178 - Hitler's Interference is losing the war - WW2 - January 22, 1943
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- This is a rough week for the Germans- their trapped garrison at Velikie Luki is liquidated, and their trapped army at Stalingrad is... well, it isn't going well for them. In fact, it isn't going well for the Axis anywhere this week, being pushed back or retreating in New Guinea, the Caucasus, North Africa, and on Guadalcanal. Berlin is even bombed this week as well.
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Is the war lost? Is the war won? That question follows us everyday. In hindsight we can pinpoint any point the war is decided. When do you think it was?
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I think the turning point was in November 1942, when the german faced THREE military desaster: the defeat at El Alamein, the landings in Tunesia and the encirclment of Stalingrad.
In my opinion from what I heard about the war from you guys, the war was lost the moment British refused to give up. Nazi regime was inherently unstable and with enemy constantly poking at it, possibly suppling partisan movements and so on, it would just collapse no matter how successful would be the eastern campaign.
@@michalmaixner3318 But the Nazis never did collapse until Berlin was surrounded by Soviets. And it seems England had little to do with it.
Summer or fall of 1941, when Stalin and the Soviets failed to surrender on schedule. The rest is details.
Pearl Harbor, no matter how successful the Germans or Japanese may have been, they would just end up getting nuked
It’s crazy to think that when this series started, I was a junior in high school sitting in my algebra 2 class on the laptop and I see the invasion of Poland pop up on my recommendations. Now I work full time and am slowly making my way through college. Amazing how time flies.
Thanks for sticking with us for so long! We're really glad to hear that :)
After The collapse of The USSR everyone had it hard. Even The mummified corpse of Lenin had to rise from The dead and move to Poland.
Only to discover hes degrees were totally obsolete and thus he had to go Back to school, starting from kindergarden.
But now he is working full Time while studying in college. So you see all you have to do is just work hard and anything is possible.
Sorry I read The comment and youre user name and I just had to 😅
hehe, welcome to the club pal. This is my second war. Following since the start of Great war myself :)
Many of us have been here from day 1 of the World War 1 series and rolling into WW2. By the time the WW2 series finishes I will have been watching Indy & team for pretty much a decade..
@@OneLeatherBoot 4 years of great war, interwar period and 6 years of ww2... gonna be more than a decade my friend! Damn. that sure does sound weird when you think about it.
What I find fascinating about the "Battle of Stalingrad" film footage is that, because the movie was made so soon after the war, the production used actual WW2 vehicles and equipment instead of mockups.
the same thing )
@@claudermiller one of the problems was getting hold of larger german equipment because it was either in scraps or sold/donated off to developing countries (though in later years eg the Spanish air force was happy to donate old planes from their bf109/110 based airforce for Battle of Britain) so you end up with the allies having to fight the dreaded schermannpanzer
@@pnutz_2 that or the Tiger34 haha.
@@firemochimc ah yes, as seen in kelly's heroes
Do you have more info on “Battle of Stalingrad” movie you refer to? I have recently acquired a couple movies on this battle, and would like to see if I can find it on dvd..
I LOVE this show and watch it the minute it hits the net here in England. My father fought with the British army in Malaya, captured at Singapore, worked the "Burma railroad of death", then got sent by "Hellship" to Japan where he was liberated by the US marines from "Mitsushima" pow camp in Tokyo. He was placed on a hospital ship, the USS RESCUE from which he was able to watch McCarthur accept the Japanese surrender. As there were no British forces in Japan, the Americans kitted him out with a marine corp unifrom, which I still have to this very day. So dad went out a Brit and came home a yank !!
That's awesome.
The truth is often stranger than fiction, as they say.
My granddad volunteered early in the war, was sent to the far east as a (British) infantryman. He was chased out of Burma by the Japanese - falling unconscious with malaria into the arms of British soldiers manning the border post into India. Then later was transferred to North Africa (and Italy after that) and became the driver of a Sherman Tank.
His brother, my great-uncle Bill, started out as RAF ground crew, also in Burma - was caught by the Japanese during the retreat through that country, was stood in a line up beside the road with the rest of his unit by the Japanese, who proceeded to machine gun them all. He twigged as the bullets were about to reach him, threw himself backward into the ditch behind them, then was covered by the falling bodies of his comrades. The Japanese machine gunned the bodies some more in the ditch, then moved on - and Bill dragged himself unwounded from the ditch, the sole survivor.
He then went missing - turned up drunk in Liverpool a year and a half later - and after being identified as who he said he was, rather than being charged as an AWOL deserter, as he had come off a tramp freighter, he was put into a Royal Navy battleship as a loader of the big guns. The ship then promptly sailed back east and he spent the later months of the war sailing up and down the coast of China, loaded enormous shells into vast cannon that were fired at Japanese positions inside Chinese cities - his conscience remained very troubled at the thought of how many Chinese civilians were killed in the process, a LOT he guessed.
'Insanity', as Bill said to me once.
That’s a great story. Did your dad ever see the movie “Bridge on the River Kwai”? And if yes, what did he think of it?
@Jack Thank you for sharing your father's story. That is an incredible experience to have been in Burma, a hell ship, and a Japanese POW camp. Very glad to have you with us, take good care with that uniform but we would love to see a photo of it, if you ever get the chance. Stay tuned!
Rule Britannia! -- A salute from a retired U.S. Navy chief petty officer to your father from across the Pond in the Pacific Northwest. Thank you for sharing your fine story.
Fun fact.
After Stalingrad, there was a major change in characters.
"While Stalin began to listen more closely to his generals allowing them to formulate plans with more freedom than ever before, Hitler began to listen less and less to his Generals and interfered in the various plans his generals made"
source?
@@Fanon29 'Trust me bro'
all mad men do this why they lose at the end
@@mars188 not really mad. Just incredibly arrogant and maniacal
Max Hastings makes this point in "Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945"
It's interesting how the battles of Stalingrad and Guadalcanal are coming to an end around the same time, with some other shared features such as both Axis armies starving.
That's what total naval dominance does for you!
@@joeberesford5015 Naval dominance in Stalingrad???
Guadacanal in total 100 000 men plus ships (many thousands there too). It is quite a difference in scale losing 30 000 soliders from 300 000...
@@joeberesford5015 ah yes, the great naval victory of Stalingrad! When the USSR Lenin smashed the Bismarck and left it to rust at the bottom of the Volga! How could anyone forget such an awe inspiring victory!
@@samuelgordino technically snow is just frozen water... so I guess you could call it naval domiance!
I may be wrong , but the name "guards mortar regiment" is not meant for the usual mortar units but for heavy howitzers and katyusha rocket units wich are still some short of secret weapon and are just categorized under the name "mortars" for diversionary purposes .
So those "guards mortar regiments" are veteran breakthrough heavy artillery units.
Great show as always
You are correct: Guards mortar is the codename for rocket launcher units.
Yep that is correct
Yep, the Katyusha was the war winning secret weapon of the Soviets, stopped Guderian dead at Yelnia in 1941, his diversion south and involvent at Kiev were all part of this...to save his Panzer army from annihilation if he kept trying to advance on Moscow across the land bridge from Smolensk. The Katyushas were held back and first deployed there, the panzer divisions were smashed into scrap metal. The Germans were shocked into indecision, they could not advance at all, Summer, 1941. They literally did not know what had hit them.
