I love how you talk with such respect and your reactions are truthful most people don't give the respect that these fallen soldiers deserve especially if they aren't from their country. You don't do that and I thank you.
When people become numbers to be calculated, emotions aren't calculated. We see a countries as a single body but the real tears comes from people. No single person isn't an embodiment of a country. We only see what we look at.
12:48 Over 1/3 of the French male active workforce died in WWI. The phenomenon was so massive that the military classes of the interwar period became known as "les classes creuses" (the hollow classes). This partly accounts for the difficulty French industry still faced getting out of the Depression (despite being hit somewhat less harsh than Germany), not to mention the pathological fear of another war starting and the cautious and defensive attitudes of generals and politicians at the onset of WW2. It wasn't cowardice, but it was definitely fear, not of the enemy, but of war itself, based on actual experience.
and sadly that fear of war is why we had "Appeasement" and the "Phony War" with Hitler. no one wanted war again on that scale, but Hitler would make it difficult.
one other way of realizing the enormous we ( France ) loses we had is to remind that France during WW1 lost most Soldiers than USA in its whole military history ( including american independence war and the loses of both sides of the civil war )
@@lucgonzo people like to make France look weak like "Haha, surrendered during WW2." Well look at what happened during WW1 and you see why they surrendered so easily.
I'm British and when I was in secondary school (high school) I took part in a history trip to the WW1 battlefields of France and Belgium. At the time I was only 14 or 15 years old so I didn't quite grasp the monumental significance of places like Ypres, The Somme, Verdunne, and St Mihiel. It's only when I look back now on the fact that I visited the sites of mass burials and saw the French and Belgian countryside still showing the scars of trench warfare, that I begin to understand its significance. I hope you do get a chance to visit the battlefields of the western front, it's certainly an eye opening experience.
There is also one atack from anaother fellow slav country in the south.Durning a campaign in Greece a Serbian soliders that most of central powers thought were dead went head in the charge not listening to theyr officers.Bulgarians were freaked out and surenderd sayong that dead man are coming.Loosing few more batlles to the same soliders Bulgaria surrenderd.Serbian army crossed 600 kilometars in just 45 days and it turned the tide of a war into Entante hands.Laiter Kaiser of Germany sad that is shame that such a big war was endend because of not segnificant front in the south.
My great grandfather fought and was injured on the first day of the Somme, he then went on to fight (and be injured again) in Ypres. Insane to just think how my entire life depended on his luck.
Serbia is still recovering from those deaths and probably never will since our population is in decline. RIP to all of those heroes who defended our homeland. ❤️🇷🇸
R.I.P to all fallen soldiers. Soldiers fought against each other just because monarchs and governments didn't get what they wanted. It's was a terrible war were nobody gained anything.
9:06 do read up a bit on the Italians in WW1, its really interesting! The Alpine warfare between the Austrians and the Italians (the "White War") is something quite unparalleled in pretty much any other conflict: Avalanches being triggered, mutual undermining of mountain positions, elite climbers scaling 1000ft cliffs at night to conduct raids... And even in the East you have Marshal Cadorna, widely recognized as the worst and most just-send-in-another-wave-minded leader in the entire conflict. Exemplified by the aptly named Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo.
Let's not forget the shelshock and its effects on the soldiers. Many brutal and inhumane experiments, like electric shock, were run on the soldiers to try to get them back on the battle field.
I've said this before, but it's really rare to see people actually pay attention to detail as much as you do. I've seen a ton of videos about this subject before, and you're the first one to bring up the fact that the U.S. only really took combat during the last couple of months of the war, even though they were "officially" part of the war from 1917. Let alone the input you are able to provide about every other part of the war, not just the U.S. involvement For me, having watched several different channels about history, you have become a standard when it comes to being able to provide your own input and add to these videos you react to (I hope that made any sense, given that English isn't even my second language). I've been watching history related videos for a couple of years now, and I absolutely love the fact that I've been able to find this kind of a community. All I can say now is you really are a gem to this community who are interested to learn about our history, it's one thing to know about history but it's another thing to be able to keep viewers like me stuck to the screen until the end and leave them waiting for the next video. Hope to see this channel grow exponentially from this!
I'm an American and paid a visit to Verdun two years ago. It was overwhelming. The French did a wonderful job memorializing the battleground. It takes two or three days to see it all. I'd love to go back.
@@VloggingThroughHistory There's a FANTASTIC museum in the middle of the park that takes three or four hours, the ossuary and church take a few hours, too. Fleury (my favorite) is a must see (see Indy Neidell's special on it), and spend several hours at Forts Douamont and Vaux. There are other surprises mixed in as well. Find a nice family owned cafe in the heart of the Verdun village to break up your activities. Nice folks there that don't speak English but we managed anyway.
I am curious how many Poles, Lithuanians and other people, whose states did not exist at that time, died and what part of the losses were civilians and soldiers among the occupiers. As a Pole, I know that Poles were forced to fight against their brothers, in the Russian, Austrian or German armies, and that many Polish cities were destroyed.
i live in romania my grandma told me about how her mother and her grandma were sometimes forced to eat grass and other things like that because of the famine eating tree leaved and insects my father said that his grandpa never talked about his war service and had that distinct look in his eyes of a person that saw too much
Yes, I have a similar story. I live in Germany, in Bavaria. At the end of ww2, our town was occupied by the Russian military, and my grandpa, then 12 years old, tended to hang around the Russian soldiers a lot. They played with him and took him into their bunker when air raids came. Grandpa said that everyday, they‘d have a regulated break, where they would sit down and eat grass, because they were given nothing. He sometimes brought them food, apples mainly, as we live on a farm and our family wasn’t plagued by hunger as much as many others. Yeah
To everyone who thinks serbia is very weak and bad. Then look at our serbian casualties and deaths its just sad no one could imagine that big loss. My great grandfather was one of them who died while crossing over albania (in serbian its "Albanska golgota") And he never went back
Hello from Serbia. Two of my great grandfathers fought in WW1, fortunately both survived which was a miracle considering that over 60% of Serbian male population died during WW1. FUN FACTS: Serbian solider 8 years old Momcilo Gavric is one of the youngest soldiers who saw battle in history, even being wounded in battle aged 12. And also most decorated female combatant in history was Serbian WW1 heroine Milunka Savic.
Hi, you said you don't know much about Italy's involvement you should check Battles of the Isonzo a front in the Alps fought between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies.
@@MusaMansu I am from Slovenia a small country in Europe (this was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) it is a Slavic country and my ancestors do come from the region where the majority of the fighting took place and I don't know any details where exactly my relatives fought in the WWI I was told that some did participate in the fighting in that region. My family suspects that some participated in the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo.
@@primozkolman0 Yeah. I know Slovenia. My ex-girlfriend was of Slovenian descent. I was just curious. Over 1 million soldiers died ther and about 1 million more civilians from both countries. Then there were well over 1 million soldiers wounded. It was the 3rd largest Front of the war and I believe the largest mountain war in history.
@@MusaMansu yes, the Battles of the Isonzo were very bloody and difficult to fight since the majority of the fighting took place in mountains and very cold conditions. I Slovenia we have some beautiful monuments dedicated to WWI, in my opinion, the most interesting one is the Russian Chapel on the Vršič Pass fun fact it was visited by Vladimir Putin on the 100th anniversary.
@@primozkolman0 There are also many projects by small groups of historians dedicated to WW1 in the alps in the slovenian/italian/austrian regions of the fighting, which really show you how brutal this front must have been. Also many dedicated museums.
The Italian dead are related to Luigi Cadorna’s brilliant strategy to attack Austria-Hungary near the Isonzo River not once, not twice, not thrice, but 12 separate times over 2.5 years. Over half of all military deaths and injuries Italy suffered in the war were from those battles.
