If you're ever in Chicago, its worth your time and money to visit the Museum of Science and Industry. They have a whole U-Boat on display, and the story about how it was captured, floated from the coast of Africa to Chicago, set up for display and then restored and moved to a better indoor exhibit hall is quite a tale. The fact that they also do tours onboard is just icing on the cake. Can't recommend it enough.
I started taking a marine engineering program when I finished high-school. The chief engineer would always say "they don't remember all the engines you repair they only remember the 1 (or 10) you blow up"
Michael Gannon wrote 2 great books on this, "Black May" and "Operation Drumbeat". Both can usually be found in most larger library systems and are very good reads. Also recommend Simon Parker's "A game of birds and wolves" about how the anti-sub tactics were developed. They were so good, i ended up buying copies for my library.
have Operation Drumbeat on my desk rite now. Think I got this book when I was a high schooler and man I was so eager to read this book as a young naval enthusiast. It took nearly a month for this book to be shipped from USA to Korea and I still remember checking shipping progress every single day when I got home from school 😂😂
The submarine warfare didn't bring the US into the war because Pearl Harbor beat them to it. But it did bring Brazil and Mexico into the war. Germans didn't learn the lesson from WW1 that U-boat warfare tends to annoy neutral countries.
@@melindacadarette3447 yea fair... but they'd still get proper miffed at the thought of losing a ship. So much so that if they weren't at war already they'd write a rather long letter and not even include an apology. In war they probably committed a war crime or two x.x
Almost on the date of the release of this video..... I was actually visiting U-995 at the German Naval Memorial close to Keil. Fascinating place to go if your passing btw. So as someone with a deal of interest in this subject, the view being expressed here is very simplified but a good layman introduction Anyway just a few points missed/incorrect- Germany had fewer submarines in 1939 than the Italians The interwar treaties did eventually have Submarine limits on size and tonnage from 1930 up to the colapse of the naval treaties in 1935. The 50 US lend lease Destroyers were old WWI vessels and required refits to make them suitable for ASW work The RN loaned modern corvettes to the USN/Coastguard when the US entered in 1941....until they could build enough DE vessels and Admiral King got his ass into gear and was forced into using a British style convoy system off the East coast. Finally .......Simon and his team fail to mention the importance of the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU) mostly staffed by Women, who trained escort commanders in the tactics of how to sink Uboats in the Battle of the Atlantic and working out new German methods of attack - and you can go to the Western Approaches museum in Liverpool to see that story along with the details of the whole Battle of the Atlantic. On equipment... whilst Type VII boats were modern in 1939 they were becoming rapidly obsolete towards 1944 because they were essentially too small for the job they were being asked to undertake in the Atlantic. They carried too few supplies and not enough fuel (, they even built submarine tankers as a sticking plaster for this very problem); the larger Type IX were much better at working in the far side Atlantic were made in very low numbers and many were used as cargo transportation for rare materials that Germany obtained from Japan. As for casualties, that huge list of names of the men who never cam home at wars end, who''s grave is an unknown patch of sea floor, are not firgotten entirely - they are on the wall of Uboat memorial for both wars is also at Leboe, near Kiel. Thank you for reading this SC
My great grandfather was a merchant seaman during the second world War. He said he saw other ships sink due to german uboats. I couldn't imagine fearing that the enemy could be just underneath you.
Last month, I went with family to a local science museum. While I was in there, 8 was shocked find that they had a U-Boat on display. With that I was shocked that they had an anchor. I thought they just were always moving if they weren't in port.
U should do a video on U-402 and its captain. U-402 was able to sink dozen ships between late 1942 and mid 1943 all against heavily escorted convoys! The exploit of this specific boat is astounding
I went to a state Maritime academy for university in America, and the battle of the Atlantic is still seared into our identify. The federal merchant marine academy at kings point is the only service academy that sent cadets into combat zones aboard the merchantmen, and they lost 142 of their cadets as a result. Every day they have a ceremony where they turn the pages of the book of their fallen shipmates Because of this, they are the only military academy in the United States that has a unit battle flag
Lindybeige, a fellow youtuber, mentions it in his Battle for the Atlantic video. Churchill really believed that the "uboat menace" could send Britain out of the war!
My great-grandfather was too young to enlist in the army in WWII, so instead he joined up as a merchant mariner (still having to lie about his age to be able to do so). He did not know how to swim, and yet had two separate ships shot out from under him. To his dying day, he never forgave the British navy, who was responsible for both if his ships when they were sunk. He claimed to have lost his hearing in the English Channel during one of those sinkings and when my sister went to study abroad in England, he told her to look for it for him. She said she looked, but never found it.
Uh, Whistle Boy? The treaty of Versailles absolutely forbid Germany from the acquisition or maintenance of submarines. They were not allowed to keep any of the submarines they had already built. That's kind of a big part of the restrictions placed on germany in the treaty. No submarines, no planes, and no tanks. They acquired all three anyway, but for Germany, all three were strictly forbidden.
As a convicted felon I'm forbidden from owning firearms 😂. Some abscure law demands I pay payroll taxes which I have ignored for 30 years. Health insurance, car insurance and pissing in public are all law's that I pay no mind! A law, treaty is a suggestion.
I got to walk through a WW2 USA submarine (It is a floating museum in San Francisco) It struck me how confined those brave men were (even officer quarters) I cant even imagine being in one for days or longer
I love watching new informative episodes with this guy. He actually makes history and historical events come to life. Always look forward to new episodes, keep them coming sir.
