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My fave siege story was the time a Brit colonial officer and his Indian soldiers were captured in Tunisia after running outta ammo, and the crafty officer, before been take to an officers camp asked to make a goodbye speech to his brave Indian soldiers, in their native language, Urdu, that the Germans couldn't understand and explained his whole escape plan to them to escape that night bringing him with them!
Battle of Rorkes Drift 1879 is mine. 4000 to 5000 Zulus some armed with rifles sitting on the hills faced off against 139 Brit’s after hours upon hours they finally pushed them back until the supply column pushed through
@@slatert1222 Its difficult not to think of a siege and not remember Rourkes drift, with the bravery of both sides, no matter what was said of the actions of either
These are troops that refused to give up. They will not go down without a fight. When it comes to the odds, the odds do not matter in the face of a miracle. Victory can be achieved in the most unexpected ways.
The other part of the Battle of Samar. The planes from Taffy 3 escort carriers flew sortie after sortie, filling the air with planes strafing and attacking Kurita's fleet. The pilots would feint attacks after their guns were empty to keep pressure on the Japanese ships. The efforts of all Allied units were far and above the call of duty. But they knew they were the last line of defense between Kurita and the troop ships behind them offloading troops and supplies. If Kurita had kept going he could have collapsed the entire invasion force before the Allies responded.
All members of the Legendary Taffy 3 deserve recognition, but its the crews of the Destroyers Hoel, Johnston, and Heerman (listed in order sunk though Heerman survived with at least a hole in its bow causing it to go so low in the water its anchors touched the surface) along with Destroyer Escort Sammuel B. Roberts were the heroes of the day. The ‘Tin Cans’, probably meant to be derogatory by bigger ships crews but an affectionate nickname for Destroyer crews, fought like ships of a much higher tonnage with the Destroyer Escort Sammy B having fired five hundred rounds, having used all real combat rounds and in the end firing its phosphorus signal rounds, was given the nickname ‘the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship. The Johnston is the second deepest wreck ever discovered while the Sammy B, which was discovered one year ago, is the deepest.
@@KaoretheHalfDemon ... No worries, you have very valid points. I first heard the Taffy 3 story with a more generalised focus. The pilots who dived into strafing runs when out of ammo to distract the enemy ships has always stuck with me. Thanks for your replies.
Indeed, every plane that could flew of the escort carriers of Taffy 3, and went for the enemy fleet. However, once people figured out what was going on, planes from all the Taffys and all the land based got into the fight. Kurita knew what happens to ships without effective air cover.
I would put the battle of Hill 609 above Longstop Hill. The ability to hit Longstop Hill with artillery from a place twice the height of the highest point of Longstop was a huge advantage.
Sorry, it's not the Battle of Samar, it's the Battle off Samar. I served 3 years on the second destroyer bearing the name of USS Hoel, which was lost in the battle. I know it's a small point but to those of us who bear something of a kinship by association, with those brave men, it's kind of important. Great video, though. Thank you.
He made shots that were something like 600 yards not once, but like 16 times IN A ROW. All while undergoing basic training, iirc. If THAT isn't considered an expert marksman level, I don't know what IS.
My uncle was 101st Airborne 506 Charlie Company- one of the "battered bastards of Bastogne." The Airborne had participated in Operation Market Garden and were headed back to Paris for R&R after 6 months of front line battle, including a trip back to London. They were still in their "summer clothes" without heavy winter gear or provisions. They were low on ammo, low on rations and low on energy. Ordered to divert to Bastogne, the winter storm locked them in from receiving air support. I asked him if they felt desperate. He replied, "no, we knew there were 4 million Allied on the ground in Europe and it was only a matter of holding out." He didn't go deep into the stories but said that guys were improvising in the defense of the town. He spent his 19th Christmas (he had lied to enlist) in Bastogne drinking a cold cup of soup and eating a wafer. He smoked his last cigarette that day until the skies cleared and the planes parachuted supplies to the town. He said he still remembered, 50 years later, how cold it was and remembered sleeping in 6 inches of snow in a foxhole.
@@davidnemoseck9007 @davidnemoseck9007 He never met a stranger, never had anything but a smile on his face, always had a joke or a good story to tell. He lit up a room when he walked in, there was never anything that bothered him. As I grew to be a man I understood that it was his character that was formed in battle that made him not only persevere but thrive in life. By the time he retired he had oil wells pumping 500 barrels a day, which, didn't make him one of the "big boys" but it provided all the cash he ever needed to do what he wanted to do...which, if you have your health, love, a good marriage and kids that grew up to be productive citizens without issues with vice, was not bad...as he would say... not bad at all.
You're very lucky to have such an awesome uncle. I was born in 1956 in Alberta and had 3 uncles in Dad's family and 1 in Mom's. We lived about halfway between Calgary and Edmonton. Things were a heck of a lot colder back then - like Duh! I have a picture of me and my two older sisters and my kid brother sitting on a snowbank at -40°C which equals -40°F. We all have rosy-red cheeks and smiles on our faces. There wasn't much wind. When I was in Boy Scouts starting in 1969, we watched many Department of National Defense (DND) training films to learn how to go winter camping. One of our troop leaders was a retired Colonel and he told us that at -40°C or colder almost all of your food energy is needed just to stay alive, let alone fight a war! You can't build a big bonfire 🔥 and sit around enjoying your evening meal, toasting marshmallows, making JiffyPop popcorn 🍿 and then going to sleep in a tent in your nice big down-filled sleeping bag with a Coleman tent heater 🤪. I still like to go winter camping. My Dad was a United Church of Canada minister (Protestant) and Mom was a great nurse. Dad was ready to serve as a chaplain if needed, but fortunately he wasn't. Mom went to London, England after the war was over to help the nurses and doctors with all the shell shocked and permanently disabled veterans and civilians. One my great-uncle's son served with the R.C.A.F. as a fighter pilot. His plane was missing over Belgium in 1940 or 41.
19:42 USS Johnston (DD-557) _was_ the deepest wreck ever found. A year ago the same search team found the USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413), also sunk in the Battle off Samar, in waters 426 metres deeper. She is called "the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship". Sadly, the last of her surviving crew passed just three months before she was found.
'The Last Stand of The Tin Can Sailors' by James D Hornfischer talks about the entire Battle of Leyte Gulf, with a special focus on Taffy 3, and the Battle Of Samar.
The weirdest victory I heard was a group of Brits had it bad fighting their way across a river into Germany itself, then dug in for the night on the far bank waiting to engage the Germans defending the area in the morning. The problem was when first light broke they looked above their foxholes, into the face of the Germans, who they'd dug in together with in the dark! But the Germans were so sick of fighting most surrendered, with some running off
@@brokenbridge6316 Well I dunno how you'd see a weirder engagement, just showing when good people can come together to fight real evil, and should surely be immortalized in film, however, it wasn't the only time the 2 sides fought together, as at Hostau, Czechoslovakia there was operation Cowboy, to save many beautiful thoroughbred horses that the US and Germans fought together at to, or in WW1, how the Russians and Germans had to declare a truce to fight a common enemy, Wolves that were eating them in their trenches!
@@johnryder1713---Interesting. The Battle of Castle Itter was where American and German troops came together to save the lives of several French officials that had been taken captive and defend them from a vengeful SS unit. Sabaton sang a wonderful song about this. Shame their isn't a movie about this. Because it would be great to see.
Fun facts about the Battle of Samar: - The entirety of Taffy 3 (carriers + escorts) had less displacement than the largest ship in the Japanese formation (Yamamoto) - The USS Johnson had less displacement than the Yamamoto's main gun! - Three Japanese Cruisers were sunk or scuttled - The fact that Kurita had so badly misjudged the enemy he was facing played a *huge* role in the outcome of the battle. Because he thought he was facing Cruisers, he ordered Armor Penetrating rounds which on multiple occasions were reported to punch right through the hulls of the destroyers and escort carriers without detonating. Two kills were correlated to cruisers figuring out the correct ship size and, on their own initiatives, loading HE rounds instead and almost immediately knocking their respective targets out of the fight. - Exacerbating the confusion was that they literally threw everything at these ships including star shells which ignited the top decks of the battleships in a non-dangerous way but may have confused Kurita into believing the damage was far more severe than it was. - An American pilot actually fired with his sidearm at the enemy
Starting off with a Finnish victory in the Winter War was a great way to start off the video, nd having both Bastogne and Samar together in top of it, made this perfect. A great video, a great video indeed.
