Nobody expected Rommel's Second North African Offensive! BATTLESTORM
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- Опубліковано 3 жов 2024
- Erwin Rommel launched his second offensive in North Africa on the 21st of January 1942, and takes the British 8th Army completely by surprise. The Deutsches Afrika Korps got bogged down in the desert, but Rommel and the Marcks Group advanced via the coast road, intending to encircle the British 1st Armoured Division. Could he succeed? Let's find out.
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📚 BIBLIOGRAPHY / SOURCES 📚
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📽️ MORE VIDEOS IN THE BATTLESTORM SERIES 📽️
Operation Compass 1940 (North Afrika) • Operation Compass 1940...
Rommel's FIRST Battle in the North African Campaign • The Desert Fox | Romme...
Operation Battleaxe 1941 (North Afrika) • The REAL Operation Bat...
Operation Crusader 1941 (the battle immediately before this one, 9+ hour video) • The REAL Operation Bat...
Battlestorm Stalingrad E1 • BATTLESTORM STALINGRAD...
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ABOUT TIK 📝
History isn’t as boring as some people think, and my goal is to get people talking about it. I also want to dispel the myths and distortions that ruin our perception of the past by asking a simple question - “But is this really the case?”. I have a 2:1 Degree in History and a passion for early 20th Century conflicts (mainly WW2). I’m therefore approaching this like I would an academic essay. Lots of sources, quotes, references and so on. Only the truth will do.
This video is discussing events or concepts that are academic, educational and historical in nature. This video is for informational purposes and was created so we may better understand the past and learn from the mistakes others have made.
SPOILER ALERT!
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Despite working several 13-15 hour days this week, I wasn’t able to get the entire video done in time. It turns out that it’s impossible to script, shoot and edit an entire Battlestorm episode in one week, even if the research was already done in advance. It was so bad, that even though I had done the research, I had to leave a lot of the references out because I didn’t have time to put them all in. Therefore I had no choice but to split into two parts. I wasn’t intending to do so, but I had no choice. The entire video would have been 42 minutes long, and I only had about 20 minutes of it edited in time.
Just wondering when do you expect the Stalingrad video to be out? I’m waiting patiently for the counterattack! 😊
A
Have we given up on Stanlingrad. These other videos are a waste of time
We rather have smaller vidéos than you working yourself to an early grave
Don't be so hard on yourself - you do wonderful work and your output is tiptop.
Glad see again the 8th Army and DAK in North Africa !
So do we stop at El Alamein or do we go untill Tunis ?
wow-another battlestorm thing, TIk you are doing a insane amount of work, very much appreated
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Or the desert fox in this case.
Nobody expects the sandenkrieg
His chief weapon is surprise, surprise and fear, fear and surprise. His *two* weapons are fear and surprise, and ruthless efficiency. His *three* weapons are fear and surprise and ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical dedication to the Fuhrer. His *four*... No... Amongst his weapons... Amongst his weaponry are such elements as fear, sur- I'll come in again. 😳😅 (😉😋😆)
I don't know how TIK expects Chuikov and the 62nd to keep holding out if Operation Uranus is delayed much longer.
:-)))
Lol I love this
I know you're joking but the guy is working his ass off to get the videos out. I'm happy he made this video as I have been waiting for a video on Rommel's 1942 campaign since his Crusader documentary. I don't think we should be complaining about his content not being Stalingrad, but rather be grateful he is making such a documentary in the first place.
Nobody is complaining 😉
🤣😂
God the African theater is my favorite.. and i love your Africa campaigns. This is a pleasant surprise and a nice break from the grind of Stalingrad!
By the way TIK - love the green and red box around the divisions when describing the two groups - nice visual aid. also i love the unit insignia at 50% opacity (or what it is) for troop movement/planning before it is set in motion. Really clearly setup the following actions - some really nice experimentation with clarity here.
Damn Rommel like to do bold manouvers.
Edit: i always read the patron names when they scroll by to look for my own.. and i noticed my name was absent. Apparently there were issues with the payments. So i guess vanity has some benefits some times.
"This is a pleasant surprise and a nice break from the grind of Stalingrad!"
Yes, and a much needed break from it too.
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"love the green and red box around the divisions when describing the two groups - nice visual aid."
Glad to hear it! I didn't think the circles were working, and I think the rectangles are easier and better anyway so I may stick to the rectangles from now on.
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"also i love the unit insignia at 50% opacity (or what it is) for troop movement/planning before it is set in motion. Really clearly setup the following actions - some really nice experimentation with clarity here."