My cousin was stationed on the USS Nautilus. He said those sailors on the U boats had balls of steel for what they had to engage in. I know he was right but those merchant seamen had no weapons and they went anyway. I look upon those men as true heroes who didn't get enough credit for what they did.
Although Simon mentioned Convoy SC-5 as being from Nova Scotia, since it was from Sydney, Cape Breton (SC) it should have been mentioned. In fact, because most of the slow conveys left from Sydney, these were the convoys that had the most dangerous trips. The Royal Canadian Navy base that coordinated SC convoys was HMCS Protector. Other convoys such as, Sydney-Port aux Basque (SPAB) in Newfoundland, and Sydney-Greenland (SG). It was an SPAB convoy that the greatest loss of life during the war in Canadian patrolled waters occurred. The marine ferry S.S. Caribou was sunk in the early morning on 14 October 1942. 137 people died, of those 57 were military personnel; 49 civilians including some children; and 31 out of 46 crew members. This attack can be considered also part of the Battle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Anyway good video, just wish Sydney was correctly identified as both it and Halifax are part of Nova Scotia.
Request for future warographics episode, the German 12th Army and Walther Wenck not obeying orders, and instead going on a rescue mission, even asking his men for one more effort, "not about Berlin, not about the Reich", on a mission to save as many lives as possible
The Kriegsmarine punched well above its weight class for the limited resources given. Very much like the IJN in the Pacific, their biggest enemy was the ever evolving Allies tactics and technologies. Had the Axis been able to keep up in the tech arms race, the outcome may be completely different.
Not really. The Axis didn't have nearly enough resources to feed themselves, let alone win the war. Japan invaded Manchuria and China to get those resources and Germany went east to try to take the oil fields in the Caucasus region.
Winston Churchill actually said, he was more anxious about the battle of the Atlantic than he was about the battle of Britain 🇬🇧 Goes to show how dicey the situation was!
Without meaning to disparage the sacrifice of the merchant navy (and my grandfather was in the merchant navy), saying that the merchant navy had the highest death rate of the Second World War with 27% dying isn't true. Of the airmen of Bomber Command, 45% were killed, 6% seriously wounded, 8% Prisoners of War, and only 41% survived with lesser injuries or unscathed.
For any travelers who are interested there are two existing U-Boats that you can go through. The first is in Germany in a small town outside Kiel. I went there myself. It’s a fun side trip. The other is in Chicago in the states. My mother went to both and loved it. Her first husband was a navy flyer who was on U-Boat patrol in the Atlantic and she read everything she could find on the Battle of the Atlantic
You might do a video on how many U-boats Germany could have started the war with if it hadn't devoted so many resources to building the _Bismarck, Graf Spree_ and others.
The Treaty of Versailles ABSOLUTELY banned Germany having U Boats! They had sunk many allied ships during WWI and there was a concerted effort to remove a key German weapon of war. The treaty limited Germany's standing army to just 100,000 men, banned them having an airforce and allowed them 6 battleships only. Given that Kaiser Wilhelm II made it a point of pride to rival the British navy just before WWI it was an exceedingly bitter term in the treaty for the Germans to accept.
My grandmother's first husband was a merchant marine, he was killed when his ship was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Alabama. I never knew the Germans got so close to our waters.
4:11 the problem is the person in charge of Britian at the time was Winston "the bulldog" Churchill who's "never surrender" speech really basically said to Nazis Germany "Give us hell then! We aren't surrendering u bastard!"
B-29s were not used in the battle of the Atlantic, your visual might give the wrong impression. The US and Britain used B-24's and B-17s to a lesser extent.
Had Hitler focused more resources on building large numbers of Uboats rather than huge battleships like the Bismarck and Tirpitz that served no actual strategic purpose then the war would have been much more difficult for the Allies. Same for tanks, rather than building less than two thousand Tigers they could have made thousands more Panzer IV’s and Stugs.
That’s a simplistic and reductionist take. With what oil would they run those thousands of tanks? And would the British not notice the Germans only building u boats and do nothing?
Dönitz implored Hitler that at the onset of the war, he would need 300 U-boats to "bring England to her knees." This is based, on part, that there would be a minimum of 100 U-boats operational at any given time. As noted, the Germans had a total of 65 submarines.
If Germany hadn’t built the Bismarck they could have doubled their Tiger tank production. What would be a better use of resources? Yes there would still be problems with fuel production but actually making wise decisions with the resources you have is important.
The value and development of Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) and Electronic Counter-Countermeasures (ECCM) are best exemplified by the Naval Regime in the 1930s and 1940s. The vast distances allowed time for those tactics to be viable. TODAY, those tactics must be employed at the speed-of-light.
Video recommendation the extremely boring but important naval mine warfare. You've covered it a few times like ruso-japanese but not as a category unless I missed it
Admiral "Jelly" Doenitz was lucky to have escaped with his life at the end of the war. Admiral Nimitz testified that the Americans had used the same tactics against the Japanese. Jelly was, after all, Hitler's successor...
Something I find starkly interesting about the 3rd reich is the general consensus that they steamrolled in the beginning because they were willing to try new ideas, tactics, ect (Definitely could make some arguments against that but nonetheless “general opinion”). From what I can see, yes they did try some more pioneer type concepts/ideas yet they never adapted or opted to continue their so called “ingenuity” after 39/40. In their campaigns you can clearly see that Hitler and high command did not foresee the need to change or adapt further than their September polish campaign and the blitz of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. They rather just kept using what worked, similar to Japan especially considering their “Banzai Charges” that basically played into the strength of every nation they fought against, minus the Chinese but only the later from a lack of machine guns.
