So i am from Liverpool (don't laugh) my Nan was a WREN and was stationed in Western Approches ..... in fact ... there is a picture of her in the Maritime museum ... she's on a ladder for the big map
That isn't something to laugh at, it's something to be proud of! That's fantastic, I know I'm a couple of years late for this video, but I hope you were able to help these guys out with some information!
I'm not British but I agree, those were some proper British fuses. Seriously, why the BBC doesn't give you a series is baffling. You truly are the David Attenborough of military history. I subscribed after watching your barrel brake....oops, I mean muzzle brake video not just because it was a topic I was always curious about, but it was your genuine enthusiasm in the presentation. I hope teachers around the world are using your history videos in their curricula.
The BBC is all about racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual diversity at the moment. They wouldn't want to give a television show to a straight white man now would they? Doesn't matter how good or popular it would be. Also, if I'm not mistaken, they had a massive cut in their budget recently but still managed to find about £100 million for 'diversity spending'.
In 1988 I was an ASW Watch Officer at the US Atlantic Fleet War Room. We were still keeping track of operations just like this on big board with grease pencils and markers. Shortly after we began transition to being fully computerized.
Took my family in about 1996 to the western approaches had a great day out the boys loved it only 5 and 7 at the time. Well worth a visit if you are in Liverpool.
Great video. I had almost forgotten about you coming in to film that. Seems so long ago now, though only last year. Funny to see me and Sue working on building the street scene, from 8:17. Building the street scene down in a 'secret concrete bunker' was hard work for just two of us but so much fun! It was very humbling finding so much lost history, artefacts, and information about the building, and the people who worked there during the war. We're very much looking forward to the next big bit of restoration work down there. In the meantime it has been amazing seeing and hearing about how popular Western Approaches has become due to all the improvements and, most importantly, the great staff team now working there.
Just a conjecture: The stipulation for WRNS and WAAF to be aged 17 to 21 was probably because they wanted unmarried women who had completed school and did not yet have the responsibilities of married life: maintaining a household, caring for children, etc. This would have been especially important as most of the men in the country were either in the armed forces or working in occupations vital to the war effort. The women would have needed to be extremely focused on their work and not have any distractions.
Another excellent video. My father was in the U.S. Merchant Marines during the war. It was interesting to see where the decisions were made that assisted so many convoys crossing the Atlantic. Hope you do some more videos on the different aspects regarding the Battle of the Atlantic. 👍
7:41 Hold on a minute! Maybe we can find out what the map looked like if we... Computer! Zoom in on the reflection in that woman's eyes and... _enhance_ ....
Quite chilling really, we came so close to losing in so many ways, it's beyond a miracle that we eventually won. Ordinary people doing incredible work....thanks Lindybeige.
This is a fine video about an important place that I was not aware of. I did not know that the Atlantic battle was controlled from Liverpool. Great job.
The London establishment has attempted to erase Liverpool from the earth. They rarely mention the word _Liverpool_ on the BBC. They always say, the Jaguar plant in _Merseyside,_ when it is now actually in the _Liverpool City Region._ HS2 (high-speed rail) track will be 16 miles away from the city, but they will not run in HS2 into a City Region of over 2 million, having to access HS2 40 miles away at Crewe, while nearby Manchester will have a 7.5 mile HS2 tunnel run into the city. They *hate* the city.
The role of the city of Liverpool in WW2 is vastly understated. It was the prime convoy port, with a convoy to the Americas, Middle East, Far East, etc, entering or leaving at one per day. A million American troops passed through the port. It was a centre of essential ship repair for the merchant fleets and allied naval fleets as well. Even Mustang planes were built there to together Napier engines used in the Tempest and Typhoon planes. The anti U-Boat corvettes were stationed there, with Johnny Walker the man who could smell a U-Boat from a few miles away.
I think it rather fitting that something so monumentally important seems so inconspicuous in appearance. People are always looking for big battles and important generals as the crucial factors for winning wars but more often than not it's the seemingly small but vital bits of strategy and logistics that truly win the day. The other most crucial thing in helping to win the war was the secret location of Churchill's stash of fine brandy without which the war would have undoubtedly been lost.
they now reveal the most vital battle of the war was for the island of malta if germany had captured it it woud have meant they had an aircraft carrier in the med. would have meant conquest of north africa the suez canal and persias oil would have fell to germany turkey would have entered the war on hitlers side and a second front would have invaded russia due to the ability to supply through malta
"And one day! One day I want to be rich enough so that I can have a wargaming table and lots of women in tight fitting RAF uniforms with croupier sticks..." Don't we all.
Toby-Wan: well, some croupier sticks too, then . . . And let the young women wear 1½ inch heels. Enough to emphasize their posteriors, but not enough to make them look silly or impractical.
Literally for like 1 month in the end of 1941... Some 25 % of the medium and heavy tanks in 1941 but much less after that. By the end of the war 8 % of the total tanks in the USSR were sent by the british/americans
@@WTF2BlueTiger it was a month that mattered quite a lot; I also like to remind viewers that the most numerous Soviet tank for a long time (till after Kursk I think) was the T-26, which got a big leg up from it's stepfather, the Vickers Six Ton tank
WWII was a team effort, hence the name. Nor Soviets, nor Americans, nor the British won the war on their own, everyone had their part to do, and they did it. Can't we just be happy that we won, and that now we can watch Lindy's videos? And here's a little joke: How to tell you're a soviet soldier? -> You're being shoot from both sides. And here's another one: How do you know the situation is terrible? -> The Commissar starts shooting at the enemy. Okay, one more: When a clock goes forward it goes 'tic-tac', but when Rommel goes backwards, it's tactic I'll show myself out.
"WWII was a team effort, hence the name. Nor Soviets…" - followed by two jokes playing into cold war era western propaganda about RKKA. Why am I not surprised?
