Join the TimeGhost Army: bit.ly/WW2_200_PI 200 weeks of war, and we're still making these episodes. Thank you to everyone that's joined us so far. We're still creating new series, check out our four part special on the Vatican that just came out.
Hey guys, what about The battle of Bamber Bridge? I think it's really important as it shows the racial tensions then. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bamber_Bridge
How fast time flies. I never expected when I started watching this series, that I would still be here 3.8 years later. I'm 87 now and hope I can last out until final Victory. To have reminders of many events that I had forgotten, makes it all come alive again and I have dredged up the feelings I had during this war, especially the early years of the Blitz and the excitement and scary moments of the Battle of Britain. I was 7 when the invasion of Sicily began and we all followed our hero's on maps, as the invasion progressed. Very exciting times. I grew up fast back then and was right up there with aircraft recognition and what to do during air raids etc. I was even in a group of my schoolmates collecting scrap for the war effort. Certainly exciting times for any boy. One tends to forget the many moments of sheer terror, but this marvellous series brings it all back and I can relive the times all over again, but in a much safer environment.
God Bless you Dave! Us history fans are a tight breed. And respect is at the forefront. What you've seen and lived through already in your life is amazing. Here's to many more wonderful years 🍻
As a fresh, fairly new to this world 16 year old, I’ve always wondered what it’s like to live so long, and especially to live through such interesting times during your youth. Given all that’s going on in the world, it seems that I may live through events that will give me alot to reflect on once I’m your age, just like you have to reflect on as of now. It’s so fascinating to hear the words of older folk, who have had so much experience and lived through so much life. I already feel much wiser and smarter now than my 12/13 year old self, and that was just 3-4 years ago. Who knows how I’ll see myself now in 71 damn years time. You, sir, have my utmost respect.
87 and still conscious. People start forgetting things in 70s but you're still healthy. Two more years and after that you have to follow cold war coverage too
Dave I want to thank you for sharing such a sublime and reflective view here. To read your first-hand experiences from this war is humbling. This comment thread exemplifies the best things in the TimeGhost community- bridging the whole world to bring together people across generations. It helps bring respect and memory to those who suffered at the time, and we appreciate you bring here with us as we move through the whole war. Take care
Can't believe two hundred weeks has passed since the start of this series. Let's hope that this war won't continue and drag on for another two hundred weeks. Thanks World War Two team!
Thank you for your steadfast support! It warms our hearts seeing your & so many other familiar names in the comments every single week. See you next time
An interesting thing that happened this week on June 24 1943 is that Colonel William Randolph Lovelace II, a physician in the United States Army Air Forces, will conduct a self-experiment in order to investigate the medical effects of an emergency bailout at high altitude. He convinced a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber crew to allow him to jump off at an altitude of 40,200 feet and was temporarily unconscious from opening his parachute during his descent in the thin atmosphere. He suffered severe frostbite when the deceleration ripped off his left glove but was ultimately able to land after close to 25 minutes. The lessons gained from his experience would be that flight crews learnt to not open their parachutes too quickly until they reached lower altitudes. For his bravery, Colonel Lovelace would be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
@@CONNELL19511216 Yes, from the sources that I could find (and you can search it online yourself), this was the B-17E model. I am aware that normally the B-17's service ceiling was around 37,000 ft or so, but it was possible to push it to the absolute ceiling of around 40,000 ft for a short while before the engines and superchargers would start to struggle due to excessive wear at such an altitude. The B-29 Superfortress was still not yet in service at this time until May 1944 so it was rather unlikely that a prototype B-29 would have been used here in this case.
@@CONNELL19511216 Apparently it was a B-17e according to a what I read in Thisdayinaviationhistory, however you are correct apparently the B-17 has a ceiling of 38,000 feet. So there are some inconsistencies
@@CONNELL19511216 I think the B-29 was still in its development stages in mid '43. I'm guessing they could push a B-17 to that altitude if they nursed the supercharged engines. And I'm curious if this is the guy who the Lovelace Clinic was named after.
100%. The thing I really really like about this channel in a broad sense (the details, writing, maps, and delivery are another accolade) is that it takes you along and puts everything into perspective, like you're back home in the States and reading the newspaper.
@@jeremy28135 but unlike the news papers , time Ghost keeps more level and in the middle , not leaning to the left or to the right. whch is how the news should be done
Probably. And its outcome would have been unclear however much hindsight we can now use. At the end of the Thirty Years' War, paradoxically there were quite a few people left at a loss by the final peace treaty in 1648 - many were soldiers but many more were camp followers of one kind or another who made a living from the war, and for these people peace-time amid ruined villages presented problems of their own. Although wars started up again later in the 17th century. Bertolt Brecht's fictional "Mother Courage" had many real-life counterparts.
I'm not in a position to support many creators but I can't imagine not being in the Time Ghost Army. The sustained excellence is amazing. P.S. I still miss Sunday Baseball.
Joel We can't thank you enough for your support. It's only with the support of you in the TimeGhost Army that this channel succeeds. Thanks & see you next time
I know this is old and nobody will see this but man i actually love the little ad’s for the timeghost army they put in! i never skip them, they’re so unique and cool, i really appreciate seeing an ad that doesn’t sound like it was written by ai or a money hungry corporation
One great thing about this channel, is that after watching a video to read through all the nice and interesting comments. And as someone who spends a lot of his freetime online, I musst say, this is probably the nicest and healthiest internet community I have seen :)
Thank you Thanos 6.0 we are greatly appreciative of you, and all of our fantastic community, and we do our best to work diligently to provide a fair, open, and constructive forum.
The preparations for Husky make sure this won't be a repeat of the Gallipoli disaster. Thanks for another great episode with lots of technical detail very well explained.
I agree with avenues of escape off the beaches and a rapid ability to expand the front. The most fun is the race between Patton and Montgomery to Salerno. BUT the upcoming parachute drops are a complete debacle costing many lives.
one major advantage from the ally's perspective is that Sicily must be reinforced by air or sea both of which they have a decided advantage in forces compared to Gallipoli
@@earlyriser8998 that’s the difference between the fantasy & reality of paradrops. Germany succeeded with one in attacking the Netherlands, but it was done just in front of a blitzkrieg and operational success was not really due to the paratroops. Then in Crete they took 50% losses and Hitler abandoned the idea. But the British saw the paratroops in Crete take a stunning victory and weren’t around long enough to realise the level of German casualties, so in 43 & 44 mass paratroop & glider landings took place that were questionable in hindsight. Although modern armies still retain paratroopers, for the elite training to fight with light equipment and hold positions unsupported for days. Modern paratroops no longer parachute drop, instead coming in by plane & helicopter into hostile locations, because of the hard lessons learned in WWII.
It feels so weird watching this compared to the Great War series which was almost over by the week 200. This? This is like the war is kicking into a high gear and all hell is about to break loose. It puts the scale of this conflict into a completely different perspective, crazy.
It's very impressive that the Allies have bombers that can fly from the UK on a not very direct route to Southern Germany carrying several tonnes of bombs and then fly to North Africa to land and more or less repeat that going the other way. Kind of puts the issues the Germans had during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz into perspective.
A strategic blunder made by Germany was their failure to develop any 4-engined heavy bomber with the capability of carrying a large bomb- and fuel-load. The limited strategic reach and destructiveness of their bomber force was a major factor leading to German defeat IMHO
@@marcusclaudius266 The bombers used in that first shuttle bombing raid were RAF Lancasters. After bombing Friedrichshafen, they landed at USAAF bases in Algeria, where they were re-armed and re-fueled for the return trip via La Spezia.
I love how this series puts everything together. Too many history shows talk about the Pacific, the Mediterranean, or the Eastern Fronts as if they aren’t related. This series shows the massive scale of this war.
First it was attacking a place with the enemy waiting for you. Then it became obvious that it would be in numerical inferiority. Last week the massive fortifications were added to the mix. And now you're telling me that they aren't going to have air superiority either. I'm starting to think that this Kursk thing may not work after all.
The most worrying part would be if the defender's artillery was to open fire on the attackers positions hours before the attack is supposed to start. Now that would be a major red flag
I’m pretty sure the Luftwaffe’s fighters can maintain air superiority over the Soviets despite the numerical disadvantage. Long as they’re not needed anywhere else…
Counting down to Zitadel. The channel has really put into perspective how the Soviets have been anticipating it also. Laying mines, building earthworks, digging trenches,.... waiting......
