The funniest thing in my opinion about the nazi acceptance of Finnish views towards Jews, was that German soldiers fought side by side with Finnish jews during WW2 and some Finnish jews got even awarded iron crosses by Germany
Its almost like that was common and the current narrative will never let you know. there were about 150k or so jews in the Wehrmacht, Emil Maurice was his own personal driver and a jew. I would speak more, but i know my comment will get auto deleted. so just dig a bit more, you will find that everything they told you was a lie. Just check the Greatest story never told, if you want to know more.
Interesting fact - Tsar Boris of Bulgaria’s son Simeon, who succeeded him as Tsar in 1943, would later return from exile after the fall of communism and enter politics, becoming Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 2001
@@robertsansone1680 G'day, Thanks...! Have you not previously heard of the Royal Families of ALL the EuroPeon "Nations", "Clans", "Tribes", "Races" and "Creeds"...? It was a randomly-mutated over-inbred Hapsburg that "invented" Haemophillia... And for light comic relief, look up "Van-Rooyen Hands - a Genetic Defect causing Allergic Dermatitis on exposure to Sunlight...; among Whaite Sooth Effrikans it's considered a desirable Affliction, because it indicates a bloodline descent from a Rich Miner an Land-Grabber with still existant Ancestral Piles of Money still attached. Very rare everywhere else on Earth, in Whaite Sooth EffriKa before it collapsed there were 40,000 CitiZens with Van-Rooyen Hands - because there/then scabby sore-encrusted sunburnt Hands was a well-regarded Indicator of "Good Bloodlines and potential as a Breeding Partner"...; because - MONEY (!). Rich Inbreds Are STILL Rich..., Y'see. And to they who Crave to be Led... "Rich" is ALL that matters. Such is life, Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao ! Such is life
What Hitler said about Antonescu is more or less reminiscent of something similar said about Mussolini: "Mussolini is an exception. His abilities are far superior to those of the Italians."
Any student of both WW1 and WW2 knows that the Italians were actually fantastic fighters, extremely brave and efficient IF under good leadership/supplied properly. Mousolini was an excellent administrator of domestic affairs yet his foreign policy and military oversight was poor. Oh my bad, 2022 censorship over this event from 1942, where was I: “those Italians man! They can’t fight right??!?! I would never say this to an Italians face but they are just baaaaad at fighting! I’ve never been in even a fist fight but I’ll sum up millions of people getting shot at and bombed like I know what I’m talking about!.... and that mousolini whom everyone will know throughout all of time, man wasn’t he just silly!.... not silly like me though! I work 9-5 for peanuts and I have a broken family and use drugs! I know nothing of domestic policy and I can not compare the domestic state of italy prior to mousolini to his policies in office! I’m just told mousolini is bad and silly!.... what is a policy again???” Lol I had to get that in
Probably the only country that Hitler somehow admired was the UK. But the Brits don't have friends, they have their interests and always support the second strongest country on the continent (France in this case).
I believe you nailed it. In reality the Finns did little to help the Germans in Russia. Once they regained the territory lost in the Winter War they merely dig in and “assisted” w the siege of Leningrad. They were hardly Nazis and the Germans knew that.
Finland actually advanced over the old pre Winter War -border to Russian Karelia and took quite a large amount of territory. Finnish goals were to reach the "three isthmus line" going from White Sea to Lake Onega to Lake Ladoga. Finland almost got to this objective but was cut short because of the failure of the Murmansk offensive in the north and because of logistics issues in East Karelia. Co-operation with Germany was quite large. There is no reason to downplay it. Finland mined gulf of Finland with Germany, she received supplies from Germany and had troops under German command. Only after operation Barbarossa, Finland started to make some distance to Germany. It was only then when it became obvious that the Soviet Union wouldn't be defeated in a matter of months so Finland started to think about its exit from the war. If Germany had steamrolled Russians over the Urals, Finland would have happily had taken all of Karelia and maybe even the Kola peninsula. "Greater Finland" dream was still on the minds of Finnish intellectuels.
@@myhonorwasloyalty Russian Karelia (East Karelia) has never been part of Finland. So Soviet Union didn't steal it. It has always been part of Russia or it's predecessors like Novgorod's Republic.
On Romania, Antonescu was one of the only men in history to talk for hours and have Hitler (after he came into power) sit and listen. Antonescu only knew French and Romanian, and Hitler knew only German, so there was a translator necessary
@@andorthewhitewolf1057 First I have heard of this. Hitler had a smattering of French, mostly learned on the Western Front in WW1. But that was it. He was contemptuous of people who knew several languages, viewing it as a Jewish trait, and a friend who knew him in the early days in Vienna reported that he reacted negatively to hearing workmen speaking Italian. He said sarcastically, "This is their 'German' Vienna."
@@KlausVonKuste Mussolini spoke Italian, French, English, and German. You can see videos of him speaking English and German (albeit with a heavy accent)
The german soldiers point of view is pretty accurate, since romania helped germany the most in the eastern front, supplying hundreds of thousands of manpower and more than a half of the reich's oil consumption, it's easy to say the germans and romanians fought side by side against the soviets resulting to them seeing romania very highly
@Rafaam , The Romanian soldier did not steal from his allies. If there were exceptions, the vast majority of Romanian soldiers had exemplary behavior. Stop the lies!
@Rafaam , the Romanians were very underequipped I remember how to Germans were surprised when they got pushed back by Soviet tanks when they did not even have any anti tank weapons or tanks of their own, but the Romanians fought well even if ill equipped which gained most German's soldiers on the eastern front respect, plus the eastern front was mainly fought by Romanians and Germans and left with no options, the Germans had to work with Romanians in order to win the war
@Rafaam , yes there were Italians and Hungarians on the eastern front too but the Romanians were far more in numbers and according to some sources, they did better than the rest of the axis forces invading the soviets except for the Germans who fought the best, the Romanians in ww2 did extremely well considering how much they lacked proper equipment and good leadership
@Rafaam , u know that italy also changes sides right? and one of the reasons ur grandpa made it out is romanian oil cus u would've been left with stationary tanks. the romanians also got to the furthest point in the eastern campaign, almost getting to Grozny. Also the second romanian mountain hunter division cleared the soviet bridehead saiukova with no casualties and in very little time. Keep in mind the germans tried capturing this point for a month with very high casualties and they considered it "impenetrable"
Hitler was an absolute opportunist with allies. He probably rated Finns highest, because they were fighting for their own existence and were therefore fierce fighters. The Soviet fiasco against Finns in Winter War probably made Hitler think that taking Moscow would be a walk in the park.
I mean when fighting a war, especially this size I guess most people would act pretty opportunistic when searching for allies. But yeah I agree, contrary to modern alliances like NATO being defined by political and cultural characteristics of its member states Hitler's allies were mostly just everyone left not hating him
Ironic considering Hitler learnt nothing from the winter war. It was the first time the soviets ahd the KV-1 heavy tank in action, yet the nazis were oblivious of this and were suprised by encountering strong soviet tanks during barbarossa.
@@armzngunz No, they weren't surprised or oblivious to it's encounter. They knew about the tanks. They just didn't expect them to be in such a high number at the start in 1941.
Hitler respected and admired Mussolini for much longer than just 1934. The mere fact that Hitler had a bust of Mussolini with him for much longer is an indication of this. After his return from Venice, Hitler said >>I feel deep friendship
Italians must have hated everything and everybody though. Their own generals for not preparing them well. The Brits for not just lying still and taking the kicks. The Germans for bailing them out and taking all the glory
During WW1 Bulgaria mobilised around 980.000 troops and was one of the countries with highest army size. In my opinion Hitler wanted the Bulgarian tsar to mobilise a high number for the second time and send them this time against Russia in a foreign territory. But as you mentioned 80% of the population disliked the idea. Great video tho keep it up
Bulgaria also earned the nickname "Prussia of the Balkans" in ww1 and it can be said they were Germanys only competent ally as they would continue to hold their positions even when the germans left against the british no less. Serbia was also not beaten until Bulgaria joined the war. Bulgaria held its own and was never a burden to the Germans unlike their other allies.
@@krassivanov4895bulgaria The term Slavs came during the rule of Ekaterina the Great in order to encourage the nation to engage in liberation wars with other global powers at the time which had big slavic speaking population.
@BVBDortmund it was about 8th biggest. Romania during ww1 had a smaller population yet raised more than Bulgaria. 1.2m soldiers and it's still far overshadowed by the Russians, French, Brits and the rest of the major powers of ww1.
The Germans were actually supposed to advance together with the Finns, but they got hopelessly stuck in Lapland, so the Finns actually had to stop in order to wait for the Germans to catch up. The Germans never did catch up, they remained stuck from 1941 to 1944.
The Brits and US had warned the Finns that if they compromised the Murmansk Railway which was essential for the US lend lease to Soviet Union, they would immediately declare war against Finland.
@@MoonDweller1337 That was another problem, which also had to be taken into consideration. I'm pretty sure that even the Germans didn't like the idea of being subjected to bombardment from a couple of American carriers groups that would have appeared off the Norwegian coast, soon after cutting the Murmansk railroad.
Don't know how the Germans see us, but as a Romanian, my grandpa and great grandpa always told stories about the Germans and the Russians during our alliance with both of them. Specifically, all Romanians agree that during the occupation, the Germans were by far the most civilized, behaved and mannered between the 2, always asking politely if they needed something from the Romanian people that they occupied. While we were under the Russian occupation however, the Romanian elderly always remember how they were always harassed, robbed and even killed by the Russian soldiers. For example, the Russians always had a fascination of stealing our watches, we even use this as a bitter meme today.
E o deosebire intre o alianta (Germania avea nevoie de petrolul si produsele noastre agricole) si un fost inamic, asa cum eram noi pentru sovietici. Sa nu uitam ca si noi am luptat impotriva sovieticilor pe teritoriul lor si unii militari romani nu s-au purtat cum trebuie.
Ehm, are you really outright doing mental gymnastics? You were not ‘occupied’ by Germans, you allied them and invaded the Soviet Union together. No shit that after the massacre of Soviet people they kinda disliked Romanians a bit.
@@FreedMordheim WTF, are you serious? I meant In a sense that we turned against Germany at one point, and despite that, the Germans still behaved respectfully, unlike the soviets. That's why the whole eastern Europe hates the soviets so much, wherever the soviets went, they did horrible things to civilians, their whole ideology is garbage.
Like you said at the beginning, the Nazis considered Hungarians honorary aryans. Even though Hitler himself disliked them, I believe due to his dislike of the leader Miklos Horthy, Nazi policy was largely lukewarm on them
@@nikiindzhiev5369 its not cope. Hitler "we are honorary aryans" basically meant we as a Hungarian nation wouldnt exist, and we would be a clay of Austria, Third Reich. It just a bit better than being jew, slav or gypsy.
Aryans: all North European(German, Scandinavian, Dutch, English, Scotish etc) Non-Ayrans but no less value in German sight: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Croatian(-Dalmatian), Hungarian, Slovakian(even they were Slavic languages). Allied but not equal(but they did let them feel it):Romanian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian(sometimes they were enemies sometimes had alliance with them).
@@lzstep80 istvan is a Hungarian name stop coping these racial theories are wrong science anyway. But Hungarians were NEVER considered aryan. Also the Bulgarians are in the upper pile allies since WW1
Bulgaria is the only of Hitler's allies that didn't send troops to the Eastern Front. And is actually the only defeated country in WW2 that gained territories instead of losing.
@@Juvelira Romania lost again Transilvania to Hungary in WW2.Yes, although they were on the same side. Stalin gave back Tarnsilvania to Romania after WW2.
@@horeacernucan1967 I know the history, but essentially Romania leaves the Second World War smaller than it has started it. So no, it didn't gain sh*t. Net loss is Bessarabia, Bukovina and Dobruja.
Finns considered the Germans as brothers in arms and the relations to them were friendly, although some differences also were present. Most normal people didn't then care about politics more than most normal people do now, but the Germans fought on our side instead of against us. Mannerheim didn't particularly like the Nazi Germany though and that was evident in few of his interactions with Hitler, which were sometimes tense. He was too much of a reactionary to fully appreciate a popular front such as the nazis.
Finns considered the Germans as actual allies until the wars tide was turned unfavorable for Finland and Germany. The "brothers in arms" became a thing later on to distance Finland from Germany.
@@mrperamaki2184 They were co-belligerents against the Soviet Union. No political or military alliance existed. There was the anti-comintern pact but that isn't exactly an alliance. Brotherhood in arms is a nicer way of saying it.
@@mrperamaki2184 yes they finns do some very convenient revisionist history to distance themselves from the nazi collaboration. Their involvement directly contributed to the holocaust.
@@herptek right, so invading a country together, sharing equipment, even fighting alongside each other in units isnt an alliance if its embarassing to admit it was.
@@Ukraineaissance2014 I'm proud of it, proud of our heroic veterans and I would gladly do it all over again myself should the prospect look favourable and should the world situation demand it like it did then. And indeed, Russia is agressive and hardly legitimate state itself that is dangerous to its neighbours like the USSR was back then. History has proven our cause just. What I am weary of are the Soviet sympathizers. They can't really stomach it that Finland was never theirs and now, after the dissolution of the USSR, many of the nations that fell victim to it are finally free.
I will not say Finland and Germany did have excellent relation before WW2. Becuse Germany did "give away" Finland to USSR, and blocked wepon deliveries to Finland during the winter war.
Which is rather ironic, considering that the Jäger movement which later became the model and the very backbone of our Defense forces, originated from the 27th Jäger Battalion of the Prussian army, towards the end of the Ww1.
@@thechosenone1533 Russians invaded Finland in Nov 1939 because Russia (USSR) was allied with Nazi-Germany. History remembers the 23 Aug 1939 Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact between Soviet Russia and Nazi-Germany. That agreement made possible for Russia and Germany to invade Poland together in Sep 1939, and later for Russia to invade Finland 30 Nov 1939. To help Russia (USSR) in the Finnish Winter War, Nazi-Germany blocked arms transports to Finland. In the peace treaty 1940 Finland had to surrender some territory. Russia in turn had to surrender its goal of putting the Finnish exile communist O.W. Kuusinen's puppet government in Helsinki. In November 1940 Soviet PM Molotov went to Berlin to ask Hitler's consent for USSR to finish in Finland the attack that had failed in March same year. Hitler refused because he had started to see the pissed off Finns as an asset in his plan to attack USSR. Followed the Continuation War 1941-44. In June 1941 Finland was bombed again by the Soviet Air Force, after which Finns started their own attack to take back the lands lost in Winter War. This attack was coordinated with German troops who had turned their coat and supported Finland against Russians.
@@thechosenone1533 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. German-Soviet deal on how to split European nations together. Germans and Russians did share Poland just few months before Russia attacked Finland.
Tsar Boris of Bulgaria may have been an Axis leader, but a man done some good as one, refusing to deport Jews and Communists or Trade Unionists, or participate in Operation Barbarossa, endangering his own people, before dying in 1943 either poisoned by the Germans or his family as most believed
I honestly would believe that he was poisoned by the Germans because unlike the finish the Germans would have got them there ass handed to them by the fins
What exactly proves that Mannerheim liked Hitler? As far as I'm aware Mannerheim disliked Hitler a lot. On top of that what do you mean by "Obvious ally", by what terms? Finland was one of the only functioning democratic republics in Europe at that time that held human rights in high regard and had barely any interests in meddling with foreign wars or conflicts.
@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 Also, Germany had aided Finnish whites to victory in the Finnish civil war of 1918. They also helped train Finnidh soldiers in case of violent breakaway from the Russian empire. Finland even planned on installing a German prince as their first king but after Germany's loss in WW1 that plan was scrapped to appeal to the victorious allies and Finland became a parliamentary democracy. They also had good trade relations throughout history.
@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 At that time (-41) yes, but before the soviet invasion in the winter war definitely not. The front just made it sound like Finland would have allied itself with germany regardless of the winter war, which isn't true at all.
Mannerheim disliked Hitler. In 1935 I believe, Mannerheim visited Germany and had written a letter to his sister where he said that Hitler was turning into a monster
I wonder about how Hitler and Nazi/Germans feel about countries like Iraq and Thailand or other "countries" like Vichy France or Croatia, or even the Occupied lands of the Axis like Austria, Ukraine, Manchuria, Ethiopia, etc
Germans did support Iraq when they revolted against British but it was quickly crushed, i believe they also had dealings in Iran and Afghanistan before the war. Germans also sent weapons for Ethiopians against Italy. Austrians were German in their mind, Ukrainians and Croats were kinda low in the totem pole since they were not considered germanic. I dont think they had any opinions on Manchukuo. Hitler hated French because of his personal ww1 experiences and liked British.
Ukraine is now infested with Nazis, who are committing genocide against the Russians in the east. The Ukrainian Nazis are most likely Romanians, who hated the Russians!
