203 - Who Let the Dogs Out?! - The Invasion of Sicily - WW2 - July 16, 1943
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- Опубліковано 15 лип 2022
- The Allies have begun their fight to take back Western Europe with Operation Husky. That's not the only news though. They are also trying to extend their foothold in the Solomons, and Germany and the USSR continue smashing into one another at Kursk.
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*"dreaded War on 2 Fronts"* is realized for Nazi 3rd Reich Germany and confidence is very high that the War might end against Nazi Germany by Christmas, 19-FORTY THREE. Why Germany fights until the very end well into 1945 remains even today quite the Mystery to all Historians even today.
Week 203 of the war has come and passed, yet there was no mention whatsoever of the Biscari Massacre, where on 14th July, US troops massacred 73 Axis POW’s (86 according to Gianfranco Cicacono’s book “Le Strage Dimenticate” and NOT including eight innocent Sicilian farmers). This episode is only mentioned in Spartacus Olsson’s WAH 069, but in about 72 weeks’ time, will the Malmedy Massacre of 17th December 1944 be skipped over from Indy Niedell’s war account, just as was the affair at Biscari?
Also, for the battle of Prokhorovka, last time I looked, the Germans had nowhere near the 600 tanks as at first claimed and illustrated by this week’s episode. According to Soviet and German archives, the total number of tanks and SPGs deployed by the 5th Guards Tank Army and the II SS-Panzer Corps during the battle around Prokhorovka, numbered about 610, (294 German and 616 Soviet). Also, according to Soviet archives, their irrecoverable losses/damaged tanks and SPGs amounted to 222/143 T-34s, 89/56 T-70s and 23/13 others. Stalin himself was infuriated at these reports and personally admonished general Rotmistrov by phone! The II SS-Panzer Corps’ own irrecoverable losses amounted to 17 tanks and assault guns from 12 to 23 July. Non-German sources list II SS-Panzer Corps losses as between 36 and 80 tanks destroyed or damaged, (which represent a worst-case scenario). The Germans did fail in their objectives, but some things of note were left unsaid. For example, after taking Hill 252.2, the Leibstandarte saw off counterattacks by no less than five Soviet tank brigades. Lastly, in their account of the battle, Mark Healy (2008), Lloyd Clark (2012), George Nipe, (2012) and Dennis Showalter, (2013) go on as far as to claim it a tactical victory for the Germans!
@@joegatt2306 Look at this weeks War Against Humanity
@@caryblack5985
If you read my post carefully you would not have
wasted your time writing yours
4:34 I like the - I guess - new animations in detail like the moving line and animation of cities conquered on siciliy changing from red to black with a white border, same for the round black spot of the city location.
Just worth to mention that your team is continously improving which makes me think:
how would a Great War weekly series look today in contrast or WW2 week by week with all the added ideas - and those lost in the Corona battle like visitng the front (you had done for french in 2019). That is the most missing part for me, these reports from the lines, the myths, your journey through the countries.
I guess you might think instantly: oh no, not a second time this and that, but I look at the opportunities and the lessons learned, the grown team and support
For sure a different story about the same old story but I guess so different that they still would be a huge success.
Great work, great success with the introduction to kursk episode and the battle of kursk which opened time / space for other topics in the weekly series which otherwise would have sunk under the importance of Kursk. So you could touch all those things going wrong in the sicilly landings which I must have forgooten or Winston Churchill did not mention back in the days.
great work this week again ! thanks a lot.
the Axis figured no-one would attempt landings in such bad weather, but the Brits thought this was normal weather
Note: weather delayed some ships, moving landings a hour later.
One LST didn't got the signal and dashed to the beach alone.
The captain was a reserve Royal Navy officer, Alec Guinness.
That Alec Guinness.
😂😂
@@ulissedazante5748 wow
Guinness, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) and commander of the LCI-124, questioned about the incident by his superior: "And you will allow me to point out, sir, as an actor, that in the West End of London, if the curtain is advertised as going up at 8:00 p.m., it goes up at 8:00 p.m. and not an hour later, something that the Royal Navy might learn from."
The Axis are supereffective against forests, weak agaisnt bad weather reports
My grandfather was a pilot who served under Baron Arthur Tedder and piloted one of those 370 planes. Ironically, he was born in Sicily and left when he was just a little boy when his family immigrated to America. He said he stood on the deck of a ship and watched his home dip beneath the horizon behind him. The next time he saw the shores of his homeland was when he was dropping a bomb over it to provide cover for a glider.
Later he was asked to help out in dealing with the locals because he spoke their dialect perfectly. He said that every single one of them was just scared, not angry, and just wanted the war to be over and to go about their lives. They just couldn't understand how one scumbag in Rome could cause them so much pain.
Very interesting
Thanks so much for sharing this. It's true in every war, but so easily glossed over.
"...how one scumbag in Rome could cause them so much pain."
- The Complete and Abridged History of the World, Vol. 1 of 1.
Thank you for sharing about your grandfather's experiences.
The age of 'Scumbags' causing the death and destruction of innocents never seems to die out...
A footnote this week on July 14 1943 is that the Hollywood film *For Whom the Bell Tolls* , based on the novel of the same name by American novelist Ernest Hemingway, is released in cinemas. The film, which was about an American International Brigades volunteer and his mission to blow up a strategically important bridge during the Spanish Civil War, would prove to be quite successful, as it would become the second highest grossing film in the United States in 1943.
Take a look to the sky 🤘
Which is saddening, since the US, France and Britain at that time never supported the Spanish Republicans against the fascists and blockaded them even, and if I recall, the Americans even put in jail several of the International Brigade volunteers who returned home just for breaking the blockade and America's neutrality. Most of these volunteers were then kept out of the army, or were watched by the FBI for suspected communist leanings in the First Red Scare.
On a side note, Hoover is a fucking douchebag.
Thank you for the trivia!
@@SP-bt9mp Time Marches On
The highest grossing in 1943 was “This is the Army” directed by Michael Curtiz if you are curious.
We often talk about Indie’s perfect delivery and narration, for good reason, but his editor is also great! Each cutting in and out at exactly the right moments to match the emphasis he places and then also showing us the maps at the right time. Also huge props to visual effects person for upping their game across the life of this series.
My grandfather was one of the Canadians during that invasion of siciliy. During his time in Italy he got shot twice (one grazed his face by the eye, the other in the leg) but made it out alive!
The courage these men had is commendable.
My respect to your grandfather. Canadians fought some of the toughest places in Sicily , Italy and North West Europe.
Thank you for sharing about your grandfather and I'm glad he made it out alive. May the others rest in peace.
Courage is being scared but doing what you have to do anyway.
Few remarks to the battle of Kursk:
1) It was 1st time that a german large scale offensive failed to penetrate the defensive positions in order to exploit it on a strategic level.
2) Also 1st time that a large scale Soviet operation had success in summer (both counteroffensive at Moscow and conclusion of victory at Stalingrad took place in winter, weather playing its part). It will not be the last time.
3) Germans often (almost always) blamed their failures on their allies (Stalingrad being the most obvious case), handily overlooking the fact that the situation often developed from germans being unable to advance or break the stalemate without siphoning necessary troops from flanks of the sector into attack corridors, and thus creating vulnerable flanks defended usually by their allies. Operation Zitadelle was to be purely german affair without any allied "subpar" units. Albeit blaming other for their failures will continue to be useful and used tool for germans when shifting blame, Zitadelle showed that "Germans only" does not guarantee victory.
4) Though T-34/76 performed fairly good at Kursk (and lets not forget that most of Soviet tanks were still light T-70 and T-60) it was now clear, that with new Panthers arriving, Tigers deployed en masse and new self-propelled anti-tank models , all with better guns and thicker armor than previous tank types, it was time to do some serious developement/upgrades regarding soviet tanks. Whereas in 1941 it was rightly decided that the only upgrades accepted for T-34s were those that would make its production faster, easier and cheaper (since employing any other changes would slow the production considerably), now it was about upgrading the quality.
