@@beamrunner0471 Yeah, at that point the armies were made up out of teens and old people. They were surrounded by the americans and the Russians. They didn’t stand a chance
My grandfather was living in the island back then, and he fought together with the British and the Italians against the Germans. He said he witnessed the sinking of the Greek destroyer in the harbor, when it was bombed by airplanes and the whole ship exploded - which was a horrible sight. Later a Stuka bomb took one of his legs and half of one of his arms, and left him with one eye. But he survived the battle. Died very old about 15 years ago.
@@kajamix Indeed. And me and my brother were at the island visiting, when a group of divers were down at the site of the wreck ( or what's left of it ) and were bringing artifacts from it. They did a small exhibit of them in Lakki, - the main town of the island. That was in 1997 as I recall.
You would think that after the debacle of Gallipoli in WWI Churchill would have had the sense to avoid the area in WWII. Every time he got involved in the Agean it was a disaster for the British Army.
@@ottoheinrichwehmann2252 North Africa at least had a real strategic value. Losing the Suez Canal would have been catastrophic for the Allies, especially in the early days of the War when Britain was fighting alone.
@@josefmengele181 funnily enough patton and montgomery wanted to continue and take the war to the russians because while they were training them they could see they were going to become a problem
An impressive feat of arms by the Germans, you have to hand it to them given superior control of the seas by the allies. I think the SAS /SBS eventually captured Castellorizo and Patmos. The Brandenburgers I think ended up surrounded in Romania. Only ‘complaint’ about this otherwise excellent video is the haphazard non historical footage including some first world war trench scenes!
I would wonder why the Germans were expending so much effort on some Greek island in the Aegean. Surely the Italian and Russian fronts had more pressing need of those men and their equipment, and especially all those Luftwaffe aircraft.
Another amazing video on another insane WW2 battle that I've never heard of. The videos you post are always so well told and interesting for the viewer. Keep it up!
Well Leros seems like your classic defeat because of lousy coordination between allies!! France was lost because of lousy coordination between English and French. Here between Italiens and English. Two left hands. Winston didn't coordinate also with Dwight. Adolf didn't listen to anyone. Communication is key to victory.
@@bill8784 Yes but it did not help that Britain took it's sweet time to send troops and fighters. The phoney war from 1939-40 was a lack of coordination between the two. Like when 1945, soviets and allies were racing to pick up whatever before the Cold war. Beating Germany was secondary
There is a Very interesting ww2 museum in leros and it is located in one of the military tunnels built by the Italians.the museum has very big collection of relics and military gear used by all sides.all of the island is a must see.
Think you nailed it mostly already, logistics and air superiority seem to be the main reason with quality of troops and lack of cohesion between the Italians & British being secondary. Not that Britain wasn't use to fighting with motley crew forces, but just like the Africa campaign, where Italians/Germans bickered, if elements of high command start to become difficult it probably has cascading effects. But even with Rommel, it was logistics that eventually got him too, since Britain hindered supply dramatically to Africa, almost seems like the Germans learnt from that and flipped it around. What is probably striking, is that Germany pulled this off. Also the fact they were able to identify and hit supplies in the prelude enough to cause this meant they did their reconnaissance/intelligence well. Imagine its difficult to hide supplies for over 8000 men on such a small island.
@@julianshepherd2038 i think what he meant was that it was a relatively small number of personel and the fact that there were also lots of italian troops fighting on THEIR SIDE
Additionally the USA command had no interest in Churchill's Aegean campaign, refusing to give it landing craft, air support or troops and seeing it as drawing away forces that would be needed for the invasion of France. IMO, the USA was correct on this, as advancing through Greece to get to Germany would have been a disaster as the geography favors defenders.
The operation was the extreme result of Churchill's Peripheric Strategy, & along with the 1942 raid on Tobruk, were 2 of his spectacular failures. However, the Aegean Sea operation on Leros (or Kheros) was sound in concept, since he was worrying about the red armies of the 2 Joes (Broz & Dzhugashvili) approaching Greece with the local ELAS reds ready to welcome them. But the Americans did want nothing of it. The result was that the British token force was no match for the still intact nazi forces in the Eastern Mediterranean. The episode inspired Alistair McLean's "The Guns Of Navarone".
My great grandfather was one of the Germans that Para Dropped into Leros. He was a Brandenburger and had served in Russia during Operation Barbarossa. Fought at the battle of Dvina in 1941 and took part in the Maikop oilfield raid in 1942 prior.
