Bartender Reacts! Biggest Logistical Flex of All Time-Berlin Airlift by The Fat Electrician
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- (More links below) Original Video Link - • Biggest Logistical Fle...
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @americanslearn
Store Link: 99-perspective...
Full Reactions and Vote On New Content - / chicagoreacts
Suggest a video for us to watch in the comments.
Our Discord - / discord
Merch - www.redbubble....
#America #Americans #Learn 
Развлечения
"...Bitch-slap their entire country _with the sun."_ What an awesome line.
"we Sank 3 Boats they hit us with The Sun Twice!" 😂
The CANDY BOMBER 🍬 is my favorite part of this story. Just a random act of kindness that just spiraled into becoming one of the most memorable parts of the biggest humanitarian effort in history ... just ... legendary.
I love that part. Especially since like...how did he get so many handkerchief parachutes? Must have been pricey out of his own pocket to start
@@AmericansLearnThe German children called him "Uncle Wiggly Wings" because he would rock the wings of his plane up and down to signal when he would start dropping candy.
@@benn454 That is adorable. Around here, if kids wave to crop dusters, the pilots "wave" back by doing the same thing.
@@AmericansLearn this was when every man did carry a handkerchief and had 5-10 in his sock drawer
@@AmericansLearn It wasn't just him he got the rest of his own crew to pitch in too. If you are wondering, he was Mormon so had extra rations because he wasn't buying smokes and coffee so could get the candy to drop. Of course it felt so good that his crew pitched in their rations too.
Of course once the big boss found out he put Gail 'Hal' Halverson in charge of getting it done all over the place because happy German kids make for happy German parents....and pissed off Soviets.
The next time you hear someone say, "When was American ever great"... point them to this video.
And that's the whole point of when was America great. It ended in the late 70's when business took over and screwed over the middle class.
The Boomers got handed the worlds greatest economy and the worlds greatest artists and thinkers and literally shut the door behind them.
But its all the kids todays fault for not playing outside.
Exactly. The Boomers got handed the greatest economy and artists and culture in the world.
And then literally shut the door behind them.
But sure it's the millennials fault for not going outside as much and drinking from the garden hose.
My late father was part of the airlift, God love him. RIP, Pop...
Thank your family and father for shaping the better future for our nation.
-from a half german half American
God bless you
@@hazyviewpoint7194 Thank you. If he was still with us, I'm sure that he would say that it was his privilege...
Bless your father. And thank you for sharing a little part of him.
You must have a lot of pride in your father
@@hazyviewpoint7194I’m half german also
The Fat Electrician is always entertaining, two of my favourites of his are, "The RAFs Legless Anti-Hero", and "Wreaking and Trolling the Germans With a Wooden Plane".
Both are good vids, but neither is in my Top 10 lol. Just shows how deep his quality & entertainment value go.
I'm particularly fond of his video about the time we stole a German submarine and stuck it in Chicago just because we could.
No no, you said it right the first time.
"The Berlin Airflex."
There is a story I read about how bad the inflation was that two women were walking home from working in a factory. Carrying their daily pay in laundry baskets, they set the baskets down to get a break and to look at something in a store window and when they turned around to pick up their baskets and finish the journey home someone had stolen the baskets. Left the money and ran off with the baskets.
that story was before ww2.
Vittles is a legitimate version of the older Latin victuals and pronounced exactly the same way.
Means "provisions" especially food.
I didn't know it was from Latin, but I did know it was a real word. I usually just think of it in terms of cowboys or prospectors.
Viktualienmarkt is the largest farmers market in Munich Germany.
Just a personal note, there's a LOT of good in humanity, but the bad stuff gets more views, so you'll generally just be more aware of the bad. But it's not as one-sided as our media would lead people to believe
100%. People will shit on America and how awful we supposedly are but the American people give more to charity and aid causes than any other nation on earth. As in 7x more than any nation in Europe.
