Join the TimeGhost Army: bit.ly/WW2_SPECIAL_077_PI When Germany invaded Poland in September of 1939, it's safe to say that very few people thought German troops would be fighting in Tunisia in 1943. This war has unfolded in the desert sands of Egypt, the icy peaks of the Caucasus, the muddy marshes of Pripyat, and the snowy tundra around Murmansk. Few wars have seen such extreme conditions, let alone all of these in the same conflict. Few, but not no wars. What are some other conflicts fought in extreme climate conditions? Code of conduct, please read first: community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518)
"soldiers are expected to stay reasonably clean and to shave" HAHAHAHAAHAH excuse me but BWAHAHAHAHAHA Chortle. Snort. Gasp. Guffaw! Hey if i don't have sand fleas or lice i think that's reasonable.
My mother, told me that when her brother, my uncle Alfred when to war, he was a six-foot-two powerfully built young man with thick red hair. When he came home after fighting with the 7th Army, in the desert campaign, he was thin, lined and bald. I remember when as a boy I asked him why he had lost his hair, he told me that the desert sandstorms had worn it all away.
I was a water supply specialist in the 91 Gulf War. Our platoon had 8 50,000 gallon water bags at our camp alone. I had dysentery later also. I was so miserable I did not care if I lived or died.. And being in a sand storm.is like having your face assaulted with a sand blaster.. Good times!
I was a unit mechanic in the same war, also had dysentery and it's the sickest I've ever been. Even though we had a great field sanitation team (it was a medical unit) a lot of us still got sick because the flies were everywhere and there was no real way to avoid it. I could go on for hours about how miserable it was to try to work and live and maintain equipment in the desert, even with 'modern' technology compared to what they had in WWII. Indy does a great job of describing it, but still... no way to really understand how harsh it is until you've lived it.
One of my cousins served in North Africa, under Monty. He got sand in his bladder, which made urinating excruciating. He also ripped his back open getting out of his tank when it was hit and brewed up. His mother wrote Churchill personally to get him back to England for proper medical treatment. Churchill got it done.
i used to go shooting with a guy that was in tanks in North Africa. his first two times in battles the tanks failed to get to the jumping off points. in his next battle the tank blow up and he had no recollection of it happening or anything till he was in the dressing station the next day. his next two battles went the same way as the first two. in his sixth and last battle the tank got hit and he was badly burned getting out. it was over a year and a half before he got back to the UK and he was still getting treatment for his burns in the late 70s when i met him. all he would ever say about it was "it wasn't hollywood mate".
The British had a secret weapon, cloth covered latrines. The British had a simple wooden crate stuck in the sand covered with a cloth which would be lifted to crap then replaced. This helped reduce disease carrying flies. The Germans didn’t cover their latrines and so suffered much worse from dysentery in fact at the beginning of the Alamein battle Rommel was recovering from dysentery in Germany. A British covered latrine being uncovered, although in a Japanese POW camp, can be seen in the beginning scene of the movie King Rat.
@@priatalat THAT WAS AN ORDER! STEINER'S ATTACK WAS AN ORDER! HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY MY ORDERS? Now get in the kitchen and make me a sauerkraut sandwich! Om nom nom
My grandfather fought in North Africa and later Italy He liked to talk about his time quite often Strangely enough, he had fond memories of his time in Africa I suppose that as you grow older you forget the bad stuff and remember the good things
It depends on people really. My grandfather was the same, got forcefully conscripted into the Italian army in '42, got home in '43 after Italy capitulated, got picked up by Yugoslav Partizans and fought with them till the end of ww2 as a demolitions expert holding a NCO rank. Saw allot of things, good and extremely bad. Would always talk openly about what he saw and what happened during the war, never shying away from gruesome details.
That's interesting, you're lucky he wanted to share his memories with you, so many veterans don't/didn't for understandable reasons. Did he have anything to say about the desert conditions?
@@thesayxx It very much does depend on the person. My grandfather was in the 101st Airbone for D-day and then later on was one of the very first soldiers into Kaufering (sub-camp of Dachau). After all he saw he still insisted on doing presentations for my class and that of all my cousins when we were in high school. Plenty didn't want to talk about what they saw but he always wanted to make sure that all of his grandchildren knew what happened and that it shouldn't be repeated.
A point often forgotten. The majority of those troops, on both sides, were primarily Europeans, used to a colder climate. The Germans, especially had very little experience in that heat. The Brits and Italians had, more, with their colonies, but not that much more. So, unlike the battles in France, Norway & Russia, the desert climate was by far the most difficult for those men to deal with.
@@michaelscott5653 why so? Stalingrad was kept warm and cosy by stukas bombing oil silos and mortars and assault guns would deliver concentrated heat right to your doorstep!
Not entirely, I am not shure if Indy himself is my source for this, but I know that the Afrika Korps recruted men used to heat in their workspace. Such as bakers and steel workers from furnaces.
@@Calligraphybooster I'm afraid I have to disagree. I am a military history buff and I've read many books on the Afrika Korps, including Rommel's own. Those divisions, 15Pz and 5th Lt were standard Whermacht troops, Nothing special, and with no special training.
In 1974, I underwent training as a junior NCO in the Canadian Forces. The location was Camp Petawawa, a training area on the Ottawa River. Part of the training syllabus was mutual instruction, and some of us were required to teach about "Hygiene in the Field," which included such things as the dangers of malaria and dysentery, and the siting of cess pits and latrines. When we went to the field, we were under water discipline, drinking only when we had permission. One could sense from illustrations in the training pamphlets and practices that these were all lessons learned with Eighth Army and carried back to Canada.
I did my combat leader’s course in 1991 at theRCR battle school in Pet. Same lessons taught. And sand in everything, maybe not 90 mph winds. Good times
@@ms-rx8tw, "never pass a fault!" (My course was run by 3 RCR, which was really a rebranded battalion of the Canadian Guards.) Did you live in tents on the Mattawa or were you up in the "P" Lines?
@@osher7788 Water rationing in the IDF was canceled in the early 1960s as a result of a lengthy experiment conducted by medical corps which proved that a constant supply of water can get soldiers keep functioning in the harsh Negev desert. During the Six Days War, the IAF dropped by parachutes water canisters to the advancing armored formations that rushed and reached the Giddi and Mitlah passes in order to block the retreat routes of the Egyptian army. Supply by air was the only option.
@@abrahamlevi3556 kinda like how the medicial corps also recommended on 7 hours of sleep and the army took years to adopt it? The fact that they concluded that doesn't mean units adopted that, some units still trained with water rationing(to make them "tougher") but in war of course they were given as much water as they can
I have heard that the German soldiers called the war in Denmark the “whipped cream front” due to the extraordinary conditions until the breakdown of the policy of cooperation in 1943 - maybe that could be content for an episode during 1943?
Its a very simply story. Denmark surrendered, and there was allmost no active "terrorism" (freedomfighters) against the Nazis until 43, due to which the Nazis desided to start shooting "terrorists". The government said no, and that ended the danish government. The level of sabotage was so small that many germans after the war didnt even understand that there had been sabotages... After 43 the sabotage began rising, and so the naziterror, shootings ect...
@@WorldWarTwo Looking forward to whatever you come up with in that case. I know barely anything about the occupation of Denmark, besides the remarkably successful evacuation of their Jewish population.
