New year, new German offensive. The Third Reich may be on the ropes but the Nazi regime is determined to fight to the bitter end. This war has got a way to run.
I continue to applaud the effort to try to pronounce our Hungarian place names. I can somewhat relate, the only expressions I know in Swedish are skol and Saga Noren, Lanskrim Malmö. For years until seeing in written form, I never understood what she said before Malmö. The reason I mention this because I wish to wholeheartedly suggest to every viewer and TimeGhost army member to watch another show of hers where she portrays the queen of Norway and her relationship with Roosevelt. Regarding your comment, by this time, cracks between devout Nazis and military men more interested in German honor than Nazi ideals, started to appear more visibly. So I would phrase it as by January 1945 there were more lackeys of Nazis (the Arrow Cross, the ustase, certain chetniks, Italian fascists, Western defectors and Freier Korps Indien) that still more believed in fascism winning than high ranking German officers believing the war is still winnable.
I've been following Indy since the Great War and the beginning of this series. I remember when Indy brought us the news of the Wehrmacht's invasion of Poland. Can't believe we are in 1945 already.
Me too. Started playing battlefield 1 with my brothers in 2016 but since i'm from the Netherlands we didn't know that much about world war 1, so i looked it up on the internet and lo and behold i arrived at the great war channel. Still here and still an amazing channel.
I still can believe I was in my sophomore year in high school when this all began, with the Great War channel. Now I’m a college grad, a substitute teacher planning a personal trip to Normandy next year for the 80th anniversary, and seeing it all culminating soon enough here, in 1945
I said the same thing. I've read he was one of the few people who could talk sense into Monty, smooth things out between Monty and Ike and because of his poor health, whenever he was incapacitated Monty usually got into trouble again. The man is an unsung hero.
I try to take a realistic rather than a nationalistic view of US and UK WW2 generals. To be fair to Monty - I don't need to ignore or minimize what he did well - he did very well in North Africa when 8th Army morale was very low from having been beaten multiple time by Rommel. While geography at El Alamein was less favorable to Rommel than at other battles, I do not think the 8th Army would have fared as well as they did with just materiel superiority. Monty turned around more than just their materiel situation. Monty also did fairly well in Sicily, where two thrusts - Monty and Patton - kept the Germans and Italians off balance. Monty also did well in the field on the north shoulder of the Bulge (XXX Corps). OTOH, Market Garden was not Monty's only less than excellent moment.
Freddie the Guigand, Monty's chief of staff of 21st Army Group, is an unsung hero for being one of the few people able to talk sense into Monty and smooth things over with Eisenhower. Too bad he was not always in good health, which meant that whenever Monty's chief of staff was incapacitated Monty had a high chance of putting his foot into his mouth yet again.
Given Monty was arrogant ass at best doesn't help. Also, Monty seemed to grasp logistics or unity of command. His antics at the Bulge were borderline insubordination or worse.
De Guignand was also instrumental in second El Alamein, where he drew up the - pretty complex - operation plans, and kept Mongomery's excesses in check.
There would have been more chance of Ike getting rid of Monty for insubordination if Mark Clark had been got rid of for disobeying Alexander's orders in Italy.
This is something ive admired about Indy since 2014, I love his almost Atlantic accent, its very reminiscent of your typical American news reader of the times and really adds to the experience while not seeming like hes putting on a voice.
The sheer audacity required for Monty to write the fuc*ing order for Eisenhower to issue on his behalf is insane. I am not a military man but even I can see this is crazy.
Some statistics from the Atlantic. In 1944 the Germans sunk 243 ships for 600 000 tons (less than half than in 1943). In June 1944 they had 100 U-boats at sea. The highest number they would ever achieve. 1944 would be the deadliest year for the U-boats with 249 boats lost. And during the remaining 5 months of the war, they will lose 120. 14 million tons of allied shipping would be lost in total. At the cost of 768 U-boats
It's always astonished me how much of their limited resources the Germans continued to pour into their U-boat program right up to the end of the war. It was pretty obvious by this point that they were never going to compete with American manufacturing capability, but they kept developing them right up until the end of the war.
Herbert A. Werner's Iron Coffins paints a very grim picture of the last 18 months of the Uboat campaign. They are being caught on the surface day and night due to ceaseless air patrols with improved radar. One chapter in particular is filled with the radio messages of fellow Uboats under attack.
@@AndrewBlacker-t1d No, they lost a lot of U boats before 1943, but it was catastrophic and utterly unsustainable by May of that year. It was to a large extent an intelligence war but when the Allies cracked the 4 rotor Enigma machine in late 1942 and early 1943 the Kriegsmarine was basically done for. The Allies knew what was going on in great detail but the Nazis never seriously suspected their codes were cracked.
@@AndrewBlacker-t1d That's true, but Germany must have had a sense of how many ships were still getting through from the size and frequency of the convoys the Allies were sending. Also as someone already pointed out Allied defense was a whole lot better in 1944-45 than it was back during the 'Happy Time' before the US entered the war directly. They certainly knew that their U-boat campaign was suffering from diminishing returns. Obviously there's going to be the issue of (sorry for the pun...) sunk costs in that most of their U-boat fleet is already built. It represents a huge outlay in resources and it would be wasteful not to use it even if the losses are high, since it's not like U-boats can be easily repurposed for something else like vehicles or airplanes. But they're still building them, still training new crews and still developing new types of U-boats even as the Soviets are closing in on their Baltic Sea ports where this is taking place. At what point does someone tap the H-man on the shoulder and ask if this is still a wise use of rare metals and fuel?
Fun fact General Dahlquist of the 36th Infantry division had a pretty poor reputation among officers and men of the division. He was known at one point telling a subordinate officer that there were no enemy tanks in the area while the unit was literally being engaged by German tanks and that his men where basicaly lying. He was famous for single handedly causing the Lost Battalion and issuing some very controversial orders to the 442nd RCT to rescue the Lost Battalion, “At All Costs” which resulted in more casualties rescuing the unit (which he got surrounded) than the total men that where rescued.
Yeah but nobody cared about the Japanese-Americans in the 442nd or their white officers. They were sent into the grinder time and time again which is why they ended up the most decorated US unit of the war despite not being combat ready and in the fight until after the Anzio pocket already broke out. They were basically just turned into martyrs of the Gothic Line.
Supposedly there was a post war reunion of the 36th Division at which he was surprised that no one would shake hands with him. My brother's father in law was a veteran of the 36th, and I would ask him, but sadly, he passed last Fall. If you have a relative who served in the war, or even on the home front, get video camera and sit them down and ask them about the war. If you don''t understand the details of what they did, ask them. I started in the Guard in 1980 in a sound and flash control center, but a video carried on a PA history channel revealed to me that the method used in WWII was quite different from what we were doing in the 80's. And if you can get them loosened up enough, get them to sing a few of the ribald verses of songs like Bless them All so they aren;t lost to posterity. Units like AA search light batteries haven't really existed since WW II and the development of radar guided guns, so stories of such units are invaluable.
Hearing that gong at the end is going to be one of those sounds I’ll hear years from now and it’ll take me back to this series. 5 years of watching those red lines grow and recede and knowing every time that line moves countless real people lost their lives. I’ve grown a lot in between the time of watching The Great War in 2016 as a 15 year old to now. It feels wrong to say I’ll be sad when this is all over with but I will miss this. I’m writing this comment to stamp that I was here and I’ve been here and I appreciate everything that’s be done. Someone could revive this series 20 years from now and do the 100 years later aspect like with The Great War but who knows. I do love you all and thank you all for everything.