@mario Thanks for watching!
Few know this, but the honorific, “Jose”, would be bestowed on a number of other German generals as the War progressed. Paulus was eventually found unworthy of it, having not complied with orders that came with the title.
I have it on good authority that Steiner was stripped of the title as well near the end of the war.
You need to back me up with more comments like this!
You should really talk about Jean de Selys Longchamps and his Attack on the Gestapo headquarters in Brussels! could be a cool sabaton song
They don't do single battle episodes,(Réunion was an exception) much less single plane attacks. Mark Felton did a good video on it though
@@Adiscretefirm well sometimes they make a special character episode :)
@@arozes8324 and Indy has done a joint with Sabaton, so that was a good suggestion as well.
Yes, that's a cool story!
One of the major battles that began this week: German "Fall Weiss" (case white) or how it is commonly referred as Battle of Neretva.
It was a German attempt to destroy Yugoslav Partisan movement by attacking its main HQ and units under its direct command. The battle lasted for two months and resulted in Axis strategic failure with Partisans escaping with heavy losses and the movement continuing to operate. It was also significant in the internal struggle for power between Yugoslav resistance groups. The Chetniks actually fought alongside the axis against the partisans. However, they were decisively defeated and their influence as a Resistance group started dwindling at this point.
I would rather have this in the video than the 100th order of battle on the Battle of Stalingrad.
Told them so a couple of weeks ago, but don't worry they won't mention it. Yugoslav front is not interesting...well maybe for WAH, but not for a regular episodes.
This battle quite fits into the current narrative of the war. Partisans held a big chunk of Yugoslavia since the summer of '41. And even when Užice Republic fell, they managed to win even more territory and effectively destroy Italian puppet state of Montenegro. So why did the Axis effort to clear the region of major resistance groups came at this point in the war?
Well the answer is obvious, between loosing ground in N. Africa and the deteriorating situation in the East, Balkans were seen as a potential battlefield in the near future, either as a landing spot for the Western Allies, or as a direction of the Soviet initiative, so the Axis desperately wanted to solidify their position in the region.
They intensified their anti-partisan operations in '43 with major battles like Neretva or Sutjeska (Case Black), both of which caused Yugoslav Partisans heavy casualties but no "final blow". Thus, the operations backfired since more and more people joined the partisans since its core units and leadership remained in operational condition.
@@niksamaletic6875 I wouldn't be surprised if they had a special episode about it lined up, for the reason that you mentioned about how it fits into the overall progress of the war. Even if they wouldn't admit it publicly I'm sure the Germans knew they'd be fighting a lot closer to home fairly soon.
@@niksamaletic6875 Absolutely agree with you. Axis geathered around 90 thousand soldiers and 12 bomberr squadrons against 21-22 thousand Partisans, but it seems it is not interesting one for them.
"Velikie Luki" A battle I never heard of, but thanks to this series I have. Thanks guys!
That's why we all love and watch this show.
@Okiedog1 We're very happy to have you here with us, as we all move through this war together. Stay tuned, there are much more lesser-known events yet to come
Another unknown battle was the battle for Voronezh which city was divided by frontline from the autumn of 1941 till January of 1943 and brutal street fights were Happened all the time. More than 400k soviet soldiers were killed in that battle.
Suggestion: The coverage of the Velike Luki battle could be made more interesting if it were to describe what was so important about Velike Luki. Specifically, it was a major railroad hub, and as such, it was one of the lynch pins of the German Eastern Front, stretching from Smolensk to Rzhev to Leningrad, etc. Once they lost Velike Luki, the Germans would not be able to hold the Rzhev salient. By March, they completely withdrew from the salient. Operation Mars thus came to a successful end.
Final Episode: Indy talking on the phone..the camera then pans left to show the barred door of a sanatorium. The camera then pans down to see the phone jack laying unplugged on the floor while Indy continues to speak. Fade to Black...
Just watching as one of the squares dissolve’s is chilling to think of the ending lives that simple animation represents.
Thank you. Difficult to keep that in perspective in this war, but we must try.
Guard mortar brigades are actually armed with self-propelled rocket launchers, popularly known as katyushas.
Stalin Organs
Stalinorgel
Mortars much more accurate
@Fred Nurke Not really.
@@larryzigler6812 spoken by someone not standing within 200m of the aim point of a katyusha battery. If you were you would appreciate the quality that quantity has.
As far as I understand the major source about what happened on the eastern front in the Axis camp is from the surviving generals. It seems to me that their tendency to put the blame on Hitler, the weather and everything else but the axis generals should maybe be, at least, questioned.
How do you propose questioning them? A Ouija board?
@@MarcosElMalo2 As far as I understand many historians have started to examine the events and use the reports from axis generals more like just one input and not The Truth about how events unfolded.
One popular idea has been that if it wasn't for Hitler the axis powers may have won the war on the eastern front. I am fairly certain that that particular idea is debunked by now.
Absolutely. It seems that 1950s / 1960s historians and military personel fell for the German cult pretty fully. That having been said, many modern historians have effectively deconstructed and refuted the "German military genius" myth. Robert Citino is a great read if you are wanting to go down that road.
As some of the viewers previously commented, the German offensive against Yugoslav Partisans started on Jan 20th. This resulted in 2 big battles on Neretva and Sutjeska rivers in the period of 6 months. This unsuccessful offensives were a turning point for Yugoslav Partisans. Maybe you could make a special episode that combines both of these battles.
Partisan activity is covered on the War Against Humanity, so you really have to ask Sparty about that.
@@Southsideindy Parisans HQ with Tito made tricky move at the battle at the Neretva river. That would be more for your show than for Sparty’s.
Anyway, thanks a lot for this channel, I adore it!!!
@@andrejpilipovic8034 I would second that. These two battles are among the most famous and important battles of the whole Yugoslavian campaign during the war. And after all, they are full-fledged battles, not smaller partisan operations.
@@andrejpilipovic8034 well, we see it differently. This is not two shows, it’s one show - we just cover different things in different formats. The weekly episodes that Indy write and host focus mainly on the regular military war on the frontlines and geopolitical game. The biweekly episodes that I write and host cover the irregular military war behind the frontlines in occupied territory, acts of war against civilians in enemy territory, and the atrocities committed against both military personnel and civilians. Once a month the home front is covered by Anna, and espionage is covered by Astrid. We don’t select what is to be covered where based on how important it was, or are you saying that the genocides in this war were less important than the military conflict?
In any case, Fall Weiss II checks all the boxes to be covered in the War Against Humanity format. It’s a suppression campaign against irregular forces. It takes place in occupied territory. Most of the casualties are civilians. It’s a significant development of the ethnic atrocities committed in occupied Yugoslavia during the war.
Therefore it will be covered in detail in the episodes I write and host, beginning next week and until it ends in March. I might add that it’s not because I’m looking forward to cover it… none of us look forward to covering anything about the Balkans, since the conflict tends to flare up again in our comment section, what with it being an ongoing unresolved conflict to this day.
@@LightFykki again - it’s not size or scope that dictate theses choices… the parts of the conflict covered in the War Against Humanity episodes have so far involved more people, caused more destruction, and killed more people than the regular military conflict - sadly that will be the case until the war ends.
@19:04 Zeitzler probably did Manstein the biggest favor of his life by not passing on that note to Hitler.
