A new offensive into the USSR likely means more occupied territory. The Axis have a brutal track record so far in terms of treating civilians in occupied territory, and you can learn more about that in our War Against Humanity subseries. Episodes come out twice a month and the playlist is right here: ua-cam.com/play/PLsIk0qF0R1j4cwI-ZuDoBLxVEV3egWKoM.html
@@nedkelly4825 I enjoy Tik also. But it is not an accurate comparison. This channel covers the entirety of WWII and all battles and all fronts European and Asian. Tik is covering one front and only one battle and spending months doing it while this channel has to update weekly.
Probably Mussolini isn't the best example for optimism! Almost all of his aspirations were destroyed pretty easily by his enemies and then he was hanged by his compatriots upside down! His optimism is the perfect example of limitless stupidity and arrogance
Many Italians under Rommels command fought extrordinary well. "The German soldier impressed the world. The Italian soldier impressed the German soldier." - Erwin Rommel You have to keep in mind that the huge problems with the Italian military in WW2 were not with the training or fighting will of the Italian soldiers, but with the equipment, armor, leadership, suplies and ressources of the italian army.
Yeah, italian leadership had already warned mussolini before the war that they would not be ready for war before 1942/43, but he wanted to jump at the opportunity to ride on German victories. Ironically, he would have probably profited a lot by simply waiting and maybe joining the allies or staying neutral, but hindsight is 20/20
The awful Italian leadership is probably why the Italian special forces were so good during the war. If you were a good junior officer or enlisted man you were probably disgusted by the incompetence of leadership. So when you got the chance you joined a special unit.
I didn't know about Mussolini at Libya, waiting for the British's defeat so that he can have the glory of entering Egypt in a triumphant procession. This guy's ego is on another level. He reminds me of that guy in your group project who didn't do anything in the team assignment, but shows up at the last moment just to put his name in the assignment.
"It doesn't matter who did what, as long as YOU are there to snatch up the glory in the victory celebrations" Hmmm, I wonder how many other (Italian and non-Italian) "stronk" leaders have stuck to that rule 👀🤔 (#M........, #T...., #S....., #B........, #Ch.......)
Italian forces too part in the battle of Gazala and performed quite well given the limited equipment they had. Of course, the fighting capability of an Italian division, either infantry or armoured, cannot match its German counterparts.
@@GiulioBalestrier Could they REALLY not match their German counterparts? What if you'd equipped an Italian division EXACTLY like a German one? Wouldn't they be pretty darn close? (assuming, of course, similar amounts of training etc)
"Counting the chickens before they hatch" it is not an Italian expression: never heard. We say "selling the skin of the bear, before killing him". Glad to help, Lorenzo
Lorenzo - it's "counting the chickens before they hatch"... canning them would take it a magnitude greater... - I love the "selling the skin of the bear" saying
@@ace1776 Look up Papilion, the Bear Escape Genius www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/05/papillon-the-bear-how-the-escape-genius-sparked-a-national-debate-in-italy-aoe The Marzipan brown bear(Ursus arctos arctos) has been protected by law since 1923. They are on the brink of extinctions, there being only about 50 in Italy today and about 100 in the 1980s.
I feel like Stalin fits the Patrick Star meme. "Comrade Joseph this is documentation showing the Germans will attack" -Yup "And our allied intelligence tells us the Germans are about to launch a massive offensive" -Makes sense to me "So then we must prepare our defenses" -Nothing will happen, off to the gulag with you
True but to be fair back in those times informational feints were common(like Operation Mincemeat) and Stalin was stuck between thinking the Germans will press on Moscow(which WAS the primary objective) and actually moving a huge amount of resources and troops to do a risky maneuver of extending the frontline dangerously. Stalin went for the most sensible option, thinking Moscow was the real objective. In retrospect Moscow also held 40% of the soviet armament industry and was the very central nexus of railway networks. He thought the Germans knew this, but the Germans did not, their informations of USSR industry was scarce. Fall Blau was a very bold operation, and judging just by its outcome and ignoring the element of hindsight, bold to the point of stupidity.
@@andreikovacs3476 many claim if they take Moscow the Germans wouldn’t of won (in 41) but they don’t count the industry, supplies, railroads and roads which are vital. Yes they could just relocate but they’d have to shift and build more track, road, industry to take Moscow’s spot and clearing the city would be a bloodshed and if the Germans do take it they can completely renovate the line from Berlin to Moscow and army group centre would suffer minimal shortages and could give supply to north and south. Looking to where the soviets where going to relocate the government (in Tyumen) it would of been bottlenecked
Soviet soldiers getting orders to withdraw to avoid encirclement???? Everyone who has watched the eastern front since day one on this channel: *surprised pikachu face*
They were getting better at evading pincers - the other side of the initial light resistance. A German soldier wrote in his diary in the summer of 1942 that the fighting was more like Poland in 1939 than like last year, when there were huge numbers of Red Army troops, many resisting bitterly. The diarist did not however survive the later development of the campaign.
@@somerandomperson2768 Actually, the Krauts had a war-long reputation of STEALING equipment from their Axis allies... right off the flat-cars. This tic is why the Hungarians and Italians had no PAK when the Reds attacked during Uranus. Both guns and shells had been looted all along. Further, the Krauts couldn't even truck their OWN stuff up to the front line. So they just left Axis-allied gear back at the rail-heads. Cute. Horse transport entirely broke down during Case Blue, BTW. The distances were so great, the fodder/ steppe dried up -- and water became critical. Away from the rivers, there was virtually no water to be had, the Reds had salted most every well to be found. Horses drink like a horse.
The thing that made El Alamein a much more defensible position than others in the desert so far is the Quattara Depression to the south, a vast region of soft sand not very suited to the movements of tanks and large bodies of troops. This prevented Rommel from just outflanking the British positions again and forced him into frontal assaults which didn’t suit his outnumbered army.
Hitler: Hey Ben, how was your parade in Cairo? Mussolini: It didn't go through. Hitler: Really? I'm just starting another succesful attack in the east. Did yours not succeed? Mussolini: No. Hitler: Well, you've got Ethiopia back by now, right? Mussolini: ...No. Hitler: Has Malta fallen yet? Mussolini: No, it hasn't. Hitler: Maybe you can organize something in Greece? Oh wait, no. I think somebody else conquered that. Who was that again? Mussolini: F*** you!
I think they've been mentioned before at some point. Today, however, is the first time they are mentioned in the same episode alongside Guadalcanal. I'm sure none of those places will be relevant any time soon though, not at all..
After the whipping that the IJN suffered at Midway, I wouldn't worry too much about them at Guadalcanal if I were Nimitz. All they have left is a bunch of surface ships at this point. How much damage can they do?
@@pedrolopez8057 that is why the Battle Of Savo Island took place in the night. Along with most naval actions in the Guadalcanal Campaign. In response to @Peter Anderson the Japanese still had enemy carriers which would be used and some lost during the same campaign however not only that but the Japanese have the Type 93 longlance which the US still denied as existing as well as the air base at Rabaul which still gave air support to the Japanese. Who knows maybe in the following months the US may lose some ships or some aircraft carriers *wink*
It really brings home the scale of the conflict when you see Uss Washington patrolling the North Sea in early July and realize she’ll be heavily engaged off Guadalcanal in the South Pacific before the end of the summer.
Well, I can’t imagine the production team read all the comments but I just wanted to say once again how much I enjoy the show. Great content ! Nice work everyone.
@@kaltaron1284 It doesn't seem so. He will probably capture Stalingrad very soon and cut the soviets from the South. I don't think they will face much of a resistance
@@baldpdeng2035 Ooh, nice. Can't wait for that oil from Baku, should make the panzers and the new (super-)heavies even more viable and keep the air force running.
This week, on June 27 1942, the German non-violent resistance group *White Rose* , led by a group of students from the University of Munich (including Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell) will first begin its anti-Nazi activities in the city of Munich. They will use an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign to call for active resistance against the Nazi regime. With the current state of the war mostly going well for the Nazis so far, this might well be very difficult however.
They might as well have been violent as non-violent resistance to a fascist regime is a non-starter, brave as they undoubtedly were. In a different but not entirely unrelated context, George Orwell asked, "Where is the Korean Gandhi?" A rhetorical question - there was none. The Japanese Empire allowed no room for peaceful protest against Japanese rule.
The Italian version of "don't count your chickens before they hatch" is "non dire gatto finché non ce l'hai nel sacco", which translates to "don't say cat until you've caught it"
13:39 With the Japanese constructing an airfield at Guadalcanal, the hype and buildup to Guadalcanal is beginning to build up. Sooner or later, the Allies will land there to stop them. Maybe it is time to start watching the first few episodes of The Pacific, along with The Thin Red Line soon...
