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Hi Timeghost, I would love to give you some Feedback. I very often have the feeling that you focus way to much on the european Theater and not really on the pacific one. Unlike in europe, we don't often hear what is going f.ex on at the planing tables at Tokio (we haven't heard of Tojo f.ex for a long while now) or what is going on in the occupied territories (philipin resistance f.ex). I know this war us huge and you can't possible cover everything but I just wanted to mention it.
Fantastic episode, as always, guys, but having other cast members twiddling their thumbs and doing their makeup in the background distracts from the focus on Indy. Anna looks lovely, as always, but having two people doing nothing but random… nothing… in the background is like having an animated cartoon of a dancing baby in the corner - it adds nothing and only distracts from the focus on the narrator. Just my two cents worth. L
Suggestion.........One episode covering the by-passed japanese strongholds (Rabaul, Taiwan, even Singapore itself.). The strategic rationale, the oil shipping lanes from Balikpapan, the military time and resources calculation, and the actual operational bombing, blockades until later surrender. What was bypassed had a cost, and a risk in the mind of the planners.
If there are any Star Wars fans among you then know this , 17th February 1943 had been a historic day. After advancing 190 km in five days General Montgomery's Eighth Army liberated Luke Skywalkers home planet Tattouine. Well , the city of Foum Tattouine in Southern Tunisia just east of Mareth Line where George Lucas filmed outdoor production of Star Wars Episode IV , A New Hope 33 years later among natural cave formations , hills and igloos in desert/mountain region of Foum Tattouine (which later used the name as planets name where Anakin and Luke Skywalker grew up)
On the Soviets being relatively close to capturing Hitler, there was a massive near miss in 1940 when Churchill was returning from a meeting with the French Government and the pilot of his plane could see an ME109 flying above them. Miraculously, the ME109 pilot did not see them. So easily could have gone the other way and possibly changed the war in a whole number of ways.
@@WorldWarTwo I have googled the situation but it seems hard to pin down online. My source is the We Have Ways podcast hosted by WWII historian James Holland and British comedian (also WWII enthusiast) Al Murray so I’d say it’s reliable. Edit: To be specific I heard it in one of their Dunkirk day by day episodes I believe. There are 8 episodes covering the subject so I don’t know which episode for sure.
@@Alsadius Not Churchill but I think Montgomery almost died in a plane crash in Sicily as well. Even some like Gott did actually get shot down and die.
Good episode. It was Hitler's personal pilot Hans Baur who found out early on February 19th (from the base commander of the airfield where Hitler's three Condors were parked) that Soviet tanks were advancing close to that location. He drove into town and asked H. permission to move those planes to another, safer, field. Hitler refused. Instead the entire entourage soon drove to airfield and Hitler boarded his plane and immediately took off. The Soviets didn't know H. was there and those tanks never did attack that airfield on that day - they were short of fuel. Dr. Mark Felton has an excellent video on all of these events.
I didn't know any German general knew anything about the military use of the "skedaddle?" But there it is! It may be the smartest German maneuver of the war on the eastern front.
I just found out this morning that the last member of my family who fought in WWII, who had turned 100 in November, had passed away earlier this month. His unit has yet to enter the timeline of this channel, but I felt I should acknowledge him now. Rest easy, Uncle Wes.
"Because there is no plan B" is a very strong quote for basically the entire war, fronts and battles, the only plan was to win, win no matter the cost, that's what almost all nations then decided.
@Samuel Ardern Thanks for watching! To see all the developments in France and around the world be sure to subscribe, and please check out our Patreon to help us make more www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
At this point there is a lot of French support for the NAZI's that gets washed over in history (so as to not offend anyone.) Before the war and invasion France had fascist leaning parties (if not in name) that would become supportive of Vichy, and even Germany. Others felt betrayed by the British, both for bailing from the continent and sinking the French fleet and abided Vichy as the only France they had. For Torch these were the concerns - very real - where did the French heart lie? The reality is there were plenty of Vichy loyal Frenchmen.
@@robertkras5162 Also to note on Vichy's political state and it's views and takes on the right, all political parties were banned except for those openly collaborating, a leader of one of those parties was Jacques Doriot who used to be communist but was shunned by Stalin then kicked from the PCF ( French Communist Party), he turned right from there and became what we call him in France "The French Hitler" as he had quite alot of ambitions and went all out to collaborate with Germany, he wanted the Germans to replace Pétain and put him in charge of a new french state hellbent against communism as a whole. (Edit) He even was given a wehrmacht uniform wich he wore proudly during speeches and meetings, later on creating a french volounteer force to fight on the Eastern front. Hitler will never give him much more power because quote "He is too ambitious." but will use him against Pétain and Vichy as a tool, basically saying "Watch out if you don't help us enough we'll replace your head ot state with someone else" even though it was all bluff. Doriot was skilled in speeches and was able to gather quite the audience. Doriot will die in febuary 45 when fleeing Paris from allied push, on his way to Germany to try and establish a French exile government he'll never reach the border as his ambassy car is spotted by RAF fighters and is gunned down, Doriot and the driver are killed on the spot while his secretary will survive to tell the tale. He will be burried in Germany with the honors.
@@sylvananas7923 I know very little about the general mood and political leanings of people in occupied France before Allied landings. Do you know any good sources or books I can read on the topic?
Thank you! This story of Hitler's visit on the East front ironically described in the memoirs of German generals. The threat of Hitler's capture was rather hypothetical, although it very impressed the Fuhrer. "On February 18, a report was received that the Soviet troops were only 60 kilometers from the Dnieper and 100 km from the headquarters where Hitler was received. At first, he did not believe these reports, but then asked Colonel Busse to clarify the situation. - The Soviet tank battalion took Pavlograd. Italian division that was supposed to defend the city fled. - Hitler looked at the map with clenched teeth". The commander of the tank battalion of the Soviet 25th tank corps, Captain Zakiev, would be very proud if he knew what a deep impression the actions of his unit had on Hitler and his generals. But, instead of "capturing Hitler," the battalion continued to carry out its immediate combat mission - holding the Sinelnikovo railway junction, through which the Hollitd army group in the Donbass was supplied.
They were never going to capture him. Only takes a minute to get a single VIP on a plane or a fast truck and get him away from the area. Now if they somehow achieved complete and total surprise...
@@WorldWarTwo Manstein subsequently dramatized the situation somewhat: “Still, the situation could not be considered safe, since Hitler’s arrival was not a secret, and when he entered the city from the airfield, he was recognized and greeted by soldiers who were in Zaporozhye, representatives of his party and other persons. For protection we had in Zaporozhye, besides our guard company, only a few anti-aircraft units. In the near future, enemy tanks were to come so close to the city that they could fire on the airfield located east of the Dnieper". In fact, the 15th Infantry Division arrived in Dnepropetrovsk on February 18 and was soon thrown against the breakthrough at Sinelnikov.
It still baffles me that the Japanese made the way to head to Alaska. My Great Grandfather, fought in the Alaskan campaign in the airforce. Wish I could have asked him what had happened
@Matt338r Wow, that's incredible your Great Grandfather fought in the Alaskan campaign. That must have been quite the unique experience in this war. Thanks for sharing
I know the feeling. My grandfather was a parartrooper (glider infantry specifically) who fought in The Battle of the Bulge. I regret never having the opportunity to talk to him about it. Although grandpa, it's got to be said, wasn't very articulate. He was traumatized by what happened over there, killing Germans and watching Germans kill his friends. All we've really got are his service records.
@@mcnultyssobercompanion6372 Many people who served simply never wanted to talk about it. I don't think my grandfather would have told me about it, even if I had asked. He dictated some of the lighter moments to my mother, about a small book's worth, but that was it. He medals and sword had a prominent place in a cabinet in the hallway, but were never spoken of.
@Atlas That's quite amazing, thank you for sharing about him. Every episode I read comments from people whose family was in the war, and it never ceases to amaze me. I'm glad he survived those dark times and I'm glad you're here to explore the war with us. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a video every single week!
It's interesting in that this week the area the Soviets and the Germans are fighting over is again the center of attention in the winter of 2022. Thanks to this channel my knowledge of the geography of this area is much more familiar now.
Conrad almost always just lurking in the background is one of my favorite set pieces. Would love to see a Luigi one in one of these episodes maybe when Italy surrenders?
On the topic of the war with Japan, “The Pacific” by HBO is an excellent mini series about the war in the pacific theatre. It’s based off of “With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa” by Eugene B. Sledge and “Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie. It covers the stories of Sledge, Leckie, and John Basilone. It’s an excellent depiction of the pacific theatre and I highly recommend it.
@@WorldWarTwo Yeah another great idea would be a special episode on the status of everything being sent to the USSR to help them vs the Axis. So often when people focus on the aid the Allies send to the USSR during WW2 people just focus on the military equipment and then just wave it off since the vast amount of the military equipment sent to the USSR didn't come until after things started to turn around for the USSR. But when we look at everything sent to the USSR in total we find that the USSR is getting tons of equipment shipped to them right from the start of the war that is just not military related because that is specifically what Molotov asked the Western Allies to send to them. So things like logistical equipment, telephones, radios, wires, tools needed to fix their factories (that produce the weapons needed to win the war), medical equipment, boots and so much more.
@@OneLeatherBoot Exactly. So many people over the last 10-20 years just dismiss the aid sent to the USSR by the Allies since the military equipment didn't come in large numbers to the USSR until around when Stalingrad was ending. But that is specifically because the USSR, via their foreign minister Molotov requested other aid as I listed. In addition to what I listed even fuel from the US was sent to the USSR because the US had much more high quality fuel then the USSR had that allowed plane engines to perform much better at higher altitudes which significantly helped fighter pilots during WW2. A very large reason that US and British pilots were able to have incredibly high kill to death ratios against German pilots who had insane numbers of kills going against allied pilots with little experience was that the fuel they had was just far better then the fuel the Germans and the Axis overall had. That fuel allowed far superior maneuvering at higher altitudes then German planes that were not that much of a quality level worse then Western Allied planes. The P51 Mustang is the perfect example of this. It was a very good plane to start with but once it got the British Rolls-Royce Merlin it became much better. And then when those Rolls-Royce Merlin that were made in the US were further improved on in the US with the licensed built Packard V-1650 Merlin the plane became by far the best fighter plane of WW2. But that engine (Packard V-1650 Merlin) needed the high quality fuel from the US to take advantage of it's superchargers.