The premise of the movie Guns of Navarone, lol. Imagine, bullying Turkey into joining the losing side of the war by killing a mere few thousand Allied troops. After the Battle of Stalingrad, the defeat of the Afrika Korps in Tunisia, the surrender of Italy, the strategic reversal at Kursk, the effective defeat of the Battle of the Atlantic. And the best part was, General Fritz Bayerlein, Rommel's deputy in North Africa and commander of the Panzer Lehr armoured division was also the technical advisor for the movie.
Great video! However, the title is misleading... The Battle of Leros was far from being the last German victory in WW2. The Wehrmacht achieved impressing victories even at the very end of the war...
never heard of this battle, but talk about how useless it was. Germans won and get to sit on the islands until their defeat in 1945(hope they at least got great tans from it).If the British won, they didn't have the forces w/o American support to follow it up. Which they never would have gotten.
Well if the British won in that battle, they could actually transfer some of their aircraft from their carriers and those station in Egypt to the Leros Airbase. Combine with the Italian Aircraft station there they could form a huge air group to raid and threatening German troops in Greece as well as Crete island which were intended as the next target for Operation Abstention. Occupying Leros also mean that they could insert their navy to bombard Greek shores and disrupt German supply and communication line which was use to supply both their army in Italy and Ukraine, where Army Group South were fighting against the Soviet at the time.
@@johncarter4956 you make very good points and this was a possibility. But the Americans were very suspicious of Britain's aims and 100% committed to a cross channel invasion. They would have provided 0 support for this soft underbelly strategy and threatened Britain on at least one occasion they would concentrate on Japan if Britain continued to pursue a Mediterranean strategy.
I read about it years ago. I remember reading about a German airdrop on the central mountain of Leros by a hand-picked battalion of Luftwaffe paras. This action seems to have been attributed to the Brandenburg (German Army) Commandos in this film. And Wikipedia seems to support this version. Whatever, it was one of the most exciting battles of WW II.
This say in the intro that this is a defeat on par with Singapore , its no where even close . This loss was about 10 k men with the Italians included while Singapore loss's was 130 k which im pretty sure was the largest in British history also the loss of Singapore spelled the end for Colonialism for Britain and really Europeans in Asia .The loss of this Greek island was no where in that league
@@lyndoncmp5751 So was Market Garden I guess, since Brits and Americans failed to liberate the Netherlands until the war officially ended in May 1945. Allies had to start Ardennes Offenisve anway along with the campaign in Hurtgen Forest. Italy was irrelevant too I guess which Churchill considered as soft underbelly and funny, the war in Italy lasted longer than the war in main western front. WW2 in Europe: Moscow was the turning point , Stalingrad was the biggest blow, Kursk was the final nail and Bagration was the funeral and all these happened against the Soviet Union in the East. To Germans, Bagration was important than Overlord, even Italian campaign turned out to be more important than Overlord. Between 1943-1945, the number of wehrmacht military personnel participated in Italy was over 700k.
A video idea. From all of the major nations in WW2, which combat divisions would have been the safest (least casualties (KIA/WIA)) and which would have been the worst to be in. I say combat as to remove training divisions or divisions that were created but never deployed.
I cannot help but to wonder if this is the origin of the childish mocking expression, so popular in latin america, "Lero, lero", which we use to boast, or to mock someone we have won over about anything really. It is said that the chilean expression "Chipe Libre" is somehow related to Cyprus ("Chipre" in Spanish), perhaps there is some truth to that; and if so, perhaps the battle of Leros is the origin of "Lero, lero".
In relation to this video, can you guys please do a video on the Special Boat Service or the SBS who waged a fearsome guerrilla naval campaign in the Aegean and played a major role in the Battle of Kos and Leros under the leadership of Earl George Jellicoe, the son of the WW1 First Lord of the Admiralty and Anders Lassen, the famed Nazi killing Dane who became the only Special Service soldier to be awarded the VC. For more info check out The SBS in World War 2 by Gavin Mortimer and for anyone interested in more in this battle check out Kos And Leros 1944 by Anthony Rogers by Osprey Publishing.
SBS. The British equivalent of America's Navy Seals. Elite units so fierce. Only about 10-15% of all people who enroll complete the training successfully. Some bad honchos.
From October 1944 to the end of the war Army group Courland won 6 major defensive battles on their positions. They only surrendered after the country surrendered. While not an offensive victory, it was still major defensive ones.
