Thats Von Luck's actual account? Interesting. I read his paperback book way back in the day. It was similar but different to this one- cept for the fact that he seemed to like his cars
My Uncle lost his life at the Battle of El Guettar with the 9th Division. He was 19. God rest his soul. I can never repay his sacrifice except to remember him until my day comes.
@flaviopallino4060 Like to know how many Nazi-German troops , and USA troops were buried there I hate to say Nazi , but it is what it was , and had 2 relatives that fought for the USAs 82ndA/B Div. and my mother's pop a major in WffenSS"DAS REICH " Panzer Div . Kia in Russias' Battle for Kursk , and her uncle a Colonel in Luftwaffe kia ; shot down in his FW190 fighter plane near Anzio , Italy early 3/44. My grandpa in the USAs 82nd A/B Div . was I'm DDAy , in the bloody hedgerow fighting I Normandy , "oOperation Market Garden " mid 9/44 , and wounded in Battle of The Bulge mid 12/44 . Also , lost an uncleid3/68 in NAM sTET .
Knew dudes in USAs 9th I.D. in NAMs Mekong Delta back in 66 , and lost an uncle there mid 3/68 , tail end of bloody ass TET just 2wks b-4 my 11th bday . My grandpa, on Dad's side , was in the USAs 508 PIR 82nd A/B Div. In.WW2 , and jped 6/6/44 in Normand'y's countryside , and took part in the bloody , vicious Hedgerow fighting "Bocage" territory . He was a medic , and permitted to carry a weapon , a .30 cal carbine . He then was in "Operation Market Garden" mid9)44 . It was a near calamity by Field Marshall General Montgomery in trying to curtail WW2 in Europe via Holland . The Brit Paratroopers were shot to pieces @ lovely Arnhem , and USAs 101st , and 82nd A/B Div.zfsired slightly better @ high casualties . Grandpa was wounded during the Battle of The Bulge mid12/44 , then patched up and sent to help other Army medics assist concentration camp victims ; he said the stench of feces , urine , and dead people made him vomit as did his medic cohorts . Grandpa 's palpable PTSD issues made him hesitant in telling his not to nice experiences I'm WW2 Europe !
The mention of fairness during the North Africa Campaign struck a cord with me. There was an affinity between veterans on both sides of the North Africa campaign that needed to be seen to be believed. The 8th Army veterans Association and Afrika Corps veterans attended each others reunions for decades. I was volunteered to help out on one reunion in Blackpool in the late 90's and was astounded at their friendship. I'd also like to point out that they all drank like fish, it was like herding cats and they were worse than a bunch of teenagers.
Squaddies the world over are pretty much the same they all share the same hardships and thus have an affinity unless you have been fighting insurgency operations then there is little respect and a great deal of hate
@robertmaybeth3434 most regimental reunions are the same a squadron of balding out of shape old chuffers knecking ridiculous amounts of alcohol pulling up sandbags swinging a lantern and recalling stories of past deads and memories of friends past and present great weekends which is why I never miss one if I can help it like being transported back to your youth
My uncle was with the king's own hussars in north Africa, He's was a gunner and had his leg blown off and his two friends killed , As he's was coming round from being hit by German artillery a German soldier was stood over him just about to bayonet him . My uncle quickly pointed to his leg and the German called for a medic . He then had his leg amputated and sent to Italy as pow. He had shell scars over him and in bedded in him until the day he died . 🇬🇧
Typical for the war in the Desert, asking the British over the radio if they had captured von Luck and them actually honestly replying that they hadn't. Such a weird gentlemanly gesture that looks out of place in WW2, but this sort of thing seems to have taken place all the time in North Africa.
At that stage of the war, i suspect there were more units, divisions even, of professional soldiers who adhered to that old line standard of conduct. (Decency, if youll forgive the term?) For example "I say old chap, let me just say 'No,' we havent seen him! Perhaps Von Lucks Luck has held! Cheerio!" (Violent gunfire in the background) 😃
Capt W.E. John's, in one of his wartime, "Biggles," adventures, Described his hero radioing the location of his stranded enemy so that his own men could rescue him from the desert. In turn, the German officer told Biggles, where to find the water he needed to get back to his squadron. This was in a book written DURING the war.
People often overlook that before the battle of El Alemain Rommel lost the intercepted intelligence of the American embassy via Bona Fellers and also the German radio interception intelligence units. Without this intelligence information, Rommel lost his greatest advantage in knowing accurately the British unit dispositions. The British, on the other hand, gained superior intelligence via their radio interception and decoding of German and Italian enigma code messages. Suddenly, there was doubt of where he had to deploy his forces and became a headache for Rommel. He lost out badly and lost most of his armour, and it was a headlong retreat all the way to Tunis, only stopping occasionally for short rearguard actions against the British forces. The Germans also deprived the Italian forces of their transports to make their retreat and the poor old Italians on foot were swept up as POWs.
Rommel is often overhyped. people forget that when he didn't have such Intel, and when he wasn't facing commanders who were UTTERLY INCOMPETENT, he got demolished. Rommel was a passable general with overaggressive tendencies that most often got him in serious trouble.
@tomcruisemissile1479 what a name tomcruisemissile but hay I am a fan of rommel but I think I agree in what you wrote about rommel, but he knew german had to get rid of Hitler as Hitler was not fair
An overlooked aspect of both the comments here & this German narative of the western allies success in North Africa is the role of Arthur Coningham of the RAF in the African campain. He was born in Australia & raised to an adult in New Zealand before obtaining both a DSO & an MC as a pilot in the british airforce in WW1. His upbringing in NZ gave him little respect for any great social difference of class distintion. This ability to mix well with all classes of people completely at ease allowed him to merge/blend the African british army (with a high % of NZ & Australian troops) & RAF together! Before he took control of the day to day running of the airforce in Africa early 1941 the comunications between the british army and airforce were in near complete break down with little co-operation. He fixed that almost on his own via personal people skills plus basic common sense things he learned in bloody WW1 combat flying that much of the british leader ship of the time had never done! He went so far as having RAF pilots riding in army tanks linked by radio to HIS RAF planes! When the USA army came into Africa he got HIS air + army co - operation system imbedded into the American effort. His upbringing & personal ability to get on with all ranks & all classes including top Army & Airforce people was what co ordinated the arny/airforce effort for the Africa for all the Allies! It should be noted that before he took over day to day running of allied air power in Africa there was much mistrust between the airforces & armys of all the western allies! He overcame all that & got the right type of fighter bomber ground support system that won the war for the allied African ground army. The System that he worked out became written into warfare training doctrine not just for fighting in Africa but his "system" was carried on into Europe to help win the whole war. Coningham seldom gets the write ups & reconition he deserves! The air to ground support system is still talked of today. But its the system that is talked up less is said of the man who created it! Who cut through an existing faulty military "class system" via his natural leadership, dash & personality & ability to get on with all sorts of people to gain this vital blending of air power support for a ground army!