Love the animation showing the starting line, then advance and then redrawing the starting line.
Hi Indy.
You mentioned that this week Iraq declared war on Axis. We will see that happen more often in the next months. Countries far way from the front, to declare war on Germany. I would like to know what that war declaration meant for these countries. Did they send any troops to any fronts? Did they do anything else to assist the Allies? Iraq was already under British occupation since 1941. Why did they need to declare war?
Thanks
It would be very difficult to go through each country which declared war on the Axis and what they did. Some like Mexico and Brazil actually sent troops. Other helped economically or used their geographic location to aid the Allies by allowing bases to be set up. Your best bet in wikipedia which gives information about each country in WWII.
@@caryblack5985 Indy did it in his Great War series, so who knows. We might get some special episodes.
In the case of Iraq, it meant that the country was solidly under British control and any chance of a pro-Nazi regime coming into power there were over.
Winston Churchill, who was very attuned to the German threat in the Middle East, thought that the Fallschirmjäger who died on Crete would have been better used on capturing and regime solidification in Syria and Iraq - "vast wavering regions where no serious opposition could be expected."
Brazilians for example sent a corps-sized expeditionary force and some fighter planes to the Italian front even though I'm committing a spoiler here. Their declaration of war against the Axis in August 1942 was caused by massive shipping losses to German & Italian submarines.
Iraq was bombed by German forces operating out of Vichy French Syria.
Precision bombing = “the bombs usually land in the same country as the target”
Butt Report
Precision bombing destroyed hundreds of German war production factories and saved the Soviet Union from half of the Luftwaffe and their airforce was easily the most decisive advantage the Germans held over the Soviets so not having to deal with half of it was very helpful in their offensives which might otherwise have been stopped in their tracks by Stuka Dive bombers supported by FW 190 and BF 109 fighters
@@tylerclayton6081 The point was more that “precision bombing” in WW2 was basically a myth. If you drop enough bombs in the general area of the target some of them will take out what you are aiming for.
The Norden bomb sight was mostly a bad joke (as was it being “SECRET”)(the design was actually REJECTED by the Germans prior to WW2).
The first precision guided bombs were deployed by the Germans in July 1943 (Fritz X) for shipping strikes.
Crippled the Axis in every possible sense and made for a land-army worth of effort, not bad for unaccurate bombing
@@dusk6159 nope. the USAF will have virtually zero effect on German industry and do little or nothing to aid the war effort this year. That is those raids that actually find their targets and don’t end up bombing Switzerland. You ought to note the dispute between the USAF and the RAF over the results of large daylight raids conducted by bombers in tight formation. I am betting the RAF are right on that one, they have been conducting bomber raids over Europe for 3 years and have fought several successful air defence campaigns while the USAF have done naff all. Also it isn’t much use having a bombsight that you claim can drop a bomb through a skylight on a barn roof from 10,000ft if the navigator can’t be sure of finding the district in which the farm on which the barn stands is located.
Thank you for the great video and detailed information. My father did 52 missions in B17's over Germany and one of his brothers died fighting with Patton's army. I have a wall filled with my father's WWII photos and medals.
@Go4Um That's quite the family history from the war. We would love any information you have on their service, if you don't mind sharing photos or anything you have. It's really incredible to hear from the families of the soldiers involved. Please stay tuned for more
"Friedrich José Paulus" is the best running dad joke ever!
4:44. A year later, and I still can't get over how much Indy looks like Voronov.
Now I can't unsee it lol
I think I said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again in the future, but props to both Daniel and Sietse for those tasty map animations. High fives to both of ya!
Thank you! We are really thankful for your support.
@@WorldWarTwo Eastory is not doing the maps anymore?
Thanks :)
@@TheBreadB sometime last year Eastory decided to focus on other projects, if I recall correctly
So as a Australian I would like to point out why MacArthur was not eager to praise the Australian force fighting in Australia during the war. Since the start of the New Guinee campaign the Australian media had been wrongly criticizing the Australian forces in New Guinee for everything they thought they were doing wrong and complaining about them not being able to push a smaller force of Japanese out while having air control there. This was because the Australian leadership, media and citizens wanted their main fighting forces of their long term and well training military that was fighting in Africa back close to Australia and working to defend the homeland. The British would not give up the Australian forces fighting in Africa though saying they were needed for fighting Germany (which was true). As a result we needed to use our new division of drafted soldiers who were not trained for anywhere near as long as our normal force was and was not as well equipped at the start of the fighting as the troops should have been. So when it seemed the Australian troops were having trouble pushing out a smaller Japanese force the media again pounced on that as a way to try to get our main fighting force back close to Australia and fighting there (the vast majority of Australian troops in Africa wanted to fight against the Japanese as well). So it was seen by Australians, MacArthur and much of the world at the time that the Australian troops fighting in New Guinee were not doing a good job and were kind of like the Australians back-up military. This was because newspapers in the rest of the world (the Western allied nations at least) were reporting on what the Australian media was reporting on of the New Guinee campaign. It was latter talked about in Australian media and by MacArthur why the Australian troops rightly so had a hard time pushing the Japanese out of New Guinee do to the terrain. If you look at MacArthur's statements later in WW2 and especially after WW2 he constantly praised the Australian forces under his command and talked about the very hard conditions they had to fight under in New Guinee. It was just that at that exact time during the war the Australian forces fighting in New Guinee were not thought of highly until the conditions they were fighting under came out when American troops started to arrive in New Guinee.
thank you on that informations
McArthur was so much of a wanker that even Eisenhower- the pinnacle of diplomacy that could work even with *Montgomery*- hated him with a passion.
Yeah, I read somewhere the Australians were very wary of MacArthur. MacArthur was pretty much the leader of the Philippines before the war. Then after the war, he was Japan's first President. I think these political ambitions were very evident and a bit threatening to Australians.
Things were more nuanced and complex than you describe. The Australians had three divisions involved in the North African and Syrian campaigns. When the war with Japan began, two divisions were pulled out and one remained for several more months. This was seen by many (or most?) as a good compromise as the 8th and 9th British armies would have been greatly weakened if all three divisions were pulled out immediately without giving the UK enough time to find replacements for them and transport them to Egypt.
As to whether the Australian people wanted all their troops deployed against the Japanese, well it tends to be a party political debate. The political party in power at the time pushed the nationalistic line, while the opposition were more for coordinating the war effort with the empire and its reliable allies like the Americans. I won't mention which political party was in power because in these days of hyper political partinsanship it might start an argument. So lets jsut say that the opposition party and most of those who voted for them wanted a broad coordinated policy with the allies, while those who voted for the governing party tended to be more focused on nationalism and local defence.
A recent book on this is MacArthur's coalition by Peter J Dean
I find , time between two episodes become longer and longer for me. Can`t wait next .
Thanks!
Always looking forward to the Saturdays and new episodes from you, Indy :D
Same here brother.
Thank you!
I watch these as I list stuff on eBay and Amazon...makes my day much more exciting
@Tony Tone We're very glad to be along with you wonderful people in our audience, wherever you listen or watch the show. Thanks for the kind words, and please stay tuned
Man, the details down to the day are really profound. Well done, I can see how much time are put into these videos.
The one sided phone conversation is why I watch. Newhart would be proud.
