Join the TimeGhost Army: bit.ly/WW2_197_PI The Aleutian islands are today as much a part of the USA as New York City or Dallas, making them the only real part of the modern-day United States to have been occupied by the Japanese. Are there any other islands, ports, or cities close to the US mainland that the Japanese may have been able to occupy had things gone differently?
I don't think I can name one, probably Hawaii if they had actually went through the whole Pearl Harbor bombing and invasion. Maybe the bikini island or Midway
Hawaii would be a possibility if Japan had won in Midway, but what would they have gained? If they had Midway, Perl would be untenable for the US Pacific fleet - it would have had to go back to the west coast. Despite the fears and panic in the US at the time of Perl and through 1942 , Japan could pose no real threat to the continental US, (even if they had sunk the USN carriers at Midway.) They can and did shell some ports via subs, but the reach of IJN couldn't sustain and supply an operations on the other side of the Pacific. The US, however, showed they could...
An interesting thing to note this week on June 3 1943 is that a patent application for the pocket protector, which is a design to allow ink pens to be carried in shirt pockets, is filed by inventor Robert Hurley. The pocket protector is now often associated with the nerd or geek stereotype, such as engineers and students.
All of those shots were for show, propaganda reel time. If you look at the maps there is no info; they are pointing at basically random spots. MacArthur was a performer - he makes it look good, but most the other military leaders have that dumb smile.
@@TheGunderian Supposedly extras in the background of film scenes just recite "rhubarb, rhubarb" at each other to simulate conversation. Anything more meaningful might produce a more animated reaction that ruins the shot.
Despite the flashbacks of history books asserting that the Axis started to lose the war in 1943, you demonstrated to us in this episode more than ever before that winning the war is such a difficult and tricky endeavor that its culmination was uncertain! Thank you - again - Indy and crew for your detailed information and breathtaking story-telling style. Cheers!
It was uncertain to the people involved at the time. The Axis had suffered huge defeats around their periphery by mid-1943, but still had plenty of fight left. It's one thing to defeat an Axis army at the far end of its supply tether in North Africa or Stalingrad. Fighting into Fortress Europa where Germany can more easily move armies around on trains will be more difficult. In hindsight, though, we can just look at the war production figures and see who is going to win. The biggest threat to the Allied cause might have been Germany and the USSR making a separate peace, freeing up ~185 German divisions to move west and make France and Italy nearly invasion-proof for a good while. However, Hitler had already squandered that chance by violating his earlier non-aggression pact with the USSR by invading. Stalin would have been insane to trust any deal from Hitler again. As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
My dad was in the Aleutians flying bombers and went into Attu while they were still mopping up. He had pictures of the Japanese dead from the Banzai charges stacked up in a long row in front of a bulldozed ditch they were buried in.
Historians of the Battle of the Atlantic have slighted or ignored USN Submarine Squadron 50 tasked by Admiral King to operate against U-Boats in Atlantic. This squadron made up three US Navy submarines , all with defective engines and diving problems so they were pulled out of Atlantic in June 1943. And yet, ironically and unintentionally, at the time it made a great contribution to the war, which has only recently come to light in the declassified American Enigma documents. For several months in 1943, Allied codebreakers suspected that German code-breakers were reading the combined Anglo-American Naval Cypher Number 3. In view of this possibility, British and American task forces combed through old and current Enigma decrypts for clues. They found a half dozen possibilities, but most cases were too ambiguous and were not sufficiently convincing to set in train a change of codes, a large and complex undertaking. While this search was in progress, on May 25, 27, and 31, Admiral Donitz U-boat Command in Paris France committed three horrendous breaches of communications security, B-dienst had intercepted and decrypted Allied warnings in Naval Cypher Number 3 to all Allied convoys that three of the Submarine Squadron 50 submarines, USS Haddo, USS Hake, and USS Herring, were to operate at certain positions along the North Atlantic run during their return to the States. Believing that German U-boats in that area should also be warned of these American submarines, Control relayed the Allied information, giving the nearly exact grid squares (latitudes and longitudes) where the three were or were supposed to be, without any exceptional measure to disguise the information with interior codes or by some other means. These Enigma decrypts were unequivocal confirmation that, as suspected, B-dienst was reading Naval Cypher Number 3. The discovery assumed added force and urgency because American crews on the three submarines were believed to be at imminent risk. Hence on June 10, Allied communication authorities directed all naval commands and ships to switch to Allied Naval Code Number 5. This switch came as a devastating setback for B-dienst. After months of reading Allied convoy codes with sufficient currency to be of tactical value, in June 1943 German code-breakers suddenly went virtually blind and deaf. In the future they were to regain some Allied convoy codes sporadically, but thanks in large part to the seemingly fruitless patrols of three ineffective US submarines USS Haddo, USS Hake, and USS Herring, the glory days for German code-breakers were over. Hitlers U-Boat War - Clay Blair Jr.
Wow, thanks so much for this post. I'm fascinated by the "cypher wars", but most of the material is about the Allied effort, especially breaking the Enigma. Having a tidbit of information about the Axis efforts is pretty nice.
So you are saying a squadron that did nothing of import has been ignored because it did nothing of import? The fact that it was the location of a trio of US submarines that were decrypted is utterly unimportant; it could have been the location of a trio of Canadian corvettes; it could have been literally ANYTHING - so long as it was specific enough to pin down to a naval code leak. There is nothing of importance to "slight" here, because there is simply nothing of importance, full stop.
I love the idea that Marshall just tells Ike to set up two commands and make preparations for both Sardinia and Italy. This is so telling in who is winning the Logistics war. Germany and Japan are fighting on a shoestring budget and the Allies are just rolling along with equiptment and supplies enough to do contingency planning with no bother.
Next year: Ike: Hey, Marshal, Patton's gone and been an idiot again, we need 8000 trucks to run to southern france: Marshal: Ok, Chrystler? Chrystler: BEHOLD MY SPARE MANUFACTURING FOR THE DODGE RAM.
Been waiting for this episode for a while now Time Ghost Crew! I'd also like to give a shout out to a friend of my parents, Charles "Mucktuck" Marston (RIP) who doing the Invasion of the Aleutians, helped organize and train the Alaskan Home Guard made up primarily of Inuit and Native Alaskans. Later on Marston helped draft Alaska's state constitution securing Native civil rights.
Rock and Roll Fact: George Morrison served in the Attu campaign aboard the USS Pruitt. He was also at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. He became Admiral of the US Fleet in Gulf of Tonkin. George was the father of Jim Morrison lead singer of the Doors.
@@brianthomas2434 Maybe neither could stand the other. Jim ended up dead at 27 in Paris because of substance abuse, and lived the rock and roll lifestyle with gusto.
@@brianthomas2434 I don't know how old you are Brian but back in the 1960s and 70s there was a thing called the generation gap. Parents of the WW2 generation generally hated rock and roll while their teenaged children embraced it enthusiastically. More than one family split apart for no other reason than this. But I suspect Jim Morrison was more than just a lover of rock and roll. He had serious problems with chasing women, drugs and alcohol. These things have always marked a person for an earlier than normal death. And Jim did not disappoint in this regard. There are a ton of other names that could be added to his. 🤷♂
@@ToddSauve I'm 68. There's literally nothing you said I didn't already know. Let's remember this channel is about the War. I just thought it was interesting trivia, that Jim, as much as he disliked the Admiral (supposedly he referred to his dad in that manner) he was still in a small way influenced by him.
Wow. This was an exceptional episode. So much coverage on all fronts and angles made it seam like you all managed to squeeze two in one without rushing anything. I am really impressed of this high level professionalism from such a small studio. You all rock hard fine Sir's and Maiden's !!!
I know, I know, it's Murmansk. But I can't help but hear 'Merman's Route' and it really does just make everything much better for the theatre of the mind.
It sucks that the historical records during this week's battle in China is so muddled. It would be fascinating to have had detailed reports on this battle.
When people say history is written by the victor, they are usually implying that the history has been tampered with. In this case, it appears that if neither side survives the decade victorious, no one writes about it at all.
Politics. The most reliable records on the Soviet Union in WW2 were accessible by historians until Putin got into power. Now, they're not because the current government in Russia wants to control the narrative.
My guess is it is a victim of Japanese unwillingness to admit to any setbacks, combined with political differences between Kuomintang and Communists on the Chinese side. Given that most Chinese soldiers were illiterate at this time, there is probably a lack of even such items as diaries giving a ground-level description of events.