@@tmdwu5360 he didn't hate the French lol his aspirations were east but when the west declared war on him he did what he had to do but his downfall was his hatred for slavsw should have settled for what he had but invaded the Soviet Union that's how you know good always come out on top
7:16 actually, in 1939 Romania (governed by king Carol the 2nd) was an ally of Poland, France, England at the beginning of the war. Romania had also alliances with Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (The Little Entente). However, the alliance with Poland was concluded in case of aggression from East (USSR)- so the Poles did not ask for military assistance against Germany. When USSR also attacked Poland, the Polish government was already cornered and realized there are no chances, so again did not ask for Romanian military engagement. However, Romania ensured evacuation of Polish gold reserves, refugees and of many servicemen - in spite of strong German diplomatic protests. The servicemen eventually reached Britain by sea and continued to fight from there. In June 1940, the Soviets invaded the 2 Romanian provinces but the German didn't help Romania. On the contrary! According the secret annex to the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, the Germans pressed Romania - thru diplomatic means - to not oppose USSR. Having in mind Romania was at that time surrounded by hostile forces, and having witnessed Poland's faith, the king followed his council's advice to withdraw according the soviet ultimatum. That is why, at the beginning of operation Barbarossa, the western allies did not declare war on Romania - being well aware the Soviets were aggressors on Romania - as they were with the Finns. But situation later escalated... In June 1940 Romania could not be supported by its traditional allies as Poland was down, Czechoslovakia down, Yugoslavia down and Paris had been occupied by Hitler a week prior USSR's aggression. Only after Romania was left alone between the two totalitarian monsters it had no choice but to side with one. For a kingdom related to the former Russian Tsars, siding with the USSR boshevik killers and aggressors was the worse option. Geographic bad luck.
Except these 2 provinces Romania didn’t acquire diplomatically but outright stole, when there was a civil war in Russia. The Soviet Union never recognized Romanian sovereignty over them and yeah, before speaking about bloodthirsty bolsheviks remember how peaceful Romanians butchered people, who rebelled against the occupation. It was just as opportunistic and disgusting as any other state, be it the US, France, USSR, Poland or Germany.
@@FreedMordheim Here are your lies, debunked: 1. Romania didn't steal anything from Russia or USSR. At the time of joining Romania, the Moldavian Republic was an independent state (independence declared on the 24th of January, 1918). Joining Romania was decided by Country Council (Sfatul Țării), the most democratic representative body Bessarabia ever had in its history. 2. The union was recognized by most countries in the civilized world. USSR opinion is obviously biased and based on lies. USSR didn’t actually exist at the moment of unification of the young Moldavian Republic with Romania. 3. Romania is just on older state, re-baptized. The previous name of Romania is ”The United Principalities of Moldova and Wallachia”. Now, try to convince us that Moldova should not be part of The Union of Moldova and Wallachia : ) 4. Romanian presence is normal in Bessarabia, we Moldovans are Romanians. Moldovan is not an ethnicity, is just a political or regional name. We Moldovans are Romanians, the same way Novgorodeans are Russians or Saxons are Germans. Thus, there was no ”occupation” of Moldova by Romanians. Czarist censuses show Moldovans (Romanians) were 90% in 1812 Bessarabia. Only Stalin pretended we are a different ethnos, to justify his aggression 1940 on Romania. But Russian scientists before Stalin and Czarist official archives note that Moldovans are Romanians. Even Lenin, Marx and Engels noted we are Romanians. I can show you their books printed in bolshevik Moscow, so you cannot blame a so-called “Romanian propaganda”. 5. The rebels you mentioned were just among minorities which had privileges before, just like Transnistria rebelled in 1990-1992. All these rebelling was induced by infiltrated Soviet agents. But Romania quelled the rebellions without excess force, the rebels being captured receiving soft prison sentences. Of course, the rebels shooting at authorities were shot at, and eventually killed. Romanian administration was far softer than Czarist Ohrana, and 1000 times softer than Soviet NKVD. Of course, Soviet propaganda depicts a heavily exaggerated image, mixing a lot of lies, like they did with all their opponents.
@@FreedMordheim ”Except these 2 provinces Romania didn’t acquire diplomatically but outright stole”- In 1918 Lenin & Co renounced at Ukraine and the Moldavian Republic declared independence from ussr. And for the ”second province”, Bucovina was never part of Russia so clearly the russians were those who stolen, like they stolen Bessarabia in the past!
@@FreedMordheim A quote from Lenin's "The Right of Peoples to Self Determination": В. И. ЛЕНИН - “О ПРАВЕ НАЦИЙ НА САМООПРЕДЕЛЕНИЕ”: > Ленин упоминает румын в Российской империи. Единственной румынской провинцией в Российской империи была Губернская Бессарабия (половина исторической Молдовы; теперь Республика Молдова). Plus, a book of the bolshevik "saints" printed in Moscow, 1962: К. МАРКС и Ф. ЭНГЕЛЬС - СОЧИНЕНИЯ - Издание второе - ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ Москва • 1962 : ”ВНЕШНЯЯ ПОЛИТИКА РУССКОГО ЦАРИЗМА”: Никогда еще Россия не достигала такого могущественного положения. Но она сделала также еще один шаг за пределы своих естественных границ. Если в отношении завоеваний Екатерины у русского шовинизма были еще некоторые извиняющие - я не хочу сказать оправдывающие - предлоги, то относительно завоеваний Александра об этом не может быть и речи. Финляндия населена финнами и шведами, Бессарабия - румынами, конгрессовая Польша - поляками. Здесь уж и говорить не приходится о воссоединении рассеянных родственных племен, носящих русское имя, тут мы имеем дело с неприкрытым насильственным завоеванием чужой территории, спростым грабежом." (ЭНГЕЛЬС )
Supposedly, Japan sent one final message to Germany via their embassy before the Soviets encircled Berlin and cut communications. The message was only two words: "Good luck."
Mannerheim did not have a close personal relationship with Hitler, there are 2 examples of him outright insulting Hitler. Firstly when Hitler came to visit him in 1942, Mannerheim's Adjutant asked him if they should run towards Hitler, when he was descending his plane. Mannerheim responded "Let the corprals do the running", in reference to Hitler's official Rank. Secondly the same day, Mannerheim lit his cigar in front of Hitler and blew the smoke on his face. Hitler famously hated smoking and Mannerheim knew it. From Finland's perspective, the Nazis were allies because nobody else would help us. But the Finnish soldiers respected their German counterparts dearly, as they fought side by side in the FInnish front. Instead of allies, Finns called the Germans "Aseveljet" or "Brothers in arms" The Lapland war was truly heart breaking for the Finns and the Germans, and innitially the Germans agreed to leave without a fight, until Soviet Pressure forced the FInns to engage. A famous photo of the Lapland war is of a burned down village and a sign left by the Germans that said "Als Dank für nicht bewiesene Waffenbrüderschaft" or "As thanks for ending brotherhood in arms" It's clear that the war was emotionally difficult for both sides. However, Finland will never forget that Germans saved our country in 1944, when the Soviet Offensive was stopped in large part by German military aid in the form of Panzerfausts, Stug III tanks and the famous aerial Detachment Kuhlmey.
The cigar thing is also said to be a test. It was a way of Mannerheim to judge if he can take what Hitler is telling him as a fact. As Hitler did not tell him to put it out he could estimate that what Hitler said about their eastern front is most likely not true and that Finland should start searching a way out of the war. It also makes perfect sense why Mannerheim did not like Hitler. Mannerheim is a career officer originally of the Russian Empire one point being de facto ruler of Poland and part of Tsar Nikolai II's court. Then he is the highest military officer in the finnish army as Marshal. Tittle that has not ever been awarded to anyone else as its only given in times of war. Not to mention that he was also a baron so part of a finnish nobility. Hitler was just meager Corporal that got to power by scheming and by going into the right bar at the right time.
@Dio Unlike the other Axis powers, the Finns had done nothing really wrong -- no genocide and no plunder. German leadership that have conducted itself like the Finns would have won the war. By leaving the Jews alone the Germans would have had 1. excellent Jewish scientists, just like the British and Americans had, capable of achieving miracle weapons. 2. better cinema, rivaling the quality of American cinema which provided in our world an unceasing supply of anti-Nazi propaganda 3. a stronger garment industry capable of supplying better winter clothing to German soldiers 4. large populations in many countries sympathetic to German cultural and political ends. That includes the USA. 5. more soldiers 6. a religion on the side of Germany against the godless Soviet state The Americans and British were delighted to see the Finns leave the war, keeping their political system intact, at the cost of some territory to surrender to the USSR and diplomatic and military concessions to the USSR that fell short of costing Finnish independence. The Finns achieved what the Romanians and Bulgarians achieved and what Horthy tried to achieve -- pulling out of the Axis without eventually sacrificing independence. The Poles and Czechs could not do that even as formal allies of the Soviet Union. Remember well that Hungary and Romania did huge war crimes. Bulgaria was complicit in killing Jews in its annexed territories. The Finns conducted themselves in Karelia much as the British and Americans did in their zones of conquest.
During the Warsaw Rising of '44, Hungarian units refused to help the Germans fight the Poles. The brotherhood of those two nations supersedes other nations. Poles escaped Poland to fight in France and during the Battle of Britain through Hungary and Romania.
Finland had a rough time of the 20th century, and had to navigate between German and Soviet ambitions. It is a miracle their nation survived. Really hope I can visit Finland myself soon, a lot of my friends have gone and said it was a fascinating place.
Agreed. Romania's alliance with Germany was of conjecture because Romania didn't want to deal with Russia, so going with Germany assured protection from Russia. And Hitler knew that Romania is done with Germany the moment Russia is not a threat anymore.
I would suggest that the Finns impressed Hitler by their tenacity and defense during the Winter War (Talvisota). Basically fighting the Red Army to a standstill and forcing an armistice. A quote from then Commissar Nakita Kruschev: "In our war with Finland, we managed to take just enough territory to bury our dead." I would mention here that the Finns were a co-belligerent rather than a German ally. Their renewed hostilities was referred to as the "Continuation War." As to the Hungarians, they were assigned an impossible task to hold an extended line on the Voronezh front. Their equipment was inferior and their supplies were inadequate. Their collapse was inevitable. Not mentioned is Slovakia. The Slovaks distinguished themselves at Rostov-on-the-Don. They were also the first axis ally to participate in WW2 as they took part in the invasion of Poland. NOTE: at the 6:51 mark of this vid, those are Bulgarian soldiers.
Finland and Germany were allies. If not, you would have to disregard most alliances in history. Usual allies do not cooperate to the degree western Allies did or Nato would do.
1. And Mannerheim spoke about the heavy losses of the Finns. 2. The Finns were direct allies of Germany, provided their airfields and blocked Leningrad. And also committed a mass murder of residents in the occupied territory.
@@wederMaxim "Mass murder of residents in occupied territory" might wanna cite that? Last I checked only thing we had were the internment camps which had horrible conditions due to the lack of food overall in Finland in 1941.
@@ilililil490 don't bother. He has different truth on what happened in finnish occupied karelia. The real truth doesn't suit Russian governments current agenda.
@@anaccountmusthaveaname9110 You are right, Finland and Germany were allies. But there was one significant detail: Finland refused to sign the Tripartite Pact. So from the legal point of view, Finland was not a member of Axis. One could say that they had a military alliance, but not a political alliance.
One thing you got wrong about Finland is that Mannerheim and Hitler weren't really that close. Actually they pretty much despised each other. Mannerheim represented the aristocracy and traditional pre-ww1 decorated officer core. Hitler was a radical who hated reactionism and the old world's (Prussian) officer core. Hitler's visit to Finland propably wasn't a show of respect but an act of desperation. At this time the war was mostly turned agaist Germany and Germany's ability to conduct massive advances on the battlefield was severely weakened. Finland had started to drift away from the axis and had duq in rather than continued the offensive after Operation Barbarossa. Hitler visited Mannerheim to persuade him to restart the active war in the Karelian front in order to force the Soviets to disperse some forces there. This attempt was futile however as Finland was desperately seeking a way out of the war and further offensives would just have angered the Allies.
@@johnpaul3099 I'm not distancing anything. Just stating the fact that Mannerheim didn't like Hitler and vice versa. Finland was a de facto axis power but it doesn't mean Finland didn't befriend Germany with caution. After Barbarossa Finland basically cut co-operation with Germany until 1944 when it needed Germany's material aid to stop the Soviet offensive into Karelian isthmus.
Germans should just let soviets overrun Finland in 1944 and retreat to Norway. Mannerheim want to play house with Brits and US and left the work with soviets half finished only to be screwed hard by them later on. He forget that Soviet were already the same house with US and Brits.
War between Finland and Russia started from the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Germany and Russia. As winter war complitely depleted Finland's arms, Finland turned into west for help but didn't receive it. Germany was the only option until Lapland war. It was an act of survival between all major powers. Act that Finland never ordered. Someone make Erdogan sign our Nato papers.
@@republic0_032 "I'm sorry sir, you have to leave your work and family and leave Finland because your father's mother's sister's husband's dog's last owner was a terrorist and your job as an pizza driver could endanger whole Nato-alliance"
The mistake was not considering the Soviets ability to send new troops and equipment to the front. The Germans killed or captured more soldiers in Operation Barbarossa than the Red army had in 1941. They also destroyed or captured more tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery pieces than they had in 1941 and still the Red Army never seemed to run out of men and materials to throw at the Germans.
It was this basically, Hitler and Stalin both ignored warnings, Stalin of Hitlers invasion, and Hitler of the red army reserves, it just so happens Stalin could afford more mistakes
British establishment used to (and still do, albeit in lesser form than before) loath and resent the French as rivals and eternal competitors. Churchil did not in any way regard the French as Untermensch, that is a silly statement. They were traditional enemies though, but that is different. Churchill would look at Zulus and underdeveloped colonials as unrermensch, the French not so...
@@magnusk9724 I find the rivalry between the British and the French to be a fascinating one; iron sharpens iron and both nations were pretty much forced to continue developing rapidly.
*The British sinking the last ships of the French remnants near Dunkirk, the very same place French soldiers personally had to go above and beyond out of their way from actually defending France to sacrifice themselves, just so the British could evacuate their “military aid”, which ironically enough was sent with the intend to help France defend itself against Germany in first place:* -Funny, I've been saying the same thing.
After Hitler declared war on America, he was over-joyed. He said that now, he had one ally that hadn't been defeated in 3000 years, and another, that had never won a war on their own, but always wound up on the winning side. Ironically, that proved to be the case in WW2. In the end, the Italians deposed Mussolini, and signed an armistice with the Allies.
The "funny" thing about the Italian soldiers is that they did really well under the command of Rommel and allied commanders later in the war. So the issues with the Italian soldiers seems to be one of poor leadership and not one of poor fighting abilities.
Well they were beaten by greeks, ethiopians (without any modern army), of course british, us, soviets.... even germans, as the end of war got them on Lombardian soil, as the soviets were in Berlin,and US also near.... dunno
Beat it. Germany and Italy betrayed us. The idiots imposed us to give some parts of our territory to Hungary, Soviets and Bulgaria. And then Germany refused to respect their deal regarding weapon sales, technological transfers. But they wanted us to stop and defeat the russians.
1. Romania had all the reasons to fight both Stalin and Hitler, due to the Ribbentrop-Molotov act. 2. Romania did not just switch sides. First, they gave Germans the opportunity to retreat. But Hitler ordered bombing of Bucharest and occupation of Romania...
But Mannerheim and Göring were friends, even before the war. They had mutual friends especially in Sweden and they had been hunting together many times.
There were some other variations at work - most Hungarian officers and some junior ranks had a grasp of German, which obviously eased liaison with German forces. Fewer Romanians did - sometimes German officers rather ironically ended up using French as a common language as this was widely known in the Romanian officer class, including Antonescu.
The thing is i think most of what was Hitler disliking about Hungary was Horthy’s Politics. It would be interesting to hear his opinion about Ferenc Szalasi and about the Croatians.
I think that german soliders on the easter front respected italians the most. Why? Well Italians send their elite troops as volountiers and during Barbarossa were effective to the point where it became saying "With Operation Barbarossa Germans impressed the world and Italians impressed the Germans."
@@julianshepherd2038 during Barbarossa the red army was large but also not very effective. However they managed to adapt throughout the war into a effective force
With the countries they actually fought with, I'd probably say Finland. From accounts I've read the Germans tended to be pretty patronizing towards other allies in general and only very begrudgingly supply them equipment (while at the same time complaining about how poorly equipped thier allies were). If you ever read any German Generals memoirs they're very quick to assign any blame to foreign troops, while being very stingy with praise.
German Generals views on whose fault was the loss in the war: 1. Hitler 2. Bulgarians 3. Romanians 4. Hungarians 5. Italians ... 12952339. German Generals End of list.
Actually, regarding Italy and Germany, I would say that Hitler admired Mussolini much more than Mussolini did with Hitler. Of course realpolitik took the stand after the embargo on Italy, regarding the position taken... As for Japan, there is only one point that I think was missing (but proves the point): the Germans were heavily helping China with military counselors, first of the Von Valkenhausen. However, he was in fact recalled when the hostilities in 1937 started. My favourite thing, though, is the funny fact that the Germans had to separate the Hungarians and the Romanians in different fronts, as they could have fought each others XD
Finland refused to give their Jewish citizens over to Germany. "Finland hat keine Judenfrage", the foreign minister Rangell famously replied to Himmler. Finnish Jews fighting along Germans even had their field synagogue on the front (!!) The only shame is handing eight Jewish refugees to Finland back to Germany, where they died in the camps. There is a memorial stone in Tähtitorninmäki for these individuals.
You didn't mention the fact that USSR attacked Finland in 1939 (and war lasted till late 1944) and therefore Finns and Nazis had the same enemy. That's the biggest reason why Finns and Nazis were allies until Lapland war. Trade between Finland and Nazi Germany was really not that significant to explain the situation at all. Actually, Sweden had more trade with Nazis than Finns did.