+Alexander Kerensky in his speech in 1931 Stalin said that USSR has to start preparing for the war. Since 1933 he was warning the world about Hitler. In 1939 he tried to make an anti-Hitler alliance with Paris and London. In 1941 he received a dozen warnings about Barbarossa starting within a few days every week. Seeing how Germany declared war on Russia in 1914 when Nikolai started mobilisation, Stalin was reluctant to mobilise and move troops to the border, as time was on the Soviet side as it was preparing for the war with Germany (in 1939-1941 RKKA increased 7-fold, huge fortification works were done, all iconic WW2 weapons like T-34 and KV-1, IL-2, PPsH-41 etc were developed and adopted by the army). Two weeks before Germany invaded Stalin declared mobilisation, but Soviet troops didn't all make to the border in time - it was spread into 3 echelons moving towards the border on 22nd June. That's a response to your ridiculous statement about Stalin not believing in German invasion. I'm not sure I want to read further and see what other ridiculous stuff you wrote there.
The Soviet’s knew how to combat blitzkrieg, unlike France, if they would have protected the border it would have been overrun just like France, they knew exactly what they we’re doing when they let the nazis overextend
@11:45 and following you will see the size of Iceland dramatically reduce from its WW2 area to the area shown in the 1990s reproduction. The RN and RAF used a cylindrical map projection (Mercator) for very sound reasons. The 1990s reproducers, in their naivety, used an equal area (Gall-Peters) projection. Cylindrical map projections make land masses close to the Poles look larger than they proportionally are, but they make navigation a doddle. RN /RAF got it right: the set designers were wrong.
I doubt they used Gal-Peters. Looks like Equirectangular (cylindrical) where the original was Mercator (cylindrical). Can't say the original choice was more appropriate, as Mercator is of no help in cross atlantic navigation.
Nevertheless, only a cylindrical projection would work if you are using straight strands of wool for equal angles of latitude and longitude. I still maintain (using a ruler to measure from my screen!) that the later chart is an equal area projection. I may be wrong, but I do hope the restorers use an authentic chart. BR PE.
Perhaps one of the reason they wanted such young women was because they didnt want mothers with families and husbands/boyfriends they would miss in times where they had to stay down there for long periods of time. I think that were perhaps the mentality at the time, though one shouldnt dismiss that there was a bit of "old dirty man" syndrome out and about.
I must admit that I don't buy the "dirty old man" thing. Women back then were usually nest builders from roughly the age of 21, and the Admiralty and RAF High Command needed staff members that were completely devoted and un-distracted for an operation of this importance.
HOWEVER, If you are willing to accept older women, then all you have to do is to ASK for women in the military of any age (but again, already IN the military) who do not have children and who are not married; you might find plenty of volunteers.
In addition, unmarried women, preferably ones who still lived with their parents, were also considered less of a security risk(!) than married ones, who were assumed to tell their husbands everything they were up to (assuming those husbands weren't away fighting Jerry). This was a consideration for not only women who worked in command centers like this one, but also those involved in intelligence work (such as the members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry who worked for SOE).
Went here just two days ago, amazing they have really done the place up and is perfect for children as there is so much to interact with such as phones, dressing up cloths and even a tip writer. It really get the kid involved and you even go round with an old fashioned style ID card that you can get stamped and a top secret letter that helps reveal clues around the bunker. A bit off topic but also a great location as it’s just a little walk from Liverpool one witch is perfect for the locals. Anyway overall great time definitely worth going even have old style shops towards back off building. Check it out!!!
A fellow vintage switch fan, I see. A few years ago my dad took me to a Radio Shack, I was about 14 at the time (I'm 16 now). There was a drawer in the back filled to the brim with switches of every kind, ESPECIALLY the nice, crisp switches you see on the old equipment in the bunker. Being 14 years old, I had never experienced the switches of the olden days, and I spent pretty much the entire time there flipping them all.
Ryan Casey A favourite pastime of my children when young at B&Q was switching all the display switches in the electrical aisle. Obviously not as satisfying as vintage switches but you have to take your pleasures where you can get them.
Have you got an old fashioned mechanical 1980's computer keyboard like me? They still make them and are really worth it. "Buckling Springs" for the true experience although there are other variants.
That big easternmost island on the Canada side of the map is Newfoundland. St. John's harbour was a major staging area for antisubmarine warfare ships. Many merchant marine survivors also came through that port.
There are too many for a 1h video... My favorite: People imagine the German with motorised infantry, MP40s and their cat-tanks, yet most looked far more like the prior century...
Always great when we get a new video from Lindy. Question for you, O wearer of all things beige, have you been to Dover and the tunnels under the castle where Vice Admiral Ramsey planed Operation Dynamo? It is a fascinating place, with an added bonus of the Napoleonic forts on the other side of town overlooking the strait. If you're ever in the area, I'd love to show you around the sites.
10:52 Just a theory, but maybe they wanted women so young to serve under the FL because the FL was (or at least looked to be) a fairly young woman herself, and an age gap is useful for setting up hierarchies.
Lindy, I hope you are going to the maritime museum, there are some awesome scale models of Cammell Laird ship the RMS Lusitania exhibition and the HMS Prince of Wales Bell, though not sure if it will transferred to the new HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier. Excellent place to visit.
6:30 Not sure if it's been pointed out in other comments, but she was WAAF, Aircraftwoman 1st Class Patricia Elizabeth Lane (2004740) of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. People fighting a war often die in dumb ways. At least she didn't throw the pin away and keep the grenade.
I seen a bit of this place before this rework of the interior when watching Jeremy Clarkson's documentary of the arctic convoy PQ17. It was pretty neat, massive tables with model ships to keep a visual track of where your forces were.
Sadly it's kind've the same deal down here in the States. We do have monuments and such, but there's little given on them in our history classes if at all.
I remember that when we learned about the massive US (and Canadian I guess?) supplies to the Russians at school I was really surprised this is pretty much never talked about or depicted anywhere. I suppose the reason is the Cold war. The Soviets downplayed the role of the west in their "Patriotic war", even though they could have quite possibly lost without the steel, oil and other resources from the US with which the Russians could build and fuel all those tanks so quickly, and the west downplayed the role of the Soviets without whom the Germans would have won quite surely as most of continental Europe either capitulated without a fight (Czechoslovakia), outright joined the Nazis (Italy, Hungary, Norway) or failed spectacularly (France) and the Germans could depend on the production of all of those countries, particularly when they paired it up with forced labour (not just in the concentration camps). And so this direct cooperation largely disappeared from the public image of the war.
Canada kept the Brits alive when they were "fighting the war alone" (what rubbish) in those early years of the conflict. Canada, along with the other areas with various British-alignment. People say that the British Empire fought alone, but it was an Empire - they're designed to fight alone.