It will be some time before T-34/85, IS heavy tanks or new SU and later ISU self-propelled ati-tank guns will enter the battle lines, yet the necessity of such changes was reiterated once more in the battle of Kursk.
Good comment. The Russians produced 55,000 T-34's of all varieties during the war.
The US churned out 50,000 Shermans and their varieties. On paper , the Germans had superior armor, but some had reliability problems throughout the war, like the Panthers and Tigers.
Both Russia and the US decided to concentrate on a single production type, and upgrading as needed. This sped up production times significantly, providing a lot more tanks. Of course, various other tanks were produces by the allies, but the Germans, in typical German fashion, had a slew of various vehicles, making logistical and maintenance a nightmare.
"and lets not forget that most of Soviet tanks were still light T-70 and T-60"
No, those tanks made about 30% of Red Army tank forces near Kursk.
@@Overlord734 Yes, true. The German equipment was top-notch, but because of it's complexity, there was simply not enough of them. The Tiger was an awesome machine, but it was too heavy to cross most bridges in Russia.
Agree with all points but by this point the Soviets were very lucky to have lend lease. Their economy was in real trouble in this period IRL and would likely have collapsed without the aid.
Good points but the T-34 76 did not work well at Kursk and the counter attack.
The Soviets took horrendous losses even when they outnumbered the Germans and even against Panzer 4s and Stug 3s.
No wonder the tank will be completely overhauled next year…
If and when the war is decided, would the team do a wrap up episode on how many planes, ships, tanks, men, civilians, and other things that can be quantified to show how large this has been?
Jesus, I've heard the numbers, but I don't even want to think about the total body count...
Good idea
Excellent opportunity to mash up with Mikitary History Visualized.... they've done some good work along those lines.
I've heard the figure of 100 million total human deaths attributed to all of the wars running from 1931 in Manchuria through 1945 at Tokyo Bay. The scope of this is beyond comprehension.
They did one at several points for the great war and one at the conclusion of that so I'd wager we will likely get one when this ends
In 1941 we saw the Germans encircle and destroy large Soviet formations.
In 1942 we saw the Germans encircle, but destroy nothing.
In 1943 were seeing the Germans not being able to encircle or destroy anything.
I wonder what will happen in 1944
Full headlong retreat.
the germans being surrounded and destroyed
1944 The Germans will be encircled and destroyed...
1945 No more Nazi Germany..
They will get encircled in Kherson
I am not sure what will happen in 1944, but in 1945, I believe we won't see any Germany.
This episode is perfect. The Americans made the right choice landing in Gela: it sucks, no one would ever defend that place
Have you donated Monet to Indy and His Teams?
But they did fight to defend Catania. They must have thought the allies would take away their pasta alla norma and that gave them motivation.
@@matiprofe3634 sorry i didn't I can't afford anything
@@luciusdomitiusaurelianus5334 Me neither or this would be the first channel I did send money to.
- Gela? well, I always go on holidays there
- Eh, smart one, you don't go to Gela for holidays. In Gela you work and break your own balls
- In fact, I remember a bit of both...
My Grandpa was on the USS Honolulu for that hit to the bow.
When they returned to Honolulu for repair he finished radar school and got placed on the USS Iowa.
Thank you for sharing about him. Glad he made it out of there safely
The scale of the Battle of Kursk is still unbelievable to this day.
One of the problems the British ran into when advancing along the east coast of Sicily are the large drainage channels that cut across the line of advance from Mount Etna to the sea. These large unintentional anti-tank ditches (a TV program I saw showed that some of them are around 3m deep and 5-10m wide, as I recall) hampered the British advance towards Catania and Messina. (West Point Military Academy, 1945 "Operations in Sicily and Italy: July 1943-May 1945. pages 22-23).
Any idea how that affected Allied planning for Overlord? Thinking specifically of Hobart's Funnies and how some of them were equipped with huge fascia for dumping into deep ditches like that so vehicles could quickly cross them.
Probley a surprised like the heghed rows in normandy
If October 1942 was the end of the beginning, then July 1943 was the beginning of the end.
Great episode as always guys.
Thank you for watching, Ron. Well said
Well said, Ron. Hitler's fate was sealed once Italy was invaded and Mussolini fell. He could NOT afford a second front in Europe while fighting the Soviets (this was a fatal mistake Napoleon made when invading Russia, he tried to fight a simultaneous war in Spain/Portugal). If Hitler had all his forces in Europe concentrated on battles like Kursk, things could have possibly gone differently. D-Day simply put the nails in the coffin.
I think that David Glantz has it correct: Moscow is where Hitler lost WW2 on the terms he wanted, Stalingrad is where he lost WW2 on any terms and Kursk is where this was not going to be a WW1 style partial defeat, it would be a total loss with the enemy in Berlin in the end. D-Day prevented a Soviet Communist takeover in Europe and it is too bad that the USSR had to stay around for another 45 years.
Hats off to Marcus and his maps, once again. Very clear, and exciting stuff happening everywhere.
This episode was like opening a jar of peanuts, and finding cashews instead! So much information!
1943 was the year the darkest night ended, and the allies saw the first rays of a rising sun. There was hope.
Many deaths and two more years of destruction were to come, but now it was a journey to victory.
It's probably not a very good idea to get emotionally involved with UA-cam videos, but I can't help it.
This series has really put me into another world, where I can relive the drama of that era. Thanks so much.
Do you know how to get his maps.
Perihelion Thanks for your constant support and your always-gracious words. Take care my friend
The paratroopers landed almost everywhere but where they wanted to land. Kind of like what happened on D-Day
Spoilers!
I went through US Army Airborne school decades ago and they were still using those drops as examples of the "spirit of the Airborne" during training. Even though they landed and were completely lost and separated they still headed out and made trouble everywhere they could. Didn't matter that it took them a few days to assemble and start hitting their originally assigned targets, the chaos they caused behind the lines by hitting the Wehrmacht everywhere at once as soon as they landed made a huge difference.
@@Raskolnikov70 this was a important factor in the D-Day opening. Because of the random nature of the airborne attacks, the Germans had no idea what was going on until it was too late.
LOL the picture of Mussolini. Your thumbnails keep getting better and better
Haha you are right it's a pretty good thumbnail
I’m glad to see that Indy Neidhell isn’t just host but also writes and researches some episodes!
He got married today too! I know he filmed this a while ago but IRL today he got married!
@@Raylan_323 Congrats to Indy and Bride!
@@Raylan_323 so much for Freedom
@@Raylan_323lol I noticed the gold ring but I thought it was always there.
Among the forces landing on Sicily on the tenth are the American 3rd Infantry Division. Among them is a young private from Texas who had tried to join every other branch of service but was rejected for being underweight and underage. After putting on more weight and adding a year to his age, he was finally accepted into the Army. He spent the first week of basic training in the sickbay due to allergic reactions from having so many shots (needles) and was nearly transferred to become a baker since his C.O did not think he was fit for combat.
He doesn't know it yet, but this young man will go on to survive the war as the most highly decorated American soldier of World War 2. His name is Audie L. Murphy.
Thank you for that, Nicholas. Great info
@@WorldWarTwo thank you the great people of the Time Ghost team!
I love so much that this series is in real time. It feels weird, but also incredibly cool that it's been just over three full REAL WORLD years since we saw the Western allies pull out of Dunkirk, and now finally returning to mainland Europe. Really puts things in perspective. As does Kursk happening at the same time, I never realized how connected these two events were. And as always, thanks for covering the naval battles in such detail, it's a part of the war that's especially interesting to me, partly because of how unlike the countless planes and tanks, ships are so much fewer in number that they can be kept track of by name.