10:30 My great grandfather had a very similar experience in World War 1 with a German officer he'd seen scouting in No Man's Land & shot him. Determined to go out under the cover of darkness & take a trophy when he dropped into the shell hole ther German had fallen into he found, to his surprise, the German was wounded but alive & he shot myngreat grandfather! Well, things just got worse, hearing the shot both sides apparently suspected there was a sniper & they both started lobbing artillery into No Man's Land! So the 2 mortal enemies were there, sheltering together, eventually the shelling stopped & they got around to patching each other up. In the morning they both waved to their lines & stood up, exchanged souvenirs & limped off to their trenches. A sad epitaph is that the pictures, helmet & pistol were kept by my Grandfather until he died & someone broke into the house & stole them before our anyone was aware that he'd passed.
The Indy episodes have a much more lighthearted tone in general. (While of course, showing a modicum of reverence even when joking.) If every moment of the war was treated with the gravity it deserved, then most couldn't get through an episode without getting sick to the stomach. Keep in mind, the soldiers too had their share of toilet humor. It's a natural coping mechanism for the horrors they faced. Of course, I say all of this but I respect your opinion if you thought the joke was inappropriate. I simply wanted to offer some balance to the discussion.
@@nicholashollis1522 No, I don't think it was inappropriate. I mean, I have served in a military capacity for a long time and am quite familiar with all forms of humour, circulating in these organizations and that are related to the more, let's say, elemental and basic side of human existence. In fact, I found it somewhat refreshing that Indy (an his crew (let's not forget those) paid attention to this. It made it a lot clearer without having to go into particulate-matter descriptives.
It’s almost interesting how global the war is at this point. On the one hand, you have very hot and humid conditions in North Africa. On the other end, there is the harsh cold and freezing winter conditions in Stalingrad and the Caucasus. Of course in the middle, there is also the muddy and filthy conditions of the jungle at Guadalcanal. Planning for logistics with such varied terrain would have been quite an impressive feat.
This episode was brilliant, I would really like to hear more stories from other fronts like those about amphitheatre. It helpes us to remember that despite war being so brutal, all of the combatants are people and have their human needs. Thank you
I never tire of looking into the background of Indy’s bunker (same goes for Sparty & Astrid’s though I suspect they are all in the same bunker) and attempting to identify all the ever changing nick-nackery. Anyway carry on with the episode.
1:37 I believe this was a partial myth and some of the oil was because it was later discovered to be an oil rich environment and once maintaince dropped and bombs started flying around this caused the Wells to take in oil from the ground, but at the time they presumed the other side had put the oil in the well.
The use of animal carcasses was THE technique employed. They were always ready to hand, too. The oil story is phony. The Krauts were always critically short of POL.
@@Cancun771 It takes a barrel to contaminate a well and deny enemy of one of the most vital consumables, that one barrel of oil wont take lets say a tank that far. So ruining a well with oil is more important than saving it for vehicles.
I believe I saw a similar explanation on another RUclips video. If I come across it again I hope I can come back here and provide a link. There are some excellent comments here.
@@PilotAwe I can imagine USED motor oil... but that's about it. The desire to screw over the fresh water supply was used by the Soviets, Germans, British... et. al. BTW, most POL is SUPER easy to separate -- even in the field. Oil and water don't mix. During stage one, the fluid is just allowed to settle. Stage two, the water (fraction) is distilled. BTW, virtually all crude oil comes up with water at the same time. It's normal technique to separate out the two fractions virtually at the well-head. (Processing units are stationed all over the oil field. De-watering and de-acidifying Saudi crude was THE original hang-up after it was discovered. Yeah, Saudi light is quite acidic at the well head.) The need to treat the crappy water found by the combatants was so routine that every army had dedicated units treating it. Absolutely no-one trusted Arab standards of hygiene. When this dictum was violated, the troops started crapping all over the place. The US Army was so fanatical about such issues that you almost never read about American troops being laid low due to their GI tracts.
Another fantastic special. I particularly enjoyed the account of the wounded British Officer and the wounded Austrian soldier sharing the same trench. Thanks Indy!
@Michael Thank you for watching! Those kinda of stories give history its character and helps humanize it for us. Please stay tuned, tell your friends, and point them to our Patreon!
Glad you enjoyed it. The specials are a great place to do that as in the regular episodes the personal can easily get swallowed up in the grand scale of events
My favorite front to study in WWII : -In desert , British had a neat trick of washing their garments in motor oil to get rid of sand and dirt -Italian positions were in such low hygine that when British and New Zealanders captured them they refused to enter Italian trenches due to filth in them -Germans were fond of captured British rations (especially canned Australian bully beef) a lot more than Italian food. In 1945 British troops occupying Germany found several bully beef cans in private house and kitchens of some German households shipped from captured British stocks in Afrika by Afrikakorps members to their families -Throwing corpses to contaminate water wells in desert was a favorite tactic especially by Germans during retreat. They were also masters in laying minefields and booby traps , Col. Burrows , Rommel's Chief of Engineers later promoted to general due to his success on this regard -Famous Egyptian belly dancer Hekmed Fahmi was accused of spying for Axis in Cairo. Egyptian Nationalist movement officers a small clique of Egyptian Army officers led by Nsair , was symphatic to Axis even tried to get intelligence about British position to Germans but they failed to set up communications then arrested. Most Egyptians were hostile to Italian fascist regime though due to Mussolini's record in Libya where Italians brutalised Sennusi tribes -Montgomery constantly set up dummy pieces to deceive and confuse enemy about location of his forces before an operation , he used this tactic so masterfully , Axis usually misled about focus point of his attacks or defensive positions
- The Italian codebreakers were exceptionally good at their craft curing the African campaign and after, so much so that when Italy bowed out of the war the Germans intelligence went down dramatically and it hindered many future operations. Also this isn't a pro Italy post it was more both my thing are about Italy and I've read it was the Italian's who were the experts at Minefields
@@Alex-cw3rz True , Italian spies actually stole Black Book diplomatic code from US Cairo Embassy in 1941 and thanks to that Germans intercepted and read US Military Attache Col. Bonnar Feller's wireless reports to Washington constantly and that was a valuaable intelligence resource for Axis (Rommel called Fellers "My Bonnie Fellow") , Fellers was also a notorious Anglophobe and in his report displayed British situation and performance worse than it was. That is ironically one of the resons why Rommel over extended already exhausted Panzer Army Afrika all the way to El Alamein in June-July 1942 and over stretching his rear supply lines to breaking point under false over optimistic assumption that Eighth Army was destroyed at Battle of Gazala and Fall of Tobruk and Egypt was his to take just by marching when his mission was not that in first place and his resources were nowhere sufficient except some British supply stocks he captured in Tobruk and Mersa Matruh which was consumed faster than he predicted. When the intelligence leak of Fellers (he had no idea though) was discovered by British counter intelligence service in late June 1942 , Fellers was sent back to Washington and later entered MacArthur's command in South West Pacific.
If "All's Quiet on the Western Front" is to be believed the German fondness for British rations over their own stretches back a bit further than the North Africa campaign.
@@merdiolu It's an interesting point about Fellers' pessimism encouraging Rommel, but possibly overstated (he was providing absurdly detailed reports, which directly led to a lot of people getting killed). At the farcical battle of Mersa Matruh it seems like many in the 8th had suspected the NZ division was destroyed after being surrounded at Minqar Qaim (with Gott basically abandoning them and leaving the field), only for them to breakout on their own (mauling a regiment of 21st panzer) and show up at Alamein unexpected, intact and ready to anchor the line. Even Rommel's own signals intel probably would've detected considerable panic and disintegration of command and control before he decided to surge onto Alamein, and Fellers' pessimism was therefore hardly unfounded. Auchinleck deserves a lot of credit for keeping his grip and rapidly reorganizing for a dogfight at Alamein; after Fellers was dismissed (apparently after German radio broadcast a play that hinted at the prospect of a leak in Cairo involving an American attache!) and the Aussies overran the 621st signals intercept battalion Rommel was basically flying blind and lost his edge. Another interesting note is that it's suspected signals intercepts that led to the inteception of 'Strafer' Gott's aircraft as he was on his way to take command of the 8th, leading to his death and Monty taking the job instead. An interesting twist of fate, since Gott was a evidently a very poor general who had a big hand in the recent botched battles as commander of XIII corps, in hindsight. Mellenthin wrote later about how vulnerable the DAK was at Matruh with the NZ Division holding the 21st panzer quite easily, only for British armour under Gott declining the clear opportunity to slip a noose around them - just a fascinating series of battles. It's hard to beat the African theater for drama and twists.