0:21 you missed a great opportunity for the pun "yeah thanks, tanks"
Just imagine being one of those 183 that escaped The Citadel. I can't even begin to contemplate what they had to tell their comrades or the mental scars they bore for the rest of their lives, however long they were, from the vicious fighting.
You guys made a nice video in Dec 1940 Paulus told Halder they could not go beyond the Vulga and could not win on the East. A self-fulfilling prophecy
Yep
@@robinhood4911 I see what you mean you are talking about believe you have received it and you will. However, you need to be rational. Germany could not fight 3 superpowers and win! They were out of fuel and they could not keep up with allies production factories
@@alih6953 I agree with you.
Even without lend lease, Soviet Industry was vastly outproducing the Nazis. Lend-lease certainly was a substantial help to the Red Army, but with or without it, Nazi Germany was doomed. Hitler and the Nazi leadership were detached from reality, buying their own ideological bullshit rather than accepting the facts. Hitler’s ambitions of German expansion eastward (lebensraum) were delusional from the get go.
It doesn’t matter if Hitler later recognized the reality of the situation at Stalingrad. The whole enterprise was insane from the start.
@@MarcosElMalo2 Yeah 100%. I agree with you. Even if they would have taken Moscow and even if they would taken Stalingrad they would lose. Napoleon took Moscow but lost. It is crazy though the Mongolian empire held many parts of Russia because they allowed anyone to recruit into their army.
@@robinhood4911 yes and no. Certainly I think your underling point that Paulus was the wrong commander for 6th army is a strong one. But his point at the time - that time, space and logistics limited the duration and achievable distance of a German offensive was remarkably prescient. Mechanised warfare requires immense logistics and Paulus’s (and others) show that they simply weren’t sustainable 1000km from the nearest usable railhead. And he was right. Germany’s sole chance of beating Russia lay in triggering a political collapse such as what occurred in 1917. A military defeat was essentially impossible. And so it proved.
The deeds of the few alpine troops that broke the encirclement and reached the friendly lines are almost epic, a truly reverse advance that had its climax in the Battle of Nikolayewka
I always find the year 1943 as the most exciting period of the war. For in this year new weapons and technologies appeared in force. Also, this is the period of the war when both sides were roughly equal in capabilities; one could distinguish the good generals from those that had before the elements of surprise and material superiority. Greetings from Mexico ✌️
Saludos 🖖
@Belmont79 Thanks for watching, Viva Mexico!
Thanks to everyone that makes this channel and content available. I literally work whole shifts with this channel in my ear. I love it. Thank you
@WrecksMo Very privileged to be with you at work! Thanks for being with us, stay tuned for much more
After the capture of Pitomnik Airport on 17 January 1943, Gumrak Airport (now known as Volgograd International Airport) was the last place for the Luftwaffe to fly in supplies and evacuate the wounded (in theory, at least, you needed a medical certificate permitting evacuation). I read once that by the 22nd Gumrak was surrounded by wounded men who had failed to get selected for a flight out, and were then basically left there to die.
Yeah I also read absolutely horrible scenes happening at Gumrak. Wounded begging to leave, some of them fighting for a place inside, or even clinging to the aircraft. Others having accepted their fate just blankly waiting to die. Some JU-52's crashing from overload at the end of the runway killing all inside, no more medical supplies, hundreds of dead piled and wounded awaiting help that never comes, out in the freezing cold.
Must've been the saddest sight to behold, on a human perspective.
A relevant WW2 movie to watch around this week is "Stalingrad" (1993) by Joseph Vilsmaier.
The film depicts the battle of Stalingrad from the point of View of a group of German soldiers who arrive to the city in the wake of Paulus' 3rd offensive. The first half contains some of the best depictions of the combats on Stalingrad, while the second depicts the deteriorating situation of the surrounded 6th army during January 1943.
Period covered: August 1942-2 February 1943
Historical accuracy: 4/5
IMDB grade: 7.5/10
Other: winner of the Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Production on the Bavarian Film Awards
Thanks to RUclips, I saw this about a year ago. It's fantastic. They got that movie as close to documentary accurate without an audible narrator.
It's actually the best movie about Stalingrad battle. That doesn't mean that it's perfect, there's still a couple of historical errors or stereotypical narrations, but it's quite good nethertheless and definitely worth watching.
@@Mikhalych88 Agreed. The best war movies are the ones that can accurately recreate what it was like on the ground for the soldiers fighting it, not necessarily what the generals were doing on their map boards.
That movie has T-34/85 on stalingrad, that kills all the immersion lmao
A really good movie. The ending is superb as well. "You know whats the best part of dying of coldness? You dont feel anything"
Been binging the entire WW1 Week By Week recently, I'm so glad I got to the WW2 series in time for Stalingrad! Wonderful, wonderful work - to much content for a single man to consume :D
@adhdlama We're very glad you're enjoying the series so far. Stay tuned for much, much more to come as long as this war drags on
Australian Army bursts to total victory driving the enemy to the sea. Good job! I am glad your coverage is not US centric as I learned as a boy. Now for more islands, if we can win them.
Thanks! We do our best to follow as much action, by as many forces, around the world as we can. Check out our day-by-day instagram coverage as well, we fit lots more history in there on smaller fronts such as the Kokoda trail featuring the Australians
11:10 Im not to sure why but this moment really got me this week, usually getting emotional is reserved for the War Against humanity series but this was a very sincere moment of comradery that I have to appreciate and sympathize with
Have you expected anything else from the Japanese than "let's die all together"?
@Patrick It is stories like that which help us remember humanity for the enemy combatants. Always good to remember that dehumanization of one's enemies is never the right choice. Not only in humanitarian ideals, but tactically as well, remembering what they have at stake is a sobering reality.
@9:32 Interestingly enough, in school we were taught that American troops basically won WWII in the Pacific all by themselves.
Not by doctrine but by omission. Nothing was ever mentioned about the contribution of other allied units.
The entire amount of time devoted to the Pacific theater of WW2 in my high school history classes was probably no more than one or two episodes of this series, so of course things get simplified to the point of absurdity. I had read Leckie's history of WW2 for young readers by the 2nd or 3rd grade so I was not as misinformed as most of my classmates.
@ToughAncientSpark Speaking as an American (intern here), much of my country's conceit lies in wanting to over-represent our contributions. Which is silly and unnecessary, especially considering actual contributions America made to the war are in no way insignificant.
it's even stranger if you are British. The largest fleet we pulled together in WW2 was the British Pacific Fleet. It had 6 fleet carriers, 4 battleships and all the support that implies... and I had never even heard of it till about a year ago. Our historical memory of the Pacific war just about knows Bill Slim, but almost nothing else apart from the disaster of Singapore.
On january 20th the German offensive "Case White" or as its known in former Yugoslavia "Fourth Enemy offensive" or "Battle for the Wounded" started against Yugoslav partisans in Bosnia. It would've been nice if Indy mentioned it.
There is also the movie called "Bitka na Neretvi" that has english subtitles and can be found on youtube that is about this battle.
one scary profile picture
Sparty has indicated that they’re doing a special WAH episode that will cover this material, and it’s due soon.
@@mars188 Y so communist?
