That's so terribly true and who knows maybe can go for bolt action rifles like Springfield 1903, Lebel, Mosin-Nagant, Mauser Lee-Enfield and who knows what others or look into MIG's as another source who knows a lot of topics out there.
@@woodenseagull1899 Really so true on that as well and also speaking of what happened after Germany in WWI could look into the inflation and the effects it have as another interesting topic saw pictures of kids playing with money during this time as well.
@@woodenseagull1899 Where does this confidence come from? Speaking about food, everything was fine with the Germans until the second half of the forties, when they were occupied and the Third Reich *collapsed*
@@mr.zardoz3344 That's not the only definition of anarchy and if you cwuld've taken more than 2 seconds to look it up you would've seen that. From Merriam - Webster anarchy noun an·ar·chy - absence of government - a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority - absence or denial of any authority or established order - absence of order : disorder
@@mr.zardoz3344Regardless of which meaning of the word they meant, you're correct in that a more descriptive word would have been more appropriate. In this context I would have used "chaos" or "bedlam" maybe even pandemonium
There was a German generation known as the Starvation Generation from 1917-1921 in which the children born in this time were as adults on average shorter, thinner and less muscular as well as less intelligent than those born after. US Army Medical Corps records of captured German servicemen noted the deficiencies in the men born from 1918-21. Lack of nutrition for infants and toddlers in these years negatively affected physical and mental health in later years. The Dutch suffered the same phenomena with children born or growing up during the starvation winter of 1944-45. Audrey Hepburn was one such child and she was chronically ill and had difficulty bearing children as a result.
it wasn't just Germany. it was across Europe... rationing was brought in the UK 1914-1918 and in 1939-45. people had enough to eat but not a surplus and no luxuries from abroad. every ship carrying cargo to the UK from abroad had to be carrying vital supplies - so "yes, we have no bananas" was true. you could see differences in children raised in war years and those after within same family.
I’m glad you mentioned how war disrupts food supplies in more than just trade. Those seemingly unrelated things can have a domino affect that impacts the availability of food in a big way.
Growing up, there was a German lady living next door who was like a grandmother to me. She was born in the Dresden area in the early 1890s. She emigrated to America in 1913 or so, but returned to Germany to get married and got stuck there when the war broke out. Sadly, her fiance was blown to smithereens in the Belgian trenches. When I knew her she still had a small porcelain bowl that held the monthly butter ration. It was VERY small. She also refused to eat turnips. She told me that the only thing they had to eat by the end of the war was turnips. Turnip soup, turnip pie, turnip stew. You name it, it had turnip in the name. It became a bit of a joke in our family to offer her turnips at dinner. I knew her in.the 60s and 70s. The poor woman was still traumatized 40 years after the war ended.
I have an almost exact same story, about my actual grandmother. She was a teenager during WWII and an old granny during yugoslav wars 1991-1995. There was very little actual fighting in our region during WWII, but the economy was destroyed and people went hungry. Then, in 1991 our city found itself on the front line, actual combat in the suburbs, heavy shelling every day, etc. Our house was hit by 2 grenades. Throughout all of this, the old lady kept saying that this is not too bad because "there is enough bread to eat everyday." She was more afraid of the hunger than she was of actual bullets. As a child, I just could not comprehend it.
Like many countries these became a staple of the poorer people which, along with various meats, made a dish called Lob Scouse. Irish stew, Scotch broth and Lancashire hotpot are all variations of this dish. It was such a common dish that people from part of Liverpool became known as Scousers.
I still remember my great grandmothers generation telling the tale and non of them ever ate turnips again ( i actually tried a turnip and potato soup after a war recipy and it was quiet good, but then it had some meat and i wouldent have another 100 days with the same meal)
1.The allies also bought war materials from neutral nations in World War II. Similar sort of policy, which cut off Germany from suppliers of essential metals. 2. Some of the classes of conscripts that were called up to the German army in the 1930s and 40s were markedly shorter and lighter than those before or after, having been through the food shortages. 3. Fat became attractive.
@otten5666 No, no it does not. Starvation occurs when the body burns through all its fat stores and starts to eat muscle. Under intense physical strain like in the wilderness it can burn through its stores in a week, however in civilization it can take a minimum of three. With one meal a week you're chronically malnourished but it would take at minimum a few months before you could be counted as starving.
the starvation in germany continued long after the end of the blockade after the war. my aunt was a child growing up in the late 1920’s, her father a disabled ww1 vetran and only co do odd jobs, could barely buy food for his family of wife and 3 kids, during the german hyper inflation. and My aunt grew up on Turnip stews, and occaionaly a poor quality potato or very limp carrot thrown in, and 2 day old bread, that they would dip in the soup and it was a bit to hard to eat. When Hitler came to power, he started large utobahn projects and her father was ordered to meanial work on one in a Arbret work battaion, but finaly was given a wage that was better. He bought a cabbage and some meat and fresh carrrots and fresh bread and butter… the kids had never had before. She said from that moment on the entire family became fanatical Nazi supporters, along with a great many thought germany..
@@cescocesco1105 nothing i can do about it. as that all happened before i was born. when she learnt the truth about the Nazis an the death campe she left germany and so hated it she would not even teach me any german. I am anti Nazi.
During the Spring Offensive of 1918 German troops capture several British depots full of food. There is some dispute as to whether or not seeing all this effected the moral of the German soldiers but what it did do was slow their advance as the stopped to eat their fill. Many of those German soldiers captured by Sergeant York and others were in such a poor state they had stopped collecting their rations and their superiors believed they had already surrendered to the US troops. This is not to denigrate what York achieved but is a sign of how the German army was become less and less a fighting force. The Austrians were in an even worse state than the Germans. In fact it got to the point were they stopped a German grain barrage which was sailing along the Danube to Germany in order to feed their own people with bread from the flour. Germany was so outraged that they threatened to launch their next attack against Austria.
What do you mean “some dispute as to whether or not seeing this food affected German morale?” It’s a starving army bro, of course they’re gonna be happy finding food. What do you think they’re gonna be like “oh man, we got food, now I can’t starve.”
@bradleyg7498 a German war veteran who ended up in a nursing home I worked stateside told me that he knew the war was definitely over when they he was captured and they were giving the POWs butter with their bread at every meal. He said the Germans barely had enough to eat and the allies were giving, not just food, but good food to prisoners. There were a lot of impromptu surrenders where germans would surrender in mass once they smelled fresh cooked food. It's also important to remember that the germans thought the allies were gonna totally destroy them, since FDR's comments on unconditional surrender were used as propaganda. Once germans realized "Oh hey, the western allies want to give me food and peace. That's better than war and starvation"
Thank you for saying that! I wish I could post even more regularly as I have so much to cover. For one dude these videos are more work than they might seem. About 3 hours of work for every minute of video.
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq.make them longer you put in the work and research I would love to hear more from you or you could just talk about in length more in another video separately
“When logs are needed to be used for fuel for fire. How many people will demolish their houses for fuel? That’s what it means to be trapped in Total War and stare into the darkness beyond.” ~Unknown
Great episode. Food shortages was as bad, if not worse in Austria-Hungary. It got so bad that by autumn 1918, Austria-Hungary hijacked barges on the Danube full of wheat from Romania headed for Germany. The Germans were so furious they actually threatened war on their own ally.
Whenever I travel back to germany and end up spending the day with my grandparents (who grew up in WW2) the majority of the day is spent going to a cafe or restaurant and thinking of what the next meal will be. While it can get annoying, it makes complete sense as during and post war, there wasn’t always the guarantee you would eat, so you always have to keep thinking ahead. Some habits you just can’t shake.
If you ever watch the old NBC documentary about 'Bataan- the forgotten Hell' there's an interview with a veteran from there who mentioned them eating the quartermasters mules, the cavalrys horses, monkeys, iguanas, and anything they could find.
The Japanese on island garrisons were forced to do similar as the Allied navies cut them off. Their own navy could no longer supply them, so many turned to subsistence farming, fishing, and trading with the natives to survive. Huge bases like Rabaul and Truk that had been teeming with warships, airstrips and weapons were converted into fields of crops.
As someone who has taught history, including military history, at the university level, you do an amazing job of finding the line between engaging, entertaining, and informative. I really wish I had found this channel sooner, you have a knack for choosing great topics as well. Keep up the great work!
