Play War Thunder now with my link, and get a massive, free bonus pack including vehicles, boosters and more: playwt.link/armchairhistorian Discord: discord.gg/thearmchairhistorian Mistake: - The heavy cruiser Blücher wasn't deployed to Narvik, it was deployed to Oslo. Twitter: twitter.com/ArmchairHist FREE New Armchair Historian Video Game: store.steampowered.com/app/1679290/Fire__Maneuver/ Sign up for Armchair History TV today! armchairhistory.tv/ Promo code: ARMCHAIRHISTORY for 50% OFF Merchandise available at store.armchairhistory.tv/ Check out the new Armchair History TV Mobile App too! apps.apple.com/us/app/armchair-history-tv/id1514643375 play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.uscreen.armchairhistorytv
I have to point out a minor mistake in your video. The heavy cruiser Blücher wasn't deployed to Narvik, it was deployed to Oslo. It got sunk outside Drøbak in the Oslo fjord.
Fun fact, french armor crew have, during the short training, a book with the specification of there tank but for the SOMUA and some B1 bis, the book don't mention the fact that they have a spear fuel tank so the majority of tank were half loaded in fuel befor battle
what did the Germans do with all the captured French heavy tanks? did they use them later in russia? like the Ukrainians use captured russian armor and turn them against the russians?
@@embreis2257 they do deployed it from time to time, especially during the defence of Normandy beaches. The 21st Panzer Division contain a lot of captured French Tanks and other vehicles, however they easily got decimated by Allied firepower.
@@embreis2257 for the most part, captured French tanks were stored in depos under German control, from there they had a couple different lives -most of them would later be deployed as the armoured component of occupation troops, especially the light tanks (R35, H38) as they were numerous and obsolete for frontline service, these tanks would be for the most part unmodified apart from the modification of the cupola to allow peeking out the top -a small number of B1 was transformed into flame thrower tanks and used in the east, about a battalion worth of S35 was deployed too, both would not see major combat and returned to western europe past 1941 -a number of tanks were modified to fill other specialty roles the german army lacked vehicles for, specifically self propelled artillery and tank destroyers for the Germans, the main loot of defeating the French was in capturing a large number of trucks and other logistical vehicles, as those were in constant short supply
Could you do a video on the Brusilov Offensive during WW1? It was a very important offensive during the war that’s largely uncovered on RUclips, and I think it would make for a very interesting video especially with your narration and style
@@ShireTommy_1916_Somme-Mametz Well, at least we both prevented the Nazis from making an atomic bomb in Vemork. We give you the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree every year, by the way. :)
3:55 I really like the fidelity with which the uniform and all decorations of marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły were presented. Especially the Commander's Cross of the Virtuti Militari order he was awarded for his merits in the Polish-Soviet War . You can see the effort put into historical research.
This is easily my favorite channel on the platform! High quality animations, well made videos, interesting topics and frequent uploads! You guys are awesome!!!
A mix of effective uses of modern tactics and decisive leadership etc, while their enemies politicians and military leaders were still unsure of what to do and only used whatever tactics they thought was necessary to prevent a drawn out war because they really REALLY did not want to start another World War and hoped Germany felt the same (they did not).
One really important event (at least i.m.o) during the norway campaign was missed here. Im talking about the loss of several destroyers and other ships which the Kriegsmarine never could recover from for the rest of the war.
@@Cyhic No, but what would a handful of destroyers and cruisers have added to that mismatch? Turn it from an enormous one into a slightly less enormous one? I was genuinely asking, since you had apparently given it thought.
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- To where? The Arctic, where they were barely suited to operate for even short periods and would have still been vastly outnumbered by the Royal Navy, or to the Baltic, where they could do... what, exactly? Sit outside the Finnish Strait?
The difference in the way that the conflict between Germany and France went in ww1 and ww2 is probably one of the most striking I can think of. Just in 20+ years too.
The French did not deploy their tanks evenly across the frontline. At the beginning of the war the French had three powerful DLMs (Light Mechanical Divisions) and four DCRs (Divisions cuirassées, Armored Divisions). All three DLMs were sent to Belgium and the 2nd and 3rd were concentrated to fight two German Panzer divisions at Hannut and Gembloux, to great effect. The 1st DCR fought against two German panzer divisions at Flavion in a brutal tank battle. 2nd and 4th DCRs fought at Abbeville, and they were merged into the 1st groupement cuirassé, as the 3rd DCR formed the 2nd groupement cuirassé with the 7th DLM. That's not exactly what I call spreading the tanks across the frontline. On the contrary they were often concentrated to fight tank battles against the Panzerdivisions, which took heavy losses every time. There are other reasons why the campaign was lost.
This channel is known for it's huge amount of inaccuracies. No wonder, their view rate is shrinking. For reasons why the campaign was lost : - Germany outsmarted France, there is no other way to put it, they set up a good trap and the allies fallen in. Unlike Russia, France doesn't have the luxury to retreat thousand of km and reform their army when German supply line are exhausted. One mistake, and it was over for France. - Lack of airplanes - France used it's reserve too early
The French army DID use these tank divisions to great effect, however it was only after the successful German invasion of Poland that France would start making these divisions. MOST of the French tanks were supporting their infantry. (It is weird why he didn't mention it though)
@@mrsupremegascon Other reasons are the catastrophic decisions taken by French general Huntziger during the defense of Sedan, and the abysmal cooperation/communication between the French, British, Dutch and Belgians. This channel should challenge preconceived ideas on the subject rather than spreading them. I'm glad they tried to do it on the myth of the Blitzkrieg, but they are never going to do so on the numerous myths about the French in 1940. Cf the quote of the British general at 2:08 suggesting French treachury and the French running at 10:15 suggesting French cowardice. I think their video "Why was France so bad in 1940" (unbearable kind of title btw) with 3 million views remain unequalled in terms of inaccuracies.