@@PhillyPhanVinny The whole Lend Lease aspects these days have been taken over by "Patriots" from various countries with little to no knowledge about what was really going on. Russian netizens will point out that they killed more Germans and produced more tanks, so it had no real impact, as "Stalingrad was won". Yet conveniently forget about the Artic Convoys & Russian convoys from Alaska while their factories were being relocated & rebuilt before the Iran corridor opened. The raw materials (metals, rubber etc), food, AV gas, a huge number of transport vehicles (war is about logistics), boots, telegraph cable, oil well equipment, locomotives and countless other items the Soviets requested and that Stalin, Zhukov & others have publicly stated that LL was vitally important to the Soviets. American netizens boast about the amount sent, without factoring in the Soviets on the ground & air using it and the "war was lost without it". It is almost as if there was a Cold War post WW2 between major powers that then tried to down play the other, while promoting themselves. I could go on & on, as LL is such a fascinating topic, yet few have probably even read the Wikipedia page on it. History doesn't happen in a vacuum and there were so many complex parts, along with blood shed by all the allies that went into defeating the Germans on all fronts. LL was one of those key parts. Those in power & responsible for the decisions at the time on all sides had a better grasp of its importance than any random netizen these days. Soviet blood, American industry and British tech is the often used, but simplified phase.
@gamer228r Thank you for watching!! Our audience's enthusiasm is really amazing, we appreciate your support very much and look forward to having you with us through the rest of this war
I remember reading the first time about Hitler nearly being captured by the soviets (though they didn't realize it) in the Wikipedia article about "The Third Battle of Kharkov", and I found it quite hillarious how he flew there to argue with Manstein about Kharkov being abaondon without a fight (and even possibly to dismiss him), only to flee and give him freedom of operation when the enemy was 30 kilometers away from the airfield.
It's an incredibly strange and somber feeling to know that less than a week from when this video was uploaded, that the sounds of rockets, aircraft, artillery, and gunfire would echo once more across the very same regions and cities mentioned in it and that people who had no interest in history would know their names. Kharkov, Donbas, Maruipol, Dnieper, Zaporozhye. Almost 79 years to the week, Russian troops were once again storming across them, only this time they were invading, not liberating them.
It's 2023 and the Russian are still fighting over the same area Donbas, Mariupal, Dnieper, Zaphorozhya. Russia has fallen to become a spent force in what was once its own backyard (Ukraine) while the USA and NATO dominate Europe. A new world order is in the making and Russia's place is precarious.
Japan: OK, we have 6 months to force the USA to surrender, or we will lose the war! *6 months pass, the USA do not surrender and Japan begins losing* Japan: *Pikachu surprise face*
Kasserine will always make me remember of George C Scott’s Patton. What a movie WW2 guys, could you someday make a special episode about LL? You’re kind of WW2 mythbusters, that would be really interesting
An interesting WW2 movie to watch around this week is "Восхождение (The Ascent)" (1977) by Larisa Shepitko. The movie centers around two Soviet partisans in Belarus on a mission to search for food. It's available for free in RUclips at the Mosfilm channel. Period covered: Winter 1943 Historical accuracy: 3/5 IMDB grade: 8.3/10 Other: Golden Bear Award winner at the Berlinale
On February 16, 1943, Operation Gunnerside is commenced with norwegian commandos dropped into Norway to group up with previously dropped saboteurs from Operation Grouse in 1942. Because of the failure that was Operation Freshman, the Germans had increased security around the Vemork Heavy Water plant. The Norwegians made their way to the plant without being spotted by the guards. Thanks to a Norwegian agent SOE had planet before, detailed plans and schedules had been given to them, and the saboteurs used this to enter the basement. Only person to encounter them was a caretake who cooperated with them. With fuses lit, the men along with the caretaker escaped the plant and later the explosives went off. The raid was a great success. The entire german inventory of heavy water was destroyed. All commandos escaped from the german search. Five escaped via skiing to Sweden, two went to Oslo to assist MILORG and four remained in the region continuing resistance work.
I'm curious about the German "foreign worker" programs. I keep hearing these referred to as "slave labor" or "slave workers" Understandably few Frenchmen, Norwegians , Dutch, Danes would want to depart their homes and work in German factories, and few if any had choice, so these could be categorized as force labor. But were they payed? were they fed and housed reasonably? Or were they in the same concentration camps that Jews and Slaves were placed for their forced labor? i.e. is there substantial difference in how the various workers are treated and how different were the conditions? Anyone have anything on this?
There were a lot of forced labourers from the occupied lands in Ukraine and Belarus, maybe Russia too (but Russia was at this point not occupied anymore). Also largely forgotten how these smaller countries within the Soviet Union suffered under Nazi occupation
they were "paid" pretty much in the same way the cuban "doctors" get "paid" today. They go overseas, they get food and housing. Their families get supply rations in (Cuba, occupied France). If they ran away or refused to work, the rations to their families would be cut. Or worse. So were they slaves? Slaves do get food and housing. So same difference.
I'll answer with an example: Guenther Quandt, head of the family dynasty that now owns BMW, owned 50 000 slaves in his factories. These factories were not part of the concentration camp system so likely these slaves were Ostarbeiter, french OST and french/british/polish POWs. Anyway, one of these factories had a dedicated area for executions, so yeah it was pretty much hard-slavery.
From this episode it sounds like Vichy France was sending them in lieu of military service. So probably room and board and maybe some remittance to the family in the form of rations, but doubtful they got anything like fair pay. I do recall the workers from the east being treated much, much worse than the ones from occupied Western countries but can't think of a source off the top of my head. Just stuff I've seen referred to over the years, accounts from Allied POWs and "guess workers" who wrote about how the slavs and Russians were treated as disposable. Horrible stuff.
Operation Victory - Brigadier Francis de Guingand (Eighth Army Chief of Staff) Montgomery decided to use this interval in Tripoli to check our battle technique and he considered this would be an admirable oppurtunity for passing our experiences to others. He therefore arranged a series of lectures and demonstrations and discussions to take place on February 15th , 16th , 17th , these included addresses by Army Commander himself on High Command in Desert War and Conningham of Desert Air Force on employment of air force to support army. Then we had demonstrations of latest methods in employment of tanks , artillery , infantry. General discussions took afterwards. A lot of time was taken up by mine clearing problems. Spectators could see all types of mines we met in desert and various gadgets we developed for dealing with them. Then demonstrations were held to show the latest drill we developed to clear lanes through minefields. We also demonstrated latest methods we evolved for laying on air support. This was a joint Army and RAF item and I believe it was most successful. Several Generals came from Home , from India and elsewhere. Montgomery had also invited some of the American generals recently arrived in North Africa. It was the first time most of us had set our eyes on George Patton. At first he did not appear to be much impressed but later he was enthustiastic in his praises and said "we could use that ourselves in our operations" especially regarding our mine clearence equipment , vehicles and drill. The story is told of his his reply when he was asked what he thought of Montgomery's adress on How to Make A War. His reply came slowly with a lovely Southern accent : "I maybe old , I maybe slow , I may be stoopid and I know I am definitely deaf but it just does not mean anything to me !" Poor George Patton , what a great man he was and how we came to respect and admire him during those next three years. 😄 Bedell Smith , Eisenhower's Chief of Staff came to visit us too during these demonstrations , I took to him at once and I can never be grateful enough for his kindness and understanding and help from that time onwards. He was a wonderful , generous , open hearted and wise. I never appealed to him for help in vain. We got to know each other well enough to say exactly what we meant. We certainly had some tricky moments together but I found as all Americans , best way was to be outspoken and complately frank. I think after the war it was Lidell Hart said to me "They say that you and Bedell Smith are the only British and American officers who could complately understand each other during the war. The reason suggested is both of you have bad stomachs !" During dinner talk was about suggested future roles of Eighth and First Armies. Montgomery in his confident manner , claimed that he would capture Sfax by 15th April. Bedell Smith replied that would be very good and in this case he could ask whatever he wanted from Eisenhower. When Montgomery asked whether he could take a Flying Fortress for air travel of himself and his staff and put it on a wager , Bedell Smith (to his later regret) accepted and a bet was struck (Montgomery took these bets very seriously and had a betting book to record them in his tactical HQ)
Goebbels wrote in his diary that Hitler flew to Army Group South HQ in Zaparozhe in order to relieve Manstein of his command, but when he got there he found the situation 'truly hair-raising', and realised that now was not the time to be changing commanders. (Ziemke)
It's very unengaging for me when I see an intern doing makeup behind Indy left shoulder at 9:00. Please no intern cameos in the background. What role do they play? Other than a distraction from the theatre of war. Thank you
It's always nice to see more people included in this video. As either background characters or just to be mentioned. It's very nice. Glad to see Ana D again.
It was about time the soviet offensive would wear itself down. No major offensive can last forever. Sooner or later you run out of men and supplies while your enemy will regroup. We have especially seen this in the second half of 1941
The Wehrmacht being able to shorten and tighten up its lines after Fall Blau in order to regain some much-needed mobility probably added another 2 years to the war. They were in full collapse after Stalingrad but that gave them some breathing room in order to put together a good defense.
Sometime between now and the battle of Kursk the fighting reaches a bit of a lull. Some sources claim during this time there were secret negotiations about a truce or cease fire as well as an exchange of prisoners. Others state this never happened or if they did it was very low level and never went very far.
@@mikedeck8381 That's interesting in light of the Allies' promise to each other not to seek a separate peace with Germany. I've always heard it framed as the Soviets being paranoid that the US and UK would be the ones seeking a truce with Germany in order to gang up on the USSR, not the other way around. It would be surprising if the leaders of the USSR were even considering peace at this point.
One of the most important things in the war is to anticipate enemy's actions and in case of Guadalcanal the misinterpretation that the enemy was going to reinforce the troops while it was an evacuation mission was still useful in winning the battle in the time in which it happened.