My dad served on HMS Starling and after the war he worked in Exchange buildings. He was shown around the dilapidated HQ by a friendly security guard in the '70s and when the museum opened in the 1990's we were invited to the opening.
I was in Western Approaches today and me and my Mrs were discussing what might have happened to Patricia Lane and came to the conclusion she fell from the ladder. RIP. Great place to visit by the way. A lot more has been done since this video.
Well, I'm a bit of an ameteur electrician (very ameteur) and we do have switches like that now. It's just that we have new switches that are cheaper. Using cheaper components will actually bring the price down quite a bit but I agree. Stuff back then was built to last. Great stuff.
'Stuff back then was built to last.' - and it was repairable so you didn't have to throw the whole bloomin' contraption away if the switch packed in and you couldn't get a replacement ;-)
Ye, I have worked on old computers. Clean away the dust, fix the broken part and/or replace it, boot it up. Bam working machine. New computers are a fair bit more fiddly, less room to work with, you tend to have to take the entire thing apart to replace one small piece. Even worse in laptops. Also, laptops even these past five years seem to have gotten really flimsey. £350 once bought a fairly slow laptop that just worked. £350 just a few years ago got me a machine that fell to bits within weeks. Good build quality has gotten pricier in recent years, and even then you can expect it to break down in a few years. My first machine lasted ten years, this one is two years old and already it has two broken LEDs and a dodgy fan and the harddrive is on the blink. (Paid £500 for this one, I'm running it until it dies, I have backups, but it annoys me because throwing electronics away all the time seems like such a darn waste!)
Now then Paul, your mission is to save all of us old switch lovers and locate the best place to buy them... I love the solid feeling of those old switches.
Lol, well, here's a few places. ua-cam.com/video/jEwEhhhVuw0/v-deo.html Just Google electronic components and buy some switches. But you'll sure pay for the nice big satisfying switches. Maybe the best thing to do might be to find some old devices like in the video and unsoldier the switches. Then you should be able to soldier them back into pretty much anything you want. A two way switch should be compatible with any two way circuit theoretically but don't quote me on that. Ask someone who actually knows what they're talking about, lol.
Things is: Even if the Soviet Union could have beaten Gemany without D-Day (which I don't doubt), the Americans and British getting onto the continent stopped them from puppeting all of Europe instead of only half of it. No doubt this was an important place.
Q: the Soviet Union could have beaten Gemany... A: Muscovy would never survive without Lend-Lease and the North African campaign, not speaking of beating Germany. But the Normandy landings have started when Germany already lost Ukraine and Belarus, meaning when Muscovy already won its own war.
Thanx for the tour, I'd love to see more videos like this. I'll never get to the UK or Europe (bad health) so battlefield tours and the like would be an absolute treasure for folks like me. Thank you Lindy.
Fantastic insight into a (understatement) "Critical Time in our history". Thank you so much for this short tour of a forgotten critical piece of British history that is so easily overlooked and surpassed by the more glamorous combat units. Well Done Sir!
12:26 We do, Lloyd, we do. Sadly relegated only to tube amps and other niche applications, but the itch for that 'click' that rivals a 'kerchunk' may still be scratched, for a price.
Speaking of wargaming, could you maybe do some more videos on Crossfire? A video of a full game, especially with your lovely narration style would be amazing!
Visited this week and it is a very interesting place indeed. I think the WATU board game section could do with a bigger home, and maybe a rule book so visitors can have a crack themselves!
@Lindybeige, I'm a retired C-130 flight engineer. The Herkybird was designed in the early 50s with lots of WW2 level tech, and my systems panel had lots and lots of extremely tactile and satisfying knobs, buttons, and switches. I miss my old job.
I sincerely hope you get rich so you could afford to indulge in your desire to build a gaming war room table staffed with female assistants in tight-fitting sexy uniforms. A worthy goal for a wealthy aging gentleman.
Quite true. I would wish the same for me. I am an aging gentleman but unfortunately, I am not wealthy. Maybe I should just get my wife to dress up in a tight fitting sexy uniform and be happy with that.
Perhaps they wanted young girls due to young people being better at learning new skills quickly? Older girls would have been more likely to have developed other skills useful for the war effort. Just a theory.
Younger minds are better with quick calculations. That and they would presumably have less responsibilities such as older parents or children to care for.
Ryan Hellyer Back then at age 20-24 women already got very serious about starting a new family. To avoid such complications they hired girls way under 20 because they'd have a few extra years before they'd freak out. That's my theory.
Perhaps people going on about the old adage about the British having bad teeth should go look at some actual dental hygeine ratings... Hint, Britain is up the top.... White teeth are not necessarily healthy teeth, in fact the natural colour of teeth is an off white, similar to ivory, because you know, they are the same.... But its fine if you all want to bleach the hell out of your teeth and remove a fair proportion of the enamel that protects them... your decision, have fun with your fillings.
14:30 RE: Secret message _"Please pass to the _*_COMMODER?_*_ of Convoy" ?_ A 'Commoder' presumably being a typo of 'Commodore' _and not 'the one who commodes'._ Was that MSG kept because of the (unintentional?) 'comedy typo' ? Perhaps the COMMODER was busy doing some 'passing' of his own.
When I can scramble enough money together, I will visit GB and make a museums tour all over the country. History is so interesting. ... And I need to play tank paint ball 🤣
Bücherdrache it’s just a comment by someone with the delusion that the U.K. is becoming an Islamic country. Perhaps they should look at relevant statistics to educate themselves.
I completely agree on the satisfaction of these old switches. My gran had an old organ with switches like that. Lots of fun flipping those switches and not so much actually playing the organ itself lol
15:00 A German u-boat engine was used to power the anti-u-boat operations room! Typical British. Those technicians must've gotten some kick out of that.
I really enjoyed seeing those blueprints. I have seen a few that are older in person, but they're for somewhat boring industrial applications. Those blueprints are absolutely wizard!
I believe it's very important that these great men and women had a... release. And nothing raises moral like a hot 20 year old (I can say that and it's not creepy cause I'm 21)
Canada's biggest fight of World War 2, the Battle of the Atlantic in which over 400 ships, corvettes, frigates, and destroyers fought and won saving Britain's bacon. The Royal Navy and USN were most certainly significant in the fight but given so much of the logistics feeding and supply Britain was being produced and manufactured in Canada, it was Canada's biggest contribution to the war (despite sending most of its 725 000 personnel in the Army to fight in Europe as well.)
