Week 289 - German Blunder Hands Allies a Rhine Crossing - WW2 - March 9, 1945
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2024
- The Allies manage to take an intact bridge over the mighty Rhine at Remagen, a major piece of luck; the Germans launch a new offensive in Hungary, and the Allies end one in Italy. Over in Burma, Meiktila falls, sabotaging the entire Japanese supply system for the country, and on Iwo Jima the fight continues, bloodier than ever for both sides.
00:59 Recap
01:35 The Fall of Meiktila
03:46 the fight on Iwo Jima
05:27 Advances on the Western Front
07:44 The Rhine River
10:05 Remagen Bridge
16:20 Operation Encore
17:10 Rokossovsky and Zhukov attack
18:09 Operation Spring Awakening
21:57 Notes to end the week
23:42 Conclusion
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More than 7,000 concentration camp survivors killed after the Royal Air Force erroneously bombed German prison ships carrying them in the Baltic Sea, were remembered with special prayers for the first time in 76 years since the tragedy happened.
Described as “the worst friendly-fire incident in history”, SS Cap Arcona, alongside the Thielbek and Deutschland, came under attack and were ultimately sunk by RAF pilots on 3 May 1945 in the Bay of Lubeck, following intelligence that SS officers and senior Nazis were attempting to escape to Norway.
Jewish News UK 7,000 Jewish victims of prison ships sunk by RAF page
Thank you nick for that information.😊😊😊
Fixed the name of Nagykanizsa, only to mess up "Kaposvar", my city of birth!😅
8:04 "... where it is fordable at low tide [sic]." -- rivers are not subject to tides; you meant "low ebb".
16:16 "them [sic]" -- "they"
storming a bridge that you know is wired to blow is a level of bravery of its own.
As in the 1969 movie.
Where did you get that from?
Off a dead colonel.
You Amis never fail to impress.
It’s both suicidal and real dedication to accomplish a task
I guess the support troops had quite a pile of underwear to wash that night..
@MsZeeZed
According to the book by Ken Hechler, yeah, it really did happen.
it's a beautiful bridge, and it's gonna be there. I've had nothing but good thoughts about that bridge...
“Japanese unit committed mass suicide by drowning themselves in the lake”
Whats wild is that almost sounds normal at this point.
Fanaticism is a horrifically scary thing
Oh, those japanese
"With our rotting corpses we will make the water undrinkable" - going through their heads, perhaps...
Least devoted Japanese soldiers:
@@datguy8006 Which makes the Allied's job easier, so good for Japan and its civilians, and terrible for the military high command and the japanese elites in the 40s
Allied Command: "We need to figure out how to cross the Rhine!"
Julius Caesar: "First time huh?"😁
Fortunately ol' J.C. never had to deal with modern artillery shelling him from the other side of the Rhine, or air power.
Good one! Ego te salutant comes…
Julius Caesar: want to see me cross the Rhine?
ALSO Julius Caesar: want to see me do it again?
Julius Caesar ONCE AGAIN: Don't make me cross the Rhine a third time or I swear to Jupiter you will be sorry!
😂
Patton is mumbling to his imaginary friend.
German Command (1940): "We need to figure out how to cross the channel."
Julius Caesar: "First time?"
"Bullshit Wagon" could be the official name for a Sherman with speakers.
Might be my band name if I ever make a band lol
Put THAT in the next Mad Max movie, shiny and chrome.
British name it 'Bullshit Wagon', US probably name it the M4E5-V or something
That was a genuine LOL moment for me when Indy said that. I'd never heard that term before.
The Oddball Machine seems a more suitable name for it.
A thousand-boat navy? That's one Helen of ships!
Nice Troy at a pun.
I envy both of you. Making a pun was always my Achilles heel.
What a Trojan disaster.
Pri am trying myself to come up with something, but striking out...
We might crete a fashion for puns
Fyodor Tolbukhin may be one of the most underrated commanders of WWII - certainly the most underrated Soviet commander. His conquest of south eastern Europe has been nothing short of impressive ever since the summer of 1943. Plus, he was said to a rather amiable fellow, who certainly cared more for the life and the well-being of his troops than 99% of his colleagues, starting with Zhukov and Konev. I bet he would be more recognized than he his, had he not died so prematurely - and not been a personal rival of Marshal Malinovsky, who had a very fruitful postwar career and ample time to fortify his own reputation at the expense of Tolbukhin's.
A Bulgarian city, Dobrich, was renamed Tolbukhin, but changed back to its old name after 1989.
That's a bit of an oversimplification. You can't expect 'light' casualties when going through the kind of fighting on the Eastern Front what with the massive size and scale of the battlefields, the sheer number of men and machines involved, and the savage, often ideologically based hatred and ferocity the two sides felt towards each other. By 1943-44, most Soviet commanders, especially Zhukov, Konev, and even Rokossovsky, took the position of being willing to accept serious casualties to get the job done but at the same time, making sure to take precautions to prevent too high a casualty number. By the last years of the war Soviet casualties could be considered 'reasonable' given the nature of Eastern Front fighting and were certainly an improvement compared to the disastrous early years.
Tolbukhin stands out in that he went the extra mile in trying to lower his casualty numbers and he wasn't the only one. Ivan Bagramyan is another such commander. Regarding Malinovsky, I've honestly never heard of such a rivalry but if there was one, it didn't seem to be a big deal since both he and Tolbukhin worked exceptionally well together in repeatedly tag-teaming the southern part of Germany's Ostfront throughout 1943-45.
Rokososski most underrated Soviet commander. Opinions vary.
@@chadrowe8452 A strong case could be made for him being the best Soviet army commander, but I wouldn't say he is underrated considering a number of historians have also said as much (including Glantz) and his fame is second only to Zhukov's.