Could I humbly suggest that in the future, you do a bit of cut and paste from your peerless archives and present a bio on Erwin Rommel? Speaking purely in terms of military history, he was a remarkable individual. There are plethora candidates for such a treatment, but I know it's a can of worms for a number of reasons (war crimes in particular), but still. I think it'd be a valuable resource for future learning. All the best. You guys are incredible. Such important work. Keep it up!
@Aaron Be sure we're not done hearing from Rommel in this war, and check out this video Indy did all the way back in the prior war, all about Rommel ruclips.net/video/aBZauna5dwk/видео.html
Hey Indy, can't wait to see you cover the third battle of Kharkov aka Mansteins counter attack, which is already slowly underway :) About the Battle of Kursk, will you cover it in debt with special episodes and so? The battle was so massive in it's own right that I would love to see it having some special episodes. Not just about the battle itself, but also concerning the build up in men, material, planning etc from both sides. I know it's a huge job and there's so much to cover, also with D-Day coming up, but I really hope it will be possible. And fantastic episode once again, have a great weekend! :)
@Nikolaj Madum Thanks very much and I hope you have a great weekend as well! I'll give you the long-form explanation of how complex the 'specials' subject is: Except for simply not having the time, there is one thing that ties our hands in creating major special projects like this one- getting the funding to actually be able to produce it. It is highly unlikely that we could raise the hundreds of thousands of Euro to do a project like this one on Bagration for example. People who are interested in and study the war know of it, but the mainstream audience doesn't, and to raise the kind of money needed we'd have to have a project that appeals to the mainstream. There's also the point that covering the events of a single day plays into our chronological narrative, while Bagration covers weeks, as do many other such "highlights" of the war. Any big special project needs a format, a "packaging" that works, and a hook- for D-Day it's easy; it's 24 hours of coverage. But what would it be for Bagration? As for doing a huge Stalingrad something or other- that's big enough in people's minds, but it would've had to begin being worked on back in January (at least), and by then we had just finished the Pearl Harbor Minute-by-Minute, so realistically we wouldn't have been able to get the financing for a new special project together so quickly. Also, after working 70 hour weeks on Pearl Harbor for months, nobody on the team was in any shape to dive into a new extra workload on top of the regular content work straight away. Because that is the reality of it: any special project we do is indeed extra, and is done on top of the work we do with the regular content, which is well over 40 hour weeks as it stands. We still plan on doing all sorts of specials and extra regular episodes and things like that for all major events of the war, so it's not like we're actually leaving something out.
Just enough detail so you can get the big picture.the moving maps are priceless.Even though the library pictures are not always consistent with the narrative
Our maps team is fantastic! And yeah, we do try to note when the photos and videos don't precisely line up with events, though. Thanks for watching all the same!
@@WorldWarTwo that's ok most documentaries do it . If you have a good knowledge of aircraft tanks etc. you can see for instance a Hellcat in A Battle Of Midway story can't be right ; as it was not until about 9 months later that the Hellcat first saw service . Different T34s were put into service at various dates ; older ones could continue in service but newer ones obviously could not be in service before they were produced . So any 1942 /43 campaign could not have the 85 mm gun T34. Of course some of the classic library pictures are used time after time ; in all sorts of media .
So, the action on Guadalcanal and on the Kokoda track was just the beginning, the action over the next years will be a real nightmare for both players involved.
I have these episodes playing in the background so I can listen, and when the person in the back dropped their pen cap(?) at 14:20 I got super confused because I thought I had dropped something in my sink while doing dishes 🤣
Man, what a fascinating "What If" question. One can only imagine how much shorter the war could have been if these near misses had not been, well, misses. There was already discontent among the German generals, so if A.H. had been captured, they very well might've let the Soviets keep him and start to pursue peace negotiations.
Did he say Malinofsky was, "winging it?" Hah! I'm funny...but all jokes aside, a facinating recount of a week that was, with details I have never retained though I have read some of them in Glantz & House's book. Really enjoy every one of these episodes, with something that is food for thought about WW2 every week. My heart felt thanks!!!!!!!!!
16:00 "the US wouldn't spend huge resources to take back islands they never heard of, to then return them to colonial empires they had openly disdained" do the Japanese remember how they were treated at Versailles?
You mean how the Japanese were given all of the German Pacific territories including ones in China that were supposed to go to China.(also in the entente)
Great series! Though I am surprised that this week saw mention of neither Goebbels' Sportpalast speach nor of the arrest of Hans and Sophie Scholl. Both events are very central to remembrance of WWII in Germany.
I was wandering when we would get to the battle of Caserin Pass. For a little bit there, I thought it had already been fought and I had somehow missed it.
Kasserine Pass As I understand it. In 1939 the US Army including the Air Corps was capped at 165,000. In 1940 Britain evacuated over twice that number from France leaving most of it's equipment behind. FDR sold 500,000 "surplus" rifles and over 100,000 machine guns to Britain. In September 1940 the first peace time draft in US history began. The rapidly expanding army trained with broomsticks. The US did not have the capacity to simultaneously supply Britain (including convoy escort to Iceland from June 41), reinforce the Pacific (MacArthur received about half of what he asked for in 41) and train and equip what would become the second or third largest army in history up to that time. With purchased and Lend Lease aircraft the British were able to establish air superiority in NA. At KP the US had no air support. After the Fall of Tobruk, FDR took new M4 tanks away from the army to LL to Britain so Monty would have them before Second el Alamein. The US was equipped primarily with M3 mediums when Tiger tanks were used in NA for the first time.
@Nick Danger Thanks for the background. No matter how one feels about the overinflated US/USSR contribution debate, America's rapid arming and war production is incredible.
@@WorldWarTwo On the US/USSR debate what the USSR did is easy to see because almost everything happened between Moscow and Berlin and if you ignore what the USSR did before the Great Patriotic War. The war for the US was from the east coast of Mexico around the world to the west coast of the US. And Lend Lease. Looking at the statistics the USSR had the highest losses (up to 50 per cent self inflicted) after Poland (with some inflicted by the USSR). Under monetary cost the US was the only nation to spend more than Germany and more than Britain, Canada and USSR combined if the numbers are correct. The US had the requirement and fortunately the ability to use force multipliers (35,000 four engine bombers) because it was "safe behind two oceans" (as was Canada). The US was under no obligation to aid any nation, but did so until Japan and Germany and Italy declared war on the US. If you do another vid on Lend Lease please use the Zhukov quote. ta
The USSR had a one front war but more enemies in Finland, Romania, Hungary, about 500,000 Soviets, mostly Ukrainians and volunteers from Sweden (Winter War), France, Belgium and "neutral" Spain.
The fact that Hitler ended up within 50 miles of the front line in Russia in February 1943 is something I never heard of previously. Learn something new every day.
On February 20 1943, General Leclerc and his forces reached the oasis of Ksar Ghilane in the desert, 89 km southwest to Medenine. Their mission is to cover the left flank of the British 8th Army, which controls Tataouine and Medenine. Meanwhile, several French warships that were stationed in North or West Africa reached the USA in February for a refit, which will take several months. Among the modernized French ships are : - Battleship Richelieu, which joined the Brooklyn arsenal in February 1943 where it will be repaired and its armaments and equipment modernized; it will be incorporated into the British Home Fleet at Scapa Flow (north of Scotland, Atlantic Ocean) from the end of November 1943. - Light Cruisers Montcalm, Georges-Leygues and Gloire (La Galissonière class) which will undergo modernization work in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. - Large Destroyers (reclassified as light cruisers) Le Fantasque and Le Terrible which arrived in Boston on February 21, 1943 where they will be also modernized until May 1943. - The tankers Lot and L'Elorn and the aircraft carrier Béarn.
@oOkenzoOo Thank you for giving the naval background disposition. I'm always impressed, but not surprised, by how much you in the TimeGhost Army contribute to our episodes with such great comments. Stay tuned!
@@WorldWarTwo Thank you. I'm a faithful follower of your work since the Great War channel's debut back in 2014 and enjoy all of your videos. Shout out to all the members working on this amazing channel !
The action in North Africa is as interesting as that ones during both battles of El Alamain, it's an amazing last phase of the North African campaign indeed.
Compared to the first day of the war the phone call was good. But it missed that personal touch of civility, however it is now 1943. It has been 3 or so years since the war began. We've settled into the war at this point. This phone call this week might not be special (I think it's the best yet btw) but it shows the expansion of the war. You've got 2 people helping you with phone calls and combat info from the front. But that goodbye, the simple "Thanks for calling" shows that even though the East is burning, even though in north Africa there's bullets flying and in the Pacific ships are burning and planes are flying overhead, there's still time for a goodbye :)
Hi Paul, can you email us at community@timeghost.tv and let us know where you signed up, along with more details about the issue you're having? Not sure why you didn't get access to the video.
I believe this bombardment Attu was derisively known as "The Navy's Spring Plowing", the ships were blinded by fog and churned up empty land without hitting their targets. Weather was a major adversary in the Aleutians.
My great grandfather died a year after my birth, so I never had the chance to ask him about his life during the occupation. However, my grandmother often talked about how he refused to go to Germany for the STO, took his bike and went into hiding in Normandy only to return after the liberation. Unfortunately its the only thing I know from my great grandparents lives during the occupation
Good episode as always guys. I'm glad you didn't seem to over focus on the battle of Kasserine pass as so much media has since the end of WW2. So many western media wanted to play up the comeback of the Allies in WW2 after the US defeats at Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Wake Island and then Kasserine pass. But when things are looked at in the grand scale of WW2 Kasserine pass is just a minor engagement and set back for the Allies. Much greater defeats happened to the Allies on a daily bases from the invasion of Poland, the low countries, the fall of France, the massive invasions of the Germans into Russia and the Japanese invasions all over East Asia that they just all dwarf the engagement at Kasserine pass. Yes, the US troops there were fresh troops fighting against veteran Axis enemies so defeats like that were bound to happen. But media portrayals of Kasserine pass make it seem like the US never lost after Kasserine pass which just isn't true. For example, there were much greater US defeats in WW2 during the Battle of the Bulge which the US eventually won. But during the initial attacks during that battle the defeats that happened there were much larger then the small battle of Kasserine pass. And then on a second and unrelated note, is there any update on when we would be getting any more specials on the aircraft and small arms of each nation in WW2? I loved that coverage back during the Great War channel and it would be so much better for WW2 since the aircraft and small arms of WW2 are just so much more varied then they were in WW1. Each nation in WW2 has so many different aircraft and small arms it is just insane. You could literally make videos on each of them (not that anyone expects that). But covering the aircraft and small arms like you have done with the armored vehicles with Chieftain would be so amazing I think. I just really can't wait to hear about them myself. Also another special on how the Manhattan project is going would be another great idea for a special as well I think.
