Why do you and other, even professional, documentary producers use war footage that does not complement your narration? What did US troops have to do with any of this part of the war? Please stop doing this crap. Find more footage or edit what you have better.
My dude, you need to create a playlist of the all videos for this channel, you have them all over the place and so unorganized. I dont watch this channel cause im not gonna sit there and click every video. I just wanna hit PLAY ALL. YOUR LOSS ON VIEW TIME, IM NOT THE ONLY PERSON LIKE THIS.
I find it hard to call the Brandenburg Commandos the most evil troops the Germans fielded when the Dirlewanger Brigade was so terrible that many Wermacht generals were so appalled by the Dirlewanger's actions that they asked for them to be removed from their commands, if not completely disbanded.
@@stephenhood2948 Yeah, even the thumbnail picture is literally a Soldier with a German face mask which Dirlewangers brigade was known for wearing. Its almost as if the creator of the video completely mixed up the video with something else.
yo these dudes sound tough. the amount of mental stress from hiding in plain sight, and then actually holding a position from an assault until proper units can arrive.
The Barändies are sometimes regarded as a myth of WW2. Showing a few detailed operations of theirs was very satisfying for my curious mind. A bit a a goof happened near the end showing soviet post war vehicle clips but it's nothing big. Overall was the footage well placed and the story flow nicely brought about. Thanks for this view into history.
Excellent story! So bizarre that they wanted "rebel-minded" soldiers, reminds me of the British SAS. Almost like they knew that initiative can be one of the most important tools of a soldier.
Having spent 4 years of my early teen years hanging around my dad's squadron after school before football practice, therefore the Combat Control Team right next door, I realized that Spec Ops guys are a completely different breed from everything the military proper espouses. This was the early 80's in then West Germany. Between those guys and the members of the 7th Spec Ops Sqdn also assigned to Rhein Main AB it was an odd ball mix of what the U.S. military was evolving into. There was the old guard Military Airlift Command leadership who wanted everything run like a CONUS base while the rest knew they were on the fringes (then) of the U.S. military establishment and knew that CONUS rules and regs would never fly against the Warsaw Pact. In the end, it was to be my undoing when I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1986. From the first day I stepped foot on board MCRD Parris Island until my discharge 3 years later I struggled to just fall in and toe the line.
Educating all their soldiers to be proactive was something the Prussian and later German army practised 100 years before the First World War. In 1870, a Prussian Guards battalion at the Battle of Gravelotte-St. Privat could easily be led by a sergeant after all the officers had dropped out. It may be that this aspect of the German army is constantly misrepresented by Hollywood. It may also be that the SAS is an exception in the British Army. What has been handed down is the bewilderment with which German soldiers reacted to the fact how British units in Africa stood idly by while their neighbouring units were overwhelmed because they had no orders to help.
If you haven't read it, allow me to recommend the book, "Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare". Stunningly informative. Absolutely maddening was the resistance dealt by commanders and generals who were too egotistical to admit the usefulness of unorthodox warfare. This book convinced me how some people lack any common sense regardless of rank or education.
I am going to bet that there have been more "rebel minded " outfits then we realize. The Flying Tigers in China and the USAs LRRPs (long range reconnaissance patrols) in Vietnam are also interesting" rebel minded" outfits that come to mind and are very interesting to read about.
your german is improving well. I actually understand you now and dont have to look for what you are saying in writing anymore, like in earlier videos. So keep up the good work both in documentary production and language(s). I learn more things about my own countries here than in school or as a kid on the streets, because back then in the 70s and 80s, the real WWII vets almost never ever spoke about it unless really drunk or something. They all started dying in the 80s and 90s, including my ow grandparents who were eye witnesses in Berlin during 1930s-60s, so their entire generations history and knowledge is now gone, except for books i dont read and this channel... Thank you.
So I take it you're from Germany? I was born in the village of Frankershausen (near Eschwege) in 1957, came to the states w/ my mom when I was 6 weeks old...dad was US military so we traveled. When I was young we managed to visit Germany several times, I knew all my relatives there well. My Opa and two uncles served in WW2, Opa was a sheinwerfer (?), not sure if that's the correct term...he operated on of those big searchlights for a Luftwaffe heavy AA unit. Both uncles were Wermacht, one fought on the eastern front until he got a bad case of jaundice and was sent home....the younger uncle was captured by the Russian, he lied about his age and was released. All three survived the war but are gone now. I never heard anything about their war time experiences unfortunately.
I've been fascinated with WWII history for 30 years. And until recently when I saw a German soldier, I imagined a 35/40 year old career soldier. Now when I see a German soldier, I realize that it's likely he's only 18, and later on in the war they got younger, especially when they were closer to home. I think about the holdouts in Stalingrad and how they were likely just boys. And how their deaths were a blessing to them after what they had seen and what they had done. Thank God that everyone finally knows how stupid and not fun and not glamorous war is.
Actually every single letter sent home from the Stalingrad holdouts expressed an unwavering devotion to AH and a willingness to die in their noble fight against Communism. They were fighting to DEFEND Europe, Christianity and Western culture.
War still has its romantic outlook. Our generation got to stand up for freedom in the war of terror. I wonder when the next war will happen...with the reality of nuclear weapons I think we will continue to see super power vs third world countries.. as the alternative nuke vs nuke state should never happen... It can only happen if a super power is able to take out nuclear potential of an opposing state in the opening days of a conflict. No one wants to have a city destroyed..