The logistical and landing planning preperations and exercises with new equipment are all really impressive , no more hasty improvisded amateurish Galipoli Landing 1915 will happen in 1943 in Sicily
@@Cancun771 Dieppe raid was a large scale hit run operation that was poorly planned , it was not an invasion attempt with high hopes to take out one belligerent state out of war like Gallipoli 1915 was designed for. (which was also poorly planned and prepared) Salerno landing was a success for Allies , yes hung on a thread for a few days due to improvisation of landings but it was an Allied victory neverthless (it was Germans who broke and run away as any history record would show) , made South and Central Italy open to Allied advance , diverted 20+ German divisions to Central Italy to opposse 15th Army Group when OKW was scrapping bottom of barrel to reinforce France and Eastern Front Anzio , operationally tie in ( Allied beachead was isolated for four months till breakout and unified with land forces advancing from south) but initially a disappointment , still way better than Gallipoli or Dieppe mess where in both occasions Allies had to evacuate humiliatingly after suffering heavy losses
The US would also launch many successful amphibious operations in the Pacific theater during the Second World War. The entire theater was for the most part characterized by one amphibious operation after another. While Allied amphibious operations weren't without setbacks in the Second World War, it would certainly be a mistake to imply that the Allied powers hadn't learned valuable lessons since the First World War, and then applied them in their planning. The sheer number of amphibious operations, the great majority of which more or less went according to plan, would thoroughly scuttle any argument that Allied amphibious planning was amateurish.
@@lycaonpictus9662 Indeed, one of the many herculean displays by the US in WW2 is exactly the massive number of consistent amphibious operations succeeded.
The British had been carrying out landing operation exercise's since 1926. This had lead to the invention and development of many types of Landing Craft.
They didn't scratch the surface of US Naval Pacific Operations going on weekly. over 1/3 of the earth surface. Andrew Higgins slapped his design together and submitted it to the War Dept in a couple of weeks
That's my name! I'm the Time Ghost Army member of week!!! I've awaited this day for years 😭😭 thanks Time Ghost team for all the amazing content!!! I look forward to the episodes ahead!
Love the channel. what's crazy is my grandfather fought in WW2 but I never knew much about it. After I lost my job when the covid hit I was home for months watching TV. I love history and documentaries and the USA and I got into WW2. so it was a great time for u to be running this show. Keep it up. I find ww2 fascinating. I wish I would talked to my grandfather more about it before he died.
Both my grandfathers were in WW2. They both passed away before I was 18. I knew they had been in the war and as a small child asked them about it. One would not talk about it. The other told me one of the things that made him sad. Watching children dig through garbage piles for food. He said he prayed that none of his children or grandchildren would ever know war.
The soviet engineers had an interesting specialty : they took back german landmines in liberated regions and created new minefields with those. During the battle of Kursk many german tanks were damaged by those mines and the crews were furious against their own engineers because they thought that were german made minefields.
The suspense builds for another week! I'm getting impatient but it makes me think of how impatient the troops must have been to get on with things during these long weeks of planning.
Time is crazy to think I remember the start of the Great War Channel around 2014 and now we're 200 episodes in on World War Two! Cheers fellas and thank you for all these years of content
For me it's been the 400th+ I've been watching Indy be our guide through the 20th century since the first episodes of the first week of the First World War (Yes, before Conrad). Thank you for being so awesome Indy you are so talented you're a national treasure ❤️❤️❤️ (Ps. Whatever happened to those first few episodes (the daily ones) I'd pay good money for those 🤣)
These first episodes? ruclips.net/video/2b7GY4BSUmU/видео.html Also just in case that's what you were looking for, I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't drop this link here too www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
@@extrahistory8956 of course! Jessie Alexander did an excellent job taking over from Indy! Been digging the most recent (post-2020) subject format is nice!
We thank you Indy Neidell For the history you tell so well With a wink of the eye In a sharp vest and bright tie You make all our Saturdays swell! Congrats on 200 episodes. Much appreciation to you, Sparty, Astrid and the entire team.
Wow, four years, with two more remaining! I found this series about a year ago and got hooked. I, like many others, I'm sure, spend a lot of my old age absorbing the knowledge modern technology enables. History is an example. This show leverages modern technology to produce history knowledge like no other. It's at the top of its class. So, I binge-watched about half of the first three years. Now, I wonder what I missed. I might have to do it all over again, more thoroughly. Anyway, I enlisted in the TimeGhost Army because this is one of the very few shows that I can't do without.
Lawrence THANK YOU for enlisting and welcome aboard the TimeGhost Army!! I can't stress enough how much it means to us having such a dedicated fanbase every single week, who are generous enough to support our mission. Thanks for the kind words, and please do stay tuned for all the rest of the war, hardware specials, and plenty of surprises.
Also on June 25, 1943, the 384th Bomb Group conducted a raid on the industrial area and submarine pens of Hamburg, Germany. Major Selden McMillin lead the group to target but his B-17 was mortally wounded on the return trip over Holland. He instructed his group to form up with others on the way back to England and he would hold back to use his aircraft as a fighter magnet until he could no longer keep it in the air. With his engines shot out, he gave the order to bail out. Out of his crew, all but one, who was KIA, would become prisoners of war for the remainder of the war. He received the Silver Star for his actions. This was my wife's grandfather. He had coined the motto of the Group which was displayed on its emblem until the group was disbanded in 1949.
It's great you devote time to the importance of logistics. Operational research, now used in any major enterprise was born and developed by these operations during the war.
The Army Special Boat Section was formed in 1940. This is the predecessor of the famous Special Boat Service now operated by the Royal Navy. They played a huge roll in the landings in Sicily and Normandy. As Indy indicated - it was a high risk operation and many did not make it.
Hi Indy Another great week. Two hundred weeks of war. Its great to watch and learn history. Didn't miss any episode even if have work. Thanks for all your video and history lessons. Rooted for more awesome content.
NAVEEN RAJ Seeing your comments every week warms my heart. Very glad to have such keen supporters as we move through this awful war. Thanks, stay tuned, & take care
Kiwi Comanche Very glad to have enthusiastic supporters such as yourself here in the comments every week. Thank you for the kind words, it means a lot to the team. Take care
Another interesting sidenote this week on June 19 1943 is that Vittorio Cini, the Italian Minister of Transport, openly criticised II Duce Benito Mussolini during a Cabinet meeting. This would have normally resulted in his immediate arrest, but at this point Mussolini had already tried to seek out peace proposals with the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. However, he would eventually be arrested by the Germans but managed to escape to Switzerland after his son Giorgio was able to secure his release through bribing his German captors.
I feel for those troops training for landings in the middle of the desert. I remember having to "simulate" helicopter boardings with basically a line drawn in the sand, trucks "simulating" APC's, etc. It ain't the same as the real thing.
wow that bit about the recon teams identifying beaches for landing conditions and all that. never thought about that but absolutely a necessity. extremely risky but vital information.
Indy, I wish you could include more technical advancements and what effect they are having. For instance, new fighter, or improved fighters. You have mentioned the radar, but it would be great to learn more about how it was used and what it allowed the allies to see that they could not see before. And the proximity fuses that were in the anti-aircraft shells. Love all you do!!!
