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The vote on 7 May 1945 was held onboard HMCS Uganda and 605 crew out of 907 refused to volunteer for continuing operations against Japan. The British Admiralty was furious and said it could not replace the ship until 27 July at the earliest. However, the cruiser continued her deployment in the Pacific throughout June and July while the Naval Staff sought an answer to the problem. An embarrassed Royal Canadian Navy offered to replace Uganda with HMCS Prince Robert, an anti-aircraft flak ship that was being refitted in Vancouver.
The idea that Japan believed Stalin would honor their neutrality pact until the end date of April 1946 has put the biggest smile on my face of the week
@@marcel-ifc17 Funny thing about treaties and agreements between nations when there is no higher authority that can enforce them. They are only valid when both sides have an interest or benefit from them.
They were delusional. The 'never surrender' honor culture, and the knowledge that they'd lose power, kept Japan Fighting hopelessly for years. They were horribly outnumbered in every battle after Guadalcanal. People were starving; almost no shipping stock. They just couldn't admit the war was lost, probably even to themselves.
I've been tempted a couple of times when my wife asked, "how was your day?" to respond: "You can learn more about it in Sparty's War Against Humanity Series..."
I think that it was generally agreed quite some time ago that Partizan operations (and with this also most Yugoslav operations in the future) would be handled in War Against Humanity series as opposed to the main series
My old man joined the USCG in Sept '41. He was held for duration plus 6 months. He spent 2 1/2 years overseas. In Oct '45, he put in his papers expecting the USCG to take many months to let him out. He had so many points that he was out in 2 weeks. He had no job and the winter coming didn't look good. The nightmares pushed him to build a cabin in a woods and live by himself for two years before he could stand "civilization". Good Luck, Rick
@@TheMasonK He joined thinking that he would be guarding the east coast. He ended up putting troops ashore in 6 landings and crossed the Atlantic 6 times. He saw way too many guys die and ships sink. It haunted him until the day he died. Good Luck, Rick
my dad was 15 when pearl harbor was attacked... Jan 14 turned 16.... august 42 at 16 1/2 adjusted his age and enlisted in the CG... served until 46 and promptly was required to register for the draft...
I think it's because of Covid but I remember listening with earbuds at work to each episode in 2018 to now, and it feels like just yesterday I was getting hype for the Pearl Harbor special. It's been a fast 6 years.
My dad was an Engineer in Europe. He had been drafted in 1942. I remember him telling me that he was told that he was to be retrained to be a frogman for the invasion of Japan which he considered a suicide mission. He said that a lot in his unit (503rd Light Pontoon) were also facing the same fate and they were pissed since they saw so much in Europe and thought they were finally going home. He was waiting in France for a ship back to the states when he got word of Japan's surrender. He told me that was when he finally realized he made it and could finally go home to live a normal life.
In Norway, the war has also ended. The German commander General Bohme gets the same surrender order on the 7th. The next day the allied delegation flew into the country and Bohme reluctantly accepted the surrender of 350 000 German troops. The same day thousands of armed resistance fighters take control over government buildings and etc. On leaflefts and on the radio the wars end is announced and people are told to remain calm and to continue with their daily lives. The Germans have until the 11th to pull of out cities and military instalations and to remain at designated areas to be disarmed. On the 9th through the 11th. About 13 000 Norwegian «Police troops» arrive from the north and from Sweden, they along with 30 000 allied troops take complete control over the country. British General Andrew Throne will take control until the 7 of June when the Norwegian cabinet along with the royal family returns. By october all allied units, including the Red Army who fought to liberate Finnmark at the end of last year withdraw.
@@Freedomfred939 Hitler was convinced that control of Norway was vital to the German war effort and that he had to garrison the country. An idea that the Allies encouraged by creating a mock 4th British Army in Scotland that was supposed to invade Norway. Operation Fortitude North.
On May 11, 1945, Norwegian SS leader Jonas Lie was found dead, after anti-Nazi Norwegian troops and police broke into his office. Other Norwegian Nazis surrendered. Whether Lie committed suicide or died of a heart attack (he had long had a heart condition) has never been clarified. The more famous Vidkun Quisling was arrested.
That brings to mind not one but two different ancient Romans who bore the surname Manlius...Marcus Manlius Capitolinus and Titus Manlius Imperiosus Turquatus. Marcus Manlius was a hero during the Gallic siege of Rome, famed for his "extreme courage," who supposedly had 23 scars from battle on his body. Titus Manlius defeated a large Gallic army at the battle of the Anio River. Before the start of that battle a huge Gaul champion stepped forward and challenged the Romans to single combat, which Manlius accepted, and the two then fought a duel before both assembled armies. Despite being a much smaller man Manlius was more agile, dodged his opponent's strikes, and then killed the Gallic champion with strikes to the groin and abdomen. His agnomen Turquatus was bestowed because after killing the enemy champion he stripped him of a torc he was wearing, and put it around his own neck as a trophy.
"DON RICKLES" honed his insult skills while rapidly pulling the Barrel Clip off the 20 MM Oerlikon & Reloading aboard a Liberty Ship in the forward area supplying PT Boats.
It's a very bad sign when you can find more about the fate of surrendering units on a show called 'war against humanity' I know, judge a book by its cover, but I can't help but feel like appearing as a topic on a show called 'war against humanity' ends badly.
Yeah, if I had been a German and the British demanded I surrender to the Yugoslavs instead, I'd just keep fighting. The point of surrendering is agreeing to cease fighting in return for fair treatment. If they're going to kill me anyway, the whole point of surrendering goes out of the window.
@@ericcarlson3746hindsight ? Churchill has already set off a civil war in Greece because he doesn’t trust communists , is in the middle of loosing Poland to the Soviet Empire because Stalin will not let go of the place and has never trusted a communist ever. He thinks communist are a threat to all that is good. I find it highly unlikely that Churchill expected any German troops or their collaborators captured by the soviets to be treated well.
A part of this time that is absolutely fascinating is the messages between the Japanese ambassador to the USSR and Japanese Government. You feel a bit bad for the guy as he realizes the people at home are delusional and just won't give term's to surrender.
@@ChaptermasterPedroKantor-kv5yw "Fight to the last men! No surrender to the Red Army. Oh, and we're still hanging deserters." 5 minutes later... "Hit the gas, driver. I've got a flight to catch to Austria before the Ruskies get here."
The Italian journalist Curzio Malaparte later wrote of interviewing him during the war and added that Pavelic opened a soup tureen containing what looked like oysters but were in fact human eyes. "A gift from my loyal Ustasha," Pavelic said.
When Indy started talking about the 32nd army, I wasn't looking at the screen and thought he said "30 second army" and that sounds like the worst unit to join
It should be noted that Okinawa was the training area for Japanese Army Artillery. Which meant that almost every square meter referenced an existing aiming stake.
@@ChaptermasterPedroKantor-kv5yw "There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs."
Despite having her forward elevator blown 400 feet into the air, Enterprise would only see 14 dead and 71 wounded. Unlike Bunker Hill or Franklin, she was winding down flight operations. Because her Air Group primarily operated at night, no avgas were used, and the only ammunition was for her anti-aircraft guns. All fires were under control in less than half an hour and out in an hour. It would take another 24 hours to have flooding from broken pipes and hull breaches pumped out from her forward compartments. During this time, her gunners shot down 4 more Kamikazes.
She was the ship that refused to be sunk. She survived everything the Japanese would throw at her. Everything but the Pentagon scrapping her in 1956. One of the biggest acts of shame in military history.
It’s this strike though that seals the Big E’s fate. There’s some thought that had Enterprise not been away for repairs that she would have been the ship Japan surrendered on. Had she been the surrender ship, the Grey Ghost very likely would have been preserved.
It's possible, but Missouri is very photogenic. I would imagine one of the ships sunk at Pearl Harbor before Enterprise. And remember, Saratoga was just as historic and she was used as a bomb target. But yes, it would have been cool to visit her in New York harbor.