I remember the Great War channel having a segment on how the Italian front had a higher casualty rate as the mountainous terrain would inflict higher injuries, whether from rubble or debris. I’m also wondering what the mutiny rate would be for Italy, considering repeated failed attacks on the isonzo river, against a collapsing nation that probably could have been knocked out of the war in 1916 if tackled correctly.
Portuguese guy here, hope you read this. My country fought in the war, in the trenches alongside the belgians, French and British, in fear of losing the colonies in the after war conference. Also against the germans in east africa (we were directly below them in Mozambique ) There's a very very famous soldier in WWI called Aníbal Milhais, we was portuguese. There's a saying that he killed like a hundred or more germans and saved dozens if not hundreds of Entente soldiers. The sentence was "Tu és Milhais, mas vales Milhões !" which roughly translates to "You're Milhais, but you're worth Millions!"
16:19 that's talked a lot , at least here in France, but since Turkey is a "usefull" ally of the US , our politicians have been told to shut up, but nobody's a fool here ...
Let's all not forget that many of those injured probably lost limbs, or gained debilitating scars or wounds that would never heal, leaving them to live the rest of their lives in discomfort and pain as a result of the war. The deaths were unfathomable, but the suffering even more so.
I'm from Serbia and we are proud of our ancestors that fought in that bloody war. We have experienced so much, and our countries were forever damaged. Some of people on internet make meme from our wars. But we were all together, against evil... We fought bravely against much bigger enemy and we fearlessly repulsed the attacks. I would love if I could watch some video about our history, or at least reaction on Sabaton History - Last dying breath.
Serbia was probably the key for the defeat of the Central Powers. I think defeating the Austrian invasion in 1914 is really understimated. Serbia suffered hugely in the war, but Austria-Hungary invading Serbia meant the end of that Empire, and Vojvodina, then part of A-H, becaming part of Serbia.
For my WWI class in college, I had to research the amount of Russian casualties- many sources, including my professor, said that we really don't know how many Russians died due to the Russian Revolution overlapping with WWI. That blew my mind. So heartbreaking. Be sure to visit the Museum of the Battle of Fromelles on your trip.
The Italians fought the Austrian's in the alps in what was called the Avalanche war.....yes they used snow as a weapon by using artillery to create avalanches. Brutal
Indeed, my grandfather was in the Alpini and he wrote that they were ordered to deliberately target geologically frail positions with artillery in order to bury the enemy alive. It happened all the time
@@andreabianchi6156 I believe that WWI material and human remains have been found in glacial outflows, years after the end of the war because recovery at the time in some cases was just impossible.
@@steveclarke6257 that's very true. Unfortunately us Italians, we get a lot of flak because of our mostly unconclusive offensives during the war but I'd say our front was one of the hardest, if not the hardest one, to fight in, terrain and climate wise.
Dan Carlin’s hardcore history on WW1 is awesome. Way too long to react to but if you haven’t heard it it’s definitely worth it. I turn it on when I’m going to be in the car for awhile.
@@thurbine2411 for his older stuff you have to buy it from his website but they are quite cheap. I payed like 7 dollars for roughly 23 hours of content in the WWI series
"NEARLY 135,000 Scots died in the First World War" for a country of our size that's tragic, Scots never waved from Thier patriotic sentiments during the war and were very proud of the UK's win, but we gave up so many men compared to our countries size it's insane, around 5-10% of the Scottish population died in the war and that should never be forgotten, the entente payed for the victory in blood sadly
About 950k British (Mainland) deaths, 53k were Irish, 130k were scots and rest were English (Well of course, English are 5× as populous as both of them combined)
I'm french and two of my great grand fathers (maternal side) fought during WWI, one came back from Verdun 3 years after the end of the war suffering from memory loss, ptsd and mortars scars on the legs , the other one had been gazed in the trenches and made prisoner by the Germans, he actually came back home with destroyed lungs and ptsd. My last great grandfather (parernal side) fought during WWII but was also made prisoners by Germans and came home 5 years after the end of the war, he suffered from malnutrition and tuberculosis, he died 6 years after coming back. Most of the french families have a similar history and we all know how horrible is a war, their sacrifice will never be forgotten.
German Guy here... And i can tell. Its the same Story for us Germans. Nearly every still existing family is based on that kind of survivors. My Grandfather for example is one of the few German soldiers that fought in Stalingrad in WW2 ,got captured and came home 1956 from a Gulag. This man never again spoke a word. He was clear though. But he just refused to speak again in his life. My other Grandfather was too young to fight in WW2. But half of his family got killed by the Russians on their advance. Only he and his older brother managed to hide from the massacre. With that said... And us French and Germans finally being the Brothers we should be... let that never happen again to our Generations!
In France, we have monument and tombs about soldiers being killed in every cities, every villages. I grew up in a French traditional family in a typical French alps village that had a population around 1000 people in 1914. The tombs near the main public administration, there's 112 names write on it, 4 of them have my last name. Imagine that on 1000 people, the village lost 112 people that go to the front and lost their lives. This, was the one of the main reason that we fucked up so badly during WW2, morale wasn't there ( even if we haven't the good tactics) Nice video sir !
I’m italian and yes, the italian theatre of war has never been talked about that much on an international scale. I’ve seen the battlefields and studied this topic a lot more than during school. It’s tragic! People should know what people not far from us in time had to live through. Our bloodthirsty generals are to blame for all the dead people: we had to cope with mountain warfare, lead by incompetent generals. Cadorna in particular was a butcher. “Silence those machine guns with the bodies of your men”, this was the mentality. Armando Diaz took his place and whiped the slate clean at Vittorio Veneto, but victory came at the cost of hundreds of thousands of good men losing their life on both sides.
A Serbia suffered a lot my grandfather was working on the border so he wasn't in war but the storyes he told me are so sad like his friends he went to school with were dying every day 🇷🇸
I made the trip to the First World War sites in France and Belgium in 2018. The rows upon rows of crosses and the endless lists of the missing at Tyne Cot, the Menin Gate, Thiepval, and the Douaumont Ossuary will leave you overwhelmed and speechless. The feeling is indescribable, and the calm and peace at those sites now compounds the eeriness.
Hey man, love your videos. You've shown every point of view you have discussed the respect you would expect for your own. History is very important, and even with everything we have been able to record, so much of what we learn is only from one perspective when we are young and impressionable. I think you set a great example for how content creators can be honest, insightful, and respectful to things they might not agree with. Thank you, and I can't wait to see more!
I say that Romanian casualties were higher in WW1 because battles took place in Romania, half the country was occupied and starvation. In WW2 there were more military losses but not as many civilian deaths because most of the battles that Romanian fought in WW2 most of them were in enemy territory In WW2. I'm still surprised that one of the bloodiest battle in Romanian history was Stalingrad.
My great grandpa fought for the royal italian army in WW1, he said that italy did disperate attacks and sometimes without air and artillery support, sending tons and tons of young men to charge enemy posititions without any chance to win and survive. One time to my grandpa and his company was ordered to distract an Austro-Hungarian position heavily propected. To let a platoon attack them by the side, only 20 (more or less) of the 300+ men of his company survived, his brother died in this kind of suicide mission. I can't imagine what he had to go trought. Running straight to the enemy position, the costantly fire of the enemy mortars and machine guns, seeing your friends dying near you, the sound of the cannons and the screams of the soldiers, the fire of the flamethrowers, the risk to die in any second, tons of dead bodies on the ground and some other things. Literally hell on earth, and for what? to get the 1/4 of the promised territory by UK and get forget as one of the nation winners. "winners" what a useless word for war, in war there aren't winners. Just brave men sent to the slaughter for a country that forget them, leaving them die in the solitude and poverty. Putting them in asylums because they had PTSD.