The Soviet conquest by 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts of the Balkans was really an operation on the cheap. For the area they had to cover 2 Fronts was inadequate. Between the two of them Tolbukhin and Malinovsky only had 1 of the 6 Soviet tank armies, the 6th (with a lot of Shermans), and logistics to the 2 fronts over the poor railroad network of the Balkans made it a low key affair compared to the concentration of force that the Red Army had in Poland and East Prussia. In that sense I'd say that both Tolbukhin and Malinovsky both did exceptionally well with the sparse resources available to them.
"Cross the Rhine with dry feet courtesy of the 9th Armored Division"
just came back from a hike in a rain forest. after what feels like 1000 creek crossings, crossing a river with dry feet is worth a million.
My great grandfather is General John W. Leonard. He commanded the 9th armored division (who took the bridge). Pretty cool seeing his most famous battle covered on this channel.
They hung a sign up on the bridge that said "Cross the Rhine with dry feet courtesy of the 9th armored division" - its briefly shown in the Band of Brothers series.
That’s freaking cool man!
That is wonderful, you Americans are pretty great soldiers. 🫡
Keeping your feet dry is a BIG DEAL for infantry.
We civilians lack the experience to value this properly.
@@ricardokowalski1579Maybe not all civilians, but certainly most. Camping and hiking in the summer gets a real pain in the behind if your shoes get wet and can’t dry because you’re camping out in the rain.😅
So your the grandson of the man that got my grandpa's buddy killed to lay a coms wire across that damn bridge. Just to let you know he had to use his dead buddy as mobile cover while making the rest way across...
In 1951 ( I was 20 ) I was in Germany with a couple in their fifties. We spoke of the war, I as a Belgian, they seing the end of the war with German eyes, of course. They told me of their reaction when the allies reached the Rhine :”Am Rhein ist noch lange nicht drüber“ (= along the Rhine does not mean over it), they eventually understood that the end actually was in sight as soon as the bridge of Remagen had been crossed. That was important enough for them to really become aware of what was happening.
Since you would have been 9 or so when Germany invaded Belgium, do you have any memories of the war and occupation? Assuming of course that you're inclined to share. Thank you.
Crossing defended rivers has long been one of the toughest military ventures you can embark on throughout history. The defender has a lot of advantages and a superior attacking force can't bring its full weight in the assault. So it must have been horrifying to the German troops at Remagen when the bridge wasn't blown apart. The whole defense of Germany in the west had at that very moment, been compromised.
@@ahorsewithnoname773I can remember every detail very vividly from 1936 on. As the youngest in my family I had heard from the elder ones all that they had been through during WWI, and could understand what was going on in Europe from the Russian invasion of the Baltic states to the war in Finland and the civil war in Spain. I still can see the images of Chamberlain and Daladier returning from Munich persuaded they had saved peace. From September third on we knew no hope was left.
On May 10 we were awakened by the explosion of bombs and the frightening sound of the Stukas. Exactly a week later the German troops arrived in Brussels. My mother and I were just turning the corner of the street when we saw them. I saw my mother turning white: she remembered how the Germans had behaved during the war when only a tiny part of Belgium had not been invaded.
She feared the worst, but nobody could have anticipated what nazis would mean. Though the troops were far less violent we were to live in fear as we saw what became of the Jewish neighbours. I was in fourth grade. One day the Gestapo arrived and a short time later they left with a group of Jewish girls we were never to see again. And then friends and neighbours disappeared to join the resistance movements. After a few months during which we tried to survive with what we could find, rationing was organised. We did not starve but had scarcely enough to survive and most products were of very poor quality, since the Germans methodically confiscated everything for themselves. Normally after an invasion and a lengthy occupation the language of the invaders leaves its marks, as f.I.Latin , Norman French after 1066 , well the only German word we kept was ERSATZ !!! Life dragged on, more and more people disappeared, we tried not to be heard by neighbours when we tried to listen to the BBC, which meant instantly sent to prison. To try to keep alive we exchanged whatever we had for anything we could find in farms: silver, ivory, crystal items, jewels, everything was less precious than something to eat. Fear was always present, but also hope. Though nazi propaganda tried to make us believe that everything was going well for them, from 1943 on we knew that perhaps things were changing.and than came DDay ! Much horror still lay ahead but we began to hope everything would be over soon. Our saviours arrived in Brussels, then came the Rundstet offensive and the terrible battle of the Bulge where so many American soldiers would die, a great number starving and freezing to death.( after the war my sister married one of the few survivors and went to Delaware). And then, after the war, so many people who had not hope to see their loved ones return from captivity or from German jails had to face reality: most of them had been murdered. All around us friends neighbours, family members were mourning. Of course little by little life eventually became normal again.
As I am 93 I am the sole survivor of our group of great friends who had lived though all those years. But the next generation, that of my children, seems to not wish to forget, they often ask questions…and I love answering 👵🏻😁. My eyesight though largely sufficient does no longer appreciate small characters, I hope I did not type too many errors. Have a nice week.
@@rose-marietrembloy243Thanks so much for this account.
@@rose-marietrembloy243Thank you for sharing your story in such great detail, this is worth a lot to all current and future generations
As part of my senior thesis at Manhattanville College, I interviewed 4 WWII veterans from Rye, NY. One of them, Fred Talento Jr., was apart of the forward patrol attached to 9th armored who confirmed that the bridge was intact. HQ simply quite replied get everything and anything over that bridge by any means necessary. His patrol then helped with taking the bridge itself. Even he wondered while speaking to me why the bridge didn't blow. Fascinating to hear his experience.
Thank you for sharing.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
It’s March 9. In 2 months it will be VE Day. 4 months after that, WWII will officially come to an end aboard the USS Missouri. Can’t believe it’s been 6 years since we’ve all spent Saturday in such great company as Indie, Sparty and their wonderful team of researchers! Bravo 👏 👏👏👏👏👏👏
It was indeed, quite the journey! -TimeGhost Ambassador
@@WorldWarTwo been with you guys since June 28, 1914!
Me2!!!
When Indy said "15 and 16 year old boys from the class of 1929 are called up to serve in the German army", it reminded me of the movie, Die Brücke.