The British having fought wars in their colonies knew of the importance of keeping the toilets away from the main camps and had better outcome from the dysentery. The Axis however went wherever they were. Also the British foods had more of the basic building blocks for proper nourishment. Someone in the comments said that the oil in the wells were the results of bombings that caused the oil rich land to seep into the well. That makes sense rather than pouring precious fuel into the wells a severed body part would work just fine without the obvious smell of oil which in turn would affect more soldiers.
Many of the Dominion troops would have been somewhat accustomed to a lack of indoor plumbing already, in NZ even for me as a child it wasn't uncommon to shit in a hole outside of major towns. I have read many accounts of the NZ and Australian soldiers and their disgust at the squalor of Axis positions is a common theme - it seems like the city slickers plucked out of Europe often adjusted very poorly to rough living.
The British had special acclimation camps in Gaza and Egypt before sending troops into theater. Moreover, the Royal Army Medical Corps had established specialized sanitation sections that dealt with hygiene in the field.
This tie reminds me of one of those fabric books they make you look through when you're buying new pillows with your significant other. I'm not sure if that's a good thing. 4/5
Australian here. My dad was an El Alamein veteran 2/25 th Batt D Co. He had terrible stomach problems all life from his service until he passed in 1996. Oddly he said the Allies had a lot of respect for Rommel. Also said that the Aussies would be swimming & surfing & a couple of miles up the beach they could see the Germans doing the same
So many of your videos are brilliant, but these are the most heartening and welcome amidst all of the horror (which, seriously, you do an even better job on).
Glad you're enjoying them! And it is nice to get a video in about slightly more mundane, if still vital, daily struggles amongst all the much weightier things going on
My Grand Uncle was in MONTY's Africa Army, and they played football (soccer) in a sort of tournament between units. His team won and I still have the TROPHY. He ended up getting some nasty bug in North Africa and died in convolescence trying to recover from it. His personal effects were sent to my grandfather who had joined with him at the same time but was at that time posted to the RAF training school in Kingston, Canada.
I really enjoyed your video despite it’s dark content. I appreciate a better understanding of what these men endured. M grandfather fought in WWI for the French. He told me stories of the conditions that I have never heard in conventional media.
Captain Samwell's recollection @ 10:30 got to tugging on my heartstrings and made me tear up. It must've been a terrible feeling to see foe become friend in a odd twist of irony, only to have it whisked away not too long after. Props to you and the production crew indy, i've been a fan since your "Great War" channel. The production quality, the vivid, in-depth analysis and the delivery of it all is an highly enjoyable educational experience and also easier to retain and remember. I'm glad i stumbled upon this channel as well and look forward to sponging up more war history 😁
My great Uncle was a cook in the 8th Army and found himself back in Egypt in the Suez Crisis. As he had joined up under age. The German cooking knife he used then is still used for carving the Christmas Turkey in the 21st century!
WW2 gives examples of three most difficult areas of ground warfare: winter warfare in Winter war and whole Europe, desert warfare in Africa and jungle warfatre in Pacific. They are all merciless with differing reasons, though desert and jungle are closely related. Really strange that Mussolini's ass is referred to as Mussolini's donkey. Yes, I'm aware of two meanings of 'ass'.
Good episode! Please do an episode about the fighting conditions in Burma. It's often called the forgotten war, and the Burma campaign was The longest land campaign of the war. The Burma front was probably the hardest of all fronts, including Russia in the winter, regarding the hostile environment and diseases.
My uncle flew a Halifax in North Africa with the RCAF. He was still flying from North Africa during Operation Husky when he contracted dysentery. he was a tall slender man at 6'5" and 160#s but when he dropped to 125#s he got shipped back to the UK. He eventually recovered and remained in the RCAF until his retirement.
My Grandfather served as a commissioned officer (under Edward VIII) in the Royal Corps of Signals in North Africa. He never spoke of his time there (or the war in general). He did have an autobiography written that covered some of the more light-hearted moments. He lived to 88, when his lungs gave out. Doctors suspect that the sand may have damaged them during his time in North Africa.
Beach party about forty years ago, we all crashed out in the sand dunes afterwards. Following morning I made the mistake of complaining to my girlfriend about the sand under my foreskin. Her response was something along the lines of "and you think you've got problems?". She was not happy, not at all happy.
The 8th army called corned beef, which was the predominate meat eaten "bully beef" and also "desert chicken". My father-in-law was a WO1 in the REME in that campaign, they use to fry eggs on the tanks they were repairing, a sort of "working lunch!"
"Each trooper will be charged with responsibility for preserving Water. Our existence as an operating army depends on these following water-saving procedures. Remember, water is life."
@@marinthecreator Shake your hooks in the air like you don't care, thump with the rhythm as the worms become aware. Do your dance do your dance do your dance quick now come on baby tell me where's the worm. Worm up!
My family lived in Tripoli in the late 50s c/o the USAF. The superfine dust got into everything, sandstorm or not, you just had to deal with it. All your food had a subliminal crunch that you learned to ignore. You washed your eyes out regularly after learning to keep from rubbing them. Hell, rubbing anything was a no-no, you'd abrade it in a hurry whatever it was...
I thoroughly enjoyed this little break from the war in the desert. In fact, I think you should do it more often. Maybe it could become a series unto itself? I think that the war in the desert was conducted in a more dignified manner simply because Rommel, Montgomery, and several other leaders insisted on it.
This is one thing you always brush over. Its fair enough being in battle when you're full of beans. I cant even imagine having to fight if you were ill, I'm writing this currently after vomiting ten times already and have a fever. With me nausea is my biggest hate , it is 100% debilitating to be on a battlefield spinning out on the verge of vomiting in searing heat , bombs going off is insane. Good god we don't appreciate what they went through.
My grandfather was in this campaign, I think he was mostly at supply depots and guarding Italian pow's but I know one of his stories is of his squad hiding in a ditch behind a sand Bank as an entire column of German armour followed by trucks of troops and supplies rumbled by just feet away as rommel forged ahead in one of his advances. I can't even imagine the conditions and being in that situation
My Grandfather fought all the way through North Africa and used to tell me that it was a pint of water to do everything..we had the Petrol whereas Rommels lot had the water so one can surmise that water Bowsers and Trucks were prime targets ! ..Cheers Indy Happy New Year!
I had to back up several times to see but, at the point where the sandstorm starts pouring down across the desert (4:31) I saw lightning. Great presentation. Super subject. I wonder if anyone was ever struck by lightning? Yes, I know in the desert.
My dad got dysentery in North Africa. Got of hospital to find his squadron had moved on. No idea where and took days of hanging around before he found them; or at least found where they now were... in Bangladesh.
There was so much happening, that individual soldiers often got forgotten about (in regards to their units - they were looked after where they were) and lost in the system. To their credit though, the British forces did generally look after their soldiers well and usually got what they needed (sometimes only eventually... but still).
@@tams805 I like reading testimonials about how they barley managed to deal with the climate. Not to mention, finding online testimonials of Indian participants is relatively rare.