If anybody is curious, the Morse Code at the beginning is a recording of a ham radio operator with the callsign F5LPY calling "CQ", meaning they are calling any station that wants to talk. Guessing @Lindybeige either recorded some ham radio traffic on the world bands, or found a sound clip online.
We can only assume he asked his superiors for resources to work with and they told him not to waste his time with such nonsense, but he went ahead and bootstrapped it on his own.
About 50 years ago I worked in Derby House, as far as I can remember we did not know at that time that the command centre was there. Apparently when the war was over, the staff there just dispersed. The place was locked up
The War was won from the Fields, and the streets,and the Seas and the Air,it was won in Hills and in the Valleys,and the Forests and the plains...We Never surrendered.....Lights Cigar and sits back and smiles....
maybe the woman had to be younger then 21 because then they would still have been single and not worrying about an oversees lover fighting for their country? Or not maybe wanting children? In those days a woman being married or getting children had to resign the work she was doing, and devote her life to husband and children.
Nice theory, but does not take into consideration girls who married young. If marriage was the great disqualifier, than the requirement would have been for single unmarried women instead of specifying an age limit. As for taking care of the husband, Britain was at war and all able bodied men would have been in the military and not returning home at 5pm to be taken care of by their wife.
So i am from Liverpool (don't laugh) my Nan was a WREN and was stationed in Western Approches ..... in fact ... there is a picture of her in the Maritime museum ... she's on a ladder for the big map
I would never laugh, though I might whistle if she looks hot in the picture.
Fantastic
That isn't something to laugh at, it's something to be proud of! That's fantastic, I know I'm a couple of years late for this video, but I hope you were able to help these guys out with some information!
Scouse women of the time had Nylons , thanx to Max .
@@leonhowe1299 whats funny is he is from liverpool, not his nan.
I'm not British but I agree, those were some proper British fuses. Seriously, why the BBC doesn't give you a series is baffling. You truly are the David Attenborough of military history. I subscribed after watching your barrel brake....oops, I mean muzzle brake video not just because it was a topic I was always curious about, but it was your genuine enthusiasm in the presentation. I hope teachers around the world are using your history videos in their curricula.
Thanks for the info.
Nooo they will change him direct him turn him into another revisionist that is all they allow on sick old auntie
I think he'll do better than the BBC, which he certainly deserves.
The BBC is all about racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual diversity at the moment. They wouldn't want to give a television show to a straight white man now would they? Doesn't matter how good or popular it would be.
Also, if I'm not mistaken, they had a massive cut in their budget recently but still managed to find about £100 million for 'diversity spending'.
he's too nationalistic and right-wing for the BBC
LoL "the Luftwaffe converted it into a modern car park"
Are there no places on youtube that _aren't_ haunted by xenophobic fear mongers?
I know right! At least, in addition to the stupidity of his views, he also made an incredibly moronic typo. Gave me a slight chuckle.
Azdgariarada: Well, at least he gave you a chuckle. No man in the world holds more threat to us mortals, than the man we cannot laugh at.
Who you callin mortal!?!
azdgariarada: Me and all the other blokes just like me. I don't know any immortals or Gods . . .
In 1988 I was an ASW Watch Officer at the US Atlantic Fleet War Room. We were still keeping track of operations just like this on big board with grease pencils and markers. Shortly after we began transition to being fully computerized.
Took my family in about 1996 to the western approaches had a great day out the boys loved it only 5 and 7 at the time. Well worth a visit if you are in Liverpool.
Great video.
I had almost forgotten about you coming in to film that. Seems so long ago now, though only last year. Funny to see me and Sue working on building the street scene, from 8:17. Building the street scene down in a 'secret concrete bunker' was hard work for just two of us but so much fun! It was very humbling finding so much lost history, artefacts, and information about the building, and the people who worked there during the war.
We're very much looking forward to the next big bit of restoration work down there.
In the meantime it has been amazing seeing and hearing about how popular Western Approaches has become due to all the improvements and, most importantly, the great staff team now working there.
Glad to read this. I hope this video helps.
*flicks switch 1*
*flicks switch 2*
*flicks switch 3*
👍
Just a conjecture: The stipulation for WRNS and WAAF to be aged 17 to 21 was probably because they wanted unmarried women who had completed school and did not yet have the responsibilities of married life: maintaining a household, caring for children, etc. This would have been especially important as most of the men in the country were either in the armed forces or working in occupations vital to the war effort. The women would have needed to be extremely focused on their work and not have any distractions.
If the WRENs were just out of school, they could still remember how to do math, and were not yet maried, with small children to take care of.
I am really falling in love with this channel lately
Can we have more "old switches switching" videos? They are so satisfying
Francesco Gulisano ... yes indeed. I think he has ‘clicked’ with that one.
Wow
Shlibber: Perhaps we should switch subject?
I don't know what that feeling was, when those switches were flipped, but it was gooood.
shlibber
ASMR
Another excellent video. My father was in the U.S. Merchant Marines during the war. It was interesting to see where the decisions were made that assisted so many convoys crossing the Atlantic. Hope you do some more videos on the different aspects regarding the Battle of the Atlantic. 👍
7:41 Hold on a minute! Maybe we can find out what the map looked like if we...
Computer! Zoom in on the reflection in that woman's eyes and... _enhance_ ....
One does not simply zoom into an eye to find out what a map looks like . . .
I think your comment just made Lindy wake up in a cold sweat.
Did Lindy kick down your door immediately after typing this?
@@thomasraahauge5231 but the eyes usually show the map to your heart :o
Quite chilling really, we came so close to losing in so many ways, it's beyond a miracle that we eventually won. Ordinary people doing incredible work....thanks Lindybeige.
This is a fine video about an important place that I was not aware of. I did not know that the Atlantic battle was controlled from Liverpool. Great job.
The London establishment has attempted to erase Liverpool from the earth. They rarely mention the word _Liverpool_ on the BBC. They always say, the Jaguar plant in _Merseyside,_ when it is now actually in the _Liverpool City Region._ HS2 (high-speed rail) track will be 16 miles away from the city, but they will not run in HS2 into a City Region of over 2 million, having to access HS2 40 miles away at Crewe, while nearby Manchester will have a 7.5 mile HS2 tunnel run into the city.
