It's a bad week to be an Axis leader. They’re being sacked, going down with illness, or even being blown up. Starting World War Two sure is bad for your health, huh?
A side note this week on July 16 1944 is that New Zealand Lieutenant-Commander R. B. Goodwin will become the only prisoner of war to make a successful escape from Japanese-occupied Hong Kong. He went over the Sham Shui Po camp wire during the night after dark and swam to the mainland China, travelling overland to Kunming. He would eventually arrive back in New Zealand in November 1944.
I don't know why, but with the 20th July Plot going off this week I've suddenly realized just how little time there is left in the series and the coverage of the war in Europe. It is crazy to think when I began watching this series I had only been out of highschool for a few months - and when it finishes next year I'll be a few months away from graduating from law school. It not only puts into perspective just how incessantly long and catastrophic the War was, but also how dedicated the TimeGhost team is to creating this incredible resource for us all to learn from. Thank you for the continued exceptional work.
And while I wouldn't want to make any particular member of the TimeGhost team feel old - I of course spent all four years of highschool (2014-2018) watching chronological coverage of a different war.
An early congratulations on getting through Law School, you're on the final stretch! I started with TGW in high school as well, it's been quite a journey... We're thankful for your dedicated viewing over the years 🙂 -Will
Thanks for sharing your personal history with regards to this channel. I got laid off as a video editor from an advertising agency in September 2018, and subsequently got hooked on the Great War series at that point. I have found a strange comfort (the subject is war after all) in following the Time Ghost productions.
wow, time flies, doesn't it? It's amazing to see how much has happened since you started watching the series. The war was indeed a long and catastrophic period, but the TimeGhost team's dedication is truly commendable. They're creating an incredible resource for us all.
It seems like someone informed Joseph Stalin about what a Roman Triumph is. It is making me think of the way Vercingetorix was marched down the Via Sacra, and Justinian and Belisarius marched Gelimer and his Vandals through Constantinople.
It was a way of signalling that the Germans were being defeated. After the Germans passed, vehicles followed behind them, spraying disinfectant on the road.
Yeah, a mock parade of your imprisoned enemies is a classic tradition of European armies. The main difference with Roman triumphs is that there would also usually be an actual triumphal parade of the victorious military units, with their general leading them as king for a day, though with a slave whispering "remember you are mortal" to them the whole time.
@@browncoat697 After capturing Hessians at Trenton in late 1776, Washington's army paraded them through Philadelphia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessian_(soldier)#/media/File:Die_Hessen,_vom_General_Washington_am_25ten_Dec._1776,_zu_Trenton_%C3%BCberfallen,_werden_als_Kriegsgefangne_in_Philadelphia_eingebracht.jpg Boosting morale on their own side was the major reason. American Rangers captured near Anzio were also paraded through Rome in early 1944.
My father was one of the first Soldiers on Guam. He was a US Army Combat Engineer. He rode a raft into Tumon Bay at night and cleared the beach for the Marines.
There was a recurring story of the War in the Pacific that when the Marines hit a beach there would be signs that the Sea Bees left behind to great them.
@@Ronald98Yeah mines and obstacles I would assume. They would typically send in small stealthy teams to gain intelligence and clear a path prior to a beach landing.
@@jameshudkins2210 Sea Bees? I doubt that.Sea Bees didn't have Combat Engineers that cleared the way for the Infantry. See Bees were construction engineers. They built air strips and roads on the smaller islands. Their equipment was of the smaller variety. It was the Army that left behind little signs greeting the Marines on the beaches.
@@Ronald98in ww2 it was common for armies expecting beach landings to Place anti tank obstacles, large logs pointed upward so landing boats would get hung up on them and often they would attach mines and other pressure sensitive explosives to logs and in the sand They would also pre designate specific portions of beach for artillery so they could maximize accuracy and damage to the enemy
I was really hoping that the weekly episodes would check in with hengyang. This was the longest and best defense of ichigo. It was a case where Chinese troops actually performed well against overwhelming odds. It is also a place where the US focus on Burma hurt the Chinese war effort.
From one joint communist-nazi massacre of poles to another with just the soviets soldiers, secret police and commissars. But at least the war and the front are coming to a close.
Martin Gilbert - - - Sir Martin John Gilbert (1936-2015) all 4 grandparents were born in Lithuania or Poland Nine months after the outbreak of the Second World War, he was evacuated to Canada as part of the British efforts to safeguard children. Vivid memories of the transatlantic crossing from Liverpool to Quebec sparked his curiosity about the war in later years. Fascinating bipgraphy
I saw 8th Guards Army included on the map as part of Rokossovskyi's front. Worth noting that this is the re-named 62nd Army, which held Stalingrad, and Chuikov is still in command there. It would be interesting to see something charting its path through the war.
The plot actually had a profound effect on the continuation of the war. Germans have never been organisationally weaker, in large thanks to poor logistics, but also the plot seems so.
I agree but not in the way you think. The actions of the conspirators are commendable, but they inadvertently made things much, much worse in Germany afterwards. Purges in every sector of society, and more draconian measures/harsher punishments introduced in the military for anything deemed subversive. It all but guaranteed Germany would go down the path of fighting to the bitter end.
18:03 This has got to be one of the most underrated military maneuvers I've ever seen, broke an entire German frontline in three different areas and keeps momentum sharply in Soviet hands throughout the entire offensive, a masterclass in Armoured warfare.
Props to the Red Air Force 2nd Air Army as well. They basically blasted a pathway for the armor to roll through, helped beat back counterattacks (especially involving panzers), and fought of the (albeit not well organized and concentrated) efforts by the Luftwaffe 4th Fleet to stop them.
Worked out better for Stauffenberg - he got to skip the weeks of torture by the Gestapo, humiliating show trial in the People's Court, and particularly brutal hanging designed to strangle the victims slowly with a thin cord. And it failed to help the co-conspirator to avoid any of those things.
@@brucetucker4847 Well, that's one way to look at it. Skipping the torture and show trial does have its advantages. But I guess the co-conspirator didn't have the same luck.
On 22 July 1944, a battalion of the 4th DMM of the French Expeditionary Corps (CEF) in Italy captured the town of Castelfiorentino, 12km south of the Arno river and 25km southwest of Florence. This action was the final feat of the CEF before leaving Italy for the south of France. Since the start of the month, the divisions of the CEF were successively relieved to regroup at Naples in preparation of Operation Dragoon. The 1st DMI and 3rd DIA were relieved on 3 to 4 July by the 2nd DIM and 4th DMM, who were themselves relieved, starting from 20 July, by British, New-Zelander and Indian units. By 23 July, French Divisions were entirely retired from the frontline. The CEF advance in Italy, from Venafro to Castelfiorentino, was nearly 350 kilometers. But it had paid a heavy price in blood. It had lost 6407 killed, 20913 wounded and 4201 missing. The 3rd DIA had lost 1580 killed, including 97 officers, 5980 wounded and 839 missing, giving a total loss figure of 8000 men. The 2nd DIM, first engaged at the beginning of December 1943, had been hit even harder with about 2300 killed, 8000 wounded, not counting 1300 evacuees for frozen feet. In the course of seven and a half months, it had therefore lost a total of nearly 12000 men. The 4th DMM had, since its engagement on the Garigliano in April 1944, about 3500 killed and wounded. Its sole participation in the battle of the Garigliano had cost it 32 officers and 900 men. The Moroccan goums counted 598 killed, 2362 wounded and 8 missing. Finally, the 1st DMI, in line only since May 11 and definitively relieved on June 21, had experienced the following losses in a month and a half: 673 killed, including 49 officers, and 2000 wounded, including 117 officers, so 2673 killed and wounded. But the enemy's losses were even heavier and thousands of prisoners were captured: the 2nd DIM totaled 1618 prisoners, the 3rd DIA had taken 3400 prisoners, including 2650 from the Garigliano offensive to Siena, the 4th DMM had counted more than 2000 prisoners and the 1st DMI, finally, 965 prisoners. Thus ended for the CEF this Italian campaign, a conclusion that General Carpentier, chief of staff of the CEF, evoked in these terms: “In two months, in one single momentum, the CEF had the glory of bearing the French colors in Rome, Siena and on the Arno. Landed eight months earlier in Naples, to general indifference, it left covered with glory, having regained in a masterly fashion the past prestige of the French army.» In his farewell letter to General Juin, General Clark wrote: “It is extremely difficult for me to find the words I would like to express my feelings of sadness and great personal grief at the thought of the departure of the CEF and its very great leader. I lose not only the infinitely precious support of four of the finest divisions that have ever fought, but also the sound and enlightened advices of a friend as sincere as he is good. » General Alexander wrote for his part to the commander of the CEF who was leaving: “I want to express my gratitude and my sorrow to you: my gratitude for the magnificent execution of the task which you carried out on the battlefields, my sorrow at seeing the disappearance of friends and comrades of such distinction... To the bravery of your officers and soldiers I bring my warmest admiration and my deep gratitude for the remarkable results which they have obtained in our great victory over Germany. France can justly be proud of the bravery of its sons of the French Expeditionary Force. Whatever the future holds for you and wherever you may be, I will follow your fortunes with interest and pride: the pride I will always feel in having been your Commander-in-Chief. May God bless you all and luck be with you. » Finally General Juin himself in his farewell order of the day to his troops concluded: “You will remain marked with the victorious sign of the CEF, this magnificent French entity of which I will be proud to have been the host and leader.»
Good to see the non-collaborationist side of France doing work. The real shame was really about this, the surrender thing was blown out of proportion, despite the shortness of the 1940 campaign
While it is true that this small core of French troops fought gallantly, the majority did not. That also does not change the fact that France gave up very early on into WW2 after putting in a worse performance than expected by everyone. That doesn’t negate the rest of French military history, which is long and bloody. There is no need to be hyperbolic in either direction.
Wow, the French Expeditionary Corps (CEF) in Italy went through a lot during their campaign. They covered almost 350 kilometers and suffered heavy casualties, but also captured thousands of prisoners. In the end, they left Italy with glory and regained the prestige of the French army. General Clark and General Alexander expressed their gratitude and sorrow for their departure. General Juin himself was proud to have led the CEF.
I'm not sure if Indy covered the story of Ben L. Salomon on Saipan a couple of weeks ago. EDIT: Yeah, I just checked the video that covered the timeframe of Salomon's actions, and while Indy did mention the bonzai charge, he didn't mention Salomon's heroics. Shame.
And it was the first combat action for Hershel Williams aka “Woody” the last WWII Medal of Honor recipient to pass away, He died in 2022 at age 98, He received it on Iwo Jima which we will see in February 2024; I wanted to mention that because I met him twice and he was such an amazing American.
More info on the major Brody Pocket shown at 19:48. This was the 4th large German pocket battle in the summer of 1944 in the East, or what the Germans call _Kesselschlacht_ (Cauldron Battle). The entire German _XIII. Armeekorps_ of the 4th Panzer Army of Army Group North Ukraine, consisting of 6 divisions, was annihilated, with only remnants managing to break out without heavy weaponry. By German estimates, a total of 40,000 German and Axis personnel were killed and captured. The following units were destroyed: 1. _340. Infanterie-Division._ Fate: officially disbanded on 5 August 1944, remnants used to create a new formation; 2. _349. Infanterie-Division._ Fate: officially disbanded on 5 August 1944, remnants used to create a new formation; 3. _361. Infanterie-Division._ Fate: officially disbanded on 5 August 1944, remnants used to create a new formation; 4. _Korps-Abteilung C_ (division sized unit, similar to infantry division in size and organization). Fate: officially disbanded on 5 August 1944, remnants used to create a new formation; 5. _454. Sicherungs-Division_ (security division). Fate: officially disbanded on 5 August 1944, remnants used to create a new formation; 6. _14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS Galizien_ (made up of Ukrainians from western regions of Ukraine). Fate: remnants withdrawn to the Reich, to the Neuhammer Military Training Area (Truppenübungsplatz Neuhammer), where they were rebuilt with various Galician reserve units that were not encircled in the Brody Pocket. Senior officer losses: 1. General of Infantry Arthur Hauffe, Commander of the XIII Army Corps, Prisoner (died later), 22 July 1944; 2. Major-General Otto Beutler, Commander of the 340th Infantry Division, Killed, 21 July 1944; 3. Major-General Gerhard Lindemann, Commander of the 361st Infantry Division, Prisoner, 22 July 1944; 4. Major-General Johannes Nedtwig, Commander of the 454th Security Division, Prisoner, 22 July 1944; 5. Colonel Hans-Werner von Hammerstein-Gesmold, Chief of Staff of the XIII Army Corps, Killed, 22 July 1944; 6. Obersturmbannführer Paul Herms, commander of the 31st SS Grenadier Regiment of the 14th SS Division, killed, 22 July 1944.