Most of the thin red line happens on December. A nice movie about the buildup and the interservice competition is "on harm's way". I'll eventually post both on my movie recomendations posts (as well as the pacific episodes of course)
The first two episodes of The Pacific & then The Thin Red Line would be the way to go if you wanted to stick to a chronological order. The Pacific covers the initial landings, the stranding of the Marines following the naval defeat at Savo Island, the Battle of the Tenaru & the defense of Henderson field. The beginning of the battle, basically. The Thin Red Line in contrast is set near the battle's end, roughly January of 1943, after the 1st Marine Division (the unit featured in The Pacific) had been relieved by the US Army and was sent to Australia to rest, refit, and prepare for future operations. The Thin Red Line portrays the 25th Infantry Division and was loosely inspired by the author's experiences in the Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse.
Also if anyone is interested in documentaries... There was a very good (and often moving) one made by National Geographic in the early 90s, that can now be found on youtube. It's called The Lost Fleet of Guadalcanal. As the title suggests it was about Robert Ballard's search for ships that had been sunk in the battle, but the documentary also covers the events of the battle in detail for context and has interviews with veterans including Japanese ace Saburo Sakai and the British coastwatcher Martin Clemens. The intro at roughly 2:20 into the documentary in particular is moving & has stuck with me 30 some years after it first aired.
If I had a nickel for everytime stalin was suprised about the German invasion, I would have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot but it is weird that it happened twice.
I've seen worse for infographics, it is at least the right ship (Victorious did receive such modernizations) I have seen Skate (SSN-578) used in place of Skate (SS-305).
@@artemisfowl7191 infographics has no clue what they are doing. Lame poor maps, using historically inaccurate maps also most of it seems to be incredibly American bias
@@brissydiggin5209 No that was the... umm... Megaprojects? you know that guy with the beard? that guy, his channel, infographics is probably worse though.
@@artemisfowl7191 for US bias I’m mainly talking about one of the video’s infographics made. Think it was USA VS the world. They spent the video saying how the US is awesome and would defeat the entire world (in a war with no nuclear weapons) totally BS propaganda
@@mikepette4422 Mostly because Admiral King didn't set up a convoy system along the East Coast of the US and in the Caribbean, and is only now realizing they need it.
I've always wonder how many Merchant Marines died every time I hear of this months tonnage sunk... the convoys couldn't stop to pick up survivors or they would be sitting ducks.
British Merchant Navy, 32,000 merchant seafarers were killed aboard convoy vessels in the war, this was on 2,828 ships. The British Merchant Navy suffered a higher percentage death rate than the Royal Navy. The Royal Airforce or the British Army. For most of the war when a ship was sunk the man was off wages. dead, alive or POW .
One nice thing about this war over the Great War is that we get actual film of it in color and sound, Color film at this time was something still pretty new having only been invented a few years before. There was a lot of technological improvements and inventions during the interwar years.
Actually coloured films started to show up around the turn of the century (19th to 20th) and there were usable techniques available before the first world war. They just were expensive and not very widespread so yeah, the amount of available footage increased quite a bit. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_motion_picture_film en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technicolor
@@kaltaron1284 That was mostly done by hand on individual frames very time consuming and labor intensive. Kodak though in 1936 invented their Kodachrome process which was really the first successful mass use of color. One of the first all color films was Errol Flynn in Robin Hood in 1938. A true color movie film that did not require hand painting operations was a huge technological achievment.
The Soviets don't have "endless men." And they don't "basically" have endless men either. They just have more, but not endless. That's going to become a very important distinction in a few years.
@Fabian Kirchgessner I am not sure of that. The Soviets have lost a large portion of their population since those people cannot work for the USSR. They also have lost some of their resources but not their oil. It is not usually considered an advantage to have large portions of your country occupied.
@Fabian Kirchgessner Not even apparently. The loss of population and resources and the cost and effort of moving of factories and reconstructing them are very significant. The loss of food producing Ukraine is also a very hard blow.
@@caryblack5985 , the loss of population mitigated the loss of food production to some extent. They had successfully relocated their industries. They still had more than enough people to refill the ranks of the army and run all factories. And most important they still had all raw materials needed. And the USA provided the trucks needed for the logistics.
@@rudolfschrenk6171 The point I responded to was the comment that it was an advantage for the USSR to have part of it's territory occupied to be an advatage. It was not.
On the intro: I'm not Italian, but I can tell you the Dutch equivalent of counting one's chickens before they hatch: "You shouldn't sell the hide before you've shot the bear". Not that we've got any bears in The Netherlands, mind you. Outside of zoos, that is.
@@chrisdaniels3929 was gonna say that - the Romans are why Europe no longer has bears, lions, tigers, and for a while was almost out of wolves, wolverines, and everything else cable of killing a man.
@@willyreeves319 Well, many places in Europe still have bears and lynxes (to name another potentially dangerous animal), and AFAIK wolves got in trouble much later than the Roman Empire was around.
It's kind of shocking to realize that the Nazi would have a hard time having an infiltrator in the Soviet Union, that would be more effective in making things go well for them then Stalin himself.
I think you guys are skipping way too much of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War... Although Japanese brutalities were detailed, no battles were mentioned for weeks. The Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign has been going on since May, and it won't end until September.
Had the Japanese Army heeded the urging of Yamamoto and built airfields closer to Guadalcanal the battle might have taken a different turn. The long flight, over 600 miles, for the Japanese back to Rabaul almost guaranteed any pilot or plane receiving anything other than a superficial injury or damage was doomed to lose at sea.
Before the US captured Guadalcanal building an airfield between Rabaul and Guadalcanal was not considered necessary. Best to focus all resources on building up the airfield at Guadalcanal. After the field on Guadalcanal was lost they tried to build an airfield on Bougainville, but ran into problems because it was in range of US-bombers from Guadalcanal. See Drachinifels Drydock episode 151 for a longer explanantion.
@@gildor8866 I'll check it out. I will say my understanding was the Japanese started to see the benefit of a closer airfield came to late to matter. Thanx again.
How far were the US planes - especially bombers - flying at this point? About the same I think. The Japanese goal was to have the airfield ON Guadalcanal - to further threaten US shipping to Australia... And this base will be complete in no time... and the Allies have never launched a land campaign - or an amphibious landing.
@Fabian Kirchgessner His decision to cooperate with the Soviets and testify against defendants at Nuremberg gained him a reputation as a traitor. Also he lived in East Germany after the Soviets released him from custody.
Y'know, there's something I like about this way of presenting history and the facts. The thing is that conventional history is told in segregated parts, where things are taught in isolation. While this makes learning easier for a lot of people, the thing is that it reduces and underclass how interconnected and how much of history happens at the same time, on top of each other. This show and the Great War are good at doing both methods and explaining things as they happened, regardless of where. Anyways, sorry for the rant. Love the show.
15:20 in the background of the image we can see what I assume are the royal navy's Illustrious class carriers (of which there are currently 4) however in the overlaid photos to show the covering force HMS Victorious is shown with an angled flight deck, which was only added in the 1950s. It stands out somewhat. I do like the addition of ship classes to names when introducing the German ships, and I hope that is used more often for all navies in the future. Also can you add a scale back to the map please, especially when dealing with the USSR and North African theatres, since right now there aren't many obvious landmarks to latch on to. I assume that these are maps made by the team rather than Eastory now, and while they're very visually interesting and I like the visual effects and the addition of the lines and arrows to show proposed movements, I would also like if all the locations mentioned were added, again for scale (mostly for the discussion of positions around the 3:00 mark). I must say I've really been enjoying these episodes from the last month, where we have coverage of every theatre at once, now that they're all active. I get why there wasn't this balance before but now that it's here I'm really enjoying the presentation.
How those Soviet soldiers kept on fighting is incredible. Through these series I’ve gained so much respect for the GIs, Soldaten, Tommies, Soltilaat..... These people just kept going, even when faced with the harshest of conditions imaginable.
All that tonnage lost really makes you take into account how dire the situation is for the U.K to involve most of their Navy to protect that convoy from a couple U-Boats. Can't wait to hear what happens next week...
@@nedkelly4825 The largest U boat pens were in western France, especially Lorient, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, St Nazaire and Brest. They are very large and almost indestructible, so many still stand today. Bombing them, and assaulting them directly had some effect, but did not permanently knock them out. The change in tactics, new technology and (re-)cracking the now 4 rotor naval enigma machine (and auxiliary codebooks) helped.