Thanks Indy and Co. My paternal grandfather fought in North Africa through Crusader and Gazala (captured at Tobruk). I've been able to find records of where he served etc..., but he never spoke of what he went through during the war. It was just too painful for him. Interesting to learn more about life on the front and behind it. Keep up the great work!
@Kiev Thank you for sharing some of your family's story. Amazing to hear so many testimonials from our audience around the world. It truly was a global war. Never forget.
@@WorldWarTwo Absolutely, which is primary why I recently became fascinated with this campaign. Commonwealth forces played a significant role that deservers frequent mentioning, as they were reinforcements for the British. This is why I have been reading testimonials by Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, and occasionally Indians. I even read a testimonial by an Egyptian claiming some civilians had prepared Italian flags to replace their British flags in 1942. I think maybe this channel should do a video on civilians during the campaign, as the fighting occurred near coastal areas where civilians lived, info is lacking, and Jewish people already faced persecution by the Italians which refutes the campaign's "clean" reputation, though channel did already addressed Italian suppression of Arab and Berber resistors to colonial rule, and should explain why Egyptians never mobilized in the campaign despite Egypt being de-facto controlled by the British and pseudo-independent, where it could be argued the Axis invaded a supposedly independent country: probably to avoid provoking Egyptian nationalists. Cool trivia: future President Nasser was in the army at the time.
FLIES!!! In the 70's my great-uncle in Liverpool used to tell tiny me about his war time in Libya and Egypt. He taught me beginners Egyptian - I remember 'Imshi' 50 years later though I've forgotten the rest. He never spoke about combat and violence but he did tell me how the landscape was totally lifeless until he opened his tinned meat, whence he shared his rations with a thick cloud of flies. You forgot to mention the flies.
I read a book about the campaign written by New Zealander and he said they would wash their clothes in petrol to save water and that it worked well. (a bit like dry cleaning fluid)
After the video I looked up Sabaton, what a great band and song/album subject matter, WAR; videos are great. Thanks Indy for pointing me in their direction.
It wasn't only the infantry that had to put up with water restrictions. My father, who flew with the Desert Air Force, told me that it was amazing how much personal hygiene you could do with (as I recall him saying) a pint of water (maybe it was a cup). He also told me of the dangers of going to the latrine during a sandstorm. People got lost and died during the desert campaign answering "the call of nature" when sandstorms blew up. He also told me that it got quite cold, and during the winter of 1943 it snowed at Benghazi!
The flys 🪰 in the desert are very extreme. Especially on a base. I remember portable toilets being everywhere and so were the flys. Even inside the DFAC “Dining Facility “.
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My uncle- Dick Street was a sergeant in the Eighth Army fighting in the desert. He told me how his unit was fighting hard in a cluster of buildings against the Germans. It was Christmas Day and even though they were in the front line, in combat, they had a special Xmas treat - tinned peaches and evaporated milk. He was in charge of seeing everyone got their share and they were sent to a half ruined building, in groups of three to gulp down this welcome addition to their sparse rations. When everyone in his unit had been fed, there was one tin of peaches and one tin of evap milk, left. My uncle had already had his, but now he felt a very strong temptation to claim a second helping. It was the best thing he'd tasted in a long time and he really wanted more. Finally, he thought he couldn't abuse the trust his men had in him and reluctantly he left the ruin to rejoin his men. Within a minute a German artillery shell came over and blew the building to pieces! A waste of those peaches, but he knew he'd made the right choice.
My granddad mentioned a few things about the desert war - the cold, the sand and more accurately the powder / dust that got everywhere and the flies. Then there was the water brought to the front that tasted of petrol and the bully beef ration that used to melt inside the can due to the heat and used to pour out.
My grandfather spoke about pretty tough dysentery and cold as a POW after Tobruk as they were herded to Benghazi before transfer to Sicily, Italy and eventually Stalag IV B 2nd Transvaal Scottish
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When Germany invaded Poland in September of 1939, it's safe to say that very few people thought German troops would be fighting in Tunisia in 1943. This war has unfolded in the desert sands of Egypt, the icy peaks of the Caucasus, the muddy marshes of Pripyat, and the snowy tundra around Murmansk. Few wars have seen such extreme conditions, let alone all of these in the same conflict. Few, but not no wars. What are some other conflicts fought in extreme climate conditions?
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The Alpine Front in the Great War, naturally
Did Indy seriously just do Anakin's I hate sand line? 🤣
"soldiers are expected to stay reasonably clean and to shave"
HAHAHAHAAHAH
excuse me but
BWAHAHAHAHAHA
Chortle. Snort. Gasp. Guffaw!
Hey if i don't have sand fleas or lice i think that's reasonable.
would be legit interested in biographical descriptions of a sand bath, it's exactly what it sounds like.
Napoleon's grande armee in Russia, retreating from Moscow Also, the british expedition into Afghanistan in the 19th century
Sand is "coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere." There's another Star Wars reference by Indy.
He also said this in a Great War episode about tanks in the Middle East Campaign
On point. Gotta love it.
Best line from Star Wars lol
I think he voiced a announcer droid in Battlefront 2.
You can hear him in the Heroes Vs Villans game mode.
@@marinthecreator yes he did
6:00 made my day, love the prequel reference.
5:58
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
And he played it totally straight, which was perfect.
@@SithEmpiredidnothingwrong I missed it what did he say?
What reference I didn't hear it?
My mother, told me that when her brother, my uncle Alfred when to war, he was a six-foot-two powerfully built young man with thick red hair. When he came home after fighting with the 7th Army, in the desert campaign, he was thin, lined and bald. I remember when as a boy I asked him why he had lost his hair, he told me that the desert sandstorms had worn it all away.
I was a water supply specialist in the 91 Gulf War. Our platoon had 8 50,000 gallon water bags at our camp alone. I had dysentery later also. I was so miserable I did not care if I lived or died.. And being in a sand storm.is like having your face assaulted with a sand blaster.. Good times!
I was a unit mechanic in the same war, also had dysentery and it's the sickest I've ever been. Even though we had a great field sanitation team (it was a medical unit) a lot of us still got sick because the flies were everywhere and there was no real way to avoid it. I could go on for hours about how miserable it was to try to work and live and maintain equipment in the desert, even with 'modern' technology compared to what they had in WWII. Indy does a great job of describing it, but still... no way to really understand how harsh it is until you've lived it.
sorry they sent you to fight that shitty war. common soldiers and the people of iraq suffered while the money bags sat back and cackled.
@@jfk8540 I got off better than a lot of other Persian Gulf veterans who live with health problems to this today.
One of my cousins served in North Africa, under Monty. He got sand in his bladder, which made urinating excruciating. He also ripped his back open getting out of his tank when it was hit and brewed up. His mother wrote Churchill personally to get him back to England for proper medical treatment. Churchill got it done.
i used to go shooting with a guy that was in tanks in North Africa. his first two times in battles the tanks failed to get to the jumping off points. in his next battle the tank blow up and he had no recollection of it happening or anything till he was in the dressing station the next day. his next two battles went the same way as the first two. in his sixth and last battle the tank got hit and he was badly burned getting out. it was over a year and a half before he got back to the UK and he was still getting treatment for his burns in the late 70s when i met him. all he would ever say about it was "it wasn't hollywood mate".
The British had a secret weapon, cloth covered latrines. The British had a simple wooden crate stuck in the sand covered with a cloth which would be lifted to crap then replaced. This helped reduce disease carrying flies. The Germans didn’t cover their latrines and so suffered much worse from dysentery in fact at the beginning of the Alamein battle Rommel was recovering from dysentery in Germany. A British covered latrine being uncovered, although in a Japanese POW camp, can be seen in the beginning scene of the movie King Rat.
