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Aside from the popular songs and the artists that performed them, it is the often stark and highly descriptive and evocative music by Davis that are memorable. Unlike the popular songs, which are mostly geared to pep up the populus and thus avoid the stark reality of this savage war, Davis, when writing for the series, knew what had happened before, during and after it. On hindsight, of course, we now know its outcome was inevitable. His music reflects that. Consequently, there is a stark contrast between the two types of music.

Interspersed with the music are brief seconds of the important speeches made at the beginning of the war and during it. They bring the listener back to reality briefly, but they are also something that can almost be recited along with the speaker. We have, after all, heard these speeches many, many times: Neville Chamberlain on September 3, 1939 to advise that "A State of War" has begun; Sir Winston Churchill's "We shall go on to the End" from June 4, 1940; Field Marshal Montgomery's address to the Troops at El Alamein on August 13, 1942; General Eisenhower's D-Day announcement, made June 6, 1944; Churchill's "Their Finest Hour" speech from June 18, 1940, which for some reason came toward the end of the CD (Track 25 of 27).

While this CD may seem to be directed mostly at the war generations—for there were more than one touched by this event—it has larger implications than nostalgia. It seems to me that it is also an excellent CD to bring to the attention of today's generations to make them aware of history and also of the kind of music sung at the time on both sides of the Atlantic. The rhythm of the music, the often light-hearted or satirical lyrics so different from today's might inspire them to find out a little about a time that seems far too distant in the past for them to bother about. It is a shame and to everyone's loss for it contains so many lessons we have failed to learn.