Thank you Indy and team :). Not sure if this will be covered, but hope you do a short series on the Nuremberg Trials given how crucial those proceedings were following the war and alot of the myths that have developed on those. May be most appropriate for the War Against Humanity series.
My Dad fought in north Africa, Italy, France and Germany as a combat engineer. I’m sure he was happy with getting to come home without worrying about being in for the duration.
Greeting from burma 🇲🇲 I just finished all and now im here to get in touch with the schedule I have been watching since ibfound this channel a year ago :D
@@Southsideindy If you ever wanted to just update it with tippex or postit notes and marker pens (whatever is period appropriate and reversible?), I would be all for that! Just a nice big X over Germany maybe :p
When the USS Bunker Hill was attacked by Kamikaze pilots on 11 May 1945, my grandfather was there. He was a 23 year old PO1 and anti-aircraft gunner on the USS Wilkes-Barre (CL 103), one of three cleveland class cruisers in the Bunker Hill's retinue alongside Astoria (CL 90) and Passadena (CL 65). When rescue and evac operations were underway, the Wilkes-Barre wedged her bow into the Bunker Hill to help stop her from listing too far over while her crew put out the fires and bilged the water they'd taken on. The US Navy website details this in the service history of Wilkes-Barre as well. Pasadena, Wilkes-Barre, and Astoria would form up around the Carriers and often hit each other with friendly flak. During one attack, the Astoria's chaplain climbed the mast to take photographs (the chaplain did not have a battle station). The Astoria took flak from Wilkes-Barre's 5" guns and the chaplain was seriously injured and removed to a hospital ship. The captain of the Astoria was furious and put out an order that "Sightseeing would no longer be tolerated ".
Glad to see the sinking of Haguro get mentioned, a textbook destroyer attack and a welcome bit of revenge for the Royal Navy. On the subject of Kamikazes vs Admirals, something worth mentioning is that onboard the USS New Mexico when she was hit were some visiting British officers, including Admiral Fraser commander of the nearby British Fleet who was nearly caught in the blast, though his secretary and army Lieutenant General Lumsden were killed, along with the ships Captain.
Hearing Indy describe the US military point system (which I was aware of but had never heard broken down in detail), makes me genuinely feel sorry for the military S1 people (Personnel) for the first time in my life.
@@exeggcutertimur6091 In all honesty, it was a really bad answer to a bad problem. I can't think of anything to lower a combat unit's morale more than say, "Hey, a bunch of arbitrary points rules say this guy gets to go home but you have to stay and go to a MUCH WORSE battlefield sometime in the long future!"
My Grandpa joined the US air force when he was 18 in 1945 but because of training time was never actually deployed and was then dismissed and sent home when the war ended but he still received a medal for his technical service in the war. He later rejoined the air force and fought in the Korean War.
Eighteen year old soldiers might be held back, not so sailors or marines... My father lied about his age, and joined the US Navy while still only 15 years old. He lied and told them he was 16 turning 17, and they found out, and the Navy initially held him back as a Navy Corpsman from combat, he was sent instead to learn how to be an anesthesia technician. But, Iwo Jima and Okinawa changed that when units experienced 270% casualty rates among corpsman serving with the Marines, and replacements were needed. My dad's happy existence in his home town of LA, going home every weekend to Altadena on the PE electric trains from the Long Beach Naval Hospital (now the VA) came to a sudden end in early May 1945, when he was ordered to combat corpsman training at Camp Pendleton. Upon graduation, they all went on weekend liberty, and all of his class got their combat corpsman tattoo's, with the red cross and anchor, with their names on their lower arms... I learned, when in my service at the Quartermaster school at Fort Lee VA, in a barracks shared with guys going to "graves registration" training, why they all did that... It was so my grandmother would not have to wait a year to collect my father's GI insurance, as the GR guys told me that limbs tended to "survive" explosionis, and the tattoo and name could identify his body.... My grandmother loved Harry Truman and the atomic bomb... Both of her sons and her son in law (and all of my other future uncle's) all came back home....
My grandfather's unit surrendered to Tito forces. He managed to escape to Austria though, was released from American captivity in Austria, went home to the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany and was arrested by the Soviets in the special camp of Buchenwald until 1948.
I did the battle tour on Oki when I was there. Those tunnels and defenses the Japanese had were incredibly well prepared and dug deep. Training there was brutal enough, but could not imagine how hellish that battle was.
18 May 1945. Corporal James Smith of the 1st Marine Division is taking part in several embittered struggles with the Japanese on Okinawa in the past couple weeks, including action in places like Hill 60 & Wana Ridge.
4 месяца назад
Fascinating to learn a bit more about the War in the Philipines
Thanks, I understand what you mean. We aren't going anywhere though, we will continue to release episodes for this channel in the form of specials and more. Indy will also begin covering the Korean War soon! - Jake
With the Bunker Hill, I think it was Mitcher, but someone ordered a sharp turn, which caused much of the fuel burring on the flight deck to slough off into the sea. That decision was later credited with significantly helping damage control. I find it memorable because I think it is one of the crazier things you could have seen, and does a good job of illustrating how off the rails things were in those years.
The points system bit is interesting... My Dad was drafted in January 1941 for one year. In December 1941 Pearl Harbor was attacked so he was in the army for the duration. After marrying my Mom in April 1942, he was off to first North Africa and then Italy for the remainder of the war. As you can imagine, in May 1945 he was ready to return to the US from Italy. However, under the points system mentioned here, he didn't have enough points to return to the US immediately. He was told however that if he agreed to join the Army Reserves, then he would have enough points to return quickly to the US. Well, they had just wrapped up a large war, so no one expected another anytime soon. So, he agreed to join the reserves and was discharged in July 1945. Unfortunately, he was still in the reserves when the Korean War started so he was called up for that.
U-234 was a long range transport submarine on it's way to Japan. After the 2 Japanese passengers committed suicide it surfaced and surrendered to the Americans on May 14. Among it's cargo was a crated up Me-262 and 1200 pounds of Uranium destined for Japan's nuclear weapons program. There is no definitive evidence on what happened to the Uranium but historians believe it was mixed with the Uranium we had and then used in the first two bombs. In other words, we kept the jet but sent the Uranium on to Japan!
I reckon the US already had plenty of uranium to build those bombs. An atomic bomb was not something you whipped out on the fly in 1945. Also fat man, the one dropped on Nagasaki, used plutonium.
I have heard some people say the British were lucky they were not hit with their own torpedoes, since some many torpedoes were in the water going in some many different directions. The IJN Haguro was basically surrounded by British Destroyers.
Colonel Hiromachi Yahara, mentioned at 6:47 (as well as in a previous episode or two), was sharp as a tack and was the senior staff officer largely responsible for planning the formidable Japanese defense of Okinawa. American intelligence reports on him described him as "the brains of the 32nd army." In contrast Lt. General Isamu Cho, who he often fueded with, was an ultranationalist fanatic who was unimaginitative and unreasonably aggressive with his strategic planning, as is often the case with ideologues. Yahara on the other hand had spent time in the U.S. before the war at Ft. Moultrie in South Carolina as well as other places like Washington D.C., and similar to General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who commanded the Japanese defense of Iwo Jima, understood U.S. military capabilities and viewed an aggressive posture at this stage as foolish and banzai attacks as suicidal. What makes Yahara interesting however is that he is the most senior Japanese officer to survive the battle, surrendering to the Americans at battle's end. In the postwar he penned The Battle for Okinawa, a book about his experiences as a staff officer during the battle. It's well worth a read for WW2 history geeks and it gives something of a unique perspective, since usually senior Japanese officers in the various island battles in the Pacific either end up killed in action or dying by suicide.
Thanks! Will do! I really enjoyed reading *Japanese Destroyer Captain* by Tameichi Hara; insights from senior surviving operational officers of teh IJN and IJA are rare.