9:49 that was a nice visual how logistics works. I cant even imagine how logistics were like on the eastern front. Maybe you could make a video about it or something
10:14 When Germany invaded the USSR in 1941 it was still able to inflict defeat after defeat on the soviet army for a full year and seize close to 2,000,000km2 of soviet territory, about 3 times the size of France.
Hell no bro oversimplified is good for beginners but you don’t really get much from it TikHistory is the best I’d say. Armchair is good because he covers so many topics but you only get surface level info from it.
12:33 from 1941-45 it was the other way around. when the allies bombed germany, the allies also wanted the morale of the german populace to collapse, or to oppose hitler. But because of that, the German population became so angry that even farmers went to crashed Allied bomber crews with pitchforks.
As you cover more topics like this you should arrange a chronological playlist of WW2-related videos. The younger generation should learn history and they don't seem to have the patience for long-form documentaries about things besides videogame lore.
I felt the early war wizards looked at it like calvery. You can send calvery out against foot soldiers and probably crush them, but then your calvery gets wiped out by archers and reserves. If you send your calvery around the flanks and take out their archers and reserves, now your foot soldiers stand a chance, and the enemy is now surrounded. Add bullets bombs and engines and you got blitzkreig.
IIRC, between wars there was some debate of how to use tanks. One was as a mobile pill box supporting infantry. That's what the Char B was designed for. This also means it was used in combined arms. The other was cavalry, co-ordinated with radio. Horse cavalry, btw, gets stopped with spear/pike men that have discipline. Unless the formations are broken. But light cavalry is great for operational/deep warfare.
@@recoil53 pikemen represented by fortified AT emplacements. I considered the comparison this way; the reason tanks and horsemen are effective is their ability to approach opposition at high speed, giving them position before many arrows or bullets can disable them. Using it as a blunt object is folly. Panzer I was built as an armored machine gun crew, nothing more. In that sense, it was successful, no matter how ridiculous it looks on paper now.
You are all wrong. Stop watching the biased Anglo-German history videos. I'm done having to explain this on just about every media platform. If y'all really want a concise explanation, I'll send you my historians thesis when I'm done with it at the end of my studies.
Can you make a video on the Argentine revolution along with the independence wars throughout South America. I feel like this is heavily overlooked and should be talked about more.
on the panzers refueling at gun point in the French civilian gas stations , they also rushed to grab the Michelin road maps , they had run strait off theirs , and the michelin were excellent
Very great video! Your animations keep getting better and better. One thing I wanted to say that Many German Generals Halder Guderian wanted to conquer Russia by Invade Moscow similar to Napoleon but that was flawed because Germany had a shortage of oil
i swear griffin has an entire living room sized room thats just entirely painted green the floors an ceiling included so he can be animated in different scenarios
Hey, would it be possible for you to do a video on The Battle of Doiran (aka the Valley of Death). I just think it is a very interesting and important battle during ww1, where the Bulgarians held the British and prevented an invasion
4:15 on the map there is an Czechoslovakia but in 1939 in time of polish campaign it was an Protektorat Bohmen und Mahren and Slovakia Czechoslovakia Because on 15. 3. 1939 started an occupation of Czechoslovakia when Slovakia Disconected and on the rest of czech lands was made Protektorat Bohemn und Mahren
Defeating enemies one at a time. Had French attacked few German reserv divisions manning Rhine in september 1939, they would capture Ruhr before Germans could rush back panzers from Poland...
I would say their was a chance that Germany could've lost early in WWII had the Allies been a bit more active in trying to stop their enemy from succeeding. But lost more than one opportunity.
Meth also helped drive the German war machine. Tankers, soldiers, and pilots were "methed" out throughout the entire French campaign to keep up the speed of the advance.
In reality the German doctrine is called Bewegungskrieg. Tanks, planes and APC’s were just new tools for the Germans. When Germany stopped waging that kind of warfare in 1943 that’s when they started to lose. Kursk is a good example.
In 1939-1940 the UK was not involved as much as it should have been, the size of the British expeditionary Force sent to Norway, the Benelux and France in 1940 was very insufficient. In the end the defense of Western Europe was mostly left on France's shoulder, while France still had not fully recovered form ww1 and neither had the means nor the numbers to protect western Europe.
You jest, the British Expeditionary Force was a whopping 400,000 men and had the latest equipment (Matilda heavy tanks...). It's defeat meant that the UK was all but defenseless in 1940/1941, with the Royal Navy being the only protection against a german invasion (The Home Guard was a joke). The French Army won WW1 and was the most formidable force of the Interwar era, a german victory was far from certain.