The 14th was mostly West Ukrainian in composition, Herms was presumably part of the German cadre that generally guided SS units consisting of foreigners.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Herms was not just "presumably part of the German cadre that generally guided SS units consisting of foreigners", German senior officers were an organic part of the _Galizien,_ with every single high-ranking post in the division being commanded by the German officers. That includes divisional commander, divisional staff with its departments- Ia or _Führungsabteilung,_ Ic or _Feindaufklärung und Abwehr_ etc. All regimental commanders were also German, among which was Herms. Going down the scale, battalion and below, the commanders were Ukrainian. Even after the Brody disaster, when it came to rebuilding the division at the Neuhammer Military Training Area, around 1,000 German junior and senior officers arrived to the division from various units, to refit the losses of German command personnel.
@@scientiaaclabore3362 Basically the same thing, though the proportion of Germans varied. Generally speaking, East Europeans were more closely supervised than West Europeans and had more German cadre. I knew someone whose father was a German cadre NCO in the SS Wiking division. The division had many Scandinavians, Dutch and even Finns but the guy's father was one of the Germans there to lead them and also keep an eye on them. I also knew someone whose father was a Ukrainian in the Galizien division. He survived the war, avoiding deportation to the USSR by pleading pre-war Polish citizenship, and he emigrated to England.
The major Brody Pocket battle at 19:48 was the 4th large German pocket battle in the summer of 1944. The entire German XIII. Armeekorps of the 4th Panzer Army of Army Group North Ukraine, consisting of 6 divisions, was annihilated. 40,000 German and Axis personnel were killed and captured, and several units were destroyed or disbanded. Senior officers also suffered losses.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Ah, got it! The 14th SS Division was mainly composed of West Ukrainians, and Herms was likely part of the German cadre that provided guidance to SS units made up of foreign volunteers.
15:48 Interesting fact to this quote, according to Robert Citino, Hitler would absolutely vex the traditional German generals by insisting that economic resources be central to war planning. Hitler was infamous for being able to quote how many days of a particular resource the reich had left and that the army couldn't withdraw, it drove the aristocratic, Prussian officer up the wall to listen to Hitler lecture them on economics.
Perhaps not photographic, and it is questionable whether photographic memories even exist, but Hitler did have a retentive memory for material he read and often used this in his to and fro arguments with his generals.
haha, Hitler sure knew how to ruffle some feathers with his focus on economics during war planning. The traditional German generals must have been quite vexed by his lectures.
All week, I've been feeling the gravity of everything that happened this week as I anticipated this episode. Indy and Team didn't disappoint. Thank you all!
So Army Group Center did reach Moscow afterall, just not in the way they were expecting lol Also I find it baffling that in the west that the Germans were still anticipating a landing at Pas de Calais at this point.
Goes to show how good and convincing Allied deception plans had been. And not just for Pas de Calais, Operation Fortitude North would convince the Germans that an Allied invasion of Norway was still in the works. And it worked because the Germans consistently thought that significant numbers of Allied divisions were still being kept in the UK.
haha, Army Group Center had a little detour on their way to Moscow, didn't they? And those Germans in the west, always keeping their hopes up for a surprise landing at Pas de Calais.
@@billybabaganoush5711 yeah, those jingoist field marshals can be quite a handful. Some folks feel they're not allowed to do their job properly because of them.
"Today we’re on a secret mission to get coffee and doughnuts, problem is, the Germans drank all the coffee and ate all the doughnuts, so now we gotta go and kick their asses." - Mike Dixon This week on July 22nd 1944, the following missions in the Call of Duty series will begin: *July 19 1944* Saint-Lô (Call of Duty 3) - As Private Nichols in Saint-Lô, France, you will first complete a quick training before being transported by truck to Saint-Lô, where you will need to capture the town and then fend it off from German counterattack. This is the first level of Call of Duty 3. *July 22 1944* Night Drop (Call of Duty 3) - As Sergeant James Doyle in Toucy, France, you will first need to find the SAS jeeps and find other fellow SAS members such as Major Ingram. You will also need to rescue Marcel and help the Marquis to destroy enemy anti-aircraft guns in the area.
I remember watching the first episode in like 2018. I was in the middle of high school back then. Next year when you guys finally end this show, i'll be completing college😊
I love that this channel is week by week but I have to admit I quite enjoy holding off for a month or two then having a ww2 binge day, its normally one of my best days that month and It lets me rewatch some of the older videos to catch myself up back into it. As always keep up the great work everyone!
2:30 - I don't think people understand how tragic that is. The man tried to kill himself via gunshot to the side of the head, the barrel was too far forward and all he managed to do was shoot through *both* his eye sockets.
The title reminded me that in the Spanish version of Terminator, since "Hasta la vista" is just Spanish for "see you later", they decided to change the language for the [edit: T-800, the T-900 is from the videogame] T-800's catchphrase and they used "Sayonara, baby". As a native Spanish citizen, the title made me think of Hideki Tojo being pursued and killed by Terminator. Something that wouldn't be undeserved😂😂😂
Now I will be "that guy", and say that it was the T-800. The T-900's debut was in the 2003 video game tied to the Rise of the Machines film, and looks more like a skeleton covered in muscles.
Haha, "Sayonara, baby" in the Spanish version of Terminator does have a certain flair! And the thought of Hideki Tojo being pursued by a Terminator is quite the amusing image. 😂😂😂
Following since start of the WWI series though it's taken me couple years to catch up. There is so much to say about this epic wonderful project but one of the things I appreciate are the maps in motion to the movement of the front along with learning so much about the Pacific Island battles which I thought I knew much about but apparently I didn't and I'm thankful for the learning.
@@Official_Kezzie By and large Hitler left Goebbels to make radio addresses, after 1942. Hitler spent much of his time at places like Rastenburg, following the war effort and poring over maps and attending briefings of the situation, which he was doing at the time of the explosion.
@@pocketmarcy6990Let's hope for that. Nobody knows about that actually crucial war and defense from the soviet-implanted communist dynasty in the North of Korea and China against the South.
U-Boat Hunt off Norway and in Arctic Ocean (16-22 July 1944) After the success of Neptune, the naval phase of Overlord, was assured, Churchill proposed to Roosevelt that the Murmansk convoys be resumed to provide all possible supplies for Stalin’s massive summer offensive (Bagration), which began on June 22. Roosevelt agreed readily. This decision raised anew the threat posed by Tirpitz to those convoys. Accordingly, the new commander of Royal Navy Home Fleet, Henry Moore (succeeding Bruce Fraser), drew plans for yet another attack on Tirpitz in mid-July. From Scapa Flow sailed a task force consisting of the battleship HMD Duke of York, three fleet carriers ( HMS Formidable, HMS Furious, and the new HMS Indefatigable), four cruisers, and twelve destroyers. Barracuda aircraft from the carriers twice attempted to hit Tirpitz on July 17, but they were thwarted, first by a smoke screen, then by fog. During these naval actions in July, aircraft RAF Coastal Command’s 18 Group provided support. They knocked out ten more U-boats: four sunk, six forced to abort. These further losses led U-Boat Control to abolish the at-sea section of group Mine and to recall those boats to various ports. In brief: • In the North Sea on July 15, a B-24 Liberator bomber from RAF Coastal Command Squadron 206, piloted by D. W. Thynne, located , bombed with depth charges and sank the Mine Type VIIC41 U-319, commanded by Johannes Clemens, age thirty-three. There were no German survivors. Apparently Clemens shot down the B-24 during this attack. Near that place on July 16, a British launch recovered the body of one crew member of the B-24 from a dinghy. • Off Narvik on July 17, a Catalina flying boat of RAF Coastal Command Squadron 210, piloted by John A. Cruickshank, attacked the Arctic Type VII U-361, commanded by Hans Seidel, age twenty-six. On the first pass, the depth charges failed to release. On the second, the depth charges fell and sank the boat, but the Germans riddled the Catalina with flak. This fire killed the navigator, gravely wounded the command pilot, Cruickshank, who was placed in a bunk, and seriously wounded three other crew, including the copilot, Jack Garnett, who remained at the controls, assisted by a third pilot, S. I. Fiddler, who was flying his first combat mission. As the plane approached its home base, Cruickshank insisted that he be carried forward to assist in the landing. He and Garnett put the damaged plane down on the water and then ran it up on the beach. Thereupon Cruickshank, still at the controls, died of his wounds. For this heroic performance, the British awarded Cruickshank a posthumous Victoria Cross, the second of only two such awards to personnel of Coastal Command in the war. • Off Narvik on July 17, a B-24 Liberator bomber RAF Coastal Command Squadron 86, piloted by Michael George Moseley, bombed with depth charges and sank the newly arrived Arctic VII U-347, commanded by Johann de Buhr, age thirty-two. Although the B-24 was hit by flak, Moseley circled the area for ninety minutes, reporting wreckage and “at least six survivors” in the water. No Germans survived. • Off Narvik in the same area on July 18, a Catalina flying boat of RAF Coastal Command Squadron 210, piloted by Ronald William George Vaughan,bombed and sank the new Arctic boat U-742, commanded by Heinz Schwassmann, age twenty-eight. During this attack, German gunners hit the Catalina with flak, wounding two men and puncturing oil and gasoline tanks, which forced Vaughan to abort and to shut down one engine. He made an emergency landing on friendly waters and beached the aircraft. Vaughan reported “thirty-five to forty” German survivors in the water, but none was ever found. U-Boat Hunt in Channel The U-672, newly fitted with a sschnoerkel and commanded by Ulf Lawaetz, age twenty-seven, sailed from St. Nazaire to the Bay of the Seine on July 6. While approaching the mouth of the English Channel a week later, on July 13, an Allied air craft detected the submerged U-672 and dropped four depth charges. They missed and caused no damage, but the pilots alerted Allied surface forces. Later that after noon, Lawaetz sighted what he took to be an American hunter-killer group comprised of four “destroyers” and “one light cruiser.” He boldly shot a T-5 at the “light cruiser” and another at a “destroyer” but both torpedoes malfunctioned or missed. Upon learning of this action and the U-672s position, Rösing ordered Lawaetz to patrol off the Isle of Wight. The U-672 reached that area on July 18 and lay doggo on the bottom. That same afternoon, RoyalNavy frigate HMS Balfour, commanded by C.D.B. Coventry, detected U-672 and attacked with Hedgehogs. These accurate attacks wrecked and flooded U-672. Lawaetz soon concluded his situation was hopeless, and in the early hours of July 19 he ordered the crew to surface and scuttle. After his men had destroyed all secret papers and the Enigma, and abandoned ship in individual rubber dinghies, Lawaetz and his chief engineer, Georg Käseberg, scuttled and left the ship last. About twelve hours after the sinking, two RAF Spitfires reported sighting the survivors in the water. In response, air-sea rescue launches and PT boats sailed from Dartmouth and picked up all fifty-two men of the crew. The snort (schnoerkel) boat U-212, commanded by Helmut Vogler, also returned from the aborted ammo supply mission to Cherbourg, resailed from Brest to the landing area on July 5 with U-741. When the British “destroyers” attacked the two U-boats and the escorts, the U-212 also avoided destruction. But nothing further was ever heard from Vogler in U-212. It is believed that he reached the Allied landing area on about July 13. According to the Allied reckoning, on July 21 , Royal Navy frigates HMS Curzon and HMS Ekins teamed up to sink U-212 with Hedgehogs and depth charges near Beachy Head on the south coast of England. There were no German survivors. Hitler's U-Boat War Hunted - Clay Blair Jr
I thought it was Fox - I never heard of the South African guy. Whoever it was strafed Rommel's car with 20 mm cannon fire - which rules out American fighters as they mostly used .50 machine-guns - and a cannon shell struck the dashboard and severely wounded Rommel's driver, who crashed the car.
@@stevekaczynski3793 i thinks its always been accepted that it was a commonwealth pilot. Germans reports indicated that the fighter which strafed Rommels car was British.
Fox's claim is the most credible as he was over the area when the attack on Rommel occurred. Le Roux was back on the ground at the time of the attack so could not be him.
For some time now, most of your weeks do not show up on my Google TV 4K Chromecast, where I usually watch RUclips. This one did show up, but 254-253 & 251-245 only show up on my Android phone, but 256, 255 & 252 did show up. Some settings must be wrong in the missing videos. Also most of the D- day series is also missing except for the first hour and the first 5 hour episode. 😢😮
Sadly RUclips no longer cares about their quality creators who put time and effort into their channels. They're too busy trying to become Tik Tok 2.0 and censoring everyone's wrongthink to pay attention to things like running a functional website.
I like how Guderian "suddenly" becomes anti-nazi in his memoirs and never mentions all the stuff with helping to stop the coup or how he accused other generals with defeatism. Turns out Lt. Aldo Raine had a point with nazis taking off their uniforms.
@@davidhoward4715 Nope just pointing out memoirs are untrustworthy and often try to portray the author in the best light possible. Any memoir should be checked against other sources. This is not diverting attention it is what any good historian does.
In William L. Shirer’s book The rise and fall of the third reich I remember reading that Stauffenberg had intended or it had been planned that he would be blown up with Hitler to insure success for the plot. Obviously this didn’t take place but I have often wondered why not? Perhaps it never was part of any plan to do so but if he had done it this way it likely would have been successful and history would have gone a different route. Does anyone know if Shirer’s book (or my memory of it) was mistaken on this?