“The last stand of the tin can sailors” it’s a book by the late James D. Hornfisher, telling about the battle off Samar, showing the details of the battle and how the men who led the fight stood their ground against Kurita’s center force
@@Johnnycdrums basically Canadian dude with one eye and 2 sub machines gun’s liberates an entire fucking town basically by himself. For more context that man was Leo Major. He had lost an eye previously, but stayed in the army. He and a friend of his who was in the Canadian army were patrolling around Zwolle, Netherlands when his friend gets killed. So he takes his friends rifle, alongside his and liberates the town and takes a bunch of people as prisoners. He also one of three people to receive the distinguished conduct medal in two different wars (he also received it after leading to capture a strategic hill in the Korean War). Dude was a beast lol.
Audie Murphy fighting off a company single-handedly while gravely wounded stands out, to me, as a particularly hard fight that should not have been possible to win.
Not to take anything away from the troops of the 101 Airborne, 10th Armor, Combat Engineers and Corps Artillery that held at Bastogne, but they did not stop the German main assault, they were a side show, the Germans were stopped at Elsenborn Ridge. Bastogne was the center of a supporting attack to cover the German Flank. The Germans there did not have the power of the northern attack.
The Germans got much further than Elsenborn Ridge though. They took St Vith, and reached Stoumont in the north while other elements (notably the Panthers of 2nd Panzer Division) almost got to the Meuse. They reached the Dinant area where the British were. Just saying. You are totally right that Bastogne was a side issue. The north and west was the main area.
One of the most unknown but one of the most pivotal battles in the pacific is definitely the battle of Kohima, in which the British and commonwealth forces such as India, Australia, ghurkas and local forces held of a much superior Japanese force from entering India. I know the rifles one the largest regiments in the British army has Kohima as one of their proudest battles.
Bastogne wasn't actually the heart of the Ardennes offensive, at least not in terms of strategic importance. By the time the 5th Panzer Army reached Bastogne their timetable was already blown and they couldn't afford to deviate from their primary objective of reaching the Meuse. Bastogne was considered a secondary objective and mostly bypassed. In fact, there were more American units defending the town than there were German units besieging them. The real heart of the offensive was on the northern shoulder where the main thrust of the German army occurred and where the 6th SS Panzer Army was prevented from capturing Bradley's headquarters at Spa and moving on to Allied supply depots at Liège. inb4 🤓
@redaug4212 "The real heart of the offensive was on the northern shoulder where the main thrust of the German army occurred and where the 6th SS Panzer Army was prevented from capturing Bradley's headquarters at Spa and moving on to Allied supply depots at Liège." Is that where the US 1st and 9th armies were based?
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- It was the headquarters for the 1st Army. The 9th Army was probably further away. The original plan for _Autumn Mist_ would have had the 6th Panzer Army roll over Spa and in the process trap the 1st Army in Aachen. The fact that the German advance ended up on a flat westward trajectory instead of a northwest envelopment shows how badly things went for the Germans in the section that was supposed to matter the most for their offensive.
Yup. 2nd and 99th US Divisions, as individual formations, deserve the most credit of Bulge units by far. The 1st and 9th US armies were, of course, placed under British command from early on in the battle, becoming part of Montgomery's 21st Army Group (partly because Bradley, some say, had made a bit of an error in placing his HQ). Similar arrangements were made for the airforce. Monty immediately backed them up with 5 British/Commonwealth Divisions, shutting down the Meuse crossings. After that, it was game over for Wacht am Rhein. (Of course, the 82nd won't like you saying that, not least because too many people believe Cornelius Ryan's "interesting" views on different WW2 leaders 😆 )
First!? USS St. Lo- struck by a Kamikaze 25 October 1944. HMAS Australia- struck by a Kamikaze 21 October 1944. Come on The Front. You're better than this.
Market Garden wasn't an Axis victory. Only Arnhem was. The Germans retreated, losing 100km of territory including Eindhoven and Nijmegen. The allies got across the Waal River, closer to Germany. Market Garden was 90% a successful allied advance. Subsequent British operations like Operation Aintree, suceeded in taking more ground. The German counter attack south of Arnhem, in late September/early October failed and British 2nd Army retained it's gains in the Netherlands.
I thought surely Stalingrad and/or Leningrad would make the list. I mean, on paper, Germany had essentially already won both battles. 90% of Stalingrad was occupied by Wehrmacht forces, and Leningrad was choked under a siege for nearly 900 days!
I watched a video a year ago of a British reserve artillery unit on this hill in north Africa during WW2 that was fighting a rear action. This hill was used by both sides to cover their retreat as the war went back and forth across north Africa. Their officers were dead as well as their most experienced NCO's. There was no one there to tall them to retreat. I don't remember any details.
The kamikaze attack on the USS St. Lo was not the first such attack, the first such attack was on 20th October when a Japanese aircraft crashed into the bridge of the Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Australia killing some 8 seamen including her captain . HMAS Australia was struck a further 5 times by kamikaze after this until the 9th January 1945 when she was withdrawn for repairs.
When it is perceived that there is no God above the state, the state becomes god (By definition, an idol, a false god)-the highest authority in the lives of those governed.
Pretty sure a soviet division had closer to 7000 members not 45000 men. And claiming that the allied position in North Afrca was grim in April 1943 is more than absurd. Sorry, so many mistakes here.
Meanwhile in the surigao strait, the Japanese face off against 6 U.S. battleships, 3 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 28 destroyers, and 39 pt boats, with only 2 battleships, a heavy cruiser and 4 destroyers. That’s why Potential history calls it the slap down at surigao
I think an honorable mention should go to the airborne side of D-day. Many paratroopers lost their weapons and they were scattered over a very wide area. Objectives were then successfully captured with 1/3 of the paratroopers that were supposed to be there, and they just somehow won despite everything going wrong.
Sadly, that's just propaganda. German strength in the city proper was so depleted that by the time Operation Uranus kicked off, they could not conduct offensive actions within the city. Their last attack had been in the factory district and had to use engineers as front line infantry, and it failed. They used up all their strength taking as much of Stalingrad as they did. Pavlov's House was just a forward post in a square opposite a spent, depleted force. Shots were fired, and small groups of men did conduct skirmishes, but most of the time, they were just watching each other. There may have been over 200,000 Germans in the Stalingrad pocket, but only around 20,000 were proper combat troops, and most of them weren't even in the city. TIKhistory has an excellent documentary series about the battle if you want to know more.
The Battle off Samar was just bananas. Japan: 4 battleships (including the Yamato), 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, 11 destroyers, and 36 kamikaze aircraft from nearby Luzon; US: 6 escort carriers, 3 destroyers, 4 destroyer escorts, and ~320 escort carrier (ie. light and not for front line use in late 1944) aircraft. In terms of displacement, the Japanese fleet was five times heavier than the Americans'. Largest guns in the Japanese fleet: 14" with a range of 20 miles on the battleships, 18" with a range of 26 miles on the Yamato. In the American fleet: 5" with a range of 7 miles. But the Americans' tiny guns had one big ace up their sleeve: radar directed fire control computers. The radar directed fire control computers allowed the American ships to fire rapidly and accurately while concealed by smoke and squalls and while making hard evasive turns. The Japanese relied on visual range finding: walking bracketing shots in to the target - fire, observe, calculate, adjust aim, fire, observe, etc. So while the little American ships couldn't pierce the armour of the heavy Japanese ships, they could keep peppering them while jinking around in and out of view. Meanwhile the American aircraft are forcing the Japanese ships to keep making evasive turns, further frustrating efforts to target the American little ships. Kurita's assumption that the fierceness of the American attacks meant that he was facing cruisers also played a role. Initially the Japanese were firing armour piercing shells, as would be required to damage a cruiser, but the American ships had little to no armour so when the Japanese did score a hit the shell just went clean through without exploding and from distance looked like an overshoot. Well, eventually the faster Japanese force started to get in range of the fleeing escort carriers, and switched to plain high explosive shells, and the American fleet took heavy losses. But they had sunk three heavy cruisers, damaged the other three plus two battleships and a destroyer, convinced the Japanese that they were facing cruisers and fleet carriers, and scattered the Japanese fleet to the point where Kurita felt he no longer had tactical control of it. So Kurita withdrew and his real target, the American landing fleet off Leyte, was saved.