@@MM22966 I've seen that recommended in the comment section before, and have been meaning to get around to that. It definitely sounds like a fascinating read. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't he also the only IJN destroyer captain to have held that rank from the beginning of the war, to survive to the end?
@@ahorsewithnoname773 Yeah. Only surviving destroyer captain of the IJN. Fought in a lot of the big battles around Guadalcanal. A noted torpedo expert. He was Captain of a light cruiser (Yahagi) that was sunk during the death ride of Battleship Yamato in 1945, and he went into the water right next to the big girl as she turned turtle and sank.
"Custody". Technically they were in custody, so that was correct. Technically correct is the best kind of correct. Japan: You violated our Treaty by surrendering. Germany: We have no troops left and the enemy occupies all of our territory. Japan: Your point?
The opening sketch about 18 year old soldiers reminds me of the famous "quinta del biberón" (feeding bottle draft) in Spain, which was a generation of soldiers conscripted at age 16 in 1938 due to the manpower needs of the Spanish Civil War, and they were kept in service for the next 6 years (until 1944), due to the strategic situation with WW2 being at Spain's doorstep. The term was coined because when they were first called into service, one of the parents protested claiming that they were too young, "so young that some could be still be taking milk from a feeding bottle".
Soldiers with only a few points had to stay in the army for another reason. *Someone* had to process all the paper work to discharge millions of men. That's how my dad went from being a highly skilled ground crewman (stateside base) repairing the electromechanical systems on B-29 remote controlled turrets to the mundane life of a clerk-typist.
The discussion about when the Soviets would enter the Pacific war is important, and often gets left out of talk about the development of the atomic bomb. By this week the writing was on the wall that relations between the superpowers were going to get messy in Europe, and I can only imagine planners back in Washington thinking "We can't let that happen in Asia." If only...
SPOILER Sometime in September 1945, a US Army captain and a Red Army major will be photographed meeting near a place in Korea called Kaesong, at the 38th Parallel. A younger Red Army soldier is with them in the photo, presumably acting as interpreter.
Even as the Mediterranean-European Theater of Operations came to an end, there was still small-scale fighting. As German troops and her remaining Axis Allies continue a desperate dash from the East to the West, fighting as they do. Whilst in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations, the Japanese realizing they are now all alone, will continue to fight to the end. They will continue to fight in Borneo, Thailand, China, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Okinawa despite their forces being overextended and low on supplies. The noose on the Japanese is getting tighter. But the Allies on the other hand, weary of the ferocity of the Japanese, are looking for another way to possibly end the war. Will the Allied secret weapon be ready or will they have to invade the Japanese homeland? I sincerely do not know. All I know is many more people will perish. Godspeed.
Truman needed a miillion 18-19 year olds for the invasion of the home islands. This might have focussed his attention even more on the atomic bomb project.
It was more of "Hey Stalin, how about you Soviets brokering a peace plan with the US and GB for us?" What do you mean Stalin won't see us? Hey we haven't attacked Soviet territory in years, and it was only that one time, anyway we really need this favor.
@@PeteOtton "in any case, I'm sure the Red Army is not capable of launching a large scale combined arms operation into occupied Manchuria, so at least we still have those force safe and sound" *mops collective brow*
@@PeteOtton no but absolutely massive airborne drops into Japanese held territory (including I believe directly into Japanese bases), plus soviet riverine forces, so ... Almost?
My paternal uncle who had enlisted January 1942, landed in North Africa and fought in Italy until surrender told of then being sent home for leave and then on to reporting to an Army base near Walla Walla, Washington for training for the Invasion of Japan. The returning combat vets from Europe got word of the restructure of the draft and of Army training, grumbling turned into rioting. My uncle was taking a smoke break under the deck of the base commander's office veranda and overhead the General ordering the Colonel of the base MP's to put down the mutiny by shooting the mutineers. The Colonel responded. "Sir, before the War I was an elected county sheriff. Someday this war will end and I will not be the one answering to all the mothers and fathers and grand parents and uncles and aunts, all of them voting American citizens, as to how I gunned down their kin. I will put down this trouble." The Colonel took two thompsons with him, walked into the middle of the base and fired into the air. "All right boys you made your point. Stop now or I will have to clap you into irons." That summer dozens of Army bases saw riots by the returning overseas combat veterans. This must have been a factor in the decision to use the superbomb upon Japan.
The scope of this project boggles my mind. One of these days I'm going to go back and watch from Week 1 (because I didn't come in until much later) but it's almost impossible to face as a member of the freakin *audience*; I can only imagine how daunting it must have been to create.
My, now over the Rainbow Bridge, neighbor was a vet of Europe, a combat engineer in 3rd Army. He said he fully expected to be redeployed for an invasion of Japan. Goodness, I miss Bud.
I had naively assumed that when the surrender documents were signed everyone in Europe would stop fighting. It was news to me that this did not happen. How desperate those German troops in the Balkans must have been, to try to fight their way to get through one army in order to surrender to another. And then, having succeeded, to be turned back. I know they had to know about what their armies had done in the Soviet Union, but this just illustrates once again how there is nothing fair about war.
Were there any specific allied plans to make amphibious invasion on the Korean peninsula instead of the Japanese home islands? That would have basically caught off all of the Japanese forces in China and Indochina from their homelands and would have given the Western allies a great staging area for their future political dramas against the communists post-war. If there were such plans drafted but had to be scuttled, what was the discouraging factors? I always wondered what would have been like of the Incheon landings transpired during the Second World War and not the Korean War. (Well, succeseful Incheon landing would have invalidated the whole idea of a Korean war to begin with)
Inchon would never have worked in 1945. Kamikaze would have torn the invading fleet to shreds. Japanese resistance would have pinned the troops very near the landing beaches. Inchon only worked in 1950 because almost all of the North Korean forces were at the Pusan perimeter.
Korea was something of an afterthought at the time, ironic, in view of developments five years later. Churchill later said that he had never even heard of the "bloody place" until he was over 70.
@@p.strobus7569 While it was crippling, it would have taken until midwinter of 45-46 before its deadliness was really seen with probable mass starvation and freezing due to lack of fuel. Subs had taken to shelling Japanese fishing vessels for lack of other targets.
My first cousin fought in the paratroopers from 1942, but sure as hell did not get to go home. Instead, he was the first enlisted man to jump onto Corregidor on the 14th of February, 1945. He lived through THAT, too.... and finally made it home in one piece.
@@MM22966 - Plus the pointed, sharp, fragmented tree stumps awaiting you when landing. And then there was the wind. My cousin was lucky in jumping first. I believe some of the last guys were blown into the sea.
@@fredrichenning1367 Yeah, aircraft off-set and high winds always lands people in the trees, or the water in this case. At least the Navy had boats standing by.
21:42 After the explanation of the points system, I don't think this statement is hyperbole. I'm not sure how you would design a worse system, administratively, than that.
I love how the Japanese command keeps talking about how negotiation is an option they really should think about pursuing… at some time… in a possible future… maybe. But hey, have you heard about the latest plan to kill our recruits in such a horrific way that the US will stop attacking? Yeah, that’ll totally work and then they’ll come crawling to us and we can dictate terms. The willing self-delusion of the shogunate was clinical last year, now it’s just rabies.
Surprised it hasnt been mentioned. But anyway. The German commander General Bohme gets the same surrender order on the 7th. The next day the allied delegation flew into the country and Bohme reluctantly accepted the surrender of 350 000 German troops. The same day thousands of armed resistance fighters take control over government buildings and etc. On leaflefts and on the radio the wars end is announced and people are told to remain calm and to continue with their daily lives. The Germans have until the 11th to pull of out cities and military instalations and to remain at designated areas to be disarmed. On the 9th through the 11th. About 13 000 Norwegian «Police troops» arrive from the north and from Sweden, they along with 30 000 allied troops take complete control over the country. British General Andrew Throne will take control until the 7 of June when the Norwegian cabinet along with the royal family returns. By October all allied units, including those from the Red Army who fought to liberate Finnmark at the end of last year, withdraw.