Thanks so much that means a lot to me. I'm not a great "deep dive" history channel but I do try to present on subjects in a unique and engaging way which hopefully just makes history more accessible.
In times of hunger the Swedish women competed on who had the most uneatable Barkbread. Grassroot was a very common food in times of hunger. It was gathered and dried so that it could be ground into flour. "Every pain has it´s scream, a full belly remains silent".
Yes, early in the book “storm of steel,” Jünger speaks of being “stuffed” by the meals he ate, and even later, he spoke of getting a fair amount of drink (though by that time, be’d become an officer, so he had better food than the usual Landser.)
Great video as always! I remember I heard a bit about starvation after the war in Germany when learning about ww1 but never knew how much it was at the front to. Guess it’s like Napoleon said an army marches on its stomach. And he has a point too. You might have the best army with the best trained soldier with the best rifles and cannons. But after nine days of starvation can cripple any army faster than any bayonet, bullet and bomb. And never thought I would hear acorns being used for coffee never knew you could do that. Bet that would not taste the greatest lol. Keep up the great work!
One of the biggest crimes was that britain didn't lift the naval blockade when germany surrendered. They only stopped after the treaty of versailles was signed, so thousand germans had to die from starvation even after the war was over
The Treaty IS the surrender. An Armistice is merely a cessation of fighting, not the capitulation of a defeated country so by your own logic, Britain did lift the blockade after Germany surrendered...
ww2 joke among Germans was "the war will end when Goering can fit into Goebbal's trousers" .. the leaders lived very well , with special restaurants in Berlin catering for them .. Hitler and Goebbals did tend to be quite frugal with food - to try and set an example.. Goering and many nazis bigwigs, not so much...
Everyone focuses on Jutland in the naval history of WW1. But the British Blockade was the slow killer of both the German economy and its food supplies, requiring the Germans to both cannibalise its own economy and loot the economies of others while seizing land to produce food such as in Ukraine. What’s worse, Germany wasn’t completely blockaded because it still had access to the Baltic but British planners did conceive of the Baltic Project to seize Danish Zealand and then destroy German logistics in the Baltic, potentially shortening the war by a couple of years. They never went through because many thought it a too risky of an idea. In any case, Britain’s blockade was just an expansion on a strategic tool that had precedent in British strategic thinking, and is remarkably not talked about enough as one of the significant factors, potentially the most significant, in the Entente’s victory over Germany.
The British did send a submarine flotilla to the Baltic, which severely restricted the flow of iron ore from Sweden, and prevented the High Seas Fleet from using the Baltic as a training area.
fun fact, around the end of war there were rumors the conserves rations of meat were containing human meat /stamped mark AM =alte menschen= old humans/, it was also incorporated into the novel The man in the high castle.....urban legend? or maybe? they wouldnt......or?......
I've heard of two secondary effects of this starvation: -Germany tried to get around the labor problem on the farms by using large numbers of POWs to do the harvest work,primarily Russians/Slavs, since they had taken the largest numbers of those prisoner. -The second was that after Russia fell apart and Germany made rapid gains in the east, the basically confiscated as much as possible of the 1918 Ukraine harvest. That didn't do the Ukrainian population much good, as they went from one war to another.
It's real easy to say "Serves them right, Germany started the war." But countries don't start wars, politicians do, and everyone else suffers. It does no good to say the Allies shouldn't have starved the German citizens, but people fight when politicians start wars. War is hell.
Germany totally started a war and people too. Germany wanted a war with Russia so they could destabalize Russia, plunder and rape it(as they did in ww1 and later) because Russia wanted to liberate Slavic populations of Germany and Austro Hungary from opression. Austro Hungary was starving to have a reason to attack Serbia because you cant have independent South Slavs or you might give some ideas. Who ever thinks Germany or Austro Hungary didnt start a war are wildly uneducated.
no govt can long sustain without the consent of its people. dictators are far more atuned to people than leaders in democracies because they know an angry mob can topple them in a day... and ex-dictators who don't flee to the airport fast enough tend to come to sticky ends.
For anyone interested in this topic, I can recommend the book Ring of Steel by Alexander Watson, which examines how the Entente bockade affected both the militaries and civilian populations of Germany and Austria-Hungary during World War 1.
Great video JJ and also gives insight to WWI and also covert buyers of certain items in war along with dealing with neutral nations to get said supplies. Also for the covert shopping I think I also heard Great Britain did something like this during the Falklands War and they got their special agents with who knows how much it's in briefcases to buy up anti-ship missiles the enemy was using it's not all just bombs and bullets as this video shows.
The Falklands bit isn't even surprising. Due to international laws on war (neutrals can't trade with nations at war), neither Argentina or Britain declared any state of war between them. In such a legal atmosphere, they are free to get supplies from the same countries and situations that you mention may have happened...
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 Really also something interesting to know as well since when you think of war it's soldiers and bullets you don't think of the people behind the shadows and doing stuff like intelligence and buying up stuff to keep from falling into war.
I enjoyed this branching out. Maybe one on medical issues during war? I know that it was quite likely the biggest impact on armies until "modern" Time.
Can confirm. Letters one of my great grandfathers sent back were mostly complaints. He was part of a trench raid that routed the Germans to a secondary line and they stopped to loot the stores expecting beer and sausages... nope. The British Navy starved them and our forces were motivated by the chance to loot fresh food.
I came across a disturbing article "Why You Should Be Alarmed by the Wounds I Treated in Ukraine" in the wall street journal and in another website without a paywall. Is it a new WW1 moment? Drones, mines, and cluster munitions make it nearly impossible for an army to advance across an open battlefield. It's like something out of a "Terminator" movie.
I think the blockade didn’t sink any vessels bound for Germany. I think it just forced vessels to turn around with threat of destruction. Meanwhile the Germans sank any ship their submarines saw regardless of nationality and purpose.
Well I'd say capturing or diverting a civilian or merchant ship is at least initially less lethal than blowing it up with torpedoes. But yes, blockading a merchant ship with food or medical supplies certainly has the long term effect of death/starvation as well.
The cruiser rules dictated that a civilian ship being attacked be given the opportunity to surrender and the crew allowed to come aboard . U-boats caused two problems for the Germans while solving one. They could apply pressure on the entente by attacking shipping and run blockades. But they have difficulty keeping up with generally faster merchant ships. While not having the space to take on enemy crews. This basically ended cruiser rules for both sides. The strategy of unlimited submarine warfare destroyed long standing naval customs.
Thanks JJ and at my age i am thankful everything.....Hope you and yours are doing great your friend Old F-4 II Pilot Shoe🇺🇸 Congrats on gaining Subs....
One factor in Germany's food shortages - was the fact that they grew crops using specific fertilizers which they imported. The British Blockade limited their ability to import this fertilizer.They had to adjust the crops they grew based on what they could grow but this took time. Another factor was the number of farmers drafted into the Army. They defeated Russia in 1917 and were ceded a lot of land by the Russians in their peace treaty - but they were not able to grow enough food in the time they had left to end their famine. The Prussians had been British Allies against Napoleon and in 1870, the British had done nothing while Prussia defeated France. Two things changed. One of them was that Kaiser Wilhelm II, whose mother was Queen Victoria's Daughter making him her oldest Grand Child, spent a lot of time in Britain and loved the Royal Navy. It is my personal opinion that given a choice to be Kaiser or an Officer in the RN - Willy would have chosen the RN. That of course - could not happen as he certainly did NOT have that choice - but - if he couldn't be in the RN - as Kaiser - he could build his own Navy. It just doesn't seem to have occurred to him - that the British might not like that. Next - both Britain and Germany were among the guarantors of Belgian Neutrality. Here - one of the factors was that Germany didn't want to fight a war on two fronts. When Serbia started the war by killing the heir to the Austrian Throne, Austria went to war with Serbia - and the Russians sided with Serbia. Germany was allied with Austria and so (despite the fact that the Czar and the Kaiser were related by marriage as the Czar's Wife was also a grandchild of Queen Victoria) it ended up at war with Russia - which made the Russian Ally France - a German enemy. The Franco German border was in very rough terrain and lined by forts on both sides. Rather than go through there as they had in 1870 - they opted for the von Schlieffen Plan to go through Northern Belgium - which was nice and flat and had fewer (though not no) Forts. The idea was that they'd sweep down on Paris from the North and knock France out of the war. The problem here - was that violating Belgian Neutrality - brought Britain into the war and got them Blockaded. This was the biggest mistake they made. France was squealing for Britain to come in on their side - but - it was not a sure thing that they would - until the Germans went into Belgium. What the Germans could have done - was to stay on the defensive behind their own line of forts in all that rough terrain along the Franco German Border - while they and the Austrians concentrated on the Russians. The German High Seas Fleet - didn't make any contribution to the war for Germany - and - when it mutinied in 1918 may have cost it the war. Germany would have been a lot better off with a small enough Navy to deal with the French - but - not a large enough one to alienate the British. If they had not squandered as much military strength in a Navy that did them no good and not gone into Belgium - there is a very good chance they would not have been blockaded. They beat Russians even as it was - if they'd concentrated on it - instead of France - they might have won. .