In reality, Mannerheim never saw Hitler as anything nice, of course with the point of few of things he differs in, you gotta admit the differences with them 2. Mannerheim was a baron, had been a very skilled Russian ww1 General, spoke like 6 languages, and had overall sloppy habits that Hitler would've been disgusted about. Mannerheim never invited Hitler to his birthday and hoped he'd not come, and also Mannerheim actually was mad about the "poor" German advancements in 1942.
Mannerheim preferred Britain to Germany, he was always suspicious of the Germans and was very troubled to have to fight alongside them. There just weren't alternatives.
@@DontKnow-hr5my Mannerheim was a smoker, which Hitler despised. He actually used this to his advantage during Hitler's visit for his 75th birthday, as during a train ride, Hitler came forth with plans for the Finnish military's future advances on the Finnish-Soviet front. Mannerheim was about to light a cigar in Hitler's presence which was deeply forbidden and Hitler's bodyguards immediately told him to put it out, but Hitler backed his bodyguards away and "allowed" Mannerheim to smoke. This convinced Mannerheim that Hitler didn't simply come to tell the Finns what to do, but rather ask if the Finns could do what he wanted. Mannerheim viewed it as an act of desperation and further evidence that Germany was going to lose the war.
What many people don't realize that Finland fought it's own war aside with Germany. They had the same enemy but not the same goals in the war. Unlike other Hitler's european allies (Croatia, Hungary, Romania etc) whose armies fought under the German high command, Finnish army was an independed force under a Finnish high command.
Croatia was invaded in April 1941 ( Banovina of Croatia-an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and therefore was not an ally but an occupied country with a puppet govt.
Fun fact: Hungarian soldiers that were sent to fight against Poles in Warsaw uprising smuggle some weapons, meds, ammo for polish home army. And after some time Germans find out that when Hungarians were in polish occupied territories they didn't had a single casualties (I don't mean drunk after small party with poles)
I should clarify that Mannerheim was a staunch monarchist and while he was fond of Germany, it was a fondness over the German aristhocracy, not fascism and even less Hitler. When Hitler came to meet Mannerheim on his 75th birthday, Mannerheim's adjutant asked him if they should go meet Hitler halfway. Mannerheim replied: "Let the corporals do the running." Referring to Hitler's lowly military rank of a corporal. Not only that, but he also knew of Hitler's anti smoking views. So Mannerheim straight up lit a cigar in front of Hitler and smoked like he usually would. There are even more little snubs and snide remarks Mannerheim made of Hitler, but they have less evidence. I remember seeing something about their handshake, but don't think it ever got backed up. So while it is true that Finland and Germany had (And still do, Finland has not forgotten Germany's aid not only in WW2, but also during Finnish Civil War) historically great relations, it wasn't really applicable during the Third Reich. Sure, there were some pro Nazi people such as the mathematician Nenonen, but when it comes down to the actual leaders, that is the President and the Field Marshal, they had no fascist sympathies. For them the alliance with Germany was pragmatic and not much more at the time.
The video is incorrect actually. Hitler remained friends with Mussolini throughout the war, the two respected each other according to the diaries of Ciano and Ribbentrop.
1943, Eastern front. German leader Adolf Hitler decorates Nazi-allied soldiers with medals, Magyars, Romanians, Fins, even one Slovak. He asks every one of them what they got the honour for. On the end he asks the Slovak soldier. - "Well, mein Fűhrer, we were near a forest, me and my machine-gun. Suddenly out of woods 30 Soviet Sharp-shoorters launched out. I did shoot all of them down!", - "Fabelhaft!" - ecstasizes Hitler. - "And how did you realised they were Soviet soldiers?", - "It was very easy, mein Fűhrer. All of them had SS on their helmets."
Hitler was pretty pissed at Mussolini when in 1934 he sent Italian troops to threaten Hitler's annexation of Austria. Mussolini had made a deal with Austria to defend it against attacks and he didn't want to share a border with Germany. Italy was far closer to the allies against Germany until Mussolini decided he wanted to conquer territory in Africa and he worked with Hitler in the Spanish Civil War. Mussolini had some luck early on that made Italy look like a strong ally for Germany. Mussolini only entered the war against the allies when it was clear Germany was going to defeat France easily. Mussolini was simply taking advantage of the situation in hopes of getting a bit of free territory. It was Greece that changed Hitler's mind. He tried to talk Mussolini out of attacking Greece which Mussolini agreed to then attacked anyway. Hitler then had to bail him out after the Greek army spanked the Italians. From then on it was Hitler propping up his supposed ally. The Romanians and Croatians were far better allies to Hitler and caused him far less problems and embarrassment.
2 года назад+14
There was some sort of general pityness involved between germans and romanians. My aunt's father in law Stefan(who got lucky to escape Don encirclement) I remember he told me something very interesting in his rare moments in which he would agree to talk about war, that got stuck in my head. He said that german troops were always cursing Hitler and Germany for sending them poorly dressed to face rasputitza, and once, a german leutenant and other officers together with romanians and Stefan ofcourse, were all having a drink and at a particular time the german leutenant said that germans fight because of their big stupid country which cannot face a defeat while romanians are there with them just because one crazy man (Antonescu) who didnt know when to stop like the finns do. Took me years to fully understand what he meant by that... The romanians simply went somewhere they shouldn't even have been but they didnt disobeyed the orders, later on, Stefan lost his right leg covering the retreat of italians and germans on Don disaster. He always said that if romanian army had the firepower germans promised in exchange for Antonescu's decision to continue the war and propper clothing they would've been unstoppable and he gave me many example of the stuffs they had to do there and there's just not enough space here...
The biggest and most important Hitler's ally was the Soviet Union. And Germany was kind of a junior partner in this alliance. Without the massive support of Soviets, Hitler would not have been able to build up his military potential and without the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, he probably wouldn't have been confident enough to start the war. Anyway, for Soviets the WWII started in June 1941 as they prefer not to remember two years of close alliance with Nazi Germany. Seems that Hitler's lunatic views on races, nations, and leaders were not so relevant for establishing alliances.
The thing is this had nearly lead to an Alliance and could very well happen if both Countries where not so stuborn. I mean good thing they where. But there where already talks about a Second Molotov Riventrop Pact. The thing that mostly prevented this was the different view Points in future Borders.
@@susakuzero Germans and Soviets were in a very close military and economic cooperation since the Rapallo Treaty (1922). Nazis not just prolonged but extended this "good tradition", which made it possible for them to start the war. Anyway, my point is that without mentioning the Soviet Union, this list of allies of the Third Reich is just not complete and even doesn't make much sense (why enter into alliances with small countries with weak economies and military if you make a World War and have global ambitions?). Why the Nazi-Soviet alliance ended with the Nazi-Soviet war - there is a vast literature on this and it was surely not a question of small misunderstandings.
There's a lot more to Hitler's war decisions that just all that, but the Soviet Union ironically probably was their biggest (unintentional) ally when you put it that way.
That's completely ridiculous Hitler admired the British & Americans and wanted to ally them and the French while he saw a conflict with the Soviets/panslavism as inevitable and the Germans constantly threatened Germany with invasion. The Soviets only cooperated with the Germans to exhaust the western imperialists for their conquest of Europe & Asia, while Germany simply did not have the military industry at the beginning of ww2 to take out Poland on its own before the French could strike from the west and they both knew that the other one would strike at their first change given they assume the time is right...
@@stephanaugust1101 You know, Germany has a long tradition of miscalculations in its relationship with Russia. After WWI both countries shared the common objective of revision of the Versailles treaty and regaining the status of a superpower, plus they were driven by their ideologies. It seems they both hoped they could outsmart the other side and treat each other instrumentally. It's just important to remember that the Soviets were the co-initiators of WWII and they managed to attack 6 countries before switching sides and "liberating the world from Nazism".
Mannerheim wasn't close with Hitler, Mannerheim was an anglophile. Mannerheim considered Hitler's liking of him and Finland embarrassing. Mannerheim knew these guys (Nazis) are crazies. Finland never had an alliance treaty with Germany either. Only common interests, since Soviets succeeded in making Finland enemy of theirs by attacking Finland in 1939. Finland would have very much liked to have been a second Sweden, completely neutral.
Mannerheim even disliked Germany so much that although he was a staunch monarchist, in 1918 he preferred a king for Finland from somewhere else than Germany. He thought too close relation with Germany would be dangerous, as Finland was close becoming a German protectorate after the civil war, with German troops in the country
Sorry but your extract about Hitler and fascist Italy relationship is a bit off. Firstly, Italy didn’t invade Greece “behind Hitler’s back”. Mussolini had decided to postpone an invasion of the Balkans (Yugoslavia and Greece) in September 1940, but it was Hitler’s occupation of Romania in early October (this one behind Mussolini’s back) that triggered Italy’s response: a quick invasion of Greece. And he didn’t invade Greece to bail Mussolini out. This is one of the ww2 stereotypes that a channel like yours should destroy, rather than empower. Hitler’s main aim was to attack Yugoslavia, which had recently betrayed the Axis. The intervention in Greece is secondary, and since you quoted Hitler a lot, you should know Hitler himself claimed that the Greek army was at its limit and would have eventually fallen even without German intervention. Finally, the last words you quoted are real, but you conveniently forgot one detail: they were said near the end of the war. Back then Hitler even accused the Wehrmacht and the SS of hindering his plans, let alone Italy. Those are not objective words tbh. You could have chosen about 1618 claims made in previous years where he, for instance, lauded the alpin corps of the Italian army, or the division fighting in North Africa
Hitler did not occupy Romania in September 1940. Some German troops were invited by the Romanian dictator Antonescu to fend off a potential new Soviet aggression. I am afraid there were not better choices at the time :(
@@dirckthedork-knight1201 eeh not really. By mid-January the Greeks had run out of supplies and were still capable of fighting mainly thanks to the UK. Which was also a huge cost for the british economy, since the Greeks used french or german ammunitions, which Britain had to purchase from other countries that used them. On January 29th Chruchill had to remark before the Parliament the necessity to sustain the greeks, despite heavy criticisim. In January the greek armed forces launched an offensive whose aim was to definitely kick the italians out of Albania, but it was stopped with no considerable gain. After this defeat they lost any capacity to launch further offensives and could only stay on the defensive
The thing about Finland is that they were more just trying to survive. Of course the rest were but I mean that the Soviet threat was the greatest to Finland whereas the German threat was greatest to Hungary and Romania. I'm sure the Allies would have asked the Soviets not to invade Finland but ultimately would have to 'let them' and back down because they needed to work together until Germany was defeated. In this way I'm sure Finland was only 'friends' with Germany to survive.
Romania had as much reason to fear Russia as Finland did and they too were invaded as part of Ribbentrop-Molotov, it's just that Romania didn't put up a fight then. Germany was only prioritizing Hungary over Romania and hoped to balance things out for Romania with parts of Ukraine. Germany itself held no territorial ambitions over Romania.
I disagree on your takes on Hungary and Romania. Romanians had the privilege to conquer Odessa themselves in Operation Barbarossa and where later respected in their contributions to the fight against the SU. Hitler had some old austrian-hungarian mixed sentiments with hungary; the hungarians fought to the bitter end in 1945, which gave them some respect.
Romanians did NOT conquer Odessa by themselves, utterly untrue and they contributed virtually nothing throughout the war except OIL, that's why Hitler allied with them.
@@charliesargent6225 250,000 Romanians at Stalingrad alone beg to differ. Largest army out of all of Hitler's allies en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania_in_World_War_II
@@charliesargent6225 it was mainly a Romanian effort with minimal axis support(italian air support). You really have a grudge against romanians since you're everywhere in the comment section
Japan had hardly any contact in person throughout the war, but for a few visits of large Japanese Freight Submarines to bring minerals like Cobalt from Burma to French ports, to return with such Goodies as plans for a rocket plane tried out and built by Mitsubishi a few times and an early targeting system for Torpedos on submarines, or a few flights carried out actually by Italian planes through occupied and isolated regions of Russia and India
In addition to all you mentioned, the alliance was beneficial to both Japan and Germany mostly in naval operations. German U-Boat fleet and surface raiders operating in the Indian Ocean and Far East waters were able to enjoy access to Japanese-occupied ports and also their submarine pens in Malaya and Penang.
@@streetgato9697 I guess so as if there really was one way the 2 powers could befit from compared experience it was in naval power, as the environments they operated in would be to different to compare air or land power
The only thing I would add that Germany bought a lot of Hungarian grain and bauxite and other stuff, and couldn't really do anything without those (I heard somewhere that at one point, third of the all aluminium in the German planes were Hungarian és every fifth liter of fuel came from the Zala oil fields in Western Hungary)
You forgot the part about Hungary where Hitler actually gave Tiger tanks to them. Hungary was also one of the allied minor nations that designed and produced tanks and aircraft domestically. Many Hungarian prime ministers also followed and were very symphatetic towards the nazis and germany, even prime ministers that were elected to bring hungary closer to the allies, it was only Horthy being an obstacle to Hungary turning into a complete german satellite state, and it inevitable happened when Horthy was forced to abdicate and appoint Ferenc Szállasi as prime minister. The german army also respected the Hungarians, they were brave and competent, just lacking the correct equipment. Hungary was also a big trade partner both with Germany and Italy, supplying them with rations as the great hungarian plains provided more grain and meat then the hungarian army and population needed. We were also technologically advanced, we invented many things and Hungarian scientists at the time were world known (many of them worked later in the war at the US on the manhattan project)
Other German sources on Romanians: “"After World War II I asked my friend General Hans Speidel, who had commanded various mixed Axis contingents and became Field Marshal Rommel's chief-of-staff: "Which among all the non-German troops were the best soldiers: the Finns, the Croats, the Hungarians?" "None of them," he said: "the Rumanians. Give them good leadership and they are as good as any you'll find." Cyrus L. Sulzberger in "A Long Row of Candles” AND: "I have already shown what could and could not be expected of Romanian troops in various situations. But they were still our best allies and did fight bravely in many places." - Field Marshal von Manstein in "Lost Victories" AND: "Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936-1949" by Siegfried Knappe, a German Artillery Officer at the Stalingrad & wrote the Romanians fought bravely despite lacking good anti-tank weapons.
@@2009Infidel The Romanians are *not* "semi-gypsies", u racist mfkr. We are a Latin people. The Romany community is officially around 3% of the population in Romania, unofficially 6-8%. 🙄 Like in many other countries And the German commanders that fought with the Romanian battalions in ww2, certainly had an extremely different opinion than yours, as we can see. 🙂 Not to mention the many fights we had with the Ottomans throughout history. The Finns won bc of the terrain & harsh weather they were very familiar with. And still lost part of their territory when Stalin brought reinforcements.
@@2009Infidel I just quoted top German officers. I bet they knew better. Also, during ww2 Romanians deported gypsies in Transnistria. You ought to be be semi-clever : ))
@@ionbrad6753 Were those quotes before or after the complete collapse of the Romanian forces at Stalingrad, where on the 19th November 1942, 27000 Romanians capitulated without a fight? Hitler's recorded table talk has revealed that he was furious with the peformance of his Romanian, Hungarian and Bulgarian allies on the Eastern front. The Italians he already knew were rubbish but he had expected more from the soldiers of the three first mentioned.
@@2009Infidel What you write is a bunch of lies. Actually, at Stalingrad, Romanians in certain sections successfully repelled the soviet attacks in spite of being severely outnumbered and outgunned. Hitler was an imbecile, he kept promising Romanian leader Antonescu he will provide anti-tank weapons for the Ro army - which he didn't. Romanian commanders repeatedly pointed out to the German high command the flaws of the defense (lack of fortifications on the Don river; overstretching, lack of anti-tank weapons). Of course the huge mass of Soviet attackers eventually found a weak spot... while the German reserves were far and requested both in north and in south at the same time. Document yourself better next time. I will let your brain discover for himself if "After World War II I asked my friend General Hans Speidel..." also means after operation Uranus or not. After such intense thinking, please have a break; then repeat: try to figure out for yourself if Verlorene Siege (Lost Victories) was written by von Manstein as war memories in 1955 after or before Stalingrad. BTW, von Manstein was very well aware of the Romanian involvement, as he commanded Unternehmen Wintergewitter designed to relief the encircled Axis forces at Stalingrad. Have a great life, liar!
Sorry but your info about Finland is mostly wrong. - Finland and Nazi Germany had pretty terrible relations and were on the verge of trade war before ww2. The Finnish political and military leadership was filled with anglophiles. - Hitler was never close with Mannerheim. Mannerheim didn't respect Hitler at all.
Bulgaria was neutral at first. The moment Romania joined the axis and German troops started marching south, Bulgarian goverment asked for back up from the allies, which more or less was ignored. What can be done with German-Romanian troops at your full northern border and because of WW1, Bulgaria had a small and outdated military, no other choice but join the Germans at this point. For joining the Germans, Bulgarian goverment asked for Macedonia, part of Serbia and part of north Greece, which were with big Bulgarian ethnicity at that moment. Germans did almost all the fighting and Bulgarian troops occupied it after that and started administrating it. About the jews from this new territories, they were deported, because they weren't protected by the Bulgarian constitution, which was the case for the Bulgarian jews.