Thank you for watching through all these weeks of war. Much more to come
I heard a story once that, during the Sicily invasion, a man suddenly bolted forward from the Italian lines to the Americans crying out, "Don't shoot, don't shoot, I'm from Brooklyn!" Turned out he was an American, born in Italy, who had been visiting family in the old country at the time of Pearl Harbor. He wound up getting stuck over there and drafted into the Italian army. I have no idea if it's true, but it ought to be.
Seems plausible.
During the Gulf War in 1991, we had a guy from Chicago show up as a patient/POW in our hospital unit. Same story, he was visiting family in Iraq when the war started and got stuck, then drafted and sent to the front lines. War is weird.
@@Raskolnikov70 Oh wow, that's something.
An American aircrew member shot down in the disastrous Kassel mission (September 1944) was wandering around in Germany and a youth came up and asked him if he was one of the American fliers that had been shot down. The American said yes and asked the youth why he spoke such good English. The latter said, "I went to high school in Milwaukee."
I’m noticing a theme with the Japanese “We’ve sunk all these ships! We’ve shot down all these planes! We’re winning this war!” _only accomplished a quarter of those things._
Every one did that - until they got cameras to verify. It is a natural human thing to over emphasize damage to the enemy to give yourself credit for being more effective than you are.
@@tommy-er6hh Gunners on US and to a lesser extent British bombers tended to submit exaggerated claims for enemy fighters shot down, and were often credited with them officially. When German fighters opened their throttle, puffs of smoke were often emitted from the engine. This was sometimes mistaken by Allied gunners for fire breaking out on the plane after being hit by their fire.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Famously there was an air battle in the Pacific where both sides claimed 40-50 kills, but actual losses were 8-9 on both sides. This was normal.
Basically, all kill claims are to be taken with a *huge* grain of salt. Legendary snipers, fighter aces, tank aces... The most egregious were tank kill claims by ground attack aircraft pilots, overclaiming by a factor of 100. The question isn't if kill claims areinflated, it's weather 2/3, 1/2 or 1/3 of the claims are wrong.
Well Midway and Leyte Gulf battles weren't empty claims. Can't count fleets that aren't floating
@@bigwoody4704 I wasn't talking about ships. That's easier to verify.
I want to do a shout out to my great-uncle Bill who passed away a couple of months ago. He served with the 4th Reconnaissance Regiment (4th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards), 1st Canadian Infantry Division and took part in the Sicilian invasion, Italian campaign and the liberation of the Netherlands.
Thank you for sharing about him here. May Bill rest in peace.
Dude I also had a great uncle Bill that served in the war. He was in the 4th ID and landed on Utah beach in the second wave.
The Wehrmacht can only win in "stick and move" situations. In a war of attrition (men and material) their situation is hopeless. However, what happens if the Red Army begins to "stick and move"? In two years of war all the bad commanders are gone, the supply situation has been relieved and the weight of numbers the USSR possesses are starting to take their toll on their enemy. Both Himmler and Goebbels will ridicule Manstein as 'retreating to Berlin', however, after Kursk that is the only option they have. If you read Glantz you will see the evolution of the Red Army in more detail. If the US and Britain do not step it up Stalin will be stopping in Breast.
If the US and Britain didnt land. Soviet's 1944 offensives wont be as successful as it did
@@naoyanaraharjo4693 Yes, they would still win, it would just take longer. At this point there is no question that the Red Army will win.
You guys have been on fire this week, well done!
Every week
So have the German and Soviet tanks, come to think of it..... 🔥🔥🔥
🔥🔥🔥
kursk feels like leipzig. an astonishing proof of the true contemporary scale of the conflict and a landmark in the war where, one could argue, the turning point truly began. i guess thats from a posthumous, birds eye view though.
Inability To Defend Sicily (3)
Guzzoni who wanted to keep both German divisions as an all out intact , unified and concentrated counter attack force , objected to distribution of German units here and there piecementally and seperately but he was ignored. Von Senger also agreed with Guzzoni , if anything at least he wished to send Hermann Goring Panzergranedier to western side of Sicily and keep much better trained and experienced 15th Panzergranedier Division intact and unified but he was also overruled by Hitler and Kesselring , the latter being from same familiar Luftwaffe arm that division belonged , expecting too much and relying too much on Hermann Goering Division. (which was actually very inexperienced)
In the Kesselring’s insistence the strategy adapted by Axis to defence was like this : the decisive batle would be fought along the coast by the coastal divisions aided by local reserves under division or corps control. “Mobile reserves relatively close to coast in small groups , were to be ready to pounce as soon as Allies landed on shore , finally German division would come in and attack and to mop up enemy.” The expectation that Allies would land in multiple different beacheads that were widely seperated and unable to link up or support was not correct though since Allies made that mistake in Dardanelles in 1915 and learned from it (as we have seen before , Allied planners from Eisenhower , Alexander , Teddler , Montgomery , Bradley etc were not prepared to take such big risks in their first large scale Combined Operation invasion operation and preferred to play safe with landings on southern or southwestern shores in an uninterrupted front , capture main Axis airfields along the shore and then advance north once bridgeheads established) Axis defence strategy was to prevent the establishment of a solid , continous front by committing mobile reserves at what Guzzoni called “that fleeting moment” when the beacheads were not linkked up or fortified nor linked and could be destroyed piecementally. The drawbacks of this strategy would soon be evident in D-Day when Allies landed on Sicily on 10th July 1943.
On the surface , the Axis commitment to defend Sicily was impressive. Four regular Italian divisions , five more Italian coastal divisions and two German mobile divisions , appox 340.000 troops including 30.000 Germans. There were almost 200 Italian and 165 German tanks deployed (including 62 Mark VI heavy Tiger tanks ) and in addition a Fuhrer reserve of two divisions (1st German Parachute Division and 29th Panzergrenadier Division , the latter with 45 more tanks) with 35.000 more men stationed in Southern France and Southern Italy ready to reinforce the defenders after landings started. There were some less than obvious flaws and cracks in Axis defence of strategy and defences and preperation though. Strategy was flawed , in dispute between Axis partners , not in harmony and uncoordinated. There was a desperate shorage of motor transport to move Axis trops and supplies. Lines of communication were under almost constant Allied air attack and terrain of Sicily made movement over narrow mountain roads extremely hazardous and difficult especially for heavy German tanks which were designed for plains of Russia not mountain terrain of Italy.
The first half of 1943 saw tensions between Italy and Germany gradually becoming worse and worse. Mussolini was pressing Hitler for a seperate peace with Russia and on military side the once warm relations between Kesselring and Italians became very frosty under General Ambrosio. Italian intransigence and growing signs of Italian independence led Hitler to an attitute of grave mistrust and mounting suspicion that his ally would sell out to the Allies at first oppurtunity.
The mess in Sicily was symptomatic of what in reality was the dissolution of Rome-Berlin Axis. The shattering losses in Tunisia left both Berlin and Rome without a coherent strategy for defending Mediterranean Theater in the period of immediately following the surrender of 250.000 troops. Much to Hitler’s disgust the Italians began to make onerous demands for aircraft , guns and equipment which Germans werte unable to fulfil.
The alliance had been largely based upon Hitler’s personal faith in Mussolini but the spring of 1943 found Mussolini beginning to act independently of Germans and as Hitler’s influence over his ally began to wane so too did his confidence towards Mussolini and Italy. This led to a series of harsh exchanges during which Mussolini expressed an unwillingness to accomodate additional German units in Italy. Mussolini wanted Italian Armed Forces to defend Italian territory and desired German assistance only in form of badly needed war material. As Warlimont later expressed “the large and complately impossible to fulfill demands for delivery of German war material continued to arrive , they began to look more like a pretext to get out of the war than evidence of a determination to make a new start.
As Hitler’s suspicions grew into an obsession the alleged traitorous elements in Italy , all hope of developing a joint coordinated defence was evaportated.
