I took a few classes with Dr. Citino when he was a professor at Eastern Michigan University. I was so enamored of his lectures I asked him to sign a waiver so I could take a graduate class of his even though I was still an undergrad. I worked my academic ass off in that class just to barely earn a "B" but I loved, and learned from, every minute of it. A few years later he wrote a recommendation letter for me to enter the PhD program at EMU. Thanks for everything you did for your students, Dr. Citino....
Funny bc Michigan is just 10 miles away. He teaches history as a topic to learn from, not just something to get emotional and triggered from, though, so EMU it was.
I also had several classes with Dr. Citino at EMU. Best professor I've ever had. My advisor actually chided me and said "you can't just major in Citino".
I'm retired now so I have time to immerse myself in watching hours and hours of brilliant WW2 history like this. It's so good. The stories of WW2 are captivating, devastatingly destructive, sad and yet addictive. WW2 is the greatest story ever told, with thousands of contributors. Mankind's biggest failure to date. Vanity, pride, arrogance and sheer dogged determination and refusal to surrender. RIP to all its victims.
Surrender was not an option even for the most decent of Wehrmacht soldiers in 1943, as the Western allies already had decided to sacrifice large parts of European population by giving millions of people into the hands of Stalin. Stalin was called "oncle Joe" by his supporters in contemporarian US governments and his crimes had been sugarcoated until 1947...
Yeah... that's why the wehrmacht couldn't surrender. Golly why were the soviet soldiers so willing to go exterminate Germans I wonder who started it hmmmmmmm. Germany was happy to hand poles over to Stalin in 1939 since when are we acting like the soldiers had any say in any of this what have you been inhaling.
@@BiggestCorvid do you have any knowledge on what happened under Soviet occupation in the Baltics, Finland, Ukraine, Ruthenia, Romanian, Bulgaria, Poland or Prussia? Do you even know where these countries are situated? Probably, refering to the stupidity of your answer, you have no clue at all. And no knowledge on any of the topics related.
Germans never reached their strategic objectives, they never got to the strategic resources that they so desperately needed. Their logistical situation was a total disaster.
@Andrew Ongais Giving up on Sealion was the only possible thing. The Army wanted to land on a broad front to secure a lot of beach heads and have a chance at winning, the Navy wanted to land on a narrow strip because they didn't have the ships to defend or transport the required troops. Both were unfeasible. It was impossible.
Andrew Ongais The problem is that the allies were the ones who began to create new fronts. The Germans technically only created the eastern front while the western front was (in my opinion) fully created through DDay and the southern front (Italy) was fully created through Operation Husky.
It goes much deeper than lack of resources. Manufacturing capability, manpower, lack of motorized vehicles for supplies. They lost the war as soon as it started.
@Andrew Ongais oh definitely. But we could have given Germany all the magic tools it wanted and it still would have lost the war. It was a war of attrition and Germany just would have never won.
Germany was screwed with lack of oil production. One of the reasons they invaded the Soviet Union. The US produced 70% of the worlds crude oil at the time.
Fuel consumption in thousands of tons. 1941 Wehrmacht - 4567 thousand tons. Red Army - 1718 (half a year). 1942 Wehrmacht - 4410 thousand tons. Red Army - 2765 thousand tons. 1943 Wehrmacht - 4762 thousand tons. Red Army - 3338 thousand tons. 1944 Wehrmacht - no data. Red army - 3919 thousand tons.
true, that is also why the were forced to invade the soviet, admitted by hitler in the mannerheim recording. the soviet was preparing to invade Romania, Germany oil supply.
the comedy in this is real. the sovjet union provided germany with oil until they were attacked. germany never got as much oil out of the occupied part as they got basicly for free before
Beg pardon, but there's at least two dispatches from the US Civil War citing 'over by Christmas' or 'over by the first frost'. I suspect that over-estimating your chances in battle to your sovereign or civil leadership goes all the way back to Sargon of Akkad 5000 years ago.
"Over by Christmas" became the new catch phrase, but the old standard in once short European wars was that they only lasted until everybody had to return home to get the crops in. That's where the first leaves line points to, I think.
Dunno where you go to collage but in my experience a lot of professors (especially history professors) are like this when they get really into their subjects of expertise.
i will tell you why, most are not like this as they have self respect and some sort of integrity. now i know why all you americans are so fuking thick. your lecturers are dumb fukers teaching a load of bullshit. a full half of what he said is absolute bullshit
1:40 Not always, in 1914 Moltke went to the Kaiser and reccomend he make peace in ww1 because the chance for a quick win was over and the only war left would be one of attrition, the Kaiser told moltke he could get back to the war or hand in his resignation and Moltke handed in his resignation rather than be party to what would become the second bloodiest war of all time.
5 years late to reply, but I feel the need to present some context to anyone still reading this. Moltke the Younger had been butting heads with the Kaiser since before the war started and was not a fan of being in the war in the first place, unlike many of his colleagues. Even then he only told the Kaiser that the war is lost after suffering a complete mental breakdown, which is understandable since he was not only bungling a war but also literally dying with intense bladder and liver pain. Moltke would be dead by 1916. His behaviour was more of an anomaly than anything else, driven mostly by very personal reasons. That makes it an event unsuited to draw larger conclusions about the ancient Prussian officer corps from.
@@brianbozo2447 LOL there was absolutely no shot at invading Britain, it was never even seriously discussed. He literally talks about this in his lecture... they started a war with great naval powers---without a strong enough navy of their own
@@brianbozo2447 Germany never had a chance of 'Winning' the war from the very beginning. This has been proven by many historians over the decades. Robert Cetino himself talks about this in this very lecture.
Disagree. Germany simply expanded their war beyond their means. If they kept it against Britain France Poland they absolutely win that. However Hitler couldnt resist Stalin. @livethefuture2492
One correction: "Steher" indeed means "Stander" but it doesn't mean that you're somebody who stays were told to. It's actually a normal colloquial expression in the German language. It basically means "tough guy" and originates in horse riding. A Steher is a horse that brings the best performance over a long distance.
the vietnam war was the worlds largest most terrible and bloody missed high five in history imo. if the americans could of looked past their ideology they would of found the perfect bulwark against the chinese, a much truer foe. Its truly tragic how much blood had to be spilled for the americans to realize this
Very insightful I believe for the most part. I've probably watched, read, or listened to hundreds of WW2 discussions & examinations that can be declared "in-depth" or for the more educated on the topic. Not the bullet points you'd get in any college class on the topic, but the ones that really go deep. And the more I've learned it's basically led me to draw this conclusion: There is no one, two, or even five reasons this war followed the course it ultimately did. There were a ton of myths, misconceptions, lies, legends, knee-jerk reactions, poor information, accidents, hopes, wishes, and gambles that formulated the mentalities of the men directing the course of this war. And that's not even getting into perhaps the biggest obstacle in any fight: the fog of war. There were so, so many factors and past experiences that had occurred over the years leading up the crucial moments of decisions in this struggle that had shaped the individuals who decided this epic saga that you can legitimately point to dozens of different reasons and still be correct. I guess what I'm saying is, there is no simple way to explain the course of this war. You can list 50 legitimate reasons Germany made the decisions they made and committed the actions they committed, 35 good reasons the Japanese & Italians were motivated & shaped by, and the same on down the line to every major player in this war. But the basic, inescapable certainty I arrive upon in nearly all of these examinations is that the reasons the mass destruction, casualties, and atrocities were committed by the guilty parties in question is that it was always in retaliation for an earlier offense. Everyone is retaliating for something that occurred at some point in time. I guess with a history as long, intricate, and intersected as the histories of Europe & Asia are, one can always find a reason to legitimize a heinous act.
Always retaliation for earlier offense? How about: Conflict and retaliation are a constant throughout history. Cultures compete with each other all the time. And may the best culture win! In our era, the winning culture has been liberal democracy. How could they know that would be the case? Maybe aggressive conquest and domination would rule the roost in the end. How could anyone know which would win in the end? As they say in football, "that is why they play the games". Liberal democracy won against authoritarian tyranny. This time. It ain't over! It is a battle that we will be fighting again and again as long as there are humans on the earth!
Britton Thompson: I read in a history book that admitted oversimplification but nonetheless stated: "WWI was a war of old grudges and WWII was unfinished business." So yeah, it does relate to past transgressions (at least for WWI and WWII). However I will also add something an ex-Navy Seal once told me: "It's always about money (land=money). No country ever attacked another country just because they didn't like them."
I can't admit to claiming this the best lecture I've ever heard on WW2, but I can admit that his grasp of the material discussed here is beyond impressive. No question even threatened to dent his understanding and analysis. Thank you. My silent salute accompanied that comment.
@@BasementEngineer The only useful purpose for “Nuclear-tipped ICBMs” is to intimidate your enemy from using his Nuclear-tipped ICBMs. The moment you or the enemy fires the first ICBM, you’ve both lost. ICBMs don’t win wars, at best they only prevent them.
@@citizen240 I happen to agree with you, provided rational and intelligent people are in charge of governments; that is certainly not the case now. Ask yourself this: If Germany had nuclear arms would the Nordstream pipeline been sabotaged> Same premise but 1939: Would France, Britain, USA defacto, have declared war on Germany? Would the Soviet Union prepared to invade western Europe?
In February 1942 Reich Minister for Arms and Ammunition Fritz Todt told Hitler with tears in his eyes that the war was unarguably lost since both the USA and the USSR produced 5 or 6 times the amount of bombers as Germany. Shortly later Todt left the meeting and Albert Speer was meant to leave too but Hitler persuaded his architect friend to stay then Todt’s plane mysteriously blew up and Speer got the job and he must have realised at that time, just like Todt, that the best Germany could hope for was a truce since their industries couldn’t keep up and he was buying time for Hitler.
Interesting view Alex, but I do think you have watched a lot of Hollywood films. The reading I have done indicates that the majority of bombs were dropped by the RAF and not the Us, and certainly not the USSR. On D day most of the ships and aircraft were British, and the US force was slightly smaller that the combined British Empire force of U.K. and Canadian army. The point that many Americans miss though is the essential economic contribution the US made in Europe. That really was vital, and also supplied Russia , which was carried up to the USSR mostly by the British Merchant Navy which was so large that on any day there were about 2000 ships at sea. The Germans simply didn’t have the clout to sink enough of the, the Royal Navy was busy of course, since they sank the largest number of German U boats. Most people’s history is through the cinema. My advise is ignore most films, the6 are usually ver6 misleading. All the best.
@@davidgray3321Well his only mistake was highlighting bombers. But in terms of war material the USSR alone was out producing Germany in just about every category by late 42. The Brits were economically exhausted by '44 and were facing a real risk of economic collapse if the war didn't end in '45. The US was the master of the universe in '45 comprising 50% of global GDP.