@@MarcosElMalo2 actually not a special. I’ll be covering it beginning next Thursday in the War Against Humanity regular episode for second half of January and then in subsequent episodes for as long as it lasts SPOILERS: (starts with an M and ends with arch)
That reference to the princess bride is absolutely amazing
I'm still wary on this issue. the problem is that, after the war, a lot of generals wrote predictably self serving memoirs that blamed Hitler for everything. I do accept that Hitler was not some military genius and he certainly seems to have gotten involved with a lot of minutiae, which is poor management. But any time the finger gets pointed at Hitler, seemingly for every failure, I always feel I'm getting a really distorted picture of what we t down. in my , cases where there are no meeting minutes and so forth, but just eyewitness memories of accounts, I suspect we will never really get the whole story but the general notion that Hitler screwed up what otherwise would have been axis success smells deeply of nonsense to me.
It definitely is nonsense. There were times when Hitler was in the right and generals wrong, and vice versa. "Should have listened to his generals" is a myth, and I'm pretty sure this channel tackled it in the past
In the Fall of 1942, Hitler repeatedly changed his strategic plans, alternating between capturing either the Oil Fields of the Caucasus or Stalingrad...As a result, he lost both resoundingly and lost the whole war. Thankfully the OKW and OKH were run by morons like Keitel the lackey and Yodel the fool. If Manstein or Guderian had been in real control, the war would have gone on much longer and may have been a stalemate in Europe.
@@MW-bi1pi Yes, I agree on this issue specifically. I understand Hitler "waffled" with Army Groups A and B, questionably splitting his forces up to attack Stalingrad and the Caucasus and then changing his mind on allocation of resources. So that was clear error. The "drive for the Caucasus" (including Stalingrad) was ultimately doomed to failure anyway, I would argue (strongly), but in this case Hitler didn't help matters. My comment was really meant to address the wider war.
@tom affolter: You should be wary on this issue, very wary. In the aftermath of WWII, the US and its NATO allies were very eager to incorporate German units from the parts of Germany under their control into their frontline units to facedown Soviet Russia and the Warsaw Pact. They prized combat experience against the Russians on the eastern front by many ex Whermacht officers so highly that they were quite happy to overlook little things like war crimes and the mass murder of civilians and captured Soviet POWs, acts in which few of these men were really the innocent and oblivious bystanders that they claimed to be in their post war memoirs. In comparison to this, buying into the myths of the hapless general staff and the raging incompetent Hitler being peddled by the likes of Manstein came easily.
@@MW-bi1pi The oh so invincible german generals Manstein and Guderian who knew better failed repeatedly throughout the whole war.
And it was no soviet human wave, german Axis allies or madman Hitler "interference" making them and the war lose
Great as always. I've been massively binging this series, and it has been weeks of entertainment. Fine job. Just enough detail to satisfy.
Thanks for watching!
An interesting trivia this week on January 18 1943 is that the United States government will ban the sale of sliced bread by commercial bakers. This means that they must sell their bread in entire loaves to save wrapping material. However, this ban would shortly be lifted on March 8 1943 after officials realized the ban was not effective.
Amazing no one sued them to demand sliced bread
so that's where the German proverb "the best thing invented apart from sliced bread" comes from
@@specialnewb9821 thankfully, anti-social elements were a lot fewer during WWII. Americans put aside their desire for convenience in the national interest, even if a particular directive was proven ineffectual. I can’t imagine that happening today, can you? Imagine today’s Americans during WWII. Many would deny that the Nazis or Japanese even existed. Those that acknowledged their existence would downplay the threat. And when the war effort required any sacrifice on the part of these selfish Americans, they’d march on state capitals, plot to kidnap government officials, and in some cases actively fight against the war effort.
@@MarcosElMalo2 To be fair, since WW2 American corporations have spent every second trying to convince Americans that convenience is a god given right enshrined in the constitution. It didn't develop spontaneously.
Even an out of control dictator like Wickard, was unable to quell the public backlash on that order.
"My name is Inigo Montoya! I support Indy Neidell! Join the Time Ghost Army!" 🤣
@Nick It's inconceivable that someone wouldn't join!
5:16 Guards Mortar Brigades aren’t Mortars, rather rocket artillery like the Katyusha. (Don’t ask me why it’s like this) great episode though!
Thanks for info!
Congrats Indy and team on reaching 700K subscribers. Keep up the great work!
Thank you! 🥳
It’s awesome how you guys cover less obvious battles like valeki luki (did I spell that right? Probably not) and how the wholesale smashing of axis aligned non-German forces played a role in the rapid German withdrawal from the Caucasus. That whole German army group in the south is about to be denied any real means of escape.
Thanks!
Call it the Stalingrad Effect. About 99% of what gets written and covered about the 1942-43 eastern campaign is about Stalingrad, it sucks the air out of the room when it comes to talking about anything else going on in the east at the time. The average person probably doesn't even know or remember that the goal of Army Group B was Astrakhan in the first place, or that there were any other battles going on at the time.
@@Raskolnikov70 The over-emphasis on Stalingrad in the West was mostly due to Soviet suppression of historical accounts and documentation. In the years after the fall of the Soviet Union, historical archives were temporarily opened to academic researchers from the Western democracies.
Really considering subscribing to this, I haven’t missed an episode in months. Great episode! Veliki Luki was completely foreseeable with Hitler’s army command…
It would’ve been nice to hear a bit more about the collapse of the Hungarian 2nd Army this week, but I know it was mentioned a bit last week.
Thank you!
Subscribe, my friend!
What does it cost you to subscribe? You're putting it as if it's something of a big deal.
@@ShyTentacle I mean the paid support, as in subscribing to the Timeghost “army”
You can join for as little at $3 per month, and absolutely anything helps us a great deal! www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
I love these series👏🏻👍🏻
I believe the guards mortar brigades mentioned at 5:15 are actually MLRS (Katyusha) units. The Red Army usually refered to those units as guard mortars, though I do not know why
they were considered experimental and secret weapons, so the naming was for counter espionage
@@LinkoofHyrule Thanks for the info, makes sense!
Also lovingly referred to as Stalin's organs.
Hi guys, very good episode as usual. It's always amazing how you can learn something new from a subject so documented as WWII. I would like to know if the "on the homefront" subseries will continue. Keep the good job!!
On The Homefront is continuing, but it is only once a month. The next one should be out tomorrow actually 🙂
Love the episodes guys! You always do a great job week in-week out. Best diving deep historical channel on the platform.
Something I’d love to see, with current world affairs going on is something about the history of Ukraine/Russian relations? I know this isn’t WW2 specific, but would be amazing to learn. Especially with the current political climate.
No matter what happens; can’t wait for the next episode! You guys really are the best. And so is the Timeghost Army!
@Zachdoesgaming Our production team works very hard at putting this documentary together. And it's due to the enthusiastic support of the TimeGhost Army that we're able to do it. We're continually impressed not only with their monetary support, but by the quality and depth of their contributions in the comments. No other audience (especially on RUclips) is as respectful, thoughtful, considerate, and downright amazing as the TimeGhost Army. Thank you for your support and please stay tuned!
Interesting to hear more narrative of the Emperor Hirohito being directly involved in battle area decision making
Always good to be reminded that MacArthur did not pay great credit at times when it was due to Australians under his broad command.
I love how Fredrich “Jose” Paulus is just a thing now.
