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So hyped this has the potential to be one of the best Pearl harbour programs in history, the build up is so intense, and soon the dominos will begin to finally fall and all hell will break loose.
German Armies in the USSR and North Africa: "We're greatly under-strength and under-supplied at this time." Hitler: "Check out this cool model of a new monument I have planned!!!"
I was thinking the same thing. Hitler seemed to be suffering from delusions of grandeur from the very start of his rise to power. Those who jumped on his bandwagon seem to have been motivated by pure greed, and they took advantage of Hitler's delusions of grandeur to manipulate him to their advantage. This time, Speer disregards the war shortages and gets Hitler to commit to a massive building project from which Speer is sure to get kick-backs, kick-backs, kick-backs. Speer doesn't care about supplying German troops as long as he can line his pockets. Greed was the motivating force behind the major players in the German war machine, the lives of others meant nothing to them.
Hitler was a drug addict, and, undoubtedly, a tad crazy. He was more focused on achieving his visions, rather than trying to ensure that Germany would win a war.
Interesting how Udet's suicide managed to have a 2x matching fatality effect on the Luftwaffe's brass. I can only imagine how delighted Udet would have been had Göring been added to the casualty list for his funeral...
An obviously talented flyer, Udet was a heavy drinker (even his personal plane had a drinks cabinet on board) and he was unable to cope with the administrative demands of his job. He was also in conflict with Erhard Milch, who took over many of Udet's functions and duties after his suicide. The suicide was not officially admitted - the Reich media said Udet had died in an accident while testing new equipment.
In reality, Udet probably helped to cripple the Luftwaffe's development. His insistence that all bombers, including the Ju-88 and HE-177 have the ability to dive bomb was ridiculous. Most other aircraft that were designed and built after 1939, with the exceptions of the FW-190 and ME-262, were mediocre at best, and disasters at worst. Ironically, and this is a rather nasty thing to say, but his death actually helped the Luftwaffe by putting someone in charge who knew what they were doing. Fortunately for us, it was probably too late by then.
Imagine the Germans got to Moscow and the whole thing wasn't there. Every brick and shingle and stick of furniture loaded onto railcars and shipped to the east. At least they had to burn it down when Napoleon arrived to stop him from using it, Stalin would probably just move the whole thing and laugh about it.
At 2:53, the German machine-gunner has stick and egg grenades on his right. The former have the bottom unscrewed with the pull cords hanging out. This was done to arm the grenade - the cord had a small porcelain ball at the end. To start the fuse the cord was pulled all the way out, and then the grenade was thrown. The gunner looks like he has done everything except pull them all the way out, and is expecting to use them. The Germans found that in the depths of the 1941/2 winter the stick grenade was often the only weapon that still worked. Their rifles and machine-guns froze up but the grenades were more resistant.
Yes dude, that screw piece would freeze so easily that this way is better for ready use. But imagine if the porcelain part got frozen attached to his clothes.
Axis delusions know no end.....yammomato told everyone theyd have to invade the u s and get fdr to surrender in the white house to ever best the Americans....which he knew was unrealistic to say the least.... But the warlords in charge thought we'd just lay down and die after pearl harbir
@@scottaznavourian540 Not quite, the Japanese plan was to deprive the us of the ability to counterattack for a year and use that time to build an impenetrable perimeter of ships and airfields. They didn't expect the us to die, but they did expect to buy enough time to to have an unassailable position.
"Hold my sake....." Seriously though, Japan was in the same position as Germany was in 1941. They had larger imperial ambitions but didn't possess the resources to achieve them with their current conquests. They also didn't have the resources to continue the war as it was currently going with the economic sanctions and embargos in place. If they wanted to hold on to what they already had, they had to advance into new territory in order to both keep their possessions and achieve their larger political goals. Their choices were down to either attacking, or suing for a negotiated peace. And we know what both Germany and Japan chose, to the detriment of the entire world.
@@porksterbob they very well might've built that unassailable position using the people of the country too, we were so terrified of a land invasion we nuked two cities to force their hand
The video is wrong. The British knew that the development in Malaya in the 30s had made it a lot more traversable, but they didn't have the men or the ship's to spare. Their plan was to leave it to the air service and they built airfields through Malaya but the planes were delayed due to the fight in North Africa. Also, no one told the people on the ground in Singapore to update the defensive strategy based on not having an air force. The British Defense was still geared to holding northern airfields even when they knew the planes weren't coming.
The real strategy is stop Japan getting enough oil and crusial materials to slow her conquests down (and help China) while US builds more ships than Japan can ever dream off. UK busy vs Germany but Australia/NZ/India can put off forces in the Pacific vs Japan. Just not match her fleet.
Ya don't say? Thank you for telling us. It's not like all these comments are on a video about that exact same topic or anything... Sarcasm, look it up.
Don't know if this has already been mentioned in the comments, but here it is. Indy said the Russians were better trained to handle severe cold weather. That is true, but also, and possibly more significant, is the fact that the Russian uniforms and other equipment was better designed to protect from severe cold.
Interesting that the Germans did not plan adequately for the winter. They assumed the USSR would be defeated in 12 to 16 weeks which would be the middle of October. When the winter weather started they were not properly prepared.
They learned some lessons from the war in Finland, such as issuing more quilted uniforms that gave better insulation than the long overcoats, although the latter remained in widespread use. Their weapons were rough and ready and less sophisticated than the German ones but they stood up to extreme cold much better.
The mutual sinking of the Sydney & Kormoran is truly a fascinating episode. It's just astonishing that one of the flagships of the Australian navy could be sunk by a commerce raider. The Australian tendency to complacency when there's no visible enemy has never been more evident. Of course, they become tigers when the enemy is apparent.
When the ship returned from fighting the Italians in the Mediterranean, the ship got a new and inexperienced captain. No doubt they thought it was a safe time and place to give him some experience, although it proved not to be.
Kormoran was armed with 6 150mm guns and 6 torpedo tubes so it almost had the same firepower as Sydney with her 8 150mm guns and 8 torpedo tubes. As an actual warship Sydney had better speed, armor and fire control but all these advantages were negated by the action happening at very close range and Sydney seems to have been taken completely by surprise. One of the most fascinating naval actions of ww2 in my opinion.
@@lukum55 Element of surprise gives a huge edge in combat. I've read that many naval commanders viewed warships posing as commercial ships as a dirty tactic.
The first shot from the German ship was fired before they showed their military colours and it took out the command tower. The fact that an inexperienced crew with little to no central command was able to react and deal a death blow before sinking shows how well trained they were. At that time Australian/NZ waters were considered to be out of reach of enemy vessels.
The Captain of HMAS Sydney was apparently completely deceived by Kormoran's disguise as Strata Malacca. For some inexcusable reason she failed to follow established tactical doctrine in approaching and identifying a suspect raider by coming close alongside. As a result Captain Detmers of the Kormoran got off his first fatal salvo at point blank range. He could scarcely believe his luck and but for some lucky undirected fire from Sydney, Detmers might have claimed an improbable complete victory over a cruiser. HMAS Sydney outgunned Kormoran and had several options for safely dealing with her using well established procedures and tactics. Why Sydney's captain failed to take these may never be known.
"This is the world's largest carrier fleet. Six aircraft carriers with heavy support." America: "That's a good idea. What if we had four of those operating together?"
@@yourstruly4817 What war? Japan is surely going to be deterred. Singapore's a fortress and travelling to Pearl Harbor will require a large amount of fuel which they are lacking. There's no way they're gonna risk attacking the US and it's allies.
The kido butai did operate together. They were better at carrier operations than the Americans. What they lacked was enough modern carriers, good damage control, and the ability to rapidly replace losses.
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It was something of a plum posting in many ways and this was apt to encourage complacency. I read that the US military were more afraid of sabotage by the large number of Japanese expatriates in Hawaii than of air attack, so they parked planes close together so as to be able to guard them better.
They were probably manually-cycling the bolt after every shot. The cold weather messes with the lubricants and recoil springs and makes them freeze up to the point where the empty casings don't get ejected. I've had the same thing happen to an M-16 on the range, having to manually eject every round gets tedious fast.
@@Raskolnikov70 Yes, but then it would be better to not use them but instead only bolt action rifles, far more accurate and far more easy to carry around. BTW, where is your range? Siberia? Alaska?
*I'm about to end an entire type of ship's whole relevance as a naval unit..... (before someone brings up supporting duties like fire support or AA, it;'s not worth building a capital ship just for those roles, especially for AA when two CLAAs matched one battleship in AA effectiveness with a fraction of the expenses; even for fire support subcapital units proved more efficient strategically, and sometimes also tactically).
@@bkjeong4302 Eh, don't discount battlehips just yet. Carrier aircraft would have been helpless to save the convoy and turn back Scharnhorst in the Battle of North Cape, due to sea state and a driving blizzard. But HMS Duke of York had no such limitations. Carrier aircraft could not have held Savo Island and protected the vulnerable beachhead and airfield from bombardment, because the Japanese surface forces conducted their attacks at night. But USS South Dakota and USS Washington could, as they demonstrated in the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. And it was not aircraft carriers that held Surigao Strait in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
@@VRichardsn Those three are literally the only cases in WWII where battleships were necessary. You're cherry-picking. And in Second Guadalcanal only Washington did an thing (South Dakota was there, but did absolutely nothing to the enemy other than distracting them, then stole credit afterwards)
I'm not sure if that Australian Division marked "2" is accurate, The Australians had their 6th, 7th and 9th divisions doing various things in the Middle East and North Africa, while other units were deployed everywhere from Malaya to Britain, but their 2nd Division was at home and not overseas.
Lol, wait a few more days and the maps will be completely useless. Crusader is in the running with the Battle of Karánsebes for the "most confusing battle in history" title.
4:56 - Adolf Galland is standing on the right of the funeral casket (whether that of Udet or Mölders I don't know). Galland and Mölders were friends and at the same time rivals to an extent. Ironically Udet, a talented artist, had drawn a cartoon of Galland and Mölders competing to shoot down British aircraft. They have shotguns and have laid out small Spitfires on the ground like hunters with shot game birds. (I would link to it but have not found it on the Internet.)
A point about those great coastal guns at Singapore, the issue with then in future will not be that they can't turn around to face land. The issue will be that they have not been stocked with HE shells but only AP shells meant for ships. But of course, there's no way they'd ever need HE shells to deal with infantry of anything right? right?
The Singapore Fortress Command had no fire control gunnery tables for 15-inch HE shells and they had been requested from Middle East Command. In January the two Fortress fire commands of Singapore had found exactly one 15-inch HE shell at the Singapore Naval Base. !5-inch HE shells were ordered from the Middle East Command and 9.2-inch HE shells from Ceylon and the UK. Shortage of 6-inch and 9.2-inch AP and Semi AP shells was offset by stocks of WW1 older type shells. The Naval Base, the Air bases, beach defenses (even on the south coast of Singapore Island) were incomplete. The Naval surface search and gunnery fire control radars on order from Australia had not been delivered.
That lonely Slovak 1st division is already so far away from home, all the way close to Rostov. Clearly the Slovaks are dedicated to the war against the USSR.
As the British WW1 song put it, "We're here because we're here because we're here because we're here." The Slovaks coped better than others in some ways - Slovak is somewhat mutually intelligible with Ukrainian and to a lesser extent with Russian. They could communicate with the locals. German, Hungarian and Romanian troops had more language problems on the Eastern Front.
@@robertsimms8174 Yeah, supplies convoy in Russia is great and totally has winter clothes right? Right guys? We totally won’t freeze to death and get frostbite guys. Right?
2:02 I doubt those sentries accidentally fell asleep. At these temperatures, hypothermia will eventually zap so much energy from anyone that the natural response is to go to sleep. They probably physically could not keep awake.
Probably but if they fall asleep they will die. I suspect they wanted to light fires - on both sides - but especially at night that will attract enemy fire.
You'd be surprised. Armies are remarkably efficient at denying soldiers sleep for the stupidest reasons. They'll have you standing around or doing busywork for 18 hours a day and then expect you to pull sentry or CQ duties at night instead of doing the smart thing and giving the people who are supposed to be protecting the unit enough time to rest up beforehand. There was always an attitude of "just tough it out" when it comes to being tired, hurt, sick, etc... instead of paying attention to nature and logic.... /rant
Consider yourself in a pub. You are having a brawl with some other guy and winning but with difficulty. When you go back to the bar to sip your drink and buy yourself some courage Conor McGregor stops your hand, tells you you've drunk enough and should stop hiting the little China guy. Do you : A) Turn your back on him and return fighting though you're still thirsty and show him your back B) Say "ok", help the little guy back on his feet pay for everyone's drink and return home humiliated C) Sucker-punch McGregor while he's not looking and hope he doesn't get back up Choice is yours Japan
Makes you wonder how stretched the Luftwaffe was at that point. If planes are dropping out of the sky on non-combat supply runs, just how worn out are they?
@@Raskolnikov70 Well, it is likely that the Lufwaffe's combat aircraft have priority on everything (parts, repair space, etc.) so the ongoing rot of that arm is first visible in the cargo planes. The fact that they lost some 300 cargo planes at Crete probably doesn't help. They never recovered those numbers and so the remainder are being worked extra hard.
"... if the Japanese get nippy..." How Cheeky. Even without reading the (ac)credit, one would [obviously] realize a Brit was the culprit. It's like "We're having a bit a problem here." (A lot of conflicts and probably said by a lot of commanding officers) or "Our guns seem to be malfunctioning today" (Jacky Fisher? If I remember correctly? WWI, Battle of Jutland?) Sucks getting old when you can't remember all the stuff you are suppose to.
On 19 November takes place the Battle of Bir El Gobi. British 22nd Armoured Brigade clashes against the Italian Ariete Armoured Division in a major tank battle. The British had slightly more and better tanks. The Italians had infantry and artillery support. It was a battle more or less on equally terms. The Italians defeated the British forcing the 22nd Brigade to retreat with heavy losses.