I hope Citadel gets it's own dedicated special episode. It doesn't even need to be on the same level of detail as pearl harbor. I just want to know more about it. Anything that happened in the Soviet Union is usually hard to get accurate information on. I just don't know which sources to trust. But it was one of the largest tank battles of all time!! How could I not want to know more about it?
They rarely do specials on battles. They probably will just cover it in the regular episodes, like they did with Stalingrad and others. (Pearl harbor, was a nice oppurtunity to get a huge amount of new viewers that would be hard to reach otherwise. )
The stand-back view is that Citadel failed before it began. Both sides suspended the majority of their offensive activity in the central areas for most of the good weather months of 1943. This likely favored the Soviets as their army was still learning, but the Germans simply had run out of men, so they needed time to recruit old/young and adjust tank organization and production. All the losses the Soviets take by the end of Citadel represent something in the area of 2% of 1943 production. The German losses were probably 3% of theirs, which is not negligible but hardly decisive. The real value to the victor of Citadel(Soviets) was the world seeing that Germany could no longer plan and execute swift offensives, only local counterattacks. Also, this fight gave the Soviets faith in themselves, regardless of the terrible loss ratios, which may have been as bad as 7:1.
@@Casa-de-hongos But Kursk is the largest tank battle in history. Its outcome influences the rest of the war on the Eastern Front. It's just as important as Pearl Harbor, Midway, and D-Day in terms of influence on the war. Stalingrad was just as important but since it took place over the course of five months, it was ironically too big for a special. Pearl Harbor, Midway, and D-Day took place over the course of a day (If in D-Day's case, you couldn't tell by the name lol). The Battle of Kursk does technically last a month but Hitler cancelled the offensive after only a week and the most notable engagement of the offensive, the Battle of Prokhorovka, occurred on the first day. So all in all, it deserves its own video or series of videos.
Grechko just didn’t realise he was up against Sgt Steiner. The 101st Jäger Division were serious business and in the battle maps they seem to be holding the main road & river of the Kuban center while the Soviets attack across the marshes avoiding them.
God, there's always something new to learn on the show, didn't know about the peace talks between the germans and soviets during the war, it would be something that could possibly change the whole history of the world had they find an agreement. Great job Indy and crew, you're the best
Japan tried the same with the USSR towarss the end of the war so as not to have to surrender to the US. Japan sent out peace talk feelers to USSR after it had invaded hoping to split the US-USSR alliance but were strongly rebuffed. The USSR remained true to its word to US as an ally in the war.
This episode included some things I had no idea of before. One is that the Soviets and Germans were meeting in Sweden, which caused US and British concern. It would be interesting to know more about what went on in the discussions. The other was that Japan would not interfere with US transports supplying the Soviet Union in order to maintain peace with the USSR. What route was used that the Japanese might have otherwise attacked?
The supply route across the pacific and then by rail across Siberia. I don't remember if the ships ended at Vladovostok or some other USSR City along the Pacific.
@@josiahferguson6194 I remember reading somewhere that the Soviet-flagged ships were supposed to dock at Vladivostok because of the inspection agreements they had with the Japanese. They were only supposed to be transporting non-military goods like food and trucks, but they did manage to sneak some weapons in by docking farther north and offloading them before heading back out to sea to be checked by the IJN.
@@Conn30Mtenor The route that Japan could have interfered with was the Pacific route, which took transports from US cities on the west coast to Vladivostok. The Persian corridor took ships from the eastern US or Canada, the UK, which then sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to Iran.
Also this week on 1st June 1943, the first contingent of 120 frenchmen departed from Casablanca for the USA. This happened after the decision to create the CFPNA (Centre de Formation du Personnel Navigant en Amérique = Flight Crew Training Center in America) on 1st February 1943 to train future French pilots in the USA. Until May 31 1946, 4084 French pilots and airmen will be trained through this program.
I just wanted to say how lucky I feel to be able to follow this project week after week. This is one of the best projects on youtube. You guys are just made of gold. Thank you for everything
Kim Ok Thank you for following us week by week! Our team feels truly lucky to be able to bring this documentary series to you, and we couldn't do it without the support of our amazing audience like you in the TimeGhost Army. Thanks & stay tuned
Interesting: at 06:13 one can see the unloading of a Gigant with a 18t FAMO halftrack in front and what seems to be a ex-soviet Voroshilovets heavy tractor behind in the same Dunkelgelb colour scheme. I didn't know, they had them in Tunisia
What Indy calls the "Battle of Shipai" is called elsewhere "Battle of West Hubei" or "Battle of Exi". Hubei is a province and Exi is a city in that area. Search for those names on the internet, and much more information becomes available. The US Army Air Force supported the Chinese offensive as well.
Actually, I have talked about the fighting for west Hubei and also called it the Battle of Exi over the past few weeks, but the Battle of Shipai is smaller and more localized than the overall Japanese offensive, which bears the two other names.
@@Southsideindy I have been to the area a few times while working in Wuhan. Today there's a "Shipai Fortress Tourist Area" with buildings and fortifications from that period. At least they remember very well what has happened there.
The problem is that the nationalist played the biggest role but because they lost the Chinese civil war in 1947-49 the communists re-wrote the history to make themselves look better. If you want a good recent book written about it try Ranna Mitters forgotten ally.
A footnote this week on June 4 1943 is that General Arturo Rawson will become the President of Argentina after a coup d'état (also known as Revolution of '43) that happened on the same day itself. However, he would only remain in this office for three days and afterwards resigned due to disagreements with other junta members, eventually leading to the swearing in of General Pedro Pablo Ramírez as President. This military government would also mark the beginning of the rise of Juan Peron and the Peronism political movement.
@@patrickazzarella6729 AJAJAJAJAJ so shut up and dont make me laugh, Agentina hasn't so powerful that you think, back in 1890 , the economic structure in the country was so endeble that one low prices wave in england left in ruins the economy
I had the honor of going to church. With a soldier . Robert Sanders call who fought in WW2 in Alaska. He told me. The Japanese banzaied across a valley. And they were on a ridge line, over looking the valley. He said he piled them up with his bar. Mr. Call is with JESUS now. And I miss him. Thank you friend for you're service.RIP
although this episode does not talk about big attacks or large movement of troops, there are important pieces of information that i was always curious about in the war and i got the answers here.. thank you
Aside from the battle of Hong Kong I believe the Aleutians campaign was the only time Canadian units participated in the Pacific theater. I know that a lot would have been involve in Operation Downfall.
Talking about the "lets plan both approach" of the Western allies - it struck me that by 1944, the Western allies had the capability to - supply and conduct an amphibious landing and break out against determined opposition in France - supply and conduct an island hopping campaign in the Pacific - supply and conduct offensive operations in SE Asia - supply and conduct offensive operations in Burma - supply and conduct operations and landings in Italy - supply and maintain a bomber campaign against Germany - supply the Soviets with everything from machine tools to spam Edit: Forgot Operation Dragoon Edit 2: also built up enough naval capacity to not only support the landings but also crush three major surface fleets, defeat a submarine fleet and also to use submarines to wipe out the Japanese, German and Italian merchant navies. It is absolutely bonkers.
Not to mention they even managed to conduct an invasion of Southern France itself which was originally dismissed by the Allied High Command as an "unwanted distraction". I know that you mentioned France in your first bullet but Operation Overlord was different from that of Operation Dragoon.
A great episode for the spies series that runs parallel for WWII history: None should overlook the efforts of the US intelligence service to gain vital information about Sicily from Italian-American underworld figures (La Cosa Nostra) to be used in the invasion. La Cosa Nostra (who are Sicilian) have close contacts in Sicily. The head of La Cosa Nostra at the time was, Charles “Lucky” Luciano. He was in prison for illegal prostitution at the time, and US intelligence operatives visited him in prison to arrange a deal to secure their cooperation. The deal reportedly agreed to was Charles Luciano would be set free and deported, and La Cosa Nostra members would cooperate with US intelligence to gain desperately needed detailed information about Sicily's coast, and information on German troop numbers and positions, from the Sicilian contacts. Upon winning WWII, the fear of public outrage over the US's deal with La Cosa Nostra (should it have become public knowledge), caused the US to publicly disavow such thing ever happened. However during the war it was decided that, the nation was in the midst of a literal fight for its survival, and the use of anything or anyone to secure victory is justified.
Letting one criminal out of prison in exchange for saving thousands of Allied casualties was definitely worth it. The mafia was still going to be a problem in the US whether they did it or not, it wasn't going to make things any worse.
one thing of note; even though German engineers were working frantically to fix the weaknesses in the Panther V for the upcoming 'Battle of Kursk', like engines catching fire, & transmissions breaking down, the Panther still had an extremely powerful high velocity 75mm gun. not only that, the Panthers killing range was more than ten times that of the latest soviets t-34s.