"Shortly after his visit to Finland in 1942, Hitler met the prime minister of his ally Hungary, Miklós Kállay. Kállay relayed the details of this meeting to the Finnish ambassador in Budapest, Aarne Wuorimaa, who reported to the Foreign Ministry on 20 June 1942. "Chancellor Hitler had spoken to him at length and in detail about Finland, whose struggle had left a deep impression on him. 'I had hitherto thought,' said the Chancellor, 'that in valour, courage and endurance the German people were the first and the best in the world. But now I have seen that the small nation of Finland is better than us,'" Wuorimaa wrote of Hitler's statement to Kállay." "The Croatian Army Commander-in-Chief Slavko Kvaternik had visited Hitler's headquarters and reported back to Finland's emissary in Croatia, Armas Yöntilä. Yöntilä wrote to the Foreign Ministry on 19 October 1942. "He [Hitler] was very sympathetic to Finland, about whose war he seemed to be well informed, and told me in private that Hitler's headquarters had a special table listing the military exploits of various nationalities. In this table, which he himself had seen, Finland came second after Germany, and Croatia third. He also said that Hitler had reserved great praise for the Finnish soldier," Yöntilä noted." yle.fi/a/3-12598549
Bulgaria joined because it was dismembered among the neighbours after Balkan Wars and after WWI, although Bulgaria carried the biggest burden of liberation wars against Ottomans. In this video You skipped Independent State of Croatia and Slovakia, that also signed anti-Cominterna pact.
in reality Hitler felt respect/envy for the Italians, this can be understood from mein kampf, where he admits that the European Mediterranean peoples and in particular the Italians were creators of empires, culture and art that the Germans themselves lacked...
Yep, same in 'Table Talk' he gushed over Mussolini, Italy, Italians but this biased Brit spewed only some minor negative BS. Brits can't stand any positives about Italy in WW II so the usual PROPAGANDA,
Makes sense, since Roman expansion in Europe set the foundation of western societies, had Rome decided to stay in the Mediterranean, most of Europe would remain primitive and tribal. It's kinda ironic given Hitler's view of Japan and how would they devolve into a feudal society without western influence.
Fun fact: the only voice recording of Hitler's normal voice was recorded in a conversation between him and Mannerheim in a finnish train. The specific train car was turned into a restaurant and you can visit today
Other countries in the Axis Powers not mentioned here (some no longer exist): - Thailand - Vichy France - Empire of Manchukuo - Menjiang State - Independent State of Croatia - Slovak Republic - Iraq - Iran - Albania - Spain (sent volunteers, supplies, equipment, allowed bases) The Axis Powers was a very large diverse alliance like the Allied Powers, even if ideology.
Hitler also used to seethe about Budapest and considered it something of an insult that the most beautiful city on the Danube was built by Attila's Hunnic spawn instead of Siegfried's. He had extensive plans to remodel Linz, the town he spent much of his youth at to be a "German Budapest".
Buda was a German populated city since the middle ages while Pest, the far poorer city, was Hungarian majority. So it was very much "Siegfried's" city. Germans were heavily represented in the Hungarian elite until WW2.
Actually Hitler said that Japan had 'never lost a war' and could never lose one therefore being on the side of Japan would mean they would have a better chance of winning.
What’s hilarious to me as a Bulgarian is , we hated the 3rd Reich so much, yet hitler had the thought that since we were an ally in world war 1 we would help Germany again. And because of this he became super tolerant towards Bulgaria, which is why we got away with no antisemetic laws or helping invasions, the Allie’s even recognized this and let us keep southern dobrogea as a token of forgiveness
Not true, there were antisemitic laws - check out Закон за защита на нацията (1941г.). The Bulgarian government and quite a few Bulgarians were pro-Germany. Dobruja remained Bulgarian mainly because it was given to Bulgaria before it joined the war with the approval of the Great powers and Romania.
The finnish - german -relations were not that cordial. Mannerheim despised the austrian corporal and nazism, but being a gentleman and cosmopolit hid it somewhat. Finland was only pushed into Germany's side by extremely stupid and short sighted russian foreign policy towards the end of 1930s and of course the winter war.
Finno-German relations were not excellent before WWII, but relatively cool, which in turn quite possibly influenced Hitler's decision to throw Finland under the bus with the Baltic States in the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Finland had rejected Germany's offer to sign a non-aggression pact in spring 1939 and the Finnish press had plenty of criticism towards the Nazis, particularly the newspapers of the left, which (SDP) had been in government since 1937. Göring certainly emphasised that to General Talvela when the latter made a visit to the German Air Ministry in Berlin on the 18th of December, 1940, also adding that Finland had voted against Germany in every single question in the League of Nations during the time Germany was a part of the organisation. He also specifically mentioned all this coolness by Finland towards Germany as being the reason "Germany left Finland into the Russian sphere".
Exactly. The Soviets hated most Väinö Tanner, the leader of SDP and moderate social democrat. He was against all area cedings, criticised USSR even after WW2 and his policies ensured that the majority of Finnish working class was united against Soviets.
Finland was only considered an Axis ally because they fought defensively against an invading Russian Army. That's all the Axis dealings Finland had. Once the Soviets were repelled, Finland fought alone with the Allies against Germany.
"fight against Germany" is somewhat an overstatement. The plan was to let them peacefully retreat into Norway and Finnish trains were borrowed to Germany for this to happen. It wasn't fast enough and the Soviets sent a note that now the Finns would have the choice of forcing them out of the country by arms or the Red Army would do it in stead of them
No. In Continuation war Finland attacked USSR little after Barbarossa had started. USSR was extremely hostile towards Finns after Winter war, so Finns seeked help from Germans because Sweden did not allow Allies to establish routes with Finland. In Winter war Soviets broke the non agression treaty and invaded.
@@ThisIsYou1 Finland and USSR were active signatories of the Treaty of Tartu which determined the borders between finland and ussr, and also of the Soviet-Finnish Non-Agression Pact from 1932
8:30 Mannerheim and Hitler were not friends. Mannerheim was annoyed that Addy invited himself to his birthday and there are several legends on how Mannerheim showed that.
It was a shame the Germans and Japanese didn’t liaise more, like the modern NATO. If Japan had continued their battles with Russia’s Far East (war was only declared just prior to Hiroshima) Stalingrad might not have happened. When Japan withdrew from Russia to loot the rest of China and southeast asia, she enabled Stalin to send the Siberian ski troops to Stalingrad, where their experience and durability in freezing conditions swung against the Germans. Instead of just Germany fighting on two fronts, the Russians would have had to fight on two fronts.
Why are the subtitles missing when the speaker says "[...] if you would ask a average solder on the Eastern front, that answer would probably be 'Romanian' " [timestamp 12:07] ?
For Finlands part, there's a book on this topic Hitler ja Suomi by Könnönen, in finnish. The video is accurate up until maybe 1944, but Hitlers attitude started to change after that. While if I'm not mistaken, the fact the Finnish army stopoed it's advance east was bc it reached it's assigned war goals in Barbarossa. The value Finland brought Germany was that even if the finnish front was passive, it soaked up dozens of Soviet divisions, hundreds of thousands of soviet troops. Those weren't thus deployed against Germany.
What's even funnier nowadays is that modern Japan L O V E S Germany. They love the language and they have a deep fascination with Nazi Germany. Germans online are also known as loving anime, but before their alliance in ww2 80 years ago- they hated each other.
I don't think Japanese have deep fascination with Nazi Germany. We don't have deep hatred against Nazi for sure though, but this doesn't mean we have fascination with Nazi. Japan rescued Jews from eastern Europe by giving transit visa through Soviet to Japan. Japanese didn't know much about Jew persecutions happening in Europe and were puzzled by such persecutions as the Jews look just like other European white. Then the Jews said to the Japanese officials "you guys are the same Asian as we (Jews) are, and you guys are next to get persecuted." Anyway, Hitler told Japanese gov to hand over those Jews to Germany, so Japan sent them to Shanghai or Hong Kong where Japan occupied at the time so that those Jews are safer there. Anyway, I don't know if we L O V E Germany that much. I personally feel more comfortable with the Germans (most German immigrants to North America) than with the Anglo Saxons (English or immigrant in NA) and probably the character wise we have more common with the Germans than with any other Europeans in the stereotypical views.
@@kirby1225 They did directly benefit each other. Read about the intricate routes Japan and Germany had established to exchange vital resources and technology with each other despite the vast geographical challenge... They even had cultural exchanges in which Japanese officers would visit Germany and Germans would visit Japan, for leisure/education, like a school field trip. They did all of this through complex submarine networks.
@@Ghostkilla773they could have still followed the plan and attacked russia in order to force it to fight a 2-front war.instead,they went to b*ttf*ck nowhere to colonise random islands and dragged the us into the war by bombing pearl harbour
Hitler started to respect the finns only during the winter war. Before that he talked Finland as one of the "lice states", which have no right for existence. Germany even didn't allowed military aid from other countries, such as Italy, going via Germany to Finland. Hitler's opinion changed during the winter war as he started to see Finland as potential ally in future oncoming conflict with the soviets
After watching this video, you might think that Finns and Nazis were good pals before the war. Not so. There were almost no Nazi sympathies in Finland. Nazis thought that the Finns belonged to one of the lower races. The leaders of the country more often than not despised the Nazi dictatorship. Mannerheim didn't like Hitler, at all, and found it hard to conceal. And what's more, Germany was actually an ally of the Soviet Union during the Winter War. But what's true is that Finland and Germany had good relationship. During the last phase of the WWI, finland elected a German king to become the head of the state. But then Germany lost the war.
Nah, the nazis even believes the Finns to be racially superior to the Germans. Germans have Slav and Mediterranean admixture. I doubt even half of Germans belong to the Nordic race.
Hitler had an almost bipolar mentality about 'loving' other countries. His views on the Poles went from admiration to murderous hatred with amazing speed. The irony is that the Finns acted much more like Britain or America and was similarly efficient. The Finns effectively pinned down large numbers of Soviet troops and behaved themselves well as occupiers of Karelia and as liberators of Norwegian Lapland. The Finns, unlike the other Axis Powers, did not leave behind a trail of massacres. Had the Germans behaved like the Finns they would have defeated the Soviet Union. Hitler saw foreign policy and international relations as if still a low-ranking soldier. He had much resentment toward the professional military, and those resentments would come to the fore after the plot of July 20. Many of the German senior officers (with exceptions of the likes of Nazi General Reichenau and toadies like Keitel and Jodl) wanted to behave themselves (and would have demanded the same) in occupied countries, much like their British and American counterparts. (I am satisfied that real victory comes from winning the peace, which means leaving the Other Side with nothing for which to fight). Hitler may have been a simpleton on many things, his bigotry and anger alone being consistent in an excessively-complex personality. His contradictions made him a catastrophe as a leader. He could not know whether he was a proletarian or an aristocrat: neither Churchill, FDR, de Gaulle, or Stalin had such a problem. He was grotesquely amoral, but he could moralize like the most fervent evangelist. He had a craving for artistic creativity that his limited talent and poor work ethic failed to support, but he could order great destruction that an untalented person could easily commission. He was a big-government 'socialist' who oppressed workers into veritable serfdom while enriching an aristocracy that he detested. His delusions of grandeur were themselves indefensible, and he offered his personal banality as profundity. Hitler was an amoral mediocrity masquerading as a Great Man of History, and that did not work well. If one is a dullard or a mediocrity, then one does great harm expressing either imagination nor ambition. If one is Picasso, Rachmaninoff, Einstein, FDR, Charlie Chaplin, or Hitchcock then one knows when to stop with exercises of complexity and grandeur for the good of their cultural or political objectives. Dullards might as well do mind-numbing work and addle themselves on consumerism as the system allows and a low-brow mass culture.
Christian Finnish Frostiis Well we have only recorded speaking voice of Hitler ever recorded in Finland, in the train one of the reporters left the device rolling and everything was recorded. German soldiers noticed that the device was recording, i do not know if Hitler knew of this but still the tapes were left untouched but the recording just stopped. It's freaky to listen to Hitler's speaking voice, along with Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim finnish fieldmarshal and the finnish president Risto Ryti
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
The funniest thing in my opinion about the nazi acceptance of Finnish views towards Jews, was that German soldiers fought side by side with Finnish jews during WW2 and some Finnish jews got even awarded iron crosses by Germany
Wow!
Because most of them where just soldiers that where fighting for their homeland not their ideals
The manner in which Nazis screened the Jews was based on their last name. That's how the Jews were identified
They were conscripts like most Finnish soldiers and considered themselves as protectors of Finland against the immediate enemy, the USSR.
Its almost like that was common and the current narrative will never let you know. there were about 150k or so jews in the Wehrmacht, Emil Maurice was his own personal driver and a jew. I would speak more, but i know my comment will get auto deleted. so just dig a bit more, you will find that everything they told you was a lie. Just check the Greatest story never told, if you want to know more.
Interesting fact - Tsar Boris of Bulgaria’s son Simeon, who succeeded him as Tsar in 1943, would later return from exile after the fall of communism and enter politics, becoming Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 2001
He's still alive as well
Hmm, did he do well?
G'day,
"In-Bred,
And thus
Born to
Rule...!"
Theory, hmmmn ?
Have a good one,
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
@@WarblesOnALot If that's the case, wouldn't the whole world search for their leaders in West Virginia?
@@robertsansone1680
G'day,
Thanks...!
Have you not previously heard of the Royal Families of ALL the EuroPeon "Nations", "Clans", "Tribes", "Races" and "Creeds"...?
It was a randomly-mutated over-inbred Hapsburg that "invented" Haemophillia...
And for light comic relief, look up "Van-Rooyen Hands - a Genetic Defect causing Allergic Dermatitis on exposure to Sunlight...; among Whaite Sooth Effrikans it's considered a desirable Affliction, because it indicates a bloodline descent from a Rich Miner an Land-Grabber with still existant Ancestral Piles of Money still attached.
Very rare everywhere else on Earth, in Whaite Sooth EffriKa before it collapsed there were 40,000 CitiZens with Van-Rooyen Hands - because there/then scabby sore-encrusted sunburnt Hands was a well-regarded Indicator of "Good Bloodlines and potential as a Breeding Partner"...; because - MONEY (!).
Rich Inbreds
Are
STILL
Rich...,
Y'see.
And to they who
Crave to be
Led...
"Rich" is
ALL that matters.
Such is life,
Have a good one...
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
Such is life
What Hitler said about Antonescu is more or less reminiscent of something similar said about Mussolini: "Mussolini is an exception. His abilities are far superior to those of the Italians."
Funny, since the events prove the exact opposite is true
Any student of both WW1 and WW2 knows that the Italians were actually fantastic fighters, extremely brave and efficient IF under good leadership/supplied properly.
Mousolini was an excellent administrator of domestic affairs yet his foreign policy and military oversight was poor.
Oh my bad, 2022 censorship over this event from 1942, where was I: “those Italians man! They can’t fight right??!?! I would never say this to an Italians face but they are just baaaaad at fighting! I’ve never been in even a fist fight but I’ll sum up millions of people getting shot at and bombed like I know what I’m talking about!.... and that mousolini whom everyone will know throughout all of time, man wasn’t he just silly!.... not silly like me though! I work 9-5 for peanuts and I have a broken family and use drugs! I know nothing of domestic policy and I can not compare the domestic state of italy prior to mousolini to his policies in office! I’m just told mousolini is bad and silly!.... what is a policy again???”
Lol I had to get that in
@@francescosantambrogio6421 True
@@francescosantambrogio6421 Vero.
Probably the only country that Hitler somehow admired was the UK. But the Brits don't have friends, they have their interests and always support the second strongest country on the continent (France in this case).
I believe you nailed it. In reality the Finns did little to help the Germans in Russia. Once they regained the territory lost in the Winter War they merely dig in and “assisted” w the siege of Leningrad. They were hardly Nazis and the Germans knew that.
True. I would go so far as to say that the spanish azul division and italians under Messe did more in the eastern front.
Finland actually advanced over the old pre Winter War -border to Russian Karelia and took quite a large amount of territory. Finnish goals were to reach the "three isthmus line" going from White Sea to Lake Onega to Lake Ladoga. Finland almost got to this objective but was cut short because of the failure of the Murmansk offensive in the north and because of logistics issues in East Karelia.
Co-operation with Germany was quite large. There is no reason to downplay it. Finland mined gulf of Finland with Germany, she received supplies from Germany and had troops under German command. Only after operation Barbarossa, Finland started to make some distance to Germany. It was only then when it became obvious that the Soviet Union wouldn't be defeated in a matter of months so Finland started to think about its exit from the war.
If Germany had steamrolled Russians over the Urals, Finland would have happily had taken all of Karelia and maybe even the Kola peninsula. "Greater Finland" dream was still on the minds of Finnish intellectuels.
@@Karpaneen russian Karelia? Doesnt exist. Only finnish Karelia that they stole
@@myhonorwasloyalty Russian Karelia (East Karelia) has never been part of Finland. So Soviet Union didn't steal it. It has always been part of Russia or it's predecessors like Novgorod's Republic.
@@Karpaneen always been, even russia was before finno-ugrics but slavs stole it
On Romania, Antonescu was one of the only men in history to talk for hours and have Hitler (after he came into power) sit and listen. Antonescu only knew French and Romanian, and Hitler knew only German, so there was a translator necessary
Fun fact: Hitler actually knew Italian as well.
Hitler could understand English and French. He learned french in school in Austria-Hungary and taught English to himself in 1912.