I Literally felt like crying seeing almost 900,000 British soldiers and 1.3 million French dead helping defend a country that has traditionally been our enemy. ww1 was horrific.
Britain declared war for Belgium though, because it had garanteed its neutrality. And maybe also, because Germany was too powerful, and it had always been British foreign policy to take down the dominant continental power when it became too big.
FYI - The italians actually were part of big battles - the battles of the isonzo river for instance, which caused massive casualties on both the italian and austria-hungarian side. It sometimes is described as verdun of the southern front and compared to this massive battles in the western front by some historians. Love your videos :)
If you're ever in Belgium, make sure to visit the Yser Tower and it's museum in Flanders. Tyne Cot cemetery in Zonnebeke, near Passchendaele, is also definitely worth a visit. I often read things from people wondering why Belgium didn't let the allies take defensive positions in Belgium itself at the start of ww2 (der sitzkrieg/phoney war). As a small country who just got destroyed during ww1 they just hoped to stay out of it the way Switzerland and the Netherlands managed to do in ww1. On the other hand, it was naive to think that Hitler would respect their neutrality. As usual, very good video! Love this channel
Recently in school we have been learning about the 2 world wars, it’s all very fascinating, and devastating. Not just the insane loss of human lives but how much destruction humans can make and repeat 20 years later on a larger scale.
Two points are particularly notable for me. 1) that despite losing the War, Germany inflicted greater casualties on the Allies than the other way around. And 2), the 1.5 million Armenians who were systematically murdered by the Turks are shamefully ignored; presumably for geo-political reasons.
Your facial reactions are really striking when the announces gives each number of dead. They're the same ones I'm sure I made when I saw the figures for the first time. Just nuts to think about this happening just over 100 years ago.
Actual casualties in Serbia was 26% of population dead. To put that in perspective, every family lost at least one or two family members on average, since the families counted more members back then. Serbia lost around of 60% of its male population due to the fact that most people dying from deseases were injured soldiers in mobile hospitals. There was a raging typhus epidemc, which Serbia was actually cleared off few decades before the WW1, but the war brought it back. Also there is a big number of people that died in exhodus trough Albanian mountains.
@@mohdadeeb1829 Highest estimate is 1 250 000 dead or missing and around million of those are confirmed. That makes about the quarter of population for a country that counted just above 4 million inhabitants. Most of those deaths weren't in combat but lost to typhus epidemic, other deseases and hunger, exhaustion and reprisal war crimes from enemy armies. You need to learn to use google and manage sources better....
@@Shiljamannn Just because My Google said different thing means I don't know how to use Google. This is Why I don't like Serbs, there are 2 Serbs I like Niko and Roman. All other are Cringe.
World War II losses in Estonia, estimated at around 25% of the population, were among the highest proportion in Europe. War and occupation deaths listed in the current reports total at 81,000.
You're the only American iv ever seen that actually admits or even realises how much Russia and the Soviets lost, its unimaginable and incomparable to any other county, we lost so many people it's insane, the gap will be in our countries forever, its so sad that we lost so many people for what, for nobody to care
That being said during WW1, Russia had 144 million people (compared with 67 million Germans and 38 million French) so that kind of casualties, while still horrific, weren't abnormal. Especially since Russia was ill equiped compared with the industrial powers in WW1. The sad thing with Russia back then (and the countries that were part of it), is that the Russian Revolution and the civil war that followed made even more russian victims than WW1 (a lot more). And then there'll be Staline, the famines (once again FAR more than the losses in WW1) and finally WW2. All of these together.
This is the second American you've seen then. Russian civilianand military casualties especially in WWII are truly diabolical. The numbers stagger the mind. I hated the Red government. But I have towering respect for the Russian people who bore the harshest of the Third Reich in WWII. May such never happen again.
I feel like more Americans are beginning to realize the great suffering of Russians...certainly during WW2 at least. In the past 20 years, WW2 history kind of became en vogue here with Band of Brothers, the Tom Hanks D-Day movie, etc. It's inevitable that it created amateur historians out of a lot of people. At some point, people accidentally stumble onto some undeniable truths about who did the heaviest lifting to defeat the Germans.
@@lebonpigeonlebonpigeon8194 It's not realistic to expect Americans with only passing interest in history to know much about the world wars as we didn't suffer as much as most European countries. However, please know that those of us that have an interest in 20th century history are well aware of the contributions and sacrifices made by your great country.
Just to put this out there, the Balkan Powers (Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, etc) had just come out of war between themselves a few years before WW1 started. They also took even more losses in these conflicts.
Fun fact: three years ago, during the Paris ceremony commemorating the end of WWI, the Western powers humiliated Serbia, which gave so much to the war effort, by putting the Serbian president almost literally behind the scenes of the ceremony. Second fun fact: they added to the humiliation by putting the president of Kosovo*, who is a war criminal, currently on trial in Hague for his crimes against Serbs and other non-Albanian populations, on the high ground just behind the French president. Third fun fact: since WWI, The Allies have bombed Serbia three times. Thank you, dear Allies. Do a video on that, if you dare. :)
As a french, and many other french people will agree, it is one of our all-time lows honestly. One of the representatives in charge of the ceremony just said "We f*cked up, big time". And that's not something we admit often, even when we do. Obviously we tried our best to make up for this, but man, that was messed up... And not funny.
There are a few reasons why Italy suffered a lot of casualties in the great war. One of them was the fact that the new kind of war heavily favored the defending side. A couple of manned machinegun positions could wipe out waves of enemies trying to attack. Secondly the incredible incompetence of italian chief of staff Luigi Cadorna. Eventhough u hear a lot about the fighting in the extreme heighs, thats not were the most casualties were taken. The main frontline was around the river Isonzo on the border to austria-hungary.. the italians tried 11 times (without considerably changing tactics) to break through the poorly equipped and outnumbered enemy lines, resulting in catastrophical losses.. the 12th and last battle of the Isonzo was infact a combined offensive of german and austro-hungarian troops, which easily broke through the italian lines and threw them back several kilometers.. once the germans left though the austro-hungarian army collapsed due to its lack of everything pretty much, which resulted in the end of this frontier..
Really like the respectful tone of your reaction. Been rewatching some WWI docs lately and was wondering if you had seen them? "Apocalypse WWI", "WWI in color" and 'The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century". I'm sure you've seen them all, but; I find they interesting and informative.
It would be really cool to see you react to Epic History TV's WW1 series, they even have an episode about the battle of the somme, they made a video for each year.
Here in France, every town you visit will have a memorial for the fallen. No matter how small the town is, there is a memorial. Where I live, there is about ten houses. 102 years ago there was around 3 or 4, the population was around 30 and we ended up losing around 12 people. WW1 completely ruined France and probably set us back 10 years.
@@lebonpigeonlebonpigeon8194 he's just pointing something out, the other thing is those 850,000 British soldiers mostly all died in France and Belgium- not in Britain. I went to a small village in West Sussex in the South of England which probably had a population of around 50, there was a memorial of the people who died from the First World War there and there was one particular family with the surname 'Woolgar' ,which is a German/Danish name so they probably were all part of the same family if they all lived in one small British village, and there was 8 of these named Woolgar- which meant 8 men from the same family in this tiny village all died in World War One. Eight from one family is just saddening.
you should check Indy Naidell's channels about wwi and wwii in real time and the years in between. They're in total 3 channels with the most information about these periods than any other channel BY FAR! That's because they present the wars "In real time". Meaning that each episode every week is about 1 week of war, 100 years or 80 years ago respectively!!
On places to visit that often gets overlooked I recommend going to the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial in France. It's a site from the battle of the Somme, the tour is completely free and the staff were incredible there when I visited.
I want to take a moment to give my deepest appreciation to our dear Majesty Queen Marie of Romania for her sacrifices and tremendous help for the Romanian army. She took care both phisically and mentally of the soldiers injured in the War. The greatest hero of our nation.