1:31: ⚔ The Battle of the Atlantic was Hitler's campaign to cut off Britain's supplies and force a peace treaty. 4:00: 🚢 During the early years of World War II, German U-boats posed a significant threat to Allied convoys, as the Royal Navy lacked effective means to detect and counter them. 8:00: 🚢 The German U-boats were able to form packs and coordinate hunting tactics, leading to devastating attacks on Allied convoys during the first Happy Time of 1940. 11:13: ⚔ The Battle of the Atlantic between German U-boats and Allied forces intensified in 1941, but the Allies gained the upper hand with the help of radar, code-breaking, and increased armament on merchant ships. 14:42: 💥 During the battle of the Atlantic, German submarines took advantage of America's disorganization and sank numerous ships, causing devastating losses for the Allies. 18:21: ✨ The Battle of the Atlantic turned in favor of the Allies due to advancements in technology and increased resources. 22:53: 💥 The Battle of the Atlantic resulted in devastating losses for both the Allies and the Germans, but the Allies ultimately won and it marked the collapse of Nazi Germany. Recap by Tammy AI
🎵To their own shore came the world war Gleaves and the Ingham leading the Bury west In their own track Came the Wolfpack Gleaves led the convoy into the hornet’s nest Under fire, under water May ‘42 when Bury did fail the test To their own shore came the world war Gleaves and the Ingham leading them into death🎵 - Sabaton, “Wolfpack”
@warographics One important part of this battle that you missed that would be worth a video itself is the contribution of the Western Approaches Tactical Unit.
Love these videos, but there does seem to be a small mistake at time 3:00: Treaty of Versailles "NAVAL CLAUSES. ARTICLE 181. After the expiration of a period of two months from the coming into force of the present Treaty the German naval forces in commission must not exceed: 6 battleships of the Deutschland or Lothringen type, 6 light cruisers, 12 destroyers, 12 torpedo boats, or an equal number of ships constructed to replace them as provided in Article l90. No submarines are to be included. All other warships, except where there is provision to the contrary in the present Treaty, must be placed in reserve or devoted to commercial purposes."
The British learned a hard lesson with the first happy times , the us admiral in charge of the navy was not a fan of the brits and refused to listen to there advice on the uboat menace, unfortunately they learned the hard way .
Popular alarm at the sinkings was dealt with by a combination of secrecy and misleading propaganda. The US Navy confidently announced that many of the U-boats "never enjoy the return portion of their voyage" but that unfortunately, details of the sunken U-boats could not be made public lest the information aid the enemy. All citizens who had witnessed the sinking of U-boat were ask to help keep the secrets safe.
The anti-war hangover from World War I was pervasive in the American public, and even among the elected representatives to Congress. That is why the United States did not modernize the Navy. Sending ships that would not make a port of call in England was part of King Roosevelt II Strategy to bolster support for the war. Even after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, there was not as much support for the war as the king wanted, as Hawaii was not yet a part of the United States other than being a territory. And a small distant territory at that.
The Germans may have invented the Wolfpack, but the US improved it. The US Sub fleet utterly DESTROYED Japan's merchant fleet. They were to a point they were using wooden sanpans to carry cargo. They did to Japan what the Germans could not do to England.
I had 2 family members serve in the baby in WW2 and one was in the mediterranean theatre and to my knowledge was sunk by the U boats but survived the war
Doenitz wanted to buid at least 300 U Boats before the war but this didn't happen. I always wondered what would have happened had the Kriegsmarine focused on the UBootwaffe
Uboats have always amazed me. I know their destruction but at the same time the German had great minds building great equipment. Thank God Hitler was defeated.
Worth noting, the Allied invasion of Iceland was them fully just taking over a neutral country so it could be used as a military waystation. *FAR* from the worst of the many crimes of this war, far, even, from the worst of the crimes perpetrated by the Allies in WWII, but...still not okay
@@justonecornetto80 Yes, but it's still invading a neutral third party and assuming control over their territory. I'm even willing to concede that the occupation was about as mild as military occupation gets and the construction of infrastructure to be used in the war was a long term boon to Iceland after Allied forces withdrew and returned Iceland's independence. Expedience and humane treatment of civilians doesn't make invading neutral countries okay. It just makes it less traumatic for the population who are being invaded and occupied. Excusing it is like trying to say murder is ok if the murderer decided it's helpful to them to kill that specific person and they did it with a clean shot to the heart or head that means they don't suffer rather than
@@rashkavar WW2 wasn`t ok. The British didn`t want it but Germany did and unlike the British, Germany was prepared for it. The British were still playing catch up in May 1940 and were forced into a number of desperate measures just to stay in the war. Only a month after the occupation of Iceland, Churchill ordered the Royal Navy to attack the French fleet at Mers el-Kebir to prevent it from being seized by the Germans. It`s still a source of tension between the UK and France to this day but it had to be done or the likelihood is that the Royal Navy would have been forced out of the Mediterranean ending any possibility of driving the Axis out of North Africa. I view Iceland as being a casualty of war but unfortunately, its occupation was a necessary evil and probably saved Iceland from the same fate that befell Norway and Denmark. While declared neutrality should be respected, the scope of WW2 made that impossible from the British strategic perspective. I say blame Hitler for starting the war.