Surprised it hasnt been mentioned. But anyway. The German commander General Bohme gets the same surrender order on the 7th. The next day the allied delegation flew into the country and Bohme reluctantly accepted the surrender of 350 000 German troops. The same day thousands of armed resistance fighters take control over government buildings and etc. On leaflefts and on the radio the wars end is announced and people are told to remain calm and to continue with their daily lives. The Germans have until the 11th to pull of out cities and military instalations and to remain at designated areas to be disarmed. On the 9th through the 11th. About 13 000 Norwegian «Police troops» arrive from the north and from Sweden, they along with 30 000 allied troops take complete control over the country. British General Andrew Throne will take control until the 7 of June when the Norwegian cabinet along with the royal family returns. By October all allied units, including those of the Red Army who fought to liberate Finnmark at the end of last year withdraw.
Surprised it hasnt been mentioned. But anyway. The German commander General Bohme gets the same surrender order on the 7th. The next day the allied delegation flew into the country and Bohme reluctantly accepted the surrender of 350 000 German troops. The same day thousands of armed resistance fighters take control over government buildings and etc. On leaflefts and on the radio the wars end is announced and people are told to remain calm and to continue with their daily lives. The Germans have until the 11th to pull of out cities and military instalations and to remain at designated areas to be disarmed. On the 9th through the 11th. About 13 000 Norwegian «Police troops» arrive from the north and from Sweden, they along with 30 000 allied troops take complete control over the country. British General Andrew Throne will take control until the 7 of June when the Norwegian cabinet along with the royal family returns. By october all allied units, including the Red Army who fought to liberate Finnmark at the end of last year withdraw.
Austria got temporarily divided. The Brits took most of the west and the Soviets the east. Later, under agreement of Austria becoming a neutral buffer, the Soviets withdrew, one of the few places they voluntarily gave up territory they had occupied. German troops captured by the Red Army did not come home until 1955 (if they survived).
My dad said that he became frustrated when, at the end of the hostilities in Europe, a guy in his outfit that had became so scared by shelling that he ran through a screen door and put himself in for a Purple Heart for the slight scratches that resulted from his own folly. This guy was awarded the Purple Heart for this,and got to go home sooner than the rest of the guys in his platoon. Dad said that all of the guys in the platoon hated this guy. Apparently, the guy also wrote his folks a flowery letter about his personal bravery after his hometown local paper received notice that he had been awarded the Purple Heart and his folks wrote him asking what happened. My dad said that the guy was at fault for his own injuries, slight as they were in the first place. It seems that a warning was given that the Germans were seen preparing their artillery pieces to shell them, and everybody else had taken cover in their slit trenches while the would be hero went sneaking into the mess hall to steal some food. Unfortunately for him, a shell landed fairly close and he decided to run for the slit trenches without bothering to open the screen door to the outside first and just busted through it, giving him some very slight scratches. He became very unpopular for this and many other charming personality traits, but I was reminded of the story when you described the point system, as my father had talked about it.
Their platoon was fortunate to get rid of him regardless of his lies to the people at home. I am sure he was a risk for the people who might have depended on him.
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Good Work!! Will you be covering ww3 soon?
I hope you do a special on the USS Enterprise. May history never forget her.
I want to apologize for not reenlisting in the army. Unfortunately, my wife lost her job and money is tight.
So this week there's no Balls joke... That's not good....🤣🤣🤣🤣
The vote on 7 May 1945 was held onboard HMCS Uganda and 605 crew out of 907 refused to volunteer for continuing operations against Japan. The British Admiralty was furious and said it could not replace the ship until 27 July at the earliest. However, the cruiser continued her deployment in the Pacific throughout June and July while the Naval Staff sought an answer to the problem. An embarrassed Royal Canadian Navy offered to replace Uganda with HMCS Prince Robert, an anti-aircraft flak ship that was being refitted in Vancouver.
The idea that Japan believed Stalin would honor their neutrality pact until the end date of April 1946 has put the biggest smile on my face of the week
how can someone commit countless atrocities towards POWs and innocent civilians and yet be so naïve
@@thewidow7864 Less that than desperate wishful thinking.
@@thewidow7864 don't believe anything you watch. The truth is much more complicated
@@thewidow7864call it wishful thinking
@@marcel-ifc17 What is the truth tho? It's ignorant to think that everyone will see things the same way
Japan: "The Soviets won't break our mutual non-aggression pact. We got this."
Stalin: "Are you sure about that?"
Top 10 Anime betrayals -TimeGhost Ambassador
This wouldnt be the first time someone broke a non aggression pact this war
Soviets: omaira shinduru
Japan: Nani?
@@marcel-ifc17 Funny thing about treaties and agreements between nations when there is no higher authority that can enforce them. They are only valid when both sides have an interest or benefit from them.
They were delusional. The 'never surrender' honor culture, and the knowledge that they'd lose power, kept Japan Fighting hopelessly for years. They were horribly outnumbered in every battle after Guadalcanal. People were starving; almost no shipping stock. They just couldn't admit the war was lost, probably even to themselves.
I just want to say that whoever came up with this episode’s thumbnail deserves an award
James' idea and Mikolaj's creation! Thanks for watching.
Hitchcock's North By Northwest homage.
That award better be worth at least 10 points on Marshall's score.
You know it can't be good news when Indy says, "You can learn more about it in our War Against Humanity series."
"this is too awful for my taste, so I'll let Sparty traumatize you guys"
@@Sabrowsky And with the horrors covered in the main series that's really saying something.
I've been tempted a couple of times when my wife asked, "how was your day?" to respond: "You can learn more about it in Sparty's War Against Humanity Series..."
I think that it was generally agreed quite some time ago that Partizan operations (and with this also most Yugoslav operations in the future) would be handled in War Against Humanity series as opposed to the main series
@@LightFykkiCorrect, but with a large time gap in-between too... unfortunately. Then again - I understand.
My old man joined the USCG in Sept '41. He was held for duration plus 6 months. He spent 2 1/2 years overseas. In Oct '45, he put in his papers expecting the USCG to take many months to let him out. He had so many points that he was out in 2 weeks. He had no job and the winter coming didn't look good. The nightmares pushed him to build a cabin in a woods and live by himself for two years before he could stand "civilization". Good Luck, Rick
God bless your father for his service! The coast guard and the merchant marine do not get nearly enough credit for all that they did.
@@TheMasonK He joined thinking that he would be guarding the east coast. He ended up putting troops ashore in 6 landings and crossed the Atlantic 6 times. He saw way too many guys die and ships sink. It haunted him until the day he died. Good Luck, Rick
@@TheMasonK Agreed.
Brilliant strategy to cope with the PTSD .
Building a cabin in the woods 🪵.
So resilient.
God bless .
my dad was 15 when pearl harbor was attacked... Jan 14 turned 16.... august 42 at 16 1/2 adjusted his age and enlisted in the CG... served until 46 and promptly was required to register for the draft...
Hypothetically… if the war was to last 6 years and a day that would mean 2,087 days have been covered and there are 108 days left…wow
in those 1,979 days, tens of millions of both soldiers and armies vanish
I think it's because of Covid but I remember listening with earbuds at work to each episode in 2018 to now, and it feels like just yesterday I was getting hype for the Pearl Harbor special. It's been a fast 6 years.
My dad was an Engineer in Europe. He had been drafted in 1942. I remember him telling me that he was told that he was to be retrained to be a frogman for the invasion of Japan which he considered a suicide mission. He said that a lot in his unit (503rd Light Pontoon) were also facing the same fate and they were pissed since they saw so much in Europe and thought they were finally going home. He was waiting in France for a ship back to the states when he got word of Japan's surrender. He told me that was when he finally realized he made it and could finally go home to live a normal life.
