Great program!!! Just like Seth and Bill say with their program--just a couple of guys sitting around a bar talking about the war. I enjoy all of Jon's programs (even though he was out of uniform and not camouflaged today). Excellent program and discussion! Thanks Jon and Woody!!!!
Wow two of the great WWII historians together talking about the PTO just as great as when Seth and Bill's Unauthorized History of the PTO has Jon as a guest...Unauthorized is always great especially when doing Naval engagements but always better when having Jon on it......this episode is simply excellent history gents! Despite my years of avid consumption of PTO books, research and superb podcasts I always learn something new or at least get a different perspective of events when Jon talks about the PTO! I am so looking forward to his new book!....Also when watching Woody's WW2TV the agreed single malt trigger is his saying "Rabbit Hole" whilst one of the two official single malt triggers on Unauthorized is Jon wearing one of his famous wallpaper shirts....so today is a twofer! Thanks Gents!!! - Col
@ 1:35:26 Well, in my opinion, Jon just hit the gold standard of presentations. Woody, this show just became my #1 favorite of all the shows of yours I’ve watched to date.
Great show Woody! Always love when Jon is on. He's so enthusiastic. And a phenomenal "Rabbit hole" count. It'll take me three days to dry out from this one!
This is EXACTLY why I love supporting your channel Woody! I'm sure you already know this, but the content you are making NOW will be a goldmine to historians in the future! I'm just glad to be a small part of that! I've just signed up for Jon Parshall's mailing list for"1942, Crux of War". I WILL HAVE THIS BOOK!!! Keep up the great work!!
@@WW2TV I could not agree more with @jonculp3080, to be able to delve into the historiography that you have created with your back catalogue of shows with such knowledgeable presenters is a treasure trove of information, please keep up such high quality presentations!!!
What a MASTERCLASS of detail and dialogue! Surely podcasts don't get any better than this. I thoroughly enjoyed the expertise of debate and information on display here. I await John's new book with supreme anticipation!
This was a fantastic discussion, made apparent by the large number of views and the many heavy hitters in the live chat. I will definitely be looking to buying a copy of Jon's book. I could have listened for hours more! Great Q&A from WW2TV and the sidebar.
Terrific look at a year that began poorly for the good guys but started the turnaround to unconditional surrender. Jon is the best and has deeply thought this out.
Another great presentation by Jon, always a pleasure to listen to his knowledge and expertise on the Pacific theatre of war. Thank you Jon and Woody, more from Jon please 👍👏
The transfer of 300 Shermans and about 100 Priest self-propelled 105 mm artillery pieces greatly helped the British win El Alamein, but hurt the US later at battles such as Kasserine Pass. The standard narrative is that the US armored forces were badly trained, which was true, but part of the reason for that was the transfer of tanks from training divisions to the British. There were still some US tankers driving M3 Grants when they met up with British tankers driving M4 Shermans into Tunisia. They probably wondered why the Brits had better American tanks than the Americans.
Hello Paul. I have seen Jon on numerous podcasts. Does an excellent job. This might have been his finest hour (+42 minutes, coincidence?). And the props go to you for this. Your interactions were timed perfectly.
Any guesses for how many kilograms Jon's book will weigh in at? I have a feeling that I'll need to reinforce my book shelves. Great conversation guys. Delightful to listen to you two firing off each other, with excellent questions coming in from viewers.
Talking on the fall of Tobruk and when to fire your commanders, as that defeat & retreat must have revealed to Churchill that in 1942 there was total chaos in the Cairo command. All the Corps and Divisional commanders of 8th Army had lost trust in each other and were issuing their own orders in the field leaving other parts of that Army stranded out in the desert to be cut down piecemeal by DAK. Had Auchinleck not been fired over Tobruk, British Army cohesion in the Western desert would have fallen into confusion and panic every time Rommel came over the nearest hill. This is exclusively about top-level command I’m talking about here, a number of “last bullet, last man” actions took place in the second-half of 1942 because the British command had broken down. I’m not saying Monty saved them btw, just that a firm hand with a plan fixed this confidence/cohesion issue.
I’m 18:56 in laughing at the King picture and thinking what a shame it is that MacArthur wasn’t recalled to the US for a sit down with King over Pacific Strategy. Can you Imagine those two egos in the same room along with King’s temper? To quote the movie Princess Bride “Their will be blood tonight!” Lol.
True, he was senior; being army chief-of-staff does that to a fella. That said, he retired from the US Army on 31 December 1937 and was hired by the Commonwealth of the Philippines' government as its field marshal to supervise the creation of its new army. He had been advising the Filipinos but still on US payroll since Oct 1935 - his rank reverted to brigadier general after he completed his tour as army chief-of-staff. He was recalled to the US Army in late July '41. Whilst McArthur was in the Philippines George Marshall was appointed army chief-of-staff, thus promoted to general, on 1 July 1939 and sworn in on 1 Sep. Unlike today's US military, officers went up _and down_ in rank. For example, Malin Craig, who was chief-of-staff between McArthur and Marshall, had been promoted to brigadier general during WWI, then reverted to major in 1919, a drop of three ranks. Given the way rank was held temporarily, and that officers would see themselves rise and fall several ranks at times in a short period, an officer finding himself junior to fella who had once been his junior was the norm.