Except for simply not having the time, there is one thing that ties our hands in creating major special projects like this one- getting the funding to actually be able to produce it. It is highly unlikely that we could raise the hundreds of thousands of Euro to do a project like this one on Bagration for example. People who are interested in and study the war know of it, but the mainstream audience doesn't, and to raise the kind of money needed we'd have to have a project that appeals to the mainstream. There's also the point that covering the events of a single day plays into our chronological narrative, while Bagration covers weeks, as do many other such "highlights" of the war. Any big special project needs a format, a "packaging" that works, and a hook- for D-Day it's easy; it's 24 hours of coverage. But what would it be for Bagration? As for doing a huge Stalingrad something or other- that's big enough in people's minds, but it would've had to begin being worked on back in January (at least), and by then we had just finished the Pearl Harbor Minute-by-Minute, so realistically we wouldn't have been able to get the financing for a new special project together so quickly. Also, after working 70 hour weeks on Pearl Harbor for months, nobody on the team was in any shape to dive into a new extra workload on top of the regular content work straight away. Because that is the reality of it: any special project we do is indeed extra, and is done on top of the work we do with the regular content, which is well over 40 hour weeks as it stands. We still plan on doing all sorts of specials and extra regular episodes and things like that for all major events of the war so it's not like we're actually leaving something out. And every dollar of support means we can make more special episodes so please consider joining, and tell your friends! www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
@@WorldWarTwo Sorry guys I am just a little confused with your reply. I don't know if maybe you meant to send this reply to someone else but I was not asking for any special on Bagration or other events on the war. I know how hard you guys work on everything you do for the channel and I appreciate it greatly. I also already am a Patreon member for you guys and have been since day 1 that you created it and have recruited many of my friends to join your patreon as well. I think you would know that since I am replying in this video before it has been launched to the public already and I also post a comment to every single video you guys post and have had many back and forth conversations with your World War Two account and Sparty himself. I mean you guys even made a video replying to one of my comments that had a long back and forth conversation between me and Sparty (about the allied bombing campaign). And the part of my comment on specials was on small side topics of WW2, specifically aircraft and small arms. You guys already did one video on both aircraft and small arms (that was later removed). I was asking if there was any update on if you guys would be getting someone to make videos in collaboration with you guys on those topics like Chieftain does with armored vehicles. So I was just asking for a update on those topics because you have mentioned in the past that you were in talks with other channels to do collaborations with you guys on such topics (tanks, aircraft and small arms). I would think there has to be some RUclips channels that would love to collaborate with you guys on those topics. It would benefit both you and the other channel (again like Chieftain does). You guys would get coverage of other topics on WW2 that you don't have the time and the at hand knowledge to cover and the other channel would get the benefit of getting some of your followers to now follow their channel. I know there are tons of small arms channels that would be interested in doing what Chieftain does with you guys. For aircraft that area you would be more limited in finding a partner but the aircraft of WW2 are arguably one of the most interesting topics of advancement through out WW2 and I think it would be a shame and a big missed opportunity for you guys to not have such coverage. And again maybe you posted your reply to the wrong thread because I was being positive with my comment and your reply seemed to be rather negative of the suggestions I was giving. I was not at all calling you out for not doing more massive specials. I was simply asking for a update on side projects that you have talked about doing in the past. And again I have been a supporter of you guys from day 1 and am constantly getting as many people as I can to support your channel as I can because I love the work you guys do and love the talks I have with your team and the other members of the Time Ghost army that I have in your comments.
The Kasserine pass's high profile isnt really for the tactical or strategic value of the battle itself but what it says about the readiness of US forces training and leadership at this point, i.e. they were as green as the British accused them of being when they rejected the US proposal to immediately launch an invasion of France and instead proposed something easier for the US forces to do.
I think it is inevitable that the battle of Kasserine Pass gets so much attention because it was/is seen as the first full on engagement between US and German forces. While the casualities were not too severe, the tank (183 US vs 20 for the Axis forces) and vehicle losses were quite serious. The British had been accused of being incompetent for their losses in 1941-42, but they had to contend with Col. Bonner Fellers leaking intel to the Axis. Kasserine Pass demonstrated that it armoured and numerical superiority wasn't going to be enough. Expericence and adaptability were key. Soon after, American commanders paid more attention to the advice offered by the British and they improved very rapidly.
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Hi Timeghost, I would love to give you some Feedback.
I very often have the feeling that you focus way to much on the european Theater and not really on the pacific one. Unlike in europe, we don't often hear what is going f.ex on at the planing tables at Tokio (we haven't heard of Tojo f.ex for a long while now) or what is going on in the occupied territories (philipin resistance f.ex).
I know this war us huge and you can't possible cover everything but I just wanted to mention it.
Fantastic episode, as always, guys, but having other cast members twiddling their thumbs and doing their makeup in the background distracts from the focus on Indy. Anna looks lovely, as always, but having two people doing nothing but random… nothing… in the background is like having an animated cartoon of a dancing baby in the corner - it adds nothing and only distracts from the focus on the narrator. Just my two cents worth. L
Three ties are better than one. Just saying.
Keep calm and carry on, so do your make-up during the video. That's a winning attitude for anyone embroiled in a war. Right on, lady!
Suggestion.........One episode covering the by-passed japanese strongholds (Rabaul, Taiwan, even Singapore itself.). The strategic rationale, the oil shipping lanes from Balikpapan, the military time and resources calculation, and the actual operational bombing, blockades until later surrender.
What was bypassed had a cost, and a risk in the mind of the planners.
If there are any Star Wars fans among you then know this , 17th February 1943 had been a historic day. After advancing 190 km in five days General Montgomery's Eighth Army liberated Luke Skywalkers home planet Tattouine. Well , the city of Foum Tattouine in Southern Tunisia just east of Mareth Line where George Lucas filmed outdoor production of Star Wars Episode IV , A New Hope 33 years later among natural cave formations , hills and igloos in desert/mountain region of Foum Tattouine (which later used the name as planets name where Anakin and Luke Skywalker grew up)
@merdiolu81 Thank you for that info, I never knew that!
I don’t remember hearing about any sand people in the North Africa campaign.
@@jasondouglas6755 Oh, they were there, but they hid their numbers well.
The LRDG also says Hi.
@@jasondouglas6755 Or the Jawas, for that matter!
Heck, not even Obi Wan showed up at the battle! What an obnoxious man!
That's awesome!
Indy:"Spoiler, the last known survivor will not surrender until 1947."
Hiroo Onoda:"Lightweight!"
1974!!!!
On the Soviets being relatively close to capturing Hitler, there was a massive near miss in 1940 when Churchill was returning from a meeting with the French Government and the pilot of his plane could see an ME109 flying above them. Miraculously, the ME109 pilot did not see them. So easily could have gone the other way and possibly changed the war in a whole number of ways.
@Cobbler91 Very interesting, thanks for sharing that
@@WorldWarTwo I have googled the situation but it seems hard to pin down online. My source is the We Have Ways podcast hosted by WWII historian James Holland and British comedian (also WWII enthusiast) Al Murray so I’d say it’s reliable.
Edit: To be specific I heard it in one of their Dunkirk day by day episodes I believe. There are 8 episodes covering the subject so I don’t know which episode for sure.
There was also the time he was flying back from a meeting in the US, went off course, and almost got shot down. (Whoops!)
Also FDR was on a ship that was almost torpodeod by another US navy ship.
@@Alsadius Not Churchill but I think Montgomery almost died in a plane crash in Sicily as well. Even some like Gott did actually get shot down and die.
The strange irony of watching this today (25t of February 2022) and hearing of soviets pouring in from the Donbass and capturing Kharkov.
I feel like this isn't exactly what people mean when they say "History repeats itself".
Only they are not soviets and they did not capture Kharkiv.
Good episode.
It was Hitler's personal pilot Hans Baur who found out early on February 19th (from the base commander of the airfield where Hitler's three Condors were parked) that Soviet tanks were advancing close to that location. He drove into town and asked H. permission to move those planes to another, safer, field. Hitler refused. Instead the entire entourage soon drove to airfield and Hitler boarded his plane and immediately took off.
The Soviets didn't know H. was there and those tanks never did attack that airfield on that day - they were short of fuel. Dr. Mark Felton has an excellent video on all of these events.
@Marshall Eubanks Thanks for sharing that extra information
@@WorldWarTwo Thank you! Keep up the good work.
@@WorldWarTwo collaboration with Mark Felton when?
I didn't know any German general knew anything about the military use of the "skedaddle?" But there it is! It may be the smartest German maneuver of the war on the eastern front.
I just found out this morning that the last member of my family who fought in WWII, who had turned 100 in November, had passed away earlier this month. His unit has yet to enter the timeline of this channel, but I felt I should acknowledge him now. Rest easy, Uncle Wes.
Salutations with Love' To Uncle Wes'
@Garret LeBuis Thanks for sharing, may your Uncle Wes rest in peace. Please share more about him when we reach his time in the war. Never forget
The music never stops. Dance through the night.
Love never leaves us.
"Because there is no plan B" is a very strong quote for basically the entire war, fronts and battles, the only plan was to win, win no matter the cost, that's what almost all nations then decided.
I had never heard/knew that the Soviet Army had been so close to capturing Hitler. Thank you for bringing so much of history to life for us.
Thank you for watching!
they never were, so you missed absolutely nothing
@@ursodermatt8809 You'd have a lot of information about that time wouldn't you, you melt
Fascinating episode as always. Interesting to see just how much the Vichy regime was helping the Axis even as the war seems to be turning.
@Samuel Ardern Thanks for watching! To see all the developments in France and around the world be sure to subscribe, and please check out our Patreon to help us make more www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
At this point there is a lot of French support for the NAZI's that gets washed over in history (so as to not offend anyone.)