In Norway, the war has also ended. The German commander General Bohme gets the same surrender order on the 7th. The next day the allied delegation flew into the country and Bohme reluctantly accepted the surrender of 350 000 German troops. The same day thousands of armed resistance fighters take control over government buildings and etc. On leaflefts and on the radio the wars end is announced and people are told to remain calm and to continue with their daily lives. The Germans have until the 11th to pull of out cities and military instalations and to remain at designated areas to be disarmed. On the 9th through the 11th. About 13 000 Norwegian «Police troops» arrive from the north and from Sweden, they along with 30 000 allied troops take complete control over the country. British General Andrew Throne will take control until the 7 of June when the Norwegian cabinet along with the royal family returns. By october all allied units, including the Red Army who fought to liberate Finnmark at the end of last year withdraw.
350000, are you sure.
@@Freedomfred939Roughly, different numbers depending on who you ask.
@@Freedomfred939 Hitler was convinced that control of Norway was vital to the German war effort and that he had to garrison the country. An idea that the Allies encouraged by creating a mock 4th British Army in Scotland that was supposed to invade Norway. Operation Fortitude North.
@@Freedomfred939 I have seen numbers from 225 000 to 350 000 used. Anyway rather a lot for a country of 3.5 million.
On May 11, 1945, Norwegian SS leader Jonas Lie was found dead, after anti-Nazi Norwegian troops and police broke into his office. Other Norwegian Nazis surrendered. Whether Lie committed suicide or died of a heart attack (he had long had a heart condition) has never been clarified. The more famous Vidkun Quisling was arrested.
Ah, Leonard Wing mentioned. I went to high school in Vermont with his great-grandson, who currently teaches English now at our old high school.
13:40 those ships are under the command of the best named commander of WW2: captain Manley Power
Seymour cox would like a word….
Captain Hyman Shocker fought in The Pacific.
@@IliketheBears Manley Powers was also at the Battle of Cape Matapan (or, as the Italians called it, "Fiume Fiera Infer...GLUG!")
That brings to mind not one but two different ancient Romans who bore the surname Manlius...Marcus Manlius Capitolinus and Titus Manlius Imperiosus Turquatus. Marcus Manlius was a hero during the Gallic siege of Rome, famed for his "extreme courage," who supposedly had 23 scars from battle on his body. Titus Manlius defeated a large Gallic army at the battle of the Anio River. Before the start of that battle a huge Gaul champion stepped forward and challenged the Romans to single combat, which Manlius accepted, and the two then fought a duel before both assembled armies. Despite being a much smaller man Manlius was more agile, dodged his opponent's strikes, and then killed the Gallic champion with strikes to the groin and abdomen. His agnomen Turquatus was bestowed because after killing the enemy champion he stripped him of a torc he was wearing, and put it around his own neck as a trophy.
George Patton eat your heart out
Anybody else want these phone calls to end with Indy saying "I love you too"
I liked the "North by Northwest" parody thumbnail.
Thanks for watching!
Alfred Hitchcock mad Indy Niedel
"DON RICKLES" honed his insult skills while rapidly pulling the Barrel Clip off the 20 MM Oerlikon & Reloading aboard a Liberty Ship in the forward area supplying PT Boats.
Really wow no idea he was a ww2 combat veteran.
It's a very bad sign when you can find more about the fate of surrendering units on a show called 'war against humanity'
I know, judge a book by its cover, but I can't help but feel like appearing as a topic on a show called 'war against humanity' ends badly.
As soon as I heard that my immediate thought was “yea they’re all gonna get executed”
Yeah, if I had been a German and the British demanded I surrender to the Yugoslavs instead, I'd just keep fighting. The point of surrendering is agreeing to cease fighting in return for fair treatment. If they're going to kill me anyway, the whole point of surrendering goes out of the window.
another of Churchill's decisions that in hindsight was very unwise
@@ericcarlson3746hindsight ? Churchill has already set off a civil war in Greece because he doesn’t trust communists , is in the middle of loosing Poland to the Soviet Empire because Stalin will not let go of the place and has never trusted a communist ever. He thinks communist are a threat to all that is good. I find it highly unlikely that Churchill expected any German troops or their collaborators captured by the soviets to be treated well.
A part of this time that is absolutely fascinating is the messages between the Japanese ambassador to the USSR and Japanese Government. You feel a bit bad for the guy as he realizes the people at home are delusional and just won't give term's to surrender.
The great Simpsons joke. The J. In Homer J. Simpson stands for Jay
Ante Pavelič: "Fight until the last man" while running like a coward
Sounds almost like Fieldmarshall Ferdinand 'Hang 'm High' Schörner.
@@ChaptermasterPedroKantor-kv5yw "Fight to the last men! No surrender to the Red Army. Oh, and we're still hanging deserters."
5 minutes later...
"Hit the gas, driver. I've got a flight to catch to Austria before the Ruskies get here."
sounds like the German Gauleiters in Konigsberg and Breslau. Or Hitler himself
The Italian journalist Curzio Malaparte later wrote of interviewing him during the war and added that Pavelic opened a soup tureen containing what looked like oysters but were in fact human eyes. "A gift from my loyal Ustasha," Pavelic said.
@@stevekaczynski3793Serbian eyes no less
When Indy started talking about the 32nd army, I wasn't looking at the screen and thought he said "30 second army" and that sounds like the worst unit to join
Like in Blackadder joining a squadron called the “20 minuters” without realising its life expectancy not mission length
It means the soldiers of the entire army are ready to form up and fight within 30 seconds notice at any time. Twice as good as Minutemen.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the British XXX Corps wasn't as spicy as it sounds (or rather looks in writing).
@@tripsaplenty1227 Wait! You mean minutemen weren't called that due to being really small? (JK)
It should be noted that Okinawa was the training area for Japanese Army Artillery.
Which meant that almost every square meter referenced an existing aiming stake.
Cool to see a quote from Ian Toll. His Pacific trilogy is great!
03.15 "...and what happened to them, you can find out in our War Against Humanity series." Nothing good is going to come after that statement.
Nothing good ever comes after surrendering to Moscow, ask the Circassians.
"You can find out what happened to the prisoners in the War against humanity series" (somewhat of a spoiler)
Sparty always gets to have all the fun, regaling us with all the fun and nice things people do for each other.
@@ChaptermasterPedroKantor-kv5yw "There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs."
@@ahorsewithnoname773 True!
Despite having her forward elevator blown 400 feet into the air, Enterprise would only see 14 dead and 71 wounded. Unlike Bunker Hill or Franklin, she was winding down flight operations. Because her Air Group primarily operated at night, no avgas were used, and the only ammunition was for her anti-aircraft guns. All fires were under control in less than half an hour and out in an hour. It would take another 24 hours to have flooding from broken pipes and hull breaches pumped out from her forward compartments. During this time, her gunners shot down 4 more Kamikazes.
She was the ship that refused to be sunk. She survived everything the Japanese would throw at her. Everything but the Pentagon scrapping her in 1956. One of the biggest acts of shame in military history.
It’s this strike though that seals the Big E’s fate. There’s some thought that had Enterprise not been away for repairs that she would have been the ship Japan surrendered on. Had she been the surrender ship, the Grey Ghost very likely would have been preserved.
It's possible, but Missouri is very photogenic. I would imagine one of the ships sunk at Pearl Harbor before Enterprise. And remember, Saratoga was just as historic and she was used as a bomb target. But yes, it would have been cool to visit her in New York harbor.
Great detail as always and that explains the system that resulted in so much PTSD for US veterans.
Thank you Indy and team :).
Not sure if this will be covered, but hope you do a short series on the Nuremberg Trials given how crucial those proceedings were following the war and alot of the myths that have developed on those. May be most appropriate for the War Against Humanity series.