@@duaneaikins4621 as the war progresses the Americans provided materials and equipment under lend lease this included fast built ships that did not have full weatherproofed steel finish, but to give you an idea re the numbers Britain had the largest navy in the world in 1940 , and on any day had up to 2000 merchant ships at sea. Britain also dropped most of the bombs that were dropped on Germany in the war, and on D day the British commonwealth army (that’s U.K. and Canadian) was slightly bigger than the American army. None of this in any respects reduces Americas vital contribution, don’t forget food to the U.K., and the fact that America had an essential role in supporting the Russians with thousands of trucks for instance. But the film industry is the enemy of facts in history I am afraid, and the films mislead the American public. Sometimes massively, eg suggesting that the first enigma machine was captured by the US in fact it was the Royal Navy who did so, see HMS Bulldog. Also American got lots of tech from the British, the Rolls Royce Merlin engine for example, and the Cavity Magnatron which means radar could be used in an aircraft or ship not merely in a stationary location, see the Tissard mission to MIT at the start of the war. Also the US navy used British anti submarine technology like “Hedgehog” all the best from the U.K.
The battle of Crete was really important for the fact that the Germans lost a lot of transport aircraft that was not available for the Russian invasion and to move troops and supplies forward allowing the Russians to have time to setup new lines of defence.
The Battle of Britain was huge. In June 1941 the entire Luftwaffe had fewer operational combat aircraft than the force thrown against Britain in July 1940. The loss of fuel, loss of aircraft and loss of experienced pilots hurt them deeply. And Britain still being in the war meant Germany under blockade, not being able to ship in war materials from overseas.
@@iansneddon2956it wasn't the losses in August and September 1940. The losses were big in May and June as well. But most importantly the production rate of Aircraft was very low until end of 1942. According to British author Len Deighton, the British made way more fighter planes during the battle of Britain than Germany and German War production was inefficient until Speer took over in 1942
@@Dilley_G45 The losses to both the RAF and Luftwaffe from fighting in France had a huge effect (including air combat around the Dunkirk evacuation). Which is why RAF fighter command was down to 650 operational aircraft in the beginning of July 1940. But investments in aircraft manufacturing before the war along with early moves towards a war economy gave Britain an advantage. Speer later congratulated himself for carrying out one of the greatest deregulations of an economy in history - made possible because Germany had maintained their dysfunctional heavily regulated centrally-planned economy on into the war. It wasn't just aircraft production. Britain had invested heavily in expanding pilot training programs. Part of a "reduced" RAF operational strength during the battle was a large number of experienced pilots who had been pulled back to serve as instructors training new pilots. In August the training programs were cut shorter - sending pilots into battle with less training. But Germany was doing the same. Overall, I think the British sent more inexperienced pilots into battle than the Luftwaffe did - but this was a matter of output as the RAF was deploying these pilots as part of an expanding air force while the Luftwaffe was bringing in the inexperienced pilots as replacements to partly offset a shrinking air force.
On the question of "turning point of December 1941": Richard Sorge was a German journalist in Japan who also worked for Soviet military intelligence (codename "Ramsay"). In September 1941 Ramsay found out that Japan would not attack Soviet Siberia in the near future. Stalin trusted this information and took the risk of moving 16 divisions from Asia to the Moscow front. In October 1941 the Japanese arrested Sorge for espionage. He was executed in 1944. "Richard Sorge's brilliant espionage work saved Stalin and the Soviet Union from defeat in the fall of 1941, probably prevented a Nazi victory in World War II and thereby assured the dimensions of the world we live in today." - Larry Collins "The spies in history who can say from their graves, the information I supplied to my masters, for better or worse, altered the history of our planet, can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Richard Sorge was in that group." - Frederick Forsyth
There is a book, “Operation Snow”, which sets out the argument that Harry Dexter White, by inducing the State Department to block oil shipments to Japan caused Japan to switch from a “northern strategy” directed at Siberia to a “southern strategy” directed at Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific Islands to preclude an more pressure on the Soviet Union. I have no idea of how true this is; I was under the impression that the Japanese high command was afraid of the Red Army after the Nomohan incident at Khalkin Gol. If that was true it wouldn’t have taken much for them to leave Siberia alone. I do know that Harry Dexter White was implicated as a Soviet Agent soon after the war and that he apparently died of a Digitalis overdose (a drug he was prescribed for his heart) in the midst of that investigation m.
Even if these divisions hadn't been moved to the west, i.e. had Sorge's report been ignored -- do you think that the capture of Moscow would automatically mean the German victory?? There was plenty of space within USSR where Soviets could have retreated to, and pull their strings together... USSR was simply too big to get captured by an army size of Wehrmacht
@@MarcF.Nielssen Exactly to that empty space USSR dislocated the crucial military production facilities. It didn't all happen at once of course - the process was far from complete by the time of the operation Typhoon, but it was ongoing. The point is, USSR had a wasteland of space to trade for time, like no other country. So fall of Moscow itself wouldn't automatically mean a defeat. After all, we have the Napoleon case to verify this. His troubles started after he conquered Moscow, right. The "empty space" was even emptier at that time
Actually, the German phrase "A stone has fallen from my heart" is the the equivalent of "That's a load off my mind," and the insinuation isn't the best day of a person's life, but just relief that a sad or tragic situation has either turned out to be nothing or has been resolved. Given that a General said it, I'd guess it wasn't the happiest day of his life, but relief that a perceived wrong was finally being dealt with. Smug arrogance and "poor us" syndrome waiting for revenge.
I think everyone needs to give the OKW and logistics officers some respect for getting Germany so far in the war. Germany taking Poland was impressive. Germany taking France was a miracle. Germany getting so far against to Soviets was damn near impossible.
@@taterater1052based on modern history if they had fought communism and liberation of Ukraine it would have made a difference. Note that 1/3 of Soviet army was Ukrainians
'42/43 was also Midway/Guadalcanal, and Burma (monsoon stopped the invasion of India) in the Pacific, and there was Torch in conjunction w/ El Alamein and Stalingrad. High water marks everywhere.
Absolutely correct.Axis powers fortunes were dramatically reversed with those battles/campaigns. With increasing production the Allies and Soviets steamrolled their enemies.
😊actual it began with Japan deciding to pull out of Guadalcanal and the Allies crushing the AfricaCorp and ended with Italy out , Axis subs being victorious to being eliminated, and Bougainville being invested.
Insightful and thought provoking. As an amateur historian who started studying War Two in his teens, I knew about all this information. But that last point Dr. Citino makes... the death of one's caste... is one that I had not considered. Given that the Army... not the Wehrmacht as a whole, but the Army - Der Deutsche Heer... was one of the great social institutions in Germany from its foundation as a nation in 1870, it should have come as no surprise to me. But it did.
What is this bizarro-world distinction you point to between the Wehrmacht and das deutsche Heer? Are you serious? Are you sentient? Do you somehow imagine that there were, like, reasonable, chill, liberal-democrat German army units that the Nazi regime did not utterly control?! Here's a kindergarten thought experiment for you: how would history have been different if there were no Kingdom of Prussia? The revolutions of 1848? Either world war? Lenin getting sent in a sealed military train to steal the long-delayed revolution in Russia from the social-democratic Mensheviks...?
@@haeuptlingaberja4927 The social positions of officers in the Kaiserliches Heer, the Reichswehr, the Wehrmacht, and the Bundeswehr are very different creatures. In the Kaiserliches Heer, they were often of the nobility, the gentry, the junkers, or talented middle classes. There is that classic insult 'He may be an hauptmann, but he has a carpenter's face' implying that the hauptmann in question was promoted above his station and ability. The Reichswehr officer corps was a VERY exclusive club and anybody who didn't fit in was instantly made aware of it. It's like trying to teach at Oxford with only a vocational school degree. The Nazis tried to 'socialize' the officer corps by opening positions to a wider range of social classes, but the political requirements to do so undermined their efforts. Inept men were promoted because of their Party record, not their skill at their chosen profession. This led to the Army being primarily controlled by a very Prussian style officer class. And after about 1960, when the war officers started retiring, the Bundeswehr become something almost unrecognizable to a Fahnrich to got his commission in War One. THAT is what I mean.
The answers to the questions at the end were really insightful, especially with regard to the treaty of Versailles, well done sir, I thought there was nothing more for me to know on this subject!
Citino pierces straight through the vast mythology surrounding Germany and the Wehrmacht and gets to the human stuff of the problem. He also does it quite engagingly.
Except for his remark about Crete and the German airborne invasion causing the British to lose sleep lol. By the time the Germans were paratrooping into Crete, the Battle of Britain was long since over - having been won decisively by the British and effectively the destruction of the Western Europe Luftwaffe forces to the point that they never again posed any kind of serious threat to the Royal Airforce by way of men and machines. The true test of the German airborne forces would have been the capture of Malta - a similarly small island surrounded by enemy territory and slowly being starved into submission while also being a bastion between Italy and Africa. If there was ever an airborne target of significance, Malta was it. And yet no.
I think the fatalism of the German officer corps mentioned towards the very end of this lecture is the most salient point. They faced an existential crisis: the end of WW2 would also be the end of their era. Of course, there will be nothing for them, as a privileged class, afterward. In addition, they would also have been fearful about having to bear the consequence for swearing their allegiance to Hither. It was thanks to Hitler that many of them were able to stay as a member of the privileged German officer corps; after all, Rechswehr was greatly expanded into Wehrmacht under Hitler's watch and just about all of them were eager to kick away the distasteful Treaty of Versailles and resume their warlike business!
and yet german high command warning the british and french of what hitler planned to do with the Czechs and urged them to resist. they planned multiple cues and attempted multiple assassination attempts. not all mind but the idea they were all supporters of hitler or eager for war is false...
@@matthiuskoenig3378 Please pray tell what the Germans had planned for the Czechs??? Because it was none other than Czech president Hache that invited Germany to assist his country to oppose any Soviet invasion.
Finally someone with the Guts to say it thankyou Sir i really think you hit the nail on the head with your opinion of the officer class in Germany their Doomed sense of Opera genuinely appealed to them so it didn't need to be Hitler it could have been anyonelike you say excellently argued you have made a very valid point and its been most interesting listening to you
Gobbels, in his diary, writing about ending the was during 1943, said that they couldn’t because: “We have gone too far.” Meaning that their policy of murdering those they conquered, the extermination of Jews and some others, as well as using slave labor, wouldn’t allow them to surrender without being put on trial and executed. He was right, of course, as we saw.
Apropos Dr Citino's remarks in this lecture about the Germans just reverting to instinct and attacking like crazy in 1943, in his book Dr Citino reports the followiing exchange : In a conversation with Hitler prior to the [Zitadelle] offensive, Guderian said: "Why are we attacking in the east at all this year?" Hitler responded, "You are right. Whenever I think of this attack, my stomach turns over." Guderian concluded, "Then you have the right attitude towards this situation. Leave it alone."