@@die1mayer Both France and Germany put millions of men on the battlefield in 1940, the "whopping" 390,000 strong British Expeditionary Force was rather symbolic in comparison. The same goes for the armour, the French and Germans used thousands of tanks in 1940 while Britain only sent one tank brigade on the continent, composed in all of just 74 Matilda tanks mostly equipped with machine guns and a few lighter armoured vehicles. Keep in mind that the UK had not been wrecked by ww1 contrary to France and that by 1939 Britain had bigger population to that of France and a bigger GDP.
@@nikolaasp2968 "The British Army should be a projectile to be fired by the British Navy." -Sir Edward Grey You are comparing two continental powers with a maritime power, literally apples and oranges. The British didn't have a large army and most military spending went to the navy. It took the UK a long time to mobilize their manpower and the UK had other priorities than Western Europe, they had to defend the British Empire in Africa and East Asia.
@@die1mayer France also had a large empire to defend and was a maritime power as well, this didn't prevent France from maintaining a significant land army. Britain totally had the capacity to do the same, but while the french spent the inter war period trying to figure out ways to defend themselves from any future invasion despite France's terryifying state after the war, the British let themselves be lulled into a false sense of security and simply believed that they could afford the luxury of neglecting their land army. As a matter of fact, during the inter war the British Government introduced the "ten years rule" based on the idea that Britain would be able to avoid to take part in any future major war for at least a decade. Under this guideline which was continually extended, Britain made almost no investment at all in the development of new armament, drastically reduced the size of it army and ended its conscritpion system. When Hilter reintroduced conscription in Germany in march 1935, the french were immediately concerned and urged the british to reintroduce their conscription but the british weren't receptive. It is only when the war broke out that Britain reintroduced conscritpion for all men aged 18 to 41. The result of this delay is that the UK entered the war with a land army of only 892,697 officers and men. However once the germans took France in june 1940 and threatened Britain the british rushed their conscription and were suddenly able to increase the size of the British army to 2.2 million men by 1941.
@@nikolaasp2968 It wasn't just about maintaining an Empire with a garrison, Britain was effectively fighting a war in the colonies. Italy wanted to take Egypt and Japan took "unconquerable" Singapore, a great defeat for the British. France gave up Indochina due to pressure by Germany and Hitler's veto was the only thing stopping Spain from taking over French Morocco.
Tanks were used in Norway! Witnesses, films and photos show them. There's one picture of germans moving alongside a tank, using it as cover against potential ambushes. In one interview I watched, a british soldier recounts knocking out two panzers with a BOYS AT-rifle. Further research tells me Panzer-abteilung 40, an armoured batallion, participated in the invasion, numbering around 48 Panzer 1 and 21 Panzer 2 tanks. (three Neubaufahrzeug tanks were also there for propaganda, but apparantly saw some combat, one even being knocket out by Norwegian engineers... I didn't even know these tanks existed lol).
I would love a video about the role of US landlease in WW2. How much did every country get from US and how significant was that aid in the overall picture for each country.
it's always been interesting to me that if Germany accepted the Soviet Unions application into the Axis powers in 1940, The entire world may look VERY different then what it is today.
what? Stalin knew Hitler personally hated the Slavs and didn't consider them equal humans. his pact about dividing Poland was just a tool to get more time [carve up Poland which he wanted wiped off the map like Putin wants to wipe Ukraine off the map today]. Stalin knew Hitler would betray him so he never intended to keep his word either. there was never a chance these two monsters could form a lasting alliance. murderous thugs don't make good bedfellows - the same with putler today, no chance of making a deal with him
if you want to look at alternative history, a more realistic approach would be: what if Chamberlain never resigned, Churchill never became PM and the British would have signed a ceasefire in May 1940. Hitler never intended to fight the British. or a world where France, knowing it couldn't actually defend Poland in any meaningful way, would have never issued a declaration of war to Germany over invading Poland? there was never a war in the west of Europe in 1939 or the 1940s and Hitler was allowed to wreak havoc on his eastern neighbours in pursuit of his delusional and genocidal dream of _lebensraum_ ?
This is a pretty mental what if scenario that has literally no chance of occurring while Germany was lead by nazis. But its likely that the countries would still be kept off of Britain, The Soviet navy, nor russian navy in general was never the greatest. The rest of eroupe? Sure, they might even be able to turn turkey china and iran into puppets. But probably not the british empire, and most certainly not the americas
@@therealSunTzu it isn't so much about their combined armies or navy strength. To me, it would have been about operation barbosa never happening, and instead the entirety of the german forces would be in or around North Africa, Scandanavia, and France. Not even counting the troops Stalin could/would have added to that. The Germans marching into Russia was the beginning of the end for Hitler. If Hitler would have accepted that application by the Soviets, even tempararely, into the Axis, the entire war would have been so wildly different.
@@bobhope2380 but it was never really an option for hitler. the whole point of invading Poland was it just being a stepping point/prelude for invading russia. his sick obsession with lebensraum and displacing all Slavs from large swathes of Eastern Europe probably up to the Urals. operation barbarossa or what it aimed to achieve was the centre piece of his entire mad plan for Europe.
I was wondering if you could do a video about Portugal on World War II, namely its reasons for remaining neutral and its role in aiding refugees fleeing German expansion and the Holocaust
Another cool point about Portugal was that SPYES from both sides used it as a safe ground to relay messages and info to theyr respective countries. Many Portugese diplomats were spies too. Also theyr colonies, like Mozanbique, were used. The portugese government allowed that to hapen, so they could be a neutral asset to both sides, and also keeping it under control, never letting a partisan cell to form using those spyes. And everibody knew it, both Allies and Axis, and they let it be, because the really unique situation of Portugal, with its colonies all around the world to send spyes to, having them ready to work on nearby enemy territories.