Since it’s frustratingly difficult to find an even, balanced, overall analysis of Goodwood and Cobra, it’ll be nice to see Indy finally tackle it next week. A good read on the subject is John Buckley’s British Armor in Normandy. There he goes into great detail about british armored units and operations, in particular the many hurdles they had to overcome such as flawed organization, the need to evolve previous tactics, Churchill’s political necessity to have British Commonwealth troops involved in the war without worsening the manpower crisis, and the issues with morale to be expected of men fighting on the frontlines for several years seemingly endlessly.
The failed assassination really shows the value of follow through. When trying to do something so important as assassinating Hitler, you really should have someone going in after the blast to double check. And, preferably, make absolutely sure with their side arm in case of doubt.
@@richardstephens5570 I was more thinking along the lines of "stand just outside the bunker when the bomb goes off, then run back in, as if coming to help, check on Hitler before anyone has got their bearings and finish him if necessary".
@@gustavchambert7072 There was a security cordon of SS around Hitler (in photos you can sometimes see them in the background) and they would have been a major obstacle.
@@stevekaczynski3793 That's why doing it up close and personal would have to be a self-forever-sleep mission. It would be easy enough to sneak a small knife or pistol in to do the job, but no way you're getting back out once it's done.
It was either the way they did it or nothing at all, for there was other people there. Nobody could take the bomb to Hitler, nobody could shoot him afterwards. It has to be anonymous, for the intention was power vacuum, and quickly eliminate key officials. If you do it in person, then they instantly know who to start tracing, which is what happened anyways.
Konev and Bagramian were the MVPs, no doubt. It's unfortunate that such top notch commanders don't get any proper recognition like Zhukov and Rokossovsky, especially Bagramian since his Armenian ethnicity was made it even more of a challenge to rise up the ranks like he did (much like the Pole Rokossovsky).
@@stevekaczynski3793 With the kind of air support the Soviets were now enjoying, the Luftwaffe wouldn't have made much of a difference even if the it was there and properly coordinating with ground forces. I've found multiple instances in John Erickson's The Road to Berlin of Soviet air armies just cramming the skies full of fighters to clear away enemy planes and Sturmoviks to blast a path through defences and counterattacks ahead of armored spearheads. That's not even getting into how the Red Air Force has highly skilled and experienced pilots and top notch aircraft by now (in fact, the Yak-3 will make it's combat debut in these operations and prove itself a force to be reckoned with ).
@@901Sherman Not really. What allowed Soviets to enjoy such air superiority was fact that Luftwaffe was already for years committing most of it's forces fighting Western Allies.
Operation Goodwood and it's aftermath were one of the few things my Grandfather would talk about. He was a Staff Sgt in the 11th Armoured Division, Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers, and his job was to repair or salvage some of the hundreds of Allied tanks lost around Caen. Many were fixed or cannibalised for parts, but many were burnt out wrecks. Only when absolutely drunk did he tell myself and my father his story of using an entrenching tool and a grappling hook to scrape out and remove human remains from burnt out tanks. His overriding memory of Normandy were mosquitoes, lack of sleep, and the smell of death.
The retrieval and disposal of human remains among US forces was the duty of Graves Registration personnel, who seem to have drunk a lot of alcohol to cope with the work. I don't know who would have done work like that among the British and Canadians. I would imagine identifying dead crew members in destroyed tanks was a challenging task and often impossible. Even though British IDs were asbestos and supposed to be fire resistant.
12:26 - Montgomery wearing a British Parachute Regiment smock. And what looks like their emblem on his beret, which may be their maroon one. More often he wore a black Royal Tank Corps beret.
Is it known that the scene in Tom Cruise's movie is accurate or was that creative writing? Did Von Stauffenberg not have time to arm the second bomb? If only...
Astrid mentioned in the last spies and ties episode. Someone opened the door and asked them to hurry up. Stauffenberg got nervous and left with only one bomb
@@stc3145 he had a special wrench created, to be able to arm the pencil fuses for the plastic explosies( having lost his right hand and having only some fingers left on his left hand) the fumbled the first fuse, got disturbed, got scared, and decided to use only the one armed block of plastics.( He being an officer, he had no experience with explosives)so they shoved the second block in the bag of his side, thereby having the force of the bomb. And then you had the stupid coincidence of one staffer playing stauffenbergs bag on the opposite side of the table leg from Hitler.
I live in Lublin. This day Germans started escaping Lublin - many people believed they are not going to fight at all. Local AK (Domestic Army) forces started to attack German forces; those attacks were spontaneous and managed to secure several crucial buildings which occupier forces planned to blow up (including water supply plant and railway station). In the afternoon, general Hjalmar Moser stopped the escapes and quickly mounted an organized defense. Two days earlier, SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Koppe issued the order to "empty prisons", including orders to execute all prisoners who could not be evacuated, especially Jews. Today before noon, about 300 prisoners of Castle of Lublin were executed, the rest was set free by polish guards (they were ordered to open cells at 3 PM, but did it just after Germans evacuated instead). By the way, Operation Tempest goes on. AK forces cooperated with Red Army during siege of Vilnus; all of them were arrested by NKVD afterwards. Tomorrow, Lwów uprising will start to the similar effect en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tempest#In_different_regions_of_Poland
I thought I could ride it out and keep my big mouth shut, but St. Lo comes up so many times in this episode, that I have to correct Indy's pronunciation. It sounds like "low", not loo. San Low. 'Nuff said. Keep up the good work.
@@stevekaczynski3793 early onset Parkinson's or dementia. I wouldn't be shocked because he was in the battlefield. Don't get me wrong, he's an evil guy. But it looks like CTE/Parkinson's/dementia
Lack of control of rage behavior; you go from looking like you are winning a war to getting your butt kicked. The you find out that the guys you are depending on to run the war have been secretly plotting against you.
I would argue a technicality here. Operation Fortitude in a sense succeeded until the end of the war. While they eventually were able convinced that Normandy was the main effort, they believed that the Calais landings were cancelled, not that they were fictional. It basically came down to being convinced that it was better to reinforce a successful landing, which made sense to the Germans as maintaining multiple different supply centers would be difficult given the limits of shipping. This matters because it meant that the Germans kept large numbers of fictional units, essentially all of FUSAG on their OOB tracker until the end of the war. They assumed far more units were in reserve, had elements disbanded for reinforcements, or attached to other formations. It wouldn't have changed much had they figured out the full scale of the deception at some point, but the fact they never really did is a bit amazing.
Almost time for Patton to get tagged in, finally! "So let us do real fighting, boring in and gouging, biting. "Let's take a chance now that we have the ball. Let's forget those fine firm bases in the dreary shell raked spaces, Let's shoot the works and win! Yes, win it all!" A Poem by George S. Patton
Note that the Waffen-SS 2nd and 17th Divisions have reached the front line against the Americans. Prior to this, only the Canadians and I think also the British were encountering significant numbers of Waffen-SS troops in Normandy. The 2nd's arrival at the front was delayed by Resistance attacks, and they took many reprisals.
2nd SS Das Reich Division had a bloody and controversial reputation , it was this division that committed Tulle and Ordaour massacres in Southern France en route to Normandy. And thanks to SAS operation Bullbasket that wiped out their fuel stocks at Rhone Valley and French Resistance activity , they began to arrive to Normandy before US sector at Cotentin neck only on 29th June. Next day US artillery fire killed SS Major Otto Deakmann who was responsible for Ordaour massacre.
Others will know better than me, but I think it is correct to say the US Army faced very, very few Tiger tanks in Normandy, at least until the final days. I don't much like Monty as a man- for example his paratrooper cosplay at 12:34- but he was a better general than he is often given credit for. He knew his army quite well. It was sad the 11th Armoured Division was hit hard in Goodwood: it was probably the best British armoured division but only got a fewe chances to show its mettle.
Love following my GPa, Herbert Schultz and the 2nd Marines/10th Regiment. After Saipan he'd be a Sgt. for the 10th Marine Corp Regiment. 3rd Gen German American who the Army believed looked to German and possibly still had Fam over in Europe, their loss. He was deciding between either College or accepting a Minor league Baseball deal from the Indians or Red Sox when the War started
I remember in my teens meeting an old Brazilian lady whose son flew a P-47 Thunderbolt in Italy. She took great pride in saying that her son "took out a German railroad tunnel and went with it." Apparently they were using the P-47s as fighter-bombers to hit difficult targets in the mountains.
The European War was a yr of bad, the Pacific was 4.5 yrs of hell. Vets of diff theaters couldn't relate. My GPa was always glad the Army said, "You look to German, have a German last name & could still have Fam over there." Despite being a 3rd Gen American who was a Baseball star with Minor League offers & left Cleveland for L.A., joined the 2nd Marines, 10th Regiment shipped out in March '41- came home a Sgt. Oct '45.
In the background are the flags (left to right) of New Zealand, the US, Canada, Poland, the UK, and the Free French. How come the Soviet Union flag has gone. And why the New Zealand flag? If looking at the size of contribution to the war effort, shouldn't the Australian flag be present given their effort in the SW Pacific?
I wonder what if instead of hustilly leaving, Stauffenberg would use the panic to run to Hittler "to help" and just make sure that everything goes smoothly by using his handgun in case of necesity.
One curiosity about the July 20th plot is that Stauffenberg had two cases with explosives, but decided to take only one with him to the conference room because he failed to arm the second. However, historians and specialists all agree that if he had taken the second one aswell, it would've detonated due to the concept of 'solidary explosion' and Hitler wouldnt've survived on that scenario; Also while the FEB reached Italy this week, they would spend their first weeks having a speedy training and receiving proper equipment, and would only move to join with the american troops in August.
@@badofi yeah even if the attempt worked and Hitler was killed, the conspirators' idea for a proposed peace treaty with the Allies and the Soviet Union was ludicrous, including things like keeping good part of the german conquered territory; Considering the attempt happened after both Overlord and Bagration, there was no way neither side would accept their demands, and if anything the new government wouldn't last long.
The battle for Guam begins this week in 1944, the USN supports the attack and invasion escort carriers and battleships supported by TF58 3rd fleet, USMC, engages the Japanese 29 army, Interesting has the Japanese begun to unleash, the Kamikaze attacks? So the Allied forces take St Lo and Caen? The operation Goodwood resulted in a 10 km gain, for 400 tanks? The bulk of the Wehrmacht panzers faced the British Canadian forces, this looks formidable!
Also why is Lvov labelled as "Lviv"? The was named Lwow/Lvov at the time, and for the next half-century. Indy even calls it "Lvov", so we know that's how it was written in the script.
You go charge in with 3 tank divisions into a strong defensive line you might lose some. This is why you keep them in reserve for the exploitation of the breakthrough. Usually achieved with infantry and artillery. Except Monty's 'masterplan' of tying the strongest German forces at Caen had caused him to exhaust his infantry divisions. And his tank divisions were still relatively fresh. Not anymore. Still, as long as you maintain control of the battlefield afterwards you can recover quite a lot of those tanks afterwards for repairs. And contrary to popular myth the Sherman was not that deadly to its crews. Overall the British tank divisions recovered far better from the Normandy campaign then the infantry divisions, some of which had to be disbanded to keep the rest up to strength.
Actually only 150 of those 400 knocked out tanks were totally lost that is beyond repair. 250 or so were repaired in one week or so then returned back to fight and tank replacements were on the way. Montgomery was aware that he could afford losing machines and material (tank crews also had higher rate of survival) but he could not replace infantrymen that fell since very little infantry replacements left due to manpower crisis in British Army (thay had been in war for five years almost and they never had a large manpoıwer pool like US , Soviet Union and even Germany in first place)
At about this time a British officer checked out remains of British tanks that had been destroyed by 88s in Normandy. He peered down the hatch of one that externally seemed OK, only with a little rust colouring on the outside characteristic of armoured vehicles that had caught fire. He stared down at a charred skeleton of a crew member, probably killed by the fire as he tried to exit the tank. Near the driver's area was a sort of charred puddle, probably all that was left of the driver. Sounds like the stuff of postwar nightmares.
@@stevekaczynski3793 there are similar Reports about looking inside German Pz3 and 38t after beeing Hit by KV-1 Tanks. Smoldering Puddle on the Inside Hull. Its not only Explosion, Fire and Shrapnell, also the critlcal and instant change of Pressure.
I seem to remember - it's been a while, admittedly - that Guderian went for an extremely long walk the day of the Valkyrie assassination (Guderian's biography). It makes everyone suspect that he knew about the plot, but wasn't committing either way.
According to Wikipedia (not always a reliable source) he went to his estate and stayed there on the day in question. Did he know something was going down? His zeal later may have been an effort to cover something up - a less extreme version of Fromm's behaviour.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Occam's Razor is always credible. He would have heard scuttlebutt in his position and foreknowledge is the simplest explanation for him deciding to take a personal day in the middle of a war he's in the process of losing.
@@Raskolnikov70 If he wanted to stay out of it he would have needed to avoid two places in particular - Rastenburg, where he was perhaps persona non grata at that point anyway, and Berlin, where he might get caught up in the coup attempt and be forced to commit to one side or the other. Time-out in the countryside might well have been the safest option.