I saw yesterday an NHL player in Arizona Coyotes named Kesselring. But he wasn't smiling that much
Good one! I live in Scottsdale and am not happy with the way that franchise has been mismanaged
Seems fitting that the bridge at Remagen, the one that couldn't be blown was named after Ludendorff.
Definitely given his help in the rise of the Nazi's to power and helping create the stab in back myth because the Allies didn't make it German soil. Not only are they there, they've now made it over the Rhine and are at the Oder
"Bullshit wagon"! That is my favorite new term this week!
Who says the truth is the first casualty of war!?
Isn't that what Trump goes round in?
@@peterturner8766 It's 1945 here. Seek help for your Stage IV TDS.
There we go. Rhine crossed! If only Market Garden were that easy.
That was easy?!
No. But, compared to Market Garden, and with the benefit of hindsight, it was significantly _easier._
Took them another half year just to GET to the Rhine, after Market Garden, thanks to Eisenhower going with his broad front disaster, messing around in the Hurtgen Forest, Lorraine, Alsace etc and having to take back all the ground lost in the Ardennes.
@lyndoncmp5751 It can be argued that the "broad front" strategy was more about keeping peace between the French, British, and American commands then about the most effective plan of attack.
@@carlflaherty2215
Definitely. And hundreds of thousands of unnecessary casualties were the result, sadly.
That Kesselring dude has finally stopped smiling. A good moment to switch pictures, the man looks a decade older than previously.
As someone who grew up on the Mississippi I was thinking "yeah, like that's gonna be a 'real' river." OK, it's a river. Those photos make it look truly daunting.
It was only a google away for you
I live in Utah. I used to think the Bear River was big. I remember the first time I saw the Columbia River, I couldn’t believe a river could be so big. I have no concept of how big the Mississippi or Rhine can be. I’ll just stay here in my sagebrush.
The Humboldt River in Nevada always made me laugh.
The Rhine has about the same average discharge as the Missouri river.
@@TurnipstalkRegensburg is on the Danube, not the Rhine
My uncle Joe Daniker, one of my favorite uncles, was one of the engineers laying that pontoon bridge. RIP
My Great Uncle, Father's side, was a carbiner in WWII, their main job was to move ahead of the army and hunt snipers. Rarely spoke of the war.
One of the things he did tell Grandpa was when his unit reached Remagen, they were sent across the bridge to take out the German snipers. The snipers weren't trying to kill the engineers hanging off the side of the bridge. They were trying to hit the bags of explosives the engineers were removing from the bridge.
If those snipers had explosive bullets, then they could well have detonated those bags.
Otherwise, trying to shoot high explosives doesn't work (with most high explosives).
But a soldier should know that.
What kind of snipers did the Germans have there? Because that sounds like the usual 'scraping the barrel' and those Snipers were probably just some young adults with good eyes...
@@MrDwarfpitcherAccording to Grandpa, his brother rarely spoke of what he saw during the war. He was second wave at D-Day and point of the spear right to Germany. It took years for Grandpa to piece together what he was told. Gene was haunted by his experience for his whole life.
My only thinking about shooting at the explosives, they were trying to hit the detonators. That would have worked.
@@MrDwarfpitcher Incendiary bullets might have a chance but explosives will more likely than not fail to detonate from an ordinary bullet strike. Even bombs in bombers would not usually detonate if hit by gunfire from attacking fighters, though German fighter pilots still tried to avoid hitting the bomb bay in enemy bombers on the way to the target, in case they were engulfed in the explosion caused by the bombs going off. They preferred to aim at the engines or the wing tanks. If the bomber was returning from the target, fighters would assume it had dropped its load and they did aim at the fuselage.
19:43 Apparently the Soviets also took the additional measure of dragging up their heavy artillery and pointing them directly against German heavy tanks. And let's be honest, even a King Tiger ain't gonna have a nice day if it took a hit from a 122 mm or 152 mm HE.
The tank has a bad time, but the crew have it far worse. The pressure wave caused by a 152 detonating against the tank would kill everyone in it, despite the shell not actually penetrating.
Turns out you don't need to "kill" the tank if there's no one left to operate it.
@@DRACONAR1US There's also the fact that German armor plate quality has been on a downward spiral for quite some time. Such a big shell would probably bash open a German tank like a glass window.
@@901Shermanagain, it makes little difference when the whole crew will be mush by the pressure wave
The Bridge at Remagen - great film - one of my favourite war films.
I remember a much younger me having complicated feelings about that movie - I think I must have been about ten when I first watched it, understanding that the Germans were the bad guys, but simultaneously being impressed by the courage and humanity shown by Major Scheller (or Major Krueger, as Robert Vaugn's character is styled in the movie).
@stephenwood6663 it was meant to be that way as both sides were depicted to be weary of the war, but both sides being tasked to perform the near impossible at great cost.
Yes, Indy narrated the screenplay beats of that movie well 😹
It was a bit more chaotic with the the Germans piling up bags of quarry explosives around the base of the eastern pier that morning and hoping it would be enough when the built-in manual fuse set it off. It was enough to sever the foundation at that end, but German bridges are built of tougher stuff 😹
@@joelellis7035 It was a rather downbeat and cynical film, with Ben Gazzara playing an NCO fond of looting German corpses.
@@stevekaczynski3793 movie of its time. Late 60s anti-war sentiment.
The level of detail about the Remagen crossing, the context, and the logistical efforts tp get troops across the Rhine, is yet another example of how this channel is an absolutely indispensable source of knowledge. History that's detailed, accurate, and engaging
I often wonder if I could be a historian.
I love history, check.
I read countless pages that a former historian wrote. Um…check?
I read actual source material from people living through “stuff” in their many languages. NOPE
History is a true interest of mine, but I am lazy by comparison to others. Indy, Sparty, and this whole staff show me what it means to truly love history.
You folks are awesome!!!!!! I will be there for Korea War.