That plan of yours assumes TWO things: 1) That Britain WOULDN'T do anything when the two are at war, and 2) The Germans didn't do anything that would trigger the British into action. The first one is premised on the idea that Britain still follows the "Balance of Power" concept of international politics. Throughout the 19th Century, Britain has been flipflopping on temporary alliances as to maintain the "balance of power" on the continent and keep Britain secure. This "Splendid Isolation" policy that started in the 1810's is becoming problematic upon the start of the 20th Century due to Bismarck getting the boot. Britain is already alarmed that a unified Germany existed and is challenging British economic supremacy in 1871, what stopped them is Bismarck's assurance they would not step on what is Britain's "turf" (ie empire building and being the world's workshop). That changed with Wilhelm II and his change of direction as to foreign politics (establishing German colonies in the empty spaces left in Africa and Asia and meddling in British colonial affairs such as in Morocco), reigniting British fears of being outdone by the Germans. Such far flung colonies require a more blue water navy, leading to a snowballing effect of the British increasing spending on the navy then the Germans expanding their navy to match Britains vice versa, all fueled by those who wanted to challenge British naval supremacy other than the Kaiser. Not to mention the British public's opinion of the Germans before and during the war (which isn't high given how Germany is an antithesis of the British way of life, read without any of the liberty and democracy they enjoyed). Much of the initial animosity of the British public towards the Germans is due to stories of atrocities that happened in Belgium; with or without Belgium, the stories of atrocities that would happen in France - whether real or imagined - would not put Germany in any favorable position as far as the British public is concerned. Even if Germany didn't invade Belgium to try to encircle the French in a pincer movement (how that strategy came about is a whole different story which involves European militaries being obsessed to reenact the Carthaginian victory of Cannae over the Romans), Britain wouldn't be comfortable letting a victorious Germany dictate the Continent on its own terms so it would do what the US OTL did prior to its entry in WW1: help France with everything short of sending troops. If it means escorting the supply ships using the Royal Navy, they would do it. This statement leads me to my second point... Britain would only remain de jure neutral for as long as Germany didn't do anything that would give them a reason to join the war. If Germany still does submarine warfare, unrestricted or otherwise, at some point some overzealous KM captain would raid or sink a supply ship flying the British merchant marine to stop it from reaching France. That act wouldn't go unnoticed by those who already are not fans of the Germans. The whole situation of a neutral Britain to this alternate WW1 is basically something like OTL US prior to its entry to WW1: despite being neutral, it has some clear bias as to who to favor and will do un-neutral things to keep their biased choice afloat...
P.S. Forgot to mention the Ottoman Empire. The only reason the Ottomans joined the Germans in this war is due to British and French threats to its territorial integrity. If the Ottoman Empire decides to join in the war to defend its territory against the French and British, the Germans are compelled to declare war on Britain and Britain in turn would be compelled to declare war on Germany. If not Belgium then Egypt or the Gulf States may be the Casus belli...
Despite giving more attention to the matter than most this still downplays how bad the food situation in central Europe was. 40% of the populations of the Central Powers and some of their immediate neighbours were experiencing starvation by Jan 1917. I highly recommend the WWI Week by Week series by Time Ghost History and the WWI channels, they go into more depth than anyone ever has. The health affects of malnutrition on such a large and prolonged scale have not been fully understood even by today, the final death toll could be in the tens of millions. Remember just because one doesn't immediately expire from starvation alone, doesn't mean they can't from something else. Malnutrition leaves us extremely vulnerable to illness and diseases of all kinds. Our very organs and cells weaken the longer starvation is endured and it takes many years to recover fully and some never do, as starvation can lead to ones eventual death many years later due to said vulnerability.
As a kid my family knew an old German couple, the lady was old enough to have been in the Turnip Winter. She told me the only thing to eat were Turnips. I just thought to myself, 'go to a different store' She was living in Marin County California back then one of the richest in the nation. She did well for herself.
WW1’s placement in history is so fascinating to me. It’s right after the Victorian era, where the general social image is one of elegance and self-restraint, of dignity and civilization. And yet, despite that being the culture taught to the generation of the time, they were thrown into a horrific war that unveiled the raw savagery of human beings faced with extreme hunger and circumstances worse than hell itself. Maybe I’m not making sense, but I think it’s an interesting contrast.
I think so too. The horror of WW1 contradicts the supposed civility of the time. What so-called leaders were prepared to put their soldiers through is insane.
wars are never civilised. the World War was a battle of attrition and neither side wanted to quit. the German terms for a peace were far harsher than that handed down at Versailles and would have left Germany in occupation of all the lands their army had taken - so Belgium would simply be annexed entirely along with northern France and the eastern lands stretching from East Prussian to the Black Sea.. taking so many casualties neither side wanted to simply step back and see sacrifices made for nothing . the Central Powers should have won on paper. the huge empires of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans were all conjoined. with strong internal rail links etc.. but they screwed up. the quick win in France didn't happen and the long war of attrition on Western and Eastern fronts dragged on.
To be pedantic, Britain's (not just England's geography helped with the blockade as a major naval base was in Scotland. However absolute masses of Brownie points for making a well thought out video on the most fundamental aspect of war; the ability to feed the troops, munitions workers, etc. Royal Navy blockades date back to the Napoleonic era.
and are highly successful. Napoleon invaded Russia because of the RN blockade and his failure to maintain the "continental system" to stop Europeans trading with Great Britain... in both world wars the Royal Navy blockaded Germany and stopped supplies from abroad reaching the Baltic .. a few blockade runners did get through early on, but not many. Germany's attempt at blockading the British with U-Boats was less successful. and with advances in ASW , became less and less so as war progressed with 1943 being the year the U-Boats took a hammering.
What makes this different than the famines that proceeded it like Belgium in WWI and the US South in the civil war is that there was no occupying army taking all the goods, it was their own army taking everything. That is INSANE commitment that ive never seen from another european country. Thats that old prussian military state vibe.
The direct cause of the famine can also be found in the over-drafting of soldiers in 1914/15. All sides thought that by bringing the most men to a battle they could achieve something. But the side effect of drafting away all of the nation’s labor force too a much bigger negative impact than any it pushed toward victory. In the end every nation began to send troops back in 1916 to grow food and fill important industrial tasks.
Excellent, however that old chestnut of "England" being another term for "Britain" ; the Royal Naval base of Scapa Flo played a huge role in the blockade of Germany. Conrad Adenuar (?), mayor of Cologne, later Chancellor of West Germany created a substitute vegetarian sausage during World War 1. He couldn't get it patented in Germany as sausages are supposed to contain meat. He got a British patent instead.
I recommend you watch “The Innocence of Kaiser Wilhelm II” by Christina Croft or Lavader’s videos on Wilhelm II. Might change your perspective on the guy 👀
Late in the war, Austria coomandered barges bringing wheat to Germany. The Germans almost declared war on their own ally for this. Hunger can turn friends into enimies very quickly.
Good video. Another issue that Germany faced was finances. Most of Germany currency was backed by the gold mark, which was held in overseas banking for ease of doing commerce. As soon as war broke out, Germany financial problems arose. It didn’t help that Britain made sure that Germany currency would become useless by 1918, this already ensuring Germany defeat in 1914. However, Germany came close to winning as its submarine fleet had swept away Britain merchant marine and the British were having major problems of supplying enough ammunition for her troops.