Quite the opposite actually. Finland in WW2 gained almost mythical proportions. If you want underrated, think France, Malay and Kenya. They have little to no reputation and in Frances case a negative one. But those people all made a massive impact on the war. The French army, which was underequipped, undermanned, unprepared and poorly trained saved the BEF in Dunkirk but they get very little mention. The last stand of Singapore was fought, incredibly bravely by Malays to the last man, but it's a battle rarely mentioned. Without the huge mumber of volunteer Kenyans, Italy would've marched in to Africa easily. They later went on to give the Japanese a bloody nose in Burma. All the while dealing with systematic racism which put them last in resupply, lowest in pay and expendable. They deserve some love too.
@@VikingTeddy The Finns at times had ZERO tanks, ZERO air power and were outnumbered massively ( see Battles of Tolvajärv and Suomussalmi) and were still able to inflict one sided casualties to a numerically superior and better equipped Soviet force.
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- I know, I have family who fought in Lapland. Always been fascinated by the war. but unfortunately by the time I started getting interested, all the vets from my family had passed. There are plenty of articles from the 40s that talks about the winter and continuation war. The tale of the small plucky army standing up against the Soviets, spoke to Americans of the time due to increasing tensions of the cold war. There's some nice political cartoons depicting (and exaggerating) Finns from the time. So not underrated at all :) But it's true that later generations didn't really learn about the Finns more than as a footnote in the war.
@@VikingTeddy Interesting, I actually was good friends with two guys at my school who were from Finland, as someone who knows what's it like to have the enemy knocking on your doorstep ( I am in Britain) , I respect your nation a lot. The Finns in my opinion were the best soldiers in 1939-1940, outnumbered in every category and still held out against the odds.
interest fact about kuritas force is it wasnt at full power. half its power was sunk or routed by submarines and planes earlier that day particularly the flagship atago
Changde, China 1943. 8000 Chinese held off overwhelming Japanese forces. Chinese eventually took the city back but with massive casualties. Oh and the Japanese used poison gas
Enlisted is a pretty fun free WW2 game, you get to pilot bombers, fighters, tanks, jeeps however you do need to grind to get better gear for your troops, i use the sniper class alot alot. You get bronze, silver and gold badges, bronze is to upgrade weapons and troops, silver is to purchase troops and weapons and gold badges is to buy unique troops and weapons, you gain these badges everytime you fight battles. You also have 8 different campaigns you can join in with each campaign you can chose one of the two factions to fight with, every campaign has two different factions from the other campaigns with that being said you also get different squads every campaign so you cant bring in squads from other campaigns. As you advance in ranks your campaign unlocks more weapons, gear and vehicles.
As for that battle in Tunisia: up hill and outnumbered by the defenders? BUT YOU GOT THE ARGYLE AND SUTHERLAND? it shall be AN EVEN FIGHT. Japenese commanders seem to come in mostly two types, INSANELY aggressive psychopaths which mostly went to the army or very cautious often to the point of self-defeating. fortuitously for the Americans Kurita was the latter type. Also USS Johnston you survived CQB with the biggest battleship ever built...BY ANYBODY you glorious bastard. As for the Siege of Bastogne, you seemed to have gotten a lot of well known facts about that entire capeign wrong, especially the whole "last role of the dice by Germany" part of it. They burned up what little remained of their strategic reserve for ludicrously ambitious objectives just like at Kursk except even more so.
Finland is a land of non stop marshes. The only way to get quickly around the region is when its frozen over. Even the tribes that composed the Scandinavian Vikings couldn't conquer Finland and Lapland in the North was also shared a shared land of Reindeer herders that retained its ways into modern times.
We hear about the Western front and D Day and etc all to much if you ask me, it gets tiresome. Much rather hear about rarely talked about Pacific engagements or Eastern Front battles, or just little known skirmishes even. Just my opinion of course but it is what it is.
Weird way of putting it: "Simo Häyhä was not a soldier" ? Finland had (and still has) the conscription. Häyhä started his mandatory armed service in 1925, completed NCO school and passed on to the reserve. He was also actively training in Suojeluskunta (volunteer militia). When the war broke out, Finnish men didn't miraculously "enlist" into the armed forces, most were reservists called into service.
Not a WW2 battle but a far more amazing battle. On November 22, 1914 the reserve XXV Corp of 50,000 men under German General of Infantry Baron Reinhard von Scheffer-Bboyadel was cut off behind Russian lines, with 200,000 Russian troops closing in, such was a Russian victory that trains were ordered from Warsaw to carry the expected German prisoners away. After making a hasty estimate of the situation, Scheffer did the one thing the Russians expected least: He attacked eastward, toward Warsaw and Moscow. He broke through the ring of surprised Russians, then marched north, as the Russians hastily tried to reestablish the encirclement. But the German XXV Reserve corps, now about 15 miles behind the Russian front lines, marched north in a combat formation like napoleon’s “ battalion square.” After over-running and destroying a Russian division in its way, Scheffer’s corps turned west, rejoined the ninth Army, and on November 26 took its place in the German line north of Lodz. In 2 weeks of almost continuous fighting and marching, Scheffer-Boyadel and his corps had suffered more than 4300 casualties, and had inflicted at least 3 times that many on the Russians. He not only brought out of encirclement most of the wounded, all of his heavy equipment, and all his artillery, he also escorted 16,000 prisoners and 64 captured artillery pieces. It was an almost unbelievable feat, one of the greatest of the war, and of all military history.
For its Sheer Ferocity,the Numbers of soldiers on both sides,all sorts of artillery( including those massive 16" Battleship shells),Airplanes,tanks and an endless chain if supplies,for such a small piece of land,i think that Iwo Jima should be Here. In the end was a Japonese defeat,but what the Japonese forces endure without "nothing" only with an Unbelivable courage,determination and a fanatic fighting Spirit against Overwhelming American forces,they did an Outstanding Job defending that little spec of land and in the process making the Americans pay a very high price in Man and Material for a 4 days operation ( Suppose). How the Japonese hold for so long with so few its almost a miracle. But it wasnt,was sheer Will Power.
Very grateful for the quantity & quality war video games have paid for WW2 docu. I did enjoy Pong, Galaga, Pac Man in bars, but damn, these war games, at age 66, troublesome
Now look up the Anglo-Iraqi War of May 1941, in particular the Siege of RAF Habbaniya. Also the amazing march across the desert by Habforce and subsequent Battle of Fallujah and Fall of Baghdad. A certain defeat turned into victory, which arguably saved World War II for the allies. Barely mentioned.
Don't want to be that person but since this is history channel why soldiers are Russians and border is soviet? Those this mean that soviet soldiers were only from Russian ethnicity?
I think the arden assult was a watse reaoraces the germens could not afford to lose it would have madw more sense to send those forces against the soviets
I’m still amazed they haven’t done a taffy 3 movie The whole thing takes 3 hours and is none stop action. Some of which are some of the most wildest and weirdest actions took on sea and air.
You asked for input for future programming. How about the Unsung Heroes of the Home Front. Those who built the equipment of war, those who grew the food sent to the fronts, etc. My Grandmother was a Rosie the Riveter at the Baxton Ship Yards of Duluth MN during WWII. She welded the inner hulls to the outer hulls of the Liberty Ships that went to the Atlantic Convoys and she dated Major Bong. My Mom said he was 'shorter than you would think a Hero would be, but a really nice guy.' He almost became my Grandfather.
The taking of the Philippines was done for political purposes but the slaughter of Manila and a lot of carnage could have been avoided if the military would have bypassed it. From a military perspective it was unneeded to achieve the goals of the war. The war could have been over before the Russians took Sakalin Island and Korea. The Russians kept demanding the allies do more fighting in Europe and we kept demanding they do more in the Pacific which they avoided until Germany surrendered. If we had bombed Japan earlier by bypassing the Philippines letting the Japanese surrender there peacefully with the Emperor call for it history would have been very different. However the Japanese were killing any Filipinos who looked European and that would have been worse had we not invaded.
There are so many great battles one side wasnt supposed to win but turned into a rout for them. Stalingrad for the Russians, 2nd battle of Karkov for the Germans, Midway for the Americans, numerous battles for the Chinese (not enough credit is given to the Chinese for weakening the Japanese army), El Alamein for the Brits, Singapore for the Japanese, the Philippines for the Japanese as well (bad leadership cost the allies Singapore and the Philippines). So many battles should have gone one way and instead went another, prolonging the war. It wasn't often that a battle went according to the aggressors battle plan. Thats what happens when you have two highly trained fighting forces armed to the teeth facing off. It was usually generals stuck in their WW1 mindset that cost one side the victory.
