52 Lesser Known WWII Battles
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- Опубликовано: 18 сен 2024
- Explore 50 lesser-known WWII battles, from the Sino-Japanese War to the Mediterranean theater. Discover forgotten strategies, turning points, and the intense human stories behind these pivotal conflicts.
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Another “forgotten battle” is the Aleutian Islands Campaign and specifically the battles of Attu and Kiska. Some great history there
The Army learned some painful lessons from the battles of Attu and especially from the FUBAR that was Kiska
This is well done. I have heard so much about the big battles it's nice to hear about the little battles that no one speaks of. Thank you. Well done!
0:20 - N°1 - The battle of taiyuan
1:30 - N°2 - The battle of shangai
2:55 - N°3 - The 3rd battle of changsha
4:10 - N°4 - The battle for hong kong
5:15 - N°5 - The battle of madagascar
6:10 - N°6 - The battle of beirut
7:30 - N°7 - The battle for the hague
8:30 - N°8 - The battle of crete
9:55 - N°9 - The battle of the sheldt
11:10 - N°10 - The 2nd happy time
12:15 - N°11 - The battle of tolvajarvi
13:50 - N°12 - The siege of lille
14:55 - N°13 - The battle of hannut
16:05 - N°14 - The battle of odzak
17:20 - N°15 - The battle of the bay of biscay
18:50 - N°16 - The 1st battle of sirte
20:05 - N°17 - The siege of malta
21:35 - N°18 - The siege of budapest
22:55 - N°19 - The battle of mokra
24:10 - N°20 - The battle of the sea of azov
25:40 - N°21 - The battle of the dukla pass
27:00 - N°22 - The 1st battle of kharkov
28:05 - N°23 - The battle of reunion
29:05 - N°24 - The battle of christmas island
30:30 - N°25 - The battle of borneo
32:00 - N°26 - The battle of mount song
33:30 - N°27 - The battle of mutanchian
34:20 - N°28 - The battle of elephant point
35:20 - N°29 - The battle of uman
36:30 - N°30 - The battle of point 175
37:20 - N°31 - The battle of gabon
38:20 - N°32 - The battle of corregidor
39:20 - N°33 - The battle of samar
40:35 - N°34 - The battle of pindus
41:40 - N°35 - The battle of san marino
42:45 - N°36 - The battle of 7 îles
43:50 - N°37 - Operation tidal wave
44:50 - N°38 - Operation jericho
45:55 - N°39 - The other battle of berlin
47:00 - N°40 - The aarhus raid
48:05 - N°41 - The battle of nuremberg
49:15 - N°42 - The battle of heilbronn
50:20 - N°43 - The battle of castle itter
51:20 - N°44 - The battle of crucifix hill
52:20 - N°45 - The battle of luxemburg
53:25 - N°46 - The battle of the river plate
54:40 - N°47 - The battle of kock
55:20 - N°48 - The battle of rennel island
56:15 - N°49 - The battle of west hubei
57:10 - N°50 - The battle of hill 609
58:05 - N°51 - The siege of saio
59:05 - N°52 - The battle of anzio
Massive props.
respect!
but damn, nothing better to do?!
legend. hero.
No rzhev, disappointing
Damn, thank you so much, fucking legend!
The Fat Electrician does great WW2 content.
I second this
3rd @@TheTurboNut
Yip and he's not shy at showing his bias either 😂😅
And FCK communism!
The funny electron guy is great, yeah
Simon, in regards to Lebanon, it was a real fight for our troops. The Australians lost 416 killed and 1136 personnel wounded, supporting the advance from Palestine to Lebanon. Sir Roden Cutler lost a leg, winning the Victoria Cross doing so, at Merdjayoun, because he remained at his post, continuing to provide artillery support to our troops. It was no cake-walk for our men, as we had no tanks, but the Vichy French did
Bismark Sea should absolutely have been on this. It was probably the true turning point of the War in the Pacific and no one had ever heard of it.
Yes. Little known but very significant.
The battle for Hong Kong has some personal significance since my grandmother was captured by the IJA during the occupation. She was pregnant at the time and was held for 3 days without food or water. Given the IJA's legacy in southern China one could count her as one of the lucky ones to be released after just this much incarceration. She never spoke of her years during the war
My other grandmother also fled to Hong Kong to keep away from the IJA forces sweeping the country side for comfort women. She never forgave the Japanese and hated them with a fervent passion until the day she died.