Thank you, because I wasn't sure if it worked or not. It was a last minute decision to even do it like that, but I think, if you liked it, I'll do that sort of thing again in the future.
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"i always read the patron names when they scroll by to look for my own.. and i noticed my name was absent. Apparently there were issues with the payments. So i guess vanity has some benefits some times."
Ah yeah, when I download the list of names, Patreon automatically removes those who haven't paid (either because they quit or because of a transfer problem etc)
@@TheImperatorKnight well. Keep up the good work! TIK, Are you going small enough units that we will get some of the LRDG exploits during this affaire? as i recall.. The action to come, the only bright spot was LRDG doing shenanigans, rest was a british disaster. LRDG is my favorite formation to come out of the war.
@@TheImperatorKnight hey TIK was wondering if you could do a video on the book - How hitler could've won WWll by bevin alexander
I'd been hoping you would do more on Africa. Your Crusader series was superb and I had been hoping you would at some time do a series from Crusader to the battle of Gazala. I find it a lot easier to comprehend what is going on in a battle when the units are brigades and battalions . I would be interested in knowing how understrength the German units were during these battles and how much that affected them
Hello Robert, without reading the book do you think he ever could have? I don't.
Hi Tik, quick question. I have access to a database with all of Goebbels diary entries (in German but they can be translated). I've seen you use them in other videos but you mention there are sections missing. The English translations were based off surviving paper copies found after 1945, but they discovered the entire microfilm collection in the Soviet Archives after 1990. That is why the online database I have uses. I was wondering if you wanted me to send you diary entries for any video's you are working on in the future to fill in those gaps?
So, I guess the question would be how trustworthy are those Soviet records? Tho I'm sure he wouldn't mind having more research done on any possibly reliable source.
@@Ussurin As trustworthy as any other archive. You always need to think that someone may have fabricated a record and that people lie. You know, nothing special about being from a soviet archive.
Bumping this so tik sees it
I'm not sure if there's way to send it to him even if he doesn't see this, but I would do if you're he's able. Bumping this as well to increase the chance of TIK seeing this.
@Lintuss thats not really true. There is extensive evidence of the soviets diretcly tampering with historical reports that far outweight the western-revisionism of the war
Thank you for this. My grandfather served in the desert rats and sadly he died some time ago and never got to ask him what he did. This sheds some light on what he was up to
When you just finished the last North African Battlestorm part yesterday
and wished there was more, TIK has you covered :D
Which one's your favourite so far?
I know which one's the worst... the shortest one 😂
@@TheImperatorKnight I really liked the stories about the Long Range Desert Group and Moore's March. With how that all tied into the overall desert campaign :D The smaller stories and the grand stories all mixed up well ^.^ Keep it up!
@@GoodGirlKate Oh wow! You're one of only 34,489 people to have even watched the Moore's March video so I'm actually shocked you picked that one!
he's been spreading the topics out pretty nicely lately, keeping the topics fresh
@@TheImperatorKnight To be fair, TIK, if you want people to know more about your videos, you really need to make more reference to them in your newer videos. UA-cam is only going to do a little of that for you with its recommendation feed. I suspect you know this already, but due to how UA-cam's interface works on most systems, it is not convenient or easy to explore the older content on older channels with large libraries. Most channels don't even have the option to look at the oldest videos or playlists first, so if a user wants to see the older videos on a channel, they usually have to manually scroll to them themselves, which can take several minutes if you have a lot to scroll through. Most people will only look at the last few dozen videos made because of this. By reminding people of your older videos, they may be inspired to actually look for them more directly, which should help the visibility of your older videos in general as the algorithms identify that there is demand for your older videos.
If this is all stuff you already know, forgive me, but if not, I hope it helps. Thank you all the same!
Never clicked a video so fast. I imagine Mark Felton watching these episodes they're that good.
Back to North Africa! I couldn't be happier. As much as I can appreciate the level of work and detail thrown into Stalingrad, it's a bit much. It was the Operation Compass video so long ago that got me into this channel in the first place. I always hoped that TIK would complete his analysis of this theatre of the war.
You should never sell yourself short, I don't expect everything you have done and the best part is it always turns out to be a great surprise to get a awesome in detail breakdown of how a theater or battle went and turned out. Thanks for your time and effort in making it, usually don't get such a good in depth, detailed, breakdown of how a theater of battle went. Awesome stuff and a very pleasant surprise to see you do this. Thank you for your time and effort with this theater of the war.
Now all we need is Halder's second Stalinggrad offensive, and the war will be won!