The Panzerkampfwagen 2 was outiftted with 2-cm-KwK 30 L/55, an automatic firing cannon, therefor using sprays to penetrate armor like other AA guns and not single shots like normale tanks.
The audio of this video was WAY too low. I had to turn the volume way up, and the ads would end up being super loud. Please keep your volume at the correct level. Otherwise, great video!
The Ark Royal was nearly sunk during the Hunt for the Bismarck, U-556 was sent to do recon on the situation before returning home and was low on fuel and out o f torpedoes from commerce raiding. The sub would have had a clean shot while the Ark Royal was preparing to receive and re-arm her planes
The destination of the Battlecruisers/Battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau weren’t deployed to Oslo but to Narvik and Trondheim. Blücher and others were the ones that were deployed to Oslo.
What also aided the Germans in conquering Poland and France was the heavy use of Pervitin aka methamphetamines. Instead of marching/fighting for hours, soldiers could do both for days.
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Mistake:
- The heavy cruiser Blücher wasn't deployed to Narvik, it was deployed to Oslo.
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War thunder
Nazi Germany*
your video is broken
Already play war thunder lol am addicted to it
I have to point out a minor mistake in your video. The heavy cruiser Blücher wasn't deployed to Narvik, it was deployed to Oslo. It got sunk outside Drøbak in the Oslo fjord.
i also noticed that mistake
Considering all the video quality this is an ignorable mistake
Yeah I think they got the Narvik and Oslo groups mixed up
Hey thanks for pointing this out, I'll add a note to the pinned comment.
@@secretname4190 still better than most channels
This man does fantastic work for keeping real history alive.
"Hey guys, it's The Armchair Historian, keepin it real"
Only because he has a huge, great team and sponsors/patreons. Highly suggest supporting them, they're doing great work! :)
just dont do fentanyl kids
Fun fact, french armor crew have, during the short training, a book with the specification of there tank but for the SOMUA and some B1 bis, the book don't mention the fact that they have a spear fuel tank so the majority of tank were half loaded in fuel befor battle
what did the Germans do with all the captured French heavy tanks? did they use them later in russia? like the Ukrainians use captured russian armor and turn them against the russians?
@@embreis2257 they do deployed it from time to time, especially during the defence of Normandy beaches. The 21st Panzer Division contain a lot of captured French Tanks and other vehicles, however they easily got decimated by Allied firepower.
@@embreis2257 for the most part, captured French tanks were stored in depos under German control, from there they had a couple different lives
-most of them would later be deployed as the armoured component of occupation troops, especially the light tanks (R35, H38) as they were numerous and obsolete for frontline service, these tanks would be for the most part unmodified apart from the modification of the cupola to allow peeking out the top
-a small number of B1 was transformed into flame thrower tanks and used in the east, about a battalion worth of S35 was deployed too, both would not see major combat and returned to western europe past 1941
-a number of tanks were modified to fill other specialty roles the german army lacked vehicles for, specifically self propelled artillery and tank destroyers
for the Germans, the main loot of defeating the French was in capturing a large number of trucks and other logistical vehicles, as those were in constant short supply
Nice overview video!
Hey one of the best History Channels on RUclips
Could you do a video on the Brusilov Offensive during WW1? It was a very important offensive during the war that’s largely uncovered on RUclips, and I think it would make for a very interesting video especially with your narration and style
Please
Yeah it almost cause austri hungry to surrender
Given it was literally the only thing the Russian military did right during WWI, it would be very interesting
Yeah the Russians made the stormtrooper tactics 1916. Broke the Austrian lines like twigs
Russians made the stormtrooper tactics
I'm glad you mentioned Norway; I hope you will do WW2 from Norway's perspective one day. The Norwegian campaign is a very underrated part of WW2 imo.
Yes
A waste of good British blood fighting in the North to help those who invaded us 1,000 years ago
@@ShireTommy_1916_Somme-Mametz Well, at least we both prevented the Nazis from making an atomic bomb in Vemork. We give you the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree every year, by the way. :)
@@ShireTommy_1916_Somme-Mametz 1776? 1812? should the americans not help britain?
The narvik movie on Netflix shows of the Norway perspective of German invasion
A vid on the Soviet-Afghan War would be super awesome
You can stop pestering them now
@@dwightd.eisenhower2031 begone Eisenhower. You lost North Korea.
@@conserva-chan2735 chad
Bro he has to at one day hopefully it’s my biggest request thanks for requesting 180+ times
@DFSEmpire indeed. It's literally one of the most important and influential conflicts of the 20th century and its criminally underrecognized.
3:55 I really like the fidelity with which the uniform and all decorations of marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły were presented. Especially the Commander's Cross of the Virtuti Militari order he was awarded for his merits in the Polish-Soviet War . You can see the effort put into historical research.
This is easily my favorite channel on the platform! High quality animations, well made videos, interesting topics and frequent uploads!
You guys are awesome!!!
Quite an interesting video, always wondered about Germany's early war dominance
Indeed an interesting video, but I think the title is unfortunately a bit clickbaity.