@@bigblue6917 By 1918, America was already on the British side for 3 years. Stores of supplies held by Britain? More like stores of debt that Britain needed to pay back to American bankers.
@@samsonsoturian6013 Haha, you just contradicted yourself, Lol. Germany couldn't even feed its own populace at the outbreak of war and relied on vast food imports from Russia, Canada, USA, Brazil, and Argentina. If you're currency is worthless and nobody will accept your money (German marks); how are you supposed to get all the food supplies you need?
Soldiers require a high-calorie diet under field conditions of high exertion- each US military MRE contains 1,200 calories. 3x MREs per day = 3,600 calories. Add some snacks and maybe a soda or two, and you've easily got 4,000-ish calories, if not more.
@@perrya.3580 understandable, but a soldier can SURVIVE with probably half of that. Think of how much a Japanese soldier had to eat on Okinawa per day. Probably not near 4,000 calories but they fought one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war. Germany had no idea how restricted their economy and supply chain would be as a result of the blockade. I doubt they would’ve had such a diet if they knew how restricted they would be.
@@lukesmith1003most of the Japanese casualties during the war were due to starvation. Also the battle of Okinawa was far worse for the Japanese than it was the Allies. The difference is there weren’t very many Japanese soldiers left to tell stories.
2:13 - "More than half of Germany's exports pre-war were to Britain, Russia, and France..." A lesson Russia didn't learn before starting a war in 2022. Never expect trade to continue (or assets be protected) once you start war. 2:34 - "Germany did have some success buying american goods through Sweden. Sweden would buy american goods and resell them to Germany at an enormous profit...." Another lesson Russia didn't learn, desperately selling oil to India at greatly reduced priced instead of world market prices. 3:04 - "Britain was more successful than Germany winning over neutral trading partners, essentially making friends with cash. The Germans took a different approach, they more frequently used intimidation...." And ANOTHER lesson Russia didn't learn, that the peaceful EU as a trading bloc is more powerful than any individual country, even making the violent yanks kowtow and submit on issues (e.g. international standards). 3:29 - Germany's leadership wasn't too bothered about food supplies at the outbreak of WWI. German commanders believed in the Schlieffen plan..." Jeez, did Russia learn ANYTHING?
If the avoidance of total disaster relies on your plan succeeding greatly and quickly, then change your plan. Can't rely on hopes. As they say, no plan survives contact with the enemy.
It's very important to remind people that those who fought didn't matter which side they fought on we're still human 😮 It's important to remember that our enemies suffered twice as much as we did during these wars 😢😢 And as for that pun I don't think people are going to turn out for that 😂❤❤❤
When in doubt, always have naval superiority and also good connections with the richness of the two Americas. Also, kindness with little or no intimidation goes a long way, though make sure it's not as overly saccharine and increasingly disillusioned as Steven Universe Future... sorry, ranting on some nitpicked cartoons. A topic that should neatly follow this up would be the Soviet starvation during WW2. They had to collect icy river water and plant potato and cabbage crops even in ruined and contested churchyards in the likes of Leningrad's long siege, for one.
It should also be noted that the UK's blockade was considered a warcrime at the time. The UK knew that it would starve Germany, but thats the real reason why the UK wanted to be involved in the war anyway: Germany's Economy was getting a little too big for their liking.
Except Britain did not join the war until after Germany invaded Belgium, which Britain had warned Germany not to do, because Britain had guaranteed Belgian neutrality. If Germany had not invaded Belgium Britain would have remained neutral. This is why Britain put in so much effort to stop Germany completing its capture of Belgium.
@@bigblue6917 That was the excuse that the UK used on the national stage, yes, but many excuses were made in the opening months of the war. The ever expanding German Economy was what drove a wedge between two nations that had been close allies for over a century and a half. No, it wasn’t the German Navy, not it wasn’t the German Army, it was the economy. Had the UK really cared for the neutrality of neutral nations, they wouldn’t have invaded Greece and forced the Greek King to join the Entente.
My grandparents were children during WW I and have told us a lot about their hungry childhood duringhorrible time. At least they survived, else I wouldn´t exist. Greetings from Germany🙂
hunger the best chef, thirst the best bartender.
It's "hunger is the best seasoning" but your version is pretty fun!
Hunger drives it in.
Even makes *Turnips* taste less “muddy.”
Misery is the best company
@@ThommyofThenn Yes I heard of that one first. But yeah they both make sense.
Nothing makes a man more uncivilized then hunger.
That's so terribly true and who knows maybe can go for bolt action rifles like Springfield 1903, Lebel, Mosin-Nagant, Mauser Lee-Enfield and who knows what others or look into MIG's as another source who knows a lot of topics out there.
Germans were slow to learn! 21 years after WW1 ending. They repeated this " famine " in 1939/45 and beyond.
@@woodenseagull1899 Really so true on that as well and also speaking of what happened after Germany in WWI could look into the inflation and the effects it have as another interesting topic saw pictures of kids playing with money during this time as well.
@@woodenseagull1899 Where does this confidence come from?
Speaking about food, everything was fine with the Germans until the second half of the forties, when they were occupied and the Third Reich *collapsed*
"Only 9 meals stand between civilization and anarchy." - Unknown
Wrong. Anarchy means no ruler. Use chaos, or disorder instead of anarchy.
@@mr.zardoz3344 whats the difference
@@mr.zardoz3344 That's not the only definition of anarchy and if you cwuld've taken more than 2 seconds to look it up you would've seen that.
From Merriam - Webster
anarchy
noun
an·ar·chy
- absence of government
- a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority
- absence or denial of any authority or established order
- absence of order : disorder
@@99bulldogI guess it does have a colloquial meaning of lawlessness but in the academic sense, it refers to the politcal stance
@@mr.zardoz3344Regardless of which meaning of the word they meant, you're correct in that a more descriptive word would have been more appropriate. In this context I would have used "chaos" or "bedlam" maybe even pandemonium
There was a German generation known as the Starvation Generation from 1917-1921 in which the children born in this time were as adults on average shorter, thinner and less muscular as well as less intelligent than those born after. US Army Medical Corps records of captured German servicemen noted the deficiencies in the men born from 1918-21. Lack of nutrition for infants and toddlers in these years negatively affected physical and mental health in later years. The Dutch suffered the same phenomena with children born or growing up during the starvation winter of 1944-45. Audrey Hepburn was one such child and she was chronically ill and had difficulty bearing children as a result.
add 18 years, that’s 1935-1939…dang, they really didn’t catch any breaks.
it wasn't just Germany. it was across Europe... rationing was brought in the UK 1914-1918 and in 1939-45. people had enough to eat but not a surplus and no luxuries from abroad. every ship carrying cargo to the UK from abroad had to be carrying vital supplies - so "yes, we have no bananas" was true. you could see differences in children raised in war years and those after within same family.
Same with children in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 scientific studies show the effect the starvation from 1944/45 had a terrible impact on 2 generations
Audrey Hepburn was born in 1929
@@GBOAC and di not get in her nutritions in the critical growth years 1944-1945 ..15 years old..
I’m glad you mentioned how war disrupts food supplies in more than just trade. Those seemingly unrelated things can have a domino affect that impacts the availability of food in a big way.
Yes it is and who knows how the current conflicts of that is disrupting things now.
Growing up, there was a German lady living next door who was like a grandmother to me. She was born in the Dresden area in the early 1890s. She emigrated to America in 1913 or so, but returned to Germany to get married and got stuck there when the war broke out. Sadly, her fiance was blown to smithereens in the Belgian trenches. When I knew her she still had a small porcelain bowl that held the monthly butter ration. It was VERY small. She also refused to eat turnips. She told me that the only thing they had to eat by the end of the war was turnips. Turnip soup, turnip pie, turnip stew. You name it, it had turnip in the name. It became a bit of a joke in our family to offer her turnips at dinner. I knew her in.the 60s and 70s. The poor woman was still traumatized 40 years after the war ended.
I have an almost exact same story, about my actual grandmother. She was a teenager during WWII and an old granny during yugoslav wars 1991-1995. There was very little actual fighting in our region during WWII, but the economy was destroyed and people went hungry. Then, in 1991 our city found itself on the front line, actual combat in the suburbs, heavy shelling every day, etc. Our house was hit by 2 grenades. Throughout all of this, the old lady kept saying that this is not too bad because "there is enough bread to eat everyday." She was more afraid of the hunger than she was of actual bullets. As a child, I just could not comprehend it.