Before the war and invasion France had fascist leaning parties (if not in name) that would become supportive of Vichy, and even Germany.
Others felt betrayed by the British, both for bailing from the continent and sinking the French fleet and abided Vichy as the only France they had.
For Torch these were the concerns - very real - where did the French heart lie?
The reality is there were plenty of Vichy loyal Frenchmen.
Since Operation Anton, Vichy can't really say no, now can it?
@@robertkras5162 Also to note on Vichy's political state and it's views and takes on the right, all political parties were banned except for those openly collaborating, a leader of one of those parties was Jacques Doriot who used to be communist but was shunned by Stalin then kicked from the PCF ( French Communist Party), he turned right from there and became what we call him in France "The French Hitler" as he had quite alot of ambitions and went all out to collaborate with Germany, he wanted the Germans to replace Pétain and put him in charge of a new french state hellbent against communism as a whole. (Edit) He even was given a wehrmacht uniform wich he wore proudly during speeches and meetings, later on creating a french volounteer force to fight on the Eastern front.
Hitler will never give him much more power because quote "He is too ambitious." but will use him against Pétain and Vichy as a tool, basically saying "Watch out if you don't help us enough we'll replace your head ot state with someone else" even though it was all bluff. Doriot was skilled in speeches and was able to gather quite the audience.
Doriot will die in febuary 45 when fleeing Paris from allied push, on his way to Germany to try and establish a French exile government he'll never reach the border as his ambassy car is spotted by RAF fighters and is gunned down, Doriot and the driver are killed on the spot while his secretary will survive to tell the tale. He will be burried in Germany with the honors.
@@sylvananas7923 I know very little about the general mood and political leanings of people in occupied France before Allied landings. Do you know any good sources or books I can read on the topic?
Thank you! This story of Hitler's visit on the East front ironically described in the memoirs of German generals. The threat of Hitler's capture was rather hypothetical, although it very impressed the Fuhrer. "On February 18, a report was received that the Soviet troops were only 60 kilometers from the Dnieper and 100 km from the headquarters where Hitler was received. At first, he did not believe these reports, but then asked Colonel Busse to clarify the situation. - The Soviet tank battalion took Pavlograd. Italian division that was supposed to defend the city fled. - Hitler looked at the map with clenched teeth". The commander of the tank battalion of the Soviet 25th tank corps, Captain Zakiev, would be very proud if he knew what a deep impression the actions of his unit had on Hitler and his generals. But, instead of "capturing Hitler," the battalion continued to carry out its immediate combat mission - holding the Sinelnikovo railway junction, through which the Hollitd army group in the Donbass was supplied.
They were never going to capture him. Only takes a minute to get a single VIP on a plane or a fast truck and get him away from the area. Now if they somehow achieved complete and total surprise...
@Павел Иванов Thank you for sharing that great account of it
@@WorldWarTwo Manstein subsequently dramatized the situation somewhat: “Still, the situation could not be considered safe, since Hitler’s arrival was not a secret, and when he entered the city from the airfield, he was recognized and greeted by soldiers who were in Zaporozhye, representatives of his party and other persons. For protection we had in Zaporozhye, besides our guard company, only a few anti-aircraft units. In the near future, enemy tanks were to come so close to the city that they could fire on the airfield located east of the Dnieper". In fact, the 15th Infantry Division arrived in Dnepropetrovsk on February 18 and was soon thrown against the breakthrough at Sinelnikov.
@@WorldWarTwo your welcome
It still baffles me that the Japanese made the way to head to Alaska. My Great Grandfather, fought in the Alaskan campaign in the airforce. Wish I could have asked him what had happened
@Matt338r Wow, that's incredible your Great Grandfather fought in the Alaskan campaign. That must have been quite the unique experience in this war. Thanks for sharing
One could say that the Japanese invaded the U.S.
@@tigertank06 They already did that, the Philippines, Guam and Wake are American territories.
I know the feeling. My grandfather was a parartrooper (glider infantry specifically) who fought in The Battle of the Bulge. I regret never having the opportunity to talk to him about it.
Although grandpa, it's got to be said, wasn't very articulate. He was traumatized by what happened over there, killing Germans and watching Germans kill his friends.
All we've really got are his service records.
@@mcnultyssobercompanion6372 Many people who served simply never wanted to talk about it.
I don't think my grandfather would have told me about it, even if I had asked. He dictated some of the lighter moments to my mother, about a small book's worth, but that was it. He medals and sword had a prominent place in a cabinet in the hallway, but were never spoken of.
My great grandfather was in the soviet 4th mechanized corps. He was in the war from 1941 to 1945 and survived.
@Atlas That's quite amazing, thank you for sharing about him. Every episode I read comments from people whose family was in the war, and it never ceases to amaze me. I'm glad he survived those dark times and I'm glad you're here to explore the war with us. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a video every single week!
It's interesting in that this week the area the Soviets and the Germans are fighting over is again the center of attention in the winter of 2022. Thanks to this channel my knowledge of the geography of this area is much more familiar now.
@Scott Weber Thanks for watching, we're very glad to be helping you with geography!
@Bobb Grimley Putin is hitler of course, pleaase we need more of your american media propaganda brainwashing keep it up
@@roflol100 They're both autocrats for starters.
@@roflol100 so dumb :(
@@roflol100 That doesn't even make sense. Do you need an adult?
Very busy tie and not an easy one to match with any shirt that isn't plain. And yet this works pretty damn well! 3/5
@Gianni Verschueren We appreciate your tie appraisals!
Was searching for this!
The action on the Pacific last week is like:
-We were successfully.
-What part of what happened was a success.
-We successfully evacuated the troops.
A successful evacuation isn't to be sneezed at. An unsuccessful evacuation is a disaster.
Like a very tiny Dunkirk
Conrad almost always just lurking in the background is one of my favorite set pieces.
Would love to see a Luigi one in one of these episodes maybe when Italy surrenders?
@Jozsa He'll have to cross the Isonzo first…
On the topic of the war with Japan, “The Pacific” by HBO is an excellent mini series about the war in the pacific theatre. It’s based off of “With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa” by Eugene B. Sledge and “Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie. It covers the stories of Sledge, Leckie, and John Basilone. It’s an excellent depiction of the pacific theatre and I highly recommend it.
Good series but they totally ignore sledge's second book, "China Marine" where he was deployed to China for the second half of 1945.
@@porksterbob It’s called “The Pacific”. It’s a miniseries. They can’t include everything.
It has been a damned impressive past few months for the Soviets, but the troops & machines have to be needing a respite to reinforce & resupply.
@OneLeather Boot Who knows what Spring '43 will bring for them?
@@WorldWarTwo Yeah another great idea would be a special episode on the status of everything being sent to the USSR to help them vs the Axis. So often when people focus on the aid the Allies send to the USSR during WW2 people just focus on the military equipment and then just wave it off since the vast amount of the military equipment sent to the USSR didn't come until after things started to turn around for the USSR. But when we look at everything sent to the USSR in total we find that the USSR is getting tons of equipment shipped to them right from the start of the war that is just not military related because that is specifically what Molotov asked the Western Allies to send to them. So things like logistical equipment, telephones, radios, wires, tools needed to fix their factories (that produce the weapons needed to win the war), medical equipment, boots and so much more.
@@PhillyPhanVinny boots. The British sent something like 14 millions pairs of boots.
That is an incredible number.
@@OneLeatherBoot Exactly. So many people over the last 10-20 years just dismiss the aid sent to the USSR by the Allies since the military equipment didn't come in large numbers to the USSR until around when Stalingrad was ending. But that is specifically because the USSR, via their foreign minister Molotov requested other aid as I listed. In addition to what I listed even fuel from the US was sent to the USSR because the US had much more high quality fuel then the USSR had that allowed plane engines to perform much better at higher altitudes which significantly helped fighter pilots during WW2. A very large reason that US and British pilots were able to have incredibly high kill to death ratios against German pilots who had insane numbers of kills going against allied pilots with little experience was that the fuel they had was just far better then the fuel the Germans and the Axis overall had. That fuel allowed far superior maneuvering at higher altitudes then German planes that were not that much of a quality level worse then Western Allied planes. The P51 Mustang is the perfect example of this. It was a very good plane to start with but once it got the British Rolls-Royce Merlin it became much better. And then when those Rolls-Royce Merlin that were made in the US were further improved on in the US with the licensed built Packard V-1650 Merlin the plane became by far the best fighter plane of WW2. But that engine (Packard V-1650 Merlin) needed the high quality fuel from the US to take advantage of it's superchargers.
@@PhillyPhanVinny The whole Lend Lease aspects these days have been taken over by "Patriots" from various countries with little to no knowledge about what was really going on.
Russian netizens will point out that they killed more Germans and produced more tanks, so it had no real impact, as "Stalingrad was won". Yet conveniently forget about the Artic Convoys & Russian convoys from Alaska while their factories were being relocated & rebuilt before the Iran corridor opened.
The raw materials (metals, rubber etc), food, AV gas, a huge number of transport vehicles (war is about logistics), boots, telegraph cable, oil well equipment, locomotives and countless other items the Soviets requested and that Stalin, Zhukov & others have publicly stated that LL was vitally important to the Soviets.
American netizens boast about the amount sent, without factoring in the Soviets on the ground & air using it and the "war was lost without it".
It is almost as if there was a Cold War post WW2 between major powers that then tried to down play the other, while promoting themselves.
I could go on & on, as LL is such a fascinating topic, yet few have probably even read the Wikipedia page on it.
History doesn't happen in a vacuum and there were so many complex parts, along with blood shed by all the allies that went into defeating the Germans on all fronts. LL was one of those key parts.
Those in power & responsible for the decisions at the time on all sides had a better grasp of its importance than any random netizen these days.
Soviet blood, American industry and British tech is the often used, but simplified phase.
after binge watching the great war and all of world war 2 up to this moment , i am finally here!
That takes quite some discipline. welcome back in the present! (timeghost present).