@@twohorsesinamancostume7606They have to do that 7 times as much, because the other countries do better when it comes to social issues and the taxes go there. Universal HC, paid parental leave etc. etc. I had to google what GoFundMe is🤔
and medical bills
17:20, a real cherry on top when the Soviets tried sending fighters up to to try and intimidate the pilots, and a real life example of how unfazed the pilots actually were, there was one cargo pilot who was en-route to Berlin and saw a Soviet fighter approaching. By now I'm pretty sure he'd already been harassed by them on previous flights, but this time he'd finally had enough. He straight up took his plane and flew right at the Soviet fighter essentially saying "do it bi***, I f***ing dare you," and naturally, the Soviet fighter veered off at the last minute and he continued on to Berlin unharmed.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
But spite is it's crazy uncle who keeps edging it on!
You got that right!
Well its the "necessity" to put a finger in the eye of the enemy so "necessary" is still valid.. 😂😂
Spite makes previously voluntary things necessary
I mean when America wanted to be left alone, we got poked by a stick twice. There won't be a 3rd time because this bear isn't ever sleeping again.
It's a beautiful moment of nations coming together to do what is right even when it seems impossible.
Wish we had a bit more of that today.
Well the part he glosses over for the sake of the story is plane unloaders/airport personnel helping in Berlin were paid really well plus given one hot meal per day and the people were literally lining up to take those jobs when the military advised them because the starving people knew they were going to actually get paid something plus having at least one good meal everyday they worked
It still happens every now and then. Russia was pretty generous to us Americans on quite a few occasions. Most kinda recent is they sent us oxygen machines or something during Covid times to New York City who was getting quite some hospitalizations apparently.
My father's first assignment after joining the Army was West Berlin during the airlift in 1949 at 19 years old.
I remember General Colin Powell reiterating the old military axiom, "Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics."
Once again recommending The Fat Electrician's video on the USS O'Bannon.
Here in the US schools entire classes were making small parachutes to use for the candy drops. Women donated VERY expensive and perfumed, in some cases silk, handkerchiefs to use. Some probably tring to get the attention of pilots. ALL went out the windows of the planes.
Spite can ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY be the reason necessity happens.
My dad did a missionary trip to Germany and he said literally you needed a wheel barrel of money to buy a pencil, they had people walk hundreds of miles to where they were stationed because they were giving out bibles, basketballs, and food and it was like gold to the people
Its the Indiana Jones font
I knew I recognized it. I think I saw the marbling and orange and thought...basketball.
@@AmericansLearnalso disneys duck tales
Struggle is the mother of inventions. Spite is the father.
It's called political promises, that most politicians have no intention of keeping, and the ones who do plan on keeping them get blocked by the others.
Logistics win wars. You gotta make sure the war fighter has plenty of beans and bullets.
Ehhhhhh.... the Nazis were pretty up front with what they were about, Hitler even outlined his plans in Mein Kampf, which was written before he was elected. There absolutely were people who didn't agree with the Nazis and some of those people did everything that they could to save people and they should never be forgotten but the vast majority of people in Germany goosestepped right alongside the Nazis.
Rinse and repeat that with Imperial Japan as well. When Nanking was being savaged Japanese newspapers were gleefully reporting on decapitation and baby skewering competitions like they were baseball games and the civilian response to that was to cheer it on.
Rinse and repeat that with Hamas in the Gaza Strip as well. Hamas was (and still is) a terrorist organization whose openly stated main goal is the extermination of Israel. Gaza voted them in, celebrated the 7 October attacks, had no problems whatsoever with the decapitation of babies or women being cut in half or people burned alive. Again, they celebrated terrorists attacking civilians. That makes them complicit.
The Berlin airlift campaign took a year. If done today, six USAF C-5 transport aircraft could do it in one day.
