"Are you a German sailor?" "Nein, I am Ottoman." "It seems like you just put on a different hat." "Nein, I am Ottoman." "What's your name?" "Fritz Hoffenmeyer...oglu." "Right, that checks out."
I have always been impressed with the move to sell the German ships to Turkey to both elude the British ship trying to sink them and to ingratiate themselves to the Turks, who were stiffed of the ships the British were building for them; the cleverest diplomatic move in the 20th Century.
It was not Germany's idea to sell them, the Ottomans proposed it and actually published the purchase and the price of 80 million marks in the papers before Berlin approved the move. From Eugene Rogan's The Fall of the Ottomans
One of the officers on board Breslau was a young lieutenant named Karl Dönitz. After a spell in the Turkish Navy, he returned to Germany to train for the submarine service. He subsequently served on a U-boat out of the Adriatic. In the final months of the war he was captain of a U-boat and was captured by the Royal Navy and imprisoned on Malta. Now, if Breslau had not joined the Turkish fleet... If... If.. If...
@@lukecox2782 Yes, he was initially Commander of the Submarines, but became Supreme Commander of the German Navy about halfway through the war (succeeding Raeder). He also was - very briefly - Hitler's successor.
When the ships reached Greek waters, the German Ambassador in Athens bought every fuel he could and asked permission to refuel the ships on the shores of an islet. PM Venizelos asked the British embassy. Since the ships were not sold to the Ottomans yet, and Greece was neutral, the ambassador said he had no objections. If they had been sold to the Ottomans, it is highly possible that they could be blocked before the Straits... P.S. The name _"Midilli"_ is the turkish name for the island of Lesbos, it was named so to make a territorial claim (Cemal Pasha, one of the Three Pashas, was born there)
As a Turk i need to mention that Midilli is also the name of Aegean island of Lesvos. It does also mean pony but i think ship's name coming from the name of island not the animal.
There was a continuous war scare since 1913 between Greece and the Ottoman Empire, as the Ottomans were refusing to recognize the loss of the western Aegean Islands to Greece during the Balkan Wars . If WW1 had not happened a Greek-Ottoman War would probably would had erupted in 1914. It led to a dreadnought race with the Ottomans buying Agincourt (Sultan Osman I) and Erin(Resadiye), and the Greeks ordering Salamis (initially a BC but then upgraded to BB) and prepare to order a french dreadnought (Vasilefs Constantinos) . Terrified that the Ottoman dreadnoughts would arrive before a Greek one, they then bought as a stop gag the two Mississippi class US pre-dreadnoughts (Kilkis and Lemnos). The war scare also led to Metaxas doing his seminal study for an invasion of the Dardanelles were he concluded that absent surprise and a de-mobilized Ottoman Empire, no attempt to break the Straits would succeed. There was a fear the Goeben would be used in a Greek-Ottoman war rather than in the world war (indeed to be frank that would had been the smarter Ottoman policy- a local war in alliance with Bulgarian in 1914 against Greece, and then figure it out) Two great studies on this Mustafa Aksakal "The Ottoman Road to War, 1914", and Zisis Fortakis "Greek Naval Strategy and Policy 1910-1923"
also should be noted that the public subscription for the Ottoman dreadnoughts was partly used as a tool against the Ottoman Greek community, with part of it being forced to fund the public subscription as part of the CUP(IFC) economic war against Ottoman Greeks (the other part being the forced expulsion of Ottoman Greeks from Thrace and the Aydin/Aydinion region). For more see Fuat Dundar "Moderniye Turkiye Sifresi" (O mystikos kodikas tis neoteris Tourkias). Later Turkish Republic president Celal Bayar was an instrumental person in this.
also the islands in question were overwhelmingly Greek populated (89-90%) even according to Ottoman population estimates (see Karpat's book on Ottoman Population). They were claimed on strategic , not demographic reasons.
The historian once again is terrific and so knowledgeable. He was a great addition to your trip to Turkey. I hope you can use him in the future especially when you do WWII . FLO is still the best though. We can't upset him. Right FLO .