Bitter Victory - Carlo D'Este
Excellent summary and Bitter Victory is superb. Worth noting though that the initial plan was for many landing in multiple locations across the south and west - the Axis deployment would have been correct for it. Montgomery took one look at this plan and binned it, insisting on concentrated landings in the south and south east.
Torch had used many widely spaced landings and Salerno was to suffer badly from the inability of units on the wide beachhead from supporting each other, so it was an on-going issue. The Allies would probably have taken Sicily whatever they did, but they could have had some real disasters.
@@tbjtbj7930 Landing seperate beacheads that were isolated and unable to support each other in flank would invite disaster. Allies learned that from hard way from Gallipoli Campaign in 1915. That each landing force would be in risk of contained , isolated , counter atacked and pushed back to sea piecementally ,in detail in sucession. There were not enough landing craft for that anyway. In first wave of attack , to achieve maximum efficiency and advance in depth you need concentrated force supporting each other.
I did the math a long time ago, and using something like five or six long lance torpedoes to sink a destroyer came out as equal, or even a net loss, for the Japanese: they only had something like 7000 long lance torpedoes, and the US Navy alone had almost as many ships as that.
And that's why you don't fight a war by assuming the enemy will just eventually give up.
Taking Vizzini?
Inconceivable!
I would like to recommend a book which is a personal memoir of the Canadian Farley Mowat, who took part in this campaign. It is called " And no birds sang". Along with William Manchester's " Goodbye Darkness" the finest personal memoirs I have ever read.
5:45 it’s really happening, allied warriors have after years of planning and preparation, have taken the first step in the liberation of Europe.
LOVE THE EPISODE GUYS! As I have mentioned in a few comments in the past both of my Grandfathers fought during Operation Huskey on opposite sides of the war! My Dad's dad fought for Italy in a hastily raised unit when he was 18 he told my father and his unit quickly broke when they encountered the US forces of the 3rd Infantry Division. They all just sort of scattered when they got into combat (each solider had a bolt action rifle and was only given 10 spare rounds each) he said and my Grandfather was close to his home town of Siculiana, Sicily, so he just went there and hung out at home until American forces arrived and he admitted he was a conscripted Italian solider and wanted to surrender. My Grandfather on my Dad's side already spoke English because his Dad had travelled to America twice already on work permits his father had gotten to do construction in New York City but he had to keep going back after the permit expired. He had been trying to get a Green card to allow himself and his family to stay in the United States permanently but could never get one for the whole family. The US officer that ran the POW camp my Grandfather was at told him he wouldn't be a poisoner long and to put his name down on his next submission for a US Green card and that ended up working and he got into the US in 1952 (this was without his parents or brothers and sisters but with his wife and current 4 kids). The US officer in charge of the POW camp also "allowed" by grandfather to escape the prison the US had set-up for Italian troops in Sicily after Sicily was secured. He left a bike for him to ride back home, there were no walls or anything to keep the Italian prisoners' in their camp. If you look at many Italian prisoners they were all sort of allowed to just "escape"/go home after a short period of time during the war after Italy surrendered. Most of the Italians wanted to surrender and help the Americans/Allies out which is what my Dad's father (my Grandfather) ended up doing. I wish my Dad had gotten the name of the officer that helped my Grandfather get the Green-card to come to Italy. I would send a thank you letter to that officers family for all he did for my family.
My Mom's Dad (my other Grandfather) fought for the United States in the 1st US Infantry Division, "the Big Red One". He had already participated in Operation Torch during the invasion of North Africa by US and UK forces. Operation Husky would luckily for my grandfather and my parents be the last combat he would see. As many people know the US 1st Infantry Division arguably saw the largest amount of significate combat of any Western division during WW2 and arguably the most of even of all the Allied nations (so also including the USSR and China) but I can't confirm that. I have read it in history reports of the Big Red One but don't know the history of each individual USSR or Nationalist Chinese division and how much combat they all encountered (I'd bet a USSR division would have seen more large scale combat just by the scale of the Eastern front). But yeah, luckily for my Grandfather on my Mom's side of the family he was transferred back to the US homeland to train up new divisions while in the US 2nd army (the US 2nd Army did training and defended the East Coast and the 4th Army did the same on the West Coast for people who always ask where those 2 Armies were during WW2). So he didn't end up going through being the first wave on Omaha beach on D-Day which the Big Red One also has on it's very long list of battles it fought in during WW2 (not even mentioning all the battles it has fought in before and after WW2). The division is just legendary in the sheer number of battles it has participated in and won. After D-Day the Big Red One would go on the lead the way in the fighting through France and into Germany. It was also going to then be sent over to be one of the lead divisions landing on the Japanese mainland if that invasion had taken place.
And then lastly, my Grandfather on my Dad's side (the Italian side) had 2 older brothers who also fought for Italy during WW2 (my Grandfather was just 18 during the brief period he fought for Italy during WW2). Both of them did all of their fighting in North Africa. The oldest was captured by the British during the retreat after the second battle of El Aleman and was then transferred to multiple US POW prisons for Italian troops in the United States doing farm work in the Southern US States. And the last brother was captured by American forces in Tunisia during the final few weeks of the fighting there when all of the Axis lines were collapsing. He was also sent to the US and worked in Boston loading up ships apparently. All of 3 of my Italian solider ancestors then always talked non-stop about how well they were treated by the US MP guards according to my father. They always told him that they had never been fed as well as they were until becoming prisoners by the US then the were as free men living in Sicily prior to WW2. The VERY good treatment they got just added more reason onto why they all wanted to move to the US (as a insane amount of Italians had been trying to do for decades already prior to WW2). Unfortunately for the rest of my Italian family they could not get Green-cards to move to the US. One got into Canada (Montreal) which they ended up liking and his family still live there. And the other brother settled on moving to the Netherlands after he kept getting rejected on moving to the US or Canada and he also said he liked living in the Netherlands and his family still live there as well. He was the only one to volunteer to fight for Italy (thought it was before WW2 started) which we think is what prevented him from getting into the US or Canada. Their 2 sisters married Italians and stayed in Siculiana, Sicily. That is why I am so thankful for that US officer that my Grandfather spoke to that told him to put his name on his green-card submission as a recommendation/sponsor or whatever it actually says when submitting a green-card request to the US. Because that was apparently what got him into the US. He got those instructions from the US officer after having worked in the prison for the Italian soldiers for the few months he was there (he was also a translator which helped him out as well). And the work and translations help he did in the prison is what got the officer to say he would agree to be a recommendation/sponsor on getting him to move to the US since he saw the work he had been doing. My Grandfather also had the added advantage of already having his Dad living and working in the US full-time after WW2 ended. He was working in Trenton NJ and had not gotten into any trouble and both my Grandfather and Great-Grandfather knew English which was not a requirement to get a Green-card but it did apparently help get people accepted into the US. Since the list to legally move to the US it still insanely long where family are waiting in a queue for hundreds of years to get in unless they get lucky in the green-card lottery the US hosts or they can submit some special reasoning for why they should be allowed in the US over other people who have been waiting longer. And all of this is why it does bother me when I see people just breaking the law by running across the border or saying they are going to the US for "vacation" and then just never leave the US. They are cutting the line and making other people trying to get into the US legally have to wait longer than they otherwise would of the US could cut down on the illegal immigration to the country. And stopping people at the border should be the easier illegal immigration for the US to stop.
I totally understand your Italian families position. As an American ancestor who is also a first generation American with my family also coming from Italy it was just a massive goal of a very large population of Southern Italy and Sicily to move to the United States. Italy was not in a good economic situation even prior to WW2 and the whole area of Italy basically south of Rome was much worse off then Northern Italy was. Then everyone in Southern Italy was hearing about how much money their family moving to the US was making and how they owned their own house and car and it just spread the desire to move to the United Sates in Italy so fast. People were just like if "so and so who was living here in Italy as a simple farmer can go to the US and live like the upper classes do here in Italy just by doing construction work I am getting out of here and moving to the Untied States as fast as I can as well!