You should go to Lysenthoek military cemetary in Poperinghe: there you have british, germans, french, a british nurse and even chinese Labourers buried there.
"Fun " personnal fact about WWI: my grandma had an older brother who died in 1918 (I believe) of the Spanish flu, on the Western front. She said she had never cried before, and never cried again that much in her life. She was about 10 at the time, her brother around 18 or 19.
In France, the number of men Who died during the war was so high that a lot of women were enable to find an husband. So a lottery was created at the end of the war to marry women with random serious wounded soldiers (broken faces, amputees..), that was crazy ! For the widows, it was very common to marry the survivor brother of your husband killed in action (if one of them survive, because sometimes all the men of the same family, father and sons, died in the war because all the men from 18 to 45 years old were enlisted) in order to keep the farm in the family (most of french soldiers were peasants back in time).
Im from Serbia, thanks for being so respectful torwards our losses and other countries losses. We in Serbia learn a lot about the deaths of some of our ancestors. Tragic.0
OMG I live in Belgium, I have been to the trenches from ww1 it’s a real experience that makes you realise how brutal those times were, would love to see u having the same experience. You are awesome 🤩 keep up the good work!
I found some comments about Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in the case of these three countries. They took heavy casualties but emerged on a global stage though of British Origin as Countries in their own right globally.
React to the Greco-Italian war series from Kings and Generals youtube Channel. There are 3 videos covering the majority of the Greco-Italian war. The Greco-Italian war is a part of history that not many people talk about but i think you will find it interesting. Best regards from Greece. Love your content and i support your channel for about 6 months already. I hope you continue the great work :) !
In defense for Japan, Germany didn’t put up a big defense over their colonies, and it wasn’t like the entire Japanese army was going to sail or March thousands of miles to fight in France, it wasn’t a straight shot like going across the Atlantic (as the Americans were able to do). However the Japanese got a good deal, absorbing most of Germany’s colonies in Asia.
I find it so odd that World War I is rarely discussed. In the US, when the 100th anniversary of the start or end of the war came around, it was hardly mentioned in the media or observed by the general population.
I'm surprised this video hasn't been sensored for speaking truth to history and the FACTS. Based on what is happening today there's an awful lot of people who haven't learnt or know the history and are going down the path already lived.
Of all the nations, the numerical losses in the period 1913-1953 were far and away the worst for Russia. In 1910 they guessed they had a population of 160 million people. After two World Wars, the Russian Civil War, the repression of the kulaks, the Homolodor, the purges, and the ethnic rearrangement of eastern Europe after 1945, their population losses were such they have not been replaced after seventy years. In fact it is estimated that Russia currently has a population of less than 90 million and those are heavily weighted to the fifty and up age bracket. Why has Putin been unable to deal with the ramshackle Ukraine? Simple. He doesn't have enough manpower to flesh up an army big enough to overcome a fired-up Girl Scout troop. Behold the fruits of the twentieth century for Russia.
Hey. I've just started watching and love the breadth of content you're reacting to. I just wanted to leave this comment because you mentioned you were into WW1 lately. I recommend a channel called The Great War which did a LOT of videos between 2014 - 2018 covering what was happening week to week 100 years later. You may find it interesting to watch/react to.
Don't forget that the vast majority of those soldiers were in peace time civilians. They weren't professional soldiers and they were shamed if they didn't join or were drafted to go fight in hellish conditions.
The bulk of the Italian casualties were lost in the 11 battles fought along the Isonzo River. Imagine, attacking the same stretch of ground 11 times over a 2 year 4 month period. This bloodletting in this relatively small area only ended with the Battle of Caporetto.
while on the topic, might suggest reacting to "last dying breath" by sabaton, as well as the accompanying sabaton history video? it's about the defense of belgrade during ww1.
You might want to take a look at Yarnhub's videos. He does animated videos on specific people of wars and the incredible (and sometimes seemingly impossible) things they achieved. He's done videos for God's Rambo and his Ghost Camero, Operation Squabble, the events of Castle Itter, Desmond Doss, the Dam Busters, the Night Witches and many more...
As an Aussie, Villers-Bretonneux near the Somme and Gallipoli are the most significant sites for us in ww1. I think it would be interesting to go into the perspectives of some of the smaller countries in the war
If you ever get over to France have a look around pozieres , we had around 30,000 Australians killed there in a month for around a square mile of ground captured it was horrendous .
I've heard (mostly from fans of Douglas Adams) that wounded British veterans would often get jobs as elevator operators ("liftmen") after the Great War
To give some perspective of the casualties and carnage of WW1, the Brits lost more soldiers in 1918 from January to November that year, than during the entirety of WW2 on both the European and Pacific theater.
If you're wondering about the Italians, look up the Isonzo Front. More than half of Italian deaths come from that front. More than 1,5 million casualties as a whole in that beautiful valley in western Slovenia.
I love how you talk with such respect and your reactions are truthful most people don't give the respect that these fallen soldiers deserve especially if they aren't from their country. You don't do that and I thank you.
When people become numbers to be calculated, emotions aren't calculated.
We see a countries as a single body but the real tears comes from people. No single person isn't an embodiment of a country. We only see what we look at.
I absolutely agree with you Democracy
@@temkin9298 1 death is a tragedy, 1000 is a statistic
I believe it was churchill who said 1 death is a tragedy, 1 million is a statistic.
@@kylerowley8248 nope, stalin
12:48 Over 1/3 of the French male active workforce died in WWI. The phenomenon was so massive that the military classes of the interwar period became known as "les classes creuses" (the hollow classes). This partly accounts for the difficulty French industry still faced getting out of the Depression (despite being hit somewhat less harsh than Germany), not to mention the pathological fear of another war starting and the cautious and defensive attitudes of generals and politicians at the onset of WW2. It wasn't cowardice, but it was definitely fear, not of the enemy, but of war itself, based on actual experience.
It didn't help that at the time France had a low birthrate that would only recover after WWII.
and sadly that fear of war is why we had "Appeasement" and the "Phony War" with Hitler. no one wanted war again on that scale, but Hitler would make it difficult.
one other way of realizing the enormous we ( France ) loses we had is to remind that France during WW1 lost most Soldiers than USA in its whole military history ( including american independence war and the loses of both sides of the civil war )
@@lucgonzo people like to make France look weak like "Haha, surrendered during WW2."
Well look at what happened during WW1 and you see why they surrendered so easily.
I'm British and when I was in secondary school (high school) I took part in a history trip to the WW1 battlefields of France and Belgium. At the time I was only 14 or 15 years old so I didn't quite grasp the monumental significance of places like Ypres, The Somme, Verdunne, and St Mihiel. It's only when I look back now on the fact that I visited the sites of mass burials and saw the French and Belgian countryside still showing the scars of trench warfare, that I begin to understand its significance. I hope you do get a chance to visit the battlefields of the western front, it's certainly an eye opening experience.
It’s a scar we will always have in France.. 🇫🇷
I want to visit Douaumont.
"Nobody can die more than once"
Osowiec soldiers: hold my beer
Osowiec, then and again...!
Attack of the dead hundred men!
Ah I see, my fellow Sabaton fans have arrived...
@@papstbenni Coming down the mountainside!
There is also one atack from anaother fellow slav country in the south.Durning a campaign in Greece a Serbian soliders that most of central powers thought were dead went head in the charge not listening to theyr officers.Bulgarians were freaked out and surenderd sayong that dead man are coming.Loosing few more batlles to the same soliders Bulgaria surrenderd.Serbian army crossed 600 kilometars in just 45 days and it turned the tide of a war into Entante hands.Laiter Kaiser of Germany sad that is shame that such a big war was endend because of not segnificant front in the south.