Yet another fantastic and informative episode indeed !!! I have been aboard the famous Royal Hellenic Navy - Greek Navy Flagship , Battle Cruiser Georgios Averof with her 9.2 inch guns ! She is moored at Palaio Faliro , Athens , Hellas , Greece . She is of The same" Vintage" of the famous Breslau named after The Eastern German City. Georgios Averof was fighting in The Great War , The Greco Turkish War or 1919 -1922 and WW2 . She was known as (Nickname) " Uncle George " by the Greeks and "Seitan Papor by the Turks. A must see Museum Ship if you ever Visit Athens , along with The Acropolis to Athena!
The Goeben is my favorite war story. Indy and Can told it really well. For a longer version and more details, read the chapter "The Flight of the Goeben" in Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August.
Great chapter! Funny fact is that she was on the italian steamer which witnessed the action among breslau and goeben against the gloucester commanded by capitain kelly! She was one of the grandchilds of Mr Morgenthau the american ambassador in the otoman empire.
Actually, this wasn't the first time these ships(especially SMS Goeben) were in Ottoman land. Goeben was in the German Mediterranean Divison and in fact had visited quite a lot of Ottoman Ports before the war(İskenderun, aka Little Alexandria and Constantinople). In 1913,(during Balkan Wars) Goeben had visited Constantinople. Ottoman Grand Vizier(prime minister) Mahmud Şevket Pasha asked the German Ambassador Wangenheim to purchase the ship to win the war at sea with Greece. The ambassador contacted the foreign ministry and told the Grand Vizier that it's impossible to sell Goeben to Ottoman Empire because Germany had declared it's neutrality in the Balkan Wars and added "Even if we sell this ship to you, you don't have any adequate crew to use it". So the ship stayed in the German Navy. When Goeben and Breslau joined the Ottoman Navy in 1914, the Ottoman crew broke the ship(Breslau) in just 15 days by inserting the wrong kind of ammo into the turrets. So the German Ambassador and the Foreign Ministry was unfortunately right:) You can read "The Ship That Changed The World: The Escape of Goeben to the Dardanelles" by Dan Van der Vat for more information. It has some interesting records of radio messages of Goeben.
@@dirensare ondan almanlar Balkan Savaşları sırasında gemiyi vermek istemedi ya. "Gemileri size satarsak sizin gemileri kullanacak mürettebatınız yok." dediler. Biz de "E o zaman gemileri mürettebatıyla satın." dedik. Ve sattılar, daha sonrada artık sanırım bir şekilde bazı Osmanlı askerleri Midilli mürettebatına katıldı ve geminin nasıl kullanıldığını bilmedikleri için zaten Midilli'nin fazla olmayan toplarından birine yanlış mermiyi yerleştirerek bozdular. :d
A very exciting story very well told. This was the first of a number of disappointing actions for the Royal Navy in the Great War, the naval action at Gallipoli in March 1915, Jutland and Zeebrugge among others. Troubridge was court=martialled for not showing the Nelsonian spirit of " engage the enemy more closely ", but was acquitted. There are so many great Great War stories such as this, at a time when military and naval tradition collided with modern technology. I fervently wish this channel would continue to tell of some of the lesser know incidents and characters of the war.
Fun fact, the cruiser squadron under Troubridge's command contained the ships Warrior, Black Prince, Duke of Edinburgh and Defense. Only the Duke of Edinburgh would survive the war, the rest were all sunk at the Battle of Jutland, of which two, the Black Prince and Defense, were lost with all hands.
The Ships at 5:15 look AWESOME! A thousand stories in that one scene. Looks like old (it is 1914, and these look like they were 20-30 yrs old?) One on the end looks to be converted into construction/repair sortaship? just... wow. and a submersible launch/construction platform? We have these NOW and people think they are modern tech...
R4d3K98 ANZACS ended up just taking Jerusalem, Damascus, Aleppo, and Gaza, while destroying the Armies of the Ottoman Empire at the battle of Meddigo. No biggie.