This series is so well done I can't believe we are entering the sixth year of the war and I have been glued to this channel every Saturday for the whole duration! Love your work guys!!!!
Gosh, I remember finding this channel back in 2020 during the battle for Moscow and never skipped an episode since then! Can't believe that we are already in 1945, thank you for your work and happy holidays!
Even though each edition growing longer they are still as absorbing as ever. Testamentary to a great team of researchers, editors and presenters. Great job as usual guys and gals.
One thing that I will always remember thanks to this series, is the hundreds of times Hitler said "no" to his generals requesting permission to withdraw their forces and then were forced to do so anyway under the pressure of the enemy
In other news, on January 6th, 1945 British Lieutenant General Herbert Lumsden is killed aboard the bridge of the battleship USS New Mexico when the ship was struck by a Japanese kamikaze. Lumsden was serving at the time as Churchill's representative to General MacArthur, and would be the most senior ranking British officer to be killed during the war. The kamikaze attack also claimed the lives of Captain Robert Walton Fleming, the New Mexico's commanding officer, along with 29 others. Admiral Bruce Fraser, the commander of the British Pacific Fleet, had also been on the bridge and narrowly avoided becoming a casualty.
I finally caught up! Found this channel in march 2020 during lockdown, watched until I had caught up at around Pearl Harbour. Then I watched the entirety of The Great War, before I picked up WWII again. Made myself Patreon in February '23, and now here I am! Big shoutout to TimeGhost for this incredibly important, herculanean effort!
Congratulations to you for watching the whole The Great War before starting WW2! And even more congratulations for catching on to the "present" time! We are glad to have someone like you among our viewers and patreons! -TimeGhost Ambassador
A semi-personal comment from me this week, starting this week my village in Csáb/Čebovce in Southern Slovakia, then Hungary is captured by 3 rifle division of 2nd Ukrainian, destroying 4th SS Polizie in the process and knocking them out as a meaningful fighting force for the rest of the war. Malinovsky made his forward command base at my village, and the Main Street was renamed after him. As a wine growing village, much was shared with the Soviets, and surprisingly were remembered very well. Seeing this on to the Komarom offensive, really makes sense, attacking from the Ipoly over the Garam/Hron. This is why I love this series.
Sounds so weird hearing 1945. Been here since since ep 1 but not since the great war. Proud to have gotten this far and hope you finish the coverage the whole way through!
The miracle of Frederick the Great was that the Tsar died and was replaced with a Prussiaboo, who demanded medals instead of territorial concessions. Surely Krushchev would accept peace for medals, right?
Bernard Montgomery was a prima donna. Thanks for another great episode. Unfortunately, for the people of Hungary, the Russians do not bring liberation but forty more years of oppression (i.e. the disappearance of Raul Wallenberg).
With "Monty" on the western allies side it's nothing short of a bloody miracle the "reds" didn't make it all the way to the Dutch German border before the war was over.
Ike was quite an ego-juggler: Monty over-egoed his performance; De Gaulle over-egoed what he could perform and made himself a PITA; Patton had a big ego, with proportional - or a bit better - performance. Ike probably wished he could lock Monty and De Gaulle and not let them out until just one survived. Mac could and sometimes did well, but his ego was disproportionally greater.
Maybe not to the German border or the Rhine, but West Germany's border might have been the Weser River instead of the Elbe, and the Jutland Peninsula being in East Germany, +/- Hamburg.
In this war I really felt the absence of a moment akin to to Christmas 1914, it was such a wholesome moment that in a way brought some light till 1918. Instead here nothing like that came, WAH really made that point come across, happy new year Ww2 team and thanks for your work
Commanders in all armies were horrified by what happened on Xmas day in 1914. After that they made sure to order bombardments and raids on holidays to make sure the troops never declared their own unilateral cease-fires again, lest they realize they have more in common with their "enemy" than their own leaders sending them to fight and die and choose to point their rifles in a different direction.
This war has been genocidal madness since Japan invaded China and it will only get worse before it ends. In a way WWI killed the notion of romantic warfare. In WW2, it's been cynical slaughter since the beginning because the previous war taught everyone the principles of total war.
@@Raskolnikov70 A couple of British officers who held a small-scale truce with Germans in Christmas 1915 were court-martialled. One was acquitted, the other reprimanded and transferred from the Western to the Salonika front, considered a backwater, though he ended the war a battalion commander. The acquitted officer was killed in 1917 by a bomb accidentally dropped by a damaged British plane. 1916, 1917, no truces at all at Christmas. On the Eastern Front in 1917 and early 1918, fraternisation was rife, not just at Christmas, but it reflected the collapse of Russian morale and also a decline in Austro-Hungarian though not German morale.
I strongly remember reading an account about an American tank unit retreating through St Vith and capturing some lost Germans. As the Germans rode on the tanks, the Americans started singing Silent Night and the Germans joined in, singing it in German. I can't for the life of me find it anymore. Though I do know that at least on the Western front, there were more than a few occasions where both sides would call a temporary cease fire so that each side could collect their dead and tend to the wounded.
Thanks for mentioning Alan Moorehead. I think his books are very well written, even when not always all that neutral. In particular I'd recommend "African Trilogy", already a while behind us now, but very insightfull.
I love how this series disproves so many of the pop history narratives. There was no singular battle in which momentum shifted away from the axis. It's always more complicated than that
One of the things I really like about this series is learning of all the political bickering going on in the high commands, something I never read about when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s. My Dad told me that the upper echelon commanders seemed to be full of both themselves and politics. Helluva way to fight a war with that kind of stuff going on while men are dying.
Interesting. Because certainly on the US side the memoirs of US generals were full of anti-Monty bickering. They really loathed the guy. And I think certainly in the 60's the bickering between the top commanders was well known to historians. It probably wasn't in the history books being taught in school, but those always suck anyway. Overall it is natural that it happened. Today we live in a world where military coalitions are not only normal, they feel like they have been around since like forever. That wasn't the case back then. The UK and US did not have the 'special relationship' they have today. They had to invent the wheel as it were, nobody wanted to be stuck with the supporting role while the other got all the glory. Maybe this channel will cover it, but in 1944 the British offered a Pacific Fleet to the US to be used there, the biggest fleet the Royal Navy had and ever would assemble, and the US tried to block the offer, didn't want it, put up special conditions to which the BPF had to adhere to to make it as impossible as possible for the British to participate. They felt the Pacific was their war and they feared the British would be a drain on US logistics. In the end the British admiral flew to Pearl Harbour, had a chat with Admiral Nimitz, worked things out and the British Pacific Fleet fought alongside the US Navy at Okinawa and Japan. And was even valued because British carriers could take a pounding from Kamikazes and keep on fighting. But yeah, egos and politics got in the way a lot. But on the flipside, they did manage to work together most of the time and achieved their aims together of defeating Germany and Japan.
I think a certain amount of ego is almost necessary to be a general, top politician or top business man. Even if you go for result and the mission, you have to be aware of compitition that play the man and not the ball. And deal with them. Even though I think there are still people that aren't only going for glory. People like general Bill Slim come to mind.