My great grandfather fought and was injured on the first day of the Somme, he then went on to fight (and be injured again) in Ypres. Insane to just think how my entire life depended on his luck.
Serbia is still recovering from those deaths and probably never will since our population is in decline. RIP to all of those heroes who defended our homeland. ❤️🇷🇸
R.I.P to all fallen soldiers. Soldiers fought against each other just because monarchs and governments didn't get what they wanted. It's was a terrible war were nobody gained anything.
@@DonJuan911 Unfortunately the peace was as destructive as the war it self. Even today we can feel mistakes made at that peace conference.
@@SivcevBoris yeah you are right. It led to radical parties gaining power and led the foundations for a second world War
Kosovo is Serbia
@@SivcevBoris treaty of Versailles’ one of the great historical blunders, no doubt
9:06 do read up a bit on the Italians in WW1, its really interesting! The Alpine warfare between the Austrians and the Italians (the "White War") is something quite unparalleled in pretty much any other conflict: Avalanches being triggered, mutual undermining of mountain positions, elite climbers scaling 1000ft cliffs at night to conduct raids...
And even in the East you have Marshal Cadorna, widely recognized as the worst and most just-send-in-another-wave-minded leader in the entire conflict. Exemplified by the aptly named Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo.
Seems like such indifferent leadership was quite common in WW1.
@@andrewmckenzie292 yeah, it takes something to be standing out from the crowd...
I heard in Italy, the name “Cadorna” is pretty much considered a cuss word.
Let's not forget the shelshock and its effects on the soldiers. Many brutal and inhumane experiments, like electric shock, were run on the soldiers to try to get them back on the battle field.
Or the life after the War for these Soldiers. Even for these who were crippled in the War. The time after that wasnt a good one for Soldiers
I've said this before, but it's really rare to see people actually pay attention to detail as much as you do. I've seen a ton of videos about this subject before, and you're the first one to bring up the fact that the U.S. only really took combat during the last couple of months of the war, even though they were "officially" part of the war from 1917. Let alone the input you are able to provide about every other part of the war, not just the U.S. involvement
For me, having watched several different channels about history, you have become a standard when it comes to being able to provide your own input and add to these videos you react to (I hope that made any sense, given that English isn't even my second language). I've been watching history related videos for a couple of years now, and I absolutely love the fact that I've been able to find this kind of a community.
All I can say now is you really are a gem to this community who are interested to learn about our history, it's one thing to know about history but it's another thing to be able to keep viewers like me stuck to the screen until the end and leave them waiting for the next video. Hope to see this channel grow exponentially from this!
I really appreciate your kind words and your praise of what I'm trying to do. It's a pleasure to have you as part of the community!
@@VloggingThroughHistory some people forgot that belgium lost a really big part of population because we never surrender .
I'm an American and paid a visit to Verdun two years ago. It was overwhelming. The French did a wonderful job memorializing the battleground. It takes two or three days to see it all. I'd love to go back.
Good to know...I'm trying to figure out how much time to spend at each place and it's tough to judge without being there.
@@VloggingThroughHistory There's a FANTASTIC museum in the middle of the park that takes three or four hours, the ossuary and church take a few hours, too. Fleury (my favorite) is a must see (see Indy Neidell's special on it), and spend several hours at Forts Douamont and Vaux. There are other surprises mixed in as well. Find a nice family owned cafe in the heart of the Verdun village to break up your activities. Nice folks there that don't speak English but we managed anyway.
Not to forget all the soldiers who were traumatized by that war...
Agreed
For Serbia research : withdrawal trough Albania , then island Vido "Island of death" and the "Blue grave"
I am curious how many Poles, Lithuanians and other people, whose states did not exist at that time, died and what part of the losses were civilians and soldiers among the occupiers. As a Pole, I know that Poles were forced to fight against their brothers, in the Russian, Austrian or German armies, and that many Polish cities were destroyed.
You should react to "Last Dying Breath" by Sabaton. It's a great song about Serbia in WW1
i live in romania
my grandma told me about how her mother and her grandma were sometimes forced to eat grass and other things like that because of the famine
eating tree leaved and insects
my father said that his grandpa never talked about his war service and had that distinct look in his eyes of a person that saw too much
Yes, I have a similar story.
I live in Germany, in Bavaria.
At the end of ww2, our town was occupied by the Russian military, and my grandpa, then 12 years old, tended to hang around the Russian soldiers a lot. They played with him and took him into their bunker when air raids came.
Grandpa said that everyday, they‘d have a regulated break, where they would sit down and eat grass, because they were given nothing. He sometimes brought them food, apples mainly, as we live on a farm and our family wasn’t plagued by hunger as much as many others. Yeah
To everyone who thinks serbia is very weak and bad. Then look at our serbian casualties and deaths its just sad no one could imagine that big loss. My great grandfather was one of them who died while crossing over albania (in serbian its "Albanska golgota") And he never went back
then again Serbia always come off as "Oh woe is me" type
Hello from Serbia. Two of my great grandfathers fought in WW1, fortunately both survived which was a miracle considering that over 60% of Serbian male population died during WW1.
FUN FACTS: Serbian solider 8 years old Momcilo Gavric is one of the youngest soldiers who saw battle in history, even being wounded in battle aged 12. And also most decorated female combatant in history was Serbian WW1 heroine Milunka Savic.
Hi, you said you don't know much about Italy's involvement you should check Battles of the Isonzo a front in the Alps fought between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies.
Promos sounds Slavic. Do you have ancestors that participated in the fighting in the Alps?
@@MusaMansu I am from Slovenia a small country in Europe (this was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) it is a Slavic country and my ancestors do come from the region where the majority of the fighting took place and I don't know any details where exactly my relatives fought in the WWI I was told that some did participate in the fighting in that region. My family suspects that some participated in the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo.
@@primozkolman0 Yeah. I know Slovenia. My ex-girlfriend was of Slovenian descent. I was just curious. Over 1 million soldiers died ther and about 1 million more civilians from both countries. Then there were well over 1 million soldiers wounded. It was the 3rd largest Front of the war and I believe the largest mountain war in history.
@@MusaMansu yes, the Battles of the Isonzo were very bloody and difficult to fight since the majority of the fighting took place in mountains and very cold conditions. I Slovenia we have some beautiful monuments dedicated to WWI, in my opinion, the most interesting one is the Russian Chapel on the Vršič Pass fun fact it was visited by Vladimir Putin on the 100th anniversary.
@@primozkolman0 There are also many projects by small groups of historians dedicated to WW1 in the alps in the slovenian/italian/austrian regions of the fighting, which really show you how brutal this front must have been. Also many dedicated museums.
"You can't die more than once"
Sean Bean:
The Italian dead are related to Luigi Cadorna’s brilliant strategy to attack Austria-Hungary near the Isonzo River not once, not twice, not thrice, but 12 separate times over 2.5 years. Over half of all military deaths and injuries Italy suffered in the war were from those battles.
I remember the Great War channel having a segment on how the Italian front had a higher casualty rate as the mountainous terrain would inflict higher injuries, whether from rubble or debris. I’m also wondering what the mutiny rate would be for Italy, considering repeated failed attacks on the isonzo river, against a collapsing nation that probably could have been knocked out of the war in 1916 if tackled correctly.
Portuguese guy here, hope you read this.
My country fought in the war, in the trenches alongside the belgians, French and British, in fear of losing the colonies in the after war conference. Also against the germans in east africa (we were directly below them in Mozambique )
There's a very very famous soldier in WWI called Aníbal Milhais, we was portuguese. There's a saying that he killed like a hundred or more germans and saved dozens if not hundreds of Entente soldiers. The sentence was "Tu és Milhais, mas vales Milhões !" which roughly translates to "You're Milhais, but you're worth Millions!"