@@andorthewhitewolf1057 I know that Mussolini knows German but not that Hitler knew italian...
@@andorthewhitewolf1057 First I have heard of this. Hitler had a smattering of French, mostly learned on the Western Front in WW1. But that was it. He was contemptuous of people who knew several languages, viewing it as a Jewish trait, and a friend who knew him in the early days in Vienna reported that he reacted negatively to hearing workmen speaking Italian. He said sarcastically, "This is their 'German' Vienna."
@@KlausVonKuste Mussolini spoke Italian, French, English, and German.
You can see videos of him speaking English and German (albeit with a heavy accent)
The german soldiers point of view is pretty accurate, since romania helped germany the most in the eastern front, supplying hundreds of thousands of manpower and more than a half of the reich's oil consumption, it's easy to say the germans and romanians fought side by side against the soviets resulting to them seeing romania very highly
@Rafaam , The Romanian soldier did not steal from his allies. If there were exceptions, the vast majority of Romanian soldiers had exemplary behavior. Stop the lies!
@Rafaam , the Romanians were very underequipped I remember how to Germans were surprised when they got pushed back by Soviet tanks when they did not even have any anti tank weapons or tanks of their own, but the Romanians fought well even if ill equipped which gained most German's soldiers on the eastern front respect, plus the eastern front was mainly fought by Romanians and Germans and left with no options, the Germans had to work with Romanians in order to win the war
@Rafaam , yes there were Italians and Hungarians on the eastern front too but the Romanians were far more in numbers and according to some sources, they did better than the rest of the axis forces invading the soviets except for the Germans who fought the best, the Romanians in ww2 did extremely well considering how much they lacked proper equipment and good leadership
@Rafaam , my grandpa this my grandpa that
@Rafaam , u know that italy also changes sides right? and one of the reasons ur grandpa made it out is romanian oil cus u would've been left with stationary tanks. the romanians also got to the furthest point in the eastern campaign, almost getting to Grozny. Also the second romanian mountain hunter division cleared the soviet bridehead saiukova with no casualties and in very little time. Keep in mind the germans tried capturing this point for a month with very high casualties and they considered it "impenetrable"
Hitler was an absolute opportunist with allies. He probably rated Finns highest, because they were fighting for their own existence and were therefore fierce fighters. The Soviet fiasco against Finns in Winter War probably made Hitler think that taking Moscow would be a walk in the park.
I mean when fighting a war, especially this size I guess most people would act pretty opportunistic when searching for allies. But yeah I agree, contrary to modern alliances like NATO being defined by political and cultural characteristics of its member states Hitler's allies were mostly just everyone left not hating him
Ironic considering Hitler learnt nothing from the winter war. It was the first time the soviets ahd the KV-1 heavy tank in action, yet the nazis were oblivious of this and were suprised by encountering strong soviet tanks during barbarossa.
@@armzngunz No, they weren't surprised or oblivious to it's encounter.
They knew about the tanks. They just didn't expect them to be in such a high number at the start in 1941.
@@Balotovi Basically Russia trying to make friends post Ukraine War.
Bruh everyone was fighting for their existence because of him
Hitler respected and admired Mussolini for much longer than just 1934. The mere fact that Hitler had a bust of Mussolini with him for much longer is an indication of this. After his return from Venice, Hitler said >>I feel deep friendship
Mussolini on the other hand admired Lenin. Not his ideology but his energy and spirit.
Italians must have hated everything and everybody though. Their own generals for not preparing them well. The Brits for not just lying still and taking the kicks. The Germans for bailing them out and taking all the glory
@@jankutac9753 They shouldn't have started a war then.
@@ktheterkuceder6825 well, I don't think they wanted. Not even Mussolini wanted in 1940 yet
@@jankutac9753 Yet he did. He fucked up big time.
During WW1 Bulgaria mobilised around 980.000 troops and was one of the countries with highest army size. In my opinion Hitler wanted the Bulgarian tsar to mobilise a high number for the second time and send them this time against Russia in a foreign territory. But as you mentioned 80% of the population disliked the idea. Great video tho keep it up
He had great respect for the Bulgarian fighting spirit.
And yes, we are not exactly Slavs…
Bulgaria also earned the nickname "Prussia of the Balkans" in ww1 and it can be said they were Germanys only competent ally as they would continue to hold their positions even when the germans left against the british no less. Serbia was also not beaten until Bulgaria joined the war. Bulgaria held its own and was never a burden to the Germans unlike their other allies.
@@krassivanov4895bulgaria The term Slavs came during the rule of Ekaterina the Great in order to encourage the nation to engage in liberation wars with other global powers at the time which had big slavic speaking population.
@BVBDortmund it was about 8th biggest. Romania during ww1 had a smaller population yet raised more than Bulgaria. 1.2m soldiers and it's still far overshadowed by the Russians, French, Brits and the rest of the major powers of ww1.
@@robiagacitei5487 I think you are wrong kingdom of romania was around 7.5m which was 3m higher than tsardom of bulgaria at the same time. (1915)
Germany was also annoyed that Finland gladly advanced to recapture the land it had lost to the USSR in the Winter War but refused to go any farther.
Where does this myth come from? We were determined to liberate our oppressed Karelian brothers, and advanced far beyond our pre-war borders
The Germans were actually supposed to advance together with the Finns, but they got hopelessly stuck in Lapland, so the Finns actually had to stop in order to wait for the Germans to catch up. The Germans never did catch up, they remained stuck from 1941 to 1944.
The Brits and US had warned the Finns that if they compromised the Murmansk Railway which was essential for the US lend lease to Soviet Union, they would immediately declare war against Finland.
@@MoonDweller1337 in the end Finland got screwed hard by soviets for the price of independence.
@@MoonDweller1337 That was another problem, which also had to be taken into consideration. I'm pretty sure that even the Germans didn't like the idea of being subjected to bombardment from a couple of American carriers groups that would have appeared off the Norwegian coast, soon after cutting the Murmansk railroad.
Don't know how the Germans see us, but as a Romanian, my grandpa and great grandpa always told stories about the Germans and the Russians during our alliance with both of them. Specifically, all Romanians agree that during the occupation, the Germans were by far the most civilized, behaved and mannered between the 2, always asking politely if they needed something from the Romanian people that they occupied. While we were under the Russian occupation however, the Romanian elderly always remember how they were always harassed, robbed and even killed by the Russian soldiers. For example, the Russians always had a fascination of stealing our watches, we even use this as a bitter meme today.
E o deosebire intre o alianta (Germania avea nevoie de petrolul si produsele noastre agricole) si un fost inamic, asa cum eram noi pentru sovietici. Sa nu uitam ca si noi am luptat impotriva sovieticilor pe teritoriul lor si unii militari romani nu s-au purtat cum trebuie.
Ehm, are you really outright doing mental gymnastics? You were not ‘occupied’ by Germans, you allied them and invaded the Soviet Union together. No shit that after the massacre of Soviet people they kinda disliked Romanians a bit.
BA ESTI PROST
@@alexbalu5053 Cine sa fie prost?
@@FreedMordheim WTF, are you serious? I meant In a sense that we turned against Germany at one point, and despite that, the Germans still behaved respectfully, unlike the soviets. That's why the whole eastern Europe hates the soviets so much, wherever the soviets went, they did horrible things to civilians, their whole ideology is garbage.
Like you said at the beginning, the Nazis considered Hungarians honorary aryans. Even though Hitler himself disliked them, I believe due to his dislike of the leader Miklos Horthy, Nazi policy was largely lukewarm on them
"we are aryans" cope
@@nikiindzhiev5369 its not cope.
Hitler "we are honorary aryans" basically meant we as a Hungarian nation wouldnt exist, and we would be a clay of Austria, Third Reich.
It just a bit better than being jew, slav or gypsy.
Aryans: all North European(German, Scandinavian, Dutch, English, Scotish etc)
Non-Ayrans but no less value in German sight: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Croatian(-Dalmatian), Hungarian, Slovakian(even they were Slavic languages).
Allied but not equal(but they did let them feel it):Romanian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian(sometimes they were enemies sometimes had alliance with them).
@@agostonpalatinus1513 “The Hungarian is as lazy as the Russian”
@@lzstep80 istvan is a Hungarian name stop coping these racial theories are wrong science anyway.
But Hungarians were NEVER considered aryan.
Also the Bulgarians are in the upper pile allies since WW1
Bulgaria is the only of Hitler's allies that didn't send troops to the Eastern Front. And is actually the only defeated country in WW2 that gained territories instead of losing.
Romania gained Transilvania
@@horeacernucan1967 Yeah, like 20 years before the Second World War
@@Juvelira Romania lost again Transilvania to Hungary in WW2.Yes, although they were on the same side. Stalin gave back Tarnsilvania to Romania after WW2.
@@horeacernucan1967 I know the history, but essentially Romania leaves the Second World War smaller than it has started it. So no, it didn't gain sh*t. Net loss is Bessarabia, Bukovina and Dobruja.
@@Juvelira Southern Dobruja, your knowledge on these is abysmal. And Romania didn't started WW2, they only wanted to recover their territories.
Finns considered the Germans as brothers in arms and the relations to them were friendly, although some differences also were present. Most normal people didn't then care about politics more than most normal people do now, but the Germans fought on our side instead of against us.
Mannerheim didn't particularly like the Nazi Germany though and that was evident in few of his interactions with Hitler, which were sometimes tense. He was too much of a reactionary to fully appreciate a popular front such as the nazis.
Finns considered the Germans as actual allies until the wars tide was turned unfavorable for Finland and Germany. The "brothers in arms" became a thing later on to distance Finland from Germany.
@@mrperamaki2184 They were co-belligerents against the Soviet Union. No political or military alliance existed. There was the anti-comintern pact but that isn't exactly an alliance.
Brotherhood in arms is a nicer way of saying it.
@@mrperamaki2184 yes they finns do some very convenient revisionist history to distance themselves from the nazi collaboration. Their involvement directly contributed to the holocaust.
@@herptek right, so invading a country together, sharing equipment, even fighting alongside each other in units isnt an alliance if its embarassing to admit it was.
@@Ukraineaissance2014 I'm proud of it, proud of our heroic veterans and I would gladly do it all over again myself should the prospect look favourable and should the world situation demand it like it did then. And indeed, Russia is agressive and hardly legitimate state itself that is dangerous to its neighbours like the USSR was back then. History has proven our cause just.
What I am weary of are the Soviet sympathizers. They can't really stomach it that Finland was never theirs and now, after the dissolution of the USSR, many of the nations that fell victim to it are finally free.
I will not say Finland and Germany did have excellent relation before WW2. Becuse Germany did "give away" Finland to USSR, and blocked wepon deliveries to Finland during the winter war.
The only reason they were together was "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".
Which is rather ironic, considering that the Jäger movement which later became the model and the very backbone of our Defense forces, originated from the 27th Jäger Battalion of the Prussian army, towards the end of the Ww1.
@@thechosenone1533 Russians invaded Finland in Nov 1939 because Russia (USSR) was allied with Nazi-Germany. History remembers the 23 Aug 1939 Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact between Soviet Russia and Nazi-Germany. That agreement made possible for Russia and Germany to invade Poland together in Sep 1939, and later for Russia to invade Finland 30 Nov 1939. To help Russia (USSR) in the Finnish Winter War, Nazi-Germany blocked arms transports to Finland.
In the peace treaty 1940 Finland had to surrender some territory. Russia in turn had to surrender its goal of putting the Finnish exile communist O.W. Kuusinen's puppet government in Helsinki. In November 1940 Soviet PM Molotov went to Berlin to ask Hitler's consent for USSR to finish in Finland the attack that had failed in March same year. Hitler refused because he had started to see the pissed off Finns as an asset in his plan to attack USSR.
Followed the Continuation War 1941-44. In June 1941 Finland was bombed again by the Soviet Air Force, after which Finns started their own attack to take back the lands lost in Winter War. This attack was coordinated with German troops who had turned their coat and supported Finland against Russians.
@@jounisuninen Why would the Soviet PM ask Hitler for permission to attack Finland?
@@thechosenone1533 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. German-Soviet deal on how to split European nations together. Germans and Russians did share Poland just few months before Russia attacked Finland.
Tsar Boris of Bulgaria may have been an Axis leader, but a man done some good as one, refusing to deport Jews and Communists or Trade Unionists, or participate in Operation Barbarossa, endangering his own people, before dying in 1943 either poisoned by the Germans or his family as most believed
Soviets*
I honestly would believe that he was poisoned by the Germans because unlike the finish the Germans would have got them there ass handed to them by the fins
@@ryanm.2930 He was killed by the soviets as the first commenter suggested.
Lies. They deported all the jews from Macedonia ,Bulgaria and grece
@@mateosvetozar9095 source:trust me bro!
What exactly proves that Mannerheim liked Hitler? As far as I'm aware Mannerheim disliked Hitler a lot. On top of that what do you mean by "Obvious ally", by what terms? Finland was one of the only functioning democratic republics in Europe at that time that held human rights in high regard and had barely any interests in meddling with foreign wars or conflicts.
Obvious because "The enemy of my enemy is my ally". Mutual loathing of the Soviets.
@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 Also, Germany had aided Finnish whites to victory in the Finnish civil war of 1918. They also helped train Finnidh soldiers in case of violent breakaway from the Russian empire. Finland even planned on installing a German prince as their first king but after Germany's loss in WW1 that plan was scrapped to appeal to the victorious allies and Finland became a parliamentary democracy. They also had good trade relations throughout history.
@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 At that time (-41) yes, but before the soviet invasion in the winter war definitely not. The front just made it sound like Finland would have allied itself with germany regardless of the winter war, which isn't true at all.
@@jokuvaan5175 True, but you have to remember that it was the German empire and not the third reich that aided Finland.
Mannerheim disliked Hitler. In 1935 I believe, Mannerheim visited Germany and had written a letter to his sister where he said that Hitler was turning into a monster
I wonder about how Hitler and Nazi/Germans feel about countries like Iraq and Thailand or other "countries" like Vichy France or Croatia, or even the Occupied lands of the Axis like Austria, Ukraine, Manchuria, Ethiopia, etc
Germans did support Iraq when they revolted against British but it was quickly crushed, i believe they also had dealings in Iran and Afghanistan before the war. Germans also sent weapons for Ethiopians against Italy.
Austrians were German in their mind, Ukrainians and Croats were kinda low in the totem pole since they were not considered germanic.
I dont think they had any opinions on Manchukuo.
Hitler hated French because of his personal ww1 experiences and liked British.
Ukraine is now infested with Nazis, who are committing genocide against the Russians in the east. The Ukrainian Nazis are most likely Romanians, who hated the Russians!
@@tmdwu5360 Croats were considered Germanic and were held in high regard by Hitler
@@tmdwu5360 he didn't hate the French lol his aspirations were east but when the west declared war on him he did what he had to do but his downfall was his hatred for slavsw should have settled for what he had but invaded the Soviet Union that's how you know good always come out on top
Croatia was a full fledged country and not a "country".
7:16 actually, in 1939 Romania (governed by king Carol the 2nd) was an ally of Poland, France, England at the beginning of the war. Romania had also alliances with Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (The Little Entente). However, the alliance with Poland was concluded in case of aggression from East (USSR)- so the Poles did not ask for military assistance against Germany. When USSR also attacked Poland, the Polish government was already cornered and realized there are no chances, so again did not ask for Romanian military engagement. However, Romania ensured evacuation of Polish gold reserves, refugees and of many servicemen - in spite of strong German diplomatic protests. The servicemen eventually reached Britain by sea and continued to fight from there.
In June 1940, the Soviets invaded the 2 Romanian provinces but the German didn't help Romania. On the contrary! According the secret annex to the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, the Germans pressed Romania - thru diplomatic means - to not oppose USSR. Having in mind Romania was at that time surrounded by hostile forces, and having witnessed Poland's faith, the king followed his council's advice to withdraw according the soviet ultimatum.
That is why, at the beginning of operation Barbarossa, the western allies did not declare war on Romania - being well aware the Soviets were aggressors on Romania - as they were with the Finns. But situation later escalated...
In June 1940 Romania could not be supported by its traditional allies as Poland was down, Czechoslovakia down, Yugoslavia down and Paris had been occupied by Hitler a week prior USSR's aggression. Only after Romania was left alone between the two totalitarian monsters it had no choice but to side with one. For a kingdom related to the former Russian Tsars, siding with the USSR boshevik killers and aggressors was the worse option. Geographic bad luck.
Degeaba că polonezii au uitat cât de mult i-am ajutat
Except these 2 provinces Romania didn’t acquire diplomatically but outright stole, when there was a civil war in Russia. The Soviet Union never recognized Romanian sovereignty over them and yeah, before speaking about bloodthirsty bolsheviks remember how peaceful Romanians butchered people, who rebelled against the occupation. It was just as opportunistic and disgusting as any other state, be it the US, France, USSR, Poland or Germany.
@@FreedMordheim Here are your lies, debunked:
1. Romania didn't steal anything from Russia or USSR. At the time of joining Romania, the Moldavian Republic was an independent state (independence declared on the 24th of January, 1918). Joining Romania was decided by Country Council (Sfatul Țării), the most democratic representative body Bessarabia ever had in its history.
2. The union was recognized by most countries in the civilized world. USSR opinion is obviously biased and based on lies. USSR didn’t actually exist at the moment of unification of the young Moldavian Republic with Romania.