I'd be surprised If they skipped over that, also Operation Paperclip would be cool.
I love how the photo for this week is based on the famous scene from North by Northwest
Nice homage.
Yep, it was James, our editorial lead who came up with the idea and Mikolaj our graphic designer who made it! Thanks for watching.
huh, that crop duster is dusting where there ain't no crops
@@pnutz_2 Thank you, Tom Servo.
@@WalterReimer I wish I had more likes to give you are a man of distinguished taste
My Dad fought in north Africa, Italy, France and Germany as a combat engineer. I’m sure he was happy with getting to come home without worrying about being in for the duration.
Love Saturdays. Thanks so much for all your hard work.
Greeting from burma 🇲🇲
I just finished all and now im here to get in touch with the schedule
I have been watching since ibfound this channel a year ago :D
Great to hear you've caught up!
Hope to see you day one at Korea: www.youtube.com/@KoreanWarbyIndyNeidell
I wonder when the map is going to be updated.
Presumably when we move in to a new batch of weeks being filmed. As to when that is.... who knows
1947
Physical maps cost lots of money. You’re stuck with it for the rest of 1945.
@@Southsideindy That is understandable
@@Southsideindy If you ever wanted to just update it with tippex or postit notes and marker pens (whatever is period appropriate and reversible?), I would be all for that! Just a nice big X over Germany maybe :p
Wow. That contained more stuff I didn't know already than almost the whole series combined. Thank you! (Yes, I exaggerated, but only a little bit)
That Zero in the thumbnail was on the vector North by Northwest.
I noticed they used the red chair to hide the Great Lakes placement error.
A late date to reprint and paste up a new map wall.
My uncle told a story of two navy planes chasing a kamikaze over the fleet. All three were shot down. Desperate times.
When the USS Bunker Hill was attacked by Kamikaze pilots on 11 May 1945, my grandfather was there. He was a 23 year old PO1 and anti-aircraft gunner on the USS Wilkes-Barre (CL 103), one of three cleveland class cruisers in the Bunker Hill's retinue alongside Astoria (CL 90) and Passadena (CL 65). When rescue and evac operations were underway, the Wilkes-Barre wedged her bow into the Bunker Hill to help stop her from listing too far over while her crew put out the fires and bilged the water they'd taken on. The US Navy website details this in the service history of Wilkes-Barre as well.
Pasadena, Wilkes-Barre, and Astoria would form up around the Carriers and often hit each other with friendly flak. During one attack, the Astoria's chaplain climbed the mast to take photographs (the chaplain did not have a battle station). The Astoria took flak from Wilkes-Barre's 5" guns and the chaplain was seriously injured and removed to a hospital ship. The captain of the Astoria was furious and put out an order that "Sightseeing would no longer be tolerated ".
That's doing it the hard way!
Glad to see the sinking of Haguro get mentioned, a textbook destroyer attack and a welcome bit of revenge for the Royal Navy.
On the subject of Kamikazes vs Admirals, something worth mentioning is that onboard the USS New Mexico when she was hit were some visiting British officers, including Admiral Fraser commander of the nearby British Fleet who was nearly caught in the blast, though his secretary and army Lieutenant General Lumsden were killed, along with the ships Captain.
Thank you for the lesson.
The "Spruance Does North-by-Northwest" art thumbnail cracks me up!
Hearing Indy describe the US military point system (which I was aware of but had never heard broken down in detail), makes me genuinely feel sorry for the military S1 people (Personnel) for the first time in my life.
Can you imagine having 84 points?
@@exeggcutertimur6091 In all honesty, it was a really bad answer to a bad problem. I can't think of anything to lower a combat unit's morale more than say, "Hey, a bunch of arbitrary points rules say this guy gets to go home but you have to stay and go to a MUCH WORSE battlefield sometime in the long future!"
my father was a medic on Okinawa...never wanted to talk about it....
My Grandpa joined the US air force when he was 18 in 1945 but because of training time was never actually deployed and was then dismissed and sent home when the war ended but he still received a medal for his technical service in the war. He later rejoined the air force and fought in the Korean War.
Unfortunately, "Saint Pau's balls" will not be ringing in the Pacific.
Eighteen year old soldiers might be held back, not so sailors or marines... My father lied about his age, and joined the US Navy while still only 15 years old. He lied and told them he was 16 turning 17, and they found out, and the Navy initially held him back as a Navy Corpsman from combat, he was sent instead to learn how to be an anesthesia technician. But, Iwo Jima and Okinawa changed that when units experienced 270% casualty rates among corpsman serving with the Marines, and replacements were needed. My dad's happy existence in his home town of LA, going home every weekend to Altadena on the PE electric trains from the Long Beach Naval Hospital (now the VA) came to a sudden end in early May 1945, when he was ordered to combat corpsman training at Camp Pendleton. Upon graduation, they all went on weekend liberty, and all of his class got their combat corpsman tattoo's, with the red cross and anchor, with their names on their lower arms... I learned, when in my service at the Quartermaster school at Fort Lee VA, in a barracks shared with guys going to "graves registration" training, why they all did that... It was so my grandmother would not have to wait a year to collect my father's GI insurance, as the GR guys told me that limbs tended to "survive" explosionis, and the tattoo and name could identify his body.... My grandmother loved Harry Truman and the atomic bomb... Both of her sons and her son in law (and all of my other future uncle's) all came back home....
Tldr you're a dummy
Great Video Indy!!👍👍
My grandfather's unit surrendered to Tito forces. He managed to escape to Austria though, was released from American captivity in Austria, went home to the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany and was arrested by the Soviets in the special camp of Buchenwald until 1948.
Love the North By Northwest inspired thumbnail. Someone sure's a Hitchcock fan :D
That admiral must have looked up something, worst mistake of his life.
I did the battle tour on Oki when I was there. Those tunnels and defenses the Japanese had were incredibly well prepared and dug deep. Training there was brutal enough, but could not imagine how hellish that battle was.
18 May 1945.
Corporal James Smith of the 1st Marine Division is taking part in several embittered struggles with the Japanese on Okinawa in the past couple weeks, including action in places like Hill 60 & Wana Ridge.
Fascinating to learn a bit more about the War in the Philipines
great video. sad to see WW2 come to an end, wait no its a good thing, you know what I mean.
Thanks, I understand what you mean. We aren't going anywhere though, we will continue to release episodes for this channel in the form of specials and more.
Indy will also begin covering the Korean War soon!
- Jake
With the Bunker Hill, I think it was Mitcher, but someone ordered a sharp turn, which caused much of the fuel burring on the flight deck to slough off into the sea. That decision was later credited with significantly helping damage control. I find it memorable because I think it is one of the crazier things you could have seen, and does a good job of illustrating how off the rails things were in those years.
You sent me to b2w episode where you said "casus Bella" . Lol. It's casus belli
The points system bit is interesting... My Dad was drafted in January 1941 for one year. In December 1941 Pearl Harbor was attacked so he was in the army for the duration. After marrying my Mom in April 1942, he was off to first North Africa and then Italy for the remainder of the war. As you can imagine, in May 1945 he was ready to return to the US from Italy. However, under the points system mentioned here, he didn't have enough points to return to the US immediately. He was told however that if he agreed to join the Army Reserves, then he would have enough points to return quickly to the US. Well, they had just wrapped up a large war, so no one expected another anytime soon. So, he agreed to join the reserves and was discharged in July 1945. Unfortunately, he was still in the reserves when the Korean War started so he was called up for that.
This series is so good.
Thanks for watching!
U-234 was a long range transport submarine on it's way to Japan. After the 2 Japanese passengers committed suicide it surfaced and surrendered to the Americans on May 14. Among it's cargo was a crated up Me-262 and 1200 pounds of Uranium destined for Japan's nuclear weapons program.