If ya'll want more info on The Battle of Samar, Drachinifel has some amazing videos on it
It's not the Battle of Samar, it's the Battle Off Samar, and no, it's not lesser known. It's also known for the US task force that fought it, Taffy 3. If Midway could get several movies, it's a shame this battle doesn't have one
Those are the destroyers that fought so hard that the Japanese were certain they were fighting Cruisers. The 14 inch or was it 18? shells fired at these small ships went right through them without detonating. Truly heroic on the part of the US Captains of the two destroyers that charged the huge Japanese battleship.
Also let's not forget the battle at Tenagra. Never forget Darmok and Jalad.
So many of these are very very very well known, starting with Malta, or Samar, Shanghai, and so forth. Gabon, Madagascar, Reunion, and Christmas island are more obscure, but most of the rest can be found on youtube, with details.
My great uncle was in a Consolidated B-24 Liberator named “Upsy Daisy” over Romania. His name was Private John Oldroyd and he was a top turret gunner most of his time in WW2. While over Ploesti, Romania him and his crew were shot down and surprisingly they all survived after crash landing in a field!
Since my grandpapa fought in the pacific during ww2, i except the earlier date for the start of the war.
The British Empire really liked dismantling the Vichy French whenever they could
The French have always been the real enemy.
Highly disappointed that the Battle of Attu and Kiska were left out as well as the The Battle of the Komandorski Islands.
You have no idea how much I LOVE videos like these.
No contest, I can't get enough of lesser known events of history. This channel is infriggincredible!
Simon, I appreciate now how you get the US states mixed up. There are such a lot of them.
And now I'm confused about all the battles you tell us about. So many countries which have since changed their names; so many islands which I was never taught about!
HMS Kipling was a "K" Class Destroyer armed with 6 4.7" guns and 10 torpedoes. One of her sisters was HMS Kelly commanded by Mountbatten and sunk during the Battle of Crete
Wow ! This is a bittova speed - skate through a lot of track ! I don't know if I ever seen you pause for breath, Simon !
Gotta say, the fact that Simon pronounces "Taiyuan" the same way that I pronounce "Taiwan" made me think that the battle would be controversial for very different reasons.
This was a cracking video and at an hour not too long!!!
Correction: Whilst the Scheldt estuary wasn't cleared until the end of November 1944, Antwerp, the city and the port, were liberated by the British 11th Armoured Division on the 4th September.
Honestly your a great content creator. I love your history lessons as well as your ability to be well rounded for the facts. Keep up the great work.
It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video about 52 operations launched during WW2
Forgotten major battles would involve Battle of Amba Alagi and Battle of Gondar in East Africa that saw the defeat of 100's of thousands of Italians in East Africa in 1941
Very interesting list. There is no way Taffy 3's heroic stand at The Battle of Samar is an unknown battle. Same with The Battle of the River Plate.
This was awesome.
Great content - the Japanese faint attacks on the Aleutians prior to the Midway engagement is an interesting one as well!
I don't think the battle of HongKong, Castle Itter and the battle of Anzio should be on this list but other than that this was quite a nice assortment of battles
I know of most of these battles, I'm surprised that the Battle of Samar, and 2 Mosquito raids are counted in it.
Please let me edit the audio, Simon. I’m an audio engineer and I will do it for free. These vocals are way too harsh. The highs are way too present and your “S” and “T”s are overpowering. I am going to keep commenting and die on this hill until the audio is fixed because I care about the quality of your content and want it to be as good as possible.
The audio is always a little off sometimes listening to Simon in the car is almost unbearable 😢
Am I the only one who has issues with the sounds being too quiet in many of his videos. I don’t know if it’s channel specific, but it seems like it’s Simon’s videos because I get regular expected volume level when I switch to videos by other creators.
So stop listening to it on your cheap Nokia 😂
Not Simon or anyone related ti his production team, but got any good recommendations as to how to edit or clean up audio? Specifically any good youtube tutorials you could point to? Thanks in advance!
Your totally right. Among what you mentioned, the C's and K's are too aggressive as well. They POP.
Number 16 The first battle of Sirte is quite an interesting one. Purely because fighting a war isn't always about annihilating your enemy. Both convoys were of great importance to their respective sides. To engage in a small victory could risk the bigger picture. Malta was just about hanging on and it was vastly more important to get that convoy through. It's nice to see cooler heads prevailing.
Nice job
The retreat of the Italian Julia Alpine Division after the battle of Pindus was important as that division was thought to be lost, but they trudged through the mountainous terrain back to their lines.
My father's war consisted, after initial training, sailing to Egypt via Cape Town then sailing to Crete as a Royal Marine. Captured around 1st June 1941 he was a POW in Austria for the rest of the war.