God, I am so glad that WW2 was fought almost exclusively by geniuses from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the U.S. The sheer incompetence, arrogance and class division of the stupid British nearly cost the allied nations the war.
My German mom's cousin was captured in Tunisia. We have a picture of him in front of a Kübelwagen out in the desert scrub with Afrika Korps uniform. He was sent to Huntsville, Texas POW camp where he said him and his buddies would paint swastikas on any box turtles they came across while working out in the fields and let them go. He kept his 'US' stamped mess kit and utensils along with his Gillette safety razor and Zippo lighter-prized heirlooms. Oh, and he developed a love of Pepsi-Cola and Texas sunsets. Interestingly he noted how when his train would stop at US depots around Christmas time civilians would call out "Fröhe Weinachten" to them.
My dad serviced P-38's (The Forked -Tailed Devils) in Tunisia. He said his base was bombed every night by Stukas. But as bad as that was, he told me that flies were just as bad to deal with.
Not 250,000 Germans, most were Italians. Stalingrad was by far mostly Germans with some small numbers of Romanians and Croates. Only 90k POWs were taken at Stalingrad.
@@karlheinzvonkroemann2217"only" 90.000 inside the city, but many more who had not been surrounded but were captured during the entirety of operation Uranus. The 250.000 figure is of the total number of men that were inside Stalingrad area at the moment of the encirclement. Of those 250.000 many were KIA or died of malnutrition, disease or exhaustion. Others were WIA of which some thousands were evacuated by air. In the end the Soviets captured about 90.000 Axis troops, any of whom were too weak to be marched into POW camps or died on the way either at the hands or their captors or because they were completely spent. About 5.000 of the Stalingrad survivors ever saw Germany again after the war.
@@karlheinzvonkroemann2217 Not true; , Playfair wrote that the Allies took 238,243 unwounded prisoners; 101,784 German, 89,442 Italian and 47,017 others.[91] In 2004, Rick Atkinson wrote that a quarter of a million prisoners is a reasonable estimate. Playfair wrote that G. F. Howe, the American official historian, recorded the capture of 275,000 Axis soldiers, an 18th Army Group calculation of 244,500 prisoners (including 157,000 Germans), that Rommel estimated 130,000 Germans were taken prisoner
North Africa only became a disaster because of Hitler. He never gave Rommel what he needed, but once they were trapped then he poured in all kinds of men and equipment to be lost needlessly
In North Africa one commander routinely outstripped his supplies driving his troops to exhaustion, often squandering any positive gains that he had made leaving himself open to counterattack. He also kept pushing his forces beyond the operational range of his air power. That commander was Rommel. Strangely a commander many regard as a brilliant general. Then we have one that joined later in North Africa that took his time to build his forces, stock supplies and increased the level of inter-service co-operation. He absorbed an attack in his first encounter with Rommel that he had correctly anticipated and planned for, then winning the battle. He then launched an effective counterattack that kicked off the drive that ended in victory, all the while adjusting his strategy on the fly to maximum effectiveness. That commander was Montgomery.
When Rommel and Patton had supplies, everything they tried worked. When logistics gave out, they stalled. logistics wins battles. Rommel and Patton did know how to use the equipment given to them.
@@conradnelson5283 On 5 Nov 1944 Patton told Bradley he would be over the Westwall in a few days. Patton was well supplied in Lorraine facing a rag tag 3rd rate German army, but failed to get over the German Westwall suffering 52,000 casualties. Patton was well supplied at Bastogne outnumbering the enemy 6:1, failing to relieve Bastogne. The British were about to take all the southern Med coast with greatly extended supply lines, then took troops to Greece, allowing the well supplied Axis to push them back. Again in Operation Crusader the British were about to wipe out the Axis, then the Japanese attacked the British, Dutch and Americans. Troops and ships had to be diverted to the east. Again Rommel got lucky, pushing back depleted British forces. At Monty's first battle against Rommel at Alem al Halfa, Rommel was well supplied outnumbering Monty's men. Monty won. Looking at a simple timeline dispels the myth of Rommel.
Yes and Monty was the Buffon behind Operation Market Garden which cost the Allies thousands of lives and added six months to the war. He was a prima donna hated by all American commanders including Eisenhower.
Your question, "The Final Annihilation Of The Afrika Korps. Was It Inevitable?" The tenacious defence, the very gallant population of Malta, the Axis failure to neutralise Malta made the defeat of the Africa Corps and Italians inevitable. The full story of the siege of Malta (the siege of WW 2) is a story well worth retelling as is the story of 'the Great Siege of Malta' by the Ottoman Muslims. Allied forces, British & Commonwealth, operating out of Malta, submarines, surface ships including MTBs and aircraft combined with cracking Axis codes did much to destroy some 75 % of supplies on route to the Axis forces in N Africa.
The key to winning North Africa was Gibraltar and the Nazis especially Hitler failed to realized that. If Gibraltar fell to the Germans, Malta will fall and the Germans and Italians will have complete operational control of the Mediterranean Sea even if the British held on to Egypt. For the Allies, it would be a disaster if the Brits lost Gibraltar because it means that the 8th Army is cut off from Great Britain, the Germans can also use those German divisions to help in the Eastern Front and the brand new American Army would not gain battlefield experience against the Germans until the invasion of France. Also, the loss of Gibraltar might persuade Turkey to again ally itself with the Germans to regain its lost territories that were being held by France and Great Britain in the Middle East and then, there is Spain.
@@willcruz943 In a way you Sir are right and so am I 🙃. My point being yes you are right, Gib was vital however the Axis powers never made a serious attempt to take Gib. Whereas 'The George Cross Island', Malta, was ferociously bombed and an invasion (thwarted) planned. It was also from Malta that many Allied sorties by MTB's, submarines and other small surface units harassed Rommel's supply line all able aided by the RAF. I'd not be the one to detract from the heroic efforts of the British, Commonwealth and people of Malta. Incidently that was not the first siege of Malta. 'The Great Siege of Malta' occurred in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer the island of Malta, then held by the Knights Hospitaller. Well worth reading about if it's unfamiliar.
Crazy destiny for von Luck trying to meet AH, imagine what could have gone through his mind leaving last meeting with von Arnim & Gauss… 😱 really enjoyed von Luck episodes, what an experience of ww2, just amazing. Keep it up, great videos 👌
Mare Nostrum, the Italian lake, became a British lake. The Afrika corps could not survive forever without supplies. Even the inept Americans, in their first time at bat, did well after Kasserine. So it was inevitable.