I always liked how you put subtitles to every episode, it is great because i have a hard time with names of people and places. Not having subtitles in this one was sad :(
To answer the question at the beginning, the Italian expression would be “vendere la pelle dell’orso prima di averlo ucciso” “selling the bear’s skin before having killed him”
An interesting WW2 movie to watch around this week is "Битва за Севастополь (Battle for Sevastopol)" (2015) by Sergey Mokritskiy. The film centers around Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the he most successful female sniper in history, and depicts the Sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol (up to its fall this week), as well as her trip to the US later in the year. Period covered: 1937; 22 June 1941-4 July 1942; September 1942; 1956 Historical accuracy: 2/5 - Many details of her life have been changed IMDB grade: 7.1/10
I have to say, this series has really piqued my interest in the North Africa theatre of WW2. Every thing you guys cover is amazing but I really am specifically loving, and learning a lot more about that theatre.
TIK made a very interesting and detailed series of documentaries ranging from the Italian invasion of Egypt and up to and including Crusader (the one where Brits relieve Tobruk). It's really good, worth checking out. I think NA is my favourite theatre of war.
There is a 2004 Russian miniseries on the PQ-17, which is not bad visually but the author of the novel it is based on does treat historical events somewhat liberally. It also features a Soviet myth that a North Fleet sub successfully torpedoed the Tirpitz, no record of which exists in German sources.
You kinda misidentified some ships there, Lützow and Admiral Scheer are both the same ship class and you classified them as "battlecruiser" and "pocket battleship". While I prefer the denomination of heavy cruiser, the most appropriate of the two you mentioned would be "pocket battleship".
Like Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, they really didn't fit neatly into any of categories of warship then in existence. Sorta like the USS Guam and USS Alaska - were they very heavy cruisers, or light battlecruisers?
Guadalcanal was not the focus of the US offensive until the airfield construction was detected starting on July 5. Tulagi was the original target and it was important enough to be included in the final plan for the Guadalcanal operation.
The interesting thing, as Operation Case Blue begins, is that in terms of total manpower, the Axis as a coalition, actually has MORE troops to field than the Soviets do. For we must remember that the most populous areas of the Soviet Union was captured in 1941 and were still under Axis, and largely German occupation, and this included the vast grain fields of the Ukraine. This in turn created two problems for the Soviets. First is a massive food problem, in that with the most productive areas for agriculture under German occupation and large numbers of men being drawn into the Red Army, the Soviets cannot feed themselves and are thus on starvation rations and heavily dependent on what the Allies can deliver to them, and this may be hurt by what Stalin will share with the Soviet people. The second is that the Soviets do NOT have endless resources of men. If your most populous regions are under occupation, you cannot recruit troops there. And many of these would become available to the Red Army until 1944 when these regions were liberated... though at that time, they also ran into issues as by that point the war the Germans were also facing hunger issues and thus the liberated people might not be fit to serve. Thus in 1942 the Red Army is not as massive as it's often been depicted in a lot of media. And while the argument could be made that the Red Army had more divisions in the field in 1942 than the Axis, and this could be true... BUT it should also be noted that many of these units were likely under-strength, and for the moment, out of position. Though, ironically, the forces that were around Moscow will ultimately play a role in what happens in late 1942 because they weren't caught by the German attack. And even the Soviet efforts to save men that were facing the German 1942 offensive shows tactical improvements over 1941 and that they're looking to try and save men, not simply waste them in expecting the Germans to run out of bullets first. Which again shows that the Red Army was not sitting on this massive amount of reserves the Germans couldn't overcome... and that in 1942 they actually had the manpower advantage over the Red Army. The issues that ultimately hurt the Germans and the Axis in early 1942 were more economic and logistical than anything else. You can have a million men more than your enemy, but if you can only effectively supply half that number, that manpower advantage doesn't entirely work. There was also the bureaucratic problems that came from the likes of Halder and others managing the manpower that would be sent to the Eastern Front. For the Germans DID have the replacements and were largely sending them to the Eastern Front, but for much of 1942 they were also going to Army Group North and Army Group Center. The Army Groups committed to Case Blue weren't getting much in the way of replacements and thus continued to show the squandering of a manpower advantage the Germans had when the operation began.
Good post. The Soviet manpower advantage was largely exaggerated by German accounts in the postwar to excuse their own failures, and since the world was then in the midst of the Cold War, Soviet accounts didn't get out and the West accepted those German accounts at face value. The truth is that the Germans had a manpower advantage during most of Operation Barbarossa - which is not coincidentally when they also had the greatest success. At Moscow the odds had finally been evened to roughly 1:1 parity across the entire front...and the battle ending with a decisive Soviet victory. By the end of Stalingrad through to Operation Bagration the Soviets never possessed more than a 2:1 advantage across the entire front. The reality is that the Germans lost the war long before the Soviets could muster a truly significant manpower advantage and that even at Berlin it was not more than 4:1 to across the entire front which was not all that different from the advantage possessed by the Western Allies.
However, it should be noted that the Russians started with 15 million reservists. So, although their manpower pool is not bottomless, they still have a larger pool of partially trained soldiers to call on. It is these reservists who will helped turn the tide. And, in the occupied territories, these reservists will also help form the partisan bands that will wreak havoc on the already precarious German supply lines. I think the role these reservists played in the survival of the Soviet Union, particularly in 1941, has been overlooked by historians.
@@nicholasconder4703 - You can't call up reservists if the area they live in is occupied by the enemy, which much of the Soviet Union was in 1941. Now, many of them could join partisan bands, but many of these really didn't get going until AFTER the offensive toward Moscow in 1941 ended, giving the Soviets time to infiltrate men behind the lines to get in contact with known reservists... But this would still be a hit and miss game in 1941-1942 many of the people that the partisans struck first in this time period weren't the Germans but anyone that Stalin thought might not be loyal to Soviet Communism. Which then further limits things if the Soviets are killing themselves.
It appears the stars have aligned once more Indy, I am once again reading a book about WWII, this time Antony Beevor's Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, and am just into September, as you're releasing this. We shall which is faster, the T-34s of the page, or the Panzergrenadier of the screen! (Two years ago, as you were covering the fall of France and then later, Rommel's move to Africa, I was reading his autobiography, haha!)
I can't see any problems. They have escorts to counter any subs and another taskforce sitting out waiting for the Tirpitz in case she comes out to play...naah, it'll be fine.
Hearing about General Paulus is like listening to a Greek tragedy! Sort of like my love life! The Russians are hurt but still fighting which it will get worse before it gets better! Rommel and his troops might be able to take Al almane but let's just say one of the plagues of Africa will get them in the END so to speak! And know the turning point really begins in the Pacific! Two countries will lock horns until one breaks! Indy one little history note this is the first time in 87 year's that the fourth of July has been celebrated in Vicksburg sense the end of the Civil war! Just thought I'd throw that in there!
The Greek Tragedy is made even worse because he warned the OKH/OKW that they couldn't win, and the one strategy that might work (throw the bulk of the forces towards Leningrad and capture it, then turn east to take Moscow) was ignored. Not only that, but during the Stalingrad campaign his army gets starved of reinforcements. If you aren't doing so already, try watching TIK's ongoing "Battlestorm Stalingrad", By the way, he also does an extremely good job covering the Crusader offensive by the 8th Army.
They had to fight their way out. There is a world of difference between a retreat - particularly a fighting one, and a rout. The way it was described in the video more accurately reflected that it belonged to the former category.
Fun fact about the town of Fuka in Egypt, Long before WWI it was called Moder but was renamed by the British, whom, in a gesture of good faith combined both ancient and modern names. After WWII, when the British got out of Egypt the locals decided to drop the Moder-Fuka name and went back to their ancient name, Fuka.* *Wrong fact of course.
Make sure to mention us @WorldWar2 channel! It's the worst day in our history on the 30th of August 1942. Luxembourg is annexed into Germany. 😭😭😭😭😭 It's coming up. Then we did a strike to protest the conscription of our troops into the German army in September of 1942. Please mention Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG! You hear that Indy? Luxembourg, and not the "The Third Benelux country". Goodness that was painful.
@Fabian Kirchgessner We did fight well. But that was because we had guns to our backs. Most of us wanted to be liberated and to fight for the allies. And no I don't live in Luxembourg anymore. But I wish I did.
@Fabian Kirchgessner Wrong. It's not that I underestimate it. It's that it didn't happen. There were a tiny amount of people who sympathised with the Germans but the movements never got any traction. And secondly, just because I no longer live in my home country doesn't mean I am not a Luxembourger. I just moved away because my parents did.
@Fabian Kirchgessner Again, because they were forced too. Search up Luxembourgish general strike 1942. Germans asked us how we viewed ourselves. The vast majority responded "Luxembourger" angering the German occupiers. And so when they annexed us into Germany there were demonstrations as Luxembourgers were forcibly conscripted into the German army. You are right that more Luxembourgers died fighting for Germany. But that doesn't mean most didn't want to be liberated.