@@gagamba9198 You are talking GRADE and not RANK. Macarthur forever outranked Marshall and according to all the Marshall biographies, he resented it -- it dated back to WWI. He forever felt he had to treat Macarthur with kid gloves (so did Roosevelt, but for other reasons).
The 39th parallel dividing North and South Korea was decided in a hotel room in New York City by representatives from the USSR and the US State Department. It seemed a fair division at the time and the map used was from an issue of National Geographic I was told.
On Ugaki keeping his post after Midway, his comments in his diary of what went wrong are rather underwhelming, but Jon with his better detail of that battle would be able to comment better.
My Grandpa was on the New Orleans during WW2. He was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked all the way through the war. My son and I have researched about where it was and where it fought. All we can find is that it fought in the Pacific. Very frustrated.
@ thank you! I tend to avoid Wikipedia but this is the most information I have ever found. I never met my grandpa because of family stuff. This helps to understand better.
Guadalcanal campaign loses table, aircraft, aviators. Does this include Australian and U.S. aircraft and aviators operating out of Port Moresby, and same for Japanese operating against them? A loss over Moresby or Henderson was the exact same thing to the IJN or IJA. Prior to invasion of Guadalcanal did the IJN have plans for another operation in the Indian Ocean?
I've come to believe that the battle of Midway is analogous to Battle of Little Roundtop at Gettysburg. The Guadalcanal campaign is analogous to Picket's charge. The impact of these separate pair of events seemed to have similar immediate and long-term impact of the respective wars.
17:45 - the answer to “what idiot drew this line?” is probably “God & New South Wales” 😹 This meridian (159 E) runs through Lord Howe Is, part of a line of extinct volcanoes running due North in the Tasman Sea, that are unincorporated Australian territory about 300 nmiles off the East Coast of the continent.
Thinking about shifting that line West, the reasoning from Marshall to Mac was probably that the original was based on Australian civilian administration and that US Army’s priority was to defend the Australian mainland. It would take the US Navy to protect the Tasman island chain off the coast of Australia’s ports anyway, which fortunately they never had to do.
Talk about a MASSIVE rabbit hole. You could have a roundtable discussion on the pros and cons of the raid. I tend to think the extra carrier (Enterprise) in the Coral Sea would have given a bigger victory to the US. Also, the Enterprise was the first Pacific Fleet carrier to change the size of the Fighter squadron to 27 planes from 18. The Hornet would have stayed in the Atlantic for at least another month doing training, IMHO.
Yeah, Jon is so mach a diva between other good staff 😀 And only question left - how Woody learn speak so fast for a British 😀 Really - 2 boys got their new big toy soldiers pack 😀 Create show!
I think Adm King among the major World War II commanders.does not get enough credit. So your program was very helpful. One of the issues with King was that he was not a very sympathetic person. Jon brings up two of the major military issues concerning King. . One that he disliked the British. Jon suggests the problem was with Pound which is interesting. Two was convoying along the East Coast. Jon does not explain just why King was so late in organizing convoys along the East Coast. I was always under the impression that 1) the destroyers were needed in the Pacific and 2) King was surprised that he Germans had the capability of conducting such distant operations along the East Coast. Based on the discussion, one gets the impression, that the issues with Pound is why King did not organize convoying. I'd be surprised if that is what Jon meant to say. It would be interesting to know just why it took so long.
King was a little busy trying to stop Japan with no help from Britain escorting convoys to Britain escorting convoys to Murmansk launching Spits to Malta building bases in locations acquired in Destroyers of Bases building bases in Northern Ireland FYI US east coast was the most heavily trafficked sea lane in the world at that time
@@nickdanger3802 I don't think that holds up. It is true, that King "was a little busy"--primarily because of the Japanese. But ... 1) "trying to stop Japan with no help from Britain". That is a little unfair. The British at the time did try to help and lost two battleships (Repulse and Prince of Wales) and shortly after the great bastion of Singapore--and with it the greatest surrender of soldiers in British history. There was not much Britain could do in the Pacific. Not to mention they were battered by Kido Butai's foray into the Indian Ocean. (providing a brief respite for the Americans.) 2) "escorting convoys to Britain". Now it is true that the U.S. Navy was escorting convoys in 1941, but after Pearl Harbor the U.S. escorts were largely withdrawn and the escorts were almost entirely British and Canadian. Now as the U.S. Navy rebuilt, it did return to escorting, but not n 1942. 3) "escorting convoys to Murmansk". As far as I know this was largely a Royal Navy operation. 4) "launching Spits to Malta". True and very important , but we are talking about only a small number of escorts. 5) "building bases in the destroyers for bases deal. " If any thing, building/expanding those bases was impeded by the massive loss of shipping before convoying. 6) "building bases in Northern Ireland" American escorts had nothing to do with that. FYI. The U-boat men referred to Drumbeat as 'the 'second Happy Time'. They sank 585 ships including precious tankers, over 3 million gross tons. Given that shipping was the Allies Achilles heel, this was a substantial victory for the Germans.
With you on maps, Jon. So frustrating when a book has few. I feel that the author knows what happened (i.e., where things happened) but won't tell (show) me!
What about the disastrous U-Boat campaign off the Atlantic Coast for the first months until convoys and ASW capabilities were developed? How much responsibility does King have for the delay?