60 Branderburgers take part on the greek campaign, they were wore greek uniforms and with rubber inflattable boats they tried to infiltrate the strymonas river that was covered by 2 greek fortresses Rupel and Paliouriones early in the morning of April 6th 1941. what the Bradenburgers didnt know that was the previus nights the guard had placed steel nets on the river and when seeing them in boats crossing the river, after a short hesitation they realised they were german commandos they fired upon them with machinegun fire killing many, the rest were seek refuge on the banks, they failed on their mission to infiltrate and capture the Sidirokastro bridge behind the fortresses.
@@JohnSmith-un9jm true but you must take in count that greece was fighting 6 months italy which had more men and materials from the greeks and then the 12th army of germans come with 300.000 men and houndreds of tanks and airplanes! with italians fought 14 greek divisions wile on the german front only 3 weakened divisions +3 more hastilly formed divisions with old or young men. outnumbered and outgunned the outcome was predictable! the WWII was a war of resources and industrial one and small countries cannot fight it alone 2 great powers.
@@JohnSmith-un9jm i have a notice for new message by you, but i cannot see it here. maybe you delete it. you reference british aid, it was not significant, a few squandrons of RAF, some 300 LMG, and if i remember corectly 45.000 rifles mostly from war booty italians and some 7.92mm mannlichers, few A/A guns. the british expeditionary force was very weak, 1 new zealand and 1 australian infantry divisions and 1 british armored brigade. the 300 thousand men of Von List 12th army was as big as the greek army who were fighting the italians and the italians in the spring of 1941 were bring more men than the greek army. pre war greek plans were sugested that in order to defend the greek-bulgarian borders they would be atleast need 8-10 divisions, instead the british bring 2.5 and the greeks had 3 weakened at this sector were von list attacked. if you add the almost 1.000 german warplanes of the luftwaffe and the superior mechanised forces of germans vs the greek army, i cannot understand how you end up with the conclusion that the greeks should have won. the odds were too much against us, serius outmanned and outgunned fought in 2 diferent fronts.
When I heard, "...a group of highly motivated Polish soldiers suddenly came marching in..." I immediately knew this was the infamous Brandenburgers. These guys were an unknown terror, whether on the battlefield or not.
First of all, thanks for the video! The “Brandenburg” company/battalion/regiment/division is one of the best-known German formations from the Second World War. This repu- tation is largely based on the pioneering use of special forces tactics and its daring exploits from the early phase of the conflict. It is often overlooked, however, that the Wehrmacht’s commandos spent a substantial part of the- ir careers in unglamorous anti-guerrilla duties in the occupied Yugoslavia. Despite all efforts to keep them “out of the trenches” and uphold their spe- cial status, the “Brandenburgers” ended up serving as common infantry. Ha- ving no specialized mountain equipment, their performance in open com- bat against the guerrillas can be considered average, at best. However, even the type of underhand tactics that the commandos employed on major fronts with so much success did little good in the peculiar conditions of the Yugoslav insurgency. Apart from the destruction/capture of a handful of important objects, all their attempts to assassinate/kidnap various enemy figures-the primary motive behind sending them to the region in the first place-had thus ended in a failure. As for the scale of the "Brandenburg's" deployment to the Balkans: on 30 August 1944, the division still had 14,056 Germans in its ranks (plus several hundred legionnaires), which was far above the strength of the average Wehrmacht division from this period. According to one detailed break- down from July, the “Brandenburg” had 12,787 men in combat units de- ployed outside the Third Reich proper; all but 1,811 of them were statio- ned to Yugoslavia. Anyone interested can find more info in my open-source article '“Brandenburg” vs. Yugoslavia, 1941-1945.'
@D G You're basically right, only the "Brandenburg" regiments were combined into a division in April 1943, and the specialists (called "Kampfdolmetscher" or "Combat Interpreters") left in September 1944 in course of the second reorganization (the division was being transformed into a full-blown Panzergrenadier formation). In the Balkans, some 400 of these highly skilled volunteers (ca. 185 Germans and 220 local legionnaires) were transferred to the SS Jagdverband Suedost. Rather than leading a guerrilla war behind Yugoslav lines, as was planned, most of them dispersed at the war's end, some were captured, and a few even defected.
This channel is just slightly better than average production quality. Narrator is great, but their writing is honestly not very good. Mark Felton is a good shout, he's a real amateur historian and a good storyteller.
I still like this channel but they make at least one mistake every video. On all of their channels. If I didn't know the specifics on a video I just scroll through the comments and a bunch of people will be complaining about a mistake. Apparently the dirlewanger brigade was the evilest group.
Every Soldier, Marine, Sailor and Airmen from the City should now see..where modern psyops, and undercover domestic police forces, learned their concept. This is a Good one!
The Brandeburgers were the German version of special forces, like the British SAS and SOE who fought in a risky untraditional ways. Cannot be compared with the Dirlewanger and RONA brigades( russians in german service) which were really cruel war criminals. Anyway there was a book named "Kommando" German Special forces of World War two, By James Lucas 245p. reporting on the activities of the Brandenburgers. For those who want to learn more.
I have to say, I tried a free trial of The Great Courses in the past and absolutely loved it!! I may have to try Wondrium, I simply cannot watch enough documentaries, especially military/history docs.
I've never these stories about this unit. Whatever anyone thinks of these guys, can you imagine the level of bravery requisite for such action? And, I don't see how the title of the vid fits
My great grandfather was in one of this Brandenburg units. The members were often from the actual State of now Brandenburg. I still live in Brandenburg an der Havel, 70 Kilometers in the west of Berlin. A Beautiful medival Town with a population of 80.000.