3. Romania is just on older state, re-baptized. The previous name of Romania is ”The United Principalities of Moldova and Wallachia”. Now, try to convince us that Moldova should not be part of The Union of Moldova and Wallachia : )
4. Romanian presence is normal in Bessarabia, we Moldovans are Romanians. Moldovan is not an ethnicity, is just a political or regional name. We Moldovans are Romanians, the same way Novgorodeans are Russians or Saxons are Germans. Thus, there was no ”occupation” of Moldova by Romanians. Czarist censuses show Moldovans (Romanians) were 90% in 1812 Bessarabia. Only Stalin pretended we are a different ethnos, to justify his aggression 1940 on Romania. But Russian scientists before Stalin and Czarist official archives note that Moldovans are Romanians. Even Lenin, Marx and Engels noted we are Romanians. I can show you their books printed in bolshevik Moscow, so you cannot blame a so-called “Romanian propaganda”.
5. The rebels you mentioned were just among minorities which had privileges before, just like Transnistria rebelled in 1990-1992. All these rebelling was induced by infiltrated Soviet agents. But Romania quelled the rebellions without excess force, the rebels being captured receiving soft prison sentences. Of course, the rebels shooting at authorities were shot at, and eventually killed. Romanian administration was far softer than Czarist Ohrana, and 1000 times softer than Soviet NKVD. Of course, Soviet propaganda depicts a heavily exaggerated image, mixing a lot of lies, like they did with all their opponents.
@@FreedMordheim ”Except these 2 provinces Romania didn’t acquire diplomatically but outright stole”- In 1918 Lenin & Co renounced at Ukraine and the Moldavian Republic declared independence from ussr. And for the ”second province”, Bucovina was never part of Russia so clearly the russians were those who stolen, like they stolen Bessarabia in the past!
@@FreedMordheim A quote from Lenin's "The Right of Peoples to Self Determination": В. И. ЛЕНИН - “О ПРАВЕ НАЦИЙ НА САМООПРЕДЕЛЕНИЕ”: >
Ленин упоминает румын в Российской империи. Единственной румынской провинцией в Российской империи была Губернская Бессарабия (половина исторической Молдовы; теперь Республика Молдова).
Plus, a book of the bolshevik "saints" printed in Moscow, 1962: К. МАРКС и Ф. ЭНГЕЛЬС - СОЧИНЕНИЯ - Издание второе -
ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ
Москва • 1962 :
”ВНЕШНЯЯ ПОЛИТИКА РУССКОГО ЦАРИЗМА”: Никогда еще Россия не достигала такого могущественного положения. Но она сделала также еще один шаг за пределы своих естественных границ. Если в отношении завоеваний Екатерины у русского шовинизма были еще некоторые извиняющие - я не хочу сказать оправдывающие - предлоги, то относительно завоеваний Александра об этом не может быть и речи. Финляндия населена финнами и шведами, Бессарабия - румынами, конгрессовая Польша - поляками. Здесь уж и говорить не приходится о воссоединении рассеянных родственных племен, носящих русское имя, тут мы имеем дело с неприкрытым насильственным завоеванием чужой территории, спростым грабежом." (ЭНГЕЛЬС )
Supposedly, Japan sent one final message to Germany via their embassy before the Soviets encircled Berlin and cut communications. The message was only two words: "Good luck."
Lol, no.
Mannerheim did not have a close personal relationship with Hitler, there are 2 examples of him outright insulting Hitler.
Firstly when Hitler came to visit him in 1942, Mannerheim's Adjutant asked him if they should run towards Hitler, when he was descending his plane. Mannerheim responded "Let the corprals do the running", in reference to Hitler's official Rank.
Secondly the same day, Mannerheim lit his cigar in front of Hitler and blew the smoke on his face. Hitler famously hated smoking and Mannerheim knew it.
From Finland's perspective, the Nazis were allies because nobody else would help us. But the Finnish soldiers respected their German counterparts dearly, as they fought side by side in the FInnish front. Instead of allies, Finns called the Germans "Aseveljet" or "Brothers in arms"
The Lapland war was truly heart breaking for the Finns and the Germans, and innitially the Germans agreed to leave without a fight, until Soviet Pressure forced the FInns to engage. A famous photo of the Lapland war is of a burned down village and a sign left by the Germans that said "Als Dank für nicht bewiesene Waffenbrüderschaft" or "As thanks for ending brotherhood in arms"
It's clear that the war was emotionally difficult for both sides. However, Finland will never forget that Germans saved our country in 1944, when the Soviet Offensive was stopped in large part by German military aid in the form of Panzerfausts, Stug III tanks and the famous aerial Detachment Kuhlmey.
The cigar thing is also said to be a test. It was a way of Mannerheim to judge if he can take what Hitler is telling him as a fact. As Hitler did not tell him to put it out he could estimate that what Hitler said about their eastern front is most likely not true and that Finland should start searching a way out of the war.
It also makes perfect sense why Mannerheim did not like Hitler. Mannerheim is a career officer originally of the Russian Empire one point being de facto ruler of Poland and part of Tsar Nikolai II's court. Then he is the highest military officer in the finnish army as Marshal. Tittle that has not ever been awarded to anyone else as its only given in times of war. Not to mention that he was also a baron so part of a finnish nobility. Hitler was just meager Corporal that got to power by scheming and by going into the right bar at the right time.
„Als Dank für nicht bewiesene Waffenbrüderschaft“ means really
As thanks for unproven brotherhood in arms
@Dio Unlike the other Axis powers, the Finns had done nothing really wrong -- no genocide and no plunder. German leadership that have conducted itself like the Finns would have won the war. By leaving the Jews alone the Germans would have had
1. excellent Jewish scientists, just like the British and Americans had, capable of achieving miracle weapons.
2. better cinema, rivaling the quality of American cinema which provided in our world an unceasing supply of anti-Nazi propaganda
3. a stronger garment industry capable of supplying better winter clothing to German soldiers
4. large populations in many countries sympathetic to German cultural and political ends. That includes the USA.
5. more soldiers
6. a religion on the side of Germany against the godless Soviet state
The Americans and British were delighted to see the Finns leave the war, keeping their political system intact, at the cost of some territory to surrender to the USSR and diplomatic and military concessions to the USSR that fell short of costing Finnish independence.
The Finns achieved what the Romanians and Bulgarians achieved and what Horthy tried to achieve -- pulling out of the Axis without eventually sacrificing independence. The Poles and Czechs could not do that even as formal allies of the Soviet Union. Remember well that Hungary and Romania did huge war crimes. Bulgaria was complicit in killing Jews in its annexed territories. The Finns conducted themselves in Karelia much as the British and Americans did in their zones of conquest.
@user-gw5bm2xj7q Scheming as in manipulating his people to love him.
@Dio Run that last part by me again?
It’s worth noting that in Operation Panzerfaust, the Germans overthrew Horthy and replaced his government with the Arrow Party
The Hungarians were among the worst troops as far as committing atrocities on the Ostfront.
@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 and you are basing that on what?
@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 zoviets were worst and brits
@@myhonorwasloyalty except not a single british soldier fought on the eastern front....
@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 Hungarians did nothing wrong on the eastern front, lol. Slavic shit.
During the Warsaw Rising of '44, Hungarian units refused to help the Germans fight the Poles. The brotherhood of those two nations supersedes other nations. Poles escaped Poland to fight in France and during the Battle of Britain through Hungary and Romania.
Yeah, we had backbone back then. Now Orbán has killed the soul of our nation.
Finland had a rough time of the 20th century, and had to navigate between German and Soviet ambitions. It is a miracle their nation survived. Really hope I can visit Finland myself soon, a lot of my friends have gone and said it was a fascinating place.
Thanks and welcome. Helsinki in summer city.
Agreed. Romania's alliance with Germany was of conjecture because Romania didn't want to deal with Russia, so going with Germany assured protection from Russia. And Hitler knew that Romania is done with Germany the moment Russia is not a threat anymore.
I would suggest that the Finns impressed Hitler by their tenacity and defense during the Winter War (Talvisota). Basically fighting the Red Army to a standstill and forcing an armistice. A quote from then Commissar Nakita Kruschev: "In our war with Finland, we managed to take just enough territory to bury our dead." I would mention here that the Finns were a co-belligerent rather than a German ally. Their renewed hostilities was referred to as the "Continuation War." As to the Hungarians, they were assigned an impossible task to hold an extended line on the Voronezh front. Their equipment was inferior and their supplies were inadequate. Their collapse was inevitable. Not mentioned is Slovakia. The Slovaks distinguished themselves at Rostov-on-the-Don. They were also the first axis ally to participate in WW2 as they took part in the invasion of Poland. NOTE: at the 6:51 mark of this vid, those are Bulgarian soldiers.
Finland and Germany were allies. If not, you would have to disregard most alliances in history. Usual allies do not cooperate to the degree western Allies did or Nato would do.
1. And Mannerheim spoke about the heavy losses of the Finns.
2. The Finns were direct allies of Germany, provided their airfields and blocked Leningrad. And also committed a mass murder of residents in the occupied territory.
@@wederMaxim "Mass murder of residents in occupied territory" might wanna cite that? Last I checked only thing we had were the internment camps which had horrible conditions due to the lack of food overall in Finland in 1941.
@@ilililil490 don't bother. He has different truth on what happened in finnish occupied karelia. The real truth doesn't suit Russian governments current agenda.
@@anaccountmusthaveaname9110 You are right, Finland and Germany were allies. But there was one significant detail: Finland refused to sign the Tripartite Pact. So from the legal point of view, Finland was not a member of Axis. One could say that they had a military alliance, but not a political alliance.
One thing you got wrong about Finland is that Mannerheim and Hitler weren't really that close. Actually they pretty much despised each other. Mannerheim represented the aristocracy and traditional pre-ww1 decorated officer core. Hitler was a radical who hated reactionism and the old world's (Prussian) officer core. Hitler's visit to Finland propably wasn't a show of respect but an act of desperation. At this time the war was mostly turned agaist Germany and Germany's ability to conduct massive advances on the battlefield was severely weakened. Finland had started to drift away from the axis and had duq in rather than continued the offensive after Operation Barbarossa. Hitler visited Mannerheim to persuade him to restart the active war in the Karelian front in order to force the Soviets to disperse some forces there. This attempt was futile however as Finland was desperately seeking a way out of the war and further offensives would just have angered the Allies.
Naaah you guys got significant aid from the Germans don't distance yourselves now
@@johnpaul3099 I'm not distancing anything. Just stating the fact that Mannerheim didn't like Hitler and vice versa. Finland was a de facto axis power but it doesn't mean Finland didn't befriend Germany with caution. After Barbarossa Finland basically cut co-operation with Germany until 1944 when it needed Germany's material aid to stop the Soviet offensive into Karelian isthmus.
Germans should just let soviets overrun Finland in 1944 and retreat to Norway. Mannerheim want to play house with Brits and US and left the work with soviets half finished only to be screwed hard by them later on. He forget that Soviet were already the same house with US and Brits.
Where did you find this information?
Hitler respected Mannerheim much more than the other way around.
War between Finland and Russia started from the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Germany and Russia. As winter war complitely depleted Finland's arms, Finland turned into west for help but didn't receive it. Germany was the only option until Lapland war.
It was an act of survival between all major powers. Act that Finland never ordered.
Someone make Erdogan sign our Nato papers.
Give kurds :D
@@republic0_032 "I'm sorry sir, you have to leave your work and family and leave Finland because your father's mother's sister's husband's dog's last owner was a terrorist and your job as an pizza driver could endanger whole Nato-alliance"
@@Redfizh haha I am not serious tho, I am not even Turkish
@@republic0_032 Same, but what Erdogan is asking is still insane. One kurd he's asking was only 10yo when he moved to sweden.
We did not gave Jewish people to Hitler (except 7-9 people were sadly returned…) so should erdogan learn something from there
One mistake was Halder he dismissed reports on the size of the Red Army and he did not pass the info to other German commanders
The mistake was not considering the Soviets ability to send new troops and equipment to the front. The Germans killed or captured more soldiers in Operation Barbarossa than the Red army had in 1941. They also destroyed or captured more tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery pieces than they had in 1941 and still the Red Army never seemed to run out of men and materials to throw at the Germans.
It was this basically, Hitler and Stalin both ignored warnings, Stalin of Hitlers invasion, and Hitler of the red army reserves, it just so happens Stalin could afford more mistakes
"He saw them as untermensch and only useful as cannon fodder against the enemy"
So not unlike Churchill's opinions of the French then.
British establishment used to (and still do, albeit in lesser form than before) loath and resent the French as rivals and eternal competitors. Churchil did not in any way regard the French as Untermensch, that is a silly statement. They were traditional enemies though, but that is different. Churchill would look at Zulus and underdeveloped colonials as unrermensch, the French not so...
@@magnusk9724
I find the rivalry between the British and the French to be a fascinating one; iron sharpens iron and both nations were pretty much forced to continue developing rapidly.
*The British sinking the last ships of the French remnants near Dunkirk, the very same place French soldiers personally had to go above and beyond out of their way from actually defending France to sacrifice themselves, just so the British could evacuate their “military aid”, which ironically enough was sent with the intend to help France defend itself against Germany in first place:*
-Funny, I've been saying the same thing.
Churchill was actually a francophile...and even spoke French ...extremely badly!
A better example is Churchills opinion on India
After Hitler declared war on America, he was over-joyed. He said that now, he had one ally that hadn't been defeated in 3000 years, and another, that had never won a war on their own, but always wound up on the winning side. Ironically, that proved to be the case in WW2. In the end, the Italians deposed Mussolini, and signed an armistice with the Allies.
The "funny" thing about the Italian soldiers is that they did really well under the command of Rommel and allied commanders later in the war. So the issues with the Italian soldiers seems to be one of poor leadership and not one of poor fighting abilities.
Well they were beaten by greeks, ethiopians (without any modern army), of course british, us, soviets.... even germans, as the end of war got them on Lombardian soil, as the soviets were in Berlin,and US also near.... dunno
@@istvanjano6450 That has nothing to do with the above statement. Ariete did quite well under Rommel.
Haven't read it, but there's this book called 'Lions led by donkeys' that is about the subject. Poor quality of equipment also played a part.
@@istvanjano6450 The Italians at the Battle of Adwa had 14500 soldiers against 100,000 Ethiopians.
The Italian suffered from horrible logistics, because of s weak industrial base, and general incompetence, hence the moral suffered.
As a Romanian, antonescu wasn't the last dictator to steal the crops from the people and starve them sadly...
Old romanian tradition
stealing is a Romanians favourite pastime
@DavidRusu1919lots of corruption in the state
he was the worst
România be like... "You don't like us? Sorry I can't hear you over the sound of us switching sides!"
Romania stole the hearts of German soldiers
A little trolling
Beat it. Germany and Italy betrayed us. The idiots imposed us to give some parts of our territory to Hungary, Soviets and Bulgaria. And then Germany refused to respect their deal regarding weapon sales, technological transfers. But they wanted us to stop and defeat the russians.
Hungary then Romania:)
1. Romania had all the reasons to fight both Stalin and Hitler, due to the Ribbentrop-Molotov act.
2. Romania did not just switch sides. First, they gave Germans the opportunity to retreat. But Hitler ordered bombing of Bucharest and occupation of Romania...
8:33 Hitler and Mannerheim were "close" but Mannerheim didn't like Hitler at all.
But Mannerheim and Göring were friends, even before the war. They had mutual friends especially in Sweden and they had been hunting together many times.
There were some other variations at work - most Hungarian officers and some junior ranks had a grasp of German, which obviously eased liaison with German forces. Fewer Romanians did - sometimes German officers rather ironically ended up using French as a common language as this was widely known in the Romanian officer class, including Antonescu.
The thing is i think most of what was Hitler disliking about Hungary was Horthy’s Politics. It would be interesting to hear his opinion about Ferenc Szalasi and about the Croatians.
I think that german soliders on the easter front respected italians the most. Why? Well Italians send their elite troops as volountiers and during Barbarossa were effective to the point where it became saying "With Operation Barbarossa Germans impressed the world and Italians impressed the Germans."
They should have respected the Red Army more
@@julianshepherd2038 And the Red Army their western allies
Unfortunately for them, the winter was not impressed...
@@julianshepherd2038 during Barbarossa the red army was large but also not very effective. However they managed to adapt throughout the war into a effective force
the finns helped germans in operation barbarossa
With the countries they actually fought with, I'd probably say Finland. From accounts I've read the Germans tended to be pretty patronizing towards other allies in general and only very begrudgingly supply them equipment (while at the same time complaining about how poorly equipped thier allies were). If you ever read any German Generals memoirs they're very quick to assign any blame to foreign troops, while being very stingy with praise.
Aka how we Stalingrad was lost. The Romanians were asking for anti tank guns and warning the Germans their flanks were vulnerable.
German Generals views on whose fault was the loss in the war:
1. Hitler
2. Bulgarians
3. Romanians
4. Hungarians
5. Italians
...
12952339. German Generals
End of list.
@@romaliop you forgot about weather as rank one.
Actually, regarding Italy and Germany, I would say that Hitler admired Mussolini much more than Mussolini did with Hitler. Of course realpolitik took the stand after the embargo on Italy, regarding the position taken...
As for Japan, there is only one point that I think was missing (but proves the point): the Germans were heavily helping China with military counselors, first of the Von Valkenhausen. However, he was in fact recalled when the hostilities in 1937 started.