British lake...lol. That's only because Hitler only designated a tiny fraction of their forces to Rommel. Give Rommel 10% of the available German forces and go on the defensive in Russia then the Brits would've got swept away in 45 days. France all over again. Hitler said if he didn't get the oilfields in southern Russia then he'd have to end the war. Did they not know how much oil was in the Middle East in 1942?
@@johnburns4017 They'd didn't control Sicily. Bomb Malta senseless then give Rommel what he needed. The British couldn't stop the Germans from building up enough to capture Tobruk, but even then AH didn't care about the Afrika Korp. He gave Rommel an Iron Cross, but Rommel said he'd rather have a division. Once the Yanks chipped in it was too late
@@ET-bg8ru Read this. From a review of BITTER VICTORY The Battle for Sicily, 1943, By Carlo D'Este. Review written by Walter Lord in the New York Times: 27/11/1988: _‘Montgomery was heading for Messina too, but the German forces still on the island threw up a tough defense line and it was late July before Montgomery worked his way through them and resumed his advance. Fans of the movie ''Patton'' think they know what happened next. Montgomery marched into Messina at the head of his triumphant troops - to find a smirking Patton waiting for him. Mr. D'Este assures us it didn't happen that way. Patton was indeed trying to beat Montgomery to Messina, but Montgomery would not make a race of it. He wanted only to keep the Germans from escaping and realized Patton was in the best position to accomplish that. In fact he urged Patton to use roads assigned to the Eighth Army.’_ - NY Times 27th Nov 1988 _"Patton emerged as the hero of Husky in the American popular media. His profile adorned the covers of both Time and Newsweek after his capture of Palermo. However, in the process of capturing Palermo, Patton displayed recklessness, poor judgment, and the tendency to fuel his personal desire for glory with the paranoid conviction that the Allies designed war plans in North Africa and Sicily to make the British Army look superior to the Americans._ _Fundamentally, Patton demonstrated an inability to rise above the level of tactical proficiency to that of an operational artist. He demonstrated a lack of command and control during his march to Palermo, seen in factors including limited close air support for his ground forces, fratricide during unnecessary and risky airborne landings, and under resourced amphibious operations along Sicily’s east coast. After Palermo, as the pace of operations slowed, Patton simply ignored logistics, opting to focus on his personal approach to warfare and simultaneously disregarded current doctrine."_ The above is from a 48 page assessment of Patton by the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies by Major Larsen, 2015.
I met an old digger once, who told how his unit manned the trenches right on the Mediterranean coast. Every morning both sides would go for a swim, ceasefire ending at 8:00am.
Rommel could have run the allies in circles for years, and even taken the Suez canal and the middle east oil fields - IF only he had the men and tanks to do so. The fact that he didn't was a tribute to the courageous British soldiers that fought endlessly to starve Rommel of supplies! The victors of war in North Africa would be determined by logistics, pure and simple. Whoever was able to supply his own army, while starving the enemy's would win. And the British had a slightly superior supply situation, but only AFTER the Americans came into the theater in 1942. Not only could the British resupply their war effort through the Straights of Gibraltar and via Suez, but they also had the airfield at Malta for air support. It was true the Germans had Sicily and Crete to supply Rommel from, but the year of 1942 showed Britain getting stronger by the day and the Germans getting weaker. And by the time 1943 rolled around, the huge German losses of men and tanks in Russia contributed to make Rommel's armies impossible to supply. North Africa was not won on the battlefield but on the supply lines.
Hitler and high command treated North Africa as a mere sideshow since the main effort was on the eastern front.If Hitler was serious at first in threatening the Brits in north Africa he should never have invaded the Balkans and USSR.
@@bert8373 Admiral Raeder tried to talk AH into taking Egypt and the Middle East before Barbarossa. He said it would hurt the Brits just as much to lose Cairo as London and take the Middle East then the assault on Russia looks completely different. They also thought that might force Turkey to join the Axis
3:07 The Southern Cross? I doubt that. Almost the whole of the war for North Africa took place north of 30 degrees latitude. One needs to be south of 25 degrees to see the Southern Cross.
Interesting to hear about Rommel's sickness. The descriptions I have heard of the illness that German soldiers suffered after a long period in Africa sounds like Scurvy
The part about the Canadian pilot giving a heads up for the German radio operator to abandon the car before he bombed it was amazing. You don’t hear many generous things like that in this war. A Russian would not blink twice about blowing that guy to bits.
Russians value their country men more. The pilot gets to think he is a better person than the common soldier but he’s not going to be around when that radio man relays vital information and gets allied soldiers killed. He had an opportunity to neutralize an active threat but allowed him to continue to fight in the war.
@@pshehan1 You're 100% correct. If you're north of the equator but south of a latitude of about 25 degrees, which is around say Hawaii and parts of northern Africa, you can still see the Southern Cross. I learnt something tonight.
@@fairieswearboots3556 I am from Australia but lived and worked in upstate NY for a while. Too far north the see the Southern Cross. Did not think to look for it when I was in Malaysia and Borneo. The thing I noticed in the US, apart from the different constellations, was that the sun travels the 'wrong way' across the sky, from left to right, morning to evening.
Maybe not if they had secured Malta before El Alamein, but it still would have been a hard ask. The RN and USN would always have more ships to cut off the supply lines.
The axis did not have the where with all in a navel way to assault Malta. After Norway, the German surface fleet was in tatters and couldn't get past Gibraltar. The Italian navy didn't have enough vessels and landing craft. After Crete Hitler did not do any major airborne assault. Plus, the coast of Malta is a defenders haven. The axis lost twice the number of submarines of the British in the Mediterranean. Only a total siege by naval blockade to stave out the defenders would cause a capitulation of Malta.
@@damianousley8833 Yes, I am aware of that stuff. I spoke strictly as a counter-factual. Multiple things would have to be different from what you named for it to happen. Or Hitler simply could have written off the whole African adventure, pulled back, ignored Mussolini's bleating, and concentrated on the Eastern Front.
Had his share and maybe a bit more. Not only escaped the sacrifice of the Afrika Korps, but also survived the Normandy Invasion, being outside the Falaise Pocket. On the other hand he got captured by the Russians, which was probably not first choice for a POW experience.
The North - Africa Campaign was very portant in preventing Field Marshall General Erwin Rommel in taking the mid Eastern Oil Fields. Which of taken by the Nazis , WW2 in the ETO would 've been favorable for the Axis.
It was a bad move by Rommel. He had been ordered NOT to attack, because the German High Command knew they could never supply an offensive force that could get to the Suez Canal. All the resources that went to his failed assaults did not go to the East.
One more thing. The Allies also let the Germans withdraw from Sicily with almost all of its equipment . That cost them dearly during the Italian campaign.
If Only the island of Malta had been invaded and occupied early in the war with the use of German Paratroopers, the Battle of North Africa would have been much shorter with a Axis victory, because Malta has an Air and Naval Base which would secure an uninterrupted flow of supplies across the Mediterranean Sea to both the Afrika Korps and Italian forces in Libya and Egypt.