No Respite For U-Boats sailing down from their Arctic patrol zones to their newly assigned North Atlantic patrol areas (20 June 1943) The new Type VII German submarine U-388, commanded by Peter Sues, age twenty-three , after returning from Arctic , sailed her patrol in Atlantic on 7th June. She was sunk on June 20, merely thirteen days out from Kiel, by an Iceland-based Catalina flying boat of U.S. Navy Squadron VP 84, piloted by E. W. Wood, which was escorting convoy Outbound North 189. Wood drove the U-388 under with depth charges and machine-gun fire, then launched a Fido homing torpedo at the swirl. Wood reported that wreckage surfaced along with bubbles and oil and that he could see that the U-boat stern was split open and that a “10 to 15 foot” section of the after compartment was visible. There were no survivors. 24 June 1943 , A Notable Date When Allies Sank Four U-Boats in a single day in different locations The new Type VII German submarine U-449 was returning from her second patrol to Bordeux, commanded by Hermann Otto, age twenty-nine. On June 14, a B-24 of RAF Coastal Command Squadron 120, piloted by Samuel E. Esler, which was escorting Outbound North (Slow) 10, located her on surface , attacked and inflicted “slight damage” to the boat with depth charges. When Otto reported that he urgently required a doctor to tend his wounded, U-boat Control directed the veteran Type VII U-592, commanded by Carl Borm, age thirty-two, which, as related, had sailed from France in the last days of May with a doctor, to close U-449’s position at maximum speed. On the chance that this meeting might fail, U-Boat Control ordered Otto in U-449 to abort to France at maximum speed and to join two other boats inbound to France, including the big Type XB minelayer submarine U-119, commanded by Horst-Tessen von Kameke, age twenty-seven, who was returning from a mine-laying mission off Halifax and also had a doctor on board. The U-119 had just given the new tanker U-488, commanded by Erwin Bartke, all possible spare fuel and Otto in U-449 found U-119 before U-592 found him. Otto obtained the necessary medical assistance from U-119, then commenced a crossing of Biscay in company with her. As part of the saturation ASW (Anti Submarine War) campaign in the Bay of Biscay, Royal Navy Admiralty had assigned their ace U-Boat hunter Capain Johnny Walker’s Support Group 2 (five sloops HMS Starling , HMS Kite , HMS Woodpecker , HMS Wild Goose and HMS Wren) ) to patrol the western edge of the Bay of Biscay, in cooperation with RAF Coastal Command aircraft. Early on the morning of June 24, Walker in the sloop HMS Starling got sonar contacts on U-119, while some other ships of the group got sonar contacts on U-449. Walker immediately attacked U-119, dropping ten depth charges that brought the U-boat to the surface with “dramatic suddenness.” All warships that could bring guns to bear opened fire, but after one friendly shell hit HMS Starling in the bow, Walker ordered the others to cease fire while he rammed. He smashed into von Kameke’s U-119 solidly, riding up over her forward deck and capsizing her. The impact bent HMS Starling’s bow 30 degrees off kilter, wiped off the sonar dome, and flooded the forward ammo magazine. For added insurance, HMS Starling and the sloop HMS Woodpecker each fired another salvo of depth charges to already sinking U-Boat. For proof of a kill, HMS Starling’s whaleboat collected “locker doors and other floating wreckage marked in German, a burst tin of coffee and some walnuts.” There were no survivors of U-119. Thereafter four sloops of this group, HMS Kite, HMS Wild Goose, HMS Woodpecker, and HMS Wren, ganged up on Otto in U-449. Exchanging commands with D.E.G. (Dickie) Wemyss in HMS Wild Goose, Walker led these four warships in renewed attacks. They hunted and depth-charged U-449 for six hours before wreckage and oil rose to the surface, giving proof of a kill. There were no survivors of U-449 either. Having sunk two confirmed U-boats in one day, Walker’s group followed the damaged HMS Starling into Plymouth, where there was a stack of congratulatory letters from First Sea Lord Admiral Pound, Admiral Max Horton at Royal Navy Western Approaches, and others down the chain of command. For his part, Walker-undisputed king of the U-boat killers-sharply criticized the lack of cooperation the Coastal Command aircraft had shown his ships. The new Type IXD2 German submarine U-200, a U-cruiser assigned to a special mission, commanded by Heinrich Schonder, age thirty-two, who had won a Ritterkreuz while commanding the VII U-77 in the Mediterranean. After embarking a small contingent of “coastal troops” (Küstentruppe) of the Brandenburg Division, the U-200 sailed from Kiel on June 12. Twelve days out, as she was entering the Atlantic, a long range B-24 Liberator bomber of the Iceland-based RAF Coastal Command Squadron 120, piloted by the Australian A. W. Fraser, located , depth charged and sank her with the loss of all hands. (all German Brandenburg commandos abroad to carry out a harebrained scheme to land on South Africa and incite rebellion among Boers against British , also perished) The new Type IXC40 German submarine U-194, commanded by Hermann Hesse, age thirty-four. She was assigned to plant weather balloons in the Atlantic before proceeding to antiship operations near the Azores. On June 24, a veteran Iceland-based Catalina flying boat of U.S. Navy Squadron VP 84, piloted by J. W. Beach, spotted U-194 on the surface. Beach attacked immediately into flak, but his depth charges failed to release. In a second run, the aircrew dropped two depth charges manually. One fell wide, one fell close. Nothing further was heard from U-194. This was the fourth attack on a U-boat in which Beach had participated in one capacity or another. The Navy awarded the Air Medal to him and to his copilot, E. T. Allen, who was usually a first pilot and who had also participated in four attacks on U-boats. Royal Navy Admiralty awarded both men the DFC. Hitler's U-Boat War - Clay Blair Jr.
Not ever letting personal glory get in the way of the mission, yeah right. Not enough is spoken about this aspect of the man, and actual lives lost in he being the General that achieved it. Driving into town on his jeep with his shiny helmet. One life is too many for anyone's ego.
Plans never survive contact with the enemy. The enemy has plans of their own and will react in ways that aren't fully anticipated. Moreover your own will need to be constantly evolving not just because of the enemy's actions, but in how the circumstances of the battle progress in ways that deviated from your original plans. You might have more success that initially anticipated, or less, and either one demands improvisation.
I don't write as many comments as I'd like to, but I follow Indy since he announced the launch of this channel way back in 2018… And of course you guys since episode number 1, through B2W, Sabaton History and all the sub-series you've made. I regret not being able to support you in the TimeGhost Army, but I always watch your videos during breakfast and you all deserve the biggest of compliments for your thoroughest work! Greetings from Mexico :)
We appreciate the support you give by watching, liking, and sharing our episodes! We'd love to have you in the TGA someday too, but for now we're very happy just to have you with us. Stay tuned my friend 🇲🇽
Another fantastic installment, and *Congrats Everyone on Episode 200!* 🎉 But it looks like things are definitely heating up again. And again it looks like we'll have three fronts in heavy action. What a war! (where's the hand-wringing emote?) But my main question for this episode is: I don't see any more operations to feint the Axis into thinking the Mediterranean landings will be in Greece. Have the Allies pretty much dropped their attempts at subterfuge at this stage, being so close to the actual operation kick-off date?
Makes more sense that when a paper is found on a dead officer on agreeing where they'll attack, the Allies would spend the next months planning for it, in silence.
Ive said this before on japanese interservice rivalries but it bears repeating. During the Bosin war and the subsequent meji restoration, there were two old samurai clans at the heart of it. The Chosun provence was lead by the Mori Clan, and the Satsuma Provence was led by the Shimazu Clan. These two clans had an intense dislike of each other since the 1500s, but they out aside their differences to overthrow the shogunate. The Mori became the officer corps of the imperial japanese army, and the shimazu became the officer corps of the imperial japanese navy. The result was that the 300+ year old rivalry became institutionalized into an interservice rivalry in the japanese military.
You contonue to amaze me with the amount of details you provide and the vivid way of delivering them. I can't stop feeling that I hope in the future we won't be able to make such a long series about the ongoing war in Ukraine, and that we won't feel the same exitement as we do over world war II now, but we probably will. We all hoped that the world would have learned from WWI, from WWII, Korea and Vietnam etc., but war comes back to us again and again. But *good is* that *you guys* with your videos come back again and again.
Very interesting the part about the preparation of the landings in Sicily! ...but what about the Italians?? How was the Axis preparing the defense? It could be interesting as well learning something about it
I'm curious if the Allied pretenses to attacking Greece and the Balkans have been dropped at this point. The operation is going to kick off in a week or so, so in military terms that's probably not enough time to do any major restructuring of forces.
I don't know about the Germans, but many of the Italians were second-line troops, often issued obsolete uniforms. Possibly Sicily was considered indefensible.
@@lacasadipavlov I don't think the Italians or for that matter the Germans were going to stick their best troops on Sicily and SPOILER they also made preparations to evacuate troops to mainland Italy. A lot of the Italians in Sicily were second-line troops - for example many were still wearing Adrian helmets from the Italian army issue of WW1. More favoured and first-line units had the more modern Italian helmet.
@@stevekaczynski3793 I'm not saying the Axis was going to play its best cards in Sicily... I was just writing that knowing something about the defensive plans could be very interesting
Brovo gentlemen: after 200 weeks i still have the same eagerness to open the weeks special as i did when i first came upon your program. 200 weeks, wow factor is in overdrive.
Matt Thank you!! We really appreciate having such a keen, dedicated group of history enthusiasts like you in our audience. Stay tuned for the rest of it
Helluva nice effort on this channel. Indy and his pals have been posting week-by-week WW2 videos for almost 4 years -- and there is no end in sight for WW2. This was an epic global burn-down.
@LoloLomo we sure have put out a lot of content over the last 200 weeks, from the battlefields to the home front to the political machinations to the spy games and everything in between, but this war is far from done, and therefore so are we 😉
Little fun fact, In my home state of Wisconsin not far from me is the Wisconsin Dells, there a tourist attraction that offers tours on original ww2 DUKW's. I've been able to ride them a few times and it's pretty cool to see these vehicles being used.
Guys, this another piece of art here I've just watched. Also, the numbers you mentioned about the air war over Kursk got me thirstier about it. I believe it would be just fair if you cover more aspects of the air war in war in numbers. I mean things like a line chart of fighter number on all sides or one about bomber campaigns. Another crucial one would be Germany's fuel reserves, production (or lack their of). Same could be said about rubber you know, how did they deal with the embargo. Slave labour is another that comes into mind. The list will go on but long short I just love this channel, please feed us more information
Side note, I’m from Friedrichshafen, the city mentioned in the shuttle bombing section. Most of the city was destroyed during the war which is very visible today. Besides the “Schlosskirche” there aren’t many historic building left, which is kinda sad
To think this was one of the short wars among such powerful states. The 7 Years War, called because it lasted 9 years, the 30 Years War of course, Vietnam, Iraq 2.0, the Napoleonic Wars, the Italian Wars from 1492 to 1555, the Romans vs the Bulgarians for 675 years, not continuously though, the Romans vs the Sassanids in 602-628, the Romans against Hannibal, and so many more.