Suggest you watch Seth and Bill on Unauthorised History - Episode “King was mostly right” and Drachinifel on King. Between them they delve into King pretty well (short of an in depth biography), and lay out some of the considerations King had to juggle. One that sticks out is the lack of central government power to make Americans turn off their lights at night so the ships were not silhouetted against the land - many folk drove to the beach front and left their headlights on! The convoy issue which is usually raised has several nuances to it - they explain it better than I can. In terms of King’s ability, Drachinifel’s Fleet Problem YTs are fun when King is playing as commander of the enemy - does a Sunday dawn raid on Pearl Harbour sound familiar? King did it years before Yamamoto. I wonder if he heard about it and adopted it. First strike by carrier aircraft? King again.
This would make a great episode, Woody. I don’t believe there has been a deep dive into it. I’m looking forward to seeing what Jon has to say in “1942.” The image of ships against the East Coast lights making easy targets, and tankers burning in sight of the coast, is horrifying.
If John’s pony only has one trick, it was most certainly the beneficiary of being taught a really, really interesting trick. I just wonder what tricks his clowder of cats know. I mean seriously, what kind of sneak attack are a group of cats named the “kitty brutai” capable of performing?
Erm, Woody, its not that Penguins do not *want* to live on the Aleutian's, its more that the most Northerly species of Penguins are the Galapagos Penguin, which lives pretty much right on the equator. Penguins are by and large restricted to the southern hemisphere. Last time I looked the Aleutian's are Arctic (at least the most Northerly ones are) If they could get to the Aleutian Islands they would probably be fine though. I personally have seen Emperors in the Antarctic, and if people think the weather is bad in the Aleutian Islands, its got nothing on Antarctica, especially an Antarctic winter! Thinking on it the Aleutian's would be pretty damned good real estate for penguins... If they could get there! For some reason though they have not spread North of the Equator, there are some Hypothesis about why, but nothing really concrete.
1942 was absurd for the cross channel invasion. It is hard to imagine Marshal even contemplating this. But it was very early in the War and the Americans were desperately worried about the Soviets. And I suspect that Marshal's assessments were still dominated by his World War I experience. But the U.S. Army as not yet present in Britain in the strength needed. It would have had to have been a mostly British operation.
The US only had 6 or 8 divisions ready.4 in the pacific In 44 the. US Had about 55 division. Marshal knew this and the knew the Allies were a minimum one year away. Ended up two.
Indeed. I think he also didn't want to totally alienate his Republican opponents by relieving MacArthur. Giving him the MOH was a bit too far for me, but then I was not in FDRs position. Good point.
A comment on this idea on a Unauthorised History YT suggested that the timing of the Republican selections etc was not consistent with this idea. I have not fact checked it, so treat this idea as “possible” and “seems plausible” but not solid without further examination.
We have tons of information as to what happened on the Allied side, but this discussion doesn't go into the Japanese discussions about this period. What about that? If I carry things back even more, what prompted the Japanese to attack the US (Pearl Harbor, Philippines)? Had the Japanese NOT attacked the US (yes, I know, lots of the Japanese naval planning pre-WWII was naval conflict with the US), the US would NOT have had a cassus belli to join the war (US electorate isolationism would have prevented it). THIS was the great strategic mistake of the Japanese. As an overall point, the fact we haven't translated into English the COMPLETE 120 volume Japanese official history is a real black hole in the historiography of ENGLISH-language World War II history.
North Africa may have been a training ground but Britain was there defending Suez and this the empire. For Britain Egypt - and the empire - was central. Britain would have been happy to not do France in 44. Read Ingersoll.
I agree completely about Africa, and my remarks were to counter the people who say the North Africa campaign was an unnecessary sideshow. Which of course it wasn't
It is not difficult, we were fighting a defensive war UNTIL the Japanese began building what would become Henderson field, that treat to Australia could not be tolerated.
King followed the orders for Sherman modeled from the book of Ruth. Wither he goes so shall you go. The Japanese were going into Solomon's so would the US
No, neither was OMG, but most things went the Allies way in 1944, and you could argue that the German failure in the Ardennes sped up their evential defeat
Why no mention of the victories over the Japanese in New Guinea? The Japanese did not differentiate between New Guinea & Guadalcanal why do historians focus only on the small battle? There were far more Japanese in New Guinea than Guadalcanal. The Japanese wanted air fields in New Guinea, at Mile Bay. They were handed their first land defeat ( by Australians) attempting to take it. They were pushed back over the Kokoda Trail and defeated at Gona , Buna & Sanananda all allied ( predominantly Australian) victories in 1942. Australia had more Divisions in the SW Pacific in 1942 than America. It was Australian troops who were doing the bulk of the ground war at this time. Not one mention of this! The first American troops to go into action were the US army 32 Division in Buna, in New Guinea not then 1st Marines Division on Guadalcanal. Even if you want to ignore the Australians perhaps the US 32nd Division might have been worth a mention. It suffered far more losses than the Marines. It was engaged more brutal fighting. The largest losses at Guadalcanal were naval. On New Guinea the losses were almost all infantry. Why was this theater ignored?
Because there's only so much that can be covered in one show. Hence why we did the 1942 Q and A last week with Jon.. Also we have covered New Guinea in several dedicated shows on the channel
Alanbrooke was constantly complaining about the lack of strategic vision and ability amongst the Americans leaders. There has not been enough criticism of how they kept siphoning forces away from the fight against Germany. Japan wasn't going anywhere after Midway. If they had ventured into the South Pacific, they would only have stretched their limited forces even further, basically the long distances down there would have attrited their forces naturally. Everything rested on weakening Germany before it got too strong, and the USSR gave up or signed a peace with them.