Indy is so good! Part of me wishes I'd found this channel earlier. The other part is glad that I don't have to wait a week for installments, I can go back to other parts of the war that I missed.
I’m surprised to hear you repeat the myth that Singapore’s 15” guns faced the wrong way and could not be fired at the Japanese approaching from the north. They could and did fire at the Japanese but they had very few high explosive shells and their armour piercing shells buried themselves in the soil which made them largely ineffective. Many dreadful mistakes were made in Singapore’s defence strategy but the field of fire of these guns was not one of them.
I read that, as with Hong Kong, the access to water was the real Achilles heel - plus though I think I am getting confused with something else, wasn't their a mention of espionage contributing to Singapore's downfall?
@@malcolmanon4762 The British likely could have held the city even with a lack of water. The Japanese were stretched very thin, particularly their supply lines. But British commanders (most of them at least) didn't know or believe this and didn't counter attack.
The fall of Singapore is such a hard read, so much incompetence and abject failure by the defenders when they outnumbered the invaders by tens of thousands.
Timestamps: 1:12 Operation Typhoon - German AG Center This Week 3:30 German Advances in the South This Week 3:57 Death of Werner Mölders 4:59 War Against Humanity - State of Soviet POWs 5:48 Start of Operation Crusader 9:10 Phone Call Reference - Beginning of Operation Z & Allied Response 14:19 Sinkings of HMAS Sydney & Kormoran 14:43 Changes in British Command 15:00 Summary of the Week 15:20 Worried About Japan? Don’t Be
Point of order, the colonial naval base is at Sembawang, another part of Singapore, not at Changi, that Changi naval base opened way later.... at 2004.
Such was the poor state of the relationship between British and Australian Generals in 1941, Blamey's Australian Corps consisting of the 6th, 7th and (newly relieved from Tobruk) 9th divisions was sidelined in northern Syria rather than participating in Operation Crusader. Australian soldiers would have been very handy in Crusader but Auchinleck and Blamey hated each other. Interesting question about the value of Singapore but the loss of British prestige there ultimately meant the end of the British Empire. Suez looked important but its only value in 1941 and 1942 was to enable the resupply of Egypt from the Indian Ocean not to maintain links between Britain and the Empire. Virtually all convoys to India, SE Asia and Australia from the UK went via Capetown for several years. The modern aircraft and tanks diverted from Singapore by Churchill went to the Soviet Union not the UK. Sir John Dill headed British representation on the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee in Washington established to approve all military action. Among other measures it worked to limit Churchill's influence over strategy from early 1942 on. Dill had the last laugh.
While it is a popular claim, it is absolutely incorrect to claim that the 15" guns at Singapore cannot fire to defend the land ward approaches to the city, that they "can only fire out to sea". The three guns at Johore Battery had full 360 arcs of fire, while the two guns at Buono Vista Battery had more restricted arcs of fire and did not engage the Japanese attackers in 1942 at all. What really hampered these guns was a lack of high explosive ammunition, as armor piercing shells with thick walls do not produce nearly as many small fragments for killing personnel as the thinner walled HE round, and has a bursting charge just over 1/3 the weight of the HE shell.
I was going to mention the very same thing. What will become a another failure however was the defence planning as a whole in Malaya. not pulling back into defence positions, and fall back positions, along Muar to Rompin , and batu pahat to mersing respectively, along appropriate defences lines was a massive blunder that cost the lives of a great number. And with the hindsight of The Japanese supplies would have be likely been enough to stop them in their tracks.
I've noticed the lack of HE shells as a reoccurring theme in forts built in that period. The batteries outside San Francisco, also built in the interwar years, and armed with 15" guns also only had AP shells. Seems like they should have had some variety even just to increase their lethality against smaller ships.
@@RolfHartmann the batteries in San Francisco are probably 16" guns, as the US never built a 15" gun. One reason for the big guns only having is AP is that fortifications would normally have other batteries with smaller weapons for smaller ships that big guns would otherwise use HE against. Fortifications at Oahu in 1941 (for example) included four 16" guns, two 12" guns, eight 8" guns, and twelve 155 mm guns, in addition to sixteen 3" guns primarily for AA duty.
@@RolfHartmann It should be stated, In the case of Singapore, if the the guns are operating in a (in)direct fire role, you've already lost. So in may respects they're irrelevant. The reason being is that they had a max range of 30ish thousand yards, this falls far to short to even cover the reservoir 90 thousand yards away. And that was the absolute key. Lose the reservoir, you lose Singapore.
OverSimplified comes to mind in this episode. German Generals: "Sir, it's getting too cold! Our soldiers are freezing to death! We should halt our attack." Hitler: "Nope. Keep going." German Generals: "But oil is literally freezing in our vehicles. We should dig in and wait until spring!" Hitler: "Completely normal. Keep going."
@@andmos1001 What you were told and trained in the youth camp a strong and steel hearted Aryan drinks air when he is out of rations and fight for fatherland So keep going basterds
If you're ever in Geraldton, Western Australia pay a visit to the HMAS Sydney Memorial, it's centrepiece is the Dome of Souls, constructed of 645 steel sea gulls representative of the lives lost.
My Dad's best friend was killed at Sidi Rezegh in Dec 41 during Operation Crusader. Fred Vevers aged 18 from Headingley in Leeds...he was 18 and has no known grave. RIP Fred xx😢
When you look at the number of German armies that invaded the Soviet Union with what the British encountered in Africa, you understand the importance of the Soviet Union in the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Britain was in Africa to defeat the Italians who had invaded its colonies and had designs on taking Egypt. The fact that Britain was in the war at all meant that Germany had to deploy as many divisions and aircraft assets away from Russia as were in Russia demonstrating the importance of the British in the defeat of Nazi Germany.
@@dougie1943 My point was really that the Soviet Union's great contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany is often underestimated. I should have been more clear about that. The Soviet Union had between 2/3 up to 3/4 of the German troops against it. A very, very big relief, not least for Great Britain.
I really appreciate these weekly episodes. When I was a kid I would spend the weekends with my grandfather who had been in the pacific during the war, we would spend hours comparing books and talking about the various facets of the war. This feels like I’m back there, the smell of his coffee and maps splayed out across the dining room table. So thank you
Come on, there is no way Japan will attack both Britain and the USA. And with the Germans so close to Moscow, there is nothing that will keep the new offensive from reaching it.
This episode should have added a sentence, "the jungles of Malaya, North of Singapore, had long been thought by the British to be impassable to a major military force. However, development of Malaya's rubber economy had added a lot of new infrastructure over the 1930's"
I've read about most of this, but the little nuances I was unaware of constantly surprise me. It's like watching a horror movie and saying, "Don't open that door!" Instead it's, "Pay attention to the Japanese!" It's almost worse, knowing what is going to happen. Too often we fall into the Monday morning quarterback role and start criticizing decisions that were made without that knowledge of what the outcome would be. I don't envy the men making these decisions based on what is essentially their best guess as to what will keep the world from turning upside down.
I'm sure those AA guns on HMS Prince of Wales will take care of those aircraft in a flash. If not, they can always count in the Brewster Buffalos from the RAF airfields in Malaya and Singapore. Surely the Japanese aircraft can't be that good compared to the West?
@@gunman47 AA guns....nowhere near as effective (even at the best of times) as pop culture assumed. Even the late-war AA defences with proximity fuses and such didn't stop "most attacking aircraft" as popularly believed (though they were still helpful), and fighter screens did far more of the work.
@@bkjeong4302 Look at a picture of a US cruiser or battleship from '44-'45. Those things are bristling with AA guns tacked on to every available deck space. The idea wasn't to hit the planes directly, it was to throw up such a thick screen of flak that the attacking planes couldn't get close or aim properly.
@@Raskolnikov70 And even with that AA suit fighter screen both downed AND deterred far more enemy aircraft. And then there is the fact being able to deter aircraft doesn’t mean a battleship can actually beat a carrier (since the carrier is still too far away to shoot at, and can maintain this distance).
Indy, I recommend a special on German raider Atlantis. Subject of a movie, Under 10 Flags, and ATO publishing just released a 2-player board game simulating the hunt for the Atlantis. He sunk or captured over 145,000 tons of Allied shipping. His commander, Capt Rogge, was noted for the humane treatment of captured merchant sailors and was able to joint the post-war Bundesmarine as an Admiral.
I always wondered how Japan would operate if they had American industrial capacity and abundant resources? They are literally going to invade Malaysia and Indonesia, while striking the US pacific fleet because their own country is resource poor.
@@FakeAssHandsomeMcGee_ Japan with US industrial capacity would be an absolute nightmare to deal with in wartime. You do realize the US war economy dwarfed that of everyone else put together? And I suspect they'd still go after the Dutch East Indies for the oil.
@@bkjeong4302 I know the US industrial capacity was huge. I remember someone saying something about an incident where a German tank commander was telling the Americans that German tanks kept destroying the more numerous American tanks, but had to surrender because they ran out of ammunition. If Germany and Japan had huge industrial capacity and abundant resources that of the USSR or America, the war would be quite something. Probably more deadly. And it is telling seeing how Japan and Germany became the #2 and #3 economy respectively in the world post WW2 only behind the US. The USSR is often not included in the data that I see. Probably due to unreliable sources but I imagine behind the US.
Jolly good show by the chaps of the 8th army in Africa. The Mikado surely won't dare to attack Singapore now. It's an impenetrable fortress and now that the Repulse & Prince of Wales are on the way the empire should be well guarded from any potential threats.
I've become addicted to your week by week status of the war, even if I have nightmares thinking about the atrocities being committed. I'm a geezer so WWII was recent history growing up, my dad was in Burma and both his brothers served in Europe, all three survived the war. It is fascinating seeing events being played out on the world stage and trying to imagine what is must have been like for the various leaders, both military and civilian, trying to plot the best course of action.
The ending of the WWII is AWFUL So am I the only one upset about how WWII ended? I mean they built Hitler up to be the big bad and just when he is about to face justice, he goes and kills himself. WTF was the point of him if FDR and Churchill were not going to fight him in an epic duel to save the world? And don't get me started on FDR! They just kill him half way through the war. Truman totally did not deserve to win the war, his character arc was not about war winning. And it certainly wasn't about destroying two cities with bullshit deus ex super weapons that came out of no where. And another thing that pissed me off is that in the last episode of the war we find out that Stalin was a bad guy the entire time! Where was this foreshadowed to us? WTF, absolute character assassination. He was all about freeing the oppressed and bringing about a new system that wasn't shackling the poor and they made him a dictator? That is bullshit! Anyways, WWII was cool but its end was absolutely trash and I would like you guys to sign a petition to have it rewritten.
I have this feeling that Rommel isn't really impressed by the spectacular break out from Tobruk to nail his forces once and for all (8:53) and would have calmly answered his informants: "oh really?"
A note to give a better perspective of Army Group South advance: "taking Rostov, they would be about 300kms from the footsteps of the Caucasus". Well yes, oilfields at Maykop, which *SPOILER* they WILL REACH, are some 300kms from Rostov BUT the big prize are the oilfields at Baku, which lies more than a 1000kms south... of Rostov. And the Wehrmacht are just now having the welcome of the tough-as-nails siberian troops for whom fighting at -30° is their bread and butter. I rest my case at Nazi chances to beat the USSR...
11:12 No, no no! These batteries did NOT only pointed out to sea! Why do people still think that?! They were all used during the Battle of Singapore, pointing and firing INLAND toward Japanese ground forces. The only reason they did not make an impact (literally) is because these batteries were armed with armor-piercing shells intended to penetrate heavily armoured enemy warships. When used against Japanese ground forces, more than half of these shells did not explode because they were shot straight into the soft sand and muddy soil, causing them failure to detonate. The ones that did go off were not effective to Japanese infantry because they were AP (armour-piercing) and not HE (high-explosive) rounds. Please do a more thorough research on the Asian theatre. I'm really hoping you guys do well on the Pearl Harbor coverage!
Thanks for pointing that out- you sure aren't the only one! There are several sources that make the claim that they did point out only to sea, and I relied on them, but our community can be more trustworthy on such physical issues. This is only a good thing because we strive to get the history as accurate as possible. I apologize for the error and stand corrected. / Indy
@@WorldWarTwo What sources? Tower of Skulls doesn't make the claim and it's the most recent book you should be using for the Asia Pacific War especially as it is explicitly about linking up what was happening in Asia with what was happening in Europe. This is the link to a picture of a plaque from one of the actual parks in Singapore (Labrador Nature Reserve) which has several of the gun emplacements preserved. pohliong.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/0/7/25074404/8751937_orig.jpg
@@WorldWarTwo Hello Indy, no apology needed. I was your fan since The Great War series and I learn more from you than any other sources on the two wars. I took World War Two as one of my electives in university and my professor explicitly stated the above with references thus it stuck. I also visited Singapore and was shown the same. I'm your biggest fan, glad you saw my post AND actually replied I'm honored!
Jungles aren't impenetrable by any means. I can understand how it would be hell for Europeans and Americans who don't know about citronella oil, but "impenetrable" only makes sense if you're thinking of cavalry and formation infrantry.
America & Britain: 'Yes, surely the aggressive Japanese MUST back down from not having enough resources but having enough military power to capture those resources!' Japan: 'Hold my carriers'
Indy and crew will you do a mention on the defense of Malta, thereby choking the supplies to Rommel (don't forget "Faith. Hope, and Charity", cheers from the SF Bay Area
@@gordonhopkins1573 I think you should be doing the reading but let me help you out here: For starters, there were not only 3, but between 6 and 12 (sources vary) crated Gloster Sea Gladiators left behind on Malta during early 1940. Of these, at least 4 were assembled with the rest kept in reserve or for spare parts. They did see some action against the Italians but by late June 1940 they were joined by Hawker Hurricanes which were far more capable, and a little later the air defences of the island was bolstered by more fighter squadrons arriving. The names - Faith, Hope and Charity was actually a creation of a local newspaper reporter months later but it stuck and was loved by the Information Office for its propaganda value. In plain language, it is one of those great enduring and endearing myths of WW2!