Hitler considered North Africa to be a side show . Russia was his priority . When you can’t supply your troops with ordinance and supplies due to allied navel and air assets , your army will wither on the vine . It’s amazing the AFRIKA KORP lasted as long as it did , pressed from two directions .
@@johnburns4017 Compared to Russia it was . 40k or 400,000 k of soldiers means little if the can’t be supplied . To Hitler North Africa was a side show !
To be magnanimous to the enemy puts them on the back foot, breaks their moral to fight when word gets back, gives them the belief they were wrong to fight, also makes the prisoners behave and easier to handle.
Von Luck was a bit of a cocky so and so. I bet this was thumped out of him in the Soviet gulag in Georgia. He must have really toed the line and toaded up to the Soviets and licked their boots there as he was released in December 1949, an early release back into West Germany. It was American historian Stephen Ambrose who was a controversial writer who encouraged Von Luck to write his memoirs, Panzer Commander. There was one chapter where Von Luck ordered Luftwaffe antiaircraft 88 batteries to shoot at advancing British and Canadian tanks in Normandy. These inexperienced crews also shot up German Tiger tanks and other german armour as well as allied tanks as they didn't know the difference at range. An example of a German friendly fire incident, very much in favour to the allies.
Is there some kind of mis-translation going on here? He mentioned a 2cm cannon on a He-111 and in another video he mentioned one on the JU-87. To my knowledge gunner positions on those aircraft were limited to machine guns. Can anyone explain this?
Humanity attitude of Arabian [ Baduin individuals] to ward's German soldiers showed glory and smartness attitude of Baduen families 5:26....because both sides ( Britain and german ) were invaders of Arabian territory ...through imperial competition between Axis and alliance
Logistics is most of the answer... No doubt the Rommel was a far better commander than any of the British... The British finally won because of logistics...
Isn’t having good logistics part of being a good commander? Montgomery refused to go on the offensive until his logistics were in place. Rommel was over confident and underestimated his opponent, attacking without having the required resources at the first battle of El-Alamein. Don’t forget when he arrived in North Africa he was far better equipped than the allied forces who had been drastically depleted thanks to Churchills decision to send the bulk of their forces to Greece. He got much of his name the Desert Fox from seemingly always knowing what to do, where, and being one step ahead of the British. Later, it was discovered he had a very good network of spies in Cairo so often knew what the British were planning, but the name stuck. Rommel has become a bit of a myth where the truth has been lost. Not saying he wasn’t a great commander, just that time has exaggerated his ability.
@frankanderson5012 depends on the level. Rommel was a field commander and a tactician. Eisenhower a theatre commander and had Marshall above him. Sometimes you have to make the best with wat you have.
I love listening to this narrator I could listen for hours. But why are these so poorly organized. It’s impossible to follow from on section to the next. It truly keeps me from listening to your channel very frequently. I will fight to track the story for a couple episodes but then I get frustrated and quit.
Yeah, maybe, a little. An officer needs a lot of self-confidence to successfully lead these kinds of independent small-unit actions. The dividing line between that quality and narcissism may be a bit blurred.
epic tale, but the German logistics were never in order for such large and rapid advances. For success the Jewish matter should have never happened, they should have been sent to take their holy land and all prosperous areas around it and war with Russia could have been avoided... for quite some time as the Arabs, as the Bedouins, would have capitulated too.
That isn't him. That is the guy who does the audio books. He is posting chapters from Audio-books. He is speeding up the voice .25 to .50 percent as well.
MAKES ME LAUGH WHEN PATTON AND MONTGOMERY CLAIM THEY BEAT ROMMELL; THAT'S NOT SAYING MUCH. THE TRUTH IS THAT HE SIMPLY WAS NOT BEING SUPPLIED ADEQUATELY; MY GRANDMOTHER COULD HAVE BEATEN HIM.
His final days in Africa. Enjoy!
Thats Von Luck's actual account? Interesting. I read his paperback book way back in the day. It was similar but different to this one- cept for the fact that he seemed to like his cars
Von Luck? The one who defend Pegasus Bridge?
My Uncle lost his life at the Battle of El Guettar with the 9th Division. He was 19. God rest his soul. I can never repay his sacrifice except to remember him until my day comes.
@flaviopallino4060great gesture, I hope the OP see's your offer.
@flaviopallino4060 Like to know how many Nazi-German troops , and USA troops were buried there
I hate to say Nazi , but it is what it was , and had 2 relatives that fought for the USAs 82ndA/B Div. and my mother's pop a major in WffenSS"DAS REICH " Panzer Div . Kia in Russias' Battle for Kursk , and her uncle a Colonel in Luftwaffe kia ; shot down in his FW190 fighter plane near Anzio , Italy early 3/44.
My grandpa in the USAs 82nd A/B Div . was I'm DDAy , in the bloody hedgerow fighting I Normandy , "oOperation Market Garden " mid 9/44 , and wounded in Battle of The Bulge mid 12/44 . Also , lost an uncleid3/68 in NAM sTET .
Knew dudes in USAs 9th I.D. in NAMs Mekong Delta back in 66 , and lost an uncle there mid 3/68 , tail end of bloody ass TET just 2wks b-4 my 11th bday .
My grandpa, on Dad's side , was in the USAs 508 PIR 82nd A/B Div. In.WW2 , and jped 6/6/44 in Normand'y's countryside , and took part in the bloody , vicious Hedgerow fighting "Bocage" territory . He was a medic , and permitted to carry a weapon , a .30 cal carbine . He then was in "Operation Market Garden" mid9)44 . It was a near calamity by Field Marshall General Montgomery in trying to curtail WW2 in Europe via Holland . The Brit Paratroopers were shot to pieces @ lovely Arnhem , and USAs 101st , and 82nd A/B Div.zfsired slightly better @ high casualties .
Grandpa was wounded during the Battle of The Bulge mid12/44 , then patched up and sent to help other Army medics assist concentration camp victims ; he said the stench of feces , urine , and dead people made him vomit as did his medic cohorts .
Grandpa 's palpable PTSD issues made him hesitant in telling his not to nice experiences I'm WW2 Europe !
The mention of fairness during the North Africa Campaign struck a cord with me. There was an affinity between veterans on both sides of the North Africa campaign that needed to be seen to be believed. The 8th Army veterans Association and Afrika Corps veterans attended each others reunions for decades. I was volunteered to help out on one reunion in Blackpool in the late 90's and was astounded at their friendship. I'd also like to point out that they all drank like fish, it was like herding cats and they were worse than a bunch of teenagers.
Squaddies the world over are pretty much the same they all share the same hardships and thus have an affinity unless you have been fighting insurgency operations then there is little respect and a great deal of hate
LOL that's pretty funny, I can only imagine the sight of some elderly drunken ex-tankers hanging on each other while trading battlefield stories...