“We just start smaller wars, that we don’t finish.” LOL
More on safety razors. I only shave legs and under arms, 5 cent blades are usually adequate but Ive splurged in 12 cent blades and still saved so much. Best way to escape the pink tax
Safety Razors. A kind of expensive handle, but absolutely affordable blades. The younger you are, the more savings you can enjoy over your life.
Safety razors are definitely one of the more front loaded investments people can have. Once you get past buying a razor, the blades are dirt cheap, and relatively durable. I got a pack of 100 blades for, like, $10. I still haven’t run out, and I bought that years ago at this point.
If you buy a good safety razor, you won’t need another for the rest of your life.
AND contrary to popular belief, it saves on razor burn AND you can get a better shave.. 🤷♀️ you'd think that wouldn't be the case, but it is.
Every time you paused you hit the nail on the head with your responses, well freaking done!
The Russians tried to build a huge radio tower right in the flight path. The locals blew it up and the Russians didn't try that again.
The reason citizens often get smashed is because of a thing called accountability. The government, military, civilians are all citizens and responsible to a degree for their collective actions and/or inaction's of their state as a whole. An overstretched parent can drive to work not realizing their sleeping infant is still in the car seat later succumbing to heat stroke an dying which leaves the family devastated. Maybe your briefly unsupervised toddler darts out into the street being stuck by a car. Your teenagers smash a neighbors window playing baseball. These are accidents but there is still a level of parental accountability as it relates to unintentional oversight, negligence, or lacking situational awareness. Directly or indirectly, the parent is held accountable much like the citizens are held accountable for the governments they give birth too.
The power has always been with the people, so being weak and scared of your out-of-control government does not exempt you from the consequences of failed diplomacy. Its one of the reasons we have term limits when holding office and avoid giving rise to tyrannical dictators. You stand up and fight for what you believe in or die trying. Look at geopolitics like you would life in the prison system. If you don't stand up to your own government(prison gang #1) or another country's government(prison gang #2), you will only be dominated, humiliated, have your resources stolen, and end up resigning yourself to a life of servitude and bullying. While feeling sympathy for civilian non-combatants is warranted, there is still a level of accountability that exist and tends to increase the closer you are to a valuable opposition target which inherently reduces your own value to an acceptable level of collateral damage. People may not get to choose where they are born but they can choose to fight those who infringe upon their own will and beliefs triggering a new revolution in their country. Differing beliefs of people willing to die for what they stand for is why war itself becomes such a just action because all parties involved believe their actions against the opposition are just actions.
The problem with this statement is that you will not just affect you by fighting against governments such as Germany or the Soviet Union, you have also signed the death warrants of all your friends and family.
It's real easy to say fight against tyranny when you have no skin other than your own in the game. And said governments knew that. So, they wouldn't threaten your life, they would threaten your families lives.
Even the US does this to an extent. SR-71 and U-2 spy plane pilots were all married. And that was by design, because if you have something to lose, you are less likely to defect.
at 25:30 he misspoke. It wasnt 92,000 miles it was actually 92,000,000 miles.
Most governments aren't worth the air they waste, in my opinion, but humanity in general is actually pretty cool when you get out of the way and let us work together.
Yep. One of the reasons I support small government, low taxes, and generally keeping the feds out of our lives as much as possible. More freedom and disposable income for people to do good.
Love how this whole video and almost every video the Fat Electrician makes about American awesomeness is all things impossible to achieve with low taxes, small government and the government just leaving people alone. We wouldn't exist and the Fat Electrician certainly wouldn't have anything to talk about if we used that philosophy in life. Just like Communism it's great in theory and on paper but completely useless for achieving greatness and changing the globe.
If you like two enemies banding together for the greater good you should look into the battle for castle itter
Im so happy for this reaction i was having a bad night at work and you are in my top 3 favorite youtubers of all time and all your videos make .y night at work so much better tha ks for all the great content❤
Really, thank you so much. I appreciate the support, and I hope I can improve your day! Make sure to let me know what videos you want me to react to, and I'll be certain to do them ASAP.