I have been to Budapest and up the hill to Schmidt Castle overlooking the Danube. It is is beautiful city. Hard to think that this was the scene of such fierce fighting 80 years ago.
I learned a few years ago that my late great grandfather served in the Pacific War. In addition to being at the battle of Leyte Gulf, he was aboard the Omani Bay when it was abandoned. It was one of two ships that were sunk during the war that he served on. While I never met him, it was a trip hearing about that ship on this channel. A true 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon experience. It makes me wish he'd been alive for me to ask about his experiences.
With the end in sight, It is only a question of time, before the end of the night, But when will the Allies break the tide? Thank you for watching since then, we are all curious for the ending of this journey -TimeGhost Ambassador
This week on January 6th 1945, the following missions in the Call of Duty series will begin: *January 4 1945* The Battle of Bure (Call of Duty: World at War: Final Fronts) - As Private Tom Sharpe in Bure, Belgium, you are to fight your way out of a German half-track ambush and then fend off a German garrison using mounted machine guns. Eventually, you will escort Captain Randall safely out of Bure at the end of the level.
what I like about this weekly review is,..I can look up all the "today's" weather, in each area,..and try imagine how it may have altered the results. 👍 Thanks Indie.
Thanks Indy for the tip to watch "Miracle on the Vistula - Polish Soviet War" from the Between 2 Wars series. It helped me tie up loose ends regarding European history, why we had an influx of Polish and other middle European immigrants into my city during the between the wars time period. Lots to unpack in 1920 that set the tone for WWII and still has lasting effects to this day.
I remember watching this series at the start of Operation Barbarossa and being disapointed I'd missed so much of the war at that point, but getting on board anyway. Feels like a lifetime ago.
What a remarkable series this is, really! I'm grateful for you guys at time ghost and what you've created, I'm sure this will be remembered and discussed for years to come, making history documenting history. 🎉
Absolutely outstanding presentation. I know all ya'll (all ya'll is the plural of ya'll) worry about the length of these and have to leave out something each week (China theater this week), but don't be discouraged you're doing Great.
its bit personal but i started this series with the fall of warsaw when i was just in my high school had a loot of friends still immature teenager a stable family and health and even a girl friend now i m in my last year of college 21 got responsibilities lost friends a unfortunate disease took my health away and my father got retired straining our family income and its stability but on my journey of growing up one constant was this weekly series every saturday i am graduating just 4 months from now with a loot of hope for the future and lots of wishes for the time ghost team and all the wonderfull people i met at the comments and community and i am not a native speaker so ignore my mistakes please
Have been watching since the Battle Of Britain and the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, I can't wait when VE day and VJ day rolls in and see what you got! Will miss this series though when it ends, along with WAH.
My 92 years old grandmother comes from a village (Moča) some kms east to Komarno. Although not in great detail, but she still remembers her village changing occupiers several times over during the fights of 1945 january...
This week in French news and happy New Year ! The 1st of January, Eisenhower demands to Patch to evacuate Alsace, De Gaulle writes immediately to De Lattre that he must hold Strasbourg alone if necessary and tells it to Eisenhower. Orders from American generals are not followed, with the approval of De Gaulle. He meets the 3rd Churchill and Eisenhower in Versailles. Churchill fully supports De Gaulle’s opinion. Eisenhower cancels his orders to the French, but American units withdraw a little bit, near Wissembourg. During the night of the 4th and 5th, 1 637 t of explosives and 14 t of incendiaries are dropped on Royan by the RAF without any consultation from the French Army. 75% of the city is destroyed and 500 civilians are killed and 1 000 wounded. The 6th, Doriot in Constance (Germany) announces the creation of the Committee of Liberation (mimicking De Gaule CFLN), unitarian in purpose and pro-Nazi. It wants to rally the Commission of Sigmaringen. The 8th, it is officially created. Some do indeed rally it, like Brinon then Bruneton, Paud, Mayol de Lupé and Alphonse de Chateaubriant. (Déat, Darnand and Bucard do not join immediately). The same month, a new daily journal is republished “Le Petit Parisien” under two doriotists while the Radio-Patrie continues to exalt actions from Doriot and calls the Young of France and the Popular French to fight with them. But it call the 1,5 millions of French in German prisons/camps or exiled to Resistance and Liberation by creation local committee of liberation. The 26th, he will call all the French soldiers and generals de Lattre, Leclerc, Koenig and Giraud to think about the “bolcho-muscovism” and to rebel against De Gaulle and Thorez (leader of the Communist Party)
The real secret weapon for Germany was Montgomery's ego. If emotions had mass, Monty would have turned into a black hole. I am also under the belief that the Americans should have given Monty's staff Purple Hearts, because there is no way they didn't all have ulcers by the end.
No it was the incompetence of Bradley and Hodges who were the gifts to the Germans. Monty as brought in to stabilise the lines and give confidence to panicking Americans whose lines were in disarray. Monty shortened their lines and made them more defensible.
The thing that sticks out the most to me about this series is the amount of dissension among the allies, especially in the 'democracy* camp'. A great way that this series illustrates this is the difference between commands in the Pacific and West Europe. Ike frequently has to make compromises and placate Imperial honors etc., while MacArthur and the Navy chiefs only have to squabble amongst themselves.
Ike was , in my opinion , the perfect man to command in the west . Keeping everyone in line was no mean feat and Ike was so good at handling his generals .
I seriously hope after they cover this war , that they go onto the Korean war. That would be very interesting to see. I'm happy that they covered ww1 and now ww2. Hope they continue doing this style of video.
The Bernard Montgomery drama is fascinating. One of those side stories from the war I wasn't really aware of. Power can really get to some people's heads lol
*Indy Nydell:* "(...) Over the years this war has gotten bigger and bigger!" But apparently not big enough to contain the combined egos of both the French & the Americans. 🤷🏻♂️😂
Notice what looked like Macchi Folgore fighters in Luftwaffe service?A good plane,maybe actually better than the 109.Served a few Italian aces well..Maybe a show about the often wrongly maligned Italian forces in WW2 would be good.
"One of them has to go and it's not going to be Eisenhower" "Who will they get to replace me!" (They already have him picked out.) EPIC also, 7 days till the massive Soviet Invasion is unleashed. 700 years of German history in Silesia is about to come to a rapid end
It is easy to have an "iron will" and to believe that will-power alone will win the day when your lights are on, your bed is comfortable, your stomach is full and your life is surrounded by creature comforts. People like Hitler are terrifying in that they have this "unyielding will" --> which is essentially a cover for: I'm willing to sacrifice everything and everyone around me to achieve my goals, no matter the cost to them. It should serve as a stark warning to all of us, in any time period to always heavily scrutinize our leadership and demand nothing but professionalism and service before self. January 1945... I hope the war ends soon....
kudos for mentionning de lattre and leclerc bad relation, batailles & blindés had an interesting article showing what de lattre views on tankn warfare were (and I have to writte an article for aéro ojournal on one of hermann graf plane)
Yeah, you know someone should never hold a press conference if even a war correspondant (who's subsistance is based on any news he can glean) is telling you it's a bad idea. XD
I think Monty and MacArthur are the most overrated WW2 allied generals. With the benefit of hindsight, I think their armies succeeded inspite of them, rather than because of them.
The conflict between the generals in tihs episode reminded me of the "battle" between the two US colonels in Heller's book. They had their staffs planning offensives against their own fellow soldiers instead of the enemy.
