Join the TimeGhost Army: bit.ly/WW2_205_PI Italy is the first major Axis power to fall, but how much do the Germans really depend on them? Has Mussolini been more of a help or burden to Hitler's plans for domination?
Replacing 80 Italian divisions, even mediocre ones compared to German ones is no mean massive drain German resources. Which was exactly why when Hungary tried to leave the Axis the Germans immediately moved to remove Horthy and install their own regime to keep the Hungarian armies in the war.
Glad to see the quote from Prit Buttar's Retribution. I very much like his trilogy on the fighting in the Ukraine from 1942 through 1944. His three books are A Knifes Edge, Retribution The Reconquest of Central Ukraine and The Reckoning which covers 1944.
I've always felt that Italy was like the Austro-Hungarian Empire they've started battles or attacks and it's up to Germany to pull their butts out of the 🔥📛
Italy still remnained in war at Axis side though even after fall of Mussolini , his successor the temporary goverment of Marshall Pietro Bodoglio swore fealty to Axis but a few weeks later on 28th August 1943 started armistice negotiations with Allies in secret via an envoy in Sicily and signed it on 3rd September , effective on 8th September. In every appearence and act , Italy still was at Axis side and fighting...for now
Even more so when you consider that at the start of this year, the Germans and Italians were still beating up the Americans and British in North Africa, and looked poised to hold on to Tunisia for quite a while yet. And now half a year later they've knocked Italy out of the war. Such a quick turnaround is really quite amazing. The more so when we know the war is still going to go on for 2 years or so.
Hitler is feeling quite dour His war turns to shit by the hour In the east he's defeated His forces depleted And Benito's been ousted from power! Another fine episode. Nice work!
@@Grimspear05 This series is easy to binge if you begin watching late vs usually wait a week for the next episode as in the original sequence. lol That said, IMO what we don't relate to is the time span of the war compared to the lives we live. I mean imagine a six year long global conflict. (Say 1939-1945) Cheers.
When my family was in Europe in 1967 we went to visit the house of the last king of Italy Umberto II in exile in Cascais, Portugal. The receptionist was extremely friendly. So we were emboldened to ask if we might see the king. The receptionist regrettably said that the king was out, otherwise he is always happy when an Italian would come to seek him out. She said that we should sign the guest book, just inside the doorway, because the first thing the king does when he comes home is look at the guest book to see if any Italians had visited. We signed, and left the address of our home in Italy where we would be spending the summer. One summer day the post man called up to us that a special letter has come. We had no clue as to what it could be. It was a signed letter from the king. True story. I now have that letter and the envelope framed, and hanging in the hallway of my house in Brooklyn.
Would you care to share more details on your trip to Portugal? Really interesting time in Portuguese History-just a few years before the fall of the Estado Novo, a few years after the 'Academic Crisis', and right in the middle of the birth of its modern tourist industry.
@@p00bix We didn't see much of Portugal because we weren't there long. I can tell you that food in the restaurants was very good and very inexpensive. I remember that they had the largest lobsters I've even seen. They were all stacked up like a cord of firewood, and they were very much alive. You just pointed to the one you wanted and they'd cook it up any way you like it. However, there was also poverty that left an impression on me. I saw children at the back door of a restaurant begging for a little bread, while inside people feasted on the finest food imaginable. Oh, and I recall visiting that tremendous castle that overlooks Lisbon. What a view!
Also, a very curious fact to note about the fall of Mussolini: he got arrested the day after the vote, visiting in his palace King Vittorio Emanuele III, which has not ever been so angry in a public meeting with someone: he insulted Mussolini in piedmontese language (hous of Savoy is from Piedmon in north Italy, on fact the first capital was Turin), and was so furious that the queen almost fainted hearinh him yelling in Mussolini's face from the floor above.
Sasaki's campaign on New Georgia was extremely well fought. The allied attack bogged down everywhere, and the attacks last week totally paralyzed the 43rd division. As you noted last week, "new regiments" were sent to join the forces there; these regiments were the 161st from the 25th infantry division and the 148th from the 37th division, which had been intended for the next campaign on Bougainville. Although the arrival of those divisions allowed progress to resume, both divisions were badly affected from the combat but particularly from the jungle fighting, and had to be withdrawn for refitting afterwards. This prevented the 25th from being available for Bougainville at all, and we won't see it again for nearly two years. Munda itself was militarily worthless to Japan as soon as the allies took Rendova, which was close enough for 155 mm artillery backed now by a solid supply base to reach the airstrip. One main goal of the allied offensive, establishing an airfield to get fighter support close enough to support the Bougainville campaign, was already achieved weeks ago by the capture of the Segi Point airstrip. Sasaki delayed the next allied campaign significantly and chewed up three divisions in the jungle. Despite being outnumbered 4 to 1, he inflicted roughly balanced casualties on the allies, resisted for five weeks the loss of an objective that really didn't bring much value to the allies and was worthless to Japan (a delay which allowed a buildup in the northern Solomons that, fortunately, was rendered moot by clever actions by Halsey), and in the end was able to extract most of his army. Sasaki lived until 1961 and is described by Bergerud in Touched With Fire (highly recommended book for anyone interested in the Pacific war) as "the most brilliant land commander faced by the allies in the south Pacific".
@@scottkrater2131 However, siting dugouts, trenches and pillboxes to cover all lines of approach and provide protective cover fire, while concealing them so they cannot be found, is an art in and of itself. If those fortifications were not properly set up, the defense line would have collapsed very quickly. General Sasaki made great use of the terrain to slow the US advance while launching a large counterattack is in itself good generalship. However, I would have to deduct marks for him not anticipating the effects the same terrain would have on his counterattack, and for underestimating how good the US troops were.
@@scottkrater2131 It's true that those factors were hugely important. As I said in my original comment, a key factor was that any campaign in the jungle would require a significant rest period afterwards for the engaged units after due to the ludicrously high rates of disease. Poor morale, poor training, poor leadership, and units that didn't know how to fight in the jungle all contributed too. The 25th Division was very well led, had jungle combat experience from mopping up at Guadalcanal, and was overall simply a much better combat division, and made steady progress where it was deployed. Lawton Collins, the general in charge of the division, was very good about orienting his officers for jungle combat. The 43rd at the time of New Georgia was not nearly as good, though did learn a lot and was much more effective later. That said, Sasaki did a really strong job of exploiting those factors. His men launched attacks along many different points in the line, exploiting the jungle concealment and hitting morale because it gave a sense there was no front line. They used close assault tactics to knock out tanks. They also didn't use the mass human wave tactics that incurred huge casualties at places like Bloody Ridge. After pulling off of New Georgia - again, a nearly inconsequential objective - , he conducted another delaying action on Arundel where he pioneered some of the same tactics that Japan used in the Palaus and Iwo Jima - letting the troops land and move inland, then counterattacking, once again inducing operational paralysis and necessitating reinforcements to again enter the jungle and be worn down by disease. After Halsey's frankly brilliant move on Vella Lavella, Sasaki was able to evacuate pretty much all of his remaining troops with good support from the navy. In the end, the land portions of the New Georgia campaign were one of the few places in the Pacific theater after the allies began their counterattack where the Japanese didn't take massively disproportionate casualties to allied firepower.
@@scottkrater2131 The other issue was that the rough terrain broke up the attacks of both sides. The Americans tended to be a bit more flexible, however, in their use of tactics below the company level. The Japanese tended to rely on charging enemy positions, and in broken terrain this tactic did not work very well at all. As was demonstrated at Guadalcanal and New Georgia. Rather than hitting the Americans in a solid mass that would overwhelm them, the rough terrain broke up the charge into smaller units that could be more easily dealt with.
08:37 versus 10:38 the war started to make Stalin a realist (where he could listen to and accept the advice of his generals) while it instead made Hitler a fantastist unable to take any advice on strategy. Hastings: Armageddon: The Battle For Germany 1944 - 45
*Adolf Hitler:* "What happened to Mussolini?! " "Well, they took a vote an decided to remove him from power." *Adolf Hitler:* "THAT'S NOT HOW DICTATORSHIP WORKS!"
the most ironic part about this is that the Grand Council of Fascism (the political organ who voted him out) was made of his closest advisors (all of them were appointed by him alone)
The pacing of these episodes is pretty remarkable. This was a 16 minute presentation, but seemed to last about 5 minutes, so compelling was the visuals and narration. This is one of the countless reasons that I admire this series so much. The episodes grab your attention, and that grip only intensifies as the ending approaches, all too soon. There are many lessons here about how to produce a TH-cam video. A lot of information was presented, but I was struck by mention of the Donbas region. There are historical shades of the present in the past there, and more sadness and death, 80 years in the future. It's sad. I offer my puny thanks once again.
Your thanks are anything but puny, my friend. I always look forward to seeing your name in the comments, as I'm sure the entire crew does as well. Thank you for the high praise and your loyal support. Take care
It is interesting that both Italy and Japan, still being constitutional monarchies despite also being dictatorships, were able to use the constitutional norms of such a political structure to offer surrender before total collapse. Germany, not being a monarchy and having abandoned all pretense of parliamentary norm, could not do so so long as Hitler remained alive.
I find quite interesting that while Emperor Hirohito role is so debated no one cares to mention King Vittorio Emanuele III (well, at least outside Italy, Italians HATE him)
On 22 July, the King met with Mussolini, who wanted to report the outcome of Feltre. According to Badoglio, Mussolini promised the King that he would disengage Italy from the war by September 15. The two-month delay can be explained by the fact that Bastianini had begun contact with the Allies which would need time to proceed, and Mussolini needed time to justify himself and Italy before the world for his betrayal. According to Badoglio, the King agreed with Mussolini, which is why the Duce was not worried about the outcome of the Grand Council meeting. A coup d'état was destined to fail without the aid of the King. At the end of the meeting, Mussolini was convinced that the King would stand by his side, and Victor Emmanuel was disappointed after telling him in vain that he should resign. The King was forced now to consider the putsch seriously, as he knew that Bastianini was trying to contact the Allies while Farinacci, the fascist hardliner, was organizing a putsch to depose him and Mussolini and bring Italy under direct German control. The real decision was made after knowing that the Grand Council had approved Grandi's OdG. At 17:30 on the same day, Grandi went to Palazzo Venezia under the official reason of presenting a new book about the Italian participation in the non-intervention committee in Spain to Mussolini. The meeting was scheduled to last 15 minutes, but it was prolonged until 18:45. The Chief of Police and the German Feldmarschall Kesselring were waiting to be received by the Duce. Mussolini later denied that he spoke with Grandi about the OdG, but it is apparent that Grandi, who loved the Duce, explained to him the consequences of his OdG and gave him a chance to save face and resign before the vote. In that case, the Grand Council's meeting would have been superfluous. Mussolini listened while Grandi was explaining the necessity of resigning to avoid a catastrophe, but at the end rebuked him saying that his conclusions were wrong since Germany was about to produce a decisive secret weapon. After that, Mussolini met Kesselring and the Chief of Police, Chierici, whom he confided in that it would have been easy to bring Grandi, Bottai and Ciano back to the fold as they were eager to be persuaded by him. On 23 July, Mussolini accepted the resignation of Cini, which was supposed to be a signal to his opponents. At the same time, Grandi, Federzoni, de Marsico (one of the best jurists in Italy), Bottai and Ciano modified the OdG by removing the interpretative introduction which explained the functions of the Grand Council. This demonstrated that the assembly had the constitutional power to remove Mussolini. According to the constitutionalists, the "Leggi Fascistissime" of December 1925 bent the Constitution, but did not break it. Because of these laws, the Duce ruled the country on behalf of the King, who always remained the source of executive power. If the Grand Council, which was the trait d'union between Fascism and the state, passed a vote of no confidence on the dictator, the King would have been entitled to remove him and nominate his successor. Ciano was acquainted with the OdG by Bottai, and Grandi was reluctant to accept him since he was the son-in-law of Mussolini and known for his superficial and inconstant character. However, Ciano insisted, unaware that this decision would provoke his death six months later in Verona. After that, Grandi had Farinacci visit his office in the parliament to show him his OdG. Farinacci told Grandi that he accepted the first part of the document, but that he did not agree with the rest: the military powers had to be given to the Germans, and Italy should start to fight the war by getting rid of Mussolini and the generals. Farinacci asked him for a copy of his OdG, and like Scorza, he used it to produce another OdG of his own. In the time left before the meeting, Grandi contacted other participants asking them to join his action. The night of the Grand Council At 17:00 on 24 July 1943, the 28 members of the Grand Council met in the parrot room (the anteroom of the globe saloon, the office of Mussolini) in Palazzo Venezia. For the first time in the history of the Grand Council, neither the bodyguard of Mussolini, known as the Moschettieri del Duce, nor a detachment of the "M" battalions were present in the Renaissance palace. Fully armed blackshirts occupied the yard, the escalade and the antechamber. Mussolini did not want a stenographer, so no minutes of the meeting were taken. Grandi brought two hidden Breda hand grenades with him, in addition to revising his will and going to confession before the meeting, because he was under the impression that he may not leave the palace alive. Mussolini began the meeting by summarizing the history of the supreme command, trying to show that the attribution to him had been sponsored by Badoglio. He summarized the war events in the previous months, saying that he was ready to move the government to the Po valley. He concluded by asking the participants to give their personal opinion about what he called "il dilemma": the choice between war or peace. The Duce knew that, except for the three or four men against him, the "swamp" was undecided. He hoped that he could convince them to vote for the OdG Scorza, which gave only the military powers back to the King. After the Duce's introduction, De Bono (one of the two remaining living quadrumvirs) spoke, followed by Farinacci and De Vecchi. Grandi then read out and explained his document, concluding his speech with Mussolini's citation: "Let perish all the factions, so that the Nation can live". Next, Farinacci explained that his criticism ran opposite to Grandi's. While Grandi contended that Mussolini had betrayed the constitution, the real victim of betrayal was Fascism. Farinacci said that in order to win the war it was necessary to wipe out the democrats and liberals still nested in the Party, as well as the generals. He wanted to give the supreme command of the armed forces back to the King and unify the war direction with Germany, all of which would strengthen the Party. At the end of his speech he read his proposed OdG, which summarized all of these points. After some minor interventions, Bottai, the Fascist intellectual, made a purely political speech defending the OdG. This was followed by Ciano summarizing the history of the alliance with the Germans, and declaring that the Italians were not the traitors, but the betrayed. At 23:30, the Duce announced that, due to the length of the meeting, some comrades had asked for a postponement to the next day. At this point, Grandi called for a vote on his OdG, saying that it was shameful to go to sleep when Italian soldiers were dying for their fatherland. Never before in the 20-year history of the assembly had anyone asked for a vote. Since fascism was strongly anti-parliamentary, in all previous meetings only discussions summarized by the Duce had taken place. Mussolini unwillingly agreed, and at midnight the meeting was suspended for 10 minutes. In the meantime, Grandi collected the signatures to his OdG. After other interventions for and against the OdG, Mussolini told the participants to reflect on their decision since the approval of Grandi's OdG would imply the end of Fascism. He also cautioned against the illusion that the Anglo-Americans would be content with that, whereas what they really wanted was the end of Italy, which under his rule had become too strong. He said this was not about him, but he was sure that the war could be won. He had a "key" to accomplish that which he could not disclose, and he was not willing to let his throat be cut by the King. If the King would re-confirm his trust in him, the consequences for the supporters of Grandi's OdG would be dire. At the end of his speech, many of the gerarchi were visibly shaken. Grandi said that the Duce was blackmailing all of them, and if one must choose between fidelity to him and loyalty to the homeland, the choice was clear. At this point, Scorza caught everyone by surprise by presenting his own OdG. This proposed the nomination of the three war and interior ministers, all under Mussolini, and the concentration of power in the hands of the Fascist Party.