Could you do one on the Syrian Campaign in WW2 and the part played by the Australian 7th Division, and the Borneo Campaign in WW2 which was the last campaign the Aussies took part in.
The only missing element ( and an important one at that ) is the first use of guided missiles in the history of war by the German Ju-88 ( Henshel missiles guided by command that travelled via wire ) ,that managed to sink three large British ships in one afternoon as they flew a low approach during the dusk. One more time the air-superiority defeated superior naval forces.
Similar things happened in Samos. In Samos in recent years was discovered a big German bomb, thought to be the biggest conventional bomb before the MOAB. The Germans of the Bundeswehr were called and they managed to take it to sea and explode it.
I would appreciate if you would be less "tabloid" with your titles. "Last German Victory"? not even close. but it did get me to click, so I guess you got what you wanted
In Methuen's History Of World War 2, published from 1966 to 1968 in magazine form, there was a detailed relation of this campaign in the article : "Hard Blows in the Aegean" That inspired Alistair McLean's "The Guns Of Navarone", where Leros became Khedros, & Cape Navarin became Navarone.
Possibly this fiasco was supposed to be Churchill's steppingstone to the invasion of Rhodes, which Marshall utterly rejected. Rhodes? It's the largest of a group of Aegean islands called the Dodecanese. But it began to decline after the Romans took over, and eventually became yet another possession of the Ottoman Empire. That empire lost the DoDecanese Islands to Italy in 1912 along with Libya. However, a cracking good movie came out of this: *The Guns of Navarone* about a fictional operation to cover the evacuation of the defeated Brits on Leros before the Nazis get their hands on the last of them by destroying a pair of gigantic cannons on another island. The "gigantic" guns were identified in the movie as either 11-inch or 280mm, which were a real weapon of WWII used as railroad guns (Anzio Annie) and as the main batteries of five German heavy warships. The US Army liked them so much they built a road-capable version with nuclear shells (Atomic Annie) and fired one off in Nevada putting on another show for Las Vegas tourists and more fallout on St. George, Utah.
This is a great and very informative video. But just one little bit of constructive criticism: you called the Dodecanese islands by their Greek names, but pronounced them in an Italian way. For example, it's not "Kosh", but just "Kos". Not "Samosh", but "Samos."
Never heard of this battle before. Shooting paras with AA guns seems pretty awfull though, on the other hand in that stage of the war who cares I guess?
I had not heard of this before. Closest that came was watching Captain Corelli's Mandolin, starring Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz. I think it was loosely based on this battle or one similar in the Aegean Sea...
That movie was about the italian army resistance in Cephalonia, which is an island in the Ionian sea, not the Aegean. Also there was no british involvement there.
Nope, I did not k ow about this fight, but that was very awesome to learn about ^^ Not too surprising about the British -it seems a lot of the mentality of their commanders back then were very control obessed, and rigid in tactics.
What were the advantages of the Dodecanese? 1. 500 - 600 miles closer round trip to Ploesti, compared to Benghazi. 2. A chance to decoy the Germans away from Sicily, and threaten Crete and Greece. 3. Save a number of Italian personnel, and about 4,000 jews. 4. Create an incentive for Turkey to join the Allies. Disadvantages: Taking resources and personnel from Sicily, very close to Crete, leaving you open for air attack.
''The Last German Victory'', what?? Go back narrating Star Wars content xD The battle of Bautzen? The Battle of Arnhem? Arnhem were equally as good and came later in the war and were a much more important victory for the Germans than a greek island. Edit: It's not too late to edit the title.
Churchill visited Turkey in January 1943 to persuade president İnönü joining war with Britain. İnönü's demand was enormous to be able to avoid war. We are greatful to İnönü for avoiding war. Otherwise, some Turkish cities could have been bombed by Wermacth.
Germany's last vistory of WWII: "After Stalingrad" Me: Oh no so early... 40 seconds in and it's not impressive. Thousands of Italians lost against a numerically inferior foe? Yeah, no surprise.
10:39: I think you already mentioned this in a previous video months back. Basically, a bit. Churchill being way too overcompensating just like how he did back in WW1 Gallipoli, Muller's surprisingly quick and coordinated resolve, overbearing pride, distrust of the once Italian foe, and possibly harmful ultrapatriotism on Tilney's part, *and* the lack of American and maybe even Soviet support cost this battle. Thank the stars the war was about to end on the Allies' side, though to be frank, the end could have gone a lot better. Any pockets of resistance left even after the battle's end, and how was the island relieved come the end of the war?