I'm currently reading "No End Save Victory", an anthology of WWII memoirs and one of them gives some background to Italian underwater exploits in mentioning a WWI Italian naval special ops unit that on Oct 31, 1918, penetrated the protective nets of the Austrian battle fleet harbored in Pola, north Adriatic, and sank the Austrian dreadnought Viribus Unitis. Could you flesh out this small unit penetration from the Chair of Wisdom or perhaps devote an episode to such elite, small unit operations of the various armies and navies during WWI? Thanks for an entertaining and educational show. My best to you and your hard working crew. Walter Alter poet ex cathedra
Not really. There's a fair bit of materiel in any ship that is reusable/recyclable. There is a place in Pakistan(I think) where they drive ships up on the beach and start breaking them up.
For a more detailed study of the Goeben and Breslau adventure, read Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August. She believes this episode was very important in the study of WWI and ties together many other events (e.g., these two ships embargoed more than 90% of Russian imports and exports). It was the reason she wrote the book. One lesson to be learned: governments lie all the time. Lesson two: governments break their promises all the time. Lesson three: admirals disobey orders all the time. And they all get away with it... sort of.
I can't believe that you guys are here! Is there any possibilty of preparing a get together with fans, a panel or something? I would love to attend if I can
Incredible discipline to sail past the enemy just because the ultimatum had not technically expired. Not all navies of 1914 were so easy to control from thousands of miles away by cable.
I have a book that claims that the Goeben lasted until the early 70's before it was sadly scrapped. The book says the only crew remaining were an elderly caretaker and his cat.
Very interesting Russian warship at 9:10. No Black Sea Fleet ship this, but an obsolete pre-dreadnought. Suggest Ekaterina II class of the 1880s; Sinope or Georgii Pobedonosets employed as port guard ship at Sevastopol with 12" guns removed. Originally armed with 6 x 12" guns in 3 x twin barbette mounts without armoured gun houses.
The great War Mr Andy i wanted to thank you for saying the truth about Croatian part in the great war.for reasons known to us comments are disabled in that video.the main reason why archduke Franz Ferdinand was assasinated was his intension to correct the historical injustice toward Croatia because as you have mentioned the empire should be named as Austro-Hungarian-Croatian!and if that happened Serbian theft would be in vane.it would made them imposible to settle the serbians across the balkans and proclaim that territories as their own.what has happend in decades after it is known!like war(not civil!!!!as it is being presented to general public) in the 90s.you have done your homework very well in that episode!every word you have said is true!I KNOW HISTORY AND I AM RESARCHING THE HISTORY OF CROATIA AND CROATIANS FOR 10Y NOW....so thank you very much!now the whole world knows what kind of politicians does Serbia have!thex are willing to make a world war just to see their plans come threw.....Greetings from beautiful Croatia! p.s. ig anyone wishes to know more about us....there is a page on facebook....White Croatia-Bijela Velika Hrvatska.History of Croatian people and russian,ukranian,polish,czech,slovak,...etc....all the lands we have inhabited in the past!and the documents,maps,writings from any of them upon their own history and conection with Croatians.
What happened to the crew of the ship after WW1? did they continue to crew the Goeben/Yavuz or did they return to Germany and a new Turkish crew take over?
To be fair to Churchill, if you are in charge of any countries navy and you can see a large scale war is coming and there is a private shipyard building 2 almost complete battleships for a foreign nation, never mind that that nation has leanings towards the future enemy , I think taking those ships is likely. Had Turkey not attacked an ally in Russia they were going to be financially compensated.
After the British requisitioned the ottoman dreadnoughts (by force) they offered £1000 for every day they kept them as well as their return or monetary equivalent at the end of the war. The offer stood as long as the ottomans remained neutral. To quote Churchil: the Goeben had brought "more slaughter, more misery, and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship"
after the turkish navy decommisioned the Goeben the turkish government offered West Germany to buy it back as sort of a museum ship. But the germans thought that it was too expensive. So the world's last battlecruiser still afloat was scrapped. What a shame.
"Are you a German sailor?"
"Nein, I am Ottoman."
"It seems like you just put on a different hat."
"Nein, I am Ottoman."
"What's your name?"
"Fritz Hoffenmeyer...oglu."