"and the USSR gave up or signed a peace with them." fairly certain that did not happen Churchill "For the time being, in the war against Japan the British effort is confined to the Indian theatre." below 1477 WAR SITUATION HC Deb 11 February 1943 vol 386 cc1453-531
But Jon, 140 maps will get you banned from Seth & Bill? Seth will have to actually learn video editing and will absolutely murdalize you. Paul, I don't think you can really put in two British wins there without adding "against the Italians?" And I can't repeat this one without laughing out loud: "Also part of our Island Hoping series?" in your Description. Perhaps better if you just stuck to Normandy, I did enjoy your Falaise one on the Poles? You've already said you know little/nothing about the Pacific? To take part in a conversation, you do need some knowledge of the subject. Armoured Carriers, Drachinifel and Unauthorized History of the Pacific have you beaten every day, sport. Bill Toti is a retired sub commander, and in the Pacific FFS? Sorry Jon, I'm awaiting the book now delayed another 2 years, oh boy! We're all very pleased after 3 decades you've decided to move on from Midway...If i die before it's published, I'll never forgive you. Careful, or Patrick Rothfuss will get jealous.
I'll be honest, I'm pretty offended by that comment. As I am so shit, you had better not watch any more of my WW2TV. Saying I know next to nothing is rather unfair. The Pacific is not my main focus, but I know more than many. What specifically was something I said that showed me as being such a moron please? Don't forget many of the questions I pose are from viewers, not me. This was a contextual rar reaching conversation that included the Med, Eastern Front etc. As for the comment about the Italians, I guess you're one of those people who dismiss them as a force. Well speak to anyone who fought them in North Africa, I can assure they could be a formidable enemy. Oh well, I'll move on from this, but I can assure you Jon enjoyed the conversation despite me apparently being an idiot.
@@WW2TV I would never consider you an idiot. The fact that you have all those guest commentator, authors and historian comeback to do repeat shows, is an indication on how they rate the value of WW2TV. Also, the quality of the discussion in the sidebar is another indication of the success of your channel. Keep up the good work.
That's what I believe John. It's always a balancing act to provide enough detail for expert viewers but also to make sure the content is accessible to all. Thomas's comment still upsets me a few days later
It's real simple folks, whenever Jon Parshall pops up you watch him
That is correct
Great program!!! Just like Seth and Bill say with their program--just a couple of guys sitting around a bar talking about the war. I enjoy all of Jon's programs (even though he was out of uniform and not camouflaged today). Excellent program and discussion! Thanks Jon and Woody!!!!
That's we love Woody. Great guests, deep dives.
Oh thank the lord- a Jon Parshall video to take my mind off of the world’s infinite miseries of the current moment. A 1h:42m respite well appreciated.
Outstanding discussion! Please keep having Jon on the show!!!
Wow two of the great WWII historians together talking about the PTO just as great as when Seth and Bill's Unauthorized History of the PTO has Jon as a guest...Unauthorized is always great especially when doing Naval engagements but always better when having Jon on it......this episode is simply excellent history gents! Despite my years of avid consumption of PTO books, research and superb podcasts I always learn something new or at least get a different perspective of events when Jon talks about the PTO! I am so looking forward to his new book!....Also when watching Woody's WW2TV the agreed single malt trigger is his saying "Rabbit Hole" whilst one of the two official
single malt triggers on Unauthorized is Jon wearing one of his famous wallpaper shirts....so today is a twofer! Thanks Gents!!! - Col
This presentation just broke into my top 5 WW2tv presentations.
Thanks Tim, Jon is a rockstar
Jon Parshall is easily one of my favourites of your regular guests. Keep him coming back! Looking forward to the book.
@ 1:35:26 Well, in my opinion, Jon just hit the gold standard of presentations. Woody, this show just became my #1 favorite of all the shows of yours I’ve watched to date.
Good point. Just looked up your time tag and then ended up listening till the end of the presentation. I'll have to watch again it was that good
I'll watch just about anything with John in it, he's a great human being.
That was brilliant. Jon always delivers. Could have listened for hours.
Great show Woody! Always love when Jon is on. He's so enthusiastic. And a phenomenal "Rabbit hole" count. It'll take me three days to dry out from this one!
Wonderful Jon and Woody. It's always a pleasure to listen to Jon....so much knowledge
Great discussion Woody and Jon. You two were just brilliant, thanks.
This is EXACTLY why I love supporting your channel Woody! I'm sure you already know this, but the content you are making NOW will be a goldmine to historians in the future! I'm just glad to be a small part of that! I've just signed up for Jon Parshall's mailing list for"1942, Crux of War".
I WILL HAVE THIS BOOK!!!
Keep up the great work!!
I appreciate that!
@@WW2TV I could not agree more with @jonculp3080, to be able to delve into the historiography that you have created with your back catalogue of shows with such knowledgeable presenters is a treasure trove of information, please keep up such high quality presentations!!!
Another fantastic episode - thanks Jon and Woody!
Thanks for this one Paul and Jon
Thanks!