16:19 that's talked a lot , at least here in France, but since Turkey is a "usefull" ally of the US , our politicians have been told to shut up, but nobody's a fool here ...
respect to this man, such a wonderful reaction to one of the darkest pages of Human history. Regards from Greece
Let's all not forget that many of those injured probably lost limbs, or gained debilitating scars or wounds that would never heal, leaving them to live the rest of their lives in discomfort and pain as a result of the war. The deaths were unfathomable, but the suffering even more so.
I'm from Serbia and we are proud of our ancestors that fought in that bloody war. We have experienced so much, and our countries were forever damaged. Some of people on internet make meme from our wars. But we were all together, against evil... We fought bravely against much bigger enemy and we fearlessly repulsed the attacks. I would love if I could watch some video about our history, or at least reaction on Sabaton History - Last dying breath.
I wouldn't say you were fighting evil but still cool.
@@RobloxGamer-ml2hs I think they can call it evil considering how many they lost in the war. I give them a pass.
Serbia was probably the key for the defeat of the Central Powers. I think defeating the Austrian invasion in 1914 is really understimated. Serbia suffered hugely in the war, but Austria-Hungary invading Serbia meant the end of that Empire, and Vojvodina, then part of A-H, becaming part of Serbia.
@Ally Wakka Serbia mainly fought Bulgaria and Austria Hungary :/
@Ally Wakka ihy
For my WWI class in college, I had to research the amount of Russian casualties- many sources, including my professor, said that we really don't know how many Russians died due to the Russian Revolution overlapping with WWI. That blew my mind. So heartbreaking. Be sure to visit the Museum of the Battle of Fromelles on your trip.
The Italians fought the Austrian's in the alps in what was called the Avalanche war.....yes they used snow as a weapon by using artillery to create avalanches. Brutal
Indeed, my grandfather was in the Alpini and he wrote that they were ordered to deliberately target geologically frail positions with artillery in order to bury the enemy alive. It happened all the time
@@andreabianchi6156 I believe that WWI material and human remains have been found in glacial outflows, years after the end of the war because recovery at the time in some cases was just impossible.
@@steveclarke6257 that's very true. Unfortunately us Italians, we get a lot of flak because of our mostly unconclusive offensives during the war but I'd say our front was one of the hardest, if not the hardest one, to fight in, terrain and climate wise.
sadly eastern alps it's a neglected front. but is was bloody both for italian and austro hungarian soldiers
Dan Carlin’s hardcore history on WW1 is awesome. Way too long to react to but if you haven’t heard it it’s definitely worth it. I turn it on when I’m going to be in the car for awhile.
I said the same thing. I've listened all the way through at least 7 times and it still gets to me. Absolutely amazing series.
Do you know if and how you can watch the earlier carlin episodes? The most of them aren't available on Spotify last time i checked
@@thurbine2411 for his older stuff you have to buy it from his website but they are quite cheap. I payed like 7 dollars for roughly 23 hours of content in the WWI series
Macaque12 ok, thank you!
@@thurbine2411 You're welcome!
"NEARLY 135,000 Scots died in the First World War" for a country of our size that's tragic, Scots never waved from Thier patriotic sentiments during the war and were very proud of the UK's win, but we gave up so many men compared to our countries size it's insane, around 5-10% of the Scottish population died in the war and that should never be forgotten, the entente payed for the victory in blood sadly
About 950k British (Mainland) deaths, 53k were Irish, 130k were scots and rest were English (Well of course, English are 5× as populous as both of them combined)
@mohdadeeb1829 "the rest were English" forget about Wales did we?
I'm french and two of my great grand fathers (maternal side) fought during WWI, one came back from Verdun 3 years after the end of the war suffering from memory loss, ptsd and mortars scars on the legs , the other one had been gazed in the trenches and made prisoner by the Germans, he actually came back home with destroyed lungs and ptsd. My last great grandfather (parernal side) fought during WWII but was also made prisoners by Germans and came home 5 years after the end of the war, he suffered from malnutrition and tuberculosis, he died 6 years after coming back.
Most of the french families have a similar history and we all know how horrible is a war, their sacrifice will never be forgotten.
German Guy here... And i can tell. Its the same Story for us Germans. Nearly every still existing family is based on that kind of survivors. My Grandfather for example is one of the few German soldiers that fought in Stalingrad in WW2 ,got captured and came home 1956 from a Gulag. This man never again spoke a word. He was clear though. But he just refused to speak again in his life.
My other Grandfather was too young to fight in WW2. But half of his family got killed by the Russians on their advance. Only he and his older brother managed to hide from the massacre.
With that said... And us French and Germans finally being the Brothers we should be... let that never happen again to our Generations!
In France, we have monument and tombs about soldiers being killed in every cities, every villages.
I grew up in a French traditional family in a typical French alps village that had a population around 1000 people in 1914.
The tombs near the main public administration, there's 112 names write on it, 4 of them have my last name.
Imagine that on 1000 people, the village lost 112 people that go to the front and lost their lives.
This, was the one of the main reason that we fucked up so badly during WW2, morale wasn't there ( even if we haven't the good tactics)
Nice video sir !
I’m italian and yes, the italian theatre of war has never been talked about that much on an international scale. I’ve seen the battlefields and studied this topic a lot more than during school. It’s tragic! People should know what people not far from us in time had to live through.
Our bloodthirsty generals are to blame for all the dead people: we had to cope with mountain warfare, lead by incompetent generals. Cadorna in particular was a butcher. “Silence those machine guns with the bodies of your men”, this was the mentality. Armando Diaz took his place and whiped the slate clean at Vittorio Veneto, but victory came at the cost of hundreds of thousands of good men losing their life on both sides.
A Serbia suffered a lot my grandfather was working on the border so he wasn't in war but the storyes he told me are so sad like his friends he went to school with were dying every day 🇷🇸
I made the trip to the First World War sites in France and Belgium in 2018. The rows upon rows of crosses and the endless lists of the missing at Tyne Cot, the Menin Gate, Thiepval, and the Douaumont Ossuary will leave you overwhelmed and speechless. The feeling is indescribable, and the calm and peace at those sites now compounds the eeriness.
Hey man, love your videos. You've shown every point of view you have discussed the respect you would expect for your own. History is very important, and even with everything we have been able to record, so much of what we learn is only from one perspective when we are young and impressionable. I think you set a great example for how content creators can be honest, insightful, and respectful to things they might not agree with.
Thank you, and I can't wait to see more!
I say that Romanian casualties were higher in WW1 because battles took place in Romania, half the country was occupied and starvation. In WW2 there were more military losses but not as many civilian deaths because most of the battles that Romanian fought in WW2 most of them were in enemy territory In WW2. I'm still surprised that one of the bloodiest battle in Romanian history was Stalingrad.
My great grandpa fought for the royal italian army in WW1, he said that italy did disperate attacks and sometimes without air and artillery support, sending tons and tons of young men to charge enemy posititions without any chance to win and survive. One time to my grandpa and his company was ordered to distract an Austro-Hungarian position heavily propected. To let a platoon attack them by the side, only 20 (more or less) of the 300+ men of his company survived, his brother died in this kind of suicide mission. I can't imagine what he had to go trought. Running straight to the enemy position, the costantly fire of the enemy mortars and machine guns, seeing your friends dying near you, the sound of the cannons and the screams of the soldiers, the fire of the flamethrowers, the risk to die in any second, tons of dead bodies on the ground and some other things. Literally hell on earth, and for what? to get the 1/4 of the promised territory by UK and get forget as one of the nation winners. "winners" what a useless word for war, in war there aren't winners. Just brave men sent to the slaughter for a country that forget them, leaving them die in the solitude and poverty. Putting them in asylums because they had PTSD.
“A hundred years since, lest we forget.”
Don’t know where I heard that, but I feel it fits with this video
history bomb ww1?