@Fabian Kirchgessner Again, you're wrong. It's not that I am triggered. I am just shocked at how arrogant and inaccurate you are. You clearly don't know much about Luxembourg. Please stop misrepresenting us.
@Fabian Kirchgessner I told you already. There was a small movement of Luxembourgers that wanted to fight for Germany. The vast majority were forcibly conscripted. Us Luxembourgers didn't want to become German. That's what I was saying.
Don't be silly. It will be the same as in Tobruk. The tank master wizard will fight them from an inferior position, overcoming his material disadvantage by exploiting their tactical mistakes, it will go back and forth a few times, and in the end he will catch them out in a particularly bad moment with decisive action while they squabble with each other.
I have to keep reminding myself that it won't be long until the Axis stop winning which I can at least look forward to, unlike people who actually lived it. Even then, still a very, very long way to go.
The Axis stop winning? How can you be so sure? Looks like Stalin won't learn from past mistakes, so who knows how far the Germans will roll on the open steppe...
Also Army Group South was no where near full strength as Fall Blau begun, stepping on to this offensive under strength might turn out to be a mistake, we'll see how it goes.
Basically it is just Army Group South on the march. Last year it was all three army groups. Next summer the crucial battle will be over a fairly small salient. The Axis ability to advance is already on the decline, although at the moment it does not look that way.
Soviets are running away from Southern Front they thought Germans would attack via Moscow ,Soviets have something like 5.6 milion manpower by July 1942, British are also on the run in Sahara - North Africa Front but managed to stop Rommel just at the gates of Nile delta and entire Egypt Rommel has little time since USA would land in operation Torch in November 1942 in North Africa...for 173 ships destroyed from U -Boats its great deal for the Germans huge losses for the Anglo - Americans, U -Boats even came near Brasilian coastline i didnt knew they came that far, something to learn here...
A new offensive into the USSR likely means more occupied territory. The Axis have a brutal track record so far in terms of treating civilians in occupied territory, and you can learn more about that in our War Against Humanity subseries. Episodes come out twice a month and the playlist is right here: ua-cam.com/play/PLsIk0qF0R1j4cwI-ZuDoBLxVEV3egWKoM.html
Where did my stupid joke go. You know the "I am sure communists are offended at this offensive offensive."
0:15 in french we would say : "he sold the bearskin rug before he kills it".
The bear seens to be english now.
Not so easy to kill.
Can you add scales back to the maps please, especially for the Eastern front
@@thebrigadier1496 I've been hoping for some mention of "Rommel's spy in Cairo" as well...
@@nedkelly4825 I enjoy Tik also. But it is not an accurate comparison. This channel covers the entirety of WWII and all battles and all fronts European and Asian. Tik is covering one front and only one battle and spending months doing it while this channel has to update weekly.
I just love Mussolini's optimism this week, very inspirational
Most incompetent leader in history comparable to maduro
My man Benny. 💪
Probably Mussolini isn't the best example for optimism! Almost all of his aspirations were destroyed pretty easily by his enemies and then he was hanged by his compatriots upside down! His optimism is the perfect example of limitless stupidity and arrogance
He thinks he is Julius Caesar
@@morisco56 Agree!
That Paulus guy is doing a great job. He deserves a promotion to Field Marshall. I bet that would be the happiest day of his life!
And with no hidden agenda at all, like no German field marshal ever going into captivity...
I believe Germans are doing great they should reach the Don , they can capture it easily.
Im probably the only one who thinks those jokes are so lame, not funny and overused.
Sorry guys, keep going, Im aware that Im the unfunny one here 😄👍
Paullus just needs to give Varro good council when it’s the laters turn in command.
Should be called Paulus Law
Seeing Paulus in the beginning of the offensive is like seeing the main character of a game in a prequel game for that series.
it do be like that
Even better, Paulus was also in charge of running war games in preparation for Barbarossa. Lol.
Like watching young Anakin win a pod race
@@monsters8730 exactly
You have it the wrong way round. You see, this was what we call "real life". This is what games are in fact based on...
Fedor von Bock: "Straight for Voronezh. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 Reichsmarks."
@Fabian Kirchgessner Which hotel?
@@Zen-sx5io Lucifer's lounge?
Many Italians under Rommels command fought extrordinary well.
"The German soldier impressed the world. The Italian soldier impressed the German soldier." - Erwin Rommel
You have to keep in mind that the huge problems with the Italian military in WW2 were not with the training or fighting will of the Italian soldiers, but with the equipment, armor, leadership, suplies and ressources of the italian army.
Yeah, italian leadership had already warned mussolini before the war that they would not be ready for war before 1942/43, but he wanted to jump at the opportunity to ride on German victories. Ironically, he would have probably profited a lot by simply waiting and maybe joining the allies or staying neutral, but hindsight is 20/20
@@AndreLuis-gw5ox he should have done the same as spain.
The awful Italian leadership is probably why the Italian special forces were so good during the war. If you were a good junior officer or enlisted man you were probably disgusted by the incompetence of leadership. So when you got the chance you joined a special unit.
Mussolini wanted a piece of the pie in exchange for a "couple of thousand death soldiers"; what he got was 600.000 dead and his own execution.
@@amcalabrese1 their minibus units were awesome.
I didn't know about Mussolini at Libya, waiting for the British's defeat so that he can have the glory of entering Egypt in a triumphant procession. This guy's ego is on another level. He reminds me of that guy in your group project who didn't do anything in the team assignment, but shows up at the last moment just to put his name in the assignment.
"It doesn't matter who did what, as long as YOU are there to snatch up the glory in the victory celebrations"
Hmmm, I wonder how many other (Italian and non-Italian) "stronk" leaders have stuck to that rule 👀🤔
(#M........, #T...., #S....., #B........, #Ch.......)
Which was he??
Italian forces too part in the battle of Gazala and performed quite well given the limited equipment they had. Of course, the fighting capability of an Italian division, either infantry or armoured, cannot match its German counterparts.
@@GiulioBalestrier
Could they REALLY not match their German counterparts?
What if you'd equipped an Italian division EXACTLY like a German one?
Wouldn't they be pretty darn close? (assuming, of course, similar amounts of training etc)
@@MrNicoJac Well with similar equipment and similar training there is no difference. That’s just a German formation that happens to speak Italian.
"Counting the chickens before they hatch" it is not an Italian expression: never heard. We say "selling the skin of the bear, before killing him". Glad to help, Lorenzo
The expression he used was “Counting your chickens before they hatch.”
Bears? When have there been bears in Italy? That’s kind of a weird saying. I wonder when it was popularized.
Lorenzo - it's "counting the chickens before they hatch"... canning them would take it a magnitude greater... - I love the "selling the skin of the bear" saying
@@ace1776 Look up Papilion, the Bear Escape Genius
www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/05/papillon-the-bear-how-the-escape-genius-sparked-a-national-debate-in-italy-aoe
The Marzipan brown bear(Ursus arctos arctos) has been protected by law since 1923. They are on the brink of extinctions, there being only about 50 in Italy today and about 100 in the 1980s.
@@ace1776 Whole of Europe used to have as many bears and wolves as North America as well as Lions but they were hunted to near extinction.
I feel like Stalin fits the Patrick Star meme.
"Comrade Joseph this is documentation showing the Germans will attack"
-Yup
"And our allied intelligence tells us the Germans are about to launch a massive offensive"
-Makes sense to me
"So then we must prepare our defenses"
-Nothing will happen, off to the gulag with you
Don't worry after Stalingrad he will be like "oh we are starting to win ? Go ahead win the war "
True but to be fair back in those times informational feints were common(like Operation Mincemeat) and Stalin was stuck between thinking the Germans will press on Moscow(which WAS the primary objective) and actually moving a huge amount of resources and troops to do a risky maneuver of extending the frontline dangerously.
Stalin went for the most sensible option, thinking Moscow was the real objective.
In retrospect Moscow also held 40% of the soviet armament industry and was the very central nexus of railway networks. He thought the Germans knew this, but the Germans did not, their informations of USSR industry was scarce.
Fall Blau was a very bold operation, and judging just by its outcome and ignoring the element of hindsight, bold to the point of stupidity.
@@andreikovacs3476 many claim if they take Moscow the Germans wouldn’t of won (in 41) but they don’t count the industry, supplies, railroads and roads which are vital. Yes they could just relocate but they’d have to shift and build more track, road, industry to take Moscow’s spot and clearing the city would be a bloodshed and if the Germans do take it they can completely renovate the line from Berlin to Moscow and army group centre would suffer minimal shortages and could give supply to north and south. Looking to where the soviets where going to relocate the government (in Tyumen) it would of been bottlenecked
Stalin shouldve used the delta squad more imo....
And the attack did not come ( at least on the date provided by intelligence)
Soviet soldiers getting orders to withdraw to avoid encirclement????