They *hate* the city.
The role of the city of Liverpool in WW2 is vastly understated. It was the prime convoy port, with a convoy to the Americas, Middle East, Far East, etc, entering or leaving at one per day. A million American troops passed through the port. It was a centre of essential ship repair for the merchant fleets and allied naval fleets as well. Even Mustang planes were built there to together Napier engines used in the Tempest and Typhoon planes. The anti U-Boat corvettes were stationed there, with Johnny Walker the man who could smell a U-Boat from a few miles away.
18:49 I can only assume that in the darkness, after that light went off, Lindy put his thumb up.
I think it rather fitting that something so monumentally important seems so inconspicuous in appearance. People are always looking for big battles and important generals as the crucial factors for winning wars but more often than not it's the seemingly small but vital bits of strategy and logistics that truly win the day. The other most crucial thing in helping to win the war was the secret location of Churchill's stash of fine brandy without which the war would have undoubtedly been lost.
Ronin Dave All big things are, is a collection of small things. Big things that work well are a collection of small things that work well.
they now reveal the most vital battle of the war was for the island of malta if germany had captured it it woud have meant they had an aircraft carrier in the med. would have meant conquest of north africa the suez canal and persias oil would have fell to germany turkey would have entered the war on hitlers side and a second front would have invaded russia due to the ability to supply through malta
"And one day! One day I want to be rich enough so that I can have a wargaming table and lots of women in tight fitting RAF uniforms with croupier sticks..."
Don't we all.
I could settle with just a handful of women wearing tight fitting RAF uniforms :-D
I don't know I kinda feel that the croupier sticks are integral.. ;)
Toby-Wan: well, some croupier sticks too, then . . . And let the young women wear 1½ inch heels. Enough to emphasize their posteriors, but not enough to make them look silly or impractical.
In fact, forget the wargaming table.
18:20 30-40% Of Russian heavy and medium tanks at the battle of Moscow were British made lend-lease.
Literally for like 1 month in the end of 1941... Some 25 % of the medium and heavy tanks in 1941 but much less after that. By the end of the war 8 % of the total tanks in the USSR were sent by the british/americans
@@WTF2BlueTiger it was a month that mattered quite a lot; I also like to remind viewers that the most numerous Soviet tank for a long time (till after Kursk I think) was the T-26, which got a big leg up from it's stepfather, the Vickers Six Ton tank
@@WTF2BlueTigerthat last month of 1941 was probably the most important and perilous month in Russia’s entire history lmao
this would make a neat strategy video game, managing war efforts from a control booth and the like, thanks for the video Lindy
WWII was a team effort, hence the name. Nor Soviets, nor Americans, nor the British won the war on their own, everyone had their part to do, and they did it. Can't we just be happy that we won, and that now we can watch Lindy's videos?
And here's a little joke:
How to tell you're a soviet soldier?
-> You're being shoot from both sides.
And here's another one:
How do you know the situation is terrible?
-> The Commissar starts shooting at the enemy.
Okay, one more:
When a clock goes forward it goes 'tic-tac', but when Rommel goes backwards, it's tactic
I'll show myself out.
B. Rubbish Don't, that was hilarious..
"WWII was a team effort, hence the name. Nor Soviets…" - followed by two jokes playing into cold war era western propaganda about RKKA. Why am I not surprised?
+Alexander Kerensky
in his speech in 1931 Stalin said that USSR has to start preparing for the war. Since 1933 he was warning the world about Hitler. In 1939 he tried to make an anti-Hitler alliance with Paris and London. In 1941 he received a dozen warnings about Barbarossa starting within a few days every week. Seeing how Germany declared war on Russia in 1914 when Nikolai started mobilisation, Stalin was reluctant to mobilise and move troops to the border, as time was on the Soviet side as it was preparing for the war with Germany (in 1939-1941 RKKA increased 7-fold, huge fortification works were done, all iconic WW2 weapons like T-34 and KV-1, IL-2, PPsH-41 etc were developed and adopted by the army). Two weeks before Germany invaded Stalin declared mobilisation, but Soviet troops didn't all make to the border in time - it was spread into 3 echelons moving towards the border on 22nd June.
That's a response to your ridiculous statement about Stalin not believing in German invasion. I'm not sure I want to read further and see what other ridiculous stuff you wrote there.
The Soviet’s knew how to combat blitzkrieg, unlike France, if they would have protected the border it would have been overrun just like France, they knew exactly what they we’re doing when they let the nazis overextend
The hammer in the west smashing towards the anvil of the east.
@11:45 and following you will see the size of Iceland dramatically reduce from its WW2 area to the area shown in the 1990s reproduction. The RN and RAF used a cylindrical map projection (Mercator) for very sound reasons. The 1990s reproducers, in their naivety, used an equal area (Gall-Peters) projection. Cylindrical map projections make land masses close to the Poles look larger than they proportionally are, but they make navigation a doddle. RN /RAF got it right: the set designers were wrong.
I doubt they used Gal-Peters. Looks like Equirectangular (cylindrical) where the original was Mercator (cylindrical). Can't say the original choice was more appropriate, as Mercator is of no help in cross atlantic navigation.
Nevertheless, only a cylindrical projection would work if you are using straight strands of wool for equal angles of latitude and longitude. I still maintain (using a ruler to measure from my screen!) that the later chart is an equal area projection. I may be wrong, but I do hope the restorers use an authentic chart. BR PE.
Truly a great video Lindy! Absolutely nailed it!
Thank you for your wonderful content
16:44 - Presumably they were searching for a missing sergeant.
HAHA nice
That is a wonderfully artful, profoundly british-style joke... in a UA-cam comments section. Well done sir!
That was a fine one lad, carry on, do another!
Really cool video, Lloyd. Thanks for all you do.
Perhaps one of the reason they wanted such young women was because they didnt want mothers with families and husbands/boyfriends they would miss in times where they had to stay down there for long periods of time. I think that were perhaps the mentality at the time, though one shouldnt dismiss that there was a bit of "old dirty man" syndrome out and about.