"We have no doubt our intensified and diversified bombing offensive...will compel further withdrawals of German air and other forces from the Russian front." This promise was to be achieved, as British Journalist Alexander Werth reported from the Russian Front a year later: "I also remember a very revealing talk I had with [a Russian] air force colonel during that week at Uman-revealing, because his attitude to the Western Allies-now in March 1944-was so much warmer than what one had found in the Red Army before. "There’s no doubt that all this bombing of Germany has made a lot of difference to the German equipment, both in the air and on land [the Russian air force officer told Werth]. Our soldiers realise the importance of the Allied bombings; the British and Americans, they call them ‘nashi’-that is ‘our’ people… A lot of the German fighters now have to operate in the west and we can do a lot of strafing of German troops, sometimes even without much air opposition.”
From 2:18 to 2:24 ...
It reminded me of Yosemite Sam on the attack yelling "Charge!"
And then suddenly realizing his mistake, turning the opposite direction and running as if his hair was on fire yelling "Retreat!".
OUTSTANDING COMMENTARY AND COVERAGE. WELL DONE INDY. GREAT CHANNEL
Thank you for your kind words. Stay tuned for more!
I couldn't help but think of Monty Python during your phone call. "A TIGER in Africa?!"
It's always so strange to me that the Germans were halted at Leningrad and Stalingrad. The cities named after the revolutionaries. If WW2 was a fictional story, it would sound so corny and on-the-nose. Reality really can be stranger than fiction.
I don't like how people say that the German Army was designed for short campaigns. It wasn't designed. They didn't have the resources for a long war. Nobody would design such an obvious problem.
I guess it's so they can talk about German weakness without having to admit that Germany was weak.
@@Jordan-Ramses I agree. The Germans greatest strength was that they were preparing for the war before everyone else … because they were the ones who started the war. Once their plans stopped meeting reality they were doomed
@@Fractured_Unity yeah, it's allied propaganda to play up the strength of the axis. Which is fine. There is no glory in beating a weak enemy. But it is what it is. It isn't really true.
It's interesting that both sides did that. The allies tried to frighten their people because they were the stronger side. While the Axis tried to convince their people that their enemies were weak because they were the weaker side. There is no point telling someone something that is true :) That they actually know. Public relations is always about convincing people of lies.
@@robinhood4911 I might have gotten the wrong impression, but you sound a little bit like a Wehraboo and AH apologist.
@@robinhood4911 75 000 bombs were dropped on Leningrad, and germans would loose in Stalingrad, and Paulus was actually qutie competant...
Dont try to paint Germans better then they were
i love how Indy never misses a chance to mention the Jose
I love it too! I've seen people complaining about it in the comments, but I think it's hilarious!
A tiger....in Africa.
Maybe it escaped from a zoo.
Tiger Brand Coffee
Is a real treat
Even tigers prefer it
To real meat.
The one that bites off your leg when asleep 😅
I've just found my grandads Pacific and 39-45 Stars. They've been missing since 1984. I'm chuffed. That is all
@JammyScouser We're chuffed to have you with us! Stay tuned
I fucking love your videos! As far as I can evaluate, you guys show history from a politically neutral point of view and this is what I love the most about you. I am eagerly waiting for stalingrad surrender day. And I hope I can monetarily support your videos one day.
@Dhruv We're very glad to have you in the audience. We can't claim to be totally unbiased as that's probably impossible. But our bias inevitably tends towards a care for individual humanity, and typically away from any view that celebrates the destruction of another person. Though many of these events are contentious, with differing and changing degrees of brutality on all sides, we must always be careful to understand the victims on their own terms. Discussions like these can too often descend into 'weighing' losses in some grotesque competition of suffering. Our view is that devalues and confuses the bottom line, which is that all humanity loses when people suffer, and that everyone benefits from the protection and respect afforded to the least of us.
Saturday morning can't come soon enough one of the highlights of my week. Thank you!!
We are glad to hear that! Thanks for watching!
The reason the Americans and British had a disagreement over bombing at night and day, was because the Americans did not have crews well trained enough to perform effective night time raids and however the British did and didn't like day raids due to the higher risk of loses, which the Americans had and were willing to except.
No, it was because the US believed their bombers were survivable enough to allow more accurate daytime targeting. Night bombing is less accurate and the Americans wanted every bomb to count. They completely underestimated the German air defenses and took massive losses as a result, but it had nothing to do with their level of training.
That's right. Thanks for watching.
@@jamesdunn9609 This isn't true, American bombers would aim to get 32.4% of their munitions within 1000ft (305m) of the aiming point. Whereas the RAF would get 38% within 425ft (130m) of the aiming point. Edit : as I said aiming point, not a city vs a building as someone else ludicrously claimed this was.
@@Alex-cw3rz When your aim point is an entire city or neighborhood compared to a single building or industrial complex the numbers sort of work for whoever is choosing them. The Americans and the British disagreed on many points of prosecuting the war but were good enough allies to not let that cost them the war.
@@alexanderkaminsky6811 these stats come from the point of aim, not a building or city. you're correct the RAF did often do targeted raids against single complexes such as the dambusters and prison raids. But that's not the point it was just from aiming points.
Just found this channel today. I have to say this is a fascinating way of teaching history.
Thanks Stephen, hope you stick with us!
Hitler now wanted, whatever the outcome, a heroic example for the German people. On 15 January, he awarded Paulus the Oak Leaves to his Knight’s Cross and announced 178 other important decorations for members of the Sixth Army. Many recipients still failed to recognize how double-edged these honours were.
Manstein, on the other hand, while despising Hitler’s motives, knew that he too needed to prolong the agony of the Sixth Army. Every extra day that it held on gave him more time to pull the two armies in the Caucasus back to a defensible line. Hitler, through one of his grotesque twists of logic, could now argue that his decision to order Paulus to maintain his position had been correct.
The madness of events seems to have become slightly infectious. Max Plakolb, the Luftwaffe officer in charge of the radio operators at Pitomnik, recorded several strange messages of exhortation they received from their own senior commanders. On 9 January, the day that the Soviet ultimatum was proclaimed, Plakolb and another member of his team received orders to fly out of the Kessel. ‘Taking leave of those staying behind was hard. Each one wrote a letter home, which we took with us.’ But like almost everyone escaping the Stalingrad Kessel at that time, he experienced a sensation of being born again. ‘Thus did this 9 January become my second birthday.’ Those escaping, however, were bound to undergo some form of survivor guilt. ‘We never heard anything more of those comrades left behind.’
Everyone who had the chance entrusted last letters or small important possessions to comrades allotted a place on the aircraft. The piano-playing battalion commander from 16th Panzer Division had fallen sick, so Dr Kurt Reuber persuaded him to take the ‘Fortress Madonna’ with him. Reuber also managed to finish a last picture for his wife when his commanding officer’s departure was delayed by a day because of bad weather. His last letter to her from Stalingrad went with it. He saw no point in shrinking from the reality of what they faced. ’Scarcely an earthly hope remains ...‘
It was some time before soldiers realized that the Christmas post delivered on 22 December was probably the last they would receive from the outside world. Odd batches came through afterwards, one as late as 18 January, but the regular Luftpost effectively ceased after 13 January, when soldiers were told that they had a last chance to write home. Many mentioned in their letters that they only had time ‘to scribble a couple of lines’. As a doctor observed in a letter to his father, ‘The mood here is very mixed. Some take it very badly, others lightly and in a composed way. It is an interesting study in character.’
