1/48 B-25 and gas truck.

@mikedetorrice You are quite right Mike, but I don't think anyone believed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was a permanent solution. From Herr's  point of view it isolated Britain and France at the negotiating table: He did believe he could get more and more through negotiation. The threat of war, to him, was the ultimate tool in negotiation. And Uncle Joe was desperately playing for time as he enacted his three five year plans to ready Russia for what he viewed as the inevitable.

In this, and having read a fair bit on the matter, one of the most important moments in the story is the 16 day delay in Russia's invasion of Poland. The plan was, that if both invaded; Britain and France would have to declare war on Germany AND Russia. But, there was that 16 day delay, that never gets a mention. Who knew? Because history might have been very different - Hitler would certainly not have invaded Poland if he had envisioned that 16 day delay.

@geoff-jowett The interviews are excellent, in being able to put faces and some characteristics to the names - French, US, German- the lot. This guy Albert Speer, aside from being a superb architect (given; I love that stuff be it Paris, USA, wherever) was an extraordinary executive. And the production increases as of 1943, resulting from his appointment - for better or worse - speaks volumes of the quiet and reasoned gentleman we see interviewed.

Perhaps no one believed the alliance between dictator Stalin's Russia and dictator Hitler's Germany would last, but the fact is Stalin ignored many later warnings from several sources vis-a-vis the Nazi's and he did attack Finland and the Baltic states .......and most certainly Poland, too. Maybe no one is lily-white ......but some are most certainly closer to black.

@mikedetorrice I worked with a Finnish girl once. She was a rockabilly queen (dungarees, hair-curlers and headscarf , just like Norman Rockwell's 'Rosie The Riveter'). She told me all about 'German Tango', drank lots of vodka and used to boast about how they'd spanked Stalin's arse! Some things are not shades of grey, but checkerboard - this girl was like op-art.

It was great, however, the the Finns in the 1940 Winter War did essentially kick the Soviet Russian rear end ! (although part of the cost was the the re-re-scheduled Winter Olympics in Helsinki.)

And now the Finns are quite understandably wary of a threatening Russian bear.  

@geoff-jowett The World at War was a great series with a lot of footage from the old Soviet archives that I had never seen before. I was watching series like Victory at Sea in the early 50s. World at War also had great first person interviews as you wrote.

@rich-sufficool 

I remember Victory at Sea. There was another excellent series broadcast on our PBS station. It was called “Battlefield”. The first 6 episodes covered 6 of the most important battles of WW2. The second season covered another 6. Most of the episodes covered Europe. However, Battle of Midway was in first season and Battle of Leyte Gulf in second season.

I always watched "Victory at Sea" on Sundays when I was little. It is a great documentary and the soundtrack music is unsurpassed. .