I think the Battle of Samar was a bit over simplified. USS Johnston wasn't even a destroyer, but a smaller destroyer escort. The aircraft carriers involved were escort carriers. The aircraft that were involved weren't designed to attack ships. They were armed for ground support. Finally, the Japanese force consisted of battleships and cruisers in addition to the destroyers. Johnston and some of the other small surface ships charged the superior Japanese vessels! She received the nickname of "The destroyer that fought like a battleship".
USS Johnston was a Fletcher class destroyer. You might be referring to USS Samuel B. Roberts, a John C. Butler class destroyer escort, since she was referred to as "the destroyer that fought like a battleship".
Yeah, the Battle _off_ Samar was just bananas. Japan: 4 battleships (including the Yamato), 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, 11 destroyers, and 36 kamikaze aircraft from nearby Luzon; US: 6 escort carriers, 3 destroyers, 4 destroyer escorts, and ~320 escort carrier (ie. light and not for front line use in late 1944) aircraft. In terms of displacement, the Japanese fleet was five times heavier than the Americans'. Largest guns in the Japanese fleet: 14" with a range of 20 miles on the battleships, 18" with a range of 26 miles on the Yamato. In the American fleet: 5" with a range of 7 miles. But the Americans' tiny guns had one big ace up their sleeve: radar directed fire control computers. The radar directed fire control computers allowed the American ships to fire rapidly and accurately while concealed by smoke and squalls and while making hard evasive turns. The Japanese relied on visual range finding: walking bracketing shots in to the target - fire, observe, calculate, adjust aim, fire, observe, etc. So while the little American ships couldn't pierce the armour of the heavy Japanese ships, they could keep peppering them while jinking around in and out of view. Meanwhile the American aircraft are forcing the Japanese ships to keep making evasive turns, further frustrating efforts to target the American little ships. Kurita's assumption that the fierceness of the American attacks meant that he was facing cruisers also played a role. Initially the Japanese were firing armour piercing shells, as would be required to damage a cruiser, but the American ships had little to no armour so when the Japanese did score a hit the shell just went clean through without exploding and from distance looked like an overshoot. Well, eventually the faster Japanese force started to get in range of the fleeing escort carriers, and switched to plain high explosive shells, and the American fleet took heavy losses. But they had sunk three heavy cruisers, damaged the other three plus two battleships and a destroyer, convinced the Japanese that they were facing cruisers and fleet carriers, and scattered the Japanese fleet to the point where Kurita felt he no longer had tactical control of it. So Kurita withdrew and his real target, the American landing fleet off Leyte, was saved.
While it has already been noted Johnson is a destroyer, the aircraft could have been armed with anti-shipping. In fact the aircraft from taffy 1 and 2 joined the fight, as well as one of them, I can't remember, was actually prepared with anti-shipping, with the other 2 being prepared for ground attacks with scouts being prepared for submarines.
@@The_Stumbler Yes, the standard aircraft complement on Casablanca class escort carriers was a squadron of FM-2 Wildcats (they could take off from the shorter decks) and a squadron of TBF Avenger torpedo bombers. When the Avengers were first launched they were in such a hurry that they went with whatever droppable munition was already fitted, _some with none at all._ In the first wave they all expended their droppable munitions and continued attacking with guns. When they ran out of ammunition for their guns, some continued making decoy attack runs to divide the attention of the Japanese AA gunners. Subsequent waves were fitted with torpedoes and anti-ship bombs.
@@JonMartinYXD taffy 3 did only have what they were armed for the fight, such as propaganda and ground attacks, and so was one of the other 2 taskforces. The 3rd taskforce was armed with anti-shipping. The Americans were aware of the attempt at the southern strait, commanding one of the 3 taffy taskforces to be properly armed with anti-shipping. At the end of the battle, there was 3 entire taskforces of airplanes in the air, buzzing the Japanese with ineffective fire, and effective fire.
The Winter War=Soviet/Finnish War= was NOT part of WWII. In 1939 when the Soviets attacked Finland, neither Finland nor Soviet Union were in WWII yet. The Finns later fought with the Germans against the Soviets only to regain the territory the Russians had captured during the Winter War but it ended up being worse and they lost more land. And Finland had long been a part of the Russian Empire as the Duchy of Finland and only regained their sovereignty in 1918 after WWII.
Who are you to say what is or isn't part of WW2? For Europe, WW2 started September 1st 1939. The Germans and then the Soviets invaded Poland according to their deal in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. The same pact that gave the USSR a free hand in attacking Finland. Why would that be a separate conflict from WW2, originating from the exact same treaty and powers? If you ask the Chinese WW2 started in 1937 and if you ask the Americans some will claim 1941. But trying to separate the winter war from WW2 is a new take of stupidity I have never seen before.
@@jm-holm Russia doesn’t consider it as part of WWII, Finland doesn’t consider it as part of WWII so I’m not considering it as part of WWII! Who are YOU to decide for Russia and Finland if it is or isn’t!!! They both consider it a separate War called The Winter War! Sheesh!
@@annehersey9895 Finland doesn't consider it as part of WW2? That's news to us Finns. Thank you for telling me your great insight on our history. Russia doesn't consider anything until 1941 WW2 because they don't want to acknowledge or take responsibility for any of their criminal invasions. The Russians also do not call it the winter war. Nor do they mention or think about it much, they buried it in their history so deep that before the dissolution of the USSR most citizens grew up never learning they had attacked Finland or that the war ever happened.
@@jm-holm Mea Culpa! I stand corrected and apologize to any Finns I disrespected. It appears I fell for the interpretation of outside News Stories. I can certainly imagine that Russia has wiped it out of their collective memories! The Finns were remarkable during that fight and won the respect of the world. Welcome to NATO, had the war in Ukraine been the 5 day walkover Putin expected, I fear Finland would have been next. I think Putin thought he’d gobble up any non NATO countries around Russia.
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No thanks. I'd rather not support a company staffed with greedy, exploitative shits
Great video.
😅😅😅k0bbbbb;8hehve
My fave siege story was the time a Brit colonial officer and his Indian soldiers were captured in Tunisia after running outta ammo, and the crafty officer, before been take to an officers camp asked to make a goodbye speech to his brave Indian soldiers, in their native language, Urdu, that the Germans couldn't understand and explained his whole escape plan to them to escape that night bringing him with them!
I haven't heard that one!! That is wonderful!
Battle of Rorkes Drift 1879 is mine. 4000 to 5000 Zulus some armed with rifles sitting on the hills faced off against 139 Brit’s after hours upon hours they finally pushed them back until the supply column pushed through
@@slatert1222 So tragic how the entire thing ended for the Zulus!
@@slatert1222 Its difficult not to think of a siege and not remember Rourkes drift, with the bravery of both sides, no matter what was said of the actions of either
Do you have a link to any more information about this event? I’d like to read up on it!
These are troops that refused to give up. They will not go down without a fight. When it comes to the odds, the odds do not matter in the face of a miracle. Victory can be achieved in the most unexpected ways.
Although the idea of a miracle undermine the efforts by them to achieve such an outcome.
The other part of the Battle of Samar. The planes from Taffy 3 escort carriers flew sortie after sortie, filling the air with planes strafing and attacking Kurita's fleet. The pilots would feint attacks after their guns were empty to keep pressure on the Japanese ships.
The efforts of all Allied units were far and above the call of duty. But they knew they were the last line of defense between Kurita and the troop ships behind them offloading troops and supplies. If Kurita had kept going he could have collapsed the entire invasion force before the Allies responded.
All members of the Legendary Taffy 3 deserve recognition, but its the crews of the Destroyers Hoel, Johnston, and Heerman (listed in order sunk though Heerman survived with at least a hole in its bow causing it to go so low in the water its anchors touched the surface) along with Destroyer Escort Sammuel B. Roberts were the heroes of the day. The ‘Tin Cans’, probably meant to be derogatory by bigger ships crews but an affectionate nickname for Destroyer crews, fought like ships of a much higher tonnage with the Destroyer Escort Sammy B having fired five hundred rounds, having used all real combat rounds and in the end firing its phosphorus signal rounds, was given the nickname ‘the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship. The Johnston is the second deepest wreck ever discovered while the Sammy B, which was discovered one year ago, is the deepest.
Sorry for the info dump.
@@KaoretheHalfDemon ... No worries, you have very valid points. I first heard the Taffy 3 story with a more generalised focus. The pilots who dived into strafing runs when out of ammo to distract the enemy ships has always stuck with me.
Thanks for your replies.