@@gordonhopkins1573 Nice article but incomplete. The Gloster Gladiators on Malta were indeed the carrier-borne versions called "Sea Gladiators" but had the arrestor hooks and other goodies removed since they were to operate from a land base. Extra armour was also added as well as a few other mods. Point is - The "Faith, Hope and Charity" story is a myth -a wartime propaganda fabrication! Even the article you cited agrees that there were at least 6 Gladiators on Malta. I can provide the serial number if you want, but I suggest you do your own research. Cheers bud.
Here is something for the future... The two ships that was sent to Malayia. Where warned by Australia and the Eas Indies NOT to go to Malayia and head instead to either india or Australia. But Churchill refused to listen to anyone about the threat of the Japanese in the East Indies. Also...Australia in terms of resources is unique, as coal and iron are found everywhere, but western Australia is where the mining for rare minerals and materials can be found. But thats for later...
I just wanted to remind people that already Indy has said that the age of the battleship is over. I'm not sure if twice, but I'm pretty sure once. If you're watching this for the first time, Indy will say this at least 3 more times before admirals stop doing dumb shit.
I'm about to finish up their WWI coverage, I'm on 1918 playlist now. Here I was behind so I joined when Operation Barbarossa began and will catch the rest as well in time.
8:24 the Italian victory at Bir El Gubi was impressive and showed that they learned to use armour (132nd Armoured Division "Ariete") in cooperation with infantry (8th Bersaglieri regiment), as opposed to the British, which attacked using only armoured forces, sustaining a very high number of losses against a numerical inferior enemy
Italian Army performance was mixed throughout entire war and varied according to different units. Arierte Armored Division which fought in Bir El Gubi or Folgore and Fruili Airborne Divisions , San Marco Marine Brigade or several Bersegliari regiments (not all though) were elite and best , performed as well as any Allied unit could on the field if not better even if their weapons and equipment were worse in critical catagories like armor and anti tank guns. The conscript Italian infantry divisions (which made up bulk of Italian Army) like Sabratha , Bologna , Pavia , Trento , Napoli etc..and Blackshirt units at the other hand performed much more poorer if they fought any when deployed on field though.
You know, these prefaces are becoming pretty brilliant if you ask me (and have been doing so for quite a while now). They are very funny, quizzing and brilliantly acted by Indy. Professional to the extreme. I guess they jibe very well with the excitement of another WW2 episode. Can't think of a better opening.
15 November 1941 Russia : German Panzer Armies 2, 3 and 4 with 2, 4, and 9. German Armies, resumed the attack on Moscow, Russia. Soviet 30th Army was pushed back from the Volga Reservoir and Moscow Sea Reservoir areas 75 miles north of Moscow. Across the Eastern Front, the temperature fell to -20 degrees Celsius, freezing both men and machines; the German offensive was generally slowed to a yard-by-yard advance from this date on. Mechanical failures due to extreme cold combined with operational losses in action and collapse of logistical system left only 150 panzers operational in 2nd Panzer Army. Even worse only small proportion of German troops issued winter clothing so far while Red Army Siberian troops equipped with full winter camauflage clothing and gear. On the battlefront, November 15 saw a complaint by SS General Eicke, now returned from Sachsenhausen to his Death’s Head Division, that within the division’s ranks many of the ethnic Germans-those of German language and culture who lived in areas outside the Germany of 1938-were wounding themselves in order not to have to serve any longer. Incidents of cowardice were common among them, Eicke wrote. But the pressures of battle were impinging even upon German nationals; since entering Russia four-and-a-half months earlier , the division lost 8.995 casaulties , half of its initial strengh. Libya : The first raid by newly formed SAS (Special Air Service) regiment on Axis airfields around Tobruk ended up with fiasco. SAS tropers were parachuted in by RAF amid a sandstorm. 32 of 55 raiders were either killed and captured and their objectives left intact. Regiment commander Capt. Stirling seeks cooperation with LRDG (Long Range Desert Group) transportation and infltration against enemy objectives next time. South East Asia : US Army dispatched troops to Dutch Guiana to protect bauxite mines; this was agreed upon by the Dutch government-in-exile. Hong Kong , China : 2.000 Canadian troops in two battalions arrived to Hong Kong to bolster up its defences Washington , USA : Japanese diplomatic envoy Saburo Kurusu arrived in the United States. Barents Sea : German submarine U-752 attempted to attack Soviet minelayer ZM-93 Jushar southeast of Murmansk, Russia at 1700 hours, but escorting minesweeping trawler T-889 forced U-752 to dive. At 1849 hours, U-752 fired a torpedo at T-889, sinking her and killing all 43 aboard Baltic Sea : German submarine U-583 collided with U-153 and sank 90 miles northeast of Danzig at 2148 hours, killing all 45 aboard. Mediterranean Sea : Italian SM.79 torpedo bombers sank British freighter Empire Defender of the Operation Astrologer convoy near the Galite Islands off the Tunisian coast, killing 4.
16 November 1941 Russia : German 3rd Panzer Army established a crossing over the Lama River 70 miles west of Moscow, Russia. In the Moscow region, Russian ski troops went into action for the first time. Mediterranean Sea : One of the turning points in war on sea. Royal Navy corvette HMS Marigold detected German submarine U-433 with centimetric wavelength Type 271 radar (first time in operational use) while she was approaching a small coastal convoy. By using radar guidence HMS Marigold attacked and badly damaged crash dived German submarine with depth charges 50 miles east of Gibraltar at 2255 hours. After U-433 surfaced, by using radar guidence again , HMS Marigold continued to attack her with guns. After suffering extremely heavy damage from gunfire , U-433’s crew scuttled their boat after suffering 6 killed; the 38 survivors were captured. The cavity magnetron equipped centimetric Type 271 surface radar which would be one of decisive weapons for Allies in naval war. Iceland : Allied convoy PQ-3 departed Hvalfjörður, Iceland in stormy weather. Japan : Obsolete Japanese battleship Settsu began to sail around the Inland Sea in Japan to generate fake radio communication messages at different ports. Crimea : The German 11th Army captured Kerch peninsula, Russia. Soviet Deputy Navy Commissar Admiral Gordei Levchenko was arrested after being deemed responsible for this defeat. Berlin , Germany : Even in the crisis of battle, the Nazi leaders could not rid themselves of their obsession with the imminent Final Solution. On November 16, Goebbels wrote in the magazine Das Reich : ‘The Jews wanted the war, and now they have it’. But, he added, ‘the prophecy which the Führer made in the German Reichstag on 30 January 1939 is also coming true, that should international finance Jewry succeed in plunging the nations into a world war once again, the result would not be the Bolshevization of the world and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe. We are in the midst of that process and thereby a fate fulfils itself for Jewry which is hard but which is more than deserved. Compassion or regret are entirely out of place here’.
17 November 1941 Beda Littoria , Libya : Operation Flipper , British commando raid on presumed headquarters of Rommel failed. The aim of operation was to kill and capture Rommel before Operation Crusader (British offensive on Cyreneica) started but the villa targeted by commandos (who landed on Libyan shore three days ago by submarine) was not Rommel’s HQ at all and Rommel himself was at Rome in a conferance by this time. In resulting attack two commandos (including their commander Lt. Col. Geoffrey Keyes) and four German troops killed , 27 commandos captured , only three of British radiers escaped and reached Allied lines at Tobruk. Germany : After a series of arguements with Luftwaffe Field Marshal Ernest Milch , and distressed with air operational failures in east , the disgraced Luftwaffe Chief Aircraft Developer Ernst Udet committed suicide Russia : German troops near Moscow, Russia fought Central Asian troops for the first time (Soviet 44th Cavalry Division) at Musino, Russia, 70 miles west of the capital. German artillery blunted the cavalry charges, with the Germans claiming 2,000 killed. On the Eastern Front, the German position, so impressive on the map, was worsening daily on the ground. By mid-November 1941 it had become so cold that sentries who accidentally fell asleep at their post were found frozen to death in the morning. The Russians were better trained to survive in extreme cold. They were also defending their heartland and their capital. On November 17, near Volokolamsk Moscow Front, a Russian private soldier, Efim Diskin, the sole survivor of his anti-tank battery, and himself severely wounded, destroyed five German tanks with his solitary gun. He was later awarded the medal, Hero of the Soviet Union. The Reichskommissariat Ostland was established under Alfred Rosenberg to administer territories taken from the Soviet Union. Leningrad : Soviets dispatched several small teams to test the thickness of the ice on Lake Ladoga near Leningrad, Russia. Japan : Japanese Navy Admiral Yamamoto revealed the Pearl Harbor attack plan to the naval leadership Egypt : German submarine U-331 landed eight German Brandenburg commandos on the Egyptian coast to mine the railway line near Daba, 60 miles west of Alexandria. They were captured next day by British military police though before they completed their mission. North Sea : British cargo ship Bowey Tracey was bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe DO-217 bombers Black Sea : Soviet cargo ship Kamalesk Podusk was bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe JU-87 dive bombers Baltic Sea : German cargo ship Schwaneck struck a Russian mine and sank Iceland : Allied convoy QP-2 arrived at Kirkwall, Scotland, United Kingdom and convoy PQ-4 departed Hvalfjörður, Iceland.
18 November 1941 North Africa : 8th Army , made up from Commonwealth units British, New Zealand, and Indian troops launched Operation Crusader, a major offensive from Egypt into Libya. Surprise was achieved, and the attack met no serious resistance on the first day while armored brigades of 30th Corps (600 tanks , a lot of them light or mechanically unreliable though) began advancing from right flank across desert towards Sidi Rezegh. While 13th Corps made up by 2nd New Zealand and 4th Indian Division infantry with support of 100 tanks prepare to attack Egypt-Libyan border and Axis strongpoints at Halfaya Pass and Sollum. The Germans would later call this offensive Winterschlacht. After sundown, Royal Navy cruisers HMS Naiad and HMS Euryalus and destroyers HMS Kipling and HMS Jackal bombarded German positions at Halfaya Pass. Japan : Five large Japanese carrier submarines, each containing midget submarines, departed from Kure Naval Base, Japan for Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. Meanwhile, Joseph Rochefort’s US Navy cryptanalytic team reported no Japanese carrier movement. Atlantic Ocean : British cargo vessel Congonian was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-65 UK : General John Dill, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal and assigned to liason with US War Department in British Embassy in Washington. In his place General Alan Brooke was assigned as Chief of the Imperial General Staff. Leningrad : The teams dispatched on the previous day out of Leningrad, Russia to Lake Ladoga returned to the besieged city at 0400 hours, reporting that the ice on the lake was about 10 centimeters thick, which made light travel possible, but not for heavy equipment such as 1-ton trucks. Berlin : In a meeting with German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop , Japanese ambassador Baron Oshima requested Germany to not conclude a separate peace with any common enemies of the two countries, but did not share its plans to attack the United States. Russia : German 4th Panzer Army launched a 400-tank attack 70 miles west of Moscow, Russia, supported by 3 infantry divisions; Soviet 30th Army fell back northward to Klin, while Soviet 16th Army was pushed south to Istra. 120 miles south of Moscow, German 3rd Panzer Army was held up at Tula, with its latest attempt to surround the Soviet garrison there foiled by the newly-arrived Soviet 413th Rifle Division. On 18 November, the German troops attacking Venev were themselves attacked by a Siberian division and armoured brigade, both newly arrived from the Far East with a full complement of T -34 tanks. So cold was it that the German automatic weapons would only fire single shots. As the Siberian troops advanced, in their white camouflage uniforms, ‘the panic’, a German Army report later noted, ‘reached as far back’ as Bogorodisk: ‘This was the first time that such a thing had occurred during the Russian campaign, and it was a warning that the combat ability of our infantry was at an end, and that they should no longer be expected to perform difficult tasks.’ The Russians now began to prepare for a major offensive, to save Moscow. They were able, with great skill, to hide entirely from German reconnaissance and Intelligence eyes the forward movement of their reserves. The ‘enemy’, noted General Halder in his diary on November 18, ‘had nothing left in the rear, and his predicament probably is even worse than ours’. Those, however, whose ‘predicament’ was worse even than that of the fighting soldiers in the wintry fields of Russia or the sand blown hills of Libya, were the Red Army men, numbering as many as three million, perhaps even more, who had been taken prisoner by the Germans in the previous five months. The fate of seven thousand of these Russian prisoners-of-war was noted on November 18 by the commander of a German artillery regiment who saw them in their camp. The windows of the building in which they were being held, he wrote, ‘are several metres high and wide, and are without covering. There are no doors in the building. The prisoners who are thus kept practically in the open air are freezing to death by the hundreds daily-in addition to those who die continuously because of exhaustion’.