@gamer228r Thank you for watching!! Our audience's enthusiasm is really amazing, we appreciate your support very much and look forward to having you with us through the rest of this war
@@WorldWarTwo Oh my god thank you
@@LuukvdHoogen It does , but its really enjoyable and it makes you feel like home , at least thats how it is for me
Are we going to get a special on Kasserine pass from Chieftain ? Given his expertise it would seem to be something right up his alley.
Let’s gooooo! I need my Saturday morning routine. You people are doing an amazing job with this series! Thank you
@iVET-Ansolini Thanks so much for spending your Saturday morning with us
Big respect for Indy, because he can pronounce the name of Kharkov properly. Very few other (non-Russian) youtuber can do it. 🙂
I remember reading the first time about Hitler nearly being captured by the soviets (though they didn't realize it) in the Wikipedia article about "The Third Battle of Kharkov", and I found it quite hillarious how he flew there to argue with Manstein about Kharkov being abaondon without a fight (and even possibly to dismiss him), only to flee and give him freedom of operation when the enemy was 30 kilometers away from the airfield.
It's an incredibly strange and somber feeling to know that less than a week from when this video was uploaded, that the sounds of rockets, aircraft, artillery, and gunfire would echo once more across the very same regions and cities mentioned in it and that people who had no interest in history would know their names. Kharkov, Donbas, Maruipol, Dnieper, Zaporozhye. Almost 79 years to the week, Russian troops were once again storming across them, only this time they were invading, not liberating them.
Our is so bizarre, indeed, and sad 😔
It's 2023 and the Russian are still fighting over the same area Donbas, Mariupal, Dnieper, Zaphorozhya.
Russia has fallen to become a spent force in what was once its own backyard (Ukraine) while the USA and NATO dominate Europe.
A new world order is in the making and Russia's place is precarious.
Japan: OK, we have 6 months to force the USA to surrender, or we will lose the war!
*6 months pass, the USA do not surrender and Japan begins losing*
Japan: *Pikachu surprise face*
Japan: We will lure them into a glorious decisive battle
ALSO JAPAN Nah, Guadalcanal is not decisive.
I thought it was surprised Pikachu face
@@ricardokowalski1579 More like...
Japan: We will lure them into a glorious decisive battle!
Midway happens
Japan: Not like that!!!! =(
@@tremedar that too. 😁
(D'oh!)jo Hideki
Kasserine will always make me remember of George C Scott’s Patton. What a movie
WW2 guys, could you someday make a special episode about LL? You’re kind of WW2 mythbusters, that would be really interesting
Great episode as always, some interesting stuff especially in the Donbas.
@TheBreadBaron Thanks very much
Anna Transcription:
"Headquarters? Yup. Yup he's here. Mr. Neidell? There's a call on line 2. Something about Hitler? Would you have a moment?"
Set gets better and better. Love your work. Addicted to this channel.
Glad to hear that, thanks for watching!
I kept hearing "the Meuse river" and could not stop imagining incredibly confused Frenchmen (and possibly Germans).
Your associates to the back of the room win my Oscar prize in "looking busy while watched" category.
Who knew assistants in the 40s had Android phones to use when not typing 🤣
@@jaythe2nd38 technology develops at neckbreak pace in wartime
@@antonmeshcheryakov5068 if only the codebreakers at Bletchley Park had Google
An interesting WW2 movie to watch around this week is "Восхождение (The Ascent)" (1977) by Larisa Shepitko.
The movie centers around two Soviet partisans in Belarus on a mission to search for food.
It's available for free in RUclips at the Mosfilm channel.
Period covered: Winter 1943
Historical accuracy: 3/5
IMDB grade: 8.3/10
Other: Golden Bear Award winner at the Berlinale
Thank you for the recommendation.
Why is the historical accuracy 3/5?
@@thanos_6.0 I gave 3/5 to movies with fictional stories not based on anything in particular but still decently authentic
@@Dustz92 👍🏻
This channel is the only thing I actually look forward to every week on the internet, and I only have the internet.
@dda40x1 Thank you for watching, I hope you're doing well.
3:58 was a bit distracted and got a serious "The Great War" flashback here (Mius- Meuse), man it feels so long ago.
I love that line “Because there is no plan B”
It really starts to sink in how doomed they were when this plan fell apart
Thanks
Haven’t seen the episodes in a few months been really busy with work I’ll be rewatching it
@Keith Conte We're very glad to have you back with us! Be sure to subscribe and tell your friends about the channel!
Has anyone else noticed that the places who are discussed in the eastern front ....are being discussed also today?
yeah. rusians in donbass 👀
On February 16, 1943, Operation Gunnerside is commenced with norwegian commandos dropped into Norway to group up with previously dropped saboteurs from Operation Grouse in 1942. Because of the failure that was Operation Freshman, the Germans had increased security around the Vemork Heavy Water plant. The Norwegians made their way to the plant without being spotted by the guards. Thanks to a Norwegian agent SOE had planet before, detailed plans and schedules had been given to them, and the saboteurs used this to enter the basement. Only person to encounter them was a caretake who cooperated with them. With fuses lit, the men along with the caretaker escaped the plant and later the explosives went off. The raid was a great success. The entire german inventory of heavy water was destroyed. All commandos escaped from the german search. Five escaped via skiing to Sweden, two went to Oslo to assist MILORG and four remained in the region continuing resistance work.
@Norwegian Tactician The Vemork sabotage is one of my favorite stories from the war.
Called in to serve, and they knew what to do, they were the heroes of the cold!
Warrior soul! They sign the book of history. They played a leading role, to win the second war!
I'm curious about the German "foreign worker" programs. I keep hearing these referred to as "slave labor" or "slave workers"
Understandably few Frenchmen, Norwegians , Dutch, Danes would want to depart their homes and work in German factories, and few if any had choice, so these could be categorized as force labor.
But were they payed? were they fed and housed reasonably?
Or were they in the same concentration camps that Jews and Slaves were placed for their forced labor?
i.e. is there substantial difference in how the various workers are treated and how different were the conditions?
Anyone have anything on this?
It varied but those who were not forced but came voluntarily to work in Gerrmany were treated much better.
There were a lot of forced labourers from the occupied lands in Ukraine and Belarus, maybe Russia too (but Russia was at this point not occupied anymore). Also largely forgotten how these smaller countries within the Soviet Union suffered under Nazi occupation
they were "paid" pretty much in the same way the cuban "doctors" get "paid" today. They go overseas, they get food and housing. Their families get supply rations in (Cuba, occupied France).
If they ran away or refused to work, the rations to their families would be cut. Or worse.
So were they slaves? Slaves do get food and housing. So same difference.
I'll answer with an example: Guenther Quandt, head of the family dynasty that now owns BMW, owned 50 000 slaves in his factories. These factories were not part of the concentration camp system so likely these slaves were Ostarbeiter, french OST and french/british/polish POWs.
Anyway, one of these factories had a dedicated area for executions, so yeah it was pretty much hard-slavery.
From this episode it sounds like Vichy France was sending them in lieu of military service. So probably room and board and maybe some remittance to the family in the form of rations, but doubtful they got anything like fair pay.
I do recall the workers from the east being treated much, much worse than the ones from occupied Western countries but can't think of a source off the top of my head. Just stuff I've seen referred to over the years, accounts from Allied POWs and "guess workers" who wrote about how the slavs and Russians were treated as disposable. Horrible stuff.
Operation Victory - Brigadier Francis de Guingand (Eighth Army Chief of Staff)
Montgomery decided to use this interval in Tripoli to check our battle technique and he considered this would be an admirable oppurtunity for passing our experiences to others. He therefore arranged a series of lectures and demonstrations and discussions to take place on February 15th , 16th , 17th , these included addresses by Army Commander himself on High Command in Desert War and Conningham of Desert Air Force on employment of air force to support army. Then we had demonstrations of latest methods in employment of tanks , artillery , infantry. General discussions took afterwards. A lot of time was taken up by mine clearing problems. Spectators could see all types of mines we met in desert and various gadgets we developed for dealing with them. Then demonstrations were held to show the latest drill we developed to clear lanes through minefields. We also demonstrated latest methods we evolved for laying on air support. This was a joint Army and RAF item and I believe it was most successful.
Several Generals came from Home , from India and elsewhere. Montgomery had also invited some of the American generals recently arrived in North Africa. It was the first time most of us had set our eyes on George Patton. At first he did not appear to be much impressed but later he was enthustiastic in his praises and said "we could use that ourselves in our operations" especially regarding our mine clearence equipment , vehicles and drill. The story is told of his his reply when he was asked what he thought of Montgomery's adress on How to Make A War. His reply came slowly with a lovely Southern accent : "I maybe old , I maybe slow , I may be stoopid and I know I am definitely deaf but it just does not mean anything to me !" Poor George Patton , what a great man he was and how we came to respect and admire him during those next three years. 😄
Bedell Smith , Eisenhower's Chief of Staff came to visit us too during these demonstrations , I took to him at once and I can never be grateful enough for his kindness and understanding and help from that time onwards. He was a wonderful , generous , open hearted and wise. I never appealed to him for help in vain. We got to know each other well enough to say exactly what we meant. We certainly had some tricky moments together but I found as all Americans , best way was to be outspoken and complately frank.
I think after the war it was Lidell Hart said to me "They say that you and Bedell Smith are the only British and American officers who could complately understand each other during the war. The reason suggested is both of you have bad stomachs !"
During dinner talk was about suggested future roles of Eighth and First Armies. Montgomery in his confident manner , claimed that he would capture Sfax by 15th April. Bedell Smith replied that would be very good and in this case he could ask whatever he wanted from Eisenhower. When Montgomery asked whether he could take a Flying Fortress for air travel of himself and his staff and put it on a wager , Bedell Smith (to his later regret) accepted and a bet was struck (Montgomery took these bets very seriously and had a betting book to record them in his tactical HQ)
Thanks for sharing this, very interesting
Goebbels wrote in his diary that Hitler flew to Army Group South HQ in Zaparozhe in order to relieve Manstein of his command, but when he got there he found the situation 'truly hair-raising', and realised that now was not the time to be changing commanders. (Ziemke)
It must a serious and busy episode, Indy has back up! Excellent episode as usual!
@Michael Johnston Thank you for watching, we're very glad you enjoyed it
6:07 what happened to von Kleist? Since I recall him commanding the 1st Panzer army last time.