"Hey, waddaya mean I gotta stay in the army? I mean, it's been over seven years and this is The Seven Year War, right? If you needed me for eight years, you shoulda called it the Eight Year War."
The intensity was not the same. For a typical pre-modern war you would have a few battles, most lasting one day, and nothing in between except sieges. Some of the long wars had periods of truce that could last for years.
@@Duke_of_Lorraine during the Napoleonic Wars things did begin to approach modern intensity though. It is also very much correct to say that great power wars of previous centuries had devastating effects on the populace. The Thirty Years War killed up to two-thirds of the entire population in some parts of Germany. It took 150 years for those areas to recover.
@@davidsigalow7349 A German was executed, perhaps in this year 1943, for making the wisecrack - "You probably think this is another Blitzkrieg, just like the Thirty Years' War." The person he made the remark to denounced him to the Gestapo. Jokes like his were considered to undermine the war effort and this was punishable by death.
Would love to hear more about what Mussolini said to the Party Directorate and more generally how the government was preparing the Italian people for invasion.
If you can find it "Hitler and Mussolini A Brutal Friendship" written by W. Deakin explains it a little , Mussolini and Fascist Party organised a party militia including a Fascist Party division called M Division in parades at Rome , Mussolini made defiant procolamations like "the enemy if lands on Sicily would be dispatched before changing its robe" etc...while King , Royal Court , Italian Army General Staff Comando Supremo who were more loyal to Italian crown than Fascism and crtics and opponents of Mussolini in Fascist Party vs all were plotting to make an armistice and peace and take out Italy from out of Axis and out of German orbit
It has a sort of suspended train system connecting the different parts of Wuppertal, which is a valley. Friedrich Engels, who was from the area, wrote a description of poverty among its industrial workers in the first half of the 19th century.
@@Unknowngfyjoh It was hit by several bombs. Although according to some RAF accounts, Bomber Command navigators preferred it to exist as it was a useful landmark on the ground for navigators working at night, as indeed was the Rhine River next to it.
I'll watch the episode after my coma sleep. This is just a tiny comment to say Hello Indy, I loved your pose in the Sabaton show yesterday at Hellfest :D
The in-depth coverage of this war continues to delight and amaze me. It seems I never get used to the intensity of the descriptions, and the remarkable photos and movies displayed. I would also like to note the great pronunciation of names. especially the Russian, German, and Japanese examples. I am fairly good at the Japanese ones, and give the Russian ones a good shot, but I have butchered a lot of the German names, even though I thought I was doing OK. This is just another attention to detail that this series displays. P.S. For a very good war movie about the operations in the Sicily/Italian campaigns, I recommend 'A Walk In The Sun'. Great cast, and it follows the book pretty closely, except for the very end, which the book left a bit ambivalent. No chest-thumping, just a bunch of average guys doing a dangerous job as best as they can. My special thanks again to the amazing research staff at Ghost Army Headquarters. Kudos to all.
Well, for the regular weekly episode scripts I’m the research staff (so far, the war keeps getting bigger) so I will take the compliment very personally and kindly.
@@Southsideindy WTF??!! How do you have the time? Do you ever sleep? Now that I'm retired, I have become a professional sleeper and napper. I enjoy it. Mr. Neidall, you are an amazing guy!
This week in French politics: The 21st, Jean Moulin leader of the CNR, member of the Armée secrete, is arrested by Klaus Barbie. He will be tortured for two weeks without saying anything and die the 8th of July. Other members are arrested too. The 24th, second waves of demonstrations in Martinique for the anniversary of the Armistice, this time more vigorously. The local power responds by arresting more leaders to the camp in Balata. But it seems there is some displeasing in the garrison, we’ll see that next week.
The way Mr. Neidell is talking about Husky over the past several weeks, it's pretty evident that he's not a fan. Perhaps, it'll turn into a shootstorm.
@Jonn Mostovoy I think people are right to be skeptical about this upcoming operation. It's huge in scale, highly complex in organisation and hugely reliant on the element of surprise for victory. Many in Allied high command don't even think this is the right theatre to be concentrating their limited resources. Perhaps it will be a disaster, we'll have to wait and see with our fingers crossed!
Join the TimeGhost Army: bit.ly/WW2_200_PI
200 weeks of war, and we're still making these episodes. Thank you to everyone that's joined us so far.
We're still creating new series, check out our four part special on the Vatican that just came out.
And we're glad to be here with you through it! To the end of the War!
Great episodes
U
Uit
Hey guys, what about The battle of Bamber Bridge? I think it's really important as it shows the racial tensions then. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bamber_Bridge
How fast time flies. I never expected when I started watching this series, that I would still be here 3.8 years later. I'm 87 now and hope I can last out until final Victory. To have reminders of many events that I had forgotten, makes it all come alive again and I have dredged up the feelings I had during this war, especially the early years of the Blitz and the excitement and scary moments of the Battle of Britain. I was 7 when the invasion of Sicily began and we all followed our hero's on maps, as the invasion progressed. Very exciting times. I grew up fast back then and was right up there with aircraft recognition and what to do during air raids etc. I was even in a group of my schoolmates collecting scrap for the war effort. Certainly exciting times for any boy. One tends to forget the many moments of sheer terror, but this marvellous series brings it all back and I can relive the times all over again, but in a much safer environment.
Great to hear your memories.
God Bless you Dave! Us history fans are a tight breed. And respect is at the forefront. What you've seen and lived through already in your life is amazing. Here's to many more wonderful years 🍻
As a fresh, fairly new to this world 16 year old, I’ve always wondered what it’s like to live so long, and especially to live through such interesting times during your youth. Given all that’s going on in the world, it seems that I may live through events that will give me alot to reflect on once I’m your age, just like you have to reflect on as of now. It’s so fascinating to hear the words of older folk, who have had so much experience and lived through so much life. I already feel much wiser and smarter now than my 12/13 year old self, and that was just 3-4 years ago. Who knows how I’ll see myself now in 71 damn years time.
You, sir, have my utmost respect.
87 and still conscious. People start forgetting things in 70s but you're still healthy. Two more years and after that you have to follow cold war coverage too
Dave I want to thank you for sharing such a sublime and reflective view here. To read your first-hand experiences from this war is humbling.
This comment thread exemplifies the best things in the TimeGhost community- bridging the whole world to bring together people across generations. It helps bring respect and memory to those who suffered at the time, and we appreciate you bring here with us as we move through the whole war. Take care
Can't believe two hundred weeks has passed since the start of this series. Let's hope that this war won't continue and drag on for another two hundred weeks. Thanks World War Two team!
It won't be 400 hundred weeks long...but it'll be longer than 300 weeks...
Thank you for your steadfast support! It warms our hearts seeing your & so many other familiar names in the comments every single week. See you next time
only 111 more.
Dude, even longer if you've been watching since beginning of WW1. I can't believe I've been watching this channel 5+ years EVERY week.
@@jonny-b4954 one time in 2020 I did a major binge of the Great War channel and watched it all in 6 days
An interesting thing that happened this week on June 24 1943 is that Colonel William Randolph Lovelace II, a physician in the United States Army Air Forces, will conduct a self-experiment in order to investigate the medical effects of an emergency bailout at high altitude. He convinced a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber crew to allow him to jump off at an altitude of 40,200 feet and was temporarily unconscious from opening his parachute during his descent in the thin atmosphere. He suffered severe frostbite when the deceleration ripped off his left glove but was ultimately able to land after close to 25 minutes.
The lessons gained from his experience would be that flight crews learnt to not open their parachutes too quickly until they reached lower altitudes. For his bravery, Colonel Lovelace would be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Are you sure it was a B17 and not a B29? I’m very surprised a B17 could reach over 40,000 ft altitude
@@CONNELL19511216 Yes, from the sources that I could find (and you can search it online yourself), this was the B-17E model. I am aware that normally the B-17's service ceiling was around 37,000 ft or so, but it was possible to push it to the absolute ceiling of around 40,000 ft for a short while before the engines and superchargers would start to struggle due to excessive wear at such an altitude. The B-29 Superfortress was still not yet in service at this time until May 1944 so it was rather unlikely that a prototype B-29 would have been used here in this case.
@@CONNELL19511216 Apparently it was a B-17e according to a what I read in Thisdayinaviationhistory, however you are correct apparently the B-17 has a ceiling of 38,000 feet.
So there are some inconsistencies
@@CONNELL19511216 I think the B-29 was still in its development stages in mid '43. I'm guessing they could push a B-17 to that altitude if they nursed the supercharged engines. And I'm curious if this is the guy who the Lovelace Clinic was named after.
You would also have to figure the plane would be operating slick and unloaded. And hanging on the props.
It feels like this series has been going on forever. To people in the 1940s, this war must have felt endless.
100%. The thing I really really like about this channel in a broad sense (the details, writing, maps, and delivery are another accolade) is that it takes you along and puts everything into perspective, like you're back home in the States and reading the newspaper.