What a shit joke
Interesting Fact:
The "Turnip Winter" greatly affected the diet of Germans which mainly consists of potatoes and turnips after the war.
Like many countries these became a staple of the poorer people which, along with various meats, made a dish called Lob Scouse. Irish stew, Scotch broth and Lancashire hotpot are all variations of this dish. It was such a common dish that people from part of Liverpool became known as Scousers.
@@bigblue6917 Danny on the channel Ratemytakeaway did a vid on going to Liverpool and having a Scouse.
So you're saying they called it turnip winter because they ate many turnips? Well that does make sense
I thought this said "Trump Winter" at first lol
I still remember my great grandmothers generation telling the tale and non of them ever ate turnips again ( i actually tried a turnip and potato soup after a war recipy and it was quiet good, but then it had some meat and i wouldent have another 100 days with the same meal)
1.The allies also bought war materials from neutral nations in World War II. Similar sort of policy, which cut off Germany from suppliers of essential metals.
2. Some of the classes of conscripts that were called up to the German army in the 1930s and 40s were markedly shorter and lighter than those before or after, having been through the food shortages.
3. Fat became attractive.
“Fat becomes attractive”
Ah so that’s why the Allies had to find a bigger plane to transport Goerring when he surrendered.
Interesting
@@dannyzero692Hahaha
A comedian did a bit about his kids complaining they 'were starving.' He said, "Have you eaten at anytime this week? Then you're not starving."
Pretty sure having 1 meal a week easily counts as starving and will kill you in a couple of weeks at the most.
1 meal a week definitely counts as starving.
Una comida a la semana te mantiene mucho más vivo de lo que se puede creer.
@@otten5666
BAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA😂😂😂😂👏👏👏👏
@otten5666
No, no it does not. Starvation occurs when the body burns through all its fat stores and starts to eat muscle. Under intense physical strain like in the wilderness it can burn through its stores in a week, however in civilization it can take a minimum of three.
With one meal a week you're chronically malnourished but it would take at minimum a few months before you could be counted as starving.
the starvation in germany continued long after the end of the blockade after the war. my aunt was a child growing up in the late 1920’s, her father a disabled ww1 vetran and only co do odd jobs, could barely buy food for his family of wife and 3 kids, during the german hyper inflation. and My aunt grew up on Turnip stews, and occaionaly a poor quality potato or very limp carrot thrown in, and 2 day old bread, that they would dip in the soup and it was a bit to hard to eat. When Hitler came to power, he started large utobahn projects and her father was ordered to meanial work on one in a Arbret work battaion, but finaly was given a wage that was better. He bought a cabbage and some meat and fresh carrrots and fresh bread and butter… the kids had never had before. She said from that moment on the entire family became fanatical Nazi supporters, along with a great many thought germany..
What do you think about your family become supporters of the National socialist party
@@cescocesco1105 nothing i can do about it. as that all happened before i was born. when she learnt the truth about the Nazis an the death campe she left germany and so hated it she would not even teach me any german. I am anti Nazi.
During the Spring Offensive of 1918 German troops capture several British depots full of food. There is some dispute as to whether or not seeing all this effected the moral of the German soldiers but what it did do was slow their advance as the stopped to eat their fill.
Many of those German soldiers captured by Sergeant York and others were in such a poor state they had stopped collecting their rations and their superiors believed they had already surrendered to the US troops. This is not to denigrate what York achieved but is a sign of how the German army was become less and less a fighting force.
The Austrians were in an even worse state than the Germans. In fact it got to the point were they stopped a German grain barrage which was sailing along the Danube to Germany in order to feed their own people with bread from the flour. Germany was so outraged that they threatened to launch their next attack against Austria.
True
What do you mean “some dispute as to whether or not seeing this food affected German morale?” It’s a starving army bro, of course they’re gonna be happy finding food. What do you think they’re gonna be like “oh man, we got food, now I can’t starve.”
@@bearsausage8599 It could also have a negative affect though because the Germans see how well resourced the Western Powers were compared to them.
@bradleyg7498 a German war veteran who ended up in a nursing home I worked stateside told me that he knew the war was definitely over when they he was captured and they were giving the POWs butter with their bread at every meal. He said the Germans barely had enough to eat and the allies were giving, not just food, but good food to prisoners. There were a lot of impromptu surrenders where germans would surrender in mass once they smelled fresh cooked food.
It's also important to remember that the germans thought the allies were gonna totally destroy them, since FDR's comments on unconditional surrender were used as propaganda. Once germans realized "Oh hey, the western allies want to give me food and peace. That's better than war and starvation"
@@bearsausage8599it's more the idea of "if our soldiers re. Pawns find out about this they'll think we're weak and our enemies are stronger"
“An army marches on its stomach” - Some French guy
"some french guy" 🤣
I believe he was Corsican.
His name was Guy La Douche, MXC division commander
@@Justin-pe9clso french
@@parodyclip36 Italian, Corsica belonged to The Republic of Genoa before it was sold to France right before Napoleon’s birth.
The frequency with which you upload is really remarkable Johnny
Thank you for saying that! I wish I could post even more regularly as I have so much to cover. For one dude these videos are more work than they might seem. About 3 hours of work for every minute of video.
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq...dedicated to your art...that's what it is....😊😊
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsqYou cover the more unspoken aspects of war very well! War logistics can be very impactful in ways invisible upon first look.
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq.make them longer you put in the work and research I would love to hear more from you or you could just talk about in length more in another video separately
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq that a yes
“The only thing that growls louder than your loyal dog is his stomach”
“When logs are needed to be used for fuel for fire. How many people will demolish their houses for fuel? That’s what it means to be trapped in Total War and stare into the darkness beyond.” ~Unknown
"Born to shid, forced to wipe. Hawg = cranked." - Unknown
Great episode.
Food shortages was as bad, if not worse in Austria-Hungary. It got so bad that by autumn 1918, Austria-Hungary hijacked barges on the Danube full of wheat from Romania headed for Germany.
The Germans were so furious they actually threatened war on their own ally.
Whenever I travel back to germany and end up spending the day with my grandparents (who grew up in WW2) the majority of the day is spent going to a cafe or restaurant and thinking of what the next meal will be. While it can get annoying, it makes complete sense as during and post war, there wasn’t always the guarantee you would eat, so you always have to keep thinking ahead. Some habits you just can’t shake.
If you ever watch the old NBC documentary about 'Bataan- the forgotten Hell' there's an interview with a veteran from there who mentioned them eating the quartermasters mules, the cavalrys horses, monkeys, iguanas, and anything they could find.
The Japanese on island garrisons were forced to do similar as the Allied navies cut them off. Their own navy could no longer supply them, so many turned to subsistence farming, fishing, and trading with the natives to survive. Huge bases like Rabaul and Truk that had been teeming with warships, airstrips and weapons were converted into fields of crops.
@@wolftamer5463 Don't forget cannibalism.
@@ald1144 Yep
@@wolftamer5463the japanese could fishing and farming, but there is no way they could trade with natives, they just simply took it with force.
I just found your channel today and have been binging your videos all day, great content.
Sweet! Well welcome to the channel
As someone who has taught history, including military history, at the university level, you do an amazing job of finding the line between engaging, entertaining, and informative.
I really wish I had found this channel sooner, you have a knack for choosing great topics as well. Keep up the great work!
Thanks so much that means a lot to me. I'm not a great "deep dive" history channel but I do try to present on subjects in a unique and engaging way which hopefully just makes history more accessible.
1:37 am currently and i got a test tommorow. but still watching your video
Well I wish you luck! Remember to have a good breakfast in the morning.
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq...yes...porridge or banana..or both...great slow release energy....
being thankful for what one has on the table is something my grandmothers mother always said back i her days. she lived through 2 world wars.
In times of hunger the Swedish women competed on who had the most uneatable Barkbread.
Grassroot was a very common food in times of hunger. It was gathered and dried so that it could be ground into flour.
"Every pain has it´s scream, a full belly remains silent".
Anyway, even now Swedish "food" is barely eatable...