Thanks for your kind words, see you on the other side ;)
-TimeGhost Ambassador
You can be a historian researching only books, not source material. There are many who do that. Most likely every youtube historian. What differentiates the history buff from the actual historian is academic training and actually writing your own research papers and books. That was what DELETED my history career in university. I LOVE reading about history. I HATE researching and writing about it.
Have you guys ever spoken about the importance of the Chompmist Hill listening post in Rhode Island, USA? From what I learned, it was able to hear almost any and all German radio communications.
Thanks.
Dad (99th ID) crossed the bridge at Remagen on like the 4th or 5th day after it was captured. He said that was the first time he ever saw a jet aircraft, when the Luftwaffe tried many times to blow it up. They were very fast compared to the propeller driven planes.
One of the T26 Pershing tanks that supported the US Infantry push to take the Remagen Bridge and help secure the bridgehead is in the Wright Museum of WWII in Wolfboro New Hampshire.
Post war it was going to towed onto a firing range at Ft. Devens in Massachusetts and destroyed in a weapons test, but was saved when it was realized it was the only surviving piece of armor from yhe battle.
First time I've heard of a declaration of war being retroactive. 🤔
yes, I'm just going to have to have a think about that!
Yeah that doesn’t work 😂
Political. Saying, "We were at war much earlier!"
Probably some posturing to look more favorable to the Allies and possibly Russia so they can argue to keep more of their territory at the peace negotiations.
@@joelellis7035More of an acknowledgement of fact. Finnish and German troops were fighting each other already during the German retreat to Norway in 1944 after Finland's armistice with the Soviet Union (and the UK).
China declared war on Japan in December 1941. By then, there had been a full-scale war between them for years.
(The US did not give war material to a belligerent country as long as the US was neutral.)
Back in October I had my reenlistment ceremony for the U.S. Army & got promoted to Staff Sergeant at the Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen.
Sad thing that old beautiful cities get smashed to rubble
Its the price of war which the Japanese brought upon themselves.
The music at the end was a nice nostalgic throwback to the days of the Great War channel.
On Remagen, something that was left out is that there were American officers who seriously thought that the Remagen bridgehead was in the wrong place - too far South, too out of sync with Allied planning and logistics - and shouldn't be developed. Eisenhower and Hodges had the sense to ignore their advice.
The original master plan was for Monty to cross the Rhine first, then envelop the Ruhr area from the North while Bradley would cross afterwards and link up with Monty's forces from the South. The capture of this bridge completely changed the strategic situation and would end up putting Bradley in the main role as he drove east to the Elbe south of Berlin to link up with the Soviets, instead of Monty driving east towards Berlin.
"We've had our miraculous breakthrough in the wrong place. Let's just ignore it..."
@@stevekaczynski3793I think it was Hodges who said "What am I supposed to do? Pull back and blow up the bridge?"
16:38 It appears that Smiling Al Kesselring was told of the Remagen bridge fiasco one second before the cameraman took his portrait photograph. It’s a good thing Albert did not choose the clowns and balloons background or his picture would look really awkward! 😂
That's the moment he changed his nickname to Grumpy
"Thinks the airfield will be lightly defended, for some dumb reason" 🤣
When the decision is so dumb that Indy breaks character
Yes, beause US Marine Corps divisions are notorious for their lack of combat ability, lol.....
My grandfather was conscripted in that last German draft class. Served as anti aircraft crew up on the border between Germany and Denmark. Horrible as it was, he always said the couple of years after the war was actually worse than the actual war due to the shortage of food.
In the US occupation zone, at one point Germans received a calorie allowance actually less than those in the Soviet zone.
"Germany Year Zero" was made about this time. One of the most depressing films ever made.
Quick comment on Bonn it was the home of Ludwig Von Beethoven. It’s loss is significant in a symbolic way Hitler has lost the home of one of Germany’s greatest artists and figures
Man, I’ve really been getting emotional at the end of these past few episodes now because this show has been part of my weekly routine for the past 4 years, and seeing it come to an end is giving me this end of college vibe where you know it’s the last few moments you get to hang out with your friends before real adult life takes over.
It's a trip how things become a part of our lives and before you know it , it's gone... I can totally relate to your comments .
Every time Indy Neidell reaches to push a button under the desk with his right hand ( like at 0:34 )... an angel gets their wings or whatever.
This week on March 9th 1945, the following missions in the Call of Duty series will begin:
*March 7 1945*
The Rhine (Call of Duty: World War II) - As Corporal Ronald "Red" Daniels at the Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany, you are to assault and secure the bridge and secure the tower. Afterwards you will also need to capture the anti-aircraft (AA) gun and protect the bridge from enemy attack. This is the final level of the game (excluding the Epilogue level).
Another historical inaccuracy on Call of Duty's part. The Ludendorff Bridge was the 9th Armored Division's prize. The Big Red One was many miles to the north and had crossed the Rhine by boat and pontoon bridge around the city of Bonn.
Finest Hour also made the same mistake. I think developers must not know how to carry the campaign forward after the Ardennes, so they just make Remagen the final level because that seems to be the highlight of the last few months of the war in most people's minds, at least when it comes to the western front anyways.
One small correction. The pontoon bridges were upstream from the bridge, not downstream. That way, the eventual collapse of the railroad bridge had no effect at all on the pontoon bridges.
At this point, the Royal Hungarian Army consisted of a few remnants, just as the map shows. 1st Army was fighting in Slovakia with 1 mountain brigade, 2 infantry, and 1 replacement divisions. 3rd Army had 2 infantry, 1 reserve and 1 armored divisions, along with the elite Szt. László Division, on both sides of the Danube, with the Hussar Division in the Vértes Mountains - but all of these were mostly depleted. Most soldiers were demoralized and did not wish to fight for the nazi regime (or for Germany), they could not wait for the war to end.
In Austria, Germany, and Denmark, there were several training and replacement units, with tens of thousands of men - not to mention the Levente Youth units that had teenagers as 'soldiers'. These would eventually surrender to British, American, and French units, trying to avoid Soviet captivity. The few remaining Hungarian Waffen-SS units were in Silesia, retreating, with the same main goal.