And truly puts to perspective how past and distant would look the 1939 and 1940 Wehrmacht battles in a situation like 1944.
@@jeremy28135 but unlike the news papers , time Ghost keeps more level and in the middle , not leaning to the left or to the right. whch is how the news should be done
Probably. And its outcome would have been unclear however much hindsight we can now use.
At the end of the Thirty Years' War, paradoxically there were quite a few people left at a loss by the final peace treaty in 1648 - many were soldiers but many more were camp followers of one kind or another who made a living from the war, and for these people peace-time amid ruined villages presented problems of their own. Although wars started up again later in the 17th century. Bertolt Brecht's fictional "Mother Courage" had many real-life counterparts.
@@stevekaczynski3793 War is good business. And good politics. Solving basic needs for sewers never got people excited.
I'm not in a position to support many creators but I can't imagine not being in the Time Ghost Army. The sustained excellence is amazing.
P.S. I still miss Sunday Baseball.
Joel We can't thank you enough for your support. It's only with the support of you in the TimeGhost Army that this channel succeeds. Thanks & see you next time
I miss Sunday Baseball too..
@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192 sunday baseball felt like a fever dream lol
I know this is old and nobody will see this but man i actually love the little ad’s for the timeghost army they put in! i never skip them, they’re so unique and cool, i really appreciate seeing an ad that doesn’t sound like it was written by ai or a money hungry corporation
One great thing about this channel, is that after watching a video to read through all the nice and interesting comments.
And as someone who spends a lot of his freetime online, I musst say, this is probably the nicest and healthiest internet community I have seen :)
Thank you Thanos 6.0 we are greatly appreciative of you, and all of our fantastic community, and we do our best to work diligently to provide a fair, open, and constructive forum.
Considering the content and what some YT sites can be like, it is rather surprising.
@@stevekaczynski3793 I believe they are unusually conscientious about monitoring the content here. Altogether a first-class outfit!
You do see some very objectionable comments sometimes, but they are removed quite quickly as a rule.
This is absolutely true. It's a dedicated bunch of people here. They are informed, and very polite as well. I peruse the comments each week.
The preparations for Husky make sure this won't be a repeat of the Gallipoli disaster.
Thanks for another great episode with lots of technical detail very well explained.
Eleanor Thanks very much for the kind words
I agree with avenues of escape off the beaches and a rapid ability to expand the front. The most fun is the race between Patton and Montgomery to Salerno. BUT the upcoming parachute drops are a complete debacle costing many lives.
one major advantage from the ally's perspective is that Sicily must be reinforced by air or sea both of which they have a decided advantage in forces compared to Gallipoli
@@earlyriser8998 that’s the difference between the fantasy & reality of paradrops. Germany succeeded with one in attacking the Netherlands, but it was done just in front of a blitzkrieg and operational success was not really due to the paratroops. Then in Crete they took 50% losses and Hitler abandoned the idea. But the British saw the paratroops in Crete take a stunning victory and weren’t around long enough to realise the level of German casualties, so in 43 & 44 mass paratroop & glider landings took place that were questionable in hindsight. Although modern armies still retain paratroopers, for the elite training to fight with light equipment and hold positions unsupported for days. Modern paratroops no longer parachute drop, instead coming in by plane & helicopter into hostile locations, because of the hard lessons learned in WWII.
@@MsZeeZed it's very gratifying to see that the Ladies are every bit as knowledgeable as the men, (in my case, even more so).
It feels so weird watching this compared to the Great War series which was almost over by the week 200. This? This is like the war is kicking into a high gear and all hell is about to break loose. It puts the scale of this conflict into a completely different perspective, crazy.
Rudolf Thanks for watching. And very well put.
It's very impressive that the Allies have bombers that can fly from the UK on a not very direct route to Southern Germany carrying several tonnes of bombs and then fly to North Africa to land and more or less repeat that going the other way. Kind of puts the issues the Germans had during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz into perspective.
American engineering is no joke.
What's more impressive still is that a FIGHTER will be developed to allow escort of missions like that: P-51 Mustang with Merlin engine.
A strategic blunder made by Germany was their failure to develop any 4-engined heavy bomber with the capability of carrying a large bomb- and fuel-load. The limited strategic reach and destructiveness of their bomber force was a major factor leading to German defeat IMHO
@@marcusclaudius266 The bombers used in that first shuttle bombing raid were RAF Lancasters. After bombing Friedrichshafen, they landed at USAAF bases in Algeria, where they were re-armed and re-fueled for the return trip via La Spezia.
@@marcusclaudius266 Except they were big Avro Lancaster bombers on that raid, no American engineering involved.
I love how this series puts everything together. Too many history shows talk about the Pacific, the Mediterranean, or the Eastern Fronts as if they aren’t related. This series shows the massive scale of this war.
Thanks for watching, charliedontsurf
This is hands down the best WW2 content ever created
Thank you❤
With already 200 weeks of planning, I'm sure Steiner's counterattack will be a massive success
Yup, Steiner will always follow militar orders also.
Steiner's attack failed
Steiner konnte nicht genügend Kräfte für einen Angriff massieren. Der Angriff Steiner ist nicht erfolgt.
Perhaps, but could 16 days in Berlin break the German fighting spirit?
@@extrahistory8956 Well it did break Berlin.
WW1: Boy, everyone is stupid.
WW2: Boy, everyone is evil.
Boy, you said it.
WW3 Everyone is stupid and evil.
WW3: Boy, everyone is dead?
200th week already ! It's a pleasure to be following you since week 1.
Lematth It's a pleasure to have you with us! Thank you for watching
Isn't it great? Makes you wish, in a weird way, that the war had lasted longer. OK-not really.
First it was attacking a place with the enemy waiting for you.
Then it became obvious that it would be in numerical inferiority.
Last week the massive fortifications were added to the mix.
And now you're telling me that they aren't going to have air superiority either.
I'm starting to think that this Kursk thing may not work after all.
The most worrying part would be if the defender's artillery was to open fire on the attackers positions hours before the attack is supposed to start. Now that would be a major red flag
..but ...but .. Aryan superiority, or something?
I'm sure the new Superheavypanzer that is comically overengineered and logistically impractical will be decisive !
maybe the germans could have played sakkijarven polka to destroy the mines?
I’m pretty sure the Luftwaffe’s fighters can maintain air superiority over the Soviets despite the numerical disadvantage. Long as they’re not needed anywhere else…
Counting down to Zitadel. The channel has really put into perspective how the Soviets have been anticipating it also. Laying mines, building earthworks, digging trenches,.... waiting......
Jeremy Thanks for watching
The logistical and landing planning preperations and exercises with new equipment are all really impressive , no more hasty improvisded amateurish Galipoli Landing 1915 will happen in 1943 in Sicily
@@Cancun771 Dieppe raid was a large scale hit run operation that was poorly planned , it was not an invasion attempt with high hopes to take out one belligerent state out of war like Gallipoli 1915 was designed for. (which was also poorly planned and prepared)
Salerno landing was a success for Allies , yes hung on a thread for a few days due to improvisation of landings but it was an Allied victory neverthless (it was Germans who broke and run away as any history record would show) , made South and Central Italy open to Allied advance , diverted 20+ German divisions to Central Italy to opposse 15th Army Group when OKW was scrapping bottom of barrel to reinforce France and Eastern Front
Anzio , operationally tie in ( Allied beachead was isolated for four months till breakout and unified with land forces advancing from south) but initially a disappointment , still way better than Gallipoli or Dieppe mess where in both occasions Allies had to evacuate humiliatingly after suffering heavy losses
The US would also launch many successful amphibious operations in the Pacific theater during the Second World War. The entire theater was for the most part characterized by one amphibious operation after another.
While Allied amphibious operations weren't without setbacks in the Second World War, it would certainly be a mistake to imply that the Allied powers hadn't learned valuable lessons since the First World War, and then applied them in their planning. The sheer number of amphibious operations, the great majority of which more or less went according to plan, would thoroughly scuttle any argument that Allied amphibious planning was amateurish.
@@lycaonpictus9662 Indeed, one of the many herculean displays by the US in WW2 is exactly the massive number of consistent amphibious operations succeeded.
The British had been carrying out landing operation exercise's since 1926. This had lead to the invention and development of many types of Landing Craft.
They didn't scratch the surface of US Naval Pacific Operations going on weekly. over 1/3 of the earth surface. Andrew Higgins slapped his design together and submitted it to the War Dept in a couple of weeks
That's my name! I'm the Time Ghost Army member of week!!!
I've awaited this day for years 😭😭 thanks Time Ghost team for all the amazing content!!! I look forward to the episodes ahead!
Long time since we've had such a proper old-school tie. Bold strategy to pair those dulled-down colours with the khaki, but it works nicely! 4.5/5!