@@laurentdevaux5617 Nothing wrong with Sweish food. Love the Swedish Husmanskost....that´s basic holsom meals, meat -potatos - pasta - vegis.
This is such a phenomenal channel, goddamn.
Yes, early in the book “storm of steel,” Jünger speaks of being “stuffed” by the meals he ate, and even later, he spoke of getting a fair amount of drink (though by that time, be’d become an officer, so he had better food than the usual Landser.)
Lettuce all avoid food related puns
That type of rhetoric is gonna cause beef between people.
I’m gonna chicken out of this of this conversation
I would have avoided pudding anything so crass here
I am certain that there is a bumper crop of puns to be harvested.
Could you be any more hamfisted?
Appreciate your videos Johnny. Hard topic but history is always good to learn
Great video as always! I remember I heard a bit about starvation after the war in Germany when learning about ww1 but never knew how much it was at the front to. Guess it’s like Napoleon said an army marches on its stomach. And he has a point too. You might have the best army with the best trained soldier with the best rifles and cannons. But after nine days of starvation can cripple any army faster than any bayonet, bullet and bomb. And never thought I would hear acorns being used for coffee never knew you could do that. Bet that would not taste the greatest lol. Keep up the great work!
Great video again. Thank you
I like how in bf1, German soldiers sometimes talk about sending food home after battles
One of the biggest crimes was that britain didn't lift the naval blockade when germany surrendered. They only stopped after the treaty of versailles was signed, so thousand germans had to die from starvation even after the war was over
The Treaty IS the surrender. An Armistice is merely a cessation of fighting, not the capitulation of a defeated country so by your own logic, Britain did lift the blockade after Germany surrendered...
It's crazy how starved and hungry Hitler looks 4:39
ww2 joke among Germans was "the war will end when Goering can fit into Goebbal's trousers" .. the leaders lived very well , with special restaurants in Berlin catering for them .. Hitler and Goebbals did tend to be quite frugal with food - to try and set an example.. Goering and many nazis bigwigs, not so much...
Meth will do that to a person.
Everyone focuses on Jutland in the naval history of WW1. But the British Blockade was the slow killer of both the German economy and its food supplies, requiring the Germans to both cannibalise its own economy and loot the economies of others while seizing land to produce food such as in Ukraine.
What’s worse, Germany wasn’t completely blockaded because it still had access to the Baltic but British planners did conceive of the Baltic Project to seize Danish Zealand and then destroy German logistics in the Baltic, potentially shortening the war by a couple of years. They never went through because many thought it a too risky of an idea.
In any case, Britain’s blockade was just an expansion on a strategic tool that had precedent in British strategic thinking, and is remarkably not talked about enough as one of the significant factors, potentially the most significant, in the Entente’s victory over Germany.
The British did send a submarine flotilla to the Baltic, which severely restricted the flow of iron ore from Sweden, and prevented the High Seas Fleet from using the Baltic as a training area.
You are the best, Johnny. Thanks again
fun fact, around the end of war there were rumors the conserves rations of meat were containing human meat /stamped mark AM =alte menschen= old humans/, it was also incorporated into the novel The man in the high castle.....urban legend? or maybe? they wouldnt......or?......
Thanks for still using clips from the ANZACS series
That’s such a war crime that it took the Allies to remove the blockade till mid 1919
Thats what happens when your are the worst of the worst guy in the war.
@@sneed915 As a german, I thank you for this comment.
Superb epi.
Great video again, Johnny.
Well brother man, by far your best and strongest work to date. 👍🔥💪 Johnny the GOAT
1:43 You mentioned France role in the Adriatic Sea but not Italy who was right here and helped the blockade (Otranto strait, Brindisi)...
I mean, Italy didn't join the war until 1915 so the French did that blockade initially...
Thanks for the video.
"An army marches on its stomach."
-Napolean
I've heard of two secondary effects of this starvation:
-Germany tried to get around the labor problem on the farms by using large numbers of POWs to do the harvest work,primarily Russians/Slavs, since they had taken the largest numbers of those prisoner.
-The second was that after Russia fell apart and Germany made rapid gains in the east, the basically confiscated as much as possible of the 1918 Ukraine harvest. That didn't do the Ukrainian population much good, as they went from one war to another.
Another interesting vid! Thanks for sharing!
It's real easy to say "Serves them right, Germany started the war." But countries don't start wars, politicians do, and everyone else suffers. It does no good to say the Allies shouldn't have starved the German citizens, but people fight when politicians start wars.
War is hell.
if you're 12 this sounds deep.
@@otten5666 Thank you! I'm only 8. My mommy says that's a real nice thing to say. I appreciate it.
Germany totally started a war and people too. Germany wanted a war with Russia so they could destabalize Russia, plunder and rape it(as they did in ww1 and later) because Russia wanted to liberate Slavic populations of Germany and Austro Hungary from opression. Austro Hungary was starving to have a reason to attack Serbia because you cant have independent South Slavs or you might give some ideas. Who ever thinks Germany or Austro Hungary didnt start a war are wildly uneducated.
no govt can long sustain without the consent of its people. dictators are far more atuned to people than leaders in democracies because they know an angry mob can topple them in a day... and ex-dictators who don't flee to the airport fast enough tend to come to sticky ends.
Who's a good edgy boy ,you are@@otten5666
Winter, food and the most important water.
For anyone interested in this topic, I can recommend the book Ring of Steel by Alexander Watson, which examines how the Entente bockade affected both the militaries and civilian populations of Germany and Austria-Hungary during World War 1.
Great video JJ and also gives insight to WWI and also covert buyers of certain items in war along with dealing with neutral nations to get said supplies. Also for the covert shopping I think I also heard Great Britain did something like this during the Falklands War and they got their special agents with who knows how much it's in briefcases to buy up anti-ship missiles the enemy was using it's not all just bombs and bullets as this video shows.
The Falklands bit isn't even surprising. Due to international laws on war (neutrals can't trade with nations at war), neither Argentina or Britain declared any state of war between them. In such a legal atmosphere, they are free to get supplies from the same countries and situations that you mention may have happened...
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 Really also something interesting to know as well since when you think of war it's soldiers and bullets you don't think of the people behind the shadows and doing stuff like intelligence and buying up stuff to keep from falling into war.
Incredible video
I enjoyed this branching out. Maybe one on medical issues during war? I know that it was quite likely the biggest impact on armies until "modern" Time.
A less known aspect of war. War is hell, but we used quite often to forget about this simple, but cruel fact
That explains that seen in All Quiet on the Western Front, where they start eating in the middle of the battle when they're raiding the French trench
Can confirm.
Letters one of my great grandfathers sent back were mostly complaints. He was part of a trench raid that routed the Germans to a secondary line and they stopped to loot the stores expecting beer and sausages... nope.
The British Navy starved them and our forces were motivated by the chance to loot fresh food.
I came across a disturbing article "Why You Should Be Alarmed by the Wounds I Treated in Ukraine" in the wall street journal and in another website without a paywall. Is it a new WW1 moment? Drones, mines, and cluster munitions make it nearly impossible for an army to advance across an open battlefield. It's like something out of a "Terminator" movie.
Heres a fun question: why was the submarines a war crime but the british blockade wasnt?
I think the blockade didn’t sink any vessels bound for Germany. I think it just forced vessels to turn around with threat of destruction. Meanwhile the Germans sank any ship their submarines saw regardless of nationality and purpose.
exactly
Because one of the won and the other lost?
Well I'd say capturing or diverting a civilian or merchant ship is at least initially less lethal than blowing it up with torpedoes. But yes, blockading a merchant ship with food or medical supplies certainly has the long term effect of death/starvation as well.
The cruiser rules dictated that a civilian ship being attacked be given the opportunity to surrender and the crew allowed to come aboard . U-boats caused two problems for the Germans while solving one. They could apply pressure on the entente by attacking shipping and run blockades. But they have difficulty keeping up with generally faster merchant ships. While not having the space to take on enemy crews. This basically ended cruiser rules for both sides. The strategy of unlimited submarine warfare destroyed long standing naval customs.
Damn this offers some pretty grim insight.
Very good video and glad im early :D
Thanks JJ and at my age i am thankful everything.....Hope you and yours are doing great your friend Old F-4 II Pilot Shoe🇺🇸
Congrats on gaining Subs....