I'm not so sure about that though, there's plenty of wars where atrocities are committed and yet peace is still made. Of course for the Germans they were in a special predicament in that Britain refused peace countless times before and it would be unlikely that they could just retain peace with the USSR if they somehow managed to get a status quo peace.
@@AFGuidesHD there a difference between limited atrocities that were more of a spur of the moment thing, and the planned and widely carried out mass executions, enslavement and extermination camps that the Nazis used.
@@AFGuidesHDI’m not sure whether that’s a criticism of Britain - when has peace been requested? It is true that Hitler had signed many treaties which he then ignored - I’m not sure that there was much appetite to let him or his regime repeat that ruse, fool me once etc. There was absolutely no possibility for “Germany” to ask for peace, as “Germany” wasn’t in charge of Nazi policy.
@@bestbehave How many treaties have "Britain" signed and ignored? Plenty, yet countries and people still made treaties with them when Italy and Poland really should have known better. Just look at the Napoleonic wars where "Britain" signed many treaties and barely months later started another war against "France".
As to web presence, I think he sees himself as an academic whose works are paid for by book sales, lectures, and professorship. He has a post. I'm glad he's not obsessed with himself.
Thank you Doctor for pointing out that it was the Polish intelligence that broke the Enigma and passed on all the knowledge to the British in August 1939. It is not a very well known fact that Alan Turing just continued on from what the Poles did, as Enigma became more and more advanced. But the breakthrough happened in Poznan, Poland and a few years before the start of the war, to add.
What is also not generally known is that some of the polish enigma experts were interrogated brutally by the Germans following the occupation of Poland…and they never revealed the work they were doing and thus ensured that the enigma system remained in place and exploitable by the British….True unknown heroes…
"It is not a very well known fact that Alan Turing just continued on from what the Poles did" "just" is doing a lot of amusing work here. The reality was that the Poles broke Enigma 1.0, but the Germans then produced 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and so on throughout the war, and many of the problems presented by each Enigma enhancement were not any easier to solve than the original break. It's a bit like saying Newton "just" built on Copernicus, and Einstein "just" built on Newton. The original Polish break was an excellent bit of mathematics, which itself built on the proceeds of French intelligence giving the Poles the fruits of what a German traitor had given then. It was a continual process, with the good guys managing to stay one step ahead of the bad guys, and the bad guys' upgrades. Yes, the Poles and their achievements tend to get written out of the story, and they certainly deserve a mention. But there's no "just" about Bletchley Park's achievements (and, no, it wasn't 'just" Turing either.) Moreover, because it's the fun bit, the cryptanalytical triumph is always emphasised, to the detriment of the industrial production process side. Bletchley Park was useful because it was an intelligence production line, built up not merely to break ciphers, but to process decryption, intelligence analysis and distribution of intelligence on a large scale. The Germans mechanised encryption and deployed in on a large scale for the first time. Bletchley Park mechanised cryptanalysis and deployed the exploitation of intelligence on a large scale for the first time.
@@leemoore5212 Hmmm, I wonder why it took so many people at Bletchley Park to break the code. I mean, once the algorithm has been developed to break the code one would think that any pencil necked bureaucrat could do it?
"When the Red Army broke into germany, they would have hell to pay. And they had good reason to be worried" - well, suppose, they knew they themelves had provided ample reason to be worried of just that during the preceding 4 years......
I loved reading the book by Dr. Citino. it is well written and cogent. Dr. Citino is a outstanding author of World War 2 history. I read his background and academic career one of which was at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. This is also my school where I earned my BBA degree.
I read books by Sven Hassel when I was a teenager. In them he says that at the end of the war, the mantra was, "Enjoy the war while it lasts because the peace is going to be hell".
One of the best WW2 writer. Enjoyed his books. Later on heard that he actually was imprisoned and didn't actually personally participate in his stories, but rather just wrote about stories he heard while incarcerated from other prisoners.
@@TheKres7787 Most writers have to stretch the truth. If they didn't then books would be just as dull as real life. I thinkk that they worked out that Papillon was a compilation of different stories all compiled together as one mans life...... What a great book.
Great video and lecture - thank you Dr. Citino. He's absolutely right about his recommendation on Rick Atkinson's 'Day of Battle' - it is the definitive book of the American/British (and Polish) campaign in Italy. I remembered it had what might be the most understated quote I ever heard in my life by an American infantry officer at either Anzio or Cassino writing to family back home 'Battles are fun to read about in books, but not nearly as much fun to actually fight in.' - Indeed...
The captured German generals weren't sitting in British prisons, on the contrary, they were housed in great comfort in country mansions outside London. Unknowing to them these mansions were completely bugged, even the gardens, and their conversations listened to and recorded. They divulged a wealth of information to British Intelligence, particularly when a newly captured general or other senior officer arrived at the mansion and was pumped for information by their colleagues. Information included the final solution, vengence weapons, new technology, state of German morale and meetings with Hitler. The British did not openly communicated this information after the war as they thought it could be a useful technique in any future conflict.
True, and in those circumstances it was the right decision. An allied amphibious invasion of Sicily was going to be stopped in the first couple of days or not at all. The same applied to Italy. The Germans were right to madly attack the beachheads. When that failed, they resorted to a long grinding delaying defence up the spine of Italy, and did it very well.
Quite good introduction into the matter. I am german and very interested in this part of our history. Seems like we have read the same books almost. And there is still so much new insight coming up.
@Jacob Melone The irony is more German's died after WW2 from ethnic cleansing than from WW2 itself from the Soviet and Allied forces.....How convenient they didn't put that into history books...
@@johnadams5489 The Yanks, however, forgot to add "over sure" of themselves, until they met the German Army and begged the Red Army to begin the Eastern offensive after they stopped in Poland. The allies found out that that was easier to bomb Germany from the air than face them on the ground and therefore waited until the Red Army destroyed 85% of German equipment and man power in early 1945. But it took Hollywood for the Yanks to say they "won" the war. The Red Army, however, had the real story, real battle-field films!
loving his off the cuff responses to questions. his answers about Frederick the great having army commanders from the same Prussian families, just so across this. love how dismisses the plasticity of the german officers oaths...
Brits needed babysitters. Churchill was like a girl calling daddy US to send thousands of ships filled with millions of tons of food oil ECT to keep Britian alive and in the war. Imagine if Germany had US backing.... Bye bye Europe
@@smithnwesson990 Britain was in the war for 6 years, longer than anyone else. In multiple arenas. Inventing radar, sonar and destroying their U-boats and their airforce. So many accomplishments. Why would the US back the Nazi's? The Germans were utterly rash and stupid in all their arenas.... What a sad legacy
@@smithnwesson990 Churchill was respected in US...he called...they answered....yes they helped UK ....quite the Sherlock Holmes aren't you....did you figure that out all by yourself or did you get help?
@@Sonicade in 1939/40 the Commonwealth and France was much superior in population and industrial base. The Commonwealth alone produced more planes, tanks and guns than Germany on every single day from the first till the last day of the war. But Germany took Norway despite having no navy. They also took the Benelux and France in 6 weeks(allies needed 6 month to take it back in 44) despite the allies having more planes, tanks and men. Then they took the balkans. crete was an island defended by the royal navy and over 42k soldiers. To ensure victory the attacker needs an 3 to1 advantage but they took it without a navy and 2 divisions light Infantry numbering 22k. It was the incompetence of the allies that made the war so big. Germany lost the war when they decided to go on the sowjets and then the americans instead of just take Aegypt and then the middle east, Africa, India, Indonesia, Australia...
For me december 1941 was the turning point, as Soviet did not collape AND USA was now at war with Germany. If you can't force Soviet to surrender what will it be with US on your back too? It will be disaster... But I agree, it is not one point/indivdual battle etc.
+Peter Magro For me the Germans needed to defeat the British in the Battle of Britain in late 1940. Because they underestimated the RAF, they lost so many bombers and fighters. But they then decided to attack Russia without beating the British. Stupid.
Earth 2 Hitler always wanted to go east, if the British could ahve been made to make peace (on germanys terms off course) I'm sure Germany whould have made fast bpeace in 1940. Britain, North Afriac etc was just a side show.
Peter Magro North Africa was extremely important to the allies after Rommel was defeated by Montgomery, it gave access to the soft underbelly of Europe, up through Italy.
I totally agree. After december 1941 the germans could not won the war. The Soviet Union has not collapsed and started to learn to fight and get masive casualties from the Germans in a war of attrition Germany could not win. The Americans were in the war against Germanym they had half of the World GDP against it with masive industrial production, OIL and food production to ensure the URSS and Britain could remain in the war for ever. Nothing the German could have done in 1942, 1943 and 1944 could had won them the war. It just might have made the war last longer. Thats it.
I think that being a German soldier who was still in action after the tide had truly turned and the Russian meat grinder was steadily getting closer and closer must have been one of the most frightening situations imaginable. No hope of either victory or escape and even less of mercy.
I have heard for a long time that one of the Ally's best weapons against Germany was....Hitler himself. His constant "meddling", as Dr. Citino said at the end of this video, and not letting his professionally trained Generals execute the war from a trained military perspective, was an important factor in how relatively quickly Hitler got on the losing end of the war.
in his book, "Inside the Third Reich", Albert Speer said he knew the War was lost in 1941. And, if anyone would know, it would have been him. He also mentioned Hitler's hypnotic stare, how impossible it was to stand up to. Look at Hitler's baby picture. His eyes are hypnotic in appearance. And I didn't quite understand the comment about President Clinton getting us out of Bosnia by Christmas as a slur or a compliment. But, that war was carried out with minimal casualties and relied almost totally on air strikes to gain victory. He trusted his generals who told him they could do it with air strikes. Infantry came in later as support.
One note Crete was attacked by German paratroopers and they did a lot of the hard fighting, but Germany also landed regularly army once one of the port was captured and then went on to take all of Crete
This was a very interesting and well presented talk. My only concern was that you said that Germany suffered no defeats between 1939-41. I thought the Battle of Britain was a major defeat, given that Britain was them able to recover and play an important part later on. Most commentators take that view.
I see his point. The Battle of Britain involved No troops, lost no ground, and they lost a relatively small amount of material. Plus, I really don’t think they ever would have launched Operation Sea lion.
@@at1970 Hitlers biggest mistake was allowing Dunkirk to happen.It was a political decision,aimed at a wishful mandate that Britain would come to terms.
Often misquoted, it was not Nebuchadnezzar’s feast, it is Belshazzar's Feast in the Book of Daniel. Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, holds a great feast and drinks from the vessels that had been looted in the destruction of the First Temple. A hand appears and writes on the wall. The story is about how the Babylonian empire will be swallowed up by a much mightier empire, the Persians. After the feast, Belshazzar is miraculously killed, the kingdom falls, and the Jews regain their freedom.