"Right, that checks out."
Meirstein best comment ever
As a Turk I approve
@bm3racer Hoffenmeyer is no german name. Believe me. I'm german.
hahahah nice saying someone as a Turk ;)))
@@wonderfalg Hmmm that changes the whole joke then :D
@@ottoman_reenactor_ct exactly, I admit as well
I do like the "literally just add fez" to the Germans. Now that's a nice and simply solution.
Philip Balfour add fez, go bomb allies, turkey is now in war.
(Puts on fez) We Turks now bois, er kamerads! Hahaha, I love it!
Everything is better with a Fez!
Most people use regular razors to shave their beards. I use an ex german battleship to shave mine.
The Black Prince hahahhaaahhahaha well if you don’t have war to worry about and your economy is potato, you would do the same l guess :D
You should trade personal grooming ideas with US Admiral Ernest King. According to FDR, "He shaves every morning with a blowtorch.”
Battleships ! the best an Ottoman can geeeet !
A few years ago we had a advertising campaign here in Germany in which a DIY market made hammers from scrapped tanks.
The Black Prince Derby razor blades that are made in Turkey?
I have always been impressed with the move to sell the German ships to Turkey to both elude the British ship trying to sink them and to ingratiate themselves to the Turks, who were stiffed of the ships the British were building for them; the cleverest diplomatic move in the 20th Century.
It was not Germany's idea to sell them, the Ottomans proposed it and actually published the purchase and the price of 80 million marks in the papers before Berlin approved the move. From Eugene Rogan's The Fall of the Ottomans
One of the officers on board Breslau was a young lieutenant named Karl Dönitz. After a spell in the Turkish Navy, he returned to Germany to train for the submarine service. He subsequently served on a U-boat out of the Adriatic. In the final months of the war he was captain of a U-boat and was captured by the Royal Navy and imprisoned on Malta. Now, if Breslau had not joined the Turkish fleet... If... If.. If...
Wasn’t he the Admiral if the German Submarine fleet in WW2?
He also grand admiral of the kriegsmarine
@@lukecox2782 Yes, he was initially Commander of the Submarines, but became Supreme Commander of the German Navy about halfway through the war (succeeding Raeder). He also was - very briefly - Hitler's successor.
This is just an amazing channel. You're very informative and a great host, Indy.
When the ships reached Greek waters, the German Ambassador in Athens bought every fuel he could and asked permission to refuel the ships on the shores of an islet. PM Venizelos asked the British embassy. Since the ships were not sold to the Ottomans yet, and Greece was neutral, the ambassador said he had no objections. If they had been sold to the Ottomans, it is highly possible that they could be blocked before the Straits...
P.S. The name _"Midilli"_ is the turkish name for the island of Lesbos, it was named so to make a territorial claim (Cemal Pasha, one of the Three Pashas, was born there)
You are an endless source of valuable informations
Metaxas really hammered on this in his 1934-1935 article exchanges with Venizelos on the causes and history of the National Schism.
I wonder if he said anything about the surrender of eastern Macedonia in 1916 and his role in the paramilitary organization 'σύνδεσμος επιστρατων'
Konstantinos Travlos Βέβαια, προς το τέλος της ζωής του μετάνιωσε, γράφοντας στο ημερολόγιο του το "φταίμε όλοι"
Στο αρχειακο υλικο της η Π.Δελτα αναφερει πως ο Μεταξας εγραψε ''ας με συγχωρεσει ο θεος για το 19 σβησμενο(μαλλον 1915 η 1916 λεει η Δελτα)
As a Turk i need to mention that Midilli is also the name of Aegean island of Lesvos. It does also mean pony but i think ship's name coming from the name of island not the animal.