His speech hurt the Duce's hopes of defeating Grandi since the Party was discredited among almost all the high-ranking Fascists. At the end of Scorza's intervention, Suardo announced that he was withdrawing his signature from the OdG Grandi and proposed to unify the three documents. Ciano asked Farinacci to withdraw his OdG and to ask Grandi to unify their two documents, but Farinacci refused. Bottai said that voting for Grandi had become a matter of honor.[130] After other interventions and nine hours of discussion, Mussolini declared the meeting closed at two o'clock in the morning and ordered Scorza to proceed with the vote. They voted on the OdG Grandi first since it had the most proponents. Scorza was the first to vote, saying "no". After him, Marshal de Bono said "yes" and towed the undecided with him. In the end, the OdG Grandi obtained 19 votes for, with 8 against. Mussolini declared the document approved and asked who should bring the result to the King. Grandi answered: "You". The Duce concluded: "You provoked the regime crisis". After that, Scorza tried to call the "saluto al duce", but Mussolini stopped him. While all the other gerarchi left the palace, Mussolini remained with Scorza to discuss the legal value of the OdG. They concluded that it was just a "recommendation" to the King. Scorza suggested that Mussolini accept the OdG Grandi, but he refused since he would have found himself against his allies in the Grand Council. After that, before reaching his wife in Villa Torlonia, Mussolini telephoned his mistress, Claretta Petacci. During his conversation, which was bugged, he told her in desperation: "We arrived to the epilogue, the greatest watershed in history"; "The star darkened"; "It's all over now". Afterwards, Scorza accompanied the Duce to Villa Torlonia at 3:00 am on Sunday 25 July 1943. ARREST OF MUSSOLINI Grandi met with Pietro d'Acquarone until 06:00 after the Grand Council meeting to give him one of the two copies of the OdG. At 07:00, d'Acquarone informed the King. The King called Badoglio and told him that he would be the successor to Mussolini. The operation was due to start on 29 July. Mussolini went to work and found a letter on his desk from Tullio Cianetti, withdrawing his vote for the OdG Grandi. He ordered a search for Grandi from his office at Montecitorio, but he replied that he was not in Rome, potentially in an effort to give him the task of making contact with the Allies to prepare an armistice. Mussolini contacted the royal household in order to request an audience with the King to report on the previous night's meeting. This call unsettled the King, who had decided to arrest the Duce on that same day. The arrest occurred at 17:00 at Villa Savoia. General Castellano contacted the Commander-General of the Carabinieri, General Angelo Cerica, who organized the arrest. Lieutenant Colonel Giovanni Frignani oversaw the arrest of Mussolini by order of the king. Captain Paolo Vigneri of the Carabinieri was commissioned to carry out the arrest. He was summoned by telephone with his colleague Captain Raffaele Aversa around 14:00 on 25 July by Lieutenant Colonel Frignani, who explored their method of carrying out the order of arrest issued against the Duce. Vigneri was told to deliver Mussolini and complete the mission at any cost; he was provided with three non-commissioned officers of the Carabinieri (Bertuzzi, Gianfriglia and Zenon), who were allowed to use weapons if needed.[citation needed] In the meantime, Mussolini met the Japanese ambassador, Shinrokuro Hidaka, who had been waiting three weeks for a courtesy hearing. Hidaka heard Mussolini request that the Japanese Prime Minister, General Tojo, contact Hitler and convince him to reach an agreement with Stalin. Otherwise, Italy would be forced to abandon the alliance. In the afternoon, Mussolini visited the San Lorenzo quarter to observe the damage from the bombing. Back at Villa Torlonia, his wife, Donna Rachele, told him not to go to the appointment with the King since Victor Emmanuel could not be trusted. She told him: "You won’t be back", but he said that the King was his best friend. At 17:00, Mussolini, escorted by agents of the "presidenziale", arrived at the Villa Savoia where the King was waiting for him. He brought a copy of the law of the Grand Council, the OdG Grandi, and the letter of Cianetti. The Duce tried to convince Victor Emmanuel that the OdG had no legal value and that many of its supporters had changed their minds. The King told him that the country was broken, and the situation required him to quit his post; the new President of the Council of Ministers would be Marshal Badoglio. Mussolini feared for his future, but the King assured him that he would personally take care of his security and that of his family. Victor Emmanuel accompanied him to the door where he met Captain Vigneri. The Duce went to his car, but Captain Vigneri told him to go to a nearby ambulance for his security. Mussolini said there was no need for that, but followed him to the ambulance where the policemen were waiting. The ambulance left the park and rushed through Rome until reaching the "Podgora" army barracks in Trastevere before ultimately being moved to the "Legnano" Carabinieri barracks in Prati. The Duce received a kind letter from Badoglio the same night, explaining the necessity of his custody and asking him where he wanted to be brought. Mussolini asked to go to his summer residence, the Rocca delle Caminate, in Romagna, and he wrote to Badoglio that he was gladly willing to help him and his government. A transfer to his summer residence was not an option, and two days later he was accompanied to Gaeta, where the corvette Persefone brought him to the island of Ponza. He was transferred to the island of La Maddalena, and finally to Campo Imperatore, where he remained until 12 September 1943 when a German commando unit led by Otto Skorzeny freed him. In the meantime, all the telephone centrals were blocked. The new Chief of the Police, Senise, who was appointed at 17:30 by Duke d’Acquarone, ordered the questore of Rome to arrest all the gerarchi present in the capital. The EIAR, linked with the headquarters of the MVSN (the Blackshirts), was also isolated. The King had his first meeting with Badoglio. At 18:00, the Secretary of the Party, Scorza, was waiting to meet Mussolini and seeing that he did not come, he went to the headquarters of the Carabinieri. There he was arrested by Cerica, but released on his word after promising that both he and the Fascist party would be faithful to the new government. The same fate befell the MVSN: its Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Enzo Galbiati, advised Mussolini to arrest the 19 gerarchi who voted for the OdG Grandi, but he refused. After knowing about the arrest of Mussolini, he observed that the MVSN headquarters in Viale Romania had been surrounded by army units. Galbiati then ordered his men not to provoke incidents. Although the majority of his officers wanted to react, he called the Undersecretary to the Interiors, Albini, after consulting with four generals and declaring that the MVSN would have "remained faithful to its principles, that is to serve the fatherland through its pair, Duce and King". Since the war against the Allies was continuing, the duty of each Blackshirt was to continue the fight. Badoglio had nothing to fear from the Blackshirts. Immediately, Galbiati was replaced by Quirino Armellini, an Army general, and arrested a few days later. The MVSN was then integrated into the Regio Esercito and disbanded.
I work in private ambulance and I have a few patients who were children during all this, and its so nice to sit and chat with them about the latest WWII episode whenever I get to visit them. Miss K always asks what I learned recently and my recent trip was "WE INVADED SICILY! AND KURSK HAPPENED! Rosie the Riveter became a thing!" She just smiles softly and nods and makes me promise to stand against fascism and hatred, and I have. Never forget.
Fascism is a legitimate political ideology that has as much to do with "hatred" as any other party. Why don't you stand up against "democracy" and "republicanism"? More than enough hate to go around in those 2 parties.
I've been waiting for this video to drop. Mussolini falling from power is probably right up their with some of the more dramatic events of this war. And one that had a great effect on it. Great video.
Thank you for your steadfast support. I always appreciate seeing your name in comments and I look forward to your gracious thoughts and good reflections. Please stay tuned
My grandfather was a counterintelligence officer of the NKVD and fought in Warsaw, Prague, Berlin. My other grandfather's brother was a tanker and fought in Stalingrad. They both survived. My great-grandfather's brother also survived, but returned home wounded and crippled. He had gunshot and shrapnel wounds to his chest, stomach, legs, and he was forced to walk on crutches all his life. My other grandfather went missing (probably died) in the battle for Rzhev. I know everything from the stories of my father and mother
Russians didn't fight in Warsaw. Maybe you mean the Magnuszew landings a few dozen kilometres to the south of the city? I think they fought against the Herman Goering SS Division but I may be mistaken about this detail.
Great episode! But the subtitles seem to speed up for the New Georgia campaign part, starting around 12:30. The subtitles, including Indy's Patreon comments, finish by about 13:30
One of Hitler's advisors comes in and tells him, "Mein Fuhrer, Italy has entered the war!" Hitler thinks for a moment and says, "Send two divisions. That ought to take care of them." The aid says, "Mein Fuhrer, you don't understand. They've joined the war on our side." "Oh,'" says Hitler, "Better send ten divisions then." (Actual German joke from WWII)
Ah yes, the old tradition in the city of Rome, conducting a coup d´etat. The favourite activity of those Italians. Mussolini did want to recreate the Roman Empire which had fallen 490 years before, he incurred the old debt of being one of the 80% of emperors who died violently.
I am consistently amazed by people of Mussolini's ilk that, had they been a little less greedy, would have probably been lifelong rulers. Then I realize exactly how he came to power and the narcissism that drove him to believe he had all the answers and realize that it is not in the personality of a dictator like Mussolini, Hitler, or Stalin to just be content and not want it all. That very trait drove them to power in the first place. In the end it worked out better for the Allies as Germany was forced to back up Italy in Africa and Greece, thereby drawing forces from other fronts. I just wonder if Italy would still be fascist if they hadn't decided to join Germany and attempt to build their own empire.
If Mussolini had decided to keep Italy out of the war, he probably would have died of old age. And with no war in North Africa or the Mediterranean, the Western Allies could have invaded France earlier.
Considering that it isn't extremely rare for someone to survive in power until their mid 90's, Mussolini could have stayed in power until the late 1970's, I think most of his children who survived were pretty long lived. That's what Mugabe managed and what Queen Elizabeth is doing now. Assuming the war still went the same way, the US would have gleefully installed Mussolini as a dictator for life as one of their many fascist puppets, in particularly as Italy was across the Adriatic from Tito's Yugoslavia. I could definitely see a monarchist style dictator family with Bruno the air force pilot (if he never crashed and died in 1941) or his youngest son Romano, and perhaps Romano's daughter Alessandra, who herself went into politics after her period as a playboy model, eventually settling into her family's fascism.
Italy would certainly not still be fascist today if they'd stayed out of the war. Fascism was completely discredited by the end of WW2. In subsequent years Italy would've eventually "followed the herd" towards democracy/pluralism. Although, it's possible it could've taken a long time, like it did in Spain.