It's hardly the first error in this script but the treaty of versailles banned germany from the construction or aquisition of submarines. this is an error so fundamental that you need to start again using history and facts.
you know if plan z (building a large surface fleet) was never a thing then Germany would've had a much larger uboat fleet at the outbreak of the war. Though they probably wouldn't have been able to conquer norway and gain safe access to important raw materials from Sweden
Indeed. The standing order was do not stop. That’s just makes your ship a sitting duck. Some captains did defy this order and pick up survivors but most didn’t.
Hitler liked the Brits more on racial grounds that practical or political ones. He considered them “good Aryans” like the Germans and as such they should work togeather. Hitler was a fanatic on race far more than anything else.
Your facts are wrong. The Versailles treaty specifically forbade Germany from possessing tanks, planes or submarines. Most German submarines before the war were constructed secretly in other countries.
German empire nevagation forces attempted same naval operational by submarine groups against British Island without success during WW1... when Nazism regime repeated the same tactics during WW2, he gained the same result. Submarines as conventional weapons in separate, isolated weapons as past designed without carrying atomic warheads and radiators) proved its failures for disruption of the superiority of global dominate naval fleets... even if it has a remarkable role through fleet offensive or defensive operator but not lonely
Hitler lost the war the day he declared war on the USA. Between that and Operation Barbarossa Germany doomed itself to a two [three including Italy] front war attrition that it had no realistic hope of winning--even with the US fighting Japan in the Pacific at the same time.
That is correct to the extent that the US Navy was engaging U-boats from mid 1940 prior to the attack on Pearl harbor. Anti-war sentiment in the US was dominant until that event. But anti-German/NAZI sentiment was also increasing.@@BasementEngineer
To their own shore Came the World War Gleaves and Ingham leading the Bury west In their own track Came the wolfpack Gleaves led the convoy into the hornet's nest
You should make a video about radar. One of the most important war innovations since gunpowder.
And SONAR too. Parallel developments in RADAR and SONAR in the US and the UK during WW II should appeal to Simon.
Jamming radar is also super cool. The jets have evolved so much over the years with their capabilities.
If you're ever in Chicago, its worth your time and money to visit the Museum of Science and Industry. They have a whole U-Boat on display, and the story about how it was captured, floated from the coast of Africa to Chicago, set up for display and then restored and moved to a better indoor exhibit hall is quite a tale. The fact that they also do tours onboard is just icing on the cake. Can't recommend it enough.
Fat Electrician does a great video on the story of the capture.
1:20 - Chapter 1 - Conception & fleet
5:05 - Chapter 2 - The 1st happy time
10:15 - Chapter 3 - Contested waters
14:50 - Chapter 4 - American shooting season
19:20 - Chapter 5 - War weary sailors
My great grandfather sunk 10 U-boats by himself. The kreigsmarine said he was the worst mechanic they ever had!
Number 1 comment
I started taking a marine engineering program when I finished high-school. The chief engineer would always say "they don't remember all the engines you repair they only remember the 1 (or 10) you blow up"
Michael Gannon wrote 2 great books on this, "Black May" and "Operation Drumbeat". Both can usually be found in most larger library systems and are very good reads. Also recommend Simon Parker's "A game of birds and wolves" about how the anti-sub tactics were developed. They were so good, i ended up buying copies for my library.
have Operation Drumbeat on my desk rite now. Think I got this book when I was a high schooler and man I was so eager to read this book as a young naval enthusiast. It took nearly a month for this book to be shipped from USA to Korea and I still remember checking shipping progress every single day when I got home from school 😂😂
I bet ya have it... but if ya don't, Clay Blair's two volume U-Boat War is one hellofa read.
@@boomhaueroo8703 will check it out, thx
The submarine warfare didn't bring the US into the war because Pearl Harbor beat them to it. But it did bring Brazil and Mexico into the war. Germans didn't learn the lesson from WW1 that U-boat warfare tends to annoy neutral countries.
Germany: Haha! Take take Britain! Enjoy not having food!
Brazil, Mexico, Canada and the US: My guy did... DID YOU JUST BLOW UP MY FUCKING BOAT?!?!
@@punksoab To be fair Canada was already in the war since the beginning...
@@melindacadarette3447 yea fair... but they'd still get proper miffed at the thought of losing a ship. So much so that if they weren't at war already they'd write a rather long letter and not even include an apology. In war they probably committed a war crime or two x.x
Seriously you mention Mexico 😅. WTF could Mexico do. Grow tomatoes and drown the seas? Mexico was, a joke then! Hell the are a joke now
American pressure also helped
Almost on the date of the release of this video..... I was actually visiting U-995 at the German Naval Memorial close to Keil. Fascinating place to go if your passing btw.
So as someone with a deal of interest in this subject, the view being expressed here is very simplified but a good layman introduction
Anyway just a few points missed/incorrect-
Germany had fewer submarines in 1939 than the Italians
The interwar treaties did eventually have Submarine limits on size and tonnage from 1930 up to the colapse of the naval treaties in 1935.
The 50 US lend lease Destroyers were old WWI vessels and required refits to make them suitable for ASW work
The RN loaned modern corvettes to the USN/Coastguard when the US entered in 1941....until they could build enough DE vessels and Admiral King got his ass into gear and was forced into using a British style convoy system off the East coast.
Finally .......Simon and his team fail to mention the importance of the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU) mostly staffed by Women, who trained escort commanders in the tactics of how to sink Uboats in the Battle of the Atlantic and working out new German methods of attack - and you can go to the Western Approaches museum in Liverpool to see that story along with the details of the whole Battle of the Atlantic.