@robertmaybeth3434 most regimental reunions are the same a squadron of balding out of shape old chuffers knecking ridiculous amounts of alcohol pulling up sandbags swinging a lantern and recalling stories of past deads and memories of friends past and present great weekends which is why I never miss one if I can help it like being transported back to your youth
@@markwagstaff7209 I greatly resemble that remark
Hahahaha.
Good for them! If you lived through that shits you earned a lifetime pass 😂
My uncle was with the king's own hussars in north Africa, He's was a gunner and had his leg blown off and his two friends killed , As he's was coming round from being hit by German artillery a German soldier was stood over him just about to bayonet him . My uncle quickly pointed to his leg and the German called for a medic . He then had his leg amputated and sent to Italy as pow. He had shell scars over him and in bedded in him until the day he died . 🇬🇧
More Von Luck, please! The man knows how to spin a yarn!
You should read his memoirs: Panzer Commander. He is more famous for commanding the German forces facing the British glider troops at Pegasus Bridge.
Thank You Again 🎉❤😮
Typical for the war in the Desert, asking the British over the radio if they had captured von Luck and them actually honestly replying that they hadn't. Such a weird gentlemanly gesture that looks out of place in WW2, but this sort of thing seems to have taken place all the time in North Africa.
At that stage of the war, i suspect there were more units, divisions even, of professional soldiers who adhered to that old line standard of conduct. (Decency, if youll forgive the term?) For example "I say old chap, let me just say 'No,' we havent seen him! Perhaps Von Lucks Luck has held! Cheerio!" (Violent gunfire in the background) 😃
Capt W.E. John's, in one of his wartime, "Biggles," adventures,
Described his hero radioing the location of his stranded enemy so that his own men could rescue him from the desert.
In turn, the German officer told Biggles, where to find the water he needed to get back to his squadron.
This was in a book written DURING the war.
People often overlook that before the battle of El Alemain Rommel lost the intercepted intelligence of the American embassy via Bona Fellers and also the German radio interception intelligence units. Without this intelligence information, Rommel lost his greatest advantage in knowing accurately the British unit dispositions. The British, on the other hand, gained superior intelligence via their radio interception and decoding of German and Italian enigma code messages. Suddenly, there was doubt of where he had to deploy his forces and became a headache for Rommel. He lost out badly and lost most of his armour, and it was a headlong retreat all the way to Tunis, only stopping occasionally for short rearguard actions against the British forces. The Germans also deprived the Italian forces of their transports to make their retreat and the poor old Italians on foot were swept up as POWs.
Rommel is often overhyped. people forget that when he didn't have such Intel, and when he wasn't facing commanders who were UTTERLY INCOMPETENT, he got demolished. Rommel was a passable general with overaggressive tendencies that most often got him in serious trouble.
@tomcruisemissile1479 what a name tomcruisemissile but hay I am a fan of rommel but I think I agree in what you wrote about rommel, but he knew german had to get rid of Hitler as Hitler was not fair
An overlooked aspect of both the comments here & this German narative of the western allies success in North Africa is the role of Arthur Coningham of the RAF in the African campain. He was born in Australia & raised to an adult in New Zealand before obtaining both a DSO & an MC as a pilot in the british airforce in WW1. His upbringing in NZ gave him little respect for any great social difference of class distintion. This ability to mix well with all classes of people completely at ease allowed him to merge/blend the African british army (with a high % of NZ & Australian troops) & RAF together! Before he took control of the day to day running of the airforce in Africa early 1941 the comunications between the british army and airforce were in near complete break down with little co-operation. He fixed that almost on his own via personal people skills plus basic common sense things he learned in bloody WW1 combat flying that much of the british leader ship of the time had never done! He went so far as having RAF pilots riding in army tanks linked by radio to HIS RAF planes! When the USA army came into Africa he got HIS air + army co - operation system imbedded into the American effort. His upbringing & personal ability to get on with all ranks & all classes including top Army & Airforce people was what co ordinated the arny/airforce effort for the Africa for all the Allies! It should be noted that before he took over day to day running of allied air power in Africa there was much mistrust between the airforces & armys of all the western allies! He overcame all that & got the right type of fighter bomber ground support system that won the war for the allied African ground army. The System that he worked out became written into warfare training doctrine not just for fighting in Africa but his "system" was carried on into Europe to help win the whole war. Coningham seldom gets the write ups & reconition he deserves! The air to ground support system is still talked of today. But its the system that is talked up less is said of the man who created it! Who cut through an existing faulty military "class system" via his natural leadership, dash & personality & ability to get on with all sorts of people to gain this vital blending of air power support for a ground army!
God, I am so glad that WW2 was fought almost exclusively by geniuses from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the U.S. The sheer incompetence, arrogance and class division of the stupid British nearly cost the allied nations the war.
Great knowledge
My German mom's cousin was captured in Tunisia. We have a picture of him in front of a Kübelwagen out in the desert scrub with Afrika Korps uniform. He was sent to Huntsville, Texas POW camp where he said him and his buddies would paint swastikas on any box turtles they came across while working out in the fields and let them go. He kept his 'US' stamped mess kit and utensils along with his Gillette safety razor and Zippo lighter-prized heirlooms. Oh, and he developed a love of Pepsi-Cola and Texas sunsets. Interestingly he noted how when his train would stop at US depots around Christmas time civilians would call out "Fröhe Weinachten" to them.
My dad serviced P-38's (The Forked -Tailed Devils) in Tunisia.
He said his base was bombed every night by Stukas. But as bad as that was, he told me that flies were just as bad to deal with.
I have read that they actually lost some 250,000 men captured. About the same as Stalingrad.
Not 250,000 Germans, most were Italians. Stalingrad was by far mostly Germans with some small numbers of Romanians and Croates. Only 90k POWs were taken at Stalingrad.
@@karlheinzvonkroemann2217"only" 90.000 inside the city, but many more who had not been surrounded but were captured during the entirety of operation Uranus. The 250.000 figure is of the total number of men that were inside Stalingrad area at the moment of the encirclement. Of those 250.000 many were KIA or died of malnutrition, disease or exhaustion. Others were WIA of which some thousands were evacuated by air. In the end the Soviets captured about 90.000 Axis troops, any of whom were too weak to be marched into POW camps or died on the way either at the hands or their captors or because they were completely spent. About 5.000 of the Stalingrad survivors ever saw Germany again after the war.