Steiner will bring it under control
And since America is now super ‘ Distracted ‘ and there is no way any support will be given to Roosevelt’s ‘ Phony peace’ (and Roosevelt knows better to try )the best thing for us to do Is to honor a treaty for once . And declare war. That will win us everything.
@@aaronrowell6943 wasn't he supposed to attack or something?
No Halder just has to let Heinz finish off the Moscow campaign
Don’t be hard on yourself Tik, if you release a battlestorm, then you’ll bring joy to thousands of people’s lives. Thank you.
this channel, is pure YT gold. and will probably be watched for decades to come. Hope so, amazing research and the presentation is out standing
*Nobody expected rommel's inquisition*
TIK, excellent video! Cheers!
Great episode as usual. I can't wait for another Battlestorm Stalingrad, keep up the good work!
Good that i read the pinned comment. No worries TIK, it actually sounds like you should work a bit less :) I'm guessing the weird zoom pixelation and panning stutter is then due to time constraints or maybe we are just used to the amazing Stalingrad map by now. Happy eastern and plz take care of yourself!
I didn't notice the pixel issue until after I had rendered and it was far too late to fix. IF I had known, I just wouldn't have zoomed in as much. I'm not sure what's causing the panning stutter, but I think I need to increase the frame rate for the next video to fix it... or it could be an issue with Premiere Pro. Hopefully I can resolve it for next week's video
@@TheImperatorKnight 🐢🐢 we love your content mate
@@TheImperatorKnight I can imagine that you just wanted the video to be done after such a work week and already have to 'cave' and make it a two part thing. It's fine, i watch your videos mostly for the commentary and research and i was just curious about the departure of your usual quality. Take care :)
Just wanted to say thanks. I was on a Vietnam era and Ww2 Pacific are of interest. Since I found you I’m reading about the east. Already bought and read When Titans Clashed and now reading Stahels Kiev 1941. I really appreciate the work you put into these. Wow just wow!! If you ever come to the states and specifically Ohio I’d love to buy yah a drink and smoke!!
i can already tell i am going to enjoy this new battlestorm series
Love these Battlestorms Tik, great work.
TIK this is so fantastic to see a successor to your Crusader video. I am so here for this!
FANTASTIC! WHAT AN EXITING NEWS! LOOKS GREAT!
Superb a great analysis of a little known episode and a nice break from the attrition of stalingrad
Great work TIK - a fun break from Stalingrad - well done and much thanks.
Woot! Finally back to the African Campaign. Waiting for the next episodes gonna be tough
Its true nobody expected it, i was expecting Uranus but im not disappointed im happy 😃. Keep it up TIK
Thank you, TIKhistory.
excellent stuff Tik
Your attention to detail is appreciated.
Thank you.
Hi tik, i have a question. Why don't you write a book about the differences between socialism and capitalism. You are a great historian and I like how you simplify things that are complicated in other literatures. best regards.
You got youself a subscriber long time ago. .Your research and preentation is accurate consistant and beeing history nerd and now earning my phd on Leningrad siege i coul not recomend the better channel . Thank you TIK . Historia est magistra vitae and your channel is really good. Keep on the good work TIK!
WOW!!! A new battlestorm from North Africa!!! I've been waiting for this for a long time, great! Excellent work.
Another excellent video. Keep it up!
Hey TIK,Thanks for having good captioning. It's great to be able to follow along when my hearing is shit
Looking at the same area on Google Maps, I can't help but notice that a lot of the areas described as lakes in this video are bare dry lake beds on Google Satellite Image. Were those dry lake beds in the 1940s, or were they drained after the war?
So 2 weeks we wait for a Battlestorm Stalingrad and, meanwhile, we get... a Battlestorm desert! I love u TIK...
Back to North Africa! I've been looking forward to this. Many thanks!
Great to see you doing North Africa again TIK.
@TIK can you make a video about the Germans 16th motorized division in the eastern front (astrakhan) ? You mentioned the unit once, if I remember, and it's story seems to be very interesting. Would like to know more about that! 😋
This is much easier to digest and tolerate than the Eastern Front. Shows how terrible Stalingrad really was.
This is quite the surprise, and also very refreshing. This certainly brings back good memories of Battlestorm Crusader. It's good to take a break from the Gates of hell at Ostfront.
No matter how much I try, I can never be the FIRST to comment. Cursed times zones!
By the way, TIK, are you considering taking another break from creating videos? Doing another Battlestrom with the ongoing Stalingrad is... well, quite extreme
Honestly, I needed to just do something other than Stalingrad for a bit, and this was a nice change of pace. Other people are demanding Stalingrad, but I couldn't face it, so I did this instead. I'll be back to Stalingrad soon though. I also need to take another full break, but I'm going to wait until next month, if I take one at all.