@@cheeseninja1115 yeah
I Literally felt like crying seeing almost 900,000 British soldiers and 1.3 million French dead helping defend a country that has traditionally been our enemy. ww1 was horrific.
Britain declared war for Belgium though, because it had garanteed its neutrality. And maybe also, because Germany was too powerful, and it had always been British foreign policy to take down the dominant continental power when it became too big.
FYI - The italians actually were part of big battles - the battles of the isonzo river for instance, which caused massive casualties on both the italian and austria-hungarian side. It sometimes is described as verdun of the southern front and compared to this massive battles in the western front by some historians.
Love your videos :)
If you're ever in Belgium, make sure to visit the Yser Tower and it's museum in Flanders. Tyne Cot cemetery in Zonnebeke, near Passchendaele, is also definitely worth a visit.
I often read things from people wondering why Belgium didn't let the allies take defensive positions in Belgium itself at the start of ww2 (der sitzkrieg/phoney war). As a small country who just got destroyed during ww1 they just hoped to stay out of it the way Switzerland and the Netherlands managed to do in ww1. On the other hand, it was naive to think that Hitler would respect their neutrality.
As usual, very good video! Love this channel
Recently in school we have been learning about the 2 world wars, it’s all very fascinating, and devastating. Not just the insane loss of human lives but how much destruction humans can make and repeat 20 years later on a larger scale.
Two points are particularly notable for me. 1) that despite losing the War, Germany inflicted greater casualties on the Allies than the other way around. And 2), the 1.5 million Armenians who were systematically murdered by the Turks are shamefully ignored; presumably for geo-political reasons.
Your facial reactions are really striking when the announces gives each number of dead. They're the same ones I'm sure I made when I saw the figures for the first time. Just nuts to think about this happening just over 100 years ago.
13:03 this is on Belgrade fortress
Actual casualties in Serbia was 26% of population dead. To put that in perspective, every family lost at least one or two family members on average, since the families counted more members back then. Serbia lost around of 60% of its male population due to the fact that most people dying from deseases were injured soldiers in mobile hospitals. There was a raging typhus epidemc, which Serbia was actually cleared off few decades before the WW1, but the war brought it back. Also there is a big number of people that died in exhodus trough Albanian mountains.
Serbia is a Tiny country so no way "26% died" It was 16-22%
@@mohdadeeb1829 No point in your statement... If you have doubts, google it....
@@Shiljamannn I googled it. It's 525,000
@@mohdadeeb1829 Highest estimate is 1 250 000 dead or missing and around million of those are confirmed. That makes about the quarter of population for a country that counted just above 4 million inhabitants. Most of those deaths weren't in combat but lost to typhus epidemic, other deseases and hunger, exhaustion and reprisal war crimes from enemy armies. You need to learn to use google and manage sources better....
@@Shiljamannn
Just because My Google said different thing means I don't know how to use Google.
This is Why I don't like Serbs, there are 2 Serbs I like Niko and Roman. All other are Cringe.
World War II losses in Estonia, estimated at around 25% of the population, were among the highest proportion in Europe. War and occupation deaths listed in the current reports total at 81,000.
You're the only American iv ever seen that actually admits or even realises how much Russia and the Soviets lost, its unimaginable and incomparable to any other county, we lost so many people it's insane, the gap will be in our countries forever, its so sad that we lost so many people for what, for nobody to care
That being said during WW1, Russia had 144 million people (compared with 67 million Germans and 38 million French) so that kind of casualties, while still horrific, weren't abnormal. Especially since Russia was ill equiped compared with the industrial powers in WW1.
The sad thing with Russia back then (and the countries that were part of it), is that the Russian Revolution and the civil war that followed made even more russian victims than WW1 (a lot more). And then there'll be Staline, the famines (once again FAR more than the losses in WW1) and finally WW2. All of these together.
Im also very happy at him aknoledging France suffering.I've seen asshole totally mock France saying they were litterally useless in the war
This is the second American you've seen then. Russian civilianand military casualties especially in WWII are truly diabolical. The numbers stagger the mind. I hated the Red government. But I have towering respect for the Russian people who bore the harshest of the Third Reich in WWII. May such never happen again.
I feel like more Americans are beginning to realize the great suffering of Russians...certainly during WW2 at least. In the past 20 years, WW2 history kind of became en vogue here with Band of Brothers, the Tom Hanks D-Day movie, etc. It's inevitable that it created amateur historians out of a lot of people. At some point, people accidentally stumble onto some undeniable truths about who did the heaviest lifting to defeat the Germans.
@@lebonpigeonlebonpigeon8194 It's not realistic to expect Americans with only passing interest in history to know much about the world wars as we didn't suffer as much as most European countries. However, please know that those of us that have an interest in 20th century history are well aware of the contributions and sacrifices made by your great country.
Just to put this out there, the Balkan Powers (Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, etc) had just come out of war between themselves a few years before WW1 started. They also took even more losses in these conflicts.
“You can’t die more than once”
Heroin addicts: wanna bet?
Fun fact: three years ago, during the Paris ceremony commemorating the end of WWI, the Western powers humiliated Serbia, which gave so much to the war effort, by putting the Serbian president almost literally behind the scenes of the ceremony.
Second fun fact: they added to the humiliation by putting the president of Kosovo*, who is a war criminal, currently on trial in Hague for his crimes against Serbs and other non-Albanian populations, on the high ground just behind the French president.
Third fun fact: since WWI, The Allies have bombed Serbia three times. Thank you, dear Allies.
Do a video on that, if you dare. :)
As a french, and many other french people will agree, it is one of our all-time lows honestly.
One of the representatives in charge of the ceremony just said "We f*cked up, big time". And that's not something we admit often, even when we do.
Obviously we tried our best to make up for this, but man, that was messed up... And not funny.
There are a few reasons why Italy suffered a lot of casualties in the great war. One of them was the fact that the new kind of war heavily favored the defending side. A couple of manned machinegun positions could wipe out waves of enemies trying to attack. Secondly the incredible incompetence of italian chief of staff Luigi Cadorna. Eventhough u hear a lot about the fighting in the extreme heighs, thats not were the most casualties were taken. The main frontline was around the river Isonzo on the border to austria-hungary.. the italians tried 11 times (without considerably changing tactics) to break through the poorly equipped and outnumbered enemy lines, resulting in catastrophical losses.. the 12th and last battle of the Isonzo was infact a combined offensive of german and austro-hungarian troops, which easily broke through the italian lines and threw them back several kilometers.. once the germans left though the austro-hungarian army collapsed due to its lack of everything pretty much, which resulted in the end of this frontier..
Really like the respectful tone of your reaction. Been rewatching some WWI docs lately and was wondering if you had seen them? "Apocalypse WWI", "WWI in color" and 'The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century". I'm sure you've seen them all, but; I find they interesting and informative.
You should really check out the World War 1 museum in Kansas City Missouri. Its very good
In France, almost everybody has someone who got injured or killed in the WWI, the WWII or the algerian war
Everybody*, without the migrant
@@user-ry6ey8gq3t of course, I speak from french with french origins
Say that to a Serbian xD
@@timomaertens5842 There is town in France called Thierville that never suffered any Physical casualty.
You have to visit the Canadian cemetery's in the Netherlands
First time I hear of the Ottoman Empire genocide as a German.
Oh Of course.
It would be really cool to see you react to Epic History TV's WW1 series, they even have an episode about the battle of the somme, they made a video for each year.
Here in France, every town you visit will have a memorial for the fallen. No matter how small the town is, there is a memorial. Where I live, there is about ten houses. 102 years ago there was around 3 or 4, the population was around 30 and we ended up losing around 12 people. WW1 completely ruined France and probably set us back 10 years.
Yeah that’s the exact same in the UK even the smallest village has one. Absolutely unreal…
more than 10 years
@@DarrensHighlights France and UK lost aren't really the same proportions tho.