Sounds like both sides found more humanity and compassion than they were to expect from each other and themselves. There go we but for the grace of Green Card, or verblijfsvergunning in case of the one who stayed in the Netherlands.
Vinny, I know you're a dedicated viewer and I thank you deeply for sharing about your Grandfathers and your family's history. I have nothing but respect for you and them, as well as the paths they took to obtain citizenship. However, your foray into modern immigration is misinformed and it is important to state things correctly.
We strive to avoid modern politics, but in the case of immigration (especially in USA today), it is sadly necessary to examine it in a historical context of xenophobia, economy, politics, and war.
You are blaming the absolute most destitute and powerless in society for circumstances that are largely beyond their control, and nearly entirely of America's making. Its ruinous internal and external drug policies and its illegal wars in Central- and South America have created generations of economic and political refugees. The trip itself is perilous and deadly, the border crossing even more so. Then migrant workers were and still are vilified, killed, harassed, and forced to work below poverty wages despite the fact that they contribute more to the economy than some entire upper classes of parasitic structures. They are a scapegoat, despite being a group of people who help build and maintain the USA every single day.
The fact that the immigration policy is so slanted currently that someone like you, from a family of immigrants, blames these individuals is both heart-rending and dire.
The bureaucratic policy choices of the USA are what engender and maintain the immigration 'crisis' as it is. There are hundreds or thousands of people imprisoned along the southern border every day, and many dying for simply trying to live.
You must reexamine your political priorities, and you must think long about what constitutes a human right. If you think these people should have gone the 'proper' way toward immigration, then you have not understood what's at stake, nor the responsibilities of a nation that foments such chaos.
@@WorldWarTwo Part 1 of 2: I wish I didn't bring it up, I didn't want to get into modern politics at all but it came out because it is something I have strong opinions on. But since you replied with your political opinions on the matter I do feel like I need to disagree with a lot of what you said in reply to me there.
I'll start by saying I don't think I am misinforming and I think this is a active political discussion for a reason, because there are people who have very different opinions on how legal immigration to the United States should work and it is up to the voters of the United States to decide on the laws we put into place.
So first, I don't "blame" the people breaking US law to enter the United States illegally to try to escape bad situations they are in within their own country. I take issue that they are breaking the law and preventing a actual change in US immigration policy. Because the laws allowing more people into the US is not going to change until the issue of illegal immigration is solved. Not everyone coming into the US illegally is doing so because they are trying to escape a place with horrible living conditions. Most people who enter the US illegally are people who get in legally and stay longer then they are allowed to stay for and just never leave unless they get arrested for something.
I'm going to ask you next though to explain this comment: "You are blaming the absolute most destitute and powerless in society for circumstances that are largely beyond their control, and nearly entirely of America's making. Its ruinous internal and external drug policies and its illegal wars in Central- and South America have created generations of economic and political refugees. " First, what "illegal" wars are you talking about specifically? Because there were not "illegal" wars prior to the end of WW2 and the only wars the US fought South of the US border since the end of WW2 were the VERY small wars in Panama and Grenada. Both wars were agreed by the vast majority of the UN to be the right move but even if you wanted to say there were not good causes for them those 2 small wars don't at all constitute the justification of the vast amounts of people that try to and do get into the US illegally every year. If you are talking about the CIA overthrowing governments of countries South of the US there is just the Guatemalan coup d'état that the US/CIA was involved in when you actually look into rather then just believe internet memes. And same thing with that action, even if you wanted to argue that both wars and the coup d'état were illegal/unjustified it doesn't put all, most or even a large amount of the issues in all of the American nations South of the US at the feet of the United States.
If you then want to skip over that since there is no justification in that part of your comment and go to the war on drugs that is fine with me. It is easy to look at the war on drugs and see that it has not worked and has caused violence. But it is also easy to criticize the war on drugs and then not offer a solution of your own which is what everyone essentially does when they criticize the war on drugs. If you want to criticize it you need to offer a better solution? Which is what legalize all drugs which includes heroin, crack and cocaine which destroy the lives of the abuser and the people around them just as much as a gun does? There isn't right now a better solution to the actions not just the US but the government or the vast majority of the nations South of the US have enacted to this point. Or I have not heard of it yet and if you have a better idea I 100% honestly would love to hear it.
Next you said: " Then migrant workers were and still are vilified, killed, harassed, and forced to work below poverty wages despite the fact that they contribute more to the economy than some entire upper classes of parasitic structures. They are a scapegoat, despite being a group of people who help build and maintain the USA every single day." . They are not actually vilified my the vast majority of Americans. The vast majority of Americans which includes even those who are against illegal immigration understand the want of people to move to the US. Those illegal immigrants killed are killed by the Cartels that charge the people huge amounts to traffic them across the border. Those people if killed are normally killed within Mexico before ever getting to the US. When the get to the US such as the recent incident in San Antonio and are found dead it is a major news story. They are not forced to work below minimum wage, they willing take jobs that pay them a lower amount because they can't take a job legally as they don't have the proper paper work. If those illegal workers were not available to businesses then they would be forced to pay legal works at least minimum wage which further drives up the price of other jobs because there are less people available. This is easy to see under recent examples due to the epidemic drastically lowering the number of illegal immigrants over that 1.5-2-5 year period where now jobs at McDonalds and such are being forced to pay people $16 hour (more then double the minimum wage) just to try to find enough workers to run their businesses. And that is not to say McDonalds was hiring illegal workers because they weren't. But McDonalds now has a much higher competition in the market to find employees then they did before because the jobs paying less then them such as groundskeepers for example (that would regularly hire illegal immigrants) now need to pay people in the US legally at least the minimum wage which then takes from the employers that normally would pay at the minimum wage and forces them to pay a larger amount to find staff to work their jobs. Which is a massive benefit to the lower and middle class of the United States.
Part 2 of 2: And then lastly you said: "The fact that the immigration policy is so slanted currently that someone like you, from a family of immigrants, blames these individuals is both heart-rending and dire.
The bureaucratic policy choices of the USA are what engender and maintain the immigration 'crisis' as it is. There are hundreds or thousands of people imprisoned along the southern border every day, and many dying for simply trying to live. You must reexamine your political priorities, and you must think long about what constitutes a human right. If you think these people should have gone the 'proper' way toward immigration, then you have not understood what's at stake, nor the responsibilities of a nation that foments such chaos." The immigration crisis is where it is politically because illegal immigration can not be solved right now between the political parties of the United States. Neither party has gotten a large enough majority to change the laws on how immigration works because there is a large disagreement of what should be done with immigration in the US. With that said, the US already does take in the most immigrants of any nation in the world and has done so for more that 200 years now. It is not just the US that can/should be working to solve this issue. If people want to move so desperately from their country of birth they have and should in greater numbers have the option to move to other nations that are also financially well off as the US is. And what are these "bureaucratic policy choices" that the US alone is making that is endangering the people that try to get into the US illegally, something that both parties repeatedly tell immigrants not to try, including the current US President. Because I would say the policies within each illegal immigrants nations is by far the most important issue to why people want to leave the nations they are born in. Again, this is something that both US parties agree on and was the same case when people were immigrating from Europe to the United States. People wanted to escape countries that had less rights, bad laws and less economic opportunity and people then started to stop immigrating to the US from Europe relatively shortly after WW2 when the US opinion of rights and free markets was spread/forced upon the rest of Europe. And then lastly, what is the "right" you are saying the US is denying illegal immigrants from when they break the US laws and enter the country illegally? If they are just entering the country illegally there are laws against that otherwise what is the point of a border? If they are coming to the US border and claiming asylum that is a different case and those cases are judged each individually even though immigrants have now found a way to use that claim to get into the US unjustifiably. Because if you claim asylum you are just released within a few days while your case is reviewed. Those people that know their claim to be false know they can then just never show up to the hearing on their asylum claim and stay within the US then until they get in trouble for something. And it also doesn't make sense that the vast majority of the people claiming asylum are not Mexican but people moving up to the US through Mexico to claim asylum while skipping over multiple countries including Mexico to make the claim. If your life were truly at risk you claim asylum at the nearest border or embassy available to you which is what has always been the case since asylum claims were made a right by the UN. It wasn't until recently that this loop hole was found drastically increasing the number of asylum claims in the US by more that a factor of 1000x. And it is also not to say that none of them have a justifiable asylum claim but using the asylum claim as a loophole to get into the US then hurts the actual asylum seekers even more because there is a limited number of people to review those cases and it just backs everything up. And then getting back to my original point, illegal immigration does the same thing. Because if illegal immigration could be stopped or at least addressed and reduced significantly that the number of legal immigrants to the US can be raised up again. In the past the number of immigrants the US allowed in each year was a number constantly going up and agreed to by both political parties. They can't work out a deal on raising the legal immigrant number to the US because a deal to solve/reduce the illegal immigrant issue can not be worked out. Which is my point in seeing illegal immigrants as a issue to legal immigrants because the illegal immigrants are the ones preventing the families of other legal immigrants from getting in because the number of legal immigrants can't be raised. And if you don't want to believe me on that mater just look at the opinions of all recent legal immigrants on illegal immigration to the US. The vast majority of legal immigrants within the US are very firmly in the anti-illegal immigrant camp.
