authenticity.
This initial episode cuts very quickly through the first year of the war. The first of twenty-six episodes covers over one-sixth of the conflict. It’s clear that the series, and perhaps Eisenhower’s book, is desperate to get to the part of the story where the Americans come in. This is another aspect of the conventional WWII narrative that would become common in the years to come. The Brits put up a good showing, but ultimately the protagonists would be the Americans, and it would be their moral actions that would make all the difference.
What else is on?: Not a whole lot! CBS hadn’t announced a program by the time of the morning’s papers. NBC and DuMont were both airing mid-tier variety shows (Bob Smith and Morey Amsterdam) respectively. If you owned a set, old Dwight was probably your best bet for some entertainment.
Coming up next: Even more Suspense, with a spooooky story about insurance adjustors.
The Eternal Couch Potato 