The main contrast seems to be between those who wrote to impress their family with the patriotic symbolism of their approaching death, and those who wrote out of love. The latter, unlike the fervent nationalists, usually started their letter as gently as possible: ‘Perhaps this will be the last letter from me for a long time.’
A Major von R. wrote to his wife: ‘You are always my first and last thought. I am certainly not abandoning hope. Things are, however, so serious, that one does not know whether we will see each other again. Our men have been and still are achieving the impossible. We must not be less brave than them.’
The word ‘fate’ seems to be about the only word shared equally. ’Dear parents,‘ wrote a corporal. ’Fate has decided against us. If you should receive the news that I have fallen for Greater Germany, then bear it bravely. As a last bequest, I leave my wife and children to your love.‘
Those most devoted to the regime focused far more in a self-important way on national honour and the great struggle, than on family farewells. They wrote of the ‘fateful battle of the German nation’, while still maintaining that ‘our weapons and our leadership are still the best in the world’. In an attempt to derive a meaning from the grotesque tragedy, they buoyed themselves up with the idea that future generations would see them as the defenders of Europe from Asiatic bolshevism. ‘This is a heroic struggle, the like of which the world has never experienced in such cold,’ wrote a sergeant. ‘German heroes guarantee Germany’s future.’
These letters were never delivered. Captain Count von Zedtwitz, the chief of Fourth Panzer Army’s field-post censorship, had been given the task of studying letters from the Stalingrad Kessel, to report on morale and feelings towards the regime. Although his reports bent over backwards to avoid sounding defeatist, it appears that Goebbels ordered that this last collection of post should be held back and eventually destroyed. The above quotations come from a sample apparently copied by Heinz Schröter, a junior officer formerly attached to the Sixth Army’s propaganda company, who had been commissioned by the propaganda ministry to write an epic account of the battle.18
Other letters had already been intercepted in a very different way. General Voronov recorded that, on 1 January, ‘we heard in the evening that a German transport plane had been shot down over our positions. About 1,200 letters were discovered in the wreckage.‘
At Soviet Don Front headquarters, the department run by Captain Zabash tansky and Captain Dyatlenko went to work with every spare interpreter as well as all the German ‘anti-fascists’ on the mailbags for three days. They included letters in diary form from General Edler von Daniels to his wife. According to Voronov and Dyatlenko, the latest letter of 30 December revealed much about the weak defences of the 376th German Infantry Division on the south-western flank, which tied in with what the NKVD interrogators had managed to find out from prisoners.
Thank you for sharing. An interesting read for sure
Thank you.
Just a really insignificant detail, the city of Voroshilovsk in the Caucasus that was recaptured this week by the Soviets was already renamed back to it's original name of Stavropol and that was back on January 12th.
I'M 178 EPISODES LATE TO THE SERIES AGHH
So glad I can see more of Indy
@Pretzel KCH We'rd very happy you found us! If you're late, that just means you have a ton of great weekly episodes to catch you up on the war developments so far. And don't forget our hardware specials, biography episodes, and Sparty's episodes on the War against Humanity. And stay tuned, plenty more war to come!
who else remeber Monty Pythons during this episodes opening phone call?
@0:20 Yeah ok that kind. Tanks for the memories.
Brilliant episode thank you. My A level history exam many years ago included a question "when was the turning point of WW2" or something like that, and for me this was it, while midway was what stopped the Japanese Guadalcanal and new Guinea was the start of the way back in the pacific, but these were tiny actions compared to Alamein Stalingrad and Torch, and it is only with a series like this that you get a feel for how close these actions were together in time, in a few weeks the Germans go from being at the gates of victory on all fronts to being in retreat everywhere, many of those German generals that were ardent oath swearing acolytes of Hitler must have really wondered "How the Feck did that happen?" and started planning to blow him up about now. So many times in war the fortunes can change in a short period of time and the winner becomes obvious, Napoleon in 1812, the CSA at Gettysburg, the 1918 spring offensive. To say again the most amazing thing about this series is it gives you and idea of how the war seemed to those that were there in terms of time, someone October 1942 would not have had any idea of how by January 1943 would look so different in terms of who is winning and losing.
They all influenced each other, though. Up until Midway there was considerable opposition in the US to the Germany first strategy from people who understood how much more difficult the war would be if the Japanese managed to invade or isolate and neutralize Hawaii or Australia; after Midway this seemed much less a threat and Roosevelt's commitment to make a major invasion in Europe or North Africa in late 1942 met with much less opposition. So no Midway, probably no Torch and Rommel probably could have made a stand in front of Tripoli instead of Tunis.
And the operations at Midway and Guadalcanal seem small in scale only if you ignore the immense logistical effort required to build and operate a carrier fleet and to supply even a modest fighting force in such remote locations. For every marine or soldier fighting on Guadalcanal there were ten or twenty soldiers and sailors working their butts off and using an enormous amount of scarce and precious shipping - which was THE bottleneck for all the western Allies' war efforts - to keep them supplied and equipped.
@@brucetucker4847 midway and Guadalcanal seem much much smaller than Stalingrad, which i notice you did not mention, because it was tiny by comparison. Torch and the western desert, the argument you use about the admin tail required to keep men in the field applies to those battle in spades, in fact it was more difficult to get kit from Britain and America to the middle east, than it was to San Cristobal, the Torch fleets had to get from America to North Africa through an Atlantic that was by no means empty of U boats, Japanese submarines were used in fleet actions and not convoy interdictions, if you really think that the outcome of Guadalcanal had any impact at all on Stalingrad, Torch and Alamein then I think you have been reading the Ugandan official history or WW2, in fact the outcome of Guadalcanal happened AFTER the previously mentioned were in the bag, and Europe first was decided before Midway, Torch was the least significant of the three actions, and was handled very badly by the allies, stopped in its tracks before Rommel's DAK were out of Egypt, I have to ask is this the first episode you have seen of this series?
"At the December 1941 Arcadia Conference between President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Washington, shortly after the United States entered the War, the decision for the "Europe First" strategy was affirmed. However, U.S. statistics show that the United States devoted more resources in the early part of the war to stopping the advance of Japan, and not until 1944 was a clear preponderance of U.S. resources allocated toward the defeat of Germany' by 1944 Guadal canal was ancient history and December 1941 was 6 months before Midway, so armed with those facts please continue.
@@drno4837 I said the Battle of Midway, not Guadalcanal. Learn to read before spouting off. And I'd be willing to bet I've been studying WW2 since before you were born. I had five uncles in it, including one on those Atlantic convoys and one in New Guinea - which is about twice as far from the US as Casablanca is (and the port facilities at the time infinitely more primitive).
@@brucetucker4847 i am 65 years old, what age are you? did you lose your bet? and still midway was 6 months after Europe first was decided, I had a father and two grandfathers and around 30 uncles in the war and even more in ww1, and given that the UK was under direct German attck for much of thew war I can say my entire family was in the war, so by your reasoning I know more than you by proxy, you really going to justify your argument by how many of your relations were in the war? seriously? I have been reading a lot of Beevor recently and not once did he mention how many relations he had in ww2 as a source for his history or conclusions, during the entire series of "world war two week by week" i have not heard one of the contributors suggest they have based this weekends episode on what "my uncle tommy said happened", now perhaps if one of your relations was perhaps Eisenhower, Marshal or Bedle Smith I might take your points seriously, but unless they are I feel it now totally permissible to laugh my socks off, thank you for providing me with such a hilarious ending to the week
Monty Python reference in the first ten seconds? That's something completely different.