What a MASTERCLASS of detail and dialogue! Surely podcasts don't get any better than this. I thoroughly enjoyed the expertise of debate and information on display here. I await John's new book with supreme anticipation!
Woody and Jon thank you for a wonderful presentation and discussion on what was happening in 1942 and the impact on the overall grand Strategy
Fantastic show, get Jon Parshall on more!
Thanks for this Woody! Great to hear from Jon again.
Thanks for giving us jon again woody....could listen to him all day
Fantastic presentation/discussion as always. Can't wait for the book to come out!
This was a fantastic discussion, made apparent by the large number of views and the many heavy hitters in the live chat. I will definitely be looking to buying a copy of Jon's book. I could have listened for hours more! Great Q&A from WW2TV and the sidebar.
Terrific look at a year that began poorly for the good guys but started the turnaround to unconditional surrender. Jon is the best and has deeply thought this out.
Fantastic presentation Woody. Jon has always been the greatest. presentator .
It's good talk when the Q&A session is nearly twice the length of the talk.
Super super show could hardly pour a beer in case i missed something said. Thank you Jon Parshall and WW2TV.
A wonderful presentation guys thanks
Great Presentation! Looking forward to more.
Another great presentation by Jon, always a pleasure to listen to his knowledge and expertise on the Pacific theatre of war. Thank you Jon and Woody, more from Jon please 👍👏
Thanks Paul. You and Jon are excellent historians. This presentation is superb.
Glad you enjoyed it
Another excellent program- thank you.👍
Thanks for listening
Absolutely brilliant discussion about the importance of 1942 from almost every angle you could ask for!!
One of the best episodes ever. I could listen to Jon all day!
Great episode thanks Woody and Jon
That was fantastic!
Thank you Woody, Jon is always a treat... or maybe it's the wall paper.
Excellent conversation with WW2TV nation. Wish I could've been with you live.
The transfer of 300 Shermans and about 100 Priest self-propelled 105 mm artillery pieces greatly helped the British win El Alamein, but hurt the US later at battles such as Kasserine Pass. The standard narrative is that the US armored forces were badly trained, which was true, but part of the reason for that was the transfer of tanks from training divisions to the British.
There were still some US tankers driving M3 Grants when they met up with British tankers driving M4 Shermans into Tunisia. They probably wondered why the Brits had better American tanks than the Americans.
You could make a pretty good case that they needed them more, they had been doing the bulk of the fighting in the Western theater.
Hello Paul. I have seen Jon on numerous podcasts. Does an excellent job. This might have been his finest hour (+42 minutes, coincidence?). And the props go to you for this. Your interactions were timed perfectly.
Well done buddy.
Well done Woody and Jon! One of the best episodes ever!!
Excellent stuff
Great show, with great questions!
1:33:25 - Soviet John Wayne was not on my Jon Parshall bingo card either 😹
Thank you, wow!
Splendid discussion. I eagerly await Parshall’s book.
And a Maggie Thatcher impression to boot…Parshall got it all😂
Any guesses for how many kilograms Jon's book will weigh in at? I have a feeling that I'll need to reinforce my book shelves.
Great conversation guys. Delightful to listen to you two firing off each other, with excellent questions coming in from viewers.
Really enjoyed this. Well done!
Wonderful show and lesson and as relaxed as two great historians riffing
Jon is the man.
Excellent as usual
On the Doolittle Raid, Ugaki’s diary has many references to the possibility of such a raid, for months prior to it occurring.
The man, the myth, the wallpaper!
Talking on the fall of Tobruk and when to fire your commanders, as that defeat & retreat must have revealed to Churchill that in 1942 there was total chaos in the Cairo command. All the Corps and Divisional commanders of 8th Army had lost trust in each other and were issuing their own orders in the field leaving other parts of that Army stranded out in the desert to be cut down piecemeal by DAK. Had Auchinleck not been fired over Tobruk, British Army cohesion in the Western desert would have fallen into confusion and panic every time Rommel came over the nearest hill. This is exclusively about top-level command I’m talking about here, a number of “last bullet, last man” actions took place in the second-half of 1942 because the British command had broken down. I’m not saying Monty saved them btw, just that a firm hand with a plan fixed this confidence/cohesion issue.
I’m 18:56 in laughing at the King picture and thinking what a shame it is that MacArthur wasn’t recalled to the US for a sit down with King over Pacific Strategy. Can you Imagine those two egos in the same room along with King’s temper? To quote the movie Princess Bride “Their will be blood tonight!” Lol.
A link for anyone who needs one.
ua-cam.com/video/T-HOfMGbJpA/v-deo.htmlsi=scK2jD3bOWfyYNu8
And don't forget that Doug was senior to every soldier and had been their boss. Drove Marshall nut
True, he was senior; being army chief-of-staff does that to a fella. That said, he retired from the US Army on 31 December 1937 and was hired by the Commonwealth of the Philippines' government as its field marshal to supervise the creation of its new army. He had been advising the Filipinos but still on US payroll since Oct 1935 - his rank reverted to brigadier general after he completed his tour as army chief-of-staff. He was recalled to the US Army in late July '41. Whilst McArthur was in the Philippines George Marshall was appointed army chief-of-staff, thus promoted to general, on 1 July 1939 and sworn in on 1 Sep.