Germany is a central European country that lacked access to global resources, unlike the Allies who essentially controlled the world's sealanes, they were doomed.
I think the war was over at the time that the Wehrmacht lost horrendous amounts of manpower and heavy equipment in Stalingrad, causing them to give up on the Caucasus oilfields. I'm curious to know how much longer the war would've taken to end Germany if they had to Oil to keep their war machine running at optimum levels. The Luftwaffe had a lot of high kill count fighter aces and some very technologically advanced well built planes that were grounded for pretty much half the war.
Indeed, Germany had the most advanced technology in many fields, for example Jet airplaines, electric Uboats. But these inventions came too late or had not enough energy , raw materials or qualified troops to operate in big numbers. Only after Stalingrad the production of war goods became more efficiently. Too late again. With no oil, top panzers, like the Tiger, could only be used as artillery until they had used up their limited amunition. The Jet airplanes could not start and most of them were destroyed in allied air raids.
I really like Dr. Citino's style of lecture and I like to hear his videos while I do other stuff throughout the day. I am definitly going to buy and read (repeatedly) his books on this subject.
An interesting and thought-provoking lecture. However, I can't help but mention that at 0:22:00 he misquotes Tennyson, as is often done, by saying "do or die"-since the poem itself says "do and die."
one day when I was like 16 I asked my grandfather about the 2nd WW coz we live in Hürtgenwald forest and you can not grow up there without some hints, that there was a massive fight somewhat in history. he did not mention the war at all but one day I wanted to know some stuff so I only asked him once in our lifetime together and my grandfather just said : "I liked fighting I liked my comrads and it felt like a great adventure". he said they knew they couldn't win right from the beginning and he was very surprised France was done so early coz he expected a world war one situation come up very soon. he said this war was not about winning at all and he said "I would have fought for the ceo of a Schokoladenfabrik as well" which means if it would have been hitler, the kaiser or something else doesn't matter. he mentioned his fights in his home the hürtgenwald forest to be even worse and fierce than the Ostfront and he even had his share at Stalingrad. what I really think to be strange is that anglo saxion (UK US) obsession with WW2 - I mean will it ever stop. like you still make Hollywood movies, every 2nd Call of Duty game and so on. I think what comes totally short out of WWII conversations is that the US robbed Britains empire once and for all and became world wide war mongers since that time and always try to prevent Germany from having good relationships with russia as well. you guys created the Cold War after WW2 and even made defeated Germany into an ally in which 60+% of the population is still open or more hidden anti-American, in my opinion there shouldn't be US bases in Germany at all after such a long time and we as nations should be friends and have friendly relationship but we should not be allies at all. i dunno but I think the really important take home message from WW2 is the atrocities (KZ, and not only jews which very often where germans as many forget, but so many other minorities got killed and tortured) why did it happen, what exactly happened , to whom it happened and how to deal with them since the time they happened and in the future. Prevent it from happen again not just in Germany of course a sort of memory culture and I think this should not just be a German attitude coz you guys (UK, US) are working very hard on a WW3 at the moment as you could see in Ukraine and the Chinese Sea.
41:41 he asked a very good question. iv'e had read the book "the end" by ian kershaw and it was very luminary toward the question why the third reich was still in great power and why the wermacht fought so vehemently when the collapse was inevitable
In the Battle for Moscow, The Soviet Counter-Offensive led by General ZHUKOV attacked the Germans on a 200 mile Front with 100 Divisions......with at least 500,000 fresh Soviets troops just transfrereed from Siberia. The Germans were badly trashed and mauled. The German 2nd (or was it 6th) Army was surrounded and most Germans frooze to death or die of hunger
+John Eu .......By then, the USSR had already mobilized 12,000,000 men and producing 1000000 s of T-34 tanks and artilleries....Germany was already doomed
The Russian industry would have fallen into the hands of Germany before then if not for american produced trucks and trains. The US enabled the communist take over of Europe then failed to do anything about it. Also there Germans were really close to winning at Kursk, if they had it's possible they may have been able to make peace with the soviet union. Stalin had vastly underestimated the ability of the Prussian officers corps.
Sovietd destroyed there own army in that offensive. Soviets not fighting clever yet. One factor in German success in Russia was very poor decisions by Soviet army at the top. Once Russia started fighting even average competent the war was lost for Germany
"our Italians" ? Never heard that one before. More sand in the oil of British and US relations. As a Limey I have nothing but respect for the US. Especially General Marshall
The german officer corps was drawn largely from the Nobility. The Waffen SS was drawn from the Police. Male Nobility was largely wiped out after two wars.
Fabulous lecture. Gee!! Perhaps the German general staff may have been worrying about War Crime Trials. No light matter for the obviously guilty. Great delivery.
He’s right. WWII was an international socio-psychological problem. Technology distributed ideas and ultimately lethal dogma far faster than populations could argue safely (why Hitler lived when his smartest knew it was the murder of Germany to let it continue). Much like the relatively lower technological vortex of dogma in the ME, if one lives in a population always hearing dogma before dawn, one is always too late to the argument.
Kek_Tv Well the US really didn’t need to join the war, the US was already lend leasing Britain enough to keep Britain alive. It would be interesting to see why Churchill said this, and what occurred to make him say this
@@patrickjin6610 look at the Date.... its right after Pearl Harbor. He knew that Japan waking the sleeping Giant of industry and automation would be the end of the axis.
It’s actually not permitted under TH-cam rules to upload Citino lectures with good audio.
Or video.
This made me laugh!! So true
Lmfao
He needs his own audio man to travel with him, do enjoy your comment and his content tho
Indeed
I took a few classes with Dr. Citino when he was a professor at Eastern Michigan University. I was so enamored of his lectures I asked him to sign a waiver so I could take a graduate class of his even though I was still an undergrad. I worked my academic ass off in that class just to barely earn a "B" but I loved, and learned from, every minute of it. A few years later he wrote a recommendation letter for me to enter the PhD program at EMU. Thanks for everything you did for your students, Dr. Citino....
Congrats, that’s awesome!
Funny bc Michigan is just 10 miles away. He teaches history as a topic to learn from, not just something to get emotional and triggered from, though, so EMU it was.
Glad to see people still pursuing humanities. This is coming from another who got a postgrad in Antebellum American history at EIU. Go panthers
Thanks for the post. He seems like a great guy.
I also had several classes with Dr. Citino at EMU. Best professor I've ever had. My advisor actually chided me and said "you can't just major in Citino".
I'm retired now so I have time to immerse myself in watching hours and hours of brilliant WW2 history like this. It's so good. The stories of WW2 are captivating, devastatingly destructive, sad and yet addictive.
WW2 is the greatest story ever told, with thousands of contributors. Mankind's biggest failure to date. Vanity, pride, arrogance and sheer dogged determination and refusal to surrender. RIP to all its victims.
Surrender was not an option even for the most decent of Wehrmacht soldiers in 1943, as the Western allies already had decided to sacrifice large parts of European population by giving millions of people into the hands of Stalin. Stalin was called "oncle Joe" by his supporters in contemporarian US governments and his crimes had been sugarcoated until 1947...
Yeah... that's why the wehrmacht couldn't surrender. Golly why were the soviet soldiers so willing to go exterminate Germans I wonder who started it hmmmmmmm. Germany was happy to hand poles over to Stalin in 1939 since when are we acting like the soldiers had any say in any of this what have you been inhaling.
@@BiggestCorvid do you have any knowledge on what happened under Soviet occupation in the Baltics, Finland, Ukraine, Ruthenia, Romanian, Bulgaria, Poland or Prussia? Do you even know where these countries are situated? Probably, refering to the stupidity of your answer, you have no clue at all. And no knowledge on any of the topics related.
Do you like Tom Petty?
True
Germans never reached their strategic objectives, they never got to the strategic resources that they so desperately needed. Their logistical situation was a total disaster.
@Andrew Ongais Giving up on Sealion was the only possible thing.
The Army wanted to land on a broad front to secure a lot of beach heads and have a chance at winning, the Navy wanted to land on a narrow strip because they didn't have the ships to defend or transport the required troops. Both were unfeasible. It was impossible.
Andrew Ongais The problem is that the allies were the ones who began to create new fronts. The Germans technically only created the eastern front while the western front was (in my opinion) fully created through DDay and the southern front (Italy) was fully created through Operation Husky.
It goes much deeper than lack of resources. Manufacturing capability, manpower, lack of motorized vehicles for supplies. They lost the war as soon as it started.
@Andrew Ongais oh definitely. But we could have given Germany all the magic tools it wanted and it still would have lost the war. It was a war of attrition and Germany just would have never won.
@Andrew Ongais it's not like they could even pull Sealion off and the summer of 1941 is the best time for Germany to invade the USSR.
Germany was screwed with lack of oil production. One of the reasons they invaded the Soviet Union. The US produced 70% of the worlds crude oil at the time.
Fuel consumption in thousands of tons.
1941
Wehrmacht - 4567 thousand tons. Red Army - 1718 (half a year).
1942
Wehrmacht - 4410 thousand tons. Red Army - 2765 thousand tons.
1943
Wehrmacht - 4762 thousand tons. Red Army - 3338 thousand tons.
1944
Wehrmacht - no data. Red army - 3919 thousand tons.
losing in north africa didnt help
true, that is also why the were forced to invade the soviet, admitted by hitler in the mannerheim recording.
the soviet was preparing to invade Romania, Germany oil supply.
they invaded the Soviet Union because the jew tell him so, and hitler her puppet in place do it.
the comedy in this is real. the sovjet union provided germany with oil until they were attacked. germany never got as much oil out of the occupied part as they got basicly for free before
"..calling the U.S. troops 'our Italians'" Damn Britain a burn of that magnitude might be considered a war crime
Michael Piperni corelli 12
Well....if we were the italians they were our welfare recipients...so which is worse?
copsondonuts you tosser made a mint out of us....where were you in 1939....making money, while my people were dying and keeping you free....
@@Jimits123 oooooh....and here i thought europeans didnt want us playing 'policeman'...
copsondonuts Roosevelt wanted to break up the British empire for trading reasons.....back stabbing crippled bastard....
Citino does such an great job at answering questions, really teasing out what people are asking and giving the right level of detail
"Over by Christmas." The original was "Home before the leaves fall" - Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Kaiser bill was a very good shill
While he may have said that, von Moltke told him early on thta was not going to be the case. When they failed to take Paris quickly.
Beg pardon, but there's at least two dispatches from the US Civil War citing 'over by Christmas' or 'over by the first frost'.
I suspect that over-estimating your chances in battle to your sovereign or civil leadership goes all the way back to Sargon of Akkad 5000 years ago.