Thank you for watching. Except for simply not having the time, there is one thing that ties our hands in creating major special projects like this one- getting the funding to actually be able to produce it. It is highly unlikely that we could raise the hundreds of thousands of Euro to do a project like this one on Bagration (or Mussolini's fall) for example. People who are interested in and study the war know of it, but the mainstream audience doesn't, and to raise the kind of money needed we'd have to have a project that appeals to the mainstream. There's also the point that covering the events of a single day plays into our chronological narrative, while Bagration covers weeks, as do many other such "highlights" of the war. Any big special project needs a format, a "packaging" that works, and a hook- for D-Day it's easy; it's 24 hours of coverage. But what would it be for Bagration? As for doing a huge Stalingrad something or other- that's big enough in people's minds, but it would've had to begin being worked on back in January (at least), and by then we had just finished the Pearl Harbor Minute-by-Minute, so realistically we wouldn't have been able to get the financing for a new special project together so quickly. Also, after working 70 hour weeks on Pearl Harbor for months, nobody on the team was in any shape to dive into a new extra workload on top of the regular content work straight away. Because that is the reality of it: any special project we do is indeed extra, and is done on top of the work we do with the regular content, which is well over 40 hour weeks as it stands. We still plan on doing all sorts of specials and extra regular episodes and things like that for all major events of the war (we have some Stalingrad stuff coming up very soon), so it's not like we're actually leaving something out.
Wasn't the bombing of Hamburg so successful because of the first en mass employment of radar countermeasures in history? I remember reading that the allies just launched thousands of aluminium pieces that made the Luftwaffe night fighters unable to detect anything, and as a result for the first time the bombers were able to bomb almost undisturbed and suffered practically no losses.
Yes, but the amazing part of this is that both Germany and the Allies had known of chaff/window for more than a year but both sides had been too afraid to use it as they both knew how devastating it would be to their own early warning radar systems that they did not dare use it in order to prevent the other side from knowing about the technology! In England this fear reached ludicrous proportions to such an extent that even when R.W.Jones could prove through human intelligence (from Denmark I believe) that the German night fighter / radar defence knew of the principle of window/chaff, he could still not get the Air staff to approve the use of Window until after a successful landing in Sicily (In the book 'Most Secret War' he mentioned that even then he could not find any reason as to why a landing in Sicily would change the scope of Window use...)
Italy is the ultimate proof that its soldiers can be brave, but if their logistics are bad. If your technology lags behind your enemies. If your leaders do not know how to recognize your limitations in the war effort: your nation will be an eternal joke in military historiography
Well they had not found the oil in Libya, that would come somewhere in the 50s If Italy had oil for their fleets and economy somewhere in 1935 or 36, then they would have been a whole different beast. But comparing the Italian tanks to say Japanese tanks Then Italy suddenly looks futuristic. Its fun to look at what ifs and Italy is a nicer example because they were not so hard-to-believe dystopian such as Russia and Germany
@RollinRat yes for sure, I commented with regards to the OP writing about inferior technology, which was arguably not the case for many aspects concerning the navy.
I finally get to the real time episode. I started later, some months ago. Now Im gonna watch the rest of the specials (watched many already), the rest of the spies and ties, and all other amazing videos we can see here. Thanks.
Today is my birthday and I never thought I'd actually have a regular episode on that day, especially an episode with such a drastic shift in the tale of the war. But here it is and I am here for it. Absolutely loving the series TimeGhost Team
Outstanding job to the Time Ghost team for a greatly put together & presentation of an otherwise grim week to a grim war. Needless to say this war is essential education that you all tell in a weekly, real time way in which puts everything in to even better perspective of what a war it was.
Wow. I didn't realize Mussolini was ousted so soon after the start of the Italian campaign. But I have a feeling it's not the last we've seen of him...
An interesting thing to note this week on July 28 1943 is that the Swedish furniture retailer *IKEA* is founded by 17 year old carpenter Ingvar Kamprad in the outskirts of Älmhult in Sweden. It started initially as a mail order business and only actually began to sell furniture five years later. It is now well known for its concept of selling items at a lower price by allowing the purchaser to assemble it themselves.
@@Perkelenaattori Yeah, I am normally on alert on Wednesday nights for me here in my timezone for the weekly upload notification on Patreon. For some of these posts, they are kind of prepared well in advance. Of course if it uploads later when I am asleep, then it won't be that fast though.
Had dinner with an old school friend a few weeks ago. His father was in charge of the partisan group that captured Mussolini and executed him. He married an Italian girl and brought her back to South Africa after the war. I remembered this as a kid and asked him for confirmation. Most our fathers had volunteered so war stories were common and we did not pay that much attention at that time to what our fathers did during the war. My father , Lt John Hogan, DFC, flew Spitfires with 2 (Cheetah) Squadron of the SAAF and I knew many of his squadron members and heard many of their stories.
@CrimsonTemplar2 not that anyone on our team doesn't work hard, but Daniel our maps guy is really a workhorse for the channel. Keep your eyes peeled for a particular map-heavy video coming out soon and remember to give him some love when it does!
@@WorldWarTwo Congratulations Daniel for your very good work in providing the relevant maps for every episode! They are definitely needed to help us understand what was happening on the ground and we should all give thanks to the entire team there who do such excellent work! 👌😉😊😎
I always thought Mussilini was deposed when the allies were taking rome. Even though I'm months behind I absolutely love this channel. By far the best historical TH-cam channel out there.
Dear sir if of betrayal we have to talk I recommend you to read the book of the aid of the german military attache in Rome General Fritz Frederick Karl von Prewhe who certainly knew better than you. Nazi Germany refusedto aid Mussolini with germans divisions after Klesenheim and Feltre meeting (Sicily already invaded ) Soon Mussolini fell appeared 11 divisions and was prepared plot to imprison the king and liberate Mussolinia and estabish a puppet regme. It was not done inmediately by the opposition of Von Rintelen the german military attache. But coming back to betrayal: Hitler betrayed italians when attacked Poland (after giving assurances of not starting a war before 1942/3 wihle the ink of the steel pact was still fresh) when signed the Soviet Union non agression pact (that aferwards scraped) When promised raw materials and modern ararmament that never gave.. Only heped with the second Luftwaffe corp and 3 DIVISIONS( the famous AFRIKA KORPS SO PUBLIZISED BY THE BRITISH IN ORDER TO SHOW THAT THEY WERE ACTUALLY FIGHTING THE GERMANS DURING ALL THOSE YEARS) In the Rosengber memoires it is said that Goebbels wanted to GIVE Ribentrop a showcase with all the scraped German traties.. Who betrayed whom.....
The Canadians do lots of fighting this week. After scaling the heights of Mount Assoro to take the town and then shortly after the hill town of Leonforte, the Canadians turn east to advance on the medieval town of Agira. While previous victories were achieved using creative tactics, General Simmonds turns to more traditional blunt force tactics for the assault on Agira. Once again 1st Brigade will lead the advance, this time under the cover of a rolling artillery barrage. As the Canadians advance they run into heavy resistance east of the village of Nissoria. A force made up primarily of the 2nd battalion of the 104th Panzer Grenadiers is well dug in behind two hills situated on either side of Hwy 121. Unaffected by the barrage they open fire on the advancing Canadians. The Hasty P's and RCRs take heavy casualties both losing their COs in the confused fighting. The 48 Highlanders are halted by heavy machine gun and mortar fire and have to withdraw. The Canadians code name the two hills "Lion" and "Tiger". The next day on the 25th, Simmonds sends in 2nd Brigade to take the hills with the PPCLI leading the advance. This time Simmonds brings all 80 of his artillery guns to bear on Lion and Tiger. The German defenders on Lion are devastated by the intensity and accuracy of the barrage and the Patricias easily take the hill. On Tiger the Germans fair better and the Patricias are halted in their advance. Tiger is only taken when the Seaforths are sent in to reinforce the Patricias. With Tiger and Lion now secured, the Seaforths are ordered forward to attack a third ridge formation that straddles Hwy 121 further to the east, code named "Grizzly". On the 27th the Seaforths advance on Grizzly supported by tanks and artillery. On the south approach (Mount Fronte), such was the volume of fire from the defenders a frontal attack was deemed impossible therefore a right flanking movement was made requiring an assault up the face of a 300 foot cliff. While a platoon remained to hold the enemies attention with small arms fire, "A" Company scaled the cliff to catch the Germans by surprise. Despite this the Germans put up strong fight and bitter battle ensued throughout the night. At dawn, as more Seaforth companies arrive on scene, a final attack with rifle and grenade is launched causing the Germans to flee in complete disorder. The attack on the north end of Grizzly (Mt Crapuzza) does not go as well and the Seaforths have to be reinforced by the Loyal Edmontons. This overwhelms the defenders who make a disorganized retreat. By the morning of the 28th all of Grizzly was in Canadian hands. This opens the door to Agira. The PPCLI is sent in to take the town, which they find largely abandoned by the Germans. Some stragglers have to be routed out through house to house fighting but this is completed after a few hours and the Patricias are welcomed as liberators. Agira is the 1st Division's biggest battle to date costing the Canadians 438 casualties. The Germans lose an estimated 325 killed and 430 taken prisoner as well as another 260 Italians of the Livorno Division. The battered battalions of the Panzer Grenadiers were no longer able to mount any form of defence against the Canadians in Sicily.
Agree , I recently found out their contribution to Sicilian Campaign which was rather big. Since they were new and a fresh unit Canadian Division achieved a lot in Sicilian mountains another high achiever is 78th British Division (Battleaxe) which won its place in campaign next week
@@nickgooderham2389 This was a lesson that Simonds apparently had a very hard time learning, as he continued these tactics right into the Normandy campaign, and the breakout from Caen, which was when he took over command of the Canadian army there. He would _always_ use too few resources in attacking any town or village. "Penny Packeting" they called it, and it wasn't until the campaign leading to Falaise that he finally learned you had to attack with forces sufficient to win and hold your target. Guy Simonds was probably Montgomery's favourite corps commander in WW2. The two apparently thought much alike.
I absolutely love your channel and I'm a new subscriber! I love your format like this is current news that you're reporting it. It really does add to the urgency and the drama of that time. Which most of us were not there. So thank you for all your hard work you do a fantastic job!
THANK YOU and welcome aboard!! I can't stress enough how much your support means to us. Stay tuned as we continue to explore the war through the rest of 1943 and beyond - however long it may last, who knows!
At the end of the war, the Strategic Bombing Survey measured the amount of destruction in Nagasaki and concluded that the second atomic bomb fell short of causing the amount of damage seen in Hamburg. It's still incredible that this was done with just a single bomb while Hamburg was pounded by thousands of bombers of almost a week. But it puts some perspective on how massive these city bombings in Germany were.
Italy became so infamous for switching sides that Germany outwitted Italy and prepared for that exact scenario to KEEP Italy on its side by force. Ironic.
Just FYI, the subtitles/closed captions get badly out of synch from 12:33 onwards; they race ahead of Indie's speaking and have ended by 13:24. Great stuff as always, thanks. Cheers
I left this comment on the Hamburg episode "A very old TV series, made in 1973 and the most expensive factual series ever made, "World at War, narrated by Lawrence Olivier, offered a sobering, matter-of-fact account of WWII. I recommend it for the theme music alone." The cost is relevant in the context of what it costs to make this series and the clever final line here, that World War Two is not made of gold.
Watching the eastern front scenes really makes you realise how good the fighting quality of the German troops was. They were outnumbered by so many and still put up such a big fight.
They were superior tactically early in the war and their training at that time was very good. As the war progressed the Allies became more and more proficient both tactically and operationally . You will see a big difference in1944.
@@caryblack5985 Yes i agree, but having read much about the later years of the war the Germans were able to hold off for so long with so little resources compared to the allies. The spirit the Germans fought with in the last year of the war was different as they were fighting for there nations survival.
@@ryanwilliams4038 They were fighting out of fear. They had been so bombarded by Goebbels propaganda who constantly told them that the Soviets would kill everyone or if people were left they would all be sent to Siberia. The Nazi party and the leaders were fighting to retain their power because they knew if the Allies triumphed there would be no Nazi party and they would have no power. Just read Goebbels speech in February 1943 after Stalingrad. He is no longer talking about the triumph of the Aryan race or destroying Bolshevism but about what the Soviets would do if they triumph. There was a joke regarding the Nazi run labor unions who talked about strength through Joy. The joke was now we have strength through fear. And the Nazi leaders capitalized on this fear
@@ryanwilliams4038 Then it probably wasn't the quality of the men, but more a case of offence vs defence of which one is more favourable than the other.
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That was quick. (Kids. This is what you get if you failed to include dates when reading about history. You didnt expect Mussolini to fall from power just a few weeks after invasion in sicily started.)
A fun thought here. Stalin was quite vocal about his desire for a front in France from Brittan and American forces. While the soft underbelly of Europe wasn't as soft once the Germans deployed into Italia. Invading Sicily turned out to be the better gamble at this point. Drawing off quite a few troops that could have gone to defend on the eastern front. No one could have known how the situation would develop but hopping across the med into Europe by simply extending the supply structures already there from the north African campaign worked brilliantly. The mess that is the occupation of Italy.....