Commissioned by The Speaker of the House of Commons, watch this revealing short film about the 1941 London Blitz bombing of Parliament by Germany during WWII and what happened: ua-cam.com/video/IVXK9-nH_pk/v-deo.html
Wasn't Alistair McClains Book Guns of Navarone Based on destroying the Huge Guns that were Bombarding the Evacuation attempts on Leros or something like that!??
The last victory of Germany in WW2 was the freeing of the trapped armies and civilians south of Berlin by the 12th Army
That was a succes, not a Victory
Still lost tho
@@beamrunner0471 Yeah, at that point the armies were made up out of teens and old people. They were surrounded by the americans and the Russians. They didn’t stand a chance
@@Historylord15 A L is a L, man
@@beamrunner0471 True
My grandfather was living in the island back then, and he fought together with the British and the Italians against the Germans. He said he witnessed the sinking of the Greek destroyer in the harbor, when it was bombed by airplanes and the whole ship exploded - which was a horrible sight. Later a Stuka bomb took one of his legs and half of one of his arms, and left him with one eye. But he survived the battle. Died very old about 15 years ago.
Una Faccia, una razza
Respect
Blessings, Honour and Glory to your grandpa and all who fought against fascism.
The Queen Olga was the Greek destroyer.
@@kajamix Indeed. And me and my brother were at the island visiting, when a group of divers were down at the site of the wreck ( or what's left of it ) and were bringing artifacts from it. They did a small exhibit of them in Lakki, - the main town of the island. That was in 1997 as I recall.
You would think that after the debacle of Gallipoli in WWI Churchill would have had the sense to avoid the area in WWII. Every time he got involved in the Agean it was a disaster for the British Army.
North Africa too!
@@ottoheinrichwehmann2252 I mean..
Makes me wish he went after the ussr that would have been a mess
@@ottoheinrichwehmann2252 North Africa at least had a real strategic value. Losing the Suez Canal would have been catastrophic for the Allies, especially in the early days of the War when Britain was fighting alone.
@@josefmengele181 funnily enough patton and montgomery wanted to continue and take the war to the russians because while they were training them they could see they were going to become a problem
An impressive feat of arms by the Germans, you have to hand it to them given superior control of the seas by the allies. I think the SAS /SBS eventually captured Castellorizo and Patmos. The Brandenburgers I think ended up surrounded in Romania. Only ‘complaint’ about this otherwise excellent video is the haphazard non historical footage including some first world war trench scenes!
This is another example that the British alone, werent a match , for the german army.
To many defeats. Weak army, the British.
I would wonder why the Germans were expending so much effort on some Greek island in the Aegean. Surely the Italian and Russian fronts had more pressing need of those men and their equipment, and especially all those Luftwaffe aircraft.
My father, a British soldier, fought at Leros. He was wounded and captured by German paratroopers.
Another amazing video on another insane WW2 battle that I've never heard of. The videos you post are always so well told and interesting for the viewer. Keep it up!
Well Leros seems like your classic defeat because of lousy coordination between allies!! France was lost because of lousy coordination between English and French. Here between Italiens and English. Two left hands. Winston didn't coordinate also with Dwight. Adolf didn't listen to anyone. Communication is key to victory.
France wasn’t lost because of lousy cooperation between France and the UK. France collapsed mainly from domestic reasons.
@@bill8784 Yes but it did not help that Britain took it's sweet time to send troops and fighters. The phoney war from 1939-40 was a lack of coordination between the two. Like when 1945, soviets and allies were racing to pick up whatever before the Cold war. Beating Germany was secondary
There is a Very interesting ww2 museum in leros and it is located in one of the military tunnels built by the Italians.the museum has very big collection of relics and military gear used by all sides.all of the island is a must see.
Think you nailed it mostly already, logistics and air superiority seem to be the main reason with quality of troops and lack of cohesion between the Italians & British being secondary. Not that Britain wasn't use to fighting with motley crew forces, but just like the Africa campaign, where Italians/Germans bickered, if elements of high command start to become difficult it probably has cascading effects. But even with Rommel, it was logistics that eventually got him too, since Britain hindered supply dramatically to Africa, almost seems like the Germans learnt from that and flipped it around. What is probably striking, is that Germany pulled this off. Also the fact they were able to identify and hit supplies in the prelude enough to cause this meant they did their reconnaissance/intelligence well. Imagine its difficult to hide supplies for over 8000 men on such a small island.
ua-cam.com/video/D4LzQWC-NaM/v-deo.html
Empire forces were not a motley crew.