Unlike today's US military, officers went up _and down_ in rank. For example, Malin Craig, who was chief-of-staff between McArthur and Marshall, had been promoted to brigadier general during WWI, then reverted to major in 1919, a drop of three ranks. Given the way rank was held temporarily, and that officers would see themselves rise and fall several ranks at times in a short period, an officer finding himself junior to fella who had once been his junior was the norm.
@@gagamba9198 You are talking GRADE and not RANK. Macarthur forever outranked Marshall and according to all the Marshall biographies, he resented it -- it dated back to WWI. He forever felt he had to treat Macarthur with kid gloves (so did Roosevelt, but for other reasons).
David O’Keefe’s comments are the highlight of this video. I don’t think Paul Woodadge should ever not include them from now on.
The 39th parallel dividing North and South Korea was decided in a hotel room in New York City by representatives from the USSR and the US State Department. It seemed a fair division at the time and the map used was from an issue of National Geographic I was told.
You had me at 1942 John…
On Ugaki keeping his post after Midway, his comments in his diary of what went wrong are rather underwhelming, but Jon with his better detail of that battle would be able to comment better.
My Grandpa was on the New Orleans during WW2. He was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked all the way through the war. My son and I have researched about where it was and where it fought. All we can find is that it fought in the Pacific. Very frustrated.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_New_Orleans_(CA-32)
@ thank you! I tend to avoid Wikipedia but this is the most information I have ever found. I never met my grandpa because of family stuff. This helps to understand better.
love his wallpaper...
Everyone does
Guadalcanal campaign loses table, aircraft, aviators. Does this include Australian and U.S. aircraft and aviators operating out of Port Moresby, and same for Japanese operating against them? A loss over Moresby or Henderson was the exact same thing to the IJN or IJA.
Prior to invasion of Guadalcanal did the IJN have plans for another operation in the Indian Ocean?
I'm not sure if Jon will see this
General Marshall fired a lot of army senior officers. There was a lot of dead wood to trim.
The Allies found that mostly intact Zero in the Aleutians, maybe the most important thing to come from the campaign?
I've come to believe that the battle of Midway is analogous to Battle of Little Roundtop at Gettysburg. The Guadalcanal campaign is analogous to Picket's charge. The impact of these separate pair of events seemed to have similar immediate and long-term impact of the respective wars.
17:45 - the answer to “what idiot drew this line?” is probably “God & New South Wales” 😹
This meridian (159 E) runs through Lord Howe Is, part of a line of extinct volcanoes running due North in the Tasman Sea, that are unincorporated Australian territory about 300 nmiles off the East Coast of the continent.
Thinking about shifting that line West, the reasoning from Marshall to Mac was probably that the original was based on Australian civilian administration and that US Army’s priority was to defend the Australian mainland. It would take the US Navy to protect the Tasman island chain off the coast of Australia’s ports anyway, which fortunately they never had to do.
Bougainville was The Australian protectorate of New Guinea, whilst The Solomons are a British protectorate
Oh Woody, as soon as you poo-poo'd the Doolittle Raid I knew Jon wouldn't let that go, Ha Ha
Talk about a MASSIVE rabbit hole. You could have a roundtable discussion on the pros and cons of the raid. I tend to think the extra carrier (Enterprise) in the Coral Sea would have given a bigger victory to the US. Also, the Enterprise was the first Pacific Fleet carrier to change the size of the Fighter squadron to 27 planes from 18. The Hornet would have stayed in the Atlantic for at least another month doing training, IMHO.
Yeah, Jon is so mach a diva between other good staff 😀 And only question left - how Woody learn speak so fast for a British 😀 Really - 2 boys got their new big toy soldiers pack 😀
Create show!
Those designers of the Essex class carriers early on should be mentioned in any talk of 1942.
We have a Carriers show coming up next week
1942. Yes. So interesting
Bradley got it right every time,:
609, Sicily, Cobra, France, Bulge Rhur...
I think he got it right half the time personally
I think Adm King among the major World War II commanders.does not get enough credit. So your program was very helpful. One of the issues with King was that he was not a very sympathetic person. Jon brings up two of the major military issues concerning King. . One that he disliked the British. Jon suggests the problem was with Pound which is interesting. Two was convoying along the East Coast. Jon does not explain just why King was so late in organizing convoys along the East Coast. I was always under the impression that 1) the destroyers were needed in the Pacific and 2) King was surprised that he Germans had the capability of conducting such distant operations along the East Coast. Based on the discussion, one gets the impression, that the issues with Pound is why King did not organize convoying. I'd be surprised if that is what Jon meant to say. It would be interesting to know just why it took so long.
King was a little busy
trying to stop Japan with no help from Britain
escorting convoys to Britain
escorting convoys to Murmansk
launching Spits to Malta
building bases in locations acquired in Destroyers of Bases
building bases in Northern Ireland
FYI US east coast was the most heavily trafficked sea lane in the world at that time
@@nickdanger3802 I don't think that holds up. It is true, that King "was a little busy"--primarily because of the Japanese. But ...
1) "trying to stop Japan with no help from Britain". That is a little unfair. The British at the time did try to help and lost two battleships (Repulse and Prince of Wales) and shortly after the great bastion of Singapore--and with it the greatest surrender of soldiers in British history. There was not much Britain could do in the Pacific. Not to mention they were battered by Kido Butai's foray into the Indian Ocean. (providing a brief respite for the Americans.)