"Over by Christmas" became the new catch phrase, but the old standard in once short European wars was that they only lasted until everybody had to return home to get the crops in. That's where the first leaves line points to, I think.
Carl Hicks Jr Yet another case of history repeating itself. •sknert•
This is a class I would get an A in and stay for HOURS!!! My lord why arent more professors like this.....
Dunno where you go to collage but in my experience a lot of professors (especially history professors) are like this when they get really into their subjects of expertise.
i will tell you why, most are not like this as they have self respect and some sort of integrity. now i know why all you americans are so fuking thick. your lecturers are dumb fukers teaching a load of bullshit. a full half of what he said is absolute bullshit
@@odoggow8157 ...but you think that we should take you seriously? Someone who can't spell "fuckers" and argues like a 13 year old?
This ain't a class. People in uniform in the audience.
@doug dimidome And you said, "Trump is Hitler." You are officially never to be taken seriously again. As long as you live. Forever, even.
1:40 Not always, in 1914 Moltke went to the Kaiser and reccomend he make peace in ww1 because the chance for a quick win was over and the only war left would be one of attrition, the Kaiser told moltke he could get back to the war or hand in his resignation and Moltke handed in his resignation rather than be party to what would become the second bloodiest war of all time.
5 years late to reply, but I feel the need to present some context to anyone still reading this. Moltke the Younger had been butting heads with the Kaiser since before the war started and was not a fan of being in the war in the first place, unlike many of his colleagues.
Even then he only told the Kaiser that the war is lost after suffering a complete mental breakdown, which is understandable since he was not only bungling a war but also literally dying with intense bladder and liver pain.
Moltke would be dead by 1916. His behaviour was more of an anomaly than anything else, driven mostly by very personal reasons. That makes it an event unsuited to draw larger conclusions about the ancient Prussian officer corps from.
Great lecture, watched it 10 times by now. His passion, attitude and temper makes it even more entertaining than it should be! Thanks for uploading.
Germany lost the war on 19 -09-40 when Germany cancelled Operation Sealion.
@@brianbozo2447 LOL there was absolutely no shot at invading Britain, it was never even seriously discussed. He literally talks about this in his lecture... they started a war with great naval powers---without a strong enough navy of their own
@@brianbozo2447
Germany never had a chance of 'Winning' the war from the very beginning. This has been proven by many historians over the decades. Robert Cetino himself talks about this in this very lecture.
Disagree. Germany simply expanded their war beyond their means. If they kept it against Britain France Poland they absolutely win that. However Hitler couldnt resist Stalin. @livethefuture2492
One correction: "Steher" indeed means "Stander" but it doesn't mean that you're somebody who stays were told to. It's actually a normal colloquial expression in the German language. It basically means "tough guy" and originates in horse riding. A Steher is a horse that brings the best performance over a long distance.
You mean a "stayer".
@@thumbsdownbandit That's almost the same word indeed.
@@JJVernigno, it isn't. To translate Steher to stayer is completely wrong. They're false friends a linguist would say.
@@wonderfalg "Stayer" is the actual English term for "a horse that brings the best performance over a long distance".
"We didn't really lose that war, and we're gonna prove it this time by getting DESTROYED" is literally the best line ever delivered at USAHEC
bit like america and vietnam then
"Pfft, WWI wasn''t a defeat. You want to see a defeat? We'll show you a defeat!"
@@odoggow8157 Vietnam joined the 'WTO' in 2007'. Hearts & Minds dude.
@@odoggow8157 No, Vietnam is in the American sphere of influence today!!
the vietnam war was the worlds largest most terrible and bloody missed high five in history imo. if the americans could of looked past their ideology they would of found the perfect bulwark against the chinese, a much truer foe. Its truly tragic how much blood had to be spilled for the americans to realize this
Dr. Robert Citino is a great professor, he knows the great drama was in WW2 and the German Army.
Drama is the operative word. Hollywood drama.
That's a great lecture, thank you Citino! Cheers from Brazil!
This guy is an incredibly compelling speaker - I was glued to this video despite its aggressive lack of visual interest.
Very insightful I believe for the most part. I've probably watched, read, or listened to hundreds of WW2 discussions & examinations that can be declared "in-depth" or for the more educated on the topic. Not the bullet points you'd get in any college class on the topic, but the ones that really go deep. And the more I've learned it's basically led me to draw this conclusion: There is no one, two, or even five reasons this war followed the course it ultimately did. There were a ton of myths, misconceptions, lies, legends, knee-jerk reactions, poor information, accidents, hopes, wishes, and gambles that formulated the mentalities of the men directing the course of this war. And that's not even getting into perhaps the biggest obstacle in any fight: the fog of war. There were so, so many factors and past experiences that had occurred over the years leading up the crucial moments of decisions in this struggle that had shaped the individuals who decided this epic saga that you can legitimately point to dozens of different reasons and still be correct. I guess what I'm saying is, there is no simple way to explain the course of this war. You can list 50 legitimate reasons Germany made the decisions they made and committed the actions they committed, 35 good reasons the Japanese & Italians were motivated & shaped by, and the same on down the line to every major player in this war. But the basic, inescapable certainty I arrive upon in nearly all of these examinations is that the reasons the mass destruction, casualties, and atrocities were committed by the guilty parties in question is that it was always in retaliation for an earlier offense. Everyone is retaliating for something that occurred at some point in time. I guess with a history as long, intricate, and intersected as the histories of Europe & Asia are, one can always find a reason to legitimize a heinous act.
Always retaliation for earlier offense? How about: Conflict and retaliation are a constant throughout history. Cultures compete with each other all the time. And may the best culture win! In our era, the winning culture has been liberal democracy. How could they know that would be the case? Maybe aggressive conquest and domination would rule the roost in the end. How could anyone know which would win in the end? As they say in football, "that is why they play the games". Liberal democracy won against authoritarian tyranny. This time. It ain't over! It is a battle that we will be fighting again and again as long as there are humans on the earth!
What exactly were the Nazis responding to when they killed Jews, homosexuals, the Roma, the disabled, and communists? Bad take, man.
Britton Thompson: I read in a history book that admitted oversimplification but nonetheless stated: "WWI was a war of old grudges and WWII was unfinished business."
So yeah, it does relate to past transgressions (at least for WWI and WWII).
However I will also add something an ex-Navy Seal once told me: "It's always about money (land=money). No country ever attacked another country just because they didn't like them."
This is what a miserable, Jew obsessed bore looks like.
th-cam.com/video/-6UgHmeiXyo/w-d-xo.html
I can't admit to claiming this the best lecture I've ever heard on WW2, but I can admit that his grasp of the material discussed here is beyond impressive. No question even threatened to dent his understanding and analysis. Thank you. My silent salute accompanied that comment.
This is such a good video. This guy’s excitement for the subject matter wears off on the listener.
Excellent commentary, very insightful 👍
Most profound statement: “ You can not win a World War without a Navy”
Thank you for the post!
A preponderance of nuclear tipped ICBM's will prove you wrong.
Absolutely !!!
@@BasementEngineer
The only useful purpose for “Nuclear-tipped ICBMs” is to intimidate your enemy from using his Nuclear-tipped ICBMs. The moment you or the enemy fires the first ICBM, you’ve both lost.
ICBMs don’t win wars, at best they only prevent them.
@@citizen240 I happen to agree with you, provided rational and intelligent people are in charge of governments; that is certainly not the case now.
Ask yourself this: If Germany had nuclear arms would the Nordstream pipeline been sabotaged>
Same premise but 1939: Would France, Britain, USA defacto, have declared war on Germany?
Would the Soviet Union prepared to invade western Europe?
In February 1942 Reich Minister for Arms and Ammunition Fritz Todt told Hitler with tears in his eyes that the war was unarguably lost since both the USA and the USSR produced 5 or 6 times the amount of bombers as Germany. Shortly later Todt left the meeting and Albert Speer was meant to leave too but Hitler persuaded his architect friend to stay then Todt’s plane mysteriously blew up and Speer got the job and he must have realised at that time, just like Todt, that the best Germany could hope for was a truce since their industries couldn’t keep up and he was buying time for Hitler.
Interesting view Alex, but I do think you have watched a lot of Hollywood films. The reading I have done indicates that the majority of bombs were dropped by the RAF and not the Us, and certainly not the USSR. On D day most of the ships and aircraft were British, and the US force was slightly smaller that the combined British Empire force of U.K. and Canadian army. The point that many Americans miss though is the essential economic contribution the US made in Europe. That really was vital, and also supplied Russia , which was carried up to the USSR mostly by the British Merchant Navy which was so large that on any day there were about 2000 ships at sea. The Germans simply didn’t have the clout to sink enough of the, the Royal Navy was busy of course, since they sank the largest number of German U boats. Most people’s history is through the cinema. My advise is ignore most films, the6 are usually ver6 misleading. All the best.
@@davidgray3321Well his only mistake was highlighting bombers. But in terms of war material the USSR alone was out producing Germany in just about every category by late 42. The Brits were economically exhausted by '44 and were facing a real risk of economic collapse if the war didn't end in '45. The US was the master of the universe in '45 comprising 50% of global GDP.
Are you insinuating Hitler had him killed?
@@davidgray3321How many of the Brits merchant ships were built in the US?
@@duaneaikins4621 as the war progresses the Americans provided materials and equipment under lend lease this included fast built ships that did not have full weatherproofed steel finish, but to give you an idea re the numbers Britain had the largest navy in the world in 1940 , and on any day had up to 2000 merchant ships at sea. Britain also dropped most of the bombs that were dropped on Germany in the war, and on D day the British commonwealth army (that’s U.K. and Canadian) was slightly bigger than the American army. None of this in any respects reduces Americas vital contribution, don’t forget food to the U.K., and the fact that America had an essential role in supporting the Russians with thousands of trucks for instance. But the film industry is the enemy of facts in history I am afraid, and the films mislead the American public. Sometimes massively, eg suggesting that the first enigma machine was captured by the US in fact it was the Royal Navy who did so, see HMS Bulldog. Also American got lots of tech from the British, the Rolls Royce Merlin engine for example, and the Cavity Magnatron which means radar could be used in an aircraft or ship not merely in a stationary location, see the Tissard mission to MIT at the start of the war. Also the US navy used British anti submarine technology like “Hedgehog” all the best from the U.K.
The battle of Crete was really important for the fact that the Germans lost a lot of transport aircraft that was not available for the Russian invasion
and to move troops and supplies forward allowing the Russians to have time to setup new lines of defence.
The Battle of Britain was huge. In June 1941 the entire Luftwaffe had fewer operational combat aircraft than the force thrown against Britain in July 1940. The loss of fuel, loss of aircraft and loss of experienced pilots hurt them deeply. And Britain still being in the war meant Germany under blockade, not being able to ship in war materials from overseas.