@@lebonpigeonlebonpigeon8194 he's just pointing something out, the other thing is those 850,000 British soldiers mostly all died in France and Belgium- not in Britain. I went to a small village in West Sussex in the South of England which probably had a population of around 50, there was a memorial of the people who died from the First World War there and there was one particular family with the surname 'Woolgar' ,which is a German/Danish name so they probably were all part of the same family if they all lived in one small British village, and there was 8 of these named Woolgar- which meant 8 men from the same family in this tiny village all died in World War One. Eight from one family is just saddening.
@@nickbell4984
wtf you talking about lol half of those deaths were indians and your population was bigger than frances
The criticism about Japan's lack of participation in the Peace Conference is a valid (albeit controvertial) point.
Normally don't like reaction videos but I love you mate XD. I enjoy the added knowledge you provide and have been binge watching most of your videos.
Glad you like them!
if one day you come close to Paris there is a museum about WWI in Meaux (around 31 miles fomr Paris)
you should check Indy Naidell's channels about wwi and wwii in real time and the years in between. They're in total 3 channels with the most information about these periods than any other channel BY FAR! That's because they present the wars "In real time". Meaning that each episode every week is about 1 week of war, 100 years or 80 years ago respectively!!
Trianon wasn't covered.
On places to visit that often gets overlooked I recommend going to the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial in France. It's a site from the battle of the Somme, the tour is completely free and the staff were incredible there when I visited.
I want to take a moment to give my deepest appreciation to our dear Majesty Queen Marie of Romania for her sacrifices and tremendous help for the Romanian army. She took care both phisically and mentally of the soldiers injured in the War. The greatest hero of our nation.
For reference 22% of the current us population is 72.6 million
You should go to Lysenthoek military cemetary in Poperinghe: there you have british, germans, french, a british nurse and even chinese Labourers buried there.
The Somme was so devastating to the Newfoundland regiment that Canada day (july 1st) is a day of mourning and memorial in newfoundland
"Fun " personnal fact about WWI: my grandma had an older brother who died in 1918 (I believe) of the Spanish flu, on the Western front.
She said she had never cried before, and never cried again that much in her life. She was about 10 at the time, her brother around 18 or 19.
In France, the number of men Who died during the war was so high that a lot of women were enable to find an husband. So a lottery was created at the end of the war to marry women with random serious wounded soldiers (broken faces, amputees..), that was crazy ! For the widows, it was very common to marry the survivor brother of your husband killed in action (if one of them survive, because sometimes all the men of the same family, father and sons, died in the war because all the men from 18 to 45 years old were enlisted) in order to keep the farm in the family (most of french soldiers were peasants back in time).
In Knowing Better's video on the Armenian Genocide, he said that it was the reason why Hitler thought that he could get away with the Holocaust
Im from Serbia, thanks for being so respectful torwards our losses and other countries losses. We in Serbia learn a lot about the deaths of some of our ancestors. Tragic.0
WW1 is so fascinating to me since my great grandfather fought as an royal field artillery captain. i can’t imagine the things he had to witness
OMG I live in Belgium, I have been to the trenches from ww1 it’s a real experience that makes you realise how brutal those times were, would love to see u having the same experience. You are awesome 🤩 keep up the good work!
I found some comments about Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in the case of these three countries. They took heavy casualties but emerged on a global stage though of British Origin as Countries in their own right globally.
hi from Verdun ! thank's for your reaction.
React to the Greco-Italian war series from Kings and Generals youtube Channel. There are 3 videos covering the majority of the Greco-Italian war.
The Greco-Italian war is a part of history that not many people talk about but i think you will find it interesting.
Best regards from Greece. Love your content and i support your channel for about 6 months already. I hope you continue the great work :) !
In defense for Japan, Germany didn’t put up a big defense over their colonies, and it wasn’t like the entire Japanese army was going to sail or March thousands of miles to fight in France, it wasn’t a straight shot like going across the Atlantic (as the Americans were able to do). However the Japanese got a good deal, absorbing most of Germany’s colonies in Asia.
Notable battles the italians fought in:
First battle of the Isonzo
Second battle of the Isonzo
....
Twelth battle of the Isonzo
Cadorna's finest hour🧐
You didn't even mention The Persian famine during WW1
I find it so odd that World War I is rarely discussed. In the US, when the 100th anniversary of the start or end of the war came around, it was hardly mentioned in the media or observed by the general population.
You're absolutely right, Candace.
I'm surprised this video hasn't been sensored for speaking truth to history and the FACTS.
Based on what is happening today there's an awful lot of people who haven't learnt or know the history and are going down the path already lived.
Of all the nations, the numerical losses in the period 1913-1953 were far and away the worst for Russia. In 1910 they guessed they had a population of 160 million people. After two World Wars, the Russian Civil War, the repression of the kulaks, the Homolodor, the purges, and the ethnic rearrangement of eastern Europe after 1945, their population losses were such they have not been replaced after seventy years. In fact it is estimated that Russia currently has a population of less than 90 million and those are heavily weighted to the fifty and up age bracket. Why has Putin been unable to deal with the ramshackle Ukraine? Simple. He doesn't have enough manpower to flesh up an army big enough to overcome a fired-up Girl Scout troop. Behold the fruits of the twentieth century for Russia.
Fake info. Russia had 144 mln man, not 90.
Hey. I've just started watching and love the breadth of content you're reacting to.
I just wanted to leave this comment because you mentioned you were into WW1 lately. I recommend a channel called The Great War which did a LOT of videos between 2014 - 2018 covering what was happening week to week 100 years later. You may find it interesting to watch/react to.
Love that channel! I'm a big fan of Indy Neidell.
That pic at 13:04 with tanks is from Kalemegdan fortress in Belgrade, Serbia. It's part of Military museum exibition.
Don't forget that the vast majority of those soldiers were in peace time civilians. They weren't professional soldiers and they were shamed if they didn't join or were drafted to go fight in hellish conditions.
The bulk of the Italian casualties were lost in the 11 battles fought along the Isonzo River. Imagine, attacking the same stretch of ground 11 times over a 2 year 4 month period. This bloodletting in this relatively small area only ended with the Battle of Caporetto.
while on the topic, might suggest reacting to "last dying breath" by sabaton, as well as the accompanying sabaton history video?
it's about the defense of belgrade during ww1.
it mental to think how many people died from the war then along came the Spanish flu
You might want to take a look at Yarnhub's videos. He does animated videos on specific people of wars and the incredible (and sometimes seemingly impossible) things they achieved. He's done videos for God's Rambo and his Ghost Camero, Operation Squabble, the events of Castle Itter, Desmond Doss, the Dam Busters, the Night Witches and many more...
When you get to Verdun, you will feel it..
As an Aussie, Villers-Bretonneux near the Somme and Gallipoli are the most significant sites for us in ww1. I think it would be interesting to go into the perspectives of some of the smaller countries in the war
If you ever get over to France have a look around pozieres , we had around 30,000 Australians killed there in a month for around a square mile of ground captured it was horrendous .
Can't wait for the visiting videos
I've heard (mostly from fans of Douglas Adams) that wounded British veterans would often get jobs as elevator operators ("liftmen") after the Great War
6:03 I'm a Serbian and I never saw these deaths in this way
To give some perspective of the casualties and carnage of WW1, the Brits lost more soldiers in 1918 from January to November that year, than during the entirety of WW2 on both the European and Pacific theater.
Great video from Serbia.
If you're wondering about the Italians, look up the Isonzo Front. More than half of Italian deaths come from that front. More than 1,5 million casualties as a whole in that beautiful valley in western Slovenia.
Note: before the WW1 which lasted from 1914 to 1918, Serbia also had a war against the Ottoman empire in 1912 and against the Bulgaria in 1913.