I'm going to say, I think Indy's narration is the best I have seen, all types of documentaries considered. The lines are great (either their own or the quotes selected), always delivered with the right tone and emphasis. This episode I thought was particularly good.
The whole Aleutian Campaign has always been an enigma to me. The Japanese took three or four islands for what? Bomber airbases to attack Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco? That’s one long round trip and a dangerous one. Invade Anchorage and continue through Canada down to the West Coast? Not likely. What was Japan’s strategic plan for the Aleutians? I’m not an expert, but I always thought a blockade of the islands would have made the troops garrisoned there pretty much combat ineffective. The US took a lot of casualties to get them back. I wonder, in the overall scheme of things, did the Japanese capture and the US recapture of the islands, have any impact in the outcome of the war?
It likely had no real impact on the war, but it was symbolic. Interesting though to compare it to the Channel Islands which were the only occupied British territory in Europe and remained so until the end of the war.
The Japanese occupied Attu and Kiska to prevent the Americans from bombing them. It was to be a part of their defensive perimeter, helping them patrol the North Pacific to prevent repeats of the Doolittle Raid.
The Aleutians were never strategic - merely tactical diversion for Japan. IIRC the Japanese Aleutians campaign was a diversion for the Midway campaign with the goal of drawing US Carriers away from Midway until that island was occupied, which would force the US Carriers toward Midway, (in order to defend Perl) and into their destruction...
@@gargravarr2 The problem with bombing Japan from Attu and Kiska was that there was no certainty of the returning bombers being able to land because of the god-awful weather there.
This analysis on the front in China is absolutely excellent. Have you ever considered taking the parts on this front in chronological order and posting them in a separate category as well? I would love to have that part of the history all together
Perhaps we could, but that's wading into territory where we'd quickly have to justify why we wouldn't have such mini-series on xyz part of the war. Each episode is a huge expenditure of time, resources, labor, and money. It is a neat idea, but perhaps something best left to the community to crowd-source that kind of huge project. I suspect the enthusiasm & talent for such a deconstruction exists in multitudes in the TimeGhost Army
@@WorldWarTwo I understand, but I would add pretty much no one has ever done a series entirely devoted to the minutiae of the Sino-Japanese war, at least not in English. Even if you just took the parts from each episode on the theater and just recompiled it, that would already be something. Your series is legendary, the most ambitious historical projects on UA-cam by far. Keep up the great work.
I always like the geopolitical backgrounds provided behind the strategic desissions of the allies and axis members. These principles are still at play in military conflicts today.
Good to finally see mentions of the weirdness of the Pacific route of American aid to the USSR. I'm not sure there's another example in recent history of a country letting another country they are *actively at war with* establish a supply route to a 3rd country through their own battle lines. The whole thing feels like it needs a TimeGhost Special episode to cover it, since its basically unknown despite being incredibly important to the overall Lend-Lease package to the Soviets.
Since we're about to leave Alaska, I guess it's time for me to share some of Dad's stories. Dad (a draftee) was in the Army Engineers and was shipped up to the Whitehorse Canada area to build the Al-Can Highway. His unit built 100+ miles (wish I could remember exactly) of the Highway. He said the Sea was so rough on the way up that everyone, including the Captain got seasick. Later his unit went out to the Aleutians where they drained shallow areas, put down steel matting for airplane runways, built stuff and similar work. He said they shipped bread up on barges "in the open" and the cooks would just cut the mold off and serve it. For the invasion of Attu he was assigned to assisting on one of the landing craft. A day or two before the invasion the guy who drove the boat took it out (into the bay?) and sank it, so he wasn't involved with getting troops ashore. Regarding the banzai charge, he said they where in boats offshore and shot at the Japanese, although he said he couldn't remember if he shot or not. Interesting note. Dad said they told the men when they shipped out that they only had a 15 year life expectancy. (In all my reading I've only come across one other reference to the men being told this.) So 40-50 years later Dad said he always considered himself fortunate to still be around. Life lesson story. On payday the men would line up in alphabetical order. The procedure was (going from memory here so if I mess up, I'm open to correction): You'd step up to the paymaster desk salute give your name and serial number. The clerk would check you off and the paymaster would then count out your pay. You would then pick up your pay and count it back to the paymaster. If everything was okay you'd salute again and leave. (What's that? A minute or less?) Dad said there was a guy (I'll call him Indy) 2 or 3 men in front of him and for 3 or 4 straight months when Dad left the room he would see Indy leaning up against a vehicle looking forlorn because he was already broke. He'd take his whole pay and bet it on one roll of the dice. The lesson being a fool and his money are soon parted.
Cow Hand Thank you for sharing that great, enigmatic story from your Dad's service. It never ceases to amaze me that in our comments we'll have direct descendants of soldiers who fought in these actions. It really helps to bring home the recency of this war and the immediacy of the lessons it holds. And I appreciate that another (somewhat more careless) Indy will be remembered here in the comments as a cautionary tale.
The red Army will have tacticals, if not operational problems untill early 1944. The purge of 30's, then the major losses in 1941 and 1942 will still have an effect of the efficiency of the troops. Even in 1944, many infantry troops will have issues, as the soviet humans ressource will be short, to the point where partisans or recently freed prisonner will be incorporated on the spot by the Red Army without almost no training. Russian soldiers testimony made in the 90's and the 2000's say it plainly : "we simply didn't knew how to fight". While it's an overstatement, but not by much.
Something I went back and looked at over past episodes because I was curious.... I noticed this was the last episode where we will see the USSR's flag in the background. It's been blocked out by Indy for some time since Russia's Invasion of Ukraine. But this is the last episode where we see in the back.
I think the use of maps illustrating the gains and losses of each operation/offensive is a good idea to better show the progression of the war such as in this episode. Also, quite sad I missed the premiere, but I was moving stuff into my new apartment. New job and all.
Is it just me or is the background music lately not making much sense? I keep thinking there is another video or game i have open that makes the music, but nope, its added deliberately, but it often doesnt seem to fit properly.
To this day, I've never really understood the Japanese military deciding upon suicide when things looked bleak. Banzai charges, Kamikaze, fighting to the last, not surrendering due to dishonour etc are understandable, as you are taking as many of the enemy with you and may even turn the tide of a battle. But the mass suicides just come across as strange and bring up images of the Judean Peoples' Front crack suicide squad in Monty Python's Life of Brian - "That showed them". In any case, the practice certainly saved Allied lives.
I was thinking something similar - I wonder if the Allies hyped up the effectiveness of banzai charges during the war specifically so that the Japanese would continue to use them. After all, no one ever returned from one alive to Japan to say "Hey guys, this is just a phenomenal waste of lives".
@@CrazyYurie I used to think that events like this (bonzai charges, encouraging the civilians of Saipan to jump off cliffs in view of Marines, etc) were done to unnerve the allies, but the more I've read up on Shinto-era Japan the less I believe it. I think it was simply "we're screwed, we failed, we are being defeated and therefore shamed, so we will salvage what honor we can by committing suicide." For Shinto Japanese, suicide cleansed your soul and let you die blamelessly (which is 100% opposite the Catholic view on the matter). Mass suicide by bonzai charge was a relatively new innovation, blending the "human wave" tactics Japan had first used against Russia in the 1890s with the hara-kiri doctrine to make a more pragmatic use of suicide. It had the disadvantage of being less reliable, since a decapitating injury on ground sure to be ceded to the enemy could result in the ultimate shame of capture. If you were not in a situation where someone had organized such a charge, you could always make do with a grenade. But even then there appeared to be some solace in going with others, such as the "exploding huts" incident at Harakiri Gulch (also on Saipan). At any rate, Japanese officers seemed to view a bonzai charge almost the same way that a Western commander would view surrendering the garrison-- a last-ditch alternative and admission of defeat, but making the best you could of the situation (although by taking enemy lives instead of preserving friendly ones). They were not undertaken until the final outcome of a campaign was not in doubt. Note, for example, that it was not used in Guadalcanal, where evacuation was possible.
it comes from a flawed understanding of Samurai. They are looking at the Edo period when it was all peace and formal. They should look at how they behaved during war. Changing sides was a thing to avoid dying
Had Japan and the Soviet knew or had the industry to harvest the oil and gas in Siberia or Sakhalin, do you think the Northern Strategy could have had taken place? This still would be after the 1940 embargo and perhaps could have seen actual cooperation in the Axis against a common enemy. This most likely would have changed the weight of clashes in Manchuria and Mongolia before ww2 buts its an interesting thought at least
Well, they actually knew. Japan prospected for oil during occupation of Far East during Russian Civil War. And they found it and they kept rights to exploit oil fields in North Sakhalin under 1925 treaty. Karafuto Oil Concession was the company doing it. But there wasn't a lot of oil found there at the time and production wasn't efficient so overall it wasn't significant even for oil-starved Japan. It was much later, in 70-80s, when technology allowed to discover and exploit vast but hard to reach reserves.