Imagine being the guy responsible for finding the explosives, the ones they're just about to detonate. Damn... He'd have to find them and then disarm them while hoping his buddies could prevent them from going off. Imagine being the other guys knowing your friend is handling the explosives! Holy cow, I think I'd want to be the guy peeling potatoes...
Great and interesting video. Thanks for your hard work. Pay no attention to the people who want to complain about little things in your videos when they are enjoying your hard work for free.
They don't even try to kick out the "monsters". Idiots, not strongest. Bunch of money and power hungry mofos. Now the truth surfacing. Hard times will come uppon the EU.
When the Blitzkrieg came to halt the Brandenburgers being at the Eastern were held as special forces but the front commanders had no idea how to use them. The more that the local officers didn't like them as they were non of their own. Thus they became used as canon fodder. They were claimed to be special forces and so they used them for the most dangerous tasks, so for instance to clear a forest. As they were not trained as regular infantery they suffered heavy losses. In 1944 in Brandenburg another special task force had been prepared and then depolyed in the Ardenne offensive where they acted in American uniforms to disturb the allied lines of communication and to desorganize troop movements. The captured were sentenced to death as war criminals. A few of them gave testimony in the allied radio propaganda transmissions to German soldiers and called up to surrender. Stefan Heym, a German novel writer who served in the US Army would later write about it.
FWIW, the insignia for the Brandenburgers was a downward pointing sword, superimposed with a question mark (there was also a motorcycle club, founded in Eisbergen, Germany, with the same name/insignia)
MY great grandfather had joined of the Brandenburg Elite in the late part of the war, in one of his story he crawls out of his foxhole only to find himself surrounded by very drunk soviets, he then acts as though he were a paret of their group before snuk away.
Appreciate your content. I couldn't help noticing the footage of American GIs with M1 Garands which had no relevance to the German-Polish, German-Dutch situations
Poland was also being invaded by the Russians from the other direction at the same time. So Poland didn't stand much of a chance. They keep calling out the German invasion and keep forgetting to include the Russian invasion going on at the same time, so no one thinks about what the Russians were doing until Germany attacked the Russians.
Exactly like Patton said I think we're fighting the wrong enemy after it was to late..after helping the Russians they started threaten us with nukes..what away to think u for help we sh we would have stayed out ofit n let the Germans run over the Crimea n destroy it to the ground..only thing anyone can disagree with is the concentration camps n mistreated pows
Brandenburgers were something rather different for its time. Canaris married Stormtrooper/Hutier doctrine and classical spycraft and created something that had a lot in common with SAS and was ahead of its time (like the SAS, of course). Sadly a lot of the documents were destroyed when Canaris was accused of high treason and executed by the Nazis. They have a bit of a mixed image here in Germany, due to the fact that they did not prevent the Lemberg progroms by their attached "Nightingale" battailon and the shooting of civilians as revenge against partisan attacks on German troops. Things escalated when the KSK general Günzel published a book praising the Brandenburger in a rather unfitting and gloryfiing way. Bit sad actually as people like the Brandenburger Major Knaak and General Major Oster were against the National Socialists and at least partially involved in the failed assassination attempt on Hitler. But a lot of them also were antisemitic, extremely hostile against democracy and German national advocates of the Kaiserreich, similar to Admiral Canaris.
It got a few things wrong. The end for example. A bunch of them were transfered into the Jagdverbände and Frontaufklärungskommandos/Frontaufklärungstrupps.
So train a bunch of troops posing as friendlies that if any of them are caught it is an automatic death sentence on the spot? Wonder how that recruitment sales pitch went..
The Brandenburg Boys caused panic in the American ranks.... no doubt about that . Otto S. Wanted to deploy them in larger numbers and earlier during the Allied Landings but the mediocre painter from Austria stopped him.
Great video, amazing military unit. Can you do a video on Operation Gladio the stay behind NATO secret op plan? BTW, @4:53, von Hipple studied German WW1 tactics not WW2, he served in the African theater in WW1.
This MO was also used inthe village where I grew up, along the Roer (Ruhr) river, Netherlands. Germans captured the local bridge while wearing dutch army uniforms. Still don't know the exact way it went down. And if these commandos were also deployed here. I'll try to find out
Love your work dark docs but some of this footage seems inaccurate - footage of the start of operation barbarossa seemed to show troops with the german assault rifle- the mp43 and 44 wasnt given out to troops until much later i thought "the first MP 43s were distributed to the Waffen-SS; in October 1943" barbarossa was June 1941- i hate it when filw footage is inaccurate - apologies if I'm incorrect- perhaps the footage was from later in the war and happed to play while Barbarossa was being mentioned - thanks
I like the bmp and the AK, after all the Germans inspired both of them. And it's hard finding footage from the second world war. Mosfilm has all the German news reels
It is interesting that the German regulars, would hold the identical position to an unorthodox commando squad, as did the British regulars, toward the earliest incarnation of the SAS in the African desert. Perhaps the very fact that using tactics which were not formalised, yet were remarkably successful, was enough to spur commanders to eschew the loss of control. Fear is likely the determinant here?
My father was an American officer in WWII. Toward the end of the war, an American "officer" entered a mess hall on an American base in Italy where my dad was. The man said: "I'm exhausted! I walked 20 kilometers today!" My dad thought it was odd that an American would mention kilometers. My dad asked the guard if the man had been checked and he supposedly had. The guy ate, left and a short time later they found out he was a German spy.
My wife was watching a bit of history about frito-lay and i suddenly hear a familiar voice, is that yours? Are you narrating this in your free time for us all to enjoy? Or am i mistaken?