SPOILER ALERT:
We are exactly 2 months away from the end of the war in Europe
Has it been over 5 years already 😮
Wait so you're telling me that the offensive in Hungary isn't gonna turn the tide?
Bro...
You are suggesting that you are from the future. If so, will we see J. Goebels and A. Hitler serve time for war crimes. Spoiler Alert: G. Zhukov tours Berlin but I. Stalin never does.
Exciting! Who wins?
@4:58 That kind of Banzai charge was a symptom of rock-bottom moral: because the men had already accepted their deaths, and didn't believe said deaths would have a major impact anyway, the soldiers just gave up and met their end in whatever way they fancied, higher strategy be damned.
It was truly ironic: Japan believed Bushido-styled soldiers would scare the West into giving up, and instead, it meant Japan couldn't actually fight the war of attrition believed to be its only hope.
Although only a relatively small minority among their casualties, Japanese military personnel who were captured were often quite cooperative and gave up a lot of information. Because they were not expected to be captured, they were not told how to behave if they were. Most other belligerents in WW2 gave some sort of indoctrination on concealing info and conduct if soldiers, sailors or airmen were captured. The Japanese did not. Japanese from urban backgrounds tended to be slightly more willing to surrender than those from rural areas - it may have been a matter of slightly more education, or more cynicism about Bushido and so forth.
What I did not understand at the time my father explained in the 1960's to me before I went to Vietnam about the Remagen bridge based upon his own experience of blowing bridges in the Korean War
was that the Remagen Bridge had its first charges fired incorrectly, that the charges lifted the bridge spans up, those spans which then dropped back down intact upon the piers
leaving the bridge damaged but usable.
He explained how it was important to damage the piers and to have the spans nudged off sideways.
I remember the Rhine crossing mission from COD2 back when I was young, it's the last American mission, still waiting for a German campaign
Completely wrong unit though.. they try to give 1st ID the credit for it
Still waiting for a full, dedicated Pacific Theater game. Dozens of games in the franchise and they've barely touched it when there's so many good stories and campaigns they could draw from it.
Indie.. that end speech really made my toes curl~ Even though i know how it would go.
You nailed it with the story telling of what might to come! Your eyes even somewhat turning glassy as you rant on with your emotional prospect of this war's approaching end! Really brilliant.
Smiling Albert… no longer smiling
17:00 Big Spring Offensive would be a great band name
22:00 one of the people living there was future director Paul Verhoeven, who was deeply affected by this for the rest of his life.
“The last Tiger” final mission take place this week.
True
A Momentous Week!!!!
Indeed it was! -TimeGhost Ambassador
I think the "Follow Me" statue in front of building 4 at Ft. Benning, now known as Ft. Moore, stands on a piece of the Remagen bridge.
Brazil declares war & actually fights. . . Epic!
4:45 - Historian reaches breaking point trying to fathom the motivation of idiots.
Baseballer Stan Musial was one the last people across Remagen Bridge.
"Stan the man"
Incredible and top quality content. Thanks Time Ghost team. Appreciate it. Modern day heroes.
Thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
In summer 1979 I and my history class at school went on a school trip to Normandy, lasting about a week. We stayed in a hostel in Granville. A small bus took us to the D-Day beaches, as well as the Mont St MicheI monastery. I had not heard about the German Granville raid until now.
It's a shame you had to be in a hostel environment.
@@thebog11 I remember the food was terrible. At the end some parents requested a partial refund on those grounds, though I was able to eat everything except the overcooked liver, which was rather like shoe leather.
The Tokyo fire bombing raids are still a sore point in places like Asakusa, I'd seen a number of memorial plaques along the Sumida river on earlier visits to Tokyo but I never realised how much so until I stayed in a hostel not far from Matsuchiyama Shoden temple which was near the heart of some of the worst of it. Many of the elderly residents living there where very young child survivors of (and many orphaned by) the fire storm and who still hold a lot of animosity towards the US, sons and daughters of families that ran small workshops many unassociated with the war effort. You could barely turn a corner without some home made art or hand written poster posted up on a wall, in an old window, or a lamp post protesting the raids or remembering the trauma. And despite explaining to people I met there that I was not American simply being of European stock was enough for me to be viewed with a fair degree of negativity. To later watch "Grave of the Firefly" hit especially hard having heard personal recollections of people who survived it at much the same age as the children portrayed in the film who survived the firebombing of Kobe only to die of starvation in the devastation that followed .
Sadly i cant hold your sympathies. My people has 6 millions of their own killed by Japanese inititated starvation. The holodomor is a child's play compared to what they did here
Japan and the Japanese now are good friends that repaid their crimes through actions, not baseless words that worth nothing unlike the Dutch.
They too has their own feel of fanatic fighters on the opposite side on the western most side of the country. The people they fought there, kept fighting for 30 years and 30 years of peace does not make them weak. It merely hides their will to fight
Alhamdulillah. They only stayed here for 3,5 years
Could you please provide the location of any of these plaques? I lived in Japan many years and am fluent (both speaking and reading) in the language. In Dec 2023 I stayed a week in Asakusa when I was back in Japan for a visit. During this stay I did a lot of walking about the area -- including along the Sumida River walkways -- and saw little reference to the bombings and no hand-written posters. The one exception was the Tokyo Metropolitan Reconstruction Memorial Hall which covers both the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and the 1944 fire-bombing of Tokyo. (The home of at least one of my grandparents-in-law was destroyed in the bombing; the other grandparents-in-law were in China. Separately, an older work colleague from either the city of Nagaoka or Niigata was six years old when that city was bombed during the days between the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima/Nagasaki and Japan's surrender; he related how many survivors sheltered in a river during the resulting fires, and of the general feeling of relief when the surrender was announced shortly afterwards.)