Indeed, every plane that could flew of the escort carriers of Taffy 3, and went for the enemy fleet. However, once people figured out what was going on, planes from all the Taffys and all the land based got into the fight. Kurita knew what happens to ships without effective air cover.
@@lamwen03; Good point, but he was confused.
Yesssssss Enlisted!!! Got into this game a month before this video, but have been subscribed to The Front and Geetslys for years!
I would put the battle of Hill 609 above Longstop Hill. The ability to hit Longstop Hill with artillery from a place twice the height of the highest point of Longstop was a huge advantage.
Finnish High command When their Conscripted farmers on skies wipe out the entire soviet 44th divison 😲
Soviet still defeated the Finns 😂😂
@@JDDC-tq7qm And lost 381,000 men.
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- doesn't matter to Russia what matters is Mother Russia brings the victory home 🤪
Sorry, it's not the Battle of Samar, it's the Battle off Samar. I served 3 years on the second destroyer bearing the name of USS Hoel, which was lost in the battle. I know it's a small point but to those of us who bear something of a kinship by association, with those brave men, it's kind of important. Great video, though. Thank you.
You said Patton's army linked up with the other and then resumed going west to Berlin. That would be an eastward advance.
3:04)A marksman could be someone who had the minimum number of hits to qualify. This video alleges that he was shooting like an EXPERT.
He made shots that were something like 600 yards not once, but like 16 times IN A ROW. All while undergoing basic training, iirc. If THAT isn't considered an expert marksman level, I don't know what IS.
I'm the 10th t comment on this video
1st
Blurst
I guess the word "deez" didn't exist yet in 1944.
No, they actually spoke proper English back then.
My uncle was 101st Airborne 506 Charlie Company- one of the "battered bastards of Bastogne." The Airborne had participated in Operation Market Garden and were headed back to Paris for R&R after 6 months of front line battle, including a trip back to London. They were still in their "summer clothes" without heavy winter gear or provisions. They were low on ammo, low on rations and low on energy. Ordered to divert to Bastogne, the winter storm locked them in from receiving air support.
I asked him if they felt desperate. He replied, "no, we knew there were 4 million Allied on the ground in Europe and it was only a matter of holding out." He didn't go deep into the stories but said that guys were improvising in the defense of the town. He spent his 19th Christmas (he had lied to enlist) in Bastogne drinking a cold cup of soup and eating a wafer. He smoked his last cigarette that day until the skies cleared and the planes parachuted supplies to the town. He said he still remembered, 50 years later, how cold it was and remembered sleeping in 6 inches of snow in a foxhole.
WoW! That group WAS battered!
A great man, he was.
@@davidnemoseck9007 @davidnemoseck9007 He never met a stranger, never had anything but a smile on his face, always had a joke or a good story to tell. He lit up a room when he walked in, there was never anything that bothered him. As I grew to be a man I understood that it was his character that was formed in battle that made him not only persevere but thrive in life. By the time he retired he had oil wells pumping 500 barrels a day, which, didn't make him one of the "big boys" but it provided all the cash he ever needed to do what he wanted to do...which, if you have your health, love, a good marriage and kids that grew up to be productive citizens without issues with vice, was not bad...as he would say... not bad at all.
You're very lucky to have such an awesome uncle.
I was born in 1956 in Alberta and had 3 uncles in Dad's family and 1 in Mom's. We lived about halfway between Calgary and Edmonton.
Things were a heck of a lot colder back then - like Duh!
I have a picture of me and my two older sisters and my kid brother sitting on a snowbank at -40°C which equals -40°F. We all have rosy-red cheeks and smiles on our faces. There wasn't much wind.
When I was in Boy Scouts starting in 1969, we watched many Department of National Defense (DND) training films to learn how to go winter camping.
One of our troop leaders was a retired Colonel and he told us that at -40°C or colder almost all of your food energy is needed just to stay alive, let alone fight a war!
You can't build a big bonfire 🔥 and sit around enjoying your evening meal, toasting marshmallows, making JiffyPop popcorn 🍿 and then going to sleep in a tent in your nice big down-filled sleeping bag with a Coleman tent heater 🤪.
I still like to go winter camping.
My Dad was a United Church of Canada minister (Protestant) and Mom was a great nurse.
Dad was ready to serve as a chaplain if needed, but fortunately he wasn't.
Mom went to London, England after the war was over to help the nurses and doctors with all the shell shocked and permanently disabled veterans and civilians.
One my great-uncle's son served with the R.C.A.F. as a fighter pilot. His plane was missing over Belgium in 1940 or 41.
19:42 USS Johnston (DD-557) _was_ the deepest wreck ever found. A year ago the same search team found the USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413), also sunk in the Battle off Samar, in waters 426 metres deeper. She is called "the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship". Sadly, the last of her surviving crew passed just three months before she was found.
'The Last Stand of The Tin Can Sailors' by James D Hornfischer talks about the entire Battle of Leyte Gulf, with a special focus on Taffy 3, and the Battle Of Samar.
The weirdest victory I heard was a group of Brits had it bad fighting their way across a river into Germany itself, then dug in for the night on the far bank waiting to engage the Germans defending the area in the morning. The problem was when first light broke they looked above their foxholes, into the face of the Germans, who they'd dug in together with in the dark! But the Germans were so sick of fighting most surrendered, with some running off
What about the Battle for Castle Itter? Now that was an unusual WWII battle.
@@brokenbridge6316 Well I dunno how you'd see a weirder engagement, just showing when good people can come together to fight real evil, and should surely be immortalized in film, however, it wasn't the only time the 2 sides fought together, as at Hostau, Czechoslovakia there was operation Cowboy, to save many beautiful thoroughbred horses that the US and Germans fought together at to, or in WW1, how the Russians and Germans had to declare a truce to fight a common enemy, Wolves that were eating them in their trenches!
@@johnryder1713---Interesting. The Battle of Castle Itter was where American and German troops came together to save the lives of several French officials that had been taken captive and defend them from a vengeful SS unit. Sabaton sang a wonderful song about this. Shame their isn't a movie about this. Because it would be great to see.
@@brokenbridge6316 No mistake there
@@johnryder1713---Indeed. And if you can you should listen to that song. And also a few History UA-camrs did video's on this battle too.
Fun facts about the Battle of Samar:
- The entirety of Taffy 3 (carriers + escorts) had less displacement than the largest ship in the Japanese formation (Yamamoto)
- The USS Johnson had less displacement than the Yamamoto's main gun!
- Three Japanese Cruisers were sunk or scuttled
- The fact that Kurita had so badly misjudged the enemy he was facing played a *huge* role in the outcome of the battle. Because he thought he was facing Cruisers, he ordered Armor Penetrating rounds which on multiple occasions were reported to punch right through the hulls of the destroyers and escort carriers without detonating. Two kills were correlated to cruisers figuring out the correct ship size and, on their own initiatives, loading HE rounds instead and almost immediately knocking their respective targets out of the fight.
- Exacerbating the confusion was that they literally threw everything at these ships including star shells which ignited the top decks of the battleships in a non-dangerous way but may have confused Kurita into believing the damage was far more severe than it was.
- An American pilot actually fired with his sidearm at the enemy
The eastern front in a nutshell
Particularly Moscow and Stalingrad
Always referring to soviet troops as Russian leaves out the multitude of other nationalities that fought under the banner of the Soviet Union.
Starting off with a Finnish victory in the Winter War was a great way to start off the video, nd having both Bastogne and Samar together in top of it, made this perfect. A great video, a great video indeed.
The Finnish victory, is that the one where Finland surrendered and lost 10 percent of the country?
@@jamesgeorge9467it was after Finns ran low on supplies and Soviets increased their firepower.
“The last stand of the tin can sailors” it’s a book by the late James D. Hornfisher, telling about the battle off Samar, showing the details of the battle and how the men who led the fight stood their ground against Kurita’s center force
“When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt
The liberation of Zwolle is just flat out remarkable, considering literally everything.
That one-eyed lunatic stopped saying sorry.
Tell us more.
@@Johnnycdrums basically Canadian dude with one eye and 2 sub machines gun’s liberates an entire fucking town basically by himself.
For more context that man was Leo Major. He had lost an eye previously, but stayed in the army. He and a friend of his who was in the Canadian army were patrolling around Zwolle, Netherlands when his friend gets killed. So he takes his friends rifle, alongside his and liberates the town and takes a bunch of people as prisoners. He also one of three people to receive the distinguished conduct medal in two different wars (he also received it after leading to capture a strategic hill in the Korean War). Dude was a beast lol.