Admiral Canaris was head of the Abwhere...Secret Service...and although complex..this man either through being inept..or an Anglophile was eventually executed by his own... (Just adding)...I believe Canaris was an intellect that was playing a VERY risky game...that even the German Nazis knew..when they executed him just days before the war in Europe ended..(for the life of meI apologise that I cannot remember which Concentration Camp it was....was it Flossenburg?)
So they were like the SAS but for the German Army........ I wonder if they show up in the " Rogue Heroes " series on Epix movie channel or soon to be " MGM+ "
It’s almost like they weren’t allowed to do to much damage to Britain. Look at the difference in the two sides bombing raids. The whole thing was contrived
@@monkmoto1887 Germans killed 90,000 British civilians in the Blitz. That’s quite a few ! Britain is an island and we had a better navy. Adolf’s Commando order of 1942 shows what a bad loser he was especially after instructing the expansion of the Brandenburgers in 1939.
@@johnbooth3073 And the bombing of Dresden, which is nowhere near the size of London, killed over 100.000 civilians. Of the 54 largest cities with inhabitants over 100.000, only 4 survived without significant damage, with an estimate of around 800.000 civillian deaths.
I always thought taking out two metres of track here and there, and replacing the gaps with plastic shaped tracks would really slow things down and have a powerful psychological effect on the hun. 👍🇬🇧
You do understand that the "Polish Corridor" was Germany before 1918. Imagine driving from Boston to NYC, but Connecticut was an Angry version of Canada. With Americans living there. So yeah, Easy to find help in "Poland".
You are very good at telling stories and I like your program very much. But you forgot to tell the role the Br4anderburgers played during the occupation of Denmark, that came before the Netherlands. had the Danes been able to jump the railway bridge on the border between Tyakland and Denmark (which, by the way, had not been prepared on the Danish side), the outcome of the battle with DK and Norway might have changed a bit
Thank you to Wondrium for sponsoring today's video! Signup for your FREE trial to Wondrium here: ow.ly/BuHN50KwXac
Stop making docs about the stupid ww2 and focus on something more interesting ffs
Best video in a while
Why do you and other, even professional, documentary producers use war footage that does not complement your narration? What did US troops have to do with any of this part of the war? Please stop doing this crap. Find more footage or edit what you have better.
@@kill.all.liberals6865 Well watch something else..Not a liberal!
My dude, you need to create a playlist of the all videos for this channel, you have them all over the place and so unorganized. I dont watch this channel cause im not gonna sit there and click every video. I just wanna hit PLAY ALL. YOUR LOSS ON VIEW TIME, IM NOT THE ONLY PERSON LIKE THIS.
I find it hard to call the Brandenburg Commandos the most evil troops the Germans fielded when the Dirlewanger Brigade was so terrible that many Wermacht generals were so appalled by the Dirlewanger's actions that they asked for them to be removed from their commands, if not completely disbanded.
Not even just the Wehrmacht, but even some SS Generals as well. Dirlewanger Brigade was something else.
First thing I thought as well.
When reading the title I thought this video would be about Dirlewanger.
@@stephenhood2948 Yeah, even the thumbnail picture is literally a Soldier with a German face mask which Dirlewangers brigade was known for wearing. Its almost as if the creator of the video completely mixed up the video with something else.
@@ArcticWolf00Alpha0 it's just shameless click bait made by lazy "historians". Hustlers gotta Hustle for the likes
My brain hurt for a second when I
saw the guy with the AK and the BMP😂
WW-II German assault rifle? AK-47?
Nein!!!
Ist STG-44.
@@c.e.kestner4051 negative 11:43 that’s clearly an AK 47. Then a few seconds later shows a Russian BMP
@@ChrisLove887 Yep. That's an AK alright. I've seen the same photo before. It's part of a Warsaw Pact training film.
@@c.e.kestner4051 Wrong. Not A StG 44. At 13:00 THAT is an StG 44.
@@sledgehammer9739 ya I figured it was accidentally added for the Russian portion of the video.
yo these dudes sound tough. the amount of mental stress from hiding in plain sight, and then actually holding a position from an assault until proper units can arrive.
Your narration and videos in general have greatly improved since your beginning. Well done!
Not.
The Barändies are sometimes regarded as a myth of WW2.
Showing a few detailed operations of theirs was very satisfying for my curious mind.
A bit a a goof happened near the end showing soviet post war vehicle clips but it's nothing big.
Overall was the footage well placed and the story flow nicely brought about.
Thanks for this view into history.
Excellent story! So bizarre that they wanted "rebel-minded" soldiers, reminds me of the British SAS. Almost like they knew that initiative can be one of the most important tools of a soldier.
Having spent 4 years of my early teen years hanging around my dad's squadron after school before football practice, therefore the Combat Control Team right next door, I realized that Spec Ops guys are a completely different breed from everything the military proper espouses. This was the early 80's in then West Germany. Between those guys and the members of the 7th Spec Ops Sqdn also assigned to Rhein Main AB it was an odd ball mix of what the U.S. military was evolving into. There was the old guard Military Airlift Command leadership who wanted everything run like a CONUS base while the rest knew they were on the fringes (then) of the U.S. military establishment and knew that CONUS rules and regs would never fly against the Warsaw Pact. In the end, it was to be my undoing when I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1986. From the first day I stepped foot on board MCRD Parris Island until my discharge 3 years later I struggled to just fall in and toe the line.