On equipment... whilst Type VII boats were modern in 1939 they were becoming rapidly obsolete towards 1944 because they were essentially too small for the job they were being asked to undertake in the Atlantic. They carried too few supplies and not enough fuel (, they even built submarine tankers as a sticking plaster for this very problem); the larger Type IX were much better at working in the far side Atlantic were made in very low numbers and many were used as cargo transportation for rare materials that Germany obtained from Japan.
As for casualties, that huge list of names of the men who never cam home at wars end, who''s grave is an unknown patch of sea floor, are not firgotten entirely - they are on the wall of Uboat memorial for both wars is also at Leboe, near Kiel.
Thank you for reading this SC
My great grandfather was a merchant seaman during the second world War. He said he saw other ships sink due to german uboats. I couldn't imagine fearing that the enemy could be just underneath you.
Last month, I went with family to a local science museum. While I was in there, 8 was shocked find that they had a U-Boat on display. With that I was shocked that they had an anchor. I thought they just were always moving if they weren't in port.
My great-grandfather was in the US merchant marine. I always felt a connection with the Battle of the Atlantic.
Would be interesting to see a video about the Sinking of the Lancastria and it's cover up
You should do a video on the Monitor vs the Virginia during the US Civil war
U should do a video on U-402 and its captain. U-402 was able to sink dozen ships between late 1942 and mid 1943 all against heavily escorted convoys! The exploit of this specific boat is astounding
I went to a state Maritime academy for university in America, and the battle of the Atlantic is still seared into our identify.
The federal merchant marine academy at kings point is the only service academy that sent cadets into combat zones aboard the merchantmen, and they lost 142 of their cadets as a result. Every day they have a ceremony where they turn the pages of the book of their fallen shipmates
Because of this, they are the only military academy in the United States that has a unit battle flag
i remember hearing somewhere that Churchill was more anxious and distressed about the Battle of the Atlantic than the Battle of Britain.
Lindybeige, a fellow youtuber, mentions it in his Battle for the Atlantic video.
Churchill really believed that the "uboat menace" could send Britain out of the war!
@@FLAMEZ4110He wasn't wrong. Britain could outproduce aircraft and win in the skies. But you can't just outproduce submarines.
Fun fact: there wasnt any battle of britain.
My great-grandfather was too young to enlist in the army in WWII, so instead he joined up as a merchant mariner (still having to lie about his age to be able to do so). He did not know how to swim, and yet had two separate ships shot out from under him. To his dying day, he never forgave the British navy, who was responsible for both if his ships when they were sunk. He claimed to have lost his hearing in the English Channel during one of those sinkings and when my sister went to study abroad in England, he told her to look for it for him. She said she looked, but never found it.
Uh, Whistle Boy? The treaty of Versailles absolutely forbid Germany from the acquisition or maintenance of submarines. They were not allowed to keep any of the submarines they had already built. That's kind of a big part of the restrictions placed on germany in the treaty. No submarines, no planes, and no tanks. They acquired all three anyway, but for Germany, all three were strictly forbidden.
As a convicted felon I'm forbidden from owning firearms 😂. Some abscure law demands I pay payroll taxes which I have ignored for 30 years. Health insurance, car insurance and pissing in public are all law's that I pay no mind! A law, treaty is a suggestion.
@@mike-sk2liidiot. Driving around uninsured. You're a menace. As to healthcare, it should be "free", or more accurately, paid for by taxes.
@@mike-sk2liyou sound like an absolute choad
@@mike-sk2liyou sound charming...
Treaties are just on paper if you can’t enforce it. Punishment clauses need to be in place to deliver consequences
War is such a waste. It's the lesson we have to keep learning again and again.
Thanks
Yoooo
I got to walk through a WW2 USA submarine (It is a floating museum in San Francisco) It struck me how confined those brave men were (even officer quarters) I cant even imagine being in one for days or longer
One toilet between the whole crew is enough for me to say no thanks
@@kremepye3613imagine if you have explosive diarrhea lol
Clive Cussler Wolf Pack.
And the soviet u boot in hamburg Germany.
San Francisco sound sales good 🏳️🌈
Was it literally in San Francisco, or was it on Alameda?
I love watching new informative episodes with this guy. He actually makes history and historical events come to life. Always look forward to new episodes, keep them coming sir.
My cousin was stationed on the USS Nautilus. He said those sailors on the U boats had balls of steel for what they had to engage in. I know he was right but those merchant seamen had no weapons and they went anyway. I look upon those men as true heroes who didn't get enough credit for what they did.
Although Simon mentioned Convoy SC-5 as being from Nova Scotia, since it was from Sydney, Cape Breton (SC) it should have been mentioned. In fact, because most of the slow conveys left from Sydney, these were the convoys that had the most dangerous trips. The Royal Canadian Navy base that coordinated SC convoys was HMCS Protector. Other convoys such as, Sydney-Port aux Basque (SPAB) in Newfoundland, and Sydney-Greenland (SG). It was an SPAB convoy that the greatest loss of life during the war in Canadian patrolled waters occurred. The marine ferry S.S. Caribou was sunk in the early morning on 14 October 1942. 137 people died, of those 57 were military personnel; 49 civilians including some children; and 31 out of 46 crew members. This attack can be considered also part of the Battle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Anyway good video, just wish Sydney was correctly identified as both it and Halifax are part of Nova Scotia.