Everyone who has watched the eastern front since day one on this channel: *surprised pikachu face*
it was indeed a suprise
The Red Army might commit the same mistake 21 times, but they won't commit it a 22nd!
@@rare_kumiko I see what you did there with 22nd ;)
Germans: Hey, you’re not supposed to do that!
They were getting better at evading pincers - the other side of the initial light resistance. A German soldier wrote in his diary in the summer of 1942 that the fighting was more like Poland in 1939 than like last year, when there were huge numbers of Red Army troops, many resisting bitterly. The diarist did not however survive the later development of the campaign.
I cannot be the only one that’s like 👀 every time Indy talks about “the Hungarian infantry on the flanks“
Let's see how well that works out for the Germans in a few months 😬😳
Well I mean the german s never gave them good equipment
@@somerandomperson2768 Actually, the Krauts had a war-long reputation of STEALING equipment from their Axis allies... right off the flat-cars.
This tic is why the Hungarians and Italians had no PAK when the Reds attacked during Uranus. Both guns and shells had been looted all along.
Further, the Krauts couldn't even truck their OWN stuff up to the front line. So they just left Axis-allied gear back at the rail-heads. Cute.
Horse transport entirely broke down during Case Blue, BTW. The distances were so great, the fodder/ steppe dried up -- and water became critical.
Away from the rivers, there was virtually no water to be had, the Reds had salted most every well to be found. Horses drink like a horse.
@@somerandomperson2768 Why bother, they'd just drop it before they ran away. 8-)
The thing that made El Alamein a much more defensible position than others in the desert so far is the Quattara Depression to the south, a vast region of soft sand not very suited to the movements of tanks and large bodies of troops. This prevented Rommel from just outflanking the British positions again and forced him into frontal assaults which didn’t suit his outnumbered army.
No flanking action, the Brigade Boxes hold.
Hitler: Hey Ben, how was your parade in Cairo?
Mussolini: It didn't go through.
Hitler: Really? I'm just starting another succesful attack in the east. Did yours not succeed?
Mussolini: No.
Hitler: Well, you've got Ethiopia back by now, right?
Mussolini: ...No.
Hitler: Has Malta fallen yet?
Mussolini: No, it hasn't.
Hitler: Maybe you can organize something in Greece? Oh wait, no. I think somebody else conquered that. Who was that again?
Mussolini: F*** you!
Hitler being that guy that ruins everything including his relationship with his friends
Paulus? I wonder if he will become a Field Marshall someday.
I have a feeling this campaign in Southern Russia will get him there sometime around January
@@iDeathMaximuMII yeah, he'll become field marshal by winning the siege of Stalingrad with his glorious 6th army
@@InvertedGigachad I feel like nothing can stop the 6th Army at this point, but a part of me says they will bite off more than they can chew.
"Oh, Varus, where are my legions?"
I wonder if he's ever going to get his hands dirty doing some hard labor...
Today is the first day that I see those "Stalingrad" and "El Alamein" names in a map. It´s probably nothing.
I think they've been mentioned before at some point. Today, however, is the first time they are mentioned in the same episode alongside Guadalcanal.
I'm sure none of those places will be relevant any time soon though, not at all..
*nods* now where have heard those particular names before. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH.......
After the whipping that the IJN suffered at Midway, I wouldn't worry too much about them at Guadalcanal if I were Nimitz. All they have left is a bunch of surface ships at this point. How much damage can they do?
*Battle off Savo Island Intensifies*
@@WanukeX battle of what? is that in the Med?
they'd have to damned lucky. esp. since a nearby allied air base would make the area too dangerous for an unescorted fleet during the day
@@pedrolopez8057 Just wait and see; it will be revealed soon enough ^^
@@pedrolopez8057 that is why the Battle Of Savo Island took place in the night. Along with most naval actions in the Guadalcanal Campaign. In response to @Peter Anderson the Japanese still had enemy carriers which would be used and some lost during the same campaign however not only that but the Japanese have the Type 93 longlance which the US still denied as existing as well as the air base at Rabaul which still gave air support to the Japanese. Who knows maybe in the following months the US may lose some ships or some aircraft carriers *wink*
It really brings home the scale of the conflict when you see Uss Washington patrolling the North Sea in early July and realize she’ll be heavily engaged off Guadalcanal in the South Pacific before the end of the summer.
Just got reminded of her mauling of Kirishima
hums "it's a small world afterall..."
The only American fast battleship to actually do her job.
USS Washington?
Did you mean Admiral Lee’s personal sniper rifle?
Indy: Shipping news this week!
Me: Ooo I wonder what's happeni-
Indy: Convoy PQ-17
Me: Ohno
Woke up today thinking "hell yea Fall Blau with Indy." Shacka brah
Well, I can’t imagine the production team read all the comments but I just wanted to say once again how much I enjoy the show. Great content ! Nice work everyone.
We do read them! Thank you very much for your warm-hearted compliment
This paulus guy seems to be very good at encirclement
He's probably also good at breaking out of them. Hope he gets a chance to prove that.
@@kaltaron1284
It doesn't seem so.
He will probably capture Stalingrad very soon and cut the soviets from the South.
I don't think they will face much of a resistance
@@baldpdeng2035 cake-walk... He'll just have to put some marginal units to protect his flanks. Maybe some of these from the other Axis countries.
@@robertkras5162
I can't see what can go wrong with that
@@baldpdeng2035 Ooh, nice. Can't wait for that oil from Baku, should make the panzers and the new (super-)heavies even more viable and keep the air force running.
This week, on June 27 1942, the German non-violent resistance group *White Rose* , led by a group of students from the University of Munich (including Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell) will first begin its anti-Nazi activities in the city of Munich. They will use an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign to call for active resistance against the Nazi regime. With the current state of the war mostly going well for the Nazis so far, this might well be very difficult however.
Hope this gets mentioned in WAH.
@Fabian Kirchgessner Are you talking about the White Rose?
They might as well have been violent as non-violent resistance to a fascist regime is a non-starter, brave as they undoubtedly were.
In a different but not entirely unrelated context, George Orwell asked, "Where is the Korean Gandhi?" A rhetorical question - there was none. The Japanese Empire allowed no room for peaceful protest against Japanese rule.
The Italian version of "don't count your chickens before they hatch" is "non dire gatto finché non ce l'hai nel sacco", which translates to "don't say cat until you've caught it"
"Don't say cat if you don't have it in the sack", as Trapattoni said
@@Bubbles47 what the hell do you do with a cat in a sack?
@@robertkras5162 get another cat then watch and enjoy ;)
@@robertkras5162 Well, in ancient Rome if you murdered your parents you were sewn into a big sack full of cats. A rather nasty way to die ...
I just prepared my snack, turned on the computer, went to youtube and the new WW2 video was there... Sometimes life is just beautiful!
Hitler, focussed on the Eastern Front, singing "Blau, Blau, my world is Blau".
You win....
Indiy’s phone conversation could be the entire show and I would still be happy
It would get old fast
At first when the series started I dreaded the phone lead in - I thought it would be a hokey draw. Indy has mastered it however.
Who's "Indiy"? 👀🤔
@@MrNicoJac And who's Neidell?
@@Zen-sx5io
Your mom.
One might say Joseph is stallin' his army from being effective.
And gulagging them like a multiplayer match with poor internet connection.
13:39 With the Japanese constructing an airfield at Guadalcanal, the hype and buildup to Guadalcanal is beginning to build up. Sooner or later, the Allies will land there to stop them. Maybe it is time to start watching the first few episodes of The Pacific, along with The Thin Red Line soon...
Most of the thin red line happens on December. A nice movie about the buildup and the interservice competition is "on harm's way". I'll eventually post both on my movie recomendations posts (as well as the pacific episodes of course)
I am also hyped for the kokoda track campaign
❤🇦🇺
Time to bring out the Drachniefel Videos to pair with the upcoming events on the island. Things are looking promising
The first two episodes of The Pacific & then The Thin Red Line would be the way to go if you wanted to stick to a chronological order.
The Pacific covers the initial landings, the stranding of the Marines following the naval defeat at Savo Island, the Battle of the Tenaru & the defense of Henderson field. The beginning of the battle, basically.
The Thin Red Line in contrast is set near the battle's end, roughly January of 1943, after the 1st Marine Division (the unit featured in The Pacific) had been relieved by the US Army and was sent to Australia to rest, refit, and prepare for future operations. The Thin Red Line portrays the 25th Infantry Division and was loosely inspired by the author's experiences in the Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse.
Also if anyone is interested in documentaries...