Educating all their soldiers to be proactive was something the Prussian and later German army practised 100 years before the First World War. In 1870, a Prussian Guards battalion at the Battle of Gravelotte-St. Privat could easily be led by a sergeant after all the officers had dropped out. It may be that this aspect of the German army is constantly misrepresented by Hollywood. It may also be that the SAS is an exception in the British Army. What has been handed down is the bewilderment with which German soldiers reacted to the fact how British units in Africa stood idly by while their neighbouring units were overwhelmed because they had no orders to help.
Their whole concept around warfare was based on initiative.
If you haven't read it, allow me to recommend the book, "Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare". Stunningly informative. Absolutely maddening was the resistance dealt by commanders and generals who were too egotistical to admit the usefulness of unorthodox warfare. This book convinced me how some people lack any common sense regardless of rank or education.
I am going to bet that there have been more "rebel minded " outfits then we realize. The Flying Tigers in China and the USAs LRRPs (long range reconnaissance patrols) in Vietnam are also interesting" rebel minded" outfits that come to mind and are very interesting to read about.
your german is improving well. I actually understand you now and dont have to look for what you are saying in writing anymore, like in earlier videos. So keep up the good work both in documentary production and language(s). I learn more things about my own countries here than in school or as a kid on the streets, because back then in the 70s and 80s, the real WWII vets almost never ever spoke about it unless really drunk or something. They all started dying in the 80s and 90s, including my ow grandparents who were eye witnesses in Berlin during 1930s-60s, so their entire generations history and knowledge is now gone, except for books i dont read and this channel... Thank you.
So I take it you're from Germany? I was born in the village of Frankershausen (near Eschwege) in 1957, came to the states w/ my mom when I was 6 weeks old...dad was US military so we traveled. When I was young we managed to visit Germany several times, I knew all my relatives there well. My Opa and two uncles served in WW2, Opa was a sheinwerfer (?), not sure if that's the correct term...he operated on of those big searchlights for a Luftwaffe heavy AA unit. Both uncles were Wermacht, one fought on the eastern front until he got a bad case of jaundice and was sent home....the younger uncle was captured by the Russian, he lied about his age and was released. All three survived the war but are gone now. I never heard anything about their war time experiences unfortunately.
I've been fascinated with WWII history for 30 years. And until recently when I saw a German soldier, I imagined a 35/40 year old career soldier. Now when I see a German soldier, I realize that it's likely he's only 18, and later on in the war they got younger, especially when they were closer to home. I think about the holdouts in Stalingrad and how they were likely just boys. And how their deaths were a blessing to them after what they had seen and what they had done. Thank God that everyone finally knows how stupid and not fun and not glamorous war is.
Have you seen “generation war”? Its out on yt and a great show
Disagree
Actually every single letter sent home from the Stalingrad holdouts expressed an unwavering devotion to AH and a willingness to die in their noble fight against Communism. They were fighting to DEFEND Europe, Christianity and Western culture.
War still has its romantic outlook. Our generation got to stand up for freedom in the war of terror. I wonder when the next war will happen...with the reality of nuclear weapons I think we will continue to see super power vs third world countries.. as the alternative nuke vs nuke state should never happen... It can only happen if a super power is able to take out nuclear potential of an opposing state in the opening days of a conflict. No one wants to have a city destroyed..
Yes true
Absolutely LOVE your videos, they’re the perfect length, always informative and well written!
AND well-narrated!
60 Branderburgers take part on the greek campaign, they were wore greek uniforms and with rubber inflattable boats they tried to infiltrate the strymonas river that was covered by 2 greek fortresses Rupel and Paliouriones early in the morning of April 6th 1941. what the Bradenburgers didnt know that was the previus nights the guard had placed steel nets on the river and when seeing them in boats crossing the river, after a short hesitation they realised they were german commandos they fired upon them with machinegun fire killing many, the rest were seek refuge on the banks, they failed on their mission to infiltrate and capture the Sidirokastro bridge behind the fortresses.
The Greeks were crushed easily, nonetheless
@@JohnSmith-un9jm true but you must take in count that greece was fighting 6 months italy which had more men and materials from the greeks and then the 12th army of germans come with 300.000 men and houndreds of tanks and airplanes! with italians fought 14 greek divisions wile on the german front only 3 weakened divisions +3 more hastilly formed divisions with old or young men. outnumbered and outgunned the outcome was predictable! the WWII was a war of resources and industrial one and small countries cannot fight it alone 2 great powers.
@@JohnSmith-un9jm i have a notice for new message by you, but i cannot see it here. maybe you delete it. you reference british aid, it was not significant, a few squandrons of RAF, some 300 LMG, and if i remember corectly 45.000 rifles mostly from war booty italians and some 7.92mm mannlichers, few A/A guns. the british expeditionary force was very weak, 1 new zealand and 1 australian infantry divisions and 1 british armored brigade. the 300 thousand men of Von List 12th army was as big as the greek army who were fighting the italians and the italians in the spring of 1941 were bring more men than the greek army. pre war greek plans were sugested that in order to defend the greek-bulgarian borders they would be atleast need 8-10 divisions, instead the british bring 2.5 and the greeks had 3 weakened at this sector were von list attacked. if you add the almost 1.000 german warplanes of the luftwaffe and the superior mechanised forces of germans vs the greek army, i cannot understand how you end up with the conclusion that the greeks should have won. the odds were too much against us, serius outmanned and outgunned fought in 2 diferent fronts.
Hellas! The changed the course of the war!
@@JohnSmith-un9jm As the Germans later on...
You should do a doc. On the Afrika Korps commandos.
These dudes had some balls to do what they did.
When I heard, "...a group of highly motivated Polish soldiers suddenly came marching in..." I immediately knew this was the infamous Brandenburgers. These guys were an unknown terror, whether on the battlefield or not.