Request for future warographics episode, the German 12th Army and Walther Wenck not obeying orders, and instead going on a rescue mission, even asking his men for one more effort, "not about Berlin, not about the Reich", on a mission to save as many lives as possible
The Kriegsmarine punched well above its weight class for the limited resources given. Very much like the IJN in the Pacific, their biggest enemy was the ever evolving Allies tactics and technologies. Had the Axis been able to keep up in the tech arms race, the outcome may be completely different.
Not really. The Axis didn't have nearly enough resources to feed themselves, let alone win the war. Japan invaded Manchuria and China to get those resources and Germany went east to try to take the oil fields in the Caucasus region.
most experts agree that the axis had no chance of winning WW2 against 3 superpowers.
NO CHANCE
It would be very nice if there was a video from this channel regarding the 9 years of war in Yemen.
Winston Churchill actually said, he was more anxious about the battle of the Atlantic than he was about the battle of Britain 🇬🇧
Goes to show how dicey the situation was!
Suggestion: The Navajo Code/Wind Talkers.
love this channel
I don't remember hearing about the Elektroboot before, I've got some reading to do. Thank you!
I truly do love listening to any content that is about the slow dismantling the Wehrmacht went through
Can't forget the contributions of Mr. Limpet too
Without meaning to disparage the sacrifice of the merchant navy (and my grandfather was in the merchant navy), saying that the merchant navy had the highest death rate of the Second World War with 27% dying isn't true. Of the airmen of Bomber Command, 45% were killed, 6% seriously wounded, 8% Prisoners of War, and only 41% survived with lesser injuries or unscathed.
For any travelers who are interested there are two existing U-Boats that you can go through. The first is in Germany in a small town outside Kiel. I went there myself. It’s a fun side trip. The other is in Chicago in the states. My mother went to both and loved it. Her first husband was a navy flyer who was on U-Boat patrol in the Atlantic and she read everything she could find on the Battle of the Atlantic
Hey Fact boy, are we getting anymore biographics or geographics videos? Please say yes those are my fav
We used to play arcade stealth game Depth Charge, us as the Navy vs the U boats. Damage report!
Nope. Or at least not with Simon. So I unsubscribed.
Your videos are incredible! Do agincourt!🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
You might do a video on how many U-boats Germany could have started the war with if it hadn't devoted so many resources to building the _Bismarck, Graf Spree_ and others.
How does attacking at night reduce sonar???
Love you take on geopolitics
The Treaty of Versailles ABSOLUTELY banned Germany having U Boats! They had sunk many allied ships during WWI and there was a concerted effort to remove a key German weapon of war. The treaty limited Germany's standing army to just 100,000 men, banned them having an airforce and allowed them 6 battleships only. Given that Kaiser Wilhelm II made it a point of pride to rival the British navy just before WWI it was an exceedingly bitter term in the treaty for the Germans to accept.
The treaty of versailles did ban submarines along with tanks and an airforce
My grandmother's first husband was a merchant marine, he was killed when his ship was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Alabama. I never knew the Germans got so close to our waters.
4:11 the problem is the person in charge of Britian at the time was Winston "the bulldog" Churchill who's "never surrender" speech really basically said to Nazis Germany "Give us hell then! We aren't surrendering u bastard!"
That's because he has Canada and Australia in his back pocket, and the USA in the wings aiding and abetting his war mongering.
B-29s were not used in the battle of the Atlantic, your visual might give the wrong impression. The US and Britain used B-24's and B-17s to a lesser extent.
Had Hitler focused more resources on building large numbers of Uboats rather than huge battleships like the Bismarck and Tirpitz that served no actual strategic purpose then the war would have been much more difficult for the Allies. Same for tanks, rather than building less than two thousand Tigers they could have made thousands more Panzer IV’s and Stugs.
Oil would be a massive problem nevertheless. If you replace 1 Tiger for 5 Panzer IVs that is more manpower and resources
That’s a simplistic and reductionist take. With what oil would they run those thousands of tanks? And would the British not notice the Germans only building u boats and do nothing?
@@Jack958 The video aply demostrates how the Germans were able to build a fleet of U-Boats under British noses and they did nothing.
Dönitz implored Hitler that at the onset of the war, he would need 300 U-boats to "bring England to her knees." This is based, on part, that there would be a minimum of 100 U-boats operational at any given time. As noted, the Germans had a total of 65 submarines.
If Germany hadn’t built the Bismarck they could have doubled their Tiger tank production. What would be a better use of resources? Yes there would still be problems with fuel production but actually making wise decisions with the resources you have is important.
Wow, 10-15 uboats in a wolfpack? How did they not constantly collide with each other?
The Atlantic ocean is massive and convoys were spread out over several miles in length and width
The value and development of Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) and Electronic Counter-Countermeasures (ECCM) are best exemplified by the Naval Regime in the 1930s and 1940s. The vast distances allowed time for those tactics to be viable. TODAY, those tactics must be employed at the speed-of-light.
Video recommendation the extremely boring but important naval mine warfare. You've covered it a few times like ruso-japanese but not as a category unless I missed it
Admiral "Jelly" Doenitz was lucky to have escaped with his life at the end of the war. Admiral Nimitz testified that the Americans had used the same tactics against the Japanese. Jelly was, after all, Hitler's successor...