I love the part of a bridge too far when the paras confused the ss panzer grenadier with “we can’t accept your surrender….”
We don't have the facilities,,,, sorry! Lol
Audie Murphy fighting off a company single-handedly while gravely wounded stands out, to me, as a particularly hard fight that should not have been possible to win.
To Hell and Back.
Not to take anything away from the troops of the 101 Airborne, 10th Armor, Combat Engineers and Corps Artillery that held at Bastogne, but they did not stop the German main assault, they were a side show, the Germans were stopped at Elsenborn Ridge. Bastogne was the center of a supporting attack to cover the German Flank. The Germans there did not have the power of the northern attack.
The Germans got much further than Elsenborn Ridge though. They took St Vith, and reached Stoumont in the north while other elements (notably the Panthers of 2nd Panzer Division) almost got to the Meuse. They reached the Dinant area where the British were.
Just saying. You are totally right that Bastogne was a side issue.
The north and west was the main area.
What about the Australian militia stopping the Japanese on the Kokoda track.
Hell yea
I'm Australian, and the Aussie soldiers were magnificent; but Kokoda was an Australian retreat. The Japanese overextended themselves.
Man Canada doesn't get enough credit for their past in the great wars, argylls were key to taking Italy.
You can also link the Battle of Tali-Ihantala here.
One of the most unknown but one of the most pivotal battles in the pacific is definitely the battle of Kohima, in which the British and commonwealth forces such as India, Australia, ghurkas and local forces held of a much superior Japanese force from entering India. I know the rifles one the largest regiments in the British army has Kohima as one of their proudest battles.
Bastogne wasn't actually the heart of the Ardennes offensive, at least not in terms of strategic importance. By the time the 5th Panzer Army reached Bastogne their timetable was already blown and they couldn't afford to deviate from their primary objective of reaching the Meuse. Bastogne was considered a secondary objective and mostly bypassed. In fact, there were more American units defending the town than there were German units besieging them.
The real heart of the offensive was on the northern shoulder where the main thrust of the German army occurred and where the 6th SS Panzer Army was prevented from capturing Bradley's headquarters at Spa and moving on to Allied supply depots at Liège.
inb4 🤓
@redaug4212
"The real heart of the offensive was on the northern shoulder where the main thrust of the German army occurred and where the 6th SS Panzer Army was prevented from capturing Bradley's headquarters at Spa and moving on to Allied supply depots at Liège."
Is that where the US 1st and 9th armies were based?
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- It was the headquarters for the 1st Army. The 9th Army was probably further away. The original plan for _Autumn Mist_ would have had the 6th Panzer Army roll over Spa and in the process trap the 1st Army in Aachen. The fact that the German advance ended up on a flat westward trajectory instead of a northwest envelopment shows how badly things went for the Germans in the section that was supposed to matter the most for their offensive.
Yup. 2nd and 99th US Divisions, as individual formations, deserve the most credit of Bulge units by far. The 1st and 9th US armies were, of course, placed under British command from early on in the battle, becoming part of Montgomery's 21st Army Group (partly because Bradley, some say, had made a bit of an error in placing his HQ). Similar arrangements were made for the airforce. Monty immediately backed them up with 5 British/Commonwealth Divisions, shutting down the Meuse crossings. After that, it was game over for Wacht am Rhein. (Of course, the 82nd won't like you saying that, not least because too many people believe Cornelius Ryan's "interesting" views on different WW2 leaders 😆 )
🤓 cringe ratio
Nice to hear Bastogne pronounced probably, as in Bastogneya, yes?
First!? USS St. Lo- struck by a Kamikaze 25 October 1944.
HMAS Australia- struck by a Kamikaze 21 October 1944.
Come on The Front. You're better than this.
For me, Kasserine Pass, Savo Island, and Operation Market Garden shouldn't have become Axis victories.
Market Garden wasn't an Axis victory. Only Arnhem was. The Germans retreated, losing 100km of territory including Eindhoven and Nijmegen. The allies got across the Waal River, closer to Germany.
Market Garden was 90% a successful allied advance. Subsequent British operations like Operation Aintree, suceeded in taking more ground.
The German counter attack south of Arnhem, in late September/early October failed and British 2nd Army retained it's gains in the Netherlands.
In any case, the Axis just don't have the industrial and economic capacity against the Allies, especially after the US enters.
I thought surely Stalingrad and/or Leningrad would make the list. I mean, on paper, Germany had essentially already won both battles. 90% of Stalingrad was occupied by Wehrmacht forces, and Leningrad was choked under a siege for nearly 900 days!
I watched a video a year ago of a British reserve artillery unit on this hill in north Africa during WW2 that was fighting a rear action. This hill was used by both sides to cover their retreat as the war went back and forth across north Africa. Their officers were dead as well as their most experienced NCO's. There was no one there to tall them to retreat. I don't remember any details.
The kamikaze attack on the USS St. Lo was not the first such attack, the first such attack was on 20th October when a Japanese aircraft crashed into the bridge of the Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Australia killing some 8 seamen including her captain . HMAS Australia was struck a further 5 times by kamikaze after this until the 9th January 1945 when she was withdrawn for repairs.
I would love to see this channel mention the USS Laffey and it's fight against 50 Japanese Kamikazes in the Battle of Okinawa.
What do you mean Finland was squeezed between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany? Finland and Germany were allies. o_O
When it is perceived that there is no God above the state, the state becomes god (By definition, an idol, a false god)-the highest authority in the lives of those governed.
Victory belongs to those who refuse to go quietly into the night.
Pretty sure a soviet division had closer to 7000 members not 45000 men. And claiming that the allied position in North Afrca was grim in April 1943 is more than absurd. Sorry, so many mistakes here.
Meanwhile in the surigao strait, the Japanese face off against 6 U.S. battleships, 3 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 28 destroyers, and 39 pt boats, with only 2 battleships, a heavy cruiser and 4 destroyers. That’s why Potential history calls it the slap down at surigao
I think an honorable mention should go to the airborne side of D-day. Many paratroopers lost their weapons and they were scattered over a very wide area. Objectives were then successfully captured with 1/3 of the paratroopers that were supposed to be there, and they just somehow won despite everything going wrong.
I think it has to be Taffy 3
I just hope you guys know I always look forward to your videos.
Must be lots of fun times to make.
Pavlov house on Stalingrad. 25 Men hold It against all odds.
Sadly, that's just propaganda. German strength in the city proper was so depleted that by the time Operation Uranus kicked off, they could not conduct offensive actions within the city. Their last attack had been in the factory district and had to use engineers as front line infantry, and it failed. They used up all their strength taking as much of Stalingrad as they did. Pavlov's House was just a forward post in a square opposite a spent, depleted force. Shots were fired, and small groups of men did conduct skirmishes, but most of the time, they were just watching each other. There may have been over 200,000 Germans in the Stalingrad pocket, but only around 20,000 were proper combat troops, and most of them weren't even in the city. TIKhistory has an excellent documentary series about the battle if you want to know more.
The Battle off Samar was just bananas. Japan: 4 battleships (including the Yamato), 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, 11 destroyers, and 36 kamikaze aircraft from nearby Luzon; US: 6 escort carriers, 3 destroyers, 4 destroyer escorts, and ~320 escort carrier (ie. light and not for front line use in late 1944) aircraft. In terms of displacement, the Japanese fleet was five times heavier than the Americans'. Largest guns in the Japanese fleet: 14" with a range of 20 miles on the battleships, 18" with a range of 26 miles on the Yamato. In the American fleet: 5" with a range of 7 miles. But the Americans' tiny guns had one big ace up their sleeve: radar directed fire control computers.
The radar directed fire control computers allowed the American ships to fire rapidly and accurately while concealed by smoke and squalls and while making hard evasive turns. The Japanese relied on visual range finding: walking bracketing shots in to the target - fire, observe, calculate, adjust aim, fire, observe, etc. So while the little American ships couldn't pierce the armour of the heavy Japanese ships, they could keep peppering them while jinking around in and out of view. Meanwhile the American aircraft are forcing the Japanese ships to keep making evasive turns, further frustrating efforts to target the American little ships. Kurita's assumption that the fierceness of the American attacks meant that he was facing cruisers also played a role. Initially the Japanese were firing armour piercing shells, as would be required to damage a cruiser, but the American ships had little to no armour so when the Japanese did score a hit the shell just went clean through without exploding and from distance looked like an overshoot.