So, we island hop in the Pacific but want to take over everything in the Med before going into Italy. Can't say we are consistent. They left the Channel Island until after the finish of the war.
Now in June of 1943, there is a lull in the war. After months of fighting on all theaters of war, the Allies and Axis forces are resting, recuperating, and building up for major attacks in the summer. The Axis are against time as for they need a victory after their defeats in Guadalcanal, Stalingrad, and El Alamein. The Allies are racing against time fearing their foes may be stronger than before and fearing their Allies as well. All of this will and shall culminated into major battles. A long war is ahead of all. Only one question remains is: How long shall it take? Only time can tell. Godspeed to those who perished in the Second World War.
@Martin Clayton I'm not sure how much more we will have to say on the Aleutians here with everything else we have to cover, but we will certainly be bringing our coverage to the Soviet attack on Japan when we get there in 1945
6:46 The Germans had lost 500, 000 captive soldiers in the deserts of Tunisia and the frozen wastelands of Stalingrad. These were their best professional soldiers. They could have easily be pulled back anytime. The loss of their aviators were even more shocking. In contrast, the German submarine fleet was pulled back to preserve the professional sailors.
Actually they lost their best and most professional crews so far , (U-Boat aces gone , killed , captured or pulled back for traibning or staff duties) and quality of U-Boat crews were falling way down at this tage. In last convoy battles in ONS5 and HX 237 and SC130 in May 1943 , several U-boats actually could not or were unwilling to close their target convoys , press their attacks and returned back to France with their torpedoes and accidents of crashing or diving becoming commonplace among U-Boat crews and even worse their morale was getting worse
About the "Stalingrad of the East": " I would like to be able to tell you more about this battle, which apparently some call the Stalingrad of the East, but I just cannot find more verifiably accurate information about it, and what information there is out there is often very contradictory from one source to another. " I think it could actually make a great angle for a video. Simply presenting the claims from each side/sources about what that battle was, and them perhaps getting some idea of it. In a way contradictory accounts of historical events are still historical accounts?
@logicOnAbstractions Would you be interested in something like that as a podcast episode? Definitely an interesting topic but it's possibly not what the majority of our viewers come here for. All possibilities are still on the table though for subjects for the new podcasts
I find it incredible that there is so little information about the battle of Shipai Fortress, from your account a decisive battle in the war. What is the reason for this?
There is probably a lot of information in China, but after the Communist Takeover in 1949, such documentation became difficult to come by and questionable in its authenticity.
Strategically, Germany would rather not be fighting the US and the UK, so it can concentrate on the Soviets. Japan does not want to fight the Soviets because the US and the UK are the bigger strategic problem for them. It would seem Germany's and Japan's strategies do not really align that well.
Japan brought that on itself, shouldn't have attacked both opponents with such a shortsighted plan. They should have made peace with China and left them in fighting, appeased the UK and USA due to peace in China. Then maybe do a pearl harbour on Russia.
Consequences of their strategic and geopolitical decsions when they had the initiative between 1937-1941. Invading the rump Czech republic despite assurances in Munich , Invading Poland despite British ultimatoum that there would be war if that happens. Invading neutrals like Denmark , Norway , Belgium , Ntherlands , Luxembourg , Balkan countries etc , declsring war on Britain and France by Italy in June 1940 when France was down , attacking Pearl Harbour and invading colonial protecterate territories of Europe and US in Far East without any wa decleration of war etc...Simply despite odious and well deserved reputation of Stalin and Soviet Union , at least in foreign policy even they acted with a certain standarts compared to Axis
@@antonytye3484 US was supplying China with weapons all through the 20s to frustrate Japan's effort at taking over that country. Japan did not go to war with the US in 1942, it already was at war with the US by proxy.
Is there a video called "Stalin Reacts to George Marshall's Bad News"? "I suppose we can wait for the big Allied invasion of France this summer." "Uh...Comrade Stalin..." "Marshall said there will be no invasion until 1944." Stalin slowly removes his glasses...
Join the TimeGhost Army: bit.ly/WW2_197_PI
The Aleutian islands are today as much a part of the USA as New York City or Dallas, making them the only real part of the modern-day United States to have been occupied by the Japanese. Are there any other islands, ports, or cities close to the US mainland that the Japanese may have been able to occupy had things gone differently?
They could have taken California if they asked politely
I don't think I can name one, probably Hawaii if they had actually went through the whole Pearl Harbor bombing and invasion. Maybe the bikini island or Midway
@@gyrostat5211 nah California was a lot different back then, they rounded up Japanese Americans into concentration camps out in the middle of nowhere
Panama Canal
Hawaii would be a possibility if Japan had won in Midway, but what would they have gained? If they had Midway, Perl would be untenable for the US Pacific fleet - it would have had to go back to the west coast.
Despite the fears and panic in the US at the time of Perl and through 1942 , Japan could pose no real threat to the continental US, (even if they had sunk the USN carriers at Midway.) They can and did shell some ports via subs, but the reach of IJN couldn't sustain and supply an operations on the other side of the Pacific. The US, however, showed they could...
An interesting thing to note this week on June 3 1943 is that a patent application for the pocket protector, which is a design to allow ink pens to be carried in shirt pockets, is filed by inventor Robert Hurley. The pocket protector is now often associated with the nerd or geek stereotype, such as engineers and students.
Thank you! Very interesting
This date is remembered at Radio Shacks everywhere.
My dad always used one. Saved the white shirts.
@@peterandjunko but who will remember the radio shack...
@@Bob.W. I still use one for the many pens, pencils, and other miscellaneous tools in my work shirt pockets
15:53-love the look on Ike’s face. Like “do these cameras really need to be here? It’s not like we’re planning any supah secwet invasion or nothing.”
All of those shots were for show, propaganda reel time. If you look at the maps there is no info; they are pointing at basically random spots. MacArthur was a performer - he makes it look good, but most the other military leaders have that dumb smile.
@@TheGunderian Bet you they’re just pointing out all the nice restaurants and art galleries they’ll visit if they liberate the continent.
@@TheGunderian Supposedly extras in the background of film scenes just recite "rhubarb, rhubarb" at each other to simulate conversation. Anything more meaningful might produce a more animated reaction that ruins the shot.
Despite the flashbacks of history books asserting that the Axis started to lose the war in 1943, you demonstrated to us in this episode more than ever before that winning the war is such a difficult and tricky endeavor that its culmination was uncertain! Thank you - again - Indy and crew for your detailed information and breathtaking story-telling style. Cheers!
Extra History did a good series on that a couple years ago- it's called WW2: The resource war, or something to that effect.
Indeed. The fact that the Allies were taking so long to decide what to do next speaks volumes about the challenges they still faced.
It was uncertain to the people involved at the time. The Axis had suffered huge defeats around their periphery by mid-1943, but still had plenty of fight left. It's one thing to defeat an Axis army at the far end of its supply tether in North Africa or Stalingrad. Fighting into Fortress Europa where Germany can more easily move armies around on trains will be more difficult.
In hindsight, though, we can just look at the war production figures and see who is going to win. The biggest threat to the Allied cause might have been Germany and the USSR making a separate peace, freeing up ~185 German divisions to move west and make France and Italy nearly invasion-proof for a good while. However, Hitler had already squandered that chance by violating his earlier non-aggression pact with the USSR by invading. Stalin would have been insane to trust any deal from Hitler again. As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
History textbooks seem to like to streamline events to be more simple narratively. Nuance is harder to guage with standardized testing.
It was uncertain at the time, but there was no remotely reasonable way that the Axis could've won.
My dad was in the Aleutians flying bombers and went into Attu while they were still mopping up. He had pictures of the Japanese dead from the Banzai charges stacked up in a long row in front of a bulldozed ditch they were buried in.
"We shall meet at the Yasukuni Shrine".
I had no idea before that over 2,000 men died for these Alaskan Islands.