TurkishHedgehog True
There was a continuous war scare since 1913 between Greece and the Ottoman Empire, as the Ottomans were refusing to recognize the loss of the western Aegean Islands to Greece during the Balkan Wars . If WW1 had not happened a Greek-Ottoman War would probably would had erupted in 1914. It led to a dreadnought race with the Ottomans buying Agincourt (Sultan Osman I) and Erin(Resadiye), and the Greeks ordering Salamis (initially a BC but then upgraded to BB) and prepare to order a french dreadnought (Vasilefs Constantinos) . Terrified that the Ottoman dreadnoughts would arrive before a Greek one, they then bought as a stop gag the two Mississippi class US pre-dreadnoughts (Kilkis and Lemnos). The war scare also led to Metaxas doing his seminal study for an invasion of the Dardanelles were he concluded that absent surprise and a de-mobilized Ottoman Empire, no attempt to break the Straits would succeed. There was a fear the Goeben would be used in a Greek-Ottoman war rather than in the world war (indeed to be frank that would had been the smarter Ottoman policy- a local war in alliance with Bulgarian in 1914 against Greece, and then figure it out)
Two great studies on this Mustafa Aksakal "The Ottoman Road to War, 1914", and Zisis Fortakis "Greek Naval Strategy and Policy 1910-1923"
Konstantinos Travlos Κύδος!
also should be noted that the public subscription for the Ottoman dreadnoughts was partly used as a tool against the Ottoman Greek community, with part of it being forced to fund the public subscription as part of the CUP(IFC) economic war against Ottoman Greeks (the other part being the forced expulsion of Ottoman Greeks from Thrace and the Aydin/Aydinion region). For more see Fuat Dundar "Moderniye Turkiye Sifresi" (O mystikos kodikas tis neoteris Tourkias). Later Turkish Republic president Celal Bayar was an instrumental person in this.
also the islands in question were overwhelmingly Greek populated (89-90%) even according to Ottoman population estimates (see Karpat's book on Ottoman Population). They were claimed on strategic , not demographic reasons.
0:25 if you were there during WW1 you certainly weren't lucky.
The historian once again is terrific and so knowledgeable. He was a great addition to your trip to Turkey. I hope you can use him in the future especially when you do WWII .
FLO is still the best though. We can't upset him. Right FLO .
Yet another fantastic and informative episode indeed !!!
I have been aboard the famous Royal Hellenic Navy - Greek Navy Flagship , Battle Cruiser Georgios Averof with her 9.2 inch guns !
She is moored at Palaio Faliro , Athens , Hellas , Greece . She is of The same" Vintage" of the famous Breslau named after The Eastern German City.
Georgios Averof was fighting in The Great War , The Greco Turkish War or 1919 -1922 and WW2 . She was known as (Nickname) " Uncle George " by the Greeks and "Seitan Papor by the Turks.
A must see Museum Ship if you ever Visit Athens , along with The Acropolis to Athena!
The Goeben is my favorite war story. Indy and Can told it really well. For a longer version and more details, read the chapter "The Flight of the Goeben" in Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August.
i just read that book a few weeks ago and i endorse this comment highly
Great chapter! Funny fact is that she was on the italian steamer which witnessed the action among breslau and goeben against the gloucester commanded by capitain kelly! She was one of the grandchilds of Mr Morgenthau the american ambassador in the otoman empire.
Flo is the key to all of this.
It's like poetry.
They rhyme
Because he's a funnier German than we ever had before
I just love this entire Gallipoli special series, engaging co-host!
Im Turkish, and so happy to see you in Turkey. Thanks for the effort
Always fascinating to see the places where history happened... :O
The thumbnail made me think that it would be a tour of the actual ships. Cool video as always though! Well done.
Actually, this wasn't the first time these ships(especially SMS Goeben) were in Ottoman land. Goeben was in the German Mediterranean Divison and in fact had visited quite a lot of Ottoman Ports before the war(İskenderun, aka Little Alexandria and Constantinople). In 1913,(during Balkan Wars) Goeben had visited Constantinople. Ottoman Grand Vizier(prime minister) Mahmud Şevket Pasha asked the German Ambassador Wangenheim to purchase the ship to win the war at sea with Greece. The ambassador contacted the foreign ministry and told the Grand Vizier that it's impossible to sell Goeben to Ottoman Empire because Germany had declared it's neutrality in the Balkan Wars and added "Even if we sell this ship to you, you don't have any adequate crew to use it". So the ship stayed in the German Navy. When Goeben and Breslau joined the Ottoman Navy in 1914, the Ottoman crew
broke the ship(Breslau) in just 15 days by inserting the wrong kind of ammo into the turrets. So the German Ambassador and the Foreign Ministry was unfortunately right:) You can read "The Ship That Changed The World: The Escape of Goeben to the Dardanelles" by Dan Van der Vat for more information. It has some interesting records of radio messages of Goeben.
iki dakkada anasini sikmişiz yani makinenin.