One factor in Germany's food shortages - was the fact that they grew crops using specific fertilizers which they imported. The British Blockade limited their ability to import this fertilizer.They had to adjust the crops they grew based on what they could grow but this took time.
Another factor was the number of farmers drafted into the Army.
They defeated Russia in 1917 and were ceded a lot of land by the Russians in their peace treaty - but they were not able to grow enough food in the time they had left to end their famine.
The Prussians had been British Allies against Napoleon and in 1870, the British had done nothing while Prussia defeated France.
Two things changed.
One of them was that Kaiser Wilhelm II, whose mother was Queen Victoria's Daughter making him her oldest Grand Child, spent a lot of time in Britain and loved the Royal Navy. It is my personal opinion that given a choice to be Kaiser or an Officer in the RN - Willy would have chosen the RN.
That of course - could not happen as he certainly did NOT have that choice - but - if he couldn't be in the RN - as Kaiser - he could build his own Navy. It just doesn't seem to have occurred to him - that the British might not like that.
Next - both Britain and Germany were among the guarantors of Belgian Neutrality.
Here - one of the factors was that Germany didn't want to fight a war on two fronts. When Serbia started the war by killing the heir to the Austrian Throne, Austria went to war with Serbia - and the Russians sided with Serbia.
Germany was allied with Austria and so (despite the fact that the Czar and the Kaiser were related by marriage as the Czar's Wife was also a grandchild of Queen Victoria) it ended up at war with Russia - which made the Russian Ally France - a German enemy.
The Franco German border was in very rough terrain and lined by forts on both sides. Rather than go through there as they had in 1870 - they opted for the von Schlieffen Plan to go through Northern Belgium - which was nice and flat and had fewer (though not no) Forts. The idea was that they'd sweep down on Paris from the North and knock France out of the war.
The problem here - was that violating Belgian Neutrality - brought Britain into the war and got them Blockaded. This was the biggest mistake they made. France was squealing for Britain to come in on their side - but - it was not a sure thing that they would - until the Germans went into Belgium.
What the Germans could have done - was to stay on the defensive behind their own line of forts in all that rough terrain along the Franco German Border - while they and the Austrians concentrated on the Russians.
The German High Seas Fleet - didn't make any contribution to the war for Germany - and - when it mutinied in 1918 may have cost it the war. Germany would have been a lot better off with a small enough Navy to deal with the French - but - not a large enough one to alienate the British.
If they had not squandered as much military strength in a Navy that did them no good and not gone into Belgium - there is a very good chance they would not have been blockaded. They beat Russians even as it was - if they'd concentrated on it - instead of France - they might have won.
.
That plan of yours assumes TWO things:
1) That Britain WOULDN'T do anything when the two are at war, and
2) The Germans didn't do anything that would trigger the British into action.
The first one is premised on the idea that Britain still follows the "Balance of Power" concept of international politics. Throughout the 19th Century, Britain has been flipflopping on temporary alliances as to maintain the "balance of power" on the continent and keep Britain secure. This "Splendid Isolation" policy that started in the 1810's is becoming problematic upon the start of the 20th Century due to Bismarck getting the boot. Britain is already alarmed that a unified Germany existed and is challenging British economic supremacy in 1871, what stopped them is Bismarck's assurance they would not step on what is Britain's "turf" (ie empire building and being the world's workshop). That changed with Wilhelm II and his change of direction as to foreign politics (establishing German colonies in the empty spaces left in Africa and Asia and meddling in British colonial affairs such as in Morocco), reigniting British fears of being outdone by the Germans. Such far flung colonies require a more blue water navy, leading to a snowballing effect of the British increasing spending on the navy then the Germans expanding their navy to match Britains vice versa, all fueled by those who wanted to challenge British naval supremacy other than the Kaiser. Not to mention the British public's opinion of the Germans before and during the war (which isn't high given how Germany is an antithesis of the British way of life, read without any of the liberty and democracy they enjoyed). Much of the initial animosity of the British public towards the Germans is due to stories of atrocities that happened in Belgium; with or without Belgium, the stories of atrocities that would happen in France - whether real or imagined - would not put Germany in any favorable position as far as the British public is concerned.
Even if Germany didn't invade Belgium to try to encircle the French in a pincer movement (how that strategy came about is a whole different story which involves European militaries being obsessed to reenact the Carthaginian victory of Cannae over the Romans), Britain wouldn't be comfortable letting a victorious Germany dictate the Continent on its own terms so it would do what the US OTL did prior to its entry in WW1: help France with everything short of sending troops. If it means escorting the supply ships using the Royal Navy, they would do it. This statement leads me to my second point...
Britain would only remain de jure neutral for as long as Germany didn't do anything that would give them a reason to join the war. If Germany still does submarine warfare, unrestricted or otherwise, at some point some overzealous KM captain would raid or sink a supply ship flying the British merchant marine to stop it from reaching France. That act wouldn't go unnoticed by those who already are not fans of the Germans. The whole situation of a neutral Britain to this alternate WW1 is basically something like OTL US prior to its entry to WW1: despite being neutral, it has some clear bias as to who to favor and will do un-neutral things to keep their biased choice afloat...
P.S. Forgot to mention the Ottoman Empire. The only reason the Ottomans joined the Germans in this war is due to British and French threats to its territorial integrity. If the Ottoman Empire decides to join in the war to defend its territory against the French and British, the Germans are compelled to declare war on Britain and Britain in turn would be compelled to declare war on Germany. If not Belgium then Egypt or the Gulf States may be the Casus belli...
I'm here for the corny puns. If I learn anything, that's gravy.
Great video...
Despite giving more attention to the matter than most this still downplays how bad the food situation in central Europe was.
40% of the populations of the Central Powers and some of their immediate neighbours were experiencing starvation by Jan 1917. I highly recommend the WWI Week by Week series by Time Ghost History and the WWI channels, they go into more depth than anyone ever has.
The health affects of malnutrition on such a large and prolonged scale have not been fully understood even by today, the final death toll could be in the tens of millions. Remember just because one doesn't immediately expire from starvation alone, doesn't mean they can't from something else. Malnutrition leaves us extremely vulnerable to illness and diseases of all kinds.
Our very organs and cells weaken the longer starvation is endured and it takes many years to recover fully and some never do, as starvation can lead to ones eventual death many years later due to said vulnerability.
Entente/Allies not winning with war crimes challenge
IMPOSSIBLE
As a kid my family knew an old German couple, the lady was old enough to have been in the Turnip Winter. She told me the only thing to eat were Turnips. I just thought to myself, 'go to a different store' She was living in Marin County California back then one of the richest in the nation. She did well for herself.
The steel helmet camo in the begin of your video is called mimmikri.
Actually the German ww1 camo was called Buntfarbenanstrich
@@3chmidt For their helmets it Mimmikri.
Could you do a video on those gun cams that some WW2 planes had?
WW1’s placement in history is so fascinating to me. It’s right after the Victorian era, where the general social image is one of elegance and self-restraint, of dignity and civilization. And yet, despite that being the culture taught to the generation of the time, they were thrown into a horrific war that unveiled the raw savagery of human beings faced with extreme hunger and circumstances worse than hell itself. Maybe I’m not making sense, but I think it’s an interesting contrast.
I think so too. The horror of WW1 contradicts the supposed civility of the time. What so-called leaders were prepared to put their soldiers through is insane.
wars are never civilised. the World War was a battle of attrition and neither side wanted to quit. the German terms for a peace were far harsher than that handed down at Versailles and would have left Germany in occupation of all the lands their army had taken - so Belgium would simply be annexed entirely along with northern France and the eastern lands stretching from East Prussian to the Black Sea.. taking so many casualties neither side wanted to simply step back and see sacrifices made for nothing . the Central Powers should have won on paper. the huge empires of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans were all conjoined. with strong internal rail links etc.. but they screwed up. the quick win in France didn't happen and the long war of attrition on Western and Eastern fronts dragged on.