Gianni You flatter us. I'm just thankful you don't see my (intern) outfit while I'm reviewing comments! 😬
Spoiler: it's usually pyjamas
@@WorldWarTwo You shouldn't have said. I DEMAND A PYAMA VIDEO
@@gianniverschueren870 Pijamas go!
Love the channel. what's crazy is my grandfather fought in WW2 but I never knew much about it. After I lost my job when the covid hit I was home for months watching TV. I love history and documentaries and the USA and I got into WW2. so it was a great time for u to be running this show. Keep it up. I find ww2 fascinating. I wish I would talked to my grandfather more about it before he died.
Both my grandfathers were in WW2. They both passed away before I was 18.
I knew they had been in the war and as a small child asked them about it.
One would not talk about it.
The other told me one of the things that made him sad.
Watching children dig through garbage piles for food.
He said he prayed that none of his children or grandchildren would ever know war.
The soviet engineers had an interesting specialty : they took back german landmines in liberated regions and created new minefields with those. During the battle of Kursk many german tanks were damaged by those mines and the crews were furious against their own engineers because they thought that were german made minefields.
Soviet engineers: Trololololo lololo loloooo. Trolololoooo ruclips.net/video/oavMtUWDBTM/видео.html
The suspense builds for another week! I'm getting impatient but it makes me think of how impatient the troops must have been to get on with things during these long weeks of planning.
Thank you for your steadfast support, Hannah. Great having you with us all along the way
I can imagine that at least some soldiers are happy to wait as long as possible before being shot at.
Time is crazy to think I remember the start of the Great War Channel around 2014 and now we're 200 episodes in on World War Two! Cheers fellas and thank you for all these years of content
Bubi Thank you for watching with us all these many years. Stay tuned my friend
Something I'm surprised you didn't mention: This week the war in the Soviet Union (or "The Great Patriotic War") is exactly 2 years old.
For me it's been the 400th+
I've been watching Indy be our guide through the 20th century since the first episodes of the first week of the First World War (Yes, before Conrad).
Thank you for being so awesome Indy you are so talented you're a national treasure ❤️❤️❤️
(Ps. Whatever happened to those first few episodes (the daily ones) I'd pay good money for those 🤣)
Just curious, have you watched the post-1918/2018 content of the TGW channel with Jesse Alexander?
These first episodes?
ruclips.net/video/2b7GY4BSUmU/видео.html
Also just in case that's what you were looking for, I'd be remiss in my duties
if I didn't drop this link here too www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
@@extrahistory8956 of course! Jessie Alexander did an excellent job taking over from Indy! Been digging the most recent (post-2020) subject format is nice!
We thank you Indy Neidell
For the history you tell so well
With a wink of the eye
In a sharp vest and bright tie
You make all our Saturdays swell!
Congrats on 200 episodes. Much appreciation to you, Sparty, Astrid and the entire team.
That's a pretty good limerick, in fact about as good as a limerick can be without being ribald.
Wow, four years, with two more remaining! I found this series about a year ago and got hooked. I, like many others, I'm sure, spend a lot of my old age absorbing the knowledge modern technology enables. History is an example. This show leverages modern technology to produce history knowledge like no other. It's at the top of its class.
So, I binge-watched about half of the first three years. Now, I wonder what I missed. I might have to do it all over again, more thoroughly. Anyway, I enlisted in the TimeGhost Army because this is one of the very few shows that I can't do without.
Lawrence THANK YOU for enlisting and welcome aboard the TimeGhost Army!! I can't stress enough how much it means to us having such a dedicated fanbase every single week, who are generous enough to support our mission.
Thanks for the kind words, and please do stay tuned for all the rest of the war, hardware specials, and plenty of surprises.
Also on June 25, 1943, the 384th Bomb Group conducted a raid on the industrial area and submarine pens of Hamburg, Germany. Major Selden McMillin lead the group to target but his B-17 was mortally wounded on the return trip over Holland. He instructed his group to form up with others on the way back to England and he would hold back to use his aircraft as a fighter magnet until he could no longer keep it in the air. With his engines shot out, he gave the order to bail out. Out of his crew, all but one, who was KIA, would become prisoners of war for the remainder of the war. He received the Silver Star for his actions. This was my wife's grandfather. He had coined the motto of the Group which was displayed on its emblem until the group was disbanded in 1949.
Thanks Timothy
what a fascinating piece of history. thanks for sharing it.
It's great you devote time to the importance of logistics. Operational research, now used in any major enterprise was born and developed by these operations during the war.
The Army Special Boat Section was formed in 1940. This is the predecessor of the famous Special Boat Service now operated by the Royal Navy. They played a huge roll in the landings in Sicily and Normandy. As Indy indicated - it was a high risk operation and many did not make it.
Hi Indy
Another great week.
Two hundred weeks of war.
Its great to watch and learn history. Didn't miss any episode even if have work.
Thanks for all your video and history lessons.
Rooted for more awesome content.
NAVEEN RAJ Seeing your comments every week warms my heart. Very glad to have such keen supporters as we move through this awful war. Thanks, stay tuned, & take care
200 amazing weeks. I love this series soo much. Keep up the good work Indy.
Thank you George, we love you too
Congrats to the team on 200 weeks of episodes! Fantastic work and keep it up.
1 millions Soviet mines in place at Kursk- that’s a staggering amount!
Thanks @Jacob Davies! And the soviets are certainly not doing anything by half-measures in their preparations at Kursk
The dedication of the team to continually bring us this content is nothing short of mind blowing. Thank you for all you do, guys. ♠️🤙🏻🍻
Kiwi Comanche Very glad to have enthusiastic supporters such as yourself here in the comments every week. Thank you for the kind words, it means a lot to the team. Take care
Thanks!
Another interesting sidenote this week on June 19 1943 is that Vittorio Cini, the Italian Minister of Transport, openly criticised II Duce Benito Mussolini during a Cabinet meeting. This would have normally resulted in his immediate arrest, but at this point Mussolini had already tried to seek out peace proposals with the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. However, he would eventually be arrested by the Germans but managed to escape to Switzerland after his son Giorgio was able to secure his release through bribing his German captors.
Dickson Phua Great piece of info, thank you.
I feel for those troops training for landings in the middle of the desert. I remember having to "simulate" helicopter boardings with basically a line drawn in the sand, trucks "simulating" APC's, etc. It ain't the same as the real thing.
I'll take your word for it, oldesertguy
wow that bit about the recon teams identifying beaches for landing conditions and all that. never thought about that but absolutely a necessity. extremely risky but vital information.
Indy, I wish you could include more technical advancements and what effect they are having. For instance, new fighter, or improved fighters. You have mentioned the radar, but it would be great to learn more about how it was used and what it allowed the allies to see that they could not see before. And the proximity fuses that were in the anti-aircraft shells.
Love all you do!!!
Jag har följt med från början på denna historiska resa. Svårt att tro att det redan gått 200 veckor 🙂
zoll Thank you for watching 🇸🇪
No Respite For U-Boats sailing down from their Arctic patrol zones to their newly assigned North Atlantic patrol areas (20 June 1943)
The new Type VII German submarine U-388, commanded by Peter Sues, age twenty-three , after returning from Arctic , sailed her patrol in Atlantic on 7th June. She was sunk on June 20, merely thirteen days out from Kiel, by an Iceland-based Catalina flying boat of U.S. Navy Squadron VP 84, piloted by E. W. Wood, which was escorting convoy Outbound North 189. Wood drove the U-388 under with depth charges and machine-gun fire, then launched a Fido homing torpedo at the swirl. Wood reported that wreckage surfaced along with bubbles and oil and that he could see that the U-boat stern was split open and that a “10 to 15 foot” section of the after compartment was visible. There were no survivors.
24 June 1943 , A Notable Date When Allies Sank Four U-Boats in a single day in different locations
The new Type VII German submarine U-449 was returning from her second patrol to Bordeux, commanded by Hermann Otto, age twenty-nine. On June 14, a B-24 of RAF Coastal Command Squadron 120, piloted by Samuel E. Esler, which was escorting Outbound North (Slow) 10, located her on surface , attacked and inflicted “slight damage” to the boat with depth charges. When Otto reported that he urgently required a doctor to tend his wounded, U-boat Control directed the veteran Type VII U-592, commanded by Carl Borm, age thirty-two, which, as related, had sailed from France in the last days of May with a doctor, to close U-449’s position at maximum speed. On the chance that this meeting might fail, U-Boat Control ordered Otto in U-449 to abort to France at maximum speed and to join two other boats inbound to France, including the big Type XB minelayer submarine U-119, commanded by Horst-Tessen von Kameke, age twenty-seven, who was returning from a mine-laying mission off Halifax and also had a doctor on board. The U-119 had just given the new tanker U-488, commanded by Erwin Bartke, all possible spare fuel and Otto in U-449 found U-119 before U-592 found him. Otto obtained the necessary medical assistance from U-119, then commenced a crossing of Biscay in company with her.