@@iansneddon2956it wasn't the losses in August and September 1940. The losses were big in May and June as well. But most importantly the production rate of Aircraft was very low until end of 1942. According to British author Len Deighton, the British made way more fighter planes during the battle of Britain than Germany and German War production was inefficient until Speer took over in 1942
@@Dilley_G45 The losses to both the RAF and Luftwaffe from fighting in France had a huge effect (including air combat around the Dunkirk evacuation). Which is why RAF fighter command was down to 650 operational aircraft in the beginning of July 1940. But investments in aircraft manufacturing before the war along with early moves towards a war economy gave Britain an advantage. Speer later congratulated himself for carrying out one of the greatest deregulations of an economy in history - made possible because Germany had maintained their dysfunctional heavily regulated centrally-planned economy on into the war.
It wasn't just aircraft production. Britain had invested heavily in expanding pilot training programs. Part of a "reduced" RAF operational strength during the battle was a large number of experienced pilots who had been pulled back to serve as instructors training new pilots. In August the training programs were cut shorter - sending pilots into battle with less training. But Germany was doing the same. Overall, I think the British sent more inexperienced pilots into battle than the Luftwaffe did - but this was a matter of output as the RAF was deploying these pilots as part of an expanding air force while the Luftwaffe was bringing in the inexperienced pilots as replacements to partly offset a shrinking air force.
NO
On the question of "turning point of December 1941":
Richard Sorge was a German journalist in Japan who also worked for Soviet military intelligence (codename "Ramsay"). In September 1941 Ramsay found out that Japan would not attack Soviet Siberia in the near future. Stalin trusted this information and took the risk of moving 16 divisions from Asia to the Moscow front.
In October 1941 the Japanese arrested Sorge for espionage. He was executed in 1944.
"Richard Sorge's brilliant espionage work saved Stalin and the Soviet Union from defeat in the fall of 1941, probably prevented a Nazi victory in World War II and thereby assured the dimensions of the world we live in today." - Larry Collins
"The spies in history who can say from their graves, the information I supplied to my masters, for better or worse, altered the history of our planet, can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Richard Sorge was in that group." - Frederick Forsyth
There is a book, “Operation Snow”, which sets out the argument that Harry Dexter White, by inducing the State Department to block oil shipments to Japan caused Japan to switch from a “northern strategy” directed at Siberia to a “southern strategy” directed at Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific Islands to preclude an more pressure on the Soviet Union. I have no idea of how true this is; I was under the impression that the Japanese high command was afraid of the Red Army after the Nomohan incident at Khalkin Gol. If that was true it wouldn’t have taken much for them to leave Siberia alone. I do know that Harry Dexter White was implicated as a Soviet Agent soon after the war and that he apparently died of a Digitalis overdose (a drug he was prescribed for his heart) in the midst of that investigation m.
Even if these divisions hadn't been moved to the west, i.e. had Sorge's report been ignored -- do you think that the capture of Moscow would automatically mean the German victory?? There was plenty of space within USSR where Soviets could have retreated to, and pull their strings together... USSR was simply too big to get captured by an army size of Wehrmacht
@@tcavuzic
Plenty of mostly empty space, without the military production facilities necessary to sustain the war.
@@MarcF.Nielssen Exactly to that empty space USSR dislocated the crucial military production facilities. It didn't all happen at once of course - the process was far from complete by the time of the operation Typhoon, but it was ongoing. The point is, USSR had a wasteland of space to trade for time, like no other country. So fall of Moscow itself wouldn't automatically mean a defeat. After all, we have the Napoleon case to verify this. His troubles started after he conquered Moscow, right. The "empty space" was even emptier at that time
@@tcavuzic
We are talking about a time just 5 to 6 months into an unexpected war.
It's not a war video game.
Actually, the German phrase "A stone has fallen from my heart" is the the equivalent of "That's a load off my mind," and the insinuation isn't the best day of a person's life, but just relief that a sad or tragic situation has either turned out to be nothing or has been resolved. Given that a General said it, I'd guess it wasn't the happiest day of his life, but relief that a perceived wrong was finally being dealt with. Smug arrogance and "poor us" syndrome waiting for revenge.
So I listened to all of this. ALL OF IT......I enjoyed 100% of this. I wish there were more like this. God I loved all of this...
You say that like it's some incredible thing to watch/listen to a 1 hour lecture without skipping. I agree though 😅
I think everyone needs to give the OKW and logistics officers some respect for getting Germany so far in the war. Germany taking Poland was impressive. Germany taking France was a miracle. Germany getting so far against to Soviets was damn near impossible.
If only they fought a more righteous cause against Communism in general
Continuing till 1945 efficiently without collapsing is the father of miracles
@@taterater1052based on modern history if they had fought communism and liberation of Ukraine it would have made a difference.
Note that 1/3 of Soviet army was Ukrainians
Brilliant lecturer. It’s a complicated situation, requiring deep understanding.
'42/43 was also Midway/Guadalcanal, and Burma (monsoon stopped the invasion of India) in the Pacific, and there was Torch in conjunction w/ El Alamein and Stalingrad. High water marks everywhere.
Absolutely correct.Axis powers fortunes were dramatically reversed with those battles/campaigns. With increasing production the Allies and Soviets steamrolled their enemies.
Victor Olson Yeah Japan stood no chance at all against the US, even if midway never occurred the US could out produce them easily
😊actual it began with Japan deciding to pull out of Guadalcanal and the Allies crushing the AfricaCorp and ended with Italy out , Axis subs being victorious to being eliminated, and Bougainville being invested.
17:59 - I met a doctor (retired) who was there. He titled his lecture: Practicing Medicine Under Pressure (or Surgery Under Pressure). Gruesome stuff.
Excellent lecture, excellent presentation, excellent delivery
Insightful and thought provoking.
As an amateur historian who started studying War Two in his teens, I knew about all this information. But that last point Dr. Citino makes... the death of one's caste... is one that I had not considered. Given that the Army... not the Wehrmacht as a whole, but the Army - Der Deutsche Heer... was one of the great social institutions in Germany from its foundation as a nation in 1870, it should have come as no surprise to me. But it did.
What is this bizarro-world distinction you point to between the Wehrmacht and das deutsche Heer? Are you serious? Are you sentient? Do you somehow imagine that there were, like, reasonable, chill, liberal-democrat German army units that the Nazi regime did not utterly control?!
Here's a kindergarten thought experiment for you: how would history have been different if there were no Kingdom of Prussia? The revolutions of 1848? Either world war? Lenin getting sent in a sealed military train to steal the long-delayed revolution in Russia from the social-democratic Mensheviks...?
@@haeuptlingaberja4927 The social positions of officers in the Kaiserliches Heer, the Reichswehr, the Wehrmacht, and the Bundeswehr are very different creatures.
In the Kaiserliches Heer, they were often of the nobility, the gentry, the junkers, or talented middle classes. There is that classic insult 'He may be an hauptmann, but he has a carpenter's face' implying that the hauptmann in question was promoted above his station and ability.
The Reichswehr officer corps was a VERY exclusive club and anybody who didn't fit in was instantly made aware of it. It's like trying to teach at Oxford with only a vocational school degree.
The Nazis tried to 'socialize' the officer corps by opening positions to a wider range of social classes, but the political requirements to do so undermined their efforts. Inept men were promoted because of their Party record, not their skill at their chosen profession. This led to the Army being primarily controlled by a very Prussian style officer class.
And after about 1960, when the war officers started retiring, the Bundeswehr become something almost unrecognizable to a Fahnrich to got his commission in War One.
THAT is what I mean.
I have misgivings about recommending a movie, but James Mason's performance in the 'Blue Max' really got me thinking about what your commenting on.
@@mikhailiagacesa3406 Well, Maximillian Schell's performance in 'Cross of Iron' bears on the discussion too.
@@carlhicksjr8401 Another one of my favorites.
I have Dr. Citino´s book. Highly recommended.
which book?
One of the better talks I've seen on either of the world wars. Robert Citino can certainly keep you entertained. It sounds like he is a great teacher.
I have watched this lecture all the way thorough three or four times, and I enjoy it every time.
The answers to the questions at the end were really insightful, especially with regard to the treaty of Versailles, well done sir, I thought there was nothing more for me to know on this subject!
mattsmiddy40 that is sarcasm ?
Could you summarise?
Citino pierces straight through the vast mythology surrounding Germany and the Wehrmacht and gets to the human stuff of the problem. He also does it quite engagingly.
He's a gatekeeper.
Citino is one of the best on this subject.
Except for his remark about Crete and the German airborne invasion causing the British to lose sleep lol.
By the time the Germans were paratrooping into Crete, the Battle of Britain was long since over - having been won decisively by the British and effectively the destruction of the Western Europe Luftwaffe forces to the point that they never again posed any kind of serious threat to the Royal Airforce by way of men and machines.
The true test of the German airborne forces would have been the capture of Malta - a similarly small island surrounded by enemy territory and slowly being starved into submission while also being a bastion between Italy and Africa. If there was ever an airborne target of significance, Malta was it. And yet no.
I think the fatalism of the German officer corps mentioned towards the very end of this lecture is the most salient point. They faced an existential crisis: the end of WW2 would also be the end of their era. Of course, there will be nothing for them, as a privileged class, afterward.
In addition, they would also have been fearful about having to bear the consequence for swearing their allegiance to Hither. It was thanks to Hitler that many of them were able to stay as a member of the privileged German officer corps; after all, Rechswehr was greatly expanded into Wehrmacht under Hitler's watch and just about all of them were eager to kick away the distasteful Treaty of Versailles and resume their warlike business!
Good thing nothing like that happened in West Germany after WWII...
and yet german high command warning the british and french of what hitler planned to do with the Czechs and urged them to resist.
they planned multiple cues and attempted multiple assassination attempts.
not all mind but the idea they were all supporters of hitler or eager for war is false...
@@matthiuskoenig3378 Please pray tell what the Germans had planned for the Czechs???
Because it was none other than Czech president Hache that invited Germany to assist his country to oppose any Soviet invasion.
@@matthiuskoenig3378its a minority. Oster's men are not many
Finally someone with the Guts to say it thankyou Sir i really think you hit the nail on the head with your opinion of the officer class in Germany their Doomed sense of Opera genuinely appealed to them so it didn't need to be Hitler it could have been anyonelike you say excellently argued you have made a very valid point and its been most interesting listening to you
Gobbels, in his diary, writing about ending the was during 1943, said that they couldn’t because: “We have gone too far.” Meaning that their policy of murdering those they conquered, the extermination of Jews and some others, as well as using slave labor, wouldn’t allow them to surrender without being put on trial and executed. He was right, of course, as we saw.