@@dirensare hahah ulan :D
@@dirensare ondan almanlar Balkan Savaşları sırasında gemiyi vermek istemedi ya. "Gemileri size satarsak sizin gemileri kullanacak mürettebatınız yok." dediler. Biz de "E o zaman gemileri mürettebatıyla satın." dedik. Ve sattılar, daha sonrada artık sanırım bir şekilde bazı Osmanlı askerleri Midilli mürettebatına katıldı ve geminin nasıl kullanıldığını bilmedikleri için zaten Midilli'nin fazla olmayan toplarından birine yanlış mermiyi yerleştirerek bozdular. :d
A great episode. Danke, Indy!
Midilli indeed means pony but ship's name comes from the Turkish name for the Island of Lesvos
Another wonderful episode. Keep 'em coming, fellas!
A very exciting story very well told. This was the first of a number of disappointing actions for the Royal Navy in the Great War, the naval action at Gallipoli in March 1915, Jutland and Zeebrugge among others. Troubridge was court=martialled for not showing the Nelsonian spirit of " engage the enemy more closely ", but was acquitted.
There are so many great Great War stories such as this, at a time when military and naval tradition collided with modern technology. I fervently wish this channel would continue to tell of some of the lesser know incidents and characters of the war.
Yeah royal navy suffered some embarrassments at coronel a horrible preformance in the start and end of Jutland and every single elsecond of gallipoli
Fun fact, the cruiser squadron under Troubridge's command contained the ships Warrior, Black Prince, Duke of Edinburgh and Defense. Only the Duke of Edinburgh would survive the war, the rest were all sunk at the Battle of Jutland, of which two, the Black Prince and Defense, were lost with all hands.
allways nice to watch you guys. Made my evening!
loved the wrap up shot! you guys have great chemistry and make an awesome team!!!!
Your guest Can is great !
The Ships at 5:15 look AWESOME! A thousand stories in that one scene. Looks like old (it is 1914, and these look like they were 20-30 yrs old?)
One on the end looks to be converted into construction/repair sortaship? just... wow.
and a submersible launch/construction platform? We have these NOW and people think they are modern tech...
‘Cruisin by as battle cruisers do’. I always wondered why they call them cruisers. Thanks Indy!
Very informative keep it up
The Guns of August (1962) by Barbara Tuchman is a great read. It has a chapter "The Pursuit of the Goeben and Breslau."
thx for uploading
Britain will definitely take the Dardanelles before Christmas, screencap this.
R4d3K98 TFW ANZAC forces left gallipoli in December 20th 1915
cemo1999 DON'T SPOIL IT
R4d3K98 ANZACS ended up just taking Jerusalem, Damascus, Aleppo, and Gaza, while destroying the Armies of the Ottoman Empire at the battle of Meddigo. No biggie.
Brooke Whittle True but this is gallipoli we are talking about ;) Plus I am glad they got Us Turks out of those cursed lands
As a turkish loosing arab land is blessing.. The only loss was mosul province of Iraq...No need for deserts.
Interesting and informative video. Great job.
The battle of lake Tanganyika was the craziest battle ever.
fascinating to learn more after reading Tuchman's chapter in Guns of August on this ships
Such a great story, Can is one of the best historian in Turkey.
Great Episode !
You can tell how into this story Indy is by how much he waves his arms around.
You can tell Can has just been chilling reading his history books in the Canakkale sun, smoking hash and smashing through some kadayif and cay.
Amazing episode. I really miss Lindy
TGW on the road, 3 awesome episodes in a row
Can't stop watching
At 7:33, the gentleman on the left look eerily like Sir Anthony Hopkins.