Who knew what and how much about the plot is a difficult question for the historian - it certainly kept the Gestapo and SS busy. Heusinger, for example, seems to have known in general terms about the plot but did not expect it to go down on July 20, and he was wounded by the bomb. He was nonetheless a suspect and was detained and questioned, but released. Guderian's behaviour suggests he might have known something would go down on or around July 20.
Just a reminder, Belarus suffered the most deaths of any country by percentage with as high 30%(but more likely 25%) of the population dying in the war.
I am having a slight feeling like some of the constituent states of the soon to be Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia might be higher, Serbia had a really bad rate in the First World War (people keep forgetting about Serbia back then even though it was why that war was fought in the first place), but certainly Belarus had ridiculously high casualties.
@@jliller Still interesting to break it down geographically like that. Belarus was where the most intensive anti-partisan campaigns were carried out by the Wehrmacht and SS, which is probably what led to the death toll being so high.
No way that in fact he would have the brains and the courage to support and commit to a plot against his friend Hitler He would rather incompetently suicide the whole North African Front than taking those type of risks
Almost certainly he was, like Guderian, waiting to see if it worked before choosing a side. In the meanwhile doing a Sgt Schultz act - "I see nuthink!".
An excellent great video.Except the gas warfare were there any other available counter measures against the v2?Something like a massive raid of 1,000 B36 bombers against the v2 factories and launch sites?What was the cost of the soviet success in the Operation Bagration?Have a good one.What happened to the South African ace who shot up Rommel's car?
The V2s were produced in an underground factory not vulnerable to bomb damage. They were launched from mobile sites making them hard to eliminate. After the Operation Crossbow bombing, initial plans for launching from the massive underground Watten, Wizernes and Sottevast bunkers or from fixed pads such as near the Château du Molay[48] were dismissed in favour of mobile launching. Eight main storage dumps were planned and four had been completed by July 1944 (the one at Mery-sur-Oise was begun during August 1943 and completed by February 1944).[49] The missile could be launched practically anywhere, roads running through forests being a particular favourite. The system was so mobile and small that only one Meillerwagen was ever caught in action by Allied aircraft, during the Operation Bodenplatte attack on 1 January 1945[50] near Lochem by a USAAF 4th Fighter Group aircraft, although Raymond Baxter described flying over a site during a launch and his wingman firing at the missile without hitting it.
@@caryblack5985 Watten and Wizernes were used for V1 launches. Both were heavily bombed by the British but one bomb aimer said trying to hit the tiny blockhouses that launched them was like trying to hit a postage stamp. Some V1 launch sites were also decoys - it wasn't just the Allies that went in for fakes to deceive the enemy.
I'm glad to see the early episodes out early again guys! Hopefully we can keep that up again now that the 24 hour D-Day special is all done. I like the idea Indy had in this weeks video about a special on the Japanese high command as well! There are so many great specials that you guys could do covering WW2 and you are really good at them as well! I'm guessing when the war ends and the work on the weekly episodes has stopped you'll be able to double back and do lots of special videos! For example, I really like the coverage you guys did of the D-Day scene on the movie "Saving Private Ryan". You could do more coverage on WW2 movies talking about what is accurate and not and what was good about the movie and not as well. Sort of like the RUclips channel History Buffs does but you guys would just cover WW2 movies within this channel. Covering the new Christoper Nolan movie about Oppenheimer would be amazing I think (A special on the Manhattan project would be great as well)! You could do other movies from other periods of history on the TimeGhost channel. Another example would be doing a video on the movie "13 days" about the Cuban Missile Crisis would be a great pairing with your coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis as well! I feel like other specials doing biographies about the officers and other important people of WW2 would be amazing as well! I would myself really like to see you guys do specials on the small arms, tanks, planes, ships and other weapons of the war as well. We wouldn't need you to go in depth on the weapons as other channels do already do that (Forgotten Weapons) and it isn't really your specialty. But I think an individual video on say the US small arms, then the Germans and so on would be really cool and would fit in great with your coverage of WW2. Coverage of the weapons and the on battlefield tactics (not the grand tactics you already cover) seems like a whole on the war you are missing right now (to me at least). You could explain why each country developed certain small arms for the war and didn't develop others based on their individual strategy of how they wanted to fight the war. I really liked your videos on the Great War channel about the small arms of that war and the diversity of small arms in WW2 would make coverage of that topic even better here I think! And then you of course can do the same thing on American, German, Soviet and so on tanks, planes and ships as well. Other quick topic examples that you can make a 10-15 minute video on that I'd like to see would be about the creation of the 5-Star rank in the US military to match the Field Marshall rank of other nations and why the US created and who was given that rank and why. Coverage of what Army Group Commanders were in charge of in terms of their area of responsibility and what Armies, Corps and divisions were under their command would be really cool. So it would talk about the order of command say in the Western front after WW2. So it would show Eisenhower, what Army Groups were under his command then guys like Montgomery, Bradley and Devers (always forgotten about) and what armies were under their command. Then there can be a video talking about the German order of battle on the Western front, Eastern front and so on. What armies and navy task forces were under the command of guys like MacArthur and Nimitz and what their areas of responsibility during WW2 were. The sheer size and the amount of forces under the command of these guys was amazing. It is a way to really put the size of WW2 into perspective for many people when you cover things that way. Because if you think that just a single individual division from WW2 was bigger than most armies throughout human history and then think about how many commanders in WW2 were commanding multiple corps made up of multiple divisions things just really get insane and the size of WW2 really starts to take shape in many peoples minds. An amazing stat I always like is how at the end of WW2 Patton's 3rd army alone was equal in size to Montgomery's 21st Army Group (the 1st Canadian and 2nd British armies made up the 21st Army Group). At the end of WW2 Patton's 3rd army had 18 divisions in it, the same number of divisions that Montgomery's 21 Army Group had in it at the end of WW2. Lastly anther example of a special video I'd really like to see you make would be about the 255 vs 90 division army dispute that happened within the US and why the US went down the 90 division route with the support and requests from the US allies the UK and USSR. The US allies wanted the US to go down the smaller route so that the US didn't take to much from their at home work force that was making the food and military equipment that the United Nations forces needed to fight WW2. I think this would be a really good topic to make a video about that is not talked about by any other history channel on YT that I can think of. *The US did have more than 90 divisions in WW2. 91 in the Army and 6 in the Marines. The "90 division gamble" led to US divisions never being pulled from the line for rest though since replacements were just sent right to the front to be incorporated into already standing formations of units.
Here’s another topic suggestion: Press coverage of the war, including commenter opinions. There would be lessons to be learned by us outsiders in how wrong we can be.
@@rogerknights857 I agree, that would be a good topic. The modern press/media was really born out of WW2 so it would be a good topic to cover when they have time and I feel like it would be right up their ally to cover as well!
Duuude, biographies of the most important officers - with maps showing troop movements and so on - would be GREAT!! I would stay several years more a member of TGA after the war instead of be demobilized 😂
It's a bad week to be an Axis leader. They’re being sacked, going down with illness, or even being blown up. Starting World War Two sure is bad for your health, huh?
Indeed
It's not healthy to die
Tojo left like a coward
Surely the arrival of 7th panzer will remedy the situation!
9/10 doctors recommend NOT starting the largest war in history. (The 10th is Josef Mengle)
I love Indy's iron clad dedication to calling Kesselring "Smiling Albert"
Kesselring wasn't particularly "smiley". He did have quite an overbite.
@@stevekaczynski3793it’s a joke of sorts that Indy started doing the first time he was mentioned in the series precisely because he’s not very smiley.
You must admit he did smile a lot.
@@WorldWarTwo Not at this point in the war, I'd wager.
Why did he call him that again?
A side note this week on July 16 1944 is that New Zealand Lieutenant-Commander R. B. Goodwin will become the only prisoner of war to make a successful escape from Japanese-occupied Hong Kong. He went over the Sham Shui Po camp wire during the night after dark and swam to the mainland China, travelling overland to Kunming. He would eventually arrive back in New Zealand in November 1944.
it's only a few hundred metres across in some spots - apparently a regular swim for chinese after 1948
Did he swim back to New Zealand too? That'd be impressive if he did.
@@Raskolnikov70 yes he did and after that feat he scored the winning try in against ausies!
Kiwis Can !!
That’s quite the journey
I don't know why, but with the 20th July Plot going off this week I've suddenly realized just how little time there is left in the series and the coverage of the war in Europe. It is crazy to think when I began watching this series I had only been out of highschool for a few months - and when it finishes next year I'll be a few months away from graduating from law school. It not only puts into perspective just how incessantly long and catastrophic the War was, but also how dedicated the TimeGhost team is to creating this incredible resource for us all to learn from. Thank you for the continued exceptional work.
And while I wouldn't want to make any particular member of the TimeGhost team feel old - I of course spent all four years of highschool (2014-2018) watching chronological coverage of a different war.
@@coler.lcurnew9106 Youre a veteran huh? Ive been here since 2017, we were different people back then werent we?
An early congratulations on getting through Law School, you're on the final stretch!
I started with TGW in high school as well, it's been quite a journey...
We're thankful for your dedicated viewing over the years 🙂
-Will
Thanks for sharing your personal history with regards to this channel.
I got laid off as a video editor from an advertising agency in September 2018, and subsequently got hooked on the Great War series at that point.
I have found a strange comfort (the subject is war after all) in following the Time Ghost productions.
wow, time flies, doesn't it? It's amazing to see how much has happened since you started watching the series. The war was indeed a long and catastrophic period, but the TimeGhost team's dedication is truly commendable. They're creating an incredible resource for us all.
Bagramyan: "The path to Riga is wide open!"
Stavka: "Nice try, bagman. You're to fight the enemy, not empty land."
I love how the Allied troops in Italy are a hodgepodge of forces from all around the globe
The Poles and French fighting together in Italy gives major Napolonic Era vibes.
Sabaton did call their song Union for a reason ^_^
The forces even include an Iranian Artillery bear.
@@Mobius54 Plus a random bear too.
Truly a World War.
It seems like someone informed Joseph Stalin about what a Roman Triumph is. It is making me think of the way Vercingetorix was marched down the Via Sacra, and Justinian and Belisarius marched Gelimer and his Vandals through Constantinople.
Ridley Scott's Napoleon begins with Marie Antoinette going to her doom in 1793.
It was a way of signalling that the Germans were being defeated. After the Germans passed, vehicles followed behind them, spraying disinfectant on the road.
Yeah, a mock parade of your imprisoned enemies is a classic tradition of European armies.
The main difference with Roman triumphs is that there would also usually be an actual triumphal parade of the victorious military units, with their general leading them as king for a day, though with a slave whispering "remember you are mortal" to them the whole time.
@@browncoat697 "All glory is fleeting..."
@@browncoat697 After capturing Hessians at Trenton in late 1776, Washington's army paraded them through Philadelphia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessian_(soldier)#/media/File:Die_Hessen,_vom_General_Washington_am_25ten_Dec._1776,_zu_Trenton_%C3%BCberfallen,_werden_als_Kriegsgefangne_in_Philadelphia_eingebracht.jpg
Boosting morale on their own side was the major reason. American Rangers captured near Anzio were also paraded through Rome in early 1944.
I wish Fegelein would prank call Indy...
Real
😸
My father was one of the first Soldiers on Guam. He was a US Army Combat Engineer. He rode a raft into Tumon Bay at night and cleared the beach for the Marines.
Cleared it of what exactly? mines?
There was a recurring story of the War in the Pacific that when the Marines hit a beach there would be signs that the Sea Bees left behind to great them.
@@Ronald98Yeah mines and obstacles I would assume. They would typically send in small stealthy teams to gain intelligence and clear a path prior to a beach landing.
@@jameshudkins2210 Sea Bees? I doubt that.Sea Bees didn't have Combat Engineers that cleared the way for the Infantry. See Bees were construction engineers. They built air strips and roads on the smaller islands. Their equipment was of the smaller variety.
It was the Army that left behind little signs greeting the Marines on the beaches.
@@Ronald98in ww2 it was common for armies expecting beach landings to Place anti tank obstacles, large logs pointed upward so landing boats would get hung up on them and often they would attach mines and other pressure sensitive explosives to logs and in the sand
They would also pre designate specific portions of beach for artillery so they could maximize accuracy and damage to the enemy
Thanks for the shout out, Indy! I appreciate all of the Time Ghost Team's fantastic work! 😁👍
This wouldn't be possible without all of you! Thanks for being apart of the TimeGhost Army and thanks for the kind words.
Well, thank you back for your support!
I was really hoping that the weekly episodes would check in with hengyang.
This was the longest and best defense of ichigo. It was a case where Chinese troops actually performed well against overwhelming odds.
It is also a place where the US focus on Burma hurt the Chinese war effort.
Ooh. I hope they come back on that matter. I know desperately few about the Chinese front.
Interservice rivalry in Japan had been literally murderous even before Pearl Harbor.
Even before fighting in China started. Japanese officers and politicians branded as moderates were assassinated in the dozens.