Thanks!
@Gregory Miller Thank you for watching!
and there it comes 3 videos in one day
I find it really difficult to focus on Indy with extras in the background e.g: 8:51
It's very unengaging for me when I see an intern doing makeup behind Indy left shoulder at 9:00. Please no intern cameos in the background. What role do they play? Other than a distraction from the theatre of war.
Thank you
[looks at the news...] I wonder if Indy will be covering World War 3 as well...
It's always nice to see more people included in this video. As either background characters or just to be mentioned. It's very nice. Glad to see Ana D again.
It was about time the soviet offensive would wear itself down. No major offensive can last forever. Sooner or later you run out of men and supplies while your enemy will regroup.
We have especially seen this in the second half of 1941
15000 M4 Shermans were sent by Lend-Lease. Russian factories churned out T34s by the hundreds. More fresh troops from east of Russia.
The Wehrmacht being able to shorten and tighten up its lines after Fall Blau in order to regain some much-needed mobility probably added another 2 years to the war. They were in full collapse after Stalingrad but that gave them some breathing room in order to put together a good defense.
Given the rate of recent Soviet successes, I was wondering how it took them until 1945 to reach the heart of Germany.
Sometime between now and the battle of Kursk the fighting reaches a bit of a lull. Some sources claim during this time there were secret negotiations about a truce or cease fire as well as an exchange of prisoners. Others state this never happened or if they did it was very low level and never went very far.
@@mikedeck8381 That's interesting in light of the Allies' promise to each other not to seek a separate peace with Germany. I've always heard it framed as the Soviets being paranoid that the US and UK would be the ones seeking a truce with Germany in order to gang up on the USSR, not the other way around. It would be surprising if the leaders of the USSR were even considering peace at this point.
Today the Donbass region declared mobilization. It's interesting to see that 80 years ago this exact region was also fought over
it's not 2023...
Great episode, keep it up
One of the most important things in the war is to anticipate enemy's actions and in case of Guadalcanal the misinterpretation that the enemy was going to reinforce the troops while it was an evacuation mission was still useful in winning the battle in the time in which it happened.
The young dude sitting at the desk in the background's man bun/ponytail *IS EVERYTHING.*
Could I humbly suggest that in the future, you do a bit of cut and paste from your peerless archives and present a bio on Erwin Rommel? Speaking purely in terms of military history, he was a remarkable individual. There are plethora candidates for such a treatment, but I know it's a can of worms for a number of reasons (war crimes in particular), but still. I think it'd be a valuable resource for future learning. All the best. You guys are incredible. Such important work. Keep it up!
@Aaron Be sure we're not done hearing from Rommel in this war, and check out this video Indy did all the way back in the prior war, all about Rommel ruclips.net/video/aBZauna5dwk/видео.html
Hey Indy, can't wait to see you cover the third battle of Kharkov aka Mansteins counter attack, which is already slowly underway :)
About the Battle of Kursk, will you cover it in debt with special episodes and so? The battle was so massive in it's own right that I would love to see it having some special episodes. Not just about the battle itself, but also concerning the build up in men, material, planning etc from both sides.
I know it's a huge job and there's so much to cover, also with D-Day coming up, but I really hope it will be possible.
And fantastic episode once again, have a great weekend! :)
@Nikolaj Madum Thanks very much and I hope you have a great weekend as well! I'll give you the long-form explanation of how complex the 'specials' subject is:
Except for simply not having the time, there is one thing that ties our hands in creating major special projects like this one- getting the funding to actually be able to produce it.
It is highly unlikely that we could raise the hundreds of thousands of Euro to do a project like this one on Bagration for example. People who are interested in and study the war know of it, but the mainstream audience doesn't, and to raise the kind of money needed we'd have to have a project that appeals to the mainstream.
There's also the point that covering the events of a single day plays into our chronological narrative, while Bagration covers weeks, as do many other such "highlights" of the war. Any big special project needs a format, a "packaging" that works, and a hook- for D-Day it's easy; it's 24 hours of coverage. But what would it be for Bagration?
As for doing a huge Stalingrad something or other- that's big enough in people's minds, but it would've had to begin being worked on back in January (at least), and by then we had just finished the Pearl Harbor Minute-by-Minute, so realistically we wouldn't have been able to get the financing for a new special project together so quickly.
Also, after working 70 hour weeks on Pearl Harbor for months, nobody on the team was in any shape to dive into a new extra workload on top of the regular content work straight away.
Because that is the reality of it: any special project we do is indeed extra, and is done on top of the work we do with the regular content, which is well over 40 hour weeks as it stands. We still plan on doing all sorts of specials and extra regular episodes and things like that for all major events of the war, so it's not like we're actually leaving something out.
Just enough detail so you can get the big picture.the moving maps are priceless.Even though the library pictures are not always consistent with the narrative
Our maps team is fantastic!
And yeah, we do try to note when the photos and videos don't precisely line up with events, though.
Thanks for watching all the same!
@@WorldWarTwo that's ok most documentaries do it . If you have a good knowledge of aircraft tanks etc. you can see for instance a Hellcat in A Battle Of Midway story can't be right ; as it was not until about 9 months later that the Hellcat first saw service . Different T34s were put into service at various dates ; older ones could continue in service but newer ones obviously could not be in service before they were produced . So any 1942 /43 campaign could not have the 85 mm gun T34. Of course some of the classic library pictures are used time after time ; in all sorts of media .
That was a damn fine intro! Really liked the transition form perfect german to english :)
So, the action on Guadalcanal and on the Kokoda track was just the beginning, the action over the next years will be a real nightmare for both players involved.
That was an awesome line to end the episode
@Sean McCabe Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it!
I have these episodes playing in the background so I can listen, and when the person in the back dropped their pen cap(?) at 14:20 I got super confused because I thought I had dropped something in my sink while doing dishes 🤣
Man, what a fascinating "What If" question. One can only imagine how much shorter the war could have been if these near misses had not been, well, misses.
There was already discontent among the German generals, so if A.H. had been captured, they very well might've let the Soviets keep him and start to pursue peace negotiations.
ah yes, if Putin falls down the steps and xi jingping dies with food poisoning! yes what if that happens.
Did he say Malinofsky was, "winging it?" Hah! I'm funny...but all jokes aside, a facinating recount of a week that was, with details I have never retained though I have read some of them in Glantz & House's book. Really enjoy every one of these episodes, with something that is food for thought about WW2 every week. My heart felt thanks!!!!!!!!!
16:00 "the US wouldn't spend huge resources to take back islands they never heard of, to then return them to colonial empires they had openly disdained"
do the Japanese remember how they were treated at Versailles?
You mean how the Japanese were given all of the German Pacific territories including ones in China that were supposed to go to China.(also in the entente)
@@porksterbob They didn't get that Racial Equity clause passed though.
3:58 are you sure that they want to reach the Meuze river this spring?
Indy Neidell reminds me of Major General Smedley Butler !
Thank You , Team from World War Two , for making these excellent Video's !
@Skele Joop Thank you for watching. And I'd say Smedley Butler would still say 'War is a racket.'
Great series! Though I am surprised that this week saw mention of neither Goebbels' Sportpalast speach nor of the arrest of Hans and Sophie Scholl. Both events are very central to remembrance of WWII in Germany.
Gerhard Weinberg was an excellent professor, I took several classes under him at UNC.
I was wandering when we would get to the battle of Caserin Pass. For a little bit there, I thought it had already been fought and I had somehow missed it.
Kasserine Pass As I understand it. In 1939 the US Army including the Air Corps was capped at 165,000. In 1940 Britain evacuated over twice that number from France leaving most of it's equipment behind. FDR sold 500,000 "surplus" rifles and over 100,000 machine guns to Britain. In September 1940 the first peace time draft in US history began. The rapidly expanding army trained with broomsticks. The US did not have the capacity to simultaneously supply Britain (including convoy escort to Iceland from June 41), reinforce the Pacific (MacArthur received about half of what he asked for in 41) and train and equip what would become the second or third largest army in history up to that time.
With purchased and Lend Lease aircraft the British were able to establish air superiority in NA. At KP the US had no air support.
After the Fall of Tobruk, FDR took new M4 tanks away from the army to LL to Britain so Monty would have them before Second el Alamein. The US was equipped primarily with M3 mediums when Tiger tanks were used in NA for the first time.
@Nick Danger Thanks for the background. No matter how one feels about the overinflated US/USSR contribution debate, America's rapid arming and war production is incredible.
@@WorldWarTwo On the US/USSR debate what the USSR did is easy to see because almost everything happened between Moscow and Berlin and if you ignore what the USSR did before the Great Patriotic War.
The war for the US was from the east coast of Mexico around the world to the west coast of the US. And Lend Lease.
Looking at the statistics the USSR had the highest losses (up to 50 per cent self inflicted) after Poland (with some inflicted by the USSR).
Under monetary cost the US was the only nation to spend more than Germany and more than Britain, Canada and USSR combined if the numbers are correct. The US had the requirement and fortunately the ability to use force multipliers (35,000 four engine bombers) because it was "safe behind two oceans" (as was Canada).
The US was under no obligation to aid any nation, but did so until Japan and Germany and Italy declared war on the US.
If you do another vid on Lend Lease please use the Zhukov quote. ta
The USSR had a one front war but more enemies in Finland, Romania, Hungary, about 500,000 Soviets, mostly Ukrainians and volunteers from Sweden (Winter War), France, Belgium and "neutral" Spain.
The evacuation of Guadalcanal was about the last major one the Japanese were able to do in the Pacific.
It would appear that Indy has competition in regards to spectacular ties.
You guys can keep Anna in the episodes; I'd be totally okay with that.
Brilliant narration. Left my breathless.😄
@Jason Mussett That's just the effect Indy's narration has! We're glad to have you with us as we move through this war week-by-week
@@WorldWarTwo 😂😂😏
The fact that Hitler ended up within 50 miles of the front line in Russia in February 1943 is something I never heard of previously. Learn something new every day.
On February 20 1943, General Leclerc and his forces reached the oasis of Ksar Ghilane in the desert,
89 km southwest to Medenine. Their mission is to cover the left flank of the British 8th Army, which
controls Tataouine and Medenine.