Well the reasons could be summarised to everyone but them sucked with new tech cuz spanish experience
P e r v e t i n e
A mix of effective uses of modern tactics and decisive leadership etc, while their enemies politicians and military leaders were still unsure of what to do and only used whatever tactics they thought was necessary to prevent a drawn out war because they really REALLY did not want to start another World War and hoped Germany felt the same (they did not).
@@lucinae8512pretty sure Germany didn’t want a world war lol
These videos have great animations with very undestandable depictions of complex subjects along with great voicing
The go-to history youtuber. Your content is AWESOME!!!
One really important event (at least i.m.o) during the norway campaign was missed here. Im talking about the loss of several destroyers and other ships which the Kriegsmarine never could recover from for the rest of the war.
What would they have done with them, had they not lost them - presuming the Norway Campaign is able to succeed just the same?
@@oliverhughes610 Deploy to the eastern front?
@@oliverhughes610 the royal navy did not disappeard after 1940
@@Cyhic No, but what would a handful of destroyers and cruisers have added to that mismatch? Turn it from an enormous one into a slightly less enormous one? I was genuinely asking, since you had apparently given it thought.
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- To where? The Arctic, where they were barely suited to operate for even short periods and would have still been vastly outnumbered by the Royal Navy, or to the Baltic, where they could do... what, exactly? Sit outside the Finnish Strait?
My Argentinian grandpa spoke German. He also must have been an electrician during the war, he had a helmet with two lightning bolts on it!
Peron was a big Hitler's supporter.
most overrused shitty joke ever
8000 likes and no comments?Dont let me fix that
The 2000s called, they want their jokes back.
Most Germans fleeing to Argentina were officers that wore the fancy hat, not stahlhelm
The difference in the way that the conflict between Germany and France went in ww1 and ww2 is probably one of the most striking I can think of. Just in 20+ years too.
Russia in Syria v. Russia in Ukraine is a good one too
@@conserva-chan2735 more so meant the same two opponents in a short amount of time.
I guess the Franko-Prussian war counts as well
Also, recency bias
@@TheHistoryofBiology Napoléon 1 😎
The French did not deploy their tanks evenly across the frontline.
At the beginning of the war the French had three powerful DLMs (Light Mechanical Divisions) and four DCRs (Divisions cuirassées, Armored Divisions). All three DLMs were sent to Belgium and the 2nd and 3rd were concentrated to fight two German Panzer divisions at Hannut and Gembloux, to great effect.
The 1st DCR fought against two German panzer divisions at Flavion in a brutal tank battle. 2nd and 4th DCRs fought at Abbeville, and they were merged into the 1st groupement cuirassé, as the 3rd DCR formed the 2nd groupement cuirassé with the 7th DLM.
That's not exactly what I call spreading the tanks across the frontline. On the contrary they were often concentrated to fight tank battles against the Panzerdivisions, which took heavy losses every time. There are other reasons why the campaign was lost.
This channel is known for it's huge amount of inaccuracies. No wonder, their view rate is shrinking.
For reasons why the campaign was lost :
- Germany outsmarted France, there is no other way to put it, they set up a good trap and the allies fallen in. Unlike Russia, France doesn't have the luxury to retreat thousand of km and reform their army when German supply line are exhausted. One mistake, and it was over for France.
- Lack of airplanes
- France used it's reserve too early
The French army DID use these tank divisions to great effect, however it was only after the successful German invasion of Poland that France would start making these divisions. MOST of the French tanks were supporting their infantry.
(It is weird why he didn't mention it though)
@@mrsupremegascon If the 7th army had been kept in reserve the French most likely could've stopped the Germans breaking through.
@@mrsupremegascon they make an effort to put the armchair part at the fore front.
@@mrsupremegascon
Other reasons are the catastrophic decisions taken by French general Huntziger during the defense of Sedan, and the abysmal cooperation/communication between the French, British, Dutch and Belgians.
This channel should challenge preconceived ideas on the subject rather than spreading them. I'm glad they tried to do it on the myth of the Blitzkrieg, but they are never going to do so on the numerous myths about the French in 1940. Cf the quote of the British general at 2:08 suggesting French treachury and the French running at 10:15 suggesting French cowardice.
I think their video "Why was France so bad in 1940" (unbearable kind of title btw) with 3 million views remain unequalled in terms of inaccuracies.
9:49 that was a nice visual how logistics works. I cant even imagine how logistics were like on the eastern front. Maybe you could make a video about it or something
10:14 When Germany invaded the USSR in 1941 it was still able to inflict defeat after defeat on the soviet army for a full year and seize close to 2,000,000km2 of soviet territory, about 3 times the size of France.
Good episode. Nice job. 👏
It amazes me how much information you give us in 15 minutes video.
Everytime the armchair historian posting a new video feels like Christmas in July.
True
The best history channel on RUclips right next to Oversimplified
Dude no, they’re phenomenal don’t get me wrong but they aren’t the best
Hell no bro oversimplified is good for beginners but you don’t really get much from it TikHistory is the best I’d say. Armchair is good because he covers so many topics but you only get surface level info from it.
Oversimplified is more satire and the guy needs half a year for a single video.