@@jeffydarko9479 not really - that was back late 1990's and 2000's so memory is a bit vague - there is an actual, I guess offical, memorial along the river, the others looked more like ones put on building walls by survivors, going through street view most of this area doesn't seem to have as much urban renewal as other areas of Awakawa so they may still be there (was rather shocked to see all the high rise apartment blocks around Minami-Senju station in 2016 when back 2000 it was all rather rundown)
In early March 1945, the Red Army also liberated a then eleven-year-old girl from a village near Belgard, south-east of Kolberg.
Let's call her Erika here.
When they learned that the Soviet troops were advancing, she fled with her mother and siblings, but like many others, too late. They only made it a few kilometers, were first shot at by low-flying aircraft on the way and then, as tanks approached, her little sister lost her boot in the deep snow. They must have been in a terrible panic. Erika suffered from panic claustrophobia and refused to seek cover with others in the cellar of a nearby farmhouse. The family had no choice but to hide behind the burning barn and wait for the first wave to pass.
Shortly afterwards, they were picked up by infantry and told to return home. Their way back was literally over dead bodies. But when they arrived in their village, there were two problems. The first one: they were not allowed into their own house, a plant nursery, because it was right next to the manor house (belonging to the von Kleist-Retzow family), where the Red Army had set up a commandant's office. So they initially had to stay with neighbors. The second one: There was a distillery in the village which also belonged to the manor. Either it had been forgotten or there had not been time left to drain the barrels of grain spirits. You can imagine that the Soviet soldiers gratefully accepted this gift and made sure in their own way that nothing was left of it - with terrible consequences, especially for the women in the village.
A period under Soviet occupation began, with mixed feelings. Erika's mother, who had previously been employed in the manor kitchen, now cooked for the officers, which at least meant they didn't go hungry. But once, Erika and her sister had to snatch a knife out of their mother's hand. She had tried to kill herself with it after being repeatedly raped. But as brutal as they were towards the women, the Red Army soldiers were kind to the children. They let Erika ride their panje horses and even shared their rations with her. Sometimes involuntarily - Erika was often ordered by her mother to bring food to sentries and liked to help herself to the stew on the way, which was of course noticed but not punished.
When the family was allowed to return to their own housee after several weeks, they were in for a surprise. Their dog, which they had had to leave behind when they fled, had been hiding under the roof the whole time and greeted them happily. No one knows what it had been feeding on in the meantime.
When it became clear that Pomerania would be placed under Polish administration, they were given a choice: "Either you become Polish citizens or you leave the country immediately with what you can carry yourself." Like so many others, Erika was expelled and ended up in a refugee camp in Travemünde-Priwall, which had previously been a shipyard. The situation there was by no means better, especially the hygienic conditions were catastrophic. Erika suffered from crab lice and bedbugs. She got scabies, which left deep scars on her legs, and was lucky to survive typhus.
It was there in Travemünde that she finally met her father again. He had originally fled a few days before his family. He was only a gardener, but in 1943 he had signed up under pressure for his 17-year-old son could join the Waffen SS and didn't know how the Soviets would react if they found out. He made his way to British troops at constant risk to his life (the Nazis shot people they accused of cowardice in the face of the enemy right up to the end) and surrendered to them. However, the British did not take civilians like him prisoner. Instead they sent him back, where he was immediately arrested and taken to Leningrad to "clean up" and rebuild houses and roads. When he was released and arrived in Travemünde, he weighed only 42 kg (roughly 93 lbs) and suffered from pneumonia. God knows how he survived, but he did.
Back to Erika: At Christmas 1945, still in the refugee camp, her parents had managed to find and lit a single candle to give the children at least some comfort. Erika's greatest wish at the time was to be allowed to eat a whole loaf of bread on her own. Nothing more.
It later became obvious that the British zone could not accommodate this large number of refugees. Erika and her family were relocated to southern Germany, to a village near Baden-Baden. She later began working there as a nanny and also got married. In 1955 she had her first child, a daughter (she would later have four more children), and once again she cheated death. A severe case of childbed fever caused her to fall off her chair while feeding. When she regained consciousness after days, the doctor told her: "Our good Lord has more plans for you. You can also thank the Americans that you survived this." She had been treated with penicillin that the US army had brought.
Erika, now 90 years old, is my grandmother. She's sometimes a bit wobbly on her feet, but her head is still clear. 🙂
Wow, that sure is a memoir.
With how detailed Indy was with the bridgehead across the Rhine, I have a feeling that capturing that bridge and establishing a bridgehead pretty much seals Germany's fate.
Incredible writing, production, and delivery.. You guys are top-notch!
Thank you, really appreciate the comment!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
there is a Rhine near Charlotteville Ontario Canada , been a there a few times, its nice, same as Oakland, and Paris Ontario,
@17:48 I can see frontline going through my childhood village just little west off Kolberg.
We often forget that places we see every day and think of as 'ordinary' have their own stories in history. Thanks for sharing.
Just gets more and more exciting, thanks TimeGhost
Thanks for the comment!
Great passion for history, Thank YOU!
This week in French news.
The 3rd, 4 000 French SS resist against the Soviet at Korlin, the 5th, the Division is almost destroyed. The commander Puaud is missing, some sources say he was made PoW but died later. After this battle, only one full battalion, about 700 men, remains in Kolberg. 900 others are in Dantzig until the 4th of April, where 500 are evacuated and 400 being “Dead for Dantzig”. In total, only 1 100 men are still in the Division at the end of April in Neustrelitz.
The 3rd, a French ordinance unites secondary and primary elementary school (secondary school is a parallel system of school going from “little high school / elementary school ” to high school leading to University, it exist both private and public secondary school. Primary school at the time doesn’t prepare for the Baccalaureate).
This ordinance will effect mainly public schools and private secondary elementary schools are going to survive until the 1960 (in 1958 there is still 70 000 students in this secondary system).
The 8th, the nationalist Moroccan party, Istiqlal, demands the admission of Morrocco in the UN.