There was a very good (and often moving) one made by National Geographic in the early 90s, that can now be found on youtube. It's called The Lost Fleet of Guadalcanal. As the title suggests it was about Robert Ballard's search for ships that had been sunk in the battle, but the documentary also covers the events of the battle in detail for context and has interviews with veterans including Japanese ace Saburo Sakai and the British coastwatcher Martin Clemens. The intro at roughly 2:20 into the documentary in particular is moving & has stuck with me 30 some years after it first aired.
If I had a nickel for everytime stalin was suprised about the German invasion, I would have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot but it is weird that it happened twice.
He expected an attack but not in the south but at Moscow. It was not the same as 1941 when Stalin denied that the Germans were going to attack.
It's not THAT weird that a paranoid guy doesn't trust his intel twice ;p
@@caryblack5985 he is still an idiot for Not trusting his intel.
@@ritvikupadhyay7120 perhaps he thought it was counter intel. or counter-counter intel?
Did you comment the same thing on the last video? I swear I read something similiar last time :0
This has to be the first time Stalin ordered troops to retreat.
the man is learning
you need to pick and choose
where to make a stand
That is a very "modern" picture of the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious: In it she has an angled deck!
Her Buccaneer S2 could had Tirpitz for lunch!
I've seen worse for infographics, it is at least the right ship (Victorious did receive such modernizations) I have seen Skate (SSN-578) used in place of Skate (SS-305).
@@artemisfowl7191 infographics has no clue what they are doing. Lame poor maps, using historically inaccurate maps also most of it seems to be incredibly American bias
@@brissydiggin5209 No that was the... umm... Megaprojects? you know that guy with the beard? that guy, his channel, infographics is probably worse though.
@@artemisfowl7191 for US bias I’m mainly talking about one of the video’s infographics made. Think it was USA VS the world. They spent the video saying how the US is awesome and would defeat the entire world (in a war with no nuclear weapons) totally BS propaganda
Who else here has been watching since the beginning in 1939/1940 ?
I've been watching since 1915 ... :)
Yes, we've all grown grey beards in the last 82 years!
I can't imagine El Alamein or Stalingrad bearing any significance in the future.
hardly footnotes in the unstoppable Axis expansion, no doubt.
Surely those submarines off Brazil won't be causing any trouble.
Interdiction of Brazilian marching powder perhaps ?
No, of course not. I mean, the Americans didn't mind the U-boats sinking their ships during the last war, did they?
Allies were losing 5 ships A DAY those are crazy numbers
@@mikepette4422 Mostly because Admiral King didn't set up a convoy system along the East Coast of the US and in the Caribbean, and is only now realizing they need it.
I wish we’d get the sailor casualties with the ship tonnage
I've always wonder how many Merchant Marines died every time I hear of this months tonnage sunk... the convoys couldn't stop to pick up survivors or they would be sitting ducks.
@@robertkras5162 See this: www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/merchant-marine-worst-losses-wwii/
British Merchant Navy, 32,000 merchant seafarers were killed aboard convoy vessels in the war, this was on 2,828 ships. The British Merchant Navy suffered a higher percentage death rate than the Royal Navy. The Royal Airforce or the British Army. For most of the war when a ship was sunk the man was off wages. dead, alive or POW .
One nice thing about this war over the Great War is that we get actual film of it in color and sound, Color film at this time was something still pretty new having only been invented a few years before. There was a lot of technological improvements and inventions during the interwar years.
I think there might be some colorizing going on.
@@timl.b.2095 I'm pretty certain that is the case.
Actually coloured films started to show up around the turn of the century (19th to 20th) and there were usable techniques available before the first world war.
They just were expensive and not very widespread so yeah, the amount of available footage increased quite a bit.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_motion_picture_film
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technicolor
As I understand it. The only small US made movie cameras available were made for the very rich and only color film was made for them.
@@kaltaron1284 That was mostly done by hand on individual frames very time consuming and labor intensive. Kodak though in 1936 invented their Kodachrome process which was really the first successful mass use of color. One of the first all color films was Errol Flynn in Robin Hood in 1938. A true color movie film that did not require hand painting operations was a huge technological achievment.
The Soviets don't have "endless men." And they don't "basically" have endless men either. They just have more, but not endless. That's going to become a very important distinction in a few years.
@Fabian Kirchgessner I am not sure of that. The Soviets have lost a large portion of their population since those people cannot work for the USSR. They also have lost some of their resources but not their oil. It is not usually considered an advantage to have large portions of your country occupied.
@Fabian Kirchgessner This is incorrect. If I remember correctly, at this moment (summer 1942) USSR outproduces Germany only in terms of oil.
@Fabian Kirchgessner Not even apparently. The loss of population and resources and the cost and effort of moving of factories and reconstructing them are very significant. The loss of food producing Ukraine is also a very hard blow.
@@caryblack5985 , the loss of population mitigated the loss of food production to some extent. They had successfully relocated their industries. They still had more than enough people to refill the ranks of the army and run all factories. And most important they still had all raw materials needed. And the USA provided the trucks needed for the logistics.
@@rudolfschrenk6171 The point I responded to was the comment that it was an advantage for the USSR to have part of it's territory occupied to be an advatage. It was not.
On the intro: I'm not Italian, but I can tell you the Dutch equivalent of counting one's chickens before they hatch: "You shouldn't sell the hide before you've shot the bear". Not that we've got any bears in The Netherlands, mind you. Outside of zoos, that is.
We say the same in French
@@kasimirdelbaerepernin5896 The Romans finished off the bears in Britain!
@@chrisdaniels3929 was gonna say that - the Romans are why Europe no longer has bears, lions, tigers, and for a while was almost out of wolves, wolverines, and everything else cable of killing a man.
We make up for it in Canada. We have _plenty_ of bears!
@@willyreeves319 Well, many places in Europe still have bears and lynxes (to name another potentially dangerous animal), and AFAIK wolves got in trouble much later than the Roman Empire was around.
It's kind of shocking to realize that the Nazi would have a hard time having an infiltrator in the Soviet Union, that would be more effective in making things go well for them then Stalin himself.
Soviets: We have a Hulk!
Germans: You also have Stalin.
Soviets: :((
Soviets: You have Italy
Germany: :(
I think you guys are skipping way too much of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War... Although Japanese brutalities were detailed, no battles were mentioned for weeks. The Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign has been going on since May, and it won't end until September.
Had the Japanese Army heeded the urging of Yamamoto and built airfields closer to Guadalcanal the battle might have taken a different turn. The long flight, over 600 miles, for the Japanese back to Rabaul almost guaranteed any pilot or plane receiving anything other than a superficial injury or damage was doomed to lose at sea.
Or crash land on isolated islands
Before the US captured Guadalcanal building an airfield between Rabaul and Guadalcanal was not considered necessary. Best to focus all resources on building up the airfield at Guadalcanal. After the field on Guadalcanal was lost they tried to build an airfield on Bougainville, but ran into problems because it was in range of US-bombers from Guadalcanal. See Drachinifels Drydock episode 151 for a longer explanantion.
@@gildor8866 I'll check it out. I will say my understanding was the Japanese started to see the benefit of a closer airfield came to late to matter. Thanx again.
How far were the US planes - especially bombers - flying at this point? About the same I think. The Japanese goal was to have the airfield ON Guadalcanal - to further threaten US shipping to Australia... And this base will be complete in no time... and the Allies have never launched a land campaign - or an amphibious landing.
@Fabian Kirchgessner His decision to cooperate with the Soviets and testify against defendants at Nuremberg gained him a reputation as a traitor. Also he lived in East Germany after the Soviets released him from custody.
the vibrant colour pictures sure bring it close to home
This is the perfect documentary format. Just awesome content. Commentary, images and maps. 10/10.
“Mussolini is where?
To shreds you say *tsk tsk tsk*”
Well, how's his wife?
@@Blazcowitz1943 To shreds you say?
Y'know, there's something I like about this way of presenting history and the facts. The thing is that conventional history is told in segregated parts, where things are taught in isolation. While this makes learning easier for a lot of people, the thing is that it reduces and underclass how interconnected and how much of history happens at the same time, on top of each other. This show and the Great War are good at doing both methods and explaining things as they happened, regardless of where.
Anyways, sorry for the rant. Love the show.
15:20 in the background of the image we can see what I assume are the royal navy's Illustrious class carriers (of which there are currently 4) however in the overlaid photos to show the covering force HMS Victorious is shown with an angled flight deck, which was only added in the 1950s. It stands out somewhat. I do like the addition of ship classes to names when introducing the German ships, and I hope that is used more often for all navies in the future.
Also can you add a scale back to the map please, especially when dealing with the USSR and North African theatres, since right now there aren't many obvious landmarks to latch on to.