@@karlheinzvonkroemann2217 Not true; , Playfair wrote that the Allies took 238,243 unwounded prisoners; 101,784 German, 89,442 Italian and 47,017 others.[91] In 2004, Rick Atkinson wrote that a quarter of a million prisoners is a reasonable estimate. Playfair wrote that G. F. Howe, the American official historian, recorded the capture of 275,000 Axis soldiers, an 18th Army Group calculation of 244,500 prisoners (including 157,000 Germans), that Rommel estimated 130,000 Germans were taken prisoner
North Africa only became a disaster because of Hitler. He never gave Rommel what he needed, but once they were trapped then he poured in all kinds of men and equipment to be lost needlessly
@@karlheinzvonkroemann2217 The number of Germans taken was 150,000.
In North Africa one commander routinely outstripped his supplies driving his troops to exhaustion, often squandering any positive gains that he had made leaving himself open to counterattack. He also kept pushing his forces beyond the operational range of his air power. That commander was Rommel. Strangely a commander many regard as a brilliant general.
Then we have one that joined later in North Africa that took his time to build his forces, stock supplies and increased the level of inter-service co-operation. He absorbed an attack in his first encounter with Rommel that he had correctly anticipated and planned for, then winning the battle. He then launched an effective counterattack that kicked off the drive that ended in victory, all the while adjusting his strategy on the fly to maximum effectiveness. That commander was Montgomery.
yeah but Rommel won those initial battles which allowed for him to be put into a position that hindered his supply situation.
You should read a book on strategy. Patton had the same attitude as rommel.....
When Rommel and Patton had supplies, everything they tried worked. When logistics gave out, they stalled. logistics wins battles. Rommel and Patton did know how to use the equipment given to them.
@@conradnelson5283
On 5 Nov 1944 Patton told Bradley he would be over the Westwall in a few days. Patton was well supplied in Lorraine facing a rag tag 3rd rate German army, but failed to get over the German Westwall suffering 52,000 casualties.
Patton was well supplied at Bastogne outnumbering the enemy 6:1, failing to relieve Bastogne.
The British were about to take all the southern Med coast with greatly extended supply lines, then took troops to Greece, allowing the well supplied Axis to push them back. Again in Operation Crusader the British were about to wipe out the Axis, then the Japanese attacked the British, Dutch and Americans. Troops and ships had to be diverted to the east. Again Rommel got lucky, pushing back depleted British forces.
At Monty's first battle against Rommel at Alem al Halfa, Rommel was well supplied outnumbering Monty's men. Monty won.
Looking at a simple timeline dispels the myth of Rommel.
Yes and Monty was the Buffon behind Operation Market Garden which cost the Allies thousands of lives and added six months to the war. He was a prima donna hated by all American commanders including Eisenhower.
Very exciting episode!!!👍👍👍
Wow, that was an amazing episode. I really enjoyed that 1. Well done!
A good point is made here that nearly as many axis prisoners went into the bag in Tunisia as at Stalingrad.
This is very eloquent writing. A real treat. Thank you.
I read this book several years ago, great read.
Your question, "The Final Annihilation Of The Afrika Korps. Was It Inevitable?"
The tenacious defence, the very gallant population of Malta, the Axis failure to neutralise Malta made the defeat of the Africa Corps and Italians inevitable.
The full story of the siege of Malta (the siege of WW 2) is a story well worth retelling as is the story of 'the Great Siege of Malta' by the Ottoman Muslims.
Allied forces, British & Commonwealth, operating out of Malta, submarines, surface ships including MTBs and aircraft combined with cracking Axis codes did much to destroy some 75 % of supplies on route to the Axis forces in N Africa.
The key to winning North Africa was Gibraltar and the Nazis especially Hitler failed to realized that. If Gibraltar fell to the Germans, Malta will fall and the Germans and Italians will have complete operational control of the Mediterranean Sea even if the British held on to Egypt. For the Allies, it would be a disaster if the Brits lost Gibraltar because it means that the 8th Army is cut off from Great Britain, the Germans can also use those German divisions to help in the Eastern Front and the brand new American Army would not gain battlefield experience against the Germans until the invasion of France. Also, the loss of Gibraltar might persuade Turkey to again ally itself with the Germans to regain its lost territories that were being held by France and Great Britain in the Middle East and then, there is Spain.
@@willcruz943 In a way you Sir are right and so am I 🙃.
My point being yes you are right, Gib was vital however the Axis powers never made a serious attempt to take Gib.
Whereas 'The George Cross Island', Malta, was ferociously bombed and an invasion (thwarted) planned.
It was also from Malta that many Allied sorties by MTB's, submarines and other small surface units harassed Rommel's supply line all able aided by the RAF.
I'd not be the one to detract from the heroic efforts of the British, Commonwealth and people of Malta.
Incidently that was not the first siege of Malta.
'The Great Siege of Malta' occurred in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer the island of Malta, then held by the Knights Hospitaller.
Well worth reading about if it's unfamiliar.
Crazy destiny for von Luck trying to meet AH, imagine what could have gone through his mind leaving last meeting with von Arnim & Gauss… 😱 really enjoyed von Luck episodes, what an experience of ww2, just amazing. Keep it up, great videos 👌
Mare Nostrum, the Italian lake, became a British lake. The Afrika corps could not survive forever without supplies. Even the inept Americans, in their first time at bat, did well after Kasserine. So it was inevitable.
British lake...lol. That's only because Hitler only designated a tiny fraction of their forces to Rommel. Give Rommel 10% of the available German forces and go on the defensive in Russia then the Brits would've got swept away in 45 days. France all over again. Hitler said if he didn't get the oilfields in southern Russia then he'd have to end the war. Did they not know how much oil was in the Middle East in 1942?
The British controlled both entrances to the Mediterranean. They _always_ controlled the eastern med.
@@johnburns4017 They'd didn't control Sicily. Bomb Malta senseless then give Rommel what he needed. The British couldn't stop the Germans from building up enough to capture Tobruk, but even then AH didn't care about the Afrika Korp. He gave Rommel an Iron Cross, but Rommel said he'd rather have a division. Once the Yanks chipped in it was too late
Patton, in Sicily showed how much of a wuss Montgomery was.
@@ET-bg8ru
Read this. From a review of BITTER VICTORY The Battle for Sicily, 1943, By Carlo D'Este. Review written by Walter Lord in the New York Times: 27/11/1988:
_‘Montgomery was heading for Messina too, but the German forces still on the island threw up a tough defense line and it was late July before Montgomery worked his way through them and resumed his advance. Fans of the movie ''Patton'' think they know what happened next. Montgomery marched into Messina at the head of his triumphant troops - to find a smirking Patton waiting for him. Mr. D'Este assures us it didn't happen that way. Patton was indeed trying to beat Montgomery to Messina, but Montgomery would not make a race of it. He wanted only to keep the Germans from escaping and realized Patton was in the best position to accomplish that. In fact he urged Patton to use roads assigned to the Eighth Army.’_
- NY Times 27th Nov 1988
_"Patton emerged as the hero of Husky in the American popular media. His profile adorned the covers of both Time and Newsweek after his capture of Palermo. However, in the process of capturing Palermo, Patton displayed recklessness, poor judgment, and the tendency to fuel his personal desire for glory with the paranoid conviction that the Allies designed war plans in North Africa and Sicily to make the British Army look superior to the Americans._
_Fundamentally, Patton demonstrated an inability to rise above the level of tactical proficiency to that of an operational artist. He demonstrated a lack of command and control during his march to Palermo, seen in factors including limited close air support for his ground forces, fratricide during unnecessary and risky airborne landings, and under resourced amphibious operations along Sicily’s east coast. After Palermo, as the pace of operations slowed, Patton simply ignored logistics, opting to focus on his personal approach to warfare and simultaneously disregarded current doctrine."_
The above is from a 48 page assessment of Patton by the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies by Major Larsen, 2015.