Meanwhile, several French warships that were stationed in North or West Africa reached the USA in
February for a refit, which will take several months. Among the modernized French ships are :
- Battleship Richelieu, which joined the Brooklyn arsenal in February 1943 where it will be repaired
and its armaments and equipment modernized; it will be incorporated into the British Home Fleet at
Scapa Flow (north of Scotland, Atlantic Ocean) from the end of November 1943.
- Light Cruisers Montcalm, Georges-Leygues and Gloire (La Galissonière class) which will undergo
modernization work in Philadelphia and Brooklyn.
- Large Destroyers (reclassified as light cruisers) Le Fantasque and Le Terrible which arrived in
Boston on February 21, 1943 where they will be also modernized until May 1943.
- The tankers Lot and L'Elorn and the aircraft carrier Béarn.
@oOkenzoOo Thank you for giving the naval background disposition. I'm always impressed, but not surprised, by how much you in the TimeGhost Army contribute to our episodes with such great comments. Stay tuned!
@@WorldWarTwo Thank you. I'm a faithful follower of your work since the Great War channel's debut back in 2014 and enjoy all of your videos.
Shout out to all the members working on this amazing channel !
6:53
Indy: "...Manstein's Army Group"
Meanwhile the subtitles: *manchester united's army group*
The action in North Africa is as interesting as that ones during both battles of El Alamain, it's an amazing last phase of the North African campaign indeed.
Keep up the good work bud 👍🏼
@Robinhood55 Thank you, we will! Please help us keep up the good work by joining the TimeGhost Army on Patreon! bit.ly/WW2_182_CO
Apologies if this is off topic, but I love that teapot!
I have a feeling Mustasche Man won't be taken alive.
16:55 - Love that wry smile! You are all an amazing team!
@Truth Seeker Thanks for watching! The team really does work their butts off, and we appreciate your support
Always a not miss and must watch. Thank you.
@Jimbo Thanks very much for being here, please consider supporting us on Patreon so we can make more episodes each and every week! bit.ly/WW2_182_CO
My gramps was an artillery man in the US II corps, interested to see what his unit did as I really don’t know too much.
Compared to the first day of the war the phone call was good. But it missed that personal touch of civility, however it is now 1943. It has been 3 or so years since the war began. We've settled into the war at this point. This phone call this week might not be special (I think it's the best yet btw) but it shows the expansion of the war. You've got 2 people helping you with phone calls and combat info from the front. But that goodbye, the simple "Thanks for calling" shows that even though the East is burning, even though in north Africa there's bullets flying and in the Pacific ships are burning and planes are flying overhead, there's still time for a goodbye :)
"Two Panzer divisions with 80 panzers"? An American WW2 tank battalion had 53 tanks! This shows how diluted German armor was...
absolutely. By this point in the war a panzer division could have 200 tanks or 2. That's how attritional it was especially on the eastern front.
I notice some people received their episode two days ago. I did not get this any earlier even though I have joined the TimeGhost Army.
Hi Paul, can you email us at community@timeghost.tv and let us know where you signed up, along with more details about the issue you're having? Not sure why you didn't get access to the video.
My compliments for your always splendid work.
@Federico Pescume Thanks very much! Stay tuned, much more to come every single week
I believe this bombardment Attu was derisively known as "The Navy's Spring Plowing", the ships were blinded by fog and churned up empty land without hitting their targets. Weather was a major adversary in the Aleutians.
What's that gun the soldier in the foreground has over his shoulder at 7:37? Almost looks like a captured French LMG
My great grandfather died a year after my birth, so I never had the chance to ask him about his life during the occupation. However, my grandmother often talked about how he refused to go to Germany for the STO, took his bike and went into hiding in Normandy only to return after the liberation. Unfortunately its the only thing I know from my great grandparents lives during the occupation
@Justin Horn That's quite interesting, thanks for sharing about your great grandparents.
LOVE the set!
@Thomas Walz Thanks very much! The team works very hard on every level of production and the set designers love seeing such kind comments!
Great start thank you!
Thanks for watching!
I want to see a special about Wingate.
Beyond the Chindwin by Bernard Ferguson, great read on the Chindits as a first hand account. Highly recommend
I for one am very excited for you guys to cover manstein’s counter stroke that begins today with the Donets Campaign
Good episode as always guys. I'm glad you didn't seem to over focus on the battle of Kasserine pass as so much media has since the end of WW2. So many western media wanted to play up the comeback of the Allies in WW2 after the US defeats at Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Wake Island and then Kasserine pass. But when things are looked at in the grand scale of WW2 Kasserine pass is just a minor engagement and set back for the Allies. Much greater defeats happened to the Allies on a daily bases from the invasion of Poland, the low countries, the fall of France, the massive invasions of the Germans into Russia and the Japanese invasions all over East Asia that they just all dwarf the engagement at Kasserine pass. Yes, the US troops there were fresh troops fighting against veteran Axis enemies so defeats like that were bound to happen. But media portrayals of Kasserine pass make it seem like the US never lost after Kasserine pass which just isn't true. For example, there were much greater US defeats in WW2 during the Battle of the Bulge which the US eventually won. But during the initial attacks during that battle the defeats that happened there were much larger then the small battle of Kasserine pass.
And then on a second and unrelated note, is there any update on when we would be getting any more specials on the aircraft and small arms of each nation in WW2? I loved that coverage back during the Great War channel and it would be so much better for WW2 since the aircraft and small arms of WW2 are just so much more varied then they were in WW1. Each nation in WW2 has so many different aircraft and small arms it is just insane. You could literally make videos on each of them (not that anyone expects that). But covering the aircraft and small arms like you have done with the armored vehicles with Chieftain would be so amazing I think. I just really can't wait to hear about them myself. Also another special on how the Manhattan project is going would be another great idea for a special as well I think.
I'm also really looking forward to specials on the aircraft and small arms of WW2 that each country researched, created and used.
Except for simply not having the time, there is one thing that ties our hands in creating major special projects like this one- getting the funding to actually be able to produce it.
It is highly unlikely that we could raise the hundreds of thousands of Euro to do a project like this one on Bagration for example. People who are interested in and study the war know of it, but the mainstream audience doesn't, and to raise the kind of money needed we'd have to have a project that appeals to the mainstream.
There's also the point that covering the events of a single day plays into our chronological narrative, while Bagration covers weeks, as do many other such "highlights" of the war. Any big special project needs a format, a "packaging" that works, and a hook- for D-Day it's easy; it's 24 hours of coverage. But what would it be for Bagration?
As for doing a huge Stalingrad something or other- that's big enough in people's minds, but it would've had to begin being worked on back in January (at least), and by then we had just finished the Pearl Harbor Minute-by-Minute, so realistically we wouldn't have been able to get the financing for a new special project together so quickly.
Also, after working 70 hour weeks on Pearl Harbor for months, nobody on the team was in any shape to dive into a new extra workload on top of the regular content work straight away.
Because that is the reality of it: any special project we do is indeed extra, and is done on top of the work we do with the regular content, which is well over 40 hour weeks as it stands. We still plan on doing all sorts of specials and extra regular episodes and things like that for all major events of the war so it's not like we're actually leaving something out. And every dollar of support means we can make more special episodes so please consider joining, and tell your friends! www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
@@WorldWarTwo Sorry guys I am just a little confused with your reply. I don't know if maybe you meant to send this reply to someone else but I was not asking for any special on Bagration or other events on the war. I know how hard you guys work on everything you do for the channel and I appreciate it greatly. I also already am a Patreon member for you guys and have been since day 1 that you created it and have recruited many of my friends to join your patreon as well. I think you would know that since I am replying in this video before it has been launched to the public already and I also post a comment to every single video you guys post and have had many back and forth conversations with your World War Two account and Sparty himself. I mean you guys even made a video replying to one of my comments that had a long back and forth conversation between me and Sparty (about the allied bombing campaign).
And the part of my comment on specials was on small side topics of WW2, specifically aircraft and small arms. You guys already did one video on both aircraft and small arms (that was later removed). I was asking if there was any update on if you guys would be getting someone to make videos in collaboration with you guys on those topics like Chieftain does with armored vehicles. So I was just asking for a update on those topics because you have mentioned in the past that you were in talks with other channels to do collaborations with you guys on such topics (tanks, aircraft and small arms). I would think there has to be some RUclips channels that would love to collaborate with you guys on those topics. It would benefit both you and the other channel (again like Chieftain does). You guys would get coverage of other topics on WW2 that you don't have the time and the at hand knowledge to cover and the other channel would get the benefit of getting some of your followers to now follow their channel. I know there are tons of small arms channels that would be interested in doing what Chieftain does with you guys. For aircraft that area you would be more limited in finding a partner but the aircraft of WW2 are arguably one of the most interesting topics of advancement through out WW2 and I think it would be a shame and a big missed opportunity for you guys to not have such coverage.
And again maybe you posted your reply to the wrong thread because I was being positive with my comment and your reply seemed to be rather negative of the suggestions I was giving. I was not at all calling you out for not doing more massive specials. I was simply asking for a update on side projects that you have talked about doing in the past. And again I have been a supporter of you guys from day 1 and am constantly getting as many people as I can to support your channel as I can because I love the work you guys do and love the talks I have with your team and the other members of the Time Ghost army that I have in your comments.
The Kasserine pass's high profile isnt really for the tactical or strategic value of the battle itself but what it says about the readiness of US forces training and leadership at this point, i.e. they were as green as the British accused them of being when they rejected the US proposal to immediately launch an invasion of France and instead proposed something easier for the US forces to do.
I think it is inevitable that the battle of Kasserine Pass gets so much attention because it was/is seen as the first full on engagement between US and German forces. While the casualities were not too severe, the tank (183 US vs 20 for the Axis forces) and vehicle losses were quite serious. The British had been accused of being incompetent for their losses in 1941-42, but they had to contend with Col. Bonner Fellers leaking intel to the Axis. Kasserine Pass demonstrated that it armoured and numerical superiority wasn't going to be enough. Expericence and adaptability were key. Soon after, American commanders paid more attention to the advice offered by the British and they improved very rapidly.