They also dug a hole a foot down, and bury the waste after. The Germans just shit in the open.
@@sodadrinker89 Strategical dump.
Yeh, sure 😂
It's okay Steiner's attack will re=establish the supplies lol
Good grief
Mein failrur……Steiner
...Steiner didn't have enough forces, he was unable to carry out the attack...
@@priatalat THAT WAS AN ORDER! STEINER'S ATTACK WAS AN ORDER! HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY MY ORDERS? Now get in the kitchen and make me a sauerkraut sandwich! Om nom nom
Mit dem Angriff Steiners wird das alles in ordnung kommen...
My grandfather fought in North Africa and later Italy He liked to talk about his time quite often Strangely enough, he had fond memories of his time in Africa I suppose that as you grow older you forget the bad stuff and remember the good things
My great grandfather was on the same front as well
A common survival advantage
It depends on people really. My grandfather was the same, got forcefully conscripted into the Italian army in '42, got home in '43 after Italy capitulated, got picked up by Yugoslav Partizans and fought with them till the end of ww2 as a demolitions expert holding a NCO rank. Saw allot of things, good and extremely bad. Would always talk openly about what he saw and what happened during the war, never shying away from gruesome details.
That's interesting, you're lucky he wanted to share his memories with you, so many veterans don't/didn't for understandable reasons. Did he have anything to say about the desert conditions?
@@thesayxx It very much does depend on the person. My grandfather was in the 101st Airbone for D-day and then later on was one of the very first soldiers into Kaufering (sub-camp of Dachau). After all he saw he still insisted on doing presentations for my class and that of all my cousins when we were in high school. Plenty didn't want to talk about what they saw but he always wanted to make sure that all of his grandchildren knew what happened and that it shouldn't be repeated.
A point often forgotten. The majority of those troops, on both sides, were primarily Europeans, used to a colder climate. The Germans, especially had very little experience in that heat. The Brits and Italians had, more, with their colonies, but not that much more. So, unlike the battles in France, Norway & Russia, the desert climate was by far the most difficult for those men to deal with.
I imagine the Indian and Australian troops would have had a slightly better time then
I would much rather fight in north Africa instead of Stalingrad in the middle of winter lol
@@michaelscott5653 why so? Stalingrad was kept warm and cosy by stukas bombing oil silos and mortars and assault guns would deliver concentrated heat right to your doorstep!
Not entirely, I am not shure if Indy himself is my source for this, but I know that the Afrika Korps recruted men used to heat in their workspace. Such as bakers and steel workers from furnaces.
@@Calligraphybooster I'm afraid I have to disagree. I am a military history buff and I've read many books on the Afrika Korps, including Rommel's own. Those divisions, 15Pz and 5th Lt were standard Whermacht troops, Nothing special, and with no special training.
Love the little "Sand" Star Wars quote Indy 😂
In 1974, I underwent training as a junior NCO in the Canadian Forces. The location was Camp Petawawa, a training area on the Ottawa River. Part of the training syllabus was mutual instruction, and some of us were required to teach about "Hygiene in the Field," which included such things as the dangers of malaria and dysentery, and the siting of cess pits and latrines. When we went to the field, we were under water discipline, drinking only when we had permission. One could sense from illustrations in the training pamphlets and practices that these were all lessons learned with Eighth Army and carried back to Canada.
I did my combat leader’s course in 1991 at theRCR battle school in Pet. Same lessons taught. And sand in everything, maybe not 90 mph winds. Good times
We used to have water rations in the Israeli Army as well, but we canceled that since we realized how stupid that is. After some people died.
@@ms-rx8tw, "never pass a fault!" (My course was run by 3 RCR, which was really a rebranded battalion of the Canadian Guards.) Did you live in tents on the Mattawa or were you up in the "P" Lines?
@@osher7788 Water rationing in the IDF was canceled in the early 1960s as a result of a lengthy experiment conducted by medical corps which proved that a constant supply of water can get soldiers keep functioning in the harsh Negev desert. During the Six Days War, the IAF dropped by parachutes water canisters to the advancing armored formations that rushed and reached the Giddi and Mitlah passes in order to block the retreat routes of the Egyptian army. Supply by air was the only option.
@@abrahamlevi3556 kinda like how the medicial corps also recommended on 7 hours of sleep and the army took years to adopt it?
The fact that they concluded that doesn't mean units adopted that, some units still trained with water rationing(to make them "tougher") but in war of course they were given as much water as they can
I love love love the Anakin Skywalker quote about sand. Good work Indy
I have heard that the German soldiers called the war in Denmark the “whipped cream front” due to the extraordinary conditions until the breakdown of the policy of cooperation in 1943 - maybe that could be content for an episode during 1943?
I thought it was the 'Butter front'?
@@christoffereilskov5006 It was nicknamed the "Sahnefront" or cream front
Its a very simply story. Denmark surrendered, and there was allmost no active "terrorism" (freedomfighters) against the Nazis until 43, due to which the Nazis desided to start shooting "terrorists". The government said no, and that ended the danish government.
The level of sabotage was so small that many germans after the war didnt even understand that there had been sabotages...
After 43 the sabotage began rising, and so the naziterror, shootings ect...
We'll research that thread :) thanks for the tip!
@@WorldWarTwo Looking forward to whatever you come up with in that case. I know barely anything about the occupation of Denmark, besides the remarkably successful evacuation of their Jewish population.
10:30 My great grandfather had a very similar experience in World War 1 with a German officer he'd seen scouting in No Man's Land & shot him. Determined to go out under the cover of darkness & take a trophy when he dropped into the shell hole ther German had fallen into he found, to his surprise, the German was wounded but alive & he shot myngreat grandfather! Well, things just got worse, hearing the shot both sides apparently suspected there was a sniper & they both started lobbing artillery into No Man's Land! So the 2 mortal enemies were there, sheltering together, eventually the shelling stopped & they got around to patching each other up. In the morning they both waved to their lines & stood up, exchanged souvenirs & limped off to their trenches. A sad epitaph is that the pictures, helmet & pistol were kept by my Grandfather until he died & someone broke into the house & stole them before our anyone was aware that he'd passed.
The wild dash at the mentioning of dysentery. Priceless if it weren't so absolutely miserable for those who suffered and died from it.
Everyone is susceptible to jokes my friend
@@mgway4661 Oh? Is that so?
The Indy episodes have a much more lighthearted tone in general. (While of course, showing a modicum of reverence even when joking.) If every moment of the war was treated with the gravity it deserved, then most couldn't get through an episode without getting sick to the stomach.
Keep in mind, the soldiers too had their share of toilet humor. It's a natural coping mechanism for the horrors they faced.
Of course, I say all of this but I respect your opinion if you thought the joke was inappropriate. I simply wanted to offer some balance to the discussion.
@@nicholashollis1522 No, I don't think it was inappropriate. I mean, I have served in a military capacity for a long time and am quite familiar with all forms of humour, circulating in these organizations and that are related to the more, let's say, elemental and basic side of human existence. In fact, I found it somewhat refreshing that Indy (an his crew (let's not forget those) paid attention to this. It made it a lot clearer without having to go into particulate-matter descriptives.
It’s almost interesting how global the war is at this point. On the one hand, you have very hot and humid conditions in North Africa. On the other end, there is the harsh cold and freezing winter conditions in Stalingrad and the Caucasus. Of course in the middle, there is also the muddy and filthy conditions of the jungle at Guadalcanal. Planning for logistics with such varied terrain would have been quite an impressive feat.
The US had to produce things that could survive in all different terrains.
I wouldn't call Guadalcanal "in the middle" in terms of temperature and climate, you know how scorching it can be in the jungle.