@AmericansLearn
His video on the old 666ruclips.net/video/7Iuq3Wfz3RA/видео.htmlsi=1cCfJImr6229hLtl is a great video
His video on operation Paul bunyan is another great video as well ruclips.net/video/7Iuq3Wfz3RA/видео.htmlsi=1cCfJImr6229hLtl
24:30 Necessity covers spite, the willingness to defeat your enemies, do something really cool, or attempt to win awards for the nicest human act.
I remember learning about the Berlin Airlift in school. As I recall, when The Candy Bomber was about to start dropping his packages, he would rock his plane from side to side so the kids on the ground would know it was him.
The kids started calling him Uncle Wiggle Wings.
The different ways that the west said fuck you to the Soviets is astounding hilarious and downright amazing
They shouldn’t have had to. Patton was right.
6:15 it wasn’t rhetorically said, there’re stories of fathers going with suitcases full of money to buy a load a bread just to find out the price had doubled in a few hours. It was genuinely THAT bad
USMC vet here, not that my 2 cents matter. But the last video you do that I watched. The Barbary wars, I don’t always agree with our foreign policy, or how we do it. But generally is for the overall good, yes always ulterior motives. And made to benefit us. But even with that. We are historically among the nicest and chill/honest. As a whole to try to enforce what we want. And have brought the longest period of peace between major powers since the height of the Roman republic and empire. And this. This just shows how and why. Though lend lease in WWII makes this look like nothing, at least in total scale and time we supplied and built ourselves up and the rest of the free world willing and capable to fight. which is impressive. Along with fighting a two front world war. Well major two theater, but really a 4 front war. For those who don’t know among many things. We gave the Soviets so much canned meat, they were still eating the last of it in the 1980’s, and was still safe to eat, if not the best food, over 40 years after they got the last shipments. That’s what we (US) can do. Will do, and has done. Along with being the major player in the Berlin airlift, and a lot of things, whether good or bad, we will do it, and fully dedicate to it, even if it turns out badly, that’s alarmist always cause of politics, not cause of effort, capability or intention. And yes I know the road to hell is paved with good intentions. But we’re the only ones who try. And actually can make a difference. Like that can physically make a world and history changing difference, from minor decisions, anytime we choose to intervene or meddle in/change things.
The Globemaster was approved for development soon after Japan hit Pearl Harbor, but it takes years to create an aircraft, especially since planes in the 1940s were designed using slide rules, hand drawn blueprints, and machinists hand machined the jigs and molds for everything. No computer aided design. Then you tested it, and made adjustments. First flight was a month after Japan surrendered and production was halted after only 14 were made. They were intended for the Pacific theater of war where they would fly very long distances. The bread and butter cargo place was the C47 Sky Train, also known as the Dakota to the Brits. The civil version was the DC-3. Built just before the war for passengers, they weren't sure how strong of an airframe it truly was until they kept adding weight and it kept flying just fine. They were extremely rugged, perfect for those diving approaches into Berlin.
16:26
The world at large didn't get to see what the war actually did to the people it affected, the people flying those planes did.
So did the people on the ground.
Sometimes all it takes is experience to change a perspective.
That's not Air Bud font. That's Indiana Jones.
During that time, the German currency was worth more as wallpaper than as currency.
The really impressive part is the U.S was supplying Japan and the Philippines during this time also
Watched someone else react to this and he did a horrible job. You did great!
It just occured to me. I was born at the height of the Berlin Airlift. I can also remember standing in front of my TV in 1989, weeping with joy, as I watched the citizens of Berlin rip that disgusting wall down. The great communist society was supposed to be built in East Germany. Try and find that country on a modern map today.....
I was in college when the Germans reunited. I remember being in the commons watching the news. My friend from Sweden was watching. We saw the Berliners partying and gleefully destroying the Wall. I asked my friend what he thought. Silence. I looked over and tears were streaming down his face. Europe DETESTED communism. Especially those who lived under or close to the USSR. God bless America.