Well, eventually the faster Japanese force started to get in range of the fleeing escort carriers, and switched to plain high explosive shells, and the American fleet took heavy losses. But they had sunk three heavy cruisers, damaged the other three plus two battleships and a destroyer, convinced the Japanese that they were facing cruisers and fleet carriers, and scattered the Japanese fleet to the point where Kurita felt he no longer had tactical control of it. So Kurita withdrew and his real target, the American landing fleet off Leyte, was saved.
No right to be won??? Nonsense. Someone who outsmarts a more powerful foe has earned his title of hero!
What about the battle of Stalingrad?
The Finns are the most underrated fighters of WW2
Quite the opposite actually. Finland in WW2 gained almost mythical proportions.
If you want underrated, think France, Malay and Kenya. They have little to no reputation and in Frances case a negative one. But those people all made a massive impact on the war.
The French army, which was underequipped, undermanned, unprepared and poorly trained saved the BEF in Dunkirk but they get very little mention.
The last stand of Singapore was fought, incredibly bravely by Malays to the last man, but it's a battle rarely mentioned.
Without the huge mumber of volunteer Kenyans, Italy would've marched in to Africa easily. They later went on to give the Japanese a bloody nose in Burma. All the while dealing with systematic racism which put them last in resupply, lowest in pay and expendable. They deserve some love too.
@@VikingTeddy The Finns at times had ZERO tanks, ZERO air power and were outnumbered massively ( see Battles of Tolvajärv and Suomussalmi) and were still able to inflict one sided casualties to a numerically superior and better equipped Soviet force.
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- I know, I have family who fought in Lapland. Always been fascinated by the war. but unfortunately by the time I started getting interested, all the vets from my family had passed.
There are plenty of articles from the 40s that talks about the winter and continuation war. The tale of the small plucky army standing up against the Soviets, spoke to Americans of the time due to increasing tensions of the cold war. There's some nice political cartoons depicting (and exaggerating) Finns from the time. So not underrated at all :)
But it's true that later generations didn't really learn about the Finns more than as a footnote in the war.
@@VikingTeddy Interesting, I actually was good friends with two guys at my school who were from Finland, as someone who knows what's it like to have the enemy knocking on your doorstep ( I am in Britain) , I respect your nation a lot. The Finns in my opinion were the best soldiers in 1939-1940, outnumbered in every category and still held out against the odds.
Not underrated, just not talked about enough
interest fact about kuritas force is it wasnt at full power. half its power was sunk or routed by submarines and planes earlier that day particularly the flagship atago
Changde, China 1943. 8000 Chinese held off overwhelming Japanese forces. Chinese eventually took the city back but with massive casualties. Oh and the Japanese used poison gas
"A man of such eloquence must be rescued." - General George S. Patton
The Airborne weren't rescued. Patton was talking out of his ass.
"Goddamn it, boys! They're getting away!" - Admiral Clifton Sprague
The first guy looks like Colonial Klink from Hogans Heros
Enlisted is a pretty fun free WW2 game, you get to pilot bombers, fighters, tanks, jeeps however you do need to grind to get better gear for your troops, i use the sniper class alot alot. You get bronze, silver and gold badges, bronze is to upgrade weapons and troops, silver is to purchase troops and weapons and gold badges is to buy unique troops and weapons, you gain these badges everytime you fight battles. You also have 8 different campaigns you can join in with each campaign you can chose one of the two factions to fight with, every campaign has two different factions from the other campaigns with that being said you also get different squads every campaign so you cant bring in squads from other campaigns. As you advance in ranks your campaign unlocks more weapons, gear and vehicles.
Samar happened on the same date in October as the Battle of Agincourt in 1415...another battle where the victor had NO business getting into a fight.
As for that battle in Tunisia: up hill and outnumbered by the defenders? BUT YOU GOT THE ARGYLE AND SUTHERLAND? it shall be AN EVEN FIGHT.
Japenese commanders seem to come in mostly two types, INSANELY aggressive psychopaths which mostly went to the army or very cautious often to the point of self-defeating. fortuitously for the Americans Kurita was the latter type. Also USS Johnston you survived CQB with the biggest battleship ever built...BY ANYBODY you glorious bastard.
As for the Siege of Bastogne, you seemed to have gotten a lot of well known facts about that entire capeign wrong, especially the whole "last role of the dice by Germany" part of it.
They burned up what little remained of their strategic reserve for ludicrously ambitious objectives just like at Kursk except even more so.
Finland is a land of non stop marshes. The only way to get quickly around the region is when its frozen over. Even the tribes that composed the Scandinavian Vikings couldn't conquer Finland and Lapland in the North was also shared a shared land of Reindeer herders that retained its ways into modern times.
We hear about the Western front and D Day and etc all to much if you ask me, it gets tiresome. Much rather hear about rarely talked about Pacific engagements or Eastern Front battles, or just little known skirmishes even. Just my opinion of course but it is what it is.
Weird way of putting it: "Simo Häyhä was not a soldier" ?
Finland had (and still has) the conscription. Häyhä started his mandatory armed service in 1925, completed NCO school and passed on to the reserve. He was also actively training in Suojeluskunta (volunteer militia).
When the war broke out, Finnish men didn't miraculously "enlist" into the armed forces, most were reservists called into service.
Not a WW2 battle but a far more amazing battle. On November 22, 1914 the reserve XXV Corp of 50,000 men under German General of Infantry Baron Reinhard von Scheffer-Bboyadel was cut off behind Russian lines, with 200,000 Russian troops closing in, such was a Russian victory that trains were ordered from Warsaw to carry the expected German prisoners away. After making a hasty estimate of the situation, Scheffer did the one thing the Russians expected least: He attacked eastward, toward Warsaw and Moscow. He broke through the ring of surprised Russians, then marched north, as the Russians hastily tried to reestablish the encirclement. But the German XXV Reserve corps, now about 15 miles behind the Russian front lines, marched north in a combat formation like napoleon’s “ battalion square.” After over-running and destroying a Russian division in its way, Scheffer’s corps turned west, rejoined the ninth Army, and on November 26 took its place in the German line north of Lodz. In 2 weeks of almost continuous fighting and marching, Scheffer-Boyadel and his corps had suffered more than 4300 casualties, and had inflicted at least 3 times that many on the Russians. He not only brought out of encirclement most of the wounded, all of his heavy equipment, and all his artillery, he also escorted 16,000 prisoners and 64 captured artillery pieces. It was an almost unbelievable feat, one of the greatest of the war, and of all military history.
For its Sheer Ferocity,the Numbers of soldiers on both sides,all sorts of artillery( including those massive 16" Battleship shells),Airplanes,tanks and an endless chain if supplies,for such a small piece of land,i think that Iwo Jima should be Here.
In the end was a Japonese defeat,but what the Japonese forces endure without "nothing" only with an Unbelivable courage,determination and a fanatic fighting Spirit against Overwhelming American forces,they did an Outstanding Job defending that little spec of land and in the process making the Americans pay a very high price in Man and Material for a 4 days operation ( Suppose).
How the Japonese hold for so long with so few its almost a miracle. But it wasnt,was sheer Will Power.
Very grateful for the quantity & quality war video games have paid for WW2 docu. I did enjoy Pong, Galaga, Pac Man in bars, but damn, these war games, at age 66, troublesome
In the words of Nute Gunray: Ah victory
Now look up the Anglo-Iraqi War of May 1941, in particular the Siege of RAF Habbaniya. Also the amazing march across the desert by Habforce and subsequent Battle of Fallujah and Fall of Baghdad. A certain defeat turned into victory, which arguably saved World War II for the allies. Barely mentioned.
My father was RAF Gound Crew at Habbaniya when the lraqis attacked. He was an engine fitter & they were all pressed into service as infantry.
Go Simo H!!!!!
Don't want to be that person but since this is history channel why soldiers are Russians and border is soviet? Those this mean that soviet soldiers were only from Russian ethnicity?
I think the arden assult was a watse reaoraces the germens could not afford to lose it would have madw more sense to send those forces against the soviets
The USS Johnston: Ah, but you forget: I am HIM!
Was The White Death an inspiration for the amazing movie SISU?
What about the battle of Edson’s Ridge Guadalcanal
18:57)Why the hell is Montgomery here? He had nothing to do with the battle.
I’m still amazed they haven’t done a taffy 3 movie
The whole thing takes 3 hours and is none stop action. Some of which are some of the most wildest and weirdest actions took on sea and air.
Would u trust Hollywood to do it justice?
Kohima Inphal and Brit paras at Goose Green ..