@@julianshepherd2038 i think what he meant was that it was a relatively small number of personel and the fact that there were also lots of italian troops fighting on THEIR SIDE
The African campaign was by 1942-43 far less interesting to german high command. The Eastern front swallowed men and resources at an alarming rate.
Additionally the USA command had no interest in Churchill's Aegean campaign, refusing to give it landing craft, air support or troops and seeing it as drawing away forces that would be needed for the invasion of France. IMO, the USA was correct on this, as advancing through Greece to get to Germany would have been a disaster as the geography favors defenders.
The operation was the extreme result of Churchill's Peripheric Strategy,
& along with the 1942 raid on Tobruk, were 2 of his spectacular failures.
However, the Aegean Sea operation on Leros (or Kheros) was sound in concept,
since he was worrying about the red armies of the 2 Joes (Broz & Dzhugashvili)
approaching Greece with the local ELAS reds ready to welcome them.
But the Americans did want nothing of it.
The result was that the British token force was no match for the still intact nazi
forces in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The episode inspired Alistair McLean's "The Guns Of Navarone".
My great grandfather was one of the Germans that Para Dropped into Leros. He was a Brandenburger and had served in Russia during Operation Barbarossa. Fought at the battle of Dvina in 1941 and took part in the Maikop oilfield raid in 1942 prior.
@NoQue Q Its just a UA-cam name. Spartans are cool though.
My Grandad fought on Leros as part of the SBS,he was serving with raiders like VC winner Anders Lassen .
During the dictatorship of 1967-1974 lerros was a place of exile for political prisoners one of them was my grandfather
There are books about that battle: "Churchill's Folly: Leros and the Aegean" and "Kos and Leros 1943: The German Conquest of the Dodecanese"
The premise of the movie Guns of Navarone, lol. Imagine, bullying Turkey into joining the losing side of the war by killing a mere few thousand Allied troops. After the Battle of Stalingrad, the defeat of the Afrika Korps in Tunisia, the surrender of Italy, the strategic reversal at Kursk, the effective defeat of the Battle of the Atlantic. And the best part was, General Fritz Bayerlein, Rommel's deputy in North Africa and commander of the Panzer Lehr armoured division was also the technical advisor for the movie.
ua-cam.com/video/D4LzQWC-NaM/v-deo.html
Great video! However, the title is misleading... The Battle of Leros was far from being the last German victory in WW2. The Wehrmacht achieved impressing victories even at the very end of the war...
I have not heard anything about this before so thank you for what you do and keep it up you are doing a great job 👍
never heard of this battle, but talk about how useless it was. Germans won and get to sit on the islands until their defeat in 1945(hope they at least got great tans from it).If the British won, they didn't have the forces w/o American support to follow it up. Which they never would have gotten.
Well if the British won in that battle, they could actually transfer some of their aircraft from their carriers and those station in Egypt to the Leros Airbase. Combine with the Italian Aircraft station there they could form a huge air group to raid and threatening German troops in Greece as well as Crete island which were intended as the next target for Operation Abstention. Occupying Leros also mean that they could insert their navy to bombard Greek shores and disrupt German supply and communication line which was use to supply both their army in Italy and Ukraine, where Army Group South were fighting against the Soviet at the time.
@@johncarter4956 you make very good points and this was a possibility. But the Americans were very suspicious of Britain's aims and 100% committed to a cross channel invasion. They would have provided 0 support for this soft underbelly strategy and threatened Britain on at least one occasion they would concentrate on Japan if Britain continued to pursue a Mediterranean strategy.
"British submarines brought reinforcements and supplies...by submarines..."
YOU DON'T SAY?!
So the Wehrmacht's last great victory was a naval invasion... The irony
I read about it years ago. I remember reading about a German airdrop on the central mountain of Leros by a hand-picked battalion of Luftwaffe paras. This action seems to have been attributed to the Brandenburg (German Army) Commandos in this film. And Wikipedia seems to support this version. Whatever, it was one of the most exciting battles of WW II.
the Germans also airdropped into Crete where they conquered the island.