Yeah, the Japs took the Army-Navy Game way too seriously.
oh, those Japanese folks and their interservice rivalry, it's been a real killer. 💀
A great bit of tactics from Konev, also... first time that Warsaw is showing on a map close up of the frontline... how far have we come.
At least the first time since 1939
It seems we will get even more of it in weekly report and WAH.
From one joint communist-nazi massacre of poles to another with just the soviets soldiers, secret police and commissars.
But at least the war and the front are coming to a close.
@@pocketmarcy6990 That's what I meant 🙂
Spartacus will surely focus his WAH series on this part of the map anytime soon.
Martin Gilbert - - - Sir Martin John Gilbert (1936-2015)
all 4 grandparents were born in Lithuania or Poland
Nine months after the outbreak of the Second World War, he was evacuated to Canada as part of the British efforts to safeguard children. Vivid memories of the transatlantic crossing from Liverpool to Quebec sparked his curiosity about the war in later years.
Fascinating bipgraphy
Martin Gilbert is a favourite for a lot of the team back here!
I saw 8th Guards Army included on the map as part of Rokossovskyi's front. Worth noting that this is the re-named 62nd Army, which held Stalingrad, and Chuikov is still in command there. It would be interesting to see something charting its path through the war.
The plot actually had a profound effect on the continuation of the war. Germans have never been organisationally weaker, in large thanks to poor logistics, but also the plot seems so.
I would say that Bagration had a profound effect on the existence of "the plot".
@@miquellluch1928 The plot existed long before Bagration.
@@miquellluch1928 The "armour" in "plot armour" is no longer functional :)
@@miquellluch1928 Bagration was irrelevant. It was overall overextension of Wehrmacht and situation on all fronts which led to plot.
I agree but not in the way you think. The actions of the conspirators are commendable, but they inadvertently made things much, much worse in Germany afterwards. Purges in every sector of society, and more draconian measures/harsher punishments introduced in the military for anything deemed subversive. It all but guaranteed Germany would go down the path of fighting to the bitter end.
18:03 This has got to be one of the most underrated military maneuvers I've ever seen, broke an entire German frontline in three different areas and keeps momentum sharply in Soviet hands throughout the entire offensive, a masterclass in Armoured warfare.
Props to the Red Air Force 2nd Air Army as well. They basically blasted a pathway for the armor to roll through, helped beat back counterattacks (especially involving panzers), and fought of the (albeit not well organized and concentrated) efforts by the Luftwaffe 4th Fleet to stop them.
Fun fact: Stauffenberg was summarily executed on the order of a co-conspirator trying to save his own ass.
Worked out better for Stauffenberg - he got to skip the weeks of torture by the Gestapo, humiliating show trial in the People's Court, and particularly brutal hanging designed to strangle the victims slowly with a thin cord. And it failed to help the co-conspirator to avoid any of those things.
@@brucetucker4847 Yep.
@@brucetucker4847 His brother was, however, executed by hanging.
cool fact: Stauffenberg got executed by a co-conspirator trying to save his own butt. wild stuff, huh?
@@brucetucker4847 Well, that's one way to look at it. Skipping the torture and show trial does have its advantages. But I guess the co-conspirator didn't have the same luck.
@WWII Rokossowski is mentioned is one of best and hence underrated generals of WWII.
Up there with Omar Bradley
I think Vatutin. His early death meant that people like Zhukov and Konev got some of the renown that might have accrued to Vatutin instead.
On 22 July 1944, a battalion of the 4th DMM of the French Expeditionary Corps (CEF) in Italy captured the town of Castelfiorentino, 12km south of the Arno river and 25km southwest of Florence. This action was the final feat of the CEF before leaving Italy for the south of France.
Since the start of the month, the divisions of the CEF were successively relieved to regroup at Naples in preparation of Operation Dragoon. The 1st DMI and 3rd DIA were relieved on 3 to 4 July by the 2nd DIM and 4th DMM, who were themselves relieved, starting from 20 July, by British, New-Zelander and Indian units. By 23 July, French Divisions were entirely retired from the frontline.
The CEF advance in Italy, from Venafro to Castelfiorentino, was nearly 350 kilometers. But it had paid a heavy price in blood. It had lost 6407 killed, 20913 wounded and 4201 missing. The 3rd DIA had lost 1580 killed, including 97 officers, 5980 wounded and 839 missing, giving a total loss figure of 8000 men. The 2nd DIM, first engaged at the beginning of December 1943, had been hit even harder with about 2300 killed, 8000 wounded, not counting 1300 evacuees for frozen feet. In the course of seven and a half months, it had therefore lost a total of nearly 12000 men. The 4th DMM had, since its engagement on the Garigliano in April 1944, about 3500 killed and wounded. Its sole participation in the battle of the Garigliano had cost it 32 officers and 900 men. The Moroccan goums counted 598 killed, 2362 wounded and 8 missing. Finally, the 1st DMI, in line only since May 11 and definitively relieved on June 21, had experienced the following losses in a month and a half: 673 killed, including 49 officers, and 2000 wounded, including 117 officers, so 2673 killed and wounded. But the enemy's losses were even heavier and thousands of prisoners were captured: the 2nd DIM totaled 1618 prisoners, the 3rd DIA had taken 3400 prisoners, including 2650 from the Garigliano offensive to Siena, the 4th DMM had counted more than 2000 prisoners and the 1st DMI, finally, 965 prisoners.
Thus ended for the CEF this Italian campaign, a conclusion that General Carpentier, chief of staff of the CEF, evoked in these terms: “In two months, in one single momentum, the CEF had the glory of bearing the French colors in Rome, Siena and on the Arno. Landed eight months earlier in Naples, to general indifference, it left covered with glory, having regained in a masterly fashion the past prestige of the French army.»
In his farewell letter to General Juin, General Clark wrote: “It is extremely difficult for me to find the words I would like to express my feelings of sadness and great personal grief at the thought of the departure of the CEF and its very great leader. I lose not only the infinitely precious support of four of the finest divisions that have ever fought, but also the sound and enlightened advices of a friend as sincere as he is good. »
General Alexander wrote for his part to the commander of the CEF who was leaving: “I want to express my gratitude and my sorrow to you: my gratitude for the magnificent execution of the task which you carried out on the battlefields, my sorrow at seeing the disappearance of friends and comrades of such distinction... To the bravery of your officers and soldiers I bring my warmest admiration and my deep gratitude for the remarkable results which they have obtained in our great victory over Germany. France can justly be proud of the bravery of its sons of the French Expeditionary Force. Whatever the future holds for you and wherever you may be, I will follow your fortunes with interest and pride: the pride I will always feel in having been your Commander-in-Chief. May God bless you all and luck be with you. »
Finally General Juin himself in his farewell order of the day to his troops concluded: “You will remain marked with the victorious sign of the CEF, this magnificent French entity of which I will be proud to have been the host and leader.»
And yet Americans and British continue to make French surrender monkey jokes.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 Well, it's hard to fix stupid...
Good to see the non-collaborationist side of France doing work.
The real shame was really about this, the surrender thing was blown out of proportion, despite the shortness of the 1940 campaign
While it is true that this small core of French troops fought gallantly, the majority did not. That also does not change the fact that France gave up very early on into WW2 after putting in a worse performance than expected by everyone. That doesn’t negate the rest of French military history, which is long and bloody. There is no need to be hyperbolic in either direction.
Wow, the French Expeditionary Corps (CEF) in Italy went through a lot during their campaign. They covered almost 350 kilometers and suffered heavy casualties, but also captured thousands of prisoners. In the end, they left Italy with glory and regained the prestige of the French army. General Clark and General Alexander expressed their gratitude and sorrow for their departure. General Juin himself was proud to have led the CEF.
Guam, is where the un-armed American medic Desmond Doss would first see action
Hacksaw ridge is a great movie about him
I'm not sure if Indy covered the story of Ben L. Salomon on Saipan a couple of weeks ago.
EDIT: Yeah, I just checked the video that covered the timeframe of Salomon's actions, and while Indy did mention the bonzai charge, he didn't mention Salomon's heroics. Shame.
And it was the first combat action for Hershel Williams aka “Woody” the last WWII Medal of Honor recipient to pass away, He died in 2022 at age 98, He received it on Iwo Jima which we will see in February 2024; I wanted to mention that because I met him twice and he was such an amazing American.
More info on the major Brody Pocket shown at 19:48. This was the 4th large German pocket battle in the summer of 1944 in the East, or what the Germans call _Kesselschlacht_ (Cauldron Battle).
The entire German _XIII. Armeekorps_ of the 4th Panzer Army of Army Group North Ukraine, consisting of 6 divisions, was annihilated, with only remnants managing to break out without heavy weaponry.
By German estimates, a total of 40,000 German and Axis personnel were killed and captured. The following units were destroyed:
1. _340. Infanterie-Division._ Fate: officially disbanded on 5 August 1944, remnants used to create a new formation;
2. _349. Infanterie-Division._ Fate: officially disbanded on 5 August 1944, remnants used to create a new formation;
3. _361. Infanterie-Division._ Fate: officially disbanded on 5 August 1944, remnants used to create a new formation;
4. _Korps-Abteilung C_ (division sized unit, similar to infantry division in size and organization). Fate: officially disbanded on 5 August 1944, remnants used to create a new formation;
5. _454. Sicherungs-Division_ (security division). Fate: officially disbanded on 5 August 1944, remnants used to create a new formation;
6. _14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS Galizien_ (made up of Ukrainians from western regions of Ukraine). Fate: remnants withdrawn to the Reich, to the Neuhammer Military Training Area (Truppenübungsplatz Neuhammer), where they were rebuilt with various Galician reserve units that were not encircled in the Brody Pocket.
Senior officer losses:
1. General of Infantry Arthur Hauffe, Commander of the XIII Army Corps, Prisoner (died later), 22 July 1944;
2. Major-General Otto Beutler, Commander of the 340th Infantry Division, Killed, 21 July 1944;
3. Major-General Gerhard Lindemann, Commander of the 361st Infantry Division, Prisoner, 22 July 1944;
4. Major-General Johannes Nedtwig, Commander of the 454th Security Division, Prisoner, 22 July 1944;
5. Colonel Hans-Werner von Hammerstein-Gesmold, Chief of Staff of the XIII Army Corps, Killed, 22 July 1944;
6. Obersturmbannführer Paul Herms, commander of the 31st SS Grenadier Regiment of the 14th SS Division, killed, 22 July 1944.
The 14th was mostly West Ukrainian in composition, Herms was presumably part of the German cadre that generally guided SS units consisting of foreigners.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Herms was not just "presumably part of the German cadre that generally guided SS units consisting of foreigners", German senior officers were an organic part of the _Galizien,_ with every single high-ranking post in the division being commanded by the German officers.
That includes divisional commander, divisional staff with its departments- Ia or _Führungsabteilung,_ Ic or _Feindaufklärung und Abwehr_ etc. All regimental commanders were also German, among which was Herms. Going down the scale, battalion and below, the commanders were Ukrainian.
Even after the Brody disaster, when it came to rebuilding the division at the Neuhammer Military Training Area, around 1,000 German junior and senior officers arrived to the division from various units, to refit the losses of German command personnel.
@@scientiaaclabore3362 Basically the same thing, though the proportion of Germans varied. Generally speaking, East Europeans were more closely supervised than West Europeans and had more German cadre.
I knew someone whose father was a German cadre NCO in the SS Wiking division. The division had many Scandinavians, Dutch and even Finns but the guy's father was one of the Germans there to lead them and also keep an eye on them.
I also knew someone whose father was a Ukrainian in the Galizien division. He survived the war, avoiding deportation to the USSR by pleading pre-war Polish citizenship, and he emigrated to England.
The major Brody Pocket battle at 19:48 was the 4th large German pocket battle in the summer of 1944. The entire German XIII. Armeekorps of the 4th Panzer Army of Army Group North Ukraine, consisting of 6 divisions, was annihilated. 40,000 German and Axis personnel were killed and captured, and several units were destroyed or disbanded. Senior officers also suffered losses.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Ah, got it! The 14th SS Division was mainly composed of West Ukrainians, and Herms was likely part of the German cadre that provided guidance to SS units made up of foreign volunteers.
15:48 Interesting fact to this quote, according to Robert Citino, Hitler would absolutely vex the traditional German generals by insisting that economic resources be central to war planning. Hitler was infamous for being able to quote how many days of a particular resource the reich had left and that the army couldn't withdraw, it drove the aristocratic, Prussian officer up the wall to listen to Hitler lecture them on economics.
Perhaps not photographic, and it is questionable whether photographic memories even exist, but Hitler did have a retentive memory for material he read and often used this in his to and fro arguments with his generals.
Officers saw war as sport. Hitler saw it as pillage. Different paradigms, but Hitler was arguably right on this one.
@@retiredbore378 Except, he rapidly lost both the armies and the resources. These things happen when you've lost a war but it isn;t over yet.
haha, Hitler sure knew how to ruffle some feathers with his focus on economics during war planning. The traditional German generals must have been quite vexed by his lectures.