Bodenplatte was a waste of resources for the luftwaffe and didn't brought any advantage for the germans in the Ardennes. Meanwhile, operation Conrad was trying to relieve Budapest siege. Using Bodenplatte resources to support operation Conrad would have allowed the germans to break the siege?
I don't think so. Although the Luftwaffe was in desperate shape in the West, in the East they were outnumbered and also in a very bad situation. The Luftwaffe could have helped but considering the German forces on the ground and even with additional help in the air I doubt if it would have led to a success.
Hi, I have a question for you guys. How exactly does the Montreux Convention work with regards to the governance of the Bosporus Straits and the Dardanelles, and how did this apply in Ww2, particularly on the Eastern Front. I don't really understand it. How does the Montreux Convention apply to other conflicts, particularly the Russian Invasion of Ukraine?
Montreux Covention does two in effects 1) defines belligerents and non-belligerents in both peacetime & wartime conditions and the rules for their passage of warships or commercial maritime vessels through the Straits for either Black Sea Nations or non-Black Sea Nations. 2) the Covention establishes Turkey as the official sole referee and arbitrator of what vessels can transit through the Straits in the above conditions. As a result, Montreux predates the WW2 period, Cold War 1 NATO vs Warsaw Pact and today's Cold War 2 with the West and Russia. So the former can lean on Turkey but ultimately the Montreux Covention gives Turkey control of the Straits. So if they stop Russian (Black Sea Nation) warships transiting in wartime conditions in 2022, then they can also do likewise for Ukraine over a recent warships transit issue.
Post war, the Allies started to allocate war prizes to the various powers. Stalin wanted an Italian Littorio class battleship which if based in the Black Sea would be a very formidable asset. The Western Allies baulked at this, and offered him the less powerful Giulio Cesare. Stalin wanted the Italians to sail it to Sevastopol. Turkey stepped in and evoked a clause of Montreux that a non-Black Sea Nation could not sail a warship of 15,000 tonnes through the Straits, much to Stalins fury. So the Soviets had to collect the battleship off the Italians in Albania 1949 and sail it through themselves. The Italians were not too happy with this transfer and didn't really care to let the Soviets know about damage control procedures. An issue that would come back to haunt the Soviets in 1955, when the battleship capsized after a supposed mine explosion.
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New year, new German offensive. The Third Reich may be on the ropes but the Nazi regime is determined to fight to the bitter end. This war has got a way to run.
I continue to applaud the effort to try to pronounce our Hungarian place names. I can somewhat relate, the only expressions I know in Swedish are skol and Saga Noren, Lanskrim Malmö. For years until seeing in written form, I never understood what she said before Malmö. The reason I mention this because I wish to wholeheartedly suggest to every viewer and TimeGhost army member to watch another show of hers where she portrays the queen of Norway and her relationship with Roosevelt.
Regarding your comment, by this time, cracks between devout Nazis and military men more interested in German honor than Nazi ideals, started to appear more visibly. So I would phrase it as by January 1945 there were more lackeys of Nazis (the Arrow Cross, the ustase, certain chetniks, Italian fascists, Western defectors and Freier Korps Indien) that still more believed in fascism winning than high ranking German officers believing the war is still winnable.
(spoilers)
we're in the home stretch now
The end has started
Dresdens fate is sealed. At 22.03hrs on 13th Feb. hell is unleashed.
Absolutely fascinating. Great job to everyone! Thank you.
"Please, don't."
Such a universal piece of advice that seems to be equally universally ignored. :D
I've been following Indy since the Great War and the beginning of this series. I remember when Indy brought us the news of the Wehrmacht's invasion of Poland. Can't believe we are in 1945 already.
Time flies when you are having fun! -TimeGhost Ambassador
@@WorldWarTwo as much fun as is possible during a global conflict
Me too.
Me too. Started playing battlefield 1 with my brothers in 2016 but since i'm from the Netherlands we didn't know that much about world war 1, so i looked it up on the internet and lo and behold i arrived at the great war channel. Still here and still an amazing channel.
Same, ive be following him since wwi.
I still can believe I was in my sophomore year in high school when this all began, with the Great War channel. Now I’m a college grad, a substitute teacher planning a personal trip to Normandy next year for the 80th anniversary, and seeing it all culminating soon enough here, in 1945
Boy... If that doesn't put it in perspective.👍
Me top. I started watching in 2015 (The Great War) when I was 15 years of age in high school. Now I am 24, in the army as a logistician
I know they were friends, but Freddie de Guigand should have gotten the Victoria Cross for having to endure being Chief of Staff to Montgomery.
I said the same thing. I've read he was one of the few people who could talk sense into Monty, smooth things out between Monty and Ike and because of his poor health, whenever he was incapacitated Monty usually got into trouble again. The man is an unsung hero.
If there were a Purple Heart (did the Brits have an equivalent?) for staff-level friendly fire ...
He wins the award “SHUT UP MONTY SHUT UP MONTY SHUT UP MONTY!”
So if Monty became the Supreme commander- would he re-name the battle of the bulge -- market garden 2.
I try to take a realistic rather than a nationalistic view of US and UK WW2 generals. To be fair to Monty - I don't need to ignore or minimize what he did well - he did very well in North Africa when 8th Army morale was very low from having been beaten multiple time by Rommel. While geography at El Alamein was less favorable to Rommel than at other battles, I do not think the 8th Army would have fared as well as they did with just materiel superiority. Monty turned around more than just their materiel situation. Monty also did fairly well in Sicily, where two thrusts - Monty and Patton - kept the Germans and Italians off balance. Monty also did well in the field on the north shoulder of the Bulge (XXX Corps). OTOH, Market Garden was not Monty's only less than excellent moment.
Been following this channel since 1939, insane how far we’ve come. Hopefully you guys got something planned for VE Day and VJ Day.
Same here. I found out about them when they where doing WW1 week by week that's also a great series and between 2 wars
Wow it’s been 5 years
Or 280 weeks ...
Thanks for watching! -TimeGhost Ambassador
What are you talking about we don't even know who wins the war yet!
Snake is this you?
Freddie the Guigand, Monty's chief of staff of 21st Army Group, is an unsung hero for being one of the few people able to talk sense into Monty and smooth things over with Eisenhower. Too bad he was not always in good health, which meant that whenever Monty's chief of staff was incapacitated Monty had a high chance of putting his foot into his mouth yet again.
Yeah, and whoever had the misfortune of same posting for Patton.
Given Monty was arrogant ass at best doesn't help. Also, Monty seemed to grasp logistics or unity of command. His antics at the Bulge were borderline insubordination or worse.
I can just imagine a dual press conference with Patton, where they piss off everyone.
De Guignand was also instrumental in second El Alamein, where he drew up the - pretty complex - operation plans, and kept Mongomery's excesses in check.
There would have been more chance of Ike getting rid of Monty for insubordination if Mark Clark had been got rid of for disobeying Alexander's orders in Italy.
This is something ive admired about Indy since 2014, I love his almost Atlantic accent, its very reminiscent of your typical American news reader of the times and really adds to the experience while not seeming like hes putting on a voice.
Fitting for the times :)
And Indy is from Texas--believe it or not! 😮🙃👌
The sheer audacity required for Monty to write the fuc*ing order for Eisenhower to issue on his behalf is insane. I am not a military man but even I can see this is crazy.