First of all, thanks for the video!
The “Brandenburg” company/battalion/regiment/division is one of
the best-known German formations from the Second World War. This repu-
tation is largely based on the pioneering use of special forces tactics and its
daring exploits from the early phase of the conflict. It is often overlooked,
however, that the Wehrmacht’s commandos spent a substantial part of the-
ir careers in unglamorous anti-guerrilla duties in the occupied Yugoslavia.
Despite all efforts to keep them “out of the trenches” and uphold their spe-
cial status, the “Brandenburgers” ended up serving as common infantry. Ha-
ving no specialized mountain equipment, their performance in open com-
bat against the guerrillas can be considered average, at best. However, even
the type of underhand tactics that the commandos employed on major
fronts with so much success did little good in the peculiar conditions of the
Yugoslav insurgency. Apart from the destruction/capture of a handful of
important objects, all their attempts to assassinate/kidnap various enemy
figures-the primary motive behind sending them to the region in the first
place-had thus ended in a failure.
As for the scale of the "Brandenburg's" deployment to the Balkans: on
30 August 1944, the division still had 14,056 Germans in its ranks (plus several
hundred legionnaires), which was far above the strength of the average
Wehrmacht division from this period. According to one detailed break-
down from July, the “Brandenburg” had 12,787 men in combat units de-
ployed outside the Third Reich proper; all but 1,811 of them were statio-
ned to Yugoslavia.
Anyone interested can find more info in my open-source article '“Brandenburg” vs. Yugoslavia, 1941-1945.'
@D G You're basically right, only the "Brandenburg" regiments were combined into a division in April 1943, and the specialists (called "Kampfdolmetscher" or "Combat Interpreters") left in September 1944 in course of the second reorganization (the division was being transformed into a full-blown Panzergrenadier formation).
In the Balkans, some 400 of these highly skilled volunteers (ca. 185 Germans and 220 local legionnaires) were transferred to the SS Jagdverband Suedost. Rather than leading a guerrilla war behind Yugoslav lines, as was planned, most of them dispersed at the war's end, some were captured, and a few even defected.
Thank you.
I have always likened to behind line commandos .
Thanks for sharing this! Fascinating!
Secret= meth😂
This is one of my favorite channels being an amateur history buff. Thank you for awesome history we never knew.
check out mark felton! he poppin' too
This channel is just slightly better than average production quality. Narrator is great, but their writing is honestly not very good. Mark Felton is a good shout, he's a real amateur historian and a good storyteller.
@@WildWestRaider yes! And for a more detailed account of ww2 history TIK History is the best I found!
I still like this channel but they make at least one mistake every video. On all of their channels. If I didn't know the specifics on a video I just scroll through the comments and a bunch of people will be complaining about a mistake. Apparently the dirlewanger brigade was the evilest group.
We knew
Great video. Good information. Especially good footage of the German equipment. AS a model builder I always appreciate good material.
The usual good narration of this channel paired with almost random WW2 images.
Every Soldier, Marine, Sailor and Airmen from the City should now see..where modern psyops, and undercover domestic police forces, learned their concept. This is a Good one!
The Brandeburgers were the German version of special forces, like the British SAS and SOE who fought in a risky untraditional ways. Cannot be compared with the Dirlewanger and RONA brigades( russians in german service) which were really cruel war criminals.
Anyway there was a book named "Kommando" German Special forces of World War two, By James Lucas 245p. reporting on the activities of the Brandenburgers. For those who want to learn more.
im glad i watched this... this is the 'something new' i learned today
Most evil surely not but the unit that broke the terms of waging war absolutely yes !
Thank you for video sir
I have to say, I tried a free trial of The Great Courses in the past and absolutely loved it!! I may have to try Wondrium, I simply cannot watch enough documentaries, especially military/history docs.
This isn't evil ! Every Army has units like this. Ever hear of SOC ? Special Operations Command.
I've never these stories about this unit. Whatever anyone thinks of these guys, can you imagine the level of bravery requisite for such action? And, I don't see how the title of the vid fits
My great grandfather was in one of this Brandenburg units. The members were often from the actual State of now Brandenburg. I still live in Brandenburg an der Havel, 70 Kilometers in the west of Berlin. A Beautiful medival Town with a population of 80.000.
U google it? Lol
@@osamabagdadi5789 no :D visit the city it’s Beautiful
Great writing an acting in this reenactment. Few guns was outta place but it's like I was watching it in real time.
Imagine being the guy responsible for finding the explosives, the ones they're just about to detonate. Damn... He'd have to find them and then disarm them while hoping his buddies could prevent them from going off. Imagine being the other guys knowing your friend is handling the explosives! Holy cow, I think I'd want to be the guy peeling potatoes...
Great and interesting video. Thanks for your hard work. Pay no attention to the people who want to complain about little things in your videos when they are enjoying your hard work for free.
"Little things". Ha!
truly the strongest people. even after their country has been flooded with monsters, they still lead the way for the rest of the e.u.
You haven't got a clue
@@robdeam7893 and I'm sure you think you've got it all figured out with the rest of the lemmings
They don't even try to kick out the "monsters". Idiots, not strongest.
Bunch of money and power hungry mofos. Now the truth surfacing. Hard times will come uppon the EU.
These Docs are F.!king excellent. 👌
Great video keep them coming
When the Blitzkrieg came to halt the Brandenburgers being at the Eastern were held as special forces but the front commanders had no idea how to use them. The more that the local officers didn't like them as they were non of their own. Thus they became used as canon fodder. They were claimed to be special forces and so they used them for the most dangerous tasks, so for instance to clear a forest. As they were not trained as regular infantery they suffered heavy losses.