Not quite the last German victory of WW2 - the German victory at Arnhem
This say in the intro that this is a defeat on par with Singapore , its no where even close . This loss was about 10 k men with the Italians included while Singapore loss's was 130 k which im pretty sure was the largest in British history also the loss of Singapore spelled the end for Colonialism for Britain and really Europeans in Asia .The loss of this Greek island was no where in that league
In other words the axis had their first defeat and their last victory in Greece
Excellent! Being a self declared “history nerd” this was very informative since I had never heard of this offensive.
Then im guessing you didnt hear about the german saudi arabian campaign
You are correct. I haven’t heard of that campaign
You know about the Seelow Hills battle or the Lake Sabatton one?
Not familiar with Seelow or Lake Sabaton either
@@ricklyle3739 They are ver cool haha, you should look it up, you missing many stuff hehe
I had heard about this battle but not the finer details. Nice job The Front. Your video's are always great to watch.
Seems like stock standard British arrogance at the command level yet again pulling defeat from the jaws of victory.
Click bait title. Not even close to Germany's last victory.
I'm fairly conversant with WW2 history, but I never remember hearing about this particular incident...
Not much of what happened in Greece is ever talked about in the greater conversation.
Because it was irrelevant.
@@lyndoncmp5751 no part of ww2 was irrelevant. People lost their lives. Grow up.
@@lyndoncmp5751 So was Market Garden I guess, since Brits and Americans failed to liberate the Netherlands until the war officially ended in May 1945. Allies had to start Ardennes Offenisve anway along with the campaign in Hurtgen Forest. Italy was irrelevant too I guess which Churchill considered as soft underbelly and funny, the war in Italy lasted longer than the war in main western front.
WW2 in Europe: Moscow was the turning point , Stalingrad was the biggest blow, Kursk was the final nail and Bagration was the funeral and all these happened against the Soviet Union in the East. To Germans, Bagration was important than Overlord, even Italian campaign turned out to be more important than Overlord. Between 1943-1945, the number of wehrmacht military personnel participated in Italy was over 700k.
Seems like the Germans were able to handle the Brits and other European 'enemies' and American and Canadian support was the deciding factor.
The last german victory was the Battle of Bautzen against the red and the polish army.
Lol a defeat compared to Singapore?? The British only had a brigade at Leros & Kos! There were 20 times more troops at Singapore!
A video idea. From all of the major nations in WW2, which combat divisions would have been the safest (least casualties (KIA/WIA)) and which would have been the worst to be in. I say combat as to remove training divisions or divisions that were created but never deployed.
I cannot help but to wonder if this is the origin of the childish mocking expression, so popular in latin america, "Lero, lero", which we use to boast, or to mock someone we have won over about anything really.
It is said that the chilean expression "Chipe Libre" is somehow related to Cyprus ("Chipre" in Spanish), perhaps there is some truth to that; and if so, perhaps the battle of Leros is the origin of "Lero, lero".
They clutched real hard for one last time
Sounds like one of those occasions where we Brits left some arrogant chinless wonder in charge.
Thank you for shedding light on this overlooked battle. Only one note, Mascherpa had the rank of Admiral, not Captain
Non era Contrammiraglio? Wasn't he Rear Admiral?
In relation to this video, can you guys please do a video on the Special Boat Service or the SBS who waged a fearsome guerrilla naval campaign in the Aegean and played a major role in the Battle of Kos and Leros under the leadership of Earl George Jellicoe, the son of the WW1 First Lord of the Admiralty and Anders Lassen, the famed Nazi killing Dane who became the only Special Service soldier to be awarded the VC. For more info check out The SBS in World War 2 by Gavin Mortimer and for anyone interested in more in this battle check out Kos And Leros 1944 by Anthony Rogers by Osprey Publishing.
ua-cam.com/video/D4LzQWC-NaM/v-deo.html
SBS. The British equivalent of America's Navy Seals. Elite units so fierce. Only about 10-15% of all people who enroll complete the training successfully. Some bad honchos.
@@revmo37 great to see you again mate.
*german kiling dane
@@revmo37 I think you got that the wrong way round... the US Navy Seals are the equivalent of the SBS (precedence matters).
WW2 Germany: "Let's blitzkrieg Europe and Russia! They can't stop us all!"
From October 1944 to the end of the war Army group Courland won 6 major defensive battles on their positions.
They only surrendered after the country surrendered. While not an offensive victory, it was still major defensive ones.
bots going crazy in the comments
Could you do one on the Syrian Campaign in WW2 and the part played by the Australian 7th Division, and the Borneo Campaign in WW2 which was the last campaign the Aussies took part in.