Humid in North Africa. Are you sure about that?
@@gwtpictgwtpict4214
Yes.
Rewatch the episode about the mud in Tunisia, during the rainy season.
(it surprised/shocked me too!)
@@MrNicoJac Tunisia is kinda special case here, with it's climate being much closer to mediterranian and yes, with much more rainfall in some areas.
This episode was brilliant, I would really like to hear more stories from other fronts like those about
amphitheatre. It helpes us to remember that despite war being so brutal, all of the combatants are people and have their human needs. Thank you
I never tire of looking into the background of Indy’s bunker (same goes for Sparty & Astrid’s though I suspect they are all in the same bunker) and attempting to identify all the ever changing nick-nackery. Anyway carry on with the episode.
"Losing control of their bowels"
"Peaches! Your new nickname is peaches!"
1:37 I believe this was a partial myth and some of the oil was because it was later discovered to be an oil rich environment and once maintaince dropped and bombs started flying around this caused the Wells to take in oil from the ground, but at the time they presumed the other side had put the oil in the well.
That would make sense
The use of animal carcasses was THE technique employed. They were always ready to hand, too.
The oil story is phony. The Krauts were always critically short of POL.
@@Cancun771 It takes a barrel to contaminate a well and deny enemy of one of the most vital consumables, that one barrel of oil wont take lets say a tank that far. So ruining a well with oil is more important than saving it for vehicles.
I believe I saw a similar explanation on another RUclips video. If I come across it again I hope I can come back here and provide a link. There are some excellent comments here.
@@PilotAwe I can imagine USED motor oil... but that's about it.
The desire to screw over the fresh water supply was used by the Soviets, Germans, British... et. al.
BTW, most POL is SUPER easy to separate -- even in the field. Oil and water don't mix.
During stage one, the fluid is just allowed to settle.
Stage two, the water (fraction) is distilled.
BTW, virtually all crude oil comes up with water at the same time. It's normal technique to separate out the two fractions virtually at the well-head.
(Processing units are stationed all over the oil field. De-watering and de-acidifying Saudi crude was THE original hang-up after it was discovered. Yeah, Saudi light is quite acidic at the well head.)
The need to treat the crappy water found by the combatants was so routine that every army had dedicated units treating it. Absolutely no-one trusted Arab standards of hygiene. When this dictum was violated, the troops started crapping all over the place.
The US Army was so fanatical about such issues that you almost never read about American troops being laid low due to their GI tracts.
Another fantastic special.
I particularly enjoyed the account of the wounded British Officer and the wounded Austrian soldier
sharing the same trench.
Thanks Indy!
@Michael Thank you for watching! Those kinda of stories give history its character and helps humanize it for us. Please stay tuned, tell your friends, and point them to our Patreon!
I really like when they talk about the personal side of the war.
Glad you enjoyed it. The specials are a great place to do that as in the regular episodes the personal can easily get swallowed up in the grand scale of events
My favorite front to study in WWII :
-In desert , British had a neat trick of washing their garments in motor oil to get rid of sand and dirt
-Italian positions were in such low hygine that when British and New Zealanders captured them they refused to enter Italian trenches due to filth in them
-Germans were fond of captured British rations (especially canned Australian bully beef) a lot more than Italian food. In 1945 British troops occupying Germany found several bully beef cans in private house and kitchens of some German households shipped from captured British stocks in Afrika by Afrikakorps members to their families
-Throwing corpses to contaminate water wells in desert was a favorite tactic especially by Germans during retreat. They were also masters in laying minefields and booby traps , Col. Burrows , Rommel's Chief of Engineers later promoted to general due to his success on this regard
-Famous Egyptian belly dancer Hekmed Fahmi was accused of spying for Axis in Cairo. Egyptian Nationalist movement officers a small clique of Egyptian Army officers led by Nsair , was symphatic to Axis even tried to get intelligence about British position to Germans but they failed to set up communications then arrested. Most Egyptians were hostile to Italian fascist regime though due to Mussolini's record in Libya where Italians brutalised Sennusi tribes
-Montgomery constantly set up dummy pieces to deceive and confuse enemy about location of his forces before an operation , he used this tactic so masterfully , Axis usually misled about focus point of his attacks or defensive positions
- The Italian codebreakers were exceptionally good at their craft curing the African campaign and after, so much so that when Italy bowed out of the war the Germans intelligence went down dramatically and it hindered many future operations.
Also this isn't a pro Italy post it was more both my thing are about Italy and I've read it was the Italian's who were the experts at Minefields
@@Alex-cw3rz True , Italian spies actually stole Black Book diplomatic code from US Cairo Embassy in 1941 and thanks to that Germans intercepted and read US Military Attache Col. Bonnar Feller's wireless reports to Washington constantly and that was a valuaable intelligence resource for Axis (Rommel called Fellers "My Bonnie Fellow") , Fellers was also a notorious Anglophobe and in his report displayed British situation and performance worse than it was. That is ironically one of the resons why Rommel over extended already exhausted Panzer Army Afrika all the way to El Alamein in June-July 1942 and over stretching his rear supply lines to breaking point under false over optimistic assumption that Eighth Army was destroyed at Battle of Gazala and Fall of Tobruk and Egypt was his to take just by marching when his mission was not that in first place and his resources were nowhere sufficient except some British supply stocks he captured in Tobruk and Mersa Matruh which was consumed faster than he predicted.
When the intelligence leak of Fellers (he had no idea though) was discovered by British counter intelligence service in late June 1942 , Fellers was sent back to Washington and later entered MacArthur's command in South West Pacific.
If "All's Quiet on the Western Front" is to be believed the German fondness for British rations over their own stretches back a bit further than the North Africa campaign.
@@merdiolu It's an interesting point about Fellers' pessimism encouraging Rommel, but possibly overstated (he was providing absurdly detailed reports, which directly led to a lot of people getting killed). At the farcical battle of Mersa Matruh it seems like many in the 8th had suspected the NZ division was destroyed after being surrounded at Minqar Qaim (with Gott basically abandoning them and leaving the field), only for them to breakout on their own (mauling a regiment of 21st panzer) and show up at Alamein unexpected, intact and ready to anchor the line.
Even Rommel's own signals intel probably would've detected considerable panic and disintegration of command and control before he decided to surge onto Alamein, and Fellers' pessimism was therefore hardly unfounded. Auchinleck deserves a lot of credit for keeping his grip and rapidly reorganizing for a dogfight at Alamein; after Fellers was dismissed (apparently after German radio broadcast a play that hinted at the prospect of a leak in Cairo involving an American attache!) and the Aussies overran the 621st signals intercept battalion Rommel was basically flying blind and lost his edge.
Another interesting note is that it's suspected signals intercepts that led to the inteception of 'Strafer' Gott's aircraft as he was on his way to take command of the 8th, leading to his death and Monty taking the job instead. An interesting twist of fate, since Gott was a evidently a very poor general who had a big hand in the recent botched battles as commander of XIII corps, in hindsight. Mellenthin wrote later about how vulnerable the DAK was at Matruh with the NZ Division holding the 21st panzer quite easily, only for British armour under Gott declining the clear opportunity to slip a noose around them - just a fascinating series of battles.
It's hard to beat the African theater for drama and twists.
@@merdiolu I think you will find it was stolen from the US Embassy in Rome
If this wasn’t my favourite RUclips channel before the Star Wars quote, it most certainly is now
If there is an appropriate star wars quote out there you can bet Indy or Spatacus will find it! Glad you're enjoying the content
The British having fought wars in their colonies knew of the importance of keeping the toilets away from the main camps and had better outcome from the dysentery. The Axis however went wherever they were. Also the British foods had more of the basic building blocks for proper nourishment. Someone in the comments said that the oil in the wells were the results of bombings that caused the oil rich land to seep into the well. That makes sense rather than pouring precious fuel into the wells a severed body part would work just fine without the obvious smell of oil which in turn would affect more soldiers.
