Customer Reviews

Desert Victory - The Battle of Alamein

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4 star:		(2)
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Released to the public shortly after the events it depicted, DESERT VICTORY is a one-hour British-made documentary concerning their 8th Army's North African rout of Erwin Rommel's Panzers. The all-important Battle of El Alamein gets in-depth coverage that includes re-enactments. The majority here however is actual close-up combat footage that came dearly: four cameramen were killed and thirteen wounded or taken prisoner while recording these scenes. Also featured are some captured German films.

This is one of the finest contemporary WWII documentaries-- a fast-moving description of a crucial early British victory.


As of 1/09, DESERT VICTORY was not available on a DVD worth recommending (only bootleg-quality knockoffs exist).

Of interest are the three-hour WWII IN COLOR and WORLD WAR II - THE LOST COLOR ARCHIVES, both on DVD.


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(7.3) Desert Victory (UK-1943) - archive footage of: Erwin Rommel, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Bernard L. Mongomery, Josef Goebbels and other important figures

Well made British documentary with healthy balance between re-enactment and documentary. I would rate it much better than similar US-made documentaries (like Vicory at Sea), where re-enactments cget flat out annoying. I like the details explained and very appropriate footage. Among the minuses... for some reason, parts of the movie are pitch black. Black where you can see nothing. Yes, I understand everyhting about black and white documentary fils of WWII vitage, but I bet that this was some sort of unsucsessful night scene re-enactment that can be probably cut out. I do rewcommend this movie to anyone interested in WWII history!