Something I find starkly interesting about the 3rd reich is the general consensus that they steamrolled in the beginning because they were willing to try new ideas, tactics, ect (Definitely could make some arguments against that but nonetheless “general opinion”). From what I can see, yes they did try some more pioneer type concepts/ideas yet they never adapted or opted to continue their so called “ingenuity” after 39/40. In their campaigns you can clearly see that Hitler and high command did not foresee the need to change or adapt further than their September polish campaign and the blitz of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. They rather just kept using what worked, similar to Japan especially considering their “Banzai Charges” that basically played into the strength of every nation they fought against, minus the Chinese but only the later from a lack of machine guns.
A great sub battle was the Battle of the St Lawrence, where U-boats were able to enter the gulf of the St Lawrence to sink ships
1:31: ⚔ The Battle of the Atlantic was Hitler's campaign to cut off Britain's supplies and force a peace treaty.
4:00: 🚢 During the early years of World War II, German U-boats posed a significant threat to Allied convoys, as the Royal Navy lacked effective means to detect and counter them.
8:00: 🚢 The German U-boats were able to form packs and coordinate hunting tactics, leading to devastating attacks on Allied convoys during the first Happy Time of 1940.
11:13: ⚔ The Battle of the Atlantic between German U-boats and Allied forces intensified in 1941, but the Allies gained the upper hand with the help of radar, code-breaking, and increased armament on merchant ships.
14:42: 💥 During the battle of the Atlantic, German submarines took advantage of America's disorganization and sank numerous ships, causing devastating losses for the Allies.
18:21: ✨ The Battle of the Atlantic turned in favor of the Allies due to advancements in technology and increased resources.
22:53: 💥 The Battle of the Atlantic resulted in devastating losses for both the Allies and the Germans, but the Allies ultimately won and it marked the collapse of Nazi Germany.
Recap by Tammy AI
In Prague this weekend …. Didn’t see Simon or his broken bones …. Disappointed …AM I RIGHT PETER !!!!
Hitler focusing on "one-punch" weaponry and not adaptability was his downfall. Also his hubris about Russia
Or being surrounded by mostly YES men and being kept in the dark - to some extent
@@EAcapuccinoor by telling the not yes men that actually knew what they were doing to fuck off.
The Soviet Union was poised to invade Germany and western Europe. Thank German soldiers for stopping that.
🎵To their own shore came the world war
Gleaves and the Ingham leading the Bury west
In their own track
Came the Wolfpack
Gleaves led the convoy into the hornet’s nest
Under fire, under water
May ‘42 when Bury did fail the test
To their own shore came the world war
Gleaves and the Ingham leading them into death🎵
- Sabaton, “Wolfpack”
@warographics One important part of this battle that you missed that would be worth a video itself is the contribution of the Western Approaches Tactical Unit.
Love these videos, but there does seem to be a small mistake at time 3:00:
Treaty of Versailles
"NAVAL CLAUSES.
ARTICLE 181.
After the expiration of a period of two months from the coming into force of the present Treaty the German naval forces in commission must not exceed:
6 battleships of the Deutschland or Lothringen type, 6 light cruisers, 12 destroyers, 12 torpedo boats,
or an equal number of ships constructed to replace them as provided in Article l90.
No submarines are to be included.
All other warships, except where there is provision to the contrary in the present Treaty, must be placed in reserve or devoted to commercial purposes."
it was the u boats that helped the Allies break the Enigma Codes thanks to the captured machine and settings from a stricken U-boat
In your dreams! Owning an Enigma machine does not enable you to decode a message encoded by such a machine.
A bunch of seamen taking part in "happy times" with their tubular objects? Sounds like a sticky situation indeed...
I'm diggin the Wu-Tang stache ngl 14:40 😂
Thanks for the great videos, but are you sure about the range of 15700 kms for the 7c?
The British learned a hard lesson with the first happy times , the us admiral in charge of the navy was not a fan of the brits and refused to listen to there advice on the uboat menace, unfortunately they learned the hard way .
Popular alarm at the sinkings was dealt with by a combination of secrecy and misleading propaganda. The US Navy confidently announced that many of the U-boats "never enjoy the return portion of their voyage" but that unfortunately, details of the sunken U-boats could not be made public lest the information aid the enemy. All citizens who had witnessed the sinking of U-boat were ask to help keep the secrets safe.
The anti-war hangover from World War I was pervasive in the American public, and even among the elected representatives to Congress. That is why the United States did not modernize the Navy. Sending ships that would not make a port of call in England was part of King Roosevelt II Strategy to bolster support for the war. Even after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, there was not as much support for the war as the king wanted, as Hawaii was not yet a part of the United States other than being a territory. And a small distant territory at that.
The Germans may have invented the Wolfpack, but the US improved it. The US Sub fleet utterly DESTROYED Japan's merchant fleet. They were to a point they were using wooden sanpans to carry cargo. They did to Japan what the Germans could not do to England.
You should do a history of submarine
I had 2 family members serve in the baby in WW2 and one was in the mediterranean theatre and to my knowledge was sunk by the U boats but survived the war
Since this Idea got no traction on your other channel Megaprojects, would you be willing to do the IL2 on this channel?
My “Happy Times” last roughly 15 or less so I’d say it was a good run.
Doenitz wanted to buid at least 300 U Boats before the war but this didn't happen. I always wondered what would have happened had the Kriegsmarine focused on the UBootwaffe
Uboats have always amazed me. I know their destruction but at the same time the German had great minds building great equipment. Thank God Hitler was defeated.