Only 52?
12:40 Finnland never joined the Axis. But from 1941-1944 it fought along Germany.
A distinction without a difference.
@@archvilethe87th60 "It's complicated" is a glib answer, but Finland was definitely in a difficult political and military position, and when they had the opportunity to reply to the Soviet invasion, some of their interests happened to align with the Nazis'. Ah, well. I'm glad both countries survived the war.
@@archvilethe87th60 In August 1939, three months after the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a nonaggression pact, Stalin invaded Finland. Initially they could buy weapons such as the Brewster F2A Buffalo from the US, but after Russia entered the war against Germany, this created a very difficult political situation. So in June 1941 the United States cut off aid to Finland, including replacement aircraft and parts.. So they turned to the Germans for weapons, although they never joined the Axis.
@@archvilethe87th60 There is a rather major difference in whether you actually sign on and join an alliance or merely cooperate with it. Signing that paper comes with a lot of terms and conditions. If you're not in it, you're not in it.
If you want a modern day example. Ukraine and NATO.
According to my friend's finnish wife ... the word "i agree" translate into "im not going to stab you right now"
might be a translation error, or the fact we were drunki...
As to the boming in Århus (Aahus) university... local myth says the architect asked "are the arches still standing?" Yes... "damn"...i went to school there and yes.. they are ugly
How about the Battle of the Sittang Bend (or anything from the Burma Campaign - the Forgotten Army) or the Dodecanese campaign was interesting. Still, onto lesser known WW1 battles?
The 2nd Happy Time exploited US refusal to adopt any convoy system for its east coast traffic or any blackout along its coast.
Thus U-boats were presented with a succession of undefended targets, with lit navigation lights, sailing peacetime navigation routes with lighted navigation markers (buoys, lighthouses & vessels) and backlit by a lighted coastline.
Significant amongst the losses were the Oil Tankers coming from Texas.
Although this 2nd Happy Time only lasted from January to August of 1942, during this short period axis U-boats sank a quarter of all allied shipping losses for the entire war; 609 ships (3.1 million tons) with the loss of just 22 U-boats.
If you wanted naval battles you could have included Cape Matapan, Taranto or the Arctic convoys.
The cook aboard the Kipling used to make exceeding good cakes
"brown and blue diamond at war" regimental history of Australian 2/27th battalion, talks about fighting the Vichy.
We need a movie about the battle of Samar and Taffy 3
(sorry the dense formatting) The battle of Tolvajarvi was on the actual front with the troops lead by staff officer Talvela's trusted battle partner, colonel Aaro Pajari, cousin of my great grandfather and this first Winter War Finnish victory was based on his military academy thesis and articles in a Finnish military journal published a several years prior, laying out the motti siege tactics and the specifics of ski-based mobile warfare key to Finnish order of battle north of lake Ladoga. Pajari had a remarkable career from high-school era nerdy deep Napoleon-expert organizing school independence fighters club to joining the Finnish liberation war then civil war 1918, as a warrior first leading small platoon size troops that disarmed multiple bases of the early 1918 of the over 100,000 strong Russian occupation of Finland, then in multiple civil wars battles against the communists as a White guard platoon lead, then after this war as a NCO of a hugely important expedition to liberate Karelia called the 1919 Aunus expedition where he commanded the more successful up to 500 strong northern flank, making Lenin send his #1 talented commander Trotsky to lead Soviets to push this expedition back, Pajari in this campaign also seeing joint operations with the British-US-French Murmansk expeditionary force, then 1920s-30s an influential trainer as a key leader in the Finnish Suojeluskunta militia to prep large groups of Finnsh for ski warfare etc, then the Winter War campaigns most famous Tolvajarvi, becoming general and Mannerheim's #1 offensive warfare expert, leading a key spearhead of the daring large 1941 Karelian Isthmus attack with remarkable efficiency, then special operations like leading the conquest of the Suursaari/Gogland island March 1942, leading large formations in the 1944 critical defensive battles stopping Soviet advance, and finally culminating as perhaps the most consequential general in the Finnish Lapland war against the Nazis 1944-45, in the battles of Tornio and especially taking the capital of Lapland, in the battle of Rovaniemi, from the Nazis. His brilliant command of offensive warfare uniquely landed him two Mannerheim crosses, the most coveted medal in Finnish military history, and given his efficiency in offensive warfare making him one of the most underrated generals of WW2.
It's a damn shame that the battle of Ortona, also known as "little Stalingrad" wasn't included in this list.