Monty knew how to crappy Bradley and Ike were😂😂.
Would have been funny.
"Sure, we'll put it under one Commander. General Bradley, you're it."
"Nonononono wait!"
I’m 100% sure Germany will turn the situation around
I'm sure Steiner has something up his sleeve. He's just waiting for the right moment to counterattack.
@@Raskolnikov70 somewhere somehow Hitler is still angry with steiner but that is from another channel to be told
@@Raskolnikov70 was steiner somehow related to acting?;
Shhhh. Don't give up the ending!
Amazing the Allies haven’t sued for peace by now.
Some statistics from the Atlantic. In 1944 the Germans sunk 243 ships for 600 000 tons (less than half than in 1943). In June 1944 they had 100 U-boats at sea. The highest number they would ever achieve. 1944 would be the deadliest year for the U-boats with 249 boats lost. And during the remaining 5 months of the war, they will lose 120. 14 million tons of allied shipping would be lost in total. At the cost of 768 U-boats
It's always astonished me how much of their limited resources the Germans continued to pour into their U-boat program right up to the end of the war. It was pretty obvious by this point that they were never going to compete with American manufacturing capability, but they kept developing them right up until the end of the war.
So basically, the U-boats sank roughly 2.3 - 2.6 Allied ships per U-boat lost. That's a surprisingly poor ratio.
Herbert A. Werner's Iron Coffins paints a very grim picture of the last 18 months of the Uboat campaign. They are being caught on the surface day and night due to ceaseless air patrols with improved radar. One chapter in particular is filled with the radio messages of fellow Uboats under attack.
@@AndrewBlacker-t1d No, they lost a lot of U boats before 1943, but it was catastrophic and utterly unsustainable by May of that year. It was to a large extent an intelligence war but when the Allies cracked the 4 rotor Enigma machine in late 1942 and early 1943 the Kriegsmarine was basically done for. The Allies knew what was going on in great detail but the Nazis never seriously suspected their codes were cracked.
@@AndrewBlacker-t1d That's true, but Germany must have had a sense of how many ships were still getting through from the size and frequency of the convoys the Allies were sending. Also as someone already pointed out Allied defense was a whole lot better in 1944-45 than it was back during the 'Happy Time' before the US entered the war directly. They certainly knew that their U-boat campaign was suffering from diminishing returns.
Obviously there's going to be the issue of (sorry for the pun...) sunk costs in that most of their U-boat fleet is already built. It represents a huge outlay in resources and it would be wasteful not to use it even if the losses are high, since it's not like U-boats can be easily repurposed for something else like vehicles or airplanes. But they're still building them, still training new crews and still developing new types of U-boats even as the Soviets are closing in on their Baltic Sea ports where this is taking place. At what point does someone tap the H-man on the shoulder and ask if this is still a wise use of rare metals and fuel?
Eisenhower to Monty: I could have another you in a minute. In fact he’ll be here in a minute.
Monty: But…
Ike: No “buts”, Monty. I will sic Patton on you. He’s in the next room right now, eating a can of spinach…..
@@garcalej I seem to recall Patton getting sacked but never Monty....Patton was always causing problems and upsetting everybody.
Fun fact General Dahlquist of the 36th Infantry division had a pretty poor reputation among officers and men of the division. He was known at one point telling a subordinate officer that there were no enemy tanks in the area while the unit was literally being engaged by German tanks and that his men where basicaly lying. He was famous for single handedly causing the Lost Battalion and issuing some very controversial orders to the 442nd RCT to rescue the Lost Battalion, “At All Costs” which resulted in more casualties rescuing the unit (which he got surrounded) than the total men that where rescued.
That man could do more damage with a field telephone then most German divisions could do with all their tanks and artillery.
Yeah but nobody cared about the Japanese-Americans in the 442nd or their white officers. They were sent into the grinder time and time again which is why they ended up the most decorated US unit of the war despite not being combat ready and in the fight until after the Anzio pocket already broke out. They were basically just turned into martyrs of the Gothic Line.
@@garcalej Probably a guy more adept at politicking with his superiors than competent to command. Every army is plagued with these types.
Supposedly there was a post war reunion of the 36th Division at which he was surprised that no one would shake hands with him. My brother's father in law was a veteran of the 36th, and I would ask him, but sadly, he passed last Fall. If you have a relative who served in the war, or even on the home front, get video camera and sit them down and ask them about the war. If you don''t understand the details of what they did, ask them. I started in the Guard in 1980 in a sound and flash control center, but a video carried on a PA history channel revealed to me that the method used in WWII was quite different from what we were doing in the 80's. And if you can get them loosened up enough, get them to sing a few of the ribald verses of songs like Bless them All so they aren;t lost to posterity.
Units like AA search light batteries haven't really existed since WW II and the development of radar guided guns, so stories of such units are invaluable.
US divisional commanders seem to have been a fairly mixed bag.
Monty would _never_ condescend. If anyone is a born diplomat it's ol' Monty.
Second only to Patton. ;-)
Looks like de Gaulle has a nose for diplomacy as well.
@@angrydoggy9170Pun intended? ;-)
As he'd be the first to tell you
Hearing that gong at the end is going to be one of those sounds I’ll hear years from now and it’ll take me back to this series. 5 years of watching those red lines grow and recede and knowing every time that line moves countless real people lost their lives. I’ve grown a lot in between the time of watching The Great War in 2016 as a 15 year old to now. It feels wrong to say I’ll be sad when this is all over with but I will miss this. I’m writing this comment to stamp that I was here and I’ve been here and I appreciate everything that’s be done. Someone could revive this series 20 years from now and do the 100 years later aspect like with The Great War but who knows. I do love you all and thank you all for everything.
We acknowledge your presence here, and thank you deeply for watching for all this time! Never Forget. -TimeGhost Ambassador
WE'RE IN THE ENDGAME NOW
I'm sure the wonder weapons will turn the tide of war.
This series is so well done I can't believe we are entering the sixth year of the war and I have been glued to this channel every Saturday for the whole duration! Love your work guys!!!!
Thanks a lot for your commitment! See you Saturday! -TimeGhost Ambassador
Gosh, I remember finding this channel back in 2020 during the battle for Moscow and never skipped an episode since then! Can't believe that we are already in 1945, thank you for your work and happy holidays!
Thanks a lot for your dedication!
With pleasure, and happy holidays to you too! -TimeGhost Ambassador
Started watching since early1941, its insane how quickly it feels like the war has turned despite it being 4 years since then
Even though each edition growing longer they are still as absorbing as ever. Testamentary to a great team of researchers, editors and presenters. Great job as usual guys and gals.
One thing that I will always remember thanks to this series, is the hundreds of times Hitler said "no" to his generals requesting permission to withdraw their forces and then were forced to do so anyway under the pressure of the enemy
Kinda predictable at this point isn't it?
-TimeGhost Ambassador
In other news, on January 6th, 1945 British Lieutenant General Herbert Lumsden is killed aboard the bridge of the battleship USS New Mexico when the ship was struck by a Japanese kamikaze. Lumsden was serving at the time as Churchill's representative to General MacArthur, and would be the most senior ranking British officer to be killed during the war.
The kamikaze attack also claimed the lives of Captain Robert Walton Fleming, the New Mexico's commanding officer, along with 29 others. Admiral Bruce Fraser, the commander of the British Pacific Fleet, had also been on the bridge and narrowly avoided becoming a casualty.