19 November 1941 Russia : General Franz Halder noted in his diary that, in a meeting Adolf Hitler held with his top military leaders on this date, Hitler no longer talked about ending the war in 1941; instead, plans for Soviet targets east of Moscow, Russia were made for spring and summer of 1942. Meanwhile, 70 miles west of Moscow, German 4th Panzer Army attempted to penetrate the gap between the Soviet 30th and 16th Armies which were pushed back on the previous day, but stubborn Soviet resistance slowed the German advance in the area of Istra. Leningrad : In northern Russia, Soviet 4th and 52nd Armies continued to attack Tikhvin, held by the German Army Group North, 120 kilometers east of Leningrad. Meanwhile, near Leningrad, General Feofan Nikolaevich Lagunov drove an American-built M1 Scout Car across the frozen Lake Ladoga and declared it safe to use as a truck route. Libya , Operation Crusader : Italian Ariete Division halted the advance of British 22nd Armoured Brigade at Bir el Gubi, Libya; 40 British Crusader tanks were destroyed or disabled by Italian anti tank or field gunners. Elsewhere, British 7th Armoured Brigade continued its advance toward Tobruk, capturing Axis held Sidi Rezegh airfield south of Via Balbia (main Axis supply route) in the process , British tanks charged full speed in a suprise attack to airfield , destroying 19 Luftwaffe bombers and fighters on the ground and secured the airfield. To the north, tanks of the British 4th Armoured Brigade engaged German tanks of the 21st Panzer Division. In further north at Halfaya Pass , German garrison with 88 mm guns under command of Major Baum defending Halfaya Pass repulsed 13th Corps temporarily , knocking out several British I type Matilda tanks North Sea : German 2nd Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla attacked Allied convoy FS.650 10 miles east of Lowestoft, England, United Kingdom, torpedoed and sinking British tanker War Mehtar and transports Aruba and Waldinge. In exchange German torpedo boat S.41 collided with a convoy escort destroyer HMS Garth and sank , all German crew of E-Boat was picked by by British escorts and captured. Battle of Shark Bay , Australia : Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney was intercepted by German merchant raider (auxilary cruiser) Kormoran 140 miles west of Shark Bay, Australia. Captain of HMAS Sydney made the fatal mistake of approaching Kormoran too close , in range of hidden guns of German merchant raider (confusing it with an Dutch cargo vessel) With Kormoran firing the first shot at 1730 hours from 2.000 yards , the battle started. Kormoran with suprise advantage badly damaged HMAS Sydney with her initial salvos but Australian cruiser also replied with gunfire from her aft turrets hitting Kormoran several times. Both ships were heavily damaged after the 20-minute battle. Gravely damaged HMAS Sydney sank next day with all hands (645 crew). However return fire from HMAS Sydney also started a fire aboard Kormoran that got out of control and reached mine depot of German raider. After 322 of her crew evacuated the ship , Kormoran exploded and sank. Most of the German crew managed to reach Australian shores and captured.
20 November 1941 UK : The Norwegian government-in-exile officially endorsed the resistance movement Milorg. Washington , USA : Japanese ambassador to the US Nomura presented Japan’s final proposal to keep peace in Asia and the Pacific. Japanse basically ask an end to oil embergo immediately and a guarantee to purchase oil from Dutch East Indies in exchange of a limited withdrawal from southern parts of IndoChina. Next day US State Department rejects these proposals. Vichy France :General Weygand was relieved of his position due to German pressure Libya : Operation Crusader continues. The British 7th Armoured Brigade repulsed a counter attack launched by the German 90th Light Infantry Division and the Italian Bologna Division on recently captured Sidi Rezegh airfield. In the afternoon, the British 4th Armoured Brigade on right flank of 30th Corps salient engaged with heavier tanks of the German 15th Panzer Division, losing several American-built M3 tanks and Valentine tanks (the brigade strength reduced to %35 ) but despite that 4th Armored Brigade held its position till reinforcements arrived i shape off 22nd Armored Brigade. After dark, Royal Navy cruisers HMS Ajax and HMS Neptune and Australian cruiser HMAS Hobart bombarded Bardia, Libya. Ukraine : German troops from Army Group South captured Rostov, Russia , less than two hundred miles from the western foothills of the Caucasus. That day, in an Order of the Day issued to all his troops, General von Manstein declared: ‘The Jews are the mediators between the enemy in our rear and the still fighting remnants of the Red Army and the Red leaders’. The German soldier in the East, in fighting the Bolsheviks, was ‘the bearer of a ruthless ideology’; he must therefore ‘have understanding of the necessity of a severe but just revenge on sub-human Jewry’. Crimea : Nine days after von Manstein issued this order, 4,500 Jews were murdered in the Crimean port of Kerch by SS Einsatzgruppen , local Ukranian militias and German Army units. Two weeks later, 14,300 more Jews were murdered out of Sevastopol. These killings were witnessed by hundreds of bystanders, and reported on in detail in the German Army Operational Situation Reports USSR, with their distribution to between thirty and sixty senior officials and civil servants. Leningrad : The daily bread rations in besieged Leningrad, Russia was reduced to 500 grams for military personnel, 250 grams for engineers and technical workers, 125 grams for other workers and children. Starvation , disease , malnutrition , cold is killing thousands of civilians each day in ex Tsarist Empire capital. The situation was hoped to be improving soon, however, as the first successful crossing of the frozen Lake Ladoga was made with horse-drawn sleighs, hoping to bring back food from Kobona.
@@Raskolnikov70 Let me stop you right there! First up is the little Sidi Rezegh affair during which the South African 5th Battalion gave the Germans a bloody nose (took out 72 tanks) but were ultimately slaughtered - sacrificed by the British commanders. This is the primary reason (apart from political considerations) for our man Dan, to not blindly follow orders from incompetent British commanders and to save his men from further blunders by the likes of William Gott.
Force Z was one of Churchills blunders and flew in the face of any RN interwar thoughts on a war with Japan. It would have been better not to have sent anything. Its also wrong to assume that the RN as a whole did not understand the importance of carriers.
@The Colonel Do you know whats really annoying? I know that, and just to be sure google checked to make sure i didnt mix them up. But that put force H into my mind when I typed ....*le sigh*
Considering that 29 battleships from both sides of the war entered service after battleships were rendered obsolete by carriers, I don't think anyone was actually smart enough to realize that the old paradigm of naval warfare was dead.
@@bkjeong4302 The Idea that battleships were not effective isn't really true. They still had advantages and over carriers is some areas. though the advantages of carriers became rapidly greater as the war progressed. their supremacy was only truly apparent by 44-45. but as the Battle off Samar had shown, battleships were still capable of ruining your day if given the chance.
@@tisFrancesfault None of their advantages over carriers (survivability, etc) actually mattered when a battleship doesn't have the ability to fire at a carrier, since the carrier can attack without fear of counterattack. Yes a battleship can sink a carrier if it gets the chance to open fire, but it's never going to get that chance barring extremely unusual circumstances (even at night there's still the matter of locating an enemy carrier that stayed hundreds of miles away from you all day and isn't going to get closer, and how are you not going to get detected by the AA screening vessels before they tell the carrier you're coming and the carrier escapes out of your reach?). Samar is not a good example for battleships being able to deal with carriers. Those were CVEs, which are much slower than your standard WWII carrier, and thus unable to just maintain a safe distance and launch aircraft with impunity (not to mention that even with their speed disadvantage, the CVEs played a much bigger role-in fact the primary role-in the American victory than they're usually credited for).
For anyone's that is curious at the building the aircraft are flying over at 11:28, that is Kallang Airport which was one of the RAF airfields in use in Singapore during 1941. It is currently no longer in use now since it closed in 1955. And also the BL 15-inch Mark I naval guns at 11:08 could actually fire full 360 degree traverse (except those at Buona Vista Battery) in case of an attack from the north of the island. Whether they had enough stocks of the appropriate ammunition types is another question though...
Hey World War Two please make a special video on the planned defense of the Philippines by the American-Filipino army. Especially the reasons why they pick Bataan as the place to defend when you make it on that timeline.
We don't make videos about individual battles or defenses like you ask. If we did one, we'd have to do them all, and they are all important to someone out there. I will cover it all in the regular episodes, however.
@@Southsideindy How?.. The Japanese are going to launch five major campaigns on December 8th.. all of them happening in the same 4-5 week span... You can't have every week 30 second snippets for the battle of Hong Kong, battle of Malaya, battle for the Philippines, third battle of Changsha, battle for wake island, battle for Borneo, battle for Java, ..... And then also north Africa and Barbarossa. It seems like you're going to have to condense some battles that took 3 to 4 weeks into much more depth in a single weekly episode.
My 3rd cousin was one of the 81 Germans that didn’t survive. I have the original notification. I’ve had questions about it for years. Thankful for this channel for doing the research for me!
On December 7th we will cover the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in real time, minute by minute, as it happens... for five solid hours starting 0610 local Hawaiian time right here on this channel. Don't miss it!
And if you want a dose of WW2 action every day,, then check out our day by day instagram coverage of the war right here: instagram.com/world_war_two_realtime/
...and please read our rules of conduct before you comment, it saves everyone a hassle: community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518
I can't wait!
Love the map scale! Really shows' the size of the Eastern front.
So hyped this has the potential to be one of the best Pearl harbour programs in history, the build up is so intense, and soon the dominos will begin to finally fall and all hell will break loose.
Are you ever going to talk about Malta again or make a special or something? Malta was a pretty cool place in WW2.
This should be epic. For UK viewers, it starts 4:10pm in the UK, which is very reasonable.
German Armies in the USSR and North Africa: "We're greatly under-strength and under-supplied at this time."
Hitler: "Check out this cool model of a new monument I have planned!!!"
Sounds pretty much like oversimplified to me XD
I was thinking the same thing. Hitler seemed to be suffering from delusions of grandeur from the very start of his rise to power. Those who jumped on his bandwagon seem to have been motivated by pure greed, and they took advantage of Hitler's delusions of grandeur to manipulate him to their advantage. This time, Speer disregards the war shortages and gets Hitler to commit to a massive building project from which Speer is sure to get kick-backs, kick-backs, kick-backs. Speer doesn't care about supplying German troops as long as he can line his pockets. Greed was the motivating force behind the major players in the German war machine, the lives of others meant nothing to them.
Mayor West and his cereal statue😂
Hitler was a drug addict, and, undoubtedly, a tad crazy. He was more focused on achieving his visions, rather than trying to ensure that Germany would win a war.
@spartacuscolo and a criminal and yes very lazy, the guy feared working more than he hated jews
Interesting how Udet's suicide managed to have a 2x matching fatality effect on the Luftwaffe's brass. I can only imagine how delighted Udet would have been had Göring been added to the casualty list for his funeral...
An obviously talented flyer, Udet was a heavy drinker (even his personal plane had a drinks cabinet on board) and he was unable to cope with the administrative demands of his job. He was also in conflict with Erhard Milch, who took over many of Udet's functions and duties after his suicide. The suicide was not officially admitted - the Reich media said Udet had died in an accident while testing new equipment.
I'm still amazed Göring made it to the end of the war without dropping dead from gluttony and drug abuse.
In reality, Udet probably helped to cripple the Luftwaffe's development. His insistence that all bombers, including the Ju-88 and HE-177 have the ability to dive bomb was ridiculous. Most other aircraft that were designed and built after 1939, with the exceptions of the FW-190 and ME-262, were mediocre at best, and disasters at worst. Ironically, and this is a rather nasty thing to say, but his death actually helped the Luftwaffe by putting someone in charge who knew what they were doing. Fortunately for us, it was probably too late by then.
@@nicholasconder4703 “... mediocre at best, and disasters at worst.” OK, I’m going to say it: Messerschmitt ME-210!
@@johnperez6069 I'll see your ME-210 and raise you a Henschel HS-129.
Germany: We nearly took Moscow.
Russia: We literally carried our Factories over mountains.
It is not "literally carried" though
Imagine the Germans got to Moscow and the whole thing wasn't there. Every brick and shingle and stick of furniture loaded onto railcars and shipped to the east. At least they had to burn it down when Napoleon arrived to stop him from using it, Stalin would probably just move the whole thing and laugh about it.
Love it
@@Raskolnikov70 A floating city of Moscow
@@Raskolnikov70 just relocate the city bruh
A surprise attack to be sure, but a welcome one.
Well done
No surprise, plenty of warnings of eminent attack. Ignored by powers that be 👎
Cat Man you missed the reference and the irony. Impressive.
Admiral Isoroku, you are a bold one.
Our first catch of the day
At 2:53, the German machine-gunner has stick and egg grenades on his right. The former have the bottom unscrewed with the pull cords hanging out. This was done to arm the grenade - the cord had a small porcelain ball at the end. To start the fuse the cord was pulled all the way out, and then the grenade was thrown. The gunner looks like he has done everything except pull them all the way out, and is expecting to use them.
The Germans found that in the depths of the 1941/2 winter the stick grenade was often the only weapon that still worked. Their rifles and machine-guns froze up but the grenades were more resistant.
Yes dude, that screw piece would freeze so easily that this way is better for ready use.
But imagine if the porcelain part got frozen attached to his clothes.
That's a Saturday Night Fever Shirt/Waistcoat combo with a more special tie. A solid 4/5, well done
Good to see you here, Gianni. Now I can stop scrolling.
@@eldorados_lost_searcher Agreed. The tie reviews are an added bonus.
@@604zippo Im not even here for the history anymore.
@@eldorados_lost_searcher Me too, always scrolling for that reviews!
Always have an eye on Indy's style.
"I got to go to my superior's funeral"
Plane: That's not the one you will be attending
“They’re already at war with China... but why would they want more enemies? It doesn’t even make sense!”
Exactly this haha
Axis delusions know no end.....yammomato told everyone theyd have to invade the u s and get fdr to surrender in the white house to ever best the Americans....which he knew was unrealistic to say the least.... But the warlords in charge thought we'd just lay down and die after pearl harbir
@@scottaznavourian540 Not quite, the Japanese plan was to deprive the us of the ability to counterattack for a year and use that time to build an impenetrable perimeter of ships and airfields. They didn't expect the us to die, but they did expect to buy enough time to to have an unassailable position.
"Hold my sake....." Seriously though, Japan was in the same position as Germany was in 1941. They had larger imperial ambitions but didn't possess the resources to achieve them with their current conquests. They also didn't have the resources to continue the war as it was currently going with the economic sanctions and embargos in place. If they wanted to hold on to what they already had, they had to advance into new territory in order to both keep their possessions and achieve their larger political goals. Their choices were down to either attacking, or suing for a negotiated peace. And we know what both Germany and Japan chose, to the detriment of the entire world.
@@porksterbob they very well might've built that unassailable position using the people of the country too, we were so terrified of a land invasion we nuked two cities to force their hand
One word: Oil
China didn't have it
British: NOOOOOO, you can't just invade through Northern Malaya, it's impenetrable....
Japanese: HAHAHA, bicycle go brrrrrrrrrr
To be fair it really was a risky plan for the Japanese.
When the winged BIKES arrived
@@bkjeong4302 Yamashita was brilliant.
The video is wrong. The British knew that the development in Malaya in the 30s had made it a lot more traversable, but they didn't have the men or the ship's to spare.