@@stevekaczynski3793 hitler's memory game was strong, he could recall stuff he read and use it in arguments with his generals.
All week, I've been feeling the gravity of everything that happened this week as I anticipated this episode. Indy and Team didn't disappoint. Thank you all!
Thank you for watching!
Thank you for watching!
Is there going to be a special on the troop deployments on June of 1944? It would be as great as the same specials of 1941-43! Otherwise great work!
So Army Group Center did reach Moscow afterall, just not in the way they were expecting lol Also I find it baffling that in the west that the Germans were still anticipating a landing at Pas de Calais at this point.
prolly bcoz of jingoist field marshals ever since everybody said they aren’t being allowed to do their job
Goes to show how good and convincing Allied deception plans had been. And not just for Pas de Calais, Operation Fortitude North would convince the Germans that an Allied invasion of Norway was still in the works. And it worked because the Germans consistently thought that significant numbers of Allied divisions were still being kept in the UK.
Shh... dont tell them anything about the landings in Southern France and operation Dragoon....
haha, Army Group Center had a little detour on their way to Moscow, didn't they? And those Germans in the west, always keeping their hopes up for a surprise landing at Pas de Calais.
@@billybabaganoush5711 yeah, those jingoist field marshals can be quite a handful. Some folks feel they're not allowed to do their job properly because of them.
"Today we’re on a secret mission to get coffee and doughnuts, problem is, the Germans drank all the coffee and ate all the doughnuts, so now we gotta go and kick their asses." - Mike Dixon
This week on July 22nd 1944, the following missions in the Call of Duty series will begin:
*July 19 1944*
Saint-Lô (Call of Duty 3) - As Private Nichols in Saint-Lô, France, you will first complete a quick training before being transported by truck to Saint-Lô, where you will need to capture the town and then fend it off from German counterattack. This is the first level of Call of Duty 3.
*July 22 1944*
Night Drop (Call of Duty 3) - As Sergeant James Doyle in Toucy, France, you will first need to find the SAS jeeps and find other fellow SAS members such as Major Ingram. You will also need to rescue Marcel and help the Marquis to destroy enemy anti-aircraft guns in the area.
Was that line a reference to Half life?
@@Dustz92 Hmm never thought of it this way. Now that you say it, maybe it could be a Half-Life reference after all or perhaps just a coincidence?
@@Dustz92 Do you know who ate all the donuts?
*cue explosions and scientists screaming*
I remember playing the Wii port of CoD 3, in all its flawed glory.
Shame it isnt on PC.
@@Significantpoweras far as an FPS on the Wii goes, it ain’t bad
I'm afraid if you put that many troops on Guam it will just flip over, capsize.
Hey, you should run for Congress.....
You're funny
I remember watching the first episode in like 2018. I was in the middle of high school back then. Next year when you guys finally end this show, i'll be completing college😊
Time flies 😢
Congratulations on nearly completing college, the end is on the horizon for you and the war it seems!
Quite obviously, this would be a good time to watch the 2008 film Valkyrie.
And our dedicated video 😉 ruclips.net/video/pHpOZ1rHusw/видео.html
or the german version from a few years before
I love that this channel is week by week but I have to admit I quite enjoy holding off for a month or two then having a ww2 binge day, its normally one of my best days that month and It lets me rewatch some of the older videos to catch myself up back into it. As always keep up the great work everyone!
2:30 - I don't think people understand how tragic that is. The man tried to kill himself via gunshot to the side of the head, the barrel was too far forward and all he managed to do was shoot through *both* his eye sockets.
Yup. As a general, a man responsible for thousand of deaths, he shoulda kinda have known the proper way to kill himself.
Or severed the optic nerve
😨😬
Yeesh!
I mean he was a nazi, so it's just karma acting
The title reminded me that in the Spanish version of Terminator, since "Hasta la vista" is just Spanish for "see you later", they decided to change the language for the [edit: T-800, the T-900 is from the videogame] T-800's catchphrase and they used "Sayonara, baby". As a native Spanish citizen, the title made me think of Hideki Tojo being pursued and killed by Terminator. Something that wouldn't be undeserved😂😂😂
XD
Now I will be "that guy", and say that it was the T-800. The T-900's debut was in the 2003 video game tied to the Rise of the Machines film, and looks more like a skeleton covered in muscles.
@@ΧΑΡΗΣΚΟΥΡΗΣ-ψ3ν Thanks for the correction. I didn't remember correctly, it's been a lot since I watched the films.
Haha, "Sayonara, baby" in the Spanish version of Terminator does have a certain flair! And the thought of Hideki Tojo being pursued by a Terminator is quite the amusing image. 😂😂😂
@@ΧΑΡΗΣΚΟΥΡΗΣ-ψ3ν You're right, it was the T-800 in Terminator. The T-900 made its debut in the 2003 video game and had a different design.
Did nothing happen this week on finnish front? I noticed it was not mentioned like on other fronts like couple of other weeks.
A pivotal moment, on several levels. Thanks for telling the story.
And thank you for watching.
Just doing our duty!
Following since start of the WWI series though it's taken me couple years to catch up. There is so much to say about this epic wonderful project but one of the things I appreciate are the maps in motion to the movement of the front along with learning so much about the Pacific Island battles which I thought I knew much about but apparently I didn't and I'm thankful for the learning.
IIRC, that speech Hitler gives after the bomb plot is the last public speech he ever gives.
I think he gave another one to celebrate his 12th year in power, in Jan 1945. Might’ve been Gobbels though, not sure
@@Official_Kezzie By and large Hitler left Goebbels to make radio addresses, after 1942. Hitler spent much of his time at places like Rastenburg, following the war effort and poring over maps and attending briefings of the situation, which he was doing at the time of the explosion.
After WWII wraps up, why don't you start doing weekly episodes about the Korean War?
How about he starts doing weekly episodes on the 100 year war ? 😂
They have said that they would be interested in doing that
@@pocketmarcy6990Let's hope for that. Nobody knows about that actually crucial war and defense from the soviet-implanted communist dynasty in the North of Korea and China against the South.
@@ihebyahyaoui5888 Defragged History has a great series on the 80 years war if you're interested.
@@dusk6159maybe the world would be better if USSR doesnt attack Japan after all. We might have a unified Korea
U-Boat Hunt off Norway and in Arctic Ocean (16-22 July 1944)
After the success of Neptune, the naval phase of Overlord, was assured, Churchill proposed to Roosevelt that the Murmansk convoys be resumed to provide all possible supplies for Stalin’s massive summer offensive (Bagration), which began on June 22. Roosevelt agreed readily. This decision raised anew the threat posed by Tirpitz to those convoys. Accordingly, the new commander of Royal Navy Home Fleet, Henry Moore (succeeding Bruce Fraser), drew plans for yet another attack on Tirpitz in mid-July. From Scapa Flow sailed a task force consisting of the battleship HMD Duke of York, three fleet carriers ( HMS Formidable, HMS Furious, and the new HMS Indefatigable), four cruisers, and twelve destroyers. Barracuda aircraft from the carriers twice attempted to hit Tirpitz on July 17, but they were thwarted, first by a smoke screen, then by fog.
During these naval actions in July, aircraft RAF Coastal Command’s 18 Group provided support. They knocked out ten more U-boats: four sunk, six forced to abort. These further losses led U-Boat Control to abolish the at-sea section of group Mine and to recall those boats to various ports. In brief:
• In the North Sea on July 15, a B-24 Liberator bomber from RAF Coastal Command Squadron 206, piloted by D. W. Thynne, located , bombed with depth charges and sank the Mine Type VIIC41 U-319, commanded by Johannes Clemens, age thirty-three. There were no German survivors. Apparently Clemens shot down the B-24 during this attack. Near that place on July 16, a British launch recovered the body of one crew member of the B-24 from a dinghy.
• Off Narvik on July 17, a Catalina flying boat of RAF Coastal Command Squadron 210, piloted by John A. Cruickshank, attacked the Arctic Type VII U-361, commanded by Hans Seidel, age twenty-six. On the first pass, the depth charges failed to release. On the second, the depth charges fell and sank the boat, but the Germans riddled the Catalina with flak. This fire killed the navigator, gravely wounded the command pilot, Cruickshank, who was placed in a bunk, and seriously wounded three other crew, including the copilot, Jack Garnett, who remained at the controls, assisted by a third pilot, S. I. Fiddler, who was flying his first combat mission. As the plane approached its home base, Cruickshank insisted that he be carried forward to assist in the landing. He and Garnett put the damaged plane down on the water and then ran it up on the beach. Thereupon Cruickshank, still at the controls, died of his wounds. For this heroic performance, the British awarded Cruickshank a posthumous Victoria Cross, the second of only two such awards to personnel of Coastal Command in the war.
• Off Narvik on July 17, a B-24 Liberator bomber RAF Coastal Command Squadron 86, piloted by Michael George Moseley, bombed with depth charges and sank the newly arrived Arctic VII U-347, commanded by Johann de Buhr, age thirty-two. Although the B-24 was hit by flak, Moseley circled the area for ninety minutes, reporting wreckage and “at least six survivors” in the water. No Germans survived.
• Off Narvik in the same area on July 18, a Catalina flying boat of RAF Coastal Command Squadron 210, piloted by Ronald William George Vaughan,bombed and sank the new Arctic boat U-742, commanded by Heinz Schwassmann, age twenty-eight. During this attack, German gunners hit the Catalina with flak, wounding two men and puncturing oil and gasoline tanks, which forced Vaughan to abort and to shut down one engine. He made an emergency landing on friendly waters and beached the aircraft. Vaughan reported “thirty-five to forty” German survivors in the water, but none was ever found.
U-Boat Hunt in Channel
The U-672, newly fitted with a sschnoerkel and commanded by Ulf Lawaetz, age twenty-seven, sailed from St. Nazaire to the Bay of the Seine on July 6. While approaching the mouth of the English Channel a week later, on July 13, an Allied air craft detected the submerged U-672 and dropped four depth charges. They missed and caused no damage, but the pilots alerted Allied surface forces. Later that after noon, Lawaetz sighted what he took to be an American hunter-killer group comprised of four “destroyers” and “one light cruiser.” He boldly shot a T-5 at the “light cruiser” and another at a “destroyer” but both torpedoes malfunctioned or missed.
Upon learning of this action and the U-672s position, Rösing ordered Lawaetz to patrol off the Isle of Wight. The U-672 reached that area on July 18 and lay doggo on the bottom. That same afternoon, RoyalNavy frigate HMS Balfour, commanded by C.D.B. Coventry, detected U-672 and attacked with Hedgehogs. These accurate attacks wrecked and flooded U-672.
Lawaetz soon concluded his situation was hopeless, and in the early hours of July 19 he ordered the crew to surface and scuttle. After his men had destroyed all secret papers and the Enigma, and abandoned ship in individual rubber dinghies, Lawaetz and his chief engineer, Georg Käseberg, scuttled and left the ship last. About twelve hours after the sinking, two RAF Spitfires reported sighting the survivors in the water. In response, air-sea rescue launches and PT boats sailed from Dartmouth and picked up all fifty-two men of the crew.
The snort (schnoerkel) boat U-212, commanded by Helmut Vogler, also returned from the aborted ammo supply mission to Cherbourg, resailed from Brest to the landing area on July 5 with U-741. When the British “destroyers” attacked the two U-boats and the escorts, the U-212 also avoided destruction. But nothing further was ever heard from Vogler in U-212. It is believed that he reached the Allied landing area on about July 13. According to the Allied reckoning, on July 21 , Royal Navy frigates HMS Curzon and HMS Ekins teamed up to sink U-212 with Hedgehogs and depth charges near Beachy Head on the south coast of England. There were no German survivors.
Hitler's U-Boat War Hunted - Clay Blair Jr
Great stuff as usual.
Thank you!
That’s interesting, I’d always read that the Pilot who strafed Rommel was the rather aptly named Charlie Fox.
This is disputed according to Wikipedia and multiple people take credit for it
I thought it was Fox - I never heard of the South African guy. Whoever it was strafed Rommel's car with 20 mm cannon fire - which rules out American fighters as they mostly used .50 machine-guns - and a cannon shell struck the dashboard and severely wounded Rommel's driver, who crashed the car.
@@stevekaczynski3793 i thinks its always been accepted that it was a commonwealth pilot. Germans reports indicated that the fighter which strafed Rommels car was British.
Fox's claim is the most credible as he was over the area when the attack on Rommel occurred. Le Roux was back on the ground at the time of the attack so could not be him.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Strafing a German rather than British target rules out the USAAF. (Just joking guys, no need to burn me).
Thank you.
Thanks for watching.
For some time now, most of your weeks do not show up on my Google TV 4K Chromecast, where I usually watch RUclips. This one did show up, but 254-253 & 251-245 only show up on my Android phone, but 256, 255 & 252 did show up. Some settings must be wrong in the missing videos. Also most of the D- day series is also missing except for the first hour and the first 5 hour episode. 😢😮
Sadly RUclips no longer cares about their quality creators who put time and effort into their channels. They're too busy trying to become Tik Tok 2.0 and censoring everyone's wrongthink to pay attention to things like running a functional website.