Also, if you don't want to reply to me on this it is fine. We have different opinions on immigration. I am still friends with many people who have different opinions than me and regrettably I know we are not going to solve the drug issue or illegal immigration in this YT comment thread. But if you do want to continue talking to me about it please feel free to reply back I am always open to talking politics respectively.
This week in July 1943, there are not one, but five video games (Call of Duty: United Offensive, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Medal of Honor: Breakthrough, Medal of Honor: Airborne and even Mafia II) that have missions starting this week in either Sicily or near Kursk. This post will focus on the *The Old Country chapter* from the 2010 video game *Mafia II* that takes place on July 11 1943 at the fictional town of San Celeste in Sicily.
In this chapter, Vito Scaletta is forced to jump into southern Sicily as part of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment after their plane is hit by anti-aircraft fire and will try to liberate the town of San Celeste from the Italians. However, they are soon overpowered and are about to be killed when they are saved by the presence of Don Calò who persuades the Italian soldiers to surrender to the Americans.
I was going to post a comment about the MOH Breakthrough one! I just played it this march and I remember the great Australian who was fighting along side with you in the Sicily! It was tad odd now that I think about it.
Airborne is kind of a messed up game, but I enjoyed it.
Combat Mission: Fortress Italy also has missions set during this week
Benito’s face in the thumbnail captures the mood perfectly 😂
Mussolini in the thumbnail this week looks like an X-men Sentinel got its hat knocked off.
Lovely kitsch vibe coming from this tie. Glorious number really. 5/5
Gianni Thank you. Your comments brighten my day
The most interesting thing is that the only heavy tanks of the Red Army in the summer of 1943 were the British Churchill tanks. KV-1 heavy tanks were no longer used in active sectors of the front. The new model - KV-85 did not have time for the Battle of Kursk. Although Churchill had a weak cannon to penetrate Tigers, but the frontal armor of 150 mm saved. Although Churchill himself spoke out "The tank named after me has more flaws than I do"
And the KV-85 wasn't built in large numbers- just 148 were built. STAVKA was pretty disenchanted with the KV series by 1943 because it wasn't really designed for easy mass production, and it was a complex and expensive vehicle to construct.
@@petergray7576 I agree. I will complement you. The Soviet leadership had an idea about the new German heavy tank since August 1942. The answer was to create an 85-mm cannon and install it on a tank and a self-propelled artillery system. The KV-85 is a failure, but the SU-85 on the contrary is successful. Both were put into production a little later in August 1943. Without this, the Soviet Pak front was weak.
Interesting. When the Red Army will start to use the the first IS series tanks ?
@@auguststorm2037 The first tank of the IS series was called the IS-85 or IS-1 and its production was started in November 1943. However, its design was considered unsuccessful and it was replaced by the IS-2, which became a successful model.
This has been a week full of stuff to cover, but I really hope to see an extra episode about the landing in Sicily, relations between US and mafia, a deeper look into Italian government reaction to the invasion and stuff like that
I also hope so. Seeing how much buildup there was on this channel to the Sicily invasion, I expected a bit more about how the Italians and Germans reacted to these landings.
Small not about Halsey: "Bull Halsey" was a nickname given to him by the press which he didn't use or appreciate whatsoever. It also was not in popular usage until after the Leyte Gulf, the infamous "Bull's Run". To the US and especially for the military he's still "Bill"
This is a year late...but Thank you for making this series. My grandfather was in the 7th Army Unit (USA), and never talked about the war. He did bring out his photos on one occasion and they were of his friends when they were in France (spoiler) and the others were of cannons going off. I later learned they were taken during the Battle of the Bulge. These videos allow me to have a rough idea of his tour. Thanks!
Inability To Defend Sicily (1)
Generale d’Armata Alfredo Guzzoni , the commander of Italian Sixth Army and the officer responsible for the defence of Sicily , was 66 years old , and had been in retirement since 1941 when Commando Supremo in Rome called him back to active service to assume command of Sicily’s defence in May 1943. He was a small a heavy set man , a very capable strategist and operations officer and ambitious politician , served in Albania and Balkan Campaign as corps commander in 1941 before being relieved and sent back to Rome as vice Chief of Staff of Army before his retirement. After taking command of Italian Sixth Army in Sicily , it did not take long for Guzzoni to figure out that he had inherited insurmountable problems for defence of Mussolini’s Island. Not only Sicily’s defences were woefully inadequate to protect 600 miles long shoreline from any large scale invasion but there existed a fundemental disagreement between himself and German Mediterranean Theatrer Commander in Chief Field Marshall Albert Kesselring over how the island to be defended.
When Guzzoni took over command of Sicily , he found out the naval defences of island had been virtually non existent , it air defences were inadequate and ground forces were poorly trained - in some Italian units , the officers did not know how to operate their own guns - and badly positioned to repel any enemy invasion. Although on paper there were adequate number of troops , the state of morale among Italians ranged from poor to dismal. And as Allied intelligence accurately noted , the coastal divisions displayed almost “an almost unbelievable low standart of morale , dicipline and training”
In mid June , Guzzoni personally attempted to convince Mussolini of the seriousness of situation in Sicily but just like Hitler , Il Duce was also uninterested in reality or truth and “sounded of with one of his elequate orations in which he predicted that Italian Armty would defeat the enemy at waters edge”
As his later portrayals of history displays , Mussolini had been one of the most savage but also most incompatent leader of war in modern history. Had he bothered to visit Sicily he might have recognised such bravado was wishful thinking at best. A brief look to Italian 206th Coastal Division that had been deployed on south east sector of Sicily and tasked to defend the precise area where Eighth Army would land , provides a good example of the calamitious state of readiness. According to reports of Guzzoni (captured by British after landings) in this Italian division :
Dicipline and training were almost non existent , some company commanders were accustomed to take leave without bothering to place an officer in charge during their absence. Sundays and Feast Days were taken off by officers to be with their families , most of whom were not authorised to be there in first place. 16th Italian Corps commander General Carlo Rossi whose corps assigned to the sector noted sarcastically that the enemy certainly did not take the day off. Nor did the division commander Generale d’Havet have any illusions about his own command. During suprise visits the guards were found asleep at their posts , telephones were inoperable and at one battalion headquarters the duty telephonist was found sleeping soundly. A mortar unit had never had any practical training. OIfficers were acting more like strutting Roman gigolos in sun glasses. “Wherever I go” Guzzoni lamented “I see company commanders behaving like cinema actors and leaving their men to engage in some childish occupation”
Italian morale was fading noticably and was lowered even further by fall of Pantelleria and Lampedusa in June. To make matters even worse there was little likehood of the outgunned Italian Navy , which had been mostly reduced to “fleet in being” for months due to lack fuel and Allied naval and air supremacy in Mediterranean Theater , leaving its sanctuary at La Spezia to challenge the Allied fleet. Germans had no naval assets in Mediterranean Sea except some U-Boats and E-Boats. Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force in Sicily had suffered extremely heavy losses due to Allied air supremacy campaign over Sicily that was planned and being waged by Air Marshall Arthur Teddler and his Mediterranean Air Force Command and it had been going on for weeks. This contant air assault decimated Luftwaffe squadrons in Sicily , made Axis air bases in Sicily untenable and the rest of Axis squadrons retreated to Italian mainland.