Their plan was to leave it to the air service and they built airfields through Malaya but the planes were delayed due to the fight in North Africa. Also, no one told the people on the ground in Singapore to update the defensive strategy based on not having an air force. The British Defense was still geared to holding northern airfields even when they knew the planes weren't coming.
@@porksterbob The other issue with the airfields is that they were mostly located in the north of the peninsula, so could be overrun quickly.
Britain and US strategy towards Japan at 20 November- 7th December: Staring menacingly at Japan to dare them not to attack.
I bet that'll work.
What's Japanese for "bluff"?
Jattak Porel Hubor?
The real strategy is stop Japan getting enough oil and crusial materials to slow her conquests down (and help China) while US builds more ships than Japan can ever dream off.
UK busy vs Germany but Australia/NZ/India can put off forces in the Pacific vs Japan. Just not match her fleet.
Ya don't say? Thank you for telling us. It's not like all these comments are on a video about that exact same topic or anything... Sarcasm, look it up.
Don't know if this has already been mentioned in the comments, but here it is. Indy said the Russians were better trained to handle severe cold weather. That is true, but also, and possibly more significant, is the fact that the Russian uniforms and other equipment was better designed to protect from severe cold.
Interesting that the Germans did not plan adequately for the winter. They assumed the USSR would be defeated in 12 to 16 weeks which would be the middle of October. When the winter weather started they were not properly prepared.
They learned some lessons from the war in Finland, such as issuing more quilted uniforms that gave better insulation than the long overcoats, although the latter remained in widespread use. Their weapons were rough and ready and less sophisticated than the German ones but they stood up to extreme cold much better.
Having the right cold weather protective equipment is a large part of surviving in a cold climate.
Cold weather gear was a standard issue in USSR even when not at war, so they didn’t have to scramble to get some like Germans did
The mutual sinking of the Sydney & Kormoran is truly a fascinating episode. It's just astonishing that one of the flagships of the Australian navy could be sunk by a commerce raider. The Australian tendency to complacency when there's no visible enemy has never been more evident. Of course, they become tigers when the enemy is apparent.
When the ship returned from fighting the Italians in the Mediterranean, the ship got a new and inexperienced captain. No doubt they thought it was a safe time and place to give him some experience, although it proved not to be.
Kormoran was armed with 6 150mm guns and 6 torpedo tubes so it almost had the same firepower as Sydney with her 8 150mm guns and 8 torpedo tubes. As an actual warship Sydney had better speed, armor and fire control but all these advantages were negated by the action happening at very close range and Sydney seems to have been taken completely by surprise. One of the most fascinating naval actions of ww2 in my opinion.
@@lukum55 Element of surprise gives a huge edge in combat. I've read that many naval commanders viewed warships posing as commercial ships as a dirty tactic.
The first shot from the German ship was fired before they showed their military colours and it took out the command tower. The fact that an inexperienced crew with little to no central command was able to react and deal a death blow before sinking shows how well trained they were. At that time Australian/NZ waters were considered to be out of reach of enemy vessels.
The Captain of HMAS Sydney was apparently completely deceived by Kormoran's disguise as Strata Malacca. For some inexcusable reason she failed to follow established tactical doctrine in approaching and identifying a suspect raider by coming close alongside. As a result Captain Detmers of the Kormoran got off his first fatal salvo at point blank range. He could scarcely believe his luck and but for some lucky undirected fire from Sydney, Detmers might have claimed an improbable complete victory over a cruiser.
HMAS Sydney outgunned Kormoran and had several options for safely dealing with her using well established procedures and tactics. Why Sydney's captain failed to take these may never be known.
Cunningham: FIGHT ME!
Rommel: Hmm.. not really
Rommel: No, i don't think i will
@@aroundhere1200
Cunningham: But... but I'm attacking you. With tanks.
Also Rommel: Supplies are overrated
Cunningham: TRIAL BY COMBAT, RIGHT NOW!!
Rommel, put on your fighting trousers, man!
My Grandfather died on the HMAS Sydney, RIP Able Seaman Francis Mudford.
Stardust Crusader. Battle in Egypt
Battle Tendency, Joseph and Caesar Vs The Pillar Men and Stroheim
what
Jojooooo
Oh no
"This is the world's largest carrier fleet. Six aircraft carriers with heavy support."
America: "That's a good idea. What if we had four of those operating together?"
"It'd be even better if we'd be able to build 30 Fleet carriers and 120 Escort carriers in case the war breaks out."
@@yourstruly4817 What war? Japan is surely going to be deterred. Singapore's a fortress and travelling to Pearl Harbor will require a large amount of fuel which they are lacking. There's no way they're gonna risk attacking the US and it's allies.
@@principalityofbelka6310 Yeah, said the guy who V2s everyone, yourself included.
@B Whit Santa Anna sure wish that were true lmao
The kido butai did operate together. They were better at carrier operations than the Americans.
What they lacked was enough modern carriers, good damage control, and the ability to rapidly replace losses.
Tired of reading about the war in Europe? Come to beautiful Oahu in the Hawaiian territory! Enjoy the tropical climate and sunshine! Tour the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, as lovely as it sounds! Relax on the beach and let your cares float away with the waves as you drift off in peaceful slumber. Special packages available for a two week vacation, beginning December 1st! Book today!
It was something of a plum posting in many ways and this was apt to encourage complacency.
I read that the US military were more afraid of sabotage by the large number of Japanese expatriates in Hawaii than of air attack, so they parked planes close together so as to be able to guard them better.
Ostheer firing their rapid fire mgs in the winter: "Pew........Pew.........Pew....."
They were probably manually-cycling the bolt after every shot. The cold weather messes with the lubricants and recoil springs and makes them freeze up to the point where the empty casings don't get ejected. I've had the same thing happen to an M-16 on the range, having to manually eject every round gets tedious fast.
At least the ammo is conserved.
@@dudeofvalor9294 true lol
Same issue with a lot of modern mgs, we have better lubricants now but if you put too much on and have it in the cold the lube can freeze.
@@Raskolnikov70 Yes, but then it would be better to not use them but instead only bolt action rifles, far more accurate and far more easy to carry around.
BTW, where is your range? Siberia? Alaska?
I encourage people to read about the battle of Bir el Gubi, the fighting between the Italians and British was very hard.
Holy shit, we actually won a battle?
-most italians, 2020.
@@tomgjgj "SPQR!"
- most italians, 20.
Time to go to this funeral!
Plane: I'm about to end this man's whole career...
*I'm about to end an entire type of ship's whole relevance as a naval unit.....
(before someone brings up supporting duties like fire support or AA, it;'s not worth building a capital ship just for those roles, especially for AA when two CLAAs matched one battleship in AA effectiveness with a fraction of the expenses; even for fire support subcapital units proved more efficient strategically, and sometimes also tactically).
Should have let him fly himself
That will teach him to fly in a V-1
@@bkjeong4302 Eh, don't discount battlehips just yet. Carrier aircraft would have been helpless to save the
convoy and turn back Scharnhorst in the Battle of North Cape, due to sea state and a
driving blizzard. But HMS Duke of York had no such limitations. Carrier aircraft could not
have held Savo Island and protected the vulnerable beachhead and airfield from
bombardment, because the Japanese surface forces conducted their attacks at night. But USS
South Dakota and USS Washington could, as they demonstrated in the Second Naval Battle of
Guadalcanal. And it was not aircraft carriers that held Surigao Strait in the Battle of
Leyte Gulf.
@@VRichardsn Those three are literally the only cases in WWII where battleships were necessary. You're cherry-picking. And in Second Guadalcanal only Washington did an thing (South Dakota was there, but did absolutely nothing to the enemy other than distracting them, then stole credit afterwards)
The North Africa theatre had been unusually quiet for the past few weeks, but not anymore. The maps are still flawless
I'm not sure if that Australian Division marked "2" is accurate, The Australians had their 6th, 7th and 9th divisions doing various things in the Middle East and North Africa, while other units were deployed everywhere from Malaya to Britain, but their 2nd Division was at home and not overseas.
@@Dave_Sisson I thinks it's NZ
Lol, wait a few more days and the maps will be completely useless. Crusader is in the running with the Battle of Karánsebes for the "most confusing battle in history" title.
@@Raskolnikov70 Ah yes, the military version of the club sandwich. Problem for Cunningham is that his units are the filling, not the bread.
@@Dave_Sisson It's Freybergs 2nd NZ division which is part of Godwin-Austen's corps.
4:56 - Adolf Galland is standing on the right of the funeral casket (whether that of Udet or Mölders I don't know). Galland and Mölders were friends and at the same time rivals to an extent. Ironically Udet, a talented artist, had drawn a cartoon of Galland and Mölders competing to shoot down British aircraft. They have shotguns and have laid out small Spitfires on the ground like hunters with shot game birds. (I would link to it but have not found it on the Internet.)
A point about those great coastal guns at Singapore, the issue with then in future will not be that they can't turn around to face land. The issue will be that they have not been stocked with HE shells but only AP shells meant for ships. But of course, there's no way they'd ever need HE shells to deal with infantry of anything right? right?
The Singapore Fortress Command had no fire control gunnery tables for 15-inch HE shells and they had been requested from Middle East Command. In January the two Fortress fire commands of Singapore had found exactly one 15-inch HE shell at the Singapore Naval Base. !5-inch HE shells were ordered from the Middle East Command and 9.2-inch HE shells from Ceylon and the UK. Shortage of 6-inch and 9.2-inch AP and Semi AP shells was offset by stocks of WW1 older type shells. The Naval Base, the Air bases, beach defenses (even on the south coast of Singapore Island) were incomplete. The Naval surface search and gunnery fire control radars on order from Australia had not been delivered.
That lonely Slovak 1st division is already so far away from home, all the way close to Rostov. Clearly the Slovaks are dedicated to the war against the USSR.
As the British WW1 song put it, "We're here because we're here because we're here because we're here."
The Slovaks coped better than others in some ways - Slovak is somewhat mutually intelligible with Ukrainian and to a lesser extent with Russian. They could communicate with the locals. German, Hungarian and Romanian troops had more language problems on the Eastern Front.
I've missed North African events. I know Barborossa is massive, but I like to see how the chaps in the desert are doing.
word: chaps are optimistic
@@1okanaganguy Tea has been brewed so everything is fine.
They were probably warmer than the soldiers in Russia.
@@robertsimms8174 Yeah, supplies convoy in Russia is great and totally has winter clothes right? Right guys? We totally won’t freeze to death and get frostbite guys. Right?
@@MatsLM My comment was lighthearted and not meant to be taken seriously.
2:02 I doubt those sentries accidentally fell asleep. At these temperatures, hypothermia will eventually zap so much energy from anyone that the natural response is to go to sleep. They probably physically could not keep awake.
Probably but if they fall asleep they will die. I suspect they wanted to light fires - on both sides - but especially at night that will attract enemy fire.
You'd be surprised. Armies are remarkably efficient at denying soldiers sleep for the stupidest reasons. They'll have you standing around or doing busywork for 18 hours a day and then expect you to pull sentry or CQ duties at night instead of doing the smart thing and giving the people who are supposed to be protecting the unit enough time to rest up beforehand. There was always an attitude of "just tough it out" when it comes to being tired, hurt, sick, etc... instead of paying attention to nature and logic....
/rant
@@Raskolnikov70 You sound like you have had bitter personal experience.
@@stevekaczynski3793 I retired from the Army almost 20 years ago and I'm still trying to catch up on all the sleep I lost :/
@@Raskolnikov70 As an ex infantryman myself I totally agree!
Germany at the gates of Moscow:let me in let me IIIIIIIIINNNNNNN!
Haha , this is good one mate.
@@danielkurtovic9099 thanks you want some cocaine
@@Johnnylemoni nope , thanks on offer, prefer cold beer.
@@danielkurtovic9099 good cause I don't have none
@@Johnnylemoni hahaha still laughing
" what nearly fozen germans sing at the gates of Moscow, let me in let me in let me IIIIINNNNNN"
"If the Japanese are really NIPPY" -Ian Smuts
Someone that witty belongs in GCHQ.
my comment, which literally quotes the video, has survived initial contact with the intersectional marxist shock troops, at least for now
Sounds like something straight out of Heller's "Catch 22". Kind of like Major Major getting promoted to Major because, well, reasons.....
@XO 47 Seems we're not even allowed humour now.
!SPOILER!
Japan is about to do what's called a Pro Gamer Move.
By pissing off the pay to win player?
Japan : Yeah, this is big brain time
Consider yourself in a pub. You are having a brawl with some other guy and winning but with difficulty. When you go back to the bar to sip your drink and buy yourself some courage Conor McGregor stops your hand, tells you you've drunk enough and should stop hiting the little China guy. Do you :
A) Turn your back on him and return fighting though you're still thirsty and show him your back
B) Say "ok", help the little guy back on his feet pay for everyone's drink and return home humiliated
C) Sucker-punch McGregor while he's not looking and hope he doesn't get back up
Choice is yours Japan
@@Zorn27 They just didn't realize the game was P2W Kappa
@@AwayWithYouVileBeggar Haha, America go brrrrr at midway
"There seems to be something wrong with our bloody planes today."
The ghost of Sir David Beatty? :-)
I wonder if it was the winter conditions - winter flying was certainly riskier.
Makes you wonder how stretched the Luftwaffe was at that point. If planes are dropping out of the sky on non-combat supply runs, just how worn out are they?
@@Raskolnikov70 Well, it is likely that the Lufwaffe's combat aircraft have priority on everything (parts, repair space, etc.) so the ongoing rot of that arm is first visible in the cargo planes.
The fact that they lost some 300 cargo planes at Crete probably doesn't help. They never recovered those numbers and so the remainder are being worked extra hard.
"... if the Japanese get nippy..." How Cheeky. Even without reading the (ac)credit, one would [obviously] realize a Brit was the culprit.