Apropos Dr Citino's remarks in this lecture about the Germans just reverting to instinct and attacking like crazy in 1943, in his book Dr Citino reports the followiing exchange :
In a conversation with Hitler prior to the [Zitadelle] offensive, Guderian said: "Why are we attacking in the east at all this year?" Hitler responded, "You are right. Whenever I think of this attack, my stomach turns over." Guderian concluded, "Then you have the right attitude towards this situation. Leave it alone."
I'm not so sure about that though, there's plenty of wars where atrocities are committed and yet peace is still made.
Of course for the Germans they were in a special predicament in that Britain refused peace countless times before and it would be unlikely that they could just retain peace with the USSR if they somehow managed to get a status quo peace.
@@AFGuidesHD there a difference between limited atrocities that were more of a spur of the moment thing, and the planned and widely carried out mass executions, enslavement and extermination camps that the Nazis used.
@@AFGuidesHDI’m not sure whether that’s a criticism of Britain - when has peace been requested?
It is true that Hitler had signed many treaties which he then ignored - I’m not sure that there was much appetite to let him or his regime repeat that ruse, fool me once etc.
There was absolutely no possibility for “Germany” to ask for peace, as “Germany” wasn’t in charge of Nazi policy.
@@bestbehave How many treaties have "Britain" signed and ignored? Plenty, yet countries and people still made treaties with them when Italy and Poland really should have known better. Just look at the Napoleonic wars where "Britain" signed many treaties and barely months later started another war against "France".
Awesome lecture and very happy someone posted it for the world to see. I'd love to take a class or 2 with Dr. Citino.
Same dude!
Citino needs more of a web presence. He's a great lecturer from what I've seen. Anyone know if there's more of his presentations online?
Late, but there is one for each of his books on WW2
He had tons of lectures online. Tons of books.
As to web presence, I think he sees himself as an academic whose works are paid for by book sales, lectures, and professorship. He has a post. I'm glad he's not obsessed with himself.
Google your query maybe?? Just saying.
This is an excellent lecture...very interesting and insightful. It is a lot better than most. Good stuff...thanks!
This Lecturer has been voted the “ best in the world” more than a few times. Hard to argue with that.
Thank you Doctor for pointing out that it was the Polish intelligence that broke the Enigma and passed on all the knowledge to the British in August 1939. It is not a very well known fact that Alan Turing just continued on from what the Poles did, as Enigma became more and more advanced. But the breakthrough happened in Poznan, Poland and a few years before the start of the war, to add.
What is also not generally known is that some of the polish enigma experts were interrogated brutally by the Germans following the occupation of Poland…and they never revealed the work they were doing and thus ensured that the enigma system remained in place and exploitable by the British….True unknown heroes…
"It is not a very well known fact that Alan Turing just continued on from what the Poles did"
"just" is doing a lot of amusing work here. The reality was that the Poles broke Enigma 1.0, but the Germans then produced 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and so on throughout the war, and many of the problems presented by each Enigma enhancement were not any easier to solve than the original break.
It's a bit like saying Newton "just" built on Copernicus, and Einstein "just" built on Newton.
The original Polish break was an excellent bit of mathematics, which itself built on the proceeds of French intelligence giving the Poles the fruits of what a German traitor had given then. It was a continual process, with the good guys managing to stay one step ahead of the bad guys, and the bad guys' upgrades. Yes, the Poles and their achievements tend to get written out of the story, and they certainly deserve a mention. But there's no "just" about Bletchley Park's achievements (and, no, it wasn't 'just" Turing either.)
Moreover, because it's the fun bit, the cryptanalytical triumph is always emphasised, to the detriment of the industrial production process side. Bletchley Park was useful because it was an intelligence production line, built up not merely to break ciphers, but to process decryption, intelligence analysis and distribution of intelligence on a large scale.
The Germans mechanised encryption and deployed in on a large scale for the first time. Bletchley Park mechanised cryptanalysis and deployed the exploitation of intelligence on a large scale for the first time.
@@leemoore5212 Hmmm, I wonder why it took so many people at Bletchley Park to break the code. I mean, once the algorithm has been developed to break the code one would think that any pencil necked bureaucrat could do it?
@@leemoore5212thanks for posting
@@SaveTheKidsD2Pwhy’s that,Is it because you don’t like facts.
Dr. Citino is a treasure.
"When the Red Army broke into germany, they would have hell to pay. And they had good reason to be worried" - well, suppose, they knew they themelves had provided ample reason to be worried of just that during the preceding 4 years......
I loved reading the book by Dr. Citino. it is well written and cogent. Dr. Citino is a outstanding author of World War 2 history. I read his background and academic career one of which was at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. This is also my school where I earned my BBA degree.
He wasn't there Patton was.
This was a very interesting lecture. Thanks for posting.
I read books by Sven Hassel when I was a teenager. In them he says that at the end of the war, the mantra was, "Enjoy the war while it lasts because the peace is going to be hell".
One of the best WW2 writer. Enjoyed his books. Later on heard that he actually was imprisoned and didn't actually personally participate in his stories, but rather just wrote about stories he heard while incarcerated from other prisoners.
@@TheKres7787 Most writers have to stretch the truth. If they didn't then books would be just as dull as real life. I thinkk that they worked out that Papillon was a compilation of different stories all compiled together as one mans life...... What a great book.
@@digdougedy Yes but problem was, if I recall right, that he stated those are all personal experiences. All that aside though, great books for sure
Great video and lecture - thank you Dr. Citino. He's absolutely right about his recommendation on Rick Atkinson's 'Day of Battle' - it is the definitive book of the American/British (and Polish) campaign in Italy. I remembered it had what might be the most understated quote I ever heard in my life by an American infantry officer at either Anzio or Cassino writing to family back home 'Battles are fun to read about in books, but not nearly as much fun to actually fight in.' - Indeed...
The captured German generals weren't sitting in British prisons, on the contrary, they were housed in great comfort in country mansions outside London. Unknowing to them these mansions were completely bugged, even the gardens, and their conversations listened to and recorded. They divulged a wealth of information to British Intelligence, particularly when a newly captured general or other senior officer arrived at the mansion and was pumped for information by their colleagues. Information included the final solution, vengence weapons, new technology, state of German morale and meetings with Hitler. The British did not openly communicated this information after the war as they thought it could be a useful technique in any future conflict.
Where can one listen to the original recordings in German???
Yeah, because no intelligence agency EVER tampers with records or evidence 😂😂😂
I think the arguments about the turning point of the war completely miss the point of the entire video...
Informative, paced well and entertaining asides.
Thank you, it was enjoyable
Great video, thanks for posting!
You want an immediate reckless rush at the enemy? I'm your man.
True, and in those circumstances it was the right decision. An allied amphibious invasion of Sicily was going to be stopped in the first couple of days or not at all. The same applied to Italy. The Germans were right to madly attack the beachheads. When that failed, they resorted to a long grinding delaying defence up the spine of Italy, and did it very well.
Quite good introduction into the matter. I am german and very interested in this part of our history. Seems like we have read the same books almost. And there is still so much new insight coming up.
I really enjoy his speaking style. Keeps you engaged the whole time! Good stuff!
Germany fought to the end... sad because thousands (if not millions) could’ve been saved...
They executed up to 20 thousand of their own troops who had other ideas.
@Jacob Melone The irony is more German's died after WW2 from ethnic cleansing than from WW2 itself from the Soviet and Allied forces.....How convenient they didn't put that into history books...
MrStoneycool69 interesting, very big if true. You wouldn’t happen to have a source on this would you? You wouldn’t be lying, I hope....
yep definitely millions
MrStoneycool69 sooooooo to prove me wrong you cite a magazine, and a TH-cam video....... no actual historians or primary sources? Unfortunate.
"Our Italians"
Laughing out loud over here
Yes, but the British were "our Italians" in the Far East.
@@degrelleholt6314 are you fucking serious?
Does the 14th Army ring any bells, dickhead?
If not fuck off.
Dan D
The Brits use to say of American Troops when they started arriving in England:
"American Soldiers are "Over sexed, Over paid, and Over HERE!"
I can't imagine the British saying that. They have constantly incompetent leadership.
@@johnadams5489
The Yanks, however, forgot to add "over sure" of themselves, until they met the German Army and begged the Red Army to begin the Eastern offensive after they stopped in Poland. The allies found out that that was easier to bomb Germany from the air than face them on the ground and therefore waited until the Red Army destroyed 85% of German equipment and man power in early 1945.
But it took Hollywood for the Yanks to say they "won" the war. The Red Army, however, had the real story, real battle-field films!
loving his off the cuff responses to questions. his answers about Frederick the great having army commanders from the same Prussian families, just so across this. love how dismisses the plasticity of the german officers oaths...
Battle of Britain dear boy and the Germans never tried a airborne invasion after massive casualties in Crete.
Brits needed babysitters. Churchill was like a girl calling daddy US to send thousands of ships filled with millions of tons of food oil ECT to keep Britian alive and in the war. Imagine if Germany had US backing.... Bye bye Europe
@@smithnwesson990 Britain was in the war for 6 years, longer than anyone else. In multiple arenas. Inventing radar, sonar and destroying their U-boats and their airforce. So many accomplishments. Why would the US back the Nazi's? The Germans were utterly rash and stupid in all their arenas.... What a sad legacy
@@smithnwesson990 Churchill was respected in US...he called...they answered....yes they helped UK ....quite the Sherlock Holmes aren't you....did you figure that out all by yourself or did you get help?
@@Sonicade in 1939/40 the Commonwealth and France was much superior in population and industrial base. The Commonwealth alone produced more planes, tanks and guns than Germany on every single day from the first till the last day of the war. But Germany took Norway despite having no navy. They also took the Benelux and France in 6 weeks(allies needed 6 month to take it back in 44) despite the allies having more planes, tanks and men. Then they took the balkans. crete was an island defended by the royal navy and over 42k soldiers. To ensure victory the attacker needs an 3 to1 advantage but they took it without a navy and 2 divisions light Infantry numbering 22k. It was the incompetence of the allies that made the war so big. Germany lost the war when they decided to go on the sowjets and then the americans instead of just take Aegypt and then the middle east, Africa, India, Indonesia, Australia...
Great articulate, knowledgeable speaker! Really enjoyed this. Watched twice. Thank you!
For me december 1941 was the turning point, as Soviet did not collape AND USA was now at war with Germany.
If you can't force Soviet to surrender what will it be with US on your back too?
It will be disaster...
But I agree, it is not one point/indivdual battle etc.
+Peter Magro For me the Germans needed to defeat the British in the Battle of Britain in late 1940. Because they underestimated the RAF, they lost so many bombers and fighters. But they then decided to attack Russia without beating the British. Stupid.
Earth 2 Hitler always wanted to go east, if the British could ahve been made to make peace (on germanys terms off course) I'm sure Germany whould have made fast bpeace in 1940. Britain, North Afriac etc was just a side show.