@@Kevin-ws6blits literally called oversimplified
The Great war is a nice history channel i like to watch
12:33 from 1941-45 it was the other way around. when the allies bombed germany, the allies also wanted the morale of the german populace to collapse, or to oppose hitler. But because of that, the German population became so angry that even farmers went to crashed Allied bomber crews with pitchforks.
As you cover more topics like this you should arrange a chronological playlist of WW2-related videos. The younger generation should learn history and they don't seem to have the patience for long-form documentaries about things besides videogame lore.
🤥 depending but yeah he should make a chronological playlist
Great idea
Im in your discord server. I really enjoy taking part in debates and etc. Thanks bro!
Germany begun targeting civilian centres only as a retaliation for Britains own terror campaign she started months prior.
Without a doubt the best invasion in the history. An outnumbered outgunned army defeats an enemy in 6 weeks.
Your videos are the only videos I have seen that actually nearly fit my ultrawide monitor, whatever aspect ratio you use, please keep using it!
I felt the early war wizards looked at it like calvery. You can send calvery out against foot soldiers and probably crush them, but then your calvery gets wiped out by archers and reserves. If you send your calvery around the flanks and take out their archers and reserves, now your foot soldiers stand a chance, and the enemy is now surrounded. Add bullets bombs and engines and you got blitzkreig.
I was just thinking of the common idea with the steppe horse riders.
@@MasterMalrubius I was thinking medievel battle but you're right that's a great example.
IIRC, between wars there was some debate of how to use tanks.
One was as a mobile pill box supporting infantry. That's what the Char B was designed for. This also means it was used in combined arms.
The other was cavalry, co-ordinated with radio.
Horse cavalry, btw, gets stopped with spear/pike men that have discipline. Unless the formations are broken. But light cavalry is great for operational/deep warfare.
@@recoil53 pikemen represented by fortified AT emplacements.
I considered the comparison this way; the reason tanks and horsemen are effective is their ability to approach opposition at high speed, giving them position before many arrows or bullets can disable them. Using it as a blunt object is folly.
Panzer I was built as an armored machine gun crew, nothing more. In that sense, it was successful, no matter how ridiculous it looks on paper now.
They didn't avoid the Maginot line, they just broke through the weakest part.
No, they broke through in the Ardennes (via Belgium), a forest which was north of the Maginot Line
@@abadyr_ The idea that the Maginot Line wasn't there is a myth.
You are all wrong. Stop watching the biased Anglo-German history videos. I'm done having to explain this on just about every media platform. If y'all really want a concise explanation, I'll send you my historians thesis when I'm done with it at the end of my studies.
@@abadyr_ the Maginot line stretched all the way to the Atlantic. The bunkers are still there.
@@nikolaasp2968 There were some fortifications, but the Ardennes were one of the line's weakest points. They were not well fortified at all.
Can you make a video on the Argentine revolution along with the independence wars throughout South America. I feel like this is heavily overlooked and should be talked about more.
I heartily agree. South America, Africa, and western Asia are exceedingly overlooked by most sources of historical content based in the global north
Love your vids!
Could you do a video about Croatia in WW2? The history is quite horror but also fasinating
on the panzers refueling at gun point in the French civilian gas stations , they also rushed to grab the Michelin road maps ,
they had run strait off theirs , and the michelin were excellent
When I hear”hi, I’m griffin Jonson, the armchair historian” I know I’m in for a treat.
6:30 Holy crap give your animators a raise
Do you ever plan on making a WW2 from Norway's perspective video? I feel it could make for a good video.
Not gonna lie, the Westfeldzug was one of the most impressive campaigns in military history
Stunning visuals in this video! transitions are real smooth
Sat in Perkins inbushkill pa and met your dad he told me about your channel .thoroughly enjoying it
Very great video! Your animations keep getting better and better. One thing I wanted to say that Many German Generals Halder Guderian wanted to conquer Russia by Invade Moscow similar to Napoleon but that was flawed because Germany had a shortage of oil
i swear griffin has an entire living room sized room thats just entirely painted green the floors an ceiling included so he can be animated in different scenarios
It's called a studio
Hey, would it be possible for you to do a video on The Battle of Doiran (aka the Valley of Death). I just think it is a very interesting and important battle during ww1, where the Bulgarians held the British and prevented an invasion
4:15 on the map there is an Czechoslovakia but in 1939 in time of polish campaign it was an Protektorat Bohmen und Mahren and Slovakia Czechoslovakia Because on 15. 3. 1939 started an occupation of Czechoslovakia when Slovakia Disconected and on the rest of czech lands was made Protektorat Bohemn und Mahren
HE-111 internal bay bobms are stored nose up, when realeased they flip in the air to point the nose down
Defeating enemies one at a time. Had French attacked few German reserv divisions manning Rhine in september 1939, they would capture Ruhr before Germans could rush back panzers from Poland...
“I was saving the planet from an Axis of Darkness, while you were back home opening National Parks! Yes!” Winston Churchill
Also dead.
I would say their was a chance that Germany could've lost early in WWII had the Allies been a bit more active in trying to stop their enemy from succeeding. But lost more than one opportunity.
How about a video on the Polish and Canadians during the Falaise Gap battle? ( Operation Totalize and Operation Tractable)
Meth also helped drive the German war machine. Tankers, soldiers, and pilots were "methed" out throughout the entire French campaign to keep up the speed of the advance.