Communism does attain equality. Yup, equally poor.
9:28 as AL Murray would put it "gotta keep match fit somehow. "
Ahhh you might have the best username I’ve seen in sometime…love the Holy Grail!!
I think it can't be overstated how much the Berlin Airlift consolidated for the german public in the late 40s and early 50s that the only way forward would be the western alliance. It seems obvious now but at the time there were many plans and ideas for germany to stay neutral or become demilitarized, not gaining back it's independence at all, disbanding the entire country or leaving it under constant occupation. The Soviets went as far as promising Germany all of it's former eastern territories, Prussia etc., in exchange for not joing the west, but their actions spoke louder than their words and their complete disregard and willingness to sacrifice millions of civilians in order to force western Berlin into giving up was a major point in convincing west germans that there was no future with the Soviets.
WC and the Maad Circle “West Up” (ft. I’ve Cube and Mac 10). We don’t call it 5-O we call it One Time.
The brits had the Rainbow code system after the war to assign project names for weapons.
This could get real silly like the Green Cheese anti ship missile
We are all equal comrad. Some of us are just more equal
More equal? Explain this nonsense.
@traviseller8160 it's from a book called "animal farm" It is an excellent critique on the failed ideology of communism.
After seeing your heart melt for the candy bomber, i thought I'd be seeing a reaction to that story.
If your still interested? There's a full length documentary on him.
(Yes, it will melt your heart more)
That's because if you looked up kindness in the dictionary you'd find his picture.
Thanks for sharing. You have a lovely voice.
Don't forget the C-54 Skymaster. British Lanks Dropping food in the outlying areas like my Father's B-25 Squadron did. Yes, but the Oil Company's fueled America's recovery from the expense of the war. Look up the Candy Bombers of this airlift Sweetheart.
I think it was the prospective of the allied countries toward the citizens Thus ,the Berlin air lift. Plus you can’t have people dying for preventable health issues while watching people die
The citizens of Germany were feeling great in 1941 but not so much in 1946. Perspective, I guess.
I do understand that not all were for this NZ effort but I'm sure that probably half were during 1941 and in the 30's.
Russia is absolutely evil (USSR).
WWII was just WWI part 2. The hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic in the early 1920s set the stage for Hitler. They were trying to pay off their debt for starting WWI, and since the amount was fixed, just printing more and more currency was their "easy" fix. So the wheel barrel full of money story was a REPEAT of Germany in the 1920s. Printing all that money was blamed on everyone other than the government. Hitler ran for office and promised to stop the presses, along with all the usual socialist promises (free health care, free education, free housing, etc.). He of course, blamed the Jews for all their woes. He did stop the presses, but as with all good socialists (N@ZI is National Socialist Workers Party), he began running out of "other peoples' money" and invaded Poland where his first acts were to steal all the national gold, created German-Polish currency (using what was left of the real Polish currency to pay Germany's ballooning debt). Until they started losing battles, the people of Germany generally supported the former corporal. As my late father used to say, "the most expensive thing on the planet is something "free" from the taxpayers."
I love my little safety razor.
Costly? Fuel, spark plug, brake rotors and pads, avionics, control wires…
12:46
To be fair this was after ww2 so maybe that's why you did not hear about tonner.
I understand your frustration that the people of Germany were blamed for the actions of their government. Here's some context that might explain some of the sentiments being expressed.
A good portion of the population was still angry and resentful at the rest of Europe who kept their country hamstrung and boxed in after WW I. All it took was a crazed Dictator with a silver tongue to sway the angry masses into a hyperstate of nationalism and pride. Many Germans were complicit, at least at the start of the war, and turned a blind eye to what their government was doing.
Times were different and folks back in the 30s and 40s had different world views and priorities than us in the modern era.
That is very much Indiana Jones font being employed.
1:21 Looks like the Indiana Jones font to me.