Peter Magro North Africa was extremely important to the allies after Rommel was defeated by Montgomery, it gave access to the soft underbelly of Europe, up through Italy.
USA is irrelevant. USA is so big and everything, but it really did nothing for the war. Countries like Poland provided much more
I totally agree. After december 1941 the germans could not won the war. The Soviet Union has not collapsed and started to learn to fight and get masive casualties from the Germans in a war of attrition Germany could not win. The Americans were in the war against Germanym they had half of the World GDP against it with masive industrial production, OIL and food production to ensure the URSS and Britain could remain in the war for ever. Nothing the German could have done in 1942, 1943 and 1944 could had won them the war. It just might have made the war last longer. Thats it.
I think that being a German soldier who was still in action
after the tide had truly turned and the Russian meat grinder was steadily getting closer and closer must have been one of the most frightening situations imaginable. No hope of either victory or escape and even less of mercy.
And all of it preventable.
@@highjumpstudios2384 Yes, yes. We could go right back to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.
@@andrewrobertson3894 Nah, not even that. Just all the warcrimes.
I have heard for a long time that one of the Ally's best weapons against Germany was....Hitler himself. His constant "meddling", as Dr. Citino said at the end of this video, and not letting his professionally trained Generals execute the war from a trained military perspective, was an important factor in how relatively quickly Hitler got on the losing end of the war.
in his book, "Inside the Third Reich", Albert Speer said he knew the War was lost in 1941. And, if anyone would know, it would have been him. He also mentioned Hitler's hypnotic stare, how impossible it was to stand up to. Look at Hitler's baby picture. His eyes are hypnotic in appearance. And I didn't quite understand the comment about President Clinton getting us out of Bosnia by Christmas as a slur or a compliment. But, that war was carried out with minimal casualties and relied almost totally on air strikes to gain victory. He trusted his generals who told him they could do it with air strikes. Infantry came in later as support.
When the nurse saw those mad staring eyes she should have said " Leave This one alone ... bad to the bone "
Great presentation. Really enjoyed it.
I am a WW 2 buff this Gentleman is so knowledgeable I would take his class in a minute. Much respect for his opinions.....
Everybody who needs to point out that hes a "history buff" doesn't know that much in my experience. Especially tru with my American bois xddd
One note Crete was attacked by German paratroopers and they did a lot of the hard fighting, but Germany also landed regularly army once one of the port was captured and then went on to take all of Crete
And what did they really gain by wasting resources on Crete?
@@pascalinebrodeur4732 Controll of the Eastern Mediterranian for some years. No bombing of Ploesti Oil fields before 1944
Before the Allies were "pushing their way into the German heartland," they were fighting toe to toe to rid the invaders from other peoples heartlands!
This was a very interesting and well presented talk. My only concern was that you said that Germany suffered no defeats between 1939-41. I thought the Battle of Britain was a major defeat, given that Britain was them able to recover and play an important part later on. Most commentators take that view.
I see his point. The Battle of Britain involved No troops, lost no ground, and they lost a relatively small amount of material.
Plus, I really don’t think they ever would have launched Operation Sea lion.
Seems dunkirk was a huge loss. Without those 300,00+ troops, Britain would have been in real trouble.
@@at1970 Hitlers biggest mistake was allowing Dunkirk to happen.It was a political decision,aimed at a wishful mandate that Britain would come to terms.
Very good speaker.
terrible speaker and explains why mericans are so poorly educated if this is the standard of teaching at this level
@@odoggow8157 whats the problem?
This guy is very informative and entertaining; even with all the dad jokes.
I could listen to HOURS of this...
Dr.Citino touched on something thar really cought my attention.
Evertime watching this I learn and pick something up that was missed before.
12:42 The guy's name was Helmut von Moltke, not Hans. Doesn't matter, though. Giving talks is hard and small mistakes are part of the job.
and thus why the usa has the worst education system in the world. no standards
Helmuth.
Often misquoted, it was not Nebuchadnezzar’s feast, it is Belshazzar's Feast in the Book of Daniel. Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, holds a great feast and drinks from the vessels that had been looted in the destruction of the First Temple. A hand appears and writes on the wall. The story is about how the Babylonian empire will be swallowed up by a much mightier empire, the Persians. After the feast, Belshazzar is miraculously killed, the kingdom falls, and the Jews regain their freedom.
Germany is a central European country that lacked access to global resources, unlike the Allies who essentially controlled the world's sealanes, they were doomed.
I think the war was over at the time that the Wehrmacht lost horrendous amounts of manpower and heavy equipment in Stalingrad, causing them to give up on the Caucasus oilfields. I'm curious to know how much longer the war would've taken to end Germany if they had to Oil to keep their war machine running at optimum levels. The Luftwaffe had a lot of high kill count fighter aces and some very technologically advanced well built planes that were grounded for pretty much half the war.
Indeed, Germany had the most advanced technology in many fields, for example Jet airplaines, electric Uboats. But these inventions came too late or had not enough energy , raw materials or qualified troops to operate in big numbers. Only after Stalingrad the production of war goods became more efficiently. Too late again.
With no oil, top panzers, like the Tiger, could only be used as artillery until they had used up their limited amunition. The Jet airplanes could not start and most of them were destroyed in allied air raids.
I really like Dr. Citino's style of lecture and I like to hear his videos while I do other stuff throughout the day. I am definitly going to buy and read (repeatedly) his books on this subject.
Citing is the best period. He puts you in mind of the soldiers!
An interesting and thought-provoking lecture. However, I can't help but mention that at 0:22:00 he misquotes Tennyson, as is often done, by saying "do or die"-since the poem itself says "do and die."
one day when I was like 16 I asked my grandfather about the 2nd WW coz we live in Hürtgenwald forest and you can not grow up there without some hints, that there was a massive fight somewhat in history. he did not mention the war at all but one day I wanted to know some stuff so I only asked him once in our lifetime together and my grandfather just said :
"I liked fighting I liked my comrads and it felt like a great adventure". he said they knew they couldn't win right from the beginning and he was very surprised France was done so early coz he expected a world war one situation come up very soon.
he said this war was not about winning at all and he said "I would have fought for the ceo of a Schokoladenfabrik as well" which means if it would have been hitler, the kaiser or something else doesn't matter. he mentioned his fights in his home the hürtgenwald forest to be even worse and fierce than the Ostfront and he even had his share at Stalingrad.
what I really think to be strange is that anglo saxion (UK US) obsession with WW2 - I mean will it ever stop. like you still make Hollywood movies, every 2nd Call of Duty game and so on. I think what comes totally short out of WWII conversations is that the US robbed Britains empire once and for all and became world wide war mongers since that time and always try to prevent Germany from having good relationships with russia as well. you guys created the Cold War after WW2 and even made defeated Germany into an ally in which 60+% of the population is still open or more hidden anti-American, in my opinion there shouldn't be US bases in Germany at all after such a long time and we as nations should be friends and have friendly relationship but we should not be allies at all.
i dunno but I think the really important take home message from WW2 is the atrocities (KZ, and not only jews which very often where germans as many forget, but so many other minorities got killed and tortured) why did it happen, what exactly happened , to whom it happened and how to deal with them since the time they happened and in the future. Prevent it from happen again not just in Germany of course a sort of memory culture and I think this should not just be a German attitude coz you guys (UK, US) are working very hard on a WW3 at the moment as you could see in Ukraine and the Chinese Sea.
WWII taught the rest of the war exactly what German culture and civilization was and the rest of the world decided "never again".
@@andrewallen9993 Rubbish, you wallowed way too much hollywood and war propaganda.
This was a very good lecture. Really enjoyed
41:41 he asked a very good question. iv'e had read the book "the end" by ian kershaw and it was very luminary
toward the question why the third reich was still in great power and why the wermacht fought so vehemently when the collapse was inevitable
In the Battle for Moscow, The Soviet Counter-Offensive led by General ZHUKOV attacked the Germans on a 200 mile Front with 100 Divisions......with at least 500,000 fresh Soviets troops just transfrereed from Siberia. The Germans were badly trashed and mauled. The German 2nd (or was it 6th) Army was surrounded and most Germans frooze to death or die of hunger
+John Eu .......By then, the USSR had already mobilized 12,000,000 men and producing 1000000 s of T-34 tanks and artilleries....Germany was already doomed
The Russian industry would have fallen into the hands of Germany before then if not for american produced trucks and trains. The US enabled the communist take over of Europe then failed to do anything about it.
Also there Germans were really close to winning at Kursk, if they had it's possible they may have been able to make peace with the soviet union. Stalin had vastly underestimated the ability of the Prussian officers corps.
2 army got badly mauled during the Battle on Moscow.
Sovietd destroyed there own army in that offensive.
Soviets not fighting clever yet.
One factor in German success in Russia was very poor decisions by Soviet army at the top. Once Russia started fighting even average competent the war was lost for Germany
I couldn’t agree more. Recently I retired as well. Watching sometimes brilliant lectures on the two world wars is what I do.
"our Italians" ? Never heard that one before.
More sand in the oil of British and US relations.
As a Limey I have nothing but respect for the US.
Especially General Marshall
Very unusual considering how anti-American Britain is.
Brilliant demonstration that went far beyond the much used clichés.
Great video and discussion!🎉
good video, very good
The german officer corps was drawn largely from the Nobility. The Waffen SS was drawn from the Police. Male Nobility was largely wiped out after two wars.
The Waffen SS were volunteers from all over Europe. About 1 million were from non German countries.
Fabulous lecture. Gee!! Perhaps the German general staff may have been worrying about War Crime Trials. No light matter for the obviously guilty. Great delivery.
Why arent there more lectures like this?
When pride cometh, then cometh shame. But with the lowly is wisdom.
Wonderful Lecture. Thank you.
He’s right. WWII was an international socio-psychological problem. Technology distributed ideas and ultimately lethal dogma far faster than populations could argue safely (why Hitler lived when his smartest knew it was the murder of Germany to let it continue). Much like the relatively lower technological vortex of dogma in the ME, if one lives in a population always hearing dogma before dawn, one is always too late to the argument.
I don't think I would lump Model in with the others that he mentioned.
This was a fantastic lecture. World class.
Churchill knew on December 7th 1941 - "So we've won after all" he said .
right after the us joined*
Kek_Tv Well the US really didn’t need to join the war, the US was already lend leasing Britain enough to keep Britain alive. It would be interesting to see why Churchill said this, and what occurred to make him say this
@johnmann I believe the quote was "We've slaughtered the wrong pig"
johnmann debunked quote and stupid view of history. Go throw your /pol bullshit somewhere else.
@@patrickjin6610 look at the Date.... its right after Pearl Harbor. He knew that Japan waking the sleeping Giant of industry and automation would be the end of the axis.