Pretty cool here Simon. I had heard of/ was familiar w only about 25% of these. So I enjoyed being introduced to them.
You had less Western bias than plenty westerners, but still, you seemed to leave out plenty of significant yet obscure Eastern front battles like the Demanding pocket and the third battle of Karmic for example instead of the battle off Samar
Also add Operation Guildford and Aintree
Taffy-3's actions (especially the brass ones they had) are pretty well known these days, not sure it's worthy of "lesser known". And Castle Itter... well, Sabaton memes have made that one pretty known.
Great video. Really shows how it was truly a World war. Interestingly the battle of Madagascar was Britain’s first amphibious assault of the entire war.
Is Reunion island not in the Indian ocean?
It is.
11:54 'Sunk Over 609 Ships'. Sooo 610?
1137
4264518 ships
Corregidor is not a lesser known battle It goes along with Bataan. Bataan Corregidor. Very well know
Battle of Reunion was in the Indian Ocean, not the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean seas don't go any further West than the Eastern side of Isthmus of Kra and the Eastern side of Sumatra, the Northern and Eastern coast of Borneo, the North and the East Coast of Australia down to Antarctica.
One lesser campaign you missed, is the Dodecanese campaign in September 1943. A major British force not willing to work together with Italian forces that had changed sides, was completely defeated by a smaller German force. Bad British planning with worse Britsh leadership, accompanied by much more valliant Italian fighting
7:45 No, this was not the first opposed airborne assault, the first one would be the German assault on Norway, specifically Dombås
My father was a glider pilot.. He flew in 5 invasions ..Sicily, Normandy, Southern France and 2 in Market-Garden.
My grandfather died in auschwitz. He fell from the guard tower.
Thank you .
🐺Loupis Canis .
I am really curious about the picture on 8:04 . I am curious to know what event this picture was of. I see a Frisian flag in the background and do not see any other flags.
Not all of these battles are that obscure. For Canadians the Battle of Hong Kong and the Battle of the Scheldt are quite well known. Though the loss at Hong Kong and the high number of casualties in The Scheldt have made Canada a little less enthusiastic about "aiding" some of our Allies, since both battles were entered into at their request.
I think you could have broken this one into 2 or three pieces, either by theatre, chronology, or the forces involved. In spite of Simon's usual snappy delivery, it began to wear after a while.
I would have included the first battle of El Alamein. Everyone knows about the 2nd battle but the first one stopped Rommel's advance into Egypt and prevented him from taking the Suez canal and the middle east oilfields. Losing the first battle would have been a calamity. Losing the second wouldn't have been quite as bad, Rommel still didn't have the fuel or the supplies to advance and the British could have rebuilt their strength and tried again.
I don't think Anzio is nearly as obscure as the others. There is even a movie about that one starring Robert Mitchum.
North Nova Scotian Highlanders took a heavy toll in Shelt
The movie "The Forgotten Battle" on netflix takes place around the Scheldt battles. It's worth watching.
I had hoped to hear of obscure Pacific Theater battles. The European Theater has always been covered more thoroughly covered. The example of the battle at Leyte Gulf has been thoroughly covered.
look up the Battle of Brisbane for an obscure battle.
@@v.sandrone4268probably not our finest moment mate
Did you say in the battle for Budapest that the defenders had 79,000 men but had 137,000 casualties? Were there 179,000 defenders?
Simon is the best! I thought am I really going to sit here for an hour? And when it was finished I was like was that really an hour?
Damn it all Simon how many more channels do you need 🤣
Did Reunion Island used to be located in the Pacific?
The battle of Hong Kong is how Canada ended declaring war on Japan before the US.
Canada also hosted the Dutch royal family, even declaring a maternity ward to be "Dutch" territory so the princess would still be born on Dutch soil.
21:19 the video mentions Spitfires but the picture shows Hurricanes. 😃
Should have been lesser known slightly lesser known absolutely lesser known.😊😊😊
Who else heard Sabaton when Castle Itter was said? Last Battle anyone?
maybe I am hearing incorrectly, but it sounds like " the battle lasted from ___Dec 1944 through Dec 24, 1945" ??
Simon, French teacher here. "Coup de grâce" is pronounced as "KOO DUH GRAHSS," not* "KOO DUH GRAW." 🇺🇸🤝🇫🇷 Réunion is in the Indian Ocean, not the Pacific. "Back to the Pacific."
The battle of Truk Atoll, when Japan was Pearl Harboured.
I love armored trains
21:55 Wtf is that? Damn, that is a big ass gun for a WW2 tank.