Historians of the Battle of the Atlantic have slighted or ignored USN Submarine Squadron 50 tasked by Admiral King to operate against U-Boats in Atlantic. This squadron made up three US Navy submarines , all with defective engines and diving problems so they were pulled out of Atlantic in June 1943. And yet, ironically and unintentionally, at the time it made a great contribution to the war, which has only recently come to light in the declassified American Enigma documents.
For several months in 1943, Allied codebreakers suspected that German code-breakers were reading the combined Anglo-American Naval Cypher Number 3. In view of this possibility, British and American task forces combed through old and current Enigma decrypts for clues. They found a half dozen possibilities, but most cases were too ambiguous and were not sufficiently convincing to set in train a change of codes, a large and complex undertaking. While this search was in progress, on May 25, 27, and 31, Admiral Donitz U-boat Command in Paris France committed three horrendous breaches of communications security,
B-dienst had intercepted and decrypted Allied warnings in Naval Cypher Number 3 to all Allied convoys that three of the Submarine Squadron 50 submarines, USS Haddo, USS Hake, and USS Herring, were to operate at certain positions along the North Atlantic run during their return to the States. Believing that German U-boats in that area should also be warned of these American submarines, Control relayed the Allied information, giving the nearly exact grid squares (latitudes and longitudes) where the three were or were supposed to be, without any exceptional measure to disguise the information with interior codes or by some other means.
These Enigma decrypts were unequivocal confirmation that, as suspected, B-dienst was reading Naval Cypher Number 3. The discovery assumed added force and urgency because American crews on the three submarines were believed to be at imminent risk. Hence on June 10, Allied communication authorities directed all naval commands and ships to switch to Allied Naval Code Number 5. This switch came as a devastating setback for B-dienst. After months of reading Allied convoy codes with sufficient currency to be of tactical value, in June 1943 German code-breakers suddenly went virtually blind and deaf. In the future they were to regain some Allied convoy codes sporadically, but thanks in large part to the seemingly fruitless patrols of three ineffective US submarines USS Haddo, USS Hake, and USS Herring, the glory days for German code-breakers were over.
Hitlers U-Boat War - Clay Blair Jr.
Wow, thanks so much for this post. I'm fascinated by the "cypher wars", but most of the material is about the Allied effort, especially breaking the Enigma. Having a tidbit of information about the Axis efforts is pretty nice.
American submarines in general seem to be ignored in favor of the U-boats, even though they enjoyed far more overall success.
So you are saying a squadron that did nothing of import has been ignored because it did nothing of import? The fact that it was the location of a trio of US submarines that were decrypted is utterly unimportant; it could have been the location of a trio of Canadian corvettes; it could have been literally ANYTHING - so long as it was specific enough to pin down to a naval code leak.
There is nothing of importance to "slight" here, because there is simply nothing of importance, full stop.
When was this written? When he says "recently came to light" I'm thinking the last decade or so
@@hanzzimmer1132 I took it from Hitler's U-Boat War written by Clay Blair Jr , I think it was published in 90'ies
I love reading Indy's daily posts. The weird thing about it is, when I read them I hear Indy's voice in my head.
I love the idea that Marshall just tells Ike to set up two commands and make preparations for both Sardinia and Italy. This is so telling in who is winning the Logistics war. Germany and Japan are fighting on a shoestring budget and the Allies are just rolling along with equiptment and supplies enough to do contingency planning with no bother.
That's that Western magic!
Next year: Ike: Hey, Marshal, Patton's gone and been an idiot again, we need 8000 trucks to run to southern france:
Marshal: Ok, Chrystler?
Chrystler: BEHOLD MY SPARE MANUFACTURING FOR THE DODGE RAM.
Been waiting for this episode for a while now Time Ghost Crew! I'd also like to give a shout out to a friend of my parents, Charles "Mucktuck" Marston (RIP) who doing the Invasion of the Aleutians, helped organize and train the Alaskan Home Guard made up primarily of Inuit and Native Alaskans. Later on Marston helped draft Alaska's state constitution securing Native civil rights.
Ross Thank you for watching & for sharing a bit about your parents' friend.
"The Nazis hate them"
I have never heard of a better indication of quality.
The NAZIs hated impressionism too. If you hate Monet, Renoir and Matisse that speaks to your point.
Rock and Roll Fact: George Morrison served in the Attu campaign aboard the USS Pruitt. He was also at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. He became Admiral of the US Fleet in Gulf of Tonkin. George was the father of Jim Morrison lead singer of the Doors.
I'm told Jim couldn't stand him. Some of the Doors' songs have nautical inspiration (Land Ho, Horse Latitudes) so the Old Man made that impression.
@@brianthomas2434 Maybe neither could stand the other. Jim ended up dead at 27 in Paris because of substance abuse, and lived the rock and roll lifestyle with gusto.
@@ToddSauve wasn't taking sides, just stating the facts as I know them.
@@brianthomas2434 I don't know how old you are Brian but back in the 1960s and 70s there was a thing called the generation gap. Parents of the WW2 generation generally hated rock and roll while their teenaged children embraced it enthusiastically. More than one family split apart for no other reason than this. But I suspect Jim Morrison was more than just a lover of rock and roll. He had serious problems with chasing women, drugs and alcohol. These things have always marked a person for an earlier than normal death. And Jim did not disappoint in this regard. There are a ton of other names that could be added to his. 🤷♂
@@ToddSauve I'm 68. There's literally nothing you said I didn't already know. Let's remember this channel is about the War. I just thought it was interesting trivia, that Jim, as much as he disliked the Admiral (supposedly he referred to his dad in that manner) he was still in a small way influenced by him.
Thanks for the good work! :)
Thank you for watching
Wow. This was an exceptional episode. So much coverage on all fronts and angles made it seam like you all managed to squeeze two in one without rushing anything.
I am really impressed of this high level professionalism from such a small studio.
You all rock hard fine Sir's and Maiden's !!!
Thank you Lance! The whole team appreciates your support
Thanks
Thank you for watching, Richard
Thankful to have this to look forward to every Saturday.
Charley We're thankful to have you with us every week. Please do stay tuned
I know, I know, it's Murmansk. But I can't help but hear 'Merman's Route' and it really does just make everything much better for the theatre of the mind.
It sucks that the historical records during this week's battle in China is so muddled. It would be fascinating to have had detailed reports on this battle.
When people say history is written by the victor, they are usually implying that the history has been tampered with. In this case, it appears that if neither side survives the decade victorious, no one writes about it at all.
Politics. The most reliable records on the Soviet Union in WW2 were accessible by historians until Putin got into power. Now, they're not because the current government in Russia wants to control the narrative.
My guess is it is a victim of Japanese unwillingness to admit to any setbacks, combined with political differences between Kuomintang and Communists on the Chinese side. Given that most Chinese soldiers were illiterate at this time, there is probably a lack of even such items as diaries giving a ground-level description of events.
Thanks!
Thanks for watching as always, Nick
I hope Citadel gets it's own dedicated special episode. It doesn't even need to be on the same level of detail as pearl harbor. I just want to know more about it. Anything that happened in the Soviet Union is usually hard to get accurate information on. I just don't know which sources to trust.
But it was one of the largest tank battles of all time!! How could I not want to know more about it?
They rarely do specials on battles. They probably will just cover it in the regular episodes, like they did with Stalingrad and others.
(Pearl harbor, was a nice oppurtunity to get a huge amount of new viewers that would be hard to reach otherwise. )
The stand-back view is that Citadel failed before it began. Both sides suspended the majority of their offensive activity in the central areas for most of the good weather months of 1943. This likely favored the Soviets as their army was still learning, but the Germans simply had run out of men, so they needed time to recruit old/young and adjust tank organization and production. All the losses the Soviets take by the end of Citadel represent something in the area of 2% of 1943 production. The German losses were probably 3% of theirs, which is not negligible but hardly decisive. The real value to the victor of Citadel(Soviets) was the world seeing that Germany could no longer plan and execute swift offensives, only local counterattacks. Also, this fight gave the Soviets faith in themselves, regardless of the terrible loss ratios, which may have been as bad as 7:1.
We’ll do something special for it. Trust me.
@@Southsideindy Glad to hear that.
@@Casa-de-hongos But Kursk is the largest tank battle in history. Its outcome influences the rest of the war on the Eastern Front. It's just as important as Pearl Harbor, Midway, and D-Day in terms of influence on the war. Stalingrad was just as important but since it took place over the course of five months, it was ironically too big for a special. Pearl Harbor, Midway, and D-Day took place over the course of a day (If in D-Day's case, you couldn't tell by the name lol). The Battle of Kursk does technically last a month but Hitler cancelled the offensive after only a week and the most notable engagement of the offensive, the Battle of Prokhorovka, occurred on the first day.