As part of the saturation ASW (Anti Submarine War) campaign in the Bay of Biscay, Royal Navy Admiralty had assigned their ace U-Boat hunter Capain Johnny Walker’s Support Group 2 (five sloops HMS Starling , HMS Kite , HMS Woodpecker , HMS Wild Goose and HMS Wren) ) to patrol the western edge of the Bay of Biscay, in cooperation with RAF Coastal Command aircraft. Early on the morning of June 24, Walker in the sloop HMS Starling got sonar contacts on U-119, while some other ships of the group got sonar contacts on U-449. Walker immediately attacked U-119, dropping ten depth charges that brought the U-boat to the surface with “dramatic suddenness.”
All warships that could bring guns to bear opened fire, but after one friendly shell hit HMS Starling in the bow, Walker ordered the others to cease fire while he rammed. He smashed into von Kameke’s U-119 solidly, riding up over her forward deck and capsizing her. The impact bent HMS Starling’s bow 30 degrees off kilter, wiped off the sonar dome, and flooded the forward ammo magazine. For added insurance, HMS Starling and the sloop HMS Woodpecker each fired another salvo of depth charges to already sinking U-Boat. For proof of a kill, HMS Starling’s whaleboat collected “locker doors and other floating wreckage marked in German, a burst tin of coffee and some walnuts.” There were no survivors of U-119.
Thereafter four sloops of this group, HMS Kite, HMS Wild Goose, HMS Woodpecker, and HMS Wren, ganged up on Otto in U-449. Exchanging commands with D.E.G. (Dickie) Wemyss in HMS Wild Goose, Walker led these four warships in renewed attacks. They hunted and depth-charged U-449 for six hours before wreckage and oil rose to the surface, giving proof of a kill. There were no survivors of U-449 either.
Having sunk two confirmed U-boats in one day, Walker’s group followed the damaged HMS Starling into Plymouth, where there was a stack of congratulatory letters from First Sea Lord Admiral Pound, Admiral Max Horton at Royal Navy Western Approaches, and others down the chain of command. For his part, Walker-undisputed king of the U-boat killers-sharply criticized the lack of cooperation the Coastal Command aircraft had shown his ships.
The new Type IXD2 German submarine U-200, a U-cruiser assigned to a special mission, commanded by Heinrich Schonder, age thirty-two, who had won a Ritterkreuz while commanding the VII U-77 in the Mediterranean. After embarking a small contingent of “coastal troops” (Küstentruppe) of the Brandenburg Division, the U-200 sailed from Kiel on June 12. Twelve days out, as she was entering the Atlantic, a long range B-24 Liberator bomber of the Iceland-based RAF Coastal Command Squadron 120, piloted by the Australian A. W. Fraser, located , depth charged and sank her with the loss of all hands. (all German Brandenburg commandos abroad to carry out a harebrained scheme to land on South Africa and incite rebellion among Boers against British , also perished)
The new Type IXC40 German submarine U-194, commanded by Hermann Hesse, age thirty-four. She was assigned to plant weather balloons in the Atlantic before proceeding to antiship operations near the Azores. On June 24, a veteran Iceland-based Catalina flying boat of U.S. Navy Squadron VP 84, piloted by J. W. Beach, spotted U-194 on the surface. Beach attacked immediately into flak, but his depth charges failed to release. In a second run, the aircrew dropped two depth charges manually. One fell wide, one fell close. Nothing further was heard from U-194. This was the fourth attack on a U-boat in which Beach had participated in one capacity or another. The Navy awarded the Air Medal to him and to his copilot, E. T. Allen, who was usually a first pilot and who had also participated in four attacks on U-boats. Royal Navy Admiralty awarded both men the DFC.
Hitler's U-Boat War - Clay Blair Jr.
“Palermo is not an objective”
Patton: I am going to pretend I didn’t hear that
Patton didn't listen to the plan at all
Not ever letting personal glory get in the way of the mission, yeah right. Not enough is spoken about this aspect of the man, and actual lives lost in he being the General that achieved it. Driving into town on his jeep with his shiny helmet. One life is too many for anyone's ego.
Plans never survive contact with the enemy. The enemy has plans of their own and will react in ways that aren't fully anticipated. Moreover your own will need to be constantly evolving not just because of the enemy's actions, but in how the circumstances of the battle progress in ways that deviated from your original plans. You might have more success that initially anticipated, or less, and either one demands improvisation.
Thank you for another informative video.
Thank you for watching, George
Happy 200th! You don't look a week over 100!
Thank you Jonathan! You're looking quite youthful yourself
Great work with the video.
thank you!
I don't write as many comments as I'd like to, but I follow Indy since he announced the launch of this channel way back in 2018…
And of course you guys since episode number 1, through B2W, Sabaton History and all the sub-series you've made.
I regret not being able to support you in the TimeGhost Army, but I always watch your videos during breakfast and you all deserve the biggest of compliments for your thoroughest work!
Greetings from Mexico :)
We appreciate the support you give by watching, liking, and sharing our episodes! We'd love to have you in the TGA someday too, but for now we're very happy just to have you with us. Stay tuned my friend 🇲🇽
Another fantastic installment, and *Congrats Everyone on Episode 200!* 🎉 But it looks like things are definitely heating up again. And again it looks like we'll have three fronts in heavy action. What a war! (where's the hand-wringing emote?)
But my main question for this episode is: I don't see any more operations to feint the Axis into thinking the Mediterranean landings will be in Greece. Have the Allies pretty much dropped their attempts at subterfuge at this stage, being so close to the actual operation kick-off date?
Makes more sense that when a paper is found on a dead officer on agreeing where they'll attack, the Allies would spend the next months planning for it, in silence.
Yeshead Thank you! I appreciate you joining us. And I'm certain we'll hear more about the Mediterranean misdirection very soon, stay tuned…
Ive said this before on japanese interservice rivalries but it bears repeating.
During the Bosin war and the subsequent meji restoration, there were two old samurai clans at the heart of it. The Chosun provence was lead by the Mori Clan, and the Satsuma Provence was led by the Shimazu Clan. These two clans had an intense dislike of each other since the 1500s, but they out aside their differences to overthrow the shogunate. The Mori became the officer corps of the imperial japanese army, and the shimazu became the officer corps of the imperial japanese navy. The result was that the 300+ year old rivalry became institutionalized into an interservice rivalry in the japanese military.
Interesting. Thank you for the context.
Yesterday also it was precisely four months of war in my city and country.
konstantin You have our support, I hope you and your family and country are safe again soon.
You contonue to amaze me with the amount of details you provide and the vivid way of delivering them. I can't stop feeling that I hope in the future we won't be able to make such a long series about the ongoing war in Ukraine, and that we won't feel the same exitement as we do over world war II now, but we probably will. We all hoped that the world would have learned from WWI, from WWII, Korea and Vietnam etc., but war comes back to us again and again. But *good is* that *you guys* with your videos come back again and again.
Lars Thank you for watching, and for your very kind words of support. Never forget
Very interesting the part about the preparation of the landings in Sicily! ...but what about the Italians?? How was the Axis preparing the defense? It could be interesting as well learning something about it
I'm curious if the Allied pretenses to attacking Greece and the Balkans have been dropped at this point. The operation is going to kick off in a week or so, so in military terms that's probably not enough time to do any major restructuring of forces.
I don't know about the Germans, but many of the Italians were second-line troops, often issued obsolete uniforms. Possibly Sicily was considered indefensible.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Uhm... I don't think so, it took 40 days to conquer the island, it means that (at least) some preparations were made
@@lacasadipavlov I don't think the Italians or for that matter the Germans were going to stick their best troops on Sicily and
SPOILER
they also made preparations to evacuate troops to mainland Italy. A lot of the Italians in Sicily were second-line troops - for example many were still wearing Adrian helmets from the Italian army issue of WW1. More favoured and first-line units had the more modern Italian helmet.
@@stevekaczynski3793 I'm not saying the Axis was going to play its best cards in Sicily... I was just writing that knowing something about the defensive plans could be very interesting
10:22 "there was a failure of comms between beach groups which caused confusion and delay"
*fat controller theme intensifies*
At the time he was busy coordinating the transport network on the island of Sodor, so he was unavailable for Operation Husky.
Brovo gentlemen: after 200 weeks i still have the same eagerness to open the weeks special as i did when i first came upon your program. 200 weeks, wow factor is in overdrive.
Craig Thank you for watching all these weeks
Congrats on almost 750,000 subs! Glad to be with this series since the beginning!
Matt Thank you!! We really appreciate having such a keen, dedicated group of history enthusiasts like you in our audience. Stay tuned for the rest of it
Always a Great Video from you Indy!
Thanks for your support!
200 is a major milestone. Good for me as a person who loves history, bad for all the countless people who died at the time.
I love your channel!!!
Tabe Thank you for watching along all these weeks. We love you too
Helluva nice effort on this channel. Indy and his pals have been posting week-by-week WW2 videos for almost 4 years -- and there is no end in sight for WW2. This was an epic global burn-down.