I met an old digger once, who told how his unit manned the trenches right on the Mediterranean coast. Every morning both sides would go for a swim, ceasefire ending at 8:00am.
Rommel could have run the allies in circles for years, and even taken the Suez canal and the middle east oil fields - IF only he had the men and tanks to do so. The fact that he didn't was a tribute to the courageous British soldiers that fought endlessly to starve Rommel of supplies! The victors of war in North Africa would be determined by logistics, pure and simple. Whoever was able to supply his own army, while starving the enemy's would win. And the British had a slightly superior supply situation, but only AFTER the Americans came into the theater in 1942. Not only could the British resupply their war effort through the Straights of Gibraltar and via Suez, but they also had the airfield at Malta for air support. It was true the Germans had Sicily and Crete to supply Rommel from, but the year of 1942 showed Britain getting stronger by the day and the Germans getting weaker. And by the time 1943 rolled around, the huge German losses of men and tanks in Russia contributed to make Rommel's armies impossible to supply. North Africa was not won on the battlefield but on the supply lines.
Germans lost and in a humiliating manner. You are just full of excuses.
Hitler and high command treated North Africa as a mere sideshow since the main effort was on the eastern front.If Hitler was serious at first in threatening the Brits in north Africa he should never have invaded the Balkans and USSR.
@@bert8373 Admiral Raeder tried to talk AH into taking Egypt and the Middle East before Barbarossa. He said it would hurt the Brits just as much to lose Cairo as London and take the Middle East then the assault on Russia looks completely different. They also thought that might force Turkey to join the Axis
@@mirquellasantos2716 So reality is a problem for you?
@@warager4753 And denial is your problem.
3:07 The Southern Cross? I doubt that. Almost the whole of the war for North Africa took place north of 30 degrees latitude. One needs to be south of 25 degrees to see the Southern Cross.
Interesting to hear about Rommel's sickness. The descriptions I have heard of the illness that German soldiers suffered after a long period in Africa sounds like Scurvy
Rommel had a gall bladder problem ,,he seemed like a real soldier
@@peter2023 Was his gallbladder treated before they made him shoot himself?.
The part about the Canadian pilot giving a heads up for the German radio operator to abandon the car before he bombed it was amazing. You don’t hear many generous things like that in this war. A Russian would not blink twice about blowing that guy to bits.
Really? How do YOU know that? The British had no problem firebombing 71 German cities and murdering more than a half million civillians with a smile.
Russians value their country men more. The pilot gets to think he is a better person than the common soldier but he’s not going to be around when that radio man relays vital information and gets allied soldiers killed. He had an opportunity to neutralize an active threat but allowed him to continue to fight in the war.
Considering the German view of Russians, that is understandable and likely mutual
The same MERCY Germans denied to one million babies and small children. Germans back then were diabolical.
It's the only war theater where chivalry still mean a thing.
Isnt the Southern Cross only visible in the Southern Hemisphere? Great stories though.
Depending on the time of year it may have been visible low on the horizon in North Africa.
@@pshehan1 You're 100% correct.
If you're north of the equator but south of a latitude of about 25 degrees, which is around say Hawaii and parts of northern Africa, you can still see the Southern Cross. I learnt something tonight.
@@fairieswearboots3556 I am from Australia but lived and worked in upstate NY for a while. Too far north the see the Southern Cross. Did not think to look for it when I was in Malaysia and Borneo.
The thing I noticed in the US, apart from the different constellations, was that the sun travels the 'wrong way' across the sky, from left to right, morning to evening.
"it's an honor for us to capture Reconnaissance Battalion 3. Please keep your pistol. Is there anything we can do for you?'
29:30 After The War, did he still get the free rail travel?
Maybe not if they had secured Malta before El Alamein, but it still would have been a hard ask. The RN and USN would always have more ships to cut off the supply lines.
The axis did not have the where with all in a navel way to assault Malta. After Norway, the German surface fleet was in tatters and couldn't get past Gibraltar. The Italian navy didn't have enough vessels and landing craft. After Crete Hitler did not do any major airborne assault. Plus, the coast of Malta is a defenders haven. The axis lost twice the number of submarines of the British in the Mediterranean. Only a total siege by naval blockade to stave out the defenders would cause a capitulation of Malta.
@@damianousley8833 Yes, I am aware of that stuff. I spoke strictly as a counter-factual. Multiple things would have to be different from what you named for it to happen. Or Hitler simply could have written off the whole African adventure, pulled back, ignored Mussolini's bleating, and concentrated on the Eastern Front.
Was his nickname Lucky Von Luck. ? ?
Had his share and maybe a bit more. Not only escaped the sacrifice of the Afrika Korps, but also survived the Normandy Invasion, being outside the Falaise Pocket. On the other hand he got captured by the Russians, which was probably not first choice for a POW experience.
The North - Africa Campaign was very portant in preventing Field Marshall General Erwin Rommel in taking the mid Eastern Oil Fields. Which of taken by the Nazis , WW2 in the ETO would 've been favorable for the Axis.
It was a bad move by Rommel. He had been ordered NOT to attack, because the German High Command knew they could never supply an offensive force that could get to the Suez Canal. All the resources that went to his failed assaults did not go to the East.
Amazing story.
One more thing. The Allies also let the Germans withdraw from Sicily with almost all of its equipment . That cost them dearly during the Italian campaign.
😮😮 von luck adding a little hint that he conspired with guderian ..
Very cool stories, but the picture sure looks like the Mojave Desert.
Would be interesting to know who has written the narrative of this and the other videos on this channel?
Just spotted that it from Hans Von Lucks book/diary 'Panzer Commander'.
Man, all that talk of rommel wanting to thrust into the American rears is stressful to think of.
"Auntie JUS" is actually "tante yu" and I have no idea where "Tuneeesh-ia" may be.
The opening 20 seconds reminded me some what of the narrative from "The life of Brian"
If Only the island of Malta had been invaded and occupied early in the war with the use of German Paratroopers, the Battle of North Africa would have been much shorter with a Axis victory, because Malta has an Air and Naval Base which would secure an uninterrupted flow of supplies across the Mediterranean Sea to both the Afrika Korps and Italian forces in Libya and Egypt.