He does!
Indy seemed even more enthusiastic than usual
In hindsight the Turks probably needed a large navy more so then the Germans.
Ottoman empire nose dived as soon as they lost the naval power in the Mediterranean.
براہمداغ .....wich they did in the Balkan wars
They lost naval power long before that I'm afraid.
Nothing turned a warship quicker into scrap than the service in the Ottoman Navy. They have maintained their ships poorly.
Can is awesome!
Love you guys
There's a very detailed account of that story in "Guns of August" IIRC. Very interesting game between the captains.
Lots of hand gestures.
Is the Italy trip still fresh in the mind?
There he was posing again, praise Flo ;-)!
@9:40 That is an airplane fuselage on the deck. Did the Goeben (or Yavuz) carry spotter planes? Or was it transporting the plane for another reason?
Can you do a video about the Harlem Hellfighters?
You two do well on screen together
Indy summed up the first few chapters of Massie’s “Dreadnought” in a much more animated and entertaining manner.
Also, Can the Man!
What a feeling it must be to shave with a piece of the Great War history
I'm currently reading "No End Save Victory", an anthology of WWII memoirs and one of them gives some background to Italian underwater exploits in mentioning a WWI Italian naval special ops unit that on Oct 31, 1918, penetrated the protective nets of the Austrian battle fleet harbored in Pola, north Adriatic, and sank the Austrian dreadnought Viribus Unitis. Could you flesh out this small unit penetration from the Chair of Wisdom or perhaps devote an episode to such elite, small unit operations of the various armies and navies during WWI? Thanks for an entertaining and educational show. My best to you and your hard working crew.
Walter Alter
poet ex cathedra
6:40, Agincourt aka Rio de Janeiro aka Sultan Osman l, that some twisted story of ownership.
hey i just want to ask can you make a special episode about ottoman empire and montenegro in ww1. and just wanna say love your work so far
We are going to start a new series inspired by TGW on the "Ottomans in WW1" so keep following the channel.
Breslau was my grandfather's hometown.
Do you mean Vratislav? Wróclaw? That Silesian city?
It is now. When he was born it was part of Prussia, but it's also been part of Silesia, Poland, and a few other states. That's Europe for you.
Silesia is even called Prussia in czech silesian dialect.
I've never been to the city or even eastern Europe. Someday I hope to see it.
*Central Europe
Crazy how it the ship got turned into razor blades lmao.
Not really. There's a fair bit of materiel in any ship that is reusable/recyclable. There is a place in Pakistan(I think) where they drive ships up on the beach and start breaking them up.
For a more detailed study of the Goeben and Breslau adventure, read Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August. She believes this episode was very important in the study of WWI and ties together many other events (e.g., these two ships embargoed more than 90% of Russian imports and exports). It was the reason she wrote the book. One lesson to be learned: governments lie all the time. Lesson two: governments break their promises all the time. Lesson three: admirals disobey orders all the time. And they all get away with it... sort of.
Intriguing stories and this part in history.
Can you guys visit the HMS M33. It would fit well with your Gallipoli series.
E11 could also use a video
How sad that such a stunning ship ended up that way (razor blades)!
I can't believe that you guys are here! Is there any possibilty of preparing a get together with fans, a panel or something? I would love to attend if I can
We were in Turkey 2 months ago and had two fan meetings. Announced that on the channel in multiple videos.
Incredible discipline to sail past the enemy just because the ultimatum had not technically expired. Not all navies of 1914 were so easy to control from thousands of miles away by cable.
Indy having a blast in Turkey, nice !
that outro was badass
und es gibt einen schönen Roman darüber, called "Risiko" by Steffen Kopetzky, very nice...
Midilli also is the Turkish name of Lesvos (greek: mitilini)
I really like his wisdom and vest :D
Long live the German-Ottoman Friendship.
If Turks helped Germans with Soviet in Caucas and in Middle-east then through Suez Canal and North Africa, Axis would won......
@Redsand why not?