It's like "We're having a bit a problem here." (A lot of conflicts and probably said by a lot of commanding officers) or "Our guns seem to be malfunctioning today" (Jacky Fisher? If I remember correctly? WWI, Battle of Jutland?)
Sucks getting old when you can't remember all the stuff you are suppose to.
Sorry to disappoint but Field Marshall Jan Smuts was South African, not British.
@Jim lastname ...and a Boer War general in the field until the bitter end!
On 19 November takes place the Battle of Bir El Gobi. British 22nd Armoured Brigade clashes against the Italian Ariete Armoured Division in a major tank battle. The British had slightly more and better tanks. The Italians had infantry and artillery support. It was a battle more or less on equally terms. The Italians defeated the British forcing the 22nd Brigade to retreat with heavy losses.
Indy is so good! Part of me wishes I'd found this channel earlier. The other part is glad that I don't have to wait a week for installments, I can go back to other parts of the war that I missed.
I’m surprised to hear you repeat the myth that Singapore’s 15” guns faced the wrong way and could not be fired at the Japanese approaching from the north. They could and did fire at the Japanese but they had very few high explosive shells and their armour piercing shells buried themselves in the soil which made them largely ineffective. Many dreadful mistakes were made in Singapore’s defence strategy but the field of fire of these guns was not one of them.
I read that, as with Hong Kong, the access to water was the real Achilles heel - plus though I think I am getting confused with something else, wasn't their a mention of espionage contributing to Singapore's downfall?
@@malcolmanon4762 The British likely could have held the city even with a lack of water. The Japanese were stretched very thin, particularly their supply lines. But British commanders (most of them at least) didn't know or believe this and didn't counter attack.
They better address this or I’m unsubscribing!!! >:(
The fall of Singapore is such a hard read, so much incompetence and abject failure by the defenders when they outnumbered the invaders by tens of thousands.
@@tams805 but not only water was lacking, but ammunition too. My great grandfather told me he only had a clip of five in his lee-enfield.
"Just send some boats" - how to make captains of Battleships really, relly mad! Never call a ship a "boat" when the captain can hear you!
Hello. I want to translate your video so that people who don't speak English can also watch it. How can this be done?
Timestamps:
1:12 Operation Typhoon - German AG Center This Week
3:30 German Advances in the South This Week
3:57 Death of Werner Mölders
4:59 War Against Humanity - State of Soviet POWs
5:48 Start of Operation Crusader
9:10 Phone Call Reference - Beginning of Operation Z
& Allied Response
14:19 Sinkings of HMAS Sydney & Kormoran
14:43 Changes in British Command
15:00 Summary of the Week
15:20 Worried About Japan? Don’t Be
Thanks
Bless you
Point of order, the colonial naval base is at Sembawang, another part of Singapore, not at Changi, that Changi naval base opened way later.... at 2004.
Such was the poor state of the relationship between British and Australian Generals in 1941, Blamey's Australian Corps consisting of the 6th, 7th and (newly relieved from Tobruk) 9th divisions was sidelined in northern Syria rather than participating in Operation Crusader. Australian soldiers would have been very handy in Crusader but Auchinleck and Blamey hated each other.
Interesting question about the value of Singapore but the loss of British prestige there ultimately meant the end of the British Empire. Suez looked important but its only value in 1941 and 1942 was to enable the resupply of Egypt from the Indian Ocean not to maintain links between Britain and the Empire. Virtually all convoys to India, SE Asia and Australia from the UK went via Capetown for several years.
The modern aircraft and tanks diverted from Singapore by Churchill went to the Soviet Union not the UK.
Sir John Dill headed British representation on the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee in Washington established to approve all military action. Among other measures it worked to limit Churchill's influence over strategy from early 1942 on. Dill had the last laugh.
While it is a popular claim, it is absolutely incorrect to claim that the 15" guns at Singapore cannot fire to defend the land ward approaches to the city, that they "can only fire out to sea". The three guns at Johore Battery had full 360 arcs of fire, while the two guns at Buono Vista Battery had more restricted arcs of fire and did not engage the Japanese attackers in 1942 at all. What really hampered these guns was a lack of high explosive ammunition, as armor piercing shells with thick walls do not produce nearly as many small fragments for killing personnel as the thinner walled HE round, and has a bursting charge just over 1/3 the weight of the HE shell.
I was going to mention the very same thing. What will become a another failure however was the defence planning as a whole in Malaya. not pulling back into defence positions, and fall back positions, along Muar to Rompin , and batu pahat to mersing respectively, along appropriate defences lines was a massive blunder that cost the lives of a great number. And with the hindsight of The Japanese supplies would have be likely been enough to stop them in their tracks.
I've noticed the lack of HE shells as a reoccurring theme in forts built in that period. The batteries outside San Francisco, also built in the interwar years, and armed with 15" guns also only had AP shells. Seems like they should have had some variety even just to increase their lethality against smaller ships.
@@RolfHartmann the batteries in San Francisco are probably 16" guns, as the US never built a 15" gun. One reason for the big guns only having is AP is that fortifications would normally have other batteries with smaller weapons for smaller ships that big guns would otherwise use HE against. Fortifications at Oahu in 1941 (for example) included four 16" guns, two 12" guns, eight 8" guns, and twelve 155 mm guns, in addition to sixteen 3" guns primarily for AA duty.
@@RolfHartmann It should be stated, In the case of Singapore, if the the guns are operating in a (in)direct fire role, you've already lost. So in may respects they're irrelevant. The reason being is that they had a max range of 30ish thousand yards, this falls far to short to even cover the reservoir 90 thousand yards away. And that was the absolute key. Lose the reservoir, you lose Singapore.
Also, Singapore was only a fortress from the South. Churchill was surprised when someone told him that the border with Malaya wasn't fortified.
2:13 - "[Communists] defending their capital."
Oh, the irony.
Not obvious to a Russian speaker. "Capital" in the financial sense in Russian is "kapital'". "Capital city" is "stolitsa".
5:07
[Insert big building in Neu Berlin joke here]
Speer slaves ? Never !
Neue Berlin*
This is easily one of the best episodes of anything, ever. Your delivery is perfect Indy, you're an absolute master.
OverSimplified comes to mind in this episode.
German Generals: "Sir, it's getting too cold! Our soldiers are freezing to death! We should halt our attack."
Hitler: "Nope. Keep going."
German Generals: "But oil is literally freezing in our vehicles. We should dig in and wait until spring!"
Hitler: "Completely normal. Keep going."
But sir, the troops are starving
@@andmos1001 What you were told and trained in the youth camp a strong and steel hearted Aryan drinks air when he is out of rations and fight for fatherland
So keep going basterds
@@mkt1098 "Ihr Racker! Wollt Ihr ewig leben?" ("You rascals! Do you want to live forever?")
@@stevekaczynski3793 but sir we don't want to die here 😓
@@mkt1098 "We are born to die for Germany" was a Hitler Youth slogan. I guess it's a case of "hold onto that thought"...
22nd Armoured Division? - Should you have said Brigade? - I can not find any referances to this "division"
If you're ever in Geraldton, Western Australia pay a visit to the HMAS Sydney Memorial, it's centrepiece is the Dome of Souls, constructed of 645 steel sea gulls representative of the lives lost.
My Dad's best friend was killed at Sidi Rezegh in Dec 41 during Operation Crusader. Fred Vevers aged 18 from Headingley in Leeds...he was 18 and has no known grave. RIP Fred xx😢
Operation Crusader ? Seriously ? Don't force me to say it !
When you look at the number of German armies that invaded the Soviet Union with what the British encountered in Africa, you understand the importance of the Soviet Union in the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Britain was in Africa to defeat the Italians who had invaded its colonies and had designs on taking Egypt. The fact that Britain was in the war at all meant that Germany had to deploy as many divisions and aircraft assets away from Russia as were in Russia demonstrating the importance of the British in the defeat of Nazi Germany.
@@dougie1943
My point was really that the Soviet Union's great contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany is often underestimated. I should have been more clear about that. The Soviet Union had between 2/3 up to 3/4 of the German troops against it. A very, very big relief, not least for Great Britain.
I really appreciate these weekly episodes. When I was a kid I would spend the weekends with my grandfather who had been in the pacific during the war, we would spend hours comparing books and talking about the various facets of the war. This feels like I’m back there, the smell of his coffee and maps splayed out across the dining room table. So thank you
Hm... Prince of Wales is heading for Malaya... I can not guess what could go wrong...
4 Centuries of Royal Navy dominance about to come to a screeching end.
@@darksis1 Along with the entire myth (though it wasn't always a myth) of battleship supremacy or even strategic usefulness.
About this time Ronald Searle, a talented artist, is on a British troop ship heading to Singapore to strengthen the garrison.
I can, the supporting aircraft carrier heading to Malaya with it ran aground on a reef in the Bahamas.
Come on, there is no way Japan will attack both Britain and the USA. And with the Germans so close to Moscow, there is nothing that will keep the new offensive from reaching it.
It didn't make sense. Then again neither did Barbarossa.
This episode should have added a sentence, "the jungles of Malaya, North of Singapore, had long been thought by the British to be impassable to a major military force. However, development of Malaya's rubber economy had added a lot of new infrastructure over the 1930's"
So glad to see Conrad in the background.
Im sure HMS Prince Henry will be fine
I've read about most of this, but the little nuances I was unaware of constantly surprise me. It's like watching a horror movie and saying, "Don't open that door!" Instead it's, "Pay attention to the Japanese!" It's almost worse, knowing what is going to happen. Too often we fall into the Monday morning quarterback role and start criticizing decisions that were made without that knowledge of what the outcome would be. I don't envy the men making these decisions based on what is essentially their best guess as to what will keep the world from turning upside down.
Hah! There's no way Japanese aircrafts are capable of sinking a 43.000 ton battleship.
I'm sure those AA guns on HMS Prince of Wales will take care of those aircraft in a flash. If not, they can always count in the Brewster Buffalos from the RAF airfields in Malaya and Singapore. Surely the Japanese aircraft can't be that good compared to the West?
@@gunman47 AA guns....nowhere near as effective (even at the best of times) as pop culture assumed. Even the late-war AA defences with proximity fuses and such didn't stop "most attacking aircraft" as popularly believed (though they were still helpful), and fighter screens did far more of the work.
Don't the Japanese have ninjas? Those guys are pretty good about getting in through the roof hatches.
@@bkjeong4302 Look at a picture of a US cruiser or battleship from '44-'45. Those things are bristling with AA guns tacked on to every available deck space. The idea wasn't to hit the planes directly, it was to throw up such a thick screen of flak that the attacking planes couldn't get close or aim properly.
@@Raskolnikov70
And even with that AA suit fighter screen both downed AND deterred far more enemy aircraft.
And then there is the fact being able to deter aircraft doesn’t mean a battleship can actually beat a carrier (since the carrier is still too far away to shoot at, and can maintain this distance).
I like watching this while playing as the Soviet Union in Hearts of Iron 4
The Singapore battle is more relevant to me than Pearl Harbor simply because I live there and me Grandad fought there
Indy, I recommend a special on German raider Atlantis. Subject of a movie, Under 10 Flags, and ATO publishing just released a 2-player board game simulating the hunt for the Atlantis. He sunk or captured over 145,000 tons of Allied shipping. His commander, Capt Rogge, was noted for the humane treatment of captured merchant sailors and was able to joint the post-war Bundesmarine as an Admiral.
I can't see anything bad happening in the Pacific...
Just like its name, this ocean should be peaceful right?
those german sentries in the eastern front who accidentally fell asleep at their post literally sleep for eternity
Probably one of least agonizing ways to die in warfare. So many more soldiers on both sides met worse fates.
To be fair they were probably the lucky ones
The Kido Butai: The largest carrier battlegroup.
US Industry: lol allow me to introduce myself.
I always wondered how Japan would operate if they had American industrial capacity and abundant resources?
They are literally going to invade Malaysia and Indonesia, while striking the US pacific fleet because their own country is resource poor.
@@FakeAssHandsomeMcGee_ Japan with US industrial capacity would be an absolute nightmare to deal with in wartime. You do realize the US war economy dwarfed that of everyone else put together?
And I suspect they'd still go after the Dutch East Indies for the oil.
@@bkjeong4302 I know the US industrial capacity was huge. I remember someone saying something about an incident where a German tank commander was telling the Americans that German tanks kept destroying the more numerous American tanks, but had to surrender because they ran out of ammunition.
If Germany and Japan had huge industrial capacity and abundant resources that of the USSR or America, the war would be quite something. Probably more deadly.
And it is telling seeing how Japan and Germany became the #2 and #3 economy respectively in the world post WW2 only behind the US. The USSR is often not included in the data that I see. Probably due to unreliable sources but I imagine behind the US.
"The 400 miles of jungle around Singapore were inpenetrable, so were the Ardennes", I love it...
Jolly good show by the chaps of the 8th army in Africa. The Mikado surely won't dare to attack Singapore now. It's an impenetrable fortress and now that the Repulse & Prince of Wales are on the way the empire should be well guarded from any potential threats.
I've become addicted to your week by week status of the war, even if I have nightmares thinking about the atrocities being committed. I'm a geezer so WWII was recent history growing up, my dad was in Burma and both his brothers served in Europe, all three survived the war. It is fascinating seeing events being played out on the world stage and trying to imagine what is must have been like for the various leaders, both military and civilian, trying to plot the best course of action.
The ending of the WWII is AWFUL
So am I the only one upset about how WWII ended? I mean they built Hitler up to be the big bad and just when he is about to face justice, he goes and kills himself. WTF was the point of him if FDR and Churchill were not going to fight him in an epic duel to save the world? And don't get me started on FDR! They just kill him half way through the war. Truman totally did not deserve to win the war, his character arc was not about war winning. And it certainly wasn't about destroying two cities with bullshit deus ex super weapons that came out of no where.
And another thing that pissed me off is that in the last episode of the war we find out that Stalin was a bad guy the entire time! Where was this foreshadowed to us? WTF, absolute character assassination. He was all about freeing the oppressed and bringing about a new system that wasn't shackling the poor and they made him a dictator? That is bullshit!