I like how Guderian "suddenly" becomes anti-nazi in his memoirs and never mentions all the stuff with helping to stop the coup or how he accused other generals with defeatism. Turns out Lt. Aldo Raine had a point with nazis taking off their uniforms.
Manstein could also be selective in his postwar memoirs. Halder too.
Never trust memoirs Allied or Axis without trying to verify what they claim with other sorces.
@@caryblack5985 Interesting that you have to bring Allied leaders into this. Trying to divert attention, are we?
Never trust memoirs by ANYONE without double checking.
@@davidhoward4715 Nope just pointing out memoirs are untrustworthy and often try to portray the author in the best light possible. Any memoir should be checked against other sources. This is not diverting attention it is what any good historian does.
Hi Indy
Another interesting week.
Loads of history.
Thanks.
Thanks you for the kind words.
A few side specials about canadas specific contributions, battles and struggles in the Italian and West European theaters would really be neat.
I really hope that they go on site to Tokyo Bay for the end of the war episodes
I think this is only the third time I have heard Indy say 'goodbye/bye' before he hangs up the phone.
☮
I think I've done it five times now, actually. I doubt I'm gonna go back through the whole series and find out for sure, though!
@@WorldWarTwo Nor would I ask or want you to waste time so.
✌️
In William L. Shirer’s book The rise and fall of the third reich I remember reading that Stauffenberg had intended or it had been planned that he would be blown up with Hitler to insure success for the plot. Obviously this didn’t take place but I have often wondered why not? Perhaps it never was part of any plan to do so but if he had done it this way it likely would have been successful and history would have gone a different route. Does anyone know if Shirer’s book (or my memory of it) was mistaken on this?
Thank you so much for what you do. Important work.
We appreciate you watching.
Since it’s frustratingly difficult to find an even, balanced, overall analysis of Goodwood and Cobra, it’ll be nice to see Indy finally tackle it next week.
A good read on the subject is John Buckley’s British Armor in Normandy. There he goes into great detail about british armored units and operations, in particular the many hurdles they had to overcome such as flawed organization, the need to evolve previous tactics, Churchill’s political necessity to have British Commonwealth troops involved in the war without worsening the manpower crisis, and the issues with morale to be expected of men fighting on the frontlines for several years seemingly endlessly.
The failed assassination really shows the value of follow through.
When trying to do something so important as assassinating Hitler, you really should have someone going in after the blast to double check. And, preferably, make absolutely sure with their side arm in case of doubt.
The compound was on lockdown after the explosion, Stauffenberg barely got out. None of the plotters were willing to commit suicide.
@@richardstephens5570 I was more thinking along the lines of "stand just outside the bunker when the bomb goes off, then run back in, as if coming to help, check on Hitler before anyone has got their bearings and finish him if necessary".
@@gustavchambert7072 There was a security cordon of SS around Hitler (in photos you can sometimes see them in the background) and they would have been a major obstacle.
@@stevekaczynski3793 That's why doing it up close and personal would have to be a self-forever-sleep mission. It would be easy enough to sneak a small knife or pistol in to do the job, but no way you're getting back out once it's done.
It was either the way they did it or nothing at all, for there was other people there. Nobody could take the bomb to Hitler, nobody could shoot him afterwards. It has to be anonymous, for the intention was power vacuum, and quickly eliminate key officials. If you do it in person, then they instantly know who to start tracing, which is what happened anyways.
Man, Konev's got some balls
Konev and Bagramian were the MVPs, no doubt. It's unfortunate that such top notch commanders don't get any proper recognition like Zhukov and Rokossovsky, especially Bagramian since his Armenian ethnicity was made it even more of a challenge to rise up the ranks like he did (much like the Pole Rokossovsky).
Once upon a time, that deep probe into German lines would have been suicidal.
@@stevekaczynski3793 With the kind of air support the Soviets were now enjoying, the Luftwaffe wouldn't have made much of a difference even if the it was there and properly coordinating with ground forces. I've found multiple instances in John Erickson's The Road to Berlin of Soviet air armies just cramming the skies full of fighters to clear away enemy planes and Sturmoviks to blast a path through defences and counterattacks ahead of armored spearheads. That's not even getting into how the Red Air Force has highly skilled and experienced pilots and top notch aircraft by now (in fact, the Yak-3 will make it's combat debut in these operations and prove itself a force to be reckoned with ).
Genius move, though. I imagine it caused a lot of chaos and panic in the German command and supply chains.
@@901Sherman Not really. What allowed Soviets to enjoy such air superiority was fact that Luftwaffe was already for years committing most of it's forces fighting Western Allies.
Operation Goodwood and it's aftermath were one of the few things my Grandfather would talk about. He was a Staff Sgt in the 11th Armoured Division, Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers, and his job was to repair or salvage some of the hundreds of Allied tanks lost around Caen. Many were fixed or cannibalised for parts, but many were burnt out wrecks. Only when absolutely drunk did he tell myself and my father his story of using an entrenching tool and a grappling hook to scrape out and remove human remains from burnt out tanks.
His overriding memory of Normandy were mosquitoes, lack of sleep, and the smell of death.
Pretty gruesome duty.
Mosquitoes. I read somewhere (I forget exactly where now) that malaria was not unknown among soldiers in the armies fighting in Normandy.
The retrieval and disposal of human remains among US forces was the duty of Graves Registration personnel, who seem to have drunk a lot of alcohol to cope with the work. I don't know who would have done work like that among the British and Canadians.
I would imagine identifying dead crew members in destroyed tanks was a challenging task and often impossible. Even though British IDs were asbestos and supposed to be fire resistant.
@R Lauder thank you so much for sharing this personal story
@@WorldWarTwo as Sparty keeps saying, we must never forget.
12:26 - Montgomery wearing a British Parachute Regiment smock. And what looks like their emblem on his beret, which may be their maroon one. More often he wore a black Royal Tank Corps beret.
Is it known that the scene in Tom Cruise's movie is accurate or was that creative writing? Did Von Stauffenberg not have time to arm the second bomb? If only...
Astrid mentioned in the last spies and ties episode. Someone opened the door and asked them to hurry up. Stauffenberg got nervous and left with only one bomb
@@stc3145 he had a special wrench created, to be able to arm the pencil fuses for the plastic explosies( having lost his right hand and having only some fingers left on his left hand) the fumbled the first fuse, got disturbed, got scared, and decided to use only the one armed block of plastics.( He being an officer, he had no experience with explosives)so they shoved the second block in the bag of his side, thereby having the force of the bomb. And then you had the stupid coincidence of one staffer playing stauffenbergs bag on the opposite side of the table leg from Hitler.
Great episode and keep up the great work.
Sure it was
Thanks for the kind words.
Thank you so much! We’ll do our best!
3:42 In a post last week you said that the plane was flown by Canadian pilot Charley Fox, not J. J. Le Roux.
I live in Lublin.
This day Germans started escaping Lublin - many people believed they are not going to fight at all. Local AK (Domestic Army) forces started to attack German forces; those attacks were spontaneous and managed to secure several crucial buildings which occupier forces planned to blow up (including water supply plant and railway station). In the afternoon, general Hjalmar Moser stopped the escapes and quickly mounted an organized defense.
Two days earlier, SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Koppe issued the order to "empty prisons", including orders to execute all prisoners who could not be evacuated, especially Jews. Today before noon, about 300 prisoners of Castle of Lublin were executed, the rest was set free by polish guards (they were ordered to open cells at 3 PM, but did it just after Germans evacuated instead).
By the way, Operation Tempest goes on. AK forces cooperated with Red Army during siege of Vilnus; all of them were arrested by NKVD afterwards. Tomorrow, Lwów uprising will start to the similar effect en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tempest#In_different_regions_of_Poland
Thank you for the History
Thanks for sharing this story!
Guam often seems to be overshadowed by other events. Thx for this Episode
It does doesn't it? Thanks for watching!
11:50 A meeting between Eisenhower and Montgomery?
Is it going to be pay per view?
Just realised, 22 July 1944 was also Saturday!
I thought I could ride it out and keep my big mouth shut, but St. Lo comes up so many times in this episode, that I have to correct Indy's pronunciation. It sounds like "low", not loo. San Low. 'Nuff said. Keep up the good work.
Thank you!
You would think after the explosion... That Hitler had also got CTE a lil from the blast. Which would explain his lack of control of rage behavior
Drug addiction didn't help either
@@mikeburns7638 oh definitely
Doesn't mix well w CTE
He may well have had PTSD. He also showed signs of hand tremors - some believe he was developing Parkinson's.
@@stevekaczynski3793 early onset Parkinson's or dementia. I wouldn't be shocked because he was in the battlefield.
Don't get me wrong, he's an evil guy. But it looks like CTE/Parkinson's/dementia
Lack of control of rage behavior; you go from looking like you are winning a war to getting your butt kicked. The you find out that the guys you are depending on to run the war have been secretly plotting against you.
I would argue a technicality here. Operation Fortitude in a sense succeeded until the end of the war. While they eventually were able convinced that Normandy was the main effort, they believed that the Calais landings were cancelled, not that they were fictional. It basically came down to being convinced that it was better to reinforce a successful landing, which made sense to the Germans as maintaining multiple different supply centers would be difficult given the limits of shipping. This matters because it meant that the Germans kept large numbers of fictional units, essentially all of FUSAG on their OOB tracker until the end of the war. They assumed far more units were in reserve, had elements disbanded for reinforcements, or attached to other formations. It wouldn't have changed much had they figured out the full scale of the deception at some point, but the fact they never really did is a bit amazing.
Almost time for Patton to get tagged in, finally!
"So let us do real fighting, boring in and gouging, biting.
"Let's take a chance now that we have the ball.
Let's forget those fine firm bases in the dreary shell raked spaces,
Let's shoot the works and win! Yes, win it all!"
A Poem by George S. Patton
The man belonged on the Mount Parnassus of literature.
Arriving after the war is won never stopped the hype.
Note that the Waffen-SS 2nd and 17th Divisions have reached the front line against the Americans. Prior to this, only the Canadians and I think also the British were encountering significant numbers of Waffen-SS troops in Normandy. The 2nd's arrival at the front was delayed by Resistance attacks, and they took many reprisals.
2nd SS Das Reich Division had a bloody and controversial reputation , it was this division that committed Tulle and Ordaour massacres in Southern France en route to Normandy. And thanks to SAS operation Bullbasket that wiped out their fuel stocks at Rhone Valley and French Resistance activity , they began to arrive to Normandy before US sector at Cotentin neck only on 29th June. Next day US artillery fire killed SS Major Otto Deakmann who was responsible for Ordaour massacre.
2nd SS sent a battlegroup (Kampfgruppe Weidinger) to fight the British during “EPSOM”
Others will know better than me, but I think it is correct to say the US Army faced very, very few Tiger tanks in Normandy, at least until the final days.
I don't much like Monty as a man- for example his paratrooper cosplay at 12:34- but he was a better general than he is often given credit for. He knew his army quite well. It was sad the 11th Armoured Division was hit hard in Goodwood: it was probably the best British armoured division but only got a fewe chances to show its mettle.
8.50: Would Monty really have spelled "armour" as "armor"?
Great Episode TG!
Thank you so much!
Thank you!
16:05 According to Wikipedia, OKH Chief of Staff during this time was Adolf Heusinger. Zeitzler had been replaced back in June
Love following my GPa, Herbert Schultz and the 2nd Marines/10th Regiment. After Saipan he'd be a Sgt. for the 10th Marine Corp Regiment. 3rd Gen German American who the Army believed looked to German and possibly still had Fam over in Europe, their loss. He was deciding between either College or accepting a Minor league Baseball deal from the Indians or Red Sox when the War started
Thank you for sharing this!
I remember in my teens meeting an old Brazilian lady whose son flew a P-47 Thunderbolt in Italy. She took great pride in saying that her son "took out a German railroad tunnel and went with it." Apparently they were using the P-47s as fighter-bombers to hit difficult targets in the mountains.
This week a plot of Four Tank-Men and a Dog (Czterej pancerni i pies) begins.
Well done Indy and team, I’m currently rewatching the weekly episodes again and I’m just starting 1940
Will you have caught up by the wars end?
@@archstanton6102 probably, this is the third time I’m going through the series
Thanks for being such a dedicated member!
Thank you!
Cool, reruns are cool :)
The European War was a yr of bad, the Pacific was 4.5 yrs of hell. Vets of diff theaters couldn't relate. My GPa was always glad the Army said, "You look to German, have a German last name & could still have Fam over there." Despite being a 3rd Gen American who was a Baseball star with Minor League offers & left Cleveland for L.A., joined the 2nd Marines, 10th Regiment shipped out in March '41- came home a Sgt. Oct '45.
Pretty crazy how far Tojo has fallen
In the background are the flags (left to right) of New Zealand, the US, Canada, Poland, the UK, and the Free French. How come the Soviet Union flag has gone. And why the New Zealand flag? If looking at the size of contribution to the war effort, shouldn't the Australian flag be present given their effort in the SW Pacific?