So all in all, it deserves its own video or series of videos.
Great historical video Indy! You and your staff have done an excellent job as usual!
Thanks for watching, Jason!
Grechko just didn’t realise he was up against Sgt Steiner.
The 101st Jäger Division were serious business and in the battle maps they seem to be holding the main road & river of the Kuban center while the Soviets attack across the marshes avoiding them.
God, there's always something new to learn on the show, didn't know about the peace talks between the germans and soviets during the war, it would be something that could possibly change the whole history of the world had they find an agreement. Great job Indy and crew, you're the best
Japan tried the same with the USSR towarss the end of the war so as not to have to surrender to the US.
Japan sent out peace talk feelers to USSR after it had invaded hoping to split the US-USSR alliance but were strongly rebuffed.
The USSR remained true to its word to US as an ally in the war.
No you're the best, Matheus. Thank you for watching
This episode included some things I had no idea of before. One is that the Soviets and Germans were meeting in Sweden, which caused US and British concern. It would be interesting to know more about what went on in the discussions. The other was that Japan would not interfere with US transports supplying the Soviet Union in order to maintain peace with the USSR. What route was used that the Japanese might have otherwise attacked?
The supply route across the pacific and then by rail across Siberia. I don't remember if the ships ended at Vladovostok or some other USSR City along the Pacific.
Around half of all US shipments to the Soviet Union took the Pacific route to Vladivostok.
@@josiahferguson6194 I remember reading somewhere that the Soviet-flagged ships were supposed to dock at Vladivostok because of the inspection agreements they had with the Japanese. They were only supposed to be transporting non-military goods like food and trucks, but they did manage to sneak some weapons in by docking farther north and offloading them before heading back out to sea to be checked by the IJN.
The ports in Iran. Supplies were sent by rail from there.
@@Conn30Mtenor The route that Japan could have interfered with was the Pacific route, which took transports from US cities on the west coast to Vladivostok.
The Persian corridor took ships from the eastern US or Canada, the UK, which then sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to Iran.
Also this week on 1st June 1943, the first contingent of 120 frenchmen departed from Casablanca for the USA. This happened after the decision to create the CFPNA (Centre de Formation du Personnel Navigant en Amérique = Flight Crew Training Center in America) on 1st February 1943 to train future French pilots in the USA.
Until May 31 1946, 4084 French pilots and airmen will be trained through this program.
I just wanted to say how lucky I feel to be able to follow this project week after week. This is one of the best projects on youtube. You guys are just made of gold. Thank you for everything
Kim Ok Thank you for following us week by week! Our team feels truly lucky to be able to bring this documentary series to you, and we couldn't do it without the support of our amazing audience like you in the TimeGhost Army. Thanks & stay tuned
Interesting: at 06:13 one can see the unloading of a Gigant with a 18t FAMO halftrack in front and what seems to be a ex-soviet Voroshilovets heavy tractor behind in the same Dunkelgelb colour scheme. I didn't know, they had them in Tunisia
What Indy calls the "Battle of Shipai" is called elsewhere "Battle of West Hubei" or "Battle of Exi". Hubei is a province and Exi is a city in that area. Search for those names on the internet, and much more information becomes available. The US Army Air Force supported the Chinese offensive as well.
Actually, I have talked about the fighting for west Hubei and also called it the Battle of Exi over the past few weeks, but the Battle of Shipai is smaller and more localized than the overall Japanese offensive, which bears the two other names.
@@Southsideindy I have been to the area a few times while working in Wuhan. Today there's a "Shipai Fortress Tourist Area" with buildings and fortifications from that period. At least they remember very well what has happened there.
Favorite UA-cam channel . At and above the history channel I grew up with .
Thank you, we're glad to hear this!
I find the second Sino-Japanese war incredibly interesting. It's very unfortunate that its history is so obscure.
The problem is that the nationalist played the biggest role but because they lost the Chinese civil war in 1947-49 the communists re-wrote the history to make themselves look better. If you want a good recent book written about it try Ranna Mitters forgotten ally.
@@MikeJones-qn1gz Thanks for the suggestion
@@MikeJones-qn1gz Thank you.
@@MikeJones-qn1gz Indeed
@@MikeJones-qn1gz Doesn't Taiwan maintain some historical records of KMT's military history in WW2?
6:45 - Citadel will grab headlines alright - just not the ones that Uncle Adolph wants.
Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching!
Takk!
A footnote this week on June 4 1943 is that General Arturo Rawson will become the President of Argentina after a coup d'état (also known as Revolution of '43) that happened on the same day itself. However, he would only remain in this office for three days and afterwards resigned due to disagreements with other junta members, eventually leading to the swearing in of General Pedro Pablo Ramírez as President. This military government would also mark the beginning of the rise of Juan Peron and the Peronism political movement.
Thanks Dickson Phua for always bringing great context to our episodes each week
And the decline of Argentina becoming a major regional power in South America
@@patrickazzarella6729 AJAJAJAJAJ so shut up and dont make me laugh, Agentina hasn't so powerful that you think, back in 1890 , the economic structure in the country was so endeble that one low prices wave in england left in ruins the economy
So now we know how Argentina’s experiences with chronic inflation is about to begin…
Ahi se nos perdio el pais, y aun hay boludos que alaban las dictaduras y a peron.
15:52 feels like a 1990s sitcom opening but with less forced smiles
too many cooks....
Too many cooks is the best video ever
@@Southsideindy fun fact: the serial killer dude was also a background extra in The Tomorrow War. his outfit had barely changed.
Good fun fact!
Hi Indy
Awesome episode.
This war getting interesting as week pass by.
Awaiting for D-day..
Thanks..
Through the gates of hell!
Thank you for watching as always. Stay tuned, lots to cover before D-day
Epic content as always 👍
I had the honor of going to church. With a soldier . Robert Sanders call who fought in WW2 in Alaska. He told me. The Japanese banzaied across a valley. And they were on a ridge line, over looking the valley. He said he piled them up with his bar. Mr. Call is with JESUS now. And I miss him. Thank you friend for you're service.RIP
Appreciate your hard work Indy. Love the intro.
Thank you!
Good show end to end Indy I wondered about the state of play between Churchill and Stalin at the time.
Thanks for watching, Keith
although this episode does not talk about big attacks or large movement of troops, there are important pieces of information that i was always curious about in the war and i got the answers here.. thank you
klepetar Thank you for watching. It's your curiosity, care, & memory of the war that makes this channel what it is. Please stay tuned
I enjoyed watching this “early”, last night, as an TG army member. Thanks !
Love you guys. been a fan for years (and years) now
Thank you, it means a lot!
Thank you, as always!
Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
A special about the Alaska Highway should be entertained.
Northwest Air Staging Route
Always a good day when you guys upload
Thanks @Leo Gazebo!
Aside from the battle of Hong Kong I believe the Aleutians campaign was the only time Canadian units participated in the Pacific theater. I know that a lot would have been involve in Operation Downfall.
See HMCS Uganda
This channel is so good. Brilliant organization, superb writing. 🎖️
The music is absolutely gorgeous.
that opening was pure gold!
Draythur Thank you for watching!
Great episode thanks
Talking about the "lets plan both approach" of the Western allies - it struck me that by 1944, the Western allies had the capability to
- supply and conduct an amphibious landing and break out against determined opposition in France
- supply and conduct an island hopping campaign in the Pacific
- supply and conduct offensive operations in SE Asia
- supply and conduct offensive operations in Burma
- supply and conduct operations and landings in Italy
- supply and maintain a bomber campaign against Germany
- supply the Soviets with everything from machine tools to spam
Edit: Forgot Operation Dragoon
Edit 2: also built up enough naval capacity to not only support the landings but also crush three major surface fleets, defeat a submarine fleet and also to use submarines to wipe out the Japanese, German and Italian merchant navies.
It is absolutely bonkers.
Allied supplies to the soviets made up only 4% of the soviet total production.
Not to mention they even managed to conduct an invasion of Southern France itself which was originally dismissed by the Allied High Command as an "unwanted distraction".
I know that you mentioned France in your first bullet but Operation Overlord was different from that of Operation Dragoon.
@@senpainoticeme9675 Knew I'd miss something lol
@@Rafael112able Ahh that old canard - want to quote figures for the amount of trucks, planes, food supplies, machine tools, critical strategic metals?
@@Rafael112able and without the supplies given, the soviets would've had a much tougher time and millions more would likely be dead.