@LoloLomo we sure have put out a lot of content over the last 200 weeks, from the battlefields to the home front to the political machinations to the spy games and everything in between, but this war is far from done, and therefore so are we 😉
80 seconds of separation between the 17th Army of Japan and the 17th Army of Germany -- I'm glad Indy is good at clear delivery
The man is a professional ;)
Outstanding episode again!!! 👍👍
Thanks Riki!
200 weeks of suffering and death and yet, many weeks of this are sadly still to come.
Never forget.
Wow Ayrshire! I grew up there! I can confirm it does get windy
Little fun fact, In my home state of Wisconsin not far from me is the Wisconsin Dells, there a tourist attraction that offers tours on original ww2 DUKW's. I've been able to ride them a few times and it's pretty cool to see these vehicles being used.
That's neat, thanks for sharing. Cool you got to ride those
Always in-depth and informative
Outstanding!
Thank you for joining us as always, David! Your kind words do not go unnoticed. Thanks & stay tuned for more every week
200 weeks, honored to be a part of the Time Ghost Army
Stuart We're honored to have you with us, thank you for your generous support
Thanks for the video.
Thank you Sands
Thanks Indy and crew✌✌
Thank you, Rainy Day!
Guys, this another piece of art here I've just watched. Also, the numbers you mentioned about the air war over Kursk got me thirstier about it. I believe it would be just fair if you cover more aspects of the air war in war in numbers. I mean things like a line chart of fighter number on all sides or one about bomber campaigns. Another crucial one would be Germany's fuel reserves, production (or lack their of). Same could be said about rubber you know, how did they deal with the embargo. Slave labour is another that comes into mind. The list will go on but long short I just love this channel, please feed us more information
Enes Thank you for watching, stay tuned for more information every week. And we love you too
Thank you for the lesson.
Thanks for watching, Shawn
Loving the new graphics!
Thank you Patrick!
Side note, I’m from Friedrichshafen, the city mentioned in the shuttle bombing section. Most of the city was destroyed during the war which is very visible today. Besides the “Schlosskirche” there aren’t many historic building left, which is kinda sad
Thank you.
Thank you for watching
The Great War & then, an even greater war... There is nothing greater than human madness. Cheers Indy & crew!
Rabih Thank you for watching!
15:27 That is Kursk.........
To think this was one of the short wars among such powerful states. The 7 Years War, called because it lasted 9 years, the 30 Years War of course, Vietnam, Iraq 2.0, the Napoleonic Wars, the Italian Wars from 1492 to 1555, the Romans vs the Bulgarians for 675 years, not continuously though, the Romans vs the Sassanids in 602-628, the Romans against Hannibal, and so many more.
"Hey, waddaya mean I gotta stay in the army? I mean, it's been over seven years and this is The Seven Year War, right? If you needed me for eight years, you shoulda called it the Eight Year War."
The intensity was not the same. For a typical pre-modern war you would have a few battles, most lasting one day, and nothing in between except sieges. Some of the long wars had periods of truce that could last for years.
@@Duke_of_Lorraine during the Napoleonic Wars things did begin to approach modern intensity though. It is also very much correct to say that great power wars of previous centuries had devastating effects on the populace. The Thirty Years War killed up to two-thirds of the entire population in some parts of Germany. It took 150 years for those areas to recover.
@@davidsigalow7349 A German was executed, perhaps in this year 1943, for making the wisecrack - "You probably think this is another Blitzkrieg, just like the Thirty Years' War." The person he made the remark to denounced him to the Gestapo. Jokes like his were considered to undermine the war effort and this was punishable by death.
@@Duke_of_Lorraine Also military operations often ended over winter, to resume in the spring.
Very cool episode
Thanks David
@@WorldWarTwo :)
Them sappers(combat engineers) tho. The speed in which they can lay a mine was astonishing
Would love to hear more about what Mussolini said to the Party Directorate and more generally how the government was preparing the Italian people for invasion.
If you can find it "Hitler and Mussolini A Brutal Friendship" written by W. Deakin explains it a little , Mussolini and Fascist Party organised a party militia including a Fascist Party division called M Division in parades at Rome , Mussolini made defiant procolamations like "the enemy if lands on Sicily would be dispatched before changing its robe" etc...while King , Royal Court , Italian Army General Staff Comando Supremo who were more loyal to Italian crown than Fascism and crtics and opponents of Mussolini in Fascist Party vs all were plotting to make an armistice and peace and take out Italy from out of Axis and out of German orbit
great video
Thanks Lewis, stay tuned for more every week
Two hundred weeks. Wow 😮. Awesome series
Thank you for watching, Jimmy
Madness is correct, sir
2:21 - this right here is when they lost the war: those tablecloths.
Amazing, never knew that info at 12:58. Gave their lives for future success.
It wasn't worth it.
You guys are the best
You're the best, Necro morph
2:48 The fight for New Georgia, which inspired: "To the everlasting glory of the infantry, shines the name of Roger Young..." #StarshipTroopers
"This is an ugly planet! A bug planet! Arrrghhhh...."
Awesome!!!
Thanks Maximus!
They did a good job of rebuilding Wuppertal. I went there around 1990, it's really nice.
It has a sort of suspended train system connecting the different parts of Wuppertal, which is a valley. Friedrich Engels, who was from the area, wrote a description of poverty among its industrial workers in the first half of the 19th century.
All of Germany is pretty nice these days. I'm glad they didn't destroy the Cologne Cathedral.
@@Unknowngfyjoh It was hit by several bombs. Although according to some RAF accounts, Bomber Command navigators preferred it to exist as it was a useful landmark on the ground for navigators working at night, as indeed was the Rhine River next to it.
@@stevekaczynski3793 yea I saw the pictures they have next to it.
Dortmund and Dusseldorf are nice too.
200 WEEKS. Congrats on a very fine effort.
Thank you Adm
Had the "Madness" at the end been borrowed from "The Bridge on the River Kwai"? ;-)
;-)
I'll watch the episode after my coma sleep. This is just a tiny comment to say Hello Indy, I loved your pose in the Sabaton show yesterday at Hellfest :D
In Pittsburgh there is a tour company that drives people around the city and into the rivers with Duk boats to this day.
The in-depth coverage of this war continues to delight and amaze me. It seems I never get used to the intensity of the descriptions, and the remarkable photos and movies displayed. I would also like to note the great pronunciation of names. especially the Russian, German, and Japanese examples. I am fairly good at the Japanese ones, and give the Russian ones a good shot, but I have butchered a lot of the German names, even though I thought I was doing OK. This is just another attention to detail that this series displays.
P.S. For a very good war movie about the operations in the Sicily/Italian campaigns, I recommend 'A Walk In The Sun'. Great cast, and it follows the book pretty closely, except for the very end, which the book left a bit ambivalent. No chest-thumping, just a bunch of average guys doing a dangerous job as best as they can.
My special thanks again to the amazing research staff at Ghost Army Headquarters. Kudos to all.
Well, for the regular weekly episode scripts I’m the research staff (so far, the war keeps getting bigger) so I will take the compliment very personally and kindly.
@@Southsideindy WTF??!! How do you have the time? Do you ever sleep? Now that I'm retired, I have become a professional sleeper and napper. I enjoy it.
Mr. Neidall, you are an amazing guy!
I do sleep quite a lot actually, but by this time I have a pretty good script production process. It’s a full time job, of course, but a good one.
"Neither of the contesting parties knew the exaltation of victory." Paul von Hindenburg.
This week in French politics:
The 21st, Jean Moulin leader of the CNR, member of the Armée secrete, is arrested by Klaus Barbie. He will be tortured for two weeks without saying anything and die the 8th of July. Other members are arrested too.
The 24th, second waves of demonstrations in Martinique for the anniversary of the Armistice, this time more vigorously. The local power responds by arresting more leaders to the camp in Balata. But it seems there is some displeasing in the garrison, we’ll see that next week.
RIP, Jean Moulin. As for Barbie, may he burn in 🔥.
"He will be tortured for two weeks without saying anything" - Unfathomable courage, strength, and dedication. Hats off to the memory of this hero.
The DUKW (Ducks ) have been operational in the Wisconsin Dells, too.
Thought the correct pronunciation of Bougainville was Boo ghin vill, like the plant, without the trailing "a".
Excellent video
13:04
The British perfect 'beach reconnaissance tactics ' , which become useful in 40 years later .
Fantastic
Thanks Jeremy
The way Mr. Neidell is talking about Husky over the past several weeks, it's pretty evident that he's not a fan. Perhaps, it'll turn into a shootstorm.
@Jonn Mostovoy I think people are right to be skeptical about this upcoming operation. It's huge in scale, highly complex in organisation and hugely reliant on the element of surprise for victory. Many in Allied high command don't even think this is the right theatre to be concentrating their limited resources. Perhaps it will be a disaster, we'll have to wait and see with our fingers crossed!