In 1944 in Brandenburg another special task force had been prepared and then depolyed in the Ardenne offensive where they acted in American uniforms to disturb the allied lines of communication and to desorganize troop movements. The captured were sentenced to death as war criminals. A few of them gave testimony in the allied radio propaganda transmissions to German soldiers and called up to surrender. Stefan Heym, a German novel writer who served in the US Army would later write about it.
By time of battle of the bulge no longer special as used up as regular infantry
Clark did the same thing in Italy
That's mostly bullshit.
@@Cherryking400 , whom bothers the shit of a bull named Cherrybomb?
FWIW, the insignia for the Brandenburgers was a downward pointing sword, superimposed with a question mark (there was also a motorcycle club, founded in Eisbergen, Germany, with the same name/insignia)
MY great grandfather had joined of the Brandenburg Elite in the late part of the war, in one of his story he crawls out of his foxhole only to find himself surrounded by very drunk soviets, he then acts as though he were a paret of their group before snuk away.
its crazy that there is still a plethora of things from back then that are sealed and redacted for good
One real educational and important military-history video.. - Outstanding for a platform just for clicks..
"Hans we're awarding you the iron cross, for bravery in the face of overwhelming fire from your own side."
Appreciate your content. I couldn't help noticing the footage of American GIs with M1 Garands which had no relevance to the German-Polish, German-Dutch situations
It's got to be difficult to find new footage these days. I'll bet that's why the audio speed is turned up.
Poland was also being invaded by the Russians from the other direction at the same time. So Poland didn't stand much of a chance. They keep calling out the German invasion and keep forgetting to include the Russian invasion going on at the same time, so no one thinks about what the Russians were doing until Germany attacked the Russians.
And France and England don´t declare the war at SU for this....
Exactly like Patton said I think we're fighting the wrong enemy after it was to late..after helping the Russians they started threaten us with nukes..what away to think u for help we sh we would have stayed out ofit n let the Germans run over the Crimea n destroy it to the ground..only thing anyone can disagree with is the concentration camps n mistreated pows
No mention of Otto Skorzeny? No mention of any operations in Italy? You missed tons of stuff, all relevant and all about the Brandenburgers.
bla bla bla.....bla bla.....
Skorzeny was more of a self-promoting glory hound than a commando officer.
_Brandenburger_ were affiliated to the Abwehr and the Wehrmacht. Skorzeny was an SS and the RHSA took over the military intelligence later in the war.
IMHO, the Dirlewanger Brigade holds the distinction of being the "most evil" German troops
Well narrated and great visuals
Ur channel is 2nd only to the king mark felton and for me. Thats quite a compliment my boy
New phone, new level of frustration. People tell me, "just play with it!". Frankly, I'd rather play with almost anything else.
I recommend the book blood and soil by Sepp Di Giampietro
Your story is great and really engaging, but seeing a BMP1 or AK is a little bit of a setback.
I wouldn't be too harsh. Giving good videos all the time you have to expect the odd fuckup with a wrong pic occasionally. I'd let it slide.
Well, I watched it twice. No AK or BMPs that I could see. Hope you're not confusing Stg 44s for AKs.
At 11:42 there's clear footage of an AK.
Bmp appears at 11:47
@@trojanthedog At the risk of being a rivet counter the STg.44 would still be too late of a weapon for the early war
They were the Elite German Troops period.
How about the spy soldier at 11:42 from ww2 with the ak47? these guys were so good they went into the future and got weapons that didn't exist
Brandenburgers were something rather different for its time. Canaris married Stormtrooper/Hutier doctrine and classical spycraft and created something that had a lot in common with SAS and was ahead of its time (like the SAS, of course). Sadly a lot of the documents were destroyed when Canaris was accused of high treason and executed by the Nazis.
They have a bit of a mixed image here in Germany, due to the fact that they did not prevent the Lemberg progroms by their attached "Nightingale" battailon and the shooting of civilians as revenge against partisan attacks on German troops. Things escalated when the KSK general Günzel published a book praising the Brandenburger in a rather unfitting and gloryfiing way.
Bit sad actually as people like the Brandenburger Major Knaak and General Major Oster were against the National Socialists and at least partially involved in the failed assassination attempt on Hitler. But a lot of them also were antisemitic, extremely hostile against democracy and German national advocates of the Kaiserreich, similar to Admiral Canaris.
That was great thanks guys
During The Balkan campaign they were also used extensively with great success .
It got a few things wrong.
The end for example. A bunch of them were transfered into the Jagdverbände and Frontaufklärungskommandos/Frontaufklärungstrupps.
Thanks
Uber video from Dark series as usual keep it up !
So train a bunch of troops posing as friendlies that if any of them are caught it is an automatic death sentence on the spot? Wonder how that recruitment sales pitch went..
If the group of Inglorious Bastards had a nemesis, this would be them
WW2 was Man vs. Evil and Man lost
The Brandenburg Boys caused panic in the American ranks.... no doubt about that . Otto S. Wanted to deploy them in larger numbers and earlier during the Allied Landings but the mediocre painter from Austria stopped him.
It is Gennip, not Gennap and Stavelot is a town in Belgium, not in The Netherlands.
Fair and informative, thanks from germany
I love this channel but the Brandenburg Commando's are far from as evil as the Dirlewanger Brigade
Are video sponsors new or am I dumb? Good to see you get your money either way. Great video as always friend
Great video, amazing military unit. Can you do a video on Operation Gladio the stay behind NATO secret op plan? BTW, @4:53, von Hipple studied German WW1 tactics not WW2, he served in the African theater in WW1.