Anyways, WWII was cool but its end was absolutely trash and I would like you guys to sign a petition to have it rewritten.
r/copypasta
In that time (until 1961)
Novomoskovsk was called Stalinogorsk (Stalin - city).
I have this feeling that Rommel isn't really impressed by the spectacular break out from Tobruk to nail his forces once and for all (8:53) and would have calmly answered his informants: "oh really?"
Rommel has things to be worried about, though. As it mentions in the video, 40% of Axis supplies coming to North Africa had been sunk.
Great coverage again, keep it up!
A note to give a better perspective of Army Group South advance: "taking Rostov, they would be about 300kms from the footsteps of the Caucasus". Well yes, oilfields at Maykop, which *SPOILER* they WILL REACH, are some 300kms from Rostov BUT the big prize are the oilfields at Baku, which lies more than a 1000kms south... of Rostov.
And the Wehrmacht are just now having the welcome of the tough-as-nails siberian troops for whom fighting at -30° is their bread and butter.
I rest my case at Nazi chances to beat the USSR...
11:12 No, no no! These batteries did NOT only pointed out to sea! Why do people still think that?! They were all used during the Battle of Singapore, pointing and firing INLAND toward Japanese ground forces. The only reason they did not make an impact (literally) is because these batteries were armed with armor-piercing shells intended to penetrate heavily armoured enemy warships. When used against Japanese ground forces, more than half of these shells did not explode because they were shot straight into the soft sand and muddy soil, causing them failure to detonate. The ones that did go off were not effective to Japanese infantry because they were AP (armour-piercing) and not HE (high-explosive) rounds. Please do a more thorough research on the Asian theatre. I'm really hoping you guys do well on the Pearl Harbor coverage!
Thanks for pointing that out- you sure aren't the only one! There are several sources that make the claim that they did point out only to sea, and I relied on them, but our community can be more trustworthy on such physical issues. This is only a good thing because we strive to get the history as accurate as possible. I apologize for the error and stand corrected. / Indy
@@WorldWarTwo What sources? Tower of Skulls doesn't make the claim and it's the most recent book you should be using for the Asia Pacific War especially as it is explicitly about linking up what was happening in Asia with what was happening in Europe.
This is the link to a picture of a plaque from one of the actual parks in Singapore (Labrador Nature Reserve) which has several of the gun emplacements preserved. pohliong.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/0/7/25074404/8751937_orig.jpg
@@WorldWarTwo Hello Indy, no apology needed. I was your fan since The Great War series and I learn more from you than any other sources on the two wars. I took World War Two as one of my electives in university and my professor explicitly stated the above with references thus it stuck. I also visited Singapore and was shown the same. I'm your biggest fan, glad you saw my post AND actually replied I'm honored!
Jungles aren't impenetrable by any means. I can understand how it would be hell for Europeans and Americans who don't know about citronella oil, but "impenetrable" only makes sense if you're thinking of cavalry and formation infrantry.
America & Britain: 'Yes, surely the aggressive Japanese MUST back down from not having enough resources but having enough military power to capture those resources!'
Japan: 'Hold my carriers'
Glad to see the man, the myth, the legend... Conrad Von Hötzendorf back on the wall!
Second best general of all times. After the giant called Luigi Cardona.
legendary really, success was almost non existent for him,haha
@@dominikhalovanic2818 Whose son was a not very distinguished general in the Italian army of WW2.
Indy and crew will you do a mention on the defense of Malta, thereby choking the supplies to Rommel (don't forget "Faith. Hope, and Charity", cheers from the SF Bay Area
More WW2 myths?
@@philipjooste9075 You really should read some books about the defense of Malta or Goggle Faith. Hope and Charity, Gloster Gladiators Malta, cheers
@@gordonhopkins1573 I think you should be doing the reading but let me help you out here: For starters, there were not only 3, but between 6 and 12 (sources vary) crated Gloster Sea Gladiators left behind on Malta during early 1940. Of these, at least 4 were assembled with the rest kept in reserve or for spare parts. They did see some action against the Italians but by late June 1940 they were joined by Hawker Hurricanes which were far more capable, and a little later the air defences of the island was bolstered by more fighter squadrons arriving. The names - Faith, Hope and Charity was actually a creation of a local newspaper reporter months later but it stuck and was loved by the Information Office for its propaganda value. In plain language, it is one of those great enduring and endearing myths of WW2!
@@philipjooste9075 I am not referring to Sea Gladiators:) Please note: www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/british-biplanes-faith-hope-charity-1940
@@gordonhopkins1573 Nice article but incomplete. The Gloster Gladiators on Malta were indeed the carrier-borne versions called "Sea Gladiators" but had the arrestor hooks and other goodies removed since they were to operate from a land base. Extra armour was also added as well as a few other mods. Point is - The "Faith, Hope and Charity" story is a myth -a wartime propaganda fabrication! Even the article you cited agrees that there were at least 6 Gladiators on Malta. I can provide the serial number if you want, but I suggest you do your own research. Cheers bud.
Here is something for the future...
The two ships that was sent to Malayia. Where warned by Australia and the Eas Indies NOT to go to Malayia and head instead to either india or Australia.
But Churchill refused to listen to anyone about the threat of the Japanese in the East Indies. Also...Australia in terms of resources is unique, as coal and iron are found everywhere, but western Australia is where the mining for rare minerals and materials can be found.
But thats for later...
Philippines: NO!! You can't attack me! I am neutral and you can just easily bypass me!"
Benelux Countries: First time?
How many forts and cities that “Gibraltar of x” have fallen? Ticonderoga, Singapore…
cant imagine i will be watching at this channel up to 2024
Wow. It'll be historically epic and scary at the same time
It's 2024... War in Europe is over
I just wanted to remind people that already Indy has said that the age of the battleship is over. I'm not sure if twice, but I'm pretty sure once. If you're watching this for the first time, Indy will say this at least 3 more times before admirals stop doing dumb shit.
My dad fought with the NZ 20th Armoured & Infantry Battalion at Sidi Rezegh and spoke of it several times to me.
Oh yeah Indy and it's about to get even more confusing in the North African desert. Pienaar will be as great a frustration to Cunningham as Rommel.
My great grandfather fought and was captured by italians in operation crusader, so it's always interesting to learn about it
Impenetrable. Well, you know, so are the Ardennes... FUTURE BURN
The best was stumbling on this series 100 weeks in, ha. That was a torrid week of catch up.
Just wait until you find out about their WW1 series.
I'm about to finish up their WWI coverage, I'm on 1918 playlist now. Here I was behind so I joined when Operation Barbarossa began and will catch the rest as well in time.
And when this series ends, someone will have to catch up with hundreds of episodes, possibly even low thousands.
maybe make a special on the better Italian weapons during world war 2 such as their self propelled guns and the 90mm gun.
Is that Adolf Galland with helmet and sword at Udet`s funeral ???
Yes, although I am not sure whether it was Udet's or Mölders' funeral. Probably he was in the honour guard at both.
8:24 the Italian victory at Bir El Gubi was impressive and showed that they learned to use armour (132nd Armoured Division "Ariete") in cooperation with infantry (8th Bersaglieri regiment), as opposed to the British, which attacked using only armoured forces, sustaining a very high number of losses against a numerical inferior enemy
Italian Army performance was mixed throughout entire war and varied according to different units. Arierte Armored Division which fought in Bir El Gubi or Folgore and Fruili Airborne Divisions , San Marco Marine Brigade or several Bersegliari regiments (not all though) were elite and best , performed as well as any Allied unit could on the field if not better even if their weapons and equipment were worse in critical catagories like armor and anti tank guns. The conscript Italian infantry divisions (which made up bulk of Italian Army) like Sabratha , Bologna , Pavia , Trento , Napoli etc..and Blackshirt units at the other hand performed much more poorer if they fought any when deployed on field though.
Shhh it was worth only of a brief mention. Don't spoil the anglo-saxon superiority complex.
You know, these prefaces are becoming pretty brilliant if you ask me (and have been doing so for quite a while now). They are very funny, quizzing and brilliantly acted by Indy. Professional to the extreme. I guess they jibe very well with the excitement of another WW2 episode. Can't think of a better opening.
15 November 1941
Russia : German Panzer Armies 2, 3 and 4 with 2, 4, and 9. German Armies, resumed the attack on Moscow, Russia. Soviet 30th Army was pushed back from the Volga Reservoir and Moscow Sea Reservoir areas 75 miles north of Moscow. Across the Eastern Front, the temperature fell to -20 degrees Celsius, freezing both men and machines; the German offensive was generally slowed to a yard-by-yard advance from this date on. Mechanical failures due to extreme cold combined with operational losses in action and collapse of logistical system left only 150 panzers operational in 2nd Panzer Army. Even worse only small proportion of German troops issued winter clothing so far while Red Army Siberian troops equipped with full winter camauflage clothing and gear.
On the battlefront, November 15 saw a complaint by SS General Eicke, now returned from Sachsenhausen to his Death’s Head Division, that within the division’s ranks many of the ethnic Germans-those of German language and culture who lived in areas outside the Germany of 1938-were wounding themselves in order not to have to serve any longer. Incidents of cowardice were common among them, Eicke wrote. But the pressures of battle were impinging even upon German nationals; since entering Russia four-and-a-half months earlier , the division lost 8.995 casaulties , half of its initial strengh.
Libya : The first raid by newly formed SAS (Special Air Service) regiment on Axis airfields around Tobruk ended up with fiasco. SAS tropers were parachuted in by RAF amid a sandstorm. 32 of 55 raiders were either killed and captured and their objectives left intact. Regiment commander Capt. Stirling seeks cooperation with LRDG (Long Range Desert Group) transportation and infltration against enemy objectives next time.
South East Asia : US Army dispatched troops to Dutch Guiana to protect bauxite mines; this was agreed upon by the Dutch government-in-exile.
Hong Kong , China : 2.000 Canadian troops in two battalions arrived to Hong Kong to bolster up its defences
Washington , USA : Japanese diplomatic envoy Saburo Kurusu arrived in the United States.
Barents Sea : German submarine U-752 attempted to attack Soviet minelayer ZM-93 Jushar southeast of Murmansk, Russia at 1700 hours, but escorting minesweeping trawler T-889 forced U-752 to dive. At 1849 hours, U-752 fired a torpedo at T-889, sinking her and killing all 43 aboard
Baltic Sea : German submarine U-583 collided with U-153 and sank 90 miles northeast of Danzig at 2148 hours, killing all 45 aboard.
Mediterranean Sea : Italian SM.79 torpedo bombers sank British freighter Empire Defender of the Operation Astrologer convoy near the Galite Islands off the Tunisian coast, killing 4.
16 November 1941
Russia : German 3rd Panzer Army established a crossing over the Lama River 70 miles west of Moscow, Russia. In the Moscow region, Russian ski troops went into action for the first time.
Mediterranean Sea : One of the turning points in war on sea. Royal Navy corvette HMS Marigold detected German submarine U-433 with centimetric wavelength Type 271 radar (first time in operational use) while she was approaching a small coastal convoy. By using radar guidence HMS Marigold attacked and badly damaged crash dived German submarine with depth charges 50 miles east of Gibraltar at 2255 hours. After U-433 surfaced, by using radar guidence again , HMS Marigold continued to attack her with guns. After suffering extremely heavy damage from gunfire , U-433’s crew scuttled their boat after suffering 6 killed; the 38 survivors were captured. The cavity magnetron equipped centimetric Type 271 surface radar which would be one of decisive weapons for Allies in naval war.
Iceland : Allied convoy PQ-3 departed Hvalfjörður, Iceland in stormy weather.
Japan : Obsolete Japanese battleship Settsu began to sail around the Inland Sea in Japan to generate fake radio communication messages at different ports.
Crimea : The German 11th Army captured Kerch peninsula, Russia. Soviet Deputy Navy Commissar Admiral Gordei Levchenko was arrested after being deemed responsible for this defeat.
Berlin , Germany : Even in the crisis of battle, the Nazi leaders could not rid themselves of their obsession with the imminent Final Solution. On November 16, Goebbels wrote in the magazine Das Reich : ‘The Jews wanted the war, and now they have it’. But, he added, ‘the prophecy which the Führer made in the German Reichstag on 30 January 1939 is also coming true, that should international finance Jewry succeed in plunging the nations into a world war once again, the result would not be the Bolshevization of the world and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe. We are in the midst of that process and thereby a fate fulfils itself for Jewry which is hard but which is more than deserved. Compassion or regret are entirely out of place here’.
17 November 1941
Beda Littoria , Libya : Operation Flipper , British commando raid on presumed headquarters of Rommel failed. The aim of operation was to kill and capture Rommel before Operation Crusader (British offensive on Cyreneica) started but the villa targeted by commandos (who landed on Libyan shore three days ago by submarine) was not Rommel’s HQ at all and Rommel himself was at Rome in a conferance by this time. In resulting attack two commandos (including their commander Lt. Col. Geoffrey Keyes) and four German troops killed , 27 commandos captured , only three of British radiers escaped and reached Allied lines at Tobruk.
Germany : After a series of arguements with Luftwaffe Field Marshal Ernest Milch , and distressed with air operational failures in east , the disgraced Luftwaffe Chief Aircraft Developer Ernst Udet committed suicide
Russia : German troops near Moscow, Russia fought Central Asian troops for the first time (Soviet 44th Cavalry Division) at Musino, Russia, 70 miles west of the capital. German artillery blunted the cavalry charges, with the Germans claiming 2,000 killed.
On the Eastern Front, the German position, so impressive on the map, was worsening daily on the ground. By mid-November 1941 it had become so cold that sentries who accidentally fell asleep at their post were found frozen to death in the morning. The Russians were better trained to survive in extreme cold. They were also defending their heartland and their capital. On November 17, near Volokolamsk Moscow Front, a Russian private soldier, Efim Diskin, the sole survivor of his anti-tank battery, and himself severely wounded, destroyed five German tanks with his solitary gun. He was later awarded the medal, Hero of the Soviet Union.