Many of the Dominion troops would have been somewhat accustomed to a lack of indoor plumbing already, in NZ even for me as a child it wasn't uncommon to shit in a hole outside of major towns. I have read many accounts of the NZ and Australian soldiers and their disgust at the squalor of Axis positions is a common theme - it seems like the city slickers plucked out of Europe often adjusted very poorly to rough living.
The British had special acclimation camps in Gaza and Egypt before sending troops into theater.
Moreover, the Royal Army Medical Corps had established specialized sanitation sections that dealt with hygiene in the field.
Oh my gosh, could not believe the Star Wars reference. Thank you so much!
Always love seeing more about the North Africa Campaign 👍
@Indiana Jones We're glad to have you with us in exploring all the campaigns of the war.
This tie reminds me of one of those fabric books they make you look through when you're buying new pillows with your significant other. I'm not sure if that's a good thing. 4/5
Australian here. My dad was an El Alamein veteran 2/25 th Batt D Co. He had terrible stomach problems all life from his service until he passed in 1996. Oddly he said the Allies had a lot of respect for Rommel. Also said that the Aussies would be swimming & surfing & a couple of miles up the beach they could see the Germans doing the same
So many of your videos are brilliant, but these are the most heartening and welcome amidst all of the horror (which, seriously, you do an even better job on).
Glad you're enjoying them! And it is nice to get a video in about slightly more mundane, if still vital, daily struggles amongst all the much weightier things going on
My Grand Uncle was in MONTY's Africa Army, and they played football (soccer) in a sort of tournament between units. His team won and I still have the TROPHY. He ended up getting some nasty bug in North Africa and died in convolescence trying to recover from it. His personal effects were sent to my grandfather who had joined with him at the same time but was at that time posted to the RAF training school in Kingston, Canada.
I really enjoyed your video despite it’s dark content. I appreciate a better understanding of what these men endured. M grandfather fought in WWI for the French. He told me stories of the conditions that I have never heard in conventional media.
Captain Samwell's recollection @ 10:30 got to tugging on my heartstrings and made me tear up. It must've been a terrible feeling to see foe become friend in a odd twist of irony, only to have it whisked away not too long after.
Props to you and the production crew indy, i've been a fan since your "Great War" channel. The production quality, the vivid, in-depth analysis and the delivery of it all is an highly enjoyable educational experience and also easier to retain and remember. I'm glad i stumbled upon this channel as well and look forward to sponging up more war history 😁
@Saxy J Welcome aboard! Glad you're enjoying the videos
Hi Indy
This special episode is great to watch..
Learning all small things in history..
Thank you.
You're very welcome, glad to hear you're enjoying the video and learning some things too
It's coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere. Brilliant
Sand; "It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere."...I got that reference!
My great Uncle was a cook in the 8th Army and found himself back in Egypt in the Suez Crisis. As he had joined up under age. The German cooking knife he used then is still used for carving the Christmas Turkey in the 21st century!
WW2 gives examples of three most difficult areas of ground warfare: winter warfare in Winter war and whole Europe, desert warfare in Africa and jungle warfatre in Pacific. They are all merciless with differing reasons, though desert and jungle are closely related. Really strange that Mussolini's ass is referred to as Mussolini's donkey. Yes, I'm aware of two meanings of 'ass'.
6:00 Did I just see a small and subtle Star Wars reffernce in a TimeGhost WWII video?
There is actually hope for this year!
Good episode! Please do an episode about the fighting conditions in Burma. It's often called the forgotten war, and the Burma campaign was The longest land campaign of the war. The Burma front was probably the hardest of all fronts, including Russia in the winter, regarding the hostile environment and diseases.
Would China not rather be the longest land campaign of the war?
Check out this episode on the suffering of British subjects in Burma: ruclips.net/video/e3TQWiN4oRA/видео.html
@@WorldWarTwo thx
My uncle flew a Halifax in North Africa with the RCAF. He was still flying from North Africa during Operation Husky when he contracted dysentery. he was a tall slender man at 6'5" and 160#s but when he dropped to 125#s he got shipped back to the UK. He eventually recovered and remained in the RCAF until his retirement.
Calling it now, Indy is a prequel memer.
My Grandfather served as a commissioned officer (under Edward VIII) in the Royal Corps of Signals in North Africa.
He never spoke of his time there (or the war in general). He did have an autobiography written that covered some of the more light-hearted moments. He lived to 88, when his lungs gave out. Doctors suspect that the sand may have damaged them during his time in North Africa.
sand… it’s course, rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere
Beach party about forty years ago, we all crashed out in the sand dunes afterwards. Following morning I made the mistake of complaining to my girlfriend about the sand under my foreskin. Her response was something along the lines of "and you think you've got problems?". She was not happy, not at all happy.
Me: He's not going to do the Star Wars line-
Indy: *does the Star Wars line*
The 8th army called corned beef, which was the predominate meat eaten "bully beef" and also "desert chicken". My father-in-law was a WO1 in the REME in that campaign, they use to fry eggs on the tanks they were repairing, a sort of "working lunch!"
"Each trooper will be charged with responsibility for preserving Water.
Our existence as an operating army depends on these following water-saving procedures.
Remember, water is life."
North Africa, Dune, Desert planet
@@marinthecreator Shake your hooks in the air like you don't care, thump with the rhythm as the worms become aware. Do your dance do your dance do your dance quick now come on baby tell me where's the worm. Worm up!
Loved that star wars line. Thanks Indy
An obscure but important topic covered in the typically interesting manner. Great work.
Thank you!
My family lived in Tripoli in the late 50s c/o the USAF. The superfine dust got into everything, sandstorm or not, you just had to deal with it. All your food had a subliminal crunch that you learned to ignore. You washed your eyes out regularly after learning to keep from rubbing them. Hell, rubbing anything was a no-no, you'd abrade it in a hurry whatever it was...
I thoroughly enjoyed this little break from the war in the desert. In fact, I think you should do it more often. Maybe it could become a series unto itself?
I think that the war in the desert was conducted in a more dignified manner simply because Rommel, Montgomery, and several other leaders insisted on it.
@Bob Thanks for watching. More desert warfare to come, I'm sure
6:00 Careful indy! I just about died at that XD
6:00 you made me an happy man
All part of the job
Laughed my ass off at the Star Wars sand quote...Thank you, Indy
This is one thing you always brush over. Its fair enough being in battle when you're full of beans. I cant even imagine having to fight if you were ill, I'm writing this currently after vomiting ten times already and have a fever. With me nausea is my biggest hate , it is 100% debilitating to be on a battlefield spinning out on the verge of vomiting in searing heat , bombs going off is insane. Good god we don't appreciate what they went through.
"You have died from Dysentery."- *Oregon Trail: North Africa 1942 version*
My grandfather was in this campaign, I think he was mostly at supply depots and guarding Italian pow's but I know one of his stories is of his squad hiding in a ditch behind a sand Bank as an entire column of German armour followed by trucks of troops and supplies rumbled by just feet away as rommel forged ahead in one of his advances. I can't even imagine the conditions and being in that situation
LOL, actually never made the connection with Seven Pillars... good fit, well played.
Ahh, the Stella beer. Reminds me of nights going out in Cairo. Was, is, and ever will be, an true Egyptian classic. !في صحتك
The whole video was fascinating, but the most fascinating bit was the music video. Who'd have thought it?