I must admit that I don't buy the "dirty old man" thing. Women back then were usually nest builders from roughly the age of 21, and the Admiralty and RAF High Command needed staff members that were completely devoted and un-distracted for an operation of this importance.
I think the theory behind not wanting mothers is probably pretty solid.
Orr they wanted moral to be high
HOWEVER, If you are willing to accept older women, then all you have to do is to ASK for women in the military of any age (but again, already IN the military) who do not have children and who are not married; you might find plenty of volunteers.
In addition, unmarried women, preferably ones who still lived with their parents, were also considered less of a security risk(!) than married ones, who were assumed to tell their husbands everything they were up to (assuming those husbands weren't away fighting Jerry). This was a consideration for not only women who worked in command centers like this one, but also those involved in intelligence work (such as the members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry who worked for SOE).
Went here just two days ago, amazing they have really done the place up and is perfect for children as there is so much to interact with such as phones, dressing up cloths and even a tip writer. It really get the kid involved and you even go round with an old fashioned style ID card that you can get stamped and a top secret letter that helps reveal clues around the bunker. A bit off topic but also a great location as it’s just a little walk from Liverpool one witch is perfect for the locals. Anyway overall great time definitely worth going even have old style shops towards back off building. Check it out!!!
A fellow vintage switch fan, I see. A few years ago my dad took me to a Radio Shack, I was about 14 at the time (I'm 16 now). There was a drawer in the back filled to the brim with switches of every kind, ESPECIALLY the nice, crisp switches you see on the old equipment in the bunker. Being 14 years old, I had never experienced the switches of the olden days, and I spent pretty much the entire time there flipping them all.
Ryan Casey A favourite pastime of my children when young at B&Q was switching all the display switches in the electrical aisle. Obviously not as satisfying as vintage switches but you have to take your pleasures where you can get them.
Have you got an old fashioned mechanical 1980's computer keyboard like me? They still make them and are really worth it. "Buckling Springs" for the true experience although there are other variants.
That big easternmost island on the Canada side of the map is Newfoundland. St. John's harbour was a major staging area for antisubmarine warfare ships. Many merchant marine survivors also came through that port.
Let also not forget when the Germans and Russian were allies, Starlin was supplying Hitler with oil in the hopes that Britain would be defeated..
I didn't do much on strowger, but at 15:37 it looks like perhaps a junction relay set tester.
Hey Lindy.
Would you be interested in debunking WW2 myths?
Thank you.
222 111 I don’t understand what you meant to say.
Oh no. I just wanted to have a civil discussion and it turned into this.
Always.
There are too many for a 1h video...
My favorite: People imagine the German with motorised infantry, MP40s and their cat-tanks, yet most looked far more like the prior century...
Lindybeige Thank you for replying, Lindy.
Always great when we get a new video from Lindy. Question for you, O wearer of all things beige, have you been to Dover and the tunnels under the castle where Vice Admiral Ramsey planed Operation Dynamo? It is a fascinating place, with an added bonus of the Napoleonic forts on the other side of town overlooking the strait. If you're ever in the area, I'd love to show you around the sites.
10:52 Just a theory, but maybe they wanted women so young to serve under the FL because the FL was (or at least looked to be) a fairly young woman herself, and an age gap is useful for setting up hierarchies.
Absolutely brilliant. Hope the museum gets the assistance it needs.
lloyd invented a new word. ''Perhassibly''
It would be very irrannoying if no one came up with new words now and then. It would be catasasterous.
I think not. halo.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=42120372&postRepeater1-p=1#42120716
don't ruin it
Don't let something as "facts" or "how it actually happened" ruin a good story! This applies to the tabloid press as well :-D
Lindy, I hope you are going to the maritime museum, there are some awesome scale models of Cammell Laird ship the RMS Lusitania exhibition and the HMS Prince of Wales Bell, though not sure if it will transferred to the new HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier. Excellent place to visit.
11:48 Looks like Iceland has gotten significantly smaller over the years, Lindy.😉
Paint mites.
Looks like the lines were bigger too. maybe it was just the perspective, like with a dolly zoom.
Lindybeige I see... A tragic loss... At least it wasn't the original wall that suffered this calamity.😉
well its ICEland, and we all know that global warming melts the ICEland
I did nazi that coming
6:30 Not sure if it's been pointed out in other comments, but she was WAAF, Aircraftwoman 1st Class Patricia Elizabeth Lane (2004740) of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
People fighting a war often die in dumb ways. At least she didn't throw the pin away and keep the grenade.
8:00 Lindybeige's PowerBall fantasy is even better than mine.
You deserve more subscribers lindybeige. I love every video you make. Extremely informative and very enjoyable to watch. Keep it up.
Have you taken a look at post scriptum Lloyd? It's a game based on operation market garden seems right around your corner
I seen a bit of this place before this rework of the interior when watching Jeremy Clarkson's documentary of the arctic convoy PQ17. It was pretty neat, massive tables with model ships to keep a visual track of where your forces were.
And the merchant marines died, largely, in anonymity here in canada
Sadly it's kind've the same deal down here in the States. We do have monuments and such, but there's little given on them in our history classes if at all.
I remember that when we learned about the massive US (and Canadian I guess?) supplies to the Russians at school I was really surprised this is pretty much never talked about or depicted anywhere. I suppose the reason is the Cold war. The Soviets downplayed the role of the west in their "Patriotic war", even though they could have quite possibly lost without the steel, oil and other resources from the US with which the Russians could build and fuel all those tanks so quickly, and the west downplayed the role of the Soviets without whom the Germans would have won quite surely as most of continental Europe either capitulated without a fight (Czechoslovakia), outright joined the Nazis (Italy, Hungary, Norway) or failed spectacularly (France) and the Germans could depend on the production of all of those countries, particularly when they paired it up with forced labour (not just in the concentration camps). And so this direct cooperation largely disappeared from the public image of the war.
Canada kept the Brits alive when they were "fighting the war alone" (what rubbish) in those early years of the conflict. Canada, along with the other areas with various British-alignment. People say that the British Empire fought alone, but it was an Empire - they're designed to fight alone.
I'd have to agree with that entirely if only because it occurs to me how little I've thought of them.
My dad served on HMS Starling and after the war he worked in Exchange buildings. He was shown around the dilapidated HQ by a friendly security guard in the '70s and when the museum opened in the 1990's we were invited to the opening.