In reality the German doctrine is called Bewegungskrieg. Tanks, planes and APC’s were just new tools for the Germans. When Germany stopped waging that kind of warfare in 1943 that’s when they started to lose. Kursk is a good example.
Can you do a animated full documentary about the estearn front for ww2 ?
I'm just gonna say methamphetamine before actually watching
In 1939-1940 the UK was not involved as much as it should have been, the size of the British expeditionary Force sent to Norway, the Benelux and France in 1940 was very insufficient. In the end the defense of Western Europe was mostly left on France's shoulder, while France still had not fully recovered form ww1 and neither had the means nor the numbers to protect western Europe.
You jest, the British Expeditionary Force was a whopping 400,000 men and had the latest equipment (Matilda heavy tanks...). It's defeat meant that the UK was all but defenseless in 1940/1941, with the Royal Navy being the only protection against a german invasion (The Home Guard was a joke).
The French Army won WW1 and was the most formidable force of the Interwar era, a german victory was far from certain.
@@die1mayer Both France and Germany put millions of men on the battlefield in 1940, the "whopping" 390,000 strong British Expeditionary Force was rather symbolic in comparison. The same goes for the armour, the French and Germans used thousands of tanks in 1940 while Britain only sent one tank brigade on the continent, composed in all of just 74 Matilda tanks mostly equipped with machine guns and a few lighter armoured vehicles. Keep in mind that the UK had not been wrecked by ww1 contrary to France and that by 1939 Britain had bigger population to that of France and a bigger GDP.
@@nikolaasp2968 "The British Army should be a projectile to be fired by the British Navy." -Sir Edward Grey
You are comparing two continental powers with a maritime power, literally apples and oranges. The British didn't have a large army and most military spending went to the navy. It took the UK a long time to mobilize their manpower and the UK had other priorities than Western Europe, they had to defend the British Empire in Africa and East Asia.
@@die1mayer France also had a large empire to defend and was a maritime power as well, this didn't prevent France from maintaining a significant land army. Britain totally had the capacity to do the same, but while the french spent the inter war period trying to figure out ways to defend themselves from any future invasion despite France's terryifying state after the war, the British let themselves be lulled into a false sense of security and simply believed that they could afford the luxury of neglecting their land army.
As a matter of fact, during the inter war the British Government introduced the "ten years rule" based on the idea that Britain would be able to avoid to take part in any future major war for at least a decade. Under this guideline which was continually extended, Britain made almost no investment at all in the development of new armament, drastically reduced the size of it army and ended its conscritpion system.
When Hilter reintroduced conscription in Germany in march 1935, the french were immediately concerned and urged the british to reintroduce their conscription but the british weren't receptive. It is only when the war broke out that Britain reintroduced conscritpion for all men aged 18 to 41. The result of this delay is that the UK entered the war with a land army of only 892,697 officers and men.
However once the germans took France in june 1940 and threatened Britain the british rushed their conscription and were suddenly able to increase the size of the British army to 2.2 million men by 1941.
@@nikolaasp2968 It wasn't just about maintaining an Empire with a garrison, Britain was effectively fighting a war in the colonies. Italy wanted to take Egypt and Japan took "unconquerable" Singapore, a great defeat for the British.
France gave up Indochina due to pressure by Germany and Hitler's veto was the only thing stopping Spain from taking over French Morocco.
Tanks were used in Norway! Witnesses, films and photos show them. There's one picture of germans moving alongside a tank, using it as cover against potential ambushes. In one interview I watched, a british soldier recounts knocking out two panzers with a BOYS AT-rifle.
Further research tells me Panzer-abteilung 40, an armoured batallion, participated in the invasion, numbering around 48 Panzer 1 and 21 Panzer 2 tanks. (three Neubaufahrzeug tanks were also there for propaganda, but apparantly saw some combat, one even being knocket out by Norwegian engineers... I didn't even know these tanks existed lol).
"You can conquer the world on horseback but you can't rule it from horseback" Mongol proverb
Great video as always!
I would love a video about the role of US landlease in WW2. How much did every country get from US and how significant was that aid in the overall picture for each country.
Love u armchair historian best animated history channel out there
it's always been interesting to me that if Germany accepted the Soviet Unions application into the Axis powers in 1940, The entire world may look VERY different then what it is today.
what? Stalin knew Hitler personally hated the Slavs and didn't consider them equal humans. his pact about dividing Poland was just a tool to get more time [carve up Poland which he wanted wiped off the map like Putin wants to wipe Ukraine off the map today]. Stalin knew Hitler would betray him so he never intended to keep his word either. there was never a chance these two monsters could form a lasting alliance. murderous thugs don't make good bedfellows - the same with putler today, no chance of making a deal with him
if you want to look at alternative history, a more realistic approach would be: what if Chamberlain never resigned, Churchill never became PM and the British would have signed a ceasefire in May 1940. Hitler never intended to fight the British. or a world where France, knowing it couldn't actually defend Poland in any meaningful way, would have never issued a declaration of war to Germany over invading Poland? there was never a war in the west of Europe in 1939 or the 1940s and Hitler was allowed to wreak havoc on his eastern neighbours in pursuit of his delusional and genocidal dream of _lebensraum_ ?
This is a pretty mental what if scenario that has literally no chance of occurring while Germany was lead by nazis.
But its likely that the countries would still be kept off of Britain,
The Soviet navy, nor russian navy in general was never the greatest.