IS-2 i think.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IS-2
There is a typo on your channel description
Brest Fortress 1941. Lasted two weeks.
Awesome video!!!!!!
The battle of Kolombangara. My grandfather barely survived.
Khalkin Gol. Most important battle that affected World War Two! Japan did not provide the Germans with the gift of making the Soviets to fight on two fronts. Zhukov smashed the IJA.
1st! Last time I was this early, we had a World War
and another one might be coming soon
Let’s hope not. While I’m too old now myself I have two sons that are prime military age.
@@merlebarney and I am 22
@@merlebarney
Don’t worry, if there is a major war it’s likely that nuclear weapons will end up being used before a draft gets instituted.
In what way is Anzio a "lesser known" battle?
How long. How long did it take you just to film this??
My Da"s Canadian merchant ship was detained in Shanghai in ',38. 8 months. He was 15-16 years old, at the time.
Pretty sure it's TOLL-va-yar-vee, but not too bad considering how few people even know what Finnish sounds like.
I would have called the Battle Of The River Plate a score draw, both sides were badly damaged. HMS Exeter was trashed and had to withdraw, HMS Ajax was a mess with half of its guns out of action. The difference was that British had a friendly port nearby in the Falkland islands where they could make repairs. The Germans didn't have that luxury, and Graf Spee was in no condition to make it back to Germany.
"Score draw" Ha !!!! Complete loss of one of Germany's handful of larger surface ships against moderate damage to ONE of the RN's 70 or so cruisers?
Cope harder.
@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 I stand by what I said about the actual battle, HMS Exeter was in probably no state to make it 7000 miles back to Britain but that didn't matter because there was a friendly port nearby. The battle of the River plate was really a heavy cruiser (somewhat up-gunned) against a heavy cruiser and two light cruisers. It was fairly evenly matched. But it was madness for Captain Langsdorff to attack the British ships when he was a long way from home and couldn't afford battle damage. Perhaps he was trying to avenge the man his ship was named after (killed during a battle with the British off the nearby Falkland Islands in the First World war). But it was still madness.
@@philiphumphrey1548 Graf Spee was beaten by brains not gunfire. ALL the British ships reentered the war after repairs, Graf Spee was broken up, and even after her demise the British outplayed the Germans, when the scrap rights for Graf Spee were bought from the German government by a Uruguayan scrap merchant who acted as a shill for the British and provided the Admiralty with much intelligence on the systems onboard Graf Spee.
There are two excellent movies about China.
55 Days At Peking
And
The Sand Pebbles.
Neither is about WW2 but they are still well worth your time.
The book, The Sand Pebbles, is well worth the time to read.
Sand Peeples GREAT
Starfishes love you
The battle of Budapest was a slaughter. Iirc the SS were told to hold till the last man and in the end Hitler called them failures.
It was part of Hitler's fortress city strategy. He figured that armies advancing towards Germany could be ground down by forcing them to battle through certain areas. Unfortunately for Germany, Generals in both the East and West figured out the counter strategy called "Just go around them". They could leave troops behind to surround and starve the cities and take parts as they became easier.
Japan made a similar miscalculation when the Americans refused to invade every fortified Island in the Pacific. Then even had the audacity to invade islands that had minimal or no real defenses.
War isn't as much fun when the enemy gets to make up their own rules and refuses to fight by yours.
Super hot in Crete most always.
Reunion Island is in the Indian Ocean, not the Pacific.
I never seen any footage ever where flame thrower troops fought each other. Probably would occur in trench fighting...happen upon each other and let fly the juice.
For shame - you missed the Battle of Bamber Bridge!! Maybe everyone knows it?
Spitfires and hurricanes saved Malta
You missed the Battle of Brisbane although I guess neither the US or Australia would particularly want this battle to be remembered.
😅
He didn't miss it, he just didn't use it. It's not "All lesser known battles"
its actually Battle off Samar not of
In 1937 Shanghai, the Japanese left the international parts alone
Always love mentioning the battle of Castle Iter. Most people don't know of it, so telling them that for one battle US and German soldiers fought the Nazis sounds fake.
I came here just to see who'd bring it up. Sabaton sang the story well.
There's even a solo boardgame of the battle called Castle Itter and a book called "The Last Battle" which upsets the estate of Cornelius Ryan whose book is about Berlin but you can't copywrite a title.
Castle Itter is the Reddit tier of "obscure WWII battles". Everyone moderately interested in WWII history has heard of it. Honestly, aside from its strangeness, it's overstated as a "battle".