Agree. It siphoned off troops which may have gone to the eastern front. There was an idea that the Italians would not fight and Mussolini's regime was shaky was correct. What was incorrect was that the Germans would take over Italy and that the terrain made the fighting extremely difficult and excellent for defense.
Thank you for doing this section on mussolini . You literally can't find anything on what exactly happened for him to take him from being a loved figure to being hung with his mistress upside down.
As I was watching this episode telling about Mussolini and Patton, I can't help but picture them in my mind as the Actor, George C Scott, as he portrayed the two historical figures.
“Minister of GRACE and JUSTICE” (2:51) thats a classy title for sure but that position could use a little bit more unpacking in its explanation. What exactly IS a Minister of Grace?
Great vid, but a minor observation. 2:00 you keep referring to Albert Kesselring as _Luftwaffe boss Smiling Albert Kesselring,_ but that's not doing him justice. Ok perhaps that came out wrong. 🧐 The point is: he was Wehrmacht commander of the Mediterranean theatre, not just commander of Luftflotte 2 and had a separate staff to command both. Also, his nickname _smiling_ Albert was used by the allies. He was very popular among the German troops and visited them frequently. They called him _Uncle Albert._ Again, great vid and keep up the good work.
I'd love if you guys would do an episode on the Romanian army. They seem to be at every major engagement in the east but rarely discussed.i know more about the role of the free Polish or Australians. Just their sheer numbers deserve more attention.
I heard in Dresden, people underground in the air raid shelters were cooked alive from the firestorm above. The doors were opened to reveal a soup full of bones. Just hellish.
Around the end of the book 3 against Hitler is a secondhand account of a man who’s family survived the firebombing of Hamburg while he was in a prison camp in Poland. It really shows you how bad it was
From 12 to 28 July 1943, The GC3 "Normandie" French fighter group fought actively in Operation Kutuzov. The group, formed by 2 squadrons of 22 pilots (the first commanded by Captain Pierre Pouyade, the second by Captain Albert Littolff) equipped with Yak1 and Yak9 fighters, is tasked with covering and escorting russian bombers. On July 13, 2 Me110s are added to Normandie's tally and on July 14, which was the French National Day, the French carried out 25 war missions and won 3 victories (2 Me110 and 1 Fw190), due to Captain Pouyade and 1st Lieutenants Albert and Castelain. Alas, that evening, one of them was missing: 2nd Lieutenant Jean de Tédesco, shot dead in the Bolkhov region. On July 16, GC3 Normandie was ordered to cover the ground troops' offensive north of Khotynets. Major Tulasne took the lead of a squadron of 8 planes, which had to face a group of 15 enemy bombers covered by fighters. Littolff was the first to charge, followed by three other Yaks. The engagement was quick and deadly: several enemy aircraft were shot down in flames and the German group was forced to turn back. On that day Normandie claimed 2 Me110, 1 Ju87 and 1 Fw189. When Tulasne gave the signal for assembly, he noticed that three pilots were missing: Littolff, Castelain and Bernavon had been shot down. Since the start of the war, the three of them had scored 27 victories. The next day on July 17, during the group's third sortie in three days, Tulasne led a squadron of 9 Yaks to attack a motorized enemy column moving from Bolkhov to Orel. After linking with the Soviet attack planes, the French faced a severe barrage from the enemy flak, but they carried out their mission very effectively: on the ground, many German tanks and armored vehicles were on fire. Alerted, a group of Focke-Wulf came to the rescue and a very hard fight ensued between very superior enemies and the Franco-Soviets. Normandie suffered the full force of the shock. The crews of Lieutenants Léon, Préziosi and Albert shot down several Focke-Wulfs, while Tulasne, Bon and Pouyade rised vertically towards a cumulus: “Major Tulasne, says Colonel Loukachine, flew a little above the other crews. Making a sharp turn, he got behind the tail of four FWs and attacked. At this time, the squadron leader was alone, because his teammate was struggling with two other Focke-Wulfs. Tulasne's plane was spotted right in the middle of the German fighters. Like a racing car, he swooped down on them and fired all his machine guns and cannon at the enemy planes that passed through his sights, then pulled himself out, by a skilful maneuver, from their fire. But no one knows what happened to him afterwards. That day, Major Tulasne, who had fifty sorties to his credit, did not return from his mission.» That day, a day of glory and mourning for the group, two other airmen were shot down: 1st Lieutenant Béguin and 2nd Lieutenant Vermeil. The first managed to regain his base; the second, like his commander, never reappeared. In four days, the Normandie group made 112 sorties, had 6 deaths and won 17 approved victories: “The price was heavy”, comments historian Yves Courrière. Tédesco, Littolff, Castelain, Bernavon, Vermeil and Tulasne will be made Companions of the Liberation by General de Gaulle on October 11, 1943. On July 18, Pouyade took over the command of GC3 Normandie. In view of the terrible losses, General Zakharov amicably advises Pouyade to modify the too individualistic tactics of the French pilots. They will have to adapt to Soviet tactics if they want to be able to last. The decision was also made to replace the French mechanics, completely overwhelmed because of their small number, with Soviet mechanics. On July 28, 1st Lieutenant Préziosi disappeared in a fight against six Fw190s. Since its formation and its first combat mission in late March 1943, the GC3 Normandie lost 11 pilots (8 of them being from the original 14 pilots leaving Syria in 1942) and counted 30 comfirmed victories.
Pokryishkin, a top soviet ace, described these pilots as "brave and very skillful on individual level, but lacking in group tactics". However, his squaron had a huge emphasis on group tactics, so normandie's one probably wasn't so bad either
@@gentlemanvontweed7147 Hitle r was not a communist in Mein Kam pf he literally says bolshevism and capitalism are the two sides of the same Jewish coin. He instituted not one communist policy, in fact one of the first policies he instituted was a lower of taxes and having a flat tax rate, during his reign in fact he colluded with big business owners and privatised more than almost any other country in Europe at the time. The AutoBahn was started by the Weimer Republic, h itler didn't even want to make them they were just to popular with the populus. If you watched this show you'd know that Operation Barbarossa started with speech, which was about whipping communism off the map.
@@gentlemanvontweed7147 how does the famous poem by Martin Niemöller go, first they came for... yeah the first they came for were the communists, don't think that would happen if he was a communist. On top why would Germany be on the side of far right Franco in the Spanish Civil war, who was fighting the communists, if Germany was...
@@gentlemanvontweed7147 sorry it's just so easy to debunk what you said I'm having so much fun, yeat they called themselves National Socialists, but just like the Democratic Republic of North Korea, who aren't democratic, nazi's weren't socialists.
@@gentlemanvontweed7147 Hitler wasn't communist where on earth did you get that laughable idea from? What communist policy did he support? Why did he say when he invaded Russia, he was doing it to wipe communism off the map. Why would he call communism a Jewish plot, he called Cultural Bolshevism. You just have to be ignorant on basic history to think this. But let me guess you can't get passed it being called national socialist, because that party was famous for not lying...
The fascist "black shirts" of Mussolini would continue to fight all through Italy however, mostly as guerilla irregulars. One young Canadian soldier caught a middle aged man in a black shirt on a farm and angrily prepared to execute him but a neighbour of the man intervened and begged him not to shoot him. It turns out his wife had recently died, as the neighbour kept trying to inform the soldier by showing him a picture of his deceased wife, and finally the young soldier understood what was being said and spared the man. His "black shirt" was a symbol of his mourning and not of membership in the fascist guerillas. 🤷♂🤔🤨😏👌
SPOILER John Amery, a pro-Third Reich Briton and son of leading politician Leo Amery, was captured in northern Italy at war's end wearing a black shirt, in his case in solidarity with Italian fascism. He was executed.
I heard a reference to Izyum in this video which, tragically, is being fought over once again 79 years later. It's currently one of the furthest advances of the Russian forces in their invasion of Ukraine. Let's hope the front moves east instead of west this time around.
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Italy is the first major Axis power to fall, but how much do the Germans really depend on them? Has Mussolini been more of a help or burden to Hitler's plans for domination?
Replacing 80 Italian divisions, even mediocre ones compared to German ones is no mean massive drain German resources. Which was exactly why when Hungary tried to leave the Axis the Germans immediately moved to remove Horthy and install their own regime to keep the Hungarian armies in the war.
Mussolini turned out to be Sussolini
Glad to see the quote from Prit Buttar's Retribution. I very much like his trilogy on the fighting in the Ukraine from 1942 through 1944. His three books are A Knifes Edge, Retribution The Reconquest of Central Ukraine and The Reckoning which covers 1944.
I've always felt that Italy was like the Austro-Hungarian Empire they've started battles or attacks and it's up to Germany to pull their butts out of the 🔥📛
Which other axis powers have fallen?
I didn't realise Mussolini was deposed this soon even before scilly was even taken.
Italy still remnained in war at Axis side though even after fall of Mussolini , his successor the temporary goverment of Marshall Pietro Bodoglio swore fealty to Axis but a few weeks later on 28th August 1943 started armistice negotiations with Allies in secret via an envoy in Sicily and signed it on 3rd September , effective on 8th September. In every appearence and act , Italy still was at Axis side and fighting...for now
@@merdiolu to say they were between a rock and a hard place would be an understatement.
Even more so when you consider that at the start of this year, the Germans and Italians were still beating up the Americans and British in North Africa, and looked poised to hold on to Tunisia for quite a while yet.
And now half a year later they've knocked Italy out of the war.
Such a quick turnaround is really quite amazing. The more so when we know the war is still going to go on for 2 years or so.
Same here. This must have felt like a real turning point at the time
I thought he didn't lose power till Italy was invaded. I guess I was wrong.
Hitler is feeling quite dour
His war turns to shit by the hour
In the east he's defeated
His forces depleted
And Benito's been ousted from power!
Another fine episode. Nice work!
Wayne I always love your limericks. Thank you & please keep it up
First one I have found, but I now have to go back through the whole series (darn) and read them all. I'm getting looks as I cackle in my ambulance
@@Grimspear05 This series is easy to binge if you begin watching late vs usually wait a week for the next episode as in the original sequence. lol That said, IMO what we don't relate to is the time span of the war compared to the lives we live. I mean imagine a six year long global conflict. (Say 1939-1945) Cheers.
When my family was in Europe in 1967 we went to visit the house of the last king of Italy Umberto II in exile in Cascais, Portugal.
The receptionist was extremely friendly. So we were emboldened to ask if we might see the king. The receptionist regrettably said that the king was out, otherwise he is always happy when an Italian would come to seek him out. She said that we should sign the guest book, just inside the doorway, because the first thing the king does when he comes home is look at the guest book to see if any Italians had visited. We signed, and left the address of our home in Italy where we would be spending the summer. One summer day the post man called up to us that a special letter has come. We had no clue as to what it could be. It was a signed letter from the king. True story. I now have that letter and the envelope framed, and hanging in the hallway of my house in Brooklyn.
Very interesting anecdote.
Would you care to share more details on your trip to Portugal? Really interesting time in Portuguese History-just a few years before the fall of the Estado Novo, a few years after the 'Academic Crisis', and right in the middle of the birth of its modern tourist industry.
That is so based. Much health to the house of Savoy.
Long live the King!
@@p00bix We didn't see much of Portugal because we weren't there long. I can tell you that food in the restaurants was very good and very inexpensive. I remember that they had the largest lobsters I've even seen. They were all stacked up like a cord of firewood, and they were very much alive. You just pointed to the one you wanted and they'd cook it up any way you like it. However, there was also poverty that left an impression on me. I saw children at the back door of a restaurant begging for a little bread, while inside people feasted on the finest food imaginable. Oh, and I recall visiting that tremendous castle that overlooks Lisbon. What a view!
Model’s ability to stabilise the front, never allowing any major breakthrough was simply unmatched
That's why they called him "Hitler's firefighter"
I don't think the Germans are going to let Italy get out of the war this easily. Great stuff like always Indy!
brothers in blood dont just leave each other, germans will never let them
Thanks for watching as always, Alex
Hitler will...make them an offer they can't refuse
Don't do Fascism, kids.
@@samo3923 Especially when you wasted energies to help them many times...
Also, a very curious fact to note about the fall of Mussolini: he got arrested the day after the vote, visiting in his palace King Vittorio Emanuele III, which has not ever been so angry in a public meeting with someone: he insulted Mussolini in piedmontese language (hous of Savoy is from Piedmon in north Italy, on fact the first capital was Turin), and was so furious that the queen almost fainted hearinh him yelling in Mussolini's face from the floor above.
It’s maMMa mia, with two Ms.
I don’t know how or why in the recent years Americans keep doing this mistake
@@alviseossena3238 Because Americans spelled the informal form of "mother" as "mama" and then transformed that into "moma".
@@alviseossena3238 it also likely has to do with Mexican culture being significant here in the USA where it is spelled mama. Mi dispiace.
It’s his innate manlet anger energy
@@alviseossena3238 They could start by pronouncing mascarpone correctly.