What's with this 3 switch pattern with a thumbs up? 15:25-15:35 Must dust off my Enigma I and start decoding!
I was in Western Approaches today and me and my Mrs were discussing what might have happened to Patricia Lane and came to the conclusion she fell from the ladder. RIP. Great place to visit by the way. A lot more has been done since this video.
Well, I'm a bit of an ameteur electrician (very ameteur) and we do have switches like that now. It's just that we have new switches that are cheaper. Using cheaper components will actually bring the price down quite a bit but I agree. Stuff back then was built to last. Great stuff.
'Stuff back then was built to last.' - and it was repairable so you didn't have to throw the whole bloomin' contraption away if the switch packed in and you couldn't get a replacement ;-)
OrkStuff: Capitalism at it's finest: maximize profit.
Ye, I have worked on old computers. Clean away the dust, fix the broken part and/or replace it, boot it up. Bam working machine. New computers are a fair bit more fiddly, less room to work with, you tend to have to take the entire thing apart to replace one small piece. Even worse in laptops. Also, laptops even these past five years seem to have gotten really flimsey. £350 once bought a fairly slow laptop that just worked. £350 just a few years ago got me a machine that fell to bits within weeks. Good build quality has gotten pricier in recent years, and even then you can expect it to break down in a few years. My first machine lasted ten years, this one is two years old and already it has two broken LEDs and a dodgy fan and the harddrive is on the blink. (Paid £500 for this one, I'm running it until it dies, I have backups, but it annoys me because throwing electronics away all the time seems like such a darn waste!)
Now then Paul, your mission is to save all of us old switch lovers and locate the best place to buy them... I love the solid feeling of those old switches.
Lol, well, here's a few places. ua-cam.com/video/jEwEhhhVuw0/v-deo.html Just Google electronic components and buy some switches. But you'll sure pay for the nice big satisfying switches. Maybe the best thing to do might be to find some old devices like in the video and unsoldier the switches. Then you should be able to soldier them back into pretty much anything you want. A two way switch should be compatible with any two way circuit theoretically but don't quote me on that. Ask someone who actually knows what they're talking about, lol.
Excellent video Lindy, and what a fantastic opportunity. Thank you for sharing.
Things is: Even if the Soviet Union could have beaten Gemany without D-Day (which I don't doubt), the Americans and British getting onto the continent stopped them from puppeting all of Europe instead of only half of it. No doubt this was an important place.
Q: the Soviet Union could have beaten Gemany...
A: Muscovy would never survive without Lend-Lease and the North African campaign, not speaking of beating Germany. But the Normandy landings have started when Germany already lost Ukraine and Belarus, meaning when Muscovy already won its own war.
Thanx for the tour, I'd love to see more videos like this. I'll never get to the UK or Europe (bad health) so battlefield tours and the like would be an absolute treasure for folks like me. Thank you Lindy.
I'm a simple man, if i see Lindybeige has uploaded a new video, i click.
Fantastic insight into a (understatement) "Critical Time in our history".
Thank you so much for this short tour of a forgotten critical piece of British history that is so easily overlooked and surpassed by the more glamorous combat units.
Well Done Sir!
At the end of each episode of the American version of the show The Office I shout "Lindybeige!". It confuses my family.
Queen Syko I want to get it but I don't.
I am curious. Why.
What a great idea! I will have to start shouting "Lindybeige!" at appropriate or inappropriate moments.
The trumpet at the end of each sound similar
Queen Syko Confusing your family: a noble and worthy goal indeed.
I have been to this museum. It was fascinating . I highly recommend a visit.
You were in Liverpool? If only I knew!
Tom Stafford him and the Queen herself a day before ! Quite unfortunate to miss such an opportunities 😕
I was thinking the same... I’d have loved to meet Lloyd
Lindie > Queen
12:26 We do, Lloyd, we do. Sadly relegated only to tube amps and other niche applications, but the itch for that 'click' that rivals a 'kerchunk' may still be scratched, for a price.
Speaking of wargaming, could you maybe do some more videos on Crossfire? A video of a full game, especially with your lovely narration style would be amazing!
MaximusAquilus omfg!!! Yessss!!
Visited this week and it is a very interesting place indeed. I think the WATU board game section could do with a bigger home, and maybe a rule book so visitors can have a crack themselves!
So, just after you mention someone dying from a ladder fall, you climb a ladder? Good timing.:) Great video. Cheers.
@Lindybeige, I'm a retired C-130 flight engineer. The Herkybird was designed in the early 50s with lots of WW2 level tech, and my systems panel had lots and lots of extremely tactile and satisfying knobs, buttons, and switches. I miss my old job.
Those are some satisfying switches.
-16:40 Notice shadows of light fixtures on upper right of map board.
I sincerely hope you get rich so you could afford to indulge in your desire to build a gaming war room table staffed with female assistants in tight-fitting sexy uniforms. A worthy goal for a wealthy aging gentleman.
Dr. Harmonica
That's a worthy to goal for a man of any age, I think!
Quite true. I would wish the same for me. I am an aging gentleman but unfortunately, I am not wealthy. Maybe I should just get my wife to dress up in a tight fitting sexy uniform and be happy with that.
I'll be satisfied with the table. The wife also games...
I am starting to age, I am not a gentleman, and certainly not wealthy. I would, however, love to have a war room table the size of a small country :-D
I'd settle for a country the size of a small table.
Lindy is better than most high production documentaries.
Perhaps they wanted young girls due to young people being better at learning new skills quickly? Older girls would have been more likely to have developed other skills useful for the war effort. Just a theory.
They wanted very young girls. Perhaps, being British, while they still had some teeth.
Younger minds are better with quick calculations. That and they would presumably have less responsibilities such as older parents or children to care for.
Ryan Hellyer
Back then at age 20-24 women already got very serious about starting a new family. To avoid such complications they hired girls way under 20 because they'd have a few extra years before they'd freak out.
That's my theory.
Perhaps people going on about the old adage about the British having bad teeth should go look at some actual dental hygeine ratings...
Hint, Britain is up the top.... White teeth are not necessarily healthy teeth, in fact the natural colour of teeth is an off white, similar to ivory, because you know, they are the same....