Jeezus…
I finally caught up! Found this channel in march 2020 during lockdown, watched until I had caught up at around Pearl Harbour. Then I watched the entirety of The Great War, before I picked up WWII again. Made myself Patreon in February '23, and now here I am! Big shoutout to TimeGhost for this incredibly important, herculanean effort!
Congratulations to you for watching the whole The Great War before starting WW2! And even more congratulations for catching on to the "present" time! We are glad to have someone like you among our viewers and patreons! -TimeGhost Ambassador
I was 18 when the first episode dropped. I’m gonna be 24 when the series is gonna end. Crazy how long this war took. Looking forward to new episodes.
I applaud an 18y old is even interested in this.
@@Orvietai was interested in the world wars since i was 15-16 and im 23 now lol. thanks to high school history class and battlefield 1
A semi-personal comment from me this week, starting this week my village in Csáb/Čebovce in Southern Slovakia, then Hungary is captured by 3 rifle division of 2nd Ukrainian, destroying 4th SS Polizie in the process and knocking them out as a meaningful fighting force for the rest of the war.
Malinovsky made his forward command base at my village, and the Main Street was renamed after him. As a wine growing village, much was shared with the Soviets, and surprisingly were remembered very well.
Seeing this on to the Komarom offensive, really makes sense, attacking from the Ipoly over the Garam/Hron. This is why I love this series.
Respect from Hungary for all your series! History in such detail is quite worth living for!
Sounds so weird hearing 1945. Been here since since ep 1 but not since the great war. Proud to have gotten this far and hope you finish the coverage the whole way through!
The miracle of Frederick the Great was that the Tsar died and was replaced with a Prussiaboo, who demanded medals instead of territorial concessions.
Surely Krushchev would accept peace for medals, right?
I dont know about you guys, but I have a good feeling about this year
Over by Christmas?
Finally got my mention at the end (I'm YamaTOG2) after a few months of being TGA member. Thank you Thimeghost for not forgetting me.
Well, you know the saying: Never Forget!
Thank you for being part of our Patreon supporters! -TimeGhost Ambassador
@@WorldWarTwo I donate directly though XD
The look on Eisenhower's face is priceless in the photo at the 12:54 mark. De Gaulle is talking his ear off and Ike's all "FML" 😄
Might have been thinking, damn so this is why Hitler invaded them, I see his point. Lol
Bernard Montgomery was a prima donna.
Thanks for another great episode. Unfortunately, for the people of Hungary, the Russians do not bring liberation but forty more years of oppression (i.e. the disappearance of Raul Wallenberg).
With "Monty" on the western allies side it's nothing short of a bloody miracle the "reds" didn't make it all the way to the Dutch German border before the war was over.
And you can wonder how Allies would have handled 3 Prima Donnas(at very least) if Macarthur was in European theater.
Given Hungarian conduct during the war, they deserve liberation as much as Germans
Ike was quite an ego-juggler: Monty over-egoed his performance; De Gaulle over-egoed what he could perform and made himself a PITA; Patton had a big ego, with proportional - or a bit better - performance. Ike probably wished he could lock Monty and De Gaulle and not let them out until just one survived. Mac could and sometimes did well, but his ego was disproportionally greater.
Maybe not to the German border or the Rhine, but West Germany's border might have been the Weser River instead of the Elbe, and the Jutland Peninsula being in East Germany, +/- Hamburg.
Can someone make a clip show every time Indy says "but Hitler said no"
In this war I really felt the absence of a moment akin to to Christmas 1914, it was such a wholesome moment that in a way brought some light till 1918.
Instead here nothing like that came, WAH really made that point come across, happy new year Ww2 team and thanks for your work
Commanders in all armies were horrified by what happened on Xmas day in 1914. After that they made sure to order bombardments and raids on holidays to make sure the troops never declared their own unilateral cease-fires again, lest they realize they have more in common with their "enemy" than their own leaders sending them to fight and die and choose to point their rifles in a different direction.
This war has been genocidal madness since Japan invaded China and it will only get worse before it ends. In a way WWI killed the notion of romantic warfare. In WW2, it's been cynical slaughter since the beginning because the previous war taught everyone the principles of total war.
@@Raskolnikov70 A couple of British officers who held a small-scale truce with Germans in Christmas 1915 were court-martialled. One was acquitted, the other reprimanded and transferred from the Western to the Salonika front, considered a backwater, though he ended the war a battalion commander. The acquitted officer was killed in 1917 by a bomb accidentally dropped by a damaged British plane. 1916, 1917, no truces at all at Christmas.
On the Eastern Front in 1917 and early 1918, fraternisation was rife, not just at Christmas, but it reflected the collapse of Russian morale and also a decline in Austro-Hungarian though not German morale.
I strongly remember reading an account about an American tank unit retreating through St Vith and capturing some lost Germans. As the Germans rode on the tanks, the Americans started singing Silent Night and the Germans joined in, singing it in German.
I can't for the life of me find it anymore.
Though I do know that at least on the Western front, there were more than a few occasions where both sides would call a temporary cease fire so that each side could collect their dead and tend to the wounded.
Thanks for mentioning Alan Moorehead. I think his books are very well written, even when not always all that neutral. In particular I'd recommend "African Trilogy", already a while behind us now, but very insightfull.
I love how this series disproves so many of the pop history narratives. There was no singular battle in which momentum shifted away from the axis. It's always more complicated than that
Indeed it is, thanks for watching!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
Solid content every week. Thanks Time Ghost for all the great information and insight. Your work is a gift to humanity.
Thanks a lot for your comment! We always do our best for the production of the weekly episodes! -TimeGhost Ambassador
One of the things I really like about this series is learning of all the political bickering going on in the high commands, something I never read about when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s. My Dad told me that the upper echelon commanders seemed to be full of both themselves and politics. Helluva way to fight a war with that kind of stuff going on while men are dying.
Interesting. Because certainly on the US side the memoirs of US generals were full of anti-Monty bickering. They really loathed the guy. And I think certainly in the 60's the bickering between the top commanders was well known to historians. It probably wasn't in the history books being taught in school, but those always suck anyway. Overall it is natural that it happened. Today we live in a world where military coalitions are not only normal, they feel like they have been around since like forever. That wasn't the case back then. The UK and US did not have the 'special relationship' they have today. They had to invent the wheel as it were, nobody wanted to be stuck with the supporting role while the other got all the glory. Maybe this channel will cover it, but in 1944 the British offered a Pacific Fleet to the US to be used there, the biggest fleet the Royal Navy had and ever would assemble, and the US tried to block the offer, didn't want it, put up special conditions to which the BPF had to adhere to to make it as impossible as possible for the British to participate. They felt the Pacific was their war and they feared the British would be a drain on US logistics. In the end the British admiral flew to Pearl Harbour, had a chat with Admiral Nimitz, worked things out and the British Pacific Fleet fought alongside the US Navy at Okinawa and Japan. And was even valued because British carriers could take a pounding from Kamikazes and keep on fighting. But yeah, egos and politics got in the way a lot. But on the flipside, they did manage to work together most of the time and achieved their aims together of defeating Germany and Japan.