Sasaki's campaign on New Georgia was extremely well fought. The allied attack bogged down everywhere, and the attacks last week totally paralyzed the 43rd division. As you noted last week, "new regiments" were sent to join the forces there; these regiments were the 161st from the 25th infantry division and the 148th from the 37th division, which had been intended for the next campaign on Bougainville. Although the arrival of those divisions allowed progress to resume, both divisions were badly affected from the combat but particularly from the jungle fighting, and had to be withdrawn for refitting afterwards. This prevented the 25th from being available for Bougainville at all, and we won't see it again for nearly two years. Munda itself was militarily worthless to Japan as soon as the allies took Rendova, which was close enough for 155 mm artillery backed now by a solid supply base to reach the airstrip. One main goal of the allied offensive, establishing an airfield to get fighter support close enough to support the Bougainville campaign, was already achieved weeks ago by the capture of the Segi Point airstrip. Sasaki delayed the next allied campaign significantly and chewed up three divisions in the jungle. Despite being outnumbered 4 to 1, he inflicted roughly balanced casualties on the allies, resisted for five weeks the loss of an objective that really didn't bring much value to the allies and was worthless to Japan (a delay which allowed a buildup in the northern Solomons that, fortunately, was rendered moot by clever actions by Halsey), and in the end was able to extract most of his army. Sasaki lived until 1961 and is described by Bergerud in Touched With Fire (highly recommended book for anyone interested in the Pacific war) as "the most brilliant land commander faced by the allies in the south Pacific".
Mind you, the Americans learned their lesson (more or less) after this.
@@scottkrater2131 However, siting dugouts, trenches and pillboxes to cover all lines of approach and provide protective cover fire, while concealing them so they cannot be found, is an art in and of itself. If those fortifications were not properly set up, the defense line would have collapsed very quickly. General Sasaki made great use of the terrain to slow the US advance while launching a large counterattack is in itself good generalship. However, I would have to deduct marks for him not anticipating the effects the same terrain would have on his counterattack, and for underestimating how good the US troops were.
@@scottkrater2131 It's true that those factors were hugely important. As I said in my original comment, a key factor was that any campaign in the jungle would require a significant rest period afterwards for the engaged units after due to the ludicrously high rates of disease. Poor morale, poor training, poor leadership, and units that didn't know how to fight in the jungle all contributed too. The 25th Division was very well led, had jungle combat experience from mopping up at Guadalcanal, and was overall simply a much better combat division, and made steady progress where it was deployed. Lawton Collins, the general in charge of the division, was very good about orienting his officers for jungle combat. The 43rd at the time of New Georgia was not nearly as good, though did learn a lot and was much more effective later.
That said, Sasaki did a really strong job of exploiting those factors. His men launched attacks along many different points in the line, exploiting the jungle concealment and hitting morale because it gave a sense there was no front line. They used close assault tactics to knock out tanks. They also didn't use the mass human wave tactics that incurred huge casualties at places like Bloody Ridge. After pulling off of New Georgia - again, a nearly inconsequential objective - , he conducted another delaying action on Arundel where he pioneered some of the same tactics that Japan used in the Palaus and Iwo Jima - letting the troops land and move inland, then counterattacking, once again inducing operational paralysis and necessitating reinforcements to again enter the jungle and be worn down by disease. After Halsey's frankly brilliant move on Vella Lavella, Sasaki was able to evacuate pretty much all of his remaining troops with good support from the navy. In the end, the land portions of the New Georgia campaign were one of the few places in the Pacific theater after the allies began their counterattack where the Japanese didn't take massively disproportionate casualties to allied firepower.
@@scottkrater2131 The other issue was that the rough terrain broke up the attacks of both sides. The Americans tended to be a bit more flexible, however, in their use of tactics below the company level. The Japanese tended to rely on charging enemy positions, and in broken terrain this tactic did not work very well at all. As was demonstrated at Guadalcanal and New Georgia. Rather than hitting the Americans in a solid mass that would overwhelm them, the rough terrain broke up the charge into smaller units that could be more easily dealt with.
Sounds like he was a highly competent commander, definitely not someone you'd want to cross swords with.
That photo of Mussolini is amazing. Well done.
Thank you Mark, it means a lot for our team to see their hard work called out!
08:37 versus 10:38 the war started to make Stalin a realist (where he could listen to and accept the advice of his generals) while it instead made Hitler a fantastist unable to take any advice on strategy.
Hastings: Armageddon: The Battle For Germany 1944 - 45
Seems Hitler and Stalin went in opposite directions.
@@ndogg20 Not really, they loved to attack and advance -- retreat, not so much.
So, they actually went in the same direction -- the same bias.
*Adolf Hitler:* "What happened to Mussolini?! "
"Well, they took a vote an decided to remove him from power."
*Adolf Hitler:* "THAT'S NOT HOW DICTATORSHIP WORKS!"
the most ironic part about this is that the Grand Council of Fascism (the political organ who voted him out) was made of his closest advisors (all of them were appointed by him alone)
Well that's Italy for you. Not even the dictatorships last. and democratic governments have an average life expectancy of about a year and a half. :P
@@catriona_drummond we know
@@catriona_drummond ah Italy. The bumblebee of politics. No one really knows how it works, but it just works. 🤷🏻♂️😋
46 years later, Erich Honeker made the same surprised Pikatchu face.
The pacing of these episodes is pretty remarkable. This was a 16 minute presentation, but seemed to last about 5 minutes, so compelling was the visuals and narration. This is one of the countless reasons that I admire this series so much. The episodes grab your attention, and that grip only intensifies as the ending approaches, all too soon. There are many lessons here about how to produce a TH-cam video.
A lot of information was presented, but I was struck by mention of the Donbas region. There are historical shades of the present in the past there, and more sadness and death, 80 years in the future. It's sad.
I offer my puny thanks once again.
Your thanks are anything but puny, my friend. I always look forward to seeing your name in the comments, as I'm sure the entire crew does as well. Thank you for the high praise and your loyal support. Take care
It is interesting that both Italy and Japan, still being constitutional monarchies despite also being dictatorships, were able to use the constitutional norms of such a political structure to offer surrender before total collapse. Germany, not being a monarchy and having abandoned all pretense of parliamentary norm, could not do so so long as Hitler remained alive.
Yup! Hard core criminal dictatorships go down very hard!
I find quite interesting that while Emperor Hirohito role is so debated no one cares to mention King Vittorio Emanuele III
(well, at least outside Italy, Italians HATE him)
This man is one of the greatest storytellers of our time.
Thank you for the very high praise, Nicholas
On 22 July, the King met with Mussolini, who wanted to report the outcome of Feltre. According to Badoglio, Mussolini promised the King that he would disengage Italy from the war by September 15. The two-month delay can be explained by the fact that Bastianini had begun contact with the Allies which would need time to proceed, and Mussolini needed time to justify himself and Italy before the world for his betrayal. According to Badoglio, the King agreed with Mussolini, which is why the Duce was not worried about the outcome of the Grand Council meeting. A coup d'état was destined to fail without the aid of the King. At the end of the meeting, Mussolini was convinced that the King would stand by his side, and Victor Emmanuel was disappointed after telling him in vain that he should resign. The King was forced now to consider the putsch seriously, as he knew that Bastianini was trying to contact the Allies while Farinacci, the fascist hardliner, was organizing a putsch to depose him and Mussolini and bring Italy under direct German control. The real decision was made after knowing that the Grand Council had approved Grandi's OdG.
At 17:30 on the same day, Grandi went to Palazzo Venezia under the official reason of presenting a new book about the Italian participation in the non-intervention committee in Spain to Mussolini. The meeting was scheduled to last 15 minutes, but it was prolonged until 18:45. The Chief of Police and the German Feldmarschall Kesselring were waiting to be received by the Duce. Mussolini later denied that he spoke with Grandi about the OdG, but it is apparent that Grandi, who loved the Duce, explained to him the consequences of his OdG and gave him a chance to save face and resign before the vote. In that case, the Grand Council's meeting would have been superfluous. Mussolini listened while Grandi was explaining the necessity of resigning to avoid a catastrophe, but at the end rebuked him saying that his conclusions were wrong since Germany was about to produce a decisive secret weapon. After that, Mussolini met Kesselring and the Chief of Police, Chierici, whom he confided in that it would have been easy to bring Grandi, Bottai and Ciano back to the fold as they were eager to be persuaded by him. On 23 July, Mussolini accepted the resignation of Cini, which was supposed to be a signal to his opponents. At the same time, Grandi, Federzoni, de Marsico (one of the best jurists in Italy), Bottai and Ciano modified the OdG by removing the interpretative introduction which explained the functions of the Grand Council. This demonstrated that the assembly had the constitutional power to remove Mussolini. According to the constitutionalists, the "Leggi Fascistissime" of December 1925 bent the Constitution, but did not break it. Because of these laws, the Duce ruled the country on behalf of the King, who always remained the source of executive power. If the Grand Council, which was the trait d'union between Fascism and the state, passed a vote of no confidence on the dictator, the King would have been entitled to remove him and nominate his successor. Ciano was acquainted with the OdG by Bottai, and Grandi was reluctant to accept him since he was the son-in-law of Mussolini and known for his superficial and inconstant character. However, Ciano insisted, unaware that this decision would provoke his death six months later in Verona. After that, Grandi had Farinacci visit his office in the parliament to show him his OdG. Farinacci told Grandi that he accepted the first part of the document, but that he did not agree with the rest: the military powers had to be given to the Germans, and Italy should start to fight the war by getting rid of Mussolini and the generals. Farinacci asked him for a copy of his OdG, and like Scorza, he used it to produce another OdG of his own. In the time left before the meeting, Grandi contacted other participants asking them to join his action.
The night of the Grand Council
At 17:00 on 24 July 1943, the 28 members of the Grand Council met in the parrot room (the anteroom of the globe saloon, the office of Mussolini) in Palazzo Venezia. For the first time in the history of the Grand Council, neither the bodyguard of Mussolini, known as the Moschettieri del Duce, nor a detachment of the "M" battalions were present in the Renaissance palace. Fully armed blackshirts occupied the yard, the escalade and the antechamber. Mussolini did not want a stenographer, so no minutes of the meeting were taken.
Grandi brought two hidden Breda hand grenades with him, in addition to revising his will and going to confession before the meeting, because he was under the impression that he may not leave the palace alive. Mussolini began the meeting by summarizing the history of the supreme command, trying to show that the attribution to him had been sponsored by Badoglio. He summarized the war events in the previous months, saying that he was ready to move the government to the Po valley. He concluded by asking the participants to give their personal opinion about what he called "il dilemma": the choice between war or peace. The Duce knew that, except for the three or four men against him, the "swamp" was undecided. He hoped that he could convince them to vote for the OdG Scorza, which gave only the military powers back to the King. After the Duce's introduction, De Bono (one of the two remaining living quadrumvirs) spoke, followed by Farinacci and De Vecchi.
Grandi then read out and explained his document, concluding his speech with Mussolini's citation: "Let perish all the factions, so that the Nation can live". Next, Farinacci explained that his criticism ran opposite to Grandi's. While Grandi contended that Mussolini had betrayed the constitution, the real victim of betrayal was Fascism. Farinacci said that in order to win the war it was necessary to wipe out the democrats and liberals still nested in the Party, as well as the generals. He wanted to give the supreme command of the armed forces back to the King and unify the war direction with Germany, all of which would strengthen the Party. At the end of his speech he read his proposed OdG, which summarized all of these points. After some minor interventions, Bottai, the Fascist intellectual, made a purely political speech defending the OdG. This was followed by Ciano summarizing the history of the alliance with the Germans, and declaring that the Italians were not the traitors, but the betrayed. At 23:30, the Duce announced that, due to the length of the meeting, some comrades had asked for a postponement to the next day. At this point, Grandi called for a vote on his OdG, saying that it was shameful to go to sleep when Italian soldiers were dying for their fatherland. Never before in the 20-year history of the assembly had anyone asked for a vote. Since fascism was strongly anti-parliamentary, in all previous meetings only discussions summarized by the Duce had taken place. Mussolini unwillingly agreed, and at midnight the meeting was suspended for 10 minutes. In the meantime, Grandi collected the signatures to his OdG.
After other interventions for and against the OdG, Mussolini told the participants to reflect on their decision since the approval of Grandi's OdG would imply the end of Fascism. He also cautioned against the illusion that the Anglo-Americans would be content with that, whereas what they really wanted was the end of Italy, which under his rule had become too strong. He said this was not about him, but he was sure that the war could be won. He had a "key" to accomplish that which he could not disclose, and he was not willing to let his throat be cut by the King. If the King would re-confirm his trust in him, the consequences for the supporters of Grandi's OdG would be dire. At the end of his speech, many of the gerarchi were visibly shaken. Grandi said that the Duce was blackmailing all of them, and if one must choose between fidelity to him and loyalty to the homeland, the choice was clear. At this point, Scorza caught everyone by surprise by presenting his own OdG. This proposed the nomination of the three war and interior ministers, all under Mussolini, and the concentration of power in the hands of the Fascist Party.