You asked for input for future programming. How about the Unsung Heroes of the Home Front. Those who built the equipment of war, those who grew the food sent to the fronts, etc. My Grandmother was a Rosie the Riveter at the Baxton Ship Yards of Duluth MN during WWII. She welded the inner hulls to the outer hulls of the Liberty Ships that went to the Atlantic Convoys and she dated Major Bong. My Mom said he was 'shorter than you would think a Hero would be, but a really nice guy.' He almost became my Grandfather.
The battle of Long Tan (1966, Vietnam) could easily be on this list.
🦬🇨🇦😁
Donate to the "Wounded Warrior Project"
Oh how I’ve missed your voice haha
The taking of the Philippines was done for political purposes but the slaughter of Manila and a lot of carnage could have been avoided if the military would have bypassed it. From a military perspective it was unneeded to achieve the goals of the war. The war could have been over before the Russians took Sakalin Island and Korea. The Russians kept demanding the allies do more fighting in Europe and we kept demanding they do more in the Pacific which they avoided until Germany surrendered. If we had bombed Japan earlier by bypassing the Philippines letting the Japanese surrender there peacefully with the Emperor call for it history would have been very different. However the Japanese were killing any Filipinos who looked European and that would have been worse had we not invaded.
There are so many great battles one side wasnt supposed to win but turned into a rout for them. Stalingrad for the Russians, 2nd battle of Karkov for the Germans, Midway for the Americans, numerous battles for the Chinese (not enough credit is given to the Chinese for weakening the Japanese army), El Alamein for the Brits, Singapore for the Japanese, the Philippines for the Japanese as well (bad leadership cost the allies Singapore and the Philippines). So many battles should have gone one way and instead went another, prolonging the war. It wasn't often that a battle went according to the aggressors battle plan. Thats what happens when you have two highly trained fighting forces armed to the teeth facing off. It was usually generals stuck in their WW1 mindset that cost one side the victory.
I think the Battle of Samar was a bit over simplified. USS Johnston wasn't even a destroyer, but a smaller destroyer escort. The aircraft carriers involved were escort carriers. The aircraft that were involved weren't designed to attack ships. They were armed for ground support. Finally, the Japanese force consisted of battleships and cruisers in addition to the destroyers.
Johnston and some of the other small surface ships charged the superior Japanese vessels! She received the nickname of "The destroyer that fought like a battleship".
USS Johnston was a Fletcher class destroyer. You might be referring to USS Samuel B. Roberts, a John C. Butler class destroyer escort, since she was referred to as "the destroyer that fought like a battleship".
Yeah, the Battle _off_ Samar was just bananas. Japan: 4 battleships (including the Yamato), 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, 11 destroyers, and 36 kamikaze aircraft from nearby Luzon; US: 6 escort carriers, 3 destroyers, 4 destroyer escorts, and ~320 escort carrier (ie. light and not for front line use in late 1944) aircraft. In terms of displacement, the Japanese fleet was five times heavier than the Americans'. Largest guns in the Japanese fleet: 14" with a range of 20 miles on the battleships, 18" with a range of 26 miles on the Yamato. In the American fleet: 5" with a range of 7 miles. But the Americans' tiny guns had one big ace up their sleeve: radar directed fire control computers.
The radar directed fire control computers allowed the American ships to fire rapidly and accurately while concealed by smoke and squalls and while making hard evasive turns. The Japanese relied on visual range finding: walking bracketing shots in to the target - fire, observe, calculate, adjust aim, fire, observe, etc. So while the little American ships couldn't pierce the armour of the heavy Japanese ships, they could keep peppering them while jinking around in and out of view. Meanwhile the American aircraft are forcing the Japanese ships to keep making evasive turns, further frustrating efforts to target the American little ships. Kurita's assumption that the fierceness of the American attacks meant that he was facing cruisers also played a role. Initially the Japanese were firing armour piercing shells, as would be required to damage a cruiser, but the American ships had little to no armour so when the Japanese did score a hit the shell just went clean through without exploding and from distance looked like an overshoot.
Well, eventually the faster Japanese force started to get in range of the fleeing escort carriers, and switched to plain high explosive shells, and the American fleet took heavy losses. But they had sunk three heavy cruisers, damaged the other three plus two battleships and a destroyer, convinced the Japanese that they were facing cruisers and fleet carriers, and scattered the Japanese fleet to the point where Kurita felt he no longer had tactical control of it. So Kurita withdrew and his real target, the American landing fleet off Leyte, was saved.
While it has already been noted Johnson is a destroyer, the aircraft could have been armed with anti-shipping. In fact the aircraft from taffy 1 and 2 joined the fight, as well as one of them, I can't remember, was actually prepared with anti-shipping, with the other 2 being prepared for ground attacks with scouts being prepared for submarines.
@@The_Stumbler Yes, the standard aircraft complement on Casablanca class escort carriers was a squadron of FM-2 Wildcats (they could take off from the shorter decks) and a squadron of TBF Avenger torpedo bombers. When the Avengers were first launched they were in such a hurry that they went with whatever droppable munition was already fitted, _some with none at all._ In the first wave they all expended their droppable munitions and continued attacking with guns. When they ran out of ammunition for their guns, some continued making decoy attack runs to divide the attention of the Japanese AA gunners. Subsequent waves were fitted with torpedoes and anti-ship bombs.
@@JonMartinYXD taffy 3 did only have what they were armed for the fight, such as propaganda and ground attacks, and so was one of the other 2 taskforces. The 3rd taskforce was armed with anti-shipping. The Americans were aware of the attempt at the southern strait, commanding one of the 3 taffy taskforces to be properly armed with anti-shipping. At the end of the battle, there was 3 entire taskforces of airplanes in the air, buzzing the Japanese with ineffective fire, and effective fire.
163rd rifle division, you probably mean 4500 men not 45000.
Greets
Like June 4, 1942 Battle of Midway, 48 Hour Miracle.
the battle of kursk
Man, for a free game Enlisted is the best game ive ever played. And thats genuine.
you cant say that every soldier was as skilled as simo haya since he's the only one with the kill count
Nuts
The Allied Forces did not kill enough 😮
Alot of battalions also got wiped out
2nd
Geetsly? Is that you?
I’d love to see a part 2 to this.
The Winter War=Soviet/Finnish War= was NOT part of WWII. In 1939 when the Soviets attacked Finland, neither Finland nor Soviet Union were in WWII yet. The Finns later fought with the Germans against the Soviets only to regain the territory the Russians had captured during the Winter War but it ended up being worse and they lost more land. And Finland had long been a part of the Russian Empire as the Duchy of Finland and only regained their sovereignty in 1918 after WWII.
Who are you to say what is or isn't part of WW2?
For Europe, WW2 started September 1st 1939. The Germans and then the Soviets invaded Poland according to their deal in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. The same pact that gave the USSR a free hand in attacking Finland. Why would that be a separate conflict from WW2, originating from the exact same treaty and powers?
If you ask the Chinese WW2 started in 1937 and if you ask the Americans some will claim 1941. But trying to separate the winter war from WW2 is a new take of stupidity I have never seen before.
@@jm-holm Russia doesn’t consider it as part of WWII, Finland doesn’t consider it as part of WWII so I’m not considering it as part of WWII! Who are YOU to decide for Russia and Finland if it is or isn’t!!! They both consider it a separate War called The Winter War! Sheesh!
@@annehersey9895 Finland doesn't consider it as part of WW2? That's news to us Finns. Thank you for telling me your great insight on our history.
Russia doesn't consider anything until 1941 WW2 because they don't want to acknowledge or take responsibility for any of their criminal invasions.
The Russians also do not call it the winter war. Nor do they mention or think about it much, they buried it in their history so deep that before the dissolution of the USSR most citizens grew up never learning they had attacked Finland or that the war ever happened.
@@jm-holm Mea Culpa! I stand corrected and apologize to any Finns I disrespected. It appears I fell for the interpretation of outside News Stories. I can certainly imagine that Russia has wiped it out of their collective memories! The Finns were remarkable during that fight and won the respect of the world. Welcome to NATO, had the war in Ukraine been the 5 day walkover Putin expected, I fear Finland would have been next. I think Putin thought he’d gobble up any non NATO countries around Russia.
The Yamada alone out massed all of Taffy 3.
You mean Yamato
Has this channel ever done a video on the Battle for Castle Itter. If not then it should. Because that is one fine WWII story to tell.
Would be good if you might learn to pronounce half of these places
Stopped watching 14 seconds into the video because you edited in a completely unrelated WW1 picture. Laughable…