@@coling3957 Never said that wars were ever civilized. But it’s undeniable that WW1 marked the start of a new brand of brutality
To be pedantic, Britain's (not just England's geography helped with the blockade as a major naval base was in Scotland. However absolute masses of Brownie points for making a well thought out video on the most fundamental aspect of war; the ability to feed the troops, munitions workers, etc. Royal Navy blockades date back to the Napoleonic era.
and are highly successful. Napoleon invaded Russia because of the RN blockade and his failure to maintain the "continental system" to stop Europeans trading with Great Britain... in both world wars the Royal Navy blockaded Germany and stopped supplies from abroad reaching the Baltic .. a few blockade runners did get through early on, but not many. Germany's attempt at blockading the British with U-Boats was less successful. and with advances in ASW , became less and less so as war progressed with 1943 being the year the U-Boats took a hammering.
What makes this different than the famines that proceeded it like Belgium in WWI and the US South in the civil war is that there was no occupying army taking all the goods, it was their own army taking everything. That is INSANE commitment that ive never seen from another european country. Thats that old prussian military state vibe.
Well, I have nothing to add. Huh. Thanks, Johnny, catch ya on the next one
The direct cause of the famine can also be found in the over-drafting of soldiers in 1914/15. All sides thought that by bringing the most men to a battle they could achieve something. But the side effect of drafting away all of the nation’s labor force too a much bigger negative impact than any it pushed toward victory. In the end every nation began to send troops back in 1916 to grow food and fill important industrial tasks.
An army marches on it's stomach ya know what I mean. - ernest p. Worrell.
Excellent, however that old chestnut of "England" being another term for "Britain" ; the Royal Naval base of Scapa Flo played a huge role in the blockade of Germany. Conrad Adenuar (?), mayor of Cologne, later Chancellor of West Germany created a substitute vegetarian sausage during World War 1. He couldn't get it patented in Germany as sausages are supposed to contain meat. He got a British patent instead.
why no videos from the new all quiet on the eastern front? i thought they showed very well the starving issues and everything 🤔
With a Kaiser like his, who needs enemies? With his reckless ambitions, Wilhelm II literally starved Germany out of power.
The French government almost screwed the pooch as well, seeing how the French military almost had a Syndicalist revolution against the government.
I recommend you watch “The Innocence of Kaiser Wilhelm II” by Christina Croft or Lavader’s videos on Wilhelm II. Might change your perspective on the guy 👀
@@beneficialuncle4136imagine unironically recommending these sources. You may as well recommend an essay by Curious George.
Late in the war, Austria coomandered barges bringing wheat to Germany. The Germans almost declared war on their own ally for this. Hunger can turn friends into enimies very quickly.
Winners write History
Winners are always right
To win is to be in the right
As a POW in offlag viii my father got horse meat when they were fed every alternate day
You sure did beet a dead horseradish there at the end.
(2:57) Money is power!
Good video. Another issue that Germany faced was finances. Most of Germany currency was backed by the gold mark, which was held in overseas banking for ease of doing commerce.
As soon as war broke out, Germany financial problems arose. It didn’t help that Britain made sure that Germany currency would become useless by 1918, this already ensuring Germany defeat in 1914.
However, Germany came close to winning as its submarine fleet had swept away Britain merchant marine and the British were having major problems of supplying enough ammunition for her troops.
This does not explain the huge stores the British Army had in 1918
Currency doesn't matter, what matters is how much stuff there is to buy with it
@@bigblue6917 By 1918, America was already on the British side for 3 years.
Stores of supplies held by Britain? More like stores of debt that Britain needed to pay back to American bankers.
@@samsonsoturian6013 Haha, you just contradicted yourself, Lol.
Germany couldn't even feed its own populace at the outbreak of war and relied on vast food imports from Russia, Canada, USA, Brazil, and Argentina. If you're currency is worthless and nobody will accept your money (German marks); how are you supposed to get all the food supplies you need?
My father had a neighbor who fought for the Germans in WW 1. It got so bad that he had to eat his own horse at the end of the war.
Soldbuch review please
See the title … not very interesting. I’ll support Johnny by watching anyway … oh my gosh!! I’ve just learned new history. So good! ❤❤❤
4,500 calories per day prior to the war. Thats more than I eat per day; they really had no clue how deadly this war was going to be.
That might have included the alcohol
Soldiers require a high-calorie diet under field conditions of high exertion- each US military MRE contains 1,200 calories. 3x MREs per day = 3,600 calories. Add some snacks and maybe a soda or two, and you've easily got 4,000-ish calories, if not more.
@@perrya.3580 understandable, but a soldier can SURVIVE with probably half of that. Think of how much a Japanese soldier had to eat on Okinawa per day. Probably not near 4,000 calories but they fought one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war.
Germany had no idea how restricted their economy and supply chain would be as a result of the blockade. I doubt they would’ve had such a diet if they knew how restricted they would be.
@@lukesmith1003most of the Japanese casualties during the war were due to starvation. Also the battle of Okinawa was far worse for the Japanese than it was the Allies. The difference is there weren’t very many Japanese soldiers left to tell stories.
2:13 - "More than half of Germany's exports pre-war were to Britain, Russia, and France..." A lesson Russia didn't learn before starting a war in 2022. Never expect trade to continue (or assets be protected) once you start war.
2:34 - "Germany did have some success buying american goods through Sweden. Sweden would buy american goods and resell them to Germany at an enormous profit...." Another lesson Russia didn't learn, desperately selling oil to India at greatly reduced priced instead of world market prices.
3:04 - "Britain was more successful than Germany winning over neutral trading partners, essentially making friends with cash. The Germans took a different approach, they more frequently used intimidation...." And ANOTHER lesson Russia didn't learn, that the peaceful EU as a trading bloc is more powerful than any individual country, even making the violent yanks kowtow and submit on issues (e.g. international standards).
3:29 - Germany's leadership wasn't too bothered about food supplies at the outbreak of WWI. German commanders believed in the Schlieffen plan..." Jeez, did Russia learn ANYTHING?
It fueled Hitlers hate.
“I can end the war quickly”
-someone who couldn’t end the war quickly
It's a matter of risk tolerance
If the avoidance of total disaster relies on your plan succeeding greatly and quickly, then change your plan. Can't rely on hopes. As they say, no plan survives contact with the enemy.
"....turnip for the next one," Lmao. Good stuff.
Great video yes, let’s all maybe just take one second just one second and be thankful for what we have sounds so easy but it’s so hard
a sad one, but necessary to understand the reality of it all.
My great-grandfather was a POW in Germany during late WWI and he was telling stories about hunger and that he survived mostly on beer and sugar.
One hell of a diet
It's very important to remind people that those who fought didn't matter which side they fought on we're still human 😮
It's important to remember that our enemies suffered twice as much as we did during these wars 😢😢
And as for that pun I don't think people are going to turn out for that 😂❤❤❤
Around half a million german civilians died due starved during ww1.
When in doubt, always have naval superiority and also good connections with the richness of the two Americas.
Also, kindness with little or no intimidation goes a long way, though make sure it's not as overly saccharine and increasingly disillusioned as Steven Universe Future... sorry, ranting on some nitpicked cartoons.
A topic that should neatly follow this up would be the Soviet starvation during WW2. They had to collect icy river water and plant potato and cabbage crops even in ruined and contested churchyards in the likes of Leningrad's long siege, for one.
The British blockade may have had something to do with it
The Royal Navy blockaded Germany..
It should also be noted that the UK's blockade was considered a warcrime at the time. The UK knew that it would starve Germany, but thats the real reason why the UK wanted to be involved in the war anyway: Germany's Economy was getting a little too big for their liking.
Except Britain did not join the war until after Germany invaded Belgium, which Britain had warned Germany not to do, because Britain had guaranteed Belgian neutrality. If Germany had not invaded Belgium Britain would have remained neutral. This is why Britain put in so much effort to stop Germany completing its capture of Belgium.
@@bigblue6917 That was the excuse that the UK used on the national stage, yes, but many excuses were made in the opening months of the war. The ever expanding German Economy was what drove a wedge between two nations that had been close allies for over a century and a half. No, it wasn’t the German Navy, not it wasn’t the German Army, it was the economy.
Had the UK really cared for the neutrality of neutral nations, they wouldn’t have invaded Greece and forced the Greek King to join the Entente.
My grandparents were children during WW I and have told us a lot about their hungry childhood duringhorrible time. At least they survived, else I wouldn´t exist. Greetings from Germany🙂
The Great War Channel has a video on the Turnip Winter and a video on the sheer amount of food needed to keep the armies fighting in the war fes
maybe you can do a video on the swiss mercenaries.