His speech hurt the Duce's hopes of defeating Grandi since the Party was discredited among almost all the high-ranking Fascists. At the end of Scorza's intervention, Suardo announced that he was withdrawing his signature from the OdG Grandi and proposed to unify the three documents. Ciano asked Farinacci to withdraw his OdG and to ask Grandi to unify their two documents, but Farinacci refused. Bottai said that voting for Grandi had become a matter of honor.[130] After other interventions and nine hours of discussion, Mussolini declared the meeting closed at two o'clock in the morning and ordered Scorza to proceed with the vote. They voted on the OdG Grandi first since it had the most proponents. Scorza was the first to vote, saying "no". After him, Marshal de Bono said "yes" and towed the undecided with him. In the end, the OdG Grandi obtained 19 votes for, with 8 against. Mussolini declared the document approved and asked who should bring the result to the King. Grandi answered: "You". The Duce concluded: "You provoked the regime crisis". After that, Scorza tried to call the "saluto al duce", but Mussolini stopped him.
While all the other gerarchi left the palace, Mussolini remained with Scorza to discuss the legal value of the OdG. They concluded that it was just a "recommendation" to the King. Scorza suggested that Mussolini accept the OdG Grandi, but he refused since he would have found himself against his allies in the Grand Council. After that, before reaching his wife in Villa Torlonia, Mussolini telephoned his mistress, Claretta Petacci. During his conversation, which was bugged, he told her in desperation: "We arrived to the epilogue, the greatest watershed in history"; "The star darkened"; "It's all over now". Afterwards, Scorza accompanied the Duce to Villa Torlonia at 3:00 am on Sunday 25 July 1943.
ARREST OF MUSSOLINI
Grandi met with Pietro d'Acquarone until 06:00 after the Grand Council meeting to give him one of the two copies of the OdG. At 07:00, d'Acquarone informed the King. The King called Badoglio and told him that he would be the successor to Mussolini. The operation was due to start on 29 July. Mussolini went to work and found a letter on his desk from Tullio Cianetti, withdrawing his vote for the OdG Grandi. He ordered a search for Grandi from his office at Montecitorio, but he replied that he was not in Rome, potentially in an effort to give him the task of making contact with the Allies to prepare an armistice. Mussolini contacted the royal household in order to request an audience with the King to report on the previous night's meeting. This call unsettled the King, who had decided to arrest the Duce on that same day. The arrest occurred at 17:00 at Villa Savoia.
General Castellano contacted the Commander-General of the Carabinieri, General Angelo Cerica, who organized the arrest. Lieutenant Colonel Giovanni Frignani oversaw the arrest of Mussolini by order of the king. Captain Paolo Vigneri of the Carabinieri was commissioned to carry out the arrest. He was summoned by telephone with his colleague Captain Raffaele Aversa around 14:00 on 25 July by Lieutenant Colonel Frignani, who explored their method of carrying out the order of arrest issued against the Duce. Vigneri was told to deliver Mussolini and complete the mission at any cost; he was provided with three non-commissioned officers of the Carabinieri (Bertuzzi, Gianfriglia and Zenon), who were allowed to use weapons if needed.[citation needed]
In the meantime, Mussolini met the Japanese ambassador, Shinrokuro Hidaka, who had been waiting three weeks for a courtesy hearing. Hidaka heard Mussolini request that the Japanese Prime Minister, General Tojo, contact Hitler and convince him to reach an agreement with Stalin. Otherwise, Italy would be forced to abandon the alliance. In the afternoon, Mussolini visited the San Lorenzo quarter to observe the damage from the bombing. Back at Villa Torlonia, his wife, Donna Rachele, told him not to go to the appointment with the King since Victor Emmanuel could not be trusted. She told him: "You won’t be back", but he said that the King was his best friend.
At 17:00, Mussolini, escorted by agents of the "presidenziale", arrived at the Villa Savoia where the King was waiting for him. He brought a copy of the law of the Grand Council, the OdG Grandi, and the letter of Cianetti. The Duce tried to convince Victor Emmanuel that the OdG had no legal value and that many of its supporters had changed their minds. The King told him that the country was broken, and the situation required him to quit his post; the new President of the Council of Ministers would be Marshal Badoglio. Mussolini feared for his future, but the King assured him that he would personally take care of his security and that of his family. Victor Emmanuel accompanied him to the door where he met Captain Vigneri. The Duce went to his car, but Captain Vigneri told him to go to a nearby ambulance for his security. Mussolini said there was no need for that, but followed him to the ambulance where the policemen were waiting. The ambulance left the park and rushed through Rome until reaching the "Podgora" army barracks in Trastevere before ultimately being moved to the "Legnano" Carabinieri barracks in Prati. The Duce received a kind letter from Badoglio the same night, explaining the necessity of his custody and asking him where he wanted to be brought. Mussolini asked to go to his summer residence, the Rocca delle Caminate, in Romagna, and he wrote to Badoglio that he was gladly willing to help him and his government. A transfer to his summer residence was not an option, and two days later he was accompanied to Gaeta, where the corvette Persefone brought him to the island of Ponza. He was transferred to the island of La Maddalena, and finally to Campo Imperatore, where he remained until 12 September 1943 when a German commando unit led by Otto Skorzeny freed him.
In the meantime, all the telephone centrals were blocked. The new Chief of the Police, Senise, who was appointed at 17:30 by Duke d’Acquarone, ordered the questore of Rome to arrest all the gerarchi present in the capital. The EIAR, linked with the headquarters of the MVSN (the Blackshirts), was also isolated. The King had his first meeting with Badoglio. At 18:00, the Secretary of the Party, Scorza, was waiting to meet Mussolini and seeing that he did not come, he went to the headquarters of the Carabinieri. There he was arrested by Cerica, but released on his word after promising that both he and the Fascist party would be faithful to the new government. The same fate befell the MVSN: its Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Enzo Galbiati, advised Mussolini to arrest the 19 gerarchi who voted for the OdG Grandi, but he refused. After knowing about the arrest of Mussolini, he observed that the MVSN headquarters in Viale Romania had been surrounded by army units. Galbiati then ordered his men not to provoke incidents. Although the majority of his officers wanted to react, he called the Undersecretary to the Interiors, Albini, after consulting with four generals and declaring that the MVSN would have "remained faithful to its principles, that is to serve the fatherland through its pair, Duce and King". Since the war against the Allies was continuing, the duty of each Blackshirt was to continue the fight. Badoglio had nothing to fear from the Blackshirts. Immediately, Galbiati was replaced by Quirino Armellini, an Army general, and arrested a few days later. The MVSN was then integrated into the Regio Esercito and disbanded.
how is this comment two days ago
Thanks for the extra info :)
@@merdiolu Thanks very much for the extra context! It's really appreciated.
@@idkyet9458 I think some members get early access.
3:39 This is the best photo that you could have chosen for this moment. I had no idea Mussolini's face was so meme-worthy.
Mussolini's face is devastatingly revelatory of a pompous personality. 🤷♂🙄😏
I work in private ambulance and I have a few patients who were children during all this, and its so nice to sit and chat with them about the latest WWII episode whenever I get to visit them. Miss K always asks what I learned recently and my recent trip was "WE INVADED SICILY! AND KURSK HAPPENED! Rosie the Riveter became a thing!"
She just smiles softly and nods and makes me promise to stand against fascism and hatred, and I have.
Never forget.
Thank you for watching us, that's a really nice thing to hear:)
Fascism is a legitimate political ideology that has as much to do with "hatred" as any other party. Why don't you stand up against "democracy" and "republicanism"? More than enough hate to go around in those 2 parties.
Indy is truly a TH-cam Historian to look up to!
hey I remember you, you were mentioned by jordies!
Boy, that escalated quickly
And then it's stagnating for the next 12 months.
I've been waiting for this video to drop. Mussolini falling from power is probably right up their with some of the more dramatic events of this war. And one that had a great effect on it. Great video.
Thank you for your steadfast support. I always appreciate seeing your name in comments and I look forward to your gracious thoughts and good reflections. Please stay tuned
My grandfather was a counterintelligence officer of the NKVD and fought in Warsaw, Prague, Berlin. My other grandfather's brother was a tanker and fought in Stalingrad. They both survived. My great-grandfather's brother also survived, but returned home wounded and crippled. He had gunshot and shrapnel wounds to his chest, stomach, legs, and he was forced to walk on crutches all his life. My other grandfather went missing (probably died) in the battle for Rzhev. I know everything from the stories of my father and mother
Okay but what does this have to do with anything
Russians didn't fight in Warsaw. Maybe you mean the Magnuszew landings a few dozen kilometres to the south of the city? I think they fought against the Herman Goering SS Division but I may be mistaken about this detail.
@@johnnyenglish583 I don't know the details. But he has a medal for the liberation of Warsaw
@@johnnyenglish583 they did
@@blackmantis3130 when? Which units?
Great episode! But the subtitles seem to speed up for the New Georgia campaign part, starting around 12:30. The subtitles, including Indy's Patreon comments, finish by about 13:30
Yeah, I notice that as well. They go haywire and finish real quick after that.
One of Hitler's advisors comes in and tells him, "Mein Fuhrer, Italy has entered the war!"
Hitler thinks for a moment and says, "Send two divisions. That ought to take care of them."
The aid says, "Mein Fuhrer, you don't understand. They've joined the war on our side."
"Oh,'" says Hitler, "Better send ten divisions then."
(Actual German joke from WWII)
Ah yes, the old tradition in the city of Rome, conducting a coup d´etat. The favourite activity of those Italians. Mussolini did want to recreate the Roman Empire which had fallen 490 years before, he incurred the old debt of being one of the 80% of emperors who died violently.
He lived like an emperor and died violently like one.....
He even had his own version of the Praetorian Guard, right down to being useless in doing their job...
"It hopes to even also cut off the 6th Army" - I have a strange feeling that I have already seen it somewhere...
I am consistently amazed by people of Mussolini's ilk that, had they been a little less greedy, would have probably been lifelong rulers. Then I realize exactly how he came to power and the narcissism that drove him to believe he had all the answers and realize that it is not in the personality of a dictator like Mussolini, Hitler, or Stalin to just be content and not want it all. That very trait drove them to power in the first place. In the end it worked out better for the Allies as Germany was forced to back up Italy in Africa and Greece, thereby drawing forces from other fronts. I just wonder if Italy would still be fascist if they hadn't decided to join Germany and attempt to build their own empire.
If Mussolini had decided to keep Italy out of the war, he probably would have died of old age. And with no war in North Africa or the Mediterranean, the Western Allies could have invaded France earlier.
Considering that it isn't extremely rare for someone to survive in power until their mid 90's, Mussolini could have stayed in power until the late 1970's, I think most of his children who survived were pretty long lived. That's what Mugabe managed and what Queen Elizabeth is doing now. Assuming the war still went the same way, the US would have gleefully installed Mussolini as a dictator for life as one of their many fascist puppets, in particularly as Italy was across the Adriatic from Tito's Yugoslavia. I could definitely see a monarchist style dictator family with Bruno the air force pilot (if he never crashed and died in 1941) or his youngest son Romano, and perhaps Romano's daughter Alessandra, who herself went into politics after her period as a playboy model, eventually settling into her family's fascism.
Italy would certainly not still be fascist today if they'd stayed out of the war. Fascism was completely discredited by the end of WW2. In subsequent years Italy would've eventually "followed the herd" towards democracy/pluralism. Although, it's possible it could've taken a long time, like it did in Spain.
Franco in Spain was less greedy and ...
Remember Salazar and franco
Watching these episodes is among my favorite weekly activities. Thanks!
I always enjoy the small sound effects the team adds, such as tank treads. Thank you Time Ghost team for the immersive experience.
Thank you Mark! The whole team works hard on every aspect of the episodes, and we appreciate your kind words
I really believe there needs to be a special dedicated to the fall of Mussolini. Thank you guys as always for the great content.
Thank you for watching. Except for simply not having the time, there is one thing that ties our hands in creating major special projects like this one- getting the funding to actually be able to produce it.
It is highly unlikely that we could raise the hundreds of thousands of Euro to do a project like this one on Bagration (or Mussolini's fall) for example. People who are interested in and study the war know of it, but the mainstream audience doesn't, and to raise the kind of money needed we'd have to have a project that appeals to the mainstream.
There's also the point that covering the events of a single day plays into our chronological narrative, while Bagration covers weeks, as do many other such "highlights" of the war. Any big special project needs a format, a "packaging" that works, and a hook- for D-Day it's easy; it's 24 hours of coverage. But what would it be for Bagration?
As for doing a huge Stalingrad something or other- that's big enough in people's minds, but it would've had to begin being worked on back in January (at least), and by then we had just finished the Pearl Harbor Minute-by-Minute, so realistically we wouldn't have been able to get the financing for a new special project together so quickly.
Also, after working 70 hour weeks on Pearl Harbor for months, nobody on the team was in any shape to dive into a new extra workload on top of the regular content work straight away.
Because that is the reality of it: any special project we do is indeed extra, and is done on top of the work we do with the regular content, which is well over 40 hour weeks as it stands. We still plan on doing all sorts of specials and extra regular episodes and things like that for all major events of the war (we have some Stalingrad stuff coming up very soon), so it's not like we're actually leaving something out.
You can’t vote out tyranny!