I wonder what if instead of hustilly leaving, Stauffenberg would use the panic to run to Hittler "to help" and just make sure that everything goes smoothly by using his handgun in case of necesity.
21:07 map jumpscare
🗺️ 👻
One curiosity about the July 20th plot is that Stauffenberg had two cases with explosives, but decided to take only one with him to the conference room because he failed to arm the second. However, historians and specialists all agree that if he had taken the second one aswell, it would've detonated due to the concept of 'solidary explosion' and Hitler wouldnt've survived on that scenario;
Also while the FEB reached Italy this week, they would spend their first weeks having a speedy training and receiving proper equipment, and would only move to join with the american troops in August.
@@badofi yeah even if the attempt worked and Hitler was killed, the conspirators' idea for a proposed peace treaty with the Allies and the Soviet Union was ludicrous, including things like keeping good part of the german conquered territory;
Considering the attempt happened after both Overlord and Bagration, there was no way neither side would accept their demands, and if anything the new government wouldn't last long.
Desmond Doss served on Guam fyi, I believe he was decorated for his services there. Bronz Star if I recall correctly
Konev's atttack in the south is well covered in Prit Buttar The Reconing p 389-449
12:40 Too bad you're not calling it Leghorn anymore. I quite like that name.
16:10 Funny how Zeitzler just decided that he had enough. Seems to be a bit of a tradition for the position.
The battle for Guam begins this week in 1944, the USN supports the attack and invasion escort carriers and battleships supported by TF58 3rd fleet, USMC, engages the Japanese 29 army, Interesting has the Japanese begun to unleash, the Kamikaze attacks? So the Allied forces take St
Lo and Caen? The operation Goodwood resulted in a 10 km gain, for 400 tanks? The bulk of the Wehrmacht panzers faced the British Canadian forces, this looks formidable!
Nice to hear about the Brazilian expeditionary force. They don't often get attention.
Saw Oppeinheimer last night so this episode is good
Also why is Lvov labelled as "Lviv"? The was named Lwow/Lvov at the time, and for the next half-century.
Indy even calls it "Lvov", so we know that's how it was written in the script.
It tended to be called the Russian name in Allied wartime sources, though Germans, not surprisingly, called it Lemberg.
This was the most americanest american intro so far and I loved it.
RAAAAAAAA🦅🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸🦅
You should do a month by month cold war series after this ends
Hey Indy! I am pretty sure you'll know the answer to who gave that order, once you sit in your chair of knowledge!
Indy, do have we any news about action in Greece or Balkans? Great work here. Thanks.
VIVA BRAZIL! the Brazilieros arrive in Italy, to serve alongside their fellow airmen,! The Allies take Livorno and Napoli but the place needs work!
400 Tanks lost in 2 Days? Monty has to explain this, those are Soviet- like Tank losses!
You go charge in with 3 tank divisions into a strong defensive line you might lose some. This is why you keep them in reserve for the exploitation of the breakthrough. Usually achieved with infantry and artillery. Except Monty's 'masterplan' of tying the strongest German forces at Caen had caused him to exhaust his infantry divisions. And his tank divisions were still relatively fresh. Not anymore. Still, as long as you maintain control of the battlefield afterwards you can recover quite a lot of those tanks afterwards for repairs. And contrary to popular myth the Sherman was not that deadly to its crews. Overall the British tank divisions recovered far better from the Normandy campaign then the infantry divisions, some of which had to be disbanded to keep the rest up to strength.
Actually only 150 of those 400 knocked out tanks were totally lost that is beyond repair. 250 or so were repaired in one week or so then returned back to fight and tank replacements were on the way. Montgomery was aware that he could afford losing machines and material (tank crews also had higher rate of survival) but he could not replace infantrymen that fell since very little infantry replacements left due to manpower crisis in British Army (thay had been in war for five years almost and they never had a large manpoıwer pool like US , Soviet Union and even Germany in first place)
At about this time a British officer checked out remains of British tanks that had been destroyed by 88s in Normandy. He peered down the hatch of one that externally seemed OK, only with a little rust colouring on the outside characteristic of armoured vehicles that had caught fire. He stared down at a charred skeleton of a crew member, probably killed by the fire as he tried to exit the tank. Near the driver's area was a sort of charred puddle, probably all that was left of the driver. Sounds like the stuff of postwar nightmares.
@@stevekaczynski3793 there are similar Reports about looking inside German Pz3 and 38t after beeing Hit by KV-1 Tanks.
Smoldering Puddle on the Inside Hull.
Its not only Explosion, Fire and Shrapnell, also the critlcal and instant change of Pressure.
Well the ability of the Sherman would let a general get away with it for the sake of the offensive, instead of your soviet crew's dead in a hit T34
Thanks for a great new video, just wanna ask if you could do a video about south africa such as the tensions between the English and afrikaaners.
Happy you enjoyed! I can definitely put a note in for that, I might also be able to discuss it sooner over on our Twitter
-Will
@@WorldWarTwo thanks, good luck with your future videos! Cannot wait until the next one.
I seem to remember - it's been a while, admittedly - that Guderian went for an extremely long walk the day of the Valkyrie assassination (Guderian's biography). It makes everyone suspect that he knew about the plot, but wasn't committing either way.
According to Wikipedia (not always a reliable source) he went to his estate and stayed there on the day in question. Did he know something was going down? His zeal later may have been an effort to cover something up - a less extreme version of Fromm's behaviour.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Occam's Razor is always credible. He would have heard scuttlebutt in his position and foreknowledge is the simplest explanation for him deciding to take a personal day in the middle of a war he's in the process of losing.
@@Raskolnikov70 If he wanted to stay out of it he would have needed to avoid two places in particular - Rastenburg, where he was perhaps persona non grata at that point anyway, and Berlin, where he might get caught up in the coup attempt and be forced to commit to one side or the other. Time-out in the countryside might well have been the safest option.
Who knew what and how much about the plot is a difficult question for the historian - it certainly kept the Gestapo and SS busy. Heusinger, for example, seems to have known in general terms about the plot but did not expect it to go down on July 20, and he was wounded by the bomb. He was nonetheless a suspect and was detained and questioned, but released. Guderian's behaviour suggests he might have known something would go down on or around July 20.
Just a reminder, Belarus suffered the most deaths of any country by percentage with as high 30%(but more likely 25%) of the population dying in the war.
I am having a slight feeling like some of the constituent states of the soon to be Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia might be higher, Serbia had a really bad rate in the First World War (people keep forgetting about Serbia back then even though it was why that war was fought in the first place), but certainly Belarus had ridiculously high casualties.
Belarus was not a country in World War II. It was part of the USSR.
@@jliller It did technically have UN representation interestingly.
@@jliller Still interesting to break it down geographically like that. Belarus was where the most intensive anti-partisan campaigns were carried out by the Wehrmacht and SS, which is probably what led to the death toll being so high.
@@Raskolnikov70Reminds me of the movie Come and see
On rommel, his support for the coup is more debatable and seems to come more from anecdotale evidences than anything else.
No way that in fact he would have the brains and the courage to support and commit to a plot against his friend Hitler
He would rather incompetently suicide the whole North African Front than taking those type of risks
Almost certainly he was, like Guderian, waiting to see if it worked before choosing a side. In the meanwhile doing a Sgt Schultz act - "I see nuthink!".
An excellent great video.Except the gas warfare were there any other available counter measures against the v2?Something like a massive raid of 1,000 B36 bombers against the v2 factories and launch sites?What was the cost of the soviet success in the Operation Bagration?Have a good one.What happened to the South African ace who shot up Rommel's car?
The V2s were produced in an underground factory not vulnerable to bomb damage. They were launched from mobile sites making them hard to eliminate. After the Operation Crossbow bombing, initial plans for launching from the massive underground Watten, Wizernes and Sottevast bunkers or from fixed pads such as near the Château du Molay[48] were dismissed in favour of mobile launching. Eight main storage dumps were planned and four had been completed by July 1944 (the one at Mery-sur-Oise was begun during August 1943 and completed by February 1944).[49] The missile could be launched practically anywhere, roads running through forests being a particular favourite. The system was so mobile and small that only one Meillerwagen was ever caught in action by Allied aircraft, during the Operation Bodenplatte attack on 1 January 1945[50] near Lochem by a USAAF 4th Fighter Group aircraft, although Raymond Baxter described flying over a site during a launch and his wingman firing at the missile without hitting it.
@@caryblack5985 Thank you.That was a tricky one.
@@caryblack5985 Watten and Wizernes were used for V1 launches. Both were heavily bombed by the British but one bomb aimer said trying to hit the tiny blockhouses that launched them was like trying to hit a postage stamp. Some V1 launch sites were also decoys - it wasn't just the Allies that went in for fakes to deceive the enemy.
I'm glad to see the early episodes out early again guys! Hopefully we can keep that up again now that the 24 hour D-Day special is all done.
I like the idea Indy had in this weeks video about a special on the Japanese high command as well! There are so many great specials that you guys could do covering WW2 and you are really good at them as well!
I'm guessing when the war ends and the work on the weekly episodes has stopped you'll be able to double back and do lots of special videos! For example, I really like the coverage you guys did of the D-Day scene on the movie "Saving Private Ryan". You could do more coverage on WW2 movies talking about what is accurate and not and what was good about the movie and not as well. Sort of like the RUclips channel History Buffs does but you guys would just cover WW2 movies within this channel. Covering the new Christoper Nolan movie about Oppenheimer would be amazing I think (A special on the Manhattan project would be great as well)! You could do other movies from other periods of history on the TimeGhost channel. Another example would be doing a video on the movie "13 days" about the Cuban Missile Crisis would be a great pairing with your coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis as well!
I feel like other specials doing biographies about the officers and other important people of WW2 would be amazing as well! I would myself really like to see you guys do specials on the small arms, tanks, planes, ships and other weapons of the war as well. We wouldn't need you to go in depth on the weapons as other channels do already do that (Forgotten Weapons) and it isn't really your specialty. But I think an individual video on say the US small arms, then the Germans and so on would be really cool and would fit in great with your coverage of WW2. Coverage of the weapons and the on battlefield tactics (not the grand tactics you already cover) seems like a whole on the war you are missing right now (to me at least). You could explain why each country developed certain small arms for the war and didn't develop others based on their individual strategy of how they wanted to fight the war. I really liked your videos on the Great War channel about the small arms of that war and the diversity of small arms in WW2 would make coverage of that topic even better here I think! And then you of course can do the same thing on American, German, Soviet and so on tanks, planes and ships as well.
Other quick topic examples that you can make a 10-15 minute video on that I'd like to see would be about the creation of the 5-Star rank in the US military to match the Field Marshall rank of other nations and why the US created and who was given that rank and why. Coverage of what Army Group Commanders were in charge of in terms of their area of responsibility and what Armies, Corps and divisions were under their command would be really cool. So it would talk about the order of command say in the Western front after WW2. So it would show Eisenhower, what Army Groups were under his command then guys like Montgomery, Bradley and Devers (always forgotten about) and what armies were under their command. Then there can be a video talking about the German order of battle on the Western front, Eastern front and so on. What armies and navy task forces were under the command of guys like MacArthur and Nimitz and what their areas of responsibility during WW2 were. The sheer size and the amount of forces under the command of these guys was amazing. It is a way to really put the size of WW2 into perspective for many people when you cover things that way. Because if you think that just a single individual division from WW2 was bigger than most armies throughout human history and then think about how many commanders in WW2 were commanding multiple corps made up of multiple divisions things just really get insane and the size of WW2 really starts to take shape in many peoples minds. An amazing stat I always like is how at the end of WW2 Patton's 3rd army alone was equal in size to Montgomery's 21st Army Group (the 1st Canadian and 2nd British armies made up the 21st Army Group). At the end of WW2 Patton's 3rd army had 18 divisions in it, the same number of divisions that Montgomery's 21 Army Group had in it at the end of WW2.
Lastly anther example of a special video I'd really like to see you make would be about the 255 vs 90 division army dispute that happened within the US and why the US went down the 90 division route with the support and requests from the US allies the UK and USSR. The US allies wanted the US to go down the smaller route so that the US didn't take to much from their at home work force that was making the food and military equipment that the United Nations forces needed to fight WW2. I think this would be a really good topic to make a video about that is not talked about by any other history channel on YT that I can think of. *The US did have more than 90 divisions in WW2. 91 in the Army and 6 in the Marines. The "90 division gamble" led to US divisions never being pulled from the line for rest though since replacements were just sent right to the front to be incorporated into already standing formations of units.
Here’s another topic suggestion: Press coverage of the war, including commenter opinions. There would be lessons to be learned by us outsiders in how wrong we can be.
@@rogerknights857 I agree, that would be a good topic. The modern press/media was really born out of WW2 so it would be a good topic to cover when they have time and I feel like it would be right up their ally to cover as well!
Duuude, biographies of the most important officers - with maps showing troop movements and so on - would be GREAT!! I would stay several years more a member of TGA after the war instead of be demobilized 😂
@@albiagioni100 @worldwartwo I hope you guys see these posts!