The letter of an Italian officer from Livorno infantry division based in Sicily written to his father in first week July 1943 before Allied landings began in a few days , may be representative of Italian state of thinking and morale :
“The only thing left for us is unconditional surrender. The Germans do not trust us any longer and are afraid so they keep us down with this so called occupation. If you move you are dead man , that is the situation. It is all clear as daylight simply to place us in the position of a hostage. Our fatherland is in a tragic situation. Don’t misunderstand me. I pray Allies will win , because only then we will be able to breathe a little. Otherwise , if before we were a lot of beggars , afterwards we would be a bunch of wretches , because and remember it well that victory would never belong to Italy but Germany. Only to Germany ! What had our strategic retreats gained for us ? We lost 200.000 men in Tunisia alone. These errors are unpardonable ! You will see our govermant stained throughout history and the greatness that had been Rome would be blotted out. We , who boasted to four winds , trying to build on a historic inheritance , which although we are Italians and Romans , we have no claim to….we threw it away in three years ! Of what use is Heroism from a cripple ?”
From Hitler downwards , the Germans tended to view their Italian partner in Axis with an attitute of haughty disdain and frequently unconcealed scorn. The Italians were considered weak link in Berlin - Rome Axis forged by Hitler and Mussolini in 1939. Rommel had typified the German attitute in North Africa by disregarding the orders of the Italian Commander in Chief who were nominally his superiors under whom Afrika Korps was assigned whenever it suited him.
Bitter Victory - Carlo D'Este
Interesting. That officer from the Livorno division seems to me to have been more a politician than a soldier. A soldier obeys and fights - without questions or arguments. The quotation exemplifies the Italian mentality, which rejects authority and is completely individualistic; this is why fascism failed in Italy but succeeded in Germany. A German soldier, even one with doubts about the regime, would have fought hard rather than surrender so quickly.
Great comment. I love reading these.
When time allows in the future, I would love to be able to watch super cuts of the coverage of specific battles such as this one without the additiona lcoverage of that week.
That being said, the weekly format with the various theaters and new bulletin style is just so wonderful and engaging for a viewer. I cannot thank you enough for all you have done and will do to communicate the history of this war and period of time.
I doubt they will do that. They have said multiple times that they do a week by week series specifically to provide a more holistic perspective of the war that doesn't just isolate a particular front or battle; they want to show how much is going on simultaneously and if they make specific battle episodes too often people might watch those instead but lose the perspective.
I think it would be a good thing to do if they still have editors on board after the war ends in 1945/2024. Putting together an hour-long video cut from the weeklies of something like the Stalingrad Campaign or some of the bigger campaigns in the Pacific might attract a different sort of audience as well as current TG viewers who just want to watch Indy & Team's 'greatest hits' collection.
I'd stay tuned, Samuel. You just might get your wish sooner than you think.
I think its worth mentioning, its often taken for granted that Eisenhower was this great general, master of organization and logistics, but the reality is almost baffling. Less than 2 1/2 years before Operation Husky, Eisenhower was a Lt. Colonel, XO of an infantry Regiment. He was perhaps best known at that time for previously being Douglas MacArthur’s long suffering chief of staff. Before Torch, he had never commanded anything larger than a battalion, and unlike many of his peers, he hadn’t seen action in the Great War. He rise truly meteoric, being promoted 5 ranks in under 24 months, after having spent 12 years as a Major before the war.
THIS WEEK ON WW2:
Italy Finds Out
Thank you for watching. Even more next week
Thanks for covering the Battle of Kolombangara. My grandfather was serving as a Chief Petty Officer in one of the boiler rooms of the HMNZS Leander when it was torpedoed. He suffered a serious head injury as a result and was invalided out of the war. It’s been fascinating to hear that context and description of that battle (and the whole campaign) on your channel.
@David Mortimer Glad that we could add some context for an event that touched your family, thanks for sharing your grandfather's experience
Whoever would have guessed that pulling the Soviet Union and United States into the war as enemies, while also being at war with the British Empire, could have ended so poorly for Germany? There was no way anyone could have predicted this outcome.
From how brutal Kursk went for the Germans, it's clear they would have needed ALL available troops in Europe to stalemate the Soviets in the east from 1943 on. The invasion of Italy was honestly the fatal wound, having to divert troops meant Hitler was inevitably doomed. He had simply made too many enemies and unleashed too many forces on too many fronts for his army to handle. As he faced his last days, I wonder how often he and other Nazi German leaders thought back to when they thought declaring war on the US was a prudent move and not a major threat to their survival. Lend-Lease kept the Soviets alive and pumped the Brits up, plus the industrial war machine could not be reached by his rockets or bombers. It truly was a Top 5 dumbest war decision in history.
my grandfather served in Italy.
In spite of earning 3 bronze stars, he never spoke much about it.
Although he did mention how courteous the Italian people were.
(He also went into GREAT detail about how the women were hairier then a baby grizz')
Edit: So glad we could have this constructive conversation about Italy's overgrown "landing strips" :D
In the unlikely event that a Italian woman sees this; you're welcome! 👍
Anerica
@@walterthecat2145 how'd ya guess?
@@walterthecat2145 why y'all woman don't shave tho??
What happened in Italy stays in Italy
And the syphilis, don’t start him on the syphilis.
It’s hard to imagine being in a tank for 18 hours, desperately loading shell after shell, engaging targets without the need to adjust for elevation, constant firing, shouted bearings from the commander, the smoke and the noise and constant fear that somewhere in amongst all that one of the other side’s gunners will line you up next.
Probably with red burning eyes caused by lack of sleep, sweat dripping in the eyes and all that.
Very surprised to hear adverse weather conditions were to blame for the landing in Sicily.
At this time of the year, the weather in Sicily is invariably sunny.
Very strange.
There were sudden violant gales in Central Mediterranean that möight turn into storms though. In 9-10 July 1943 there was Force 6 gale and wind according to Eisenhower that appeared out of nowhere , enough to distrupt airborne landings.
Walden Ainsworth was my great grandfather. All aboard the Ainsworth Express!
I served aboard the ship named for him, USS Ainsworth FF-1090.
This was worth waiting for! I will gladly have my episodes a little late if we get this quality.
Thank you! Very glad to have such gracious, understanding, and supportive audience as y'all in the TimeGhost Army.
Thank you & stay tuned. Much more coming soon
Can’t believe you all got Terry Gilliam to work on the thumbnail this week.
Great work!!! Thanks for the effort!!! Every episode is better!!
Marcelo Thank you!! Our whole, team appreciates seeing comments like yours so please stay tuned and bring your enthusiasm!