Lmfao @ stick figure making it say OMMUNISM. You been single too long too, eh? 😉😂
Good vid reaction. Enjoyed my first trip to AL.
That's not air buds font, it's Indiana Jones font, tho I can't say I recall air buds font to say for certain it's not
Americans learn?!?!? This woman comes across as priority case #1 when it comes to who needs to be educated.
Remember the candy lift
You should look at the video showing the dead of WWII. At the end of the video the author shows what the war frequency and intensity worldwide before WWII and after. The main difference shown is that after WWII the US established freedom of the seas and encouraging worldwide trade. The period following WWII has been the longest period of peace and prosperity in the history of civilization. We might do questionable things, but we have kept everyone in their own lane and forced them to play nice.
Hey patton, eisenhower, truman, more than 90percent of people know nowadays.
There are plenty of British subjects who very much still hold some grudge.
Because here's the thing, yes the Nazi's were a small percentage of their country. Something present day Germans love to remind the world. And that is actually the problem. Because they just sat back and did nothing. Because Hitler WAS improving the economy at the time. So, because they were spared and even successful there was a lot of Nationalist pride.
Case in point, the Luftwaffe had very few hardcore Nazi's in it. Including the officers. They still bombed London and helped with the Blitzkreig. But they were just following orders. Or were they? There was a LOT of pride in what they are doing. It was literally only because the same enemy in this story, Stalin, literally threw his citizens without care into the teeth of the battle and eventually won out due to sheer numbers advantage.
Something tells me had Hitler NOT invaded Russia, and just stopped there, most Germans would have been plenty happy occupying most of Europe. Proud even. At what the mighty German army accomplished
To be fair assuming Plain Fare is accurate given its food from Britain 😂 those who have eaten British food use the term plain frequently 😂
That proxy war joke was great lol soooooo true
You're amazing, I love this channel and story ❤️
That is the Indiana Jones font.
Thats the same font and coloring as Indiana Jones movie titles
It's the Indiana Jones font.
He doesn't really explain the underlying reason why communism and socialism do not work. It's because the incentives are inverted. If everyone merely gets what they need, but have to produce at their highest ability, there's no incentive to learn any trade because the master carpenter gets paid the same as the day laborer and the cleaning lady. It takes a couple of generations after socialism gets seriously ingrained before the craftsmen and skilled workers die off and then you're left with nothing but the less skilled labor and the complex systems start to collapse.
Still have about 56 Billion Reichsmark at home from my grandpa 😅
Im old german and polish and i will blame the government
Goddamn ninjas cutting onions.
There's some context as to why the world was so harsh on the German people after WWII. Just 21 years prior to the war kicking off with the invasion of Poland in 1939, the world had tried to be lenient with Germany who had initiated WWI by invading France by first invading neutral Belgium and the British Empire had previously said that anyone who attacked Belgium would answer to them (the British Empire had also warned Germany that an invasion of Poland would be grounds for a declaration of war so that's twice in two generations that the Germans knowingly started a large scale war). During the interwar years, the German people thought that they hadn't actually lost WWI (they had, their entire military was either collapsing or in mutiny) and instead were "stabbed in the back" by their government. A big part of this belief was that WWI never actually touched Germany itself with all the fighting occurring in Belgium, France, Russia, the Balkans, etc.
So when Germany started WWII after the rest of the world was still coming to grips with the horrors of WWI, they pretty much pissed everyone off and so the decision was made to utterly crush Germany to make sure they didn't try it a third time.
little spoiler they didnt just show up they were heavily incentivized to do so... either by military order or because if they didnt they died.
I have a question for people. Where is East Germany? East Berlin? What happened to them?
Bluffing someone doesn't work when the person you are trying to bluff has the world's largest ace in the hole and it is the only one in the deck.
Way back in the 70s it was kinda expected to be robbed of candy. I was frosty never happened to me but friend with me just la de da and see ya.
I understand you are young and im old and crotchety. Its cool. You do good reactions.