@Redsand we are talkin about WW1 man, c'mon lol
plz make an episode about hellenic navy during ww1 or visit the greek flagship Averof wich is the last of its kind
Observing his waistline....is Can a euchnic from the Sultan's Court? Just curious.
I have a book that claims that the Goeben lasted until the early 70's before it was sadly scrapped. The book says the only crew remaining were an elderly caretaker and his cat.
Love the pronunciation of Gloucester!
Just how many razor blades does a battleship make?
Very interesting Russian warship at 9:10. No Black Sea Fleet ship this, but an obsolete pre-dreadnought. Suggest Ekaterina II class of the 1880s; Sinope or Georgii Pobedonosets employed as port guard ship at Sevastopol with 12" guns removed. Originally armed with 6 x 12" guns in 3 x twin barbette mounts without armoured gun houses.
Hi Indy! You look like you were high on extasy while shooting this. :D
Indy, get some SUNSCREEN!!!
The great War Mr Andy i wanted to thank you for saying the truth about Croatian part in the great war.for reasons known to us comments are disabled in that video.the main reason why archduke Franz Ferdinand was assasinated was his intension to correct the historical injustice toward Croatia because as you have mentioned the empire should be named as Austro-Hungarian-Croatian!and if that happened Serbian theft would be in vane.it would made them imposible to settle the serbians across the balkans and proclaim that territories as their own.what has happend in decades after it is known!like war(not civil!!!!as it is being presented to general public) in the 90s.you have done your homework very well in that episode!every word you have said is true!I KNOW HISTORY AND I AM RESARCHING THE HISTORY OF CROATIA AND CROATIANS FOR 10Y NOW....so thank you very much!now the whole world knows what kind of politicians does Serbia have!thex are willing to make a world war just to see their plans come threw.....Greetings from beautiful Croatia!
p.s. ig anyone wishes to know more about us....there is a page on facebook....White Croatia-Bijela Velika Hrvatska.History of Croatian people and russian,ukranian,polish,czech,slovak,...etc....all the lands we have inhabited in the past!and the documents,maps,writings from any of them upon their own history and conection with Croatians.
Is Indy a bit High?😕
Well, what else would you do with a ship that had experienced so many close shaves?
What happened to the crew of the ship after WW1? did they continue to crew the Goeben/Yavuz or did they return to Germany and a new Turkish crew take over?
0:25 if you were there in the first world war you certainly weren't lucky
It's shame their initial flagship was not turned into a floating museum.
Do more videos on battleships!!!!!
The WAR must grind on and on and on and on boyz!!! ~gotta do it with the fez on~ =D
To be fair to Churchill, if you are in charge of any countries navy and you can see a large scale war is coming and there is a private shipyard building 2 almost complete battleships for a foreign nation, never mind that that nation has leanings towards the future enemy , I think taking those ships is likely. Had Turkey not attacked an ally in Russia they were going to be financially compensated.
The Goeben was the longest serving Dreadnought in any navy!
I like to think a ship today named Midilli would play Ginuwine nonstop
great to see where & how & why my ancestors fought.. thank you mate.. and LONG LIVE TURKISH REPUBLIC!
from 5:00 the story look like today's F35 case between Turkey and USA
Now I am wondering if my spoons used to part of a mighty battleship.
After the British requisitioned the ottoman dreadnoughts (by force) they offered £1000 for every day they kept them as well as their return or monetary equivalent at the end of the war. The offer stood as long as the ottomans remained neutral.
To quote Churchil: the Goeben had brought "more slaughter, more misery, and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship"
Too bad, the Yavuz should have been made into a museum. Did no one float the idea at the time?
Errr no pun intended.
I think there were talks with Germans to sell them ship for museum purpose but they(Germans) refused
The Germans actually wanted to turn it into a museum ship, but the Turks wanted an astronomical sum for it.
Where did you get your vest?
after the turkish navy decommisioned the Goeben the turkish government offered West Germany to buy it back as sort of a museum ship. But the germans thought that it was too expensive. So the world's last battlecruiser still afloat was scrapped. What a shame.
Really? Yavuz is really a german ship? Thats really cool to know
Suggestion, special on the US Navy?