I assume that these are maps made by the team rather than Eastory now, and while they're very visually interesting and I like the visual effects and the addition of the lines and arrows to show proposed movements, I would also like if all the locations mentioned were added, again for scale (mostly for the discussion of positions around the 3:00 mark).
I must say I've really been enjoying these episodes from the last month, where we have coverage of every theatre at once, now that they're all active. I get why there wasn't this balance before but now that it's here I'm really enjoying the presentation.
Paulus' 6th army making an encirclement... oh, the irony
So Stalin again ignored good intel. Hopefully he dosent make that mistake again July next Year
By that time the war is already won for them
The war won't continue that far ahead it will be over by Christmas
They won’t. They knew Kursk was coming and planned for it.
Yes but the Intel was flawed since the Germans postponed the offensive due to the meteo
How those Soviet soldiers kept on fighting is incredible. Through these series I’ve gained so much respect for the GIs, Soldaten, Tommies, Soltilaat..... These people just kept going, even when faced with the harshest of conditions imaginable.
All that tonnage lost really makes you take into account how dire the situation is for the U.K
to involve most of their Navy to protect that convoy from a couple U-Boats.
Can't wait to hear what happens next week...
more deaths
Unless we can figure out how to build a ship in less than a month, this war is lost!
Hhmm...wonder what Kaiser might think about?
@@nedkelly4825 The largest U boat pens were in western France, especially Lorient, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, St Nazaire and Brest. They are very large and almost indestructible, so many still stand today. Bombing them, and assaulting them directly had some effect, but did not permanently knock them out. The change in tactics, new technology and (re-)cracking the now 4 rotor naval enigma machine (and auxiliary codebooks) helped.
This weeks phone call was absolutely brilliant. The only thing it was missing was that goodbye but regardless this week's phone call was a solid 9/10
HERE WE GO!
Woohoo! (Chief of army mario cadorna)
I always liked how you put subtitles to every episode, it is great because i have a hard time with names of people and places. Not having subtitles in this one was sad :(
Always get a kick out of hearing or reading about General Gott!
8:29
Indy: their commander Bernard freyberg orders a withdrawal.
Me: oh yes the potato from Crete, I’m sure his incompetence won’t bugger this up.
That tie is amazing! Will it be for auction too?
Rewatching these from the beginning I believe that Luigi has the best intros 🤣
To answer the question at the beginning, the Italian expression would be “vendere la pelle dell’orso prima di averlo ucciso” “selling the bear’s skin before having killed him”
There was a huge amount of important stuff going on in the middle of 1942.
An interesting WW2 movie to watch around this week is "Битва за Севастополь (Battle for Sevastopol)" (2015) by Sergey Mokritskiy.
The film centers around Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the he most successful female sniper in history, and depicts the Sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol (up to its fall this week), as well as her trip to the US later in the year.
Period covered: 1937; 22 June 1941-4 July 1942; September 1942; 1956
Historical accuracy: 2/5 - Many details of her life have been changed
IMDB grade: 7.1/10
Great movie. I recommend anyone to watch it.
I remember watching this movie too, it is not a bad movie if one doesn't mind the deviation from historical accuracy.
If anybody deserves a Sabaton song, it's her.
@@kevinramsey417 She has a Woodie Guthrie song
Everyone: You're not under threat Stalin
Stalin: Lies! You're just in on it!
Also Everyone: Stalin you're under threat!
Also Stalin: Bullshit
I have to say, this series has really piqued my interest in the North Africa theatre of WW2. Every thing you guys cover is amazing but I really am specifically loving, and learning a lot more about that theatre.
TIK made a very interesting and detailed series of documentaries ranging from the Italian invasion of Egypt and up to and including Crusader (the one where Brits relieve Tobruk). It's really good, worth checking out. I think NA is my favourite theatre of war.
@@angels2online It's where my father and uncle fought, my uncle with the ground forces, my father in the Desert Air Force.
Couldn't end the week without a high ranking officer almost getting killed in a plane crash.
There is a 2004 Russian miniseries on the PQ-17, which is not bad visually but the author of the novel it is based on does treat historical events somewhat liberally. It also features a Soviet myth that a North Fleet sub successfully torpedoed the Tirpitz, no record of which exists in German sources.
Love these! Keep it up Indy. We appreciate all that you and your team do!
You kinda misidentified some ships there, Lützow and Admiral Scheer are both the same ship class and you classified them as "battlecruiser" and "pocket battleship". While I prefer the denomination of heavy cruiser, the most appropriate of the two you mentioned would be "pocket battleship".
They really do not fit the normal ship classifications very well at all.
Probably mixed up the Lützow of WW II with the Lützow of WW I which was a battlecruiser.
Like Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, they really didn't fit neatly into any of categories of warship then in existence. Sorta like the USS Guam and USS Alaska - were they very heavy cruisers, or light battlecruisers?
@@nicholasconder4703 they were no cruisers at all, since they carried very heavy armor. I think small battleship would be the best description.
15:54 I can imagine Hitler going into one of his rage episodes when he hears about that
The fog of war is thicker than I thought
Hey I see Kursk on the map, wonder if anything will happen there
Dont think so... war might be over by Christmas.
Nothing.There wouldn't be any tank battle there in future.
@@mayukhmitra5819 The tanks battles in Normandy around Caen were more intense and concentrated than those at Kursk.
@@ToddSauve What Normandy! Surely the allies wouldn't land there on June 6th 1944.
@@mayukhmitra5819 .🤷♂️
Can we all just appreciate how many phone calls he sits through? The desk life is indeed a tough one
are you implying Indie is a REMF?
The last time I was this early was when the Kido Butai was sailing towards Midway.
Kido what? Never heard of it. RIP
Indy certainly has a vested interest in this week's episode.
These intros are so amazing. Such great hooks to start the episode.
Thanks @Charley Arrigo!
No mention of the Raid on Salamaua? It was the first land offensive action against the Japanese in the war
You can find an account of this on hypohystericalhistory's video on the Wau Campaign at the 4 minute mark. ua-cam.com/video/013-tYjSWpY/v-deo.html.
A wait coat over a waist coat. Yes! I'm off to Tkmaxx for some Indie stylie
Two waistcoats?!
Things are getting serious!
I never pay attention to what he wears, but today was wondering about that as well... I fear Indie may be falling out of period
And I was beginning to think I was the only one who noticed ... !
Guadalcanal was not the focus of the US offensive until the airfield construction was detected starting on July 5. Tulagi was the original target and it was important enough to be included in the final plan for the Guadalcanal operation.
Eastory gets better and better every week
I wish we had had him in The Great War
Unfortunately he's now left the channel, which I suspect is why the maps now look more different than they did a month ago
15:21 HMS Victorious is shown in her post WW2 modification. That might be slightly misleading for some. Good work overall, as always! :)
The interesting thing, as Operation Case Blue begins, is that in terms of total manpower, the Axis as a coalition, actually has MORE troops to field than the Soviets do. For we must remember that the most populous areas of the Soviet Union was captured in 1941 and were still under Axis, and largely German occupation, and this included the vast grain fields of the Ukraine. This in turn created two problems for the Soviets.
First is a massive food problem, in that with the most productive areas for agriculture under German occupation and large numbers of men being drawn into the Red Army, the Soviets cannot feed themselves and are thus on starvation rations and heavily dependent on what the Allies can deliver to them, and this may be hurt by what Stalin will share with the Soviet people.
The second is that the Soviets do NOT have endless resources of men. If your most populous regions are under occupation, you cannot recruit troops there. And many of these would become available to the Red Army until 1944 when these regions were liberated... though at that time, they also ran into issues as by that point the war the Germans were also facing hunger issues and thus the liberated people might not be fit to serve. Thus in 1942 the Red Army is not as massive as it's often been depicted in a lot of media.
And while the argument could be made that the Red Army had more divisions in the field in 1942 than the Axis, and this could be true... BUT it should also be noted that many of these units were likely under-strength, and for the moment, out of position. Though, ironically, the forces that were around Moscow will ultimately play a role in what happens in late 1942 because they weren't caught by the German attack. And even the Soviet efforts to save men that were facing the German 1942 offensive shows tactical improvements over 1941 and that they're looking to try and save men, not simply waste them in expecting the Germans to run out of bullets first. Which again shows that the Red Army was not sitting on this massive amount of reserves the Germans couldn't overcome... and that in 1942 they actually had the manpower advantage over the Red Army.
The issues that ultimately hurt the Germans and the Axis in early 1942 were more economic and logistical than anything else. You can have a million men more than your enemy, but if you can only effectively supply half that number, that manpower advantage doesn't entirely work. There was also the bureaucratic problems that came from the likes of Halder and others managing the manpower that would be sent to the Eastern Front. For the Germans DID have the replacements and were largely sending them to the Eastern Front, but for much of 1942 they were also going to Army Group North and Army Group Center. The Army Groups committed to Case Blue weren't getting much in the way of replacements and thus continued to show the squandering of a manpower advantage the Germans had when the operation began.