The 9th, in Indochina, Admiral Decoux, Governor General of Indochina receives Japanese Matsumoto for a normal reunion, but he is given an ultimatum; that the 18 000 French troops must be put under Japanese command and the French administration be replaced by a Japanese’s one. Decoux is trying to have more time, but it is a false ultimatum because 60 000 Japanese are already attacking the French garrison by surprise, it’s the operation “Meigo Sakusen”.
At 21:00, Decaux and all his staff are arrested, the French administration is abolished, and French administrators are arrested, some immediately executed. Cochinchina is the only place where the French administration is replaced by a Japanese one with skeleton personnel. This is because it is a colony and not a protectorate.
Japanese army attacks French military installations. In Hué, the 2nd battalion of the 10th mixed colonial infantry regiment put up fierce resistance; in Hanoi, the fighting lasted until 12 March; the Lang Son garrison was taken on the 15th. Some officers are executed like colonel Robert in Lang Son after dining with his Japanese counterpart. General Lemonnier is arrested after being captured but refusing to give his troops to surrender.
In Đồng Đăng, the fighting continues for three days after there is no more ammunition. All the garrison is then executed (400 prisoners). Out of 12,000 Metropolitans in Indochina, 2,000 were killed, most of the top officers are killed.
About a thousand troops from general Sabattier, who transferred some of his troops out of Hanoi before the 9th, cross the border of China. In the next six month, 1 500 more Europeans are killed in camps. The French Navy in Indochina scuttle itself, only one ship, a signaler, falls into Japanese hands and two gunboats reach China.
You are killing my eyes, could you break it into paragraphs of two or three sentences.? Thanks.
2 or 3 sentences. No. I made more paragraphes but i can't make the comment too long@@gordybing1727
There is an Time book called V-E Day! It talks about the Remagen bridge, it was built in 1916 it was constructed for only one purpose, to wage war! It included chambers at key points built too accommodate explosive it could be destroyed quickly if necessary. But the French took control of the bridge for several years after the first World War, they filled those chambers with concrete, and the Germans later found that act of reverse sabotage could not be undone with out completely rebuilding the structure! That's nearly word for word in the article that was written? So it stands to reason that's why the bridge was able to take such a pounding!
Lt Timmermann had rushed the towers and cleaned out the towers and at 4:00 in the afternoon had a small beachhead! So Lt Timmermann had his Sargent were the first Americans to be on German soil ! That's in the article as well!
German soil? The Americans took Aachen in October
@@mgway4661 I meant the heart of German! My grandfather was at Aachen!
@@mikaelcrews7232Just call it the East bank of Germany.
Hi Indy
Another wonderful week.
This war is on the verge of finish but still more meat grinder.
Thanks for the episode.
I suggest the anime movie "Grave of the Fireflies" for one take on the firebombing of Japanese cities. Another thought-provoking and informing videoi, Indi and crew!
My dad was in a AAA gun battalion assigned to protect the captured bridge from German aircraft as well as demolition swimmers in the river itself. He was present when the bridge finally collapsed several days later.
Bulgaria mentioned 😲 I have a great grandfather that fought in the battle of Drava, holding back the Germans. I wish i know more about that, but my grandmother didn't herself know too much about it, as her father apparently didn't speak much about the battle.
I love your channel and content, thanks! The 1960s George Segal film Bridge at Remagen is easy to find, think I'll look it up again after watching this to commemorate the 79th anniversary of this battle! I understood from other history reporting that the explosives were not military grade as the reason why it didn't blow.
7:00 The city of Cologne also has a distinct regional dialect called "Kölsch" (also a sort of beer brewed there). Because of the bombing raids, refugees would evacuate into nearby towns and villages. In some towns the amount of refugees was so high, Kölsch displaced the dialect there. This effect persists to this day.
9:46: The stress in german words is on the first syllable. So rEmagen and kOblenz instead of remAgen and koBLENZ. You did pretty well on Andernach though.
A note on the Rhine in that area: Except for the area surrounding Andernach (the Neuwied basin) the river flows in a very deep cut river valley. It's visible on some of the photos you've shown but not on the map. The terrain gets flatter north of Bonn which is why Cologne is spread out nicely but towns like Remagen are basically a line of houses along a river street. If the allies had only captured a road bridge, they would have to conquer the steep flanks of the river valley after that. The railroad however can't go up steep hills, hence the tunnel.
The hits are getting closer for me...I studied in Koblenz, worked in Andernach and was born in Neuwied just opposite of it.
Breathless narration 😮
The capture of the Remagen bridge changed the strategic situation in Western Europe. The plan had been for Monty's Armygroup to cross the Rhine first, then envelop the Ruhr from the North and link up with Bradley's forces coming from the South. Suddenly it put Bradley in a more advantageous position and instead of having to support Monty it would now be Bradley's forces that ended up being the main drive and focus into Germany, with Monty being relegated to supporting Bradley and clearing the German North Sea ports. And instead of an advance towards Berlin the main advance would be to the Elbe to link up with the Soviets south of Berlin.
Indy!Dont leave us on a cliffhanger!I cant wait to find out who wins WW2!Excellent as always!
I really like the sign "Cross the Rhine with dry feet, courtesy of the 9th armoured division", it's really funny too. I don't know why... I guess even in war a little sense of humour among the troops works
Its getting wilder and wilder to the end of the war...
Still a lot more to cover, thanks for watching!
Shoutout to the Indian divisons being the absolute best fighters. Epic.
Thank you for the lesson.
Thank you for your continued support!
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I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
Thank you, your support on this channel has been incredible!
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I seem to remember reading in Patton's book WAR AS I KNEW IT, that he was annoyed by the hoopla over capturing the bridge at Remagen, because he claimed his army had already crossed it on the march further south. Also, a minor geographical note about the Rhine "freaking people out" because it flows North. The notion that rivers rarely flow north is a purely American idea, because our country is anchored around the Mississippi River and its tributaries that flow southward from the center of the continent to the Gulf of Mexico. In Canada, which is the other half of the continent, the rivers flow north, as they do in the northern parts of all other continents that have an East-West highland divide down the middle, including Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Patton kept a diary, but did he have time to write a book?