The Reichskommissariat Ostland was established under Alfred Rosenberg to administer territories taken from the Soviet Union.
Leningrad : Soviets dispatched several small teams to test the thickness of the ice on Lake Ladoga near Leningrad, Russia.
Japan : Japanese Navy Admiral Yamamoto revealed the Pearl Harbor attack plan to the naval leadership
Egypt : German submarine U-331 landed eight German Brandenburg commandos on the Egyptian coast to mine the railway line near Daba, 60 miles west of Alexandria. They were captured next day by British military police though before they completed their mission.
North Sea : British cargo ship Bowey Tracey was bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe DO-217 bombers
Black Sea : Soviet cargo ship Kamalesk Podusk was bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe JU-87 dive bombers
Baltic Sea : German cargo ship Schwaneck struck a Russian mine and sank
Iceland : Allied convoy QP-2 arrived at Kirkwall, Scotland, United Kingdom and convoy PQ-4 departed Hvalfjörður, Iceland.
18 November 1941
North Africa : 8th Army , made up from Commonwealth units British, New Zealand, and Indian troops launched Operation Crusader, a major offensive from Egypt into Libya. Surprise was achieved, and the attack met no serious resistance on the first day while armored brigades of 30th Corps (600 tanks , a lot of them light or mechanically unreliable though) began advancing from right flank across desert towards Sidi Rezegh. While 13th Corps made up by 2nd New Zealand and 4th Indian Division infantry with support of 100 tanks prepare to attack Egypt-Libyan border and Axis strongpoints at Halfaya Pass and Sollum. The Germans would later call this offensive Winterschlacht. After sundown, Royal Navy cruisers HMS Naiad and HMS Euryalus and destroyers HMS Kipling and HMS Jackal bombarded German positions at Halfaya Pass.
Japan : Five large Japanese carrier submarines, each containing midget submarines, departed from Kure Naval Base, Japan for Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. Meanwhile, Joseph Rochefort’s US Navy cryptanalytic team reported no Japanese carrier movement.
Atlantic Ocean : British cargo vessel Congonian was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-65
UK : General John Dill, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal and assigned to liason with US War Department in British Embassy in Washington. In his place General Alan Brooke was assigned as Chief of the Imperial General Staff.
Leningrad : The teams dispatched on the previous day out of Leningrad, Russia to Lake Ladoga returned to the besieged city at 0400 hours, reporting that the ice on the lake was about 10 centimeters thick, which made light travel possible, but not for heavy equipment such as 1-ton trucks.
Berlin : In a meeting with German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop , Japanese ambassador Baron Oshima requested Germany to not conclude a separate peace with any common enemies of the two countries, but did not share its plans to attack the United States.
Russia : German 4th Panzer Army launched a 400-tank attack 70 miles west of Moscow, Russia, supported by 3 infantry divisions; Soviet 30th Army fell back northward to Klin, while Soviet 16th Army was pushed south to Istra. 120 miles south of Moscow, German 3rd Panzer Army was held up at Tula, with its latest attempt to surround the Soviet garrison there foiled by the newly-arrived Soviet 413th Rifle Division.
On 18 November, the German troops attacking Venev were themselves attacked by a Siberian division and armoured brigade, both newly arrived from the Far East with a full complement of T -34 tanks. So cold was it that the German automatic weapons would only fire single shots. As the Siberian troops advanced, in their white camouflage uniforms, ‘the panic’, a German Army report later noted, ‘reached as far back’ as Bogorodisk: ‘This was the first time that such a thing had occurred during the Russian campaign, and it was a warning that the combat ability of our infantry was at an end, and that they should no longer be expected to perform difficult tasks.’
The Russians now began to prepare for a major offensive, to save Moscow. They were able, with great skill, to hide entirely from German reconnaissance and Intelligence eyes the forward movement of their reserves. The ‘enemy’, noted General Halder in his diary on November 18, ‘had nothing left in the rear, and his predicament probably is even worse than ours’. Those, however, whose ‘predicament’ was worse even than that of the fighting soldiers in the wintry fields of Russia or the sand blown hills of Libya, were the Red Army men, numbering as many as three million, perhaps even more, who had been taken prisoner by the Germans in the previous five months. The fate of seven thousand of these Russian prisoners-of-war was noted on November 18 by the commander of a German artillery regiment who saw them in their camp. The windows of the building in which they were being held, he wrote, ‘are several metres high and wide, and are without covering. There are no doors in the building. The prisoners who are thus kept practically in the open air are freezing to death by the hundreds daily-in addition to those who die continuously because of exhaustion’.
19 November 1941
Russia : General Franz Halder noted in his diary that, in a meeting Adolf Hitler held with his top military leaders on this date, Hitler no longer talked about ending the war in 1941; instead, plans for Soviet targets east of Moscow, Russia were made for spring and summer of 1942. Meanwhile, 70 miles west of Moscow, German 4th Panzer Army attempted to penetrate the gap between the Soviet 30th and 16th Armies which were pushed back on the previous day, but stubborn Soviet resistance slowed the German advance in the area of Istra.
Leningrad : In northern Russia, Soviet 4th and 52nd Armies continued to attack Tikhvin, held by the German Army Group North, 120 kilometers east of Leningrad. Meanwhile, near Leningrad, General Feofan Nikolaevich Lagunov drove an American-built M1 Scout Car across the frozen Lake Ladoga and declared it safe to use as a truck route.
Libya , Operation Crusader : Italian Ariete Division halted the advance of British 22nd Armoured Brigade at Bir el Gubi, Libya; 40 British Crusader tanks were destroyed or disabled by Italian anti tank or field gunners. Elsewhere, British 7th Armoured Brigade continued its advance toward Tobruk, capturing Axis held Sidi Rezegh airfield south of Via Balbia (main Axis supply route) in the process , British tanks charged full speed in a suprise attack to airfield , destroying 19 Luftwaffe bombers and fighters on the ground and secured the airfield. To the north, tanks of the British 4th Armoured Brigade engaged German tanks of the 21st Panzer Division. In further north at Halfaya Pass , German garrison with 88 mm guns under command of Major Baum defending Halfaya Pass repulsed 13th Corps temporarily , knocking out several British I type Matilda tanks
North Sea : German 2nd Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla attacked Allied convoy FS.650 10 miles east of Lowestoft, England, United Kingdom, torpedoed and sinking British tanker War Mehtar and transports Aruba and Waldinge. In exchange German torpedo boat S.41 collided with a convoy escort destroyer HMS Garth and sank , all German crew of E-Boat was picked by by British escorts and captured.
Battle of Shark Bay , Australia : Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney was intercepted by German merchant raider (auxilary cruiser) Kormoran 140 miles west of Shark Bay, Australia. Captain of HMAS Sydney made the fatal mistake of approaching Kormoran too close , in range of hidden guns of German merchant raider (confusing it with an Dutch cargo vessel) With Kormoran firing the first shot at 1730 hours from 2.000 yards , the battle started. Kormoran with suprise advantage badly damaged HMAS Sydney with her initial salvos but Australian cruiser also replied with gunfire from her aft turrets hitting Kormoran several times. Both ships were heavily damaged after the 20-minute battle. Gravely damaged HMAS Sydney sank next day with all hands (645 crew). However return fire from HMAS Sydney also started a fire aboard Kormoran that got out of control and reached mine depot of German raider. After 322 of her crew evacuated the ship , Kormoran exploded and sank. Most of the German crew managed to reach Australian shores and captured.
20 November 1941
UK : The Norwegian government-in-exile officially endorsed the resistance movement Milorg.
Washington , USA : Japanese ambassador to the US Nomura presented Japan’s final proposal to keep peace in Asia and the Pacific. Japanse basically ask an end to oil embergo immediately and a guarantee to purchase oil from Dutch East Indies in exchange of a limited withdrawal from southern parts of IndoChina. Next day US State Department rejects these proposals.
Vichy France :General Weygand was relieved of his position due to German pressure
Libya : Operation Crusader continues. The British 7th Armoured Brigade repulsed a counter attack launched by the German 90th Light Infantry Division and the Italian Bologna Division on recently captured Sidi Rezegh airfield. In the afternoon, the British 4th Armoured Brigade on right flank of 30th Corps salient engaged with heavier tanks of the German 15th Panzer Division, losing several American-built M3 tanks and Valentine tanks (the brigade strength reduced to %35 ) but despite that 4th Armored Brigade held its position till reinforcements arrived i shape off 22nd Armored Brigade. After dark, Royal Navy cruisers HMS Ajax and HMS Neptune and Australian cruiser HMAS Hobart bombarded Bardia, Libya.
Ukraine : German troops from Army Group South captured Rostov, Russia , less than two hundred miles from the western foothills of the Caucasus. That day, in an Order of the Day issued to all his troops, General von Manstein declared: ‘The Jews are the mediators between the enemy in our rear and the still fighting remnants of the Red Army and the Red leaders’. The German soldier in the East, in fighting the Bolsheviks, was ‘the bearer of a ruthless ideology’; he must therefore ‘have understanding of the necessity of a severe but just revenge on sub-human Jewry’.
Crimea : Nine days after von Manstein issued this order, 4,500 Jews were murdered in the Crimean port of Kerch by SS Einsatzgruppen , local Ukranian militias and German Army units. Two weeks later, 14,300 more Jews were murdered out of Sevastopol. These killings were witnessed by hundreds of bystanders, and reported on in detail in the German Army Operational Situation Reports USSR, with their distribution to between thirty and sixty senior officials and civil servants.
Leningrad : The daily bread rations in besieged Leningrad, Russia was reduced to 500 grams for military personnel, 250 grams for engineers and technical workers, 125 grams for other workers and children. Starvation , disease , malnutrition , cold is killing thousands of civilians each day in ex Tsarist Empire capital. The situation was hoped to be improving soon, however, as the first successful crossing of the frozen Lake Ladoga was made with horse-drawn sleighs, hoping to bring back food from Kobona.
Dan Pienaar is acting kinda sus!!!
General I'll-Be-There-In-Just-A-Minute. Truly one of the most courageous leaders of the war :D
@@Raskolnikov70 Let me stop you right there! First up is the little Sidi Rezegh affair during which the South African 5th Battalion gave the Germans a bloody nose (took out 72 tanks) but were ultimately slaughtered - sacrificed by the British commanders. This is the primary reason (apart from political considerations) for our man Dan, to not blindly follow orders from incompetent British commanders and to save his men from further blunders by the likes of William Gott.
Force Z was one of Churchills blunders and flew in the face of any RN interwar thoughts on a war with Japan. It would have been better not to have sent anything. Its also wrong to assume that the RN as a whole did not understand the importance of carriers.
@The Colonel Do you know whats really annoying? I know that, and just to be sure google checked to make sure i didnt mix them up. But that put force H into my mind when I typed ....*le sigh*
Considering that 29 battleships from both sides of the war entered service after battleships were rendered obsolete by carriers, I don't think anyone was actually smart enough to realize that the old paradigm of naval warfare was dead.
@@bkjeong4302 The Idea that battleships were not effective isn't really true. They still had advantages and over carriers is some areas.
though the advantages of carriers became rapidly greater as the war progressed. their supremacy was only truly apparent by 44-45. but as the Battle off Samar had shown, battleships were still capable of ruining your day if given the chance.
@@tisFrancesfault None of their advantages over carriers (survivability, etc) actually mattered when a battleship doesn't have the ability to fire at a carrier, since the carrier can attack without fear of counterattack. Yes a battleship can sink a carrier if it gets the chance to open fire, but it's never going to get that chance barring extremely unusual circumstances (even at night there's still the matter of locating an enemy carrier that stayed hundreds of miles away from you all day and isn't going to get closer, and how are you not going to get detected by the AA screening vessels before they tell the carrier you're coming and the carrier escapes out of your reach?).
Samar is not a good example for battleships being able to deal with carriers. Those were CVEs, which are much slower than your standard WWII carrier, and thus unable to just maintain a safe distance and launch aircraft with impunity (not to mention that even with their speed disadvantage, the CVEs played a much bigger role-in fact the primary role-in the American victory than they're usually credited for).
Hopefully you do a bio on Jan Smuts - a great man of the time but largely forgotten now.
For anyone's that is curious at the building the aircraft are flying over at 11:28, that is Kallang Airport which was one of the RAF airfields in use in Singapore during 1941. It is currently no longer in use now since it closed in 1955. And also the BL 15-inch Mark I naval guns at 11:08 could actually fire full 360 degree traverse (except those at Buona Vista Battery) in case of an attack from the north of the island. Whether they had enough stocks of the appropriate ammunition types is another question though...
The beginning of this episode made me feel very cold. I can't imagine trying to go to war in those circumstances!
Hey World War Two please make a special video on the planned defense of the Philippines by the American-Filipino army. Especially the reasons why they pick Bataan as the place to defend when you make it on that timeline.
We don't make videos about individual battles or defenses like you ask. If we did one, we'd have to do them all, and they are all important to someone out there. I will cover it all in the regular episodes, however.
@@Southsideindy Okay just a request
@@Southsideindy How?.. The Japanese are going to launch five major campaigns on December 8th.. all of them happening in the same 4-5 week span... You can't have every week 30 second snippets for the battle of Hong Kong, battle of Malaya, battle for the Philippines, third battle of Changsha, battle for wake island, battle for Borneo, battle for Java, ..... And then also north Africa and Barbarossa.
It seems like you're going to have to condense some battles that took 3 to 4 weeks into much more depth in a single weekly episode.
Came so soon Rommel was on the offensive in north africa
He will be again, has to wrap up the show in Tobruk first, still some rats scurrying around there
@@MikeJones-qn1gz Perhaps he shouldn't be so complacent.
My 3rd cousin was one of the 81 Germans that didn’t survive. I have the original notification. I’ve had questions about it for years. Thankful for this channel for doing the research for me!
You're welcome!