20:15 I like your style 😂😂😂
9:30 not exactly, blame the people for that like during Nam
Hey there, wonderful reaction. If I may make a suggestion, give the original creator's video a week or two from its publishing to allow their video time in the algorithm before it gets hidden by all the reaction creators. Just a courtesy given TFE puts a lot of time in research to share the information in their video and for it to be overshadowed by reaction youtubers is a bit of a dick move. Other than that, you made some great points of discourse and I really enjoyed your perspective in your reaction to his content!
If necessity is the mother of invention; spite is her busty, tattooed, sociopath younger sister.
(1:19) I believe it is the Indiana Jones font.🤔
They weren't Russians back then, they were Soviets.
Just a little factoid: British food and rations during this period of time were so bad that the French and Americans refused to use them, and the Germans intentionally surrendered to the Americans because their food was edible. Germans under POW status under the British complained of being tortured with rotten and inedible food rations as prisoners, to which the British notified them that those were the same rations their troops were eating. The British rations were TERRIBLE.
Please forgive my ignorance, but wat small battles did America start but not finish?? And yes this entire situation was phenomenal lol
24:26 I'd argue that laziness is also in contention for being the mother of invention. If not 'the mother' at least a great aunt or something.
I mean, historically speaking, the Germans _did_ suffer for electing Hitler. Significantly. WWII was not great for them. On top of that, they now have to deal with the fact that the stereotypical villain accent is at least 50% a German accent (albeit with also elements of Russian, courtesy of the Cold War). Events have consequences.
The German currency was already worthless at the end of the war. That usually happens when you lose a major war. I mean, not like, a foreign proxy war or something, but losing an actual existential conflict, wherein losing means your government is dismantled, is a pretty reliable path to hyperinflation. See the Confederate currency at the end of the US Civil War for another example. There are a number of reasons why this happens, but the big two are war debt and eroding confidence. War is very expensive, and a government that is in danger of ceasing to exist because they're losing a war becomes desperate and throws budgetary constraints out the window and spends all the money they can beg, borrow, or steal, in an attempt to not be losing quite so badly. The worse the war is going, the more the debt escalates. Under these circumstances, any inherent store of value (e.g., gold or whatever) that the currency may have originally been backed by is soon gone, and so the currency inevitably becomes a fiat currency (most modern currencies are fiat currencies _anyway_ but even the days when people believed in using a gold standard, fiat is what inevitably happened when somebody was losing a major war). That brings us around to the second major factor, eroding confidence: when you're losing a major war, people start to lose confidence that your government is going to still be around in a decade, or a year, or in extreme cases a month. The government's credit rating drops through the floor and lands in the abyss, and the currency, which at this point is worth money only because the government says it is worth money, is on increasingly shaky ground as people realize they don't trust what that government says. Today the government says this currency is money, but what happens when the war is lost and the government is obliterated? The enemy that's going to take over has their own currency, will they recognize the losing side's money? Will *anybody* recognize it? So now this government is trying to pay for wartime necessities, and they have no gold or silver or foreign currency because they've spent it all, and nobody will lend them any more because it's increasingly evident that they're probably not going to be able to pay it back, so how are they going to pay for things? Obviously, they try to buy everything with their own currency, and in order to do that, they start printing more of it. People, especially foreigners, who are selling the things the government needs to try to stop losing the war, look at this freshly printed currency and go "this is only worth anything because you say it is, and you're about to lose this war and not be a country any more, and then who is going to say it's worth anything?" Et voila, hyperinflation.
What the soviets mainly did to make this worse, was drag their feet endlessly on the creation of a new currency. Which is why it was eventually done without them, which they of course hated.
My grandfather survived the camps because the local Germans smuggled them food. He would fight anyone badmouthing the people
The Queen of Monday morning quarterbacking.
Might be wrong to blame a people, but, unfortunately, it is human nature.
We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us.
Something inspiring? Look up the March of Dimes.
He's pretty funny
Yay a happy one.