SPOILER
He was after all dead before the end of 1945.
I remember my High School teacher for some reason making a big deal out of the fact that the Nile flows to the north. Like it's this great mysterious phenomena that just shouldn't happen. And this is in California, where the lower half or so of the San Joaquin flows north-northwest.
The Nile flows north too, and it's hard to get much more famous than that.
@@rrice1705 That's got to be one of the most bizarre and insane things I've ever heard-and despite being an over-50 American, I'd never heard it before. My people are NUTS.😲🙄
Thanks for clearing this up. So weird.
The map does not show the 99th division at Remagen. It was the first complete division to cross the Rhine. My father in law was in the 99th division.
That last piece of background music around the 22 and 23 minute mark by Johannes Börnlof reminded me of the Great War that Indy Neidell used to present all these years ago. Time flies in most of our daily lives, but these wars still seem to drag on and on. Even if we weren’t there to see it ourselves.
That is quite nicely said! Thanks for sharing the journey with us! -TimeGhost Ambassador
"Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue."
-Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz,1945
The man who led the assault on the Remagen Bridge was Lt. Karl Timmermann, whose family had originally come from Germany. He was born in Frankfurt in 1922 before his family moved to the United States. Karl's father had been in the U.S Army but was discharged in 1928, at one point going AWOL where he met and married Karl's mother. His German origin and his father's alleged misconduct had been a source of shame for him and he had joined the Army himself largely to reedmen the family name and prove his worth as a soldier and an American.
When the bridge was discovered intact, Timmermann was approached by his commanding officer Major Murray Deeves who asked him "Do you think you can get your company across the bridge?"
"Well, we can try it, sir," he replied.
"Go ahead," the major told him.
"What of the bridge blows up in my face?" asked Timmermann. Apparently Deeves did not give an answer.
After the first explosions failed to drop the bridge, Timmermann led his men onto the span, dividing his understrength company in half, one rushing across whilst he and the other half provided covering fire. As they did, they moved from girder to girder under fire, cutting lose any charges they found, knowing the rest might go off any second. War correspondent Everett Holles recalled his observations during the battle:
"While we were running across the bridge-and, man, it may have been only 250 yards but it seemed like 250 miles to us-I spotted this lieutenant, standing out there completely exposed to the machine gun fire that was pretty heavy by this time. He was cutting wires and kicking the German demolition charges off the bridge with his feet! Boy that took plenty of guts. He’s the one who saved the bridge and made the whole thing possible."
Sgt Alexander Drabik led his squad ahead as they moved to secure the other end of the bridge, running nearly 400 feet and miraculously making it across without any casualties. Drabik was the first American soldier to cross the Rhine. Of the action he had this to say,
"We ran down the middle of the bridge, shouting as we went. I didn't stop because I knew that if I kept moving they couldn't hit me. My men were in squad column and not one of them was hit. We took cover in some bomb craters. Then we just sat and waited for others to come. That's the way it was."
Both Drabik and Timmermann were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross
The 9th Armored at Remagen was one of the first units equipped with the brand new M26 Pershing “heavy” tanks. This almost worked against them as the M26s were too heavy to risk crossing the damaged bridge before it could be repaired. Luckily they still had some M4 Shermans which were able to cross and help secure the bridgehead.
7:46 Yes, it does! Whenever I look at the map I can imagine if flowing South... It's probably dumb to assume that, but it felt natural.
In hindsight, how much of a difference did the Burma campaign make for the results of the war?
Well, it practically elimated the entirety of the Japanese 15th Army, one of their most experienced army units from before the war
Not much at this point. Even if the Japanese somehow managed to get into India in 1945, it wouldn't change events near the Japanese mainland. It's not like cutting off supplies to China (or cutting off supplies to the British from India) would allow them to suddenly mount a comeback.
Thanks for taking the time!
And thanks for watching!
In the unlikely event that I am timeghost member of the week in the short time remaining, Sproule rhymes with rock’n’roll
Yeah, it's getting late in the war to be a member of the week. I listen at the end of each episode, to no avail.
"for some dumb reason" lmao. Not Indy's favorite Japanese commander, I'm guessing
(Timestamp, 4:45)
"...for some dumb reason" pretty much covers anything the Axis is doing at this point in the war.
Great narration!
Thank you, Indy sure knows how to tell a tale.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
Baseball legend Warren Spahn participated in the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen. He would go on to be immortalized in the saying "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain."
My father was in the engineering company that built the pontoon bridge next to the bridge at Remagen.
My Uncle Elton Hisel as part of the 78 Division crossed over that same bridge multiple times. As he was the jeep driver for officer. They had men on both sides of the Rhine. One time driving west he came under artillery fire just as he started across. He said that there was a 5 MPH speed limit but when artillery shells hit landing near you you give it hell.
Hope to see more of Brasilian "Pracinhas". Thnakyou. Great episode today!!
'So many questions and so little time!'
Damn, it's 1945 already...
I can’t wait for the special episode on The Battle of Berlin
It will probably be similar to how the Vistula-Oder offensive got a special episode about the role call of all the armies on either side. Dunno how they could make a larger video series like Pearl Harbor or D-Day 24 Hours in such a short amount of time. That said, if you want to watch a much more in-depth series about Berlin, then you can watch _16 Days in Berlin_ a series created by Real Time History, the current owners of _The Great War_ channel for which Indy had worked at years prior and which has released a week-by-week series free on UA-cam on the Franco-Prussian War.
Suggested reading "Design for the Real World" by Victor Papanek. He has a quote to lead the book, paraphrased, when you build something for the first time, you can't build it all pretty like a 1965 Ford Mustang right off, first you must build it like a 1963 Ford Falcon, then someone can come along later and pretty up the sheet metal.
Bridge at Remagen, what a great movie!