Hitler considered North Africa to be a side show . Russia was his priority . When you can’t supply your troops with ordinance and supplies due to allied navel and air assets , your army will wither on the vine . It’s amazing the AFRIKA KORP lasted as long as it did , pressed from two directions .
Hitler sent 40,000 troops to Tunisia near the end. It was no side show.
@@johnburns4017 Compared to Russia it was . 40k or 400,000 k of soldiers means little if the can’t be supplied . To Hitler North Africa was a side show !
@@richard3536
The Germans needed as many trained troops as possible against the Soviets. Why send these men on a lost cause into captivity?
Is this narrator a robot ?
Hans von Luck’s story is …. (No words). Poland, Russia, Africa, captured by Russians, interred in Georgia.
Thank you, I know now why we have an expression in French. I will send you in Tataouine!
Which means, in the middle of nowhere!
To be magnanimous to the enemy puts them on the back foot, breaks their moral to fight when word gets back, gives them the belief they were wrong to fight, also makes the prisoners behave and easier to handle.
Unlike the Japanese experience. Result, 2 atom bombs.
@@flybobbie1449 How many Japanese POWS? I've watched the island hopping battles and it's never looked like there were many that gave up.
Von Luck was a bit of a cocky so and so. I bet this was thumped out of him in the Soviet gulag in Georgia. He must have really toed the line and toaded up to the Soviets and licked their boots there as he was released in December 1949, an early release back into West Germany. It was American historian Stephen Ambrose who was a controversial writer who encouraged Von Luck to write his memoirs, Panzer Commander. There was one chapter where Von Luck ordered Luftwaffe antiaircraft 88 batteries to shoot at advancing British and Canadian tanks in Normandy. These inexperienced crews also shot up German Tiger tanks and other german armour as well as allied tanks as they didn't know the difference at range. An example of a German friendly fire incident, very much in favour to the allies.
dude, it's over
That was the Day that I received the "Knights Diamond Tiara with Black Tutu"! Oh how my Heart Swole
The Afrika Corps was not annihilated.. It managed to withdraw to Sicily with most of its equipment intact.
What happened with the Romans ?
Is there some kind of mis-translation going on here? He mentioned a 2cm cannon on a He-111 and in another video he mentioned one on the JU-87. To my knowledge gunner positions on those aircraft were limited to machine guns. Can anyone explain this?
The Germans should have treated the Italians the way they treated Spain
After this debacle in Africa, Gen Von Armin was transferred to 6th Army under Paulus in Stalingrad and was captured by the Russians…
I think you are confusing Hans-Jürgen von Arnim with Hans-Heinrich Sixt von Armin
these campaigns ended almost at the same time
Yes. Next question.
Did I read in the comments that Luck ended up with the Russians? How?
How many adverts do your videos have?? Jeez every 5 mins cant even chill and listen
Davenport Iowa DAD Joke of the day
[Q] What is the difference between, punctuality and Punctuation?
[A] only TIME will tell
In the end the Gerry's just ran out of Willy.
👍👍👍!!!
Humanity attitude of Arabian [ Baduin individuals] to ward's German soldiers showed glory and smartness attitude of Baduen families 5:26....because both sides ( Britain and german ) were invaders of Arabian territory ...through imperial competition between Axis and alliance
With Hitler in command, yes the demise of the Afrika Corps WAS inevitable.
Revised opinion: the Germans and Italians could have done an Axis Dunkirk in Tunisia. But they would've lost (in) North Africa anyway.
They did do a Dunkirk. It made Dunkirk look like kiddies paddle cars.
Logistics is most of the answer... No doubt the Rommel was a far better commander than any of the British... The British finally won because of logistics...
Isn’t having good logistics part of being a good commander? Montgomery refused to go on the offensive until his logistics were in place. Rommel was over confident and underestimated his opponent, attacking without having the required resources at the first battle of El-Alamein. Don’t forget when he arrived in North Africa he was far better equipped than the allied forces who had been drastically depleted thanks to Churchills decision to send the bulk of their forces to Greece.
He got much of his name the Desert Fox from seemingly always knowing what to do, where, and being one step ahead of the British. Later, it was discovered he had a very good network of spies in Cairo so often knew what the British were planning, but the name stuck. Rommel has become a bit of a myth where the truth has been lost.
Not saying he wasn’t a great commander, just that time has exaggerated his ability.
@frankanderson5012 depends on the level. Rommel was a field commander and a tactician. Eisenhower a theatre commander and had Marshall above him. Sometimes you have to make the best with wat you have.
I love listening to this narrator I could listen for hours.
But why are these so poorly organized. It’s impossible to follow from on section to the next. It truly keeps me from listening to your channel very frequently. I will fight to track the story for a couple episodes but then I get frustrated and quit.
go on the playlist page on the channel its all organised there
IIRC over 200,000 Germans wre evacuated to Sicily from Tunisia. No? Far from annihilation.
Hell yes it was inevitable.
Von Luck sounds like a narcissist.
Yeah, maybe, a little. An officer needs a lot of self-confidence to successfully lead these kinds of independent small-unit actions. The dividing line between that quality and narcissism may be a bit blurred.
Good point.
He wants to stay with his men in Africa, is anxious about meeting hitler..How is that narcissistic?
You could title your videos better, nothing in the title alludes to the story. It's like the entire channel is AI...
epic tale, but the German logistics were never in order for such large and rapid advances. For success the Jewish matter should have never happened, they should have been sent to take their holy land and all prosperous areas around it and war with Russia could have been avoided... for quite some time as the Arabs, as the Bedouins, would have capitulated too.
I ruve your talking.
That isn't him. That is the guy who does the audio books. He is posting chapters from Audio-books. He is speeding up the voice .25 to .50 percent as well.
Great story, just wish it was read by a human and not transcribed by AI
Logistics
A tale spun from whole cloth.
The Southern Cross is in the Southern Hemisphere.
Nice try. Bye.
British guy narrative not really helping...
Narrator. Was he Stralnikof. In. Dr Zhivago ??
why ??? its correct and intelligent...perhaps you are not familiar with these two items
Seems informative to me just doesn't over elaborate thankfully.
MAKES ME LAUGH WHEN PATTON AND MONTGOMERY CLAIM THEY BEAT ROMMELL; THAT'S NOT SAYING MUCH. THE TRUTH IS THAT HE SIMPLY WAS NOT BEING SUPPLIED ADEQUATELY; MY GRANDMOTHER COULD HAVE BEATEN HIM.
Heis army wasn't just beaten it was annihilated, thankfully.
Siebel ferry'.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siebel_ferry
The red arrow points to what ? i.imgur.com/zjrSBvU.png