There is no definitive evidence on what happened to the Uranium but historians believe it was mixed with the Uranium we had and then used in the first two bombs. In other words, we kept the jet but sent the Uranium on to Japan!
I reckon the US already had plenty of uranium to build those bombs. An atomic bomb was not something you whipped out on the fly in 1945. Also fat man, the one dropped on Nagasaki, used plutonium.
@@ChaptermasterPedroKantor-kv5yw And the third that would have been dropped in about 10 days had the war not ended was also plutonium.
I have heard some people say the British were lucky they were not hit with their own torpedoes, since some many torpedoes were in the water going in some many different directions. The IJN Haguro was basically surrounded by British Destroyers.
I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
Love the North By Northwest reference in the thumbnail
Colonel Hiromachi Yahara, mentioned at 6:47 (as well as in a previous episode or two), was sharp as a tack and was the senior staff officer largely responsible for planning the formidable Japanese defense of Okinawa. American intelligence reports on him described him as "the brains of the 32nd army."
In contrast Lt. General Isamu Cho, who he often fueded with, was an ultranationalist fanatic who was unimaginitative and unreasonably aggressive with his strategic planning, as is often the case with ideologues. Yahara on the other hand had spent time in the U.S. before the war at Ft. Moultrie in South Carolina as well as other places like Washington D.C., and similar to General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who commanded the Japanese defense of Iwo Jima, understood U.S. military capabilities and viewed an aggressive posture at this stage as foolish and banzai attacks as suicidal.
What makes Yahara interesting however is that he is the most senior Japanese officer to survive the battle, surrendering to the Americans at battle's end. In the postwar he penned The Battle for Okinawa, a book about his experiences as a staff officer during the battle. It's well worth a read for WW2 history geeks and it gives something of a unique perspective, since usually senior Japanese officers in the various island battles in the Pacific either end up killed in action or dying by suicide.
Thanks! Will do! I really enjoyed reading *Japanese Destroyer Captain* by Tameichi Hara; insights from senior surviving operational officers of teh IJN and IJA are rare.
@@MM22966 I've seen that recommended in the comment section before, and have been meaning to get around to that. It definitely sounds like a fascinating read.
If I'm not mistaken, wasn't he also the only IJN destroyer captain to have held that rank from the beginning of the war, to survive to the end?
@@ahorsewithnoname773 Yeah. Only surviving destroyer captain of the IJN. Fought in a lot of the big battles around Guadalcanal. A noted torpedo expert. He was Captain of a light cruiser (Yahagi) that was sunk during the death ride of Battleship Yamato in 1945, and he went into the water right next to the big girl as she turned turtle and sank.
"Custody". Technically they were in custody, so that was correct. Technically correct is the best kind of correct.
Japan: You violated our Treaty by surrendering.
Germany: We have no troops left and the enemy occupies all of our territory.
Japan: Your point?
great timing thanks indy and crew
Thank you for your great support!
-Timeghost Ambassador
Thanks for watching!
The irony of Japan trusting the honour of the Russian state. No honour amongst thieves I suppose.
The opening sketch about 18 year old soldiers reminds me of the famous "quinta del biberón" (feeding bottle draft) in Spain, which was a generation of soldiers conscripted at age 16 in 1938 due to the manpower needs of the Spanish Civil War, and they were kept in service for the next 6 years (until 1944), due to the strategic situation with WW2 being at Spain's doorstep. The term was coined because when they were first called into service, one of the parents protested claiming that they were too young, "so young that some could be still be taking milk from a feeding bottle".
Soldiers with only a few points had to stay in the army for another reason. *Someone* had to process all the paper work to discharge millions of men. That's how my dad went from being a highly skilled ground crewman (stateside base) repairing the electromechanical systems on B-29 remote controlled turrets to the mundane life of a clerk-typist.
Thanks!
Thank you so much for the superchat!
Thanks for covering those after surrender battles, there is one more ciming up next week i heard, because there is still fighting ad odzak.
The discussion about when the Soviets would enter the Pacific war is important, and often gets left out of talk about the development of the atomic bomb. By this week the writing was on the wall that relations between the superpowers were going to get messy in Europe, and I can only imagine planners back in Washington thinking "We can't let that happen in Asia." If only...
SPOILER
Sometime in September 1945, a US Army captain and a Red Army major will be photographed meeting near a place in Korea called Kaesong, at the 38th Parallel. A younger Red Army soldier is with them in the photo, presumably acting as interpreter.
I have a small book that shows Naha city after the battle for it. Almost nothing was left standing. It was a large city before the war.
Japan on hearing that Germany is out: Hey!
Allies (particularly USA) *cracking knuckles*
OMG, at around 12:15 we can see footage of USS Alaska that was commissioned only some months before the battle. An interesting ship in its own right.
Even as the Mediterranean-European Theater of Operations came to an end, there was still small-scale fighting. As German troops and her remaining Axis Allies continue a desperate dash from the East to the West, fighting as they do. Whilst in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations, the Japanese realizing they are now all alone, will continue to fight to the end. They will continue to fight in Borneo, Thailand, China, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Okinawa despite their forces being overextended and low on supplies. The noose on the Japanese is getting tighter. But the Allies on the other hand, weary of the ferocity of the Japanese, are looking for another way to possibly end the war. Will the Allied secret weapon be ready or will they have to invade the Japanese homeland? I sincerely do not know. All I know is many more people will perish. Godspeed.
Truman needed a miillion 18-19 year olds for the invasion of the home islands. This might have focussed his attention even more on the atomic bomb project.
Japan: Hey USSR, you’re not gonna break that non-aggression pact right?
USSR:…
Japan: Right?
I can picture the meme.
It was more of "Hey Stalin, how about you Soviets brokering a peace plan with the US and GB for us?" What do you mean Stalin won't see us? Hey we haven't attacked Soviet territory in years, and it was only that one time, anyway we really need this favor.
@@PeteOtton "in any case, I'm sure the Red Army is not capable of launching a large scale combined arms operation into occupied Manchuria, so at least we still have those force safe and sound" *mops collective brow*
@@wh8787 By combined arms, I assume you mean for the Soviet navy to play a pivotal role :)
@@PeteOtton no but absolutely massive airborne drops into Japanese held territory (including I believe directly into Japanese bases), plus soviet riverine forces, so ... Almost?
Hirohito was a war criminal, through and through.
That thumbnail! Well done, gentlemen👍
Thanks for watching!
RN sinking Haguro in nighttime destroyers torpedo attack was such I AM MASTER NOW moment...
Wheels within wheels within wheels - I missed hearing that Indyism
My paternal uncle who had enlisted January 1942, landed in North Africa and fought in Italy until surrender told of then being sent home for leave and then on to reporting to an Army base near Walla Walla, Washington for training for the Invasion of Japan.
The returning combat vets from Europe got word of the restructure of the draft and of Army training, grumbling turned into rioting.
My uncle was taking a smoke break under the deck of the base commander's office veranda and overhead the General ordering the Colonel of the base MP's to put down the mutiny by shooting the mutineers.
The Colonel responded. "Sir, before the War I was an elected county sheriff. Someday this war will end and I will not be the one answering to all the mothers and fathers and grand parents and uncles and aunts, all of them voting American citizens, as to how I gunned down their kin. I will put down this trouble."
The Colonel took two thompsons with him, walked into the middle of the base and fired into the air.
"All right boys you made your point. Stop now or I will have to clap you into irons."
That summer dozens of Army bases saw riots by the returning overseas combat veterans.
This must have been a factor in the decision to use the superbomb upon Japan.
That and the mounting casualty counts in the Pacific, especially Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
3:27 “and what happens to them you can find out on our war against humanity series” 😢
Will you guys be doing anything on after the war? In particular on soldiers returning home for all nations allied and axis
Saving G.I. lives is the usual reason given for dropping nukes
One might suggest avoiding a G.I. mutiny may also be a valid reason
The scope of this project boggles my mind. One of these days I'm going to go back and watch from Week 1 (because I didn't come in until much later) but it's almost impossible to face as a member of the freakin *audience*; I can only imagine how daunting it must have been to create.