The only missing element ( and an important one at that ) is the first use of guided missiles in the history of war by the German Ju-88 ( Henshel missiles guided by command that travelled via wire ) ,that managed to sink three large British ships in one afternoon as they flew a low approach during the dusk. One more time the air-superiority defeated superior naval forces.
I had not heard of these battles for Leros before. I count on "The Front" to educate me, and they do not disappoint!
Thanks for sharing. All the best.
You have amazing content but you can't help using clickbaity titles. Just...don't. You don't need to
Similar things happened in Samos. In Samos in recent years was discovered a big German bomb, thought to be the biggest conventional bomb before the MOAB.
The Germans of the Bundeswehr were called and they managed to take it to sea and explode it.
Dommage que les images n'aient rien à voir avec l'histoire racontée...
I would appreciate if you would be less "tabloid" with your titles. "Last German Victory"? not even close. but it did get me to click, so I guess you got what you wanted
Good always covering the things i know of beforehand
In Methuen's History Of World War 2, published from 1966 to 1968 in magazine form,
there was a detailed relation of this campaign in the article :
"Hard Blows in the Aegean"
That inspired Alistair McLean's "The Guns Of Navarone",
where Leros became Khedros, & Cape Navarin became Navarone.
Possibly this fiasco was supposed to be Churchill's steppingstone to the invasion of Rhodes, which Marshall utterly rejected. Rhodes? It's the largest of a group of Aegean islands called the Dodecanese. But it began to decline after the Romans took over, and eventually became yet another possession of the Ottoman Empire. That empire lost the DoDecanese Islands to Italy in 1912 along with Libya.
However, a cracking good movie came out of this: *The Guns of Navarone* about a fictional operation to cover the evacuation of the defeated Brits on Leros before the Nazis get their hands on the last of them by destroying a pair of gigantic cannons on another island. The "gigantic" guns were identified in the movie as either 11-inch or 280mm, which were a real weapon of WWII used as railroad guns (Anzio Annie) and as the main batteries of five German heavy warships. The US Army liked them so much they built a road-capable version with nuclear shells (Atomic Annie) and fired one off in Nevada putting on another show for Las Vegas tourists and more fallout on St. George, Utah.
This is a great and very informative video. But just one little bit of constructive criticism: you called the Dodecanese islands by their Greek names, but pronounced them in an Italian way. For example, it's not "Kosh", but just "Kos". Not "Samosh", but "Samos."
Really fascinating episode to cover, discussion on late 1943 WW2 campaign mainly focuses on Italian campaign and Soviet offensive in Ukraine
No wonder i never heard about this one, it was embarrassing.
It was irrelevant.
Correct me if Im wrong, but I remember the battle of Bautzen (1945) was the last german victory of ww2.
I think one of the last German victories was the battle of Bautzen. BTW, nice video!
Battle of Bautzen happened in april of 45, that was the last German victory in the war.
Most Excellent. I did not know this.
Cheers!
Was this that Nicholas Cage movie about the Mandalin?
Never heard of this battle before. Shooting paras with AA guns seems pretty awfull though, on the other hand in that stage of the war who cares I guess?
Leros was a place where Germans and Italians fought against other.
nope the italian fought against the germans and their fascist counterpart in Italian campaign
@@muhammadfarhun1197 thanks for showing me the error.
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In the thumb nail picture it looked like Germany was a modern army, the British look like they were still stuck in WW1.
considering that the british army was actually motorized the British were the more modern army
Brandenburg‘s were often Elite units
The New Zealand Long Range Desert Patrol (NZ SAS) were present but utterly defeated
Churchill just can't have agean things
The last german victory was The Battle of Bautzen in 1945.
The title is such clickbait last german victory was against the soviets.
I had not heard of this before. Closest that came was watching Captain Corelli's Mandolin, starring Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz. I think it was loosely based on this battle or one similar in the Aegean Sea...
That movie was about the italian army resistance in Cephalonia, which is an island in the Ionian sea, not the Aegean. Also there was no british involvement there.
Nope, I did not k ow about this fight, but that was very awesome to learn about ^^
Not too surprising about the British -it seems a lot of the mentality of their commanders back then were very control obessed, and rigid in tactics.
That's what tends to happen when rank is gained by surname instead of merit.
@@janbo8331 Makes sense to me!