Are there any regulations against such tactics in the Gevena Conventions? If only there was a Fact Boy who could answer this.
youll have to be more specific to answer that question
What's a Marchant aircraft carrier? Sounds like a good one for side projects.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_aircraft_carrier
Worth noting, the Allied invasion of Iceland was them fully just taking over a neutral country so it could be used as a military waystation. *FAR* from the worst of the many crimes of this war, far, even, from the worst of the crimes perpetrated by the Allies in WWII, but...still not okay
The invasion of Iceland was more about denying it to Germany and closing the GIUK gap.
@@justonecornetto80 Yes, but it's still invading a neutral third party and assuming control over their territory. I'm even willing to concede that the occupation was about as mild as military occupation gets and the construction of infrastructure to be used in the war was a long term boon to Iceland after Allied forces withdrew and returned Iceland's independence.
Expedience and humane treatment of civilians doesn't make invading neutral countries okay. It just makes it less traumatic for the population who are being invaded and occupied.
Excusing it is like trying to say murder is ok if the murderer decided it's helpful to them to kill that specific person and they did it with a clean shot to the heart or head that means they don't suffer rather than
@@rashkavar WW2 wasn`t ok. The British didn`t want it but Germany did and unlike the British, Germany was prepared for it.
The British were still playing catch up in May 1940 and were forced into a number of desperate measures just to stay in the war. Only a month after the occupation of Iceland, Churchill ordered the Royal Navy to attack the French fleet at Mers el-Kebir to prevent it from being seized by the Germans. It`s still a source of tension between the UK and France to this day but it had to be done or the likelihood is that the Royal Navy would have been forced out of the Mediterranean ending any possibility of driving the Axis out of North Africa.
I view Iceland as being a casualty of war but unfortunately, its occupation was a necessary evil and probably saved Iceland from the same fate that befell Norway and Denmark.
While declared neutrality should be respected, the scope of WW2 made that impossible from the British strategic perspective. I say blame Hitler for starting the war.
Iceland cooperated with the invasion
Not an invasion when asked to
I'm begging for a Simon Whistler "What if the British Empire had sided with Nazi Germany?" video.
The Americans would be speaking British if that happened
Lol
27% casualty rate is not the highest of all military branches during the war I'm afraid. Bomber command lost 49%!
Have you done the US submarines in the Pacific? That's a good story
It's hardly the first error in this script but the treaty of versailles banned germany from the construction or aquisition of submarines. this is an error so fundamental that you need to start again using history and facts.
22:10 - Mega/Side projects on those unfinished Submarines?
The greatest anti tank ditch - the English channel
you know if plan z (building a large surface fleet) was never a thing then Germany would've had a much larger uboat fleet at the outbreak of the war. Though they probably wouldn't have been able to conquer norway and gain safe access to important raw materials from Sweden
To the best of my knowledge, merchant sailors whose ship was sunk just died because no other merchant ship or escort would stop to pick up survivors.
Indeed. The standing order was do not stop. That’s just makes your ship a sitting duck. Some captains did defy this order and pick up survivors but most didn’t.
RUclips gave me this notification an hour ago wtf
My great Grandfather served on U-75 during the happy Times .
U-75 sank though
@@AverageWagie2024yes but that doesnt change that fact.
Need some nice map/location images
In ww1, the UK blockaded Germsny and nearby forced it into starvation. Guess Hitler thought he was returning the favor.
What a concidence today is 23 year anniversary of the Kursk Submarine sunk 😂😂
Hitler liked the Brits more on racial grounds that practical or political ones. He considered them “good Aryans” like the Germans and as such they should work togeather. Hitler was a fanatic on race far more than anything else.
Its called DURNITZ not Darnitz
Your facts are wrong. The Versailles treaty specifically forbade Germany from possessing tanks, planes or submarines. Most German submarines before the war were constructed secretly in other countries.
Had England on the ropes
not really
If sufficient time was had for the type XX submarine the tide may have favored the Germans
no
German empire nevagation forces attempted same naval operational by submarine groups against British Island without success during WW1... when Nazism regime repeated the same tactics during WW2, he gained the same result. Submarines as conventional weapons in separate, isolated weapons as past designed without carrying atomic warheads and radiators) proved its failures for disruption of the superiority of global dominate naval fleets... even if it has a remarkable role through fleet offensive or defensive operator but not lonely
that turn naval ace how do you become a naval ace anyway
19:56 through 20:17 made no sense to me? Bombers targeted bombers? And North Africa waters? I’m lost or really stupid
Hitler lost the war the day he declared war on the USA. Between that and Operation Barbarossa Germany doomed itself to a two [three including Italy] front war attrition that it had no realistic hope of winning--even with the US fighting Japan in the Pacific at the same time.
The USA had declared defacto war on Germany at the same time France and Britain did.
That is correct to the extent that the US Navy was engaging U-boats from mid 1940 prior to the attack on Pearl harbor. Anti-war sentiment in the US was dominant until that event. But anti-German/NAZI sentiment was also increasing.@@BasementEngineer
@@jonthrelkeld2910yes, especially after the sinking of USS Reuben James by Erich Topps U-552
Did the britts not have any submarines of them self at first?
The UK had a lot of subs but the UK dominated the surface with the largest fleet in the world
To their own shore
Came the World War
Gleaves and Ingham leading the Bury west
In their own track
Came the wolfpack
Gleaves led the convoy into the hornet's nest
Its DÖnitz, not DOnetz
At this point in time it would've been considered his majesty when referring to the UK due to having king George in charge