My favourite thing, though, is the funny fact that the Germans had to separate the Hungarians and the Romanians in different fronts, as they could have fought each others XD
Finland refused to give their Jewish citizens over to Germany. "Finland hat keine Judenfrage", the foreign minister Rangell famously replied to Himmler. Finnish Jews fighting along Germans even had their field synagogue on the front (!!) The only shame is handing eight Jewish refugees to Finland back to Germany, where they died in the camps. There is a memorial stone in Tähtitorninmäki for these individuals.
Tahiti
Hard to keep foreign citizens in. "They're our people now", yeah no that's not how it works.
You didn't mention the fact that USSR attacked Finland in 1939 (and war lasted till late 1944) and therefore Finns and Nazis had the same enemy. That's the biggest reason why Finns and Nazis were allies until Lapland war. Trade between Finland and Nazi Germany was really not that significant to explain the situation at all. Actually, Sweden had more trade with Nazis than Finns did.
In reality, Mannerheim never saw Hitler as anything nice, of course with the point of few of things he differs in, you gotta admit the differences with them 2.
Mannerheim was a baron, had been a very skilled Russian ww1 General, spoke like 6 languages, and had overall sloppy habits that Hitler would've been disgusted about.
Mannerheim never invited Hitler to his birthday and hoped he'd not come, and also Mannerheim actually was mad about the "poor" German advancements in 1942.
Which "sloppy" habits?
@@DontKnow-hr5my Alcoholism and that kind of stuff.
cope
Mannerheim preferred Britain to Germany, he was always suspicious of the Germans and was very troubled to have to fight alongside them. There just weren't alternatives.
@@DontKnow-hr5my Mannerheim was a smoker, which Hitler despised. He actually used this to his advantage during Hitler's visit for his 75th birthday, as during a train ride, Hitler came forth with plans for the Finnish military's future advances on the Finnish-Soviet front. Mannerheim was about to light a cigar in Hitler's presence which was deeply forbidden and Hitler's bodyguards immediately told him to put it out, but Hitler backed his bodyguards away and "allowed" Mannerheim to smoke. This convinced Mannerheim that Hitler didn't simply come to tell the Finns what to do, but rather ask if the Finns could do what he wanted. Mannerheim viewed it as an act of desperation and further evidence that Germany was going to lose the war.
What many people don't realize that Finland fought it's own war aside with Germany. They had the same enemy but not the same goals in the war. Unlike other Hitler's european allies (Croatia, Hungary, Romania etc) whose armies fought under the German high command, Finnish army was an independed force under a Finnish high command.
Croatia was invaded in April 1941 ( Banovina of Croatia-an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and therefore was not an ally but an occupied country with a puppet govt.
Fun fact: Hungarian soldiers that were sent to fight against Poles in Warsaw uprising smuggle some weapons, meds, ammo for polish home army. And after some time Germans find out that when Hungarians were in polish occupied territories they didn't had a single casualties (I don't mean drunk after small party with poles)
Hungarians and Poles
I should clarify that Mannerheim was a staunch monarchist and while he was fond of Germany, it was a fondness over the German aristhocracy, not fascism and even less Hitler.
When Hitler came to meet Mannerheim on his 75th birthday, Mannerheim's adjutant asked him if they should go meet Hitler halfway. Mannerheim replied: "Let the corporals do the running." Referring to Hitler's lowly military rank of a corporal.
Not only that, but he also knew of Hitler's anti smoking views. So Mannerheim straight up lit a cigar in front of Hitler and smoked like he usually would. There are even more little snubs and snide remarks Mannerheim made of Hitler, but they have less evidence. I remember seeing something about their handshake, but don't think it ever got backed up.
So while it is true that Finland and Germany had (And still do, Finland has not forgotten Germany's aid not only in WW2, but also during Finnish Civil War) historically great relations, it wasn't really applicable during the Third Reich. Sure, there were some pro Nazi people such as the mathematician Nenonen, but when it comes down to the actual leaders, that is the President and the Field Marshal, they had no fascist sympathies. For them the alliance with Germany was pragmatic and not much more at the time.
That's nonsense, it was full of fascist sympathies
@@Ukraineaissance2014 Such as?
@@Ukraineaissance2014 such as...?
@@Ukraineaissance2014 Got a source for that mate, or you pulling shit out of your ass?
@@Ukraineaissance2014 such as?
Hitler's opinion of Mussolini before the war: 🤩
Hitler's opinion of Mussolini during the war: 😐
The video is incorrect actually. Hitler remained friends with Mussolini throughout the war, the two respected each other according to the diaries of Ciano and Ribbentrop.
@@InfoRome Exactly, Hitler was a full on fan girl of Mussolini
🤭😅😂🤣
1943, Eastern front. German leader Adolf Hitler decorates Nazi-allied soldiers with medals, Magyars, Romanians, Fins, even one Slovak. He asks every one of them what they got the honour for. On the end he asks the Slovak soldier.
- "Well, mein Fűhrer, we were near a forest, me and my machine-gun. Suddenly out of woods 30 Soviet Sharp-shoorters launched out. I did shoot all of them down!",
- "Fabelhaft!" - ecstasizes Hitler. - "And how did you realised they were Soviet soldiers?",
- "It was very easy, mein Fűhrer. All of them had SS on their helmets."
Hitler was pretty pissed at Mussolini when in 1934 he sent Italian troops to threaten Hitler's annexation of Austria. Mussolini had made a deal with Austria to defend it against attacks and he didn't want to share a border with Germany. Italy was far closer to the allies against Germany until Mussolini decided he wanted to conquer territory in Africa and he worked with Hitler in the Spanish Civil War. Mussolini had some luck early on that made Italy look like a strong ally for Germany. Mussolini only entered the war against the allies when it was clear Germany was going to defeat France easily. Mussolini was simply taking advantage of the situation in hopes of getting a bit of free territory. It was Greece that changed Hitler's mind. He tried to talk Mussolini out of attacking Greece which Mussolini agreed to then attacked anyway. Hitler then had to bail him out after the Greek army spanked the Italians. From then on it was Hitler propping up his supposed ally. The Romanians and Croatians were far better allies to Hitler and caused him far less problems and embarrassment.
There was some sort of general pityness involved between germans and romanians. My aunt's father in law Stefan(who got lucky to escape Don encirclement) I remember he told me something very interesting in his rare moments in which he would agree to talk about war, that got stuck in my head. He said that german troops were always cursing Hitler and Germany for sending them poorly dressed to face rasputitza, and once, a german leutenant and other officers together with romanians and Stefan ofcourse, were all having a drink and at a particular time the german leutenant said that germans fight because of their big stupid country which cannot face a defeat while romanians are there with them just because one crazy man (Antonescu) who didnt know when to stop like the finns do. Took me years to fully understand what he meant by that... The romanians simply went somewhere they shouldn't even have been but they didnt disobeyed the orders, later on, Stefan lost his right leg covering the retreat of italians and germans on Don disaster.
He always said that if romanian army had the firepower germans promised in exchange for Antonescu's decision to continue the war and propper clothing they would've been unstoppable and he gave me many example of the stuffs they had to do there and there's just not enough space here...
Dragos, it is also said in Croatia, if Germany provided them the equipment (and kick Italy away) the would have had other flow and outcome there.
The biggest and most important Hitler's ally was the Soviet Union. And Germany was kind of a junior partner in this alliance. Without the massive support of Soviets, Hitler would not have been able to build up his military potential and without the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, he probably wouldn't have been confident enough to start the war. Anyway, for Soviets the WWII started in June 1941 as they prefer not to remember two years of close alliance with Nazi Germany.
Seems that Hitler's lunatic views on races, nations, and leaders were not so relevant for establishing alliances.
The thing is this had nearly lead to an Alliance and could very well happen if both Countries where not so stuborn. I mean good thing they where. But there where already talks about a Second Molotov Riventrop Pact. The thing that mostly prevented this was the different view Points in future Borders.
@@susakuzero Germans and Soviets were in a very close military and economic cooperation since the Rapallo Treaty (1922). Nazis not just prolonged but extended this "good tradition", which made it possible for them to start the war. Anyway, my point is that without mentioning the Soviet Union, this list of allies of the Third Reich is just not complete and even doesn't make much sense (why enter into alliances with small countries with weak economies and military if you make a World War and have global ambitions?).
Why the Nazi-Soviet alliance ended with the Nazi-Soviet war - there is a vast literature on this and it was surely not a question of small misunderstandings.
There's a lot more to Hitler's war decisions that just all that, but the Soviet Union ironically probably was their biggest (unintentional) ally when you put it that way.
That's completely ridiculous Hitler admired the British & Americans and wanted to ally them and the French while he saw a conflict with the Soviets/panslavism as inevitable and the Germans constantly threatened Germany with invasion. The Soviets only cooperated with the Germans to exhaust the western imperialists for their conquest of Europe & Asia, while Germany simply did not have the military industry at the beginning of ww2 to take out Poland on its own before the French could strike from the west and they both knew that the other one would strike at their first change given they assume the time is right...
@@stephanaugust1101 You know, Germany has a long tradition of miscalculations in its relationship with Russia. After WWI both countries shared the common objective of revision of the Versailles treaty and regaining the status of a superpower, plus they were driven by their ideologies. It seems they both hoped they could outsmart the other side and treat each other instrumentally. It's just important to remember that the Soviets were the co-initiators of WWII and they managed to attack 6 countries before switching sides and "liberating the world from Nazism".
Mannerheim wasn't close with Hitler, Mannerheim was an anglophile. Mannerheim considered Hitler's liking of him and Finland embarrassing. Mannerheim knew these guys (Nazis) are crazies. Finland never had an alliance treaty with Germany either. Only common interests, since Soviets succeeded in making Finland enemy of theirs by attacking Finland in 1939. Finland would have very much liked to have been a second Sweden, completely neutral.
Mannerheim even disliked Germany so much that although he was a staunch monarchist, in 1918 he preferred a king for Finland from somewhere else than Germany. He thought too close relation with Germany would be dangerous, as Finland was close becoming a German protectorate after the civil war, with German troops in the country
Sorry but your extract about Hitler and fascist Italy relationship is a bit off. Firstly, Italy didn’t invade Greece “behind Hitler’s back”. Mussolini had decided to postpone an invasion of the Balkans (Yugoslavia and Greece) in September 1940, but it was Hitler’s occupation of Romania in early October (this one behind Mussolini’s back) that triggered Italy’s response: a quick invasion of Greece. And he didn’t invade Greece to bail Mussolini out. This is one of the ww2 stereotypes that a channel like yours should destroy, rather than empower. Hitler’s main aim was to attack Yugoslavia, which had recently betrayed the Axis. The intervention in Greece is secondary, and since you quoted Hitler a lot, you should know Hitler himself claimed that the Greek army was at its limit and would have eventually fallen even without German intervention. Finally, the last words you quoted are real, but you conveniently forgot one detail: they were said near the end of the war. Back then Hitler even accused the Wehrmacht and the SS of hindering his plans, let alone Italy. Those are not objective words tbh. You could have chosen about 1618 claims made in previous years where he, for instance, lauded the alpin corps of the Italian army, or the division fighting in North Africa
Hitler did not occupy Romania in September 1940. Some German troops were invited by the Romanian dictator Antonescu to fend off a potential new Soviet aggression. I am afraid there were not better choices at the time :(
The Greek/Hellenic army was definitely not at its limits they had completely kicked the italians out of Greece and where pushing inside Albania
@@dirckthedork-knight1201 eeh not really. By mid-January the Greeks had run out of supplies and were still capable of fighting mainly thanks to the UK. Which was also a huge cost for the british economy, since the Greeks used french or german ammunitions, which Britain had to purchase from other countries that used them. On January 29th Chruchill had to remark before the Parliament the necessity to sustain the greeks, despite heavy criticisim. In January the greek armed forces launched an offensive whose aim was to definitely kick the italians out of Albania, but it was stopped with no considerable gain. After this defeat they lost any capacity to launch further offensives and could only stay on the defensive
The thing about Finland is that they were more just trying to survive. Of course the rest were but I mean that the Soviet threat was the greatest to Finland whereas the German threat was greatest to Hungary and Romania. I'm sure the Allies would have asked the Soviets not to invade Finland but ultimately would have to 'let them' and back down because they needed to work together until Germany was defeated. In this way I'm sure Finland was only 'friends' with Germany to survive.
Romania had as much reason to fear Russia as Finland did and they too were invaded as part of Ribbentrop-Molotov, it's just that Romania didn't put up a fight then. Germany was only prioritizing Hungary over Romania and hoped to balance things out for Romania with parts of Ukraine. Germany itself held no territorial ambitions over Romania.
I disagree on your takes on Hungary and Romania. Romanians had the privilege to conquer Odessa themselves in Operation Barbarossa and where later respected in their contributions to the fight against the SU. Hitler had some old austrian-hungarian mixed sentiments with hungary; the hungarians fought to the bitter end in 1945, which gave them some respect.
Romanians did NOT conquer Odessa by themselves, utterly untrue and they contributed virtually nothing throughout the war except OIL, that's why Hitler allied with them.
@@charliesargent6225 250,000 Romanians at Stalingrad alone beg to differ. Largest army out of all of Hitler's allies en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania_in_World_War_II
@@jpurnick I repeat...Romanians did NOT conquer Odessa by themselves...show me where I'm wrong.
It was a complete Axis effort.
@@charliesargent6225 it was mainly a Romanian effort with minimal axis support(italian air support). You really have a grudge against romanians since you're everywhere in the comment section
@@pseudochadio yeah he really hates romanians. I do not see him doing the same to comments about other countries
Interesting look at the axis Allies. Very good video👍🏻👍🏻
Fantastic video, I'd love to see one for Hitler's views on the Allies too. It's very interesting info, keep it up.
Japan had hardly any contact in person throughout the war, but for a few visits of large Japanese Freight Submarines to bring minerals like Cobalt from Burma to French ports, to return with such Goodies as plans for a rocket plane tried out and built by Mitsubishi a few times and an early targeting system for Torpedos on submarines, or a few flights carried out actually by Italian planes through occupied and isolated regions of Russia and India
In addition to all you mentioned, the alliance was beneficial to both Japan and Germany mostly in naval operations. German U-Boat fleet and surface raiders operating in the Indian Ocean and Far East waters were able to enjoy access to Japanese-occupied ports and also their submarine pens in Malaya and Penang.
@@streetgato9697 I guess so as if there really was one way the 2 powers could befit from compared experience it was in naval power, as the environments they operated in would be to different to compare air or land power
They also sent opium to Germany
The only thing I would add that Germany bought a lot of Hungarian grain and bauxite and other stuff, and couldn't really do anything without those (I heard somewhere that at one point, third of the all aluminium in the German planes were Hungarian és every fifth liter of fuel came from the Zala oil fields in Western Hungary)
That (the Zala oilfields) explains the last german stand/counteroffensive at Balaton lake on february '45.
You forgot the part about Hungary where Hitler actually gave Tiger tanks to them. Hungary was also one of the allied minor nations that designed and produced tanks and aircraft domestically. Many Hungarian prime ministers also followed and were very symphatetic towards the nazis and germany, even prime ministers that were elected to bring hungary closer to the allies, it was only Horthy being an obstacle to Hungary turning into a complete german satellite state, and it inevitable happened when Horthy was forced to abdicate and appoint Ferenc Szállasi as prime minister.
The german army also respected the Hungarians, they were brave and competent, just lacking the correct equipment.
Hungary was also a big trade partner both with Germany and Italy, supplying them with rations as the great hungarian plains provided more grain and meat then the hungarian army and population needed. We were also technologically advanced, we invented many things and Hungarian scientists at the time were world known (many of them worked later in the war at the US on the manhattan project)
Just saw this recommended and was immediately like, wait, that’s the Star Wars guy!
It was probably a good thing Hitler respected Finland because Marshal Mannerheim used that to his countries advantage.
Any information on the German satellites of Slovakia, Slovenia, and Croatia?
Slovenia was partitioned by Italy, Germany, Hungary and Croatia(some very small border villages).
Other German sources on Romanians:
“"After World War II I asked my friend General Hans Speidel, who had commanded various mixed Axis contingents and became Field Marshal Rommel's chief-of-staff: "Which among all the non-German troops were the best soldiers: the Finns, the Croats, the Hungarians?" "None of them," he said: "the Rumanians. Give them good leadership and they are as good as any you'll find." Cyrus L. Sulzberger in "A Long Row of Candles”
AND: "I have already shown what could and could not be expected of Romanian troops in various situations. But they were still our best allies and did fight bravely in many places." - Field Marshal von Manstein in "Lost Victories"
AND: "Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936-1949" by Siegfried Knappe, a German Artillery Officer at the Stalingrad & wrote the Romanians fought bravely despite lacking good anti-tank weapons.
Interesting 🤔
@@2009Infidel The Romanians are *not* "semi-gypsies", u racist mfkr. We are a Latin people. The Romany community is officially around 3% of the population in Romania, unofficially 6-8%. 🙄 Like in many other countries
And the German commanders that fought with the Romanian battalions in ww2, certainly had an extremely different opinion than yours, as we can see. 🙂
Not to mention the many fights we had with the Ottomans throughout history. The Finns won bc of the terrain & harsh weather they were very familiar with. And still lost part of their territory when Stalin brought reinforcements.