Interesting
I think a certain amount of ego is almost necessary to be a general, top politician or top business man. Even if you go for result and the mission, you have to be aware of compitition that play the man and not the ball. And deal with them. Even though I think there are still people that aren't only going for glory. People like general Bill Slim come to mind.
I have been to Budapest and up the hill to Schmidt Castle overlooking the Danube. It is is beautiful city. Hard to think that this was the scene of such fierce fighting 80 years ago.
I am glad that it has been rebuilt; visited in 2019 and it looked great.
I learned a few years ago that my late great grandfather served in the Pacific War. In addition to being at the battle of Leyte Gulf, he was aboard the Omani Bay when it was abandoned. It was one of two ships that were sunk during the war that he served on. While I never met him, it was a trip hearing about that ship on this channel. A true 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon experience. It makes me wish he'd been alive for me to ask about his experiences.
Been watching weekly since week 3 not much longer now til the end of an era.
With the end in sight,
It is only a question of time,
before the end of the night,
But when will the Allies break the tide?
Thank you for watching since then, we are all curious for the ending of this journey -TimeGhost Ambassador
This week on January 6th 1945, the following missions in the Call of Duty series will begin:
*January 4 1945*
The Battle of Bure (Call of Duty: World at War: Final Fronts) - As Private Tom Sharpe in Bure, Belgium, you are to fight your way out of a German half-track ambush and then fend off a German garrison using mounted machine guns. Eventually, you will escort Captain Randall safely out of Bure at the end of the level.
That's awesome thanks for sharing, I did the mission before but now have the history attached
This will be a phenomenal year for the channel! Keep up your great work!
Thanks a lot for your comment! We can only hope for the best! -TimeGhost Ambassador
"That is a funny attitude for a newsman to have." "I want to win the war." 😍
what I like about this weekly review is,..I can look up all the "today's" weather, in each area,..and try imagine how it may have altered the results. 👍
Thanks Indie.
Thanks Indy for the tip to watch "Miracle on the Vistula - Polish Soviet War" from the Between 2 Wars series. It helped me tie up loose ends regarding European history, why we had an influx of Polish and other middle European immigrants into my city during the between the wars time period. Lots to unpack in 1920 that set the tone for WWII and still has lasting effects to this day.
I remember watching this series at the start of Operation Barbarossa and being disapointed I'd missed so much of the war at that point, but getting on board anyway. Feels like a lifetime ago.
You can find all the old videos on their channel page.
Thanks for watching this far, and binge watching past episodes is always a thing. ;)
-TimeGhost Ambassador
What a remarkable series this is, really! I'm grateful for you guys at time ghost and what you've created, I'm sure this will be remembered and discussed for years to come, making history documenting history. 🎉
So who had the bigger ego, Montgomery or MacArthur? That's the question we really need answering.
If we said to them they could keep their army if we cut it in half or keep the army whole but give it to the other that might answer your question.
Absolutely outstanding presentation. I know all ya'll (all ya'll is the plural of ya'll) worry about the length of these and have to leave out something each week (China theater this week), but don't be discouraged you're doing Great.
Thanks for the kind words!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
I’ve been following you guys since the Great War days specifically the Gorlice-Tarnów offensive. Me and my younger brother love your work keep it up!
Thanks so much!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
"Please don't."
Oh how many times we've told our friends, family, etc this when they're planning to say something they shouldn't.....
Been watching since beginning. What a comprehensive series.
Thank you for continuing to follow!
- TimeGhost Ambassador
its bit personal but i started this series with the fall of warsaw when i was just in my high school had a loot of friends still immature teenager a stable family and health and even a girl friend now i m in my last year of college 21 got responsibilities lost friends a unfortunate disease took my health away and my father got retired straining our family income and its stability but on my journey of growing up one constant was this weekly series every saturday i am graduating just 4 months from now with a loot of hope for the future and lots of wishes for the time ghost team and all the wonderfull people i met at the comments and community and i am not a native speaker so ignore my mistakes please
Have been watching since the Battle Of Britain and the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, I can't wait when VE day and VJ day rolls in and see what you got! Will miss this series though when it ends, along with WAH.
Thank you for coming along!
- TimeGhost Ambassador
Last time I was this early, the war was still called Phony.
How things have changed since then ... -TimeGhost Ambassador
Had an Uncle killed in Luxembourg Jan. 5, 1945. In the battle at Monshuman Crossing. An important crossroad on the Bastogne Wiltz road.
Thank you for sharing his story.
- Time Ghost Community Ambassador
My 92 years old grandmother comes from a village (Moča) some kms east to Komarno. Although not in great detail, but she still remembers her village changing occupiers several times over during the fights of 1945 january...
Happy New Year!! Hoping for an end to the destructive conflicts currently going on in many places in the world. Keep up the excellent efforts.
Happy New Year to you too! A wish we do solemnly share. Never Forget. -TimeGhost Ambassador
Thanks indy & crew
Thanks a lot to you for watching! -TimeGhost Ambassador
This week in French news and happy New Year !
The 1st of January, Eisenhower demands to Patch to evacuate Alsace, De Gaulle writes immediately to De Lattre that he must hold Strasbourg alone if necessary and tells it to Eisenhower. Orders from American generals are not followed, with the approval of De Gaulle. He meets the 3rd Churchill and Eisenhower in Versailles. Churchill fully supports De Gaulle’s opinion. Eisenhower cancels his orders to the French, but American units withdraw a little bit, near Wissembourg.
During the night of the 4th and 5th, 1 637 t of explosives and 14 t of incendiaries are dropped on Royan by the RAF without any consultation from the French Army. 75% of the city is destroyed and 500 civilians are killed and 1 000 wounded.
The 6th, Doriot in Constance (Germany) announces the creation of the Committee of Liberation (mimicking De Gaule CFLN), unitarian in purpose and pro-Nazi. It wants to rally the Commission of Sigmaringen. The 8th, it is officially created. Some do indeed rally it, like Brinon then Bruneton, Paud, Mayol de Lupé and Alphonse de Chateaubriant. (Déat, Darnand and Bucard do not join immediately). The same month, a new daily journal is republished “Le Petit Parisien” under two doriotists while the Radio-Patrie continues to exalt actions from Doriot and calls the Young of France and the Popular French to fight with them. But it call the 1,5 millions of French in German prisons/camps or exiled to Resistance and Liberation by creation local committee of liberation. The 26th, he will call all the French soldiers and generals de Lattre, Leclerc, Koenig and Giraud to think about the “bolcho-muscovism” and to rebel against De Gaulle and Thorez (leader of the Communist Party)
Thank you! That's information you don't hear about often.
God this Has been one cool god dam journey since 1939 to 1945
Its called Bodenplatte because thats where the Luftwaffe ended up after it ended
I love this channel.
The man is an excellent storyteller, and I really enjoy his work
The real secret weapon for Germany was Montgomery's ego.
If emotions had mass, Monty would have turned into a black hole.
I am also under the belief that the Americans should have given Monty's staff Purple Hearts, because there is no way they didn't all have ulcers by the end.
No it was the incompetence of Bradley and Hodges who were the gifts to the Germans. Monty as brought in to stabilise the lines and give confidence to panicking Americans whose lines were in disarray. Monty shortened their lines and made them more defensible.
@@TheFreshman321 He made the right call to shorten the lines, but his attitude and press conference were PR disasters.