@@TheImperatorKnightWhen the time comes, take a break as long as you need, and remember... drink a lot of BIER !
Yep, this is a good time for a Stalingrad tactical pause. Shorter Battlestorm videos are fine. Other videos are fine. A week vacation is fine.
Your channel is a journey down a long road of history and not a sprint. Avoid burnout.
I would enjoy an informal video of a historic location with you just reading the signs on location. If that would be low stress for you.
Stay healthy.
Thank you so much for coming back to the North Africa campaigns. This is why I originally started watching your videos, and then you detoured to Stalingrad for so long, that I lost faith completely. Subscription back to you good sir :)
What a great Easter surprise! :) Thank you TIK!
Glad to be back in Africa, I'm eager to see the end of the Afrika Korp (not for tomorow I know). Rommel was right, desert warfare is not a matter of land occupation: it's costly and useless. It's a matter of key points holding (like crossroads) and logistics. that's why "toyotas" (jeeps back in time) have been the perfect tool for that front: robust, fast and with a good cariage, that's all you need in the desert. Good job and eager for part two.
@Persia 卐 Or bowmen on camel's back: it always has been the modus of desert warfare: high mobility
YES! More North Africa Battlestorm. Thanks for the map scales. That helps to put things in context in re the distances.
Question: At this point in the NA campaign, how fast could these units move? Speed of advance and how many hours it would take to cover the terrain would be an interesting detail. I hike and on foot it's anywhere from 2 to 3.5 miles / hour, depending on my condition and how steep the trail is. How fast could these armored & motorized columns "march" across this terrain? Bombing down the highway here in the western US, 70-80 MPH isn't an issue. On good forest roads here in the PNW, 20-30 MPH is easily done....on rougher forest roads, perhaps 10 MPH. I'd guess 10 MPH would be reasonable for vehicles of this era, but don't really know.
In general, for a fully-motorized formation like a Panzer division, the main limit on speed was the top speed of the slowest Panzer, which was around 30 kilometers on average. Terrain had some influence, but Panzers usually didn't go places that their trucks could not follow, at least on the operational level. Most trucks could handle most ground at 30 kilometers an hour as well. So in practice, a Panzer division could comfortably move 30 kilometers an hour over any terrain it was likely to attempt to cross in the first place.
The bigger limit on speed in reality was maintenance-oriented, as North African ground tended to be harder on vehicle components in general. Suspensions, air filters, and other systems would need a lot more love and care to keep from breaking down, and tires on trucks were specially prone to breaking no matter how careful one was. The faster you ran your formation, the more vehicles could break down. Rommel was notorious for running his vehicles to death and why his maintenance crews were legendary for getting the most exhausted and broken vehicles back in action sooner than anyone had a right to expect them to.
Brilliant. Love all your work and detailed dialogue on this fascinating history. Glad, to see you have returned to North Africa.
I never knew that Rommel had intel on the Brits. I had only read that the Brits were able to track Rommel's resupply and starve his army. As always, great stuff.
For a shortened, almost hastily made video, this was great! I love the animated details of your presentation
NOBODY ExPETS AN AFRICAN BATTLESTORM!!!
Tik's Chief weapon is SUPRISE! Suprise and Fear!!! His two weapons!!!
TIK you're a madman and I love you for it mate.
4:13 Gute with 1 t only ;) and its die Quelle, so "Die gute Quelle" is right. Grüße
Fascinating! More Rommel please.
Now how long do people watch the video when the decide to dislike it? Great work TIK! Excited for this new series.
I've always viewed the North African campaign in world war II as one army pushes the other army until it gets too far from its logistics then the other army pushes back the other way until the same thing happens to them. Eventually the Allied army was able to load up on everything to the extent that it wasn't going to run out. Thus the campaign ended.
Yeah the Axis did not consider this front a priority until they were about to lose. The Allies were very worried when Rommell took Tobruk with the supplies.
I'm very excited for the next episode in this series! Thanks so much for sharing your research with us, it is inspiring me to get back into reading academic history books.
Happy Easter tik!
Nice to see north Afrika again.
I appreciate your massive work ethic Tik!
more videos on the mediterranean/north africa front is always welcomed
1:48 these German panzers were still equipped with the "short" 50mm (50L42). The Panzer IIIJ came in two variants SdKfz 141/1 (short 50) and 141/2 (long 50). The 141/2 only started reaching Africa in May 1942
A new BATTLESTORM episode? It must be a dream!
that colored photo at 1:06 is nuts
Take care Tik!