What were the advantages of the Dodecanese? 1. 500 - 600 miles closer round trip to Ploesti, compared to Benghazi. 2. A chance to decoy the Germans away from Sicily, and threaten Crete and Greece. 3. Save a number of Italian personnel, and about 4,000 jews. 4. Create an incentive for Turkey to join the Allies. Disadvantages: Taking resources and personnel from Sicily, very close to Crete, leaving you open for air attack.
''The Last German Victory'', what?? Go back narrating Star Wars content xD
The battle of Bautzen? The Battle of Arnhem? Arnhem were equally as good and came later in the war and were a much more important victory for the Germans than a greek island.
Edit: It's not too late to edit the title.
I dint hear of this battle, one of the last victories for the great germans fighting again all odds.
@the front last great victory of wo2? Did you maybe forgot market garden?
_German_ victory.
Market garden is considered by about anyone a german victory
@@mr.onbekend7959, IDK man, Germany lost quite a bit of land through that.
@@ShadowReaper-pu2hx the allies did not get their objectives
It's called the Battle of Arnhem. An Allied operation is not a battle.
Churchill visited Turkey in January 1943 to persuade president İnönü joining war with Britain. İnönü's demand was enormous to be able to avoid war. We are greatful to İnönü for avoiding war. Otherwise, some Turkish cities could have been bombed by Wermacth.
Having Italians as allies is always worrisome....just ask the Germans.
LOL 😂😂😂
1:46 I thought the Battle of Wake Island was the only battle during World War 2 that an amphibious landing was repulsed.
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Dieppe?
The German LANDING ON Suursaari :
Last German victory of WW2 was the battle of Bautzen in April 1945.
Germany's last vistory of WWII: "After Stalingrad"
Me: Oh no so early...
40 seconds in and it's not impressive. Thousands of Italians lost against a numerically inferior foe? Yeah, no surprise.
Could you be more specific what's that island of Kosm instead of Kos. Most probably you mix it up with something else
Think the only wins they could get would being captured by the British, French or Americans!! Anything else was a loss.
Just a decoy to tie down axis troops in the Balkans resulting in the allies in Scilly having a much easier time than should have been the case
More like this👍 I think the movie 'The Guns Of Navorone' was based on this campaign
I am sorry if I am wrong but actualy the last german victory was the battle of bautzen 1945
What is the name of the song when the "The Front: Unknown Facts of History" title plays?
Its kos not kosh and samos not shamosh.wtf u say sh
Another great story unknown to me until now. Thank you !
Germany had an effective and organized army unlike the allies
But why Churchill wanted to attack the Soviets in the first place?
So operation market garden is a lie dam you Bandit and Oden I trusted both of you great job btw mate cheers
Absolutely horrid pronunciation and even worse grammar.
The narrator is not a native English speaker, so cut him some slack.
@@gregb6469 the dude is a defiantly and anglophone
Leros is Kheros in « The Guns Of Navarone »
Never heard of this battle thanks for the great video on this subject
10:39: I think you already mentioned this in a previous video months back. Basically, a bit.
Churchill being way too overcompensating just like how he did back in WW1 Gallipoli, Muller's surprisingly quick and coordinated resolve, overbearing pride, distrust of the once Italian foe, and possibly harmful ultrapatriotism on Tilney's part, *and* the lack of American and maybe even Soviet support cost this battle. Thank the stars the war was about to end on the Allies' side, though to be frank, the end could have gone a lot better.
Any pockets of resistance left even after the battle's end, and how was the island relieved come the end of the war?
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BATTLE OF leeeeeerooooooooooyyy jenkiiins
Commissioned by The Speaker of the House of Commons, watch this revealing short film about the 1941 London Blitz bombing of Parliament by Germany during WWII and what happened: ua-cam.com/video/IVXK9-nH_pk/v-deo.html
Wasn't Alistair McClains Book Guns of Navarone Based on destroying the Huge Guns that were Bombarding the Evacuation attempts on Leros or something like that!??
the last german victory in ww2 is bautzen april 1945 the last tactical victory on the eastern front
Or the 9 army break out
@@BajanEnglishman51 but bautzen is the last german victory on the eastern front it s a fact
@@jeanpatrice3548 I know about the battle but I'm talking about the 9th army break out after Berlin got encircled
According to Mark Felton, the last German victory involved the 9th Army near Berlin, I think it was at Potsdam?
Last operational victory*