2) "escorting convoys to Britain". Now it is true that the U.S. Navy was escorting convoys in 1941, but after Pearl Harbor the U.S. escorts were largely withdrawn and the escorts were almost entirely British and Canadian. Now as the U.S. Navy rebuilt, it did return to escorting, but not n 1942.
3) "escorting convoys to Murmansk". As far as I know this was largely a Royal Navy operation.
4) "launching Spits to Malta". True and very important , but we are talking about only a small number of escorts.
5) "building bases in the destroyers for bases deal. " If any thing, building/expanding those bases was impeded by the massive loss of shipping before convoying.
6) "building bases in Northern Ireland" American escorts had nothing to do with that.
FYI. The U-boat men referred to Drumbeat as 'the 'second Happy Time'. They sank 585 ships including precious tankers, over 3 million gross tons. Given that shipping was the Allies Achilles heel, this was a substantial victory for the Germans.
With you on maps, Jon. So frustrating when a book has few. I feel that the author knows what happened (i.e., where things happened) but won't tell (show) me!
New John Parshall book? Shut up and take my money
22:55, Hungary appears on that map twice, it should be Hungary and Bulgaria😂😂 great show guys
Tell John I subscribed.
What about the disastrous U-Boat campaign off the Atlantic Coast for the first months until convoys and ASW capabilities were developed? How much responsibility does King have for the delay?
Suggest you watch Seth and Bill on Unauthorised History - Episode “King was mostly right” and Drachinifel on King.
Between them they delve into King pretty well (short of an in depth biography), and lay out some of the considerations King had to juggle.
One that sticks out is the lack of central government power to make Americans turn off their lights at night so the ships were not silhouetted against the land - many folk drove to the beach front and left their headlights on!
The convoy issue which is usually raised has several nuances to it - they explain it better than I can.
In terms of King’s ability, Drachinifel’s Fleet Problem YTs are fun when King is playing as commander of the enemy - does a Sunday dawn raid on Pearl Harbour sound familiar? King did it years before Yamamoto. I wonder if he heard about it and adopted it. First strike by carrier aircraft? King again.
This would make a great episode, Woody. I don’t believe there has been a deep dive into it. I’m looking forward to seeing what Jon has to say in “1942.” The image of ships against the East Coast lights making easy targets, and tankers burning in sight of the coast, is horrifying.
If John’s pony only has one trick, it was most certainly the beneficiary of being taught a really, really interesting trick. I just wonder what tricks his clowder of cats know. I mean seriously, what kind of sneak attack are a group of cats named the “kitty brutai” capable of performing?
Erm, Woody, its not that Penguins do not *want* to live on the Aleutian's, its more that the most Northerly species of Penguins are the Galapagos Penguin, which lives pretty much right on the equator. Penguins are by and large restricted to the southern hemisphere. Last time I looked the Aleutian's are Arctic (at least the most Northerly ones are)
If they could get to the Aleutian Islands they would probably be fine though. I personally have seen Emperors in the Antarctic, and if people think the weather is bad in the Aleutian Islands, its got nothing on Antarctica, especially an Antarctic winter!
Thinking on it the Aleutian's would be pretty damned good real estate for penguins... If they could get there! For some reason though they have not spread North of the Equator, there are some Hypothesis about why, but nothing really concrete.
It was just a throwaway joke comment really about it being a pretty inhospitable area
22:20 How many Hungaries are there?
Washinton DC would do anything to keep Douglas MacArthur out of the USA. Unfortunately Australia got saddled with him.
1942 was absurd for the cross channel invasion. It is hard to imagine Marshal even contemplating this. But it was very early in the War and the Americans were desperately worried about the Soviets. And I suspect that Marshal's assessments were still dominated by his World War I experience. But the U.S. Army as not yet present in Britain in the strength needed. It would have had to have been a mostly British operation.
The US only had 6 or 8 divisions ready.4 in the pacific In 44 the. US Had about 55 division. Marshal knew this and the knew the Allies were a minimum one year away. Ended up two.
I think FDR wanted Doug in Australia being a hero, rather than back in the USA and ready to become the Republican Presidential Candidate against him.
Indeed. I think he also didn't want to totally alienate his Republican opponents by relieving MacArthur. Giving him the MOH was a bit too far for me, but then I was not in FDRs position. Good point.
A comment on this idea on a Unauthorised History YT suggested that the timing of the Republican selections etc was not consistent with this idea. I have not fact checked it, so treat this idea as “possible” and “seems plausible” but not solid without further examination.
There was no presidential election scheduled for over two years, so that seems unlikely.
if he had left his ass in the phillipines two problems averted
@@davidlavigne207He certainly didn’t deserve the MOH.
We have tons of information as to what happened on the Allied side, but this discussion doesn't go into the Japanese discussions about this period. What about that? If I carry things back even more, what prompted the Japanese to attack the US (Pearl Harbor, Philippines)? Had the Japanese NOT attacked the US (yes, I know, lots of the Japanese naval planning pre-WWII was naval conflict with the US), the US would NOT have had a cassus belli to join the war (US electorate isolationism would have prevented it). THIS was the great strategic mistake of the Japanese.
As an overall point, the fact we haven't translated into English the COMPLETE 120 volume Japanese official history is a real black hole in the historiography of ENGLISH-language World War II history.