Been waiting so long for your follow up to your excellent crusader battlestorm series in fact I just finished the whole series yesterday so this almost seems too good to be true! Wish it was longer though ;)
Great stuff!!!
These videos is the thing we need
It's nice to be back in a theatre where a man falling flat on his face isn't counted as a major territorial gain.
Excellent video. I am a very happy patron. Keep up the good work !!!
I agree with Messervy's move of the 25-pdrs to the support group since he was correct about the 2-pdr being pretty hopeless. Probably not the right decision in hindsight but it makes sense at the time and the lessons of the previous operation still haven't been learned at this point. It's not like they cared about tanks lacking arty support before.
A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one!
Bonner Fellers reports have always made me think the Rommel was slightly overrated.
Darn, in suspense again!
Good stuff TIK!
Thanks (TIK) for sharing this Super Clearly Explaining of That Foe armies Mobilized during 2nd attempt of Rommel of His Africa Cor ( Campaign ) I appreciate your Hard work for Preparing these Historical Episodes ....I think in all Rommel s attempts ( One , Two) His campaign Severely Suffered From Lack of Supplies Because Italy Navigation Efforts &Germany Airforce efforts Failed to Protecting Supply Convoys in Mediterranean Sea as parallel reason of Eastern Front of against USSR ...thanks
Omg yes! finally we are back
TIK - at around 14:50 you refer to the 2nd Guards Brigade where I think you meant 2nd Armoured Brigade
OMG i was just about to finish Crusader again.....
Noice timing
Your videos are so informative !! Thanks a lot !
The details are always very interesting.
Thank you for another informative video.
Why does a brigade get renumbered? Is going from being the 22nd Guards brigade to the 200th considered a slight?
I love your dry sense of humor. :-)
Now knowing that he would have to cover the exact same amount of land but have even worse supply issues than the first time around, most commanders probably would have tried to figure out and alternative to their situation
But not Rommel XD
Full speed ahead into the same positions knowing that you've made the ports that you need inoperable to you and the brits
B-but if I can just destroy the British army!
@@highjumpstudios2384 surely they won't make us their main focus right ? Ha
*Aaron Rowell*
You got to understand that Germans as a people, are insanely optimistic. They have a plan , what can go wrong? Murphy? Nah! That's a French conspiracy man.
@@peterwall8191 you're 100% correct, very "don't tell me the odds" mentality
And again what's funny is that it works literally nobody expected for the Africa corps to strike. That's one of those things where it's like I'm not saying that Rommel sucks or that the Germans are bad fighters, but it certainly interesting that no one seems to be looking to the long-term plan of hey I guess capturing the Suez canal would be a very critical blow to strike to our enemies however how in God's name are we going to make it there.
Finally back in the desert! I admire your work on the Battlestorm Stalingrad series, but my heart beats for North Africa 🧡
There are so many fascinating campaigns in WW2. North Africa is quite a story, the back & forth. Both sides came very close to defeat before the Allies eventually won.
We all expected the Rommel's 2nd offensive video
Nobody expected this video to be made this early
Are you planning to do some early War battle storm series, like Kiew or The fall of france?
A suprise to be sure, but a welcome one!
@Tikhistory did you have in plan to cover Kursk and Bagration operation or something like that? All the best, you are better than any of documentary i have ever seen.
Stalingrad has gone very sandy
2:07 that picture of rommel, I could have sworn he was taking a selfie lol :)
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 keep up the great work TIk
I'm so tensed to know if rommel will be able to take tobruk and germany perhaps is winning the war end of the day? It's so good told and i enjoy his great work, humor, accent and fairness. Really, great respect and thank you very much (not matsch but mutsch ;-)
Ahhhh, finally , I see another Crusader-esque battle in the horizon .
a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one ^w^ was not expecting a battlestorm video today XD
The Alexandria Raid on December 19th 1941 should also be cited as an important factor for the improvement of the Axis convoys the Mediterranean.
Not sure what’s harder, researching these films, putting up with the comments from the ‘experts’ or fighting in the desert in WW2; be good to hear your views on this tricky question.
"putting up with the comments from the ‘experts’ "
Trust the Experts™!
Great episode
Top stuff as always!
The description of the situation before Rommel's offensive is pretty interesting in how much the same thing could be said towards the end of the year, but swapping the British and Germans around.
Who knew Rommel and the Spanish Inquisition had something in common
A pleasant diversion from the snow and ice on the Eastern front. If my thumb were to go up any higher it would become dislocated.