Italy: Observe
Mussolini was de facto a prime minister backed by his party, not a 100% dictator with 100% of powers like the austrian painter and the moustache man
Wasn't the bombing of Hamburg so successful because of the first en mass employment of radar countermeasures in history? I remember reading that the allies just launched thousands of aluminium pieces that made the Luftwaffe night fighters unable to detect anything, and as a result for the first time the bombers were able to bomb almost undisturbed and suffered practically no losses.
Yes , Window anti radar counter measures used by RAF in large scale uring Operation Gomorrah
Window, or chaff as it's called these days. And yes, Gomorrah was the first mass use.
Chaff’s effect is not “not being able to see anything”, but rather “seeing clutter all over the place” - confusing and overwhelming radar operators.
Yes, but the amazing part of this is that both Germany and the Allies had known of chaff/window for more than a year but both sides had been too afraid to use it as they both knew how devastating it would be to their own early warning radar systems that they did not dare use it in order to prevent the other side from knowing about the technology!
In England this fear reached ludicrous proportions to such an extent that even when R.W.Jones could prove through human intelligence (from Denmark I believe) that the German night fighter / radar defence knew of the principle of window/chaff, he could still not get the Air staff to approve the use of Window until after a successful landing in Sicily (In the book 'Most Secret War' he mentioned that even then he could not find any reason as to why a landing in Sicily would change the scope of Window use...)
This is fascinating, I'd love to learn more!
Italy is the ultimate proof that its soldiers can be brave, but if their logistics are bad. If your technology lags behind your enemies. If your leaders do not know how to recognize your limitations in the war effort: your nation will be an eternal joke in military historiography
Italy also had some incompetent officers. Many had been promoted through bribery and favoritism instead of ability.
Well they had not found the oil in Libya, that would come somewhere in the 50s
If Italy had oil for their fleets and economy somewhere in 1935 or 36, then they would have been a whole different beast.
But comparing the Italian tanks to say
Japanese tanks
Then Italy suddenly looks futuristic.
Its fun to look at what ifs and Italy is a nicer example because they were not so hard-to-believe dystopian such as Russia and Germany
You have been spamming that comment for quite some time
Are you going to change it at some point ?
Italy had a very large and modern navy, they did not lag behind the British except for radar and some other issues (ammo quality control etc)
@RollinRat yes for sure, I commented with regards to the OP writing about inferior technology, which was arguably not the case for many aspects concerning the navy.
I finally get to the real time episode.
I started later, some months ago.
Now Im gonna watch the rest of the specials (watched many already), the rest of the spies and ties, and all other amazing videos we can see here.
Thanks.
ContoSóComigo Very glad you found our channel, thank you for watching & I hope you enjoy catching up. See you in the comments!
Today is my birthday and I never thought I'd actually have a regular episode on that day, especially an episode with such a drastic shift in the tale of the war. But here it is and I am here for it. Absolutely loving the series TimeGhost Team
Happy birthday!
Greg Happy belated Birthday!! I'm glad you got to enjoy an episode on your birthday, and I wish you many more happy ones.
Outstanding job to the Time Ghost team for a greatly put together & presentation of an otherwise grim week to a grim war. Needless to say this war is essential education that you all tell in a weekly, real time way in which puts everything in to even better perspective of what a war it was.
Thank you Roy. It makes our job infinitely better having so many history enthusiasts along with us every week. Stay tuned
I love it when he says ... Smiling Albert kesselring. XD
Wow. I didn't realize Mussolini was ousted so soon after the start of the Italian campaign. But I have a feeling it's not the last we've seen of him...
Yes, he can't help 'hanging' around...
Coming soon... Milan gas station
Only one way to find out… stay tuned
I had not realized Mussolini got the boot before there were allied boots on the boot of italy.
An interesting thing to note this week on July 28 1943 is that the Swedish furniture retailer *IKEA* is founded by 17 year old carpenter Ingvar Kamprad in the outskirts of Älmhult in Sweden. It started initially as a mail order business and only actually began to sell furniture five years later. It is now well known for its concept of selling items at a lower price by allowing the purchaser to assemble it themselves.
Jesus you're fast. I got the email like 30 seconds ago and you already had a response here.
@@Perkelenaattori Yeah, I am normally on alert on Wednesday nights for me here in my timezone for the weekly upload notification on Patreon. For some of these posts, they are kind of prepared well in advance. Of course if it uploads later when I am asleep, then it won't be that fast though.
IKEA ruining the decor of houses since 1943 with shitty furniture
@@patriotadam4091 Nothing wrong with IKEA. Just don't buy their cheapest stuff. Those are actually bad.
@@patriotadam4091 most of their mid range stuff is pretty good and very convenient.
Mussolini: "Well, this has turned out poorly. Guess Franco had the right play all along. At least, I still have my life."
We probably shouldn't tell him about Indy's future episodes. 🤣
Had dinner with an old school friend a few weeks ago. His father was in charge of the partisan group that captured Mussolini and executed him. He married an Italian girl and brought her back to South Africa after the war. I remembered this as a kid and asked him for confirmation. Most our fathers had volunteered so war stories were common and we did not pay that much attention at that time to what our fathers did during the war. My father , Lt John Hogan, DFC, flew Spitfires with 2 (Cheetah) Squadron of the SAAF and I knew many of his squadron members and heard many of their stories.
Thank you for sharing about your fathers and their service in the war.
Sorry but there are no recorded south africans involved in the unit that captured and executed mussolini, certainly not among the leaders
You guys may not be made of gold, but you sure do set the gold standard for quality!!
You honor us! Thank you for watching
Every time I see the Taman Peninsula 1943, all I think of is Cross of Iron.
Thanks for pointing out who told who to do what on Sicily.
Great job on this week’s episode. The maps are great & there’s a bunch of them. I know that’s a job of work.
@CrimsonTemplar2 not that anyone on our team doesn't work hard, but Daniel our maps guy is really a workhorse for the channel. Keep your eyes peeled for a particular map-heavy video coming out soon and remember to give him some love when it does!
@@WorldWarTwo Congratulations Daniel for your very good work in providing the relevant maps for every episode! They are definitely needed to help us understand what was happening on the ground and we should all give thanks to the entire team there who do such excellent work! 👌😉😊😎
@@ToddSauve Danke!
@@danielweiss7396 You are welcome Daniel. I think you are lucky to work for Indy and Sparty!
I always thought Mussilini was deposed when the allies were taking rome. Even though I'm months behind I absolutely love this channel. By far the best historical TH-cam channel out there.
Germany to Italy, "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"
Dear sir if of betrayal we have to talk I recommend you to read the book of the aid of the german military attache in Rome General Fritz Frederick Karl von Prewhe who certainly knew better than you. Nazi Germany refusedto aid Mussolini with germans divisions after Klesenheim and Feltre meeting (Sicily already invaded ) Soon Mussolini fell appeared 11 divisions and was prepared plot to imprison the king and liberate Mussolinia and estabish a puppet regme. It was not done inmediately by the opposition of Von Rintelen the german military attache. But coming back to betrayal: Hitler betrayed italians when attacked Poland (after giving assurances of not starting a war before 1942/3 wihle the ink of the steel pact was still fresh) when signed the Soviet Union non agression pact (that aferwards scraped) When promised raw materials and modern
ararmament that never gave.. Only heped with the second Luftwaffe corp and 3 DIVISIONS( the famous AFRIKA KORPS SO PUBLIZISED BY THE BRITISH IN ORDER TO SHOW THAT THEY WERE ACTUALLY FIGHTING THE GERMANS DURING ALL THOSE YEARS) In the Rosengber memoires it is said that Goebbels wanted to GIVE Ribentrop a showcase with all the scraped German traties.. Who betrayed whom.....
The Canadians do lots of fighting this week. After scaling the heights of Mount Assoro to take the town and then shortly after the hill town of Leonforte, the Canadians turn east to advance on the medieval town of Agira. While previous victories were achieved using creative tactics, General Simmonds turns to more traditional blunt force tactics for the assault on Agira. Once again 1st Brigade will lead the advance, this time under the cover of a rolling artillery barrage. As the Canadians advance they run into heavy resistance east of the village of Nissoria. A force made up primarily of the 2nd battalion of the 104th Panzer Grenadiers is well dug in behind two hills situated on either side of Hwy 121. Unaffected by the barrage they open fire on the advancing Canadians. The Hasty P's and RCRs take heavy casualties both losing their COs in the confused fighting. The 48 Highlanders are halted by heavy machine gun and mortar fire and have to withdraw. The Canadians code name the two hills "Lion" and "Tiger". The next day on the 25th, Simmonds sends in 2nd Brigade to take the hills with the PPCLI leading the advance. This time Simmonds brings all 80 of his artillery guns to bear on Lion and Tiger. The German defenders on Lion are devastated by the intensity and accuracy of the barrage and the Patricias easily take the hill. On Tiger the Germans fair better and the Patricias are halted in their advance. Tiger is only taken when the Seaforths are sent in to reinforce the Patricias. With Tiger and Lion now secured, the Seaforths are ordered forward to attack a third ridge formation that straddles Hwy 121 further to the east, code named "Grizzly". On the 27th the Seaforths advance on Grizzly supported by tanks and artillery. On the south approach (Mount Fronte), such was the volume of fire from the defenders a frontal attack was deemed impossible therefore a right flanking movement was made requiring an assault up the face of a 300 foot cliff. While a platoon remained to hold the enemies attention with small arms fire, "A" Company scaled the cliff to catch the Germans by surprise. Despite this the Germans put up strong fight and bitter battle ensued throughout the night. At dawn, as more Seaforth companies arrive on scene, a final attack with rifle and grenade is launched causing the Germans to flee in complete disorder. The attack on the north end of Grizzly (Mt Crapuzza) does not go as well and the Seaforths have to be reinforced by the Loyal Edmontons. This overwhelms the defenders who make a disorganized retreat. By the morning of the 28th all of Grizzly was in Canadian hands. This opens the door to Agira. The PPCLI is sent in to take the town, which they find largely abandoned by the Germans. Some stragglers have to be routed out through house to house fighting but this is completed after a few hours and the Patricias are welcomed as liberators. Agira is the 1st Division's biggest battle to date costing the Canadians 438 casualties. The Germans lose an estimated 325 killed and 430 taken prisoner as well as another 260 Italians of the Livorno Division. The battered battalions of the Panzer Grenadiers were no longer able to mount any form of defence against the Canadians in Sicily.
Thanks for the info about the Canadians. They had much hard fighting throughout the rest of the Italian campaign which should be remembered.
Agree , I recently found out their contribution to Sicilian Campaign which was rather big. Since they were new and a fresh unit Canadian Division achieved a lot in Sicilian mountains another high achiever is 78th British Division (Battleaxe) which won its place in campaign next week
Thank you for detailing the Canadian actions, Nick
@@WorldWarTwo My pleasure.
@@nickgooderham2389 This was a lesson that Simonds apparently had a very hard time learning, as he continued these tactics right into the Normandy campaign, and the breakout from Caen, which was when he took over command of the Canadian army there. He would _always_ use too few resources in attacking any town or village. "Penny Packeting" they called it, and it wasn't until the campaign leading to Falaise that he finally learned you had to attack with forces sufficient to win and hold your target. Guy Simonds was probably Montgomery's favourite corps commander in WW2. The two apparently thought much alike.
The Stinger, one of the best machine guns never made when compared to the WWII BAR.
Tiny Error at 2:06 Kesselring was promoted to Commannder of the "Luttwaffe" South. But great video as always lads!
Thank you!
I absolutely love your channel and I'm a new subscriber! I love your format like this is current news that you're reporting it. It really does add to the urgency and the drama of that time. Which most of us were not there. So thank you for all your hard work you do a fantastic job!
THANK YOU and welcome aboard!! I can't stress enough how much your support means to us. Stay tuned as we continue to explore the war through the rest of 1943 and beyond - however long it may last, who knows!
@@WorldWarTwo do you upload your stories on a weekly basis? I'm on pins and needles waiting for the next episode!
At the end of the war, the Strategic Bombing Survey measured the amount of destruction in Nagasaki and concluded that the second atomic bomb fell short of causing the amount of damage seen in Hamburg.
It's still incredible that this was done with just a single bomb while Hamburg was pounded by thousands of bombers of almost a week. But it puts some perspective on how massive these city bombings in Germany were.
winners don't pay for war crimes
Watching in 2024. Lots of familiar names in the news at the moment
Italy became so infamous for switching sides that Germany outwitted Italy and prepared for that exact scenario to KEEP Italy on its side by force. Ironic.
Just FYI, the subtitles/closed captions get badly out of synch from 12:33 onwards; they race ahead of Indie's speaking and have ended by 13:24.
Great stuff as always, thanks.
Cheers
Keep up the good work WW2 team
Thank you Indy
I left this comment on the Hamburg episode "A very old TV series, made in 1973 and the most expensive factual series ever made, "World at War, narrated by Lawrence Olivier, offered a sobering, matter-of-fact account of WWII. I recommend it for the theme music alone." The cost is relevant in the context of what it costs to make this series and the clever final line here, that World War Two is not made of gold.