@@2009Infidel I just quoted top German officers. I bet they knew better.
Also, during ww2 Romanians deported gypsies in Transnistria.
You ought to be be semi-clever : ))
@@ionbrad6753 Were those quotes before or after the complete collapse of the Romanian forces at Stalingrad, where on the 19th November 1942, 27000 Romanians capitulated without a fight? Hitler's recorded table talk has revealed that he was furious with the peformance of his Romanian, Hungarian and Bulgarian allies on the Eastern front. The Italians he already knew were rubbish but he had expected more from the soldiers of the three first mentioned.
@@2009Infidel What you write is a bunch of lies. Actually, at Stalingrad, Romanians in certain sections successfully repelled the soviet attacks in spite of being severely outnumbered and outgunned.
Hitler was an imbecile, he kept promising Romanian leader Antonescu he will provide anti-tank weapons for the Ro army - which he didn't. Romanian commanders repeatedly pointed out to the German high command the flaws of the defense (lack of fortifications on the Don river; overstretching, lack of anti-tank weapons). Of course the huge mass of Soviet attackers eventually found a weak spot... while the German reserves were far and requested both in north and in south at the same time. Document yourself better next time.
I will let your brain discover for himself if "After World War II I asked my friend General Hans Speidel..." also means after operation Uranus or not.
After such intense thinking, please have a break; then repeat: try to figure out for yourself if Verlorene Siege (Lost Victories) was written by von Manstein as war memories in 1955 after or before Stalingrad.
BTW, von Manstein was very well aware of the Romanian involvement, as he commanded Unternehmen Wintergewitter designed to relief the encircled Axis forces at Stalingrad.
Have a great life, liar!
Sorry but your info about Finland is mostly wrong.
- Finland and Nazi Germany had pretty terrible relations and were on the verge of trade war before ww2. The Finnish political and military leadership was filled with anglophiles.
- Hitler was never close with Mannerheim. Mannerheim didn't respect Hitler at all.
source?
Bulgaria was neutral at first. The moment Romania joined the axis and German troops started marching south, Bulgarian goverment asked for back up from the allies, which more or less was ignored. What can be done with German-Romanian troops at your full northern border and because of WW1, Bulgaria had a small and outdated military, no other choice but join the Germans at this point. For joining the Germans, Bulgarian goverment asked for Macedonia, part of Serbia and part of north Greece, which were with big Bulgarian ethnicity at that moment. Germans did almost all the fighting and Bulgarian troops occupied it after that and started administrating it. About the jews from this new territories, they were deported, because they weren't protected by the Bulgarian constitution, which was the case for the Bulgarian jews.
"Shortly after his visit to Finland in 1942, Hitler met the prime minister of his ally Hungary, Miklós Kállay.
Kállay relayed the details of this meeting to the Finnish ambassador in Budapest, Aarne Wuorimaa, who reported to the Foreign Ministry on 20 June 1942.
"Chancellor Hitler had spoken to him at length and in detail about Finland, whose struggle had left a deep impression on him. 'I had hitherto thought,' said the Chancellor, 'that in valour, courage and endurance the German people were the first and the best in the world. But now I have seen that the small nation of Finland is better than us,'" Wuorimaa wrote of Hitler's statement to Kállay."
"The Croatian Army Commander-in-Chief Slavko Kvaternik had visited Hitler's headquarters and reported back to Finland's emissary in Croatia, Armas Yöntilä. Yöntilä wrote to the Foreign Ministry on 19 October 1942.
"He [Hitler] was very sympathetic to Finland, about whose war he seemed to be well informed, and told me in private that Hitler's headquarters had a special table listing the military exploits of various nationalities. In this table, which he himself had seen, Finland came second after Germany, and Croatia third. He also said that Hitler had reserved great praise for the Finnish soldier," Yöntilä noted."
yle.fi/a/3-12598549
Bulgaria joined because it was dismembered among the neighbours after Balkan Wars and after WWI, although Bulgaria carried the biggest burden of liberation wars against Ottomans.
In this video You skipped Independent State of Croatia and Slovakia, that also signed anti-Cominterna pact.
It joined becuase Germany send ultimatum to join axis or war Bulgaria did want to get the land back but wasnt desperate for them as the past
in reality Hitler felt respect/envy for the Italians, this can be understood from mein kampf, where he admits that the European Mediterranean peoples and in particular the Italians were creators of empires, culture and art that the Germans themselves lacked...
Yep, same in 'Table Talk' he gushed over Mussolini, Italy, Italians but this biased Brit spewed only some minor negative BS. Brits can't stand any positives about Italy in WW II so the usual PROPAGANDA,
Makes sense, since Roman expansion in Europe set the foundation of western societies, had Rome decided to stay in the Mediterranean, most of Europe would remain primitive and tribal. It's kinda ironic given Hitler's view of Japan and how would they devolve into a feudal society without western influence.
Great video. Would love to see one with Germanys views on the allies and neutral nations
I love this channel, amazing stuff.
Loved this video, subscribed, excellent content.
It's kinda weird that Hitler hated Hungary but liked Finland, especially as both are distantly related (Finno-Urallic languages).
Talk about their opinion on other axis members like Thailand, Croatia, Vichy France and Slovakia.
Apparently the Croats were so harsh to Serbs that even the Nazis were like "you need to chill"
@@dblum according to Serbs, yeah
Never heard a non german pronouncing "Reich" that accurately as at 3:24 . Also, interesting video❤
Fun fact: the only voice recording of Hitler's normal voice was recorded in a conversation between him and Mannerheim in a finnish train. The specific train car was turned into a restaurant and you can visit today
Other countries in the Axis Powers not mentioned here (some no longer exist):
- Thailand
- Vichy France
- Empire of Manchukuo
- Menjiang State
- Independent State of Croatia
- Slovak Republic
- Iraq
- Iran
- Albania
- Spain (sent volunteers, supplies, equipment, allowed bases)
The Axis Powers was a very large diverse alliance like the Allied Powers, even if ideology.
Hitler also used to seethe about Budapest and considered it something of an insult that the most beautiful city on the Danube was built by Attila's Hunnic spawn instead of Siegfried's. He had extensive plans to remodel Linz, the town he spent much of his youth at to be a "German Budapest".
@@railroading5726 k
Source?
@@railroading5726 Vienna was also Hungarian :) Only after the monglos invasion fallen to the hands of germans.
Adolf was born and lived in Austria and known very well Hungarians (from Vienna) so clearly his views on them were better motivated.
Buda was a German populated city since the middle ages while Pest, the far poorer city, was Hungarian majority. So it was very much "Siegfried's" city. Germans were heavily represented in the Hungarian elite until WW2.
Croatia was one of Reichs close ally as well as Slovakia
Actually Hitler said that Japan had 'never lost a war' and could never lose one therefore being on the side of Japan would mean they would have a better chance of winning.
What’s hilarious to me as a Bulgarian is , we hated the 3rd Reich so much, yet hitler had the thought that since we were an ally in world war 1 we would help Germany again. And because of this he became super tolerant towards Bulgaria, which is why we got away with no antisemetic laws or helping invasions, the Allie’s even recognized this and let us keep southern dobrogea as a token of forgiveness
Not true, there were antisemitic laws - check out Закон за защита на нацията (1941г.). The Bulgarian government and quite a few Bulgarians were pro-Germany. Dobruja remained Bulgarian mainly because it was given to Bulgaria before it joined the war with the approval of the Great powers and Romania.
Finland had so few jews anyways so no anti semitic beliefs really evolved. its pretty rare to see jews outside the capital area.
The finnish - german -relations were not that cordial. Mannerheim despised the austrian corporal and nazism, but being a gentleman and cosmopolit hid it somewhat. Finland was only pushed into Germany's side by extremely stupid and short sighted russian foreign policy towards the end of 1930s and of course the winter war.
Finno-German relations were not excellent before WWII, but relatively cool, which in turn quite possibly influenced Hitler's decision to throw Finland under the bus with the Baltic States in the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Finland had rejected Germany's offer to sign a non-aggression pact in spring 1939 and the Finnish press had plenty of criticism towards the Nazis, particularly the newspapers of the left, which (SDP) had been in government since 1937. Göring certainly emphasised that to General Talvela when the latter made a visit to the German Air Ministry in Berlin on the 18th of December, 1940, also adding that Finland had voted against Germany in every single question in the League of Nations during the time Germany was a part of the organisation. He also specifically mentioned all this coolness by Finland towards Germany as being the reason "Germany left Finland into the Russian sphere".
Exactly. The Soviets hated most Väinö Tanner, the leader of SDP and moderate social democrat. He was against all area cedings, criticised USSR even after WW2 and his policies ensured that the majority of Finnish working class was united against Soviets.
Tsar Boris is a hero that should be shown more worldwide respect.
No. Bulgarian citizens did it, not him. Tzar Boris was going to hand over the Jews to the Nazis, but Bulgarian citizens stepped in.
Even today, Everybody loves Finnish people and Japanese people. Because they are awesome.
nah japanese aren't that loved today
Except east asians, swedes, and russians.
dont ask chinese or koreans about their opinion on japan
In the case of Finland, it's easy, a country with a small and homogenous population with no ethnic minorities in it.
@@Zdamaneta Sami and Lapplanders
Finland was only considered an Axis ally because they fought defensively against an invading Russian Army. That's all the Axis dealings Finland had. Once the Soviets were repelled, Finland fought alone with the Allies against Germany.
"fight against Germany" is somewhat an overstatement. The plan was to let them peacefully retreat into Norway and Finnish trains were borrowed to Germany for this to happen. It wasn't fast enough and the Soviets sent a note that now the Finns would have the choice of forcing them out of the country by arms or the Red Army would do it in stead of them
'' Finland fought alone with the Allies against Germany.'' with what allies?
No. In Continuation war Finland attacked USSR little after Barbarossa had started. USSR was extremely hostile towards Finns after Winter war, so Finns seeked help from Germans because Sweden did not allow Allies to establish routes with Finland.
In Winter war Soviets broke the non agression treaty and invaded.
@@jarskil8862 pretty sure finland and ussr didn't have any treaty before winter war
@@ThisIsYou1 Finland and USSR were active signatories of the Treaty of Tartu which determined the borders between finland and ussr, and also of the Soviet-Finnish Non-Agression Pact from 1932
8:30 Mannerheim and Hitler were not friends. Mannerheim was annoyed that Addy invited himself to his birthday and there are several legends on how Mannerheim showed that.
It was a shame the Germans and Japanese didn’t liaise more, like the modern NATO. If Japan had continued their battles with Russia’s Far East (war was only declared just prior to Hiroshima) Stalingrad might not have happened. When Japan withdrew from Russia to loot the rest of China and southeast asia, she enabled Stalin to send the Siberian ski troops to Stalingrad, where their experience and durability in freezing conditions swung against the Germans. Instead of just Germany fighting on two fronts, the Russians would have had to fight on two fronts.
Why are the subtitles missing when the speaker says "[...] if you would ask a average solder on the Eastern front, that answer would probably be 'Romanian' " [timestamp 12:07] ?
Same thing happens at 7:55
You could've included Denmark, not that they where part of the Axis, but it has an interesting story.
For Finlands part, there's a book on this topic Hitler ja Suomi by Könnönen, in finnish. The video is accurate up until maybe 1944, but Hitlers attitude started to change after that. While if I'm not mistaken, the fact the Finnish army stopoed it's advance east was bc it reached it's assigned war goals in Barbarossa. The value Finland brought Germany was that even if the finnish front was passive, it soaked up dozens of Soviet divisions, hundreds of thousands of soviet troops. Those weren't thus deployed against Germany.
Royal Romanian Air Force was a beast. They were extremely effective.
NONSENSE, Romania did virtually NOTHING for the Axis cause.
@@charliesargent6225 Learn some history..
@@sayedmahbub8933 I know the history that's why I said it.
@@charliesargent6225 you don't know shit which why you said it
@@charliesargent6225 average Hungarian bozgor right here
What's even funnier nowadays is that modern Japan L O V E S Germany. They love the language and they have a deep fascination with Nazi Germany. Germans online are also known as loving anime, but before their alliance in ww2 80 years ago- they hated each other.
I don't think Japanese have deep fascination with Nazi Germany. We don't have deep hatred against Nazi for sure though, but this doesn't mean we have fascination with Nazi. Japan rescued Jews from eastern Europe by giving transit visa through Soviet to Japan. Japanese didn't know much about Jew persecutions happening in Europe and were puzzled by such persecutions as the Jews look just like other European white. Then the Jews said to the Japanese officials "you guys are the same Asian as we (Jews) are, and you guys are next to get persecuted." Anyway, Hitler told Japanese gov to hand over those Jews to Germany, so Japan sent them to Shanghai or Hong Kong where Japan occupied at the time so that those Jews are safer there. Anyway, I don't know if we L O V E Germany that much. I personally feel more comfortable with the Germans (most German immigrants to North America) than with the Anglo Saxons (English or immigrant in NA) and probably the character wise we have more common with the Germans than with any other Europeans in the stereotypical views.
Other way around would be intriguing. Japan didn't help Germany while Romania and Hungary did
I mean they were halfway around the world.
Japan didn't directly aid Germant, besides splitting the allies attention
@@kirby1225 They did directly benefit each other. Read about the intricate routes Japan and Germany had established to exchange vital resources and technology with each other despite the vast geographical challenge...
They even had cultural exchanges in which Japanese officers would visit Germany and Germans would visit Japan, for leisure/education, like a school field trip.
They did all of this through complex submarine networks.
@@Ghostkilla773they could have still followed the plan and attacked russia in order to force it to fight a 2-front war.instead,they went to b*ttf*ck nowhere to colonise random islands and dragged the us into the war by bombing pearl harbour
Hitler started to respect the finns only during the winter war. Before that he talked Finland as one of the "lice states", which have no right for existence. Germany even didn't allowed military aid from other countries, such as Italy, going via Germany to Finland.
Hitler's opinion changed during the winter war as he started to see Finland as potential ally in future oncoming conflict with the soviets
Modern Allied cultures and demographics are great!
Enjoying the big “victory”
Only THEY triumphed. Nobody else.
They are flawed. But looking around the world I fail to see a better alternative.
Only Japan seems competitive.
Excellent, Do one for the Allied powers
After watching this video, you might think that Finns and Nazis were good pals before the war. Not so. There were almost no Nazi sympathies in Finland. Nazis thought that the Finns belonged to one of the lower races. The leaders of the country more often than not despised the Nazi dictatorship. Mannerheim didn't like Hitler, at all, and found it hard to conceal. And what's more, Germany was actually an ally of the Soviet Union during the Winter War. But what's true is that Finland and Germany had good relationship. During the last phase of the WWI, finland elected a German king to become the head of the state. But then Germany lost the war.
Nah, the nazis even believes the Finns to be racially superior to the Germans. Germans have Slav and Mediterranean admixture. I doubt even half of Germans belong to the Nordic race.
I think the thumbnail is accurate
Nah not really
No it ain't
Hitler had an almost bipolar mentality about 'loving' other countries. His views on the Poles went from admiration to murderous hatred with amazing speed. The irony is that the Finns acted much more like Britain or America and was similarly efficient. The Finns effectively pinned down large numbers of Soviet troops and behaved themselves well as occupiers of Karelia and as liberators of Norwegian Lapland. The Finns, unlike the other Axis Powers, did not leave behind a trail of massacres. Had the Germans behaved like the Finns they would have defeated the Soviet Union.
Hitler saw foreign policy and international relations as if still a low-ranking soldier. He had much resentment toward the professional military, and those resentments would come to the fore after the plot of July 20. Many of the German senior officers (with exceptions of the likes of Nazi General Reichenau and toadies like Keitel and Jodl) wanted to behave themselves (and would have demanded the same) in occupied countries, much like their British and American counterparts.
(I am satisfied that real victory comes from winning the peace, which means leaving the Other Side with nothing for which to fight).
Hitler may have been a simpleton on many things, his bigotry and anger alone being consistent in an excessively-complex personality. His contradictions made him a catastrophe as a leader. He could not know whether he was a proletarian or an aristocrat: neither Churchill, FDR, de Gaulle, or Stalin had such a problem. He was grotesquely amoral, but he could moralize like the most fervent evangelist. He had a craving for artistic creativity that his limited talent and poor work ethic failed to support, but he could order great destruction that an untalented person could easily commission. He was a big-government 'socialist' who oppressed workers into veritable serfdom while enriching an aristocracy that he detested. His delusions of grandeur were themselves indefensible, and he offered his personal banality as profundity. Hitler was an amoral mediocrity masquerading as a Great Man of History, and that did not work well. If one is a dullard or a mediocrity, then one does great harm expressing either imagination nor ambition. If one is Picasso, Rachmaninoff, Einstein, FDR, Charlie Chaplin, or Hitchcock then one knows when to stop with exercises of complexity and grandeur for the good of their cultural or political objectives. Dullards might as well do mind-numbing work and addle themselves on consumerism as the system allows and a low-brow mass culture.
Christian Finnish Frostiis Well we have only recorded speaking voice of Hitler ever recorded in Finland, in the train one of the reporters left the device rolling and everything was recorded. German soldiers noticed that the device was recording, i do not know if Hitler knew of this but still the tapes were left untouched but the recording just stopped. It's freaky to listen to Hitler's speaking voice, along with Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim finnish fieldmarshal and the finnish president Risto Ryti