Good post.
The Soviet manpower advantage was largely exaggerated by German accounts in the postwar to excuse their own failures, and since the world was then in the midst of the Cold War, Soviet accounts didn't get out and the West accepted those German accounts at face value.
The truth is that the Germans had a manpower advantage during most of Operation Barbarossa - which is not coincidentally when they also had the greatest success. At Moscow the odds had finally been evened to roughly 1:1 parity across the entire front...and the battle ending with a decisive Soviet victory. By the end of Stalingrad through to Operation Bagration the Soviets never possessed more than a 2:1 advantage across the entire front.
The reality is that the Germans lost the war long before the Soviets could muster a truly significant manpower advantage and that even at Berlin it was not more than 4:1 to across the entire front which was not all that different from the advantage possessed by the Western Allies.
However, it should be noted that the Russians started with 15 million reservists. So, although their manpower pool is not bottomless, they still have a larger pool of partially trained soldiers to call on. It is these reservists who will helped turn the tide. And, in the occupied territories, these reservists will also help form the partisan bands that will wreak havoc on the already precarious German supply lines. I think the role these reservists played in the survival of the Soviet Union, particularly in 1941, has been overlooked by historians.
@@nicholasconder4703 - You can't call up reservists if the area they live in is occupied by the enemy, which much of the Soviet Union was in 1941. Now, many of them could join partisan bands, but many of these really didn't get going until AFTER the offensive toward Moscow in 1941 ended, giving the Soviets time to infiltrate men behind the lines to get in contact with known reservists...
But this would still be a hit and miss game in 1941-1942 many of the people that the partisans struck first in this time period weren't the Germans but anyone that Stalin thought might not be loyal to Soviet Communism. Which then further limits things if the Soviets are killing themselves.
It appears the stars have aligned once more Indy, I am once again reading a book about WWII, this time Antony Beevor's Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, and am just into September, as you're releasing this. We shall which is faster, the T-34s of the page, or the Panzergrenadier of the screen!
(Two years ago, as you were covering the fall of France and then later, Rommel's move to Africa, I was reading his autobiography, haha!)
Read Isaev Stalingrad City on Fire. A much better book as far as actual combat is concerned.
PQ 17.... im sure they will make it to archangelsk safely
I can't see any problems. They have escorts to counter any subs and another taskforce sitting out waiting for the Tirpitz in case she comes out to play...naah, it'll be fine.
There is that slight problem of the German navy moving over to the four rotor Enigma machine though. But I'm sure it will be fine.
Admiral Nimitz was THE MAN. Calm, cool, and collected. The perfect administrator.
Hearing about General Paulus is like listening to a Greek tragedy! Sort of like my love life! The Russians are hurt but still fighting which it will get worse before it gets better! Rommel and his troops might be able to take Al almane but let's just say one of the plagues of Africa will get them in the END so to speak! And know the turning point really begins in the Pacific! Two countries will lock horns until one breaks! Indy one little history note this is the first time in 87 year's that the fourth of July has been celebrated in Vicksburg sense the end of the Civil war! Just thought I'd throw that in there!
The Greek Tragedy is made even worse because he warned the OKH/OKW that they couldn't win, and the one strategy that might work (throw the bulk of the forces towards Leningrad and capture it, then turn east to take Moscow) was ignored. Not only that, but during the Stalingrad campaign his army gets starved of reinforcements. If you aren't doing so already, try watching TIK's ongoing "Battlestorm Stalingrad", By the way, he also does an extremely good job covering the Crusader offensive by the 8th Army.
9:15 "...bursting their way forward through groups of Germans and Italians..." is a unique way of describing chaps fleeing for their lives :-D
They had to fight their way out.
There is a world of difference between a retreat - particularly a fighting one, and a rout. The way it was described in the video more accurately reflected that it belonged to the former category.
@@lycaonpictus9662 Monty Python would disagree :-) ...run away !
@@HandleGF Ah! It's just a flesh wound!
Fun fact about the town of Fuka in Egypt, Long before WWI it was called Moder but was renamed by the British, whom, in a gesture of good faith combined both ancient and modern names. After WWII, when the British got out of Egypt the locals decided to drop the Moder-Fuka name and went back to their ancient name, Fuka.*
*Wrong fact of course.
*Army:* We should take the southern route!
*Navy:* We should take the northern route!
Why not both?
Make sure to mention us @WorldWar2 channel! It's the worst day in our history on the 30th of August 1942. Luxembourg is annexed into Germany. 😭😭😭😭😭 It's coming up. Then we did a strike to protest the conscription of our troops into the German army in September of 1942. Please mention Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG! You hear that Indy? Luxembourg, and not the "The Third Benelux country". Goodness that was painful.
@Fabian Kirchgessner We did fight well. But that was because we had guns to our backs.
Most of us wanted to be liberated and to fight for the allies. And no I don't live in Luxembourg anymore. But I wish I did.
@Fabian Kirchgessner Wrong. It's not that I underestimate it. It's that it didn't happen. There were a tiny amount of people who sympathised with the Germans but the movements never got any traction. And secondly, just because I no longer live in my home country doesn't mean I am not a Luxembourger. I just moved away because my parents did.
@Fabian Kirchgessner Again, because they were forced too. Search up Luxembourgish general strike 1942. Germans asked us how we viewed ourselves. The vast majority responded "Luxembourger" angering the German occupiers. And so when they annexed us into Germany there were demonstrations as Luxembourgers were forcibly conscripted into the German army. You are right that more Luxembourgers died fighting for Germany. But that doesn't mean most didn't want to be liberated.
@Fabian Kirchgessner Again, you're wrong. It's not that I am triggered. I am just shocked at how arrogant and inaccurate you are. You clearly don't know much about Luxembourg. Please stop misrepresenting us.
@Fabian Kirchgessner I told you already. There was a small movement of Luxembourgers that wanted to fight for Germany. The vast majority were forcibly conscripted. Us Luxembourgers didn't want to become German. That's what I was saying.
7:54 at your left you can see indy neidell and at your right you can see indy as well
"Though Freyberg is injured" seems to just be a way of saying "Freyberg was present" by now. How many wounds has he managed to accrue by now?
It's hard to say, since ''You nearly always get two wounds for every bullet or splinter because they have to go out as well as go in.''
Let's see. Several times in Gallipoli, and nine times in France during WW1. At least twice more (including this occasion) in WW2. So, a lot?
18 major wound scars from the two world wars according to the book by NZ war artist Peter McIntyre that I have just read.
Fedor Von Bock looks like a guy who would play the 3000 year old Vampire King in a horror movie.
Underrated comment
He reminds me of Peter Cushing.
Surely nothing could possibly go wrong for Romel and his men at El Alamein right? Right? Well...
I'm scared.
Don't be silly. It will be the same as in Tobruk. The tank master wizard will fight them from an inferior position, overcoming his material disadvantage by exploiting their tactical mistakes, it will go back and forth a few times, and in the end he will catch them out in a particularly bad moment with decisive action while they squabble with each other.
What a facinating week for the war. The German war machine working cracked off once again on two fronts. Good episode crew 👍
I have to keep reminding myself that it won't be long until the Axis stop winning which I can at least look forward to, unlike people who actually lived it. Even then, still a very, very long way to go.
The Axis stop winning? How can you be so sure? Looks like Stalin won't learn from past mistakes, so who knows how far the Germans will roll on the open steppe...
Also Army Group South was no where near full strength as Fall Blau begun, stepping on to this offensive under strength might turn out to be a mistake, we'll see how it goes.
Basically it is just Army Group South on the march. Last year it was all three army groups. Next summer the crucial battle will be over a fairly small salient. The Axis ability to advance is already on the decline, although at the moment it does not look that way.
I'm optimistic... they have their Axis partners - Romanians, Hungarians, Croatians, and Italians to make up the difference.
I like the new map look as much as the previous, but I wonder what happened to Eastory in this video
Same
This week is a real turning point as the iconic turning point battles of Stalingrad, El Alamein and Guadalcanal all come on the horizon.
Soviets are running away from Southern Front they thought Germans would attack via Moscow ,Soviets have something like 5.6 milion manpower by July 1942, British are also on the run in Sahara - North Africa Front but managed to stop Rommel just at the gates of Nile delta and entire Egypt Rommel has little time since USA would land in operation Torch in November 1942 in North Africa...for 173 ships destroyed from U -Boats its great deal for the Germans huge losses for the Anglo - Americans, U -Boats even came near Brasilian coastline i didnt knew they came that far, something to learn here...
Excellent as always. Every week is a little more tense a little more horrible , and a little more resolute