Big fan of the thumbnail
Pretty sure you can get an entire special compilation episode of Inde going "aha aher"
Thank you.
Ty Denys. You are a true patriot.
My, now over the Rainbow Bridge, neighbor was a vet of Europe, a combat engineer in 3rd Army. He said he fully expected to be redeployed for an invasion of Japan.
Goodness, I miss Bud.
I thought only household pets were associated with the rainbow bridge...its a human thing now too?
Fair enough.
@@snickle1980 Just trying not to be too stark, I guess.
With regards to the Ipo Dam battle, it's Angat River, not Argat.
Another awesome video
I had naively assumed that when the surrender documents were signed everyone in Europe would stop fighting. It was news to me that this did not happen. How desperate those German troops in the Balkans must have been, to try to fight their way to get through one army in order to surrender to another. And then, having succeeded, to be turned back. I know they had to know about what their armies had done in the Soviet Union, but this just illustrates once again how there is nothing fair about war.
04:41 Who's the big guy in the background? Was he Germany's starting center on the men's basketball team for the '36 Olympics?
Were there any specific allied plans to make amphibious invasion on the Korean peninsula instead of the Japanese home islands? That would have basically caught off all of the Japanese forces in China and Indochina from their homelands and would have given the Western allies a great staging area for their future political dramas against the communists post-war. If there were such plans drafted but had to be scuttled, what was the discouraging factors? I always wondered what would have been like of the Incheon landings transpired during the Second World War and not the Korean War. (Well, succeseful Incheon landing would have invalidated the whole idea of a Korean war to begin with)
Largely because the Korean peninsula is kinda not conductive towards landings
Inchon would never have worked in 1945. Kamikaze would have torn the invading fleet to shreds. Japanese resistance would have pinned the troops very near the landing beaches.
Inchon only worked in 1950 because almost all of the North Korean forces were at the Pusan perimeter.
The submarines and Operation Starvation had already cut off the Home Islands without need for ground forces.
Korea was something of an afterthought at the time, ironic, in view of developments five years later. Churchill later said that he had never even heard of the "bloody place" until he was over 70.
@@p.strobus7569 While it was crippling, it would have taken until midwinter of 45-46 before its deadliness was really seen with probable mass starvation and freezing due to lack of fuel. Subs had taken to shelling Japanese fishing vessels for lack of other targets.
Japan: OK let's bring the kamikaze well see what they do
Admirals: well see hold this thought
My first cousin fought in the paratroopers from 1942, but sure as hell did not get to go home. Instead, he was the first enlisted man to jump onto Corregidor on the 14th of February, 1945. He lived through THAT, too.... and finally made it home in one piece.
That was a mother of a jump. You had a choice of rocks, cliff, Japanese fighting positions, or a postage-stamp golf course as a DZ.
@@MM22966 - Plus the pointed, sharp, fragmented tree stumps awaiting you when landing. And then there was the wind. My cousin was lucky in jumping first. I believe some of the last guys were blown into the sea.
@@fredrichenning1367 Yeah, aircraft off-set and high winds always lands people in the trees, or the water in this case. At least the Navy had boats standing by.
21:42 After the explanation of the points system, I don't think this statement is hyperbole. I'm not sure how you would design a worse system, administratively, than that.
I love how the Japanese command keeps talking about how negotiation is an option they really should think about pursuing… at some time… in a possible future… maybe. But hey, have you heard about the latest plan to kill our recruits in such a horrific way that the US will stop attacking? Yeah, that’ll totally work and then they’ll come crawling to us and we can dictate terms. The willing self-delusion of the shogunate was clinical last year, now it’s just rabies.
What's happening in Norway? What happened to the German troops already in Austria? I thought they were still fighting the Russians.....
In Norway the Germans layed down their arms and surrendered when the surrender was signed. By this time Prague was taken and the Germans surrendered.
Surprised it hasnt been mentioned. But anyway. The German commander General Bohme gets the same surrender order on the 7th. The next day the allied delegation flew into the country and Bohme reluctantly accepted the surrender of 350 000 German troops. The same day thousands of armed resistance fighters take control over government buildings and etc. On leaflefts and on the radio the wars end is announced and people are told to remain calm and to continue with their daily lives. The Germans have until the 11th to pull of out cities and military instalations and to remain at designated areas to be disarmed. On the 9th through the 11th. About 13 000 Norwegian «Police troops» arrive from the north and from Sweden, they along with 30 000 allied troops take complete control over the country. British General Andrew Throne will take control until the 7 of June when the Norwegian cabinet along with the royal family returns. By October all allied units, including those from the Red Army who fought to liberate Finnmark at the end of last year, withdraw.
Surprised it hasnt been mentioned. But anyway. The German commander General Bohme gets the same surrender order on the 7th. The next day the allied delegation flew into the country and Bohme reluctantly accepted the surrender of 350 000 German troops. The same day thousands of armed resistance fighters take control over government buildings and etc. On leaflefts and on the radio the wars end is announced and people are told to remain calm and to continue with their daily lives. The Germans have until the 11th to pull of out cities and military instalations and to remain at designated areas to be disarmed. On the 9th through the 11th. About 13 000 Norwegian «Police troops» arrive from the north and from Sweden, they along with 30 000 allied troops take complete control over the country. British General Andrew Throne will take control until the 7 of June when the Norwegian cabinet along with the royal family returns. By October all allied units, including those of the Red Army who fought to liberate Finnmark at the end of last year withdraw.
Surprised it hasnt been mentioned. But anyway. The German commander General Bohme gets the same surrender order on the 7th. The next day the allied delegation flew into the country and Bohme reluctantly accepted the surrender of 350 000 German troops. The same day thousands of armed resistance fighters take control over government buildings and etc. On leaflefts and on the radio the wars end is announced and people are told to remain calm and to continue with their daily lives. The Germans have until the 11th to pull of out cities and military instalations and to remain at designated areas to be disarmed. On the 9th through the 11th. About 13 000 Norwegian «Police troops» arrive from the north and from Sweden, they along with 30 000 allied troops take complete control over the country. British General Andrew Throne will take control until the 7 of June when the Norwegian cabinet along with the royal family returns. By october all allied units, including the Red Army who fought to liberate Finnmark at the end of last year withdraw.
Austria got temporarily divided. The Brits took most of the west and the Soviets the east. Later, under agreement of Austria becoming a neutral buffer, the Soviets withdrew, one of the few places they voluntarily gave up territory they had occupied. German troops captured by the Red Army did not come home until 1955 (if they survived).
My dad said that he became frustrated when, at the end of the hostilities in Europe, a guy in his outfit that had became so scared by shelling that he ran through a screen door and put himself in for a Purple Heart for the slight scratches that resulted from his own folly. This guy was awarded the Purple Heart for this,and got to go home sooner than the rest of the guys in his platoon. Dad said that all of the guys in the platoon hated this guy. Apparently, the guy also wrote his folks a flowery letter about his personal bravery after his hometown local paper received notice that he had been awarded the Purple Heart and his folks wrote him asking what happened. My dad said that the guy was at fault for his own injuries, slight as they were in the first place. It seems that a warning was given that the Germans were seen preparing their artillery pieces to shell them, and everybody else had taken cover in their slit trenches while the would be hero went sneaking into the mess hall to steal some food. Unfortunately for him, a shell landed fairly close and he decided to run for the slit trenches without bothering to open the screen door to the outside first and just busted through it, giving him some very slight scratches. He became very unpopular for this and many other charming personality traits, but I was reminded of the story when you described the point system, as my father had talked about it.
Their platoon was fortunate to get rid of him regardless of his lies to the people at home. I am sure he was a risk for the people who might have depended on him.