The rest of eroupe? Sure, they might even be able to turn turkey china and iran into puppets. But probably not the british empire, and most certainly not the americas
@@therealSunTzu it isn't so much about their combined armies or navy strength. To me, it would have been about operation barbosa never happening, and instead the entirety of the german forces would be in or around North Africa, Scandanavia, and France. Not even counting the troops Stalin could/would have added to that. The Germans marching into Russia was the beginning of the end for Hitler. If Hitler would have accepted that application by the Soviets, even tempararely, into the Axis, the entire war would have been so wildly different.
@@bobhope2380 but it was never really an option for hitler. the whole point of invading Poland was it just being a stepping point/prelude for invading russia. his sick obsession with lebensraum and displacing all Slavs from large swathes of Eastern Europe probably up to the Urals. operation barbarossa or what it aimed to achieve was the centre piece of his entire mad plan for Europe.
Best Armed Forces of WWII.
I promise to watch all your videos from now on, just keep making them interesting
The best history youtuber. Oversimplified would be if if he uploaded more. The armchair historian always on top with the uploads. Keep it up!
That 1939-1940 Fking World War 1 - Great War Revenge War.
@@C.A._Oldwhat?
Mark Felton Productions
He makes the best thumbnail
@@C.A._Old you mean WWII? World war 1 was 1914-1918 lmao
"Norway did not fare much better"? How dare you, Sir. The Danes were taken overnight. We held out for weeks. :P
Hey, thanks. Your video's have helped me on my history essay. Lets hope i do well!
Intro is much more polished. Good work.
Will there be a video about last day of ww2 in Europe like what happened and stuff like that or battle of Konigsberg
Great video, Griffin! I'd love to see a video on how the French under Napoleon were able to conquer Europe if you could make it.
I was wondering if you could do a video about Portugal on World War II, namely its reasons for remaining neutral and its role in aiding refugees fleeing German expansion and the Holocaust
Another cool point about Portugal was that SPYES from both sides used it as a safe ground to relay messages and info to theyr respective countries. Many Portugese diplomats were spies too.
Also theyr colonies, like Mozanbique, were used.
The portugese government allowed that to hapen, so they could be a neutral asset to both sides, and also keeping it under control, never letting a partisan cell to form using those spyes.
And everibody knew it, both Allies and Axis, and they let it be, because the really unique situation of Portugal, with its colonies all around the world to send spyes to, having them ready to work on nearby enemy territories.
warthunder is the game you still come back to despite its heavy inaccuracy and bug filled mess that devs don''t fix.
The Panzerkampfwagen 2 was outiftted with 2-cm-KwK 30 L/55, an automatic firing cannon, therefor using sprays to penetrate armor like other AA guns and not single shots like normale tanks.
The audio of this video was WAY too low. I had to turn the volume way up, and the ads would end up being super loud. Please keep your volume at the correct level. Otherwise, great video!
Holy god I recognized the gameplay in the video and got sent a wave of nostalgia.
ALL out offense is your best strategy when you don't have resources.
The Ark Royal was nearly sunk during the Hunt for the Bismarck, U-556 was sent to do recon on the situation before returning home and was low on fuel and out o f torpedoes from commerce raiding. The sub would have had a clean shot while the Ark Royal was preparing to receive and re-arm her planes
Great video! I'd love to see a similar one on the Mongol innovative military tactics in the 13th century
People who voted the thumbnail in discord and saw this thumbnail probably immediately clicked on it
The destination of the Battlecruisers/Battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau weren’t deployed to Oslo but to Narvik and Trondheim.
Blücher and others were the ones that were deployed to Oslo.
The intro music and sound quality is more fitting for World War I than WWII.
Would be cool if you wen’t more in depth about the battle of the Benelux. It there is even enough info about that
Marshal Ney would've arranged the tanks for a mass charge than thin them out.
A new video on a Saturday too?! This will be a good day
4:04 As a Pole this hurts me. It's a fact but a painfull one
Love the Akuyaku tank at 10.25 !
Yet films told us that the Germans had like thousands of tanks when they invaded Poland and Poland only had horses.
Bruh. Bruuuuh? Brūuuuuuuuuuuh! Grifon is finnaly THE ARMCHAIR historian. He has an armchair. I repeat, Grifon has the Armchair!
Great artwork as always
i and everyone else here loves your work, you should put more ads in your videos, i wont mind watching them
Excellent perspective. Thank you
Nice video as always
Thank you for video sir
11:50
Damn.. imagine if Churchill didn't exist and GB would have really seek for peace.
Soviet - german war would've been a deadly struggle, and Britain probably wouldn't be as broke
"Speed and power!"
-German High Command, 1939
“No, i don’t think so comrade!”
Soviet High Command, 1940.
Great new fancy intro I'm loving it!
Its because German GPS only has two destinations, Warsaw and Paris
I'm pretty sure The Infographics show did a video similar to this just a few days ago
Another great video 🎉
i saw this video and immedietely thought of the ghost division
they are the panzer elite, born to compete, never retreat (ghost division)
i have a question, will you cover THE ENTIRE conflict from 1939 to 1945?
What also aided the Germans in conquering Poland and France was the heavy use of Pervitin aka methamphetamines. Instead of marching/fighting for hours, soldiers could do both for days.