As always well done and interesting of WWII history I had not heard of. 👏👏🍺🍺!
The German octoberfest ad before this video is sus..
This MO was also used inthe village where I grew up, along the Roer (Ruhr) river, Netherlands. Germans captured the local bridge while wearing dutch army uniforms. Still don't know the exact way it went down. And if these commandos were also deployed here. I'll try to find out
Love your work dark docs but some of this footage seems inaccurate - footage of the start of operation barbarossa seemed to show troops with the german assault rifle- the mp43 and 44 wasnt given out to troops until much later i thought "the first MP 43s were distributed to the Waffen-SS; in October 1943" barbarossa was June 1941- i hate it when filw footage is inaccurate - apologies if I'm incorrect- perhaps the footage was from later in the war and happed to play while Barbarossa was being mentioned - thanks
I sure did learn a lot about Wondrium! :)
8:11 - Quick Question, does anyone know what model of tank (actually a self propelled gun) that is ???
Thanks in advance
I like the bmp and the AK, after all the Germans inspired both of them.
And it's hard finding footage from the second world war.
Mosfilm has all the German news reels
thanks for sharing this wonderful video
awesome video
It is interesting that the German regulars, would hold the identical position to an unorthodox commando squad, as did the British regulars, toward the earliest incarnation of the SAS in the African desert. Perhaps the very fact that using tactics which were not formalised, yet were remarkably successful, was enough to spur commanders to eschew the loss of control. Fear is likely the determinant here?
Most German generals opposed the formation of the Brandenburgers, they considered their means to be dishonorable.
My father was an American officer in WWII. Toward the end of the war, an American "officer" entered a mess hall on an American base in Italy where my dad was. The man said: "I'm exhausted! I walked 20 kilometers today!" My dad thought it was odd that an American would mention kilometers. My dad asked the guard if the man had been checked and he supposedly had. The guy ate, left and a short time later they found out he was a German spy.
i love how he states nonsense like comparing the roman pretorian legion to the brandenburg regiment with one sentence, then never mention it again
11:40 why AK-47 and BMP-1?
Anyway still time lovely documents
Lets be honest, everyone has their own "Most Evil Troops." 😉
My wife was watching a bit of history about frito-lay and i suddenly hear a familiar voice, is that yours? Are you narrating this in your free time for us all to enjoy? Or am i mistaken?
Admiral Canaris was head of the Abwhere...Secret Service...and although complex..this man either through being inept..or an Anglophile was eventually executed by his own...
(Just adding)...I believe Canaris was an intellect that was playing a VERY risky game...that even the German Nazis knew..when they executed him just days before the war in Europe ended..(for the life of meI apologise that I cannot remember which Concentration Camp it was....was it Flossenburg?)
Canaris was passing information onto the Allies , Himmler didn’t like it and had him hung naked with piano wire. Can’t remember where either.
At 11:42. That is an AKM type AK-47. It’s a stamped receiver
Great video and content again! Just subscribed & look forward to your next video!! Happy Thanksgiving!
Cheers man,
So they were like the SAS but for the German Army........ I wonder if they show up in the " Rogue Heroes " series on Epix movie channel or soon to be " MGM+ "
11:49 what vehicle is this?
Anthony is absolutely right.
Good work ..lots of footage of cold war Soviet cold troops from the 1970s ..
I'm surprised Germany didn't try doing commando ops against British ports or airfields, like the British did
It’s almost like they weren’t allowed to do to much damage to Britain. Look at the difference in the two sides bombing raids. The whole thing was contrived
@@monkmoto1887 Germans killed 90,000 British civilians in the Blitz. That’s quite a few ! Britain is an island and we had a better navy. Adolf’s Commando order of 1942 shows what a bad loser he was especially after instructing the expansion of the Brandenburgers in 1939.
@@johnbooth3073 And the bombing of Dresden, which is nowhere near the size of London, killed over 100.000 civilians. Of the 54 largest cities with inhabitants over 100.000, only 4 survived without significant damage, with an estimate of around 800.000 civillian deaths.
Do you know how to catch a group of unique German Commandos hiding in the woods???
Unique up on 'em....
Lol
You misspelled The secrets of Germanys most BADASS troops.
They don't seem evil. They sound smart.
evil and smart are coworkers…
Thanks Onedrm
Seems like they were more sneaky/crafty than evil.
Though wearing the wrong uniforms during a war is considered a crime.
Being caught in a foreign uniform usually gets one summarily executed.
I always thought taking out two metres of track here and there, and replacing the gaps with plastic shaped tracks would really slow things down and have a powerful psychological effect on the hun. 👍🇬🇧
That's great but they didn't have plastic in the 1940s, best they had was bakelite. (still would have been effective though)
You do understand that the "Polish Corridor" was Germany before 1918.
Imagine driving from Boston to NYC, but Connecticut was an Angry version of Canada.
With Americans living there.
So yeah, Easy to find help in "Poland".
The Brandenburgers were the Kiaser's favorite elite force as well.
You are very good at telling stories and I like your program very much. But you forgot to tell the role the Br4anderburgers played during the occupation of Denmark, that came before the Netherlands.
had the Danes been able to jump the railway bridge on the border between Tyakland and Denmark (which, by the way, had not been prepared on the Danish side), the outcome of the battle with DK and Norway might have changed a bit
They don't know who they face on!!!!..they though they crime Will beat me🤣🤣🤣...i love this mindgame🤣🤣🤣💪💪
I like the Russian footage with BMPs and AKs very period correct 😅