A great episode for the spies series that runs parallel for WWII history:
None should overlook the efforts of the US intelligence service to gain vital information about Sicily from Italian-American underworld figures (La Cosa Nostra) to be used in the invasion. La Cosa Nostra (who are Sicilian) have close contacts in Sicily. The head of La Cosa Nostra at the time was, Charles “Lucky” Luciano. He was in prison for illegal prostitution at the time, and US intelligence operatives visited him in prison to arrange a deal to secure their cooperation. The deal reportedly agreed to was Charles Luciano would be set free and deported, and La Cosa Nostra members would cooperate with US intelligence to gain desperately needed detailed information about Sicily's coast, and information on German troop numbers and positions, from the Sicilian contacts.
Upon winning WWII, the fear of public outrage over the US's deal with La Cosa Nostra (should it have become public knowledge), caused the US to publicly disavow such thing ever happened. However during the war it was decided that, the nation was in the midst of a literal fight for its survival, and the use of anything or anyone to secure victory is justified.
Letting one criminal out of prison in exchange for saving thousands of Allied casualties was definitely worth it. The mafia was still going to be a problem in the US whether they did it or not, it wasn't going to make things any worse.
ya im really excited for/hoping for a spys & ties or some other kind of special on that cause its just such a crazy set of events
After the war in 1947 the mafia have a nice conference in Havana Cuba. Charlie Luciano is there also a young singer named Frank Sinatra
one thing of note; even though German engineers were working frantically to fix the weaknesses in the Panther V for the upcoming 'Battle of Kursk', like engines catching fire, & transmissions breaking down, the Panther still had an extremely powerful high velocity 75mm gun. not only that, the Panthers killing range was more than ten times that of the latest soviets t-34s.
I'm going to say, I think Indy's narration is the best I have seen, all types of documentaries considered. The lines are great (either their own or the quotes selected), always delivered with the right tone and emphasis. This episode I thought was particularly good.
I will pass on your kind words @logicOnAbstractions
I read them here myself. Big thanks.
Tigers and Panthers are tanks? Oh My!
The phone calls are just gold
Thanks for another great week of vids.
Thank you for watching as always, Ryan. Please stay tuned
Excellent, als always.
The whole Aleutian Campaign has always been an enigma to me. The Japanese took three or four islands for what? Bomber airbases to attack Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco? That’s one long round trip and a dangerous one. Invade Anchorage and continue through Canada down to the West Coast? Not likely. What was Japan’s strategic plan for the Aleutians? I’m not an expert, but I always thought a blockade of the islands would have made the troops garrisoned there pretty much combat ineffective. The US took a lot of casualties to get them back. I wonder, in the overall scheme of things, did the Japanese capture and the US recapture of the islands, have any impact in the outcome of the war?
It likely had no real impact on the war, but it was symbolic. Interesting though to compare it to the Channel Islands which were the only occupied British territory in Europe and remained so until the end of the war.
The Japanese occupied Attu and Kiska to prevent the Americans from bombing them. It was to be a part of their defensive perimeter, helping them patrol the North Pacific to prevent repeats of the Doolittle Raid.
The Aleutians were never strategic - merely tactical diversion for Japan.
IIRC the Japanese Aleutians campaign was a diversion for the Midway campaign with the goal of drawing US Carriers away from Midway until that island was occupied, which would force the US Carriers toward Midway, (in order to defend Perl) and into their destruction...
@@gargravarr2 The problem with bombing Japan from Attu and Kiska was that there was no certainty of the returning bombers being able to land because of the god-awful weather there.
It was a diversion to hopefully pull ships to that area so they would be out of place for midway defense. It didn't work because the codebreakers
This analysis on the front in China is absolutely excellent.
Have you ever considered taking the parts on this front in chronological order and posting them in a separate category as well?
I would love to have that part of the history all together
Perhaps we could, but that's wading into territory where we'd quickly have to justify why we wouldn't have such mini-series on xyz part of the war.
Each episode is a huge expenditure of time, resources, labor, and money. It is a neat idea, but perhaps something best left to the community to crowd-source that kind of huge project. I suspect the enthusiasm & talent for such a deconstruction exists in multitudes in the TimeGhost Army
@@WorldWarTwo I understand, but I would add pretty much no one has ever done a series entirely devoted to the minutiae of the Sino-Japanese war, at least not in English.
Even if you just took the parts from each episode on the theater and just recompiled it, that would already be something.
Your series is legendary, the most ambitious historical projects on UA-cam by far. Keep up the great work.
15:30 "underlay the clevage" huh...
No laughing allowed
Great video
Thanks @Elveheim
"Later on you'll decide....Maybe." LOL That is a nice tie and shirt.
Thanks for watching
Thanks Indy😀😀😀
Thanks for watching, Brad
15:10
A fire 🔥 tornado hell can be created artificially in the centre of a city?
Evil
I always like the geopolitical backgrounds provided behind the strategic desissions of the allies and axis members.
These principles are still at play in military conflicts today.
Thank you.
Thank you for watching as always
15:29 what a phrase
Well done. Great analysis. and entertaining.
Thank you Earl
It can be tricky getting reliable primary sources. One source that is screaming for translation is the Senshi Sosho, Japan's official war history.
Good to finally see mentions of the weirdness of the Pacific route of American aid to the USSR. I'm not sure there's another example in recent history of a country letting another country they are *actively at war with* establish a supply route to a 3rd country through their own battle lines. The whole thing feels like it needs a TimeGhost Special episode to cover it, since its basically unknown despite being incredibly important to the overall Lend-Lease package to the Soviets.
Canada got a PTSD about bayonet charges, especially Britain forced them back in WWI lmao
You guys rock. Proud patron super supporter.
Thank you!!
Since we're about to leave Alaska, I guess it's time for me to share some of Dad's stories.
Dad (a draftee) was in the Army Engineers and was shipped up to the Whitehorse Canada area to build the Al-Can Highway. His unit built 100+ miles (wish I could remember exactly) of the Highway. He said the Sea was so rough on the way up that everyone, including the Captain got seasick.
Later his unit went out to the Aleutians where they drained shallow areas, put down steel matting for airplane runways, built stuff and similar work. He said they shipped bread up on barges "in the open" and the cooks would just cut the mold off and serve it.
For the invasion of Attu he was assigned to assisting on one of the landing craft. A day or two before the invasion the guy who drove the boat took it out (into the bay?) and sank it, so he wasn't involved with getting troops ashore.
Regarding the banzai charge, he said they where in boats offshore and shot at the Japanese, although he said he couldn't remember if he shot or not.
Interesting note. Dad said they told the men when they shipped out that they only had a 15 year life expectancy. (In all my reading I've only come across one other reference to the men being told this.) So 40-50 years later Dad said he always considered himself fortunate to still be around.
Life lesson story. On payday the men would line up in alphabetical order. The procedure was (going from memory here so if I mess up, I'm open to correction): You'd step up to the paymaster desk salute give your name and serial number. The clerk would check you off and the paymaster would then count out your pay. You would then pick up your pay and count it back to the paymaster. If everything was okay you'd salute again and leave. (What's that? A minute or less?) Dad said there was a guy (I'll call him Indy) 2 or 3 men in front of him and for 3 or 4 straight months when Dad left the room he would see Indy leaning up against a vehicle looking forlorn because he was already broke. He'd take his whole pay and bet it on one roll of the dice. The lesson being a fool and his money are soon parted.
Cow Hand Thank you for sharing that great, enigmatic story from your Dad's service. It never ceases to amaze me that in our comments we'll have direct descendants of soldiers who fought in these actions. It really helps to bring home the recency of this war and the immediacy of the lessons it holds.
And I appreciate that another (somewhat more careless) Indy will be remembered here in the comments as a cautionary tale.
Very cool episode, I love the weekly ones:)
Thank you David
@@WorldWarTwo :)
It is surprising that the Red Army is still unable to eliminate the Kuban bridgehead.
The red Army will have tacticals, if not operational problems untill early 1944.
The purge of 30's, then the major losses in 1941 and 1942 will still have an effect of the efficiency of the troops.
Even in 1944, many infantry troops will have issues, as the soviet humans ressource will be short, to the point where partisans or recently freed prisonner will be incorporated on the spot by the Red Army without almost no training.
Russian soldiers testimony made in the 90's and the 2000's say it plainly : "we simply didn't knew how to fight". While it's an overstatement, but not by much.
The 1977 film "Cross Of Iron" is set in the Taman peninsula, the last part of it.