But its fine if you all want to bleach the hell out of your teeth and remove a fair proportion of the enamel that protects them... your decision, have fun with your fillings.
I was thinking about the energy level of a young person, versus an older person.
14:30 RE: Secret message
_"Please pass to the _*_COMMODER?_*_ of Convoy" ?_
A 'Commoder' presumably being a typo of 'Commodore' _and not 'the one who commodes'._
Was that MSG kept because of the (unintentional?) 'comedy typo' ?
Perhaps the COMMODER was busy doing some 'passing' of his own.
When I can scramble enough money together, I will visit GB and make a museums tour all over the country. History is so interesting.
... And I need to play tank paint ball 🤣
Be sure to have your wife ( or yourself) bring a "burka". And no butter knives.
Charles Wood ok, the butter knives reference I get, but what is up with burkas? (Propably gonna facepalm for obvious reference I didn't catch xD)
Before long she's will need them in GB---
Bringing that up from a comment this innocuous is the sign of a mentally ill man.
Bücherdrache it’s just a comment by someone with the delusion that the U.K. is becoming an Islamic country. Perhaps they should look at relevant statistics to educate themselves.
I completely agree on the satisfaction of these old switches. My gran had an old organ with switches like that. Lots of fun flipping those switches and not so much actually playing the organ itself lol
18:50 What if Annie Oakley had accidentally shot Kaiser Wilhelm? Well, that's one hell of a What If scenario.
Beriorn, She never "accidentally " shot anything!
Alas, the Germans would have crowned a new Kaiser - for better or worse, who knows?
There is no distribution of probabilities that allows her to never miss.
So-called butterfly effect... so many divergencies could have happened.. or some could still remain the same.
'Merica!
I visited this place in late 2021 and it’s very different and magnificent now. You should return and update this good film.
15:00 A German u-boat engine was used to power the anti-u-boat operations room! Typical British. Those technicians must've gotten some kick out of that.
I really enjoyed seeing those blueprints. I have seen a few that are older in person, but they're for somewhat boring industrial applications. Those blueprints are absolutely wizard!
Age requirement was perhaps to make it much harder for Germany to find a spy who could do the job.
Excellent video Lloyd, thank you
I don't wish to cast aspersions, but lots of Wrens, under twenty-one, in skirts, nipping up ladders - and no anti up-skirting legislation...
Settle down lomax.
One would like to think so - but these were men who were deprived even of sunlight for weeks on end....
Well. Regarding the morale of everyone buried there, I think it was a pretty wise choice. At least they were 18+
Only if by "everyone" you mean just the men who were engaging in sexual harassment.
I believe it's very important that these great men and women had a... release. And nothing raises moral like a hot 20 year old (I can say that and it's not creepy cause I'm 21)
Canada's biggest fight of World War 2, the Battle of the Atlantic in which over 400 ships, corvettes, frigates, and destroyers fought and won saving Britain's bacon. The Royal Navy and USN were most certainly significant in the fight but given so much of the logistics feeding and supply Britain was being produced and manufactured in Canada, it was Canada's biggest contribution to the war (despite sending most of its 725 000 personnel in the Army to fight in Europe as well.)
Sue Lawley or Celia Johnson?
No contest.
Fantastic video. I really enjoyed learning that little bit of British history, I had never heard about.
Hmm.. your videos always meaningful
If anybody is curious, the Morse Code at the beginning is a recording of a ham radio operator with the callsign F5LPY calling "CQ", meaning they are calling any station that wants to talk. Guessing @Lindybeige either recorded some ham radio traffic on the world bands, or found a sound clip online.
3:56 You needed permission to invent stuff back then?
We can only assume he asked his superiors for resources to work with and they told him not to waste his time with such nonsense, but he went ahead and bootstrapped it on his own.
When you are working for an employer, and you use company time, yes.
About 50 years ago I worked in Derby House, as far as I can remember we did not know at that time that the command centre was there.
Apparently when the war was over, the staff there just dispersed. The place was locked up
cool.
The War was won from the Fields, and the streets,and the Seas and the Air,it was won in Hills and in the Valleys,and the Forests and the plains...We Never surrendered.....Lights Cigar and sits back and smiles....
Hey lindy you should do a video about the drug use during ww2 amphetamine and benzodiazepines
Hey, you should talk more about the role of the enigma machine, and the finding of a method to read the encripted messages in clear
When are the BBC going to give you a job!? come on auntie!
Jethro Gibbs Our favourite bearded Brit may very well be the host of a project covering the entirety of WWII.
Donate today!
Never going to happen unfortunately. If Lindy was a one-legged, black lesbian in a hijab the Beeb would be all over him like a rash in a brothel.
Very nice video! Was not aware of this important facility.
ducts
Ring Central Services. Remember to fill in a 27B/6.
Ducks
Fantastic documentary!
maybe the woman had to be younger then 21 because then they would still have been single and not worrying about an oversees lover fighting for their country? Or not maybe wanting children? In those days a woman being married or getting children had to resign the work she was doing, and devote her life to husband and children.
Nice theory, but does not take into consideration girls who married young. If marriage was the great disqualifier, than the requirement would have been for single unmarried women instead of specifying an age limit. As for taking care of the husband, Britain was at war and all able bodied men would have been in the military and not returning home at 5pm to be taken care of by their wife.
As always Lindy, you make a terribly entertaining video, thank you
Can you talk about Catalonia please?
Very dull national dance. Got my worst ever sunburn there. But hey - cava!
Great band. Road Rage and Mulder and Scully were great songs.
Leave the Catalonia
At 15:30 you had me properly chuckling as you verified the clickiness of those switches.
Obviously, this is a misrepresentation of women's role during WW2. They were actually fighting on the battlefield with prosthetic limbs.
Truly this kind of historical revisionism obscures and devalues the real contributions made by women in the war.
Ragamuffyn there was at least one American woman with a prosthetic leg who fought in the war.
10/10 best comment
Oliver Eddy: Also, many Russian women fought in front-line combat units.
Agreed when will these cis old men tell the truth that WW2 was won by lesbian disabled body painters with cyborg limbs
About your best vid yet. Looking forward to more like this.
Ooh, the Lindybeige startling the ruski superiority boys and all the "russia could have won WWII by itself" believers.
The sound of those switches actually sent a little thrill down my spine.