On 20th January 1943,Axis troops in occupied Yugoslavia launch operation Case White(German:Fall Weiß)in Serbo-Croatian known as "Fourth Enemy Offensive"(Четврта Непријатељска Офанзива/Četvrta Neprijateljska Ofanziva) aimed at destruction of Yugoslav Partisan resistance over southern Bosnia and Herzegovina,Sanjak(South west region of today Serbia and north Montenegro)and Montenegro. Battles will rage until mid March,culminating in Battle of the Neretva(river in Southern Bosnia and Herzegovina). Operation was strategic failure for the Axis,as Partisans were not destroyed,despite suffering heavy casualties. In return,Yugoslav Partisans will nearly completely destroy Chetnik formations in Eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina
Congratulations on your 700.000+ subs!
@Pirusiandres Thank you so much!! We're elated to have such an incredible, engaged audience of history enthusiasts. It's only through the support of the TimeGhost Army that we're able to make such continuous, in-depth coverage of the war. So please tell your friends and family to check out our Patreon, tell your teachers, and evangelize our channel so we can keep bringing coverage of the war to more and more people. Stay tuned!
You can read more about Manstein's criticism of Hitler in his memoir "Lost Victories," where he points out how he was totally right about everything and if Hitler had just listened to the upstanding generals they totally would have won the war! I mean geez, when you title your book something like that you're really putting the message front and center.
I always find it funny how many people take his book as a gospel. Its that simple, he said it so it must be correct.
To their credit, the channel hasn't used it.
Manstein was a great general. He was also arrogant, an egotistic and much better in the attack than on the defense. His memoirs are written with hindsight and paint every loss as attributed to Hitler's incompetence. And in no way connected to failings within the Wermacht leadership or their conduct of the war. Imagine that.
@@pavlenikic9712 it's a valuable historical source, but one has to keep in mind that Manstein was trying to make himself look better at any point. Same with Speer's "Inside The Third Reich", it does give some useful information, but Speer hides all of his crimes and scapegoats others
"The cries of the wounded Germans caused us joy and increased our thirst for battle."
Rip and tear.
A bit of an odd request, but I have started a course on WW2 this semester at my university. Among our assigned readings is "Onwards Towards our Noble Deaths" by Shigeru Mizuki. His story is rather interesting and could be a good biopic on the situations we will begin to see with more frequency in the war in regards to the Pacific.
Thanks for the recommendation! 👍
Loved the Princess Bride reference at the end.
We need a closer view of what is printed on this purple piece, Indy! 2.5/5 for now, but perhaps we'll revisit in the future.
19:00 Manstein might want to thank Zeitzler for not passing that on, he was liable to get himself shot if he ran his mouth too much.
I'm a history fan, so I love this series. However, it also adds some perspective vis-a-vis our current world situation. The world is messed up, but nothing like it was during WWII.
Humans have a horrible propensity to forget or pervert the past, allowing us to repeat it over and over again. National conflicts, or the threats of conflict, are always with us, sadly. It's the same today.
Yeah, humans are stupid,
I think it's more accurate to say there will always be some people willing to sacrifice the lives of others for their own personal gain.
@@ALSmith-zz4yy That has always been the case, throughout recorded history.
If those people have enough charisma, they can do massive damage.
As someone said, history doesn't repeat itself. Instead, it rhymes!
@@johnc2438 Actually, people have dangerously short memories, and do the same destructive and stupid things over and over again. We are a failed species.
The roll of the Naval Seabees on Guadalcanal should be mentioned... Those bulldozers and other heavy equipment clearing tracks weren't being operated by grunts.
For future reference: role
Ohh a tank… I was going to say, there’s no tigers in Africa 🤣🤣🤣. Indy your a funny guy you are
Loved the opening Monty Python reference!
The rough thing is that the idea that Hitler's interference cost Germany the war isn't really true. One can argue that many of his "no retreat" orders cost the Germans men, BUT at the same time, many of the decisions that actually did the most to contribute to the defeat at Stalingrad came from the army itself. The expectations of an easy rush to Stalingrad came from Halder and by convincing Hitler, Hitler then accepted the timetables and arrangements that lead to circumstances that defeated the Germans in Stalingrad. Blaming Hitler simply became an excuse from the generals to get out of their own mistakes.
This show covers the war week by week. I’m not telling you what happens in the future or at the ‘end’ of the war, I’m telling you what happens the week ending January 23, 1943.
@@Southsideindy - I'm sure... but that doesn't mean that what the generals were doing in the past week wasn't part of the larger issue of excuse making to avoid responsibility. Any outside observer would see that in the context of the week's events.
@@SamuelJamesNary nah. That’s baloney. Because there are no outside observers. I’m totally with you on the conclusion, months later, but don’t bend the events to fit that ahead of time.
@@Southsideindy - An outside observer would be anyone looking at the history up to the point that you're up to in the war's coverage... And they'd be able to see that even by this week.
For German military made plenty of mistakes prior to this point... and the excuses for those mistakes were also there. And that's what I see the whole "Hitler needs to stop interfering in the army" comment. It's an excuse.
For Hitler "interfered" in military affairs earlier in the war than 1942. If that interference was the cause of Germany's troubles, there would then be major questions as to how or why the Germans succeeded as much as they did from 1939 to 1941. As if Hitler was the problem... he would have been holding the Germans down earlier.
And if Hitler wasn't necessarily wrong on what to do earlier in the war... it'd then stand to reason that any claim on his interference in 1943 is just an excuse to cover up other mistakes that Hitler didn't make.
A fine tie in to a fine movie Character that reminds us that "There is not much money in the Revenge Business"....
Had those Japanese troops surrendered most of them would have lived rather than nearly all of them dying
this episode is probably the turning point of the war
The thumbnail made me remember a moveable gif meme with that image of Adolph with the legend “Party Like It’s 1939”
That was a tremendous, seemingly not-intended "Oui" there at the start Indy lol
Thank you for excellent visualization of how the Soviets planned and executed the liquidation of the German pocket at Stalingrad. It must not have been easy, even for well-supplied Soviet troops to fight in that weather. As another author wrote: "It would be a mistake to believe that even a Russian solider LIKES fighting in 40 degrees of frost." Also excellent accounts of the German, Hungarian, and Italian defeats around Velikie Luki and in the Caucasus. These might have been considered turning points in themselves if Stalingrad had not overshadowed all other events on the Eastern Front that winter.
@Alan Thanks for the kind word of support. Hard to believe, but there's still plenty of action to come on the Eastern front. And maybe other front as well, who knows?? Only time will tell
@@WorldWarTwo Love your phone calls that open each episode. Until now, most have been tough news for the Allies. But now that the great turning points have been reached in Russia, North Africa, and Guadalcanal, the news will be happier. I was just watching episodes of the Soviet-produced film series LIBERATION on RUclips. The last calls Hitler and Goering made in May 1945 were over the regular phone lines to citizens of Berlin. "Are the Russians at your place yet?".... "Yes, they are here."...."What are they doing?"...."Singing!." Hitler shot himself when he learned the Russians were in the next block. Another two years of Allied victories to go before that last phone call is made. Look forward to your & Spartacus & co. episodes until then!
Rodney and I love watching your channel..