1942, time of the Wildcat,Marines still with 1903s , Coast watchers and crummy torpedos.
North Africa may have been a training ground but Britain was there defending Suez and this the empire.
For Britain Egypt - and the empire - was central. Britain would have been happy to not do France in 44.
Read Ingersoll.
I agree completely about Africa, and my remarks were to counter the people who say the North Africa campaign was an unnecessary sideshow. Which of course it wasn't
Your Europ map 22:28 is wrong you name Bulgaria Hungary
Yep, it's just an error on the map
On Doug, why was he putting into the press the idea of invading the Solomons??? OpSec be damned.
It is not difficult, we were fighting a defensive war UNTIL the Japanese began building what would become Henderson field, that treat to Australia could not be tolerated.
King followed the orders for Sherman modeled from the book of Ruth. Wither he goes so shall you go. The Japanese were going into Solomon's so would the US
Bulge wasn't good news... 😯
No, neither was OMG, but most things went the Allies way in 1944, and you could argue that the German failure in the Ardennes sped up their evential defeat
DON'T give me that crap about 'early 2026!!! I expect a copy 'on my desk by close of business today'!!!,
Why no mention of the victories over the Japanese in New Guinea? The Japanese did not differentiate between New Guinea & Guadalcanal why do historians focus only on the small battle? There were far more Japanese in New Guinea than Guadalcanal. The Japanese wanted air fields in New Guinea, at Mile Bay. They were handed their first land defeat ( by Australians) attempting to take it. They were pushed back over the Kokoda Trail and defeated at Gona , Buna & Sanananda all allied ( predominantly Australian) victories in 1942. Australia had more Divisions in the SW Pacific in 1942 than America. It was Australian troops who were doing the bulk of the ground war at this time. Not one mention of this! The first American troops to go into action were the US army 32 Division in Buna, in New Guinea not then 1st Marines Division on Guadalcanal. Even if you want to ignore the Australians perhaps the US 32nd Division might have been worth a mention. It suffered far more losses than the Marines. It was engaged more brutal fighting. The largest losses at Guadalcanal were naval. On New Guinea the losses were almost all infantry. Why was this theater ignored?
Because there's only so much that can be covered in one show. Hence why we did the 1942 Q and A last week with Jon.. Also we have covered New Guinea in several dedicated shows on the channel
@@WW2TV thanks for the replie. I doenjoy your chanel.
Check our New Guinea and Solomoms playlist ua-cam.com/play/PLDG3XyxGI5lBUZXX50eTgj9_tvuhBfHqz.html&si=e5FGMvrorijPcfk5. Lots about Buna, Kokoda etc
Alanbrooke was constantly complaining about the lack of strategic vision and ability amongst the Americans leaders. There has not been enough criticism of how they kept siphoning forces away from the fight against Germany. Japan wasn't going anywhere after Midway. If they had ventured into the South Pacific, they would only have stretched their limited forces even further, basically the long distances down there would have attrited their forces naturally. Everything rested on weakening Germany before it got too strong, and the USSR gave up or signed a peace with them.
"and the USSR gave up or signed a peace with them."
fairly certain that did not happen
Churchill "For the time being, in the war against Japan the British effort is confined to the Indian theatre."
below 1477
WAR SITUATION
HC Deb 11 February 1943 vol 386 cc1453-531
But Jon, 140 maps will get you banned from Seth & Bill? Seth will have to actually learn video editing and will absolutely murdalize you. Paul, I don't think you can really put in two British wins there without adding "against the Italians?" And I can't repeat this one without laughing out loud: "Also part of our Island Hoping series?" in your Description.
Perhaps better if you just stuck to Normandy, I did enjoy your Falaise one on the Poles? You've already said you know little/nothing about the Pacific? To take part in a conversation, you do need some knowledge of the subject. Armoured Carriers, Drachinifel and Unauthorized History of the Pacific have you beaten every day, sport. Bill Toti is a retired sub commander, and in the Pacific FFS? Sorry Jon, I'm awaiting the book now delayed another 2 years, oh boy! We're all very pleased after 3 decades you've decided to move on from Midway...If i die before it's published, I'll never forgive you. Careful, or Patrick Rothfuss will get jealous.
I'll be honest, I'm pretty offended by that comment. As I am so shit, you had better not watch any more of my WW2TV. Saying I know next to nothing is rather unfair. The Pacific is not my main focus, but I know more than many. What specifically was something I said that showed me as being such a moron please? Don't forget many of the questions I pose are from viewers, not me. This was a contextual rar reaching conversation that included the Med, Eastern Front etc.
As for the comment about the Italians, I guess you're one of those people who dismiss them as a force. Well speak to anyone who fought them in North Africa, I can assure they could be a formidable enemy.
Oh well, I'll move on from this, but I can assure you Jon enjoyed the conversation despite me apparently being an idiot.
@@WW2TV I loved it Paul, so this cancels out the previous post. 😁
Thank you
@@WW2TV I would never consider you an idiot. The fact that you have all those guest commentator, authors and historian comeback to do repeat shows, is an indication on how they rate the value of WW2TV. Also, the quality of the discussion in the sidebar is another indication of the success of your channel. Keep up the good work.
That's what I believe John. It's always a balancing act to provide enough detail for expert viewers but also to make sure the content is accessible to all. Thomas's comment still upsets me a few days later