It's a phenomenal series with ten additional episodes including extensive interviews.
Watching the eastern front scenes really makes you realise how good the fighting quality of the German troops was. They were outnumbered by so many and still put up such a big fight.
They were superior tactically early in the war and their training at that time was very good. As the war progressed the Allies became more and more proficient both tactically and operationally . You will see a big difference in1944.
@@caryblack5985 Yes i agree, but having read much about the later years of the war the Germans were able to hold off for so long with so little resources compared to the allies. The spirit the Germans fought with in the last year of the war was different as they were fighting for there nations survival.
@@caryblack5985 Much like the Soviet’s at Stalingrad.
@@ryanwilliams4038 They were fighting out of fear. They had been so bombarded by Goebbels propaganda who constantly told them that the Soviets would kill everyone or if people were left they would all be sent to Siberia. The Nazi party and the leaders were fighting to retain their power because they knew if the Allies triumphed there would be no Nazi party and they would have no power. Just read Goebbels speech in February 1943 after Stalingrad. He is no longer talking about the triumph of the Aryan race or destroying Bolshevism but about what the Soviets would do if they triumph. There was a joke regarding the Nazi run labor unions who talked about strength through Joy. The joke was now we have strength through fear. And the Nazi leaders capitalized on this fear
@@ryanwilliams4038 Then it probably wasn't the quality of the men, but more a case of offence vs defence of which one is more favourable than the other.
More people need to watch this.
Agreed! Like, Share, Subscribe, and tell your friends to join the TimeGhost Army to help us make more and reach a wider audience! www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
That was quick. (Kids. This is what you get if you failed to include dates when reading about history. You didnt expect Mussolini to fall from power just a few weeks after invasion in sicily started.)
awesome content!
Thank you SockGiant! Please stay tuned for more
I love the way that you are storytelling. So much charisma!
Thank you for watching, Maurice! Please stay tuned
05:23 Wow! Indy Niedell forgot to add 'Smiling'
Thank you for the lesson.
asphalt melts at like 55 degrees celsius, you can see it on a summer day.
It seems incredible that less than 20 years after this the Beatles went to Hamburg and were welcomed.
A fun thought here.
Stalin was quite vocal about his desire for a front in France from Brittan and American forces.
While the soft underbelly of Europe wasn't as soft once the Germans deployed into Italia.
Invading Sicily turned out to be the better gamble at this point.
Drawing off quite a few troops that could have gone to defend on the eastern front.
No one could have known how the situation would develop but hopping across the med into Europe by simply extending the supply structures already there from the north African campaign worked brilliantly.
The mess that is the occupation of Italy.....
Agree. It siphoned off troops which may have gone to the eastern front. There was an idea that the Italians would not fight and Mussolini's regime was shaky was correct. What was incorrect was that the Germans would take over Italy and that the terrain made the fighting extremely difficult and excellent for defense.
I used to work with a guy who survived the bombing of Hamburg. He mention streets melting and the bodies flowing along with the rivers of tar.
He sounds like an evil NAZI!!!!!!!
Thanks Indy! Mazel tov on your special day, much love.
❤️
2:14 I can’t explain why, but that picture of Kesselring makes me laugh.
Thank you for doing this section on mussolini . You literally can't find anything on what exactly happened for him to take him from being a loved figure to being hung with his mistress upside down.
We’re happy to be of service!
As I was watching this episode telling about Mussolini and Patton, I can't help but picture them in my mind as the Actor, George C Scott, as he portrayed the two historical figures.
“Minister of GRACE and JUSTICE” (2:51) thats a classy title for sure but that position could use a little bit more unpacking in its explanation. What exactly IS a Minister of Grace?
I am not used to seeing you without sabaton now i have a cool channel on youtube to watch thanks for posting this
Thank you for watching, Tyler. Be sure to check out all our many, MANY previous episodes and subscribe to see new ones every week!
See what you've done? You've got us voting in here!
thankyou such a great series
Great vid, but a minor observation.
2:00 you keep referring to Albert Kesselring as _Luftwaffe boss Smiling Albert Kesselring,_ but that's not doing him justice. Ok perhaps that came out wrong. 🧐
The point is: he was Wehrmacht commander of the Mediterranean theatre, not just commander of Luftflotte 2 and had a separate staff to command both. Also, his nickname _smiling_ Albert was used by the allies. He was very popular among the German troops and visited them frequently. They called him _Uncle Albert._
Again, great vid and keep up the good work.
When the channel hits 1 million subscribers, I really want a special 1 hour edition of Indy saying "Luftwaffe boss Smiling Albert Kesselring" 😅😅😅😅😅
Who coined the nickname of "Smiling" Albert Kesselring? And what did he think of the appellation?
Good info, Thank you.
I'd love if you guys would do an episode on the Romanian army. They seem to be at every major engagement in the east but rarely discussed.i know more about the role of the free Polish or Australians. Just their sheer numbers deserve more attention.
He was deposed. But Hitler's commandos rescued him later, a mission concocted by Otto Skorzeny.
Yeah, but at that point he was really just a collaborateur rather than much of a leader of anything.
Year 2145: Soviets make small advance in Kuban, but without breakthrough
Thanks!
Thank you Leo!
I heard in Dresden, people underground in the air raid shelters were cooked alive from the firestorm above. The doors were opened to reveal a soup full of bones. Just hellish.
Around the end of the book 3 against Hitler is a secondhand account of a man who’s family survived the firebombing of Hamburg while he was in a prison camp in Poland. It really shows you how bad it was
US analysts rated the amount of destrution greater than in Nagasaki.
As old uncle Winny might have said:
This is not the end.
It is not the end of the beginning.
It surely is the beginning of the end.
Has anyone else been watching since the beginning?
Thanks for watching through all these weeks, Bill!
Been watching since Luigi Cadorna first set eyes on the Isonzo river and thought "yeah, this should be a piece of cake to cross....."
3:36 LOLLLLL!!!! I love that picture of Mussolini. I wonder when and where it was taken? What was he really reacting to?
From 12 to 28 July 1943, The GC3 "Normandie" French fighter group fought actively in Operation Kutuzov. The group, formed by 2 squadrons of 22 pilots (the first commanded by Captain Pierre Pouyade, the second by Captain Albert Littolff) equipped with Yak1 and Yak9 fighters, is tasked with covering and escorting russian bombers.
On July 13, 2 Me110s are added to Normandie's tally and on July 14, which was the French National Day, the French carried out 25 war missions and won 3 victories (2 Me110 and 1 Fw190), due to Captain Pouyade and 1st Lieutenants Albert and Castelain. Alas, that evening, one of them was missing: 2nd Lieutenant Jean de Tédesco, shot dead in the Bolkhov region.
On July 16, GC3 Normandie was ordered to cover the ground troops' offensive north of Khotynets. Major Tulasne took the lead of a squadron of 8 planes, which had to face a group of 15 enemy bombers covered by fighters. Littolff was the first to charge, followed by three other Yaks. The engagement was quick and deadly: several enemy aircraft were shot down in flames and the German group was forced to turn back. On that day Normandie claimed 2 Me110, 1 Ju87 and 1 Fw189. When Tulasne gave the signal for assembly, he noticed that three pilots were missing: Littolff, Castelain and Bernavon had been shot down. Since the start of the war, the three of them had scored 27 victories.
The next day on July 17, during the group's third sortie in three days, Tulasne led a squadron of 9 Yaks to attack a motorized enemy column moving from Bolkhov to Orel. After linking with the Soviet attack planes, the French faced a severe barrage from the enemy flak, but they carried out their mission very effectively: on the ground, many German tanks and armored vehicles were on fire. Alerted, a group of Focke-Wulf came to the rescue and a very hard fight ensued between very superior enemies and the Franco-Soviets. Normandie suffered the full force of the shock. The crews of Lieutenants Léon, Préziosi and Albert shot down several Focke-Wulfs, while Tulasne, Bon and Pouyade rised vertically towards a cumulus:
“Major Tulasne, says Colonel Loukachine, flew a little above the other crews. Making a sharp turn, he got behind the tail of four FWs and attacked. At this time, the squadron leader was alone, because his teammate was struggling with two other Focke-Wulfs. Tulasne's plane was spotted right in the middle of the German fighters. Like a racing car, he swooped down on them and fired all his machine guns and cannon at the enemy planes that passed through his sights, then pulled himself out, by a skilful maneuver, from their fire. But no one knows what happened to him afterwards. That day, Major Tulasne, who had fifty sorties to his credit, did not return from his mission.»
That day, a day of glory and mourning for the group, two other airmen were shot down: 1st Lieutenant Béguin and 2nd Lieutenant Vermeil. The first managed to regain his base; the second, like his commander, never reappeared. In four days, the Normandie group made 112 sorties, had 6 deaths and won 17 approved victories: “The price was heavy”, comments historian Yves Courrière. Tédesco, Littolff, Castelain, Bernavon, Vermeil and Tulasne will be made Companions of the Liberation by General de Gaulle on October 11, 1943.
On July 18, Pouyade took over the command of GC3 Normandie.
In view of the terrible losses, General Zakharov amicably advises Pouyade to modify the too individualistic tactics of the French pilots. They will have to adapt to Soviet tactics if they want to be able to last. The decision was also made to replace the French mechanics, completely overwhelmed because of their small number, with Soviet mechanics.
On July 28, 1st Lieutenant Préziosi disappeared in a fight against six Fw190s.
Since its formation and its first combat mission in late March 1943, the GC3 Normandie lost 11 pilots (8 of them being from the original 14 pilots leaving Syria in 1942) and counted 30 comfirmed victories.
Really appreciate comments like yours!
Pokryishkin, a top soviet ace, described these pilots as "brave and very skillful on individual level, but lacking in group tactics". However, his squaron had a huge emphasis on group tactics, so normandie's one probably wasn't so bad either
Minister of Grace and Justice! Love it.
A video comparing the fascist dictatorship in Italy and the one in Germany would be really interesting. Especially in light of these events.
Hitler was a communist. A comparison between him and Stalin would be more appropriate.
@@gentlemanvontweed7147 Hitle r was not a communist in Mein Kam pf he literally says bolshevism and capitalism are the two sides of the same Jewish coin. He instituted not one communist policy, in fact one of the first policies he instituted was a lower of taxes and having a flat tax rate, during his reign in fact he colluded with big business owners and privatised more than almost any other country in Europe at the time. The AutoBahn was started by the Weimer Republic, h itler didn't even want to make them they were just to popular with the populus. If you watched this show you'd know that Operation Barbarossa started with speech, which was about whipping communism off the map.
@@gentlemanvontweed7147 how does the famous poem by Martin Niemöller go, first they came for... yeah the first they came for were the communists, don't think that would happen if he was a communist. On top why would Germany be on the side of far right Franco in the Spanish Civil war, who was fighting the communists, if Germany was...
@@gentlemanvontweed7147 sorry it's just so easy to debunk what you said I'm having so much fun, yeat they called themselves National Socialists, but just like the Democratic Republic of North Korea, who aren't democratic, nazi's weren't socialists.
@@gentlemanvontweed7147 Hitler wasn't communist where on earth did you get that laughable idea from? What communist policy did he support? Why did he say when he invaded Russia, he was doing it to wipe communism off the map. Why would he call communism a Jewish plot, he called Cultural Bolshevism. You just have to be ignorant on basic history to think this. But let me guess you can't get passed it being called national socialist, because that party was famous for not lying...
Wow that’s a lot of damage
Well that was fast.
Kindly explain the value of the Bombing of Hambourg...
Fabulous.
Thanks Simon
the subtitle breaks once you start talking about japan!
The fascist "black shirts" of Mussolini would continue to fight all through Italy however, mostly as guerilla irregulars.
One young Canadian soldier caught a middle aged man in a black shirt on a farm and angrily prepared to execute him but a neighbour of the man intervened and begged him not to shoot him. It turns out his wife had recently died, as the neighbour kept trying to inform the soldier by showing him a picture of his deceased wife, and finally the young soldier understood what was being said and spared the man. His "black shirt" was a symbol of his mourning and not of membership in the fascist guerillas. 🤷♂🤔🤨😏👌
It's heartening to hear that among so much death and destruction, some sanity and mercy could still be found.
Very interesting tale, thank you Todd
@@WorldWarTwo Those were terrifying times, civilians or not. I saw the story in a documentary about the Canadian army in Italy about ten years ago.
SPOILER
John Amery, a pro-Third Reich Briton and son of leading politician Leo Amery, was captured in northern Italy at war's end wearing a black shirt, in his case in solidarity with Italian fascism. He was executed.
Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching
Good channel for history
Thank you for watching! Please remember to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!
The end is close, you can taste it in the air
I heard a reference to Izyum in this video which, tragically, is being fought over once again 79 years later. It's currently one of the furthest advances of the Russian forces in their invasion of Ukraine. Let's hope the front moves east instead of west this time around.
Ukraine actually pushed northward towards Izyum in the past couple of days. Here's hoping they can seriously compromise Russian positions in the area.
Crazy to hear these same places being referenced
Well there you go!
Correction at 1:49 - the town is called Agira, not Agria.