How bravely they fight for evil; it boggles the mind
The thing that sticks out the most to me about this series is the amount of dissension among the allies, especially in the 'democracy* camp'. A great way that this series illustrates this is the difference between commands in the Pacific and West Europe. Ike frequently has to make compromises and placate Imperial honors etc., while MacArthur and the Navy chiefs only have to squabble amongst themselves.
Ike was , in my opinion , the perfect man to command in the west . Keeping everyone in line was no mean feat and Ike was so good at handling his generals .
I can't believe it's 1945 already. Time really flies, it feels...
The middle of the year is gonna be weird, with the Allies trying to rebuild Europe while the Pacific War is still ongoing.
It might be, we will see how it all turns out once we get there! -TimeGhost Ambassador
Now I am more curious for that press conference with Monty than for all those battles ahead 😅
I seriously hope after they cover this war , that they go onto the Korean war. That would be very interesting to see. I'm happy that they covered ww1 and now ww2. Hope they continue doing this style of video.
It is planned and has also already been announced! -TimeGhost Ambassador
The Bernard Montgomery drama is fascinating. One of those side stories from the war I wasn't really aware of. Power can really get to some people's heads lol
*Indy Nydell:* "(...) Over the years this war has gotten bigger and bigger!"
But apparently not big enough to contain the combined egos of both the French & the Americans. 🤷🏻♂️😂
Pretty sure no war would be big enough for Monty...
Basically all senior commanders of all nations. While they vie for personal glory and self aggrandisement, the soldiers actually fighting die.
You can imagine the reaction French egotism would provoke from the Americans that were still actively liberating them.
@@Turf-yj9ei The French can be insufferable. De Gaulle in particular.
Notice what looked like Macchi Folgore fighters in Luftwaffe service?A good plane,maybe actually better than the 109.Served a few Italian aces well..Maybe a show about the often wrongly maligned Italian forces in WW2 would be good.
"One of them has to go and it's not going to be Eisenhower"
"Who will they get to replace me!"
(They already have him picked out.)
EPIC
also, 7 days till the massive Soviet Invasion is unleashed. 700 years of German history in Silesia is about to come to a rapid end
It is easy to have an "iron will" and to believe that will-power alone will win the day when your lights are on, your bed is comfortable, your stomach is full and your life is surrounded by creature comforts.
People like Hitler are terrifying in that they have this "unyielding will" --> which is essentially a cover for: I'm willing to sacrifice everything and everyone around me to achieve my goals, no matter the cost to them.
It should serve as a stark warning to all of us, in any time period to always heavily scrutinize our leadership and demand nothing but professionalism and service before self.
January 1945... I hope the war ends soon....
Happy New Year, Indy and team. The last year of the war is here. Why am I nervous? 😉
Happy to you too!
We will see how it will turn out! -TimeGhost Ambassador
I knew kamikiazies were successful....but didnt know how successful they actually were.
There is strength in keeping yer trap shut!!! Loose lips, and all that.... 👍😎
Thanks
Thanks for watching -TimeGhost Ambassador
We really need a deep dive episode on wedermeyer and his approach to the Chinese army at this time.
Excellent Episode, as always. Thx to the timeghost team
You're welcome and thank YOU for your continued support.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
17:25 - I had never even heard of the Chenogne massacre before now.
Well done/thank you.
☮
The loss of MacArthur at this stage of the war would have shortened it
How?
It’s not like MacArthur dying would have made the Japanese surrender quicker, and he had little impact on the European front.
@@graceneilitz7661 had his ego not absorbed so many resources they could have been used elsewhere to better facilitate the end of the war.
@@randylucas2458
Where else?
You need to state where.
@@graceneilitz7661 the money spent on his private security for his press alone would have fed a hundred Marines anywhere in the theater
Thanks TG
Thanks to you for watching! -TimeGhost Ambassador
kudos for mentionning de lattre and leclerc bad relation, batailles & blindés had an interesting article showing what de lattre views on tankn warfare were (and I have to writte an article for aéro ojournal on one of hermann graf plane)
Yeah, you know someone should never hold a press conference if even a war correspondant (who's subsistance is based on any news he can glean) is telling you it's a bad idea. XD
Most difficulties amongst the allied forces are laid at the feet of Ingratitude and Shortsightedness.....
You have to feel for the ordinary soldier on both sides when their officers are acting like spoilt kids
How many veins did Eisenhower pop dealing with his subordinates?
Yeah, diplomacy was never Monty's strongest attribute.
Ironic that this year begins with a feeling of finality...
I think Monty and MacArthur are the most overrated WW2 allied generals. With the benefit of hindsight, I think their armies succeeded inspite of them, rather than because of them.
Today's my birthday! What a day
Happy Birthday, mate! -TimeGhost Ambassador
Apparently, In the death struggle that was the ETO there still is room for "Prima Donnas."?
It has nothing to do with this episode but read 'Catch 22'. The book would seem to fit this time frame.
The conflict between the generals in tihs episode reminded me of the "battle" between the two US colonels in Heller's book. They had their staffs planning offensives against their own fellow soldiers instead of the enemy.
@@Raskolnikov70 Meanwhile Milo Minderbinder was trading with the enemy...
16:22 Macchi 205's in German markings! 😮
Bodenplatte was a waste of resources for the luftwaffe and didn't brought any advantage for the germans in the Ardennes. Meanwhile, operation Conrad was trying to relieve Budapest siege. Using Bodenplatte resources to support operation Conrad would have allowed the germans to break the siege?
I don't think so. Although the Luftwaffe was in desperate shape in the West, in the East they were outnumbered and also in a very bad situation. The Luftwaffe could have helped but considering the German forces on the ground and even with additional help in the air I doubt if it would have led to a success.
Hi, I have a question for you guys. How exactly does the Montreux Convention work with regards to the governance of the Bosporus Straits and the Dardanelles, and how did this apply in Ww2, particularly on the Eastern Front. I don't really understand it. How does the Montreux Convention apply to other conflicts, particularly the Russian Invasion of Ukraine?
Montreux Covention does two in effects
1) defines belligerents and non-belligerents in both peacetime & wartime conditions and the rules for their passage of warships or commercial maritime vessels through the Straits for either Black Sea Nations or non-Black Sea Nations.
2) the Covention establishes Turkey as the official sole referee and arbitrator of what vessels can transit through the Straits in the above conditions.
As a result, Montreux predates the WW2 period, Cold War 1 NATO vs Warsaw Pact and today's Cold War 2 with the West and Russia. So the former can lean on Turkey but ultimately the Montreux Covention gives Turkey control of the Straits. So if they stop Russian (Black Sea Nation) warships transiting in wartime conditions in 2022, then they can also do likewise for Ukraine over a recent warships transit issue.
Post war, the Allies started to allocate war prizes to the various powers. Stalin wanted an Italian Littorio class battleship which if based in the Black Sea would be a very formidable asset. The Western Allies baulked at this, and offered him the less powerful Giulio Cesare. Stalin wanted the Italians to sail it to Sevastopol. Turkey stepped in and evoked a clause of Montreux that a non-Black Sea Nation could not sail a warship of 15,000 tonnes through the Straits, much to Stalins fury. So the Soviets had to collect the battleship off the Italians in Albania 1949 and sail it through themselves. The Italians were not too happy with this transfer and didn't really care to let the Soviets know about damage control procedures. An issue that would come back to haunt the Soviets in 1955, when the battleship capsized after a supposed mine explosion.
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