My Grandfather fought all the way through North Africa and used to tell me that it was a pint of water to do everything..we had the Petrol whereas Rommels lot had the water so one can surmise that water Bowsers and Trucks were prime targets ! ..Cheers Indy Happy New Year!
I had to back up several times to see but, at the point where the sandstorm starts pouring down across the desert (4:31) I saw lightning. Great presentation. Super subject. I wonder if anyone was ever struck by lightning? Yes, I know in the desert.
Andy, love your content, style and presentation.
5:59 a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. We well be watching your career with great interest, Indy…
Indy you are a legend... That Anakin quote made my night .X) love the channel and everything you and the crew are doing.. keep it coming.
My dad got dysentery in North Africa. Got of hospital to find his squadron had moved on. No idea where and took days of hanging around before he found them; or at least found where they now were... in Bangladesh.
There was so much happening, that individual soldiers often got forgotten about (in regards to their units - they were looked after where they were) and lost in the system.
To their credit though, the British forces did generally look after their soldiers well and usually got what they needed (sometimes only eventually... but still).
@@tams805 I like reading testimonials about how they barley managed to deal with the climate. Not to mention, finding online testimonials of Indian participants is relatively rare.
Neidell of Arabia, hope there will be a special somewhere on camel riding. Can't drop hints like that with no follow up ^^
Such a cool episode Indy, enjoyed this episode more than all your other videos!!
Great that you have a new favourite!
Love the star wars reference
@6:00 noice Star Wars reference! Hello from Kentucky 🍻
@ 6:00 you just had to do it Indy hahaha any way to get a star wars reference in
This was an especially well researched and immersive episode, kudos!
Have you guys done an in-depth on the long ranges desert group? That would be very interesting to watch. Thanks for great videos! 🙏🏻
I don't think they have...but TIK have done it and it's great! More self-contained than his long format "battlestorm" videos (still, rather long)
@@vaclav_fejt cheers, mate. 🙏🏻 I’ll go and have a look.
Thanks Indy and Co. My paternal grandfather fought in North Africa through Crusader and Gazala (captured at Tobruk). I've been able to find records of where he served etc..., but he never spoke of what he went through during the war. It was just too painful for him.
Interesting to learn more about life on the front and behind it. Keep up the great work!
@Kiev Thank you for sharing some of your family's story. Amazing to hear so many testimonials from our audience around the world. It truly was a global war. Never forget.
@@WorldWarTwo Absolutely, which is primary why I recently became fascinated with this campaign. Commonwealth forces played a significant role that deservers frequent mentioning, as they were reinforcements for the British. This is why I have been reading testimonials by Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, and occasionally Indians. I even read a testimonial by an Egyptian claiming some civilians had prepared Italian flags to replace their British flags in 1942.
I think maybe this channel should do a video on civilians during the campaign, as the fighting occurred near coastal areas where civilians lived, info is lacking, and Jewish people already faced persecution by the Italians which refutes the campaign's "clean" reputation, though channel did already addressed Italian suppression of Arab and Berber resistors to colonial rule, and should explain why Egyptians never mobilized in the campaign despite Egypt being de-facto controlled by the British and pseudo-independent, where it could be argued the Axis invaded a supposedly independent country: probably to avoid provoking Egyptian nationalists. Cool trivia: future President Nasser was in the army at the time.
Thank you for another informative and well presented video.
FLIES!!!
In the 70's my great-uncle in Liverpool used to tell tiny me about his war time in Libya and Egypt. He taught me beginners Egyptian - I remember 'Imshi' 50 years later though I've forgotten the rest. He never spoke about combat and violence but he did tell me how the landscape was totally lifeless until he opened his tinned meat, whence he shared his rations with a thick cloud of flies.
You forgot to mention the flies.
That sounds awful, but also an appropriate time to use imshi!
I love these series👍🏻
I read a book about the campaign written by New Zealander and he said they would wash their clothes in petrol to save water and that it worked well. (a bit like dry cleaning fluid)
That reference at 6:00 👌🏽
Indyyy always the best war time narrator/ researcher. Maybe even better than a strict British man
After the video I looked up Sabaton, what a great band and song/album subject matter, WAR; videos are great. Thanks Indy for pointing me in their direction.
It wasn't only the infantry that had to put up with water restrictions. My father, who flew with the Desert Air Force, told me that it was amazing how much personal hygiene you could do with (as I recall him saying) a pint of water (maybe it was a cup). He also told me of the dangers of going to the latrine during a sandstorm. People got lost and died during the desert campaign answering "the call of nature" when sandstorms blew up. He also told me that it got quite cold, and during the winter of 1943 it snowed at Benghazi!
The flys 🪰 in the desert are very extreme. Especially on a base. I remember portable toilets being everywhere and so were the flys. Even inside the DFAC “Dining Facility “.
Love the star wars reference at 6:00 😂😂
My grandad was a driver for a general in North Africa and said it was the hardest 2 years of his life,,,bloody sand got everywhere
Love the star wars sand reference
Another great episode. Thanks for your content and attention to details.
You're very welcome, it's what we're here to do! If you'd like even more content there is more to be found on our instagram, by joining the TimeGhost army and by supporting us at patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
11:11 Good quote.
My uncle- Dick Street was a sergeant in the Eighth Army fighting in the desert. He told me how his unit was fighting hard in a cluster of buildings against the Germans. It was Christmas Day and even though they were in the front line, in combat, they had a special Xmas treat - tinned peaches and evaporated milk. He was in charge of seeing everyone got their share and they were sent to a half ruined building, in groups of three to gulp down this welcome addition to their sparse rations.
When everyone in his unit had been fed, there was one tin of peaches and one tin of evap milk, left.
My uncle had already had his, but now he felt a very strong temptation to claim a second helping.
It was the best thing he'd tasted in a long time and he really wanted more.
Finally, he thought he couldn't abuse the trust his men had in him and reluctantly he left the ruin to rejoin his men.
Within a minute a German artillery shell came over and blew the building to pieces! A waste of those peaches, but he knew he'd made the right choice.
@simon matthews Wow, thanks for sharing that about your uncle. Very glad he lived to eat peaches another day. Thanks for watching
My granddad mentioned a few things about the desert war - the cold, the sand and more accurately the powder / dust that got everywhere and the flies. Then there was the water brought to the front that tasted of petrol and the bully beef ration that used to melt inside the can due to the heat and used to pour out.
"which is interesting: Germans criticising Italian food" I just cracked up with this one. Good one!
😉
You haven’t tasted German food have you 😂
"Rommel and Monty both sabotage wells as they retreat from each other" - Monty didn't as he didn't retreat in North Africa!
That's the most passive-aggressive rip on Auchinleck I've ever seen 🤣
My grandfather spoke about pretty tough dysentery and cold as a POW after Tobruk as they were herded to Benghazi before transfer to Sicily, Italy and eventually Stalag IV B
2nd Transvaal Scottish
Amazing what people went through in this war. Thanks for watching & sharing a bit of your family's story.
Great episode, good job Indy and guys.
Thanks so much CiderMan! You know these videos are only possible because of the TimeGhost Army, so if you'd like to see more of them consider joining at www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
Love those "daily dashes." I've seldom seen such enthusiasm for the latrines. 😆
You're cool Indy :)
I love history, especially relating to WW2 and can listen to you all day.
Nikolaj you seem like a great guy too :) Happy to have you in the TimeGhost Community!
@@WorldWarTwo
Thank you :D
Looking forward to this weeks episode as always!
I appreciate the star wars reference at 6:00
"I don't like sand. It's coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere." - Erwin Rommel, probably
Really good, interesting stuff. Thank you.
Thanks for watching, Bill!