Something I went back and looked at over past episodes because I was curious.... I noticed this was the last episode where we will see the USSR's flag in the background. It's been blocked out by Indy for some time since Russia's Invasion of Ukraine. But this is the last episode where we see in the back.
I think the use of maps illustrating the gains and losses of each operation/offensive is a good idea to better show the progression of the war such as in this episode. Also, quite sad I missed the premiere, but I was moving stuff into my new apartment. New job and all.
Guillaume Thank you for watching, as always. We appreciate the feedback
Their punishment for capturing the Aleutian islands was staying there.
Is it just me or is the background music lately not making much sense? I keep thinking there is another video or game i have open that makes the music, but nope, its added deliberately, but it often doesnt seem to fit properly.
To this day, I've never really understood the Japanese military deciding upon suicide when things looked bleak.
Banzai charges, Kamikaze, fighting to the last, not surrendering due to dishonour etc are understandable, as you are taking as many of the enemy with you and may even turn the tide of a battle.
But the mass suicides just come across as strange and bring up images of the Judean Peoples' Front crack suicide squad in Monty Python's Life of Brian - "That showed them".
In any case, the practice certainly saved Allied lives.
It certainly would be unnerving to come across that though.
I was thinking something similar - I wonder if the Allies hyped up the effectiveness of banzai charges during the war specifically so that the Japanese would continue to use them. After all, no one ever returned from one alive to Japan to say "Hey guys, this is just a phenomenal waste of lives".
@@CrazyYurie I used to think that events like this (bonzai charges, encouraging the civilians of Saipan to jump off cliffs in view of Marines, etc) were done to unnerve the allies, but the more I've read up on Shinto-era Japan the less I believe it. I think it was simply "we're screwed, we failed, we are being defeated and therefore shamed, so we will salvage what honor we can by committing suicide." For Shinto Japanese, suicide cleansed your soul and let you die blamelessly (which is 100% opposite the Catholic view on the matter). Mass suicide by bonzai charge was a relatively new innovation, blending the "human wave" tactics Japan had first used against Russia in the 1890s with the hara-kiri doctrine to make a more pragmatic use of suicide. It had the disadvantage of being less reliable, since a decapitating injury on ground sure to be ceded to the enemy could result in the ultimate shame of capture. If you were not in a situation where someone had organized such a charge, you could always make do with a grenade. But even then there appeared to be some solace in going with others, such as the "exploding huts" incident at Harakiri Gulch (also on Saipan).
At any rate, Japanese officers seemed to view a bonzai charge almost the same way that a Western commander would view surrendering the garrison-- a last-ditch alternative and admission of defeat, but making the best you could of the situation (although by taking enemy lives instead of preserving friendly ones). They were not undertaken until the final outcome of a campaign was not in doubt. Note, for example, that it was not used in Guadalcanal, where evacuation was possible.
it comes from a flawed understanding of Samurai. They are looking at the Edo period when it was all peace and formal. They should look at how they behaved during war. Changing sides was a thing to avoid dying
@@rags417 the psychological effect on desperate mass human melee charge cannot be understated
I would've loved to help you guys out after graduating
Had Japan and the Soviet knew or had the industry to harvest the oil and gas in Siberia or Sakhalin, do you think the Northern Strategy could have had taken place? This still would be after the 1940 embargo and perhaps could have seen actual cooperation in the Axis against a common enemy. This most likely would have changed the weight of clashes in Manchuria and Mongolia before ww2 buts its an interesting thought at least
Well, they actually knew. Japan prospected for oil during occupation of Far East during Russian Civil War. And they found it and they kept rights to exploit oil fields in North Sakhalin under 1925 treaty. Karafuto Oil Concession was the company doing it. But there wasn't a lot of oil found there at the time and production wasn't efficient so overall it wasn't significant even for oil-starved Japan. It was much later, in 70-80s, when technology allowed to discover and exploit vast but hard to reach reserves.
No one knew oil was there
So, we island hop in the Pacific but want to take over everything in the Med before going into Italy. Can't say we are consistent. They left the Channel Island until after the finish of the war.
I use this channel to understand what happens in the same weeks but in 2022.
Now in June of 1943, there is a lull in the war. After months of fighting on all theaters of war, the Allies and Axis forces are resting, recuperating, and building up for major attacks in the summer. The Axis are against time as for they need a victory after their defeats in Guadalcanal, Stalingrad, and El Alamein. The Allies are racing against time fearing their foes may be stronger than before and fearing their Allies as well. All of this will and shall culminated into major battles. A long war is ahead of all. Only one question remains is: How long shall it take? Only time can tell. Godspeed to those who perished in the Second World War.
Thank you Daniel
I wish that there was more documentaries on the fight on the Aleutian Islands, and on the fighting between Russia and Japan.
@Martin Clayton I'm not sure how much more we will have to say on the Aleutians here with everything else we have to cover, but we will certainly be bringing our coverage to the Soviet attack on Japan when we get there in 1945
7:19 Oh I thought Hitler wanted a battalion of actual tigers. Imagine battle tigers tho.
> Way way more east but same idea
Perfect opener!
XmungaM Thanks for watching, glad you liked it
I would love to hear moe about those geman and soviet meetings in stockholm
6:46
The Germans had lost 500, 000 captive soldiers in the deserts of Tunisia and the frozen wastelands of Stalingrad. These were their best professional soldiers.
They could have easily be pulled back anytime.
The loss of their aviators were even more shocking.
In contrast, the German submarine fleet was pulled back to preserve the professional sailors.
Actually they lost their best and most professional crews so far , (U-Boat aces gone , killed , captured or pulled back for traibning or staff duties) and quality of U-Boat crews were falling way down at this tage. In last convoy battles in ONS5 and HX 237 and SC130 in May 1943 , several U-boats actually could not or were unwilling to close their target convoys , press their attacks and returned back to France with their torpedoes and accidents of crashing or diving becoming commonplace among U-Boat crews and even worse their morale was getting worse
About the "Stalingrad of the East":
" I would like to be able to tell you more about this battle, which apparently some call the Stalingrad of the East, but I just cannot find more verifiably accurate information about it,
and what information there is out there is often very contradictory from one source to another. "
I think it could actually make a great angle for a video. Simply presenting the claims from each side/sources about what that battle was, and them perhaps getting some idea of it. In a way contradictory accounts of historical events are still historical accounts?
@logicOnAbstractions Would you be interested in something like that as a podcast episode? Definitely an interesting topic but it's possibly not what the majority of our viewers come here for. All possibilities are still on the table though for subjects for the new podcasts
7:18 is this information unknown to some that its specificaly mentioned
"It was the mines that stopped his attack"
Zhukov : "amateur"
I find it incredible that there is so little information about the battle of Shipai Fortress, from your account a decisive battle in the war. What is the reason for this?
Lack of sources available from both the Nationalist and Communist Chinese.
There is probably a lot of information in China, but after the Communist Takeover in 1949, such documentation became difficult to come by and questionable in its authenticity.
Strategically, Germany would rather not be fighting the US and the UK, so it can concentrate on the Soviets. Japan does not want to fight the Soviets because the US and the UK are the bigger strategic problem for them. It would seem Germany's and Japan's strategies do not really align that well.
Japan brought that on itself, shouldn't have attacked both opponents with such a shortsighted plan. They should have made peace with China and left them in fighting, appeased the UK and USA due to peace in China. Then maybe do a pearl harbour on Russia.
Consequences of their strategic and geopolitical decsions when they had the initiative between 1937-1941. Invading the rump Czech republic despite assurances in Munich , Invading Poland despite British ultimatoum that there would be war if that happens. Invading neutrals like Denmark , Norway , Belgium , Ntherlands , Luxembourg , Balkan countries etc , declsring war on Britain and France by Italy in June 1940 when France was down , attacking Pearl Harbour and invading colonial protecterate territories of Europe and US in Far East without any wa decleration of war etc...Simply despite odious and well deserved reputation of Stalin and Soviet Union , at least in foreign policy even they acted with a certain standarts compared to Axis
@@antonytye3484
US was supplying China with weapons all through the 20s to frustrate Japan's effort at taking over that country.
Japan did not go to war with the US in 1942, it already was at war with the US by proxy.
Indy you look AMAZING!! I’m leaving comment on my phone while finally watching on my huge ass tv!! WOW
Is there a video called "Stalin Reacts to George Marshall's Bad News"?
"I suppose we can wait for the big Allied invasion of France this summer."
"Uh...Comrade Stalin..."
"Marshall said there will be no invasion until 1944."
Stalin slowly removes his glasses...
Spent 2 days on Kiska in Aug 83.