I am SO glad that you chose to use THAT picture for the thumbnail
While you mentioned confusion and weather issues during the invasion of Sicily, I'm really surprised you made no mention of the friendly fire incident. At the time, the shoot-down over Sicily was the worst friendly-fire incident in U.S. history at the time. The 52nd Troop Carrier Wing lost 23 of 144 С-47s due to friendly fire; there were 318 casualties with 83 dead. The paratroopers suffered 229 casualties to friendly fire, including 81 dead.
a blast of an episode as always, thanks!!!
Thank you Pietro! Stay tuned for much more
I'm baffled at your output, and don't envy your editing team's workload. Thank you, Time Ghost team!
Also, congratulations Indy!
Thank you for watching, Garret! The whole TimeGhost Army makes this possible, and the whole crew works their asses off to bring it together. Please stay tuned for much more every week
I love this !! The last two videos I started watching, require watching the one before!
(I am being drawn in ❤️😊) thanks for your hard work)
Great narration once again Indy
Thank you for watching, Victor
Than you! It is the best story about Kursk battle l've ever heard )
Thank you for watching!
Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching
Another excellent Episode. To think that they will keep on fighting for another about 2 years after this is mindboggeling.
the research and levels of detail is what makes this really worth watching.
Thank you! We do our very best!
I'm a little disappointed that there was no mention whatsoever of the horrific friendly fire incidents during the Sicily landings.
I heard plenty before about the Sicily landings, but I had never heard about the landings on the smaller islands to secure safe passage. Even though you covered those weeks ago, it's those little things that makes your show top of the notch.
Thank you Samuel. Our audience is top notch too.
Great episode thanks !
Thank you!
Some of those 82nd Airborne men fought a long war...
Like the Easy Company men of the 101st had been training for a year by this point and will train for another full year after this before seeing their first action.
Very good episode, it was totally worth the small delay
great stuff indy needed more episodes though
martin Every episode is a great investment of research, time, and money and we can't do it without your support! Join the TimeGhost Army today and help us make more episodes! www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
It's quite entertaining to hear historical events narrated like live sports.
"Third Panzerkorps pushes east. The spearhead is within range of Kursk. They're flanked by the Fifth Guard. Fantastic counter-offensive by the Soviet Union. The Germans hold the line. The Führer is looking none too happy about this, he's shouting into his microphone and HOLY TOLEDO, HERE COMES PATTON WITH AN AMPHIBIOUS TANK DIVISION!!"
Thank you for watching, Ryan
really need to watch these old films…thanks!
Thank you for watching!
After this series is done you need to do an alt history version where you're someone like churchill or even mussolini and describe your alt history WW2 week by week, make a good solid book about it so we can read another man in the high castle.
"What is this, June 1916?"
Vizzini has fallen? INCONCEIVABLE!!!
beautifully detailed view of Kursk...
The C-47s getting shot down by US Navy gunners led to the implementation of the distinctive black-and-white invasion stripes on the wings of all USAAC aircraft in the ETO from this point until the end of the war.
Also, better communications. To retain secrecy, those USN gunners were completely unaware that they would be overflown and took what seemed to be entirely appropriate initiative. The fault lay higher up.
TimeGhost army! I always heard that as the tango army something I never knew
existed despite being a WW buff. Blindingly brilliant research by the way.
Thank you Uno! You can become a member of the TimeGhost Army today and help us produce these episodes every week! www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
Great work
Thank you Jonatas
Man the pacific front was hell in Ww2. Thanks for the informative insight.
I love your channel keep up the great stuff!
Thank you Oliver!
@@WorldWarTwo please do tell me if I should comment something different from time to time. I get the feeling I'm being annoying with the same comment every video
lol, the thumbnail looks perfect for one of those trashy holiday films with Boldi and DeSica: "Christmas with the Allies"
My favourite channel by far.
@jonathan Thank you!
wow I can't believe we are finally here! this is gonna be very interesting
Hi Indy and team,
I want to thank you for doing a fantastic job with this documentary series, and I want to give my special thanks to the animators of the maps and charts. You are doing a fantastic job visualizing Indy's spoken word: I like how you are highlighting mentioned units, towns, and rivers, or how you sweep over the map, drawing our attention by camera movement and animation of the front lines. Since troop movements and co are so well animated, I never have issues following the "who is doing what".
One bit of (hopefully constructive) critic: I always get lost considering the "when does this happen (within the week)". Have you thought about adding a small timeline which highlights the day currently discusses, or for more convoluted battles a timeline which visualizes battle phases? Anyway, I am nitpicking here, and you are doing an amazing job! Keep it up!!
Thomas Thank you for watching. The whole crew works their asses off on every part of the episodes every week. We appreciate your support
Great video
Thank you fellow Historian. Every episode is a great investment of research, time, and money. We do our best to cover the action of this war every single week and to bring you special episodes regularly, but we can't do it without your support! Join the TimeGhost Army today and help us make more of those specials! www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
The music in the background is from the Great War series, Indy did a few years ago.
Thanks!
Hey Indy and Team, watch your Videos since you starting with WW1 and enjoy them. But at the first time i really miss something - statictics about losses. You made a good episode of the starting power of both sides of Kursk. But i don´t heard anything about the losses of both sides in the biggest tank battle of history..... that hurts. Hope for more stats in future like you guys have done in ´41 and partly ´42 episodes.
Any chance of a special on the Coast Watchers and the vital intelligence role they played in the Pacific?
I've been looking forward to this. - Count Dooku
Thank you for watching, Daniel. Hello there.
This is kind of a crazy week, thanks for breaking it up into smaller chunks! It makes it easier to understand
Thank you Golden Hammer!
Great series
Great audience
All those destroyed tanks probably means that tanks are now obsolete.
Israel, Egypt and Syria might disagree.
@@jaymudd2817 That's seems very implausible, by some freaky coincidence the completely random selection of countries you list got into conflict with each other multiple times over the years. In one of those conflicts it seems tanks were tried again, even though their days had been gone for 30 years by then, resulting in about 2300 tanks destroyed.
And as everyone knows: If tanks get destroyed that means their day has gone.
And you are not allowed to question what would be the non-obsolete alternative. And stating that providing your soldiers with 60 tons of armor and a huge gun at least gives them a sporting chance is just being contrarian.
Good Stuff Indy the gang bringing their "A" Game 😎👍
Thank you for watching
great video again, secretly hooping on a extra video explaning the reaction of Italy and Germany to the invation of sicily, i mean must be a shock in italy right, how did Mussolini and his fascist politicians react. and how did the people react. scared? maybe some releaved? and what about hitler and his generals? and how did the smaler axis nations react? I feel personally that i todays episode skipt over that a little bit and i would love to see and extra video.
Siem Every episode is a great investment of research, time, and money. We do our best to cover the action of this war every single week and to bring you special episodes regularly, but we can't do it without your support! Join the TimeGhost Army today and help us make more of those specials! www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
Wow, quite a setback. It seems like it's going to be a very long time until the panzers arrive in Vladivostok, but I hear there are some developments in Peenemunde that may speed things up.
OK I think that general is in denial they were not gonna break Kursk even if they launch the attack early.
The Germans have been in denial since not capturing Moscow
I've got you, guys!
I caught up with the series, just when victory starts to see really near for the Allies.
Germán Thank you for watching through all these weeks of war! And it's not over yet, lots more to come. Stay tuned
Very cool episode
Thank you for watching, David
@@WorldWarTwo :)
The grand operations this summer had resulted in Axis defeat. The Axis were unable to encircle the Soviets, unable to defend Sicily, and are having a hard time fighting the Allies in the central Solomons. The Allies now being victories in these operations will now continue to go on to the end and see the surrender of the Axis and victory over them. The Axis on the other hand, now realize that victory is a grim future. They are now face with the reality that they might not win the war. If that be so, they will take the world with them into fire and destruction. The victory of the war is in sight, but the path to it is a brutal and long endeavor for all. Godspeed to those who died.
Well said, Daniel. See you next week to watch the developments